Book review: Unseen Hand by Adam Zagajewski

The heir apparent of modern Polish poetry, especially since the death of Nobel laureate Wisława Szymborska Feb. 1, Adam Zagajewski, born in Lvov in 1945, needs no introduction for Polish readers. Anglophone readers will perhaps know him best – if they know him at all – from his poem “Try to Praise the Mutilated World,” which appeared in the first issue of The New Yorker to be published after 9/11.

Zagajewski is that rare poet who seems to have sprouted fully formed from the forehead of the Muse. Even his earliest work from the 1970s has the earmarks of a master. And luckily for Anglophone readers, translator Clare Cavanagh seems to have sprouted fully formed from the forehead of Adam Zagajewski.

It doesn’t happen often that a poet has a single translator for numerous books. Indeed, great poets like Rainer Maria Rilke and Pablo Neruda have dozens of versions of their poems floating in the English-language ether, sometimes with shockingly different interpretations of lines, phrases and titles.

Cavanagh, professor of Slavic languages and literature at Northwestern University, has translated numerous books of Zagajewski’s prose and poetry, as well as those of other juggernauts of Polish poetry, including Szymborska. Cavanagh’s renditions of Zagajewski’s work manage a difficult feat: language that is at once rock-solid yet sparkling with a lyric insight; traits that are even more poignant in his latest collection, Unseen Hand.

Originally published in Polish in 2009, Unseen Hand shows the poet in a more mature state of mind than much of his earlier work, less of a political reactionary and more a settled poet musing on deep matters of the mind and heart. The driving force of many of Zagajewski’s earlier poems was a yearning to return to a place – physical or mental – that no longer exists, especially his hometown of Lvov, which changed hands several times over the course of the 20th century and is now part of Ukraine. This desire was most clearly expressed in one of Zagajewski’s most-anthologized early poems, “To Go to Lvov.”

But in Unseen Hand, the poet’s desires have ripened. Consider the poem “Not Thinking about Aesthetics,” in which Zagajewski writes about his father’s reaction to the aforementioned poem about his hometown:

“When, in the ’80s, my father copied out/ my poem ‘To Go to Lvov’ for friends/ […] I doubt he was thinking about aesthetics,/ […] only about the city he’d loved and lost[…]“

Zagajewski’s father appears in no fewer than five poems in this collection, many of which deal with his old age and gradual loss of memory. Indeed, the father is a touchstone figure in this book, offering a reflection of what has been and what is to come.

The dominant voice of these poems, then, is one of acceptance and of having arrived in a place beyond the frenzied longings of youth, a contemplative place where one can begin to search for and see the “unseen hand” that guides all of us.

One of the most striking poems in the book, “First Communion,” which is set on Piramowicz Street in Gliwice, Poland, shows an ability Zagajewski has honed with age: to write on several conceptual levels at once, matching the history of his own life with the social history of the world around him and showing how both narratives interconnect. The poem begins with a description of the setting: “Dark gray houses and triangular bay windows,/ near a little park with German statues/ (pseudo-baroque from the thirties).”

In this third line, the personal narrative connects with a larger sense of the aesthetic changes Poland has undergone since the narrator’s youth. This thread will be followed throughout the poem, which describes a portrait that was taken of the narrator and his young comrades following their first communion. “I’m a beginning Catholic,” Zagajewski writes, “who struggles to tell good from evil,/ but doesn’t know what divides them.”

What follows is a detailed description of the setting of this black-and-white photo in which “the poplar leaves in the garden are black,/ the light is black […] only the sheet is white.” And here the description of this antique photograph takes on a deeper level of meaning, as the child is only beginning to learn that not all life is black and white, so to speak, and that good and evil are not always divisible.

In the poem’s masterful conclusion, Zagajewski writes, “Color photos will come later/ to mute the contrasts and perhaps permit/ an ordinary life, splendid holidays,/ even a second communion.” What began as a simple description of a childhood photo becomes a moment of existential reckoning that could not take place without the knowledge of all that would come – both personally and socially – after the events depicted in the poem.

Despite the developments age and experience have brought to Zagajewski’s poetry, the essential elements of his work remain the same, as do Zagajewski’s favorite words: joy, praise, nettles, exile – all can be found on the pages of Unseen Hand. But here, Zagajewski’s approach to these themes is more subtle than in earlier collections.

Where Zagajewski once commanded his readers to “Try to Praise the Mutilated World,” or “Don’t Allow the Lucid Moment to Dissolve,” in Unseen Hand he is more content to revel in the gray area where the mind grows perplexed. In this regard, “January 27″ is an example of one of Zagajewski’s richest traits as a poet: the ability to find unlikely parallels and poignant juxtapositions where most would not see them, while showing off a newfound comfort in uncertainty.

In “January 27,” Zagajewski focuses on the date of both Mozart’s birth and Holocaust Memorial Day, causing the narrator and his family to be unsure whether “to celebrate or mourn.”

“Our memory was perplexed./ Our imagination lost its way./ The candle on the windowsill wept […] but the gentle music of young Mozart/ reached us from the speakers…”

The poem continues in this manner, balanced between mourning for the victims of the Holocaust and joy in the sublime music of the Austrian master, until, in the final couplet, Zagajewski writes, “Our memory was perplexed,/ our imagination grew lost in thought.”

This is, in a way, classic Zagajewski: the strong, declarative lines that could also function as complete sentences. What is new and seems a development in this poem and throughout Unseen Hand is the poet’s willingness to dwell within a moment of confusion.

Zagajewski is a master. Unseen Hand offers evidence of a deepening of his already-impressive gifts and a welcomed ability to live in moments of uncertainty. Let us hope his poems will continue to guide readers through their own moments of uncertainty for many books to come. 

Stephan Delbos can be reached at
sdelbos@praguepost.com

Your Students, Your Schools — Des Moines west

WEST-SIDE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

Edmunds

Spring Family Night was Feb. 2 at the Science Center of Iowa. More than 100 students, staff and family members attended and participated in the many interesting and creative hands-on learning activities. A favorite was the impromptu competition between those creating their own paper rockets.

Greenwood

In social studies third-grade students studied explorers and completed explorer reports. The students learned about the impact of exploration on the Native Americans.

Kindergartners went on a field trip to the Des Moines Civic Center to see “Clifford Live!” to end an author study unit about Norman Bridwell, who is the author of the Clifford the Big Red Dog series. The classes worked on math and literacy activities with a Clifford theme. After the performance the students enjoyed a visit from a service dog and its owner/trainer.

Students in the GT program participated in a thermal energy workshop. This presentation was facilitated by students from Iowa State University. Students learned what thermal energy is, the elements of fire were discussed, and students participated in experiments involving candles and the release of gases.

Hanawalt

Fourth-grade science students have been learning about our earth in the geology unit and working on special projects in the human body unit. They had guest presenters from Polk County Conservation to enhance their study of rocks and minerals. They are preparing for the Hanawalt Science Fair March 6.

Hubbell

Music students in fifth grades composed and performed music to go with the Preamble to the United States Constitution and the Declaration of Rights.

Conferences were held Feb. 15, 21 and 23. They shared the student IB portfolios and PTA sponsored a Book Fair in the school library.

