November 19, 2004 - Issue #23
Local News | Opinion/Editorials | Letters to the Editor
Covenant House Alaska enters its 16th year
You are a teenager, and things are terribly wrong at home. You are not wanted there, or fear or misbehavior has driven you away. Friends offer only more trouble, the night is cold and you are alone.
As Covenant House Alaska begins its 16th year this fall, it remains the port from storm for runaway and throwaway youths in Anchorage.Last year, Covenant House Alaska provided services to over 3,600 youths, not just in its 40-bed crisis center, but counting its transitional living programs and outreach centers for walk-ins as well.Mike, a 20-year-old who has bounced around the country, backpacking and “partying” from Louisiana to Baltimore, eventually made his way back home to Anchorage and entered Covenant House’s 18-month residential Rights of Passage program.“It’s a stable place, it helps you maintain sobriety, it keeps me away from drugs,” he said, reciting a litany of reasons Covenant House has been good for him.Now holding down a steady, good-paying job at the airport, Mike has been selected as an Internet technology intern at Covenant House and is hoping to attend the University of Alaska Anchorage.Jennifer, 23, counts herself as another Covenant House success story. Troubles at home with her father brought her in and out of the shelter as a young teen. Later, Rights of Passage helped her learn how to budget her money and “be more independent.”Today, Jennifer has an apartment of her own for the first time and only memories of days spent hanging around the transit center because she had nowhere else to go.Mike’s and Jennifer’s last names are not included in order to maintain their confidentiality.
As with many of the social programs that serve the poor in Anchorage today, the genesis of Covenant House Alaska lies with retired Archbishop Francis Hurley.In 1987, the municipality completed a sobering study that revealed large numbers of street kids in Anchorage. Tony Knowles, then mayor, spoke with the archbishop about the problem.“When I saw those numbers, I thought, ‘What do you do?’ ” Archbishop Hurley told the Anchor. At the time, Father Bruce Ritter, a Franciscan priest who had founded Covenant House in 1972 in New York, was a well-known public figure who had expanded the program into several U.S. cities as well as Canada and Central America.“I picked up the phone and called Bruce,” Archbishop Hurley said. “I told him we didn’t have a clue what to do with all these kids on the street. Would he come up and talk about the phenomenon?”After Father Ritter visited the archdiocese, interest in inviting Covenant House to Alaska grew. Archbishop Hurley remembers Father Ritter saying, “You get me a place, I’ll run a program.”Volunteers secured funding, in private donations and from the Legislature, to purchase what was then the Armed Forces YMCA on West 6th Avenue in downtown Anchorage. The building was purchased in the name of Catholic Social Services, which still owns the facility and leases it to Covenant House for $1 a year.Although it’s difficult to gauge today’s numbers, the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation and the Anchorage School District estimates there are more than 4,000 homeless children of all ages in Anchorage throughout the year.In 2003, 1,675 kids were reported to the Anchorage Police Department as runaways.Homeless teens not at Covenant House may be “couch surfing,” Nyquist said, or sleeping in cars, renting motel rooms together or sleeping outdoors. Winter sees the Covenant House population rise.
Covenant House Alaska’s Crisis Center, providing short-term shelter, food, counseling and family mediation, is the organization’s key component. According to Kara Nyquist, director of youth advocacy, youths can show up any time, 24 hours a day.Covenant House takes kids between the ages of 13 and 20, most of whom are referred by friends, the police or even parents who “can’t handle the kid,” Nyquist said. Intake counselors search bags for weapons or drugs and determine that a youngster is no danger to himself or others.Guests sleep, four to a room in bunk beds, in 10 bedrooms. Toiletries and clothing are provided, since most arrive with few personal possessions.The average length of stay at the Crisis Center is 15 days.“It’s not a lockdown,” said Nyquist. “Kids can leave at any time.”But neither is it a day at the beach.Kids quickly learn that “we likely have more rules than any household,” Nyquist said.Curfew is stringent. For those 15 or younger, it’s 5 p.m. on school nights, 7 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Even 18-year-olds have to be in by midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.Everyone must be up by 8 a.m. No one can go to a bedroom until after dinner. There are chores to be done, and a case manager to see who makes sure youths are in school, at a job or in treatment. By law, Covenant House is obliged to notify a parent or legal guardian that a child is at the facility. If a youth alleges abuse by the parent or legal guardian, Covenant House must notify the state’s Office of Children’s Services.“Most of our youth are here because of maltreatment, abuse or neglect at home,” Nyquist said.
