NOVEMBER 2017 • VOL. 7 NO.11SERVING CHRIST AND CONNECTING CATHOLICS IN THE DIOCESE OF JUNEAU WWW.DIOCESEOFJUNEAU.ORGCATHOLIC

Southeast AlaskaNational Vocation Awareness Week

November 5-11

Celebrating and Praying for Vocations in the

Diocese of Juneau

The Southeast Alaska Catholic 2 • November 2017

Considering Priesthood in the Diocese of Juneau?

Please contact:Rev. Edmund J. Penisten,

Vocation Director

P. O. Box 245 • Klawock, AK 99925 Email:

vocations@dioceseofjuneau.orgPhone: (907) 755-2345

DIOCESE OF JUNEAU, OFFICE OF VOCATIONS

www.dioceseofjuneau/vocations

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USPS 877-080Publisher: Most Reverend Andrew E. Bellisario, C.M. 415 Sixth St. #300, Juneau, AK 99801Editor: Dominique Johnson email: communication@dioceseofjuneau.org(907) 586-2227, ext. 32 Staff: A Host of Loyal Volunteers According to diocesan policy, all Catholics of the Diocese of Juneau are to receive The Southeast Alaska Catholic; please contact your parish office to sign up or to notify them of an address change. Others may request to receive The Southeast Alaska Catholic by sending a donation of $30. Periodical postage paid at Juneau, Alaska.

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In This Issue

Encountering the poor Page 6 Ways to answer the pope’s call for World Day for the Poor

Food for the hungry Page 7 St. John’s by the Sea parish helps those in need with Little Free Pantry

Bishop Bellisario visits Sitka and Ketchikan Page 8 Photos from Bishop Andrew Bellisario’s first visits to parishes in Sitka and Ketchikan

Church

Calendar&Celebrations

November 5-11National Vocations Awareness Week

November 11Veterans’ Day

November 12-18 National Bible Week

November 19Special Collection

Catholic Campaign for Human Development

World Day of the Poor

November 23 Thanksgiving

December 3First Sunday of Advent

2018 Southeast Alaska Catholic Conference

Living and Sharing the Joy of the Gospel September 28 - 30, 2018

The Southeast Alaska Catholic November 2017 • 3

BY: DOMINIQUE JOHNSONSince 1976 the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has dedicated one week

of the year as National Vocation Awareness Week to promote vocations to the priesthood, diaconate and consecrated life. During this week, the bishops call those who are seeking their vocations to pray and learn about God’s will for them, and for their family and friends to pray for and support them during this journey.

In our Diocese we continue to pray for those who are called to serve in our parishes, as we currently have six active priests, two seminarians, six deacons and one sister serving in Southeast. Please continue to pray for and thank those who have said yes to God’s call to serve in our Diocese.

Here are a few vocation stories from those serving the Diocese of Juneau as a consecrated religious, a deacon, a seminarian and a priest.

Sister Marie Lucek, OPSister Marie Lucek, OP, heard God calling her to become a sister when she was about

10 years old. “The Sisters in our town at the time ran orphanages, and I felt that I wanted to work

in an orphanage,” she said.A year later, Sister Marie’s family moved, but before she left she wrote a letter to a

sister who was her teacher; Sister Marie never received a reply and added, “That’s why I never thought about an orphanage again, if she had written back to me, it might have been different.”

Sister Marie attended Catholic school from elementary school through high school where she heard about vocations on a consistent basis.

She attended an all-girls high school where the sisters would host retreats at the mother house, but she admitted that she, “hemmed and hawed” during high school and didn’t attend the events.

After graduating high school, Sister Marie joined the work force. It was when a co-worker decided to join a religious community that Sister Marie began praying about her

vocation.“I think it was God’s way of saying I’m

calling you too,” she said. She began looking at different

communities and remembered how the Dominican Sisters that worked at her grade school were always a happy group, so she went back to the school and met with one of her former teachers. After the meeting, she was introduced to the other sisters teaching at the school and she could tell from those interactions that this was a good group of women in the faith.

When she shared with her family that she was going to pursue the religious life, she said her mother was, “thrilled,” since her mother had thought about becoming a sister when she was younger and had prayed that one of her nine children would serve as a sister or priest.

Sister Marie shared that her father’s response was, “You will have three square meals a day,” which she interpreted as his way of saying that it would be a good life for her.

In her 53 years as a Dominican Sister of Sinsinawa, Sister Marie has taught and

served parishes in the Bronx, Washington, D.C., Juneau and other parts of the country.

Her message to those discerning religious life is to research different communities and begin communication with them to find a community that suits their gifts.

“Looking back, it’s a wonderful life and I encourage others to take a look.” James Wallace

James Wallace is one of two diocesan seminarians. He is currently attending Mundelein Seminary in Illinois.

Growing up in a Catholic family in Southern California Wallace attended Catholic school. He said his family was a typical family, not too religious. His mother would teach him and his siblings about the Church, his family would pray before meals and occasionally read the bible.

When asked if he thought about becoming a priest during high school he responded, “No, not at all.”

After high school James enlisted in the Coast Guard where he served for 8 years. During his time in the service Wallace was stationed in Virginia, California, Texas and Alaska.

It was during his time in Alaska that Wallace began to hear God calling him to explore the priesthood. James was stationed at the Coast Guard base in Sitka and attended Mass at St. Gregory Nazianzen where he met former pastor Father Scott Settimo, a former Coast Guard officer from Southern California.

“He really encouraged me to take my faith seriously…he was the first person who had a profound effect on calling me towards the ministry,” Wallace said.

Wallace recalled one Sunday at Mass in Sitka where Father Settimo mentioned the story of Ernest Shackleton, an Antarctic explorer, in his homily. Wallace had recently read a biography on Shackleton himself.

“I just remember being so shocked. It was such a coincidence…he didn’t realize what it meant to me, but at the time it was a strong signal (to pray about my vocation),” Wallace said.

In his late twenties, Wallace decided it was time to leave the military and discern the priesthood. When he shared his plan with his family and friends Wallace said, “All of them were laughing to begin with,” since he wasn’t very religious growing up.

His father had a different reaction though, “He was one of the few who actually recognized a genuine, authentic call.”

Continued on page 10

Diocesan vocation stories

Sister Marie Lucek, OP celebrating a Communion service at the St. Francis Chapel in Tenakee Springs

Seminarian James Wallce serving at the ordination of Fr. Mike Galbraith (photo by Brian Wallace)

The Southeast Alaska Catholic 4 • November 2017

BY: JOE SEHNERT - DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL SHRINE OF ST. THERESE

Paving the wayThe Shrine’s gravel roads have served

pilgrims well over the past 20 years. But recently the top layer of material has begun to thin out exposing the road base. Small rivulets have begun to appear as the rain water began to follow the road rather than running off to the side. This is because the “crown” that the top layer of material once had eroded.

Several years ago we had to do some work on our septic tank which is down by the caretaker cabin. Since then there has been a persistent pool of mud in the handicapped parking area.

We are very grateful to the benefactor who donated money to raise the handicapped parking area and asphalt the surface. The benefactor also gave us some additional funds to begin putting a new crown on the gravel roadway. We hope to start the project in spring of 2018.

If you would like to help the Shrine resurface the roadway - please send your donations to: Shrine of St. Therese, 415 Sixth St. Juneau, AK 99801 attn: resurfacing project. Thank you!

New ColumbariaThe Shrine recently installed three new

columbarium units, two double niche units and one single niche unit.

