April 20, 2007 - Issue #8
Local News | Opinion/Editorials | Letters to the Editor
Local News
Moral Compass
This is the first installment of a feature that seeks to generate dialogue with readers on issues pertaining to the Catholic Church.
In this first segment we explore a recent event in Los Angeles, in which Cardinal Roger Mahoney was criticized in the LA Times this month for admonishing a Catholic politician who supports doctor-assisted suicide.
Cardinal Mahoney, the archbishop of Los Angeles, also spoke against proposed legislation to legalize doctor-assisted suicide in California.
On April 5, a Los Angeles Times writer said Cardinal Mahoney violated the separation of church and state and called for "a bill to reexamine the tax-exempt status of church property."
In defense of Cardinal Mahoney, Catholic League president Bill Donohue released a statement, noting how an editorial in the LA Times on March 2, 2006, commended the cardinal for "reinforcing the right of religious leaders to speak out on the moral ramifications of political issues." The issue the cardinal addressed then was immigration.
"So how can it logically be that Cardinal Mahoney is now all of a sudden violating the Constitution when he addresses doctor-assisted suicide?" Donohue asked.
Donohue argued that the cardinal’s comments on doctor-assisted suicide are in line with the First Amendment, which guarantees religious liberty and freedom of speech.
So the question for Anchor readers is this: How should leadership within the Catholic Church, both locally and globally, address controversial public policy measures? What role should the church have in shaping public policy?
The Anchor will publish the answers in the next issue. Please keep responses to 200 words or less and send them to catholicanchor@gci.net.
Msgr. Puente seeks Spanish speaking priest for Alaska
Next stop is Brazil to tackle problems facing Latin American church
Next month, Pope Benedict XVI will head to Brazil with bishops and church leaders from throughout Latin America to wrestle with profound problems in the world’s most Catholic continent.
Amidst the gathering of more than 160 voting bishops and many high-ranking church officials will be the jovial Msgr. Carlos Quintana Puente, executive director of the Secretariat for the Church in Latin America.
With the growing influence of a consumerist culture and scores of social and economic injustice problems in Latin America, conference attendees have a packed agenda.
But in early April, just a few weeks before the conference, the energetic monsignor spent a week bustling around Anchorage, where he celebrated half a dozen Masses at Holy Family Cathedral and Our Lady of Guadalupe. He also visited with Archbishop Roger Schwietz and other priests while taking in his first Alaska breakup.
What brought the monsignor north? In an April 5 interview he told the Anchor that he was attempting to find a Spanish speaking priest to replace departing Dominican Father Paul Scanlon. Scanlon is leaving after serving the Hispanic community in Anchorage for the past three years.
How did you get the job of finding a Spanish speaking priest for Anchorage?
Part of the work I do for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington is serve as a bridge between the church in Latin American and North America. We put the needs of the church down there in touch with the needs of the church up here in the United States and Canada. One of the needs up here is the lack of pastors to accompany the millions of people who have immigrated to North America and Canada.
Did you find a priest willing serve in Alaska?
I know a very good priest from Ecuador. He may be able to come over here. We studied together in seminary in Spain where they have the running of the Bulls. He said he would like to offer his services in a diocese in the United States. We are still working on it but he wants to come in June.
What does the Latin American church need from the U.S. church?
In 1961 the Holy See asked the church in the United States to be generous to the church in Latin America and to share vocations and also economic resources. That is how my office got started. We do a collection here in the United States each year and we send roughly seven million dollars to Latin America. That money helps with the cost of 476 projects in 22 countries.
What types of projects does this cover?
Catechetical formation, health for seminaries, social research studies, implementing pastoral plans. We help at the bishops’ conference level, the diocese level, the national and the international level. We just gave $250,000 to help with the upcoming bishops’ conference in Brazil.
What is your connection to Latin America?
I was ordained in 1996 and I spent my first three years as a priest in my homeland of Puerto Rico. From 1999 to 2005 I worked in Bogotá, Columbia as the general treasurer, the money man, for the Bishops’ Council for Latin America. From 2005 to now I have worked at the director of the Secretariat for the Church in Latin America.
What are the main themes for the upcoming conference, May 13-31, in Aparecida, Brazil?
How can we make people in Latin America, become disciples? This is a big thing now and hopefully we will get the juices flowing.
Globally, Catholic leaders worry that so many Catholics are leaving parishes in Latin America for non-Catholic evangelical churches. Do the bishops plan to address this at the conference?
