God Speaks Through His Saints and Our Suffering by Aid to the Church in Need

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God Never Stops Speaking to Us ........................................................................................3 A Note on The Dead Theologians Society .........................................................................5 The World Needs Saints........................................................................................................6 Some Saints for our time Blessed Theresa of Calcutta..................................................................................................8 Saint Josemaria Escrivá ....................................................................................................... 12 Venerable Solanus Casey ...................................................................................................... 18 Saint Josephine Bakhita .......................................................................................................24 Blessed Miguel Pro .............................................................................................................. 27 Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati............................................................................................... 31 Blessed Charles De Foucauld............................................................................................... 36 Saint Mary Mac Killop.................................................................................................... 39 Saint Maria Goretti ..........................................................................................................44 Saint Thérèse of Lisieux ......................................................................................................48 Blessed Peter Adrian Toulorge ........................................................................................... 58 Saint Alexius .......................................................................................................................... 62 Some Places where Christians suffer and are being persecuted “Go, live in the Camps” - Father Michael Shields, Magadan Siberia ............................... 65 “Christian Suffering is Not in Vain” - Sister Meena Barwa, Orissa ............................. 68 “Not a Time to Hide our Faith or Identity” - Archbishop Bashar Warda, Erbil, Iraq..... 71 “Why are you still Here” - Cardinal Seán Brady, Armagh, Ireland ................................... 76

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God Never Stops Speaking to Us

Dublin, June 10th 2012 Dear Friends, God never stops speaking to us. God knows me and calls me by my name… God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. Somehow I am necessary for His purposes… I have a part in this great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do His work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep His commandments and serve Him in my calling.

Therefore I will trust Him. Whatever, wherever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; In perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him; If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. My sickness, or perplexity, or sorrow may be necessary causes of some great end, which is quite beyond us. He does nothing in vain; He may prolong my life, He may shorten it; He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends, He may throw me among strangers, He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide the future from me still He knows what He is about… Let me be Thy blind instrument. I ask not to see I ask not to know I ask simply to be used.

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He speaks to us through the Sacred Scriptures. He speaks to us through the sacraments. He speaks to us through His “One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church”. He speaks to us when we examine our consciences and He speaks to us when we pray “with all our hearts and all our souls and all our minds”.

God has made each of us in his “own image and likeness” and through His Son Jesus Christ invites us all into communion with Him and with one another. All of us are therefore called to eternal happiness and to this end He sent His only Son Jesus Christ to show us the way and the truth and the life. Each one of us is invited to become saints. Each one of us is invited to actively respond to this “universal call to Holiness”, this universal call to happiness. Each one of us has also a God-given task to undertake. As Blessed John Henry Newman expresses it God has created each of us “to do Him some definite service”. Finding out what that “definite service” is requires a healthy on-going prayer life, for it is only through prayer, only through an on-going conversation with God, only through “talking to God as a friend” are we able to discern what it is He is specifically asking you and me to do, to do today, to do tomorrow, to do with our lives. All Saints, those known and those unknown, are God’s friends and have been His chosen instruments to undertake some “definite service” when on earth. Moreover, with the exception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, every saint before becoming a saint was first a sinner, a truth that is well-captured in the saying that “every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.” Now this is a truth which can be read in the lives of the saints contained herein and as indeed in the lives of all the saints, both those known and unknown. In no small sense, God speaks to us through the lives of His Saints.

God Never Stops Speaking to Us

Dead Theologians Society

In Christ,

J F Declan Quinn Director, Aid to the Church in Need (Ireland)

“Holiness consists simply in doing God’s will, and being just what God wants us to be.” Saint Thérèse de Lisieux

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So it is that I hope that you find within this little booklet some help and encouragement as every day you “take up your cross” and “living life to the full” become more what you have been created to be, God’s friend, that is someone who lives life in “Communion with Christ and with one another”.

DTS members meet at their parishes or schools to pray and learn the lives of the Saints, the challenges they all faced, and the heroic virtue they lived for the love of Christ and His Church. Through the examples of the Saints young people are catechised and develop positive role models. In addition, members make use of time-honored Catholic prayers and devotions such as the Holy Rosary and Eucharistic Adoration. DTS began in 1997 at St. Francis de Sales Church in Newark, Ohio as a parish program for high school teens. In a prayerful atmosphere of Gregorian chant, teens regularly packed the old church’s undercroft chapel to discover the treasures of the Catholic Faith. As news of this effective teen program spread, representatives from surrounding parishes visited St. Francis de Sales Church and then began their own DTS chapters to serve the needs of their own young parishioners. In addition, exposure

“The way of the Cross” however is the way to salvation.

• All over the world, in the first, in the second and in the third world, Christians are being challenged to bear visible and personal witness to the Risen Christ. • All over the world, culturally, socially, economically, legally and politically it has never been easier to vociferously disparage and aggressively despise “the Catholic Thing”. • All over the world from India to Ireland, from Sudan to Siberia increasingly it takes “courage to be Catholic”.

he Dead Theologians Society (DTS) is a Catholic apostolate for high school-age teens and college- age young adults. Through the Saints of yesterday, the Dead Theologians Society inspires the youth of today to become the saints of tomorrow. A special charism of the Dead Theologians Society is to pray for the release of the Souls in Purgatory. The DTS motto is, “Dead to the World – Alive in Christ!” This is inspired by Romans 6:11 where St. Paul tells us to be dead to sin but alive in Christ Jesus.

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Also in no small sense, God speaks to us through the individual, communal and cultural experience of persecuted Christians, God speaks to us through our suﬀering. At no time in history have there ever been more martyrs for the faith than in the present and in the last century. Around the world every year an estimated 150,000 Christians are being martyred for their faith.

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in various forms of local, national and international media catapulted the popularity of DTS and highlighted it as a faithful and fruitful response to Pope John Paul II’s call for a “new evangelisation for the third millennium.” Currently, membership in the Dead Theologians Society is in the thousands and there are hundreds of DTS chapters spread throughout the U.S., Canada, Africa, and Ireland. In addition, there are now DTS chapters for college-age young adults, and many priests, religious, and seminarians are numbered among the DTS membership. DTS members are commonly recognised by their distinctive black sweatshirt with its embroidered logo. DTS is endorsed by Cardinals, Bishops, Priests, Religious, Lay Church Leaders, Young People and their Families throughout the world and commonly reported fruits of the DTS apostolate are: • Increased attendance at Mass among teens and young adults. • Increased participation in the Sacramental life of the Church. • Increased interest in vocations to the priesthood and religious life. • Increased participation in parish life among teens and young adults. For more information please visit our website at www.DeadTheologiansSociety.com

The World Needs Saints

50 years after Blessed John XXIII declared that “The world awaits saints”, Pope Benedict XVI remarked that “the whole Church… has a greater need than ever for workers of the Gospel, credible witnesses who promote sanctity with their own lives.” So it was that during his 26 year pontificate, John Paul II named more saints (482) Saints and Blesseds (1,338) than all his predecessors combined. That he was able to do so resulted from him having established a dedicated Vatican bureau, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, a bureau which he called “the most beautiful of all because it is responsible for the most exciting and important part of the Church, which is holiness.” The process of naming saints is briefly outlined hereunder. The road to sainthood begins at the grass-roots. Ordinary Christians, perhaps in a parish or a religious community, recognise that someone of extraordinary holiness has lived among them. The memory of that person inspires them. The story of his or her life is told, perhaps in a book. People pray to the person, asking intercession for some favour, and their prayers may be answered. Extraordinary signs, perhaps a cure from sickness, occur. A local group may be formed which seeks to make this person’s life and gifts more widely known. After a long period of time, sometimes many years, the bishop of the diocese where that person lived may be asked to

begin the local process for declaring a saint. If he sees merit in the request, he sets up a board of experts to investigate the person’s life, soundness of faith and reputation for holiness. Those who knew the person are interviewed. If miracles are attributed to that person’s intercession, they must verified by medical experts. Finally the bishop must ascertain from the other bishops of the region if this person is known and venerated more widely than in one local area. Then, if there is reason to proceed further, the bishop may petition Rome to begin the process of beatification. Beatification begins when the local bishop provides the materials he has accumulated to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Using the materials, officials of the congregation create an historical-critical account of the candidate’s life and spirituality. One important criterion sought at this stage is the historical importance of the candidate: Did he or she meet a particular challenge of their time and place? Did the candidate offer a new example of holiness to the world in which he or she lived? Or was he or she truly a martyr, one who died for faith in Jesus Christ? If the candidate was martyred, a miracle need not be sought. If the candidate did not die as a martyr, then one miracle after death must be proven, through the scrutiny of a body of medical experts. Once they

find it acceptable, and the candidate’s life is judged truly heroic by a group of theological experts and cardinals, then the pope can declare that beatification may proceed. After the beatification takes place, the candidate can be called blessed and veneration may be offered by the local church. Canonisation is the final step involved in declaring someone a saint. It means that the candidate, already called blessed, is entered into the worldwide list of saints recognised by the Roman Catholic Church. First, however, in the case of a candidate who is not a martyr, the church looks for another authentic miracle attributed to the candidate’s intercession, as a sign from God of the candidate’s heroic holiness. Then, if the candidate’s reputation for holiness continues to grow worldwide, the pope may decide to canonise. In all of this of course the church does not claim that its own list of saints is exhaustive. In fact, in its celebration of the Feast of All Saints on November 1st it points to a “huge crowd which no one could count from every nation, race, people, and tongue.” (Revelations 7) Essentially then the church’s list of canonised saints is only meant to witness to God’s grace at work through every time and place, from the first centuries until now. If there is any trend in the process of canonisation it is the effort to recognise more “lay” saints: mothers and fathers, men and women who were active in the world of family, business and politics and showed themselves to be holy in a secular world. All the time the church is looking for original saints, saints who in responding to the unique needs of their times, can open the way of holiness to others.

The World Needs Saints

In all of this the saints are examples of how to follow Jesus Christ in every circumstance. “In the lives of those who shared in our humanity and yet were transformed into especially successful images of Christ, God vividly manifests to men his presence and his face. He speaks to us in them, and gives us a sign of his Kingdom, to which we are powerfully drawn, surrounded as we are by so many witnesses ( cf. Hebrews 12,1), and having such an argument for the truth of the gospel.” (Lumen Gentium 50, Vatican II) The selection of saints for inclusion in this publication arose from discussion and agreement between a group of exhibitors at the International Eucharistic Congress 2012 in Dublin. In making the selection emphasis was placed upon selecting twelve saints whose lives and witness speaks most clearly to our day and circumstances. Of course other saints could have been chosen and may well be featured in future publications. The twelve profiles of Saints and Blesseds contained herein are presented according to the year in which they died, commencing with Blessed Mother Theresa who passed away in 1997 AD and concluding with Saint Alexis who died in 404 AD having lived before and around the time of St. Patrick. With the exception of St. Alexis all the selected Holy Ones lived after the French Revolution, indeed the vast majority of them died in the 20th Century.

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3:16). This was one of her favourite and often repeated Gospel verses. She thus points out to us our responsibility to be God’s extended heart and hands in a world thirsting to love and to be loved. Born: 26th of August, 1910. Died: 5th of September, 1997. Beatified: 19th of October, 2003. “By blood and origin I am all Albanian. My citizenship is Indian. I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the whole world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus.”

hroughout history, God has never ceased to raise up shining witnesses who eloquently convey the message of His love appropriate for that particular time and circumstance. In our own time, filled with the stark contrast between extreme aﬄuence on the one hand and destitution on the other, material wealth and spiritual poverty, exterior glitter (often only a cloak over much inner darkness) and interior emptiness, God has given us Mother Teresa as a beacon of His light and love. She points to the values of love and compassion expressed in acts of caring and sharing: “love in living action”* that allows the giver to know “the joy of loving” even amid the sufferings of daily life. Her life, lived in the radical simplicity and humility of the Gospel, proclaims that even when many frantically run after happiness (or even after the chance to just kill some of the inner pain) in varied yet futile ways, the primacy of love – God’s love for us and ours for Him - is still the only path that leads to personal fulﬁlment and ultimate happiness.

Love Alone John Paul II asserted that “Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate intimately in it” (John Paul II). The greatest revelation of love is Jesus Christ. By His life, suffering, death and resurrection Jesus enabled us to encounter love, find meaning and happiness now on this earth - suffering notwithstanding - and fully in the new heaven and new earth to come. Mother Teresa, the foundress of the Missionaries of Charity, is a compelling witness to this love revealed in God made man. “And today God keeps on loving the world. He keeps on sending you and me” she was known to add after quoting John’s startling declaration, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son” (John

“Come, be My light” The path that led Mother Teresa to be considered a symbol of God’s love and compassion for the downtrodden was both extraordinary and simple. On 10 September 1946, as she was travelling by train from Calcutta to Darjeeling for her annual retreat, she began to receive supernatural communications. These interior locutions were calling her out of her settled life as a teaching nun in the Bengali section of the influential St. Mary’s Loreto School, where she had been serving for about 20 years, to dedicate her life to the most marginalised members of society. Jesus revealed to her His Heart’s desire, His “thirst,” His infinite longing to love and to be loved by the most forgotten, abandoned and rejected among His children, the poorest of the poor. He spoke to her with great clarity and urgency about her new mission: “Come, be My light. I cannot go alone. They [the poor] don’t know Me so they don’t want Me. You come, go amongst them. Carry Me with you into them. How I long to enter their hovels, their dark, unhappy homes.” “Be My Fire of Love” Mother Teresa heeded the divine call to leave the Loreto order, and after a time of discernment that lasted about two years, she gained the archbishop of Calcutta’s permission to plunge herself into the apostolate

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for the poorest in the slums of Calcutta. Jesus had asked her to start a new congregation whose members, as He told her, “Would be My fire of love amongst the very poor - the sick, the dying, the little street children. The poor I want you to bring to Me and the sisters that would offer their lives as victims of My love would bring these souls to Me.” That is what Mother Teresa endeavoured to do with every ounce of her energy. Once followers began joining her, she strove to imbibe in them the same zeal and love that moved her. She insisted that they become “so united to God so as to radiate Him” even in the midst of the greatest darkness. Her message of love and peace is welcome now

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not just in the slums of developing countries but also in the wealthy surroundings of aﬄuent countries where human beings are equally in need of love and peace.

“The Eucharist commits us to the poor. To receive in truth the Body and the Blood of Christ given up for us, we must recognise Christ in the poorest, His brethren.” Mother Teresa’s service to the poorest of the poor was directly related to her faith in the presence of Jesus in them, for He had spoken of service to the least ones as being expressions of love directly to Him: “You did it to Me” (Mt 25:40). Over and over she referred to Jesus’ identification with the poor and connected it with His presence in the Eucharist. “Keep the joy of loving Jesus in the poor and in the Eucharist and share this joy with all you meet.” “Never separate Jesus in the Eucharist and Jesus in the poor.”

Jesus in the Eucharist and the Poor A deeply Eucharistic spirituality proved to be the indispensable strength of Mother Teresa and her followers throughout the years of labour among the poorest. Frequently asked by curious journalists where she found the strength to do all she did, she would inevitably point to the tabernacle. She herself testified that from the time the community had decided to have a daily hour of Eucharistic adoration, “Our love for Jesus is much more intimate, our love for each other more understanding, our love for the poor [filled] with greater compassion; and also our vocations are twice, much more.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church asserts that:-

Jesus is present in the Eucharist under the appearance of bread and wine and He is present in the “distressing disguise” of the poorest of the poor. Though the presence of Christ in the Eucharist differs substantially from His presence in the poor, Mother Teresa connected the two, for in both Christ is present in “disguise.” The dynamic of her life was that from Jesus in the Eucharist she moved to Jesus in the poor. “I Cannot Go Alone” God’s love is usually revealed, encountered and experienced through other human beings. Just as God sent Mother Teresa, He sends each one of us: “You come, go amongst them.” We too are to be carriers of His light, love and compassion to others. In our love of neighbour, people will be able to recognise Jesus, welcome Him into their lives and enjoy His love, joy and peace.

Mother Teresa was a “Good Samaritan” who, while ignoring her own wounds, bent down to bind the wounds of broken and suffering humanity. Her particular mission was not focused on resolving the issue of poverty and destitution on a global level however; (this she was convinced was the call of others, not hers). Nor was her work merely a symbolic help to a few individuals. She offered immediate, concrete and effective help in the situations of human need in the here and now. In this way, she made God’s love a tangible reality, and “mobilised” not just the members of her congregation but innumerable people of good will throughout the world to do the same. Spread the Charity of His Heart Mother Teresa’s words encourage us even today: “Give Jesus your heart to love and your hands to serve. Be His light, His fire of love amongst the poor.” This love begins with those closest to us, in our own homes, for “the poor are in our own families.” The means with which we can express our love can be simple and are within the reach of everyone. “Give them always a happy smile; give them not only your ears but also your heart. Kindness has converted more people than zeal, science or eloquence. We will never know how much good just a simple smile can do. We tell people how kind, forgiving and understanding God is. Are we the living proof? Can they really see this kindness, this forgiveness, this understanding alive in us?”

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Mother Teresa untiringly repeated, “God still loves the world through you and through me today.” May she accompany us now from Heaven and help us to be God’s light, love and compassion in the world. * Unless indicated otherwise, words in quotations marks are those of Mother Teresa.

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered; Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; Build anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; Be happy anyway. The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give the world the best you’ve got anyway. You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God; It was never between you and them anyway.

Josemaria Escrivá

neighbour, can’t I offer him something” the teenager asked himself. This acted as a catalyst in his vocational search; he renounced his plans for a secular career and decided to enter the seminary of Logrono in 1918. The years in the seminary were not without their trials – “axe-blows” he called them – for him; among them the vulgarities of some uncouth colleagues in response to his refinement of behaviour; his good looks meanwhile attracted another kind of interest: the unwanted interest of a band of local girls whom he had shake off by making his disinterest in them as plain to them as possible.

Born: 9th of January, 1902. Died: 26th of June, 1975. Canonised: 6th of October, 1992. Holy purity is granted by God when it asked for with humility.

n October 6, 2002, before a multitude of men and women, young and old, from very diverse walks of life and nationalities, Blessed John Paul II canonised Josemaria Escrivá and in a moment of particular inspiration dubbed him “the saint of ordinary life”. This unusual title appears almost oxymoronic, joining as it does two realities which for centuries had largely been considered to be contraries, if not contradictories: holiness and everyday life. This was the great contribution of the saint from Aragon in northern Spain: to preach by work and example the pressing need of mankind to rediscover that divine something, the quid divinum, hidden in the most ordinary days of the most ordinary lives. Furthermore, under divine inspiration, St Josemaría founded an organisation dedicated to incarnating and spreading this message through the entire world: Opus Dei. The very composition of the vast crowd of 300,000 faithful which thronged St Peter’s Square on that bright Sunday morning testified to the success of St Josemaría’s tireless teaching that the “divine paths of the earth” were open to all the ordinary folk of the world.

