Fr. Angel Fernandez Visits Salesian Family in Montreal

Fr. Angel Fernandez Visits Salesian Family in Montreal

by Fr. Richard Authier, SDB

Photos by Fr. Alain Leonard, SDB

(Montreal – September 9) – When we first heard that the Rector Major would not be able to visit the USA, we were saddened for our confreres and the Salesian Family. When we heard that the Rector Major would be coming to Montreal, we were filled with joy.

Fr. Angel Fernandez (center) with the Salesian communities of Montreal and Sherbrooke; he’s embracing 

Bro. Gerard Richard, senior confrere of the entire New Rochelle Province.

Truly, JOY was the highlight of Fr. Angel’s visit on September 7-8. Upon his arrival on Friday afternoon, we took him to the most famous of all Canadian restaurants, Tim Horton’s, for a quick sandwich lunch. Then he was off to do an interview with Sel & Lumière, the French-speaking branch of Salt and Light. Even the interviewer was impressed with Fr. Angel’s humility, joy, and straightforwardness on youth and faith issues.  See http://seletlumieretv.org/blogfeed/getpost.php?id=21954, starting at 18:29; they speak Italian, and there are (shorter) French subtitles.

Saturday morning’s first important moment was a two-hour gathering with the Salesians of Sherbrooke and Montreal. Fr. Angel shared with us his conviction that presently the Salesian Congregation is in a very good place. Communities and confreres are in general very serene and committed. The Congregation worldwide is greatly appreciated for all we do for the young, especially the neediest, in so many dreadful places of suffering. He also spoke very openly about some of our challenges. Many of these challenges are those shared by all consecrated life in today’s Church.

The FMAs of Montreal and Cornwall--without the RM.

After lunch, Fr. Angel met with the Salesian sisters of Montreal and Cornwall, Ont. Their joy and enthusiasm were contagious. The final event of the visit was a 4:00 p.m. encounter with youths, lay collaborators, and Salesian Family members. We succeeded in a very short time in bringing together about 150 people. This session began with a mime done by youths of the Don Bosco Youth Leadership Centre. Then followed a talk by Fr. Angel, the celebration of the Eucharist in three languages, and a light buffet supper. Before and during supper, Fr. Angel was an “angel of patience” in letting so many take personal pictures with him!

Youth mime presents challenges of the young today.

Fr. Angel shared a lot of his impressions from his visit to Aleppo, Syria, and how this Salesian presence in a warzone represents the best of who we Salesians are. [Ed. note: It seems to have been this pastoral visit to Syria in April that caused the U.S. departments of State and Homeland Security to deny the Rector Major authorization to visit.] He also encouraged all not to be “complainers” but “doers of good,” no matter how hopeless a situation may seem. In his homily at Mass, Fr. Angel asked everyone the following question: “Do you really believe that God comes to save you, and do you open your sometimes-broken heart to Him?”

The Salesian Family of Quebec (and Cornwall) is very grateful to Fr. Angel for his visit. As Don Bosco’s tenth successor, he is really filled with our Founder’s spirit and heart. The Salesians are grateful to the young people and Salesian Family members for showing up with so much joy and energy, as well as to the “last minute team” that helped put together the wonderful day of September 8. “Viva Don Bosco!”

The Rector Major with young people.

Homily for 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
24th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Mark 8: 27-35

St. Theresa, Bronx
Sept. 11, 1988

“Jesus … asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that I am?’” (Mark 8: 27).

Who is Jesus?  The question comes up repeatedly in Mark’s Gospel.  In fact, his Gospel is designed as an answer to just that question.  Its 1st verse announces “the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,” builds to this scene at Caesarea Philippi, and climaxes with the centurion’s confession on Calvary:  “Truly this man was the Son of God” (15:39).

Peter confesses that Jesus is the Messiah

--unidentified stained glass (Wikipedia)

The Caesarea Philippi scene is a recognition scene—but a scene of recognition without understanding.  It’s not until we come to Calvary that recognition and understanding are reached.  Who is Jesus?  Seeing him dead on the cross, the centurion not only confesses, as Peter does today, but understands, as Peter plainly does not.

Generation after generation continues to ask who Jesus is.  That’s the core of the current film The Last Temptation of Christ.  It was the question Time posed in its cover story on the movie last month.  It’s such a fundamental question, because the answer needs regular reaffirmation, like the love between spouses.  You can’t say it just once and be done with it.

Who is Jesus?  The Gospel (as well as Kazantzakis’s novel and Scorsese’s film) answer that Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one of God come to save us and to inaugurate the reign of God, the messiah.

No sooner does Peter say this, presumably for all of Jesus’ disciples, than Jesus begins to teach that he must suffer and die.  Again Peter seems to speak for everyone, arguing and protesting.  How can God’s anointed one have that kind of a future?

Peter doesn’t understand.  The other disciples don’t understand.  I wonder whether you and I really understand.  If Christ must suffer, be rejected, and die, where does that leave us, his followers?  He tells us where it leaves us:  “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow in my steps” (8:34).