It’s not that people are leaving the church, its more that Catholics are practicing their faith with smaller Christian evangelical groups that are not based on the Catholic church. This is a big concern but I think it is a matter of numbers. Up here you might have a parish of three thousand people but down there you can have parishes of forty or fifty thousand people.
Is there a shortage of priests in Latin America?
Exactly. They have a lot of vocations but the number of Catholics is so high, especially in the mega cities. I know of parishes that have 100,000 people.
So is it accurate to say that Latin America has a vocation crisis similar to the United States?
It is not a crisis everywhere. It goes country by country. In Columbia, there are plenty of vocations. Where there is poverty and not too many opportunities, there are plenty of vocations. Where you have an urban setting with lots of opportunities, and money flowing around, people get distracted. Nobody wants to lose the party to become a priest. This is happening in the cities where families are smaller. In the rural areas, you have families of eight or nine and it’s easy to have one vocation. In the urban areas you have families of two or three. You know, who is going to be the priest?
It sounds like it is a misnomer to think Latin America has priests to spare for North America?
Yes, it is a misnomer. They barely have enough priests for their own needs. The crisis of vocations has to do with the culture. People don’t open up their lives to be God’s property. A baptized person is no longer their own property. They live for God. You can live for God as a layman, as a priest, as a religious. There would be vocations enough if everybody opened up to what God wants for them. But we just don’t open up.
How does the Latin American Church plan to address these problems?
They are trying to form small-based church communities with lay leadership. Also lay movements are very powerful in Latin America. There are all sorts of pre-conference meetings organized to explore these currents. What are we going to come up with? The thing that has to come out is that we must make disciples and missionaries. We are all called to be missionaries in our own family and in our culture. With enough leadership from the laity and with help from the head of the church we may be able to evangelize the culture.
How does the larger culture in Latin America impact the health of the church?
First of all the pluralism. It is a pluralistic society now days. In the past there was only the Catholic faith but now you have so many sect movements that it creates competition and distraction. But also there is a crisis in the family. The faith was meant to be passed from family to family and now days with the disruption of the families, high divorce rates and broken families, the youth are out there without help. Everything adds up but there is a big family crisis.
Palmer woman to become a nun
Montella: ‘I thought maybe I was too old’
Rita Montella felt called to join a convent but worried that at age 66, she was past the age limit.
Montella also thought her religious call might be a bit lonely. After her husband of 13 years died in May of 2005, she threw herself into serving her parish, St. Michael Church in Palmer.
"I grew very busy and felt scattered," she recalled. "I wasn’t focused on any one thing, but longed to spend more time in prayer. I came to think of a religious life and I thought maybe I was too old. I was talking to God when I said that."
But God wasn’t listening to the age anxieties, she said, and the calling persisted.
She waited a year after her husband’s death before taking action. St. Michael’s Father Tom Brundage encouraged her as did others, including a sister formerly of Kalskag who recommended her to the order.
Montella is now finally realizing her call to religious life. St. Michael’s celebrated her send off earlier this month. She sold her condo, and left Alaska April 17 to enter a contemplative order called Sisters Adorers of the Precious Blood in Watertown, NY.
This is Montella’s second time joining a religious order. Educated at Catholic schools, she entered the teaching Order of St. Casimir as a teenager, and spent 11 years in formation. She received dispensation from her vows at the age of 30 but continued to teach until retirement.
The years as a sister don’t count in terms of training, Montella found. She will spend the next two years as a novice, then complete an additional nine months. The life of the sisters is devoted to bringing God‘s presence into the world through prayer.
The seven sisters spend their days centered around chapel times for contemplative prayer. They live a cloistered life and wear the traditional nun habit. To maintain self-sufficiency, they sell enrollment cards and a few religious articles.
"You have your work to do and then you leave your work and go to prayer. In the world here, you don‘t always have that option," she said.
Montella spent two months living at the convent, as required, then applied and was accepted. Her presence will bring the total number of sisters to eight, most of whom are older. One sister is 90."I felt the need to do something more quiet this time. If you get too involved in being busy, it’s hard to sit down and pray," she said.
A vocation begins with a strong love for Jesus and a love for the church, Montella added, both of which never left her even though 37 years ago she felt the need to leave the convent.
Montella believes more people, both men and women, would feel called to serve if they come from a solid foundation of Catholic education. She encourages young women to consider vocations to supply societies with new life.
"You can’t be called to something you don’t know," she said. "If they receive a good education and get involved with the church, they are going to love the church and want to do more for it."
