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20102010Fund-Raising

goal: $50,000

George Weigel: biography of Pope John Paul II expanded

The Catholic Servant Fund-Raising Goal for 2010: $50,000 Please help support “The Catholic Servant” through gifts and fundraisers

The Catholic Servant Fund-Raising Goal for 2010: $50,000 Please help support “The Catholic Servant” through gifts and fundraisers

By John Sondag

[Editor’s Note: GeorgeWeigel is the Distinguished Se-nior Fellow of the Ethics andPublic Policy Center and theauthor of Witness to Hope, a bi-ography of Pope John Paul II.He has recently authored a se-quel to that biography, entitledThe End and the Beginning.“The Catholic Servant” wasable to interview GeorgeWeigel when he spoke at theUniversity of St. Thomas aboutPope John Paul II, a presenta-tion sponsored by that universi-ty’s Catholic Studies Program.]

“Catholic Servant”: How didyou get started on the secondvolume of the Pope’s history?

George Weigel: I had al-ways intended to finish the jobI began with Witness to Hope,

By Fr. James Reidy

[Editor’s Note: Fr.James Reidy, Ph.D.,a regular columnistfor “The CatholicServant,” attendedthe beatification ofJohn Henry CardinalNewman in Englandin September, whenPope Benedict XVIvisited the UnitedKingdom.]

Cardinal New-man’s beatification

began rather dismally with a light rain falling on the many thousandsgathered early on the morning of September 19, 2010, in a field andon the slope of a hill in a park outside of the city of Birmingham,England. But it seems that Heaven’s stage manages things just rightsometimes, so as Pope Benedict arrived for the ceremony, the sun be-gan to break through the clouds. It was shining fully at the beginning

John Henry Cardinal Newmanhas been declared “blessed”by Pope Benedict XVI

Vol. XVI, No. IX, October 2010 A Tool for Evangelization, Catechesis and ApologeticsI did not come to be served, but to serve. Matthew 20:28

Catholic schools provide an opportunity for both faith and reason

T h e C a t h o l i c

By Fr. Michael Miller

Catholic schools every-where have just finishedtheir Marathons, whichraise a portion of the fundsthat they need to operate. Atfirst the goals may seemvery high and difficult to at-tain, carrying with it the nat-ural question of “why all theeffort?” They are attainedby working together, and

understood by realizing that they are neededfor a greater purpose than simply learningabout the things we can know by reason. Thisis an important key to understanding life. Itmay seem that the Church sets her sights toohigh. She asks us to believe that there issomething beyond the visible world; a reasonand a purpose to life—a call to be saints—todiscern and live out our vocation to holiness,thereby bringing the light of the Gospel intothe world. That is the purpose of a Catholicschool: to teach our children from the very be-ginning that faith and reason belong together.

Reason shows us that there is a God, andthat we can know very much about Him, but italso shows us that there is even more that wecannot know, that He needs to tell us. To putit very simply, reason shows us that we needfaith. In 1998, Pope John Paul II wrote one ofhis most important encyclicals, called “Fideset Ratio” (Faith and Reason). In it he said,“Faith asks that its object be understood with

the help of reason, and at the summit of itssearching reason acknowledges that it cannotdo without what faith presents” (n.42). “Faithand reason are like two wings on which the

human spirit rises to the contemplation oftruth; and God has placed in the human hearta desire to know the truth—in a word, to knowHimself—so that, by knowing and lovingGod, men and women may also come to thefullness of truth about themselves” (Introduc-tion).

This is the reason we have Catholicschools: to reinforce this truth and teach ourchildren about it each and every day in theirmost formative years. This may seem like avery high goal yet, like the annual Marathon,by working together, it can be reached. Theparents, the pastor, the principal, the teachers,other staff and volunteers, and the studentsthemselves must work together to accomplishso great a goal. Our goal is Heaven: eternalholiness and life. We cannot reach that by our-selves. We must help each other in practicaland spiritual ways. Practically: by raising thereal money needed to run a school and parish;spiritually: by teaching the truths of the faith,which includes praying for one another.Those prayers have a real effect even if wecannot see them. The prayers of children areprecious in the eyes of God, and they are a de-liberate part of each school day. Regularly, thestudents are brought to the highest prayer pos-sible: the Holy Mass.

I have always been very grateful to every-one who works so hard to keep our Catholicschools alive and well; and I think it is essen-tial that every school must continually striveto achieve its greatest potential academically

Catholic Schools continued page 6

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St. Joseph is the patron of the universal (Catholic)Church and the family, both of which transmit andeducate young people in natural and supernaturaltruths. This statue is outside St. Joseph Hospital inSt. Paul, Minnesota.

George WeigelWeigel continued page 9 Cardinal Newman continued page 11

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Fr. Miller

By Niki Kalpakgian

F o l d i n glaundry theother day,s o m e t h i n gstruck me asodd but Icouldn’t putmy finger onit. Was myson’s jacketreally such

dark beige? Shrugging myshoulders I figured it must be.But wait; did that pair of paja-mas always have such a bluishtinge? Again, I figured I mustbe wrong; they were recentlybought and I just hadn’t lookedthat closely. It wasn’t until Ibrought out the pair of jeansfrom the pile that the truth hitme. Yes, those are new darkjeans. Of course, they bled darkblue onto all the lighter coloredclothes. Now I knew I wasn’timagining the color shifts be-cause I had found the source,discovered the reality.

St. Paul speaks of life hereon earth as a period of seeingtruth by means of faith, oftenunclearly: “For now we see in amirror dimly, but then face toface. Now I know in part; thenI shall understand fully, even asI have been fully understood.”(I Cor. 13:12)

How often does the follow-

ing happen in our daily life: Aphrase uttered doesn’t seemquite right, but what was par-ticularly wrong with it? In themidst of an argument the logicdoesn’t flow, but where exactlyto refute the claim? Somethingfeels wrong in the depths of usabout supporting a person ormovement, but the precise rea-son we can’t articulate. Oftenthe end results of what we areunsure of seem harmless, so wesecond-guess our hesitations.

But how can we help breakthrough the clouds of uncer-tainty? There is absolute truth(Christ), but how can we see itmore clearly in daily life?

I’m reminded of a recenthike I took with my husband.Arising early, we hit the trailby 6:45 A.M. and started as-cending the mountain. Our des-tination: Dachstein glacier inthe western portion of Austria.Those first hours of hikingwere straight up at a steep in-cline—and we were in themidst of a hazy fog. The gor-geous mountain ranges sur-rounding us were there butcould not be seen. Then afterabout two hours we had hikedhigh enough to be out of thefog and at about the same timethe glorious sun was just mak-ing an appearance over theeastern mountain range.

What a breathtaking mo-

ment it was to perceive thatbeauty that had been envelop-ing us the whole time. Andwith the simultaneous adventof the sun, we were filled withwarmth and sense of grandeurat the same time.

On earth, clarity comesthrough the person of Christ,Who is Truth. And in Heaventhere is perfect sight (“face toface”) with God. So it seemsthat situations, difficulties, andsuffering can best be under-stood in the light of Christ. Justas I was confused and unsurewhen first folding that laundry,then understanding came whenI understood the cause.

But, the struggle for knowl-edge precedes the light. Just asthe first part of that early morn-ing hike was through theclouds and a steep uphill climb,so we too must wrestle with re-ally knowing Christ; the call isto move from external know-ing to an internal relationship.

One philosophic proof forGod is the notion of “firstcause.” Simply put, everythingin the world has it’s origin orbeginning in something else. Ifyou trace things back farenough, there logically has tobe a beginning, a first cause. AsChristians we name this firstcause as God—Truth itself.

So when situations seemhazy and logic appears faulty,

there is an appeal to an un-changing truth. Without thisfoundation, ideologies runrampant, logic appeals to themasses to support pet projectsand the lukewarm nature of“niceness” takes the place ofhonest dialog. When the uni-versal appeal to truth is lackingthen the ideology of the day,the splendor of the moment andthe fading appeal of power canlead people astray. But, in theend, someone has to cry outlike the boy in the tale of theEmperor’s New Clothes: “Buthe hasn’t got anything on!” Ittakes courage to face the harshreality of truth; but the empti-ness of faulty logic is experi-enced in the end.

