October 6, 2006 - Issue #20
Local News | Opinion/Editorials | Letters to the Editor
Local News
Activist delivers a message of peace to Anchorage
Kathy Kelly was studying for a master’s degree in religious education when she had a wake-up call.
"I can’t write one more paper extolling the church’s ‘preferential option for the poor’ and yet see no poor people," she remembers thinking, and she set out for the nearest soup kitchen.
Serving meals in the basement of St. Thomas of Canterbury Church in Chicago, the future peace activist and co-founder of Voices in the Wilderness realized her life was going to take a new direction.
"I want to be in the basement with the people who are cleaning the pots and serving the soup and eating it," Kelly said from Chicago last week as she prepared for a nine-day speaking tour of Anchorage. Her visit will include with a talk at St. Anthony Church on Oct. 8.
Kelly’s commitment to social justice eventually brought her to pacifism and into sharp conflict with U.S. foreign policy. For Kelly, standing with the poor includes serving the citizens of Iraq whom she said suffered needlessly and drastically because of United States and United Nations sanctions imposed from 1990 until after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.
It was in response to the sanctions, which were intended to force Saddam Hussein to disarm, that Voices in the Wilderness was launched. Kelly said the grassroots initiative brought medicine and toys into Iraq in violation of the sanctions — sanctions she said actually strengthened Hussein’s government by making him the sole dispenser of what little food and fuel the Iraqis could obtain. Meanwhile, she said, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children died from disease and hunger in the early years of the sanctions.
Kelly has been to Iraq 24 times since January 1996, staying with and befriending ordinary Iraqis, and was there during the initial stages of the American invasion in March 2003, "Operation Shock and Awe." The house near the Tigris River where Kelly and a 40-member Voices in the Wilderness delegation were staying survived with only a few cracks.
By spending time with the Iraqi people, Kelly said, her group brought "a different kind of credibility" to the discussion of Iraq.
"These are ordinary people speaking to ordinary people," she said. "We come back to the U.S. and say, ‘this is what we saw and heard.’ "
Today, Kelly said the "standard question" she gets regarding Iraq is "What now?" Even though polls show many Americans no longer support the war (opponents have outnumbered supporters since summer 2005, according to the Gallup poll), those same Americans wonder if a pullout would create a vacuum that would plunge the country into civil war or make it a satellite of Iran. (A March 2006 Gallup poll reported that 73 percent of respondents felt civil war was likely in Iraq within a year.)
"The clear thing to do is to bring the troops home," Kelly said. "It’s not logical to suggest now that the U.S. military has been a stabilizing presence."
Kelly thinks that the billions being spent on war now would be better spent on reparations to the Iraqi people — not to U.S. contractors whom she feels have already profited from the conflict with little benefit to Iraq.
Kelly, who has studied Arabic in Jordan, was part of a delegation from Voices in Beirut, Lebanon, during the final days of the recent Israel-Hezbollah war and reported from southern Lebanon after the cease-fire. She has also visited Haiti and Bosnia and was among the first international observers to visit the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank after civilian homes there were destroyed by the Israeli military.
Kelly’s commitment to peace through nonviolence has earned her three Nobel Peace Prize nominations. It also landed her in federal prison for three months in 2004 for crossing the line during a protest at the military combat training school at Fort Benning, Ga. Earlier, she served nine months of a one-year sentence at a maximum security prison for planting corn on a nuclear missile silo site.
It’s been a high-profile career for a woman who has taught in high schools and community colleges since 1974, remains active in the Catholic Worker movement and keeps her income so low that she never has to pay income tax to feed what she perceives to be a war machine.
"I came from a background where idealism was extolled — an immigrant Catholic neighborhood," Kelly said. She added that she relies on the biblical injunction, "Do not be afraid," and on the example of Christ crossing borders to share bread and resources with people outside of his social and religious circle.
Kelly said her heroes are "people who manage to get a grip on their fears," including Archbishop Oscar Romero, who she said was initially afraid to speak out but was "converted by the poor of El Salvador," and Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King, who fought for civil rights despite their fears for their children’s safety.
