"Priestly Identity: Crisis and Renewal (Part 1)"

Interview With Father David Toups
Associate Director of the Committee for Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, D.C.

By Annamarie Adkins

WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 19, 2008 (Zenit.org).- A general crisis of authentic masculinity in society has also affected the priesthood as only "real men" can adequately fulfill the role of priest and pastor, says Father David Toups.

Father Toups, the associate director of the Secretariat of Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations of the U.S. episcopal conference, is the author of "Reclaiming Our Priestly Character."

In this interview with ZENIT, Father Toups comments on the identity and character of the priesthood, and the various challenges it faces today.

Q: Your book focuses on recovering what you call the “doctrine of the priestly character.” Can you describe this “doctrine” in a nutshell?

Father Toups: The “doctrine of the priestly character” is about the permanent relationship the priest enters into with Christ the High Priest on the day of his ordination.

The priest is always a priest; he is not a simple functionary who performs ritual actions, but rather he is configured to Christ in the depths of his being by what is called an ontological change.
Christ is working through him at the altar, “This is my Body,” and in the confessional, “I absolve you of your sins,” but also in his daily actions outside the sanctuary.

The character that the priest receives is a comfort to the faithful inasmuch as they realize that their faith is not based in the personality of the priest, but rather the Person of Christ working through the priest.

On the other hand, the priest is called, like all of the faithful, to a life of holiness. The character received at ordination is actually a dynamism for priestly holiness. The more he can assimilate his life to Christ and submit to the gift he received at ordination, the more he will be a credible witness to the faithful and edify the Body of Christ.

Q: Is it your view that the nature of the priesthood is unknown or misunderstood by many priests? Is mandatory “continuing priestly education” the answer?

Father Toups: Studies show that there has been confusion regarding the exact nature of the priesthood among priests themselves depending on the timing of their seminary training.

Immediately following the Second Vatican Council, there was confusion among priests and laity alike about the difference between the priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial priesthood.

Vatican II’s intention was not to suppress one in order to highlight the other, but rather to recognize the universal call to holiness and the dignity of both.

The ministerial priesthood is a specific vocation within the Church in which a man is called by Christ in the apostolic line to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Priests are different by virtue of ordination, as confirmed by the council itself in paragraph 10 of “Lumen Gentium,” which emphasized that the baptized and the ordained share in the one and the same priesthood of Christ, but in a way that differs “in essence and not only in degree.”

This difference certainly does not mean better or even holier -- that would be a major error -- but it does mean that there is a distinction.

Cardinal Avery Dulles points out that, if anything, the priesthood of the faithful is more exalted because the ministerial priesthood is ordered to its service. Hence, a recovery from the confusion lies in the need to understand the balance a priest is to find; he is both a servant and one who has been set aside by Christ and the Church to stand "in persona Christi" -- not as a personal honor, but as “one who has come to serve and not be served.”

The priest need not be embarrassed about this high calling, but should boldly live it out in the midst of the world. Pope John Paul the Great regularly reminded priests: “Do not be afraid to be who you are!”

This brings us to the second part of your question, namely, is mandatory “continuing priestly education” the answer?

In the book, I use the term “formation,” not education -- though learning is an important, component part.

Ongoing formation is essential for every Christian vocation. In the midst of full liturgical schedules, parish councils, leaking roofs and hospital visits, the priest must continually open his heart and mind to Christ in prayer and study, annual retreats and seminars, as well as times of recreation and vacation, if he is to thrive as an individual and as a man of faith.

Ongoing formation is about deepening one’s interiority and fostering a relationship with Jesus Christ. It is about an ongoing conversion that reminds the priest who he is as a minister of the Gospel and whose he is as a son of God.

So is ongoing formation the answer? It is certainly a part of the solution to a happier, healthier presbyterate. Pope John Paul II wrote, “Ongoing formation helps the priest to be and act as a priest in the spirit and style of Jesus the Good Shepherd” ("Pastores Dabo Vobis," 73).

Q: Some observers fear that encouraging young priests -- many of who are already attempting to recover traditional liturgical and devotional practices -- to rediscover their priestly character will only foster a new form of clericalism. Others believe giving prominence to the ministerial priesthood will diminish the common priesthood of the faithful -- a development that many see as one of the hallmarks of Vatican II. How would you respond to critics of your proposal?

Father Toups: Highlighting both the priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial priesthood should actually strengthen both; they are not mutually exclusive or in any way opposed to one another.

When our particular calls within the Church are not given their proper distinctions, the Church suffers. St. Paul rightly reminds us of this with his beautiful analogy of how the Body of Christ is made up of diverse members working together for the good of the whole.

The laity and the priest are not in competition but complement each other’s particular calling.

There is a danger of what John Paul II called the “clericalization of the laity and the laicization of the clergy” when distinctions are not made in the life of the Church -- again, different does not mean better. Clericalism is not what happens when one has a clear identity of who they are, but rather when it is lived in such a way that is not in the service of the faithful.

The priest should not be embarrassed to wear the roman collar and be called “father,” for this is not clericalism, but he is to do so in charity and humility as a true disciple of Jesus Christ.

So in response to your remark about younger clergy -- especially those who, in their youthful zeal, may come across too strong -- let us be patient with them as they mature in the priesthood. It takes a while for the ontology to catch up with the psychology.

To young priests who may fall into this category, I would simply say, be men of prayer with the love of Christ as your guiding light, and pray for your own deepening conversion. One can have all of the right answers, but if they are presented “without love, you are a noisy gong or a clanging symbol” as St. Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 13.

Thus we do not deny the ministerial priesthood; we live it inside and out. If the priest lives his calling with humility and service as the driving force, it is more a form of asceticism than of clericalism. He is a visible sign of the radical commitment of the priestly life.

Proper knowledge and integration of the sacramental character into the priestly life and ministry are fundamental for priests to be the men the Church needs them to be.

Q: Is there a crisis of authentic masculinity in the priesthood? Could this be a source of the vocation shortage, especially among Latinos?

Father Toups: Allow me to rephrase the first question to be more all embracing: Is there a crisis of authentic masculinity in the world? I would say yes.

There is a crisis of commitment, fidelity and fatherhood all rooted in men not living up to their call to be “real men” -- men who model their lives on Christ, who lay down their lives out of love, and who learn what it is to be a father from our Father in heaven.

So in the context of the priesthood, which flows out of society, there is a particular challenge to help men grow in manly virtue. The priesthood is not for the faint of heart, but for men who are up to the challenge of living as Christ in laying down their life on a daily basis.

As the priest says the words of consecration, “This is my Body,” Christ is not only speaking through him, but the priest is offering his own life as well for the people to whom he is called to serve.

If a seminarian does not have a deep desire to get married and have children, he might need to rethink his vocation, for these are the natural and healthy manly desires of the heart. He needs to recognize that; in actuality, the priest truly is a married man and a father.

As the priest stands "in persona Christi," he is called to embrace the Bride of Christ, the Church, as his own spouse. A great danger is for the priest to fall into a “bachelor mentality,” which can become a selfish, disembodied and non-relational life.

Instead, if he sees himself in a permanent commitment to the people of God, his life of sacrifice will have great meaning as he lives the nuptial imagery of Ephesians 5:25, “Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the Church and laid down his life for her.”

When the notions of love, sacrifice and relationship are taken out of the vocation, it becomes sterile and unattractive to young men. For this reason the DVD "Fishers of Men," developed by the USCCB office in which I work, has been so well received; it shows the priestly vocation as heroic and manly in the best sense of the word. To paraphrase the old Marine slogan: God is looking for a few good men!

Q: What role does the concept of “fatherhood” play in the priestly life? Is there a fear of this term because of political correctness?

Father Toups: Spiritual fatherhood in the priesthood flows from the understanding of being a chaste spouse of the Church.

Just as an earthly father feeds, comforts and nurtures his family, so too do our spiritual fathers feed us in the Eucharist, comfort us in reconciliation and the anointing of the sick, and nurture us throughout our lives of faith.

For me, spiritual fatherhood is one of the great joys of my vocation -- to be invited into the hearts and homes of people is such a place of privilege and great responsibility.

Think about your own life. Priests have -- hopefully -- played an important role in all of the key moments of life: birth, death, triumphs, struggles, graduations and marriage.

By living out spiritual fatherhood, the priest experiences the great fruitfulness and generative fecundity of his vocation. For the priest, this should be life-giving; just as parents will make incredible sacrifices for their children, so too priests do radical things -- renounce family and possessions -- to be available to their family of faith.

