Archbishop O'brien Completes Mission of Visiting Every Parish

Archbishop O’Brien completes mission of visiting every parish

After logging hundreds of miles, shaking hands with scores of Catholics and making a pitch for religious vocations at every turn, Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien has completed his mission of visiting each of the 151 parishes of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

The whirlwind tour started in the mountains of Western Maryland seven months ago and ended May 1 in fast-growing Howard County where Baltimore’s spiritual shepherd met some of his flock at St. Augustine, Elkridge; Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Ellicott City; St. Paul, Ellicott City; Church of the Resurrection, Ellicott City; St. John, Columbia; St. Louis, Clarksville; and St. Francis of Assisi, Fulton.

In an interview with The Catholic Review, Archbishop O’Brien said the visits have helped him learn more about the diverse parishes of the archdiocese and have allowed him to get to know the priests in a “much deeper way.”

“I’ve been encouraged by the dedication of our priests,” said Archbishop O’Brien, holding his crosier outside St. Augustine after celebrating a May 1 Mass that attracted hundreds of students from the parish school and Catholics of the region.

“Our priests are just extraordinary,” he said. “Some pastors have several parishes, and some pastors have parishes where there used to be three or four priests. They have a great gift of attracting people to work for the church.”

With fewer priests available for ministry, the archbishop said clergy are motivating parishioners to support their parishes “in a way we couldn’t have imagined a generation ago.”

At the end of the St. Augustine Mass, Archbishop O’Brien pointed to a large, white statue of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and asked girls to consider becoming religious sisters like St. Elizabeth. He then made a special request for boys to think about becoming priests. It was a familiar plea he has made while traveling throughout Baltimore City and nine surrounding counties since his Oct. 1 installation. The archbishop has similarly asked Catholics to pray for vocations during eucharistic adoration. He would like more parishes to offer opportunities for adoration.

“That’s going to be key to our growth as a Catholic community and certainly for building vocations,” he said.

God makes the call for religious vocations, Archbishop O’Brien said, “but we can certainly echo that call and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

The night before visiting Howard County parishes, Archbishop O’Brien stopped by the three parishes of the Catholic Community of South Baltimore: St. Mary, Star of the Sea; Holy Cross and Our Lady of Good Counsel.

Celebrating a Mass at Good Counsel on the vigil of the feast of St. Joseph the Worker, the archbishop reminded parishioners that one of their former pastors, then-Father James Gibbons, was an important figure in upholding the dignity of workers. While serving Our Lady of Good Counsel, then known as St. Lawrence O’Toole, the future cardinal saw how hard the dock and railroad workers labored at Locust Point and he never forgot it, Archbishop O’Brien said.

Cardinal Gibbons succeeded in urging the pope not to condemn the Knights of Labor, a late 19th-century labor organization that some other bishops wanted to squelch, Archbishop O’Brien said. Many Catholics belonged to the Knights and were concerned about the rights of workers, he said.

“If not for this great archbishop, many would have left the church,” said Archbishop O’Brien.

The archbishop thanked parishioners for their work supporting the church as musicians, lectors, committee members and in other ministries. St. Luke’s reserves seats for parishioners on active military duty

U.S. Army Lt. Lynette Jefferson may be serving thousands of miles away in Iraq, but she is certainly present in the hearts and minds of the parishioners of St. Luke, Edgemere.

That’s due in part to a project of St. Luke’s church council, which reserves spaces in pews to honor parishioners deployed on active duty in the U.S. military. The church currently has spaces reserved for two of its parishioners, Lt. Jefferson and Lance Cpl. Ryan Yeatman, U.S. Marine Corps.

“It’s a way to let young people know that we care about them even though they are separated from the church,” said St. Luke parishioner Jack Dabrowski.

Monsignor Joseph S. Lizor Jr., St. Luke pastor, called this “a way of recognizing great people and giving them special attention.”

An army chaplain for 22 years, Father Lizor said he “spent a good many years overseas.”

“I appreciate very much what military people do with their lives,” he said.

Mary Jefferson, mother of Lt. Jefferson, said her daughter has been deployed in Iraq since the end of October and will return home in February 2009. Ms. Jefferson said her daughter’s seat, the first to be reserved, has been reserved since Christmastime.

She said when her daughter was about to leave for Iraq, the Jefferson family asked the church to pray for her, announcing that she was going overseas. The family was then approached by ushers asking if they could reserve a seat for her. “[Lynette] was almost in a daze like, ‘Wow, somebody would do this for me,’” Mr. Dabrowski said.

