Blessed Sacrament Church

“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

I came into the church with my eyes pretty wide open.

Deacon Kyle Eller Mere Catholicism

I was, by God’s grace, received into full communion with the Catholic Church in 2004 — two years after a massive wave of clergy sexual abuse scandals broke in the national media. (I was a journalist for a local secular newspaper myself.)

I knew about Judas, knew the Lord’s words about scandals to come and about the millstones that accompany them. I knew St. Paul’s words about wolves coming among the flock.

I knew, at least vaguely, that there had been evil popes and whole eras in which there had been widespread and horrible corruption among the clergy, including the era that created the Protestant schisms.

So in that respect, this present day crucible of abuse, corruption, and betrayal is not exactly new. There is a whole heresy — Donatism — that arose in the early church from the question of how to respond to gravely sinful clergy, and in particular whether the sacraments they celebrated — all those baptisms, Communions, confessions, marriages — are still valid. (The correct answer: They are.)

Infidelity to God goes back even deeper in salvation history. It’s a central theme in the Old Covenant too.

Back in 2004, my faith was not based on the holiness of clergy. It still isn’t. The fact that I am now numbered among them makes me even more certain how misplaced such a faith would be. Having been ordained some months now, I can report that among the graces of ordination, which are real, I have not found any instant antidote to my own sin. I still have to seek God’s mercy at least as often as I did before I was ordained, and having been given greater responsibility, I know I will face a greater accountability on judgment day. Kyrie eleison.

My faith is in Jesus Christ. And I believed then and believe now that Jesus established the Catholic Church, entrusting its governance to a pope, bishops, priests, and deacons, even though that meant entrusting it to sinful men who are capable of all the worst things the human race is capable of.

“As for me and for my house, we will serve the Lord.”

In the midst of the earthquakes shaking the church over these last weeks, I had the privilege of preaching on a Saturday morning. In the Gospel passage, Jesus tells the crowd to obey the Scribes and the Pharisees who had taken their place on Moses’ seat, but not to follow their example. He goes on to give a scathing indictment of their sins and hypocrisy before teaching what authentic religious leadership looks like — humble, servant leadership suffused with the awareness that we are truly all brothers and sisters before the One true teacher, father, and master.

So Jesus himself distinguishes between the office (and its authority) and the man holding it, while making clear just how direct and honest we can be about clerical sins.

But as I said in my homily, this can be a rather cold comfort.

Because it’s one thing to know, in the abstract and in the intellect, that clergy are sinners too and that Judas, in this life, is always present. It’s another thing entirely to have put before our eyes, for instance, the unspeakable horrors perpetrated against God’s precious little ones detailed in the Pennsylvania grand jury report. (And I know of no reason to believe Pennsylvania is worse than anywhere else.)

Every baptized child or young person and their families and friends are as much the church, as much the Body of Christ, as any deacon, priest, bishop, or pope. And yet what they have suffered — not just abuse but then not being believed and having the crimes covered up by the very people they should have been able to trust to protect them.

Even as I tremble for my own sins and hope on his mercy, I don’t think I have ever been as grateful as I have been these last weeks that God is also just.

My feelings about these things are somewhere near the bottom of the list of what’s important here, but I have felt heartbroken, angry, outraged, betrayed, ashamed, all the things I’m sure everyone else has felt. I am a professional writer and rarely at a loss for words, but I have often stood speechless before this horror.

I weep, too, over this betrayal that has brought into the world’s entirely understandable scorn and contempt the very things I believe are for the ultimate good of every person — the faith to which I have dedicated my life.

What can console our hearts? I often think of the “problem of evil” and how knowing the theological and philosophical answers, while helpful to our minds, sometimes does so little for our hearts. What is perhaps most consoling is to look on the crucifix and see the God who willingly took our suffering on himself and redeemed and transformed it into our salvation.

Something similar might be said here. The same Jesus suffered with every innocent victim of these crimes. What was done to the least of these was done unto him. The same Jesus is again suffering the betrayal of Judas.

