Blessed Sacrament Church

Free. The Holy Family was free. Unencumbered by what normally shackles us, they were free to leave everything in order to fulfill the will of God.

Meditate on the moves they were asked to make. They left the normalcy of life in Nazareth to go and register in Bethlehem, because the government said so. There just long enough to encounter a difficult innkeeper or two, shepherds and Magi, and a whole host of angels, they had to pick up the few things they brought with them and go on a moment’s notice to Egypt.

Bishop Paul Sirba Fiat Voluntas Tua

Despots and terrorists are nothing new. I wonder what they did with the gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Then they were asked to play the immigrant. No doubt a Jewish enclave still existed in Egypt after the Exodus, but they were foreigners in a strange land. That the Christ Child was safe for now is all that mattered. His time had not yet come. Deus vult: God wills.

The interior attitude of the Holy Family was faith, great faith. They believed in God’s Word. In spite of things moving in contrary motions, they trusted that the Lord’s words to them would be fulfilled.

We begin the year 2016 in the midst of uncertainties and challenges in our world and at home. We also begin the Jubilee Year of Mercy against the backdrop of the Joy of the Gospel. We have seen things lived out in the lives of the Holy Family in a way that provides hope for our own families, as well as the life of this local Church.

Pope Francis asks us to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus during the Year of Mercy. “Open up the gates of justice,” proclaimed Pope Francis, as with five strong thrusts he pushed open the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica on Dec. 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

Rediscovery time

The Pope called the Year an “extraordinary year of grace.” Our New Year’s resolution should include what he is asking of us, “to rediscover the infinite mercy of the Father.” He said: “This will be a year in which we grow ever more convinced of God’s mercy. How much wrong we do to God and his grace when we speak of sins being punished by his judgment before we speak of their being forgiven by his mercy.”

In passing through the Holy Door of our own beautiful cathedral, we should let go of what binds and burdens us, namely our sins, and live in the freedom of the Holy Family, as adopted sons and daughters of the Almighty. We should set aside fear and dread and complacency and “whatever” and feel ourselves part of the mystery of the love and tenderness of the God of mercy.

I pray God’s blessings upon all of you during the New Year. I ask your prayers for me in return. We entrust our lives and our cares to the ever-Virgin Mary, Mother of God. Through her fruitful virginity, she bestowed on the human race the merciful grace of eternal salvation.

Happy New Year! A blessed Jubilee Year of Mercy!

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

Three upcoming events may have you wishing to mark your calendars and get a registration in: a Day of Fasting and Prayer in Reparation for a Culture of Violence on Jan. 22, the annual men’s conference on Feb. 13 and the annual women’s conference on Feb. 27.

Day of Fasting and Prayer

The Diocese of Duluth is sponsoring a diocese-wide Day of Fasting and Prayer in Reparation for a Culture of Violence and Disrespect of the Human Life on Friday, Jan. 22. Bishop Paul Sirba will celebrate the 7 a.m. Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary, and Masses and Eucharistic Adoration will occur throughout the diocese. In addition to the local effort of prayer and fasting, the faithful are encouraged to join others in the state for the annual March for Life in the Twin Cities Jan. 22. A diocesan group will depart by bus from the Cathedral in Duluth after Mass and return to Duluth at 5 p.m. The cost is $5 per participant, and a light snack will be included. Registration for the buses is available here.

The event was initially organized by the Minnesota Catholic Conference, and similar events were being held in other dioceses across the state, beginning in early December. The events were partly inspired by a series of undercover sting videos discussing the sale of human body parts from aborted babies by Planned Parenthood officials. However, the day is meant to encompass the full Catholic teaching on a consistent ethic of life.

All the faithful are invited to offer their fasting and prayers for the intentions. Organizers suggest that for this voluntary fasting one might take on the fasting and abstinence one would on Ash Wednesday or Good Friday — no meat, and one normal meal with two smaller meals that don’t add up to a full meal.

Men’s and women’s conferences

This year’s fifth annual Duluth Catholic Men’s Conference is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 13, at Marshall School in Duluth. The featured speaker is Father Bill Baer, former rector of the St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul. Check-in starts at 8 a.m., and the conference begins at 9 a.m. and concludes with vigil Mass at 4 p.m. The conference schedule and registration are available at www.duluthcatholicmen.org. Hard copy registration forms are also available in parish offices. The cost of the Conference is $30 for registrations submitted on or before Feb. 1 and $40 after Feb. 1. College student cost is $15.