Twenty years ago the first four units were installed, then two additional units were added. The six units are at 85% capacity. We figured that 6 units provided for the community for 20 years - that three new units would serve us for the following ten years.

We are very grateful to some special volunteers who made the installation possible. They are the kind of folks who want no recognition...and live by the words of Jesus’ that the right hand shouldn’t know what the left hand is doing (Matthew 6:3)...But they are always there when needed - and the whole community is grateful.

If you are interested in more information on the columbarium go to our website :

http://www.shrineofsainttherese.org/columbarium

or call Joe at 636-628-7270

A fall update from the National

Shrine of St. Therese

The paving of the causeway at the National Shrine of St. Therese (photo by Dan Hubert)

Fr. Pat Casey blessing the new columarium units at the Shrine. (photo by Christine Johnson)

Share the Joy of the Gospel in your Parish

Start a book study on the Pope’s first Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium –

“The Joy of the Gospel” this fall.

“I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them” - Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium

The Apostolic Exhortation and a study guide are available online:

dioceseofjuneau.org/the-joy-of-the-gospel

You can also purchase a hard copy of Evangelii Gaudium for $3 + shipping through the

Diocese Office of Evangelization

Call (907) 586-2227 x 24

The Southeast Alaska Catholic November 2017 • 5

This past weekend, November 4th (New Calendar)/ (October 22nd Old Calendar), Orthodox Christians in Russia celebrated the feast of the icon of the Kazanskaya Mother of God (also known as Our Lady of Kazan). The wonder-working icon of Our Lady of Sitka is patterned after the Kazanskaya.

The icon has two feast days, actually: July 8th, which commemorates the day in 1579 in the Russian city of Kazan when a young girl miraculously guided by the Blessed Mother dug the icon up after a fire that had destroyed the city. The second feast on October 22nd commemorates the deliverance of the city of Moscow from the Poles in 1612 and her protection was again invoked in 1709 in a conflict with the Swedes and in 1812 when Napoleon invaded Russia.

Three days later, on November 7th, Russians are marking the 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution. The Bolshevik coup d’etat in 1917 marked the beginning of seven decades of dictatorial Communist rule, first under Lenin and then under Stalin and his successors, which only came to an end in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

I don’t have enough room here to begin to relate the murderous violence of this regime directed against the peoples of Russia and eastern Europe during which millions perished and many more millions suffered deportation, starvation, arrest, imprisonment and exile. Suffice it to say, a world-historical human and a moral catastrophe was set in motion.

One of the most vicious aspects of Bolshevik rule was the attempt on the part of Lenin and his successors to eradicate religious belief and practice. Although Jews and Muslims were also the targets of atheistic propaganda, arrest and imprisonment by the Soviets, Russian Orthodox Christians (and during and after World War II Ukrainian, Polish and Lithuanian Catholics) experienced the worst treatment.

In the 1920’s and 30’s tens of thousands of Orthodox priests, deacons, monks and nuns were summarily executed or worked to death in slave labor camps. Most churches and monasteries were desecrated and closed. An ancient monastic complex on the Solovetsky Islands was turned into the first (but tragically not the last) slave labor camp and served as the prototype for the Gulag camp system. Others were converted into warehouses or worker’s barracks. Many were demolished.

This was the fate of the cathedral in Red Square in Moscow that had been first erected in the seventeenth century in honor of Our Lady of Kazan. A Russian architect and church restorer Pyotr Baranovsky persuaded the Bolshevik authorities in the 1920’s to allow him to restore the Kazan

Cathedral as a museum, but he and his collaborators were arrested in the beginning of the 1930’s and imprisoned. In 1936, after his release from prison, Baranovsky was put in charge of the demolition of the Kazan Cathedral (Stalin had decided that the church needed to be torn down in order to create additional room in Red Square for military parades.)

Baranovsky did as he was ordered and dismantled the church piece-by-piece. On the site of the now- vanished cathedral, to show their contempt for this sacred and consecrated place, the Soviets erected a public urinal.

I knew nothing of this history when I visited Moscow in 1995, four years after the end of the Soviet Union, and entered the reborn Kazan Cathedral on Red Square as the bells summoned the faithful to prayer. It was an exact replica of the original. It was only much later that I learned the remarkable story of

how it was rebuilt.Although Baranovsky had been

forced to oversee the demolition of the cathedral, he had also secretly drawn up detailed blueprints of the entire building which he kept safe and hidden for the rest of his life. Before he died in 1984 he entrusted them to one of his architectural students, Oleg Zhurin, who in 1990 used the plans to begin the rebuilding of the church, which was completed in only three years.

I’m struck by the profound fidelity and hope of Baranovsky, who had devoted much of his life to restoring the Kazan cathedral, only to have to watch it being torn down. How many times must he have been tempted to fall into hopelessness and despair as he kept those blueprints hidden for decade after decade. In the end, he passed on his secret to another, in the knowledge that he would not live to see the day, (if it

ever came) that his work would bear fruit. The blueprints, in one sense, were imprinted not simply

on paper but on his heart, in the way in which the gospel message itself is imprinted on the hearts of believers. We are surrounded by so many challenges and difficulties that seem insurmountable. The temptation is always to give up hope. I’m reminded of the importance of confident perseverance in hope by these words of Pope Francis from his encyclical, “The Joy of the Gospel” where he writes:

“The joy of the gospel is such that it cannot be taken from us by anyone or anything (cf, Jn16:22) The evils of our world – and those of the Church – must not be excuses for diminishing our commitment and our fervor. Let us look upon them as challenges which can help us to grow. With the eyes of faith, we can see the light which the Holy Spirit always radiates in the midst of darkness, never forgetting that “where sin increased, grace has abounded all the more” (Rom 5:20), Our faith is challenged to discern how wine can come from water and how wheat can grow in the midst of weeds.” (Evangeli Gaudium no.84)

The blueprint of the gospel, hidden in plain sight, is available at all times and in every circumstance, to begin the rebuilding of the inner sanctuary within each of us, made ever new and ever beautiful by Christ himself.

ROHRBACHER

Along the Way

Deacon Charles Rohrbacher

The Kazan Cathedral in Moscow

The Kazan icon of the Mother of God

Finding hope in the darkness, with eyes of faith

- Deacon Charles Rohrbacher is the Office of Ministries Director for the Diocese of Juneau. Phone: 907-586-2227 x 23.

Email: charlesr@gci.net

The Southeast Alaska Catholic 6 • November 2017

Opportunities to Serve Christ in the Poor this Thanksgiving

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Juneau is preparing for its annual Thanksgiving basket program. We invite you to join us in this ministry by:

Donating FoodFood is being collected at the Cathedral, St. Paul’s, and the St. Vincent de

Paul office at 8617 Teal Street. Items needed include: turkeys, stuffing, instant mashed potatoes, cans of green beans, corn, yams and cranberry sauce, pies, gravy mix, and butter. Monetary donations can also be made

at our office or www.svdpjuneau.org

Assisting with DeliveryFood baskets will be distributed November 18-19. Volunteers

are needed at the pick-up location and to make home deliveries. Please contact Maureen Hall at 209-0799 for more information.

Praying with UsDear God, Our Father,

As we gather with friends and family this holiday season, help us to remember those who experience the pain and suffering of poverty every day.

Open our ears to the cry of the poor and homeless in our communities.

Open our hearts so that we may mirror Your love for the least among us.

Open our minds, and help us grow in the conviction that sharing with the poor enables us to understand the deepest truth of the Gospel.

