April 7, 2006 - Issue #7
Local News | Opinion/Editorials | Letters to the Editor
Small confirmation class, small town, big challenges
What’s it like to prepare for the sacrament of confirmation with only six students?
Mandy Hale, coordinator of confirmation for St. Francis Xavier Parish in Valdez, can give you the pluses and minuses of a small class.
But one thing is certain: No one falls through the cracks.
"These kids are very bright," Hale said of her six "confirmandi," three boys and three girls. "They are fun in and out of class. And they have it in their hearts that they want to do this."
Hale knows this because, although she admits her students are at different levels of maturity and commitment, she’s been able to work with each one closely.
All six young Catholics were confirmed by Archbishop Roger Schwietz March 30 in Valdez.
Ministering in the archdiocese’s rural areas can be tough. In Valdez — a town of about 4,200 residents located at the end of the Richardson Highway — confirmation directors have had to beat the bushes just to find service opportunities for the students. The resources are fewer, the volunteer pool smaller.
In fact, Hale ended up with the confirmation assignment almost by default.
"The woman who had volunteered to prepare the confirmation class was looking for an assistant to help her," she said. "One gal urged me to do it. I thought about it and prayed about it and then said yes."
Then, before classes were gearing up in September 2004, the other woman moved out of town. Suddenly, Hale was faced with a nearly two-year commitment she hadn’t bargained on.
"Sister said, ‘We won’t hold you to it,’ " Hale said, referring to St. Francis Xavier’s parish director, Holy Family Sister Marie Ann Brent.
But Hale plunged in.
She acknowledged initially feeling "at a loss" until Sister Brent sent for "Confirmed in a Faithful Community," an instructional by St. Mary’s Press. Hale liked the program, which includes sections on invitation, formation, reflection and mission.
Martie Mitchell, 16 years old and a 10th-grader at Valdez High School, remembers one activity as especially meaningful. The class prepared a front page of a newspaper, written in Christ’s time, that chronicled the events of the resurrection.
"I interviewed one of the angels," Mitchell said.
Hale did get some help with the confirmation program. Matt Groves, the 26-year-old executive officer of a Coast Guard patrol boat, agreed to assist when he could.
Groves said he wanted to help influence young Catholics because he thinks "it’s tough for young adults in the church — you’re in a sort of limbo while you’re not married."
Both at St. Mary Parish in Kodiak, where he was previously stationed, and in Valdez, Groves often finds himself the only single "20-something" in church, he said.
One challenge facing Hale and Groves was where to find the service projects that are so much a part of the archdiocese’s confirmation training. Valdez doesn’t have a homeless shelter, and what local projects exist generally aren’t geared for teenage helpers.
The dearth of opportunity has forced the parish to be creative in finding projects that are interesting enough to engage the teens and meaningful enough to make a difference.
A previous confirmation group went to McCarthy, spent the night and helped clean up the town’s old cemetery, Hale said.
There’s a similar possibility for current or future confirmandi: sprucing up the old cemetery rediscovered in Valdez a few years ago.
Hale said three of her confirmandi accomplished some of the program’s service requirements by attending the Alaska Catholic Youth Conference in 2005 and diving into volunteer opportunities offered during that event.
One local project that the current class took part in was cleaning up a stretch of Valdez’s bike trail.
Ben Tapangco, 17, said the effort became a battle of the sexes, with the girls starting at one end and the boys at the other and the winner having the most garbage at the middle.
"We won," Tapangco said.
"I think they just found the largest pieces of garbage," Mitchell countered.
Archdiocese set to launch ‘One Bread, One Body’ appeal
The Anchorage Archdiocese is implementing a new fund-raising system designed to lower the "tax" parishes currently provide for archdiocesan operations and to provide parishioners the opportunity to contribute directly to the archdiocese.
For the past 10 years, the archdiocese has not taken up a collection for its own ministries and administration, opting instead to foster the concept of stewardship — the sharing of time, talent and treasure — at the parish level and then collecting 15 percent of parish offertory income.
The new "One Bread, One Body" Annual Appeal does not replace parish stewardship, but asks parishioners to consider making a financial contribution directly to the archdiocese as a component of their financial stewardship. In turn, the archdiocese expects to lower the 15 percent parish "tax," formally called the "cathedraticum."
One Bread, One Body officially kicks off at the end of this month with letters from Archbishop Roger Schwietz that will be mailed to Catholic homes throughout the archdiocese. The letters will explain the appeal and ask for parishioners’ support in the form of a financial pledge to the archdiocese.
