The Catholic Spirit - November 6, 2025

Coming home

Sophia Forchas greets staff at Hennepin County Medical Center in downtown Minneapolis Oct. 23 just after her release from Gillette Children’s Hospital in St. Paul. She was brought to HCMC in a white limousine with her father, Tom, and two brothers. Her mother, Amy, works at HCMC as a nurse and was among the well-wishers. In a statement published to a family GoFundMe page Oct. 23, Tom and Amy Forchas said they “are overwhelmed with gratitude for the remarkable medical professionals whose skill, compassion, and unwavering dedication brought us to this moment.”

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Sophia Forchas, discharged from hospital after Annunciation shooting, greeted with cheers

By Josh McGovern and Rebecca Omastiak

The Catholic Spirit

Crediting the “boundless grace of God” and the “miraculous power of prayer,” Tom and Amy Forchas celebrated their daughter, Sophia, returning home from the hospital Oct. 23 after she was hurt in an Aug. 27 shooting during an all-school Mass at Annunciation’s church in Minneapolis. A white limousine brought her to Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) in downtown Minneapolis, where she was

greeted with signs and cheers.

Two students were killed in the shooting — Harper Moyski and Fletcher Merkel. Forchas, a seventh grader, was in critical condition for two weeks after suffering a gunshot wound to the head. Then, Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis, which owns HCMC, reported on Sept. 11 that Forchas had moved into serious condition — defined as having “a chance for improved prognosis.”

On her way home from Gillette Children’s Hospital in St. Paul, where she was receiving inpatient rehabilitation, Forchas

was escorted to HCMC. She was greeted by staff celebrating her recovery. Some staff cried and hugged each other. They held signs that included birthday messages and sang the “Happy Birthday” song to her. Forchas turned 13 on Oct. 25. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara was part of the escort. Greeting Forchas right after she exited the limo was her mother, who works as a pediatric critical care nurse at HCMC and was there the day Forchas was admitted. Forchas’ neurosurgeon, Dr. Walt Galicich, credited staff at

Hennepin Healthcare for assisting in Forchas’ recovery. In September, while Galicich gave an optimistic diagnosis of Forchas, he said there was a possibility that she might be the third fatality as a result of the shooting. Outside HCMC, Galicich was one of many people to hug Forchas on Oct. 23.

In a statement published to a family GoFundMe page the same day, Tom and Amy Forchas said they “are overwhelmed with gratitude for the remarkable

PAGETWO

BENEFIT CONCERT Members of the St. Cecilia Children’s Choir perform at a benefit concert for Annunciation in Minneapolis at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul Oct. 30. The event was called United in Hope: A Memorial and Benefit Concert for Annunciation School and Parish. Other musical performers included musicians from the St. Paul Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra, the Schola Cantorum and the Cathedral Choir, both from the Cathedral, and the Madrigal Singers from St. Agnes School in St. Paul. Performing a solo was Nicholas Landrum, director of music and liturgy at Annunciation. Father Dennis Zehren, pastor of Annunciation, gave some final remarks. All proceeds from the concert’s freewill offering went to Annunciation.

MURAL COLLABORATION In this Sept. 24 photo, Shiloh, center, and Taj’h, right, both guests of Catholic Charities Family Service Center (FSC) in Maplewood, work with caregivers and University of St. Thomas (UST) students to draw images for a mural on the wall of the FSC community room. For the past eight years, University of St. Thomas sociology students in St. Paul and FSC children and families have built relationships through activities like arts and crafts and cookie decoration, as students learn about homelessness and its effects. This year, they are partnering along with Mike Klein, a UST professor and artist on a mural to reflect themes of joy, hope and comfort for the roughly 21 families experiencing homelessness currently at FSC.

NEWS notes

Dozens of people serving in parishes, schools and ministries across the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis participated in a 90-minute, online listening session to help the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) as it holds a National Pastoral on the Laity. The bishops are consulting the faithful around the country as they seek to learn more about the laity’s understanding of their baptismal identity and co-responsible role within the Church and society. The Oct. 23 session began and ended with brief comments and prayer by Archbishop Bernard Hebda. Questions included “Where do you see the Holy Spirit at work in your relationship/engagement with the Church?” and “What are your joys, hopes and visions for the role of the laity within the Church and in society?”

The Bethany Center for Prayer and Renewal in Scandia will be the subject of a 30-minute Connect with a Cause webinar at noon Nov. 19 hosted by the Catholic Community Foundation of St. Paul. Located on 110 acres overlooking a small lake with a stand-alone chapel, lodge and barn, the center offers retreatants spiritual guidance and silence, Mass and confession, homemade meals and walking paths through woods and fields. “The fruit of Bethany’s mission is seen in the lives of those whose hearts are seeking, longing, hurting, tired or weary. Here, the Holy Spirit is palpably present,” said Yen Fasano, Bethany’s executive director. Register for the online event at ccf-mn.org/event/bethany

Ten cases of coats were delivered to Guiding Star Wakota in West St. Paul at the end of October. Through a pancake breakfast held in August, the Minnesota Knights of Columbus Council 3659 raised enough money to buy the coats to donate to the pregnancy resource center. The coats were delivered Oct. 29, along with over 200 knit hats made by a council member’s daughter. Guiding Star Wakota staff members and members of Council 3659 were present as children of Guiding Star Wakota clients tried on the new coats and hats.

A local Catholic organization for whole-person healing called The Elijah Institute is offering a morning event Nov. 20 called Beauty in Broken Glass: Where Faith Meets Healing. It will take place from 8:30 to 11 a.m. at Anselm House – Melrose Station on the Minneapolis campus of the University of Minnesota. Two keynote speakers, Carly Aplin Zucker and Gerry Crete, will cover topics including relationships, trauma, addiction, mental health and recovery. The event honors those who have served and supported others through trauma, and also marks the launch of The Elijah Institute’s new podcast, “Beauty in Broken Glass.” This podcast is aimed at those whose work supports the mental health of the Catholic community and ministries sharing Catholic-integrated mental health stories. The cost is $75. For more information and to register, visit elijah-institute.org/events, or email Rebecca Brubaker, founder of The Elijah Institute, at rebecca.brubaker@elijah-institute.org

As the timing and extent of funding for the national Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) remained uncertain amid the shutdown of the federal government, the St. Paul-based Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota (CCF) suggested ways to help those in need. The foundation which stewards the financial resources of Catholic individuals, families, parishes and institutions and helps Catholics express their faith through generosity said on its website that each suggested area for giving has been screened for alignment with Catholic social teaching. They include Catholic schools that serve students from the highest-need communities in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, known collectively as Drexel Mission Schools. CCF is already distributing $1,000 to each of those 10 schools to help them purchase food and grocery store gift cards for the families they serve. Additional suggestions include Keystone Community Services and Second Harvest Heartland, both in St. Paul; Open Cupboard Emergency Food Shelf in Oakdale; and Source MN in Minneapolis.

Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the Oct. 31 “Practicing Catholic” radio show included Emily Sullivan, a regular attendee at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, who shared her journey of walking with her mother through years of battling breast cancer. The program also included Joe Masek, founder of The Freedom Group, who talked about overcoming pornography addiction. Listen to interviews after they have aired at archspm.org/faith-and-discipleship/practicing-catholic or choose a streaming platform at Spotify for Podcasters.

The Catholic Spirit is published semi-monthly for The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis Vol. 30 — No. 21

MOST REVEREND BERNARD A. HEBDA, Publisher

TOM HALDEN, Associate Publisher

JOE RUFF, Editor-in-Chief

REBECCA

OMASTIAK, News Editor

Three parishes are working together to feature author, preacher and EWTN radio show host Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers for three days of spiritual renewal at Our Lady of the Lake in Mound. Billed as a parish mission, the days will be centered on family life and the sacrament of marriage. Deacon Burke-Sivers widely known as The Dynamic Deacon will assist at Sunday Masses Nov. 9 and then offer a total of five 90-minute sessions Nov. 9-11 at the Mound parish, which is partnering with Immaculate Conception in Watertown and St. Boniface in St. Bonifacius. Deacon Burke-Sivers will talk at 7 p.m. each of the three evenings on Sacramental Marriage and Family Life. He will address Raising Faith-Filled Families at 2 p.m. both Nov. 10 and Nov. 11. The daytime sessions will be particularly suited for parents who want to build a strong domestic church at home. Pre-registration is requested at tinyurl.com/ycy6vern

FROMTHEBISHOP

ONLY JESUS | BISHOP MICHAEL IZEN

God is greater

Ihad a wedding a few weeks ago and the couple was very impressive. As can happen when one is a bishop, I was grateful that another priest conducted the marriage preparation for this couple. As a result, I only met with the bride and groom once but was inspired by their faithfulness and pursuit of holiness.

At the wedding reception, after the toasts, the wife and husband themselves stood up to express their gratitude and say a few words. The groom honored his new wife by expressing his thankfulness for her strong faith. But one little line caught my attention. He said his new wife has taught him that “God is greater than any situation.” That little line stayed with me, even in my daily prayer.

No matter what we might be facing — an illness in the family, a troubled relationship, a complicated decision — whatever might be troubling us, God is there, and God is bigger than our problems.

Perhaps these six little words should not have seemed so novel to me. After all, we hear it repeatedly in Scripture. Just recently in our daily readings, St. Paul says something similar: “The Father did not spare his own Son … how will he not also give us everything else along with him?” In other words, Jesus died on the cross for us — why would we be concerned that he might abandon us when we are faced with a particular problem? He’s bigger than any situation or any problem. He’s already died for us. Why would we think he’s not going to be there for us?

Jesus himself gave a similar assurance in last week’s readings. In the Gospel, Jesus refers to Herod as a fox and the Lord tells us he’s yearned to gather us together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. Jesus is not afraid of Herod, and if we stay close to him, we need not be afraid of evil either. Jesus wants to draw us close. His compassion for us is so great.

Nov. 2-8 is National Vocation Awareness Week, and when looking at complicated decisions, for some of us, it doesn’t get more complicated than choosing our vocation. This was certainly my experience. I spent most of my 20s searching, wondering and worrying! I wondered if the Lord was calling me to marriage or priesthood. It sure seemed like he was calling me to priesthood, but at the

Dios es más grande

Hace unas semanas celebré una boda y la pareja me impresionó mucho. Como suele suceder cuando uno es obispo, agradecí que otro sacerdote oficiara la preparación matrimonial de esta pareja. Por ello, solo me reuní con los novios una vez, pero me inspiró su fidelidad y su búsqueda de la santidad.

En la recepción, después de los brindis, el esposa y esposo se pusieron de pie para expresar su gratitud y decir unas palabras. El novio honró a su esposa expresando su agradecimiento por su profunda fe. Pero una frase en particular me llamó la atención. Dijo que su esposa le había enseñado que “Dios es más grande que cualquier situación”. Esa frase se quedó conmigo, incluso en mi oración diaria.

Sin importar a qué nos enfrentemos — una enfermedad en la familia, una relación problemática, una decisión complicada— sea lo que sea que nos preocupe, Dios está ahí, y Dios es más grande que nuestros problemas. Quizás estas seis palabras no deberían haberme parecido tan novedosas. Al fin y al cabo, las oímos repetidamente en las Escrituras. Recientemente, en nuestras lecturas diarias, San Pablo dice algo similar:

No matter what we might be facing an illness in the family, a troubled relationship, a complicated decision whatever might be troubling us, God is there, and God is bigger than our problems.

same time, I was attracted to marriage. What I failed to trust was the fact that God is greater than any situation or any decision. If you are a young person facing a similar dilemma, the two things I would advise are to pray, and to keep moving. In my 20s, I prayed plenty, but I wasn’t all that willing to trust in God and take some big steps. Today, I realize that the Lord is bigger than any “step,” and that he’s even bigger than any misstep. As St. Paul teaches us, if we make a move in the wrong direction, we don’t need to suddenly doubt that God will give us everything we need to get us back on track to following his will.

No matter what kind of problem, dilemma or illness we might be facing, we should take this matter of trust in God to our prayer. The spiritual teacher, Father Jacques Philippe, says that when we pray, we offer ourselves, “receiving from him, like little, poor, dependent children, knowing with certainty that we will obtain from the very hands of our heavenly Father everything that we need.”

I’m aware that in the abstract, this advice might sound simplistic or quaint. If you are reading this article while sitting in your comfy recliner next to the fireplace, then all seems right with the world and God is with us. But what if we are right in the middle of a tragedy? I am reminded of

“El Padre no escatimó ni a su propio Hijo… ¿cómo no nos dará también con él todas las cosas?”. En otras palabras, Jesús murió en la cruz por nosotros; ¿por qué habríamos de preocuparnos de que nos abandonara cuando nos enfrentamos a un problema concreto? Él es superior a cualquier situación o problema. Ya murió por nosotros. ¿Por qué íbamos a pensar que no estará ahí para nosotros?

El mismo Jesús nos dio una seguridad similar en las lecturas de la semana pasada. En el Evangelio, donde Jesús se refiere a Herodes como un zorro, y el Señor nos dice que anhelaba reunirnos como la gallina reúne a sus polluelos bajo sus alas. Jesús no le teme a Herodes, y si permanecemos cerca de él, tampoco debemos temer al mal. Jesús quiere acercarnos a él. Su compasión por nosotros es inmensa.

Del 2 al 8 de noviembre se celebra la Semana Nacional de Concientización Vocacional, y al considerar decisiones complejas, para algunos de nosotros, no hay nada más complicado que elegir nuestra vocación. Sin duda, esta fue mi experiencia. Pasé la mayor parte de mis veinte años buscando, preguntándome y preocupándome. Me preguntaba si el Señor me llamaba al matrimonio o al sacerdocio. Parecía que Dios me llamaba al sacerdocio, pero al mismo tiempo, me sentía atraído por el matrimonio.

the Annunciation shooting in Minneapolis from a couple months ago. We heard people, in their pain, questioning, “Where was God on that day?” In short, my answer is that God was right there on the cross, suffering with those families. Of course, it takes faith to believe that, but what’s the alternative? Are we going to doubt God’s presence, even amid suffering? We need not look any further than that greatest moment of suffering in the history of the world — Jesus on the cross on Good Friday. The “good thief” is blessed to realize that even during great suffering, God is right there with him. Compare that to the “bad thief,” who seems to conclude, “If Jesus is here on the cross, suffering the same terror with me, then he’s not God.” Are we like that “bad thief,” doubting that God could suffer with us? Or can we be like the “good thief,” who basically concludes, “The fact that you have chosen to be here with us means you are God.”

God is greater than any problem, even Good Friday. In fact, it’s God who makes the tragedy of Good Friday good. Whatever we might be facing: a serious illness, a difficult decision, a broken relationship — God is right there with us, and God is greater than any situation.

Lo que no logré comprender fue que Dios es más grande que cualquier situación o decisión. Si eres joven y te enfrentas a un dilema similar, te aconsejo que ores y que sigas adelante. En mis veintes, oré mucho, pero no estaba del todo dispuesto a confiar en Dios y dar pasos importantes. Hoy me doy cuenta de que el Señor es más grande que cualquier paso, e incluso más grande que cualquier error. Como nos enseña San Pablo, si damos un paso en la dirección equivocada, no debemos dudar repentinamente de que Dios nos dará todo lo que necesitamos para volver al camino correcto y seguir su voluntad. Sin importar el problema, dilema o enfermedad que enfrentemos, debemos llevar nuestra confianza en Dios a la oración. El guía espiritual, el padre Jacques Philippe, dice que cuando oramos, nos ofrecemos, “recibiendo de Él como niños pequeños, pobres y dependientes, sabiendo con certeza que obtendremos de las manos de nuestro Padre celestial todo lo que necesitamos”. Soy consciente de que, en abstracto, este consejo puede sonar simplista o anticuado. Si estás leyendo este artículo sentado cómodamente en tu sillón junto a la chimenea, entonces todo parece estar bien en el mundo y Dios está con nosotros. Pero ¿qué ocurre si nos encontramos en medio de una tragedia? Me viene a la mente el tiroteo

de la Anunciación en Minneapolis, ocurrido hace un par de meses. Oímos a la gente, en su dolor, preguntarse: “¿Dónde estaba Dios ese día?”. En resumen, mi respuesta es que Dios estaba allí mismo, en la cruz, sufriendo con esas familias. Por supuesto, se necesita fe para creerlo, pero ¿cuál es la alternativa? ¿Vamos a dudar de la presencia de Dios, incluso en medio del sufrimiento? No necesitamos mirar más allá del momento de mayor sufrimiento en la historia del mundo: Jesús en la cruz el Viernes Santo. El “buen ladrón” es bendecido al comprender que, incluso en medio del gran sufrimiento, Dios está allí con él. Compárese eso con el “mal ladrón”, que parece concluir: “Si Jesús está aquí en la cruz, sufriendo el mismo terror que yo, entonces no es Dios”. ¿Somos como ese “mal ladrón”, dudando de que Dios pudiera sufrir con nosotros? ¿O podemos ser como el “buen ladrón”, que básicamente concluye: “El hecho de que hayas elegido estar aquí con nosotros significa que eres Dios”?

