Homily for Memorial of St. Hilary of Poitiers

Homily for the Memorial of
St. Hilary of Poitiers                                     

January 13, 2023
Provincial House, New Rochelle, N.Y.

We celebrate today the memorial not of a mountain climber or a political climber but of a theologian who helps us climb to the life of the Holy Trinity.

St. Hilary (c. 310-c. 367) was the greatest opponent of Arianism in the Western Church in the 4th century.  He converted to Christianity as an adult.  After becoming bishop of Poitiers (in west-central Gaul) a generation after the Council of Nicea, he so championed orthodoxy that the emperor, a proponent of Arianism, exiled him to Asia Minor.  There his defense of orthodoxy caused the emperor to think he was more trouble in the East than back in Gaul, and he sent him home.

Hilary’s contacts with Eastern theologians during his exile deepened this own thought, enabling him to compose his masterpiece On the Trinity, in which, quoting Pope Benedict, he “explained his personal journey toward knowledge of God and took pains to show that not only in the New Testament but also in many Old Testament passages, in which Christ’s mystery already appears, Scripture clearly testifies to the divinity of the Son and his equality with the Father.”[1]

Notwithstanding the vigor with which he defended orthodoxy against his theological adversaries, he was known for his kindness, charity, and conciliatory spirit—a lesson that many Catholics could use in their social media, and perhaps we too in our daily lives.

Hilary’s theological reflection was based on his baptismal faith, as is our vocation.  In his treatise on the Trinity, he offered some prayers, like this one cited by Pope Benedict: “Obtain, O Lord, that I may keep ever faithful to what I have professed in the symbol of my regeneration, when I was baptized in the Father, in the Son, and in the Holy Spirit.  That I may worship you, our Father, and with you, your Son; that I may deserve your Holy Spirit, who proceeds from you thru your Only Begotten Son.  Amen.”

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[1] Wednesday audience, Oct. 17, 2007.

The Salesian Mission in Lahore

The Salesian Mission in Lahore

(ANS – Lahore, Pakistan – January 10, 2023) – Pakistan is a country with some problematic issues, such as political instability, terrorism, poverty, and internal tensions. The Kashmir question between India and Pakistan remains unresolved. Furthermore, neighboring Afghanistan creates refugee and terrorist infiltration problems. The Islamic religion is practiced by 96.5% of the population. Christians are only 1.5%, roughly half Catholic and half Protestant. In the district of Youhanabad of Lahore, where the Salesian house stands, there are many Christians. Being a small minority, however, Christians have few opportunities within society.

For everyone, Muslims and Christians alike, religion occupies a prominent place, religiosity is widespread, and religion permeates the whole of society. Another beautiful feature of all of Pakistan is that the population is very young. The low average age means that there is a high proportion of children and youths.

There are two Salesian works in Pakistan, one in Lahore and one in Quetta. Two Salesians currently work in Lahore - Fr. Noble Lal, the first Salesian priest from Pakistan, who is director and treasurer of the community and director of the technical school; and Bro. Piero Ramello, a Salesian coadjutor and missionary, originally from the Piedmont and Aosta Valley Province, a teacher at the school. The Don Bosco Educational Society provides educational services both in formal education (New Don Bosco Higher Secondary School) and in technical education (Don Bosco Technical Centre). The latter offers a variety of vocational training programs as per the community needs to address the issue of unemployment among youth. With the Don Bosco Education project, Salesians are also providing quality education at low cost to the marginalized communities in Pakistan.

In Salesian services for girls, particular attention is paid to reducing early school-leaving. Unfortunately, due to the need to take care of the family, or to the spread of early marriages, many girls abandon their studies before the end of compulsory schooling. This takes place in the ethnic communities of the villages, but also in large urban centers such as Lahore, in the belief that dropping out of school to help the family or early marriage (often against the girl’s will) constitute a solution to economic poverty. For girls, Salesians in Pakistan carry out social promotion programs and training programs on their rights with the aim of creating and spreading awareness and self-determination among young people. They work hard to encourage girls to continue their studies. They also organize courses to impart knowledge and skills aimed at learning a trade and thereby emancipating girls. In the words of one of these students, “If we study, we can have a brighter future.”

The school fees charged by the Salesians are very low, since most are single-income families with many children. The local population is very poor, and there is need of support or scholarship to complete the education of the youngsters and skills-training in order to become independent members of society.

Source: Salesians Ireland

Fr. Mihaly Kiss, SDB, "Righteous among the Nations"

Fr. Mihaly Kiss, SDB, Posthumously awarded Righteous among the Nations by Israel’s Yad Vashem

(ANS – Budapest – December 21, 2022) – A posthumous Righteous among the Nations medal has been awarded to Fr. Mihaly Kiss, SDB, who hid Jewish youths in the Salesian house in Old Buda during the Holocaust. The award was presented by Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjen and Israel’s ambassador to Budapest, Yakov Hadas-Handelsman, to the Salesian provincial, Fr. Janos Andrasfalvy, on December 8 in Budapest.

There were 100 guests present, among them also the papal nuncio to Hungary, Abp. Michael Wallace Banach; Shlomo Koves, chief rabbi of the Association of Hungarian Jewish Communities; the ambassadors of Switzerland, Sweden, and Poland, members of the Salesian Family in Hungary, including a past pupil who is a member of the Parliament, and some other members of Parliament.

