Minnesota priest heard Lincoln’s call for Civil War chaplains

April marked the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, and some folks might think there wouldn’t be much interest in Catholic-related stories about the War Between the States too far outside Washington or beyond the site of the major battles between North and South. But then along comes a feature from one of the Catholic newpapers in the Midwest.

The story in the Nov. 21 issue of The Catholic Spirit, of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, describes how Father John Ireland of Minnesota tended to the spiritual needs of soldiers on the battlefield.

In 1861, President Abraham Lincoln called for priests to serve as Civil War hospital chaplains. Twenty-two answered, among them a young Minnesotan.

Read the full story here. The Minnesota Military Museum has an exhibit about the role of Minnesotans’ role in the Civil War.

Spending a week on a food stamp diet ‘humbling, difficult’

In this season o’ plenty, with Thanksgiving behind us and Christmas feasting ahead, reporter George Raine’s story in a recent issue of Catholic San Francisco, the archdiocesan newspaper, gives a perspective on those trying to subsist on food stamps. He interviewed a U.S. representative from the Bay Area about the week she and other lawmakers spent living on the $4.50 daily allowance for food stamp recipients.

Rep. Jackie Speier, who represents California’s 12th District in Congress, told Raine the experience was “humbling and difficult.” She joined other House Democrats in a “Food Stamp Challenge” the first week of November to call attention to the program facing possible budget cuts in Congress.

A Vatican II Catholic tells why he loves Mass

(CNS photo/Gregory A.Shemitz)

As everyone knows, the English-translation of the new Roman Missal will gets its first use in the pews at Masses this weekend. And along comes a timely reflection from one Vatican II Catholic about what he loves about the Mass, reflecting on what it has meant to him at various stages of his life, starting when he was an altar boy.

“At Mass – no matter where or who or how many people are in the pews or folding chairs – I feel affirmed in my choice to be part of this 2,000-year-old tradition,” writes Bob Zyskowski in a Nov. 18 posting. “Note that word ‘choice.’ Nobody is forcing me to be at church. I go because I want to. Because I get something out of it. And what’s affirming is that I feel part of something good and valued by others.”

Zyskowski is associate publisher of The Catholic Spirit, newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. His reflection is on CatholicHotDish.com, “A Minnesota Flavored Catholic Blog” launched by the newspaper earlier this year.

“This isn’t an exercise in apologetics on behalf of the new Roman Missal,” he says. “I’ve read at least a dozen explanations explaining the need for the changes and just as many commentaries questioning those explanations. Frankly, neither matter. I’ll still love Mass.”

Also worth a look is a CNS story about Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley’s new pastoral, “Jesus’ Eager Desire: Our Participation in the Sunday Mass.” The full text is available on the website of The Pilot, the Boston archdiocesan newspaper. Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput also offered his reflections on the first Sunday of Advent and use of the new missal in this letter to Catholics.

More than 25,000 youths and their chaperones descend on Indianapolis to celebrate faith, friendship, community

Kaleigh Gross of Atlanta attends youth conference. (CNS photo/Karen Callaway)

More than 25,000 Catholic youths and their adult chaperones are in Indianapolis for the National Catholic Youth Conference. Saturday is the last day of  what has been a three-day experience of prayer, community and empowerment for Catholic teens. Check out this photo gallery on the website of The Criterion, newspaper of the Indianapolis Archdiocese.

According to organizers, one of the signature activities for the youths at this biennial gathering is trading – buttons, pins, caps and other souvenirs that represent their hometown or state. This year, for the first time, they’ll be exchanging bishops’ trading cards during one of the final events on the closing day.

More than 100,000 of the cards were printed and each teen received five bishop trading cards in his or her registration packet. A complete set includes 28 different bishops from all over the country.

“The whole idea of the bishop trading cards was to get into the spirit of the thematic park, Victory Park (named and modeled after Indianapolis’ Victory Field),” said Marlene Stammerman, director of Catholic Youth Ministries for the Indianapolis Archdiocese’s New Albany deanery in Clarksville.

“There is a whole dynamic of trading items at NCYC. Some kids trade buttons, cow bells, and almost anything. Trading the bishops and trying to get the card with their diocesan bishop on it gives the kids one more thing to negotiate with when vying for that favorite item. It’s a fun way for them to start conversations and make new friends.”

Bishops planned to autograph their trading cards for the teens on Saturday from 2-6 p.m. at Victory Park.

