The CUSAN 75th Jubilee - December 2022

December 8, 2022

CUSA Jubilee Prayer

Dear Lord, here is a new day you have given us to love you and help others love you as well.* Thank you for giving us this day, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of CUSA. You used two weak-bodied souls to bring CUSA to the United States, joining them in friendship and prayer. May our weakness continue to be a steady avenue of strength for our members and for the Church. St. Paul says that you use the weak things of the world to strengthen your kingdom. May we continue to be a strong source of mutual support as we continue to share with one another. Bless all our members, our priests, office staff, and our Board of Directors. Grant eternal rest to Mrs. Brunner, our foundress, and to all the CUSANs who have gone before us. May we one day join them in praising you for all eternity, you who life and reign as one God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Anna Marie Sopko CUSA member and former administrator

* This is opening line of the CUSA morning offering, as translated from the French by CUSA co-founder Laure Brunner in 1947.

Dear members and friends of CUSA, A privilege that comes with being president of RENEW International is my association with CUSA. This apostolate epitomizes to me the meaning of the word “catholic”— universal, all-embracing, inclusive.

RENEW has published faith-sharing books in many languages and dialects, in large print for readers with poor vision, in Braille, and on audio disks. In other words, RENEW International has tried to extend its ministry to as many people as possible, regardless of their origins or their physical challenges.

That’s as it should be in the Catholic Church. In that sense, the new relationship between RENEW and CUSA is fitting, because CUSA includes men and women in an apostolate that affirms that, even if they are restricted physically, they are no less a part of the Body of Christ or the whole human family. Our goal is to invite more and more people into the CUSA community to share companionship and prayer and know that they are not alone.

On its 75th Jubilee, CUSA has received the blessing of Pope Francis who, throughout his pontificate, has stressed that “Jesus’ mission is to reveal the Father’s love to everyone.” That’s our mission, too, in CUSA and RENEW, and I am privileged and humbled to share it with you.

Sincerely yours, in Christ’s name,

G. Gregory Tobin President and Publisher RENEW International

Congratulations and Gratitude

Cheers to CUSA, a ministry to the sick and disabled for the last 75 years. Our congratulations and gratitude for those members, clergy, and friends who have contributed to the many blessings and benefits CUSA had to offer.

Looking forward to an exciting future as part of RENEW International.

Joan Donnelly Robert Brunner Foundation

It seems as if we celebrated the Golden Jubilee of CUSA just yesterday. However, today we observe yet another milestone in the history of CUSA – the 75th anniversary of its institution by Mrs. Laure Brunner and Fr. Thomas Finn. As the editor of our biannual magazine, I wrote a short article on the occasion of our Golden Jubilee which is as true today as it was then:

CUSA is a community of people who have accepted the invitation of Jesus and picked up the cross of chronic illness or disability. We support one another through our prayers and letters. We have forged a special kind of relationship that goes beyond the realms of simple friendship. Our unity is a unity born of a common situation and a common faith. Our bond goes beyond that of fraternal organizations or social clubs, for our bond is forged by the redemptive suffering of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Let us continue to pray for one another.

Father Lawrence Jagdfeld, OFM Spiritual director and former administrator of CUSA

‘It seems like yesterday’

CUSA—How It Began

It was 1944. World War II was raging in Europe—and I remember, because the husband of one of my cousins was a pilot in the Air Force, and his plane was shot down over western France. His body was never recovered. Just a few years before, in 1939, a couple from Belgium arrived in the United States. They had come to America in the early days of World War II, as the Nazis were ravaging their beloved country of Belgium, and the enemy was looking for the woman’s husband. The woman was Mrs. Laure Brunner. She and her husband, Robert, were strong Catholics and tried to help those who needed it as much as they could. With the war raging near where they lived, they fled to the United States.

While they were safe in their home in New York City, Mrs. Brunner was a bit lonely. She was homebound as a result of poor health and really did not get out. A few years prior, she had joined a writing support group in France, as she spoke fluent French. The group was part of an international organization founded in Switzerland in 1914 by Louis Peyrot; in France it had the name L’Union Catholique des Malades—Catholic Union of the Sick, also known as UCM.

While she was grateful for the safety and freedom of America, Mrs. Brunner missed her UCM friends. After the end of the war, when communications from Belgium were again possible, a letter she received from one of her UCM friends suggested that she try to begin a branch of UCM in America. What a great idea! But how could she do that since she did not get out and socialize? “Let’s pray that we find a way,” suggested one of the UCM members. That she did.

Around the same time, a young man disabled with cerebral palsy was in France at Lourdes praying for a cure. While our Blessed Mother never granted his request, some UCM members who were also at Lourdes happened to meet the young man, Jerry Filan, and his sister. After getting acquainted and learning about each other, Jerry’s sister gave them their address in New York. The UCM friends sent it to the Brunners, the New Yorkers met, and with work and prayer, group one of the new American branch of the UCM was born on December 8, 1947. It became known as the Catholic Union of the Sick in America—CUSA.

Through word of mouth (and pen or typewriter) groups two and three eventually were born. While World War II created much sadness in America, it also brought us new CUSANs, including Tom Maxwell, a World War II veteran who returned home as a paralytic. Tom did much to strengthen CUSA by his prayers, his writing, his spirituality, and his great humor. Bedsores eventually made it difficult for him to sit in a wheelchair for any length of time, but he just commented that he was “laying down on the job.”

