August 12, 2005 - Issue #16
Local News | Opinion/Editorials | Letters to the Editor
Clementich across Alaska
The priest’s tireless efforts to minister to Catholics in the far reaches of the Last Frontier are being recognized by U.S. missionary society
Catholic Church Extension Society has awarded its top honor for outstanding missionary work in America, the 2005 Lumen Christi (Light of Christ) Award, to Holy Cross Father Leroy Clementich of Anchorage.
Bishop William Houck, president of Chicago-based Catholic Extension, called Father Clementich "an inspiration" for his service to parts of Alaska still considered mission territory.
Archbishop Roger Schwietz, who nominated Father Clementich for the award, praised him as "a marvelous example of a true pastor and shepherd" who brings "tireless energy to his ministry."
Although it might seem surprising that this academic priest, with three master’s degrees and years of teaching at the secondary and college level, would flourish in Bush Alaska, in many ways it’s a perfect fit.
"When I heard about this award, I thought, ‘Everything’s coming around full circle,’ " Father Clementich said. Growing up in sparsely populated rural North Dakota, the young Clementich used to accompany his father as he took his turn driving the mission priest to his assignments.
"I would listen to them talk. I would come in and see the priest washing his face and shaving in the kitchen sink."
Sometimes, the Dakota weather made the roads so bad that people would leave their cars at home and hitch two horses to a sled. A big barn at the little church could hold 20 teams of horses.
"But nobody ever thought about staying home from Mass," Father Clementich said.
Later, as a priest studying in Europe, Father Clementich developed a love of mountain climbing, scaling Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn.
His natural athleticism, and a passion for fishing, eventually brought him to Alaska on vacation. Typical of Father Clementich, he would call upon Archbishop Francis Hurley and ask how he could help out during his visit. Eventually, Archbishop Hurley, who has since retired, asked him to come permanently.
No Holy Cross priest had ever been assigned to Alaska, and Father Clementich’s superiors took their time mulling over the idea. But in 1993, the wiry priest, then stationed at a parish in Colorado Springs, Colo., was assigned to the archdiocese. He was 68 years old and looking at a whole new career.
That "age factor" is just one of many things that impresses Deacon Ted Greene about his friend "Father Clem."
"You hear priests say they look forward to retiring, and here’s this guy who could be out doing all the hobbies he enjoys," said Deacon Greene, who is on staff at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Anchorage. "He has this dedication to the rural people of Alaska. He’s one of the most pastoral guys you’re ever going to meet."
Indeed, when Archbishop Hurley assigned Father Clementich to be coordinator of rural ministry, the Holy Cross priest didn’t see his job as just keeping priests on the road to share the sacraments as often as possible.
Instead, he realized Archbishop Hurley had foreseen the coming clergy shortage, which greatly affected rural areas, by first appointing religious sisters to serve as parish administrators, and later, lay ministers.
The priest said he saw his role as being one of providing education and support to these lay leaders. Together with Deacon Greene and others in Anchorage, he put together a "pastoral leadership program" that brought up theologians from Gonzaga University, a Jesuit institution in Spokane, Wash., to train pastoral ministers throughout the archdiocese.
"Alaska is an exciting place to be," Father Clementich said. "We’re being forced to ask: What is pastoral ministry all about? How can we serve all the people?"
Confessing that it’s painful for him to consider how infrequently rural residents have access to the Mass compared with their city neighbors, Father Clementich nevertheless said the "enlightened thinking" of both Archbishop Hurley and his successor, Archbishop Roger Schwietz, has made for strong rural parishes.
"People who come to Talkeetna are astonished by the parish there," Father Clementich said, referring to St. Bernard Parish, which is led by laywoman Renamary Rauchenstein. "They say, ‘You guys are way ahead of the game.’ "
Although Father Clementich is at his desk at the pastoral center on most weekdays, weekends see him flying to remote areas to provide Mass and the sacraments.
Occasionally, at least when he travels to parishes on the Kenai Peninsula, he pilots a Cherokee owned by his Holy Cross religious community.
Until the recent appointment of Father Scott Garrett as resident pastor at Holy Rosary in Dillingham, Father Clementich had been covering Dillingham and several small villages around Bristol Bay.
Kimberly Tretikoff has lived in Naknek, one of those villages, since she was an infant, and she’s known all the priests who’ve come there.
She describes Father Clementich as "absolutely fabulous."
"He’s brought a lot of people back to the church," she said, listing a litany of those he’s baptized, including her mother.
"He makes everyone feel at ease," she added, even her husband, Simon, a member of the Russian Orthodox Church who feels comfortable attending Mass when Father Clementich is in town.
Father Clementich has also established a writing career since coming to Alaska. His column in the Catholic Anchor has been honored twice by the Catholic Press Association with a national "first place" award, and his sermons are posted on the archdiocesan Web site, in part to help those rural lay ministers who provide Sunday reflections when no priest is available to preach.
