Fr. Steve Shafran Installed as Provincial

Fr. Steve Shafran Installed as Provincial

Fr. Steve Shafran was formally installed as provincial superior of the Salesians’ New Rochelle Province, covering the Eastern United States and all of Canada, on Sunday, July 12, in a long, solemn Mass at the Marian Shrine in Haverstraw, N.Y.

Fr. Steve signs the profession of faith, witnessed by Fr. Tim.

Fr. Steve actually started his six-year term on July 1.

Fr. Tim Ploch, in his capacity as Interamerica regional councilor, presided over the installation ritual, representing Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime, rector major. Fr. Steve presided over the Eucharistic celebration and did the preaching. But Fr. Tim and outgoing provincial Fr. Tom Dunne also had their moments to speak.

Almost 50 Salesians, numerous Cooperators, a team of musicians from Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, N.J., a large representation from Don Bosco Cristo Rey in Takoma Park, Md., Fr. Steve’s family, and other friends of the new provincial and of the Salesians took part. Sr. Karen Dunn, provincial of the FMAs, and Sr. Joanne Holloman, the FMA mistress of novices, were among the attendees, having left the FMAs’ celebration of their jubilarians a little early. (Due to Fr. Tim’s schedule and the date long set by the sisters, that conflict couldn’t be avoided.)

As Mass began, outgoing provincial Fr. Tom Dunne welcomed everyone, joking that he wasn’t staging a coup but was happy to be flying the coop. He noted our gratitude to God for the vocation of serving the young that has been given to the Salesian Family.

A copy of the official letter of appointment.

Making the profession of faith
and taking the oath of fidelity to the teachings of the Catholic Church

The rite of installation followed the homily. It began with a call for the provincial-elect to step forward, similar to the call issued at religious profession or ordination. Then Fr. Tim read the English translation of Fr. Angel’s letter of appointment and offered a prayer for Fr. Steve. Fr. Steve made his profession of faith and oath of fidelity to all the teachings of the Catholic Church, and then signed a Latin document attesting to that. All the members of the Salesian Family were invited to exchange a sign of peace and friendship with Fr. Steve.

Fr. Steve and concelebrants during the Eucharistic Prayer.

Chosen by God

Fr. Steve preached on the Sunday readings (Amos 7:12-15; Ps 85:9-14; Eph 1:3-14; Mark 6:7-13), finding in them a common theme of “being chosen.” Being chosen to be part of a group, he said, brings with it a sense of recognition, and we get energized.

Jesus’ choosing of his apostles enabled them to follow in his footsteps, doing the evangelizing mission that he was doing. Even if they didn’t realize fully what their call was all about until after the resurrection, they still felt they’d been chosen for something really compelling.

Amos didn’t choose to be a prophet; he’d rather have remained a shepherd and tree farmer. But God chose him, and that changed his life.

Paul tells us that God chose us to be holy; God has destined us and has sealed us with the Holy Spirit.

Being chosen by God has a higher purpose than affirmation. Those whom he has chosen must acknowledge the choice and then act on it. We can imagine what the scenario might have been had Amos, the apostles, or Paul told God, “Thanks, but no thanks.” (Fr. Steve went into details for each scenario.)

Don Bosco, answering the call he received from God, shows us what a difference one person can make in the world. Each of us has been called in Baptism to respond to Jesus’ invitation. Now we are the ones chosen to act and thus to change the world. Every day we have to respond with our “yes.” We know that God’s call will be scary, surprising, and adventurous. We’ll be in for a wild ride.

Fr. Angel has given Fr. Steve an invitation to service, the preacher said. He identified some of the many people in  his life who prepared him to make a positive response, especially his mother Olga, who showed him what can be accomplished by sacrifice and suffering and having a happy outlook.

Being chosen by God will bring us happiness along with suffering during a scary, surprising, and adventurous ride. We in the Salesian Family will find the face of God in the young and the poor.

Fr. Steve's sister Dorothy, brother Terry, and their spouses
present the bread and wine to be consecrated.

Thanks and appreciation

At the end of Mass, Fr. Tim conveyed the greetings of Fr. Angel to everyone, especially to Fr. Steve and Fr. Tom. Each of them was presented with a special gift from the Rector Major, a limited edition print commemorating Don Bosco’s 200th birthday. In addition, Fr. Angel wrote a letter of thanks, appreciation, and blessing to Fr. Tom for his six years of service to the province. (Fr. Angel, of course, got to know Fr. Tom during the 27th General Chapter, which both attended as provincials until Fr. Angel’s election as Don Bosco’s 10th successor.)