You don’t want to do that.  I don’t want to do that.  Peter didn’t want to do that.  So Peter protested, and Jesus publicly rebuked him:  “Get behind me, Satan!  You’re not on God’s side but on man’s” (8:33).

As our experience has taught us over and over, suffering, rejection, and death are part of being human.  Saints and sinners alike suffer, are rejected by others, die.  Misunderstandings, differences of opinion, accidents, disease, financial miscalculations, and rush-hour traffic affect us all.  Some of our suffering comes from the natural world; some of it others inflict upon us, or we upon others; and some of it we inflict upon ourselves.

If human beings must suffer and die, doesn’t it make sense that our messiah, the one who leads us toward God’s heavenly kingdom, should identify with our condition, and should know not only human joy but also human pain?  I think it does.  I think we can believe a messiah, a Christ, who has suffered, who has died.  This man is real.  This man know us, our struggles, our hurts, our temptations, our joys.  This man’s sufferings and death give meaning to the death we must eventually experience.  In his rejection, suffering, and death, Jesus kept faith with God his Father and opened the way to the promised land, to eternal life.  In our own suffering and deaths, we can keep faith with God thru the power and example of Jesus Christ; we can share in his messiahship, offering faith, hope, and love to a world hungry for salvation.

Who is Jesus?  Peter evidently thought it was possible to be the messiah without being human, or thought humans could live in this present life without pain.  We know that Jesus had to struggle with that temptation too.  We recall his temptations to power and fame and wealth in the desert before he began his public ministry.  Today we hear Peter tempt him. We see him sweating with fear in the Garden of Olives, praying his Father take away the cup of suffering that lies ahead.  We listen to passers-by at Calvary, as St. Matthew describes the scene, mocking Jesus:  “If you’re the Son of God, come down from the cross.  He saved others; he can’t save himself.  He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we’ll believe him” (Matt 27:40,42).  The last temptation of Christ, as imagined by Kazantzakis, is really the same as the one Peter offers today:  to flee from pain and rejection, to try to be a man without having to face suffering and death, to run from the role of messiah.

Jesus saw all these as temptations, embraced his humanity, embraced his Father’s will, and embraced the cross when misguided men forced it on him.  Then his identity was plain even to the pagan soldier:  “Truly this man was the Son of God.”  Jesus encourages us to follow him, not just to Calvary, but thru Calvary to resurrection and life.

The Martyrdom of St. Peter (Lionello Spada)

Salesian Family Assembles at Marian Shrine

Salesian Family Assembles at Marian Shrine

(Haverstraw, N.Y. – September 11) – It was supposed to be a great gathering of the Salesian Family around the father of the Family, Don Bosco’s tenth successor. It didn’t turn out that way on Saturday, September 8, at the Marian Shrine in Haverstraw. As is well known, Fr. Angel Fernandez couldn’t be present.

It was a decidedly Catholic gathering, as all the empty chairs in front testify.

He did send a fine delegate in his place, a member of our own province of St. Philip the Apostle and a member of the general council, Fr. Tim Ploch. Fr. Tim did not disappoint. He spoke eloquently in the Rector Major’s name at the SF assembly and then at the SDBs’ jubilees Mass.

Fr. Angel Fernandez sent greetings to the SF of the U.S.

A couple hundred SF members showed up on Saturday morning:  SDBs, FMAs, Cooperators, ADMA, and past pupils from New England, the New York metro area, and Washington, joined later by a couple of DBVs. A special presence was about 35 Salesian Lay Missioners, arriving for a reunion from not only the aforementioned regions but also from the Midwest, South, and Far West.

The program was scheduled for 9:00 a.m. but began much later as attendees slowly drifted in and began to greet old friends and make new ones.

After a ten-minute prayer service and a video greeting from Fr. Angel, Fr. Tim addressed the assembly, particularly by conveying the message that the Rector Major communicated during his visits to Surrey and Toronto. He has been pointing out that the second member of group of the SF that Don Bosco founded was ADMA (Association of Mary Help of Christians), specifically to remind us all that devotion to MHC is one of the two pillars that protect the Church in all its dangers.

Fr. Tim Ploch addressing the assembly.

Fr. Tim further cited the Rector Major by telling the assembly that, according to Don Bosco, the SF has two lungs, and these are the consecrated members and the lay members. The Rector Major maintains that the SF is the largest charismatic family in the Church, which means that it has great potential—not yet realized—for a tremendous impact on the young and the poor, especially those who are most distanced from their families and/or the Church.

To realize our potential, the Rector Major reminds us, the SF must maintain its communion. It needs a great dynamism and understanding of who we are together. Individualism, whether of persons or of groups, detracts from what we can do together.

The Rector Major cites outstanding examples of cooperative endeavors being carried out in India, Ecuador, and Bolivia. In most of the provinces of our region, the SF does actively work together.