The adage that you can foolothers but you can’t fool your-self proves true in the end. Or,more appropriately, it might bethat you can’t fool others whenyou are fooling yourself—as

with the Emperor’s newclothes.

It seems that the closer weget to the top of that mountain,the more clarity we receive andthe better we can see. The sameis true in the life of a Christian:the closer we are to the Truth(God) the greater our clarity inthe situations of life.

Niki Kalpakgian is a free-lance writer living in Gaming,Austria, with her husband andtwo boys.

This article was funded by theSt. Joseph the Worker Chair ofWriting sponsored by an anony-mous patron.

P a g e 2 T h e C a t h o l i c S e r v a n t O c t o b e r , 2 0 1 0

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Kalpakgian

Bringing the Faith into the home How we can break through the clouds of uncertainty and see more clearly

By Fr. John Paul Echert

Thus farin our exami-nation ofBaptism wehave reflect-ed upon as-pects of theOld Testa-ment whichp r e f i g u r e dand prepared

for this New Testament sacra-ment. Our final formercovenant consideration will fo-cus upon the importance of theJordan River in the divine planfor Baptism. Of first impor-tance is the epic crossing ofthis river by the Israelites, sim-ilar to their exodus out ofEgypt but now an ingress intothe Promised Land:

“Joshua moved with all theIsraelites … to the Jordan....Then the LORD said to Joshua,‘Today I will begin to exalt youin the sight of all Israel, that

they may know I am with you,as I was with Moses.’ …Thepeople struck their tents tocross the Jordan, with thepriests carrying the Ark of theCovenant ahead of them. Nosooner had these priestly bear-ers of the ark waded into thewaters at the edge of the Jor-dan, which overflows all itsbanks during the entire seasonof the harvest, than the watersflowing from upstream halted,backing up in a solid mass for avery great distance indeed….

“After the entire nation hadcrossed the Jordan, the LORDsaid to Joshua, ‘Choose twelvemen from the people, one fromeach tribe, and instruct them totake up twelve stones from thisspot in the bed of the Jordanwhere the priests have beenstanding motionless. Carrythem over with you and placethem where you are to staytonight…. In the future, theseare to be a sign among you.When your children ask you

what these stones mean youshall answer, “The waters ofthe Jordan ceased to flow be-fore the Ark of the Covenant ofthe LORD when it crossed theJordan.” Thus these stones areto serve as a perpetual memori-al to the Israelites.’ The twelveIsraelites did as Joshua hadcommanded…. They are thereto this day.” (Joshua 3:1-4:9)

It appears that this memori-al marker served its purposelong and well, for a millenniumand a half or so later, the Bap-tist appears to have made refer-ence to these twelve stones stillin place on the bank of the Jor-dan:

“John wore clothing madeof camel’s hair and had aleather belt around his waist….At that time Jerusalem, allJudea, and the whole regionaround the Jordan were goingout to him and were being bap-tized by him in the Jordan Riv-er they [confessed] their sins.When he saw many of thePharisees and Sadducees com-ing to his baptism, he said tothem, ‘You brood of vipers!Who warned you to flee fromthe coming wrath? Producegood fruit as evidence of yourrepentance. And do not pre-sume to say to yourselves, “Wehave Abraham as our father.”For I tell you, God can raise upchildren to Abraham fromthese stones.’” (Matt. 3:4-9)

If indeed these stones were

those put in place in the time ofJoshua, it means that the activ-ity of John the Baptist and theBaptism of Jesus occurred atthe very place in the riverthrough which God had deliv-ered His people into the land ofIsrael. Just as God had broughtHis Old Covenant people intothe physical Promised Landthrough these waters, so in theNew Covenant His people willbe brought through Baptisminto the Promised Land ofHeaven.

One other Old TestamentJordan River association worthnoting is that of a miraculouscleansing:

“Naaman, the army com-mander of the king of Aram,was highly esteemed and re-spected by his master, forthrough him the LORD hadbrought victory to Aram. Butvaliant as he was, the man wasa leper. Now the Arameans hadcaptured from the land of Israelin a raid a little girl, who be-came the servant of Naaman’swife. ‘If only my master wouldpresent himself to the prophetin Samaria,’ she said to hermistress, ‘he would cure him ofhis leprosy.’ Naaman went andtold his lord just what the slavegirl from the land of Israel hadsaid. ‘Go,’ said the king ofAram. ‘I will send along a let-ter to the king of Israel.’ SoNaaman set out … to the kingof Israel he brought the let-

ter…. When he read the letter,the king of Israel tore his gar-ments and exclaimed: ‘Am I agod with power over life anddeath, that this man shouldsend someone to me to becured of leprosy? … When El-isha, the man of God, heardthat the king of Israel had tornhis garments, he sent word tothe king: ‘… Let him come tome and find out that there is aprophet in Israel.’ Naamancame and stopped at the doorof Elisha’s house. The prophetsent him the message: ‘Go andwash seven times in the Jordan,and your flesh will heal, andyou will be clean.’ But Naamanwent away angry, saying, ‘…Are not the rivers of Damascus… better than all the waters ofIsrael? Could I not wash inthem and be cleansed?’ Withthis, he turned about in angerand left. But his servants rea-soned with him. ‘My father,’they said, ‘if the prophet hadtold you to do something ex-traordinary, would you nothave done it? All the morenow! ...’ So Naaman wentdown and plunged into the Jor-dan seven times at the word ofthe man of God. His flesh be-came again like the flesh of alittle child, and he was clean.He returned with his whole ret-inue to the man of God. On hisarrival he stood before him andsaid, ‘Now I know that there isno God in all the earth, exceptin Israel….’” (II Kg. 5:1-15)

Once again we see how aphysical reality of the Old Tes-tament foreshadowed a spiritu-al reality of the New: just as thewaters of the Jordan cleansedNaaman of leprosy on his skinso the waters of the sacramentof Baptism wash away the lep-rosy of sin from the soul. Nextmonth we will shift our focusto the critical transition fromthe Old Covenant to the Newas we examine the two greatfigures of John the Baptist andJesus the Christ.

Fr. John Paul Echert,S.S.L., is the pastor of HolyTrinity Church and St. Augus-tine Church in South St. Paul,Minnesota.

This article was funded by theSt. John Fisher Chair of Writingsponsored by anonymous donor.

O c t o b e r , 2 0 1 0 T h e C a t h o l i c S e r v a n t P a g e 3

Fr. Echert

Scripture and the SacramentsPart III:The significance of the Jordan River for Baptism found in Old Testament

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St. Margaret Mary Alacoque is a messenger for Jesus’ Sacred HeartBy Kristen Lang

“What aweakness itis to love Je-sus Christonly whenHe caressesus, and to becold imme-diately onceHe afflicts

us. This is not true love. Thosewho love thus, love them-selves too much to love Godwith all their heart.” St. Mar-garet Mary Alacoque, whosechildlike love for her God al-lowed her such close unionwith Him, lived a life whichrevealed heroic virtue. She hadnot only an immense capacityfor humility and love, but herchildlike simplicity of inno-cence, love, honesty, and trustallowed her to be a light forChrist in the dark world.

On July 22, 1647, ClaudeAlacoque and his wife Philib-erte welcomed their fifth child,a girl named Margaret Mary,into their family. Her child-hood was marked by unusualpiety and great sorrow. Mar-garet had a particular devotionto Jesus in the Blessed Sacra-ment. In her autobiography, St.Margaret Mary would later re-call her early love of Jesus inthe Blessed Sacrament in this

way, “... I was being consumedin His presence like a burningtaper, in order to return Himlove for love....” After her fa-ther’s death, she was sent tostudy under nuns in Charolles,where she was permitted to re-ceive Holy Communion at theage of nine at a time when thecommon age was twelve. Inher autobiography, St. Mar-garet Mary expressed how herlife was changed by her FirstCommunion: “This Commu-nion shed such bitterness overall my little pleasures andamusements that I was nolonger able to enjoy any ofthem, although I sought themeagerly.”

