Here at the Cathedral, we have grown accustomed to seeing faces come and go, particularly with the resident priests and seminarians who have called this place home.  Several seminarians have spent the summers with us, getting some exposure to parish life as they prepare for the priesthood.  Many newly ordained priests have had their first assignments at the Cathedral, then after getting a couple of years of experience, they move on to the next stop in their journey.  All of this turnover can be difficult, both for the priests and the people, but I think there are also many blessings to be found.  Our parish community has had the privilege of getting to know more priests and seminarians than any other parish, which I think has been enriching in many ways.  

Last weekend, we bid farewell to Father Peter Chineke as he prepares to begin his studies in Canon Law at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.  I was very pleased with the number of people who stopped to greet Father Peter after the masses last weekend.  As a parish community, you should be very proud of the role you have played in offering Father Peter some good formation that will serve him for many years to come.  You have welcomed him as you have welcomed every priest and I know he will be forever grateful for his time with us.

This weekend, we welcome Father Paul Lesupati, newly ordained and just home from a trip back to his native Kenya where he spent the month of June.  He will bring unique gifts to our parish that will add to the diversity of our experiences with priests here.  I am confident that you will welcome him with the same joy and support that you offered to Father Peter and to all of our priests.

A few people this last weekend thought Father Dominic Vahling was also leaving.  For the most part, your experience of him will be the same.  He will still be celebrating masses and hearing confessions here.  But now just being “in residence”, he will not be quite as involved in the non-sacramental ministry of the parish, such as faith formation and hospital visits.  The same goes for Father Dominic Rankin.  He will continue to be in residence, though we may even see him a little more regularly for some masses since he will soon be concluding his daily celebration of Mass for the Dominican Nuns.  Their monastery in Girard is nearing completion and they will arrange for a chaplain who will be able to offer Mass for them daily.  Father Rankin will be focusing more of his efforts on promoting vocations to the priesthood, religious life, and holy matrimony, so that might put him on the road from time to time, but he will still very much be present.

As for me, there is nothing new to report!  As Rector, I enjoy a little more stability with regards to my time here.  I continue my diocesan work as Vicar for Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations.  And speaking of vocations, I am happy to welcome Phillip Gorrell, one of our seminarians, to the parish for the remainder of the summer.  He has a short introduction later in the bulletin.

As we mark the halfway point of 2022, this gives me an opportunity to remind you to offer those three Hail Marys each day – one for the clergy of the parish (new and old), one for yourself personally, and one for the entire Cathedral parish family.  On behalf of all of the clergy here, past and present, I offer my gratitude for your prayers and support.  We love serving you and we promise you our daily prayers, especially each day at Mass.

Father Alford

Feast Day: June 15^th | Patron for Orphans, the Sisters of the Poor, Puppeteers (along with St. Simeon Salus) and Catechists | Often pictured in birretta and cassock surrounded by boys and girls.

One illustrious member of our parish recently brought to my attention a saint canonized back in May of this year. (I’ll let you attempt to identify said parishioner, though I suspect you may be able to guess who it was based on the saint that he mentioned.)  This saint, a priest, Fr. Luigi Maria Palazzolo, actually had his feast day just a week or two ago, so I decided to introduce all of us to him this week.

Luigi was born the 9^th of 9 boys in Bergamo, Italy (way up in the North of Italy, right at the foothills of the alps) in 1827. His family was fairly well off, but Luigi was the only child of his parents to reach adulthood, and his father died as well when he was 10. His mother, Theresa, valiantly and lovingly raised Luigi as a faithful and virtuous young man despite all those pains that must have crushed her heart. I cannot imagine how much pain she must have endured, and how ineffective she must have felt in being a wife and mother, yet her love, along with God’s grace, was forming Luigi’s heart through the midst of all those trials into a man devoted to the care of impoverished, orphaned, and suffering children. God’s power was holding her, and her son, through all of it!  Only God can bring love out of loss, and a respect for life out of the pain of death – what a miracle he worked, through all that suffering, in Theresa and Luigi!

When he reached adulthood, Luigi quickly followed his heart’s yearning to become a priest. He entered the seminary at 17 and was ordained at the age of 23 or 24, quickly finding a charism for caring for the poor and orphaned children there in Bergamo. Similar to the United States in the second half of the 19^th century, during the first half of that century in Italy there were thousands of abandoned, neglected, orphaned, and starving children on the streets of Italian cities (also because of civil war and economic hardships). Like Don Bosco, who was doing the same work at that time in the nearby city of Turin, Don Luigi befriended these children, gave them food and a place to stay, taught them, and (like Bosco’s magic tricks) put on puppet shows for these, his littlest disciples.  (The puppets are still around!  If you ever get to Bergamo, you can find them in the Palazzolo Museum). He began this work with boys, but found that many girls were in the same dire straits, and so began to take care of the girls too.  