The fourth annual Catholic Women’s Conference will be held on Saturday, Feb. 27, also at Marshall School in Duluth, starting at 7:30 a.m. and ending in a Vigil Mass at 4 p.m. The powerful speaker Colleen Carroll Campbell, who is a national speaker, former presidential speechwriter and author of the spiritual memoir “My Sisters the Saints,” will be presenting on this topic. Before Mass the women will enjoy a brief comedy performance by a Chicago comedy troop called Bible Bingo. The Vigil Mass will be celebrated by Bishop Sirba, and families are encourage to join in. The priority registration fee is $30 for those registered by Feb. 17; after that date the registration fee is $40. College student cost is $15. Register here. Call (218) 724-9111 or email duluthcwc@gmail.com with any questions.

— The Northern Cross

Of the Father’s love begotten,
Ere the worlds began to be,
He is Alpha and Omega,
He the source, the ending He,
Of the things that are, that have been,
And that future years shall see,
Evermore and evermore!

Matthias Stom (fl. 1615–1649) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

O that birth forever blessèd,
When the virgin, full of grace,
By the Holy Ghost conceiving,
Bare the Saviour of our race;
And the Babe, the world’s Redeemer,
First revealed His sacred face,
evermore and evermore!

O ye heights of heaven adore Him;
Angel hosts, His praises sing;
Powers, dominions, bow before Him,
and extol our God and King!
Let no tongue on earth be silent,
Every voice in concert ring,
Evermore and evermore!

Christ, to Thee with God the Father,
And, O Holy Ghost, to Thee,
Hymn and chant with high thanksgiving,
And unwearied praises be:
Honour, glory, and dominion,
And eternal victory,
Evermore and evermore!

Pope Francis has approved a miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Teresa of Kolkata, thus paving the way for her canonization.

Pope Francis signed the decree for Blessed Teresa’s cause and advanced three other sainthood causes Dec. 17, the Vatican announced.

Although the date for the canonization ceremony will be officially announced during the next consistory of cardinals in February, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Vatican office organizing the Holy Year of Mercy events, had said it would be Sept. 4. That date celebrates the Jubilee of workers and volunteers of mercy and comes the day before the 19th anniversary of her death, Sept. 5, 1997.

The postulator for her sainthood cause, Father Brian Kolodiejchuk of the Missionaries of Charity, said the second miracle that was approved involved the healing of a now 42-year-old mechanical engineer in Santos, Brazil.

Doctors diagnosed the man with a viral brain infection that resulted in multiple brain abscesses, the priest said in a statement published Dec. 18 by AsiaNews, the Rome-based missionary news agency. Treatments given were ineffective and the man went into a coma, the postulator wrote.

The then-newly married man’s wife had spent months praying to Blessed Teresa and her prayers were joined by those of her relatives and friends when her dying husband was taken to the operating room Dec. 9, 2008.

When the surgeon entered the operating room, he reported that he found the patient awake, free of pain and asking, “What am I doing here?” Doctors reported the man showed no more symptoms and a Vatican medical commission voted unanimously in September 2015 that the healing was inexplicable.

St. John Paul II had made an exception to the usual canonization process in Mother Teresa’s case by allowing her sainthood cause to be opened without waiting the usual five years after a candidate’s death. He beatified her in 2003.

The order she started — the Missionaries of Charity — continues its outreach to the “poorest of the poor.”

Among the other decrees approved Dec. 17, the pope recognized the heroic virtues of Comboni Father Giuseppe Ambrosoli, an Italian surgeon, priest and missionary who dedicated his life to caring for people in Uganda, where he also founded a hospital and midwifery school before his death in 1987. His father ran the highly successful Ambrosoli honey company.

The pope also recognized the heroic virtues of De La Salle Brother Leonardo Lanzuela Martinez of Spain (1894-1976) and Heinrich Hahn, a German surgeon.

Born in 1800, the lay Catholic doctor was the father of 10 children and dedicated much of his activity to providing medical care to the poor. He was also involved in public service, even serving in the German parliament. He founded the St. Francis Xavier Mission Society in Germany and the “Giuseppino” Institute for those suffering from incurable illnesses. He died in 1882.