Fr. Tim holds up one of the prints
given by the rector major to Fr. Steve and to Fr. Tom.

Fr. Steve spoke again, thanking God for giving him the faith to be able to make this commitment of service. He expressed his confidence in the guidance and assistance of Mary Help of Christians; it was because of her that he chose to be inaugurated at her shrine, which he called “holy ground, a very special place of prayer.” He noted the inspiration he draws from Don Bosco’s example and his hopeful excitement at the growth he sees in the Salesian Family within the province. He said that he feels empowered by the love and the prayers of his confreres and his family. He voiced his gratitude to the men who founded the province. He appreciated the presence of so many friends from several works of the province (Ramsey, Takoma Park, East Boston). He thanked the many people who helped organize the Mass (Marilyn Palka, Toni and Gary Cecere, Fr. Jim McKenna, and Fr. Rich Alejunas should be singled out) and gave particular thanks to Fr. Tim for his presence—who made a rapid trip to and from Rome for the occasion—and Fr. Tom, and he presented Fr. Tom with a gift, an image of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, noting how in that image Jesus has run to his Mother for help and now that is an apt image for us. He asked everyone for prayers.

Fr. Tim, Fr. Steve, and Fr. Tom.

Fr. Tom, in turn, had a gift for Fr. Steve that offered a moment of levity as Fr. Steve removed the wrapping paper to reveal a toner cartridge box. Inside the box, however,  wasn’t toner but the same gift that Fr. Tom had received from his two predecessors, Frs. Jim Heuser and Rich Authier, when he took office on the day the New Rochelle and Montreal provinces were merged: a statuette of Jesus washing the feet of one of his apostles, an image of the brotherly love and service to which the provincial is called.

Fr. Steve examines the carving of Jesus washing an apostle's feet.

Following Mass there was a flurry of picture-taking in front of the altar, and then everyone moved to the pavilion for a fine buffet supper prepared by Market Basket.

The Shafrans

 

Homily for 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
15th Sunday of Ordinary Time
July 12, 2015
Eph 1: 3-10
St. Ursula, Mt. Vernon, N.Y.

This morning and for the next 6 Sundays our 2d reading is taken from St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, the Christian church at Ephesus in Asia Minor—a very important city in the 1st century as a port on the Aegean Sea facing Greece, and a market center.  But now it’s more than a mile inland because of the silting up of its river, and nothing but an archeological and tourist site visited because the ruins of its temples and other public buildings, its association with the early Christian community, and the tradition that our Blessed Mother passed her last days on earth there in company with St. John the Apostle.  It was still an important enuf city in the 5th century for the 3d Ecumenical Council of the Church to be held there—the one that defined the Virgin Mary as the Mother of God and not mother just of the man Jesus of Nazareth.

Excavated street at Ephesus
(Wikipedia - Ad Meskens)

Chapel at reputed site of the Virgin Mary's House in Ephesus
(Wikipedia - Martin H. Fryc)

After the customary greeting of those to whom he’s writing (in vv. 1-2, which we didn’t read this morning), Paul launches into a prayer of blessing which apparently quotes extensively from some early Christian hymn or liturgy.  That’s the text we heard a few minutes ago.  In that prayer, Paul praises God the Father, who “chose us in Christ, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him” (Eph 1: 4).

We all know about choice.  It can be a political mantra or slogan.  It certainly is part of our everyday life, as we choose wardrobes, TV programs, vacation destinations, whom we’ll treasure as close friends (cf. the adage “You can choose your friends but not your relatives.”).

St. Paul speaks of God’s choosing us.  Another biblical term for that, by the way, is election—which means “choosing.”  We are God’s elect, God’s chosen ones.  That word elect turns up pretty often in our liturgy, e.g., in the 3d Eucharistic Prayer when we pray “that we may obtain an inheritance with your elect”—with the Virgin Mary, the apostles and martyrs, and all the saints.  So now you have an idea of what elect means:  being chosen by God.

God chose us, selected us, elected us—for what?  Not for political office nor as a winner in a raffle or an American Idol contest.  No, he chose us to be his children and to have an inheritance with all of Christ’s brothers and sisters.

St. Paul puts it this way:  “He destined us for adoption to himself thru Jesus Christ” (1:5).  But before he says that, he writes that “he chose us … to be holy and without blemish before him.”

God alone is holy, of course.  That’s a radical distinction between him and us.  When we sing, “Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of hosts,” at Mass, we’re quoting a hymn chanted by the angels in heaven, according to a vision of the prophet Isaiah (6:1-4).  In Isaiah’s words, we are “unclean” (6:5) and doomed if we come near, except that God allow us.  You might also remember Moses’ approaching the burning bush and being told to stop and remove his sandals because he’s treading holy ground (Ex 3:5); or St. Peter’s telling Jesus, after the big, miraculous catch of fish, to “depart” from him because he’s a sinner and doesn’t dare to remain in the presence of God’s agent, Jesus (Luke 5:8).

