Salesians Dream Big to Heal War Wounds

Salesians Dream Big to Heal War Wounds

(ANS – Lviv, Ukraine – July 22, 2024) – Ukraine is going through a very difficult period in its history. Unfortunately, war always brings great pain, and many young people lose their lives, while many others will forever bear the signs of violence on their bodies. The Salesians are always close to the neediest, as can be seen in all the work they do with refugees and displaced persons, with the poor, the sick, and the disabled. It has already been almost a year since the Salesians in the Vice Province of Greek-Catholic Ukraine (UKR) launched the first soccer team in the whole country to be made up of young people who have limb amputations due to war. A month ago the Salesians also started the first team for children and youths with amputations.

Thanks to the support of the Don Bosco Salesian Mission Office in Bonn, these sports activities for children and youths are developing very well and the number of their participants is increasing.

During this year, a professional team has been created that is able to give its contribution and advice to those looking to start working in this field. “Every day several of our rehabilitation specialists, coaches, and psychologists work together to help young people overcome this difficult time and find a new balance in life, find an activity that they like, that gives them hope,” Fr. Myhkhaylo Chaban, superior of UKR, says.

In this way the Salesians have become the point of reference for the whole of Ukraine. The central soccer association for amputees at European level, through its president, Mateusz Widlak, is expressing its closeness and supports the various Salesian initiatives. To promote this type of sport, to make it better known, the Pokrova Salesian team (which takes its name from the title of the most venerated Madonna in the country, “Our Lady of All Protection”), is participating in the Polish national championship. (Latin-rite Salesians belong to the Krakow Province.) The desire of the UKR Salesians, however, would be to start a soccer league for amputees in Ukraine. Meanwhile, following the example of the Salesians, a few months ago two other teams were created in Ukraine: Shakhtar Stalevi of Donetsk and Dnipro Cherkasy.

“In the weekend that has just passed, we organized a great and first event for the whole of Ukraine,” Fr. Chaban said. We’ve hosted these teams in our Salesian center: for formation, play, training, and a recreational moment. The purpose was to get to know each other, to dream of a future together. In these three days we have also organized formation for people who would like to create soccer teams for amputees in their cities.”

From the different cities of Ukraine, in fact, several managers participated who will start these activities in the near future. The Salesians have become a center where it is possible to prepare well for work with youths and children who have lived through the horrors of war.

“And with the new Salesian Sports and Rehabilitation Center that we are planning near Lviv and that we hope we will be able to achieve soon, we want to offer a place of hope for many young people, young people and families” concludes the Superior of UKR.

Homily for 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
16th Sunday of Ordinary Time

July 21, 2024
Mark 6: 30-34
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx

“His heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd” (Mark 6: 34).

The Good Shepherd
(fresco, catacombs)

Sheep and shepherds are the main theme in today’s Scriptures.  You and I don’t know much about sheep or shepherds.  The only sheep around here are at the Bronx Zoo.  I think there are a few also on farms up in Westchester County.

Sheep aren’t particularly bright; I hope that’s not why God calls us his flock.  They’re prone to wandering off if not closely managed by a shepherd; that’s more like us, who find it hard always to focus on God.  They’re vulnerable to wild animals like the wolf Jesus speaks of in John ch. 10 (v. 12) or the lions and bears David fought off while watching his family’s flock (1 Sam 17:34-36).  St. Peter warns us, “Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Pet 5:8).

So we need the guidance and protection of a good shepherd.  Jesus identifies himself as that good shepherd in John 10.  In today’s gospel he demonstrates his care for his followers.  He’s moved with pity, Mark says, with compassion, even tho both he and his apostles are tired and looking for rest, so beleaguered they can’t even manage a decent meal (6:31).

What does our compassionate Lord do for the vast crowd that comes to him?  Mark tells us today that “he began to teach them many things” (6:34).  Next week we’ll hear what else he did:  feeding the vast crowd with 5 barley loaves and 2 fish.  Jesus teaches, and Jesus feeds.  Like the shepherd in Ps 23, he refreshes souls with spiritual food (v. 3), and he spreads a table before his people (v. 5).

Jesus continues to care for his flock.  He teaches us in 3 ways.  1st, he speaks to us in the Sacred Scriptures.  We need to listen to him teaching us—not only when we come to Mass but also by taking up our Bibles at home and reading them, absorbing their contents.

2d, Jesus speaks to us thru the Church that he founded, which provides sound teaching of God’s truth and God’s way of living.  The Church, after all, wrote the Scriptures—the gospels, the letters of the apostles, and even the Old Testament, which comes from God’s people before Christ.  The Church, further, determined which ancient writings were divinely inspired and belonged in the Bible, and which didn’t.  And Jesus promised to remain with us “always, until the end of the age” (Matt 28:20), and the powers of hell will not overcome the Church (Matt 16:18).  The Church, led by Christ, continues to teach us truth, e.g., about God’s love for every human being, and moral living, e.g., on war and peace and the right use of our sexuality.

3d, Jesus speaks to us in prayer.  Our prayer is partly the words we speak to God and the saints—with customary prayers like the Our Father and Hail Mary, and prayers that rise directly from our hearts in our own words, or as St. Paul says, “with sighs too deep for words” (Rom 8:26)—about our joys and our sorrows; and prayer’s partly what God says to us in our hearts when we open them up to him.

