Agnes Koenigsknecht had the look of an air-traffic controller, the one that strikes so many mothers of the bride. “We need one round table on the stage,” she instructed on a Friday morning in June, the eve of the big day. Her legion was in full force, a swirl of activity in the church hall: […]
Manaolana | Christina Capecchi: How the son of a president proved himself
Being the son of an American president comes with as many pressures as it does privileges, especially when you’re his first boy and you bear his name. Theodore Roosevelt Jr. felt that his dad, President Teddy Roosevelt, demanded more of him than of his three younger brothers. The boyhood levity expressed in his broad Howdy-Doody […]
Manaolana | Christina Capecchi: Biking across Iowa for the heart and soul
When Father Joe Schneider climbs onto his 27-speed Trek Pilot and dips its front tire into the Missouri River, his summer vacation has officially begun. Then he pushes off and bikes across Iowa. The Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, better known as RAGBRAI, began in 1973 when two reporters from the Des Moines […]
Christina Capecchi: The big reveal: looking back at God’s plan
Blue or pink? That was the secret contained in the cake. My younger brother and his wife are always looking for an excuse to throw a themed-party — a World Series game for the Cardinals, an end-of-the-world prediction, the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. They couldn’t resist the opportunity to kick-start the […]
Manaolana | Christina Capecchi: Let’s hear it for the nuns!
When Mary Margaret Gefre’s boyfriend drove her to the train station in their small North Dakota town, the 19-year-old farm girl didn’t tell him where she was headed on that brisk December day, clutching a small bag containing a rosary, her childhood prayer book, a few dresses and a pair of shoes. She was bound […]
Manaolana | Christina Capecchi: Come in from the cold: finding mercy in the city
It’s 15 below with a wind chill of minus 39 when I arrive at the cathedral tonight. The holy water is partly frozen. Perched atop Summit Hill in St. Paul, Minn., the Cathedral of St. Paul is the mother church of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, a Vatican-appointed National Shrine of the apostle […]
Manaolana | Christina Capecchi: Cold hands, young heart: the wonder of winter
Just when you think you’ve seen everything — every lion hugging human, every shark-eluding seal — the World Wide Web churns out a picture that makes you stare. We process a barrage of images so glibly that it takes something special to keep us from skipping and scrolling right by. And yet here it was: […]
Manaolana | Christina Capecchi: Waiting for a baby: on Advent and adoption
For years folks told Mike and Maria Slavik that their blue colonial-style house looked like a Christmas card. Maria would be out mowing the lawn in the middle of July and someone would stop to say he loved the way it was decorated for the holidays. So they decided to make it into a card, […]
Manaolana | Christina Capecchi: Door-to-door seminarian finding new roads
Going door to door to tell strangers about Catholicism and his plan to become a priest had to be the most daunting assignment Neil Bakker had ever received. The 34-year-old from Austin, Minn., had never done anything like it — never gone door to door to sell coupon books or magazine subscriptions, let alone the […]
Manaolana | Christina Capecchi: Something old, something new: the allure of the vintage
When we were married, my husband and I moved into a house that had never been lived in before. No nicks in the woodwork, no carpet stains, no glow-in-the-dark constellations stuck to the ceiling. A blank slate for a new marriage. We marveled over its pristine condition, breathing in that new-house smell and sprawling across […]