Over the years, Covenant House Alaska has expanded to include two transitional living programs — Rights of Passage and Passage House — where older youths may stay for up to 18 months while learning vocational, educational and living skills. Passage House is especially for young women who are pregnant or parenting.A Youth Resource Center on West 5th Avenue offers walk-in and outreach services, including counseling, referrals, health care services, help with job searches and advocacy, and even lunch and a chance to do laundry.Covenant House Alaska had an annual budget of $3.3 million for 2004. All but 20 percent of the budget comes from private donations from individuals, corporations and foundations, including $1 million from Covenant House New York headquarters. The rest is from local, state and federal grants.In 1990, Father Bruce Ritter resigned from Covenant House amid allegations that he sexually abused boys in his care, allegations he denied. Although nationally Covenant House suffered a temporary downturn in donations following the scandal, Archbishop Hurley said local donors remained generous.Covenant House’s annual Candlelight Vigil for Homeless Kids is Dec. 9 at 6 p.m. in Town Square. Nyquist said all are welcome to attend.
Partnership with the Philippines: Anchorage Archdiocese delegation journeys to archipelago to put agreement in writing
COTABATO CITY, MINDANAO, Philippines — Two weeks ago in this southern Philippines city, Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz and Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Quevedo signed a partnership agreement that will link the people of the two archdioceses for years to come.Seven lay people who traveled to the Philippines from the Anchorage Archdiocese had worked together with the archbishops, Filipino clergy and Catholic Relief Services workers to come up with the wording of the partnership agreement. Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops’ overseas relief and development agency, facilitated the “global solidarity partnership” between the Alaska archdiocese and Archbishop Quevedo’s archdiocese on the island of Mindanao in the southern Philippine archipelago.The Cotabato Archdiocese encompasses the headquarters of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, where about 47 percent of almost 1.6 million residents are Christian and 46 percent are Muslim, according to Archbishop Quevedo. Two of every three residents in the area live below the poverty line — two times the national average. Many indigenous groups, or Lumads, also live within the archdiocesan boundaries.Archbishop Schwietz, the seven lay people from Palmer, Anchorage, Kenai and Soldotna and one Catholic Anchor reporter flew to the Philippines Oct. 31 and most returned Nov. 9. For three days, they broke into groups of two accompanied by Catholic Relief Services workers and journeyed out from Cotabato City to different villages to be immersed in the lives of the Muslim, Catholic and indigenous people living there.Some Alaska delegates visited areas where villagers and mediators have helped once-warring factions live among each other peacefully. Another group went to a mountainous region where local community-based health projects are helping villagers identify their health needs and find solutions to such fundamental problems as the lack of potable water and sanitary latrines.Others visited parishes that cover several villages and are made up of dozens of basic ecclesial communities, groups of 10-40 Catholic families with committees focusing on catechism, liturgy, livelihood, peace-building, interreligious dialogue, social action and advocacy. Some support each other through 5 a.m. Bible-sharing sessions.The group also met indigenous people struggling to maintain control over ancestral land and also farmers who have lost corn and rice harvests to an infestation of hungry rats.