Dios es más grande que cualquier problema, incluso que el Viernes Santo. De hecho, es Dios quien transforma la tragedia del Viernes Santo en algo bueno. Sin importar a qué nos enfrentemos: una enfermedad grave, una decisión difícil, una relación rota, Dios está con nosotros y es más grande que cualquier situación.

More than 200 children attended the 10th annual All Saints Day Party at St. John the Baptist in New Brighton Oct. 29. They made their way to the church sanctuary and gathered for a group photo while singing “When the Saints Go Marching In.” Joining them were the two parish priests, who stood in the back row in the middle: Father Paul

and

vicar. “It’s grown from about 10 saints to almost 250 tonight,” said Father Shovelain, who dressed as Blessed Estephan Nehme, a Maronite monastic from Lebanon. “It was beautiful to see the holiness present here at SJB (St. John the Baptist) and the kids wanting and aspiring to become saints.” Father Gilde dressed up as St. John of the Cross, a Carmelite from Spain who is a doctor of the Church.

HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Traditions are remembered because they’re repeated. Help your children remember the importance of generosity by giving regularly – together. A donor advised fund makes it easy to give as a family.

learn how a donor advised fund can help you make charitable giving a family tradition.

or visit ccf-mn.org

Sophia Forchas and her father, Tom Forchas, exit a limousine at Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) in downtown Minneapolis Oct. 23, just after her release from Gillette Children’s Hospital in St. Paul. A police escort led by Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara arrived at HCMC for a brief visit with hospital staff there who treated Forchas after she was hit during the Aug. 27 shooting at Annunciation church in Minneapolis.

medical professionals whose skill, compassion, and unwavering dedication brought us to this moment.”

They thanked all those who have been praying for Sophia.

“Your prayers have been a wellspring of comfort, hope, and healing for our entire family. We are certain that God heard every single one,” they wrote.

Meanwhile, Archbishop Bernard Hebda issued a statement Oct. 24 celebrating Sophia being discharged from the hospital and requesting continued prayers.

“I celebrate with the Annunciation community the return to home of Sophia Forchas,” the archbishop wrote. “It was very moving that she was able to join us last evening for the daily 9 (p.m.) rosary outside of the church. She and her father thanked the community for the many prayers that they have received throughout the time that Sophia had been in the hospital and at the rehabilitation center. Please join me in continuing to pray for the ongoing recovery of all of those affected by the tragedy at Annunciation, and especially for the families and loved ones of Harper Moyski and Fletcher Merkel.”

The full statement from Tom and Amy Forchas follows:

Today marks one of the most extraordinary days of our lives! Our beloved daughter, Sophia, is coming home!!

We are overwhelmed with gratitude for the remarkable medical professionals whose skill, compassion, and unwavering dedication brought us to this moment. To Dr. Galicich and his phenomenal team of neurosurgeons; to Dr. Bjorklund and the pediatric intensivist team at HCMC; to Dr. Gormley and the team of rehabilitation therapists at Gillette Children’s Hospital in St. Paul; and to every individual who played a role in Sophia’s healing and recovery: We thank you from the depths of our hearts. We will never forget your worldclass care that sustained her. Your commitment carried us through.

Sophia’s healing journey continues with outpatient therapy and the road to full recovery remains long. Yet, our hearts are filled with indescribable joy as we witness her speech improving daily, her personality shining through once more, and her ability to walk, swim, and even dribble a basketball. Each step she takes is a living testament to the boundless grace of God and the miraculous power of prayer.

Those prayers came from family, friends, and countless souls around the world; many of whom have never met Sophia, yet lifted her spirit with unconditional love. Your prayers have been a wellspring of comfort, hope, and healing for our entire family. We are certain that God heard every single one.

Even in the midst of this profound joy, our hearts remain tender. We continue to pray for those whose lives were tragically lost on that heartbreaking day. May their memory be eternal. We also hold close those who were injured and bear lasting scars, and the families and loved ones forever changed. May God grant healing, consolation and His peace to all who grieve. To those whose hearts are hardened in despair, may the grace of the All-Holy Spirit soften them. We pray that the Trinity fill the world with compassion and love.

In Christ’s Love, Tom and Amy Forchas

Security experts meet with representatives of parishes and schools in the archdiocese

By Josh McGovern The Catholic Spirit

Paul Iovino took the stage at Guardian Angels in Oakdale as morning light came through the stained-glass windows on Oct. 29. Two months after a fatal shooting during an all-school Mass at Annunciation’s church in Minneapolis, he was leading more than 250 people through the inaugural Security Managers Information Group (SMIG) Conference to provide security training for Catholic parishes and schools.

Iovino — director of the Office of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment within the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and a SMIG committee member — advised that not every parishioner or child or staff member needs to know the security plan.

“What they do need to know is that you have a plan, and to feel confident that your employees and volunteers are responsible for that plan, know how to implement it, and know what to do when a crisis happens,” Iovino said.

SMIG is an archdiocesan group, created for collaboration and information sharing among stakeholders and safety committees at parishes and schools. The group can help parish and school officials determine the most appropriate security measures, but it does not mandate protocols.

The conference will be held annually going forward. The inaugural event featured 12 vendors offering security resources — including private security firms and safety tools.

Talks were held throughout the day by security experts, including members of the Homeland Security Emergency Management (HSEM) office and the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.

Kasey Cable, HSEM’s school communications coordinator, said, “A lot of us in the room are really focused on those really high impact, low probability acts of violence. But as we talk about emergency operation plans today and crisis teams and the language you’re going to use, we’re going to talk about how all emergencies are equally important, (such as) weather or electrical emergencies and things like that.”

Cable explained that a good safety plan for schools and parishes begins with having the right team. It’s also important, she said, to recognize that each parish and school has its own needs, and all hazards must be considered. There are five steps to addressing an emergency situation.

“Prevention, that’s (step) one,” Cable said. “Hopefully we can do things to prevent these emergencies from happening in the first place, which is the ideal. ... Then you’ve got the

mitigation. What can you do so (that) if (an) emergency happens, the impact is lessened? If you think about a tornado, you can’t really control whether or not a tornado happens, but there are things you can do within your building spaces to mitigate the damage of the tornado. You have your preparedness: What are you doing to get people ready? How are you responding? And then how are you recovering? We always say recovery starts the minute the disaster happens. That’s when you need to start thinking about recovery. What are you going to do to help get people back on track?”

Iovino spoke highly of the standard response plan the HSEM offers. The standard response protocol is a set of five actions: Hold, secure, lockdown, evacuation and shelter. The protocol can address any number of emergencies.

“It’s less antiquated, it’s more applicable, and it applies not just to an active shooter situation, but it also applies to things that are more likely to happen, such as a medical emergency, a natural disaster, some of those types of things,” Iovino said.

In a hold, students clear the hallways and remain in a locked room. Secure comes into play if there is a threat outside the school — all exterior doors are locked and movement is limited to inside the building. Classroom activities can continue uninterrupted. A lockdown is used for a threat inside the school. All students and staff must remain in a locked room or safe zone, and no one is allowed to leave except for law enforcement. Evacuation moves people from one facility to another. Shelter is for incidents that require personal protection, such as a tornado or other disaster.

Iovino said his office has received questions from parish and school personnel about using armed officers. He recommended checking with Catholic Mutual Group, a provider of property, liability and employee benefit coverage.

“At the end of the day, for the parish and schools, it comes down to a risk management piece, and just making sure that before you embark on something like that, that you’re checking with your risk managers, you’re checking with Catholic Mutual and that you’re making sure that you’ve got indemnification if something like that were to happen,” Iovino said.

Karl Hendrickson, assistant headmaster at St. Agnes in St. Paul, attended the Oct. 29 event to hear from experts, reflect on St. Agnes’ safety plan and find ways it can be improved. Though his work is now primarily administrative, he still teaches one science class every year. Seeing the administrative and teaching sides of school security helps

Bishop Kenney: A ministry of presence

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Bishop Kevin Kenney, center, talks with Deacon Kevin Conneely, who ministers at Annunciation in Minneapolis, before the annual Candlelight Rosary Procession Oct. 3, beginning at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul and proceeding to the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul.

By Joe Ruff

The Catholic Spirit

Bishop Kevin Kenney, 65 a native of Minneapolis and priest of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis for 30 years before being ordained a bishop on Oct. 28 last year reflected on his first year of episcopal leadership. Among other highlights, he talked about his role in the archdiocese’s Lord, Renew Your Church campaign, which is committed to raising $250 million to strengthen parishes; educate youth for discipleship; help preserve the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul and the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis; provide for the needs of active, retired and future clergy; and help care for others in the archdiocese who are in need. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Q Bishop Kenney, thank you for sharing time with us to talk about your one-year anniversary as a bishop. Much has happened in the archdiocese since your ordination and installation as auxiliary bishop one year ago. I remember it was a blustery, sunny Oct. 28. What rises to the top when you reflect on this past year?

A The amount of welcome and the amount of excitement that continues to be around me becoming bishop, and being able to get out and meet people, go to parishes I’ve never been to before, and being present. I think that’s a big, big part of what we do as bishops, is our ministry of presence, being present at different ceremonies, occasions, happenings and just being a symbol of the Church. Being able to do that as a bishop, I think brings hope into people’s lives.

Q What has surprised you?

A The grace that God has given to me through this; that I’ve enjoyed it. It’s been good. You know, my first year, I was a pastor (at St. Olaf in Minneapolis), parochial administrator (at Sts. Cyril and Methodius, also in Minneapolis), a parish chaplain at (DeLaSalle) High School (also in Minneapolis), and running a $1.8 million capital campaign that is part of Lord, Renew Your Church. And trying to adjust to becoming bishop — which is the grace that came, to be able to do all that and do it joyfully and with energy.

Q How do you juggle all that? I’ve known bishops who are bishops, and but you’ve added some other tasks.

A Well, fortunately, I’ve let most of that go. I mean, I’m no longer parochial administrator at Sts. Cyril and Methodius, no longer chaplain

and I would just go there and be a presence as families (came) to find out about their loved ones, their children who may have been wounded or affected by this, and to sit with them while they waited to hear where their child was or what had happened, and just to be present there as a sign of the Catholic Church and, you know, our care for each other.

So that was one way. And then going over to Annunciation and just looking at the (temporary) memorial that’s been set up. Again, being present there for people, because they would come up to me as they saw my collar — just to be able to talk or to ask for some kind of prayer, which was really a blessing for me, and I hope for them. A couple of times I told my associates to just go over to Annunciation and stand there for an hour and be present to the people who are there.

Q I recall that your coat of arms includes an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and your ordination was held just four days after Pope Francis released an encyclical on devotion to Jesus’ Sacred Heart, “Dilexit nos.” In your first year as a bishop, are there ways the Lord has revealed his Sacred Heart to you?

we’re called to do. We’re called to be ourselves and to allow the grace and the gifts that we have to come through.

Q You traveled to Rome recently to learn the ropes as a new bishop. What was that like? Tell us about the trip.

A We kindly call it Baby Bishops School. Everything was taught in Italian, so you had to be patient. We had interpreters in our ear, (they were) interpreting everything that was said. Members of the different dicasteries came in and talked about what they do. Others came in and just talked about the life of a bishop and what the bishop is, that we are for the Church, and it being the Jubilee Year of Hope, it was more just bringing hope into people’s lives, hope into our world today. The best part, I guess, was meeting the bishops from all over the world and getting to know them. There were 12 newly ordained bishops from the U.S., so spending time with them and getting to know them a little bit, and then bishops from many other countries. It was always interesting to hear their stories and talk with them and create relationships.

Q Was it a weeklong visit?

at DeLaSalle. We raised our money for the capital campaign. And so currently I’m pastor at St. Olaf and auxiliary bishop of St. Paul, Minneapolis. It seems busier now than ... before, so I’m trying to figure out how that has happened. But it’s a good busy.

Q Certainly (Archbishop Bernard Hebda’s) 2022 pastoral letter, “You Will Be My Witnesses: Gathered and Sent From The Upper Room,” has been something of a blueprint for the archdiocese as it seeks to renew relationships in parishes through small groups and support parents as primary educators of their children in the faith. Other initiatives, as well. An important part of the renewal is the Lord, Renew Your Church campaign. Might you share challenges and blessings that have come from this campaign?

A Well, for me personally, it was a challenge to find the time that was imposed on me to run this campaign at St. Olaf, to reach out to people. But I had a great staff, great assistants who were willing to help me do that. We were able to accomplish that as a team and to be able to sit down with parishioners who, you know, I’ve known for seven years or maybe I have known for 30 years, when I was first at St. Olaf. The challenges came (in) trying to find the time. But at the end, with God’s grace, we came through. We made our goal.

Q So did the entire pilot phase — your parish and 15 other parishes. And that campaign continues.

A It does. Phase one (another group of parishes) is now underway. And I hear that it is going very well. And, you know, a couple of the priests I talked to said, “Well, it’s been hard raising that money.” But they’re surprised how generous people are.

Q Healing continues after the fatal Aug. 27 shooting during an all-school Mass at Annunciation’s church — the parish and school where you grew up in Minneapolis. Are there ways you’ve been able to help people recover from this?

A I think one major area is prayer. To know the (number) of people throughout the world who are praying for the Annunciation community goes a long way. And the ministry of presence. I know when it first happened, I heard about it and went down to HCMC (Hennepin County Medical Center). I was at St. Olaf and I thought, well, I’m four blocks away

A Personally ... recognizing that God’s grace is there in my life, to be able to, at the end of a day, know that I’ve done what I can. And you know, in being a faithful servant of Jesus and knowing that he was accompanying me, to thank him and recognize his presence with me there, always, celebrating the Mass, recognizing his Sacred Heart is there, and being able to do that in different parishes, different locations. To find that love, especially in the children in school Masses, the times that I’ve spent with families. The children, you can see that the true love of Jesus is in them and the Sacred Heart of Jesus is present and revealed in those moments. To go to a place and a child runs up and gives you a big hug — I mean, that’s just like, wow. This is incredible that a child would do that. You know? And not to be afraid or intimidated by the figure of what a bishop could be. If you’re caring for people, loving people, if you are compassionate; and, again, the ministry of presence is so important. I think that’s what the Sacred Heart of Jesus is all about, is that connection with other people, that connection of giving of yourself. People want that. They hunger for that. And they want that connection with their bishops.

Q This reflection on your first year as bishop is part of our edition on vocations. I recall it took some time for you to discern that you could accept the pope’s invitation to minister as a bishop. Might you share some advice for men and women who are discerning their vocations to religious life or marriage, or the single life?

A To pray and take the time that you need to really discern that this is coming from your heart. That was my big discernment process: My head was saying one thing, and my heart was saying another thing. How do you reconcile that? Even my vocation story, when I felt called to the priesthood, it was still that same thing, my head versus my heart.

For people discerning, (turn to) prayer, listen to other people and believe in yourself and who God is calling you to be. That was my biggest revelation when I was asked to be a bishop. I never thought I was bishop material. And then people would say, “Well, you know; you’re not being called to be somebody else. The Lord is calling you — Pope Francis, is calling you — because they recognize your gifts.” Oftentimes we fail to see that in ourselves, and we might know a priest or nun or a layperson who’s just this super person, and we want to be like them. But that’s not what

A It was 12 days. It was long, and it was hot; it was humid. They fed us well! Overall, it was good. And then we got to go to the Mass of the canonization (of Sts. Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati).

Q You met with Pope Leo XIV.

A We did, on the last day. He spent three and a half hours with us. He gave us a talk for an hour, half in Italian, half in English, and then took questions and comments for another hour. Then he took time with us all (including individual photos with the pope).

Q Certainly, he has Minneapolis in common with our archdiocese. He studied there. And then he wrote a very important message to our archdiocese after Aug. 27. Did any of that enter into your hello to the pope?

A I said, “I’m from the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis,” and I thanked him for mentioning us after the shooting in Annunciation and for the letter that he sent to us. I reminded him (that) we both went to CTU in Chicago, the Catholic Theological Union, and I wished him a happy birthday, because his birthday was coming up that following Sunday. I brought with me a button from the 100th anniversary of Annunciation — which was the summer before — that I had received. It was a VIP button from Annunciation, and so I gave him that button, and told him he’s a VIP at Annunciation. And the residents of Little Sisters of the Poor (in St. Paul) sent a birthday card (for the pope) with me, so I gave him the birthday card. You know, I was probably bishop 189 out of the 200 to see him. At that point he looked a little glazed over in the sense of, “OK, just another bishop, another bishop.” But he was very, very down-to-earth and very friendly, very welcoming and approachable and what struck me at the very end, just after we had our picture taken and turned to shake hands, he just looked me in the eye and said, “God bless you.” That really stuck with me. That connectedness, at that moment; it was something special.

