Fr. James B. Curran, SDB

Fr. James B. Curran, SDB
(1921-2012)

Fr. James B. Curran, SDB, died in mid-afternoon on Sept. 3, 2012, at St. Anthony’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Fla. He was still recovering from major surgery on Aug. 16. A short time prior to the surgery he had moved into the Salesians’ St. Philip the Apostle Residence in Tampa but was still a member of the community at St. Petersburg Catholic High School.

At the province jubilee celebration, 2009

James Brendan Curran was born at Annascaul (County Kerry), Ireland, on May 27, 1921, in the last days of the “Irish war for independence,” to James and Helen Kennedy Curran, and baptized the following day at the parish church of the Sacred Heart in Annascaul. According to a former student of Fr. Curran’s, Andrew MacKinlay—who remained a life-long friend—Kerry was a particularly “bloody area” after the Irish Free State was set up in 1922, including “internecine civil war.”

Young Jim attended the national primary school in Brackloon and continued his secondary studies from 1934-1935 at the Christian Brothers School, Dingle (Kerry).

Desiring to become a Salesian priest, in 1935 he entered the SDB aspirantate at Shrigley (Cheshire), England. He had to go to England because until 1972 the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, and Malta formed a single SDB province.

Jim entered the novitiate with 20 other young men at Beckford (Gloucester) on Aug. 30, 1940. His novice master was the legendary Fr. James Simonetti, who held that position from 1905 to 1959. The socius (assistant novice master) was Fr. David de Burgh, who later had a short but distinguished career as a member of the U.S. Western Province and the faculty of Don Bosco College in Newton, N.J.

Bro. Curran made his first profession of vows at Beckford on Aug. 31, 1941. He did his philosophical and liberal arts studies at the SDB house of studies in Shrigley, and upon his graduation was sent to St. Patrick’s School in Sliema, Malta, for his practical training as a teacher and assistant.[1] Mr. MacKinlay describes a “perilous” sea voyage to reach the island fortress of the Mediterranean in December 1943 through “u-boat infested waters. It was a circuitous route the [ship] took ... a long and hazardous journey.”

While in Malta Bro. Curran continued his studies and passed the London University Intermediate Arts Exam (the equivalent of an American associate’s degree). In 1946 he completed his bachelor of arts degree at London University, majoring in English, British and European history, and Latin.

Also at St. Patrick’s Bro. Curran professed perpetual vows on Aug. 14, 1947. Soon thereafter he started his study of theology at Shrigley (one year) and finished at Blaisdon Hall (Gloucester), where he was ordained on July 15, 1951,[2] by Bishop Joseph Rudderham of the Clifton Diocese.

Following his ordination, Fr. Curran was originally assigned to Cape Town, South Africa, but his assignment was changed to Chertsey (Surrey), England, out of consideration for the advanced age of his mother. The school in Chertsey was a small boarding and day school; Fr. Curran taught there from 1951 to 1963, the last four years as headmaster (principal).

Mr. MacKinlay was a Chertsey student while Fr. Curran was headmaster. He writes that Father “was a great pastor and tutor to countless people in Malta, England and the United States. It was my privilege to have known him and been one of his students ... and to have shared and enjoyed his company” as recently as his trip to Ireland last summer for the 60th anniversary of his ordination.

Following a visit to Chicago, in 1963 Fr. Curran transferred from the Anglo-Irish Province to the New Rochelle Province. A few years later his Anglo-Irish friend Fr. Denis Kelleher followed his lead and came to America.

Fr. Curran’s first posting was as a teacher at Don Bosco Tech in Boston (1963-1966). During that time he also preached retreats and did vocation work at the SDB aspirantate in Ipswich, Mass.

In 1966-1967 he was the assistant vocation director for the New Rochelle Province and lived at the provincial residence. In 1967 he was sent to Salesian Preparatory School in Cedar Lake, Ind., as vocation director. The following year he was appointed director (religious superior) of the school and the SDB community; he served a six-year term. In 1970 he became an American citizen.

In September 2007 Fr. Jim welcomed Fr. Pascual Chavez, 9th successor of St. John Bosco, to Marrero, La.

Upon the completion of his directorship, he spent a sabbatical year (1974-1975) in Rome for continuing formation. On his return, he was appointed the provincial delegate for the Salesian Cooperators, serving until 1983. In this position he resided at the Marian Shrine and Retreat House in Haverstraw, N.Y., and in 1977 an additional charge as director of that SDB community was given to him. The Cooperators appreciated his pastoral care very much. In the words of one of them, Carol Verde, “He was a wonderful, loving man.”

From 1979 to 1983 Fr. Curran was director of Sacred Heart Retreat House in Ipswich, Mass.

In 1983 he began a new “career” as a parish priest. He was named pastor of St. Rosalie Church in Harvey, La., and served there for 12 years. As pastor he worked diligently with the Dominican nuns who staffed the parochial school and helped the school earn its first Blue Ribbon for Excellence from the federal Department of Education.

Continuing parish ministry, he was sent then to St. Kieran Church in Miami to serve especially the English-speaking parishioners, and a year later, in August 1996, he was appointed pastor. An appointment as pastor of St. Anthony Church in Paterson, N.J., followed in 1998.

