St. Raphael and St. Rose

By Joyce Coronel/Catholic News Service—Clergy, religious and laity jammed into St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Phoenix for a standing-room-only funeral Mass for Father Kenneth Walker June 16.

The 28-year-old priest was fatally injured June 11 in an attack at a different church, one that stands in the shadows of the state Capitol buildings. A second priest, Father Joseph Terra, 56, was critically injured.

CNS photo/Joyce Coronel, The Catholic Sun Father Eric Flood, superior of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter religious order in North America, reads over the casket of Father Kenneth Walker during his funeral Mass June 16 at St. Catherine of Siena Church in Phoenix.

Father Walker died at the hospital, and Father Terra was hospitalized in critical but stable condition. He has since been released from intensive care.

Phoenix police announced hours before the funeral Mass that they had a suspect in custody for the slaying and assault.

Gary Michael Moran, 54, a transient who was released from prison in April, was arrested June 15 at 9 p.m. at a psychiatric treatment center some four miles northwest of Mater Misericordiae (Mother of Mercy) Mission, where the two priests served.

Phoenix Police Chief Daniel Garcia said the attack on the two priests was a “horrific crime” and that the department felt an urgency to find the perpetrator.

Father Walker, a priest since 2012, was parochial vicar at Mater Misericordiae. Father Terra, a priest since 1989, was the pastor. Both were ordained for the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter.

Garcia, along with Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton and other city officials, attended the funeral Mass prior to a noon news conference at police headquarters. Garcia noted that the Catholic community had “come together as a family to support each other” in the aftermath of the attack.

“I’m very pleased we were able to make this arrest,” Garcia said. “We wanted to bring closure as quickly as possible in this case.”

Moran has a long history of criminal activity, police say, including arrests for assault, burglary, prohibited possession of a weapon, theft of a vehicle and illegal drugs. He was released from jail in April after serving more than 85 percent of his sentence for burglary and aggravated assault.

The judge set Moran’s bail at $1 million in cash only.

At the time of his arrest, Moran was in a wheelchair, but police do not believe he is wheelchair-bound. According to police, Father Terra and Father Walker did not know Moran.

Garcia said there was no warrant out for Moran’s arrest, but that members of the community came forward via the Silent Witness program and offered information that led to the arrest.

Moran made admissions about the attack on the priests during his interrogation by detectives but ultimately invoked his right to an attorney.

“We believe this was a crime of opportunity,” Garcia said.

Father Terra, police said, heard a noise outside the rectory and opened the door to investigate, only to be attacked. Father Walker heard the melee and came from his room. That’s when the suspect allegedly shot him.

Police say that Father Terra was beaten with an angled iron during the assault and that the gun used in the murder belonged to Father Terra. Moran was able to overpower Father Terra and take the weapon from him.

At the funeral Mass, Father Eric Flood, the North American superior of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, spoke about Father Walker’s love of celebrating Mass.

“If someone were to ask him if he would still want to be priest if he knew he would someday be killed, he would probably say yes,” Father Flood said, “even to say Mass just once.”

He also offered what he said would be Father Walker’s advice to the killer.

“His advice would probably be that he should grow in his friendship with God. Father Walker would say that there was a thief crucified alongside Christ, and our Lord turned to him and said, ‘This day you will be with me in paradise,’” Father Flood said.

Father Terra, despite his severe injuries, was able to attend the Mass where he sat in a wheelchair near the altar. His arms were bandaged and he kept his head lowered throughout the service that was celebrated in Latin. Mass at Mater Misericordiae is celebrated in the extraordinary form, commonly known as the Tridentine rite.

Phoenix Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted offered his condolences to the community over the loss of Father Walker.

“His two years of being a priest were a blessing to all of us,” Bishop Olmsted said.

He also spoke to the many priests in the congregation.

“We feel a great fraternal love and great closeness to one another as we work together to serve Christ and his church,” Bishop Olmsted said. “We’ve lost a beloved brother.”

Despite the tragic loss, Bishop Olmsted offered words of hope. Jesus, by his resurrection, overcame death, the bishop said. Christ is not only the perfect high priest, he also is the innocent victim, just as Father Walker was an innocent victim of a violent crime.

“He fell asleep in Christ and awaked into the loving arms of his Savior, and with that hope we go forward honoring him and seeking ourselves to be faithful followers of Christ,” Bishop Olmsted said.

