December Message of the Rector Major

THE MESSAGE OF THE RECTOR MAJOR

Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime

“MAY WE ALLOW OURSELVES TO BE SURPRISED BY GOD’S SMILE”

Receive my affectionate greeting friends, readers of various Salesian media, so dear to Don Bosco.

I would like to share with you the message found in the title above, whose author, I must admit, I am not. It was Pope Francis who chose “the smile” as the guiding theme of his Christmas greetings last year to the employees in Vatican City and their families. He chose this theme precisely in a time when a smile is too often missing because humane and respectful behavior is often missing.

(Credit: Liturgical Press)

I reflect very often on the realities that surprise me. Today, let me speak to you of this one: as human beings we are aware that affability, treating others with respect, displaying signs of delicate attention and respect, and sharing expressions of brotherhood, solidarity, and love in all circles of our lives are things that make our hearts swell and give fullness to our lives; yet, as groups of peoples, regions, and nations, we struggle to create communion among people by joining forces in those things that help make us more human.

This reality is not restricted to the great issues of “macropolitics” or “macroeconomics,” which often focus on self-serving interests that are often in conflict with each other. No, it also occurs frequently within families, among siblings, among relatives. We all know that this is the case.

While we do not ignore the presence of this reality in our midst, we know that Christmas, the celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, reminds us that salvation has been given to us and that He has given us this gift so that we may continue to build a world where God, with His love for us, may be ever more present. Of course, sometimes it is obvious that this is difficult for us to do because we have full freedom to make and to unmake, to build and to tear down, to add and to subtract. For this reason, while we are able to make the path to a better humanity, sometimes we seem to take many steps backwards.

Therefore, I invite you this Christmas (albeit still in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic or at least of its threatening presence, even if it is now greatly under control and we have the ability to navigate in the midst of it) not to give up allowing ourselves to be surprised by that smile of God that translates into so many simple things. One beautiful human example is our behavior when in the presence of a baby: we smile automatically so as to elicit his/her smile. In turn, when that smile brightens and spreads over his/her face, it brings out great joy in us, for it is a sign of simplicity in all its beauty and innocence.

“Jesus is the smile of God,” says Pope Francis, “because He came to give us the love of the Father.” Mary and Joseph received His message, for they recognized in His smiles God’s mercy to them and to all those who were waiting for the Messiah.

And we, too, now during this Christmas season, can feel the presence of Jesus, the Incarnate Son of God, smiling upon us and upon the poor of the earth, upon all those who hope for salvation, who hope for a more fraternal world—one in which war and violence cease and where every man and every woman can live with the dignity that is theirs as a son or a daughter of God.

A carpet at Valdocco

Now I wish to share with you something that I myself witnessed a few weeks ago and touched my heart, filling it with a serene peace. You will understand immediately why. I was in Valdocco at three in the afternoon, passing through the courtyard when something or, better, someone attracted my attention. I focused my attention and saw that a young person was standing in the small portico under Don Bosco’s rooms. He was praying. I saw that it was a Muslim who had laid his carpet on the ground, directed toward Mecca, and was kneeling and standing up, offering up his prayers according to his religion. He was communicating not with “His God,” but with the one God, in the way and manner that his religion expresses it. He was very focused on his prayer, and he cared little who passed or not, and surely he did not realize that I was contemplating him, for I did so without disturbing him and with great respect.

I had just left the Pinardi chapel—through the grace of God’s Providence—where the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord Jesus present in the Eucharist, is exposed throughout the day. I thought it was beautiful that Valdocco and the portico where Don Bosco had stood so many times with his boys and where they had prayed was the same portico that now received and gave a home to the prayer of that young Muslim. God’s smile is a smile shining on all His sons and daughters of our world. We are all the fruit of His love and His Creation.

Like this portico in Valdocco, the Salesian houses of all the Congregations of our Salesian Family throughout the world welcome tens of thousands of boys, girls, and young adults every day. There, in these houses, they prepare themselves for life, grow in humanity and in faith, certainly living and expressing their families’, tribes’, or ethnicities’ religion, but always as sons and daughters of the one and only God.

It is for this reason, my dear friends, that I am sending you my Christmas greetings, laden with all the humanity and faith of which I am capable. I continue to invite you and so many others to continue to be people who believe that the world needs our small contribution toward building a humanity that is ever more in conformity with God’s vision of us.

I wish you a Holy Christmas, with Pope Francis’ own greeting:

“Take this wish to your loved ones at home, especially the sick and elderly: may they feel the caress of your smile. Every smile is a caress. To smile is to caress—to caress with the heart and with the soul. And let’s remain united in prayer.”

May God bless you, and may you have a holy and beautiful Christmas.

Fr. Angel

St. Patrick's Cathedral, 2019

1935 Don Bosco Film Returns to Light

1935 Don Bosco Film Returns to Light

(ANS – Turin – December 1, 2021) – As part of the 39th Turin Film Festival, the Experimental Center of Cinematography-National Cinema Impresa Archive and Salesian Headquarters presented the digitally restored version of the feature film Don Bosco, directed in 1935 by Goffredo Alessandrini and produced by Riccardo Gualino for the nascent Lux Film. The religious film tells the life of the Piedmontese saint from his childhood in the Monferrato countryside up to his seminary days. It also presents the educational and social activity carried out in Turin with the children of the humblest of the social strata to the foundation of the Salesian work leading up to his canonization.

