February 24, 2006 - Issue #4
Local News | Opinion/Editorials | Letters to the Editor
Five individuals, two groups earn Assisi Awards
The committee that selects the archdiocese’s St. Francis of Assisi Awards Banquet winners has the difficult assignment of choosing just one winner in each of three categories: clergy/religious, laity, and youth/youth group.
The annual awards banquet celebrates local Catholics who give generously of their time, talent and treasure to the local church. Seventy-seven individuals or groups, nominated by their fellow Catholics, were in the running for the awards this year.
Perhaps the selection committee’s task should be called "impossible" instead of "difficult." The committee has never, in the four-year history of the event, been able to limit itself to one winner per category.
This year was no different. The winner for clergy/religious is Holy Cross Father LeRoy Clementich of Anchorage; two groups won in the youth category: the youth groups from St. Joseph Parish in Cordova and St. Anthony Parish in Anchorage; and in the lay category, there are three winners: Gary and Sandra Sandness of Unalaska, Ernie Fleece of Anchorage and Rich Owens of Anchorage.
All were honored at the annual banquet on Feb. 11 at the Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage, where they received commemorative plaques and were featured in a slide show broadcast on a huge screen.
Father Clementich bagged three commendations at the award banquet — an Assisi award, a national Lumen Christi award from the Catholic Church Extension Society, and an apostolic blessing from the pope. The avid fly-fisherman also walked off stage with a 9-foot Sage fly rod gifted by his admirers.
A few days after his big night, Father Clementich said the recognition was "overwhelming."
The spry octogenarian wears many hats: He’s the archdiocese’s director of pastoral education, coordinator of rural ministry, canonical pastor of "priestless" parishes and an award-winning Scripture columnist. Yet another hat, a navy blue baseball cap reading simply "Pilot" in yellow lettering, is one airport workers all along Bristol Bay recognize on the aviator priest they know as "Father Clem."
Whether he arrives in his own airplane, or by charter flight or even by car, Father Clementich can be found most weekends ministering to Catholics in small towns and isolated villages across the archdiocese, from Valdez to Unalaska and Talkeetna to Homer.
"I just get up in the morning and go to work," Father Clementich said last week, "but there are spiritual gifts that affect people that come about when we try to do our work as best as we can. Embedded in those human tasks is what the church calls a grace — the grace of God."
Bishop William Houck, president of the Chicago-based Extension Society was on hand to present the Lumen Christi before the priest’s home audience after initially awarding it last year.
The bishop also announced a $40,000 gift on the occasion of the archdiocese’s founding 40 years ago this month. The money is designated for the parishes and missions of the Bristol Bay region.
At Cordova’s St. Joseph Parish, about 10 young members of the 50-family parish gather each Tuesday to explore Catholic social teaching topics such as global solidarity, preferential option for the poor, capital punishment, just-war theory and the dignity of work.
The discussions prompted the youths to host a parish hunger banquet illustrating the disparity between the world’s haves and have-nots. In the past, they’ve received a grant from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development to tutor elementary kids and provide an after-school snack. More recently, the school has started its own evening tutoring sessions.
They also understand that some families in crisis have a hard time in Cordova, so they volunteered at the town’s Family Resource Center, packing up travel kits for people who need to fly to Anchorage for help. They also bake cookies and Rice Krispy treats and collect laundry money for care packages for the parish’s far-flung college students. One member of their youth group returned from the Cologne World Youth Day pilgrimage last year so inspired that they all are now fundraising for World Youth Day 2008 by selling fair-trade coffee, which provides a just wage for coffee farmers.
Debbie Collins, director of religious education at St. Joseph, said the adults in the parish appreciate the musical talents the youths bring to the choir during Mass, and the adults in turn support the youth group by feeding the 10 teens home-cooked dinners for their weekly gatherings at the church.
The Tuesday night meetings are something the kids look forward to, Collins said.
"They enjoy the company and the fellowship and … they have a voice in things that really matter," Collins said.
St. Anthony’s youth group, VMY-FIAT — Vincentian Marian Youth-Faith in Action Together, numbers about 28 teen-agers, mostly from the parish’s East Anchorage neighborhood.
In the three years since FIAT was born out of a Catholic Relief Services food-fast retreat, they’ve raised thousands of dollars for food banks and fasted during Lent and Thanksgiving in solidarity with the world’s hungry. This past Thanksgiving, 35 teenagers abstained from eating for 24 hours and collected $5,200 from parishioners to purchase food for Anchorage’s hungry.
On Thursdays, they gather to help each other with homework, pray, shoot pool with their pastor in the church’s basement and plan service projects and community-building events.
When Maria Ida "Deng" Giguiento visited Anchorage from the Philippines to celebrate the Anchorage Archdiocese’s solidarity partnership with her Cotabato Archdiocese, she taught FIAT’s members how to evaluate social justice issues in their communities and identify resources and vehicles for change.
This skill helped them advocate for peaceful learning environments in their schools when a dozen of them attended an Anchorage Assembly meeting in November. The youths waited late into the night to testify on the importance of keeping municipal funding for police officers in schools.
