Archive for the ‘Native Ministries’ Category

Jesuit Father Peter Klink is currently the school parish chaplain at the Red Cloud Indian School in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. The Pine Ridge reservation of the Lakota Tribe covers a large, 5,000 square foot swath of land in the southwestern corner of South Dakota.

Here, Fr. Klink ministers to the Lakota’s communities three schools and in its parishes. He’s held many responsibilities during his 26 years of native ministry on the Pine Ridge, including 18 years as the school’s president.

Today, staggering poverty and an unemployment rate that hovers around 80% leave the children of the Pine Ridge facing an uphill struggle as they learn and grown up on the reservation. But, Klink endeavors to make sure the two elementary schools and the high school that make up the school system on the Pine Ridge are a beacon of hope for the possibility of a bright future for the Lakota and their families.

Recently, Klink took the time to speak with National Jesuit News by phone from the Red Cloud School for our monthly podcast series. You can listen to our interview with him below:

As Canada’s Jesuits remembered their first steps on North American soil and the welcome they received from Mi’kmaq people 400 years ago, the Mi’kmaq asked for a favor.
“Maybe it’s time for the Mi’kmaq to ask for your help in preserving our language,” Grand Keptin Antle Denny told three dozen Canadian Jesuits and about 100 guests who had gathered to mark the 1611 landing of two Jesuits at Port Royal in what is now Nova Scotia.

Denny said about 70 percent of Mi’kmaq speak English and very few young people are comfortable in their own language. Linguists have told Denny the language will be extinct in 20 years.

“We need your help,” Denny told the Jesuits.

“We want to be with them in spirit,” said the Jesuits’ English Canadian provincial superior, Father Jim Webb. “We would be happy to cooperate.”

Father Webb told The Catholic Register it’s difficult to say what practical steps today’s Jesuits could take to help preserve the language, but he noted that work on languages has been part of Jesuit history in Canada. Canadian Jesuits translated Ojibwa stories into English and the Bible into Ojibwa in central Canada. A Canadian missionary to Nepal was responsible for translating the liturgy into Nepali.

Nova Scotia’s Lt. Gov. Mayann Francis praised the Jesuits’ 400 years of faith and zeal.

“God has blessed us. Let us not squander that in an age of distraction,” she said. “Let us embrace those blessings we enjoy in this province.”

The reconstructed settlement on the shores of the Annapolis Basin, near the Bay of Fundy, provided a backdrop for a brief dramatic re-enactment of the Jesuits’ landing at the site. The original settlement had been built by French fur traders in 1604 but was abandoned to Mi’kmaq control when the Jesuits arrived. It became the base for two years of missionary activity before the Jesuits returned to France.

“Their mission was the Jesuit mission to find God in all things,” said Father Webb in a homily at a thanksgiving Mass.

“They recognized the spirit of Christ present among the native people they came to serve,” he said. “That’s a legacy that continues to this day.”

The arduous, expensive and dangerous journey to North America in 1611 was typical of what Jesuits have always done, and still do, said Father Jean-Marc Biron, provincial superior of the Jesuits in Quebec.

“Even in those times, Jesuits had to work to the frontiers,” Father Biron told The Catholic Register. “We still, as Jesuits, work on the frontiers — not just the geographical ones.”

[Catholic News Service]

As Canada’s Jesuits remembered their first steps on North American soil and the welcome they received from Mi’kmaq people 400 years ago, the Mi’kmaq asked for a favor.
“Maybe it’s time for the Mi’kmaq to ask for your help in preserving our language,” Grand Keptin Antle Denny told three dozen Canadian Jesuits and about 100 guests who had gathered to mark the 1611 landing of two Jesuits at Port Royal in what is now Nova Scotia.

Denny said about 70 percent of Mi’kmaq speak English and very few young people are comfortable in their own language. Linguists have told Denny the language will be extinct in 20 years.

“We need your help,” Denny told the Jesuits.

“We want to be with them in spirit,” said the Jesuits’ English Canadian provincial superior, Father Jim Webb. “We would be happy to cooperate.”

Father Webb told The Catholic Register it’s difficult to say what practical steps today’s Jesuits could take to help preserve the language, but he noted that work on languages has been part of Jesuit history in Canada. Canadian Jesuits translated Ojibwa stories into English and the Bible into Ojibwa in central Canada. A Canadian missionary to Nepal was responsible for translating the liturgy into Nepali.

Nova Scotia’s Lt. Gov. Mayann Francis praised the Jesuits’ 400 years of faith and zeal.

“God has blessed us. Let us not squander that in an age of distraction,” she said. “Let us embrace those blessings we enjoy in this province.”

The reconstructed settlement on the shores of the Annapolis Basin, near the Bay of Fundy, provided a backdrop for a brief dramatic re-enactment of the Jesuits’ landing at the site. The original settlement had been built by French fur traders in 1604 but was abandoned to Mi’kmaq control when the Jesuits arrived. It became the base for two years of missionary activity before the Jesuits returned to France.

“Their mission was the Jesuit mission to find God in all things,” said Father Webb in a homily at a thanksgiving Mass.

“They recognized the spirit of Christ present among the native people they came to serve,” he said. “That’s a legacy that continues to this day.”

The arduous, expensive and dangerous journey to North America in 1611 was typical of what Jesuits have always done, and still do, said Father Jean-Marc Biron, provincial superior of the Jesuits in Quebec.

“Even in those times, Jesuits had to work to the frontiers,” Father Biron told The Catholic Register. “We still, as Jesuits, work on the frontiers — not just the geographical ones.”

[Catholic News Service]

Jesuit Brother Pat Douglas (far left) with co-workers at the Lakota Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota.

Jesuit Brother Pat Douglas, of the Wisconsin Province, is a youth counselor at the St. Francis Mission in South Dakota, and he works with young men at the juvenile detention center on the Lakota Rosebud Reservation. He sees his ministry as a way of making an impact on young people in trouble.

Spirituality is very strong here, Br. Douglas says. The Lakota people see no separation between counseling and spirituality.

Douglas has developed a mentoring program for young men, “many [who are] active in gangs and from families plagued by alcoholism and abuse.

“I’m all for consequences,” Douglas says, “but if we do not address the hurts these young men have had since they were children, they will keep hurting others. To be empathetic to a perpetrator does not mean you condone what they do.”

Douglas sees Jesuit spirituality coming alive through his work.

“I pray before and after I meet with the guys,” he says. “I also know the limitations of my skills, and have many times asked questions or offered advice that I know is beyond me. I consistently feel the Holy Spirit working with me and these young men.”

For more on Jesuits engaged in prison ministry, visit the Wisconsin Province website.

Jesuit Father John Paul spent 17 years of his Jesuit life stationed among the Sioux Nation on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

“The people and the work we’ve done together at Pine Ridge are such an important part of how I have been formed as a Jesuit,” said Fr. Paul, who now serves as the Wisconsin Province’s director of formation, ongoing formation, lay formation and assistant for native ministries.

Recently, Paul returned to Pine Ridge as a facilitator for a South Dakota Native American Ministry/Cultural Immersion trip for lay people interested in learning about the cultural heritage of the Lakota Sioux, the history of their relationship with the Society of Jesus and Native American/Jesuit collaborative ministries.

He said, “It’s hard to be there and not feel an overwhelming sense of the difficulties people face. But there is also a very real voice of hope, growth and excitement in what is happening. When local people start sharing their stories, it begins creating relationships. After all, how can you not be affected by another person’s story?”

For more on Paul’s work at the Pine Ridge Reservation, read this Wisconsin Province Jesuit Spotlight.