Fourth- and fifth-graders took part in the 30th annual Hubbell Jump Rope for Heart. They raised money for the American Heart Association, jumped rope in the Hubbell gym and then swam as a cool down time in the Roosevelt High School pool.

Monroe

VIP Day will be March 14 from 10:45 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. Students will invite a Very Important Person — parents, grandparents, aunts/uncles — to visit and participate in literacy and math activities as well as eat lunch with their child. If the VIP’s plan to eat lunch at Monroe on this day, they will need to fill out a form and pay for their lunch ahead of time so enough food is prepared for all students and friends.

Moulton

Three teachers finished taking Gardening 101. As one of the projects, they made a Red Wiggler worm compost for their classrooms. Students will feed and water the compost so that the worms produce castings, good compost for our school garden. The staff is in the process of getting the Moulton Garden back up and running, but in order to make it successful, we are in need of assistance from fellow parents, past students parents and community members. If you or someone you know loves to garden, wants to help out for a day, or just be part of the Moulton Garden Committee, contact Susan Rushing at 242-8427 or email susan.rushing @dmschools.org

Perkins

Fifth-graders had a Mardi Gras-themed dance Feb. 24 to celebrate hard work and excellent character. Many students made Mardi Gras masks in the traditional colors of purple, green and gold.

MIDDLE SCHOOLS

Brody

In language arts class, students investigated three career choices of interest to them. They explained why they were interested in these careers, then shared to the class their essays on their career interests. They identified what education was needed to do the jobs they were interested in. Some student choices included helping the environment, owning a store, working with animals, or being a police officer, a car mechanic, a truck driver, nurse, or a teacher.

Students who earned Brody Pride Awards (no grades lower than a C on their semester report card along with no office referrals first semester) had celebrations Feb. 28 through March 1. More than 400 students qualified for the breakfast celebration, a Pride T-shirt and Cardinal pin and certificate. The business partner Davis, Brown Law Firm and PTO supported the student ceremony.

Seventh-grade reading students have read more than 50,000 pages of independent reading books this year. Celebrations occur at the end of each month with students receiving prizes for how many books they have read.

Students are taking web-based quizzes and completing an online Scavenger Hunts to learn important Internet safety and cyber citizenship concepts in one class. They will be competing alongside 10,000 other students for a National Trophy, which is awarded to those schools with the highest scoring students on the USA-SOS Post Quiz. Several Brody students also competed in this challenge first semester. Kyra Lorimar, a sixth-grader, led with the high score on the post test.

Callanan

American Enterprise sponsored a performance of “Diavolo” at the Civic Center for all the students.

HIGH SCHOOLS

On Feb. 18 the Real World Design Challenge team of Amra Softic, Chris Markle and Thayne Henderson presented their final project at the state competition. The presentation highlighted their experiences with engineering a sport light aircraft (airplane) over the last five months. The panel of judges composed of engineers from the state of Iowa judged the students on their innovations, engineering work book, and the presentation of their final product. Hoover was runner-up in the competition. Because of their hard work, dedication, and presentation, the winner of the project has invited the Hoover team to join them in the national competition in Washington, D.C. The Hoover team will now spend the next two months working with the Davenport team to prepare for a presentation and compete against teams from all over the United States.

Juniors and seniors in government classes are taking on the role of Congress this week. They are assigned to committees, parties and House districts, which they have to research in order to write a bill. The bills are brought to committee, where they are debated, amended, and voted on. The lucky bills will then be debated and voted on in a full House session with the entire class, and if they pass, they are sent on to President Moritz (social studies SIL) for signature or veto with questions and comments.

North

The Academic Decathlon team won the regional Academic Decathlon competition. The team won the Super Quiz Oral section of the competition as well as 35 individual awards. They will compete at the state competition in March. Team members are Julius Tembe, Brian Schulze, Cody McKeehan, Sasha Phillips, Mariama Corneh, Melanie Buck, Brennan Whisler, Shad Corbin, Clark Reimers, Jerson Valenzuela, Katie Ashley, Trista Behrendsen, Kelsey Barbour, Victoria Wilson, Kayla McKeehan, Charles Overton, Jessica Jense and Ria Gasaway.

Band and Jazz Band students brought back the first-place trophy in their division from the Perry Band Olympics on Feb. 18.

The North High Special Olympics basketball team played at regionals on Feb. 11. The boys won both their regional games and will go to state in Iowa City on March 10.

Megan Sims qualified for state bowling Feb. 24 at Plaza Lanes.

Seniors Jack Bequeaith, Corey Grief, Andrea Harlan, Matthew Mackay, Megan Mansfield, Sarah Mansfield, Kathryn Marcus, and China Mauck are candidates for the 2012 Presidential Scholars program. They were chosen based either on their ACT Assessment scores or the College Board SAT, or a nomination by the Chief State School Officer.

Finalists in the competition for National Merit Scholarships are Jack Bequeaith, Kayleigh Courard-Hauri, Zoe Eagle, Rachel Jacobs, Margaret Long, Matthew Mackay, Stephanie Manivanh, Megan Mansfield, Sarah Mansfield, China Mauck and Danielle Ward. The final selection of some 8,400 Merit Scholarships from the group of more than 15,000 finalists is now in progress. In March, NMSC will begin mailing scholarship offers to the winners at their home address and confidential notices to their high school principals. Roosevelt’s finalists will receive their Certificate of Merit at the Senior Awards Ceremony in May.

Speech and debate students competed in two Ivy League tournaments over President’s Day weekend. Senior Becky Hall and junior Carolyn Evans competed in the University of Pennsylvania Public Forum Round Robin tournament before the regular high school tournament. The pair advanced into elimination rounds before being defeated in the round of 16. Sophomore Lily Nellans took fourth place at the Harvard Extemp tournament the same weekend. She became the third final round competitor at Harvard in the past six seasons for Roosevelt. Senior Kayleigh Courard-Hauri and junior Nathan Leys competed in the Harvard Public Forum round robin tournament prior to the regular PF tournament. They finished third in the special invitational and Courard-Hauri was recognized as the second best speaker. In the regular tournament, the Roosevelt team was top seed entering the elimination rounds before losing to Ridge (NJ). Courard-Hauri was sixth best speaker in the field. The Roosevelt team will compete in the All Iowa Finals at the University of Iowa the first weekend in March.

Roosevelt hosted a special recognition assembly Tuesday morning February 21 to honor senior John Meeks. Meeks finished his high school career as a four-time state champion in wrestling and a career record of 168 victories and zero losses.

CITYWIDE SCHOOLS

Cowles

Four students who participated in the district science fair Feb. 16 at the Science Center of Iowa qualified to go on to the state science fair March 30 and 31 at Hilton Coliseum in Ames. Anson Tonelli, Lorenzo Zenitsky, eighth-grade life science: Jade Miller, seventh-grade life science; Elisabeth Bennink, sixth-grade life science.

Downtown

The five- to seven-year-olds shared project topics. Jennifer Jones and Michelle Ludwig’s students studied restaurants. and visited Fong’s Pizza, Gusto Pizza, the Central Campus Kitchen and the Des Moines Public Schools Central Nutrition Center. Final project events were Feb. 24.