“I thought it was a nice gesture,” said Ms. Jefferson, explaining that the family was allowed to pick the space to be reserved for Lt. Jefferson. “We picked the last place she sat before she left.”

Lt. Jefferson shared her gratitude for this gesture in an e-mail: “I am very grateful that the St. Luke’s community reserved a seat for me while I am deployed here in Iraq. I am thankful that the church appreciates the sacrifices that military service members make.”

“During Christmas, I received several cards from members of the St. Luke’s church,” she said. “It felt nice that individuals would take the time to do this.”

Lt. Jefferson said she misses her family and friends but enjoys the work she is doing in Iraq to train the Iraqi Police. “This is not only helping them sustain themselves but the local community as well,” she said.

Mr. Dabrowski said frequent notices in the church bulletin ask for news of any other parishioners who have been deployed.

He said these parishioners’ returns will be celebrated. “Their first Mass back, we would like them to take their reserve signs up and give them to Father,” he said.

Mr. Dabrowski’s wife, Lynn Dabrowski, echoed her husband’s regard for deployed parishioners. “They are absent from the body of Christ but present in our hearts and minds,” she said.

Teacher soothes patients with therapeutic music program

Babies cry less when they hear the sound of the harp.

That’s not a mothering tip but an observation of nurses in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Mercy Medical Center, Baltimore, on days when harpist Cathy Maglaras wheels in her 12-pound Celtic instrument to strum tenderly in the company of incubated preemies.

There’s something very special about the 33-string harp – it has a healing effect, believes Ms. Maglaras, who also feels its relaxing result.

“It’s the beauty of the live music, the vibrations of the strings,” said the certified music practitioner who plays five hours a week at Mercy through a grant-funded Therapeutic Healing Music Program. She also plays two hours a month in the hospice at Stella Maris, Timonium, and teaches music at Cockeysville Middle School.

The preemies may not be able to explain the soothing effects of the harp, but their adult caretakers can. They admit to the harpist, “We’re nicer to each other when you’re here.”

Playing for babies, the critically or chronically ill, near-death patients, those being discharged or cancer patients in outpatient chemo treatment, Ms. Maglaras times her strokes on the strings to correlate with heart rhythms and irregular or normal breathing.

As she strums, the key or tempo is adjusted as she watches a person’s facial muscles. She also listens to verbal responses to the simple Irish and Scottish music, and she stops if the patient has had enough. She wants patients in control and relaxed during her musical massage.

“You don’t want a lot of stimulation,” said the musician, especially for someone about to die who already may feel anxious. The music should “give them a greater feeling of peace.”

Perhaps what it brings to the listener’s mind is a fluid harp to harp transition, from the music in the hospital to the celestial music in heaven.

“I had a gentleman look at me one day and say, ‘That’s the most peace I’ve had in years,’” she remembered.

Therapeutic music is not entertainment or a concert, said the black-haired harpist who instructs patients not to applause. “I tell them to just close their eyes and receive.”

Mercy’s therapeutic music program falls under its pastoral care department and is unlike “music therapy,” used in different scenarios where patients are actively involved, similar to physical therapy.

Reclining in a hospital chair since 9 a.m. that morning, a white blanket covering her legs, Ilene Vaught took off her glasses, set them in her lap and listened to the harp. Her salt-and-pepper hair, which will fall out again, was cropped short and her makeup was intact.

Luther Vaught, her husband of 47 years, sat by her side during another day of chemotherapy.

“I just took a trip to Ireland!” said Mrs. Vaught after the harpist’s first selection.

The Perryville couple has dealt with Mrs. Vaught’s ovarian cancer for 13 straight months at Mercy, during which time they have heard Ms. Maglaras play twice before.

“Makes you think of spring and green,” said the chemo patient, “and where you’d like to be instead of here.” Blessed Virgin Mary exemplifies motherhood

With Mother’s Day rapidly approaching, Father Leo Patalinghug believes it’s the perfect time to look to the Blessed Virgin Mary as the model for what motherhood is all about. Mary exemplifies the best qualities for raising children, he said, and she is a powerful intercessor for families looking for help rearing children.

“I think Mary shows that motherhood is one of the most important vocations because mothers help raise future societies,” said Father Patalinghug, an archdiocesan priest who specialized in Mariology while earning a licentiate at the Pontifical Institute Marianum in Rome. He also studied at the University of Dayton Marianum.

“That’s important because we live in an age when motherhood is looked down upon because it’s not a ‘career,’” he said.

Father Patalinghug, director of pastoral field education at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, said Mary’s willingness to accept life is one of her paramount attributes. She is also the “pre-eminent teacher,” he said.