Where there is love, sacrifice is easy.

Benedict XVI, speaking of the kind of mature manhood needed to be a spiritual father, said: “In reality, we grow in affective maturity when our hearts adhere to God. Christ needs priests who are mature, virile, and capable of cultivating an authentic spiritual paternity. For this to happen, priests need to be honest with themselves, open with their spiritual director and trusting in divine mercy.”

We need to move beyond the fear of being “politically incorrect” to being more worried about embracing the truth of who we are; hence the title of my book focuses on reclaiming our priestly character.

"Benedict XVI: Essence of Priesthood Is Service"

Urges Priests to Believe, Think and Speak With Church

VATICAN CITY, MARCH 20, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The essence of priestly ministry is service, Benedict XVI says, encouraging priests to renew their "yes" to the call of God.

The Pope spoke about the essence of the priesthood today at the Holy Thursday chrism Mass held this morning at St. Peter's Basilica. The Mass brought together some 1,600 priests, and cardinals and bishops to renew the promises they made on the day of their ordination.

According to the Old Testament, the Holy Father explained, there are two tasks that define the essence of the priestly ministry: to be present before the Lord and to serve.

"To be present before the Lord should always be, in its depths, to take charge of mankind before the Lord who, for his part, takes charge of all of us before the Father," he said. In the second place, the Pontiff continued, the priest should serve.

He said that this service is manifested in a concrete way in the Eucharistic celebration. There, the Pope said, what the priest does "is serve, to complete a service to God and a service to man. […] The homage that Christ offered to the Father consisted in giving himself unto the end for man. The priest should unite himself with this homage, with this service."

The word "serve," in its many dimensions, implies "the correct celebration of the liturgy and the sacraments in general, carried out with interior participation," the Pontiff affirmed.

Learning

Benedict XVI continued, saying that an attitude of service implies that the priest should always be in a state of learning: learning to pray, "always anew and always in a deeper way," and learning to know the Lord in his word so that his preaching becomes effective.

"In this sense, 'to serve' means closeness, demands familiarity," the Pope said.

But he cautioned that this familiarity also implies a danger: that the sacred, with which priests come into constant contact, becomes a routine.

"In this way, holy fear is snuffed out," the Holy Father warned. "Conditioned by all the habits, we don't perceive the fact that is most great, new, surprising -- that he himself is present, speaks to us, gives himself to us. We should fight unrelentingly against this habitualness in the extraordinary reality, against the indifference of the heart, recognizing anew our insufficiency and the grace there is in the fact that he surrenders himself in this way into our hands."

Obeying

To serve implies obedience, the Bishop of Rome affirmed: "The servant is at the command of the Word. […] The temptation of humanity is always to want to be totally autonomous, follow one's own will alone and to think that only in that way, will we be free -- that only thanks to a limitless liberty will man be completely man. But in this way we put ourselves on the side contrary to the truth."

We are only free, he cautioned, if "we share our liberty with the rest" and "if we participate in the will of God. This fundamental obedience that forms part of the essence of man is much more concrete in the priest.

"We do not proclaim ourselves, but rather him and his word, which we cannot dream up on our own. Our obedience is to believe with the Church, think and speak with the Church, serve with her," the Pope continued. This implies, he acknowledged, what Christ predicted for Peter, "They will lead you where you do not want to go."

"This allowing ourselves to be led where we do not want is an essential dimension of our service, and it is precisely in this way that we become free," Benedict XVI asserted. "If we allow ourselves to be led, even though it could be against our ideas and our projects, we experience again the richness of the love of God."

The Pope concluded with an allusion to the washing of the feet, with which Christ, "the true High Priest of the world" wants "to be the servant of all. [… ] With the gesture of love to the end, he washes our soiled feet; with the humility of his service, he purifies us of the illness of our pride."

"Cardinal Rodé Calls for Renewal of Religious Life"

Says Young Monks and Priests Give Wordless Testimony

ROME, MARCH 19, 2008 (Zenit.org).- A return to the authenticity of religious life is being encouraged by Cardinal Franc Rodé, prefect of the Vatican congregation that oversees consecrated life in the Church.

Cardinal Rodé, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, spoke Tuesday with Vatican Radio about the situation of religious life in France.

"France certainly forms part of the reality of Western Europe and there, secularization has been very strong over the last 40 years, after the Council," he said. "It could be said that certain traditional congregations suffer because of this secularized mentality that has seeped into them."
The cardinal recalled that Benedict XVI "continuously warns against the danger of so-called internal secularization."

"To flee from this worldly spirit, therefore, and to put the emphasis on life in community, on fraternal life, on prayer, on poverty, on obedience, on chastity lived in the joy of the heart and in interior liberty, it is this that we should recover, that we should live intensely," he proposed.

"Living the charism intensely and returning to the authenticity of religious life," is what Cardinal Rodé suggested as the "only way to get out of this crisis situation in which religious life finds itself."

Despite the difficulties, the cardinal also noted "surprising reactions." He pointed to the experience of "great admiration and joy when you encounter young monks, young Carmelite or Dominican fathers, Benedictine religious, and you see them full of joy, transparent, with a great interior liberty."

"They are visibly in their place, where God wants them, and they live their vocation in the joy and peace of the heart," the cardinal affirmed. "I think this is the first testimony that these religious give and it is a very convincing, very believable testimony. As the philosopher Bergson said in other times, their existence is an invitation; they have no need for words."

"Papal Visit 2008: Pope Benedict Returns To Yonkers Seminary After 20 Years"

By Shazia Khan

For NY1

March 20, 2008

In April, a Yonkers seminary will host Pope Benedict XVI, who visited the same place 20 years before as a cardinal. NY1’s Shazia Khan filed the following report.

Twenty years ago, Father Michael Morris was still a student at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, when a special guest from Vatican City paid a visit – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the German man who will return to New York City in April as Pope Benedict XVI.

“The enthusiasm was incredible because we read his books," said Morris. "He's a scholar - that's his work. He's a teacher and he's a studier, he's a reader, he's a great student. And we were just thrilled to be able to meet him.”

Back in 1988, Ratzinger was the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, responsible for defending the church orthodoxy. He came to be known as “Cardinal No,” even “God's Rottweiler” for his strict adherence to the doctrine.

This April, Ratzinger will go back to St. Joseph’s Seminary as part of his papal visit.

“The pope's job is to proclaim the message of our faith in Jesus Christ and proclaim what that means and how people must live their lives and how to develop it,” said Father Gerard Rafferty, a professor at St. Joseph’s Seminary.

“In his last job, he was given the task of looking at what other people were doing and proclaiming and then trying to evaluate and help them evaluate whether in fact they were remaining consistent to the church,” said Rafferty.

St Joseph's has visiting cardinals plant a tree to commemorate their visits, and the tree Pope Benedict planted 20 years ago has now grown tall.

Another tree was planted in remembrance of Pope John Paul II’s visit to the seminary in 1995, the first visit made by a pontiff to the institution.

Bishop Gerald Walsh, the seminary’s rector, will join Edward Cardinal Egan to welcome the pope who will first greet seminarians before meeting a small group of children with disabilities in the chapel. He will then step outside and on to a stage to address more than 20,000 young Catholics, some of whom might be interested in religious vocations.

“The theme will be - make room for the Lord in your life, listen to what he is saying, and try to live your life the best you can,” said Walsh.

Seminarians are looking forward to being reintroduced to the scholarly pope.

“It’s not the rock star image of perhaps John Paul II, but there is a very solid, quiet teacher here that's got a power in the word the way he unfolds it,” said Rafferty.

And though it has been twenty years since the pope’s last visit, it might as well have been yesterday.

“Physically he looks exactly the same - I mean it is amazing- the only thing different about him is he is wearing white now,” said Morris.

"Former ‘globe-trotter’ plans to spend life as cloistered nun"

Leaving the world behind

By Maria Wiering
The Catholic Spirit

Mary Gibson plans to join the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of the Apostles in Kansas City, Mo., June 11. The Cathedral of St. Paul’s Sacred Heart Chapel holds a special place in her heart. “It in particular is my home, and the part [of the Cathedral] I will miss the most,” she said. -Photo by Dave Hrbacek / The Catholic Spirit

Mary Gibson's childhood dream was to see the world.

She pursued global studies at the University of Minnesota for a year because she wanted a job that would take her abroad. In 2005, she moved to Italy for a year and visited Austria, France and Germany.

However, at age 26, her globe-trotting days are done.