"He gives really good sermons," said Mariano Floresta, who listens to them with a congregation of eight or 10 fellow Catholics in the Bristol Bay fishing village of Clarks Point. Floresta, whose father helped build the tiny church in Clarks Point in the early 1950s, said people look forward to hearing Father Clementich preach.
Sandra Sandness is the music coordinator at St. Christopher by the Sea Mission Parish in Unalaska, and now, since the parish has been without a pastoral administrator since May, the contact person for the church. She sees to it that the priest is picked up and taken care of when he arrives for the weekend, and she especially looks forward to seeing her fellow North Dakota native, Father Clementich, who will be coming to Unalaska twice a month beginning in August.
He's "a very holy man," she said, but at the same time "approachable" and "wise."
"Everybody likes him," she said, adding a familiar refrain: "His sermons are always a plus."
Deacon Greene said that what makes the priest "a really effective preacher" is that he always asks, "How does this affect people? How can the church help make it better?"
Father Clementich, who turns 81 in October, said he sees no reason to slow down. Like the Dakota farm boy he once was, he rises early and beats the crowds to a nearby health club where he "runs hard for an hour."
Bishop Houck will present Father Clementich’s Lumen Christi award in Chicago this fall. The award carries a $10,000 gift to the priest and $25,000 to the archdiocese.
Sisters establish Magadan mission
When two Daughters of Charity arrived in Magadan, Russia, Aug. 6 to establish a community of sisters in the Far East Russian city, they took with them a desire to serve the poor that requires flexibility and an ability to listen to the needs of the people they are called to serve.
It’s a concept of missionary work that Sister Jean Marie Williams, an Anchorage-based Daughter of Charity, said has been nurtured by years of preparation and the experiences of other missionaries.
Sister Williams moved to Anchorage from Indiana three years ago to be a part of the first Daughters of Charity community in Magadan. She began by helping to coordinate the Anchorage Archdiocese’s support for the Church of the Nativity of Jesus Christ in Magadan while brushing up on her Russian-language skills.
Since then she’s visited Magadan five times, forging relationships with parishioners and the two American priests ministering there, Fathers Michael Shields of Anchorage and David Means of St. Louis, Mo.
Fellow Daughter of Charity Sister Pacita Calica accompanied Sister Williams to Magadan this month and will serve as a companion to her until October, when three Polish Daughters of Charity are expected to arrive for long-term assignments. The Poles speak Russian, as does Sister Williams; Sister Calica does not.
The Magadan Daughters of Charity community will be the second of the order’s missions in Russia. A Slovenian province operates a Daughters of Charity community in Nizhni Tagil, far west of Magadan near the Ural Mountains.
Sister Williams said just before her Aug. 5 departure for Magadan that the community is entering this new mission with "no preconceived notions."
Magadan, she said, "is just a powerful place to be. The people in the church are so prayerful and so full of faith. I’m all prepared to just go there, learn from them and let them tell us what they need."
Last winter, Sister Williams attended a monthlong preparation for missionary work offered by Maryknoll missioners that she said helped participants realize that they’re "entering holy ground" in their overseas ministries.
"We’re not there to proselytize. We’re not there to take believers away from the Russian Orthodox Church," Sister Williams said. "Our charism is the service of Jesus Christ in the poor. It doesn’t matter what faith they have or don’t have."
On initial trips to Magadan, Sister Williams and other Daughters of Charity had the "thinking of an American," hoping to fix a problem, she said. But as preparations continued for establishing a community there, she said, that attitude began to change.
There is no pre-set agenda for the precise kind of work the women will be doing in Magadan, but it will fit into the fourth vow (after chastity, obedience and poverty) that they take as Daughters of Charity: service to the poor.
Sister Williams said the community’s work ministry will depend on "who the sisters are, what gifts they bring and … what it looks like the needs are."
Sister Williams said the group may begin by visiting elderly Nativity of Jesus parishioners in their homes, including survivors of Joseph Stalin’s Soviet slave-labor camps, known locally in Magadan as "the repressed."
Magadan served as a staging area for the gulags, and an estimated 2 million prisoners died in the region before the rest were freed in the 1950s. The parish has established relationships with about 100 survivors, some of whom Sister Williams has also come to know over the past few years.
Father Shields, the Anchorage Archdiocese priest who has served as pastor of the Nativity of Jesus Parish since 1994, said the establishment of a Daughters of Charity community there is an answer to his prayers.
Some of his older parishioners are suffering with the loss of pensions and drug prescriptions once covered by the Russian government. The poverty is severe; for years, the parish has grown potatoes for the hungry.
"I am very excited to work with them (Daughters of Charity) as they have such a vast experience with the poor," Father Shields told the Anchor in an e-mail interview. "Once I met the Daughters and saw how they immediately greeted the people, visited homes, I knew they were called here. The sisters fit like, as they say, a glove."
Sister Williams also hopes to minister to people in Ola, a small village about 25 miles outside of Magadan where American Father David Means celebrates Mass for a group of people, including up to 40 children, in a renovated apartment.
