St. Raphael and St. Rose

Urge your Senator to resist the throwaway culture and vote NO on the protect reproductive options act (S.F. 1 McEwen). It has already passed the MN House, and is heading to the Senate soon!

This bill goes farther than just "codifying Roe," and instead works to enshrine into law an abortion regime that disregards prenatal human life, even the life of a pre-born child whose heart is beating, who can feel pain, and who is viable outside the womb. 

Beyond abortion, the bill directs state courts to protect the “fundamental right” to reproductive freedom, regardless of the wisdom or ethics of those technologies or procedures. This element has gone unnoticed by many observers and legislators, but its impact could be enormous .... Read more >>

By Gianna Bonello 
Central Minnesota Catholic 

With the start of the 2023 Minnesota legislative session Jan. 3, the Minnesota Catholic Conference, the official public policy voice of the Catholic Church in Minnesota, is putting families at the top of its advocacy strategy for the year.

Ryan Hamilton, government relations associate, and Maggee Hangge, policy and public relations associate, work together at MCC’s new office, just across from the Minnesota State Capitol. (Photo by Gianna Bonello / The Central Minnesota Catholic)

“Oftentimes in the public arena, we’re stuck dealing with the downstream challenges of family fragmentation, poverty, addiction. … We thought it would be prudent to think about going upstream in the policy ecosystem and think about, how do we promote and strengthen the well-being of families?” said Jason Adkins, executive director of MCC. 

In addition, with the push from some legislators to remove limitations on abortion, Adkins also stressed that “if we’re going to have a permissive abortion policy in Minnesota, we also want to make Minnesota the best place to have a child, raise a child, and help that child flourish.” 

In light of this goal, MCC will promote a “Families First” agenda — a series of bills and policies that seeks to put families first by promoting the economic and holistic prosperity of families. 

“We want to lower barriers to family formation and having a child,” Adkins said. 

To date, there are 13 different policy proposals as part of the Families First Project. Among them are a “lifetime state income tax exemption for women who have four or more children,” a “Minnesota Minivan Act,” which would create a grant program to offer $5,000 to families with three or more children to buy a larger vehicle, and a “paid caregiver leave policy.” 

The centerpiece, Adkins said, is the child tax credit, which is a fully refundable per-child tax credit that would offer $1,200 to $1,800 a year. 

“We think it’s a matter of what we call tax justice and tax fairness to families,” he said. 

Adkins said the Families First Project “transcends” both partisan and ecclesial divides. 

“It can both strengthen families … and encourage family formation and childbearing, but it also can help economically support those most disadvantaged,” he said. “It’s tailored toward low- and middle-income families,” he said. 

Adkins believes the Project can give Catholics a cause to rally around. He stressed the importance of the family as the building block of society and a mirror of the Trinity. 

“We’ll be focusing on about five or six [proposals] from the standpoint of our staff this session, but we’ll also be encouraging Catholics and giving them the tools on our website to advocate for these bills themselves,” Adkins said. 

He noted the Catholic call to faithful citizenship, saying the tools MCC provides are not just advocacy resources, but catechetical tools as well. 

“We want to help Catholics understand how Catholic social teaching applies in a variety of contexts,” he said. 

Achieving the goals of the Family First initiative will take time. MCC hopes to get the majority of bills for the Families First Project passed by the end of the 2026 legislative session. 

Adkins encouraged Catholics to join and rally for the cause. As faithful citizens, it’s not just about showing up to vote every couple of years, but about being an “advocate for policies that impact human dignity and the common good,” he said. 

“Pick a policy, educate yourself about it and the potential impact; we give you the tools on the website, and then go talk to your legislator,” he said. 

This could be done through parish groups, such as a respect life committee or social concerns group. He said the project is “a powerful opportunity to come together and advocate for good legislation.” 

Other issues that the Minnesota Catholic Conference will be monitoring in 2023: 

