(Unfortunately, I can't seem to keep up with this! I started it 5 days late, and I'm returning to it 2 days after that.)
On August 15, six U.S. SDBs celebrated their golden anniversary of religious profession (1st profession of vows). They are Frs. Steve Dumais, Tom McGahee, and your humble blogger and Bro. Joe Ackroyd from our New Rochelle Province and Frs. Nick Reina and Bob Stein from the San Francisco Province.
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Fr. Steven Dumais
He had a lot more hair in 1966-1967!
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Bro. Joseph Ackroyd
The "old man" of our profession class, an Air Force vet, was 29.
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| Fr. Thomas McGahee |
Our class entered the novitiate at Newton, N.J., on Aug. 14, 1966. That in itself was an innovation. The provincial, Fr. August Bosio, had decided that Aug. 15 would be a better day for making profession than the date that had been in use since 1961, viz., Aug. 16 (DB's birthday). We marched in high spirits (whistling "Colonel Bogey," if my memory is correct) up the hill from Don Bosco College to the novitiate building on the 16th as soon as the class of 1966 had vacated (moving down the hill to DBC).
There were 48 of us, about 3/4 from the Eastern Province (I don't have an exact breakdown at hand) and 1/4 from the West. We had 5 or 6 Canadians, who belonged to one of the 2 provinces; at that time, the houses in Alberta and B.C. belonged to the San Francisco Province. Ten of us were graduates of Salesian Junior Seminary in Goshen, and another couple of dozen of the other aspirantates at Ipswich, Haverstraw, Cedar Lake, Watsonville, and Rosemead.
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| Fr. Peter Granzotto |
They, and some others like Bro. Armand Quinto, had various teaching roles. In addition to the conferences on religious life and Salesian topics that Fr. Pete gave us a couple of times a day, we had light-weight courses in English, Italian, and theology and, for the "clerics," Latin and Greek. I think Bro. Tom also tried to teach us some good manners.
The theology course was taught by the director, Fr. Jerry Sesto, and mostly covered some of the material coming from Vatican II, which had ended just the previous December. Fr. Pete walked thru the conciliar decree on religious life, article by article.
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Fr. Thomas Dunne
Photo by Fr. Dennis Donovan
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The theology course was taught by the director, Fr. Jerry Sesto, and mostly covered some of the material coming from Vatican II, which had ended just the previous December. Fr. Pete walked thru the conciliar decree on religious life, article by article.
We had house chores to do, rotated every month (or was it every week?) and a couple of recreation periods a day and lots of study time and community prayers. Our liturgy and prayers were mostly in English, as we began the post-conciliar transition.
One of the "challenges" of life in Newton in those "old days" was canonical separation. People in the different stages of formation weren't supposed to talk to each other--especially the novices. Thus, the Sons of Mary ("late vocations," or what today we call "candidates for Salesian life") were supposed to intermingle only with themselves and the superiors; the novices with the novices and the superiors; the professed brothers (of whom there were about 100 from both U.S. provinces and a few from South America) with the professed and the superiors.
"The superiors" included all the perpetually professed staff of Don Bosco College and the novitiate, from the director down to saintly Bro. Joe Traina, who did everyone's laundry (with assistance).
On feast days, athletic competitions, and other special occasions, we reveled in the news that there would be "no separation" for the day or for a specified period, and we could enjoy conversations (news, gossip, sports talk, etc.--usually nothing terribly "religious") with anyone.
During the course of the year, our number of 48 gradually decreased: 2 gone in September, 3 in October, 2 in December, 2 in January, 1 in April, 2 in May, 2 in June, 5 in July, and 1 even in August. No good-byes; just abrupt disappearances, as one novice and then another discerned that he wasn't called to Salesian life (or had it discerned for him). We'd come back from class or a work period and find an empty bed and locker in the dorm.
The dorm--all of us used one large, open room with a simple hospital-style bed and a plain low wooden locker. The 2 assistants shared basically the same arrangement, except they had curtains around their "cells." We had a large common area adjacent with shower and toilet stalls and 2 rows of sinks. Such was seminary life in "the good old days." (It was the same for the professed brothers at the college until the start of my junior year, 1969-1970, when curtains were set up around everyone's bed and locker.)
Mid-August 1967 came, and we were down to 28 novices, mostly "clerics" (we'd been wearing cassocks since "vestition day," the feast of Christ the King in 1966) with a few coadjutors (who wore simple medals indicating their status). Without reference to a roster or the Congregation's general directory (the elenco), I can't recall how many were from the Eastern Province and how many from the West. Six of us, out of the original 10, were Goshen grads. (One of the 4 who departed, Art Humphrey, entered the diocesan seminary, was ordained for the Newark Archdiocese in 1975, and was a dedicated and admired priest--and friend of the SDBs--until his death in 2012.)
