Vatican Gendarmerie's New Chaplain

Vatican Gendarmerie’s New Chaplain 

Will Minister in Salesian Style

(ANS – Vatican City – July 29) – After many years of work for young people within the ministries of the Salesian Congregation, Fr. Francesco (Franco) Fontana goes to serve directly at the center of the universal Church. Pope Francis has picked him to become chaplain of the Directorate of Security Services and Civil Protection of Vatican City, replacing another Salesian, Bishop Alberto Lorenzelli, who recently became an auxiliary bishop of Santiago, Chile.

Fr. Fontana has been a Salesian for 51 of his 69 years, a priest for 39 years. He accepted his appointment in a spirit of service to the Church. “I accepted the will of God with hope and with affection for the Pope. It will be something totally new for me....”

He confided, “I must admit that I will miss my ‘pests’!” For the last five years, Fr. Fontana was director of the Istituto Sant’Ambrogio in Milan, where he accompanied the human and spiritual growth of about 2,000 students.

At the same time, he was also a provincial councilor of the Italian Lombardy-Emiliana Province. Previously, he served in various Salesian houses as director, catechist, or dean. He was also his province’s delegate for youth ministry, the Italian provinces’ national coordinator of missionary animation, and a delegate for the NGO International Volunteers for Development (VIS). He has also served as delegate for youth ministry of the archdiocese of Bologna and moderator of the diocesan curia of Terni-Narni-Amelia.

Fr. Fontana holds a baccalaureate in theology from the Salesian Pontifical University of Turin and a degree in natural sciences from the University of Parma.

Looking at his new position as chaplain of the Gendarmerie, Fr. Fontana told ANS: “It will be a nice challenge, also because I arrive after the appreciated ministry and work done by Bishop Lorenzelli. I will commit myself to accompanying the gendarmes, who include many young people, with a discreet pastoral work, like a good parish priest, so that we can grow together.”

“I will do this job Salesian-style,” Fr. Fontana added.

Homily for 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
17th Sunday of Ordinary Time

July 28, 2019

Luke 11: 1-13
Nativity, Washington, D.C.

“Jesus was praying in a certain place” (Luke 11: 1).

In the gospels Jesus is a man of prayer as much as he’s a teacher and worker of miracles.  His prayer really was the secret of his teaching and his actions; all he said and did flowed from his relationship with God.

You may say, “But Jesus is God.  How could he pray to himself?”  True, Jesus is God, the 2d Person of the Holy Trinity, God the Son, in human flesh.  But in that human flesh he is completely human, with a human mind, soul, and will.  All of these he must submit to the divine will; so as a man, he prays; e.g., in the Garden of Gethsemane, he prays, “Not my will”—his will as a human being afraid of suffering and death—“but your will be done,” i.e., I, Jesus of Nazareth, the human son of Mary, desire to do your will, God my Father.

So the apostles ask Jesus to teach them how to pray.  St. Luke then links Jesus’ prayer to his exhortation to us to persevere in our prayer thru the examples or parables that follow.  You noticed, no doubt, that Luke’s presentation of the Lord’s Prayer is somewhat briefer than Matthew’s, the version we’re more familiar with (Matt 6:9-13).  No need to discuss that.

When Jesus prays, he prays on the most intimate and familiar terms, addressing God as his Father—abba in Hebrew—a name full of affection and trust, like “Daddy” or “Papa.”  Jesus teaches us to speak to our creator, the lord of the universe, with the same familiar term, to call God our “Father.”  He reminds us that we’re all God’s precious children, all one great family, all brothers and sisters, regardless of our many differences.  He invites us to have the same confidence in his Father that he does.

He also invites us to hallow God’s name (not “hollow” it), i.e., to keep God’s name hallowed or holy, to revere and respect it.  It’s our prayer that every man and woman will know and honor God’s name.

The 2d commandment of the Decalog that God gave Moses on Mt. Sinai is, “You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain” (Ex 20:7), falsely or empty of meaning.  Many of us do take the Lord’s name in vain; we exclaim, “Oh, my God,” or text “OMG” as if it were the most trivial thing in the world.  Similarly, we often say something like, “I swear it’s true,” or “I swear I’ll be there.”  That’s an implied oath calling God to witness to the truth of our words, as in the court oath we’re all familiar with:  “Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God.”

