St. John's of St. Paul celebrates 125 years

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This is the original St. John's Church, built in 1886. The photo on the left is from a postcard postmarked in 1909. The photo on the right comes from the booklet "Picturesque Dayton's Bluff" published in 1909 by the Dayton's Bluff Commercial Club.

By Greg Cosimini, Dayton's Bluff Forum

October 11, 2011

Although the first St. John’s Catholic church building wasn’t dedicated until December of 1886, this August marked the official start of the 125th year of St. John’s existence as a parish in Dayton’s Bluff.

In early 1886, Bishop John Ireland asked Rev. Louis Cornelis, pastor at Mendota, to look into the possibility of organizing an English-speaking Catholic parish on Dayton’s Bluff. Sacred Heart Church had been founded in 1882 to care for the German speaking residents of the district, but ever growing numbers of English speaking people coming into the neighborhood seemed to make the establishment of a separate parish for them a logical step in the growth of the diocese.

Although St. John’s is often thought of as an Irish parish, just as Sacred Heart was a German national parish and St. Casimir’s was a Polish parish, it was actually a territorial parish. It just happened that in the 1880s most English-speaking Catholics in the area were Irish. When parish boundaries were originally drawn up, the western edge was marked by Payne and Maria Avenues, and the southern edge by the river bluffs. There was no need for northern and eastern boundaries because the land past Dayton’s Bluff in those directions was largely unsettled and not part of St. Paul proper.

Father Cornelis canvassed the Bluff for funds, and collected over $1,100 of which the people of the new parish contributed $200. The Corporation of the Church of St. John was organized under the laws of the State of Minnesota on August 4, 1886, and its first meeting was held on August 29. One of the first acts of the corporation was to purchase nine lots in Dayton’s Bluff on Frances (now Fifth) Street, between Forest and Cypress.

The contract for building the church was let early in September 1886 and the Church of St. John of St. Paul became the twelfth Catholic church in St. Paul when it was dedicated on December 19, 1886.

The church structure was typical for its time. The architect, H. G. Terherne, designed a plain frame building with stained glass windows along each side and a large circular stained glass window above the main entrance. A small, cross-crowned belfry topped off the building. The church could seat 450 people on its black walnut-finished pews. The octagonal sanctuary housed a white altar and the sacristy could be used as a chapel. This church served the parish until 1922 when a much larger, brick church was built.

St. John’s will begin its 125th anniversary celebration on Saturday October 22 with a Mass at 4:15 p.m attended by Archbishop John C. Nienstedt.

As part of the celebration St. John’s is putting together a commemorative history booklet. We are looking for photos, memorabilia, stories, facts or anecdotes concerning St. John’s Church and School particularly in the period of 1940 through 1980. If you have anything you would like to share with us, please contact St. John’s at 651-771-3690 or stjohns@stjstp.org.

Please visit www.stjstp.org to learn more about St. John’s and its history. Twin Cities Daily Planet

Bishop Aquila of Fargo predicts state attempts to silence Catholic Church

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Bishop Samuel J. Aquila

An American bishop has predicted that government authorities may one day attempt to silence the Catholic Church in the United States.

“We could see the possibility of it within the United States where we are no longer free to preach the truth from the pulpit or to present Catholic teaching,” Bishop Samuel J. Aquila of Fargo, North Dakota, told CNA on a visit to Rome October 7.

“It will then become important for us to take a very strong stand, as we have done with human life and the unborn child, to continue to speak the truth and to speak it clearly and with charity.”

Bishop Aquila cited two recent examples where he believes religious liberty is being undermined: the closure of Catholic adoption agencies in states that have legislated for same-sex “marriage” and the new government health mandate requiring private insurers to provide women with coverage for contraception and sterilization.

“It’s very, very important for us to realize that we are in a very real clash between the culture of death and a culture of life,” said Bishop Aquila, summing up the former culture as one where “rights are eroded and where lies are being presented as truth.”

Bishop Aquila said he doesn’t know how the present stand the stand-off between Church and state will be resolved, but he is certain that Catholics “will have to stand for the truth” and “speak clearly to the truth no matter what the cost.” He doesn’t rule out the possibility of civil disobedience.

“Either we’re going to have to enter into conscientious objection and say we won’t do this or we will need to co-operate – which we cannot do and still be faithful,” he said.

And he worries that in those states where the practice of the Catholic faith in areas such as adoption and fostering has been declared illegal, that the preaching of that same faith may also eventually face legal sanction.

“I tell our seminarians: you must be prepared to enter into this battle because it’s a battle we need to enter into and speak the truth,” he said.

Bishop Aquila was in Rome for the ordination of one of those seminarians to the diaconate, one of four new deacons for the Diocese of Fargo this year. His words of congratulation to them, though, have also been mingled with words of warning.

“There will be people who will hate you because of the stand which you take, there will be people who ridicule you, yell at you,” he said, “and they did all the same things to Christ when he proclaimed the truth and we can expect no less in the times in which we live.” Catholic News Agency

Interview: Jason Adkins, Executive Director of Minnesota Catholic Conference

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In the Catholic Servant newspaper, By David Hottinger
[Editor’s Note: In March of this year, Jason Adkins, J.D., was appointed the executive director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference. “The Catholic Servant” recently interviewed
him.]

“The Catholic Servant”: Briefly, what is the Minnesota Catholic Conference (MCC)?

Jason Adkins: The MCC is the public policy voice of the Catholic Church in Minnesota. It represents all of Minnesota’s bishops — and by extension, the whole Church in Minnesota— at the Legislature to advocate for laws that promote human dignity and the common good; that defend marriage and family life; and that promote other tenets of Catholic social
doctrine.

“The Catholic Servant”: As an organ of the Church, should you really be meddling with politics?

Jason Adkins: The MCC assists the bishops in their teaching office of transmitting the Church’s social doctrine to the faithful, but also by bringing the Church’s voice into the public arena. The Church’s primary responsibility is not to provide technical solutions to every conceivable public policy problem, but instead to help form the consciences and worldview of Catholics so that they can bring Catholic teaching into the public square.
But oftentimes, the Church will step in and make prudential judgments that certain public policies are necessary to promote the common good of all society, particularly families, which are the first and natural cornerstone of civil society. Still, the bishops’ primary responsibility in the realm of politics is to provide the ethical and moral framework within which the laity and politicians can develop specific answers to difficult public policy questions.
One common misunderstanding among Catholics and the general public alike is why the Catholic Church, a religious institution, has any role or any say in the formation of civil laws. This misunderstanding often generates a certain hostility when the Church participates in the public square.
Yet the Church has a responsibility to society as one of its principal actors to speak out and share its wisdom, collected over the centuries, about the principles that should guide public policy decisions. The Church proposes; she never imposes.
Like any other institution or political actor, the Church must convince the public of the wisdom of her positions. But she is certainly not excluded from participation simply because of her religious identity. Martin Luther King, Jr. was not excluded from speaking about civil rights because he was a Baptist minister and used theological arguments in his quest for a more just society.

“The Catholic Servant”: Is it ever the case that the MCC advocates for a policy which reasonable Catholics could differ over?

