March 6, 2008 - Issue #5
Local News | Opinion/Editorials | Letters to the Editor
Local News
Alaska school district adds ‘gender identity’ to official policy
Fairbanks to accommodate students who believe they are different gender than their biology
The third largest school district in Alaska approved a new policy last month that will allow students to choose their own “gender identity.”
Gender identity — meaning the gender a person believes he or she has internally, regardless of their given biology — has been added to the nondiscrimination policy of the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District.
The Fairbanks district includes 14,000 students. Only the Anchorage and Mat-Su Valley districts are larger. As no other district in the state recognizes gender identity in official policies, it was unclear how the Fairbanks decision would affect its activities with other school districts and private schools that do not officially recognize a students right to determine their own gender identity.
The Fairbanks school board approved the sweeping change on Feb. 17 and thereby placed gender identity alongside race, religion, gender and sexual orientation, as factors upon which “discrimination” or “harassment” may not be based.
In explaining the concept of gender identity to the school board members, the school district’s labor relations director said gender identity refers to a person’s own internal and deeply felt sense of being a man or a woman, which she said can be different from the gender assigned at birth.
After approving the policy, however, it remained unclear how the change would affect issues such as gender specific bathrooms and locker rooms, or what impact it would have on boys’ and girls’ athletic teams or sex education for students. The new policy, however, will apply to all school district matters concerning staff, students, the public, educational facilities, programs, services, activities and any group which the district does business with.
While supporters of the policy said it was needed to ensure the safety of students who deal with gender identity questions, other concerned parents argued that the Fairbanks school board was politicizing schools by placing an ill-defined theory on the same level as race, religion and gender.
“The school board is right to be concerned that children be treated with dignity, and bullying should not be tolerated,” wrote Debbie Joslin of Delta Junction in a Feb. 20 opinion piece to the Fairbanks News Miner. “Where they have gone astray is in attempting to place a stamp of approval on students questioning their gender identity. This policy would encourage students to question their gender identity and foster confusion in the minds of our children.”
In dozens of online responses to the News Miner’s Feb. 18 report of the school board’s decision, readers expressed concern that the policy actually could violate the privacy rights of many male and female students who believe that gender identity is a matter of biology and not personal feeling.
While the Fairbanks decision is a first for Alaska, it follows on the heels of other national and international efforts to include gender identity as a protected quality. In some cases, the right to choose one’s own gender identity is viewed as a fundamental human right.
From California to Europe, an increasing number of schools, colleges and other organizations have begun to formally recognize gender identity.
In the Feb. 18 News Miner article, Fairbanks school board members cited several reasons to expand the district policy including the need to be “more inclusive” and protect students from harassment.
“It’s really important to give people a voice and through this policy, we say we value you and we recognize you,” one school board member was quoted as saying in the News Miner.
Board member Wendy Dominique compared recognition of gender identity to recognition of civil rights for African-Americans in the 1960s.
“We have a lot of ignorant people out there,” Dominique was quoted. “This is not the 1960s anymore.”
The policy change was a welcome move by an increasingly well-organized group of gay rights advocates in Alaska. The Web site for the activist group Alaskans Together expressed hope that the new policy would set an example for future action by other schools and governments across Alaska.
In the days leading up to the school board vote, Bent Alaska, a central coordinating Web site for gay rights activity, urged Alaskans to email Fairbanks school board members and testify at the meetings in support of the new policy. The Web site, which serves to coordinate political activity across the state, including Anchorage, hailed the policy change as an opportunity to “make history in Alaska.”
Vatican makes appeal for ethical tourism
VATICAN CITY — Vatican officials are urging tourists to use ethics and intelligence and engage in pastimes that respect man and creation, as the planet faces the challenge of climate change.
In a letter sent to participants in a congress on international tourism, Cardinal Renato Martino and Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, president and secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Travelers, said that everyone is responsible for climate change.
The congress was held Friday in Milan on the theme “Tourism Faces the Challenge of Climate Change.”
“We are all responsible, in different ways, for the present situation” of climate change, stated the letter. This “can also be referred in a singular way to the sphere of tourism, an activity of man that contributes to climate change and suffers its effects.”
The Vatican officials pointed to the negative influence of tourism in such areas as “noxious gases from the means of transport” and the “squandering of natural resources.”
At the same time, they wrote, tourists also suffer the consequences of climate change.
And, beyond the issue of the planet, tourists have a key role to play in the economic dynamism of the world, the prelates noted.
The industry favors the creation of jobs, the development of infrastructure, the promotion of culture and the safeguarding of natural areas, thus representing an important opportunity to combat poverty, they said.
Thus, the Vatican officials called for a healthy balance between the favoring of economic growth and the “parameters of ecological respect.”
“The results of the tourist policies and plans will be beneficial only if they are coupled with a social and environmental vision, in addition to the economic,” the letter contended.
The Vatican officials cautioned against possible economic benefits waning with the present environmental crisis, “and it is precisely the poorest countries that suffer the greatest consequences, though they themselves are not the ones most responsible for the noxious emissions.”
Cardinal Martino and Archbishop Marchetto also pointed to the spiritual benefits of tourism. They said it could be an occasion “to know the riches of Creation, which show us the infinite goodness and mercy of its Author, and open the door to us to discover Beauty, which is God.”
Today, however, “nature, modified by man’s action, does not always reflect the face of the Creator.”
The letter added: “Too often the destructive human hand opposes the finger of the Creator” and “the garden has become a desert.”
For this reason, they reaffirmed the need to “defend ourselves and reverse the course,” because “only in this way will the desert bloom again and we will be able to read in it the creative Word of its Author,” and “tourism will again be a companion on the path of our search for the Absolute.”
To have a correct relationship with nature, it is not enough to change attitudes, the prelates warned. What is necessary is “a correct conception of the environment,” beginning by considering Creation as “a gift of God for all, as the common patrimony of humanity.”
Progress, in tourism as in other sectors, must therefore “recognize its own limits,” because “it is at the service of Creation and not the other way round.”
Lent finds a way at the edges of Alaska civilization
Two full days after Ash Wednesday, Catholics in remote Alaska villages were walking around with freshly drawn ashen crosses on their foreheads.
Receiving the traditional Ash Wednesday ashes on Friday might seem odd to those who have never experienced being a Catholic in the far reaches of the Anchorage Archdiocese.
In the frontiers of Alaska, however, the simple presence of a priest on Sunday can be cause for celebration and Catholics have to be willing to adapt to the unusual realities of rural Alaska.
Father Scott Garrett is a pilot who serves all of Southwest Alaska — one of the largest parish boundary areas in the world. It is a region that encompasses more than a dozen tiny villages and fishing outposts that stretch across the long reach of Alaska’s Aleutian Chain.
Only parishioners at Father Garrett’s “big” church, Holy Rosary in Dillingham, had an Ash Wednesday service on Wednesday.
Other villages such as Clark’s Point received ashes on Friday, and little Levelock — with only 70 people in the entire village and only a handful of those, Catholics — received the symbolic black marks on Saturday.
And those are the larger areas. Another 15 locations, all accessible only by air, bear names like Cold Bay and Chignik Bay.
All these parishioners share a special common bond during Lent — “the little black book” of Lenten meditations which Father Garrett distributes, wherever his plane touches down.
But aside from the common book, these Catholic outposts have myriad other religious acts that bind them together.
B.J. Hill, who helps administer St. Therese in the fishing village of Naknek, said “Father Scott has us pretty well covered,” as the priest flies the 64 air miles from Dillingham, on most Sundays.
