Year: 2020

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News Briefs

Faced with universal quarantine, Benedictine College turned to Mary

September 11, 2020 CNA Daily News 1

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 11, 2020 / 03:29 am (CNA).- Benedictine College had a problem.

After students returned to campus for the fall semester, 38 of them tested positive for COVID-19. And while none of the students who tested positive had serious symptoms or required hospitalization, Atchison County, Kansas, where Benedictine College is located, was spooked.

So, out of a sense of desperation, Benedictine College President Stephen Minnis told his students to pray and fast for the health of the college from August 28 until September 8, the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary. The college had already made adjustments, at the behest of the county, to its existing coronavirus mitigation protocols.

“We had a commitment to be open in a safe and healthy environment, but with dynamic campus life, including athletics, with access to a strong faith program–including the sacraments–with in-person classes, all with the intention to stay open and true to our mission,” Minnis told CNA in an interview on September 9.

Minnis told CNA that bringing the students back on campus was necessary for fulfilling the college’s mission statement: “to educate within a community of faith and scholarship.”

“We believe strongly that COVID has attacked our mission directly,” said Minnis. “It’s an attack on our community by forcing our students to stay in their homes or in their dorm rooms and away from people. Humans are social beings, and if you take that away from them, they can’t be fully alive.”

The effects of the pandemic also attacked the “faith” and “scholarship” aspects of the college’s mission, with public Masses being suspended, and students sent home away from campus last semester.

“We had students that came back to Benedictine and had not gone to Mass since March, because of where they were living,” Minnis said. “We wanted to provide a really strong faith experience for them.”

While things were improving on the health front–no Benedictine student has been hospitalized with coronavirus, and the number of active cases continues to drop–this was not the case on the county level. According to local media, the county had four recorded cases of COVID-19 two weeks before school started, but that number had leapt to more than 200 once the students returned.

On September 2, Atchison County announced that all 2,000 college students would be required to isolate in their rooms for two weeks to stop the spread of coronavirus. The order, which was given without “any kind of warning” to Benedictine College, was to go into effect at midnight the next day. Students would be required to stay in their dorm rooms or homes and leave only for meals.

This meant no Mass, no athletics, no going for a walk around outside, no in-person classes. Students living off-campus would not be permitted to even go to the grocery store during that two-week period.

Minnis did not want to subject his students to a strict isolation, nor did he want to tell students they could not go to Mass. The school managed to convince the county to hold off for increased negotiations.

“And the County Commission asked the parties not to have this order go into effect, but ask the parties to begin negotiating and see if there could be common ground,” said Minnis.

Those negotiations began September 3. That evening, Benedictine students took it upon themselves to organize a masked, socially-distant rosary to pray for their school community. Minnis told CNA that he believes the same time the Rosary began, he was told that there would be “no chance” the county would budge on their order to require students to be isolated in their rooms.

Minnis decided to fast starting at the Thursday evening meeting with the county’s negotiation team. The negotiations that night were not ideal, and it did not seem as though Atchison County would change their minds.

But the following morning at 8:15 a.m., when the negotiations started again, he found “a completely different atmosphere” than the one from the previous night.

“There was an atmosphere of unity, not of division,” said Minnis. Officials were now “trying to get this resolved, not trying to punish anyone.”

An agreement was reached on Friday that appeased both the county and the school.

The new agreement, which is titled “Atchison and Benedictine: Stronger Together” was announced in a press release on September 4. It allows for greater movement on campus for students, while seeking to protect the broader community.

The agreement prohibits students living on campus from leaving campus, except for work, essential activities, or for academic requirements, and allows for students living off-campus to come on campus for “authorized athletic practices, religious services, work study, labs, or other necessary academic purposes.”

“By the end of Friday, we had an agreement and, and this agreement allowed us in-person classes. It allows our students to be out and still socialize, still exercise, still go to Mass,” said Minnis. He said the county had a “complete turnaround.”

“And there’s no question about it,” said Minnis. “It was Our Lady that did that.”