In the era of digital films, the restoration of old films remains the last opportunity literally to handle those long strips of celluloid that have made generations of spectators dream. It is super-specialized work, which only film libraries and archives are able to do. The Turin Film Festival has built a section around it titled: “Back to Life,” which this year presents five gems from the past that have indeed been brought back to life. The oldest is Don Bosco, produced in 1935 by Alessandrini when he was in his early thirties. The movie was shot in Turin, Chieri, Monferrato, and the Fert-Microtecnica Studios. To make the film, 40,000 meters of film were used to craft a montage of 2,500 shots. The cost of making the film was over 2 million lire at the time.

The work represents a classic example of a hagiographic genre but enriched with a sophisticated language and skillful solutions. The usage of low-shots to depict the little boy Johnny Bosco, shadows to depict his priestly formation, and panaromic shots to depict scenery – all underline the director’s unique touch. The outdoor shots are particularly interesting! The shots depicting the countryside and the agricultural work in the fields that form the background of the days of the young Johnny Bosco today represent a precious ethnographic source of the territory.

In the first version of Don Bosco, released in April 1935, one year after the canonization of the Saint of Youth, the director, Alessandrini included an “invented” episode from the saint's life in the film. This creative freedom provoked protests and discontent to the point that the scene in question had to be redone, making the action more authentic. The second version, released in the following September, was then followed by a third version. The second was reckoned the popular version and gave rise to a proliferation of variants both in Italy and abroad. After long research, it was decided to reconstruct digitally the second version.

Director Alessandrini speaking about the movie would later say: “In the film, there was only one professional actor. All the others were taken from the street, as they say. But the priests were authentic Salesians, who made themselves available. I was also so interested in the places where we filmed. I remember certain convents like that of Chieri. And I still remember that that winter of Turin which had turned it a snow-white city, but with the sun and a blue sky.”

“The really beautiful parts are the nature scenes,” confirms Sergio Toffetti of the Archivio Nazionale Cinema d'Impresa (National Cinema Archives Company). “They are shot in a very evocative, contrasting, almost Macchiaioli-style black and white. John Bosco is played by Gianpaolo Rosmino, a supporting actor in many silent films, such as Ma l'amor mio non muore (“My Love Never Dies”). Up to that time, Alessandrini had only made two comedies, whereas he would later direct very beautiful films such as Luciano Serra pilota, Giarabub and Noi vivi. Today he is a somewhat a forgotten director, and for this very reason the screening of his Don Bosco is an excellent opportunity to re-evaluate him and learn about his cinematographic history.”

The reconstruction, digitization, and image-cleaning operations were carried out for the National Cinema Archives Company by Ilaria Magni, Diego Pozzato, and manager Elena Testa. The restoration began with the negative conserved in the Fondo Salesiani (Salesian Sources) deposited by the Salesians of Don Bosco in Ivrea in 2016. While the second part of the copy was perfectly preserved, the first part had suffered a quality loss, and was reconstructed thanks to a positive copy from the Film Library of Bologna and a positive copy from the National Cinema Museum and the two 16mm copies kept in Ivrea. For the second half, on the other hand, the original negatives from the Salesian collection conserved in Ivrea was used almost entirely, except for the “Generala” scene, which was reconstructed with the positive copies and for which it was essential to use as a sound reference a copy preserved at the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, N.Y., the oldest museum in the world dedicated to photography and one of the oldest film archives in the world.

The film is part of the Salesian Congregation's “film archive” setup in 2016 at the CSC-Archivio nazionale cinema impresa (CSC National Cinema Archives Company), consisting of around 500 films that offer valuable documentation of the presence of the Salesians in many countries around the world. This collaboration had already led to the identification and recovery of little-known or unknown titles such as I 26 martiri del Giappone (“The 26 Japanese Martyrs”), a film directed in 1931 by Tomiyasu Ikeda, on the persecution and martyrdom of Christians in the Tokugawa era; and I conquistatori d'anime (“The Conquerors of Souls”) directed by Renzo Chiosso and Felice Minotti.

Homily for 1st Sunday of Advent

Homily for the
1st Sunday of Advent

Nov. 28, 2021
Luke 21: 25-28, 34-36
Provincial House, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21: 36).

Today’s gospel sounds like a text for the Exercise for a Happy Death.

The Last Judgment (Hans Memling)

In the last 2 weeks of Ordinary Time and on this 1st Sunday of Advent, the Church’s Scripture readings and prayers turn our eyes toward the end of history, to the 2d coming of Christ, and toward the final judgment on all human beings.

Today Jesus—speaking to his disciples and therefore also to us—advises us to remain constantly vigilant, always on the alert.  Living as his followers, we can’t let up our guard, just as an Army sentry must always stay awake.  You know that when you’re on a diet because you have to lose weight or control your blood sugar, you can ease up a tiny bit now and then and have a sweet dessert, for example.  But it’s not so with our adherence to Christ.  We have to stick to him—to fasting from sin.

While we don’t know when history will end and the universal judgment will take place, we do know that our personal history will end and our personal judgment will take place.  “Be vigilant at all times” means we have to live in God’s grace.  It’s part of the Good News that Jesus tells us, “Stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand” (21:28).

He urges us to pray to have strength to escape tribulations.  The strength we need comes from God, the tribulations from this world.  Trials and pain and terrible events like violence, political oppression, natural disasters, and illness tempt many to despair and could affect us too.  These are tribulations.  May God deliver us!  We pray for that in the Our Father:  “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”; and in one of the prayers following the Our Father at Mass.