So, sisters and brothers, as we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we might ask whether we truly reverence God’s holy name.

Then, as we pray the way Jesus teaches us, we commit ourselves to forgiving those in debt to us.  That’s not a financial statement but a moral or relational one, and Jesus sets it as a condition for God’s forgiveness of us:  “forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us” (11:4), i.e., everyone who has offended us somehow.

That may be the hardest thing Jesus commands.  It is a command, not merely advice.  He repeats it elsewhere in the gospels, as in his parable of the servant who wouldn’t forgive a small debt after his own huge debt was forgiven (Matt 18:23-35).  Yet Jesus gives us his own example, praying on the cross that his executioners and those who unjustly condemned him be forgiven; he even makes an excuse for them:  “They know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

Sometimes we sin very willfully and knowingly.  Sometimes we sin out of weakness, fear, laziness, etc.  But God’s always willing to forgive, and we count on that.  Otherwise, we’re in big trouble.

We’re also in big trouble if we refuse to forgive relatives, co-workers, public enemies, others who sin against us, deliberately or out of their own weakness, ignorance, fear, etc.  How do we go about something so hard to do?

By asking for God’s grace—for ourselves and for the one or ones we’re angry at.  We need healing for ourselves because we’ve been wounded.  The other may need healing or maybe conversion.  We do want sinners and evildoers to repent and be converted, don’t we?  When we pray for that, we’re praying for their ultimate and greatest good, whether its some cousin we’re furious at, or some politician or a terrorist.  We’re aligning our own will with God’s will:  “God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:4).  To be saved ourselves, our will must be aligned with God’s.

You’ve probably heard on the news that the Trump Administration has decided to re-activate the federal death penalty.  Some people are cheering that.  Putting aside for the moment that St. John Paul II and Pope Francis have both condemned capital punishment, if the motivation for the death penalty is vengeance—getting even with some murderer or other criminal—that in itself is a serious sin; vengeance is always wrong, whether it’s personal and private, or public and “official.”

Today’s gospel reading ends with reference to the Holy Spirit as a gift from God the Father (Luke 11:13).  That’s a gift we need to pray for constantly, that we may think, speak, and act as disciples of Jesus—in our prayer and in everything else.

Homily for 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
16th Sunday of Ordinary Time

July 21, 2019

Col 1: 24-28
Holy Name of Jesus, New Rochelle

“The mystery hidden from ages … past now has been manifested to his holy ones” (Col 1: 26).

Many of St. Paul’s letters are notoriously difficult—in their theological ideas and sometimes in their sentence structure.  Today’s 2d reading is Exhibit A.  Let’s try to unpack some of it.

Usually when the word mystery comes up in the liturgy, it’s a synonym for “sacrament.”  “As we prepare to celebrate the sacred mysteries,” for instance, refers to the Holy Eucharist, the Mass.  It doesn’t have that meaning in Colossians, tho.  This “mystery” that “has been hidden” from human eyes, from human understanding, for ages and ages is the mystery of God’s love for us human beings and of his plan to redeem us from our own folly—our sins, our rejection of his friendship, our running foolishly after every seduction and lie that Satan throws at us.

The Glory (Titian)

God has “revealed the mystery” to us with “the word of God” (1:25)—the message of the Gospel, even the very person of his Son Jesus, the Word made flesh.  Jesus embodies God’s love for us—not only for God’s 1st-chosen people, the Jews, but even “among the Gentiles,” Paul says (1:27), among the pagan nations.

God now chooses everyone—for his own mysterious reasons—giving us “hope for glory” (1:27), i.e., for a share in his kingdom, the kingdom of heaven that Jesus speaks of constantly; a place in God’s household among his family, as his daughters and sons.  This is why Paul calls Christian believers “God’s holy ones,” God’s saints.  All who have accepted God’s word and try to live by it have been transformed by Christ from sinners into “holy ones.”  That includes you and me, brothers and sisters, as long we’re living in God’s grace, in his love.

Why God would choose you and me for a share in his love, in his kingdom, in his family—you don’t know why he’d do that, and I don’t know either.  But you know love is mysterious and powerful.  Love rules God’s heart just as it does ours.  So we’re grateful for his choice, which is why we come to say “thank you” every week, to celebrate Eucharist.