In 2001, now 80 years old, Fr. Curran stepped down as a pastor but not as an active and zealous priest. He moved back to Florida, to the SDB community affiliated with St. Petersburg Catholic High School, where he was vice director of the community and a minister of the sacraments in the school.

That assignment lasted but a year. Ever flexible, he came to Corpus Christi Church in Port Chester, N.Y., as assistant pastor in 2002, and then relocated yet again in 2003, back to St. Rosalie Church in Harvey, where he carried out priestly ministry and also “puttered about the resurrected (and gloriously colorful) garden at the rectory and provid[ed] much needed companionship,” according to the Clarion Herald newspaper of the New Orleans Archdiocese. After 7 more happy years in that parish—happy except for Hurricane Katrina, which he rode out with the other SDBs of the West Bank—he served for one year (2010-2011) at St. Philip Benizi Church in Belle Glade, Fla., as assistant pastor and vice director.

In the summer of 2011 Fr. Curran had the joyful opportunity to return to Ireland for several weeks to celebrate 60 years of priesthood with family and friends.

Fr. Jim in Ireland, 2011, with his good friends Andrew and Ruth MacKinlay (courtesy of Andrew MacKinlay)

In August 2011, now 90 years of age, Fr. Curran came once more to St. Petersburg, where he assisted with the celebration of Mass for the office staff at the diocesan chancery as well as serving the school community as a confessor from time to time. He enjoyed a visit with SDB friends in the North during July 2012, but his health had deteriorated noticeably. Thus in August he moved—temporarily, it was thought—into the SDB retirement community at St. Philip the Apostle.

Jill Stoner, a parishioner of St. Rosalie Church, recalled “Father Curran’s dry wit and learned homilies” that “only improved with age (like a fine wine)”; his “‘jolly good’ nature and sense of humor” that were much appreciated.

During the Rector Major's visit to Louisiana in 2007, Fr. Jim relished the chance to pose with a new statue of Mama Margaret Bosco outside St. Rosalie Church. With Bro. Tom Dion, Fr. Pascual Chavez, Fr Juan Jose Bartolome, Fr. Jim Heuser, Fr. Jim McKenna, and the late Fr. Jon Parks

Although Fr. Curran held no higher degree than his B.A., he spoke French, Italian, and Irish, and that learning to which Mrs. Stoner alluded earned him the affectionate title from his confreres of “Doctor Curran.” However humble and plain he was in his manner of life, he did seem to revel in this brotherly honorific.

The learning and the humility, among other qualities, are recalled by Fr. Curran’s grandnephew Thomas Casagranda in a letter, here slightly edited, to Fr. Mike Conway, director of the St. Petersburg SDB community:

Uncle Jimmy was a marvellous man, and our memories of him are undimmed and always in our hearts. I can remember his reading a book about Shakespeare. A theory had come out that Shakespeare was a closet Catholic. Uncle Jimmy said that, unfortunately, we cannot claim him as he had a wonderful knowledge of the [Anglican] Book of Common Prayer…. I can also remember our walking around Westminster Abbey, and me, as a 13-year-old, telling him that I wasn't allowed in as my Catholic headmaster would hit me for it: Uncle Jimmy told me not to be so ridiculous, that I should walk in and that Westminster Abbey was a great place to discover. He was correct in that respect.

Additionally, I can remember walking with Uncle Jimmy, around Westminster Cathedral, the Catholic cathedral in London, and a marvellous church outside Oxford called St Mary's, where Cardinal Newman was the vicar, prior to his conversion [to Catholicism]. I didn't pay much attention to it as a kid, but when older, and appreciative of Elgar, I grew to understand Newman's Dream of Gerontius, and knew just how far Uncle Jimmy was ahead of his time. 

There were also some wonderful trips down to Dorset, which Uncle Jimmy undertook with Fr Tom Brennan and my parents. Uncle Jimmy had a great love of Thomas Hardy, and viewed Dorset as Hardy country. I love Hardy too, but prefer his poems to his prose.

I can also remember some wonderful chats, as I got older, about Yeats and “The Lake Isle of Innisfree,” and “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death,” and he always took an interest, particularly, when I was doing my degrees. I can remember his arguing, good natured I hasten to add, over a passage in St John's Gospel about Greeks visiting Jesus, and their view of what was early Christianity in relation to Plato and Aristotle. Uncle Jimmy won, as he trumped me on St Thomas Aquinas, which I hadn't read at the time.

In truth, Uncle Jimmy was a man of great learning: a man who was even learning Spanish at an advanced age. He was also humanitarian, humble, and helpful in all manner of things. I think it will be safe to state that we will never forget him, and we'll also never forget his great sense of humour too. He certainly broke down barriers with his humour, wit, intellect, and charm, and goes to a place that we can only wish to go to.

Possibly the last photo taken of Fr. Jim; with his good friend Fr. Tom Brennan at the provincial house, July 2012

Fr. Jim McKenna was Fr. Curran’s director during the latter part of his second stint in Louisiana. He always found Fr. Curran to be “peaceful, kind and helpful ... always a people's man ...always considerate of others, and I will miss him as an older priest friend.”