— By Carol Glatz / Catholic News Service

This month will be the start of a pretty big deal. Several months ago, Pope Francis announced the Holy Year of Mercy, starting Dec. 8 and running through 2016.

A Holy Year is very different from other themed years. You may remember the Year of St. Paul or the Year of Consecrated Life just concluding. These and others like them are simply different themes the recent popes have asked the church to focus on in any given year, but a Holy Year is a completely different animal with much greater significance.

Father Richard Kunst Apologetics

Though the first Catholic Holy Year was established by Pope Boniface VIII for 1300, the concept of the Holy Year goes back to the Old Testament, when every 50th year was a year of “Yobel” (meaning “ram’s horn”), because the special year was proclaimed by the blast of the ram’s horns. In these years, slaves were to go free and debts were to be forgiven. In the Christian era, the word “Yobel” was transliterated to “Jubileus” (“jubilee”), meaning “joyous festivity.”

When Pope Boniface called the first Christian Jubilee in 1300, he intended to keep the same biblical themes of forgiveness and the remission of sins. So too, Pope Francis has called for this to remain the same for the new Holy Year, which we will commence this month.

No ‘ordinary’ year

There are two types of Holy Years, “ordinary” and “extraordinary.” An ordinary Holy Year is one on the regular interval of every 25 years, so the next ordinary Holy Year will be in the year 2025. This 25-year interval was established by Pope Paul II in 1475. Before that, there was no set rule for the frequency.

Then there is the very rare extraordinary Holy Year, which is called outside that normal interval. We have had three previous extraordinary Holy Years in all of church history: 1390, 1933 and 1983 — and now 2016.

As far as the ordinary Holy Years, there have been occasions throughout history in which they were either suspended or greatly curtailed for political reasons in which the church was threatened. For example, 1825 was the only Holy Year of the nineteenth century in which the Holy Door was opened.

The primary symbol of the Holy Year is the Holy Door, which is strictly symbolic, showing that God’s mercy is open to everyone who seeks it. These Holy Doors are in each of the four major basilicas in Rome, and they are always bricked up and closed off except during the Holy Year.

The most significant of the doors is at St. Peter’s Basilica, but the other three major basilicas of St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major and St. Paul Outside the Walls have the same tradition. Each of these churches will have an ancient ritual played out to open the Holy Year. In the case of St. Peter’s, it will be the pope symbolically knocking on the door (often with a hammer) to open it. At each of other three major basilicas, a cardinal will do the same.

Dangerous tradition ended

One of the other ancient traditions associated with the Holy Year is the acquiring of Holy Year bricks. There are approximately 3,000 bricks blocking the Holy Door of St. Peter’s.

In the early years of the celebration, when the pope and his assistants would open the sacred door at the beginning of the year there would be a frenzy by the public, scrambling to acquire full bricks or even portions of bricks relics. Often people would get hurt in this scramble, and at times even the pope got caught up in the crowd. For the opening of the Holy Year of 1575, eight people actually got trampled to death, and several of the pilgrims got through the door before Pope Gregory XIII did!

In recent years the Holy See has chosen different methods of distribution to avoid the unseemly behavior that may seem more like “Black Friday” shopping than an ancient papal ritual.

As a personal aside, I have a brick from every Holy Year since 1775 in my papal collection, as can be seen on papalartifacts.com.

So, early this month we will be able to witness history being made in the truest sense of the term, and although it may be a blip on the screen to the secular media, it is indeed monumental in the life of the church.

May this extraordinary Holy Year of Mercy inspire all of us to give thanks to God for his great mercy shown to us, and then in turn show it to others.

Father Richard Kunst is pastor of St. John the Evangelist in Duluth and St. Joseph in Gnesen. Reach him at rbkunst@q.com.

Pope Francis has appointed Father James P. Powers, a priest of the Diocese of Superior, Wisconsin, and currently its administrator, to be bishop of the diocese.

The appointment was announced Dec. 15 in Washington by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, apostolic nuncio to the U.S.

Bishop-designate James Powers

A native of Baldwin, Wisconsin, Bishop-designate Powers, 62, was ordained a priest of the Superior Diocese May 20, 1990. He has served as administrator of the diocese since December 2014, a month after Bishop Peter F. Christensen was named to head the Diocese of Boise, Idaho.