And give us the fortitude to come together in the name of Jesus Christ your Son, and build a world where the poor are strangers to none and the chains

of poverty are broken.

Amen

BY: DOMINIQUE JOHNSON“Whenever we set out to love as

Jesus loved, we have to take the Lord as our example; especially when it comes to loving the poor.” – Pope Francis

At the end of last year’s Jubilee of Mercy, Pope Francis instituted a World Day of the Poor, so “Communities can become an ever-greater sign of Christ’s charity for the least and those most in need.”

The first World Day of the Poor will take place this month, on November 19th. In this initiative, the pope has called all Catholics to have a true encounter with those living in our communities who may often be overlooked.

What does it mean to encounter the poor among us? Pope Francis shares that it means “to meet their gaze, to embrace them and to let them feel the warmth of love that breaks through their solitude.”

The pope is calling us to do more than give financially or volunteer our time. He is reminding us to be like Christ. To step outside of our comfort zones and walk side by side with the poor, and get to know them and see beyond their worldly status, so we can see them the way Christ does.

In Southeast Alaska, we can encounter those less fortunate in our communities by volunteering at our local soup kitchens and homeless shelters, and while we are there sharing conversation with the people we are serving.

C a t h o l i c C o m m u n i t y Service,serves meals to seniors who are homebound in Angoon, Craig, Klawock, Haines, Klukwan, Hoonah, Juneau, Kake, Saxman, Ketchikan, Sitka, Skagway, Wrangell and Yakutat. These programs need volunteers to serve those in need living in these communities and who are willing to get know the people they are serving.

The St. Vincent de Paul Society in Juneau serves the poor by providing housing, housing assistance, food

and other services. Like the other organizations St. Vincent de Paul gives volunteers the opportunity to encounter our neighbors who are less fortunate.

There are other ways that we can serve and encounter the poor in our communities and we do not have to serve alone. We can serve together with our families, friends and church communities to make these connections as we are reminded that we are all sons and daughters of Christ. Hopefully our encounters with the poor won’t be a once a year activity, but a reminder that we should encounter the poor on a regular basis to be disciples of Christ.

Pope Francis concluded his message announcing the World Day of the Poor saying, “This new World Day, should become a powerful appeal to our consciences as believers, allowing us to grow in the conviction that sharing with the poor enables us to understand the deepest truth of the Gospel. The poor are not a problem: they are a resource from which to draw as we strive to accept and practice in our lives the essence of the Gospel.”

To l e a r n m o r e a b o u t volunteer opportunities through Catholic Commuinty Service visit www.cc s juneau .org or ca l l (907) 463-6100

For volunteer needs at St. Vincent de Paul visit svdpjuneau.org or call (907) 789-5535

Encountering the Poor in

Southeast

The Southeast Alaska Catholic November 2017 • 7

BY: CATHY BOLLING, ISLAND POST STAFF WRITERPutting the Corporal Work of Mercy “Feed the

Hungry” into action, St. John’s by the Sea Catholic Church in Klawock has started its own “Little Free Pantry.” The small, windowed cupboard was recently placed on the southeast corner of the church parking lot and is stocked with canned goods for anyone in need.

The pantry was created after a church parishioner read about the Little Free Pantry movement. Like the Little Free Library, these scaled-down food pantries are created by neighbors, groups or individuals and stocked with food and other items for those in need.

Little Free Libraries are found on the front lawns of private homes and other locations, where visitors can stop to pick up a book, or drop off a book.

The local parishioner, who asked to remain anonymous, said she thought the Little Free Pantry would be a good outreach project for her parish.

“It provides a little place for people to donate food that you can eat, out-of-hand, if you need to. There’s no paperwork. If you need it, take it. When you get on your feet again, give some back.”

Parishioners Michael Cleary and Terry Mackey created the cupboard and stand. Mackey made the sturdy base out of concrete blocks and yellow cedar. Cleary made the pantry out of thick, water-resistant plywood, 30-pound felt and hand-cut

shingles from South Thorne Bay, coated with Sikkens water-repellant wood stain. The shelves are made from Douglas Fir plywood and the custom built red cedar door has a plexiglass window. The pantry measures about three feet tall and two feet deep and wide. The door faces north, not south, to avoid the weather.

Parishioners will keep the pantry stocked, but anyone may add to it. Anyone placing items in the pantry is asked to consider the elements. Although the pantry was built to withstand wind and rain, it is not heated. Items could get damp and in colder weather items could freeze and expand.

Examples of suitable pantry items, in fairer weather, are canned goods, tamper-resistant items, instant foods, sauces, kids lunch items, paper products and women’s feminine products.

Anyone needing food is welcome to take from the pantry, in the hope that in the future, if they are able, they can replenish what they have taken for someone else to use, said Fr. Edmund Penisten, pastor.

A sign will soon be posted on the pantry for passersby to see.

For more information about the Little Free Pantry movement, visit littlefreepantry.org.

Fr. Edmund Penisten blesses the Little Free Pantry recently placed outside of St. John’s by the Sea Catholic Church in Klawock, as builder Michael Cleary looks on. (Photo by Karen Cleary)

Little Free Pantry Offers

“Food for the Hungry”BY: DOMINIQUE JOHNSON

Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about, be kind,” it was this quote by Ian Maclaren that inspired Darius Mannino to produce a show incorporating the prayer of St. Francis for the community of Tenakee Springs.

Mannino and his wife live in Tenakee and Juneau, where he performed with Perseverance Theatre before leaving for graduate school in California.

Mannino became interested in puppetry in 2005 while in grad school at the California Institute of the Arts. It was its honesty and theatricalization that turned him on to puppetry, “It’s completely artificial and therefore the puppet is something for us to put ourselves on to…you can trust a block of wood more than another person,” he said.

Mannino and his wife returned to Tenakee in 2011, where they run the local bakery and post office in the small community and until recently Darius also worked for AT&T.

Last year Mannino received a Rasmuson individual artist grant to build a small puppet stage, so he could produce solo works.

Mannino wanted to write a show that would be inspired by the experience of living in Tenakee. Though he isn’t Catholic Mannino was inspired by St. Francis Chapel and began his research when he found the prayer of St. Francis.

In the prayer Mannino remembered the quote to be kind, and wanted to use the prayer of St. Francis to remind people that we should be kind to one another, even though it can be a tough task living in a small, close knit community.

“This idea of commitment within the St. Francis prayer, to make me an instrument of your peace, to let me make the better choice when offered something

else,” Mannino saw the prayer as a self-commitment to being kind to help promote a more peaceful existence.

The show Mannino created was simple, yet powerful. Using shadows, he wrote the quote by Maclaren, backwards and out of order, so words would match up while saying the prayer of St. Francis.

For Mannino this was a very intimate and challenging production, “I’m communicating the prayer through speaking…I’m challenging myself to write this very difficult thing, and the prayer is challenging me in a certain way” while giving the audience the same challenge to take the prayer to heart, as well as be kind to one another.

“Not only am I asking for kindness, as a community member…but I’m also asking that of myself,” he said.

Mannino said he could have written a show based on the history of the church or the life of St. Francis, but wanted to put out the challenge to people to practice a prayer and commit themselves to that practice.

The St. Francis chapel has a special place in the community. Mannino shared, “So many places in this community are empty, because it’s a part time retirement community. Though the chapel for the most part is empty as well, it remains open and cared for,” giving people a peaceful place to pray.