FIAT also organizes visits with assisted-living residents of Mary Conrad Center and the Pioneers’ Home, and lends a hand at Beans Cafe.
"What they do for the church is beyond the church boundaries," said Donna Gum, the parish’s pastoral associate. "They’ve taken seriously the challenge … to be the church serving in the world," she said, adding that FIAT has boosted parish morale "200 percent."
In the remote community of Unalaska, where there is no pastor or parish administrator, the names Sandra and Gary Sandness have become synonymous with that of St. Christopher by the Sea Mission Parish.
For nearly two decades, the Sandnesses have helped keep the Aleutian Islands parish organized, surviving changes in administration and, as at present, times during which there is no paid parish staff.
"Sandra and Gary have literally held things together as a team," wrote Father LeRoy Clementich, who as archdiocesan coordinator of rural ministry has been working with the Sandnesses for years. "The parish literally owes its continued existence and spiritual health to the Catholic faith and dedication of this couple."
At St. Christopher, Gary manages maintenance and facilities and serves as a lector, and Sandra coordinates liturgical music and leads services when a priest isn’t available.
The couple also provide transportation to and from the airport for visiting priests and manage the parish finances. Both work heavy schedules at Alyeska Seafoods Inc. Gary is also a volunteer firefighter and medic.
"They are the glue that keeps our Catholic community of Unalaska together," wrote Dominican Father Paul Scanlon, who spent a year on sabbatical in Unalaska and now resides at Holy Family Cathedral in Anchorage.
The Sandnesses were unable to attend the awards banquet because of their work schedules and were unable to submit a photo of themselves.
St. Patrick (Anchorage) parishioner Ernestine "Ernie" Fleece never meets a stranger, according to her friend Penny Greene. Through her involvement in parish and community organizations, Fleece works overtime to provide for others.
As a member of the Anchorage Latino Lions Club, Fleece has been instrumental in the organization’s monthly food distribution program, Greene wrote in her nomination letter. Fleece volunteers in the club’s annual white cane drive to benefit the blind, and she organizes an annual Christmas party for needy families.
At St. Patrick, Fleece has been involved in religious education, liturgy and service committees and special events coordination.
Perhaps her most monumental undertaking has been coordination of meals for Clare House, Catholic Social Services’ shelter for women and children. For the past six years, Fleece has organized the group and individual volunteers who provide food every day for up to 45 guests at the shelter.
"Coordinating those meals entails working with over 30 different churches and organizations," wrote Clare House program manager Lora O’Connor. "Last year alone, thanks to Ernie’s dedication, we were able to provide 39,264 meals to homeless women and children."
Fleece has also brought her dedication to service into the workplace.
As a personnel manager for the Federal Aviation Administration, she helped create a volunteer program through which employees can serve monthly meals at Bean’s Cafe. She also helped establish the Tundra Tykes Child Care Center, which offers affordable childcare for federal employees.
"She notoriously puts others first, and her zest for life is remarkable," St. Patrick parishioner Carolynn Greene wrote in her nomination letter. "Ernie is an example to me of what I hope to be."
To small-business owner Rich Owens, service is a way of reaching out to as many people as possible with the resources on hand.
"We try to do things that affect the lives of large numbers," Owens said. "Sometimes a small business can have the resources to be a real catalyst."
Owens, who owns Tastee-Freez and is a part owner of H2Oasis Indoor Waterpark, has served as a board member for community groups ranging from the Food Bank of Alaska to the municipal Adopt-A-Park program and the Iditarod.
Owens also puts his businesses to work as avenues for performing service. Each year he sponsors Sundaes With Santa, a Tastee-Freez fundraiser to benefit the Salvation Army’s Meals on Wheels program.
He is active in St. Benedict Parish as a lector and extraordinary minister of the Eucharist. As a member of the Catholic Social Services Board of Trustees, Owens helped make the new Brother Francis Shelter possible.
He donates Tastee-Freez and H2Oasis gift certificates for Catholic Social Services fundraisers and assists at charity auctions to benefit Catholic Social Services and local Catholic schools.
"There is no one in my estimation more deserving of recognition," wrote St. Benedict pastor Father Al Giebel in nominating Owens, "not for himself but as an example for others."
Owens credits his parents with teaching him the importance of serving others and says he tries to pass that lesson on to the teenagers who work at Tastee-Freez.
"I tell the kids that work here, one of the best feelings you’ll ever have is doing service for others," Owens said.
Clare House taught mom skills for life
Second in a series about homelessness in Southcentral Alaska (click here to read story1).
When one thinks of problems that can be traced to a person’s upbringing, abusive or neglectful parents might come to mind.
On the contrary, Jenna Kelly (not her real name) of Anchorage thinks her parents perhaps made life too easy for her.
Kelly, 30, last week moved into her own apartment after spending about two months with her 6-year-old child at Clare House, Catholic Social Services’ shelter for women and children.
It is the first time the two have been on their own.
