August 25, 2006 - Issue #17
Local News | Opinion/Editorials | Letters to the Editor
Local News
Hispanics in Anchorage relish visit from Dominican bishop
Mercedes Medina, 79, was born in the Dominican Republic and lived for 50 years in New Jersey, home to hundreds of thousands of Dominican immigrants.
But it took moving to Alaska to finally bring her face to face with a bishop from her homeland.
Bishop Antonio Camilo Gonzalez, head of the Dominican Republic’s La Vega Diocese, spent 10 days in Anchorage this month, visiting with Dominican people and other Hispanics who are very far from their roots. He is believed to be the first bishop from that country to ever visit this part of Alaska on church business.
"She was pretty psyched," Medina’s daughter, Valentina Fernandez said of the experience. "She had met priests before, and sisters, but never a bishop. It really meant a lot to her."
Bishop Camilo spent his time here leading prayer and discussion in people’s homes, celebrating Mass in Spanish and even visiting the sick in the hospital.
He also got a chance to do a little sightseeing.
The next Brooklyn?
Bishop Camilo travels to Brooklyn every year to minister to the large Dominican population there, but he’s never been to another city in the United States for that purpose.
So is Anchorage the next Brooklyn?
Not quite.
Bishop Camilo met a family from his home diocese — the Magarins of West Anchorage — who invited him to visit their adopted city.
Speaking through an interpreter, he told the Anchor that he accepted the invitation as a way to support people who had moved so far from home.
"I came to support the faith of the people of the Dominican Republic," Bishop Camilo said. "I want to invite them to participate in the life of the church, to be active ministers in the church."
Also, the bishop had been intrigued by the Last Frontier for years, ever since reading about the adventures of a Spanish Jesuit, Father Segundo Llorente, who came to Alaska in the 1930s and served in the Bush for 40 years.
As the bishop discovered, there are not only Dominican people living in this faraway place, but lots of other Hispanics who turned out to meet, pray and celebrate with him.
"It wasn’t just Dominicans, it was Puerto Ricans and Mexicans and Colombians," said Ishmael Aviles, who helps to coordinate Hispanic ministry in the archdiocese. "They all liked to hear him speak."
It would be hard to find two more different places than the Dominican Republic and Alaska.
The Caribbean nation enjoys year-round warm, humid weather; it suffers from widespread poverty. There are approximately 9 million inhabitants squeezed into the Dominican Republic’s 18,810 square miles — about 474 per square mile, compared with just over one person per square mile for Alaska.
The republic’s dark-skinned people speak Spanish, and about 85 percent of them are Catholic; Alaska’s mostly pale, mostly English-speaking population is about eight percent Catholic. Christopher Columbus brought the faith to the Dominican Republic more than 350 years before the territory that is now Alaska would become an official Catholic jurisdiction.
What would possess someone from there to relocate here?
"Better jobs, a better life," answered David Tejada, who moved to the United States eight years ago and to Anchorage a year ago.
Tejada, who works in housekeeping, was surprised that a bishop would make such a trek to visit his people.
"Wow," he said. "I think … it’s to bring joy to all the Hispanic people."
Wanda DeCastro, 20, has lived in Anchorage all her life but has family in the Dominican Republic.
Bishop Camilo’s visit was a great boost for the entire Hispanic Catholic community in Anchorage, she said, because it helped people reconnect to their culture, language and the faith that many no longer practice.
She also said the visit was important simply because the bishop is an important person.
"Here in Alaska there are lots of minorities, but not necessarily a lot of minorities who are leaders," she said.
Wanda’s mother, Juana, said that in her 23 years in Anchorage there has never been a priest, much less a bishop, to visit from the Dominican Republic.
The DeCastros went to church with the bishop and followed him to local homes to hear him talk and receive his blessing. Wanda and some other young people performed a traditional dance after a Mass, and Juana cooked a lot of Dominican food for the gatherings.
"He came to support us in our faith," Wanda said.
That is precisely the reason Bishop Camilo has been ministering to Brooklyn’s Dominican community for 14 years, and why he came to Anchorage, he said.
"Otherwise, our people would lose their faith; they would become disoriented," he said.
Six Filipinos denied visas to visit Alaska
Excitement turned to disappointment for six members of a Filipino delegation slated to visit Alaska when the American embassy in Manila unexpectedly denied them visitors’ visas to the United States.
The six — one priest and five lay people — are members of the Anchorage Archdiocese’s global solidarity partner, the Philippines’ Archdiocese of Cotabato, and were supposed to have joined Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Quevedo, Auxiliary Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo and three others on a visit to Southcentral Alaska.