• Legalization of recreational marijuana: “We will take a strong opposition to the legalization of recreational marijuana, which is not simply decriminalization,” Adkins said. “We think there could be reforms to sentencing laws and other things that have a social and racial justice impact. But oftentimes people are using the need to do sentencing reform and criminal justice reform as an excuse to create a commercial and recreational marijuana business, and we think that’s definitely the wrong approach.”
• Education savings account and school choice: MCC will continue to advocate for education savings accounts as a different paradigm for education finance. “Education dollars should follow students, and not systems. … School choice is a positive alternative to simply putting more money into the system as a balm for addressing persistent achievement gaps, the presence of very divisive curriculum, and … underperforming schools that for whatever reason aren’t serving some students’ well-being.”
• Technology access reform: “I don’t think [some] people fully grasp the way in which technology companies are targeting our children …. Some of the things we’ve already been supporting was a bill last year that limited the use by tech companies of certain algorithms that target and seek to pull in children and young people to their social media platforms. … There also needs to be some consideration given to allowing parents to approve whether or not their child uses social media apps.”
• Immigrant driver’s licenses: “We’re forming our coalition and working on provisional immigrant driver’s licenses. It’s back on the table, so we’re looking forward to finally perhaps getting that across the finish line.” The measure would improve the situation of immigrant families and protect public safety, according to MCC.
• Human services and homelessness: “We’ll continue to work on homelessness issues and making sure that our human services programs are protected and that there are relative cost-of-living adjustments when appropriate.” 

Inside the Capitol 

The 2023 legislative session will be filled with challenges and opportunities. Governor Walz and DFL legislative majority leaders promised to use their historic “trifecta” to, at the outset, make our state’s abortion regime even more permissive and legalize recreational marijuana. These policy challenges present a tremendous opportunity for Minnesota Catholics to, as Pope Francis has said, “meddle in politics” by proposing a positive vision: the ability to choose what we ought, not the license to choose what we want. 

Abortion is already legal up till birth in Minnesota, and our state supreme court has declared abortion access part of the right to privacy in our constitution. Almost half of abortions are paid for by taxpayers. The court’s decisions already put Minnesota on par with North Korea and China. Yet, abortion proponents want to take abortion access even further by enshrining this radical regime in our statutes. 

We must work against a policy of abortion on demand. But in saying “no” to abortion, we must help people say yes to life. We propose creating a supportive climate for mothers and families by promoting policies such as nutritional supports for expectant mothers, adequate healthcare coverage during and after pregnancy for both the mother and child, a child tax credit, childcare assistance, housing supports, and more. 

Similarly, when it comes to legalizing recreational marijuana, we owe Minnesotans a positive vision of the good. Rather than enabling people to dull their brain function with marijuana, we should address the root causes that lead so many to recreational drug use in the first place. As Catholics, we believe there is a better path to justice than normalizing and commercializing a drug that has been linked to the degradation of communities, the environment, and the common good. 

Legalizing what some will treat as a recreational activity will likely impose much harm on the rest of us, especially in the realm of public safety where it is associated with an increase in crime and traffic accidents. Marijuana endangers those already struggling with substance abuse and serves as a gateway drug for youth. Among states where recreational marijuana is legal, drug use among teenagers increases. We owe it to Minnesotans to provide safe roadways, safe workplaces, and healthy internal and external environments to raise children. 

Catholics cannot only oppose the killing of the innocent and the legalizing of vice. We must also propose a better alternative — a positive vision of the good. You can do so by asking your legislators to enact policies that create a welcoming environment for all. 

Action Alert 

Join us for Capitol Thursdays! From January to May, RSVP to join us any second or fourth Thursday at 10 a.m. At our office, we’ll equip you to successfully advocate for policies that bring about a positive vision of the good before you then meet with your legislators. 

We must also pray for our legislators. Join us for adoration each first Friday of the month (January to May) any time from 9 a.m. tl 4 p.m. at the Capitol in the Governor’s Dining Room. In April, adoration will take place on the 14th due to Good Friday. 

There is free parking at our office – 525 Park Street – for adoration or Capitol Thursdays. Head to MNCatholic.org/events for details and to RSVP. 

By Deacon Kyle Eller 
The Northern Cross 

In November, Father John Petrich received his recertification from the National Association of Catholic Chaplains, granting permission of the national bishops to function as a Catholic hospital chaplain.

Father John Petrich

His first certification was 30 years ago, in 1992, and he’s been serving in that role at St. Luke’s Hospital in Duluth since even before that, in 1990. 

Father Petrich, who also serves as pastor of St. Joseph in Duluth Heights in addition to other chaplaincy work, said the certification takes place every five years and involves paperwork and a jury examining things like ethics, theology, and professionalism, as well as continuing education. 

Father Petrich said the hospital ministry often deals with end-of-life issues and hospice. 

“It also deals with a lot of crisis ministry, with people who are newly diagnosed with serious stuff that can happen, cancers and other things,” he said. 

Chaplains are often called in emergencies, ranging from car accidents to people hitting their heads. 

“And then St. Luke’s has an in-patient mental health unit that is oftentimes filled to the brim with people who have many different mental health disorders,” he said. 