Kelly said she "was kind of like a baby with Mom and Dad," who never let or made her grow up. She said she learned a lot about herself and life in general from the women at Clare House.
"They just opened my eyes to a lot of things," she said. "I was just the most spoiled kid — you wouldn’t believe it!"
Kelly grew up in Fairbanks, the youngest of four children. She was very close to her mother and father.
But when her parents split up after 29 years of marriage, her life began to unravel. She and her mother relocated to Anchorage and moved into a mobile home her mother purchased.
Shortly thereafter, her mother became ill. Less than six months later, she died from pancreatic cancer.
Kelly, who had given birth shortly before her mother died, let her boyfriend move in with them. He had a job and supported them.
"He pretty much took over taking care of me after my mom died," she said.
But then Kelly’s three siblings and she decided to sell the mobile home and divide the proceeds. That left Kelly with $2,800 but no place to live.
Around that time she broke up with her boyfriend. A friend let Kelly and her child move in, but that family was having problems of its own, and when Kelly tried to intervene, she and her child were told to leave. They stayed in a hotel for a few days until the family let them return.
But soon the Kellys were turned out again. Finally, with their money dwindling, the two wound up at the Mush Inn, a low-cost motel in Northeast Anchorage, where Kelly said she didn’t feel unsafe.
Her Cook Inlet Tribal Council case worker suggested Clare House, and Kelly reluctantly agreed.
"I was crying the whole day and I kept telling my sister I didn’t want to go," she recalled.
It was not easy to adjust to community living at the shelter, with set meal times, shared space and strict rules.
"At first I didn’t understand why I had to do chores, or why I had to save money," Kelly said. "But after being there for 30 days, I started to realize why they have those rules."
Cleanliness is important when you have 20 or 30 children in the same room playing with the same toys, she now realizes. Likewise, feeding up to 45 people every night and getting them all to bed requires some rigidity.
"They can’t just bend the rules for one person or they’d have to do it for all of us. It took me a while but now I understand," Kelly said.
Another rule Kelly didn’t appreciate at first was the policy requiring guests to save money and, if unemployed, to look diligently for work.
Now that she’s on her own, she said, she is glad for every dime she saved of the $600 in public assistance she receives monthly from Cook Inlet Tribal.
"Just moving in I’m spending all this money!" she said late last week, tallying the cost of renting a moving truck and paying $10 an hour to two day laborers she hired from Brother Francis Shelter.
Kelly has some good leads on jobs, thanks to social workers who helped her land an internship at Alaska Housing Finance Corp., the main housing authority in the state, where she’s been working for four hours a day.
Kelly has a two-year degree but hasn’t had a job for the past three years, she said. The internship has helped her renew confidence and sharpen skills.
"It’s a really positive environment over there," she said. "Just because I haven’t been working doesn’t mean I don’t know how."
She’s been told that a paying position as an administrative assistant might open up at the corporation, but even if that doesn’t happen soon, she has "lots of good references" from her supervisors there.
Another benefit from her stay at Clare House has been the knowledge she gained regarding physical health, Kelly said.
"I’ve never exercised in my life, never drank water, never ate salad. I always ate at McDonald’s and drank soda."
Clare House meals — which are donated year-round by members of the community — are very healthy by comparison. There are lots of casseroles and lasagnas, but also fruit and vegetables, and milk for the children, she said.
Plus, because Kelly doesn’t have a car, she walked 45 minutes a day from her internship to Clare House. She took the bus to work, but found that she could make it back to the shelter on foot about the same time she would have on the bus because only one bus runs that route in the afternoon.
"I’ve never been as healthy as I am now," Kelly said.
Perhaps the most important change in her life, though, is the way she now sees herself in relation to homeless people.
After her first few days at Clare House, Kelly said she began to open up to the other women there who were trying to reach out to her. She began to see them as friends who knew what she was going through and were willing to help.
"They told me, ‘We all cried our first night; everything can only get better from here!’ " she recalled.
Gradually Kelly became one of the helpers, reaching out to new arrivals, who were initially in shock.
"Now when the new girls come in, I just say, ‘Oh, gosh, I know just how you feel,’ " she said in early February when she was still at Clare House.
She and her child have now moved out of the shelter, but Kelly said she plans to remain involved in its work. She might be a mentor or invite women to spend a night in the apartment to have a little more privacy, she said. And she hopes to be able to support the operation financially too.
"I just can’t wait till I can get a job so I can help the other ladies that come in," she said.
Next issue: Managing health without a home.
A blessed event
25 years ago, thousands of Alaskans came to see the pontiff
It was street carnival, it was solemn religious event, it was a chance to see the biggest celebrity who ever came to town.
It was — and remains — the ultimate event for the Catholic Church in Alaska.
Twenty-five years ago, on Feb. 26, 1981, Pope John Paul II stopped in Anchorage for four-and-a-half hours. The visit attracted the largest crowd in modern Alaska history and ranks just below the 1964 earthquake as a major Alaskan historic event.
It all started when Archbishop Francis Hurley, now retired, received confirmation that the pope planned to visit the city on his way home from Nagasaki, Japan, at the end of an Asian tour.
