A work of art of the Word to be in Crookston

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A work of art of the Word

Crookston monastery receives Saint John's Bible
The Sisters of St. Benedict here at “the Mount,” their quiet, leafy monastery overlooking the Red Lake River, are enthused over the rare and holy gift they are receiving from their Brothers Benedict from St. John’s Abbey — one of the limited Heritage Edition full-sized reproductions of the massive, seven-volume Saint John’s Bible, the first hand-made, illuminated Bible made in five centuries.

By: Stephen J. Lee, Grand Forks Herald

The Heritage Edition of the Saint John's Bible was given to the St. Benedict Monastery in Crookston by the brother of one of the sisters.

• GALLERY: Heritage Edition of Saint John's Bible

CROOKSTON — The Sisters of St. Benedict here at “the Mount,” their quiet, leafy monastery overlooking the Red Lake River, are enthused over the rare and holy gift they are receiving from their Brothers Benedict from St. John’s Abbey — one of the limited Heritage Edition full-sized reproductions of the massive, seven-volume Saint John’s Bible, the first hand-made, illuminated Bible made in five centuries.

“We think it’s a pretty big deal,” said Sister Denise Schonhardt, who handles public relations for the 80-some nuns who live, work and pray here in a community with traditions dating back 1,500 years.

The younger brother of one of the sisters is the donor behind the coming of the treasured set of over-sized leather-bound volumes filled with ornate script and gold-and-silver embossed art coming to the Mount St. Benedict Monastery.

“You better tell him about your brother,” Schonardt said to Sister Anita Whalen about a visitor’s questions.

Whalen’s brother, Dan Whalen, called her last spring and asked if the Mount would take one of the expensive Heritage Edition reproductions of the original Saint John’s Bible.

The answer was yes.

Four of the seven volumes arrived about two weeks ago, along with wooden furniture to house and display them, made by the monks of St. John’s.

The Whalens grew up in Argyle, Minn., and Dan graduated from Sacred Heart High School in East Grand Forks in 1965 before attending St. John’s and then the University of Minnesota.

“He got in early in the cellular phone business,” said Sister Anita, explaining her younger brother’s secular success.

Dan and Katherine Whalen live in Oakland, Calif., and are active benefactors, especially of Catholic institutions.

On Oct. 10, they will be at the Mount, along with St. John’s brothers and abbot, part of a ceremony in which the sisters officially receive the Bible.

Dan and Katherine Whalen gave a similar Heritage Edition Bible to their parish home in Oakland, the new Cathedral of Christ the Light.

Each Heritage Edition costs about $130,000, St. John’s officials said. If all 360 sets are bought, St. John’s share of the proceeds will pay not only for the $4.5 million cost of making the original Saint John’s Bible, but for much scholarship and building.

Brit Donald Jackson, who had been “the Queen’s calligrapher,” was commissioned by St. John’s in 1998 to make the first hand-written, illuminated Bible since Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1450. He gathered a team of 14 calligraphers and artists in Wales, who collaborated with a team of 100 or more theologians, scholars and artists from St. John’s.

The first words put down in 2000 by Jackson are not on paper but vellum — the thin parchment made from calfskin — with quill and natural, handmade inks, with gold leaf, as well as silver and platinum, were from the Gospel of St. John: “In the beginning was the Word … ”

It’s not complete, but Jackson plans to quill the final volume, on the New Testament Letters and Revelation, himself.

The original remains unbound because of the need to copy the pages for the Heritage Edition, Sister Anita said.

The Heritage Edition is a mixture of ancient craft and contemporary technology. Three Minnesota companies are doing the digital imaging of the original vellum pages, the gold and silver embossing and color management of the high-tech press needed.

Smallest holder

In receiving this version of the Word, the Mount is in some lofty company.

The Vatican, St. Martin-in-the-Fields Cathedral in London, the Naples Art Museum in Italy, St. Catherine’s and St. Thomas universities in St. Paul, are among the Catholic institutions that have received a Heritage Edition of the Saint John’s Bible.

“We’re the smallest institution receiving one,” Whalen said. “It’s museums, universities, cathedrals, the Vatican.”

Pope Benedict XVI, in receiving his copy of what the Mount is getting, called it “a great work of art” and “a work for eternity.”

The sisters are thinking of getting kid gloves to handle the tomes.

“These are not illustrations,” said Sister Denise, leaving the turning of the art-filled pages to Prioress Lenora Paschke. “They are illuminations, designed to evoke prayer.”

At passages that have special meaning to their order, a little cross appears next to the verse, “for Benedictine eyes only,” Whalen said.

“There are so many delicious things in there, like the way the flora and fauna of Minnesota are featured,” Sister Anita said, pointing to a Monarch butterfly alighting on what looks to be a purple-bloomed thistle.

The Mississippi River is used to illumine a flood.

“And there are darling little things, if they left out a line,” Whalen said, pointing out how the calligraphers dealt with their own fallibility.

In the 30th chapter of Genesis, for example, an entire line was left out when the page was hand-written on the original vellum edition, in the story of Jacob’s wooing and working for Rachel.

Rather than throw out the entire, expensive page that took a day to complete, the calligrapher added the line in the bottom margin, then drew a fantastic bird flying up the left margin, pulling up by a silken rope the dropped words to the rightful spot.

It almost makes the mistakes more beautiful than perfection, the sisters said, glad their edition carries on the ornamental mistake and correction.

The Bible is in the New Revised Standard Version, a modern translation commonly used by Catholics and other Christian churches.

For all the old-fashioned technique and work, there are contemporary elements, some sure to be controversial perhaps.

The World Trade Center’s twin towers, on fire, show up, to illumine forgiveness in the gospel story of the Prodigal Son. And obviously, a decision that was made after work began in 2000.

For the creation story, the artists used a view of the earth taken from space.

The helix pattern of DNA shows up.

In the volume containing the Psalms, a sonogram image of the monks of St. John’s singing in their chapel is outlined in gold-lined design.

It’s inclusive, in line with the Benedictine rule on hospitality, Whalen said.

“There are allusions to Judaism in the illuminations, and to Islam,” she said. “All of us are people of the word.”

Adam and Eve are shown as black, a nod to modern anthropology putting human origins in Africa.

It’s a big book. Each volume is more than 2 feet high and, when opened, nearly 3 feet wide.

As Whalen shows visitors into the chapel where the rare Bible will be ceremonially received Oct. 10 from their Benedictine brothers, she said, “Here’s where we do most of our work. We pray here three times a day together, for everybody in the world.”

But the life of a Benedictine sister is not all contemplation and prayer. Sister Anita retired in early 2009 from 35 years as a dentist in Warren, Minn.

Now, the sisters are making plans. They will hold a sort of open house next spring to allow the public a look at their new old treasure.

The Saint John’s Bible Heritage Edition represents the values of the Benedictine order, of devotion to scripture and Christ, as well as to “the art of books,” and to ecumenical works, the sisters said.

“This gift has so many possibilities, and we are thinking how to use it,” said Prioress Lenora Paschke. “We know it’s more than a museum piece. It’s meant to be shared.” Grand Forks Herald

Sigh! He's back in town (Crookston, tomorrow)!

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Crookston peace conference set for Saturday

Controversial bishop to speak at Mount St. Benedict
The Benedictine nuns in Crookston are bringing in a retired bishop known for contravening Catholic teaching on homosexuality and male-only priesthood to talk about peace.