Kelly’s visit is co-sponsored by the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Alaskans for Peace and Justice, and Vets for Peace. Organizer Jane Regan said she invited Kelly to Anchorage to offer a new perspective.
"We need to give people a view that is not being heard in Anchorage — the anti-war view," Regan said.
Kelly’s talk, "One Bread, One Body, An Invitation for Our Time" will be from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Oct. 8 at St. Anthonys. She will also speak twice on Oct. 10: at noon at the Alaska World Affairs Council and at 5 p.m. at Title Wave Bookstore.
For a listing of other sites, call Regan at 333-1061.
Pastoral plan sessions draw myriad ideas
Work continued last month on the Archdiocese of Anchorage’s proposed five-year pastoral plan as parish leaders from across the archdiocese met to discuss a draft of the plan.
Consultant John Reid of The Reid Group returned from Bellevue, Wash., to help facilitate the first round of review meetings.
"The archbishop was really concerned that this not be a plan that’s just thought of by a few people," Reid said.
The draft under review is based on ideas generated during pastoral leadership days convened by Archbishop Roger Schwietz between October 2005 and May 2006.
The review sessions were held at Holy Family Cathedral and Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Patrick churches in Anchorage, Sacred Heart Church in Wasilla and Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Soldotna. Meetings in Anchorage were held in English and Spanish, and a teleconference was held for participants from Kodiak, Valdez, Dillingham and Unalaska.
More than 500 invitations were issued to parish leaders across the archdiocese, and, Reid said, between 30 and 40 people participated in each of the sessions that took place the week of Sept. 25.
"What are some realities?" Reid asked a group of parish leaders during a Monday night meeting at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. "What are some challenges? What are some dreams and hopes?"
That night at Our Lady of Guadalupe, religious and lay representatives from eight parishes gathered around a cluster of tables, sharing cookies, coffee and their opinions on the draft plan.
Reid asked participants to talk about the realities of the archdiocese. Responses ranged from the positive (Catholic Social Services’ role in the community, interest in Catholic education in the Mat-Su Borough) to the negative (a lack of prison ministry, rural parishes without priests) and everything in between, with conversation flowing from stewardship to the urban/rural divide to a desire for consistency in the way sacramental preparation is organized from parish to parish.
Reid called the review process fascinating.
"(It) reflects the diversity of the archdiocese," he said. "I learned a lot last week, which was one of the whole points."
Last month’s review meetings were what Reid called "listening sessions" — opportunities for parish leaders and lay ministers to voice their opinions on the draft.
As participants at the Our Lady of Guadalupe meeting reviewed the draft plan, they were given the opportunity to ask questions, offer suggestions and talk about what they’d like to see included in the plan. Reid kept order quietly, focusing most of his energy on entering feedback word-for-word on a notebook computer, asking for clarification when necessary and stopping now and then to read back an interesting point.
The draft, a four-page document outlining the basic mission, purpose and goals of the Archdiocese of Anchorage, is less detailed and specific than the final plan will be — something Reid said was a concern of some participants.
"They like it for a first draft, but they want more specifics, more direction, more measurables," he said. "This is just a taste."
The next step in the plan, after Reid and his partner have a chance to review the data from their listening sessions, is to produce a new draft, which will be posted on the archdiocese’s Web site the week before Discipleship Days. Reid will deliver the keynote address at Discipleship Days on Oct. 20, and later that day will lead a planning session that he promises will be "creative," "fun," "interactive," and "spirit-filled." Reid said he hopes many more Catholics review the new draft and take advantage of the opportunity to participate in the process at Discipleship Days.
"The grassroots has a wisdom all its own," he said. "We’d like people to stay as involved as they have been along the way."
Reid said he was particularly struck by a comment made during one of the review meetings by a group of Kenai Peninsula parish leaders who were involved in both the initial planning sessions and last month’s meetings.
"You know, John, when you hear something different from the faithful Catholics of the archdiocese, listen to them more than us," Reid said, paraphrasing. It’s that kind of commitment to gathering input from as many people as possible that will help make the plan a success, he added.
One thing Reid said has stuck with him from his conversations last month is a strong sense of commitment among members of the archdiocese.