Father Petrich said he tries to bring a calming presence and “have a listening ear and a listening heart.” Sometimes he helps by being a connection for people, making sure they understand what the doctors and nurses are telling them. 

Sacramentally, he brings Communion to many people and also frequently celebrates the Sacrament of the Sick with them. 

Interestingly, Father Petrich said he often forms a history with patients who “kind of rotate” through the hospital, connecting with the stories of what’s going on in their lives, and he celebrates quite a few funerals, many of them in a funeral home, because his ministry reaches many people, both Catholics and non-Catholics, who have lost a connection with a parish. 

“There are times when I meet Catholic people who haven’t been in church for a long, long time,” he said, “five years, 10 years, 20 years.” 

He said sometimes it’s laziness, other times it’s resentment over something that happened years ago with a particular pastor. Sometimes it’s anger over a church teaching that may or may not be misunderstood. 

“There have been times when people have reconnected with church after meeting with hospital chaplains,” he said, including both himself and Father Tom Foster, who has carried out a similar ministry at Essentia in Duluth. 

Father Petrich said chaplains try to “reconnect and try to show them that the church is not an ugly ogre.” 

He said one thing that’s changed in the ministry over three decades is concern for quality of life and allowing people to be kept comfortable without aggressively pursuing things like major surgeries to extend life at all costs. 

There’s also been a reduced stigma around mental illness. “It’s become more of a commonplace thing to admit that you have a mental illness,” he said. “… And that’s a good thing.” 

Other changes he’s observed are few situations where people are dead on arrival, due to improvements in the speed of getting people to the hospital and caring for them and improvements in care, and a more holistic approach to family relationships with hospice and palliative care, allowing family to be present rather than getting a call in the middle of the night that a loved one had died. 

“Those are really good things,” Father Petrich said. 

Caring for people in difficult circumstances can be demanding. On one recent day, he said four people had died by the time it was 1:15 in the afternoon. Father Petrich said he often remembers people at Mass. “The prayers and rituals of the church — they sustain me, I know that,” he said. 

And they sustain others. Father Petrich said he had recently anointed a retired priest who asked him if he had brought the ritual — but doing it so often, Father Petrich has it memorized. He said in 34 years he has anointed nine or 10 different priests and two bishops. 

“That’s what we’re called to be and called to do,” he said. Each day he prays for the people he sees, remembering them, and tries to get exercise, skiing or going to the gym. 

He said working so long at the same hospital, he has built relationships with the staff. “That ministry of presence, ministry of example, ministry of witness, whatever you want to call it, you’re there,” he said. 

By Catholic News Service 

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop Donald J. Kettler of St. Cloud and named as his successor Holy Cross Father Patrick M. Neary, pastor of Holy Redeemer Parish in Portland, Oregon.

Bishop-designate Patrick M. Neary speaks at a news conference Dec. 15 at the Pastoral Center of the Diocese of St. Cloud. Pope Francis appointed him to succeed Bishop Donald J. Kettler, in background, whose resignation the pope accepted the same day. A Holy Cross priest, the newly named bishop has been pastor of Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Portland, Ore., since 2018. (CNS photo/Dianne Towalski, The Central Minnesota Catholic)

Bishop Kettler, who has headed the Diocese of St. Cloud since 2013, turned 78 Nov. 26. Canon law requires bishops to submit their resignation to the pope at age 75. 

Bishop-designate Neary, 59, has been Holy Redeemer’s pastor since 2018. He was district supervisor of East Africa for his religious order, Congregation of Holy Cross, from 2011 to 2018 and before that was director of the McCauley Formation house in Nairobi for a year. 

The changes were announced Dec. 15 in Washington by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the Vatican nuncio to the United States. 

Bishop-designate Neary’s episcopal ordination and installation as bishop of St. Cloud has been set for Feb. 14. Vespers will take place Feb. 13. 

“No one is more surprised than I am to be asked to serve as bishop of the Diocese of St. Cloud,” Bishop-designate Neary said in a statement. “Yet I have always trusted that Christ has guided me through every stage of my life as a priest. I so look forward to meeting everyone who is a part of this diocese, my new family.” 

“I especially ask God to help me build on the legacy of Bishop Kettler and all the clergy and personnel who serve in the diocese with zeal and devotion,” he added. “Please pray for me that I can be a faithful and loving servant to all of you.” 

Bishop Kettler said his newly named successor “is tremendously qualified with his experiences as a pastor, seminary rector, formation director, and missioner. I am very appreciative that he said yes to the call to serve the people of this diocese as their bishop, and I welcome him warmly to central Minnesota.” 