The pure beauty of Mar-garet’s holiness from an earlyage is clearly evident. St. Mar-garet Mary wrote of the nunsfrom her childhood. She re-garded them as saints, desiringto be as one of them that she,too, could be a saint. What asorrow it must have been whenshe was forced to leaveCharolles, return home to cru-el relatives, and be confined tobed in illness. Margaret re-mained bedridden for severalyears before she was healedthrough the intercession of theBlessed Mother with thepromise to give her life in theform of the desire clearlyplaced on her heart by God—as a nun. Soon Margaret’s

brother was able to return andtake charge of the home, whichmeant that Margaret’s relativeswere no longer needed. Thishomecoming brought peaceand joy back to the Alacoquehousehold. Unfortunately, thisas well as other distractionscaused Margaret and her fami-ly to put off for several yearsthat promise which had beenmade during her illness. Final-ly, however, Margaret’s deep-est desires were realized onJune 12, 1671, when she en-tered the convent of the Orderof the Visitation founded by St.Francis de Sales at Paray-le-Monial, France.

Sister Margaret Mary strug-gled in those early days with aregular practice of the nuns—that of meditation. In the child-like way with which she dideverything, the young nunasked her Beloved Savior toteach her this unfamiliarmethod of prayer and He slow-ly began to guide her. Beforelong, Jesus began to appear toSister Margaret Mary, reveal-ing His desire for His love tobe made known to the world.Over the course of a year and ahalf these visions continued,during which time Jesus askedSister Margaret Mary to re-ceive Holy Communion on theFirst Friday of every month aswell as make a regular HolyHour. Jesus told her that the

purpose of this Hour was, inpart, “... to mitigate in someway the bitterness which I feltat that time on finding Myselfabandoned by My apostles….”(The Autobiography of SaintMargaret Mary, TAN Books,1986, p. 71)

Upon relaying these revela-tions to her superior, SisterMargaret Mary began to faceintense criticism and disbeliefas well as accusations of fraudand delusions by many sur-rounding her. These severe tri-als caused acute suffering tothe saintly nun, whose healthbegan to fail. Upon the elec-tion of a new Mother Superiorand with the testimony of herconfessor, Father Claude de laColumbiere, opposition dieddown and devotion to the Sa-cred Heart of Jesus began tospread. Sister Margaret Marylater served as assistant to theMother Superior and NoviceMistress before her death onOctober 17, 1690. Her simpleholiness was recognized, firstthrough her beatification onSeptember 18, 1864, and againon May 13, 1920, when shewas elevated to sainthood.

Jesus once told St. Mar-garet Mary: “Behold this Heartwhich has so loved men that ithas spared nothing, even to ex-hausting and consuming itself,in order to testify its love. Inreturn, I receive from the

greater part only ingratitude,by their irreverence and sacri-leges, and by the coldness andcontempt they have for Me inthis sacrament of love….”

Our merciful Savior, how-ever, made twelve greatpromises to St. Margaret Maryfor those who make reparationto His Sacred Heart. Amongthem is the assurance of finalperseverance for all who fer-vently practice the Nine FirstFridays devotion: “I promiseyou, in the excessive mercy ofMy Heart, that My all-power-ful love will grant to all thosewho communicate on the FirstFriday of nine consecutivemonths, the grace of final pen-itence; they shall not die in mydisgrace, nor without receivingthe Sacraments, My DivineHeart shall be their safe refugein this last moment.”

St. Margaret Mary, pray forus!

Kristen Lang is a freelancewriter from Elk River, Min-nesota.

This article was funded by theSt. Aloysius Gonzaga Chair ofWriting sponsored by Aolysius andAlice Mayers and Gerald and Gin-ny Zink.

Lang


By Dale Ahlquist

R e f e r -ence booksmake themost enjoy-able readingwhen you’renot actuallyl o o k i n gs o m e t h i n gup. Youdon’t have to

concentrate. You don’t have tofollow a plot. You just grab an-other handful and nosh. I re-cently picked up a new bookcalled Roads to Rome by JohnBeaumont (St. Augustine’sPress) that gives snapshots ofsome of the most notable con-versions in Britain since theEnglish Reformation, and Ifound that I could not put thebook down. I already knewthat the newly beatified JohnHenry Newman was one of themost important Catholic con-verts in England in the 19thcentury, not only because of hisprominence as a great intellect,but because of all the otherconversions that were directlyand indirectly connected to his.But there have been many dra-matic and surprising and influ-ential conversions in Englandin the last five hundred years.

In these pages, I met writ-ers, artists, actors, musicians,soldiers, historians, mathemati-cians, astronomers, politicians,diplomats, social workers,

bankers, lawyers, and royalty,all of whom found their way toRome. Some of them becamebishops and priests or nuns.Some became saints and mar-tyrs. Some simply became rein-vigorated by the ancient truthin spite of the fact that theCatholic Church had been beat-en to the ground in their coun-try. There were high and lowchurch Anglicans, Methodistsand Presbyterians, Lutheransand Baptists, Jews and Athe-ists. There were the famous,like Newman and Chesterton,and the infamous, like GuyFawkes of the Gunpowder Plot.There were saints like EdmundCampion and sinners like Gra-ham Greene. But the majorityof them (and what indeedmakes the book so interesting)are people you have neverheard of.

For instance:Sir Francis Burnand was a

19th century playwright whoarrived at his father’s home toannounce his decision to be-come Catholic. He waspromptly disinherited and thebutler escorted him out.

Stanley James, who con-verted in 1923, had spent timeas a tramp, a newspaper man-ager, a cowboy, a soldier in theSpanish Civil War, a Noncon-formist minister, and a laboractivist. In choosing theCatholic Church, he “chose thewhole against the part,” and itseems that he had tried most of

the parts.Brian Brindley was a flam-

boyant Anglican canon, whohad long defended the idea ofAnglo-Catholicism, but whenthe Anglican Church decided toordain women, he realized thatthe two would never be thesame, and that all of Pope LeoXIII’s century-old argumentsagainst a so-called Anglo-Catholic Church had been rightall along: “I felt as if I hadbeen…selling vacuum cleanersfor 50 years, only to discoversuddenly that they didn’twork.”

Ann Bond, who was re-ceived in 1815, was the motherof six sons, all of whom be-came priests, and four daugh-ters, all of whom became nuns.

Cyprian Blamires was anEvangelical minister who inthe 1970s looked into the histo-ry of the English Reformationand was shocked to discoverthat the real heroes were thePost-Reformation Catholics,and found St. Thomas More’sarguments in defense of theChurch still compelling afterfive centuries.

Dom Bede Griffiths was aformer student of C.S. Lewiswho went to India in 1955 andfounded a monastery.

John Randal Bradburne wasthe son of an Anglican clergy-man, brought up in a very cul-tured English family, read theCatholic mystics, converted in1947, and eventually went to

Zimbabwe where he cared forlepers. During the Rhodesianwar he was shot and killed bysupporters of Robert Mugabe.His cause for canonization hasbeen opened.

Harold Riley had been anAnglican priest for 63 years,converted, and was ordained aCatholic priest at the age of 91!

Thomas Arnold was ascholar and barrister who con-verted in 1856. His Protestantwife wrote to Cardinal New-man accusing him of persuad-ing her husband “to ignore ev-ery social duty and become apervert…From the bottom ofmy heart I curse you for it.”

Mabel Norton went to livein Portugal in 1910 as a younggirl. While still a Protestant,she was an eyewitness of the“Miracle of the Sun” at Fatima,October 13, 1917, and was theonly eyewitness to write a bookabout it.

Bruno Scott James, after hisconversion from Anglicanismbecame a Catholic priest in1935. He concluded that theAnglican Church “speaks witha well-bred voice but she doesnot speak with authority.” Hewas the first administrator ofthe newly restored Walsinghamshrine that had been destroyedby the reformers, and would sitand on the steps of the SlipperChapel, in a black cassock,head shorn, with a Siamese Caton his shoulder, and greet pil-grims to the shrine.

And even though you’veheard of the poet Gerard Man-ley Hopkins, you probablyhave never heard the reasonsfor his conversion, which in-clude “common sense” and“reading the Bible.” He saidthe Primacy of the Peter iscompletely evident in theGospels, especially in a textlike “Thou art Peter, and uponthis Rock I will build myChurch.” The Protestant “eva-sions proposed for this aloneare enough to make one aCatholic.”