 


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No Picture
News Briefs

Knights of Peter Claver will host webinar to identify solutions to racial inequality

September 10, 2020 CNA Daily News 3

Denver Newsroom, Sep 10, 2020 / 03:13 pm (CNA).- As part of a five part series on social justice, a historically African-American Catholic fraternity will present a web seminar on the dignity of black lives this Saturday.

The Knights of Peter Claver will host a webinar called “Where is the dignity of black lives? Take your knee off my neck” Sept. 12. It is the first of a five-part series, which will also include webinars on racism, domestic violence, human trafficking, and criminal justice reform.

Rick Sassua, the Knights of Peter Claver national treasurer and an advisor for its social justice committee, said the name relates to the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black American who was killed in Minneapolis by former police officer Derek Chauvin.

He expressed hope that the event promotes the human dignity of African-Americans and helps establish the next steps to tackle racism in the United States.

“I think the goal is to further the concept of human dignity as it relates to black lives. The goal is to enlighten, educate, [and] engage a meaningful dialogue to produce next steps,” he told CNA.

“We will … have some tools to go back to our respective courts, our councils, our cities, our states, our dioceses, and bring something back as opposed to just listening to a talk and just going home. We [will] have like a call to action to try to peacefully resolve some of the issues we’re seeing from these protests.”

The event will include speakers such as Father Norman Fischer, the chaplain for Central States District; Tracy Aikens, the far west regional director for Delta Sigma Theta Sorority; Ashford Hughes, executive officer for the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Metro Nashville Public Schools; and Gloria Purvis, the host of EWTN’s Morning Glory. Bishop Fernand Cheri, an auxiliary bishop of New Orleans, will also make an appearance.

Sassua said each speaker brings a unique perspective on the racial tensions in the United States, including standpoints on media, college formation, and the next steps to push racial equality forward. He said the Knights of Peter Claver has had conversations with police departments to discuss how to prevent similar deaths from happening again and what training steps could be implemented.

He said Hughes will provide advice on solutions to racial problems and identifying next step procedures actually to resolve these issues. He also said Purvis will offer perspectives about how racial equality problems are an aspect of the pro-life movement.

“Hughes has his own nonprofit organization that deals with racial advice within a national area … We talk about what’s going on with the issues; he has been well-versed in identifying next step procedures to actually resolve some of the issues that we see on a daily basis.”

“[Gloria] has a show on pro-life and also the black lives matter issue, where she views black lives matter as being a pro-life issue. She also talks about different ways in which the media and marketing and how that actually [will affect it].”

As a faith-based organization, he said, the discussion will also provide insight into the topic of racial issues with a uniquely Catholic perspective.

He said it has been reassuring to witness the Catholic Church express concern for these issues and take the necessary steps to tackle racism. He pointed to the US bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism.

“As black Catholics, it’s like a sense of belonging to see the Church address these issues because …. we worship with our fellow Catholics who are of all races. If you see a race or a certain subset of people that are being hurt as a Christian, as a Catholic, you want to do what you can to try to make sure that person is [welcome].”

He said it was comforting to see the Church’s involvement in the Sept. 9 National Day of Prayer of Fasting to End Racism, and the engagement of other Catholic lay organizations like the Knights of Columbus. He expressed the importance for Catholics to view racial equality as a problem relating to the pro-life movement.

“The Knights of Columbus taking a stance on that, it makes me feel good,” he said. “I just express my appreciation for them doing something like that, because that’s a big step.”

“Being pro-birth is awesome, but we also have to look at the whole spectrum of conception to natural death, because if a person has a child or a woman does not choose to have an abortion at a young age, and that child grows up and the child gets killed in the street … it sparks some concern for that family, but it should also spark some concern for the Catholic Church.”

The Knights of Peter Claver was founded in Mobile, Ala., in 1909 and is now headquartered in New Orleans. The order is named for St. Peter Claver, the Jesuit missionary priest who ministered to African slaves in Colombia.

Its membership is historically African-American but is open to all practicing Catholics without regard to race or ethnicity. Many of its members played a role in the U.S. civil rights movement of the mid-20th century.

The organization has a presence in about 39 states and in South America. Its six divisions include a Ladies Auxiliary, two junior divisions for boys and girls, Fourth Degree Knights, and their companion group Ladies of Grace.


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