Homily for Wednesday of Holy Week

Homily for Wednesday
of Holy Week

March 31, 2021
Is 50: 4-9
Provincial House, New Rochelle, N.Y.

Jennie Laeng from Cleveland is one of those who will complete her Christian initiation this weekend.  She was born Catholic but fell away along the line.  In an interview she told the National Catholic Register that “she had learned the logistics of how to pray but hadn’t ever ‘showed up to prayer and allowed God to speak.’”  She added, “He shows up in the quiet, consistent ‘boring’ space in my life.”[1]

Prophet Isaiah (Kizhi Monastery, Karelia, Russia)

Certainly we learned “the logistics” of prayer from our mothers and our formators.  I don’t doubt that now you’re better pray-ers than I am, better as “showing up and allowing God to speak.”  When we do so, we’re like Jennie, and also like the Servant of the Lord, whose ear was opened that he might hear—hear a word to rouse the weary” (Is 50:4).

Only when we’ve opened our ears to the Lord’s speaking can we take his word to the weary—to our weary, often confused young, to hard-working and overstressed parents.  When Christ inspires us, we may comfort and strengthen them; we may help them to “praise the name of God in song,” to “glorify him with thanksgiving” (Ps 69:31).

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     [1] Kimberly Jansen, “Moving Mountains:  The Catholic Church Welcomes Converts Despite Pandemic’s Hurdles,” NCR online 3/30/21.

Message of the Rector Major - March

THE MESSAGE OF THE RECTOR MAJOR

Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime

THE HUMAN HEART IS SO CAPABLE OF VERY GREAT THINGS

“‘Salesian’ is synonymous with ‘living for others.’ This is how we know our Salesians here. Thus they are. Thus they live.”

This is the RM’s message for March, which I’ve been delinquent in posting. Nevertheless, it remains timely.

My faithful friends, readers of Salesian media, the means of family communication and friendship that Don Bosco himself valued so highly, I greet you with all cordiality.

I come to you on this occasion with my heart impressed by what I was able to experience around the time of the great solemnity of Saint John Bosco on January 31. There were many things that impressed me, but today two testimonies stand out. For the first, I was only a witness of a talk, and for the second just a recipient of a message. Both of them made me feel that the human heart is very capable of great and beautiful things. Let me share them with you.

The former took place on the night of January 29, 2021, in Valdocco, in the basilica of Mary Help of Christians, where I sat in the pews among the people and participated in the prayer vigils leading up to the solemnity of our beloved Saint and Father of the Salesian Family. Four young people who had participated in the Economy of Pope Francis meeting in Rome, organized by the Holy See, animated that night’s prayer vigil. These are young entrepreneurs who don’t consider commerce to be a way to get rich at the cost of impoverishing others, but who engage in business with a sense of justice and solidarity. Two of these young people gave a witness talk that went far beyond the details of money management. One of them shared with us, with deep emotion, that he had lost his father two years ago and how his widowed mother sought a way to give great meaning to her life in memory of her beloved husband: she decided to welcome into her home, together with her children, two immigrant children who are in this country (Italy) alone, without any affective or family ties. This young man shared with us how deeply impressed he and his siblings were by the decision and courage of their mother to live the Gospel as she believes we need to live it today: in a concrete way, a faith that has faces and names.

The second testimony was that of a young woman entrepreneur who decided to tutor a Senegalese child to help him as he makes his way, grows, works at his education, and prepares himself for life. I was strongly impressed by her because she showed the Gospel come alive, without “artificial sweetness.” Her witness also means that even today we can live like this. Without a doubt so many of you do live like this, each one in his own way, simply and concretely.

One of those “rare messages”

When it comes to speaking of the “concrete,” I want to offer you another testimony that confirms what is deeply engraved in my heart. I have said this more than once: in a world like ours, which is undoubtedly very complex and which is beset by so many dark powers and realities, we must make known the good that’s done. Don Bosco did this daily, and I’ll do so here.

Just a few days ago, I received one of those rare messages that bring with them no complaints and don’t speak ill of anyone (certainly, you know that complaints are frequent everywhere). Quite the contrary, this message bore the testimony of a young Argentine woman who has lived for years in a Salesian environment, which has left its mark on her life for the better. Reading her message, my heart swelled. I told myself that I had to share it with you so that you too would hear something good that touches the heart and doesn’t cause it pain. 

This is what the young woman said:

“Dear Fr. Angel: Ever since I found the way to write to you, I have greatly desired to share some things with you. Here, where I live, the Salesians are tremendous. They protect us in grief, shelter the lonely, always find time to listen, and exhort us to believe, to trust, and to hope against all hope.

“They soothe our souls in bitter moments and celebrate our joys as if they were their own. Trust me, Father, I'm not making up stories. My whole life has been ‘lit up’ by the Salesian charism, first, in a small city (where the first Salesian house in the Americas was opened) and now, for these past few years in Rosario, a big, beautiful city. Here, in the house of San José, I work in the school and participate in the parish activities. I have experienced firsthand what I will now share. Our director, Fr. X, knows each student by name. He knows how to accompany each one in painful moments. Many of our children’s lives are marked by stories of painful, difficult realities: one has leukemia, some have parents who have died, others live in the midst of domestic violence and many other misfortunes. He knows each of them and embraces them with his heart and his words. Another Salesian brings the church alive at each Mass. Then there is Fr. X who, although elderly, mingles among the children, entertaining them with stories of ‘the old days.’ In another Salesian house, with Fr. X, we search tirelessly for the best method to teach the first graders to begin to read and write. There are so many names I could mention.