Brother Craig Bonham, who serves as the vocations coordinator for the Anchorage Archdiocese, said it is difficult to know at any one time how many women may be pursuing a vocation."I provide the links for both men and women, yet most are connecting directly with religious orders," he said. The Internet has changed the way people research religious societies, he said.
What is known is that Alaskans who enter orders are few, he said. This follows the trend in the rest of the U.S. and Western Europe where dwindling numbers have lead to priest and nun shortages. In order to have enough priests for Easter and Christmas, the archdiocese brings up priests from other parts of the U.S. for a visit. But Alaska also feels the pinch of not enough sisters, Bonham said.
It used to be that religious orders in the Northern Hemisphere supplied for the needs of the Southern Hemisphere. Today the reversal is true, Bonham said.
In order to attract more to vocations, Bonham said priests, laypeople and those in the parish should return to the practice of encouraging others."We should be asking ‘have you ever considered the religious life?’ We also see an increase in the number when people are inspired by a life, such as by Pope John Paul’s life," he said.
As far as anyone can remember in the Palmer parish, Rita Montella may be a first. That could prove inspiration for others, they say.
"I never had heard of anyone doing this from our parish," said Danielle LeFrance, who is helping to organize Montella’s sendoff reception. "People love Rita because she does so much for the church. She will be deeply missed but we are so happy for her."
Mid-life calling leads to religious life
Stoll: ‘something was missing in my life’
The Archdiocese of Anchorage will celebrate this spring as one of its newest religious sisters, Adrian Dominican Sister Jacqueline Stoll, makes her first profession of vows.
Sister Stoll, who discerned a call to religious life in her mid-forties, left behind home ownership, a penchant for travel, and a successful career as a nurse practitioner to follow "a growing sense from God that something was missing in my life. I knew I needed to pay attention to my heart."
The Adrian Dominicans, the largest Dominican congregation in the U.S., have two women professing first vows this year, and nine more in formation.
This "boomlet" in vocations comes as the community continues to celebrate the 800th anniversary of St. Dominic’s founding of the order in 1206.
Sister Stoll will make temporary, two-year vows at the motherhouse in Adrian, Michigan May 12. Soon after that, she will return to Anchorage where she is part of a four-member Adrian Dominican community putting down roots in the archdiocese.
Her duties include coordinating the parish nursing ministry and helping staff a clinic for guests of the Brother Francis Shelter.
"This two-year period will be a further discernment process for both me and the congregation," said Sister Stoll.
"I had always thought, even as a child, that I’d like to be a sister," she said. "In my early twenties, I entered another congregation, but I wasn’t ready for a life commitment. I spent some years growing in maturity and spirituality."
Sister Stoll said she became "your average professional woman. I got sidetracked by career, education, travel. I had a lot of fun and friends."
She’s been in the nursing profession for twenty years, and became a nurse practitioner ten years ago. Much of her professional career has been spent working with HIV/AIDS patients.
"I worked at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York City, and many of my patients were HIV-positive clients from Spanish Harlem."
She also spent time at Boston City Hospital and at a medical center in New Mexico.
But something nagged at her – something that asked her "what I was truly called to do."
Entering religious life "at my age wasn’t easy. I had to let go of a lot of things. Not everyone in my life was happy with my decision."
Nevertheless, Sister Stoll said she’s "never regretted it. I’ve found a peace in my life. I thank God every night for giving me the strength to make this decision."
The first Dominican monastery for women was founded in Prouille, France, by St. Dominic in 1206. In 1233, sisters from Prouille went to Regensburg, Germany to found a new monastery.
Dominican sisters first came to the U.S. in 1853 in answer to a plea from a bishop seeking help in educating the children of German immigrants. These sisters, who settled in Amityville, N.Y., eventually sent members to Michigan, and by 1923 these sisters officially became the Adrian Dominicans.
Although there are many different groups, or congregations, of Dominicans, the order itself has never divided – Dominican priests and brothers (like those who staff Holy Family Cathedral in downtown Anchorage) and sisters are all part of the same order.
The Adrian Dominicans number over 900 in the U.S., and recently began to research where they were most needed in a situation where they could live together in communities of at least four or five women.
After their prioress, or superior general, consulted with Archbishop Roger Schwietz, the Anchorage archdiocese seemed a good fit. The Mercy Sisters, a long-time presence in Anchorage, were ready to vacate a convent they had used for many years, and the Adrian Dominicans moved in.
"We definitely have a commitment to Anchorage," said Sister Stoll.