Early Years Josemaría Escrivá was born in the Aragonese town of Barbastro on January 9, 1902, of relatively well-off and pious parents who carefully educated their children in the faith, but also schooled them in human virtues. As a young boy he stood out for his academic gifts, his piety and his strong will: three qualities which would turn out to be indispensable to the mission God would entrust him with. In his early teens he developed a keen interest in architecture and was planning on pursuing this as a career on leaving school… but God had other plans. Up till the age of sixteen he felt no calling to the priestly life; if anything he had a disinclination towards such a life. But then he began to have “intimations of Love” to realise that his own heart “was asking for something great, and that it was love”. This “divine restlessness” was accentuated one snowy December morning in 1917 when, as he walked the streets during the holidays and came across footprints in the snow – the prints of the bare feet of one of the monks who lived in the monastery of the Discalced Carmelites in the town of Barbastro. “If others can make such sacrifices for God and

Founding Opus Dei Though the handsome, elegant and joyful seminarian was finally ordained on March 28, 1925, this did not mark the end of his vocational search for he was convinced that God was calling him to be a priest not simply for its own sake, but for the sake of a further mission. God would leave the young schoolboy, seminarian and then priest searching for a decade before making known to him what that further mission was. At midday on October 2, 1928, as the bells of the nearby Madrid church of Our Lady of the Angels were ringing out, the 26 year old priest who was attending an annual retreat, was allowed to “see” the institution which God wanted him to found in order to remind Christians throughout the entire world that sanctity was not the preserve of a few extraordinary individuals, but was God’s will for all. With this he was given the task of challenging head-on a mistaken view which presents “the Christian way of life as something exclusively “spiritual”, proper to pure, extraordinary people, who remain aloof from the contemptible things of this world or at most, tolerate them as something necessarily attached to the spirit, while we

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live on this earth.” (Homily Passionately Loving the World, #51). Fr Josemaría, “with nothing but his youth and good humour” set about assiduously trying to make Opus Dei a reality: speaking to workers and university students about the prospect of seeking holiness in and through their ordinary work. Despite his strenuous prayer, mortification and action to win vocations and spread that message, it was years before he would need more than the fingers of two hands to count the number of members of Opus Dei. Almost immediately the fledgling organisation was the subject of misunderstandings and opposition, not least from within clerical circles. For many (some?) the notion that ordinary men and women could become saints in and through their ordinary work seemed to be nothing short of heretical; sanctity for them was synonymous with a life of radical dedication to God to one degree or another, outside worldly affairs. Holiness and ordinary life were antithetical. With admirable charity, Fr Josemaría termed this persecution “the opposition of the good”. Furthermore, Spain of the 1930s entered a period of growing political instability, Marxist propaganda, and violent anti-clericalism which culminated in the terrible bloodbath of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and a ferocious persecution of the Catholic Church which resulted in the killing of 13 bishops, 4,172 diocesan priests and seminarians, 2,364 monks and friars and 283 nuns as well as countless laymen and women who died on account of their Catholic faith. This was a time of intense suffering for the young founder, witnessing as he did the diabolical hatred that was unleashed on the Church at this time. Several of the first members of Opus Dei died in the conflict, others were dispersed throughout Spain or at the front, while St Josemaría and several of the young men who had joined him took refuge in

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a miserable little room in the Honduran Legation in Madrid for months. Given the danger of their eventual discovery, capture and probable execution, after much soul-searching, he decided that they must attempt an escape from the Communist occupied zone of Spain and so in November 1937 they made a grueling escape over the Pyrenees into France and from there back into the non-Communist zone of Spain. The privations of these days had left him so emaciated that when he was finally reunited with his mother she was only able to recognise him from the sound of his voice. This period of St. Josemaría’s life has been admirably portrayed in Roland Joffé’s recent film, There Be Dragons. Guiding the Growth of Opus Dei The tranquillity of the post-Civil War period was a time of expansion of Opus Dei within Spain, an expansion whose next logical step was to neighbouring European countries such as France and Italy. The outbreak of a new and this time international conflagration in the form of World War II put paid to those plans for the moment. St Josemaría focussed on apostolic work within Spain, where Opus Dei was now spreading to

cities other than Madrid: Valencia, Barcelona, Burgos… At this time too Opus Dei embarked on its “juridical path” – the incredibly complex journey towards a correct juridical configuration of Opus Dei within the Catholic Church, a journey the conclusion of which the founder would not witness in his lifetime. The correct juridical “clothing” for the entity God had inspired St Josemaría to found, simply did not exist within the Church at this time. Given the nonexistence of a legal framework which would adequately accommodate the vocation to Opus Dei, allied with a widespread inability of many ecclesiastics to accept the universal call to holiness of lay-persons lead to on-going attempts to treat Opus Dei as if it were a religious order. Only in 1982 with the establishment of Opus Dei as the Church’s first personal prelature did this juridical odyssey come to a close. With the restoration of peace in Europe in May 1945 the way was once again open to begin the expansion of the apostolic work of Opus Dei outside of Spain. St Josemaria also wished to establish the headquarters of Opus Dei in Rome, as befitted an organisation which

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he knew to be universal in scope and so in 1946 he decided he had to move to Rome along with a handful of his spiritual sons and daughters. The founder was keenly aware that his presence in Rome was needed for the subsequent stage in the development of Opus Dei and so, entrusting the journey to the protection of Our Lady of Ransom, embarked on the journey. He had in the preceding years contracted a severe form of diabetes and his doctor strongly advised against such a sea-journey, considering that it could even be fatal. St Josemaria went nonetheless. The journey to war-ravaged Italy involved a boat journey from Barcelona to Genoa, and in the course of the journey a terrible storm broke out almost sinking the little steamer. “The devil dipped his tail in the Gulf of Genoa” was how St Josemaria later described it. On arriving in Rome, much weakened from the long arduous sea journey and subsequent car journey from Genoa to Rome, St Josemaria nonetheless wished to spend his entire first night on the balcony of their small apartment from which the Papal apartments could be seen, praying for the Pope, such was his great love and devotion for the successor of Peter. This love was a constant feature of his faith. His love for the Pope grew more theological throughout the course of his life, something he recommended for all Catholics: “Every day you must grow in loyalty towards the Church, the Pope and the Holy See ... with a love that should be always more theological.” (The Way, 353). The Daily Work of Government The post-war years were years of a great expansion of Opus Dei; young members, men and women, went to begin the apostolic work of the organisation, often equipped with little more than a blessing from the founder and the gift of a picture of Our Lady. In 1946 members of Opus Dei began to work in Great Britain, Ireland

and France, and then in most of the countries of Western Europe in following years. In 1948 it began its work in Mexico and the United States and, soon afterwards, in a large number of Latin American countries. From Rome, assisted by two governing bodies, one for the men and one for the women, St Josemaría oversaw the development of this rapidly expanding apostolate. Soon young men were being ordained from amongst the members, to provide pastoral care to the their fellow members of Opus Dei and the much larger number of people worldwide who received spiritual formation from Opus Dei. These were years of intense paper-work for the founder, and in many ways he suffered, being so naturally gregarious and sociable, from the enforced isolation. At the same time he strove to “see souls” behind the papers and never to become a pen-pushing bureaucrat. He also strove to implement his

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own teaching about the importance of attention to detail for the love of God and to teach those around him likewise; he tried to inculcate in them the conviction that love of God is to be found in the little things: “Do you really want to be a saint? Carry out the little duty of each moment: do what you ought and concentrate on what you are doing” (The Way, 815). He personally showed his sons and daughters how this was applicable to the opening of a door, the closing of a window, genuflecting before a tabernacle or making a small repair. From these “small trifles” holiness is to be constructed: “Everything in which we poor men have a part – even holiness – is a fabric of small trifles which, depending upon one’s intention, can form a magnificent tapestry of heroism or of degradation, of virtues or of sins. The epic legends always relate extraordinary adventures, but never fail to mix them with homely details about the hero. – May you always attach great importance to the little things. This is the way!” (The Way, 826). The Persecuted Church In the aftermath of World War II and the Yalta Conference, Eastern Europe was aban-

doned into the hands of Marxist regimes, for the most part puppets of Stalin’s USSR. The inevitable persecution of Christians under atheistic Marxism caused the founder of Opus Dei to suffer greatly. He sought to remind Catholics in the West of the suffering of the brothers behind the Iron Curtain, and to pray for them. He prayed especially fervently for Hungary during the uprising of 1956 which left thousands dead. He specifically praised Cardinals Stepinac, Mindszenty, and Beran, who suffered grievously under Marxist regimes. Again he trembled with grief on hearing the news of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968. His deeply spiritual vision of history lead him to the conviction that there would be a wonderful reflowering of the faith in these countries when finally and inevitably freedom was restored. He spoke even of Russia as “that nation, now so arid, which in time will yield enormous crops of wheat” (The Way 826).

liturgy. And ecclesiastics from around the world often confided to him the chaos which a socalled “spirit of the Council” had unleashed on their dioceses, sharing their sorrow with a most faithful son of the Church, but compounding his suffering even more in doing so.

The Second Vatican Council St Josemaría was, in the words of Blessed John Paul II, one of the great precursors of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). The doctrine that he had tirelessly taught for the previous three decades became the official teaching of the universal Church: “…in the Church, everyone whether belonging to the hierarchy, or being cared for by it, is called to holiness, according to the saying of the Apostle: ‘For this is the will of God, your sanctification’ (l Thess. 4.3; cf. Eph.1:4)…” (Lumen Gentium, ch. 5). This of course was a source of great joy to the priest who had found works of his publicly burnt in Spain of the 1940s for propounding the exact same doctrine. But the joy was compounded with great bitterness for very soon St Josemaría realised that another element was making its presence felt at the Council, and especially in the highly tendentious post-conciliar implementation of the Council decrees, not least in the realm of the

Death and Legacy In May 1970, St Josemaria went on pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico to whom he was deeply devoted. Over the course of several days he visited the shrine, spent hours in rapt prayer, and spoke aloud to the patron of Mexico. Before leaving to return to Rome he came across a picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe giving a flower to Juan Diego, before which he remarked: “That’s how I’d like to die: looking at the Blessed Virgin, and with her giving me a flower…” And after a little silence, he repeated: “Yes, I’d like to die in front of this pic-

This spurred him on, in the last three years of his life, to undertake journeys throughout the Spanish speaking world, and also to Brazil, to personally preach the authentic faith which had seen itself so undermined. Many of these speaking engagements, often before audiences of thousands, have happily been recorded on film, allowing St Josemaria to speak to contemporary viewers across the intervening decades. What stands out in these wonderful records of the saint is his spell-binding joy; a joy which restored hope to many whose hope had been robbed by the infidelities of many in the Church during those post-conciliar years.

Josemaria Escrivá

ture, with our Lady giving me a rose.” Five years later, on the morning of June 26, 1975, as he entered his office in the central headquarters in Rome, he glanced at a picture of the Blessed Virgin as was his custom – a painting of our Lady of Guadalupe – and collapsed and died receiving the Last Rites from his most faithful son and eventual successor, Alvaro del Portillo. At the time of his death the organisation he had been tasked by God with founding had 60,000 members worldwide. Probably no other founder in the history of the Church, Pope Paul VI later remarked to Fr Alvaro del Portillo, has seen his work so blessed in numerical terms. Through the work of the organisation he founded, through the example of his sanctity, and through the luminosity of his writings, the saint of ordinary life continues to summons all Christians to the heights of sanctity: “… you must realise now, more clearly than ever, that God is calling you to serve him in and from the ordinary, secular and civil activities of human life. He waits for us everyday, in the laboratory, in the operating theatre, in the army barracks, in the university chair, in the factory, in the workshop, in the fields, in the home and in all the immense panorama of work. Understand this well: there is something holy, something divine hidden in the most ordinary situations, and it is up to each one of you to discover it” (Homily Passionately Loving the World, #52).

“Don’t let your life be sterile. Be useful. Blaze a trail. Shine forth the light of your faith and of your love.” Saint Josemaria Escrivá

Solanus Casey

sity for the large family as travelling to Church for the Caseys was a long trip by horse and buggy. Those who stayed behind would learn the Faith from their Dad as he read the Sunday readings and taught from his Bible. The Caseys loved sports. They had their own baseball team called “The Casey Nine”. Barney played catcher and never wore a facemask. For his protection he simply made the sign of the cross in front of his face.

Born: 18th of November, 1870. Died: 31st of July, 1957. Declared Venerable: 1995. “What does it matter where we go? Wherever we go, won’t we be serving God there? And wherever we go, won’t we have Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament there? Isn’t that enough to make us happy?”

The Casey Family ernard Francis Casey - today known as Venerable Solanus Casey - was the sixth of sixteen children born to Irish immigrant parents in rural western Wisconsin. “Barney”, as he was affectionately called, came from a strong tradition of faith. The phrase “Keep the Faith” had specific meaning to him and his family and a look at his family tree in Ireland will provide some insights as to why. Barney’s grandfather, James Casey, died from wounds he received defending the Blessed Sacrament, when a group of thugs broke into the Church during Eucharistic Adoration. His granddad on his mother’s side was an early victim the Famine. Barney’s father, Bernard Casey, also known as “Barney”, left Ireland for Boston in search of a better life when he was just seventeen years old. As he left, his mother’s final words were, “Barney boy, keep the Faith”. He came to America and married another Irish emigrant named Ellen Murphy. He made shoes during the American Civil War. When the war was over the Caseys went to Wisconsin where good farmland was available. They purchased eighty acres in Oak

Grove, Wisconsin near Prescott and it was here that young Barney was born. Barney Junior Barney Junior was baptised in the town of Prescott, Wisconsin, at St. Joseph’s which at the time was a mission parish near the Mississippi River. Three years later the Caseys moved to a larger one hundred and sixty acre farm nearby at a place called Big River in the Trimbelle, Wisconsin area. Here they would spend the next ten years in what young Barney always described as the most beautiful place he would ever see. His fondest memories were there and he always considered it home. The young Casey family experienced their fair share of hardships, being subjected to prairie fires, uncertain harvests, and disease. A diphtheria epidemic swept through the area when Barney was a very young child. Two of his sisters, Mary Ann and Martha died from it and young Barney caught it as well. Though he didn’t die from the disease it left his voice high pitched and wispy all of his life. During his young childhood the family members took turns getting to Church. Alternating was a neces-

As a Young Man The Caseys loved their Irish heritage and kept it alive in the home. Barney loved the fiddle and often played at dances. He especially loved to play Irish tunes. However, as much as he loved it, he was not blessed with the greatest of musical ability, but this did not deter him from playing. As a young man he worked as a logger in Stillwater, Minnesota on the St. Croix River. Once while working a young man fell into a large pit filled with water. The man was drowning and Barney jumped in to save him. He felt himself being pulled down by the drowning man when suddenly he felt himself mysteriously being pulled to the surface by the Brown Scapular he wore. He credited the Scapular as saving his life. For a short time he lived in Stillwater, Minnesota with his Uncle Pat Murphy who worked as a prison guard. Barney too worked part-time as a prison guard in Stillwater. During that time he quickly earned a reputation as a very kind guard. A notorious outlaw named Cole Younger of the infamous Jesse James gang gave Barney a wooden clothes chest that he made as a thank you for the kindness Barney showed him. Barney fell in love with a girl from the neighbouring farm named Rebecca Tobin. He even proposed marriage but Rebecca’s parents would not allow it. She was still a teen and her parents felt she was too young. In fact they moved her to an all girls’ boarding school in St. Paul to put an end to the relationship. Barney was heartbroken. He then

Solanus Casey

took a job as one of the first streetcar conductors in the Midwest. This was in Superior, Wisconsin, which was booming much like Milwaukee at the time. Shortly the entire Casey family moved to Superior. The Call Called Through Tragedy While in Superior a big event happened that would have a profound impact on Barney. One evening as he was working his streetcar job, he saw a great commotion on the tracks ahead. The streetcar came to a halt and there on the tracks laid a young woman who had just been stabbed. Standing over her was a sailor who was drunk, holding a knife dripping with blood. Barney witnessed two young lives that would forever be changed by that one dark event. He knew then that he wanted to devote his life to God in a way that would help as many people as he could. Called Through Failure Barney left his streetcar job, said goodbye to his family and entered St. Francis de Sales Seminary in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Classes at the seminary were taught in German and Latin. Barney was in his early twenties and was in classes with guys much younger than him. He did well for a while but then started to just barely pass in his subjects. There was a handful of Irishmen in the seminary at that time and all had trouble grasping difficult subject matter taught in a language they did not know. He left the seminary and went back home to his family. Barney began praying a Novena that would end on December 8. On that date immediately after receiving Holy Communion, he heard Our Lady’s voice tell him, “Go to Detroit.” He knew exactly what that meant. Detroit was the U.S. home of the Capuchins, a branch of the Franciscan Order. Barney had a chance to see some Capuchins when he was in the seminary. At the time they kind of

Solanus Casey

freaked him out with their long unkempt beards, sandals and austere lifestyle. Nevertheless, he obeyed the voice and once again said goodbye to his family and took the train in a snowy cold December to Detroit. He arrived there, late on Christmas Eve, was shown to his room (called a cell) and quickly fell asleep. He was awakened by the sounds of the Capuchins singing Christmas carols. A tremendous peace overcame Barney and he knew he was home. When Barney officially joined the order he was given the religious name Solanus. Fr. Solanus Casey Once again he struggled with his studies in German and Latin. No one doubted his holiness but several of his Superiors doubted his academic abilities. However, one of his Superiors intervened on his behalf and said, “He will be another John Vianney. Ordain him.” After twelve years of perseverance, Barney Casey was ordained a priest at the age of 33. He was ordained a “simplex priest,” which meant that though he was a priest, he was not permitted to hear confessions or to preach a public sermon. Years later a friar who Fr. Solanus had to call upon to hear the confessions of those who requested them was indignant for Fr. Solanus, but his indignation passed as he came to realise that Fr. Solanus didn’t seem to mind, but accepted his limited station as he did all things - as God’s Will. His ordination Mass was in Appleton, Wisconsin. The entire Casey family attended the joyous occasion. It was the first time he saw his mother in eight years. During the Mass his proud father wept for joy. Mission NYC Immediately following his ordination Mass, the new Fr. Solanus had to once again say goodbye to his family and board a train for his first assignment, which was in Yonkers, New York. His first parish was a predominantly Italian parish.

His mission was simple and had a deep impact on the parish. Fr. Solanus worked extensively with the youth. He trained altar servers and would treat them to ice cream. One young, dynamic, Italian girl acted often as his chauffeur and his interpreter. She would later become a nun. Fr. Solanus loved visiting people’s homes, though he couldn’t speak Italian. The Italian’s referred to Fr. Solanus as, “The Holy Priest.”

Miracle Worker Fr. Solanus went to work in Harlem and continued to be a beloved priest of the people. Many requested his prayers and he would enrol them in the Seraphic Mass Association, which helped support the Capuchin Missionaries and entitled those who signed up to the benefits of the prayers of all members and Masses prayed for them by the Capuchin community. He would sit and listen with a loving and attentive ear to the troubles of those who signed up. People loved to be with him and were drawn to his kind and

Solanus Casey

approachable nature. He was good humoured and quick to smile. He loved his Irish heritage and the Irish fiddle. He loved the Detroit Tigers baseball team and hot dogs with onions and mustard. Becoming a saint doesn’t make one less human; it makes one more human. Word quickly started to spread about “miracles” being associated with Fr. Solanus after people would come to him. Fr. Solanus always pointed out that it was the Holy Mass that was truly the big miracle and was the reason for these amazing results. So many miracles were happening that Fr. Solanus was told by his superiors to keep a notebook with people’s prayer requests and the follow up. He was to keep a journal record of “the special favours” granted as Fr. Solanus called them.

within hours of total collapse. Another time, there was a fellow Capuchin who was on the way to have some emergency dental work done for a badly abscessed tooth. Fr. Solanus told him he would be just fine. A short time later the excited Priest came back with ice cream cones saying he was totally cured! He gave the ice cream cones to Fr. Solanus to show his appreciation, and to help him keep cool. It was a very hot time in the summer and there was no air conditioning. Fr. Solanus had a long line of people waiting to speak with him in the entry way at St. Bonaventure and had already been visiting with people for several hours. Fr. Solanus, being so busy, simply placed the ice cream cones in his desk drawer and went about visiting with people again for the next several hours.

Holy Porter Fr. Solanus was reassigned to St. Bonaventure Church in Detroit. There, his humble job was to be a “Porter” - the one who answers the door. Word quickly spread to “Go see Fr. Solanus” when anyone had something important to pray for. People lined for hours just to get a chance to speak with this gentle holy man. Fr. Solanus never rushed anyone and gave them his full attention when it was their turn.

There was in line there a young boy sitting on his parent’s lap. Fr. Solanus called him over, to which the parent abruptly responded that their child was crippled and could not walk. Fr. Solanus smiled and once again invited the child over to sit with him. The child got up and walked over to Fr. Solanus to the astonishment of those who witnessed this. Fr. Solanus then opened his desk drawer and gave the child one of the ice cream cones that had sat in the hot desk drawer for hours! The ice cream was totally un-melted and the child and Fr. Solanus each had an ice cream cone together.