“On Saturday, I traveled over 900 miles just to see Padre X, who resides in the Zatti retirement home. I went to see him just to remind him how much he is loved, to give back a little for all his labors for us, and to have lunch with him. Moved deeply by this, he understood that everything had been worth it. So much life put at the service of others!

“‘Salesian’ is synonymous with ‘living for others.’ This is how we know our Salesians here. Thus they are. Thus they live. ‘We are in the world for others,’ Fr. X constantly repeats to us, paraphrasing Don Bosco. Yes! That is why there’s something special in the air, something invisible in the atmosphere, of our school playgrounds. It all has to do with joy, with hope, and with holiness.

“Happy feast of Don Bosco, dear Rector Major. I pray for you and in you for every Salesian who makes us feel that Don Bosco is alive, that he always was, and that he continues to be. Happy feast of Don Bosco and blessings for all.”

There you have this precious testimony full of zest and life. I’m keeping her identity anonymous so as not to make her blush, but there may be people who think I am doing PR when they read this. You know, my friends, that I am not. Why should I not speak, why should I keep silent about life-giving news that tells the truth of those who experience deep in their hearts what they have written to us? In all simplicity, I am saying that the boys at Valdocco knew this same reality because Don Bosco was alive among them. How happy it makes me to know that many of our houses today have that same “Valdocco flavor”!

I wish you all well! May your hearts also swell and be open to hope.

Homily for Palm Sunday

Homily for Palm Sunday

March 28, 2021
Psalm 22
OL of the Assumption, Bronx, N.Y.                                                          

“My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” (Ps 22: 2; Mark 15: 34).

Isenheim altarpiece (Matthias Gruenewald)

Echoing Ps 22, Jesus cries out on the cross in what seems like despair.  They’re the last words he speaks in Mark’s Gospel until after his resurrection.  It’s rather a different record than that given by either St. Luke or St. John.

Ps 22 records the sufferings and disgrace of a just man.  So does the 1st reading this afternoon, which is one of what are known as the “servant songs” from the prophet Isaiah.  Both Ps 22 and the 4 servant songs foretell the passion of Christ in some detail, the sorts of prophecy to which the Risen Christ alludes when he speaks with 2 disciples on the road to Emmaus on the day of his resurrection (Luke 24).

Both the psalm and Isaiah also speak of the confidence in God of the person who’s suffering:  “I will proclaim your name to my brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will praise you” (Ps 22:23).  “The Lord God is my help; therefore I am not disgraced” (Is 50:7).  Jesus also had that confidence in his Father, without which he would’ve fled from being arrested and put on trial.  His Father, therefore—who allowed him to feel so abandoned—vindicated him by raising him from the dead.  Our 2d reading last Sunday, from the Letter to the Hebrews, reminded us that Christ had “offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence” (5:7), i.e., God delivered him from death thru resurrection.

Did you wonder in the last year whether God has abandoned us?  Without doubt, March 2020 to today has been a very discouraging year for humanity.  New York has suffered as much as anywhere from the pandemic.  But besides that, people in too many places to list continue to suffer religious persecution, ethnic and racial discrimination, the violence of civil war, gang violence, violence from drug lords, and political oppression.  Just this morning, 2 terrorists blew themselves up at the entrance of a cathedral in Indonesia.  Our country remains susceptible to gun violence from deranged individuals.  In our country we use abortion to eliminate hundreds of thousands of people every year.  Other forms of illness and death—cancer, heart disease, car accidents—remain with us.

Where is God?

He’s in the same place he was while his only Son was dying on the cross.  In his First Letter, St. Peter wrote to early Christians:  “Christ suffered for you and left you an example, to have you follow in his footsteps.  He did no wrong….  When he was made to suffer, … he delivered himself up to the One who judges justly.  In his own body, he brought your sins to the cross, so that all of us, dead to sin, could live in accord with God’s will.  By his wounds you were healed” (2:21-24).

Thru whatever agonies, pains, and losses we’ve experienced in the last year—or at any time in our lives—we’re following in the footsteps of God’s Son.  Unlike us, he was completely innocent of any sin and didn’t deserve to suffer anything.  But in his incomprehensible love for us, he chose to accept all the risks and terrors of the human condition, however unjust, so that he might be truly and entirely one of us and might take us to himself.

He will take us to himself to “live in accord with God’s will.”  His wounds and his death are our healing, our redemption.  Therefore we prayed in today’s Collect, “Graciously grant that we may heed our Savior’s lesson of patient suffering and so merit a share in his resurrection.”  Amen!

Resuming the A.T.

Resuming the A.T.

In September 2014 (9/28 to 10/1) I did a 3-nite, 25-mile hike on the Appalachian Trail as a mini-vacation-retreat.  I started at the base of Anthony's Nose and hiked north thru Graymoor and past Durland Scout Reservation into Fahnestock State Park, where I finished.

That had been done with trees still in full leaf (and dropping thousands of acorns).  On Saturday, March 27, a gorgeous early-spring day, I returned to Fahnestock to pick up the Trail again where I'd dropped off--this time with the trees still winter-barren.

Eastward view from Shenandoah Mt., 1,282 ft.

After parking at Pelton Pond at 11:40 a.m.--as close as I could get to the beach at the north end of Canopus Lake--I hiked to the beach area and parked myself at a picnic table for lunch, about 15 minutes.  I found the blue hiking-snowshoeing trail leading thence up to the ridge; when it hit the AT, the snowshoeing portion turned left (southwest), while I turned right (northeast).  I'd met one day hiker on my way up; he was heading down to the lake.