"There’s a real pride in being Catholic, a real desire to be more unified … across ages, across cultures, across different perspectives," Reid said.
Survey shows enthusiasm for proposed Mat-Su Catholic school
A recent survey of Mat-Su area Catholics shows overwhelming support for the creation of a Catholic school in that region. Parishioners at St. Michael Church, Sacred Heart Church and Our Lady of the Lake Mission seemed cheerful about the results of the telephone survey, which were announced at St. Michael Church during a Sept. 26 pastoral planning process meeting with Archbishop Roger Schwietz.
"If the temperature of the room was any indication, there is definitely enthusiasm for it," St. Michael’s pastor Father Thomas Brundage said.
Adrian Dominican Sister Ann Fallon, the archdiocesan education consultant, announced at the meeting that 65 percent of the 692 Mat-Su Catholic households contacted for the survey answered an unequivocal "yes" when asked whether they supported a Catholic grade school in the area. Six percent of the surveyed households said they would not support a school, while 29 percent were unsure.
Other responses indicated strong support for the proposed cost of tuition, which is estimated between $3,000 and $3,500 per year for one student and $6,000 and $7,000 per year for families with two or more students. At the meeting, tuition costs ranging from $100 to $500 per month were also suggested. Sister Fallon said cost, location and curriculum are what the Valley Catholic school steering committee will research next.
"We cannot be a school only for those who can afford it," Sister Fallon said. "We need to be available to everyone."
She added that scholarships and financial aid will be discussed by the steering committee.
While donated land designated for a school already exists on Sacred Heart property, the steering committee plans to look at other possibilities to get a school open promptly, like renting a space or purchasing portables, according to Sister Fallon.
"There is a real desire for this to happen fast," she said.
Patty Haugom of St. Michael Parish is a member of the steering committee. Haugom, who attended Catholic school for 12 years in South Dakota, said that though her children are all grown, she hopes that the Valley can soon have a similar option.
"I’d love for the kids in the Valley to have the kind of experience I had," she said. "But, boy, it’s still in the beginning stages. I think we are going to have to do a lot more research."
Sister Fallon and Father Brundage agreed.
"It will be an enormous project with all three parishes in partnership with the archdiocese," Father Brundage said. "But every great project starts with a great idea, and this is a great idea."
There are more than 20 members on the steering committee, and about a dozen more have expressed interest in joining, Sister Fallon said. The next step will be to break the steering committee into three subcommittees, tasked with researching finances, facilities and curriculum.
Katherine Bishop, parish director at Our Lady of the Lake Mission and school steering committee member, said that while Sister Fallon is the official voice of the committee, she has allowed the parishes to take ownership of the process.
"She really gives the feeling that this is our school, it can be what we want it to be," Bishop said. "There are no preconceived notions of how this school be done."
Minutes from Sept. 19 meeting will be published in the Mass bulletins for the three Valley parishes in early October.
The school steering committee will meet next at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 17, at Sacred Heart Church. Valley Catholics interested in joining the committee are encouraged to attend.
For five decades, Homer nurse nurtured bodies and souls
Mary Raymond, Kinlein practitioner and founder of the Ark, retires
Last month, Mary Raymond folded her last sheet and gave a final backrub at the assisted living center she founded 25 years ago in Homer.
On Sept. 1, when friends and fans threw a retirement party in her honor, Raymond arrived wearing a bold blue shirt announcing "Retired at last."
"I’m going to go home and play the piano whenever I want to," she said.
While Raymond retired, the work that occupied her mind and heart will continue at the Ark under new coordinator, Marjanne Schneider.
"I dedicated my time to show this kind of a home can be done," Raymond said. "And it can — an environment where people who need care call the shots."
Raymond’s 50-plus years as a nurse make her a valuable resource not only in Homer but among colleagues in the nation.
As a practitioner of Kinlein, a philosophy of caring for the whole person, Raymond helped bring a human face to health care. The theory underlying the profession was developed by M. Lucille Kinlein, herself a nurse, and began in the early 1970s. Kinlein provides an alternate view of human nature.
"There’s a universality to humanity, and at the same time every person is unique," Raymond said.