A week into their 10-day travels and with the help of Catholic relief workers, the Alaska delegates brainstormed with the archbishops and Cotabato clergy about the vision of the partnership agreement. Its goals and commitments were hammered out in a daylong workshop in Cotabato City where discussion focused on ways to create continuous relationships between the two distant archdioceses.The group talked about exchanges of people and resources, praying for the people in each archdiocese during world mission month, exchanging archdiocesan news and supporting pastoral and human development of the people in both places.The words of the partnership agreement slowly appeared projected from a laptop computer onto a large screen as members of the group called out changes to the language.“We seek a Spirit-filled relationship out of which will grow mutual understanding and support,” the final partnership agreement states. “This relationship will enrich the lives of our people through the sharing of who we are and what we have. We desire a partnership rooted in communion that is characterized by openness and solidarity.”The final language says the partnership is rooted in prayer, and specifies a commitment to “pray for each other in a regular way and through special occasions.”At the Nov. 6 signing ceremony, Archbishop Quevedo told the group that the newly formed partnership was a “labor of love” that marked a “great moment in the history of the Archdiocese of Cotabato.” He likened the long-term partnership agreement to the birthing of a baby.If that’s the case, Catholic Relief Services, which has facilitated the formation of the 14 global solidarity partnerships, was the midwife. The Anchorage-Cotabato partnership is the first pairing by Catholic Relief Services between an American diocese and one in Southeast Asia.(Last year Archbishop Schwietz and another group from the Anchorage Archdiocese traveled to the Butuan Diocese, also on the island of Mindanao, to explore partnering. Archbishop Schwietz again visited that region this month and has partnered with Butuan Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos there independently of Catholic Relief Services.)
Archbishop Quevedo, former president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, said the agreement with Anchorage is meant to be more than an exchange of resources and materials; it should be a partnership of “solidarity, friendship, mutual concern and sharing.”He added, “There is no way for solidarity to take place unless through communion of mind and heart.”Archbishop Schwietz added, “We are embarking on an effort to make a difference not only in our two dioceses, but in ourselves. Our partnership, besides creating bonds, enables us to put on Christ Jesus.”The Alaskan archbishop added his hope that the new connections might “bear fruit in goodness, justice and peace.”The day after the two archbishops signed the partnership agreement, Archbishop Quevedo announced it during a fiesta at St. Charles Borromeo Church in Cotabato City, an open-air building flitting with birds and pulsing with hand-held fans. The Alaskan visitors stood in the front rows amid welcoming applause.“Communion means the deepest type of unity, solidarity,” Archbishop Quevedo said during the homily. “The Eucharist makes the church.”Shortly before boarding a plane for his return flight to Alaska, Archbishop Schwietz thanked the people in the pews for “opening your arms and homes, villages and towns to us.”The Alaska delegates participating in the global solidarity partnership trip to Mindanao were Bonnie Cler, director of youth ministry at St. Michael Parish in Palmer; Kathy Dunagan and Scott Earsley of Soldotna’s Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Soldotna and also Joann Earsley of Soldotna; Margaret Menting, director of religious education at Our Lady of the Angels Parish in Kenai; and Neil Murphy and Joaquin Barbachano of St. Anthony Parish in Anchorage.
Stewardship Day encourages people to deepen their faith
About 100 Catholics interested in deepening their understanding of Gospel stewardship gathered Nov. 13 in Anchorage for the archdiocese’s biennial day dedicated to the topic.Lawrence Sauer of Soldotna said during the lunch break at Parish Stewardship Day that he was there to work on the fact that he’s “not that confident” in his faith.“I want to become more active in sharing my talents and gifts and recognizing others’, and feeding off one another to build community,” said Sauer, a Slope worker with an earring and spiky black hair.He liked the practical ideas he’d heard. The morning speaker talked about breaking out of ruts — he encouraged people to start by going to a different Mass or siting in a different pew — and the importance of being warm and welcoming to newcomers.In the wintertime in Soldotna, “we all know each other,” Sauer said, but come summer the Kenai Peninsula community is flooded with tourists, and there are “a lot of new faces” to reach out to.This was the fourth Parish Stewardship Day since 1997. The theme this year was “Gifted by God, Responding with Gratitude.” The archdiocese’s Office of Stewardship and Development coordinated the conference and brought up three national speakers: Deacon Thomas Gornick, director of evangelization at the Archdiocese of Portland, Ore.; Anthony Gwiazdowski, stewardship and development director at the Diocese of Providence, R.I.; and Marilyn Blanchet, stewardship and development director at the Diocese of Orlando, Fla.Archbishop Roger Schwietz opened the conference with a talk in which he described the connection between stewardship — sharing of time, talent and treasure — and evangelization — sharing the faith. He talked about recent steps he’s taken to focus on evangelization, including organizing collaboration workshops in the parishes and creating the Office of Evangelization at the Pastoral Center.Partway through the stewardship conference, Janine Redding of Holy Cross Parish in Anchorage was already talking about the stewardship-evangelization connection.