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Editor
The Catholic Spirit
St Paul, Minnesota
I’m happy to see that your internet presence has been recreated. Thank you.
And your lead story in the December 14th issue of the paper, dealing with 21st century infractions of the Ten Commandments, is a great idea. Unfortunately, however, your reporter, Chris Williams may be knowledgeable about the Commandments and about gossip, but he is not particularly conversant in the nature of blogging as practiced by Catholics in Minnesota.
My blog, Stella Borealis Catholic Roundtable, that has been active only since last March, attempts to keep track of the local blog scene in addition to news and yes, even gossip, from the local five state, twelve diocese region. While I don’t know everything about the local blog community, I dare say that nobody knows more than I about its nature.
Of the thousands of posts made this year by the forty or more bloggers, not all currently active, in this area, Williams concentrated on two posts from many months ago that he find fault with for being in error. He equated those errors as being sins against the Eight Commandment.
One post dealt with the rumor that predicted that the Vatican would be appointing a coadjutor archbishop for St Paul-Minneapolis. Do political campaign experts get accused of sin when they make predictions, right or wrong, about the results of elections? Why would bloggers be sinning when they study and report on the activities of the Vatican?
The second post you mentioned related to a scheduled event for the homosexual community where it was said that a Mass was going to be held for them. It turns out that this rumor originated with a wire service. The local blog community was instrumental in circulating the information that in actuality a prayer service was to be held for the local homosexual community. Is it a sin for them to pray?
In all actuality, the activities of the local Catholic blogging community rarely involve gossip. Each blog reflects the interests of its owners. Some blogs deal with humor, sometimes humor about politics and the Church. Another couple of blogs are run by mothers who are interested in home schooling and their children. Some are run by college professors and teachers, interested in their students and their subjects. And many are run by individuals who are mostly interested in their life journey struggling with and embracing the Catholic Faith.
Your report seemed to be obsessed with gossip. I can understand that. I formerly worked at a company in downtown Minneapolis a couple of blocks from The Little Wagon, a bar with good food and drink that was a major league hangout for employees of the Star Tribune. When the conversation lagged at neighboring tables, it was not unusual for us to cock an ear and try to figure out who the Strib employees were talking about.
I’d bet that the same thing goes on with The Catholic Spirit. There probably are hangouts near their offices, places like Costellos or Fabulous Fern’s, or maybe even that Russian place, where it would not be unusual to see Spirit reporters and perhaps even church employees huddled together over their malted milks, discussing the latest goings on in the archdiocese.
As a blogger who does attempt to cover local news, don’t be surprised to see me taking notes at the table next to yours someday. Of course, I’ll probably be wearing a false moustache and maybe a wig to cover my tonsure, so you won’t be sure if it is me or not.
But I’m certain that what I hear will be the truth because I don’t believe that those on holy missions would display evidence of rash judgment, or worse.
Monday, December 18, 2006
Winona's Sacred Heart Cathedral, partially remodelled, again in use for Christmas.
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Wearing his purple Advent vestments, Bishop Bernard Harrington stood next to a bronze basin of Holy water in the back of his church Sunday. Water burbled from the font, through a trough of Winona stone into a pool below. At 10:30 a.m., as the choir sang “O Come Divine Messiah,” Harrington proceeded down a ramp from what was, for 54 years, the altar, past the baptismal pool, and took his seat in the blonde wood chair — cathedra in Latin — from which the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart takes its name.
From that seat, now permanently fixed in the church, Harrington will preside over the 116 parishes in 20 counties across the state that make up the Diocese of Winona.Above him, sunlight illuminated the reds and blues of the “Christ the King” window in a balcony still raw from the removal of the organ. Behind a temporary altar, where the tabernacle will soon be installed, light filtered through the windows of what were the cathedral’s front doors on Main Street, soon to be covered with a stone wall. Although construction is not quite done, the diocese and its Cathedral parish celebrated the end of a $2.8 million renovation, which turned the 1952 building around, moving the altar to the west end and the entrance to the east, making room for a second phase of construction set to begin. That $2.47 million project will create a new entrance and add an elevator and gathering space on what is now the parking lot and was 150 years ago the site of Winona’s first Catholic church, St. Thomas the Apostle.
The great Cathedrals of Medieval Europe took decades — even centuries — to build, Harrington told several hundred parishioners gathered for the first Mass in the sanctuary since construction began in January. A translucent plastic wand sprouted from behind his left ear and held a tiny microphone that transmitted Harrington’s words to a new sound system that parishioners agreed made it much easier to hear.“It’s not finished, but nevertheless allowing us to gather as a community,” Harrington said. “Each week, you will come and look to see what has changed.” [...Snip] Winona Daily News
Speaking of sound systems, residents of the Twin Cities who tend to avoid the St Paul Cathedral because of its atrocious accoustics might want to get in line to come back this Christmas. A new, high-tech sound system was installed last Winter and the echoing and reverberations pretty much have been eliminated with this new (expensive) and architecturally invisible system.
Wearing his purple Advent vestments, Bishop Bernard Harrington stood next to a bronze basin of Holy water in the back of his church Sunday. Water burbled from the font, through a trough of Winona stone into a pool below. At 10:30 a.m., as the choir sang “O Come Divine Messiah,” Harrington proceeded down a ramp from what was, for 54 years, the altar, past the baptismal pool, and took his seat in the blonde wood chair — cathedra in Latin — from which the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart takes its name.
From that seat, now permanently fixed in the church, Harrington will preside over the 116 parishes in 20 counties across the state that make up the Diocese of Winona.Above him, sunlight illuminated the reds and blues of the “Christ the King” window in a balcony still raw from the removal of the organ. Behind a temporary altar, where the tabernacle will soon be installed, light filtered through the windows of what were the cathedral’s front doors on Main Street, soon to be covered with a stone wall. Although construction is not quite done, the diocese and its Cathedral parish celebrated the end of a $2.8 million renovation, which turned the 1952 building around, moving the altar to the west end and the entrance to the east, making room for a second phase of construction set to begin. That $2.47 million project will create a new entrance and add an elevator and gathering space on what is now the parking lot and was 150 years ago the site of Winona’s first Catholic church, St. Thomas the Apostle.
The great Cathedrals of Medieval Europe took decades — even centuries — to build, Harrington told several hundred parishioners gathered for the first Mass in the sanctuary since construction began in January. A translucent plastic wand sprouted from behind his left ear and held a tiny microphone that transmitted Harrington’s words to a new sound system that parishioners agreed made it much easier to hear.“It’s not finished, but nevertheless allowing us to gather as a community,” Harrington said. “Each week, you will come and look to see what has changed.” [...Snip] Winona Daily News
Speaking of sound systems, residents of the Twin Cities who tend to avoid the St Paul Cathedral because of its atrocious accoustics might want to get in line to come back this Christmas. A new, high-tech sound system was installed last Winter and the echoing and reverberations pretty much have been eliminated with this new (expensive) and architecturally invisible system.
How's your Advent Going? Mine's going like it usually does.
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I meet a couple times a month with a small Spiritual Journey group at my parish where we discuss where or whether God has been accompanying us. Of course, He is always there, but most times we aren't paying attention. I mentioned that for maybe the 60th time in a row, I don't seem to be keeping my intentions as planned and frankly, I feel guilty, again.
Cathy_of_Alex, who blogs at the Recovering Dissident Catholic, on the other hand, reminds me that just by praying for her and her dying friend, my Advent might be more fulfilling than it seemed. Check out Cathy's blog.
I meet a couple times a month with a small Spiritual Journey group at my parish where we discuss where or whether God has been accompanying us. Of course, He is always there, but most times we aren't paying attention. I mentioned that for maybe the 60th time in a row, I don't seem to be keeping my intentions as planned and frankly, I feel guilty, again.
Cathy_of_Alex, who blogs at the Recovering Dissident Catholic, on the other hand, reminds me that just by praying for her and her dying friend, my Advent might be more fulfilling than it seemed. Check out Cathy's blog.
Bishop Thomas Doran of Rockford, IL, has Lung Cancer; is at the Mayor Clinic
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Regular viewers of EWTN television surely are familiar with that Good Shepherd, Bishop Thomas Doran, of Rockford, IL, northwest of Chicago. He is currently being treated at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, for lung cancer. Please pray for him and his flock.
Thousands of Rockford area Catholics pray for their spiritual leader, after learning Saturday that he's being aggressively treated for cancer. Catholic priests across the Rockford area break some hard news to their parishioners during Saturday evening mass, telling them Bishop Thomas Doran has been diagnosed with lung cancer.
As 13 News was first to tell you Saturday, the Bishop had several tumors removed from his lungs and is now recovering at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.
Church leaders say doctors detected the cancer after a routine physical exam early last week. Bishop Doran then underwent surgery on Thursday to remove tumors from his left lung.Doctors do believe they removed all of the cancer before it spread.
Father Brian Geary of St. Patrick's Church in Rockford says "He's our spiritual father, so we all feel it very personally as if he were our own father."
The diagnosis came just days before Bishop Doran's 40th anniversary as a priest. He rose to his current position as head of the Rockford Diocese in June 1994, and has since left footprints on many hearts in the area."I just spoke with a member of the choir," says Father Geary, "and she said she could hardly get through the final song because the announcement put her in a state of shock."As Catholics pray for a speedy recovery, some church leaders say they'll keep the doors of their churches open for an extended period. [....Snip] WREX-TV
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Regular viewers of EWTN television surely are familiar with that Good Shepherd, Bishop Thomas Doran, of Rockford, IL, northwest of Chicago. He is currently being treated at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, for lung cancer. Please pray for him and his flock.
Thousands of Rockford area Catholics pray for their spiritual leader, after learning Saturday that he's being aggressively treated for cancer. Catholic priests across the Rockford area break some hard news to their parishioners during Saturday evening mass, telling them Bishop Thomas Doran has been diagnosed with lung cancer.
As 13 News was first to tell you Saturday, the Bishop had several tumors removed from his lungs and is now recovering at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.
Church leaders say doctors detected the cancer after a routine physical exam early last week. Bishop Doran then underwent surgery on Thursday to remove tumors from his left lung.Doctors do believe they removed all of the cancer before it spread.
Father Brian Geary of St. Patrick's Church in Rockford says "He's our spiritual father, so we all feel it very personally as if he were our own father."
The diagnosis came just days before Bishop Doran's 40th anniversary as a priest. He rose to his current position as head of the Rockford Diocese in June 1994, and has since left footprints on many hearts in the area."I just spoke with a member of the choir," says Father Geary, "and she said she could hardly get through the final song because the announcement put her in a state of shock."As Catholics pray for a speedy recovery, some church leaders say they'll keep the doors of their churches open for an extended period. [....Snip] WREX-TV
Sunday, December 17, 2006
A Year of Adjustment for Sioux City's Bishop Nickless
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The Most Rev. R. Walker Nickless, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sioux City, is still adjusting to his celebrity status."I go to the grocery store and people come up to me and say, 'Hi Bishop!'," he marveled. "I'm thinking, 'How do they know me?'.
"Even as pastor of one of the larger parishes in Lakewood, Colo. and holding a visible position as vicar for clergy and seminarians for the Archdiocese of Denver, Nickless could experience anonymity in a metro area of over a half-million people.
Not so in Sioux City. Even dressed in civilian clothes -- shorts and a T-shirt -- at an X's game, individuals approached the Denver native, welcoming him to Siouxland, wishing him well and promising prayers. Perhaps most astonishing to the 59-year-old, whose grey hair is edging its way up his temples, is the reverence accorded to his station in life. "I'm still not used to people calling me 'Your Excellency,'" he said, referring to the title which accompanies the office of bishop. "Some even take my hand and will kiss my ring."
Nickless was appointed bishop on Nov. 10, 2005, filling a 22-month vacancy (at that time the longest in the nation) for the Northwest Iowa diocese. He was ordained and installed as the seventh bishop of the Diocese of Sioux City on Jan. 20.
The joy of that moment was tempered less than two weeks later, when Nickless was called back home to Denver by the illness of his mother. E. Margaret Nickless died three days later."Peggy" Nickless was in the congregation on Jan. 20 in Sioux City, looking on as archbishops, bishops and more than a hundred priests performed the rites and rituals of episcopal ordination, elevating her son to his new role as shepherd of the 24-county diocese. A photo in the next day's Journal showed the new bishop pausing to speak to his mother as he walked among the worshippers wearing the bishop's miter and carrying the shepherd's staff for the first time.
[...Snip]
Nickless resisted labels like liberal, conservative, traditional or radical in typifying his religious beliefs."I don't worry about labels, because you're either with the church or you're not," he said matter-of-factly. "The whole point of being a Catholic is to grow in holiness." But the times he's energized revolve around the priesthood, particularly when the bishop participates in parish life. "I love celebrating Mass, especially with the kids," he said with an obvious warmth for the exuberance of youth. "You see their enthusiasm for life and it's contagious."And I think it's good for them to see me alive in the Lord," he continued with a glimmer of mischief. "Although afterwards, I find myself totally exhausted from their energy."
As with most individuals in administrative positions, the number of meetings takes a toll as does the leadership that goes along with the job."What I've noticed is that a bishop's life is not your own," Nickless said in a reflective moment. "It seems I always have to be 'on,' because people look to me for direction. It's like being on display."Listening to Nickless bravely share that he's discovered bishops don't have any friends was like hearing the innermost thoughts of a personal confidante."People put you on a pedestal, like the ones who call me Your Excellency and kiss my ring," he said in referring to that previous personal anecdote."No one calls me Nick," the bishop added, noting the nickname his siblings bestowed on him. "I'd like to be an ordinary Iowan, but I know I have a role to play here."
[...Snip]
"I've found as a bishop, prayer has become far more important in my life, because my responsibilities are so much more."He added with a touch of comedic timing, "I love what Pope John XXIII said as he'd approach the tabernacle (the receptacle which holds the Blessed Sacrament) at the end of the day. He's say, 'Lord, it's your church. I'm going to bed." [....Snip] Sioux City Journal
The Most Rev. R. Walker Nickless, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sioux City, is still adjusting to his celebrity status."I go to the grocery store and people come up to me and say, 'Hi Bishop!'," he marveled. "I'm thinking, 'How do they know me?'.
"Even as pastor of one of the larger parishes in Lakewood, Colo. and holding a visible position as vicar for clergy and seminarians for the Archdiocese of Denver, Nickless could experience anonymity in a metro area of over a half-million people.