Famous people often stopped in the state for refueling, usually for brief, insulated visits at military bases.
This was different.
This was a trip through the heart of Anchorage. This was Pope John Paul II standing up through the sunroof of his limousine to wave at the folks at the Pioneers’ Home. This was the pope traveling down Fifth Avenue in a locally constructed "popemobile," stopping at Holy Family Cathedral to greet clergy and religious, going downstairs to the parish hall to embrace the ill, elderly and disabled.
This was the pope waving to crowds he could almost reach out and touch as he rode to a specially constructed altar on the Delaney Park Strip for a public Mass. This was the leader of the world’s Roman Catholics taking Norman Vaughan’s dog team for a brief ride at the airport.
The first amazing thing about the visit was that the archdiocese was given only six weeks — six crazy, frenzied weeks — to prepare.
"Most dioceses which hosted a papal visit had at least five months," Archbishop Hurley said in a recent interview with the Anchor.
But the scarcity of time proved beneficial.
"We had to concentrate on essentials," the archbishop said.
"If we’d had longer, we couldn’t have done it," joked Max Hodel of Anchorage, who helped chair the steering committee for the event. "We were all focused."
Indeed, each morning the small steering committee, coordinated by the late Msgr. Francis Cowgill and headed by Hodel, his wife, Joanne, and former Gov. Walter Hickel and his wife Ermalee, met at Holy Family Cathedral.
Following Mass and breakfast, the committee would tackle the issues, ranging from logistics to security, from an adequate sound system to entertainment for the thousands who might be waiting for hours for a glimpse of the pontiff.
Not least of the problems was housing and entertaining a glut of officials, any one of whom might have caused a minor stir on an ordinary day in Anchorage. These included four cardinals, the apostolic delegate to the United States, the Italian ambassador to the United States, at least two dozen archbishops and bishops and Labor Secretary Raymond Donovan, representing President Ronald Reagan.
Then there was the press.
In those days, Anchorage still boasted two daily papers, the Anchorage Daily News and the now-defunct Anchorage Times. Each paper spent the weeks before the event exploring the visit from every possible angle. A distant Anchorage cousin of the pope’s was interviewed; hawkers of papal merchandise were surveyed. Archbishop Hurley was profiled — "a shepherd tending a scattered flock" — in the Daily News’ "We Alaskans" magazine.
The day before the pope’s arrival, the Anchorage Times devoted the entire front page to a portrait of John Paul II.
So many representatives of the national and international press swept into the city that a special floor was allotted them at the Hotel Captain Cook. Bill Tobin was then the associate editor and general manager of the Anchorage Times, as well as a member of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish.
As the communications point man on the steering committee, Tobin spent the night before the pope’s arrival on the Cook’s press floor, dubbed "the funny floor" in honor of the press’ raucous behavior.
He remembers the incredible amount of cable lining the hallways. Photographers filmed from every available angle, including the roof of the Times’ building on Fifth Avenue.
"I met the ABC crew, which had been traveling with the pope," Tobin said. Pointing at the huge amount of equipment they carried, he remembers saying, " ‘You carry all that gear for a three-minute shot (on the network news)?’ and they replied, ‘No, for a 30-second shot.’ "
The U.S. Secret Service began arriving soon after the visit was announced. As the leader of Vatican City, the pope is a head of state and warrants official protection.
New agents would introduce themselves every few days, Archbishop Hurley said, but no one ever knew exactly how many of the plainclothes officers eventually came to town.
The Anchorage Times reported that at least 75 agents were lodged at the Sheraton Hotel. At least one camouflaged himself in the middle of the choir that sang at the papal Mass, Archbishop Hurley said.
The outpouring of community support overwhelmed planners.
From cooperation from the city — led by Mayor George Sullivan, a Catholic — to incredible support from the city’s various denominations, Hodel said it boiled down to this: "Nobody said no. Everybody said, ‘Yes, what can we do?’ "
The Greek Orthodox Church and Shiloh Baptist Church provided street choirs. All Saints Episcopal took up a collection to defray costs. Churches along the Delaney Park Strip opened their doors; First Baptist provided space for clergy to vest, a warmup area for the choir and an area outfitted with phones and telex machines for reporters.
And the list went on and on.
All this support probably explains another fact about Anchorage’s papal visit: At the end of it, the archdiocese was, incredibly, money ahead.
"Most dioceses went into debt hosting a papal visit," Archbishop Hurley recalled.
The first decision the steering committee made was a crucial one: They wanted as many people as possible to see the pontiff as close up as possible. So the next decision they faced was where to have Mass.
Anchorage’s major public venues didn’t exist yet — the Sullivan Arena, the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts, the Egan Civic & Convention Center. Catholic churches were too small and no facility — even airport hangars — seemed large enough.
"Finally," Hodel said, "we thought, you know, we stand outside for three days in February watching dog sled races; why can’t we stand outside for Mass?"
It was a brilliant — and somewhat gutsy — decision. Luckily, the weather cooperated with temperatures in the 20s and no wind or snow.
