Pope writes to his old Salesian school

Pope Francis writes to “his” school and encourages education in Don Bosco’s style

[School Photo: AICA]

(ANS - Vatican City – November 6, 2020) – Due to the 90th anniversary of the foundation of the Salesian school Wilfrid Baron de los Santos Angeles in Ramos Mejia, Argentina – where young Jorge Mario Bergoglio attended sixth grade in 1949 – Pope Francis has sent a letter to the vice principal of the work, Daniel Joaquin Blanco Mengoni. Below is the text of the letter.

Dear brother,

On the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the foundation of the work of Don Bosco in Ramos Mejia, I turn to you and to all the members of this beloved Salesian Family. I join in your thanks for all these years spent sowing the joy of the Gospel in so many children and youths, and in reaching the hearts of so many families and the peripheries of society.

I remember with gratitude when I attended the sixth grade of the Wilfrid Baron de los Santos Angeles school in 1949, and received that formation in the style of Don Bosco, open to work, creativity, and joy. School life was a “whole,” and there was no time to get bored: study, sharing, prayer, attention to the poorest, manual activities; everything we did and learned had a harmonious unity and prepared us for life with a sense of responsibility and a horizon of transcendence.

I encourage you to continue your daily work in this perspective, bearing in mind the words of St. John Bosco: “Holiness consists in always being happy.” May the joy that comes from the encounter with the Lord be reflected in all your activities, so that the Gospel may radiate and reach everyone.

May Jesus bless you and Mary Help of Christians watch over you with maternal protection. And please don’t forget to pray for me.

Fraternally,

Francis

Homily for Saturday, Week 31 of Ordinary Time

Homily for Saturday
Week 31 of Ordinary Time

Nov. 7, 2020
Phil 4: 10-19
Provincial House, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“I rejoice greatly in the Lord that … you revived your concern for me” (Phil 4: 10).

We’ve been reading from Philippians since last week.  Our passage this morning is the letter’s conclusion except for Paul’s final greetings; it’s a note of thanksgiving for that church’s gifts to him, delivered by Epaphroditus.

The church at Philippi was the 1st that Paul founded on European soil after he, Silas, Timothy, and Luke had crossed over from Asia Minor.  Paul and Silas had been beaten and imprisoned there. Now Paul’s in prison again, somewhere unspecified, perhaps in Ephesus, as he writes this letter.  The gifts that Epaphroditus brought from his congregation at Philippi may have been intended to sustain Paul in prison.  These weren’t their 1st assistance to Paul, since he speaks of their “reviving” their concern for him “at last” but having lacked an opportunity to show that concern.

Paul goes on to tell his Philippian friends that he has managed even tho he’s been in want:  “I have learned, in whatever situation I find myself, to be self-sufficient” (4:11).  He’s had lots of experience in being well provided for—usually earning his own living when staying somewhere—and in having to do without during his extensive travels on land and sea, in being warmly received here and persecuted there.  He finds his strength to deal with all situations in the power that Christ gives him (4:13).  But now he’s grateful to the Philippians for their concern, for “sharing in my distress” (4:14) even tho they themselves aren’t well off (cf. 2 Cor 8:1-5).

He goes on to credit this church so dear to him for their unique care for him, alone among all the churches that Paul had established or visited, assisting him “not only once but more than once” (4:16).  He’s most pleased that their kindness toward him “accrues to [their] account” before God; it’s the equivalent of a fragrant sacrifice and pleases God greatly.  God, for his part, “will fully supply whatever you need, in accord with his glorious riches in Christ Jesus” (4:19)—not material goods but the goods of divine favor.

Paul is expressing gratitude to his benefactors.  In Don Bosco’s lexicon, gratitude is a most important word.  He constantly voiced his gratitude to God and to Mary Help of Christians for blessings received and urged the faithful who received graces thru Mary’s intercession to express their gratitude in prayer, at least, and often enuf, with a donation.  “Every brick in the church of MHC represents a grace from her,” he attested.  He urged gratitude to God for one’s intellectual and spiritual gifts.  He expressed everlasting gratitude to his supporters like Fr. Cafasso, Fr. Borel, Pius IX, and countless benefactors.  He even thanked God for misfortunes averted, an indication of divine protection.

Don Bosco taught us to do likewise.  Those of us who had the blessing of having known Fr. Joseph Stella know that one of the keys to his prodigious ability to come up with money for Newton, East Boston, and Goshen was that he spent hours and hours writing thank-you notes to benefactors or even calling on them in person.  E.g., in one of his famous “Do you have a minute?” occasions, he had me drive him from Newton to Philadelphia (that was quite a minute!) to visit some benefactors.

Obviously, we owe our benefactors our thanks, in our prayers, and when possible with something more personal—a handwritten note, a visit, or at least an email.

Beyond our benefactors, we owe much gratitude to so many other people, as Fr. Paul said last evening—our families, our confreres, even the people to whom we minister in school or parish or the confessional (many of whom testify to us of God’s grace).