That means everyone needs to be cared for as the unique being they are along with the general rules of good care.
Raymond said she doesn’t "dwell on illness" but instead looks at "assets," one of the cornerstones of the Kinlein philosophy.
"You look at their strengths and build on mental and physical health. You let them set the agenda for their care," she said.
Raymond is a longtime member of St. John the Baptist Church in Homer, and she said that through the decades she found much that wove together her faith and philosophy. Kinlein as a professional outlook "only enhanced my Catholicism," Raymond said. The nursing oath of "doing no harm to others" also reinforced her political beliefs against abortion and capital punishment. Raymond’s approach proved so popular that there is now a waiting list for residents needing her brand of care.
Raymond herself doesn’t care for too much personal attention. She likes the focus directed to her "offering" instead — the home and the principles on which it operates.
Doing for others as you would have them do for you takes on additional meaning when caring for people suffering from debilitating illnesses or injuries that make them dependent on caregivers, Raymond said.
"You do what you can for people while you are here each day," Raymond told one of her caregivers, who worried about a particular resident. "When you leave, you let the angels take over."
Raymond has faithfully scrutinized everything from the food that is cooked from scratch for the residents to the political process that determines senior care and the business of healing bedsores and rubbing backs.
The Ark in Homer remains the only home in the United States operated under the Kinlein system of care. The program is designed to support the whole person, meeting their needs without a regimented structure.
For example, there are no computers or fax machines at the Ark, and about the only technology in sight is the microwave oven. The phone doesn’t have an answering machine either — a person answers the phone in the 24-hour home.
It’s all common sense and very basic, Raymond said, a system that doesn’t focus on the machinery of modern medicine, but on the humanity it requires.
Raymond was raised in Big Falls, Minn., and attended Catholic boarding school after the local high school closed during World War II. She later graduated from Misericordia School of Nursing in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1953. She was 13 semester credits shy of a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Catholic University in Washington, D.C., when her father fell ill and she left.
She continued working as a nurse for the next few decades, moving to Alaska with her three children in 1975 to work as a nurse at the hospital in Ketchikan. Two years later, she moved to Homer and went to work at the South Peninsula Hospital.
A 1990 Anchorage Daily News article characterized Raymond as a "nurse who jumped ship" when she founded her residential home. Raymond said she was proud to be a nurse, but she noticed technology increasingly took nurses away from personal patient care.
"Nurses have to pick up the ends dropped by everyone else," she said.
Raymond responded to the community’s need for an assisted living home for people weakened by illness or injury — people who didn’t need a hospital but who couldn’t be cared for at home.
In February 1981, Raymond founded the home she envisioned, calling it Détente, a word Kinlein defined as "harmonious living together for mutual benefit." One of her first residents was a woman with Alzheimer’s who brought her dog with her.
"The idea was to receive care in a home where the residents call the shots, responding to the way they want to be cared for," Raymond said. "A lot of people don’t want to go to a nursing home as such."
To Raymond, the philosophy is second nature and makes sense.
"It’s assisting a person wherever they are at. If it takes an hour to feed that person, then that is what you do. You don‘t set goals for them," she said.
At a typical nursing home, Raymond said, care giving is more rigid, leaving little time for interacting with the residents. At the Ark, taking a resident for a walk or doing exercises with them is a caregiver’s job. Folding the sheets and changing beds comes only after seeing to the resident’s needs.
Being frugal was also important to Raymond, who set up the home as a nonprofit run by a board. Keeping costs down helps save the residents money.
It costs about $14,000 a month to live at a typical nursing home. The Ark charges between $4,000 and $5,000 in a six-bedroom house built specially for its purpose. The home is in a quiet cul-de-sac within view of the beach.
"Order promotes harmony," she said, repeating one of her favorite phrases. "Everyone works best where there is order."
That means closets are tidy and the dishwasher is loaded to maximize space without wasting water.
The residents even have a cat named Paws, who arrived as a stray one night six years ago. Raymond believes the home atmosphere allows for greater dignity than institutions provide.
Now into her 70s, and having worked any and every shift (including all-nighters) right up until the last day of August, Raymond plans to enjoy retirement.