Q Thank you for sharing that. When you were at the canonization, where were you able to sit? What could you see? What was it like to be there in St. Peter’s Square?

A It was beautiful. We were off to the righthand side of the altar, right up there on the

Chesterton Academy in Stillwater becomes an archdiocesan Catholic school

By Joe Ruff

The Catholic Spirit

Following a multi-year process of discernment, Chesterton Academy of the St. Croix Valley in Stillwater is officially a Catholic school of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and now may use the title Catholic, officials said Oct. 28.

Through grassroots efforts by parents, the school transitioned from being a satellite campus of Chesterton Academy of the Twin Cities in Hopkins to an independent school in 2020. It entered an agreement to operate as a Catholic school of the archdiocese Oct. 22, 2025, the feast of St. John Paul II, officials with the archdiocese’s Office for the Mission of Catholic Education said. The school joins 89 other Catholic elementary and high schools in the archdiocese.

“Please join us in welcoming” the school “to our system of quality Catholic schools,” said Jason Slattery, director of Catholic education and superintendent of schools for the archdiocese, in a news release about the development. “We look forward to supporting the school, and all our Catholic schools, in the vital mission of providing Catholic education in this local Church.”

Serving students in grades 9-12 and led

by Head of School Eileen Douglass, the school in Stillwater is part of the Chesterton Schools Network, which began with the original Chesterton Academy in 2008 in Edina. Founded by Dale Ahlquist and Tom Bengston, the effort to offer an affordable, classical high school education rooted in the Catholic Church has grown to a network of schools in 30 states and nearly a dozen countries.

Douglass said in an email that the school has dedicated this year in a special way to Blessed Solanus Casey, the Capuchin friar who was confirmed at St. Michael in Stillwater and whose cause for sainthood is underway. Father Casey was known for “his care of his brethren, his accessibility to others, his docility to God’s will and his greatness in his smallness” and in his spirit she and others thank God for the affiliation with the archdiocese and “all the blessings and benefits that this association will bestow upon our school, students, and community.”

Douglass said there are many notions of classical education “but we understand that it comes from a very particular understanding of the human person, the one understood by our Catholic faith: We are a particular sort of thing, an amazing sort of thing, one made in the image and likeness of God himself. Thus,

as Aristotle and Aquinas rightly understand, our very ability to be happy is wrapped up in getting this understanding of the human person right. All else flows from it.”

Father Bruno Nwachukwu, pastor of St. Charles in Bayport and Chesterton Academy’s chaplain, said in the news release that, “I’m so happy that this is becoming a reality so that Chesterton Academy of the St. Croix Valley can benefit from being an

archdiocesan school. Kudos to the board members, principal and staff, and the archdiocese for working with us to make this happen,” he stated.

Also in the release, Father Michael Creagan, pastor of St. Michael and St. Mary in Stillwater, said he is grateful for the school’s presence in Stillwater. “The students are receiving an excellent education and formation as joyful witnesses of Jesus Christ,” he wrote.

Archdiocese’s director of education, superintendent of schools is taking a position in South Carolina

By Joe Ruff

The Catholic Spirit

Jason Slattery, the director of Catholic education and superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis for the last 10 years, is taking a position at the end of the 2025-2026 school year as superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Charleston, South Carolina.

In a statement released Oct. 24, Archbishop Bernard Hebda credited Slattery’s leadership of the archdiocese’s 90 Catholic elementary and high schools and urged prayers for Slattery and his family as they prepare to move to South Carolina. Slattery, who holds a doctorate in education, will oversee 32 Catholic schools in that diocese.

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“Dr. Slattery has been a trusted colleague and I will miss his Christ-centered insights and his witness to our faith as a husband, father and educator. His service to the Archdiocese coincided with the 2015 reset of the Archdiocesan approach to Catholic education and his work has consistently demonstrated that Catholic schools are a priority of this local Church,” the archbishop wrote.

Father Gregory Wilson, vicar general with the Charleston diocese, said in a statement that Slattery will take his new position July 1, 2026. A transition and consulting period will begin in January “and will allow Dr. Slattery to become familiar with our schools and communities before assuming full responsibilities,” Father Wilson said.

Archbishop Hebda said Slattery will continue directing the work at the archdiocese’s Office for the Mission of Catholic Education (OMCE) until the end of the school year, allowing the archdiocese to initiate an orderly plan of succession. “Work is already underway

platform. But it was like we were all baking in an oven set at 900 degrees. It was very hot that day. The sun was somewhat coming down on us.

But the most impressive thing, two things: Before Mass started, Pope Leo came out dressed in his papal outfit and greeted everybody, welcomed everyone in a very nonchalant way, just making everyone feel at home. And then he turned around, went back in, and came out in his vestments to celebrate Mass. It just — I think — created that warmth, for everyone to be there. And then the second (thing) was ... to see the parents of Carlo Acutis, who were there to bring up the gifts at the offertory, and just thinking, “Well, their son is now a saint.”

Q You were archdiocesan vicar for Latino Ministry from 2010 to 2018, and now you’re back at that same post. Are there particular challenges in this go-around and opportunities that you might share with us as vicar for Latino Ministry?

A The challenges I have found are that the community has

on establishing a search process for Dr. Slattery’s successor,” the archbishop said. Slattery’s time in the archdiocese included guiding Catholic schools through the COVID(-19) pandemic and the aftermath of a fatal shooting Aug. 27 during an all-school Mass at Annunciation’s church in Minneapolis.

In 2019, Slattery’s office introduced a Roadmap for Excellence in Catholic Education, which has focused on areas including Catholic school governance, talent management and curriculum.

In 2023, OMCE introduced a Catholic accreditation process it developed with the Lumen Accreditation program at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. All Catholic schools in the archdiocese are fully accredited; the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis became the first archdiocese in the country to receive such a distinction. OMCE and Lumen officials also work collaboratively with each school on a rotating basis, moving forward

become much more diverse. We’ve had a lot more migrants, refugees, immigrants come in from other Latino countries, South American, Central American countries, where before it was primarily Mexican. A lot more Venezuelans, a lot more Ecuadorians, a lot more diversity within that culture. That adds a whole different dimension. And people working in Latino Ministry have changed out. That creates a whole different dimension as well.

It’s just getting to know all that, in the way of a cultural aspect and personnel aspect of who’s working, what’s going on, what programs. The challenges then are how do we bring that all together, and how do we see as an archdiocese where the Latino Ministry is going.

Q Congratulations again for one year as a bishop. Is there anything more you’d like to share?

A I just thought of, too, within the Latino Ministry, walking with the people today because there’s a great fear within the community because of the immigration situation going on in the United States. One never asked, “Are you documented or undocumented?” As a Church we serve all people. We serve all of our brothers and sisters. But you can see the fear and the trauma that it brings children.

through strengths and opportunities.

“We were particularly blessed that Dr. Slattery provided such excellent leadership to the Catholic schools in our Archdiocese throughout the COVID-19 crisis,” Archbishop Hebda said in his statement. “I will always be grateful, moreover, for all that he did to stabilize school enrollment and to develop and advance our Roadmap for Excellence in Catholic Education. Under his direction, the Office for the Mission of Catholic Education has assembled a seasoned, mission-aligned team that I believe is well positioned to carry out its important work now and into the future.”

“Dr. Slattery has indicated that he is committed, especially in light of the tragedy suffered at Annunciation in South Minneapolis, to helping ensure stable support for the Catholic schools of the Archdiocese and finishing the school year strong,” the archbishop said.

And so, how do you make them feel safe? How do you make their parents more secure in the sense of, well, you know, I can go to work or, you know, be prepared if something should happen, who will be taking care of the children and how will that happen? Working with families in that way.

But that is frightening to think, “OK, I may go to school and come home, and my parents aren’t there, and I may never see them again.” ... It’s trying to be compassionate in that way that is really a challenge for us today.

And then I think, coming out of Annunciation, the situation they’re looking at, how do we keep our parishes safe, our schools safe? As a society, how do we bring gun safety in a more visible and supportive way, to keep automatic weapons out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them?

It’s mind-boggling to me, with this happening constantly throughout the United States, that something can’t be done. Something has to be done. But it takes people to speak up to keep our children safe, and our brothers and sisters safe in church, and one another, you know, safe in this world.

Q Thank you for sharing that.

A You’re welcome.

COURTESY JULIE MEYER

Richfield tri-parish festival unites 3 parishes

By Josh McGovern

The Catholic Spirit

Four years ago, Father Jim Liekhus — pastor of the tri-parish community of Assumption, St. Peter and St. Richard in Richfield — approached two parishioners about a new project.

Barb Michaels-Rauen, a parishioner of St. Richard, and Luke Piram, a parishioner of Assumption, were tasked with combining three parish festivals to make one tri-parish festival that would rotate among the parishes each year. They were asked in June for a festival in September.

“We had basically three, maybe four months to plan the very first go-around with it,” Michaels-Rauen said. “And we pulled it off. We got members from all three parishes to participate, and it just has grown into what it is now.”

Known in the community as Tri-Fest, this year’s festival on Sept. 20-21, at St. Richard, included games, raffles, music, beer gardens, a pancake breakfast and appearances by members of the Richfield fire and police departments.

Each church is set up differently, Michaels-Rauen said, which is a challenge in planning the festival each year. In 2026, the festival will be back at Assumption. This year’s festival raked in over $35,000.

The three parishes operate as one community. There is one staff and one set of services, Piram explained. The liturgical celebrations in each Mass are the same for every parish. They all share a pastor, Father Liekhus, and parochial vicar, Father David Shaw.

“We have one parish pastoral council for the three parishes,” Piram said. “We still are operating as separate entities where we have three distinct finance councils.”

Despite this, many parishioners kept to their own parish and didn’t branch out, according to MichaelsRauen. Piram said that at St. Richard, he had to drop events each year because he couldn’t get enough volunteers. Now that the parishes are working together, the community is able to add events each year, which Piram said is a lot more enjoyable.

“It used to be that ‘I belonged to St. Peter’s, I’m not doing anything outside of St. Peter’s,’ or ‘I belong to St. Richard’s, I’m not going to do anything outside of St. Richard’s.’ Same with Assumption,” Michaels-Rauen explained. “And there are still some situations that people feel that way. … But at the same time, a lot of those people are seeing the collaboration that we do have with the Tri-Fest, that it’s like, ‘OK, well, maybe it’s not so bad.’ Maybe those people over at St. Richard’s or Assumption or St. Peter’s aren’t so bad. They’re really kind of nice.”

With Tri-Fest, parishioners of all three churches felt

more comfortable “breaking out of the silo of their individual parish,” Michaels-Rauen said. For example, Piram said that parishioners of St. Richard and Assumption serve in different roles, like ushering and serving as Eucharistic ministers during St. Peter’s 4 p.m. Mass.

The festival not only brought together three parishes; it also brought together two parishioners who only knew each other by name.

“Luke is a very, very good friend of mine and having gotten together with his family, it’s been a real joy working with him and getting to know him on a deeper level than, ‘Yep, you go to Assumption, I go to St. Richard’ type of thing,” Michaels-Rauen said.

Piram agreed with Michaels-Rauen, saying, “This year went very smoothly as far as how we planned together because Barb and I work great together.”

This friendship, Piram said, has caught the attention of other parishioners, who see it and want to participate.

“When they see Barb and (me), how we work together, that we became close friends, that we trust each other, I think that that draws more people in from the other two parishes as well to want to do the same thing,” Piram said.

People from parishes outside the community attend the festival, too. Each year, Piram said, the festival sees more visitors from the greater South Loop community.

But with a festival so large, Piram and MichaelsRauen need a village of volunteers. The Tri-Fest planning committee has 12 to 13 core members at any given time, with even more volunteers signing up to help with events.

“It takes quite a few folks to come in and bring something to the table,” Piram said. “Barb and I, we have to tap our families in. Barb’s husband is helping with bingo; he’s chairing that. My wife Angela’s helping with the food. And you see a lot of situations like that where there are people bringing their families in to help. It is probably our largest opportunity for all the volunteers to come together. It’s probably, I would say, one of the only opportunities where we are getting all the people from all three parishes.”

“Each year we seem to get a little bit better in the number of volunteers that we get,” Michaels-Rauen said.

While discussions for the 2026 Tri-Fest have started, Piram said that he and Michaels-Rauen are taking a bit of a breather before they work on it.

“If Barb’s in for doing it again, I’m in for doing it,” Piram said. “It’s one of those things where as long as she’s doing it, I’ll do it with her because she’s a great person to work with on this.”

HEADLINES

Pope Leo XIV's November prayer intention is for those struggling with suicidal thoughts. Pope Leo XIV has asked Catholics to join him in praying for those who struggle with suicidal thoughts, and for all people "who live in darkness and despair." "May they always find a community that welcomes them, listens to them and accompanies them," including by offering comfort, support and "necessary professional help," he prayed. The pope's video sharing his prayer intention for November was distributed Nov. 4 by the Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network. "Let us pray that those who are struggling with suicidal thoughts might find the support, care and love they need in their community, and be open to the beauty of life," he said in the video. "May we know how to be close with respect and tenderness, helping to heal wounds, build bonds and open horizons," Pope Leo said. "Together, may we rediscover that life is a gift, that there is still beauty and meaning, even in the midst of pain and suffering."

ICE bars a Chicago bishop from giving detained Catholics holy Communion on All Saints. A small group of clergy, religious sisters and laity, together with a Chicago auxiliary bishop, were barred for the second time in three weeks from bringing the Eucharist to those being held at an immigration detention center just west of Chicago on the feast of All Saints Nov. 1. Chicago Auxiliary Bishop José María Garcia-Maldonado celebrated the Mass attended by nearly 2,000 people according to organizers along with more than a dozen other priests in a parking lot near the Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Broadview Processing Center, which holds migrants alleged to lack legal authorization to live in the U.S. An immigrant himself from Jalisco, Mexico, the bishop led a small delegation carrying the Eucharist, which Catholics believe to be the Lord Jesus Christ truly present in his body, blood, soul and divinity. After being told ICE would not allow him to give holy Communion to the migrants detained at the facility, the bishop and the small group with him turned back with the Eucharist and returned to the altar, where audible weeping could be heard amid the otherwise silent crowd upon hearing the news. After the Mass, Bishop Garcia-Maldonado, 46, told OSV News that there was consolation for those detained Catholics. "Wherever our brothers and sisters are, Jesus wants to be," he said. "And not only through me but through the representation and the faith and the kindness of every single person coming this morning, is Jesus coming to our brothers and sisters to let (those detained) know, 'You are not alone.'"

One of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record swept through Jamaica and other countries in the region, leaving dozens dead and widespread destruction across that island nation, Cuba and Haiti. Hurricane Melissa made landfall around 1 p.m. ET Oct. 28 in Jamaica as a catastrophic Category 5 storm with top winds of 185 mph. Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, urged Catholics to pray for and support the people and communities impacted by the hurricane.

With the Gaza Strip situation fragile, Christian community’s ancient presence in Holy Land is "threatened." In the Gaza Strip, the fragile calm following the Oct. 13 Israel-Hamas peace deal has brought little relief to the enclave's small Christian community. While portions of aid were delivered after the Oct. 13 visit by President Donald Trump to Israel and Egypt a day marking the signing of the Israel-Hamas peace deal the situation remains precarious. Joseph Hazboun, regional director for Catholic Near East Welfare Association-Pontifical Mission's (CNEWA) Jerusalem office, said the situation remains desperate for many people, with famine still looming but food aid picking up speed. Nearly all of Gaza’s 596 Christians about 200 families are sheltering in the Holy Family Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church of St. Porphyrius. CNEWA's teams are surveying urgent needs while distributing food, blankets, and medical aid, but Israel’s border restrictions continue to slow humanitarian efforts.

Pope Leo XIV's first trip will focus on ecumenical and interreligious relations. Commemorating the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea and its Creed, as well as reaffirming hopes for peace in the Middle East, Pope Leo XIV will travel to Turkey and Lebanon Nov. 27-Dec. 2. The Vatican released the itinerary for Pope Leo's first foreign trip Oct. 27. The trip to Iznik, Turkey, site of the ancient Nicaea, initially was planned for Pope Francis. But Pope Leo, just days after his election in May, announced his intention to commemorate the anniversary with Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. The patriarch announced at a liturgy in Istanbul Oct. 22 that he had invited the three other patriarchs of the ancient "pentarchy" to join him and the pope for the Nicaea celebration, according to the Orthodox Times website. The heads of churches invited are: Greek Orthodox Patriarchs Theophilos III of Jerusalem, Theodore II of Alexandria and John X of Antioch.