The retiring bishop, a native of Minneapolis, had headed the Diocese of Fairbanks, Alaska, for 11 years when Pope Francis named him to succeed Bishop John F. Kinney of St. Cloud, who retired at age 76. 

At a news conference at St. Cloud’s Pastoral Center attended by Bishop Donald Kettler and diocesan staff, Bishop-designate Neary said: “I was moved by reading the motto of the Diocese of St. Cloud: ‘Heart of Mercy, Voice of Hope, Hands of Justice.’” 

“We priests of Holy Cross were placed under the patronage of the Sacred Heart by our Blessed founder Basil Moreau, and so that idea of the heart of mercy really resonates with me,” he said. 

He thanked Bishop Kettler for his welcome. He also expressed his sorrow at leaving his parish in Portland, but his joy at being appointed to serve as St. Cloud’s 10th bishop. 

He raised several key issues, including the Diocese of St. Cloud’s clergy abuse response, stating he would follow in Bishop Kettler’s footsteps to “remain committed to assist in the healing of all those who have been hurt [by the church].” 

Bishop-designated Neary was born March 6, 1963, in La Porte, Indiana, to Jacob and Marybelle Neary. He is the first-born of six children and has five sisters. His family belongs to St. Joseph Parish in La Porte, where the Neary siblings attended St. Joseph’s Grade School. 

He graduated from La Porte High School in 1981 and entered the undergraduate seminary with the Congregation of Holy Cross at the University of Notre Dame. While at Notre Dame, he spent a semester at Anahuac University in Mexico City, where he learned Spanish. 

He graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1985 with a bachelor’s degree in history. 

After completing his novitiate year in Cascade, Colorado, Bishop-designate Neary began his studies for a master of divinity 1986 at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, California. In 1988, he spent the entire year at the congregation’s seminary in Santiago, Chile, where he practiced his Spanish. 

He professed perpetual vows with Congregation of Holy Cross Sept. 1, 1990, and was ordained a priest at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at Notre Dame April 1, 1991, by the late Auxiliary Bishop Paul E. Waldschmidt of Portland, himself a Holy Cross priest. 

In 1994, Bishop-designate Neary was assigned to the University of Notre Dame and worked in the Office of Campus Ministry, primarily ministering to Latino students at Notre Dame and serving as ROTC chaplain. 

In 2000, he was appointed assistant rector at Moreau Seminary at Notre Dame and in 2004 was named rector of Moreau Seminary for a six-year term. 

He served on the Provincial Council of his religious congregation’s U.S. Province of Priests and Brothers from 2003 to 2010, and served on the Vocation and Formation Commission of the General Administration for the Congregation of Holy Cross in Rome from 2002 to 2010. 

When he finished his term as rector, Bishop-designate Neary was asked to run the congregation’s seminary in Nairobi, Kenya, for two years to train a new team of formation personnel and build up the seminary program. 

He began his service in Nairobi in June 2010. The following year, he was elected district superior of Holy Cross in East Africa and moved to the district headquarters in Uganda. There he served two three-year terms as district superior and finished his time of service in East Africa in January 2018. 

Since July 2018, Bishop-designate Neary has served as pastor of Holy Redeemer Parish in Portland. 

Archbishop Alexander K. Sample of Portland said in a statement that Bishop-designate Neary “has served extremely well as pastor” in the Oregon archdiocese “and he will be sorely missed. … He goes forth from us with our gratitude, support, and prayers.” 

Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis said he looked forward collaborating with Bishop-designate Neary “he joins the bishops of our state in providing pastoral leadership after the heart of Jesus.” 

In a statement the archbishop cited the newly named bishop’s experience in consecrated life, seminary formation, missionary outreach, and parish leadership, saying it made him “a fitting successor to Bishop Donald Kettler, who will long be remembered as a humble and generous shepherd.” 

Holy Cross Father John I. Jenkins, president of Notre Dame, congratulated Bishop-designate Neary on his appointment to head the St. Cloud Diocese and assured him of his prayers. 

“Soon after being assigned in 2010 to the Holy Cross formation house in Nairobi, Kenya, Father Neary wrote that, though he arrived with little understanding of the culture or language of the country, he felt called to ‘go anywhere that I am needed,’” Father Jenkins said in a statement. 

“Now,” he added, “the Holy Father has determined that Father Neary is needed in St. Cloud,” where he “will serve well the people of God.” 

The Diocese of St. Cloud encompasses 16 counties in central Minnesota. It includes 131 parishes grouped into 29 area Catholic communities and a Catholic population of approximately 125,000 people. 