Jason Adkins: Often, when the MCC advocates for or against certain public policies, some degree of prudential judgment is involved. But some issues are more clear-cut.
The Church and the bishops have a responsibility to speak whenever the institutional integrity or mission of the Church is threatened. Similarly, it is compelled to speak when there are laws proposed that specifically undermine human dignity or threaten the common good of society.
In any given session of the Legislature, thousands of bills are authored and in the vast majority of instances, the bishops do not take a position for or against them. Yet there are some instances in which the bishops, through the MCC, will counsel legislators and other officials to enact a specific piece of legislation because they deem it so fundamental for promoting human dignity and the common good. Examples of such issues include many types of abortion restrictions;
ensuring that cuts are not made to assistance programs for children, elderly, and the disabled;
comprehensive immigration reform; and seeing that parental choice in education is expanded,
especially for the poor.
When making these determinations, the bishops and conference staff must view each piece of legislation in light of the principles of Catholic social doctrine, specifically the protection of human dignity, promoting the common good, along with the twin principles of solidarity and subsidiarity.

“The Catholic Servant”: You mentioned the “M” word: Marriage. With the Marriage Amendment on the ballot next fall, what will the MCC do in the interim?

Jason Adkins: The MCC is supporting a statewide ballot campaign called Minnesota for Marriage which seeks to encourage other Minnesotans to vote for an amendment to the Minnesota constitution defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
The MCC will be working with other organizations supporting Minnesota for Marriage to build a statewide, grassroots campaign composed of many volunteers who will register voters, knock on doors, and seek to convince others to vote for the amendment. The MCC, for its part, will be working with Catholics of every diocese to help build this campaign.
We know it is not enough for us to simply get enough votes to pass the amendment. We also have to educate Catholics about the vital role that marriage plays as a cornerstone of a healthy society. If we don’t take this opportunity to educate and inform Catholics of the importance of the institution of marriage and the role it plays in nurturing healthy families and healthy children, then over the long term we will not be able to sustain laws protecting traditional marriage.
Therefore, it is absolutely vital that Catholics take on their responsibility as faithful citizens to educate themselves about the issue and help in whatever way they can with the marriage amendment campaign.

“The Catholic Servant”: And why should Catholics— why should anyone—be concerned about preserving traditional marriage?

Jason Adkins: Fundamentally, what’s at stake are two competing arguments about the nature of marriage. There is a movement around the country and around the world to redefine civil marriage laws. The public needs to be well aware that those seeking to promote what’s called same-sex marriage are not out to create a separate institution that same-sex couples can enter into. Instead, people opposed to traditional marriage seek to redefine marriage for the rest of society.
And despite their very vocal presence in the culture and in the media, the actual number of
these advocates is very small. According to the census, only one percent of all couples in
Minnesota are living together in same-sex relationships. Such a small minority of the population
should not have the ability to redefine a bedrock social institution.
The consequences of redefining marriage will be profound. Redefining marriage redefines
parenthood and the family. By extension, redefining marriage will reshape, in radical ways, civil society.
Marriage as an institution in civil law is ordered toward the nurturing and well-being of children and not around the supposed happiness of adults. When proponents of redefining marriage say that government has no business telling them who they can love, they are absolutely correct. But they have missed the point of the civil institution of marriage altogether. It is not about regulating relationships between consenting adults. It’s about the care and wellbeing of children.
Those who seek to redefine marriage want to turn the institution into a system of government-
sanctioned love licenses. [If that happens] people will quickly see this counterfeit version of marriage for what it is and decline to enter into it. Thus, the practical effect of redefining civil marriage will be to redefine it out of existence.

“The Catholic Servant”: And what can you tell us about our opponents in this fight?

Jason Adkins: Those opposed to the marriage amendment are well-financed and well-organized. The movement to end traditional marriage laws is led by persons whose sexuality, whose very identity, is wrapped up in the issue. So they will focus everything they have on the campaign. They have been working at this for years and already have the framework in place to run a
campaign. Not only that, but their supporters hold the commanding heights of our culture;
in academia, in politics, even in the entertainment industry. It presents quite a hurdle to overcome.
Our side, on the other hand, is disadvantaged in the sense that the groups involved in promoting
the marriage amendment do a lot of other things besides just marriage policy. Additionally, we have the challenge of putting a statewide campaign together from scratch.
But we are confident that we can win because the arguments are on our side. We just have to show the majority of Minnesotans—who know in their gut that just as the sun rises in the east, marriage is between one man and one woman; that supporting traditional marriage is not bigotry or discrimination; that you can be kind to your neighbor without
being forced to redefine the bedrock institution of society. To ultimately succeed, however,
we will need all Catholics’ prayers, hard work, and support.

David Hottinger is a freelance writer from the Twin Cities who is attending the University of Minnesota Law School.

This article was funded by the St. Benedict Chair of Writing sponsored by an anonymous patron of The Catholic Servant.
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["Shy and Retiring, Tim Drake"] St. Joseph man plays role in faith-based film 'Courageous'

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Tim Drake of St. Joseph, senior writer for the National Catholic Register [EWTN radio anchor and Catholic Defense League Board Member, Father, and Farmer, among other things], stands next to a poster for “Courageous” on Tuesday at Parkwood 18 in Waite Park. Drake covered the filming and became an extra on the set in the faith-based movie, which opens Friday.

Tim Drake of St. Joseph, senior writer for the National Catholic Register, stands next to a poster for “Courageous” on Tuesday at Parkwood 18 in Waite Park. Drake covered the filming and became an extra on the set in the faith-based movie, which opens Friday. / Jason Wachter, Tim Drake doesn’t have an agent, an entourage or an endorsement deal.

What the St. Joseph resident does have is a bit part as an extra in “Courageous,” a faith-based movie about fatherhood in theaters starting Friday.

“This film was produced by Sherwood Pictures, an outgrowth of Sherwood Baptist Church,” said Drake, a senior writer for the National Catholic Register.

“Courageous” will be the fourth film to be released by the megachurch’s 3,000 members. The “action-packed police drama” is rated PG-13 and features Alex Kendrick, an associate pastor who also directed and co-wrote the movie.

“That’s something that has inspired other groups and other churches to do likewise,” said Drake, who was on the set during filming in 2010. “It’s an interesting phenomenon.”

Spiritual cinema

Movie theaters and religion may seem like an odd combination to some, but Solid Rock Family Church has been holding weekly services at Parkwood 18 in Waite Park for almost a year.

“Movie theaters, in some ways, are like the churches of the modern world, so why not use that media to try to reach the younger generation with positive messages?” said Drake, who was at last month’s premiere of “Courageous” in Atlanta.

Radio station Spirit 92.9 is offering discounted tickets for opening weekend showings of “Courageous” at Quarry Cinema in Cold Spring through the local Christian radio station’s website.

“I definitely think the topic of fatherhood is worth exploring,” Drake said. “If we look culturally, there are a lot of absent fathers in families, so the fact that this film is taking a look at that topic is very timely.”

Ben Reiners is the general manager of Parkwood 18. He said his theater has been fielding calls for more than a month about the movie, which was made for an estimated $1 million and stars relative unknowns.

“What we play is determined by our corporate office, and we thought it would be a good film to play in the St. Cloud area,” Reiners said of the Marcus Theatres-owned venue.