So, there you have 3 ways in which Jesus our Good Shepherd continues to teach his flock:  Scripture, Church, and prayer.  Next week he’ll feed his followers with physical bread, leading up to his teaching about spiritual bread:  his own body and blood, the Holy Eucharist, the food that nourishes us as we journey toward eternal life.

Homily for Memorial of St. Camillus de Lellis

Homily for the Memorial of
St. Camillus de Lellis
Thursday, Week 15 of O.T.

Collect
Is 26: 7-9, 12, 16-19
July 18, 2024
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

God “adorned the priest St. Camillus with a singular grace of charity toward the sick,” the collect acclaims.  In that prayer, we ask God to give us “a spirit of love” for both God himself and our neighbor, a love that will enable us to pass safely to eternal life like Camillus.  If we are wrapped in love, or rapt in love, we’ll come safely into the eternal presence of Love.

Some of you carry out a ministry toward the sick or the infirm.  In fact, all of you do, the ministry of attentiveness to the needs and concerns of your neighbor, your brother—and not only the brother in this same house but also of your brothers thruout the province and the congregation; and not only those who are sick or elder or who have special needs, but those too who labor (cf. Matt 11:28) to carry out the mission given them by our Lord Jesus.

We pray constantly that “the way of the just” may be made smooth and level (Is 26:7), that all our brothers and sisters whose spirits keep vigil for the Lord might bring an element of the Lord’s justice, mercy, and light into our world (26:9).  This is a grace of charity open to all of us, besides the daily charity of attentiveness and concern here among us.

Changing Lives, One Person at a Time

Changing Lives, One Person at a Time

(ANS – Freetown, Sierra Leone – July 12, 2024) – More than almost any other place on Earth, youths in Sierra Leone struggle to survive because of the consequences of abject poverty. Yet amid overwhelming adversity, there’s hope for something better, and it starts at Don Bosco Fambul.

Don Bosco Fambul is one of the country’s leading child welfare organizations—providing food, clothing, shelter, educational opportunities, counseling, crisis intervention, and family reunification services for an estimated 2,500 street children each year. Salesians and staff that run this center provide these important services in close partnership with local authorities, who rely on the Salesians’ expertise and shared commitment.

“Despite Sierra Leone’s constitutional guarantee to protect and educate its children, there simply aren’t enough government resources to help vulnerable children,” explains Fr. Michael Conway, director of Salesian Missions in New Rochelle. “That’s where Don Bosco Fambul steps in—changing lives one step, and one young person, at a time.”

Such transformation starts at the street level—literally—with Don Bosco Mobil.

Officially established in 2010 as the primary contact point for many of Don Bosco Fambul’s beneficiaries, the Don Bosco on Wheels outreach bus travels to Freetown’s most notorious neighborhoods. They offer meals, clean clothes, showers, and basic health care to children living and working on the streets. Staff also educate these children about Don Bosco Fambul’s full complement of programs so that—if and when youths are ready to make a change—they know where to turn for help.

“It’s not hard to imagine the skepticism and fear among homeless youths who spend their days dodging exploitation and abuse,” Fr. Mike says. “That’s why the staff who operate Don Bosco on Wheels invests considerable time into gaining the confidence and trust of vulnerable youths.”

That’s how Titus, now 19, learned about Don Bosco Fambul. He first began spending time on the streets when he was just 7 years old—a coping mechanism for escaping dire poverty and despair at home. Rather than return to his parents after school, he would roam the sidewalks and alleyways of Freetown until midnight. Sometimes, he would steal money in order to eat—which led to his being kicked out of the house permanently.

For 2 years, young Titus fended for himself … and then Don Bosco Mobil rolled into his life.

Initially, staff worked with Titus and his family in hope of reunifying them. When those efforts didn’t succeed, he entered Don Bosco Fambul’s Group Home for boys, where he received the support he needed to reshape his future.

And the results are tangible. Missionaries at the Group Home report that Titus is a lector, an altar server, a brass band player, a baker, a practicing tailor, and a singer! He is also enrolled in Milton Margai Technical University, with plans to become a social worker so that he can help more kids like himself.

Titus is just one of the young people who have found new hope at Don Bosco Fambul. Thanks to caring people, many more precious children will be rescued from the streets.

Source: Salesian Missions

Youth Meeting in World's Coldest City

Youth Meeting in the Coldest City in the World

(ANS – Yakutsk, Russia – July 16, 2024) – The 26th Far Eastern Youth Conference took place in Yakutia from July 7 to 14. This is a meeting of the eastern part of the diocese of St. Joseph based in Irkutsk, the largest Catholic diocese in the world in terms of area. More than 30 participants from different parishes, hundreds of miles apart, met in the Salesian house in Yakutsk. The theme of the meeting was the search for the vocation and dream of God for each person, in connection with the Rector Major’s 2024 Strenna. In speeches and informal moments, witness talks were presented about the vocation of priests, religious, Salesian Cooperators, active lay people, and also the testimony of a missionary volunteer. Invited guest Oleg Voskresensky enriched the program with a series of talks on the historical-scientific foundations of the Christian faith. Conference participants learned the history of the city of Yakutsk, the largest city in the world built on perennially frozen ground. They visited the Kingdom of Eternal Ice and the Mammoth Museum. The event took place in Yakutsk as part of the double jubilee; this year the city marks 30 years since the arrival of the Salesians and the establishment of the parish, and also 15 years since the consecration of the only Catholic church in the Yakutia territory.