The Benedictine nuns in Crookston are bringing in a retired bishop known for contravening Catholic teaching on homosexuality and male-only priesthood to talk about peace.

But Bishop Thomas Gumbleton has key credentials for speaking at the Pax Christi State Assembly on Saturday: He’s the founding president of the peace and justice group formed in 1972 mostly by Catholics.

The former auxiliary bishop of Detroit, Gumbleton will speak on “Choosing Peace in Today’s World: Nuclear Disarmament,” at 10 a.m. at the assembly that runs 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Mount St. Benedict Monastery, 620 Summit Ave., in Crookston.

Gumbleton has traveled the world speaking mostly on peace, and has been arrested several times for civil disobedience at peace rallies in Washington and elsewhere, reportedly more than any other U.S. Catholic bishop.

But his years of what have been called “dissent and disobedience” on the church’s teachings on homosexuality, the ordination of women and contraception have made him controversial.

A year ago, Gumbleton was slated to speak in Marquette, Mich., at a similar peace conference.

But Bishop of Marquette Alexander Sample asked Gumbleton not to appear, because, he said in news reports, of Gumbleton’s opposition to church teaching that homosexual relationships and the ordination of women are wrong.

Gumbleton canceled his appearance in Marquette.

Crookston Bishop Michael Hoeppner isn’t taking part in the Pax Christi event because he has confirmations to attend in the diocese, said a diocesan spokeswoman.

An organizer of Saturday’s assembly, Sister Anne DeMers, said Hoeppner didn’t express any opposition to Gumbleton’s participation in the event.

“I think that’s maybe because he’s speaking on the issues of nuclear weapons and nonviolence and peace and not some of the controversial issues,” DeMers said.

Also speaking at the assembly will be Dan Svedarsky, biology professor at the University of Minnesota-Crookston, who spoke at the Copenhagen conference on climate change earlier this year.

Chris Curran, state coordinator for Pax Christi, L. Salima Swenson, Esko, Minn., and Jean Stumpf, Golden Valley, Minn., also will speak.

The sisters at the Mount last hosted the Pax Christi State Assembly in 2005, DeMers said. Pax Christi, nationally and in the local chapter of about 10, includes many non-Catholics, DeMers said.

She’s planning for 50 to 100 people to attend.

Interest in peace and justice issues isn’t what it was in the 1960s and ’70s, she said.

And some have asked her if nuclear war still is a threat since the Soviet Union was dismantled two decades ago and many nukes have been destroyed or mothballed.

“It’s not a hot topic right now, but it’s very pertinent and very relevant yet, because we already have all the nuclear weapons we will ever need,” DeMers said.

“They are still building new plants. One in Kansas City (Mo.), is being built that builds the non-nuclear parts for nuclear weapons, and people down there are protesting.”

Pax Christi condemned President George W. Bush’s policies in sending the U.S. military into Iraq and Afghanistan after 9/11, and has criticized President Barack Obama for continuing the war in Afghanistan.

But DeMers said Obama is on the right track in trying to decrease the numbers of nuclear weapons.

“He’s against proliferation. The problem right now is the terrorist bombs, the small ‘dirty’ (nuclear) bombs.”

The cost for the Pax Christi State Assembly is $30 today and $35 for registering at the door Saturday.

For information, call DeMers at (218) 281-3441 or e-mail anne.demers@ghshealth.org; go online at www.msb.net.

Grand Forks Herald

Quick! - Check the basement!

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Moorhead church gets whopping rebate from utility

A Catholic Church in Moorhead is $150,000 richer after discovering a local utility had been doubling its electric bill for the last 14 years.

St. Joseph's administrator Mike Heinzen tells the Forum of Fargo that it wasn't Moorhead Public Service's fault. He says the contractor who added an addition to the church in 1996 failed to remove old electrical meters, which continued to be read along with new meters.

Moorhead Public Service general manager Mike Schwandt says the utility noticed a jump in the church's power consumption at the time, but figured it was because of the addition.

The over-billing wasn't caught until an electrician working at the church questioned why it had two electircal meters.

Heinzen says the money went into the church's building fund. Star Tribune

Bemidji priest recalls service with Mother Teresa in Kolkata (Calcutta), India

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The Rev. Tony Fernando, a priest at St. Philip’s Catholic Church in Bemidji, was Mother Teresa’s pastor and served the poor at the mother house of Mother Teresa in Kolkata (Calcutta), India.

One evening while attending the Madrigal Dinner at Bemidji State University, a beggar character in the skit asked for the soup Rev. Tony Fernando was just about to taste.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Fernando, a priest at St. Philip’s Catholic Church in Bemidji, offered the bowl to the beggar, who accepted immediately. Little did the young actor know that he had asked for a donation from a man who served the poor at the mother house of Mother Teresa back home in Kolkata (Calcutta), India.

Fernando came to understand and appreciate Mother Teresa’s motives and persistence in her goals on many different levels. As a seminarian, he worked in one of the shelters. As rector, he worked in formation with high school students at a seminary. He was also her pastor in her home parish of St. Mary in Kolkata.

Minnesota outreach

Fernando came about three years ago from the streets of Kolkata to serve as pastor in Red Lake Falls, Minn. His bishop asked some of the clergy to volunteer to go to the United States, where there is a shortage of priests, and as a way to repay the generosity of the church to poor nations.

Although he studied in Rome for a degree also for about a year at St. John’s University in Long Island, N.Y., he said the northern climate is colder than he had anticipated or even thought possible.

One of his parishioners from Red Lake Falls taught him how to drive, a skill he did not need back home, and others took him shopping for suitable winter gear for Minnesota winters.

Fernando worked with Mother Teresa especially in the formation programs for the girls who would like to be sisters in her congregation, the Order of the Missionaries of the Poor. There was a convent near the seminary where he was Rector of Minor Formation.

Going with God

Fernando told of the times when at St. John Viennay Seminary near the Calcutta airport, he would receive a call from Mother Teresa before she left on an international flight.

“For her i was very important to start the day with Jesus,” he said. “Therefore, when she would begin a journey to visit another country, she would ask me to say Mass at that time. I would say, ‘Mother do you know what time it is?’ She would say, ‘Antony, of course I know what time it is.’ “

He said she never thought it was an inconvenience because she felt it was important that she go with God when she went to visit other places.

“So, we would go to the chapel in the convent, for most of us felt that we could also participate in her spiritual journey by celebrating Mass with her,” Fernando said. “Most people would understand that in the Catholic tradition one begins a journey with God’s blessing.”

Special insight

He said Mother Teresa had a special gift to recognize God in the people she served.

“She recognized that there is something beyond one’s self than just ordinary charity. She was drawn to these people in an extraordinary way,” said Fernando. “Some reporters asked her, ‘Mother, why are you doing this work? Is it just because you wanted to make the Hindus and Muslims into Christians?’ She answered, ‘Even if you give me millions of dollars, I wouldn’t be doing what I do. It is just because I see Jesus in these people that I do it.’ ”

Fernando said there are many reasons why we can do charity. You want to get rid of the person, so you give something and they will go away. You may be conscious that someone else is deprived and maybe should share what you have. Or you are working on some principle like this part of the world has more resources while another part of the world suffers so let us share. But in the case of Mother Teresa, it was the person who was suffering and her invitation from God to serve the poor that never changed. She always said she was a pencil in the hand of God – sometimes a crooked line or a straight line.