The rate of unemployment in Ola skyrocketed after the Soviet Union dissolved and factories there shut down. Alcoholism, domestic violence, child neglect and poverty are "rampant" in Ola, where many survive off the fish they catch in summer and government aid in winter, Sister Williams said.
Before Sister Williams became a Daughter of Charity, she analyzed information for the U.S. Air Force as a linguist during the Cold War. She said the Russian speakers she worked with talked about their homeland with passion and reverence and "such depth of soul" that she soon realized "the people of a country are much more than their governments."
She said she was happy to put her Russian degree to use again as a Daughter of Charity.
Her temporary companion, Sister Calica, has been a schoolteacher and an assistant principal.
She said her role personally supporting Sister Williams in the initial stages of the community’s establishment in Magadan is part of a tradition that goes back to the founding of the Daughters of Charity, when women were sent "two at a time" to minister to the poor.
"Nobody goes by herself," Sister Calica said. The support of another Daughter of Charity committed to the same vision "will make you stronger for the mission."
"We have our nourishment to do our service through our community life and prayer. Without that, it’s just a job, not really a mission of service," Sister Calica said.
Sister Williams will return to the United States annually to renew her visa.
Discipleship Days has myriad topics, workshops for Catholics in Alaska
If variety is the spice of life, the Anchorage Archdiocese is serving up a spiritual smorgasbord with its upcoming Discipleship Days event.
Discipleship Days, aimed at edifying, uplifting and renewing Alaska Catholics, features 60 workshops on a wide variety of topics. It runs Sept. 15-17 at the Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage.
There are so many workshops because discipleship covers so much ground, said Peter Zografos, Ph.D., director of the archdiocesan Office of Evangelization and the event’s chief organizer.
"What is discipleship? It’s what Catholics do between baptism and death," Zografos said. Living as Catholic disciples "is not just ‘Jesus and me.’ We’re obliged to share all that we have, spiritually and materially, with those who are marginalized. It’s ‘Jesus and us.’ "
The Diocese of Juneau and the Diocese of Fairbanks are co-sponsoring the event. Speakers from each of Alaska’s three dioceses as well as a handful from the Lower 48 will be sharing their expertise at the three-day event.
Zografos, who arrived in the archdiocese last September, cast a wide net when he and members of an evangelization committee dreamed up the idea of a big enrichment event for "all baptized Catholics and those interested in the Catholic faith," he said.
"We hadn’t done anything for our people on liturgical and spiritual renewal for years," Zografos said last week. At a retreat weekend in February for church catechists, participants universally agreed that "we needed to do something like that for our people," he said.
The event is subtitled "Making and Sustaining Disciples for Mission," which Zografos said sums up organizers’ desire to "support the heroic efforts" of people involved in church ministries as well as to offer "new insights and reaffirm the faith" of all Catholics.
Initial plans called for a one-day gathering, but the more organizers talked it up, the more they realized that what was needed would not fit in one day. Also, Zografos said, planners wanted to offer as much as possible to make it more worthwhile for people traveling from remote areas to fly to Anchorage.
The conference offers variety in spades.
There will be presentations on faith-based community organizing, celebrating the liturgy of the Word with children, Marian devotion, biblical interpretation, end-of-life moral issues, ministering to women who have had abortions, homiletics, lectionary-based faith formation, adult faith formation, family faith formation, building inclusive parishes, Christian stewardship, discerning one’s spirituality, Alaska Native spirituality, Korean spirituality, Byzantine spirituality, liturgical renewal, liturgy in the absence of a priest, serving the poor as people of the Eucharist, parish nursing, praying with icons and the challenges of consumerism — to name a few.
There will be at least three sessions offered in Spanish and at least one in Spanish and English.
Plus, there’s a fourth day especially for deacons, deacon candidates and their wives. And folks involved or even just interested in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) can stay on for a separate series of liturgies and training sessions on the rite held Sept. 18-23.
Zografos said Discipleship Days snowballed into what it has become because people working in the parishes realize "there is a need" for renewal and because experts in various aspects of the faith are eager to share their knowledge in Alaska.
"In fact, we could have had more workshops," he said, "but we finally had to just say, ‘No more!’ "
More than a quarter of the presenters hail from Outside.
Traveling the farthest would be Mary Jo Iozzio, Ph.D., an associate professor of moral theology at Florida’s Barry University.
She’ll be presenting three workshops: "Disciples and the End of Life," "Discipleship and the Disciplines of Virtue," and "Hospitality Welcomes Strangers."
Iozzio said it wasn’t it wasn’t difficult to decide to make the long journey to be part of Discipleship Days.
It offers her "another opportunity to share my love of theology and the great work that together, as church, we can do," she said.
Plus, after a visit to Alaska with her parents in 1982, she is looking forward to returning, this time with her husband, she said.
For more information about Discipleship Days, contact the Anchorage Archdiocese’s Office of Evangelization, 297-7721 or 297-7710.