There are plenty more fasci-nating stories with concise ex-cerpts in the converts’ ownwords. It is like walkingthrough a museum of apologet-ics, only the statues breathewith life. I was inspired and ed-ucated, and I didn’t even real-ize it because each entry was sofascinating. The faith is an ad-venture we share all across theages. Hopefully we will eachadd our own page to the story.

Dale Ahlquist is Presidentof the American Chesterton So-ciety and host of the EWTN se-ries “G.K. Chesterton: TheApostle of Common Sense.”

This article was funded by theSt. Benedicta of the Cross (EdithStein) Chair of Writing sponsoredby Dr. and Mrs. Raymond andMary Bonnabeau.

Ahlquist

England has produced its fair share of converts, including G.K. Chesterton

By Mary Ann Sondag

[Editor’snote: MaryAnn Kuhars-ki is runningaround thecountry giv-ing pro-lifetalks (it’s Re-spect LifeMonth), so

we’ll let her “off the hook” foran article for October. The oth-er Mary Ann is substituting.]

“That’s a B-flat, honey; B-flat. Count—1-2-3; 1-2-3—that’s it, 1-2-3.” (Mom’s famil-iar words calling from thekitchen to the practicing pianostudent in the living room.)

I have always been a firmbeliever that learning to readand appreciate music is as im-portant as math, reading,spelling, history, and all theacademic subjects. Just as “thefamily that prays together—stays together”—so does thefamily that plays music andsings together stay together,and through the years whenev-er we get together there is al-ways “music.”

It all began when our oldestson was six years old. Grandpasurprised him with a newSpinet piano, and lessons be-gan.

Later, in middle school, headded clarinet, and in highschool he became adept atplaying the organ. To this day,he occasionally plays the organat his parish church, regularlytakes groups of volunteer musi-cians to entertain at severalnursing homes, and enjoys or-ganizing an impromptu march-

ing band for his parish festival.Next came our first daugh-

ter who began accordionlessons. That was a big instru-ment for a little six-year-old.Even with a three-quarter sizeinstrument her legs didn’treach the floor when sheplayed—and it was alwaysDad’s job to transport both herand the accordion. She still hasher accordion and as a DramaTherapist and Director ofRecreation at a nursing home,she often delights and enter-tains the residents.

Each year we added moreuntil, at last count, we hadthree piano players, one accor-dion player, three clarinetists,three guitarists, three trum-peters, one saxophonist, onetrombonist, and one player ofthe mandolin and bongos.

Don’t get me wrong, it wasnot always fun and games. Itwas almost a full-time jobscheduling lessons, practicetimes, and finding private littlenooks and crannies for individ-ual practice. There was many atime when it took lots of wordsof encouragement and praise tokeep the music rolling. [Edi-tor’s note: On at least one oc-casion, corporal punishmentwas threatened by one of theparents.] My husband would

have the kids entertain—one-by-one—when relatives wouldvisit (the show could get long).This certainly encouraged per-formance skills and helped toget rid of stage fright.

The many magical mo-ments compensated for theweaker times—recitals, schoolbands and orchestra, competi-tions in solo music contests,summer music camps, high-schoolers forming their ownlittle rock combos. I rememberone such group holding theirpractice sessions in our base-ment. Feeling sorry for themhaving to carry all their equip-ment up and down the stairs Ioffered them use of my livingroom. The amplified sound wasa test of my patience—but itwas the “vibration” of the verywalls of the house as I tried torelax in my bedroom thatcaused “All for the Honor andGlory of God” to pass throughmy lips more than once ortwice.

As the years have passedand all have dispersed to differ-ent locations, their love of mu-sic has accompanied them.

About every three or fouryears we have a family reunionand one of the main events is a“talent show.” One of my sonsonce told me he was in chargeof organizing a talent show andhe had to prod and beg for vol-unteers—when all we had to dowas announce in our newsletterthat we would be having ourfamily show and we would im-

mediately have a list of 32 actson the program—ranging fromgrandchildren to grandparents,ages 6 to 86.

I would certainly recom-mend music in the family as anantidote for the “I am so bored”problems. Many wonderfullife-long friendships areformed as a result of love formusic.

I am eternally grateful forthe grace of persistence inhelping to develop our God-given talents. I am sure theremust be a special place inHeaven for musicians, and Ihope there’s a good supply ofinstruments handy so thatmaybe we might be rewardedby being members of a heaven-ly group to accompany an an-gelic concert.

Mary Ann Sondag is a wid-ow, mother, and grandmotherfrom Eugene, Oregon, and isan avid reader of “TheCatholic Servant.”

This article was funded by theSt. Bernadette of Soubirous Chairof Writing sponsored by Thomasand Barbara Janas.


Sondag

Family LifeThe family that plays music and sings together is the family that stays together

The Church of St. Helena3204 East 43rd St.

Minneapolis, MN 55406presents

S AT U R D AY B R E A K FA S T F O R M E NSaturday, October 16, 2010Speaker: John F. Boyle, Ph.D.Topic: “Electronics, Friendship, and Silence”

Saturday, November 20, 2010Speaker: Fr. Andrew Cozzens, S.T.D.Topic: “Living Out the Sacrifice of the Mass”

Saturday, January 29 , 2011Speaker: Benedict Nguyen, M.T.S., J.D., J.C.L.Topic: “Five Things Every Man Should Know About Church Law”

Saturday, February 26, 2011Speaker: Fr. Michael Keating, Ph.D.Topic: “Chastity: Attaining Noble Masculinity”

Saturday, March 26, 2011Speaker: Bishop Lee Piche, D.D., M.A.Topic: “Making the Scriptures Come Alive for Men”

Men are invited to the 8:00 A.M. parish Mass in the Church of St. Helena. A full, heartybreakfast will be served at 8:30 A.M. in Rowan Hall.A talk will begin promptly at 8:45 A.M.and end promptly at 9:30 A.M. Participants are free to leave at 9:30 A.M., but may remain forquestions until 10:00 A.M.

Cost: $5 for breakfast or $20 for the entire series. Reservations must be made by 12:00Noon the day before the presentation. A free will offering will also be taken to cover expens-es, such as administrative expenses, publicity, etc.

To make a reservation, call 612-729-7321 or e-mail [email protected] Complimentary tickets are available.


A Saint NicholasFundraising Party

You are cordially invited to

A Saint NicholasFundraising Party

for “The Catholic Servant”

Friday, December 3, 2010

7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

The Church of St . Helenain Rowan Hal l

3204 East 43rd St .Minneapol is , MN 55406

St. Nicholas will be visiting the children atthis event from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m., and hewill be bringing treats.

Gourmet desserts will be served.

Musical entertainment will be provided.

The cost for the evening is $25 for a sin-gle ticket, $35 for a couple, and $5 perchild.

Please call Barb Ernster 763-502-0792 tomake reservations or use the order form.

Come experience Catholic community at the University of St. Thomas!Spaces are limited. To reserve a spot contact Theresa at 651-962-5704 or [email protected].

High school seniors are invited to:

• Attend a Catholic Studies class• Stay on the Catholic men’s or women’s floor

• Socialize with current students• Learn about faith-based clubs

• Attend a Catholic Studies class• Stay on the Catholic men’s or women’s floor

• Socialize with current students• Learn about faith-based clubs

Nov. 12-13, 2010

Wills and Living TrustsIf I asked most people for $10,000 from their ex-pendable income to give to "The Catholic Servant,"they would wonder if I were serious. They just don'thave that kind of money. But, if I asked most peo-ple to leave $10,000 (or more) to "The Catholic Ser-vant" in their will or living trust, they'd say "that'spossible," because $10,000 can be a small portion ofmany people's estate. So, I’m asking you to remem-ber "The Catholic Servant" when you are making outyour will or living trust. Spreading, explaining, anddefending the Catholic Faith takes more than goodwill—it takes money to pay for printing, writing,postage, graphics, circulation efforts, and so forth.We rely on gifts to help us do our work, So pleaseremember "The Catholic Servant." Of course, moreimportantly, it takes God's grace, so even if youcan't remember our paper in your will, we would ap-preciate your prayers.