“For example,” Fernando said, “her desire to serve in China at the invitation of the government, was a kind of a push to go and serve for suffering people were there.”

Hard decisions

When Chinese government officials told her she would have to come into their country dressed as a Chinese person, and not as a Roman Catholic nun, he said she had to decide whether she should go as a social worker or as a nun and she decided not to go. He said the second time the Chinese government invited her, she was told they would appoint the priests from their own state religion. She again thought about what she should do and decided it was not time for her to go there.

“This may have been one of the times where she suffered ‘a darkness of the soul,’ for discernment is a difficult challenge for all of us,” Fernando said.

Recruiting help

He said Mother Teresa was noted for being very persistent in her goal. For example, she would go to the Communist headquarters in Kolkata and tell them she needed to have a place to house some homeless children and could she put them under the stairs. She insisted that once the office was closed for the day, the space was vacant and they wouldn’t disturb anyone.

The government allowed her to do that, but she did not stop at that, he said. The next time she had mothers and children in need of shelter, she asked for a part of the building, and, little by little, the Communist officials left their headquarters and gave the building to her.

Today, it is a home for abandoned children. Fernando said she worked, not for herself, but for the needs of the poor. Mother Teresa asked us to look at ourselves and when we do not like what we see, sometimes we are moved to change, Fernando said.

He told of another time when she asked the railroad company if she could put the lepers from town in the space alongside the tracks. Eventually, a haven for them formed along side the tracks where they receive medical care along with bed and board. The lepers spin the cotton to make the material for the nuns’ habits.

Strict rules

Fernando said Mother Teresa would not accept money or goods that were illegally gained by the donor.

“There was an industrialist who wanted to give her money, and she understood that it was ill gained,” he said. “She did not accept it because previously she had accepted gifts not thinking of where the money came from or how it was gotten, and she would not do that again.”

He said her order never invested in anything. Most orders have a hospital or school and the profits would be returned to their mission.

“She completely depended upon God, and she believed that what God wanted she could carry on,” he said.

Even after her death, people still recognize the worthiness of her cause and they continue to give and go to work as volunteers in her homes and shelters. Fernando will return to Kolkata after his assignment here in the United States is completed.

Bemidji Pioneer

Catholic Ministry on White Earth reservation gains church grant

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A key American Indian ministry of the Catholic Diocese of Crookston will get $10,000 from the national Catholic Church’s Extension Society in Chicago, it was announced this week. The money will go toward the works of the Tekakwitha Center on the White Earth Indian Reservation, directed by Darlene Ballard.

Tekakwitha was the 17th-century Mohawk woman from the New York area renowned for her holiness and devotion that inspired many. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1980, the first American Indian woman to reach that point, and sainthood is expected to be announced.

Ballard is a member of the White Earth Band of Chippewa and was hired two years ago to be religious education director for six parishes on the reservation, said the Rev. Walter Butor, a priest who lives in Waubun, Minn.

St. Benedict’s in White Earth and St. Anne’s in Naytahwaush have Indian membership, Butor said, while Most Holy Redeemer in Ogema, St. Theodore’s in Ponsford, St. Anne’s in Waubun and St. Francis Cabrini in Big Elbow Lake have both Indian and white members.

Butor is the priest in Ogema, White Earth and Ponsford, and one of three priests who live in a rectory in Waubun who are members of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, the only religious order priests in the Crookston diocese.

Indian Catholic parishes on White Earth have a long history. “St. Benedict’s in White Earth was the first mission parish here,” Butor said. It was formed before the Crookston diocese itself was formed 100 years ago, carved out of the Duluth diocese.

Benedictine sisters provided religious education on the reservation going back more than a century before they moved on a few years ago to concentrate in other areas, Butor said. The Oblate priests, plus a brother, moved in to work with the Native American ministry on the reservation.

Hiring Ballard was a way of empowering the lay people and the American Indians in the six parishes, Butor said. “To show them they can do it, the work, and they don’t need it to be a sister, or a brother or a priest. They are capable of going into the parishes and doing religious education.” Ballard effectively is the religious education director for all adults and youth in the six parishes, Indian and white, Butor said. Her work, not any bricks or mortar, is the Tekakwitha Center.

More than half Ballard’s salary and expenses are paid by the Missionary Oblates congregation that has its U.S. headquarters in Washington, Butor said.

Catholic Extension, formed more than a century ago to reach out to Catholics facing challenges in their faith, will award 800 such grants this year across the U.S. and its territories. Last year, it granted $18 million in 84 “mission dioceses,” that represent “the poorest, most underserved and isolated areas in the United States,” according to the news release. Grand Forks Herald

Minnesota area Catholic Dioceses contributed to Maine ballot initiative

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The campaign finance report for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, Maine shows that four Minnesota area Catholic Dioceses contributed $6250 to a campaign to reject a law legalizing gay marriage in Maine. The ballot measure asked voters "Do you want to reject the new law that lets same-sex couples marry and allows individuals and religious groups to refuse to perform these marriages?"

The measure passed 53 percent to 47 percent in the November election. The Catholic Church considers homosexuality a sin and has worked actively to define marriage as between "one man and one woman" in states across the country.

The Diocese of Crookston donated $5,000 to the effort. The Diocese of Winona and the Diocese of La Crosse, WI gave $500 each. New Ulm's Bishop John Levoir gave $250.

Rose Hammes, spokeswoman for the Diocese of Winona, said the contribution was given because Winona Archbishop John Quinn felt it was important to help his colleagues in Maine:

"He made a contribution because they're in solidarity with all of the bishops in the country and I'm assuming that Bishop Quinn decided that that was important to be in solidarity with his brother bishops."

Hammes said the donation came from an account that is used to help efforts like the ballot initiative in Maine. She said the fund is from "private donations" not parishoner contributions.

I left messages with the Dioceses of Crookston and New Ulm but haven't heard back from them. A spokeswoman for New Ulm's Bishop just called me back and said "We have no comment."

Here's the campaign finance report.

For those wondering about tax violations, the IRS forbids tax exempt organizations from backing a political candidate but "can engage in a limited amount of lobbying (including ballot measures) and advocate for or against issues that are in the political arena. The IRS also has provided guidance regarding the difference between advocating for a candidate and advocating for legislation."

MPR News

Priest to leave Crookston after 15 years for new assignment on the Red Lake Indian Reservation

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Father Jerry Richards is leaving Crookston after 15 years for the Red Lake Reservation; he will be one of the few non-Native Americans who will be allowed to live there.

When most Catholic priests are assigned to area parishes by the bishop of the Crookston diocese, it’s usually for a period of six years. Occasionally, they might be asked to stay for a second six-year term.

Father Jerry Rogers has been the pastor of Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Detroit Lakes for 15 years.

“Which is about nine years longer than I had expected to be here,” Rogers says.

When Rogers first came to the Detroit Lakes community in June 1994, he had been serving as a missionary in Africa.

“I had hoped to return back to Africa after my first term of six years (at Holy Rosary),” Rogers says. When asked why he ended up staying in Detroit Lakes, he adds, “The need here was greater.”

When his second six-year term was up, the bishop asked him if he would continue to serve for another half-term of three years, bringing his total years of service in Detroit Lakes to 15.

Of his 33 years in the priesthood, Rogers says, 30 have been spent serving the Crookston diocese — and half of those years were spent in Detroit Lakes.