Even “the anxieties of daily life” (21:34) may endanger our relationship with Christ, e.g., if we become more concerned about schedules, meals, books, even our health, than about prayer and practicing the virtues of daily life.

Jesus speaks to the disciples about signs that the nations will find dismaying and perplexing (21:25).  There’s only one sign we disciples need concern ourselves with:  the sign of the cross.  It means our redemption is accomplished.

Homily for Thanksgiving Day

Homily for Thanksgiving Day

Nov. 25, 2021
1 Cor 1: 3-9
Ps 138: 1-5
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph Residence, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“I give thanks to my God always on your account for the grace bestowed on you in Christ Jesus” (1 Cor 1: 4).

Paul begins his thanksgiving to God with gratitude for the gifts of grace given to his friends in Corinth.  He’s grateful for others.  We could say that what God has given to his friends is also a gift to Paul himself.

In our turn, we may be grateful to God for the brothers he’s given to us.  Isn’t it a privilege to live in a religious community?  Certainly I’ve been graced to live in the company of saints.  Not every man with whom I’ve lived in community, to be sure, but many.  I suppose it must be the same with you.  Thanks be to God for his saints!

Thru such brothers, thru our families, thru our students, and thru friends we’ve been “enriched in every way” (1:5), with spiritual gifts coming to us from God (1:7).  Because of the gifts of our brothers and of so many other people, we thank God for his “faithfulness and love” (Ps 138:2).  We thank him “in the presence of the angels” (138:1) and of the entire heavenly court.  We come into the Lord’s temple (138:2), this holy place, which represents the house of God above.

Our brothers, our families and friends, and our vocation to worship God personally and in community are signs of God’s “kindness and truth” (138:2).  It’s kindness of the Lord to welcome us into his house, into his family, and to give us the firm hope of a place at the heavenly banquet.  It’s truth that God answers those who call upon him, whether our call is a voice of praise or a call for God’s strength to bolster us (138:2).  We’re grateful to the Lord for “hearing the words of our mouth” (138:1).

With the strength the Lord gives us, we trust that he’ll keep us all “firm to the end, irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 1:8), when our “fellowship with his Son” (1:9) will be ratified and made permanent.  Thanks be to God!

Homily for Wednesday, 34th Week of Ordinary Time

Homily for Wednesday
34th Week of Ordinary Time

Nov. 24, 2021
Dan 5: 1-6, 13-14, 16-17, 23-28
Intended for Ursulines, Willow Dr., New Rochelle, N.Y.

(source unknown)

“I have heard that the Spirit of God is in you” (Dan 5: 14).

One of the themes of the Book of Daniel is that wisdom comes from God.  Thus on several occasions—like yesterday’s 1st reading—Daniel, faithful servant of the true God, is able to interpret mysteries that the wise men of Babylon cannot.  If we want to interpret our lives rightly, we must interpret them in the light of God’s word, in the light of Jesus Christ, in the light of the authentic charism of our religious family.

We speak of “reading the handwriting on the wall,” meaning seeing some unfortunate event impending.  We don’t need divine handwriting to know, as Daniel says, that our life breath is in God’s hands and our lives ought to glorify him (5:23).

Jesus has told us that the hairs of our heads are numbered (Luke 12:7), which is probably more serious than the numbering of Belshazzar’s kingdom and its weighing (Dan 5:26-27).  Our lives may not be weighty as human beings measure them.  All that matters is that God counts them valuable, so valuable that “not a hair on our heads will be destroyed, and by our perseverance we secure our lives” (Luke 21:18-19)—or, more precisely, God secures them.  In truth, we count on it!

 

Homily for Tuesday, 34th Week of Ordinary Time

Homily for Tuesday
34th Week of Ordinary Time

Nov. 23, 2021
Dan 2: 31-45
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph Residence, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“This was the dream; the interpretation we shall also give in the king’s presence” (Dan 2: 36).

Daniel & Nebuchadnezzar (Mattia Preti)

One of the themes of the Book of Daniel is that wisdom comes from God.  Thus on several occasions—another will be tomorrow’s 1st reading—Daniel, faithful servant of the true God, is able to interpret mysteries that the wise men of Babylon cannot.  If we want to interpret our lives rightly, we must interpret them in the light of God’s word, in the light of Jesus Christ, in the light of the authentic charism of our religious family.

This particular dream speaks of the decline and fall of kingdoms and the victory of “the God of heaven” (2:37).  We can interpret it, as most commentators do, in view of the Middle Eastern regimes that ruled Israel between the Babylonian Empire and the kingdom of Syria, up to the time of the Maccabean revolt, inspiring hope for Israel’s deliverance—the context in which Daniel was written.

In our time we can also discern that no kingdom, no empire (“The sun never sets on the British Empire”—hah!), not even a great republic, is eternal.  None of our lives and our plans has permanence.  Only “the God of heaven” is eternal and "stands forever" (2:44).  So in all our planning, all our endeavors, all our hopes, all our difficulties, we look to him—our one sure hope for deliverance and eternal life.

