November 2025
The
COURIER
Official Newspaper of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Winona-Rochester, MN | dowr.org
Welcoming Young Adults Triumph of into the Faith
the Heart
New Film Has DOW-R Connection A new film about St. Maximilian Kolbe is now available for community screenings. In the following article, Minnesota native KATERINA GERLACH shares her experience working as an assistant director and script supervisor on the film. She is the daughter of Michelle Gerlach, chancellor of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester.
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By ERIN FLATTERY and ELSA SCHREINER
�he St. Thomas Aquinas Newman Center in Winona
is more than a chapel or club - it’s a vibrant Catholic community rooted in the heart of Winona State University’s campus. Led by their chaplain, Fr. Michael Churchill; the director of campus ministry, Rachel Murray; the coordinator of campus ministry, Erin Flattery; and a dedicated team of FOCUS missionaries, the Newman Center is a community that strives to go
outside of itself to bring souls home to the Church and ultimately, to the Heart of Jesus. Our Mission
“Heart speaks to Heart.” Written on a giant sign that drapes across the front of our building, these words from St. John Henry Newman get to the “heart” of our mission here at the St. Thomas Aquinas Newman
Young Adults, cont'd on pg. 14
riumph of the Heart tells the powerful story of St. Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish priest who, while imprisoned in Auschwitz during WWII, volunteered to die in a starvation cell so that the life of another prisoner might be spared. While most biographical films begin with the individual’s childhood and walk us through their entire life, this account starts where most stories of St. Kolbe end - at the moment he volunteers. Triumph of the Heart follows Kolbe and nine other men, chosen at random, through the final days of their lives. The men in this cell could not be more different from one another, and tension is high, but, despite their disparities, the men begin to grow closer, bonded by their common powerlessness and faced with their imminent deaths. They share their stories and their regrets, their favorite memories and their trauma. They pray together, cry together, and laugh together. Slowly, their
Triumph, cont'd on pg. 15
INSIDE this issue
When We Share the Warmth page 6
MN Starter Homes Act
Here at the Table of Plenty page 7
page 8