Gibson, a self-described "information junkie" with two blogs, may never again have Internet access. She loves food, but will only eat one meal a day for much of the year. A gregarious talker, she'll spend most of her days in silence.

And, judging by the way her eyes sparkle, she couldn't be happier.

"I feel like an engaged person," she said. "I'm really awaiting my beloved."

On June 11, this Minnesota wo­man will join the cloistered life of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles in Kansas City, Mo.

Although the degree of strictness differs from one community to another, typically cloistered nuns and monks rarely leave the grounds of their cloister and limit their contact with the rest of the world.

The cloistered life

Gibson has been discerning God's will for her life since she started taking her Catholic faith more seriously in her early 20s. She was open to a religious vocation, but didn't expect to be called to cloistered life, she said.

However, during a 10-day discernment retreat with the nuns in November, she said she felt Jesus ask her to be with him there.

Before a year ago, she didn't know the community existed. She first heard of it from parishioners at St. John the Baptist in Excelsior, where she directs religious education. Some parishioners knew Sister Crystal Wirth, who joined the community last year.

Gibson stumbled across the community's Web site advertising the priestly vestments that members sew. After reading about the nuns, she said, she couldn't get the community out of her mind.

Following the rule St. Benedict wrote in the 6th century, the community's life revolves around liturgical prayer. They pray especially for priests.

Claire Roufs, religious life liaison for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, said young women joining cloistered communities is more common than most people think.

About one-third of women she's worked with who have joined religious life have joined cloistered communities, she said. That totals about five women in the last few years.

"Almost always they are very young and talented," she said. "It is such a mysterious vocation."

Discerning a call

Gibson grew up Catholic in Vesper, Wis. After she left home to become a paramedic, however, she stopped going to Mass. She still considered herself Christian, but faith didn't play a central role in her life.

She moved to St. Paul to work and take classes at the University of Minnesota. Within months, she was dissatisfied with her job, and her classes were forcing her to re-evaluate her beliefs, she said.

Her apartment was two blocks from the Cathedral of St. Paul, and the dome's golden cross was a constant reminder of what she had left, she said.

Gibson returned to Mass on a Sunday in February 2003 and spoke afterward with Father Joseph Williams, the associate pastor at the time.

A few weeks later, she called him to hear her confession. She wanted to come back to the church. For her penance, Father Williams asked her to say the Divine Mercy chaplet, which he prayed with her in the Cathedral's Sacred Heart Chapel.

Gibson helped to start the Cathedral's young adults group, attended daily Mass and transferred to the University of St. Thomas because of its Catholic studies program.

She also started asking God how she could serve him.

"Once I realized that he was truly there, I started realizing what I had to do is give back," she said. In October 2003 Gibson went on pilgrimage to Rome, where she "first encountered the fullness of the Catholic faith," she said.

She returned to Rome to study from fall 2005 to spring 2006 and ended her stay with a four-day retreat with cloistered American Benedictine monks in Norcia, Italy.

That's when she first thought about cloistered life, she said.

She realized she had many misconceptions of cloistered life. "You choose to be limited; you're not disconnected from the world," she said.

Cloistered men and women still receive and write letters to friends and family, and many receive visitors at least once a year. However, in choosing the cloistered life, they seek to detach themselves from worldly things. And that, for her, is true freedom, she said.

The invitation

Right now, the Benedictines of Mary live in a convent in Kansas City built for another order who had once taught at the adjacent Pius X High School. The community plans to build a priory on 120 acres of donated land in northwest Missouri. The sisters hope to be as self-sustaining as possible, raising bees, dairy cows and grain.

Peace engulfed Gibson during her 10-day stay with the nuns in November, she said.

"People think that people enter the convent because they're escaping something," Gibson said. That's not the case at all for her, she added. It was while she was thanking the Lord for all of the blessings in her life - her family, friends, travel, work, passions - that she felt the Lord ask her to give it back to him.

"He gave me the choice," she said - she could choose not to be a cloistered sister, but the Lord was inviting her to serve him in that way.

There, in the chapel, she said aloud, "Yes."

At 26, Gibson is at the average age of the community's 14 sisters, which doesn't surprise her. She's the oldest of the four aspirants who are expected to join the community in June.

Cloistered orders are gaining vocations, said Sister Therese, the community's prioress. "The young ladies of this world have had it. They're throwing away their lipstick and high heels and joining."

God also supplies the needs of the world at each age, she added.

"I think that's why the young ladies are finding us from all over the country - because the Lord wants this," she said. "What it's all about is that we have to get to heaven, and we have to take as many people as we can with us."

For more please check out Mary's blog - Veritatis Splendor, and consider helping her out by reducing her college debt through the Laboure Society.

"Former veterinarian chooses a life of prayer and service"

From The Catholic Sentinel

By Ed Langlois
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Sr. Maria Gabriel Standfield shares a laugh with Srs. Barbara and Rose Marie at Our Lady of Peace.Sentinel photo by Ed Langlois

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When she was a hard-working veterinarian, Victoria Standfield commuted at all hours between Salem and Tigard. After midnight on April 1, 1997, she fell asleep at the wheel.

Her car careened off the road and clipped a signpost. The windshield shattered. Glass flew everywhere.

But she walked away without a scratch. Later, she found shards all over — even directly behind where she was sitting.

What’s the deal? she thought.

Now known as Sister Maria Gabriel, she sees the event as filled with meaning. For her, God sweats the details, loving us mightily in everyday life.

When Sister Gabriel, 43, professed lifelong vows of poverty, chastity and obedience last month at Our Lady of Peace Retreat House, 300 people came.

The crowd was too much for the chapel, so the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Sorrows converted the large dining room and meeting hall into a church.

Sister Gabriel feels a lot of support, worldly and other-worldly. She looks at religious life as an extension of the call of baptism, something all Christians inherit.

“It’s about living the life of Christ,” she sums up.

She is the second of three daughters born to a 30-year U.S. Army veteran and the woman with whom he fell in love when he was stationed in Germany during the Cold War in the 1960s.

Sister Gabriel (her parents sometimes slip up and call her Victoria), was born at Fort Ord, Calif. Charles and Helga Standfield are cradle Catholics. He was educated by nuns in Pensacola, Fla. and she grew up in Germany.

Helga taught preschool and Charles, even after he left the Army, worked on military transportation contracts.

The family bounced around as Army families do — California, Massachusetts, Colorado and back to Germany.

In fifth grade, Victoria went on a field trip to the University of California at Davis. The idea grew in her — she wanted to be a veterinarian.

A little later, when she was 12, she heard a missionary nun serving in Africa give a slide show on the ministry. The photos were so bright and colorful; that seemed like a good and noble life. She spent hours poring over Maryknoll magazine.

Sister Gabriel, who even then professed a belief in angels, gradated from high school in Wiesbaden. She sang in church choirs and was open about her faith in Jesus.

Not one to rush into things, she pursued the more standard course, getting a college degree in biology and heading to veterinary school at Davis.

One day, doing a rotation on animal heart disease, three nuns brought their beloved German shepherd into the university clinic. Young Dr. Standfield helped them and took careful note of them and their ways.

She graduated from veterinary school in 1993 and the next year moved to Salem to work. She became a member of St. Joseph Parish and felt her spiritual life intensify there.

As time went by, she felt called to more intense discipleship and considered religious life seriously.

By 1996, she was attending vocations retreats, including one at Our Lady of Peace. She admired the contentedness at the place and learned that this was the home of the same community of fascinating women who had brought their ailing dog to her years before in California.

Before long, she picked up a church magazine and ran across an advertisement. It showed a map of the U.S. and a map of China with a crucifix between. It said, “In Christ there is no east or west.” The words and image, especially the crucifix, caused her heart to thump. It was an appeal for vocations from the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Sorrows, which ministers in China and the U.S. and has members from both hemispheres.

While working as a veterinarian, she began joining the sisters for prayer and fun. She felt at home.

Her spiritual director, a chaplain at Fort Ord named Father Michael Drury had become a family friend years before. He asked her candid questions, wanting her to be under no illusions about religious life.

“I feel that she made a mature decision,” says Father Drury, a priest of the Diocese of Helena now serving in Montana. “I see her happiness. That is what makes me feel good.”

She read about St. Bernadette Soubirous and felt a kinship with her, as well as with St. Thérèse of Lisieux and St. Faustina Kowalska.

She was accepted into the Franciscans in 1999. After a pilgrimage to Europe, which included a stay at Assisi, she entered formation.

Her German relatives were a bit shocked. They said she was “crazy” but wished her luck.

