Washington D.C., Apr 20, 2020 / 04:00 pm (CNA).- Many U.S. Catholics have limited or no access to the sacraments during the coronavirus pandemic, bringing to many parishes a reality faced in other parts of the country on a regular basis.
Kevin Day, director of the Catholic Home Missions national collection of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), told CNA on April 20 that Catholics in American many dioceses were experiencing circumstances “not unlike” the situation in mission territories around the world where Catholics might see a priest once or twice a year to hear confessions, bless marriages, and offer Mass in person.
“One of the things that I find interesting, is that everyone is facing this reality of being cut off from the sacraments, the physical sacraments, and the physical communion of the Church community,” Day said.
He added that it’s an “educational opportunity” for U.S. Catholics to learn about life in “mission” territory—including “mission” dioceses in their home country.
“Home missions” are U.S. dioceses that require outside assistance to provide basic pastoral care to Catholics, often because they are located in rural parts of the country or in the predominantly-Protestant South where Catholics are a small minority.
These situations are more common than one would think, Day told CNA, making up around 40 percent of U.S. dioceses. They include dioceses in more sparsely-populated regions like Alaska, the Mountain West, and West Texas, but also in other areas such as Alabama, Mississippi, Northern Louisiana and Appalachia.
These dioceses do not have the “critical mass” for an independent financial foundation, Day said, and they rely on outside financial assistance for pastoral needs, for which the USCCB set up the Catholic Home Missions Appeal in 1998.
Normally held on the last weekend of April, the special collection provides millions of dollars—more than $9.4 million in 2019 grants—of aid for purposes such as Hispanic ministry, evangelization, aid to mission parishes, and seminary education.
The 2020 collection was scheduled for the weekend of April 25-26, but as the recent pandemic forced the cancellation of public Masses across the U.S., “we expect this year to have a significant decline in revenue,” Day said.
For many dioceses reliant on outside funding, with parishes which are perhaps not equipped for online giving, the pandemic could pose another significant funding problem. Parishes in dioceses not considered mission territory were already feeling the squeeze in March once public Masses were cancelled, with parish staff already reporting furloughs and cuts.
Some parishes are better equipped than others to survive the economic downturn, Day said, as some mission parishes have no reserves and a small congregation.
The bishops’ conference has already been working with home mission dioceses to help them weather the storm, expediting the delivery of FY 2020 grant payments and allowing them to pay for pastoral needs or general operating expenses rather than the original specific purposes, said Day, and dioceses have already expressed appreciation for this “flexibility.”
Some of the unique challenges facing mission dioceses during this time are technological—“the learning curve that the dioceses and the parishes are going through to go online,” he said.
In many parishes, pastors eligible for retirement are still serving out of necessity. These in particular may not have the technological expertise to conduct video conferencing or virtually communicate with parishioners and staff, and in some cases some younger high school and college-age parishioners have already stepped in to help them get up to speed, Day said.
Ultimately, the current pandemic and the resultant social distancing and spiritual communion of the faithful is a lesson that the church is “more than the structures of our buildings,” he said.
“If anything we’re coming to understand that yes, the sacraments and being cut off from the Eucharist is something that we haven’t experienced, and we’re going to value the Eucharist more. But at the same time, we know now that our church is more than the structures of our buildings and the walls that contain the tabernacle. Our church is greater than that.”
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The exterior of the new St. Isidore’s Catholic Student Center at Kansas State University. / Credit: Jacob Bentzinger
CNA Staff, Oct 2, 2023 / 17:15 pm (CNA).
There’s a quote from Jerome Tang, head coach of the Kansas State University (KSU) basketball team, that Father Gale Hammerschmidt likes.
“I didn’t come to rebuild. I came to elevate,” Tang said after taking the team’s helm last year. (His team bowed out of the NCAA Tournament last spring after making it to the Elite Eight.)
Hammerschmidt, chaplain at St. Isidore’s Catholic Student Center at Kansas State, said he thinks “elevation” is an appropriate word for what the Catholic community he leads is doing right now. On Jan. 28, the local bishop dedicated the Catholic center’s brand-new, $20 million church — a project more than two decades in the making.
But now that the new church is open, the real work of bringing the Catholic faith to students on campus can continue. The grand new church presents an opportunity to “elevate everything we do here at St. Isidore’s,” Hammerschmidt told CNA.
“We know that the work is just now beginning. And if we’re going to create a beautiful space, we want to be able to do beautiful things in the space. And nothing is more beautiful than a soul encountering the living God,” the priest told CNA.
