Across the St. Cloud Diocese, parishioners are focusing on the gifts and legacy of Pope Francis as they look beyond to the selection of a new pope.
Geralyn Nathe-Evans, a member of St. Benedict Parish in Avon, Harvest of Hope Area Catholic Community, volunteers at multiple parishes, having retired from paid ministry. She has connections to two popes.
“When St. John Paul II visited the United States in August 1993 in celebration of World Youth Day,” she said, “I helped lead a diocesan group to Denver. We were close enough to see him. It was such a powerful experience to be in the presence of Holy Father.”
She watched the funeral of Pope Francis while remembering her mother.
“Last spring, my mother, who was 88, stayed with me while recovering from major surgery. To make sure she was strong enough to move to her senior apartment, my brother and sister and I brought her back there on weekends, She’d say to us, ‘I’m going home on Easter’ and we’d answer, ‘Yep,’ planning to make the transition on Easter Monday. Surprisingly, that day she didn’t wake up — she had died April 1, the date of Easter Monday last year. She was right — she went home to the Lord,” Geralyn said.
This year the siblings were together this Easter — and envisioned their mother smiling to welcome Pope Francis to heaven on Easter Monday.
“Our parents raised us to be active in social justice, which was not common in those years. Pope Francis had such a commitment to social justice, so his funeral reminded me of how the simplest acts profoundly proclaim the Gospel. Everybody is an extension of God’s creation. I treasured his charismatic way of making us uncomfortable with the Gospel, but his invitation was offered in such a loving gentle manner — it profoundly changes how we live.”
Her hopes for a new pope:
“I pray to again be blessed with a servant leader who speaks from love, compassion and social justice as Francis did so well.”
Leanne and Brad Donnay are members at Holy Cross Parish in Pearl Lake, part of the Holy Saints Area Catholic Community. Their family operates Donnay Dairy, a goat farm. The goat milk is made into chevre, a soft style cheese marketed to restaurants and other places. Leanne and her husband are the fourth generation in farming, and their children will become the fifth.
Leanne said, “In ‘Laudato Si’,’ Pope Francis called attention to what my family and I strive to do — to be good stewards of the land. Specifically, we do this through our careful farming business and practices. We’ve decided we don’t want to get bigger, which used to be the ‘American way.’ If we’d become a corporate farm, we’d lose focus on the care of God’s creation, on maintaining the quality we’re known for, on the commitment to know our product from start to finish and on what we offer our customers.”
The Donnays raised their family the way they’d been raised, praying together and staying together. Two older sons are in the process of becoming part of the family operation, continuing to steward the land the way their parents have modeled for them, and will start with Donnay Dairy Compost. Two younger children are also actively involved.
Leanne said, “Among our younger children’s prayers are intentions for the health of goats because they have important tasks in caring for the herd. They have bonds with them, and they want to see them healthy.”
Leanne looks for the new pope to be a unifying force.
“And I hope ‘Laudato Si’’ is a continuing focus, that a new pope will keep God’s creation as his concern. God’s plan is so much bigger than what we could have thought of — we trust in his ways and his plan and it all works out.”
Featured photo: Brad (pictured) and Leanne Donnay raise goats on a farm near Kimball. (Photo by Dianne Towalski)