An avid reader whose living room decor includes an unabridged dictionary weighing about 10 pounds, Raymond intends to indulge in a few books and maybe cruise on the Alaska Marine Highway.
"It will be having fun just to wake up in the morning and think of what do I want to do today," she said.
Residents and caregivers at the Ark will miss her. Terry Plant, a longtime caregiver and a liturgical minister at St. John’s, planned Raymond’s retirement party. She set out a journal for people to write down their thoughts and wishes.
Many of the entries started with the words "Thank you."
A special sanctuary
Parishioner-driven design of St. Andrew Church merges history with the future
Romanesque forms and Gothic archways rose above sprawling cables and electrical hookups at the nearly completed St. Andrew Church in Eagle River last month.
After more than six years of planning, drafting and construction, the church in now only weeks from its inaugural Mass.
State-of-the-art sound, high-tech lighting and computer-monitored climate control are all woven through the walls of the soaring structure, which harkens to churches of the 12th and 13th centuries.
Through a combination of historic architecture and modern technology, the new building embodies many elements of the 2,000-year-old Catholic faith at the start of the 21st century.
"I think it is a church that incorporates our architectural heritage, which we should not ignore any more than we should ignore our theological or intellectual heritage," said Father Leo Walsh, pastor of St. Andrew’s, a burgeoning parish that grows by about three families per week.
While the connection to history is unmistakable, Father Walsh said the new church incorporates modern materials and technologies that reflect the current moment.
"It is like the faith should be," he said, "ancient but handed onto us in the present day."
While many Catholic churches built in the last century broke with historic architectural forms, parishioners at St. Andrew’s wanted "a church that looks like a church," Father Walsh said.
Then they had to ask themselves: what exactly does a church look like? What are the basic forms and essential qualities?
Parishioners sat through several presentations on the history of church architecture before finally agreeing that churches, while differing in many ways, should encompass three essential qualities: verticality, in order to raise the heart and mind to God; an air of permanence to reflect the eternal life of the church; and beauty.
Parishioners, architects, and consultants pored over countless images of churches through the centuries. The parties ultimately agreed to craft a building rooted in tradition, yet responsive to modern times.
Given the Catholic belief that the physical world symbolizes spiritual realities, the way churches are built has always been important. Catholic churches have historically been sensual houses of worship where sunlight streams through stained glass and candlelight flickers across the faces of saints.
Liturgical consultant Martin Kleiber worked with parishioners and architects at St. Andrew’s to help them design the new church. Kleiber’s helped the parish craft a building that faithfully expressed — through steel, wood and concrete — their spiritual beliefs.
From a large crucifix scene at the front of the church to elaborately designed Stations of the Cross and statues of saints, the building is designed to communicate Catholic faith through symbols.
"The most effective form of education and catechesis will be the finished building," Kleiber said. "The building will continue to educate folks long after we are gone."
Andy Simasko, lead architect for the project, is also a parishioner at St. Andrew. In a career based mostly on designing schools and professional businesses, the $11 million, 26,000-square-foot St. Anthony Church is markedly different, he said.
"Because we want it to be a nice building, we are paying for stuff that you wouldn’t normally do," Simasko said. "You could do this for much cheaper if you just wanted a big building to seat a thousand people, but we wanted to build a beautiful building —not just something to get by."
Simasko said he relied heavily on a recent document from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to guide his team through the architectural process. Issued in 2000, "Built of Living Stones: Art, Architecture, and Worship" is a detailed guide for architects designing a new church.
The document highlights that church buildings and the religious artworks can be forms of worship for the parish community.
In the 1960s, after the Second Vatican Council, the Church emphasized that Mass should be more welcoming and accessible to the congregation. Kleiber said this impacted the way new churches were constructed, as architects tried to make churches more warm and inviting for parishioners.
While this resulted in positive changes that allowed people to better see and understand Mass, it also caused some confusion, according to Kleiber, who said two major architectural schools of thought emerged from Vatican II.
Some architects wanted to embrace and merge modern architectural currents with sacred architecture. Others reacted against this modernist turn and pushed to preserve the prominence of historic church forms.
