A trip into the writing archives

During a meeting yesterday, a project designer we're working with mentioned the St. John's Bible as inspiration for a project we're working on. I remembered writing about in 2008 and he asked to see it. Searching through my writing archives was a lot of fun, so I'm sharing some works from that time. First up? The St. John's Bible story.

St. John's Bible illuminates the word of God for our time

By Wendy A. Hoke UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS—St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minn., is essentially a train stop, a modern campus that marks time by the rhythm of the monks who call the abbey home.

Just an hour from the Twin Cities, it also is home to a spectacular work of art. For the first time in 500 years, the Benedictines of St. John’s Abbey have collaborated on a handwritten and illuminated bible known as the St. John’s Bible.

If your summer travel plans don’t include a trip to the Twin Cities, you can head over to John Carroll University, where just inside the Grasselli Library is a copy of the Wisdom Books of the St. John’s Bible, a gift from Target Corp., in honor of retired Target Executive Vice President John Pellegrene, a North Canton native and John Carroll alumnus.

The oversized Bible is rich with imagery from a craft that dates to the ancient world, when manuscripts were on scrolls of papyrus, according to Joseph Kelly, professor of religious studies at John Carroll University. By the Eighth and Ninth centuries, Benedictine monasteries of the west, under the patronage of the Emperor Charlemagne, began writing and illuminating not just sacred works, but also secular works such as love songs.

Near the end of the Middle Ages, however, capitalism and the need for a literate public led to more widespread printing of books. Illuminated manuscripts were left to history.

But in the early 1970s, Donald Jackson—senior illuminator to the Queen of England’s Crown Office—appeared on NBC’s “The Today Show” where host Barbara Walters asked him about his life’s dream. His response? “I would like to write the Bible.”

Later he would describe his dream as, “The calligraphic artist’s supreme challenge (our Sistine Chapel), a daunting task.”

Sharing his life’s dream on national television brought him to the attention of St. John’s Abbey, a Benedictine monastery with the largest collection of manuscripts in the world—10 million images and 2 million manuscripts, according to Craig Bruner, director of operations, The St. John’s Bible.

Jackson was the main attraction at the first calligraphy conference held at St. John’s in 1984. During an interview with Minnesota Public Radio, he reiterated his desire to write the Bible, something Abbey community kept in mind as the relationship between them continued.

In the mid-1990s, in preparation for a millennium project, Father Eric Hollas of St. John’s asked Jackson over lunch if he would make the word of God live on the page.

“Do you want it?” he asked.

The answer was unequivocally yes. Jackson and St. John’s Abbey would illuminate the St. John’s Bible—a celebration of books, the book arts and religion.

Video accounts on St. John’s Web site show Jackson using the ancient practice of preparing his Quill, stripping its feathers and mixing his inks with egg yolks for lasting color.

In March 2000, the first words were penned.

In the beginning was the Word, And the Word was with God,

And the Word was God. Brother Dietrich Reinhart, OSB, describes the frontispiece as, “The word of God striding out of cosmic time into the world we live in.”

When complete in late 2009 or early 2010, the entire St. John’s Bible will comprise seven volumes—Pentateuch, Wisdom Books, Psalms, Prophets, Gospels and Acts of the Apostles, Historical Writings and Letters and Revelation, according to Bruner.

In all, the St. John’s Bible will contain 1,160 pages and 160 illuminations. While the originals will be housed at St. John’s on permanent exhibition, reproductions like the one at John Carroll will travel the world.

While the text is rooted in history, using ancient methods, it is also very much a product of its time, according to Kelly.

“When medieval scribes were writing and illuminating the Bible, they wrote and illuminated what they knew—flora, fauna and people around them,” says Bruner. “It was modern to them just as the illuminations in the St. John’s Bible reflect the flora, fauna and life of people today.”

In the opening to Matthew with the genealogy of Christ, the illuminations feature the double helix of DNA embedded in the manuscript. “That locates this work in the 21st century, because that’s when human genome project was completed,” says Bruner.

The books are more a work of art than scholarly text, but Bruner says the original will be used liturgically for Christmas, Easter, graduation and other major celebrations.

And there’s a hope the reproductions, which will make their way around the world, will ignite spiritual imaginations.

“We’re trying to make a statement about faith and the importance of art and imagination,” says Brother Reinhart in a video about the project. “The fact that there’s common ground for us to stand on in a world torn apart by violence and hatred and it’s to be found in the sacred texts that enliven and enrich all cultures on this planet.”

Visit www.saintjohnsbible.org for information, photos and video of the project.

Hoke is a freelance writer.

Materials used in the original St. John’s Bible

The original Bible is made on calfskin vellum, specifically prepared for writing. The reproductions are made on 100 percent cotton archival paper.

Inks used include lapis lazuli, 24-karat gold leaf and 100-year-old Chinese black inks made from candle soot.

The gold leaf is decades old and made by hammering pieces of gold flat until it is foil thickness. Calligraphers use a substance called gesso—white lead, fish glue and plaster—that they paint on and let it dry. Using a small tube in their mouth they blow on the gesso to warm it up and create a surface glue that they put the foil on. Using a burnisher, (a stone mounted on a wood handle) the calligrapher rubs the foil, making it permanent.

My new mantra

"We cannot do great things on this earth. We can only do small things with great love." -- Mother Theresa

Merton on the truth about suffering

"The truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering the more you suffer because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you in proportion to your fear of being
hurt." -- Thomas Merton

Introducing St. Vincent Charity Medical Center

With completion of the transaction between the Sisters of Charity Health System and University Hospitals on Dec. 31, 2009, the Sisters of Charity Health System has regained 100 percent ownership and governance of St. Vincent Charity Hospital. With this strong commitment of the founding Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine to this 145-year-old institution, St. Vincent Charity Hospital today is reintroduced to the community as St. Vincent Charity Medical Center.

“St. Vincent Charity Medical Center is not just one place. It is a hospital in the Campus District with off-site facilities across Greater Cleveland, including locations in Solon, Brecksville, Church Square, Brookpark, Independence and the former St. Luke’s,” said Sister Judith Ann Karam, CSA, president and CEO of the Sisters of Charity Health System and St. Vincent Charity Medical Center.

“This modest change to our name also reflects the teaching role of the hospital, which includes training physicians, dentists, podiatrists and many other health care professionals for our community. This is further supported by our developing collaboration with Catholic Community Connection and also with our neighbors, Cleveland State University, Cuyahoga Community College and the Campus District,” said Karam. “Yet it also remains true to our mission as an urban, faith-based hospital and our continuing quest for the highest quality and patient-centered health care across our diverse service lines as well as our evolving role in promoting health and wellness.”

Not only has the organization name changed, but it has also adopted the radiant cross of its parent organization, the Sisters of Charity Health System. This new identity emphasizes St. Vincent Charity Medical Center’s faith-based component as a beacon of hope and an extension of the healing ministry of Jesus. It also more closely ties the hospital to the Sisters of Charity Health System family brand, which is comprised of five hospitals, three grant-making foundations, two eldercare facilities and a number of community outreach ministries in Northeast Ohio and South Carolina.

The name and logo change was implemented internally on Jan. 11. However, the launch became official last week with presentation of the HealthGrades Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical ExcellenceTM and launch of a new advertising campaign celebrating this accomplishment and rebranding St. Vincent Charity Medical Center.

The rebranding campaign was an effort that began in June 2009 when the marketing department and creative partners, Twist Creative, convened a team of caregivers from across departments to help identify the strengths, weakness, challenges and opportunities present at St. Vincent. Over the course of several months and with the help of patient and employee satisfaction surveys and market research, the team developed brand positioning statements that reflect the personality, character and atmosphere at St. Vincent. The essence of the new brand is: Care you can believe in.

This new tagline reflects how St. Vincent Charity Medical Center delivers faith-based personalized health care. “As when the Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine founded St. Vincent in 1865, our renowned physicians, nurses and staff understand that true healing comes not only from advanced medical technology, but also from a warm, holistic, healing touch,” said Karam.

“We started from the premise that when you’re sick or injured your desire to get well is equal to your desire to be treated well,” said Wendy Hoke, director of marketing and communications at St. Vincent Charity Medical Center. “Our current advertising campaign reflects how our patients find comfort and confidence in an approach to health care worth believing in through the excellent care provided by our physicians and caregivers,” said Hoke.

Completing the new branding is the launch of a new, interactive and highly functional Web site that has reinforced the focus on delivering the best in clinical excellence. Additionally, St. Vincent Charity Medical Center has launched a social media strategy that includes Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

###

About St. Vincent Charity Medical Center
St. Vincent Charity Medical Center is Cleveland’s faith-based, high-quality healthcare provider. Our distinguished doctors and caregivers are devoted to treating every patient with clinical excellence and compassionate care. St. Vincent Charity Medical Center is home to the renowned Spine and Orthopedic Institute and the Center for Bariatric Surgery. Owned by the Sisters of Charity Health System, St. Vincent Charity Medical Center delivers health care you can believe in. The Sisters of Charity Health System is a family of hospitals, grant-making foundations, elder care and outreach organizations devoted to healing individual, families and communities. For more information, visit http://www.stvincentcharity.com/.