Barbara Leise and Jeffery Kerns’ students are also studying restaurants. They visited Americana, Mi Patria, the Central Campus kitchen and the Des Moines Public Schools Central Nutrition Center. The students will finish their project this month.

Christine Mathews and Anne Booth’s students are studying plants. They learned from Brad Mann, owner of Safe Earth Landscaping, and the Central Campus horticulture students. Their unit wraps up this month.

Phillips

Fifth-grade students Mary Kate Walling, Matthew Scott, Mayson Williams, Ashley Herman and Tyler Woodyard are working with fourth-grade teacher Wyatt Pugh to develop a variety show to present next week at our Positive Behavior Supports after-school rewards assembly. All students without detentions or buddy rooms during the second trimester will be invited to attend to watch Mr. Pugh’s group put on a show full of laughs and fun.

Smouse

In Sara Gray’s third- and fourth-grade class, students are learning about kinds of communities. They have identified their own communities as well as communities all around the world. Students are reading about places in Africa and learning about their culture. They have also learned about a community in China and have practiced writing Chinese symbols for commonly used words.

Feb. 20 was a day of learning for teachers, who spent the morning in a session learning how to use iPads more effectively in the classrooms. The afternoon sessions offered Strive teachers the opportunity to learn more about integrating “Words Their Way” into the literacy curriculum while the Directions teachers learned about using discrete trial and graphic organizers with students. It was an impressive day with teachers highly engaged in learning strategies that they can apply in their classrooms. Chris Harmeyer-Logsdon, Amy Wiegmann, Annie Novak and Jenn Brindle-Rothman presented the sessions.

Walnut Street

The annual Real World Challenge fundraiser continues through March 27, spearheaded by the PTO. Money received from student pledges will be used to purchase items explicitly requested by classroom and support teachers forcurriculum and related arts needs.

Central Campus

Students David Ortiz, Osha Whitaker, Augustine Villa, Victor Patino, Ted Appel and Reid Wade attended the Capitol of Iowa Legislative Day for Project Lead the Way with their teacher Dan Hoyt on Feb. 14. They presented their work to Gov. Terry Branstad, Senate Majority Leader Michael Gronstal and Sen. Dick Dearden, to name just a few. The new PLTW President, Dr. Bertram, was also in attendance.

Students in the broadcasting and film program were recognized by the Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence for their recent contributions to “Dating Violence Awareness Month.” Participants created public service announcements that acknowledged everyone’s right to be in a safe relationship. After exploring the attributes of a healthy relationship, the students began production on their contest entries. Receiving third place was Alex Garrett (Hoover) with her radio piece that centered around harassing voicemails. Second place was awarded to Lexi Ridout and Connor Bredbeck (Roosevelt) for their radio spot on manipulative texting, and first place went to Aaron Hosman (East) for his stop-animation video about keeping a relationship honest and healthy. The spots will run online and appear on local media outlets. You can also listen to broadcasting students live on weekdays at KDPS 88.1FM or simply search for KDPS on the Internet at www.live365.com.

Orchard Place

At Orchard Place School, students in in Meredith Nelson’s art classes are working on masks. They viewed a variety of masks from the district’s Mae Bean collection to begin this project. Students then used visual thinking strategies to observe the differences and strengths of the various masks, and to speculate on the artists’ purposes. They sketched designs for masks of their own, focusing on decorative elements rather than realistic and/or functional elements. Each student learned how to make a slab construction as the foundation for his or her mask, and then used additive and subtractive techniques for details. After the masks were bisque fired, students experimented with glazing. They then shared their work in large group critiques, where they provided feedback to their peers and commented on the creative processes that were used. The project was adapted in grades 5-12.

Ruby Van Meter

Lisa Hattel, Angela Phillips and Shelley Nail brought their classrooms together to teach science. These classrooms used the Foss Science Kit: pebbles, sand and silt. Students were given the opportunity to observe similarities and differences in the materials in a river rock mixture: silt, sand, gravel, and small and large pebbles. Students explored to find places where earth materials were found and ways they are used.

The Robyn Bak classroom students studied volcanoes. Several science activities have included: labeling a volcano diagram, locating and discussing volcanoes in the U.S. and around the world, Listening to Johnny Cash’s hit song “Ring of Fire” and identifying the volcanic “ring of volcanoes” in the Pacific Ocean, and made a large volcano room model complete with an in-class eruption. Literacy and social studies have included: Reading short stories, current events, and articles with comprehension questions and discussion. Students enjoyed learning about Lewis and Clark and their exploration of the prairie, native plants, introduction to native Americans, and animals in the new land. A special area of interest was learning about the largest animal in North America, the bison. In the fall the Bak class traveled to the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge and were introduced to Iowa history, the restored prairie, and bison who reside at the Prairie City, Iowa refuge. At school students continued instruction learning that bison run up to 35 mph, live in family herds and are very agile. All class members sampled bison sticks and felt soft bison hair. Another major component of the transition unit is the work program. Three students work at non-paid community work sites in the afternoon. Jenny Long works at the Science Center twice a week. Jash Hare and Steven Strennen work four times a week at the Drake Hubbell kitchen. Remaining students work in-building learning work tasks and work related social skills and employability skills. Students assist with shopping at the Dahl’s store on Ingersoll each week. They purchase groceries that are used in cooking classes during the week. Departments, items, and prices are located at the store. Students learn to compare prices and increase numerous shopping skills.

Scavo Campus

On Feb. 23 Suzet Nelson hosted a screening of “American Meat” at Scavo. The director, Graham Meriwether was here as well as a panel of experts in the field of food and sustainable agriculture. A few things that were covered in the panel discussion included; What is organic farming? What is commodity agriculture? Key uses of fossil fuel in ag production. World population and its affect on agriculture. Students had a study guide prior to the screening. The health and community-based learning classes participated, along with a handful of other interested staff and students. This movie is a wonderful movie about food because it is unbiased and kind.

The math department is incorporating several hands-on activities to allow students to become actively involved in their learning. The geometry classes are currently working on an activity that relates scale factors to volume and surface area. The students are making great discoveries. For the new geometry students we will be starting a construction unit. Students will be introduced to the MIRA to make geometric constructions. The math lab will be using the MIRA to investigate symmetry and reflections.

PRIVATE SCHOOLS

Des Moines Christian

On Feb. 18, the high school show choir, Light, Inc., under the direction of Sarah Selby, placed second in the 2-A division at the Indianola Show Choir Competition.

At the Indianola Jazz Festival on Feb. 18, the Junior High jazz band, under the direction of Chad Parker, placed third out of eight bands. Outstanding soloist awards for the band’s performance were given to Caroline Jones on trumpet and Stella Veldkamp on flute. The High School jazz band placed third out of seven bands. Outstanding soloists for the band’s performance were Noah Nichols on bass, Eric Larson on trumpet, and Mae Dunker on alto saxophone.

On March 3, the Des Moines Christian Jazz Band will compete at the Hooverfest competition.

Des Moines Christian will host the West Central Valley Conference Academic Bowl on March 6.

Elementary principal Jerry Clutts will speak to students during the Elementary Chapel on March 7. March’s Great Relationship Experience key to godly relationships is boundaries. The character challenge is fear.