"Some churches in the 1960s and ’70s were seen by many as very sterile and unchurchlike," Kleiber said.
In other cases, some churches were so informal they reminded people of household rooms, he added. A particular concern some had about these churches was that they tended to de-emphasize the church as the house of God and instead emphasized church as the house of the people of God. Some parishes began constructing smaller altars and larger baptismal fonts. Others moved the tabernacle completely out of view during Mass.
Bill Kontess is a parishioner at St. Andrew, where he chairs the building committee for the new church. St. Andrew parishioners wanted to make sure the new church furnishings and design emphasized that the building was the house of God, where the faithful gather to worship, Kontess said.
"There was a school of thought to de-emphasize the altar and emphasize the baptismal font," he said. "We thought it should be put back into proportion with baptism leading to Eucharist."
The new sanctuary will have a large wood and granite altar with a prominent tabernacle located directly behind it. The altar will be specially lit to draw attention to it during the Eucharistic celebration, while the tabernacle remains in full view of the congregation.
The parish located a large baptismal font at the entrance to the church, directly in line with the altar, Kontess said.
In response to Vatican II’s call for greater participation from the laity, the new church is designed with a fan-shaped seating arrangement that accommodates up to 1,100 people — all within 65 feet of the altar.
"I think we found a balance between the church being a house of the people of God and a house of God," Kontess said.
The nearly completed church sits on a hill overlooking the Chugiak/Eagle River community. Father Walsh said he wants it to become a prominent fixture in the area for future generations.
"For us as a parish, we see our call to become so much a part of what is going on in this community that they cannot imagine life without us," he said.
Ultimately, Father Walsh said he hopes the church is a welcoming representation of the journey to God.
"You can’t just rush into this church," he said. "There is that sense of procession leading you on. The church is designed to keep leading you deeper into the mystery of the liturgy, just as faith is designed to lead you deeper into the mystery of God."
News & Notes
Mozart birthday celebration
For centuries, sacred choral music has echoed through Catholic churches, and that tradition will continue next weekend at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Anchorage. To celebrate the 250th anniversary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s birth, the Alaska Chamber Singers plan two performances of the Catholic composer’s "Great Mass in C." Composed in 1782, nine years before Mozart’s death, the "Great Mass" is widely regarded as one of his most exultant pieces. Performances will be at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 13, and Saturday, Oct. 14. Tickets are available at www.centertix.net or (907) 236-ARTS. Tickets will also be on sale at Our Lady of Guadalupe one hour before the performance. For details, visit the Alaska Chamber Singers’ Web site, www.alaskachambersingers.org, or call (907) 333-3500.
Archbishop's Column
New program will help children deepen relationship with Christ
In 1996, Pope John Paul II said: "I urge priests, religious and lay people to continue and redouble their efforts to teach the younger generations the meaning and value of Eucharistic adoration and devotion. How will young people be able to know the Lord if they are not introduced to the mystery of his presence?"
These words challenge us all to examine how effectively we are passing on our belief in the Eucharist to the younger generation. Hopefully, our families and parishes can say that we are doing this successfully. With this great task in mind, I want to encourage all families to participate in a new initiative beginning in our archdiocese.
The program, called Children of Hope, was started by Father Antoine Thomas of the Congregation of St. John, and is currently being used successfully by dioceses nationwide. Members of the Congregation of St. John have been coming to Alaska to give retreats, parish missions and help with the Alaska Catholic Youth Conference for the last several years. One of the other things they have done here is begin leading some of our parishes in holy hours for children. These hours with Eucharistic adoration are designed for children ages 3 through 12 and their families. Children are led in prayer, stories and songs that help them deepen their relationship with Christ and the Eucharist.
After observing the brothers several times over the last few years, a group of local families is now organizing this program for our archdiocese. Two parishes — St. Benedict and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton — have agreed to begin holy hours for children, with several others beginning to look at how to start the program in their parishes. I am excited about this initiative and I encourage anyone who is interested to come and join Brother Nathan and Brother John of the Congregation of St. John at 1 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 8, at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church. They will be leading children in adoration and will be available to talk with participants afterwards.