As 2022 came to an end, word came that the retired Pope Benedict XVI’s health had taken a turn, and there seemed to be a collective preparation in the church, awaiting the reality that soon followed, on the eve of the New Year, that his earthly life was coming to an end. 

All popes leave an important mark in the history of the world. That’s the nature of the office. Prior to his service as pope he had spent many years serving the church in other ways: as a theologian, as a pastor, as a Vatican cardinal entrusted with important responsibilities. 

Still, through all his rich knowledge and penetrating insight, his central theme was always the same: faith as an encounter with the person of Jesus Christ and life in his friendship. 

In his “Spiritual Testament,” dated Aug. 29, 2006, and released after his death, Pope Benedict gave thanks to God for the many gifts in his life, for life itself, for guidance, for family and friends, for teachers and students, for his homeland, for the beauty of the Bavarian foothills of the Alps where he could “see the splendour of the Creator Himself shining through.” 

Then he exhorted everyone entrusted to his care: “Stand firm in the faith! Do not be confused!” Citing numerous currents of modern thought he had engaged over his lifetime that opposed the faith, he noted that “out of the tangle of hypotheses, the reasonableness of faith has emerged and is emerging anew. Jesus Christ is truly the Way, the Truth, and the Life — and the Church, in all her shortcomings, is truly His Body.” 

It’s fitting then that his last intelligible words, in the early hours of the morning, are reported to have been, “Lord, I love you.” 

There are no more fit words for any of us to live by, every day of our lives, first to last. 

Everybody likes to receive a compliment. It is nice to be affirmed in how we look, how we are doing at work or in school, or any other activity that might take a level of talent. 

Father Richard Kunst Apologetics

Unfortunately, that is not how God works. Admittedly it would be pretty cool to get the occasional message from God telling us we are doing a good job at life, but that simply does not happen. 

Actually, though, God has given compliments in the past, because Jesus is God, right? There is a passage in the Gospel where Jesus gives perhaps the greatest compliment imaginable. Speaking of John the Baptist, he says, “I solemnly assure you, history has not known a man born of woman greater than John the Baptizer” (Matthew 11:11a). That is a doozy of a compliment, and it is even greater considering it is coming from God. 

Imagine if God said you were the greatest cook in human history or the greatest baseball player in human history. That would be pretty impressive, but to have God call you the greatest person in history is mind blowing. Jesus is stating that John the Baptist is greater than all the amazing people of the Old Testament, greater than Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and King David. 

You might remember this passage fairly clearly, since just last month we had the season of Advent, and in Advent John the Baptist looms large. This compliment passage showed up a couple of times between the weekday and Sunday readings. If you remember, you know that Jesus does not stop there. He actually continues by saying something that might very well be one of the more confusing and cryptic passages in the Gospels. In the second half of the same verse, immediately after giving John the Baptist the mother of all compliments, he says, “… yet the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he” (Mathew 11:11b). 

In order to understand what Jesus is saying, we should know that the No. 1 message of Christ’s teaching and preaching in each of the four Gospels was the coming of the Kingdom of God/Heaven. In all four Gospels it is what Jesus spends the most time talking about. “The Kingdom of God is upon you.” “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” “To what shall I compare the Kingdom of God?” “The Kingdom of God is like ….” And over and over again. 

So what exactly is the Kingdom of God? It is the church. Christ came to establish his church. This is why we are not Jewish like he was; we are Christians because we are members of the church he established. 

So think about the import of what Jesus is saying here, that John the Baptist is the greatest ever, but the least member of the church is greater than he. How can this be? How can the least among us be greater than John? What does the Christian have that John the Baptist was lacking? Knowledge of the cross, who exactly is on it, and what happened next. 

John the Baptist died before Jesus was crucified, but even more important than that, John did not have clear knowledge as to who Jesus really was. He had a strong suspicion that he was the Christ, but while John was in prison he sent some of his disciples to Jesus to make sure. Yet even beyond that, even if John knew as a fact that Jesus was the Christ, there was no clear knowledge that the Christ would actually be God the Son, so John the Baptist could never know the infinite depth and breadth of God’s love for us, that God would send his very Son and that his Son would be crucified on our behalf, only to rise again so that we would have the chance to be with him in heaven forever. 

That reality, which we all take for granted, is something that was never revealed to John. As great as he was, he was lacking in something we all unfortunately take for granted. 

It is amazing to think that we know more about the nature of God than even John the Baptist knew, and that is why Jesus added the cryptic line that as great as John was, “the least in the Kingdom of God is greater than he.” 

Father Richard Kunst is pastor of St. James and St. Elizabeth in Duluth. Reach him at rbkunst@gmail.com.

