Serving the people of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee
By Ethel M. Gintoft
Parenting staff
The proposed renovation of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist has triggered vigorous debate about the pros and cons of the renovation plans. Your children may have heard or seen news reports about it.
If your offspring ask you what a cathedral is, do you know the answer? Have you considered taking them to St. John for a view of its parts and artifacts? If you do, you will be helping them to understand how all the Catholic churches in the archdiocese connect to each other. You can tell them who is portrayed on the various stained glass windows on either side of the church and where is the crypt and whose remains are contained there.
First, let's clarify what a cathedral is. A newcomer to the Milwaukee Archdiocese, recently asked if the big Basilica of St. Josaphat on the south side of Milwaukee is also a cathedral. The answer, of course, is "no." St. Josephat is a "basilica," an honorary title given by the Vatican to a church important for its historical significance, architectural dignity, or association with the development of faith. A basilica contains a chair for the pope with an umbrella or "ombrellino" in the papal colors of red and yellow. The ombrellino in earlier times was held over the pope as he traveled on horseback.
But St. Josaphat Basilica does not contain the "cathedra" or chair of the archbishop. The cathedra, from a Greek word meaning chair or throne, presently located on the left side of the sanctuary in St. John Cathedral, is the symbol of leadership and teaching authority in the archdiocese. It is the place from which the bishop leads his flock in prayer, especially the Mass, from which he teaches and from which he leads the local church.
Thus, it is the cathedra that makes a cathedral, whether it be a big expansive building or a somewhat smaller one like St. John. In some dioceses cathedrals are also basilicas.
(The famous Basilica of St. Peter in Rome interestingly is not the cathedral of Rome because it does not have the cathedra. The cathedral is St. John Lateran.)
The proposed renovation plans for Milwaukee's cathedral will move the cathedra to a place closer to the assembly. Currently, it does not face the people but looks to the opposite wall.
Milwaukee's first archbishop, John Martin Henni, is responsible for the cathedral being located where it is on North Jackson Street between East Wells Street and East Kilbourn Avenue, facing Cathedral Square. He purchased the site in 1847 before Wisconsin even became a state. At that time the street names were different. Because of its early history in the area, the cathedral was designated as a Milwaukee landmark and listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.
Because St. John contains the official chair of the archbishop, it is considered the "mother church" of all the churches in the 10 counties of the archdiocese. It becomes a visible sign of the unity of all those many churches.
It is also the place where archdiocese-wide liturgies are held. The Catholic community assembles around its archbishop for such liturgical rites as ordinations, the Chrism Mass, the Easter vigil, and the Rite of Election.
As the mother church, the cathedral, then, is expected to be the model for all the other churches - in liturgy, in supporting the fine arts, and in service to the disadvantaged, as well as in other outreach, like ministry to downtown business and civic individuals, to newcomers or visitors to the city, and to students in the higher education campuses nearby.
Now for the visit with your children. Keep in mind that in May of next year some major renovation will be initiated, changing much of the present interior.
As you approach the cathedral, point out its magnificent tower, which was constructed in 1893.
Notice the bronze eagles and also the bronze statues of St. John and St. Peter on either side of the front doors. You might also want to point out the bronze plaques designating the cathedral as a historical landmark. The front cathedral doors are deteriorating and will be replaced with new ones in the renovation project.
As you walk into the cathedral from the main doors you will be impressed by the 24 columns that were added to support the roof in the 1935-42 reconstruction following a massive fire that destroyed most of the cathedral's interior.
Compared to your parish church, the cathedral will probably look big and high. It is 236 feet long, 76 feet wide, and 62 feet high. Thirty-eight rows of pews seat about 740 people. (The renovation will increase seating to more than 900.)
Point out to the children the stations of the cross along the side and rear walls that depict the passion and death of Jesus.