We have this “hope for glory,” for eternal salvation, eternal life, because of Christ.  “Christ in you,” i.e., living in you, is our hope.  Paul’s mission is to be the steward of God’s grace (1:25) by presenting Christ to the world, and to make “everyone perfect in Christ” (1:28) by the forgiveness of their sins—which is what transforms us from sinners into saints.

God chooses to act thru stewards—thru apostles like Paul, thru his personally chosen ministers—as Jesus called each of his apostles, including Paul, and he continues to call men to be stewards of the sacred mysteries and continues to call both men and women to make the Gospel known to all people.

That’s a charge given not only to priests but to you as well because you have been baptized into Christ; you have become part of the mystery of God’s plan of redemption.  “God has made known to you the riches of the glory of this mystery” (1:27).  It’s not a mystery or a glory for us to keep to ourselves, like the lazy servant in Jesus’ parable who buried his master’s money rather than investing it and multiplying it—and so merited condemnation and expulsion from the master’s household (Matt 25:14-30).  You, too, are to make known to others—your children and grandchildren especially, but others too—what Christ is doing for you, how much God loves you, and your hope of eternal life.

Homily for Thursday, 14th Week of Ordinary Time

Homily for Thursday
14th Week of Ordinary Time

July 11, 2019

Matt 10: 7-15
Nativity, Washington, D.C.

In the rush of travel last week, I forgot to type and post this homily.

Jesus sends out his apostles to proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is at hand.  The passage sounds very much like the one we hear last Sunday from Luke’s Gospel (10:1-12).  But in Matthew’s version Jesus dispatches only the 12.  Matthew also is specific about their mission.  They are to demonstrate the presence of God’s kingdom among them by performing works of mercy and healing.  They are to show that God’s more powerful than Satan by driving out demons.  In short, they’re to imitate Jesus, acting in his stead.

And they are to act quickly.  No loads of luggage; rather, they are to depend on God and the hospitality of the places where they’ll go.  They are to bring divine peace, the peace that comes from hearing and accepting God’s word.  They are to be decisive and insistent:  this is the message of God thru Jesus.  If you accept it, you’ll receive peace and admission to the kingdom of God.  If you reject it, you face condemnation, like Sodom and Gomorrah in the days of Abraham.

The Mission of the Apostles (T. Mainardi)

That message is for us too—to hear and accept God’s word, which comes to us in the apostolic preaching:  1st in the written word of the Scriptures, then in the preached word of the Church founded by Christ on the foundation of the apostles (cf. Eph 2:20).

More is asked of us.  Christ sent the apostles to proclaim the kingdom, and he sends us as well.  The Church is missionary.  Every follower of Christ is a missionary.  Announced that God’s kingdom is at hand by the way you live, the way you speak, the way you treat your neighbor, the way you vote, they demands you put before public officials (with them you don’t quote the Gospel but appeal to natural law, what Thomas Jefferson called the laws of nature and of nature’s God).  If opportunity presents, speak of your faith to family and friends, which of course is also missionary.

Bear in mind that saying we’ve often heard, incorrectly attributed to St. Francis:  “Preach always; if necessary, use words.”

Homily for 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
15th Sunday of Ordinary Time

July 14, 2019

Luke 10: 25-37
St. Theresa, Bronx

On Sundays when I don't have a new homily to post, I often pull up an old one that I delivered at St. Theresa's Church in the Bronx in the 1990s.  Today I was really there and offered the parishioners this new homily.

“Go and do likewise” (Luke 10: 37).

The reading from Deuteronomy, the gospel story, and the Collect (what we used to call the “opening prayer”) this morning all urge us to “heed the voice of the Lord” (Deut 30:14), to keep to “the right path,” to “strive” for behavior that honors “the name of Christ” (Collect), by loving God thru practical love of our neighbor, loving our neighbor as ourselves—concretely and not just theoretically.

Moses tells the Israelites that God’s command is neither mysterious nor remote (30:11); it’s near us, and we can recite it easily—we have only to do it (30:14).

The scholar of the law—also known as a scribe—who questions Jesus knew the right words.  In the words of the Collect, he “professes the faith.”  But Jesus places on him, and on us, a command to live rightly, to walk on the right path.  It’s not necessarily an easy road.  Sometimes loving our neighbor is hard.  Answering the scribe, Jesus makes that point thru one of his best known parables.