And the crowds came. The Times estimated the throng at 80,000.
The Daily News came in at a more conservative 40,000, but even if the smaller figure were accurate, it would mean that the equivalent of one in 10 Alaskans came to downtown Anchorage that day in February to see Pope John Paul II.
Many in the crowd weren’t Catholic: There were fewer than 40,000 Catholics in the entire state in 1981, with a little more than 16,000 of them residing in the Archdiocese of Anchorage.
John Paul II, still ruggedly handsome and robust at 60, had been elected pope in October 1978 and was establishing himself as a world traveler. The multilingual pontiff said Mass and gave his homily in English, his deep, sonorous voice commanding the attention of the crowd as he noted the natural beauty that surrounded them.
He also reminded people of the intimacy with God we share in calling God "Abba, Father," as Christ did.
"It’s a relationship that is closer and more personal than that of a child to the parent who has generated life," the pope said.
Beverly Walsh, a member of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, was one of 100 people chosen to receive Holy Communion from the pontiff himself. She sat on the altar and remembers looking out at the largest crowd she’d ever seen in Anchorage.
"There were people in trees, on top of buildings," she recalled. "It was a sea of people, but I remember how quiet and attentive they were. There was no crowd noise."
Near Walsh, in the choir, was her 16-year-old son, Leo, who today is the pastor of St. Andrew Parish in Eagle River.
At the end of Mass, the pope invited the choir, which included Catholics from across the city as well as many non-Catholics, to come sing for him in Rome, which it did the following year.
The lasting impact of Pope John Paul II’s visit to Anchorage is impossible to measure. But Archbishop Hurley knows of people who became more active in the church, or returned to the church, after the visit.
Another concrete result, according to the archbishop, was a heightened commitment to good music and liturgy in parishes, motivated by the success of the papal choir and the beauty of the papal Mass.
And perhaps a lasting impact of the visit of this most ecumenical of popes, who died in 2005, is the good relations and ecumenical spirit that swelled up in the various churches of Anchorage on a cold winter day in 1981 and remained and grew in the years ahead.
Knights of Columbus want to build a grander memorial to pope’s visit
It was such a momentous occasion that people camped overnight — in February — to ensure a good seat, and during the event children climbed trees to get a better view. The main attraction arrived in a special vehicle that carried him through a crowd of tens of thousands.
Now, all that remains of the brief visit Pope John Paul II paid to Anchorage on Feb. 26, 1981, are the memories, of course, and photos and microfiched news accounts, and a small stone monument on the Delaney Park Strip where the pope celebrated Mass.
Alaska’s Knights of Columbus want to build what they say will be a more fitting memorial of the event, which is still considered the largest gathering of people in the modern history of Alaska.
The Knights and the Anchorage Archdiocese this weekend are announcing plans for the building project that local Knights councils will head up, spearheaded by Council 4859 of Holy Family Cathedral.
After a special noon Mass Feb. 26 at the cathedral marking the 25th anniversary of the pope’s visit, the public is invited to a separate celebration at the current memorial — a small rectangular column that stands about three feet high on the west side of the Park Strip.
There, at 3 p.m., the Knights and the Anchorage Archdiocese will describe what they hope to build to better memorialize the historic visit.
Archbishop Roger Schwietz and his retired predecessor, Archbishop Francis Hurley, will both be on hand for the event at the Park Strip. Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich may attend as well.
The memorial upgrade project began last summer when several Knights from the cathedral parish decided to clean up the Park Strip site, pulling weeds and painting nearby benches. But as they worked on the area bigger ideas formed.
"We felt that the (present) memorial was inadequate," said Tony Stanley, Grand Knight of Council 4859. "I don’t think there’s ever been any more important head of state who’s ever come to Anchorage, and we’ve got a postage stamp memorial there."
Stanley said he was very grateful to former Mayor George Sullivan, who had the present memorial installed, but now, 25 years later, is a good time to upgrade the site.
The Knights have ambitious plans. Organizers envision "improvements to beautify 1.7 acres" around the present memorial, according to Larry Nakata, Deputy Grand Knight of Council 4859.
The Park Strip, of course, is on city land, and therefore any changes to the memorial site need city approval. But the Knights are hoping to put in a reflection pond that will become a skating rink in the winter, meditation areas with benches, a small playground and a memorial wall with historical information about the visit and the names of those who donate to the project, according to Nakata. They want to bring water and electricity to the site and to improve the landscaping.
Eventually the Knights would like to install a larger physical memorial, perhaps a statue of John Paul II, Stanley said.
While none of the plans have city approval yet, a public review process should begin soon, according to Stanley. The mayor and city Parks and Recreation workers have been "wonderful to work with," he added.
The rough proposals described above would probably carry a price tag of $1.3 million to $1.5 million, according to Stanley.
Details about how the money will be raised are still being ironed out, according to Jim Caldarola, Stewardship and Development director for the Anchorage Archdiocese. He said funding sources being considered include but aren’t limited to private contributions and grants from philanthropic organizations.