“I think it will do well. We’ve had a lot of people calling, wondering about show times, wondering if we are playing it, so, yes, I think it will do well. And if it does well, we have no problem continuing to book these kind of films.” St. Cloud Daily Times

St. Cloud Diocese: How many Sunday Masses are enough?

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In light of fewer priests, the diocese seeks a balance in what’s best for pastors, parishioners and the integrity of the Mass itself

In light of fewer priests, the diocese seeks a balance in what’s best for pastors, parishioners and the

integrity of the Mass itself

By Sue Schulzetenberg

The Visitor

Note: Bishop John Kinney has charged the Planning Advisory Council of the St. Cloud Diocese to design a plan or a planning process for the diocese. The council’s goal is to present a proposal to the bishop by spring 2012. The council is looking at many dynamics in the diocese, including statistics like the number of priests, number of Catholics and Mass attendance as well as parish vibrancy and growing opportunities for lay leadership. One of its parameters for planning is that no priest should be responsible for more than three weekend Masses that use the Sunday readings. This article, part of an occasional series on diocesan planning, explores the rationale for the three-liturgies parameter and the challenges and advantages associated with it.

Every weekend, September through May, about 232 Masses are celebrated in parishes in the 16 counties of the St. Cloud Diocese.

More and more, priests celebrating these Masses are reaching retirement age. Already, about 25 percent of the priests serving are 70 years old or older. As the diocese is faced with the prospect of fewer priests in the future, the question arises: Who will preside at these Masses?

Some parishioners offer what seems at first to be a simple answer: Have the remaining priests preside at more Masses every weekend. In practice, however, this approach is fraught with complications. And it fails to address a legitimate question: Are all those Masses necessary?

Protecting priests and the Mass

Bishop Kinney issued a guideline in 2009 stating that no priest should be expected to celebrate more than three liturgies with Sunday readings per weekend. This guideline refers to canon law, which states that the local ordinary can allow priests to celebrate Mass twice a day for a just cause, or if pastoral necessity requires it, even three times on Sundays and holy days of obligation. The guideline also notes that the Eucharist is the summit and source of all worship and Christian life and that priests should prepare themselves properly through prayer before Mass and offer thanks afterwards.

The guidelines are designed to protect the integrity of the Mass, help the Mass be seen as a celebration rather than another obligation and protect priests from simply becoming worn out, said Father Robert Rolfes, diocesan vicar general, in a 2010 Visitor article.

“It’s not feasible” to continue to ask priests to celebrate more and more Masses, said Planning Advisory Council member Deacon Steve Pareja of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Sartell. He said priests are very busy people with hours not limited to nine-to-five.

“To fully pray with presence and [to] truly [focus] on the Word and on their homily takes a tremendous amount of energy,” said Rita Clasemann, a member of the Planning Advisory Council and parish life coordinator at St. Mary Parish in Mora and St. Kathryn Parish in Ogilvie. “I think that by the time you get to the fourth or fifth one, you’re running out. The Eucharist should not be something that you’re doing just going through the motions.”

Father Kevin Anderson, pastor of Christ Our Light Parish in Princeton and Zimmerman, said it is important to think about the health of priests in the long run. He said priests are not only celebrating Masses on weekends, but also providing reconciliation and presiding at funerals and weddings. All of those activities added up can take a toll on priests.

Celebrating one Sunday liturgy every Saturday evening and two every Sunday, Father Jerry Dalseth, pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Pierz and St. Michael Parish in Buckman, says he would not recommend more than three Masses per priest per weekend. In addition to the length of the Mass, time is needed for preparation and traveling. His weekends also often include weddings, funerals and baptisms.

“It takes a lot of energy. You have to be very intent and prayerful and concentrate. It’s more strenuous than a lot of the physical exercises,” he said.

Fewer Masses can also mean more collective energy from the congregation and stronger participation with a fuller church, Father Anderson said.

Bishop George Speltz, a former bishop of the St. Cloud Diocese, addressed the importance of having churches full for Mass back in 1985. At that time, he recommended eliminating any Masses in which attendance was less than 50 percent of the church building’s capacity.

“The assembly itself is the primary sign of the liturgy and the gathering of that assembly into one body — at one time and

CUTTING continues on page 7

under one roof — was the ideal practiced in the early Church and insisted upon by the Church Fathers. . . . The purpose of the Eucharist — binding us into one body in Christ our head — is defeated by an approach which puts individual convenience before the gathering together of the whole parish community,” Bishop Speltz wrote.

Parishioners at Christ Our Light in Princeton and Zimmerman have experienced a reduction in the number of Masses offered several times. Christ Our Light is the result of the merging of St. Edward Parish in Princeton and St. Pius X Parish in Zimmerman. Before the parishes twinned, each had three Masses every weekend. After they twinned, four Masses were offered between the two parishes. Then the Masses dropped to three, which is the number still offered today.

Confronting the challenges

A negative of cutting Masses is that people get accustomed to the time when Masses are offered, said Father Anderson. Also, he added, universally, the overall number of people that attend Mass initially drops when Masses are cut. Christ Our Light has recuperated from the decrease with the attendance back up and is doing well financially, he said.

Statistically, when Masses are eliminated, attendance and financial contributions drop but return within six months, said Jane Marrin, director of the Planning Office for the Diocese of St. Cloud.

Deciding which Masses to cut can be difficult. Father Dalseth recalls when St. Joseph’s and St. Michael’s were twinned 11 years ago and both parishes wanted Masses at the same time. Since then, the parishioners have become comfortable in attending Masses at each of the churches as well as other churches in the area.

“Maybe it’s our responsibility in each parish to do some educating on the priority,” Clasemann said. “What is our priority when it comes to our Lord?”

Parishioners could be asked to reflect on how far they travel for other events and what kind of flexibility they show to attend them, she added. “Doesn’t our Lord deserve the same kind of consideration?”

Tom Ehlinger, Planning Advisory Council member and member of St. Anne Parish in Kimball, said limiting Masses will affect parishioners, but he encourages them to look at the parish as a whole.

“If the parish currently has three Masses on a weekend but all of the Masses are only one-third of their capacity, they could get by with one or two Masses,” he said. “Parishioners would need to adjust their schedules to attend a Mass at a different time, but bringing together a larger group of parishioners at Mass may have many benefits in itself.”

Although eliminating a Mass at any parish brings challenges, some Masses might be easier to eliminate than others. Already, many parishes have only one weekend Mass or less, like All Saints on River Street in Holdingford, which has only weekday Masses.

“Ideally, the Eucharist would be celebrated in every faith community that knows and supports each other,” said Franciscan Sister Clara Stang, a member of the Planning Advisory Council. “With the smaller number of ordained priests, it’s just plain difficult. That’s probably the saddest thing that’s happening in the Catholic Church — the lack of priority people give to Eucharist and the restraints that come about when there aren’t enough clergy.”

Sister Clara said the ideal solution is for there to be more ordinations. Although 19 men are in the seminary for the Diocese of St. Cloud, their numbers do not make up for the number of priests approaching retirement. Only 15 diocesan priests are less than 50 years old.