Hill said about seven families make up the core of the St. Therese Catholic community.
Like most of the little communities, parishioners at St. Therese take advantage of services that can be celebrated, while they wait for a priest.
“We have a really nice church with hand-carved Stations of the Cross,” and someone from the parish will lead the stations each Friday in Naknek, said Hill.
On the road system south of Anchorage lies sparsely populated Cooper Landing, the site of many great sport fishing adventures. For Tom and Chris Farrington, it has been home since they moved from Anchorage several years ago.
Someone from the little parish of St. John Neumann takes a turn leading the Stations of the Cross each Friday during Lent, said Chris, and often there’s a Bible study in someone’s home. The congregation is so small that “everyone has a key to the church” she said, “and a lot of people make a visit every day.”
Cooper Landing is served by Father Richard Tero from Sacred Heart in Seward, and he receives help from retired associate Father Bill Hanrahan. The extra aid allows the parish to celebrate Mass every Sunday, although they won’t have a Holy Thursday or Good Friday service.
Down in the southern-most reaches of the archdiocese, a team of Oblates of Mary Immaculate regularly provide the sacraments for the Kenai Peninsula.
But Mercy Sister Carol Aldrich at St. John the Baptist in Homer said Lenten Fridays are planned and executed by the parishioners – soup and bread follow the Stations of the Cross, which are led by parishioners.
In Homer, and farther north in Talkeetna, Catholics celebrate a Lenten tradition that larger parishes often do not – each offers a Passover Seder dinner (a traditional Jewish meal) during Holy Week, with advice and help in Homer offered by a Jewish neighbor. The meal is slightly modified for Christian use and recognized as a forerunner to the Last Supper, at which Jesus instituted the Eucharist.
In St. Bernard Church in Talkeetna, Renamary Rauchenstein has been the pastoral leader for 12 years, and she said the parish sees a priest about twice a month, although they do expect a visiting priest for Holy Week.
Despite the lack of a resident pastor, St. Bernard remains an active parish during Lent, with soup suppers, Stations of the Cross and a Good Friday “faith walk.”
The solemnity of the season is affected by Talkeetna’s proximity to the 20,000-foot Mount McKinley, said Rauchenstein.
“We’re slammed during the latter part of Lent,” with people coming to town to set up medical camps and other mountain-related activity as the climbing season approaches.
Three new Catholics will enter the church at St. Bernard’s at the Easter Vigil, two of them from nearby Trapper Creek, where St. Philip Benizi’s tiny church can hold about 30 worshippers.
To learn more about rural Catholic life in Alaska, visit Holy Rosary Church’s Web site at holyrosaryalaska.org.
Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part series on miscarriage. See the Feb. 20 edition of the Anchor for part one.
The disappeared ones
Archdiocese helps families mourn and honor children who die in the womb
Some doctors talk about them in dispassionate, medical jargon. Some friends overlook them. They are missing among the wide-ranging subjects for sympathy cards.
They are children lost in miscarriage.
For many grieving families, such societal apathy is an improper response to the death of an irreplaceable human being.
“I wish we could all celebrate the life that was there,” said Diana Farthing, mother of four miscarried babies and parishioner of St. Andrew Church in Eagle River.
According to the Catholic Church, infants — however young or small and whether thriving or dying — should be treated as any other member of the human family.
“Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception,” says the Catholic Catechism.
That belief underpins church law that calls for the baptism of babies — including those intentionally aborted or miscarried. Specifically, the Code of Canon Law says that insofar as possible, “regardless of how the abortion occurred, baptism is to be conferred as long as the fetus is alive.”
To help ensure this — and given the likelihood that a priest will not be present when a baby is miscarried, Canon Law “reminds pastors of their obligation to instruct lay people, especially ‘midwives, family or social workers or nurses of the sick, as well as physicians and surgeons’ on how to baptize.”
Also, Canon Law provides for funeral liturgies for “deceased members of the Christian faithful.” This may be extended to children whom the parents intended to baptize but who died before baptism.
Through funerals for the dead, the church “honors their bodies, and at the same time brings the solace of hope to the living,” states the Canon Law.
In the church’s book of Mass prayers, there is a special Mass for the death of a child, but not specifically for a miscarried baby.
Nevertheless, Father Thomas Brundage, JCL, judicial vicar and moderator of the curia for the Anchorage Archdiocese, explained that a funeral service is appropriate “for a child who was not able to be born alive but indeed was a human being from the time of the baby’s conception.”
Without a body to bury — as is the case with many early miscarriages — Father Brundage said the church can celebrate a memorial Mass for a baby, even when a long time has passed since he or she has died.
Father Brundage noted also there is a special “Blessing of parents after a miscarriage.” According to the church’s Book of Blessings, grieving Christians turn to God for consolation and strength — “especially true when a child dies before birth.”
In addition, St. Andrew Church in Eagle River annually hosts a “healing Mass” for families of miscarried babies. The Mass is cosponsored by the area’s chapter of Elizabeth Ministry, the international support group for families who have lost babies to miscarriage or other early traumatic events.
Often, that ordeal of miscarriage begins at a doctor’s office or hospital — like Providence Alaska Medical Center — where a miscarrying mother presents her symptoms.
According to Becky Hultberg, regional director of communications and marketing for Anchorage’s only Catholic hospital, Providence treats miscarrying mothers in three departments: the maternity center, emergency department and operating room.
In an e-mailed statement to the Anchor, Hultberg said that each department has “policies and procedures” in place to treat these women with “respect and compassion.”
Also, she noted that if a baby is born alive at the hospital, and the family requests a baptism, one is performed. If the baby is not alive at birth, a “blessing ritual” is offered to the family.
Regarding the disposition of the baby’s body, for the stillborn — who die at five months of gestation or later — “it is considered a death and the family makes mortuary arrangements,” she explained.
But for miscarried babies who are younger than five months, Hultberg wrote that the remains are kept at the hospital for up to two months. During that time, the family may contact the hospital’s spiritual care department for assistance in picking up the baby’s remains.
Remains not picked up after two months are sent to a funeral home for cremation. Then, a general “memorial service and burial take place at a special place in a local cemetery,” Hultberg explained.
According to the Catholic Church, the dead should be interred underground and in a single, “dignified place,” said Dave Belanger, who with his wife Priscilla, manages the Anchorage Archdiocese’s Office of Catholic Cemeteries.
In an effort to extend this respect to unborn babies who have died in the womb, the archdiocese partnered with Providence to establish the children’s columbarium in the “Garden of Angels” at Sacred Heart Catholic Cemetery in Wasilla.
There, families of any faith may bury their lost babies. Belanger explained that burying these dead is “a corporal act of mercy we’re tasked with through the church.”
The columbarium is a large boulder, with a hole bored inside it. There is an opening, covered with a bronze door that is kept locked.
In an interment service, the remains of miscarried babies are placed inside the door, from where they are dropped below ground into a large, concrete-encased cistern. Belanger said the columbarium was built to last “thousands of years.”
Since 2004, he said about 20 miscarried babies have been interred in the columbarium.
The columbarium is a special help to parents with miscarried babies, said Belanger, as there are no charges for interment.
Nearby are more traditional, individual plots where a number of other babies and children are buried. Dotting the grassy area, small statues and bronze plaques recall those who are little known but much loved.
Efforts to properly bury the littlest members of the human family stems from a strong belief in “the dignity of the child from conception on,” Belanger explained.