And he will make things right.

Pray for the victims of these crimes. Pray for the purification of the church. Pray for those whose faith is shaken. Pray and work for justice.

“Et unam, sanctam, catholicam et apostolicam Ecclesiam ….”

Deacon Kyle Eller is editor of The Northern Cross. Reach him at dcn.kyle.eller@duluthcatholic.org.

One of the signature successes of last year was Built Upon a Rock Fest, which in its first year drew more than 900 people from across the Duluth Diocese out to a free Catholic rock concert on the Holy Rosary Campus of Stella Maris Academy, across the street from the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary.

By popular demand, it’s back. And this time it’s not on a school night. It’s set for the evening of Saturday, Sept. 15.

Marie Mullen, the festival chairperson and the woman who came up with the idea for the festival last year, said the change was based on feedback from last year that Saturday would be more convenient.

“It works better for people who are traveling from out of town,” she said. “And it’s nice to have the option of attending Mass before the concert as well.”

Another change this year is that to make the sacrament of reconciliation more readily available, there will be two private, outdoor confessionals on the grounds that will make it easier for people to go starting from when the concert begins, at 6:30 p.m., and running right through Benediction at 9 p.m.

The food — the free food — is also being streamlined this year.

“We had some long lines last year pretty much the whole event,” Mullen said. “I don’t think it will be a problem this year with the changes we made.”

New artists

Like last year, two artists will perform at Built Upon a Rock Fest, but the lineup is new. The headliner is Ike Ndolo, a Catholic recording artist from Arizona. Mullen says he is popular playing at Lifeteen and Stubenville events.

“I would describe his music as folk-rock, although his new record that he will be debuting at the concert seems to have a fresh electronic-type sound, which is different from his previous album but still very cool,” she said. “He’s a great performer, and it will be exciting to see the energy he brings to the stage, singing with passion about his faith and his love for God.”

The opening act is a familiar name in the region: Luke Spehar, a talented musician and faithful Catholic from St. Paul who has family ties in Duluth.

“I would describe his sound as modern folk with some hints of country,” Mullen said.

Community support

While Built Upon a Rock Fest is a lay-led event, it has received support from the Diocese of Duluth and, this year, from the neighboring Diocese of Superior. Thirty-three parishes have contributed, along with 21 sponsoring businesses or organizations, Mullen said, and the Knights of Columbus, the “platinum level sponsor,” contributed $10,000.

“A big part of the vision for this is that the concert remains completely free and open to the public,” Mullen said. “And offering free food and drink is meant to reflect the goodness and generosity of God and his church. People are invited to come enjoy this gift truly, with no strings attached. Our sponsors and donors have given this gift to them out of love, seeking nothing in return. I think that’s so beautiful.”

Mullen said she also feels it comes at an important time.

“Especially in this time of confusion and uncertainty in the church, it is important for us to unite in faith with renewed vigor,” she said. “God’s glory will be known through the rise of the faithful in the church. Knowing there is such diversity and wide-ranging support for this event proves that there is so much good in the church and a longing for unity. I pray that anyone who is discouraged or feeling scandalized right now will come out to the concert on the 15th. I know they will be uplifted.”

If you go

The festival is free, and no tickets or reservations are required. Events begin with Mass at the Cathedral at 5 p.m. Gates for the concert will open at 6 p.m., and the opening act, Luke Spehar, begins his show at 6:15 p.m. Ike Ndolo will begin at 7:30 p.m., and the event concludes with Benediction in the Cathedral at 9:30 p.m. For more information, see www. builtuponarockfest.com.

— By Deacon Kyle Eller / The Northern Cross

I know the answer is Jesus Christ. Hope is found in the dying and rising of Jesus. The day of restoration and renewal will happen through the mercy of Jesus and our full cooperation in the work of the Redemption of Jesus Christ. I can also hear Jesus saying, “I’ve got this.”