Our legal title is "The Catholic Servant."Our address is 3204 East 43rd St.,

Minneapolis, MN 55406

Call 612-275-0431 for further information.

and spiritually. When I was first asked to be apastor in 2001 I visited several parishes thatwere open, and I noticed a great difference be-tween the ones that had a school and those thatdidn’t. I think I noticed this because I attendeda Catholic school myself (St. Wenceslaus inNew Prague, MN). Looking back, I realized thatit was there that I learned and experienced thatfaith and reason are not opposed to each other,but belong together. I remember getting pledgesand riding a bike in the Marathon, though I didnot realize the practical reason why until I be-came the pastor of a parish with a school in De-lano. I am very happy that all three of my pas-toral assignments have had a school. As I offerthe Mass at St. Croix Catholic School at my cur-rent assignment in Stillwater, there is a reminderof St. Peter’s school in Delano: the ciborium thatthey gave me in honor of my 10 year anniversary

as a priest; and from my first assignment as as-sociate pastor of St. Joseph’s school in West St.Paul: the matching chalice that they gave mewhen I left. Each is engraved as a lasting re-membrance of my time there—and how fitting,as they each hold the lasting remembrance thatJesus gave to us at the Last Supper: His Bodyand Blood. It is reasonable to hope that we willknow the truth and be united with it and the oneswe love forever; it is faith that shows us the wayto fulfilling that hope.

Fr. Michael Miller is pastor of St. Michael’sChurch and St. Mary’s Church in Stillwater,Minnesota.

This article was funded by the St. Thomas AquinasChair of Writing sponspored by an anonymous patron.

Catholic Schools continued from page 1


Our doctors are:• Dr. Paul Spencer, D.O., Family Practice/OB• Dr. Mary Paquette, M.D., Family Practice/OB• Dr. Matthew Paquette, M.D., Internist• Cheryl McKee, P.A.-C, Physicians Assistant• Dr. Kathleen Kobbermann, M.D., Family Practice/OB

As a physician, I enjoy taking care of families and providing a wide range of care at everystage of life. I have special interests in preventive care for women and children, obstetrics,infertility and abnormal cycle management.

Dr. Kobbermann joined AALFA Family Clinic in December of 2008

The hospitals we are affiliated with are: • St. John's Hospital • St. Joseph's Hospital• United Hospital • Children's Hospital, St. Paul

Clinic Hours: 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Monday through FridayUrgent Care: We offer same day appointments during clinic hours.

After Hours: Our doctors are on-call through our answering service.

AALFA Family Clinic4465 White Bear ParkwayWhite Bear Lake, MN 55110phone: 651-653-0062fax: 651-653-0288www.aalfafamily.com

Now Is The Time To Visit La Crosse’s Shrine Of Our Lady Of Guadalupe

Plan Your Fall Pilgrimage Today!

Fall is the perfect time to enjoy the serenityand beauty of the Shrine of Our Lady ofGuadalupe.

The colors of the season accent our manydevotional areas.

Whether you are planning a personal pil-grimage, one with your family or a group,all are welcome.

Reconciliation and Holy Mass are offeredevery day, and there is plenty of opportunityfor prayer and reflection.

Groups are encouraged to call our Pilgrim-age coordinator Greg Marco for informationabout Masses, dining and other arrange-ments.

We look forward to seeing you at the Shrineduring this beautiful time of year.

Please visit www.guadalupeshrine.org or call (608) 782 5440 for more information.

www.guadalupeshrine.org

St. Michael Broadcasting,formerly Channel 19, Minneapolis, has moved to anew channel and increased its signal strength, mak-ing its Catholic programming available to mosthouseholds within 40 miles of the IDS Tower. To getit you need:

1) a uhf antenna (roof top or indoor).2) to make sure your TV is set for broadcast re-

ception (also called standard or antenna), notcable, and

3) to “re-scan” or “auto-program” your TV or con-verter box.

EWTN will appear on five channels: 16.1-16.5. Overtime, more Catholic programming will be added, leav-ing only 16.2 dedicated to EWTN.

Try it today and tell others about this education-al and entertaining Catholic resource!

St. Michael Broadcasting,formerly Channel 19, Minneapolis, has moved to anew channel and increased its signal strength, mak-ing its Catholic programming available to mosthouseholds within 40 miles of the IDS Tower. To getit you need:

1) a uhf antenna (roof top or indoor).2) to make sure your TV is set for broadcast re-

ception (also called standard or antenna), notcable, and

3) to “re-scan” or “auto-program” your TV or con-verter box.

EWTN will appear on five channels: 16.1-16.5. Overtime, more Catholic programming will be added, leav-ing only 16.2 dedicated to EWTN.

Try it today and tell others about this education-al and entertaining Catholic resource!

By Fr. Paul La Fontaine

Q u e s -tion: Why isit so impor-tant to havemy childbaptized asan infant?Why not lethim chooseif he reallywants to be-come aC a t h o l i c

when he gets to be an adoles-cent?

Answer: Canon 867, §1 ofthe 1983 Code of Canon Lawof the Catholic Church states:

“Parents are obliged to takecare that infants are baptized inthe first few weeks; as soon aspossible after the birth or evenbefore it, they are go to thepastor to request the sacramentfor their child and to be pre-pared properly for it.”

In other words, it would bea grave sin to do otherwise. Anexcellent Spanish commentaryon this canon explains further:

“...there is no reason what-soever that exempts them [par-ents] from this duty, which isbased on the necessity of thissacrament for supernatural lifeand salvation. This is why theChurch has always condemnedattitudes leading to the delayof Baptism.

“The internal logic of thediscipline on infant Baptism isbased on the fact that supernat-ural life (like natural life) isnot the result of the will of thesubject: ‘Love consists in this:it is not we who loved God,but God loved us and sent HisSon to expiate our sins’ (I Jn.4:10).”

Parents make lots of impor-tant decisions that affect theirchildren for the rest of theirlives without consulting themor leaving it to them to decideat some later date. For exam-ple: their names, who theirparents and brothers and sis-ters are, what country they be-long to, where they live andwhen they eat and sleep, thatthey are going to go to schooland where, and so on. Isn’t re-ligion (our relationship withGod) even more importantthan these?

After they reach a certainage, children can and do de-cide to change any or all ofthese decisions for themselves.Until then, parents have a dutyto decide these things forthem. It’s part of their educa-tion.

If we really understood thegift of grace, the share in the

life of God that comes to us inBaptism, we would want toshare that gift with everyone.We would not want to deprivethem of that gift for even oneminute. We would catch themissionary spirit that firedApostles and Evangelistsdown through the ages to leavetheir homelands and bring theGospel to the ends of the earth.We would gladly accept our

Lord’s great commission, “Gotherefore and make disciplesof all nations, baptizing themin the name of the Father andof the Son and of the HolySpirit, teaching them to ob-serve all that I have command-ed you; and lo, I am with youalways, to the close of theage.” (Matt. 28:19-20)

What better place to startthan with one’s very own chil-

dren?

Fr. Paul La Fontaine, M.A.,is pastor of St. Charles Bor-romeo Church in Minneapolis,Minnesota.

This article was funded by theSt. Teresa of Avila Chair of Writ-ing sponsored by an anonymouspatron.

Fr. PaulLa Fontaine

The baptism of infants versus the baptism of adolescents who can choose


By John Sondag

I remember whenI was leaving for col-lege, and my grand-mother gave herfarewell: “Now, don’tstudy too hard!” Myfather objected,“Don’t tell him that!”

My father knewmy proclivity to dis-tractions. My grand-

mother was concerned about a balancein living.

Dealing with that kind of balance,let me tell you a related story. A friendtold about how she had transferred herchild from a Catholic school to a presti-gious classical, liberal arts school, buther child didn’t like the school (at leastin part) because all they did was workhard—no parties, no liturgies, no festi-vals.

I thought to myself, “Good! Catholicschools are doing it right.” “Whereverthe Catholic sun doth shine, there’s al-ways laughter and good red wine,”wrote Hilaire Belloc.

Now, I’m for demanding academicwork, but schools are to prepare young-sters for life, and life, even on a natural

level, needs moments of levity, time forparties, time for socialization, and timefor prayer.