“There is no perfect solution that will satisfy every single person,” said Deacon Pareja. “I think what we need is open dialogue. What we need to do first is open our hearts up to the Holy Spirit and say, ‘Lead me Lord.’”

FOR BOX

By the numbers

In the St. Cloud Diocese:

78: priests assigned to parishes

15: diocesan priests less than 50 years old

132: parishes

232: Approximate number of Sunday liturgies celebrated each weekend September through May

139,000: Approximate number of Catholics in the diocese

45: percentage of registered Catholics attending Mass on any given Sunday in 2010

Note: Bishop John Kinney has charged the Planning Advisory Council of the St. Cloud Diocese to design a plan or a planning process for the diocese. The council’s goal is to present a proposal to the bishop by spring 2012. The council is looking at many dynamics in the diocese, including statistics like the number of priests, number of Catholics and Mass attendance as well as parish vibrancy and growing opportunities for lay leadership. One of its parameters for planning is that no priest should be responsible for more than three weekend Masses that use the Sunday readings. This article, part of an occasional series on diocesan planning, explores the rationale for the three-liturgies parameter and the challenges and advantages associated with it.

Every weekend, September through May, about 232 Masses are celebrated in parishes in the 16 counties of the St. Cloud Diocese.

More and more, priests celebrating these Masses are reaching retirement age. Already, about 25 percent of the priests serving are 70 years old or older. As the diocese is faced with the prospect of fewer priests in the future, the question arises: Who will preside at these Masses?

Some parishioners offer what seems at first to be a simple answer: Have the remaining priests preside at more Masses every weekend. In practice, however, this approach is fraught with complications. And it fails to address a legitimate question: Are all those Masses necessary?

Protecting priests and the Mass

Bishop Kinney issued a guideline in 2009 stating that no priest should be expected to celebrate more than three liturgies with Sunday readings per weekend. This guideline refers to canon law, which states that the local ordinary can allow priests to celebrate Mass twice a day for a just cause, or if pastoral necessity requires it, even three times on Sundays and holy days of obligation. The guideline also notes that the Eucharist is the summit and source of all worship and Christian life and that priests should prepare themselves properly through prayer before Mass and offer thanks afterwards.

The guidelines are designed to protect the integrity of the Mass, help the Mass be seen as a celebration rather than another obligation and protect priests from simply becoming worn out, said Father Robert Rolfes, diocesan vicar general, in a 2010 Visitor article.

“It’s not feasible” to continue to ask priests to celebrate more and more Masses, said Planning Advisory Council member Deacon Steve Pareja of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Sartell. He said priests are very busy people with hours not limited to nine-to-five.

“To fully pray with presence and [to] truly [focus] on the Word and on their homily takes a tremendous amount of energy,” said Rita Clasemann, a member of the Planning Advisory Council and parish life coordinator at St. Mary Parish in Mora and St. Kathryn Parish in Ogilvie. “I think that by the time you get to the fourth or fifth one, you’re running out. The Eucharist should not be something that you’re doing just going through the motions.”

Father Kevin Anderson, pastor of Christ Our Light Parish in Princeton and Zimmerman, said it is important to think about the health of priests in the long run. He said priests are not only celebrating Masses on weekends, but also providing reconciliation and presiding at funerals and weddings. All of those activities added up can take a toll on priests.

Celebrating one Sunday liturgy every Saturday evening and two every Sunday, Father Jerry Dalseth, pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Pierz and St. Michael Parish in Buckman, says he would not recommend more than three Masses per priest per weekend. In addition to the length of the Mass, time is needed for preparation and traveling. His weekends also often include weddings, funerals and baptisms.

“It takes a lot of energy. You have to be very intent and prayerful and concentrate. It’s more strenuous than a lot of the physical exercises,” he said.

Fewer Masses can also mean more collective energy from the congregation and stronger participation with a fuller church, Father Anderson said.

Bishop George Speltz, a former bishop of the St. Cloud Diocese, addressed the importance of having churches full for Mass back in 1985. At that time, he recommended eliminating any Masses in which attendance was less than 50 percent of the church building’s capacity.

“The assembly itself is the primary sign of the liturgy and the gathering of that assembly into one body — at one time and under one roof — was the ideal practiced in the early Church and insisted upon by the Church Fathers. . . . The purpose of the Eucharist — binding us into one body in Christ our head — is defeated by an approach which puts individual convenience before the gathering together of the whole parish community,” Bishop Speltz wrote.

Parishioners at Christ Our Light in Princeton and Zimmerman have experienced a reduction in the number of Masses offered several times. Christ Our Light is the result of the merging of St. Edward Parish in Princeton and St. Pius X Parish in Zimmerman. Before the parishes twinned, each had three Masses every weekend. After they twinned, four Masses were offered between the two parishes. Then the Masses dropped to three, which is the number still offered today.

Confronting the challenges

A negative of cutting Masses is that people get accustomed to the time when Masses are offered, said Father Anderson. Also, he added, universally, the overall number of people that attend Mass initially drops when Masses are cut. Christ Our Light has recuperated from the decrease with the attendance back up and is doing well financially, he said.

Statistically, when Masses are eliminated, attendance and financial contributions drop but return within six months, said Jane Marrin, director of the Planning Office for the Diocese of St. Cloud.

Deciding which Masses to cut can be difficult. Father Dalseth recalls when St. Joseph’s and St. Michael’s were twinned 11 years ago and both parishes wanted Masses at the same time. Since then, the parishioners have become comfortable in attending Masses at each of the churches as well as other churches in the area.“Maybe it’s our responsibility in each parish to do some educating on the priority,” Clasemann said. “What is our priority when it comes to our Lord?”

Parishioners could be asked to reflect on how far they travel for other events and what kind of flexibility they show to attend them, she added. “Doesn’t our Lord deserve the same kind of consideration?”

Tom Ehlinger, Planning Advisory Council member and member of St. Anne Parish in Kimball, said limiting Masses will affect parishioners, but he encourages them to look at the parish as a whole.

“If the parish currently has three Masses on a weekend but all of the Masses are only one-third of their capacity, they could get by with one or two Masses,” he said. “Parishioners would need to adjust their schedules to attend a Mass at a different time, but bringing together a larger group of parishioners at Mass may have many benefits in itself.”

Although eliminating a Mass at any parish brings challenges, some Masses might be easier to eliminate than others. Already, many parishes have only one weekend Mass or less, like All Saints on River Street in Holdingford, which has only weekday Masses.

“Ideally, the Eucharist would be celebrated in every faith community that knows and supports each other,” said Franciscan Sister Clara Stang, a member of the Planning Advisory Council. “With the smaller number of ordained priests, it’s just plain difficult. That’s probably the saddest thing that’s happening in the Catholic Church — the lack of priority people give to Eucharist and the restraints that come about when there aren’t enough clergy.” Sister Clara said the ideal solution is for there to be more ordinations. Although 19 men are in the seminary for the Diocese of St. Cloud, their numbers do not make up for the number of priests approaching retirement. Only 15 diocesan priests are less than 50 years old.

“There is no perfect solution that will satisfy every single person,” said Deacon Pareja. “I think what we need is open dialogue. What we need to do first is open our hearts up to the Holy Spirit and say, ‘Lead me Lord.’”

