St. Raphael and St. Rose

People nourished by the Latin Mass got some welcome news in July when Father Joel Hastings, pastor of St. Benedict Church in Duluth and director of liturgy for the Diocese of Duluth, announced that beginning in Advent the parish’s noon Mass on Sunday would be offered in Latin.

At least twice a month, it will be offered in the “extraordinary form” (the missal from 1962), and on the other Sundays it will be from the “ordinary form” liturgy celebrated in most parishes, but in Latin with Gregorian chant.

“I see this approach as a means to help serve as a bridge between the Traditional Latin Mass and the Mass as given to us after Vatican II, exercising in a particular way the very words of Vatican II regarding the retaining of Latin for particular parts of the Mass,” Father Hastings said in an email interview with The Northern Cross.

The other weekend parish Masses will remain in English.

In a letter to parishioners, Father Hastings noted that the parish is already known for more traditional liturgies, with most Masses celebrated “ad orientem,” meaning the priest faces the same direction as the congregation during key parts of the liturgy instead of facing the congregation. In recent years, the Traditional Latin Mass also has been frequently celebrated there, but usually outside of the parish’s normal Mass schedule.

Father Hastings’ letter said the change came out of discernment between himself and Bishop Paul Sirba on how to minister to Catholics who have been seeking the Latin Mass.

He also had to discern some things for his own part: He initially had little interest in offering the Mass as celebrated in 1962.

“I honestly did not want to even go down this road when I was first notified of my being assigned to St. Benedict’s,” he said. “I felt my ability with the Latin language was too weak to be able to rightly pray the Mass in Latin. However, over time, my heart was softened to it. I prayed about it, mindful of those who did not want it to disappear from St. Ben’s.”

He eventually became open enough to the idea that he signed up for a workshop at St. John Cantius parish in Chicago. The experience — “‘playing Mass’ for approximately six hours a day for three and a half days” and experiencing a beautiful sung Mass – moved him to praying more earnestly that if it’s what God wanted, he would be able to learn what he needed to know and have the courage to carry it out.

“While I still have much to do, I will say that prayer is being answered very swiftly,” he said.

That is going to mean new efforts for ministries in the parish. Servers will be learning new rubrics, deacons could soon find themselves chanting readings in Latin and the parish’s music ministry will be tackling a large repertoire of Gregorian chant on a weekly basis.

Parishioners also will have a lot to learn. That’s why there will be serious teaching happening before the first Sunday of Advent comes around.

“A large component of this endeavor will be catechesis,” Father Hastings said. That will include adult education on a variety of related topics, training in the parish youth programs and even multimedia aids, with recordings of sung responses.

The goal is to help everyone, even those who may be skeptical about the changes, to “greater practice of the faith in whichever form of the Mass they are drawn toward,” he said.

Father Hastings said the response so far among parishioners has been positive. In fact, some parishioners have put it in the context of the New Evangelization and Pope Francis’ call to “go to the margins.” Father Hastings sees the possibility that “a door is being opened” to some who are drawn to the Latin Mass but may not have a consistent parish home.

Some of the weekday Masses at St. Benedict will also be changing over to Latin. And the changes come along with changes to the Mass times. Noting that many of the surrounding parishes have basically the same schedule, St. Benedict is moving to Sunday Masses at 9 a.m. and noon, to give Catholics in the area more options. Those changes begin in September.

— By Kyle Eller / The Northern Cross

Northern Minnesota has been no stranger to severe summer weather the past few years, from the historic floods of 2012 to another round of flooding this year and severe weather in places like Deer River.

The latest storm hit Duluth and left tens of thousands of people without power, some for nearly a week, after winds perhaps 100 mph blew down thousands of trees, and with them, many power lines. Two Catholic institutions — St. John the Evangelist Church and Calvary Cemetery — are in some of the hardest hit areas, where tangles of trees uprooted or snapped off like matchsticks are still being cleared up.

A fallen tree next to a gravestone at Calvary Cemetery near Duluth shows just a bit of the devastation. The cemetery lost more than 100 trees and had water lines uprooted in a storm that left much of the city without power for days. (Kyle Eller / The Northern Cross)

Father Richard Kunst, pastor at St. John’s, said there was damage to the church, playground and rectory from “dozens” of trees falling — “big ones.”

“It’s probably going to be there for a while,” he said of the damage. Initial estimates are in the tens of thousands of dollars. His other parish, St. Joseph in Gnesen, had no power the Sunday after the storm ripped through, and speaking to The Northern Cross six days out from the storm, the rectory at St. John’s still didn’t have power, and neither did many of the parishioners, although it has since best restored to almost everyone.