Not so in Sioux City. Even dressed in civilian clothes -- shorts and a T-shirt -- at an X's game, individuals approached the Denver native, welcoming him to Siouxland, wishing him well and promising prayers. Perhaps most astonishing to the 59-year-old, whose grey hair is edging its way up his temples, is the reverence accorded to his station in life. "I'm still not used to people calling me 'Your Excellency,'" he said, referring to the title which accompanies the office of bishop. "Some even take my hand and will kiss my ring."
Nickless was appointed bishop on Nov. 10, 2005, filling a 22-month vacancy (at that time the longest in the nation) for the Northwest Iowa diocese. He was ordained and installed as the seventh bishop of the Diocese of Sioux City on Jan. 20.
The joy of that moment was tempered less than two weeks later, when Nickless was called back home to Denver by the illness of his mother. E. Margaret Nickless died three days later."Peggy" Nickless was in the congregation on Jan. 20 in Sioux City, looking on as archbishops, bishops and more than a hundred priests performed the rites and rituals of episcopal ordination, elevating her son to his new role as shepherd of the 24-county diocese. A photo in the next day's Journal showed the new bishop pausing to speak to his mother as he walked among the worshippers wearing the bishop's miter and carrying the shepherd's staff for the first time.
[...Snip]
Nickless resisted labels like liberal, conservative, traditional or radical in typifying his religious beliefs."I don't worry about labels, because you're either with the church or you're not," he said matter-of-factly. "The whole point of being a Catholic is to grow in holiness." But the times he's energized revolve around the priesthood, particularly when the bishop participates in parish life. "I love celebrating Mass, especially with the kids," he said with an obvious warmth for the exuberance of youth. "You see their enthusiasm for life and it's contagious."And I think it's good for them to see me alive in the Lord," he continued with a glimmer of mischief. "Although afterwards, I find myself totally exhausted from their energy."
As with most individuals in administrative positions, the number of meetings takes a toll as does the leadership that goes along with the job."What I've noticed is that a bishop's life is not your own," Nickless said in a reflective moment. "It seems I always have to be 'on,' because people look to me for direction. It's like being on display."Listening to Nickless bravely share that he's discovered bishops don't have any friends was like hearing the innermost thoughts of a personal confidante."People put you on a pedestal, like the ones who call me Your Excellency and kiss my ring," he said in referring to that previous personal anecdote."No one calls me Nick," the bishop added, noting the nickname his siblings bestowed on him. "I'd like to be an ordinary Iowan, but I know I have a role to play here."
[...Snip]
"I've found as a bishop, prayer has become far more important in my life, because my responsibilities are so much more."He added with a touch of comedic timing, "I love what Pope John XXIII said as he'd approach the tabernacle (the receptacle which holds the Blessed Sacrament) at the end of the day. He's say, 'Lord, it's your church. I'm going to bed." [....Snip] Sioux City Journal
This Excuse is Much Better Than "The Dog Ate My Homework!"
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Jayne, who started blogging at "So Many Devotions, So Little Time . . . . last Summer, all of a sudden disappeared for a time from St Blog's parish events. Her subject matter was one that all of us must have been interested in. I know that I was thrilled to find the spiritual adoption prayer for babies still in the womb who are in danger of being of being aborted and I have said it almost every day since I found it.
But, after a time, many of us with little faith struck her from our regular rounds. But lo and behold, she has reappeared and her excuse has been accepted by the parish liturgist.
She and her husband have adopted a brother and sister and are working on adopting their younger sister too. They all came out of a foster care system. How wonderful for them, and for the children. Please add them all to your prayer lists.
At the same, Jayne struggled with "spiritual dryness" in her prayer life, something which she did not expect considering what she had been up to. She has some interesting links dealing with dryness. I haven't seen it addressed much by bloggers, but I would bet that it does happen to most of us. I know it happens to me for periods.
Check out Jayne's post and welcome her back
Jayne, who started blogging at "So Many Devotions, So Little Time . . . . last Summer, all of a sudden disappeared for a time from St Blog's parish events. Her subject matter was one that all of us must have been interested in. I know that I was thrilled to find the spiritual adoption prayer for babies still in the womb who are in danger of being of being aborted and I have said it almost every day since I found it.
But, after a time, many of us with little faith struck her from our regular rounds. But lo and behold, she has reappeared and her excuse has been accepted by the parish liturgist.
She and her husband have adopted a brother and sister and are working on adopting their younger sister too. They all came out of a foster care system. How wonderful for them, and for the children. Please add them all to your prayer lists.
At the same, Jayne struggled with "spiritual dryness" in her prayer life, something which she did not expect considering what she had been up to. She has some interesting links dealing with dryness. I haven't seen it addressed much by bloggers, but I would bet that it does happen to most of us. I know it happens to me for periods.
Check out Jayne's post and welcome her back
Saturday, December 16, 2006
A Prayer For Father Tim Vakoc
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Drawn to the Minnesota priest who was gravely wounded in Iraq, a devoted circle of supporters has seensmall miracles in his slow healing.
When Brother Conrad Richardson arrived at the hospital that morning in 2005, there was no sign that anything had changed.
Father Tim Vakoc lay in bed, as he had for months, without moving.
Brother Conrad sat down at the bedside to pray. It was part of his weekly ritual to give communion to Catholic patients at the VA Medical Center in Minneapolis. But Father Tim, he knew, was in no shape for that.
An Army chaplain, Father Tim had been gravely wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq. He could neither speak nor swallow. His skull had been pierced by shrapnel, his body paralyzed. One eye was lost, and there was no glimmer of recognition in the other.
Brother Conrad had no idea if Father Tim knew he was there. But as he did every week, he held the priest's hand and talked. As he rose to go, he started to slide his hand away. This time, Father Tim stirred.
Even now, a year later, the scene is etched in Brother Conrad's memory. "He placed his hand over mine and squeezed it," he said.
And for a moment, Father Tim didn't let go.
From the start, few thought the priest would recover from his devastating injury. But Father Tim has surprised nearly everyone with his struggle to hang onto life and reconnect with his family, his friends and his faith.
To the faithful, his tragedy did not diminish him. From his hospital bed, he has drawn a devoted following. And in a sense, his ministry as a priest didn't end with the blast. It simply started anew.
The Rev. H. Timothy Vakoc (pronounced VAH-kitch) was barely alive when he arrived at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C. in June 2004, just days after the explosion. His family thought he would die of infection, if not from the wounds themselves.
He was heavily bandaged, hooked to tubes and monitors, shut out from the world. Even so, he had a special aura about him, said his sister, Anita Brand.
Of the thousands of casualties of the Iraq war, Tim Vakoc was the only priest. And everyone knew it.
That first night, a top military chaplain stood at Father Tim's bedside. "He said, 'Tim, you are still a priest, and this bed is now your altar,' " Brand recalled.
Staff members felt it, too, when they entered his room. "It's like being on holy ground," one told Brand.
A nurse brought him a rosary from the Catholic shrine of Medjugorje, hoping perhaps for a miracle. It has remained with him, often draped around his hand.
Another staffer prayed at Father Tim's bedside morning and night.
As Father Tim hovered between life and death, the family reached out to friends and fellow soldiers through the website CaringBridge.com. His sister issued a plea to "storm the gates of heaven in prayer for Father Tim."
Progress, then setbacks
Judy McCloskey didn't know Father Tim. But she couldn't get him out of her mind. A military wife and mother of six, she had founded a group called Catholics in the Military to offer aid and comfort to fellow believers. She was haunted by the news that a priest had been critically wounded in combat.
Within days of his arrival at Walter Reed, she drove almost 80 miles from her home in Front Royal, Va., to pray at his bedside.
"I felt blessed being able to be there," she said. "I held his hand. I said, 'Father, if you can hear us and you are aware that we are here, if you can, can you please just move your hand?' And I could feel those fingers move."
She was one of the first of many.
Father Tim began to flex his left hand and open his right eye. Visitors sensed that he was aware of their presence. Within six weeks, he was thumb-wrestling his nephew from his bedside, according to updates on CaringBridge. A few weeks later, visitors reported that he was "able to bless a few people" (if someone held up his hand) and turn a page in his breviary, a prayer book.
But the improvements didn't last. He was plagued by infections, and in and out of surgery. By late summer, virtually all his progress had been wiped out and doctors were running out of options. He was given the sacrament of the sick. His mother remembers telling him: "Tim, if you want to go, we'll understand."
Meanwhile, people kept praying.
A priest who loved to laugh
Few suspected, when he was a kid in Robbinsdale, that Tim Vakoc would grow up to be a priest. The last of Phyllis and Henry Vakoc's three children, he was fun-loving and adventurous. After graduating in 1978 from Benilde-St. Margaret's in St. Louis Park, he became president of his fraternity at St. Cloud State University, where he studied speech and business. Friends called him "Hollywood" for his stylish look.
When it came to jobs, he once told his mother: "I'm going to try them all, so I'll get experience in everything."
In 1987, he surprised virtually everyone when he entered St. Paul Seminary and joined the Army Reserve almost simultaneously. "I had no idea that he was even thinking on those lines," said his mother, Phyllis, 80, who now lives in Plymouth.
With his gregarious personality, Father Tim reveled in his role as a parish priest, his mother said. But after four years serving congregations in St. Anthony and Eagan, he decided to become a full-time Army chaplain in 1996. He signed up for an extended tour of duty in Germany, and later in Bosnia. In the fall of 2003, just shy of his 44th birthday, he shipped out to Iraq.
His family has no doubt that he believed in his mission. He felt he was ministering not only to the troops, but also to the community. "We've got to help these people," he told his mother. Promoted to major, he insisted on following his troops into danger zones to pray with them and celebrate mass. He was riding in a Humvee on just such a trip on May 29, 2004, when someone heard a cell phone ring, and then a blast.
A bedside congregation
Word spread fast. Friends started an online prayer vigil for the wounded priest. Messages poured into his CaringBridge site from around the world.
Four months later, Father Tim was flown to the Minneapolis VA hospital for its special brain injury program. There, a small congregation of devotees began to form around him. Total strangers were so touched by his story that they asked his family's permission to pray at his bedside.
Linda Louie of Andover was one of them. She had felt an immediate connection when she read a newspaper article about Father Tim, she said. She knew something about being confined to a hospital for long stretches of time; because of a birth defect, her legs were amputated when she was an infant.
On her first visit to see the priest, she wept. "He didn't wake up, he didn't move, he didn't do anything," she said. She watched him, nearly lifeless, in his hospital bed. "I felt the Holy Spirit in the room," she said later.
As she prepared to go, a nurse came in and said, "Father Tim, your guest is going to leave." Only then, Louie said, did she see a finger twitch on his left hand.
She began visiting weekly, and became part of his growing inner circle.
So many people wanted to see him that a volunteer began printing weekly calendars, blocking out his time hour by hour.
Brother Conrad and other members of the Franciscan Brothers of Peace in St. Paul were among the regulars. They had spent years caring for their cofounder, Brother Michael Gaworski, after an illness left him brain-damaged and quadriplegic. Now, they took Father Tim to mass at the hospital chapel, and gathered at his bedside Thursday evenings to sing night prayers.
One day, Mary Makowski, a friend of Brother Conrad's, asked if she could go with him. She, too, said she couldn't stop thinking about Father Tim and his tragedy.
During her first visit, "He held my hand, squeezed it with his left hand. And that was it," she said. "Basically, I was hooked." She started visiting every week to talk and pray.
Last spring, Makowski quit her job as a teacher in Deephaven to spend more time at his side. She is hard pressed to explain why, though she is serene that she is doing the right thing. "There is something about his presence," she said. "This is where I needed to be. Perhaps, this is where God wanted me to be."
Celebrating tiny victories
By spring of 2005, Father Tim seemed to be stirring back to life. He could give a thumbs-up and move his toes on request, according to his CaringBridge site. A visitor who came to read scriptures "looked up and saw one tear coming from Father Tim's eye," said an entry on April 7, 2005.
He could sit up in a wheelchair for an hour at a time, rotate his left wrist, stretch his fingers. At first, the doctors said the movements were probably reflexes. But after closer evaluation, they agreed that he was making progress, and they started therapy. "These small, yet significant, victories represent the touch of God's hand," said an entry on his CaringBridge site.
His brother, Jeff Vakoc, watched cautiously. He suspected some people were reading too much into these small achievements.
The bomb, he knew, had damaged multiple lobes of his brother's brain, including those that control speech and higher thinking. Jeff Vakoc was well aware that there could be insurmountable hurdles. "I tend to be a little more jaded and guarded," he explained. "I've got to stay real. That's my job."
In September 2005, Father Tim awakened to a roomful of family and friends. He had just had surgery, and it had gone well. Linda Louie stopped by to drop off cookies for the family, and they invited her into his room.
Someone handed Father Tim a gold case containing two communion wafers and asked what he wanted to do with them.
With his left hand, he pointed toward a longtime friend, Brenda Simmons. And then his hand moved, unsteadily, in Louie's direction and stopped.
Louie protested. Surely he meant one of the family. But his sister, Anita, said: "I think it's you, Linda." Louie approached his bedside and took the wafer from his hand. "I feel so honored," she said.
Said one of the other visitors: "Tim called you into his life for a reason."
The slow healing of the brain
To the medical staff, the signs of Father Tim's reawakening were a bit more ambiguous. They knew that he appeared alert and responsive at times, especially around family and friends. But like many brain-injured patients, he had good days and bad days. The changes weren't consistent. Often, on long days in the hospital's extended care unit, there was little sign that he knew what was going on around him.
Nurses tried to read his moods in the squeeze of a hand. Officially, doctors classified him in a "minimally responsive state."
Once, scientists thought that a damaged brain could never heal. Now, they know that it can in certain circumstances, said Dr. Gregory O'Shanick, medical director of the Brain Injury Association of America. But a lot depends on the extent of the injury. If part of the brain is destroyed, no amount of time will bring it back.
Typically, the most dramatic improvements occur in the first six months, he said. But not always. If someone is fighting for his life, for example, the amount of brain damage may be hard to assess. "It's [like] trying to tell somebody what color the walls are when the room's full of smoke," he said. You have to wait until the smoke clears.
With brain injuries, people often reach plateaus and go for months without any change.
"What I basically tell families is that there is no absolute rule," said O'Shanick, of Richmond, Va. "We can talk about statistics in terms of recovery patterns, but we certainly can see people that recover in amazing ways."
The uncertainty can be extremely difficult, especially for families. "You suffer every little setback with him," said Phyllis Vakoc. "But I think maybe you just hope and trust in God."