Queen of the Americas

In celebration of the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, here's a story I wrote for the Catholic Universe Bulletin that appeared on Dec. 1, 2006.

Queen of the Americas

Our Lady of Guadalupe feast reaches all Hispanics

By Wendy A. Hoke

For centuries she has been called upon to comfort, defend and protect. Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Marianist apparition who appeared as a native Aztec on a Mexican hilltop to a widower in 1531, is responsible in part for converting millions of indigenous people into Catholics.

Today she is known as the patron saint of the Americas, or the Queen of the Americas, as some Hispanics like Victor Pena of La Sagrada Familia refer to her.

For the faithful, like Eva Pena of Sacred Heart Chapel in Lorain, she is hope.

Sitting under her peaceful gaze in the sanctuary at Sacred Heart, Pena pauses from the history of Our Lady and says, “Can I tell you a personal story?”

Six years ago her husband passed away after a short bout with lung cancer. Several months later, her oldest son had a grand mal seizure and was diagnosed with a stage four malignant brain tumor. Surgery was performed, but doctors warned that he might never be the same, experiencing possible blindness, deafness and inability to chew properly.

“My friend told me to pray, to pray hard. So every day I would pray to Our Lady,” she said. Surgeons were able to remove 90 percent of the tumor. Within two months of his surgery, Pena’s son was back at work. He has been in recovery for five years.

Pena’s story echoes that of Juan Diego, the Mexican Indian Christian who was on his way to church when Mary appeared to him on a hill in Tepeyac near Mexico City. “Our Lady gave Juan Diego a message to take to the bishop, that she wanted a church built on the hill.”

In order to convince the bishop of her appearance, Our Lady filled Juan Diego’s tilma (cape tied around his neck) with fresh roses, which were not known to grow in this region, particularly in winter.

“When Juan Diego removes his tilma and the bishop sees all the roses, he is astounded,” she said.

At the time, Spanish missionaries were not very successful in converting indigenous people to Catholicism and much blood was shed in the process of trying to do so. But the appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe changed that since she appeared not as a white European Madonna, but as a Native Aztec Indian, speaking in the native Indian language.

Her likeness, beautifully rendered in the mosaic in Sacred Heart Chapel, is filled with symbolism. Her red robe represents the blood shed through wars with native people. She wears a Christian cross at her throat and an Aztec cross on her womb. She is framed in golden rays of the sun, a symbol of Aztec culture. On her head is a crown of 12 stars and a rose pattern is on her cape.

She has been called upon to cure the sick, including Juan Diego’s uncle for whom he was praying at the time of the apparition. Alcoholics have turned to her for help in abstaining from drinking.
Her feast begins Monday (Dec. 4) with nightly novenas, some in Spanish and some in English, and runs through Dec. 12.

Eva Pena looks forward to the celebration. She grew up with a Mexican mother and an Italian father. Her mother prayed the rosary daily. “I grew up honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe for how miraculous she was.”

The feast day begins with an early morning service, called Las Mananitas, a good morning song traditionally played with mariachi band. Sacred Heart (440) 282-7172 and La Sagrada Familia (216) 631-2888 on Cleveland’s West Side both begin the day with traditional song and mariachi music.

Following Mass said in Spanish, both parishes host a celebration party with dancing and traditional Mexican food. It’s a big event drawing big crowds from all cultures. All are welcome, but plan to arrive early to get a seat.

At St. Mary in Painesville (440) 354-4381, Las Mananitas begins at 4 a.m. A procession of children dressed in traditional Indian costumes like Juan Diego and bearing gifts of food and flowers precedes the evening Mass, according to Christina Garcia.

“Las Mananitas connects us with Mexican culture,” explained Garcia. “Our Lady of Guadalupe adopted us; she’s like a mother to the Mexican people. The first thing Mexicans want to see when they cross the border is Our Lady to thank her,” she said.

Although the feast is largely centered on the church, it also is celebrated in some homes as part of the Christmas celebration.

“We put a statue in our home all during December with lights around it because that’s how we start Christmas. We’ll put her next to the Christmas tree so we can remember her all during December,” said Garcia.

Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Macedonia will celebrate with an evening prayer service with its PSR students, according to Father David Trask. Although it is not home to a Hispanic community, Father Trask said Our Lady greatly influenced the church’s founding pastor.

“We honor Our Lady for her many miracles and for who she stands for,” said Pena.

UB story: Paging Father Art

My latest story in the UB is on Father Art Snedeker, the chaplain at MetroHealth Medical Center. My mom, who works in the Rammelkamp Center for Education and Research, remembers Father Art coming to visit her when she was a cancer patient at Metro. (Photo by Bill Reiter)

Paging Father Art

MetroHealth Chaplain helps critical patients
imagine their way to healing

By Wendy A. Hoke

CLEVELAND-The burn unit on the fifth floor of MetroHealth’s near west side campus is quiet today. As Father Art Snedecker, the Catholic chaplain, enters the unit he walks past the nurse’s station when his pager goes off. He turns to use the phone and check in on a patient. After a brief call, all is well—for now.

Snedecker is the chaplain for all the hospital’s critical care units, including patients and staff, and administers to its many Catholic patients.

Lynne Yurko, nurse manager of the burn unit, is standing nearby and smiles when she sees him coming down the hallway. “He is our priest, friend and colleague,” she says. “We laugh together and cry together and when something awful or evil happens, we pray together,” she says.

His presence fosters a peaceful environment in this critical care unit where stress levels frequently run very high.

“Father Art,” as his ID badge says, has been part of the hospital’s multi-disciplinary team for 10 years, and it’s a position that mixes his love of Christ and the power of prayer in healing with the miracles of modern medicine.

His presence has become so important to the burn unit that he, Yurko and three physicians conducted research on the role his pastoral care plays in reducing pain and anxiety in burn patients.

Using prayer, pastoral counseling, guided imagery (the use of rhythmic breathing and visualization) and breath of God (imagining the spirit of God entering them as they breathe), researchers found a significant decrease in both pain and anxiety for patients regardless of gender or faith community affiliation.

The work of guided imagery grew out of Father Snedecker’s work with a 15-year-old burn patient a number of years ago. “This boy had a high degree of pain and anxiety and was under sedation. He should not have remembered anything. But he ran with the image of being at a lake and fishing. In between expletives he would talk about the weather, the day, the clouds, the sky. What was so incredible was when he came out of sedation he wanted to apologize for his language. He should not have even remembered it,” he says, because of the heavy medications.

The therapy worked as Father Snedecker knew it would.

When he was in seminary in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Father Snedecker would have reflection retreats in which he was asked to picture himself sitting at a table with Jesus. “What’s he wearing? Is he smiling? Can you look into his eyes? What is he saying?”

Daydreaming and the process of sighing or expelling a deep breath is the body’s natural release of stress. That’s what Father Snedecker uses to empower patients in their own healing. “It’s as powerful as a person’s imagination and as intimate as their breath.”

In hindsight his path seems very clear.

Father Snedecker had always wanted to become a doctor. He was an orderly at Parma General Hospital and entered Bowling Green State University as a pre-med major. But after he entered college he received a different calling and chose instead to enter the seminary.

After his ordination, he was given a choice to pursue campus ministry or hospital chaplaincy. One night while sitting outside the chapel at Parma Hospital, he prayed for guidance. “I said no to chaplaincy and as I was driving away I wondered why I did that.

“Looking back I think I was too young and didn’t have enough life experience,” he says.

After years as a campus minister and then a parish priest, he suffered a heart attack and, at age 48, required open-heart surgery.

“I knew I needed to make lifestyle changes and I knew I’d been given a second chance,” he says. Against the advice of friends, he resigned as pastor of Immaculate Conception in Akron, and it wasn’t long after that former Bishop Anthony Pilla asked if he’d consider being a hospital chaplain.

What began as a temporary assignment became much more from the first moment Father Snedecker, now 60, set foot on MetroHealth. “As soon as I walked in the doors, I fell in love with the place. God blesses Metro because it cares for the poor,” he says.

“I learned very early on that I couldn’t do this alone. Every unit of the hospital operates as a team in caring for the patient. The work is not mine alone because Christ is here with me.”

The job remains tough because he faces not only trauma and tragedy, but also acts of evil at times. “My faith has been challenged, but also rewarded and I am a richer person for having this work in my life.”

Hoke is a freelance writer.

"We are already one"

And the deepest level of communication is not communication, but communion. It is wordless. It is beyond words, and it is beyond speech, and it is beyond concept. Not that we discover a new unity. We discover an older unity. My dear brothers, we are already one. But we imagine that we are not. And what we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we are.

— Thomas Merton, The Asian Journal

'To bury the dead' wins first place in features

The Catholic Press Association announced the winners of its 2008 editorial contest this past weekend and I just learned this afternoon that my story, "To bury the dead" about the Joseph of Arimathea Society at St. Ignatius High School won first place in features category. Complete results of the contest are available as PDF.