We are all familiar with the Ten Commandments. During the Exodus from their slavery in Egypt, the Israelites are journeying to the Promised Land. And at one point, Moses goes up Mt. Sinai and receives the Ten Commandments from God. What we may not realize is that while Scripture (Exodus 34:28) tells us there are ten of them, Scripture doesn’t say which of the commandments given to Moses actually constitute the Ten Commandments. 

Father Nick Nelson Handing on the Faith

All of our Bibles today have chapter numbers and verse numbers in addition to the names of the books of the Bible. We tend to think that the biblical writers themselves determined the chapters and verses as they wrote the sacred text. That is not the case. 

It wasn’t until the 13th century that Cardinal Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, divided up the Latin Vulgate into chapters, upon which all other modern Bibles have based their own numbering system. It was later on in the 16th century that Robert Estienne or Robert Stephanus, a Protestant layman, separated the Bible further into verses. 

So we can’t just look at the book of Exodus and see the Ten Commandments nicely distinguished by their verses and easily know which are the Ten Commandments. 

Our first record of the Ten Commandments being distinguished as the Ten Commandments comes from Origen in the third century. Origen’s numbering is used today by the Orthodox Churches and Reformed Protestant communities including Evangelical Christians. Later on, St. Augustine in the fifth century came up with a different numbering. St. Augustine’s numbering is the numbering Catholics and Lutherans use to this day. 

The difference in the two lists can be narrowed down to the question, “How do you put eleven commandments into ten?” 

These are the eleven: 

1. You shall have no other gods before me.
2. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything.
3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
5. Honor your father and your mother.
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.
11. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house or anything that is your neighbor’s.

Origen, the Greek Fathers, the Orthodox Churches, and the Reformed Protestant communities keep all of them separate except for ten and eleven. Catholics and Lutherans put the first two together and keep the rest separate. 

I want to defend the Catholic numbering of the Ten Commandments. 

First, why would we want to separate ten and 11 and keep them as two distinct commandments? Well, a good priest once said, “There is a big difference between coveting your neighbor’s lawn mower, and coveting your neighbor’s wife!” We even see this in Jesus’ teaching of the Sermon on the Mount. He says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:27-28). Jesus doesn’t make the same point with coveting another’s goods. 

On the other hand, why would we want to put one and two together? Catholics have seen “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything” not as an absolute prohibition, but rather as an extension of the First Commandment and that we shouldn’t create things and then worship them as gods instead of the one true God. 

Some Protestants, especially those who number one and two separately, have no statues or images in their churches, and they disparage Catholics for having statues and images in their churches and homes. They point to this commandment and say, “See, you’re doing it wrong. You’re disobeying the Second Commandment. You can’t make any statues or images at all.” But are they right? Is fabrication of anything prohibited by God? 

No, that can’t be the case. It can’t be the case because just five chapters later in the book of Exodus, God actually commands Moses and the Israelites to build the Ark of the Covenant, and specifically he commands them to “make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end” (Exodus 25:18-19). 

Then later on in their journey through the desert, the snakes bite the Israelites who were complaining, so God gives them this remedy: “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.’ So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole” (Numbers 21:8-9). 

The Ten Commandments are central to our Faith and the moral life we lead. I hope this short explainer gives you more confidence in why we number the Ten Commandments the way we do and allows you to impress others at your next ecclesiastical cocktail party. But most importantly, may we faithfully live by each and every one of the Ten Commandments. 

Father Nick Nelson is pastor of Queen of Peace and Holy Family parishes in Cloquet and vocations director for the Diocese of Duluth. He studied at The Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Rome. Reach him at fr.nicholas.nelson@duluthcatholic.org

I am an admitted failure when it comes to New Year’s resolutions. Sometimes it takes me weeks to come up with some ideas, and if I do start the year with resolutions, best case scenario, I follow through for about two weeks. 

Betsy Kneepkens Faith and Family

Fortunately, when it comes to Lenten promises, I am much more successful, and in some cases I have changed some not-so-good habits. The motivation to do things for my sake, as New Year’s resolutions tend to be, produces little sustaining success. I need to offer my actions for something or to someone to remain committed. 

Recently, I had a discussion with a new acquaintance where we went from introducing ourselves to discussing serious theological matters within minutes. I will talk about faith with whoever is interested — just ask my children. I do try to get to know the person first. For whatever reason, this gentleman was eager to engage me on this first meeting. 

Immediately, I noticed that this man was a faithful individual who took his relationship with Christ seriously. He did not immediately disclose his religion, but by some of his expressions, I surmised he leaned toward being an evangelical Christian. I was confident he was not Catholic. He was polite and even said “maybe we should stop here; I don’t want to offend you.” 