Father Kunst said the morning of the storm was the first time he’s canceled a weekday Mass because of weather — “it was pure chaos.” A wedding got moved at the last moment to St. John’s from St. Michael’s Church in Lakeside (another hard hit area) due to power outages, and a funeral was moved to St. Mary Star of the Sea from St. John’s the day after the storm. But other than that, things have largely gone on as Father Kunst said there has been little in the way of parish outreach yet — largely because those who usually engage in that kind of ministry are busy digging out yet themselves — but it will come.

Tim Sailstad, supervisor of Calvary Cemetery, said the 70-acre facility had more than 120 trees down.

“All of the roads were blocked in various locations,” he said, and 40 to 50 headstones were tipped or uprooted, mostly from falling trees.

“The thing about tipped over stones is I imagine in 90 percent of the cases there won’t be any damage to those stones,” he said. “They just have to be reset.”

“The storm also tore up water lines as nearby trees were uprooted.”. He said he has no estimate yet of a dollar value on damage, and insurance likely will not cover tree damage within the cemetery. It will be just a lot of man-hours of work to repair it.

Work had already begun with most roads cleared and the sound of chainsaws in the air about a week after the storm came through.

“I would say the cleanup will take into the winter,” Sailstad said. “We’ll probably still be working on it next spring.”

The cemetery, too, spent days without power or telephone. “We were one of the last ones to get power back,” he said.

Sailstad said people have been very understanding — even the power company. “People have been very kind and empathetic. [It’s] quite moving actually,” he said.

— By Kyle Eller / The Northern Cross

Saint Paul tells us: “athletes deny themselves all sorts of things; they do this to win a crown of leaves that withers, but we a crown that is imperishable” (1 Corinthians 9:25).

Three years ago in Rio de Janeiro, the site of this year’s Olympics, Pope Francis offered the world’s youth something bigger than sports. He said Jesus “offers us the possibility of a fulfilled and fruitful life; he also offers us a future with him, an endless future, eternal life. But he asks us to train, ‘to get in shape,’ so that we can face every situation in life undaunted, bearing witness to our faith.”

Bishop Paul Sirba Fiat Voluntas Tua

I write today in anticipation of World Youth Day in Krakow Poland. I will catch a flight this evening with pilgrims from our diocese, and we will join more than 40,000 youth from the United States. When we reach Poland, we will add our number to the millions of young people from around the world striving to do what the Pope has asked, “getting in shape,” as we build up our faith in Jesus!

I’m not sure our group includes any elite athletes, but we carry in our bodies and in our hearts a precious treasure — Jesus. To symbolize this, since 1984 the World Youth Day Cross and an icon of the Blessed Virgin are entrusted to the youth from host country to host country.

The cross is the symbol of the love of Jesus Christ for humanity. We are called to announce to everyone our love of Jesus, and that only in His death and resurrection can we find salvation and redemption. The icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary teaches us that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary and accompanied by His Mother in history. Mary is ever close to us.

I was privileged to be present at World Youth Day in Rio when the Cross and icon were entrusted to the youth from Poland. Along with Father Tony Wroblewski, our seminarians, Heather Serena and some extraordinary youth leaders and youths from our diocese, we will be present when the next World Youth Day will be announced and the Cross and icon entrusted to the next host country’s youth and to us.

I hope you have had an opportunity to follow us on our blog site www.dioceseduluthwyd.org or the World Youth Day website. We will also strive to tell the story of our experiences in Krakow and share our faith in Jesus when we return.

This year’s World Youth Day takes place within the Jubilee Year of Mercy in the city where St. John Paul conceived the idea of World Youth Day. God’s mercy, I believe, will be overflowing. Our group will be holding you and all of your intentions as we are on pilgrimage. I pray God’s abundant mercy upon our beloved Diocese. Jesus I trust in you!

Bishop Paul D. Sirba is the ninth bishop of Duluth. Bishop Paul D. Sirba is the ninth bishop of Duluth.

More than 150 people came to Queen of Peace Church in Cloquet June 27 to view and venerate the relics of two English martyrs — St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More — during the hour and a half the Strength of the Saints tour’s visit to the Diocese of Duluth.

It was the second Minnesota stop on the tour, after a similar event in St. Paul the evening before.