Unlike the AT running along the ridge above the lake, this portion beyond the lake was generally flat and easy hiking, quite pleasant.  About a quarter mile along, I found 2 men (30-ish) at a tiny brook replenishing their water supply.  They told me they'd started near Bear Mt. (in other words, at the base of Anthony's Nose) and were on a 4-day jaunt; their packs had already told me they weren't day hikers.  I told them I'd see them again after I'd turned around to return, but in fact they caught up with me and passed me before that.

There were 8 or 9 other day hikers out, several of them with dogs; one of the dogs was extremely friendly, looking for a hug according to her owner; and she got one (the dog, that is).  Everyone, human and canine, was having a good time on such a fine day.

The trail gradually ascended Shenandoah mountain, where I found 6 or 7 folks and a dog hanging out in the sunshine (one gent was actually sunbathing) and enjoying the view.  There was also a neat 9/11 memorial painted on the bare rock.

I resumed my hike, the trail soon descending almost steeply toward Long Hill Road and the Dutchess County line.  About halfway down, within sight of a house that had to be along the road, I paused for a snack (and the group from the mountaintop came down past me, evidently returning to their starting point at the road).  By then it was 2:13 p.m., and while the road was an attractive end point, I had no desire to climb back up the mountain.  So I turned around there, sent one of my periodic email updates to Fr. Bill, and headed back up to the summit.

At the summit I noticed a Geodetic Survey marker.

The return hike went quickly and uneventfully, and with no further human (or canine) encounters until I was past the bath house and concession stand at Canopus Beach; a family of 3 passed me heading in that direction.

There's a large open field, bigger than Graymoor's, near the beach buildings, where thru hikers may tent camp.  No amenities at the field that I could discern except 1 picnic table and 1 fire ring.  Maybe in season the park rangers bring out more.  In the middle of the field there's a big electrical box on which someone had spraypainted (or maybe brushed) "I have hope."

Given this year's Salesian strenna, I had to take note of that.

Pelton Pond looked pretty as I passed by.  There was a lone woman seated near its shore, reading.  I got back to the car at 3:50, as I'd predicted from the AT-blue trail junction, and was home in time for Evening Prayer.  Beautiful day!

Pope Gives Sr. Alessandra Smerilli Another Curia Post

Pope Francis Gives Sr. Alessandra Smerilli, FMA, Another Important Post in the Roman Curia

(ANS - Vatican City – March 25, 2021) – On March 24 Pope Francis appointed Sr. Alessandra Smerilli, FMA, undersecretary for the Faith and Development Sector of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. She commented: “I feel grateful to the Holy Father and to the prefect of my dicastery, Cardinal Turkson, to all those who work in the dicastery who show trust in me. I hope to be able to do my part.”

Yesterday’s appointment is only the most recent important task that the Holy Father entrusts to religious of the Salesian Family. Sr. Smerilli, who holds a PhD in political economy from La Sapienza University of Rome and a PhD in economics from East Anglia University in Norwich, England, is full professor of political economy at the Auxilium Pontifical School of Education in Rome, the Salesian Sisters’ university. In the last two years, Pope Francis has also appointed her as a councilor of the Vatican City State, consultor of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, as well as coordinator of the Economics Task Force of the Vatican Commission for Covid-19.

The Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development was established by Pope Francis on January 1, 2017, and “promotes integral human development by drawing inspiration from the Gospel and in the wake of the theology and social doctrine of the Church.... Integrating, relating, and making the various social systems dialogue with each other – such as economy, finance, work, politics, culture – the Dicastery works to ensure that the Church’s social teaching is made known and put into practice. “

Sr. Smerilli already knows the Dicastery well because it is where she had come to work as coordinator of the Economics Task Force for Covid-19. “Working here, I understood how beautiful this mission of the Dicastery is and how much it reaches the whole world,” she told Vatican News.

Working in that Task Force, Sr. Smerilli also learned that “there is a need for a lot of listening to local realities and the problems that are caused by this crisis.” But at the same time, “as a Church we also have the duty to raise the tone of the debate, to inspire visions, not to focus only on what to do, even if we need to work on concreteness, but to have a perspective.”

Looking at this new role, she believes that her task is to “translate, in pastoral terms, what the economic knowledge and skills are” and therefore hopes to “collaborate with everyone to bring together the Gospel and the economy.”

And to those who point out to her that with her appointment the number of women with important positions in the Roman Curia increases, Sr. Smerilli replies: “God created man in His image, male and female He created them, and therefore this wants to say that male and female is the image of God, of a God who is communion. This vocation of alliance and reciprocity must be carried out not only in the family sphere but in all other areas of life, even in the workplace.”

Homily for 5th Sunday of Lent

Homily for the
5th Sunday of Lent

March 21, 2021
Heb 5: 7-9
Ps 51: 3-4, 12-15
Collect
Holy Name of Jesus, New Rochelle, N.Y.                                                      

“In the days when Christ Jesus was in the flesh, he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence” (Heb 5: 7).

Agony in the Garden (El Greco)

We’re all familiar with Jesus’ agony in the garden before his arrest.  The Letter to the Hebrews gives us a variation on that picture.  We can picture Jesus prostrate in prayer to his Father, crying and begging to be spared from his passion and death, in the same way that any of us might pray to be spared from some frightening experience that we foresee:  an unpleasant responsibility at work, a job loss, a surgery, the ravages of illness, the death of someone we love deeply.