“The domestic church is the first of all schools,” Father Patalinghug explained. “So she obviously is an important person for all mothers as a reminder of being the first teachers.”

Because Mary was conceived without sin through the Immaculate Conception, Father Patalinghug said she can inspire all mothers to give their own children the strength to steer clear of sin.

“I don’t know if mothers realize they have a great responsibility with fathers to protect their children from evil,” he said. “We want to give cars and be friends and dress our kids in cutesy outfits – and that’s all perfectly fine. But we have to do more than that. We have to help them stand up to sin.”

During Christ’s passion and death, Mary was constantly at her son’s side, praying for him and supporting him, Father Patalinghug said. “Her presence and her prayers helped her to be a sorrowful mother, which means a mother who has compassion,” he said.

Mary’s example is a reminder that children will inevitably undergo their own suffering – and that’s not a bad thing, he said.

“Often, we try to protect children from everything,” he said. “But that could stunt their maturity level. Mary, who was willing to protect Jesus, recognized that the cross carried with love is not evil. She knew it would be the source of salvation.”

Mary teaches mothers how to suffer well and how to be compassionate in the suffering of others, Father Patalinghug said.

To celebrate Mother’s Day, the priest said it’s a great idea to pray the rosary with mothers. Ask for Mary’s intercession, he said, and follow her in her complete devotion to Christ.

“Mary fed Jesus,” he said. “And one thing Mary does for us is feed her children now with the fruit of her womb, Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. That’s deep stuff, isn’t it?”

Deacons’ wives supportive of ministry

Severna Park resident Keith Chase is well aware he has an understanding and supportive wife.

After all, he is an ordained deacon, and he has a demanding job with a Baltimore financial firm, four children under the age of 9 and a foreign-exchange student living with his family.

“The unsung heroes of the deacons are their wives,” said the 42-year-old deacon of Church of the Holy Apostles, Gambrills. “They have to trust your calling and sacrifice for your ministry. They carry the load of the family, allowing us to serve God.”

When Deacon Chase told his wife he was considering the diaconate in 2000, Pauline Chase’s initial reaction was to question her husband’s sanity.

Not only was she pregnant with her second child when he began taking classes required for formation, her husband was working on a master’s degree at the Ecumenical Institute of Theology at St. Mary’s Seminary & University in Roland Park and she questioned the family’s worthiness of an ordination.

“I kept thinking, ‘We’re not holy enough for this,’” said Ms. Chase, a 42-year-old cradle Catholic. “I grew up in a go-to-church-and-leave kind of family. It took me a while to understand his calling.”

When their husbands answered the call to the diaconate, many wives of the 167 deacons in the Archdiocese of Baltimore took on additional responsibilities in their households and their religious lives.

“I’m not an ordained minister at church, but I’ve got a certain amount of responsibility that comes with his ministry,” said Janet Comegna of Catonsville, wife of Deacon John “Skip” Comegna of Church of the Resurrection, Ellicott City. “There are definitely benefits that come with it, and I definitely enjoy a lot of respect from others because of his role in the church.”

The 62-year-old deacon’s wife takes pleasure in the leadership role she has in her parish, running the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults program at Resurrection for those wishing to convert to Catholicism, along with her 63-year-old husband.

“We’ve always been involved with our parish,” Ms. Comegna said. “Our faith has always been a big part of us as a couple, as parents and as members of our community. But, when Skip entered formation, our lives definitely changed.”

Though she appreciated and supported her husband’s calling, Ms. Comegna has resented his ministry from time to time when it’s taken him away from her and family functions involving their two grown sons and five grandchildren. “When your husband goes off and is serving God, it becomes really difficult to justify complaining about it,” Ms. Comegna said. “When you do resent it, then you really start to feel guilty.”

Though there are explicit sacrifices, several deacons’ wives say their lives are unquestionably enriched by the vocation of their spouses.

Their husbands are permitted to baptize the children of family members and friends; they can officiate at weddings. The retreats provide deep spiritual cleansing, and their exposure to a society committed to doing good works sets a great example for their children.

“There is a real grace that you experience through all of this,” Ms. Comegna said. “It’s added greatly to our relationship with each other.”

Since her husband is retired from his profession and their children were grown when he entered the diaconate, Ms. Comegna said her burden isn’t as great as the wives of younger deacons with young children, like Deacon Chase.

The wives actually meet as a group on a regular basis, to give each other emotional support, share tips on balancing their family responsibilities with the duties they have as a deacon’s spouse and express their feelings.

