SPRING 2007

SERVICE & celebratION

When I served YOU A as vocation director for our community, I formed an advisory board of both Paulists and laity. We PAULIST? met every few months at the Paulist residence next to our mother church of Saint in . One evening the members of the board joined all of the men in the house for dinner. At the meeting afterward, one of the board members made an 11, 1957, by Bishop James him to the Paulist junior religious relations. seeing to the practical side observation that really struck me. A. Griffiths in the Paulist seminary in Baltimore at of Vatican II.” Since 1988, mother church, St. Paul the age 13. Helmich entered The church was taking its Jerusalem’s Tantur Institute “We have just encountered a first steps in enfleshing wonderful advertisement for the Apostle in New York City. the Army Air Corps when has been Stransky’s home, Paulists.” This person went on to McCabe and Pietrucha he graduated from high Vatican II when Stransky “and if it be God’s will, explain: “Many of the men at dinner was elected president of the tonight are in senior ministry status— also cite the vocations school in 1942. He found my home until death and ordained 40, 50 or more years. They pamphlet as their the Paulists in 1950. Paulists in 1970, bringing burial.” Rector of the are alive, they are smiling, they are introduction him back to . Ecumenical Institute for happy after so many years of serving Each of these priests He still grieves the loss of so as Paulist priests. They are proof of to the Paulists. Theological Studies until how worthwhile this life can be.” “You a And a lingering cites the impact of the many priests during those 1995, and now emeritus, Paulist?” astonishment still colors Second Vatican Council years, but at the same time Stransky has taught more Once again this May, we are honoring on his priesthood and he rejoices in the Paulists our Golden Jubilarians who total 250 Just a few words, printed their memories of the than 2,500 theology years of service to the church. The over 50 years ago in a vocations director, the on the church for which who remained, “zealously students. Continued on pg. 2 members of the class of 1957 have Paulist vocations pamphlet, late Paulist Father Francis he was ordained. None used their talents in so many different experienced Vatican II ways—promoting ecumenical but invested with the power Timothy McGough. “Father relations at the Second Vatican to change lives. “I became McGough didn’t waste more immediately than Council; welcoming Puerto Rican haunted by its question— Stransky who was studying and Cuban immigrants to the West time,” says Pietrucha. “I Side of Manhattan; directing Family What talents could you give went to the vocations office in Rome in 1959 when Life Ministry for an archdiocese; to the church as a Paulist?” for information and in half Pope John XXIII announced as president of the community, as his plan to convoke the novice master and as pastors. They Father Thomas Stransky, an hour I was signed up. I responded to the promptings of the CSP, remembers. Along never looked back.” Council. Stransky became Spirit to share in the work begun by with Stransky, Paulist an original staff member of and his companions 149 McKiernan grew up the Vatican Secretariat for years ago. And indeed they witness Fathers James McCabe, to how fulfilling this life is. We Ed Pietrucha, Vinny with the Paulists at Good Christian Unity, and helped congratulate them and the two who McKiernan and George Shepherd Parish in New to draft three of the final are celebrating their silver jubilee. York City. “They were the 16 Council documents: We sadly note that one of the men Helmich are celebrating ordained in 1982, Father Tom Jones, 50 years of priesthood. only priests I knew,” he on religious freedom, Father Thomas Stransky, CSP. went home to the Lord in January. A They were ordained May says. And his vocation took and inter- pastor, former Paulist vice president and first consultor, may he now rest in peace. Yes, these jubilarians discerned TWO PAULISTS 25 YEARS where the Spirit was leading and in part their response was to carry on Celebrate the work of Isaac Hecker. We are now P aulist Fathers Paul Huesing and Eleven years later, with a Ph.D. “basic” experience of priesthood. students at UCLA was a highlight of approaching the 150th Anniversary of the founding of the Paulists. I want to Frank Desiderio were ordained in psychology and experience He loved the city and its people. my priesthood,” he says. highlight two anniversary invitations. on May 22, 1982. They support in psychological research and Now Huesing is working out of the There will be two retreats offering the Paulist mission and serve the development, he entered the Paulist Paulist Center in Boston as part Desiderio worked in radio you the opportunity to reflect upon production with the late Paulist St. Paul, the legacy of Father Hecker church now on opposite coasts. novitiate. “I have been happy in all of the effort to build up regional and the presence of the Spirit in your my assignments,” he says. identity for the Paulists. His New Father Jack Mulhall while earning a own life and that of the Paulists. In Huesing was the newspaper editor graduate degree in communications addition, there will two chances to England outreach focuses on Paulist retrace the steps of Father Hecker at St. Thomas More College in Those assignments have been evangelization through young management at the Annenberg from his entrance into the church to Covington, , when he mainly in two areas: information adult ministry. School at the University of Southern the beginnings of the Paulist Fathers. encountered the Paulists through centers in Grand Rapids and . After his years in I encourage you to look at our newly designed Website: www.paulist.org an ad they placed in the paper. Toronto, and campus ministry at Desiderio grew up in the Washington, Desiderio returned and refer to the section entitled 150th the University Washington, DC, area and followed to California to work with Father Anniversary for more details. of Texas in an interest in media work to Bud Kieser at Paulist Productions Please join in thanking God for Austin and at the Paulists, linking up with the in Los Angeles. When Kieser died the years of service of our Paulist the University community at St. Paul’s College. in 2000, Desiderio followed him jubilarians. I do hope that you will be of Colorado Midway in his 25 Paulist years, as president. Paulist Productions able to join with us for some of the events as we celebrate 150 years of in Boulder. Desiderio returned to St. Paul’s is currently working on a feature Paulist mission to the church in Being pastor College for seven years to direct the documentary on forgiveness to North America. at St. Thomas formation of Paulist students. The be completed this spring. Paulist Father John Duffy, CSP Aquinas in rest of his ministry has taken place Productions is on the Internet at President Boulder was a in California. “Working with college www.paulistproductions.org. Father Paul Huesing, CSP. Father Frank Desiderio, CSP. Father George Helmich, CSP, left. 50th Anniversaries con’t. from pg. 1