On March 7, junior high and high school students will meet for secondary chapel. The theme is worldview.

The second-grade classes of Lori Manderfield, Amy McGowan, and Sharon Zonnefeld will perform for parents after school at the second-grade music Informance on March 8.

The spring comedy “Mission: Possible!” will be at 7 p.m. on March 8-9, and at 2 p.m. and at 7 p.m. on March 10. Scientist Dr. Schlock has discovered the secret of telephonetics, the power to control over the telephone. He and his daughter are kidnapped by the villain Silverthumb, who wants to use the power to control the world. Maxwell Sharp, Agent 98.6, James Blond and others are called in to prevent Silverthumb’s devious plot. Performances will be at Jordan Hall at the Jordan Park Camp, 2251 Fuller Road, West Des Moines. Advance tickets are available from the secondary office or at the door before each show. Adult tickets are $8, senior citizens are $6, and students are $5.

Dowling Catholic

Congratulations to Tom Bowman, one of 15 students statewide named to the Director of Education’s Learning Council. Tom will attend meetings with Director Glass to offer advice from a student perspective on the reform measures for Iowa schools being considered.

The Terra Livre mission group honored Brazilian children who love Carnival by selling root beer floats after school in honor of Mardi Gras. The mission group will go to Brazil over spring break. All proceeds went to the Terra Livre Educational Center.

Dowling Catholic’s Legion of our Lady club recently held a movie night for its members.

The senior class recently enjoyed the “senior ski trip” at Mount Kato ski area in Mankato, Minn.

Congratulations to Dowling Catholic’s winter formal king and queen, Brody Adams and Achok Akuar. The Dowling Catholic winter formal king candidates were Michael Price, Sam Illg, Brody Adams, Nathan Beacom, Jacob Bonnstetter and Patrick Kinley. Queen candidates were Kayla Volkmer, Kersten Tipping, Hannah Vestal, Achok Akuar, Allie Mason and Anna Price.

Congratulations to the 11 Dowling Catholic students who qualified recently for the National Forensic League National and Debate Tournament to be held in Indianapolis this June. In policy debate, the teams of Jospeh Nelson and Sean Duff and Simon Sheaff and Jon Langel. In duo interp, the teams of Sam Kouri and Henry Long and Adrienne Pyle and Lauren Pyle. In original oratory, Kylie Caliguiri; in humorous interp, Ryan Steel; and dramatic interp, Kristina Maude.

Holy Trinity

In PE, preschool through first grade students are doing eye-hand coordination activities with beanbags and balls. Warm-ups have included heart healthy activities. Concepts of good sportsmanship, honesty, respect and sharing come up constantly, and makes for good discussion. The second- through fifth-grade students are working on ball and basketball games; warm-ups have worked on cardiovascular and muscle strength. Middle school students are monitoring their heart rates during warm-ups. Some classes have used pedometers. Sixth-grade students worked on jump rope routines. Sixth- through eighth-grade students participated in a basketball unit with tournaments. The middle school is currently playing badminton games.

During March, eighth-grade students will do a unit from Project Alert in guidance. The substance abuse prevention curriculum helps students identify internal and external pressures and resist influences. Students will learn the consequences of substance abuse and how it could affect their health, relationships, goals and career paths.

Kudos and good luck to band students participating in the SCIBA Solo and Ensemble event at Norwalk on March 3. March is Music in Our Schools Month and Holy Trinity has many events planned to celebrate.

Sixth grade is starting to learn Pachelbel’s “Canon in Don” on xylophones. Seventh grade will compose African drumming pieces. Eighth grade is creating listening maps and guides for Saint-Saen’s “Carnival of the Animals” to share with their kindergarten partners. Auditions have begun for our spring musical, “State Fair.” On March 6, selected students will attend the South Central Iowa Honor Choir at Dallas Center-Grimes High School. Congratulations to Charlie Cacciatore, Sophia Colosimo, Carley Farnsworth, Andrew Jones, Juliette Kennedy, Victoria Monson, Stephen Renze, Emily Salyer, Colette Sheaff, Elliot Sheaff, Maddy Sheets, and Jenni Vedane for being selected for the mixed voices choir. Congratulations also to Brittany Altman, Marie Anderson, Katie Coleman, CeCe Cook, Anne Gradoville, Sadie Lage, Hope Saluri, Caitlin Tipping, Rachel Wade, and Zoey Wagner for being selected to sing with the treble voices choir. The choir will also attend a show choir workshop with Dowling’s Dimensions Show Choir on March 14.

Seventh-grade art has been integrated with music for a unit on drumming. In art, the students created a papier maché drum and painted it in African patterns and colors.

Eighth-grade art is integrating music and language arts for a unit on shadow puppets that includes “Carnival of the Animals” and will present a puppet show for their kindergarten partners. Kindergarten will be drawing their ideas about “Carnival of the Animals” while listening to the music.

Fifth grade is working on an oil pastel composition in the style of Wassily Kandinsky.

St. Augustin

All seventh- and eighth-grade students participated in the American Mathematics Competition. Congratulations to the following winners: The first-place overall school winner was Claire Peterson (eighth grade), second place went to Michael Connor (eighth), and third place was a tie between Lauren Riggs (seventh) and Jacob Means (eighth).

The following school staff members were honored for their years of service at a city-wide Catholic Mass on Feb. 1: Kelli Kisgen (five years), Jeff Grimm (10), Julie Crawford (15), Susan Heun (15), Pat Hogan (35), and Joe Foarde (35).

Congratulations to the eighth-graders who participated in honor band at Simpson College in Indianola: Megan Halliwell, Ali Strittmatter and Ksenia Vickery.

Eighth-grade confirmation will be at 7 p.m. April 23. Second-grade students will take First Holy Communion May 5-6. Eighth-grade graduation will be 7 p.m. on May 30.

Beginning readers in kindergarten are blending all the sounds they know in as many combinations as possible. The students are able to attach meaning to the words he or she blends and reads. A favorite milestone in kindergarten is the 100th day of school. They wore 100 Days Smarter headbands, counted by tens to 100, did 100 exercises, read stories about the 100th day of school, graphed 100 snacks and observed 100 seconds of silence. They finished the day with a “100” snack of sugar cookies. The children are also studying the words on the word wall.

St. Pius X

On Feb. 21, students and faculty gathered in the church to “bury the Alleluia” as part of our Lenten preparations. Each class put their Alleluia banner in a box to be buried until Easter. Students aslo shared doughnut holes as a “Fat Tuesday” remembrance. On Feb. 22, the students and faculty once more gathered in the church for Ash Wednesday Mass.

As part of the Lenten theme “Give, Pray, Fast,” students and staff will be collecting money as part of a Jar Wars campaign for St. Mary’s Family Center. We will take part in school-wide “Stations of the Cross” services and use classroom prayer pots. Each week an item will be added to the pots that will cause us to reflect upon the things God does for us and we can do for others. We will give up lunch desserts and a la carte during the last two weeks of Lent.

Guest author Ryan Sloth visited St. Pius X School on Feb. 14. He shared his football memorabilia, talked about how to become an author, and read his two books to grades kindergarten through five. Two groups of students won the opportunity to eat lunch with the author.