I want to make mention of a truth that Luigi knew, but which we don’t as easily recognize these days. He saw an abject need for poor and orphaned girls to be cared for, but he knew that food and education and a roof over their heads and the occasional puppet show were not enough.  They needed to be cared for by women, who could raise them as young ladies, just as the boys needed the care of a father, who could help them to become good men. Luigi lost his father at the age of 10. He knew the loss that a young man has when he does not have a man to show him how to be a man. Theresa, Luigi’s mother, gave him all the love that a mother could, but she could not replace the love and example of a father, and Fr. Palazzolo knew he could not fully replicate the love of a mother for these girls. So it was that he began to pray and look for a means of giving these young ladies the feminine love of a mother.  

In the 1850s, the bishop of Bergamo, had written a catechism to help teach the faith to the people of his diocese, calling for men and women to assist the Church in addressing the wounds that secularism was already wreaking on the young people of that time. This call captivated Fr. Palazollo and also Teresa Gabrieli, a talented young woman who had lost her own father as a child, and who now also yearned to do something meaningful work for the hurting youth around her. She had not married, and now, with Fr. Luigi, discovered not only a love for his poor girls, but also a call to found with him the religious order, the Sisters of the Poor in 1869. 

And so life spun along. Both grew old and both continued to love those whom God entrusted to their care. The number of sisters grew and started ministries in other cities. In his last day, Don Luigi’s asthma left him sleeping in a chair and enduring the pain and incapacitation of constant sores on his legs. His sufferings were rewarded when the sisters’ constitution was approved, but he died about a month later, on June 15^th, 1886 with the name of Jesus on his lips.  Mother Teresa (not to be confused with her spiritual descendent in Calcutta), continued to care and teach the poor until she suffered a stroke in 1908, dying shortly thereafter (she is now named Venerable). Eventually there would be thousands of her sisters around the world, and of note are the several sisters who would give their lives caring for the sick during the Ebola outbreak of 1995 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and also when the COVID-19 pandemic struck Bergamo in 2020.

– Fr. Dominic Rankin, this week, will be meditating on Fr. Palazzolo’s simple exhortation: “Don’t give only words or superfluous kindnesses, but give bread, wine, fire, advice, real and meaningful helps.” 

At the end of this week, I will be leaving for a week of vacation in Wisconsin with my family.  My parents spend the summer months there as a way of escaping the intense heat and humidity of Houston, Texas where they live for the rest of the year.  I am excited that all of my siblings will be able to be together for a few days, something which has become rare in recent years with everybody living in different parts of the country.  Going on vacation is always a relaxing experience for me, but planning for vacation is not always relaxing!  Most of my planning this year has revolved around retooling my fishing tackle to target walleye which are (hopefully) abundant in the waters of Central Wisconsin.

One aspect of planning for vacation that has become a lot less stressful over the past 11 years is figuring out how to get to Mass while on vacation.  As a priest, I am privileged to be able to celebrate Mass without having to figure out a time and place.  I realize that most Catholics do not have this luxury, but I bring it up as something that all Catholics should keep in mind, especially as many of us may be making plans for our summer vacations.  If it is not already on your list, please put a priority on making sure you know when and where Mass is available so that you can continue to fulfill your Sunday obligation.  The obligation to attend Mass on Sunday and Holy Days of Obligation is not lifted just because we are on vacation.  We had a saying in the seminary when we would be off for a break, such as Thanksgiving or Christmas.  The saying was: don’t take a vacation from your vocation.  This was meant to encourage us to continue to take time for prayer each day and to attend Mass, daily if possible, as was our practice in the seminary.  Every Christian has the common vocation to holiness, so we must be very attentive to living out this vocation, even while on vacation.  As I mentioned, this means first and foremost planning ahead so as to find a time and place for Mass.  There is really no room for excuses, as I have seen how people on vacation are able to navigate some pretty tricky logistics, like figuring our how to make reservations for parks or other venues, making reservations for shows or dinners, and arranging various other activities while away from home.  Finding a Catholic Church and figuring out their Sunday Mass times is not very difficult, especially with the Internet.  You may also be aware of a handy website that lists Mass times all over the place – https://masstimes.org/ 

In addition to attending Mass on Sunday (or more frequently if you desire) while on vacation, think about those other practices that can help you to live your Christian vocation while on vacation.  If you are driving for vacation, consider praying a family Rosary together.  Bring along your Bible or another spiritual book to read.  As you may know, our parish has a subscription to FORMED, which has a mobile app that gives you access to a ton of great Catholic content.  The Augustine Institute, which is host of FORMED, also has the Amen app which has a variety of prayers.  There is also another great app called Hallow which has a lot of great Catholic content, even with the free plan.  Catholic radio is also accessible through their mobile apps, such as EWTN and Relevant Radio.  It has never been easier to access great Catholic content! 