At a Wisconsin shrine, students encounter the Lord through St. Carlo Acutis' example of holiness. Nearly 600 high school students gathered Oct. 18 at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion in Wisconsin for St. Carlo Youth Day the first such gathering since the young saint's canonization and the first to feature bilingual programming and a first-class relic. Students prayed the rosary, took part in Eucharistic adoration, and attended Mass celebrated by Bishop David Ricken of Green Bay. Organizers said the day aimed to "awaken hope" and help youth grow in faith. "Saint Carlo Acutis inspires us all to do extraordinary things, even as ordinary people," said a post from the shrine's Instagram account.

Pope Leo XIV recognizes the martyrdom of Polish Salesian and Czech priests. Pope Leo XIV formally recognized the martyrdom of nine Polish Salesian priests killed by the Nazis at Auschwitz and Dachau and the martyrdom of two Czech priests executed by the communists in the 1950s. The pope signed the decrees of martyrdom Oct. 24, clearing the way for the beatification of the 11 priests. The Polish Salesian

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case is known as the cause of "Jan Swierc and eight companions." Father Swierc and seven others died in the Auschwitz camp in 1941-42 while Salesian Father Franciszek Miska was interned in the Dachau concentration camp and died through malnourishment and torture May 30, 1942. The Czech priests recognized as martyrs are Fathers Jan Bula and Václav Drbola, priests of the Diocese of Brno, who were among 11 people executed after a series of show trials in communist Czechoslovakia in 1951-1952 after the murder of three communist officials in the town of Babice.

A Catholic coalition holds nationwide prayer vigils at ICE offices. A coalition of Catholic organizations held prayer vigils across the country on Oct. 22 for what organizers called "a national day of public witness for our immigrant brothers and sisters." The vigils came amid growing concern from some faith communities including a Catholic parish in Chicago about the impact of the Trump administration's rollback of a policy that prohibited immigration enforcement in sensitive locations, such as churches, schools and hospitals. The "One Church, One Family: Catholic Public Witness for Immigrants," vigils took place in multiple locations around the country on Oct. 22, with a second series of events scheduled for Nov. 13, the feast day of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, universal patroness of immigrants. The protest and prayer vigil in the nation's capital took place in front of the headquarters for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as employees entered the building and as rush-hour drivers occasionally honked at the group in apparent acknowledgement.

Wisconsin religious exemption upheld for Catholic Charities is now back in court. Wisconsin's attorney general has asked the state's high court to consider invalidating a key religious exemption to the state's unemployment program that has been used by faith-based organizations across Wisconsin and upheld unanimously by the U.S. Supreme Court, a religious liberty law firm representing the Catholic Charities Bureau of the Diocese of Superior, Wisconsin, said Oct. 21. Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul filed a remedial brief Oct. 20 arguing the U.S. Supreme Court "did not prescribe a particular remedy" when it issued its June ruling in the case, Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission. In that June 5 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of the

Catholic Charities Bureau of the Diocese of Superior, Wisconsin, which had asked the high court to overturn a decision by the Wisconsin Supreme Court the agency argued discounted its religious identity. In the opinion written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously found the Wisconsin Supreme Court's ruling violated the First Amendment by creating a preference for some religious practices over others.

Pope Leo XIV issues a document on Catholic education and names St. Newman as co-patron. Pope Leo XIV issued a document on Catholic education Oct. 28, marking the 60th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council's declaration on education, a top Vatican official said. Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, also told reporters Oct. 22 that in the document Pope Leo names St. John Henry Newman "co-patron" of Catholic education. St. Newman, whom Pope Leo declared a doctor of the Church Nov. 1, will join the current patron, St. Thomas Aquinas. Cardinal Tolentino de Mendonça shared the news during a presentation about the Jubilee of the World of Education, which was scheduled for Oct. 27Nov. 1. More than 20,000 people from 124 nations signed up for the event celebrating the Catholic commitment to education from primary school through university, he said.

Pew: More U.S. adults see religion as important and positive to public life. A new study indicates a growing number of U.S. adults see religion as gaining influence in public life with more Americans saying religion has a positive impact on society. In addition, an increasing number of the nation's adults report feeling at odds with mainstream U.S. culture because of their religious beliefs. The findings were released by Pew Research Center in an Oct. 20 report. While "most Americans continue to say that religion's role in society is declining," said Pew, "Americans’ views about religion in public life are shifting." The center noted that "the share of Americans expressing positive views of religion in 2024 and 2025 are up significantly from 2022 and 2019, indicating an overall shift toward more positive views about religion’s role in American life over the past five years or so." From February 2024 to February 2025, Pew found "a sharp rise" in the share of U.S. adults who hold that religion is becoming more significant in public life. Back in February 2024, only 18% of U.S. adults the lowest level recorded by Pew in over two decades said religion was gaining traction in American life. But one year later, that number had shot up to 31%, "the highest figure we've seen in 15 years," said Pew in its report.

Amid post-war healing, Catholic youth in Israel find unity through faith. In a powerful sign of unity amid deep divisions, nearly 200 young Catholics from both Hebrew- and Arabicspeaking communities in Israel came together for the "Be Happy Youth Festival" on Oct. 18 at Deir Rafat Monastery near Jerusalem. Organized by the St. James vicariate and the Latin patriarchate's youth offices, the retreat aimed to foster healing and connection following two years of war between Israel and Hamas. Despite initial hesitation, participants like Grace Rofa, a Palestinian Catholic from Jerusalem, and Reign Arpon, a Filipino Catholic from Tel Aviv, found common ground in shared faith. Activities included prayer, group discussions, and moments of reflection all offered in Hebrew, Arabic and English. Latin Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa celebrated Mass, emphasizing unity as a core mission of the Church in the Holy Land. Organizers hope this event marks the beginning of regular encounters that transcend cultural and political divides through Christ-centered hope.

Pope Leo XIV meets with a coalition of survivors of clergy abuse. Pope Leo XIV met with a coalition of survivors of abuse and victims' advocates for the first time at the Vatican Oct. 20. Members of the board of Ending Clergy Abuse met with the pope for about an hour in a closed-door meeting that was later confirmed by the Vatican. "This was a deeply meaningful conversation," Gemma Hickey, ECA board president and survivor of clergy abuse in Canada, said in a press release. "It reflects a shared commitment to justice, healing and real change." While the group of six people representing ECA met with the pope, video clips from the Vatican also showed a separate meeting between Pope Leo and Pedro Salinas, a Peruvian journalist and abuse survivor. Salinas, a former member of Sodalitium Christianae Vitae who suffered physical and psychological abuse by the movement's founder, Luis Fernando Figari, is seen in the footage giving the pope a copy of his new book, "The Truth Sets Us Free," in Spanish.

President Trump rolls out a policy proposal to boost IVF, a procedure that U.S. bishops "strongly reject." President Donald Trump announced Oct. 16 a policy proposal to increase access to in vitro fertilization, including issuing guidance urging employers to offer fertility benefits directly to their employees. However, the U.S Catholic bishops' conference expressed concern the following day, saying that while they support ethical efforts to address infertility, they "strongly reject" the effort to promote IVF. Trump previously campaigned on requiring the government or insurance companies

to pay for IVF, which is a form of fertility treatment opposed by the Catholic Church on the grounds that it often involves the destruction of human embryos, among other moral and ethical concerns. "In the Trump administration, we want to make it easier for all couples to have babies, raise children and start the families they always dreamed about," Trump said in comments at the White House. Asked by a reporter about those who have religious objections to IVF, Trump replied, "I don't know about the views of that. I'm just looking to do something because pro-life, I think this is very pro-life. This is you can't get more pro-life than this." But the 1987 document from the Congregation (now Dicastery) for the Doctrine of the Faith known as "Donum Vitae" or "The Gift of Life," states the Church opposes IVF and related practices, including gestational surrogacy, in part because "the connection between in vitro fertilization and the voluntary destruction of human embryos occurs too often."

10 U.S. bishops stand for election as the conference's next president and vice president. The U.S. bishops will elect the next president and vice president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops during their Nov. 10-13 plenary assembly. The president and vice president are elected to a threeyear term from a slate of 10 candidates nominated by their fellow bishops, the USCCB said Oct. 14. The candidates (in alphabetical order) are: Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester; Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City; Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas; Archbishop Richard Henning of Boston; Bishop David Malloy of Rockford, Illinois; Archbishop Nelson Pérez of Philadelphia; Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana; Archbishop Alexander Sample of Portland, Oregon; Archbishop Charles Thompson of Indianapolis; and Archbishop Edward Weisenburger of Detroit. The first election is of the president by simple majority vote of members present and voting. The vice president is then elected from the remaining nine candidates. The newly elected president and vice president begin their three-year terms at the conclusion of the plenary assembly. They will succeed the current USCCB president and vice president, Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services and Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore. Vatican announces the formal nomination of judges in Father Rupnik's trial. Three months after Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández said the Vatican had identified the judges who would form the tribunal in the canonical trial against Slovenian Father Marko Rupnik on charges of spiritual and sexual abuse, the judges were formally nominated. The Vatican published a communique Oct. 13 from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, led by Cardinal Fernández, saying the five judges were nominated Oct. 9. "The panel of judges is composed of women and clerics who are not members of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and who hold no office within any of the dicasteries of the Roman Curia," the note said. "This has been done in order to better ensure, as in every judicial proceeding, the autonomy and independence of the aforesaid tribunal," it said. The communique did not say when the trial would begin or if it already had begun.

Begun by Pope Francis, "Dilexi Te" is 100% Pope Leo's, a cardinal says. The apostolic exhortation "Dilexi Te" ("I Have Loved You") on the Church's love for the poor, "is Pope Leo's document. It is the magisterium of the Church," although Pope Leo himself wrote that it was begun by Pope Francis, said Cardinal Michael Czerny. The Canadian cardinal, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, presented the exhortation at a Vatican news conference Oct. 9, the day it was published. Asked what percentage was completed by Pope Francis before his death in April and what percentage Pope Leo added, Cardinal Czerny responded, "It is 100% Francis, and it is 100% Leo." "No new pope starts with an empty desk and a clear agenda," he told reporters. "We always receive from our predecessors, and we always hand on to our followers."

Father Skeate finds roots of faith,

By Luke Larson For The Catholic Spirit

priest’s yes to the Lord never occurs in isolation. It is always made possible by many other yeses: often a decision by parents to raise their son in the faith, a pastor who set an inspiring example or a friend who encourages him in the faith.

Father Randy Skeate can trace those yeses all the way back to Slovenia.

Less than a week after his May 31 ordination to the

priesthood, Father Skeate traveled to the land that his grandmother, Mary Manning, called home 80 years ago, before she moved to the United States. With him were his sister, Erica Skeate, and their aunt, Renee Manning — Grandma Manning’s daughter.

The visit included a trip to the village where Grandma Manning grew up before communist persecution, a Mass in St. Nicholas’ Cathedral in the capital city of Ljubljana and interviews in Slovenian Catholic media. For the pilgrims, it was a return to the roots of their family and of their Catholic faith. For the Slovenian Catholics who welcomed them, it was a fascinating homecoming of some long-lost American cousins.

A pilgrimage home

While studying in Poland in the summer of 2024, Erica Skeate traveled to Slovenia. She was the first in the family to set foot in the country since Grandma Manning left shortly after the end of World War II. It was a place she only knew from stories. After Mass at St. Nicholas’ Cathedral, Erica — now studying liturgical music and organ at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul — happened to strike up a conversation with the choir director. That encounter led to plans for the post-ordination trip.

The group was warmly received at the cathedral on June 5. Father Skeate celebrated Mass in the cathedral, the fifth Mass of his priesthood. It turned out to be a bigger occasion than he had anticipated. Several seminarians helped with altar serving and a sizable congregation sang Slovenian hymns by heart. After Mass, they were given a tour of the seminary and were interviewed for stories in Družina, a national Catholic news publication.

“They were just so warm and inviting,” Erica Skeate said. “They had this genuine interest in what brought us there and what God was doing in our lives.”

The group spent four days in Slovenia before continuing to Rome and Portugal.

“(It’s) just a gorgeous country,” Father Skeate said. “There’s a very strong Catholic culture there.”

Slovenia is a small central European country bordering Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia. The picturesque mountains and rolling hills of the Alps span the country. The Slovenian language is Slavic, related to Polish, Czech and Russian. Over the course of the 20th century, it belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and then Yugoslavia, before gaining independence in 1991. The population is 2.1 million and, by land area, it is 10 times smaller than Minnesota.

While the Slovenian immigrant population in Minnesota was small compared to Germans, Swedes and Norwegians, Minnesota does rank in the top six in the country for total population of

Slovenian descent. Many Slovenians settled in mining towns on the Iron Range and, like Father Skeate’s family, in Minneapolis. St. Francis de Sales parish in St. Paul was founded as an ethnic Slovenian parish, and many of Slovenian descent attended St. Agnes in St. Paul, historically an Austrian parish. A painting of Marija Pomagaj, a traditional Slovenian title for Mary, hangs in the back of St. Agnes today.

Historically, Slovenia was nearly entirely Catholic. It remains predominantly Catholic today and, as Father Skeate observed, the faith is showing renewed signs of thriving despite decades of secularization throughout Europe.

“There is right now — especially for young people in Slovenia — a resurgence of faith,” Father Skeate said. “People (are) returning to their roots of Christianity in answering life’s toughest questions ... I see a lot of parallels with what we are experiencing as young people in the United States, as young Catholics.”

A family rooted in faith

Traveling south from Ljubljana, they visited Prigorica, the village where Grandma Manning grew up.

“It was surreal for me,” Renee Manning said. “My heart was full ... just to walk where my mom walked ... all these stories were coming back to me as I was there.”

Grandma Manning’s family — the Gorše family — lived in a house next to Sts. Peter and Paul church in Prigorica. They served as caretakers of the church and of another church in the neighboring village.

The 1940s in Slovenia were a dark time. During World War II, Nazi Germany occupied the country. After Nazi Germany’s defeat, Slovenia became part of the newly formed communist Yugoslavia. Communists began targeting and killing those who did not support them.

Father Skeate celebrated Mass at a mass grave site near Prigorica, a sad reminder of the toll communism took on the country. It is one of 750 such sites in Slovenia.

One night in May 1945, a man who had somehow managed to escape after being buried alive arrived in Prigorica and told the people that the communists were coming, Father Skeate shared in an article published in Slovenia. Grandma Manning — just 10 years old at the time — quickly fled along with her family. Thinking they would be able to return home soon, they left bread on the stove. Instead, they ended up spending five years in a displaced persons camp in Austria, after a long journey on foot across Slovenia.

Two older brothers stayed behind in Slovenia. The family went five months without hearing from them before finally receiving confirmation that they were still alive. It would be 18 years before they saw each other again.

While in the displaced persons camp, the Gorše family was unsure where they would end up: Australia, Argentina, the United States, or elsewhere. A distant relative in Minnesota eventually was able to sponsor the family’s immigration.

Grandma Manning arrived in Minnesota without any knowledge of English. Her English improved through studies at then-St. Lawrence Catholic School in Minneapolis, participation in

the church choir and work in a local convenience store. She went on to raise seven children.

“She’s probably the strongest person I know,” Renee Manning said.

“My grandma is so giving and generous,” Erica Skeate said. “Her entire life was laid down for other people. ... I want my life to be a gift to others as well.”

Grandma Manning, now 90 years old, lives with her husband, Jim Manning, at the family home in New Brighton. They are parishioners of St. Charles Borromeo in St. Anthony. She reads Slovenianlanguage publications and cooks Slovenian delicacies like plum dumplings and potica sweet rolls for holidays.

“I was grateful that my parents gave me (the faith),” Grandma Manning said. “I knew that was the most important thing in my life.”

Father Skeate said he is very grateful for the example his grandmother has set in living out that faith.

“God used my grandmother’s ongoing, motherly generosity, despite various adversities, as some

of the first seeds planted in to a life dedicated in genuinely others,” he said. “Amid the I’ve personally carried, my has granted me the conviction allow him, God can transform into opportunities to bless others who are experiencing I’ve carried that same confidence ministry.”