Isaiah's vision of the All-Holy One (ch. 6)
(https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/isaiah-6.jpg)

But Jesus chooses Peter anyway, and he chooses us, sinners tho we are:  “In him we have redemption by his blood,” Paul says, “the forgiveness of transgressions, in accord with the riches of his grace that he lavished upon us” (Eph 1:7-8).  It’s precisely that forgiveness, that abundance of grace—that divine mercy, to use Pope Francis’s keynote—that transforms us from sinners into holy people, into saints.  “This is the will of God, your holiness,” Paul tells the Christians at Thessalonica (I, 4:3).  It’s a choice that God made for us long before we were born:  “before the foundation of the world” (Eph 1:4), part of his plan for the entire universe, his “plan for the fullness of times, to sum up all things in Christ” (1:10).  With this “spiritual blessing” of forgiveness, grace, holiness given to us thru our relationship with Jesus, we are renewed as images of God (which we were created to be) and can come near him and dwell with him, enjoying the inheritance that he has promised us and for which we pray.

To holiness, Paul adds “and without blemish.”  That phrase is loaded with an overtone of ritual sacrifice.  Both the Passover lamb and any animal offered up to the Lord as a holocaust had to be perfect, without blemish—no illness, no deformity, no physical defect.  Only the best can be given to the Lord.

And God has chosen us to be without blemish before him—perfect sacrifices united with Jesus Christ thru “redemption by his blood”; perfect self-offerings who can be presented to the Lord in this Eucharistic sacrifice and who can offer ourselves to his service every day:  the service of praise and thanksgiving and atonement for the sins of humanity and the service of charity toward our brothers and sisters.

But it wasn’t only the sacrifice that had to be without blemish, physically perfect.  So did the priest.  No one with a physical defect, a handicap, a deformity—or ritually unclean—could carry out the sacred rituals before God.  This carried over into the law and practice of the Church, which until the last decades of the 20th century would not ordain a man with physical defects of some sort, or who had practiced certain trades considered disreputable, or whose parents had, such as butcher or public executioner.  When St. Isaac Jogues was brutally mutilated by the Mohawks in 1642—they sawed off 2 of his fingers with clam shells—he had to petition the Pope, after his escape, for permission to resume offering the sacrifice of the Mass—which the Pope very readily granted, considering Fr. Isaac a living martyr.  (When he returned to the Mohawks in 1646, they completed his martyrdom.)

All of which points to you and me as people who offer sacrifice to God.  God, thru Christ, has rendered us without blemish, not in a physical sense but a spiritual one, capable then of offering him this pure and holy sacrifice, the Eucharist; and of offering our whole lives as a sacrifice to the Father—praising him and thanking him every day in whatever we do that is Christ-like, and offering atonement for the sins of the whole world.  All of us have a share in the priesthood of Jesus and can do this, because God “chose us to be holy and without blemish before him” thru our union with Jesus.

In the Collect of the Mass, the opening prayer, we prayed that if we have in any way “gone astray” God might lead us back “to the right path,” the path of Jesus Christ, the path of holiness and blamelessness (“without blemish”), so that we might not only be called Christians (“accounted Christians”) but truly live as Christians by “rejecting whatever is contrary to the name of Christ and striving after all that does [that name] honor.”  It is the power of that name, Jesus Christ, that saves us, makes us whole, makes us holy and worthy of living forever in the Father’s presence.

Gay Marriage Is Legal, but It's Not Marriage

This comes from Fr. Steve Ryan's blog The Don, which he publishes weekly from Tampa.  It's dated July 10.

Gay Marriage Is Legal, but It's Not Marriage

By Fr. Steve Ryan, SDB

Regardless of what a narrow majority of the Supreme Court declared two weeks ago, the nature of the human person and the nature and purpose of marriage remains unchanged and unchangeable. Marriage is between a man and a woman because it is procreative. The unique meaning of marriage as the union of one man and one woman is inscribed in our bodies as male and female. The protection of the procreative dimension and the opposite sex complementarity of love is integral to God's Plan for life, love, family and the building of a civilization of virtue.