Tonight, middle school students will sponsor an ice cream sundae sale at the parish fish fry from 5-7 p.m. in the school gym. On March 4, join the middle school for an omelet breakfast after the 7-9 a.m. Masses in the Martha Mary Fellowship Hall. These will raise money for our middle school service group fund.

First-grade students practiced their subtraction facts using the Math Facts in a Flash (offline) program on the NEO 2 student laptop. Each student wirelessly printed their own practice reports to share with their parents.

Sheryl Dales, school librarian and media teacher, taught fourth-grade students how to scan QR codes with the iPad2. These codes take students to a website to locate research information.

Using the iPad2, second-grade students worked on locating important facts about Martin Luther King, Jr. as a project for Black History Month.

Holy Cross Necklaces Announces the Launching of the Sacramental Gifts Product Line

This week Holy Cross Necklaces added the Sacramental Gifts line of products to their online Catholic store. It features beautiful gifts for celebrating and commemorating every sacrament. They are artistically designed to reflect the meaning of each sacrament with images of Jesus, the cross, and symbols of The Eucharist and The Holy Spirit.

Columbus, Ohio (PRWEB) March 01, 2012

This week Holy Cross Necklaces added the Sacramental Gifts line of products to their online Catholic store. It features beautiful gifts for celebrating and commemorating every sacrament. They are artistically designed to reflect the meaning of each sacrament with images of Jesus, the cross, and symbols of The Eucharist and The Holy Spirit.

The sacraments are both the signs of grace and the form in which the Holy Spirit instills grace into the soul. There are 7 sacraments: Baptism, First Communion, Reconciliation, Confirmation, Holy Orders, Matrimony, and the Anointing of the Sick.

Marianne Buzzelli, owner, explains “The rites celebrating each of these sacraments are the most significant events in our lives as Catholics. It is fitting therefore, that we celebrate and commemorate each of these sacraments with wonderful remembrances.”

Holy Cross Necklaces Catholic Store is pleased to offer gifts for these sacramental events that are as special as the sacraments we commemorate, including: Prayer books, bibles, Mass Missals, necklaces, bracelets, rosaries, scapulars, wall crosses, and veils.

The First Holy Communion sacramental gifts feature Mass books and rosary sets with images of Jesus presenting His body in the form of bread to a young boy or girl, as the innocent child welcomes Jesus into his or her heart and receives His body for the first time. Other Communion gifts include special medals in the shape of a chalice which adorn First Communion rosaries, necklaces, and bracelets.

Confirmation gifts of wood and pewter crosses feature images of The Holy Spirit as a dove as He instills grace and the 7 gifts into the soul of the young child. Baptismal gifts display the image of the cross of Christ delicately embroidered in fine silk and cloth on blankets, hats, and socks.

Holy Cross Necklaces will continue to add religious gifts and products to the online store to meet the needs of their customers. For more information regarding the new Sacramental Gifts line of products, please contact http://holycrossnecklaces.com/

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For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2012/3/prweb9237378.htm

Church, State and Santorum

On Sunday, Feb. 26, presidential candidate and U.S. senator Rick Santorum (R-Penn) was asked by ABC’s George Stephanopoulos whether he stands by a statement he made in October of 2011, that he “almost threw up” after reading a speech by Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy about his Catholic faith, the separation of church and state, and his candidacy for the president of the United States.

The speech in question was delivered by Kennedy in 1960. It was about the role of religion in public life. At the College of St. Mary Magdalen last year, in Warner, New Hampshire, Santorum said: “Earlier in my political career, I had the opportunity to read the speech, and I almost threw up. You should read the speech.”

In response to Stephanopoulos, Santorum said: “What kind of country do we live in that says only people of non-faith can come into the public square and make their case?” Santorum’s statement ought to disqualify him from the U.S. presidency. Only a religious zealot would take issue with the well-measured, reasoned tone, and sensible content of Senator Kennedy’s address.

Kennedy’s speech is best listened to rather than merely read. It demonstrates a rhetorical brilliance and oratorical delivery that today’s cast of Republican candidates can only dream of. It harkens back to a time before the explicitly stated U.S. policy, as recently announced by Defense Secretary Leon Pannetta, that it is lawful for the U.S. government to assassinate U.S. citizens. It was a time when presidential candidates such as Kennedy still thought of themselves as potential “public servants,” rather than potential public assassins.

As Kennedy stated: “So it is apparently necessary for me to state once again, not what kind of church I believe in, for that should be important only to me, but what kind of America I believe in.” He then went on to make it clear that he would not allow the pope or the Catholic Church to dictate to him in the realm of public policy, and that he as president would be guided by his conscience and his oath of office, not by fealty to any religious dogmatism.

It is a speech against religious fanaticism.

Importantly for our time, Kennedy invoked “the Virginia statute of religious freedom” authored in 1779 by Thomas Jefferson, who went on to become the third President of the United States. The document was officially titled, “The Virginia Act for Establishing Religious Freedom,” and was not passed by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia until 1786.

If Mr. Santorum thought Senator Kennedy’s speech was bad, Jefferson’s statute would definitely make Mr. Santorum feel the need to heave; it runs contrary to any notion of a theocratic state. The Virginia statute takes issue with “the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical.” For they, “being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavoring to impose them on others.” Jefferson’s document further says “that our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, more than [on] our opinions of physics or geometry.”

It is important to place Jefferson’s document and the separation of church and state into its wider historical context. The Inquisition—which brings to mind such memorable torture devices as the rack, and the red hot tong—still existed. A sense of this is found in a biography of Jesuit missionary Juan Salvatierra, published in 1754, just 25 years before Jefferson’s statute for religious liberty. The title page states that it had been “condensed into a brief compendium by Father Juan Antonio de Oviedo,” who was Rector of the College of San Andres in Mexico, “and Censor for the Holy Inquisition.”

It was in response to bloody religious wars in Europe and the horrors of the Holy Inquisition that inspired Jefferson to pen his Statute for Religious Freedom. We ought to wonder why Mr. Santorum would feel the need to throw up upon reading a speech by Senator John F. Kennedy, a speech that implicitly addressed the proven dangers of religious fanaticism.

Being something of a fanatic myself, for etymology, I found the Latin derivation of the name “Santorum.” As an adjective it means variously, “consecrated, sacred, inviolable, venerable, august, divine, holy, pious, and just.” As a noun, it is “establisher; one who enacts.” Given his nauseating statement about Senator Kennedy’s address, isn’t it sensible to wonder what model of society Mr. Santorum is carrying in his heart of hearts?

Steven Newcomb, Shawnee/Lenape, is co-founder and co-director of the Indigenous Law Institute, author of Pagans in the Promised Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery, and a columnist for Indian Country Today Media Network.

Brothers In Faith: How The Ratzinger Boys Became World Catholic Leaders

Some of the most moving moments in my week-long interviews with Msgr. Georg Ratzinger on which our book “My Brother, the Pope” was based, were those when he remembered how both brothers reinforced another’s faith.