(Jan Krupa, SDB)

 

Homily for Tuesday, Week 15 of Ordinary Time

Homily for Tuesday
15th Week of Ordinary Time
Memorial of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel

Is 7: 1-9
July 16, 2024                                       
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

Isaiah meets Ahaz
by Benn Matthew, https://medium.com/@benn29

Isaiah said to Ahaz, “Take care you remain tranquil and do not fear” (Is 7: 4).  Ahaz, king of Judah, faced an ungodly alliance of his Israelite cousins in the northern kingdom and the Gentile Arameans (Syrians).  To defend Jerusalem, Ahaz was about to invoke help from Assyria, effectively making Judah a vassal of that brutal pagan empire.

Isaiah tried to dissuade Ahaz, urging him to turn to God rather than the ruthless power of Assyria.  In this context Isaiah invited the king to ask for a sign from God in the verses immediately after today’s passage.  When Ahaz stubbornly demurred, the prophet gave him a sign anyway, that the young woman (the literal meaning of the Hebrew almah) would conceive and bear a son (7:14).

Ahaz lacked faith in God’s plans for Judah and for David’s dynasty, and in God’s prophet, as much as Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum lacked faith in Christ’s works and message (Matt 11:20-24).  God’s word in Christ and his activity in the virgin mother of Jesus invite us to have faith:  faith that “God upholds his city forever” (responsory).  Each of us is a city of God, a “holy mountain, fairest of heights,” (Ps 48:2-3), a joy to our Lord Jesus, precious to him.  He fortifies us with the maternal protection of Mary (collect) so that we may be kept safe from the conspiracies of Satan and his earthly allies.  “Take care and remain tranquil and do not fear,” for God is with us (cf. Is 7:14).

May we stand firm (cf. Is 7:9) with Christ and Mother Mary in keeping faith, resisting sin, and loving our brothers and sisters.

Homily for Memorial of St. Benedict

Homily for the Memorial
of St. Benedict
Thursday, 14th Week of Ordinary Time

Year II
July 11, 2024
Collect
Hos 11: 1-4, 8-9
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

The collect for St. Benedict stresses love for God.  That was the core of his life and of his teaching.

St. Benedict of Nursia
Writing the Benedictine Rule
(Hermann Nigg)

He was born a few years after the collapse of the Roman Empire.  Western civilization descended into political, social, and moral chaos.  Benedict fled that.  How appropriate that today’s 1st reading states, “Out of Egypt I called my son” (Hos 11:1).  God “taught Ephraim to walk, took them in [his] arms” (11:3), and that’s what he did thru Benedict for the reconstruction of civilization in Europe, drawing him and succeeding generations “with bands of love” (11:4).

Benedict and the monastic community that grew up around him focused their lives on “divine service,” as the collect says.  That meant prayer, especially the Liturgy of the Hours, and hard, self-sustaining work.  Thus the motto “Work and Prayer.”  Their prayer centered them on God but interceded for the world.  Their work was their livelihood but enhanced the world around them.  The word monk may be rooted in solitude, separation from the world.  But Benedict’s monks offered a “school of divine service,” teaching their neighbors not only how to pray but also how to improve their fields and to learn artisanal skills and to study.  They laid the foundation for a new civilization in Europe.  That’s why St. John Paul II declared Benedict one of the continent’s patron saints.

Benedict XVI recognized Benedict as the patron of his pontificate.[1]  He also recognized in our time a decline of European civilization like that in the 6th century.  Europe, he lamented, has lost its Christian roots.  We see new forms of political, social, and moral chaos, and not only in Europe.  The solution now is the same as in the 6th century:  to seek God alone, to love God above all else, and to share that love with our brothers and sisters.  “The great monk,” Benedict XVI believed, “is still a true master at whose school we can learn to become proficient in true humanism”[2]—a humanism that knows who we are and what a great destiny God has chosen us for.

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[1] Benedict XVI, public audience, April 9, 2008, in Church Fathers and Teachers from Saint Leo the Great to Peter Lombard (San Francisco: Ignatius, 2010), p. 19.

[2] Ibid., p. 24.

Don Bosco Volunteers Central Council Meets

Central Council of the Don Bosco Volunteers Meets

(ANS - Krakow, Poland – July 10, 2024) - The central council of the Don Bosco Volunteers met in Krakow from July 3 to 14 for their summer session. They devoted an extended time to the animation work of the Institute. A whole day was dedicated to meeting with a large group of DBVs from Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. The joyful sharing, sisterhood, and communication of their experiences, with simplicity and spontaneity, strengthened the sense of belonging and the family spirit among them all.

The Don Bosco Volunteers are a female secular institute founded in 1917 by Blessed Philip Rinaldi. They number over 1,000 worldwide, including a small number in the U.S. and Canada. The Institute is one of the more than 30 groups that belong officially to the Salesian Family.