Another note that St. Paul strikes today—it’s incidental to his gratitude toward the believers at Philippi—is his detachment in the face of physical want.  Sometimes we handle physical want well, e.g., during the power outage last August.  Sometimes we’re not quite so good, e.g., when something we want from the pantry isn’t there.  Don Bosco certainly followed St. Paul:  “I know how to live in humble circumstances. . . .  I have learned the secret of being well fed and of going hungry, of living in abundance and of being in need” (4:12).  I’ve got room for improvement there, and maybe you do too.

We’re also ready to imitate the Philippians by supplying the needs of people, whether it’s thru the mission office or an appeal from the provincial, or even little things like helping out “Homeless John.”  May the Lord receive such offerings from us as “a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice,” and bless us as well as those whom we help.

Finally, and most important, is the one verse in which Paul credits Christ for being the power in his life (4:13).  May we always bear that in mind, always turn to Christ in our needs, in our weakness, and with our gratitude.

Blessed Artemides Zatti, religious

Blessed Artemides Zatti, religious

November 14 will be the obligatory memorial in the U.S. of the first Salesian brother to be “raised to the honors of the altar” as a “blessed.”

By Bishop Enrico dal Covolo, SDB, and Father Giorgio Mocci, SDB*

Artemides Zatti was born at Boretto in the province of Reggio Emilia, Italy, on October 12, 1880. His parents, Louis and Albina Vecchi Zatti, were farmers. [One of Bro. Zatti’s nephews, Fr. Juan Edmundo Vecchi, was rector major in 1996-2002.] From his earliest years Artemides was accustomed to work and sacrifice. At age nine he was already working as a day laborer.

Driven by poverty, in 1897 the Zatti family emigrated to Argentina and settled in Bahia Blanca. There Artemides began to attend Mass at the Salesian parish and to assist the pastor, Fr. Charles Cavalli, with whom he soon shared both work and prayer.

He felt the desire to become a Salesian and was accepted as an aspirant by Bishop John Cagliero, SDB, vicar apostolic. Already 20 years old, he entered the house at Bernal. He began to study diligently in order to make up for the years he’d lost. Providence entrusted to him the task of caring for a young priest who was suffering from tuberculosis; he died in 1902.

The day on which Artemides was to be vested with the cassock, he too contracted TB. He returned home, and Fr. Cavalli sent him to the missionary hospital at Viedma. Fr. Evasio Garrone, SDB, bolstered by experience he’d picked up in the army, ran the hospital. The two of them, Fr. Garrone and Artemides, asked for and obtained from Mary Help of Christians the grace of a cure. The young man promised that he would dedicate his life to caring for the sick.

He was healed and kept his promise. First he began to work in the pharmacy attached to the hospital, where he learned Fr. Garrone’s logic: only those who could, paid. When the priest died in 1911, the full responsibility became Zatti’s.

In 1908 Bro. Artemides made his perpetual profession. He dedicated himself completely to his patients. People sought him out and esteemed him. For the hospital’s professional personnel he was not only the best of administrators, but he was above all an exemplary Christian.

This is how someone described his day: “Up at 4:30. Meditation and Mass. Visit all the wards. Then he took his bicycle to visit the sick around the city. After lunch, he played an enthusiastic game of bocce with convalescing patients. From 2:00 to 6:00 p.m., more visits to the sick both in and out of the hospital. Until 8:00 p.m. he worked in the pharmacy. Then another tour of the wards. Until 11:00 he studied medicine, and finally, some spiritual reading. Then some rest, but always available to anyone who might call.”

Bro. Zatti in his pharmacy (www.sdb.org)

He attained certification as a pharmacist. In 1913 he led the construction of a new hospital that was subsequently demolished, to his displeasure. Not discouraged, he built another. Like Don Bosco, he made Divine Providence the first, sure line of the budget for the works entrusted to him. Mary Help of Christians never abandoned him. When Don Bosco dreamt of his Salesian coadjutor brothers, he certainly wanted them to become saints like Artemides.

In 1950 he fell from a ladder and was forced to rest. Several months later, symptoms of cancer showed up. He passed away on March 15, 1951. His body reposes in the Salesian chapel at Viedma.

Bro. Artemides Zatti was declared Venerable on July 7, 1997, and beatified by St. John Paul II on April 14, 2002. [His memorial is observed in the Salesian Family on November 13 except in the U.S., where it is superseded by the memorial of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, mother of immigrants, friend of New York City’s Salesians, and first U.S. citizen to be canonized.]

*Santi nella Famiglia Salesiana, 2d ed. (Turin: LDC, 2009), pp. 46-47. Translated by Fr. Mike Mendl.

Homily for Solemnity of All Saints

Homily for the Solemnity of All Saints

1 John 3: 1-3
Nov. 1, 2020
Holy Name of Jesus, Valhalla, N.Y.
St. Joseph, New Rochelle, N.Y.                                   

“See what love the Father has bestowed on us” (1 John 3: 1).