Backers of California’s Prop. 8 have standing to appeal ruling, says court

In a unanimous decision issued Nov. 17, the California Supreme Court ruled that the faith-based groups that sponsored Proposition 8, the state’s 2008 voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage, have the right to appeal a federal judge’s 2010 ruling it is unconstitutional, reports George Raine of Catholic San Francisco.

“Catholics are among the backers of Prop. 8 who appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal the ruling that it discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation and gender,” Raine writes. “As the circuit court took up the issue, its judges needed to resolve a question: Do the backers of the proposition have the legal right to defend it in court when two elected officials, the former governor and the former attorney general, refused to do so?”

The Nov. 17 decision, Raine continues, ”was a victory for ProtectMarriage.com, the proponent in the case, and it allows the 9th Circuit now to resolve the critical question in the case – whether or not Prop. 8 is constitutional – although it is expected the U.S. Supreme Court will have the final word.”

Andy Pugno, general counsel of ProtectMarriage.com., told Raine: “(The) decision is a critical step in our three-year battle to uphold marriage between a man and a woman.”

Looking at ‘musical legacy, faith’ of Bruce Springsteen

A New Jersey pastor who has had a long friendship with Bruce Springsteen held a workshop a few weeks back examining the “musical legacy and faith” of the singer-songwriter, according to a story by correspondent Christina Leslie in this issue of The Monitor, newspaper of the Diocese of Trenton, N.J. A crowd of about 150 — including Bruce’s mother, Adele — gathered for the session held by Father Kevin J. Keelen, pastor of St. Barnabas Parish in Bayville.

“Every indigenous tribe has music. It’s part of being human,” the Augustinian friar said. “Tonight’s about Bruce and us. He evangelizes in a different way.” Citing lyrics from Springsteen’s “Hungry Heart,” the priest quoted St. Augustine: “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you, God.”

With anecdotes drawn on his friendship with “The Boss,” Father Keelen “wove a picture of a deeply spiritual musician whose faith is reflected in his extensive music portfolio,” writes Leslie.

One thing is clear: Chinese Catholics need prayers

After traveling to China in 2007, I came away having learned two important lessons: 1) Nothing is as it seems. 2) The more you learn, the more you realize what you do not know.

A Chinese security officer watches as Catholics pray at an altar during a 2008 pilgrimage in honor of Mary at the Sheshan shrine on the outskirts of Shanghai, China. (CNS/ Reuters)

This does not apply just to China, but to the Chinese Catholic Church, which, on one level, is locked in a battle with the Chinese government: church autonomy vs. government control.

Reports coming from China might indicate that Chinese Catholic leaders are caving in to government officials. For instance, last December the Asian church news agency UCA News reported on the Congress of Catholic Representatives, which some church leaders were forced to attend. The Vatican was critical of the assembly on many levels, including that Vatican-approved bishops were among officials elected to the Bishops’ Conference of the Catholic Church in China and the Catholic Patriotic Association, two bodies Pope Benedict XVI has said are not in line with church teaching.

Yet in that same 2007 letter to Chinese Catholics in which Pope Benedict criticized the two government-backed bodies, he said he recognized the difficult situation of bishops and priests under pressure from the government and added that the Holy See “leaves the decision to the individual bishop,” having consulted his priests, “to weigh … and to evaluate the possible consequences” of dealing with government pressures in each given situation.

In mid-July, the Vatican condemned the ordination of Father Joseph Huang Bingzhang as bishop of Shantou and said he automatically incurred excommunication. The Vatican said Father Huang “had been informed some time ago that he could not be approved by the Holy See as an episcopal candidate, inasmuch as the Diocese of Shantou already has a legitimate bishop.”

And today UCA News is reporting that the Shantou Diocese has three new priests. The report cites a source, unnamed, as saying that Father Huang might have struck a deal with a neighboring bishop to allow the seminarians to be ordained: Father Huang is still seen by the government as bishop of Shantou, yet he probably recognized the needs of the seminarians who had spent years studying to be priests, so he allowed them to be ordained by a Vatican-approved bishop.

Bishop Paul Pei Junmin (CNS/Nancy Wiechec)

Meanwhile, online speculation has considered the circumstances of Bishop Paul Pei Junmin of Liaoning, whom China says was suspended from his posts as vice president of the Chinese bishops’ conference and as head of the Liaoning branch of the patriotic association for refusing to participate in Father Huang’s episcopal ordination.

Bishop Pei, who has Vatican approval, is rumored to have resigned from his posts, and some speculate that the Chinese government announced his suspension to save face. Some reports have said he is under house arrest.

