SStt AAnntthhoonnyy BBrriieeff

IRISH FRANCISCAN MISSION MAGAZINE No .5 AuG/SEPt 2010 €1.00

 e Soul of the Church

 Saint of the Lepers  Sharpeville Pentecost  St Bonaventure: Beloved of God and Man Much religion uses God to bolster one’s own self-image. Christian life has little to do with me doing anything right.

It has everything to do with falling in love with a Lover who always does everything right.

I am invited to love that Lover, not my own accomplishments; not to be surprised or unduly humiliated by my own failures.

We must come to know who is always the Lover and who is always the beloved.

– RICHARD ROHER, OFM

Spirit and Life

St Anthony Brief SStt AAnntthhoonnyy BBrriieeff

4 From the Editor. Sharpeville Pentecost . Fr Paddy Noonan, OFM, recalls a 5 powerful all-night vigil in a South African township when the country was still not free of apartheid.

Finding Hope in a Hopeless Situation. Marko Phiri, a 8 journalist living in Zimbabwe, wonders where the ordinary Zimbabwean finds the hope to keep on going.

Vietnam Soujourn. Fr Ken Capalbo, OFM, of the Sacred 10 Heart Province, USA, recently spent time in Vietnam where he taught young friars in formation. He was deeply impressed by the life lived by the Vietnamese friars. 12 Church Brief. A Princess Comes to Call. Princess Takamado of Japan visits 13 the St Francis Care Centre in South Africa.

“Beloved of God and Man.” Some months ago Pope Benedict 14 spoke of the great Franciscan saint, St Bonaventure, at his general audience.

Taking a Look in the Mirror. Sr Mary Burke, FMDM, looks into 16 the “mirror” proposed by St Clare. 19 Franciscan Pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The Franciscan Province in South Africa. Fr Patrick Conlan, 20 OFM, looks at the establishment of the Franciscan Province of Our Lady Queen of Peace, in South Africa. 22 News from Around the Franciscan World. Volume 70 No.5 Caminata Penitencial 2010. Fr Billy Hoyne, OFM, tells of a 23 pilgrimage in Guatemala. Missionary Magazine of the Irish Franciscans. Published bi-monthly by the Franciscan Missionary Union, Saint of the Lepers. Fr Tom Russell, OFM, celebrates the 8 Merchants Quay, Dublin 8. 24 wonderful life of loving dedication lived by St Damien of Editor: Fr Ulic Troy, OFM. Molokai. Production: Fr Francis Cotter, OFM. Subscription & Distribution Secretary: The Soul of the Church. In the light of the present Church Helen Doran. Tel: (01) 6777651. 27 crisis Fr Gearóid Ó Conaire, OFM, gives examples of the Design, Layout & Printing: extraordinary work for the common good being done by Corcoran Print & Design. Tel: (053) 9234760. religious. Subscription including Postage: Ireland – €12.00 per annum Mission Digest. Britain – Stg£12.00 per annum 30 Overseas – €15.00 per annum 31 Letters to the Editor.

Aug/Sept 2010 3 From the Editor… “Go out into the whole world, proclaim the Good News to all Fr Ulic Troy creation.” (Mark 16:15 )

Preaching the Gospel in faraway lands has been a feature of the life of the Franciscan Order from the time of St Francis. St Francis sent his brothers away to preach even when the numbers in the Order were few. Today the General Constitutions of the Franciscan Order state that “all the friars are to share in the task of evangelisation that belongs to the whole Church. After the example of St Francis, they are to be ready to receive the inspi - ration of the Lord.” The Irish Franciscan Province has a long tradition in this area of what has been called the “foreign missions.” In the past century Irish friars have carried the Good News of Jesus Christ to Australia, China, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Chile, Central America and Bolivia. Individual friars have worked for the Gospel in many other lands, too. The month of October is the month of universal mission in the Catholic Church. This year we decided to celebrate Franciscan Mission Day on 19th July in all our friaries here in Ireland. The purpose of so doing was simply to give thanks to God for all the graces He has given to all our friars – those who have gone to God and those still living with us – by calling them to be Heralds of the Good News of Jesus Christ. On this occasion we also wanted to thank you for your constant prayers, support and your collaboration with us in bringing the Good News to those who have not heard the Christian message and, at the same time, helping to build up the young local Churches in different parts of the world. On behalf of the Franciscan Province of Ireland and that of all our missionaries, all those sisters and brothers who collaborate with us, and the people that they minister to and work with, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to all of you for your overwhelming support. You have truly changed the lives of many, allowing our Franciscan brothers and sisters to give dignity and a better quality of life to those who need it most. It goes without saying that without your generous assistance many of the projects that have taken place in the past and the work that is taking place at present could not have materialised. Here I think of the churches, hospitals, clinics, schools, workshops that have been built down through the years. I think of the large number of young people who have been formed and educated for the religious and priestly life. I am deeply conscious of the many young men and women in the countries that we minister in who have availed of the education that was provided. All of this took place because of your great generosity. As we go to print with this edition of the Custodial Chapter of all the friars in Zimbabwe is St Anthony Brief taking place in Harare, under the leadership of our Provincial and Vicar Provincial, Caoimhín Ó Laoide and Hugh McKenna. They will review what happened in the past three years while at the same time making plans for the years ahead. We pray that the Holy Spirit will be with them in their deliberations. To all those elected to office and given the task of bringing the Good News of Jesus Christ to those who are poor: we pray that God will give you all the graces and blessings that you need, and that you will be ready to reach out and discover new ways of evangelising and helping the long-suffering people of God in that country. Gentle reader, I would ask that you always keep our missionaries in your thoughts and prayers, as this spiritual support can give great comfort and encouragement, particularly in difficult times and in dangerous parts of the world. May God bless each one of you for your unwavering support and much needed prayers; be assured that you are always in our thoughts and prayers.

– Ulic Troy, OFM ([email protected])

St Anthony Brief 4 been arriving with bottles of water and objects to be blessed, secret intentions harpeville to be cared for and infirmities to be healed. Our theme is from Acts 5:32: "We are witnesses to these things – we S and the Holy Spirit.” Pentecost Finally the preliminary devotions are completed and I welcome all explaining the purpose and theme of the vigil. An Fr Paddy Noonan, OFM, initial rite of blessings follows. In different languages we bless water, recalls a powerful all-night vigil in a crosses, salt, incense, staffs and other South African township when the country sacramentals. Many from other churches were present and wanted their objects was still not free of apartheid. blessed by the "Roman" priests – the “Mother Church” as they say. There is a huge element of emotion as myself and the deacon, my Franciscan colleague Sizwe Mkonza, walk through the massive throng showering all with the newly blessed water. Hundreds of privately owned water containers are thrust into the air to receive the blessings and sprinkling of holy water. You need to be armed against sickness, fever, wandering demons and witchcraft in this complicated and confusing world. In the western world these things have different names.

Reconciliation The service now becomes more solemn. A reader reads to a rapt audience that very direct piece of sacred Scripture from Romans 8:22-27 about seriously changing our lives. Our theme for this section, the beginning of Mass, is the parable of the Good Father, sometimes called the Prodigal Son, using the popular slogan: "Come home to the Father’s house." Thus the rite of Reconciliation begins with an extensive e had been preparing for the coming of the Holy Spirit on the public examination of conscience. These some weeks for a night vigil. apostles, for some even the birth of the have been bad times for all. Serious In townships, funeral night Church. The Spirit as well as spirits are mistakes have been made. Often WvWigils are common on weekends at the big news in traditional African life, like brother has been fighting brother. It home of the deceased – usually Friday – the West’s resurgent interest in angel won’t be easy, they know, forgiveness before burial next day. It's normal to see spirits. There are good spirits and evil was never easy, forgiveness will never special vigil tents erected at the front of spirits. You must take notice. They are be easy. The old society outside on the houses at weekends. At these vigils the powerful forces in the community. streets is cracking up. There is great deceased is eulogised, prayers are said, Negative or positive. We in the parish confusion, great questions and unclear hymns are sung, and traditional beer had decided to have an all-night vigil to answers. There is a war for the hearts and food are shared. Thousands criss- celebrate the coming feast of the chief and minds of people in the townships. cross the townships every Saturday Spirit, the Holy Spirit. Many weeks and This great gathering of human and morning attending these funerals. But meetings had gone into the prepara - spiritual energy brings it all together and that’s not the vigil I'm talking about. We tions. There was an air of anticipation, of helps to sort things out to give some were celebrating Pentecost, the feast of expectation. All evening, people have answers and find some relief.