U.N. Reopens to Civil Society after 545 Days

Back at the Temple of Global Advocacy after 545 Days

by Fr. Thomas Pallithanam, SDB

(ANS – United Nations – November 23, 2021) - His Excellency Abdulla Shahid, president of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly, held his first Town Hall meeting with civil society on Wednesday, November 17, with an impassioned plea to all his hearers both in person and virtual to help him make his presidency a presidency of hope! The Salesian Congregation was also represented at this significant event, thanks to the presence of Fr. Thomas Pallithanam, SDB (photo, 3d from left).

After one year and ten months, members of the civil society had access to the U.N. premises. The international organization lowered its shutters for in-person meetings on March 10, 2020. Finally reopening the United Nations Security Council chamber to physical meetings in October, the U.N. again had to shut down its premises temporarily when five members of one national delegation tested positive for Covid-19. From the start of his yearlong term, Volkan Bozkir, the president of the 75th Session, had wanted to raise the profile of the U.N. globally as he contended that the Covid-19 crisis has shrouded the institution from public view.

Though member states and U.N. staff had access to the premises for the past several months, civil society had not been able to enter the U.N. building. November 17, therefore, will remain a memorable day to all who were able to attend the Town Hall meeting.

Mr. Shahid outlined his vision for his presidency of hope: He said: “This is a world in need of unity and solidarity. This is a world reeling in the wake of a pandemic that has devastated lives, destroyed economies, and deprived communities. This is a world ripe with inaction, inequality, and injustice; one that ignores the pleas of our planet and the most vulnerable. This is a world that needs a stronger and more effective United Nations, to bring together the best of humanity, rebuild communities, rescue the planet, recover economies, and restore hope.”

To address this crisis and make his presidency a presidency of hope, he would usher in “5 Rays Of Hope”: 1. Recovering from the coronavirus disease, 2. Rebuilding sustainably, 3. Responding to the needs of the planet, 4. Respecting the rights of all, 5. Revitalizing the United Nations. In his response to questions from members of the civil society, one could see his earnestness. Refraining from responding in U.N.-esque jargon, he spoke from the heart, in simple language yet with the depth and passion of a visionary.

When asked how he would want history to remember him when his term ends and his job is done, Mr. Shahid replied: “A small man, who did small things, to make small changes to leave this world a better place, a place of hope.”

“As Salesians, at this moment even as the year is drawing to a close, we were exhorted by the Rector Major to live the whole year ‘Moved by Hope,’” Fr. Pallithanam, Salesian representative at the United Nations, stated.

152d Salesian Missionary Expedition Sent Forth

The 152d Salesian Missionary Expedition Has Been Sent Forth

(ANS – Turin – November 22, 2021) – A traditional and yet ever new gesture was repeated on Sunday, November 21, solemnity of Christ the King, at the basilica of Mary Help of Christians in Turin: that of presenting missionary crucifixes to the departing missionaries of the 152nd Salesian Missionary Expedition. “As Christians, we are all missionary disciples, called to be witnesses of the truth in the name of the Lord. And you, my dear missionaries, are much more so,” said the Rector Major during the homily of the Mass.

During the homily, after having illustrated the importance of the royal presence of Jesus in the life of each baptized person, Fr. Angel Fernandez referred to November 11, 1875, the day of the 1st Salesian Missionary Expedition, in which a new path was opened for the Salesians and the youth of the whole world – a path made of love, care, help, which, from Turin spread first to South America and then to all the other continents. It is a path that continues today, in the name of Don Bosco, thanks to the missionaries “to the nations, for life,” who leave everything to evangelize and educate peoples other than their own in the Salesian style.

Concluding his reflection, the Rector Major recalled the spirit with which those departing will carry out their mission: “They will go not as teachers, but as servants, in the name of the Lord Jesus, to share life…. And in this sharing, they will offer the best of themselves. I find it something really beautiful!” he said.

Then the rite of handing over the crosses took place, introduced by the moving invocation to God for the blessing of those departing, in which Don Bosco’s successor begged for all of them “the heart of Don Bosco and Mother Mazzarello.”

The festive celebration of the missionary expedition was made even more solemn by the feast of Christ, King of the Universe, this year and thus received even more prominence thanks to the participation of numerous prominent Salesian figures. Beginning with the new Mother General of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, Mother Chiara Cazzuola, who was at her first participation in a similar event, flanked by the provincial of the Piedmont FMAs, Sister Emma Bergandi, and of concelebrants who assisted Don Bosco’s 10th successor at the altar, including Fr. Alfred Maravilla, general councilor for the missions, Fr. Juan Carlos Perez Godoy, councilor for the Mediterranean Region, and the provincials of the same region, who gathered in Turin.

Because of the difficulties still existing for international travel, only 9 out of 23 Salesians and 10 out of 11 Daughters of Mary Help of Christians received the missionary crosses, representing all the participants of the 152nd Salesian Missionary Expedition. The other departing missionaries who were unable to participate in yesterday’s ceremony will receive the cross from their respective provincials, but always in the name of the Rector Major, Don Bosco’s successor.

The video of the Mass can be seen on the ANS Facebook page.