On the north wall you'll see a carved wooden statue of the prophet Moses with his horns of wisdom and his staff representing the rod Moses used to separate the Red Sea when the Israelites were fleeing the Egyptians. If your family has seen any of the movies about Moses, you can remind them of that dramatic scene. The statue and its shrine are dedicated to the archdiocese's sixth archbishop, Moses E. Kiley, who was largely responsible for reconstructing the cathedral after the 1935 fire.
Further down the north wall is a statue of St. Joseph, Jesus's stepfather. The Infant in his arms holds a globe symbolizing the world. At the front of the cathedral on this north side, you will see a shrine to the Sacred Heart of Jesus above a white marble side altar.
Looking to the main altar area, you'll spot the important cathedra or chair of the archbishop on a marble platform. Tell your youngsters that's where the archbishop sits during Mass.
In back you'll see the former main altar wall, with its gold-leafed canopy above which the words "Hoc facite in meam commemorationem" ("Do this in remembrance of me") echo Jesus's words to his apostles at his Last Supper. A life-size carved crucifix hangs from the canopy. This altar was used for Mass before Vatican II changes. What is called the tabernacle is in the center of that altar wall. It contains consecrated Communion hosts. A lit candle on the left of the tabernacle tells you the Eucharist is present in the tabernacle.
After Vatican II the altar table was moved away from the back altar so that the priest could face the people. The legs of this altar feature symbols for Alpha and Omega, "beginning" and "end." You can explain to the children that these symbols represent God who is the beginning and end of all that we are.
Closer to the pews, you'll see small marble sections of what was once the Communion rail. Before Vatican II changes, the people used to kneel at this rail to receive Communion.
To the right of the sanctuary, past the pulpit or what is now frequently referred to as the ambo is the shrine of the Blessed Virgin, mother of God. Turning to your right you'll see the baptistry, which was once used for baptism. Its font is carved from pink marble and is covered by a brass cover with symbols for renewal, birth, purity and Holy Spirit. The new renovation plans call for a new baptismal font to be located at the cathedral entrance to highlight baptism as the "door" to the church and to provide a direct visual line to the altar and ambo. It is to be large enough for adult immersion into the water. That was the way the early Christians were baptized - in the rivers or lakes or in housed pools so they could be covered with the water of new life.
The present baptistry location, according to renovation plans, will probably be converted into an adoration chapel in which the tabernacle will be placed.
In the present baptistry area you'll see some stairs going down to the cathedral crypt. Here is where archbishops and auxiliary bishops of the Milwaukee Archdiocese are buried. Three of our nine archbishops rest there: Henni, Kiley, and William E. Cousins, whom our present archbishop succeeded. The late Auxiliary Bishop Leo Brust is also buried there.
On the south wall you'll see two shrines: to Our Mother of Perpetual Help and to St. Therese of the Child Jesus, often called the "Little Flower."
Looking up to the rear, you'll see the choir loft with its magnificent organ, installed in 1966. Point out the pipes and note that there are 3,586 of them.
Now focus on the beautiful stained glass windows portraying the 12 apostles and St. Paul. Above these windows are portraits of the archbishops of Milwaukee, including that of our current archbishop, Rembert G. Weakland. These big representations ( 57-inch circles) were made from photos of the original paintings of the archbishops. The photos were enlarged, hand-brushed and lacquered to make them look like paintings.
The stained glass windows surrounding the baptistry delineate events in the life of Jesus: the presentation of Jesus in the temple, the baptism of Jesus, and the crucifixion.
After the renovation is completed in 2002, you may want to take your children back again to see the new locations of the altar, lectern, and baptistry, and the new aesthetics that are planned, including art that represents the diversity of the archdiocese.
There will be as to much to see, learn about and admire in 2002, as there is now.
dedicated to 'beloved disciple'
The Milwaukee archdiocesan cathedral is dedicated to St. John the Evangelist, its patron saint. St. John, the youngest of Jesus's 12 apostles, often referred to as the "beloved disciple," is the assumed author of the fourth Gospel, three Epistles, and the Revelations of John.