Our profession of vows was a strictly private affair carried out in the novitiate chapel. Fr. Bosio got up from a sick bed to receive our vows. In those days, the newly professed made vows for 3 years, renewable for another 3 in due time, before perpetual profession.
And gradually, over the years, the process of discernment of vocation continued, as one classmate after another discerned a different calling: 3 in 1969 (with a required dispensation from vows), 2 in 1970 (at the expiry of vows), 2 in 1971, 1 in 1972, 2 in 1973 (at the expiry of 2d triennial vows), 2 in 1974 (after a year's extension before perpetual vows), 3 during theological studies (with dispensations), 1 coadjutor dispensed after perpetual vows, 1 in 1979 only a year after ordination, and 5 at dates that I didn't note, including Fr. Joe Pellegrino, who left the SDBs several years after ordination and was incardinated in the St. Petersburg Diocese, where he has served with distinction for something like 30 years.
The reader will already know from having seen in the 1st paragraph that just 6 of us remain as SDBs. May the good Lord keep us faithful and his Mother watch over us for the rest of our days!
(For more about Salesian seminarians and seminary life, see Spencer Boudreau and George Stanton, ed., We Were Brothers: Stories of Salesian seminarians who followed a dream. Calgary: Detselig Enterprises Ltd, 2009).
One of the "challenges" of life in Newton in those "old days" was canonical separation. People in the different stages of formation weren't supposed to talk to each other--especially the novices. Thus, the Sons of Mary ("late vocations," or what today we call "candidates for Salesian life") were supposed to intermingle only with themselves and the superiors; the novices with the novices and the superiors; the professed brothers (of whom there were about 100 from both U.S. provinces and a few from South America) with the professed and the superiors.
"The superiors" included all the perpetually professed staff of Don Bosco College and the novitiate, from the director down to saintly Bro. Joe Traina, who did everyone's laundry (with assistance).
On feast days, athletic competitions, and other special occasions, we reveled in the news that there would be "no separation" for the day or for a specified period, and we could enjoy conversations (news, gossip, sports talk, etc.--usually nothing terribly "religious") with anyone.
During the course of the year, our number of 48 gradually decreased: 2 gone in September, 3 in October, 2 in December, 2 in January, 1 in April, 2 in May, 2 in June, 5 in July, and 1 even in August. No good-byes; just abrupt disappearances, as one novice and then another discerned that he wasn't called to Salesian life (or had it discerned for him). We'd come back from class or a work period and find an empty bed and locker in the dorm.
The dorm--all of us used one large, open room with a simple hospital-style bed and a plain low wooden locker. The 2 assistants shared basically the same arrangement, except they had curtains around their "cells." We had a large common area adjacent with shower and toilet stalls and 2 rows of sinks. Such was seminary life in "the good old days." (It was the same for the professed brothers at the college until the start of my junior year, 1969-1970, when curtains were set up around everyone's bed and locker.)
Mid-August 1967 came, and we were down to 28 novices, mostly "clerics" (we'd been wearing cassocks since "vestition day," the feast of Christ the King in 1966) with a few coadjutors (who wore simple medals indicating their status). Without reference to a roster or the Congregation's general directory (the elenco), I can't recall how many were from the Eastern Province and how many from the West. Six of us, out of the original 10, were Goshen grads. (One of the 4 who departed, Art Humphrey, entered the diocesan seminary, was ordained for the Newark Archdiocese in 1975, and was a dedicated and admired priest--and friend of the SDBs--until his death in 2012.)
Our profession of vows was a strictly private affair carried out in the novitiate chapel. Fr. Bosio got up from a sick bed to receive our vows. In those days, the newly professed made vows for 3 years, renewable for another 3 in due time, before perpetual profession.
And gradually, over the years, the process of discernment of vocation continued, as one classmate after another discerned a different calling: 3 in 1969 (with a required dispensation from vows), 2 in 1970 (at the expiry of vows), 2 in 1971, 1 in 1972, 2 in 1973 (at the expiry of 2d triennial vows), 2 in 1974 (after a year's extension before perpetual vows), 3 during theological studies (with dispensations), 1 coadjutor dispensed after perpetual vows, 1 in 1979 only a year after ordination, and 5 at dates that I didn't note, including Fr. Joe Pellegrino, who left the SDBs several years after ordination and was incardinated in the St. Petersburg Diocese, where he has served with distinction for something like 30 years.
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Your humble blogger
June 2017 at Catholic Media Conference
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(For more about Salesian seminarians and seminary life, see Spencer Boudreau and George Stanton, ed., We Were Brothers: Stories of Salesian seminarians who followed a dream. Calgary: Detselig Enterprises Ltd, 2009).
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