“There are things that only the wife of another deacon, or a Protestant minister, would understand,” said Ms. Chase, who says this group has helped her adjust. “At first, I was a little intimidated by these women who just seemed like they could juggle so much. It was a relief to find out they are women like me, and they had their doubts like me. It’s been a real bonding experience and a real growing experience. It’s helped me really enjoy my new role.”

During formation years, the wives occasionally attend class with their husbands and proofread their papers.

After ordination, they frequently provide input when their spouses draft homilies, offer advice about handling parishioner concerns and sometimes provide criticism when they think their other half didn’t handle a situation with the proper amount of tact. “As deacons, we have a sounding board in our wives, and I think it’s a huge benefit for us,” Deacon Comegna said. “It’s offered me insight that has only made me better in my ministry. I can also share the sadness of a funeral with my wife and the joy of a baptism or wedding with her. It’s a great outlet.”

Once Ms. Chase’s husband completed formation and was ordained, she said his time with the family increased, and they are able to enjoy the spoils of the years of sacrifice.

“You can’t have a real appreciation of your blessings,” she said, “unless you experience some level of hardship.”

St. Luke’s reserves seats for parishioners on active military duty

U.S. Army Lt. Lynette Jefferson may be serving thousands of miles away in Iraq, but she is certainly present in the hearts and minds of the parishioners of St. Luke, Edgemere.

“It’s a way to let young people know that we care about them even though they are separated from the church,” said St. Luke parishioner Jack Dabrowski.

The reserved seats are located on the left side of the church toward the back. A plaque with the name of the parishioner marks the space in the pew, which is also draped with a yellow ribbon. The plaque states that the space will be reserved until the parishioner returns home safely. Monsignor Joseph S. Lizor Jr., St. Luke pastor, called this “a way of recognizing great people and giving them special attention.”

An army chaplain for 22 years, Father Lizor said he “spent a good many years overseas.”

“I appreciate very much what military people do with their lives,” he said.

“[Lynette] was almost in a daze like, ‘Wow, somebody would do this for me,’” Mr. Dabrowski said.

“During Christmas, I received several cards from members of the St. Luke’s church,” she said. “It felt nice that individuals would take the time to do this.”

Mr. Dabrowski said frequent notices in the church bulletin ask for news of any other parishioners who have been deployed. He said these parishioners’ returns will be celebrated. “Their first Mass back, we would like them to take their reserve signs up and give them to Father,” he said.

Mr. Dabrowski’s wife, Lynn Dabrowski, echoed her husband’s regard for deployed parishioners. “They are absent from the body of Christ but present in our hearts and minds,” she said.

Vatican letter directs bishops to keep parish records from Mormons

WASHINGTON – In an effort to block posthumous rebaptisms by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Catholic dioceses throughout the world have been directed by the Vatican not to give information in parish registers to the Mormons’ Genealogical Society of Utah.

An April 5 letter from the Vatican Congregation for Clergy, obtained by Catholic News Service in late April, asks episcopal conferences to direct all bishops to keep the Latter-day Saints from microfilming and digitizing information contained in those registers.

The order came in light of “grave reservations” expressed in a Jan. 29 letter from the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the clergy congregation’s letter said.

Father James Massa, executive director of the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, said the step was taken to prevent the Latter- day Saints from using records – such as baptismal documentation – to posthumously baptize by proxy the ancestors of church members.

Posthumous baptisms by proxy have been a common practice for the Latter-day Saints – commonly known as Mormons – for more than a century, allowing the church’s faithful to have their ancestors baptized into their faith so they may be united in the afterlife, said Mike Otterson, a spokesman in the church’s Salt Lake City headquarters.

In a telephone interview with CNS May 1, Mr. Otterson said he wanted a chance to review the contents of the letter before commenting on how it will affect the Mormons’ relationship with the Catholic Church.

“This dicastery is bringing this matter to the attention of the various conferences of bishops,” the letter reads. “The congregation requests that the conference notifies each diocesan bishop in order to ensure that such a detrimental practice is not permitted in his territory, due to the confidentiality of the faithful and so as not to cooperate with the erroneous practices of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”

The letter is dated 10 days before Pope Benedict XVI’s April 15-20 U.S. visit, during which he presided over an ecumenical prayer service attended by two Mormon leaders. It marked the first time Mormons had participated in a papal prayer service.

Father Massa said he could see how the policy stated in the letter could strain relations between the Catholic Church and the Latter-day Saints.

“It certainly has that potential,” he said. “But I would also say that the purpose of interreligious dialogue is not to only identify agreements, but also to understand our differences. As Catholics, we have to make very clear to them their practice of so- called rebaptism is unacceptable from the standpoint of Catholic truth.”