But this Wednesday, July 1, Rogers will be leaving his duties at Holy Rosary to take on what he calls “a new challenge,” as pastor of the St. Mary’s Mission — on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota. He will also serve as pastor of the nearby parish of Wilton, Minn.

Before his new duties begin on Sept. 1, however, Rogers plans to take a two-month vacation, visiting friends and family in the Chicago area — where he was born and raised — and where “hopefully,” Rogers adds, “the only soul I’ll have to take care of is my own.”

Though he is looking forward to the time off, and eventually, the challenges of his new assignment, Rogers says there is much he will miss about Detroit Lakes.

“I’ll miss the people,” he said. Since starting his tenure in Detroit Lakes, Rogers added, “I’ve met some of the finest people God created — and a few of his challenges.”

In his farewell letter to the congregation, Rogers told his parishioners that “while they’ve had half of my priesthood, they have all of my heart — and while I may no longer be their pastor, they will always be my people.”

Nevertheless, he is excited by the unique challenges posed by his new assignment: As pastor of the St. Mary’s Mission, Rogers will be one of a very small number of non-American Indian people given the opportunity to live on the reservation.

“Red Lake is a closed reservation,” he explains. “You cannot live there unless you are Native American.”

Rogers adds, “I consider it an honor… I couldn’t imagine not living amongst the people you’re called to serve.”

“The one thing we desire (most) as priests is to make a difference,” he says, “and I believe I will be facing the greatest challenge I have or will ever face as a priest.”

The Red Lake reservation is facing considerable economic challenges, Rogers explains.

But “where the hope comes in,” he adds, “is that the beauty and traditions of the people will outweigh any economic challenges we will face.”

He is encouraged by the comments he has heard from former pastors, “who speak of the love and admiration of the people there.”

Ultimately, Rogers says, “I feel I will receive far more than I will give.”

Rogers’ successor at Holy Rosary will be Monsignor Timothy McGee, most recently pastor of the parish of St. Bernard’s in Thief River Falls.

Father Jerry’s farewell celebration is set for 2 p.m. today (Sunday) at Holy Rosary Catholic Church. Detroit Lakes Online

Catholic Charities (among others) active in Red River Flooding Efforts

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As flooding conditions worsen in Fargo, ND, Catholic Charities USA's (CCUSA) Office of Disaster Response is already on the ground helping the local Catholic Charities agency prepare for possible record flooding. New forecasts predict that the Red River could rise to its highest level in history on Saturday.

On Monday, CCUSA began working side-by-side with Catholic Charities North Dakota (CCND) staff to help implement a disaster response for the Diocese of Fargo and Diocese of Bismarck. Once the threats associated with the flooding and winter storms pass CCND - with the help of CCUSA - will continue to respond through several means, including sending out assessment teams to identify unmet needs in communities across the area.

Currently, Catholic Charities North Dakota is finding volunteers to help with the sandbagging effort and working with other agencies to fill volunteer needs. In addition, Disaster management staff continue to monitor the situation and work with state and local response groups.

"Drawing from Catholic Charities USA's experience from Hurricane Katrina and last year's floods in the Midwest, we stand ready to respond to potential flooding and storm damage with speed, reliability, and a long-term commitment to help the impacted region recover," said Briston J Fernandes, executive director of Catholic Charities North Dakota.

DONATION INFORMATION

To help support Catholic Charities flood response efforts: Call (800) 919-9338; visit www.CatholicCharitiesUsa.org; or send checks to Catholic Charities USA, 2009 Midwest Floods, PO Box 17141, Baltimore, MD 21297-1141

Catholic Charities USA federal ID number is 53-0196620.

Catholic Charities USA's members - nearly 1,700 local agencies and institutions nationwide - provide help and create hope for nearly 8 million people of all faiths and social and economic backgrounds. For almost 300 years, local Catholic Charities agencies have been providing a myriad of vital services in their communities, ranging from day care and counseling to food and housing. For more information, visit www.CatholicCharitiesUSA.org.

For 85 years, Catholic Charities North Dakota has provided services to people regardless of religion throughout the state. In addition to helping those affected by disasters, the agency's programs include Pregnancy Parenting and Adoption Services, Adults Adopting Special Kids, Guardianship Services, and Counseling for individuals, couples, and families. To learn more about Catholic Charities North Dakota, visit www.catholiccharitiesnd.org or call (800) 450-4457.

Fargo-Moorhead Catholic schools witness amazing growth

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It wasn't that long ago area Catholic schools really struggled to keep doors open. The student numbers were not there, but what a turn-around. While east coast Catholic churches are shutting down large numbers of schools this year, Fargo-Moorhead is witnessing amazing growth. The story from WDAY 6 Reporter Kevin Wallevand at St. Joseph's Catholic School where enrollment is up 32 percent in the last two years.

When St. Joseph's Catholic School in Moorhead launched a 1.6 million dollar fund drive for an expansion plan, no one predicted a year later, it would be nearly complete and paid for by parents.

“We have parents doing the trim work, the cabinets, putting in the carpet.”

	Catholic schools grow in the area

New state of the art computer and science lab, a library, a lot of the elbow grease coming from parents like Susan Prody, who has two children going here.

“I like smallness of it, it feels like a community and it is amazing how people do pitch in.”

252 students attend St. Joes pre-school through 8th grade. Enrollment is up 32 percent in just two years. A school that has been in Moorhead for 129 years is breathing new life into itself.

St. Joes hopes to have students into the new classrooms sometime this spring. Meantime, the Fargo Catholic Schools network is enjoying growth in its system.

Shanley moved into a new building off 25th Street back in 2002 and next year, Shanley’s enrollment will be at its highest level in 22 years. Unlike the old location in north Fargo, Shanley’s new spot has room to grow if the need is there. WDAY-TV

Fargo parishioners urged to fight abortion bill

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Local parishes provide postcards opposing the Freedom of Choice Act as part of national campaign

Catholic congregants in the Fargo Diocese stared one of the most divisive issues in the country’s history in the eye Sunday morning.

“We can no longer have a culture of death,” said Cecelia O’Keefe, who attends Holy Spirit Catholic Church. “How can you not know that is a baby?”

This weekend was the kickoff date for the national “Fight FOCA Postcard Campaign,” designed to oppose the federal Freedom of Choice Act and other legislation that would lift restrictions on abortion. Local parishes provided parishioners with postcards asking their congressional representatives to “oppose FOCA or any similar measure, and retain laws against federal funding and promotion of abortion.”

FOCA would effectively codify Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court case on abortion, declaring abortion a fundamental right. It also would go beyond and remove federal and state restrictions on abortion, such as required parental consent and informed consent requirements. Some opponents say it would repeal the Hyde Amendment, which restricts the use of federal funds for abortions, but Tammi Kromenaker, director of the Red River Women’s Clinic, says “that’s up for disagreement.”

Mary Volk, who attends Holy Spirit Catholic Church, said her church’s homily, which addressed FOCA, “dealt with it in a very tactful way.

“No matter how you got into that situation, it’s still a baby,” she said.

The effort was no small undertaking. Rachelle Sauvageau, director of the Diocese of Fargo’s Respect for Life Office, said 38,000 postcards were mailed to the Fargo Diocese parishes. The Diocese of Bismarck put the cards in the diocese newspaper. And parishes in the Diocese of Crookston, which encompasses the Minnesota side of the Fargo-Moorhead area, are also distributing the cards.