For her father, the life change has taken some getting used to. A practical man, he felt good about her veterinarian career.

“She was making good money and she gave all that up,” says Charles, who now lives with Helga in Marina, Calif. “She just gave everything away. God must have called her.”

But he realizes that he is one of the tools God used to get to his daughter. He would often talk about the Sisters who taught him, using words of great admiration and affection.

Formation had its ups and downs. It was a thrill at first. Then came everyday life. But as she’s progressed, Sister Gabriel’s commitment and devotion have deepened.

“The way it has deepened for me is for me to remain docile at the times when the life is not so exciting,” she explains. “If you are open to gifts, you can be sustained and find joy in those times.”

Over the years, the Sisters get to know each other’s glories and foibles, like any family. Only then, Sister Gabriel says, can someone make a valid life commitment. She is delighted with her community. And she will likely get to know them all. There are 23 Sisters in the U.S. and 35 worldwide.

Sister Anne Marie Warren, superior of the Portland community, says she admires and appreciates Sister Gabriel’s honesty and enthusiasm. Both qualities have been great gifts to the community.

“Sister Maria Gabriel has a deep devotion to prayer,” Sister Anne Marie says. “Only if you build a relationship with Jesus can you sustain yourself in the hard times.”

Sister Gabriel has tended the frail and sick sisters, running the infirmary. She also leads the Franciscan Girls Club, helping girls grow in knowledge of the faith. She has traveled to the Sisters’ house in Gallup, New Mexico, where they work with girls who have had troubled lives. On occasion, she still practices as a veterinarian, specializing in small animal medicine.

Sister Gabriel, a trained scientist, has kept up on some current theory. Researchers say more and more that everything is linked by webs of influence. Energy waves tends to sweep past all matter, affecting it in parallel ways.

She’s not surprised. In her language, she sees that as one more movement of the hand of God.

"Poor Clares discuss their religious vocations"

By Tim Puet
2/26/2008
Catholic Times of Coumbus

CLOISTER - Sister Marie Therese (far left) Sister Imelda Marie (center) and Sister Marie St. Claire (right)pray at St. Joseph Monastery in Portsmouth, Ohio. (Catholic Times/Jack Kuston)

PORTSMOUTH, Ohio (Catholic Times) - Any notion that cloistered nuns who constantly pray before the Blessed Sacrament and spend much of their lives in silence must live a solemn, somewhat grim existence quickly disappears on a visit to St. Joseph Monastery in Portsmouth.

Five of the six Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration who live there gathered for an interview last week with the Catholic Times — the sixth, Sister Mary Vincentia, PCPA, was excused because of age. Throughout the hourlong session, smiles and laughter were abundant as they talked about what made then decide to spend their lives adoring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and praying for the world beyond the monastery.

Mother Dolores Marie, PCPA, abbess, said the monastery has been revitalized by the presence of three young women who have become part of the community since 2003. The newest member, Sister Mary Immaculate, PCPA, is in the second year of a two-year novitiate in which she is preparing for her first vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

Their vocation decisions

Sister Marie Ste. Claire, PCPA, and Sister Marie Therese, PCPA, both joined the order at about the same time and took their first vows a little more than a year ago. The vows will be renewed each year until 2011, when both take solemn vows of poverty, chastity and obedience for life.

Mother Dolores Marie, a member of the community since 1991, and the monastery’s mother vicar, Sister Imelda Marie, PCPA, a member since 1994, both came to Ohio in 2002 from the Poor Clares’ Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in Irondale, Ala., which was founded by Mother Angelica, best known as the founder of the Eternal Word Television Network.

All five nuns said the decision to enter the cloister wasn’t as difficult as it might appear to be because they felt an overwhelming desire to live the contemplative life.

"I found my Protestant friends understood my choice better and admired it more than my Catholic friends did," said Sister Marie Therese, an Alabama native. "It shocked so many people that a ‘normal girl’ who was very much into acting and the theater in high school would become a nun, but this was something I’d been drawn to for years, partly because my dad worked for EWTN."

"I was looking for love and realized the world couldn’t offer everything I was looking for," Sister Imelda Marie said. "I had plenty of friends in Louisiana where I grew up, and I know I could have gotten married and been happy in that life, but it just wasn’t what I was called to do.

"In this hidden life, you don’t always see or know whether your prayers have been answered, but as you trust more and more in God’s love, you find yourself realizing that he will meet your needs, and that’s a liberating thing."

"I grew up Catholic in a part of Florida where there weren’t many religious or priests from which I could take an example," said Sister Mary Immaculate. "I said the Rosary daily and prayed to find what I was meant to do. When I was 16, I began to realize the Lord wanted something more for me, and I wanted to give more for God. He has done so much for me and was calling me to serve him with an undivided heart."

God wins them over

Sister Marie Ste. Claire described herself as "a southern California girl who mostly likes Ohio but misses the beach."

"The Lord kept inspiring me with this desire to give him everything, even though I kept fighting it," she said. "Eventually, I came to realize God had given me his whole self in the Blessed Sacrament and I wanted to return that gift by giving myself to him. ...

"I went to college in New Hampshire with the idea of going to med school, but instead, that’s where I made the decision that led me here. After my first visit to St. Joseph’s, I knew Jesus was here. A friend at college used to say I’d marry the first guy who asked me, and he was right, but not in the way he expected."

Mother Dolores Marie came to the Poor Clares from a career in retail merchandising and said the last thing she would have anticipated while growing up was becoming a nun.

"I never was involved with religion until I went to work at EWTN as a set designer’s assistant," she said. "When I saw the nuns there in their habits, I was terrified. I tried my best to avoid being introduced to Mother Angelica, but it happened.

"I was caught up in a lot of worldly things, but in time I found myself increasingly drawn to spending time with the Blessed Sacrament. I’d go there sometimes not to pray, but just to be in the presence of Jesus. At first I didn’t realize I had a vocation, but in time I realized God was calling me to his service."

When Mother Dolores Marie was transferred to Portsmouth, there was concern that the monastery would have to close because of the declining health of the four elderly nuns who lived there, but the addition of the younger sisters eliminated that threat.

Local postulants wanted

Sister Mary Vincentia is the last of the older nuns remaining at the monastery. Two others are at the Mohun Health Care Center in Columbus and one has died.

A woman from Ireland is scheduled to enter the monastery March 31 to begin her postulancy, a year of discernment which will lead to the novitiate if she and the community agree she is suited for a nun’s life.

The monastery, In existence for 52 years, still is looking for its first potential postulate from Ohio or the surrounding states. Mother Dolores Marie said that may be in part because of its location away from large population centers. This is one reason why the nuns hope to move elsewhere within the diocese.

The Poor Clares’ life is limited to the monastery, except for necessary errands such as visits to the doctor (or more recently, to look for land for a new monastery, Mother Dolores Marie said). But they’re hardly isolated from the world. For instance, they were quickly made aware of the shooting and stabbing of a teacher at Portsmouth Notre Dame Elementary School on Feb. 7 through several phone calls.

Life in a cloister

The nuns themselves can write home and receive letters once a month. At Christmas time, they are allowed to send and receive letters to anyone.

Family visits are allowed twice a year for two days each, but take place with nuns and their families on the opposite side of a wooden latticework grille. The nuns’ adoration chapel is open to the public daily from 5:45 to 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., but when the nuns are at prayer during those times, they remain behind a wooden screen.

Pictures included with these stories are one of the few public glimpses the nuns have offered of their life in the monastery.

It’s a life lived in simple surroundings, which starts with a common wakeup time of 5 a.m. and continues through "lights out" at 10 p.m. Additional adoration occurs Wednesday and Saturday nights, with each nun assigned an hour on Wednesday and 90 minutes on Saturday.

Mass is at 7 a.m., usually with Father Joseph Klee of Portsmouth St. Mary Church, and the day proceeds through a set schedule which includes the Church’s Office of Readings, the Rosary, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, the Franciscan Crown devotion to the seven joys of Mary, the Stations of the Cross, and set times for work, study, recreation, and free time.

Lunch at noon is the main meal of the day, with toast and peanut butter generally for breakfast, and a sandwich or cereal at supper. The main meal usually consists of a protein, a starch, two vegetables and fruit. Meat is eaten on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays, and on Church feasts and solemnities. Snacks and desserts are limited to Sundays and solemnities.

The monastery’s main source of revenue is the packaging of altar bread which comes from an outside supplier. That means the monastery is visited nearly every day by a United Parcel Service truck. At one time, the sisters made their own bread, but that stopped as the sisters got older.