Bishop designate-Powers' episcopal ordination and installation is scheduled for Feb. 18.

He said in a statement he greeted the news of his appointment with "mixed feelings" and felt "humbled to be called to the order of bishop." He said he appreciated "the confidence being placed in me" and looked forward to accepting his new role "with joy and gratitude."

He called it "an honor and privilege" to be Superior's bishop and asked Catholics in the diocese to pray "that I will always be a faithful servant to the people of God entrusted to my care."

Bishop-designate Powers said he was grateful to the late Bishop Raphael M. Fliss of Superior and Bishop Christensen, and the priests, religious and laity of the diocese who have supported him in his priestly ministry for 25 years.

To be Superior's bishop is an "honor and privilege, he said. "I ask your prayers for me that I will always be a faithful servant leader to the people of God entrusted to my care."

"The Archdiocese of Milwaukee shares in the joy experienced by the Diocese of Superior in the selection of their native son, Father James Powers, as the 11th bishop of Superior," said Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki.

"Pope Francis has appointed a man who has proven himself to be a wonderful pastor and a capable administrator. I look forward to collaborating with him for the good of the Catholic faithful of Wisconsin," he said in a statement.

Bishop-designate Powers holds a bachelor's in theology and a master's of divinity from St. John Vianney Seminary at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, and at St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul. He pursued graduate studies in canon law at St. Paul University in Ottawa, Ontario.

After his ordination, his pastoral assignments included serving for three years as associate pastor at St. Joseph Church in Rice Lake, Wisconsin. From 1993 to 1994, he was parochial administrator of four parishes in Wisconsin.

For the next four years, he was pastor of St. Bridget Church in River Falls, Wisconsin. In 1995, he was elected to the diocesan priest personnel board and in 1999 was re-elected to the board. In 1998, he served as adjunct vicar general for the diocese.

From 1998 to 2003, he was pastor of three Wisconsin parishes: St. Pius X in Solon Falls, St. Mary in Minong and St. Anthony of Padua in Gordon. From 2003 to 2014, he was administrator of those parishes as well as pastor of St. Joseph Church in Rice Lake.

He was appointed vicar general for the diocese in 2010.

While serving as diocesan administrator, he has remained pastor in Rice Lake and been pastor for three other churches in Wisconsin: Our Lady of Lourdes in Dobie, St. John the Evangelist in Birchwood, and Holy Trinity in Haugen.

The Diocese of Superior covers 15,715 square miles in the state of Wisconsin. It has a total population of 438,107 of which 69,366, or 16 percent, are Catholic.

— Catholic News Service

Be glad and exult with all your heart,
O daughter Jerusalem!
The LORD has removed the judgment against you
he has turned away your enemies;
the King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst,
you have no further misfortune to fear.

Our readings for today’s Gaudete Sunday call us, in the prophecy of Zephaniah, to look forward with rejoicing and hope. The Lord Jesus is coming again, and when He returns, in a definitive way all tears will be wiped away, all wounds will be healed, the sufferings and wrongs of this life will be put right, and the Church will show forth the holiness of the spotless Bride of Christ.

In the “already, and not yet” of Advent, this definitive culmination of history is the “not yet.” As for the “already,” St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians reminds us today that even in this life, amid its tears and misfortunes and its ongoing struggle for holiness, we can already find something of this peace and confidence and joy by entrusting all things to God now, thanks to the redemption of the world Jesus has already accomplished.

As you have heard, earlier this week, on the eve of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, the Diocese of Duluth filed for bankruptcy protection. We have had, over the past years, the opportunity to experience the purification of having some of the worst sins committed by members of the Church throughout its history in this region brought into the light of public scrutiny in their full horror.

Protecting children has been a chief commitment of our Diocese for more than two decades now. In the midst of that, this time of purification has called us to ever deeper solidarity with the innocent people who, as children, were so cruelly attacked in these sins. Wherever they are now, and no matter their view of the Church today, they remain our brothers and sisters, and we continue to love them and pray for them and cherish the gift of God that their lives represent.

We have throughout this process sought to put those victims first, to be open in all the ways that would be helpful in pursuing the truth of these decades-old wounds, and to try to do all of these things in Christian charity for friend and foe alike. That is why, on the eve of the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, two Decembers ago, we publicly released the names of priests who have some connection to the Diocese of Duluth with known accusations against them and have continued to update that list as more information becomes available. It’s why we have for so many years continually encouraged anyone who has been abused to come forward both to public authorities and within the Church so that we can listen to them and offer them whatever assistance we can. It is also the approach we have taken in the courts.