He was a fisherman who was called by Jesus to follow him. That he was close to Christ is evidenced by the fact that only he, Peter and James were present at such significant events as the Transfiguration, the healing of Peter's mother-in-law, the raising of Jairus's daughter from the dead, and Christ's agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.
John was the only apostle at the crucifixion when Jesus placed the Blessed Mother into his care.
After Christ's ascension and the descent of the Holy Spirit, John helped St. Peter organize the church by going from Jerusalem to Asia Minor establishing churches.
The only apostle not to suffer martyrdom, he lived to the ripe old age of 94.
Because of John's brilliance, the eagle is his symbol to represent the soaring thought of his writings. Appropriately, sculptures of two bronze eagles decorate the outside of St. John Cathedral. They are 66 inches wide and weigh 950 pounds each.
St. John's feast day is Dec. 27.
By Annemarie Scobey-Polacheck
Special to Parenting
As recently as 15 years ago, the only Spanish words you would find in a typical Catholic elementary school might have been written on the lunch menu. Burritos. Tacos. And maybe, if your school had a good cook and you were very lucky, enchiladas.
Unless a school had a high population of children for whom English was a second language, foreign language was a non-issue for most Catholic grade schools; it was a considered a high school subject.
Now, all that is changing, and Catholic elementary schools, along with their public school counterparts, are beginning to teach foreign language as early as kindergarten.
David Prothero, associate director for curriculum and instruction for the Milwaukee Archdiocese, said that just about every school in the archdiocese has some type of foreign language component, with some schools having more developed programs than others.
"What we have told all schools is that they must look very seriously at their foreign language component, and do as much as they can to make sure students have foreign language instruction," he said.
This major shift in philosophy comes on the heels of research and experience showing that children have an easier time learning a foreign language when they are younger.
Dr. Ann Pasero, professor of Spanish and literature at Marquette University, said various factors make it easier for young children to pick up a foreign language.
"Small kids are like sponges; they're working on language acquisition on the whole, so their brains are used to working in that way," she said. "They're also less peer conscious, and are more willing to speak or sing songs."
Moving beginning foreign language instruction down from freshman year of high school to kindergarten is much more complicated than simply sliding a textbook down 10 grade levels. In fact, experts in foreign language say that children in the primary grades should be doing little, if any, reading and writing of the language. Instead, the focus should be on having fun with the language; singing songs, playing games, having conversations. A good foreign language class at the elementary level will involve lots of action, movement and noise as students discover how the new language works. Grammar, reading and writing skills can be taught at the upper grade levels.
"When children are young, they love repetition," said Hilda Fennel, head of the foreign language department at Dominican High School. "There's a silly song that teaches children how to roll the letter 'r' in Spanish. You can get a kindergartner to repeat the rolling of an 'r' 10 times without a problem. Ask a high school student to repeat something, and they'll stop and blush. They don't like to be put on the spot. Little kids love the attention of being asked to repeat."
Holy Family Parish School in Whitefish Bay is in its eighth year of teaching Spanish to students in grades one through eight. First- through fifth-graders have class twice a week, and sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders have class three times a week. The start of Holy Family's Spanish curriculum coincided with the beginning of principal Rebecca Jones' tenure at the school.
"Prior to Spanish, Holy Family offered Latin," Jones said. "Just as I came to the school, the person teaching Latin was moving on to somewhere else, so there was already money in the budget for foreign language."
Jones has seen a strong interest in foreign language from parents who tour the school.
"We have a few parents who have extensive background in a foreign language, and this is part of their family life, and we have other parents who feel they missed something by not starting a language until high school," she said.
Terry Adrian, mother of a fourth-grader and a first-grader at Holy Family, said the fact that Holy Family offered a foreign language was a key factor in the family deciding on Holy Family over their neighborhood school. Adrian, who is fluent in German and who has taught the language at every level from preschool to adult, sees foreign language instruction as something more than just learning the vocabulary of another language.