Virgin & Child with the apostles, prophets, martyrs, & all the saints

St. John states that the Father has bestowed his love upon us, and he tells us to “see” that love.  How do we see it?  Thru his Son Jesus Christ.  God’s love took on flesh, our humanity, and lived among us (cf. John 1:14).  Jesus showed God’s love by making people whole in body and soul, by forgiving sins, and just by being present among us; by empowering his disciples to forgive sins, to comfort suffering souls, to help people confront the power of evil in the world—which the Church continues to do, taking up his charge to “go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15).

St. John then teaches us why the Father has shown us so much love thru his Son Jesus:  “that we may be called the children of God” (3:1).  And not only “called” his children, but “so we are” (3:1).  It’s a spiritual fact.  Thru Jesus Christ we’ve become God’s sons and daughters.  The Gospel of John tells us, “To those who did accept [Jesus Christ] he gave power to become children of God” (1:12).  In the sacrament of Baptism we were sealed—a word the 1st reading, from Revelation, used twice—or stamped or branded (maybe today we say “tattooed”) as his own.

Jesus Christ, of course, is the Son of God by nature, the Son of God from eternity.  We’re God’s children by adoption, by our union with Jesus in sacrament and grace.  God is offering us still more, according to St. John:  “Beloved, we are God’s children now,” in this life.  “What we shall be” in eternal life “has not yet been revealed” (3:2).  We already share in God’s holiness thru our relationship with Jesus—who gives us his Holy Spirit.  We are already saints, God’s holy ones—as St. Paul often addresses the Christians he writes to.  We are called, by God choice, by God’s gift, to be his holy ones forever.  It is precisely God’s holy ones in heaven whom we celebrate today, those who are so close to the Father that they are like Jesus and see the Father as he is (cf. 3:2), like our brother Jesus.  The saints already experience the fullness of God’s love thru Christ our Lord; we pray in today’s Collect that they intercede for us that we might remain on their path of holiness until we join them and “what we shall be” is revealed to us, until we become the creatures God made us to be.

The passage from St. John ends with an aspiration.  “Everyone who has this hope based on him”—this hope of becoming even more than God’s children, of becoming more like Jesus—“makes himself pure as he is pure” (3:3).

When we hear of purity, most likely we think of sexual purity, of the virtue of chastity lived according to our particular state of life.  In 1 John, it has a broader meaning.  In the last verse of ch. 2—the verse before today’s reading—John wrote, “Everyone who acts in righteousness is begotten by him” (2:29). 

“Righteousness” came up twice in the Beatitudes in the gospel reading.  It means being in a right relationship with God, in a state of grace, in God’s favor.  When we are God’s children, that’s how we act.  That relationship begins with Baptism, but it has to be lived.  This is the purity John speaks of.

Earlier in ch. 2, John wrote, “Do not love the world or the things of the world” (2:15), and then:  “All that is in the world, sensual lust, enticement for the eyes, and a pretentious life” are inclinations or temptations that would destroy our right relationship with God.  So, not only sexual lust, sexual immorality, but also greed, glitter, and gluttony, things that entice our eyes, and “a pretentious life”—pride, self-importance, arrogance, the pursuit of fame and fortune.

From all of that, God’s children strive to keep away, to make themselves pure, as our Lord Jesus is pure.  This is a daily challenge for all of us, but by God’s grace we “have this hope based on him.”  For God has chosen us, has called us, to be his children, and more:  to “be like Christ, for we shall see the Father as he is,” as his saints in heaven already do.  Thanks be to God!

Don Bosco Always Asked Others for Help

THE MESSAGE OF THE RECTOR MAJOR

Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime

DON BOSCO

THE MAN OF GOD

WHO ALWAYS ASKED OTHERS FOR HELP

Dear readers of Salesian news media and, above all, friends of Don Bosco and his charism—

I greet you as we near the end of 2020, this year which we’ll remember as a hard year to have lived through and which was painful in many ways. It’s a year that has changed us – without our wanting it – in our lifestyle, habits, and customs perhaps but, certainly, at least in the rhythm of our personal, family, and community life.

We may already be acquiring calendars for the new year, 2021, which we hope will come filled with blessings. While thinking about all that a year means, I pondered on something that I keep very much in my heart. I don’t know whether it’s due to how I was raised or to my own nature, but I have engraved into my very being the need to give thanks constantly and to be grateful for the very many things that I receive in my life as free gifts, having  nothing to do with personal merit. I don’t know whether others feel this way. Maybe other people consider that everything they have is owed to them, even life itself, but this is not how I feel.

I wish to use this November message to thank, in Don Bosco’s name, the thousands upon thousands of people who are our benefactors, helping us Salesians in our works around the world.

A few days ago I thought of something very simple that I could do: following the experience of these past six months, I felt that I should make a video message that could be broadcast via the internet to thank the very many people who have responded most generously, as their means allow, to help those most affected by Covid-19. So I did just that – in all simplicity and truth. (The video is available on ANSChannel in Italian and Spanish.) Afterwards, I received dozens of messages thanking me for this act of transparency in explaining what had been done with those monies and the total amount received. Certainly, it cannot and should not be otherwise.