Aug/Sept 2010 5 While I'm in the sacristy hearing Confessions many come forward in the church to witness to the wonder of forgiveness in their lives. This goes on for some time. Meanwhile at different points during the testimonies the choir draws the church to its feet singing and dancing joyfully. The Spirit is tangibly present as a new peace and forgiveness enfolds the People of God. At the time it seemed the queue was endless. Great numbers of church youth, altar servers included, enter the sacristy in turn for the sacrament. I often wondered why so many – was it 300? – availed of Confession that night. Was it “peer” pressure that persuaded so many young people to make their peace with God? Celebration: Or was it the war of attrition, or liberation or political purification surging through much healing, the streets of the townships across the much joy land at that moment. After their reconciliation parishioners – including those from other churches - vigil. It follows naturally from the Laying on of Hands walk across the sanctuary and wash Sacrament of Reconciliation. Healing But all is not over. God’s “show” must go their hands as a symbol of cleansing plays a crucial role in the lives of on. The sick are now once more invited remembering Isaiah 1:16: “Wash, make people. People leave and join churches to approach the altar to be prayed for in yourselves clean, take your wrong-doing for healing. The fear of illness is the laying of hands. The healing power out of my sight.” Finally, a little dazed, I profound. This is fairly universal. The of touch is fairly universal especially in stumble back onto the altar and with fear that someone is causing one’s the indigenous churches. It challenges hands raised over the people pray the illness or misfortune is deadly serious. the mainline churches to restore the solemn prayer of absolution over a It must be managed properly. The best original ministry of healing to more deeply hushed congregation gratefully remedies must be sought and applied. regular use in the Church. A half- experiencing God’s amazing mercy. The This too is found in all world cultures. stampede follows. The marshals, more choir sing softly and soothingly at this The rite commences. prepared this time, control the flow of moment. And it is midnight. We bless the Oil of Gladness and broken humanity. Teams of “prayer invite the parish Extraordinary Ministers healers” spread across the sanctuary Healing of the Eucharist to come forward and await them. This healing action We have been praying for five hours. anoint the sick. People surge forward continues for the best part of an hour in Nobody notices. Time is not important. It and the marshals do their best to a beautifully prayerful atmosphere. Some belongs to God. And he has plenty of it. maintain order and religious decorum. faint quietly, overcome by the Lord of There is now a shift in the vigil, a new Choir and congregation sing for healing. healing, others fall screaming and are “scene” in preparation. A reader walks Traditional prayers are offered for carried by willing helpers to the side. up from the congregation. She draws wholeness. They touch the deep inner Their friends minister to them. At times our attention to John 7:37-39. Jesus core of people’s being. Some are fierce hymns of thanksgiving and praise says: “If anyone is thirsty, let him come overcome. Some faint. The lines of that can be heard three streets away to me; and let him who believes in me eager people approaching the altar are break the stillness of the township night. drink, for the Scripture says: Out of him endless. The Extraordinary Ministers are Another forty minutes pass as rows of shall flow rivers of living water.” wilting under the pressure. Deacon expectant Christians edge towards the That moment is here. It brings us to Sizwe and I help out. Holy Spirit hymns altar imploring God’s mercy and healing. a new part of the vigil. The healing appeal to the power of God. The The Blessed Sacrament exposed on the part. Many have been anticipating this anointings come to a close about a half- altar continues to be the clear focus of moment. Healing is a natural part of hour later. A new contented peace the Spirit-filled service. As people return worshiping in African society. In that settles over the congregation. The to their seats, perhaps a little dazed, a sense it is very close to the world of peace that is the infallible sign of God’s prayerful quiet gradually descends over the Bible and the ministry of Jesus. presence in any given, confusing all. A moment of thanksgiving, a period Yes, for many this is a high point of the situation. of recovery and healing. It is 2.00am.

St Anthony Brief 6 Except for the lights on the altar the During the canon of the Mass the was an altered people who received lights in the church are now switched congregation call out the names of their Communion with renewed fervour, faith off. The mood seems to take on a new beloved deceased at the appropriate and gratitude that morning. The Mass hue. A strange expectant atmosphere moment. This act of remembrance is a draws to a close. Parishioners are creeps over the massive sea of faces, moving experience for many. Suddenly exhorted to claim their transfiguration. many glistening in the human heat and they are connected with those gone We had been to the mountain. We had straining with attention. I am about to before them in the sign of faith. There is seen the Lord. And we had been pray a prayer for the healing of peoples’ a broad comfort and satisfaction in touched by the Holy of Holies. Outside bad, upsetting and troubled memories. connecting with the ancestors. Mass the sharp yellow morning sun slipped The prayer of the healing of memories, continues in more subdued prayerful slowly over the dreary township originating in the charismatic movement, mode. The sign of peace is in the spirit rooftops. It was the dawn of a new is still one of the Church’s best kept of a family reunion and parish unity. creation. The feast of Pentecost. I pastoral secrets. For most it is quite (Parish unity because at that moment new and surprising. Gently I commence there were two forces trying to divide This is an abridged version of a a prayer. The silence becomes deeper black parishes: the state security system chapter from a new book being as the faithful are invited to welcome a and Satanism). Much forgiveness, much written by Fr Paddy on his experience loving Jesus into the areas of their healing, much joy energised with a lively ministering in the townships over wounded or broken hearts. Tears of peace chorus known to all the faithful. It many years. healing well up and sniffles and tissues appear here and there around the church. The Spirit does her work and Vuvuzuela: new emotional life is born in the following twenty minutes as Jesus is Fr Paddy celebrates invited to gently touch the raw broken the World Cup memories of all present.

Joy Energised This final part of the healing rituals brings to an end the extended penitential rite of the Mass. Listening time has come. A traditional praise singer erupts from the back of the church. Gesticulating to the book of the Gospels he slowly accompanies the procession of the Book to the place of proclamation. The choir with catchy choruses draws the faithful to their feet as they highlight and welcome the Word into their midst. All solemnly and in deep silence listen to the Word of God suddenly come alive in extraordinary circumstances. My homily draws the different elements of our Pentecost vigil together in such a way as to show the amazing richness and potential and spiritual dynamism of the different parts of the Sacrifice of the Mass. The prayers of intercession target the major issues of the day as individual people from the congregation spontaneously raise their hearts in prayer, adoration and thanksgiving. Parishioners are responding to the experience of the vigil. It is infectious once again. Many want to share their stories. Others are inspired by the sense of release and awakening in the air.

Aug/Sept 2010 7 Marko Phiri, a journalist living in Zimbabwe, wonders where the ordinary Zimbabwean finds the hope to keep on going.

Smile: a people with so much potential Finding Hope in a Hopeless Situation

n a time of protracted hardships like sometimes the only thing that dejected dismissed some who turn to faith during what Zimbabweans are presently millions can have amid circumstances trying times and manifest piety, belief and going through – and have gone they have accepted they cannot change. commitment toward all things Christian as tIIhrough for over a decade – hope is Many people have in the past so-called fair-weather Christians. These are people who, when they survive whatever life crisis, they quickly become amnesiac and jettison the same faith they fervently exhibited when they were lying down with a sickness or unemployed with nothing to feed the children. For many Zimbabweans who have lived through a debilitating economic and social crisis for over a decade, faith then must by logical progression come in abundance. Maybe, maybe not. But one thing that has emerged from these hardships, even after the formation of the government of national unity in February 2009 that many had imagined would harbinger great new beginnings for the country’s economic reconstruction, is that the people still have hope for a better tomorrow.

Students: hoping for a better tomorrow

St Anthony Brief 8 Thumbs up: better times Only Hope oming? You find it in the way the people carry are c themselves and have sought ways and means to live each day as it comes. You marvel at how parents “miraculously” feed their children, send them to school, clothe them despite the perennial problems of poor salaries. You wonder how workers, despite poor wages, afford to wake up each day and head for work, you wonder how millions are taking the hardships but still have hope that their lives will change for the better despite there being no tangible pointers to convince them of this belief. But then when you have nothing else, what you can do is only hope. That has been the major problem with African politics, with Zimbabwe being a case study that offers invaluable insights into how a nation with so much promise amid immense human resource skills and fabulously rich natural resources can be dragged into the abyss by arrogant politicians who claim a whole years, but only 7,000 returned after the serve the socio-economic needs of the country as their own. formation of the unity government amid people to the fullest. Nevertheless, For many, the situation here has promises of better remuneration. Zimbabweans find themselves in a spot pointed to the powerlessness of the Education standards have been whereby they just have to wait and see general masses who across Africa seem reversed so much that no one seems to as they already know by years of to have lost faith in the power of the care whether children are learning or not subconscious conditioning that a new ballot as a legitimate way to literally just as long they put on their uniforms day will not bring anything uplifting. You choose their destiny. The stories have and head for classes and pretend to just have to listen to everybody, from become all too familiar: you queue in parents and themselves that they are commuter omnibus drivers to doctors, long winding human trains under the getting an education. from housewives to schoolchildren and scorching African sun to elect your It becomes something that would be you indeed then wonder what it is that leaders, but as soon as they assume unacceptable in the developed world keeps people going. power, the voter is quickly forgotten. And where governments are expected to If only democracy worked. I apparently there is nothing the voter can do but wait another five years to vote – not surprisingly – for the same chaps who failed to fulfil their electoral WE ARE LOOKING FOR PROMOTERS OF OUR MONTHLY DRAW We are looking for supporters of our mission who will take one book of tickets a month. promises during the previous five years. Please help us. Buy a book yourself. Write for a book to sell to your friends. For Zimbabweans, this has become a Will you buy or sell for us: decade old refrain and the people today Book of 20 Tickets = €16.00. Return €10.00; keep €6.00. Thank you for supporting us find themselves with the same misery in all the ways you do already. Our Address is: 8 Merchants Quay, Dublin 8. even after the coming into government of a party many had hoped would bring them a better life. Please send me ...... Books for Next Draw Name: ...... Teachers Address: ...... But, for millions here, hope for a better life has disappeared amid this gloom...... This year, a teacher union announced Phone No: ...... that between 35,000 and 45,000 teachers left their posts in the past few