The Supreme Court got it wrong. The late-night comedians are laughing it up at Justice Scalia who dissented the decision. Catholic priests will go silent in the pulpit because it’s too controversial to get into. Obama is blabbing about the great triumph for America. Judeo-Christian values and sexual morality are discarded and seen as ancient history. But I'll still write this little editorial. Disagreeing with the re-definition of marriage does not make one a hater. As I write this I have in mind my friends and family members, parishioners and spiritual sons and daughters whom I love and who are gay. I do not hate them – I love them. I wish them a happy and holy life. I just know that from here on in – with marriage defined against both the logical nature and purpose that we understand through natural law and what has been revealed in scripture and tradition – we are taking a step that redefines morality. What's right or wrong, what's good or bad, what's in or out depends on the mood of the culture and the whims of individuals. Politicians follow immediately where the current is running. There are no more standards. Welcome to the dictatorship of relativism.

Archbishop Kurtz rightly said, “Just as Roe v. Wade did not settle the question of abortion over forty years ago, Obergefell v. Hodges does not settle the question of marriage today. Neither decision is rooted in the truth, and as a result, both will eventually fail. Today the Court is wrong again. It is immoral and unjust for the government to declare that two people of the same sex can constitute a marriage.”

Jesus Christ, with great love, taught unambiguously that from the beginning marriage is the lifelong union of one man and one woman. The Catholic Church and her clergy and hierarchy will continue to teach and to act according to this truth. In five years from now (most likely), the Catholic Church will lose her non-profit status unless She relents and performs gay marriages. Priests will be arrested for writing editorials like this one or preaching the truth from the pulpit. (I better get this published quickly.)

Mandating marriage redefinition across the country is a tragic error that harms the common good and further hurts family life, especially children raised by two same sex parents. The law has a duty to support every child’s basic right to be raised, where possible, by his or her married mother and father in a stable home.

What to do? Say something controversial when the topic comes up at work this week, or let it slide? It's your choice. Look, I really did not feel like writing this but after sitting here praying I had to say something as a priest.

I encourage Catholics to move forward with faith, hope, and love: 

• Faith tells us there is an unchanging truth about marriage. It's unitive and procreative because it's rooted in the immutable nature of the human person and it's confirmed by divine revelation. 
• Hope reminds us that for thousands of years marriage has been for a man and a woman and that homosexual love (although it happened) was not the norm but a disordered love. Our hope is that these truths will once again prevail in our society, not only by their logic, but by their great beauty and their manifest service to the common good. 
• Love must be present in this discussion. Don't bring up the topic at the water cooler at work if you are looking for a fight. That's not being loving. Then again, don't be a wimp and back down when the Church's teaching on marriage is trashed – lovingly speak the truth. Be ready – you may lose a friend or two because of our faith and moral convictions, but stay loving! Truth and love must go together.  

Fr. Steve closes with a long quote from Ephesians 6:10-20, 24, which I won't reproduce here.

 

Fr. Michael Eguino Ordained a Priest

Fr. Michael Eguino Ordained a Priest

Fr. Michael Eguino, SDB, was ordained to the priesthood on Saturday, June 27, by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, at his home parish of St. Benedict in the Bronx.

Fr. Mike, 30, graduated from Salesian High School in New Rochelle in 2002 and from Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J., in 2008 (B.A. in philosophy). He studied theology at Immaculate Conception Seminary, affiliated with Seton Hall.

For the last four years Fr. Mike has been a member of the Salesian formation community in Orange, N.J. He served as a deacon for the last year at Holy Rosary Church in Port Chester, N.Y., and his first priestly assignment is to newly-combined Corpus Christi-Holy Rosary Parish in Port Chester.

In August Fr. Mike will take up priestly ministry and teaching at Archbishop Shaw High School in Marrero, La., and the nearby parishes served by the Salesian community.

Fr. Mike entered the Salesian formation program shortly after his high school graduation and made his novitiate in New York City in 2005-2006. He professed temporary vows on August 16, 2006, and made his perpetual profession on August 18, 2012. He was ordained to the transitional diaconate on May 24 of last year.  [Update: In 2019 Fr. Eguino left the Salesians and joined the presbyterate of the archdiocese of New York.]

Fr. Mike has teaching experience at Salesian High School (2008-2010) in the fields of world history and theology. He also served on the retreat team at Don Bosco Retreat Center in Haverstraw-Stony Point, N.Y., in 2010-2011. Other apostolic ministry included work in the youth center at Our Lady of the Valley Church in Orange.

Some 50 Salesian, diocesan, and religious priests concelebrated the ordination Mass with Cardinal Dolan and Fr. Mike. Three former pastors, all of whom helped foster Fr. Mike’s vocation, were among those taking part.