Those same goals are why we chose to pursue bankruptcy protection. If we had not done so, it could have left many victims in the position of receiving nothing, and it could have severely damaged the work God has called His Church to do in this part of the world.

Still, it is a sad event, one I had hoped would not be necessary at this point, and another occasion for our purification, for our reparation for the sins committed against children by generations past and for our own self-examination to be sure we are doing all we can to eliminate those evils and all of our sins, as John the Baptist preaches in our Gospel reading.

We will be a poorer Church because we have pursued bankruptcy, but that is a purification, too — an opportunity to rely ever more fully on Jesus.

I began my ministry as your Bishop with the episcopal motto “Fiat Voluntas Tua” — “Thy Will Be Done” — a statement of trust in the Providence of God. Through all these things, through joyful times and sorrowful times, the Lord has shown Himself again and again as our trustworthy Savior, and Our Lady, the patroness of our Diocese, has protected us by her prayers.

Today I invite you to renew this confident trust. As our Psalm for today tells us:

God indeed is my savior;
I am confident and unafraid.
My strength and my courage is the LORD,
and He has been my savior.

Yours in the Lord Jesus,

Most Reverend Paul D. Sirba
Bishop of Duluth
The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, December 8, 2015

By Kyle Eller / The Northern Cross — The Diocese of Duluth has a large new class of permanent deacons. Five men — Ralph Bakeberg, James Philbin, Carl Provost, Tim Richardson and Grant Toma — were ordained by Bishop Paul Sirba Nov. 22 at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary in Duluth.

Deacon Bakeberg, 53, serves All Saints in Baxter. Deacon Philbin, 51, serves St. Benedict in Duluth. Deacon Provost, 50, serves St. Rose in Proctor. Deacon Richardson, 58, serves Immaculate Heart in Crosby. Deacon Toma, 43, serves Blessed Sacrament in Hibbing.

From left, Ralph Bakeberg, Jim Philbin, Carl Provost, Tim Richardson and Grant Toma listen to Bishop Paul Sirba during their ordination as permanent deacons Nov. 22. — Photo courtesy of Jerry Bock

In his homily, Bishop Sirba highlighted the role of service and echoed some themes of Pope Francis, like working in the church as being part of a “field hospital.”

“You are called to go to the fringes, as Pope Francis reminds us,” he said.

Deacon Ralph Bakeberg: Moved by the rosary

Deacon Bakeberg was born in Winsted and raised in Waverly. He met his wife Patty after three years in the Army and moved to Brainerd in 1977. They have been married 28 years and have two children and four grandchildren.

He said when he was younger, he had faith but wasn’t very active in the church, but with the arrival of his children, his faith started to grow deeper, and he knew he was hearing some kind of call, but he wasn’t sure to what. He kept making excuses.

“Then one day I started to pray the rosary, and not just saying it but really praying it,” he said. “The next thing I knew there were no more excuses, and I was checking to see if I was being called to be a deacon.”

He said formation has had its challenges. “I had a lot of struggles personally and academically,” he said. “When the times got rough I turned to the Lord and asked him if this is what I am supposed to be doing, and he said yes and carried me through the rough times.”

He says Patty was the main person he leaned on, talked to and sometimes complained to, and he said he’s had great support from his parish and from other deacons.

Deacon Bakeberg says he still finds himself humbled to be called.

“All I want to do is show people the love and mercy of Christ. How he wants me to do that I do not know, but I will follow him and do what he asks of me.”

Deacon James Philbin: Picking up a family legacy

Deacon Philbin, who with his wife Margo has two children, grew up a cradle Catholic in Chicago and attended Notre Dame. After he met Margo in college, they got involved in Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Seattle. He worked with homeless youth, as a youth minister, as a theology teacher and a campus minister, and he and Margo also worked at a retreat center and at a Catholic Worker community in the Northwest. In Duluth, where the family moved in 2000, he works with a small nonprofit that does afforable housing for low-income people.