Aug/Sept 2010 9 Vietnam Soujourn

Fr Ken Capalbo, OFM, of the Sacred Heart Province, USA, recently spent time in Vietnam where he taught young friars in formation. He was deeply impressed by the life lived by the Vietnamese friars.

never thought that the feast of St join us for Mass and breakfast. I had As I write I am in the final week of Fidelis of Sigmaringen would be a never met a leper before. I kept thinking exams before I return to our Province. powerful source of reflection on my about the experience of St Francis. The As you can well imagine I am riding a IVIietnam experience. It so happens that day came and the visit occurred simply wave of emotion as this graced time in a senior friar here, Br Fidel, celebrated and with the hospitality that is the Vietnam comes to an end. I have his name’s day on this feast. Fidel is in hallmark of the friars here. They were continued to teach English here at the his 80s, a peaceful and joyful friar who our guests and truly welcomed. Br Fidel seminary in the second semester. I have does not speak English but smiles at made a comment about me in also introduced a course on the History me warmly. For more than 40 years he Vietnamese and smiled as he walked of the Franciscan Movement, taught in has served the lepers at a nearby away. I learned what he said: “He is a English with an English textbook that our centre. On his name’s day some of his true Friar Minor.” No words have ever advanced English students translated friends from the centre were invited to meant more to me. into Vietnamese. This experience has

Faithful: a Vietnamese Catholic prays for Pope John Paul after his death St Anthony Brief 10 been quite an adventure for the students poor will be with us always because he not quite fit! There are many Fioretti in and for me. called them his brothers and sisters. In Vietnam. The friars share their stories A significant part of my preparation his sense the poor are no different from and accompany each other in Gospel for and teaching about the Franciscan us – in fact, they ARE us. Francis simplicity. And Br Fidel continues to be Movement has been my own deeper discovered this when he saw not only faithful and to smile warmly. I will reflection on our origins and on the poor. the image of the poor, humble Christ in remember. Michael Cusato, OFM, has written the leper but also saw himself. On my ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– compelling articles on the early friars own spiritual journey I continue to seek Postscript: and their decision to place themselves in this very encounter. And so my teachers I am back at Holy Cross Friary, Quincy, a new social location: among, with, and here have continued to teach me. Like Illinois, after the long journey back to the for the poor. Michael contends that the all of us friars they still worry about how Province. Among so many unforgettable early friars chose “to live simply so that to live for and with the poor. The lesson I moments of farewell I include the words the poor may simply live.” learn from them is that they find and of the friar student leader of the seminary: walk with the poor simply by opening Dear Father Ken: Service their eyes and hearts to those who need It is hard for me to be here to say Who are the poor? Over the centuries them most. They do this by learning that goodbye to you because you have been our Order has struggled with this the poor are with them – within them. with us for a long time. In our heart, you question. The young friars here are my And in this solidarity they remain joyful are always our brother, our teacher, and teachers in so many ways. We have in proclaiming the Good News even our father. As a brother you shared with asked this question together in class and when it is hard to preach. us Franciscan fraternity, happiness, and in faith sharing. I often speak with these In the darkest days after 1975 the sadness. As a teacher you taught us and young friars about their ministries, which friars here had nothing – their property brought us knowledge. You also put include traditional work in catechesis and resources were confiscated by the confidence into us in speaking English and liturgy. They serve the physically government, they lived simply among and in life. As a father, you take care of and mentally ill as well as the disabled. the poor. I heard a story from Fr Paul, all of us and bring love to us. We are These young friars also meet regularly our Rector, who remembered one happy and lucky to be with you. We, all with groups of university students and Christmas when there was no extra the seminarians, admire you very much. workers. The workers are like those who money to buy each other a gift. So he Because of these reasons, we really suffer as migrants everywhere in the organised a secret mission to take a don't want to say goodbye to you. It is world, including the U.S. Here in shirt from each friar’s room and wrap it difficult to say goodbye. We will keep you Vietnam they come from rural areas to so that every friar would have a gift that in our prayers and try to put your lessons Ho Chi Minh City to find a job. They are was new to him at least. They had a into practice. all too easily exploited, working long good laugh that Christmas when the May the Lord bless you and give you hours without decent wages and gifts were opened and some shirts did peace.... Many blessings. Thank you. I benefits. The university students also leave their homes and families to undertake study in Ho Chi Minh City. They struggle to earn enough not only to pay for their room, board, and tuition but also to send money back home to their families. The young friars cannot change the lot of these workers and students but they are present to them, listening to their stories, sharing faith, and offering hospitality and some respite from the daily grind of work. Some of the young friars join Br Fidel and visit the lepers. I recall my conver - sation with one friar student who spoke of this ministry. He searched for English words to tell me from his heart what this encounter meant for him. “They are the image of God for me,” he said, and there were no more words, only tears.

Joyful Solidarity “You always have the poor with you…” There is more to these words than meets the eye. Francis knew that the Solidarity: being present to people Aug/Sept 2010 11 Church Brief

Haiti Update struction remains uncertain. Rubble is still Threats Against Indian Six months after the earthquake that strewn all over the streets, the majority of Priest devastated Haiti on 12th January 2010, buildings are damaged if not collapsed, Fr Anand Muttungal, a priest of the affecting much of the capital, Port-au- and informal tent settlements – in Diocese of Bhopal and spokesman for the Prince, the Apostolic Nuncio in Haiti, penurious conditions – have sprouted Catholic Church in the state of Madhya Archbishop Bernard Auza, has seen that everywhere. Emblematic of the stalled Pradesh, has received a death threat much still has not changed for the people. rebuilding effort is the Presidential Palace, from Hindu extremists. “The situation is a “I can testify that the situation is still which remains conspicuously in ruins, cause for concern. The central part of terrible as regards the roads; it seems without any signs of scaffolding or India, from East to West, is in the hands that the earthquake just happened construction,” says the report from the of Hindu extremist groups who are yesterday! There is no one to carry away U.S. Senate. committing violence, the debris and we can amidst a climate of still not use certain impunity.” These were streets in the capital. the comments made There are still no offices by Bishop Chacko for some local Thottumarickal, SVD, government institutions. of Indore, in Madhya Many people who are Pradesh, in launching living in tents still have an alert against the nothing and then there proliferation of Hindu are still many poor people extremist groups that who do not even have promote a purist tents and do not see a ideology that seeks to way out.” eliminate the plural - There are still about istic character of the two million people living on Indian nation. Fr the streets. Approximately Anand, after yet 1,300 emergency tents another anonymous have become their call with a death permanent home. 600,000 threat, filed a are homeless, far from the complaint with the residential areas that police in Bhopal. remain dependent on humanitarian Haiti: aid still needs to be given They, in turn, assured him of protection. agencies. All are struggling to survive. The anonymous caller ordered him to Children are malnourished, in need of Chinese Bishop Released abandon his social activities. The priest is basic hygiene and medical care. There is On 7th July Bishop Julius Jia Zhiguo, the also involved in ecumenical and interreli - no electricity or potable water. A bleak legitimate non-official Bishop of the gious dialogue. How to react and to live picture of the situation has recently been Diocese of Zhengding in the Province of as Christians in this sensitive context? reiterated by international agencies He Bei in mainland China, was released. The Bishop said: "First of all we trust in working at the scene of the earthquake Age 75, Bishop Julius Jia Zhiguo is well God and His mercy. Then, we try to that killed more than 230,000 Haitians. known and is a key figure in the Chinese foster good relations with religious These international agencies continue to Church for his steadfastness in the faith leaders, to unite Hindus and all the provide water and sanitation to hundreds and for his clear position on the life of positive forces. We also have good of thousands of displaced persons. faith and politics. His abduction had relations with the media, to bring out the A report from U.S. Senator John occurred on 31st March 2009, coinciding truth so we have the opportunity to let Kerry, President of the Committee on with the meeting that was held at the our voice be heard and present our Foreign Relations, shows a lack of Vatican for the Commission on the version of the events. Along with all this, leadership, disagreements among donors, Church in China. Bishop Julius Jia Zhiguo we work to promote awareness regarding and disorganisation, as the fundamental was ordained a priest in 1980, and was rights, at all levels. Lastly, we maintain a reasons why many Haitians have not yet consecrated Bishop of the Diocese of good relationship with the civil and received the aid being given. “The recon - Zhengding in 1981. political authorities." I St Anthony Brief 12 A Princess Comes to Call Princess Takamado of Japan visits the St Francis Care Centre in South Africa.