The physical and spiritual attitude of several CUSANs in the 1950s and ’60s helped CUSA grow to be a strong organization—a strong part of the Body of Christ. Somewhere in the New Testament, St. Paul writes that God chooses those who are weak to do something strong in his Body. Since CUSA is a part of the Body of Christ, he chose Jerry Filan in his weakness, and Mrs. Laure Brunner in hers, to be the inspiration for CUSA, and we now celebrate our 75th Jubilee—December 8, 2022.

One of the poems by Betty O’Brien, a pen pal of Jerry Filan and one of the first to join CUSA at his invitation,

sums up how God used Jerry’s weakness to bring CUSA to the attention of many of the disabled in the United States.

Since Jerry was a little lad He dreamt of Lourdes; it kept him glad. He went there twice, for he was sure Our Lady would perform a cure.

Though Jerry never walked or stood, nor did the things he thought he should, He lived, instead, to do God’s will; he did it all by being ill.

Jerry Filan offered up to God his pains and weaknesses, and didn’t let his suffering go to waste. He did what he could for the sake of Christ’s Body. How many other CUSANs have done the same. But what God does, and can do, with these simple gifts is even more—graces poured out on the world beyond our imagining. May we, too, let God use our weakness.

Anna Marie Sopko Administrator of CUSA from 1976 to 2007

This article originally appeared in the Summer 2022 issue of The CUSAN

CUSA Today

RENEW International has been the administrator of CUSA since January 1, 2022, and now hosts the CUSA website (www. cusan.org). The website is equipped with AudioEye, a utility that provides users with such options as adjusting the size or spacing of the text, the size of the cursor, or the contrast on the screen.

Since January, RENEW has received nearly 20 new applications; at least 10 new members have committed to join an Electronic Group Letter (EGL). RENEW is planning new ways of expanding membership.

The CUSA prayer-request tool is now connected to the RENEW prayer-request form. The new email address for CUSA is cusa@renewintl.org.

We have published two issues of The CUSAN and are preparing to publish the next edition in early 2023.

CUSA archives now housed at RENEW include issues of The CUSAN dating back to 1948, photo albums of CUSA members, copies of All the Way to Heaven by Helen Caldwell Day to add to our collection of CUSA materials, and two handmade CUSA banners.

The transition in administration has been expedited with the generous help of former administrators Father Lawrence Jagdfeld, OFM, and Anna Marie Sopko, and Joan Donnelly of the Brunner Foundation.

Please visit cusan.org to learn more about this ministry or apply to be a member.

Mare Ernesto CUSA administrator

The chronically sick have two heavy crosses to bear; first of all, there is the depressing feeling of being useless members of the community, leading purposeless lives. Everything they have been dreaming of—a beloved profession, vocation to marriage or the religious life, even simple social life—has been denied them, for many without any hope of return. Others less gravely stricken are still allowed a certain activity, but will have as constant companions fatigue and frequent relapses. They are all experience in their lives what is one of the conditions of admission to CUSA: “A state of health that is an occasion of sacrifice.” And it is here that the CUSA miracle works: those who never heard of it, as well as those who had at least a theoretical knowledge of the Doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ, will find that in this tenet of our Faith lies the answer to other frustration and the sense of futility in their lives as invalids. They will come to understand fully and with deep joy the most important truth that CUSA aims to teach them, as it is expressed by their first motto: “We suffer for a purpose.”

As one of our chaplains once said, “the Cusan must embrace the whole world with his love.” Is it not marvelous that one helpless invalid here in the United States, offering lovingly his cross, may save souls of Communists in Russia for China, be the means of sanctification for unknown priests and laymen, help to bring light and contrition to many sinners and unbelievers? Here is realized fully the promise of our Lord Jesus: “By your patience you will bear fruit” (Luke 21:19).

How uplifting is this conviction that his life is precious, to the invalid confined to his room! … Oh! The beauty of the

‘Embrace the whole world with love’

Dogma of the Communion of the Saints that unites not only all the members of the Church on earth but even in Eternity.

The second cross of the chronically sick is their isolation. In many ways, they do not any longer belong to the world of the healthy—they feel that it is difficult for their family and friends, even when they are very loving and attentive, to understand their problems. However, in our little CUSA family, they will find understanding, love, and—better still—many examples of simple, cheerful, even heroic courage in the same difficulties. For they are often quite gay, despite their hard life, our CUSANs; many are even full of serene spiritual joy; most of them come to be more attentive to the sufferings of others than to their own troubles.

When one member of a group passes through a period of conflict, of depression, how lovingly do the others hasten to encourage with kind words and the promise of prayers. The second motto of CUSA, “A brother helped by his brother is like a strong city,” has become a reality.

Laure Brunner From the

foreword to All the Way to Heaven

by Helen Caldwell Day.

Laure Brunner was a founder of CUSA. AlltheWaytoHeaven, a novel that portrays the life of a CUSAN, was written by Helen Caldwell Day and published by Sheed and Ward, 1956, New York.

The work of CUSA is supported by the Brunner Foundation and generous benefactors. Donations cover the cost of developing the CUSA program, recruiting new members, providing retreats, keeping the CUSA website accessible, and printing and mailing The CUSAN.

Donations by credit card may be made at https://donate. renewintl.org/. Checks may be made payable to RENEW International with CUSA in the memo line and mailed to P.O. Box 2729, Plainfield, NJ 07062.

Donors who do not wish to remain anonymous will be listed annually in RENEW International’s Impact Report. All donations are tax deductible. RENEW International is a 501(c)(3) organization.

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The mission of RENEW International: To renew personal faith and parish life— unlocking the power of small groups by equipping the people of God to share their Catholic faith and live it every day.