“We’re learning that we all evangelize in our daily lives,” said Redding, director of faith formation at her parish. She now sees her volunteer work at the local public school as both stewardship and evangelization.But she also said that evangelization can be even more basic than volunteering in the community — it is as simple as talking to the people around you at the grocery store instead of being annoyed by the long checkout line.“Anyone should be able to tell I’m a Catholic Christian by the way I act, the way I present myself,” she said.The pastor of St. Michael Parish in Palmer told the Anchor he wants his parish to help transform the local community by sharing their gifts. Father Leo Desso recently beefed up his parish council to include five “commissions” that will help connect parishioners to various parish ministries and other volunteer opportunities.St. Michael parishioners have been gathering ideas, many of which will be presented at an upcoming ministry fair, Father Desso said. “That’s all part of evangelization,” he said.Franciscan Sister Camilla Menting, pastoral associate at St. Andrew Parish in Eagle River, said one memorable quote from stewardship day was that 70 percent of Catholics don’t get involved with their parish beyond attending Mass. The St. Andrew fixture said that statistic seemed about right in her experience, prompting another person at the table, St. Andrew stewardship council member Gerilynne Buonocore, to say, “Mass is not a spectator sport!”Buonocore said that sometimes semantics can be important in fostering parishioner participation.“Don’t present it as a need,” she said, “but tell people they have a gift, and here’s a way they can use it.”Keynote speaker Deacon Gornick also had some practical advice in his talk. After presenting national data about heavier workloads and shrinking free time for American workers, he advised, “You have to think about this in the context of parishes asking people to volunteer.”He told about a large Ohio parish whose maintenance director divided the parish grounds into plots and let families take responsibility for upkeep.It was a win-win: Families enjoyed the opportunity to spend time together in a constructive project, and the parish always won the local gardening competitions.
28 men accuse Fairbanks church worker of abuse
The Fairbanks Diocese and the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus have been named in another lawsuit alleging sexual abuse of children.
Twenty-eight men from Western Alaska say in the civil suit that Joseph Lundowski sexually abused them when they were between the ages of 6 and 24. Lundowski is described in the lawsuit as a former Trappist monk and a deacon. But a Fairbanks Diocese spokesperson said Lundowski was not a deacon, though he was enrolled for a time in diaconate training, and that the diocese doesn’t know if he was ever a monk.“He was a lay person who was a volunteer — that’s how we have him listed,” diocesan human resources director Ronnie Rosenberg told the Anchor. She said Lundowski apparently came to Alaska as a church volunteer around 1959 and left around 1975 after serving in several parishes in Southcentral and Western Alaska.Rosenberg said she hasn’t found any information related to his departure, not even a forwarding address. She said the diocese didn’t keep detailed records about volunteers 30 years ago.It isn’t known if Lundowski is still alive; he was born in 1918, according to the lawsuit.Lundowski is the third man to be accused of sexually abusing minors while working (in his case as a volunteer) for the Fairbanks Diocese. Jesuit Fathers Jules Convert and James Poole have also been accused in lawsuits; the diocese has appealed the Father Convert case to the Alaska Supreme Court on the grounds that the statute of limitations has run out.According to Rosenberg, Lundowski served as a Eucharistic minister for Jesuit Father George Endal. They were together between 1959 and 1975 in Dillingham, Nulato, Hooper Bay, Stebbins and St. Michael.Upon learning of the lawsuit last week, the Jesuits issued a written statement expressing sadness but pointing out that Lundowski was not a Jesuit.“The Jesuit fingerprint is all over his stay in Alaska,” Ken Roosa, the attorney representing the men accusing Lundowski, told the Anchor this week. “They knew there was a problem with children and did nothing to stop him, so why would the Jesuits not be responsible for him?”The suit alleges that Lundowski gave the victims candy, money, alcohol and more in exchange for sexual favors. The allegations include forced sodomy.Roosa cited correspondence between the Jesuit provincial, the vicar general of the diocese and the bishop as evidence that the church leadership knew about the abuse but failed to stop it.Rosenberg said she read that correspondence but did not see any “smoking gun” indicating that anyone thought Lundowski was abusing children.“We have great concern for anyone who was injured,” Rosenberg said. “It’s not that we don’t want to believe people, and we do want to help anyone who’s been hurt. … But it makes it really hard when we have to reconstruct events from 30 years ago.”