For the past five years, in a more intense way — the first revelations go back to the 1980s and 1990s — Catholics in the state of Minnesota have been exposed to the sins of the Church’s priests and bishops. Now the Church in Pennsylvania and across the nation has had to look at the horrendous sin of sexual abuse of minors and the failures of the Church in protecting the people of God, yet again.

Bishop Paul Sirba Fiat Voluntas Tua

We need to name the shame, anger, and sadness. The sexual abuse of minors, episcopal failures, cover-ups and enabling behaviors, homosexual subcultures in the priesthood, and sins against celibacy must be confessed, rooted out, and repaired. To quote Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the USCCB, “We are faced with a spiritual crisis that requires not only spiritual conversion, but practical changes to avoid repeating the sins and failures of the past that are so evident in the recent report.”

When it comes the crime of the abuse of minors, our hearts break open as sordid details call for independent investigations and the work of very trusted lay faithful to assist the bishops within the Church to remedy the problems. In the tumult, we must never lose our focus of providing healing for the victims and help for those who have been hurt and preventing this sin in the future.

Our experience of the clergy sexual abuse crisis in the Diocese of Duluth is unique to us in some ways, but the underlying sinful human condition is universal and will be brought to light across our nation and our world. While we have been living with the crisis most recently through our bankruptcy, we have to be spiritually prepared for whatever new revelations may come to light in other parts of the Body of Christ, as well. This purification, although excruciatingly painful, is necessary for healing. The light of Christ scatters the darkness of sin and evil.

The Scriptures that come to mind for me are: “It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin” (Luke 17:2), the parable of the weeds among the wheat (Matthew 13:24-30), the woman caught in the act of adultery (John 8:1-8). These and other sacred texts provide ample reflection for my personal conversion and institutional change.

I have said that the protection of our youth and providing the safest environment for our young people is the work of our lifetime. I know our efforts in the Diocese of Duluth have made a difference. As a diocese we will continue to offer prayers for healing and reparation. I ask the clergy, religious, and lay faithful to pray and fast so as to lead the Church to enact canonical changes that hold bishops accountable, protect men discerning a call to the priesthood, and lead to new mechanisms of holding bishops accountable that have never been in place before to safeguard our children and restore trust.

I apologize and humbly ask your forgiveness for what I and my fellow bishops have done or failed to do. I am sorry for anyone who has been hurt and the scandal caused in the Body of Christ.

Bishop Paul D. Sirba is the ninth bishop of Duluth.

August 16, 2018

WASHINGTON — Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, has issued the following statement after a series of meetings with members of the USCCB’s Executive Committee and other bishops. The following statement includes three goals and three principles, along with initial steps of a plan that will involve laity, experts, and the Vatican. A more developed plan will be presented to the full body of bishops at their general assembly meeting in Baltimore in November.

Cardinal DiNardo’s full statement follows:

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Two weeks ago, I shared with you my sadness, anger, and shame over the recent revelations concerning Archbishop Theodore McCarrick. Those sentiments continue and are deepened in light of the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report. We are faced with a spiritual crisis that requires not only spiritual conversion, but practical changes to avoid repeating the sins and failures of the past that are so evident in the recent report. Earlier this week, the USCCB Executive Committee met again and established an outline of these necessary changes.

The Executive Committee has established three goals: (1) an investigation into the questions surrounding Archbishop McCarrick; (2) an opening of new and confidential channels for reporting complaints against bishops; and (3) advocacy for more effective resolution of future complaints. These goals will be pursued according to three criteria: proper independence, sufficient authority, and substantial leadership by laity.

We have already begun to develop a concrete plan for accomplishing these goals, relying upon consultation with experts, laity, and clergy, as well as the Vatican. We will present this plan to the full body of bishops in our November meeting. In addition, I will travel to Rome to present these goals and criteria to the Holy See, and to urge further concrete steps based on them.

The overarching goal in all of this is stronger protections against predators in the Church and anyone who would conceal them, protections that will hold bishops to the highest standards of transparency and accountability.

Allow me to briefly elaborate on the goals and criteria that we have identified.