Religion can be used as a resource to bring peace
Editor’s Note: When she visited Alaska in November, Maria Ida "Deng" Giguiento, who works for Catholic Relief Services in the Philippines, delivered a fascinating talk at Alaska Pacific University about her peace and reconciliation work in her country and in East Timor. Giguiento granted permission to reprint excerpts from the talk ("Building Peace in Multicultural, Interreligious Settings"); here is the last of four parts (Click here for story1, story2 & story3).
The history of the Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) seeking sanctuary in the land now called Ethiopia under the leader Negus is something not many know of.
When the prophet was persecuted by the peoples of Makkah, he fled to the land of the Christian ruler Negus. The Muslims were pursued by the people of Makkah and negotiators were sent to Negus for him to send back the Muslims to Makkah. But Negus did not shoo the Muslims away and kept them under his protection until the prophet decided it was time to move on.
Translated into modern day, when the small community of Muslims in East Timor did not receive their rice support, they went to Catholic Relief Services. Asked why they approached the Catholic organization, the Muslim leader recounted the story of the Prophet Mohammed and said, "With the name ‘Catholic’ in your organization, we were sure you were not going to turn us away."
In the East Timor struggle for independence, the Catholic Church played a role and the people’s faith in a just God held them through 24 years of hardship and suffering and deaths.
Led by Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo, the faithful tirelessly prayed, worked, struggled, sang, cried, celebrated small victories and, finally, voted with their feet.
I remember seeing people going to their polling places the day before the election and I asked why and they said they wanted to be there first. I remember seeing the old people dressed in their fineries and I asked my driver why and my driver started crying — I had to ask him to stop the vehicle.
I then asked one of the elders why he was dressed in his beautiful clothes and he said, "I know I will not see the dawn after I have cast my vote, but I will do this for my grandchildren. I have gone to confession and received the Holy Communion and I am ready to face my maker."
In one of the Masses marking the celebration of independence, Bishop Belo said: "We are celebrating the independence at a huge cost — we had our share of martyrs. Let us not waste their blood by leading this country to downfall. Let us honor them by building this country from the ashes."
In the Philippines, while political and military leaders were still trying to decide whether they were going to pursue peace talks seriously with each other, two bishops (one Episcopal, one Catholic) had the vision of the churches and the faithful being key stakeholders in the peace process.
The Episcopal bishop died a few months after but the Catholic bishop pursued their dream — he convened a few Catholic and Protestant bishops and some members of the Ulama League of the Philippines and we now have the Bishops-Ulama Conference — a major dialoguing group in the Southern Philippines.
Their role has expanded to being key players in resolving conflicts in Mindanao together with other groups.
Asked what was the driving force behind their group, I heard the Catholic bishop convener say "The Vatican document ‘Nostra Aetate’ (‘In Our Time’) says, ‘The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions.’ And that is why I am here."
Then I heard what the Muslim convener had to say: "Islam is a Religion of Peace — Salaam — and that is why I am here!"
Duyog Ramadan is a program in one small university in Cotabato City where the non-Muslim students fast alongside their Muslim friends. They will also break the fast together. The university adjusts its schedule to provide for the breaking of the fast.
Duyog literally translates into "to accompany," and one can accompany by fasting fully (waking up at 2 a.m., saying morning prayer, eating breakfast, going back to sleep or doing chores, then going about your day, praying in between) or a half-fast (no solid food, drinking water only) or by refraining from eating and drinking in front of fasting students (the school had a policy during Ramadan that eating and drinking had to be done only in the school cafeteria), or by donating food for the breaking of the fast.
This promotes better understanding between Muslims and Christians and builds lasting friendships. It also allows the communities around the school to be involved in the program of the school (and raise Muslim-Christian awareness) by preparing food for the breaking of the fast.
The "Ginapaladtaka" is a space for peace, a group of seven villages who declared they did not want to be part of the war anymore. They banded together — Christians and the non-Christians/Muslims — to form a space for peace where their children are declared "zones of peace" and where the government and rebel troops are not allowed to fight. This was a difficult thing to do while there was an active war going on but they did it out of their faiths:
"Christ is the Prince of Peace!" cried the Christians.
"Salaam is a Religion of Peace!" cried the Muslims.
"Mambabaya is the Creator of the Peaceful World!" cried the Lumads (indigenous peoples).
What then?
Let us recognize that in religions, there are sources of peace that are waiting to be tapped in building a better world. Let us also be aware that there are resources in religions that can break relationships and be the cause of the conflict or feed into conflicts. It is a matter of acceptance and respect.
There are people who believe in a God or a supreme being other than God and they could use that belief to make life better for themselves and others, or better for themselves and bad for others. In the end, it is the people who believe and practice the religion that could make it as a resource for peace or a source of conflict.
And with that, I would like to end my talk tonight with parts of the talk that Episcopal Rev. John Danforth said on Oct. 12, 2005, as part of the panel on Religion and Peacemaking:
"With governments and transnational bodies such as the United Nations unable to deal with the role of religion in global violence or uninterested in addressing it, the responsibility falls to religious organizations, especially the Catholic Church … ."
