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The following video about the Year of St. Joseph was produced by Thomas Smith, a retreat and parish mission director based in the Diocese of Boise. He is a parishioner at Holy Spirit Catholic Community in Pocatello.

Sister Beth Mulvaney, CSC, reads to a young patient at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. The beloved Sister retires after 21 years at the hospital. (Courtesy photo/Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center) By Emily Woodham Idaho Catholic Register BOISE – Service to the patients, staff and volunteers at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center was such an integral part of the work of Sister Beth Mulvaney, CSC, and her older sister, Sister Patricia Mulvaney, CSC, that the huge medical campus on Boise's west side named a building after them. The Mulvaney Medical Office Building on the Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center campus in Boise is named in honor of Sisters Patricia and Beth Mulvaney, CSC. Sister Beth Mulvaney of the Sisters of the Holy Cross has been a mainstay at the hospital for 21 years and retires at the end of this month. Sister Patricia Mulvaney, her older sibling who passed away in 2018, was the last religious administrator – the equivalent of president and CEO – for the hospital in the 1970s. The Mulvaney Medical Office Building just behind the hospital’s main building is a testament to their more than 50 years of service. The Mulvaney sisters are part of an extended family of Sisters. Sister Beth was born in Wyoming, the youngest of three girls and two boys. All three girls entered religious life. They were inspired by an aunt, also of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, who visited the family regularly. Sister Beth’s maternal grandfather and his family converted to Catholicism while he was a professor of music at St. Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana. Her mother’s sister became a Sister of the Holy Cross and was a huge influence on the Mulvaney girls. “She was always so much fun,” Sister Beth said of her aunt. “And the other Sisters who came with her were wonderful to us children.” Her two older sisters had made professions with the Holy Cross Sisters when Sister Beth was in grade school. During her years at college, Sister Beth began to discern what would make her life meaningful. "By the time I was ready to graduate, I was pretty sure that God was inviting me to His way of life." She graduated with a degree in English from a Dominican college and it was there that she discerned her calling. She made her first vows in 1967 with the Holy Cross Sisters at St. Mary's College in Notre Dame, Ind. She did not begin her ministry in health care, choosing education as her focus instead. From the Mother House, her work took her to Idaho (teaching English at Bishop Kelly High School from 1968-71), California, Colorado, Utah and the Holy Land. “My Dad used to tease and say, ‘Join Holy Cross and see the world,’ ” Sister Beth said. After teaching in California for a year, Sister Beth returned to Boise to work for the Diocesan Education Office in 1972, the same year she made her perpetual vows. For six years, Sister Beth worked with some of the Benedictine Sisters from St. Gertrude's in Cottonwood and with the late Father Bill Wassmuth. Part of their work was to help formulate catechesis for parishes to incorporate reforms from the recently concluded Second Vatican Council. “This was when all the exciting, wonderful changes were happening in the Church,” Sister Beth said. “After Vatican II, there was an expectation that every member of the Church had a role, that everybody was called to holiness and to be a disciple and even called to be evangelists to share this good news.” Before Vatican II, she said, there was less emphasis on personal responsibility for one’s faith. “It was more about accepting things at face value and doing a checklist of do’s and don’ts,” she said. The influence of Vatican II, she said, has been to prompt Catholics to be willing to ask, “What does this faith really mean in my life?” In 1978, she left Idaho to return to the Mother House at Notre Dame to work with the community. During the 1980s, she spent time in Colorado, helping to form young women for religious life with Holy Cross. She also helped with religious education in parishes in Utah. In 1992, she was asked to coordinate an education program in Galilee, Israel. “Women from different communities in Africa and Asia would come there for a semester. They would have the opportunity to study the scriptures, to make a retreat and to travel to the places where Jesus ministered,” she said. It was only in her most recent calling, for the last 21 years at Saint Alphonsus, that she devoted her ministry to health care. "I think Catholic healthcare offers the whole perspective of Catholic social teaching in a very practical way," Sister Beth said. "The social teaching of the Church is really based on the dignity of the person. When people are sick, that's when they really need that kind of reverence and encouragement of their worth – even when they are not at their best.” At the end of this month, she retires from her role of Mission Educator, a role she has loved. “I’ve been able to offer opportunities for education for staff to really see what’s underneath our mission statement. I can explain why we have these core values of reverence and commitment to whomever comes in the door, and to help them see where that comes from in our Catholic tradition,” she said. A favorite aspect of her work at Saint Al's has been forming relationships with staff, but the COVID-19 pandemic has changed her role significantly. "Rules are changing, and everything is being taught virtually," she said. A replacement has yet to be named. Sister Beth is asking Catholics to pray for a new Mission Educator. Sister Beth is staying in Boise after retirement and is “retiring more into religious life,” looking forward to having more time to read and study. However, she will not be sedentary, she said. She will be accompanying other Sisters who need to discern retirement. I’ll see how I like it myself and then whether or not I can encourage them,” she said with a laugh. “I have been so blessed in my life. God has always opened ways for me,” she said. “It’s such a shame that religious vocations have been declining. I would encourage every young woman to consider a vocation to religious life. It is a fabulous way of relating with God and with other people. Pretty much all along, I’ve been aware that this is really where God wants me.”