According to Father Thomas, the results have been incredible in the 10 years since Children of Hope began.
"The children have a deeper desire to pray, are more attentive at Mass and have an unshakeable faith in the real presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament," he says.
Reflecting on the words of Pope Paul VI, "Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the Living Heart of each of our parishes," it is obvious to me the benefit holy hours can provide our parishes. As Father Thomas points out, it was Jesus himself who told us, "Let the children come to me and do not hinder them; for to such belong the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 19:14)
• For more information about Children of Hope, please contact Katie Reed by calling St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church at (907) 345-4466.
Roscoe brought sincerity, talent to the job
"It is a blessing to be able to leave with nothing but gratitude and great memories."
Sincerely, simply and succinctly put by the departing editor of the Anchor, John Roscoe. It reflects the style and trademark of the founding editor of the first Catholic newspaper of the Archdiocese of Anchorage.
Where did John Roscoe come from? How did all this get started? It is an interesting anecdote of history.
The Archdiocese had made a few gestures at having something like a paper; The Catholic Commentary served that purpose and had been distributed through the parish churches. For a while the Commentary had been a column in the local Anchorage newspaper. These were at best gestures at having a newspaper. But you can’t start something from nothing. We could not ask the parishes for funding for something not even on a drawing board.
At a convention of the Catholic Press Association in Denver where I preached at Mass, the editor of the Tennessee Catholic Register, Mr. Tony Spence, a longtime friend, said to me: "If you ever want to start a Catholic paper, I have an editor for you." That sparked my interest. Mr. Spence added: "Young, from the Northwest, University of Portland graduate, excellent feature writer and knows what it takes to run a paper." For one who believes in divine providence that seemed too good to pass up.
Steps were taken. A feasibility study was made by a team from the Catholic Press Association. There was consultation with local newspaper people in Anchorage. A full review was made with the consultors. They equated a paper with evangelization. There came a promise of seed money from the Raskob Foundation. The signs said go. But there was one more major step to take: an editor. Enter again the Tennessee Register. An interview with the young writer, Roscoe, took place here in Anchorage.
We each had a major point to make. For my part as publisher, a newspaper is a melding of words and pictures, of images and ideas. The editor must be a reader as well as a writer, and he must have a knowledge of the Church and her people and the world in which we live our faith, must be a voice of the Church. From his part, as an editor, he would enter the task not as one in ministry but as a professional newspaperman.
Neither of us had any objection to the other. We realized that there is frequently a tension between a publisher and an editor. But honest and candid discussion is the antidote for that.
In my years as publisher I found this editor to be very professional in his role. The Catholic Press Association confirmed that in the national awards and honorable mentions it conferred on the Anchor. As editor he was quite open to criticism and always humble enough to see problems with the paper, honest enough to speak candidly and respectfully to his superiors and fellow staff members. Above all, he was respectful of his readers and kind in listening to complaints, accommodating or firm as the situation might dictate.
Never once did I regret the selection I made. The paper made him, he made the paper and the Archdiocese was the beneficiary. On the matter of "ministry," whether he knew it or not he put together the professionalism of a reporter and role of ministry in the Church, and whether he likes it or not, he was good in his ministry.
I borrow from the words Roscoe used in his sign-off editorial.
It is a blessing that you leave behind nothing but gratitude and great memories. Thank you.
God bless you and your family.
• The writer served as archbishop of Anchorage for 25 years before retiring in 2001; he lives in Anchorage.
Editorial
School shootings remind us of the importance of little things
Sept. 27: A drifter charges into Platte Canyon High School in Bailey, Colo., takes six girls hostage, sexually assaults them, and kills one before turning his gun on himself. A community grieves.
Sept. 29: A 15-year-old boy in Cazenovia, Wis., pries open his family’s gun cabinet, brings two weapons to Weston Schools and shoots his principal to death. A community grieves.
Oct. 2: A lone gunman walks into Wolf Rock School, a one-room schoolhouse in the Amish community of Nickel Mines, Pa., and takes a group of girls hostage. Gunfire breaks out, leaving the gunman and at least four others dead as of Anchor press time. A community grieves.