The character of Fr. Mihaly Kiss, Salesian director of the house of Obuda (1940-1946), was presented by the former provincial and former director of Obuda, Fr. Bela Abaham, by historian and museologist Judit B. Varga, and by Fr. Andrasfalvy.

In his welcome speech, Mr. Semjen stressed that the Holocaust showed not only unbridled evil in its stark reality, but also the power of human greatness. “We must remember all those who, as Christians, risked their lives to save people,” said the Deputy Prime Minister. Mr. Semjen also said that the memory of the Holocaust was not simply a reminder of the most senseless and terrible act of the 20th century and of humanity, but a point of reference that still defines the identity of the people of Europe today.

Ambassador Hadas-Handelsman said that the Righteous among the Nations medal is the highest expression of gratitude from the Jewish people and the State of Israel for the humanity and courage of non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews.

“Mihaly Kiss truly deserves the recognition for his extraordinary courage in helping Jewish children, hiding them from their persecutors in the chapel of the Salesians’ monastery in Old Buda, and risking his own life in the process,” said the ambassador.

He noted that Fr. Kiss’s being a priest makes his actions all the more significant, given the interreligious relations at the time.

Fr. Andrasfalvy emphasized in his welcome speech that the life of Fr. Kiss is a particularly important example for the Hungarian Salesians. He recalled that Fr. Kiss, as the head of the Obuda community during the Arrow Cross regime (October 1944-March 1945), took multiple people of Jewish background into the monastery, saving their lives.

On their way to the brickyard collection point, several Jews “jumped” into the chapel, which was always open. When the Arrow Cross troops found out that the Salesians were hiding Jewish youths, they raided the house, dragged away the children they found there, shot them, and dumped their bodies into the Danube, he said.

Fr. Kiss and his companions were repeatedly beaten and tortured by the Arrow Cross, which probably contributed to the priest’s early death.

Fr. Andrasfalvy also stated that Fr. Kiss was the third Hungarian Salesian to receive the Righteous among the Nations award.

The former provincial, Fr. Abraham, recalled that Fr. Kiss was born on September 7, 1891, in Gyorszentmarton. In 1906, he entered the Salesians as a novice; he was ordained in Krakow in 1916. He worked as director of the house in Rakospalota, then became head of the Salesian school in Nyergesujfalu. Starting in 1940, he was director in Obuda. His diary, which he kept from autumn 1944 to early 1945, is an important memoir that shows the greatness of its author and contains poignant descriptions of the horrors of war and the atrocities of the Arrow Cross.

Fr. Abraham noted that the Salesian Congregation was dissolved under Communism, but their documents, including Fr. Kiss’s diary, were accidentally left behind. Someone had taken them to the archives, where no one dared touch them during the decades of Communism; they were returned to the Salesians after the fall of the Communist regime.

Source: NeoKohn

Homily for Feast of Baptism of the Lord

Homily for the Feast of the
Baptism of the Lord

Jan. 9, 2023
Acts 10: 34-38
Salesian HS, New Rochelle

“God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power” (Acts 10: 38).

by Pietro Perugino

In the gospel reading (Matt 3:13-17), we heard how Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit descended upon him, and God the Father voiced his pleasure in his beloved Son.  This 3-fold happening—baptism, descent of the Spirit, and God’s acknowledgment—is what St. Peter summarizes in his preaching to Cornelius the centurion and his household:  “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power.”  Peter also mentions Jesus’ works of power:  “He went about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil” (10:38).

It’s a theological truism that in his baptism in the Jordan River Jesus sanctified all the waters of the world that would be used to sanctify people:  Cornelius in the 1st century, you and me in the 20th century, and every Christian in every century.  In Baptism—in the washing with water and the anointing with chrism—the Holy Spirit descended upon us, not as dramatically as he did on Jesus, but effectively, turning us also into beloved children of God in whom the Father is well pleased, and empowering us, too, to go about doing good, to relieve the various forms of evil oppression wherever we encounter them, especially among the young.

Homily for Solemnity of Epiphany

Homily for the 
Solemnity of the Epiphany

Jan. 8, 2023
Matt 2: 1-12
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx

“When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem” (Matt 2: 1).

Adoration of the Magi (Gerard David)

St. Matthew begins his Gospel by recording the genealogy of Jesus from Abraham down to St. Joseph, his legal father.  He describes Joseph’s quandary when Mary his espoused wife becomes pregnant by the Holy Spirit, the angel’s appearance and explanation, and Joseph’s agreement to God’s plan for Mary and her Son.

Matthew doesn’t report Jesus’ birth but jumps at once to the episode we just read.  He gives us 2 historical facts:  Jesus was born at Bethlehem, and he was born during the reign of King Herod.  His birth at Bethlehem marks him theologically as an heir to King David, which he is also, legally, thru his foster father Joseph.  His birth “in the days of King Herod” means sometime before that wicked ruler died in 4 B.C. according to our calendar and the historical records.  Our best guess is that Jesus was born in 6 or 7 B.C.  There’s a 6th-century monk you can blame for that chronological mess.

Then Matthew introduces “magi from the east.”  In the ancient world, magus (pl. magi) had various meanings:  scholar, wise man, astrologer, wonder-worker, sorcerer.  Our word magic derives from magus.

For sure, the word doesn’t refer to royalty, to a king or a prince.  So these aren’t kings coming from the East looking for Jesus but wise men of some sort.  Matthew doesn’t say how many:  2 or 6 or 10.  The tradition of 3 comes from the number of their gifts.  Those gifts are regal:  gold fit for a king, incense fit for a god, and, ominously, myrrh for one destined to suffer (cf. 2:11).