Pastor Fr. Stephen Norton and the assistant clergy warmly welcomed all the visiting clergy and other guests. The parish choir sang the Mass, under the direction of Anne Myers. The large parish church was nearly full with Salesians, members of the Eguino family, St. Benedict parishioners, Sisters of St. John the Baptist, Salesian Sisters, and representatives from several of the places where Fr. Mike has served during his years as a Salesian.

Cardinal Dolan’s homily began with an unusual statement: that he and Fr. Thomas Dunne, SDB, the provincial, had just lied to everyone. They had testified that Deacon Michael Eguino was worthy of ordination as a priest. And, said the cardinal, we all—including Michael—know that he is not worthy. No one is.

The cardinal observed that a few minutes earlier Michael had lain prostrate on the floor while the congregation prayed the Litany of the Saints over him—a testimony of his unworthiness and helplessness. The priesthood, Cardinal Dolan said, is not a prize to be won, a career to be pursued, a degree to be earned, but a pure gift from God to someone who admits his unworthiness. It’s all God’s grace, mercy, and initiative.

Ordination, the cardinal continued, is all about Jesus and his Church. Jesus continues to summon unworthy, sinful, and clumsy men to the vocation of sharing God’s grace and mercy with the Church.

At one point, the cardinal asked Deacon Michael whether he was afraid. “No,” he answered. “But I’m nervous.”

Cardinal Dolan followed up: it’s OK to be nervous. But Jesus tells us often not to be afraid. God takes care of us. This trust in Divine Providence, in fact, is a part of the Salesian charism passed on by Don Bosco, the cardinal said.

Cardinal Dolan, Fr. Mike, and Fr. Mike's parents enjoyed a few moments when Mom and Dad
brought up the chalice and paten to be presented to the new priest as part of the ritual.

The cardinal also paid tribute to Fr. Michael’s parents, the parish clergy, and the entire parish for fostering his vocation. He also lauded the Salesians and the Salesian Sisters for their ministry in the archdiocese and throughout the world.

On an earlier occasion, Cardinal Dolan had admired the Good Shepherd cross that is given to Salesians when they pronounce their perpetual vows. At the end of Mass, as a token of appreciation for the cardinal’s love for Don Bosco and the Salesians, Fr. Dunne presented him with a larger version of that cross, to the cardinal’s extreme delight. He immediately removed his pectoral cross and put on the Salesian cross.

Wearing the Salesian Good Shepherd cross, the cardinal half-embraces Fr. Tom Dunne while praising the ministry of the Salesians and Salesian Sisters and expressing his pleasure at the presence of so many members of the Salesian Family at the ordination.

At the parish's reception after Mass, Fr. Mike offered his first priestly blessings to all comers
--starting of course with Mom and Dad.

"Solemnize with Illuminations"

"Solemnize with Illuminations"

On July 2, 1776, the 2d Continental Congress voted unanimously (voting by individual colonies) in favor of Virginia's resolution that "these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States."  THAT was our declaration of independence from Great Britain, further solemnized two days later with the Congress's adoption of Thomas Jefferson's eloquent written Declaration of Independence (so eloquent, obviously, that the date of ITS adoption became our Independence Day).

John Adams was so ecstatic over the resolution's passage that he wrote to his wife Abigail, back in Massachusetts, that evening:
The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. . . .  I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

He was wrong about that "memorable" date, but right about the rest.

Every year the Queen City of the Sound (i.e., New Rochelle) provides for spectacular fireworks after dark has settled upon us on July 4.  From our vantage point, we can also see easily the shows in Larchmont and on Long Island, and if we ascend the tower atop our house, we can see many others, even Manhattan's.

This year, like last year, the fireworks were done by Fireworks by Grucci--top of the line performance.  They were set up on Big Harrison Island, one of the 5 islands that make up the city park lying between our property and Echo Bay.  So on our back porch we have excellent seats to see it all.  Year after year we also allow whoever wishes to come to our back parking lot and baseball field to watch, and scores of folks come.  The show lasts about 20 minutes.

Here's one of several video clips I shot last nite:

Homily for 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
14th Sunday of Ordinary Time
July 5, 2015
Ezek 2: 2-5
Iona College, N.R.[1]

“Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, rebels who have rebelled against me” (Ezek 2: 3).

Ezekiel by Michelangelo
(Sistine Chapel)

The Lord chose Ezekiel to prophesy to Israel—specifically to the people of Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah—by denouncing their idolatry in the last years of the kingdom.  He was called and began his mission in 593 B.C. when Judah was already under the rule of the Babylonian Empire and King Nebuchadnezzar, just a few years before the king and his army utterly destroyed Jerusalem after a rebellion and took the king, the nobles, the priests, and the entire middle class population into exile (those whom he hadn’t executed immediately for provoking the rebellion).  That context adds some irony to the Lord’s complaint about his people’s rebelling against him.