Here's what the judges had to say:

"This story delivered a strong sense of place and purpose. The writer provided keen insight into this unusual ministry, telling the story of the living while paying reverence to the dead. It was also an easy, inviting read. The story is worthy of first place for more than a single reason."

Here's a link to the story. I want to acknowledge and thank photographer Bill Rieter for his great work on this and the many other stories we've worked on together. He does a fantastic job of quickly recognizing the kind of story I'm trying to tell and definitely added to the telling of this important story.

It's important to recognize the young men at St. Ignatius High School who give of their time so unselfishly to perform one of the great honors on this earth—carrying a person to their final resting place. Thank you, gentlemen, for letting me tag along and tell your story.

In Friday's UB: Vatican Splendors and St. John's Bible

I'm a bit behind in my postings, but here are links and copies of two of my stories from Friday's Catholic Universe Bulletin.

Vatican Splendors

Exhibit a celebration of art, culture, Christianity and history

By Wendy A. Hoke

In the first century of the Common Era, during the time of Christ, there’s a legend that says King Abgar of Edessa in modern day Turkey had an incurable sickness. Hearing of the miracles of Jesus, he wrote to him asking for his help.

Jesus wrote back saying he could not come to Edessa, located in the Euphrates River basin in the cradle of civilization known as Mesopotamia. But he promised that when he ascended to heaven, he would send a disciple to heal Abgar. Before he died Jesus pressed his face into a rectangular piece of cloth and after he died, did indeed send one of his disciples to Abgar with the cloth.

“The Mandylion of Edessa” as the cloth is known today, is believed to be the earliest image of Christ and is one of the historic and spiritual treasures that await visitors to “Vatican Splendors,” an exhibition opening May 31 at the Western Reserve Historical Society and presented locally by the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums of Ohio, Inc.

The tour commemorates the 500th anniversary of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, the founding of the Vatican Museums, Michelangelo’s painting of the Sistine Chapel, and the establishment of the Papal Swiss Guard.

“Visitors will have access to objects that have never before been seen in public and many that have never been outside of Rome,” says Mark Greenberg, president of Evergreen Exhibitions, which is producing the exhibition. Even if you go to Rome, you probably won’t get to see these items because many are not on public display.

Cleveland is the middle of only three stops on the tour that also includes St. Petersburg, Fla., and St. Paul, Minn. “Cleveland has such a strong Catholic community,” explains Greenberg. “We needed a venue with the experience to handle the size, security, handling and environmental controls of such an exhibition.”

Evergreen, the Vatican Office of Liturgical Celebrations and the curator of the Vatican Museums were convinced of the Western Reserve Historical Society’s capabilities following the success of the Princess Diana exhibition.

“Vatican Splendors” is designed to move visitors through galleries that illustrate the early church through to the election of Pope Benedict XVI.

Along with the Edessa image, the reliquary containing the venerated bones of St. Peter and architectural drawings of the original St. Peter Basilica built by the Roman Emperor Constantine represent the early church. The exhibition moves through time all the way to the ballot boxes and white-smoke canisters from the most recent papal election, giving visitors—both Catholic and non-Catholic—a glimpse of the church’s 2,000-year-old history.

While we don’t worship objects, many are sacramental, explains Father David Novak, pastor of St. Stanislaus and Holy Trinity parishes in Lorain and chairman of the board of the Museum of the Diocese of Cleveland. “We don’t worship water and yet we revere it as holy because it’s used as a way to communicate God’s grace and His love of the world,” he says.

The same can be said of the objects and art on exhibition here—objects that celebrate the great mysteries of life, death and resurrection.

“These objects say something about who we are and reflect our story as member of the Catholic church,” says Novak.

The art here reflects more craft than science and nowhere is that more evident than in the simple instrument of Michelangelo’s genius—a compass. The crude-looking instrument, says Greenberg, allowed for the construction of amazing buildings that reflect symmetry sometimes referred to as the sacred geometry.

With the televised death of Pope John Paul II and the election of Pope Benedict XVI, the exhibition will feature actual items from that process, including Swiss Guard uniforms and weaponry, and the ballot boxes and white-smoke canisters from the actual election.

The stories of the popes’ travels in the world are reflected through ancient maps of North America, China and Africa, and the gifts of a Thanka by the Dalai Lama and a wooden Tree of Life sculpture from Africa.

Church history is filled with stories of and the events that changed history and rearranged countries, such as the tiara given by Napoleon Bonaparte to Pope Pius VII, which was made from jewels stolen from the Vatican and featuring one of the world’s largest emeralds. Although it is spectacular in its detail, it also was made too small to wear, which was considered a veiled insult to the pope.

Aside from representing the church’s longstanding history in the world, “Vatican Splendors” also reminds us of the influence of the Vatican’s patronage on art and culture.

And it gives Catholics a way to remember and celebrate the alternating magistry and simplicity of a faith shaped by world history.

“Vatican Splendors” will be open through September 7, 2008 and on Monday-Wednesday, 10 a.m. - 9 p.m. Last admission is at 7 p.m.; Thursday-Sunday 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Last admission is at 5 p.m. The Western Reserve Historical Society is located at 10825 East Boulevard, (in University Circle). The Western Reserve Historical Society parking lot is located off of Magnolia Drive. Visit www.wrhs.org, or call 216-721-5722. For advance group discount information and reservations, contact sales@ TicketsForGroups.com or call 800-840-1157.

St. John's Bible illuminates the word of God for our time

By Wendy A. Hoke

UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS—St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minn., is essentially a train stop, a modern campus that marks time by the rhythm of the monks who call the abbey home.

Just an hour from the Twin Cities, it also is home to a spectacular work of art. For the first time in 500 years, the Benedictines of St. John’s Abbey have collaborated on a handwritten and illuminated bible known as the St. John’s Bible.

If your summer travel plans don’t include a trip to the Twin Cities, you can head over to John Carroll University, where just inside the Grasselli Library is a copy of the Wisdom Books of the St. John’s Bible, a gift from Target Corp., in honor of retired Target Executive Vice President John Pellegrene, a North Canton native and John Carroll alumnus.

The oversized Bible is rich with imagery from a craft that dates to the ancient world, when manuscripts were on scrolls of papyrus, according to Joseph Kelly, professor of religious studies at John Carroll University. By the Eighth and Ninth centuries, Benedictine monasteries of the west, under the patronage of the Emperor Charlemagne, began writing and illuminating not just sacred works, but also secular works such as love songs.

Near the end of the Middle Ages, however, capitalism and the need for a literate public led to more widespread printing of books. Illuminated manuscripts were left to history.

But in the early 1970s, Donald Jackson—senior illuminator to the Queen of England’s Crown Office—appeared on NBC’s “The Today Show” where host Barbara Walters asked him about his life’s dream. His response? “I would like to write the Bible.”

Later he would describe his dream as, “The calligraphic artist’s supreme challenge (our Sistine Chapel), a daunting task.”

Sharing his life’s dream on national television brought him to the attention of St. John’s Abbey, a Benedictine monastery with the largest collection of manuscripts in the world—10 million images and 2 million manuscripts, according to Craig Bruner, director of operations, The St. John’s Bible.

Jackson was the main attraction at the first calligraphy conference held at St. John’s in 1984. During an interview with Minnesota Public Radio, he reiterated his desire to write the Bible, something Abbey community kept in mind as the relationship between them continued.

In the mid-1990s, in preparation for a millennium project, Father Eric Hollas of St. John’s asked Jackson over lunch if he would make the word of God live on the page.

“Do you want it?” he asked.

The answer was unequivocally yes. Jackson and St. John’s Abbey would illuminate the St. John’s Bible—a celebration of books, the book arts and religion.

Video accounts on St. John’s Web site show Jackson using the ancient practice of preparing his Quill, stripping its feathers and mixing his inks with egg yolks for lasting color.

In March 2000, the first words were penned.

In the beginning was the Word,

And the Word was with God,

And the Word was God.

Brother Dietrich Reinhart, OSB, describes the frontispiece as, “The word of God striding out of cosmic time into the world we live in.”

When complete in late 2009 or early 2010, the entire St. John’s Bible will comprise seven volumes—Pentateuch, Wisdom Books, Psalms, Prophets, Gospels and Acts of the Apostles, Historical Writings and Letters and Revelation, according to Bruner.

In all, the St. John’s Bible will contain 1,160 pages and 160 illuminations. While the originals will be housed at St. John’s on permanent exhibition, reproductions like the one at John Carroll will travel the world.

While the text is rooted in history, using ancient methods, it is also very much a product of its time, according to Kelly.

“When medieval scribes were writing and illuminating the Bible, they wrote and illuminated what they knew—flora, fauna and people around them,” says Bruner. “It was modern to them just as the illuminations in the St. John’s Bible reflect the flora, fauna and life of people today.”

In the opening to Matthew with the genealogy of Christ, the illuminations feature the double helix of DNA embedded in the manuscript. “That locates this work in the 21st century, because that’s when human genome project was completed,” says Bruner.