Keep in mind, Georg Ratzinger was the older brother, born three years before Joseph, who later became Pope. In a certain way, he became his role-model, although both brothers were different in both mentality and gifts. In Georg’s case, it was his love for music which developed rather early. Joseph, on the other hand, was the little genius, the best of his class at school, a loner in the afternoons, who enjoyed nothing more than to be with his books, either in the hay of his parent’s stable or out there in nature, in the green meadows of their Bavarian homeland. What united both was not only the common blood, as two sons of a very close and loving family, but, first of all, their common Catholic faith and their rural Bavarian piety, which determined the events of the year and enriched the everyday life of the Ratzingers.

“From our parents we learned what it means to have hold in the faith in God” is certainly one of the most important sentences in our book. Common prayer was a regular and important part of their day, next to the regular and at least weekly Holy Mass in their Parish Church. The First Holy Communion, which Georg received three years earlier than his little brother, was the highlight of their childhood. “When the religious life is already practiced in the family, it influences the whole rest of your life,” Georg Ratzinger states. “This forms your whole life and directs it towards God. It creates a fertile ground for the priestly vocation.”

For Georg Ratzinger it was “completely organic” that he became a priest; not by a special event, a certain call, but by harmonic growth. When time has come, he served at the altar, became a Ministrant; an honor and duty for Catholic boys, at that time even more than today. There, serving the priest, he begun to realize that this is where he belongs to, that the Lord’s altar is his place in life; now as a server, in the future as a priest. Georg Ratzinger never questioned his call. He was just sure that this was God’s plan for him.

At that time, little Joseph looked up to his “big brother,” both proud and maybe a little bit jealous that he was not yet allowed to serve at the altar, impatiently waiting for his time to come. “I don’t know if I became a role-model for my brother in a certain way,” Georg Ratzinger writes in a typical understatement, “but at least he saw in my example how life would look like, when he himself decided to follow me on this way. We never directly spoke about it, but I can very well imagine that my example at least encouraged and confirmed him in his decision.”

Still, the Ratzinger boys had to overcome the dark times of the Nazi dictatorship and World War II. It certainly was an inner opposition which strengthened their decision to resist the diabolical “Zeitgeist” and decide for Christ and His Church. They couldn’t wait for the war to end and to the new challenge in their life, to become priests and to teach the Gospel in post-war Germany. Due to the years Georg Ratzinger had to serve in the German “Wehrmacht” and the following time as a POW, both started their Theological Studies at the Seminary in Freising at the same time, on Jan. 3, 1946. Suddenly, the “small brother” was a co-seminarian in the same class. Eventually, on June 29, 1951, one after the other, Georg and Joseph Ratzinger both proclaimed their “Adsum.” Two brothers in faith became priests — and vowed to strengthen not only each other but all believers in their common faith. This was the beginning of two of the most remarkable careers of the 20th century: Georg Ratzinger became the famous choir-leader, touring around the world with the Regensburg Cathedral Boy Choir, the “Regensburger Domspatzen”; and Joseph Germany’s most important theologian, before he was called to Rome and was eventually elected on the See of St. Peter. Both learned that nothing is impossible, if your faith is strong.

Below, a slideshow of photos of the Pope and his family

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Arizona State to offer theology classes through Catholic university

Tempe, Ariz., Mar 1, 2012 / 11:34 am (CNA).-
In a very uncommon partnership between state-run and Catholic universities, Arizona State University students will be able to take courses in Catholic theology or Catholic studies under a new agreement announced March 1.

“This is an astonishing opportunity to bring Catholic higher education to the state of Arizona,” University of Mary president Father James Shea said. “About 25 percent of the population is Catholic, but there is not a Catholic college or university here.”

The Arizona public university, with an enrollment of over 72,000, and the Bismarck, North Dakota-based Catholic university of about 3,100 students have been in talks about the endeavor for more than a year, Fr. Shea told CNA Feb. 29.

The courses will be taught at the Newman Center in Tempe, which is adjacent to the Arizona State campus, and will begin in fall 2012. The effort means that students who wish to continue their Catholic education or who are interested in studying theology may do so without going out of state.

Students will be able to earn a major or a minor in theological studies or Catholic studies through the University of Mary.

“Students are deeply enriched, even if they are not Catholic, by the treasures of the Catholic faith and Catholic teaching. Theology is something that strives for an integrated approach to the most enduring questions of human life. Those are the types of discussions which should take place at every university,” Fr. Shea said.

Despite Arizona State’s “impressive offerings,” they do not offer classes in theology.

Fr. Shea explained that the project will expand the Arizona State’s offerings while giving the Catholic university’s best programs a new home.

He credited the project to Arizona State president Michael Crow’s strategic plan to create a university that is “deeply engaged in the immediate needs of the people of the community.” Carr’s pledge for broad and wide partnerships with all interested parties prompted Fr. Shea to inquire about a partnership with a Catholic university.

“I never thought that they’d have any type of interest in this. But they mean what they say. ASU has been so open, and so eager, and so excited, in all of the talks leading up to tomorrow’s announcement. They’ve been a joy to work with.

“They’re interested in the project of Catholic higher education. They want to make it accessible to their students, so that students can get an academic element which is Catholic as part of their ASU degree.”

Arizona State president Michael Crow said March 1 that the university is “dedicated to the inclusion of all” and that he has invited all faith-based groups to “plant their flags deep at the university.”

The state university said this approach has resulted in an expansion of the LDS Institute and new construction at the Catholic Newman Center.

The Newman Center itself has been part of the planning process. According to Fr. Shea, its priests predict that student interest will be “through the roof.” Feasibility studies have also found strong demand for Catholic higher education in the region.

At the same time, the University of Mary has had to be “very clear” that it is not engaged in “proselytism” at a state university.

“That’s important to them, because they’re a public university, and there are tricky issues of church and state. For Arizona State to stick out their neck like this, and for the enterprise of Catholic higher education, that’s really a courageous thing to do. We don’t want them to get burned along the way,” Fr. Shea remarked.

The university has experience teaching non-Catholics, who make up about half of its students in Bismarck.

The priest reflected on the balance the Catholic institution must strike in its new project.

“On the one hand, the reason Catholic universities exist is to evangelize, to be a leaven in the culture, and to bring the truths of faith and reason to the wider world. At the same time we don’t evangelize in the way that a catechetical institute evangelizes. That’s really important.”

While on one level the goal might be to bring people to Jesus, the University of Mary classes do so “in the way that a university does it.”

“We offer programs which are widely open to truth in different manifestations. We educate the minds of our students, such that they’re able to get a taste for truth and seek it in all of its forms.”

Arizona State students who wish to take courses from the University of Mary may register as non-degree seeking students without a formal application or acceptance. Students then register for courses through the Catholic university and pay tuition and fees directly to the school.

Fr. Shea believes the project is without precedent.

He said every Catholic university should find a way to place itself at the service of the Church.

“This is a new way for us to do this.”

“We really want this to be an endeavor that enriches all sorts of people and which is done for the glory of God,” he said. “We’re as interested as anybody to see how it’s going to work out.”

Don’t Forget the St. Joseph’s Day Cakes

The following is a reprint of an article from Carol Barbieri which first appeared in the AHHerald on March 20, 2003:

For almost thirty years now, I’ve been buying St. Joseph’s Day cakes every March 19^th, and I have absolutely no idea why.