When the Lord called Ezekiel to prophesy, he didn’t guarantee him a receptive audience.  Rather, the Lord promised, “Hard of face and obstinate of heart are they to whom I am sending you” (2:4).  Nevertheless, Ezekiel is to speak to them in the Lord’s name.

Reading that passage, I couldn’t help thinking of our role as Catholics today.  You probably have heard that when you were baptized and again when you were confirmed, you took on Christ’s role—his persona, if you will—as priest, prophet, and king.  So what does it mean to be a Christ-like prophet?

When the Puritans settled New England in the 17th and 18th centuries, some of their preachers explicitly evoked the image of Israel traversing the desert to reach the Promised Land.  These English settlers, they said, had taken on “an errand in the wilderness” or the desert of the New World to make it a new Promised Land for a new chosen people, i.e., for themselves, the Lord’s true believers.

John Winthrop
(artist unknown)

Those Puritans—John Winthrop, William Bradford, Cotton Mather, Jonathan Edwards, et al.—would probably not be pleased with what they’d observe today in Western society, Western culture:  in Europe, Canada, the U.S., even their beloved Massachusetts.  The latest poll figures from the Public Religion Research Institute report that only 35% of Americans think the U.S. is still a Christian nation, 45% think it used to be, and 14% don’t think it ever was[2]—that “shining city on a hill” providing an example of righteousness for all of humanity.  (Ronald Reagan used that image, but he stole if from the Puritans, who took it from Jesus).

On the contrary, our culture and society are becoming increasingly hostile to religious faith and practice.  You know that.  You see that.  20 years ago John Paul the Great was already referring to a culture of death.  We’ve lived thru a sexual revolution, and we’re experiencing its social consequences.  We haven’t turned to Baal and Astarte like the people of Judah.  We worship money, sex, power, and comfort.  None of those idols are new, of course; people have worshiped them forever.  What’s different is that at one time people knew in their hearts that they were false gods, that such behavior was sinful.  Today they’re believed to be positive goods, as in the movie Wall Street:  “Greed is good!”  Premarital sex is good.  A life of glamor and comfort without responsibility is good.  Some would make abortion a sacrament.  The gay movement today isn’t about seeking toleration or even acceptance but about demanding approval of that “lifestyle.”

All over the world—not just in the West—war, violence, and the degradation of human beings thru drugs, slavery, trafficking, and other forms of oppression only seem to be getting worse.  In all of this, we have to be prophets like Ezekiel (and Jesus).

We have to continue to speak for chastity—Pope Francis, by the way, did that explicitly when he addressed a huge youth rally in Turin 2 weeks ago.  We mean chastity before marriage, chastity within marriage.  We mean marriage with a twofold natural purpose of mutual love and support and of openness to the transmission of new life and the raising of children.

By chastity we mean a respect for the natural processes of human procreation, as opposed to turning people into laboratory products thru IVF, embryo selection, etc.  We mean a refusal to commodify women (and children) thru sexual exploitation in pornography, prostitution, and workplace harassment.  We mean helping youngsters and women make good lives for themselves, reducing their vulnerability to exploitation, by giving them an understanding of their fundamental dignity and rights and educating them or training them so that they can support themselves.

We have to be prophets like Ezekiel (and Jesus) in our defense of human life and human dignity.  What John Paul called “the culture of death” isn’t a specifically Western phenomenon.  We see a love for death in the hatred that produces genocide, in the nihilism of jihad, in the “disappearances” of people labeled as political enemies, in drug violence and gang violence.

Murambi museum of the Rwandan genocide

As Christians we continue to prophesy that every human being is precious, that all human life merits protection—from conception to natural death. 

We continue to reject abortion as the law of the land, our land or any other; to oppose what is euphemistically called “death with dignity” but means killing the inconvenient, the useless, and the hopeless; to call for—at the least—less recourse to capital punishment, which can’t be justified as a means of vengeance, of “bringing closure” to a family’s trauma, of evening the balance of justice, but justified only—if then—as society’s self-defense against further deadly violence (cf. the recent escape incident upstate, which was, shall we say, a near-miss on another murder).  We continue to seek paths of peace in the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America, however difficult, seemingly impossible, those paths are; we saw the Holy Father doing that recently with the Palestinian Authority.  We continue to aid refugees—the U.N. now estimates there are nearly 60 million of them who’ve fled war, famine, natural disasters, or economic disasters.  We continue to support education and Third World development—these too are part of the culture of life.  In Laudato si’, the Holy Father places a strong emphasis on everyone’s fundamental right to clean water; that’s a development issue, and it’s a life issue.  We insist that everyone be treated with respect:  immigrants and refugees, minorities, gays, men and women, seniors and children, the physically and mentally handicapped, the homeless, political opponents, even stupid drivers on our streets and cashiers who don’t seem to know what they’re doing.

