IN THIS ISSUE ...

Visitor Stories:

• Girls seek God and good times at camp

• Parish history writer unearths little known facts and long buried document

• With ‘talents maximus’ but ‘years minimus,’ circus campers perform ‘in-tents’ shows in seven central Minnesota towns

• EDITORIAL: Advertising? Keep it impersonal

FAITH ALIVE

Girls seek God and good times at camp

by Sue Schulzetenberg
Visitor Staff Writer

ST. JOSEPH — Sixty-six girls plus 11 camp counselors and seven sister assistants plus three activity-filled days in a monastery equals a Girls, God and Good Times camp plus a new understanding of monastic life. You might say it’s an equation about faith formation.

“I wanted this camp to give the girls an opportunity to experience the Benedictine Sisters’ way of life,” said Sister Lisa Kittock, camp director.

The Girls, God and Good Times Catholic Benedictine Camp for Girls took place June 19-21 at St. Benedict’s Monastery in St. Joseph. This year was the first year for the camp. Fifth and sixth grade girls throughout the St. Cloud Diocese attended the camp.

At the camp, the girls participated in a variety of activities from dancing to scrap-booking with Scripture verses to a bonfire. They ate lunch with some of the sisters and gardened with Sister Phyllis Plantenberg.

	Campers at the Girls, God and Good Times Catholic Benedictine Camp for Girls sing during their performance at the Sacred Heart Chapel in St. Joseph. The girls spent three days with the sisters at the Saint Benedict Monastery. They met some of the sisters and participated in a variety of activities from scrap-booking with scripture quotes to swimming to singing. (SCV photo by Sue Schulzetenberg)

Parish history writer unearths little known facts and long buried document

by Sophie Schottler
Visitor Staff Writer

ST. JOSEPH — It’s not a treehouse, but it is a house built on trees.
St. Joseph Church in St. Joseph was built in 1856 — that’s 150 years ago. The pillars that were used in building the structure were each complete pine trees. Oak beams added support to the foundation and to the upper regions. Stones were utilized from the ground all the way up to enclose the church.

It is no far stretch then for Benedictine Sister Owen Lindblad to name her new St. Joseph Parish history book “Rooted in Christ: The Living Stone.”

Of course, the title also refers to the spirituality of the builders and settlers as they began the massive project of building a church.

In the foreword to the book, Sister Owen writes, “Faith was the essential foundation of the church fixed firmly from the beginning by the earliest settlers. This faith of the people continues to this day, ‘rooted’ in Jesus Christ, the Living Stone.”

As St. Joseph celebrates its sesquicentennial (150 year anniversary), this book provides a pictorial and editorial history of the church that has witnessed all those years pass by.

	“Rooted in Christ: The Living Stone,” the parish history of St. Joseph Church, St. Joseph, recently authored by Sister Owen Lindblad, is an account of the first Catholic church in Stearns County. The stories of many other parishes around the diocese have also been written to commemorate centennial or sesquicentennial celebrations. (SCV photo by Sophie Schottler)

With ‘talents maximus’ but ‘years minimus,’ circus campers perform ‘in-tents’ shows in seven central Minnesota towns

by Sue Schulzetenberg
Visitor Staff Writer

COLLEGEVILLE — Bright colors splash under a big tent, clowns juggle scarves and acrobats swing from ropes. The circus is in town. In fact, it was  in seven towns — Collegeville, Cold Spring, Albany, Melrose, Avon, Jacob’s Prairie and St. Cloud.

Scores of people were able to see circus life up close June 25-July 1 during 14 traveling circus performances at these seven towns in the St. Cloud Diocese. And the circus life they saw had a decidedly youthful and enthusiastic flair.

That’s because contributing big-time under this big top were youths from across the diocese and greater Minnesota, and even other states. They learned and honed their skills at Circus Camp at St. John’s Preparatory School in Collegeville.

Circus Camp lasted two weeks. The first week was geared toward beginners; it was during the second week, for more advanced circus performers, that the campers gave performances at the seven towns.

EDITORIAL:
Advertising? Keep it impersonal

In the summertime, it is only natural for things to heat up, including issues involving politics. The past three issues of the Visitor bear this out.

In the June 8 issue, friends of Pax Christi St. Cloud placed in our newspaper a full-page advertisement headed with the words, “A Christian call to stop torture now.” Signed by more than 100 individuals (and two groups) from central Minnesota, the ad was a reprint of a Pax Christi USA statement that had previously been published in Congress’s daily newspaper Roll Call and three Catholic newspapers, one national, two diocesan.

The ad quoted Pope John Paul II as saying, “Disciples of Christ will reject torture, which nothing can justify...” It also said “the Bush administration has employed interrogation techniques in the War on Terrorism which clearly constitute torture,” and decried the administrations efforts “to circumvent ... laws that prohibit the use of torture, under the auspices of national security.”

In the Visitor’s June 22 Reader Reaction section, four letter-writers took the ad to task, saying it was naïve, filled with lies, and a “hate-Bush diatribe.”

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