The SF always has its doors open, says Fr. Fernandez. It doesn’t close in on itself. We don’t exist for ourselves but for the young and those in need.

He also says that we follow a dreamer, a prophet, who pushed boundaries.

In sum, the SF is (1) called by God (2) to work together (3) for the young. This is the identity of the SF.

Salesian Lay Missioners taking part in the SF assembly.

A period for questions and comments followed. Points were made about vocations, the need for strong families, and working in cooperation with the local Church. Don Bosco’s successor defines the role of the young in parishes as bringing hope; there is no family without the young. He also says that young people can lead lives of conviction and ideals; they can be saints, and this is a contribution they bring to us who accompany them. The SF should not be waiting on someone in SDB or FMA provincial leadership to direct them; good programs can be generated from ground level and percolate up to the top.

Small group discussions, remarks by Fr. Tim Zak about where the SF goes from here, and a wrap-up session followed, lasting almost till 11:00 a.m. Then people headed to the chapel for the jubilees Mass, after which a hearty buffet lunch was served in the pavilion.

Salesian Lay Missioners Reunite in Program's 36th Year

Salesian Lay Missioners

Reunite in Program’s 36^th Year

by Clare Pressimone

(New Rochelle, N.Y. – September 13) – On the weekend of September 7-9, 35 women and men who have participated in the Salesian Lay Missioner program during the last 35 years gathered at the Marian Shrine and Don Bosco Retreat Center in Haverstraw, N.Y. Participants came from 13 states: Arizona, California, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

The SLM program, established in 1983, is coordinated and sponsored by Salesian Missions USA, based in New Rochelle, N.Y. More than 800 women and men—mostly recent college graduates, but also some older volunteers and married couples, have participated.

This was the 2nd SLM alumni reunion, the first having occurred ten years ago. The 35 SLM alums who participated were commissioned in the years from 1999 up to 2017. They were missioned to Bolivia, Cambodia, the Hong Kong Province, India, South Sudan, USA, Vietnam, and Zambia.

Fr. Tom Dunne inspiring returned SLMs with his talk on Saturday afternoon.

The September 7-9 weekend included participation in the celebrations of the perpetual professions of three Salesians and the Jubilees Mass for 17 Salesians; a gathering of the Salesian Family; a talk by Fr. Tom Dunne, SDB, on the impact of SLMs around the globe; a breakout session in which the SLMs discussed how their mission experience influences their lives in the U.S; a Saturday vigil Mass celebrated by SLM alumnus Fr. Xavier Meiergerd, CFR; a dinner and a bonfire that were joined by several other members of the Salesian Family.

In his homily during Mass, Fr. Xavier reflected that “when you decide to follow Jesus, things get interesting.” The SLM alums were reminded of this as they shared their stories of mission and reminisced about what being an SLM and a member of the Salesian Family means to each of them. The importance and positive impact of the SLM program on each individual present was evident.

Many of the 35 attendees having traveled great distances, the gathering was filled with pure joy as SLMs met up with old friends, made new ones, and saw how the SLM family had grown over the years. (Some of the SLMs even brought their own families and significant others to join the fun.) Years after most had returned to the U.S., the continued commitment of the SLMs to the program which sent them to many corners of the Salesian world is a gift that would make the missionary heart of Don Bosco sing.

More information about the Salesian Lay Missioners: www.salesianlaymissioners.org

SLM alumni Fr. Xavier Meiergerd, CFR (Bolivia, 2001-2002), 

and Bro. Dan Glass, SDB (South Sudan, 2012-2013).

Clare Pessimone served as an SLM in Cambodia in 2014-2016 and now works at Salesian Missions in New Rochelle while pursuing graduate studies at Fordham University.

Bros. DeMaio, Gunther, and Langan Make Perpetual Vows

Bros. DeMaio, Gunther, and Langan Make Perpetual Vows

Bros. Langan, Gunther, and DeMaio being examined before admission to final vows.

The New Rochelle Province rejoiced on the afternoon of September 7 as Bros. Steven DeMaio, Travis Gunther, and John Langan made their perpetual professions. The solemn rite of profession took place within Mass in the Marian Shrine chapel at Haverstraw, N.Y.

Fr. Tim Zak, at the ambo, conducts the examination of the brothers 

as Fr. Tim Ploch, at the presider’s chair, follows along.

Fr. Tim Ploch, general councilor for the Interamerica Region, received the brothers’ vows, presided at Mass, and preached. The Rector Major, Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime, had originally been expected for the celebration, but his pastoral visit to Syria back in April led the U.S. government to deny him permission to enter the U.S. So our former provincial, Fr. Tim, filled in for him.

With the candidates prostrate on the floor, the ministers and congregation 

pray the Litany of the Saints on their behalf.