"It was very much unexpected," said Father Armand Dice, one of the five members of the delegation allowed into the country.
The eleven-member party had traveled in early August from Cotabato City to Manila "thinking we were all set," said Father Dice, Cotabato’s archdiocesan pastoral coordinator. "We had all brought all our belongings."
Father Dice said the six who were denied visas remained in Manila for three more days, dealing with the "great pain" they felt inside, before heading back home.
In an e-mail to Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz, Archbishop Quevedo said the embassy provided only vague reasons for the denials.
In the case of the priest and three other men, the embassy said the global solidarity program, which is facilitated by Catholic Relief Services, was "an insufficient reason to go to Anchorage," according to the archbishop.
Embassy officials also questioned whether one of the women, a nurse, would return to the Philippines given the demand for her profession in the United States.
Each member of the delegation was interviewed separately by embassy staff.
Anchorage archdiocesan officials said they considered petitioning the embassy and explaining why it was necessary for the entire delegation to visit. They also considered asking U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski to intervene.
But there was so little time between the visa denials and the departure flight that it left little room to maneuver, and in the end the six delegation members returned to Cotabato.
For the remaining five members of the party, their whirlwind trip to the Anchorage Archdiocese includes appearances at Masses throughout the region, festivities hosted by parishes, tours of Catholic Social Services programs and a meeting with Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich.
The visitors are being hosted by families; most of them are returning at different times this month and next.
The Anchorage Archdiocese’s partnership with the Archdiocese of Cotabato began two years ago when several Alaskans, including Archbishop Schwietz, visited Cotabato City and its surrounding areas.
In November 2004, the two archbishops, both members of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, signed a partnership agreement to facilitate mutual understanding and support between the two archdioceses.
In a sermon delivered Aug. 13 at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in South Anchorage, Archbishop Quevedo said the global solidarity program, which pairs American churches with churches in developing countries, is "more than just sending priests or people to learn how poor people live out their faith."
Rather, he said, it shows that "we are all united in the same Lord, the same faith."
"The Eucharist, which makes us one — receiving Communion together — that is the deepest kind of solidarity," he said.
The Cotabato Archdiocese is assisting in facilitating Eucharistic unity between the archdioceses; it is "loaning" Anchorage two priests, Fathers Jaime Mencias and Benjamin Torreto.
The two priests, who arrived this month separately from the global solidarity delegation, are expected to serve here for three years. Their specific pastoral assignments were still being discussed when the Anchor went to press this week.
Anchorage man’s path to seminary began 20 years ago
Patrick Brosamer is literally on the road to priesthood.
The Anchorage Archdiocese’s newest seminarian is currently traveling by car to St. Paul, Minn., where he will soon take up residence at St. Paul Seminary and begin priesthood formation studies.
Before his Aug. 21 departure from Anchorage, Brosamer, 32, told the Anchor that he has wanted to be a priest since he was 13.
So what accounts for the many years between that initial vocational realization and the present?
Brosamer said he wouldn’t call it denial, but "delay."
"I kept saying, ‘Yes, yes, God, eventually but not today.’ "
But on the day Pope John Paul II died, April 2, 2005, Brosamer "invoked his name and sent off an e-mail to Brother Craig," he said.
Oblate Brother Craig Bonham is vocation director for the archdiocese.
As Brosamer began the process of applying for seminary, his spiritual director, a local priest, urged him to spend some time at the St. John Vianney House of Discernment.
"He said, ‘Satan is going to attack you,’ " Brosamer recalled, and that the house would provide "sanctuary."
The House of Discernment was established by Archbishop Roger Schwietz in 2004 to provide a prayerful, peaceful residence for men considering the priesthood.
Although he wasn’t required to live at the House of Discernment as part of his application to study for priesthood, Brosamer took up residence there in January.
He said that life at the house — located at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in South Anchorage — was an eye-opening experience and that he would recommend it to any man considering the vocation.
Watching Father Tom Lilly, St. Elizabeth’s pastor, conduct his pastoral ministry, Brosamer has gained insight into what the life of a priest is really like.
He’s seen Father Lilly return to the house in the early hours of the morning after a night spent with the sick or dying, for example. Priests, Brosamer noted, work 100-hour weeks and never retire.
Brosamer was born and raised in Anchorage, the youngest of five children. His parents have since retired to Seattle, but two of his siblings live in Anchorage. He belongs to St. Benedict Parish on the city’s west side.