Well, I certainly was not worried about being offended. I encourage these sorts of conversations. I seek to know my Catholic faith better daily and have been tested enough that I was pretty sure that I would still be Catholic when the conversation was over. Better yet, I knew I would be a better Catholic when we were all done. 

My new acquaintance started with the easy challenges, like why do you pray to Mary, and why can’t you confess your sins right to God? He wondered if I knew that Matthew 23:9 says never to call anyone Father, and I mentioned that he might be taking that Scripture verse out of context. Furthermore, I said it appeared he was leaving out the more powerful message, which is better understood when one includes the verses before and after. 

He questioned Catholics’ need to baptize infants and thought the Catholic Church did this to keep people in the Catholic Church. My new friend misunderstood papal infallibility and claimed nothing was written about authority in Scripture. I asked him what he thought of Matthew 16:18-19: “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” 

Sadly, he had so much misinformation about the Catholic Church that it was frustrating, although I tried not to show my feelings. 

Most of what my new friend challenged me on were concepts commonly pointed out by other faith groups that intentionally work to reject the Catholic Church. Toward the end of our conversation, there was an objection I hadn’t heard before. My new acquaintance said Jesus never started the Catholic Church, and “all people” are just one church. He believed popes were a modern concept invented by the Catholic Church. He said since Christians all become priests at our baptism, the Catholic hierarchy was created to keep the Catholic lay faithful subdued. 

Furthermore, I was intrigued when he explained how he started his own faith group to live out the concepts he described. His faith group has a church and members, and he is an elder who does much of the teaching. He shared that all his church members are called Christians because Christianity is the term that should be used to describe all followers of Christ. He followed that up with saying the word Catholic was never mentioned in the Bible. 

With that said, I thought my acquaintance unapologetically described the features he rejected in the Catholic Church yet didn’t realize everything he rejected was actually found in his faith community. I tried, without success, to explain that the Scripture and books he quoted from the Bible were collected and disseminated by the Catholic Church. 

Fortunately, with the Catholic knowledge from attending sessions at my parish, reading The Northern Cross and Catholic books, online media, and listening to Catholic radio, I felt confident enough to invite my Christian friend to look at Catholic issues differently. He was very adamant that Christ did not start the Catholic Church. At that time, I assertively, yet with charity, said: “God did not need the Catholic Church. We, his children, need the Catholic Church, and that is why God gave the world the Catholic Church.” 

In a very roundabout way, this is how I get to my New Year’s resolutions versus the Lenten promises point. I confidently accept the Catholic Church, and, in our humanness, I think all people of God need the church. 

What I mean is I don’t do all things well. I desire to live better or, as Christians would say, “live a more holy life.” Alone, without the support of the church, I can attempt to live life more fully, but that is extremely difficult. Without the church, I find it hard to absolutely know what a holy life would look like, or should look like. I ask myself: Where is a fuller life supposed to bring me? How do I get there? The church has the answers to those significant questions I ask myself. 

Christ set up the church to support our pathway in every way or twist. For instance, when I am acting self-absorbed, praying intentions for others takes me out of myself. When I have parented poorly, reflecting during Mass, available daily, allows me time to reflect on my encounter and return to my children with clarity or an apology. When I am stressed or feel anxious, I pray the rosary. When I have been unkind to my spouse or loved ones, and that happens enough, I have the sacrament of reconciliation, where I can identify a moment where I know I am made new, which is a gift of certainty that helps me transition from my sinful ways to hopefulness. When I feel lonely, I have the Eucharist to carry Christ within me. When I need to confront behaviors that have put my life out of balance, our church provides Advent and Lent to offer the correction of my imbalance as an offering to Christ. The list goes on and on. 

The Catholic Church, designed by Christ, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and shepherded by God our Father, responds to all areas where I don’t do something well. What I wanted my new friend to know is that in its complexity and when understood, the Catholic Church makes what is invisible visible for us to live well and into our hopeful eternity. 

I need the Catholic Church, and God knew we would need the Catholic Church, and so in his goodness, he gave us the Catholic Church. Once we understand this and use this gift as prescribed directly by Christ, we all will live better. We don’t need to create our own church to do this. 

So, New Year’s resolutions are fine, but the Catholic Church is there for us at all times, as long as we accept all the help she has to offer us. My hope is that I have more discussions with my new acquaintance. 

Happy New Year, and Lent will be here soon. 