The congregation taking part included 43 concelebrants (among them priests from Bro. Travis’s and Bro. John’s home parishes), 2 deacons, 26 other clerical and lay Salesians, 10 Salesian sisters, students from Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey and Salesian HS in New Rochelle, and a great number of family and friends of the professed.

Each of the professed placed 

his baptismal candle 

at the statue of Mary Help of Christians.

Bro. Travis professed as a coadjutor brother. Bros. Steve and John professed as students for the priesthood. In fact, both are studying theology at the Ratisbonne Monastery in Jerusalem; Bro. Steve is entering his 2d year, Bro. John his 3d. Bro. Travis continues to teach art and other courses at Don Bosco Prep and to accompany students in various extracurricular activities and ministries.

All three brothers made their novitiate at Rosemead, Calif., in 2011-2012 under the guidance of Fr. Bill Keane as master of novices, and made their first professions at Salesian HS in New Rochelle on August 21, 2012.

Fr. Tim’s Homily

In his homily Fr. Ploch reminded the three brothers and the congregation: “It might seem that Steve’s, Travis’s, and John’s profession is something they are doing. But their profession is really about what God is doing, and what God began doing in them when they were baptized and has been doing in them since—at their first profession and in their subsequent renewals of [temporary] profession. Profession is about God, about his fidelity to our three confreres throughout their lives.”

Speaking for himself and all Christians, Fr. Ploch also said: “My life is not about me but about God, who gave me life, who asks me to share my life, who asks me to follow the path that he has laid out for me (cf. Jeremiah’s call in the first reading). In Psalm 136 God spoke of ‘knitting [the psalmist] together in your mother’s womb.’ All of us are God’s creations, his handiwork, his masterpieces. God supplies what we need to live the vocation that he has given us.”

Bros. Langan, Gunther, and DeMaio listen attentively to the homily.

Fr. Ploch went on to cite examples from the lives of Jesus, of the Virgin Mary, and of Don Bosco of complete trust in whatever God is doing in one’s life. These are models for Bros. Steve, Travis, and John and everyone else to imitate.

Continuing the Celebration

At the end of the Eucharistic celebration, Bro. Travis voiced his gratitude and that of his companions. Fr. Tim Zak, provincial, followed with his own expression of thanks, particularly to the parents of the three perpetually professed and the rest of their families.

The parents of the perpetually professed confreres were asked to stand 

and receive appreciative applause. From the left: Steven and Theresa DeMaio, 

Raymond and Mary Beth Gunther, and Gerry and Fidelis Langan.

The parents of the three confreres were present: Steven and Theresa DeMaio from Ave Maria, Fla.; Raymond and Mary Beth Gunther from Conway, Ark.; and Gerry and Fidelis Langan from Winsted, Conn. Various siblings also attended.

A buffet dinner served by Market Basket of Franklin Lakes, N.J., followed in the cafeteria of the Don Bosco Retreat Center.

All the professed Salesians (except the photographer) and candidates gather 

around Fr. Ploch and Bros. DeMaio, Gunther, and Langan.

Homily for 23d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
23d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Collect

Christian Brothers, Iona College, New Rochelle
Sept. 10, 2006

On the Sept. 7-9 weekend, we had some major province events at the Marian Shrine, about which I plan to blog when I finish writing the news stories and press releases! Here's an old homily.

“God our Father, … give us true freedom and bring us to the inheritance you promised” (Collect).

On this weekend when we remember terrible events and grievous loss—this morning I celebrated a 5th anniversary Mass in Mt. Vernon for the Scoutmaster of the troop whose I’m chaplain I am—it’s fitting for us to meditate upon the freedom given us by God.

Pres. Bush refers often to freedom as what we’re defending, what we’re promoting, what our enemies hate.  He readily attributes it to God as source and foundation.  Yet it’s not the same as the freedom for which we pray in today’s liturgy.  That freedom is linked to Christ, to redemption, to our eternal destiny.

Glorification of the Cross (Adam Elsheimer)

Jesus links slavery to the power of the devil and tells us the truth will set us free.  Paul holds that the Law enslaves us because no one can keep the law perfectly and thus the Law must condemn us; but grace sets us free.

It’s grace our prayer today refers to.  God the Father redeems us and makes us his children in Christ.  He forgives us and restores us to a healthy relationship with himself because Christ, whom the Father sent to us out of his infinite love, intercedes for us and links us to himself as brother and friend.  Satan’s power over the human race has been broken, and over us individually if we choose to belong to Christ our redeemer.

We pray to the Father for true freedom:  the freedom to choose Christ.  Those who’re enslaved by their passions, by their history of sin, by their love for the world, the flesh, and the devil, by their fear of surrendering self to God—aren’t free.  Any of us who is coping with a bad habit knows that very well.  12 Step programs begin with the admission of powerlessness and an appeal to a Higher Power—to God.  Of course in the liturgy we turn constantly to God and appeal always for help, for grace, for the empowerment that comes from surrendering ourselves to Christ, for the freedom to choose love, truth, justice, all that is good and virtuous.  Only the free can rise above their passions and sinful inclinations.