One former Salesian remarked, “He was father and mentor to many in our class and his memory still nourishes the soul.”

There were 2 Masses of Christian Burial for Fr. Jim. The 1st was at St. Jude Cathedral in St. Pete on Sept. 6, celebrated by Bishop Robert Lynch with a eulogy by Fr. Mike Conway. The 2d was at the Marian Shrine in Haverstraw, N.Y., on Sept. 8, celebrated by Fr. Tom Dunne with a eulogy by Fr. Tom Brennan.

Fr. Curran was buried on the 8th in the province's cemetery in Goshen.

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       [1] In Salesian terms, an “assistant” is one who is present among the pupils outside the classroom, e.g. in the refectory, the playground, or the dormitory, to keep an eye on the youths, join in activities with them, offer guidance as may be needed, and “assist” them in any other way that may be called for.

        [2] Various documents supplied by Fr. Curran gave conflicting dates--July 15 and July 16--for his ordination. Recourse to the British Province has confirmed July 15, which also happens to have been a Sunday.

Homily for 22d Sunday in Ordinary Time

Homily for the
22d Sunday
in Ordinary Time

Most unusual, but this weekend (Sept. 1-2, 2012) I didn't have an "outside" Mass assignment; thus no homily to prepare. Here's an oldie.

  
Aug. 31, 2003

Prayer over the Gifts

Good Shepherd, Tampa            

“Lord, may this holy offering bring us your blessing and accomplish within us its promise of salvation” (Prayer over the Gifts).

At Mass we listen to the word of God in the sacred scriptures.  But God also speaks to us thru the other texts of the liturgy.  There’s an ancient theological principle, lex orandi, lex credendi:  literally, “the law of prayer is the law of belief.”  In other words, how we the Church pray publicly is an authentic expression of our faith, a rule of faith, a statement of faith.  Hence Holy Mother Church, after the 2d Vatican Council most strongly encouraging a return to vigorous preaching of the word of God, doesn’t restrict that only to the readings at Mass but also allow homilies on other texts of the sacred liturgy.[1]  Hence also the Church strictly regulates the wording and the ritual of our public prayer; she is jealous to preserve what we hear, because, as St. Paul teaches, “faith comes from what is heard” (Rom 10:17).

In about 15 minutes we’ll make this prayer to God the Father:  “Lord, may this holy offering bring us your blessing and accomplish within us its promise of salvation.  Grant this thru Christ our Lord.  Amen.”  That prayer comes at the end of the rites by which we prepare the altar and our gifts for the Eucharistic sacrifice, and it’s called simply the Prayer over the Gifts.

The prayer is addressed to the Lord.  In most of our liturgical prayers, that means God the Father.  Jesus defined his mission on earth as showing us the way to the Father—read, e.g., his words to the Apostles at the Last Supper in John 14-17.  When Jesus taught us to pray, it was to his Father, our Father.  And so thruout the Mass we speak confidently to the lord of our lives, the creator of the universe, with words of adoration, of thanksgiving, of petition, of contrition.

This particular prayer, which is characteristic of all the prayers over the gifts, is a petition, a request:  “May this holy offering bring us your blessing and accomplish within us its promise of salvation.”

This offering is holy.  Why so?  Three reasons.  1st, because of who offers it; 2d, because of the One to whom it’s offered; 3d, because of what the offering will become.

Our offering is holy because it comes from God’s holy people.  God has consecrated us for his service.  He has made us his own.  He has given us a sacred rebirth as his children.  In the words of St. Peter and of one of the prefaces of the Eucharistic Prayer, he has made us “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own” (1 Pet 2:9).  St. Peter also calls us “a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God” (1 Pet 2:5).  What I might offer to you—as alms, as hospitality, as gratitude, and so on—is holy if my motive is good.  What I might offer to Chico,[2] or you might offer to your family pet, is holy in the degree that you honor God for the loveliness of his creation.  A farmer’s or a gardener’s care for growing things, an astronomer’s study of Mars, is holy to the same degree.  So whatever we do for God, whatever we do in his name, is holy.

Our offering is twice holy because it’s offered to God, to the All Holy One, rather than to one of his creatures.  It’s sanctified by being set aside for his worship, for his glory, for his use; by being made his own in a way that you or Chico or your daffodils or Mars is not, just as we regard churches and shrines as holy places in ways that our homes and places of business are not.

What is it that we offer?  The prayer is described as “over the gifts.”  We offer bread and wine.  These are gifts in themselves, food (and the money that purchased them) that we might have kept for ourselves.  They’re also symbols because they are our nourishment.  Bread and wine are basic foods; they sustain our lives; and so they symbolize our lives.  We offer God not merely this little bit of bread—very sorry looking bread, to be sure—and wine, but even our whole selves.  (You’ve heard the quip that it takes more faith to believe that host is really bread than to believe that it becomes the body of Christ?)