At first, I bought the cakes for my husband, whose name is, Joseph.  When our first son was born, we named him, Jonathan Joseph.  Our second son is named, Christopher Joseph.  When I would bring home the three little St. Joseph’s Day cakes for each of them, my sons would sometimes forget and say, “Mom, why did you buy those cakes for us, too?  We’re not named Joseph!”  I’d have to remind them that their middle names entitled them to be the recipients of the cakes.  And I’d bet every maraschino cherry in America that not one of those three “Josephs” have a clue about why they received St. Joseph’s cakes every year.  I’m sure that not one of them ever researched the history of the day and the history behind the cakes.  Then again, neither did I.  And I was the one buying those cakes every year. 

My mother-in-law introduced me to the St. Joseph’s Day cakes tradition.  And if she knew the tradition behind the cakes, she departed this world without imparting that information to any of us.  Until I met my mother-in-law, I had no idea that there even was a St. Joseph’s Day.  I mean, I knew who St. Joseph was (Mary’s husband), but I didn’t know that he had a day set aside for him and an Italian cake for a namesake.  Even though my father is named, Joseph, my mother never bought him St. Joseph’s Day cakes.  But as far as my mother-in-law was concerned, it was a mortal sin to forget to buy St. Joseph’s cakes for someone whose name is Joseph.  She even used to send my husband a St. Joseph’s Day greeting card and put a dollar bill in it. 

Every year, I would get “The Call.”

“Did you buy the St. Joseph’s Day cakes yet?” she would ask.

Some years I was way ahead of her.  I would proudly exclaim, “I not only bought them, but they already ate them!”

Other years I would have to rush out at the last minute and pray that I could find a bakery that still had some cakes left.

One year, I was sick with bronchitis – too sick to get out of bed.  By the time I surfaced and went out into the world, it was March 22^nd.  The first thing I did was stop at an Italian specialty store to see if I could get some of those cakes.  I asked the man behind the counter if they had any more St. Joseph’s Day cakes left.

“St. Joseph’s Day was three days ago,” he replied coolly. 

“I know,” I told him, “but I was sick three days ago and couldn’t get out to buy them.”

He said, “Who do you buy them for?”

I told him, “my husband and two sons.”

The guy felt so bad for me that he told me to come back the next day (Saturday).  He was going to stop by “a place in Brooklyn” to get them for me.  (And he did.)  That was the only year that I almost shirked my St. Joseph’s Day cake buying obligation.

This year, I decided to find out what was behind the whole St. Joseph’s Day cake tradition.  Thirty years is long enough to be doing something without really knowing why.

Some say that the tradition of St. Joseph’s Day began in Sicily, during the Middle Ages.  There was a severe drought.  The people prayed for St. Joseph, their patron saint, to intervene.  They promised him that, if he answered their prayers and brought rain, they would prepare a big feast in his honor.

Their prayers were answered and the rains came.  True to their word, the people of Sicily prepared a banquet and placed huge banquet tables for the poor of the town to enjoy.  The day is a day of generosity and kindness.  It was not only a way for the people of Sicily to thank St. Joseph for answering their prayers, but a way to share their good fortune with the poor of the town.

Today, the St. Joseph’s Day Altar is still adorned with special foods, flowers, linens, statues, holy cards, candles, medals, wine, and specially prepared breads and cakes.  The breads sometimes take the form of fish, because the tradition began in Sicily, where shellfish and fish are more plentiful than meat.  Also, no meat is allowed on the table, because the feast day falls during Lent.

The St. Joseph’s Day cake is called, Zeppoli, an Italian bread dough that is either fried or baked.  The filling is usually a custard, but some bakeries use cannoli filling.  I’ve actually read about some Italian grandmothers who filled the cakes with ricotta cheese, pureed chick peas, oil of cinnamon, and grape jelly!

But, I learned that St. Joseph’s Day isn’t just about cakes.  Apparently, there is a special soup that many Italians eat on this day, too – a minestrone.  But, no cheese is allowed to be used on top of the soup.  So, instead of using grated cheese, St. Joseph Day devotees use breadcrumbs instead.  Others make a pasta dish with sauce, also using the breadcrumb topping instead of cheese.

This year, when I purchase our St. Joseph’s Day cakes, I’ll feel a little wiser.  I may even taunt the poor man behind the bakery counter to see how much he knows about the history of St. Joseph’s Day cakes. 

And as far as my husband and two sons go, they’re going to get a lecture called, “The History of St. Joseph’s Day Cakes,” before they’re allowed to take a bite!

My mother-in-law would be proud.

Culture, faith on display at Mass honoring Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha

KATERI-MASS Feb-29-2012 (700 words) With photos. xxxn

Culture, faith on display at Mass honoring Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha

Johnnie Jimenez holds sage during a Native American “Four Directions” prayer before a Mass Feb. 26 at the Kateri Center in Chicago to celebrate the upcoming canonization of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha. (CNS/Karen Callaway, Catholic New World)

By Michelle Martin
Catholic News Service

CHICAGO (CNS) — Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha mixed her own Mohawk and Algonquin culture with the Catholic faith she first inherited from her mother and later learned from Jesuit missionaries.

That blend of culture and faith was on display Feb. 26 as the people and staff of the Kateri Center, the Archdiocese of Chicago’s American Indian Ministry, celebrated the announcement earlier in February that Blessed Kateri will be canonized Oct. 21, along with Blessed Marianne Cope of Molokai and five others.

She will be the first Native American saint, and is seen as a patron for all Native Americans, said Auxiliary Bishop Francis J. Kane, who celebrated the Mass at the Kateri Center.

Her insistence on remaining faithful, in the face of opposition — even banishment — from her family and community provides a model for every Christian, he said.

“I believe God has provided a wonderful role model for all of us,” Bishop Kane said. “She combined her Native American spirituality with a Catholic spirituality, in a way that helps us all grow closer to the Lord. We live in a multiplicity of cultures that all vie for our allegiance. Do not let the culture consume you. Work on your spiritual life and embrace the Catholic faith.”

The Mass included Native American rituals such as the burning of sage, a prayer recognizing God in each of the four directions — north, south, east and west — as well as in the sky and the earth, and music provided by drums and a wooden flute.

After Communion, Florence Dunham, a Mohawk who was raised on the Six Nations Reservation in southwest Ontario, Canada, shared a hymn in the Mohawk language — the language Kateri would have spoken.

She learned the hymn on the reservation, where songs were sung in the languages of several of the tribes who lived there, she said.

But Dunham did not become aware of Blessed Kateri until she came to Chicago and came to know what was then called the Anawim Center, the archdiocesan outreach to American Indians. A friend — an Oneida — showed her a book about Kateri.

Having a Native American saint does make a difference, Dunham said.

“We now finally have a face that looks like us,” she told the Catholic New World, newspaper of the Chicago Archdiocese.

“We’ve prayed for a long time,” said Irene Big Eagle, a member of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of the Odawa Indians. “When I was 4 years old, my mother talked about her. Now I’m 82. That tells you how long it’s been.”