The Catholic Church will eventually open a dialogue with the Mormons about the rebaptism issue, Father Massa said, “but we are at the beginning of the beginning of a new relationship with the LDS. The first step in any dialogue is to establish trust and to seek friendship.”

The two faiths share intrinsic viewpoints on key issues the United States is facing, particularly the pro-life position on abortion and an opposition to same-sex marriage.

However, theological differences have cropped up between Mormons and Catholics in the past. In 2001 the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation issued a ruling that baptism conferred by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints cannot be considered a valid Christian baptism, thus requiring converts from that religion to Catholicism to receive a Catholic baptism.

“We don’t have an issue with the fact that the Catholic Church doesn’t recognize our baptisms, because we don’t recognize theirs,” Mr. Otterson said. “It’s a difference of belief.”

When issuing its 2001 ruling, the Vatican said that even though the Mormon baptismal rite refers to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the church’s beliefs about the identity of the three persons are so different from Catholic and mainline Christian belief that the rite cannot be regarded as a Christian baptism.

Latter-day Saints regard Jesus and the Holy Spirit as children of the Father and the Heavenly Mother. They believe that baptism was instituted by the Father, not Christ, and that it goes back to Adam and Eve.

Monsignor J. Terrence Fitzgerald – vicar general of the Diocese of Salt Lake City – said he didn’t understand why the Latter-day Saints church was singled out in this latest Vatican policy regarding parish records.

“We have a policy not to give out baptismal records to anyone unless they are entitled to have them,” Monsignor Fitzgerald said of his diocese. “That isn’t just for the Church of the Latter-day Saints. That is for all groups.”

Though he said the Salt Lake City Diocese has enjoyed a long-standing dialogue with the Latter-day Saints, Monsignor Fitzgerald said the diocese does not support giving the Mormons names for the sake of rebaptism.

Mormons have been criticized by several other faiths – perhaps most passionately by the Jews – for the church’s practice of posthumous baptism.

Members of the Latter-day Saints believe baptizing their ancestors by proxy gives the dead an opportunity to embrace the faith in the afterlife. The actual baptism-by- proxy ceremony occurs in a Mormon temple, and is intended to wash sins away for the commencement of church membership. Jewish leaders have called the practice arrogant and said it is disrespectful to the dead, especially Holocaust victims.

“Baptism by proxy is a fundamentally important doctrine of the Latter-day Saints,” Mr. Otterson said. “We have cooperative relationships with churches, governments – both state and national – going back to the last century. Our practice of negotiating for records and making them available for genealogical research is very well known.”

Father Massa said he is not aware of aggressive attempts to obtain baptismal records at Catholic parishes in any of the U.S. dioceses.

He also said the Catholic Church will continue to reach out to the Mormons and carry on the efforts of understanding that have already begun, especially in Salt Lake City.

“Profound theological differences are not an excuse for avoiding dialogue, but a reason for pursuing dialogue,” Father Massa said.

Philadelphia cardinal praises proposed human-animal hybrid ban

WASHINGTON – Philadelphia Cardinal Justin Rigali, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, praised legislation introduced in the House in late April that would ban the creation of human-animal embryos for research.

The cardinal said he welcomed the ban as “an opportunity to rein in an egregious and disturbing misuse of technology to undermine human dignity.”

The Human-Animal Hybrid Prohibition Act was introduced in the House April 24 by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J. Identical legislation was introduced in the Senate last fall by Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan.

“I commend Sen. Brownback and Rep. Smith for their leadership in seeking to prohibit the creation of human-animal hybrids,” said Cardinal Rigali in an April 30 statement.

“While this subject may seem like science fiction to many, the threat is all too real,” he added, noting that England is preparing to authorize the production of cloned human embryos using human DNA and animal eggs, setting the stage for the creation of embryos that are half-human and half-animal.

The cardinal said U.S. researchers have already boasted of plans to implant a combination of mouse cells and human embryos into female mice and to insert human brain cells into a mouse.

“The alleged promise of embryonic stem cells has already been used in attempts to justify destroying human embryos, and even to justify creating them solely for destructive research,” Cardinal Rigali said. “Now, the same utilitarian argument is being used to justify an especially troubling form of genetic manipulation, to create partly human creatures as mere objects for research or commercial use.”

The cardinal added that the human-animal hybrid procedure not only “radically undermines human dignity” but makes it “impossible to determine what is human and what is not.”

He encouraged members of Congress to co-sponsor the legislation “while there is still time for sound ethics and policy to place some restraints on the misuse of science.” Catholic Worker Movement marks 75th anniversary without fanfare

WASHINGTON – Seventy-fifth anniversary or not, lunch still must be served at the New York Catholic Worker’s Maryhouse. Hungry people will be waiting, as they are every Ms. Day.