Like Don Bosco

Don Bosco spent his life asking hundreds and hundreds of people for help. He wasn’t asking for himself, but for his boys. At the same time, he strongly believed in Divine Providence, and for that very reason he went tirelessly knocking from door to door.

He asked for monetary aid and for physical and material help from people to carry out the work entrusted to him. He didn’t hesitate to ask anyone who could, to dedicate some of their time or assets in favor of needy youth. He was helped by lay people, both women and men, and by priest friends, who collaborated with him in many ways.

Above all, he had the very special help of his beloved mother, Mama Margaret. I think I can say truly, and with historical accuracy, something I love to say: that together they founded the Oratory: to Don Bosco’s creative and apostolic genius was added the maternal delicacy of his mother, who gave feminine warmth to that house. She accompanied and encouraged her son through all the difficulties of beginning the Oratory and of working with the boys who knocked on the door of his house.

Alongside Margaret was Michael Rua’s mom. Michael Rua was the first to become a Salesian and was Don Bosco’s first successor. Others joined him on December 18, 1859, when they, too, pledged to practice the Salesian way of life traced out by Don Bosco. Then, too, there was the mother of Archbishop Gastaldi and the father of Dominic Savio who helped out at the Oratory. This group of people, who knew and loved Don Bosco well, gave his work a nuance all its own, one that distinguished it from other institutions of the time. They gave the entire educational environment the imprint of a “family atmosphere.”

With his ability to ask for help, Don Bosco knew right from the start how to count on priests who offered some of their time to the oratories – the work that was taking shape through the industry of Don Bosco, his priests and friends, even a spiritual teacher such as St. Joseph Cafasso, Fr. John Borel, and St. Leonard Murialdo. Other benefactors and supporters helped to finance the works that Don Bosco began – in Turin, as well as in various places in Italy, France, Spain, and the missions of South America.

Don Bosco, Founder of the Salesian Family

The term “Salesian Family” was officially uttered for the first time by Pope Pius XI on April 3, 1934, just two days after Don Bosco’s canonization, to the pilgrims who had come to Rome for the occasion: “You represent all those whom you have left behind in the various places from which you have come – all the great Salesian Family.”

Times have changed, but I can assure you that the situations that are experienced today in the world, in the Church, and in Salesian presences are very similar to those of Don Bosco’s time. When I visited our works among the poorest boys of Latin America, Africa, India, and some nations of Oceania, it seemed to me that I saw situations that were no better than those that Don Bosco had to deal with in Valdocco.

I can assure you that this does not discourage me in the least; rather, it renews in me the conviction that at every moment the Spirit of God raises up millions and millions of people with hearts that want to make this world more and more human. Without a doubt, you and I are in that number.

Thanks for all your hard work. Thank you for believing it’s worthwhile. Thank you for not allowing yourselves to be engulfed by the “acid reflux” of people who always doubt everything and everyone. And thank you for believing that we can live with hope. This is precisely what I shall propose to our Salesian Family for the new year: in this difficult time of Covid-19, now more than ever, we are moved by hope.

I wish you all well.

The Pope Francis Economy

“The Pope Francis Economy”

Young Protagonists of Change

Photo ©: Vatican Media

(ANS – Vatican City – October 29, 2020) – “In a world sick with short-term thinking and little vision of the future, giving a voice to young people means starting to build bridges toward the future,” said Sr. Alessandra Smerilli of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in her speech on Tuesday, October 27, at the press conference for the presentation of the event “The Pope Francis Economy: Francis and young people from all over the world for the economy of tomorrow.”

“The Pope Francis Economy” is an international event featuring young economists and entrepreneurs from all over the world. It will be held by live stream from November 19 to 21 on the portal www.francescoeconomy.org. The Pontiff himself will participate at the conclusion of the three-day event.

“In these times of uncertainty, Pope Francis invites us to look beyond, to prepare for the future, and to do so in a concrete way, always with an eye to those who are most in difficulty. And young people are responding to this invitation. Therefore, they will not present us a document, they will not make a treatise on what ‘the Pope Francis Economy’ means, but they will prepare proposals, they will tell us how they want to commit themselves and what help they need,” explained Sr. Smerilli, professor of political economy at the Auxilium Pontifical School of Education and councilor of State of Vatican City.

One of the central themes of Francis’s economy, the nun pointed out, is “the re-evaluation of care within society and the economy as a key to shaping the future, together with the need for a more feminine and more inclusive economy and finance with greater participation of women.”

But in order to pursue this change of approach, the Pope does not propose a ready-made recipe that young people must only follow: rather, as the nun herself observed: “‘The Pope Francis Economy’ means, above all, young people, hope, and concreteness. It is not about inviting young people to spread a message, but asking them to help create it,” because, she concludes, “young people are a ‘present’ (and not just the future) who must be listened to.”