Other Adrian Dominicans in the community include Sister Ann Fallon, education consultant for the archdiocese, who was pivotal in helping Mat-Su area Catholics establish a new Catholic school this year; Sister Jo Gaugier, ministry formation consultant in the Office of Evangelization; and Sister Lorraine Reaume, a fluent Spanish-speaker who is a pastoral associate and works in Hispanic ministry at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish.
News & Notes
Stillborn birth certificates considered
The State House is considering a bill that would allow grieving parents to obtain a birth certificate if their child is stillborn.
Rep. Carl Gatto, R-Palmer, chief sponsor of the proposed measure, says the bill will help bring a measure of closure to parents who want a birth certificate for the child they lost.
"As one parent of a stillborn child put it ‘being able to receive a birth certificate for that child would make me feel complete in that it would acknowledge that my daughter was born," Gatto said in the official sponsor statement.
House Bill 159 allows a parent to request the preparation of a birth certificate after a stillbirth. According to the bill, parents may also provide a name for the child to be placed on the certificate. If a name were not provided, the requested birth certificate would read either "baby boy" or "baby girl," as appropriate, and the last name of the parent who requested the certificate. "Stillbirth" or "stillborn" refers to an unintended, fetal death occurring after 20 weeks gestation.As of press time the bill had been scheduled for a public hearing on April 17.
Wagoner resigns from bishops’ conference
Chip Wagoner, executive director for the Alaska Conference of Catholic Bishops, resigned earlier this month, citing the fact that "the bishops chose a legislative approach I could not in good conscience implement."
In an email response to the Catholic Anchor, Wagoner did not elaborate on the reasons for his resignation.
He did, however, mention that he enjoyed most of the relationships he was "privileged to have through the job," including the chance to work with bishops, legislators, fellow Catholic conference directors and others.
Wagoner was the third executive director of the ACCB. He was first hired in 2002 as a legislative lobbyist to further the mission of the bishops through education and public policy advocacy.
In September 2004, Wagoner was hired as the first full time executive director of ACCB.
Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schweitz said the Alaska bishops have not yet decided on a replacement for Wagoner.
Bishops support Denali KidCare
The Archdiocese legislative network alert is calling attention to an effort to amend House Bill 198 that would alter the Denali KidCare eligibility program so that families who earn 200 percent or less of the poverty level will qualify for the program. Denali KidCare provides health coverage for children of low-income families.
According to the legislative alert, the Alaska Legislature lowered Denali KidCare eligibility in 2003 to 175 percent of the Federal Poverty Level and froze the standard at the 2003 FPL. As a result, 3,440 children who would have been eligible cannot access the program. Due to the 2003 FPL freeze, current eligibility is at 155% of the FPL. Alaska now has the third lowest eligibility in the United States.
The legislative arm of the Alaska Bishops, the Alaska Catholic Conference, supports an increase in the eligibility level to 200 percent of FPL, with the option for buy-in or co-pays between 200 and 35 percent of poverty level. To contact a state representative on this issue, simply email them at Representative_Firstname_Lastname@legis.state.ak.us.
Healing for child and pregnancy loss
The Elizabeth Ministry at St. Andrew Church in Eagle River is sponsoring a healing Mass for pregnancy and child loss on May 15, 7 p.m., at the church. For more information, contact Joaquita Martin at (907) 441-8917.
Faith-based meeting approaches
Space is available for individuals or groups wishing to attend the 2007 Conference on Community & Faith-Based Service, April 23-24, at the Sheraton Anchorage Hotel. The conference, sponsored by the Alaska State Community Service Commission and the Alaska Office of Faith-Based & Community Initiatives, brings together national and local community and faith-based organizations for training, networking and communication, and service projects.
Opening ceremonies at 8 a.m. Monday, April 23, will include remarks by Jay Hein of the White House Office of Faith-Based & Community Initiatives and Kristin McSwain, Director for Americorps State and National. A luncheon to honor volunteers and volunteer organizations at 11:30 a.m. Mon., April 23 will feature awards presented by Governor Sarah Palin and Lt. Governor Sean Parnell.
Additional information on the 2007 Conference of Community & Faith-Based Service and a link to online registration is available at www.servealaska2007.com.
Youths honored for good works
St. Anthony’s Youth Group in Anchorage was recognized this month with a 2007 Spirit of Youth award.
The church youth group volunteer countless hours to help community groups in need. From young children to senior citizens, the group organized events and outreach projects for a wide range of people, while also helping enhance the wider community by cleaning and maintaining a city park near St. Anthony Church.
