Days Gone By

75 years ago — June 1948 

The diocese hosted Louis Budenz, a former member of the Communist Central Committee, to speak at the Duluth Armory and in Hibbing. Budenz quit the Communist Party and returned to the Catholic Church in 1945. He attributed his return to the intercession of Mary, the daily prayers of his parents for 30 years, and the aid and direction of Ven. Fulton J. Sheen. Benedictine Father Stephen Wagman, the first member of St. John the Baptist Church, Virginia, to become a priest, held his first solemn Mass in St. John the Baptist Church on June 13. Also in June, more than 500 Ojibwe attended their 38th annual Eucharistic congress in Ball Club. 

50 years ago — June 1973 

The diocese announced plans for special summer events at Clearwater Forest, a retreat and conference center near Deerwood, including a family recreation workshop and a creative arts workshop. Bishop Paul F. Anderson wrote his reflections on the painful lessons to be learned from Watergate. He stated, “More and more each day I become convinced that what is needed by all of us is a firm grasp and understanding of the reality of sin and the crying need for reconciliation.” 

10 years ago — June 2013 

St. Rose School in Proctor closed at the end of the 2012-13 school year. The school was unable to remain open due to declining enrollment and declining resources. Also, the Diocese of Duluth and Bishop Paul Sirba, as well as the Minnesota Catholic Conference and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, issued statements as the Minnesota Senate voted to redefine marriage in Minnesota. The law, to take effect August 1, 2013, would make Minnesota the 12th state to allow same-sex couples to marry. Bishop Sirba stated, “The Catholic Church in the Diocese of Duluth will continue to uphold and propose to the world what we know, through sound reason and through divine revelation, to be the authentic nature of marriage: a permanent union between one man and one woman, uniting a mother and a father with any children produced by their union.” The Northern Cross also reported that two national speakers visited Holy Family Church in Cloquet, on the Fond du Lac Reservation. Father Wayne Paysse, executive director of the Bureau of Catholic Indian Mission office in Washington, D.C., and Deacon Harold Condon, a Lakota permanent deacon from South Dakota, were in the diocese for a St. Kateri Day as part of the diocese’s Year of Faith celebration.