Practicing the prayer of

St. Francis

The Southeast Alaska Catholic 8 • November 2017 The Southeast Alaska Catholic 8 • February 2016 The Southeast Alaska Catholic 8 • November 2017

Bishop Andrew E. Bellisario, C.M. visits Sitka and Ketchikan

(Clockwise from the top left) Bishop Andrew E. Bellisario, C.M. baptizes Luke James Sirokman October 22 during Sunday Mass at St. Gregory the Nazianzen Church in Sitka, Father Andy Sensenig, OMI, and Bishop Bellisario with Will and Ashley Sirokman after the baptism of Luke James Sirokman, Orthodox Bishop of Sitka and Alaska, David Mahaffey presents Bishop Bellisario with an icon during his first visit to Sitka and Bishop Bellisario with Father Pat Travers and students from Holy Name Catholic School who greeted him on his first trip to Ketchikan.

The Southeast Alaska Catholic November 2017 • 9October 2013 • 9The Southeast Alaska Catholic February 2016 • 9October 2013 • 9The Southeast Alaska Catholic November 2017 • 9

Bishop Andrew E. Bellisario, C.M. visits Sitka and Ketchikan

The Southeast Alaska Catholic 10 • November 2017

Wallace has been in seminary now for five years, with two more years left before he can be ordained a priest and shared, “It’s been one of the most wonderful times of my life, it is filled with fraternity and people growing in their faith…it’s intoxicating, it’s unlike anything you’ll ever experience.”

For those thinking about the priesthood Wallace encourages them to pursue it. “If it’s truly God’s will for your life doors will begin to open up…but take the time to

ask God what is it You want me to do.”Deacon Mike Monagle

When discussing vocations Deacon Mike Monagle quoted Bishop Edward Burns saying, “God doesn’t call the equipped, he equips the called.”

Deacon Mike was raised in a strong Catholic family where the family practiced the faith in more than attending Sunday Mass. He recalls praying the rosary regularly along with other family prayers. He even had two aunts who were nuns, who along with his parents “planted the seeds” of the priesthood in his mind early on.

Deacon Mike attended 1st-5thgrade at St. Ann’s school in Juneau where the sisters encouraged him as well as the other students to be altar servers, which he did.

After high school, he discerned the priesthood during the first few months of college at the University of Oregon. God had different plans for him though, as we met and later married his wife Marilyn while living in Oregon.

Marilyn, who wasn’t Catholic when they got married, would later go through the RCIA program with Deacon Mike as her sponsor. The process helped them both grow in their faith lives and their marriage. The two have now been married for 35 years and have two adult sons.

Already living out the vocation of marriage and parenthood, God began planting the seed of the diaconate.

“I didn’t really think about the diaconate until Father Tony Dummer came up to me after Mass one day, and let me know they were starting the diaconate back up and he thought I’d be a good candidate,” Deacon Mike said.

He took the time to discern and admits, “I could think of a hundred reasons to say no, but I discerned if this was something God was calling me to.”

He felt like there were people better suited for the vocation than he was, but when he prayed and asked God if this is where he was calling him, “He said yes.”

With the diaconate, the decision is not just a personal decision, but one made with your spouse as well and Deacon Mike said Marilyn let him know, “If it’s something that you feel called to, I’m 100 percent behind it.”

As his ordination day came closer, Deacon Mike shared that doubts started to creep in. He began to wonder if this was the vocation God was calling him to. Putting his trust in God and prayer he was ordained a deacon in August 2014, “It was a very spirit filled experience,” he now says confidently.

To those discerning the call to the diaconate Deacon Mike says, “Don’t be afraid of saying yes,” and added that, “It’s amazing what blessings God bestows on people who say yes to his call, even though we might not know where that will lead us.”

Father Edmund PenistenFather Edmund Penisten began thinking about

the priesthood at the age of five, at least that’s what his parents have told him.

He grew up in a Catholic family living in the Midwest before moving to Eagle River, Alaska when he was thirteen.

One story Father Penisten remembered from his childhood was how his mother wouldn’t allow him to attend a Boy Scout event, because the family was attending a parish mission. He would later find out the scouting event was cancelled, because

of bad weather.“Even at 15 years of age, I was like, okay Lord, you’ve made your point,” he joked.Though he would occasionally disagree with his parents about attending church

activities, Father Penisten started thinking about becoming a priest when he was in the fifth grade, when he became an altar server. “I loved setting up for Mass, I loved serving the Mass,” he said.

He also said the sacrament of penance played a role in his calling to the priesthood. His family would attend reconciliation together on a regular basis and it was in feeling God’s forgiveness that Father Penisten wanted, “To be an instrument of that grace.”

Throughout high school Father Penisten knew he wanted to be a priest and was open about it with his classmates and teachers.

“I got kidded about this from time to time by fellow students and teachers, but other times some teachers would say, ‘no, it’s a good thing,’” he shared.

Being part of a strong Catholic family, Father Penisten received full support from them on his decision to explore the vocation.

He recalled a conversation his father had with him when he was 16 years old. His dad told him, “You will run into people who will tell you, you must get married to have children to carry on the family name. If it is God’s will that you become a priest, you don’t worry about that.”

After his freshman year of college, Father Penisten became a seminarian for the Arch-diocese of Anchorage and attended Bishop White Seminary at the University of Gonzaga for three years.

Then came time for graduate studies and after the first semester Father Penisten said he didn’t feel at home, so he moved back home began working in the secular world. A few years later, still feeling called to be a priest he returned to graduate school only to return home after four days, due to illness.

He worked as a defense contractor at Fort Richardson for five years before pursuing the vocation of the priesthood again.

With the appointment of Bishop Michael Warfel, Father Penisten’s former vocation director, as the fourth bishop of Juneau, Father Penisten decided to consider becoming a priest in the diocese.

“I wrote to the diocese, got a nice response and one thing led to another…and a few months after that Bishop Warfel invited me to become a seminarian,” Father Penisten said.

After 21 years of pursuit of his vocation, Father Penisten was ordained a priest on May 21st, 2002, along with Father Thomas Weise. The Ordination was the first Mass celebrated in the new St. Paul’s Church.

Looking back at his ordination day Father Penisten said he doesn’t remember much; he was, “In a daze.”

To men considering the priesthood Father Penisten suggests that you, “Pray, routinely celebrate the sacrament of penance as a matter of spiritual growth, talk with your parish priest and feel free to contact the vocation director at any time.”

If you feel that God is calling you to a vocation of the priesthood, religoius life or the diaconate feel free to talk with local priest, sister or deacon. You can also contact the Diocesan vocation director , Father Edmund Penisten about the priesthood at (907) 755-2345 or Deacon Charles Rohrbacher about the diaconate at (907)586-2227

Deacon Mike Monagle and Deacon Steve Olmstead prepare the altar during ordination Mass of Bishop Andrew E. Bellisario, C.M.

Vocation stories: Continued from page 3

The Southeast Alaska Catholic November 2017 • 11

PINE RIDGE, S.D. (CNS) -- During a Mass to formally open the sainthood cause for Nicholas W. Black Elk, the Native American was described as someone who merged the Lakota and Catholic culture in a way “that drew him deeper into the mystery of Christ’s love and the church.”

Black Elk’s love for God and Scripture led him to become a catechist, fulfilling the mission of all disciples, said Bishop Robert D. Gruss of Rapid City in his homily at the Oct. 21 Mass at Holy Rosary Church in Pine Ridge.