Slovenia’s impact on in Minnesota

While the Slovenian population is small, Slovenians have had on the Catholic Church in Manning recalls hearing stories Baraga, a Slovenian missionary the Gospel to the Ojibwe Superior, including along Minnesota. Bishop Baraga, who served

family on pilgrimage in Slovenia

COURTESY ANDREJA ERŽEN FIRŠT

Marian Shrine in Brezje, Slovenia stands at the shrine with Renee traditional Slovenian title for Mary that means Mary, Help of Christians.

in my heart to be open genuinely joyful service to the challenges and pains my family’s experience conviction that when we transform those difficulties bless and change the lives of experiencing similar struggles, and confidence in my priestly on faith

population in Minnesota had an outsized impact in Minnesota. Grandma stories of Bishop Frederic missionary priest who brought people around Lake the North Shore in served in the area from ,

From left to right, Erica Skeate, Renee Manning, and Father Randy Skeate take a photo of themselves in front of the church of

and Paul in Prigorica, Slovenia, Grandma Mary Manning’s hometown.

1833 until his death in 1868, traveled long distances and braved harsh winters for the faithful.

He is credited with writing the first dictionary of the Ojibwe language. Bishop Baraga was declared venerable by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012.

“I prayed to him a lot,” Grandma Manning said.

“Bishop Baraga is close to us.”

He became known as the “Apostle of the Lakelands” and the “Snowshoe Priest.” During their visit to the seminary in Ljubljana, the three pilgrims from Minnesota were able to see his original snowshoes and chasuble.

Father Skeate’s interest in Bishop Baraga was piqued when Archbishop Bernard Hebda spoke to the seminarians in 2022 and encouraged them to learn about Bishop Baraga’s life and witness. Since then, Father Skeate said, Bishop Baraga has been an inspiration in his priestly journey.

“Bishop Baraga (has) really been a model for me of being on mission in this new evangelization,”

Father Skeate said. “The need of preaching the Gospel and introducing Christ and the encounter with Christ to people in this generation is the

same as it was 200 years ago when Bishop Baraga was here evangelizing people for the first time, especially with his hard work and learning so many languages.”

Father Skeate said Bishop Baraga’s example — and his grandmother’s example — have been especially formative as he has stepped into his first priestly assignment as parochial vicar of St. Stephen-Holy Rosary in Minneapolis, a parish with a large Spanish-speaking community.

“We as shepherds of souls must continue to introduce Christ to all people in a language and cultural context in which they can more easily respond to the promptings of faith,” Father Skeate said. “I often consider the various challenges my grandma and her family faced while acclimating to a new culture and language, all the while trying to rebuild a livelihood with faith at the center in this secular society.”

Bishop Baraga isn’t the only Slovenian missionary to Minnesota on the path to sainthood. Since October 2023, the Diocese of Duluth has considered opening a cause for canonization for

Msgr. Joseph Buh. A zealous evangelizer, Msgr. Buh served in Minnesota from 1864 to 1922 and helped establish 50 parishes across the Diocese of Duluth.

These Slovenian heroes of the faith are an important inspiration not just to Minnesotans, but also to Slovenians, as Father Skeate learned in conversations with seminarians in Ljubljana.

“They take a lot of pride in realizing that their forebears hundreds of years ago responded to the call of evangelizing in the New World,” Father Skeate said. “That’s the same situation we’re in today. People need Christ more than ever.”

Their zeal for Christ — cultivated in Slovenia and then planted in Minnesota — is a reminder of what authentic faith is, Father Skeate said.

“(We can) be generous in giving ourselves to the Lord and whatever call he has for us, to introduce Christ to people and not treat faith and the things of God as just an idea or just as a cultural heritage, but as a living reality that has a bearing on every aspect of our lives today.”

FAITH+CULTURE

Places never planned: Trusting God’s path

By Christina Capecchi For The Catholic Spirit

At 26, Naomi Hasegawa is far from home. The Venezuelan immigrant grew up in Miami, where her immediate family still lives. She also maintains ties to Japan, her father’s ancestral home. And yet, she has come to love her current home in St. Paul, where she’s embracing a vibrant Catholic community and enjoying her work for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Last year, Hasegawa assumed a new position within the Office of Discipleship and Evangelization: Latino Youth Discipleship Coordinator.

“My background has made me more open and curious about people,” said Hasegawa, who belongs to St. Mark in St. Paul. “I’ve been welcomed into so many families in a way that’s expanded my heart to receive love in many different capacities.”

Q You’re Venezuelan and Japanese. When you were younger, did you ever wish you could fit neatly into one box?

A Of course. There’s a lot of Hispanics in Miami, not so (many) Asians. My parents would make me lunch for school and sometimes I’d have Japanese curry, and all my other friends would have Hispanic food. The curry is so potent in smell, and I’d open up my thermos and everyone reacted: “Oh, what is that smell?” It was embarrassing. I’d tell my parents, “I wish I wasn’t Asian-looking.” I was the odd one out. Now I’m obsessed with my Asian background — and my Hispanic background. I think it’s really made me the person I am today.

Q The thing that embarrassed you became the thing you’re most proud of! What caused that shift?

A It was a 180! It happened in college. I wasn’t really practicing my Catholic faith. I was part of a sorority. Everyone looked the same and acted the same. The culture can just tell us so many lies about ourselves, about how we should act or look. I think it was the grace of God that led me to decide: “I don’t want to be like everyone else!” The closer I grew to the Lord, the more I started realizing: “Oh my gosh, this is amazing!” The way I was raised, there’s a beauty in it. I don’t think I would’ve had the confidence to fully live out who I truly am if it wasn’t for my faith.

Q What attracted you to this new position with the archdiocese?

A Mostly how it was geared toward Latino youth. With NET (Ministries, or National Evangelization Teams, based in West St. Paul), I found this passion for youth ministry, and living here in Minnesota, the Latino culture is alive and potent but it’s its own little bubble. I wanted to give it a voice, to be an advocate. There wasn’t a database to draw from. The majority of these Latino leaders are volunteers. They typically don’t have an official role in the parish. There are 24 Latino parishes in the archdiocese, and only a few have an official youth minister.

Q So you’re building a network from scratch. What qualities did it take to forge ahead?

A I wasn’t getting instant results. I had to stay curious, asking lots of questions when I’d meet these volunteers: What is happening? What do you need? What is the community missing? And then I had to be relational, so they felt comfortable opening up and trusting me.

Q That takes work! It’s easier to assume the answers or do more talking than listening.

A Yes. Given all the feedback we’ve received,

the events we’ve had, the attendance, the conversions and formation happening now — it’s huge. It’s amazing how far we’ve come in just the span of one year. This community was so hungry for so long and now that this support is being provided, they’re like, “Oh my goodness, we will not take this for granted!”

This community endures so much with everything happening right now with immigration. They’re scared.

Q What’s something you count as a success?

A We have a partnership with NET Ministries where we do a special Lifeline for the young Latino Catholics called Lifeline Latinamente. The attendance had varied, so they had stopped doing it for a while. I was able to get to know some of the Latino leaders and ask for their feedback. They’d heard of it but didn’t feel it was culturally relevant.

So, we’ve made some changes to make it more relevant. In the Latino culture, it’s huge to have a meal together. It brings down walls. We changed the start time to incorporate lunch. We also added small groups to debrief after a talk and added more activities, so they’re moving around and playing a game. At our last Latinamente, back in February, we had over 400 youth attend. Our next one will be from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dec. 6.

Q What do you admire about Archbishop (Bernard) Hebda’s leadership?

A I love how humble he is. He’s a man of the people. Every time I see him, he’s out there shaking hands, greeting people at the door. He’s with his flock. When the Annunciation shooting happened (Aug. 27, at an all-school

hurt you that another person said, it’s your responsibility to pray about it and go up to them and have a conversation. It’s these steps that NET taught us: You hurt me, and this is what you did, and you talk about it in a very mature, faith-filled way. That was a big takeaway for me. Even though we’re best friends, there’s obviously going to be conflict.

Q And it can be tempting to brush it under the rug.

A The world doesn’t really teach us how to resolve conflict, but the way NET taught us is so helpful.

We live in a very old house by St. Thomas (the University of St. Thomas, in St. Paul) with creaky wooden floors and a nice backyard where we have bonfires and a little front porch. We love this house. We describe it as a little cottage. I like that the houses here don’t all look the same.

Q It sounds like God is looking out for you in this new chapter far from family.

A I really hope so! This was not part of my plan at all. When you think about Miami, you wonder, “Who would want to leave?” It just looks shiny. This was a really big leap, but I know that the Lord was calling me here. I just said yes, and he said, “I will provide.”

Q Do you believe you’re right where God wants you?

A Definitely. I never would’ve guessed that I’d be here in Latino ministry. But it makes so much sense. I feel inadequate, but I feel so honored. They accept me with open arms, with hugs and kisses. It feels like we’re family, and it’s only been a year.

Q Could you see yourself staying in Minnesota?

Mass in the Minneapolis church), he was out there with the people, caring for them, loving them.

Q I bet there are days when Miami feels far away.

A One hundred percent. I tend to lean toward: “Oh, nobody gets me! They don’t understand how I was raised.” But prayer grounds me. Adoration. Calling friends from back home. Hot tea.

Q It’s a gift to love more than one place, but it can also create a longing, feeling torn.

A Yes, there is an aching and a sense sometimes of feeling alone. But I know the Lord has given me an abundance of people who I care so deeply for — and vice versa — that I can call home.

Q You live with two friends who did NET with you.

A We were looking for housing, and I messaged this guy on Zillow, and it turned out he was part of the NET-St. Paul’s Outreach circle (Mendota Heights-based ministry of missionaries on college campuses and among young adults). When he found out I’m Catholic and work in the archdiocese, he responded: “Yes, come look at the house!”

It’s very NET-esque. My friends and I were all formed the same way, so we pray together, we all gather as a friend group on Sunday, we do the whole reconciling thing.

Q What’s that?

A It’s big with NET because you live in such close quarters with your team. It’s a way of maintaining relationships. If something

A Definitely! I think I’d stay here forever. I love how Catholic it is. There are so many good faithful young Catholics here — which, in Miami, I feel like is almost non-existent. Especially at St. Mark’s! Oh my goodness! There are so many young adults and young families there and they’re on fire, and then you have the NET world, the SPO world, the (University of) St. Thomas world, OLG (Our Lady of Grace in Edina). This is incredible!

Q What gives you hope?

A Every time I see a young person and I’m having a conversation with them, and I see this curiosity start to build, this openness in their heart, I think: “Wow! The Lord is here! The Holy Spirit is moving!”

The Latinos make up a huge percentage of the Catholic Church, and I feel like their faith can be lukewarm because faith is often cultural for them. But once they become on fire, it could change the world. And Latinos are so relational, that once they know how to evangelize, it would come so naturally to them.

Q What’s your go-to prayer?

A It’s a simple prayer: “Come, Holy Spirit.” Sometimes the undertone is: “We’re really going to need you! This seems impossible!” From my experience with NET, I’ve learned the power of the Holy Spirit.

Q What do you know for sure?

A I have no idea what’s happening or where I’m going, but the Lord knows, and he’s guiding me. I think he’s taking me on this whole adventure, which is exciting. He knows my heart. He knows I love these wild rides. This is just the beginning.

Former pastor of St. Paul parish now leads Pro Ecclesia Sancta worldwide

By Joe Ruff

The Catholic Spirit

Father Humberto Palomino, the pastor of St. Mark in St. Paul for 15 years, was elected in May to lead his international religious community — Pro Ecclesia Sancta (PES) — which is an ecclesial family of consecrated life founded in 1992 in Lima, Peru.

The community ministers in five states and six countries.

Immediately after his election to a sixyear term as superior general in Lima, Father Palomino began visiting each site of PES, which is devoted through a variety of ministries to living and promoting the vocation to holiness through the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

He started by visiting the bishops of areas where Pro Ecclesia Sancta ministers in the United States — California, Minnesota, South Dakota, Michigan and Florida. Spain, Italy, Uruguay and Ecuador are on the list, as well. There are about 250 priests, brothers and sisters in the religious community, which also has an associated lay movement.

“My goal is to (visit) every single house of Pro Ecclesia Sancta around the world in the first year,” Father Palomino, 49, said during a recent visit to St. Mark in St. Paul. “I think I can do it. To meet by name — to know by name — every member of Pro Ecclesia Sancta.”

The religious community’s organization and continued growth are on his mind as well, Father Palomino said. The Church in the United States provides a good model in its diocesan structure. Already, Pro Ecclesia Sancta is organized in provinces — one

in the United States, one in Europe and one in South America, he said.

Another goal is bringing PES to Asia, he said.

“Actually, I just came back from Asia. I was in Singapore. I think as a superior, the Lord is placing in my heart, moving my heart to start in Asia. We don’t know what country yet, but we are going to start in Asia, too.”

Father Palomino said he grew up in Lima and first met the PES community at age 17, during his senior year in high school. He was drawn to the joy and love he saw in its members; qualities he thinks continue to draw people to the religious community.

“I saw men in black, wearing clerics, young, joyful, reverent in the Mass, smart,” he said. “It was like, the perfect idea of a man. And the love for Jesus, the heart of Jesus. I didn’t know that Jesus loved me so much until I met Pro Ecclesia Sancta.”

The religious community nurtures a love of Christ in its spiritual direction, Father Palomino said. “Then, with spiritual direction, you start to pray. Sometimes it starts with five minutes a day. Then you go for 10 minutes a day. You end up going for two hours a day. If you have someone

praying like that, going to daily Mass, going to confession, praying the rosary, no matter what the Lord asks, you are going to say, ‘Fiat, whatever you want.’”

The fourth of five boys born to Martha and Robert Palomino, Father Palomino said he was baptized, received his first Communion and was confirmed, “but it was on the surface of my life.”

He was a surfer who enjoyed parties and the beach. He began to practice his faith when he met the people of Pro Ecclesia Sancta, Father Palomino said, and he “learned to live Holy Week, learned about the Stations of the Cross, confession, the priesthood, religious life, and lay members who are joyful and successful and very Catholic. I didn’t even know those existed.”

Ordained in 2005, Father Palomino was assigned to California, just as Pro Ecclesia Sancta was beginning to minister in the United States. He served in California as associate pastor in four parishes before being transferred to the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, where he was appointed pastor of St. Mark in 2009. He served as pastor until 2023, when he was appointed vicar general of PES.

Father Palomino said the United States has been fertile ground for Pro Ecclesia Sancta, with 11 men and 13 women answering the Lord’s call to join the community, he said.

Fathers David Hottinger and Joe Barron, natives of the Twin Cities, were the first U.S. priestly vocations for PES, Father Palomino said. Father Hottinger is now pastor of St. Mark and Father Barron is serving at St. Isaac Jogues parish and school in St. Clair Shores, Michigan.

As he continues to meet the duties of his new position, the city of St. Paul holds a special place in his heart, Father Palomino said.

“This is my home, my family,” he said in the rectory of St. Mark. “I know so many of the neighbors, Catholic and non-Catholic. I know where to cut my hair, sometimes for free. I love St. Paul.”

Pope Leo: Gen-Z should be known as Gen+ for what they can add to the world

By Catholic News Service

Young people must take control of technology and “humanize” online spaces to be friendly, creative places — not isolated echo chambers, forms of addiction or ways to escape, Pope Leo XIV said.

“Instead of being tourists on the web, be prophets in the digital world!” he told thousands of students gathered in the Paul VI Audience Hall Oct. 30. “How wonderful it would be if one day your generation were remembered as the ‘generation plus,’” he told the mostly Gen-Z crowd to

applause, “remembered for the extra drive you brought to the Church and the world.”

The pope’s meeting with students, including seminarians, was part of the Oct. 27-Nov. 1 Jubilee of the World of Education. Education, he said, is “one of the most beautiful and powerful tools for changing the world.”

“You are called to be truth-speakers and peacemakers, people who stand by their word and are builders of peace,” he told the students. “Involve your peers in the search for truth and the cultivation of peace, expressing these

two passions with your lives, your words and your daily actions.”

Among the new challenges that require a joint commitment in the global compact is digital education, the pope said.

“There are enormous opportunities for study and communication” in the digital world, he said. “But, do not let the algorithm write your story! Be the authors yourselves; use technology wisely, but do not let technology use you.”

‘Hello!

I’m a Catholic Priest!’

By Kimberley Heatherington OSV News

“Hello! I’m a Catholic Priest!” greets the cheerful, large-font sign taped to the back of the laptop computer of Father Richard Miserendino, chaplain of the University of Mary Washington’s Catholic Campus Ministry and a priest in the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia.

The notice also invites passersby at the campus coffee shop — in Fredericksburg, Virginia, about an hour from Washington — to ask him a question, chat, or just say hello.

Everyone has heard of faith sharing, even if Catholics can sometimes find the concept more than a little intimidating.

So, is this cafe evangelism?

Evangelization is admittedly an essential component of any Catholic priest’s professional toolkit, but Father Rich — as he is affectionately nicknamed — would probably also tell you that his usually twiceweekly station at a small, round patio table with chipped paint is not equivalent to a pulpit — and evangelization is not always his first or only mission while he’s sitting there.