We also offer God, thru the bread and wine, our thanks.  We imitate what Jesus did when he fed the hungry crowds and when he celebrated Pass-over with his disciples.  We thank God for all his saving activity in our lives and the life of the human race, especially for the death and resurrection of his Son Jesus Christ and our participation in Jesus’ death and life—the very participation that makes us and offering holy.

Our offering is thrice holy, finally, because of what it will become:  by the power of the Holy Spirit, the bread and wine will become the body and blood of Jesus himself.  Thus what we offer to our Father in heaven is truly his own Son, who died on the cross, who rose on the 3d day, who now reigns with the Father in heaven.  We unite our offering with Jesus’ self-offering, the offering that worked our redemption.  We can offer the Father nothing holier than his own Son, nothing more pleasing to him than his beloved Son.

“May this holy offering bring us your blessing,” we plead.  We ask, “Grant this.”  We have no power to bless ourselves, to redeem ourselves.  We rely upon the graciousness of the Lord:  May he bless us thru this offering, i.e., thru his Son’s sacrifice, thru his Son’s body and blood that will be given to us in the Eucharist.  May our participation in the Eucharist effect the pardon of our sins, the greatest blessing God can give us, and open our hearts to further blessings from the Lord.  In the words of St. Thomas Aquinas’s prayer of thanksgiving after Mass, “May this holy communion be for me…the source of an increase in charity and patience, humility and obedience, and of every virtue; a strong defense against the snares of my enemies, visible as well as invisible; a perfect calming of my passions, carnal as well as spiritual.”  Don’t we all desire such blessings?  We pray that our offering of the Eucharist—and our sharing in it—will produce such blessings in us because God is so gracious to us.

“May this holy offering accomplish within us its promise of salvation.”  I’ve already suggested in part what that means.  If the Eucharist is the living body and blood of Christ; if whoever eats his flesh and drinks his blood has eternal life—the scriptural theme that became familiar to us thru our gospel readings from John 6 the last 5 Sundays—then that is the promise of salvation:  eternal life, eternal union with God in Christ, eternal happiness.  We begin that by a corporeal union with Christ, his body and blood being our food, and that corporeal union leads to spiritual union.  Christ promises that this union will be perfected when he raises our bodies from the grave, as the Father raised his, never to suffer or die again, always to be at peace, in harmony, filled with joy in the presence of God and all God’s servants.

Our prayer is always made “thru Christ our Lord.”  We recognize that Jesus Christ is Lord, the same term of divinity we use to address the Father.  He is also our lord in the sense of teacher and master (cf. John 13:14).  He teaches us the ways of God; he commands us to walk in those ways if we would go with him to his Father’s home (cf. John 15:11-17).  We pray to the Father thru him as our intercessor, as the One who is always pleasing to his Father, the One who knows the Father’s heart best of all, the One whom the Father can’t refuse, the One who became a man like us and brings to the Father not just his humanity but our humanity as he intercedes for our pardon and our welcome into the Father’s family.

Our prayer concludes with your “Amen.”  The priest voices the prayer; your “Amen” ratifies it, makes it yours.  Amen means “so be it” or “yes!” and is easily the most important word you say at Mass, as many times as you say it.  May God indeed do all the marvelous works that will assure our salvation, thru Christ our Lord.

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        [1] General Instruction of the Roman Missal (1970), n. 41.

        [2] Fr. Don Zarkoski’s dog, well known to the parishioners.

Homily for 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

Homily for the
21st Sunday
of Ordinary Time

The last couple of weeks have been crazy-busy with photos to process, press releases to write, an issue of the Salesian Bulletin to get to press. So, a week overdue, here's last week's homily.

John 6: 60-69

Aug. 26, 2012

Christian Brothers, Iona College, N.R.

St. Timothy, Greenwich, Conn.

“This saying is hard; who can accept it?” (John 6: 60).

Which saying would that be?  Those who study the Sacred Scriptures are inclined to think that this phrase, this objection from Jesus’ disciples—note that it’s his disciples, those who’ve been following him and listening to his sermons for some time—refers to the 1st part of his discourse on the Bread of Life:  that Jesus’ word, his teaching, is the new manner in which God feeds his people, better and more effective for eternal life than the manna with which Moses fed the Hebrews in the Sinai desert.

They say that because the passage we read last week, vv. 51-58, seems to interrupt the flow between the rest of the discourse and this reaction; i.e., today’s passage follows naturally from vv. 22-51a.

At the same time, the Gospel of John as we have it now does include vv. 51b-58, which apparently is John’s version of the institution of the Holy Eucharist. John doesn’t include the Eucharist in his account of the Last Supper.  And our passage today about some, or even many, of the disciples reacting negatively to Jesus’ teaching can well be taken as a response also to Jesus’ demanding that we eat his flesh and drink his blood if we hope to reach eternal life.

As is very often the case when we read John’s Gospel, it’s not a question of choosing between one interpretation and another; John likes to leave us with both-and.  Both believing that Jesus’ teaching and nourishment surpass those of Moses—that Christianity has surpassed or perfected Judaism, which was THE issue for John’s readers at the end of the 1st century; and believing that the Eucharist is the very Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, are fundamental teaching for John and for the Church.  And both call for our response, our reaction:  “Does this shock you?  Some of you do not believe.  Do you also want to leave?” (6:61,64,67).