The books are more a work of art than scholarly text, but Bruner says the original will be used liturgically for Christmas, Easter, graduation and other major celebrations.

And there’s a hope the reproductions, which will make their way around the world, will ignite spiritual imaginations.

“We’re trying to make a statement about faith and the importance of art and imagination,” says Brother Reinhart in a video about the project. “The fact that there’s common ground for us to stand on in a world torn apart by violence and hatred and it’s to be found in the sacred texts that enliven and enrich all cultures on this planet.”

Visit www.saintjohnsbible.org for information, photos and video of the project.

Hoke is a freelance writer.

Materials used in the original St. John’s Bible

The original Bible is made on calfskin vellum, specifically prepared for writing. The reproductions are made on 100 percent cotton archival paper.

Inks used include lapis lazuli, 24-karat gold leaf and 100-year-old Chinese black inks made from candle soot.

The gold leaf is decades old and made by hammering pieces of gold flat until it is foil thickness. Calligraphers use a substance called gesso—white lead, fish glue and plaster—that they paint on and let it dry. Using a small tube in their mouth they blow on the gesso to warm it up and create a surface glue that they put the foil on. Using a burnisher, (a stone mounted on a wood handle) the calligrapher rubs the foil, making it permanent.

Tuesday Tidbits: Why Joe Biden rocks, WAPO Wonder bread, power and sex in the church and another broken bone

Why Joe Biden rocks
I've been a fan of Sen. Joe Biden's for one simple reason: he is a no-nonsense guy unafraid to speak his mind. It's a shame his presidential run didn't get very far ironically in part because of his forthrightness. If you missed his op-ed in last Friday's Wall Street Journal, I suggest you give it a look. There's also a video bit on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program below. Biden for veep? Secretary of State?

He does a nice job of talking about the current administration's squandered opportunities. There's this:

At the heart of this failure is an obsession with the "war on terrorism" that ignores larger forces shaping the world: the emergence of China, India, Russia and Europe; the spread of lethal weapons and dangerous diseases; uncertain supplies of energy, food and water; the persistence of poverty; ethnic animosities and state failures; a rapidly warming planet; the challenge to nation states from above and below.

Instead, Mr. Bush has turned a small number of radical groups that hate America into a 10-foot tall existential monster that dictates every move we make.

And this:

Terrorism is a means, not an end, and very different groups and countries are using it toward very different goals. Messrs. Bush and McCain lump together, as a single threat, extremist groups and states more at odds with each other than with us: Sunnis and Shiites, Persians and Arabs, Iraq and Iran, al Qaeda and Shiite militias. If they can't identify the enemy or describe the war we're fighting, it's difficult to see how we will win. (Bold is mine.)

Wonder Bread at WAPO op-ed
Last week was one of those weeks when I was working in triage mode getting through various deadlines so I missed getting some things posted that caught my eye. One was WAPO ombud Deborah Howell's look at the complexion of the paper's op-ed pages.

I love the Post, but I have to agree that its op-ed pages are so vanilla that I tend not to read them very often. The old tucks have been holding court so long (and vociferously) that I'm sure there's a "why bother" mentality of some would-be contributors.

But the answer to why bother is that this nation desperately needs to hear new voices. It's the only way to ensure our democracy, which frankly feels "less than" these days. And that's partly because we've been living under an administration that labels citizens as unpatriotic for having a difference of opinion. I saw a bumper sticker on a car in the Bay Village Library today that said, and I'm paraphrasing: Dissent is the truest form of patriotism. If you know anything of Bay Village, you know that it just warms my heart to know that there are few others like me in this town.

A variation of the same could be said of the Catholic church.

Power and sex in the Catholic church
On Thursday, June 5, Cleveland-based FutureChurch welcomes Australian Bishop Geoffrey Robinson who will speak on his book, "Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church: Reclaiming the Spirit of Jesus." Father Donald Cozzens, who used to be a frequent celebrant at my church and is now teaching at John Carroll University, wrote the forward. The public lecture will be held at 7 p.m. at 3430 Rocky River Drive.

This is one of only 10 stops on his U.S. tour. He's been banned from speaking on church property in some places and word is Cleveland Bishop Richard Lennon is not pleased with his appearance here in Cleveland, but (at least for now) is allowing it to take place.

Cardinal Roger Mahony of the Los Angeles Archdiocese banned him because he believes his work is counter to doctrinal teaching. I wonder if Mahony has even read the book. Here's what he wrote to Robinson.

I have come to learn that you new book is being investigated by the Australian Bishops' Conference because of concerns about doctrinal errors and other statements in the book contrary to Church teaching.

I have also learned that His Eminence, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the Prefect for the Congregation of Bishops, has urged you to cancel your visit to the United States.

Consequently, I am hereby requesting that your cancel you visit to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles now set for June 12, 2008. Canon 763 makes it clear that the Diocesan Bishop must safeguard the preaching of God's Word and the teachings of the Church in his own Diocese. Under the provisions of Canon 763, I hereby deny you permission to speak in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

What are they so afraid of that they would seek to deny someone's opportunity to have a voice? More to the point: WWJD?

Another broken bone
My little Mikey broke his wrist on Friday while riding his bike home from a friend's house. A very kind mom drove him and his bike home and I wish I knew who she was so I could properly thank her. (I was at my neighbor's and she had left by the time my older boys found me.) Today he is sporting a royal blue cast that goes above his elbow and is already filled with signatures from his friends and teachers. He wouldn't let me sign it first because he didn't want me to spoil the clean look. So I signed after school in very large lettering on the under side of his arm, "LOVE, MOM (smiley face)."

Fortunately, we are only looking at a total of four weeks for this injury and at most, some lost baseball games, a week or two of three-on-three summer hoops and some pool time.

My baby must have been on my brain because I had one of those bizarre dreams in the early dawn today where I was getting everyone off to school—high school and middle school—when a 2-year-old version of Mikey came around the corner and said, "Hi, Mama." And a surprised me said, "Hi, Baby Boy." It was so real that I could see and smell his little toddler face, with his precious little cheeks, his chubby bare feet and his long, fluttery eyelashes.

It was the very best kind of sweetness. Unfortunately, at a beefy 9 years old, there's no way I could balance him on my hip these days.




Word of the day
Manichean: a believer in religious or philosophical dualism
Example: "You're either with us or against us." — President George W. Bush

UB story: Filmmaker puts the power of faith in service of the poor

Putting the power of faith in service of the poor

By Wendy A. Hoke

Photo by George Shuba

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS—It’s not easy to watch the films of Gerry Straub. They make the viewer uncomfortable. The stark images compel almost compel one to look away.

But the point of his films, made under the auspices of The San Damiano Foundation, is that humanity cannot look away from pain and suffering all around.

His work today is a far cry from his work as producer of the daytime soap, “General Hospital” and the 14 years he spent at CBS-TV. It’s been a spiritual journey, one that brought him to Cleveland this week to share with high school students.

“I considered myself an atheist and had been searching for God for years,” Straub said during dinner here. “I found myself in a rundown church in Rome, praying the Liturgy of Hours and it just hit me. The core of all faiths is mercy and compassion. But people who say they believe don’t always take that seriously so it wasn’t real to me.

“I spent years in network television where you do anything for a rating point. I really wanted to write seriously and try to understand what happened to that young boy who went into the seminary,” he said.

At the urging of a Jesuit, he turned his pen to writing about St. Francis of Assisi. He questioned his credibility in writing such a work. But after nine months of following in the footsteps of St. Francis in Italy and recording his own journey in diaries, Straub published, “The Sun and Moon Over Assisi,” which won a first place in the Catholic Press Association Book Award for spirituality.

Now a Secular Franciscan, Straub says Francis has been his spiritual guide.

“Francis became fully dependent on God and had a real love of poverty,” he explained. “Everything that came to him had to be a gift from God. I can understand that on a theological level, but practically I couldn’t.”

Straub’s spiritual quest led him to live at a Franciscan soup kitchen, an experience that turned his thoughts on poverty upside-down. “When we blame the poor or the homeless for their condition and label them, it becomes their fault and not our responsibility,” he said.

He called upon some friends in network television to help make a film about the soup kitchen. “When Did I See You Hungry?” was narrated by actor Martin Sheen and ran on PBS for 10 years.

Like Francis, Straub prays that God and others will provide the means to make his films. Through 13 films and three books, he has so far been blessed, though it has been hard at times.

There is no call to action in his films, he asks only that people pray for those suffering in the world. “I don’t tell anyone what to do. Everyone can do something. Christ is not asking for your spare change; he’s asking for your life.”

During his visit to Beaumont School Tuesday, Straub engaged 150 student members of Catholic Students for Peace and Justice. He was hoping the films lead to a transformation of the heart.

His mission, it seems, has been accomplished.

“Mr. Straub’s presentation forced me to face a reality that is completely different from the reality I live everyday,” said Beth Melena of Beaumont School for Girls. “It is easy to forget that people live without the basic necessities of life, but Mr.Straub’s films and presentation have left an impression on me that will last a long time.”