The first goal is a full investigation of questions surrounding Archbishop McCarrick. These answers are necessary to prevent a recurrence, and so help to protect minors, seminarians, and others who are vulnerable in the future. We will therefore invite the Vatican to conduct an Apostolic Visitation to address these questions, in concert with a group of predominantly lay people identified for their expertise by members of the National Review Board and empowered to act.

The second goal is to make reporting of abuse and misconduct by bishops easier. Our 2002 “Statement of Episcopal Commitment” does not make clear what avenue victims themselves should follow in reporting abuse or other sexual misconduct by bishops. We need to update this document. We also need to develop and widely promote reliable third-party reporting mechanisms. Such tools already exist in many dioceses and in the public sector and we are already examining specific options.

The third goal is to advocate for better procedures to resolve complaints against bishops. For example, the canonical procedures that follow a complaint will be studied with an eye toward concrete proposals to make them more prompt, fair, and transparent and to specify what constraints may be imposed on bishops at each stage of that process.

We will pursue these goals according to three criteria.

The first criterion is genuine independence. Any mechanism for addressing any complaint against a bishop must be free from bias or undue influence by a bishop. Our structures must preclude bishops from deterring complaints against them, from hampering their investigation, or from skewing their resolution.

The second criterion relates to authority in the Church. Because only the Pope has authority to discipline or remove bishops, we will assure that our measures will both respect that authority and protect the vulnerable from the abuse of ecclesial power.

Our third criterion is substantial involvement of the laity. Lay people bring expertise in areas of investigation, law enforcement, psychology, and other relevant disciplines, and their presence reinforces our commitment to the first criterion of independence.

Finally, I apologize and humbly ask your forgiveness for what my brother bishops and I have done and failed to do. Whatever the details may turn out to be regarding Archbishop McCarrick or the many abuses in Pennsylvania (or anywhere else), we already know that one root cause is the failure of episcopal leadership. The result was that scores of beloved children of God were abandoned to face an abuse of power alone. This is a moral catastrophe. It is also part of this catastrophe that so many faithful priests who are pursuing holiness and serving with integrity are tainted by this failure.

We firmly resolve, with the help of God’s grace, never to repeat it. I have no illusions about the degree to which trust in the bishops has been damaged by these past sins and failures. It will take work to rebuild that trust. What I have outlined here is only the beginning; other steps will follow. I will keep you informed of our progress toward these goals.

Let me ask you to hold us to all of these resolutions. Let me also ask you to pray for us, that we will take this time to reflect, repent, and recommit ourselves to holiness of life and to conform our lives even more to Christ, the Good Shepherd.

WASHINGTON — Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo, Archbishop of Galveston-Houston and President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, has issued the following statement noting the steps the U.S. Bishops Conference will take in addressing the failures of the Church in protecting the people of God.

Cardinal DiNardo’s full statement follows:

“The accusations against Archbishop Theodore McCarrick reveal a grievous moral failure within the Church. They cause bishops anger, sadness, and shame; I know they do in me. They compel bishops to ask, as I do, what more could have been done to protect the People of God. Both the abuses themselves, and the fact that they have remained undisclosed for decades, have caused great harm to people’s lives and represent grave moral failures of judgement on the part of Church leaders.

“These failures raise serious questions. Why weren’t these allegations of sins against chastity and human dignity disclosed when they were first brought to Church officials? Why wasn’t this egregious situation addressed decades sooner and with justice? What must our seminaries do to protect the freedom to discern a priestly vocation without being subject to misuse of power?

“Archbishop McCarrick will rightly face the judgement of a canonical process at the Holy See regarding the allegations against him, but there are also steps we should be taking as the Church here in the United States. Having prayed about this, I have convened the USCCB Executive Committee. This meeting was the first of many among bishops that will extend into our Administrative Committee meeting in September and our General Assembly in November. All of these discussions will be oriented toward discerning the right course of action for the USCCB. This work will take some time but allow me to stress these four points immediately.