Miracle After Miracle One time a distraught parent came to Fr. Solanus saying that her child was not supposed to survive the night. Fr. Solanus told her to be sure to give the child a good breakfast the next morning. Sure enough the next morning the child was totally cured. On the evening before the anticipated collapse of the automobile industry in Detroit, which would have destroyed the entire city, a worker, John McKenna, who feared losing his job enrolled Chevrolet in the Seraphic Mass Association. Within two days an amazing and unpredicted amount of orders came in for cars and the city was literally saved

The Capuchins ran a soup kitchen in Detroit during the Great Depression. Every day, hundreds of men searching for work came to the soup kitchen for a bowl of hot soup and about a half loaf of bread. One day with a crowded hall, the Capuchins ran out of bread. Fr. Solanus simply asked that an Our Father be said. Right away a bread truck mysteriously pulled up and asked if the soup kitchen needed bread! As they continued to unload bread the driver remarked that they had already unloaded much more bread

Solanus Casey

than the truck could hold! One man, Arthur Rutledge, came to Fr. Solanus and told him he had a stomach tumour. Fr. Solanus told Arthur to go have the doctor check it again and then to come back and start helping at the soup kitchen. The doctors found nothing. Needless to say, the soup kitchen had a devoted new volunteer! Many alcoholics were totally cured, never to take another drink after visiting with Fr. Solanus. Others reported a return to the Sacraments after visiting with Fr. Solanus. There were reports of cures from diabetes, marriage problems, emotional illnesses, and the list goes on and on. Fr. Solanus was always quick to point out to others that we live constantly in the presence of God. He was keenly aware that God was the worker of miracles. He repeatedly wrote, “God condescends to use our powers if we don’t spoil his plans by ours.” Gratitude Along with the great confidence in God that sprang from Fr. Solanus’ heart and accompanied his every prayer request, he had a great spirit of gratitude…whether his prayer requests were answered as he wanted them to be or not. Fr. Solanus’ St. Francis-like “poverty of spirit” made him aware that we are entitled to nothing - yet

we have God Himself, and so, we should always be grateful!. Fr. Solanus saw this spirit of gratitude at the very foundation of our relationships with God and others. He once said, “Gratitude is as necessary for social order and harmony as are the laws of gravity for the physical world.” and, “Be grateful ﬁrst to God for your friends, then to your friends themselves.” Gratitude is so foundational that these relationships unwind without it. Again, he said of gratitude, “Be sure, if the enemy of our souls is pleased at anything in us it is ingratitude – of whatever kind. Why? Ingratitude leads to so many breaks with God and neighbour.” Fr. Solanus spent over twenty years answering the door at St. Bonaventure, loving those who came to him, and praying for them with a grateful heart. Thousands continued to flock to him for advice, his Christ-like undivided attention and love, and the miracles he worked. Suffering Servant In the mid 1940’s he was sent to work in Brooklyn. After that he was sent to Huntington, Indiana to rest. Fr. Solanus was aging and was suffering from a terrible and painful skin condition called erysipelas. This condition covered his entire body and he was allergic to the only known treatment at that time. Fr. Solanus was quoted as saying he wishes it was 10,000 times worse so he could offer that suffering to Jesus for the conversion of sinners. Wherever Fr. Solanus went, word would spread and people would find a way to see him. While in Indiana he received about 200 letters per day. Despite his disease and his arthritis, he always tried to answer every letter, and was never short or rude to someone who came to see him, no matter how tired or ill he was. His simple spirit of gratitude was constant to his last day. He once said,

Solanus Casey

“What does it matter where we go? Wherever we go, won’t we be serving God there? And wherever we go, won’t we have Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament there? Isn’t that enough to make us happy?” During his final year, which was full of sickness and pain, on Christmas evening, Fr. Solanus was heard playing his violin and singing Christmas carols in his squeaky voice alone in the chapel, serenading the baby Jesus. It was enough to make him happy. In 1956 he was sent back to Detroit to finish out his life. He still tried to see as many people as possible. In 1957 he ended up in hospital as his illness became terminal. On the morning of July 31 in the presence of hospital staff who were tending to him, Fr. Solanus suddenly sat up in bed and proclaimed, “I give my soul to Jesus Christ!” Those were his final words. Fr. Solanus died 53 years to the hour of saying his first Mass. All he left behind were sandals, some religious pictures, a crucifix, a statue of St. Anthony, a crucifix, socks, and a 40-year-old picture of his family, several books full of prayer requests reporting around 700 granted prayers and miracles, and most importantly, an example of holy humility to inspire the world until its end. His Life Goes On Reports of special favours through his intercession continued to be reported following Fr. Solanus’ death. After 30 years the process of investigating his life for canonisation began. His body was exhumed and it was 95% intact with no odor of decomposition. There were no traces

of the skin condition. His body was dressed in a new habit and he was given a new burial spot inside St. Bonaventure Church in Detroit. Pictures and items that belonged to Fr. Solanus can be seen at St. Bonaventure’s. People can actually sit at the same old oak desk where he met with so many and enrolled them in the Seraphic Mass Association. Clare Ryan of Detroit started the Solanus Casey Guild following his death. Clare had been cured by Fr. Solanus when he was near the end of his life. She was told by doctors that she would spend her life in a wheelchair. Fr. Solanus slapped her legs and said, “Stand up and do your job.” Her legs obeyed. Within a few years members of the guild were in the thousands. Solanus Casey was declared “Venerable” by Pope John Paul II in 1995.

“God, who loves tiny beginnings, will know as He always does know, how and when to provide development.” Venerable Solanus Casey

Josephine Bakhita

Bakhita explains another horrific act of violence against her: “One day I unwittingly made a mistake that incensed the master’s son. He became furious, snatched me violently from my hiding place, and began to strike me ferociously with the lash and his feet. Finally he left me half dead, completely unconscious. Some slaves carried me away and laid me on a straw mat, where I remained for over a month.”

Born: 1869. Died: 8th of February, 1947. Canonised: 1st of October, 2000. “I have given everything to my Master: He will take care of me…The best thing for us is not what we consider best, but what the Lord wants of us!”

The “Fortunate One” Kidnapped he little girl, born in 1869 in what is now southern Sudan, East Africa, happened to walk outside the village boundaries, where she lived and was kidnapped by slave traders. The trade in black slaves had been done away with, for the most part by African law in 1875. Nevertheless, there were those who continued in to kidnap and enslave the most vulnerable. The experience of being kidnapped was so horrifying and traumatic that the little sixyear old girl forgot her name. “Bakhita” was the name given the little girl by her captures. In Arabic, the name “Bakhita” means “fortunate one.” It would be many years before this little girl, now enslaved, would feel as if she were indeed “fortunate” as she would come to know the love and compassion of her heavenly Father. Bakhita was sold from one owner to another in the markets of El Obeid and Khartoum. She would experience untold sufferings and humiliations, both physical and moral at the hands of her mostly

Muslim owners. One of her owners was a general in the Turkish army, who had her “branded” like his other slaves. Bakhita would later describe some of her miseries during her time as a slave, including what took place at her “branding.” A Dish of White Flour, A Dish of Salt and a Razor “A woman skilled in the cruel art (tattooing) came to the general’s house…our mistress stood behind us, whip in hand. The woman had a dish of white flour, a dish of salt and a razor…When she made her patterns; the woman took the razor and made incisions along the lines. Flour and salt were poured into each of the wounds, so that they healed in a permanent seal of ownership. My face was spared, but 6 patterns were designed on my breasts, and 60 more on my belly and arms. I thought I would die, especially when salt was poured into the wounds…it was by a miracle of God I didn’t die. He had destined me for better things.” Bakhita was only 13 years old when she was “branded.”

Life in Italy During the early years of her life, this young pagan girl demonstrated a natural goodness and gentility that protected her virtue. Although she was among the most voiceless of slaves, she possessed what some referred to as a “naturally Christian” soul. The family that now owned Bakhita moved to Venice, Italy and placed her as “nanny” over their little daughter. They enrolled their daughter into the catechism classes offered by the Canossian Sisters As “nanny,” Bakhita would accompany the little girl to each catechism class. Bakhita, the pagan slave from the Sudan encountered Catholicism for the first time. She was deeply moved by the teachings as well as by the nuns providing the instruction. Her owners allowed her to become a catechumen. As if Bakhita had not endured enough in her young life already, a new crisis began to emerge. Her owners decided to return to the Sudan. Bakhita found herself in a very difficult position. If she returned to the Sudan with her master and mistress, she would be guaranteed some sort of economic stability as the nanny of their daughter. The other advantage revolved around the possibility of finding her family. Yet, she was most desirous of baptism and had forged a loving relationship with the

Josephine Bakhita

Canossian Sisters and moving would surely end their relationship. During this time of turmoil, her status as a slave also came up before an Italian tribunal. A judge from the tribunal, having studied the case carefully, decided that since a law forbidding slavery had been enacted in the Sudan, prior to her birth, legally, Bakhita should never have been a slave. Freedom and Peace Bakhita finally made a decision to remain in Italy where she was eventually baptised a Catholic and left everything else in the hands of God. The Canossian Sisters, whom Bakhita had grown to love, helped her with her studies and on January 9, 1890, she was baptised “Giuseppina” (Josephine). Because of her love for the Sisters, it only seemed logical that she sought admission into their order. She was received as a postulant in 1893 and then later as a novice of the Canossian Sisters. On December 8, 1896, at the age of twenty-seven, Josephine took her final vows as a member of the Canossian Sisters. Sister Josephine would later say of her captures, “If I were to meet the slave-traders who kidnapped me and even those who tortured me, I would kneel and kiss their hands, for if that did not happen, I would not be a Christian and a Religious today.” Sister Josephine The humble Sister Josephine would prove over the next fifty years to be a model religious and a vivid reminder of God’s love for everyone. She lived out her life as a cook, seamstress, and porter, that is, opening the door and greeting visitors who would come to the convent. The little children who came through the convent door every morning to attend school loved Sister Josephine. Her voice was gentle and rhythmic as

Josephine Bakhita

the music of her country. Each morning as they entered Sister Josephine would gently lay her hands on their heads as a blessing. She was also a tremendous source of comfort to the poor and suffering, encouraging those who knocked at the door seeking help. After Sister Josephine’s biography was published in 1930, she became a noted and sought after speaker. Any money that she received, as well as the proceeds of her biography, went for the support of foreign missions. Her Final Pain and Agony As now Mother Josephine grew older, she experienced long, painful years of sickness and suffering. During her final days, she relived the terrible period in her life of slavery and on more than one occasion, she begged the nurse who assisted her: “Please, loosen the chains…they are heavy!” It was Mary, Most Holy who freed her from all pain. Her last words were: “Our Lady! Our Lady!” And her final smile testified to her encounter with Mary. On February 8, 1947, Mother Josephine died at the Canossian Convent in Schio where she had entered some fifty-four years earlier, surrounded by the sisters. Mother Josephine Bakhita (“the fortunate one” in Arabic) was canonised a saint by Pope John Paul II on October 1, 2000. It is believed that Saint Josephine is the only canonised saint originally from the Sudan, a mostly Muslim country.

Words of Pope John Paul II At her canonisation, the Holy Father stated the following: “In our time, in which the unbridled race for power, money, and pleasure is the cause of so much distrust, violence, and loneliness, Sister Bakhita has been given to us once more by the Lord as a universal Sister, so that she can reveal to us the secret of true happiness: the Beatitudes…Here is a message of heroic goodness modelled on the goodness of the Heavenly Father. Rejoice, all of Africa! Bakhita has come back to you: the daughter of the Sudan, sold into slavery as a living piece of merchandise, yet still free: free with the freedom of the saints.” The Holy Father also stated: “We find a shining advocate of genuine emancipation. The history of her life inspires not passive acceptance but the firm resolve to work effectively to free girls and women from oppression and violence, and to return them to their dignity in the full exercise of their rights.” Assorted Quotes of Saint Josephine Bakhita “Seeing the sun, the moon and the stars, I said to myself, ‘Who could be the Master of these beautiful things?’ I felt a great desire to see him, to know him and to pay him homage.”

“If I were to meet the slave-traders who kidnapped me and even those who tortured me, I would kneel and kiss their hands, for if that did not happen, I would not be a Christian and Religious today…The Lord has loved me so much: we must love everyone… we must be compassionate.” Saint Josephine Bahkita

Miguel Agustin Pro

Born: 13th of January, 1891. Died: 23rd of November, 1927. Beatified: 26th of September, 1988.

n July 31, 1926, the President of Mexico, Plutarco Elias Calles promulgated, rabidly anti-Catholic, anti-clerical laws of persecution, hoping, in vain, to erase all traces of the Church and her priests/religious from the country. The Mexican Constitution of 1917 had already essentially legalised persecution of the Catholic Church. By late October of the same year, Calles strengthened the venom in these so-called laws by taking away the right of the institutional Church to hold any sort of worship services and denying the right of the individual to free exercise of faith. Thus continued one of the most bloody and heinous persecutions of the Catholic Church in modern time. Many hundreds of priests and religious were murdered, along with thousands of lay faithful, for the crime loving Jesus Christ and His Church more than their own lives. One priest, in particular, stands out among the many courageous Mexican martyrs… Jesuit Father Miguel Agustin Pro.

eleven children in a devout Catholic home. His father worked as a mining engineer and Miguel spent considerable time as a youth with the miners. The lessons learned in the mines were to serve the future Fr. Miguel well. He saw the hardness of life first hand, but learned that a hard life was not necessarily a bitter life. The dignity of the person, compassion for suffering souls and glimpsing the face of Jesus in the least of his brothers were invaluable revelations of his youth.

Miguel was born January 13, 1891 in Guadalupe, Zacatecas, Mexico; the third of

The doors of the Jesuit novitiate opened to a wide-eyed and joy-filled Miguel Pro

Young Miguel was a typical boy in most ways; a mischievous streak was almost his undoing after one particularly ill-conceived stunt rendered him unconscious. But it was his budding spiritual intensity and awareness of God’s presence in his life that gradually began to dominate Miguel’s spirit. The day his oldest sister entered cloistered religious life was all the catalyst necessary to propel “Cocol” (his nickname and favourite sweet treat) toward the priesthood.

Miguel Agustin Pro

on 15 August, 1911. But his joy would be tempered by the evil winds of revolution swirling in the secular world. The ouster of President Porfirio Diaz in 1911 and the rapid rise to power of evil and God-less men unleashed waves of government sponsored, anti-Catholic terrorism. By 1914, it was no longer safe to be a seminarian in Mexico. Miguel and his fellow novices were sent initially to California in the United States for protection. Subsequently, he studied in Granada, Spain from 1915-1919; taught school in Nicaragua from 1919-1922; finally reaching Belgium to study with equally persecuted French Jesuits until the happy day of his ordination on 31 August, 1925. But the day was bitter-sweet. Miguel later wrote, “How can I explain to you the sweet grace of the Holy Spirit that invades my poor miner’s soul with such heavenly joys. I could not keep

back tears on the day of my ordination… but when the others were giving their first blessings to parents and family, I returned to my room, laid out pictures of my family on the bed and blessed them from the bottom of my heart.” Now, as Father Miguel, he received as his first assignment a familiar flock. He was sent to work with miners in Charleroi, Belgium. Fr. Pro’s reception from the mostly socialist or communist miners was less than enthusiastic, but his passionate and compassionate spirit eventually won many conversions to the Faith. Poor health was actually Fr. Miguel’s greatest challenge during these early days. European food disagreed with him. Stomach ulcers, causing chronic pain and bleeding, were unrelieved by multiple operations. Fearing he would die in Belgium, Fr. Pro begged his superiors for permission to return to Mexico. Equally fearing the death of Fr. Miguel in Mexico, his superiors initially refused. But as his physical condition deteriorated further, the decision was finally made to send Fr. Pro back to his home under heavy disguise. A trip to Lourdes in the summer of 1926 preceded the journey back to Mexico. After celebrating Holy Mass in the grotto, Fr. Miguel felt his strength and vitality returning; a welcome consolation from Our Lady. Once back in Mexico, he slipped into Mexico City under cover of darkness and proceeded to Veracruz, arriving on July 8, 1926. The unjust “Calles Laws” were in full effect throughout the country. Entire Mexican states were “purged” of all priests and religious. Churches were either closed or used for secular purposes. Death

Miguel Agustin Pro

squads roamed freely in search of priests serving the “underground” church.

guage to communicate with his flock that was never deciphered by the government.

Undaunted by the persecution around him, Fr. Pro immediately began celebrating Holy Mass and offering the Sacraments clandestinely to small groups of Catholic faithful. His ministry nearly came to an abrupt close after being arrested in October, 1926 for launching 600 balloons containing biblical messages. He was eventually released from custody, but constant surveillance followed.

President Calles was outraged by the inability of his agents to control the “folk hero” priest, Miguel Pro. The government spared nothing in the effort to silence him. An informant pretending to be a faithful Catholic eventually betrayed Fr. Pro to the authorities. On the day prior to his arrest, witnesses assisting at Holy Mass reported seeing a bright light surrounding Fr. Miguel during the Consecration; a light so bright that one could not look directly at the holy priest.

Writing to family, the true disposition of Fr. Miguel’s heart was clear: “The revolution is worsening, reprisals will be terrible… The first to be arrested will be those who have had a hand in religious matters; and I…I have had mine up to the elbow! Ah, to be among the first or the last; in any case, to be among their number. If this happens, send your petitions to Heaven. There, I will be your best provider!” Fr. Pro was briefly ordered into hiding by his superiors for fear of possible capture by the government thugs. He obeyed, but begged daily to return to his hurting flock. Upon being released from hiding, Fr. Miguel poured himself out tirelessly into the work of “undercover priesthood”. A master of disguise, he would ingeniously celebrate the Sacraments in unpredictable and ever-changing locations, often in direct view of the authorities. A beggar or street sweeper one day, a chauffeur or businessman the next; no one was ever sure how Fr. Pro would turn up to celebrate Holy Mass. His boldness knew no limit; once even dressing as a policeman and walking straight into the local jail to minister to the prisoners. He created a clever coded lan-

A bomb blast assassination attempt against former Mexican President Alvaro Obregon was the pretence for the arrest of Fr. Miguel and his brothers, Humberto and Roberto. The Pro brothers had nothing to do with the bombing. One of the real conspirators testified to their innocence, but to no avail. The government had the man it really wanted. Fr. Pro and his brothers were imprisoned in a basement cell of the Detective Inspector’s office in Mexico City. They were never actually tried for any crime. President Calles directly ordered the execution of Fr. Miguel and Humberto. Roberto Pro was eventually freed. President Calles sought to quell the entire Cristero Movement (Catholic rebels fighting against the evil Calles regime) by making an “example” of Fr. Pro. His execution was to be meticulously photographed and every detail recorded, including any “cowardly words” uttered as death approached. Top generals from the regime visited Fr. Miguel and Humberto late in the evening on November 22, 1927. Photographs of the prisoners were taken,

Miguel Agustin Pro

Pier Giorgio Frassati

but curiously, not a word was spoken by the authorities. The next morning, Fr. Miguel was taken from his cell and paraded down a street lined with military and government onlookers to the place of execution. He walked silently and confidently down the street, directly up to the killing spot and turned to face his executioners. As the Captain of the Guard approached him with a blindfold and ropes to bind him to the backstop, Fr. Pro motioned him away. He then turned toward the wall behind him, took a rosary in one hand, a crucifix in the other and knelt in prayer for several moments. Standing once more, he directed his gaze directly at his killers, saying in a calm sure voice, “May God have mercy on you…You know that I am innocent, Lord…With all my heart, I forgive my enemies.” The members of the firing squad were visibly moved and somewhat unnerved by the courageous and calm manner of this priest whom President Calles predicted would cry and beg for mercy. But they were totally unprepared for the next moment. Just as rifle triggers were being pressed, Fr. Miguel stood tall, stretched out his arms in the shape of a cross and boldly, clearly proclaimed, “VIVA CRISTO REY!” (Long live Christ the King!). A hail of poorly aimed bullets from a cadre of nervous, distracted assassins wounded the saintly priest, but

Born: 6th of April, 1901. Died: 4th of July, 1925. Beatified: 1990. “Christ comes daily to visit me in the Holy Eucharist. I return the visit by going to find Him in the poor.”

he gave up his spirit only after a final, pointblank shot to the head. Every moment of the martyrdom of Fr. Miguel Pro was photographed; exposing the criminal acts of the Calles regime and forever documenting the final moments of a future saint whose Christ-like sacrifice helped to rescue an entire nation from the wickedness and snares of the devil. Fifty two years later, September 25, 1988, Blessed Pope John Paul II celebrated an open air Mass in Mexico City, technically still an illegal act at the time that included the Beatification of Father Miguel Agustin Pro.