These visitors are “wise,” quite unlike the king in the story, Herod, who rules the Roman province of Judea.  As scholars or philosophers or astronomers, they’ve watched the nite skies and observed a special star—we needn’t try to figure that out—and from their studies discerned what the star means.  In wisdom, they come then to seek “the newborn king of the Jews” and “to do him homage” (2:2).

Seeking a king, it’s perfectly natural that they should go 1st to the royal palace, to Herod’s court.  Here they find only a wicked old man (in his late 60s), who, rather than receiving good news in the message of the magi, is “greatly troubled,” and because he’s “greatly troubled,” so is the entire court and the whole city (2:3).  When powerful people are upset, lots of people suffer—such is the way of the world, not the way of Jesus.

The magi re-orient themselves on the basis of the information they’re given in Jerusalem.[1]  Herod, the chief priests, and the scribes don’t re-orient.  They know the Scriptures academically, but the Scriptures have no impact on their lives.  This bodes evil for Jesus, whose public ministry will be opposed 30 years later by both Herod’s son, also named Herod, and the chief priests and scribes of that time.

The magi, however, leave royalty behind, as well as their previous ideas about whom they’re seeking.  They re-orient, as I said.  We could even say they do what Jesus will later preach:  they convert themselves, change their minds, go in a new and better direction—which is the meaning of Jesus’ preaching, “Repent” (or “Be converted”) “and believe in the Gospel” (Mark 1:15).

And so the wise men come to Bethlehem and find the one they seek, the one who’s the authentic king of the Jews, the one who will shepherd God’s people Israel (2:6), and not only Israel but all the nations (Is 60:1-6), who are well represented by these foreigners from the East.  Their search is rewarded because they go where God is pointing them, not stopping where they think God should be.

There are times when all of us think God’s making a mistake in his governance of the world, in what the Church teaches in his name, or in God’s plans for us individually.  The surest way for us to get ourselves into trouble spiritually, psychologically, religiously is for us to tell God he’s wrong, or to tell the Church, “I don’t believe that Jesus would teach what you’re teaching,” and we know better; to be unwilling to change our minds, our hearts, and our orientation as the magi did.  We’ll never find God, or peace of heart, by going in the wrong direction, by presuming on our own wisdom by refusing sound guidance from the Scriptures, from the accumulated wisdom of Christianity, from our own consciences.

God wants us to find him—not in a royal palace, not in power, not in the learned circles of today’s scribes (academia and the media), not in our own presuppositions, but in a humble, ordinary house:  “on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother” (2:11).  We meet God in our own ordinary lives, in our families, our jobs, our friendships; but always guided by a star, by the light of divine teaching from the Church and the Scriptures.  Each day we ask ourselves, “Where is God in my life today?”  When we let God lead us, we’ll arrive at our destination:  his presence, his household, for eternity.

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[1] Here I take my cue from an address that Pope Benedict gave at World Youth Day in 2005: https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/speeches/2005/august/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20050820_vigil-wyd.html?ref=the-pillar

"My Passion Is Christ"

MESSAGE OF THE RECTOR MAJOR

Fr.  Angel Fernandez Artime 

That Young Man Said to Me:

“MY PASSION IS CHRIST.”

I think it’s been many years since I’ve heard that expression from any young person, in such a casual context, and in the presence of his classmates (since some others had approached as we were speaking).

Fr. Angel with students at Bishop Mora Salesian HS, East L.A.

My dear friends and readers of Salesian media,

We’ve begun a new year. We find ourselves in 2023. At least to me that sounds like an unimaginable number, perhaps “galactic time.” I don’t know whether it is, but certainly we’re living in the 21st century.

Nowadays many ways of living, expressing oneself, and communicating have changed greatly. But we can still be surprised by something we experience, something we see, something we hear.

What I want to share with you now is something that I believe to be very opportune for this greeting to the Salesian Family for January, “Don Bosco’s Month” – as we are used to saying in Salesian colloquial language. A few weeks ago I visited the Salesian works in the United States of America. Very early on, I visited St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower, Calif., and spent several hours with hundreds of students – middle school children from the parish school St. Dominic Savio and St. John Bosco high school students. Following that, there was a roundtable with 45 young people from the High. We talked about their personal plans and dreams. They were very pleasant and enriching hours. At the end of the morning, the young people and I ate lunch in the open air on the patio. I was sitting at a wooden picnic table with 4 Salesians, with my sandwich and a bottle of water. I greeted many young people, some sitting at tables, others standing, during this lunch period. At my table there were 2 open seats. At one point 2 young men came up and sat with us. Naturally, I spoke to them and struck up a conversation. Not even 2 minutes had elapsed when one of the young people said to me, “I want to ask you a question.” I replied, “Ask.”

-  The young man inquired: “What do I have to do to become Pope? I want to be the Pope.” 

-  I was left with a surprised look on my face, even if I was smiling. I told him that I’d never been asked that question before, and that I was surprised that he was so direct and decisive. I said that from among the 1,600,000,000 Catholics it is not so easy to become the Pope. Then I added something else to my answer. I said, “Look, you could start by becoming a Salesian.”

-  In response to what he heard, the young man told me: “Well, I won’t say ‘NO.’” He added, “Because, without a doubt, MY PASSION IS CHRIST.”