Jane Sammon knows the routine: hospitality, meals, conversation, responding in whatever way possible to people in need. She’s been at Maryhouse for nearly 36 years, arriving in the summer of 1972 from Cleveland to live a life of voluntary poverty and personal sacrifice with a deep commitment to the works of mercy. It’s a way of life many admire but few venture to try.

Maryhouse is a place where the world is made better for people “little by little,” as Catholic Worker co-founder Dorothy Day often would say, recalling the example of St. Therese, the Little Flower of Jesus. It’s a place where people are readily welcomed and their human dignity is uplifted. Ms. Day wanted a place where Christ would feel at home.

“It’s an amazing thing that really has very little to do with us,” said Ms. Sammon, 60. “It’s the grace of God that keeps us going.”

Maryhouse on East Third Street in New York’s Bowery and St. Joseph House two blocks away on East First Street are the flagship communities of the Catholic Worker Movement, which turns 75 May 1. The movement toMs. Day encompasses more than 180 houses of hospitality in the United States including a few small farms. Another 18 houses are in Canada, Mexico, Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, Netherlands, Sweden and New Zealand.

Over the years, the movement has grown considerably, with the number of houses doubling since Ms. Day’s Nov. 29, 1980, death. The notion that the movement would founder once the hard-driving Ms. Day passed away has long since been dispelled.

Author Jim Forest, who worked alongside Ms. Day in New York in the 1960s and 1970s and has written extensively about her life, relates a story reflecting her view about the movement’s future. Asked in 1973 if she thought the movement would survive her, Ms. Day answered, “Why shouldn’t it? It has already survived more than 40 years of me.”

The movement was born on the streets of Depression-laden New York City May 1, 1933, when Ms. Day and friend Peter Maurin published and sold – at a penny a copy, the price it’s still going for today – The Catholic Worker, a newspaper focusing on the social teachings of the church and advocating for the poor and displaced workers. As circulation grew rapidly it took just six months for Ms. Day and Maurin to establish the first Catholic Worker house of hospitality in a walk-up apartment with space for 10 homeless women. The movement grew quickly in Manhattan and spread across the country.

Today, Catholic Worker houses are as diverse as the people running them. Each house is autonomous with no formal rules except to carry out the works of mercy: feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, caring for the sick, burying the dead.

The depth of prayer and spirituality varies as well. Some community members walk in lock step with the Catholic Church while, as Mr. Forest said, “others would cross the street to not be blessed by the pope.” The vast majority are somewhere in the middle.

Hospitality takes many forms, from storefront drop-in centers to comfortable places for people to lay their heads at night. Some communities welcome people with AIDS or HIV. Others accept single mothers and their children or homeless men, many facing addictions or mental illness.

In Stillwater, Minn., Solanus Casey House welcomes homeless mothers and their children in two restored 19th-century houses. “It’s an utterly ordinary thing we do,” house founder Tom Loome told the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington April 18. “It is called Christianity. It is not original what we do. At least we hope it’s not original.”

Later, he told Catholic News Service that the community’s efforts are hardly social work. “Social workers are not in the business of passing out love. That’s where communities like ours come in,” Mr. Loome said.

“So many of the traditional works of mercy have been institutionalized and taken over by professionals or by the government. We don’t simply direct them to the county to stand in line and get a number. To do it personally, that’s Dorothy Day’s philosophy of personalism.”

It’s the philosophy of personalism – taking personal responsibility for someone in need – that guides each Catholic Worker community.

Joe May Sr., a Catholic Worker who helps run the Peter Maurin Center in Akron, Ohio, said being in touch directly with the people being served has its benefits. “You don’t have bureaucracy,” he said, citing his community’s focus on welcoming Hispanic mothers and their children in three houses of hospitality. “We have to find out from the people what is needed. Before we say what we’re going to do, we ask what is needed.”

Art Laffin of Dorothy Ms. Day Catholic Worker in Washington said community members not only provide hospitality, but also feel called to be witnesses of the nonviolent Christ through weekly vigils at the White House and the Pentagon. The call to resist violence and promote justice and peace is widespread throughout the movement.

“The Catholic Worker has continued because people believe that it’s an authentic expression of faithfulness and the Gospel of Jesus, who calls us to work for justice and peace, to intercede for the victims and to be their voice,” Laffin said.

Catholic Workers like Ms. Sammon say the work can be done by anyone – Christian or otherwise – who understands the call to be merciful.

“You don’t need a Catholic Worker to do what we’re doing,” Ms. Sammon said.