A family stands near the relics of St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More as a member of the Knights of Columbus looks on June 27 at Queen of Peace Church in Cloquet. The faithful were given an opportunity to view and venerate the relics following Mass and a short historical presentation. (Kyle Eller / The Northern Cross)

The compressed schedule began with Mass, celebrated by Duluth Bishop Paul Sirba, followed by a brief historical presentation by Jan Graffius, the relics’ curator at Stonyhurst College in Lancashire, England.

The event concluded — and ran a bit past the 11 a.m. departure time — with the opportunity for those gathered to pray with the relics individually, touching glass cases enclosing a ring of Fisher and a reliquary with part of the skull and tooth of More.

Bishop Sirba, in his homily, said that like many he had come to know about St. Thomas through the awardwinning movie “A Man for All Seasons.” But he also described having the opportunity to visit England and pray in the Tower of London where the two saints were kept before their martyrdom under King Henry VIII.

He called to mind a comment of the late Cardinal Francis George, of the Archdiocese of Chicago, who once said he expected to die in his bed while his successor died in prison and his successor as a martyr in the public square.

“I remember visiting with Cardinal George thinking that’s quite a trajectory,” Bishop Sirba said. He noted that the challenges to religious liberty confronting the faithful are “manifold and complicated.”

He urged the faithful to be informed and active but most of all to appeal to God.

“The victory is the Lord’s,” he said, and being at an event like the relic tour “does more good than we can imagine.”

Graffius gave short biographies of the two saints — both renowned scholars — and the growing conflict between church and state in their time that culminated in Henry VIII’s decision to declare himself head of the church and require his people to swear to it. Fisher, a bishop, was the sole bishop in England to refuse.

She also described the relics themselves and how they were acquired, in the case of the relic of St. Thomas, passed down through his daughter Meg.

Graffius said she does a lot of teaching and said there are two points she likes to make. First, she said, great faith comes at a price, whether it is in the form of ridicule or poor finances or lack of promotions or even the ultimate price illustrated in the martyrs.

Second, she said people of faith could take inspiration from the two saints to bring an informed faith to the public square, which needs it.

“Although they are Englishmen, they have a message for the whole world,” she said.

The tour came to Minnesota as part of a tour that began June 18 in Miami and had already passed through Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. After Minnesota, plans were for the tour to continue to Denver, Phoenix, Los Angeles and finally Washington, D.C.

The June 27 stop in Cloquet was the first of the day, followed by stops in Bemidji and St. Cloud. The following day had scheduled stops in the New Ulm and Rochester dioceses before the tour left the state.

The tour is part of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Fortnight for Freedom, this year under the theme “Witnesses to Freedom.”

— By Kyle Eller / The Northern Cross

The Catholic Bishops of the State of Minnesota issued a joint statement May 25, the day which marks the expiration of the Minnesota Child Victims Act, which allowed civil suits on sexual abuse cases that were previously outside the statute of limitations. The statement apologizes to all who have been hurt by sexual abuse and thanks those who have come forward, reiterating the Church’s commitment to "work every day to make sure our churches, schools and communities are safe for all people – especially children."

Read the full statement here. 

Today marks the deadline for filing claims of sexual abuse of minors under an agreement entered into as part of the bankruptcy process for the Diocese of Duluth.

Duluth Bishop Paul D. Sirba issued the following statement:

The past three years have allowed many victims of clergy sexual abuse to come forward who had not previously done so. Even a single victim would be one too many, so to know that more than 100 have come forward in our diocese after all these decades is heartbreaking. And there are others who, for a variety of reasons, have not come forward. Each of these individuals also represents many loved ones who have suffered with them. I am so sorry for your suffering.

To every victim, I want to reiterate a message I have repeatedly shared with Catholic parishioners across northeastern Minnesota over the past several months: We love you and want to help bring healing. Your life is a gift of God that we cherish. In our eyes you remain our brothers and sisters no matter what your feelings toward the church may be.

As we have for many years, we continue to invite anyone who has not yet come forward to do so. We will continue to offer whatever help we can.

Together with all the Catholic faithful, I want you to know that for more than two decades, this diocese has, with hard, dedicated work, made protecting young people a chief commitment. That work will continue with the same determination and vigilance in the years to come.

We will continue to offer victims our support, our prayers and whatever help we can.

Bishop Paul D. Sirba has announced the following clergy assignments, effective July 13, 2016.

Father Charles Flynn has retired. He was pastor of Resurrection, Eveleth, and St. Joseph, Gilbert.

Father Fredrick Method has retired. He was pastor of St. Joseph, Chisholm, and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Buhl.

Father Dale Nau has retired. He was pastor of St. Joseph, Crosby, and St. Joseph, Deerwood.