The bishop said that for 50 years Black Elk led others to Christ often melding his Lakota culture into his Christian life. “This enculturation can always reveal something of the true nature and holiness of God,” he said, adding that Black Elk always “challenged people to renew themselves, to seek this life that Christ offers them.”

Bishop Gruss said Black Elk’s life as a dedi-cated catechist, spiritual leader and guide “inspired many to live for Christ by his own story.” With the formal opening of his cause, Black Elk now has the title “servant of God.”

Black Elk was born sometime between 1858 and 1866. He died Aug. 19, 1950, at Pine Ridge.

The bishop said the process for the saint-hood cause for Black Elk is a long one. First, he must show a reputation for holiness that spread to others.

The first phase involves gathering testimony about his life and his virtues. Bishop Gruss said Black Elk’s public and private writings are cur-rently being collected and examined. This docu-mentary phase can take many years.

“Where the process ends is now up to the Holy Spirit and Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Our task now is to continue to gather more information, testimony about his life, and to pray that he is found worthy to have his cause moved forward,” he said.

The road to canonization involves three major steps: First is the declaration of a person’s heroic virtues, after which the church declares the person “venerable.” Second is beatification, after which he or she is called “blessed.” Third is canoniza-tion, or the declaration of sainthood.

In general, two miracles must be accepted by the church as having occurred through the intercession of the prospective saint; one must occur before beatification, and the other after beatification.

The bishop also encouraged the congregation to follow Black Elk’s example stressing that all Christians are called into the missionary field.

“Like Black Elk, if we are docile to the Lord’s

will, devoting our lives to him, we will be out working for his kingdom of mercy, love and peace,” he said.

The bishop also stressed that today’s Catho-lics should not live “isolated religious lives” but instead should recognize they are called to be “God’s servants and instruments of Christ’s love in building and advancing his kingdom. Each of us has to decide how we can participate,” he added.

Last February, Bishop Gruss appointed Bill White, as the diocesan postulator of Black Elk’s sainthood cause. White is an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe on the Pine Ridge Reser-vation. Deacon Ben Black Bear from St. Francis Mission is translating some of Black Elk’s writings from Lakota to English.

Deacon Marlon Leneaugh, Rapid City’s dioc-esan director of Native Ministry, described Black Elk as a revered holy man among the Lakota who bridged the gap between traditional native spiri-tuality and Catholicism.

“He showed his people that you did not have to choose between the two, you could be both. He did not abandon his native ways when he became a Christian. To him it was together -- praying to the one God.”

Mass formally opens canonization cause

for Black Elk

HOUSTON (CNS) -- Baseball bats and rosary beads were the only thing on Tonya Killian’s mind as she walked toward Minute Maid Park for Game 3 of the 2017 World Series. A longtime Houston Astros fan and parishioner at Mary Queen Catholic Church in Friendswood, Killian was on a mission to buy rosaries custom made for the World Series by members of Annunciation Catholic Church. Her Hail Mary attempt was a success: She bought the last two handmade rosaries for sale that day, and maybe even an Astros World Series victory. Tradition holds that if the parish -- which sits a base run away from the ballpark across the street -- sells out of its rosaries on game day, the Astros will win. No one really knows if Killian’s purchase guaranteed the Astros’ 5-3 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers that Friday night, Oct. 27. But nobody could have expected the wild 13-12 Astros win two days later on Sunday night, even after Saturday’s loss. Game 5 saw the two teams slug it out for more than five hours and into extra innings Oct. 29. With the series tied 3-3, Game 7 was in Los Angeles Nov. 1. The

Astros beat the Dodgers 5-1 to clinch the first World Series championship in the franchise’s history.

These rosaries were special to Killian, not just because they were Astros-colored. Killian’s family suffered during Hurricane Harvey: Two of her family members’ homes in Dickinson were flooded with more than 2 feet of water during the storm.

Now more than two months since the storm dropped more than 50 inches of rain along the Texas Gulf Coast, she said some of her family is able to finally return home. The rosary means a lot to her, she said.

“I’ve broken down more times in the last month and a half than in the last two years,” she told the Texas Catholic Herald, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. Dickinson was one of the hardest hit areas in Houston. “It’s cleaned up, but as you drive by, you can see straight through these homes.”

Still, Killian said the Astros’ World Series run has been thrilling to watch, something the city needed after Harvey’s devastation.

“To watch the Astros play, to me, is like watching kids doing what they love and having fun,” she said.

Parish staff and volunteers said the rosaries were in high demand, with 120 to 150 available during each of the three World Series games in Houston. The line stretched down the block with a half hour wait just to enter the parish’s sidewalk pop-up gift shop.

Father Paul Felix, pastor of the 147-year-old parish, opened the doors to the historic church for all to visit Oct. 27. He beamed as visitors milled in and out. Inside, dozens stopped for a quiet moment of prayer before heading into the ballpark for the game.

Father Felix said the World Series was a prime time to evangelize the culture with the rosary, especially during the centennial of the Marian apparitions at Fatima.

After Harvey, faith fuels

Houston fans; team wins

World Series

The Southeast Alaska Catholic 12 • November 2017

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The opioid crisis may have sneaked up on the United States, but few would dispute President Donald Trump’s assertion that it is now a national emergency.

Trump made the formal declaration Oct. 26. But much needs to be done before the emergency becomes manageable.

An estimated 200,000 Americans have died from opioid overdoses since the pharmaceutical opioid oxycodone was introduced in 1996. The numbers continue to climb, and the fatal overdose rate continues to soar.

West Virginia, at the heart of Appalachia, has the nation’s worst rate at 41.5 deaths per 100,000 each year, four times the national average.

Appalachians were derided in the early years of the growing crisis for their growing dependence on prescription opioids, as the pills were called “hillbilly heroin.” Familiar drug brand names like OxyContin and Vicodin are in the same opioid class as heroin and fentanyl. More critically, the crisis has spread far beyond Appalachia.

Second to West Virginia among U.S. states is New Hampshire, according to 2014 statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In a Jan. 27 phone call to the president of Mexico about the need for a border wall to stop the drug flow, Trump called New Hampshire “a drug-infested den.”

The numbers cited by Kathryn Marchocki, communications manager for Catholic Charities of New Hampshire -- the social service arm of the statewide Diocese of Manchester -- hold scant promise for improvement any time soon.

The 2014 death toll from opioid overdoses was 332. It leapt to 439 in 2015, and jumped again to 485 in 2016 in a state with just under 1.35 million residents. “It does seem to be slowing down” this year, Marchocki said, with current overdose rates on a pace for 457 this year.

“Every one of these deaths require toxicology to determine absolute cause of death,” she said, a process that takes eight weeks. “There’s quite a lot of backlog,” she added in an interview with Catholic News Service.

New Hampshire is seeing an increasing number of deaths from fentanyl, another legal opioid but one which experts believe is being illegally made in and shipped from China. Marchocki said a fentanyl analog,

carfentanyl -- intended, she noted, as an elephant tranquilizer -- is “many times more potent than fentanyl” and showing up in more toxicology reports in the state.

Some jurisdictions have begun suing drug manufacturers and distributors for the expenses incurred by their budget-battered governments for autopsies, treatment and crime-fighting.

Cuyahoga County, Ohio, which includes Cleveland, filed suit Oct. 27 against some of the biggest pharmaceutical firms in the country: Purdue Pharma, Teva, Cephalon, Janssen, McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen. It also named four doctors in the suit, saying they downplayed the addictive effects of opioids in studies funded by the drug makers.