At the news conference held at police headquarters, Phoenix City Councilman Michael Nowakowski said he believed Father Walker would want the community to come up with a plan to help those recently released from prison to reintegrate into society. Moran was splitting the time since his arrest between living on the streets and in shelters.

Coronel is interim managing editor at The Catholic Sun, newspaper of the Phoenix Diocese.

Elise Harris/Catholic News Agency—After having her death sentence for refusing to renounce her Christian faith revoked by the Sudanese court yesterday, Meriam Ibrahim has been re-arrested along with her husband at an airport.

According to BBC, about 40 security officers detained Ibrahim along with her husband, Daniel Wani, and their two children Tuesday at an airport in Sudan’s capitol while attempting to leave the country.

Catholic News AgencyMeriam Ibrahim is pictured in this undated image with her husband Daniel Wani.

Further details regarding the reasons why the couple were arrested have not been made available.

The arrest follows Ibrahim’s release from prison Monday after an appeals court dismissed her death sentence.

In May, the 27-year-old woman had been charged with abandoning Islam under Sudanese law. Because her father was a Muslim, Ibrahim was legally considered a Muslim even though her mother raised her as a Christian after her father left the family when she was 6 years old.

Despite pressure and multiple death threats, Ibrahim refused to renounce her Christian faith while in prison.

Her husband, Daniel Wani, told the BBC Monday that he was looking forward to seeing his wife and wanted his family to leave Sudan as soon as possible.

The couple’s young son Martin has lived in prison with his mother since February. Ibrahim gave birth to their second child, a baby girl, while in prison in May.

Besides the crime of apostasy — or the abandoning of the Islamic faith — Ibrahim was also charged with adultery. Her marriage to her Christian husband was not considered valid since she was considered a Muslim.

She was to receive 100 lashes for the adultery charge and was sentenced to death by hanging for apostasy.

For the third year, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is hosting the Fortnight for Freedom, this year focusing on the Freedom to Serve — for the right of Christians to help those in need in accord with their consciences. More resources are available from the USCCB. Read more >>

Catholic News Agency/EWTN News—Beloved media personality Archbishop Fulton Sheen is one step closer to beatification after a panel of Vatican theologians unanimously recognized the miraculous recovery of a stillborn baby attributed to Sheen’s intercession.

The Diocese of Peoria said June 17 that its bishop, Daniel Jenky, was informed of the decision by the seven-member theological commission that advises the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

A medical panel advising the congregation had in March unanimously ruled that there is no medical explanation for the baby’s recovery.

Catholic News Agency Archbishop Fulton Sheen, who died in 1979 and whose cause for beatification is open.

The congregation’s cardinals and bishops will now review the case. If they and Pope Francis approve, Archbishop Sheen could then be beatified.

The miracle involves the unexplained recovery of James Fulton Engstrom, a boy apparently stillborn in September 2010 to Bonnie and Travis Engstrom of the Peoria-area town of Goodfield. Engstrom showed no signs of life as medical professionals tried to revive him. The child’s mother and father prayed to Archbishop Sheen to heal their son.

Although the baby showed no pulse for an hour after his birth, his heart started beating again, and he escaped serious medical problems.

Archbishop Sheen became a popular radio personality in the 1930s, teaching about the Catholic faith. He went on to host the Emmy-award winning television show “Life is Worth Living” and several other television shows, reaching millions of television viewers in the 1950s and 1960s.

He authored many books, whose profits he dedicated to serving foreign missions, health clinics, orphanages and schools.

Archbishop Sheen has roots in the Peoria Diocese: he was born in El Paso, 32 miles east of the cathedral city, in 1895.

His family moved to Peoria, and he grew up in the parish of the Cathedral of St. Mary, where he was an altar boy. He was ordained a priest at the cathedral in 1919.

He served as a professor at the Catholic University of America and headed the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in the United States. He was an auxiliary bishop of New York, and Bishop of Rochester.

He was a leading figure in U.S. Catholicism until his death in 1979 at the age of 84.

Bishop Jenky opened Archbishop Sheen’s cause for sainthood in 2002. In June 2012 Pope Benedict XVI recognized Archbishop Sheen as having heroic virtues, giving him the title “Servant of God.”

The Diocese of Peoria said it is not known when further action on Archbishop Sheen’s cause will be taken.