In a statement released Thursday, the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, President Barack Obama said he has “consistently had a 100 percent pro-choice rating with Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America,” and he stated his intention to pass the Freedom of Choice Act.

Samuel Aquila, bishop of the Diocese of Fargo, said the issue of abortion is so close to the heart of the Catholic Church, “because with both reason and faith, it recognizes the dignity of human life from the moment of conception until natural death.”

And Sauvageau said, “We all have a right to be born and to have that right protected not only in law but by those who should care for us.”

Kromenaker, of the Red River Women’s Clinic, said she believes, “Any organization has the right to lobby the government to vote the way they feel.”

She sees that as a part of her freedom of choice ethos.

But, as she sees it, FOCA is “very important because Roe v. Wade has been chipped away at year after year after year, making it much more difficult for women to obtain abortions. … To strengthen the freedom of choice that women have and have had for 36 years is a good thing.” In-Forum

Crookston, Fargo Bishops urge Obama to oppose abortion

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The Catholic bishops in Crookston and Fargo returned this week from a national meeting of bishops in Baltimore ready to make clear to President-elect Barack Obama and their flocks that they oppose his support for abortion rights.

Obama is “one of the strongest supporters of legalized abortion, as well as the Freedom of Choice Act,” Bishop Samuel Aquila of Fargo wrote in a column in the diocesan newsletter.

The Democratic president-elect therefore “directly opposes the divine law of God concerning the dignity of each human life, and so he strongly disagrees with the position of the Catholic Church,” Aquila continued.

The Freedom of Choice Act would abolish all abortion restrictions up to the time of fetal viability. Obama has said he would sign the bill if Congress passed it.

“We bishops are united in our teaching and our belief in the sanctity of all life,” said Bishop Michael Hoeppner of the Crookston Diocese. “That’s not new, and it’s across the board, and some politicians have missed that.”

Aquila represents 85,000 Catholics in eastern North Dakota, and Hoeppner represents 35,000 in northwestern Minnesota.

In interviews with the Herald, both Aquila and Hoeppner mentioned Obama’s running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, as an example of what they are trying to correct.

Biden, a Catholic, said during the campaign that it’s possible for a Catholic to support the right to abortion.

Not so, say the bishops, who point out the Catholic Church’s teaching is that abortion, unlike capital punishment and killing during war, is an “intrinsic evil” that can never be justified.

According to exit polls, U.S. Catholics voted for Obama by a margin of 54 percent to 45 percent over Republican Sen. John McCain, who is anti-abortion.

That’s a big switch from 2004, when 52 percent voted for President George W. Bush, an evangelical Methodist who is anti-abortion. Democrat Sen. John Kerry, a Catholic who is supports abortion rights, got 46 percent.

Obama is a Protestant who, for 20 years, has attended a United Church of Christ congregation in Chicago.

More emphasis

While the Catholic Church has always opposed abortion, many observers see a more militant approach on the issue by many bishops during the past year or two. Some, like Aquila, say clearly that Catholic office-holders who are pro-choice should not take Communion.

“The nice thing about Biden, at least he says his conscience bothers him, which is good,” Aquila said. “But they really should not be presenting themselves for Holy Communion because it is a scandal. And by us giving them Holy Communion, essentially what is communicated to them is that their position is fine.”

He and Hoeppner agreed that they and other bishops are speaking out more on the issue of abortion and public life.

“It is taught with much more emphasis,” Aquila said. “Certainly the teaching has always been there, but it’s not been taught with the force it’s being taught today.”

Kate Kenna, a lifelong Catholic from Grand Forks who serves on the board of Catholic Charities in the Fargo Diocese and works in social services, said she’s been bothered by a disproportionate emphasis some priests have placed on abortion compared with other issues. “It makes the pro-life message seem like pro-delivery,” she said.

She works with families in trouble and sees many of the cases that lead to abortion.

“I consider myself anti-abortion. But I don’t think our reality is that black-and-white,” Kenna said. “Not everyone has Catholic values. And they aren’t bad people. Mothers who get abortions aren’t always bad people. Maybe they are desperate.”

Catholics United was among the groups that argued during the presidential campaign that taking the “pro-life” position means more than opposing abortion.

Executive director Chris Korzen said there is a “deadlock” over abortion that is keeping the church from other issues. “What are the bishops going to do now? They have burned a lot of bridges with the Democrats and the new administration.”

But Aquila said his main responsibility is to clearly lay out the church’s teachings.

“It’s up to the person to decide who they are going to vote for,” Aquila said. “As I tell people, you will have to answer for that on the day of judgment, for how you vote.”

Hoeppner said he told his flock that he could not see any way to vote for a pro-choice candidate without doing wrong.

“It’s not the priest’s job, not the bishop’s job, to tell people who to vote for,” Hoeppner said. “On the other hand, be sure you teach what the church teaches, and you will help them form a conscience in the right way.”

“You can’t profess one thing in church and something else outside of church,” Aquila said.

Two Minnesota Bishops didn't play hooky in Baltimore!

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Archbishop John Nienstedt, St Paul & Minneapolis

Bishop Michael Hoeppner, Crookston

At the Final Prayer of Tuesdays Bishops' Meeting Session

Crookston Gets Six New Deacons

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CROOKSTON — His spiritual re-awakening in the mid-1990s, sparked by an evangelical men’s movement, nearly led Stephen Thomas to leave the Catholic faith he had been born and baptized into and schooled in for years.

On Saturday, in the sunlit Cathedral in Crookston, Thomas, husband, father and Grand Forks music store owner, became a cleric in the Roman Catholic Church as Bishop Michael Hoeppner laid his hands on his head, conveying an office that harks back 2,000 years.

Thomas and five other men were ordained permanent deacons in the Crookston diocese during a two-hour service in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception before hundreds of people.

Bishop Michael Hoeppner ordains Stephen Thomas Saturday in Crookston by laying on of hands, transferring the churchÕs authority, making Thomas a permanent deacon. A native of East Grand Forks, Thomas will serve in Sacred Heart parish, where he grew up and graduated from high school. Herald photo by Eric Hylden.
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For the ebullient businessman with biblical names, it seems a tale with the Prodigal Son, Stephen, the stoned first deacon, and doubting Thomas rolled into one.

Thomas, 53, grew up going to Sacred Heart Catholic schools in East Grand Forks, graduating high school there in 1973. He kept up a church-going image and found success in business, becoming an owner, with Dick Meyerchin, of Scott’s Music Stores, in downtown Grand Forks and Columbia Mall.

But he says “my inside didn’t match my outside.”

“From 20 to 40, I was running with the world. I was a hypocrite.”

Then a good customer at Scott’s Music persuaded Thomas to attend a huge Promise Keeper’s rally in the Metrodome in Minneapolis in 1995.

God-smacked

“I told him, ‘I don’t want to hold hands with 65,000 men and sing Kumbaya. I’ll pass,’” Thomas remembers.

But he went. And got God-smacked.

“Some people have sort of a gentle journey with God. Mine was more of a St. Paul on the road to Damascus. I was just confronted with the reality of a relationship with Jesus Christ,” he said. “It was like He reached down and grabbed me and said, ‘Come here, son.’ He sort of pulled me through all of my sin and brought me into a relationship with Him.”

As much as the experience awakened him spiritually, it also nearly made him leave Catholicism. He developed close friendships with several evangelical pastors and questioned his childhood church.