Spirit of Youth began in 1997 as a project of the Association of Alaska School Boards to address the growing negative image of teenagers. Since then, hundreds of positive stories about Alaskan youth have spread throughout the state. The awards recognize hard working, inspiring teenagers or youth groups in eleven award categories. Nearly 120 individuals or youth organizations were nominated for the 2007 contest. St. Anthony’s Youth Group, a winner in the faith-based category, was one of only 22 total award winners.
CSS moves offices
Earlier this month, in an effort to centrally locate offices and outreach of Catholic Social Services in the Anchorage Archdiocese, CSS moved its administrative offices from the chancery headquarters on Cordova Street to its current center on 20th Avenue.
The move relocates CSS administrative offices onto a site with programs that currently serve people with special needs, refugees and immigrants, while also being a place that provides a food pantry and pregnancy support and adoption services.
"Hopefully the move will result in increased cohesion between programs and administration," said CSS Executive Director Susan Bomalaski. "We are looking forward to the center being the hub of CSS activity as we move into the future."
Archbishop's Column
Pray that people follow Christ and answer their vocational calling
Recently, I noticed several hand made signs on my way home. The signs contained a brief description of a lost dog and a phone number to call if anyone saw it. Someone arriving at my house around that time noticed the signs also, and spotted what seemed to be the missing dog in the vicinity.
He called the number on the sign and passed the information along to the owner. For several days after that, the owner called back to see if the dog had been seen again. Clearly the owner had great affection for the dog and was going to great efforts to find it.
I don’t know if the dog was ever found, but the incident came back to me as I reflected on the theme of Good Shepherd Sunday. We might sometimes wonder: does it really matter to God when we sin? Jesus anticipated that question and used the example of a lost animal to answer it. He gave the example of a shepherd in his day who lost one sheep and went out in search of it. As St. Claude La Colombiere (spiritual director of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque) put it: "Imagine the desolation of the poor shepherd whose sheep has gone astray. The entire countryside resounds with the cries of the unfortunate man; neglecting the rest of his flock, he runs through woods and over hills, combing thickets and undergrowth, lamenting and shouting at the top of his voice. He cannot bring himself to give up until he has found his lost sheep and brought it back to the fold."
Jesus evoked this relationship of the shepherd with his sheep, knowing it would strike home in human hearts. We all have seen the reaction, perhaps even experienced it ourselves, of a lost beloved pet. It can be distressing, even devastating.
So we know how the Lord grieves over the loss of one of his beloved to serious sin. We know how great is his desire to find the lost and return them to the fold. We also know that Jesus no longer walks this earth in the flesh as he did 2,000 years ago, but is counting on his disciples to search for lost sheep for him.
This is why, on Good Shepherd weekend, the church invites us to pray for all those who share in the shepherding task of Jesus, that they might be steadfast in doing the work of the Good Shepherd. We have so many examples of dedicated women and men in this Archdiocese who carry on their part of the shepherding task of Jesus with sincere care. Their steadfast service is an inspiration to me, and to many.
I invite us to pray for those we know in our own parishes. I invite us all to pray, also, for an abundance of vocations to the life-long service of shepherding in the name of Christ, whether by radically following Jesus in religious life or in ordained life as a deacon or priest. I encourage families especially to be open to encouraging their children to consider a vocation in the church. As Pope Benedict XVI says: "The pastoral care of vocations needs to involve the entire Christian community in every area of its life" (Sacrosanctum Caritatis).
On several occasions we pray for church vocations during the church’s liturgical year: on the Baptism of the Lord we pray for all vocations, on the Sunday near the Presentation of the Lord (Feb. 2) we pray for vocations to religious life. On Good Shepherd Sunday we pray for those called to ordained ministry. The Lord has not stopped inviting people to follow him, as he did two thousand years ago. Pray for those being called, and for their families, that they create an atmosphere of faith that will help the call be heard.
The writer is Archbishop of the Anchorage Archdiocese.
Columns
God’s incredible invitation verges on the ridiculous
Note from the writer: This is the first in a semi-monthly column for the Catholic Anchor on Christian spirituality. After over 40 years of teaching in Jesuit Universities and seminaries in the United States and Africa, and after over 50 years of directing retreats and parish missions across the U.S., Canada and abroad, I have been graced with a return to Alaska, where my first assignment was 1951-53 at Holy Cross Mission on the lower Yukon River. This time I serve at Holy Spirit Center with Fr. Vince Beuzer, S.J. and the staff. I travel all over Alaska and beyond for parish retreats and missions. I look forward to meeting you personally either at Holy Spirit Center or in your local parish.
