Native American community celebrates approval of canonization of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha
FORT DUCHESNE — For years, the Native American Catholic community in Utah has been gathering to pray for a very special member of their community. On Dec. 19, their prayers were answered when Pope Benedict XVI approved miracles attributed to the intercession of Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American to be beatified. Blessed Kateri’s mother was Algonquin; her father was a Mohawk Indian. She was born in 1656 in upstate New York. Against the wishes of her family, she was baptized by a Jesuit missionary when she was 20. She died four years later, in Canada. No date has yet been set for the canonization ceremony. The news that Blessed Kateri will be named a saint came as a surprise to Carl Scheodt, a parishioner at the Mission of Saint James in Fort Duchesne. "I need time to reflect more in the past and in the current affairs of it," said Scheodt, who has been part of the group that has been praying for years Blessed Kateri to be proclaimed a saint. Since the announcement, the prayer circle has continued what for them is now a tradition. "We have another group with a lot of ladies that used to come here, but now because some of them have died and some are getting to the age that is harder, they do not come any more," said Father Albert Ndepachio Kileo, Pastor of Saint James the Greater Parish in Vernal and Saint Helen Parish in Roosevelt. "We always have a special prayer for Kateri," he added. "I think that she is the first Native American that will become a saint and I think that she is very deserving of it. We are all very happy for it, for all of us," said Clarisse Chapoose, another prayer circle member. She said she was very excited for the canonization because all her family has been praying for Blessed Kateri for a lot of years. "And now that she is going to be a saint I think we are all very excited because our prayers were heard." "I think that everyone here that always prayed for her is very happy. All miracles happen when families pray. Hopefully more miracles will happen," said Dannan Chapoose. Blessed Kateri is the patron of the environment and ecology. After being baptized, she went to a new colony of Christian Indians in Canada, where she lived a life dedicated to prayer, penitential practices and the care for the sick and aged. "Soon we’ll celebrate another milestone with the canonization of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, "The Lily of the Mohawks," said the Most Rev. John C. Wester, Bishop of Salt Lake City, in a letter to the parishes and parishioners for the 2012 Black and Indian Mission Collection. " In our own way we continue to build the church by the witness of our lives as baptized Catholics." This year the Black and Indian Catholic Collection will be held on Feb. 4 and 5. Timeline of key events related to Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha • 1656: Born in a village on the Mohawk River near Auriesville, N.Y. Her father was a Mohawk chief and her mother a Christian Algonquin. • 1660: Orphaned at age 4 when a smallpox epidemic claimed her parents and her baby brother. • 1676: Baptized on Easter at age 20. • 1677: Fled to Canada, taking refuge at St. Francis Xavier Mission in the Mohawk Nation at Caughnawaga. Reportedly made her first Communion on Christmas. • 1680: Died at age 24, is buried at Caughnawaga. • Late 1800s: American Indians began making appeals to the Catholic Church that she be recognized for her deep spirituality and devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. • 1932: Documentation for her sainthood cause was sent to the Vatican. • 1939: National Tekakwitha Conference started to promote evangelization among indigenous Catholics who are members of more than 300 tribes and nations in the United States and Canada. • June 22, 1980: Beatified by Pope John Paul II. • Dec. 19, 2011: Pope Benedict XVI approves miracle attributed to her intercession.
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