ecently St Francis Care Centre was greatly honoured and very excited to hear that they were to rRReceive a visit by Her Imperial Highness, Princess Takamado of Japan. No member of the Imperial House of Japan has ever visited Southern Africa before so this was a first and as we were the very first place she visited, we were thrilled. Princess Takamado showed a wonderful empathy with the children and it was lovely to see her chatting and being hugged by them. She was surprised and delighted when they serenaded her with a song in Japanese (taught to them by Japanese volun - teers). The Princess is the patroness of the Japanese Football Association and came to support her team at the World Orphans: greeting Cup. Sadly they didn’t make it through the children but they performed credibly and who knows – maybe 2014? Fr Stan Brennan, OFM, founded the St Francis Centre in 1992 and has had a warm relationship with the people of Royal Guest: Japan for a long time, receiving signif - Fr Stan welcomes icant support from them over the years. Princess Takamado A few years ago a twenty-seater bus for transporting the children and patients was donated and several buildings have Fr Stan recently celebrated the forty- siasm and energy himself, Fr Stan was been funded: a wing of 10 x 2 bed fifth anniversary of the date he was struck by the dispirited, dejected and wards, a small mortuary chill room and, appointed to the parish of Stirtonville downheartedness of the people that he more recently, a joint effort – “The Fr (Stirtonville later became Reiger Park). was there to help. Over the next forty- Nicholas Nemoto OFM Commemorative He did not at that time have the faintest five years he set out to uplift them not Community Hall.” For some years Fr idea that he would still be in Boksburg in only by prayer and spiritual comfort but Nicholas Nemoto, OFM, a Japanese 2010 and certainly no idea of the work with more practical help to restore their priest, lived and worked with Fr Stan that he would begin within the parish. confidence and their very humanity, and served as an assistant chaplain to The only thing he inherited in the parish devastated by years of apartheid rule. St Francis Centre. Sadly he passed was the land and an old broken building His whole life has been given to helping away after contracting tubercular menin - being used as a school as well as the and uplifting hundreds of thousands of gitis in China and the hall was built in his church, at that time valued at 25 English poor, disconsolate people by providing memory with funds raised in South pounds. It might be noted here that education, life skills, rehabilitation, and Africa and Japan. He was sorely missed when he left St Anthony’s the current medical care. Many of those he helped by everyone especially the patients in valuation of the buildings and contents are today doctors, businessmen, politi - the hospice. was 35m Rand. Young and full of enthu - cians and other prominent people. I

Aug/Sept 2010 13 “Beloved of God and Man”

would like to speak about St Some months ago compare to that of a prestigious Bonaventure of Bagnoregio. I confide secondary school of our time. At that to you that on proposing this theme I Pope Benedict spoke point, as so many young people of the IfIeel a certain nostalgia because I past and also of today, John asked remember the research that, as a young of the great Franciscan himself a crucial question: "What must I scholar, I carried out precisely on this do with my life?" Fascinated by the author, whom I particularly esteem. His saint, St Bonaventure, witness of fervour and Gospel radicalism knowledge has been of no small influence at his general audience. of the Friars Minor, who had arrived in in my formation. With great joy I went on Paris in 1219, John knocked on the doors pilgrimage a few months ago to his birth - of the Franciscan friary of that city, and place, Bagnoregio, a small Italian city, in He was called John of Fidanza. An asked to be received in the great family of Latium, which venerates his memory. Born incident that occurred when he was still a the disciples of St Francis. Many years probably in 1217, he died in 1274; he lived boy profoundly marked his life, as he later, he explained the reasons for his in the 13th century, an age in which the himself relates. He had been affected by choice: He recognised the action of Christ Christian faith, profoundly permeating the a serious illness and not even his father, in St Francis and in the movement he culture and society of Europe, inspired who was a doctor, hoped to save him initiated. "I confess before God that the immortal works in the field of literature, from death. His mother appealed then to reason that made me love more the life of visual arts, philosophy and theology. the intercession of St Francis of Assisi, Blessed Francis is that it is similar to the Striking among the great Christian figures canonised a short time earlier. And John origin and growth of the Church. The who contributed to the composition of this was cured. The figure of the Poverello of Church began with simple fishermen, and harmony between faith and culture is, Assisi became even more familiar a year was enriched immediately with very illus - precisely, Bonaventure, a man of action later, when he was in Paris, where he had trious and wise doctors; the religion of and of contemplation, of profound piety gone for his studies. He had obtained the Blessed Francis was not established by and of prudence in governing. diploma of Master of Arts, which we could the prudence of men, but by Christ."

St Anthony Brief 14 Therefore, around the year 1243 John put on the Franciscan coarse woolen cloth and took the name Bonaventure. He was immediately directed to studies and frequented the faculty of theology of the University of Paris, following a programme of very difficult courses. He obtained the different titles required by the academic career, those of "bachelor of biblical studies" and "bachelor in sentences." Thus Bonaventure studied in depth sacred Scripture, the Sentences of Peter Lombard , the manual of theology of that time, and the most important authors of theology and, in contact with the teachers and students that arrived in Paris from the whole of Europe, he matured his own personal reflection and a spiritual sensi - tivity of great value that, in the course of the following years, showed in his works and sermons, thus making him one of the most important theologians in the history of the Church. It is significant to recall the title of the thesis he defended to be able to qualify in the teaching of theology. His dissertation was titled Questions on Bagnoregio: the saint’s birthplace Knowledge of Christ . This argument shows the central role that Christ always documents related to the Poverello and to consecrate him bishop and name him had in the life and teaching of listened attentively to the memories of cardinal. He also asked him to prepare a Bonaventure. We can say, in fact, that all those who had known Francis directly. very important ecclesial event: the his thought was profoundly Christocentric. From this was born a biography, histori - Second Ecumenical Council of Lyon, cally well-founded, of the Saint of Assisi, whose objective was the re-estab - Minister General titled Legenda Maior. lishment of communion between the In 1257 Bonaventure was officially recog - What is the image of St Francis that Latin and the Greek Churches. He nised as doctor and teacher of the arises from the heart and pen of his dedicated himself to this task with Parisian University. However, he had to devoted son and successor, St diligence, but was unable to see the resign from this prestigious post because Bonaventure? The essential point: conclusion of that ecumenical summit, as that same year the General Chapter of Francis is an alter Christus , a man who he died while it was being held. An the Order elected him Minister General. passionately sought Christ. In the love anonymous papal notary composed a He carried out this task for 17 years with that drives to imitation, he was entirely eulogy of Bonaventure which offers us a wisdom and dedication, visiting the conformed to Him. Bonaventure pointed conclusive portrait of this great saint and provinces, writing to brothers, intervening out this living ideal to all of Francis' excellent theologian: "Good, affable, at times with a certain severity to followers. This ideal, valid for every pious and merciful man, full of virtues, eliminate abuses. When Bonaventure Christian, yesterday, today and always, beloved of God and man ... God, in fact, began this service, the Order of Friars was indicated as a programme also for had given him such grace, that all those Minor had developed in a prodigious way. the Church of the Third Millennium by my who saw him were invaded by a love There were more than 30,000 friars predecessor, the Venerable John Paul II. that the heart could not conceal.” spread over the whole of the West, with a This programme, he wrote in the letter Let us take up the legacy of this missionary presence in North Africa, the Tertio Millennio Ineunte , is centred "on saint, doctor of the Church, who reminds Middle East and also Peking. It was Christ Himself, who must be known, loved us of the meaning of our life with these necessary to consolidate this expansion and imitated to live in Him the Trinitarian words: "On earth we can contemplate and above all to confer on it, in full fidelity life, and, with Him, to transform history to the divine immensity through reasoning to Francis' charism, unity of action and its fulfillment in the heavenly Jerusalem." and admiration; in the heavenly spirit. For this reason, Bonaventure homeland, instead, through vision, when wished to present the authentic charism Cardinal we will be made like to God, and through of Francis, his life and his teaching. In 1273 St Bonaventure's life met with ecstasy – we will enter into the joy of Hence he gathered with great zeal another change. Pope Gregory X wished God." I

Aug/Sept 2010 15 taking a Look in the Mirror!

A FRESH LOOK SR MARY BURKE, FMDM

Sr Mary Burke, FMDM, looks into the “mirror” proposed by St Clare.

few months ago I listened to a they are mirrors of our pain, our Society has, in some ways, become programme on BBC Radio 4. longings, our deepest desires and more and more narcissistic. Just as the Two women who had gradually provide a real “insight” into what is Greek god Narcissus fell in love with AloAst their eyesight were being inter - going on in our hearts and souls. This his own reflection and found he was viewed. They were each asked what for mirror is visible to those around us and unable to move away from its beauty so them was the hardest part of this very provides a window into our deepest our western society has become fasci - painful experience. One of them shared selves. I could well understand why this nated and, at the same time, entrapped that, for her, the most difficult thing was young mother felt that a very precious by the image that presents itself to us not to be able to see the faces of her and valuable gift had been taken from when we look in the mirror. husband and children. She went on to her. In the time of Clare of Assisi, explain that she could no longer see whose feast Franciscans celebrate this the feelings expressed in their eyes, Image of Christ month (11th August), the mirror was a feelings of joy, of sadness, of Today’s world is one in which we are relatively new innovation. In a world compassion, of love. It made me realise constantly presented with the need to steeped in imagery of knights and that so much of our emotional and portray a certain type of image. In fact chivalry, the mirror soon found a home spiritual lives can be read in our faces; the world is fascinated by image. among the mystics of the 12th and

St Anthony Brief 16 Consider Clare then asks Agnes to consider the Clare: mystery of Christ’s absolute love for her “a vessel of and for all of humanity and to imitate self-giving Christ. In other words, to put a human face on Christ, to consider and to love” contemplate Christ present in her sisters and brothers having first recognised him in herself – to see the Word of God inscribed on the face of each person. We know that we are all created in the image and likeness of Christ. These living “images of Christ” were revealed to Clare in small and simple ways in her daily life, in those Christ had called her to serve, her sisters and those who came to her convent in San Damiano. Clare again tells us in a fuller way some eighteen years after this first writing, to study ourselves in the mirror, the mirror being Christ, so that we can see the Father and at the same time see that we are called to be Images or Reflections of Christ, His Son. Images of His Love made flesh. You and I are “en-fleshed” images of Christ! Wow!