It’s a little startling that the author of this letter asserts that Jesus “was heard because of his reverence.”  But he actually was arrested.  He really did undergo terrible tortures.  He was truly, barbarically, shamefully executed.  How is that being “heard,” being “saved from death”?

We know, of course, that Jesus’ passion and death weren’t the end of his story.  We know that God the Father raised him from death—what Hebrews describes as being “made perfect” (5:9).  God created human beings for life, not for death; the perfection of a human being is life without death; healthy, eternal life.  This Jesus attained after suffering, like all human beings, and then being raised.

The Letter to the Hebrews affirms that Christ Jesus “learned obedience from what he suffered” (5:8).  All his human life, Jesus Christ lived as we do, with troubles, disappointments, pain.  Like us, he had to learn to accept these as part of his life, and to offer these to his Father in obedience, reverently.  We heard in last week’s gospel that God loved the world so much that he gave us his only Son (John 3:16); that is, he gave him to us be one of us.  It was obedience for the Son to lower himself from heaven to earth, to lay aside—to hide—his divinity and become one of us.  But because he did that, he was the perfect human being, the ideal child of God that each of us is supposed to be but falls so short of. 

by Noel Coypel

Jesus’ obedience was rewarded with resurrection, and, Hebrews continues, “he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him” (5:9).  His humanity is our humanity; our humanity is elevated, saved, thru his, thru our union with him, thru our obedience to his teaching, to his way of life.

That’s what Lent is about, dear sisters and brothers:  being converted to Jesus’ teaching, to his way of life, turning from our sins to “the one who [is] able to save [us] from death.”  So we pray in today’s responsorial psalm that God will “create a clean heart” in us (51:12), that in his great compassion he’ll “wipe out our offense” (cf. 51:3), all our offenses, all the ways in which we’ve violated his covenant, the laws he’s given to show us how to live in his ways.

We pray that God will “give back the joy of [his] salvation” (51:14); that he’ll be “the source of eternal salvation” for us who follow Jesus Christ—that he’ll empower us to stay with Jesus and live as he teaches us:  “whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be.  The Father will honor whoever serves me,” Jesus teaches in today’s gospel (John 12:26).

In today’s Collect, we prayed that with God’s help we would “walk eagerly in that same charity with which [Jesus] handed himself over to death.”  Jesus sacrificed himself out of love for us, giving himself to us so that we might have eternal life.  How can we “walk eagerly in that same charity”?  By striving to love others sacrificially—to love the members of our family when it’s hard to do; to be patient and understanding with our co-workers or employers or employees, and people we meet in the supermarket or on the streets, and with our neighbors.  It’s sacrificial to bite our tongues rather than speak a rash judgment or pass along gossip.  It’s sacrificial not to take something that isn’t ours, and even more to share what we have with someone who’s in need.  It’s sacrificial to forgive an offense, to overlook a fault.  Those are some of the ways that we can “walk eagerly in that same charity with which [Jesus] handed himself over,” and we can be a little bit like Jesus, that perfect human being who is for us “the source of eternal life.”

Homily for the Solemnity of St. Patrick

Homily for the Solemnity of St. Patrick

March 17, 2021
1 Pet 4: 7-11
Provincial House, New Rochelle, N.Y.                 

I have no idea how someone whose DNA is 64% Western and Central European—that would be mostly German with some French; 14% Eastern European—that would be mostly Hungarian; 18% Jewish; and 2% South Asian—where did that come from?:  how that someone was designated to preside on the feast of St. Patrick, rather than, say, Tom Brennan or Dennis Donovan.  Call it a mystery of faith.

But Patrick, after all, wasn’t Irish either, except by a divine calling that he answered enthusiastically.  He was, as you know, a Roman Briton, perhaps Celtic or Welsh, or entirely Roman.  After an early life, up to age 16, that he, at least, considered irreligious or worse, he was formed spiritually by the harsh conditions of 6 years as a slave, tending pigs, during which he learned to pray; and formed by an uncertain number of years spent in monastic life in Gaul.

If there wasn’t anything specifically Irish about Patrick, we can say that he gave himself completely to the Irish.  Two dreams guided his escape from his youthful slavery.  At least one vision directed him back to his former captors, to become their slave again, this time in the style of Christ, who came not to be served but to serve (as St. Peter says, “he served with the strength that God supplied” [1 Pet 4:11]; to labor amid constant danger—at times his life was on the line—to convert the Irish to Christ.  As the Collect stated, “God chose the bishop St. Patrick to preach [his] glory to the peoples of Ireland.”

Patrick converted them thru personal courage, the sacraments, monasticism, and learning.  He had the courage to return to a place that had been so painful to him, then to preach up and down the land in the face of hostility from kings and druids.  The sacraments that he brought, of course, are Christ’s working on the soul.  Monasticism is a most ardent form of living the Christian life, and the Irish embraced it heartily and then exported it as ardently to Britain, back to Gaul, even to Italy.  Patrick considered himself unschooled, but he appreciated learning, and that thrived in the monasteries, which indeed preserved the treasures of Western civilization during the barbarian invasions.  Patrick himself was well schooled in the sacred Scriptures; he did what St. Peter urges, “preaching the words of God” (1 Pet 4:11), which permeate his 2 surviving writings and must have permeated his preaching.

Having given Christ to the Irish, Patrick thru the Irish became a gift to the world.  He belongs to everyone wherever his sons and daughters have spread the faith.  He teaches us to embrace courageously and completely the call Christ has given to us, to love the people to whom Christ sends us, and to base our service to them on God’s Word—the Word incarnate and the scriptural Word.