“Does our life become from day to day more painful, more oppressive, more replete with sufferings? Blessed be He a thousand times who desires it so. If life be harder, love makes it also stronger, and only this love, grounded on suffering, can carry the Cross of my Lord, Jesus Christ.” Blessed Miguel Pro

ier Giorgio Frassati lived an amazing life of contrasts. Although his family was financially wealthy, he chose to live close to the poor. He could have lived a life of privilege, yet he chose a career in which to better the life of the working class. He was deeply pious and prayerful, while his parents gave little attention to the practice of their faith. Along with his love for the Mass, the rosary and Eucharistic Adoration, Pier Giorgio climbed mountains, skied, got into fights and smoked a pipe. Pope John Paul II called Pier Giorgio Frassati the “man of the eight beatitudes” at his beatification in 1990. Pier Giorgio Frassati has been declared the patron of youth as he has a great deal to teach the young people of today how to live a live of service for God in their everyday life. Together, let us meet this young man of prayer and adventure. A Mixed Bag of Wealth On April 6, 1901, Adelaide Frassati, an accomplished artist and wife of a prominent publisher of the La Stampa newspaper in Turin, Italy, Alfredo, gave birth to the

first of her two children, Pier Giorgio. The Frassati family was wealthy, financially, yet relatively poor in the realms of faith. Although Alfredo was an agnostic and his mother was a nominal Catholic at best, Pier Giorgio was baptised at home as he was in danger of death from the time of his birth. Adelaide would give birth to Pier Giorgio’s younger sister, Luciana, seventeen months later. The two Frassati children grew to become close, life-long companions. Alfredo and Adelaide provided their children with the best of everything life had to offer, and did strive to include some religious influence. Even though Alfredo and Adelaide were not the least bit concerned about living their faith, they did provide that their children would attend Sunday Mass, learn their catechism, as well as say their morning and evening prayers. Pier Giorgio’s father travelled quite a bit due to his work and political involvement. His parents’ marriage was anything but solid and there was always a fear with the Frassati children that their parents’ marriage would break up, a constant pressure the

Pier Giorgio Frassati

ease the plight of the poor. Pier Giorgio also became interested in the plight of the working poor, especially those who worked in the mines. During the period that his father served as Ambassador to Berlin (1920 – 21), Pier Giorgio used to visit the miners in Germany as well as study the Catholic organisations which supported and aided them. Pier Giorgio’s love for the Eucharist also translated in his love for the poor. When asked about his daily attendance at Mass, he would say; “Jesus comes every day to visit me sacramentally in the Eucharist; I return the visit by going to find him among the poor.”

two children lived under. Pier Giorgio loved his parents and would do anything to keep them together. In a letter to his father, five year old Pier Giorgio wrote; “I will pray to the Child Jesus for you, and so that you are happy, I promise that I won’t hit Luciana anymore.” Pier Giorgio made his First Holy Communion on June 19, 1911 at the Chapel of the Sister Helpers of the Souls in Purgatory. Love for the Mass and the Rosary Pier Giorgio started his education in a public school and was held back to repeat his second grade year in grammar school. He eventually left the public school and began to attend the Social Institute directed by the Jesuit Fathers. It was the Jesuit Fathers who influenced Pier Giorgio the most in terms of the spiritual life. While at the Social Institute, he began to attend Mass and Holy Communion on a daily basis, much to the dismay of his mother, who was fearful of her son becoming “fanatical.” Pier Giorgio used to view morning Mass as his “early-morning appointment with the Lord” by which he was strengthened throughout the remainder of the day. He later began to serve daily Mass so that he could even be closer to the priest and Jesus on the altar. During his early teen years, Pier Giorgio began his daily practice of praying the Rosary, never letting a day go by without saying the Rosary, even if he had to pray publicly while riding the train. Later in his youth, Pier Giorgio became very devoted to Eucharistic Adoration and was very faithful about making holy hours before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Throughout his entire life, Pier Giorgio was wholly devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Attracted to the Poor Prior to his enrolment in college, Pier Giorgio began to enter more deeply into a life of prayer and service to the poor. He joined the Apostleship of Prayer as well as the Marian Society. His life of prayer, which was disciplined and rich eventually led Pier Giorgio into action, most notably through his activity in the Saint Vincent de Paul Society in Turin, where he would bring food to the poor, many times at his own expense. His parents and his sister paid little attention to his work with the poor, hoping that it was a passing thing and that soon Pier Giorgio would take his place on the social ladder prepared for him. Pier Giorgio always preferred to work more in secret as he never wanted to bring undue attention to himself or what he was doing for the poor. Later in his life, it was not uncommon for Pier Giorgio to use his own financial resources to

A Deliberate Life Lived In 1918, Pier Giorgio entered the Polytechnic University, Turin in order to study Mining Engineering so that he could better serve the needs of miners. Not only was Pier Giorgio concerned about the needs of the working class, he was just as interested in the politics of the day, which meant a head on confrontation with Fascism which plagued Italy at that time. On several occasions during various student marches and protests, Pier Giorgio was not afraid to use his fists, when needed. He was anything but a pushover. His faith drove him to stand for the truth, especially in the ways of politics and social involvement. To Pier Giorgio, standing up against Fascism and Communism was an essential component of living his faith as a Catholic. It is safe to say that Pier Giorgio understood the constant threat Fascism and Communism imposed upon the Catholic Church; a church he felt called to defend and promote. In 1921, Pier Giorgio, along with 50,000 other students attended a youth congress in order to defend the faith against the onslaught of the social and political ills of his time. As the students

Pier Giorgio Frassati

marched through the streets of Rome, Pier Giorgio carried the flag of the youth movement. Fights broke out in the streets and Pier Giorgio not only fought with his fists, he also used the flag pole to defend the flag as well as some of the priests who were being attacked by thugs. He, along with many others, was eventually arrested. Yet, when the police discovered that Pier Giorgio was the son of an ambassador, he was released immediately, however, not without his cohorts. The newspapers plastered over the front page the events that had taken place and Pier Giorgio was the centre piece of the reports. He responded to the publicity; “I have done a little thing well, simply my duty.” A Man of the Mountains Pier Giorgio would, by today’s standards, be considered a “man’s man.” He was athletic, strong and willing to fight for his beliefs. He loved the outdoors and was an avid skier and mountain climber. Mountain climbing expeditions were always in the works, as Pier Giorgio would gather other youth with him. Many times, he was able to secure a priest to join on the expeditions or ski trips in order to have Mass celebrated on the top of the mountain they were hiking or climbing. This was also true of the many ski trips he put together. In Pier Giorgio’s day, the Eucharistic fast went from midnight, until after the Mass the following day. Pier Giorgio would often climb mountains with no food or water until after they had assisted at Mass on the mountain top. If a priest was not available to join them, they would make sure that they attended Mass before their expedition. Pier Giorgio also loved to smoke a pipe, especially while in the mountains. There is a wonderful picture of him on the top of a mountain with

Pier Giorgio Frassati

his pipe clinched between his teeth. Unfortunately, there have been those, who for whatever reasons are fearful of presenting the entire picture of Pier Giorgio have had the pipe air-brushed out of the picture! An Unexpected Death At the end of June, 1925, Pier Giorgio’s maternal grandmother was dying and thus the focus of his family when he became ill with poliomyelitis, which is a serious infectious virus disease, caused by inflammation of the gray matter of the spinal cord and characterised by fever and motor paralysis. His parents, who placed the care of Pier Giorgio in the hands of the family’s maid, did not believe her report of how seriously sick their son was. Even from his sick bed, Pier Giorgio continued to provide for those most in need. Within a week’s time, on July 4th, Pier Giorgio had died, at the age of twenty-four. Thousands of people came to

the funeral, many of whom were the poor of Italy who had been assisted by Pier Giorgio. It was only then did his family come to realise the impact of his life over the poor of Italy as well as his deep piety. Ironically, it was only through the death of Pier Giorgio that his parents began to seriously examine their relationship and heal their marriage. Father Karl Rahner, S.J., the great Jesuit theologian whose family was close to the Frassati family had this to say of Pier Giorgio; “Frassati represented the young, pure Christian youth: cheerful, devoted to prayer, open to all that is free and beautiful, attentive to the social problems, a young man who bore the Church in his heart and destiny. His was a life so rich, so serene, almost care-freely happy (despite regular family problems) as he rode his horse, went skiing, hiked in the mountains, was in the company of his friends, sang songs, engaged in political discussion, was involved in brawls with the police and so many other beautiful things. And even in his golden youth, he acquired a depth and seriousness which derives from the absoluteness of the Christian faith in God, in eternal life.” On one of the photos taken at the occasion of his last mountain climb on June 7, 1925, Pier Giorgio wrote “Verso l’alto” (toward the heights). It was toward the heights of heaven that Pier Giorgio set the course of his life.

knew how to give at the same time a courageous testimony of generosity in the faith and in the exercise of charity toward his neighbour, especially toward the poorest and those who suffered. The Lord called him to Himself at only twenty-four years of age, but he is still living well in our midst with his smile and his goodness to invite his contemporaries to the love of Christ and to the virtuous life.” ( April 12, 1984) “When the heart is full of God the faith is translated in generous service to our brothers, especially to the neediest. In Frassati the Gospel became firm and welcome, he made an attempt in the search of truth

Pier Giorgio Frassati

as well as the demanding commitment to justice. Prayer and the practice of the sacraments gave substance and tone to his manifold apostolate and to his whole existence. Enlivened by the Spirit of God, he was transformed in a marvellous adventure. Everything became an offering and a gift, even in his illness, even in his death. This is the message as he continues to speak to all and particularly to the youth of our time.” (May 20, 1990)

“Christ comes daily to visit me in the Holy Eucharist. I return the visit by going to find Him in the poor.” “All around the sick and all around the poor, I see a special light which we do not have.” “True happiness, dear friends, does not consist in the pleasures of the world or in earthly things, but in peace of conscience, which we only have if we are pure in heart and mind.” Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati

Readings Readings from Pope John Paul II on the life of Pier Giorgio Frassati: “Have models from whom you are inspired. I think for instance of Pier Giorgio Frassati, who was a modern young man, open to the values of athletics (he was a valiant mountain climber and skier), but he

“The primary contribution that the Church offers to the development of mankind and peoples does not consist merely in material means or technical solutions. Rather, it involves the proclamation of the truth of Christ.” Pope Benedict XVI

Charles de Foucauld

Born: 15th of September, 1856. Died: 1st December, 1916. Beatified: 13th of November, 2005. “As soon as I believed there was a God, I understood I could do nothing else but live for him, my religious vocation dates from the same moment as my faith: God is so great. There is such a difference between God and everything that is not.”

harles de Foucauld lived a remarkable life of adventure, deprivation and devotion. He was a man of extremes, an aristocratic bon vivant whose conversion to Christianity led him to embrace a life of solitude and prayer. Charles de Foucauld was baptised into the Catholic Church as an infant and received his First Holy Communion at the age of fourteen, but he was hardly saintly. Described by one biographer as “one of the most perverse foot-stompers and blue-murder screamers” Strasbourg, France had ever known. Charles and his sister, Marie, were orphaned when Charles was only six. It appears that Charles’ father fell into a deep depression and left home to go to Paris and live with his sister. He abandoned his family and remained in Paris until his death. His mother died after falling ill from worry about her husband. The children were adopted by their maternal grandparents. The kindly grandfather spoiled Charles, and saw his temper tantrums as signs of character. At the age of fourteen, Charles began studies at Nancy Lycee, where he received

above average grades in history and geography, and low grades in Latin and religion. He managed to graduate at the age of sixteen and was sent to Paris where the Jesuits were to prepare him for his entrance exams into Saint-Cyr, the West Point of France. Charles admired the Jesuits, but he was bored with his life and no longer believed in God. Charles wrote, “At seventeen I was all selfishness, all vanity, and all irreverence, consumed by desire for evil. I was completely disorientated.” He begged his grandfather to let him leave Saint-Cyr. As a proud Foucauld, his grandfather would have none of that. Finally, with the help of a tutor, Charles graduated from Saint-Cyr near the bottom of his class, ranking 333 out of a class of 338. He sought entrance into the military academy, but was rejected because he was too fat. Again his grandfather had to help. As a young military man Charles continued to follow an empty life. He was very popular with his classmates since he had the money to entertain them all. He graduated from

Calvary School, but again finished near the bottom of his class and number 87 out of 88. All this time, Charles had a mistress, Mimi, whom he would not give up. He enjoyed her company so much that he brought her to Africa when his unit was assigned there, much to the displeasure of the Army. When he refused to legalise his situation, the army discharged him and he returned to France. Gradually the social life began to bore him and he regretted giving up his military career. He was able to get reinstated and rejoined his old regiment in Africa. He became a disciplined military leader and became impressed with the religious zeal of some of the Muslims who would risk their lives to stop fighting when it came time to pray. Once again, Charles left the military to work for the French Geographical Society. He had a very keen interest in Northern Africa and devoted his time to exploring and mapping the region of Morocco. In 1886 he returned to Paris to finish his book on Morocco. He led an active social life and during this time, at a dinner party in the home of his cousin a devout Roman Catholic, he had occasion to meet Fr. Huvelin, the pastor of Saint Augustine’s Church. It was during this time that the question of faith was constantly on his mind. He would visit the churches of Paris and pray, “God, if you exist, let me come to know you.” One morning Charles walked into Fr. Huvelin’s church and said he wanted to talk about faith. The priest suggested he make a good confession and from that moment, at age 28, Charles converted to faith in Jesus Christ. Regarding his conversion, Charles said, “The moment I realised that God existed, I knew I could not do otherwise than to live for Him alone.” Within months, he had decided to love and imitate Jesus totally. The Lord’s humility

Charles de Foucauld

and abandonment to the will of the Father, especially as exhibited in Jesus’ hidden life at Nazareth deeply impressed him. He wanted to own nothing, be unimportant and spend his time in prayer. He entered a Cistercian Trappist abbey in France in 1890. After a few years he moved to a monastery in Syria, but wanted more solitude so he left and went to a convent in Nazareth where for three years he happily worked as a gardener. While working for the Poor Clare nuns, he met Mother Elisabeth, the Superior and a woman of uncommon wisdom. She helped Charles come to accept his vocation to the priesthood so that he could better serve God. Africa was calling and he wanted to bring the sacraments to “the most rejected.” On June 9, 1901, at the age of 43 Charles de Foucauld was ordained a priest and went to the Sahara near Morocco to live as a “hermit missionary” among non-Christians. He built a small hermitage which he used for Adoration and hospitality. In 1902 he developed a program of buying slaves in order to free them. He dreamed of being joined by a small community that would live with him in the desert. He revised his rule demanding three things of his followers: that they are ready to have their heads cut off, to die of starvation and to obey him “in spite of his worthlessness.” For the next fifteen years he lived as a missionary hermit finally settling in a Tuareg village. He divided his time between prayer, intellectual work and visits from the Tuareg people, extensively learning their language and culture. The people respected Charles for his life of poverty, prayer and hospitality. Charles hoped to convert them only by example and kindness of his life, and this would draw them to

Charles de Foucauld

Brothers of Jesus, Little Sisters of the Sacred Heart and Little Sisters of Jesus live in small groups all over the world preaching by the lives they live. This holy man who was a monk, priest, explorer, linguist, and scholar left his wild selfish years behind and became selflessly in love with Jesus Christ who longed for Him intensely and sought only to do His will. The grain of wheat, consumed by Love, continues to bear fruit abundantly.

Christ. In 1916, Fr. Charles de Foucauld was shot by a band of marauders during an antiFrench uprising. He died alone in his desert dwelling at the age of 58. Charles de Foucauld’s life was the seed in the Gospel that had to die to bring forth fruit. At the time of his death neither his missionary contacts nor his design for a new religious order had born fruit. Within twenty years of his death at least three congregations were founded that derived their inspiration and Rules from Charles de Foucauld. These Little

Meditations from Blessed Charles de Foucauld “Father, I abandon myself into Your hands; do with me what You will. Whatever You do I thank You. I am ready for all, I accept all. Let only Your will be done in me, as in all Your creatures, I ask no more than this, my Lord. Into Your hands I commend my soul; I offer it to You, O Lord, with all the love of my heart, for I love You, my God, and so need to give myself – to surrender myself into Your hands, without reserve and with total confidence, for You are my Father.” – Blessed Charles’s Prayer of Abandonment “I wish to be buried in the place where I die and to remain there until the Resurrection. I forbid that my body be transported elsewhere, that I be taken from the spot where the Good Lord has had me finish my pilgrimage.” - from the will of Blessed Charles

In order to save us, God came to us and lived among us, from the Annunciation to the Ascension, in a close and familiar way. God continues to come to us and to live with us in a close and familiar way, each day and at every hour, in the holy Eucharist. So we too must go and live among our brothers and sisters in a close and familiar way.” Blessed Charles de Foucauld

Mary MacKillop

Born: 15th of January, 1842. Died: 8th August, 1909. Canonised: 17th of October, 2010. “Whatever troubles may be before you, accept them cheerfully, remembering Whom you are trying to follow. Do not be afraid. Love one another, bear with one another, and let charity guide you in all your life”.

ary Helen MacKillop was the first of eight children born to Alexander MacKillop, a Scotsman who sailed to Australia in 1838 after failing to complete studies for the priesthood, and Flora MacDonald, who arrived in Australia from Scotland in 1840 with her mother and brother. The couple married three months after they met and little Mary Helen was born January 15, 1842. Mary and her siblings lived an unsettled childhood. Alexander MacKillop was an attentive father and husband, but he failed miserably at every attempted business venture; leaving the family on the brink of poverty and without a stable home life. His inability to adequately provide support for the family pushed the children into odd jobs, yielding a meagre income at best. Alexander’s only real gift to his children was a solid home-school education in both regular academics and catechetics. Mary increasingly bore the burden of working to support the family. She found work as a clerk at age 14; earning a steady income

for the next four years. Even in the bleakest periods, the family managed to scrape by through Mary’s hard work and optimistic perseverance. “God will provide” was her oft- repeated mantra and it would serve her very well in future dark days. At age 18, in 1860, Mary sought to improve her lot by accepting a position as governess for the children of her relatives: Alexander and Margaret Cameron. She moved from the relatively crowded city of Melbourne to the outback village of Penola, South Australia; finding great refreshment in the open space and tranquillity of the region. Teaching suited Mary extremely well and she demonstrated a high degree of aptitude in regular academics and in religious education. Other children were soon coming to the sprawling Cameron estate for instruction. Our Blessed Lord was also working on Mary’s heart during her formative two years with the Cameron family. She began to wonder if God might not be asking her to make a greater commitment to serving the poor