Now, I am not suggesting that you need to spend all your time listening to Catholic materials while on vacation, but why not spend some of your time being fed with these great resources that strengthen our faith, which will, in the end, make for a better vacation, and a better life.  So as you plan an upcoming vacation, heed that good advice shared with me – don’t take a vacation from your vocation!

Father Alford

It is 2:41 AM Nigerian time and 8:41 AM Central Time now. Most people in Nigeria are sleeping, and many people in Illinois, like Father Alford, are already sleeping. Here on the plane, the lights are out, and I can tell that most people on board this flight are sleeping. I hope the pilot is not! And feeling calmer and mentally more productive at night, I am awake doing some readings and reflecting on my two-week vacation in Nigeria, which just ended.

I witnessed the wedding of one of my closest high school friends and baptized the first child of another high school friend. I spent time with my mom, siblings, nieces and nephews, and some friends who visited. I hung out with some old-time friends and had a good time in the rectory of a great priest-friend. I had the honor of giving a recollection to a group of teenagers. I was also blessed to be served some of my favorite meals almost daily. My mind is passionately ruminating on these things as a thought flashed through my mind….what if the unthinkable happens now?

What unthinkable am I even talking about? Sitting beside the window and looking out into the space, I notice that our flight is about thirty-four thousand feet above sea level on top of the Atlantic Ocean. What if an accident happens now and this flight begins to descend unto the Atlantic Ocean hopelessly and explosively? That would be the “unthinkable.” And the fact that my earthly existence and that of the rest of the people on board, including the pilot, would come to a quick end is hard to think about.

So, what if the unthinkable happens now? Where will I go? Will I be happily welcomed by a host of angels and saints into the communion of the elect? Or will I proceed to purgatory, where I still hope to join the communion of saints after some period of purifying torments? Or will I see myself in a place of endless torments and tortures, with unimaginable pains day and night with no hope of redemption?

While it may be weird to imagine such ugly situations, we know that they do happen. Planes have disappeared from space in the past, and all passengers died and were buried in the bottomless oceans somewhere in the world. Road accidents where people die miserably on the spot are not uncommon. Disasters have happened, and people lose their lives abruptly. People do suffer sudden heart attacks and die immediately. Innocent people have lost their lives to terrorist attacks, gunshots, and natural calamities. We see, read, or hear about these unthinkable things very often. So, we might as well see the need to think about these things and ask the ultimate questions.

Maybe, when we think about these things, the desire to be in a better place when the unthinkable happens will grow. And to be realistic, dying a natural death or being a victim of any of the “unthinkable” does not change one’s destination hereafter. What changes one’s destination in the next life is the conscious decisions we make to choose God and godly lifestyles and the relentless efforts we make in staying true to those choices even in the most complex and challenging situations.

Feast Day: June 27^th | Patron of Alexandria, Called the Doctor of the Incarnation, Pillar of Faith, and Seal of the All the Fathers | Often pictured in the vestments of a bishop, with a book, pen, or scroll, and alongside the Blessed Virgin holding the Child Jesus.

If one were to run into a bishop called the “Pillar of Faith” and “Doctor of the Incarnation”, I suspect you would expect to meet a paragon of virtue, someone absolutely radiating the love of God. Thanks be to God, when you meet St. Cyril in heaven, he certainly will be shining with the glory of God, but that wasn’t always the case during his life here below.

Born most likely in Alexandria, Egypt, in the 370s, he received a good education and followed his maternal uncle into becoming patriarch (bishop) of that city in 412. These were the years after the great persecution of the Church had ceased and the great debates over the dogmas of our faith began.  Especially in the debates over how to describe Christ, the cities of Alexandria and Antioch quickly became bitter rivals, and a similar contest on the political level existed between Alexandria and Constantinople. Saints-in-the-making certainly aren’t exempt from the mess of their society, but Cyril wasn’t even all that grace-ful in engaging it.