Stained glass: Our Lady of the Valley Church, Orange, N.J.

Salesians Help Young Syrians Remain Hopeful

Despite 10 years of war and suffering, Salesian hope remains in Syria

(ANS – Damascus – March 16, 2021) – When everything started, it was thought that it would last just a matter of days or a few weeks and that everything would soon return to normal. But ten years have been passed since hostilities began, and peace has not yet arrived.

There are no more bombings in the big cities, as there were a few years ago, but the wake of destruction, death, and injured and displaced people is infinite. The Salesians, for their part, reinvent themselves constantly with a single goal in their minds and hearts: “Do not leave young people and their families alone.” And they have succeeded. They have formed a large family of children, teens, and adults around the figure of Don Bosco, and their environments are considered “oases of peace.”

The figures alone speak of the humanitarian disaster of the Syrian war: more than half a million dead, 1.5 million wounded, 5.7 million refugees, and 6.7 million internally displaced people. It is true that the fighting has decreased, but the economic crisis and the pandemic are currently the most dramatic battles suffered by the population, since 80% of the Syrians have been living under the poverty line since the beginning of last year’s confinement.

In these ten years there were so many painful moments; after all, “In Syria, we all cry for a family member or a friend killed by bombs,” adds Salesian Fr. Pier Jabloyan. Buthope has always been stronger than war, and the culture of peace has transformed the Salesian environments into oases.

This family atmosphere has helped to unite the entire Christian community of Aleppo and Damascus, even in the worst situations, and has multiplied the faith of young people and their families. Currently, in Damascus there are 1,200 minors, adolescents, and even groups of adults active at the Salesian house; in Aleppo, there were up to 1,000 young people of different Christian confessions. The result was a large family that has helped each other, has always been in touch with each another, and has strengthened its faith in the midst of difficulties.

But there are many children under the age of ten who do not know life as other but war, and for this reason, the Salesians continue to be at their side, offering accompaniment, food, and economic support to them and their families.

In fact, aid has never been wanting. Thanks to the economic support of many Salesian organizations, and also thanks to prayer and proximity, the Salesians of Aleppo, Damascus, and Kafroun continue to help children with recovery courses, theater workshops, sports, and recreational activities. Even during the pandemic.

The Syrians cry aloud, asking for a definitive and lasting peace to be able to begin to reconstruct their country and their lives. And meanwhile, the Salesians offer education to peace and Christian values to anyone approaching their presences in Aleppo, Damascus, and Kafroun.

Fr. Carlos Crespi's Positio super virtutibus Delivered in Rome

Fr. Carlos Crespi's Positio super virtutibus Delivered in Rome

(ANS - Vatican City – March 15, 2021) – On March 12 the volume of the Positio super Vita, Virtutibus, et Fama Sanctitatis of the Servant of God Fr. Carlos Crespi Croci, SDB, was delivered to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in the Vatican.

The Positio had as relator Msgr. José Jaime Brosel Gavilá, Fr. Pierluigi Cameroni as postulator, and Dr. Mariafrancesca Oggianu as collaborator. Structural elements of the Positio – which presents in an articulated and in-depth manner the entire documentary and testifying apparatus of evidence regarding the virtuous life of the Servant of God – are a brief presentation by the relator; the Informatio super virtutibus, that is, the theological part in which the virtuous life of the Servant of God is demonstrated; the two Summaria with textual and documentary proofs; the Biographia ex Documentis; the latest sessions and the iconographic apparatus.

After delivery, the Positio will be examined by the theological consultors of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Then it will be studied by the cardinals and bishops of the same Congregation. These articulated stages of study and evaluation will allow the Supreme Pontiff, in the event of a positive outcome, to declare Fr. Carlo Crespi “Venerable.” A miracle attributed to his intercession will then be needed to pave the way for beatification.

This news has aroused great joy, both in Ecuador, in particular in Cuenca, where it is welcomed as a sign of hope in this time of trial that touches the whole world; and in Legnano (Milan), Fr. Crespi’s birthplace, where for some years a group of people has dedicated itself to promoting his cause, highlighting his brilliant, highly original figure; he stands out for his intelligent sympathy and his absolute non-uniformity to the usual “norms.”

Fr. Crespi welcomed the Salesian call and, as a true imitator of Don Bosco, became a witness to a Church that urges people to “go forth from our own comfort zone in order to reach all the peripheries in need of the light of the Gospel” (Pope Francis, Evangelii gaudium, 2013). Fr. Crespi’s life tells Christians of yesterday and today how prayer can and must be inserted into the concrete actions in everyday life, encouraging and inspiring it. He is a credible witness of an “evangelizing style capable of affecting life” (Pope Francis, Address to Italian Catholic Action, May 3, 2014). To this day his tomb and his monument continue to be perennially embellished with fresh flowers and thank-you plaques. While the reputation for holiness of this illustrious son of Cuenca shows no signs of diminishing, the drafting of the Positio super virtutibus marks an important step as far as his cause ofbBeatification is concerned.

All that remains is to wait with confidence for the wise judgment of the Church.

Ambassador Luca Attanasio Had a Salesian Heart

Luca Attanasio, Italy's ambassador to DRC, was a diplomat with a Salesian heart

(ANS – Goma, DRC – March 12, 2021) – While aggressions and attacks continue to rage in the eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo – the Study Center for Peace, Democracy and Human Rights reports a further 45 civilian victims in various massacres within just ten days in the region – Salesian testimonies also continue to reach the ANS editorial office on the luminous figure of Luca Attanasio, the Italian ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) murdered on February 22 in Goma, together with carabiniere officer escorting him, Vittorio Iacovacci, and their Congolese driver Mustafa Milambo.