Jesus remarks to those who’ve been scandalized by his teaching, “It’s the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail” (6:63).  Recognizing that Jesus’ teaching is Spirit-filled, Peter responds on behalf of the 12:  “Master, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God” (6:68-69).

This seems to be St. John’s version of Peter’s confession of faith, a parallel to the famous scene in Matthew’s Gospel when Peter proclaims:  “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (16:16), which draws Jesus’ response that he’ll build his Church upon Peter, the Rock, and give him the keys to the kingdom of heaven (16:18).  In John that commission to Peter comes after the resurrection, after Peter has recommitted himself to Jesus, and Jesus tells him, “Feed my lambs; tend my sheep” (21:15-17).

Each of us is asked the same fundamental questions.  Do we believe Jesus’ teachings?  Do we truly believe that his words are Spirit-filled; that they are life?  Will we remain with him, or will we walk away because his teachings are hard?

G.K. Chesterton famously observed that Christianity has not been tried and found wanting—in its substance, in its truth; it has been tried and found difficult—to practice.  It does demand of us real commitment:  to Jesus, to what he teaches, to the Church that is his body and that transmits his teaching from one generation to another and interprets that teaching, with his authority, in the context of new ages and new cultures.

A Catholic News Service story on Aug. 17[1] opened with this paragraph:  “The percentage of Catholics practicing their faith is declining almost everywhere around the globe.  Almost all bishops report it, but it’s difficult to prove statistically.”  The story detailed that, based on reports that the bishops of the world submit annually to Rome, a working document has been prepared for the next Synod of Bishops, whose topic will be the new evangelization—or, if you will, the re-evangelization of those peoples and cultures who have fallen away from belief or at least from practice of the faith.  According to this document, the bishops consistently describe “a weakening of faith in Christian communities, a diminished regard for the authority of the magisterium, an individualistic approach to belonging to the Church, a decline in religious practice, and a disengagement in transmitting the faith to new generations.”

That decline in practice and that individualism are pretty evident when we look around:  the numbers of baptisms, first Communions, confirmations, and marriages down; church attendance down; ignorance and even public dissent from basic church teachings—on doctrine, such as whether the Eucharist truly is the Body of Christ or is merely a symbol; on morals, notably about sexual behavior, so-called “gay marriage,” and abortion.  Regularly, we see prominent public figures (politicians, academics, writers, and at least one philanthropist—in the news just a couple of weeks ago[2]) describing themselves as good, practicing Catholics even as they lecture the bishops on what the Church teaches, or should teach if it would just get into the 21st century.  Recently we’ve heard the leading organization of Catholic nuns in our country say, in effect, to the Holy See, “How dare you find fault with how we live as religious and what doctrinal opinions we espouse!”

Even today’s Scripture selections give us a bit of an opportunity to reflect on the “hard teachings” of the Gospel.  You may have observed that the lectionary offers both a long and a short version of the 2d reading—not only here but also in the selections offered for the celebration of marriage, by the way.  That’s because it’s not fashionable nowadays, not politically correct, to take what Paul writes and deal with it head-on.  If it’s the inspired Word of God, then we have to wrestle with it, not ignore it and pretend it’s not there.  Taken as a whole, including the Eastern Mediterranean culture of the 1st century from which Paul was writing, the passage isn’t “male chauvinism” but a hard challenge to all of us to “be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Eph 5:21), to be submissive to one another as to Christ, to love one another as Christ loves us—and he loves us enuf that he “handed himself over” for us, gave himself up in death, “to sanctify” us (5:25-26).  Even so should a husband love his wife, and a wife her husband—and a priest love his flock—all striving to foster the sanctity of the others.  “This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the Church” (Eph 5:32)—the last line of the reading.  It’s a mystery—which, by the way, is the Greek word for what Latin calls sacramentum, the precise word that the Vulgate uses in this verse—it’s a mystery that marriage is a reflection of Christ’s love for the Church and the Church’s love for Christ; a mystery that’s hard to live out in practice (as you know better than I do), which is why the permanence of marriage, the openness of marriage at all times to new life, the oneness of marriage (one man, one woman, made one in Christ)—all that is “a hard teaching” that causes some to walk away from the Church, and thus from Christ, who teaches the Church.

If we truly believe with St. Peter and the 12 that Jesus has the words of eternal life, that he is the Holy One of God, then we will read, study, meditate upon, and make our own his words:  the Gospels, the letters of Paul and the other apostles, Revelation; the Old Testament too; and the updating and practical application of all these to contemporary life by the successors of Peter and the 12 in the Church—the Church which remains ever subordinate to Christ her head (Eph 5:23).

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               [1] Cindy Wooden, “Statistically speaking: Vatican numbers hint at fading faith practice.”

               [2] Melinda Gates.

Three First Professions for N.R. Province

Three First Professions
for New Rochelle Province 

Bros. Steven DeMaio, SDB, Travis Gunther, SDB, and John Langan, SDB, pronounced religious vows as Salesians of Don Bosco for the first time at a Mass of Religious Profession on Tuesday, Aug. 21, in the chapel of Salesian High School in New Rochelle, N.Y.