From the church of

St. Eutrope, Clermont,

France

We have numerous gospel references to the hostility that governed relations between Jews and Samaritans.  One commentary tells us that the Jews regarded the Samaritans as “half-breed heretics,” as “stupid, uncouth, and lazy.”[1]

Yet it’s this “heretic” who faithfully fulfills God’s command—at personal risk and personal expense.  Pausing to help the wounded man on the notoriously dangerous road from Jerusalem to Jericho leaves the Samaritan vulnerable to the robbers, too.  He has no idea whom he’s helping—a Jew, a Samaritan, an Arab, a Roman—for the man has been stripped and beaten unconscious.  He uses his own oil, wine, and bandages to tend the victim, and his own money to lodge him at an inn.

Jesus directs the scribe, and us, to “go and do likewise,” i.e., to care for our neighbors in need without regard to their identity or even our own convenience.  We’re usually very ready to do that.  Americans are probably the most generous people in the world, and certainly people of faith are the most generous, when some natural disaster or great human tragedy strikes.

Yet one of the terrible stories of our contemporary world is how unwelcome we—Americans, Europeans, Australians—have made migrants and refugees.  We seem to regard them as “heretics, stupid, uncouth, and lazy,” as well as dangerous.

It’s true that laws, including immigration laws, generally should be respected.  It’s also true that our immigration laws—our system—needs a major fix, one that responds to the real needs of real people, as the Samaritan does in Jesus’ parable; a fix that makes laws deserving our respect because they’re directed toward the common good and aren’t directed by prejudice, fear, or our personal self-interest.

Closing our borders to refugees from war, religious persecution, and ethnic cleansing in the Middle East is a disgrace and is the direct opposite of Jesus’ command to “go and do likewise.”  Our attempts to seal off our southern border, certainly some of the specific practices there, likewise are disgraceful and contrary to Christ’s teaching.  Our politicians’ refusal to compromise on adjusting our immigration laws to today’s realities, instead of those of the 1980s, is unconscionable.

You and I can’t change the laws, of course.  We can call upon our elected officials—whom we call public servants—to change the laws, to find a balance between legitimate national security and good order, and the needs of migrants and refugees.  We can do our part to treat everyone as our neighbor—with respect and concern, regardless of color, ethnicity, gender, age, or other characteristics.  So Jesus tells us.

[For further reading: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/deaconsbench/2019/07/saint-john-paul-the-illegal-migrant-comes-before-us-like-that-stranger-in-whom-jesus-asks-to-be-recognized/]

---

[1] John P. Kealy, CSSp, Luke’s Gospel Today (Denville, N.J.: Dimension, 1979), p. 279.

Summer Assignment

Summer Assignment

It's been a long time since a provincial has given me a different assignment for the summer.  But I've been in New Rochelle since June 24, except one long weekend with Salesian Cooperators in Haverstraw and a one-nite trip back to College Park last week.

The Salesian research library that I've been curating for 30 years has sat in cartons (filling about 6 pallets) in the Salesian Missions building for the last 3 years, since I was obliged to move it from Our Lady of the Valley (Orange, N.J.) in the spring of 2016.  It took that long for the province powers-that-be to decide where to set it up again.  Finally, this spring they decided to use some of the space that used to be Bro. Andy LaCombe's work area and, in late spring, ordered new steel shelving for the books.

But the assignment involves not only the research library but 2 other libraries, to be merged and consolidated with the 1st one, viz., the province archives library and what Fr. Tim is weeding out of the big collection of books in the provincial's office.  The archives library is very disorganized, so just removing the books by topic is a challenge.  As a result of that hunt and absorbing all the additional materials, it's been slow going.  To date I've set up the sections for St. Francis de Sales, the writings of Don Bosco, biographies of DB, and biographies of other members of the Salesian Family, filling 8 sections of the shelves.

The 2d section of Don Bosco biography (left) and the start of the Salesian biographies section, with some unpacked cartons, probably of Salesian spirituality, in the foreground.

Earlier, I completed the set-up of the collection of Salesian Bulletins belonging to our communications office.

A section of the Salesian Bulletins collection

That, however, is temporary because I haven't yet touched the huge collection of Bulletins in the archives--in both Italian and English, going back to the 1870s.  The Italian collection, at least, will end up in Bro. Andy's bookcases, 12 good sized shelves in 3 sections, and if there's room, then the English edition that was published in Turin starting around 1900.