Pope Francis’s encyclical imitates Ezekiel’s prophesying:  it takes on issues that upset both so-called conservatives and so-called liberals.  We hope that we, the new Israel, will pay him heed and not be “hard of face and obstinate of heart,” e.g., when he challenges our throwaway culture, our rampant consumerism, and our indifference toward developing nations.  His letter is addressed to all of us, not just to politicians, diplomats, economists, and captains of industry.  In this area, too, we can be prophets like Ezekiel, by taking to heart what Francis proposes and making it part of our lives.

Pray, dear sisters and brothers, that the Spirit of the Lord may enter you and me and lay hold of us as it did Ezekiel, and set us on our feet (cf. 2:2) to live out our calling to be, priests, kings, and prophets in the image of Jesus.

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            [1] Used with adaptations also for the Ursulines at Willow Dr.

            [2] http://publicreligion.org/2015/07/is-america-a-christian-nation-nearly-half-of-americans-no-longer-think-so/#.VZhy2UZHb0_

Transition

Transition

On June 30 the terms of Fr. Tom Dunne as provincial and four members of the provincial council ended, and on July 1 Fr. Steve Shafran began a six-year term as provincial with a partly new, partly old council: a new vice provincial, one new councilor, two re-appointed councilors, and one continuing councilor (whose term hadn't ended).

Province HQ in New Rochelle
formerly the estate of industrialist John Stephenson

Fr. Tom was all packed up and moved out on the 30th for some well-deserved R and R.  Fr. Steve arrived the following day.

On July 3 there was a day-long meeting of the new and old councils, continuing a "handing-off" process that had begun months earlier.  On July 5 the new council began a week of prayer and planning for the year ahead together at a location away from any SDB community, as the provincial and c0uncil have been doing for a good many years at the beginning of the summer.

Pastoral Assignments for 2015-2016: Round 4

Pastoral Assignments for 2015-2016: Round 4

A week ago (June 28) Fr. Tom Dunne was pleased to announce that the New York Archdiocese had at last appointed a pastor for the new combined parish of Corpus Christi-Holy Rosary in Port Chester, on the nomination of Fr. Tom and the provincial council, effective July 1.

A priest on Holy Rosary's present staff quipped that right now Fr. Pat's pastor of a non-existent parish since the merger doesn't take effect until Aug. 1.  Another way of reading it is that he's pastor of both non-merged parishes until then.  But I'm not going to try to sort that out.

The pastor will be Fr. Patrick Angelucci, who will also serve as director of the SDB community of Port Chester, beginning July 1.  Your humble blogger has heard orally that the community will reside at Holy Rosary's rectory on Nicola St.

That's the only announcement in this "Round 4."

Fr. Pat spent the last year on the staff of the Marian Shrine-Don Bosco Retreat House in Haverstraw-Stony Point, N.Y., following the SDBs' withdrawal from St. Anthony's Parish in Elizabeth, N.J., where he'd been pastor for just a year.  That is his only parochial experience other than weekend supply thruout his 39 years as a priest.

He has been director of Salesian HS here in New Rochelle (2004-2013), of Don Bosco Tech in Paterson, N.J. (1996-1997), of the Marian Shrine-Don Bosco Retreat House (1998-1991), and of Abp. Shaw HS in Marrero, La. (1982-1988).  He was also principal of LaSalle HS in Miami (1991-1995).

From 1997 to 2003 Fr. Pat was provincial of the New Rochelle Province.

He has had teaching assignments at Sacred Heart Novitiate in Ipswich, Mass., Salesian HS in New Rochelle, Mary Help of Christians School in Tampa, and Don Bosco Tech in Boston.

Homily for 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
13th Sunday of Ordinary Time
June 28, 2015
Mark 5: 21-43
Iona College, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has saved you.  Go in peace and be cured of your affliction’” (Mark 5: 34).

Interesting point in this long gospel narrative:  Mark gives us the name of one of the characters.  That doesn’t happen very often.  Why did the oral tradition by which the stories of Jesus were handed down, until the evangelists wrote some of them down in an organized fashion, preserve the name of Jairus, the synagog official?  Obviously we can’t know because the evangelists didn’t keep a record of their sources (even tho they didn’t have any e-mail to destroy) the way someone like David McCullogh does when he tells us the story of the Brooklyn Bridge or the Wright Brothers.  He provides information about all his sources, and you could go and look at them yourself.