Discipleship Days Presenters and Workshops
— Assistant for Hispanic Evangelization, Office of Evangelization, Anchorage Archdiocese. Workshops (in Spanish only): Ministros Especiales para los enfermos en hospitales, hogares y encarcelados, el llamado al discipulado (Special Ministers to the Sick and Homebound: Hospitals, Homes, Imprisoned); El Ministerio de los Lectores (Ministry of Lectors); Ministros Especiales de la Sagrada Comunión (Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion)
— Associate Professor of Religion and Cardinal Newman Chair of Catholic Theology at Alaska Pacific University, Anchorage. Workshops: Catholic Biblical Interpretation; Just What is the Lectionary?
— Parish Director of Our Lady of the Lake, Big Lake. Workshops: Discernment of Ministries: Discernment or Decision?; Stages of Faith
— Pastor, St. Anthony Parish, Anchorage. Workshops: Building Inclusive Parishes; The Pentecost Experience (Celebrating Diversity); The Open Table of Jesus (Biblical Reflection on Pastoral Ministry); Vehicles of Evangelization (Doing Mission); Reflection and Dialogue on "Welcoming the Stranger Among Us: Unity in Diversity"
— Director, Office of Stewardship & Development, Anchorage Archdiocese. Workshop: Stewardship: A Disciple’s Response
— Special Consultant to PICO, a national network of faith/community-based organizations, and Professor Emeritus at San Jose State University. Workshops: Discipleship Faith/Community Based Organizing (in English and Spanish)
— Director, Rural Parish Ministry, Anchorage Archdiocese. Workshop: Speaking in Tongues People Can Understand: The Art and Craft of Homily Adaptation
— Assistant, Office of Evangelization, Anchorage Archdiocese. Workshop: Speaking Your Faith: Our Lives Are Part of the Story of Salvation
— Business Manager, St. Anthony Parish, Anchorage. Workshop: Gathering the Assembly for Eucharist
— Regional Program Coordinator and Global Solidarity Promoter, Catholic Relief Services West. Workshops: The Eucharist: Building Communion Across the Globe; Blessed are the Peacemakers
— Director of Ministries, Holy Spirit Center, Anchorage. Workshops: What is Spirituality and Do I have One?; What Was It That God Was Saying? Praying Scripture
— Associate Professor of Moral Theology and Director of Graduate Programs in Theology and Ministry, Barry University, Miami Shores, Fla. Workshops: Discipleship and the End of Life; Disciples and the Disciplines of Virtue; Hospitality Welcomes Strangers
— Pastor, St. Nicholas of Myra Byzantine Catholic Church, Anchorage. Workshop: Catholic Spirituality of the East: The Byzantine Mysteries
— Parishioner, Holy Family Cathedral and Adjunct Faculty, University of Alaska, Anchorage. Workshop: Navigating The National Directory for Catechesis: How Can We Create a Sense of Community and Encourage Participation?
— Parish Consultant, Office of Parish Evangelization Parish Consultant, Milwaukee Archdiocese. Workshops: Evangelization and Sacramental Programs: Come and See and Taste the Lord’s Goodness; Discipleship, Who Me? "Can you hear me NOW?"; Evangelization and Liturgy for Liturgical Ministers: "It’s Monday, Now What?"
— Native Ministry Training Program for Fairbanks Diocese, Saint Mary’s. Workshops: Discipleship in the Gospel of Mark; Praying as Disciples in the Absence of a Priest
— Coordinator for Alaska Native Ministry, Office of Evangelization, Anchorage Archdiocese. Workshop: Alaska Native Culture/Spirituality
— Director, Children and Family Life Center, Fairbanks Diocese. Workshop: A Family Altar: Family Faith Formation Basics
— Liaison to the Korean Catholic Community, Anchorage Archdiocese. Workshop: Korean Spirituality
— Executive Director, AFACT (Anchorage Faith & Action Congregations Together). Workshop: Stewardship and Consumerism: The Challenge of Living Stewardship in America
— Pastoral Liturgy teacher, Holy Names College, Oakland, Calif. Workshops: Mary, Model for Discipleship; Liturgical Spirituality Leading to Discipleship
— Editor and Writer, Celebrating the Lectionary, Resource Publications in San Jose, Calif. Liturgical Catechesis and the Lectionary: Helping Others Grow in Faith; Lectionary-based Catechesis: A Vibrant Model for the Entire Parish; The Social Mission of the Church in Every Catechesis
— Liturgy Specialist, Oregon Catholic Press; Editor, Today’s Liturgy. Workshops: Preparing the Liturgical Seasons (Part I: Advent, Christmas, Epiphany); Preparing the Liturgical Seasons (Part II: Lent, Triduum, Easter); Sunday & Weekday Celebrations in the Absence of a Presbyter; Liturgical Renewal: Catch the Vision of Vatican II (Part I); Liturgical Renewal: Catch the Vision of Vatican II (Part II: A Continuation of workshop #42); Making the Psalms Come Alive
— Iconographer and Staff at Office of Ministries, Juneau Diocese. Workshop: Praying with Icons
— Registered Nurse; Parish Nurse Coordinator, Providence Health System Alaska. Workshop: Parish Nursing: A Ministry of Health, Healing and Wholeness
— Independent Web developer and graphic designer, Los Angeles Archdiocese. Workshops: Pastoral Communication for Collaborative Ministry; Children of Abraham: Interfaith Pilgrimages in the Los Angeles model
— Registered Nurse, Parish Nursing Association; Facilitator, Project Rachel Reconciliation and Healing, Anchorage. Workshop: Living the Gospel by Attending to God’s Broken Hearted
— Director, Adult Faith Formation in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Region, Fairbanks Diocese. Workshop: Adult Faith Formation: A Continuing Process
— Director, Office of Evangelization, Anchorage Archdiocese. Workshop: Your Image of Church: False or Biblical?