Below is the press release issued by Jambo Vijana, the magazine for young people from Salesian works in the eastern DRC:

The young people welcomed at the Don Bosco Ngangi center in Goma learned with dismay, on Monday, February 22, the news of the death of Luca Attanasio. During his stay in the DRC, this man showed his affection for the many youth and children cared for by the Salesians of that house.

In the Salesian works of the eastern DRC in particular, we were able to discover that he believed in the power of love to overcome the weight of evil. His goodness, his generosity, his courage, and his love accompanied him until his death on this path toward his poorest friends. He believed, like us, that with the Salesian charism a better world is possible, especially for the younger generations.

He greatly appreciated our educational, formative, medical, safety, and psychosocial activities for the vulnerable children and youths of the Don Bosco Ngangi Youth Center....

Let us not forget his support, help, and advice for what he had already acknowledged as our many-sided and recurring vulnerabilities. Our mourning was also joined by Fr. Jean-Claude Ngoy and Fr. Albert Kabuge, former provincial and outgoing provincial of Central Africa. Fr. Kabuge, specifically, wrote: “May God welcome their souls into His Kingdom. My condolences to the families of our brothers who have just left us. May God help us all.”

Thanks to his social commitment, his passion for Africa and, especially for the DRC, his mission, and his work, he felt himself a full member of the family of humanitarian workers in these guerrilla zones.

On his part, Salesian Fr. Ghislain Nkiere, who works in Kinshasa, adds another testimony: “I met him just a month ago. I can say that he was a generous man, who always wanted to help others. He was a man who did not let himself be told about things, but wanted to see up close the difficulties in which that population held in check by armed groups lives. Ambassador Attanasio helped our home for street boys and girls. He came to visit us to bring food, but above all to meet the young. He was a person close to people. Precisely this desire to be close to people, living what they live, brought him close to danger.”

Homily for 4th Sunday of Lent

Homily for the
4th Sunday of Lent

March 14, 2021
Eph 2: 4-10
2 Chr 36: 14-16, 19-23
Holy Name of Jesus, New Rochelle, N.Y.                                                      

“God is rich in mercy.  Because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, he brought us to life with Christ” (Eph 2: 4-5).

St. Paul speaks of our transgressions, our sins.  The author of the 2 books of Chronicles speaks of them more specifically:  “All the princes of Judah, the priests, and the people added infidelity to infidelity, practicing all the abominations of the nations…” (2 Chr 36:14).  Those infidelities and abominations included the worship of the false gods of the pagan nations; child sacrifice; the oppression of the poor and the weak by the rich and the powerful; infidelity in marriage; dishonest business practices; working on the Sabbath.

The Chronicler then recounts the doom that befell the kingdom of Judah on account of their sins:  utter destruction, death, captivity, exile (36:19-21).  St. Paul calls us simply “dead in our transgressions.”  Sin, alienation from God our Creator, can have only one, unhappy outcome.

That alienation seems to be the situation of our world today:  millions dead from a pandemic; the earth physically going to pieces with violent storms, uncontrolled wildfires, droughts and famine in some places, massive flooding in others; people tearing each other apart on account of racism, tribalism, nationalism, machismo, religious perversion; drug trafficking, human trafficking, and the use of child soldiers; the perversion of human sexuality in the name of self-expression and freedom, and yes, child sacrifice—the slaughter of millions of unborn children in our supposedly enlightened, civilized Western society.

Is this a happy world?

There’s a fairly new movement in the Western world called antinatalism, a movement that maintains it’s unconscionable to bring children into the world because the world—society, culture, the environment—is so miserable.  It’s a pessimistic, semi-pagan outlook.

Nicodemus and Jesus on a Rooftop (Henry O. Tanner)

What’s the solution to such misery?  Jesus teaches Nicodemus, “The Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:14-15).  (The Son of Man is a biblical redemptive figure, a judge for the End Time.)  St. John comments that God sent his Son into the world “that the world might be saved thru him” (3:17), for God intensely loves the world (cf. 3:16).  Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, was lifted up on the cross for our salvation.

St. John says further that Christ invites us to put our dark and wicked ways behind us and step into the light, to walk in the light.  He states that evildoers prefer the darkness, hate the light, and avoid the light so that their deeds may not be exposed (3:19-20).  Salesians who’ve spent time in Tampa can tell you what happens when you walk into a kitchen or pantry at nite and flip on the light switch:  you may see a great scurrying of palmetto bugs—big cockroaches—fleeing to their dark hiding places under cabinets and behind baseboards—no matter how much cleaning and spraying you do.  Cockroaches and evildoers hate the light.  Now picture the Easter candle entering our dark church on Holy Saturday nite.  “Whoever lives the truth,” St. John asserts, “comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God” (3:21).  The solution to the wickedness of the world is to walk with Christ in divine light, to do his deeds, to speak his truth.

Altho we’re all sinners, altho we all do dark deeds and speak dark words, God is merciful.  St. Paul reminds us of that:  “God is rich in mercy.  Because of the great love he had for us …, he brought us to life with Christ.”  Paul goes on, “He raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens” (Eph 2:6).  That is, all of us who walk with Christ, who are attached to Christ, are promised a share in Christ’s resurrection and a place with him in eternal life.