The campaign will be familiar to many Catholics here who remember Project Advance, the annual appeal the archdiocese conducted for many years until 1995. More recent arrivals to the Anchorage Archdiocese will also likely recognize the annual appeal model from their former diocese; only 13 of 176 U.S. dioceses that were surveyed in 2004 did not conduct an annual appeal.
One Bread, One Body has a goal of $613,502 this year. That amount is equal to 10 percent of the average offertory income collected in the parishes over the past two years.
Money from the new appeal will be utilized to support a wide range of archdiocesan ministries, from the programs of Catholic Social Services to the local church’s evangelization and vocation efforts and its parochial schools (see sidebar).
Annual appeal money will also go to parish ministries in some rural areas where the Catholic community isn’t able to raise sufficient funds.
No appeal donations will be used for legal payments or settlements for priests accused of sexual misconduct, according to Jim Caldarola, director of the archdiocese’s Office of Stewardship and Development, which is carrying out the appeal.
Currently archdiocesan operations are funded in large part by the 15 percent cathedraticum that parishes pay to the archdiocese. By collecting funds directly from parishioners, Caldarola said, the archdiocese hopes to create a system that is less burdensome and more fair to its parishes.
Annual appeal income will offset the cathedraticum; to what degree depends on the success of the campaign, Caldarola said. In other dioceses, the cathedraticum is commonly between 8 percent and 12 percent, he said.
Also, Caldarola said, the archdiocese foresees implementing a sort of graduated tax system in the future, replacing the "flat tax" now in place.
The current cathedraticum is 15 percent for every parish, regardless of parish population, demographics or other factors.
Caldarola said the new model will set different tax rates to take such factors into consideration. Initially, there will likely be one rate for urban parishes and a lower one for those in the outlying areas.
The amount of debt a parish is carrying may also affect its cathedraticum rate, he said.
Archbishop Schwietz said he has been carefully evaluating how the archdiocese is funded since he arrived here in 2000.
The Diocese of Duluth, where he served as bishop for 10 years, conducted an annual appeal.
"What I really liked about it is that it gave me an opportunity to address the people about what is happening in the diocese, what programs are being presented and what resources are going into the various programs," he said.
"And at the same time," he added, "parishes were able to use the occasion … for their own purposes too if they had a certain need within the parish, so that it became a win-win situation both for the parish and the diocese."
Many of the parishes in the Anchorage Archdiocese plan to make such an appeal for the parish itself on top of the request for the archdiocese, according to Caldarola.
Archbishop Schwietz said that over the past five years he gradually came to the conclusion that the fund-raising model in place needed to be altered.
He said pastoral leaders explained to him the difficulty they faced when the 15 percent cathedraticum failed to cover the archdiocese’s expenses during a given budget year.
In that scenario, the archdiocese would come back to the parishes late in the budget cycle and assess a "supplemental allocation" to cover the deficit.
That stuck parishes with additional charges, above the 15 percent they were already paying, to fund archdiocesan operations.
In seven out of the last 10 years, the supplemental allocation was assessed, ranging from $21,500 to $86,000 per year, according to Caldarola.
"I began to see as this was brought to my attention the pastors and administrators saying, ‘Well, on the one hand you’re asking us to budget and on the other hand you’re not respecting the budgeting process in this system, because we’re asked sometime toward the end of the fiscal year to give an added amount of money,’ " the archbishop said.
Archbishop Schwietz first tried simply doing away with the supplemental allocation option, he said. That was a relief to parishes, but "then we ran short of what we needed to run the archdiocese on," he said.
"So, it became more and more clear to me that this was an untenable situation, one that needed to be remedied for the better," the archbishop said.
Learning from experience
Many meetings with pastoral leaders and with the archdiocese’s finance council convinced him that an annual appeal was the answer, Archbishop Schwietz said.
His Stewardship and Development Office has researched methodologies in other dioceses around the country and made recommendations based on their findings, the archbishop said.
"The advantage of beginning it (an annual appeal) all over again," he said, "is that we can learn from their experience, we can learn from the experience that we had before we changed to the present stewardship model, and come up with something that is better than all of them, which I think has been done."
Women take lead roles at rural parishes
Women have a tradition of being called forth to lead some of the archdiocese’s parishes and missions, especially in its far-flung communities where Catholics make it a point to gather even in the absence of a priest.
Recently, Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz appointed two more laywomen to parish leadership roles.
Marlys Verba was installed as "pastoral associate" at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Soldotna on March 18, and Henrietta Callewaert has been named "pastoral leader" at St. Christopher by the Sea Mission Parish on the Aleutian Island of Unalaska. The archbishop is expected to formally install her soon.
Both women have many years of leadership experience in their faith communities.