Fr. Angel in dialog with high school students

from New Rochelle, Ramsey, and North Haledon

I have to tell you that in the face of such an answer, I was absolutely surprised, pleasantly surprised. I think it’s been many years since I’ve heard that expression from any young person, in such a casual context, and in the presence of his classmates (since some others had approached as we were speaking).

I told my friend that I really liked his answer since I saw that he was absolutely sincere. And I added that if he gave me permission, I would like to comment on this dialog of ours at some other time and place. I am doing so here.

At that moment my thoughts turned to Don Bosco. Surely Don Bosco would have greatly enjoyed a dialog with a young man like this. Undoubtedly, many of the dialogs he had with Savio, Besucco, Magone, Rua, Cagliero, Francesia, and numerous others had a lot of the same: the desire of young people to do something beautiful with their lives.

I thought about how important it is still today, 163 years after the beginning of the Salesian Congregation, to continue to believe deeply that young people are good, that they have so many seeds of goodness in their hearts.  They have dreams and plans that often carry with them much generosity and self-donation. How important it is to continue believing that it is God who carries out the good work in the hearts of each one of us, in each one of his sons and daughters.

It seems to me that today, in our times, we run a very great risk of becoming practical and efficient when looking at everything that happens to us and what we experience so that we lose the ability to surprise ourselves and others – and what’s more worrisome – not to allow ourselves to be “surprised by God.”

That young man said he was fascinated by Jesus, to the point of saying that he was his passion in life. That same thing has happened, I think, with many of us, and with millions and millions of other people.

I invite you, friends who follow Salesian media, friends of Don Bosco’s charism, to join this numerous group of people who perhaps could be described as “naive” or “gullible” because we believe that there’s so much good to look forward to and so many beautiful things of which to dream, to wish, and to commit ourselves.

I think that just as it was with Don Bosco yesterday, today there are thousands and thousands of young people who want to see Jesus, who need to experience friendship with him, and who want others to accompany them on this beautiful journey.

Happy feast of Don Bosco, the Saint of Youth, the “Father and Teacher of the Young!” (Pope St. John Paul II)

Fr. Angel

Salesians Mourn Benedict XVI

“A great Pope has gone,” says Rector Major

Salesians Mourn Benedict XVI

(ANS – Rome – December 31, 2022) – The Salesian Family prays for the eternal repose of the emeritus pontiff, thanking Pope Benedict XVI for his expressions of friendship and appreciation.

The Pope Emeritus died on the morning of December 31 in the Vatican at the age of 95. Pope Francis had long ago asked for prayers for his predecessor, as his health had deteriorated.

On hearing the news, Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime said that “we have received the sad news of the death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. I say ‘sad news’ because every human loss always leaves a void. But at the same time, his life has been a blessing – a long life lived in total self-giving to the Lord Jesus in his service to the Gospel and to the Church.”

Fr. Fernandez added that “a great Pope has gone to meet his Lord, a great believer, a great theologian and thinker; a man capable of building bridges of communication with the most diverse philosophers, theologians, and intellectuals; a Pope who was respected and who will be even more valued in the years and decades to come; a man and a Pope who knew how to live in simplicity and silence. May the God of life keep him with him. As sons of Don Bosco, and as he taught all his Salesians, today we also say: Long live the Pope!

Joseph Ratzinger was elected as the 265th Pope on April 19, 2005, in the conclave that followed the death of St. John Paul II, and took the name Benedict XVI. He held the See of Peter until February 2013 when, in a historic gesture, he resigned the pontificate.

The Thanks of Two Rectors Major

After Benedict XVI’s resignation on February 28, 2013, the then-Rector Major, Fr. Pascual Chavez, expressed his closeness to the German Pope: “We, the Don Bosco Family spread throughout the world, are deeply grateful for this courageous act of service of our beloved Holy Father, and we accompany him with our sincere sympathy and devotion and, as he himself asked of us, with our constant prayer. Pope Benedict XVI, who has shown so many acts of kindness and affection toward our family, was a true gift of God to the Church and to the world today.

The current Rector Major, during his visit to Salesian Spain in 2016, called for greater recognition of the Pope Emeritus: “I am convinced that we have Pope Francis because before him we had Pope Benedict XVI, a very intelligent man, one of deep faith, a great theologian, and very free to do what he did.”

Fr. Augustine Baek, SDB (1958-2022)

Fr. Augustine Baek, SDB (1958-2022)

Fr. Augustine Woon Taek Baek, SDB, died at 2:10 p.m. on December 30 at home, the Salesian Provincial Center, in New Rochelle. He was 64 years old and had been a professed Salesian of Don Bosco for 35 years and a priest for 27 years.

Widely known as Fr. Gus, he was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2020. The cancer spread in spite of treatment, including several hospitalizations and several forms of chemotherapy. After another Anointing of the Sick by Fr. Provincial on December 26, surrounded by the confreres of the community, arrangements were being made for him to begin hospice care.

Fr. Gus was very much beloved in the Korean community of the New York metro area, whom he had faithfully served for most of his priestly life, and they attended him tenderly in his last months—as did his Salesian confreres.

Woon Taek Baek was born in Kwangju, South Korea, on September 19, 1958. His parents were Nam-Sik Baek and Kwi-Ja Lee. The family was prosperous as owners of a factory that made coal briquettes at a time when every Korean household used them for cooking and heating. The family included two sons and four daughters. Woon Taek became a Christian as a teenager, baptized with the name Augustine on May 29, 1971, in Kwangju.