He added that “whether they have seen the light of day or not, whether in dust or in flesh, they are still God’s creation.” This is “a real life” — however little is the “handful or pinch of remains.”
For more information about Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Anchorage, call (907) 357-3571.
Departing sister served Koreans in Anchorage
The Anchorage Archdiocese is bidding farewell to one of the religious sisters serving the Korean Catholic community in Anchorage.
Sister Soon-heui Park, known locally as Sister Acella, will return to her native South Korea as soon as her replacement’s visa is in order.
Sister Acella has served in Anchorage since February 2005, as assistant to Sister Hwa Soon Moon. Together, they led the Sunday school program for the Korean community, provided a formation program for mothers and made home visits.
Sister Acella primarily worked with younger members of the community, preparing them for first Communion and confirmation.
Philip Lee, who serves as the Korean parish’s liaison, said new changes in visa requirements delayed the arrival of the newest sister from Sister Lee’s community, the Sisters of Saint Paul de Chartres in South Korea.
Since 1994, the community has sent 11 religious women from its Taegu Province to minister to the approximately 250 members of the Anchorage community.
Sister Lee made her final vows in 1997 and she has a degree in social work, an area she will continue to work in when she returns to South Korea. Before her assignment to Anchorage, she worked with the rehabilitation of prisoners preparing to be released.
Although the sisters take English classes while in Alaska, their assignments usually don’t allow them the time to become fluent, Lee explained. And their ministry is frequently to other Korean speakers, particularly the older people in the community.
The Korean community has recently moved from their center at St. Anthony Church in East Anchorage and established the archdiocese’s newest parish, St. Andrew Kim, in South Anchorage.
Although the new church has a residence for the pastor, Father Peter Yoo, the sisters’ residence remains in a duplex on East 20th Avenue, owned by the archdiocese.
The Korean community has a long history in Anchorage, with the first Mass in the Korean language offered at St. Anthony in the early 1980s. Soon after, priests were loaned for the community from the Diocese of Taegu. Since 1997, the diocese of Cheongju has provided priests for the Anchorage community.
Magadan pro-life outreach has state backing
Russian government wants to see more births
MAGADAN, Russia, — Plans are under way to open three pro-life centers for women contemplating abortion in Russia.
Aid to the Church in Need reported that the Russian authorities — traditionally pro-abortion since the Soviet years — have changed their stance. State doctors are backing these advice centers due to concerns about the country’s low birthrate and changing demographics.
Father Michael Shields plans to open the first center in June in the east Siberian town of Magadan, historically known for the Soviet gulag camps.
It will give him and his volunteers the opportunity to work with women at the moment they confirm a pregnancy and begin contemplating their options.
Father Shields, a priest from the Archdiocese of Anchorage, has served as pastor of the Church of the Nativity in Magadan since 1994 with the blessing and support of the Anchorage Archdiocese.
In regards to his most recent work with pregnant women, Father Shields told Aid to the Church in Need, “What is amazing is that the state doctor who works at the Women’s Consultation Center in Magadan approached us to see if we would be willing to develop a project there.”
Father Shields said, “It has been wonderful because Russia is really turning a corner and wants to see more births.”
He added, “The Russian government knows that the country’s demographics do not look good and that’s why the birthing doctors have asked us to work with and encourage pregnant mothers.”
Father Shields began his outreach to struggling women and children in Ola, a nearby village, where he opened Nativity Inn to provide short-term housing for newborn babies and their parents. Women who moved to the area for studies were often dismissed from college dormitories when they were discovered pregnant, and the priest began the inn as an outreach to them.
Success at the Nativity Inn won support and opened doors for the pro-life centers. He underlined the ecumenical significance of the venture, as the Russian Orthodox Church has also pledged its pro-life support.
Father Shields reported: “What has surprised us is how much the Nativity Inn project and our center at the Church in Magadan have grown through word of mouth.
“We find again and again that women come along having heard about us from other women in the same situation.”
He noted, “We hold regular meetings for women on our programs and it is really beautiful to see how good they are with children. This is remarkable when you think that they almost certainly didn’t have very good childhoods with poor parenting.”
Jesuits’ Oregon province files for bankruptcy
Claims from Alaska already total $50 million with 200 cases still pending
PORTLAND, Ore. — The Oregon province of the Society of Jesus filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Feb. 17 citing a number of pending lawsuits over clergy sexual abuse claims.
The petition was filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Oregon in Portland in response to 200 lawsuits filed recently against Jesuits of the province. The abuse claims are primarily from Alaskans who said they had been abused as children by priests.
The Jesuits’ Oregon province, based in Portland, serves Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington.
“Our decision to file Chapter 11 was not an easy one, but with approximately 200 additional claims pending or threatened, it is the only way we believe that all claimants can be offered a fair financial settlement within the limited resources of the province,” said Jesuit Father Patrick Lee, provincial, in a Feb. 17 statement.
The statement noted the province has worked “diligently” to resolve claims of priests’ misconduct, saying it has settled more than 200 claims and paid more than $25 million to victims since 2001. That amount does not include payments made by insurers.
A spokesman for the Oregon province told Catholic News Service Feb. 18 that Father Lee would not comment beyond the statement released a day earlier.
In 2007, the province announced a $50 million settlement between the Jesuits and more than 100 native Alaskans for cases of sexual abuse involving more than a dozen Jesuits posted in Alaska between 1961 and 1987.
Last March, the Diocese of Fairbanks filed for bankruptcy protection saying it was unable to reach a financial settlement with 140 people who had filed about 150 claims against the diocese. After the diocese filed bankruptcy, the number of sex abuse claimants rose to 288.
Father Lee said he hoped the province’s bankruptcy filing “could begin to bring this sad chapter in our province’s history to an end.”
“We continue to pray for all those who have been hurt by the actions of a few men, so that they can receive the healing and reconciliation that they deserve,” he added.
In the bankruptcy petition, the Jesuits’ Oregon province listed assets of less than $5 million and liabilities of nearly $62 million.
The Associated Press reported that Ken Roosa, an attorney based in Anchorage, Alaska, who filed the abuse claims on behalf of more than 60 Alaskans, has stated the Oregon province is underestimating its assets.
Roosa claims the province owns Seattle and Gonzaga universities and several high schools, but the presidents of both Jesuit-run universities said their institutions are completely separate from the province.
Jesuit Father Robert Spitzer, president of Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., said in a Feb. 18 statement that the Jesuits’ Oregon province is “a completely separate organization from Gonzaga University,” adding that the university’s “assets are its own and not subject to others’ creditors.”
Jesuit Father Stephen Sundborg, president of Seattle University, similarly stressed in a Feb. 18 statement the university is “an independent entity that is legally separate from the Oregon province of the Society of Jesus. The Society of Jesus does not own or operate Seattle University.”
In a previous statement, Father Sundborg responded to a Jan. 14 lawsuit filed in Alaska on behalf of victims of clergy sexual abuse which alleged that the priest, who was the Jesuits’ Oregon provincial in 1990-96, covered up the sexual abuse of 43 Alaskan children by Jesuit priests.
“The allegations are completely untrue,” he said.
Bishop William S. Skylstad of Spokane said in a Feb. 17 statement that he was “deeply saddened by reports of abuse of children by anyone, but especially abuse by priests.”
Celebrating St. Patrick’s day during Lent
On Mar. 17, the Catholic Church especially honors St. Patrick – Catholic bishop, “Apostle of Ireland” and one of the most well-loved and celebrated saints of all time. From special Masses to parades, the world rejoices on St. Patrick’s day.