What exactly is going on remains unclear, and those who do know are reluctant to speak for fear of repercussions. What IS clear is that, as they navigate the minefields of church leadership in China, the young church leaders continue to need the prayers of Catholics around the world.

Opera tells story of murdered nun who helped poor farmers, fought powerful landowners in Brazil

2004 file photo of Sister Dorothy Stang. (CNS photo/Reuters)

Ohio-born Sister Dorothy Stang, a member of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur and a naturalized Brazilian citizen, was known for her fight against large landowners in the Amazon region. And for that and her ministry to the marginalized there, she was assassinated in 2005 at age 73. Now her story is being told in an American opera titled “Angel of the Amazon.”

The work just had two performances in Boston this past weekend. The Pilot, newspaper of the Boston Archdiocese, carried an advance notice that featured a triptych of Sister Dorothy painted by a member of her order.

Sister Dorothy’s death sparked an international outcry. She was killed Feb.12, 2005, in Anapu, a remote community in the Amazon region. She was shot several times in the chest and head.

For nearly four decades, Sister Dorothy worked in rural Brazil, defending the rights of poor peasants. This fight made her many enemies, including some wealthy landowners. Shortly before her death, the town of Anapu declared her “persona non grata,” stating her work was hindering the region’s development.

In her book titled “Martyr of the Amazon,” published by Orbis Books in 2007, author Rosanne Murphy recounted that Sister Dorothy’s lifelong dream of mission work became a reality in 1966, when she was one of five sisters from her order sent to Brazil following an appeal by Pope John XXIII.

In December 2008 she was one of seven people name to receive the  prestigious U.N. Prize in the Field of Human Rights, awarded by the General Assembly every five years.

Bishops make World Series wager

Items at stake in World Series bet.

With the St. Louis Cardinals and the Texas Rangers facing off in this year’s World Series two bishops are paying close attention.

The St. Louis Review is reporting that St. Louis Archbishop Robert J. Carlson made a friendly wager over the games with former Cardinals fan Bishop Kevin W. Vann of Fort Worth, Texas, home of the Texas Rangers.

Bishop Vann may want to root for both teams since he has strong ties to the St. Louis area. A native of Springfield, Ill., he grew up watching the Springfield Cardinals, which was then a farm team for the St. Louis Cardinals. He also spent his seminary years in St. Louis at the Kenrick-Glennon Seminary.

But a bet’s a bet. And if the Cardinals win, Bishop Vann will send Archbishop Carlson a taste of authentic Texas BBQ along with a Stetson cowboy hat. If the Rangers take the title, Archbishop Carlson will send Bishop Vann a sampler of St. Louis favorites, including toasted ravioli, pretzels, locally-brewed beer and root beer, as well as a Cardinals baseball cap.

The winner will also receive a donation for the local Catholic Charities: $10 for every run scored throughout the series.

Father Bernard R. Hubbard, S.J.: ‘Glacier Priest’

“Nothing quite like it had happened before,” writes Rita H. DeLorme, about the 1942 visit of  the “Glacier Priest” to what was then the Savannah-Atlanta Diocese. Jesuit Father Bernard R. Hubbard ”delivered lectures, illustrated with motion pictures, from Feb. 9-12, 1942, in four cities of the diocese,” DeLorme said in an article in the Sept. 29 issue of the Southern Cross, newspaper of the Savannah Diocese. “A world-renowned explorer of the Arctic, a geologist and expert in related fields, Hubbard was every boy’s hero and possibly every dad’s too.”

(Map image/courtesy of US Gen Web Project)

I had never heard of Father Hubbard before I ran across DeLorme’s article, but his life as priest, explorer, photographer and popular lecturer was fascinating. He spent some years as a faculty member at Santa Clara University in California, so check out its collection of his photographs.  Marywood University in Scranton, Pa., has a collection of archival materials on the priest and his expeditions, including correspondence, scrapbooks and news clippings about his adventures. The Online Archive of California also has a respository of Hubbard papers, as does the National Park Service. The list goes on.

According to DeLorme, Father Hubbard was given his nickname by guides when he was in Austria to study theology “and led expeditions to the Tyrolean Alps.” In 1927 he was sent to Alaska. “He became fascinated by what he found there, eventually leading 31 scientific expeditions into the country’s desolate regions. Soon, his face, voice and persona were familiar to movie audiences who saw films of his Alaskan adventures. Now he was in Georgia,” writes DeLorme, a volunteer in the Diocese of Savannah’s archives.