Mary MacKillop

and isolated souls of frontier Australia. In response to her prayer, Fr. Julian Woods, a local Catholic priest, entered her life; establishing a spiritual partnership that would prove to be both fruitful and sorrowful. They both shared a deep desire to bring Catholic education to the expanding population of poor and working class. Fr. Woods became young Mary’s spiritual director; helping her to better discern God’s persistent call. While still maintaining contact with Fr. Woods in Penola, Mary strengthened her teaching credential by accepting positions in Portland, Victoria during the years 18621865. Her improved financial condition allowed the MacKillop family to reunite in 1864. Back in South Australia, Fr. Woods was called to Adelaide to assume the position of Secretary to the Bishop; a job that included becoming Director of Education

for the diocese. The stage was now set for a return to Penola and the fulfilment of God’s evolving plans for Mary MacKillop. Fr. Woods invited Mary and her sisters, Annie and Lexie, to establish a Catholic school open to all children and free from the scourge of segregation; all too commonplace throughout Australia at the time. The first children were welcomed to a small cottage in January, 1866. Mary’s brother, John MacKillop, converted an old stable into a proper school house, able to accommodate a growing number of students. John MacKillop also replaced Mary as the primary source of income for the family; allowing Mary to positively respond to an ever more urgent movement of the Holy Spirit in her soul. On the Feast of St. Joseph, 19 March, 1866, Mary appeared to her family and students wearing a simple black dress and signed her name in the school register as Mary, a Sister of Saint Joseph. With Fr. Woods as her mentor and spiritual guide, Mary MacKillop set about the task of consecrating her life to Christ and to realising her vision of a community of women dedicated to serving the poor and needy within the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Mary and her sister Lexie took the habit of religious postulants in November, 1866; becoming the first two members of The Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart, a.k.a. the Josephites. Fr. Woods helped the women write a simple rule emphasising poverty and freedom from all possessions, dependence upon Divine Providence and the willingness to serve wherever needed. Bishop Sheil of Adelaide approved their request to live in community and allowed Mary MacKillop to profess vows to him on 15 August, 1867. She took the religious name

of Mary of the Cross and was then named Mother Superior of the fledgling order. Teaching and service to the poor was to be their primary charism. By the end of 1867, ten additional women were added. By 1871, there were over 120 members with an average age of 23 years. The brown habited sisters (affectionately known as the Brown Joeys) were the first religious order to be founded in Australia and the first to serve the poor and working class from the rural/outback areas. By necessity, the Josephite sisters were an amalgam of toughness and resilience to meet the challenges of frontier life and humble docility to respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit as Brides of Christ. The growing community was soon scrutinised for its non-traditional approach to consecrated life, including: begging in the streets for the material needs of the sisters, sending two or three sisters out to live with the people rather than a convent and generally “failing” to behave like “proper nuns”. The first invitation to serve outside of South Australia came from Bishop James Quinn of Queensland. Sister Mary and a small band of nuns left for Brisbane in December, 1869. Bishop Quinn was happy to have the dynamic sisters serving in his diocese, but efforts to modify the Rules and redirect their activities, put him at odds with Mary’s vision for the Order. The year Mary spent in Brisbane was only a foretaste of the challenges she would later face to protect and defend The Sisters of Saint Joseph. Any movement or individual seeking to bring Glory to God and to respond in true virtue to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, at some point, will stir the ire of enemies,

Mary MacKillop

both spiritual and carnal. Mary of the Cross would forever bear the weight of her prophetic name. Her zeal and commitment to living out the revealed plan of God, against the ill-designs of others, tested Sister Mary in faith, obedience and charity. Upon returning home to Adelaide from Brisbane in 1871, Sister Mary was greeted by troubled, disheartened sisters and a confused, depressed Fr. Woods. While she was away, Fr. Woods was wholly unprepared to handle swelling (baseless) rumours, including: financial mismanagement, “possessed” sisters of the Order, alcohol abuse by the foundress; naming only a few. Bishop Sheil was greatly displeased and set up a commission to investigate the allegations in response to calls by local clergy for the reform or dissolution of the Josephites. The commission recommended sweeping changes, including revision of the Rule, converting some members to “lay” sisters and placing each convent under the direct authority of a local priest. An alarmed Sister Mary immediately responded to Bishop Sheil with her concerns, offering possible alternative actions. Unmoved, Bishop Sheil hastily (and unlawfully) responded to the presumed impasse with Sister Mary by excommunicating her on 22 September, 1871. Humbly accepting her fate, Sister Mary transferred the governance of the Order and quietly retired. The Sisters of Saint Joseph, by the grace of God, remained mostly intact. Bishop Sheil, nearing death, had a change of heart; lifting the excommunication after 5 months and restoring Mary MacKillop to her position. Sister Mary was now convinced that formal approval of the Order from Rome was the only way to insure security. She

Mary MacKillop

departed for Rome in March, 1873 and would not return until December, 1874. She wrote eloquently to Church authorities on the necessity of establishing an institute under central authority. She petitioned influential prelates, seeking support for her cause. Monsignor Kirby, Rector of the Irish College, took up her banner enthusiastically. Pope Pius IX, calling Sister Mary the Excommunicated One, endorsed the Order. Mary endured significant physical and emotional hardship while waiting for approval of the Constitution, but her perseverance was finally rewarded with a letter from Rome formally establishing the Institute and granting central governing authority to Mother Mary MacKillop and a council of elected sisters of the Institute. The first General Chapter of the newly recognised congregation was opened on March 19, 1875. The Constitution was unanimously adopted and Mother Mary MacKillop was elected the first Superior General. But among Australia’s Bishops, old animosities were not easily set aside by a Vatican endorsement. Bishop James Quinn of Queensland refused to recognise the authority of Mother Mary and her council. Face-to-face negotiations were fruitless. Mother Mary sadly removed all Josephite sisters from Queensland by the end of 1880. Bishop Matthew Quinn of New South Wales took a similar stance. Mother Mary was forced to withdraw her nuns from here, as well. But some of her sisters chose to disobey the Superior General and remain under diocesan control (so-called Black Joeys). Bishop Reynolds of South Australia, a lukewarm supporter initially, ordered Mother Mary out of his diocese. Weathering the storm, Mother Mary went to Sydney and found

conditional support from new Archbishop Moran, who later gave his full support after receiving a highly favourable review of the Institute. Most of Australia’s Bishops voted, in 1885, to subject the Sisters of St. Joseph to the rule of the local Ordinary. Rome set aside this decree in April, 1887 and Pope Leo XIII raised the Institute to a Canonical Congregation on July 15, 1888. But to partially appease the ire of the Bishops, a new Mother General was appointed (Mother Bernard) to replace the “contentious” Mother Mary MacKillop. As always, Mother Mary graciously accepted the decision as God’s will and counted it as part of the cost of faithful discipleship. The invigorated Congregation expanded rapidly between 1880 and 1900. By 1891, there were 300 sisters in 9 dioceses of Australia and New Zealand. Mother Mary MacKillop wrote to her sisters on the Feast of St. Joseph that year: “25 years ago we kept up St. Joseph’s day as a special feast of our proposed Institute and little did any of us then dream of what was to spring from such a small beginning”. Mother Bernard died in 1898. The General Chapter unanimously called Mother Mary MacKillop back to lead the Congregation. Sensing her time on earth was limited, Mother Mary worked with intensity to complete a few remaining tasks. Two new novitiates were erected and a “training school” for teachers was opened in 1900. Reconciliation with the Diocese of Queensland allowed for the joyful return of the Congregation in 1900. The “Black Joeys” from New South Wales returned to the fold. Mother Mary’s health deteriorated rapidly after 1900. She suffered a stroke in 1901, curtailing her ability to

Mary MacKillop

travel, but she continued to write to her sisters regularly. The General Chapter reelected Mother Mary as Superior General in 1905, as a gesture of love and respect, in full knowledge that most of the daily governance was being handled by Mother’s assistant, Sister LaMerci. Just prior to her death, Mother Mary completed a letter to her sisters with the following postscript: “Whatever troubles may be before you, accept them cheerfully, remembering Whom you are trying to follow. Do not be afraid. Love one another, bear with one another, and let charity guide you in all your life”. Mother Mary Helen MacKillop went to be with her Spouse and Lord on August 8, 1909. Cardinal Moran of Sydney declared, “Today, I believe that I have assisted at the death bed of a saint”. At her death, the Congregation reported 750 sisters in 106 houses, serving 12,500 students in 117 schools. Her life and teachings continued to resonate throughout all of Australia. Her cause for Canonisation was opened in 1926. Mother Mary was beatified by Blessed Pope John Paul II on January 19, 1995. With the cure of Kathleen Evans in

the 1990’s from advanced lung and brain cancer; Mother Mary MacKillop was Canonised by Pope Benedict XVI on October 17, 2010. Her relics rest in the MacKillop Memorial Chapel in North Sydney.

“Never see a need without doing something about it” “We must teach more by example than by word.” “Do all you can with the means at your disposal and calmly leave the rest to God.” Saint Mary MacKillop

Maria Goretti

On July 5, 1902, Maria was alone, ironically mending one of Alessandro’s shirts when he stormed up the stairs to the Goretti dwelling, ordering Maria to a bedroom. Maria refused to go with him, at which time, Alessandro grabbed hold of her and forced her into a room, slammed the door shut and attempted to rape her. Maria pleaded with Alessandro; “No, No, No, don’t touch me, Alessandro! It’s a sin! You will go to hell for this!” At this rejection, Alessandro in a rage began striking her small body with a large knife, stabbing her fourteen times. Maria cried out that she was being killed, while Alessandro drove the knife one last time into her back and then ran away.

Born: 16th of October 16, 1890. Died: 6th of July, 1902. Canonised: 1950.

Early Life of Maria Goretti aria Goretti was born on October 16, 1890, at Corinaldo in the province of Ancona, Italy to Luigi and Assunta Goretti. Maria was the second eldest of six children. Her family was very poor, yet prayerful and always hopeful. As the family moved around always in search of a better living, Maria was not able to attend school on a consistent basis. When Maria was ten years old her family moved to a farm not far from Nettuno, a seaside town thirty miles west of Rome. The Goretti family moved into a barn converted into two smaller apartments; Giovanni Serenelli and his teenage son, Alessandro were the other tenants, with whom the Goretti’s shared living quarters. A Difficult Life Became Even Harder Not long after the Goretti’s moved to Nettuno, Maria’s father, Luigi contracted malaria and died, leaving his wife practically penniless and alone to care for their six children. The death of her father caused great pain and sorrow for the young Maria. Any

hope Maria had of furthering her education was now ended as she was needed to help her mother work the farm and care for her younger siblings. Through it all, Maria strived to remain as cheerful and as helpful as possible. One bright moment for Maria during this difficult period was her reception of her First Holy Communion in 1901. Maria loved the instructions she and the other children of her parish received from the parish priest as she longed to receive Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. Maria Protects her Purity When Maria was not quite twelve years of age, she was already a strikingly beautiful young girl. Alessandro Serenelli, the son of the other tenant was twenty years of age and had made it a habit of reading impure stories, which would have certainly been considered pornographic. Twice he made advances of a sexual nature towards Maria, yet she was able to remove herself from Alessandro and his unwanted overtures. Maria kept quiet about what Alessandro was up to, as he had threatened to kill her.

Death of Maria After the bloody body of Maria had been found, a horse drawn ambulance was called upon and carried Maria to the hospital, where it was determined that little could be done to save her life. Her last remaining twenty-four hours were extremely painful for Maria, yet through it all, she seemed more concerned for the welfare of her mother. Maria also made it very clear that she forgave Alessandro for his crimes. She was able to receive Jesus, whom she loved in the Eucharist one last time before slipping into eternity. Arrest of Alessandro Alessandro was eventually arrested and sentenced to thirty years of hard labour for the crimes of attempted rape and murder. For the first few years of his sentence, Alessandro remained unrepentant and was generally a trouble maker while in prison. He had also lost his appetite and became a nervous wreck, almost on the brink of despair. All of that changed in almost an instant in 1910. One night, Alessandro had

Maria Goretti

a vision of Maria, in which she presented him with fourteen lilies (one for each time that he had stabbed her) and told him that she had forgiven him and prayed that God would have mercy on him as well. Alessandro immediately repented of his sins and became, literally overnight, a model prisoner. Not long after his change of heart, Alessandro was able to meet the bishop of Noto explaining the vision to him, at which the bishop assured him of God’s desire to forgive him. Later, Alessandro wrote a letter to the bishop, in which he wrote; “I regret doubly the evil I have done, because I realise that I have taken the life of a poor, innocent girl. Up to the last moment she wanted to protect her honour, sacrificing herself rather than give in to my wishes. I detest the evil that I have done. And I ask God’s forgiveness and that of the poor, desolate family for the great wrong I committed. I hope that I too, like so many others in this world, may obtain pardon.” A Free Alessandro After serving nearly twenty-seven years of his thirty year sentence, Alessandro was freed early for good behaviour. He was fortyseven years old. The first thing he did was visit Maria’s mother, Assunta on Christmas Eve of 1936 to seek her forgiveness for what he had done to her daughter. Assunta did indeed forgive her daughter’s assailant and together, they attended Midnight Mass at the church where Maria was buried. Alessandro entered a Franciscan monastery and spent the remainder of his life as a Third Order Penitent, living a simple, prayerful life. Canonisation of Maria Goretti The life story and memory of Maria Goretti had spread quickly and her cause for canonisation began in earnest. On April

Maria Goretti

27, 1947, Pope Pius XII beatified Maria Goretti in Rome. Her eighty-two year old mother, Assunta was present, along with two of Maria’s sisters and a brother. Three years later, on June 24, 1950, Pope Pius XII canonised Maria Goretti a saint in one of the largest gatherings in the history of Saint Peter’s Square. Once again, Maria’s eightyfive year old mother was present at the canonisation and is the only mother known to be present for a child’s canonisation. It has been held that Maria’s assailant, Alessandro was also present at the canonisation. Although he was still alive, he was in fact, not in attendance, still residing at the Franciscan monastery. Alessandro Serenelli died on May 6, 1970 at the age of eighty-nine. Reading I A reading from the homily at the canonisation of Saint Maria Goretti by Pope Pius XII: “It is well known how this young girl had to face a bitter struggle with no way to defend herself. Without warning a vicious stranger burst upon her, bent on raping her and destroying her childlike purity. In that moment of crisis she could have spoken to

her Redeemer in the words of that classic, The Imitation of Christ: “Though tested and plagued by a host of misfortunes, I have no fear so long as your grace is with me. It is my strength, stronger than any adversary; it helps me and gives me guidance.” With splendid courage she surrendered herself to God and his grace and so gave her life to protect her virginity. The life of a simple girl – I shall concern myself only with highlights – we can see as worthy of heaven. Even today people can look upon it with admiration and respect. Parents can learn from her story how to raise their God-given children in virtue, courage and holiness; they can learn to train them in the Catholic faith so that, when put to the test, God’s grace will support them and they will come through undefeated, unscathed and untarnished. From Maria’s story carefree children and young people with their zest for life can learn not to be led astray by attractive pleasures which are not only ephemeral and empty but also sinful. Instead we can fix their sights on achieving Christian moral perfection, however diﬃcult that course may prove. With determination and God’s

help all of us can attain that goal by persistent effort and prayer. Not all of us are expected to die a martyr’s death, but we are all called to the pursuit of Christian virtue. So let us all, with God’s grace, strive to reach the goal that the example of the virgin martyr, Saint Maria Goretti, sets before us. Through her prayers to the Redeemer may all of us, each in his own way, joyfully try to follow the inspiring example of Maria Goretti who now enjoys eternal happiness in Heaven.” Reading II From a testimony of Alessandro Serenelli, T.O.S. “I’m nearly eighty years old. I’m about to depart. Looking back at my past, I can see that in my early youth, I chose a bad path which led me to ruin myself. My behaviour was influenced by print, mass-media and bad examples which are followed by the majority of young people without even thinking. And I did the same. I was not worried. There were a lot of generous and devoted people who surrounded me, but I paid no attention to them because a violent force blinded me and pushed me toward a wrong way of life. When I was twenty years old, I committed a crime of passion. Now that memory represents something horrible for me. Maria Goretti, now a Saint, was my good Angel, sent to me through Providence to

Maria Goretti

guide and save me. I still have impressed upon my heart her words of rebuke and pardon. She prayed for me, she interceded for her murderer. Thirty years of prison followed. If I had been of age, I would have spent all my life in prison. I accepted to be condemned because it was my own fault. Little Maria was really my light, my protectress; with her help, I behaved well during the twenty-seven years of prison and tried to live honestly when I was again accepted among the members of society. The Brothers of Saint Francis, Capuchins from Marche, welcomed me with angelic charity into their monastery as a brother, not a servant. Ivve been living with their community for twenty-four years, and now I am serenely waiting to witness the vision of God, to hug my loved ones again, and to be next to my Guardian Angel and her dear mother, Assunta. I hope this letter that I wrote can teach others the happy lesson of avoiding evil and of always following the right path, like little children. I feel that religion with its precepts is not something we can live without, but rather it is the real comfort, the real strength in life and the only safe way in every circumstance, even the most painful ones in life.”

“The essence of Christianity...is an ever-new encounter with... the God who speaks to us, who approaches us and who befriends us!” Pope Benedict XVI

Thérèse of Lisieux

their five surviving daughters; Marie, 12, Pauline, 11, Leonie 9, Celine, 3, and their new-born. Louis and Zelie named their newborn; Marie-Francoise-Thérèse Martin. A century later people would know her as St. Thérèse, and call her the “Little Flower.” Born: 2nd of January, 1873. Died: 30th of September, 1897. Canonised: 17th of May, 1925.

stand such language. My children were not lost forever; life is short and full of miseries, and we shall find our little ones again up above.” The Martins’ last child was born January 2, 1873. She was weak and frail, and doctors feared for the infant’s life. The family, so used to death, was preparing for yet another blow. Zelie wrote of her three month old girl: “I have no hope of saving her. The poor little thing suffers horribly.... It breaks your heart to see her.” But the baby girl proved to be much tougher than anyone realised. She survived the illness. A year later she was a “big baby, browned by the sun.” “The baby,” Zelie noted, “is full of life, giggles a lot and is sheer joy to everyone.” Death seemed to grant a reprieve to the Martin household. Although suffering had left its mark on mother and father, it was not the scar of bitterness. Louis and Zelie had already found relief and support in their faith.

The Baby of the Family Marie-Francoise-Thérèse Martin was born on January 2, 1873, and baptised two days later on January 4th. “All my life God surrounded me with love. My first memories are imprinted with the most tender smiles and caresses... Those were the sunny years of my childhood.” Thus Thérèse, twentyone years later, described her home life in Alencon, France. “My happy disposition,” she added with characteristic candor, “contributed to making my life pleasing.” The Martin household was a lively place. Thérèse’s father, Louis, had a nickname for each of his daughters. Her mother, Zelie, wrote her relatives constantly about the joys each child gave her. Thérèse was the baby and everyone’s favourite, especially her mother’s. Due to Thérèse’s weak and frail condition at birth, she was taken care of by a nurse for her first year and a half. Because of this care, she became a lively, mischievous and self-confident child. But Zelie was not blind to her baby’s faults. Thérèse was, she wrote, “incredibly stubborn. When she has said ‘no’, nothing will make her change her mind. One could put her in the cellar for the whole day.” Thérèse’s candor appeared early and was unusual. The little one would run to her mother and confess: “Mama, I hit Celine (her sister) once-but I won’t do it again.”

The series of tragedies had intensified the love of Louis and Zelie Martin for each other. They poured out their affection on

Little Thérèse was blond, blue-eyed, affectionate, stubborn, and alarmingly precocious. She could throw a giant-sised

“A word of a smile is often enough to put fresh life in a despondent soul.”