Callewaert was pastoral administrator of St. John the Baptist Parish in Homer and its missions in Ninilchik and Seldovia for four years beginning in the late 1990s. Last month she resigned from her teaching post at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School in South Anchorage after four years there.
On March 11, she packed a carry-on bag and boarded an 800-mile flight from Anchorage to Unalaska with Holy Cross Father LeRoy Clementich, who travels to the island for a full week each month to celebrate Masses through two weekends.
Callewaert’s initial visit, to scope out the town, turned into a major commitment. Instead of returning to her Anchorage home a week later, she decided to stay.
"I fell in love with the place," she said. "There’s just this sense of community. They’re a working community. There’s no time for the fluff but church is a priority."
About 4,300 people live in Unalaska. Its international seaport, Dutch Harbor, is the most productive seafood-processing port in the nation in terms of volume and dollar value.
There are two weekend services at St. Christopher by the Sea Church and a Sunday morning service at the UniSea seafood-production facility for workers.
Most of the 75 parishioners are immigrants — the majority Filipino or Hispanic — and many work 12-hour shifts, seven days a week, Callewaert said.
"Their priority is their family, working to provide for their family and gathering here," she said.
Callewaert’s job is to take care of the "day to day" operations and she hopes to develop a pastoral council and a finance council to help chart the parish’s course, she said.
In the meantime, Callewaert marvels at her new home, which includes resident eagles, rugged mountains, a river running near the parish, and luckily a washer and dryer, since she’s been living out of that carry-on bag for almost a month.
She returned to Anchorage recently to pack for the long-term move.
Why all the spontaneity? The single, 54-year-old woman said that since she made the commitment to stay and lead the outpost’s parish, "things fell into place," with a house-sitter caring for her two aging golden retrievers and her 24-year-old son deciding to live at her Anchorage home starting in May.
"It just kind of snowballed and I feel it was really divine intervention that I ended up here," she said. "It’s a beautiful situation — we clicked."
Hundreds of miles to the east in Soldotna, at weekend Masses on March 18 and 19, Archbishop Schwietz installed Marlys Verba as pastoral administrator of the parish she has attended for 30 years.
The 58-year-old mother of seven adult children has been directing the parish’s faith formation efforts for the last 15 years and has, more recently, earned a master’s degree in pastoral ministries and received training to lead a communion service in the absence of a priest.
"I’m just getting re-energized," Verba said.
Masses at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish are celebrated three Sundays each month by Father Richard Tero, the nonresident pastor who is based at Sacred Heart Parish in Seward. At other times, Mercy Sister Joyce Ross travels from nearby Kenai to lead Sunday celebrations in the absence of a priest.
Verba said she sees her new pastoral associate role as being a "unifier," strengthening the parish and "being here for my community," which she said has nourished and encouraged her leadership.
The parish footed her tuition bill at South Dakota’s Mount Marty College, where she earned her master’s. During her studies, Verba explored what it means to build community back in Soldotna.
"Collaboration is a big part of that — working together, particularly where we are without a priest here every day," she said.
About 390 families gather regularly at the parish, with many parishioners away working in the state’s North Slope oil fields for long chunks of time.
The demographics are gradually changing, Verba said, with more Hispanic parishioners and older folks coming into the fold of younger families.
At Our Lady of Perpetual Help, a group of 165 children attend faith formation classes and there’s a desire for more adult faith formation opportunities, according to Verba.
"We’re on an ongoing journey," she said. "We have outgrown that mentality that once you’re confirmed that you know everything."
In her own journey, Verba praised her husband, Steve, for being "so, so, so supportive."
"He could have made me feel, with seven kids and those responsibilities, that I just needed to be home, but he has allowed me to kind of spread my wings," she said. "That’s worth a lot."
Our Lady of Perpetual Help has been without a resident priest for 11 months. Father John Holleman of the Archdiocese of Mobile, Ala., served as parochial vicar for almost a year before returning to the Lower 48 in May.
The sacred triduum: Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil
Editor’s Note: The following catechetical reflection on the church’s most sacred feast is provided by the archdiocese’s Office of Evangelization and Worship. Sacred triduum Mass schedules at churches around the archdiocese can be found at www.archdioceseofanchorage.org.
Keeping these three days means three full days lived as one central moment in the life of every Christian and of the whole community. Understanding the triduum as one three-day-long liturgy can help us approach each of the various related moments within it.
These three days — Holy Thursday’s Mass of the Lord’s Supper, Good Friday’s Solemn Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion and Death, and Holy Saturday’s Great Vigil of Easter, which continues until vespers of the resurrection — are the glow of the feast, to be enjoyed and savored. The sacred Easter triduum is the central moment around which all else revolves. Because the triduum leads us powerfully into the core of who we are in Christ, these days are to be observed as fully as possible.