Seniors can examine housing options at fair
It may be the hardest decision you or your children will ever make. When is it time for the elderly to move from their home to a facility that provides a higher level of care?
Providence Alaska Medical Center is offering its 11th annual Senior Housing Fair to help people examine the choices available to Alaska’s older residents.
"Seniors, and their children, often don’t know what options are available today until a crisis hits the family," said Karina Jennings, a spokeswoman for Providence.
"We want to encourage people to think of these things ahead of time even though it’s sometimes difficult to discuss."
The Senior Housing Fair, to be held 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Aug. 17 at the Anchorage Senior Center, will explore specialty housing options and other elderly services.
More than 40 vendors are participating, including several private assisted and independent living facilities, the Salvation Army, companies that provide in-home health care, local pharmacies, Hospice of Anchorage, the state’s long-term care ombudsman, Cook Inlet Housing, and Providence Lifeline.
In addition, several speakers will address topics including "What is Dementia?" "Estate Planning and Wills" and "Long-term Care Planning." Alaska’s Division of Senior and Disability Services will address recent changes in Medicare.
Providence’s facilities will also be represented, including Mary Conrad Center and Providence Extended Care, both of which provide skilled, full-time nursing, and Horizon House, an assisted living facility.
Jennings said the event is part of Providence’s mission commitment to "the poor and vulnerable."
"We’re dedicated to a healing ministry as people journey through life," she said, adding that the elderly are often at their most vulnerable when forced to make life-altering decisions about housing and health care.
Angela Lewis, community relations coordinator at Providence, said the event has drawn as many as 400 people in past years, seniors as well as their children.
The 2000 U.S. Census reported that people over 65 made up 5.7 percent of Alaska’s population, compared with 12.4 percent of the population of the nation at large. Nevertheless, the number of Alaska’s elderly is growing, and like elsewhere in the United States, options for elder living are expanding as well, Lewis said.
A generation ago, older people who felt they couldn’t live in their homes any longer often faced two choices: moving in with the kids or moving to a full-time nursing facility.
Today, the choices are much broader. "Independent" living facilities provide a modicum of attention; assisted living facilities provide help with medications, bathing or other needs; while the traditional nursing home has registered nurses on duty full-time.
Additionally, several companies offer the possibility of coming into your home to provide different levels of services.
For more information about the Senior Housing Fair, call Lewis at 762-0260.
Szymakowski assigned to Eagle River
Archbishop Roger Schwietz has assigned Father Andrew Szymakowski to Eagle River’s St. Andrew Parish, where he will serve as parochial vicar. The one-year appointment began Aug. 1.
The priest, a 32-year-old German who has been living in the United States for 10 years, is specially trained to celebrate the Tridentine Mass, the Latin liturgy that was used throughout the church before Vatican II. But in his current assignment he is authorized, for now at least, to celebrate only the "Novus Ordo" Mass that local Catholics experience each weekend.
Father Szymakowski is a member of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, an institute of apostolic life dedicated to preserving the Latin Mass in a way approved by the Vatican.
Apostolic life institutes are not religious orders like the Jesuits or Dominicans, although member priests take vows of obedience and chastity, according to Father Szymakowski.
For the past nine months, Father Szymakowski has been living at the House of Discernment, a residence at St. Patrick Parish in Anchorage for men considering the priesthood.
From there he has worked in a variety of ministries, trying to discern whether God is calling him to serve here, he said. He has been filling in for pastors at parishes in Anchorage and the Matanuska Valley, assisting as a chaplain at Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage, and celebrating Mass at the Blessed Sacrament Monastery in Anchorage.
Father Szymakowski said he and Archbishop Schwietz have been discussing the possibility of establishing a regular Tridentine Mass here. They both see the need for the traditional liturgy, especially in light of the fact that a schismatic group offers an unauthorized Latin Mass in Anchorage on a regular basis, Father Szymakowski said.
Offering an approved Latin Mass would provide an opportunity to "bring the schismatic people back into communion with the church," he said.
The priest studied the Tridentine liturgy at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary in the Diocese of Lincoln, Neb., and served as a transitional deacon at a parish in Post Falls, Idaho, where both the Latin and "Novus Ordo" rites are celebrated.
