Feb
15
The Church Up North
February 15, 2008 |
I love to learn about the Church in other parts of the world - especially in underdeveloped countries. What our brethern have to go through in order to live and practice our faith. Knowing the challenges they face make me a better observant and helps me ignore the thousands of excuses that flood my brain when I need to be praying, or going to Mass, confession or devotion.
Usually, I’m reading about the Church in Asia or Africa. But, the other day I received a fundraising appeal in the mail concerning a mission church right here in the good ole’ U.S.A. - the Diocese of Fairbanks, Alaska.
How about the following statistics:
- 409,849 square miles
- 14,500 Catholics (out of a population of 161,000)
- 5 urban parishes; 4 rural non-road parishes; 37 non-road mission parishes
- 1 radio station (oldest in the U.S.)
- 1 high school
- 1 elementary school
- 1,390 children under religious instruction
- 2 native ministry training centers
- Served by 1 bishop (Bishop Kettler), 2 brothers, 25 priests (20 are active), 15 sisters, 27 ordained deacons, 1 seminarian
- 8 parishes are financially self-sustaining; 38 parishes are mission parishes.
- 3 parishes date from the 19th Century.
Geographically, take a line across Alaska just north of Anchorage and go north - through the Artic Circle, all the way to Barrow, Prudhoe Bay and Russia - and you have the Diocese of Fairbanks. It is the largest in the U.S. in geographic terms and is the only diocese to be part of the Congregation for the Evangelization of the Peoples, the missionary arm of the Church.
Everyone knows that Alaska is a land of extreme weather conditions and a high cost of living. Yet, a large part of the population lives modestly or in poverty.
As there is only one priest for every 20,000 square miles, some parishoners may go two months without seeing a priest.
It’s not the best environment to either worship or minister to the faithful - yet, the ministry is vibrant and very much alive. Alaskans tend not to make excuses - sub-zero temperatures and vast distances tend to beat weakness out of you. So Alaskan Catholics find a way to worship and practice their faith. For those in roadless parishes, they do not take for granted the divine gift of the Eucharist or the saving power of the confessional. They know how to sustain their faith in times of difficulty.
And, we should take a lesson from them. Some Alaskans can go two months without a full Mass - yet we have many to choose from each and every day. They may go two months without confession or eucharistic adoration, yet those of us who live in urban areas can always find a confessional or a church having adoration. Alaskans can get to Church despite feet of snow, bitter cold and miles to travel. We may only have to go down the road. Even in Ohio, we only face single-digit temperatures and a couple of inches of snow on the ground. So what’s our excuse?
Let’s stop making excuses for not practicing our faith. Let’s not let life get in our way of showing God that we love him. The Alaskans don’t - we shouldn’t either.
As a side note, on Wednesday, the Diocese of Fairbanks announced that it is filing for bankruptcy under Chapter 11. The Diocese is facing 150 lawsuits from sexual abuse cases from the ’50s to the ’80s. They are trying to help the victims and carry on their apostolic mission. So, we should keep all involved in our prayers.
Comments
2 Comments so far
I found your site on google blog search and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. Just added your RSS feed to my feed reader. Look forward to reading more from you.
- Jason.
This post has been considerably informative. I have often wondered about the state of the Church in Alaska. If you are interested in how the mission is going right across the waters on the North East coast of Asia, then you should check out the the Mary Mother of God Mission Society at http://www.vladmission.org. They are doing fantastic work for Vladivostok and the Church in Russia.