If you were Jairus or a member of his household, wouldn’t what you saw Jesus do turn you into one of his followers?  We might guess that Jairus became a leader in the early Christian community in Galilee—one of those very ancient communities whose continued existence in Israel, Palestine, and across the Middle East has become so precarious.  We might also guess that when Mark composed his Gospel there were people around who remembered Jairus and his family and could vouch for the veracity of so specific a story, as there are people alive today who knew Orville Wright—he died the year I was born (I didn’t know him)—and who could confirm some of the things that David McCullough writes about him in his new book.

There was another new book out last week.  Well, not precisely a book, but a longish essay entitled Laudato si’.  One of the urgent themes of Francis’s encyclical was that we have a serious moral obligation to take care of the earth because it belongs to all of us, and when a few wealthy people or wealthy nations ravish the earth for their own benefit, they are destroying what belongs to the poor, what is the heritage, the God-given heritage, of every person.  If we truly want to care for the poor, we must act to preserve the earth—its water, its air, its other resources—and make them more readily available to all our brothers and sisters, all God’s children.

For saying that, Pope Francis is dismissed by some (most of whom, I dare say, haven’t actually read the encyclical) as a socialist, a communist, a dreamer, someone out of touch with reality.  And, they say, he should stick to religion and not get involved in politics or science.  It’s an embarrassment that some of our Catholic candidates for President are saying that!  (Most of them don’t know that the Pope was a scientist—a chemist—before he entered the seminary.)  In other words, religion doesn’t have to do with real life, with real people, with basic issues of life and death, right and wrong, human dignity, human rights.  Religion is OK in church, but not in the office, the market, the school, the highway, the factory, the mine, the fields.

But Francis takes his religion from Jesus, not from the Communist Manifesto or the Wall Street Journal.  What do we see and hear Jesus doing today?

1st, Jesus deals with real people and their real problems.  We see him doing that thruout the gospels, of course.  Here it’s a woman—age not given, but perhaps what we might call middle-aged—who’s been sick for 12 years, seriously sick, and not only not helped by doctors but even made worse by them (it seems).  And it’s a dying little girl and her frantic father.

2d, these are the very marginalized people that Francis tells us that we have to be concerned about.  These are the nobodies, the unclean, of Jewish society in the 1st century—not the only ones, we know; there are also the lepers and the prostitutes, and Jesus dealt with their illnesses too (of body and soul).  These are the people on the periphery of society.

The woman in the crowd is a 2d-class citizen precisely because she’s a woman (as we still see across much of the Middle East).  She’s also unclean because of her hemorrhages.  So she has to sneak up on Jesus.  She can’t risk public attention.  Well, that didn’t work out too well!  But it did work out because Jesus felt her touch—her touch among all “the crowd pressing upon” him (5:31).  Her touch was singular—as is every one of us, rich or poor, male or female, young or old.  Jesus feels for each of us, and Jesus offers us the kind of healing that we need—which is far more than the healing of a physical ailment.  And then he addresses her as “Daughter,” a women who may well have been older than he (altho we don’t know this as a fact).  He restores her to a place in God’s family, or reminds her that she has that place as a gift from God.  As do we all, thanks to the healing touch of Jesus whenever we reach out to him in prayer and sacraments and Scripture.  In fact, in our prayer tonite we alluded to that:  “O God, through the grace of adoption you chose us to be children of light.”  God has adopted us, made us his daughters and sons!

Raising the daughter of Jairus (James Tissot)

Jairus’s daughter is a child, with even less social status than the woman.  Remember how the apostles tried to shoo the children away from Jesus?  And Jairus’s daughter is dead.  The dead, too, are unclean.  Jesus shouldn’t touch a female, and he shouldn’t touch a corpse.  But “he took the child by the hand” (5:41).  No one is beyond the reach of Jesus.  No one is beyond his care.  Not even the dead are beyond his reach, because “the girl arose immediately and walked around” (5:42).  Jesus’ action prefigures the ultimate cure, the ultimate healing, for which we all long.

Jesus cares for society’s least.  He reaches out to them and lifts them up.  We know from what else the gospels tell us that he’s able to do these sorts of things because he’s perfectly in tune with his Father, perfectly reflects the Father’s will.  And we also know that it’s the Father’s will that we allow Jesus to heal us of our own wounds and sins and then do our best to be like Jesus:  united with our Father thru a lively spiritual life and doing the works of Jesus in our daily lives, especially for the poor, the marginalized, those whom society has forgotten or shoved aside.