“It was very powerful and moving and made me want to get involved,” said Halle Ross of Villa Angela St. Joseph High School.

“My initial reaction was definitely shock. I mean, I'm aware of the issues involving poverty, but seeing the images never cease to rip your heart out in their agony,” said Elizabeth Hauserman of VASJ.

But she and others including Emily Infeld and Laura Welgs, both of Beaumont, also saw that through Straub’s visit, even small contributions mean the world to those who suffer.

“I ignore every rule of filmmaking,” said Straub. “These films are my prayers.”

For more information about The San Damiano Foundation, visit here.

UB story: "Living Stations" takes the stage during Lent

“Living Stations” takes the stage during Lent

By Wendy A. Hoke

The sanctuary of St. Jude Church in Elyria is quiet on this cold January night, but it’s about to rock as 17 high school seniors rehearse, “The Living Stations of the Cross.”

“Jesus on three. One, two, three, Jesus!” they shout and it’s places for everyone.

“What was it like?” begins narrator, Breanna Wisnor. “What were they thinking? They were just like us—ordinary people living ordinary lives. Join us now as we walk with those who walked with Christ.”

Two by two, students process up the center aisle as a quartet of student musicians perform. The mood is solemn, reverent, but never staid. This is not a quiet performance.

Dressed in black, with the exception of Dylan Alcorn who is dressed in white as Jesus, the students hold a freeze frame while the narrator recites the stations. Then one of the characters leaves the frame and shares a monologue with the congregation.

“Don’t look at me,” says Angelo Cataldo as Pontius Pilate. “I didn’t bring him here.”

“I don’t want to watch this, can’t bear to watch it. Why?” shouts Mike Pienoski as Peter.

For the 11th year, St. Jude’s Elyria Teens for Christ perform at their own parish and at others around the diocese, this moving, contemporary approach to the Stations of the Cross.

Directed by Dean Robinson, youth minister at St. Jude, the performance follows the script written by Father Patrick O’Connor, who was associate pastor when the performance first began.

Joining in this effort are students from Elyria Catholic High School, Elyria High School, St. Ignatius High School, Amherst Steele High School and Lorain Early College. The students share a close bond that was forged when most attended St. Jude grade school together. And they share a script with powerful, modern language that relates to their world and to others who watch their performance.

“The script is what makes it click,” says Robinson. “It’s very dynamic and powerful and the audience is hearing what the characters of the time may have been thinking.”

Robinson says the other important piece is how the cast is selected. There’s a necessary level of trust to be formed between them, given the emotional and spiritual nature of the performance.

Jaynie Taylor is a senior at Elyria Catholic and she’s playing the second woman, a role she’s had for three years now. “It’s the first time I’ve been able to do something interactive with my faith. It’s a great way to demonstrate my faith, especially when we perform at my school,” she says.

Piensoki is a senior at St. Ignatius. He says he enjoys acting, but because of his other school activities, never had the chance. He was Simon last year and chose Peter for this year’s performance. “Simon was more annoyed, but Peter is sad because he’s seeing his best friend die and he played a part. The most challenging part is capturing that emotion,” he says.

Megan Anderson, who plays Mary, and Courtney Lutke, who plays Veronica, agree that the challenge is in the emotion. “Mary is watching her son die and she’s angry at him for choosing this path, but she’s also sad and proud. She portrays every emotion,” says Anderson.

“To see the feedback we get,” says violinist Mari Foisy, “some people are in tears. A little girl last year asked for everyone’s autograph. It’s amazing. Plus we are really having fun together.”

Robinson stops them occasionally during their rehearsal for a few pointed directions here and there, but mostly he enjoys helping them to bring out their faith. By 10 p.m. the rehearsal is over.

“I think we’re good. Jesus loves you, now get out,” he jokes.

Hoke is a freelance writer.

Performances of “The Living Stations of the Cross”
Feb. 22, St. Joseph Church in Amherst
Feb. 24, Queen of Peace in Grafton
Feb. 29 call (440) 366-5711 for location
March 29 call (440) 366-5711 for location
March 7, St. Mary Church in Elyria
March 9, St. Clarence Church in North Olmsted
March 14, Holy Family in Stow
March 16, St. Jude Church in Elyria / Palm Sunday

All performances begin at 7 p.m. and are open to the public.

Latest UB story: Be not afraid

In today's Catholic Universe Bulletin is the following story about Father Neil Walters, who has a prison ministry at Cuyahoga County Jail. Also, the St. Ignatius pallbearer society story in online here.

Be not afraid
Father Walters brings compassion to prison inmates
By Wendy A. Hoke

“For I was in prison, and you visited me.” Matthew 26: 35-36

Growing up in St. Luke’s Parish in Lakewood Father Neil Walters lived a comfortable life around his siblings and his parents who owned a metal stamping business. He went to John Carroll University as a business major, but remained uncertain of his future.

“Sitting in classes I thought, ‘I don’t want to do this,’ ” he said over lunch at Abby’s Diner across from the Justice Center downtown, where three days a week he serves as chaplain to prisoners in the Cuyahoga County Jail.

God and religion were always a big part of his life. His mother’s uncle was a priest and former rector of the seminary. Gradually and without any earth-shaking epiphany, he began to discern a calling to serve in the priesthood. “I wanted to work with the poorest of the poor,” he said.

“I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do short of helping others. A lot of my work is unplanned but, with God’s help, has been satisfying.”

Ordained in 1989, his first assignment was in Wooster, which he describes as “a little oasis in the desert. I think I was on a high those first five years,” he said. Gradually, he found himself moving closer to Cleveland at parishes in Akron, Euclid and now Garfield Heights.

As a seminarian, Father Walters, who today serves as parochial vicar at St. Therese Parish, Garfield Heights, had the opportunity to visit inmates. Throughout his years as a diocesan priest, he would be asked to visit inmates on behalf of parishioners.

When he arrived at St. Felicitas in Euclid in the late 1990s, he saw a television program about prison inmates and was inspired to make a call to the Cuyahoga County Jail. It took about six months for him to hear back, but finally he was invited to visit.

The chaplain who was there left after two weeks and was never replaced. Bit by bit, Father Walters filled his shoes. Today he does a series of religious services and Masses, hears confessions, and shares reading materials (and reading glasses), including Bibles, spiritual texts and addiction and recovery resources with the inmates. Mostly, he provides comfort and compassion for those marginalized by shame, violence, addiction and hopelessness.

“Often you catch them at their worst. But there is always hope,” he said.

“If you have time, I’d like you to hear my confession later,” said a tough-talking female inmate who claims she has 17 felony drug convictions and has never once been offered treatment. She breaks down in tears during the first reading and is unable to finish. Father Walters hands her a package of tissues as another inmate finishes the reading.

Mass here is a little different. “We have a great need for healing,” said Father Walters, who anoints the women following the penitential rite. The homily is followed with a gut-wrenching sharing of emotions, fears and regret by the eight inmates gathered on this afternoon.

While priests have been visiting inmates throughout time, it wasn’t until the Jubilee Year in 2000 that Pope John Paul II recommended a ministry to the incarcerated. While he has been involved prior to then, Father Walters has been a consistent part of that work ever since.

Bishop Richard Lennon made his first visit to the prison for a Mass in mid-December. He also spent some time talking to two of the inmates.

But it’s Father Walter’s regular presence upon which the inmates depend.

“Father Neil doesn’t judge, degrade or demoralize us,” said the female inmate with the many drug convictions. “People here relate to him because he listens.”

“We tried to get to church all day today. Thank you for coming here,” said another female inmate in the medical floor. They missed the afternoon Mass. Father Walters learns that the guards did not come for them. He raises his eyebrows, wrinkling his forward and said it is the same struggle he has every week.

In his trail running shoes, black Levi’s and clerical collar, he pulls out his chrism of anointing oil and his consecrated hosts to share with the women here and those on the mental health floor. Everywhere he goes, more ask to be put on the list to receive Catholic services.

The job is never-ending and after eight years, he’s still energized by the work.

“What keeps me motivated is that I believe we need God and religion now more than ever, especially here. No matter where you live or what parish you call home, there are people who are touched by the prison system. My work here in many ways is an extension of my work with parishioners.”

Hoke is a freelance writer.

UB story: To bury the dead

From today's Catholic Universe Bulletin:

To bury the dead
St. Ignatius student pallbearers provide a dignified burial when there's no one else around
By Wendy A. Hoke

The sun is shining brightly on this Feast of All Saints. The air is crisp, but golden maple leaves cast a warm glow across the gently rolling field.

St. Ignatius High School students and teachers are gathered in the center near a grove of trees for a solemn service that on this day will honor those whom they have carried to their final resting place.

Driving down Green Road just north of Harvard, this spot could easily miss. It’s sandwiched between a golf course and a recycling center. A battered wooden fence and narrow asphalt drive appear to lead nowhere.

But this is holy ground.