Fr. Tom Dunne, SDB, provincial superior of the SDBs in the Eastern U.S. and Canada, received their profession.

For the first three years of their life as SDBs, men make annual vows. Ordinarily a vow for three years follows, leading up to perpetual profession at the end of six years.

Bro. Steve and Bro. John professed as members of the Salesian Society studying for the priesthood, Bro. Travis as a lay member of the Society, i.e., he will remain a brother (also called a coadjutor brother). In the Salesian Society there is equality between clerical and lay members except in what concerns the sacrament of Holy Orders.

The three newly professed men completed a year of novitiate at St. Joseph’s Novitiate in Rosemead, Calif. Prior to that, they were in two periods of formation called candidacy and prenovitiate.

Following their profession, all three will return to the SDB house of formation in Orange, N.J., to continue their religious formation and their academic studies at Seton Hall University in South Orange. Bro. Steve and Bro. John will take up studies such as philosophy that prepare for ordination, while Bro. Travis will study fine arts and education. He aspires “to continue to deepen my relationship with Christ, to get to know my new community, … to give my best in my new ministries.” He expects that art will be a vehicle of communication for him in a SDB high school, youth center, or retreat center, through which he can “communicate something to others we could not do in words” and “explore things we are struggling to understand.” Art, he writes, “lets us see the world in new ways.”

Twenty-three priests, including Bro. John’s former Franciscan pastor, Fr. Bruce Czapla, O.F.M., concelebrated, and two deacons assisted Fr. Tom. Many SDB brothers, the four current prenovices, Salesian Cooperators, family members, and friends of the newly professed also took part in the Mass, which was followed by a buffet lunch on the grounds of the high school.

The rite of profession involves a presentation of the candidates for profession and an examination of their intentions, similar to those of the rites of Baptism and Holy Orders; a homily; the pronouncing of the vow of obedience, chastity, and poverty; blessing and presentation of their religious garb to the newly professed (clerical shirts for the seminarian brothers, a medal for the lay brother); and presentation to them of the Constitutions of the Salesian Society.

The parents of the candidates accompany them before the provincial as the candidates come forward to make their vows. The parents rest their hands on their sons’ shoulders as a sign of support and of the gift they are making to the Church.

Two perpetually professed SDBs, chosen by the candidates, serve as official witnesses of the vows, like the witnesses of a marriage.

Bro. Steven Joseph DeMaio, 27, was born and raised in Sherman, Conn., and belonged to Holy Trinity Parish there. His parents, Steven and Theresa, have since moved to Towson, Md., and worship at the Church of the Nativity in Timonium. He also has two sisters.

Bro. Steve came to know the SDBs as a lay missionary volunteer in a program, called VIDES, of the Salesian Sisters. He served for six months in Lusaka, Zambia. He was so impressed by the sisters, as well as their male counterparts, there—including, he says, their “spirit, charism, joy”—that when he came home he decided to join.

He entered the formation program in Orange in 2010 as a prenovice (his missionary service being accepted as his period of candidacy). He hopes to “learn every day and experience what life has to offer” and to “continue to grow in my formation.” He hopes eventually to work in music and media as an apostolate, finding that these “really bridge the gap between young and old, religious and young person.”

He enjoyed the novitiate year in California, where he was able to meet “so many wonderful members of our Salesian Family out west,” and where he found loving support for his formation experience.

Bro. Travis Adam Gunther, 24, comes from Conway, Ark., where he and his family have belonged to St. Joseph’s Parish. His parents are Raymond and Mary Beth Gunther, and he has a younger brother, Tyler.

Bro. Travis met the SDBs through a friend who was involved already in Salesian youth ministry at a summer camp in Belle Glade, Fla. The friend invited young Travis to take a job as a counselor, and for six weeks he lived in the SDB community there, “sharing in their work, prayer, and community life.”

He was assisted in his discernment process by two of the Benedictines at Subiaco Abbey in Arkansas, and he “most appreciates” the monks’ “hospitality, prayerful life, and showing me the joys of religious life.”

In 2008 he applied to become a candidate for SDB life and went to Holy Rosary Parish in Port Chester, N.Y., for a year to assist with youth ministry there. Then he spent two years in the formation community at Orange, including his prenovitiate in 2010-2011, as well as two summers of camp apostolate in Tampa.

As a Salesian, Bro. Travis wants “to change the world, work for young people and the poor.” He loves “St. John Bosco’s spirituality,” he writes, and adds that “Salesians have fun.” “Ultimately,” he says, “I want to be a Salesian because it is where God is calling me. I also can see myself becoming a saint as a Salesian and helping others become joyful saints as well.”

During his novitiate year in California, Bro. Travis particularly enjoyed his summer apostolate at Camp St. Francis in Watsonville, where “everything we had learned about being Salesian, we had the opportunity to put into practice. I saw the best and worst in myself and with the help of God and the community was greatly affirmed in my vocation.”

Bro. John Gerard Langan, 28, is from Winsted, Conn., where he and his family have been members of St. Joseph’s Parish. His parents are Gerard and Fidelis Langan, and he has two sisters, Kathriona and Patricia.