Hammerschmidt, a Kansas native and 1995 Kansas State alum, was ordained to the priesthood in 2012 and was assigned to St. Isidore’s in 2017. The Catholic center sits just across the street from the Kansas State campus, which is itself the lifeblood of the small city of Manhattan. There had been discussions about the need for a new church building for several years before he arrived.
“I already knew that there was a need to build a new church. This is something that had been talked about for probably 20 years, honestly, even since right around the time that I was graduating from college,” Hammerschmidt told CNA.
Part of the reason was that the population served by St. Isidore’s had outgrown the old space, which sat about 400 and was regularly filled to bursting on Sundays with overflow seating in the student center library.
Grace Gorges, a K-State student studying graphic design, got involved with the Catholic community at the college as soon as she arrived at KSU. From the get-go, “the Masses were always crowded, always overflowing,” she said, adding that the fallout from COVID made things even worse when parts of the sanctuary had to be roped off for distancing purposes.
The campaign to raise money for a new church was dubbed “Home Away from Home.” About $5 million had already been raised before Hammerschmidt’s arrival, and the campaign ultimately raised nearly $20 million for the project, he said. Some 1,500 individual donors contributed to the campaign.
Nebraska-based lead architect Kevin Clark came to Manhattan in 2017 and began asking the community what they wanted their new church to look like. Countless students requested a beautiful interior, “traditional-looking in nature,” the priest said.
“We want this to look like a church that has been standing forever and will stand forever,” he recalled students telling him.
“We wanted to make sure that it was an epic-looking building” with an interior that would raise hearts and minds “to the beauties of heaven,” he said.
Given her involvement in the community and her interest in beauty and design, Hammerschmidt asked Gorges to serve on the building committee, which meant she would have a say in the church’s aesthetic. Gorges said she was invited to help design the church’s tile flooring. She researched churches online for inspiration and also drew from her personal experience of visiting numerous beautiful sacred spaces on a trip to Italy.
Ridge Pinkston, a fifth-year senior when CNA spoke with him, studying medieval history, was also chosen to be on the building committee. He told CNA that the committee — which included Hammerschmidt, diocesan board member Doug Hinkin, and others — was given almost complete control over the look of the new church.
He said the committee had numerous meetings with the architect to figure out the look of everything in the new church — they spent an entire two-hour meeting designing the look of the altar, for example. He said the building committee “represented the body of owners” to the architect and designers, similar to how when a family builds a house, the architects and contractors consult them on how they want it to look. He said it was a “huge privilege” and a great learning process to be a part of the committee as a student.
Despite his interest in medieval architecture, the churches that Pinkston primarily drew inspiration from were mainly stateside; most are located in the Archdiocese of Denver. They included the medieval revival-style chapel at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary and the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception and Holy Ghost Catholic Church, both in downtown Denver.
Ultimately, the architects and designers of St. Isidore’s produced a neo-Gothic interior with pointed arches that dropped many a jaw when it was unveiled. The interior also features numerous instances of vine imagery — an image of Jesus himself, but also a subtle nod to the college’s agricultural heritage. Evergreene Architectural Arts, a renowned design studio in New York, provided the decoration, Hammerschmidt said.
Not everything in the interior is entirely new, however. Hammerschmidt said at the request of students, stained-glass windows depicting the seven patron saints of the seven original colleges at Kansas State (the university was originally Methodist-founded) were saved and incorporated into the new church. Among those saints are the church’s namesake, St. Isidore — an 11th-century Spaniard and patron saint of agricultural workers — as well as the namesake of the student center, St. Robert Bellarmine. A much-loved crucifix that hung over the tabernacle in the old church was also used again in the new church.
Gorges said she loves the triumphal arch over the altar in the finished church, which draws one’s eyes toward the focal point of the crucifix, and onward to heaven. A beautiful church, she said, is “not the end-all-be-all by any means. But if it’s at all possible, beauty matters. And we should be trying to live that in our daily lives.”
Pinkston said his favorite design element in the new church, apart from the ceiling of the apse, is the new altar itself, which he said really strikes him as being designed in a way that calls to mind a place where sacrifices are made.
“Rightfully, that should be one of the most beautiful features,” he said of the altar.
The designers also took care to design the exterior of the church to match the native limestone buildings of Kansas State, in an effort to make the church an integral part of the campus it serves.