Cleveland’s Potter’s Field, where tens of thousands of Jane and John Does are buried with little more than a small wooden stake, if anything, as a marker of their life on this earth.

The leaders of the Joseph of Arimathea Society—pallbearers for those who have no family or friends to perform the service—have chosen this place annually to remember those whom society has forgotten and to honor those whom they have served throughout the year.

Aside from a large stone that serves as a communal marker, there’s little known about the inhabitants of Potter’s Field and little evidence of this even being a cemetery save a torn plastic flag, a crude cross made of two twigs lashed together, a statue of St. Francis and some plastic flowers.

Leaders of the Joseph of Arimathea Society honor the place by reading the names of the people whose caskets they have carried. For every 20 names a single bell tolls.
Grant them eternal rest, O Lord, and may perpetual light shine on them forever, for you are rich in mercy.

Named for the man who requested Jesus’ body from Pontius Pilate for a proper burial, the Joseph of Arimathea Society grew out of the work of the Christian Action Team, the umbrella organization for service activities at St. Ignatius High School. “We wanted to have service in place that accomplishes all the corporal works of mercy,” explains Ed DeVenney, campus minister.

Various programs feed and clothe the poor, tend to the sick and visit the lonely, but team leaders wanted to do more.

In 2003, St. Ignatius was the first high school in the country to provide the pallbearer service. It has necessarily grown to become the largest extracurricular activity at the Near West Side school. “It’s even bigger than football,” DeVenney says.

Open only to juniors and seniors, students are restricted to serving only one funeral per semester to limit time out of the classroom. The society averages about two funerals per week and has upwards of 300 members.

In service to God
Five of the student pallbearers gather in the office of campus ministry for last-minute instructions. It is their first time as pallbearers and they are quiet.

“I want you to pray and remind yourselves what it is you’re doing today,” says DeVenney. “You’re in service to God and to Mrs. (Marian) Lombardo. She has no one left in her life and there will probably be very few people at the church.

“Be prayerful, participate in the mass and remember that sometimes your voices are the only voices in the congregation,” he says.

As the navy blue St. Ignatius High School van pulls up in front of St. Stephen’s Church on West 54th Street, the boys face the reality of their advisor's words. With the exception of a Greek Orthodox bishop, they are the only ones in attendance at this funeral.

Inside the vestibule, funeral director Jim Craciun gives them instructions as they rest a hand on the casket and move slowly up the aisle.

“Out of all the funerals I've gone to, the church has always been filled … The experience for me was very moving, and I was glad that I could help celebrate the life of this woman and carry her to her final resting place,” wrote senior Alex Robertson later on the group’s blog for reflection.

A smile and a 'thank you'
At St. Bridget Parish, Parma, other boys are serving as pallbearers for a man who had a wife and friends, but no one able to handle the casket.

At the sign of peace, they go to the widow and one by one offer a promise of prayers and a compassionate hand showing maturity beyond their years.

The response from people is sometimes surprising to them, as senior Tommy Edgehouse wrote on the blog: “As we walked into the funeral home, I saw something I didn't expect to see. A smile on someone's face. The daughter of the late Mrs. Kanik greeted us with open arms and a most gracious ‘thank you.’ ”

“We’re just regular kids doing the simple service of carrying a casket, but it becomes so much more than that,” explains senior leader Louie Delgadillo. “They are not going to be forgotten because we are there to remember.”

It’s the little moments that tend to stick with the students.

“This summer we did a funeral for a homeless person whose body had been in the morgue for more than a month,” says senior leader Jon Hatgas.

They were expecting no one to come, but through their work with Labre Ministry in serving the homeless people on the streets of Cleveland they were able to bring more people.

“We had about 10 cars in the procession and on the way to the cemetery people were talking about Shawn and their connection to him,” Hatgas says.

“I know that we are never alone in faith,” wrote Jon’s twin brother Jeff Hatgas of his experience at the same funeral on the blog.

Jim Skerl, who founded the ministry as part of his work with Christian Action Team says this is a good way to involve students in the service of their faith.

“It’s interesting to see where God has led this ministry,” Skerl says, adding that it provides a chance for students to find their own goodness.

“We may not know their life story when we come to their funeral,” says senior leader Cameron Marcus, “but they are men and women of Christ and we share that in common.”

Hoke is a freelance writer.

Profile of Sister Carol Anne Smith in Magnificat magazine

The latest issue of Magnificat High School magazine [available as PDF] contains a profile I wrote about Sister Carol Anne Smith, who is now president of Mags. Here's the story below.

Sister Carol Anne Smith comes home to Magnificat
By Wendy A. Hoke

Sister Carol Anne Smith grew up on Cleveland’s west side blessed with the clarity of knowing from an early age that her life would be devoted to God. The oldest girl of seven children, Sister Carol Anne grew up in a home she describes as “full of unconditional love, happiness and joy.”

Her parents taught their children at an early age that they could not love what they did not know. Learning about God and prayer were a daily part of the family’s life. That strong faith and unconditional love carried her family through the loss of two children, including one brother, Johnny, who drowned in Lake Erie at age 3 and another brother, Willie, who was killed by a truck at age 15.

“Those kinds of tragedies can either break families apart or their faith can keep them going, which is what happened my family’s case,” she said, from her office as the new President of Magnificat High School.

“When Willie died, I had already made the decision to enter the convent and left for the motherhouse two months after his death. In those days when you left for religious life, you really left.”

Despite her conviction of God’s purpose for her, she describes leaving home as the hardest thing she ever did. “Our parents used to talk to us about our vocation in terms of God’s call to us. They never pressured us; they only told us that our response was to pray to know God’s call,” she said.

Very quietly and steadily she discerned a life in the Sisters of the Humility of Mary.

The sisters’ influence was strong during her high school days at Lourdes Academy. “I related to their joy and humanness and deep concern for others.”

She and her classmates were very involved with the issues of the times, namely the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. “I was editor of the school newspaper and got to interview Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. We even chased Maria Von Trapp all over Cleveland one afternoon for an interview,” she recalled, laughing.

At 18, she left her then-grieving family to enter the convent in western Pennsylvania. She spent three years of her novitiate immersed in community life and theological study.

Vatican II was in full swing and Sister Carol Anne wore the habit less than one year before all religious communities moved to live more purposefully in the world in accordance with their founding purpose.

The 1960s were a time of great change and not everyone adjusted. “I used to feel for the older sisters who went through the change with such grace and dignity. They were wonderful role models.

“Our sisters were primarily involved in teaching and nursing. I knew I was not cut out to be nurse! I was always drawn to teaching. By the time I had to make my choice, we were able to express a preference. While I always loved little ones, I felt drawn to secondary education. These high school years are so precious and formative.”

Sister Carol Anne looks to this time in a young person’s life as a real privilege and significant responsibility. “High school teachers can have a powerful influence over students who, at this time in their lives, are more interested in outside influences,” she said.

When she was very young and in only her fourth year of teaching, she was asked to become part of the administration at Magnificat. Sister Carol Anne admits that whatever she saw as her life’s set course was changing. Even though she accepted the path that led to becoming assistant principal and then principal, she feels as if she’s never left teaching, serving as a mentor to many others.

Her success as principal at Magnificat led to her being called to a much larger community as Superintendent of Catholic Schools for the Diocese of Cleveland and Secretary for Education and Catechesis.

Working with Bishop Anthony Pilla reinforced in her the idea that we are here to be of service, which is the opportunity Sister Carol Anne now believes she’s been given as President of Magnificat.

“I see faithfulness—absolutely—in young women today. I’m so impressed by their awareness of Mary. She was a young girl, the same age as the girls here, when she was called by God,” she said.

“We are here to implement a mission which calls girls to imitate Mary. That the students grasp that is absolute; that they are challenged at every front is also absolutely true.”

She believes that young women are better prepared to meet these challenges when they witness others who allow God to work in their lives. The message in the Gospels and the call to Mary are indeed counter-cultural.

Tapping into the natural generosity and idealism in young people through service and campus ministry, which are the most popular activities at Magnificat, also helps to reinforce that message.

She’s confident in the work ahead. “I met with every single staff member and asked what makes Magnificat a wonderful place. They all responded, ‘It’s the students.’ Likewise, I met with juniors in groups of 20 and asked them about Magnificat’s strengths. They responded that the teachers care deeply about us.

“Students bring life to the school and I’m looking forward to meeting them. We want girls to understand their faith at the same level they understand AP calculus or British Lit. How can we settle for immature lives of faith?”

As president she will lead the Board, alumnae and the entire school community in fulfilling the mission of the school.

It’s a role that seems made for her.

“Sister Carol Anne has always been supportive of the educational mission of the Church, and she consistently demonstrates her commitment to Catholic education, her knowledge, her willingness to learn and her enthusiasm about the future of Catholic schools,” said Margaret Lyons, Secretary for Education/Superintendent for the Diocese of Cleveland.

“As a leader she exemplifies well her faith, her academic acuity, her professional and managerial expertise. She is an organized, honest, creative, strong and high-energy person,” Lyons said. “She possesses a graciousness that will be apparent to staff, families and students. She translates her personal grace into an atmosphere of hospitality and strong Catholic identity.”

