IT IS A BIG CHURCH

The German bishops last week elected as President of the German bishops' conference a bishop with strong progressive credentials, who has argued that priestly celibacy should be optional and has a strong record of ecumenical involvement.

Archbishop Robert Zollitsch's election runs counter to the conservative trends that have emerged from the Vatican, and is perceived as particularly significant because it is a powerful indicator of the mood among bishops in the homeland of Pope Benedict XVI. It is quite in contrast to the bishops here in the United States.

Archbishop Zollitsch sees himself as a bridge-builder who would rather tackle problems head on or discuss them openly than brush them under the carpet. We are missing that type of bishop here.

He is greatly concerned about the shortage of vocations. His views as far as priestly celibacy is concerned are progressive. While celibacy can be advantageous for a priest's work, he says, theologically it is not mandatory and he himself would prefer to see it made optional.

Archbishop Zollitsch will probably also be prepared to discuss reform of episcopal nomination procedures which have become increasingly undemocratic. This is an urgent need here in the United States and in particular in Minnesota.

He is very keen on mountaineering, saying that he loves to clear his head in the mountain air.

BREAKING NEWS FROM NICARAGUA

Members of our sister parish have completed their work in Jinotega and have returned home. The Nicaraguan newspaper, La Prensa, had a lovely feature article about the special relationship that we have had now for 21 years with the people of Jinotega. If you know Spanish you can search for the article in The original Spanish article is at: http://www.laprensa.com.ni/.  Here is a quote from Padre Eliar who is pastor of our sister parish, Our Lady of the Angels: "Working through the twinning is socially and spiritually (enriching)... (and is of) invaluable assistance that has brought us great benefits and the important thing is that this aid is coming to...to the people who need it most." We will get the translated article onto our website.

NEWS FROM NICARAGUA

Seven parishioners are at our sister parish in Jinotega this week. I just got an update from Sue Kellett who emails: "Whew!!  We’ve been on the run and so busy I haven't had time to write— even the internet is 1 block away. This will be fast!!"

One of the special new projects is to get special nutritional food packets from the group Feed My Starving Children which is based in the Twin Cities. Our parish arranged for a full shipping container to be delivered. The group first went to Managua to unload the container box.

"The container came Wednesday!!!!!!!!!!!  We unloaded 1250 cases of food weighing 25 lb. each. It seemed that we would never get done but then Fatima (a friend from Jinotega) went scouring the streets and offered some men $2.50 each to work for 3 hours.  They were hard workers and delighted!!!"

"...Saturday we hit the ground running and went to see the stove. (Our parish is supporting a project to produce locally an energy efficient and smoke free cooking stove.) We had may tearful moments with Elena as she told us some of the worrysome times of her life.  We all had tears in our eyes. The group was impressed I think with the stove and its impact on possibilities for the future.

"We ...then went out with Vilma to the POOREST neighborhoods to see where the Feed My Starving Children food goes.  I wish I had words to describe some of the conditions we witnessed and how grateful the recipients were for the help of the food.  The prices of everything here have doubled and tripled so it is more difficult than ever for the poorest of the poor."

What a powerful reminder this Lent of what the prophet proclaims, the sacrifice that God wants is to do justice for those most in need.

ASH WEDNESDAY FROM ASHES TO ASHES

There are still occasional questions about cremation and the Church. This Ash Wednesday it seems appropriate to note that Catholics who choose to have their ashes scattered after being cremated are entitled to a Christian funeral.

The Vatican on January 10 clarified this following the refusal of a parish priest in the Italian Alps to hold a funeral for a local man who had asked to have his remains spread in the mountains. The local pastor told the man's widow that a religious funeral was impossible because it was against the dogma of the resurrection of the body.

He said that scattering ashes in the countryside or at sea was a "pantheistic communion with nature in death, which is not part of our religion" - a belief held by many priests. Bishop Luciano Pacomio, head of doctrine at the Italian Bishops Conference, stated, however, that this reflected an out-of-date mentality.

Father Silvano Sirboni, a noted liturgist, said that although the Church preferred burial, cremation was acceptable in certain circumstances. Writing in the Italian Catholic daily Avvenire he pointed out that the Italian bishops had issued new funeral rites in November which, for the first time, included specific prayers in the presence of ashes rather than a body, and even prayers to be read at a crematorium.

It stated, "Church funerals will be celebrated for all the faithful, including those who have chosen the scattering of their ashes, as long as the choice was not made for reasons contrary to the Christian faith."