Centrality of Love As Franciscans we emphasise the centrality of love in our relationship with Christ. “God so loved the world that He gave His only son” is for us a powerful truth. We are created out of love, in love and for love. Sr Ilia Delio, quoting the Spanish Mystic Ramon Lull, tells us as much in her book Clare of Assisi – A Mirror of Love: “They asked the lover where he was from. He replied, ‘From Love.’ ‘What are you made of?’ ‘Love.’ 13th centuries. I would like to suggest For Clare gazing on Christ meant ‘Who conceived you?’ that Clare, particularly in her Second paying attention, focusing her gaze so ‘Love.” Letter to Agnes of Prague offers us that nothing else took the place of Christ ‘Where were you born?’ another way of looking at ourselves in in the eye of her soul. As mirrors were a ‘In love.’ the mirror. She encourages us to find novelty, and indeed probably a rarity, in ‘Who raised you?’ Christ within as we contemplate the Clare’s day it was not so easy to spend ‘Love.’ imago Dei or image of Christ within a lot of time looking into one. However, ‘What do you live on?’ each one of us. Clare’s call to Agnes to look into the ‘Love.’ mirror had little to do with vanity and ‘What is your name?’ Gaze everything to do with finding the real ‘Love.’ At the end of her Second Letter to image of Christ there. Clare calls Agnes ‘Where do you come from?’ Agnes of Prague Clare writes: to look in the mirror of her own soul, to ‘Love.’ “Gaze upon Christ, see the image of Christ as it is present ‘Where are you going?’ Consider Him, within her and seeing and loving the ‘To love.’ Contemplate Him, image of Christ there, to reach out and ‘Where are you now?’ As you desire to imitate Him.” love that image in all those she meets. ‘In love.’”

Aug/Sept 2010 17 Centred on Christ For Clare the Lover was undoubtedly Christ and loving Christ begins in Assisi: the Basilica of St Clare Clare’s view with our being able to love the “Christ” we see deep within us. It involves looking into the mirror of our hearts and minds, accepting our limita - tions, our poverty and yet knowing we are deeply loved and lovable. How do we centre ourselves in this love of Christ? Clare’s answer is simple, by surrendering, by letting ourselves be poor, dependent on Christ, by living the opposite of self- sufficiency and materialism, by sharing our lives and not just our resources, by knowing and appreciating the generosity of God in giving us Christ as our friend and brother.

Contemplate We often hear the expression “so and so is full of himself or herself.” Gazing on Christ is a process of emptying of “Heart totally immersed” self. If we gaze on Christ we have no option but to become empty of self. lare's contemplative journey begins in her total abandonment to the This emptying of self to be filled with Spirit of the Lord, in the same way as Mary did at the Annunciation: love demands a depth of self-reflection, C that is to say, it begins with that spirit of poverty which empties her of of contemplating, of seeing with the eye everything but the simplicity of a gaze fixed on God. Her writings are so of the heart, of seeing the depth of marked by the love stirred up in her by her loving, prolonged gazing upon God’s love in the fragility of one’s own life first, and, then in the fragility and Christ the Lord that it is not easy to express what only a woman's heart suffering lives of others. Only those could experience. For Clare, poverty – which she loved so much and who see into the depths of Christ, as mentioned so often in her writings – is the wealth of the soul which, Clare did, can love and be transformed stripped of its own goods, is open to the “Spirit of the Lord and His holy by love. As Ilia Delio again reminds us, manner of working,” like an empty shell in which God can pour out an it is only after such gazing that each of abundance of his gifts. us can say: “This is what I am: a In solitude and silence, the curtain of smoke of words and earthly things humble and broken person totally fades away, and communion with God becomes a reality: love which is born dependent on God. This is what I am and which gives of itself. Clare, bowed down in contemplating the Infant of called to be: as Christ was and is – a Bethlehem, exhorts us: Since this vision "is the splendour of eternal glory, the vessel of self-giving love.” brilliance of eternal light and the mirror without blemish, gaze upon that Clare’s gazing into the mirror of mirror each day.... Look at... the poverty of Him who was placed in a manger Christ’s love led her to desire to and wrapped in swaddling clothes. O marvellous humility! O astonishing become an image of Christ for those poverty! The King of angels, the Lord of heaven and earth, is laid in a around her. It called her, as it calls us, manger." into relationship. It brought her to the With the eyes of her body and of her heart totally immersed in the poor, fullness of life in Christ and enabled her humble Christ, Clare experiences this union which transforms her: "Place to reach out to others. So, when we your mind before the mirror of eternity," she writes to Agnes of Prague. next find ourselves looking in the mirror "Place your soul in the brilliance of glory! Place your heart in the figure of the might I suggest two things? Firstly, give divine substance! And transform your entire being into the image of the thanks to God for the image of Christ Godhead itself through contemplation, so that you too may feel what His which we find looking back at us and friends feel as they taste the hidden sweetness that God Himself has secondly, remember that all those we reserved from the beginning for those who love Him. Since you have cast meet and are called to love are images aside all those things which, in this deceitful and turbulent world, ensnare of that same Christ. The first will enable their blind lovers, love Him totally who gave Himself totally for your love." us to grow in Christ’s love for ourselves and the second to “imitate” Christ and – Pope John Paul II I Clare in our loving of others. I

St Anthony Brief 18 10-Day National Franciscan Pilgrimage to the Holy Land Led by Fr Bernard Jones, OFM Commissary of the Holy Land 4-13 October 2010

All pics courtesy of: FreeStockPhotos.com

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Aug/Sept 2010 19 Fr Patrick Conlan, OFM, looks at the establishment of the Franciscan Province of Our Lady Queen of Peace, in South Africa.

April 1985: Minister General, John Vaughan (centre), establishes the new Province. the Franciscan Province in South Africa

he first Franciscan, Fr Daniel 1949 and became Bishop of Kokstad The friars took over a minor seminary Burke from Co. Clare, arrived in when the South African hierarchy was in Boksburg in 1957. In 1965 a coloured South Africa in 1838 but died erected in 1951. township was set up at Reiger Park. TsToon after. The Vicariate of Marianhill One friar took over and developed a under Bishop Adalbero Fleischer was Towns and Townships huge complex with medical facilities, an split off from the Vicariate of Natal in Archbishop Lucas also asked the Irish Aids clinic, a day centre, a language 1921. He invited Franciscans from friars to staff a seminary for white laboratory, a computer centre and Bavaria to his mission. They concen - clerics. It opened in Queenstown in several schools. trated around Kokstad from 1935. Most 1948, moving to a permanent site in of the Catholics were families of Irish Pretoria in 1951. Bishop Hugh Boyle of English and German Friars soldiers. The Prefecture of Mount Currie Johannesburg invited Irish friars to the The English Franciscans came to South was erected there in 1935 under Fr Vaal Triangle to the south of the city. Africa in 1948. They were assigned Blasé Sigibald Kurz, OFM, becoming the This was the industrial heartland of Ermelo Mission in the Diocese of Vicariate of Mount Currie in 1939. South Africa with white towns to the Lydenburg. Boers dominated the area Bishop Kurz and most of the German south and black townships between and talked of the rooms gevaar , the missionaries were interned as enemy them and the city. The Irish friars began danger from Rome. Blacks or Catholics aliens during World War II. He resigned in three white town parishes in 1955 and were not welcome. The friars opened a in 1945 and returned to China where he then moved into the townships, particu - second house at Standerton. The first had worked for twenty years. larly Sharpeville. church for blacks opened nearby in The German friars in Kokstad were Protests again apartheid began there 1954. The friars took on the Prefecture exhausted by the end of the war. in 1960. A friar was injured on the day of Volksrust on 24th April 1958 with Fr Archbishop Lucas, Apostolic Delegate in the riots started. The friars supported the Christopher Ulyatt as Prefect. This South Africa, approached the Irish blacks in their struggle for civil liberties included the original mission and parts Franciscans. Four Irish friars arrived in over the next twenty years. The of the dioceses of Lydenburg, Kokstad late in 1946. The Minister government expelled one friar and put Bremersdorp and Durban with the towns Provincial, Fr Evangelist McBride, took several under police surveillance. They of Newcastle and Ladysmith. It was a over as Vicar Apostolic. He was conse - became involved in such cases as the beautiful area under English influence crated as Bishop of Ezani in Dublin in Sharpeville Six. and mainly Zulu territory. The prefecture