Father Vinny McKiernan, CSP.

Father Ed Pietrucha, CSP. “Perhaps more fruitful,” he says, “has been the Tantur ministry of helping Homestead Air Force Base in Florida From his first Paulist assignment, Israelis and Palestinians, Jews, during the Cuban missile crisis; he working with the Puerto Rican Muslims and Christians to uncover was proud to have joined Cardinal community at St. Paul the Apostle the human face and heart in Francis Spellman during one of his in New York, to his current ministry each other.” Christmas visits to the troops in in Tucson, Pietrucha’s facility with Father James McCabe, CSP. Father Vinny McKiernan, who Korea. “He has a big heart,” says languages has served the Paulist was just a boy when he entered the Paulist Father Bill Cantwell. mission. His first pastorate, at St. Paulist seminary, spent 13 years as a “He has a deep understanding of Austin in Texas, he remembers as in Columbus. column in The Catholic Review. student and 17 more working with people’s suffering.” a big challenge. “It was during the Paulist students, first as a teacher and Father James McCabe also grew McCabe’s first experience as a pastor Vietnam War. People were unsettled. Helmich served in Austin with then as novice master from 1968 to up in New York City and met the came at St. Peter’s Church in Toronto. There were unrest and riots. But we his classmate Pietrucha and at 1976. McKiernan says, “The novices, Paulists at St. Paul the Apostle That was followed by two years as got through that,” he says. Then in Immaculate Conception in Knoxville with their unique personalities, where his parents were married. superior at the Boston Paulist Center Toronto, he was able to minister to the with Father Tom Connellan, CSP, enabled me to grow with them. I He remembers the vocations and seven years as pastor in Austin. Italian and Portuguese communities another colleague in Vero Beach. learned to trust their talents even if brochure—he gave his first one In 1998 he found himself back in in their own tongues. At Santa “When the first Vietnamese families they were not my own.” He notes away—and McGough. His first Toronto where he continues to serve, Susannah in Rome, as superior and were being resettled in the U.S., ironically that, with his own lack of assignment as a Paulist priest working with a newly-minted group representative for the Paulists to the Father Helmich directed the program worldly experience when he entered sent him to Old St. Mary’s in San of Paulist Associates. Holy See, he not only used his Italian, helping those families,” Connellan the Paulists, he recommended to Francisco. “You always love your but also served a Polish refugee Father George Helmich, CSP, says. In spite of a disabling stroke, the community that candidates be first assignment,” he says, and he still community of 10,000 people. He now lives in a care facility near the Helmich was determined to accepted only after they had remembers his amazement at flying came to St. Cyril Parish in Tucson in Vero Beach Paulist house. Because keep serving as long as he could, finished college. across the country, a young man 1989, and even though the Paulists left his health prevents the sustained according the Vero Beach Paulists, who had rarely left New York City. St. Cyril last year, Pietrucha has elected Nine years at the Paulist Center in conversation of an interview, his using his walker to navigate the halls to stay in the city, ministering to his Boston gave McKiernan his first McCabe was given a “wonderful Paulist brothers in Vero Beach have of the nursing home to help others. three communities: Anglo, Hispanic lengthy pastoral experience. “The opportunity” to go to the Paulist stepped forward to assure that and Polish. Pietrucha is half of the Father Ed Pietrucha, CSP, rich lay community there pulled Information Center in Baltimore Helmich is acknowledged for his served only uncle/nephew duo in the Paulists. priesthood out of me,” he says. in 1962. There, he initiated a 50 years of Paulist priesthood. That in the Navy for two years before Father Paul Rospond, CSP, now serving Since 1990, McKiernan has been marriage preparation program for journey began after he saw combat he graduated from Manhattan in Knoxville, is Pietrucha’s nephew. serving the community surrounding inter-faith couples, enlisting local during World War II in Germany and College in New York and before the Newman Center at The Ohio ministers, and thus embarked on came home to graduate from Notre he encountered the legendary When these priests are asked what State University. Long a practitioner years of family life ministry for Dame. As a young priest, Helmich McGough. He had met Paulists at has sustained them in ministry for of centering prayer, he teaches this the Archdiocese of Baltimore and joined the Air Force as a chaplain. Old St. Mary’s in San Francisco. That 50 years and what sustains them way of praying at St. Thomas More the then-United States Catholic He served with the Strategic Air parish had a reputation with the still, they are as one in answering— Newman Center. He also works with Conference. Along the way, he found Command in Japan and Korea; Pacific fleet for hospitality offered to prayer and the people. ecumenical and interfaith groups time for a ten-year commitment to a he was part of the mobilization at sailors, he says.