Sometimes, it’s just to listen.

In the course of a couple of hours on a recent bright and clear fall day — the first after the 110-plus-year-old secular university’s fall break, when the leaves were turning and a jacket seemed like a good idea — Father Miserendino exchanged brief greetings with dozens of students who walked past.

Others, however, took a seat — and it’s then that the priest’s ministry of presence was especially evident.

A former U.S. Marine was adapting to civilian challenges in the wake of an intense deployment. Another student recently lost a grandparent. A young man wearing a white cowboy hat and clutching a cellophanewrapped bouquet of bright flowers was on his way to present them to his girlfriend, to mark the six-month anniversary of their relationship.

Different people with different stories — but each trusted the bespectacled and affable man in a clerical collar with their confidences as they sat or stood in the early afternoon sunshine.

“Sometimes, they’re a bit more theological. Sometimes they’re a bit more heart — you know, things that people are working through,” Father Miserendino, who began his alfresco ministry about a year ago, shared with OSV News. “Sometimes people are just lonely, and they just want to talk. And so, it varies.”

The UMW Catholic Campus Ministry features both the St. John Bosco Center — its official “headquarters,” with a large multipurpose room for Sunday Mass and social events, a daily Mass and adoration chapel, student lounge, kitchen, conference room, and staff offices — and the nextdoor St. Dominic Savio House — used for preparing people for entry into the Catholic Church, Bible studies, and other events. But catching the sometimes-fragmented attention of students can still be a challenge.

“We do a lot of stuff on campus,” Father Miserendino explained, mentioning a recent Eucharistic procession — the rugby team gave way as it passed — as well as public Eucharistic adoration.

“But it’s amazing how — in the cellphone age, with earbuds in, and everybody’s looking at their phone — you can have big billboard signs that say ‘Catholic Campus Ministry’ and they’re going to walk right by.”

How

one coffee shop ministry attracts student seekers

Father Miserendino said that, as he pondered his outreach predicament, a Gospel passage — Matthew 4:19 and Mark 1:17 — came to him.

“So how do I go where they are? Jesus says, ‘I’ll make you fishers of men’ — and that’s always stuck with me,” he recalled. “If I’m going fishing and I’m constantly fishing in this one spot and there’s no fish — try moving the boat, you know?”

“I don’t think I’m the first priest to try something like this; I think there are others,” admitted Father Miserendino.

“But I’ve always wanted to do it. I’ve got to get my computer work done — send out emails; the bureaucratic part of the vocation,” he said. “But I can do that as easily out there as I can in the office.”

He was, however, duly warned about the potential success of the idea with the student body of approximately 3,800 from 33 states and 15 countries, around a quarter of whom Father Miserendino estimates are Catholic.

“I was given the impression coming in that they would, you know, break my bones to make their bread,” he laughed. “And it would just be adversarial around the clock.”

But that never happened.

“It became this thing where I was like, ‘Wow, this actually is really working. People are coming up, and they’re asking me questions,’” said a still somewhat surprised Father Miserendino, who praised the support of university administration. “It’s been really edifying to see that this generation of college students, it’s not adversarial. There’s a lot of really great openness to asking questions.”

“I would not say that every conversation I have leads to immediate conversion where somebody says, ‘Oh my gosh — now I’m going to be Catholic.’ But,” he added, “usually it’s the start to another conversation, and another conversation.”

Relationships develop gradually.

“The interesting thing is, sometimes

people will see you for a couple of days and they’ll wave, or you’ll get a couple of head nods, or whatever,” observed Father Miserendino. “And then after three or four days, that’s when they’ll finally work up the courage to come talk to you. It’s a labor of love, and it takes time — but you’ve got to be out there, being present.”

And while American college campuses are often portrayed as fiery ecosystems of confrontational political and social advocacy, that hasn’t been his experience.

“It’s not as much driven by current events as you might think. Very few people ask me about politics,” Father Miserendino noted. “And nobody has ever tried to buttonhole me on a hot topic. They really want to know about the human topics.”

The length of his chats basically depends on the subject matter.

“The longest, I think, was two-and-ahalf hours — it was about God and gender and everything in between,” said Father Miserendino. “But more often, it’s like, ‘Hey, you know, I don’t really believe in God or I don’t really practice — but I have had some questions.’ That type of thing. And then maybe after a while, if you drill down, then they’ll ask some more topical questions.”

Such conversations have resulted in Mass attendance — even with a large Catholic church just a few blocks away — and commitment to classes for becoming Catholic through the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults, or OCIA.

“One of the things that our culture is starved for now is community,” suggested Father Miserendino. “I get to become a part of these people’s lives and evangelize through the ordinariness of conversation. Just being present and being open to it is good, in the sense that it invites them to come on their own terms.”

Asked if he’d like to see others imitate his effort, Father Miserendino doesn’t hesitate.

“My hope would be that more people would be willing to give it a try — and

they’d find it less adversarial than they’d probably expect,” he said.

He admits that might not, however, be true of every college campus.

“But I think priests in general — and lay faithful — would find that there’s a great hunger out there for it, and that people are often more curious,” he said. “And if you are willing to just have a patient conversation and teach from the perspective of, ‘It’s not your fault that you don’t know these things; here’s what we believe,’ I think that would bear great fruit.”

“It’s not some special charism that I’ve been given,” concluded Father Miserendino. “We just have to kind of bring the faith to where the people are. You can do it, too.”

FOCUSONFAITH

SUNDAY SCRIPTURES | FATHER MATTHEW QUAIL

Celebrating the world’s first church, and more

We take a break from our regularly scheduled Sunday readings to celebrate the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica. While it may seem odd to do so in a month dedicated to the Four Last Things, it is apropos in many ways. This feast celebrates a historic moment, Christian unity, and that our churches are where we worship God.

First, this feast commemorates a historical moment. The first Christians did not enjoy the same freedoms we do today. They could not freely walk to a church, go to Mass, and live in society openly as a Christian. Rather, the first Christians faced various persecutions all the way until the Edict of Milan in 313 A.D. Once the Emperor Constantine declared that Christians could practice openly in 313 A.D., he donated the Lateran Palace to Pope Miltiades. Then, Pope Miltiades began constructing the first basilica in Rome. Pope Sylvester eventually dedicated it in the year 324 A.D., calling it the “House of God,” designating it to Christ the savior. The Lateran Basilica went through a few name changes, until its present full name of the Archbasilica Cathedral of the Most Holy Savior and of Sts. John the Baptist and John the Evangelist in the Lateran, also called St. John Lateran, or Lateran Basilica for short. So, practically, we celebrate the construction of the first church in the world. But the celebration doesn’t stop there.

...our Lord loves us so much that he wanted to give us places in which we can be certain of his presence, where he can feed us with his word and Body, and where we can offer ourselves to him.

This feast also celebrates our union with the universal Church. The Lateran Basilica is properly the pope’s cathedral. We might understand this better at the local level of a diocese. In a diocese, the cathedral church is the “Mother Church” of the diocese because it is from the cathedral that the bishops lead their dioceses and give direction and unity to the various parishes. At this much larger scale, the pope’s cathedral, this Lateran Basilica, unites the entire world in a common set of beliefs, worship and governance. It is from the “Mother Church” of all churches that we enjoy this external expression of worldwide unity in the Church. Finally, today’s celebration links directly with November’s overall theme. We also celebrate that our churches are where God speaks to us and we return to him with our worship. Ideally, our churches are beautiful structures that paint our landscapes with the beauty of creation and man’s artistic excellence to lift our hearts and minds to God. If you have ever been to the Lateran Basilica, it does just that. Our churches

FAITH FUNDAMENTALS | FATHER MICHAEL VAN SLOUN

The priest as shepherd

Editor’s note: This is the 16th column in a series on the priesthood.

Jesus is the good shepherd (Jn 10:11,14); he knows, protects and loves his sheep and he willingly laid down his life for his sheep. A priest takes his cues from his Master and strives to be a good shepherd who has a deep and abiding love for his people, the sheep of his flock, and willingly lays down his life for their well-being and the salvation of their souls.

Jesus knows his sheep (Jn 10:14). He has an intimate knowledge of his sheep and is deeply concerned about each of them. He knows each sheep’s size, distinctive markings, and temperament, and he provides tender loving care to each of them, the spotless ones and those with blemishes. Likewise, a priest has a keen interest in his parishioners, meets them, learns their names, attentively listens to their stories and concerns, shows respect and compassion, and appreciates their uniqueness. A priest does not show favoritism, has a broad outreach, and takes a special interest in those who are troubled, estranged, or do not feel welcome. Jesus is the protector of his sheep. If a thief makes a raid to steal a sheep, or a wolf attacks

KNOWtheSAINTS

to devour a sheep, the shepherd is strong and courageous, places himself in harm’s way, willingly risks his own safety, and goes to battle with the intruder or predator to safeguard his sheep. Likewise, a priest courageously stands up to the evil forces that seek to harm his people, particularly those who attack their Catholic faith or attempt to lead them astray with false teaching, deception and groundless values. A priest courageously preaches the fullness of the Gospel and sound doctrine, and bravely names movements, practices, teachings, policies and laws that lead people in the wrong direction, endanger their souls, and harm the common good. There is safety in numbers, so the priest works to unite families so they can practice the faith with deep devotion in their homes and daily life, and he fosters a parish community that is a safe haven where Catholics find strength, mutual support and protection.

Jesus walks ahead of his sheep and leads them (see Jn 10:3, 4). Each morning the shepherd leads his sheep out of their pen to green pastures and a watering hole or a well. A shepherd leads his sheep in the right direction and makes sure that they receive the nourishment that they need. Likewise, a priest leads his sheep in the right direction, first and foremost with his good example, a life of prayer, virtue, kindness, joy, self-discipline and dedication. And he nourishes

are meant to be a foretaste of heaven on Earth and that is expressed through the architecture, decoration and worship. As we profess every Sunday in the Creed, “through (Jesus) all things were made.” All creation comes to us from Jesus and how do we make a return to him? Through our divine worship at the Mass. So, we also celebrate that our Lord loves us so much that he wanted to give us places in which we can be certain of his presence, where he can feed us with his word and Body, and where we can offer ourselves to him.

Take a moment this week to thank God that he has triumphed through history. He is the true king who will always win. And, if we stay close to him, we, too, can enjoy this victory. We encounter him primarily in our worship at Mass, in the sacraments, in his word, and in the community. May this feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica continue building this unity in Jesus until we arrive safely in heaven.

Father Quail is pastor of Immaculate Conception in Columbia Heights.

DAILY Scriptures

Sunday, Nov. 9

Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome Ezek 47:1-2, 8-9, 12 1 Cor 3:9c-11, 16-17 Jn 2:13-22

Monday, Nov. 10

St. Leo the Great, pope and doctor of the Church Wis 1:1-7 Lk 17:1-6

Tuesday, Nov. 11

St. Martin of Tours, bishop Wis 2:23–3:9 Lk 17:7-10

Wednesday, Nov. 12

St. Josaphat, bishop and martyr Wis 6:1-11 Lk 17:11-19

Thursday, Nov. 13

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, virgin Wis 7:22b–8:1 Lk 17:20-25

Friday, Nov. 14 Wis 13:1-9 Lk 17:26-37

Saturday, Nov. 15 Wis 18:14-16; 19:6-9 Lk 18:1-8

Sunday, Nov. 16

Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Mal 3:19-20a 2 Thes 3:7-12 Lk 21:5-19

Monday, Nov. 17

St. Elizabeth of Hungary, religious 1 Macc 1:10-15, 41-43, 54-57, 62-63 Lk 18:35-43

his people with God’s grace by presiding at Mass and celebrating the other sacraments, and he feeds their minds and hearts with his homilies, articles, catechetical instruction, training sessions, retreats, spiritual direction and good counsel.

Jesus willingly laid down his life for his sheep (Jn 10:11, 15, 17, 18). A shepherd is with his sheep around the clock. He is on duty all the time, puts the sheep ahead of himself, and is willing to sacrifice on their behalf. A priest is radically available, setting aside his own concerns and selfish preoccupations (see Phil 2:7a), fully present and alert, focused on his sheep, not just before and after Mass, but morning, noon and night, especially in times of distress.

Jesus said that he had other sheep that did not belong to his fold that he also must lead (Jn 10:16). Jesus was a leader, not only for Jews, but also for Gentiles. His goal was to proclaim the Gospel to everyone. Likewise, a priest is a leader, not only for Catholics, but for Christians, Jews, members of other faiths, and for those who profess no faith, an evangelizer on a mission to proclaim the Gospel to all people so that Jesus will be known and loved.

Father Van Sloun is the director of clergy personnel for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

ST. GERTRUDE THE GREAT (1256 –1302) Born in Germany’s Thuringia state, this virgin was entrusted at the age of 5 to the Cistercian nuns at Saxony’s Helfta Abbey, where she was educated and became a nun. At 25, she had a mystical “conversion” and thereafter lived a contemplative life. Her experiences are included in “Revelations of Gertrude and Mechtilde.” Gertrude also was among the first to promote devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In 1738, Pope Clement XII decreed that the feast of this important medieval mystic be celebrated throughout the Western Church. Her feast day is Nov. 16.

Tuesday, Nov. 18

2 Macc 6:18-31 Lk 19:1-10

Wednesday, Nov. 19 2 Macc 7:1, 20-31 Lk 19:11-28

Thursday, Nov. 20 1 Macc 2:15-29 Lk 19:41-44

Friday, Nov. 21

Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary 1 Macc 4:36-37, 52-59 Lk 19:45-48

Saturday, Nov. 22

St. Cecilia, virgin and martyr 1 Macc 6:1-13 Lk 20:27-40

Sunday, Nov. 23

Solemnity of our Lord Jesus, king of the universe

2 Sm 5:1-3 Col 1:12-20 Lk 23:35-43

COMMENTARY

TWENTY SOMETHING | CHRISTINA CAPECCHI

Unsinkable faith: Daughter of the Edmund Fitzgerald

It was a Monday afternoon in November when Debbie Champeau got the call. The 17-year-old, a senior at St. Pius XI in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, left school immediately, taking two buses to get home.

There, she found her mother and grandmother parked by the telephone, distraught. They feared the worst: that Champeau’s father, Buck, had gone down in a shipwreck.

The Edmund Fitzgerald.

That evening, confirmation came — and with it, rain.

Champeau bolted outside and ran three blocks to the St. Michael rectory, where she frantically rang the doorbell and pounded on the door.

“I was desperate for some kind of consolation,” she said. “Why? How could God do this? I needed answers. I wanted to talk to one of the priests.”

A priest from her grade school answered. He sat down with the teen and calmed her.

“This isn’t for us to question,” the priest told her.

“For me, that was so unacceptable as an explanation,” she said.

Being Catholic had been central to Champeau’s life. She’d always attended Catholic school — her dad had insisted on it. She never missed Mass on Sunday. She taught CCD. She sang in the choir. And she worked for the Notre Dame nuns who ran her school. “I loved all the nuns there,” Champeau said. “I was doing what I could to help the church.”

But her world no longer made sense. Beneath the sorrow burned a raw anger at God.

Champeau stopped going to Mass.

Finally, I just accepted it. I came to peace with everything, and my faith made me stronger instead of pushing me away in anger.

She still talked to God, but she couldn’t reconcile her loss with her faith. A loving God. A brutal storm. Her father, at the very worst spot, at the very worst time.

Closure was hard to come by. No body, no casket. Just an empty grave.

Champeau had a recurring nightmare of seeing her dad’s hand stretching out of Lake Superior and trying to clutch it but not reaching it in time.

A year later, Champeau found her way back to church.

“Finally, I just accepted it,” she said. “I came to peace with everything, and my faith made me stronger instead of pushing me away in anger. We give it up to God because there’s nothing we can do to bring him back.”

Now 67 and a widowed grandmother, Champeau’s Catholic faith has become an

anchor to her father, who always cherished his Catholic faith.

“It connects us,” said Champeau, who belongs to St. Charles in Hartland, Wisconsin. “There are times I feel his presence — especially when I go to church and I’m praying. I say a prayer that he’s at peace in heaven and joined with my mom and all his friends and now Gordon Lightfoot playing his guitar.”

Sometimes she imagines her dad’s final moments as the ship broke in half, engulfed by 50-foot waves. She assumes he was praying Hail Marys.

“I think he really dug into his faith because that’s your stronghold during those times,” Champeau said.

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Edmund Fitzgerald’s sinking. Champeau will gather with other family

Religious sister stepped up during AIDS crisis

Editor’s note: As the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis celebrates its 175th anniversary this year, Catholic historian Reba Luiken has devoted her columns to stories of women — some wellknown and others less so — who have impacted its history. This is the last column in the series that began in January.