According to Fr. Henry Bonetti, American Salesian missionary serving in Kwangju, during high school Gus was head of the Catholic students’ movement in his school. “This movement was divided into cells, one cell in each school of the city,” Fr. Henry writes. “Also, each parish alone was one cell. There were about 15 parishes and about 30 high school cells. The cells came together and were formed into a Catholic Student’s Union. This was done both on high school and university level. All spiritual as well as social events were run through these ‘unions.’ I guess you could call it something like CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) only much stronger in Korea than the USA. I [Fr. Henry] was in charge of all the middle school, high school and university students in the Diocese of Kwangju at the time (1975-1990). Sometime in the late seventies, Gus was elected head of the High School Student’s Association by his peers. This is no small feat as the organization was very large and well-organized. He distinguished himself during his term of office as a good leader and organizer even from his early days. Even then he had the same character that characterized him as a Salesian, solid in the faith, a good leader and organizer, friendly, not easily provoked to anger, even-tempered, thoughtful, considerate and respectful.”

Fr. Gus giving a Good Nite

SDB provincial chapter 2019

The influence of Fr. Henry was the seed of Gus’s Salesian vocation. After high school he completed mandatory military training, then emigrated to the U.S., as did most of his family. From there he wrote to Fr. Henry asking advice on what to do as he wanted to become a priest. Fr. Henry referred him to the Salesians’ vocation director. That was enough for Fr. Gus always to consider Fr. Henry as the source of his Salesian vocation and his vocational “father,” although he had many spiritual directors and “fathers” after that.

On August 29, 1984, he entered the Son of Mary program at Don Bosco College Seminary in Newton, N.J., where he was guided in two years of vocational discernment by Fr. Tom Ruekert. He was admitted to St. Joseph’s Novitiate in Newton on August 24, 1986, and a year later made his first profession as a Salesian (August 25, 1987). The novitiate year began with 11 novices directed by Fr. John Grinsell in his first year as master. Fr. Gus is the only one of the 11 who remained a Salesian. He completed a Bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Don Bosco College in May 1989.

Bro. Gus did two years of practical training (1989-1991), one as a teacher at Archbishop Shaw High School in Marrero, La., and one as a teacher and Boys Club staff member at St. Dominic Savio High School in East Boston. Theological studies followed at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Worthington, Ohio (1991-1995), where he earned an M.A. cum laude in biblical studies. He made his perpetual profession on August 21, 1993, at the Don Bosco Retreat Center in Haverstraw, N.Y., and was ordained in Columbus, Ohio, on May 28, 1995.

Fr. Gus became an American citizen in 1988.

Fr. Gus’s first priestly assignment was to the Salesian Boys & Girls Club in East Boston as assistant executive director (1995-1997). He was sent next to Corpus Christi Parish in Port Chester, N.Y. (1997-1999) as assistant pastor and youth minister. Then came five years in the formation community at Orange, N.J. (1999-2004), which included a year as youth minister at St. Andrew Kim Parish in Maplewood, N.J., two years as the Salesian community’s treasurer and two as youth minister at Our Lady of the Valley Church in Orange, and four years as an adjunct professor of theology at Caldwell College (Caldwell, N.J.).

Fr. Gus at work at RYC in 2007

In 2004 Fr. Gus founded the Reborn Young Christ (RYC) Center for Korean youth ministry in Stony Point, N.Y., which he coordinated for 15 years. During that period he traveled extensively in service to Korean-American youths, helped bring Salesians from Korea to minister to youths in both the New York area and the Tampa Bay area. His director for five of those 15 years, Fr. John Puntino, writes: “[Fr.] Gus was always so gracious and conscientious regarding community and Shrine affairs. I observed how revered he was in the Korean community and how pastoral he was especially in caring for young adults.”

In 2019 the Salesians called upon Fr. Gus to assume leadership at Salesian Missions in New Rochelle, succeeding Fr. Mark Hyde. He began with energy, making several overseas trips as required by the job. The Covid pandemic slowed that down, and then came his diagnosis with stomach cancer. He carried on as best he could, even traveling in the New York area to make mission appeals as late as August 2022.

The Provincial Residence community

Thanksgiving 2021

Fr. Gus is 2d from right.

Fr. Gus’s executive secretary Joann Oliva said: “I could only add that he was a pleasure to work for and with and to be around, always had a smile on his face. He loved the mission office, and he did so much for all the missionaries. He will truly be missed.”

The Salesians’ representative at the United Nations, Fr. Thomas Pallithanam, who had left for a family visit in India only on December 27, mourned his friend’s sudden loss:  “Though it was not unexpected, I had hoped that when I came back I would still be able to see him and tell him that he had been such a dear friend. Before I left for India I could step into his room, whisper a few words of comfort to him, and say goodbye. But I had also hoped that it would not be the last goodbye. He was so very supportive of my work at the UN. And I knew I could rely on his advice and strength. From him, I always had a willing and patient ear. Above all, he was a friend, kind and gentle. I take comfort in the thought that from where he is now he will continue to be the friend and support he was in the short period of three years I was associated with him.”

During his two years facing his illness, Fr. Gus sometimes got discouraged but at other times was upbeat and hopeful. He acknowledged his pain and the difficulty of having fluid build-up drained from his abdomen, but he didn’t really complain. He was always ready for whatever God was asking of him.

In addition to his Salesian brothers and sisters, Fr. Gus is survived by his sisters Monica Cho of Fairfax, Va.; Soon Ja Baek (Maria) of Seoul, South Korea; and Hyung Hee Baek (Justina) of Seoul; and his brother Hyung Jo Baek (Francis) of Seoul. Another sister, Julia, died recently in Korea.