"I think foreign language should be required in all elementary schools," she said. "I see it as a weapon against the ethnocentrism that seems to be so ingrained in Americans. Part of foreign language instruction has an element of social justice. It shows children that our way isn't the only way, and in a Catholic school, what an opportunity it is to be able to teach this."
Jones has a similar philosophy about Spanish instruction at Holy Family.
"Learning Spanish definitely has helped our students with their awareness of other cultures," she said. "It has also put us in touch with the universal church. We've learned prayers in Spanish and have said the rosary in Spanish."
While Holy Family Parish School has few students coming from homes where Spanish is the primary language, that is not the case at Prince of Peace, on Milwaukee's south side. The school is about 65 to 70 percent Hispanic, and most children come from families where English is a second language. The school hired a full-time Spanish teacher for the first time last year.
"Initially, some of the parents said, 'My child doesn't need to learn Spanish, they know it,'" said Donna Schmidt, principal of the school. "But we were finding that while the children could speak it, they could not write it or read it. They would not be able to pass on the language."
Students in grades one through eight take Spanish twice a week at Prince of Peace. In addition, children who are native Spanish-speakers are taken out when they get to junior high for more extensive instruction in Spanish writing and literature.
The school offers Spanish lessons to teachers one day a week after school and is beginning an English as a second language program for parents, to be offered at night.
St. Jude in Wauwatosa has one of the most complete foreign language programs in the archdiocese, with students in four-year-old kindergarten to fourth grade attending class once a week, fifth-graders going twice a week, and sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders having class every day.
Roger Baehr, principal of St. Jude, said by the time students are in the upper grades, they are using conversational Spanish on a regular basis.
"One of our goals is to have our graduating eighth-graders be able to qualify for Spanish II as freshmen in high school," he said. "Many of our students also decide to take a different language in high school because they feel comfortable with their level of knowledge of Spanish."
For parents with a background in the study of a foreign language, however, even a program like St. Jude can fall a bit short of the ideal way to instruct children if fluency is the goal.
Mary Garcia-Velez, parent of a 4-year-old kindergarten student at St. Jude and vice principal of the Milwaukee Spanish Immersion school, struggled with the decision of whether her daughter should attend St. Jude or Milwaukee Spanish Immersion.
"From my perspective, immersion is the best way to teach a foreign language," Garcia-Velez said. "My daughter was on the waiting list for Milwaukee Spanish Immersion, and had already started school at St. Jude by the time we found out that she got in." Garcia-Velez and her husband decided to keep their daughter at St. Jude, understanding that a once-a-week 20-minute Spanish lesson would not give their daughter the fluency she would have achieved at an immersion school, where all subjects are taught in the foreign language.
"It would be great if there were an elementary Catholic foreign language immersion school in the archdiocese, but I don't know if you'd get enough interest," Garcia-Velez said.
While few schools would deny the importance of foreign language instruction, many Catholic elementary schools continue to only offer foreign language classes at the very upper grades, and then, perhaps only one to three times per week.
Prothero said the reason a school chooses not to offer foreign language at early grade levels vary; for some schools, it's a budget issue. For others, it might be a matter of teachers being reluctant to give up core subject teaching time. Even the current interest in teaching foreign language plays a part, with schools finding it difficult to find quality foreign language instructors with experience teaching young children.
"If a parent has a concern about the foreign language program at a school, I would suggest he or she set up a time to meet with the principal about that concern," Prothero said. "This will allow the parent to explain why he or she feels it's a priority and to learn what obstacles are preventing the program. With some work with a supportive home and school committee, school board or ad hoc committee, the program might be able to change."
By Patricia Lorenz
With spooky, scary Halloween hovering over us, I am reminded of my deliciously demented relatives, mainly my Dad and only brother Joe.