If Pope Francis approves of his cause, the beatification ceremony for Archbishop Sheen could be celebrated in Peoria.

Another recognized miracle attributed to Sheen would lead to his canonization.

RELEASE ON REQUEST
June 11, 2014

Statement of Father James Bissonette, vicar general, Diocese of Duluth:

“We’ve just become aware of the allegations concerning Father Timothy Backous, OSB, a priest of St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, MN, and an incident with a minor that is alleged to have occurred in 1990. To our knowledge, Father Backous has carried out his duties here — assisting at St. Michael’s parish, Duluth, on weekends — in an exemplary manner and consistent with his vows and responsibilities. Nonetheless, we take such matters extremely seriously and have asked Father Backous to suspend his weekend work at the parish until a fuller examination of the facts can be completed.”

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The month of June traditionally includes devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the month in which the devotion is celebrated in the liturgy (June 27). Devotion to the Sacred Heart also takes place in the first Friday of each month.

You can find more information on the Sacred Heart devotion in the June issue of The Northern Cross. Here is another resource, a devotional page provided by the Eternal Word Television Network.

Catholic News Agency/EWTN News—A federal court has ruled that the Catholic Benefits Association and its hundreds of employer members are exempt from a federal mandate requiring coverage of contraceptives and abortifacient drugs.

“We are grateful for the ruling, but continue to pray that our leaders recognize that Catholics, whether bishops or businessmen, cannot in good conscience provide insurance that covers drugs and procedures that undermine the dignity of the human person and the sanctity of human life,” Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City, the benefit association’s vice-president, said June 5.

“Religious freedom entails more than the right to worship, and any contrary legislation must be opposed,” he added.

Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, the association’s president, also welcomed the decision.

“We formed the Catholic Benefits Association to support Catholic employers in providing quality, cost-competitive, morally compliant health care benefits for their employees,” he said June 5. “Yesterday’s decision makes this a reality.”

On June 4, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma ruled that the more than 450 employer members of the benefits association are exempt from the mandate. The ruling enjoined the U.S. government and its agents from attempting to enforce the mandate against the association’s members.

The benefits association’s general counsel, Martin Nussbaum, said the ruling is “especially gratifying” because the lawsuit is the only challenge to the HHS mandate that includes Catholic-owned for-profit businesses and other non-exempt organizations like colleges, Catholic Charities and healthcare institutions in addition to houses of worship.

The benefits association’s employers include 23 Catholic archdioceses and dioceses and almost 2,000 parishes in addition to nonprofits and Catholic-owned for-profit businesses. Its membership is also open to Catholic religious congregations, Catholic medical facilities, and Catholic universities.

The Catholic Benefits Association formed a subsidy, the Catholic Insurance Company, to allow Catholic employers to exercise their faith in what health care coverage they provide to their employees. The association also arranges health provider networks to help Catholic employers provide comprehensive health care that is consistent with Catholic ethics.

The Department of Health and Human Services mandate requires employers to provide insurance coverage of sterilization and contraception, including some drugs that can cause early abortions.

Widespread complaint led to a series of changes in the mandate into its current finalized form. A religious exemption to the mandate does exist, but it applies primarily to houses of worship and their affiliated organizations.

Religious employers that do not qualify for the exemption are instead offered an “accommodation” by the government, under which employees automatically receive contraceptive coverage from the objecting groups’ health insurance issuers.

These provisions have continued to draw criticism and legal complaints from hundreds of individuals and organizations who argue that their right to exercise their religious beliefs freely is being violated by the requirements.

In addition, neither the exemption nor the accommodation applies to individuals with religious or moral objections who own for-profit businesses.

Wednesday’s federal ruling on the class action lawsuit recognized that the benefits association could represent all its individual members without their explicit participation because its members are “so uniform in their beliefs.”

The named participants in the lawsuit include the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, Catholic Charities of Oklahoma City, Inc., Archbishop Lori and the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

Archbishop Coakley said that the U.S. government has already “effectively granted exemptions from the mandate to various employers whose plans cover more than 130 million employees.”

“We’re simply seeking the same exemption for Catholic employers who have religious objections to the unjust requirements of the mandate.”

According to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, the mandate has prompted some 100 lawsuits from more than 300 plaintiffs, including nonprofits, for-profits, Catholic and non-Catholic organizations, and individual states. So far, court decisions have predominantly favored the objecting groups.