God’s invitation is something awesome. It verges on the incredible, even the ridiculous. Almighty God, Creator and Lord of the Universe, wants to be involved and communicate with us. He invites us to spend time with him, to realize he is truly our Abba, as He is for Jesus, and to taste and relish that relationship.
This is an invitation to faith, to wait on the Lord, believing that God will reveal himself to us and share with us his gracious purposes. It is God’s invitation to prayer.
If we are open to it, God directly acts in us and speaks to us in every created experience, especially in sacred Scripture. Every sensual reality, from raindrops to wild flowers to human smiles or cries, is a partial revelation of God, a finite shape of God’s creative love. Every word in holy Scripture is the word of God, ever alive, full of meaning and power for us.
Take a serious look at this revelation in passages like Psalm 81, Isaiah 55, Hosea 2 and 11, Matthew 11: 25-30 and John, chapters 14 and 15.
This astounding revelation is not merely for our minds; it is a call for us to experience and live in it. But this will never take place unless we take time to listen to God, to savor his word and let them soak into us. Unless we do this, we’ll never really know God.
The danger is not just that we may not take time to listen to him, but that we may even ignore what we hear, "Don’t harden your hearts," God pleads in Psalm 95.
But why should God care at all? Let’s face it; if I were God, the last thing I’d want is to be bothered by people like me, "To hell with them, if they won’t listen! No skin off my nose if they behave themselves or not. They are just not worth troubling over, especially for a God who has infinitely better and more important things to think about."
God’s answer to this is: "But you are not God. I am. And ‘my thinking is not your thinking and my ways are not your ways’ (Isaiah 55). You are my son, my daughter; I want to be your Abba. This is what I want. Won’t you believe me? Won’t you let me?"
The author ministers at Holy Spirit Retreat Center in the Anchorage Archdiocese, where he directs spiritual retreats.
Respectful communication can shed light and build sense of community
Without shame, I will confess to anyone who cares to listen that I once thought that I was a fairly intelligent person, that I could catch on to most modern technological developments without having to appeal to some little kid for advice. Not so! Some weeks ago I needed to call a "tech-guy" at GCI to come and show me how to hook up my DVD player. I am on a first name basis with a guy at ACS who has to explain to me how to adjust the settings on my computer so that I can access — (See that word!) access my E-mail. It’s craziness. Technology is changing so fast that I can’t even understand the code letters any more: DSL podcast, eBay, iPod, YouTube, blogs. I live in mortal fear that I will be considered an ignoramus if I do not understand the latest up-date that comes from Microsoft or Apple.
Of course, I also have great admiration for those brilliant young men and women who started their careers in a garage a few years ago and now are billionaires. I suppose I should say that they have made my life simpler, odd as that may sound. At least they have made it possible for me to communicate in ways I never thought possible even five years ago.
Communication, despite its abuses, surely has to be one of those human instincts that can only make us more humane because by its very nature communication means being in touch with one another, listening respectfully to one another, offering our insights as well. Most people do not live as hermits (I have nothing against hermits). We live next to each other, depending on each other to discover what life truly means.
Those of us who lived during Ronald Reagan’s presidential years remember that he was called The Great Communicator. He started his career as a radio announcer. Many may not have agreed with his politics, but at least we got his message.
With all due respect to Ronald Reagan, The True Great Communicator to my mind is Jesus of Nazareth. Even without technology, he could capture the attention of the crowds, not with abstract philosophical or theological theories, but rather with metaphors, stories and figures of speech that they could readily understand and then immediately begin asking themselves the theological questions about life’s meaning.
By way of example, during these post Easter Sundays, Jesus speaks repeatedly in the Gospels about sheep and shepherds. Obviously, his point is not to enlighten us about the science of animal husbandry. Rather, the metaphors he uses are all about community and leadership, about dependency and trust, about communicating with one another for the common good.
The truly useful metaphors are those that are naturally transparent, those that can bridge the relationship between the times of Jesus of Nazareth and the Church of the 21st century. Metaphors such as sheep and shepherds, for instance, naturally lead us to ask questions about leadership and community, about the very quality of the leadership demonstrated by bishops and priests, about the willingness of Catholics to join with their leaders and with one another to continue building on that Church which Jesus called " the flock." In the end, it is all a question about how we communicate with one another, how we build trust with each other for the sake of the larger flock.
I imagine the rapid developments of modern technology will continue to challenge many of us who do not make a living in science. But if we learn nothing else from science than how to communicate respectfully with each other, much will have been gained. I’m sure even Jesus himself would find uses for Yahoo or Google.