In October, Father Tim sat in the front row of the hospital chapel, as Brother Conrad led a small group in prayer. "Hail Mary, full of grace," they chanted. Father Tim didn't stir. His mother wrapped a rosary around his left hand, as his father, Henry, 83, prayed a few seats away. She lifted her son's hand to make the sign of the cross.
"I go day by day," she said. "He goes inch by inch."
The priest speaks
Two months ago, doctors thought Father Tim had reached another plateau. They got ready to stop therapy.
And then Father Tim spoke.
His voice was rusty, and the words were halting. Mostly, he repeated what others said to him. "I love you."Goodbye." But for the first time in two and a half years, there were no subtle movements or ambiguous signals.
He was speaking for himself.
Just three days before, a cardinal from Rome had paid a visit, bearing a set of rosaries blessed by Pope Benedict. Family and friends called it a miracle, or something close. His mother started to dream of the day when he might say mass again.
The doctors say that removing the tracheotomy tube from his throat in August was probably a factor. But they were awed nonetheless. "I don't think we can say with any certainty what's going on, other than he is very slowly improving," said his speech therapist, Jim Schumacher.
Since then, he has been practicing speaking almost daily.
It has been exhausting. It takes so much effort to get the words right, the breathing right, that he can sometimes barely get started.
That's how he appeared a few weeks ago, in therapy, when Schumacher decided to lead him in a familiar prayer.
"Our Father, who art in Heaven ..." Schumacher began.
He could see Father Tim struggling. His lips moved. His words came out in a raspy whisper.
"Thy kingdom come," said the priest. "Thy will be done." Star Tribune
Drawn to the Minnesota priest who was gravely wounded in Iraq, a devoted circle of supporters has seensmall miracles in his slow healing.
When Brother Conrad Richardson arrived at the hospital that morning in 2005, there was no sign that anything had changed.
Father Tim Vakoc lay in bed, as he had for months, without moving.
Brother Conrad sat down at the bedside to pray. It was part of his weekly ritual to give communion to Catholic patients at the VA Medical Center in Minneapolis. But Father Tim, he knew, was in no shape for that.
An Army chaplain, Father Tim had been gravely wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq. He could neither speak nor swallow. His skull had been pierced by shrapnel, his body paralyzed. One eye was lost, and there was no glimmer of recognition in the other.
Brother Conrad had no idea if Father Tim knew he was there. But as he did every week, he held the priest's hand and talked. As he rose to go, he started to slide his hand away. This time, Father Tim stirred.
Even now, a year later, the scene is etched in Brother Conrad's memory. "He placed his hand over mine and squeezed it," he said.
And for a moment, Father Tim didn't let go.
From the start, few thought the priest would recover from his devastating injury. But Father Tim has surprised nearly everyone with his struggle to hang onto life and reconnect with his family, his friends and his faith.
To the faithful, his tragedy did not diminish him. From his hospital bed, he has drawn a devoted following. And in a sense, his ministry as a priest didn't end with the blast. It simply started anew.
The Rev. H. Timothy Vakoc (pronounced VAH-kitch) was barely alive when he arrived at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C. in June 2004, just days after the explosion. His family thought he would die of infection, if not from the wounds themselves.
He was heavily bandaged, hooked to tubes and monitors, shut out from the world. Even so, he had a special aura about him, said his sister, Anita Brand.
Of the thousands of casualties of the Iraq war, Tim Vakoc was the only priest. And everyone knew it.
That first night, a top military chaplain stood at Father Tim's bedside. "He said, 'Tim, you are still a priest, and this bed is now your altar,' " Brand recalled.
Staff members felt it, too, when they entered his room. "It's like being on holy ground," one told Brand.
A nurse brought him a rosary from the Catholic shrine of Medjugorje, hoping perhaps for a miracle. It has remained with him, often draped around his hand.
Another staffer prayed at Father Tim's bedside morning and night.
As Father Tim hovered between life and death, the family reached out to friends and fellow soldiers through the website CaringBridge.com. His sister issued a plea to "storm the gates of heaven in prayer for Father Tim."
Progress, then setbacks
Judy McCloskey didn't know Father Tim. But she couldn't get him out of her mind. A military wife and mother of six, she had founded a group called Catholics in the Military to offer aid and comfort to fellow believers. She was haunted by the news that a priest had been critically wounded in combat.
Within days of his arrival at Walter Reed, she drove almost 80 miles from her home in Front Royal, Va., to pray at his bedside.
"I felt blessed being able to be there," she said. "I held his hand. I said, 'Father, if you can hear us and you are aware that we are here, if you can, can you please just move your hand?' And I could feel those fingers move."
She was one of the first of many.
Father Tim began to flex his left hand and open his right eye. Visitors sensed that he was aware of their presence. Within six weeks, he was thumb-wrestling his nephew from his bedside, according to updates on CaringBridge. A few weeks later, visitors reported that he was "able to bless a few people" (if someone held up his hand) and turn a page in his breviary, a prayer book.
But the improvements didn't last. He was plagued by infections, and in and out of surgery. By late summer, virtually all his progress had been wiped out and doctors were running out of options. He was given the sacrament of the sick. His mother remembers telling him: "Tim, if you want to go, we'll understand."
Meanwhile, people kept praying.
A priest who loved to laugh
Few suspected, when he was a kid in Robbinsdale, that Tim Vakoc would grow up to be a priest. The last of Phyllis and Henry Vakoc's three children, he was fun-loving and adventurous. After graduating in 1978 from Benilde-St. Margaret's in St. Louis Park, he became president of his fraternity at St. Cloud State University, where he studied speech and business. Friends called him "Hollywood" for his stylish look.
When it came to jobs, he once told his mother: "I'm going to try them all, so I'll get experience in everything."
In 1987, he surprised virtually everyone when he entered St. Paul Seminary and joined the Army Reserve almost simultaneously. "I had no idea that he was even thinking on those lines," said his mother, Phyllis, 80, who now lives in Plymouth.
With his gregarious personality, Father Tim reveled in his role as a parish priest, his mother said. But after four years serving congregations in St. Anthony and Eagan, he decided to become a full-time Army chaplain in 1996. He signed up for an extended tour of duty in Germany, and later in Bosnia. In the fall of 2003, just shy of his 44th birthday, he shipped out to Iraq.
His family has no doubt that he believed in his mission. He felt he was ministering not only to the troops, but also to the community. "We've got to help these people," he told his mother. Promoted to major, he insisted on following his troops into danger zones to pray with them and celebrate mass. He was riding in a Humvee on just such a trip on May 29, 2004, when someone heard a cell phone ring, and then a blast.
A bedside congregation
Word spread fast. Friends started an online prayer vigil for the wounded priest. Messages poured into his CaringBridge site from around the world.
Four months later, Father Tim was flown to the Minneapolis VA hospital for its special brain injury program. There, a small congregation of devotees began to form around him. Total strangers were so touched by his story that they asked his family's permission to pray at his bedside.
Linda Louie of Andover was one of them. She had felt an immediate connection when she read a newspaper article about Father Tim, she said. She knew something about being confined to a hospital for long stretches of time; because of a birth defect, her legs were amputated when she was an infant.
On her first visit to see the priest, she wept. "He didn't wake up, he didn't move, he didn't do anything," she said. She watched him, nearly lifeless, in his hospital bed. "I felt the Holy Spirit in the room," she said later.
As she prepared to go, a nurse came in and said, "Father Tim, your guest is going to leave." Only then, Louie said, did she see a finger twitch on his left hand.
She began visiting weekly, and became part of his growing inner circle.
So many people wanted to see him that a volunteer began printing weekly calendars, blocking out his time hour by hour.
Brother Conrad and other members of the Franciscan Brothers of Peace in St. Paul were among the regulars. They had spent years caring for their cofounder, Brother Michael Gaworski, after an illness left him brain-damaged and quadriplegic. Now, they took Father Tim to mass at the hospital chapel, and gathered at his bedside Thursday evenings to sing night prayers.
One day, Mary Makowski, a friend of Brother Conrad's, asked if she could go with him. She, too, said she couldn't stop thinking about Father Tim and his tragedy.
During her first visit, "He held my hand, squeezed it with his left hand. And that was it," she said. "Basically, I was hooked." She started visiting every week to talk and pray.
Last spring, Makowski quit her job as a teacher in Deephaven to spend more time at his side. She is hard pressed to explain why, though she is serene that she is doing the right thing. "There is something about his presence," she said. "This is where I needed to be. Perhaps, this is where God wanted me to be."
Celebrating tiny victories
By spring of 2005, Father Tim seemed to be stirring back to life. He could give a thumbs-up and move his toes on request, according to his CaringBridge site. A visitor who came to read scriptures "looked up and saw one tear coming from Father Tim's eye," said an entry on April 7, 2005.
He could sit up in a wheelchair for an hour at a time, rotate his left wrist, stretch his fingers. At first, the doctors said the movements were probably reflexes. But after closer evaluation, they agreed that he was making progress, and they started therapy. "These small, yet significant, victories represent the touch of God's hand," said an entry on his CaringBridge site.
His brother, Jeff Vakoc, watched cautiously. He suspected some people were reading too much into these small achievements.
The bomb, he knew, had damaged multiple lobes of his brother's brain, including those that control speech and higher thinking. Jeff Vakoc was well aware that there could be insurmountable hurdles. "I tend to be a little more jaded and guarded," he explained. "I've got to stay real. That's my job."
In September 2005, Father Tim awakened to a roomful of family and friends. He had just had surgery, and it had gone well. Linda Louie stopped by to drop off cookies for the family, and they invited her into his room.
Someone handed Father Tim a gold case containing two communion wafers and asked what he wanted to do with them.
With his left hand, he pointed toward a longtime friend, Brenda Simmons. And then his hand moved, unsteadily, in Louie's direction and stopped.
Louie protested. Surely he meant one of the family. But his sister, Anita, said: "I think it's you, Linda." Louie approached his bedside and took the wafer from his hand. "I feel so honored," she said.
Said one of the other visitors: "Tim called you into his life for a reason."
The slow healing of the brain
To the medical staff, the signs of Father Tim's reawakening were a bit more ambiguous. They knew that he appeared alert and responsive at times, especially around family and friends. But like many brain-injured patients, he had good days and bad days. The changes weren't consistent. Often, on long days in the hospital's extended care unit, there was little sign that he knew what was going on around him.
Nurses tried to read his moods in the squeeze of a hand. Officially, doctors classified him in a "minimally responsive state."
Once, scientists thought that a damaged brain could never heal. Now, they know that it can in certain circumstances, said Dr. Gregory O'Shanick, medical director of the Brain Injury Association of America. But a lot depends on the extent of the injury. If part of the brain is destroyed, no amount of time will bring it back.
Typically, the most dramatic improvements occur in the first six months, he said. But not always. If someone is fighting for his life, for example, the amount of brain damage may be hard to assess. "It's [like] trying to tell somebody what color the walls are when the room's full of smoke," he said. You have to wait until the smoke clears.
With brain injuries, people often reach plateaus and go for months without any change.
"What I basically tell families is that there is no absolute rule," said O'Shanick, of Richmond, Va. "We can talk about statistics in terms of recovery patterns, but we certainly can see people that recover in amazing ways."
The uncertainty can be extremely difficult, especially for families. "You suffer every little setback with him," said Phyllis Vakoc. "But I think maybe you just hope and trust in God."
In October, Father Tim sat in the front row of the hospital chapel, as Brother Conrad led a small group in prayer. "Hail Mary, full of grace," they chanted. Father Tim didn't stir. His mother wrapped a rosary around his left hand, as his father, Henry, 83, prayed a few seats away. She lifted her son's hand to make the sign of the cross.
"I go day by day," she said. "He goes inch by inch."
The priest speaks
Two months ago, doctors thought Father Tim had reached another plateau. They got ready to stop therapy.
And then Father Tim spoke.
His voice was rusty, and the words were halting. Mostly, he repeated what others said to him. "I love you."Goodbye." But for the first time in two and a half years, there were no subtle movements or ambiguous signals.
He was speaking for himself.
Just three days before, a cardinal from Rome had paid a visit, bearing a set of rosaries blessed by Pope Benedict. Family and friends called it a miracle, or something close. His mother started to dream of the day when he might say mass again.
The doctors say that removing the tracheotomy tube from his throat in August was probably a factor. But they were awed nonetheless. "I don't think we can say with any certainty what's going on, other than he is very slowly improving," said his speech therapist, Jim Schumacher.
Since then, he has been practicing speaking almost daily.
It has been exhausting. It takes so much effort to get the words right, the breathing right, that he can sometimes barely get started.
That's how he appeared a few weeks ago, in therapy, when Schumacher decided to lead him in a familiar prayer.
"Our Father, who art in Heaven ..." Schumacher began.
He could see Father Tim struggling. His lips moved. His words came out in a raspy whisper.
"Thy kingdom come," said the priest. "Thy will be done." Star Tribune
Friday, December 15, 2006
"The Healing Prophet", Film About the Venerable Father Solanus Casey To Air on Public Television
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The Venerable Father Solanus Casey, a deceased Capuchin friar who may soon become the first American-born male Catholic saint, will become more familiar to Southeast Michigan residents, thanks to a new documentary created by a couple from the Brighton area.
Documentary producers Kevin Lindenmuth and Audrey Geyer run GL Productions from their home in Genoa Township. Their documentary, "The Healing Prophet,'' makes its debut on Saturday at the Solanus Casey Center in Detroit and its broadcast debut on Wednesday on WTVS, Detroit Public Television.
"We wanted to present him more as a human and show what he believed and what he did for people,'' says Lindenmuth. "People came to him and would tell him that a parent was sick, and Solanus would say that he or she would be fine in a few days, and they were. This happened to thousands of people, and that's what we wanted to present in this documentary.''
Lindenmuth and Geyer learned about Casey while watching an episode of "Unsolved Mysteries'' 12 years ago. Solanus was born in near Prescott, Wisconsin, worked in Stillwater, Minnesota and Superior, Wisconsin, lived in New York, and spent the last 40 years of his life in Detroit at the St. Bonaventure Capuchin Monastery. He died in 1957 at the age of 86 and his tomb is at St. Bonaventure, adjacent to the Solanus Casey Center, which was built in 2002. Lindenmuth and Geyer visited the center and said the Capuchin brothers who run it were receptive to a documentary. [...Snip] Ann Arbor News
The Venerable Father Solanus Casey, a deceased Capuchin friar who may soon become the first American-born male Catholic saint, will become more familiar to Southeast Michigan residents, thanks to a new documentary created by a couple from the Brighton area.