He was educated and erudite, essential qualities of a bishop during these tumultuous theological years.  As patriarch, he wrote many letters to other theological schools, in particular to the monk, Nestorius, patriarch over in Constantinople, debating the nuances of Christology.  Eventually he appealed to the Pope and presided over the ecumenical council of Ephesus in 431 that would uphold Christ’s true identity (and Mary’s), defining Our Lord, as having two natures [prosopon], divine and human, united in one divine person [hypostasis], and Mary, as truly the Mother-of-God [theo-tokos].  I use these Greek terms, as Cyril did, not to show off his command of those sorts of things, but to recognize that these are the terms that Cyril labored to standardize for the Church’s pronunciation and defense of the Gospel, and they remain essential to our faith down to this day.

But … Cyril was also impulsive and violent. He participated in the synod that deposed St. John Chrysostom … He didn’t hesitate to close churches with Novatian heretics (they required those who had abandoned the faith to be re-baptized) …  He expelled the Jewish community from Alexandria in retaliation for their attacks on Christians … and, he was brutal in his theological take-down of Nestorius.  Now, Nestorius, held that Jesus was a divine person and human person, joined by a moral bond (so Mary was just the mother of his human personhood [christotokos], not the mother of God [theotokos]). This was not just mincing unimportant Greek words, if we get Jesus wrong, we loose our relationship with our Heavenly Father, and Cyril knew it. But, that doesn’t negate his theologically unleashing on the monk from Constantinople. So, it was a messy time, and on plenty of occasions Cyril did act with moderation and patience towards others, and fervently in defense of the Truth. (I should make mention of the Patriarch John of Antioch, who convened a rival council across town in Ephesus to uphold his buddy Nestorius, but whom Cyril worked hard to reconcile with and bring the entire Antiochian school back into union with the larger Church afterwards.)

What do we do with this?  We have theological brilliance, but also theological brashness.  We have episcopal competence, along with episcopal carelessness. Our answer must be Christ’s: to extend mercy where it is needed, and praise where it is warranted. Cyril was a “good and faithful servant” in many crucial ways through his defense of Christ’s identity, and in all those ways that he fell short of sanctity, he turned his sins over to his Savior, Whom he knew had not just come close to us, but truly become one of us to bring our human nature within the Love of God.

– Fr. Dominic Rankin was going to put here a favorite line from St. Cyril, but in researching for this column came across a new favorite quotation, and one that shows where Cyril went when he wasn’t the saint he was called to be: “If the poison of pride is swelling up in you, turn to the Eucharist; and that Bread, Which is your God humbling and disguising Himself, will teach you humility. If the fever of selfish greed rages in you, feed on this Bread; and you will learn generosity. If the cold wind of coveting withers you, hasten to the Bread of Angels; and charity will come to blossom in your heart. If you feel the itch of intemperance, nourish yourself with the Flesh and Blood of Christ, Who practiced heroic self-control during His earthly life; and you will become temperate. If you are lazy and sluggish about spiritual things, strengthen yourself with this heavenly Food; and you will grow fervent. Lastly, if you feel scorched by the fever of impurity, go to the banquet of the Angels; and the spotless Flesh of Christ will make you pure and chaste.”

A few years ago, when my parents were preparing to move, my dad decided to covert some of our old home movies into a digital format so that it would be easier to preserve them and share them with my siblings and me.  Watching some of those videos brought back some fond memories.  Among the scenes in these videos were those that included my grandparents, all since deceased.  It was a blessing to see and hear them as if live.

Another video that my dad found was a video made of the Mass for my First Holy Communion.  It was from that video that I learned that the date of my first Holy Communion was June 7, 1987, meaning that I recently celebrated the 35^th Anniversary of that important day.  As I watched the video, my heart was filled with joy as I saw our Pastor, Father Don Knuffman, celebrating this important occasion.  Up to that point, I had just assumed that he was the one who gave me my First Communion, but as I watched the video, I found out that it was actually Father Pat Jakel, now Pastor of St. Paul Parish in Highland.  His niece was a classmate of mine and he was there to concelebrate the Mass.  I also discovered that among my classmates was a boy who would later become my best friend for a time, a boy named Tim.  Tim’s family moved away when we were in 7^th grade and I lost track of him.  On the day of my ordination to the priesthood in 2011, I was shocked to learn from a family friend that my old friend was also a Catholic priest, ordained a few years earlier and now serving in the Diocese of Marquette in Michigan.  In addition to these surprises, it was nice to see the faces of classmates long forgotten and watching what was one of the first masses celebrated in the newly built St. Jerome Church in Troy.  For all of these reasons mentioned above, the discovery of this video was truly a gift.