Bishop Gerald Vincke of Salina, Kansas, dedicated the diocese’s newest church on Jan. 28. The 14,000-square-foot structure can accommodate about 700 for Sunday Masses.
Hammerschmidt said daily Masses at St. Isidore’s were already attracting nearly 200 students on a regular basis. A key part of the Catholic center’s success, he said, is the presence of missionaries from the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS). FOCUS maintains a presence on college campuses with the goal of winning people to the Catholic faith through authentic friendships and forming others to go out and do the same through Bible studies, small groups, and retreats.
“We also work closely with the high schools in the state of Kansas, especially the Catholic high schools. And we have many strong Catholic high schools in our area. And so we just have students who, the first day they show up in Manhattan, they already know about us,” Hammerschmidt said.
In addition, he said, the Catholic center is in cooperation with the local Diocese of Salina and the nearby Diocese of Wichita, whereby Wichita — which has been blessed in recent years with large vocation numbers — sends a priest to serve as Hammerschmidt’s associate. Large numbers of students come to KSU from Wichita — Gorges among them — who get involved with the Catholic center thanks to strong word of mouth.
“It’s good for them to have one of their own priests looking after them … I think it’s working phenomenally well.”
Working at St. Isidore’s, Pinkston said he has gotten to know “the regulars” that came to the church before the rebuild, but now with the new church, he said he sees many more people coming in to pray whom he has never seen before. He also said it was inspirational for him to see a friend — a man who is joining the Catholic Church this Easter — weeping openly when he first saw the new church’s interior.
“That was really the first time I’d ever seen him express emotion … That’s definitely a huge blessing to be able to see that happening,” he said.
Hammerschmidt was almost overwhelmed by the support of the many students, alumni, and others who made the new church possible. Months on from the chapel’s opening, the 9:09 p.m. daily Mass is always well attended, with about 300 students attending regularly. As of September, St. Isidore’s has 40 student-led Bible studies with around 400 Bible study participants.
“The outpouring of joy and gratitude has been incredible. The number of people who we will just see walking through the church from out of town is unbelievable,” Hammerschmidt said.
“And then beyond that, we had so many more hundreds of people praying for the project, and we just have been supported unbelievably well.”
Hammerschmidt said he wants the students and community of Kansas State to take ownership of the magnificent new church and to use it for their spiritual benefit.
“We want to let everybody in Manhattan and on K-State’s campus know that we built this church for them,” he said.
“If they just need a place of encounter with God to just come in to be seated, to be immersed in the beauty and the silence and to just let God speak. That’s our hope. For the Catholics, for the non-Catholics, for the students, for nonstudents, just for anyone who needs a place to encounter the living God, this would be the place for them.”
Washington D.C., Oct 8, 2019 / 02:40 pm (CNA).- The bishops of the United States have urged the Supreme Court not to “redefine a fundamental element of humanity” by reinterpreting sex descrimination laws.
The bishops’ intervention came as the court heard oral arguments Tuesday in a trio of cases that could decide whether or not federal workplace nondiscrimination law extend to protect sexual orientation or gender identity.
Two of the cases presented on Oct 8— Bostock v. Clayton County, Altitude Express, Inc. v. Zarda—involve employees who were fired because of their sexual orientation. A third, Harris Funeral Homes, Inc. v. EEOC, involves a man who lost his job after announcing his intention to undergo so-called gender transition surgery.
During the session, the justices considered whether the cases constituted sex discrimination or discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. They also considered whether or not Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which forbids sex discrimination in the workplace, also applies protections to sexual orientation and gender identity.
If the Court interprets that sex discrimination protections extend to sexual orientation or gender identity, the decision would have a widespread effect on cases throughout the country.
Leading U.S. bishops urged the court not to redefine “sex” to mean “sexual orientation” or “gender identity.”
In a joint statement issued on Tuesday, Bishop Robert McManus, of Worcester, who chairs the USCCB’s Religious Liberty committee, Bishop Frank Dewane, of Venice, chairman of the Domestic Justice and Human Development committee, and Bishop James Conley, of Lincoln, who chairs the Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, said that the law must be interpreted in line with the meaning of the text.
“Words matter,” the bishops said. “‘Sex’ should not be redefined to include sexual inclinations or conduct, nor to promulgate the view that sexual identity is solely a social construct rather than a natural or biological fact.”
“Title VII helps ensure the dignified treatment of all persons, and we as Catholics both share and work toward that goal,” the bishops wrote.