In our prayer we link freedom to our inheritance:  “Give us true freedom and bring us to the inheritance you promised.”  The inheritance belongs to God’s children, the brothers and sisters of Jesus, and we pray that God may bring us to it because we’ve used our freedom to choose God’s only Son, to choose the way of the Gospel that he’s marked out for us, the way of life, the way that leads to where Christ is.

Speaking to some Canadian bishops a few days ago, Pope Benedict lamented false concepts of freedom, concepts quite alive in Western culture.  The “freedom” to redefine marriage is false to human nature and to the structure of a sound society.  The “freedom to choose” destroys human beings and makes all forms of human life seem cheap and expendable.  The Pope speaks of “the truth of human nature” as part of the message of the Gospel.  Assuredly, trying to be what we are not isn’t liberating but enslaving.  Watering down the truth thru moral relativism lowers our aims, lowers our love for excellence and goodness—makes us less free.*

Of course it’s not only society that promotes false freedom.  Most of us are ready enuf individually to rationalize our behavior.  Someone in our house was speaking the other day of the old way of teaching moral theology and said that if you worked at it, you could almost have eliminated sin—because you could justify almost anything you wanted to do.  Well, we can look around and see a lot of that going on, and it’s not pretty:  drugs, violence in families, neighborhoods, and entire countries, adultery and abandonment, government and corporate corruption, etc., etc., etc.  Those who do such things may feel free, but the victims of such activity certainly aren’t free.  They are, rather, dehumanized.  Sometimes our personal behavior is dehumanizing too; it demeans our brothers and sisters.  If we’re not even aware of it, are we truly free?

So we ask the Father today to set us free, to lead us to recognize our need for redemption and to join us firmly to Christ in our minds, our hearts, our wills; to enable us freely to act like Christ in what we say and do, and so come with Christ to our heavenly inheritance.

---

    * See Carol Glatz, “Pope talks to Ontario bishops about false sense of freedom, culture,” Catholic News Service, Sept. 8, 2006.

Rector Major Meets with Salesian Family in Toronto

Rector Major Meets with SF in Toronto

By Fr. Tim Zak, SDB

Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime, SDB, met with representatives of the Salesian Family in the greater Toronto area on Thursday, September 6, at the Salesians' St. Benedict Church in Etobicoke, Ont., a Toronto suburb. The Rector Major spoke in Spanish; Fr. Tim Ploch, general councilor for the Interamerica Region of the Salesians, was the translator.

After a warm greeting, Fr. Angel asked the groups present to introduce themselves. There were SDBs, FMAs, Salesian Cooperators from Toronto and Montreal, DBVs, ADMA, young leaders from the Salesian Youth Movement and the past pupils from Canada, Hong Kong, India, Kenya, El Salvador, and Sicily, Becchi, and other parts of Italy.

The Rector Major gave a brief introduction to his presentation, stating that, with his secretary, Fr. Horacio Lopez, he has visited 80 countries as Rector Major, and in each one he has been able to meet with the members of the Salesian Family. He stated that it is beautiful to see the groups of the SF giving hope to young people on 6 continents. Each of the 31 groups of the SF is reaching out to the world of youth, the poor, and the marginalized. The SF is the largest charismatic family in the Church. This is not to make us proud, but to understand better the responsibility we have in the Church to live the Salesian charism; it is a very beautiful thing to realize this.

The Rector Major went on to offer four major points that he believes are important for the SF today. He acknowledged that some gatherings of the SF are large, with hundreds of members present from only one group. Others, like this one of about 100 people, are smaller, allowing the participants to feel closer to the Rector Major and each other. All, large and small, are beautiful gatherings that should make us feel good about being part of Don Bosco’s spiritual family.

1. Clear Salesian Identity

This feeling of being part of the Salesian Family is beautiful. It doesn’t put us in competition with other spiritual families but moves us to a clear Salesian identity, and from this clear identity we are moved to generous service.

2. Witness to Communion

As SF, we can give witness to communion, which is more than what we do in each work. Together, there is a great feeling of family and communion among us all. Fr. Angel shared a few reflections about the groups of the Salesian Family present at this gathering.

* The SDBs and FMAs are well known in the world. People know they are consecrated religious, living in communities at the service of the young, especially those living in poverty and most at risk.

* The Salesian Cooperators have a beautiful vocation. Note the use of the word “vocation.” It is a lay vocation in the Church, not just a club or group. It is one of the most creative initiatives of Don Bosco. Don Bosco’s intention was to join the religious and lay groups in a common spirit and mission, like two lungs giving life to the body. Cooperators make a commitment to live their vocation in a family—first in their natural family and then as part of the Salesian Family. There are more than 32,000 Cooperators in the world; their potential is incredible. Think of the incredible testimony of all these men and women of faith living their Salesian vocation in the family!