Betsy Kneepkens is director of the Office of Marriage, Family, and Life for the Diocese of Duluth and a mother of six. 

On the Feast of the Holy Family, I was pondering, in preparation for a homily, how marriage and family are at the center of God’s plan for the human race and salvation history. 

Deacon Kyle Eller Mere Catholicism

From Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden at the dawn of creation to the culmination of history and the Wedding Feast of the Lamb, it’s no coincidence that marriage forms the bookends of the Bible. From Old Testament to New Testament, the Scriptures inspired by God turn frequently to the image of husband and wife to illustrate God’s relationship to his people. Among those passages, none are more dear than the frequent references Jesus makes in the Gospel to himself as the bridegroom and the church his bride. 

In Catholic social doctrine, we find the family as the basic cell of society, its protection and support something we hold as essential to the common good. The pro-life teaching of the church holds the family to be the “cradle of life,” where every child should be welcomed and embraced and where those who are suffering or near death should find love and care. 

If we go to Pope St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, rooted in Scripture, there again we find marriage, as an icon of the Trinity and of a love that is free, total, faithful, and fruitful. 

Much more could be said, but let’s rest on that Feast of the Holy Family. In the midst of the Octave of Christmas, it proclaims that God, when in the fullness of time he chose to take on our humanity for the sake of our salvation, chose to be a baby, conceived in his mother’s womb, and born into a family, where Scripture tells us that the incarnate Son of God was obedient to his mother and his foster father and grew up in love and obedience, advancing in “wisdom and age and favor before God and man” (Luke 2:52). 

As the Second Vatican Council taught, Jesus, true God and true man, not only fully reveals God to the human race, he “fully reveals man to man himself” (Gaudium et Spes, 22). The Holy Family is a revelation to us of what our families ought to be. 

It’s nearly impossible to think of these things in 21st century America without thinking of the unprecedented catastrophe that has befallen marriage and family over the past several decades — the attempted Great Unmaking of this fundamental reality, fundamental in the fullest sense of the word, a primary foundation of human existence. We have, in countless ways, flung wrecking balls into the base that supports civilization and human life and then wondered why the walls around us are crumbling. I can’t think of it without mourning the profound harm that has been caused by all this, harms I believe we won’t be able to fully apprehend until all is revealed in the Last Judgment. 

Those are hard truths. The more deeply they confront us, the more we may feel harsh judgment, condemnation, and shame. But I think to really heal and make genuine progress and follow God’s will, we need to hear them in the opposite way, as an invitation to mercy for ourselves and for others. 

It’s really hard to swim upstream of culture, to conclude that what most of our society takes for granted and blesses as good and right and a source of human happiness is instead a mistake, even if it is often well-intended, and contributes immensely to human misery. 

No one among us can claim to have been unscathed by all this. All of us have suffered wounds, and hurt people often hurt people. Practically all of us, definitely including me, have at some point, to some degree, bought into some lie of the culture destructive to marriage and the family, compromised with it, spread it, acted on it, been complicit in it, been lured by its false promises, convinced we meant well. 

None of us, in other words, has clean hands and can look at the shipwreck and stormy sea around us saying, “Hey, that wasn’t me! I had nothing to do with it.” We all have a share in it. And there is a grace in that, which is that we can’t justly approach these things from a sense of superiority or self-righteousness. We can only take the hand of Jesus, who reaches down to rescue us from drowning, and offer the same helping hand to others. 

That’s why I think the Feast of the Holy Family offers such great hope of healing. In that “icon” of the Holy Family we see simple virtues lived: faith, hope, self-sacrificing love, mercy, gentleness, humility, fidelity, peace, respect, service, docility to God’s will. 

This isn’t some breathtaking novelty in the spiritual life or some heroic summons to go and slay dragons, unless they be the dragons in our own souls, which are fierce enough. This is a path we can all see clearly, and a path which, with the help of God’s grace, is within everyone’s capability. This is doing the dishes, graciously pardoning wrongs, choosing mercy instead of anger, loving someone faithfully when it’s difficult. 

The love of the family is meant to be something like a ray of the love of God. When we truly live out the simple virtues of family life, we become a ray of that love in this hurting world, radiating out to others. Family life well lived becomes a kind of witness to the Gospel, a form of evangelization. 

In a world that is ever more divided and angry, isolated and radicalized, simply living in an ever deeper way the call of St. John Paul II — “family, become what you are” — becomes a way of helping to heal ourselves and the world. 

Sts. Mary and Joseph, pray for us! 

Deacon Kyle Eller is editor of The Northern Cross. Reach him at dcn.kyle.eller@duluthcatholic.org