In an interview with the Anchor, Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz recalled the annual revelries in his hometown of St. Paul, Minn. While a student in the Christian Brothers’ military prep high school there, he marched with the school’s drill team in the city’s St. Patrick’s day parade.
However, certain joyous feast days – like St. Patrick’s day this year – can fall during the penitential season of Lent.
Archbishop Schwietz explained that as long as the feast day is on the church’s calendar of feasts, the faithful may celebrate the feast in Lent. He added that when the feast day falls on a day of abstinence from meat, such as a Friday in Lent, the local bishop may grant a special dispensation from the law of abstinence for the celebration.
Archbishop Schwietz noted that in the past, when St. Patrick’s day has fallen on a Friday and at the request of St. Patrick’s Church in Anchorage, he has given a dispensation to the parish for its celebration that includes a traditional Irish meal of corned-beef and cabbage.
This year, St. Patrick’s day — as well as the often-celebrated St. Joseph’s day — take place on a Tuesday and Thursday, respectively.
The great patron of Ireland, St. Patrick was born in Scotland to Roman parents around 385. His mother was a relative of St. Martin of Tours. When he was 14 years old, St. Patrick was kidnapped by an Irish raiding party and taken to Ireland as a slave. For six years in the pagan land, the youth herded sheep for a Druid high priest and chieftain.
Throughout his captivity, St. Patrick fervently prayed to God. He later wrote: “...His fear increased in me more and more, and the faith grew in me, and the spirit was roused, so that, in a single day, I have said as many as a hundred prayers, and in the night nearly the same, so that whilst in the woods and on the mountain, even before the dawn, I was roused to prayer and felt no hurt from it, whether there was snow or ice or rain...”
At the age of 20, inspired by an angel in a dream, he escaped to the coast and journeyed across the sea back to his family. In Britain, he studied for the priesthood and was ordained.
Later, St. Patrick became a bishop. For 18 years, he helped St. Germanus successfully quell the heresies of paganism and Pelagianism which Christian Britain was battling. Still, according to The Catholic Encyclopedia, from time to time, St. Patrick saw visions of the children in Ireland crying to him: “O holy youth, come back to Erin, and walk once more amongst us.”
Eventually, Pope Celestine I charged St. Patrick with the mission of returning to Ireland to draw its people into the fold of Christ’s universal church. For his work, the Holy Father gave the saint many relics and spiritual gifts.
St. Patrick arrived at Ireland’s shores on March 25, 433 – on the feast of the Annunciation. While some Irish were happy to hear him preach the Gospel, the chieftains and the Druids – eager to maintain the hold of superstition among the Celts – were up in arms.
There are a number of dramatic accounts of St. Patrick’s heroic stands against the pagan forces.
In his work, “Confessio,” St. Patrick said that he and his companions were seized and carried off as captives 12 times. But the faithful servant of Christ overcame the trials as he and his followers converted thousands, built churches and formed dioceses across all of Ireland.
The humble saint is known for his powerful expositions of the principles of the Catholic faith. He even employed the ordinary, little, three-leaved shamrock plant to teach people about the Trinity.
Upon his death in the late 5th century, the Irish people came to mourn and venerate him. St. Patrick’s body was wrapped in a shroud woven by St. Brigid, and his remains were interred where the Cathedral of Down now sits.
News & Notes
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Parish profile series Editor’s note: This is part of a series on parishes St. Andrew Church About 4,200 parishioners and 1,340 registered families. St. Andrew’s resident pastor is Father Leo Walsh, S.T.D. He was ordained in 1994 and appointed pastor of the church in 1999. : According to St. Andrew pastor Father Walsh, the first Mass in Chugiak-Eagle River was celebrated at the volunteer fire department. The parish’s old church building was built entirely with volunteer labor. The parish was founded in 1968. Previously, it had been a mission of St. Anthony Church in Anchorage. According to Father Walsh, the Eagle River parish first worshipped in a “basement church” on the old Artillery Road site. In 1982, the parishioners built, with their own hands, the old St. Andrew church, which Father Walsh explained “served exceptionally well for 25 years.” In 2006, after six years of planning, the parish moved to a new 1,100 seat church on the present 15-acre site on nearby Domain Lane. St. Andrew’s organ is reputed to have been used during the papal liturgy when Pope John Paul II visited Alaska in 1982. And St. Andrew’s is one of 16 nationally-recognized stewardship parishes. St. Andrew Church has 67 recognized ministries, 13 of which are outreach ministries including Meals for the Homebound, Parish Health Ministry, the Elizabeth Ministry for mothers experiencing troubled pregnancies or dealing with the loss of a baby, the Respect Life Ministry, Bereavement Support Ministry, Welcome Committee, Reconciling Community for those returning to the active practice of their Catholic faith, Men’s Prison Ministry, the Eagle River Food Pantry, Brother Francis Shelter, Clare House and the local Love INC affiliate. Also, the parish has eight ministries devoted to fellowship within the community: Sunday Coffee Hosts, the Ladies’ group, Knights of Columbus, Neighborhood Stewards, Torchbearers young adult group, Moms and Tots and a Single Parent Fellowship. According to Father Walsh, in addition to the “ever present” adult and children’s rosary groups, each week, the parish hosts eucharistic adoration from just after morning Mass on Wednesday to Benediction on Sunday. Also during the high liturgical seasons, the liturgy, including the Canon of the Mass, is sung from start to finish. Father Walsh noted that the parish is “blessed with an exceptionally rich music program and wonderfully generous and talented musicians.” During Advent and Lent every year, Father Walsh said that the Taizé prayer and solemn sung Vespers at the church are “very popular and moving.” The church’s patronal feast day of St. Andrew is characterized by a procession led with bagpipes from the Crow Creek Pipe and Drum Corps. And most recently, the church dedicated a shrine to St. Peregrine, the patron saint of cancer patients. Father Walsh said the parish’s altar server ministry is “truly remarkable.” Many of the church’s altar servers continue beyond high school and into college. He added that “in order to tap into the vast wealth of talent in the parish,” there are three councils: Pastoral Advisory, Stewardship and Finance, as well as nine working committees: Youth, Faith Formation, Communications, Development, Liturgy, Facilities, Thrift Store, Outreach and Fellowship. For more information about St. Andrew Church, call (907) 694-2170 or visit aksaintandrews.org. |
World Day of Prayer in Palmer
St. Michael Church in Palmer will host a World Day of Prayer service on Mar. 6 at noon. The annual event is a worldwide interdenominational worship service whose prayers are written by women of one country and recited throughout the world on the first Friday in March. This year, the women of Papua, New Guinea wrote the prayers; members of Trinity Lutheran will present the prayers. For more information, call (907) 745-3229.
Bioethics talk in Anchorage
On Mar. 19, at 7 p.m., Theology and Brew will host internationally-renowned bioethicist and neuroscientist Father Tad Pacholczyk of the National Catholic Bioethics Center. Father Pacholczyk will talk about end-of-life issues in modern bioethics. The event – which is free and open to the public – takes place at Snow Goose Restaurant. Doors open at 7 p.m., and the talk begins at 7:30 p.m.
Uncovering the Shroud of Turin
On Mar. 6, Theology and Brew of Kenai will host a talk on the Shroud of Turin. Robert Bird, history teacher and local expert on the shroud will present its history and the mystery surrounding the famous burial cloth many say covered the body of the Jesus Christ after his crucifixion.