"The variety of rites show the richness of the church’s liturgy and spirituality throughout the ages, and we shouldn’t lose that," he said.
During his year in Post Falls, Father Szymakowski met Michael and Stacie Lyden and their family. The Lydens attended St. George Parish there and came to appreciate the Latin Mass. When the Lydens moved to Wasilla, they stayed in touch with Father Szymakowski and encouraged him to seek an assignment here after he was ordained a priest in May 2004.
He did, and Archbishop Schwietz invited him up for a trial period that began in December.
Father Szymakowski was born in Poland but fled with his family during the turmoil of the early 1980s, when the communist government was struggling to suppress the Solidarity movement. He lived with his brother, mother and father, a nuclear physicist, for a year in Florida before the family moved to Germany.
There he served the obligatory year in the army and observed the country’s reunification in 1989 firsthand.
The "moral laxity" he observed as a German soldier and the political tensions he had witnessed growing up were factors in his decision to become a priest, he said. It was an army chaplain, a Catholic priest, who suggested he explore the priesthood.
Father Szymakowski started theological studies in Austria and completed a bachelor’s in philosophy at Wadhams Hall Seminary-College in Ogdensburg, N.Y. From there he enrolled at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary, which specializes in training priests in the Tridentine rite.
Michael Lyden of Wasilla said Father Szymakowski is an outgoing, straightforward priest. He knows what he believes and isn’t afraid to preach about such controversial topics as contraception and masturbation, Lyden said.
And, although the young priest "loves the Latin Mass," he is comfortable with both rites, unlike some traditionalists who bad-mouth the "Novus Ordo," Lyden said.
Sister Davenport takes over at CSS
Sister Charlotte Davenport, the archdiocese’s chancellor and chief fiscal officer, has assumed the role of interim executive director of Catholic Social Services, effective July 27.
Sister Davenport, a St. Joseph of Peace Sister, took the helm of the archdiocese’s social outreach organization from Yvonne Chase, who resigned last month after two years in the position. The University of Alaska Anchorage hired Chase to teach in its School of Social Work.
Sister Davenport has worked closely with Catholic Social Services since her arrival in the archdiocese two years ago. She served as Archbishop Roger Schwietz’s representative to Catholic Social Services’ board of directors and its finance committee. Since early this summer she has also been the acting chief fiscal officer for Catholic Social Services.
"It is great to have Sister (Davenport) because she’s been so involved with us," said Ellen Krnsak, Catholic Social Services’ director of community development. "It really adds stability for the staff."
The organization operates 12 programs in Anchorage and Kodiak, ranging from legal assistance for refugees to adoption services to shelters for adults, teens, women and children. Catholic Social Services served more than 28,000 people last fiscal year, according to its Web site.
The organization has not yet launched a search for a new executive director; the plan is to take some time now to carefully evaluate each program in light of community needs, according to Sister Davenport.
"It’s kind of pausing to take a deep breath and look to the future," Sister Davenport said. "Sometimes you rush ahead, and we recognized this as a good time to stop and evaluate."
She said she hoped the effort would surface qualities that will be important in an executive director.
In order to give adequate attention to her new role at Catholic Social Services, Sister Davenport said she has been able to dole out some of her responsibilities among senior staff in the archdiocese.
"This is a high priority for the archdiocese, so it’s important to help the agency continue to be stable and move forward during the interim," she said.
Communion rituals help us bond as special family
Among the many daily human activities in which we participate, meals often carry the most "baggage."
There are certain customs and traditions that have been handed down to us in our families that we simply take for granted because this is the way we do it in our home; this is the way we eat and drink together at table.
The kids need to be reminded to wash their hands. We do not begin to eat until everyone is seated. We make sure everyone is served in order. We do not leave the table unless excused. All these rituals, insignificant as they may seem, help us to remain civil, respectful and charitable. The family table becomes a holy place when people eat together.
The same can obviously be said of the Lord’s table. There are certain important things we do as we approach the sacred meal we call Holy Communion.
First of all, out of respect for the sacred food and drink we are about to receive, we fast one hour from solid food.
Second, we understand that we need to be in union with Christ and his church if we wish to receive Holy Eucharist. If we are conscious of serious sin, therefore, the appropriate thing to do is to seek out the sacrament of reconciliation. This is important because if we are alienated from Christ’s body, we need to first come back into union with one another. We would feel the need to do the same at home if we had a "falling out" with one or more members of our family.
How do we come to the table? Interestingly, because of the physical configuration of our churches and the number of people who are gathered there, we are actually not at the table; we are at our seats for most of the Mass.
Therefore, when invited to the table, we move forward together with our sisters and brothers and, indeed, with the whole church throughout the world. After all, we are a Catholic family, no matter where we happen to worship.
What is also important to realize, however, is that the Communion procession is not simply a convenient way to get to the table. All processions are sacred movements, but this procession holds first place because we are approaching the place where we are spiritually nourished.