The practice of silence

Most of the day is spent in silence; indeed, the word "Silence" is posted throughout the monastery. It’s not an absolute silence, since the nuns are permitted to speak to each other about things that are necessary during the day. Greater silence is observed from after 8 p.m. night prayers until the next morning.

The silence also is broken occasionally by one of the monastery’s three dogs — Jewel, an adult schnauzer, and Pippin and Merry, two black Labrador puppies.

Talk is done quietly and kept to a minimum, but as Mother Dolores Marie put it, "If something funny happens, we laugh. We don’t expect anyone to be inhuman or oblivious to the situations around us. We are not experts at silence, but we continually work at it and try to renew ourselves in our efforts to attain it."

She acknowledged that the sisters sometimes became as distracted as most laypeople do while praying. "It is part of the human condition," she said. "Especially when you have repetitive prayers, it is hard not to wander off to some other subject or thought. So we have to have humility and realize we are not capable of anything without the help of God. ...

"Sometimes it is easier than others to pray, but the point is to keep doing it, keep making the effort, no matter how we feel about it. We may feel that we haven’t prayed one bit, but in the mind of God, it may be the most fruitful time of prayer we have offered yet."

Testing the call

Any single woman who is between 18 and 35, has a high school education, is a Catholic in good standing, and is in good physical and psychological health is eligible to join the Poor Clares.

"I would encourage any young woman to spend time in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament to help discern the direction of her life," Mother Dolores Marie said. "You have to have a longing for a life of prayer, specifically a life of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.

"A contemplative life is not for everyone, but it is a rich and fulfilling one, and I would encourage anyone who feels such a calling to not be afraid, but to listen to what God may be saying."

The convent also has a Web site, www.stjosephmonastery.com, can send and receive e-mail, and receives Portsmouth’s daily newspaper and the Catholic Times. Mother Dolores Marie monitors the various means of communication and informs the other nuns of significant events in the Church and the world.

"5 Questions: Sister Jeanne Haley"

5 Questions: Sister Jeanne Haley
Administrator of St. Patrick's Residence

From The Naperville Sun
March 17, 2008

"We're not just these holy nuns who give and give and give. We do, but we get so much in return," says Sister Jeanne Haley, administrator at St. Patrick's Residence in Naperville, at right, about her life as a Carmelite Sister for the Aged and Infirm. Here, she visits with resident Katherine Ferianc, seated, and Ferianc's daughter, Ellie Augustine of La Grange, March 10 in Naperville.
Danielle Gardner / Staff photographer

Growing up, Sister Jeanne Haley never thought of herself as nun material.

As a teenager she sometimes got into mischief. But she never forgot the pleasure she felt during the summer she volunteered at Sacred Heart Manor, a home for the elderly in Chicago run by the Carmelite Sisters. She was 14 at the time and her admiration for the joyful society of the nuns ultimately led her to the religious vocation she has cherished for 38 years.


For the last decade, Haley has been administrator at St. Patrick's Residence in Naperville, a non-profit, 210-bed nursing and rehabilitation facility served by the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm. Her goal is to make St. Pat's not only comfortable and homey for its residents, but also an integrated part of the Naperville community. St. Patrick's is represented at various city activities including Naper Days' annual Bed Races.

Haley was born in Oak Park, the third of six children. The family lived with her grandmother, who helped her parents care for the children, including younger sister Jeanne, who was developmentally disabled.

It was that sister's name that Haley took when she joined the Carmelites in 1970.

Through the years, Haley also has taken care of elders in Carmelite homes in New York City, Philadelphia and Davenport, Iowa. While serving the latter, she graduated from Scott Community College with a degree in nursing.

Haley had always wanted to be a nurse since reading Sue Barton books by Helen Dore Boylston as a young girl. Helping care for her younger sister also intensified her passion for the profession.
Haley's other interests include playing cards, puzzles and spending time with family.

1. What made you decide to become a nun?

I was 19 years old and I believed in what the sisters did. I'm not going to say God tapped me on the shoulder. He didn't. But I felt drawn to become a part of what their mission was. I dated in high school. I went to my senior prom. I wasn't all my life sitting saying 'oh yes, I want to be a nun.' But I felt called to it. ... Through all these years, the vocation just becomes stronger. I can remember as a postulant sometimes not believing I was this fortunate to be able to be part of this community - to be able to have my wish of caring for the elderly, of being a nurse and then putting it together, being a part of a community that did the things I wanted to do and had such a beautiful prayer life.

2. What are some of your other interests?

I like to bowl. I love the White Sox ... I don't care if the Sox are winning or losing, I just love to go to the games ... It's fun to get out to the ball park, to get the fresh air, to yell and scream. We have more laughs. We have a great big sign that says 'Nuns love the White Sox' and its got a picture of a nun with a baseball bat. We get our pictures taken with half the world. We've had old altar boys send us up hot dogs one year. We danced on the dugout with the mascot. We need to do it because we are human and we need to have fun. But it's also important for us to get out there and show people that religious can have fun.

3. What is your personal philosophy?

Trust in God and realize that it's not all about you. I think that's the only way we can live our lives. So if you think everything is about us and how we are going to handle things and what we are going to do and what we are going to achieve, we're going to be exhausted and not accomplish anything. But if we can understand that God put all these people in our lives making our lives better and to make what we do better, then it can be a joy. I don't always live by that rule as well as I should.

4. How would you describe yourself?

I would say I am someone that loves to be a part of a mission, someone that loves to be blessed to be in the community I'm in and someone who tries to be joyful and thankful to the Lord every day.

5. What are some of your personal goals?

I'm still striving to gain the balance of being an administrator and still staying who I am. I think I'm always striving to be the religious that I want to be and be joyful in doing it.

"Priest heeds call to Iraq"

By REX W. HUPPKE
McCLATCHY-TRIBUNE
CHICAGO - The Rev. Matt Foley has stood by the ornate oak altar of his church and made the sign of the cross over dozens of young soldiers bound for Iraq and Afghanistan.

Each time, his blessing has echoed through the Little Village sanctuary and back to a long-ago promise unfulfilled.

In the early 1980s, Foley faced diverging paths: Follow his brother into the Army, or follow his faith into the priesthood. Reluctantly, he felt pulled to the church.

But he told his brother, Mike, that he would join him in the service if war ever came.

The United States invaded Iraq in 1991. Mike commanded a company of Bradley Fighting Vehicles as they stormed across the desert. Matt was two years out of the seminary, sworn to the church, tied to his priestly duties at a North Lawndale parish.

There was no resentment, but in the decade that followed, the Irish Catholic priest could never shake the feeling he had let his brother down.

In 2000, Matt took over St. Agnes of Bohemia Catholic Church, becoming a dynamic and beloved figure known across Little Village as ‘‘Padre Mateo.’’

He marched with parishioners, protesting the neighborhood’s lack of parks. He boldly scolded the community for allowing gang violence to claim young lives.

When a man tried to break into the church’s donation box, the priest chased him down, tackled him and held him until police arrived.

But even as the parish flourished, Foley, 45, began to feel tugged toward a change, the same sensation he had when God pulled him into the priesthood. It was something in the worried eyes of the young men and women who sought his blessing before going to war.

‘‘I keep sending these people, and now I feel like it’s my turn to go,’’ said Foley, his head resting against the wall of a dimly lit prayer room a day before he was sworn in to the Army. ‘‘I just feel like it’s my turn to go. You can’t just keep blessing people.’’

On Feb. 27, by the church’s altar, Foley recited an oath to his brother, an Iraq veteran twice over.

‘‘I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic,’’ said Matt Foley, standing rigid, right hand raised, beside the family of a Little Village soldier serving in Iraq.

It was the culmination of more than a year of prayer and meditation. Foley had searched his soul, thought about the strong parish he had built and the people he would leave behind.

‘‘When you bury people’s children or their relatives, you’re really connected to them on a very high level,’’ he said. ‘‘I feel like I’m not going to be with these people who will forever be mourning their losses.’’

He also had to seek approval from the archdiocese of Chicago - to which he had vowed obedience - at a time when the church faces a shortage of priests.

The Rev. Claudio Diaz Jr., director of Hispanic ministries for the archdiocese, said Cardinal Francis George let Foley go because he recognized the dearth of Catholic priests in Iraq and believed Foley’s calling was sincere.

‘‘That’s part of who we are as priests,’’ Diaz said. ‘‘We remind the people of God to be attentive of God’s will in their lives. Simultaneously, as priests, we have to be attentive to the voice of God in terms of our ministry and service to his people.’’