The event takes place at Sal’s Diner on Sterling Highway in Soldotna. Doors open at 7 p.m. The talk begins at 7:30 p.m.
Death row chaplain to speak locally
Rev. Carroll Pickett, 15-year chaplain to the inmates on death row in Huntsville, Texas will speak at the Masses at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton on Mar. 8. During his time as chaplain, Pickett spiritually tended prisoners in their final hours and at their executions. He recorded an account of each death and eventually concluded that the death penalty was wrong and should be abolished. In conjunction with Pickett’s talks, the parish will host a viewing of the documentary, “At the Death House Door” and a discussion with Pickett at 1:30 p.m.
For more information, contact St. Elizabeth Ann Seton at 345-4466.
Most mayoral candidates back same-sex marriage
According to a Feb. 23 report in the Alaska Standard, 13 of the 15 mayoral candidates appeared at the Anchorage Senior Center on Feb. 21 for a candidate forum hosted by the Bartlett Democratic Club. Of those candidates who participated, only three – Dan Sullivan, Eric Croft and Matt Claman – expressed opposition to same-sex marriage. In addition, Claman and Bob Lupo suggested city services should not be provided to tax-exempt churches. The mayoral election takes place on Apr. 7.
Native Alaskans invited to school talk
Area Native Alaskans are invited to a meeting on school issues on Mar. 28 at 6:30 p.m., at St. Anthony Church. The gathering, hosted by Archbishop Roger Schwietz and the leaders of the local Lutheran and Presbyterian denominations, will address matters such as school drop-out rates among Native Alaskan students. A potluck dinner will follow.
CSS help for pregnant moms in need
Catholic Social Services offers life-affirming counseling and support for pregnant mothers. For more information, call (888) 625-7315 or (907) 276-5590, or visit cssalaska.org.
Native Mass and community meeting
Area Catholics of Native Alaskan heritage are welcome to a Native Mass on Mar. 14 at 5:30 p.m., at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. Following, the group will attend the parish’s St. Patrick’s Day dinner, and then participate in a Native community meeting. For more information, contact Sister Donna Kramer at 297-7717.
Archbishop’s Calendar Mar. 4-7, Regional II high school boys basketball tournament, Lumen Christi Jr./Sr. High School Mar. 7, 9 a.m., Meeting on future of Holy Spirit Center, Holy Spirit Center Mar. 9, 9 a.m., Mass, St. Bernard Church, Talkeetna Mar. 9, 11:30 a.m., Mass, St. Philip Benizi Mission, Trapper Creek Mar. 10, 8 a.m., Mass, Blessed Sacrament Monastery Mar. 12, 4 p.m., Archdiocesan finance committee meeting, Chancery Mar. 13, 6:30 p.m., Dinner with 1st and 2nd-place winners of Truth Pursuit contest, Our Lady of Guadalupe Church residence Mar. 14, 6:30 p.m., St. Patrick’s Day party, Our Lady of Guadalupe Church
Note: Events are in Anchorage unless noted. Community Calendar Mar. 6, 12 p.m., World Day of Prayer event, St. Michael Church, Palmer Mar. 6, 7 p.m., Theology and Brew talk on the Shroud of Turin, Sal’s Diner, Soldotna Mar. 7, 12 p.m., Dominican Rite Mass, Holy Family Cathedral Mar. 7, 12 – 3 p.m., CSS Quilt, Fiber & Wearable Arts auction, ConocoPhillips Atrium Mar. 8, 1:30 p.m., Documentary and discussion on death penalty, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church Mar. 12, 11 a.m., Native Kateri Circle potluck and prayer, St. Anthony Church Mar. 14, 5:30 p.m., Native Mass and community meeting, Our Lady of Guadalupe Church Mar. 19, 7 p.m., Theology and Brew talk on end-of-life ethics by Father Tad Pacholczyk of the National Catholic Bioethics Center, Snow Goose Restaurant
Note: Events are in Anchorage unless noted. |
AFACT mayoral candidates forum
On Mar. 15, 2-4 p.m., Anchorage Faith & Action-Congregations Together (AFACT) will host a public forum with candidates for the office of Anchorage mayor. The forum – which should address the candidates’ positions on a variety of issues – is free and open to all. The event will be at Central Lutheran Church, 1420 Cordova Street. For more information, contact AFACT at 297-7731.
Young adult event on discipleship
On March 11 at 7 p.m. the young adult group at Our Lady of Guadalupe invites the public to a movie and discussion about the life of the late Archbishop Romero. The event includes dinner and takes place at the Lunney Center. It is open to single and married people in their 20’s and 30’s. For more information, call 248-2000 x205.
Catholic thespians to perform play
Members of Lumen Christi Jr./Sr. High School’s drama club and fellow students of Holy Rosary Academy will present the comedic play, “Tear along the dotted line” on Mar. 27 and Mar. 28 at 7 p.m. at Grant Hall, Alaska Pacific University. Tickets are $5 before Mar. 27 and $7 at the door.
For more information, contact Leila Portell at 677-1401.
State seeks input on education issue
The state is seeking comments on the draft Alaska Education Plan, Alaska’s first “blueprint” for public education. For instance, the plan proposes a “vision” for the direction of public schooling and attributes and skills students should possess by high school graduation. Those wishing to comment on the plan may do so online, at eed.state.ak.us.
Catholic Social Services seeks help
Catholic Social Services offers a pamphlet – 40 Days, 40 Ways – with suggestions to help the faithful “utilize a wide range of talents and interests to serve God’s people in need.” For instance, idea number 9 is “become a CSS ‘friend’ on Facebook,” and number 36 is “make a wooden podium for the CSS Center Conference Room.” For more information call Ellen Krsnak at 222-7327.
Gallop: Alaskans not very religious
A January 2009 Gallup poll on religiosity finds that the United States is generally a religious nation, though Alaska and the states of New England are the least religious and those in the South are the most religious.
Gallup asked some 355,334 respondents over the age of 18 the question: “Is religion an important part of your daily life?” Only 51 percent of Alaska respondents answered affirmatively, compared to 65 percent nationwide. Mississippi respondents were the most likely to say religion is important, at 85 percent, while Vermont respondents were the lowest at 42 percent. Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, Louisiana and Arkansas were also listed as among the most religious states in the nation. New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts were the least religious states. Along with Alaska, the other Pacific Northwest states of Washington and Oregon also ranked low in religion. Gallup said it is difficult to answer why there was such a difference in states. “Differing religious traditions and denominations tend to dominate historically in specific states, and religious groups have significantly different patterns of religious intensity among their adherents,” Gallup said. Differing racial and ethnic compositions are also associated with differing degrees of religiosity, while certain states could attract immigrants with specific types of religious intensity. Gallup also suggested that differing “state cultures” could be a factor. The survey claimed a sampling error for most states of plus or minus one percentage point, though the margin of error in less populated states was as high as plus or minus four percentage points.
Br. Ruplinger dies
Holy Cross Brother Harold Ruplinger died Feb. 20 at age 80. The long-time art instructor in South Bend, died following a prolonged illness in Dujarie House at Notre Dame, Indiana. Born in Milwaukee, Wis. in 1928, as one of four children, he joined the Brothers of Holy Cross at Watertown, Wisconsin and pronounced his vows in 1949. He served as a Catholic school educator for many years in the Midwest until a request for brothers from the Archdiocese of Anchorage moved him to serve the church – especially the youth – in Alaska. Besides teaching arts and crafts at summer camps and schools, he contributed to youth retreats for three years in Alaska. In 1983, he returned to Notre Dame and joined the faculty at Holy Cross College, where he taught art for more than 20 years. A statement from the Holy Cross order said Brother Ruplinger “was a joy to have in community. He never lost his desire to teach others…He inspired many beginning artists.”