By Stefani Manowski. to the Paulist charism that the Paulists are Paulist reconciliation initiatives, but also will board members that what they were taking on ather J-Glenn Murray, SJ, has seen both sides. F devoting $1.2 million over the next five years invite wider society, the wider church, parish was nothing less than a divine initiative. “Are In the wake of the church sex abuse scandal, to reconciliation awareness, training and communities and individual Catholics to we willing to leave the 99 and seek out the one Murray encountered a young man who had been programming, according to Father John E. become reconcilers. who is lost?” he asked. abused by four priests. “How do you know what Hurley, CSP, director of the reconciliation office. to say to this young man?” he asks. “I didn’t Bob Bowers, an ex-officio board member, has To learn more about the Paulist Office for know where to begin.” On the other end of the “Reconciliation begins with recognizing that already seen the fruits of Paulist reconciliation Reconciliation, see the names of board members spectrum, Murray has seen the devastation caused those experiencing alienation and hurt in the initiatives at the Paulist Center in Boston, and the list of reconciliation objectives, go to church are our brothers and sisters,” Hurley www.Paulist.org/namerica/reconciliation. when a fellow priest was falsely accused of abuse. the city known as the epicenter of the abuse said in his welcome address to the board. “He was just assumed guilty.” scandal. “It begins with our He These experiences reinforced for Murray the baptism. … Can we remain said,“There need for reconciliation within the church. In complacent with the reality that some of our is now January, he joined 15 other religious and lay brothers and sisters are not at the [eucharistic] hope and people on the board of directors for the new table and are starving to death spiritually? The healing Paulist Office for Reconciliation located at the eucharistic table is a place for sinners, not where North American Paulist Center in Washington, recognition for a job well done.” there was DC. The first board meeting took place distrust January 23. The goal of the Office for Reconciliation is to and pain.” develop a wide pastoral process addressing Healing people’s wounds and welcoming the need for dialogue and reconciliation in the Hurley people back to the church are so intrinsic church today. The office will not only support told the Office of Reconciliation board of directors with Father John Hurley, CSP, front left. PAULISTS LEAVE GOOD SHEPHERD AFTER 95 YEARS Kevin Devine, returned to his operation serving local children and childhood parish in 1993 and adults. Through all the years, as little served there until last August. faces changed from Irish to Hispanic, He is remembered for his Good Shepherd School remained a compassionate response to bulwark of learning. the tragedy of September 11, 2001, comforting the families Janet Kraus is a member of the parish of the dozens of individuals council at Good Shepherd and a from Good Shepherd who dedicated participant in the Folk perished at the Twin Towers Mass, long-known for its atmosphere and gathering the community of hospitality and inclusiveness, and, in expressions of sorrow and Kraus adds, for “the insight of its solidarity. Scripture scholar moderator,” Father Larry Boadt, president of Paulist The Irish enclave gave way, Press, who lived at Good Shepherd during the ‘60s and ‘70s, for 20 years. Kraus composed a to immigrants from the litany of thanksgiving, prayed in both south, particularly from the English and Spanish at the farewell Dominican Republic. And Mass. The heart of Good Shepherd the Paulists began to speak is in that listing of sacraments Spanish. Zamora says that and prayers, fiestas y posadas, of Photo by Mike Fitelson. Courtesy of Manhattan Times. Good Shepherd became a food pantry and overnight shelter, “learning center” for Paulists Paulist players and Thanksgiving It’s almost as though the psalm had celebrated their final Mass at the 20th century, Good Shepherd “gave in multi-cultural ministry. Father dinners. “We were a home for the been turned around. In 1911, Paulist Church of the Good Shepherd. immense comfort and aid to the Sean Foley, CSP, an Irish-born Paulists where they were accepted Fathers Thomas Daly and James Irish,” says Father Marcos Zamora, Spanish speaker, arrived as pastor in and cherished,” says Kraus. In his Towey strode into bucolic Upper Over the years, 174 Paulists would CSP, Good Shepherd’s final Paulist 1978, in full support of the parish’s farewell homily, Paulist president Manhattan—maybe they took the be assigned to Good Shepherd, pastor, “and the Irish in turn gave outreach to the community. His Father John Duffy confirmed, recently opened subway—carrying many right from ordination. They the Paulists many vocations.” Exact legacy to the neighborhood is “Together we have been this people the seeds of Paulist ministry and would learn priesthood at Good numbers are hard to come by, but a Inwood Community Services, Inc., of God for 95 years on the tip of finding fertile ground. Ninety-five Shepherd, the first foundation to quick search turns up at least eight established in 1979 by a group of Northern Manhattan.” years later, last August 19, tears be built by the Paulists from the current Paulists with roots in Good concerned residents led by Foley and enveloped the Paulists as they ground up. In the first half of the Shepherd. One of those, Father now grown to a multi-million dollar