By ‘protecting’ our children from religious vocations, we dry up the clergy pool
Vocations Sunday looms bright and I again find myself perplexed as to why parents are reluctant to encourage their children to consider the idea of a religious vocation.
While explanations are legion, one of the most popular I hear is that the educational institutions of the church have strayed and we don’t want our children to be taught error and suffer disillusionment. While these may be valid concerns, I submit that exposure to error and suffering the pains of disillusionment is unavoidable in any vocation.
We do not spare our children this experience when we discourage them from choosing a religious vocation. We prevent them from experiencing this common affliction in an atmosphere imbued with the Sacraments — an atmosphere where our children can be plugged into a circuit of grace.
Do we imagine that the Lord of Hosts will not protect those whom he calls?
Perhaps many of our religious educational institutions have strayed from church teaching. But sometimes, the only way to change something is to engage it at close range. We are not to back away from a struggle. I am bewildered when I compare our willingness to send away our sons and daughters to fight in foreign wars with our recalcitrance to send them in pursuit of a religious vocation. This is illogical. Surely, the more important battle is the one concerned with eternal things.
If your children enter a religious institution and someone tells them the Eucharist is not truly Christ, then they can rely on their parental catechesis and attempt to correct the error using proper channels.
This is the only way to correct institutionalized error. It is small and quiet, not unlike the manner of our mother Mary.
The Lord, too, taught Elijah on Mt. Sinai that his nature was not the fire, earthquake, or wind, but the quiet whisper. This fact was keenly illustrated some 800 years later in a manger.
We must not underestimate the powerful influence our children can have in correcting error. Their small, quiet efforts are our best hope at preserving a faithful church.
By "protecting" our children from a religious vocation, we dry up the pool of priests, nuns, and religious. This allows a smaller body of applicants to have greater influence on the Church — a smaller body that may actually be attracted by current trends toward moral relativism and higher criticism.
It is no small thing to give up a child to the Lord or to let your name die and I would not attempt to minimize the sacrifice. If we play the tape to the end though, we are eternal beings. The things we do here and now matter only in the degree to which they are sacraments of eternal things. I wouldn’t want to pass into the land of eternal things without trying to launch a few arrows into the heart of the enemy. I have four arrows and they call me "Dad".
The writer teaches church history at St. Andrew Church.
Editorials
Liturgy and sacraments are not enough to feed Catholics
Next month, Latin America’s bishops will gather in Brazil to address an intriguing problem — one that extends in varying degrees to much of the Catholic world.
More than 450 million Catholics reside in Latin America, making it the largest Catholic region in the world. Millions, however, leave the church each year as bishops wrestle with how to stop the bleeding. The gathering is important enough to warrant Pope Benedict XVI’s presence.
One of the conference attendees is Msgr. Carlos Quintana Puente, executive director of the Secretariat for the Church in Latin America. He told the Anchor this month that one of the problems in Latin America is that many Catholic churches are often too big to address the personal needs of individual parishioners. With the missionary zeal of evangelical churches and other Christian groups, Catholics are leaving for smaller, more intimate settings, where they can live out their faith in close-knit community with others.
The bishops plan to assess these movements to determine why people are choosing to leave the Catholic Church.
The conference illustrates a key component to what connects people to church life. Unfortunately, for many, the sacraments, liturgy and apostolic succession of the priests and bishops are not enough to keep them in the church. As Msgr. Puente put it, they need more of a living sense of Christ transforming their lives.
Christ established his church and then sent the Holy Spirit to reach out into the entire world. The Spirit now works through the bodies and voices and spirits of human beings. When we share our faith in our homes, book clubs, pubs and coffee houses, Christ is proclaimed. The love of Christ comes through the fingertips and vocal cords of his people.
Celebrating the sacraments and keeping holy days are imperative but not enough.
Protestants, in Latin America and elsewhere, have shown a great ability to weave Christ’s love into diverse places such as home groups, youth groups, mom’s clubs and senior nights. Thankfully, some Catholic churches are bursting at the seams with similar ministries for the faithful – many others, however, are not and parishioners are leaving the grace of the sacraments, the beauty of the liturgy, and the unity with the Catholic Church to find these ministries elsewhere.
In some ways it may be easier for Protestants to form small faith groups because they needn’t worry about the unity of one universal church when it comes to theology, doctrine and the sacraments. But Catholics can certainly find more ways to faithfully integrate the Gospel and the teachings of the Magisterium into the lives of parishioners outside the walls of the church. This is, after all, where people go after Mass.