Funeral arrangements are being handled by John J. Fox Funeral Home of Larchmont, N.Y.

Apostolic Letter "Totum amoris est"

Apostolic Letter Totum amoris est Published

Written for 4th centennial of the death of St. Francis de Sales 

(ANS – Vatican City – December 29, 2022) - “Guide of souls, capable of reading the signs of his time.” This is how Pope Francis refers to St. Francis de Sales in his apostolic letter Totum amoris est, “Everything Pertains to Love,” published yesterday, Dec. 28, exactly four hundred years after the death of the saintly bishop from Geneva, doctor of the Church, patron of journalists and communicators.

Of St. Francis de Sales, who was born in the castle of Sales, Savoy, on Aug. 21, 1567, and died in Lyons on Dec. 28, 1622, the Pope emphasizes the vocation to ask himself “in every circumstance of life where is the greatest love to be found?” Not by chance, St. John Paul II called him the “Doctor of Divine Love,” Pope Francis recalls, not only for having written “a weighty treatise on that subject, but first and foremost because he was an outstanding witness to that love.”

In the Letter, the Pontiff writes that he wondered about the legacy of St. Francis de Sales for our time and found enlightening “his flexibility and his far-sighted vision.” “Partly by God’s gift and partly thanks to his own character, but also by his steady cultivation of lived experience, Francis perceived clearly that the times were changing. On his own, he might never have imagined that those changes represented so great an opportunity for the preaching of the Gospel,” he continues.

“The Word he had loved from his youth was capable of making its way, opening up new and unpredictable horizons, in a world in rapid transition.” This, for the Pope, is what awaits us as an essential task: “to be a Church that is outward-looking and free from all worldliness, even as we live in this world, share people’s lives and journey with them in attentive of listening and acceptance,” having special concern not so much “for ourselves, for our structures, and for what society thinks about us” but rather in considering “what the real spiritual needs and expectations of our people are.”

But it is only in the heart and through the heart, Pope Francis continues, that man recognizes God and, at the same time, himself, his own origin and depth, his own fulfillment, in the call to love, because “faith is not a passive surrender to a doctrine without flesh and without history” but an attitude of the heart.

Finally, in the second part of the apostolic letter, the Pontiff looks at the legacy of St. Francis de Sales for our age through “some of his crucial choices, in order to inhabit change with evangelical wisdom.”

Fr. Michele Molinar, vice provincial of the Salesians of Piedmont, also spoke on the apostolic letter Totum amoris est yesterday as part of the “Sacre Questioni” program, interviewed by Filippo Peschiera.

“Charity, as St. Francis de Sales understands it, is love with the traits of God,” says Fr. Molinar in the interview, available here, “And then to God, we answer with devotion, which ... as St. Francis de Sales understands it is the ‘tip’ of charity.”

The full text of the Letter is available at vatican.va

Source: Vatican News

Bishop Maksym Ryabukha, SDB, Ordained in Kyiv

Episcopal Ordination of Bp. Maksym Ryabukha, SDB, Celebrated in Kyiv

 

Photo: Alexander Savransky

(ANS - Kyiv, Ukraine – December 23, 2022) – On December 22 in the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in Kyiv, the episcopal ordination of Maksym Ryabukha, SDB, auxiliary bishop of the Donetsk Archiepiscopal Exarchate, was celebrated. The ceremony was presided over by His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head and father of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

Being Yeast in Today's Human Family

“Being Yeast in Today’s Human Family”

Presentation of the Strenna 2023 by the Rector Major

(ANS – Rome – December 28, 2022) – On Tuesday, December 27, at the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians the Rector Major presented Strenna 2023: “AS THE YEAST IN TODAY’S HUMAN FAMILY: The lay dimension of the Family of Don Bosco,” to the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians and the whole Salesian Family.

Present for this event were the Mother general of the FMAs, Sr. Chiara Cazzuola, and her council, the mother emerita, Sr. Yvonne Reungoat; the general councilor for communications, Fr. Gildasio Mendes; the treasurer general of the Salesian Congregation Bro. Jean Paul Muller; the provincial of the SDB Roman Province, the superior of the FMA vice province of Rome, the novices of the FMA international novitiate of Castel Gandolfo, several FMAs, other SDBs, and representatives of the Salesian Family.

The event began with a song to our Blessed Mother led by the novices, protagonists of a juggling show, followed by the introductory note on the Strenna 2023 Video by Sr. Leslye Sandigo, the FMA general councilor for the Salesian Family. The presentation of the video was followed by an interview with the Rector Major by Sr. Maria Ausilia De Siena, FMA, general councilor for communications, and Marta Rossi, Salesian Cooperator. Several questions were asked: the reasons for choosing the theme of the lay dimension and the meaning of being yeast, an element “that belongs to the DNA of all Christians,” with what pertains properly to the Salesian charism. And again: how to propose to young people a lifestyle that grows in silence, like leaven, and, as Salesian Family, how to be leaven for these young people who live conditions of hardship amplified by the pandemic.

It was an opportunity for Fr. Angel Fernandez to explain the reason for choosing this theme and above all to emphasize the complementarity between the members of the Salesian Family with regard to the mission for the young people. He invited the whole Salesian Family not to be discouraged in the mission, not to believe that young people are closed to proposals, not to want to change the world with a magic wand, but above all to sow small seeds and let the Holy Spirit do the rest. The “sowing of small seeds,” the Rector Major emphasized, consists of “a continuous presence with young people, attentive listening, a word whispered in their ear with affection.”