Brosamer left the state to pursue higher education, earning a bachelor’s degree in history in 1996 from Gonzaga University, a Jesuit school in Spokane, Wash., and then, in 2000, a master’s in history from Temple University, a state school in Philadelphia.
He spent two years in Seattle living with his parents before returning to Anchorage, where for the past four years he has been selling windows and doors at Lowe’s, a national hardware retailer.
Brosamer has ahead of him at least seven years of study, discernment and pastoral work before he would be eligible for ordination, but he said he already thinks a lot about what priesthood will be like.
He said his greatest challenge as a priest will be "finding and holding onto and proclaiming transcendent truth in an age of relativism gone wild."
People today deny objective truth, he said, "particularly the church’s teachings on sexuality."
When asked about social justice, Brosamer said the church has "a strong tradition of social action aimed at redistributing wealth dating back to the 19th century when poverty was the greatest social evil."
Today, he said, there are many evils — the breakdown of the family, for example — and the church should be careful not to focus on one evil to the neglect of others.
Brosamer is the third man to have taken up residence in the House of Discernment since its inception. He and one of the other former residents, John Burger, are the archdiocese’s only two seminarians.
The third former resident of the house, Aaron Gerrard, decided not to pursue priesthood after his year of discernment.
"It gives a guy a chance to live with a diocesan priest and see the life first hand," vocations director Brother Bonham said of the House of Discernment. "It’s successful even if it helps someone recognize they are not called to priesthood, or that it might not be the right time for them to pursue it."
Brother Bonham said two other men are exploring the possibility of spending the upcoming year at the House of Discernment.
While living at the house, men continue their jobs or studies, contribute a small stipend for living expenses, and participate in some kind of pastoral ministry and in the prayer life of the residence.
Our Lady of the Snows Chapel Blessed
The Chapel of Our Lady of the Snows in Girdwood is an ecumenical faith and community center operated by the Catholic Community of Our Lady of the Snows, a mission of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in South Anchorage. The log A-frame structure is nestled among spruce trees on the edge of a meadow at the base of Mount Alyeska, where outdoor enthusiasts congregate year round for skiing, biking and hiking.
A nucleus of families have for more than 40 years nurtured the Catholic faith in the Girdwood Valley 40 miles south of Anchorage. Priests, deacons and women religious ministered to them, celebrating Mass or Communion services in private homes, businesses and eventually the Methodist chapel.
In 1994, representatives from 20 local faith groups met to begin plans for a shared chapel. Shortly thereafter Alyeska Resort, which operates a hotel and ski operation in Girdwood, offered land for a building site. Fund-raising began in earnest; the Catholic community raised more than $200,000 over the next several years.
Construction began in fall 2002, and the chapel officially opened its doors on Christmas Eve 2005.
"Our mission is to serve the spiritual and communal needs of Girdwood, Alaska and our visitors," says the chapel’s Web site (www.chapelourladyofthesnows.org). "All who visit or live here know it to be a special, tranquil place; a place for reflection, healing and renewal."
News & Notes
Family Resource Center receives national award
The Family Resource Center, a program of Catholic Community Service of the Diocese of Juneau, has won Catholic Charities USA’s 2006 Family Strengthening Award.
The annual award recognizes exceptional programs in the Catholic Charities network that "take a holistic approach to providing services by supporting healthy family relationships while working to improve a family’s overall financial situation and enhance the community where they live," according to a press release from the national charity organization.
As one of three Family Strengthening Award winners, the Family Resource Center will receive a $25,000 award. The other two winning programs are based in Illinois and West Virginia.
Catholic-Jewish relations is focus of talk at APU
The Cardinal Newman Chair of Theology at Anchorage’s Alaska Pacific University is hosting a renowned scholar of Catholic-Jewish relations. Servite Father John Pawlikowski, director of the Catholic-Jewish Studies Program at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, will give a talk entitled "Christian-Jewish Relations after Vatican II: Accomplishments and Continuing Challenges for Catholics and Other Christians." The free public lecture is scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 3, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in Room 102 of the university’s Carr-Gottstein Academic Center. Father Pawlikowski is president of the International Council of Christians and Jews and has written and co-edited books and articles on the subject. Also, the Cardinal Newman Chair is once again offering fall courses at reduced fees through its Newman Observers program. Observers do not earn college credit. The two fall courses cover Paul’s letters and the Gospel of Luke and its sequel in Acts. For more information call the Cardinal Newman front office at 564-8274.
Archbishop's Column
As many of you are aware, the archdiocese has been involved in four legal actions making claims of sexual misconduct by clergy. Three legal actions were resolved recently through the mediation process, including the action which named Francis Murphy.