The initiative of “The Pope Francis Economy” developed following the invitation that the Holy Father sent on May 1, 2019, to economists, students, and male and female entrepreneurs under 35, and was scheduled for March 26 to 28, 2020, attending personally in Assisi; following the Covid-19 emergency, however, it was postponed to November 19 to 21, livestreamed.

The organization of the event in an online version will allow all young people registered (2,000 from 120 countries) to participate in the meeting. And the 12 thematic villages initially planned for those present in Assisi have been transformed into online work sessions that young people have already carried out in recent months. They are work and care; management and gift; finance and humanity; agriculture and justice; energy and poverty; profit and vocation; politics for happiness; CO² of inequality; business and peace; economy is feminine; companies in transition; life and lifestyles.

Fr. John Masiello, SDB (1929-2020)

Fr. John G. Masiello, SDB (1929-2020)

At the province jubilees celebration in 2008

Fr. John George Masiello, SDB, died at Seasons Hospice in Tampa on Saturday afternoon, October 24. He was 91 and had several medical ailments, including most recently a positive Covid test. He had been a professed Salesian for 72 years and a priest for 62 years.

John Masiello was born in Grantwood, N.J., on June 19, 1929, to Pasquale and Maria Costanza Giorgio Masiello. He was baptized at Epiphany Church in Grantwood on June 15, 1930. The family later settled in St. Albans, Queens, where John was confirmed at St. Catherine of Sienna Church in 1940. He was an altar boy as a teenager.

After his high school graduation, John entered the Salesian seminary at Don Bosco College in Newton, N.J., in 1946, entered the novitiate in 1947 at Newton, professed religious vows on September 8, 1948. Three years of philosophy studies followed, and he was awarded his B.A. degree in 1951.

Bro. John did his practical training by teaching, coaching, and assisting the pupils at Mary Help of Christians School in Tampa in 1951-1953 and at Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, N.J., in 1953-1954. He made his perpetual vows at Newton in 1954.

He studied theology at the Salesian Pontifical Athenaeum in Turin for one year and at Salesian College in Aptos, Calif., from 1955 to 1958. He was ordained in Newton on June 13, 1958.

This pic of the newly ordained Fr. John seems to have been in Father's personal collection;
it was used at a jubilee celebration in Tampa.

Fr. John earned a master of library science degree in 1964 from St. John’s University (Queens, N.Y.) and a master of pastoral counseling degree in 1978 from Iona College (New Rochelle, N.Y.).

Many years of Salesian ministry in schools followed. Fr. John was prefect of studies for a year at Don Bosco Juniorate in Haverstraw (1958-1959), then catechist (campus minister) and teacher at Mary Help in Tampa for five years (1959-1964). The Salesians provided Sunday Masses at various parishes in the Tampa area, and in Brandon Fr. John became a close friend of your humble blogger’s family. Our home was a couple of hundred yards down the street from the church, and we’d often have him over for lunch after the 2d parish Mass. (We hosted all the visiting priests—the pastor lived in Plant City, so there wasn’t a rectory—Salesians, Redemptorists, and Benedictines at various times.) There was also a connection with Fr. John because Dad was from Rosedale, Queens, close by St. Albans. As I was an altar boy, I often, happily, served Fr. John’s Masses, which in later years he was happy to brag about. He also began “recruiting” me for the junior seminary in Goshen. When Dad put the kibosh on my going so far away in 1962, Fr. John hurriedly got me enrolled at Mary Help of Christians for 9th grade. We all developed closer relationships with the Salesians thru that experience. And off to Goshen I sent for 10th grade.

Your humble blogger and Fr. John, 2008

From Tampa Fr. John moved on to Don Bosco Tech in Boston for two years (1964-1966), still as catechist and teacher. In 1966 he was appointed director of Salesian High School in New Rochelle, where he served for six years, also teaching and mentoring many young Salesians. He oversaw the enlargement of the school with the addition of two classroom floors above the chapel and the rise in enrollment to nearly 500 boys.

In his 15 years as a middle school and high school teacher, at different times Fr. John taught religion, English, history, and Latin; coached tennis and basketball; handled the library. His schoolwork continued for one more year (1972-1973) with an appointment as the province’s delegate for religious education in the schools while residing at the Marian Shrine in Haverstraw.

Fr. John remained at Haverstraw for six more years (1973-1979), becoming the second coordinator of the new Don Bosco Retreat House, specializing in youth retreats.

With his pastoral counseling degree in hand, in 1979 Fr. John took on a new “career” as a parish priest; it would last 28 years and take him to four of the province’s parishes. He served as pastor of Corpus Christi in Port Chester, N.Y., twice (1979-1988 and 1991-1994); at Immaculate Heart of Mary in Mahwah, N.J. (1999-2002); and at St. Kieran in Miami (2002-2005), where he was also director of the Miami Salesian community. He was assistant pastor thrice at St. Anthony Church in Elizabeth, N.J. (1988-1991, 1994-1999, and 2005-2007). He found parochial ministry very fulfilling, and his parishioners truly appreciated him.