Documentary producers Kevin Lindenmuth and Audrey Geyer run GL Productions from their home in Genoa Township. Their documentary, "The Healing Prophet,'' makes its debut on Saturday at the Solanus Casey Center in Detroit and its broadcast debut on Wednesday on WTVS, Detroit Public Television.
"We wanted to present him more as a human and show what he believed and what he did for people,'' says Lindenmuth. "People came to him and would tell him that a parent was sick, and Solanus would say that he or she would be fine in a few days, and they were. This happened to thousands of people, and that's what we wanted to present in this documentary.''
Lindenmuth and Geyer learned about Casey while watching an episode of "Unsolved Mysteries'' 12 years ago. Solanus was born in near Prescott, Wisconsin, worked in Stillwater, Minnesota and Superior, Wisconsin, lived in New York, and spent the last 40 years of his life in Detroit at the St. Bonaventure Capuchin Monastery. He died in 1957 at the age of 86 and his tomb is at St. Bonaventure, adjacent to the Solanus Casey Center, which was built in 2002. Lindenmuth and Geyer visited the center and said the Capuchin brothers who run it were receptive to a documentary. [...Snip] Ann Arbor News
Church sales require tact, creativity
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For sale: one church, charming, well-maintained, with high ceilings and classic architecture. Enjoy 38,000 square feet of space on a sprawling 14.25-acre lot. Minutes from downtown. Altars, bells, stained glass not included. Asking $4 million.
With attendance declining and a shortage of priests in many areas, Catholic leaders across the state are consolidating parishes and shedding their extra buildings. But selling a house of worship can be complicated for pastors who must placate parishioners angered by the sale and find a buyer who will respect the building’s history.
Parishioners in Pittsburgh were riled in 1996 when the former St. John the Baptist Church became The Church Brew Works, a restaurant that brews beer near the spot where an altar once stood.“The issue wasn’t the beer,” said Ronald P. Lengwin, spokesman for the Diocese of Pittsburgh. “The issue was that we were told by the parish all sacred items had been removed before the sale. We found out later they had not been removed.”Most churches are sold to other denominations with growing congregations. But in some cases, religious leaders have been forced to turn to the commercial market.
St. Stephen Catholic Church in Milwaukee, built in 1847, sits about a mile from the Milwaukee airport and faces an adult lounge and a parking lot. The Rev. Richard Liska placed a “for sale by owner” sign in front of his brown brick church three years ago. His parish hopes to relocate to a more appropriate setting, but Liska acknowledged the move could be hard for families who have celebrated baptism, wedding and funeral Masses there for generations.
“Part of the reason to relocate is to go to more of a people setting rather than an industrial or commercial setting,” Liska said. “Still, I think parishioners would lament. When something has been a part of your life for a long time, there’s lament.”
The Milwaukee diocese has two of its 216 churches on the market. It has sold eight since 2000. The Madison diocese, with 134 churches, is selling three after the parishes were merged into one, spokesman Brent King said.
There are similar examples all over the country. The Boston archdiocese put 60 churches up for sale in 2004, many of which were converted into condominiums. The North Indiana Conference of the United Methodist Church in Marion, Ind., has sold 30 churches in the past 14 years.
Selling can be difficult because buyers are often intimidated by the cost of adapting a church for residential or commercial use, religious leaders said. The buildings also tend to have high heating and cooling costs because of their towering ceilings and large open spaces.
Sales restrictions also can limit the pool of prospective buyers, Liska said.“We would not sell the property to anyone who would be using it for a purpose contrary to the nature, purpose or morality of a church — an abortion clinic, maybe, a gentlemen’s club,” he said.
Church officials typically hire real estate agents or rely on worshippers to spread news of the sale. But one Internet-savvy congregation in central Indiana used eBay last year to sell its church to a Florida man who planned to convert it into a summer home. The 7,000-square-foot church sold for $40,600, delighting Pastor Randy Davis who expected it would fetch only $5,000 to $15,000 because it was in Redkey, a bedroom community of 1,200.Liska has worked with real estate agents, but he’s hoping his “for sale” sign will be as effective as a similar one in front of the former Shepherd of the Bay Lutheran Church in Ellison Bay.
Carole Linden, a retired construction worker and occasional artist, spotted that sign as she drove by.“It just seemed like a great piece of property,” she said. “It’s a magnificent piece of construction.”Linden persuaded her son Brian to buy the 3,627-square-foot church for $125,000 in 1995. He turned it into Linden’s Gallery, where he sells imported Asian collectibles.
In Beloit, a group of equally enterprising donors and volunteers bought the former St. Paul’s Catholic Church and converted it into a museum that displays around 8,000 angels.
Brent Williams, the director of finance for the North Indiana Conference, said buyers frequently get a good deal because of limited demand for aging buildings that require considerable renovations.
That might be why the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac recently dropped its asking price for a 4,500-square-foot church from $149,900 to $129,900.“The building itself is 100 years old and while it does have a lot of intangible qualities, it would need some money for upgrading,” spokesman Matthew Payne said.
Liska said he remains hopeful his Milwaukee church will sell, even after sitting on the market for three years.“When you work with the Lord, you never know when he’s going to bring forth a miracle,” he said. Winona Daily News
For sale: one church, charming, well-maintained, with high ceilings and classic architecture. Enjoy 38,000 square feet of space on a sprawling 14.25-acre lot. Minutes from downtown. Altars, bells, stained glass not included. Asking $4 million.
With attendance declining and a shortage of priests in many areas, Catholic leaders across the state are consolidating parishes and shedding their extra buildings. But selling a house of worship can be complicated for pastors who must placate parishioners angered by the sale and find a buyer who will respect the building’s history.
Parishioners in Pittsburgh were riled in 1996 when the former St. John the Baptist Church became The Church Brew Works, a restaurant that brews beer near the spot where an altar once stood.“The issue wasn’t the beer,” said Ronald P. Lengwin, spokesman for the Diocese of Pittsburgh. “The issue was that we were told by the parish all sacred items had been removed before the sale. We found out later they had not been removed.”Most churches are sold to other denominations with growing congregations. But in some cases, religious leaders have been forced to turn to the commercial market.
St. Stephen Catholic Church in Milwaukee, built in 1847, sits about a mile from the Milwaukee airport and faces an adult lounge and a parking lot. The Rev. Richard Liska placed a “for sale by owner” sign in front of his brown brick church three years ago. His parish hopes to relocate to a more appropriate setting, but Liska acknowledged the move could be hard for families who have celebrated baptism, wedding and funeral Masses there for generations.
“Part of the reason to relocate is to go to more of a people setting rather than an industrial or commercial setting,” Liska said. “Still, I think parishioners would lament. When something has been a part of your life for a long time, there’s lament.”
The Milwaukee diocese has two of its 216 churches on the market. It has sold eight since 2000. The Madison diocese, with 134 churches, is selling three after the parishes were merged into one, spokesman Brent King said.
There are similar examples all over the country. The Boston archdiocese put 60 churches up for sale in 2004, many of which were converted into condominiums. The North Indiana Conference of the United Methodist Church in Marion, Ind., has sold 30 churches in the past 14 years.
Selling can be difficult because buyers are often intimidated by the cost of adapting a church for residential or commercial use, religious leaders said. The buildings also tend to have high heating and cooling costs because of their towering ceilings and large open spaces.
Sales restrictions also can limit the pool of prospective buyers, Liska said.“We would not sell the property to anyone who would be using it for a purpose contrary to the nature, purpose or morality of a church — an abortion clinic, maybe, a gentlemen’s club,” he said.
Church officials typically hire real estate agents or rely on worshippers to spread news of the sale. But one Internet-savvy congregation in central Indiana used eBay last year to sell its church to a Florida man who planned to convert it into a summer home. The 7,000-square-foot church sold for $40,600, delighting Pastor Randy Davis who expected it would fetch only $5,000 to $15,000 because it was in Redkey, a bedroom community of 1,200.Liska has worked with real estate agents, but he’s hoping his “for sale” sign will be as effective as a similar one in front of the former Shepherd of the Bay Lutheran Church in Ellison Bay.
Carole Linden, a retired construction worker and occasional artist, spotted that sign as she drove by.“It just seemed like a great piece of property,” she said. “It’s a magnificent piece of construction.”Linden persuaded her son Brian to buy the 3,627-square-foot church for $125,000 in 1995. He turned it into Linden’s Gallery, where he sells imported Asian collectibles.
In Beloit, a group of equally enterprising donors and volunteers bought the former St. Paul’s Catholic Church and converted it into a museum that displays around 8,000 angels.
Brent Williams, the director of finance for the North Indiana Conference, said buyers frequently get a good deal because of limited demand for aging buildings that require considerable renovations.
That might be why the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac recently dropped its asking price for a 4,500-square-foot church from $149,900 to $129,900.“The building itself is 100 years old and while it does have a lot of intangible qualities, it would need some money for upgrading,” spokesman Matthew Payne said.
Liska said he remains hopeful his Milwaukee church will sell, even after sitting on the market for three years.“When you work with the Lord, you never know when he’s going to bring forth a miracle,” he said. Winona Daily News
This Blog Does Not Violate the Eighth Commandment; Don’t ask me about the Seventh!
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Last week I posted something wondering what had happened to the promised revamp of The Catholic Spirit's web page that had disappeared for about 6 months. Lo and behold, the archdiocesan weekly newspaper showed up electronically this week, with its lead article being a 21st Century analysis of the Ten Commandments and wondering what kinds of sins would apply to them today.
Catholic blogdom from around here went into a frenzy yesterday when after approvingly nodding their way through seven commandments castigating those involved in keeping stores open on the Lord’s Day, violent computer games, internet music pirates, etc., they came across the entry for the Eighth Commandment which castigated bloggers for spreading gossip. Catholic blogdom around here is a pretty small group. Those of us involved know who is blogging about what and who might not be posting reliable information. Frankly, I know of nobody who has ever knowingly posted false information from around here. People I know personally were accused, but not by name, but those of us who follow the local blogs knew who was being talked about.
The interesting thing about the Spirit’s article is that they chose two issues out of the thousands of posts that have been made by Minnesota and area bloggers in 2006. One of them was the “Rumor War” that broke out late last April when a blogger now based in Rome posted a subtly worded item that indicated what later was found to mean that a Coadjutor Archbishop was to be appointed for the Archdiocese, meaning that Archbishop Harry Flynn (who will be 75 in 2007) expected to be retiring soon and his replacement was about to be reappointed. That is legitimate news, not gossip.
That Rumor War lasted through about the middle of June when all the Vatican bureaucrats went on vacation for the Summer and nothing happened. Except the Archbishop did issue a statement indicating that he had requested that a coadjutor be appointed.
The Spirit found this to be gossip. The bloggers and their readers found them to be predictions. The dates were wrong. We don’t know why. At some point we may know the truth. But all involved felt that it was exciting and fun to be involved in the search for information. No bloggers revealed who their sources were, although the names of a couple of prominent Cardinals were mentioned.
The second item mentioned by the Spirit was that “another blog reported that a local church was going to be used to “celebrate the Sin of Sodom” by hosting a Mass for a group of homosexuals who don’t agree with the church’s teachings. I was involved in putting the quash on that mistaken information that originated with a wire service story not based in Minnesota. Some national bloggers did spread the story. I did some on the spot investigating and reported that there was not to be a Mass, but rather a Prayer Service. Others did likewise. It is very common to see local bloggers making comments correcting misinformation on what is happening here on blogs from out of state.
There are some things that I am expert in and one of them is the state of blogging by Catholics in Minnesota and the surrounding states. The purpose of my blog is to encourage that and develop a support system for all of us.
Right now, there are 12 blogs in the area whose owners make entries four or more times a week and who get many readers as is evidenced by comments seen on their pages. Some (OK, two or three) might have four or more entries in a day. There are an additional 16 bloggers who blog occasionally, some once a week, some once every few months. And nine bloggers who were active this year have seemed to tire of it and no activity has been seen on their blogs since August or so. I’ve never attempted to count the number of posts those 28 or so bloggers make, but if they averaged out to 20 a day, that would be 150 a week, 600 a month, etc.
The Catholic Spirit has chosen two subjects with maybe a total of 100 posts, locally and nationally, from four or more months ago and has tarred the local blog world with accusations of the “sin of gossip”
I believe that the Eighth Commandment also includes the sin of “Rash Judgment.”
Many of these local bloggers aren’t even particularly aware that the rest of us exist. Each blog has a particular purpose. Some blogs deal in humor (Ironic Catholic and Desperate Irish Housewife). Dan Lacey who has Faithmouse is one of the most popular, prolific and pro-life Catholic cartoonists anywhere. Studeo and bearing blog belong to two mothers who are home schoolers, one with a PhD in Chemical Engineering who gave birth to her third child in July and we all got to see the first pictures.
Sharon at Butterfly Net (formerly, Clairity’s Place) who teaches in college, blogs on that and posts her photography and poetry. Her pal, Sister Edith at Monastic Musings also blogs on her teaching experiences.
A few seminarians at the St Paul Seminary occasionally blog on their experiences at Future Priests of the Third Millenium as does a Priest from Sioux Falls who posts at White Around the Collar.
The group who blogs at Our Word is particularly knowledgeable about music, opera and literature.
Perhaps the most common posting done by local bloggers involves sharing their Catholicism with others, through their personal experiences, their spiritual journey, their favorite devotions and the like. Abbey-Roads, Adoro Te Devote and the Recovering Dissident Catholic are three who are particularly active in this manner that come to mind.
You will note that news and gossip don’t seem to be high on the subject matter of these locals. That’s because few of us know "important" individuals and it is very difficult difficult to get information at the local level. Most of us are reliant on the news mediafor what news we do see.
Of course, each blog is free to post whatever they want and they do.
The Catholic Spirit will be contacted and perhaps we will get a chance to tell our side of the story.
But I don’t think that anybody ran off to see their confessor today. Attempting to be good Catholics, we do know that there are three conditions that must be met for an incident to be considered a sin: it must be an offense, you must know it is an offence and you must want to do it. Well, one of those might have applied in the cases mentioned by The Catholic Spirit.
Last week I posted something wondering what had happened to the promised revamp of The Catholic Spirit's web page that had disappeared for about 6 months. Lo and behold, the archdiocesan weekly newspaper showed up electronically this week, with its lead article being a 21st Century analysis of the Ten Commandments and wondering what kinds of sins would apply to them today.