Father Terence Figel, OMI, has retired. He was pastor of Holy Family, Duluth.

Father Kuriakose Nediakala, MCBS, is assigned as pastor of Holy Family, McGregor, and Our Lady of Fatima, McGrath. He was pastor of St. Charles, Cass Lake.

Father Elias Gieske is assigned as pastor of St. Joseph, Crosby, and St. Joseph, Deerwood. He was parochial vicar of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary, St. Mary Star of the Sea and Our Lady of Mercy, Duluth.

Father William Fider is assigned as pastor of St. Lawrence, St. Joseph and Holy Family, Duluth. He was pastor of St. Lawrence and St. Joseph, Duluth.

Father Steven Daigle is assigned as pastor of St. Mary, Deer River; St. Charles, Cass Lake; and St. Joseph, Ball Club. He was pastor of Our Lady of Hope, Aurora.

Father Anthony Craig is assigned as pastor of St. Joseph, Chisholm, and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Buhl. He was pastor of St. Mary, Deer River, and St. Joseph, Ball Club.

Father Peter Lambert is assigned as pastor of Our Lady of Hope, Aurora. He had been serving as a substitute priest.

Father Michael Garry is assigned as pastor of Resurrection, Eveleth, and St. Joseph, Gilbert. He was parochial vicar of St. James, Duluth.

Father Blake Rozier is assigned as parochial vicar of St. James, Duluth. He was parochial vicar of St. Francis, Brainerd; All Saints, Baxter; and St. Thomas of the Pines, Pine Beach.

Father Timothy Lange is assigned as parochial vicar of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary, St. Mary Star of the Sea and Our Lady of Mercy, Duluth. He was parochial vicar of St. Joseph, Grand Rapids, and St. Augustine, Cohasset.

Back in the fall of 1987, when I was a senior in high school, my paternal grandmother had died. To this day, it is one of the more traumatic deaths I have experienced.

Though her death was expected due to cancer, she was a massive influence in my young life, especially when it comes to the faith. I was very close to my grandmother, and I give her much credit on the human level for inspiring me towards the priesthood.

Father Richard Kunst Apologetics

That following week at school, I ran into one of my teachers in the hallway between classes. Though I am not sure how this teacher found out about it, she said a few words to me about my grandmother’s death. Her comments even back then struck me as very odd. She said, “Richard, I am sorry to hear about your grandma dying. I will keep her in my thoughts.”

Now on the face of it, that was a very nice thing to say, and in no way do I question the motives as anything other than being charitable and thoughtful. But the question I was asking myself even back as a 12th-grader was, “What’s the point of keeping someone in your thoughts?” There would be no benefit for my grandmother to have a stranger think about her.

On the last Monday of May, our nation celebrates what I believe to be one of the more important civic holidays — Memorial Day. Originally called “Decorating Day,” it was a day set aside for decorating graves of soldiers of the American Civil War. As time went on it evolved into a day to remember veterans of all wars, and hence the name change to Memorial Day.

One of the modern-day tragedies in our country is that Memorial Day weekend has come to be nothing more than a three-day weekend for people. It is the one day of the year that is meant to honor those who served our country and sacrificed for her.

So why is Memorial Day so Catholic? And what does it have to do with my grandmother?

I understand the importance of remembering people who sacrificed for our country. Remembering them is one way to keep their spirit alive. But the fact is, simply remembering them really is no benefit to the ones we are remembering!

It’s like my teacher in 12th grade telling me she would keep my grandmother in her thoughts. While it is a nice thought, there really is nothing beneficial about it.

Almost every year on Memorial Day our bishop or some other diocesan representative says a Mass at our diocesan cemetery, Calvary Cemetery in Duluth. This practice, and Masses like it throughout the whole country, are what make this federal holiday a very Catholic holiday.

As I mentioned above, remembering someone is nice, but it is limited in its value. Remembering people from the Catholic perspective is of greater value when the memory is accompanied by our praying for them. If my 12th grade teacher would have told me that she was keeping my grandmother in her thoughts and prayers, that would have meant so much more! When we remember the soldiers who sacrificed for us and keep them in our prayers at the same time, then the holiday becomes much more meaningful.

I suppose the other “Christian” secular holiday would be Thanksgiving. Who are we thanking for all of our blessings? Our bosses at work? No, we are thanking God. He is the source of all of our blessings.

But Memorial Day is particularly Catholic, because we profess the truth that even after death God cleanses us from our sins and the effect our sins have on our souls. Praying for the dead is not common to all Christian religions, but to us it is sacred.