To commemorate the founding of the Catholic Worker Movement, Marquette University Press has published a compilation of Dorothy Day’s personal diaries from 1934 until her death in 1980. “The Duty of Delight: The Diaries of Dorothy Day” costs $42 and is available by calling: (800) 247-6553, or online at: www.marquette.edu.mupress.

Poll shows pope’s visit influenced attitudes toward church, faith

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Pope Benedict XVI’s U.S. visit impacted public attitudes toward the pope, the church and people’s willingness to live their faith more fully, according to a poll commissioned by the Knights of Columbus.

The nationwide poll of 1,013 adults was conducted by the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., April 22-24, just after the April 15-20 papal visit. Marist conducted a similar poll prior to the pope’s visit. Both polls had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

According to the newest poll, 65 percent of Americans have a more positive view of Pope Benedict as a result of what they saw and heard during his six-day visit to the United States and 52 percent have a more positive view of the Catholic Church.

The percentage of Americans with a favorable view of Pope Benedict jumped from 58 percent prior to his visit to 71 percent afterward. Similarly, the percentage of those who described the pope positively as a spiritual leader increased from 53 percent to 62 percent.

Poll results also showed that respondents have a higher opinion of the pope as a good world leader – 51 percent now, compared to 41 percent before the visit. And 56 percent of adults said his ability to promote good relations between the Catholic Church and other religions was good or excellent, up from 40 percent in the previous poll.

When asked what part of the pope’s visit was the most meaningful, 39 percent said the pope’s meeting with abuse victims. Fifteen percent were unsure; 14 percent cited the pope’s visit to ground zero and 9 percent said the Masses at baseball stadiums. The pope’s other events were cited by 7 percent or less of the respondents.

A majority of Americans, 55 percent, said the pope spent the right amount of time during his visit discussing the clergy abuse crisis and 58 percent were satisfied with his apology for the scandal. But 46 percent of respondents said the church has not done enough to avoid a recurrence of the abuse scandal.

More than a third of respondents said they are more in touch with spiritual values as the result of the pope’s visit. And nearly half of respondents said they have a better understanding of the Catholic Church’s positions on important issues.

A significant number of Americans are prepared to change their personal involvement as a result of the pope’s April visit to Washington and New York. About 40 percent said they are more likely to lead a moral life and make family a bigger part of their lives and one-third are more likely to participate in elections, community activities and their churches.

Supreme Knight Carl Anderson said the poll results “show clearly that Pope Benedict has presented the Catholics of the United States with a tremendous opportunity. Americans are a religious people, and they responded very positively to the message of faith, hope and love that the Holy Father delivered throughout his visit.”

“It is now up to all of us in the Catholic community,” he said, “to walk through the door he has opened for us and work together to build a civilization of love.”

Survey reveals confusion on resources for pregnant college students

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – According to a survey commissioned by Feminists for Life of America, U.S. college campuses frequently lack the resources for pregnant or parenting students or, if they have them, students are not always aware of their availability.

The survey, “Perception Is Reality,” stemmed from the pregnancy resource forums conducted by Feminists for Life, based in Alexandria, over the past 11 years.

Serrin Foster, president of Feminists for Life, moderated the first of these forums at Georgetown University in Washington in 1997 in order to evaluate resources on and off the campus.

“This survey confirms everything I have been told during the last decade,” said Ms. Foster. “Even when students who are not feeling the pressure of an unplanned pregnancy try to look for resources, either they can’t find them or the resources are inadequate or expensive.”

“Perception is reality,” she added, noting that a “perceived lack of resources” can drive pregnant women to have an abortion or drop out of college.

The survey released April 23 drew participants from 117 of the 400 colleges and universities nationwide with pro-life student groups. Fifty-eight percent of the schools surveyed were state schools, with an equal representation (21 percent each) of private and religious colleges.

Although some campuses offer information on pregnancy resources through posters and brochures, many of the survey respondents said they had not seen these materials. According to the study, some colleges and universities have gone a step beyond providing resources and are creating a supportive academic environment for pregnant and parenting students through flexible class scheduling.

Cayce Utley, national program director for Feminists for Life, said students’ lack of awareness of child care options, financial aid or health care availability reveals that colleges need to designate or establish a central office or staff person to guide pregnant and parenting students to the resources they need.

The pregnancy resource forums that led to this study were inspired by a board member of Feminists for Life who recounted her experience of facing an unplanned pregnancy while in college.

“Without housing, day care and maternity coverage, it doesn’t feel like you have much of a free choice,” she told other board members in 1996.