By the numbers in the St. Cloud Diocese:

78: priests assigned to parishes
15: diocesan priests less than 50 years old
132: parishes
232: Approximate number of Sunday liturgies celebrated each weekend September through May
139,000: Approximate number of Catholics in the diocese
45: percentage of registered Catholics attending Mass on any given Sunday in 2010

WDIO Duluth/WIRT Hibbing to televise Sunday Mass at Basilica of National Shrine in Washington

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Sunday Mass at Basilica of National Shrine to be televised

By Kyle Eller
The Northern Cross

Ever since the Diocese of Duluth stopped sponsoring a televised Sunday Mass broadcast about five years ago, there has been a steady stream of requests hoping to see the broadcast returned. That hope will soon be fulfilled — Sept. 18 at 9:30 a.m. on WDIO-TV to be exact.

“Many, many seniors have written asking for a resumption of the Sunday Mass,” said Mike Bilden, development director for the diocese. He said the letters and calls have come not only from the Duluth diocese but also the neighboring diocese in Superior, Wis., the northern portion of which also receives coverage from Duluth television stations.

With the help of a three-year decreasing grant from the Catholic Extension Society of Chicago, the diocese will again be able to broadcast a 30-minute televised Mass throughout most of the diocese. The National Catholic Society of Foresters also has contributed money that will be used for promoting the Mass, Bilden said.

The broadcast will have a higher profile than it did previously on another station, where it aired earlier in the morning. The 9:30 a.m. time this fall and winter will directly precede the Minnesota Vikings pregame show.

“It’s a super time to have this Mass,” Bilden said.

As part of the arrangement, WDIO will also air 10 30-second promotions of the Mass throughout the week at random times. Bilden said Steve LaFlamme Sr. at WDIO, whose son Steve Jr. is a diocesan priest, worked to make things work out so well at the station.

The broadcast itself should also be of very high quality. It is a 30-minute Mass originating from the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.

Diocesan officials looked at five different options, Bilden said. “This one of course fit the criteria in every way,” he said, being the right length, liturgically sound, current with the liturgical calendar and affordable.

Bilden said the demand has been considerable. A televised Mass does not substitute for the Sunday Mass obligation, but many people who cannot get to Mass because they are homebound, in a rest home or simply stuck in bad weather want to see the Mass and participate in the life of the church even though their obligation is lifted.

Bilden said the service was a priority for Bishop Paul Sirba. “It’s Bishop Sirba who’s really intent on reaching out to everyone in the diocese,” he said.

The three-year grant covers the broadcast for the first year. After that, the diocese will have to start covering part of the cost through donations, and at the end of the three-year period will be responsible for the cost.

“I think there’s a good chance that it will become self-sustaining,” Bilden said.

But for that to happen, there will have to be sufficient donations to cover the cost of the broadcast. He said he also hopes for some support in the Superior diocese, where officials have agreed to send out bulletin announcements asking for individual donations.

Accessing the broadcast will vary based on where a person is located and how a person gets television. Bulletin announcements with more detailed information are being sent to parishes. Those with questions may also contact the diocese at (218) 724-9111. Northern Cross

Some of those parishes in northeastern Minnesota are located a long way from their parishioners.

Duluth's diocesan strategic planning moves on to next phase

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Six months — half of the diocesan strategic planning process — was devoted to the local committees with lay and clergy representatives from each parish. That part of the process is now coming to a close, said Father Peter Muhich, who is chairing the process.

And with that, the diocese is one big step closer to the plan that will guide planning decisions for the next five years.

The local groups were arranged into five regional groups called deaneries, and they were given wide latitude to accept, modify or even scrap proposals for their deaneries that had been drawn up by a diocesan committee. Already the Cloquet, Duluth and Hibbing deaneries have submitted their responses. Those responses have been posted on the diocesan website.

That leaves the Virginia and Brainerd deaneries. “They are wrapping up, as well,” Father Muhich said.

“They all were able to add some insights and definitely, I think, improve the work that was done by the diocesan committee,” Father Muhich said. He said the proposals coming back from the deaneries are not drastically different from the drafts they began with but are definitely refined.

“There’s a few things we missed or got wrong,” he said of the initial proposals.

He said that while it appears all the deaneries will be able to reach consensus, in a couple of cases there will also be “minority reports” filed, giving individuals a chance to share some differences.

“We’re trying to be respectful of those differences,” he said.

The last deanery planning meetings are scheduled for September. They began meeting back in April. Parishes have also been asked to hold town hall meetings following the conclusion of the deanery part of the planning process, to explain the revised proposals and the reasoning behind decisions, to answer questions and to note any additional concerns, which would be passed on to the diocesan committee.

Father Muhich said the local conversations from his perspective have been handled respectfully and have been a blessing. “I think they’re taking this very seriously and doing a good job,” he said of the groups.

He cited one instance in a deanery committee meeting where most representatives were still locked into defending their “turf” until representatives of a relatively small parish that under the diocesan proposal would have only been clustered differently broke ranks. The representatives observed that members of another small parish, which, under the diocesan proposal, would be merged into a larger parish, had even longer drive times than their own, and that perhaps their own parish would be a better candidate to be merged into a larger parish.

Father Muhich said that spirit of being willing to sacrifice showed in the local planning process.

Once all the deanery responses have been received, the diocesan committee will pull that information together and pass it on to the diocesan Presbyteral Council, the group that represents the priests of the diocese and advises the bishop. The revised proposals will also be the major focus of the annual clergy conference this fall.

The Presbyteral Council will then make its recommendations to Bishop Paul Sirba toward the end of the year. He will take the whole process into consideration.

“He’ll be able to make any adjustments he sees necessary,” Father Muhich said.

Bishop Sirba will likely approve the final plan early next year.

However, with the end of one process, another will begin: the implementation process. Contrary to a popular misconception, the plan will not necessarily be acted on all at once. Rather, it will be implemented as needed over the next five years. That could mean implementing all of the plan or only part of it.

Father Muhich said the bishop is still considering how exactly the implementation process will work and who will advise him on it. Northern Cross

Annual Candlelight Rosary Procession

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The Annual Candlelight Rosary Procession in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, is an event to honor our Blessed Mother as Our Lady of the most Holy Rosary.

Catholic tradition places devotion to Our Lady of the Rosary in the month of October. Our procession is held the First Friday of October.

Bring your family, friends, priests and religious as we pray the Rosary in procession from the State Capitol to the Cathedral of St. Paul.

• Friday, October 7th, 2011
• Assemble at the State Capitol at 6:30 p.m.
• Procession to the Cathedral begins at 7 p.m.
• Prayer Service and Benediction held inside the Cathedral
• A free will offering will be taken to help support the Processions

Michael Voris: The Catholics Responsible for Obama's Agenda

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Michael Voris: Obama and Evil

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Doing a 180: Pro-Life Documentary Video Goes Viral

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by Tim Drake National Catholic Register

If you haven’t yet seen the powerful documentary “180”, do yourself a favor and take 30 minutes out of your day to watch the attached film. It’s worth taking a look at and sharing with others. Just a warning - the film does contain graphic images.