In Port Chester he had the challenge of filling the shoes of the venerable Fr. Peter Rinaldi upon his retirement after 29 years, and (according to parishioner James Gambino) he did so with “enduring fortitude, wisdom, dedication, and love for the people.” He expanded religious and social programs in the parish, involved the youths of the parish in liturgy and other forms of prayer as well as in social activities, and coordinated the parish’s demographics as the village’s population changed due to new patterns of immigration.

At age 78 came another change: back to Tampa as part of the community of semi-retired confreres at St. Philip the Apostle Residence. Fr. John remained active for several years by assisting with parish Masses, preaching retreats, and hearing confessions. Eventually health problems put an end to that.

One former Salesian, Kevin Brophy, sent this note: “I didn’t know him personally but his reputation was impeccable.”

Well into his senior years, Fr. John retained his enthusiasm: “The Salesian vocation has been the best!  Fifty years of priesthood [as of 2008] have passed quickly and with a variety of priestly experiences. It was never boring!”

Survivors included his brother Gerard and various cousins, nieces, and nephews.

Fr. John was waked at Mary Help of Christians Church in Tampa on Oct. 28. A funeral Mass was celebrated there on Oct. 29.  A second wake and the Mass of Christian Burial were celebrated in the chapel of Salesian High School in New Rochelle on Oct. 30, with Fr. Tim Zak, provincial, presiding, and Fr. Bill Ferruzzi, director of the New Rochelle community, preaching; Fr. Bill did his practical training at Salesian HS while Fr. John was director there.

He was interred in the Salesian Cemetery in Goshen on Saturday, Oct. 31.

Walkin' in the Rain

Walkin' in the Rain

I got out to hike and camp for 3 days, 2 nites in Harriman State Park, Tuesday the 20th to Thursday the 22d. Altho I actually did more walking in the rain on my last hike, this trip truly was soggier.

I walked a 4-trail loop hike from Lake Skannatati’s parking lot.  

Many, many day hikers were out all 3 days, even in Wednesday’s fog.  Tuesday afternoon, when I started, was gorgeous.  I hiked up the Long Path to its crossing of the Dunning Trail, along which are several old iron mines.  (This area produced a lot of iron used to make Revolutionary War weapons, but these mines probably aren’t that old.)  

High above the Dunning Trail is a small plateau where Fr. Jim Mulloy and I camped many moons ago, and it’s still a fine place to camp; there were 2 fire rings used fairly recently, and no litter to speak of except a lot of broken glass.

                                         

Light rain overnite left everything sopping wet except the inside of my tent.  I was up about the same time old Mr. Sun should have shown up, but he never showed all day.  

I got on the trail at 9:00, refilled my water bottles at a stream (ugh--very heavy pack!).  Where there's a side trail directly to the Bald Rocks shelter, there was a park sign prohibiting overnite camping at there because of a bear problem.  Wasn’t my plan anyway.  Beyond that a short distance, I took the Ramapo-Dunderberg Trail north, part of which was completely submerged, crossed by some rickety logs.  

On top of Hogencamp Mt. I met the 1st couple of hikers of the day, taking pictures of the foggy world.  On my way down the other side, I met a large party of seniors (about a dozen) out for a vigorous hike.  The rocks, leaves, and mud were slippery, and my trekking poles were very useful--but didn’t save me from one spill that tore a hole in my rain pants (but not in me, thank God).

At Times Square I met a bunch of hikers—a couple having lunch, and later others just passing thru.  The couple informed me that the Fingerboard shelter, also—my intended destination—was closed because of bears.  At Times Square 3 major trails cross:  the Long Path, the RD, and the Arden-Surebridge; hence its name.  With Fingerboard out of the question (1.5 miles farther, and a return on Thursday), I wasn’t completely disappointed (that pack was heavy!) just to head in the direction of the car via the Arden-Surebridge Trail, which would’ve been my Thursday route anyway.  

On the ASB eastward there were hardly any spots suitable for camping except for one fantastic site where the Dunning Trail starts and a brook crosses the ASB—large, flat, and carpeted by birch leaves.  

The only fault was that it’s right alongside the trail.  I seized it, then celebrated Mass; several hikers came by as I was setting up, but "miraculously" none came while I was actually celebrating.  Everything was wet, so there wasn’t any point in gathering wood for a fire.  Lots of hikers came by as I enjoyed afternoon tea, set up camp, and cooked freeze-dried beef stew for supper (delicious and filling).

There wasn't any more rain to speak of, but there were lots of falling birch leaves and water shaking out of the trees.  The ground was harder than at the Dunning plateau, and I spent the nite tossing and turning; was ready to get up at first light and get back to the car, a mere 1.15 miles away (with a couple of climbs, but mostly downhill).  After prayer and breakfast, I packed everything up, much of it wet with rain, dew, or sweat. The only sign that I'd been there was a dry spot where my tent had been.