“Redefining ‘sex’ in law would not only be an interpretive leap away from the language and intent of Title VII, it would attempt to redefine a fundamental element of humanity that is the basis of the family, and would threaten religious liberty.”
Franciscan University of Steubenville president Fr. Dave Pivonka, TOR, also stated in an amicus brief submitted to the Court in the Harris case that, if the Court defined “sex” to mean “gender identity,” then that could open the door to the school being forced to change its sex-specific dorms, bathrooms, and locker rooms, and its medical personnel having to perform objectionable medical procedures.
Among the issues discussed was the issue of sex-specific bathrooms, and whether non-discrimination statutes could require transgender persons to be able to use the bathroom of the gender opposite their biological sex.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor said that if the Harris case was decided in favor of Stephens, that question was “inevitable.”
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said multiple times during arguments that most people would consider it injurious having to share a bathroom with a person of a different biological sex.
Another topic discussed was men identifying as women being allowed to participate in women’s sports. Justice Samuel Alito said that debate would be revisited in the future.
Chief Justice John Roberts noted that several states have enacted statutes forbidding discrimination against persons based on their sexual orientation or gender identity, but many of them have also carved out religious exemptions. There are currently 23 states which have enacted such anti-discrimination laws.
Solicitor General Noel Francisco said that with the Employee Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) and related legislation, Congress and states have found religious exemptions when forbidding discrimination on basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. However, if the Supreme Court redefines existing nondiscrimination law in Title VII, he said, they would be giving “complete victory” to one side in the debate without letting the public debate the matter and settle it—as they have done already at the state level.
During Wednesday’s arguments, Justice Stephen Breyer told John Bursch, vice president of appellate advocacy for Alliance Defending Freedom who represented Harris Funeral Home, that the “other side” would argue that the Civil Rights Act was passed as part of the civil rights movement.
This entire movement, he continued, fought for protection for those who had suffered grievous discrimination; that same protection would have been extended to others who have suffered discrimination, namely individuals identifying as LGBTQ.
The court, Breyer summarized as the position counter to Bursch’s, has moved away from that interpretation over the years, towards a strict textual interpretation of sex discrimination. Breyer asked how that would not be a departure from the meaning of Title VII that it extended civil rights protections to vulnerable individuals.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor followed by asking “at what point” the court would step in to prevent “invidious discrimination” against whole groups of people, who are fired simply because of “who they are” and “merely because they’re a suspect class to some people.”
“We can’t deny that homosexuals are being fired merely for being who they are and not because of religious reasons,” Sotomayor said.
“At what point does a court say, ‘Congress spoke about this, the original Congress who wrote this statute told us what they meant. They used clear words. And regardless of what others may have thought over time, it’s very clear that what’s happening fits those words.’ At what point do we say we have to step in?” she asked.
Justice Samuel Alito said that, although Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and forbade sex discrimination in the workplace, it had not updated that language to include protections for sexual orientation or gender identity.
Congress had not yet passed the Equality Act, Alito said, which would make sexual orientation and gender identity a protected class. If the Court were to change the interpretation of Civil Rights Act to include protections for sexual orientation and gender identity, “we will be acting exactly like a legislature.”
In the Harris case, Justice Roberts asked if the funeral home’s sex-specific dress policy presented discrimination on the basis of sex, or on the basis of Mr. Stephens’ transgender status.
David Cole, representing the emplyee fired by Harris Funeral Home, said that in his case a sex-specific dress code requiring him to dress like a man when he identified as a woman was harmful. Title VII was supposed to make one’s sex “irrelevant” to their success at work, he said, but Stephens was fired for being “insufficiently masculine,” which is “sex discrimination,” he said.
Justice Neil Gorsuch acknowledged that the textual evidence of the case is “close,” and asked if a judge should consider the consequences of “massive social upheaval” of interpreting new protections in an existing law.
Denver Newsroom, Jun 2, 2020 / 05:38 pm (CNA).- Minneapolis clergy, including Archbishop Bernard Hebda of St. Paul-Minneapolis, participated in a silent walking protest Tuesday afternoon to the spot where George Floyd died in police custody last week, stopping to pray at the memorial that had been set up for him.
Hundreds of local leaders from Christian denominations and other religious traditions were present for the prayerful event.
“While many faiths were represented, there was great unity as we prayed for justice and peace,” Archbishop Hebda said in a tweet Tuesday.