Catholic Relief Services offers fair trade gifts
Don’t look now, but the Christmas shopping season is bearing down on us.If you’re trying to be a socially conscious shopper amid the hectic hubbub of the season, Catholic Relief Services has a catalog you won’t want to miss.The 2004-2005 “Work of Human Hands” catalog is now available (www.catholicrelief.org or 1-800-685-7572) and features scores of handcrafts and gourmet foods from low-income producers around the world. All are guaranteed to be fairly traded — meaning that “the people who produce them earn a fair price … and get access to credit and training,” according to Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops’ overseas relief and development agency.In addition to buying from the catalog as an individual, it’s also possible to sponsor a sale for your school or parish. Since 1998, Our Lady of the Angels Parish in Kenai has done just that.“I think it’s another outreach to the universal church,” said organizer Sister Joan Barina, a Medical Missionary Sister who serves as pastoral associate in Kenai.Each year in the fall, Sister Barina and a committee look over the catalog and place their order, which arrives quickly. Although the parish can get a 10-percent discount that may be used as a parish fund-raiser, Our Lady of the Angels declines this benefit.Instead, the parish, which sends youth on mission work to Mexico or a Bush village each summer, and sponsors a mission in Kenya, uses the project as another lesson in social justice.“It’s another way to get people to see the needs around the world,” Sister Barina said. “And it’s a way of helping people to help themselves.”Average sales at the parish run around $1,250, she said, and the parish usually sells between 90-95 percent of what they order. The rest can be returned.Angela Liston, who holds the part-time and unpaid position of Catholic Relief Services Diocesan Director for the archdiocese, said education is a great side benefit of the Work of Human Hands project. She encourages more parishes to hold sales, which can be organized year round, not just at Christmas.
In an August memo to parishes Liston urged them to “consider organizing a sale in your parish during the 2004 Christmas season, and offer your parishioners a fair trade alternative in their Christmas shopping.”“It serves to educate our Catholic community on the interconnection of work and human dignity, offer an opportunity to buy unique products, and give the producers a fair price and hope for a better life,” Liston said.Other parishes that have held sales include St. Mary in Kodiak and Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Soldotna. Liston once organized a sale at St. Andrew Parish in Eagle River.Through Catholic Relief Services and its partnership with SERRV International (Sales Exchange for Refugee Rehabilitation Vocation), groups like Thaicraft market the handcrafts of the northern hill tribes of Thailand.A cooperative in eastern India helps 300 impoverished and mostly illiterate women sell their handmade lace, which they have made for over 100 years, at a fair price.In Haiti, a non-profit cooperative markets the work of over 200 artisans who weave baskets and create art from recycled metal oil drums.In addition to teaching management skills and promoting community development projects, some cooperatives even create pension plans for their artisans, something virtually unheard of in many developing countries.Although it may be too late to organize a parish Christmas sale for 2004, it’s a good time to mark the calendar for next year. And there’s plenty of time to do your personal shopping through Work of Human Hands.
Editorials
Congrats and good luck to elected
We offer belated congratulations to President George W. Bush, Sen. Lisa Murkowski and everyone else elected by their constituents on Nov. 2. We also thank the other contenders who ran for office, especially Sen. John Kerry and all of Alaska’s unsuccessful candidates.Much has been made of the second close national election in a row. America remains divided, but we were earnestly heartened both by Kerry’s concession speech in Boston, in which he appealed for unity and healing after the bitter campaign, and by Bush’s humility in accepting the awesome responsibilities the nation has again granted him.President Bush reached out to those who voted for Kerry, pledging to work to earn their support in his new term. Kerry pledged to continue to work in the Senate to help strengthen the country as he hoped to do as president.We wish both men God’s help in these efforts. President Bush has a pile of monumental tasks before him — Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, domestic unemployment and the health care crisis, for starters. The president took a positive step last week by signaling renewed support for the “road map” plan that envisions a Palestinian state alongside Israel.We hope Sen. Kerry, meanwhile, keeps pushing for those ideas from his campaign that resonated with Catholic teaching, such as a minimum wage boost, more affordable health care and smart environmental protections.America will be stronger if our leaders listen to one another and cooperate in seeking the common good.