Deacon Philbin said his father worked for the church, and he had an uncle who was a priest and a significant influence. “He was one of the most joy-filled, faithful people I ever met,” Deacon Philbin said. “Near the end of his life, just after the 50th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood, I began to feel God tapping me on the shoulder, as if to say that it was time for someone else in the family to pick up my uncle’s legacy.”

On a mission trip to El Salvador, he was “able to walk in the holy footsteps of one of my heroes,” Blessed Oscar Romero, and he read C.S. Lewis’ book “Mere Christianity” with its call to recognize Jesus as Lord.

“Alone in a tiny chapel in San Salvador, I realized that if I truly believed he was the Christ, then I had to make a complete commitment to him, just as my uncle and Romero did,” Deacon Philbin said.

Formation, which he began at a priest’s invitation, has been “transformative, challenging and rewarding” and made possible by his wife and daughters and the help of good friends with child care when the girls were young.

“In many ways I feel woefully inadequate, and then I think of the Twelve Apostles and know that our Lord does not ask us to be experts. He asks us to be faithful and forgiving,” Deacon Philbin said.

As for his future ministry, Deacon Philbin jokes that he hopes he doesn’t “knock anything over on the altar or light something on fire.”

He loves teaching and helping people to see how God is working in their lives. But he said being a deacon doesn’t mean being the best at everything. “I hope to do my part faithfully and joyfully, while celebrating the gifts that others bring,” he said. “For me, to be ordained with Pope Francis as our good shepherd is a true blessing. I hope to live and share the Joy of the Gospel!”

Deacon Carl Provost: Called during a construction project

Deacon Provost was born and raised in Proctor. “Basically, I have been a member of St. Rose parish for 50 years — baptized there, attended grade school there, was confirmed there, raised my family there and now will . . . serve as deacon in the St. Raphael/St. Rose cluster.”

He and his wife Hollie married in 1988 and have four children and three grandchildren. He graduated from the University of Minnesota Duluth with a degree in business administration and has worked for United Health Group since 1996.

Deacon Provost said he’s had a relationship with God since childhood and at one time aspired to be a priest, “but that wasn’t God’s will for me.”

He said that around the year 2000, he spent a lot of time working with and conversing with Deacon Tom Kubat, who was putting an addition on the house, and he started to feel called himself, more and more strongly, until he spoke to his pastor in 2009 and found himself in the program the next year.

He described formation as a “fabulous experience” that has given him knowledge of theology but more importantly helped build relationships with God and neighbor. “That has been the most rewarding,” he said, “to learn to put all my trust in him and to rely on him for everything. For us, everything is impossible, but for him all things are possible.”

He said he wasn’t sure what ministry would look like, but he seeks “to only do God’s will” and prays for the courage to carry out whatever is asked of him.

Deacon Tim Richardson: ‘Stop doing that!’

Deacon Richardson grew up on a farm in Boscobel, Wisconsin, and farmed until 1982, when he began a professional music career. In 1993, he started working with teens in an adolescent group home and eventually got an elementary teaching license and a special education license for emotional/behavioral disorders and finally a master’s degree in education. He teaches special education in Brainerd.

He met his wife Cindy through music and was married in 1983. Unlike his wife, Deacon Richardson was not Catholic. He says he considered himself an agnostic from his teens to his mid- 20s until he felt a “prodding” in 1993 and began the process of converting. RCIA was 25 miles away in Pequot Lakes at 7 p.m., and it was often after a music gig lasting into the wee hours the night before. “Much coffee was consumed during RCIA,” he said.

He became a secular Franciscan and thought his spiritual life would simply be a process of getting more deeply into that spirituality. But there was more coming.

“[A]bout 10 years ago I began experiencing some things at church that I couldn’t explain,” he said. “Sometimes I would sob spontaneously, seemingly without cause, before Mass, and during Mass. I didn’t make the connection for a while but then began to notice that it happened consistently when there was a deacon close by or topics in the readings and homilies regarding vocations, being a servant to the poor, etc.”

He discussed it with his pastor, and eventually he was approached by Deacon Jim Kirzeder, who had noticed him praying often and asked if he had ever considered a call to the diaconate. When Richardson said, “Yes, but I’m resisting,” he says Deacon Kirzeder told him: “Stop doing that!”

Formation was a “beautiful journey, but not without difficulty,” he says. Though there were times he considered not returning the next month, he said it’s been a process of spiritual, academic and human growth, learning to trust that God is in control.