In 1982, Sister Joanne Lucid of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was the chaplain in the transplant unit at St. Mary’s Hospital in Minneapolis. She started to notice young, previously healthy adults enter the hospital with a terrible, incurable disease that weakened them and eventually caused them to die. That was not the worst part; social stigma and general paranoia went along with the disease and caused family and friends to abandon the patients. Things were so difficult for Minnesota’s first AIDS patients that at least one wished he would be diagnosed with leprosy instead.

Sister Joanne believed that these were exactly the patients Jesus would have focused his ministry on, and she asked then-Archbishop John Roach if she could do the same. In September 1986, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis established an AIDS ministry. Sister Joanne was its leader, and nine priests worked with the program, volunteering their time to provide spiritual and emotional support to patients and their families.

Some of Sister Joanne’s ministry was in the hospital,

but she also supported adult foster homes for AIDS patients and food delivery programs for people struggling with AIDS. Her ministry included training for family, friends and coworkers of AIDS patients so they would be educated with accurate information rather than become prejudiced.

Doctors recognized Sister Joanne’s work as invaluable. They joked that she could be a brand name prescription — they’d like to send every AIDS patient to visit someone like her four times a day. She was able to bring compassion to patients whose cases emotionally drained family members and even doctors. She did this through personal balance. She was a hard worker, but she also loved to enjoy herself on a day off, whether antiquing or at the Canterbury Park horse racing track in Shakopee.

She had always been adventurous, idealistic and inspired to serve the Church. Growing up in San Francisco, she was taught by the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Sister Joanne was the child of Irish immigrants and one of three children. She was attracted to the work of the Sisters of Charity, and at 18, she

of the

Their stories are chronicled in a fascinating new book by John U. Bacon called “The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”

With exhaustive research and reporting, Bacon’s undertaking was inherently Catholic: to dignify each crew member, to demonstrate that they had mattered, that they still matter. The book illuminates “the faces and names of the wives and the sons and the daughters,” as Lightfoot famously sang.

For Champeau, it’s another way to honor her dad. “I’ve tried very hard to keep his memory alive and make him proud.”

Capecchi is a freelance writer from Grey Cloud Island.

decided it would be a great adventure to jump on a train and go halfway across the country to join them at their motherhouse in Dubuque, Iowa.

Sister Joanne’s journey in caring for AIDS patients did not end when medical treatments that allowed patients to live with HIV arrived in the 1990s. In the Twin Cities, patients living in poverty continued to be the most impacted. Then, she heard about the rapid spread of AIDS in Africa. She knew she had to expand what she was doing. In 2000, she traveled with four others to South Africa for the International AIDS Conference, and she connected with a community outside of Cape Town where AIDS was spreading quickly. She worked with them to establish a community center to provide care and education about HIV. Sister Joanne shared her experience in the Twin Cities, and she dedicated herself to fundraising, gathering funds from local parish benefits and $1,500 from students at Macalester College in St. Paul to support a new orphanage for children with AIDS. She continued to look for ways to support the sick and outcast at home and across the world.

Sister Joanne has been a Sister of Charity for 69 years and currently lives in Dubuque. She ministered in the archdiocese from 1981 to 2013.

Luiken is a Catholic and a historian with a doctorate from the University of Minnesota. She loves exploring and sharing the hidden histories that touch our lives every day.

6 months into Pope Leo XIV’s papacy

We are commemorating the sixth-month mark of Pope Leo XIV’s papacy and several significant points have emerged regarding his leadership style. He is steady and calm. He invites dialogue while maintaining consistency and commitment to our Catholic Church teaching. He is an excellent administrator and embraces the concept of unity. In fact, his motto is, “In Him who is One, we are one,” which comes from St. Augustine’s sermon on Psalm 127, known as “The Need of God’s Blessings.”

Pope Leo XIV is a pope who has a deep desire to bring us together. The choice of his name may have been on his mind before the conclave that was held to determine the successor to Pope Francis. Pope Leo’s predecessors include Pope Leo XIII, who is best known for his encyclical letter, “Rerum Novarum,” regarding the condition of labor and social justice and Pope Leo XII, who is best known for his initiative to reChristianize society.

If Pope Leo XIV was honoring these two predecessor popes who were also named Leo, a question may arise: “Does he see unity coming through the reChristianization of society as we envision and enact social justice?” We cannot leave anyone on the fringe of society unattended and call ourselves followers of Christ. Jesus did not do that and neither must we.

We must embrace the Beatitudes, which state blessed are the poor, those who mourn, those who are meek, and those who hunger and thirst. We are called to be merciful, clean of heart, peacemakers, and to welcome persecution for the sake of righteousness (Mt 5:3-10). This is what it truly means to be a follower of Christ, and perhaps it is these unifying concepts that embody social justice that will help re-Christianize society.

Jesus touched the lepers with great compassion and mercy, either unafraid of becoming sick himself, or willing to take the risk of contracting the dreaded disease. He met with sinners and dined with tax collectors in their homes. He embraced women who moved in indiscreet circles with the deep love and tenderness of God’s love for them. He never turned away anyone in need. And neither must we.

Perhaps it will be through how we love as Christ loved that we will re-Christianize society. Many say we are living in a postChristian world, which means Christian values are no longer the standard by which we live our lives. The re-Christianization

Thin places in November

Walking around my neighborhood this fall, I saw many skeletons. Bones seemed to protrude from every lawn.

One evening, taking a walk in the encroaching darkness, a skeleton I hadn’t spotted noticed me. It was an actionactivated Halloween display. My passing by caused the 7-foot skeleton to emit a gruesome laugh. I literally jumped in fright.

But actually, I don’t mind those macabre decorations. Perhaps I’m enough of a descendant of my pagan Celtic ancestors to appreciate this fall festival. It was they who created the festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in), Halloween’s precursor, a night when we remember the dead.

And because I’m a Catholic, I appreciate even more the following celebrations of All Saints Day and All Souls Day. And there’s a connection.

Halloween, literally “All Hallows Eve,” leads into the day we celebrate the glorified saints we know are with Christ, and the next day, all those beloved souls who have passed before us.

Fall, at least in the Northern Hemisphere, presents the perfect backdrop. The sky darkens; the leaves turn hauntingly beautiful before falling to the earth. Our harvest nears completion.

It’s a marvelous time to contemplate our own mortality and the “great cloud of witnesses” spoken of in Hebrews 12:1. You can almost feel the presence of the other world around us, the veil, or thin place, between this world and the next.

The concept of thin places is also Celtic, and taking a prayer walk in the early morning as the sun illumines the orange

ACTION STRATEGIES

Consider downloading “Rerum Novarum” and read it to understand the initiative set forth by Pope Leo XIII. Think of ways you can fulfill his initiative in your life today.

Read the Beatitudes and think of tangible ways you can bring these beautiful, guiding words of Jesus to life today.

of society requires that we understand our Catholic faith and live it in simple, tangible ways each day. The poor among us, those who are poor in spirit and those who are poor monetarily, must be the ones to whom we go and offer our care and concern. As “Gaudium et Spes” states, “the joy and hope, the grief and anguish of the men of our time, especially of those who are poor or afflicted in any way, are the joy and hope, the grief and anguish of the followers of Christ, as well. Nothing that is genuinely human fails to find an echo in their hearts” (G.S., 1).

We must embrace the Beatitudes, which state blessed are the poor, those who

mourn, those who are meek, and those who hunger and thirst. We are called to be merciful, clean of heart, peacemakers, and to welcome persecution for the sake of righteousness (Mt 5:3-10). This is what it truly means to be a follower of Christ, and perhaps it is these unifying concepts that embody social justice that will help re-Christianize society. Perhaps this is the message of Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost in choosing the name Pope Leo.

If so, what a unifying message for Catholics to exemplify in a broken and hurting world! This is our opportunity to come together in unity in the one whom we love and follow: Jesus Christ. May we be willing and able to respond to this invitation with a wholehearted yes and allow the Holy Spirit to move in our hearts, minds and souls to help us re-Christianize society through embracing social justice for all.

Soucheray is a licensed marriage and family therapist emeritus and a member of St. Ambrose of Woodbury.

I won’t miss those skeletons on the neighborhood lawns. But I treasure remembering how close we are to our beloved, living and dead.

leaves brings our hearts into closeness with the communion of saints, those gone and those still with us.

When I was recently back in my Midwestern farm community, I visited the graveyard where my Irish greatgrandparents, famine survivors, are buried. I’ve always felt close to my greatgrandfather, from Galway, who left his native home behind forever.

When I last visited Ireland, I had searched in Galway for a small, flat rock. And on it I wrote the word for Jesus in the Irish language, “ìosa.” When I visited my great-grandfather’s grave, I dug a small hole in front of his imposing granite marker and planted the rock. I offered him a bit of home, a tangible gift at his grave, a thin place for me.

Many people find the Catholic

fascination with relics and prayers to saints macabre. In 2018, the arm of St. Francis Xavier was taken around Canada for the faithful to view. Jesuit Father John O’Brien accompanied the relic and wrote that it is “very Catholic to have a spiritual experience through tangible things.”

After all, we are an earthy faith, a faith which believes we consume the actual body and blood of Jesus, a faith which recalls Thomas putting his hands into Jesus’ very wounds.

Remember that the body of St. Francis of Assisi was quickly buried under an altar to preserve the saint from his admirers literally taking pieces of him. And in Ireland, I visited a spot where it is believed St. Patrick might be buried. The site was covered with concrete, because so many visitors were taking cups of soil home with them.

Although some might scoff at this, consider our own society. At Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, you can see in the museum the bloodstained pillow that cushioned Lincoln’s head as he lay dying in the nearby Petersen House. There, we feel a visceral closeness, perhaps a thin place, with Lincoln.

Humans yearn for connection, and our faith provides it.

I won’t miss those skeletons on the neighborhood lawns. But I treasure remembering how close we are to our beloved, living and dead.

Caldarola is a wife, mom and grandmother who received her master’s degree in pastoral studies from Seattle University. This commentary is one of Caldarola’s bimonthly “Feeling it” columns written for OSV News.

The meaning of Thanksgiving

By Marcellino D’Ambrosio OSV News

For Americans, the term “Thanksgiving” conjures up images of turkey and cranberry sauce, parades and football games. These are “traditions” that have come to mark an event made a perpetual institution of American life by President Abraham Lincoln.

But why did Lincoln proclaim the last Thursday in November as a national holiday? Because it was clear to him that the blessings of food, land, family and freedom enjoyed by Americans are all gifts from the Creator. But Americans, he realized, had forgotten this. A special day was needed for us to forget our differences and remember our blessings. And from remembering naturally follows giving thanks to the source of those blessings.

The Israelites had an annual thanksgiving feast, as well. It was really a combination of two feasts, Passover and Unleavened Bread, and occurred in early spring. This is when the first crop, barley, began to be harvested and when the ewes gave birth to their lambs. The pagan Canaanites had already celebrated the feast of unleavened bread at this time to thank the gods for the harvest and offer them the first fruits as a sacrifice of gratitude. The pagan bedouins — wandering from place to place with their flocks — celebrated the spring gift of lambs by sacrificing some of them to the gods in gratitude for the gift of fertility.

The ancients did not need divine revelation to know that divine forces brought about the world and all its creatures. That’s just plain common sense. That we owe these divinities a debt of gratitude is justice, pure and simple.

But for the Jews, Passover was not just giving thanks for the blessings of creation. For them, God was not just the author of nature, with its seasons and life cycles. No, God was also the master of history. Among all ancient peoples, only the Jews believed that God entered into human history, manifested his love and power, and acted decisively to save his chosen people.

So, while the pagans thanked their gods for the blessings each spring for food and fertility, the Israelites thanked the Lord for food, but even more, for freedom. They remembered not only that creation comes from him, but that salvation from slavery comes from him as well.

During the Eucharistic prayer, I always silently add in thanks for my personal blessings. I think of the natural blessings of home and work, of food on the table and the health of my family.

In this Sept. 16, 2011, file photo, the first Eucharistic prayer is seen on a page from a copy of the new Roman Missal in English published by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

This remembering happens each year in a solemn way at a special Passover meal that is the climax of the Jewish year.

On the night before he died, Jesus celebrated this solemn memorial by deepening its meaning yet further. Liberation from Pharaoh’s oppression was certainly something to celebrate. But there was a crueler slavery that a change of geography and regime could not alter. This slavery to Satan was kept in force through the shackles of sin. Just as he acted through Moses to free his people from Pharaoh, God was now about to act decisively to liberate his people from the ancient curse. He would act personally, not through proxies.

But this liberation would be costly. The only way that it could be won would be if God were to give not only his blessings, but his very self. To do this, God had become man, capable of offering the supreme sacrifice. And before he did it in actual fact,

he did it in sacrament by offering himself under the unassuming forms of bread and wine. Before delivering himself into the hands of the Romans to be their victim, he delivered himself into our hands to be our nourishment.

For his aim was not just to open the way to future bliss in heaven. His aim was to pour into our wounds the balm of Gilead that would begin the healing process here and now. The bite of the serpent had injected venom. His body and blood would be the antidote, the “medicine of immorality,” in the words of St. Ignatius of Antioch.

Blood brings nourishment and life to every cell of our bodies. It also carries away impurities that poison our system. The Eucharist offers us a transfusion — we put aside our old life and receive his ever-new life, his divine vitality for our tired, toxic blood.

The life of a thing was in its blood. It

was poured out at the foot of the altar and could never be consumed, for it belonged to God alone. But here God pours out his own blood at the altar of the cross and gives it to us as our drink, for the transformation of our lives.

“Do this in memory of me.” We are commanded to remember the supreme love of Christ for us that holds nothing back, that gives everything for our freedom. So naturally, the sacrificial banquet of remembrance is called the Eucharist, or “thanksgiving.” The priest introduces the great central prayer of the celebration with these words: “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.” And we respond, “It is right to give him thanks and praise.”

During the Eucharistic prayer, I always silently add in thanks for my personal blessings. I think of the natural blessings of home and work, of food on the table and the health of my family. I also thank God for my own salvation history, especially for plucking me out of danger as a teenager, running with a wild crowd. I thank God for bringing me together with a woman who loves him and loves me, and for having kept us faithful to him and each other for many years. I thank him for our own family’s salvation history.

If you haven’t already established the habit of adding your personalized thankyous to the priest’s Eucharistic prayer, try it next time you’re at Mass. It’s a very appropriate mode of participating in that part of the Eucharist.

But true thanksgiving is not just a matter of words and warm sentiments. Gratitude for a gift means offering a gift in return. He gave his whole, entire self to us — his body, blood, soul and divinity. The only adequate response would be to offer ourselves.

Note what Paul says in his letter to the Romans: “I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Rom 12:1).

So, thanksgiving cannot be separated from sacrifice. The Mass is a celebration of his love and the freedom it won for us through his sacrifice. Through it, the love of God is poured into our hearts and enables us to love with his love. In the power of that love, we offer ourselves back to him and enter into that sacrifice which we celebrate. True thanksgiving means self-giving. This is the meaning of Eucharist.

Awake to others: The mutual nature of Christian charity

By Sister Maureen Fitzgerald OSV News

There are times when we find ourselves more engaged in reaching out to others: the Lenten season; the summer, when we may have a bit more time; or the moments when we have a full closet or pantry and can spare some things to take to a local charity. In my own life, service starts with being acutely aware of God’s presence. What would God have me respond to in this present moment? If God is my companion, then my ears and eyes are open to what is before me. I have a responsibility as a Christian to share what I have, to be a joyful witness, to listen to the heart meanderings of another. As I become better at hearing and seeing in the now — and as I respond — I find that I become blessed by those who share in the

abundance I have been given.

“Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour” (Mt 25:13). This may be seen as a call to prepare for the end times, but it may also be a call to respond with companionship to the one who is before me.

Being aware of the needs of others and responding to them is a responsibility I have as a Christian. I sometimes shudder at the implication the word “service” conjures up. Although not always intentional, it seems that the giver has the advantage, the upper hand, the answer; and the receiver, therefore, must be grateful for what the giver has provided. Christian service is a mutual experience. I found this truth while being graced with the opportunity to build simple homes in Reynosa, Mexico. We came with our tools, our hope of helping those who live with nothing, and our desire to do good. What we

left with was quite different.

Working with students, their parents and those who lived in this underserved part of the world, we began to understand that service is only a vehicle to building community. It was a mutual sharing. What we really built was friendship, a bond that flowed freely between giver and receiver.

No one possessed more than another. If I had food to share, there was someone who delighted in the gift, and that delight allowed me to revel in a joy shared. We gathered in prayer on the last day of our building project to thank God for the opportunity to meet one another and for the grace to share our common humanity.