Catholic blogdom from around here went into a frenzy yesterday when after approvingly nodding their way through seven commandments castigating those involved in keeping stores open on the Lord’s Day, violent computer games, internet music pirates, etc., they came across the entry for the Eighth Commandment which castigated bloggers for spreading gossip. Catholic blogdom around here is a pretty small group. Those of us involved know who is blogging about what and who might not be posting reliable information. Frankly, I know of nobody who has ever knowingly posted false information from around here. People I know personally were accused, but not by name, but those of us who follow the local blogs knew who was being talked about.
The interesting thing about the Spirit’s article is that they chose two issues out of the thousands of posts that have been made by Minnesota and area bloggers in 2006. One of them was the “Rumor War” that broke out late last April when a blogger now based in Rome posted a subtly worded item that indicated what later was found to mean that a Coadjutor Archbishop was to be appointed for the Archdiocese, meaning that Archbishop Harry Flynn (who will be 75 in 2007) expected to be retiring soon and his replacement was about to be reappointed. That is legitimate news, not gossip.
That Rumor War lasted through about the middle of June when all the Vatican bureaucrats went on vacation for the Summer and nothing happened. Except the Archbishop did issue a statement indicating that he had requested that a coadjutor be appointed.
The Spirit found this to be gossip. The bloggers and their readers found them to be predictions. The dates were wrong. We don’t know why. At some point we may know the truth. But all involved felt that it was exciting and fun to be involved in the search for information. No bloggers revealed who their sources were, although the names of a couple of prominent Cardinals were mentioned.
The second item mentioned by the Spirit was that “another blog reported that a local church was going to be used to “celebrate the Sin of Sodom” by hosting a Mass for a group of homosexuals who don’t agree with the church’s teachings. I was involved in putting the quash on that mistaken information that originated with a wire service story not based in Minnesota. Some national bloggers did spread the story. I did some on the spot investigating and reported that there was not to be a Mass, but rather a Prayer Service. Others did likewise. It is very common to see local bloggers making comments correcting misinformation on what is happening here on blogs from out of state.
There are some things that I am expert in and one of them is the state of blogging by Catholics in Minnesota and the surrounding states. The purpose of my blog is to encourage that and develop a support system for all of us.
Right now, there are 12 blogs in the area whose owners make entries four or more times a week and who get many readers as is evidenced by comments seen on their pages. Some (OK, two or three) might have four or more entries in a day. There are an additional 16 bloggers who blog occasionally, some once a week, some once every few months. And nine bloggers who were active this year have seemed to tire of it and no activity has been seen on their blogs since August or so. I’ve never attempted to count the number of posts those 28 or so bloggers make, but if they averaged out to 20 a day, that would be 150 a week, 600 a month, etc.
The Catholic Spirit has chosen two subjects with maybe a total of 100 posts, locally and nationally, from four or more months ago and has tarred the local blog world with accusations of the “sin of gossip”
I believe that the Eighth Commandment also includes the sin of “Rash Judgment.”
Many of these local bloggers aren’t even particularly aware that the rest of us exist. Each blog has a particular purpose. Some blogs deal in humor (Ironic Catholic and Desperate Irish Housewife). Dan Lacey who has Faithmouse is one of the most popular, prolific and pro-life Catholic cartoonists anywhere. Studeo and bearing blog belong to two mothers who are home schoolers, one with a PhD in Chemical Engineering who gave birth to her third child in July and we all got to see the first pictures.
Sharon at Butterfly Net (formerly, Clairity’s Place) who teaches in college, blogs on that and posts her photography and poetry. Her pal, Sister Edith at Monastic Musings also blogs on her teaching experiences.
A few seminarians at the St Paul Seminary occasionally blog on their experiences at Future Priests of the Third Millenium as does a Priest from Sioux Falls who posts at White Around the Collar.
The group who blogs at Our Word is particularly knowledgeable about music, opera and literature.
Perhaps the most common posting done by local bloggers involves sharing their Catholicism with others, through their personal experiences, their spiritual journey, their favorite devotions and the like. Abbey-Roads, Adoro Te Devote and the Recovering Dissident Catholic are three who are particularly active in this manner that come to mind.
You will note that news and gossip don’t seem to be high on the subject matter of these locals. That’s because few of us know "important" individuals and it is very difficult difficult to get information at the local level. Most of us are reliant on the news mediafor what news we do see.
Of course, each blog is free to post whatever they want and they do.
The Catholic Spirit will be contacted and perhaps we will get a chance to tell our side of the story.
But I don’t think that anybody ran off to see their confessor today. Attempting to be good Catholics, we do know that there are three conditions that must be met for an incident to be considered a sin: it must be an offense, you must know it is an offence and you must want to do it. Well, one of those might have applied in the cases mentioned by The Catholic Spirit.
NC Reporter's John Allen Gets Interviewed by Lino, not Leno
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Lino Rulli, Emmy award winning Cable TV Star from St Olaf parish in Minneapolis, has now graduated from TV to Radio. Sounds like a backwards move, doesn't it? But Lino is now "The Catholic Guy" during "drive time" on Sirius Satellite Radio with a world-wide audience listening to his off-beat and self-deprecating humor. John Allen, Vatican and Catholic Things reporter for the National Catholic Register, subjected himself to one of Lino's early interviews, as "The Catholic Guy" has only been on the air for a couple of weeks.
Actually, Lino has another radio show, "Lino at Large", heard on many radio stations across the country.
Last night, I was interviewed for a half-hour or so by “the Catholic Guy,” Lino Rulli, host of a program by that name on the new Catholic Channel on Sirius Satellite Radio. Rulli vowed that it would be “the most random” interview I’d ever done, and while I’ve actually faced far more bizarre lines of questioning, never before had they been so clearly labeled as such up-front.
Thus it was, for example, that we talked about the reasons for my transition roughly a year ago from a full beard to a goatee (a choice driven mostly by my wife, although my handler at CNN did say it’s “better TV”), what it’s like to fly on the papal plane (not nearly as exciting as it might seem, and far more expensive), and what’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever said to a pope (on my first meeting with John Paul II, I was so paralyzed with awe that all I could spit out was an anodyne, “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”).
This was also the first time a host actually apologized on-air for stalking me. Rulli explained that when he lived in Rome, he would often see me at restaurants or papal events, and would sometimes hang around the edges, but never actually got around to presenting himself.
We also, of course, discussed more substantive matters, such as the significance of Benedict XVI’s recent trip to Turkey, and whether Benedict as pope is a surprise with respect to what we might have expected from the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
Rulli, who still speaks a passable Italian, has a background in TV journalism, but also seems very much at home in radio. The “Catholic Channel” has only been on the air for a couple of weeks, and it will be interesting to follow its development.
One thing about Rulli and his crew that struck me as especially promising: the absence of an agenda. That is to say, Rulli comes off as interested and engaged in Catholic affairs, with a healthy sense of humor about the whole thing, but not someone committed to one or another of the Catholic “tribes” currently slugging it out in the church’s version of the culture wars.
Instinctively, he seems open to different perspectives and temperaments, with no strong need to pass judgment, yet without in any sense fudging his Catholic identity or his love for the church.
If that’s the spirit with which the “Catholic Channel” moves forward, it could represent a valuable addition to the American Catholic conversation indeed ... random or not. National Catholic Reporter
Lino Rulli, Emmy award winning Cable TV Star from St Olaf parish in Minneapolis, has now graduated from TV to Radio. Sounds like a backwards move, doesn't it? But Lino is now "The Catholic Guy" during "drive time" on Sirius Satellite Radio with a world-wide audience listening to his off-beat and self-deprecating humor. John Allen, Vatican and Catholic Things reporter for the National Catholic Register, subjected himself to one of Lino's early interviews, as "The Catholic Guy" has only been on the air for a couple of weeks.
Actually, Lino has another radio show, "Lino at Large", heard on many radio stations across the country.
Last night, I was interviewed for a half-hour or so by “the Catholic Guy,” Lino Rulli, host of a program by that name on the new Catholic Channel on Sirius Satellite Radio. Rulli vowed that it would be “the most random” interview I’d ever done, and while I’ve actually faced far more bizarre lines of questioning, never before had they been so clearly labeled as such up-front.
Thus it was, for example, that we talked about the reasons for my transition roughly a year ago from a full beard to a goatee (a choice driven mostly by my wife, although my handler at CNN did say it’s “better TV”), what it’s like to fly on the papal plane (not nearly as exciting as it might seem, and far more expensive), and what’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever said to a pope (on my first meeting with John Paul II, I was so paralyzed with awe that all I could spit out was an anodyne, “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”).
This was also the first time a host actually apologized on-air for stalking me. Rulli explained that when he lived in Rome, he would often see me at restaurants or papal events, and would sometimes hang around the edges, but never actually got around to presenting himself.
We also, of course, discussed more substantive matters, such as the significance of Benedict XVI’s recent trip to Turkey, and whether Benedict as pope is a surprise with respect to what we might have expected from the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
Rulli, who still speaks a passable Italian, has a background in TV journalism, but also seems very much at home in radio. The “Catholic Channel” has only been on the air for a couple of weeks, and it will be interesting to follow its development.
One thing about Rulli and his crew that struck me as especially promising: the absence of an agenda. That is to say, Rulli comes off as interested and engaged in Catholic affairs, with a healthy sense of humor about the whole thing, but not someone committed to one or another of the Catholic “tribes” currently slugging it out in the church’s version of the culture wars.
Instinctively, he seems open to different perspectives and temperaments, with no strong need to pass judgment, yet without in any sense fudging his Catholic identity or his love for the church.
If that’s the spirit with which the “Catholic Channel” moves forward, it could represent a valuable addition to the American Catholic conversation indeed ... random or not. National Catholic Reporter
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Catholic Bashing Star Tribune Letters Editor Fires Back With More Abuse
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Look what kind of letter the Strib Letters Editor pulled at random from the pile that probably showed up on his desk responding to Archbishop Harry Flynn's response to the anti-Catholic Star Tribune Editorial claiming that the Church deserves abuse!
The damage of this play has got to be minuscule compared to the 11,000-plus children molested by church clergy (by the church's own account) and the huge sums that the church has had to pay.
FLOYD KELLER, BAYPORT, MN
Look what kind of letter the Strib Letters Editor pulled at random from the pile that probably showed up on his desk responding to Archbishop Harry Flynn's response to the anti-Catholic Star Tribune Editorial claiming that the Church deserves abuse!
Where Floyd Keller got his number for the number of children alleged to be abused by Church employees over the past 60 years is unknown. What is known about them is that over 80% of them were male and post-pubescent (age ca. 11-17) and were abused by adult males.
11,000 charges of child abuse over 60 years is about 180 cases per year. Researchers into all kinds of child abuse indicate that there are over 2,000,000 cases per year in the United States.
Catholics and the Church are horrified at the amount of abuse that has been inflicted by Church employees . Billions have been paid in damages and drastic measures have been taken to prevent their occurrence again.
And probably another billion will be paid, of course 30% or more going to public spirited attorneys willing to make a sacrifice for their cut.
You may ask why school districts and cities and counties don't get sued. That's because government won't let itself be sued except for very limited amounts.
During this same time period, Catholic Charities, individual dioceses and parishes and religious organizations and apostolates in the United States and around the world have spent tens of billions for saving and improving the lives and living conditions of millions of the dying, the ill, the handicapped and the poverty stricken. And it continues to do so. At the same time, the Church's subsidy of education in the U.S. along, probably saves U.S. citizens even more billions.
For the record, even though I have lived in Minneapolis since 1980, I cancelled my subscription to the Strib (and rarely purchase it) when they removed the Boy Scouts of America from their corporate contribution list because the Scouts refused to hire homosexuals as leaders in the BSA. While not on the record, I'm sure the Strib also despises the Church because it refuses to admit active homosexuals to its seminaries. The same types as were responsible for the 11,000 child abuse cases.
Letters in a batch for Wednesday, Dec. 13
Published: December 13, 2006
'THE POPE AND THE WITCH'
Good PR for the play
The damage of this play has got to be minuscule compared to the 11,000-plus children molested by church clergy (by the church's own account) and the huge sums that the church has had to pay.
FLOYD KELLER, BAYPORT, MN
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
San Francisco Judge Declares the Church's Moral Teaching and Beliefs to be Insulting to all San Franciscans, Defamatory and Ignorant
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http://www.thomasmore.org:80/newsroom.html
Federal Judge Says San Francisco's Anti-Catholic Resolution is Constitutional: Thomas More Law Center Appeals
ANN ARBOR, MI - The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is appealing a federal judge's recent approval of a virulently anti-Catholic resolution passed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel, a Carter appointee and one time counsel for the National Organization for Women (NOW), ruled that the Board resolution condemning Catholic moral teaching on homosexuality and urging the Archbishop of San Francisco and Catholic Charities of San Francisco to defy Church directives does not violate the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
The resolution, adopted March 21, 2006, alludes to the Vatican as a "foreign country" meddling in the affairs of the City and describes the Church's moral teaching and beliefs as "insulting to all San Franciscans," "hateful," "insulting and callous," "defamatory," "absolutely unacceptable," "insensitive[] and ignoran[t]." The resolution calls on the local Archbishop to "defy" the Church's teachings and describes Cardinal William Joseph Levada, the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which is responsible for safeguarding the doctrine on the faith and morals of the Church throughout the Catholic world, as "unqualified" to lead.
Robert Muise, the Law Center attorney handling this matter, commented, "Our constitution plainly forbids hostility toward any religion, including the Catholic faith. In total disregard for the Constitution, homosexual activists in positions of authority in San Francisco have abused their authority as government officials and misused the instruments of government to attack the Catholic Church. Their egregious abuse of power now has the backing of a federal judge. This battle, however, is far from over. We are appealing this offensive ruling."
The Law Center filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights and two Catholic residents of San Francisco. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit will hear the appeal. Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel for the Law Center, observed, "This judge totally ignored or attempted to rationalize the evocative rhetoric and venom of the resolution which are sad reminders of Catholic baiting by the Ku Klux Klan."
Continued Thompson, "Federal judges across the country are removing passive religious symbols, such as the crèche and the display of the Ten Commandments, from the public square because these innocent symbols supposedly express an official government endorsement of religion in violation of the Establishment Clause. However, when San Francisco passes an overtly, anti-Catholic resolution expressly attacking Church moral teaching and calling on Church leaders to defy Church teaching as a matter of official government policy, a federal judge gives these anti-Catholic bigots a free pass. Unfortunately, this case amply demonstrates the anti-religious bias that pervades our judicial system."