Overnite at Island Pond

Overnite at Island Pond

On Thursday afternoon, July 4, to Friday morning, I camped out at Island Pond in Harriman State Park.  It was hot and humid with a couple of brief rain showers during the nite and another while I was preparing breakfast.

The parking lot on Kanawauke Rd. was full, but few hikers were going to Island Pond (which surprised me).  The hike from the parking lot to the pond takes about an hour if you're not hurrying and is slightly uphill.

I met 2 day hikers and a dog coming out, found a couple at the pond finishing up a swim (followed by blueberry picking), and much later a half dozen (or so) young adults arrived.  The YAs camped in the woods off the trail at a place Fr. Mulloy and I have used.  I camped, instead, in the ruins of the old ranger cabin.  Everyone tried out the water--which I found bathtub warm for the top inch or 2 on the surface, pleasantly chilled below that.

My supper was 1 large hot dog--the same as those prepared by Fr. Mike Conway for the house cookout--plus some trail mix and dried fruit, washed down with Crystal Lite.  Breakfast was hot granola with dried fruit, washed down with coffee.

Island Pond from the cabin ruins

I gathered some firewood by the fireplace.  But it was too warm to think about actually kindling a fire.  Maybe the smoke would have helped ward off the insects, which were nasty.  I came home with a lot of bites.  A head net I'd bought in Champaign in anticipation of a trip with Troop 9 to the Boundary Waters but had never used (because I moved before the trip) worked wonderfully well, and so did repellant.  I should've used more of the latter.

There were a lot of fireworks coming from (I think) 2 places, possibly Tuxedo and Arden or Harriman.  I couldn't see them--chiefly because I was so tired that I went to bed before 8 o'clock!  I couldn't even stay up to read. 

The window view during Mass rivals the view at Villa Maria overlooking Eastchester Bay.

Carefree Summer Camp for Syrian Children

Carefree Summer Camp for Syrian Children

Thanks to the Salesians

(ANS – Damascus – July 10, 2024) – Don Bosco World has taken the place of Don Bosco Space as the theme of the summer camps that the Salesian houses in Aleppo, Damascus, and Kafroun are offering this year to almost 3,000 youngsters for about a month and a half. In the midst of the difficult economic and social situation of the country, which has been at war for 13 years, and with the effects of the devastating earthquake last year, the Salesians continue to transform their environments into “oases of peace” where joy and hope reign thanks to the educational, recreational, shared living, and religious dynamics that they lead, actively involving hundreds of young youth center leaders.

From 9 to 17 years old, almost 3,000 children and about 400 older youths are involved this year in the summer camps organized in Syria by the Salesians from the Province of the Middle East. The houses in Aleppo, Damascus, and Kafroun host the participants for a month and a half, divided by age group and with a busy program in which leisure, recreation, sports, excursions, theater, moments of catechesis and knowledge of Don Bosco’s work create a great atmosphere of conviviality and joy.

None of the participants can forget the critical situation that the country has suffered for years due to the war, and which was aggravated by the effects of last year’s earthquakes; but within the Salesian camps, young people “receive the opportunity to have fun, learn, and even overcome their traumas. It is a great source of hope for all of them,” says Rania, one of the young people responsible for summer activities in Aleppo.

Dozens of university students active in the youth center and many parents who are involved in the pastoral activities of the Salesian houses and who are the leaders in the camps have spent months preparing and setting up the spaces and activities for this year’s camps, which have “Don Bosco World” as their theme. While last year the theme was “Don Bosco Space,” with a journey through his life up to the Dream at Nine Years of Age, this year the theme will continue the life of the Founder of the Salesian Congregation and will focus on the period from when he entered the seminary until his priestly ordination.

Due to the high temperatures, the days together start in the afternoon, at three o’clock, and continue until nine in the evening. The recreational activities take place every week (including moments in the pool and excursions in the mountains) and integrate together the fundamental dimensions of Salesian work such as home, playground, school, and parish, without forgetting theater, singing, and spirituality.

“These summer camps are hope that goes straight to the heart, and that is reflected on their faces, because the family situation is unsustainable, with very low salaries and inflation that does not allow you to buy much,” explains Joseph, one of the heads of activities in Damascus.

The biggest expenses for these camps are those related to transport: 5 buses in Aleppo, 3 in Damascus, and 8 minibuses in Kafroun pick up most of the participants every day from the areas farthest from the city. “If we didn’t do so, they wouldn’t come, because the distances are too great and the costs too high; but that is why we do everything so that they don’t lack anything and enjoy the oasis of peace of Don Bosco in the summer,” concludes Mateo, a Salesian volunteer.

Source: Salesian Missions

Homily for Tuesday, Week 14 of Ordinary Time

Homily for Tuesday
14th Week of Ordinary Time
Memorial of the Chinese Martyrs

July 9, 2024
Matt 9: 32-38
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

Jesus today drives a demon out of a possessed man (Matt 9:32-33).  On this memorial of 120 Chinese martyrs, we may recall that the greater number of them were slain during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, when ultra-nationalist Chinese intended to drive all the "foreign devils" out of their country.  They made missionaries of all faiths a main target, more easily targeted than merchants and consular officials in large cities; cf. the 1963 epic 55 Days at Peking (starring Charlton Heston).  The Christian faithful, too, were targeted:  foreign and native, young and old, men and women, clergy and laity.  It was a kind of perversion, given that so many of the missionaries were, like Jesus, going around towns and villages, teaching and curing diseases (cf. 9:35) thru schools and clinics, as well as proclaiming the Gospel.