“First, I encourage my brother bishops as they stand ready in our local dioceses to respond with compassion and justice to anyone who has been sexually abused or harassed by anyone in the Church. We should do whatever we can to accompany them.

“Second, I would urge anyone who has experienced sexual assault or harassment by anyone in the Church to come forward. Where the incident may rise to the level of a crime, please also contact local law enforcement.

“Third, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops will pursue the many questions surrounding Archbishop McCarrick’s conduct to the full extent of its authority; and where that authority finds its limits, the Conference will advocate with those who do have the authority. One way or the other, we are determined to find the truth in this matter.

“Finally, we bishops recognize that a spiritual conversion is needed as we seek to restore the right relationship among us and with the Lord. Our Church is suffering from a crisis of sexual morality. The way forward must involve learning from past sins.

“Let us pray for God’s wisdom and strength for renewal as we follow St. Paul’s instruction: ‘Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect’ (Romans 12:2).”

Father Frank Perkovich, 89, of Chisholm, died peacefully of natural causes on July 16, in his home. He was born on Dec. 24, 1928, in Chisholm, to John and Jennie Johanna (Lesar) Perkovich. He was a 1946 graduate of Chisholm High School and was ordained a Roman Catholic priest on June 5, 1954, by Bishop Thomas Welch.

Father Frank Perkovich

Father Perkovich served in several parishes, including St. Michael, Duluth; St. Elizabeth, Duluth; St. Louis, Floodwood; St. Paul, Warba; St. Mary, Marble; St. Joseph, Taconite; Good Shepherd, Duluth; Resurrection, Eveleth; St. Margaret Mary, Duluth; St. Joseph, Gilbert; and St. John, Biwabik. He also served as diocesan director of youth activities; chaplain for the Knights of Columbus, Duluth Council; and Diocesan Presbyteral Council. He retired on July 15, 2004.

Father Perkovich was a Polka Hall of Fame Inductee in 2012. He celebrated his first Polka Mass in 1973, recorded with Joe Cvek and The Polka Mass-ters, and even went on to present the Polka Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. His life and ministry is the subject of a book entitled “Dancing a Polka to Heaven,” edited by Betty Vos.

Survivors include his nephews Michael (Jane), Frank (Jill), Robert (Vicki), and his niece, Mary Elizabeth (Skip Butterfield). He was preceded in death by his parents; brothers John and Louis Perkovich; sister-in-law Dorothy Perkovich; nephew John; and cousins in Toronto, Ontario; Slovenia; and Croatia.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to either of the following that Father Perkovich supported: 1) St. Mary and Joseph’s Log Church Restoration, 509 Sunrise Drive, Carlton, MN 55718 (for more information visit www.stkaterisawyer.com) or 2) the Chisholm Community Foundation, 4 S.W. Third Ave., Chisholm, MN 55719.

At Father Perkovich’s request, there will not be a funeral service. A visitation will be held from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, July 24, at Rupp Funeral Home & Cremation Service Chapel, Chisholm. 

MASKWACIS, Alberta (CNS) — Young. Indigenous. Committed to the Catholic faith.

Three hundred years after her death, St. Kateri Tekakwitha — North America’s first indigenous saint — has become a model for young people, especially in Maskwacis, a community that includes four First Nations south of Edmonton. Each year they celebrate the saint as one of their own.

Young people from Our Lady of Seven Sorrows Parish in Maskwacis, Alberta, perform a play based on the life of St. Kateri Tekakwitha. It was part of a July 14 Mass and celebration honoring North America’s first indigenous saint. (CNS photo/Andrew Ehrkamp, Grandin Media)

“It’s such a blessing to have a native saint. Most of our people don’t understand or know what is a saint; that’s one of the things we want to have out there,” said Karen Wildcat, who organized the fifth annual St. Kateri Gathering July 14 at Our Lady of Seven Sorrows Parish.

“If they can only come to understand how important that is, that we do have a saint that we can pray to and offer sacrifices and fasting. We could help our community more to know the humble life she lived,” Wildcat said.