This “is the gift of God” (2:8), not something we deserve or earn for ourselves, not something we can boast of (2:9).  It’s only something we can accept and respond to by doing “the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them” (2:10).  Doing the good works of Jesus Christ, by his grace, is the path of life, the solution to the world’s wickedness and darkness.

It’s true that you and I can’t end the violence in Iraq or Nigeria or Burma.  But we can attack the violence in our own society by standing, like Superman, for “truth, justice, and the American way,” beginning in our own families, our own workplaces, our own social gatherings, and standing for the truth and the light of Christ thru appropriate social organizing and political advocacy.

It’s true that we can’t stop hurricanes, tornados, wildfires, or floods.  But we can begin to redress the ways in which the earth is out of kilter with our own efforts to treat the earth, as Pope Francis says, as our common home.

In the Collect this morning we acknowledged that God the Father has reconciled the human race to himself in a wonderful way thru his Word Jesus Christ; and we prayed that “with prompt devotion and eager faith” we might “hasten toward the solemn celebrations to come”—the Easter celebration of the passion, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus, and finally the celebration of Christ’s 2d coming and our final redemption.

Fr. John Grinsell, SDB (1942-2021)

Fr. John F. Grinsell, SDB (1942-2021)

Fr. John Francis Grinsell, SDB, died early on Friday, March 12, 2021, at White Plains Hospital in White Plains, N.Y., of complications from Covid-19 following more than 3 weeks’ hospitalization.

Fr. John, 79, was assistant pastor of St. John Bosco Parish and director of mission for the Don Bosco Community Center in Port Chester, N.Y. He was also vice director of the Port Chester Salesian community. A priest for almost 50 years, he would have reached his golden jubilee of ordination on April 3. He was a professed Salesian for over 59 years.

Fr. John was the son of Edward and Theresa Kennedy Grinsell and was born in Brooklyn on March 2, 1942. The family belonged to St. John the Baptist Parish, where John was baptized on March 15, 1942.

John attended high school at Don Bosco Juniorate at Haverstraw, N.Y., and from there entered the novitiate in Newton, N.J., in September 1959. He professed his first religious vows on September 8, 1960, at Newton, and his perpetual vows on June 25, 1966, in Ellenville, N.Y. Bro. John graduated from Don Bosco College in Newton in 1964 with a B.A. in philosophy.

Bro. John did his practical training as a teacher at the Salesian aspirantate in Cedar Lake, Ind., from1964 to 1967, then undertook theological studies at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Worthington, Ohio. He was ordained in Columbus, Ohio, on April 3, 1971.

He earned an M.A. in Christian spirituality at Creighton University in Omaha in 1995.

Fr. John’s spirituality remained Salesian. According to Fr. Gus Baek, one of his first group of novices: “His spirituality was simple, bold, and directive. In the first class on the Salesian Constitutions, he wrote ‘J and J’ in big letters on the blackboard. He explained, ‘We follow and imitate St. John Bosco and Jesus.’ ‘J and J’ stood for St. John Bosco and Jesus. He really helped us to have a clear road map to follow St. John Bosco and Jesus in our everyday living. He used to say, ‘We don’t get burned out because of what we do. We get burned out because we forget why we follow St. John Bosco and Jesus.’ I must say that he gave me a beautiful motivation to become a Salesian priest. He inspired me and encouraged me.”

Following his ordination, Fr. John was a congenial and effective teacher, guidance director, and local superior at several Salesian schools: Don Bosco Tech in Paterson, N.J. (1971-1980), teaching and doing guidance; Salesian High School in New Rochelle, N.Y., where he was director (1980-1986); Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, N.J., also director (1992-1998); LaSalle High School in Miami (1999-2002) as campus minister; and St. Petersburg Catholic High School (2002-2008), doing guidance and serving as director of the Salesian community. His teaching field was religion.

Fr. John was master of novices at St. Joseph’s Novitiate in Newton from 1986 to 1989—the last novices to be trained in Newton. Fr. Gus described the atmosphere during his novitiate year as “a culture of positive spirituality…. He created a community of interculturality and transformed us to live in Christ fully.”

Fr. Gus also notes Fr. John’s patience with his enthusiastic but inexperienced novices. “We raised so many questions and made so many excuses. We were all like unbridled foals. But he guided us step by step…. He always listened to us with empathy and love, and tried to understand us.”

After a sabbatical year in Berkeley, Cal. (1989-1990), Fr. John returned to formation work with Salesian candidates in South Orange for two years (1990-1992).

Most of the rest of Fr. John’s priestly ministry, more than 16 years, was carried out in parishes: assistant pastor at Holy Rosary in Port Chester (1998-1999) and St. Kieran in Miami (1999-2002), and pastor of Our Lady of the Valley in Orange, N.J. (2008-2015). In 2015 he came back to Port Chester, first as assistant again at Holy Rosary and director of mission at the Don Bosco Community Center, then assistant pastor of St. John Bosco when that parish was formed in 2017 by the merging of the four parishes of Port Chester.

Fr. Mel Trinidad, provincial of the San Francisco Province, calls Fr. John “an awesome Salesian.” What made him “awesome” was his pastoral presence to young and old.

Fr. John concelebrating Mass with Fr. Tom Dunne,

provincial, in 2013.

In his pastoral work, observes Fr. Dominic Tran, one of his directors in Orange, “He was very attentive to the needs of the parishioners—visiting the sick, bringing people Communion, making sure things were ready for young people in the youth center or CCD classrooms, etc. Nor did he mind rolling up his sleeves to help clean out a house of an elderly parishioner.”