Catholic doctrine proclaims that allowing children to be adopted by homosexuals would actually mean doing violence to these children, in the sense that their condition of dependency would be used to place them in an environment that is not conducive to their full human development. According to Church authority, such policies are gravely immoral and Catholic organizations must not place children for adoption in homosexual households.
Accordingly, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has directed Catholic organizations to adhere to the Church's moral teaching.The Law Center's lawsuit claimed that the City's anti-Catholic resolution violated the First Amendment, which "forbids an official purpose to disapprove of a particular religion, religious beliefs, or of religion in general." The Law Center argued that the "anti-Catholic resolution sends a clear message to Plaintiffs and others who are faithful adherents to the Catholic faith that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community and an accompanying message that those who oppose Catholic religious beliefs, particularly with regard to homosexual unions and adoptions by homosexual partners, are insiders, favored members of the political community."
In her decision upholding the resolution against the Law Center's constitutional challenge, the federal judge defended the City by essentially claiming that the Church invited the attack by publicly expressing its teaching on moral issues. In her written opinion, the judge stated, "The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith provoked this debate, indeed may have invited entanglement, by its [doctrinal] statement. This court does not find that our case law requires political bodies to remain silent in the face of this provocation."
The Thomas More Law Center defends and promotes the religious freedom of Christians, time-honored family values, and the sanctity of human life through education, litigation, and related activities. It does not charge for its services. The Law Center is supported by contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations, and is recognized by the IRS as a section 501(c)(3) organization. You may reach the Thomas More Law Center at (734) 827-2001 or visit our website at www.thomasmore.org.
http://www.thomasmore.org:80/newsroom.html
Federal Judge Says San Francisco's Anti-Catholic Resolution is Constitutional: Thomas More Law Center Appeals
ANN ARBOR, MI - The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is appealing a federal judge's recent approval of a virulently anti-Catholic resolution passed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel, a Carter appointee and one time counsel for the National Organization for Women (NOW), ruled that the Board resolution condemning Catholic moral teaching on homosexuality and urging the Archbishop of San Francisco and Catholic Charities of San Francisco to defy Church directives does not violate the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
The resolution, adopted March 21, 2006, alludes to the Vatican as a "foreign country" meddling in the affairs of the City and describes the Church's moral teaching and beliefs as "insulting to all San Franciscans," "hateful," "insulting and callous," "defamatory," "absolutely unacceptable," "insensitive[] and ignoran[t]." The resolution calls on the local Archbishop to "defy" the Church's teachings and describes Cardinal William Joseph Levada, the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which is responsible for safeguarding the doctrine on the faith and morals of the Church throughout the Catholic world, as "unqualified" to lead.
Robert Muise, the Law Center attorney handling this matter, commented, "Our constitution plainly forbids hostility toward any religion, including the Catholic faith. In total disregard for the Constitution, homosexual activists in positions of authority in San Francisco have abused their authority as government officials and misused the instruments of government to attack the Catholic Church. Their egregious abuse of power now has the backing of a federal judge. This battle, however, is far from over. We are appealing this offensive ruling."
The Law Center filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights and two Catholic residents of San Francisco. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit will hear the appeal. Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel for the Law Center, observed, "This judge totally ignored or attempted to rationalize the evocative rhetoric and venom of the resolution which are sad reminders of Catholic baiting by the Ku Klux Klan."
Continued Thompson, "Federal judges across the country are removing passive religious symbols, such as the crèche and the display of the Ten Commandments, from the public square because these innocent symbols supposedly express an official government endorsement of religion in violation of the Establishment Clause. However, when San Francisco passes an overtly, anti-Catholic resolution expressly attacking Church moral teaching and calling on Church leaders to defy Church teaching as a matter of official government policy, a federal judge gives these anti-Catholic bigots a free pass. Unfortunately, this case amply demonstrates the anti-religious bias that pervades our judicial system."
Catholic doctrine proclaims that allowing children to be adopted by homosexuals would actually mean doing violence to these children, in the sense that their condition of dependency would be used to place them in an environment that is not conducive to their full human development. According to Church authority, such policies are gravely immoral and Catholic organizations must not place children for adoption in homosexual households.
Accordingly, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has directed Catholic organizations to adhere to the Church's moral teaching.The Law Center's lawsuit claimed that the City's anti-Catholic resolution violated the First Amendment, which "forbids an official purpose to disapprove of a particular religion, religious beliefs, or of religion in general." The Law Center argued that the "anti-Catholic resolution sends a clear message to Plaintiffs and others who are faithful adherents to the Catholic faith that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community and an accompanying message that those who oppose Catholic religious beliefs, particularly with regard to homosexual unions and adoptions by homosexual partners, are insiders, favored members of the political community."
In her decision upholding the resolution against the Law Center's constitutional challenge, the federal judge defended the City by essentially claiming that the Church invited the attack by publicly expressing its teaching on moral issues. In her written opinion, the judge stated, "The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith provoked this debate, indeed may have invited entanglement, by its [doctrinal] statement. This court does not find that our case law requires political bodies to remain silent in the face of this provocation."
The Thomas More Law Center defends and promotes the religious freedom of Christians, time-honored family values, and the sanctity of human life through education, litigation, and related activities. It does not charge for its services. The Law Center is supported by contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations, and is recognized by the IRS as a section 501(c)(3) organization. You may reach the Thomas More Law Center at (734) 827-2001 or visit our website at www.thomasmore.org.
St. Mary's U in Winona: Private School Education at Public Pricing
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Winona campus offers eligible students tuition, room and board at University of Minnesota rates
St. Mary's University of Minnesota on Tuesday threw a tempting offer on the table to low- and middle-income families: Enroll at our Winona campus and your tuition, room and board will cost no more than that at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. That guarantee — a private college education at a public university price — would save eligible students more than $45,000 over four years, the university estimates.
While St. Mary's expects the deal to add only about 25 new freshmen in the first year, the plan brings a compelling new twist to Minnesota's ongoing tuition wars. Observers said they weren't aware of another program in the country where a private college guaranteed to match the cost of a publicly financed, state flagship university.
Tuition has become a vital issue in Minnesota, with rising calls for schools and lawmakers to rein in costs. The U and other public schools in recent years have rolled out tuition-free plans for needy students; Gov. Tim Pawlenty is expected to offer ideas in the coming legislative session.
Officials at St. Mary's, which draws significant numbers of students from the Twin Cities, said they had become increasingly frustrated by stories of students who thought private college out of reach. That, together with the school's religious mission, compelled them to act. "Families were telling us, 'We didn't think we could afford St. Mary's,' " said Tony Piscitiello, vice president for admissions at the college.
That included students who were accepted to St. Mary's but never enrolled. When officials asked why, many said they just didn't think they could pay for private college and chose public institutions instead, Piscitiello added.
The new offer, called the Brother James Miller Scholarship for Access, guarantees eligible students will pay tuition, room and board for St. Mary's equal to or less than the U. St. Mary's estimates the plan would bring down the cost of its education next year from $28,000 to about $17,000. [...Snip] More at the Pioneer Press
Winona campus offers eligible students tuition, room and board at University of Minnesota rates
St. Mary's University of Minnesota on Tuesday threw a tempting offer on the table to low- and middle-income families: Enroll at our Winona campus and your tuition, room and board will cost no more than that at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. That guarantee — a private college education at a public university price — would save eligible students more than $45,000 over four years, the university estimates.
While St. Mary's expects the deal to add only about 25 new freshmen in the first year, the plan brings a compelling new twist to Minnesota's ongoing tuition wars. Observers said they weren't aware of another program in the country where a private college guaranteed to match the cost of a publicly financed, state flagship university.
Tuition has become a vital issue in Minnesota, with rising calls for schools and lawmakers to rein in costs. The U and other public schools in recent years have rolled out tuition-free plans for needy students; Gov. Tim Pawlenty is expected to offer ideas in the coming legislative session.
Officials at St. Mary's, which draws significant numbers of students from the Twin Cities, said they had become increasingly frustrated by stories of students who thought private college out of reach. That, together with the school's religious mission, compelled them to act. "Families were telling us, 'We didn't think we could afford St. Mary's,' " said Tony Piscitiello, vice president for admissions at the college.
That included students who were accepted to St. Mary's but never enrolled. When officials asked why, many said they just didn't think they could pay for private college and chose public institutions instead, Piscitiello added.
The new offer, called the Brother James Miller Scholarship for Access, guarantees eligible students will pay tuition, room and board for St. Mary's equal to or less than the U. St. Mary's estimates the plan would bring down the cost of its education next year from $28,000 to about $17,000. [...Snip] More at the Pioneer Press
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Feast of the Entirely Perfect Virgin Holy Mary who Crushes the Stone Serpent
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Our Lady of Guadalupe
Augustine DiNoia, O.P. [Magnificat]
Roses and an image. These are the central elements of the apparitions of Our Lady at Tepeyac — not words, or at least not many words, no message as at other apparitions which took place during the octave of the Immaculate Conception and thus during the Advent season, in 1531
Roses
The roses were a sign for Bishop Zumarraga who would recognize them as a species of rose native to Castile. How could the good bishop have failed to be amazed by these Castilian roses in midwinter Mexico, roses picked on a barren hillside and arranged by Our Lady. “There is no rose of such virtue / As is the rose that bore Jesu / Alleluia,” to quote a fifteenth-century English carol. The roses make us think of the expectant Mary, the Advent Mary, who directs our gaze to Christ and the mystery of his coming. The Advent theme is sounded: roses from a midwinter hillside signify the unexpected pure grace of Christ’s coming for which we cannot really prepare and for which grace itself must make us ready. “For in this rose contained was / heaven and earth in little space: / Res Miranda.”
An Image
The miraculous image of Guadalupe, measuring six and one-half by three and one-half feet, imprinted on the rough cloth of Juan Diego’s cloak has remained intact for 465 years; and, not only are there no brush strokes, but it is next to impossible to paint such an image on cloth of this kind.
But perhaps even more important than the miracle is the fact of the image itself. Mary says of it: “This sacred image will be known as the Entirely Perfect Virgin Holy Mary of Guadalupe.” In a 1688 work on the apparitions, Franciscan Fray Jeronimo Valladolid put the point clearly: “This Virgin as she is portrayed needs no writing because she is herself a writing on a piece of cloth.” The image itself communicates its message like a pictograph.
Prior to the Spanish conquest of Mexico, the language Nahuatl was written entirely in hieroglyphics. Helen Behrens, who studied Mary’s image by comparing it to Aztec iconography, points out that the image of Our Lady is a pictography which itself contains Mary’s message to us. The most important elements in the pictography can be understood in connection with the word “Guadalupe” which is neither a place name (as one might suppose) nor a Nahautl term. It has been shown that the word “Guadalupe” in fact corresponds to the Nahuatl “te coatlaxopeulh” as a Spanish speaker would hear and repeat it. It means “to crush the stone serpent” and clearly refers to the Aztec god, Quetzalcoatl, to whom untold numbers of human beings were annually sacrificed. Thus, the title of the image turns out to mean: “the Entirely Perfect Virgin Holy Mary who crushes the stone serpent.” It is the image itself that is powerful in overcoming the serpent (see Gn 3: 14-15).
Other elements of the image are also significant: the sun rays behind Our Lady show that human beings are more important than the sun god to whom they were sacrificed in the old religion, and the crescent serpent depicts the crushed Quetzalcoatl.
Again, we can discern a striking Advent theme. The incarnate Son, whom we expect in this holy season, is the Word made flesh, the perfect image of the Father. God sent us, not words, but his very own Son. Just like the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the incarnate Son is the divine message in himself.
So: the roses and the image are central to the apparitions of Guadalupe draw us into the deepest mystery of Advent. “By that rose we may well see / That He is God in persons three: / Pari forma.” The unexpected and astonishing roses remind us of the pure and unmerited grace of the incarnation. The image reminds us of the awesome immediacy of the divine in Christ.
How fitting it is that, in the hear of the Advent season, from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, north and south of the Rio Grande, we all embrace “the Entirely Perfect Virgin Holy Mary of Guadalupe” as the Mother and Queen of the Americas.
The Black Sash of Our Lady of Guadalupe: New Life for the New World
Father James M. Sullivan, O.P. [Magnificat]
Perhaps there is no more perfect feast for Advent than the one we celebrate today. Perfect first because it is a feast of Our Lady. It was the Blessed Virgin’s singular privilege to bear the Son of God. It was because of her fiat, here “yes,” that the world would come to know its Redeemer at Christmas.
An expectant mother
But today’s feast is also perfect for Advent because of how Our Lady chose to appear. In the apparitions to Blessed Juan Diego in 1531, the Virgin appeared in a unique way. Out of all the Marian apparitions of the centuries, in this one vision alone Mary appears pregnant! The black sash she wears around her waist reveals this hidden-from-the-world truth.
Looking carefully at the image of Our Lady we can detect something under her folded hands. It is the tied bow of this traditional Aztec black sash. All of the native women in this region of Mexico would have worn this same black band to signify that they were with child. This simple piece of clothing was meant to set them apart so that no harm would come to them or to the child within them. Our Lady of Guadalupe then was pregnant with the Christ who was about to be born anew in the New World of the Americas, a world discovered just forty years previously by Christopher Columbus.
Being born anew
Today in 2001 Our Lady of Guadalupe is still pregnant with the Christ who is about to be born anew within each one of us this Christmas. This image of our Lady reminds us then of those two essential dimensions of his being born anew within us — of our living his call to be his disciple. These two spiritual aspects are intimately related to each other.
The first is that we, as disciples, are called to be as close to Christ as a mother is to her developing child within her. This maternal union is one which truly defies explanation. The mother nourishes the child with her own life. We all have heard that pregnant mothers have to refrain from smoking and drinking, be aware of their environment and their physical exertion. The slightest change can harm her baby.
This is the dept of intimacy that Christ desires with each of us — whether we are a priest or a religious, married or single. Each of us is called to be so intimately united to Christ that it also would be a union that defies human explanation. Like any expectant mother we too are careful of the life we live. We realize that our thoughts and actions can harm the new life of Christ who is growing within us. We desire, as Saint Paul does, to “become one in faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, and form that perfect man who is Christ come to full stature” (Eph 4:13). Our Lady of Guadalupe reminds us that Christ is formed within us by the grace of God through every virtue of our life.