Senators degrade life by voting to support embryo experiments
Happenings in the U.S. Senate earlier this month exemplify our age where laws increasingly reflect the shifting desires of what we prefer rather than moral codes we are bound to uphold.
Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Ted Stevens did not fare well in this matter.
Alaska’s two Republican senators joined the Democratic controlled Senate to pass a bill that aims to loosen restrictions for federally funded research on embryonic stem cells.
In 2001, President George Bush signed a law to allow federal funding for stem cell lines that were derived from human embryos that had already died in research or could no longer develop into human beings. The current senate bill would provide federal funds for research that kills living embryos.
Bush vowed to veto the measure but the fact that both houses of Congress have now passed legislation to expand funding for embryonic stem cell research does not bode well for human life at its earliest stage.
To justify their votes, Murkowski and Stevens issued explanations last week that were rife with inconsistency.
The senators joined supporters of embryonic stem cell research in maintaining that stem cells extracted from human embryos show great promise and potential to cure human diseases. However, in order to keep financially motivated groups from creating human lives for the sole purpose of selling them off for experiments, the bill stipulates that all embryos must be freely donated from fertility clinics that would otherwise discard them. Isn’t it better, supporters argue, to use these embryos for research rather than simply throw them away?
Our senators, and others who support the bill, apparently believe it is wrong to create human life for the sole purpose of experiments that will destroy it. What exactly makes it wrong (or for some merely distasteful) to conduct such research, when it may lead to discoveries that cure human diseases?
Presumably it is wrong because human life, no matter how embryonic, is fundamentally still human and therefore should not be treated like bacterial cultures or lab rats.
Most people still sense that human life is special, elevated and distinct above all other life.
Our senators betray this belief, however, when they begin to think that in some cases it is ok to kill certain human lives so that we might enhance others. Each life is no longer valued for its humanity but rather for its utility. We begin to look at life based on its overall usefulness. Ultimately, those who happen to be in power make the call.
Of course the United States has been stumbling down this road for quite some time. When the Supreme Court legalized abortion 34 years ago, the doors opened to view all human life in terms of its usefulness rather than its intrinsic God-given dignity.
Today, we create human life in clinics because "we want" to give birth to our own children. We test them to make sure they have no defects. We keep the children we want and donate the rest for experiments.
Until we demand that our legislators defend human life based on its inherent dignity, things will only get worse.
Will legislators listen to the people’s advisory vote?
In Juneau, Alaska’s legislators are now wrestling with whether they should follow the advice of the recent statewide advisory vote in which the majority of voters (53 to 47 percent) said they want a say in whether the state of Alaska provides marital benefits to the homosexual couples of public employees. The Alaska Supreme Court forced the state to provide the benefits based on the court’s reasoning that homosexual couples are "similarly situated" to married couples. The court, however, exists to apply existing law, not to create new ones. Many believe the justices overstepped their role. Now the majority of voters say they want a chance to correct the court. Representatives in Juneau owe them that opportunity. It’s often said that legislators are ready and willing to hear from their constituents. The people called for a vote.
Letters to the Editor
Reader agrees: holy days before hockey
As a former hockey coach who had to face the Easter Sunday conflict over ten years ago, I totally understand R. Scott Williams’ recent column and applaud his decision. Our team was eliminated before Easter but had it not, I planned to attend a vigil Mass on Saturday night. If the tournament schedule had made it impossible to make a vigil Mass, our team would have boycotted the game.We have problems elsewhere in our secularized culture: our school district forces us to attend class on Good Friday and serves meat as a hot-lunch entree during Lent. I watch many Catholics ignore their Lenten requirement of meatless Fridays.
Priests and bishops must preach self-sacrifice and negotiate tactfully in a secular world that tempts their flock.
Article should have mentioned hard working sister
I found the article "Hispanic Catholics alter Alaska parishes" very confusing. It talked about the needs of the Hispanic community but did not mention the resources that are available for them. Nowhere in the article does it mention that Sister Lorraine Reaume, OP is assigned to Our Lady of Guadalupe to assist those in the Hispanic community who may be experiencing difficulties. She speaks Spanish and is present at the Hispanic Mass each Sunday, in addition to being very active with Hispanic community at Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Letters to the Catholic Anchor must contain the writer’s name, address and telephone number and should not exceed 225 words. Letters are edited for length and clarity. Send letters to: Catholic Anchor, 225 Cordova St., Anchorage, AK 99501;or catholicanchor@gci.net.