Homily for 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
14th Sunday of Ordinary Time

July 7, 2019

Collect
Holy Name of Jesus, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“O God, … fill your faithful with holy joy, for on those you have rescued from slavery to sin, you bestow eternal gladness” (Collect).

During Advent we have a Sunday called Gaudete Sunday, “Rejoice” Sunday, and during Lent, Laetare Sunday, “Be glad.”  Today’s another “Joy Sunday,” for that theme permeates both the Collect (opening prayer) and the Scripture readings.

I just cited the petition we address to God in the Collect, asking him to fill us with joy and noting that he gives us cause for gladness by saving us from our sins.  Our Old Testament reading directs us to rejoice and be glad because of God’s motherly care for us—yes, motherly!—and promises us joyful hearts when we experience God’s power in our lives (Is 66:11-14).

In the psalm refrain, we joined the whole earth in crying out to God with joy, joy at the tremendous deeds God has done among us.  The psalmist specifically recalls how God saved Israel thru their exodus from Egypt (66:6).

Israel’s experience was a rebirth.  St. Paul discerns “a new creation” in the way that Christ rescued humanity thru his crucifixion (Gal 6:14-15).  Paul doesn’t speak of joy here, altho he does elsewhere, e.g., in his letter to the Philippians (4:4-9).  But he does “boast in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (6:14), thru which God has mercy upon us sinners and pours out his grace upon us.

Christ sending out the 72 disciples (James Tissot)

Announcing the grace and mercy of Christ, by which Satan and his demonic cohorts are crushed, causes 72 disciples of Jesus to rejoice:  “Lord, even the demons are subject to us because of your name” (Luke 10:17).  Jesus gives them a mild correction:  don’t rejoice because you’ve overcome demons but “because your names are written in heaven” (10:20).  By invoking the name of Jesus, they’ve subjected the demons; they’ve secured their own salvation, their enrollment in the kingdom of God which they’ve proclaimed, the kingdom already at hand in the person of Jesus.

By the power of Jesus, by the power of his cross, we’ve been “rescued from slavery to sin,” as the Collect said. That’s reason for us to join Paul in boasting—humbly, for it’s Christ who’s victorious, not us; it’s Christ whose “abasement has raised up a fallen world” (Collect).  Christ’s cross, not our own merits, is the reason for our joy.

It’s a real reason for us to rejoice.  As the Hebrews were delivered from slavery in Egypt, as the towns and villages of Galilee were delivered from the clutches of Satan by the preaching of Jesus and his disciples, so are we delivered from our “slavery to sin” and its consequences, and given “eternal gladness” as a gift from God.

That gift comes to us when we hear and accept the message of Jesus, when we place ourselves under the protection of his name, the holy name of Jesus.  You do that every time you enter your parish church!  We do it whenever we celebrate the Eucharist “in memory of him,” making his death and resurrection present, part of our lives.

Jesus sent out 72 disciples to preach redemption.  Even as he did so, he advised them to pray for more laborers in the harvest of salvation (Luke 10:2).  That prayer is as necessary today as it was in 30 A.D.  The Gospel still needs men and women to announce it to a world that’s in sorry shape, a world that hungers, without knowing why it hungers, for “the joy of the Gospel”—appropriately, the title of the 1st apostolic exhortation of Pope Francis (Nov. 24, 2013).

Therefore, sisters and brothers, pray for priestly vocations, for diaconal vocations, for vocations to the various forms of consecrated life, for holy marriages that will be “domestic churches”—an ancient Christian designation for the family, revived by the 2d Vatican Council (Lumen Gentium, 11); miniature churches, where Christ is loved, worshiped, and taught.  Don’t just pray for good and holy vocations, however.  Pray that we priests, deacons, religious, and married people may be faithful to Christ’s calling, may grow in holiness, so that we may be effective witnesses to the power of Jesus’ name.  Finally, those of you who may not yet have discerned in what way Christ is calling you—he IS calling you—pray to know how to answer his call and to do so with courage and joy; for your joy, your eternal gladness, will come in responding to him as a good and holy spouse, a good and holy priest or deacon, a good and holy sister or brother.