I was at the car a bit before 10.  I’d seen a few hikers already on the trail, and the parking lot was filling up again.

A good hike and campout, all in all, despite the weather.

Here’s the link to the pix: https://link.shutterfly.com/gRk587DXNab.

Homily for 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
30th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Oct. 25, 2020
Matt 22: 34-40                                                  
Ex 22: 20-26                                                      
St. Joseph, New Rochelle, N.Y.
Holy Name of Jesus, Valhalla, N.Y.

“The whole law and the prophets depend on these 2 commandments” (Matt 22: 40).

The Pharisees questioning Jesus (James Tissot)

Jesus answers a question that the Pharisees put to him by quoting 2 verses from the Torah, the Law of Moses.  The topic—which commandment is the greatest or the most important—was a topic of debate among the rabbis, and it was natural that Jesus’ opinion should be sought.

His answer wasn’t unique.  It had been given before and was perfectly consistent with the Hebrew Scriptures that he and all the rabbis had studied.  The 1st commandment is to love God wholeheartedly, without reservation, with one’s entire being.  And the 2d is almost parallel:  to love one’s neighbor as much as one loves oneself.

By making a covenant with Israel, God had forged a close relationship with every member of the Jewish people, as he’s done with every Christian thru the new covenant based on the death and resurrection of Jesus.  To love those whom God loves is to love God, too.

In the 1st reading, from Exodus—part of the Torah—God takes the part of the most endangered members of Hebrew society, those most abandoned, those most hard-pressed by life.  He makes himself their defender, their champion, and in biblical terms, their redeemer.  The psalmist uses similar language:  “the Lord is his rock, his fortress, his deliverer who keeps him safe from his enemies” (cf. 18:3,4).

Jesus’ answer to the scholar of the law, i.e., one of the scribes, creates an identity between God and one’s neighbor:  the 2d commandment is “like” the 1st.  The entire Torah and all the prophetic writings “depend on these 2 commandments” (22:40).  You can’t truly love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind unless you also love your neighbor.

You know that Luke’s account of this dialog between Jesus and the scribe continues with the scribe’s asking Jesus who is his neighbor.  Obviously, the word means more than the person who lives next-door to you.  In 1st-century Judaism, most would have taken it to mean one’s fellow Jew.  But Jesus answers in Luke with the parable of the Good Samaritan.  One’s neighbor is any fellow human being, especially one in desperate need.  So Jesus’ meaning for “neighbor” aligns with the teaching of Exodus:  anyone like an alien—an immigrant—a defenseless widow or child, a poor laborer is one’s neighbor.

This understanding of the OT teaching and of Jesus’ teaching underlies the Church’s teaching on social justice, the social doctrine of the Church, which has been laid out by St. Paul, by the Fathers of the Church like Ambrose and John Chrysostom, by the Popes for 129 years, by the 2d Vatican Council, and by countless bishops all over the world.

Our practice of social justice, our love for our neighbor, begins at home:  with our families.  Our household chores, like cooking, cleaning, laundry, yardwork, taking out the trash, changing a diaper, reading a bedtime story to a child, shuttling kids to soccer or music practice—these are practical acts of love for those immediate neighbors who are our spouses, children, siblings, elderly parents.  Looking after a next-door neighbor who needs help with shopping or maintenance or a ride to a doctor, likewise.

We are obliged by what Jesus teaches to care for wider society’s unfortunates, in our own country and on other continents:  single mothers, the unborn, refugees, the victims of natural disasters, the homeless, the hungry, those who can’t find work, those without educational opportunities, the persecuted, those who are exploited by unscrupulous employers, businesses, landowners, government officials, or human traffickers.  In Jesus’ parable of the rich man and the poor beggar at his doorstep, the rich man lands in hell because he ignored the beggar (Luke 16:19-31).  We can’t be selfish, can’t ignore the needy, either as individual disciples of Jesus or as a democratic, self-governing society.

The Exodus passage concludes:  “If [your poor neighbor] cries out to me, I will hear him; for I am compassionate” (22:27).  When we show compassion to anyone in need—a family member, an immigrant, the victim of a disaster or of prejudice, the oppressed of the Third World—we’re acting like God; we’re being godlike—for the Lord is compassionate.

Homily for Mission Sunday

Homily for Mission Sunday
29th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Oct. 18, 2020
Ps 96: 1, 3-5, 7-10
Is 45: 1, 4-6
St. Pius X, Scarsdale, N.Y.[1]

“Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all you lands” (Ps 96: 1).

Salesian sisters' choir at profession Mass, 2012

We observe World Mission Sunday this weekend, calling upon all the peoples of the world to sing the praises of the Lord God, to “tell his glory among the nations” (96:3).

Psalm 96, like all the psalms, originated among God’s chosen people—this particular psalm, apparently in the years after the Jews’ restoration to their land and to their holy city, Jerusalem, thru the graciousness of the Persian ruler Cyrus, “whose hand” the Lord “grasped and subdued nations before him … so that toward the rising and the setting of the sun people may know that there is no other” than the God of Israel, no other who rules the earth and orders all things according to his own mind and his own plan (Is 45:1,6).

