Readers weigh in on vandalism at Anchorage’s Holy Family Cathedral, the bi-partisan fight for unborn rights and the recent visit to Alaska by Pope Francis’ top ranking ambassador to the United States.
What has occurred at Holy Family Cathedral in Anchorage over the past several months is deeply disturbing for both believers and unbelievers alike. It gives one pause that vandals would attempt to burn down an outdoor shrine to the Blessed Virgin, smash the windows of the Dominican priests’ vehicle, barge into the sanctuary and throw down statues of Mary, Joseph and Jesus, while stripping the holy altar and overturning the archbishop’s chair and other furnishings. Add to this that at least one Dominican friar has also been punched in the face and attempts have been made to break into the priests’ residence. Regardless of one’s beliefs attacks on a sacred house of worship and the oldest church in Anchorage leaves one feeling less secure about our community and what we can expect from it.
During daylight hours in early December, Holy Family Cathedral was vandalized. Nearly life-size, solid-wood statues, including one of the Holy Family — the Infant Jesus, Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph grouped together — were toppled to the floor, the main altar was stripped, and even the top of the tabernacle was knocked to the ground. That night, two intruders tried to break into the second floor rooms of the priests’ residence — steps from the church. These acts are part of a growing litany of attacks against the cathedral: In November, someone torched an outdoor statue of Mary and defecated across the church courtyard facing busy 5th Avenue. In 2013 someone charged the altar during Mass; in 2012 two priests were physically assaulted. The violence has left local Catholics wondering how the cathedral walks the fine line between keeping doors open to all comers and preserving peace and reverence for the house of God.
Editor’s note: The following Christmas Mass times are for Catholic parishes across the Anchorage Archdiocese. For last minute updates or changes to Mass times, please visit archdioceseofanchorage.org
Every year, it comes upon a midnight clear or a midnight snowy in Alaska. For at least the last 1,600 years, Catholics around the world have been venturing to church in the middle of a dark December night to celebrate the birth of Christ. The Christmas Midnight Mass is a unique liturgy honoring the Infant Savior — the everlasting Light that brightened the dark streets of little Bethlehem and all of human history.
I am turning 65 this month and a lovely question has come to me: “How do I want to finish this life?” We all may have had some bad starts along the way but the Christian Gospel says we can make a great finish.
It’s a hard Gospel truth, this idea of Christ being with the most marginalized. The truly poor in our midst often don’t smell very good, they often make maddeningly poor choices, and they are sometimes caught up in almost irreversible webs of addiction and despair. Sometimes, all we can do is love them, not fix them, and that can be tough.
One letter this month address how abortion support among some Catholics wounds the wider church. Another letter relates the inspiration one deacon received upon reading about how Deacon Curt Luenberger faced an illness that brought him to the brink of death.
Editor’s note: The following is Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz’s Dec. 15 homily given at the ordination of Bishop Chad Zielinski as the head of the Fairbanks Diocese.
Catholics in the Fairbanks Diocese were urged to accept, love and pray for their newly ordained bishop who “has pledged to give his life to you.” This was part of the homily given by Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz before he ordained Bishop Chad Zielinski as the sixth bishop of Fairbanks.