Created by evangelical pastor Ray Comfort, the film features interviews with people on the street, many of them college students.

At first, you’ll be dismayed at the students’ ignorance of history, but keep watching.

Comfort goes on to present each of them with a hypothetical situation that goes like this:

It’s 1943. A German officer has a gun pointed at you. He wants you to get into a bulldozer and drive it forward. In front of the bulldozer is a pit in which there are 300 Jews who have just been shot. Some of them are still alive. He wants you to bury them alive! If you don’t do what he says, he is going to kill you and do it himself. If you do what he says, he will let you live. Would you drive it forward?

Comfort said that he was both surprised and sickened by many of the initial responses.

“I was surprised that so many said that they could bury another person alive. I felt sickened, but at the same time I don’t know if I believed others when they quickly said that they would take the bullet, rather than do it,” Comfort told The Christian Post. “I guess it takes a lot of soul-searching. It certainly is a character-test for each of us.”

Then, Comfort transitions to the topic of abortion. With just a few questions, Comfort is able to get many of them to reconsider their position on abortion. It’s amazing to see how they change their minds in just a matter of seconds.

Released just over a week ago, the YouTube video has already received more than half a million views. The film’s Facebook page has received between 800 and 1,000 “Likes” per day.

Cardinal DiNardo: Religion and Morality Essential Parts of a Freedom-Loving Society

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Religion and Morality Essential Parts of a Freedom-Loving Society

STATEMENT FOR RESPECT LIFE MONTH

Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo
Archbishop of Galveston-Houston, former "Bishop of Sioux City, IA
Chairman, Committee on Pro-Life Activities
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

September 26, 2011

This October the Catholic Church throughout the United States will observe Respect Life Month, an annual tradition now in its fortieth year.

Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo Releases Statement for October 2011, Respect Life Month

Beginning on October 2, 2011—Respect Life Sunday—Catholics across the nation will join together to witness to the inherent equality and transcendent value of every human being.

In countless liturgies and events we will give thanks to God for the gift of human life, and pray for his guidance and blessings on our efforts to defend the most vulnerable members of the human family.

We will voice our opposition to the injustice and cruelty of abortion on behalf of those victims whose voices have been silenced. At the same time, we will remind the living victims of abortion—the mothers and fathers who grieve the loss of an irreplaceable child—that God’s mercy is greater than any human sin, and that healing and peace can be theirs through the sacrament of reconciliation and the Church’s Project Rachel Ministry.

The theme chosen for this year’s Respect Life Program is I came so that all might have life and have it to the full. In this brief explanation of his mission (cf. John 10:10), Jesus refers both to our hope of eternal life, to be restored through his death and resurrection, and to our life in this world.

By following Jesus’ new Commandment of unselfish love, our lives can be richly fulfilling, and marked by joy and peace. In contrast, treating others as either means or obstacles to one’s self-serving goals, while never learning to love generously, is an impoverished way to live.

Viewing life as a “zero sum” game, in which advancing one’s interests requires putting aside the needs of others, can lead to callous unconcern for anyone who is especially weak, defenseless, and in need of our help. The unborn child, the aging parent who some call a “burden” on our medical system, the allegedly “excess” embryo in the fertility clinic, the person with a disability, the cognitively impaired accident victim who needs assistance in receiving food and water to live—each today is at risk of being dismissed as a “life unworthy of life.”

Jesus’ promise of “life to the full” is especially poignant today, when our culture and sometimes our government promote values inimical to the happiness and true good of individuals and society. We face increasing attempts to expunge God and religious discourse from public life. This promotes the dangerous proposition that human beings enjoy no special status by virtue of their God-given humanity. Some now even seek to eliminate religiously motivated people and organizations from public programs, by forcing them to violate their moral and religious convictions or stop serving the needy.

The same forces, aided by advertising and entertainment media, promote a selfish and demeaning view of human sexuality, by extolling the alleged good of sexual activity without love or commitment. This view of sex as “free” of commitment or consequences has no place for openness to new life. Hence contraceptives are promoted even to young teens as though they were essential to women’s well-being, and abortion defended as the “necessary” back-up plan when contraceptives fail. And fail they do. Studies report that most women seeking abortions were using contraception in the month they became pregnant. Again and again, studies show that increasing access to contraception fails to reduce rates of unplanned pregnancies and abortions.

Both these trends—a distorted view of sexuality and a disdain for the role of religion—are exhibited by the Department of Health and Human Services’ recent decision on the “preventive services” to be mandated in virtually all private health plans under the new health care law. The Department ruled that such mandated services will include surgical sterilization and all FDA-approved contraceptive drugs and devices—including the abortifacient drug “Ella,” a close analogue to the abortion pill RU-486.

The decision is wrong on many levels. Preventive services are aimed at preventing diseases (e.g., by vaccinations) or detecting them early to aid prompt treatment (e.g., screening for diabetes or cancer). But pregnancy is not a disease. It is the normal, healthy state by which each of us came into the world. Far from preventing disease, contraceptives can have serious health consequences of their own, for example, increasing the risk of acquiring a sexually transmitted disease, such as AIDS, increasing the risk of breast cancer from excess estrogen, and of blood clots that can lead to stroke from synthetic progestin. Mandating such coverage shows neither respect for women’s health or freedom, nor respect for the consciences of those who do not want to take part in such problematic initiatives.

The “religious employer” exemption offered by the Department is so extremely narrow that it protects almost no one. Catholic institutions providing health care and other services to the needy could be forced to fire their non-Catholic employees and cease serving the poor and vulnerable of other faiths—or stop providing health coverage at all. It has been said that Jesus himself, or the Good Samaritan of his famous parable, would not qualify as “religious enough” for the exemption, since they insisted on helping people who did not share their view of God.

All these misguided efforts to foster false values among our youth, to silence the voice of moral truth in the public domain, and to deprive believers of their constitutionally-protected right to live according to their religious convictions, must be resisted by education, public advocacy, and above all by prayer.

The founders of our nation understood that religion and morality are essential to the survival of a freedom-loving society. John Adams expressed this conviction, stating:

“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other.”

Catholics must not shrink from the obligation to assert the values and principles we hold essential to the common good, beginning with the right to life of every human being and the right of every woman and man to express and live by his or her religious beliefs and well-formed conscience.

As Pope Benedict XVI reminded us last year in one of his Ad Limina addresses to visiting bishops, “a society can be built only by tirelessly respecting, promoting and teaching the transcendent nature of the human person.” That common nature transcends all accidental differences of age, race, strength, or conditions of dependency, preparing us to be one human family under God.

During this Respect Life Month, as we celebrate God’s great gift of life, let us pray and reflect on how each of us might renew our commitment and witness to “respecting, promoting and teaching the transcendent nature of the human person,” thereby shoring up the foundations of a society sorely in need of this guidance. Courageous Priest

National praise keeps pouring on Duluth's College of St. Scholastica

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If your school is on the cover of Sports Illustrated, chances are you just won a national sports championship. If it winds up in a news magazine, however, brace yourself; your school is probably embroiled in controversy.

If your school is on the cover of Sports Illustrated, chances are you just won a national sports championship. If it winds up in a news magazine, however, brace yourself; your school is probably embroiled in controversy.