Brother Ruplinger was buried at St. Joseph’s Cemetery of the Village.
Columns
The death penalty is unjustified in civil society
Editor’s note: The following was adapted from Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz’s written address to Rep. Jay Ramras, chair of the House Judiciary Committee regarding House Bill 9 — a bill that seeks to authorize capital punishment in Alaska.
The primary reason I am against the death penalty is because it is simply unnecessary and unjustified in a civilized society. The government should not be in the business of deciding who is to live and who is to die. In your own testimony (as reported in the Anchorage Daily News) you expressed your own belief that capital punishment was not a deterrent to crime. I share that belief.
If deterrence is not the reason for reinstituting the death penalty, then we must carefully examine the rationale for taking this action. To think that we can protect human life by taking it is an illusion and an argument that is without merit.
For over 30 years, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, (the national organization for Catholic bishops in the United States) has taught that our nation should forgo the use of the death penalty for four reasons:
First, the sanction of death, when it is not necessary to protect society, violates respect for human life and dignity.
Second, state-sanctioned killing in our names diminishes all of us.
Third, the application is deeply flawed and can be irreversibly wrong. It is prone to errors and is biased by factors such as race, the quality of legal representation and where the crime was committed.
Last, we have other ways to punish criminals and protect society.
Regarding the first and last points, in the United States where many of our jails have become “high tech” there is no longer a need to put someone to death to protect society. Those who commit heinous crimes can serve a life sentence without parole in an environment that ensures the safety of those around them. I have been assured that in Alaska, we have jails (and are building a new jail that will have) the capability of segregating offenders to ensure they serve out a life sentence for their crime without the possibility of harming others again. No matter how heinous the crime, if society can protect itself without ending a human life, it should do so. We have other ways to punish criminals.
In Alaska, a large percentage of the population does not support the death penalty. I have serious concerns about violating the conscience of people that might be called on to perform the act. Our U.S. Supreme Court in its decisions has held that all jurors who sit in judgment on a federal death penalty case must agree prior to being seated on a jury that they have no objection to the death penalty.
While Alaska’s law would need to conform to Supreme Court precedent, it does not allow for others to be released from having to carry out the jobs associated with the death penalty, including the Commissioner of Corrections, correctional employees and medical personnel. I cannot support a law that requires people who believe in the sanctity of life to be placed in a position violating their conscience because of their chosen career path.
My final concern is that the people most likely subjected to the death penalty are the poor and marginalized in our society and people who are unable to afford good legal representation. Prior to the death penalty being outlawed in the territory of Alaska, fifteen men were put to death either under territorial laws or under what were known as “miner’s laws.” Of these, seven were Alaska natives, two were identified as black, three were Caucasian and two were of unknown race. These statistics should concern us all. Fundamental fairness ought to cause us to consider the uneven and perhaps biased manner in which capital punishment has been applied.
In these reflections, I have not addressed particular elements of the proposed legislation several of which are seriously flawed.
For example, section 12.58.320 (b) relating to a pregnant woman on death row. Stating in unclear language that the pregnant mother will not be executed prior to the end of the pregnancy leaves the option open to pressure the woman to have an abortion thus creating a double rather than single execution. The horror of a child growing up and living with the knowledge that his or her birth was the occasion of his or her mother’s execution is hard to imagine.
Rather than promoting a culture of death in Alaska, we should focus our energy on promoting ways to respond to violent crimes that act out of justice for everyone. We should work to find ways to protect society and hold accountable the truly guilty in a way that reflects our society’s best values. The death penalty simply does not do this. Its application makes us all complicit in the death of another human being and in the process cheapens the sacredness of all human life.
The writer is the Archbishop of Anchorage.
Process of selecting Alaska’s judges is clearly flawed
Alaska courts have a long history of removing contentious social and cultural issues from the democratic process. Court rulings have forced private hospitals to perform abortions, ordered gay marriage and benefits, required taxpayer funded abortions and interfered with parents’ rights to be involved in the abortion decisions of their minor child.
These court rulings involve the creation of new and novel legal doctrines untethered to our Constitutional history, intent, or even language. The decisions of the public and their elected representatives are ignored, not to mention the rights of individuals to parent their children or perform services or charity without being forced into immoral and abhorrent practices.
The Alaska courts have consistently struck at such basic moral rights as life, family, marriage and conscience, undermining in the process the essential pillars on which society is based. The church does not govern the secular world, which has its own legitimate autonomy, but autonomy does not mean exemption from fundamental moral law. It is the duty of all Catholics to take part in the secular world with such moral principles as their base. This includes the courts, how judges are chosen, how they decide and what they decide.
Unlike other public officials, the judiciary operates largely outside the public scrutiny, including the judicial selection process. Policy makers who are elected officials are chosen in a public process and are subject to strict sunshine rules when policy is being made. Unelected policy makers — judges — are selected in secret and are subject to no effective public control or accountability. Therein lies the flaw in the selection process.
Our selection method consists of a nominating committee, called the Alaska Judicial Council, made up of the Chief Justice, three lawyers chosen by the bar association and three lay members appointed by the governor. Thus, the lawyers are in the majority. The Judicial Council nominates candidates for appointment by the governor who must select from these nominees.
In theory, though not in practice, the Judicial Council ignores political or ideological considerations when nominating, leaving those to the elected official, the governor. The State Constitution’s laudable goal was to eliminate the political influence of elections and the cronyism of direct appointment.
Regrettably, experience has shown that special interest influence cannot be held at bay, which now turns out to be the biggest legal special interest of all, the Alaska Bar Association.
The Alaska Judicial Council deliberates and nominates in secrecy. It issues no reasons for its choices or rejections. Other than vague reference to “most qualified,” ( a term contained not in the Constitution but in the Judicial Council’s own bylaws) or “best available timber,” a wish by a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, no discernable standards for choosing nominees exist. Obviously qualified candidates are routinely not nominated. This year, one of only two nominees to the current Supreme Court vacancy was not nominated for the same position last year, thus appearing to have moved from unqualified to qualified in a very short time without any observable change in his actual qualifications.
The judicial selection process is clearly flawed and in need of substantial reform. It was undoubtedly an error to entrust the choice of such important public offices to the bar association.
If the legal profession and the judges who come from it would respect their role in the democratic system, the current system would work, but that has proved impossible. The temptation of power is simply too great.
Short of a Constitutional amendment, the public and the governor can demand transparency in the entire nominating process, the creation of standards by which nominations are made, the elimination of ideological considerations and the nomination of the maximum number of candidates, not the minimum.
The selection process and its results cannot be ignored. No progress can be made if time after time the unelected juristocracy intrudes on the workings of democracy with edicts shaping the world to their own ideological and moral vision.
The writer is a member of the Alaska Bar Association and an attorney in Anchorage.
Jesus is the most passionate man ever
In the course of my younger life, I must say, much to my embarrassment, that reading anything serious rarely entered my mind. I imagine there were too many other things going on during those days of youth that kept me from being interested in the deep matters of life.
From college days, yes, until now, however, I have become particularly interested in autobiographies, histories of people who were passionate about life. True, some like St. Augustine and Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day and others as well, were passionate about matters that would lead them nowhere. Nonetheless, misguided as they might have been early on, they ultimately found their sacred bliss, a life that fulfilled their hearts desire.