It has been 13 years since the kidnapping and murder of Polly Klaas, seven years since the siege of Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., five years since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. By now you might think we’d be used to seemingly unprovoked attacks on innocent people; shouldn’t we have developed some kind of insulation, a shell to protect us from the feelings these news reports evoke? And yet each new tragedy penetrates that protective layer, leaving us feeling angrier, sadder and more helpless than the last time.
This most recent attack in Pennsylvania is particularly horrifying and disturbing. The Amish are peaceful, simple Christian people who have resisted the technological advances they feel would draw them away from God. The Wolf Rock schoolhouse, where 30 students in grades one through eight gather every day to learn, was not staffed by a police officer or security guard, did not have an emergency lockdown procedure, may not even have had a lock on the door. Maybe as we learn more about the attacker we will hear why he chose to target the small and weak, extinguishing young lives and robbing a community of so many of its children. Maybe his name, like so many others, will become part of our national vocabulary — a Timothy McVeigh or Mohammed Atta. Eventually the memory of that first horrible moment when we heard about what happened will fade, and our shock and grief will recede — until the next tragedy unfolds and it all comes rushing back.
What can we as Christians do? The obvious answer, of course, is pray. For the souls of those taken too soon. For the families they left behind. For the killers themselves, too, because as Christians it is also our responsibility to try to forgive, even when it seems impossible.
We can also take action. Here in Anchorage, community members and city leaders are working to combat gang violence. But you don’t have to form a task force or write a resolution to make your town a more peaceful place to live. Our kindness can be more powerful than we realize. When we reach out to the people around us who seem lonely and angry, when we take the time to smile and say hello to the people in line behind us at the bank or grocery store, when we stand up for the kid in school who’s always getting picked on, when we volunteer to work with at-risk youth or in prison outreach, we are helping contribute to a kinder community.
Maybe a smile and a kind word wouldn’t have stopped Columbine shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. Maybe they couldn’t have prevented the tragedies of the past few weeks. But every small step toward building a kinder, more peaceful community adds up. Over time, maybe the little things we do can help prevent one more community from having to grieve.
Letter to the Editor
Terrorists look unhappy
An American Muslim, in a speech to Americans, broadcast by the media, said, "Convert to Islam or else!" The "or else" proves Islam to be a religion promulgated by the sword — as was Catholicism during the Inquisition. God, Yahweh, Allah, by whatever name, gave us free will because the greatest love of all is the love that is freely given. The love demanded we call "rape." I used to think if Khomeni ever smiled he would crack his face. The terrorists, too, look constipated and irritated. Is their message, "Convert to Islam and be unhappy like us?"
Kasilof
Priorities seem to be askew
I read with interest Effie Caldarola’s Sept. 8 article on the coming Discipleship Days ("Planners envision bigger and better Discipleship Days"). I was, however, a bit concerned with Scott Bader’s workshop entitled "10 Silver Bullets to Increase Your Giving of Treasure, Talent, Time." By putting treasure first, the emphasis is monetary gains, not on the works of mercy.
Surely as stewardship director he knows that if you give of your talent and time, treasure will follow. It is a natural progression of this conversion. We as Catholic Christians are fortunate that Christ emphasized time and talent and not treasure.
Nikiski
We have violent history too
George Weigel’s Sept. 22 column ("The West should not blame itself for rise of radical Islamic jihadism") repeatedly links Islam with terrorism but ignores the Christian terrorists who lynched untold numbers of black Americans. U.S. Christian taxpayers financed Guatemalan and Salvadoran terrorism that killed 270,000. That’s 9/11 times 90. Christians financed the Fort Benning, Ga., school for terrorists and the Contras who terrorized Nicaragua.Weigel repeats the old "conversion by the sword" mantra as if some Third World mullah is powerful enough to force Americans to become Muslims while ignoring the U.S. history of violence against peoples not conforming to our "national interest." If that’s not conversion by the sword, what is it?Jesus tells us to heed our own sins, not our neighbors’; Weigel calls that "gratuitous self-flagellation."
Too bad Weigel uses Catholic publications to promote secular politics at the expense of Jesus’ teaching.
Anchorage