Bro. Dan Glass, SDB

will be going from the U.S. East to Kinshasha, Congo

Orientation for New SDB Missionaries Continues

 Orientation for New SDB Missionaries Continues

(ANS - Castelnuovo Don Bosco, Italy - November 15, 2021) - The second phase of the orientation for new missionaries ended on Sunday, November 14, after a week-long program held at Colle Don Bosco for the departing missionaries. This charismatic core of the course aims to give these missionaries the opportunity to follow in the Founder’s footsteps as a source of identity for their Salesian missionary vocation. The missionaries are the bearers of Don Bosco’s charism to the places where they are sent. Therefore, a personal contact with the places linked to the origins of the Salesian charism is fundamental. This will allow them to evaluate their personal experience in the light of Don Bosco’s charismatic experience to continue his mission in their new field of work. The mornings were spent at the Colle (Don Bosco’s birthplace) for lectio divina and personal reflection and prayer led by Fr. Alfred Maravilla, general councilor for the missions. The afternoons were characterized by guided visits to the Salesian holy places with Fr. Eligio Caprioglio. On November 15, the third phase began: the missiological nucleus, animated by the members of the team of the Missions Department.  In the photo, Bro. Dan Glass from the New Rochelle Province stands in the middle of the back row.

Homily for Solemnity of Christ the King

Homily for the Solemnity of
Christ the King

John 18: 33-37
Preface
Nov. 21, 2021
St. Joseph Church, New Rochelle, N.Y.                   

“Pilate said to Jesus, ‘Are you the King of Jews?’” (John 18: 33).

What is a king?  In our country we’re not familiar with kings.  Even the monarch whom we may be most familiar with, Queen Elizabeth II, doesn’t really measure up to the kings and queens who ruled in the ancient and medieval worlds.  She has royal authority but practically no political power; she reigns, but she doesn’t rule.

Kings of old, however, usually wielded absolute power, much as the king of Saudi Arabia still does.  That was the power of taxation and liberality, of justice and corruption, of war and peace, of life and death.  Modern tyrants and dictators have exercised such power:  Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Putin, Kim Jong-un, Venezuela’s Maduro, Nicaragua’s Ortega.

Someone seeking that kind of power is what Pontius Pilate has in mind as he questions Jesus.  Jesus was turned over to the Roman governor by the Jewish leaders, accused of instigating a revolt against Rome.  Jesus has no such aspirations, and the Jewish leaders know that.  But they’re jealous of the following he’s attracted, which threatens their own authority; and they’re afraid that Jesus’ followers will be seen by Pilate as potential rebels and might bring down the Roman legions to crush the limited rights that the Jews still possess.

(Gebhard Fugel)

So Pilate is quite interested in who Jesus is and what he aims at.  Quickly he sees that Jesus is no threat to Rome.  Altho Jesus admits he’s a king, he’s a completely different sort of king than Pilate can imagine:  a king not of this world (18:36), an other-worldly king, a king whose followers won’t defend him because their interests and concerns have nothing to do with Rome or even Jerusalem.

In fact, Jesus’ followers have much wider interests, universal concerns.  Jesus isn’t king of the Jews but king of the universe:  “For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.  Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice” (18:37). 

Immediately after this exchange, Pilate will ask—perhaps skeptically, perhaps scornfully—“What is truth?” (18:38).  Politicians like him aren’t interested in truth, only in power.  In Western societies they tend to focus on re-election.  Jesus’ voice doesn’t carry much weight in politics (or in entertainment, the media, or academia), just as the voice of Pope Pius XII didn’t carry weight with Stalin, who asked derisively, “How many divisions does the Pope have?”

And what is the truth to which Jesus testifies?  Today’s preface tells us something:  he makes “all created things subject to his rule” (or his kingship), so that he might present to God his Father “an eternal and universal kingdom, a kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace.”  The truth is that God is creator and lord of the universe, and Jesus directs us toward his Father.  We’re not the lords, no matter how smart or wealthy or powerful we are.

The truth is that God created us to live forever.  Any sin against human life is an assault on God:  sins like domestic abuse, street muggings, drug abuse, euthanasia, and abortion.  “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”

The truth is that God made us for holiness and grace, i.e., to share in his own divine life.  He offers us forgiveness of sins, redemption, deliverance from everlasting hell with Satan and his demons.

The truth is that God wants “an eternal and universal kingdom” with every human being part of it.  Not only Jews, not only Romans; every nation and ethnic group, every color, every social class, every man and woman.  This message of Jesus was perhaps the main issue that got him in such trouble with the rulers of the Jews; they complained, “This man eats with tax collectors and sinners” (Mark 2:16), and he preached a major parable in which a Samaritan was the hero (Luke 10:29-37).  God loves everyone, and under his Fatherhood we’re all brothers and sisters—united in Jesus the only-begotten Son who became “a spotless sacrifice to bring us peace” (Preface), to reconcile us sinners with his Father.

Such truths are too much for Pontius Pilate.  So he’ll condemn Jesus to crucifixion.  They’re too much for so many people today, who figuratively crucify their fellow human beings thru many forms of violence and oppression, who tell the lie that an unborn human being is just a worthless lump of tissue, who tell the lie that a boy who imagines he’s a girl should be treated like a girl (and vice versa), who tell the lie that women should be subservient to men, who tell the lie that one race is superior to others, who tell the lie that the more money you have, the happier you’ll be, who tell the lie that sex is just for your own pleasure.  You probably can add to that catalog of lies.

So Jesus is a king.  Is he your king?  If so, what does that mean for how you’ll live?

Homily for Thursday, 33d Week of Ordinary Time

Homily for Thursday
33d Week of Ordinary Time

Nov. 18, 2021
1 Macc 2: 15-29
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph Residence, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“God forbid that we should forsake the law and the commandments” (1 Macc 2: 21).