(After the mediation was complete, I received a letter of apology from Murphy, reprinted below in its entirety.)
One action remains, which we hope to see resolved soon. That case involves the action of a layman in the Dillingham area from a period prior to the establishment of the Archdiocese of Anchorage when that territory was part of the Diocese of Fairbanks.
I know over the course of the last few years many questions have come up as a result of the legal actions taken against the archdiocese. I hope the following information will answer some of the questions you might have regarding these settlements or other issues related to clergy sexual misconduct.
Many have asked why mediation. There are several reasons that we chose this route:
• It provides a more rapid process for coming to resolution;
• It only occurs if all parties agree that this is a viable option;
• It is a just solution that provides a forum for all involved to express their concerns and desires, in a manner which respects each party involved;
• A successful mediation is one where all parties feel that a mutual agreement is reached;
• It protects the privacy of the plaintiffs.
When all parties in each of the individual actions agreed to mediation, we agreed at the request of the mediator that the content of the mediation discussions would be confidential, including the settlement information.
I am abiding by that agreement. It is discouraging to me that others who signed this agreement have not upheld this commitment.
As a result of the mediations, the total archdiocesan financial commitment to all three settlements is $795,000.
Our insurers provided support for legal costs and will cover a large portion of the settlement payments. That portion of the settlement fees not covered by our insurers will be paid from funds earned through the sale of properties, which were reserved for this purpose, such as the archbishop’s house.
No funds from parish collections or the annual appeal were used to pay these settlements.
It is important that we not forget these events. We need to be vigilant as a church and as a people of God, to address the reality of abuse and prevent it from ever happening to anyone, child or adult.
We continue to provide a safe environment program in the archdiocese that includes background checks for all pastoral ministers, volunteers who work with youths and children, and diocesan and parish employees.
Additionally, there is mandated training for all priests, deacons, parish directors, pastoral leaders, catechetical leaders and youth ministers; a column in the Anchor on safe environment tips is provided; and there are education opportunities in parishes to explore and discuss abuse, what to watch for, and how to report.
Further, the U.S. bishops have commissioned the John Jay College of Criminal Justice to conduct a thorough study of the causes and context of past sexual abuse of children and youths by clergy.
The results of this study will give us insight into what more we can do to provide a safe environment for children in the future.
I share all this with you in a continuing effort to be a faithful and transparent steward of the resources entrusted to my care.
I am committed to seeing that justice and healing are served. I seek justice and healing for those who were harmed by past actions while at the same time seeking justice and healing for those parishioners who continue to faithfully support their church and its dedicated priests and clergy.
I invite us to continue our fervent prayers for all victims of childhood sexual abuse.
Thank you for your patience and support throughout the painful experience this has been for everyone.
May God in his infinite love bring about good from what we have experienced.
Letter from Francis Murphy to Archbishop Schwietz
Dear Archbishop Schwietz,
I am writing to tell you how ashamed I am of what I have done and of the hurt I have caused the people of Alaska and the church. I offer my heartfelt and sincere apology for all of the problems I have caused.
My past behavior has been the source of great pain and scandal to the people with whom I worked and among whom I lived for the years that I was in Alaska.
In His teachings, Jesus was very specific about only a few things. One of them was scandal and those who cause it. Every day I seek forgiveness for the scandal I have created.
The settlements that have been reached have resulted in a major financial burden for the archdiocese. For that I am deeply sorry. I know the hardship this will cause you in the future.
I have let down my brother priests and the other religious who have served long and well and have worked hard for the church in Alaska. I apologize to them and to the people whom they must face daily.
My disloyalty weighs heavily because it casts a shadow on those who have remained faithful to their vows.
I ask for your forgiveness and for your prayers.
Sincerely yours,
Frank A. Murphy
Editorials
U.S., Israel, religions should lead rebuilding
Thank God the bullets and bombs have stopped in Lebanon and Israel. Now is the time for Israel, the United States and other democracies to help in the rebuilding. Christian organizations, too, should show solidarity with their suffering brothers and sisters by contributing to aid and development efforts.
Israel has been widely criticized for going overboard in its response to an attack by Hezbollah. It obliterated entire residential areas, in the process killing about nine Lebanese civilians for every one Hezbollah fighter.
It is obvious to even minimally open-minded people that Hezbollah instigated this attack and is now swooping to the rescue with cash and food for Lebanese victims.
So, given how transparently manipulative Hezbollah is, why did Israel play into its hands with such a disproportionate retaliation? It defies common sense.