We are created not just to work, butto contemplate that which is true, good,and beautiful. Granted, the academiclife is rigorous, but young people needto see the interconnection between theactive and the contemplative life. To begrinding out studies without any associ-ation with light-hearted, enjoyabletimes is missing the boat.

Even when the Church had a moreaustere regimen of fasting during Lent,she would allow Catholics to relax thefast on Sundays in honor of the Lord’sDay. And, of course, even today, thatsame penitential season halts on thefeasts of St. Joseph and the Annuncia-tion, both joyous occasions which occurduring Lent.

The truth be told, most secular holi-days were derived from Church or reli-gious feast days—for instance, Christ-

mas, Easter, Thanksgiving, Halloween,and St. Patrick’s Day. I’ve been told thatwhen godless Communism fell in Rus-sia, the society had been zapped of life.Why wouldn’t it be? You take out Godand religion for 70 years, and you willhave nothing really to celebrate or livefor. (If the secularists get the upper handin our society and rid us of religiousholidays such as Christmas, the samephenomenon will happen here.)

Along the same lines, a friend whoworks in food catering commented thatpeople are not having as many partiesas they did in years gone by. (I’m surethe economy has something to do withthis.) However, he added that whenpeople attend parties, many want to gohome rather than stay and socialize.

What’s their big hurry? What arethey doing when they get home?

Many of them are going home to sitin front of their computer or videogames.

Computer games can be a goodthing (if their content is moral), butwhen they draw people into themselves,there is a danger that they can damagethe culture. And, of course, most peoplemay be oblivious to the individualiza-tion it is causing.

As human beings, we are created to

interact and be in communion with oneanother, and ultimately, to be in com-munion with God. Not to party or so-cialize is to be incomplete as a humanbeing.

Of course, when we attain Heavenwe will be with everyone else for eter-nity, and we will be united in the oneBeing Who can fulfill all of our wantsand desires.

In a sense, it’s only when we knowhow to recreate and entertain ourselvesin leisure that we will know how towork the way we should. For work isordered toward contemplative or leisureactivities. That’s why feast days andSundays are so important. On thesedays Catholics are supposed to rest andenjoy the Lord and one another, and at-tend Mass.

These feasts are a foretaste of the fu-ture—the best is yet to come!

John Sondag is Director of Reli-gious Education at the Church of St.Helena in Minneapolis, Minnesota andpublisher of “The Catholic Servant.”

Sondag

Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine, festivals and parties will aboundWherever the Catholic sun

doth shineThere’s always laughter

and good red wine,At least, I’ve always found it so,

Benedicamus Domino!(By Hilaire Belloc)

Quest ion and Answer

so as soon as that project wascompleted, I began collectingmaterials for what would in-evitably be the second volumethat took account of the lastyears of John Paul II. The sur-prise in getting hold all of thesematerials was the gift to mefrom some Polish historians ofa cache of materials that theyhad found in the archives of thePolish Secret Police, thearchives of the Foreign Min-istry of Poland’s Communistgovernment, the East GermanStazi archives, which paint aremarkable portrait of theCommunist war against KarolWojtyla, Pope John Paul II, afascinating portrait of the inter-action of the diplomacy of theVatican with the Communistnegotiators in the 1970s and80s. So, I decided that this sec-ond book would begin actuallyby revisiting the story of Wo-jtyla versus Communismthrough the prism of these newmaterials which have neverbeen published in America, andthen we go to the account of thelast years of the Pontificate andthe book concludes with a veryextensive evaluation of theman and his legacy.

“Catholic Servant”: If youhad to paint with broadstrokes the papacy of JohnPaul and the papacy of Bene-dict XVI, could you contrastthem and tell me how youthink they fit into the times inwhich we’re living?

George Weigel: These are

two men who worked in veryclose [relationship] for nearly22 years. They are both prod-ucts of the Catholic intellectualrenaissance… in the mid-twen-tieth century. They both met inthe Second Vatican Council.They are very different humanpersonalities, but I think eachsaw in the other a complemen-tary set of gifts and skills, and Ithink there has been, in termsof Magisterium, a kind of virtu-al seamlessness between JohnPaul II and Benedict XVI. Oneof them came to the papacy inat age 58; the other came at 78.That’s a rather significant dif-ference, and that’s been obvi-ous in the way that the presentpope, who is a much more pri-vate person than his predeces-sor, has conducted his [pontifi-cate]. But, the world seems toimagine that popes are likegovernors of states—that poli-cy changes when popeschange. Popes don’t changepolicy. A pope may, in fact,tweak the way the Holy Seegoes through this or that, butthe doctrine of the Church is apermanent feature in theChurch’s life, it’s not some-thing that a Pope changes of hisown will. And on all of the is-sues that the mainstream mediaobsesses about—from celibacyto contraception to abor-tion...—we’re not talking aboutpolicy, we’re talking about thesolemn Tradition of theChurch. And popes are the ser-vant of that tradition, they’re

not the masters of it. So thatdidn’t changed, and it’s not go-ing to change in the next popeor the next 10-15 popes afterthat. And the sooner every-body understands that, [thesooner] we can get back to do-ing what the Second VaticanCouncil called the Church todo, which is to be an evangeli-cal movement for the conver-sion of the world.

“Catholic Servant”: Youmention in some of your talksabout the last encyclical ofPope John Paul II being hissuffering and his death.Please explain that.

George Weigel: That’s thetitle of the last chapter of Part IIof The End and The Beginning,it’s called the “Last Encycli-cal,” and that’s not a complicat-ed business. I think the way inwhich the Pope invited theworld to experience the mys-tery of suffering conformed tothe death and resurrection ofChrist was his last teachingmoment. And it had a remark-able impact. It riveted the at-tention of the world and me,and I think it had an enduringimpact on the lives of tens ofmillions or hundreds of mil-lions of people. He was a greatteacher, and all great teachersteach by example as well as byword, and that’s what he did atthe end. He invited the world,as priests must invite the world,to be an experience of thePaschal mystery as he was un-dertaking his own, as he callsit, pulpit.

Catholic Servant”: You

certainly have maintainedthat Pope John Paul II was asaintly man, and probablywill be canonized somewherealong the line. He has alsobeen criticized for a numberof things, and I would like tohear your take on the criti-cisms. He’s been criticizedfor allowing abuses in theliturgy. He’s been criticizedfor not having control of theadministrative offices theway he could have or the waysome of the popes have had.How would you respond tothat?

George Weigel: I thinkboth of these criticisms are ill-founded, frankly. The pope isnot the Liturgical Prefect ofDiscipline in the CatholicChurch. It is simply absurd toexpect popes to enforce liturgi-cal discipline in St. Cunegun-da’s Parish in East Maintown,Minnesota. It’s just not goingto happen. That’s the localbishop’s job. And I thinkthrough his teaching on the Eu-charist and his synod on theEucharist, and in his own man-ner of conducting the sacredliturgy himself, the pope gavebishops all they needed to en-force the liturgical discipline ofthe Church. If the bishopsaren’t going to do that, it’s notgoing to happen. There aremore than 2,500 Catholic dio-ceses in the world and tens ofthousands of parishes. You can-not expect the pope to be per-sonally responsible for the irre-sponsibility of priests whodon’t follow liturgical norms.That having been said, I thinkthe Pope did move towardsrestoring a sense of dignity tothe liturgy, primarily by his re-form of the seminaries. Thekind of young men that JohnPaul II attracted to the priest-hood, attracted to seminaries,are not going to be the clown-Mass priests in the 21st centu-ry, just as they’re not going tobe the abusive priests in the21st century. So I think if onestepped back from the mediaobsessions of the moment,from the abuse issue, and fromthe hurt feelings of someCatholics on liturgical matterson the other hand, I think whatyou find is a Pope who was, infact, a great reformer of thepriesthood, and a pope who in-sisted on the full meaning ofthe Church’s understanding ofthe Eucharist, both in terms of

Real Presence, in terms of Sac-rifice and Sacrament, and whohimself embodied a manly,priestly, Eucharistic piety thatwill have a real effect into thefuture.... People need to under-stand that it’s going to takedecades to turn around the mis-takes of decades.... But the keyto it is bishops who take seri-ously their responsibility as theChief Sanctifier of the diocese,which means they are chieflyresponsible for the Sacramentand for the integrity of thesacraments in their dioceses.It’s not the pope’s job to be thePrefect of Discipline in theLiturgy in every parish in theworld.