* The past pupils are a group that is not yet fully developed—millions of past pupils of the SDBs and FMAs! They are characterized not so much by their diploma from a Salesian school as by the values they learned in the Salesian environment, values which stay in their hearts for all their lives. Imagine these millions of past pupils being a force for good in the Church and in the world.

* ADMA is not a group that gets together just to say the Rosary. ADMA was founded by Don Bosco with a special mission: to remind the entire SF that if we don’t have Mary Help of Christians in our hearts, we’re not really Salesian. So the first mission of ADMA is to help all the sons and daughters of Don Bosco to keep Mary Help of Christians in our hearts and lives.

* The Don Bosco Volunteers (DBVs) are consecrated women in the Church and the world. They give a unique witness of the Gospel in the world; without drawing attention to themselves, they make Christ known.

The Rector Major drew the attention of all those present to the beauty of this diverse communion. We don’t have to campaign or make a lot of noise about ourselves to manifest the beauty of the Salesian Family. We are challenged to live in communion. That doesn’t mean we all do the same thing at the same time or in the same way. Each group acts according to its unique vocation without destroying the unity of the Family.

3. Growth of the Salesian Family

The Rector Major gave the members of the various groups of the Salesian Family the challenge to grow in two ways. 1st, he challenged them to grow in identity. This means to be religious and lay members as Don Bosco and the other group founders dreamed them to be—each member and all groups alive in giving witness to the shared charism in each unique vocation! When we do this, it will be evident in the world. We need to grow in our Salesian identity.

2d, the Rector Major further challenged those present to see that the SF grows in numbers. This is not to take pride in being numerous, but to help others discover their vocation, offering them the possibility of being part of the SF also. It is good for us in our Salesian vocation to share our calling and boldly to invite others to discover their calling. Like the first Apostles, we can invite family and friends to “come and see for yourself,” that is, to have a personal encounter with Christ and then to respond to that encounter by living the Gospel with the Salesian charism.

4. A Missionary Vocation

Pope Francis wants a Church that is going out. Some groups in the Church have closed in on themselves and are protecting themselves; this is not Salesian. We have doors and windows open wide; we go out to meet others and to welcome them to the community. The challenge is to reach out to those at a distance. What can we do to help them feel welcome? One possibility is to receive immigrants. “What is your way of going out, of being a Church that goes out?” the Rector Major asked. If we live this way, as missionary disciples, we will have a bright future.

These were the main points of the Rector Major’s presentation. He went on to say that he was happy to see young couples present. Not that the older members should be disregarded, but the presence of young couples reminds us of the responsibility we have to pass on the Faith and the Salesian charism, from one generation to the next generation.

The Rector Major then responded to some questions.

What’s your favorite Don Bosco story?

So many stories of Don Bosco have fascinated the Rector Major. Rather than only one story, he likes to see how they all show that Don Bosco was continually thinking of the young. Fr. Angel wants to be like that, with the young always in his heart. Don Bosco wanted all the SDBs to have this apostolic zeal and pastoral charity. How much better would we be if we had this zeal? What would the world be like if there were 15,000 Don Boscos in the world? 15,000 SDBs who love young people as Don Bosco did? Imagine if there were 12,000 FMAs, saints like Mother Mazzarello, entirely dedicated to the young! We have to believe it is the Holy Spirit working in each of us, empowering us as Salesians to have a great capacity to influence, starting from our small circles of influence among family and friends and moving out into larger circles, influencing society.

After visiting 80 countries, what can you say about youths today? Is there a common threat? What challenges do youths face today?

Young people throughout the world are very different; they do not have much in common; there is such great diversity of cultures, food, interests, etc. But in what is most important, they are the same. They are the same in their hearts, that is, they have a certain simplicity, the capacity to dream, to have ideals to build their lives. This is what the Rector Major has seen throughout the world. Young people are not problems; they are opportunities. There is great diversity among them, but they all still have to face the same issues of maturing that previous generations have had to face. In this, they have a connection with previous generations. Today, however, society is moving very quickly, much more quickly than it has in the past. Parents and educators have to learn to accompany young people through processes of maturing. Today, these processes need to be more personal than in the past, not imposing from outside nor forcing the individuals into a group. Considering the fragility of today’s family, the process of maturing is lengthened and has particular concerns. How can Salesians accompany young people in their real life situations along these processes of maturation today?

How can young people find support to live the faith if the parish or local Church does not offer many groups for young adults?

In order to live our style of life with intensity, we have to take care of it. It doesn’t happen by chance. FMAs and SDBs live in community; many lay Salesians live in families. In this society, the Salesian Family can be creative to help young people find meaning in their lives. This doesn’t depend on the pastor or director or animator of the religious community. The Salesian Family can be creative in providing space and opportunities to share life. We don’t always need something to do, a task to accomplish. We can get together to enjoy life and support each other on the journey. We can’t let bureaucracy prevent us.

What message can a new teacher share with her students?

