Cardinal visits St. John’s Past Washington D.C. prelate shares tales of two popes during talk

by Joseph Young
Visitor Interim Editor

COLLEGEVILLE — Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, like most cardinals, exemplifies the four cardinal virtues of justice, wisdom, courage, and moderation. Cardinal McCarrick is a man of character — but he is also a bit of a character himself, as he displayed during a two-day stay Dec. 2-3 at St. John’s University (SJU) and Abbey in Collegeville.

	Cardinal McCarrick, center, is greeted and given gratitude after his luncheon speech, “Wearing a Red Hat,” by Benedictine Brother Dietrich Reinhart, St. John’s University president, left, and St. John’s Abbot John Klassen. (SCV photo by Joseph Young)

“I’m not smart but I am funny that’s my gift” the 76-year-old self-effacing Archbishop Emeritus of Washington, D.C., told a group of students, faculty members and others during a National Press Club-style luncheon Dec. 2 in the SJU Quadrangle. Cardinal McCarrick was giving insight into the life of a cardinal during a speech titled, “Wearing a Red Hat.”

Praise the Lord and pass on pearls of wisdom formed from sands of time

by Joseph Young
Visitor Interim Editor

Ralph Krafnick is not sure what heaven will be like.
“I hope I will be with my family,” he said. “I have no idea whether my buddies will be there. I imagine maybe ... I hope so.”

Hell, on the other hand, is one place Krafnick doesn’t have to go to know what it is like. He’s been to war, and war is hell.

Krafnick, a member of St. Mary’s Cathedral Parish in St. Cloud and 1937 St. Cloud Cathedral High School graduate who will celebrate his 90th birthday next May, is a member of a diminishing number of living World War II veterans who survived the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941, exactly, 65 years ago today.

One of the “old buddies” Krafnick may meet up with in heaven is Naval Cmdr. Howell Forgy, a Presbyterian chaplain who fired off anti-aircraft rounds from the quarterdeck of the USS New Orleans — which was drydocked during the Pearl Harbor attack due to engine repairs. Krafnick loaded shells into the guns breech (“passing the ammunition,” so to speak) while the Rev. Forgy fired toward the attacking bombers.

St. Paul parishioner has poured 60 years of love, service into place she calls ‘home’

by Sue Schulzetenberg
Visitor Staff Writer

ST. CLOUD — To Irene Pundsack, the structure on 511 9th Ave. N. is more than a brick building.

	Place of Hope volunteers Linda Farrell and Irene Pundsack, right, serve food to the Rev. Carol Jean Smith, pastor of Place of Hope ministries on Dec. 8. Pundsack has volunteered or worked at the building that now houses Place of Hope for nearly 60 years. (SCV photo by Sue Schulzetenberg)

“It’s my home,” she said during a Nov. 30 interview with the St. Cloud Visitor.
Or, perhaps, a home away, — but not far away — from home. By “home,” Pundsack doesn’t mean the domicile where she lives, but rather a home, as in the familiar place where she helps, nurtures and is received with healthy heapings of hugs and seemingly endless echoes of hellos.

Her “home” is the building — just across the street from where she lives — that was built to be a St. Raphael’s Hospital, then served as a St. Raphael’s nursing home and then as a St. Raphael’s retirement center for aged sisters, is now in its sixth year of housing the Place of Hope Ministry Center.

SHEPHERDS in the CITY: There will soon be a few new padres in town, and eight pastors will serve 15 parishes

OFFICIAL
The Most Reverend John F. Kinney, Bishop of the Diocese of St. Cloud, makes the following appointments in the Diocese of St. Cloud effective June 28, 2007.

Father Bernard Gruenes to pastor of the Church of St. Joseph, Waite Park, while continuing as pastor of the Church of St. Michael, St. Cloud;

Father Thomas Knoblach from pastor of the Church of St. Anne, Kimball and the Church of St. Wendelin, Luxemberg, to pastor of the Church of the Holy Spirit, St. Cloud, the Church of St. Anthony, St. Cloud and the Church of St. John Cantius, St. Cloud;

Father Anthony Oelrich from pastor of the Church of the Holy Cross, Pearl Lake and the Church of Mary of the Immaculate Conception, Rockville, to Rector of the Cathedral of St. Mary, St. Cloud and pastor of Christ Church, St. Cloud and the Church of St. Augustine, St. Cloud;

Father Robert Rolfes to pastor of the Church of St. Wendelin, Luxemberg, while continuing as pastor of the church of St. Mary Help of Christians, St. Augusta and Chancellor of the Diocese of St. Cloud;

Father Alan Wielinski from pastor of the Church of the Assumption, Morris, to pastor of the Church of St. Paul, St. Cloud, and the Church of St. Peter, St. Cloud.

Given at the Chancery
St. Cloud, Minnesota
November 21, 2006
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Metro-area Mass schedule

The new Mass schedule for St. Cloud metro-area parishes goes into effect the weekend of Jan. 13-14, 2007. Call your parishes if you have any questions about the schedule, or to see if the schedule has been revised. The Mass times are:

• St. Mary’s Cathedral:
5 p.m. on Saturdays
9:45 a.m. on Sundays

• St. Augustine Parish
8 a.m. and 10 a.m. on Sundays

• Newman Center Christ Church:
8:30 a.m., 11:45 a.m., and 7:30 p.m. on Sundays.

• St. John Cantius Parish:
7:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. on Sundays.

• St. Anthony Parish
4:30 p.m. on Saturdays
9:30 a.m. on Sundays

• Holy Spirit Parish
4 p.m. on Saturdays
8:30 a.m. on Sundays

• St. Joseph Parish in Waite Park
7:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. on Sundays

• St. Michael Parish
4:30 p.m. on Saturdays
11 a.m. on Sundays

• St. Paul Parish
(from Jan. 13-14 through March 24)
4:30 p.m. on Saturdays
9 a.m. on Sundays

• St. Peter Parish
(from Jan. 13-14 through March 24)
7:30 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. on Sundays

(Note: beginning the weekend of April 14-15 through the weekend of June 23-24, Masses at St. Peter’s will be at 4:30 p.m. on Saturdays and 9 a.m. on Sundays. Masses at St. Paul’s will be at 7:30 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. on Sundays.)

• St. Mary Help of Christians Parish
5 p.m. on Saturdays
8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. on Sundays

• St. Wendelin Parish
4:30 p.m. on Saturdays
7:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. on Sundays

• St. Joseph Parish in St. Joseph
5 p.m. on Saturdays
8 a.m. and 10 a.m. on Sundays

• St. Francis Xavier Parish
5 p.m. on Saturdays
8:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. on Sundays

• Sacred Heart Parish
5 p.m. on Saturdays
8 a.m. and 10 a.m. on Sundays