But not always, especially not when that news magazine is U.S. News & World Report, and certainly not when it’s the U.S. News & World Report’s always-

anticipated annual “Best Colleges” issue.

The College of St. Scholastica in Duluth has been spotlighted by the magazine at least 12 times since 1996, often alongside the University of Minnesota Duluth. The impressive trail of tributes continued this month when a St. Scholastica major, the oldest of its kind in the nation, was among nine listed as “hot” right now by the national publication.

The health information management major has existed at St. Scholastica in one form or another since 1934. The program has evolved with the times and with a commitment to remain on the cutting edge of technology. Its instructors are now considered national leaders in the field.

“They’re unsung heroes,” the college’s Bob Ashenmacher told the News Tribune Opinion page, referring to health information management instructors Kathleen LaTour and Shirley Eichenwald Maki, both of whom are retiring at the end of this academic year.

“St. Scholastica’s (Health Informatics and Information Management) Department is one of those quiet riches that are mostly invisible but that, year after year and decade after decade, make up the true wealth of our community,” Ashenmacher said. “For nearly 80 years this department has been turning out professionals who keep us safer, who make American health care effective and who today are leading the effort to make it more efficient through the electronic health record.”

Duluth’s institutions of higher education have received national attention the past couple of years for athletic achievements on ice, on the gridiron and elsewhere. While taking nothing away from the national championships, all the Northland can be proud of this latest reminder from U.S. News & World Report that excellence in Duluth extends to academics, too. Duluth News Tribune

I'm prejudiced. My Mom's sister, Sister Ann Edward, O.S.B., was a president of St. Scholastica ['the Villa"] back in the 60's. The then Medical Records major attracted students from around the world. It was one of the first such majors in the country.

Shantae Holmes remade her life, and is now trying to build a business in North Minneapolis

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She remade her life, and is now trying to build a business in North Minneapolis

Shantae Holmes: "I'm feeling positive. I'm still committed to this goal of mine."

A decade ago Shantae Holmes walked out of the Minnesota Correctional Facility at Shakopee, telling her jailers: "You won't see me again. I'm not coming back."

She did return years later, but wearing a visitor's pass. By then a community college graduate with a human services degree and a clean record and wisdom surpassing her years, she visited the prison as a role model and to help others get straight.

Holmes, a North Minneapolis woman who overcame drugs for a better life, is being honored today by the League of Catholic Women, a group with a name born in a different era and a deep-rooted history of service to women and children. This is the centennial year of the group housed in that little building with the big green door at 207 S. Ninth St. in Minneapolis.

Shantae (pronounced shawn-tay) Holmes and two other mothers will receive a $500 check and a Women Becoming award for beating the odds and achieving success.

Working for a social service agency, she once led support groups and shepherded women through court appearances, but her real dream was to open a business that would make her some money and help others as well. Today she's a businesswoman, and that brings new challenges.

Holmes has indeed beaten the odds, and her story has been told in the local media. But when you talk with her, beneath the upbeat tone and behind the pride of accomplishment you hear a hint of uncertainty brought on by a poor economy and a tornado.

Almost 14 months ago Holmes, 40, realized that goal, opening All Washed Up, a laundry service in a redeveloped commercial area on the North Side near Penn and Lowry Avenues N. Neighbors and the business community applauded.

Sen. Al Franken even came by to shake her hand.

Her business is 3,128 square feet of family-friendly sunny space with 22 washers and 22 dryers, a couple of flat-screen TVs, a kids' play area and snack-food vending machines, as well as laundry pick up and delivery service. What makes it a stand-out is Holmes upfront, greeting customers with smiles and offers to help.

Communal effort
Getting the business up and running was a major communal effort, involving profits and non-profits, including St. Paul-based Wellington Management, the Metropolitan Consortium of Community Developers and the Northside Economic Opportunity Network (NEON).

"Shantae is a very, very unique individual,'' says Grover Jones, executive director of NEON, an organization that works with minorities who want to start businesses, particularly in North Minneapolis.

Holmes, he says, came from a religious upbringing and a good family, but she'd fallen off the rails for a while. She came to NEON for business-start-up help.

"It was not an easy project to pull together,'' Jones says, but she persevered.

Start-up costs ran about $375,000 for outfitting her building, purchasing equipment, including about $40,000 from her own pocket, she says, and not counting the expense of all those costly extras like plastic slipcovers for clothes, business cards, hangers, a wet vacuum, an industrial fan.

"It left me $14 of working capital pretty much,'' she tells me, admitting she's still not paying herself a salary, though she pays three other employees.

Getting the business up and running was a major communal effort, involving profits and non-profits.

Holmes is also engaged to be married, and her fiancé and his business pay living expenses for Holmes and her kids. (She is mother of two boys ages 7 and 9 diagnosed with autism, and a 3-year-old daughter.)

Their wedding is in the distant future. "Right now we can't even afford to buy a broom to jump over. We maybe could afford the rice,'' she laughs.

Factor in a major economic recession and a tornado sweeping past her door in May, and see her challenges. Her building wasn't damaged but power outages cost her. No electricity, no business.

Still, when the lights came on she passed out free laundry coupons to tornado victims, a generous gesture to the neighborhood she grew up in and a good marketing move paid for in part by a consortium of area churches.

"She knew the struggles of those North Minneapolis families,'' says Cassandra Cheatem, family services manager at Northside Child Development Center where Holmes used to bring her children for child care. She's known Holmes for eight years and nominated her for the League award. "She was a hard worker. She always had the drive to continue, no matter the obstacles.''

Holmes is a cancer survivor, and Cheatem sometimes drove Holmes, now closing in on four years cancer-free, to chemotherapy treatments. "She didn't give up. She always said she had too much at stake. She said, 'I have children to raise. This cancer will not beat me.'''

Helping customers
Customers trickled in one mid-morning Monday to the self-serve laundry on a street corner that used to attract the prostitution trade.

The door opens and Holmes turns on her smile. "Welcome to All Washed Up. Can I help?'' Holmes asks patron Cari Acker.

No, she's fine, Acker says, acknowledging it's her first time there, that she's pushing a pile of white plastic bags with dirty laundry in a running stroller because the tornado that ripped through town last May destroyed her car and damaged her house, including her washer and dryer.

Do you need help? Holmes asks, because there are resources out there and she could steer her in the right direction.

No, she had insurance, Acker says, smiling.

As for her business future? The next six months will tell, Holmes says. Now it's up to the community to show support, even though customers wait a little longer before making that trip to the laundry and try to fill the wash tubs a little too full. It's the economy, she says.

The business is "not where it needs to be,'' she says, but "I'm still energized. I'm feeling positive. I'm still committed to this goal of mine. Anything worth having is worth working for.''

Related content

The League of Catholic Women's awards, says President Rita Fox, both recognize the heroic strides of remarkable young women as well as highlight the League's 100 years of service.

Fox says the awards are a "recruitment and publicity effort" to bolster membership and keep valuable programs going.

League members are first responders of a sort, recognizing the unmet needs of women like Holmes, as well as children and immigrants, and then stepping in to help.