Anchor Notebook
I was bouncing like a pinball in a four-wheel-drive on a mountain road in the Philippines when Father Ben Torreto, our guide in the remote region, received a text message on his cell phone: George W. Bush had won reelection.
The villagers in Danggoan, a place accessed via unsteady bamboo raft or a terrifying bridge made of four rusty cables and intermittent bamboo sticks, were right. Earlier that day, in the stifling heat, they calmly said, “Bush, it’s Bush,” getting their news from the single radio station that reaches their small village.It’s not easily apparent how the election will affect the lives of a Filipino mother nurturing a dehydrated child back to health in a poverty-stricken village, or a man behind a plow towed by a water buffalo. What is apparent is that American Catholics are called to pursue those connections, to work toward global solidarity, to look at how decisions made in the United States affect the world’s poor.Archbishop Orlando Quevedo, the Filipino Oblate who heads the Cotabato Archdiocese, said the newly formed partnership with the Anchorage Archdiocese is a response to globalization. Archbishop Roger Schwietz says the partnership is a sign that his archdiocese is maturing, moving beyond the missionary mode of surviving on others’ charity.Back in Manila I found another take on globalization: A newspaper columnist lamented that the rest of the world could not vote in the American election.By building global solidarity, American Catholics can be sure to consider their one human family in such decisions.
Kelly DuFort
Letters to the Editor
Deacon is canon lawyer
In the article in the most recent Anchor (Nov. 5) about Father Steven Moore returning to school to get a canon law degree, no mention was made of Deacon Bill Finnegan being a canon lawyer in this archdiocese. Yes, it’s true, currently the Anchorage Archdiocese doesn’t have any priests who are working as canon lawyers, but we do have a permanent deacon who is. Deacon Finnegan has done an enormous amount of work as a judge for us in the past year, and before that in the capacity of defender of the bond. The story should have at least acknowledged that we do have a canon lawyer in this archdiocese, even though he is not a priest.
Anchorage
Bush was choice for Catholics
Your Nov. 5 editorial on voting had two good points: “[I]t’s time for Catholics to get back to the ongoing responsibility of bringing their values to bear on public policy,” and “Catholics explaining their votes to the candidates is an import civic action.” Now for the bad points. You acknowledged that the hottest campaign issue this year regarded what to do about pro-choice (more accurately termed “pro-abortion”) candidates. The issue for the Catholic voter was, “Can I, in good conscience, vote for a candidate who supports the secular notion that a woman has the so-called right to ‘choose’ to end her pregnancy and thus her unborn or partially born child’s life?”The editorial stated that Catholics could have safely voted for either candidate for president if they did so with an informed conscience. However, if our consciences were correctly informed, we disagree that Catholics could have properly voted for John Kerry given his record of support for abortion rights and his promises to uncompromisingly protect such rights if elected.While the Catholic Anchor reprinted the U.S. bishops’ “Faithful Citizenship” document before the election to help Catholics make informed voting decisions, it was helpful, but only to a point. It covers a broad range of social justice issues, all of which are certainly important, but what needs specialized focus at this time are the life issues. The foremost social justice issue that is under full attack today is the protection of innocent, unborn human life. The utter magnitude of this ongoing American holocaust (4,000 babies per day) should catapult this fundamental issue to the pinnacle of our consciences.Now that the elections are over and the fear of appearing politically partisan is past, we hope we start to hear more guidance from our archbishop on these issues so our consciences are properly formed before the next election. In the meantime, Catholics looking for clear guidance can obtain the following pamphlets: Our Sunday Visitor’s “Guidelines for Catholic Voters,” Leaflet Missal Company’s “A Brief Catechism for Catholic Voters” or Catholic Answers’ “Voters Guide for Serious Catholics.”
John and Tami Tobia
Eagle River