So this coming Memorial Day weekend, when you go to the cemetery, don’t just decorate the graves with flowers. Pray for your deceased loved while you visit where they are laid to rest. And even if they don’t need your prayers, God in his divine wisdom never allows any prayer to go to waste.

Editor’s note: Bishop Paul Sirba will be celebrating Mass on Memorial Day, Monday, May 30, at 10 a.m. at Calvary Cemetery, 4820 Howard Gnesen Road in Duluth. All are welcome to attend.

Father Richard Kunst is pastor of St. John the Evangelist in Duluth and St. Joseph in Gnesen. Reach him at rbkunst@q.com.

There is a teacher at my Catholic school who just died. He was so young, and all of us students loved him so much. We all miss him so much. I am beginning to doubt my faith in all of this. What can I do?

Thank you so much for asking this question. There are times when “an answer” is not necessarily “the answer” that we need. This might be that time.

Father Michael Schmitz Ask Father Mike

You asked the question what you can do to keep your faith in the face of death and loss, but there are real wounds in your heart and in the hearts of the people around you. I think that wounds first need healing, not lecturing.

I am going to talk about what faith is and the role of faith. I am also going to offer some thoughts on how we look at death. But please be patient with me. I am a (relatively) old man who has been thinking and praying and living with things like suffering, death and faith for a long time.

I think I may have started diving into these realities when I was about 15 years old. Because of that, I sometimes forget to be patient and gentle with others who may not have encountered death before. I sometimes am too quick to give an answer rather than to remember that your encounter with death is not simply your reflecting on the concept of death; you have lost a significant person in your life. At this moment, death is very personal for you.

Your sadness, your grief, your loss: this is personal. And I think that this is a good place to start. Faith is personal as well.

I don’t merely mean to say that “faith is one’s personal belief.” I am saying that Christian faith is not faith in an idea. Christian faith is trust in a Person. Too many people will reduce their faith to a set of beliefs. Of course, those beliefs are absolutely essential. The Creed is necessary, since it encapsulates the “stuff” we believe about God. But faith isn’t merely believing in a list of “whats.” Faith is trust in a “Who.”

If faith were no more than hoping for an outcome (“I have faith that everything will work out”), then it would be incredibly tenuous. At the first sign that we didn’t get what we wanted, at the first moment when we experienced loss, at the first major obstacle in life, we would be dangerously poised to abandon a faith that “didn’t deliver.”

But as Christians, our faith is not hope for an outcome. Our faith is trust in a Person.

We have faith in the God who created all that is. We have faith in the God who is the source of all that is good and loving and true.

We have faith in the God who loves us and was even willing to redeem us through his own work of becoming human, suffering and dying for us.

We have faith in the God who has proven that we can trust him even when all appears darkest. This whole thing is about trusting the God who has proven that he is trustworthy — even in the face of death.

For you to have faith, then, might look a certain way. It doesn’t mean that you can’t be sad. In fact, the more we love someone, the more their absence in our life hurts us. It doesn’t mean that you don’t grieve. We mourn any number of things when someone dies. We grieve over what might have been. We weep for all of the lives they could have touched and made more joyful. We are heartbroken for all of the things we should have done for them or said to them. Sometimes death is the only thing that reminds us how special other people are.

But we also have hope. And faith. Remember, our faith is trust in the Person of Jesus. Jesus has conquered death and has made it possible for us to live with God forever.

Your teacher knew Jesus. Your teacher had faith in Jesus. You can therefore have faith that the same Jesus who rose from the dead can also raise up your teacher. While our hearts are broken, and while we grieve over the loss of this good person and over our various regrets, if we love them we also have joy. Your teacher had faith in Jesus. Now your teacher doesn’t need faith anymore. Your teacher has Jesus.

You asked, “What can I do?”

We know that most of those who die in Christ are not fully prepared to enter into the fullness of God’s presence. Most of us will need to experience some kind of purification. You can actually help your teacher by praying for him. Offer up your Holy Communion for his soul. Offer up praying the rosary for him and for all the souls in purgatory.

When you walk by his classroom, rather than merely be reminded of your loss, also be reminded to pray for him.

Pray for your teacher and for every person who has died. And when you do this, know that your faith will gain ever greater strength, because you will be exercising it. Every prayer you utter will be an exercise of trust in the Person of Jesus Christ.

Father Michael Schmitz is director of youth and young adult ministry for the Diocese of Duluth and chaplain of the Newman Center at the University of Minnesota Duluth.