Children of Mary
In order to enable us to have this bond with him, Christ reveals the second dimension of our being his true disciples — namely, that we too are meant to be the children of his own mother. Christ’s mother was made to be that “place” where all of his disciples would mature and come to acknowledge her Son as Lord. We would grow within her maternal protection and care just as Christ himself had, and thereby grow closer to him. Our Lady reminded Blessed Juan Diego on December 12, 1531: “Am I not here who am your mother? Am I not your fountain of life?” She speaks the same words to us today with the same assurance of her love and presence in our lives.
The black sash of Guadalupe is certainly a foreshadowing of the birth of the Catholic faith in the Americas but it is also a sash that the Blessed Virgin continues to wear today as she brings all of Christ’s disciples to maturity in her Son.
That is why Our Lady of Guadalupe remains the perfect feast for the season of Advent. For she foreshadowed not only the new birth of Christ in the New World of 1531, she also foreshadowed our role in being a witness to that New Birth in 2001 — by our own intimate union wit her Son and by our protection under her maternal care.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us.
Our Lady of Guadalupe
Augustine DiNoia, O.P. [Magnificat]
Roses and an image. These are the central elements of the apparitions of Our Lady at Tepeyac — not words, or at least not many words, no message as at other apparitions which took place during the octave of the Immaculate Conception and thus during the Advent season, in 1531
Roses
The roses were a sign for Bishop Zumarraga who would recognize them as a species of rose native to Castile. How could the good bishop have failed to be amazed by these Castilian roses in midwinter Mexico, roses picked on a barren hillside and arranged by Our Lady. “There is no rose of such virtue / As is the rose that bore Jesu / Alleluia,” to quote a fifteenth-century English carol. The roses make us think of the expectant Mary, the Advent Mary, who directs our gaze to Christ and the mystery of his coming. The Advent theme is sounded: roses from a midwinter hillside signify the unexpected pure grace of Christ’s coming for which we cannot really prepare and for which grace itself must make us ready. “For in this rose contained was / heaven and earth in little space: / Res Miranda.”
An Image
The miraculous image of Guadalupe, measuring six and one-half by three and one-half feet, imprinted on the rough cloth of Juan Diego’s cloak has remained intact for 465 years; and, not only are there no brush strokes, but it is next to impossible to paint such an image on cloth of this kind.
But perhaps even more important than the miracle is the fact of the image itself. Mary says of it: “This sacred image will be known as the Entirely Perfect Virgin Holy Mary of Guadalupe.” In a 1688 work on the apparitions, Franciscan Fray Jeronimo Valladolid put the point clearly: “This Virgin as she is portrayed needs no writing because she is herself a writing on a piece of cloth.” The image itself communicates its message like a pictograph.
Prior to the Spanish conquest of Mexico, the language Nahuatl was written entirely in hieroglyphics. Helen Behrens, who studied Mary’s image by comparing it to Aztec iconography, points out that the image of Our Lady is a pictography which itself contains Mary’s message to us. The most important elements in the pictography can be understood in connection with the word “Guadalupe” which is neither a place name (as one might suppose) nor a Nahautl term. It has been shown that the word “Guadalupe” in fact corresponds to the Nahuatl “te coatlaxopeulh” as a Spanish speaker would hear and repeat it. It means “to crush the stone serpent” and clearly refers to the Aztec god, Quetzalcoatl, to whom untold numbers of human beings were annually sacrificed. Thus, the title of the image turns out to mean: “the Entirely Perfect Virgin Holy Mary who crushes the stone serpent.” It is the image itself that is powerful in overcoming the serpent (see Gn 3: 14-15).
Other elements of the image are also significant: the sun rays behind Our Lady show that human beings are more important than the sun god to whom they were sacrificed in the old religion, and the crescent serpent depicts the crushed Quetzalcoatl.
Again, we can discern a striking Advent theme. The incarnate Son, whom we expect in this holy season, is the Word made flesh, the perfect image of the Father. God sent us, not words, but his very own Son. Just like the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the incarnate Son is the divine message in himself.
So: the roses and the image are central to the apparitions of Guadalupe draw us into the deepest mystery of Advent. “By that rose we may well see / That He is God in persons three: / Pari forma.” The unexpected and astonishing roses remind us of the pure and unmerited grace of the incarnation. The image reminds us of the awesome immediacy of the divine in Christ.
How fitting it is that, in the hear of the Advent season, from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, north and south of the Rio Grande, we all embrace “the Entirely Perfect Virgin Holy Mary of Guadalupe” as the Mother and Queen of the Americas.
The Black Sash of Our Lady of Guadalupe: New Life for the New World
Father James M. Sullivan, O.P. [Magnificat]
Perhaps there is no more perfect feast for Advent than the one we celebrate today. Perfect first because it is a feast of Our Lady. It was the Blessed Virgin’s singular privilege to bear the Son of God. It was because of her fiat, here “yes,” that the world would come to know its Redeemer at Christmas.
An expectant mother
But today’s feast is also perfect for Advent because of how Our Lady chose to appear. In the apparitions to Blessed Juan Diego in 1531, the Virgin appeared in a unique way. Out of all the Marian apparitions of the centuries, in this one vision alone Mary appears pregnant! The black sash she wears around her waist reveals this hidden-from-the-world truth.
Looking carefully at the image of Our Lady we can detect something under her folded hands. It is the tied bow of this traditional Aztec black sash. All of the native women in this region of Mexico would have worn this same black band to signify that they were with child. This simple piece of clothing was meant to set them apart so that no harm would come to them or to the child within them. Our Lady of Guadalupe then was pregnant with the Christ who was about to be born anew in the New World of the Americas, a world discovered just forty years previously by Christopher Columbus.
Being born anew
Today in 2001 Our Lady of Guadalupe is still pregnant with the Christ who is about to be born anew within each one of us this Christmas. This image of our Lady reminds us then of those two essential dimensions of his being born anew within us — of our living his call to be his disciple. These two spiritual aspects are intimately related to each other.
The first is that we, as disciples, are called to be as close to Christ as a mother is to her developing child within her. This maternal union is one which truly defies explanation. The mother nourishes the child with her own life. We all have heard that pregnant mothers have to refrain from smoking and drinking, be aware of their environment and their physical exertion. The slightest change can harm her baby.
This is the dept of intimacy that Christ desires with each of us — whether we are a priest or a religious, married or single. Each of us is called to be so intimately united to Christ that it also would be a union that defies human explanation. Like any expectant mother we too are careful of the life we live. We realize that our thoughts and actions can harm the new life of Christ who is growing within us. We desire, as Saint Paul does, to “become one in faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, and form that perfect man who is Christ come to full stature” (Eph 4:13). Our Lady of Guadalupe reminds us that Christ is formed within us by the grace of God through every virtue of our life.
Children of Mary
In order to enable us to have this bond with him, Christ reveals the second dimension of our being his true disciples — namely, that we too are meant to be the children of his own mother. Christ’s mother was made to be that “place” where all of his disciples would mature and come to acknowledge her Son as Lord. We would grow within her maternal protection and care just as Christ himself had, and thereby grow closer to him. Our Lady reminded Blessed Juan Diego on December 12, 1531: “Am I not here who am your mother? Am I not your fountain of life?” She speaks the same words to us today with the same assurance of her love and presence in our lives.
The black sash of Guadalupe is certainly a foreshadowing of the birth of the Catholic faith in the Americas but it is also a sash that the Blessed Virgin continues to wear today as she brings all of Christ’s disciples to maturity in her Son.
That is why Our Lady of Guadalupe remains the perfect feast for the season of Advent. For she foreshadowed not only the new birth of Christ in the New World of 1531, she also foreshadowed our role in being a witness to that New Birth in 2001 — by our own intimate union wit her Son and by our protection under her maternal care.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us.
Monday, December 11, 2006
Archbishop Flynn Blasts Strib For "Catholic Bashing" and Distorted Review Of Blasphemous Play
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Archbishop Harry Flynn of the Archdiocese of St Paul - Minneapolis didn't show much resistance when he met with University of Minnesota President Robert Bruininks to object to the play "The Pope and the Witch" that the U's Theater Department plans to show next March.
But ask the Execs at the McClatchey head office in California what they think of their new purchase now that they have been exposed by Archbishop Flynn as Catholic Bashers and liars on their editorial pages. What the Star Tribune Really Thinks About The Catholic Church
Also ask the headline writers at the Red Star why they insultingly did not give Archbishop Flynn his customary title when they laid out their web page.
Harry Flynn: Paper adds fuel to fire over 'Pope and the Witch'
Its defense of the University of Minnesota's decision to stage the play is yet another insult to Catholics.
Harry Flynn
Published: December 12, 2006
Your Dec. 3 editorial "Fo play is not faux pas by the U" segues from a lighthearted observation about the author of this theatrical production into a poorly disguised, mean-spirited, sweeping indictment of the Catholic Church and its history. It goes well beyond the limits of logical argumentation and is rather a haughty and hastily cobbled together theatrical review and anti-Catholic diatribe, wrapped in the flag of academic license.
"Understandably" the editorial states, "Catholics don't find 'The Pope and the Witch' funny at all." With that statement, we most certainly agree. We could hardly find a nightmarish parody of the papacy, a fundamental tenet of our faith that has 2,000 years of history, to be very funny. One doubts that a play viciously satirizing a revered or historic leader of the Jewish or Islamic faiths as a heroin-addicted, bumbling paranoid would characterized by those faith adherents as "funny."
The editorial also reads like a promotion for the Dario Fo play, claiming that its stagings "have won uniformly charmed reviews" and that "most reviewers agree it is a hoot." Interestingly, those exuberant raves do not agree fully with the play's reception. For example, it opened briefly in Italy but was met with tepid reviews and not much public interest. In its run in San Francisco, where Catholic leaders objected, the play had an initial spurt of attendance, likely due to its controversy, but then was met with disinterest and had a short run.
Perhaps the best and most ironic evidence of the anti-Catholic tone of this editorial is its
subheadline, which contends, "Those why cry 'Catholic bashing' doth protest too much." Yet the first sentence of the editorial's concluding paragraph reads: "The Catholic Church is a large, wealthy and exceptionally powerful global corporation with a scandal-studded history and a practice of involving itself in the political and social affairs of many nations." I could refer the writer of this editorial to a virtual library of books and manuscripts that refute this grandiose charge and that document the magnificent societal, artistic and spiritual contributions of the Catholic Church over the centuries. I would also ask that, if an unsupported polemic statement like this one doesn't rise to the level of "Catholic bashing," please tell me what does?
Harry J. Flynn is archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Star Tribune
Archbishop Harry Flynn of the Archdiocese of St Paul - Minneapolis didn't show much resistance when he met with University of Minnesota President Robert Bruininks to object to the play "The Pope and the Witch" that the U's Theater Department plans to show next March.
But ask the Execs at the McClatchey head office in California what they think of their new purchase now that they have been exposed by Archbishop Flynn as Catholic Bashers and liars on their editorial pages. What the Star Tribune Really Thinks About The Catholic Church
Also ask the headline writers at the Red Star why they insultingly did not give Archbishop Flynn his customary title when they laid out their web page.
Harry Flynn: Paper adds fuel to fire over 'Pope and the Witch'
Its defense of the University of Minnesota's decision to stage the play is yet another insult to Catholics.
Harry Flynn
Published: December 12, 2006
Your Dec. 3 editorial "Fo play is not faux pas by the U" segues from a lighthearted observation about the author of this theatrical production into a poorly disguised, mean-spirited, sweeping indictment of the Catholic Church and its history. It goes well beyond the limits of logical argumentation and is rather a haughty and hastily cobbled together theatrical review and anti-Catholic diatribe, wrapped in the flag of academic license.
"Understandably" the editorial states, "Catholics don't find 'The Pope and the Witch' funny at all." With that statement, we most certainly agree. We could hardly find a nightmarish parody of the papacy, a fundamental tenet of our faith that has 2,000 years of history, to be very funny. One doubts that a play viciously satirizing a revered or historic leader of the Jewish or Islamic faiths as a heroin-addicted, bumbling paranoid would characterized by those faith adherents as "funny."
The editorial also reads like a promotion for the Dario Fo play, claiming that its stagings "have won uniformly charmed reviews" and that "most reviewers agree it is a hoot." Interestingly, those exuberant raves do not agree fully with the play's reception. For example, it opened briefly in Italy but was met with tepid reviews and not much public interest. In its run in San Francisco, where Catholic leaders objected, the play had an initial spurt of attendance, likely due to its controversy, but then was met with disinterest and had a short run.
Perhaps the best and most ironic evidence of the anti-Catholic tone of this editorial is its
subheadline, which contends, "Those why cry 'Catholic bashing' doth protest too much." Yet the first sentence of the editorial's concluding paragraph reads: "The Catholic Church is a large, wealthy and exceptionally powerful global corporation with a scandal-studded history and a practice of involving itself in the political and social affairs of many nations." I could refer the writer of this editorial to a virtual library of books and manuscripts that refute this grandiose charge and that document the magnificent societal, artistic and spiritual contributions of the Catholic Church over the centuries. I would also ask that, if an unsupported polemic statement like this one doesn't rise to the level of "Catholic bashing," please tell me what does?
Harry J. Flynn is archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Star Tribune
Galtier Society presents Basics of Catholicism for Busy Professional Adults
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Basics of Catholicism for Busy Professional Adults
Series of six lectures on the basics of Catholicism given by Fr. Peter Laird
Location – Saint Paul Seminary
Tuesday nights: Jan. 9, 16, 23 and Feb. 6, 13, 20 from 7:00-8:30
For more information or if there are any questions, please email us at info@galtiersociety.org or write to us at Galtier Society, P.O. Box 40522, Saint Paul, MN
Basics of Catholicism for Busy Professional Adults
Series of six lectures on the basics of Catholicism given by Fr. Peter Laird
Location – Saint Paul Seminary
Tuesday nights: Jan. 9, 16, 23 and Feb. 6, 13, 20 from 7:00-8:30
For more information or if there are any questions, please email us at info@galtiersociety.org or write to us at Galtier Society, P.O. Box 40522, Saint Paul, MN
Sister Rose Brennan Left Behind a Lyrical Legacy at St Joseph's School of Music
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Sister Rose Immacula Brennan devoted her life to God, but it was her love of music that will live on. At age 83, Sister Rose died Wednesday after complications from treatment for cancer.