He urged religious institutions to take "specific, concrete efforts to stop factions from using religion as a way of dividing people. Because of its hierarchical structure, its vast worldwide presence and even its intellectual tradition, the leadership of the Catholic Church will be the critical element to make that work."
It is there for us to face; it is up to us to take that challenge.
News & Notes
Lenten Fast and Abstinence Regulations
Lent begins each year with the celebration of Ash Wednesday (March 1, 2006) and concludes 40 days later before the celebration of the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday (April 13, 2006).
As your faith community begins its observance of the Lenten season, you may notice some changes. Decor and musical accompaniment may be more subdued so that the penitential character of the season is better preserved. The Alleluia is also not used from the beginning of Lent until the Easter Vigil. While weddings are permitted during Lent, they are to reflect the special nature of the season. Funeral Masses may not be celebrated on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday or Easter Sunday. In addition to choosing their own penitential practices, Catholics are also asked to observe the practices of fast and abstinence during the 40 days of Lent.
1. Everyone 14 years of age or over is bound to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and all the Fridays of Lent.
2. Archbishop Roger Schwietz has granted a dispensation from abstinence for all the faithful in the Archdiocese of Anchorage on Friday, March 17, the Feast of St. Patrick.
3. Everyone 18 years of age and under 59 years of age is bound to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. (The obligation of fasting ceases with the celebration of one’s 59th birthday.)
4. On Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, only one full meatless meal is allowed. Two other smaller meatless meals, sufficient to maintain strength, may be taken according to each one’s needs, but together they should not equal another full meal. Eating between meals is not permitted on these two days, but liquids, including milk and fruit juices, are allowed. When health or ability to work would be seriously affected, the law does not oblige.
5. Catholics should not lightly excuse themselves from these prescribed minimal penitential practices.
Archbishop's Column
At my house in Anchorage I have a small chapel that can seat about four people. It is where Brother Craig and I, and sometimes visitors, have community prayer daily and where I celebrate Mass if I do not have a commitment elsewhere.
Lately, in the chapel, I have kept a small photo of Aaron Nicholson. Aaron is the son of Renee and Jim Nicholson of our Anchorage Archdiocese. He is 19 years old and has been in Kuwait since Dec. 2 in preparation for a year’s stint in Iraq as part of our military force.
I had invited Renee, Aaron’s mother, to give me a small photo of Aaron so that I could have it in my chapel and pray daily for his safety. This she gladly did.
I would like to invite anyone in the archdiocese who has a loved one in the military and who might be in harm’s way to send me a photo of this person and some personal information and I will include them in my prayers for a safe return.
I think it is important to pray for and support our sisters and brothers in the military who are carrying out their country’s commitment to democracy and the freedom of all people.
It is a mistake to consider those who support and pray for our women and men in the armed forces to be "war mongers." They are simply people who value life, especially the lives of those who serve in our military.
Of course, we at the same time must pray for a more just world and for peace among peoples. We, as bishops of this country, have also consistently urged, following the exhortations of the late Pope John Paul II, that the avenues for peaceful resolution of conflicts be exhausted before violence is undertaken, in respect for all the human lives involved.
This nation "must act with a constructive and informed realism that helps us to learn from the past and to move forward," as Bishop Thomas Wenski of Orlando, Fla., chairman of the U.S. Conference of Bishops’ Committee on International Policy, recently said in a statement titled "Toward a Responsible Transition in Iraq."
"More immediately," Bishop Wenski continued, "our nation must engage in serious and civil dialogue in order to walk the difficult path toward a responsible transition that seeks to help Iraqis take responsibility for building a better future for themselves — a future that contributes to peace in the region and beyond. This national dialogue must begin with a search for the ‘truth’ of where we find ourselves in Iraq and not with a search for political advantage or justification for past positions."
We, as Americans, have a great responsibility in our world, given the remarkable freedoms and democracy we enjoy. We also have a responsibility to pray for those who have gone before us and who have made the ultimate sacrifice for those freedoms.
At the same time, let us urge a respectful dialogue that summons the collective wisdom of our leaders to find a peaceful solution to the tensions between nations that exist in our world.
At the same time, I want our people in uniform to know that my prayers for their safety are with them. Send me a photo of them and I will keep them in my chapel and in my prayers.
Editorial
Obligation to poor belongs to all
In this pluralistic society, viewpoints compete and the public ultimately decides which route to follow. In that important public process, it is vital that Catholics, informed by the social teachings of the church, share their faith-based perspectives.
The recent history of Alaska’s Human Services Community Matching Grant illustrates not only how public and private entities can work together in the interest of society’s "least ones," but also how important it is to advocate for the poor in the public process.
In the first budget Gov. Frank Murkowski submitted in 2003, he proposed eliminating the Human Services Community Matching Grant, which combines state money with matching funds from municipalities to support the work of nonprofit agencies serving those most in need.