Responding to the other questions – on the community, on Salesian identity, on politics – Fr. Angel also highlighted the challenges of an authentically Christian witness, the need to walk together, to engage in the world with courageous choices, to which members of the Salesian Family are called to support young people so that they learn to “be honest public workers” and to “engage in political life” with the aim of transforming their society and the world. Special attention was given to adolescents, described by the Rector Major as “a special part of society” that deserves great attention.

“To be leaven, with the presence and personal encounter with young people, through small daily gestures, made with love” are some of the ways suggested by the Rector Major, who emphasized the great opportunity that the Salesian Family has to be with a large number of boys and girls and their families every day, a source of commitment in life and hope in today’s difficult existential reality. He also urged everyone to continue to be the daily leaven in preparing the tasty bread in the Salesian mission in the world.

The FMA Mother General, Sr. Chiara, thanked Fr. Angel for the “live” presentation of the strenna, and for the opportunity, through this theme, to deepen the lay dimension of the Salesian Family, a profound intuition of Don Bosco, reviving in each person the awareness of being able to be a family, to pursue the good and be fruitful as yeast every day.

The Rector Major offers a strenna to the Salesian Family, with focus on a specific theme, and this is Fr. Angel’s ninth presentation of the strenna. The event was followed worldwide through the live broadcast in French, Italian, English, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Here is the video of the Strenna.

Homily for Christmas Day at Noon

Homily for Christmas Day

Dec. 25, 2022
John 1: 1-5, 9-14
Holy Name, New Rochelle
Mass at Noon

“The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world” (John 1: 9).

Christmas lights at the LaSalette Shrine, Attleboro, Mass.

It’s the season of light, even tho we’ve just begun winter and are experiencing the longest nites of the year.  Houses are festooned with colorful lights, cities put extra lights on lampposts, New York and other cities stage grand lightings of Christmas trees; in Chandler, Ariz., they construct a spectacular multicolored “tree” out of tumbleweeds.  We decorate trees in our living rooms and put candles in our windows.  By instinct we love light, are drawn to light, and want to bask ourselves in light.

At the same time, we dislike darkness, even fear darkness.  Kids are afraid of the dark, we’re uneasy on dark streets, movie villains like Darth Vader often wear black, and fictional villains may bear names like the Dark Lord.

Christianity warns us against the Prince of Darkness.  Sin blackens our souls.  Into a world darkened by sin and under the power of Satan, God has sent his eternal Word, the Word that said at the beginning of creation, “Let there be light” (Gen 1:3).  “All things came to be thru him,” St. John assures us (1:3), and he gave life to plants, animals, and human beings.  He created a vast and good universe.

After human beings brought sin and darkness into creation, God continued to shine light upon us thru his divine revelation:  thru patriarchs, prophets, and his chosen people.  And finally, as the author of Hebrew says, “in these last days he has spoken to us thru the Son … thru whom he created the universe,” who shines with divine glory (1:2-3).

That Son of God entered human history, taking our flesh of the Virgin Mary, who gave birth to him at Bethlehem.  He is “the true light, which enlightens everyone,” come into our world, shining in the darkness (John 1:9,5).  Satan and his cohorts—the dark, bloodthirsty warlords and tyrants of our world, the drug lords, the human traffickers, the killers of the unborn, all the merchants of death—rage against the light.  Altho “the world came to be thru him” yet doesn’t recognize him (1:10), the light continues to shine.  Every Christmas reminds of that, renews our hope that we might truly “become children of God” because we believe in him (1:12). we believe in the light.

The reverse is true, too.  God’s Son became a human being because he believes in us.  He “made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory,” and he is “full of grace and truth” (1:14), which he brings us as gifts.  This wondrous divine activity is not “by human choice nor by a man’s decision, but of God” (1:13).  Grace and truth are the divine light bursting into our darkness, wonderfully restoring the dignity of our human nature (Collect), created in God’s own image.  When we accept the grace and truth offered to us by Christ, he makes us children of God, St. John says (1:12).  In Baptism, the Eucharist, and the other sacraments, our Lord Jesus re-makes us in his image, so that “we may share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity” (Collect).

This is the light and the grace and the wonder we celebrate today.

Homily for Christmas Morning

Homily for Christmas Morning

Dec. 25, 2022
Titus 2: 11-14
Is 9: 1-6
Texts of Mass during the Nite
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx

“Beloved:  The grace of God has appeared” (Titus 2: 11).

(by Govert Flinck)

For most of society, today’s the culmination of Christmas.  What Christians know as Advent has passed in a spree of spending money—the newscasts often leading with reports of Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and other sales, to be followed by reports of consumer debt; a spree of office parties and other celebrations; and reports of holiday travel, gas prices, and problems at airports; this year, add a major winter storm.

But we call the season Advent, which means “coming,” because we’re waiting—not for Santa but for the “Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace” (Is 9:5).  We are people who have been walking in darkness, longing for “a great light” (cf. 9:1)—literally true this year of our Ukrainian brothers and sisters who lack both electricity and heat, thanks to the barbaric assaults on their country.  We hope that soon cloaks and uniforms “rolled in blood” will become “fuel for flames” (9:4), that the “judgment and justice” of God’s kingdom will be confirmed and sustained (9:6).