“My first goal is simply to be a deacon — to be that bridge between the clergy and the laity,” he said. “I hope always to be accessible in my role as a deacon in the church but also as a godly man in the secular world.”

Beyond that, he said he hopes to remain open and docile to the Spirit, knowing that God may stretch him beyond his natural talents and skills.

Deacon Grant Toma: Renting houses

Deacon Toma is the youngest of three children and has lived in Side Lake for 17 years. He and his wife Deb have four children and have been married 20 years. He works as a sergeant for the St. Louis County Sheriff’s office and has been a policeman for 21 years.

Deacon Toma says he is a crade Catholic who never really strayed from the church. “But I definitely had a deeper conversion prior to starting the diaconate program,” thanks to a good friend who sparked his faith by sharing a personal testimony.

One of the extraordinary parts of his formation process has been his family’s journey. “What was different than most couples going through the process is we had to rent houses down in Duluth so that we could make it work,” he said. “It was really the grace of God that it always worked out.”

The unusual housing was needed for nursing care. When they started the process, they had one daughter with special needs who required specialized care. During the first year, they learned they were expecting another child, and she too has special needs.

“What’s crazy is God still made it work,” Deacon Toma said. “And here I am five years later and only missing one weekend (which happened to be the first class of inquiry) amidst all our trials and countless hospitalizations. God is always good!”

He said that when he first started the formation process, he was interested in prison ministry, and he still is, but he has also found himself drawn to helping the poor. “I love visiting the homebound and will definitely continue that,” he said. “I’m excited to see where God leads me.”

One of the ways to celebrate the Year of Mercy is the tradition of the Holy Door, which pilgrims may pass through — a practice which involves a plenary indulgence.

In addition to several Holy Doors opened in Rome by Pope Francis Dec. 8, dioceses can have their own Holy Doors at a cathedral or a shrine. In the Diocese of Duluth, Bishop Paul Sirba has designated the center interior doors at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary as the diocesan Holy Door. On Dec. 13, at the Cathedral’s 10:30 a.m. Mass, he will be symbolically opening those doors as part of the liturgy. People may then go in pilgrimage to visit the door throughout the Year of Mercy.

In Catholic tradition, the Holy Door represents the passage to salvation. For more information, see this article from the most recent issue of The Northern Cross.

In the wake of last month’s court decision and its $8.1 million judgment, of which the Diocese of Duluth has been found responsible for $4.9 million, we have today filed on an emergency basis for bankruptcy protection in order to reorganize under Chapter 11. The necessity of this decision became clear after other efforts to reach a resolution that would assist all abuse victims and protect the Church’s mission had proved, as yet, unsuccessful. The Diocese will continue those good faith efforts during the bankruptcy process.

Father James Bissonette, vicar general of the Diocese, issued the following statement on behalf of the Diocese:

“There is sadness in having to proceed in this fashion. After the recent trial, the Diocese again attempted to reach a mutually-agreeable resolution. Up to this point, the Diocese has not been able to reach such a settlement, and given the magnitude of the verdict, the Diocese was left with no choice but to file for reorganization. The decision to file today safeguards the limited assets of the Diocese and will ensure that the resources of the Diocese can be shared justly with all victims, while allowing the day-to-day operation of the work of the Church to continue. This decision is in keeping with our approach since the enactment of the Child Victims Act, which has been to put abuse victims first, to pursue the truth with transparency and to do the right thing in the right way.”

Background information

• The Child Victims Act in the State of Minnesota opened up the possibility of civil lawsuits against the Church for cases dating back decades, resulting in an as-yet-unknown number of those historical cases being brought to court.
• The Doe 30 case, decided Nov. 4, held the Diocese of Duluth partially responsible for abuse suffered by a victim in 1978 with an $8.1 million judgment, with the Diocese held responsible for 60 percent of that judgment.
• For more than two decades, since 1992, the Diocese has had safe environment policies in place and diligently followed them. These policies involve mandatory reporting, cooperation with law enforcement, background checks and other safety precautions for Diocesan personnel and safety training for children, and these policies are continually updated and improved.
• The Diocesan operating budget for the last fiscal year was $3,294,627. Although there is insurance coverage and some Diocesan savings available in this case, it is insufficient for such a large judgment, and no resources would be available for the remaining abuse victims who have brought claims.