Known as the “Lily of the Mohawks,” St. Kateri was born in 1656 in upstate New York to a Catholic Algonquin mother and a Mohawk chief. After her baptism, she lived a faith-filled life until her death from tuberculosis in 1680 at age 24.

For five years now, Our Lady of Seven Sorrows Parish has been celebrating her life with Mass and a traditional lunch of soup and bannock. This year, kids in costume performed a play based on the life of St. Kateri, a visual display that Wildcat said is crucial for her community.

“For most of our native people, you need to see things to be able to understand. It’s important because she was canonized as our native saint, and she’s for Mother Earth and the environment, and our native people are really sacred about the land and the water and the air.”

Children said they were learning more about the young saint with a background similar to their own.

“She shows respect for everyone,” said Issac Ermineskin, a ninth-grade student who was taught about St. Kateri in his parish youth group and acted in the St. Kateri play with his 10-year-old sister, Bobbi-Ann. “Not all natives like Christianity, but I do.”

What did Bobbi-Ann learn from St. Kateri? “To love others and to be peaceful.”

Many indigenous people can relate to St. Kateri as they come to know more about her, said Father Susai Jesu, who led this year’s Kateri Gathering in Maskwacis.

“The indigenous people begin to feel ‘Wow, she is one among us.’ She went through all kinds of trials of life and she has been a model. They feel affiliated in their blood. She is a part of us,” said Father Jesu, pastor at Sacred Heart, an Edmonton parish with a large indigenous congregation.

Wildcat learned about St. Kateri at a conference in Ottawa nearly two decades ago. The event included a side trip to the St. Kateri shrine in Kahnawake, Quebec. Years later, Wildcat was asked by Mary Soto — the founder of the Kateri Gathering — to help organize the event in Maskwacis.

Miracles and answered prayers continue to be attributed to St. Kateri.

Father Glenn McDonald, a guest speaker at this year’s Maskwacis gathering, said St. Kateri’s intercession alleviated the depression of one of his former parishioners — and helped him heal from his own bouts of eye cancer.

“I asked St. Kateri to help me because I was scared, but I didn’t see how” she was going to do that, said Father MacDonald, who feared he would be blind in one eye. His last surgery was on St. Kateri’s Canadian feast day, April 17.

Father Jesu said he, too, relies on St. Kateri’s intercession. In 2012 he asked for her help in his attempt to get a traditional First Nations drum through customs. Jesu and 12 indigenous leaders from Pelican Narrows, Saskatchewan, were en route to Rome for her canonization ceremony.

“Kateri was there to help us go through this process and [we] eventually saw her guiding presence there,” Father Jesu said. “We drummed and sang. The whole world was watching it. There were lots of people singing, but nobody had a drum.”

On a larger scale, Father Jesu noted St. Kateri’s canonization continues to help heal the relationship between indigenous people and the church, after years of abuse in residential schools.

“I think Kateri herself, as a saint now, [is] interceding with our Lord Jesus Christ for reconciliation and to feel they are all part of the church. We all belong to one faith as a family of God,” he said.

For Father MacDonald, St. Kateri’s canonization bodes well for a future apology by Pope Francis for the abuse suffered by indigenous people. A personal apology from the pope on Canadian soil is one of the calls to action stemming from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which examined the legacy of the residential schools in Canada.

Father MacDonald said he’s confident an apology will happen soon, noting that St. Kateri — considered a model of holiness — was brought to the faith by Jesuit missionaries, and Pope Francis is the first Jesuit pope.

— By Andrew Ehrkamp / Catholic News Service
Ehrkamp is news editor of Grandin Media, based in Edmonton, Alberta.

Americans continue to pursue “this ridiculous path” of “unlinking sex and marriage and kids, while calling what is actually falling apart flying,” said one of America’s foremost Catholic feminist thinkers.

“All the while [they’re] hurtling toward a collision with the ground,” said Helen Alvare, founder of the activist movement Women Speak for Themselves and a law professor at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School in Arlington, Virginia.