Avenues for Hope Campaign raising funds to alleviate a housing crisis that will be compounded due to COVID-19 pandemic Volunteers from St. Vincent de Paul regularly visit clients to check in on their well-being and make an assessment to provide for their needs. (Courtesy photo/Grant Breidenbach) By Emily Woodham Idaho Catholic Register Eradicating homelessness has always been a goal for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. But the challenge will become even more daunting after the first of the year when government-imposed moratoriums on evictions to help people during the pandemic are set to expire. The Avenues for Hope Campaign helps St. Vincent de Paul and other nonprofits in their mission to assist those who are homeless or in crisis. Using an online platform for donations, the campaign enables St. Vincent de Paul to raise funds to help families and individuals avoid homelessness. For those who do become homeless, the campaign helps them to secure shelter and, eventually, affordable housing. “Forty percent of Idahoans are living paycheck to paycheck without a safety net,” said Grant Breidenbach, marketing director for St. Vincent de Paul Southwest Idaho in Boise. “Just one small or medium financial crisis can send a family into the spiral of homelessness. St. Vincent de Paul believes in providing assistance before that spiral even begins, while people are still in their homes.” Although individuals and businesses are mired by the impact of COVID, they continue to give help to those less fortunate, said Larry Riley, executive director of St. Vincent de Paul North Idaho in Coeur d'Alene. "People have not lost sight of the most needy among us," he said. From its headquarters, the HELP (Helping Empower Local People) Center, St. Vincent de Paul North provides more than 20,000 social services annually, including shelter, food, clothing and low-income housing. Its outreach includes veterans, the elderly and those with mental health challenges. St. Vincent de Paul Southwest responded to more than 8,800 requests for assistance last year, according to Breidenbach. “We were able to help more than 24,000 people stay financially stable, continue in their home and maintain a viable lifestyle.” "The services we provide are possible only through financial generosity," he said. The ability of staff and volunteers of St. Vincent de Paul to respond to requests for help comes through donors, he said. Avenues for Hope is sponsored by the Home Partnership Foundation of the Idaho Housing and Finance Association, with corporations giving additional sponsorship to match donations. The campaign began on Dec. 10 and runs through Thursday, Dec. 31. Each nonprofit has its own page for donations on avenuesforhope.org . The Avenues for Hope fundraiser is “unique and wonderful,” Breidenbach said, because corporate sponsors provide prizes and matching gifts to organizations who can expand the number of their respective donors. The corporate incentives result in an increase of individual donations by as much as 50 to 100 percent, Breidenbach said. With many fundraising events cancelled because of the pandemic, helping families and individuals through Avenues for Hope is especially important, said north Idaho’s Riley. “For people to think about others, when they’re struggling themselves, is incredibly humbling. The Christmas season is definitely going to be different this year. Having Avenues for Hope by our side to help keep us from falling is very rewarding.”

Advent is both waiting and fulfillment Benedictine priest Patrick Regan called Advent “the dawn in time of the fullness of time, the entrance into history of the goal of history, the appearance in one man of the ultimate future of all.” This appearance is no superficial cameo: in his incarnation, Christ rejected nothing of our humanity except sin. Our pain, our sorrow, our big and small joys, our particular bonds of love for each other that must be loosed at the end of life – even death itself – all these were accepted and manifested by him. Advent is both waiting and fulfillment. It is itself a salvific time, because contained within Advent is Easter. That is, that which we hope for is already present. This is nothing less than a breathtaking reality of overwhelming hope. Words that tumble into mind and crowd upon each other – nativity, epiphany, parousia – these are mysteries best grasped by the heart. Advent is the doorway to all these, as it is the doorway to the unfolding mystery that is the entire liturgical year. Fragrant wreaths of evergreen, shining with candlelight; St. Nicholas’ gifts of gleaming gold; the pregnant Lady of Guadalupe, astonishingly surrounded by tender roses – these symbols of hope work through our senses, not our logic, to orient us from the inside out as we recommit to the journey that began with our baptism. This season, perhaps we should embrace an interior approach; one that, in trust and vulnerability, allows faith, hope, and love to sprout and root in darkness and silence, as a seed does, as a baby does, as the infant Jesus did, when he and all humanity awaited His birth.