The harvest for God’s laborers was abundant in China and remains abundant today, everywhere (9:37)—a poor world wracked by interminable violence, hunger, poverty, and lack of schooling and real health care.  The world demonically calls killing “health care” and sexual perversion “human rights” and attacks churches, religious imagery, and pro-life centers.

We can only take up “the confession of the martyrs” and be “faithful to the mission entrusted to” us, witnessing “to the truth before the world” (Collect)—the truth that Jesus is Lord, and thru us extends his compassion toward all who are troubled and abandoned and in need of a shepherd’s care (Matt 9:36), in whatever way we can be present to his sheep, as Francis encourages us, and always commending the sheep to the Lord and to public concern.

Homily for 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
14th Sunday of Ordinary Time

July 7, 2024
2 Cor 12: 7-10
Villa Maria, Bronx
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx

“My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12: 9).

It may be hard for us to think that the saints were weak men and women, men and women who had faults, sometimes exercised poor judgment, struggled with temptation, even sinned.  For instance, many people were astounded to learn from her letters that Mother Teresa lived for years in darkness, without experiencing the warm closeness of Jesus.  It was a form of human weakness which, however, didn’t shake her faith that God did indeed love her and that she was doing his work when she cared for the most abandoned people of Calcutta and founded a congregation of sisters to do that ministry around the world—even on East 145th Street in the Bronx.

(source unknown)

St. Paul experienced God’s grace most dramatically when he was knocked off his feet and encountered the living Jesus on the road to Damascus; none of the 3 accounts of his conversion in the Acts of the Apostles mention a horse.  That grace turned him from a fiery persecutor of Christians into a bold preacher of the Gospel, the apostle to the Gentiles.

Yet not without weakness.  He writes to his friends in Corinth of “a thorn in the flesh, an angel of Satan, to beat me, to keep from being too elated” (12:7).  Many commentators have speculated on what that thorn was—some physical disease or weariness from his journeys (always on foot), some constant temptation, remorse over his anti-Christian past, grief that his ardent temperament alienated some people, an inner fear of the hatred and persecution he met in so many places.

We don’t have to know, only to know that it bothered him a lot but that the Lord assured him of grace, that altho the thorn couldn’t be removed, the power of Christ would overcome it.  Christ’s power is greater than anyone’s weakness.  Christ’s power is greater than all our sins.  So Paul could say he was “content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong” (12:10).  Someone who knows he or she is too weak to deal with life, too weak to resist temptation, too afraid to stand faithfully with Christ, too much of a sinner—that someone can turn to Christ for the power to face life, temptation, and fear and ask forgiveness.

In the years leading up to my ordination (a long time ago), I was quite aware of my sins, failings, and weaknesses, and I hesitated to go forward.  The DRE of the parish where I taught catechism had given me a poster with an Alpine image and a psalm verse on it:  “And they [Israel] remembered that God was their strength” (78:35).  I referred to that constantly and eventually put it on my ordination memorial card.  Acknowledging my weakness, as St. Paul did, makes room for God to bring his grace into my life and, thru me, into the lives of others.

All of us have thorns in our flesh, temptations and challenges that discourage us.  If the saints did, should we be surprised?  Like the saints, we can turn to our Lord Jesus, who had not only one thorn but a crown of thorns; whose power overcame death and promises to overcome all our weaknesses and even our sins.  As we prayed in the collect, God’s Son was made low by taking on our human flesh and being made to suffer; thus he raised up our fallen world and rescues us from slavery to sin and offers us eternal gladness, everlasting life at his side (Collect).

Homily for Independence Day

Homily for Independence Day

July 4, 2024
Proper Texts
Col 3: 12-17
Matt 25: 31-46
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

Declaration of Independence (John Trumbull)
(U.S. Capitol)

Writing to his wife Abigail, John Adams predicted that Americans would celebrate the day in perpetuity:

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, shews, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of the continent to the other, from this time forward forever.[1]

He was half right, because he was writing of July 2, the day on which the Second Continental Congress voted independence.  The cut-and-dried resolution of July 2, tho, was fleshed out and given immortal voice by Jefferson’s verbal, philosophical justification for it, the Declaration adopted on July 4 after much debate and amendment (see 1776), tho not signed till a month later and beyond.

There’s an old saying that God looks after orphans, drunks, and the U.S.A.  No one’s sure of its origin.  Perhaps it sounds cynical.  But believers certainly may see God’s Providence in our history from colonial times—not only in the unlikely survival of Jamestown, Plymouth, and St. Augustine but also in consideration of various failures like North Carolina’s Lost Colony and the Pueblo uprising in New Mexico—thru our Revolutionary War, which in military calculation we had no business winning, thru Civil War and all the turmoil that you and I have lived thru:  the Cold War, the 60s, astronomical gasoline prices, Covid, etc.