That the Lord’s holy name should be recognized and honored from one end of the earth to the other, from the rising of the sun to its setting, is the mission of Israel; and since the coming of Israel’s Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ, is the mission of his people.  As Pope Francis says in his message for this year’s Mission Sunday, we are all on mission in the world.  “This missionary mandate touches us personally,” Francis says.  “I am a mission, always; you are a mission, always; every baptized man and woman is a mission.”

We begin to fulfill that mission by “singing to the Lord a new song,” singing of the salvation that he’s wrought for us thru the death and resurrection of Jesus.  The Church proclaims thruout the world that Jesus is our savior, that he forgives our sins, that he calls us to eternal life alongside himself in his Father’s kingdom.  We proclaim this when we celebrate the Eucharist and in our teaching and preaching whenever we have the opportunity to do so.  We proclaim this when we live in the manner that Jesus teaches us, by “shining like lights in the world as [we] hold onto the word of life” (Alleluia verse) and by living as faithful citizens in our public lives and faithful adherents to God’s law—paying to Caesar what’s his and God what’s his (cf. Matt 22:21).

The Church is on mission in the world.  So, while we begin our worship “to give the Lord glory and praise” and “the glory due his name,” and to “bring gifts and enter his” temple (Ps 96:7-8), we’re also commanded to proclaim the Lord’s glory and the salvation of Jesus to the wider world, “among all peoples.”  There are some ways in which we can do that.

The 1st way is by prayer, by praying for the Gospel to be spread, “that Christ’s saving work may continue to the end of the ages,” praying “that from all the peoples on earth one family and one people of [God’s] own may arise and increase,” as we pray this morning.  Let this prayer not be only an annual concern, on Mission Sunday, but a regular part of our prayer, that missionaries may effectively make Christ known and loved, and that the hearts of people who don’t know Christ may be moved by grace to welcome his word and to believe; that he be known and believed on college campuses, on social media, in the world of science and technology, in political life, in the arts.

The 2d way is by giving material support to missionary efforts, whether the so-called “home missions” or the foreign missions; in places where the Gospel once flourished, such as the nations of Europe, North America, and Australia, which have largely become mission territory again, and in places where the seed of the Gospel is still trying to plant itself for the 1st time, in Africa, Asia, and the Amazon.

The 3d way is by becoming missionaries or by encouraging others to become missionaries.  On Friday, the pandemic notwithstanding, the Salesians gave the missionary cross (in a virtual rite) to 4 young men and women who will be Salesian Lay Missioners this year in Bolivia, Papua New Guinea, and a home mission.  The Holy Father reminds us, “Today too, the Church needs men and women who, by virtue of their Baptism, respond generously to the call to leave behind home, family, country, language, and local Church, and to be sent forth to the nations, to a world not yet transformed by the sacraments of Jesus Christ and his holy Church.”  Such missionaries do what the psalmist urges:  “Say among the nations: The Lord is king, he governs the peoples fairly and justly” (96:10).
May we faithfully do that right in our own home, among our own families.

---

   [1] Adapted for the Christian Brothers at Iona College, New Rochelle.

Homily for Memorial of St. Teresa of Avila

Homily for the Memorial of
St. Teresa of Avila

Thursday, Week 28 of Ordinary Time
Oct. 15, 2020
Collect
Provincial House, New Rochelle, N.Y.

Based on Benedict XVI, Holy Men and Women of the Middle Ages and Beyond: General Audiences (San Francisco: Ignatius, 2012), pp. 185-192.

“O God, thru your Spirit you raised up St. Teresa of Jesus to show the Church the way to seek perfection…” (Collect).

In the 1st reading, Paul teaches that God chose us before the world was created “to be holy and without blemish before him” (Eph 1:4).  Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada from Avila came to that realization early in life, well before she entered Carmel.  She tells us in her autobiography that she recognized 2 fundamentals:  “All things of this world will pass away,” and God alone is forever.

In that light, she writes elsewhere, “Let nothing disturb you.  Let nothing frighten you.  Whoever has God lacks nothing; God alone suffices.”

As she matured, Teresa nurtured her spiritual life on the Scriptures, the Fathers, and reflection on her own experience of God’s mercies and of Christ’s friendship.  This was the basis of her writings and for her prayer.  [Cf. Bernini’s St. Teresa in Ecstasy.]

But her busy, reforming life rested also on the evangelical counsels and such human virtues as affability, truthfulness, modesty, courtesy, cheerfulness, and culture.  She was staunchly faithful to the Church during the turmoil of the Church’s reform and her own reform of the Carmelites, and she backed up St. John of the Cross in his reform of the men.  (They say that behind every great man is a great woman.)

When Paul VI named both Teresa and Catherine of Siena doctors of the Church, the 1st women so exalted, it demonstrated that even without ordination women have, and merit, a powerful place in the Church and in Christian life.