Pope Francis 16 Made a Point of Visiting the Place Where St Francis Stripped Naked at a Turning Point in His Life
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
St Anthony Brief IRISH FRANCISCAN MISSION MAGAZINE No .6 OCT/ NOV 2015 €2.00 ✣✣ Saint Francis: Naked and Free! ✣✣ Fighting Slavery ✣✣ Belonging to Jesus Christ Spirit and Life saint francis and the sow The bud stands for all things, even for those things that don’t flower, for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing; though sometimes it is necessary to reteach a thing its loveliness, to put a hand on its brow of the flower and retell it in words and in touch it is lovely until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing; as Saint Francis put his hand on the creased forehead of the sow, and told her in words and in touch blessings of earth on the sow, and the sow began remembering all down her thick length, from the earthen snout all the way through the fodder and slops to the spiritual curl of the tail, from the hard spininess spiked out from the spine down through the great broken heart to the sheer blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering from the fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths sucking and blowing beneath them: the long, perfect loveliness of sow. – Galway Kinnell The Feast of St Francis of Assisi is celebrated on 4 October. St Anthony Brief SStt AAnntthhoonnyy BBrriieeff 2 Spirit and Life. 4 From the Editor. A Terrible Beauty. Gerald Evans OFM, along with other Irish friars, 5 witnessed the brutality of the civil war in El Salvador. He reflects on that experience. A Martyr for His Beliefs. Gerry O’Reilly OFM ponders the 8 lessons to be learned from the life of newly-beatified South African martyr, Benedict Daswa. Belonging to Jesus Christ. Archbishop William Slattery OFM, 10 Pretoria, South Africa, speaks of the difference between understand - ing something about Christ and knowing him deeply in the heart. 12 Church Brief. From Old Missionaries to Young Indigenous Priests! Marko 13 Phiri ponders on the changing face of the Church in Zimbabwe. Fighting Slavery. Fr John Flynn looks at the growing evil of 14 human trafficking in our world. Saint Francis: Naked and Free! When in Assisi Pope Francis 16 made a point of visiting the place where St Francis stripped naked at a turning point in his life. The Pope wonders what stripping are we called to do in our own lives. 18 World Mission Day 2015. The Last Priest-Catchers in Ireland. Pat Conlan OFM writes of a 20 dark period in Irish history. 22 News from Around the Franciscan World. St Juniper Serra. On 23 September Pope Francis presided at the 23 Canonisation Mass of Blessed Juniper Serra OFM in Washington during his pastoral visit to the United States. Volume 75 No.6 ‘Le Vita Continua – Life Surges Forward!’ Giacomo Bini OFM, Missionary Magazine of the Irish 1938-2014. Tom Russell OFM writes of a humble, dedicated friar, Franciscans. Published bi-monthly by 24 the Franciscan Missionary Union, afire with the Gospel. 8 Merchants Quay, Dublin 8. Editor: Br Stephen O’Kane OFM. Encountering Christ in India and at Home. Gearóid Ó Conaire Production: Fr Francis Cotter OFM. 27 OFM introduces an article by Shona Cahill who shares her experi - Subscription & Distribution Secretary: ence of introducing Irish students to the social justice dimension of Helen Doran. Tel: (01) 6777651. the Gospel. [email protected] Design, Layout & Printing: Mission Digest. The Catholic community at Nharira Township in Corcoran Print & Design. Zimbabwe rejoiced as the foundations for their new church were Tel: (053) 9234760. 30 blessed by Fr Onward Murape OFM. Subscription including Postage: Ireland – €15.00 per annum Britain – Stg£15.00 per annum Pope Francis Receives His Holy Name Tile Finally! Overseas – €18.00 per annum 31 Oct/Nov 2015 3 From the Editor… A Little More Passion! In Pope Francis’ recent message for World Mission Day he declared, ‘Mission is a passion for Jesus and at the same time a passion for peo - ple.’ He also said, ‘Those who follow Christ cannot fail to be mission - aries...’ That makes sense; if I really believe what I say I believe, won’t I Br Stephen O’Kane OFM want others to believe the same? Why would I keep that good news to myself? On 23 September this same Pope Francis canonised a Franciscan friar, Juniper Serra, who cer - tainly was on fire with a love for Christ. Juniper, born on the island of Majorca in 1713, gave up the comfortable life of a friar teaching in a university to go to California to make Jesus and his Kingdom known to the native people of that place. With great energy, patience and a love for the local St Juniper: people of that region, Juniper preached Christ and passion his love for each one. He founded nine of the for the twenty-one mission stations up along the west Lord coast of California. It is because of the missionary and his work of Juniper Serra and his Franciscan compan - Gospel ions, that so many of the well-known cities along the west coast of North America have Franciscan names, for example, San Francisco (St Francis) and Los Angeles named after St Francis’ favourite church in Assisi – Santa Maria de los Angeles. Not everyone is happy that Juniper is to be canonised. When Pope John Paul II declared him Blessed in 1988, voices were raised in protest that someone linked with the evil of colonisation could be ‘promoted’ in the Church. Much fine historical research testifies to the fact that Juniper Serra was a man of heroic virtue and holiness who had only one burning ambition — to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to the peoples of the New World. Indeed he was articulate in fighting against the Spanish civil authori - ties in defence of the humanity and rights of the indigenous peoples. Archbishop Gomez, the present Archbishop of Los Angeles, summed up Juniper’s life very well when he said, ‘Whatever human faults Juniper may have had and whatever mistakes he may have made, there is no questioning that he lived a life of sacrifice and self-denial. And he died here in California, having given his life out of love for the Gospel and the people he came to serve.’ Definitely, Juniper’s virtues outdistance his sins. Let us pray for a little more passion in our life – passion for Jesus, passion for the poor. Let us pray for more missionary vocations, lay and ordained, so that the Gospel may be preached with passion, love and respect to the ends of the earth. – Stephen O’Kane OFM ([email protected]) St Anthony Brief 4 A Terrible Beauty Gerald Evans OFM, along with other Irish friars, witnessed the brutality of the civil war in El Salvador. He reflects on that experience. n the spring of 1987, the year after my that the values we are striving to defend Guatemalan friar living there at the time, ordination to the priesthood, I was living and live are true life itself. were present at the meeting. Suddenly a Iin the Franciscan Friary in Cork prior to As I left the cinema in the security of series of gunshots rang out with a corre - returning to El Salvador. One night I my own country I wondered whether I sponding reply from others. The couples decided to go to the cinema to see a film would be capable likewise of giving my life looked at one another startled. One of the which I heard had received very good in that manner. Little did I know that very women, Juanna, enquired whether the reviews called The Mission . It focused on shortly I too would live to face a similar other couples attending the meeting had the challenges faced by the Jesuit mis - experience in El Salvador with only one stored up their beans and rice. Another sions on the borderlands between exception. Unlike Fr Gabriel, I would live woman, Sara, asked Juanna very directly Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina in the mid to tell the tale. what she was talking about. To which 18th century, around 1760. Juanna replied, ‘It seems the war has The film impressed me greatly. I was The Guerrilla Offensive finally come to the city.’ Up until that point especially inspired by the role played by Saturday 11 November 1989 the civil war in El Salvador tended to be Jeremy Irons, one of the film’s protago - The circumstances surrounding the begin - confined to mainly rural areas. We hastily nists, Fr Gabriel whose faith inspired him ning of the offensive, as ever in Latin adjourned the meeting and the alarmed with great passion and conviction to America, are shrouded in mystery, fol - couples hurried on their way home amid accompany the poor indigenous people lowed by rumours embellished as they intermittent hail of gunfire. Shortly after - under his care to the point of giving his life pass from person to person. The most wards, Irish friar Peter O’Neill (now for them. It was precisely the existential common rumour doing the rounds at the deceased) arrived unexpectedly to visit us moment of decision he lived through – time was that the offensive began on the and he stayed the night. In the end, he whether to abandon the mission and save night of the 11 November under the guise remained with us during the first week of his life or to stay and accompany the peo - of a rather curious fictitious marriage cere - the offensive. ple and possibly lose it – that particularly mony in the nearby barrio of Prados de At about 8.00pm the dark night sky was inspired me most.