Father Michael Magiera Blends Experience on Opera Stage with Priestly Ministry
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Inside Food for the soul Lenten meals give parents a chance to teach the faith, page 9. Serving the ChurchCriterion in Central and Souther n Indiana Since 1960 CriterionOnline.com Febraury 27, 2009 Vol. XLIX, No. 20 75¢ New leader meets archdiocese he calls ‘snapshot’ of universal Church Photo by Sean Gallagher NEW YORK (CNS)—Calling the diverse New York Archdiocese “a real icon, a snapshot of the Church universal, of the Church in the United States,” Arch - bishop Timothy M. Dolan pledged his life, his heart and his soul to the people of the archdiocese on Feb. 23. Archbishop Pope Benedict XVI Timothy M. Dolan named Archbishop Dolan, head of the Milwaukee Archdiocese since 2002, to succeed the retiring Cardinal Edward M. Egan. He is to be installed as New York archbishop on April 15. At a press Cardinal conference in the Edward M. Egan New York Catholic Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter Father Michael Magiera, associate pastor of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Parish in Indianapolis, celebrates the Center, traditional Latin Mass on Feb. 18 at the parish’s church. Altar server Simon Sheridan, a student at Lumen Christi Sc hool, kneels at left. Archbishop Dolan said, “I can tell you already that I love you. I need so much your prayers and support. I am so honored, humbled and Father Michael Magiera blends experience happy at the prospect of serving as your pastor.” As pastor, he said he has “a sacred mandate on opera stage with priestly ministr y to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and ho w the Church transmits his mystery, his ministry By Sean Gallagher he was an international opera singer. More than a decade and his invitation.” And in 2005, he was ordained a priest before he became a He said the message is intended to serv e He knows his lines by heart. He knows for a congregation dedicated to Submitted photo seminarian, everybody. “Nothing foreign is alien to us. precisely what to do and when to do it. He celebrating the traditional Latin Mass. Michael Magiera That’s part of the Catholic chemistry. We’re has entered into the very personality, the He has served for nearly three years as performs the role of not just sacristy, not just sanctuary, not just “persona,” of the role assigned to him. the associate pastor of Our Lady of the Acis in George Sunday people. And he has dedicated himself to this Most Holy Rosary Parish in Frideric Handel’s “The Church through the ages has been a task so that those who will witness his Indianapolis. opera “Acis and hyperkinetic partner of the arts, literature, performance might be mysteriously drawn Father Magiera has sought to bring Galatea” in 1984 at health care and immigrants,” he added. “Look into it with him. the positive aspects of his experience on the Stadttheater in to us to continue that partnership.” Is this man an actor who brings an the stage to bear on his priestly ministry. Augsburg, Germany. Archbishop Dolan promised to do whatever audience into a play or opera, or a priest But it was a long journey for him to he could to affirm the priests of the who, by virtue of his ordination, stands arrive at this, his greatest role. archdiocese. “The vitality of this great in persona Christi (“in the person of archdiocese is in its parishes,” he said. “The Christ”) to lead the faithful in the Eucharist ‘I wanted to be a star’ priests are on the front lines. I am their into a greater communion with the Lord in Father Magiera’s dedication to his be a priest. servant. You can count on me to help them. his suffering, death and resurrection? faith was not always as strong as it is But then, as a teenager, he witnessed “I look forward to being with the priests,” Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter now. As a young boy growing up in changes to the liturgy in the immediate wake of he added. “That’s not a chore; that’s a choice.” Father Michael Magiera has lived both Philadelphia in the 1950s and early the Second Vatican Council that were troubling Archbishop Dolan said in his role as pastor sides of this question. 