The Martins ouis Martin and Zelie Guerin eventually met in Alencon and on July 13, 1858, Louis, 34, and Zelie, 26, married and began their remarkable voyage through life. Within the next fifteen years, Zelie bore nine children, seven girls and two boys. “We lived only for them”, Zelie wrote; “they were all our happiness”. The Martins’ delight in their children turned to shock and sorrow as tragedy relentlessly and mercilessly stalked their little ones. Within three years, Zelie’s two baby boys, a five year old girl and a six-and-a-half week old infant girl all died. Zelie was left numb with sadness. “I haven’t a penny’s worth of courage,” she lamented. But her faith sustained her through these terrible ordeals. In a letter to her sister-in-law who had lost an infant son, Zelie remembered: “When I closed the eyes of my dear little children and buried them, I felt sorrow through and through.... People said to me, ‘It would have been better never to have had them.’ I couldn’t

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tantrum. Her bubbling laughter could make a gargoyle smile. In a note, Zelie advised her daughter Pauline: “She (Thérèse) flies into frightful tantrums; when things don’t go just right and according to her way of thinking, she rolls on the floor in desperation like one without any hope. There are times when it gets too much for her and she literally chokes. She’s a nervous child, but she is very good, very intelligent and remembers everything.” Through it all however, Thérèse thrived on the love which surrounded her in this Christian home. It was here, where prayer, the liturgy and practical good works formed the basis of her own ardent love of Jesus - her desire to please him and the Virgin Mary. “I Choose All” At the age of twelve, Thérèse’s sister Leonie felt she had no further use for her doll dressmaking kit, and stuffed a basket full of materials for making new dresses. Leonie then offered it to her six year old sister, Celine, and her two year old sister, Thérèse. “Choose what you wish, little sis-

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ters,” invited Leonie. Celine took a little ball of wool that pleased her. Thérèse simply said, “I choose all.” She accepted the basket and all its goods without ceremony. This incident revealed Thérèse’s attitude toward life. She never did anything by halves; for her it was always all or nothing. On Sundays, Louis and Zelie Martin would take their daughters on walks. Thérèse loved the wide open spaces and the beauty of the countryside about Alencon. Frequently the walks tired little Thérèse. This would result in “Papa” Martin carrying his daughter home in his arms. Unfortunately, the pleasant family times would soon come to an end. The shadow of death that had previously occupied the Martin household, once more relentlessly returned. Thérèse’s mother, Zelie (after an illness of twelve years), died of breast cancer in August, 1877. Thérèse was only four years old at the time. The Winter of Great Trial Shortly after his wife’s death, Louis Martin moved his family of five girls (ranging in ages from four to seventeen) to Lisieux. He rented a home and named it “Les Buissonnets” (“The Hedges”). Thérèse then entered what she termed “the second” and “most painful” period of her life. Because of the shock of her mother’s death, “my happy disposition completely changed,” she remembered. “I became timid and retiring, sensitive to an excessive degree...” Louis Martin and his daughters did all they could to help little Thérèse who missed her mother so much. They lavished affection and attention upon the motherless child. At Les Buissonnets, under the tutelage of her sisters Marie and Pauline, Thérèse began her first schooling. Each day after classes

because they must end. It was on a Sunday evening this youngster felt the pang of exile of this earth. “I longed,” she explained, “for the everlasting repose of heaven - that never ending Sunday of the fatherland...”

were over she joined her father in his study. Louis called Thérèse his “little queen”. Eventually the two would go for a walk. They would visit a different church each day and pray before the Blessed Sacrament. The bond between father and daughter grew stronger and stronger. “How could I possibly express the tenderness which Papa showered upon his queen?” she later exclaimed. Her sister Celine, nearly four years older, became her favourite playmate. The passage is all the more remarkable because it revealed the theme of exile which dominated her whole life. Thérèse maintained the first word she learned to read was “heaven”. From her childhood she interpreted all her world as only the beginning, only a glimpse of a glorious future. Sundays had tremendous significance. They were days of rest tinged with melancholy

Thérèse, given the proper occasion, continued to produce extreme temper tantrums. The following is her own account of one of the more sparkling scenes that took place between herself and her poor nurse, Victoire. “I wanted an inkstand which was on the shelf of the fireplace in the kitchen; being too little to take it down, I very nicely asked Victoire to give it to me. But she refused, telling me to get up on a chair. I took a chair without saying a word, but thinking she wasn’t too nice; wanting to make her feel it, I searched out in my little head what offended me the most. She often called me a ‘little brat’ when she was annoyed at me and humbled me very much. So before jumping off my chair, I turned around with dignity and said, ‘Victoire, you are a brat!’ Then I made my escape leaving Victoire to meditate on the profound statement I had just made... I thought, if Victoire didn’t want to stretch her big arm to do me a little service, she merited the title ‘brat.’” Off to School In October, 1881, Louis enrolled his youngest daughter (Thérèse) as a day boarder at Lisieux’s Benedictine Abbey school of Notre-Dame du Pre. Thérèse hated the place and stated “the five years (1881 1886) I spent there were the saddest of my life.” Classes bored her. She worked hard and loved catechism, history and science, but had trouble with spelling and mathematics. Because of her overall intelligence, the good nuns advanced the eight-year-old to classes for fourteen-year-olds. She was

Thérèse of Lisieux

still bored. Her keenness aroused the envy of many fellow pupils, and Thérèse paid dearly for her academic successes. Genius has its price, and the youngest Martin girl was paying it. The ordinary games and dances of other children held little interest for her. She was uncomfortable with most children and seemed to be at ease only with her sisters and very few others. Of all the Martin girls, Pauline was closest to Thérèse. Thérèse thought of her as her second mother. Pauline was the little one’s first teacher and ideal. Then one day Thérèse’s second mother told her she was leaving to enter the convent at the Carmelite Monastery in Lisieux. Nine-year-old Thérèse was stunned. Again employing the exile theme, she described her sorrow: “...I was about to lose my second mother. Ah, how can I express the anguish of my heart! In one instant I understood what life was; until then I had never seen it so sad, but it appeared to me in all its reality and I saw it was nothing but a continual suffering and separation. I shed bitter tears...” “Our Lady of the Smile” During the winter following Pauline’s entrance into the Carmelite monastery, Thérèse fell seriously ill. Experts have diagnosed her sickness as everything from a nervous breakdown to a kidney infection. She blamed it on the devil. Whatever it was, doctors of her time were unable to either diagnose or treat it. She suffered intensely during this time from constant headaches and insomnia. As the illness pursued its vile course, it racked poor little Thérèse’s body. She took fits of fever and trembling and suffered cruel hallucinations. Writing of one bout of delirium, she explained: “I was absolutely terrified by everything: my bed seemed to be surrounded by fright-

Thérèse of Lisieux

ful precipices; some nails in the wall of the room took on the appearance of big black charred fingers, making me cry out in fear. One day, while Papa was looking at me and smiling, the hat in his hand was suddenly transformed into some indescribable dreadful shape and I showed such great fear that poor Papa left the room sobbing.” None of the treatments helped. Then, on May 13, 1883, Thérèse turned her head to a statue of the Virgin near her bed, and prayed for a cure. “Suddenly” Thérèse writes, “...Mary’s face radiated kindness and love.” Thérèse was cured. The statue has since been called “Our Lady of the Smile”. It was shortly after Pauline’s departure that Thérèse decided to join her at Lisieux’s Carmelite Convent. She approached the prioress of the monastery and sought entrance. Carefully little Thérèse explained she wished to enter, not for Pauline’s sake, but for Jesus’ sake. The prioress advised her to return when she grew up. Thérèse was only nine years old at the time. During her long illness, her resolve to join the Carmelites grew even stronger. “I am convinced that the thought of one day becoming a Carmelite made me live,” she later declared. After her illness, Thérèse was more than ever determined to do something great for God and for others. She thought of herself as a new Joan of Arc, dedicated to the rescue not only of France but of the whole world. With unbelievable boldness the ten-year-old stated, “I was born for glory.” And thus another great theme of Thérèse’s life manifested itself. She perceived her life’s mission as one of salvation for all people. She was to accomplish this by becoming a saint. She understood that her glory would be hidden from the eyes of others until God wished to

reveal it. At ten years of age, then, she reaffirmed and clarified her life’s goals. She was intelligent enough to realise she could not accomplish them without suffering. What was hidden from her eyes was just how much she would have to endure to win her glory. The Price “Spiritual torment” was to be her lot for years to come, slackening only when she started preparing for her long-awaited First Communion. At the age of eleven, on May 8, 1884, Thérèse received her first “kiss of love”, a sense of being “united” with Jesus, of His giving Himself to her, as she gave herself to Him. Her Eucharistic hunger made her long for daily communion. Confirmation, “the sacrament of Love”, which she received on June 14, 1884, filled Thérèse with ecstasy. Shortly thereafter though, the young Martin girl experienced a peculiarly vicious attack of scruples. This lasted seventeen months. She lived in constant fear of sinning; the most abhorrent and absurd thoughts disturbed her peace. She wept often. “You cry so much during your childhood,” intimates told her, “you will no longer have tears to shed later on!” Headaches plagued her once more. Her father finally removed her from the Abbey school and provided private tutoring for her. During this time her sister, Marie, became very close with Thérèse, and helped her to overcome these fears. But Marie in turn, also entered the Lisieux Carmel (on October 15, 1886). This was very hard on Thérèse, who at the age of thirteen had now lost her ‘third’ mother. The Christmas Conversion After midnight Mass, Christmas, 1886, the shadow of self-doubt, depression, and

uncertainty suddenly lifted from Thérèse, leaving her in possession of a new calm and inner conviction. Grace had intervened to change her life as she was going up the stairs at her home. Something her father said provoked a sudden inner change. The Holy Child’s strength supplanted her weakness. The strong character she had at the age of four and a half was suddenly restored to her. A ten year struggle had ended. Her tears had dried up. The third and last period of her life was about to begin. She called it her life’s “most beautiful” period. Freed from herself, she embarked on her “Giant’s Race”. She was consumed like Jesus with a thirst for souls. “My heart was filled with charity. I forgot myself to please others and, in doing so, became happy myself”. Now, she could fulfil her dream of entering the Carmel as soon as possible to love Jesus and pray for sinners. Grace received at Mass in the summer of 1887 left her with a vision of standing at the foot of the Cross, collecting the blood of Jesus and giving it to souls. Convinced that her prayers and sufferings could bring people to Christ, she boldly asked Jesus to give her some sign that she was right. He did. In the early summer of 1887, a criminal, Henri Pranzini, was convicted of the murder of two women and a child. He was sentenced to the guillotine. The convicted man, according to police reports, showed no inclination to repent. Thérèse immediately stormed heaven for Pranzini’s conversion. She prayed for weeks and had Mass offered for him. There was still no change in the attitude of the condemned man. The newspaper La Croix, in describing Pranzini’s execution, noted the man had refused to go to confession. Then on September 1, 1887, as the executioner was about to put his head onto the

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guillotine block, the unfortunate criminal seised the crucifix a priest offered him and, the newspaper noted, “kissed the Sacred Wounds three times.” Thérèse wept for joy; her “first child” had obtained God’s mercy. Thérèse hoped that many others would follow once she was in the Carmel. Her Life at Lisieux Carmel Marie Martin, the oldest daughter of the family, joined her sister Pauline at the Lisieux Carmel in 1886. Leonie Martin entered the Visitation Convent at Caen the following year. Thérèse then sought permission from her father to join Marie and Pauline at the Lisieux Convent. Louis was probably expecting the request, but it saddened him nevertheless. Three of his girls had already entered religious life. But, characteristically generous, he not only granted Thérèse’s request, but worked zealously to help her realise it. She was not yet fifteen when she approached the Carmelite authorities again for permission to enter. Again she was refused. The priest-director advised her to return when she was twentyone. “Of course,” he added, “you can always see the bishop. I am only his delegate.” The priest did not realise what kind of girl he was dealing with. To his dying day, Bishop Hugonin of Bayeux never forgot her. She came to his office with her father one rainy day and put her surprising request before him. “You are not yet fifteen and you wish this?” the bishop questioned. “I wished it since the dawn of reason,” young Thérèse declared. Louis’ support of her request amazed the bishop. His Excellency had never seen this type of support before. “A father as eager to give his child to God,” he remarked, “as this child was eager to offer herself to him.”

Thérèse of Lisieux

Just before the interview, Thérèse had put up her hair, thinking this would make her look older. This amused the bishop, and he never spoke about Thérèse in later years without recounting her ploy. Although charmed by her, Bishop Hugonin did not immediately grant Thérèse’s request. He wanted time to consider it, and advised Thérèse and her father that he would write them regarding his decision. Thérèse had planned that, should the Bayeux trip fail, she would go to the Pope himself. Thus in November, 1887, Louis took his daughters, Thérèse and Celine, to Italy with a group of French pilgrims. Catholics from all over the world were journeying to the Eternal City, to celebrate Leo XIII’s Golden Jubilee as a priest. In her autobiography, Thérèse sketched a charming picture of her travels through Southern Europe. In Rome she was enamoured of the Coliseum. Its history of Christian martyrdom stirred the very roots of her being. Once inside the Coliseum, the two sisters ignored regulations prohibiting visitors from descending through the ruined structure to the arena floor, sneaked away from the tour group, climbed across barriers and down the ruins to kneel and pray on the Coliseum floor. Gathering up a few stones as relics, they slipped back to the tour. No one, except their father, noted their absence. The great day of the audience with Pope Leo XIII came at the end of their week in Rome. On Sunday, November 20, 1887, “they told us on the Pope’s behalf that it was forbidden to speak as this would prolong the audience too much. I turned toward my dear Celine for advice: ‘Speak!’ she said. A moment later I was at the Holy Father’s feet....Lifting tear-filled eyes to his

Thérèse of Lisieux

face I cried out: ‘Most Holy Father, I have a great favour to ask you!....Holy Father, in honour of your jubilee, permit me to enter Carmel at the age of fifteen.’”

next fourteen years. Now, with her father paralysed, the meaning of Thérèse’s vision in the garden so long ago had become apparent at last.

Father Reverony, the leader of the French pilgrimage, stared stonily at this bold little girl, in surprise and displeasure. “Most Holy Father,” the priest said coldly, “this is a child who wants to enter Carmel at the age of fifteen. The superiors are considering the matter at the moment.” “Well, my child,” the Holy Father replied, “do what the superiors tell you.” “Resting my hands on his knees,” Thérèse continued, “I made a final effort, saying, ‘Oh, Holy Father, if you say yes, everybody will agree!’ He gazed at me speaking these words and stressing each syllable: ‘Go - go - you will enter if God wills it.’” Thérèse did not want to leave the Holy Father’s presence, so the papal guards had to lift her up and carry the tearful young girl to the door. There they gave her a medal of Leo XIII. Her old nurse, Victoire, probably could have told the Pope he should not have been surprised. Victoire had seen Thérèse in some rare displays of determination.

Louis however, rallied his strength, and managed to attend the ceremonies of Thérèse’s clothing in the Carmelite habit on January 10, 1889. Shortly thereafter, on February 12th, Louis was taken to the hospital after an attack of dementia. Seeing her father’s humiliation hurt Thérèse deeply. “Oh, I do not think I could have suffered more than I did on that Day!!!” With that, Thérèse began to understand the sufferings of the mocked Christ, the Suffering Servant foretold by Isaiah. Thérèse’s father made one last visit to the Carmel in May, 1892. He died peacefully two years later, in 1894, with Celine at his side. Celine then joined her three sisters at Carmel in September of 1894. Thérèse spent the last nine years of her life at the Lisieux Carmel. Her fellow Sisters recognised her as a good nun, nothing more. She was conscientious and capable. Sister Thérèse worked in the sacristy, cleaned the dining room, painted pictures, composed short pious plays for the Sisters, wrote poems, and lived the intense community prayer life of the cloister. Superiors appointed her to instruct the novices of the community. Externally, there was nothing remarkable about this Carmelite nun.

On New Year’s Day, 1888, the prioress of the Lisieux Carmel advised Thérèse she would be received into the monastery, but that she had to be patient and wait a little bit longer. On April 9, 1888, an emotional and tearful, but determined Thérèse Martin said good-bye to her home and her family. She was going to live “for ever and ever” in the desert with Jesus and twenty-four enclosed companions: she was fifteen years and three months old. The only cloud on her horison was the worsening condition of her father, Louis, who had developed cerebral arteriosclerosis. Celine remained at home to care for their father during his

long and final illness. The good father was growing senile. Once in June of 1888, he wandered from his home at Lisieux and was lost for three days, eventually turning up at Le Havre. In August, after a series of strokes, Louis became paralysed. Many years earlier, when Thérèse was a little girl, she would peer out of an attic window. Thérèse loved revelling in the glory of the day. One day however, while her father was in Alencon on business, she suddenly saw in the garden below the stooped and twisted figure of a man. She froze in terror. “Papa, Papa” she cried out. Her sister Marie, who was nearby heard the unmistakable note of panic in Thérèse’s cry and ran to her. The figure in the garden disappeared. Marie assured her it was nothing and told her to forget everything that had happened. But the vision continued to cling like a sad portent in the corner of Thérèse’s mind for the

Thérèse was affected by the spiritual atmosphere in the community, which was still tainted by Jansenism and the vision of an avenging God. Some of the sisters feared divine justice and suffered badly from scruples. Even after her general confession in May 1888 to Father Pichon, her Jesuit spiritual director, Thérèse was still uneasy. But a great peace came over her when she made

Thérèse of Lisieux

oress in succession to Mother Marie de Gonzague in February of 1893. Pauline asked Thérèse to write verses and theatrical entertainment for liturgical and community festivals. Included were two plays about Saint Joan of Arc, “her beloved sister”, which she performed herself with great feeling and conviction. When Celine joined Thérèse at Lisieux Carmel in September of 1894, she brought her camera. Through this, they were able to enliven their recreation periods, and leave Thérèse’s picture to posterity.

her profession on September 8, 1890. It was the reading of St. John of the Cross, an unusual choice at the time, which brought her relief. In the “Spiritual Canticle” and the “Living Flame of Love”, she discovered “the true Saint of Love.” This, she felt, was the path she was meant to follow. During a community retreat in October, 1891, a Franciscan, Father Alexis Prou, launched her on those “waves of confidence and love”, on which she had previously been afraid to venture. The harsh winter of 1890-1891 and a severe influenza epidemic killed three of the sisters, as well as Mother Geneviere, the Lisieux Carmel’s founder and “Saint”. Thérèse was spared, and her true energy and strength began to show themselves. Thérèse was delighted when her sister, Agnes of Jesus (Pauline) was elected pri-

Thérèse Develops Her “Little Way” Thérèse was aware of her littleness. “It is impossible for me to grow up, so I must bear with myself such as I am with all my imperfections. But I want to seek out a means of going to heaven by a little way, a way that is very straight, very short and totally new.” Thérèse went on to describe the elevator in the home of a rich person. And she continued: “I wanted to find an elevator which would raise me to Jesus, for I am too small to climb the rough stairway of perfection. I searched then in the Scriptures for some sign of this elevator, the object of my desires and I read these words coming from the mouth of Eternal Wisdom: ‘Whoever is a little one let him come to me.’ The elevator which must raise me to heaven is your arms, O Jesus, and for this I have no need to grow up, but rather I have to remain little and become this more and more,” And so she abandoned herself to Jesus and her life became a continual acceptance of the will of the Lord. The Lord, it seems, did not demand great things of her. But Thérèse felt incapable of the tiniest charity, the smallest expression of concern and patience and understand-

ing. So she surrendered her life to Christ with the hope that he would act through her. She again mirrored perfectly the words of St. Paul, “I can do all things in him who strengthens me.” “All things” consisted of almost everything she was called upon to do in the daily grind of life. Life in the Carmel had its problems too: the clashes of communal life, the cold, the new diet and the difficulties of prayer (two hours’ prayer and four and a half hours of liturgy). One day, she leaned over the wash pool with a group of Sisters, laundering handkerchiefs. One of the Sisters splashed the hot, dirty water into Thérèse’s face, not once, not twice, but continually. Remember the terrible temper that Thérèse had? She was near to throwing one of her best tantrums, but said nothing! Christ helped her to accept this lack of consideration on the part of her fellow Sister, and she found a certain peace. Again, in the daily grind of convent life, she was moved by her youthful idealism to help Sister St. Pierre, a crotchety, older nun who refused to let old age keep her from convent activities. Thérèse tried to help her along the corridors. “You move too fast,” the old nun complained. Thérèse slowed down. “Well, come on,” Sister urged. “I don’t feel your hand. You have let go of me and I am going to fall.” And as a final judgment, old

Thérèse of Lisieux

Sister St. Pierre declared: “I was right when I said you were too young to help me.” Thérèse took it all and managed to smile. This was her “little way.” Another nun made strange, clacking noises in chapel. Thérèse did not say, but the good lady was probably either toying with her rosary or was aﬄicted by ill-fitting dentures. The clacking sound really got to Thérèse. It ground into her brain. Terribletempered Thérèse was pouring sweat in frustration. She tried to shut her ears, but was unsuccessful. Then, as an example of her ‘little ways’, she made a concert out of the clacking and offered it as a prayer to Jesus. “I assure you,” she dryly remarked, “that was no prayer of Quiet.” Thérèse, the great mystic, fell asleep frequently at prayer. She was embarrassed by her inability to remain awake during her hours in chapel with the religious community. Finally, in perhaps her most charming and accurate characterisation of the “little way,” she noted that, just as parents love their children as much while asleep as awake, so God loved her even though she often slept during the time for prayers.