It was a great privilege to pray alongside faith leaders #stpfaithleadersforjustice in our communities today both in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. While many faiths were represented, there was great unity as we prayed for justice and peace. pic.twitter.com/q9ULUGeu3V
Archbishop Hebda had offered a Mass for the soul of George Floyd and for his family May 27.
Other Catholic cergy present included Father Kevin Finnegan, pastor of Our Lady of Grace Parish southwest of the city. Father Finnegan was glad to see Archbishop Hebda at the protest, though “he was not at all the center of attention.”
“I ended up being “up front” for the prayer part…not where I intended,” Finnegan told CNA in an email.
“But a [great] place to ask God to grace our community.”
Dozens of cities across the country have seen widespread protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd. Some protests have turned to nights of rioting, or conflicts with police. At least five people have died amid the protests.
In the video of the May 25 arrest, an officer with the Minneapolis Police Department can be seen kneeling on Floyd’s neck for several minutes after the man was taken into custody. Floyd could be heard saying “I can’t breathe” several times. Floyd died soon after.
Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was arrested May 29, and has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. He and the three other officers present at Floyd’s arrest were fired from the Minneapolis Police Department.
Catholics across the Twin Cities have called for justice and unity in the wake of Floyd’s death.
Hundreds join Mpls clergy on silent march to block where George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police officer. Diverse crowd prayed at memorial that has become sacred ground. pic.twitter.com/zZUgIPxIKP
“The love of God, revealed in Jesus Christ, clearly shows us that we are all children of one God, and that we are all equally subjects of Christ our King, in the Kingdom of God our Father. We are all brothers and sisters,” Fr. Erich Rutten, pastor of St. Peter Claver Parish in St. Paul, said in a YouTube message May 27.
“This particular case is so egregious, that it’s just maddening,” Rutten— who shepherds the largest African-American Catholic community in the Twin Cities— told CNA.
“Our faith calls us way beyond racism, into a radical unity, in the Kingdom of God. A Kingdom we’re all brothers and sisters. I mean truly: Really brothers and sisters,” he said.
St. Albert the Great Parish, located in the Longfellow neighborhood, sheltered 34 neighbors as riots destroyed surrounding businesses and damaged homes the night of May 28. Less than a mile from the church, thousands of protesters gathered to burn the Minneapolis Third Police Precinct, many of them inflicting violence on the surrounding area as well.
The Basilica of Saint Mary in Minneapolis sustained fire damage May 29 amid riots in the city, and graffiti was found on the Church of St. Mark in St. Paul, over two miles away from the heart of the violence.
There are mission territories that survived as faith communities without the sacraments for long periods of time due to the recitation of the daily family rosary. It is a very simple meditation on the life of Christ through prayers that anyone can learn. By the same token, the loss and cooling of faith in many places where the sacraments are normally available coincided with the abandonment of the rosary as a family prayer — though it’s recitation has been urged both by Popes and heaven itself over the centuries.
We used to belong to a tiny mission church & our current rural parish still has both a mission chapel along with a regular church.
Our former mission church was a 45 minute drive over narrow roads, some unpaved & treacherous. After one spell of bad weather the roads were unsafe to travel without 4 wheel drive for 4 weeks. Our dear pastor, God rest his soul, was elderly & some Sundays we’d make the long trek to church only to find him to unwell to say Mass.
So I really do appreciate the sacraments & hope to never take their availability for granted. I also miss our little mission church community. Sometimes the smaller the church, the greater the fellowship.
🙂
There are mission territories that survived as faith communities without the sacraments for long periods of time due to the recitation of the daily family rosary. It is a very simple meditation on the life of Christ through prayers that anyone can learn. By the same token, the loss and cooling of faith in many places where the sacraments are normally available coincided with the abandonment of the rosary as a family prayer — though it’s recitation has been urged both by Popes and heaven itself over the centuries.
Another great blessing in this time of suffering is that we are reminded of so many of God’s gifts that we otherwise take for granted.
Thanks be to God for all of His gifts, especially the difficult ones.
We used to belong to a tiny mission church & our current rural parish still has both a mission chapel along with a regular church.
Our former mission church was a 45 minute drive over narrow roads, some unpaved & treacherous. After one spell of bad weather the roads were unsafe to travel without 4 wheel drive for 4 weeks. Our dear pastor, God rest his soul, was elderly & some Sundays we’d make the long trek to church only to find him to unwell to say Mass.
So I really do appreciate the sacraments & hope to never take their availability for granted. I also miss our little mission church community. Sometimes the smaller the church, the greater the fellowship.
🙂