Ideally the action that can help us appreciate this procession is the prayer we sing as we move forward.
Some may feel that singing at this time is an intrusion on their own prayer. In fact, however, the Communion song helps us realize once again that we are doing all this not as private individuals, but as a community, united members of Christ’s body. Of all the times when we should realize this, surely coming to Communion would be pre-eminent.
Finally, out of respect for the rest of the family, we join them standing and singing until all have returned from the table. Then we kneel or are seated, as we prefer, to observe some moments of sacred silence, our private moment with our God.
If it is true that our ordinary daily traditions and customs have a way of forming us into groups and families, then surely these Catholic rubrics for receiving Holy Communion can also be trusted to bond us into that special family we joined once upon a time at baptism.
News & Notes
Church dedication planned
The consecration and dedication of the new mission-style church for Anchorage’s Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish is planned for Dec. 12, which is also the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Originally, the dedication was set for Sept. 8 but the church’s wooden pews are still being fabricated and will not arrive from the Lower 48 until probably late October. The dedication was moved back so the pews, which will provide seating for about 500 people, can be installed. Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz will be consecrating and dedicating the new 16,600-square-foot church. Some parishioners have been raising money to build a new church at the parish for more than 30 years.
Retrouvaille weekend
Retrouvaille, a Catholic program for troubled marriages, is planning a retreat weekend for Oct. 14-16. For confidential information about the program or to register for the weekend, call 1-800-470-2230, or visit the Web site www.helpourmarriage.com.
Help those who need help
Providence Alaska’s Faith In Action health ministry outreach program is offering the opportunity to demonstrate faith by befriending a homebound person. Trained volunteers provide companionship to elderly and disabled people and assist with simple daily needs such as meal preparation, grocery shopping, letter-writing or craft activities. Faith In Action was developed in response to the growing number of people living with a chronic illness or disabilities in our community, according to a press release from the program. Call 261-5053 or visit www.providence.org/alaska to volunteer.
Editorials
Expanding SeniorCare is a good move
By working to extend and expand the state’s SeniorCare program, Gov. Frank Murkowski gave a needed helping hand to Alaska’s low-income senior citizens.
SeniorCare provides a number of services for older Alaskans, many of whom want to remain in the state but find it difficult to do so for financial reasons. Recipients of aid are predominantly on fixed incomes and need help to afford prescription medicines, food or other basic necessities.
SeniorCare benefits may seem trivial to some — it currently provides $120 per month to seniors whose annual income is less than $16,133 — but Alaska is not a cheap place to live, and for those on the margins, the assistance might be the deciding factor that allows them to remain here. The state is definitely enriched by the presence of older folks.
Alaska used to have a "longevity bonus" that paid certain seniors a monthly subsidy, but Murkowski did away with the program. He argued against the bonus program because it wasn’t need-based. But by ending the program outright, the governor inflicted serious financial pain on those who depended on the bonus to make ends meet.
The governor, to his credit, listened to the complaints and did something about it with SeniorCare.
Last week the governor signed a new law that beefs up the program so it reaches more seniors and provides a new prescription drug benefit that will tie into the new federal prescription drug program that begins in January.
According to the state Department of Health and Social Services, which administers SeniorCare, more than one quarter of Alaska’s senior population, or about 11,000 individuals, will qualify for the expanded benefits.
Seniors without big bank accounts are happy about this, and so are we. The Catholic Church teaches that public policies should be evaluated in light of how they affect the most vulnerable members of society. Older people with limited financial assets fall into that category.
For more information on SeniorCare, go to www.hss.state.ak.us/dsds/seniorcareinfo/siofaq.htm, or call 1-800-478-6065.
Roberts can handle religion questions
The pundits are stirring themselves into a lather over whether or not the religious beliefs of Supreme Court nominee John Roberts should be on the table when the Senate holds confirmation hearings. The more conservative talking heads are saying the nominee’s religion is nobody’s business; their counterparts on the left are suggesting maybe it is.
We say religious beliefs are fair game if they are related to some question of legal or juridical importance. Catholics should welcome such questions, in fact.
John Roberts is a brilliant scholar with a sterling legal resume. He is a Catholic family man, raised in a Catholic home and educated in Catholic schools. If there is anyone who can inform the public about the suitability of Catholics and other people of faith serving in the courts, it is Roberts.
Conservatives are complaining because liberals are hinting that as a Catholic, Roberts can be expected to oppose legalized abortion. Nobody questioned nominees of faith who supported abortion, such as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, they say.
But, so what? Unlike Ginsburg’s Judaism, the Catholic Church takes a very clear and very public stand on abortion. Besides, abortion is legal in this country, as unfortunate as that fact is; it doesn’t make sense that senators would question Ginsburg’s presumed support for a legal medical procedure. Finally, conservatives making this complaint are indirectly criticizing their own people in the Senate, since they are the senators who could have questioned Ginsburg on abortion but apparently didn’t. We doubt their restraint had anything to do with respect for her religious beliefs.