How great it is to find a young Christian educator who want to live her career as a calling! In the words of Pope Francis, young people today need credible Christian adults. Therefore, live your faith in a convincing way. The most important message doesn’t need words. In the words of Don Bosco, “Strive to make yourselves loved.” Your way of being will teach much more than any particular lesson—your closeness to the young, your ability to listen, your approachability.

What can the lay people do to promote vocations, other than prayer?

First, take care of all vocations. We can’t look only for religious or ordained vocations. We have to see marriage also as a vocation, in which the couple continually learn to give themselves to this calling. In the family, create a climate where young people learn that life is more beautiful when we live it in service. The young learn that giving oneself in service makes one happy. In contrast to the individualism and self-centeredness typical of society today, in our homes, schools, and churches, we need to educate the young to “gratuity,” giving oneself away. This is key to the future of any vocation. This can be done by forming a sense of community in the parish or youth center, where you must be concerned for others.

Fr. Angel Fernandez Pays Pastoral Visit to Surrey

Fr. Angel Fernandez Pays Pastoral Visit to Surrey

by Fr. Tim Zak, SDB

(Surrey, B.C. – September 5) – Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime, Rector Major of the Salesian Society, began his visit to the Canadian section of the Eastern U.S. and Canada Province (SUE) on Monday, September 3. He and Fr. Horacio Lopez, his secretary, were greeted at the Vancouver airport by a group of Salesian young people and their adult leaders, together with Salesian Cooperators, SDBs from the Salesian parish in Surrey, and the SUE provincial council. They returned to Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish in Surrey, where the SDBs and some Salesian Cooperators congratulated Fr. Angel on his 40th anniversary of profession. During his visit, Fr. Tim Ploch, general councilor for the Interamerica Region, is accompanying Fr. Angel and acting as translator.

On Tuesday Fr. Angel presided at the parish’s morning Mass. The Knights of Columbus and leaders in the Polish community prepared a hearty breakfast for him and the Salesian Family. For the rest of the morning, the Rector Major met with the SUE provincial council. With fatherly concern and brotherly support, he invited the members of the council to share some of the province’s strengths and challenges. They also discussed the service of leadership of the provincial and the council.

The Rector Major observed that the province is not asleep but is full of life, and it shows signs of great hope, e.g., new vocations, a good sense among the confreres of our religious consecration, and some clear choices to work for the poorest youths, especially among immigrants. He offered some guidance in charting the way ahead, including transparency and accountability for leadership at all levels, and clarity in the mission: Salesians are dedicated to young people, especially those living in poverty and most at risk. The province should not feel bound to the way things have always been done in the past, but face today’s challenges with a realistic assessment of the situation, creativity, and flexibility, as Don Bosco would do.

Vancouver’s Abp. Michael Miller, CSB, joined the Rector Major and the Salesian Family for a lunch prepared by the Catholic Women’s League of the parish. In the afternoon, Fr. Angel met with the SDBs from Surrey and Edmonton and the provincial council. After having visited 80 provinces and personally greeting 10,400 SDBs, he is able to speak confidently about the good health and beauty of the Salesian Congregation. Despite the difficulties that are part of life, we can see so much good being done by Salesians on every continent. Fr. Angel spoke with the confreres about challenges facing the Congregation today, including the continual need to deepen our sense of religious consecration and strengthen our Salesian identity. Acknowledging our limitations and even failures as individuals and as a Congregation, we move forward on the path of conversion and purification, so as to give clearer witness to the beauty of our vocation.

At Vespers Fr. Angel received the promises of two new Salesian Cooperators as well as the renewal of the promises of all the Cooperators present. Vespers was followed by a festive dinner prepared by various groups of the Salesian Family: SDBs, FMAs, Salesian Cooperators, ADMA, leaders of the Salesian Youth Movement, and past pupils from Canada, the USA, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Colombia, Poland, Italy, and India.

The evening concluded with an assembly of the young people of the Salesian presence in Surrey. The children’s choir from Our Lady of Good Counsel Elementary School began the youthful gathering with a song. This was followed by songs from the Hispanic choir. Fr. Angel offered a few thoughts and then dialogued with the young, answering their questions about his vocation, living the faith in today’s secular society, the value of the arts in Salesian education and the lives of the young, etc. Members of the Praise Team danced—and Fr. Angel joined them on the dance floor.

Participants in this evening encounter were invited to honor the Rector Major’s visit by contributing to a fund to dig a fresh-water well in Ghana. Contributions can be made at www.salesianmissions.org. The evening concluded with everyone joining in singing “San Juan Bosco, Bienvenido,” and posing for a large group photo.

On Wednesday, September 5, Fr. Angel presided again at the parish’s morning Mass. Then he blessed the convent of the Salesian Sisters, who arrived in Surrey a month ago to establish a new FMA presence. He greeted the students at Our Lady of Good Counsel Elementary School and gave them a Good Morning thought. From Surrey, Fr. Angel will travel to Toronto, continuing his six-day visit to the Canadian parts of the New Rochelle Province.