The greatest gift of discovering this video, however, was being able to watch as I received Jesus in the Eucharist for the first time.  To watch it now, I laugh at how unnatural I looked!  I received Jesus, placed Him into my mouth, and looked to my right to see what the boy in line next to me was doing.  He looked at me, as if to say: “Now what?” After that awkward pause, we both turned and went back to our seats.  I have no real recollection of what I was thinking as I received Jesus for the first time.  It probably was not something profound, as you hear about some saints in their biographies.  But I do know on that day, a seed was planted in my soul.  I tasted the Lord for the first time, and that was the very beginning of a hunger that would grow, though almost imperceptibly for quite some time.  Then, in 2005, by God’s Providence, and through the powerful intercession of our Blessed Mother, I was led back to the Sacrament of Reconciliation and my hunger for the Eucharist was intensified.  From that point on, nearly 18 years after my first Holy Communion, I began receiving the Eucharist with much greater devotion, certainly every Sunday, then a couple of times a week, then virtually every day for the past 17 years.  This gift of the Eucharist is truly the source and center of my life, as a Catholic and as a priest, and it is my great joy (as it is for all of our priests) to offer this gift to you each day.

I share this reflection today also as an encouragement to hope for parents and grandparents whose children and grandchildren may have wandered away from the practice of their Catholic faith.  Perhaps they received their First Holy Communion before drifting away.  Take consolation in knowing of the seed that was planted in their souls on that day, a seed which carries with it a hunger for the Lord, though that hunger may be imperceptible at the present time.  Be patient, the Lord hungers for them to return, as does our Blessed Mother.  Ask her to pray for them, that they, like me so many years ago, might return to the sacraments and so have that hunger for the Eucharist intensified.

Father Alford

Feast Day: June 21^st | Patron Saint of Youth, Students, AIDS Patients and Caregivers, the Blind, and all those suffering from epidemics.

If you take a look at the list above of those that St. Aloysius is a particular patron of, you would already have in mind many of the things and people that he loved. As for those in their first decades of life, and in particular students, Aloysius (Luigi) was an intelligent, energetic, and blessed young man. At the age of 12, he had a life-changing encounter with God and the saints, and from then on desired to give his enthusiasm and talents to the service of God. Added to these positive experiences of his youth were the difficult ones, in particular the violent deaths of two of his brothers, murdered by the sometimes brutal era that was 16^th century Italy. All of these brought Aloysius to a fervent desire to join the Jesuits and give up everything for the sake of Christ. After long conversations with his parents – who, wanting what was best for him, strongly urged him to choose some occupation that would allow him a certain amount of worldly comfort and at least the ability to receive the inheritance they had worked many years to provide for him – he convinced them that it was for his good, and the world’s, that he join the Society of Jesus, and he entered that order as a novice at the age of 17. 

From there, his patronage for the ill and suffering began to come to the forefront. He suffered from various ailments of his own, including kidney disease, insomnia, various skin conditions, and headaches, and these became the impetus in his heart to give his time and love to those afflicted by disease and the rigors of age and the burdens of a hard life. His charity grew enormously during these months, to the point that when the plague broke out in Rome in 1591, he thought nothing of offering his young life in service to those suffering from the disease. He had already had a premonition of his immanent death after an encounter with the Archangel Gabriel, but each day he persevered in asking his superiors to give him permission to care for the ill, risking his own frail health to offer love and dignity to those who were hospitalized. Sure enough, he came down with the dreaded disease. He received the Sacrament of Anointing and rallied for a short while, but again succumbed to the plague, and received his final sacraments on the octave day of Corpus Christi.

He had received his first Communion from St. Charles Borromeo and his last sacraments from St. Robert Bellarmine. And this is the final love that I would like to emphasize throughout St. Aloysius’s short life: in the statue we have of him in our cathedral (up the ramp on the right side of the sanctuary), he wears the cassock of a Jesuit, a surplice to serve at Mass, and holds a crucifix. St. Aloysius loved the youth, and he loved the sick, but above all he simply loved Jesus. As we celebrate Corpus Christ this weekend, even more than all our other loves, we should ask this saint’s intercession so that our love for Jesus would increase! Aloysius, in his final minutes, wracked by the the plague, simply repeated the name of Jesus. Would I do the same? If I don’t repeat frequently, with love and devotion, Jesus’ name now, will I suddenly start when eternity looms?

– Fr. Dominic Rankin did not receive his first Holy Communion from a cardinal, nor (yet) someone who has been canonized a saint. But my priest growing up was a lovely, humble, saintly priest named Fr. John Carberry, and nicknamed the “White Tornado”. I do hope to emulate just a little of his energy, but even more of His tender and simple devotion to Jesus and Mary.