Outlining his pastoral ministry, his work on immigration, and his
prayerful opposition to abortion, the Archbishop of Minneapolis-St. Paul
has said that he must speak on controversial issues.
His remarks follow
activist and media opposition to the Minnesota bishops’ campaign to
educate Catholics about the nature of marriage.
“No bishop, and in particular this archbishop, is a ‘single-issue’
teacher,” Archbishop Niendstedt wrote in the Catholic Spirit newspaper.
“I was ordained to preach and to teach the full spectrum of the Catholic
faith as it is contained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
“The media pick and choose what they want to cover in terms of controversial issues. I do not have that luxury,” he added.
Seeking to provide perspective on his work, he listed the various
activities of his weekend schedule.
He celebrated a Mass with members of
a Catholic charismatic movement and met with the parents of the
archdiocese’s 62 seminarians.
The archbishop also participated in an all-night prayer vigil with
English- and Spanish-speaking parishioners to ask God for a just
solution to immigration problems.
By coincidence he had previously
written local Knights of Columbus councils and the Archdiocesan Council
of Catholic Women to seek their help in calling for federal immigration
law reform.
On Sunday morning, he made his 155th pastoral visit to the
archdiocesan parish of St. Gerard Majella in Brooklyn Park.
Its “festive
liturgy” and many parishioners in attendance reminded him of why he
became a priest, Archbishop Nienstedt reported.
Later on Sunday, he also attended a prayer service to end abortions
at Regions Hospital, a teaching institution with its own abortion unit.
“Naturally, they do not advertise the number of abortions they perform per year, but it is known that more
than 60 percent of these gruesome procedures are performed on minority
women and on their unborn children,” the prelate explained.
Finally, the archbishop said, he joined two parents and their
three-year-old as she went trick-or-treating. He also handed out candy
at his residence.
Earlier this year the bishops of Minnesota mailed nearly 400,000 DVDs
to Catholics throughout the state in response to several bills that
would redefine civil marriage law to include homosexual partnerships.
Archbishop Nienstedt made a video for the DVD in which he emphasized the
nature of marriage as a lifelong and potentially procreative union
between a man and a woman.
Laws which treated other partnerships as equal to traditional
marriage would weaken society’s already damaged foundation, he warned.
The bishops’ defense of marriage drew hostile coverage from several
secular media outlets, which highlighted the objections of Catholic
dissenters.
The Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune highlighted the efforts of
artist Lucinda Naylor, who was suspended as a part-time artist at
Minneapolis’ Basilica of St. Mary when she created a Facebook site
seeking discarded copies of the DVD to build a wave sculpture.
In his Catholic Spirit column, Archbishop Nienstedt said that like
St. Paul he must preach the “full, Catholic message,” whether it is
“convenient or inconvenient,” while “constantly teaching and never
losing patience.” (2 Timothy 4:2).
“Please pray that I live up to that high standard,” the archbishop concluded.
SIC: CNA/USA