I am currently reading the Diaries of Dorothy Day, “The Duty of Delight.” I have always been fascinated by her life because she struggled to find ways to confront issues of her times: As a political writer she delved into socialism, communism and other outer-edge issues, all with the intention of finding solutions for human poverty, discrimination and other injustices that she saw in her native New York City.
It was not until she began to read the life of Jesus that she decided to follow his way. She ultimately asked to become a Catholic and from that point onward she struggled passionately to bring the weight of the Gospel to bear on social issues.
Those of my age remember that remarkable photo of Dorothy on strike with grape workers in Delano, California. She is sitting on a stool in a field, flanked by two hefty policemen, looking up at them as if to say: “Go ahead, guys, carry me to jail if you want to, I’m sitting right here, okay? Your call!”
The Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 1:22-25 John 2:13-25 |
I simply wanted to outline that short vignette of Dorothy Day’s life to introduce a theme that arises out of our Gospel for this Third Sunday of Lent. It begins with a line at the end of the passage saying, “Jesus knew human nature well enough. He needed no one to tell him about that.”
That line is preceded by the incident in the temple where he “lost it,” as it were, picked up the closest weapon, a rope, and whipped the mercantilists violently out of his Father’s house.
Later, his disciples remembered a line from Psalm 69:9 that seemed to fit: “Zeal (passion) for your house consumes me.” Passages such as this have always consumed my interest in Jesus and my desire to follow him.
One of the central themes of the Gospels, to my mind, is Jesus’ passion, his infatuation with life in general, his hunger for justice, peace, right living, love of neighbor, care for the poor. For Jesus, these were critical human issues that needed to be confronted in every age. “He knew human nature well enough.”
This prompts me also to say that everything in life “pumped up” Jesus’ passion. “See, the birds of the air and the lilies of the field,” he said: “They have not a care in the world.”
For Jesus, therefore, everything humanly lovely and gracious, all human issues that craved for justice were concerns of Jesus. Indeed, I am unafraid to say that Jesus was without doubt the most passionate man who ever walked our earth.
That leads us to ask the question: What are we passionate about? What can we claim as our ultimate concern, our sincerest interest and our deepest love? In short, what is life about if it is not about that for which we are passionate enough to die?
The writer formerly served the Anchorage Archdiocese as director of pastoral education. He now lives and writes in Notre Dame, IN.
God sent me to the gulags to get my attention
A good close priest friend recently asked, “What have I learned in Russia?”
Here is my answer.
I have learned to be a true spiritual father in Russia. I have fallen in love with the cross of Jesus in Russia. I have learned to be quiet and let God speak to me in Russia. I have learned to love Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. I have learned to love, and pray to Our Lady in Russia. I have learned about the spiritual battle in Russia.
I learned Satan is real and wants to destroy me, the church, fatherhood and motherhood. The family is a favorite area of his attack and yet families keep struggling to be families.
I have learned to love my weaknesses and depend on God. I have learned that my strengths can also lead me away from God. I have learned I can be too independent and live as if God is my helper not my savior. I have learned about real evil that destroys souls and real good that reveals God’s face in another, especially in the poor and broken.
I have learned to hope when it seems hopeless; to love when I don’t feel like it; to forgive when I don’t want to and I am right. I have learned my faith is weak and still miracles happen all the time around me.
I have learned that people can’t be trusted, but I still trust them. I have learned to embrace the cross and love the Eucharist, which is the salvation of the cross, given to us to eat. I have learned falling isn’t the hard part; it is having enough humility to get up again and start over.
I have learned the sacrament of confession is one of my greatest joys to receive and to give. I have learned that I love poorly and God loves perfectly. But above all I have learned what it means to be a priest. I have learned to really be His priest.
What is a priest? What do you think is most important to us priests? I want to give you my definition. (John 15: 15-17) A priest is a friend of Jesus. It seems too simple, doesn’t it?
A priest is a friend of Jesus. But ask yourself what is most important for us priests? I think most important is to have a deep, loving, honest and open relationship with our savior Jesus Christ, who is also our brother priest. Everything changes when we have this deep friendship with Jesus. But if we don’t have a personal, deep friendship, it is a dead definition. And so is priesthood. Pope Benedict XVI spoke in 2006:
“And only when God is seen does life truly begin. Only when we meet the living God in Christ do we know what life is. We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary. There is nothing more beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel, by the encounter with Christ. There is nothing more beautiful than to know Him and to speak to others of our friendship with Him.”
What have I learned here in Russia? God is a marvelous God who loves and loves and loves. Maybe these truths are for everyone to learn? All I know is that God sent me to the gulags to get my attention and I am so very thankful.
The writer is pastor of the Church of the Nativity in Magadan, Russia. The church is a mission of the Archdiocese of Anchorage.
Reflections on Paul’s Letter to the Galatians
In Galatians, Paul discloses more about himself than in any other letter (1:11-2:11; see also Philippians 3:4-11).
In Galatians, Paul introduces and explains his signature understanding on justification (it is by their faith, not Jewish practices, that Christians establish a right relationship with God [2:15-3:5]).
In this letter, Paul insists that Christians are descendants of Abraham (3:6-14) and declares that in Christ the social distinctions between Jews and gentiles, slaves and freepersons, men and women are eradicated (3:27).
Paul also writes here of the first extant report of Jesus’ birth (4:4) and claims that those who believe in Jesus are adopted as children of God in whose hearts the Spirit cries “Abba, Father” (4:5-7). These are important teachings for Christians of all times.
Scholars dispute whether Paul’s Galatia was the northern part of Asia Minor that was settled by Celts (modern Ankara) or the Roman province of Galatia in the south, along the Via Sebaste.
Since the letter is so obviously addressed exclusively to gentiles, I sense that it is most likely that Paul is writing to the Celts in the north. Roman cities in the South included Jews.
When Paul first arrived in Galatia, he had to modify his plans and stay there for some time because he was suffering from a physical illness, possibly an infection in his eyes (4:15).
During that sojourn he introduced a number of Galatians to the Gospel (4:13-14). However, after he left the area, other missionaries arrived and claimed that Paul’s understanding of the Gospel for gentiles was defective.
It was their view that to be followers of Jesus, one had to first become a member of the Jewish community. Thus gentile men would have to be circumcised and both men and women would have to follow the Jewish calendar (4:10) and dietary laws concerning what and with whom one could eat (Gal. 1:6-7; 2:11-13; 5:7-12; 6:12-15).
Paul learns of this new situation when he passed through the area again on his way to Ephesus (Acts 19:1). He wrote to the Galatians around 54 or 55 C.E. and tells them that anyone, even angels, who proclaimed a gospel that differed from the one they received from him should be accursed (1:8-9). Paul also indicated that his mission to the gentiles had been approved by the leaders in Jerusalem (2:7-9).
From the opening words that call attention to his personal authority from Jesus Christ and God (Gal. 1:1), it is clear Paul is furious with the churches in Galatia (1:2).
He tells them that he is astonished they have forsaken his teaching to follow a different gospel and only later recalls their past kindness to him (4:14-15). We can reconstruct what is bothering Paul from what he tells us in this letter.
Paul claims his credentials as an apostle were founded on the fact that his apostolate was derived from God and not merely human authorities. He recognizes that he had been a zealous Jew who persecuted the church (1:13-14). However, he received a revelation of the risen Christ because, like Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:4-5), he was chosen by God before his birth to proclaim the Gospel to the gentiles (Gal. 1:15-16).