“May today there be peace within. May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith. May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content knowing you are a child of God. Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us.” Saint Thérèse of Lisieux

Peter Adrian Toulorge

Born: 4th of May, 1757. Died: 13th of October, 1793. Beatified: 29th of April, 2012. “My God, I place my life in Your hands! I pray for the restoration and preservation of Your Holy Church. Forgive my enemies.”

eter-Adrian Toulorge was born on May 4, 1757 at Muneville-le-Bingard in Normandy, France. The same day he also received his Baptism. He was the third child of Julien Toulorge and Julienne Hamel, who had a small family farm. Peter-Adrian grew up and received his early education in the diocese of Coutances, an area filled with faithful Catholics who regularly participated in the sacramental life of the church. The diocese produced many vocations including Peter-Adrian who entered the diocesan seminary in Coutances at the age of 19 after being tutored in Latin by one of the assistant priests and after completing general studies and philosophy. In 1782 at the age of 25 he was ordained a priest and assigned as assistant curate in Doville, a parish of about 600 whose parish priest was a 44 year old, methodical and zealous Norbertine canon named Father James-Francis Le Canuthe. The parish had many members whose maritime profession had suffered much from the effects of the American Revolutionary War. The majority of parishioners lived in poverty. Peter-Adrian and

his parish priest dedicated much of their efforts to helping them. Peter frequently visited the nearby Norbertine abbey in Blanchelande that was founded in the twelfth century by St. Norbert himself. The Premonstratensian Order (or Norbertines) focuses on pastoral ministry and communal celebration of the Divine Office. Peter-Adrian asked the Prior of the abbey to receive him into the Order to which he was admitted and given the white habit of the Norbertines. Since the abbey had no novitiate of its own, Peter-Adrian was sent to the abbey in Beauport, Brittany. In 1788 at the age of 31 Canon Toulorge returned to the abbey in Blanchelande and made his religious profession. He ministered to surrounding parishes and gained a reputation as a fine preacher. In January of 1789, King Louis XVI convened a general assembly in Versailles. Soon, the events took a revolutionary turn and in a daring coup, the Constituent Assembly seised power. Having Voltairian

tendencies the Assembly enacted several anti-Church acts. They abolished monastic orders and seised their properties and assets, putting them up for sale. In 1790, the National Assembly promulgated the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. This unjust act placed the Church in France under the civil authority. Bishops and pastors were to be elected by the people; the Holy See was stripped of all authority. Bishops, priests, and curates were required to swear an oath of allegiance and fidelity to the Civil Constitution. Refusal could mean being stripped of their offices and being faced with criminal prosecution. A year later, Pope Pius VI condemned this Civil Constitution and forbade the clergy from taking this ridiculous oath. Unfortunately many priests had taken the oath out of fear, ambition and ignorance of the Pope’s condemnation. However, when many of the clergy learned of the Pope’s stand, they courageously retracted their oath to the Civil Constitution. In 1792, the anti-Church revolutionary government passed a law that called for the deportation of public service priests who had not taken the oath. Hatred of religion and the clergy was reaching an all-time high. Clergy who had remained in France or who returned from exile could be subject to a death sentence. Hundreds of priests left en masse to go into exile, and Fr. Toulorge was among them. He spent five weeks with 500 of his confreres from the diocese of Coutances as a penniless exile on the nearby Anglo-Norman island of Jersey. While there, a fellow priest pointed out that Fr. Toulorge had mistakenly misinterpreted the scope of the banishment law and that technically the law had not applied to him, however, since he had left, returning at this stager would indeed put him at odds with

Peter Adrian Toulorge

the law. Fr. Toulorge, knowing the extreme shortage of priests now in France, decided to secretly return, hoping the authorities would not have even noticed his departure. Fr. Toulorge returned to France and for almost a year, went underground, moving from place to place and house to house, saying Masses, administering the sacraments and encouraging the people in their faith. Often he went from village to village in disguise, evading the notice of the civil authorities. Fr. Toulorge celebrated Mass in makeshift vestments and he read prayers from hand made copies from the Missal. He did this in great danger as the civil authorities offered rewards to anyone who reported the whereabouts of priests like Fr. Toulorge. Revolutionary clubs were constantly on the man-hunt for “illegal” clergy. One September evening, a woman saw a wet and muddy vagabond appear suddenly from the thicket. The woman, in charity, invited the vagabond to her home and lit the fire to warm the tired beggar-man. As they talked and a mutual trust was won, the vagabond revealed his true identity; it was Fr. Toulorge himself. The woman also then revealed that she was in fact a Benedictine nun named Sr. Saint-Paul who’d been driven into exile from the Revolution. The next day Sr. Saint-Paul, who’d again donned her disguise, led Fr. Toulorge, now disguised also as a woman, to a neighbour’s house hoping he’d be safer there. As they walked by, some workers noticed Fr. Toulorge’s men’s shoes and stockings and notified the Revolutionary Guards, in hopes to claim a reward. Fr. Toulorge was hiding in the upstairs attic when the Guards pounded open the door. They searched the house from top to bottom. Fr. Toulorge had hidden himself under

Peter Adrian Toulorge

piles of flax. The Guards even stabbed at the piles with their bayonets but missed hitting the hiding priest. As they left the house, one of the Guards doubled back and there discovered Fr. Toulorge as he was emerging from his hiding place. He was immediately arrested. Two days later, Fr. Toulorge was taken to the district director to be put on trial. In order to save his life, Fr. Toulorge denied the fact that he had in fact been out of France in exile and had returned to serve his people. The district judges, confused on what to do with him, then sent him to another court in Coutances. While in prison awaiting his appearance before the new court, Fr. Toulorge was bothered by his earlier denial that he’d left and returned to France. He felt remorse for not stating the truth. He contemplated the words of Jesus who said, “Let your yes be yes and your no be no” – (Mt. 5:37) On September 8, the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Fr. Toulorge confessed to the court that he had indeed been in Jersey and had secretly returned to France. He was immediately put back in prison. Two weeks later, Fr. Toulorge faced a hearing before a commission to determine if the priest should be declared an exile. Some in the commission hoped to save the priest’s life and even advised him to remain silent or to retract his confession, as this could indeed save him from the guillotine. After being declared an exile, Fr. Toulorge was then sent to a criminal court for sentencing. Again, sympathetic officials in the criminal court hoped to save Fr. Toulorge’s life and advised him to remain silent. When questioned in the criminal court, Fr. Toulorge did not remain silent and whole-

heartedly confessed to having spent time after leaving France, on the English island of Jersey. His Catholic witness to the truth, and the whole truth, gave the court no choice but to sentence the honest priest to death. After the verdict was read, silence filled the court room. Fr. Toulorge broke the silence by exclaiming “Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God! May God’s will – not mine be done!” Adieu Messieurs, until Eternity, if you make yourselves worthy of it”! The night before his death he went to confession and, while all the other inmates slept, he wrote three deeply touching letters – to his brother, to a friend, and to an unknown woman – to which he added, “I wish you God’s blessing. October 12, 1793, the evening before my marytrdom.” On Sunday morning, October 13th, Fr. Toulorge rose in good spirits, ate breakfast as usual, prayed his breviary, before he asked one of his fellow prisoners to fix his hair and cut his beard. In the end he asked his confreres to sing Vespers with him. At the beginning of Compline, during the second to the last verse of the hymn “GRATES PERACTO JAM DIE” he closed his breviary and cried out full of joy, “My dear friends let us stop here, for I will soon be gratefully singing the end of this hymn in heaven… My dear brothers, I will not forget you; I ask God to watch over you. I am praying for all my benefactors, friends, and even my enemies.” His confreres knelt down and asked for his blessing during which a heavenly joy

shone from his face. According to an eyewitness, the guillotine was placed in front of the house of the mayor of Coutances. The crowd was speechless with emotion as they beheld this young priest who went to his death filled with such inner peace. Just before the execution Fr. Peter-Adrian said: “My God, I place my life in Your hands! I pray for the restoration and preservation of Your Holy Church. Forgive my enemies.” After the execution the hangman grabbed the bloody head by the

Peter Adrian Toulorge

hair and held it up to show the people. It was 4:30. His body was taken to the cemetery of St. Peter in a cart. Fr. Peter Adrian Toulorge was beatified on April 29th, 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI. Fr. Tourlorge’s people of Cotentin have named him the Martyr for Truth.

Father Peter Adrian Toulourge’s farewell letter: 12th October 1793. My dear brother Jean-Baptiste, Rejoice, for tomorrow you will have another friend in Heaven watching over you – I hope – if God preserves me, as he has until now. Rejoice that God has deemed me fit to suffer not only prison, but even death for Our Lord Jesus Christ; it is the greatest grace He could possibly give me; I will pray that He might give you a similar crown. We should not attach ourselves to perishable things. Turn therefore your gaze towards Heaven; live life as an honest man, and most importantly, as a good Christian; raise your children in the Holy, Catholic, Apostolic and Roman faith, outside of which there is no salvation. Always consider it the greatest honour to have had a brother in the family who has been called to suffer for God. Far from being sorrowful about my fate, rejoice instead and say with me: “Blessed be God!” I wish you a holy life and paradise at the end of your days, not only to you but also to my sister, to my nephew and niece, and to all my family. I remain always, in perfect friendship. Your brother, Peter Adrian.

Alexius

He is also a patron of nurses, belt makers and travelers. In Christian art St. Alexius is represented as wearing ragged clothing and/ or as a man lying underneath stairs. Under the date of July 17, in the Roman Martyrology, it is said of St. Alexius,”At Rome, in a church on the Aventine Hill, a man of God is celebrated under the name of Alexius, who, as reported by tradition, abandoned his wealthy home, for the sake of becoming poor and to beg for alms unrecognised.”

Born: 5th Century. Died: 5th Century. Canonised: Pre-Congregation.

he life of St. Alexius parallels the biblical story of the Prodigal Son found in the gospel of Luke. Some of what we know about this man is fact – and some of what we know is legend. Much of the legend could very well be true though as the story and veneration of St. Alexius has been brought to us via the oral tradition primarily in the 9th and 10th centuries. The Story of St. Alexius St. Alexius was the son of a wealthy Roman who was of the senatorial class. There is a church dedicated to St. Alexius in Rome that was built on the site of his father’s mansion. The parents of Alexius arranged a marriage for him – but on day of the wedding ceremony, Alexius fled this arranged marriage and left everyone in his wealthy home, including bride, family, household and all in attendance to follow God. He went as a pilgrim to an area near Edessa in Syria where he ministered to the poor and the sick. He lived in poverty as a

Alexius

beggar near a church dedicated to Our Lady. After many long years he returned to his father’s house in Rome and due to the time of his absence and total change of appearance, his own father did not recognise him. Since his father was a Christian man, he accepted this beggar man into his house out of pity and provided him shelter. For seventeen years Alexius lived as a beggar under the stairs in a darkened corner of his father’s house. He would venture out only to pray in church and to teach catechism to children. He always shared his alms with his fellow poor. Legend has it that a vision or image of Our Lady revealed to some townspeople that this beggar was indeed very holy and that he was a “Man of God.” Upon his death from hunger and neglect, his family found a note on his body that revealed his true identity. It also told how since the day of his arranged marriage, he lived for God and God alone. Since he traveled to Syria and died a beggar, he is a patron for pilgrims and beggars.

The Catholic Encyclopedia article regarding St. Alexius states: “Perhaps the only basis for the story is the fact that a certain pious ascetic at Edessa lived the life of a beggar and was later venerated as a saint.” The early History of the Congregation of the Alexian Brothers The Alexian Brothers ministry began in the Middle Ages, as Europe slowly emerged from centuries of ignorance and superstition. In the Low Countries and along the Rhine, small groups of men and women banded together to carry out Christ’s commands. They would tend the sick, feed the hungry and bury the dead. In the 12th Century these were dangerously unorthodox activities. Most people, out of fear, shunned the sick and dying, forcing them outside the city gates, to subsist on the leavings of the more fortunate. The first written account of the Brothers is dated 1259 in a document referring to the Beguines and Beghards. The name of these communities evolved from the word “Algignese” which means “heretics.” These communes of celibate men and women were looked upon as unorthodox or heretical because of the type of life they

lived. Gradually, these communes became more organised. By the middle of the 13th century, many received support from the Franciscan order. But some among them maintained their independence. It was from these handful of dedicated laymen along the Rhine that the Congregation of the Alexian Brothers grew. In 1346, the Black Death struck Europe. Between 30% and 60% of the continent’s population is estimated to have been killed by the Plague and the very foundations of European society were under-minded. Family ties became worthless as the healthy fled in terror from their stricken kin. The Brothers however remained, risking their lives, to nurse the victims of the plague, to care for them and bury them when they died. When the Plague passed, the men chose St. Alexius, a fifth century saint who was devoted to the poor and sick, as the patron of their first chapel. With the passing of time, the people they served began to refer to them as “Alexian Brothers”. The crest of the Alexian Brothers reflects their history, the shield of which is divided into three fields with each field symbolically

Alexius

representing one facet of the work of the Institute. • The upper half shows on a red background the Pelican nourishing its young with her heart’s blood - a symbol of the self-consuming sacrifice of Christian Charity. • The two spades on the black background, in the lower half, is a remembrance of a former activity of the Alexian Brothers in burying the dead in time of calamity. • The flying raven on a silver-gray background represents the feeding of the destitute, a virtue the Congregation has practiced for centuries. A cross, signifying the cross of salvation projects from behind the shield and around it is suspended a band with the words of St Paul and the motto of the congregation:

“The Love of Christ Compels Us”

Fr. Michael Shields

The charism of the Alexian Brothers reflects the life of St Alexius and entails providing a ‘daring response of a faith community to the gospel of Jesus’. It is a charism which is rooted in prayer and simple life style. In discipleship with Jesus, the Alexian response involves reaching out to the poor, sick and dying, especially the marginalised and the powerless. It is a charism which calls every Alexian to daily conversion and total self-giving in continuing the healing and reconciling mission of Jesus in collaboration with others. The world and the work of the Alexian Brothers like the saint from whom they have taken their name is focused upon providing joyful service of healing, hospitality and witness “in communion with Christ and with one another” to a broken world, a world in need of God’s love, “Caritas Christi.”

In 1992 American priest Fr. Michael Shields left the cold clime of Alaska for the equally freezing temperatures of the town of Magadan in the Kolyma region of Siberia. In prayer, Fr. Michael, of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, felt he was being called “Go, live in the camps” – the former Gulags where ‘enemies of the state’ were sent under communism. He was determined that this suffering would never be forgotten and that yesterday’s culture of death along with today’s culture of abortion would give way to an authentic culture of life. The road that leads to the Gulags is a symbol of the prisoners’ suffering – the road itself is a mass grave. Those incarcerated in the labour camps died in their thousands. Whether they starved to death, died from over-work, or were shot, they died in the camps and a road was built over their bones. No memorial marks their final resting place, but there remains a vast forgotten cemetery underneath the asphalt. No one knows exactly how many died in the Kolyma Gulags, but estimates reckon upwards of a million lost their lives there. No matter how many people died in that terrible episode of Russian history, Fr. Michael was intent on ensuring that the stories of the survivors would be passed on and that accounts of life in the Gulags would not be lost to history. He knew that it

would be a race against time to record their recollections as they were very elderly. Many of those who were released from the camps had already died. He said: “When they die so does the story. The stories must be told for all to see the truth of the repression of Stalin especially against the Church and believers. They are the living witness to what really happened”. At first, those who had lived through the camps were reluctant to recount their experiences. “The people who suffered in the camps rarely told anyone of their suffering and their story. Even the family members knew little of their life in the camps”. But Fr. Michael invited the survivors to meet together and, to his surprise, not only did a number of them come but they decided to meet again. Since then, the meetings have taken place regularly on the last Saturday of each month, with as many as 80 former prisoners attending. According to Fr. Michael, the meetings helped to initiate the “cultural

Fr. Michael Shields

Magadan, Russia

The now-finished Church of the Nativity not only continues to serve former prisoners but also reaches out to others in the local community, including alcoholics and the vast numbers of unemployed in the local area.

Church of the Nativity, Magadan, Russia.

The parish priest feels a special call to helping women who have undergone abortions. Often this means not just one or two – some of these women have had up to 20 abortions.

transformation” of Magadan. It has changed the lives of those who endured the camps and former “enemies of the state” are now hailed as “heroes of the time of oppression”. While people were initially sceptical about the meetings, now the whole of Magadan is involved: the town choir has sung at meetings, the orchestra has performed at them and government officials have offered to speak to them. Magadan’s terrible past is being transformed and healed. Yet Fr. Michael’s work has not been universally appreciated and in 2001 the Ministry of Justice tried to expel the priest as a foreign national. The Catholic community had spent several years finding a site, securing the funding and obtaining government authorisation to build a new church. They were worried that the building work would stop if Fr. Michael was deported. But the Magadan Provincial Court judge took 10 minutes to decide that Fr. Michael could stay in the country even though he is not a Russian citizen.

Fr. Michael Shields

During Soviet times abortion was widely used as a means of birth control and the situation is little different today. On one occasion five women took part in a group meeting organised by Fr. Michael. Between them they had 47 abortions. He stressed how important it is for these women to be healed. “We are helping women to speak about their abortions so the next generation can learn from their pain. Many of the women subsequently became involved in pro-life work, explaining to younger women the suffering that abortion can bring and telling how God has healed them”. His pro-life work continued to expand and in 2008 he opened the Nativity Inn in Ola, a small village about 20 miles outside Magadan. The inn provides short-term accommodation for mothers thrown out of their college dormitories when they become pregnant. Fr. Michael said: “What has surprised us is how much the Nativity Inn project and our centre at the Church in Magadan have grown through word of mouth. We find again and again that women come along having heard about us from other women in the same situation”. In June 2009 he opened a pro-life centre at the state-run Magadan Women’s

is for the victims of the prison camp – who are also commemorated in the Stations of the Cross, which depict victims of the camp in the scenes of Our Lord’s Passion – and the other is for the aborted children. Fr. Michael believes neither group should ever be forgotten. His presence in Magadan has allowed the shadows of these tragic deaths to be transformed by the by the glorious light of the Resurrection.

Consultation Centre where pregnancy tests take place. This means the priest and his volunteers can offer a real alternative to abortion to women who have just discovered they are pregnant and may think that the only option is to have the pregnancy terminated.

The Mask of Sorrow and Remembrance

Fr. Michael went on to say: “What is amazing is that the state doctor who works at the Women’s Consultation Centre in Magadan approached us to see if we would be willing to develop a project there. It has been wonderful because Russia is really turning a corner and wants to see more births”.

They died and they were quietly buried. No one had a burial service for them, no family or friends paid their last respects.

Worried by the falling birth rate, the Russian government has encouraged Fr. Michael in his work with pregnant mothers: “We have been invited by the head gynaecologist in a small village to meet with her and begin work there. So the Lord is blessing our work and opening doors that have been closed for a long time”. In the Church of the Nativity there are two sets of commemorative plaques. One

“People died by the tens, hundreds and thousands. In their place always came new silent slaves, who laboured for some food, a piece of bread.

They did not even dig graves for them, but rather dug a communal trench and tossed the naked bodies in the snow and when spring came, wild animals tore apart their bones. We, who managed to survive, mourned them. We believe that the Lord accepted the martyrs into the heavenly kingdom.” May their souls and the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace, Amen.

Sister Meena Barwa

The Archbishop of Cuttack Bhubaneshwar, Msgr. John Barwa is the uncle of Sr. Meena Barwa, the nun who was raped during the anti-Christian violence in Kandhamal in 2008 and was interviewed shortly before assuming his Archepiscopal office in early 2011.

“I am sure the Christians in Orissa have not suffered in vain. Our suffering has borne fruit: we grow in faith and the love for God”, says Sister Meena Barwa, the Religious Sister raped during the anti-Christian massacres in Kandhamal district in Orissa in August 2008. While there are still cases of Christian leaders murdered and while many of the faithful await justice, Sr. Meena said “Priests, religious and lay people have suffered and fought together. The Lord knows our ordeal, but there is no hatred in our hearts. We believe that unspeakable pain inflicted on us has not been useless”. In fact, Sister Meena continues, “we know that in suffering we experience God’s blessing and the pain has borne fruit: today we have become stronger in faith and the love for God”.