Persecution of the Jews by the Greeks (Wojciech Stattler)

As we’ve been hearing this week, King Antiochus of Syria was trying to impose on Israel a completely Greek culture, including Greek polytheism and worship.  Some of the Jews resisted to the point of rebellion and civil war in defense of their traditions and religion.

In our own time, similar efforts are being made thruout Western culture to impose a pagan religion, which some might call “progressivism”; in the U.S. we also have to face “woke” culture.  Political, media, entertainment, and academic elites lay this upon us.  (In other countries, there are different but always non-Christian impositions.)  Their secular religion doesn’t worship Zeus or Athena or whatever gods Antiochus favored, but the gods of wealth, nationalism, ethnocentrism, libertinism, abortion, homosexuality, transgenderism, and the stifling of dissenting opinions.

Lately I’ve read of a new college being founded that will stress the free exchange of ideas, unlike many of our most elite universities, where only politically correct opinions are permitted.[1]

We’re not called to arms like Mattathias and his sons in their revolt against Antiochus.  We are called to stand fast for truth.  In next Sunday’s gospel, we’ll hear Jesus tell Pilate:  “For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.  Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice” (John 18:37).

I read a news story this morning about a public school student in New Hampshire who’s been suspended because in a private conversation off campus he asserted that there are only 2 genders.[2]  He’s fighting back like the Maccabees, but with a lawsuit.

Wherever, however we can, we must defend the truth:  God is the lord of creation, every human being has inborn dignity, and every human being is called to a life of integrity and to chastity.  (How much trouble could the Church have avoided in the last 50 years thru faithful lives of chastity!)  The goods of the earth belong to everyone, and not only to the 1%, and they must be shared.

Some of this is decidedly not politically correct.  But it does represent zeal for the law and the covenant, zeal for our Lord Jesus Christ.

---

     [1] Anemona Hartocollis, “They Say Colleges Are Censorious. So They Are Starting a New One.”  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/08/us/ut-austin-free-speech.html?searchResultPosition=3

     [2] CNA Staff, “Catholic teenager suspended for saying there are only two genders sues school district,” 11/18/21: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/249629/a-catholic-teenager-who-was-reportedly-suspended-for-saying-that-there-are-only-two-genders-is-suing-his-new-hampshire-public-school-district

Book on Fr. Enrico Pozzoli Presented to Public

Book on Fr. Enrico Pozzoli Presented to the Public

Ho fatto cristiano il Papa ("I Christened the Pope")

(ANS – Rome – November 15, 2021) - On November 12 the book Ho fatto cristiano il Papa (I Christened the Pope) was presented in Rome at the Pontifical Urbanianum University. Involved were the Rector of the Urbaniana, Fr. Leonardo Sileo OFM; Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples; the Hon. Lorenzo Guerini, minister of Defense and former mayor of Lodi; and Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime.

The book is a biography of Fr. Enrico Pozzoli, the Salesian missionary who baptized Jorge Mario Bergoglio and who followed his progress in the early years of his Christian journey. Recalling his educator, Pope Francis has often described Fr. Pozzoli, a native of Lodi, as “a great apostle” and “an apostle of the confessional.” In recent months Pope Francis came to know of the plan for a book about Fr. Pozzoli and called the author, Ferruccio Pallavera, offering his own thus-far unpublished testimony, which is included in the book, regarding the human and spiritual figure of this Salesian who spent 58 years in Argentina and there was a point of reference for thousands of Italian migrants who had come to Argentina in search of a better future: among them, the Holy Father’s parents.

The presentation began with a welcome from the rector of the University, Fr. Sileo, who said he was very happy and grateful to be hosting the presentation, and thanked the director of the Vatican Publishing House, journalist Lorenzo Fazzini, who was making the presentation.

Cardinale Tagle then spoke, quoting Pope Francis’s own words and linking his teaching with the figure of the Salesian missionary. “The action of serving others says of us that we are children of God the Father, who placed himself at our service through the Incarnation of his Son, in solidarity with us, even unto death. Fr. Pozzoli was another good father, because he was close to many Italian immigrants who arrived in Buenos Aires, and he not only took care of the spiritual aspect but also of concrete assistance, as he did with the Bergoglio family when they were experiencing a period of economic difficulty. This is the ‘good shepherd,’ although we would also say, more generically, the ‘authentic believer.’”

The cardinal recalled the long hours of hearing confessions that Fr. Pozzoli offered to Salesians, diocesan clergy, the faithful, and the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, an important part of the great Salesian Family, the cardinal added, greeting Sr. Yvonne Reungoat, former Mother General, and the 3 sisters who accompanied her.

He also recalled the time when the young Bergoglio spoke to Fr. Pozzoli of his desire to become a Jesuit. The elderly missionary always respected his decision: "He was not the kind of priest to go about proselytizing,” he said, quoting the Pope. “This proselytism, employing strategies to box people in, deprives them of their freedom. To the contrary, Fr. Enrico left young Jorge Mario free to make his decision to become a Jesuit instead of urging him to embrace Don Bosco’s charism.” Then, turning to the Rector Major, who was present on that occasion, he said: “Dear Fr. Angel, perhaps you had one Salesian less, but the Church gained a man of God who was truly free.” He then said, fondly, “But who knows, perhaps he was a hidden Salesian.…”

Following Cardinal Tagle, the Italian minister of Defense, Lorenzo Guerini, spoke. He described the beautiful city of Lodi in a simple, colorful way as a meeting and transit point for so many pilgrims in the Middle Ages who were crossing the Alps, heading for St. Peter’s and then, via Puglia, for the Holy land, but who stopped over there during their journey. "I like to imagine young Enrico Pozzoli contemplating the pilgrims on their journey, and then being fascinated by the idea of making a long journey, becoming a pilgrim, and then receiving the call to be a missionary in distant lands,” he said, among other thoughts.