The bipartisan President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis issued 56 recommendations Nov. 1. Among them: more drug courts; much greater access for providing treatment to addicts, including in jails; and better utilization of databases by physicians to prevent “doctor shopping” by addicts.

The commission, while it did not put a price tag on its findings, urged the government to use block grants to allow states to apply for just one grant to cover multiple initiatives. It also said the government should more closely track prevention, treatment and interdiction efforts. “We are operating blindly today,” its report said.

The White House said Oct. 26 that since April, more than $800 million has been distributed for prevention, treatment, first responders, prescription-drug monitoring programs, recovery and other care in communities, inpatient settings and correctional systems. Another $254 million has been awarded for high-risk communities, law enforcement and first-responder coordination.

The CDC also launched the Rx Awareness campaign, a multimedia awareness campaign featuring the real-life stories of people who have lost loved ones to prescription opioid overdose and people in recovery. At the same time, the Food and Drug Administration is imposing new requirements on the manufacturers of prescription opioids to help reverse the over-prescribing that fueled the crisis.

While Trump’s declaration of a national emergency lubricates some of government’s gears for more decisive action, it does not bring automatic money to the anti-opioid effort.

More funds to combat opioids had been in the Affordable Care Act repeal-and-replace bills earlier in the year. The figure had originally been $2 billion, but shot up to $45 billion after senators from states hard hit by the crisis urged more money. The $45 billion figure was reintroduced in a bill unveiled Oct. 25 by 14 Senate Democrats and Sen. Angus King, I-Maine. By comparison, the Comprehensive Addictions Recovery Act passed by Congress last year authorized just $1 billion over two years.

The Affordable Care Act “has begun to integrate the treatment of substance-abuse disorders into health care, so we are paying close attention to make sure that any changes to our health care system do not negatively impact our families and patients that need treatment for addiction,” Jessica Nickel, president and CEO of the Addiction Policy Forum, said Oct. 26 in Washington after the declaration of a national emergency.

Trump’s declaration, promised over the summer, hit a significant roadblock along the way. Rep. Tom Marino, R-Pennsylvania, his

pick for federal drug czar, had to withdraw from consideration. His decision came after a joint Washington Post-”60 Minutes” investigation found he had collected nearly $100,000 in campaign contributions from drug companies after getting a bill passed that critics said weakened the Drug Enforcement Agency’s oversight over opioids as the crisis kept mounting.

Amid the crisis, Catholics are among those involved in anti-addiction initiatives, where the victories are hard-won.

Father Douglas McKay, founder and chaplain of Our House Ministries in Philadelphia for those suffering from addiction, emphasizes prayer, fellowship and the sacraments, particularly the Eucharist and confession. “They heal,” he told CatholicPhilly.com, the news website of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. “The divine physician is the doctor for the mind and the soul.”

The ministry’s recovery homes provide shelter and structure for residents, who must attend Sunday Mass and weekly gatherings of the Calix Society, an international Catholic lay organization for participants in 12-step programs, for which Father McKay is the national chaplain.

Catholic Charities of New Hampshire launched “Families Coping With the Opioid Crisis” for family members dealing with an addicted loved one. Father John J. Mahoney Jr., director of Catholic Charities’ counseling services, said that in “attempting to resolve the epidemic,” it needed to treat not only the addict but also to “treat the family as well.”

Father Mahoney added, “We employ the Gospel model. Jesus didn’t sit in a clinic somewhere waiting for the sick of Palestine to come to him. He brought bread to the communities. ... Pope Francis said the church should be a field hospital.”

There’s been no study to detail its effectiveness, but anecdotal evidence indicates the program is making an impact. “A lot of it entails tough-love measures. But it works, and mothers tell the children how they are in recovery, or the states of recovery,” Father Mahoney told CNS.

The program may be beset by its own popularity, according to the priest: “We’ve had invitations to come out and speak from about 40 parishes.”

Eternal rest grant unto them,O Lord.

And let perpetual lightshine upon them.

And may the souls of all the faithful departed, through the

mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

National Shrine of St. ThereseColumbarium

(907) 586-2227 ext. 24 cell - (636) 628-7270

U.S. opioid epidemic affects not only addicts but families and budgets

The Southeast Alaska Catholic November 2017 • 13

CNS News Briefs • www.catholicnews.com‘Horrendous attack weighs on all our hearts,’ says cardinal

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The “horrendous act” by a driver in a pickup truck who mowed down pedestrians and bicyclists in New York late in the afternoon Oct. 31 “weighs on all of our hearts,” said the president of the U.S. Confer-ence of Catholic Bishops. “This afternoon we heard of what appears to be a deliberate attack on innocent people in New York City,” Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston said in a statement issued that evening. News reports about the attack, which left at least eight people dead and 11 others injured, “are too preliminary to understand fully what has happened,” the cardinal said, “but it grieves me deeply that we must again respond to such acts of terror.” After reciting the Angelus Nov. 1, Pope Francis deplored the attack, add-ing, “I pray for the deceased, for the injured and for their families.” New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan urged all people to have greater understanding and greater respect for one another so “evil acts like this” will never happen again. News reports said police identified the suspect as 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov, who is from Uzbekistan and has been in the United States on a visa since 2010.

USCCB president decries massive shooting at Baptist church in Texas townWASHINGTON (CNS) -- The U.S. Catholic Church stands “in unity” with the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, and the larger community after a shooting during Sunday services took the lives of at least 25 people and injured several more. A 14-year-old girl, Annabelle Pomeroy, was among the dead. Her father, Frank Pomeroy, is pastor of the church but he was not at the service. “We stand in unity with you in this time of terrible tragedy -- as you stand on holy ground, ground marred today by horrific violence,” said Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. With San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller, “I extend my prayers and the prayers of my brother bishops for the victims, the families, the first responders, our Baptist brothers and sisters, indeed the whole community of Sutherland Springs.” Law enforcement officials told CNN that a lone gunman entered the church at about 11:30 a.m. Central time while 50 people were attending Sunday services. Almost everyone in the congregation was shot. Sutherland Springs is 30 to 40 miles southeast of San Antonio. Police pursued the suspect as he fled the church and he was reported dead, but it was not clear if police killed him or he took his own life. The shooter was described as a white male in his 20s. His motive was not immediately known. “We ask the Lord for healing of those injured, his loving care of those who have died and the consolation of their families,” Cardinal DiNardo said. “This incomprehensibly tragic event joins an ever-growing list of mass shootings, some of which were also at churches while people were worshipping and at prayer, he continued. “We must come to the firm determina-tion that there is a fundamental problem in our society. “A culture of life cannot tolerate, and must prevent, senseless gun violence in all its forms. May the Lord, who himself is peace,

send us his spirit of charity and nonviolence to nurture his peace among us all,” the cardinal said.

Puerto Rico still facing ‘unprecedented level of need,’ say U.S. bishops

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- As November began, the people of Puerto Rico still faced “an unprecedented level of need” because of hurricanes Irma and Maria, which devastated the island in September, said the chairmen of two U.S. bishops’ committees. They called for “meaningful action” through legislative means and emergency funds to address “both the immediate and long-term needs of the Puerto Rican popula-tion.” They also urged Catholics and all people of goodwill to show support of “our brothers and sisters in such dire need.” Irma hit Puerto Rico Sept. 7 and Maria hit Sept. 20, creating even more destruction than the first hurricane. To date, more than 70 percent of Puerto Rico is without electricity and run-ning water. Other islands, including the U.S. Virgin Islands, are also facing challenges in their recovery. In statements issued right after the storms, Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, urged Catholics to respond with prayer and other help “in this time of great need for our brothers and sisters in harm’s way -- many of whom have been hit repeat-edly by the successive hurricanes.”