America's love of all things scary - movies, masks, make-up and monsters - at least makes their year-round dementia somewhat acceptable. My 81-year-old Dad has been scaring the bejeebers out of me for years.
The house Dad built in 1946 and still lives in, in Rock Falls, Ill., is right across the street from a beautiful, tree-filled cemetery.
When I was in third or fourth grade, on Halloween night, I went trick-or-treating with three of my friends who lived in the country. A block from home when we reached the old part of the cemetery, we suddenly heard a horrifying voice from deep inside the rows of tombstones hollering in slow motion, "Let me out! Let me out!"
We four gasping, screaming horror-stricken girls turned and ran home, beating every land speed record ever set. An hour later after we'd caught our breath, but were still shaking, I remembered that earlier that day, Dad had nonchalantly suggested that I take my country girl friends past the cemetery at the start of our trick-or-treating. Of course Dad never admitted to being the tombstone ghost but he cemented his place as "the coolest Dad ever" on that dark and scary Halloween night.
Another time Dad carved his initials in the "cool dad book of life" was when my next door neighbor, Vivian, and I spent the night in her family's tiny camper parked in their yard. Just as we were dozing off, Dad snuck up to the top of the hill where the camper was parked and dragged a stick across the aluminum sides. Our hysterical screams didn't leave much time for thinking, but we eventually fell asleep knowing for certain that a grizzly bear, an escaped convict or perhaps my Dad had attempted to enter our locked domain.
Dad passed his scare tactics on to my brother. One year Joe and his family invited me to join them on a van trip to Gulf Shores, Ala.
Unbeknownst to me they had sent airline tickets to my oldest daughter Jeanne in California so she could meet us at my brother's home in Kentucky and join us on the trip. To surprise me Joe hid her in their bathtub with a full head mask on. I was sent on a hunt for supposedly a friend of my niece. I found the friend in the tub but she refused to take off the mask until we were all in the kitchen.
When the "friend" started to slowly remove the mask, I recognized my daughter's chin and hairline. I'm sure my screams of surprise could be heard across the Ohio River and I couldn't stop jumping up and down from the total shock and joy of knowing Jeanne was going to be with us for our southern vacation.
In September, when my Dad was 81 and my brother old enough to know better, the two of them combined the forces of their deliciously delirious dementia and managed to terrorize me once again. This time my sister-in-law and I had gone to a woman's conference in Lexington, Ky.
The next day we returned to their home in Louisville to gather my brother and niece and then head out for a long weekend of boating and sightseeing in central Kentucky.
When I went upstairs to the guest room to re-pack my clothes for the weekend trip and opened the closet door I screamed hysterically.
There in the dark were my Dad and step-mom standing among the hangers, having just driven down to Kentucky from northern Illinois to join us for the weekend adventure. Shocked beyond belief, my body actually propelled itself across the room and I landed on my back across the double bed. When the fright wore off we rehashed the whole scene a dozen times, laughing almost as hysterically as I had screamed.
For some strange reason fear is a tie that binds. Whether you're clinging to someone you love during a scary movie or having delicious fun planning a spine-tingling surprise for another loved one, the fear element is almost always overshadowed by loads of laughter.
I, for one, can't wait for the next fright fest planned by my Dad or brother. Their antics are simply the exclamation point at the end of a long stream of sentences that speak of life, love, laughter, adventure and feelings gone amuck. I count them among my greatest blessings.
(In addition to her biweekly column in the Catholic Herald, Lorenz, who lives in Oak Creek, writes for a number of national magazines. She's also a lecturer for numerous schools, churches and organizations.)
James Pankratz - Special to Parenting
This summer our family went on a pilgrimage. Three criteria distinguish a pilgrimage from a regular, old vacation trip. The pilgrims must make a journey to a faraway shrine. They must travel on foot for a good part of the way. They must be going for a lofty purpose. It helps increase the pilgrimage's merits if the trek involves hardship and danger, such as a torrential rainfall or an attack from a pack of roving wolves.