Paul G. Clark, President, Northern Ohio Banking, National City Bank, said, “(Sister Carol Anne) is exceptional and effective and gracious about securing resources to support a mission. She’s an incredible fund raiser.”

Clark, who worked with her on the Alleluia Campaign to raise money for inner city Catholic Schools (they raised a record $1.3 million), believes her vow to her order and to teaching and her belief in young people is all coming together in her position at Magnificat.

“She is pure in her motives and desire to help young women learn and grow,” he said.

Clearly, the many qualities Sister Carol Anne brings to her new position are a blessing to the entire Magnificat community. It certainly is nice to have her home.

Fr. Joe story is online

The gospel of hope is available online. Yesterday I attended the Deo Gratias mass and reception at Parmadale. It's the annual muckety-muck brunch for big-time diocesan donors, but it also was the official recognition of Father Joseph McNulty, who received the Archbishop Hoban Award for Distinguished Service (and MY reason for being there).

Father Joe is the pastor at St. Augustine Parish on West 14th Street in Tremont. Many people know of St. Augustine's for its Hunger Center and ministries to the poor and homeless, but it also is home to thriving deaf and blind communities.

If you're looking for a spiritually enriching mass then I would recommend the 10 a.m. Sunday mass for the deaf. As you can see from the photo (left, by William Rieter), Father Joe signs the whole mass.

This is a big week for St. Augustine's as it serves thousands of meals at its Hunger Center, surrounding sites and to the homebound this Thanksgiving. Ironically, Father Joe told me that he resisted the idea of a Hunger Center nearly 30 years ago.

At Thanksgiving, the parish usually made up 300 to 400 turkey baskets to distribute to the community. “We were figuring on the same size crowd when we decided to serve the meal. However, that first meal we served 1,500 people. We weren’t prepared. I went to Kenny Kings and bought enough chicken to finish serving the day. Fortunately, the manager donated some of the food,” he says.

Volunteers have been cooking, slicing and freezing turkeys for weeks in preparation of Thursday's meal. Anyone can serve a plate of food at a hunger center, but if you want to make a difference in someone's life, consider sitting down and talking to them. It can change a life.

Sister Corita Ambro, who runs the Hunger Center, shared this story yesterday: One volunteer didn’t have much work to do so she suggested he sit and talk to a man having a meal in the Hunger Center. They talked and talked even after the meal ended. When they were finished, the man handed the volunteer a gun and said he had been so depressed that he was going to kill himself that day. But the volunteer, by taking the time to talk with him, convinced him that life was still worth living.

“God wanted that volunteer here,” says Father McNulty. “The real purpose for our work is the contact with people. We need the poor to meet others. It’s hard to have hope when the only people you see around you are those like you.”

On another but somewhat related noted: When I worked at Sun Newspapers in the early '90s, I often received lovely handwritten notes from the people about whom I wrote (along with my share of hate mail). This continued when I worked at Avenues magazine. But I've noticed that rarely do people bother to write a handwritten note these days. Heck, you're lucky to get an e-mail acknowledgment.

That's why I was so thankful to have received such a lovely thank you on Saturday from Sister Megan Dull for this story I wrote about her and her art. She wrote:

"Thank you for the article, But even more, thank you for the conversation that was the seed bed for what you wrote. The ideas & experiences flowed easily & opened up avenues to even wider thoughts. It's not often that that happens so richly! Then within the article you distilled so well the heart of all we bantered about for—what, 2 hours?!?"

Of course someone called to complain that Sister Megan was fostering goddess worship, pagan rituals and an image of St. Francis that is counter to the church. Her response to the criticism? Laughter. ("I've arrived! I'm controversial!) More evidence of the filters we bring to our consumption of the written word.

The gospel of hope

From today's Catholic Universe Bulletin:

The gosepl of hope
Father Joseph McNulty brings hope to the margins through St. Augustine’s diverse ministries
By Wendy A. Hoke

Father Joseph McNulty is preaching this Sunday morning on Luke's story of Zacchaeus. He paints the story of the tax collector who hid in a tree only to be called to open his home to Jesus not only with his words, but also with his hands.

“The people I see think Jesus doesn’t want to come to them, that God would not forgive them. That’s not true,” he says to the congregation gathered at St. Augustine Parish. “There’s no person Jesus doesn’t want to be with. I find real hope in this story and I hope it helps you find hope for yourselves and also for those who feel very far from Jesus.”

This is the weekly Mass for the deaf at the parish in Cleveland's Tremont neighborhood and Father McNulty, pastor for 30 years, signs the entire Mass.

Petitions are offered for the poor, hurting, forgotten, shunned, sick, suffering, recovering and dying. But it's hope that Father McNulty and the many others who support the work of St. Augustine in its ministries to the deaf, blind, mentally ill, disabled, poor and homeless, build their life around.

“When we meet the poor we meet Christ. As a church we bring them a sense of hope that we truly love and are dedicated to them,” he says.

For his efforts and leadership, Father McNulty will receive the Archbishop Hoban Award for distinguished service to the Diocese of Cleveland this Sunday. It's the highest honor given by the diocese.

“I’m very honored to receive the award, but it’s really for all the people who work in our ministries here. So I am honored to receive it in their name,” he says.

The award will be presented at the Deo Gracias Mass and brunch at Parmadale. Mass begins at 10:00 a.m. with the program afterward.

St. Joseph Sister Corita Ambro, who has been at St. Augustine longer than Father McNulty, says the award is well deserved and long overdue.

“He goes far beyond his duty in caring for his people,” Sister Ambro says. “The Irish in him keeps him from being a hugger, but his heart is overwhelming.”

His philosophy is like that of St. Francis de Sales: If you’re praying and someone comes to the door, leave your prayer and go answer the door, says Sister Ambro.

She calls him a natural teacher and mediator. “He knows where the central road is and that’s where he’s going.”

One of eight children of Irish immigrants, Father McNulty grew up in St. Thomas Aquinas parish. He describes himself as a “lifer” having entered the seminary in high school, but his early exposure to the marginalized of society helped to influence his ministry.

“We were probably poor, but I didn’t know it,” he says, partly because his family had hope and a connection to others. “My dad had a cousin who was a divorced single mom and every week he would buy enough food for her and her child. Back then we called homeless people bums. My mom always fed them and also tried to give them advice. Both of my parents really inspired me."

Younger brother Dennis McNulty is director of disability services for Catholic Charities and plays bass guitar in the St. Augustine choir. He says that their parents gave all of the McNulty children a real sense of service to others.

"Prayer was central to our lives and church was central to our community," he says. "We have a keen sense of caring for people."

While in seminary Father McNulty worked for what was then called the welfare department and found that through working with the poor, he felt the strength of the gospel message.

“True poverty is when you don’t have the material or spiritual resources to have a sense of hope,” he says. “I don’t believe that physical poverty can overwhelm because you still have a connection to others that can help you beyond the material needs.

“Spiritually when you are so destroyed by poverty that you see no way out is far more devastating. The problem today is that we’re seeing entire families in this predicament. We try to give people a sense of hope and that takes time and contact. It’s hard to have hope when the only people you see around you are those like you.”

When he arrived at the West 14th Street parish in 1972 as an associate, he came as director of the apostolic for the deaf and hearing impaired. Father McNulty quickly learned of the generosity of spirit of the community he was appointed to serve.

“The deaf are a real community and they gather in that community. They know each other through generations. We’ve used that model with our other groups and as a tie-in to our ministry to the poor,” he says.

So many of St. Augustine’s ministries overlap. While he teaches American Sign Language classes to the general population, he also teaches an ASL class to the blind. He’s proud of the Alcoholic’s Anonymous community at St. Augustine and often tries to get visitors to the Hunger Center to give a meeting a try. Every year he does about 30 Fifth Steps with recovering alcoholics. (Admit to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.) And at least one AA meeting per week is interpreted for the deaf.

He doesn’t allow panhandling as a rule, but has been known to give spare change if he gets an honest story about how it will be spent, even if it’s for a 40-ounce beer.

Just keep him away from the turkeys. As a group of high school students unload frozen turkeys, he jokes that he is not encouraged to help with this particular ministry.

Instead, he is headed to Walsh Hall just behind the rectory for the twice-monthly meeting of St. Augustine Buckeye Deaf Seniors Citizens.

The deaf share not only a language, but also a culture, a passion for the St. Augustine community and a love for Father McNulty.

Speaking as he signs, Father McNulty reminds the seniors of the Bishop Richard G. Lennon’s upcoming visit and the reception following Mass. “You can ask him for a younger priest,” jokes Father McNulty. They smile and wave their hands in applause. “If you need a way to come to church, let us know.”

St. Augustine’s many communities and ministries have found a home, thanks to Father McNulty’s leadership.

As he distributes Communion at Mass, Father McNulty taps his chest twice, “The body of Christ.” Parishioners bring their hands out and then together in prayer to signify, “Amen.”