Foley will leave in June, bound for military chaplain training in South Carolina. He has asked the Army to send him to Iraq as soon as possible, and Army officials say his wish will certainly be granted.

During his swearing-in ceremony, the priest read a fitting Gospel passage: ‘‘When you were young, you walked where you wanted to walk. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will carry you where you do not want to go.’’

Up through college, Foley was a troublemaker, a partyer. As a political science major at Marquette University, he played rugby with fellow student and soon-to-be-famous comedian Chris Farley, known for his life of excess. Farley, who died in 1997, named one of his most revered ‘‘Saturday Night Live’’ characters, a bumbling motivational speaker, after Foley.

‘‘I was interested in law and drinking beer,’’ Foley said.

Yet he couldn’t escape a pull he had felt since his high school days in Libertyville, the sense that God was calling him. Maybe it came from memories of his Uncle Jerome, an Army chaplain who served two tours in Vietnam. Foley still recalls 1970s nights spent by the television, watching the end of the network newscast as names of the day’s soldiers killed in action scrolled down the screen, praying his uncle was safe.

By his junior year at Marquette, in 1983, Foley reached his crossroads. His brother, Mike, a senior and already enlisted, was sure Foley would become an Army man.

‘‘My roommate and I both became infantry officers,’’ Mike Foley said. ‘‘And Matt enjoyed being around us all the time. We’d tell him about what we were doing. I think Matt always liked that adventure, that leadership kind of thing.’’

But Matt couldn’t resist the spiritual pressure bearing down on him. He surprised everyone he knew by entering the seminary in Chicago.

‘‘I surrendered,’’ Foley said. ‘‘I let somebody else control me. I let my God guide me.’’

He finished the seminary in 1989 and became an associate pastor at St. Agatha in North Lawndale, a white priest in a nearly all-black community.

In 1994, barely able to speak a word of Spanish, he moved to a parish in Quechultenango, Mexico.

Six years later he returned to Chicago and took control of St. Agnes, a spiritual anchor in a culturally rich neighborhood divided by rival Latino gangs, struggling with issues of poverty and immigration.

Once again, Foley was a stranger relying on divine direction.

‘‘We started to notice a lot of things changing right away,’’ said Dolores Castaneda, a parishioner and activist. ‘‘He fixed the church. He fixed the school. He fought for us to have better places for the children to go. He joined marches, he got angry, he protested.’’

Quickly - more quickly then anyone could expect - he was embraced. They liked him because he admitted his own sins and warned them of theirs. He spoke of how he enjoyed hearing babies cry during Mass because they sounded full of life.

Since he arrived in 2000, Foley has buried nearly 30 members of the feuding Latin Kings and the Two Sixers street gangs. He never tried to hide his frustration.

‘‘He’d tell us that we don’t have compassion, we’re not really focused on God,’’ Castaneda said. ‘‘If you’re focused on God, you’re not killing your brother, you’re not killing your neighbor.’’

But what few knew about Padre Mateo was that his time in Little Village began expiring as soon as he felt comfort setting in. He said it’s the nature of his relationship with God, a connection that, in order to work, must routinely be renewed.

‘‘I’m so restless with my God,’’ Foley said. ‘‘When I get stripped of this place, which has been my life, my home, my family, I’m going to be brought to a place where I’m not going to know anyone. I’ll be a vessel that God’s going to use.’’

And he’ll fulfill a promise unkept. When Foley told his brother, now a reservist based in Georgia, that he was signing up, the response was simple.

‘‘About time,’’ Mike Foley said.

He was joking, but the priest knew it was time to move on. He felt the flutters of fear in his gut, worried he could lose his zeal, as though he still had to run to stay ahead of the college kid who never thought he would be a priest in the first place.

So Foley will stay with his parish until June, serving more than 6,000 people who attend Mass each Sunday and look to him for help.

Then he’ll pack his bags and let himself again be carried somewhere he doesn’t want to go, but needs to be.

"Pro-life group launches Humanae Vitae Priests web site"

Front Royal, Va, Mar 10, 2008 / 09:47 pm (Catholic News Agency).

Human Life International has launched a web site to help priests, deacons and seminarians teach and evangelize using Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae.

The site producers plan to supply offering reflections, commentaries, homily aids and solid practical resources for priests to preach about and defend Catholic teachings concerning marital love and contraception. The site is located at http://www.humanaevitaepriests.org/

According to John Mallon, director of HumanaeVitaePriests.org, the site will examine the “disastrous aspects of widespread contraception,” including its “medical, sociological, hormonal, psychological, cultural, pastoral, spiritual, even environmental aspects.” It will feature the commentary of special guest experts.

The site includes a special supplement from the magazine Inside the Vatican’s 1998 issue commemorating the 30th anniversary of the encyclical. The free supplement, titled “A Prophecy for Our Time,” includes interviews with Human Life International founder Father Paul Marx, Priests for Life president Father Frank Pavone, Dr. Janet Smith, and Dr. Alice von Hildebrand. It also contains a pastoral letter from Archbishop Charles Chaput and an article from then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before his election to the papacy.

“Our prayer is that this project will be a positive effort to spread the light and truth of God’s plan for love, marriage and sexuality,” said Mallon.

"Diocesan priest community established in Denver"

Denver, Mar 15, 2008 / 01:53 am (CNA).

In response to a call from Vatican II for priests to share a common life, four seminarians for the Archdiocese of Denver have decided to begin a priestly community that will eventually be opened up to any priest or seminarian in the archdiocese.

Currently, the Companions of Christ is an association of seminarians established in the Archdiocese of Denver. Once the four founding men are ordained, they will live together as priests in a rectory close to their pastoral assignments in the Archdiocese of Denver.

The priests will strive to live with three emphases: “Observance of the evangelical counsels in the context of the diocesan priesthood, commitment to a common life of prayer and fraternity, and dedication to the New Evangelization, including catechesis, spiritual renewal, and the fostering of vocations,” according to their website.

The Companions of Christ have already received the blessing of the Archbishop of Denver, Charles Chaput who established the fraternity “canonically” on December 12, 2007, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

“Our priests today face immense challenges: larger parishes, fewer priests to assist them, and a more secular culture that is at times hostile to both the Gospel and the priesthood,” said the archbishop. “Grouped in rectories in various parts of the Archdiocese, they strive together for the ideal of the priesthood, giving mutual support and holding each other to a strict accountability.”

Noting the difficulties priests face, Father Michael Glenn, Rector of St. John Vianney Theological Seminary added, “All priests want to live a committed and zealous life, but the demands of ministry, human weakness and the difficulty of their work can often discourage them, revealing a life far different than what he expected while in the seminary.”

The Companions of Christ will directly address the problems priests are currently facing and will offer encouragement. “Fraternal life offers unity in prayer and identity, as well as strength and support for Christ’s mission. God has truly blessed us with a model of life that will help Companion Priests and many others to be holy, joyful, and healthy shepherds in their service and leadership of God’s people. Nothing promotes vocations, invites to prayer, or enlivens a parish more than dynamic, fulfilled priests who love the life they live. Strengthened as brothers in Christ, priests are ready to step forward in leadership for the New Evangelization.”

Companions of Christ is comprised of four Denver seminarians: John Nepil, Matt Book, Brian Larkin, and Mike Rapp who will be ordained in the next two or three years.

Plans for the group began after one seminarian learned about a similar community in St. Paul, Minnesota. The seminarians there “insisted that it wasn’t a new idea, just something that had been lost, that the Church was seeking to recover.”

After years of prayer, three other seminarians were drawn to the idea of the fraternity. “The four men spent the next year together quietly praying and sharing meals, all the while fully immersed in the life of St. John Vianney Theological Seminary.”

Since the announcement of the community, the Companions of Christ have been received with support and encouragement.

"Summorum Pontificum" in the Seminary

From ZENIT:

Cardinal Rigali on Introducing Seminarians to the 1962 Missal

By Annamarie Adkins

PHILADELPHIA, MARCH 14, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Since Benedict XVI has said that the Mass celebrated according to the 1962 Roman Missal promulgated by Blessed John XXIII should be available to those who prefer it, seminarians should be taught to say it, says Cardinal Justin Rigali.

The Pope clarified in his apostolic letter "Summorum Pontificum" that there are two forms of the liturgy in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church: ordinary and extraordinary.

To learn what some bishops are doing to implement the document in seminaries, ZENIT spoke with Cardinal Rigali, archbishop of Philadelphia, about his plans to introduce seminarians at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary to the extraordinary form of the Mass.