To quote from St. Paul again:  “peace and mercy be to all who follow this rule” of fidelity to our Lord Jesus Christ.

Homily for Friday, 13th Week of Ordinary Time

Homily for Friday
13th Week of Ordinary Time

July 5, 2018

Matt 9: 9-11
Provincial House, New Rochelle, N.Y.     

“I did not come to call the righteous but sinners” (Matt 9: 13).

If this short scene in the gospels wasn’t already well known, it certainly became so when Francis was elected Pope and highlighted it thru his episcopal motto, Miserando atque eligendo, which he swiped from St. Bede’s homily (Hom. 21) on this gospel passage:  “Vidit ergo Iesus publicanum et quia miserando atque eligendo vidit, ait illi, ‘Sequere me’”—“So Jesus saw the publican and, because he had compassion on him and chose him, he said to him, ‘Follow me.’”

Francis also cited Caravaggio’s masterful painting of the scene, in which bystanders join Jesus in pointing to youthful Matthew, who’s anything but thrilled; he hangs his head over his pile of coins on the table.  He’s hardly excited about being chosen and invited to follow Jesus.  But that matters not to Jesus, who’s chosen him for a share in his divine mercy.

In the gospel, tho, Matthew seems to have been glad to be chosen, glad to be offered an opportunity to be with Jesus; for he throws a party for his friends to come and be with Jesus as well.  Shades of Bartholomew Garelli bringing his friends to meet Don Bosco, who likewise had compassion and chose those in need of divine mercy.

We who are sinners, who know we’re not righteous by our own standing but only by virtue of Jesus’ call, we rejoice—and we come to table with Jesus at this party he offers us, rather than the other way around.  Sure, we bring a little bread and a little wine, and our sinful selves.  But he provides the feast, transforming our bread and wine—and us, as well.

Thank God that Jesus has looked upon us with his compassion and chosen us, as he did Matthew.

Pastoral Assignments for 2019-2010, Round 3

Pastoral Assignments 
for 2019-2020, Round 3

Today, July 4, Fr. Tim Zak sent out a short (1 page) letter announcing some further pastoral assignments for the coming year.  Particularly notable are the appointments of 2 pastors to Salesian parishes:

Fr. Richard Alejunas, already the director of the Salesian community at St. John Bosco Parish in Chicago, will be the new pastor, succeeding Fr. Tom Provenzano.  Fr. Tom has moved to the College Park, Md., community (your humble blogger's community) to commence graduate studies at The Catholic University of America.

As announced in Fr. Tim's May 24 letter, Fr. Mark Hyde will leave Salesian Missions in New Rochelle after 11 years at the helm. Last month it was announced orally to the SDBs and in the Clarion Herald of New Orleans that he will become pastor of St. Rosalie and St. John Bosco parishes in Harvey, La., effective Sept. 1.

Salesian Cooperators Address Their Formation Program

Salesian Cooperators 

Address Their Formation Program

After two years of intense planning by a committee of about a dozen Salesian Cooperators, a workshop called “Forming the Formators” took place at Don Bosco Retreat Center in Haverstraw, N.Y., June 28-30. It was meant to address programs of both initial formation of SC aspirants and ongoing formation of those already committed by a lifetime promise.

Chris Yarnold, province formator, gives an opening presentation on the morning of June 28.

About 90 people involved in SC formation from the three SC provinces of the U.S. and Canada took part in the workshop. Like the SDBs and FMAs, the SCs have two U.S. provinces; but they also have a distinct Canadian province. There were 17 SDB priests, including Fr. Ted Montemayor, Western Province superior, for the entire time, and Fr. Tim Zak, Eastern Province superior of a day and a half (after a provincial council meeting had concluded); 3 SDB brothers; and 11 FMAs, including provincial Sr. Joanne Holloman—all these by virtue of being the “delegates” (SDB or FMA liaison) for one of the three provinces or a particular SC center. The rest of the participants were Cooperators: provincial councilors, local coordinators, and those engaged in formation at province or local level. Every SC center in both countries was represented by at least one person, except one.

You thought only kids played with balloons?

The program included icebreakers similar to those used with young adults at leadership retreats; lectio divina; clarification of what formation entails; description of roles and responsibilities; Association guidelines for formation; reflection on a key constitutional article (#41); ample group reflection; and social activities.

