Concerted efforts to listen to the Holy Spirit’s inspiration have been made throughout the preparation process for the 2022 Archdiocesan Synod, since the process launched in September 2019. That will continue the first weekend in June during the Synod Assembly, the first Synod held in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in more than 80 years.
But Archbishop Bernard Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis is also invoking the intercession of three “blesseds” for the Synod Assembly June 3-5. Allison Spies, the archdiocese’s archives program manager, recently joined “Practicing Catholic” radio show host Patrick Conley to discuss those three men and their ties to the archdiocese.
COURTESY ARCHDIOCESAN ARCHIVES
“Blessed” is the title bestowed on people who have been beatified, “essentially the step just before canonization, which confers the title of ‘saint,’” Spies said. Blesseds can have shrines built in their name and churches under their patronage, Spies said, but special permission is required from Rome to observe their feast days in the public liturgical calendar for a diocese.
Blessed Stanley Rother never lived or served in Minnesota, but he has many relatives in the New Trier area, Spies said. “His ancestors settled there and he was actually also a very dear friend of Archbishop Flynn, since they attended seminary together,” she said. He served a parish in Guatemala during a time of conflict when thousands of Catholics were being killed, and he was among them, Spies said.
Blessed Solanus Casey was born in Wisconsin, lived in Stillwater as a teenager, was confirmed there and spent his period of discernment in the St. Croix River town. He became a Capuchin friar, worked as a porter at a monastery, co-founded a soup kitchen during the Depression that is still active today and held weekly Masses for the sick, Spies said.
COURTESY ARCHDIOCESAN ARCHIVES
Blessed James Miller, a Christian brother, was born on a Wisconsin farm. He taught Spanish, English and religious education at then-Cretin High School in St. Paul, Spies said, and coached sports, started the soccer team and oversaw maintenance at the school. He left the school to teach in Nicaragua where he helped found several schools, she said, and where he was killed.
To learn more details about the lives of the three holy me — including which one is honored by having his name used for a chapel that will be occupied during the Synod Assembly — and to learn details about the history of Synods in the archdiocese, listen to the full interview. Spies gives details of earlier synods, including the seven that took place between 1861 and 1878. This episode of “Practicing Catholic” debuts at 9 p.m. May 27 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM and repeats at 1 p.m. May 28 and 2 p.m. May 29.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes interviews with Father Joseph Bambenek, assistant director of the Archdiocesan Synod, who describes what it takes to put together a Synod and what will take place during the Synod Assembly June 3-5; and Archbishop Bernard Hebda, who discusses three topics: the Church’s commitment to women and children in light of the leaked draft of the Dobbs v. Jackson Supreme Court decision, news about Indian boarding schools and the upcoming Synod Assembly.
Listen to their interviews after they have aired:
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