Throughout these days the church will gather frequently for prayer and celebration, but these moments only mark the high points in a continued period of prayerful observance. Nothing distracts us from the spirit of these days as one celebration, where the whole church is called to gather as the unified Body of Christ.
At the Last Supper, Jesus gave His death the significance of a living gift of Himself to God for all. Holy Thursday is celebrated with the full participation of the whole parish community, with all exercising their ministry. The washing of feet is a sign of our common service to one another in imitation of Jesus as well as following Jesus’ command to love and serve one another. Following the Communion rite, the Eucharist is carried in solemn procession to the altar of repose for a period of adoration that must end no later than midnight. All depart in silence.
The main liturgy of Good Friday consists of three parts: The Liturgy of the Word, veneration of the cross, and Holy Communion. The service begins with a prostration before the bare altar. Then follow the readings and the chanting of the Passion according to John. The general intercessions are sung in a solemn form on this day as the church prays particularly for our sisters and brothers who share one baptism with us but are of other Christian denominations; our Jewish sisters and brothers who were first to hear the word of God; those who do not believe in Christ; and those who do not believe in God. Then all are invited to come forward to venerate the cross of Jesus. Finally, the Blessed Sacrament is brought from the altar of repose and Communion is shared with the faithful. All depart in silence.
The Great Feast of Easter begins at this vigil. It is the principal celebration of Easter. The vigil is arranged in four parts. The service of light, the Liturgy of the Word, the liturgy of baptism and confirmation, and the Liturgy of the Eucharist. Outside on the front steps of the church (as appropriate), a fire is kindled from which the paschal candle is lit and carried into the church at the head of the procession, after which the Easter proclamation is sung. In the Liturgy of the Word, we listen to a series of Old Testament readings that remind us of the wonderful things God has done for God’s holy people from the beginning. They are our stories that form the history of salvation. The Gloria and Alleluia resound with joy for the first time in 40 days. In the liturgy of baptism and confirmation, new members are welcomed into our faith community, and we recall our own rebirth in Christ. Then in the Liturgy of the Eucharist, all are called forward to the table Christ has prepared for us through his death and resurrection.
Archbishop's Column
Change can be difficult, but can also lead to new life, growth
Life is about change.
Change happens on many levels: in our families, in our work environment, in our government, in our world.
Oftentimes when faced with the challenges that come with change, we are unsure of how to approach them. We often look for set formulas or directives to help guide us.
When pastoral leadership changes in a parish, as it did at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and Our Lady of Guadalupe in Anchorage last year, or as it will at St. Michael in Palmer this year, I usually rely on a pastoral team and/or a parish council to help me make decisions as to what would be best for the situation.
Ultimately, I am responsible for making decisions. Sometimes these decisions may not seem correct or are confusing. I make them based on all the information I am provided, some of which is not often public.
Recently I implemented a change at St. Benedict Parish here in Anchorage.
Father Alfred Giebel’s term of office as pastor at St. Benedict had expired, and I decided not to place new pastoral burdens on him for the time being.
Instead, I am giving him time off to address his health issues by undergoing a thorough health review.
In the meantime, I am assuming the responsibility for St. Benedict Parish and its school, Lumen Christi High School.
To assist me, I have appointed a pastoral team to include Father Luz Flores as parochial vicar and Sister Kathleen O’Hara as pastoral associate.
Bob McMorrow will remain as parish youth director, Marcy Adkins as director of faith formation and Jim Yeargan as principal of the school.
I have begun regular team meetings to consider the needs of the parish and school and to implement needed changes in policies and procedures, consistent with other parishes in the archdiocese.
Additionally, this week, Adrian Dominican Sister Ann Fallon will be arriving to act as a Catholic school system consultant on my staff.
Sister Fallon has extensive experience in Catholic school organizations and will help us set up a feeder system of Catholic elementary schools as well as expand the development and recruitment work at Lumen Christi.
Change is often hard, whether we are willing to admit it or not.
But out of change comes new life, vibrancy and renewal.
As we enter the Easter season and this time of renewal and rebirth in our personal lives, I am confident we will rise from the ashes that began our Lenten journey and be stronger and more united at St. Benedict as a parish community and as a school.
Editorial
Spiritual leaders right on immigration
Last month Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles announced that he would instruct his priests to disobey a proposed federal law that would turn into felons America’s estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants and anyone who "assists" them to "remain in the United States."
We wholeheartedly agree with the cardinal that the proposed law, HR 4437, should be rejected.