Through example, saints shine God’s light in darkness, pope says

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Like stained glass windows, the saints allow the light of God to permeate the darkness of sin in the world, Pope Francis said on the feast of All Saints. Just as light enters a church through multi-colored windows, the lives of saints shine forth “according to their own shade,” the pope said Nov. 1. All the saints “have been transparent, they fought to remove the stains and darkness of sin so that the gentle light of God can pass through,” the pope said. “This is the purpose of life, even for us.” Before reciting the Angelus prayer with people gathered in St. Peter’s Square, the pope said the day was a “feast for us not because we are good but because God’s holiness has touched our lives.” The day’s Gospel reading from St. Matthew, in which Jesus proclaims the beatitudes, contains the road map for “a blessed and happy life,” which the saints followed through in their own lives and deeds, he said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- More than two years before the first atomic bomb was dropped, Pope Pius XII warned of the “catastrophic” consequences that could come from using the discovery of nuclear fission to create weapons.

Addressing the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in February 1943, Pope Pius noted that scientists were saying that nuclear technology could produce “an amount of energy that could take the place of all the large electrical power plants of the whole world.”

But, he said, it was essential to ensure the tech-nology was used only for peaceful purposes, “because otherwise the consequence could be catastrophic, not only in itself but for the whole planet.”

After the United States used atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945, Pope Pius described the nuclear bomb as “the most terrible weapon that the human mind has ever conceived.”

For more than 70 years, the popes and Catholic leaders around the globe have echoed that judgment. And while, for a time, the policy of nuclear deterrence was seen as morally acceptable as long as efforts con-tinued for a complete ban of the weapons, today that is no longer the case.

“Nuclear deterrence is increasingly seen as an ex-cuse for the permanent possession of nuclear arsenals that threaten humanity’s future,” Stephen Colecchi, director of the U.S. bishops’ Office of International Justice and Peace, wrote in a 2016 article for the blog of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs.

Colecchi is scheduled to participate in a high-level Vatican meeting Nov. 10-11 on “Perspectives for a world free from nuclear weapons and for integral disarmament.”

The conference, sponsored by the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, will bring together Nobel laureates, government and U.N. officials, theologians and peace activists to strategize ways to move the disarmament process forward.

Given that the conference is being held at a time of severely heightened tensions between the United States and North Korea, several Italian media outlets described the Vatican meeting as Pope Francis’ attempt to mediate the U.S.-North Korean crisis.

Greg Burke, director of the Vatican press office, said Oct. 30 that while Pope Francis “works with de-termination to promote the conditions necessary for a world without nuclear weapons,” it is “false to speak of a mediation on the part of the Holy See.”

Coincidentally though, the Vatican conference will take place as U.S. President Donald Trump is sched-uled to visit Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines. North Korea’s ongoing missile testing program, and Trump’s tough talk about destroying the nation, are expected to top the agenda of the Nov. 3-14 trip.

Pope continues papal pleas for disarmament

The Southeast Alaska Catholic 14 • November 2017

Ending of Our Father

Protestants have their own form of the Lord’s Prayer, ending with, “For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory. Amen.” I read in a book by a Catholic

author, first published in 1911, that “such an addition was not uttered by Our Lord. Catholics consequently do not use it.” Please comment. (Columbus, Ohio)

The answer is not quite as simple as the 1911 author suggests. True, most biblical scholars agree that the “Protestant ending” (“For thine is the kingdom ... etc.”) is not included in

the earliest Greek manuscripts of the Gospels. So “Catholic” versions of the Bible (the New American Bible, for example, which is the one read at Mass) have never included those words as coming from Jesus (neither in Mt 6:9-13 nor in Lk 11:2-4). But certain manuscripts written less than a century later do include this additional phrase, and early Christians in the Eastern part of the Roman Empire began to use it to complete the Lord’s Prayer when it was offered at Mass. The Didache, a first-century teaching document and manual of worship, likewise indicates the use of this prayer-ending at Christian worship. So, while the phrase was most likely not uttered by Jesus, it is both theologically sound and historically rooted.

OK to write off church donations? In Matthew’s Chapter 6 (v. 3-4), Jesus

says, “When you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing, so that your almsgiving may be secret. And your Father who sees in secret

will repay you.” I have always considered donating to the church (or to any charity) something that is between me and God. However, many churches now track what you give to allow you to take advantage for tax purposes. So, my question is this: If I were to write off the contributions I give to the church, wouldn’t that be contradicting the teachings of Jesus? For a long time, I’ve just assumed the answer was “Yes” and never considered doing this. What is the church’s opinion? (Fayetteville, Arkansas)

The key to answering your question comes just before the two particular verses you have quoted. Jesus was warning against putting one’s holiness

on public display. He said, “When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others” (Mt 6:2). Taking a tax deduction for charitable donations does not, in my mind, violate that caution. In your own case, you would not be seeking to draw attention to yourself, not boasting to the crowd about your splendid generosity; no one, in fact, would know what you had done except you and the IRS (and perhaps your tax accountant). The federal tax code is designed with certain social benefits in mind -- in the case of charitable and religious deductions, to encourage taxpayers to help those who are helping others. And the money you save by way of the permissible deductions actually frees up even more funds to be used for noble purposes. My only regret is that this option is available only to those who itemize deductions on Schedule A of their federal tax return -- which means that it can help you only if you choose not to take the standard deduction instead. And since each year only about 30 percent of tax filers itemize, the generosity of more than two-thirds of Americans offers no additional tax benefit.

questions&answersBY FATHER KENNETH DOYLE, CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

EFFIE CALDAROLA

For the Journey

Fall has arrived. A heavy fog hangs over the city like a damp blanket that someone took out of the dryer too soon.

People love spring for good reasons: There’s rebirth, renewal, the return of light and warmth.

But fall has its gifts. We look forward to hunkering with a good book. Mornings on the patio yield to hot coffee inside after the early morning walk.

We l e a n t owa rd contemplation, and that’s a good thing. Flowers fade, leaves fall, we think about the end of things, and remind ourselves that, for the believer, endings are temporary.

Father Karl Rahner, the Jesuit theologian, said that we eventually learn “that here, in this life, all symphonies remain unfinished.”

I find those words immensely consoling. The older I get, the more I realize that life doesn’t work out in the perfect and idealistic way I once envisioned. It doesn’t work out that way in my life, nor for this weary world in which we struggle.

As we age, the path ahead narrows. There are fewer roads from which to choose, and the “roads not taken” sometimes haunt us. In our youth, perhaps we’d hoped we’d have everything wrapped up by now. Not so.

Thinking of symphonies reminds me of my mom, who loved music and was always singing around the house or in the car. She grew up in the Depression, and came of age in World War II. She loved to dance and knew all the old songs.

When she died, we chose the hymn, “How Can I Keep From Singing?” for her funeral. Mom’s life went on in “endless song,” and I think she heard the “far-off hymn that hails a new creation.”

That hymn was unfinished, however, and I think its melody rises above what St. Paul, in Romans 8, describes as creation groaning as if in childbirth. My mom’s melody lingers in our hearts, and creation continues

to groan, awaiting birth.Another Jesuit, Father Pierre

Teilhard de Chardin, expressed sentiments similar to Father Rahner’s when he said, “Give Our Lord the benefit of believing that his hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.”