Dr. Ann Heekin, executive director of the Don Bosco Community Center, writes that Fr. John will be missed immensely. Each day he’d “greet the staff individually in our offices to allow for simple greetings and any more serious concerns that each of us might have with our work and its challenges. Most conversations ended as they began—with his ability to blend humor and counseling in one sitting.” He led daily prayers. “When the children were in the building before the pandemic, he made the rounds of our club as though a coach, counselor, priest, and standup comic. Every basketball team wanted him playing on their side. Every child in the homework room wanted to show him their work—and the same with snack and dinner times. They could never get enough of him. We could never get enough of him.” 

Fr. John was well known for his love of sports, especially basketball, his constant cheerfulness, and his penchant for rhymes and catch-phrases in his preaching. Fr. Dominic observed that he always enjoyed a good laugh, whether he was teasing a confrere on the formation team or one of the young Salesians, or being teased by them. To entertain kids (and confreres too) he loved to imitate the voice of Donald Duck.

Fr. John’s presence in the Salesian community left a lasting impression on Bro. Lenny Carlino, now a deacon in his last year of theological studies, who writes: “He was a source of joy and laughter. While busy with the parish, he always was present with us for community moments, and to us young candidates/prenovices, he witnessed to the joy that the Gospel can bring to one’s life. You always knew you would laugh when at the table with Fr. John, and he was always ready with a witty remark or entertaining story. In smaller, private conversations, he took an interest in our schoolwork and what we were studying, as well as our experience in our simple apostolates. He would even pick up the basketball and play at the community recreations with us, having a good time and showing that age was only a number.”

As Fr. Dominic observed, Fr. John was in his late 60s or early 70s at that time. His challenging the younger confreres to one-on-one basketball caught up with him when a serious leg injury put him in a wheelchair for some months. Fr. John said something like, “I found out I’m not as young as I thought I was.” But he didn’t stop playing hoops.

Fr. John at the 2007 provincial chapter after that b-ball mishap.

The first word that Fr. Dominic uses to describe Fr. John is “hardworking.” “Whenever there was a snowstorm, Fr. John the pastor would be outside with the snowblower as early as 4:30 or 5:00 a.m. to clean the sidewalks and the steps to the church and the rectory. Sweeping a floor, cleaning a toilet—no biggies. He moved like the Energizer Bunny when it came to work.”

That spirit of work was the first observation of Bro. Lenny as a new candidate. He testifies: “When I entered Orange on August 24, 2009, the first SDB who welcomed me was Fr. John, who was mowing the lawn of OLV when my parents dropped me off. That image stuck with me, because here was a priest who was not only in the chapel but always ready to do the work that needed to be done.”

Following his diaconal ordination last June, Bro. Lenny “had the pleasure of also living with him this past summer in Port Chester. There I got to know Fr. John more personally, as he took an active interest in my experiences in the Holy Land and my learning through the ministry in the parish. He knew what ministries I was assigned to at the parish, and always asked how they went. When I had questions about how to do things, especially about preaching, he was more than willing to share and open his heart and life experience with me. He gave great encouragement to me to trust that God could speak to people’s hearts through us, and so not to fret too much if you thought a homily went bad or you made a mistake in the liturgy. I felt he wanted to see me become a good Salesian priest. The man whom I had seen as an example had, even with our age difference, become a dear and close friend.

Bro. Lenny observed that Fr. John “was more than beloved at the parish; he was a source of unity for parishioners and the community. The parishioners felt so comfortable around him, and there are many stories about him dancing and singing at parish events, sharing his Donald Duck impression, and always laughing and smiling. In the community, he was still the same joyful and upright man I had remembered, but I also saw his honest side as he spoke of care for the state of the world and our country, especially for the protection of the right to life. He was always available for a chat and a laugh, and witnessed to continued perseverance in one’s vocation.”

Bro. Lenny is also aware of Fr. John’s readiness for eternal life. “Fr. John was ready to meet the Lord; he had been talking about that moment ever since I knew him personally. He often preached about being ready for heaven, and that every day of life was a gift from God.”

Fr. John (right) with his friend the late Fr. Pat Diver in 2006.

Fr. David Moreno sums up Fr. John as a “good friend to all, a wonderful example of a Salesian priest in the manner of Don Bosco.”

Fr. John is survived by his sister Patricia Akers of Proctorville, Ohio, his brother Edward Grinsell Jr. of Billings, Mont., sister Frances Milam of Fort Mill, S.C., sister-in-law Dorothy Grinsell of Richmond, Va., and many beloved nieces, nephews, and cousins whom he cherished.

His family saw in Fr. John “a true disciple of Christ and our family’s Guiding Light…. Our time with him will be treasured always. We will celebrate his memory in prayer and always in laughter, remembering his puns and sense of humor along with his enormous capacity to love and share the spirit of Christ.”

Funeral Arrangements 

Everything except burial at St. John Bosco Church, 260 Westchester Ave., Port Chester, N.Y. 10573

Monday, March 15
Reception of the Body         2:00 p.m.
Wake                                      2:00 to 5:00 p.m. and 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.

Tuesday, March 16
Wake                                      2:00 to 5:00 p.m.
Mass of Christian Burial     7:00 p.m. (livestreamed on Facebook and YouTube)
                                                Celebrant: Bp. Edmund Whalen
                                                Homilist: Fr. Patrick Angelucci

Wednesday, March 17
Burial                                     Salesian Cemetery, Goshen, N.Y., 10:30 a.m.