St Anthony Brief 20 became the Diocese of Dundee in 1982 with Michael Paschal Rowland, OFM, as bishop. Franciscans from Bavaria got the mission of Zululand within the Diocese of Eshowe in 1963. It was centred on Holy Cross mission. Individual friars worked in such places as Capetown. The friars were doing a good job implanting the Church among black, coloured and white Catholics. The home Provinces were strong. Little attention was given to the future of the Order in South Africa. Men wanting to follow St Francis were brought to Europe for New beginnings: Fr Liam McDermott, the first Provincial studies. The first white South African for in South Africa, with the late Fr John Hanley, OFM. the Irish Province came to Killarney in 1954 and the first black in 1959. Province) and Fr Liam Slattery (Irish April 1985. Fr John Vaughan was the Governing the various missions from Province). The choice reflected different principal concelebrant at the Mass. The Europe became unwieldy. The Irish ministries. The Vicar, formerly Custos, local ordinary, Bishop Michael Rowland, houses in Pretoria, around had been involved in formation. Frs OFM, of Dundee along with Bishop Johannesburg and in Kokstad were Lucas and Egbert worked in the Diocese Wilfrid Napier, OFM, of Kokstad, gathered into a commissariate in 1959, of Kokstad. Fr Neil ministered in the presided. Local choirs sang in Zulu, upgraded to a custody in 1968. Diocese of Dundee and Fr Canisius in Sesotho, Xhosa and English. The Zululand. Frs Liam and Bonaventure Councillors accepted their appointments Province Established were involved with the seminary in from the Minister General. A great day Falling vocations in Europe focused Pretoria. There were 86 friars in the new was had by all. minds during the 1970s. A formation entity: two bishops (one English, one The friars in South Africa began ratio - programme was needed in South Africa. South African), 42 Irish, 18 English, 18 nalising structures, beginning with the The Franciscan Federation of Southern South African and six Bavarian. The existing system of formation. Slowly friars Africa was set up in 1977. Friars Provincial took up residence at moved to assignments outside their belonged to their home Provinces but Vanderbijlpark in the Vaal Triangle. areas, depending on their knowledge of could undertake joint action. A novitiate native languages. Twenty-five years on opened in Besters in 1980, followed by Celebration two Irish friars are in the old English friary a student house near Pretoria in 1980. The American Minister General, Fr John in Ladysmith. Two more are part of a new The friars studied at the seminary in Vaughan., along with the Dutch Definitor foundation in Namibia. Wilfrid Napier Pretoria. A pre-novitiate was established General, Fr Anselm Moons, arrived from from Kokstad is Cardinal Archbishop of in 1982. Young men underwent Rome in April 1985 for the formal Durban. Bishop Rowland in Dundee has formation in their own country and inauguration of the new Province. Frs retired. Liam Slattery is Bishop of vocations increased. Friars started David O’Reilly and Luke Faupel, Kokstad. There are now 73 friars in the thinking in African rather than European Ministers Provincial of Ireland and Province: three bishops, 50 priests, one ways. It was time to restructure the England joined them. The group set off deacon, eight brothers and eleven in Franciscan presence in South Africa. by road for the long journey to Besters. formation. The Franciscans in South The matter of one Province in South The big day was Easter Thursday, 12th Africa are flourishing in their own right. I Africa passed to the Minister General in Rome. He issued the decree creating the Vice-Province of Our Lady Queen of Peace on 30th March 1985. It became a Province when certain formalities were tidied up. Rome appointed the first council. The Vicar, soon Minister Provincial, was Fr Liam McDermott (Irish Province) assisted by Fr Neil McGovern (Irish born, English Province). The Councillors were Fr Lucas Bambezele (African born, Irish Province), Fr Canisius Bertsch (Bavarian Province), Fr Bonaventure Hinwood (African born, Irish Province), Fr Egbert O’Dea (Irish A growing Province: a Provincial Chapter in 1990s

Aug/Sept 2010 21 News from around the . . . Franciscan World

Romania – Pilgrimage to SFO Congress Solemn Profession. The young men Csiksomlyo From 8th-13th May 2010, Friar Ivan were from six different Franciscan Matic, Assistant General of the SFO- entities in Eastern Europe, including Marian shrine: YouFra, participated in the third Ukraine. The gathering of the friars throngs of Congress of SFO-YouFra of Asia- included quality time in prayer and people Oceania held in Karukutty in Kerala, India. There were about 100 representa - tives from different countries of Asia/Oceania with their Spiritual Romanian Minister Provincial, Szabolcs Assistants in Orban, invited the Minister General Jose attendance. The Carballo to participate in the pilgrimage to the main theme of Franciscan Shrine of our Lady of Csiksomlyo the Congress in the northeastern part of the country. This was: “SFO for Heads down: friars p great event took place on 22nd May on the the Church and reparing for Solemn Profession vigil of Pentecost, in honour of the Virgin the World.” do a group exercise Mary; it drew a huge crowd of 400,000 to During the 500,000 people on foot to the mountain Congress there were moments of meditation, and a retreat day. There despite rain and mud. The fervour displayed formation and fraternal sharing about was also time for reflections on by the numerous pilgrims was quite moving. the reality of the SFO-YouFra in Franciscan spirituality, the vows, and In the afternoon, the Minister General met different countries of Asia-Oceania. the theology of religious life. We entrust with the friars of the Province of St Steven the all these young friars to the intercession King. On Pentecost Sunday Fr Szabolcs Spiritual Preparation of both St Francis and St Clare so that presided over the Eucharist in the Marian Thirty-five young friars approaching they can follow Christ with zeal and Shrine before a sizeable crowd. The homily, their final commitment in the Franciscan enthusiasm by bearing witness to the however, was delivered by the Minister life gathered at the shrine of Mount St Gospel with love and courage in the General translated by Fr Szabolcs. Anna in Poland to prepare for their world today. I

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St Anthony Brief 22 Caminata Penitencial 2010 Fr Billy Hoyne, OFM, tells of a pilgrimage in Guatemala. Dawn in Antigua

n 1995 Fray Francisco Boche (some Many groups of walkers, including rural communities. At the half-way stage years ago he did an English summer SFO members, came from areas in the in San Lucas Sacatepéquez a midnight course in Gormanston College) and interior of the country, where mining Mass was celebrated and Fray IfIifteen Franciscan novices helped revive a operations, the activities of petrol and Francisco Boche was the main concele - local pilgrimage, walking 35km from hydroelectric companies, and the brant. After Mass the local SFO Ciudad San Cristobal to the shrine of negative effects of cement works will, it members supplied us with some much Christ Entombed, in San Felipe de Jesús, is feared, cause serious environmental appreciated coffee and buns and we Antigua Guatemala. With the support of damage, not least to the drinking water, began the second leg of the walk, the Franciscan Centre, the SFO, JPIC, as well as jeopardising livelihoods. In downhill to Antigua. On route we prayed JUFRA, various Franciscan congregations San Juan Sacatepéquez the people the Rosary and the day was dawning and youth groups this annual Lenten have organised to protest against the when we arrived sore and tired, but event now attracts between one and two activities of Cementos Progreso. The content, at the Basilica of San Francisco thousand walkers. The theme chosen for cultivation of flowers is one of San el Grande, the shrine of Santo Hermano this year’s walk was taken from Pope Juan’s only sources of income, and dust Pedro de Betancourt (canonised by Benedict’s message for the 2010 World from the cement works will ruin this rural Pope John Paul II in Antigua in 2006), Day of Peace: “Promote Peace by industry. The results of a consultation where we were welcomed by the friars Protecting the Environment”, transformed with the community, showing and the local SFO. into the slogan “Save the Planet and overwhelming opposition to the cement A couple of months afterwards, in Yourself With It!” works, have been ignored and five of its April, when Evo Morales, President of This year the walk left from Miixco, community leaders have been Bolivia, spoke at the World Peoples about 40km from Antigua. As the walkers imprisoned. In other districts community Conference on Climate Change and the assembled the Franciscan students built leaders have paid with their lives. Rights of Mother Earth, he echoed Pope up our spirits with some lively hymns. Fr Along the way we were accompanied Benedict’s World Day of Peace message Gerry Moore, Director of the Franciscan by the Outdoor Broadcast Unit of Radio saying: “To guarantee human rights fully Centre, gave a stirring talk on the need to Maria, which interviewed people in the 21st century, it is necessary to protect the environment and we set out at involved in the struggle to protect the recognise and respect the rights of 8.00pm. livelihood and way of life of different Mother Earth.” Food for thought! I

Franciscan students in Antigua Mass in San Lucas Aug/Sept 2010 23 Saint of the Lepers

THE SPIRIT’S SURPRISES FR TOM RUSSELL, OFM

r Gearóid’s winsome account ( St Anthony Brief , February/March 2010) of eight-year-old AIDS FvFictim Tam and his tuxedo reminded me of my own first direct contact with the scourge. I was returning to the mission where I lived in Zimbabwe when I was flagged down on the road. There was a very ill young man to be seen. He was in great physical distress and sweating profusely. I was stunned. I helped him as best I could. He died shortly afterwards. The Blue Sisters at the mission explained that I had met the new Hiv infection as full blown and deadly Aids. Little was known about it back then in 1988. I can never forget the awful tragedy of a fine young English doctor who died just then, most likely through contaminated blood splashed during operations. The need to take full precau - tions had not as yet been fully grasped. Even then some saw Aids as God’s punishment on immoral lifestyles. Others, thankfully, saw it as a scourge to be studied and confronted. Anti-retroviral medicine was still to come. It was all so new, so silent, so real, so devastating and so deadly. Similar mind-sets played out in the previous century as regards that ancient Fr tom Russell, OFM, enemy, leprosy. The authorities in Hawaii began first to isolate and then celebrates the wonderful life forcibly remove lepers of any age to the island of Molokai in 1865. This was seen of loving dedication lived by as a tragic necessity as there was no cure for this highly contagious disease St Damien of Molokai. just as with Hiv today. However, the One who has become “a worm and no man” Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Recollection, Prayer” on his desk. His was watching over the lepers and caring Jesus and Mary (Picpus Fathers) older brother was also a priest with the about them. The Risen Christ prepared founded by Fr Coudrin in 1800. Fr new congregation. He was booked to go a chosen soul to help, as He would with Coudrin set much store by what we term to the South Sea Islands when he Mother Teresa for the abandoned in later “adoration” today. We read that Damien became very ill during a typhus days. would volunteer for the 2.00am Holy epidemic. Damien volunteered to take Damien de Veuster was the chosen Hour while still a student. This practice his place. He arrived in Hawaii in 1864 helper. He was born of farming stock in would become second nature to him. He and was ordained a priest that same Belgium in 1840. He grew up to join the engraved the words: “Silence, year.