We have a responsibility to respond to the need before us. When we do respond, what is returned is a reply to some need of our own. This morning before Mass began, a man whose wife suffers from dementia

and is living apart from him asked if I would pray for him because “his heart was broken” from this separation. As I assured him of my prayer, I found myself experiencing my own heartbreak for him — and for the separations and heartbreak I have experienced in my own life. We were united in that moment; we shared a mutual giving and receiving.

As Christians, our service must be a response to God’s Spirit stirring within us. We must be alert to how it reveals itself by living in the presence of God and by truly seeing the other who is before us. In Scripture, we are called to “keep awake” (Mt 24:42). Perhaps that’s the mantra of Christian service as well.

Sister Maureen Fitzgerald is an Apostle of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She has served in Catholic schools as a teacher and administrator. She is currently ministering in Waterford, Ireland.

CALENDAR

PARISH EVENTS

Respect Life / Human Dignity Nov. 8: 5:30-7 p.m. at Guardian Angels, Holy Family Room, 8260 Fourth St. N., Lake Elmo. Katie Lindenfelser of Crescent Cove Children’s Hospice in Brooklyn Center offers a talk after the 4:30 p.m. Nov. 8 Mass.

Turkey Bingo Nov. 8: 5 p.m. at St. Matthew, 510 Hall Ave., St. Paul. Use Door 5, off the church parking lot. Doors open at 5 p.m. and bingo starts at 5:30 p.m. Children accompanied by an adult are eligible to play bingo. Twelve games for turkeys, three games for cash prizes and a raffle for turkeys. Food, beer, wine and pop are available for purchase. st-matts.org

Voces de las Américas: Minnesota Nov. 8: 6-8 p.m. at St. George, 133 N. Brown Road, Long Lake. St. George hosts a multi-choir celebration led by the Argentine Choir of Minnesota, joined by Border CrosSing and New York’s Capella Sur, with cultural dance interludes by Kuyayki Perú and Argentine regional dancers. Free family-friendly event. tinyurl.com/2v3dxnzt

Annual All Things Christmas Sale Nov. 8-9: 10 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Nov. 8 and 9:30 a.m.-12:15 p.m. Nov. 9 at St. Peter, 1405 Sibley Memorial Highway, Mendota. Join us at our 10th annual Christmas sale. We have Dept. 56 villages, Christmas trees, table and room decor, lights, outdoor decor, mangers and more. All items donated from parishioners, family

SECURITY

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

and friends. Enjoy cookies and cocoa while you shop. stpetersmendota.org

St. Alphonsus CCW Christmas Bazaar Nov. 8-9: 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m. at 7025 Halifax Ave. N., Brooklyn Center. Treasures and fun for all ages. Homemade crafts and gifts, religious items, restored jewelry, books and puzzles, homemade jellies and jams. Lunch, kid’s games and Santa. stalsccw.org

Turkey Bingo Nov. 9: 1-3 p.m. at Guardian Angels, 8260 Fourth St. N., Oakdale. $10 per person for three cards, unlimited pop and popcorn, gift cards and cash prizes. Grand prize is a Lake Elmo Inn gift certificate. Please note: Event is cash only. tinyurl.com/mr3mpa36

Gold Mass Nov. 14: 5-8 p.m. at Nativity of Our Lord, 1938 Stanford Ave., St. Paul. Celebrate the annual Gold Mass for Scientists in the Archdiocese. 5 p.m. Mass in the church followed by refreshments and a speaker on the intersection of faith and science. tinyurl.com/yhddk9yz

Fall Market Nov. 15-16: 9 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Nov. 15 and 9-11:45 a.m. Nov. 16 at St. Therese, 18323 Minnetonka Blvd., Deephaven. Stock up for the holidays with baked goods and gifts. Includes bake sale, marketplace, silent auction, raffle, Money Bowl, books, puzzles, DVDs and Bottle Bonanza. Breakfast and lunch served. tinyurl.com/38shf6jm

Trivia Night Nov. 15: 5:30-8 p.m. at Guardian Angels, 8260 Fourth St. N., Oakdale. Fun and friendly competition. $20 per person purchased in advance, $25 per person at the door, $175 per 8-person table. Pizza, pop, wine and beer available for purchase. Proceeds support Youth Mission trip. tinyurl.com/2htuzrcp

The Voice of the Pipes: A Solo Recital Nov. 16: 2-2:40 p.m. at St. Raphael, 7301 Bass Lake Road,

him identify what protocols might look like for teachers, Hendrickson said.

“Me still being in the classroom helps me to have a sense of, ‘Well, what does that actually look like for a teacher when you implement something?” Hendrickson said. “Today, they introduced the idea of a hold, where you say you’re just going to stay in the classroom, keep teaching, but kids need to stay in the classroom. You’re not going to dismiss to other classes, kids can’t go out and use the bathroom, because there’s something happening in the hallways.”

As an administrator, knowing appropriate terms for handling situations helps him decide when he needs to call something, like a hold, Hendrickson said. And there are systems that save time and could save lives, such as a lockdown system that doesn’t require punching in a code in a stressful situation, he said. In some cases, there is a button that puts the school in lockdown.

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WORSHIP + RETREATS

Men’ Silent Weekend Retreat: “Pilgrims of Hope” Nov. 7-9: 7:30 p.m. at Christ the King Retreat Center, 621 First Ave. S., Buffalo. As Pilgrims of Hope, join us for three conference talks, Holy Hour and spiritual direction, healing service and personal time for prayer and reflection. Private sleeping rooms include bathroom with shower. Home-cooked meals served, Mass on Nov. 8 and 9. kingshouse.com

Choral Vespers Nov. 9: 4-5:30 p.m. at St. Thomas More Catholic Community, 1079 Summit Ave., St. Paul. Monthly choral vespers led by St. Thomas More’s Schola Cantorum. The services will contain choral and congregational music, Eucharistic adoration, and a reflection. All are invited; no registration required. morecommunity.org/choral-vespers

Women’s Silent Midweek Retreat: “Pilgrims of Hope” Nov. 11-13: at Christ the King Retreat Center, 621 First Ave. S, Buffalo. Conference talks on how Mary leads us to holiness and the virtue of hope (and how hope does not disappoint), Holy Hour, healing service and time for personal prayer. Daily Mass available. Includes private sleeping room and home-cooked meals. $50 deposit. kingshouse.com

Spirit and Fire Nov. 14: 6:30-8 p.m. at St. Rose of Lima, 2048 Hamline Ave. N., Roseville. Spirit and Fire is a worship event in which we invite the Holy Spirit to come and dwell with us. The evening includes teaching or testimony, adoration, worship music by Alex Schindler and confession and prayer ministers on request. saintroseoflima.net/events/spirit-and-fire

“Sometimes — and this is always a challenge in any organizational leadership capacity — the challenge for leadership (is) coming up with really great plans, while at the same time having a good sense of what it actually looks like when it gets implemented with 5 year olds in a kindergarten classroom, or with 17 year olds in a chemistry lab,” Hendrickson said.

While there are many benefits to a system such as the lockdown button, Hendrickson said it comes with its own challenges. An administrator working at the front desk might see something suspicious but remain uncertain about whether it qualifies as a lockdown. There might be hesitation, considering the disruptive power of a full-scale lockdown that could also frighten the students unnecessarily, he said.

A hold might come into play for a medical emergency, or to prevent a student who has a weapon in a locker from getting it, he said.

St. Agnes’ response system has helped with daily school operations and improved emergency communications,

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Hendrickson said. He plans to share information on the standard response protocol presented at the security conference — and the terms used to describe each step — with the school’s security committee. That could help match up with the language used at other schools and the St. Paul Police Department.

“We’re always looking for ways to get better,” said Hendrickson, who was also interested in the Minnesota School Safety Center — a team of eight in the HSEM who help create secure learning facilities in Minnesota — and their site assessments.

“We have made use of several resources, internal to our school community, police officers and other law enforcement or military folks who are connected with the school, who’ve done some assessment, site assessment for us, but knowing that the school safety center is also a resource is really helpful,” Hendrickson said.

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THELASTWORD

Brother of girl injured in Annunciation shooting pens letter to Pope Leo XIV, thanking him for prayers

By Josh McGovern

The Catholic Spirit

Jimmy Kaiser, 17, a senior at DeLaSalle High School in Minneapolis, is writing college applications in his spare time. One is to his dream school: Villanova University in Pennsylvania, which Pope Leo XIV attended. Between applications, Kaiser penned a letter to Pope Leo thanking him for his prayers and letting the pope know that Kaiser is praying for the pontiff.

Kaiser’s sister, Lydia, an eighth grader who turned 13 on Sept. 9, was among more than a dozen students who were injured in a shooting at an all-school Mass Aug. 27 at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis. Two students were killed.

Lydia is back home, recovering, and has since returned to school at Annunciation.

She and other Annunciation students had the opportunity to write letters to Pope Leo, delivered by Archbishop Bernard Hebda during an audience he had with the pope in Rome on Oct. 1. At one of the nightly rosaries organized since the shooting and held outside Annunciation’s church, the archbishop mentioned to the pastor, Father Dennis Zehren, that he would be traveling to Rome and offered to deliver handmade cards to Pope Leo. Father Zehren shared the opportunity with teachers at the school.

In an interview at their home, Leah Kaiser, Jimmy and Lydia’s mother, said that it’s been heartwarming having Archbishop Hebda praying with the Annunciation community. “It’s really important to us, and it’s been humbling and moving and powerful to have him there,” she said. “He’s incredibly generous, very heartfelt in his questions.”

The 9 p.m. nightly rosaries are expected to continue through November, with special intentions for the families of Fletcher Merkel and Harper Moyski, the two students killed in the Aug. 27 shooting.

“The archbishop takes the time to go and pray the rosary with us,” Jimmy Kaiser said. “We’ve kind of become familiar with him. And then (Lydia) got the opportunity to write her letter, and she came home really excited about it. I was told that I could still write one,” he said, before a Sept. 27 memorial Mass marking one month since the shooting. The Mass was held at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul.

On Sept. 27, Jimmy Kaiser woke up an hour earlier than normal to write his letter. He kept writing it at the beginning and end of Mass. He approached Archbishop Hebda with his two pages and asked him to deliver his message to the pope with the other letters.

“I told him who I was and who Lydia was,” Jimmy Kaiser said of his letter to Pope Leo. “I thanked him for his prayers for us and the community. I thanked him on behalf of my family, and the Annunciation community.”

Leah Kaiser said the support the family has received since the shooting reminded her of an Easter Vigil.

“All the lights go out, you’re in a church, it’s pitch black, and everybody’s kind of standing there, and then somebody lights the candle, and then by the end of it, the whole church is super bright,” She said. “It kind of felt like that with our community. … This just happened, and it’s bad, and then this community just kind of spread around us, and it feels like that light is overshadowing that terrible, awful, evil that occurred. That’s how I keep experiencing it, anyway, and I want others to see that part of it.”

In his letter, Jimmy Kaiser told Pope Leo

Archbishop Bernard Hebda visits with Pope Leo XIV for the first time Oct. 1. Archbishop Hebda is holding a folder containing letters from students and families of Annunciation’s school and parish in Minneapolis. The archbishop delivered the letters to Pope Leo, thanking the pope for his prayers in the aftermath of a shooting during an all-school Mass Aug. 27 at Annunciation’s church.

about Lydia and how she had been home and since celebrated her 13th birthday. He credited Father Zehren and Archbishop Hebda for their support of his family and the Annunciation community. And he mentioned his father, Harry Kaiser, a personal, social and physical education teacher at the parish school, who was in the church when the shooting occurred.

“Then I asked for his prayers for Sophia (Forchas),” Jimmy Kaiser said. Sophia, a seventh grader at the school, has since been discharged from the hospital, and Jimmy Kaiser has credited her recovery to God’s work.

Leah Kaiser said all the second and third graders at Annunciation are giddy with excitement and hope that they may get a letter in return from Pope Leo.

“It was really cute,” she said. “I can’t even imagine hundreds of letters for little second and third graders.”

While still in the hospital, Lydia had asked her brother, Jimmy, to be her confirmation sponsor next year. It was a moment that Jimmy Kaiser said was incredibly special to him.

He jokingly pointed to his mom on the couch and said, “It got spoiled, actually, by her. She told me earlier because she didn’t know I didn’t know.”

Leah Kaiser smiled and admitted, “I blew the surprise.”

The family laughed. Humor, Leah Kaiser said, has helped carry the family through darkness.

After Lydia was discharged from the hospital, she had to wear a soft-shell helmet. Joe Kaiser, the eldest sibling, attends the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, whose football team wears gold helmets. One late night, Harry Kaiser spraypainted Lydia’s helmet a matching gold. When Lydia was discharged, the family wore Notre Dame shirts and Lydia wore her gold helmet.

Lydia, her parents said, has owned her situation and her courage and resilience have inspired the family.

The Moyski family lives nearby. Lydia at times would babysit Harper and her sister, Quinn. A celebration of life was held Sept. 14 for Harper at Lake Harriet in Minneapolis,

ANNUNCIATION LETTERS REACH POPE LEO XIV, VIA ARCHBISHOP HEBDA

accepts a letter Jimmy

wrote to Pope

XIV thanking the pontiff for his prayers for the Annunciation community in Minneapolis, including the Kaiser family. Archbishop Hebda delivered that letter and other letters from students and families at Annunciation to Pope Leo Oct. 1 at the Vatican.

Letters from Annunciation students and their families made it to Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican Oct. 1 via Archbishop Bernard Hebda as he visited with Pope Leo for the first time.

and Lydia insisted on being there.

“That was in between Lydia’s surgeries,” Leah Kaiser said. Her daughter put on the gold helmet and attended the celebration of life. “She’s not going to let that define her, keep her back. As a parent, to see her stand up like that is really powerful.”

Life now for the Kaisers, like Notre Dame’s golden dome, is about reflecting the light given to them.

“What we hope for folks (who) are looking at Annunciation during this time, is that we’re really reflecting that light, that they see that light in overwhelming darkness,” Leah Kaiser said. “We’re hoping that it’s our way to evangelize. We definitely want to show others (that) this is what our faith is about. The words and the advocacy obviously can come along with it from that ‘move your feet’ standpoint, but we also want to be a reflection of how we responded to things like this.”

Pope Leo’s own promise of prayers, among many words the Kaiser family has received or heard from far and wide, meant the world to the Kaisers.

“We’ve had letters from everywhere, just beautiful cards, acknowledging their thoughts and their prayers and how pained they are,” Leah Kaiser said of letter writers. “They’re expressing it in their sentiments. And I do think in terms of going back into that church … the response as the Catholic community, it’s way bigger than this little, teeny, tiny Catholic church in south Minneapolis. There is definitely a larger connection to this, and hopefully then a larger good that can come out of it.”

Jimmy Kaiser asked the pope for prayers in his season of life. The page and a half letter concluded with his promise to pray for Pope Leo for strength and guidance “as the successor to Peter.”

Harry Kaiser remarked, smiling at his son, that the first words Pope Francis — Pope Leo’s predecessor — said on the balcony when he was announced as pope were “Pray for me.”

Leah Kaiser said praying and being with the community has helped the family in the healing process.

“We all went through this together, and so you kind of turn to each other,” she said.

“The recent encounter with Pope Leo was particularly meaningful for me because I had the opportunity to give to him letters that were written by students from Annunciation School and their families, thanking him for his prayers in the aftermath of the shooting that had taken place at the school in their church on Aug. 27,” Archbishop Hebda wrote in his Oct. 20 “Together on the Journey” weekly newsletter to the faithful.

Two students were killed in the shooting during an all-school Mass at Annunciation church in Minneapolis; 18 students and three adults were injured. The shooter died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the scene, police said.

Pope Leo XIV has been praying for the Annunciation community. In a telegram sent to Archbishop Hebda shortly after the shooting, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, said the pontiff was “profoundly saddened” and “sends his heartfelt condolences and the assurance of spiritual closeness to all those affected by this terrible tragedy, especially the families now grieving the loss of a child.”

Pope Leo also prayed for the Annunciation community after reciting the Angelus prayer with visitors in St. Peter’s Square Aug. 31. The pope added that “we include in our prayers the countless children killed and injured every day around the world” as well as prayers for an end to the global “pandemic” of gun violence.

In his Oct. 20 newsletter reflecting on his visit with the pope, Archbishop Hebda said, “The loss of life on that (Aug. 27) occasion was horrific, and the impact on students, teachers and their families traumatizing. I asked Pope Leo for his continued prayers for Sophia Forchas and the other survivors who continue their recovery, and especially his prayers for those who might find it difficult to return to Annunciation Church or even to the celebration of the Mass.”

Archbishop Hebda also wrote that he was in Rome for the ordination of two archdiocesan seminarians as transitional deacons Deacons Charles DeReuil II and Steven Lang. The Catholic Spirit