Cardinal Rigali also suggested why priests already in active ministry should become familiar with the Missal of 1962.

Q: What practical steps are being taken to incorporate "Summorum Pontificum" into the life and curriculum of the seminary?

Cardinal Rigali: First there will be a lecture offered on the "motu proprio" that elucidates the theology underlying the 1962 missal so that the seminarians are afforded a clear understanding of the "motu proprio" and the Holy Father's pastoral concern for the faithful who have a deep love for the Tridentine liturgy.

Since nearly all of the seminarians at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary have grown up attending Mass according to the "Novus Ordo" -- Missal of Paul VI -- it is important to offer an exposition of the Mass according to the 1962 missal -- Missal of Blessed John XXIII.

Further, seminary course work in theology, liturgy and Church history will cover and expound upon the Holy Father's initiative. It will be helpful for them to see the continuity between the two expressions, but will also afford the opportunity to address the changes that took place in the liturgy following the Second Vatican Council.

Sometime in the spring semester, after the lecture, Holy Mass according to the extraordinary form will be celebrated once for the entire St. Charles Borromeo Seminary community. This will demonstrate to the seminarians the liturgically correct manner in which the extraordinary form of the Mass is to be celebrated.

Q: What about "Summorum Pontificum" has led you to support the incorporation of that document into the life of St. Charles Borromeo seminary? Are you foreseeing a greater demand for the traditional form of the Mass in the future?

Cardinal Rigali: The Holy Father has indicated that the Mass according to the extraordinary form as well as celebration of the sacraments should be available to the faithful when there is a genuine pastoral need.

Many of our clergy have never celebrated Mass or administered the sacraments according to the 1962 missal and the other liturgical texts. In order to provide for the pastoral needs, should they arise, the current seminarians should have the opportunity to be properly educated as to the rituals involved and the theology that underlies these forms.

At present I do not foresee a great demand for celebrations according to the extraordinary form of the Mass. In the Archdiocese of Philadelphia the requests we have received are very few. Most Catholics today find spiritual satisfaction in the Mass as celebrated using the Missal of Paul VI, and this remains the ordinary form of the celebration.

This being said, we are blessed to have two parishes in different areas of the archdiocese that celebrate Mass in the extraordinary form, who had already for some time been offering Mass with the Tridentine Missal by grant of the necessary indult. I am grateful that these parishes provide for the spiritual and pastoral needs of those faithful who prefer the extraordinary form.

Q: Some analysts of "Summorum Pontificum" have said that it is primarily directed at priests, and is a gift to them. What is your view?

Cardinal Rigali: The "motu proprio" is issued by the Holy Father for all Catholics.

With regard to priests, any statement from the Holy Father on the liturgy or any change in the liturgical forms or formula afford the priests an opportunity for thought and reflection on the mysteries they celebrate in the liturgy.

Many priests find in these opportunities a renewed sense of awe and appreciation for the liturgy and an opportunity for recommitment to celebrate these liturgies in a more reflective, reverent and respectful manner.

In this sense, "Summorum Pontificum" is a gift to all priests, because it encourages them, through the sacred liturgy, to draw all people into a deeper communion of holiness with the Lord.

Q: Seminaries are in the business of formation, particularly liturgical formation. What formative effect do you believe learning and celebrating the extraordinary form of the Mass will have upon seminarians?

Cardinal Rigali: Studying about and learning the Mass according to the 1962 Missal will afford the seminarians an opportunity to experience the continuity between the older and newer forms.

So much of our faith is based on continuity and tradition, handing on of the faith from one generation to the next. Sometimes the rituals change and develop but at the core they remain the same.

Benedict XVI stated in his letter to the bishops that accompanied the "motu proprio," "There is no contradiction between the two editions of the Roman Missal. In the history of the liturgy there is growth and progress, but no rupture. What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be of all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful. It behooves all of us to preserve the riches that have developed in the Church's faith and prayer, and to give them their proper place."

The liturgical training St. Charles Borromeo seminarians receive forms them in reverence and holiness, which in turn will serve the faithful to whom they will minister once they are ordained.

Q: Will saying Mass according to the Missal of Blessed John XXIII affect the way a priest says the "Novus Ordo" Mass?

Cardinal Rigali: Any priest who is unfamiliar with the extraordinary form, or who has not celebrated the liturgy according to this form for some time, will probably, and quite naturally, reflect on the manner in which he celebrates Mass according to the "Novus Ordo."

Such a reflection is positive because it cannot help but lead to a more reverent and worthy celebration of the liturgy.

Q: What can priests do to incorporate "Summorum Pontificum" into their own priestly ministry?

Cardinal Rigali: St. Charles Borromeo Seminary is offering a course for priests who wish to be educated and trained in the proper celebration of the Mass according to the Missal of Blessed John XXIII to ensure competence in the Latin language and the rubrics of the extraordinary form.

Prior to engaging a "practicum" experience, the theology behind the liturgy and the "motu proprio" will be studied. I have encouraged any priest who may wish to learn to celebrate this liturgy to seek such educational opportunities so that the liturgy may be celebrated in a prayerful and reverent manner.

Priests hope Pope Benedict visit inspires vocations

From Detroit Free Press

BY GARY STERN • WESTCHESTER JOURNAL NEWS • March11, 2008

When Pope Benedict XVI addresses 20,000 youths at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y., and 60,000 people at Yankee Stadium next month, many priests will be crossing their fingers that the pontiff urges -- demands, even -- that young Catholic men consider a collar.

Like the Detroit area, the Archdiocese of New York is in serious need of new priests. Of the 176 Catholic dioceses in the U.S., the Archdiocese of New York ranks 170th in terms of the ratio of seminarians to the total Catholic population, according to a December study by Catholic World Report.

Detroit also ranked in the bottom 20 in the report, but unlike New York, will not be receiving a papal visit.

Right now the main seminary at St. Joseph's is preparing only 23 seminarians for possible ordination as diocesan priests over the next four years.

And not a single man is scheduled to enter the seminary program next fall.

Bishop Gerald Walsh, rector of St. Joseph's, said that the absence of a freshman class could be a good thing if it forces New York's Catholic community to face the dire need for priests.

"It is a wake-up call," Walsh said. "We have to do something. I'm a believer that difficulties can be opportunities, not disasters. It depends on what you do with them."

The hope is that the visit by Pope Benedict will inspire young men to listen for God's call to the priesthood and rouse Catholic families to mention the priesthood around the dinner table.

"His mission is really to encourage us in the faith, to strengthen us in our belief and commitment to Jesus Christ, make us better disciples," said the Rev. Luke Sweeney, vocations director for the archdiocese. "If he does that and that alone, vocations will come from it."

But Sweeney hopes the pope will go a step farther when he's speaking directly to New Yorkers.

"I presume that the Holy Father will make an appeal to some of them, to say that God wants you to be priests," he said. "That, coming from the pope, will mean a world of difference to young people."

Nationally, the number of diocesan priests dropped from 36,000 in 1975 to 28,000 last year. But the number of seminarians, after falling sharply since the 1960s, rebounded in the last decade to 3,300.

In big-city archdioceses like Detroit, the seriousness of the shortage tends to be hidden because priests just work harder and longer, even though they are more isolated than ever before, said Dean Hoge, a professor of sociology at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

"You can muddle through with one priest for many, many Catholics," said Hoge, a leading expert on the priest shortage. "But it's still a monster problem. There is no way we can continue to go ahead much longer with parish life as we know it when there are so few priests and so many Catholics."

Many insist that the frenetic pace of modern life, combined with a growing social emphasis on individualism and secularism, may discourage young men from listening.

"I think the odds are stacked against us in the age in which we live, more than in any other age," said Brian Graebe, 27, from Staten Island, a first-year student at St. Joseph's. "We have a tough battle. How do we counter all of these trends that are working against this timeless message, this august call to the priesthood? The message is there, it's strong, it speaks for itself. We just have to allow them to hear it."

New York's Irish community has provided the vast majority of parish priests for 200 years. Part of the problem facing the archdiocese is that an estimated 40% to 50% of Catholic New Yorkers are Hispanic, but Hispanic communities are not producing priests.

Dominican-born Alex Reyes, 24, of the Bronx, a third-year seminarian, said many Hispanic young men told him they might be interested in becoming priests if not for one thing.

"I know a lot of young Hispanic guys who are very interested in the priesthood, but to tell you the truth, the big problem is celibacy," Reyes said. "That is the main reason they hold off."

This is where Pope Benedict comes in. He is visiting the U.S., in part, to inspire the faithful.

