Saint Cloud Visitor Home Page

A call to camp: Boys spend some of their summer vacation pondering their vocation

by Sue Schulzetenberg
Visitor Staff Writer


Campers, Serra Club members from the St. Cloud Diocese and priests, deacons and seminarians who helped with the camp gather in front of St. John Abbey prior to eating lunch together on Aug. 8.

COLLEGEVILLE — In T-shirts and shorts, deacons and seminarians help youths find fishing lures and, later, measure their catches for a casually impromptu biggest fish contest.

The contest was one of the many activities the boys in grades 7-9 from the St. Cloud Diocese participated in at the Vocation Camp at St. John’s University in Collegeville Aug. 6-9. At the camp, the 39 campers were able to meet and learn more about people in various vocations.

A focus of the camp is to show the youths that people who have a vocation — priests, for example — are human too, and like to do the same things other people like to do, such as fishing, said Father Greg Mastey, vocations director for the Diocese of St. Cloud.

The camp has taken place for about six years. Activities include fishing, hiking, various other forms of recreation, prayer, Mass and rosary.

Leading and helping with the camp were Father Mastey, 12 seminarians from the St. Cloud Diocese and Father Joe Herzing, pastor of Holy Cross Parish in Butler and St. Henry and St. Stanislaus parishes in Perham, and Father Greg Paffel, pastor of St. John Parish in Foley.


Campers and Serra Club members join together to pray the rosary before Mass Aug. 8.	Thirty-nine boys considered how God may be calling them during Vocations Camp at St. John’s University in Collegeville Aug. 6-9.

by Sophie Schottler
Visitor Staff Writer

ST. JOSEPH — Photos are displayed proudly throughout the living room of Rose Mayer, a 91 year old woman from St. Joseph. Naturally there are photos of her family — her daughter and son-in-law Kathy and Dave Rennie, for example, and her grandchildren.

But among the family gallery are photos of a man who appears not to be related to Rose. He is a man from India. These are the photos that catch one’s eye.

The man is posing on the streets of St. Joseph under the spires of the church. He is squatting next to Rose in her home. He is standing next to a World War II memorial in the Netherlands commemorating the service of Americans missing in action, including Rose’s husband.

And, in the most recent photo, taken in early July, he is being blessed by Pope Benedict XVI.

The man is Bishop Sebastian Thekethecheril who on July 2 was consecrated as bishop of the Diocese of Vijayapuram, one of the poorest in India.

by Sue Schulzetenberg
Visitor Staff Writer

ST. CLOUD — How do you provide spiritual support in a time of mass crisis? What do you do with a mass of dead bodies? Where can you house contagious sick people? Those are some of the issues churches may be asked to assist with during a pandemic, said presenters at a Faith Community Pandemic Preparedness Briefing July 18 at the CentraCare Health Plaza in St. Cloud.

In recent months, news media have reported more than 100 human deaths worldwide — with the likelihood of more — from the avian influenza virus (also known as avian flu or bird flu). The July 18 briefing was held to inform leaders in faith communities about what a pandemic is and what needs be done to prepare for one. The briefing was also a preliminary step to an Aug. 29 gathering on more in-depth planning for such a pandemic. Faith community leaders from Benton, Sherburne, Stearns and Wright counties were invited.

Pope Benedict XVI has called for a cease-fire. Bishop Thomas Wenski has called for a cease-fire. The leaders of 850 U.S. religious orders of women have called for a cease-fire. United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has called for a cease-fire.

This fire, however, is not going to cease any time soon.
It is mostly civilians who have been victimized as the latest episode of fighting and bombing in Lebanon and Israel continued into its 14th day on July 25. As of that date, 386 Lebanese and 41 Israelis, including 24 soldiers, have been killed, mostly by bombings in southern Lebanon and in Haifa, Israel. More than a half-million Lebanese have sought refuge outside Lebanon. And violence against Palestinians continued after Israel’s June 28 military raid into the Gaza Strip to free a captured Israeli soldier.

Despite the pleas and prayers of the pope and Catholics worldwide, prospects for a continuing war outweighed prospects for an enduring cease-fire and peace.

Vocations Camp