Helen Alvare, a law professor at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School in Arlington, Va., speaks July 12 at the Napa Institute conference in California. Alvare, one of America’s foremost Catholic feminist thinkers, said that despite the ongoing fallout from the sexual revolution seen in serial cohabitation and plummeting numbers of marriages, there are signs of hope for solidarity in U.S. society. (CNS photo/Dan Rogers)

“Kids are hitting rock bottom with suicide and opioid use” as serial cohabitation and plummeting numbers of marriages signal the disintegration of a relational society, she said in a talk July 12 at the Napa Institute’s eight annual conference in Northern California’s wine country.

But there are signs of hope in the “huge growth of hashtags, movements … straining toward solidarity,” Alvare said.

“There are opportunities for the church to narrow the gap between our current contemporary situation and the church’s gorgeous prescriptions for human love,” she said.

Movements such as Black Lives Matter, those that work for immigrant rights, and #MeToo demonstrate we live in a “society that wants diversity and solidarity next to each other. I hope we can see these are a reflection of the radical need for solidarity, the need to love — a message we can endorse,” Alvare said.

“Where do we get the first message about solidarity and diversity? I don’t know — Genesis?” said Alvare, referring to the creation of man and woman in the first book of the Bible.

Effective Catholic communication needs to meet people where they are and it must discard “church talk,” arcane terms such as “procreative and unitive,” Alvare said in her keynote address at the July 11-15 Napa Institute conference.

“We have to give plainspoken answers,” for instance, about contraception, said Alvare.

“If you disassociate where God chose to put babies” from a committed marriage, “do you realize what that does to the relationship between you and the man — it severs tomorrow,” Alvare said.

“Contraception severs sex from tomorrow and that’s why we oppose it,” said the law professor. She noted that in reversing the Obama administration’s contraceptive mandate, the Trump administration lifted 30 paragraphs of her law journal article disproving the factual underpinnings of the mandate.

Alvare’s audience included German Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Muller, who was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 2012 to 2017; John Garvey, president of The Catholic University of America in Washington; and Bishop Steven J. Lopes of the Houston-based Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, the Catholic Church’s U.S. ordinariate for former Anglicans.

The Napa Institute was formed to help Catholic leaders face the challenges posed by a secular America, according to its website. Alvare’s talk was inspired by the day’s theme of the 50th anniversary of Blessed Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical, “Humanae Vitae.”

There are signs all around that people are concerned about the fallout from the sexual revolution, Alvare said. “The sexual revolution is not itself a reasoned revolution. The people who invented it did not invent it out of reason,” said the married mother of three children, now teenagers and young adults.

“Children are speaking up,” wearing T-shirts “My Daddy’s name is donor,” she noted. “Hook-up” books are a genre of teen literature that talk about how bad it feels, she said.

Both the left-leaning Brookings Institute and the conservative Heritage Foundation acknowledge the harms of family instability, she said. “Too many smart academics have pointed out that family structure … is actually the largest part of the social and economic gap between rich and poor, between white and black,” and even between men and women.

Several recent academic studies indicate boys suffer more than girls if raised by a single mother, said Alvare, citing separate works by economists Raj Chetty of Stanford University and David Autor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Autor found that especially black boys raised by a single mother in a poor neighborhood tend to fall behind their sisters by kindergarten and the achievement gap widens as they go through school, Alvare said, surmising “girls are looking at Mom and seeing Mom does it all.”

“Today we are seeing that Americans are not willing to adopt the claim that the sexual revolution was a complete hands down win,” Alvare said. “Nobody thought we would reach the possibility of a fifth justice with as much of the country on our side as we have,” Alvare said.

She was referring to the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, to replace U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, who is retiring.

To counter the falsehoods of the sexual revolution, “the winning argument is relationship,” Alvare said. To say: “You think that is the way to get there, but this is not going to get you there.” That is because, Alvare said, “ultimately our desire is for the love of an infinite God.”

— By Valerie Schmalz / Catholic News Service