“Catholic Servant”: Inthis new millennium, we hadthe clergy scandal that tookplace with respect to pe-dophilia. Could you commenton how this could have hap-pened under Pope John PaulII?

George Weigel: Well, infact it didn’t under John PaulII, because the overwhelmingnumber of these cases thatcame to light in 2002 happenedbetween the late sixties and theearly eighties, so some of ithappened under his time. Theanswer is twofold, and I dis-cuss this at great length in TheEnd and The Beginning. TheCatholic priesthood was in astate of crisis in 1978, whenthey elected Pope John Paul.More than forty thousandpriests had left the active min-istry, the largest defection sincethe Reformation. Seminarieswere in very bad shape, and heset about a systematic programof reforming the priesthood.That began to bite and to havea real effect, that was accelerat-ed after the synod on seminaryreformation and the issuing ofthe 1992 Apostolic Exhorta-tion “Pastores dabo vobis.”And then there is this factor ofwho gets attracted to the priest-hood, that I described before.Cardinal William Baum saidthat John Paul II was the great-est vocations director in churchhistory, and I think that’s true.

Having said all that, it isalso true that Pope and the en-tire Vatican were about fourmonths behind the informationcurve in 2002. Americansthought the Pope was livingthrough this crisis of revelationafter revelation after revela-tion—not about things thatwere happening in 2002, butabout things that were happen-ing in 1958, in 1965, in 1970,or whatever—at the same mo-ment that they were, from Day1. As I wrote in The Courageto be Catholic, and as I wroteagain in The End and The Be-ginning, the Pope was findingout in mid-April things that weknew in mid-January. And thatis primarily the fault of theApostolic Nunciature in Wash-ington, which was not keepingthe Vatican apprised of the ur-gency, and of the Curia, which[exhibited] the ingrained insti-tutional tendency to see this asa media-generated hysteria


Weigel continued from page 1

Weigel continued page 10

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when it wasn’t. Now once thePope became clear, became in-formed, got clear in mid-April,2002, that this was a genuinecrisis, not a media crisis, thebishops had been extremely ir-responsible or ill-advised in theway they were handling this,he acted decisively: he calledthe American Cardinals over,they had an emergency meet-ing, that meeting led to theDallas meeting, etc., etc., etc.But there was no question thatthe response was four monthslate, and if you say “How canthat happen in the Internetworld?” the simple answer isthe Vatican does not live in thatworld. You can deplore that,you can applaud that, but that’sthe fact. And it was even moreso the fact in 2002 than it is to-day. I happen to think that’svery bad news; the Church is inthe communications business,therefore it pays to be part ofthe contemporary communica-tions environment, if only totry to shape that environmentin a more evangelical way. Butthat’s the reality of the matter.And I think it created the im-pression that the Pope was notpaying attention or didn’t un-derstand or—some peoplethought—didn’t care, which isjust simply not true.

“Catholic Servant”: Youmentioned the new materialthat was recently made avail-able by the Polish historians.What is the most significantfact or idea that’s come out ofthis analysis that you’vedone?

George Weigel: I thinkanyone who had been involvedin the defense of religious free-dom behind the Iron Curtainduring the Cold War had some

idea of the Communists’ waragainst the Catholic Church.What’s genuinely striking outof these... materials in and outof Rome is the magnitude.Tens of millions of man-hours,billions upon billions of dol-lars. This was “all war, all thetime,” as some Poles put it.And I think people have verylittle sense of this, and it’s im-portant to remember. From themoment Wojtyla became abishop in 1958, he was under24-hour surveillance, his resi-dences and offices weretapped. There were squadronsof secret police people follow-ing him, there attempts to sub-orn his associates, to recruitpeople who worked with himas informants, agents, provoca-teurs. Prior to the 1983 papalvisit, there was marshal law inPoland. There was an attemptto blackmail the pope in a waythat’s quite disgusting, and Idescribe in detail in the book.It was “all war, all the time.”

The other thing that I thinkis quite amazing is the insou-ciance of the Vatican bureau-cracy to attempts by a halfdozen Communist secret intel-ligence services to penetratethe Vatican, which they didsuccessfully, because the Vati-can had no counterintelligencecapabilities and seemed unin-terested in acquiring them.John Paul II, I think, was awareof this or at least intuited that itwas likely to be the case on hiselection in 1978. And so he re-organized the routine so that allof the materials, particularlydealing with Poland, remainedin the papal apartment, not inthe archives of the Secretary ofState, because he had good rea-son to believe that their

archives were not secure. Soall that’s very stressing. Sever-al people have commented thatthe first part of the book readslike a spy novel, which is acompliment, except that it’s notfiction. All this stuff happened,and the documents are sittingin my safe at home. So it’s aquite striking reminder of a pe-riod that a lot of people arequickly forgetting.

“Catholic Servant”: Formy final question, whatvirtue is the most pertinent toPope John Paul’s legacy?

George Weigel: Let mesay first of all that I think thepeople of the Church havemade their own judgmentclear. And they made be clearat the funeral. And now whatwe are doing is waiting for theofficial processes of theChurch, which have their ownintegrity and wisdom, to catchup with the judgment of thepeople of the Church, whichwas rendered on April 8, 2005,with those cries of SantoSubito.... and all of this otherbusiness, which hadn’t hap-pened since Gregory the Greatin the early seventh century.

I suppose what I would sayabout John Paul II in summa-ry… is that he was a radicallyconverted Christian disciple,and that everything he did, asan intellectual, as a pastor, as afigure on the public stage, as apope, is an expression of thatradically converted disciple-

ship. And in that sense, one ofthe photos in the book, the fa-mous photo of him embracingthe cross on the last Good Fri-day of his life, which is pho-tographed from the back in thepapal apartment, watching theVia Crucis at the Coliseum ontelevision, is a perfect icon ofhis entire life. I was asked end-lessly on television the nextday whether they were notshowing the Pope’s face be-cause he looked too awful blahblah blah, and of course the an-swer was no. The Pope hadnever said “Look at me,” hewould always said “Look at Je-sus Christ.” And that was howhe understood the essence ofhis own discipleship. Having

experienced “the more excel-lent way,” of which St. Paulspeaks, his entire life was de-voted to inviting others to en-counter that more excellentlife. And that’s the way, I think,he will ultimately be remem-bered, as the great Christianwitness of the late 20th andearly 21st century.

John Sondag is Director ofReligious Education at theChurch of St. Helena in Min-neapolis, Minnesota and pub-lisher of “The Catholic Ser-vant.”

Weigel continued from page 9

The Cathol ic

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of the Mass when he said, “Byour apostolic authority we de-clare that the Venerable Ser-vant of God, John Henry New-man, priest of the Congregationof the Oratory, shall henceforthbe invoked as Blessed.”

That was the moment wehad been waiting for, a brightmoment indeed for CatholicEngland and the Churchthroughout the world. It wasthe Church’s recognition of theheroic sanctity of the greatestand most influential convert tothe Catholic faith in moderntimes. Following the truthwherever it led and not count-ing the cost, Newman wentfrom Evangelicalism to Anglo-Catholicism (the Church of

England), and when the latterproved to be Anglo and notCatholic, on to the fullness ofthe truth in the historic Churchof Rome.

Having earlier spoken aboutNewman as a “wise man ofGod whose thought enlight-ened many consciences andwho still today brings an ex-traordinary fascination,” PopeBenedict in his homily singledout his “keen intellect and pro-lific pen.” Intellect and pengave us classic works on thedevelopment of Christian doc-trine, faith and reason, the truenature of conscience, and uni-versity education. For many,however, it is Newman’s spiri-tual writings that stand out as

his greatest gift to us. PopeBenedict suggests their flavorin these words from his homi-ly: “Cardinal Newman’s motto,‘Heart speaks to heart,’ givesus an insight into his under-standing of the Christian life asa call to holiness, experiencedas the profound desire of thehuman heart to enter into inti-mate communion with theHeart of God. He reminds usthat faithfulness to prayer grad-ually transforms us into the di-vine likeness. As he wrote inone of his fine sermons, ‘ahabit of prayer, I say, has whatmay be called a natural effectin spiritualizing and elevatingthe soul. A man is not what hewas before; gradually … he hasimbibed a new set of ideas, andbecome imbued with freshprinciples.’”

