Alumni Notes
Volume 3, Summer 2014
St. Mary’s, North East & St. Alphonsus College, Suffield
The Redemptorists’ priceless treasure
T
he Redemptorists have been given a priceless treasure in the icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. In 2016 we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the restoration of Our Lady of Perpetual for public veneration. In 1866 Pope Pius IX commanded the Redemptorists to “make Perpetual Help known.” Surely no papal command has been taken more seriously. Today the icon of Perpetual Help may be the most frequently copied work of art in the world. It is Mary’s most popular title and most popular devotion. The Redemptorists of the Baltimore Province have been in the forefront of making Perpetual Help known. Two years after the icon was placed above the altar at San Alfonso in Rome, America’s first copies of the icon were enthroned at St. Mary’s in Annapolis and in five other American Redemptorist churches. Devotion to this wonder-working icon spread rapidly across the United States. In 1870 the Redemptorists established Mission Church in Boston, dedicated to the Mother of Perpetual Help. In 1939 Father Joseph Manton, one of America’s great preachers, arrived at Mission Church to preach the novena. They then had four novena services, but within a short while those four services grew to eleven, with 20,000 people coming for the novena.
In 1946 American sailors stationed in the Philippines asked their Redemptorist chaplain to have novena devotions the way they remembered them from Mission Church. Those novena services spread throughout the Philippines, where our shrine of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Baclaran now has more than 100,000 devotees attending their Wednesday novena. In 1922 Father James Barron, our provincial, assigned a number of Redemptorists whose sole ministry was to spread devotion to Perpetual Help by preaching novenas and installing the icons in churches. The Perpetual Help team continued into the early 1960s. During World War II Fathers Mathew Meighan and Thomas
Keenan were serving as chaplains with the U.S. Army in England. The Redemptorists in Belfast invited them to preach a solemn novena for Perpetual Help. The parish in Brooklyn shipped boxes of novena booklets and other materials to Belfast. One year later 10,000 people were attending six services a week. From Belfast the Perpetual Novena quickly spread to Limerick, Galway, Dublin, and throughout Ireland. After the war Irish Redemptorists carried the Perpetual Novena to England, Wales, and Scotland and on to India and Sri Lanka. Today the Perpetual Novena devotions that Father Keenan and Father Meighan brought to Belfast have spread throughout the world, reaching millions every week. Our missionaries in Brazil established novenas in Campo Grande and Curitiba, where 30,000 now attend weekly services. The Perpetual Help Center, begun in the Bronx in the 1930s, sent thousands of Perpetual Help packages throughout the world: boxes of novena booklets, prayer cards, rosaries, and other devotional articles. The Perpetual Help Center and the Baltimore Province were very involved in the restoration of the icon in Rome. The independent center closed in
continued on page 2
North East graduating class of 1964a
Top row: Eddie Hernandez, a social worker; Kenny Cross, married and living in New Jersey; Joe Hattley; Pete McHugh, corporate lawyer, married with one son Third row: Frank Kuhl; Jay Snellinger from our parish in Ilchester, now living in Port Jervis, New York; Sean Dwyer; John Didden, a school principal from Long Island; Norm Bennett, Puerto Rico for five years, Dominican Republic for five years, Trappist monastery for three years, Boston for four years and Brooklyn for 22 years, where he has done amazing work with the Chinese
Second row: Joe Olive, a missionary in Brazil for a short while, married in Southern California, died a few years ago; George Behr, bank president in Baltimore, volunteer accountant at Sacred Heart, Baltimore; Manny Rodriquez, spent his entire priesthood in Puerto Rico or Dominican Republic, presently Provincial in Puerto Rico and coordinator of the Latin American Region of the Congregation; Rich Kowalczyk, married, lawyer in Baltimore, volunteered legal work for the C.Ss.R., presently retired in West Virginia, hosts gatherings of alumni in his house in West Virginia;
Ron Bonneau, 25 years as a missionary in Paraguay, with Jim Gilmour a director of Hispanic ministry for the diocese of Metuchen, N.J., soon to be Novice Master in Toronto First row: Jodie Ronaldson; Larry Seiger; Tom Fitzgerald, high school teacher in Newburgh, New York, married with two children; Tom Mackiewicz; Don Scully, worked for electric company, has four children and grandchildren, lives on Staten Island; Charlie McDonald, missionary in Brazil, vocation director, rector in Lancaster, Philadelphia, and Manhattan, now working at OLPH, Brooklyn. n
continued from page 1
the last editor of that magazine, which was another victim of the digital age. And every mission preached in the United States ends with a Mass in honor of Our Lady of
Perpetual Help and the gift of the icon. Certainly devotion to Our Lady of Perpetual Help is part of being a Redemptorist. n
2009, but the Baltimore Province continues the work of the Center through our advancement office. At the same time Perpetual Help magazine was begun. I was sadly 2 | Alumni Notes, Summer 2014
From left to right, Father Manny Rodriquez, Provincial in Puerto Rico; Joe Mandu, who joined the Brazilian army after leaving Suffield; Father Norman Bennett, stationed in Brooklyn; Father Peter Gennaro, now stationed in Asunción, Paraguay; and Auri Taveira, part of the class of 1967. Joe trained for the Brazilian Special Forces in the Amazon. He is the retired superintendent of Intelligence for Brazil (the Brazilian CIA). He and his wife have two children and three grandchildren. Father Peter works with Marriage Encounter and Retrouvaille throughout Latin America.