A century ago they operated residences for single working women, later sheltering fatherless children and their mothers, and operating group homes for girls and boys. More recently through their First Impression program they supply job-interview coaching and professional clothing to those in need, stock cloth gift bags with toiletries and more for women leaving incarceration. Their Read to Me program matches members and kids from the Northside Achievement Zone.

At luncheon today at Midland Hills Country Club in Roseville, Holmes and two other women will receive awards.

The others are:

Rosalind Anderson of Brooklyn Park, parent to three, who overcame economic, educational and single-parenting barriers to become a registered nurse working in the neo-natal care unit at Hennepin County Medical Center,

Natasha Holt, also of North Minneapolis, and mother of two, including a child with cerebral palsy, who graduated from Minneapolis Community and Technical College in June and is working toward a four-year degree to become a hospital child-life specialist.

Helping the women reach their goals were different groups, including the League with such efforts as its By Your Side mentoring program, as well as Northside Child Development Center, St. Catherine University's Access and Success program, and the Jeremiah Program, Fox says.
MinnPost

Historic St. John's Bible is finished

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Amen! Historic St. John's Bible is finished

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts exhibits the last 18 pages of the handwritten manuscript.
Calligrapher Donald Jackson surrounded the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, from the Book of Revelation, with symbols of 21st-century life and hardships: tanks, oil rigs, cancer, AIDS and famine.

"Do you want me to make the word of God live on the page?" British calligrapher Donald Jackson asked more than 15 years ago.

It was an audacious question. St. John's Abbey and University in Collegeville, Minn., said, "Yes."

And so began a grand and improbable collaboration between a little Benedictine community in Minnesota and a guy then best known for handwriting the ceremonial marriage documents of Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana. Together they produced the only handwritten and illuminated Bible created in the past 500 years, a total of 1,150 artful pages sparkling with gold leaf and jewel-toned colors.

In a triumphal conclusion, "The St. John's Bible, Amen!," a small show featuring the last pages from the final volume, opens Friday at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. On view through Nov. 13, the exhibit features just 18 pages from "Letters and Revelation," in which Jackson's colorful illustrations frame and accentuate graceful lines of biblical text.

St. John's took on the project "because it's what monks do," John Klassen, abbot at St. John's Abbey and University, said at an opening ceremony Thursday. "It was a chance to help ignite the spiritual imagination of people around the world."

Conceived to celebrate the millennium in 2000, the St. John's Bible is expected to serve as an inspiration and pilgrimage point through the next millennium.

Goose-quill pens

Though written in the ancient manner -- using goose-quill pens on 2-foot-tall sheets of polished calfskin called vellum -- the Bible also reflects contemporary times. Graceful Minnesota dragonflies with translucent wings rest on delicate sprigs of Yorkshire fog grass in two illustrations. Modern tanks, oil rigs and symbols of 21st-century pestilence -- cancer, the AIDS virus, starving faces -- lurk behind the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in another image, while golden angels soar over a city of bejeweled glass in a third panel.

The project involved a flock of Benedictine scholars who advised Jackson and picked out passages to be "illuminated" with images and elaborate lettering. An international team of about 20 calligraphers and illustrators helped Jackson prepare the English text using a special calligraphic style or "hand" that he designed just for the Bible. The 1,150 pages eventually will be bound in seven volumes that comprise a single Bible. For now, however, the sheets are loose for easier display. When formally announced in 1999, the project was expected to take about six years and cost $3 million. That stretched to 12 years and more than doubled in cost, although St. John's officials declined to put a dollar figure on it.

"There were thousands of benefactors who believed in the project and made it possible through their generosity, from Boy Scout troops who sent a few dollars to several families who gave over $1 million each," said Rob Culligan, St. John's vice president for institutional advancement.

Extremely limited edition

In addition to the single copy of the Bible, the project has spun off coffee-table books, posters, notecards and bookmarks. Exhibitions about it have been presented at museums, galleries and other sites throughout the United States, Canada and in England. St. John's is producing a full-scale, near-facsimile version known as the Heritage Edition. Only 299 copies of that version are being published. Initially priced in 2006 at $115,000 for a seven-volume set, those books have gone to more than 40 collectors, libraries, universities and churches, including the Vatican Library and Museum in Rome and the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City.

Jackson, 74, and his wife, Mabel, who live in Monmouth, Wales, delivered the last pages of the Bible to St. John's this spring and were not on hand for the exhibition's debut. He is not a Catholic nor even a religious man by temperament, but writing the Bible was a lifelong dream whose completion has obviously been enormously satisfying, friends say.

"When you have the whole Bible wash through you and then write it out, you are transfigured by it, too," said Eric Hollas, a St. John's official and longtime friend of Jackson. "He may not have been particularly spiritual in the beginning, but the words take over at the end, so in that respect he is a changed man." StarTribune

Courageous Priests

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A blog, entitled Courageous Priests, follows the activities of the following American Priests. The highlighted ones are the Upper Midwest's contribution, our priests, to that list.

Priests We Follow

1. Archbishop Charles Chaput (14) Rapid City 1988-97
   
2. Archbishop Edwin O'Brien (1)
3. Archbishop George Lucas (1)
4. Archbishop Jerome Listecki (2) LaCrosse, Milwaukee 2004-
   
5. Archbishop John J. Myers (2)
6. Archbishop John Nienstedt (5) New Ulm, StP-M 2001-
   
7. Archbishop José H. Gomez (1)
8. Archbishop Robert Carlson (3) StP-M, Sioux Falls, 1970-2004
   
9. Archbishop Thomas Wenski (2)
10. Archbishop Timothy Dolan (6) Milwaukee 2002-09
    
11. Bishop Jaime Soto (2)
12. Bishop James Vann Johnston (1)
13. Bishop Mark Coleridge (1)
14. Bishop Michael Sheehan (1)
15. Bishop R. Walker Nickless (1) Sioux City 2005-
    
16. Bishop Robert Finn (2)
17. Bishop Robert Morlino (1) Madison, 2003-
    
18. Bishop Robert Vasa (8)
    
19. Bishop Samuel Aquila (3) Fargo 2001-
    
20. Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted (8)
21. Bishop Thomas Tobin (6)
22. Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco (1)
23. Cardinal Carlo Caffarra (1)
24. Cardinal Francis George (2)
25. Cardinal Raymond Burke (10) LaCrosse 1975-95
    
26. Cardinal Robert Sarah (1)
27. Courageous Priest (10)
28. Fr. Donald Calloway (3)
29. Fr. Dwight Longenecker (10)
30. Fr. Frank Pavone (15)
31. Fr. James Farfaglia (12)
32. Fr. John Cihak (2)
33. Fr. John Malloy (1)
34. Fr. Larry Richards (1)
35. Fr. Mark Bozada (76)
36. Fr. Michael Mendl (1)
37. Fr. Michael Rodriguez (8)
38. Fr. Ray Blake (1)
39. Fr. Richard Perozich (1)
40. Fr. Robert Altier (6)
41. Fr. Robert Barron (2)
42. Fr. Z –WDTPRS (6)
43. Msgr. Charles Pope (4)
44. Msgr. Don Fitzpatrick (1)
45. Pope Benedict XVI (8)
46. Uncategorized (61)
47. Bishop Salvatore Cordileone