Some historians think Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin (his last name means, “the eagle who speaks”) was an Aztec prince. When he was 47, in 1521, the conquistador Hermán Cortés took Mexico for Spain. Being an opportunist, Cortés allied himself with some indigenous peoples while he fought with others. Soon after establishing rule, Cortés asked the king of Spain and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (1519-1556) to send only Franciscans and Dominicans to the newly conquered lands. Although Cortés did not live an exemplary Christian life himself, he wanted Christianity to be established in the New World. Because the diocesan priests of Spain had a reputation for indulging in vices, he insisted that only priests from mendicant Orders (under a vow of poverty) would be effective missionaries. The King sent a Franciscan friar, Juan de Zumárraga, as the first Bishop of Mexico in 1528. Unfortunately, Bishop Zumárraga was sent before he was actually consecrated, making him a bishop in title only. He was also given the title of “Protector of the Indians,” with the duty to protect the indigenous peoples from the abuses of civil authorities and merchants. However, because he was not officially a bishop, his opinions and decrees held little sway over the rich and powerful Spanish in Mexico. Two of the converts from the Franciscan missionaries were Juan Diego and his wife, Maria. Maria died in 1529 at 55 just a few years after their conversion. Having no children, Juan Diego went to live with his elderly uncle, Juan Bernardino, who had raised him after his parents’ deaths. The two men were dedicated to their newfound faith and were as involved as they could be with the Franciscan community, which was 11 miles away. On December 9, 1531, on his way to a Saturday morning Mass, Juan Diego heard beautiful music as he passed the hill of Tepeyac. As he became more enraptured with the music, he saw a brilliant cloud and rainbow. The singing suddenly stopped and he heard a woman’s soft voice, calling him from the top of the hill. When he reached the top, he saw a stunning indigenous maiden. She spoke to him in his native language. “Know it, be sure, my son, that I am the always perfect Virgin Mary, Mother of the true God by Whom one lives, the God who is the Creator of all people,” she said. She told him to go to the Bishop of Mexico and tell him to build a church for her on that hill. Juan Diego immediately went to Bishop Zumárraga. The bishop was skeptical, but he agreed to think about what Juan Diego had said. The next day, a Sunday, Juan Diego saw Our Lady again. She told him to return to the bishop with the same message. Juan Diego repeated everything to the bishop who asked for a sign. Juan Diego returned to the Lady that afternoon. She told him to return the following day when she would give him more information about the sign for the bishop. However, on that Monday morning, Juan Diego’s uncle became seriously ill with a fever. His condition worsened through the day and night. The morning of Tuesday, Dec. 12, Juan Diego left his uncle’s side to get a priest for Last Rites. Afraid that Our Lady would not be pleased that he had not returned on Monday, Juan Diego tried to go a different way around the hill to the Franciscan mission, but she still appeared to him. He explained to her about his uncle’s illness and why he did not obey her wishes. She was not angry. Instead, she replied, after calling him her son, “Let your face and your heart not be disturbed; do not fear this disease or any other disease, or painful piercing thing. Am I not here, who am your mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not the source of your joy? Are you not in the hollow of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms? Do you need anything else?” After encouraging Juan Diego with the news that his uncle was healed, she told him to gather flowers from an area of the hill that was usually barren, especially in winter. He filled his tilma – a long apron worn by the indigenous peoples – with fragrant, sumptuous flowers and brought them back to Our Lady. She arranged them and told him to take them to the bishop. As he unfurled his tilma before the bishop, an image of Our Lady just as she appeared to him as a radiant young indigenous woman was emblazoned on the cloth in brilliant detail. This was not only a declaration that Juan Diego’s message to build a church on Tepeyac was true, but also that the truth of Christianity was for every person for all time, just as the Ever-Virgin Mary was Mother of all. When Juan Diego returned to his uncle, he found him healed as Our Lady promised. In fact, she visited Juan Bernardino and told him that the image of her was to be known as the Perfect Virgin, Holy Mary of Guadalupe. A temporary church was built in less than two weeks. Juan Diego gave his possessions to his uncle and built a hut next to the church so that he could live near her image. For the rest of his life, he served the church and helped pilgrims. He was well loved for his patience, kindness and faithfulness. By 1538, just seven years after the initial vision, it was estimated that 8 million indigenous people converted to Christianity. Juan Diego died peacefully on May 30, 1548. He was canonized by St. Pope John Paul II in 2002. St. Juan Diego is the patron saint of indigenous people. His feast day is December 9.