What’s done is done. As with the U.S.-led Iraq war — which the Catholic Church tried desperately to avert — people of good will must move from protesting the violence to cleaning up the aftermath. In Iraq and now Lebanon, the goal must be to make the best of the situation, with special concern for the innocent people caught in the crossfire.
That’s exactly what the Catholic Church is doing, to the best of its ability, in Lebanon and Israel.
Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops’ overseas relief and development agency, is set to spend at least $10 million in the area, using the funds for immediate humanitarian needs as well as longer-term development projects.
Christians in the Middle East have always been a bridge culture, strengthening the concept of peaceful coexistence among people of different faiths.
The United States and other democracies that value peace and stability also must be bridges, helping to build a lasting peace after so much death and destruction.
This tragic war happened. Now, Christian morality and common sense call for a vigorous and lasting reconstruction and development effort.
Proposed welfare changes wrongheaded
Catholic Charities USA is right to urge another look at proposed changes to TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families), commonly known as federal welfare.
Earlier this year, as pressure was mounting to slow the country’s record-level deficits, some politicians went after welfare. New regulations included in the Debt Reduction Act of 2005, signed into law earlier this year, will cut federal spending in the short term.
But because it saves money by restricting eligibility for education and training programs and mental health, substance abuse and domestic violence counseling from TANF, there will likely be bigger costs down the road.
Currently, participation in these kinds of programs may count toward a welfare recipient’s work requirement. That’s how it should be, since education, training and counseling are aimed precisely at making a person employable.
According to Catholic Charities, the parent organization of hundreds of social services agencies in dioceses across the country (including the Anchorage Archdiocese), the changes "will only serve to add to the burdens facing thousands of low-income families and reverse the progress made by millions toward self-sufficiency."
Congress’ landmark 1996 welfare reform effort did a lot of good by getting people who could work off welfare.
But now, 10 years later, the people who are still on welfare are often those with the biggest barriers to self sufficiency, barriers such as disabilities, unstable home lives or lack of education or marketable skills.
The government needs to remain vigilant to ensure welfare isn’t abused, but it should not do away with the very kinds of programs that can help these "least among us" toward self-sufficiency.
This issue is currently being debated in Congress and the executive branch. Catholic Charities is lobbying hard against the changes. We invite our readers to do the same.
Letters to the Editor
Doyle column was amazing
It is rare that I prominently post a newspaper clipping in my living space. Brian Doyle’s "What if?" contribution to Expressions of Evangelization (Community Page, Aug. 11) was worthy of more. I laminated it. Yes! Someone who gets it. Guided by reason, intellect and experience, all believers, enlightened by truth, should reach Doyle’s conclusions. Upon the hope he so succinctly evokes, a better world can be built. What an original, crisp and lyrical articulation of faith. "What if?" gave me a glimpse of that peace that surpasses understanding, and left me with nothing but gratitude. Nice job.
Anchorage
‘What If?’ an inspiration
Thank you for sharing the column by Brian Doyle, "What if?" (Community Page, Aug. 11). I found his words to be inspirational in describing how we can share our faith in what might be strange places, with strangers and even those who challenge our beliefs. It was also good teaching in that it shared some of the richness of various religious traditions, without denying that the "knives" of violence, the Inquisition, Shoah, pogroms and the Troubles, have occurred. His writing challenged me to reflect on different religions being, "in their absolute essence, about the same thing: praise for the miracle of life, awe for the mysterious Verb that creates life, yearning for existence beyond death, and, most of all, desperation for a future in which mercy trumps murder." I pray daily that we, religious people of the world, can keep this dream alive by our acts of mercy and our expressions of the best of our traditions. And I give thanks for God’s overflowing love for us that inspires us to respond with mercy and compassion, with support for those who are abandoned by our societies, for those lost in the chaos of violence, for those who need our love, God’s Love. Shalom!
Anchorage
Remember First Amendment
As a frequent reader of the Catholic Anchor online, I would like to remind folks that the First Amendment proclaims that our government shall "make no law respecting the establishment of religion." Thus, it should leave holy matrimony to religious organizations and restrict its regulation of relationships between people to the contract responsibilities that are set forth in the Constitution. In harmony with this responsibility, our government should provide for the legal entry of consenting adults into civil unions. If gay people, or others, desire to extend a civil union into sacramental marriage, they can use their religious freedom to find a body of faith that will sanctify their contractual relationship. If they cannot find one, their freedom of religion entitles them to start a denomination of their own.
West Branch, Iowa