“I almost left the Catholic church,” he said. “But I didn’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. I went back into my faith with the idea of disproving it and really ended up with a love affair. I don’t think my journey is complete yet. I still have a lot of questions. … But I know that I know this is where I am to be.”

Where that is now is to serve, not to be served, Bishop Hoeppner told the six new deacons in the diocese that covers northwestern Minnesota. Besides Thomas, they are Gary Hager, Detroit Lakes; Thomas Jirik, Hawley; Donald Klick, Laporte; Allen Kukert, Moorhead; and John Muller, Two Inlets.

In the century-old Crookston diocese, with 36,000 members and only 33 priests to go around to 69 parishes, deacons fill a vital role and one that is growing, said Monsignor David Baumgartner, vicar general of the diocese. The six new deacons will join 10 others.

The first deacon, the Bible says, was Stephen, one of seven men chosen by the apostles to serve at tables and do other practical help so the apostles could preach and teach, Thomas points out.

“But in effect, Stephen was an evangelist,” Thomas said in an interview before his ordination of the first Christian martyr. “He went out into the street, and it ended up costing him his life. He got stoned.”

Thomas, too, sees his work as “serving people with the gospel.”

“I don’t want to whack people with a Bible,” he said. “I want to be able to find the Christ in them and hopefully they can find the Christ in me, and we can walk and talk together.”

His diaconate training took five years, “50 weekends,” he said. Deacons cannot celebrate Mass or give absolution at confession. But they can assist at Mass, lead the liturgy, teach and sometimes even preach, baptize, bury, witness marriages and distribute the Eucharist.

The permanent diaconate is one of the three clerical orders in the Catholic church. But both bishops and priests — for the past 1,000 years at least — vow to be celibate.

Deacons usually are married.

Couples training

In fact, more and more, their wives take much of the training with them.

On Saturday, Bishop Hoeppner first asked the six wives if they were OK with it all before he laid hands on the men.

“Do you with your husband accept this life together in ministry?”

The six women, each standing next to her mate, said in unison, “With God’s help, I do.”

Steve and Jackie Thomas have been married 33 years. Nobody knows him better or been with him through more, he said.

Jackie said, “We have known each other since second grade. We grew up together.”

They have three daughters; Katie, 27, is teaching English in South Korea; Laura, 21, finished a Senate internship and soon will start graduate school at George Washington University; 26 years ago, Sarah died at three months of a heart condition.

“The great thing about the diaconate is it really is a ministry of husband and wife,” Thomas said. “We will do this together.”

Jackie knew God was behind her husband’s drive to be a deacon.

“I wanted to be on the same page as him spiritually,” she said. “It’s added a dimension to our marriage. I’m looking forward to working in ministry together.”

They already teach Bible studies and other classes together. She works part time at the music store, where they feel free to share their faith, she said.

Sam Pupino was in the first class of deacons ordained in 1979 in the Fargo diocese, which now has about 40 deacons. He is a deacon at St. Thomas Aquinas, the Newman Center at UND, and he is director of planned giving for the Crookston diocese. He was one of about a dozen deacons who hugged the new deacons Saturday.

“Every deacon has two vocations,” Pupino said. “His marriage and being a deacon.”

His wife, Kaaren, has been an essential partner in whatever he does as a deacon, said Pupino, who ran Wilkerson Hall’s food service at UND for 20 years. “You really are to be a servant of the people.”

Some deacons work full time for a parish or diocese.

But like Pupino and most deacons, Thomas won’t be paid and will continue in his “day job.”

Transcending denominations

One of his missions will continue to be reaching out to other churches.

Bob Bartlett, pastor of Cottonwood Community Church in Grand Forks, was one of several of Thomas’ Protestant friends who attended his ordination. He met Thomas just after the Flood of 1997.

“He held a retreat at his cabin on Cable Lake, near Maple Lake, for pastors,” Bartlett said Saturday before the ordination. “He paid for everything, had a golf tournament, a steak dinner.”

Bartlett still uses Thomas’ cabin as a personal retreat, and the men laugh and pray together.

Thomas’ ordination is “absolutely wonderful,” Bartlett said. “We need many more men like him.”

Thomas has brought Bartlett in to Sacred Heart to speak to teenagers, despite what could be seen as big divides between their two churches.

“I don’t think God is as caught up in our denominational differences as we are,” Bartlett said. “And the love of Christ transcends all denominations.”

Thomas has played a big role at Sacred Heart for years and becoming a deacon will formalize much of what he already does, said the Rev. Larry Delaney, the parish priest.

The doubting this Thomas has done serves him well in counseling others studying the Catholic faith, Delaney said.

“He has certainly gone on a spiritual journey, so he knows what the journey is all about.” Grand Forks Herald

Winona Daily News: God be with you, Bishop Hoeppner

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In higher education circles they call it the brain drain — the phenomenon of the best and brightest leaving an area for greener pastures. And sometimes in places like Winona, that happens. Folks leave our area for bigger — and arguably — better things.

That may be the case with Bishop Michael Hoeppner, who was installed as the seventh bishop of the Diocese of Crookston last week.

Unlike the heart sorrow that goes along with losing a person to another region, Hoeppner’s exit from Winona — his home — wasn’t with pain, rather excitement and celebration. One of our own made good and has moved on to do holy work indeed. Hoeppner’s exit looks to be for the benefit of those in the upper northwest corner of Minnesota.

In an odd piece of trivial coincidence, Hoeppner isn’t the first Winona priest to head to Crookston. John Hubert Peschges served as bishop of Crookston from 1938 to 1944.

While it will indeed be hard for some Winonans to lose a native son, it’s also a special honor and wonderful calling when one of our own is chosen by the pope to lead a diocese. Hoeppner also served the Diocese of Winona with distinction, rising to the level of vicar general.

Archbishop Harry Flynn’s homily served as good advice — bishop is not only a title of honor but of service. We celebrate the notion that the kindness, charity and compassion that can be found in such abundance in Winona can hopefully be shared with the people of Crookston.

After all, one of Winona’s most alluring and amazing traditions is its philanthropy. It takes care of its own and then looks around to help others. Winona always finds a way to give a little more.

And that’s a powerful testament to the community and an even more important lesson to those of us who call this special place home. We hope Hoeppner, upon embarking on this new journey and calling, will take those things he knew so well here and nurture them within his own diocese.

We also hope that more than just the dazzle and show of the installation — necessary ritual and spectacle — Hoeppner can continue to nurture an ethic of charity and service.

We hope Hoeppner will encourage his flock to become ministers of justice, mercy, compassion and vessels of Christ’s love. Those truly are the pillars of the Catholic church and its most enduring legacy.

By Darrell Ehrlick, editor, on behalf of the Winona Daily News editorial board, which also includes publisher Rusty Cunningham and online editor Jerome Christenson.

Bishop Hoeppner Era Begins in Crookston Today

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A who's who of the Catholic church is in Crookston today for the ordination of Michael Hoeppner as the seventh bishop in the history of the Diocese of Crookston. A Winona, Minn. native, Hoeppner, 58, succeeds Victor Balke, who retired in September after 31 years at the helm of the Crookston Diocese.

Thursday evening, Solemn Vespers were held at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, and Hoeppner, after singing the processional hymn, "The King of Love My Shepherd Is" near the baptismal font, was called forward by Archbishop Harry Flynn, of the Archdiocese of St. Paul.

During Thursday evening's service, representatives of various religious, Native American and Hispanic communities welcomed Hoeppner, and before the final blessing the representatives of the Native American communities offered the Blessing of the Four Directions.