"Current law does not require social service agencies to obtain evidence of legal status before rendering aid, nor should it," Cardinal Mahony wrote in a March 22 opinion piece. "Denying aid to a fellow human being violates a law with a higher authority than Congress — the law of God."
Rep. Peter King (R-NY), one of the bill’s cosponsors and himself a Catholic, called the American bishops — many of whom have echoed Cardinal Mahony — "frustrated social workers." He is also reported to have said that Catholic leaders opposed to the bill "should spend more time protecting little boys from pedophile priests."
Variations of that red herring slur are bouncing around talk radio and cable "news" programs, where hosts are much more skilled at diversion and deception than fact-based discussion.
Spiritual leaders have the upper hand in morality as well as rational thinking on this issue.
In a March 28 op-ed, the Rev. Jesse Jackson sounded prophetic in his analysis: "When employers brought slaves to America, few objected as long as they were prepared to work without wages and without rights. When they began to demand equal rights, all hell broke loose."
Today’s undocumented workforce — drawn in search of work to support their families — are not quite slaves.
The fact is, immigration is what it is because the U.S. economy benefits handsomely from millions of undocumented workers who have no worker rights and thus are easily exploited by unscrupulous, profit-greedy employers.
"While we gladly accept their taxes and sweat," Cardinal Mahony wrote, "we do not acknowledge or uphold their basic labor rights."
Noting that NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) spells out rights for employers and investors but not workers, Rev. Jackson wrote, "When Europe created one trading union including impoverished Spain and Portugal, the high wage countries of the north spent billions on development in the poorer countries, while demanding that they adhere to labor rights, environmental protections and basic social protections."
If Rep. King isn’t persuaded by secular arguments, one would hope the teachings of his church might do the trick.
The Catholic Church’s unambiguous position in solidarity with immigrants and refugees dates at least to Moses, widely considered the author of Deuteronomy, whose 24th chapter says: "You shall not violate the rights of the alien … . For remember, you were once slaves in Egypt, and the Lord your God ransomed you from there … ."
Most dioceses across the United States, including the Anchorage Archdiocese, have outreach programs dedicated to this marginalized segment of the population. Verifying legal status prior to offering assistance is not mentioned in the Bible or teaching documents of the church.
If the parable of the Good Samaritan isn’t clear enough, the "Catechism of the Catholic Church" says: "The more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of the security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin" (no. 2241).
As Christian leaders and texts express so eloquently, the answer to the "problem" of illegal immigration lies in understanding its root causes and working for better conditions for the lowly. This is basic Christianity.
The United States can invest billions of dollars finding and deporting the undocumented and militarizing the border with Mexico, but in our editorial opinion the money would be better spent — better in terms of Christian morality and common sense — raising the standard of living for the poorest people on both sides of the border.
Letters to the Editor
Do Catholics no longer sin?
Something’s been gnawing on me for a long time. Remember when the Saturday afternoon confession line was almost all the way back to the entry, and two priests were busy hearing confessions right to Mass time? Today at our church, confessions are scheduled for 20 minutes a week for the whole parish. On five successive Saturdays beginning in February, not one person went to confession. But at the Masses that followed those evenings, almost everyone went to holy Communion. Have Catholics stopped sinning?
Anchorage
A lobbyist to be proud of
Hats off to Chip Wagoner, lobbyist for the Alaska Conference of Catholic Bishops. I’ve worked with Chip since I first took office in 2003. I haven’t always agreed with the message he’s brought to my office, but I’ve always respected his forthrightness, tenacity and willingness to listen to opposing points of view. He knows how to disagree without being disagreeable. Chip has one of the toughest assignments in Juneau. He must make his case on issues with moral persuasion — not an easy job in the pragmatic political arena of 60 legislators who must answer to constituents. It’s a challenging task for a lobbyist to champion a moral issue that may not win a politician votes or campaign support — and may do the opposite. Lobbyists (like politicians) too often get a bad rap, and the public too often doesn’t discern between the good and the bad. I’m pleased to report, from personal experience, that Chip Wagoner is an outstanding representative of the church.
Juneau/Anchorage
St. Andrew priest wonderful
Let us give thanks and praise to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit for bringing Father Andrew Szymakowski to St. Andrew Parish in Eagle River. He has been ministering to us for approximately one year. His reverence for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is inspiring. His insightful homilies, which frequently cite papal encyclicals, Vatican documents or literary works of the saints are refreshingly packed full of sound catechesis on church doctrine very relevant to current issues that Catholics are facing in the real world today. We should also continue to pray for him and the other priests and bishops of Alaska and the United States that God will give them the grace and wisdom to properly tend to their flock and do his will.
Eagle River