St. Paul addresses the Colossians, a community that he never visited, as far as we know, as “God’s chosen ones” (3:12).  Americans tend to think of themselves, too, as God’s chosen ones.  Rather arrogantly, we proclaimed our “manifest destiny” to rule North America and serve as models of freedom and prosperity for the whole world.

Jesus tells us that much is expected of those to whom much is given (Luke 12:48).  Our liturgy today lays out our task:  “that, under your providence, our country may share your blessings with all the peoples of the earth” (Collect).  We’re to “be instruments of [divine] peace.”  In our tumultuous world, that’s our mission as a free and prosperous people.

Moreover, if we come at the mission as followers of Christ, “as God’s chosen ones,” then we are challenged, in Paul’s words, to be compassionate, humble, gentle, and patient (3:12) in our gratitude to God and our sharing of our blessings so that both our nation and the nations of the world might enjoy “the vision of our founding fathers” (Preface) and live as one family of God’s children.

Today’s gospel commands us to practice social justice, that best-kept secret of Catholic doctrine, at least individually.  Really, it’s a national command.  As Paul VI said, “If you want peace, work for justice.”[2]  So our nation welcomes refugees, “huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the homeless [and] tempest-tost,”[3] or ought to; and strives for just peace and protects the vulnerable around the world, or ought to; and is the quickest and most generous people in responding to natural disasters anywhere.  We don’t hoard our prosperity, altho “America Firsters” wish to, but multiply it by sharing it.  “May those who love you prosper!” says the Psalmist (122:6).  May we all prosper because God guides us and helps us to achieve what still remains to be done (Collect) in our nation and for all nations.

 

 

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[1] Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 3 July 1776, “Had a Declaration...” [electronic edition]. Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive. Massachusetts Historical Society. http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/

[2] Message for World Day of Peace, 1972.

[3] Emma Lazarus, “The New Colossus.”

Pope Francis Arena Opens in Liberia's Central Prison

The Pope Francis Arena Opens
in Liberia’s Central Prison

(ANS – Monrovia, Liberia – July 2, 2024) – There was great joy at the solemnity of the Sts. Peter and Paul, June 29, in the Central Prison in Monrovia, Liberia’s capital. The time without a sports facility is finally over. Thanks to the Salesians of Don Bosco, the multifunctional sports facility was built in the middle of the prison within 6 months. On this occasion, the festival community first met in the prison chapel to celebrate the Eucharist.

The apostolic nuncio for Liberia, Sierra Leone, and The Gambia, Abp. Walter Erbi, opened and then blessed the new sports facility. This was followed by the first team games in soccer, basketball, and volleyball. After the award ceremony, the square became a dance floor. Local music bands played and let the neighbors adjacent to the prison feel the joy of the inmates about the new arena.

Financier Peter Friemel from Germany initially moved himself: for years he has been getting on his bicycle and collecting money from sponsors and donors on his tours. The 85-year-old has already racked up a whopping €200,000. Finally, the director of the Salesian community in Monrovia, Fr. Augustine Okeke, gave an appraisal to the provincial of Anglophone North Province, Fr. Denis Soro, for his great support and encouragement to the Salesians working inside the prison.

The Monrovia Central Prison is constantly overcrowded due to the slow and sluggish work of the judiciary. While the prison was built for 325 inmates, today there are over 1,500 prisoners crammed into the narrow cells. Overcrowding in the central prison leads to a lack of food and water, a lack of hygiene standards, and a lack of psycho-social support. These in turn lead to increased aggression and frustration among prisoners, resulting in physical and mental illnesses and injuries (skin diseases, malnutrition, depression, etc.). There were no opportunities to play sports in the narrow area. Now, the new arena is primarily intended to promote sport and with that health.

The Salesians have been working in the social-pastoral area in prison since they arrived in the West African country in 1979. Today, they work in the prison every day from morning to evening with a diverse program. The malnourished receive a warm and nutritious meal, the sick receive medical assistance, children and young prisoners receive psycho-social care in a specially built living area, and those wrongly held prisoner receive free legal assistance from lawyers. What is particularly important, however, is the pastoral offering, which is strongly geared to the situation and needs of the prisoners: individual and group discussions, Bible lessons, the sacraments of the Eucharist and confession, as well as ecumenical prayer times.

Homily for Memorial of St. Junipero Serra

Homily for the Memorial of
St. Junipero Serra

July 1, 2024
Matt 8:18-22
Provincial House, New Rochelle, N.Y.

St. Junipero Serra
statue in U.S. Capitol

Junipero Serra committed himself to follow the Lord wherever that might lead him.  Always on the move—on foot, in spite of a permanently injured leg—he often lacked a place to rest his head.  He left family and culture—and a promising academic career—to go to New Spain as a missionary.  (See Matt 8:19-21.)  Eventually, he led the mission to settle Upper California, founding missions from San Diego to San Francisco.  He died at St. Charles Borromeo Mission in Carmel and is buried there.