The dozens of service providers who depend on the grants, including Catholic Social Services, persuaded the Legislature to appropriate grant money anyway. However, an ominous note was inserted into the budget that year asserting that the grant should be "phased out."
When the budget passed, Catholic Social Services and other advocates for the poor and needy hit the phones, thanking legislators for funding the grant and urging them not to phase it out. Many were able to provide compelling information about the effectiveness of the grant in stretching state dollars to the maximum in service to those who, ultimately, are the state’s responsibility.
In subsequent years the amount of matching grant funding was reduced but full phase-out didn’t occur.
Now the governor has had a change of heart. In the new budget he submitted last month, he is recommending more than doubling the matching grant to $3 million. We applaud him, and hope the Legislature supports him.
Changes of heart often come about when a person hears a new argument or experiences an issue in a new way. Advocates for the poor were outspoken in articulating the importance of the matching grant, and Gov. Murkowski seems to have heard them and changed course.
All this may sound like the mundane minutiae of politics, but changes on this relatively small funding issue will have profound effects on some of Alaska’s most vulnerable citizens.
The matching grant is currently providing about 22 percent of the operating budget of Clare House, Catholic Social Services’ shelter for women and children, and more than 10 percent each of the operating budgets of two of its other programs, Brother Francis Shelter and St. Francis House.
The grant helps many other agencies provide emergency food, shelter, health care and legal services to the poor.
There is no shortage of such needs. In fact, advocates for the homeless say that the cut to federal housing assistance last year is one of the reasons emergency shelters in Anchorage have been at or near capacity the past few months.
Every citizen has a role in forming public policy, not just the politicians who write legislation. A good way to stay up on public policy issues is to join the Archdiocesan Legislative Network, an e-mail service that monitors activities in Juneau and mobilizes Catholics to take action. To join the network, send a request to Angela Liston, angela.liston@caa-ak.org.
While you’re at it, send a note to Gov. Murkowski thanking him for boosting funding for the matching grant, and another urging your legislative representatives to support the governor’s proposal.
Letters to the Editor
Two regrettable behaviors
It is certainly regrettable that some folks attending Mass give no more thought to their appearance than they might when working out at a gym (Readers Respond, Feb. 10). It is equally regrettable that Vince Doran is apparently paying more attention to a certain young woman’s attire than he is the Holy Mass.
Anchorage
Enough already on Cheney
I’m fed up with the feeding frenzy the liberal media are having with Vice President Dick Cheney’s shooting of a hunting companion. Did the leftists ever bother to report the hundreds, maybe thousands, of hunting trips in which the vice president didn’t shoot anybody? Fair and balanced? I don’t think so.
Anchorage
Allah’s sense of humor?
On the morning I write this, apologies were demanded for the second time from the Muslims because Sweden and Norway had reprinted cartoons that Muslims say insulted Allah. In reply the Scandinavians said that democracy demanded "freedom of the press" and they don’t feel that they should have to apologize. And these cartoons are spreading throughout the European Union. Two different religions, two different cultures. We need to understand where they come from so we don’t alienate them without meaning to. Now, especially remembering my reaction to the cartoons printed in the Anchor around Christmastime, I think our God has a sense of humor. We in America are used to "the funnies," as my parents used to call them. We just take it for granted that everyone should be that way. I don’t know whether Allah has a sense of humor or not. Does anyone know?
Anchorage
No room for dissent?
In a recent communication to parish administrators, vicar general Father Donald Bramble requested that parishes deny access to Call To Action and not advertise the group’s meetings. The prohibition was based on "their belief that women be ordained." For shame! Attempting to shield people from voices of dissent and calls for reform insults their intelligence. Does the archbishop eschew honest dialogue about uncomfortable issues? Sister Kaye Ashe, a Dominican like Father Bramble, supports women celebrating Eucharist, challenging us as church "to see the present from the vantage point of the future." Why cannot our patriarchal leaders see as a hopeful sign of the times the prophetic voice of Spirit-filled women in the ecclesial community? By reason of baptism and their contemplative intimacy with God, many women are surely capable of sharing the fruits of contemplation with others — by example, by preaching and by celebrating the Sacred Mysteries.
Wasilla
Monastery offers holy hour
On the 40th anniversary of the Anchorage Archdiocese, Archbishop Francis Hurley framed his homily around Benedict XVI’s first encyclical, "Deus Caritas Est" ("God is Love"). He prayed that the archdiocese might accept and hand on God’s infinite love. That prayer and homily were wonderfully appropriate to the setting — Blessed Sacrament Monastery — for, as the Holy Father reminds us in his encyclical, "The saints … constantly renewed their capacity for love of neighbor from their encounter with the Eucharistic Lord … " (no. 18). Blessed Sacrament Monastery makes adoration of the Blessed Sacrament available every day till 9 p.m., with a formal holy hour Thursday evenings. What a grace for our archdiocese if those who can make a regular holy hour part of their Lenten "interior pilgrimage to God’s Mercy," as Benedict XVI writes in his Lenten message. In the Real Presence we reach the goal of our journey the moment we begin.
Anchorage