The Eucharist was celebrated on successive days by Fr. Montemayor (above--feast of the Sacred Heart, with a rich example offered from the life of Fr. Frank Klauder), Fr. Rich Authier (feast of Sts. Peter and Paul), and Fr. Zak (Sunday). At the closing Mass the SCs renewed their promise and all the attendees received certificates of participation.  The Rosary was prayed outdoors on Friday evening, and during a Saturday evening period of Eucharistic adoration, the sacrament of Reconciliation was offered.

Fr. Tom Dunne and Chris Yarnold prep for their presentation on June 28.

As at any Salesian gathering, food was an important component of every day!

Everyone seemed to think it was a good weekend—updating formators on requirements and procedures, collecting new documents (which Sr. Denise Sickinger spent many hours preparing for publication), sharing ideas, renewing acquaintances, and making a lot of new friends.

Judy Alvarez and Gabe Talavera educe from the participants 

some understanding of what they’ve been learning.

Province delegates Fr. Tom Dunne and Sr. Sickinger and many others like Judy Alvarez, Chris Yarnold, Rosa D’Addario, and Liz Gamarra—too many to name everyone—earned the praise of the participants for organizing Forming the Formators.

Fr. Tim Zak’s homily at the closing Mass offered some gentle entertainment.

View more photos: https://pix.sfly.com/wew8pD

Homily for 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
13th Sunday of Ordinary Time

June 28, 1992

Collect
Holy Cross, Fairfield, Conn.

Since I was taking part in a workshop for Salesian Cooperators this past weekend, I didn't have a chance to preach.  Here's an old one that in some respects is a bit dated but in other respects is still timely.  The Bishop Gregory quoted near the end is our new archbishop in D.C.; at the time he was still bishop of Belleville, Ill.

“Father, you call your children to walk in the light of Christ” (Collect).

We hear this call to walk in the light of Christ thru the sacred scriptures and thru the sacred liturgy.  We respond to the call thru that same liturgy and thru the way we live,

Liturgy, i.e., the public, communal worship of God’s people, is, therefore, of paramount importance to our discerning the light of Christ and walking in it.  It is the junction box that brings to us the power of God’s word and makes the juice flow into our daily lives so that our lives may be in harmony with God’s word and give him praise.

Because liturgy is so pivotal to the life of the Church, the Fathers of Vatican II were concerned that it be reformed and renewed.  What did they do?  What has the Church done since 1962 to reform and renew the liturgy so that it might work better for us to praise God in Christian assembly and walk in the light of Christ from day to day?

1. Vatican II issued a Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy; in fact, this was the Council’s very 1st document (out of an eventual total of 16), showing both the fundamental importance that the Church attaches to the liturgy and the general agreement that the bishops reached, relatively quickly, on the principles set out in this constitution.  Then, both during and after the Council, a steady stream of decrees and encouragements came forth from Rome and the NCCB to implement the wishes of the Vatican Council.

2. The Vatican Council decreed that the liturgy could be offered in vernacular languages, altho Latin remains the Church’s official tongue and is still encouraged for public use, e.g., in Gregorian chant and in large international gatherings.  But since 1964 we’ve been able to celebrate Mass, all the sacraments, and the Divine Office in English.  We can understand better what we’re saying to God and what God is saying to us.

3. The Vatican Council and its follow-up have put great importance on our participation in the liturgy.  No longer can we be passive spectators, watching the priest pray in our name, or saying our private prayers while the Church’s supposed public, communal worship goes on in isolation at the front of the church.  Instead, we hear and speak and sing together, interacting with the priest, Christ in our midst.  He prays in our name, but we affirm the prayer by our responses and acclamations.  Choirs still have their purpose, but it’s important also for us to praise God in song together, to ask mercy together.  Singing the national anthem brings us together as an American people.  Singing hymns brings us together as God’s people.

4. All of the Church’s liturgical books have been revised; most of them have been completely overhauled:  the sacramentary, the lectionary, the sacramental rituals, the Divine Office or Liturgy of the Hours, the martyrology or official listing of the saints day by day, the book of blessings.  The 1st stage of this revision has been completed for all of the books except the martyrology (which has a lot of historical difficulties to be resolved), and in some cases 2d revisions have been done.