Letters from our alumni It was great to see my classmate photo from the grad- we now have five wonderful children. Who would uation class of 1973 (what a handsome group, and I have thought I would get married at the age of 46? think we were still wearing our freshman jackets). I I have a stepdaughter, Lisa Marie, who is aphave been living in South Bend, Indiana, since I left proaching 30 and lives in Salt Lake City; Isabelle the Mount back Marie is 12; Samuel in 1979. I think Joseph is 9; Evalyn Keep us informed about the “guys” all Rose is 7; and Mary the time and the Grace is 4. How about it? Let us know what you are doing. Send me days spent at the At work they call your fondest and funniest memories of North East. Better seminaries. me Tony Randall, yet, send me some pictures. Or scan them and send me the I have been singbut I guess you are pictures as an attachment to your e-mail. Tell us what prof ing in several lonever too old to start most influenced you. Maybe you could send me a picture of cal musicals and for things new. Thank you and your family. Keep those letters coming. church choirs. I have —Father John Murray, murraycssr@gmail.com you for the article worked as a credit from Ken Bergmanager for trucker. I did not realize ing companies and he has been living banks and for the last eight years for Lock Joint Tube. so close to me. I have a new family now, but the ReWe do tubing for hospital beds, exercise equipment, demptorists will always be my family as well. school tables and chairs, Ford trucks, and so much I have lost touch with so many classmates and more. friends, but the Alumni Newsletter brings back so My life took a big twist back in 2000 when I promany fond memories. Who knows, as there might be posed to and married a beautiful local girl, Trish someday another Becker joining the Redemptorists. n —Gary Becker Walz. The last 14 years have been my happiest, and Alumni Notes, Summer 2014 | 3
Profile: Ed Twomey Ed Twomey was ordained a priest in 1961 and came to Brazil in 1963. He was missioned in many of our houses in Mato Grosso du Sul: Miranda, Aquiduana, Campo Grande. He then spent 22 years in Curitiba, including nine years at Perpetual Help Parish. He was ViceProvincial in Campo Grande (1981-89). After Provincial he spent four years at Perpetual Help in Campo Grande. He “ran out of gas” and left the ministerial
priesthood in 2004. He was dispensed and married in the Church. He has “two grandchildren without ever having been a father.” He is stepfather to his wife’s three adult children and their children. All of them live happily in Campo Grande. Ed was 70 and fully retired when he left the Redemptorists. He stays in close contact with his Redemptorist friends in Brazil and in the States. Ed spent just two
Ed Twomey
years in North East after graduating from Cathedral High School in Boston. He and Jack Monaghan had
special Latin classes with Father “Scooter” Bill Smith. He never called Ed or Jack by their names but simply “boy” and “other boy.” Ed had six marvelous years at Esopus and always wanted to go to Brazil. He still considers himself a Redemptorist (we do too), and it affects his spirituality, his outlook on life, and his lifelong friendships. Most importantly, Ed wants to tell us all that he is “well now.” n
Eight novices were invested in their Redemptorist habits at the novitiate in Toronto, Canada, on Friday, May 16. From left to right, they are (back row) Ako Walker, Trinidad; Garvey Blanc, Dominica; Michael Cunningham, Bethpage, New York; Sydney Beckers, France; Alfredo Rodriguez, Mexico; Huy Vu, Houston; (front row) Alfredo Medina, Mexico; Father Ray Douziech, C.Ss.R., Assistant Novice Director; Father Gary Lauenstein, C.Ss.R., Novice Director; and Chung Tran, Seattle.
St. Mary’s reunion: July 25–27, 2014
O
nce again Mercyhurst North East will welcome St. Mary’s Seminary alumni home for a three-day reunion celebration from Friday, July 25, to Sunday, July 27, 2014. In the same Redemptorist spirit seen during reunions in 1998, 2006, and 2010, the alumni and their families can renew old friendships, share cherished memories, and celebrate our common heritage fostered at North East. 4 | Alumni Notes, Summer 2014
The schedule will remain the same as before. On Friday afternoon, settle into your room in the town houses, dorm suites, or the former priests’ house, then greet your fellow alumni at a welcoming evening reception. On Saturday, following breakfast, we will celebrate the liturgy in the chapel, then enjoy lunch in the refectory and a free afternoon (e.g., a softball game for forever-young athletes). After OLPH
devotions in the grotto, we will gather for a barbecue and gab fest. Although the formal reunion concludes with Mass and lunch on Sunday morning, you can enjoy an afternoon boat ride on Lake Erie. Accommodations will be also available for Thursday and Sunday evenings. For more information, e-mail Jack Breslin at jbreslin@iona.edu, call him at 914-632-9805, or visit smsreunion2014.com/. n