The Rev. Michael Morris, professor of church history at St. Joseph's, said he was among many seminarians during the 1980s who became sure of their call after Pope John Paul II's visit in 1979.

"I discovered when I got to seminary, that I wasn't alone," he said. "Other guys felt the same way that I did. Hopefully, this will happen as a result of this papal visit. Hopefully we'll be filled again someday."

U.S. Dominican nuns turn heads, spread God's love to youths in Sydney

By Dan McAloon
Catholic News Service

SYDNEY, Australia (CNS) -- Everywhere they go in Sydney, the three Dominican nuns from Tennessee keep turning heads. Dressed in their distinctive white habits and black and white veils, the sisters stand out in the crowd.

At Sydney Harbor, where the tourists fix their cameras on the iconic Opera House and bridge, the arrival of Sisters Anna Wray, Mary Rachel Capets and Mary Madeline Todd gets everybody's viewfinders swinging in their direction.

The reaction of local residents in Belmore, the multicultural suburb where they are staying, is similar. The Vietnamese baker and his wife tell them of the kindness of Catholic nuns to war orphans in their homeland. The older people in the street stop to reminisce about the nuns who taught them at school. The "hijab"-wearing Muslim women, at first surprised at the sight of the nuns' veils, smile broadly with the recognition of the love of a common God.

"You're making our neighborhood a different place," the Lebanese shopkeeper told them. And when his customers ask if he has seen the strange new nuns about, the shopkeeper boasts: "Yes, of course! They are my friends!"

The nuns are in Sydney at the invitation of Sydney Auxiliary Bishop Anthony Fisher, World Youth Day 2008 coordinator and fellow Dominican. Normally they would be at home teaching, but their motherhouse in Nashville has sent delegations to assist with preparations for each World Youth Day since Denver was the host city in 1993.

"It's part of our apostolic mission to spread God's love to the youth of the world," said Sister Anna, 28, noting that as Dominicans their lives are balanced between "contemplation and action."

"Wherever we are, we live by our values. Our founder Dominic was about taking God's word into the world and influencing people. We have a capacity to be adaptive, you could say. We know that people won't listen to us unless we are clearly living what we preach," she said.

A colleague at the Sydney Archdiocese describes the three as a "breath of fresh air about the place."

While Sister Mary Madeline is working as an assistant to Bishop Fisher, Sister Anna works with the liturgical committee and Sister Mary Rachel helps plan the youth festival.

As the July 15-20 World Youth Day events approach, there are still myriad details to be finalized in time for the arrival of the pilgrims. More than 125,000 are expected to arrive from overseas for the event, including 38,000 from the United States.

Sister Mary Rachel, 32, said that despite the 20-hour flight from Los Angeles, pilgrims from the U.S. won't be disappointed.

"They will find a beautiful, friendly city. People here are very generous because many are migrants and they know what it is to be the stranger," she said. "And for the pilgrims there's the special grace of being in the presence of the pope and in experiencing the beauty of the universal church."

"All Catholic life is a pilgrimage, and every experience teaches us something new," added Sister Mary Madeline. "I think the people of Sydney will be very surprised by how many pilgrims are ready to make that journey for Christ and celebrate their life in communion."

Sister Anna, a Dominican novice, has her own pilgrim story to tell of the influence World Youth Day had in calling her to religious life.

"Being in Rome for World Youth Day (in 2000) really was a catalyst for my entering religious life," she said. "I had no intention of being a sister then, but I did hear the offering of the church and the Holy Father, 'Do not be afraid to live the Gospel directly.' And that is something I have tried to do ever since."

As a retired nun turns 100, she reflects on her years of devotion to God, others

By Sophia Rodriguez
The Post and Courier
Thursday, March 13, 2008

Sister Brendan Lacey has led a full life. She immigrated to the United States in her teens, brought people through medical catastrophes as a nurse, helped bring life into the world, and developed a close and deeply personal relationship with God.

She has a lifetime of memories to draw upon, and a few days before her 100th birthday are just as good a time as any to reflect on them.

"All life is what you make of it," she said, sitting in the parlor of the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady of Mercy convent on Fort Johnson Road, her hands folded serenely in her lap and a slight smile on her kind face.

This is one of those life lessons she has learned from her many years on Earth. It all depends how you view your circumstances and what you decide you want out of life. Some may shun the ideals of a Catholic sisterhood, a life void of a spouse, raising a family and pursuing a layman's career as too quaint, too provincial, maybe too boring to seriously consider. But in a way, Lacey has all those things.

Even though she had never considered working as a nurse, she found her way into that field as a result of her pull toward the religious life as a young teenager. Not only does she have other family members in the United States, but she always has had a built-in one at the institutions where she has lived throughout her life. And in a sense, her closeness to God is a marriage: one of love and strong bonds built over the years.

Lacey's story began when she was born as Elizabeth on March 14, 1908, in County Laois, Ireland, about 90 miles southwest of Dublin. She was educated at the National School and then by Mother McAuley's Sisters of Mercy. When she was 13, she started to feel she was being called to serve in a similar capacity as the nuns who were her teachers.

"It was beyond a boarding school," Lacey said. She also was preparing for her future service.

She met two nuns at Our Lady of

Mercy from Charleston. They were vacationing in the beautiful country, but they also had been instructed by the area's bishop at the time, the Most Rev. William T. Russell, to invite young women who were interested in serving in foreign missions to Charleston. The 16-year-old girl took them up on the offer and, along with seven other girls, hopped aboard a ship headed for New York Harbor.

She arrived in 1924, and a few days later, sailed down to Charleston on a Clyde Mallory Line vessel. One of the first noticeable differences she encountered between her homeland and her new land was the temperature jump. The August heat took her by surprise because in comparison, "Ireland is a very cold country." She also had to get used to the Southern drawl. But she didn't feel lost.

"I didn't feel I was in a foreign country because there were four girls here who had come out of school a year before me," she said.

She began her training for the sisterhood, called novitiate, at the motherhouse, which was behind the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist at the time.

"You go through the routine of the day," she said. "You have different times of the day when you pray, and you have different times for meals. You go to bed at a certain time, and wake up at a certain time."

After six months, she received her habit and a new religious name that she got to pick: Brendan.

"I had no other reason than, 'Here is an Irish saint,' " she said.

After that, she entered the standard two years of training. The first year consisted of learning the rules and structure of her new life. She did no outside work and took three vows, that of poverty, chastity and obedience. "We study each one of those vows and what they entail. ... We don't marry, we don't own anything in private and we obey what (the leaders of the convent and church) say."

After that training was over, she entered nurse's training, something she had never considered doing before but agreed to because it was asked of her. She was on the St. Francis Xavier Hospital's staff until 1960, then transferred to Divine Saviour Hospital and Nursing Home in York. She spent three years as the matron of the City Orphan Asylum that was on Queen Street in Charleston, and then returned to Divine Saviour in 1964 and remained there until the early '90s.

Most of those years, she worked as a night supervisor in an active emergency room, treating patients for injuries from car accidents and "things resulting from brawls and fights and things like that."

"I had to accommodate myself to a lot of things, especially OB. You can read about those things, but when you see it, it's a different thing."

She would sleep in the daytime and work 12-hour shifts. It was a happy and educational time. "It gets you into the joys and sorrows of people," she said.

In 1992, she moved to Simpsonville to be a fellow nun's companion. Although she didn't have any assigned work, she found small tasks to occupy her time. She wrote thank-you letters at the St. Mary Magdalene Society to people who asked for Masses to be said for someone or sent money to the church. She stayed there until four years ago, when she retired to her current home at the motherhouse on James Island.

She considers her nursing years as a ministry of service, while her days now are spent in a ministry of prayer. She feels fortunate to have access to daily Mass at Our Lady of Mercy's chapel. Prayer has been the constant thread throughout her years — prayers for families, the community's needs, prayers for people to acquire virtue, prayers for the sick, the deceased, the cessation of war — the list goes on.

"I pray a lot, and that sustains me," she said. "I enjoy the company of the other sisters."

Her pleasures and activities are simple. She doesn't know much about what goes on beyond the convent walls, but she keeps up with newspapers and television broadcasts. She religiously watches Brian Williams on the "NBC Nightly News" even though her eyesight isn't what it used to be.

As for turning the ripe young age of 100?

"Situations make you feel old," she said, gesturing to her walker. "Your body is a good teacher. It tells you what you're capable of and what you're not."

As for the rest of it, "I feel no different in my life than when I was 20. I just know my years are shorter."