The Rector Major continued the presentation of the book with a very significant address, since part of his own history involves Argentina, Fr. Pozzoli's mission field and Pope Francis’s homeland. Fr. Angel served as the first provincial of the newly established Blessed Ceferino Namuncurá Province of Southern Argentina. “I read the entire book at home with particular enthusiasm because reading about places it mentions there, as I knew them, was like returning to my years as provincial. For example, the Pius IX School where Fr. Enrico was teacher and assistant is the same one where Carlos Gardel and his best friend Blessed Ceferino Namuncurá were. Namuncurá was the Mapuche whose voice was even clearer, more transparent than Carlos Gardel’s, according to witnesses from those years.” Recalling Fr. Pozzoli, the Rector Major spoke in a heartfelt way precisely because it was in Argentina that Fr. Pozzoli had played a particular role among the young, encouraging and accompanying the faith in the basilica of Mary Help of Christians in Almagro, very dear to the people. Among other things he said: “This basilica is mentioned in the book. It is one of the most beautiful churches in all of Argentina, and was built with the collaboration of many of the faithful, among them the Bergoglio family.” “We find the time when Fr. Enrico was there in this basilica, the Salesian priest who was a friend to the people, visited the families, and, in the case of the Bergoglios became the family’s priest.”

Fr. Enrico, a missionary, was one of the many missionary vocations from Lodi, both for the Salesians and for the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. “But his missionary vocation,” the Rector Major recalled, “was not marked by the grand gestures of other unforgettable missionaries. He took care to carry out one of Don Bosco’s recommendations: look after Italian immigrants.” He also recalled that there is an estimated total of 12,700 Salesian missionary vocations.

The book’s author, bringing the event to a close, thanked those present for their involvement and spoke of the admiration aroused in Lodi, once Francis had been elected, when Argentine journalists asked him for information regarding a certain Enrico Pozzoli, a Salesian missionary priest. It was only then, researching this famous son of Lodi, that journalists came to understand the great esteem that Pope Francis had for him.

Homily for Memorial of St. Margaret of Scotland

Homily for the Memorial of
St. Margaret of Scotland

Nov. 16, 2021
Collect
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, New Rochelle, N.Y.

Thru the intercession and after the example of St. Margaret, we pray today that “we may reflect among all humanity the image of [God’s] divine goodness” (Collect).  According to the collect, Margaret reflected God’s goodness thru her “charity toward the poor.”

(from a window in Edinburgh Castle)

In our situation we’re called to reflect God’s image to the people at hand.  As a community we may have ways to assist the poor monetarily and certainly by prayer, and our intercessions often do so.  But individually and practically, our charity must touch the men and women around us.

To our brothers and our staff we can be patient, forgiving, and helpful.  A bright smile reflects the image of God’s goodness.  Pope Francis tells us that the 3 most important words in family life are “please,” “thank you,” and “I’m sorry.”  Call that courtesy or call it kindness—it’s a form of charity.

We might also be diligent in keeping in touch with our brothers, our relatives, and our friends.  A call or a note from us might be “charity toward the poor,” to someone needing a good word, a sign of appreciation.  We needn’t be royalty like Margaret of Scotland, just royalty thru our belonging to the kingdom of God.

Salesian Vocation Video no. 2

As noted in a post on Nov. 11, the young SDBs in formation at Orange, N.J., have put together a series of 3 videos on our Salesian profession.  Here's the 2d: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZTz_QFcyFM

Homily for 33d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
33d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Nov. 14, 2021
Mark 13: 24-32
St. Joseph Church, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“He will send out the angels and gather his elect” (Mark 13: 27).

Jesus speaks of disasters coming upon the earth as a prelude to his own 2d coming.  Disasters are nothing new, even if in our time they seem to be bigger and worse than ever:  hurricanes, droughts, earthquakes, wildfires, floods, pandemics, melting ice caps in the Arctic and Antarctica.  Certainly we’re more aware of such things than we used to be.   

Climate change and natural disasters aren’t the worst of what’s going on when we consider the moral disasters that human beings inflict on themselves and others:  war, abortion, ethnic cleansing, human trafficking, religious persecution, etc.

None of all that means that Jesus’ return, “the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory” (13:26), is imminent, that the so-called “end times” are upon us.

Yet it is a gospel certainty that human history will end some day.  It is certain that our Lord Jesus will return as the universal judge.  “No one knows that day or hour, not even the Son, but only the Father” (13:22).  But that day and hour will come, when Jesus Christ “will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead” (Creed).

If the end is certain, if final judgment is certain, then it’s equally certain that we must be ready—ready to receive the Lord, ready to welcome him, ready at any time.

Is his coming something to fear?  Is our Lord Jesus someone to be afraid of?  Not if we have done our best to follow Jesus faithfully.  Not if we agree with the psalmist:  “O Lord, my allotted portion and my cup, you it is who hold fast my lot.  You will not abandon my soul to the netherworld” (16:5,10).