For almost a quarter-century as a director and voice teacher at St. Joseph's School of Music in St. Paul, Sister Rose worked to bring music into thousands of students' lives. From toddlers to senior citizens, Sister Rose welcomed people from all walks of life into one of the Twin Cities' largest music schools. She would do anything to ensure the school's success — answering phones, recruiting and teaching students, balancing the budget and leading concerts.
"Sister Rose was the music school," said Laurie Dehmlow, whom Sister Rose hired 17 years ago as a vocal teacher at St. Joseph's School of Music. "I was amazed at how much she accomplished. She was a tiny woman with a very large vision." Sister Rose was barely 5 feet tall and weighed less than 100 pounds.
The school, where almost 800 students are enrolled, traces its beginnings to the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet nearly 120 years ago. But as the number of students outgrew its former Summit Avenue location, Sister Rose found the current space on the third floor of the Bigelow Building at University Avenue and Syndicate Street last year and helped move the entire school. She also negotiated its five-year lease.
"Her faith was unbelievable," said John D. Brennan, a nephew living in Coronado, Calif. "She was a very upbeat person. She wasn't a complainer."
Sister Brennan was born Jan. 30, 1923, in Ellendale, N.D., as Elizabeth Ann Brennan. She was the youngest child in a family of musicians. Before entering the Sisters of St. Joseph, Sister Rose studied chemistry and music at the College of St. Catherine. She also worked as director of vocal music for musicals at Cretin and Derham Hall high schools in the 1960s, directing students in numerous Broadway shows.
While Sister Rose devoted her life to music education, she also maintained a separate life devoted to her religion and activism.
During Sister Rose's last days at Bethany Convent in St. Paul, a cadre of friends and former students formed a constant stream in and out of her room, said Sister Marie Shaun, a close friend and assistant director at the music school. [...snip] Pioneer Press
Sister Rose Immacula Brennan devoted her life to God, but it was her love of music that will live on. At age 83, Sister Rose died Wednesday after complications from treatment for cancer.
For almost a quarter-century as a director and voice teacher at St. Joseph's School of Music in St. Paul, Sister Rose worked to bring music into thousands of students' lives. From toddlers to senior citizens, Sister Rose welcomed people from all walks of life into one of the Twin Cities' largest music schools. She would do anything to ensure the school's success — answering phones, recruiting and teaching students, balancing the budget and leading concerts.
"Sister Rose was the music school," said Laurie Dehmlow, whom Sister Rose hired 17 years ago as a vocal teacher at St. Joseph's School of Music. "I was amazed at how much she accomplished. She was a tiny woman with a very large vision." Sister Rose was barely 5 feet tall and weighed less than 100 pounds.
The school, where almost 800 students are enrolled, traces its beginnings to the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet nearly 120 years ago. But as the number of students outgrew its former Summit Avenue location, Sister Rose found the current space on the third floor of the Bigelow Building at University Avenue and Syndicate Street last year and helped move the entire school. She also negotiated its five-year lease.
"Her faith was unbelievable," said John D. Brennan, a nephew living in Coronado, Calif. "She was a very upbeat person. She wasn't a complainer."
Sister Brennan was born Jan. 30, 1923, in Ellendale, N.D., as Elizabeth Ann Brennan. She was the youngest child in a family of musicians. Before entering the Sisters of St. Joseph, Sister Rose studied chemistry and music at the College of St. Catherine. She also worked as director of vocal music for musicals at Cretin and Derham Hall high schools in the 1960s, directing students in numerous Broadway shows.
While Sister Rose devoted her life to music education, she also maintained a separate life devoted to her religion and activism.
During Sister Rose's last days at Bethany Convent in St. Paul, a cadre of friends and former students formed a constant stream in and out of her room, said Sister Marie Shaun, a close friend and assistant director at the music school. [...snip] Pioneer Press
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Just What is Your Favorite Christmas Carol?
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The Telegraph in the UK has a little contest going for its readers. These are the choices of one of its writers. Some of them I've never heard of.
Once in Royal David’s City
Hark! the Herald Angels
O Come, all ye Faithful
Coventry Carol
In the Bleak Midwinter
Away in a Manger
Ding Dong! Merrily on High
Angels, from the Realms of Glory
The 12 Days of Christmas
God Rest you Merry, Gentlemen
Good Christian Men, Rejoice
Good King Wenceslas
While Shepherds Watched
O Little Town of Bethlehem
Silent Night
The First Nowell
It Came upon the Midnight Clear
The Holly and the Ivy
We Three Kings
I Saw Three Ships
Check out the Telegraph where you can learn a little bit about them and hear and judge them for yourself. A good selection.
What are your favorite Carols?
The Telegraph in the UK has a little contest going for its readers. These are the choices of one of its writers. Some of them I've never heard of.
Once in Royal David’s City
Hark! the Herald Angels
O Come, all ye Faithful
Coventry Carol
In the Bleak Midwinter
Away in a Manger
Ding Dong! Merrily on High
Angels, from the Realms of Glory
The 12 Days of Christmas
God Rest you Merry, Gentlemen
Good Christian Men, Rejoice
Good King Wenceslas
While Shepherds Watched
O Little Town of Bethlehem
Silent Night
The First Nowell
It Came upon the Midnight Clear
The Holly and the Ivy
We Three Kings
I Saw Three Ships
Check out the Telegraph where you can learn a little bit about them and hear and judge them for yourself. A good selection.
What are your favorite Carols?
If Animals Exhibit Homosexual Behavior, Does That Mean Homosexual Behavior Is Natural For Humans Because Humans Are Animals?
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Homosexual behaviour is widespread amongst animals, according to a Norwegian museum. But what does this prove for us humans?
Tennis legend Martina Navratilova can't keep off centre court. Having set down her racquet, she is taking up cudgels in favour of gay sheep. Apparently researchers at Oregon State University and Oregon Health and Science University have been tampering with the hormones of sheep to ensure heterosexual behaviour and hence higher reproduction yields for the farmers. In protest, Navratilova, a lesbian activist who moonlights as an animal liberation activist, faxed these institutions the following statement:
"How can it be that, in the year 2006, a major university would host such homophobic and cruel experiments? ... I respectfully ask that you pull the plug on this appalling and misguided research. Surely you can find a way to redirect the millions of public tax dollars that are being wasted on these experiments to a more fruitful venture -- perhaps by funding a gay and lesbian community centre to foster dialogue and acceptance for people of all sexual preferences?"
This is Martina's beef. As a vegetarian and a lesbian, she fears that people will no longer think that homosexuality is hard-wired if gay rams can be reprogrammed. The "insidious implication" is that homosexuality in humans can be cured. Her contention is that it is "natural".
She has been supported in this by Norway’s National History Museum. This hitherto obscure institution has been featured around the world because of its unique photographic exhibit, called "Against Nature?" The world's first museum exhibition dedicated to gay animals, it "proves" that that homosexual behaviour is not a "crime against nature". Homosexuality, it claims, "has been observed in most vertebrate groups, and also from insects, spiders, crustaceans, octopi and parasitic worms. The phenomenon has been reported from more than 1500 animal species, and is well documented for 500 of them, but the real extent is probably much higher." Despite some protests, school children are getting guided tours.
For anyone who has a traditional view of sexuality, these images, are, admittedly, rather confronting. If animals engage in sexual activity for non-reproductive reasons how can the link between the unitive and procreative ends of human sexual intercourse be maintained as a fact of nature?
However, the answer is easier than it might seem at first blush. Homo sapiens is an animal, but not merely an animal. We have a lot in common with parasitic worms, but there are some differences, too. Our bodily nature is subject to intellectual direction. A human being unites the intellectual and the corporeal, what is rational and what is animal. We get a distorted picture of man when we focus on one aspect to the exclusion of the other. They can never be separated.
Interpersonal relations which are truly human cannot be reduced to physical sensations of pleasure or pain. Anyone who chooses to behave in that way is rightly called an animal. When he acts like a sex-obsessed parasitic worm, he becomes less than human. This is the fallacy underpinning the Norwegian exhibition. Its logic can be expressed as follows:
-Homosexual behaviour is observable in animals.
-Therefore, homosexuality is in accordance with animal nature.
-Man is an animal and therefore homosexuality is in accordance with human nature.
Now try extending this argument to other aspects of human life. Animals don't take care of the elderly -- should that lead us to close down nursing homes? Cannibalism can be observed among animals -- should we sell unwanted babies as sausage filling? Most people would say that we shouldn't. Humans are different.
And let's take a closer look at the word "unnatural". Are homosexual acts an intrinsic part of an animal’s nature? The Museum’s zoologists are prepared to stick their neck out and say they are, at least for giraffes. The reasons why male giraffes behave this way are not well understood, but they are certainly not the fruit of conscious, rational decisions. The behaviour of animals is largely governed by stimuli and instinct; they lack the human linguistic ability to be able to "talk through" their emotions. But humans can keep their desires in check and even train them into virtues.
Amongst animals, stimuli can lead to unusual behaviour. Tomcats kill their kittens after receiving “mixed signals”. The hunting instinct is so strong and so hard to switch off that dismemberment and even snacking on their own kittens may ensue. Similarly, the strength of the sexual instinct leads to some quite odd behaviour if it does not have a normal outlet. However zoologists may decide to classify such stray behaviour in animals, human reaction to sexual stimuli involves a good deal of channelling and self-control.
Amongst animals, sex can serve a purpose other than reproduction, such as diffusing tension in social situations. Humans accomplish the same thing with handshakes and smiles. If they were to behave like bonobos in their workplace, there would be a torrent of sexual harassment suits. According to some zoologist, dolphins pack rape. Is that "Against Nature?" Not for dolphins maybe, but it sure is for rational beings.
Due to our rational nature comparisons with non-rational animals collapse at the level of interpersonal relationships. Even at the level of biology, human rationality must be taken into consideration. Humans choose to follow hormonally fuelled drives; sheep have no choice about it. Martina Navratilova and her Norwegian fellow travellers are on shaky philosophical ground if they want to use animals as human role models.
Richard Umbers lectures in philosophy in Sydney. Mercatornet
Homosexual behaviour is widespread amongst animals, according to a Norwegian museum. But what does this prove for us humans?
Tennis legend Martina Navratilova can't keep off centre court. Having set down her racquet, she is taking up cudgels in favour of gay sheep. Apparently researchers at Oregon State University and Oregon Health and Science University have been tampering with the hormones of sheep to ensure heterosexual behaviour and hence higher reproduction yields for the farmers. In protest, Navratilova, a lesbian activist who moonlights as an animal liberation activist, faxed these institutions the following statement:
"How can it be that, in the year 2006, a major university would host such homophobic and cruel experiments? ... I respectfully ask that you pull the plug on this appalling and misguided research. Surely you can find a way to redirect the millions of public tax dollars that are being wasted on these experiments to a more fruitful venture -- perhaps by funding a gay and lesbian community centre to foster dialogue and acceptance for people of all sexual preferences?"
This is Martina's beef. As a vegetarian and a lesbian, she fears that people will no longer think that homosexuality is hard-wired if gay rams can be reprogrammed. The "insidious implication" is that homosexuality in humans can be cured. Her contention is that it is "natural".
She has been supported in this by Norway’s National History Museum. This hitherto obscure institution has been featured around the world because of its unique photographic exhibit, called "Against Nature?" The world's first museum exhibition dedicated to gay animals, it "proves" that that homosexual behaviour is not a "crime against nature". Homosexuality, it claims, "has been observed in most vertebrate groups, and also from insects, spiders, crustaceans, octopi and parasitic worms. The phenomenon has been reported from more than 1500 animal species, and is well documented for 500 of them, but the real extent is probably much higher." Despite some protests, school children are getting guided tours.
For anyone who has a traditional view of sexuality, these images, are, admittedly, rather confronting. If animals engage in sexual activity for non-reproductive reasons how can the link between the unitive and procreative ends of human sexual intercourse be maintained as a fact of nature?
However, the answer is easier than it might seem at first blush. Homo sapiens is an animal, but not merely an animal. We have a lot in common with parasitic worms, but there are some differences, too. Our bodily nature is subject to intellectual direction. A human being unites the intellectual and the corporeal, what is rational and what is animal. We get a distorted picture of man when we focus on one aspect to the exclusion of the other. They can never be separated.
Interpersonal relations which are truly human cannot be reduced to physical sensations of pleasure or pain. Anyone who chooses to behave in that way is rightly called an animal. When he acts like a sex-obsessed parasitic worm, he becomes less than human. This is the fallacy underpinning the Norwegian exhibition. Its logic can be expressed as follows:
-Homosexual behaviour is observable in animals.
-Therefore, homosexuality is in accordance with animal nature.
-Man is an animal and therefore homosexuality is in accordance with human nature.
Now try extending this argument to other aspects of human life. Animals don't take care of the elderly -- should that lead us to close down nursing homes? Cannibalism can be observed among animals -- should we sell unwanted babies as sausage filling? Most people would say that we shouldn't. Humans are different.
And let's take a closer look at the word "unnatural". Are homosexual acts an intrinsic part of an animal’s nature? The Museum’s zoologists are prepared to stick their neck out and say they are, at least for giraffes. The reasons why male giraffes behave this way are not well understood, but they are certainly not the fruit of conscious, rational decisions. The behaviour of animals is largely governed by stimuli and instinct; they lack the human linguistic ability to be able to "talk through" their emotions. But humans can keep their desires in check and even train them into virtues.
Amongst animals, stimuli can lead to unusual behaviour. Tomcats kill their kittens after receiving “mixed signals”. The hunting instinct is so strong and so hard to switch off that dismemberment and even snacking on their own kittens may ensue. Similarly, the strength of the sexual instinct leads to some quite odd behaviour if it does not have a normal outlet. However zoologists may decide to classify such stray behaviour in animals, human reaction to sexual stimuli involves a good deal of channelling and self-control.
Amongst animals, sex can serve a purpose other than reproduction, such as diffusing tension in social situations. Humans accomplish the same thing with handshakes and smiles. If they were to behave like bonobos in their workplace, there would be a torrent of sexual harassment suits. According to some zoologist, dolphins pack rape. Is that "Against Nature?" Not for dolphins maybe, but it sure is for rational beings.
Due to our rational nature comparisons with non-rational animals collapse at the level of interpersonal relationships. Even at the level of biology, human rationality must be taken into consideration. Humans choose to follow hormonally fuelled drives; sheep have no choice about it. Martina Navratilova and her Norwegian fellow travellers are on shaky philosophical ground if they want to use animals as human role models.
Richard Umbers lectures in philosophy in Sydney. Mercatornet
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