Unlike the Israelites denounced by Amos today (2:6-10,13-16), Fray Junipero appreciated God’s gifts and shared them generously with the native people.  He encouraged but didn’t force conversion, he taught them useful skills, and he defended their human rights against the soldiers and other settlers.  He even hiked back to Mexico City—I don’t know where he started from, but it’s 1,750 miles from San Diego to Mexico City—to press the Indians’ rights with the governor.

He was austere with himself; his bed, preserved at Carmel, makes our camp beds look almost luxurious—and lived his motto “ever forward,” which he practiced on foot, advancing Spanish culture but above all Jesus Christ.  He models for us our educational and evangelical mission “to carry always and everywhere before all people the image” of God’s Son (Collect).

Message of the Rector Major for July-August

THE MESSAGE OF THE RECTOR MAJOR

Cardinal Angel Fernandez Artime, SDB

BETWEEN ADMIRATION AND PAIN

The Rector Major gives a Good Nite to Salesians
at Haverstraw, N.Y., in 2015,
assisted by Fr. Tim Ploch

I cordially greet all Don Bosco’s friends who come to Salesian media with interest. Don Bosco founded and loved very much the Salesian Bulletin so that he could make known what was happening in the Salesian houses around the world and the good that was being done in them.

Today, I greet you for the last time in this fashion. As of August 16, the day on which we commemorate Don Bosco’s birth (August 16, 1815), my service as Rector Major of the Salesians of Don Bosco ends. There’s always a reason to give thanks, always. Thank you! Thank you—to God, above all, to the Congregation and Salesian Family, to so many dear people, and to so many friends of Don Bosco’s charism, many of them benefactors.

I also want my greeting to transmit and connect with something I experienced recently. Therein lies the title of this greeting: “Between Admiration and Pain!”, because I’m going to refer to the joy that filled my heart in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, specifically in the region of Goma, nowadays beaten by and immersed in warfare, and the joy and testimony that I received yesterday. I’ll explain.

Three weeks ago I visited the Palabek refugee camp in Uganda. Fortunately, thanks to Salesian work and other help in these years, it has ceased to be a Sudanese refugee camp and has become a place where tens of thousands of people have settled and found new life.

Crossing through Rwanda, I arrived at the Congo border in the region of Goma. It’s a beautiful land, beautiful and rich in nature—which is the very reason it’s coveted in such a way that weapons “speak.” Sadly, due to armed conflicts, in that region there are more than a million displaced people who’ve had to leave their homes and their land. We Salesians also had to leave our presence of Sha-Shah because it was occupied militarily.

Youngsters at the Salesian center in Goma

These million displaced persons have come to Goma. In one of its neighborhoods, Ngangi, there’s the Salesian presence named “Don Bosco.” My joy was immense when I saw the good that’s done there. Hundreds of boys and girls have their home there. Several dozen teenagers have been brought off the streets and are living in Don Bosco’s house. Right there is the home for 82 babies—even newborns—and small children who’ve lost their parents or have been “abandoned” because the adults have no way to take care of their own children due to the war. There, in that other Valdocco, one of the many Valdoccos in the world, a community of 3 nuns from El Salvador, together with a group of ladies, takes care of those babies and little ones. All of them are supported by the Salesian house with the help that comes, thanks to the generosity of benefactors and of Providence, When I visited them, the sisters had dressed everyone for the party, even the babies sleeping in their cribs. How can we not feel our hearts full of joy in the face of this reality of goodness, despite the pain that abandonment and war produce?

But my heart was stricken when I met several hundred people who came to greet me during my visit. They’re among the 32,000 displaced people who’ve left their homes and land because of bombs and have come seeking refuge. They’ve found it on the playing fields and grounds of the Don Bosco house in Gangi. They have nothing. They live on a few square meters of land under tarps or cloth. This is their reality. Together we look for ways to find food every day.

But, do you know what impressed me the most? When I was with these hundreds of people, who are mostly elderly or mothers with children (most men haven’t ben able to come because of the armed conflict), they hadn’t lost their dignity, their joy, or their smile. I was amazed even while my heart grieved in the face of so much suffering and poverty, even though we’re doing our bit in the name of the Lord.

I felt even greater joy yesterday when I heard a life testimony that made me think of adolescents and young people in our places, and of the very many parents who perhaps read my messages and feel that their children are unmotivated, or bored with life, or hardly have passion for anything. Among the guests these days at Sacred Heart, the Salesian generalate in Rome, we had a visit from an extraordinary pianist who has traveled the world giving concerts and who has been part of great philharmonic orchestras. She’s a former student of the Salesians who looked up to a certain Salesian, who has since passed away, as a great reference point and role model. She wanted to offer us a concert in the atrium of the Sacred Heart Church as a tribute to Mary Help of Christians, whom she loves very much, in gratitude for her life up to now. I share this because our dear friend, who was accompanied by her daughter, gave us a wonderful concert, of exceptional quality—and she’s 81 years old! At that age, perhaps an age far past when some of the elders in our families say they no longer feel like planning or doing anything that involves effort, our dear friend, who practices her piano exercises daily, moved her hands with wonderful agility and was immersed in the beauty of the music and its execution. Time stopped for her in that hour. In her simple way, good music, a generous smile at the end of her performance, and the offering of some orchids to the Virgin Help of Christians was all we needed on that wonderful morning. My Salesian heart couldn’t help but think of those boys and girls and young people who perhaps haven’t had or no longer have anything to motivate them in their lives. She, our concert pianist friend, 81 years old, lives with a lot of peace and, as she told me, continues to offer the gift that God gave her. Every day she finds more reasons for it: another life lesson and another testimony that doesn’t leave the heart indifferent.