“Lord God, give us new hope through the Eucharist,” he concludes.

Hoke is a freelance writer.

What a cluster...

As I visit parishes, clergy and parishioners across the diocese as part of my work with the Catholic Universe Bulletin, I always inquire as to the progress of "clustering." (Call it my informal research.) For the non-Catholic readers, this is the charge from the Bishop, er, excuse me, Vibrant Life hooha to have groups of parishes meet to determine, based on demographics, finances and decreased supply of priests, who should close.

It's a process fraught with all manner of tensions, uncertain expectations, accusations, turf battles—you know, all the best that the Catholic church can muster. At some point, I'll go into more depth here about what the process and how it is or isn't working.

But let me leave you today with the closing of a good friend of mine who sits on one of these cluster committees:

Non-carborundum illigitimus te
(Don't let the bastards get you down.)

Film as meditation

Paul Pearson, director of the Merton Center at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Ky., forwarded this announcement about a new film about the Carthusian order.

On November 15, in Pasteur Hall, Room 102 at 7:00 p.m., there will be a screening of "Le Grand Silence" (U.S. title: "Into Great Silence,") Paul Groninger's film documentary about a Carthusian monastery in the French Alps. It's an award-winning and moving documentary. The movie is free of charge.

Here's the synopsis from "Into Great Silence":

Nestled deep in the postcard-perfect French Alps, the Grande Chartreuse is considered one of the world’s most ascetic monasteries. In 1984, German filmmaker Philip Gröning wrote to the Carthusian order for permission to make a documentary about them. They said they would get back to him. Sixteen years later, they were ready. Gröning, sans crew or artificial lighting, lived in the monks’ quarters for six months—filming their daily prayers, tasks, rituals and rare outdoor excursions. This transcendent, closely observed film seeks to embody a monastery, rather than simply depict one—it has no score, no voiceover and no archival footage. What remains is stunningly elemental: time, space and light. One of the most mesmerizing and poetic chronicles of spirituality ever created, INTO GREAT SILENCE dissolves the border between screen and audience with a total immersion into the hush of monastic life. More meditation than documentary, it’s a rare, transformative theatrical experience for all.

Two UB stories this week

Been busily writing for the Catholic Universe Bulletin of late. Here's a link to a cover story from Friday's issue and a feature story, with text below.

Invisible no more
Duarte Center building needed bridges between immigrants, Americans
By Wendy A. Hoke

CLEVELAND-In a home in Wooster, immigration advocates have gathered about 25 people from various Hispanic families to pray the rosary. They’ve traveled from Cleveland to share their Catholic faith—along with valuable information about their status in a country torn apart by the immigration debate.

The goal? To build a bridge between the Latino dream of America and the isolated reality they often find here.

“In meetings we ask, ‘Do you want to go back to your own country?’ (and) 99 percent will say they want to go back,” said Jose Amin Cortes, a native of Colombia and one of the three people on the staff of the year-old Archbishop Isaias Duarte Center.

Based at Our Lady of Lourdes Church off Broadway Avenue, the center is named for the archbishop of Cali, Colombia from 1995 to 2002, who was an outspoken critic of Colombian guerrillas and drug traffickers. The bishop was slain by two gunmen outside of a church after he had presided over a wedding Mass.

“We tell immigrants that they are in America so get to know Americans and let them get to know you. Why else are you here?” said Dora Harper, another staff member who also translates for Cortes.

The difficulties new immigrants face is much larger than what the center can address, but Harper, Cortes and Sister Jane Blabolil believe they must reach out to develop leaders in the Latin community, help them understand their rights as immigrants and improve their quality of life.

Sister Blabolil, a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph, Third Order of St. Francis, is new to the effort, having returned in December from 20 years as a missioner in Peru. “So many are isolated here,” she said. “Many are undocumented, working with the same ethnic group and not having any contact with Americans. They have no need to learn the language. But that takes away their confidence and their ability to know and be known.”

The advocacy effort is rooted in Catholic faith, a common point of contact that could swing wide open the doors of understanding between Latino immigrants and Americans. But there are challenges to reaching the population even through church.

“There are limited Spanish-speaking Masses outside of Cleveland,” Cortes said. “Most people live far from the central city and just to commute is to take a risk.”

The answer, he explained, will not be found in more Spanish language liturgies, but getting the immigrants more involved in the American Catholic church.

Most immigrants admit that they came here to get a better life, Cortes said. Many have achieved the goal of earning more income.

“However, the cost they are paying is very high—the loss of family and friends and the loss of culture. Most important is their sense of being an invisible people,” he said.

In America Hispanic immigrants are largely invisible and are considered criminals because of their “illegal” status.

Cortes believes that the solution to immigration is in fostering greater understanding.

“Just like the Europeans who came here running from war, hunger, disease, misery and lack of opportunities, the people from Latin America also leave for the same reasons,” he explained. Many cannot return because their government has condemned them.

“We need to think through the solution of how to help our neighbors,” he said. “They come here with big dreams and are surprised when they find something very different.”

Americans do not realize that immigration law changed in 1986, effectively saying that anyone who lets their visa expire will never be able to become U.S. citizens. That leaves large numbers of immigrants in this country who are unable to change their status.

So the Duarte Center’s mission is two-fold: to assist the immigrants with pro bono legal help, educate them on U.S. laws, teach them the language, help them find a place within the Catholic Church and help them to become leaders of an American faith community that isn’t divided by native land. At the same time, the center tries to help Americans become more aware of the realities for immigrants, to educate them on the stumbling blocks to becoming citizens and to find a way to being missionaries in their own faith communities with their own neighbors.

For more information on the work of the Duarte Center, call Harper at 330-256-8124.

Hoke is a freelance writer.

And then there was this feature from the Catholic Life section:

Deacon Bill Starkey is living his ministry
By Wendy A. Hoke

BEDFORD HEIGHTS — Bill Starkey was trying to make sense of two back-to-back tragedies when his wife Cindy informed him they were going back to church.

He had lost his father and his brother tragically in 1992 and was seeking answers to explain the sudden losses.

“I found the people here at Holy Trinity very welcoming. They didn’t know what had happened in my life but they sensed something had rocked me,” he said. “ I got more involved with the church and eventually people starting saying that I would make a good deacon, including our pastor.”

At first he dismissed the notion, but he prayed on it eventually it started to make sense to him.
“Quite surprisingly I was accepted in the first round and entered formation with eight others with whom I became very close. They became my surrogate family,” he said.

He credits his wife and the entire parish community of Holy Trinity for getting him through formation. “They were very uplifting. There was always someone there to pick me up.”

Working in construction and juggling the academic and time commitment to formation was pretty tough. Deacon Starkey’s wife had a full-time job and carried the family’s health insurance so she suggested he find something part time that would free him up to pursue his studies.

The city of Bedford Heights was looking for van drivers for seniors. A former police officer, fire fighter and paramedic, it’s in Deacon Starkey’s nature to help others so he took the job and became advocate for city’s seniors. In December, a group of seniors attended a city council meeting to show support for Starkey being named coordinator of senior services for Bedford Heights.

Today he coordinates everything from the emergency alert devices, transportation, snow removal, lawn care, bingo night, special events and social services. He’s been known to sing at special events and even has his own “doo-wop girls.”

It’s his quick and kind response that impacts residents. Recently, a resident had written a note that said, “Help me,” and put it in her mailbox. When the mailman picked it up he called Deacon Starkey, who then got the police and social workers involved. “Within hours we learned that her roof had caved in and water was pouring and the power had shorted out. We got the woman here, got her warm and fed and then provided transitional housing while her roof was repaired,” he said.

The ministry works both ways. When Deacon Starkey’s mother passed away in May, every one of his seniors came to the funeral home. “Pastor Albert Veigas told me to give the homily. It was tough, but those seniors got me through that, just by looking out and seeing their faces.”

Like a lot of parishes, Holy Trinity is older with a strong mix of racially and ethnically diverse families. Its demographic mirrors that of Bedford Heights. “It’s very warm and open. People shake your hand to greet you whether you’re a stranger or a friend.”

As permanent deacon, Starkey has liturgical duties on the weekends, handles the bereavement ministry and works with Father Veigas in the operation of the church.

He insists that he remains the same Bill Starkey he was before ordination and peppers his conversation with a healthy dose of common sense. There’s a temptation, he said, to let the deacon collar go to your head.

“If you’re looking for perfection in me, you’re not going to find it. If it’s all about wearing the collar, then it’s for all the wrong reasons. I can do a ministry in shorts at a barbecue the same as I can in vestments preaching on a Sunday,” he said.

“I’m always interfacing with parishioners and seniors. There’s a lot of overlap in my two positions. I’ll be greeting someone at church on Sunday and they’ll tell me about grass that hasn’t yet been cut,” he said, laughing.

“I am who I am, which is 100 percent Bill Starkey. I’m God’s shepherd for this population that needs continuous help. This job is my family and the church is my family. I have a loving supportive wife and two terrific daughters. Being a deacon has made me better at all of those jobs.”

Hoke is a freelance writer.