A significant Supreme Court case involving the legal challenge filed by craft store giant Hobby Lobby is expected to be decided later this month.

“Mercy me!” What are people getting at with this exclamation? Like many of the strange utterances of the English language, it speaks to a certain aspect of our human experience, namely, that we need mercy. Not everyone recognizes this truth, but its truth is for everyone. What “Mercy me!” really says is, “Goodness gracious, I need mercy, so have mercy on me, and soon!” (USCCB) Read more >>

The Northern Cross

Deacons Timothy Lange and Blake Rozier will be ordained to the priesthood on Friday, June 20, at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary, a year to the day after they were ordained transitional deacons. Mass begins at 4 p.m.

The two transitional deacons are also hosting a Holy Hour at the Cathe- dral the evening before in preparation for the ordination. Prayers will be led at the hour by Bishop Paul Sirba, beginning at 5:30 p.m. June 19.

Deacon Rozier, the son of Mark and Mary Rozier, comes from Holy Spirit Church in Virginia, and Dea- con Lange, the son of Greg and Mary Lange, is from St. Andrew’s in Brain- erd. Both studied at St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul.

Each newly ordained priest will hold a Mass of Thanksgiving the following day, June 21, at his home parish.

After his ordination, Father Lange’s Mass of Thanksgiving will be held at St. Andrew at 10:30 a.m. Father Rozier’s Mass of Thanksgiving will be held at Holy Spirit at noon.

There is no transitional deacon ordination this year.

Catholic News Agency/EWTN News—Work is “both a gift and a duty,” Pope Francis told a United Nations labor agency in a message calling for an end to human trafficking and for greater concern for migrants and the unemployed, especially the young.

“At the dawn of creation, God made man the steward of his handiwork and charged him to cultivate and protect it,” the pope said May 28 to the International Labor Conference. “Human labor is part of that creation and continues God’s creative work.”

Labor is “not a mere commodity” but has “its own inherent dignity and worth.”

Elise Harris/CNA Pope Francis greets pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square before the Wednesday general audience Oct. 30, 2013.

The International Labor Conference is hosting its 103rd session from May 28 to June 12 in Geneva. The conference is sponsored by the International Labor Organization, a U.N. agency that aims to promote internationally recognized labor rights, employment opportunities, social protections and dialogue on work-related issues.

Pope Francis said that Catholic social teaching supports the organization’s initiatives that promote “the dignity of the human person and the nobility of human labor.”

Citing his 2013 apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (“The Joy of the Gospel”), the pope said that it is only “through free, creative, participatory and mutually supportive work that human beings express and enhance the dignity of their life.”

The pontiff voiced the Holy See’s appreciation for the organization’s contributions to increasing cooperation between governments, employers and workers.

The pope noted the problem of unemployment, particularly among the young who can easily become “demoralized” and feel “alienated from society.”

“Unemployment is tragically expanding the frontiers of poverty,” he said.

Pope Francis also spoke of mass migration as a cause for concern, noting “the sheer numbers of men and women forced to work away from their homelands.”

“Despite their hopes for a better future, they frequently encounter mistrust and exclusion, to say nothing of experiencing tragedies and disasters,” he said.

Migrant workers can be victims of the “globalization of indifference” and risk the “horror” of human trafficking, forced labor and enslavement.

“This cannot continue! Human trafficking is a scourge, a crime against the whole of humanity,” the pope said. “It is time to join forces and work together to free its victims and to eradicate this crime that affects all of us, from individual families to the worldwide community.”

He called for a “concerted effort to encourage governments to facilitate the movement of immigrants for the benefit of all” to help eliminate trafficking.

The pope also called for more cooperation and an expansion of solidarity throughout society.

He spoke of the need for a renewed insistence on human dignity, a “more determined implementation” of global labor standards, better development, and a “re-evaluation” of the responsibilities of international corporations.

The pope’s message concluded with a prayer: “I invoke God’s blessing on all that you do to defend and advance the dignity of work for the common good of our human family.”

Guy Ryder, director general of the International Labor Organization, delivered his own opening remarks at the conference May 28. He warned of the danger of mistreatment and abuse of migrant workers as well as the problems of forced labor. He spoke of the need to aid transitions from an “informal” economy to a “formal” economy with explicit labor standards.