There it is again, i n c o m p l e t e n e s s , unfinished business that will remain that way even as we take our final breath. These men are telling us: Do not fear lack of a

resolution. Don’t think it’s all up to you. Trust God.

Years ago, I attended a discussion on depression and anxiety, led by a priest who himself had experienced deep depression. While sharing, one of the men attending said something that stayed with me.

In speaking of anxiety -- perhaps the anxiety of which Father de Chardin speaks -- this young man said he grappled in life with “the Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda Brothers.” These “brothers” taunted his psyche with their relentless suggestions that his choices were wrong, that he should have done something else, could have made a better decision, would have been more successful on another road.

Father de Chardin suggests we need to give the Lord the benefit of believing he’s leading us. If we make a mistake, God has a new plan for us.

Inevitably we ask, Am I making a difference? Am I on the right path? We place trust in God’s hand leading us, and move into the contemplation to which fall beckons.

History is full of unfinished symphonies, of people whose lives, however well-intentioned, didn’t accomplish what they’d hoped. In the end, it’s about finding a place with God and accepting our incompleteness in a world still groaning for the birth of justice.

Life’s unfinished symphony

Questions may be sent to Father Kenneth Doyle at askfatherdoyle@gmail.com and 30 Columbia Circle Dr. Albany, New York 12203.

The Southeast Alaska Catholic November 2017 • 15

Nobel-prizing winning author, Toni Morrison, assessing the times, asks this question: “Why should we want to know a stranger when it is easier to estrange another? Why should we want to close the distance when we can close the gate?” Except this isn’t a question, it’s a judgment.

It’s a negative judgment on both our society and our churches. Where are our hearts really at? Are we trying more to close the distance between us and what’s foreign, or are we into closing gates to keep strangers estranged?

In fairness, it might be pointed out that this has always been a struggle. There hasn’t been a golden age within which people wholeheartedly welcomed the stranger. There have been golden individuals and even golden communities who were welcoming, but never society or church as a whole.

Much as this issue is so front and center in our politics today, as countries everywhere struggle with their immigration policies and with what to do with millions of refugees and migrants wanting to enter their country, I want to take Morrison’s challenge, to close the distance rather than close the gate, to our churches: Are we inviting in the stranger? Or, are we content to let the estranged remain outside?

There is a challenging motif within Jesus’ parable of the over-generous vineyard owner which can easily be missed because of the overall lesson within the story. It concerns the question that the vineyard owner asks the last group of workers, those who will work for only one hour. Unlike the first group, he doesn’t ask them: “Do you want to work in my vineyard?” Rather he asks them: “Why aren’t you working?” Their answer: “Because no one has hired us!” Notice they don’t answer by saying that their non-employment is because they are lazy, incompetent, or disinterested. Neither does the vineyard owner’s question imply that. They aren’t working simply because no one has given them the invitation to work!

Sadly, I believe this is the case for so many people who are seemingly cold or indifferent to religion and our churches. Nobody has invited

them in! And that was true too at the time of Jesus. Whole groups of people were seen as being indifferent and hostile to religion and were deemed simply as sinners. This included prostitutes, tax collectors, foreigners, and criminals. Jesus invited them in and many of them responded with a sincerity, contrition, and devotion that shamed those who considered themselves true believers. For the so-called sinners, all that stood between them and entry into the kingdom was a genuine invitation.

Why aren’t you practicing a faith? No one has invited us!

Just in my own, admittedly limited, pastoral experience, I have seen a number of individuals who from childhood to early or late mid-life were indifferent to, and even somewhat paranoid about, religion and church. It was a world from which they had always felt excluded. But, thanks to some gracious person or fortunate circumstance, at a moment, they felt invited in and they gave themselves over to their new religious family with a disarming warmth, fervor, and gratitude, often taking a fierce pride in their new identity. Witnessing this several times, I now understand why the prostitutes and tax collectors, more than the church people at the time, believed in Jesus. He was the first religious person to truly invite them in.

Sadly, too, there’s a reverse side to this is where, all too often, in all religious sincerity, we not only don’t invite certain others in, we positively close the gates on them. We see that, for example, a number of times in the Gospels where those around Jesus block others from having access to him, as is the case in that rather

colorful story where some people are trying to bring a paralytic to Jesus but are blocked by the crowds surrounding him and consequently have to make a hole in the roof in order to lower the paralytic into Jesus’ presence.

Too frequently, unknowingly, sincerely, but blindly, we are that crowd around Jesus, blocking access to him by our presence. This is an occupational danger especially for all of us who are in ministry. We so easily, in all sincerity, in the name of Christ, in the name of orthodox theology, and in the name of sound pastoral practice set ourselves up as gatekeepers, as guardians of our churches, through whom others must pass in order to have access to God. We need to more clearly remember that Christ is the gatekeeper, and the only gatekeeper, and we need to refresh ourselves on what that means by looking at why Jesus chased the moneychangers out of the temple in John’s Gospel. They, the moneychangers, had set themselves up as a medium through which people have to pass in order to offer worship to God. Jesus would have none of it.

Our mission as disciples of Jesus is not to be gatekeepers. We need instead to work at closing the distance rather than closing the gate.

-Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser, theologian, teacher, and award-winning author, is President of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, TX. He can be contacted through his website www.ronrolheiser.com. Now on Facebook www.facebook.com/ronrolheiser

If you have any questions about the Diocesan

Policy for working with children in ministry

please contact:Victim Assistance Coordinator

and Safe Environment Coordinator for the Diocese:

MS ROBERTA IZZARD 907-586-2227 ext. 25 EMAIL: robbiei@gci.net

Safe Environment Policies:www.dioceseofjuneau.org/victim-assistance-

coordinator

Protecting our Children

RON ROLHEISER, OMI

Close the Distance not the Gate

THE SOUTHEAST ALASKA CATHOLIC considers submissions for publication that may include: Letters to the Editor, interviews, stories, event coverage, photos and artistic response that represent a local Catholic viewpoint. Please submit content or questions to communciation@dioceseofjuneau.org, or phone 907-586-2227 ext. 32.

Guidelines for Letters to the Editor:Letters to the Editor should not disparage the character of any individual but refer to issues, articles, letters and opinion pieces that have been published in the Southeast Alaska Catholic. Letters may not endorse a specific political candidate or political party. The Southeast Alaska Catholic does not publish letters that challenge established church teaching. Letters may be edited for length, taste and clarity. To inquire about submitting a guest column, contact the editor at communication@dioceseofjuneau.org.Online at www.akseac.com and Facebook • www.dioceseofjuneau.org

National Shrine of St. Therese

JUNEAU, ALASKA

Facility reservations online at www.shrineofsainttherese.org

907-586-2227 x 24

“The world’s thy ship and not thy home.”

– St. Therese of Lisieux

“I now understand why the prostitutes and tax collectors, more than the church people at the time, believed in Jesus. He was the first religious person to truly invite them in.”

The Southeast Alaska Catholic 16 • November 2017

All Souls’ Day 2017 at the National

Shrine of St. Therese

(Clockwise from the top left) The statue of St. Therese illuminated with candles before All Souls’ Day Mass, Deacon Jeff Volker and Father Pat Casey light the candles in memory of the parishioners of the Diocese of Juneau who passed away in the past year and those laid to rest at the Shrine this year, the candles glowing following the evening Mass.