In whatever form hewrote—theology, apologetics,history, essays of all sorts, ser-mons, or novels—Newman’s“prolific pen” produced writ-ings that for eloquence, preci-sion, and sheer beauty placehim high among the finestprose stylists in all of Englishliterature.

The Faith Newman foughtso hard to attain and defendwas evident in the behavior ofthe crowds at the beatificationMass. There was much cheer-ing before things got underway and when the Pope arrivedon the scene. But not after-wards. It was an awesome ex-perience to glance out from theplatform where I was concele-

brating with hundreds ofpriests and to hear no soundwhen the vast crowd was notsinging or responding, just aperfect silence of reverent faiththat began even before theywere waiting for the Mass tobegin. The feeling was palpa-ble that the sixty thousand pil-grims, spread out as far as theeye could see, were one in faithwith the Holy Father and theman he and they had comethere to honor.

For all who have been longdevoted to Newman in his writ-ings, it was quite moving tohear this, the opening prayer ofthe Mass: “O God, Who be-stowed on the priest BlessedJohn Henry Newman the graceto follow Your kindly light andfind peace in Your Church; gra-ciously grant that, through hisintercession and example, wemay be led out of shadows andimages into the fullness oftruth.” This prayer echoes bothNewman’s famous hymn,“Lead Kindly Light,” and theinscription on his grave whichcaptures his journey from theshadows and mere images ofthe truths of Revelation to theirreality and fullness in the oneChurch of Christ: Ex Umbris etImaginibus in Veritatem. Theprayer means that the authorone has known for so long as,well, just an author, howeverloved and revered, can now beprayed to and asked for his in-tercession. It will be a pleasantexperience getting used to it.

Fr. John McCloskey writes

in the Wall Street Journal of thesignificance of the beatifica-tion: “Newman died in 1890popularly considered a saint.Over a century later, theChurch is vindicating the judg-ment of the people of the U.K.and the whole English-speak-ing world. Pope Benedict’s de-cision to preside over New-man’s beatification reflects hislove and respect for a fellowtheologian whose work he hasstudied from his seminarydays, and whose influence onthe Second Vatican Councilmade him perhaps the most in-fluential theologian on thecouncil, even though it wasmeeting more than 70 years af-ter his death.”

After the ceremony, I wasmoving away with a largecrowd of English priests whenthey caught a glimpse of PopeBenedict as he was leaving.“Let’s hear it,” one of themshouted, and they let loose withthree “Hip Hip Hoorays”—forthe Holy Father and theBlessed John Henry Newman.

Fr. James Reidy is retiredfrom the University of St.Thomas and serves as part-time associate at Holy Child-hood Parish in St. Paul, Min-nesota.

Cardinal Newman continued from page 1


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P a g e 1 2 T h e C a t h o l i c S e r v a n t O c t o b e r , 2 0 1 0

By Don Fier

St. Thérèseof Lisieux, the“Little Flowerof Jesus,”whose feastday we cele-brated on Oc-tober 1, wrotea letter to herolder sisterand godmoth-

er, Sister Marie of the SacredHeart, approximately one yearbefore she died at the tenderage of 24. As related in theninth chapter in The Story of aSoul, Sister Marie had askedThérèse to put down in writing“the secrets Jesus confides to[my] little sister.” At the time,St. Thérèse of the Child Jesusand the Holy Face (her name inCarmel) was suffering a greatdeal with as yet undiagnosedtuberculosis, but was hidingher sufferings and trials fromher Carmelite community.When she wrote the letter toSister Marie, she knew interi-orly that she did not have muchtime remaining on this earth;this had been revealed to her ina mystical vision by VenerableAnne of Jesus. St. Thérèsewrote of the insights she re-ceived during her reflectionsupon chapters 12 and 13 of St.Paul’s First Letter to the

Corinthians, and also gave abeautiful explanation of her“little way” by way of analogyto a little bird in her letter toSister Marie.

St. Thérèse had a great de-sire for many vocations beyondthat of “Carmelite, Spouse [ofJesus], and Mother [of souls]”:warrior, priest, apostle, doctor,and martyr. She felt the needand desire to carry out heroicdeeds for Jesus. The LittleFlower firmly believed a basictenet of Catholic doctrine: Goddoes not inspire unrealizabledesires, even though theyseemed to conflict with herseeming powerlessness to ful-fill what God had planted inher heart. When she opened theEpistles of St. Paul and startedcontemplating First Corinthi-ans, she didn’t initially see her-self in any of the various voca-tions that St. Paul enumerat-ed—“first apostles, secondprophets, third teachers, thenworkers of miracles, then heal-ers, helpers, administrators,speakers in various kinds oftongues.” (I Cor 12:28) How-ever, when she continued withchapter 13, she received the in-spiration that she participatedin all vocations and exclaimed,“… my vocation, at last I havefound it … my vocation islove.”

St. Thérèse came to under-

stand that love, or charity, wasnot only the root of all her de-sires, but also the bond thatconnects all members of theMystical Body of Christ. Godgave her the clear inspirationthat love was the key: “when-ever Thérèse loved, she con-tributed to and participated inall the works of the entirebody.” When St. Paul writesthat love is the greatest of faith,hope, and love in I Corinthians13:13, St. Thérèse understoodit to mean that if she possessedauthentic love, the love ofbenevolence for God andneighbor, she could be allthings to all people. By lovingheroically and suffering hero-ically in the confines of herCarmelite monastery, she couldreach out to the whole world.When we abide in love, weabide in God and one another.Is there any wonder that theChurch has bestowed upon St.Thérèse the title “Patron Saintof Missionaries” even thoughshe never left her convent?

The Little Flower desired toperform extraordinary deedsfor God, but realized her weak-ness—that she was “too little toperform great actions.” Shecame to look upon herself as a“weak little bird, with onlylight down as covering.” Shewas not a great soaring eagle,but possessed “an eagle’s eyes

and heart.” She came to realizethat “Jesus does not demandgreat actions from us but sim-ply surrender and gratitude.” Itis not the deed itself that makesit extraordinary, but the lovecontained in the deed. Her lit-tlest sacrifices and humilia-tions, done with great love,were truly extraordinary deedsin the eyes of God—she lovedwith the love of charity, andher actions were the actions ofGod.

The road to sanctity thatwas shown to St. Thérèse,which came to be known as her“little way,” was to simply of-fer all of her “poor little actionsand desires” to God with greatlove. Her path was the “surren-der of the little child whosleeps without fear in [her] Fa-ther’s arms.” Another way ofdescribing her “little way” isattaining sanctity through “thepractice of hidden virtues, theordinary virtues,” and that iswhat she did in an exemplarymanner. St. Thérèse never al-lowed any little opportunity fora sacrifice to escape—everylook she gave, word she said,discomfort she endured—shedid with great love. Whenevershe unintentionally committedsome small fault or imperfec-tion, she immediately confidedherself to the mercy of God,knowing that by Him alone she

was purified.Each of us, by cooperating

with God’s grace, can advancein holiness and love in count-less practical ways by practic-ing the “little way” of St.Thérèse. We can all relate tocommon opportunities that oc-cur repeatedly in our dailylives: listen when we’d rathertalk, secretly do little acts ofkindness for others, practicepatience when others irritateus, give up petty attachments(e.g., not clinging to “special”belongings or “certain” waysof arranging things), take careof unpleasant duties withoutdelay rather than procrastinat-ing, greet and smile at thosewho annoy us. In imitation ofSt. Thérèse, ours, too, can be avocation of love if we heroical-ly and joyfully strive to do allthings to which we are called inour state of life with sacrificiallove rather than for personalgain or for mixed motives.

Don Fier serves on theBoard of Directors for “TheCatholic Servant” and is a2009 graduate of Ave MariaUniversity’s Institute for Pas-toral Theology.

This article was funded by theSt. Francis de Sales Chair of Writ-ing sponspored by Jeff and SusanPitman.

St. Thérèse of Lisieux: Her “little way” teaches us that our vocation is to love

Fier

CatholicServant Oct 10

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