Cremation was forbidden in the Church for centuries because of the belief that the body is "the temple of the Holy Spirit" and that Christians will be bodily resurrected.

The Second Vatican Council in the 1960s lifted the ban, provided the body was present during the funeral and cremated afterwards. Church rules were relaxed further in 1997 when the Vatican agreed that cremated remains could be brought into church for the liturgical rites of burial. This practice has actually been common in the United States for some years.

Father Sirboni said cremation was an ancient practice around the world but Christians had wished traditionally to be buried in the ground "as Jesus  was". Cremation was introduced in Italy under Napoleonic rule "for hygienic reasons" but opposed by the Pope. Consequently, it had come to be viewed as a sign of secular revolt against the Church, he said.

BICENTENNIAL BIRTHDAYS

A year from this Tuesday is the 200th anniversary of both Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin. They share the same day of birth, February 12, 1809. In many ways their lives could not be more different. Darwin was born into the gentry class of England, received a University education at Cambridge and went on to become a great scientist. Lincoln, of course, was born in a log cabin on the American frontier, had little formal education, and spent his life in law and politics. One great theme unites them, change and development. Darwin in his great around the world trip saw that change was the one constant in the natural world. Lincoln struggled along with our country over the necessity for and reality of change in the political world and society. Both were open to change, evolving change, and transformed the world around them.

HAVEN'T I SEEN YOU BEFORE?

At our last group baptism, we had only 2 families and they had similar situations. Both babies were born in the fall of 2008 and each family had another child baptized here at St. Edwards in August of 2007. The gowns were both beautiful long gowns handed down in their families. The day after the baptisms, one of the moms contacted Judy Foster, who directs our baptismal program, and asked about an item left behind. She added, "I have another question, the other family looked very familiar; I think that we baptized our 1st child the same day as they did a year ago, is that true?" After Judy checked the records, she discovered that they were both baptized on the same day in August, 2007 and they were also the only 2 families baptizing at that group baptism!

Baptism is indeed the entryway into the church, but also the entry point into a community. As these 2 families share the sacraments, so they will journey together though their 1st Eucharist and Reconciliation, Family Formation, Middle Grades FF and Confirmation with youth ministries. They will probably also attend the same school in Bloomington.

Welcome both to the "family of God!"

CATHOLIC SERVICES APPEAL

Over the next week or so, you will receive a letter from Archbishop Nienstedt asking for your support for the Catholic Services Appeal. This is the new name for what was known previously as the Annual Catholic Appeal. The new name better reflects the campaign's true purpose of funding more than 20 ministries in the Archdiocese. Among these are prison and hospital chaplains, the seminaries, campus ministries, the Venezuelan Mission, Catholic education and schools, and much more. Our parish receives back 25% of what you give which is a great help to us. Thank you for your support.

MONASTIC REST FOR THE SOUL

Last Sunday the Travel section of the Star Tribune newspaper had a lovely story about Richard and Laura Sennott, a couple finding serenity and solace in Italy's monastic hostels.

By RICHARD SENNOTT, Star Tribune
Last update: January 26, 2008 - 7:49 AM

The room was clean and simple. White-washed stone walls enclosed the essential wooden furniture: a chair, a writing desk, two single beds and a dresser.

The view out the window was another matter. My wife, Laura, and I had a room in the Instituto San Lodovico, a convent in the hill-fortress town of Orvieto in central Italy. Its outer wall was part of the ancient fortifications, hundreds of feet above the valley that was lush with May's greening. The Umbrian countryside -- olive groves, pastures, symmetrical rows of Cyprus trees - rolled away to the horizon.

That we found this room seemed something of a gift. We had arrived by train from Rome in the afternoon, my wife pulling her roller bag behind her and me toting a backpack. We'd had no reservations. The first religious hostel we stopped into seemed too big, too institutional. San Lodovico -- smaller, older, more intimate -- was just right. It became our comfortable and comforting home for five days.

We were in Italy on a three-week trip that was a tribute and a memorial to our daughter, Meghan, who died in a bus crash in Peru in May 2006. She was a perpetual adventurer, a fearless and joyful spirit, and she loved Italy. To honor her memory, we knew we had to be on the move; it's the way she would
have wanted it.

But we also wanted some peace, some quiet, and some room to think. We found all of these things staying at three religious hostels as we traveled across Italy.

Monastic accommodations are an ancient tradition among many Christian orders; hospitality toward strangers is written into the gospels, and many orders have made it a part of their practice. In today's Italy, it's also a way to bring in some extra money and to make use of empty chambers -- there aren't as many monks or nuns as there used to be.