Homily for 22d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
22d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Aug. 28, 1994

Mark 7: 1-8, 14-15, 21-23
College of New Rochelle (New York)

This weekend I’m in Champaign, Ill., for the funeral of Deacon Bob Ulbrich of Holy Cross Parish.  The Sunday preaching is being done by a missionary priest from Uganda.  So, as per my usual practice when I’m not preaching, here’s one from the archives.

“Nothing that enters a man from outside can make him impure; what comes out of him, and only that, constitutes impurity” (Mark 7: 15).

After a 5-week layover in St. John’s Gospel, our journey thru St. Mark resumes.  We have more controversy today:  not about Eucharistic doctrine, as in the last 2 weeks, but about ritual and morality.

Moses (giver of the Torah)

statue in Library of Congress

The Torah contains elements of the moral law, such as the 10 Commandments, and elements that deal with ritual, i.e., the correct way to worship.  The concept of clean-unclean, or “pure-impure” in our Lectionary translation, has to do with correct worship, not only with morality.  The main effect of being unclean was that one could not take part in public worship; secondly, many objects one might touch, including food and utensils, also became unclean.  Some uncleanness could be removed by the passage of time and a ritual purification; other uncleanness, by bathing.

It is the latter, purification by washing, that comes up from the Pharisees and the scribes today.  Over the centuries they had developed elaborate rules to guarantee their cleanness—not in a hygienic sense but in a ritual sense.  We must point out, too, that despite their gospel image, most of the Pharisees and scribes were sincere, devout, and upright men.

For some of them, however, religious devotion must have become a matter merely of external ritual, as tho God should be pleased with them because they washed correctly, wore prayer tassels, and avoided alleged sinners.  But externals are empty without mind and heart.  Those of you who read or watch Shakespeare may remember the scene in Hamlet when the king kneels to try to pray for repentance and forgiveness.  He finally gives up, saying, “My words fly up, my thoughts remain below.  Words without thoughts never to heaven go” (III, iii, 94-98).

And Jesus quotes Isaiah to the same effect:  “This people pays me lip service, but their hearts are far from me” (Mark 7:6).  God wants clean hearts, not clean hands.

Ritualism is not unknown among Catholics.  Do you remember the 1st Godfather movie?  Near the end, Michael Corleone is taking part in his nephew’s Baptism while, at the same time, his cohorts are wiping out all his gangland rivals.  Very powerfully, the film switches repeatedly from one scene of ritual cleansing to another of murder.  Without going into sacramental theology, we can say that a lot of Catholics see no connection between an external rite of salvation and an internal commitment to the One who saves.  More typical examples than Mafiosi might be those who bring their babies for Baptism tho they’re not married, pro-choicers who receive Communion regularly, Sunday worshippers who pay unjust wages or practice racism. 

In the breviary yesterday the Office of Readings offered us a passage from St. John Chrysostom, patriarch of Constantinople and doctor of the Church late in the 4th century.  St. John takes to task Christians who give lavish, showy gifts to the church, like silk vestments and gold vessels, but neglect the hungry, the naked, pilgrims, and prisoners.  “God does not want golden vessels,” he says, “but golden hearts” (LOH 4:182-83).

The Seven Works of Mercy

(Frans II Francken)

Once upon a time we all abstained from meat on Fridays—which we still do during Lent.  We’ve all heard about folks who “sacrificed” by eating swordfish or lobster instead of meat.  Not exactly what the Church had in mind, of course, with the law of Friday penance.

When Pope Paul VI changed the law of penance in 1966, it was with the hope that we would act more maturely, would internalize the obligation to do penance, which, the Pope reminded us, is an obligation commanded by God.  He urged us to exercise penance by faithfulness to our duties in life, by patience in unavoidable suffering, and by prayer, fasting, and almsgiving—all of these motivated by interior conviction and not just by a specific external law.

What Jesus demands of us, likewise, is internalization. When the Pope tells us, “Repent,” which is the 1st word of his decree on the Friday penance, he’s only quoting Jesus.  Jesus is uncomfortably specific today.  The saintliest of Christians do not completely measure up to the standards of cleanness or purity that Jesus raises.  We are to be clean inside, in the heart.  Whatever is truly unclean, whatever truly makes our worship of God worthless, comes from our hearts:  sensuality, all kinds of selfish carnal desires, envy of others’ good qualities, greed for more and more possessions, deceitfulness, stubbornness, arrogance….  There’s quite an examination of conscience in Mark 7:21-22.  After considering it, who could find in ritual precision, or any merely human tradition, the way of holiness?

I’ll decline the opportunity to launch into a consideration of tradition—an act of kindness on my part even tho it deprives you of an occasion to practice the virtue of patience.  If we have heard Jesus speaking to our hearts, we’ve heard all we need to hear for now.  May his words move us to act as his disciples and to give God thanks for the grace of forgiveness.