In days of yore, pilgrims made their way on foot from their hometown to a sacred location such as Jerusalem, Medina or Rome. Their goal was to seek a blessing or divine favor. Our destination: Washington, D.C. Isn't our nation's capitol the den of political conniving and underhanded power-brokering? Yes, but it is also the location of the monuments to, what my former sociology professor called, "the civil religion."
I admit we skimped a bit on the pilgrimage standards. Instead of buying a set of industrial-strength Nikes and hoofing it all the way from Milwaukee to D.C., we wimped out and took a jet from O'Hare. Once we arrived, however, we committed ourselves to a walking tour of the capitol city. And we were not attacked by a wolf pack, although one afternoon it did drizzle.
Along with other pilgrims we ascended the stone steps to the white-columned temples of St. Abraham of Illinois and St. Thomas of Virginia. I took my son's picture and he took mine standing at the foot of the enormous bronze statue of Jefferson. We gazed up at his words carved in stone on the walls of the temple proclaiming the ideals of a democracy where all are "created equal." The monument to St. FDR had a modern look with a series of waterfalls, which to me symbolized the abundance of opportunity and resources promised by his New Deal.
We walked to the repository of our nation's most sacred texts, the National Archives, and waited in line for a momentary glimpse of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. I was immediately struck by just how faded the Declaration of Independence is. The Constitution had fared better. I was able to clearly see the signature of James Madison, the framer of our system of checks and balances. In the corner was a 700-year-old copy of the Magna Carta, that first challenge to royal despotism, which surprisingly was the best preserved document of all.
Then we made our way through the ornately decorated Library of Congress. It all began with Jefferson's grand design that a national library should house volumes not just on government but on all subjects of interest to the human intellect. He designed the three master categories of reason (science, philosophy, religion), memory (history), and imagination (the arts) for organizing the library contents. Forget musty or boring. The library was filled with precious relics of our historical and cultural heritage.
The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum held relics of our national explorations and discoveries including the Apollo 11 command module, the Wright brothers' airplane, and a tiny moon rock which visitors are allowed to touch.
On Sunday we hiked until my feet hurt, as we made our way to the National Cathedral and through what felt like most of Arlington Cemetery. The National Cathedral is a bona fide, architecturally authentic Gothic cathedral, complete with towering arches, a rose window, and flying buttresses. It was finally completed in 1990 after 80 years of construction and stands as the sixth biggest cathedral in the world. The stained-glass windows depict scenes from both our Christian and national history. The docent pointed out what he felt was the most moving window, one which depicts four chaplains of different religious denominations standing on the bridge of a sinking World War II transport ship. They had given away their life-jackets so that others could live.
In a traditional pilgrimage there are always those who lend aid to the weary travelers. We remember the friendly, informative ticket-master who showed the Midwest bumpkins how to use the fabulous Metro subway system. (OK, so we cheated again.) There was the friendly, Indian proprietor of a German deli who made sandwiches-to-go for us on Sunday night, when we stumbled into his place at 8 p.m. tired, hungry, and despairing of finding anything open. And finally on our return trip, we were grateful to the helpful airport security officer, who retrieved a satchel I had left in the airline terminal.
Is a pilgrimage really necessary? I think children need to see and touch and experience firsthand the symbols of our civil religion. When my wife and I were close to our children's ages now, our dreams for what a democracy could be were inspired when we went with our respective parents on our first trips to Washington.
Today we are aware that our civil saints were also sinners, and that politics can be a tawdry business. But if that is all we show our children, then who will keep the ideals of the first modern republic alive for another generation? We all need a pilgrimage to inspire us to do the hard work of the journey ahead.
(Pankratz is a marriage and family therapist in Catholic Charities Milwaukee regional office.)
Copyright, 1997 by Catholic Herald, Milwaukee, WI
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