Blessed Kateri, known as “the Lily of the Mohawks,” was born to a Christian Algonquin mother and a Mohawk father in 1656 along the Hudson River in what is today upstate New York. She was baptized by a Jesuit missionary in 1676 when she was 20. A year later, she fled to Canada and died there in 1680.

Her sainthood cause was opened in 1932, and she was declared venerable in 1943. In June 1980, she became the first Native American to be beatified.

In December, Pope Benedict XVI advanced her sainthood cause by signing the decrees recognizing the miracles needed for their canonizations. On Feb. 18, the pope announced she would be canonized at the Vatican Oct. 21, along with six others.

Georgina Roy, director of the Kateri Center and an Ojibway from Wisconsin, said the elders at the Kateri Center have been praying for years for the gift of sainthood for Kateri. Roy will travel to Rome for the canonization ceremony with financial help of a sponsor, Susan Pearson.

“We’re going to be able to hold our heads up higher because of this gift,” Roy said. “She is going to heal our scars. We have such wounded people. She has shown us how to love God who embraces us.”

Devotion to her has spread far beyond the tribes of the northeast and eastern Canada, Roy said, noting that the Kateri Center has people from tribes that hail from all over North America.

“She belongs to all tribes, to all the world,” Roy added. “Our people have suffered so much. They need to see a loving God.”

END

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Huffington Post ‘Jesus Eaters’ Column Enrages Catholics

An anti-Catholic column written by Huffington Post columnist Larry Doyle has enraged many with his ‘Jesus eaters’ comment, but they shouldn’t expect an apology from the writer any time soon, if ever. It remains to be seen whether publisher Arianna Huffington will comply with demands of conservative leaders, and issue an apology for the column that was posted on her website, but don’t hold your breath for that either.

Oddly enough, Huffington pledged to avoid ‘flame-throwing, name-calling, and simplistic attack dog rhetoric’” when she launched HP in 2005. Doyle’s column, centered around Rick Santorum’s religion, apparently doesn’t rise to that level.

You can be the judge. In Doyle’s satire, as he describes it, he talks of,

“...a possible connection between the Roman Catholic Church pedophile program and NAMBLA, which I discovered after conducting some research on the Internet.”

He goes on to describe the “barbaric ritual” of the Catholic Mass.

“…a black-robed cleric casts a spell over some bread and wine, transfiguring it into the actual living flesh and blood of their Christ. Followers then line up to eat the Jesus meat and drink his holy blood in a cannibalistic reverie not often seen outside Cinemax.”

In a follow up, he said he would not apologize, calling Catholicism and his description of it “…a demonstration of the type of vicious religious ignorance and intolerance I too often see coming from too many so-called Christians, especially Santorum.”

It appears that, while even the slightest hint of religion is an offense to some that it needs to be banned, Doyle sees himself as ‘ordained’ to spread his own vicious and bigoted opinion. He feels the need to educate those less informed, because as a former altar boy, he has “seen behind the curtain,” reports Fox News.

Now that he has done that, he says,

“I hope (Catholics who are offended) will now think twice before they question the faith of progressive Christians, or Mormons or Muslims. I doubt they will.”

In a letter to the Huffington Post, the response was as expected.

“If such an article was written concerning the Islamic or Jewish faith, the public outcry would be overwhelming, and rightly so. But anti-Catholicism is the last acceptable form of bigotry, and The Huffington Post is taking advantage of that bigotry for all it’s worth…”

Claiming the column was satire is a convenient transparency, and one not to be believed, states the letter written in protest to the column.

“Bigots like Doyle think they can hurl the most contemptible insults towards Catholics (‘Jesus eaters’) and when called out, claim it was just a joke. What cowardice. What a double standard.”

Doyle’s attempts to educate those of lesser understanding with his ‘satire’ on the Catholic religion is a joke. This piece was written with pure and intentional hatred, but to demand an apology for it is silly. Take it for what it was–raw sewage coming from a very small intolerant man.

Bible Exhibit in Rome Tells Survival Story of Scripture

VATICAN CITY — Today’s must have-items are sleek hand-held devices that let us download a thousand apps and perform a dozen tasks at once. But for faithful Christians down the generations, the must-have item has been a copy of God’s Word in their own hands – a dream some have been willing to give up their own lives for.

While a few clicks on the web or a trip to the local bookstore are all Americans need to get their hands on a Bible, the story of recording and preserving Scriptures over thousands of years has often been one of struggle, suffering and painstaking personal effort.

Most of all, it is a story of the extraordinary survival of God’s word in spite of the odds, says Dr. Scott Carroll, the driving force behind a major new Bible exhibition launched at the Vatican today.

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He has exhaustively scoured collections from the States to China in search of items for “Verbum Domini,” a stunning collection of 150 biblical antiquities set in a quiet wing just off St. Peter’s Square. Most of the rare biblical texts come from The Green Collection, owned by Christian family behind Hobby Lobby, the nation’s largest privately owned arts and crafts retailer.

“From the sublime to the simple,” Dr. Carroll, director of The Green Collection, has endeavored to choose items that will communicate the wider historical context of the Bible and foster a greater appreciation of the book that so many freely enjoy today.

In the first room, glass cases holds rare scrolls, among them a Jewish Old Testament scroll dedicated in Poland in 1934, not long before the Nazis invaded and began a campaign of extermination against the Jewish population there. Another scroll is one of only a few to have survived the Spanish Inquisition.

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A small glass cabinet displays two paper cut outs in the shape of shoes with portions of the Old Testament written onto them. These were hidden inside shoes to prevent Nazi officials from finding them – a poignant example of the lengths people would go to stay close to God’s word.

“They tell the story of the survival [of Scripture] through terrible times,” said Dr. Carroll as he led The Christian Post and other media outlets on a tour through darkened rooms and past thousands of years of scriptural history.

Some of the earliest known fragments of the Psalms, Gospels, Romans, and Hebrews are among the carefully selected items on display, as well as personal effects that were engraved with Scripture by their owners of centuries ago.

In the section on the English-language Scriptures, a near complete copy of William Tyndale’s New Testament points to the personal cost that was borne to translate the Bible into the common vernacular. A Bible in which the veneration of Thomas Becket has been scored through recalls the difficult years of the Reformation. Their beliefs would cost both men their lives.

The exhibition culminates with copies of King James’s translation of the Psalms and a first edition of his New Testament side by side with a rare Catholic Bible.

Their juxtaposition demonstrates the “interfaith complexities of the Bible,” Dr. Carroll explains.

Whatever the tradition or faith or persuasion of the visitor, his greatest desire is to see them moved and inspired by what they see.

“When you see the work that went into preserving the Word of the Lord it makes you appreciate it and not take it for granted,” he told The Christian Post.

“We don’t want it to be a passive experience, we want it to be an active experience.”

Steve Green, president of Hobby Lobby, said he hopes people will go home encouraged to read the Bible more frequently.

“The Bible has become commonplace and it’s not necessarily read and known as it has in the past.
I think we probably have the most ignorant population we’ve ever had because we don’t teach it in our schools like we used to,” Green told CP.

“We want to encourage people to be reengaged, read with their Scripture, and be reacquainted with God.”

Verbum Domini is a free exhibition on display at the Vatican until April 15.

Christian Post Reporter Katherine T. Phan contributed to this report.