Actress Patricia Heaton, the honorary chairwoman of Feminists for Life, praised the group’s focus on college campuses and its willingness to “work with people on both sides of the abortion debate.”

“It is my hope that the results of this study will encourage more people to take up this mission and move it forward,” she said in a statement.

Pope meets Cuban bishops, praises church’s work despite ‘limitations’

VATICAN CITY – The many “difficulties and limitations” placed on the Catholic Church in Cuba have not stopped it from growing and from reaching out to help the poor and the sick, Pope Benedict XVI said.

“Continue carrying out a bold and generous effort of evangelization which will bring the light of Christ to all spheres and places,” the pope told the bishops of Cuba May 2 at the end of their “ad limina” visits, in which they reported on the status of their dioceses.

“At this moment in history, the church in your country is called to offer the entire Cuban society the one true hope: Christ Our Lord, victor over sin and death. This is the force that has kept Cuban believers firmly on the path of faith and love,” the pope said.

Archbishop Juan Garcia Rodriguez of Camaguey, president of the Cuban bishops’ conference, told the pope, “At this moment in Cuba there is talk of changes which the people and the church greet with hope.”

“We ask the Virgin of Charity that these changes would make Cuba a more fraternal and peaceful land, guided by the principles of the common good, subsidiarity, participation and solidarity and by the fundamental values of truth, charity, justice and freedom,” he said.

Raul Castro succeeded his brother, Fidel, as president of Cuba in February. During nearly 50 years of rule by Fidel Castro, his government began institutionally dismantling the church, nationalizing Catholic schools and expelling priests. Church activity was restricted, church programs were monitored, and Cubans were discouraged from attending worship services, with churchgoers discriminated against when seeking state and university employment. Some of those restrictions lessened toward the end of Fidel Castro’s rule, although a U.S. embargo against Cuba remains in effect.

Archbishop Garcia also asked Pope Benedict to visit Cuba in 2012 to help celebrate the 400th anniversary of Cuban devotion to Our Lady of Charity. Tradition holds that a 15-inch statue of Mary identified as Our Lady of Charity was found in 1612 in the Bay of Nipe; the statue is now at a popular shrine in El Cobre.

“What great joy it would be for Cuba to be able to count on the presence of the successor of Peter for the great celebration of the jubilee year,” he said. “The people desire this, ask for this, beg this of the universal pastor, the father of all Catholics.”

Pope Benedict did not respond publicly to the invitation, but he praised the Cuban church for its fidelity, its unity and its commitment to social service.

He asked the Cuban bishops to dedicate their best human and financial resources to the training of priests and asked them to make marriage and family life and the education of the laity their pastoral priorities.

“A committed laity, conscious of their vocation and mission in the church and in the world,” can be formed only if they have help in learning to pray, understanding the basics of Christian faith and embracing the social teaching of the church, the pope said.

Pope Benedict said he supported the Cuban bishops’ efforts to secure a voice in the world of the media, and he expressed particular concern for families torn apart by divorce or by migration.

In an interview with the Vatican newspaper, Archbishop Garcia said, “Despite many years of silence about God, in Cuba there is a growing religious thirst and an ever- increasing devotion, especially to Our Lady of Charity, the patron of the country.”

He told L’Osservatore Romano that a new wave of evangelization has begun among Cuba’s children and “now they are evangelizing their parents and grandparents.”

Groups of teens and young adults, he said in the interview published May 1, are “living the commandments and the beatitudes despite being mocked and marginalized.”

Archbishop Garcia said the Cuban bishops wanted to explain to Pope Benedict “our healthy pride in the people who have remained faithful to Christ and his church throughout the long years in which they were criticized” for believing.

“The Cuban church is a small and fragile flock. But at the same time, it is faithful, open, serving, joyful and happy to live its faith and proclaim it,” the archbishop said.

“In our churches, you find Catholics and potential Catholics, people who follow popular religions and syncretistic believers, as well as diverse political opinions,” he said. “The church welcomes them as a mother and guides them on the path toward Jesus Christ, prince of peace and teacher of truth.”

Archbishop Garcia said the Catholic Church in Cuba suffers from a serious lack of priests; the nation has about 11 million residents, but only about 340 priests. “It is clear that the harvest is plenty but the laborers are few,” he said. “Yet the thirst for God continues to grow.”

Archbishop Garcia also said that since the late 1980s, when the government began allowing Catholic pastoral workers to visit prisoners, the church’s prison ministry has grown enormously.

He said he continues to hope that the government will approve the church’s request to be allowed to celebrate Mass in the prisons for Christmas, Holy Week and during the novena of preparation for the feast of Our Lady of Charity.