Provincial Map of India

With regards to her experience in Orissa, Sister Meena says: “I feel part of the community in Kandhamal and I have never thought of leaving this place. We have come a long way and we have a long way to go together. In this path, God is our strength and our stronghold”. “Today”, Sr Meena continues in her witness, “we survive thanks to faith. God is our protection and He is with us always. We cannot stop to look back because there are significant challenges ahead of us: the Lord has kept us alive and now we are called to face these challenges with hope, confidence and conviction”. She concludes with a thank you: “I am deeply grateful to all those who did not lack in giving us, in the past and until now, support, encouragement and prayers”.

“Unworthy though I am, it is He who has manifested his Great Love through the journey of my life, from my humble tribal origins to the call to serve as a priest, then a provincial Bishop and Archbishop. It is through the Loving Mercy of God and the accompaniment of his Blessed Mother, who has accompanied me on my journey in Faith and Service to the Church and my People”. The Archbishop pointed out that the announcement of his appointment as Archbishop was made on the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and that the Blessed Mother has been his constant companion in the Via Crucis of his life, his family and his people. Just before the announcement, he was in Adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, praying to the Father and the Blessed Mother, “to guide me, in this new responsibility to lead my people”. Through his prayers he “felt empowered by the Holy Spirit” and that the Holy Spirit would guide him in leading his people. Referring to Sr. Meena the Archbishop remarked “Sr. Meena was one of the first who greeted me and she was bubbling with

Archbishop John Barwa

joy , “Uncle” she joyfully said, “God is so kind to our family. My heart sings of the Greatness of God , Uncle, you will lead our people in truth, justice and peace. All my sufferings, pain and humiliation I offer for you and your mission as archbishop. God will lead you and Mary will protect you. I will continuously pray for you. This is for our people and our Church a sign of God’s continued blessings.” Thus the Archbishop added that “the sufferings of Meena are bearing fruit for the Church, for the people of Orissa and for my family.” The Archbishop is well aware of the difficulties inherent in the situation: “My motto is: ‘Thy Kingdom Come’. The Kingdom of God is peace, justice, love as opposed to hatred and injustice, and it is the love of Christ that prompts us to works of justice and truth.” The Archbishop said “I know the pain, anguish and sufferings of my people. I understand humiliation and suffering and I have practical experience of the resurrection and the victory of life over death. This knowledge, this understanding and this experience will help me better serve the Church in Cuttack-Bhubaneshwar and console its faithful.”

Archbishop Bashar Warda

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred let me sow love, Where there is injury let me sow pardon, Where there is doubt let me sow faith, Where there is despair let me give hope, Where there is darkness let me give light, Where there is sadness let me give joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not try to be comforted but to comfort, Not try to be understood but to understand, Not try to be loved but to love. Because it is in giving that we receive, It is in forgiving that we are forgiven, And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

Archbishop Bashar Warda

The Church in Iraq by Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil in Northern Iraq. In many countries, like Iraq, the situation for Christians seems to be worsening, sometimes to the point where we wonder if we will survive as a people in our own country. But this is not a time to hide our faith or our identity over such struggles. In Iraq, 40 years of war and oppression have strengthened our endurance and our resolve to stand strong and to claim our legal and historical right as a Church and as a people in Iraq. We have not come this far to give up. Through international support and solidarity, I believe we can be stronger in our unity and more strategic in our search for sustainable solutions. What we Iraqis are suffering is a crisis in cultural change. We are living in a region which cannot decide if it is for democracy or for Islamic law. It cannot decide if it is for the rights of human beings to live in freedom in all its exciting and challenging forms, or if it is for the control of the spirit and the minds of its people. This is the kind of control that welcomes the terrorist methods of intimidation, kidnapping and killing of religious minorities.

The Middle East, now, is a crescent, fertile for terror and domination. A region founded upon a cultural and social environment that has depended on violence to keep its societies divided. History and a tribal mentality have been used to maintain that violence and those divisions. The Crusades, the aggressive West, Israel and American Christians are pointed to as the enemies. Yet, in reality, the enemy is within. What Iraqis are left with is a weak constitution that tries to please two masters: on the one hand the premise of human rights supposedly for all its citizens, yet on the other hand, Islamic law for its majority of Muslims. Islamists are not the only ones at fault. Secularists with an eye for profit are also responsible. Neighbouring governments in the region feeding the insurgents with money and weapons to destabilise the government are also responsible. The rest of worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s governments have turned their backs on us, as if the human rights abuses and near genocide conditions Iraqi Christians experience, are temporary. Yet for nearly 50 years, Christians in

Archbishop Bashar Warda

Provincial Map of Iraq

Iraq have suffered displacement and negligence. Here is a picture of the 233 Christian villages in northern Iraq in 1961. Dozens of those villages were destroyed in the 1950s and 60’s as Iraq evolved from a kingdom to a republic and this displacement continued into the years of Saddam Hussein. Moreover, Christian history is noticeably absent from the Iraqi history books used in our public schools. Our place as one of the original inhabitants of the region, has been wiped from collective memory. We are merely one of the non-Muslim, minority inhabitants of Iraq, lacking all the rights and rewards that full citizenship in a real democracy should bring us. During the Gulf War years, the Christian population in Iraq was estimated between 1.2 and 1.4 million. By 2003, it had dropped by over half a million. Iraq’s Christian population now numbers less that 500,000 and this figure is highly optimistic. Iraqi Christians live primarily in Baghdad, Basra, Kirkuk, Erbil and Mosul and in small towns in the Nineveh plains of the north. Close to two-thirds of Iraqi Christians belong to

the Chaldean Catholic Church, and roughly one-fifth belong to the Assyrian Church of the East. The rest belong to the Syriac Orthodox Church, Syriac Catholic Church, and various Protestant denominations. The main Iraqi Christian population centres are located along disputed boundaries between Iraq and Kurdistan and in areas with strong extremist militia presence.

These kidnappings and murders have left their mark on the minds and bodies of the Iraqi churches. Not only have our religious leaders been murdered, but also simple families, shop keepers, children, teachers, the elderly, mothers and their babies, and members of all elements of Christian society. Intimidation is constant and widespread:

Christians tend to be persecuted by majority populations for two reasons:

• Direct threats using intimidating letters with bullets placed inside. • Text messages directly sent to families. • Face-to-face in the streets • Threatening language from police and army representatives. • Breaking into houses, stealing possessions or making extortion threats. • Threatening graffiti with Koranic text. • Armed men standing in front of Christian homes or sitting in cars. • Text messages about kidnapping children from their schools. • Also, our college students are severely intimidated. Thousands of college students have delayed their studies or transferred to Erbil for their course work.

• Their Christian faith, which is not accepted in Iraq by Islamic fundamentalists and • For political purposes to control land and resource allocation in the disputed areas. Violence Against Christians Amidst Political Turmoil Since the occupation of Iraq in 2003 over 500 Christians have been killed in religious and politically motivated conflicts. Forty percent of the killings took place in northern Iraq, 58% in the Baghdad region and 2% in the south. Killings of Christians began in earnest in 2003 when the first translator was killed in Baghdad. In 2006, targeted killings of Christian leaders escalated when an Orthodox Christian priest, Boulos Iskander, was kidnapped, beheaded and dismembered despite payment of a ransom. Between 2006 and 2010, 17 Iraqi priests and 2 Iraqi Bishops were kidnapped in Baghdad, Mosul and Kirkuk. Many were held for days; some for weeks. All were beaten or tortured by their kidnappers. Most were released, but one bishop, four priests and three sub-deacons were killed. In most cases, those responsible for the crimes stated they wanted Christians out of Iraq.

Iraqi Church Bombings Now I would like to talk to you about the systematic bombing campaign of Iraqi churches. The first Iraqi church was bombed in June, 2004 in Mosul. Following that event, successive campaigns have occurred and a total of 66 churches have been attacked or bombed; 41 in Baghdad, 19 in Mosul, 5 in Kirkuk and 1 in Ramadi. In addition, 2 convents, 1 monastery and a church orphanage was bombed. The first Campaign of bombed churches took place on August 1 2004 at the Church of Saint Peter and Paul in Al Dora. That day, 6 churches were bombed across Iraq. As I am sure most of

Archbishop Bashar Warda

you know from the news, on 31 October 2010, 58 people, including 51 hostages and 2 priests, were killed after an attack on Our Lady of Salvation Syrian Catholic church in Baghdad. A group affiliated to Al-Qaida, Islamic State for Iraq, stated that Christians were a “legitimate target.” Among the thousands of examples of overwhelming suffering among Iraqi Christians, two come to my mind here that I would like to tell you about. One is the story of the father of a teacher in our kindergarten in Ankawa. Last year Mr. Dahan was the first of at least eight Iraqi Christians killed in Mosul prior to the elections. The abduction that ended in his death was the second time he had been kidnapped. Two years before, he had been abducted, beaten and stuffed in the trunk of a car until the family could collect the $5,000 ransom. The family says that after he returned the first time, they didn’t leave Mosul because their father would not move. “Our father said, ‘if all of us Christians leave, who is going to stay in the land of the prophets and pray in our churches?’ “ “He said, ‘we were all born in Mosul and we will die in Mosul.’ “ A second story is about my friend Father Mazen from Qaraqosh. Father Mazen was kidnapped 4 days after he had been ordained a priest. He was released but a year later armed men entered his home and killed his father and two brothers in front of his mother and sister in law. Despite this tragedy, Father Mazen serves the displaced families in his congregation in Qaraqosh with unfaltering faith. As I mentioned, there are thousands of examples of such senseless injury and killing. The grief and sorrow in our congregations is palpable, where not one person

Archbishop Bashar Warda

Over the past 8 years our Erbil Diocese Immigration Committee has registered over 3,000 families displaced by conflict. Not all families register so we know this is an under-estimate of the sise of those who have moved. Most of the families we have registered come from Baghdad and Mosul. It is difficult to know exactly how many Iraqi Christians live outside Iraq, but estimates suggest that over half the population has fled the country with hundreds of thousands in Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan. At least a million more Iraqis live in the US, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Australia, and many other countries. has been uneffected by tragedy since 2003. Moreover, each family has suffered decades of losses from the Saddam regime, the sanctions prior to the occupation, the devastation of the Gulf War as well as the Iran/Iraq War. Iraqis are a people who have experienced immense suffering but who are also strong, resilient and prepared to claim their right to existence. Christian Internal Displacement, Migration and the Diaspora The Kurdistan region, overall, has been a relocation site for over 55,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) from other cities in Iraq in the past 7 years. The population has grown significantly since the military events of 2003. More recently, following the systematic intimidation and violence prior to the elections in 2010 and after the church bombing, about 4,000 Christian families fled Iraq’s cities to Erbil. Probably twice this have move from both Baghdad and Mosul City into the Nineveh Valley, an area to the north where life is relatively safer and more affordable.

Current Situation of Need for Christians in Iraq In Erbil, once our Church leaders are assured that our families are safely relocated, we have three main goals to assist them. • First of all we want to provide stability via employment and affordable housing, • Secondly we want to be sure that families have access to good education and medical care and thirdly, • And most importantly, we want a vibrant living Church to support the social and spiritual needs of our families. We are working hard to make these things happen, but the resources of Erbil and its neighbouring Dioceses have been stressed because of the high influx of people over a short period of time. • Erbil Diocese has grown by over 30% with churches, schools, health care facilities, housing and basic infrastructures feeling the burden. • Schools average 35-45 children per class, operate in two shifts a day.

• Moreover, housing costs have skyrocketed as local homeowners have raised rents 200-300% to take advantage of the housing demand. At this time, diocese leaders are raising funds from inside the communities and donor organisations such Aid to Church in Need to build new churches and to restore old and damaged ones. Classrooms are being built and restored in all our churches to be used for Catechism classes and community education. A new Catholic primary school building has recently been funded to ease the burden of public education in the area. Church leaders are looking to construct low cost housing for displaced families as a long-term investment against rising land values. Diocese leaders also continue to search for development investments to stimulate the job economy and to employ displaced family members. With many problems facing Iraqi Christians, the greatest concern of Diocese leaders is that there are enough strong parishes prepared to assist families as they continue to readjust to their lives: displaced from their jobs, homes, and extended networks. There is a real concern that if families are not assisted effectively and not embraced by the community, that we will lose them from the Church and to immigration outside of Iraq.

Archbishop Bashar Warda

Lastly we want the presence of the Christians Church to be apparent by a vibrant and active parish life symbolised by physical church buildings and obvious public spaces. We do not want to hide our faith or identity out of fear for our lives. We want to be seen and remembered by all Iraqis; those who threaten us, but moreover those willing to stand in solidarity with us. We thank Aid to the Church in Need for your solidarity with us. We thank your generous and kind hearted donors and those who have prayed with us and for us these past years of our struggles. I would like to finish with a prayer:

Father, pour out your Spirit upon your people, and grant us a new vision of your glory, a new experience of your power, a new faithfulness to your word, and a new consecration to your service, that your love may grow among us, and your kingdom come: through Christ our Lord. Amen.

“The proclamation and witness of the Gospel are the first service that Christians can offer every person and the whole human race, as they are called to communicate to all the love of God, who manifested himself fully in the only Redeemer of the world, Jesus Christ.” Pope Benedict XVI

Cardinal Seán Brady

A Reflection on the Persecution of Christians in Iraq and the World by Cardinal Seán Brady of Archbishop of Armagh, and Primate of all Ireland. On the 3 June 2007, Fr Ragheed Ganni, a former student of the Irish College, Rome (whose studies were funded by Aid to the Church in Need), and three sub-deacons were assassinated by militant Muslims as they left Sunday Mass in Mosul, Northern Iraq. Before killing Fr Ganni, one of his attackers was overheard to scream “I told you to close the Church. Why didn’t you do it? Why are you still here?” The question: “Why are you still here?” immediately calls to mind St Peter’s great injunction that Christians should be ever ready to give account for the Faith that is within them. By simply professing their Faith in public, Iraqi Christians are being persecuted physically, socially and economically; their lives and livelihoods are under continuous threat. The overt and aggressive private and public anti-Christian sentiment so evident in Iraq however is not limited to Iraq. It is to be found throughout the lesser and greater Middle East, throughout Asia. It is to be found also in Africa and increasingly it is being found within the once-Christian lands of Western Europe.

The evidence is clear and it is persuasive, Christianity is being aggressively uprooted from the Middle-East, the very lands from which it first sprang. The evidence may be less clear and the aggression may be less blood-stained but the reality remains that Christianity is under threat in Western Europe and throughout the Western World by an aggressive Atheism. Not the old style heavy-handed militant Atheism and tyranny such as was evident in the former Soviet Union but by a more recentlyfashioned Nihilism which insistently denies the existence of any God-given Truth. Notwithstanding the fact that the “roots” of European culture are profoundly Christian, an element of the culture of contemporary secularised Europe not only denies this reality but seeks to have Christianity eliminated, or failing that, “ghettoised”. Christian culture, Christian values and the Christian faith are under sustained attack in many quarters.

Cardinal Seán Brady

Throughout Europe, and throughout the Western World, Christians are being asked “Why are you still here?”

Some time ago, there was a cultural moment when it was commonplace to accept that,

This fundamental question, screamed at the about-to-be murdered Fr Ganni, is the same one which challenges each and every Christian at all times and in all places: Christians are required to “apologise” (in the true sense of the word), to give an account for what they believe.

• tomorrow’s world would be better than today, • technological and scientific advances would solve humanity’s most intractable problems, • humankind’s reason would triumph and subdue its baser instincts and by dint of it • a city would be built on a hill where people would happily live in well-fed peace and harmony.

Self-evidently professing one’s faith and giving an account of it is more “lifethreatening”, at least from a physical perspective, in present-day Iraq as compared to present-day Ireland. But does the same hold true from a spiritual perspective? Could it possibly be the case that it is more difficult to be a Christian believer in Ireland than in Iraq? However we answer this question, I suggest that we should at least recognise that there is a culture war being fought in the West just as much as there is one being fought in the Middle East. It may be largely bloodless and there may be different “rules of engagement” but the stakes are the same, namely, the rights of all Christians to gather in public and profess their faith in word and deed. And here let us be clear, Christians have every right to be “here”, • to gather in the public square, • to hand on their faith to their children and • to proclaim to the world the Christian truth concerning the dignity of every human being and the infinite love of our merciful God.

Genuine, well-intentioned efforts to create such “New Harmonies” in both the new and old world did not succeed. Such efforts to radically reshape and “improve” society now seem to have been almost

Fr. Ragheed Ganni greets Fr. Werenfried in Rome.

Cardinal Seán Brady

pre-destined to founder upon the flawed nature of the human condition. One hundred years ago, Europe was the cultural, economic, social and scientific powerhouse of the world. Today, Europe has become eclipsed as a global “superpower”. Indeed Europe is, in the opinion of many, rapidly becoming a socio-economic “hasbeen”. I think the case is clear; any healthy sustainable vision for a “New Europe” must embrace, not deny its Christian roots and in this what applies to Europe also applies to Ireland. In a nutshell, my central proposition is that • Europe is floundering because of its failure to warmly embrace its Christian heritage, • it is declining because of its failure to respect the God-given dignity of every person and the revealed truths of Christian faith. Furthermore I would suggest that when one takes the Christian leaven out of any society, that society’s development is greatly impaired. Indeed I would go so far as to argue that society’s development will regress. In which regard we should not forget that • It was a Christian ethic which strove for and succeeded in eliminating slavery. • Freedom of conscience was formulated from the Christian mindset. • Forgiveness for human failings is a supreme Christian imperative.

Simply consider what type of world would we have where people are not free and where transgressions are never mercifully forgiven? In all of this we should remember that the Christian view of the world is founded on the understanding of both the greatness and brokenness of the human person; a greatness and brokenness which is reflected in every individual life and in every human community -- from the smallest to the largest. It is also founded upon the central belief that there is a God, a loving God, a God of infinite mercy who wants what is best for every human being. For the Christian, every life is worth living from the moment of conception to natural death because every life is a gift from God. 2,000 years ago, Christ’s healing mission on earth was to reconcile man to God. His Church’s enduring mandate is to continue this mission, this process of reconciliation and healing of broken spirits and broken societies. The earthly mission of Christ’s Church is to heal the world, to bring people and peoples into the light of God’s kingdom. That’s why the Church is still here in Ireland. That is why the Church is still in Iraq. That is why Father Ganni and countless others offer up their lives as martyrs, to bring the beauty of Truth, to shed the light of Faith into the dark recesses of the human heart.

What you hold, may you always hold What you hold, may you always hold. What you do, may you do and never abandon. But with swift pace, light step, unswerving feet, so that even your steps stir no dust, go forward securely, joyfully, and swiftly, on the path of prudent happiness, believing nothing agreeing with nothing which would dissuade you from this resolution or which would place a stumbling block for you on the way, so that you may offer your vows to the Most High in the pursuit of that perfection to which the Spirit of the Lord has called you. Saint Clare of Assisi

Place your mind before the mirror of eternity! Place your mind before the mirror of eternity! Place your soul in the brilliance of glory! Place your heart in the figure of the divine substance! And transform your whole being into the image of the Godhead Itself through contemplation! So that you too may feel what His friends feel as they taste the hidden sweetness which God Himself has reserved from the beginning for those who love Him. Saint Clare of Assisi

800 Years of Communion with Christ and with one Another

“Christianity is being tested. Where Christians are still persecuted, or emerging from oppression but deprived of all financial means, they are being tested in their faith. We, however, are being tested in our love. We must prove that we possess love ̶ a helping and consoling love; a love that, like a flame, lights up the night of faith for our suffering brothers and sisters and rekindles their hope so that they do not despair” Werenfried Van Straaten O.PRAEM. (1913 - 2003), Founder of ACN. Aid to the Church in Need supports the Church through projects in over 140 countries and has 17 national fundraising offices. ACN’s headquarters are located in the small town of Königstein near Frankfurt, Germany.

You can find out more about ACN through the following websites: www.acn-intl.org www.aidtochurch.org www.kircheinnot.at www.kircheinnood.be www.aisbrasil.org.br www.acn-aed-ca.org www.aidchile.cl www.aed-france.org www.kirche-in-not.de www.acnirl.org www.acs-italia.irg www.kerkinnood.nl www.pkwp.org www.fundacao-ais.pt www.ain-es.org www.kirche-in-not.ch www.acnuk.org www.churchinneed.org

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