This 2d stage of revision is based on our ongoing experience of worshipping together in our own language late in the 20th century.  It includes cultural adaptations and is influenced also by what other Christian churches are doing in their liturgical reforms.  In the U.S. we’re now using the revised Rite of Funerals and the revised Lectionary for Masses with Children.  Our bishops are deep into the revision of our 2 Mass books, the sacramentary and the lectionary.

One minor change that the bishops have just decided upon is to be implemented at once: to conclude the OT and NT readings by proclaiming, “The word of the Lord,” rather than, “This is the word of the Lord,” as we’ve been doing since the 1960s.  There are several reasons for this, including:

1. It’s a more accurate rendering of the Latin verbum Domini, and it also parallels how the other European languages like Spanish and Italian render it.

2. One of the administrators in the bishops’ liturgy office in Washington told me it’s also intended to discourage readers from raising the lectionary dramatically while saying, “The word of the Lord.”  It’s not the book but the Scripture just proclaimed orally that is the word of the Lord.

3. There is a certain parallelism with the simple sacramental proclamation, “The body of Christ,” reflecting Christ’s presence in his word and in his sacrament.

We’ve seen many changes great and small in the way we worship.  Perhaps some have been less helpful to us than others.  But the Church will continue to evaluate and adapt her liturgy so that it may always enable us, God’s children, to walk in the light.  Bp. Wilton Gregory, the chairman of the Bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy, put it this way:

You are well aware of how far we have come in the renewal of the worship of the Church during the past quarter century.  We have seen the revision, that is, the restoration and renewal, of nearly all the liturgical books, their translation into English, Spanish and, in some cases, one of the many languages of Native Americans.  But it is clear that transforming liturgical rites does not necessarily guarantee the transformation of the lives of the baptized, especially their spiritual lives.  We now have revised editions of the liturgical books, but the purpose of the liturgical reforms is not new books, but new lives, lives that are restored, reformed, and renewed.*

*BCL Newsletter 27 (1991), 37.

At the Heart of the Salesian Charism

At the Heart of the Salesian Charism

(ANS – Rome – June 28) – Under the painting of the Sacred Heart in the center of the basilica built in Rome in honor of the Sacred Heart by Don Bosco, there is a double portrait. The first is dedicated to St. Francis de Sales, the second to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, from whom devotion to the Sacred Heart began, after the revelations she received starting in December 1673. St. Francis de Sales had founded with Saint Jane Frances de Chantal the Order of the Visitation, to which Margaret Mary Alacoque belonged. It is not just a question of historical references.

The heart is like the synthesis of the message of Francis de Sales, communicated with his life even more than in his writings. He intended the Treatise on the Love of God as a follow-up to a Treatise on the Love of One’s Neighbor, for which he had drawn up an outline; but he was not able to carry out his plan on account of his death at just 55 years of age (in 1622).

Francis was able to enrich the Church’s journey with a charitable love without boundaries. It is the result of a maturation begun during his years of study and then continued in his nine years as a priest, seven of which he lived as a missionary in the Calvinist Chablais area, facing hostility of all kinds. His strategy was to reconquer hearts one by one, with patience and sweetness. The same approach he maintained as a bishop: “God drew me away from myself to take me for Himself and give me to his people. That is, He transformed me from what I was for myself to what I had to become for them,” he wrote in a letter to Jane Frances de Chantal about the day of his episcopal ordination.
The “heart” is the whole of his entire life and his spiritual heritage, from which also comes the gift that, through Margaret Mary Alacoque, has reached the whole Church.

Don Bosco’s spiritual history is like a big tree that comes from the same root. He wanted those who would continue his mission to adopt the name of Francis de Sales because it is the same heart that gives life to everything that was born from Don Bosco.

Two particular moments are like a testament and symbol of Don Bosco’s heart, both of which he experienced at the basilica of the Sacred Heart. The letter from Rome in May 1884, where he confides everything that is dearest to him and asks his Salesians to have the same heart that he has for young people; and the only Mass he celebrated in the basilica, on May 16, 1887, when the Lord allowed the whole journey of his servant’s life to emerge from the memory of the heart, lived as “the only movement of charity toward God and toward his brothers” (C. 3).

Returning to these roots opens the way to a path of renewal, which recreates the ‘new heart,’ with which to be Salesians, according to Don Bosco’s heart, for today’s young people.