A friend introduced Bro. John to the SDBs when he was discerning his vocation, and he followed up by reading a biography of St. John Bosco. After reading that life, he writes, he “recognized similarities in [Don Bosco’s] work with young people and my own faith journey.”

As his discernment continued, John was guided by his pastor, Fr. Bruce Czapla, O.F.M.; the SDB vocation director, Fr. Franco Pinto; and his director during his candidacy, Fr. Pat Angelucci.

John entered SDB candidacy by teaching sophomore religion at Salesian High School in New Rochelle and living with the SDBs who staff the school in 2009-2010. The following year he was a prenovice in the Orange formation community.

Returning to the Orange community, Bro. John hopes “to listen and learn more about Don Bosco and the Salesian charism and continue to deepen my relationship with Jesus Christ.”

In the future he would like to use outdoor activities, such as mountain biking, to “provide young people an opportunity to quiet themselves and recognize God’s relationship with them and who he made them to be.” He says that his own “passion” for this sport “helped me gain strength in overcoming struggles in my own life.”

Like Bro. Travis, Bro. John loved the summer experience at Camp St. Francis in Watsonville, Calif. “I had an amazing time,” he writes, “getting to know the young people and praying and playing with them. I was able to push myself beyond my comfort zone and deepen my trust in God even more.”

In his homily for the profession Mass, Fr. Tom said that the day affirmed the continuing presence of God in his Church.

Fr. Tom stressed that in religious profession the three young men were responding to the love that God first bestowed upon them, citing the words of the rite: “May God, who has shown His love … by inspiring you to make this holy decision, help you to bring it to fulfillment….” He also referred to the Scripture reading from the prophet Jeremiah (1:4-9), “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.”

Fr. Tom preaching. The 3 novices, or candidates for 1st profession, are seated in front of him.

He told the candidates for vows that they were responding to God’s personal and intimate love by committing themselves to a special relationship of love and intimacy with God. He told them that they would be assisted in developing this relationship by the Virgin Mary, Help of Christians, first disciple of Jesus, who lived in the community of the Holy Family and the community of the early Church and who served her cousin Elizabeth.

This day on which Bros. DeMaio, Gunther, and Langan have committed themselves completely to the One who loves them may well be the happiest one of their lives, Fr. Tom stated. They give their freedom over to God’s will, their love to him above all other persons, their worldly concerns for the mission to the young and the poor.

Beginnings are sweet, Fr. Tom observed. “The follow-up is more difficult.” And, like a marriage, the long-term following of Christ is a lot of work. That this relationship will grow cannot be taken for granted. The reading from St. Paul to the Ephesians (4:1-6) spoke of our relationship with God; that passage is a primary source for our lives.

He also stressed that, just as the vows are a response to God’s loving them first, the professed will have to remember that the apostolate they will do, the community they will live in, even their vows, are not theirs but his. “God loans them to us,” he said, “and we have to return them to him in better condition than we received them.”

The gospel reading (John 6:1-15) reminds us that God is the only absolute in our lives, Fr. Tom said. The simplicity with which one lives his vows should enhance one’s self-giving; it only gets complicated when the vows become laws about how one has to obey, observe boundaries, and render an account.

Fr. Tom hands the Salesian Constitutions, or Rule of Life, to Bro. Steve

Finally, Fr. Tom asked the new confreres to treasure two documents: the Mass booklet for this rite of profession, and the Salesian Constitutions. The liturgy booklet contains the readings that the newly professed chose, which express so well the self-giving they undertook in their profession. In this booklet and the Constitutions they will have sure guides to living out their commitment faithfully, practicing what St. Peter urges: “Be all the more eager to make your call and election firm, for, in doing so, you will never stumble. For, in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you” (2 Pet 1:10-11).

Bros. Eguino, Malusa Make Perpetual Profession

Bros. Michael Eguino,

Robert Malusa

Make Perpetual Profession

Two Salesians made their perpetual profession on Saturday, Aug. 18, at the Marian Shrine in Haverstraw-Stony Point, N.Y. They were Bro. Robert Malusa, SDB, 47, and Bro. Michael Eguino, SDB, 27.

Fr. Tom Dunne, our provincial, received the vows. Bishop Luc Van Looy, SDB, of Ghent, Belgium, presided over the Mass of Religious Profession and gave the homily.

Bp. Luc preaching the homily

Both brothers made their first profession of vows in 2006 at Mary Help of Christians Church in New York City following their year of novitiate there.

Bro. Rob is the son of Dominick and the late Marie Malusa and entered the SDBs from Locust Valley, N.Y.; the family belonged to St. Gertrude’s Church in Bayville, where his father still worships. He has three brothers, John, Mark, and Stephen.

Before “discovering” the SDBs, Rob taught math for 15 years in two private schools; the second was a Lutheran school that scheduled missionary-service trips every year at Christmas time. After taking part in several of these, he was looking for a longer-term program. The pastor of the school highly recommended the Salesian Lay Missioners, to which Rob applied and was accepted.