The grace of God did in fact appear in our midst, in “the city of David that is called Bethlehem” (Luke 2:4).  Mary’s child, greeted by lofty angels and lowly shepherds, “our great God and savior” (Tit 2:13), came to us, walked among us, and taught us how “to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age” (2:12).

If boots tramping in battle and bloodshed are all around us—not only in Ukraine but also in Somalia, Yemen, Nigeria, Congo, Syria, and Palestine; on our streets, in our schools and shopping malls, in our abortion clinics, even in our homes—it’s because men and women have refused the grace offered to us, rejected the “good news of great joy” (2:10).  And we continue a long Advent of waiting for “the grace of God that has appeared” to be realized in human hearts.

The God who appeared in a manger at Bethlehem appears among us at every Christian liturgy.  He comes to us in the sacred Scriptures, wherein his Word effectively touches our hearts and changes them if we are receptive.  The Word that took on human flesh and made his dwelling among us (John 1:14) comes to us in the Eucharist—appearing under the forms of bread and wine that mask the hidden reality of his Divinity, even as his infant flesh in the manger masked his Divinity.  How better can we celebrate the historical birth of “our great God and Savior” than by doing again what he told us to, taking bread and wine in his memory, praying his Holy Spirit to transform them into his body and blood, and consuming them, so that we might be transformed by grace into better disciples, better images of Christ, the perfect image of God the Father.

Paul writing to Titus speaks of yet another coming:  “We await the blessed hope, the appearance of the glory of our great God and savior Jesus Christ” (2:13).  The infant laid in the manger, as I said, masked the glory of God.  No glory there, just an ordinary infant, and I don’t have to tell you parents what ordinary infants are like.

No, the glorious coming we await with “blessed hope” (Communion Rite) which we speak of at every Mass after the Lord’s Prayer, is Christ’s return.  When he comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead, then he will make real what Isaiah prophesied, bringing light into our gloomy land, bringing “abundant joy and great rejoicing” (9:2), lifting the oppressive yokes of tyrants and warmakers, establishing a forever peaceful dominion (9:6).  He will deliver “from all lawlessness and cleanse for himself a people as his own” (Tit 2:14); he will bring “peace to those on whom his favor rests” (Luke 2:14).  This is our “blessed hope”, our confidence that God’s grace will appear in majesty, in the person of Jesus on the Last Day, to complete the salvation foreseen by Isaiah and announced by angels at Bethlehem.

The Missionary Strategy of St. Francis de Sales

The Missionary Strategy 
of St. Francis de Sales

by Fr. Alfred Maravilla SDB, General Councilor for Missions

(ANS – Rome – December 14, 2022) – Inspired by the goodness, zeal, and optimistic humanism of St. Francis de Sales, Don Bosco chose him as the patron of his congregation and called his followers Salesians (SDB Const 4, 17). But we can also learn a lot from the missionary strategy of St. Francis which he developed during his experience in the Chablais region of France (1594–1597), and during his ministry as exiled bishop of Geneva (1602-1622).

First, to be near the people St. Francis accepted to live in the chateau of Allinges accompanied only by his cousin. By choosing to walk down to Thonon every day, he met people in their ordinary daily life: workers in their shops, farmers in their fields, and villagers in their homes. Thus, he established a simple personal relationship with them. Becoming their friend, his witness of life became even more appealing. This apostolate of relationship and friendship became the foundation of his missionary work.

Second, St. Francis lived poor, deprived of resources. He had little by way of human support. Although he was housed in the chateau of Allinges as guest of the baron of Hermance, he refused to preach the Gospel protected by weapons of the Catholic army.

Third, he placed his hope in God alone. His strength was in prayer and daily Mass in the small chapel of the chateau before descending to Thonon. Even if he was insulted and mocked, even if the Protestants avoided or assailed him, he treated them with great respect and profound charity.

Fourth, he was convinced of the natural inclination to love of every human heart. For Francis the missionary challenge was to help every person believe, by the gift of faith, in the existence of a God of love, incarnate in our humanity in Jesus, crucified for love of us, and risen so that we may enter fully the communion of love with God.

Fifth, he prepared himself well to preach with the same care for his rather small flock of faithful in the Chablais as he would for a crowd of the faithful. When people refused to listen to him, Francis wrote pamphlets and distributed them. Like the Protestants, he also used Scriptures in his preaching and discussions with some of them.

Finally, during St. Francis’s time, academies were the predominant venue for intellectual endeavors among the increasingly educated population in Europe. Thus, in 1606 he founded the Florimontane Academy, together with Antoine Favre, the president of the Senate of Savoy. Its ultimate purpose was to foster a “devout humanism” by infusing gospel values in literature and science, thus creating a link between faith and culture and fostering the integration of faith and reason. In this light, “devotion” (holiness) is infused in all dimensions of our ordinary daily human life. The Florimontane Academy ceased its activities in 1610 when the Senate of Savoy was relocated to Chambery. Its founding members included the poet, Honoré d‘Urfé, and the two sons of Favre, one of whom (Claude Favre de Vaugelas) would later serve as one of the original academicians in the renowned French Academy in Paris.

Indeed, St. Francis de Sales touched people’s hearts above all, through his personal witness of life – by way of his missionary zeal, his courage, his faith, his charity, and his preaching – which led to the conversion of many.

For reflection and sharing:

What can I learn from missionary strategy of St. Francis de Sales that is applicable in my context?

What importance do I place on my personal witness of life?