St. Mary’s Parish dinner Sunday

St. Mary’s Parish of Tracy will have its roast beef and pork dinner from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday in the parish hall. Dine-in, pickup or delivery. Menu includes roast beef, roast pork, mashed potatoes and gravy, green been casserole, bread, pie, cake, milk, coffee. Takeouts available, and deliveries in city limits by calling 507-629-3841. Adults $12, K-6 $6 and preschool free. There will be a raffle drawing at 12:30 p.m. An online auction will run until 1 p.m. March 27.

Holy Redeemer School raises $38,369.16

2022 brought another successful Catholic Schools Raffle at Holy Redeemer School. Teachers, staff and the surrounding community of Marshall united with students and their families to raise a total of $38,369.16 for the school.

Since Jan. 14, students of Holy Redeemer School sold $5 raffle tickets as part of the Catholic Schools Raffle, a fundraising program provided free of charge by sponsor Catholic United Financial since 2009. Holy Redeemer School is one of 86 schools in Minnesota and South Dakota that were involved in 2022.

Before that January start date, school leadership set a fundraising goal. Catholic United Financial provided all promotional materials, raffle tickets and prizes for the program at no cost. The six-week selling period concluded on Feb. 27.

Funds raised by participating schools, like Holy Redeemer School, are used to enhance school programs and facilities, including funding field trips, building playgrounds, supplementing tuition costs and providing new education technology.

Pastors’ role in education funding creates uproar in Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Allegations that two evangelical pastors have used their influence with Brazil’s Education Ministry to steer federal funding to friends — and in at least one case seek a bribe — are causing a new election-year controversy for the government of President Jair Bolsonaro.

Major Brazilian news media published a series of stories and leaked audio recordings this week alleging that two pastors serving as unofficial advisers to the ministry were favoring municipalities run by their allies.

One of the pastors, the Rev. Arilton Moura, even asked for a kilogram of gold in addition to about $3,000 in exchange for funding of schools and nurseries, according to Mayor Gilberto Braga of the city of Luis Domingues, as quoted Wednesday by the newspaper Estado de S.Paulo.

The newspaper Folha de S. Paulo reported this week that Education Minister Milton Ribeiro appeared to implicate Bolsonaro — who has tried to ally himself with evangelicals — in favoring the pastors by urging help for cities they back.

The newspaper posted a recording of Ribeiro telling several mayors that the government prioritized municipalities whose requests are backed by Moura and and the Rev. Gilmar Santos. Both pastors also attended the meeting, the newspaper reported.

“My priority is to first serve the municipalities that need it most and, secondly, to serve all those who are friends of Gilmar,” the voice identified as Ribeiro’s said in the recording. He added that this was “a special request of the president of the Republic.”

Neither the president’s press office nor the Education Ministry responded to requests for comment.

Ribeiro, himself a Presbyterian minister, acknowledged having met with the pastors and local mayors on several occasions and at the request of Bolsonaro, but he denied any wrongdoing in a Wednesday interview with CNN Brazil.

“I have neither the condition nor the competence to allocate anything because the criteria at the (ministry) are eminently technical,” Ribeiro said. “I may have sympathy for some pastor, or some mayor he brings along, but if he doesn’t reach that technical profile, nothing gets done.