Today's ordination began at 1 p.m, and a public reception was scheduled to follow at the Mount St. Benedict. In addition to Balke, dignitaries taking part include Bishop Bernard Harrington and 18 other bishops, Monsignor Roger Grundhaus, vicar general of the Crookston Diocese, and Archbishop Pietro Sambi from Washington, D.C., who serves as the pope's envoy in America. Crookston Daily Times

The Grand Forks Herald Story

Winona Daily News Report

Fargo InForum Report

Crookston Times Report on December 3

What's Really Most Obnoxious About Rocco is When He Beats Me To a Story That Should Be Mine!

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In Crookston, www.NewBishop.com -- Literally

Returning to things Stateside, Friday brings the ordination and installation of Bishop-elect Michael Hoeppner of Crookston.

The 1pm (1900 GMT) liturgy in the Northwest Minnesota diocese's Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception will be streamed at www.newbishop.com ... a domain name which could pull in quite a mint if they ever thought of leasing it out for future installations elsewhere. Archbishop Harry Flynn of St Paul and Minneapolis will preside.

Until his late September appointment to lead the local church of 36,000, Hoeppner, 58, served as vicar-general of Winona, his home diocese at the state's opposite corner. He succeeds Bishop Victor Balke, the longest-serving head of a US diocese; the departing ordinary arrived in Crookston in September 1976.

In an curious bit of ecclesiastical trivia, the seat of Crookston's bishop lacks a bishop's seat. Balke's liturgical counsel reportedly maintained that each presider's chair across the diocese was the bishop's throne, so the cathedra is conversely used by any celebrant.

The Order for the Mass is posted in pdf ...and now you've all got a free copy of the Rite of Episcopal Ordination. Whispers in the Loggia, by Rocco, of course

Bishop Hoeppner Pleased to be a "Mississippi River Rat" in Crookston; but now he has the "Red River" to really pray about!

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The Rev. Michael Hoeppner got a call that turned out to be the call.

As he was driving to Austin, Minn., with Winona Bishop Bernard Harrington Hoeppner’s cell phone rang. It was Archbishop Pietro Sambi, Pope Benedict XVI’s representative in America. The Holy Father had named Hoeppner the Bishop of the Crookston (Minn.) Diocese.

Sambi knew Hoeppner was on the road with Harrington and asked him to call back in an hour.

“OK,” was about the only words that Hoeppner could find when he was told the news.

Hoeppner pulled the car over and asked Harrington to drive the rest of the way. On their way to Austin, they continued in prayer together, saying the rosary.

When Hoeppner called back, Sambi asked, “Do you accept?”

“Gratefully, I do,” Hoeppner replied.

Winona’s native son will leave one corner of the state and head to another.

“I am just delighted. It’s a very happy day,” Hoeppner said. “I grew up a river rat and now I am going to be in the diocese that has the Mississippi River headwaters in it. They also probably didn’t want to appoint someone who doesn’t love the Minnesota winters. I love Minnesota.”

The pope accepted the resignation of longtime Crookston Bishop Victor Balke on Friday. Hoeppner served as the Vicar General of the Diocese of Winona.

“I have enjoyed working with Bishop Harrington — he is a very pastoral bishop,” Hoeppner said. “People have asked me what I plan to do first, and I’ve told them I want to visit the parishes and the priest and be that kind of pastoral bishop.”

Hoeppner, 58, now the bishop-elect, is scheduled to be ordained a bishop and installed Nov. 30 in Crookston.

Hoeppner was born June 1, 1949, to Joseph and Anna Hoeppner in Winona and has three siblings, Patricia, Edward and Mary. He attended Cathedral Elementary School, Cotter High School, Saint Mary’s College and Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary, all in Winona. He was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Winona on June 29, 1975, by Pope Paul VI at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

He served at number of parishes in the Winona Diocese, including St. Stanislaus Kostka and St. Casmir’s in Winona, and parishes in Minnesota City, Lewiston and Altura.

“He is well-prepared and well-qualified, and I know the people and the clergy of the Diocese of Crookston will welcome him with open arms and work with him to build up the Church of Crookston,” Harrington said.

Balke, who will turn 76 on Saturday, was ordained a bishop Sept. 2, 1976, in Crookston. Bishops are required to submit their resignations to Rome when they are 75.

Balke said during spring 2006, he had asked to retire and in recent months has told the Grand Forks Herald he was looking for it to happen sooner, rather than later.

Mary Gautier of the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University in Washington said Balke has been a bishop in his diocese longer than any other active bishop.

The Crookston diocese includes 14 counties in northwestern Minnesota and serves about 36,000 Catholics.

Balke has been seen as one of the more progressive bishops in the U.S. Roman Catholic church, particularly in his promotion of women to leadership roles. For example, he has appointed nuns as pastoral administrators and associates of parishes.

He also spoken publicly in favor of ordaining married men, although he supports the church position that women should not be priests.

Balke has, at times, taken public stands on controversial issues. He said in 1993 that he would not willingly pay his federal income taxes if Congress mandated public funding of abortions. He also came out against the Vietnam War in the 1970s.

He wrote about the Iraq war in the most recent issue of the diocesan newspaper. He said he thought the decision to go to war a mistake, but said the next move had to be decided by military and political leaders.

“Does that mean we can do nothing? Not at all! To say that we can do nothing is to say that we no longer believe in the power of prayer. We can and, as Christians who are called upon to be peacemakers, we must pray for peace in Iraq,” he wrote.

“I dare say, and this is saying a lot, that we can and must pray that the terrorists, even Osama bin Laden, will turn from their violent ways to thoughts and works of peace based on justice. Nothing is impossible for God!“ Winona Daily News

For those of you not familiar with Minnesota geography, the "Red River of the North, the border between Minnesota and North Dakota, has its source near Breckenridge, MN, and flows north, through Lake Winnipeg to Hudson Bay. This means that as Spring comes and the melt begins in Breckenridge, the ice is still frozen to the north and annual flooding of the Red River as water backs up when it encounters the ice is a common occurrence, causing much concern to the towns along the border, affecting particularly Moorhead and East Grand Forks in the Diocese of Crookston. Bishop Hoeppner will regularly be calling for prayers to avert floods in the springtimes. Winona got rain last month.

Fargo In-Forum article on the appointment.

Diocese of Crookston web page (pdf file)

Bishop Michael J. Hoeppner, Shepherd of the Diocese of Crookston!

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I haven't seen the official report yet, but CatholicHierarchy.org and my pal, Google, tell me that Bishop Michael J. Hoeppner, the new Bishop of Crookston, was the Vicar General of the Diocese of Winona!

More information later.

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I just don't know how Rocco does it. Maybe his mom's maiden name was Ratzinger?

A New Shepherd's Crook(ston)

As intimated last night (see next post), Crookston's day has arrived.

This morning, the Pope accepted the resignation of Bishop Victor Balke, who turns 76 tomorrow, naming in his stead Msgr Michael Hoeppner, heretofore vicar-general of Winona.

A native Minnesotan, the 58 year-old bishop-elect comes with a background steeped both in parish work and administration, and with a good bit of teaching ministry, to boot. An alum of the Pontifical North American College, Hoeppner is yet another member of the class of 29 June 1975 -- when Pope Paul VI ordained 359 priests to mark the Holy Year -- to be elevated to the episcopacy, and the second US appointee this year to come from the group, which also counts Archbishops Raymond Burke of St Louis, the prefect of the Papal Household James Harvey and Michael Miller CSB, now the coadjutor of Vancouver, among its members.