But all that is a side issue anyway. The main point, as we see it, is that John Roberts can handle questions about his religious beliefs just fine. If he doesn’t think a question is appropriate, he’s free to say so. If he does choose to answer, we have no doubt he’ll provide his questioners, and the intently listening public, with good food for thought about the issue of religious folks serving in the public square.
Modern Morals
Editor’s Note: Last issue in our Modern Morals section we asked whether the "shoot to kill" policy being used against terrorist suspects in England was morally justifiable from a Catholic perspective. Here is the sole response we received by press deadline:
I’ve searched my Catholic Catechism frequently and diligently and found no church teaching so permissive that it extends the definition of self-defense to include taking the lives of innocent people for what they might do. Might doesn’t make right. Since when did Brazil become a sanctuary for Muslim terrorists?
Anchorage
Letters to the Editor
Holding hands could confuse
We are making changes in the ritual of Mass, reportedly so wherever we go in the archdiocese and attend Mass the ceremony is the same. I find this encouraging and a step toward making the holy Catholic Church as one. What I have noticed in my travels is a local change to the ceremony with the holding of hands during the Lord’s Prayer. This practice is rampant here, but not done at all in churches in Europe and very rarely in churches on the East Coast. Imagine for a moment that you are one of the many foreign visitors to Alaska and are attending Mass here. All of a sudden, everyone is holding hands. There could be a doubt as to whether this really was a Catholic Church.
Eagle River
Editor’s Note: The recent changes to liturgical postures and gestures in the Anchorage Archdiocese have not addressed the practice of holding hands during the Lord’s Prayer. This has been and remains an optional practice in the parishes and missions of the archdiocese; parishioners are free to hold hands or not.
Kennedy can’t see the grays
Geoff Kennedy makes harsh judgments on U.S. policies and seems certain that Jesus would agree with him! Intelligent people argue about the best course of action on myriad issues. Geoff, however, sees them as very black and white. He sees evil in all efforts to keep large corporations functioning but doesn’t see that if they go under so do all their employees. On the Schiavo case, now that the autopsy results are public, can he not see that the poor woman had been "dead" for at least nine years? Can he not see the duplicity in the attempts of the family to lead the media and well-intentioned religious fanatics to believe that she was capable of verbalization and other higher forms of intellectual activity? Finally, everyone agrees that the truly needy in our country deserve government help, but those who are capable of supporting themselves are another matter.
Soldotna
For us, obedience is needed
Some Catholics don’t like the new Mass guidelines given by bishops who have the authority to do so, or they want female priests or married priests, or even the open acceptance of gays. My opinion as a layman is that the church is guarded by angels along with the appointed shepherds who are there to protect the sheep from the wolves that have devoured many Protestant churches. Open dialogue can be helpful in understanding the issues, but humble obedience is necessary for us as lay people. This is not a right of entitlement, but a privilege. Obedience is what separates the sheep from the goats, even at Mass. For those who prefer, there is a whole world of pseudo-religious cults or entertainment-style worship available, complete with gay bishops and self-styled preachers ranting on stages in front of TV cameras and all the radical individualism that permeates much of Protestantism.
Anchorage
A cathedral has been found
Anchorage is growing and so is our Catholic community. The new cathedral we have long talked about is needed now. Well, a magnificent church is a building that will serve beautifully as that cathedral. It is in Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish and will be dedicated in December. It will be the largest Catholic church in Alaska but too big and grand for our little group the third smallest of the seven city parishes. We won’t live long enough to pay for the edifice, nor will we be able to meet operating expenses. Archbishop Schwietz, with one bold stroke (move your chair and crozier) you will have a glorious new cathedral this winter and can share the costs with the 578 families of Guadalupe.
Anchorage
Communion is personal
In the July 29 "Church at Prayer" column on the Communion rite it is stated, "Unfortunately, … Catholics often think of Communion as their private moment with God." Most fortunately, one of those Catholics is Pope Benedict XVI. I quote from page 81 of his book "God Is Near": "Receiving Communion means entering into communion with Jesus Christ. … What is given us here is not a piece of a body, not a thing, but him, the resurrected one himself. … This means that receiving Communion is always a personal act. It is never merely a ritual performed in common, which we can just pass off as we do with other social routines. In Communion I enter into the Lord who is communicating himself to me. Sacramental Communion must therefore always be also spiritual Communion. That is why the liturgy changes over before Communion, from the liturgical ‘we’ to ‘I.’ "
Anchorage
Editor’s Note: "Church at Prayer" author Father LeRoy Clementich responds: Here is a quote from Pope Benedict XVI’s homily on Sunday, May 29, 2005: "He is the one same Christ who is present in the Eucharistic bread of every place on earth. This means that we can encounter Him only together with all others. We can only receive Him in unity. Is not this what the apostle Paul said in the reading we have just heard? In writing to the Corinthians he said: ‘Because the loaf of bread is one, we, many though we are, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf’ (1 Cor 10: 17). The Eucharist, let us repeat, is the sacrament of unity."