After all, we are his elect.  That means he has chosen us.  The eternal Son of God entered our history in the womb of the Virgin Mary in order to reclaim us for God, to lead us into the kingdom of God, to live with him forever.  In Baptism he claimed us as his own.

On the last day, his angels will gather all who belong to him, and if we belong to him, we look forward eagerly for his coming to complete our redemption from all the evils and disasters of this present world.  One of the great prayers of the 1st generations of Christians was, in Aramaic, “Marana tha!”—“Come, O Lord!” (1 Cor 16:22; Rev 22:20).  So we conclude our profession of faith with this statement:  “I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.”  We look forward to being gathered to the Lord, to dwell in his household, to be happy beyond measure and without end.

Homily for Memorial of St. Martin of Tours

Homily for the Memorial of
St. Martin of Tours

Collect
Nov. 11, 2021
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“Make new the wonders of your grace in our hearts” (Collect).

In today’s gospel, Jesus tells the Pharisees that the kingdom of God is among them (Luke 17:21), meaning in his own person.  We also witness the presence of the kingdom in the saints.

Martin of Tours was single-minded in his pursuit of Christ, from the time of his conversion as a teenager.  His parents were pagans, his father a soldier in the Roman frontier army.  After a brief army career of his own—during which occurred the famous episode of his sharing his warm military cloak with a roadside beggar—Martin became a disciple of St. Hilary of Poitiers, founded the 1st monastery in Gaul, and combatted Arians and other heretics.

Against his will Martin was made bishop of Tours because people—not the hierarchy, incidentally, who thought him rather uncouth—recognized his qualities of holiness, peaceableness, and leadership.  Altho he strenuously opposed heresy, he refused to condemn heretics to civil punishment.  He evangelized his diocese by courageously challenging pagan superstitions and offering Christ.  By God’s grace he worked numerous wonders like physical cures, well attested even if they seem unbelievable.  He fought the Devil in person and even told him he might yet seek the mercy of Christ.

In Martin, then, we find a saint who responded to God’s grace by denying his own will and seeking God’s will, who was passionate for truth but also compassionate.  Such virtues are as wonderful in our hearts as in his.  May St. Martin pray to God for us as he did for his own flock, that we bear witness to the presence of the kingdom of God.

I Made the Pope a Christian

“I made the Pope a Christian”

Biography of Fr. Enrico Pozzoli, SDB

(ANS – Rome – November 8, 2021) – “He spent hours and hours in the confessional, and over the years he had become the point of reference for all the Salesians in Buenos Aires and the surrounding communities.... He was truly a great confessor.” These are the words of the Holy Father about Fr. Enrico Pozzoli, the Salesian missionary who baptized little Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires on Christmas day 1936. This and much more is contained in the book published by the Vatican Publishing House (LEV) Ho fatto cristiano il Papa by journalist Ferruccio Pallavera, which was presented across various locations including Rome, on Friday, November 12 at the Pontifical Urbaniana University in an event that will also see the Rector Major of the Salesians and other illustrious figures.

A “worker of the Kingdom of God,” a “saint,” as Pope Francis himself defined him, but at the same time a missionary like many others, Fr. Pozzoli left Lombardy for Argentina in the years of Italian emigration to Latin America at the beginning of the 20th century. Fr. Pozzoli’s story would perhaps have fallen into oblivion, like that of many such “saints next door,” if this Salesian priest, who was born in Senna Lodigiana in 1880 and died in Buenos Aires 81 years later, had not baptized the child who would later become the Supreme Pontiff.

In Pallavera’s book, which is also a historical cross-section of the life of the peasants of the Lodi area between the two centuries and of the Salesian missions in Patagonia in the same years, the relationship between the whole Bergoglio family and that Salesian with a passion for photography and the hobby of repairing watches is reconstructed in detail. Fr. Pozzoli was, indeed, at center stage at various times. He was the intermediary who introduced Mario Bergoglio and Regina Sivori, the future Pontiff’s parents to each other. It was he who presided at their wedding; and again it was he who helped the parents of the future Pope to accept the request of their eldest son to enter the seminary.

Many details of the life of the missionary Fr. Enrico Pozzoli that emerge from Pallavera’s book were told to the author by Pope Francis himself. “When in 2020, I finished the first draft of the book, I realized that I had some substantial gaps,” says the journalist. “The only person who could fill the gaps in my research was the Pope. So, I wrote to Pope Francis, to tell him that I was developing a biography of the priest who had baptized him, but I never imagined that he would call and invite me to Casa Santa Marta for a one-hour private interview. Thanks to that exclusive interview, I was not only able to fill in the holes in my story, but I had practically to rewrite the book.”

Fr. Pozzoli’s biography was presented:

- on Wednesday, November 10, in Asti, in the presence of the bishop of the city, Most Rev. Marco Prastaro;

It will be presented

- on Friday, November 12, at 6:30 p.m., at the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome. Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, the Minister of Defense Lorenzo Guerini, and the Rector Major Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime will be present;

- on Sunday, November 14, at 3:00 p.m., in Senna Lodigiana, in the presence of Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches;

- on Wednesday, November 17, at 8:45 p.m., in Lodi, with felicitations by the bishop of the city, Most Rev. Maurizio Malvestiti, and the director of L’Osservatore Romano, Andrea Monda.

For more on the Salesian influence on the future Pope: From the Eastern Front: What Jorge Bergoglio Learned from the Salesians (sdbnews.blogspot.com)