Possessed of a JCL from St Paul's in Ottawa and a master's in Education from a Winona-area university, the bishop-elect's priestly ministry included a seven-year stint in the triple roles of high school teacher, school administrator and diocesan director of vocations. He served as Winona's judicial vicar from 1988-97, when then-Bishop John Vlazny named him vicar-general.

Following Vlazny's 1997 transfer to the archbishopric of Portland in Oregon, Hoeppner was elected to oversee the diocese during the interregnum before the appointment and arrival of Bishop Bernard Harrington, who subsequently confirmed Hoeppner as his chief deputy.

For the northern diocese of 36,000, Balke's resignation marks the end of an era -- the bishop observed his 31st anniversary in the Northwestern Minnesota outpost earlier this month.

To become the seventh ordinary of Crookston, the bishop-elect must be ordained and installed in the post within four months from his reception of the papal decrees of his appointment. And once he does, another celebration won't be far off -- the diocese marks its centenary on the last day of 2009. Whispers


West Central Tribune article, Willmar

The 58-year-old bishop-designate will be installed Nov. 30.

The Diocese of Crookston has a population of 250,941. There are 35,780 Catholics, 45 priests, 13 permanent deacons and 123 religious.

TEC CONFERENCE HONORS 41 INDIVIDUALS IN 21 DIOCESES WITH 2007 SPIRIT OF TEC AWARDS

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Each year, the TEC Conference acknowledges individuals for their exemplary commitment to Catholic youth and young adults with a Spirit of TEC Award. The 2007 recipients, presenting 21dioceses throughout the U.S, include two bishops, five priests, one religious and 33 lay adult and young adult leaders.

“On behalf of the TEC Leadership Council and Conference staff, I would like to congratulate each of you for receiving the 2007 Spirit of TEC Award. You are true gifts to both the TEC Movement and your local TEC community. May the Lord continue to bless you and be the light on your faith journey; even as you serve as His light to others,” said TEC Conference Director Ronald Reiter.

Since 1990, nearly 500 people have been honored with this distinction. Nominees are selected by their local TEC communities for committed service to the youth and young adults of the Church; contributing to the TEC ministry in a significant way on a local or regional level; and witnessing Paschal Mystery spirituality in their daily lives.

The 2007 Spirit of TEC Award Winners (in order of TEC community) in our area are:
• Agape (Diocese of Superior, Wis.)-Rev. Michael J. Tupa
• Agassiz Valley (Diocese of Crookston, Minn.)-Most Rev. Victor Balke
• Kairos (Madison, Wis. Diocese)-Barb Wills
• Pathways (Diocese of Winona, Minn.)- Peter and Ann Langworthy
• Twin Cities (Archdiocese of St. Paul/Minneapolis, Minn.)-Ralph and Lynn Pierre

For more information about the TEC Movement, contact (636) 933-9233 or office@TECConference.org; or visit online at www.TECConference.org.

TEC—an acronym for Teens, Troops, Twenties, To and Together Encounter Christ—is a Catholic movement of spirituality for older adolescents and young adults founded in Battle Creek, Mich. in 1965. Focusing on the Paschal Mystery, TEC helps 8,000 young people each year deepen their relationship with Christ and discern their vocation within the larger Church. TEC is affiliated with the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry; National Catholic Young Adult Ministry Association; and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops through its Episcopal Moderator Most Rev. Roger L. Schwietz, OMI, Anchorage, Alaska. [Former Bishop of Duluth] Catholic OnLine

Father Tim McGee, Thief River Falls, is now a Monsignor and may wear some purple

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Father Tim McGee of St. Bernard’s Catholic Church was recently given an honor that is reserved for less than 10 percent of the clergy of any given diocese, when he was given the title of monsignor.
The title monsignor is an ecclesiastical honor for clergy in the Roman Catholic Church. Monsignor comes from the French word Mon Seigneur, which means my lord. In English, the title is most commonly abbreviated “Msgr.”
McGee, 58, found out that he would be honored with the title monsignor Dec. 15, when he was called to the office of Bishop Victor Balke, of the Crookston Diocese.
Monsignor Roger Grundhaus, a former resident of Thief River Falls, said McGee was made a chaplain to the holy father, which an honor bestowed by the pope following the recommendation by Bishop Balke.
“Father McGee was very instrumental in holding things together during the East Grand Forks flood and overseeing reconstruction,” Grundhaus said. “He’s been a very well liked pastor in Thief River Falls and he’s been very successful in his family faith nights and other pastoral initiatives he’s undertaken.”
A ceremony, commemorating McGee’s honor, will be held later this year.

A delayed decision

McGee was born and raised in Minot, N.D. Prior to being ordained, he worked as a funeral director in western North Dakota, Grand Forks, N.D. and East Grand Forks.
Growing up, McGee said he had an interest in religion and priesthood. “I grew up in the years prior to the Second Vatican Council, and I was never sure of myself learning Latin in those years,”
McGee held off on his childhood interest in religion and instead worked as a funeral director in western North Dakota, Grand Forks, N.D. and East Grand Forks.
McGee said he began to change his mind based on the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council, which met from 1962 to 1965.
“One of the outcomes was that Mass was to be celebrated in the language of the people,” McGee said. “So then, at the age of 34, the thought was still in my mind. I went back to school – to see if this was for me, if this is what God was calling met to – before I got too old to learn new things.”
In 1984, McGee enrolled at Sacred Heart School of Theology in Hales Corners, Wis. He was ordained Dec. 19, 1987.

The title monsignor

McGee said the title monsignor is a form of address that is connected to appointments of certain ecclesiastical positions, which are mostly honorary. Priests receive the honor, which is bestowed directly by the holy father, in consultation with the local bishop.
In some countries, the title monsignor is the simple title that is used to address bishops. McGee said that is the case of Latin American countries, where bishops are addressed “Monsignor.”
“In English speaking countries, the title monsignor is generally reserved for priests so honored with the title,” McGee said.
McGee said there are three different classes of monsignor. In ascending order, the different classes of monsignor are: Chaplain to His Holiness; Honorary Prelates of his Holiness; and Apostolic Prothonotaries
McGee was bestowed with title of monsignor, chaplain to his holiness, which doesn’t really change his day to day duties. “Today, there are no duties directly related to the title,” McGee said. “There’s no raise in pay or salary related to the title.”
One area where there will be some change is the way McGee is dressed for sacred ceremonies. Now he will don the traditional clothing of a monsignor who is a chaplain to his holiness. This includes a purple-trimmed black cassock with purple buttons and a purple sash. Traditional attire for priests includes a black cassock with black trim and black buttons.
Like most promotions, honorary or material, McGee had to meet certain criteria in serving the diocese to receive the honor. He was chosen in part because of his 19-year commitment to the diocese, serving as pastor for 19 years at Sacred Heart Church in East Grand Forks from (1987-2001) and St. Bernard’s Church in Thief River Falls (2001-present).
McGee was also involved with flood recovery in East Grand Forks following the 1997 flood, which included demolition and the $13 million reconstruction of Sacred Heart School. McGee said he will continue to serve at St. Bernard’s Church in Thief River Falls, noting: “As far as I know, this is not a stepping stone to something else.” Thief River Falls Times