That’s why, my friends, I thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the good we’re doing together. No matter how little it is, it helps to make our world a little more human and more beautiful. May the good Lord bless you.

Homily for 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
13th Sunday of Ordinary Time

June 30, 2024
Wis 1: 13-15; 2: 23-24
Collect
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx

“God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living” (Wis 1: 13).

Vivek Murthy, Surgeon General

Last week the surgeon general of the United States suggested that gun violence in our country is a public health crisis, and we should tackle it the same way we did smoking.[1]

I suggest that our national problem lies deeper.  We’ve made human life cheap.  We’ve made it expendable.  We’ve commodified it.  We’ve made it a market product.

Is there anyone here who thinks his or her value as a person should depend on someone else’s opinion?  That someone else has the right to decide whether you may live?

In mid-20th century there was a regime that identified certain populations as subhuman and deserving of extermination.  The Nazis murdered 6 million Jews and another 6 million Poles and other Slavic people, Gypsies, communists, homosexuals, and handicapped people they considered undesirable and unfit to live.  All that was done legally by a democratically elected government.

In our time Iceland boasts that it’s eliminated the birth defect of Down’s syndrome.  How?  By aborting all unborn persons detected with that genetic defect:  not worthy of birth, not worthy of life.  So they say.  The same practice is very common in our country and all of so-called Western civilization.

By similar reasoning, a host of Western countries and U.S. states have legislated doctor-assisted suicide or euthanasia for people whose lives no longer have meaning or value because of age, illness, suffering, or even mental incapacity.  So they say. Sick or elderly people hasten death or are pressured to do so lest they become too burdensome—to themselves, or to their relatives.  (Ironically, Western society is struggling to deal with a crisis of adolescent suicide, which may be driven by depression and a sense of meaninglessness.)

The Word of God today tells us, “God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living.”  It goes on:  “God formed human beings to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made them.  But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world, and they who belong to his company experience it” (Wis 2:23-24).  Those who are avid for death—thru abortion, euthanasia, gun violence, or war, or who are careless about human life thru drug trafficking or the destruction of the environment in which we live—these are allies of the devil.  Last Wednesday Pope Francis “denounced drug traffickers as murderers.”[2]

In the prayer a little earlier, we noted that God “chose us to be children of light,” and we asked that “we may not be wrapped in the darkness of error but always be seen to stand in the bright light of truth.”  Standing in truth contrasts us with the Devil, whom Jesus labeled “a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).  The Devil’s allies sell us the lie that inconvenient people are expendable:  people who were conceived accidentally, people who have birth defects, people who aren’t the desired sex (in Asia it’s common to abort girls, and at least one recent mass shooting targeted women), people who aren’t the same ethnicity (a cause of war and genocide and some mass shootings), people who practice a different religious faith or moral code (religious violence and targeting gays).

The Garden of Eden & the Fall of Man
Peter Paul Rubens & Jan Brueghel the Elder

In this election year, abortion is a significant issue.  The Devil’s allies tell us that an unborn human being isn’t fully human or is just a clump of cells, so disposing of it is simply about “choice.”  The Devil’s allies tell us the issue is reproductive health.  Well, reproduction happens as soon as the male and female cells unite.  That’s not a religious opinion.  That’s not a Catholic truth.  It’s basic biology.  They don’t want to prevent reproduction.  They want to kill what already exists—a human being.

The logic of the Devil’s allies is that if you desire a child, it has dignity and value.  If you don’t desire it, it’s worthless; it’s a problem; it’s disposable.  Pope Francis compares abortionists to Mafia hitmen.

A similar logic drives the market to create children in a laboratory.  You know there’s been debate recently about in vitro fertilization.  The Catholic Church has regarded IVF as immoral since it was developed 50 years ago.  IVF, and surrogate motherhood too, commodify children.  They make human beings manufactured products.  In IVF, fertilized eggs that aren’t perfect are disposed of as so much waste product.  Surplus eggs are put into cold storage like a side of beef (but less visible), where they may remain for years, be fought over in court, and eventually destroyed.  Is that God’s plan for human beings?

God doesn’t rejoice in the destruction of the living.  He formed us to be imperishable.  He has an eternal destiny for every one of us; every one of us is created in his image.  No one is a meaningless clump of cells; in God’s eyes no one is defective or disposable.  To quote our Lord Jesus again, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).  He demonstrated that twice in today’s gospel, restoring life to a dead child and healing a woman whose bleeding made her socially and religiously handicapped.  Finally, he demonstrated it by his own resurrection—in which we will share.  He made us in his image, imperishable.

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[1] https://www.hhs.gov/surgeongeneral/priorities/firearm-violence/index.html.

[2] Reported by Nicole Winfield, AP, June 26: https://apnews.com/article/vatican-pope-drugs-un-98ada486bb7a12c112884dbf5945cf78.