He was posted to Sierra Leone in 2002 and wound up working in the home founded for street children by Fr. John Thompson (originally of our province) in Freetown; many of these kids had been child soldiers during the country’s brutal civil war (graphically depicted in the 2006 film Blood Diamond).

Bro. Rob professes perpetual vows before Fr. Tom Dunne. The witnesses are Fr. Dom DeBlase (left) and Bro. Bernie Zdanowicz (2d from left).

Rob loved this apostolic work, as he witnessed an “amazing transformation” in these boys and girls and, eventually, a reunion with their parents or other relatives. The program involved work, play, and a gradual introduction to faith at the youngsters’ own pace in “a very free, open, and natural” manner.

Working with the SDBs in Freetown also answered a quest of Rob. He’d been working with young people as a teacher, and he’d seen the impact that a particularly charismatic person could have on selected individuals. But he wanted to reach more than a few individuals, and he wanted to be part of a group or a team in that effort. He found that among the SDBs.

He also found that he was already—without having been aware of it—practicing the Salesian method of education, based on reason, religion, and kindness.

So on his return from Sierra Leone in the summer of 2003, he began to think about applying to the SDBs. The following summer he entered the formation program at Orange, N.J.

After his first vows, Bro. Rob returned to Orange for two years of further formation and for studies in pastoral ministry at Seton Hall University.

In 2008 he was assigned as youth minister to St. Philip Benizi Church in Belle Glade, Fla. He oversees an extensive program of religious education, Bible study, CYO, and other recreational activities for youngsters from tots to teens, and lives in community with several other SDBs. He continues in that apostolic work as a lay member of the Salesian Society (also known as a “coadjutor brother”).

Bro. Mike is from St. Benedict’s Church in the Throgs Neck section of the Bronx. His parents are Rose and Ubaldo Eguino, and he has three younger siblings: Christine, Matthew, and Stephen. Steve just entered the SDB novitiate in California.

Mike graduated from Salesian High School in New Rochelle in 2002 and entered the SDB candidacy program in Orange that September. During the three years that he was a candidate in Orange, he worked in the Don Bosco Youth Center affiliated with the Salesian house and Our Lady of the Valley Church. Happily, he recalls that one of the “street kids” he assisted in those years was a very young Kyrie Irving, who went on to play basketball in high school, at Duke University, and in the NBA; he was the NBA rookie of the year in 2012. Another was Jason Alford, who went on to play football at Penn State and for three NFL teams, including the New York Giants Super Bowl champs of 2007.

Bro. Mike makes perpetual vows  before Fr. Tom Dunne. The witnesses are Fr. John Nazzaro (back to camera) and Fr. Jim Berning (2d from left).

After his 1st profession in 2006, Bro. Mike continued his formation with two more years in Orange, including the completion of a B.A. at Seton Hall University.

For two years (2008-2010) Bro. Mike taught world history and theology to freshmen at Salesian High School. He did a third year of practical training at Don Bosco Retreat Center in Haverstraw-Stony Point, assisting with both youth and adult retreats. He says that the program cared for 20,000 people that year. He also helped initiate a regular program of Eucharistic adoration for young adults at the Marian Shrine (to which the Retreat Center is attached). Bro. Mike’s musical talent—he sings and plays guitar—facilitate his apostolic work.

Bro. Mike credits the development of his vocation to the “witness” of Fr. John Nazzaro, who was director of Salesian High School while Michael was a student there. Fr. Nazzaro, he says, created “a welcoming space” for the students in his office, was always around the students, and at times joined in their games. He fostered friendship with the students and supported their families in times of illness and loss, as the Eguinos experienced.

So when Fr. Nazzaro asked Mike whether he’d thought about becoming a Salesian, the youth was open to the suggestion. The “maybe” became a “yes” after Mass one day with the prayer group he belonged to, the Children of Light at Providence Rest Nursing Home, and he sensed the Lord’s commitment to be with him.

Bro. Mike has felt that presence during various times of difficulty, he says. His prayer life as a Salesian leaves him knowing that he’s not alone.

Bro. Mike also notes that he’s been privileged to live with some holy SDBs, to live among many men striving to become holy, and to work with some young people who want to be holy.

In 2011 Bro. Mike began theological studies at Immaculate Conception Seminary in South Orange, aiming at priestly ordination in 2015. He is, once again, a member of the SDB formation community in Orange.

Deacon Miguel Suarez, Fr. Tom Dunne, Bro. Rob Malusa, Bp. Luc Van Looy, Bro. Mike Eguino, Fr. Steve Leake

Bishop Van Looy based his homily on the Scripture readings (Jer 1:4-9; Luke 10:1-9), reminding the two men that their commitment this day is a response to the love that God gave first to them. He charged them to be messengers of hope, especially for the young, and to keep the young in their hearts. The mission of the Salesian, he said, is to make people feel loved by the Lord. He reminded them that God would never leave them without support, and he told them to be supportive of their confreres in community. He said that making profession within the context of the Eucharist is fitting because, as the Lord poured out his life for us, the professed religious gives himself constantly to people. Thus both Eucharist and the religious are signs of God’s will being done, of God’s kingdom that is to come. The Eucharist fills us with God’s life and his love.