St Anthony Brief 24 Mission Field support. He minded their money, began Order of the Knight Commander of the The Catholic faith had a hard beginning them gardening, got them singing in Royal Order of King Kalakaua. on the islands. The first Mass had been choirs that were soon to be famous. Damien set up orphanages as even celebrated in Hawaii by Fr Bachelot in Bishop Margret on a visit heard them small children would be forcibly removed 1827. However the king issued an sing a Mozart Mass. Each time the from their parents if ill. He began a ordinance rejecting the Catholic religion inter-island steamer called by and school for boys with great success. The in 1837. Some extreme Protestants had dumped more lepers in the shallows authorities did send in food rations and swayed him. The French intervened to Damien made sure to welcome them. Damien began herds of cows to provide change his mind and in 1842 we read of He would calm their bewildered state milk, not to mention pigs, poultry and the ship Marie Joseph, carrying seven with food, coffee, blankets, anything to fishing. He helped the people to priests, seven brothers and ten sisters, cushion the blow. Some 3,000 lepers celebrate their Hawaian festivals as well that was lost with all on board en route would be cast onto the to the islands. island during the 16 The young Damien came into this years he could spend new and expanding mission field and with them. He always worked on the “big island” Hawaii for welcomed them some years. He excelled at farming and personally. building chapels and schools. He reminds one of the hands-on approach A Human Tornado of Fr Shanahan in Nigeria just a little The lepers themselves later. In 1873 Bishop Margret discussed could only but watch the plight of the lepers on Molokai with this human tornado with his priests. Damien was present and, amazement. As they did along with three other priests, volun - they began to move teered on the spot to go there full-time, from apathy and despair just as St Francis Xavier had volun - to interest and concern. teered overnight for India. Damien was A human community chosen and Bishop Margret brought him began to develop. But it to the island on 10th May 1873. He had was his fearless direct brought a man who, he told the people, contact with their disease “will be a father to you.” Fr Damien that stunned them. He pitched his tent under a pandanus tree. was a hands-on servant, There was some 800 lepers in that washing them, cleaning isolated part of the island. Damien woke their wounds, visiting to face into a scene of utter physical them. There was a small and moral chaos and degradation where hospital with little despair reigned. The shocking state of medicine available. A the lepers resulted from the disease, trained nurse, William from the forced separation with no Williamson, was sent and return ticket. God had sent them a one book tells us that “he strong, robust and enterprising young began to teach Fr Damien Flemish apostle. He would be powerful everything he knew about with axe, spade and hammer in their drugs, dosages, surgery, midst. bandages, amputations, There was no care for the dead. disinfections and general Damien first confronted this awful humil - hygiene.” Damien went to iation. He marked out a graveyard, the the hospital each day and Garden of the Dead. He dug all the visited each leper once a graves, six feet deep, himself; the week, caring for them and Hands-on approach: daily personal care lepers could not. He began to make washing out their homes. It was a world as normal Christian holy days. He coffins and would make up to 1,200 of sores, pus, wounds and rotting flesh personally built the churches at eventually. The people now had the but he shirked nothing. Kalaupape and Kalawao. dignity of decent burials with prayer. Queen Liliuokalani and her As time went on news of his work There was no real water supply. He entourage came on a famous visit in spread far and wide, and he had became a water-carrier and worked 1881. It was simply traumatic even if admirers and detractors in plenty. Some towards a secure water system. He built deeply appreciated by the lepers who priests came to help him or to hinder himself a small shack and soon began gave them a great welcome. Some of him in time. Other people denounced to help the people build decent homes. the queen’s party had relatives on the him as rude, rash and immoral. Wasn’t His name was in the newspapers and island. She was delighted with what she leprosy after all a punishment sent from gradually he could rely on plenty of saw and presented Fr Damien with the on high? In his final years his then

Aug/Sept 2010 25 religious superior and bishop didn’t together. Their heroic service seem to trust him, and he felt very struck a chord with English people isolated. However Fr Lambert Conrardy, especially Rev Hugh Chapman in a Belgian diocesan priest, came in 1888 London. He and his co-workers and was a real help. He had once would send the then princely sum worked with the Indian people in of £2,600 to help the work within a Oregon. He outlasted Damien on few short years. Edward Clifford Molokai and went on to begin a was a great benefactor. He came in leprosarium in China where he died in person bearing many gifts 1915. Mother Marianne Cope and six especially a new-fangled barrel Franciscan Sisters also came to help in organ that could play 40 tunes. He 1888. Their skill and dedication changed brought a water colour of St Francis things. Mother Marianne would be receiving the holy wounds or beatified in 2005. stigmata. Damien treasured this, keeping it in his own room. The A Leper Himself dazed visitor found himself brought One day in 1884 Fr Damien spilt hot on a tour of rows of small white water on his foot but felt nothing. A bad houses, neat gardens, small farm sign. He was diagnosed as being now in plots, livestock, chapels, tidy roads phase one of leprosy and his famous and cemetery. He was later to write a “We lepers”: phrase “we lepers” was heard by all. book about his visit. ravaged by the God sent him a wonderful helper in Ira Leprosy took its toll on Damien disease Barnes Dutton. This ex-solider came, and yet he worked away until he died like the nuns, from America. He was a on 15th April 1889. Those present professed Franciscan Tertiary known to said he simply gave over his life like a famous line-by-line, blow-by-blow rebuttal one and all as Brother Joseph. He would child with a small smile on his face. He to the Rev Hyde and that cloud dissi - remain for 44 years. James Sinnott from was buried under the pandanus tree pated. Ireland came to the hospital and Damien where he had begun. Such a death Pope John Paul II beatified Damien in called him Brother James. These men reverberated around the world and 1995. In his homily he said: “He drew his worked from 4.30 in the morning until nowhere more than in the medical strength from gazing on the Blessed 11.00 at night. They not only nursed the community which went on to neutralise Sacrament, the mystery of love, in which sick but built tables, homes and chapels and defeat the scourge. Gandhi said: Christ truly gives Himself to the one who “The political and journalistic world can receives Him, inviting him to give himself boast of very few totally. ‘I find my consolation in the one heroes who Friend who never leaves me,’ he said, Molo kai: a church on compare with speaking of the real presence of Christ in the island today Father Damien of the tabernacle.” Fr Damien wrote of the Molokai... it is good central role of the Eucharist in his life: to look for the “We are setting up Perpetual Adoration in sources of such both our churches. It is quite difficult to heroism.” maintain regular hours on account of the infirmities of our dear adorers, but if they The Mystery are unable to go to the chapel to do their of Love half-hour adoration at the appointed time It is fair, just before how edified I am to see them at that very we look deeper, to time praying on their sick bed” (1879). note that Fr Damien “Without the Blessed Sacrament a was attacked in an situation like mine would be unbearable” amazing way after (1881). “Without the constant presence of his death by a our Divine Master in my humble chapel, I certain Protestant could never have committed to throw in minister, Rev Hyde. my lot with that of the lepers of Molokai” He was said to have (1886). been a bad, immoral Pope Benedict XVI canonised St man punished by Damien of Molokai on 11th October God with leprosy. 2009. He was buried in Leuven, Belgium. The author, Robert His heart was kept at Molokai. His final Louis Stevenson, was words to us: “Do not worry about me for living in Hawaii at the when one serves God one is happy time. He delivered a anywhere.” I St Anthony Brief 26 the Soul of the Church

FAITH IN ACTION FR GEARÓID Ó CONAIRE, OFM

In the light of the present Church crisis Fr Gearóid Ó Conaire, OFM, gives examples of the extraordinary work for the common good being done by religious.