Paul’s central concern is to insist that it is faith that Jesus’ life, death and resurrection that justifies believers (i.e., establishes a right relationship with God).
He rejects the idea that gentiles should adopt the Jewish cultural practices and while he calls these practices “the law,” he never indicates that Christians need ignore the moral ordinances of the Torah.
Paul claims that he and other Jews who believe in Jesus know that these cultural practices did not put them into a right relationship with God.
It seems likely that Paul’s opponents accused him of sin for not informing the Galatians of the importance of circumcision and other Jewish practices. Paul tells the Galatians that if he has sinned by emphasizing that it is faith in Christ that justifies, then Christ would be the source of sin — and notes that this is ridiculous (2:17).
He then tells the Galatians that if works of the law put anyone in a right relationship with God, there would have been no purpose to Christ’s death (2:15-21).
Paul’s understanding of justification was very significant to Martin Luther whose sense that faith alone is sufficient to enter a right relationship with God led to the Reformation.
Sola fide (by faith alone) was the material principle of the Reformers adopted by all Protestant Christians.
While Catholics maintained that faith is indeed a grace given by God, they also sensed one fosters this relationship by the way one lives — by one’s good works.
After the Second Vatican Council, Lutheran/Catholic dialogues reconsidered their understandings of justification.
In 1998, the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church officially signed an important “Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification” that was later affirmed in 2006 by the World Methodist Council. This joint agreement is founded on the following statement:
“The foundation and presupposition of justification is the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Christ. Justification thus means that Christ himself is our righteousness, in which we share through the Holy Spirit in accordance with the will of the Father. Together we confess: By grace alone in faith in Christ’s saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping and calling us to good works.” (Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification 3:15).
This declaration is significant in that the understanding of justification that Paul introduced in Galatians is no longer a church-dividing issue among Catholics, Lutherans and Methodists.
Given its centrality to the Reformers, this agreement was and remains a major ecumenical achievement.
The writer holds the Cardinal Newman Chair of Catholic Theology at Alaska Pacific University in Anchorage.
Anchor Editorial
Redefining human nature in Alaska is not an option
Jesus was the greatest advocate of the human being that the world has ever known. He called us out of a life of brokenness, pain and confusion and pointed to a more excellent way — a higher life than what we could ever cobble together on our own. He invited us to be restored into the image and likeness of God. In short, he came to set us free from ourselves so that we could embrace his vision for our lives.
All this came to mind, as the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District a new nondiscrimination policy Feb. 17, which affirms and accommodates students and staff when they earnestly believe they are the opposite gender internally from what their biology indicates.
The Fairbanks school board decided it was time for the 15,000 plus students and staff of the district to affirm the right of fellow students and staff to choose their own gender identity, regardless of biology.
The policy effectively mandates that the district treat a boy who believes he is internally a female, as if he were. And vice versa.
The decision will impact every sphere of education, all staff, students and business partners. It is still unclear how it will affect boys’ and girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms or how other school districts in Alaska will be impacted when they travel north to engage in athletic competition and other inter-district activities.
Members of the Fairbanks school board wanted to find a way to make their district more tolerant and accepting of others.
The problem, however, is that the school board members seem to have accepted the idea that human nature is so utterly malleable and undefined that each person has the fundamental right to determine what they are and then to be treated and affirmed as such by the public at large.
By enacting this new policy, the third largest school district in Alaska believes it will help students — grades kindergarten through 12th — who are confused about their gender.
This is a first for Alaska, but the issue of gender identity has been brewing in other states and countries for some time and is the result of a wider attempt to see human sexuality as a personal choice rather than part of one’s given nature.
Perhaps the most disturbing thing about the entire turn of events is the complete inability of opponents of this policy to articulate their position and credibly challenge the notion that human beings can determine their own gender. According to press reports, no one made the case that there is a natural law and a given reality which defines and guides our life and our sexual identity.
We do not flourish by rejecting our given identity or by encouraging children to define their gender according to their desires.
Of course, if people do reject their created identity, that does not mean a school district should require tens of thousands of students, staff and family members in the Fairbanks area to affirm and support this decision and then restructure the public school system to accommodate these confused beliefs.
Supporters of the new policy hailed it as a historic first step for Alaska — one which they hope will pave the way for other school districts. Unless Alaskans can articulate a more life-affirming way to love and support students who may be confused about their identity, we should not be surprised to see similar decisions in the future.
- Joel Davidson, editor
Letters to the Editor
Gregorian chant should be kept for private settings
It was with mixed feelings – aggravation, disappointment and sadness – that I glanced over the front page of the Feb. 6 issue of the Catholic Anchor and saw that an article (“Ancient sounds echo in Anchorage”) on a group committed to Gregorian chant both made the front page and the back page of the paper. At age 74, I have lived, worked and worshiped through a myriad of changes in the church, especially in the liturgy. Why is our Catholic paper touting a practice that does not express the direction of the “Document on the Divine Liturgy” from Vatican II? The vernacular was put into place to involve the people fully in the liturgy. It seems to me that those who choose to return to an ancient language and style of liturgical song, should do it in a private setting, for reflection. The article consistently proposed this style of music for a public liturgy, using such phrases as “preserving the sacred.” I am offended by the insinuation that the more contemporary church music is not “sacred.” Why are we not reading more articles about the work of Catholic Social Services and parishes, and their work with the poor, displaced and abused members of our society, rather than a multitude of articles about ancient practices and a return to the conservative church of the past? Today was indeed a sad day for me.
Parish Director, St. Francis Xavier, Valdez.
Gregorian chant better reflects sacred mystery
In his Nov. 22, 2003 reflection on sacred music, Pope John Paul II stated that “A composition for church is sacred and liturgical insofar as it approaches Gregorian melody in flow, in inspiration, and in flavor, and so much less is it worthy of the temple insomuch as it is recognized as departing from that supreme model.”
The pope repeatedly emphasized the value of Gregorian chant even to the extent that “new compositions must be imbued with the same spirit that inspired” it.
Despite numerous papal documents issued on the value of Gregorian chant, such traditional music is often dismissed as merely the private opinion of a few popes.
Many liturgists prefer modern music that is conducive to a “lively” Mass.” They claim that if church music were to be based on Gregorian chant or its choral cousins this would represent a remarkable counterrevolution in liturgical music. This is to miss the point of the Mass and its sacrificial nature.
Despite people’s diverse preferences and tastes, not all music is suitable for the church. Papal teachings on sacred music are not the invention of personal preferences attributed to individual popes but rather the result of consistent, theological reasoning.
In his book “The Spirit of the Liturgy” Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, states that “Pop music... is aimed at the phenomenon of the masses, is industrially produced, and ultimately has to be described as the cult of the banal. ‘Rock’... is the expression of elemental passions, and at rock festivals it assumes a cultic character, a form of worship, in fact, in opposition to Christian worship. People are, so to speak, released from themselves by the experience of being part of a crowd and by the emotional shock of rhythm, noise, and special lighting effects...”
Merely putting Christian lyrics to profane music does not make that music “Christian.” Plainly and simply this is enculturation gone haywire. The purpose of enculturation is to purify the particular values of different peoples, not to suggest that Catholic values change in order to adapt to changing culture.
Traditional choirs on the other hand, possess that solemn cadence capable of creating the ambience for perceiving God’s mystery. If Gregorian chant and traditional choirs were more available, one might be surprised to find how many people really do think and feel in unison with our beloved popes and church tradition.
Hamilton, Ontario
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