By A.M. Kelley
Superior Catholic Herald
Local religious minister around the world
SUPERIOR -- Oct. 21 is World Mission Sunday, the day Catholics turn their attention to the work of the church's missionaries around the world. Through prayers and financial support, brothers, priests and nuns carry the Catholic faith from Siberia to Guam, from China to El Salvador, and all points in between. A special collection on this day, managed in the Superior Diocese by Fr. Gregory Hopefl in the name of Pope Benedict XVI, supports the propagation of faith in places far from our doorsteps.
Some religious missionaries have connections to the diocese. One such order, the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor, has a long presence in northern Wisconsin (in Bayfield and Ashland counties) and one of its members ministers to what he calls the "forgotten Catholics" of Russia and Kazakhstan.
Br. Joseph Rogenski, the director of the Franciscan Mission Union in the province's headquarters in St. Louis, Mo., said the OFMs became involved in Russia when the Rome-based Franciscan general minister put out a call for volunteers following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Fr. Jim Edmiston took on the challenge and from his base in St. Petersburg, Edmiston recently communicated by e-mail with the Catholic Herald.
"The Catholics in this part of the former Soviet Union suffered for nearly 100 years as their churches and communities were taken apart," he wrote. "(They now) have an opportunity to rebuild their church and the sons of St. Francis are helping them."
Edmiston's vast mission territory spans 11 time zones and includes parishes, a school, programs for homeless children and for handicapped children, soup kitchens, a walk-in clinic and Franciscan formation programs -- points of entry for young Catholic men wishing to live as friars.
Christianity is not new to the people of Russia, and according to Edmiston, as a mission it is unique because since the collapse of Communism religious freedom has begun to resurface.
"In a very strict sense, we are not missionaries, because our role is to serve a formerly oppressed Catholic community," he said.
Besides this lone OFM from Missouri in Russia, Rogenski said there are OFM friars in Vietnam, Brazil and in Morocco, North Africa.
Rogenski may be familiar to some in the diocese. He worked in Ashland for more than six years in the 1990s at Our Lady of the Lake Parish and served as its school principal. He has also been stationed in the interior of Alaska ministering to the Athapaskan American Indians.
In addition to the "traditional" style of mission work, the OFM Franciscan Missionary Union also sponsors a lay missionary in the war-torn country of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Laity working among friars is a new concept for the OFMs, one that they embrace with the realization that some in religious communities as well as some in the lay church community are called to mission work.
From their motherhouse in La Crosse, Wis., the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration still send members on missions when invited by bishops or organizations, but they also challenge the traditional notion of a foreign mission experience.
FSPA vice president Sr. Paulynn Instenes, in a phone interview with the Catholic Herald, described the work of one of their sisters in Central America. As the guide of the Global Awareness Through Experience (GATE) program, Sr. Marie DesJarlais, gives participants what the FSPA's call an immersion experience, an inside look into the lives of a country's people.
The FSPA began the GATE program 20 years ago. Also called "alternative tourism," DesJarlais' mission is to help travelers get to know people, Instenes said. "You don't stay in big hotels. You stay with families or in small boarding houses. You don't just see sites. You get to know that country."
The FSPAs have members in El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Eastern Europe, France and Canada.
Instenes has experienced foreign mission work. She lived in Zimbabwe during the country's draught that created a food crisis. She recalls getting food for students to relieve their hunger so they could study.
"It wasn't easy," she said. "But I feel so blessed that I've met those people. I've gained more than I've given."
The FSPAs also have a member in Guam. Sr. Gloria Aguon is a native of the country and teaches in a parish school. They also sponsor a sister who teaches English during summers in Czechoslovakia, and there are other sisters who go back and forth to teach in China.
Instenes believes that her order reaches out in service and works in distinctive missions based on the needs of people.
Since 1989 FSPA Sr. Carolyn Heil has lived and worked in Canada. Her mission is with families and their children who have neurological disabilities: autism, Asperger syndrome, Tourette syndrome and others.
Times are changing and FSPAs are responding to them. Instenes said as they see Catholic schools getting smaller and spiritual centers getting bigger, people are yearning for a way to serve. Among these experiences, she said a foreign mission experience is a life changing experience.
"You really learn to depend on people," Instenes said. "I highly recommend any foreign mission experience."
© Superior Catholic Herald, 2007