1960s, he was enchanted with the to him. that he would engage, rather than confront, As a young man in his 30s in the 1980s, traditional Latin Mass and desired to See MAGIERA, page 2 See NEW YORK, page 2 Little Sisters of the Poor are ‘thrilled’ that their foundress, blessed Jeanne Jugan, will be canonized WASHINGTON (CNS)—The on Dec. 6, 2008, recognizing the miracle Blessed Jeanne announcement that Pope Benedict XVI advancing her sainthood cause. Jugan, foundress will canonize Blessed Jeanne Jugan, the On Feb. 21, Pope Benedict presided of the Little Sisters foundress of the Little Sisters of the over a consistory that gave final approval of the Poor, is seen Poor, on Oct. 11 has created e xcitement for the canonization of 10 people, in this image among members of the congregation including Blessed Jeanne, who began her provided by her worldwide. ministry on the streets of France taking order. On Feb. 21, “We knew it was only a matter of the elderly and poor into her home in the Pope Benedict XVI CNS photo/courtesy of Little Sisters the Poor time, but everyone was just thrilled when early decades of the 1800s. announced that the official announcement was made,” To support her ministry, Blessed Jeanne said Sister Constance Veit, publications Blessed Jeanne begged for money, a will be canonized coordinator in the Little Sisters of the tradition that the Little Sisters of the Poor at the Vatican on Poor’s Baltimore province. “We’ve consider a fundamental part of their Oct. 11. anticipated this for so long.” mission today. Pope John Paul II beatified The canonization will take place Jeanne Jugan in 1982, and during the Synod of Bishops for Africa, Pope Benedict XVI signed a document See JUGAN, page 8 Page 2 The Criterion Friday, February 27, 2009 next Luciano Pavarotti. Michael Magiera MAGIERA “I had decided that I was going to give up performs the role of continued from page 1 ideas of stardom,” he said. “I had sort of come Baron Kronthal in down to earth and I was working at another Albert Lotzing’s “The twanging, overpowering guitars and job, but I was keeping my hand in music.” opera “Der drums just made me sick,” he said. “I had He kept his hand in his art by being a paid Wildschutz” in 1984 gotten really tired of that. singer at various Protestant congregations in at the Landstheater “I had wanted to be a priest since the time his hometown, including St. Clement’s in Detmold, I was 7 years old. For whatever reason, in the Church, a deeply traditional Episcopal parish Germany. mid-1960s when things started to change, I that celebrated a liturgy much like the thought, ‘I don’t like this.’ ” traditional Latin Mass. Although in his young adult years he said In the late 1980s, he learned that he drifted away from the Church “when the Catholic Church leaders were allowing the hormonal things kicked in,” Father Magiera traditional Latin Mass to be celebrated once says it was the post-Vatican II liturgical again. He found his way to churches for these changes that were at the root of his liturgies, came to regret leaving the Church and abandoning of his faith. eventually returned to the faith. His desire for the priesthood, though, w as “I needed something that was going to be soon replaced by love for music and the meaningful to me in a liturgical way,” myself to give free rein to emotions that w ould Father Magiera’s vocal talent because they stage. Father Magiera said. “That was the only real normally be suppressed in society,” he said. both love music. He has been taking v oice After studying music and French as an way that I could connect because, when you’re “Now, sometimes, it’s difficult to stifle them lessons for two years, and is a past member undergraduate and teaching high school a Catholic, the [primary] way that you have to because I’ve had so much practice at giving of the Indianapolis Children’s Choir. In music for a year, he studied voice at deal with God is through the litur gy.” free rein to the emotions. addition to being an altar server, Brandon Philadelphia’s Academy of Vocal Arts from Through this reconciliation and a “Sometimes, [the Mass] is just so profound has also started to regularly chant the epistle 1976-79 then studied voice privately in re-discovery of the liturgy of his youth, his and so meaningful that it would be hard for me reading at the Sunday celebration of the New York. long-dormant desires to be a priest resurf aced. to stop from crying.” traditional Latin Mass at Holy Rosary He had big ambitions. “It was in that environment that I actually Msgr. Joseph F. Schaedel, pastor of Church. “I wanted to be a star,” he said. “… I just started thinking of a vocation again, which Holy Rosary and archdiocesan vicar general, “[Father Magiera] is living proof that you imagined myself at [New York] City Opera or means that that was not something that came has seen up close over the past three years how can change drastically, that it’s never really the Met[ropolitan Opera] or some big place from me,” Father Magiera said.