Religious: serving a broken world

n the light of serious and often religious in South Sudan. He met Sr. asked in the developed world more than justified criticism of how religious Cathy Arata who is involved in the likely the person being asked will point handled child sexual abuse, it is Solidarity with South Sudan Project. I to a building. For many, including the iImIportant to remind ourselves, despite wrote about it last year. Although it is a media, the “Church” is identified with unfortunate failures, of the extent tendentious and somewhat unfair article, bishops, priests and Vatican institutions. Catholic religious are involved in he comments that it is at the grass roots They are part of the Church, but not the promoting and defending the common that he finds “the great soul of the whole Church. It is unfortunate that the good through a myriad of human devel - Catholic Church.” He notes that he is Vatican II concept of Church as “the opment and spiritual-based projects all “awed that so many of the selfless People of God” has not been more over the world. There are nearly 2,000 people serving the world’s neediest are seriously assumed in the so-called “First women’s religious institutes, members of lowly nuns and priests – notable not for World” and, to be fair, by many in the so- the International Union of Superiors the grandeur of their vestments but for called “Third World.” The concept of General (UISG) and 200 men’s religious the grandness of their compassion.” Church as People of God is an inclusive institutes, members of the Union of one of all the baptised. Its focus is Superiors General (USG), present and The Soul of the Catholic Church? placed on baptism rather than priestly working in every corner of the world. It is Very often blanket condemnations are ordination or religious profession as the estimated that there are close to one made against the “Catholic Church.” principal sacrament of the Catholic million religious. What in fact is the “Catholic Church?” If Church. In Latin America, perhaps to The New York Times correspondent you ask an ordinary person in El some extent because of the lack of Nicholas D. Kristof published an article Salvador where the Church is, they will clergy, evangelisation has been on 1st May entitled Who Can Mock This be confused by the question, but will assumed to a much greater extent by Church in which he admits to being eventually ask whether you mean “who the baptised – ordinary men and inspired by the commitment of so many is the Church?” If a similar question is women. They have assumed ownership

Aug/Sept 2010 27 of the Church and feel responsibility for financial support from the Italian Franciscans International is one of it, even though bishops and priests are Episcopal Conference and serviced by these NGOs. The objective is to largely “still in charge.” Nigerian sisters. This is an example of influence policy from a Gospel But being “still in charge” is much how religious women are responding in perspective in favour of the common more nuanced, the clergy seek to provide practical ways. UNANIMA , an NGO good. We all know big business and for greater participation by laity, not only umbrella group of several congregations, other interest groups work tirelessly to in implementing pastoral projects, but in is also working against human trafficking influence socio-political and economic the decision-making processes, particu - by advocating at national and interna - policy in their favour. This arena provides larly through parish councils that have tional levels for adequate legal frame - a new space for evangelisation. Instead moved beyond the rubber stamp status works. Trafficking is a very lucrative of just dealing with the consequences of historically associated with many of them. business and carries fewer penalties for unjust or plain bad legislation, religious Let us pray that the present crisis in our the perpetrators than for other crimes. In are increasingly becoming involved in Church in Ireland will be a catalyst for a some countries convicted drug traffickers contributing to policy, at the drafting radical change in approach to being pay with their lives. stages, to ensure that the common good Church, particularly to a more inclusive is respected and promoted in every and participative model. Let us pray that Religious at the UN arena affecting human life, dignity and a real sense of community and mutual Religious have traditionally tended to the ecosystems on which life depends. I responsibility will develop between involve themselves in frontier ministry would like to highlight two examples of bishops, priests, religious and laity. and mission. Many dioceses have been advocacy work by religious: one in established by religious. Some countries favour of Indigenous People’s rights Some Experiences – Religious owe a significant part of their educational through the UN and another to prevent Spreading the Good News and health systems to religious. In a water being privatised in Croatia. I would like to share some examples of word, religious try to respond to needs – what religious are doing to build to “signs of the times.” Many religious Indigenous People’s Rights community and bring the Good News of a institutes have tended to respond to The Order of Mary Immaculate (OMI) loving God to our world. In many parts of immediate needs. There has been a works with Indigenous Peoples from the world it is common to find religious growing consciousness among religious around the world. The United Nations collaborating with laity, other religious, not only of the need to provide “food for Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous other faith communities and groups of the hungry” but to ensure they can Peoples was accepted by the General civil society. There is a growing provide it for themselves. Congregations Assembly after an arduous 20-year consciousness, in the light of global have freed-up members to work at and process. Religious were particularly economic, social and political challenges, with United Nations (UN) in an NGO involved in the latter stages, lobbying that it is no longer an option to work capacity. Likewise, they have representa - along with others in New York in the last alone. tives following the work of international months before the vote in the General institutions such as the World Bank, Assembly. As little as a month before the Anti-trafficking Working Group International Monetary Fund (IMF), etc. vote they could still count about 60 I wrote an article in the Brief about religious women working against human trafficking. From a small seed planted twelve years ago and thanks to an education project jointly developed with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), an international network called TalithaKum was established in 2009. They were involved in a campaign to prevent the World Cup Soccer Championship in South Africa from becoming another arena of exploitation of vulnerable women and children.

An Italian Experience Italian religious have established over 100 centres of refuge to care for and protect victims of trafficking. Some time ago, Nigerian women were being deported without any support system for them on arrival. This led to serious diffi - culties with their families and some were even trafficked back again. Eventually, a half-way house was built in Lagos with St Anthony Brief 28 Croatia: Fr Boze fighting the privatisation of water countries which decided to vote against the issue, including support from the and I remembered the difficult and tiring the Declaration. A great deal of expla - Episcopal Conference and other civil work and wondered would I have the nation and visiting country missions society groups. The relevant government energy and passion to begin again. I (embassies) eventually assured that the ministry invited Fr Boze and other expert shared my doubts with Ed and asked Declaration was approved. Only four advisers to become members of the him why, after getting a diagnosis of countries finally voted against (USA, National Strategy Team on Water. It is incurable cancer, he continued to begin Canada, Australia, New Zealand) and hoped that new legislation will be intro - again. He told me that his vocation was one of those, Australia, has since duced on water soon. to help create community. changed its vote. Ed was also inspired by Mons. An Inclusive Church for an Romero who in September 1978 spoke Religious Influence on Croatian Inclusive Society about the importance of community Government’s Water Policy At the core of evangelisation, whether during his Sunday homily. He said: Fr Boze Vuleta, OFM, on receiving a we are lay or religious, is the devel - “What does Christ himself say? copy of a booklet on water published by opment of inclusive communities ‘Where two or three gather in my name, JPIC promoters in Rome, realised that it reflective of the love and concern of God there am I in their midst.’ was an important issue for Croatia. The for every person and every creature. I Thank you, Lord. Institute of Peace in Split published a am reminded of what a good Franciscan For where there is community that revised edition of the booklet for Croatia. friend Br Ed Dunne, who worked with begins to reflect on your words with During the research for the book, which me in El Salvador, said a few months religious sincerity, there you are, included several round-table discussions before he died. I visited him in Cabo San Christ, the Blessed One, humanity’s of experts, the team realised that the Luis in Mexico, on the other side of a Liberator. Croatian government was about to very prosperous tourist town, where he How my heart is filled with hope by a introduce water legislation. The team was ministering to poor migrant families. Church where grassroots commu - managed to highlight some of the more We helped develop Basic Christian nities flourish! extreme deficiencies in the government’s Communities in Salvador. For anyone I must ask my dear brother priests to national strategy which led to a national familiar with community organising you make communities flourish every - re-think in 2004. The group was the first will appreciate that nothing can where – in neighbourhoods, in to question the issue concerning the substitute for personal contact. 15 years villages, among families. privatisation of water resources and later I met Ed sitting in front of a make- For ‘where two or three gather in my some possible negative consequences, shift dwelling waiting for the people he name,’ there is the sacramental in a country that has extensive water had visited earlier that day to come sign.” I resources. The publicity helped together to pray and reflect with him. My [email protected] galvanise Christians to work together on mind returned to the days of El Salvador

Aug/Sept 2010 29 MISSION DIGEST

POOR CLARES, HARARE

Founded from Spain in 1985, the Sisters in the Monastery of St Clare live beside the parish church of St Francis, Harare. ey are an essential part of the Franciscan Family in Zimbabwe.

St Anthony Brief 30 Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, e Holy sue about the conflict in th r Ó Conaire in your last is The article by F l of Israel’s disgraceful s I read it the news was ful Land was very topical. A elief to the y to bring humanitarian r f the aid ships on their wa he seizure o trong and loud from both t f Gaza. The protests were s suffering people o within a short time itizens. But I am sure that government and ordinary c ll be forgotten once again. the issue wi he sort of e will not be peace there – t a true change of heart ther Until there is Rabbi Jeremy and cle spoke of when telling of change of heart the arti t in the article to not believe that the reques s for Human Rights”. I do l that “Rabbi s is the right way to go. Al ng a boycott of Israeli good consider supporti nfirm a sense of being n attitudes in Israel and co would do would be to harde by the world. victims and not understood salem!” “Pray for the peace of Jeru Peter Byrne, Dublin. Dear Fr Ulic, I was delighted to read the lovely honest article written by Sr Teresa Daly telling of her vocation to be a Sister of St Clare. To see such a beautiful young woman want to give her life to the Lord in the religious life during these difficult Please write times is very encouraging. I pray that she may be very your letters, happy and do much good within the Church. comments and Mary Burke, SFO, suggestions, to: Limerick. The Editor, St Anthony Brief, Dear Fr Ulic, s a little Franciscan yearly subscription plu close my cheque for my the I en ve the *Brief+ and find Missionary missions. My family lo extra for the ifficult times. I and consoling in these d articles inspirational ve the Union, ote, Fr Troy, as you ha lly like your Editor,s N especia le are wondering or Merchants’ ng to exactly what peop knack of referri e prayers of include my family in th Quay, worrying about. Please your community. Dublin 8. Yours sincerely, Mrs Alice Finn, Co. Cork. BrLynch_GardaAD27922 28/01/2010 12:43 Page 1