During Lent, novices leave the halls of St. Paul’s College to experience 1. Come away to a quiet place to rest, to listen, to reflect. Paulist ministry Holy Lake Spirit George first hand Retreats Summer 2. Retreats Spend a weekend exploring the Come for a week- 3. 1. Buster Woody connection between long retreat at St. arrived in Toronto in the middle of the the Holy Spirit, St. Paul Mary’s on the Lake, winter season and stepped up to help at and Paulist founder the Paulist summer the Winter Welcome Father Isaac T. Hecker Table, a ministry of home and retreat St. Peter Church to as the Paulist family center on 72 acres feed and clothe the homeless and the looks toward its 150th in the Adirondack poor of the city. As a anniversary. Mountains. member of the RCIA 2. Paulist novice Tim Shannon and veteran team, he is sponsor parishioner Leon Jones pause during for a Trinidad native East Coast June 11-15 a clean-up of the community garden on her way to the Brother Michael Moran, CP that St. Augustine Parish in Memphis Easter sacraments Holy Spirit in Toronto. The Heart of Creativity: is developing. Workers will transform a Retreat vacant lot into a productive flower and Contemplative Experience, vegetable garden to beautify the area and Art and Mystery to provide good and inexpensive food for June 22-24 people in the neighborhood. Mount Paul, former Paulist novitiate, June 18-22 in Oak Ridge, NJ Father Tom Ryan, CSP 4. Father Bruce Nieli, CSP Savoring Life by Facing Our Mortality West Coast Holy Spirit June 25-29 Retreat Praying Your Life Father Vinnie November 2-4 McKiernan, CSP Claretian Renewal Center in Los Angeles Father Terry Ryan, CSP July 9-13 Father Ken McGuire, CSP For more information Spiritual Direction and rates, call through Movies 3. At Old St. Mary’s Parish in Chicago, Rene Constanza 202-269-2521, visits a parishioner’s home for Lenten reflection. That’s in or go to addition to working with the confirmation class on Sundays, faith sharing with young adults on Thursdays, volunteering www.Paulist.org/ July 16-20 with the social justice group and RCIA. Gospel reflections namerica/anniversary. Father Richard Chilson, CSP at daily Mass and Stations of the Cross on Fridays round out “Telling Our ” his liturgical service.

4.Tom Gibbons poses with performers from the talent show at Berkeley Newman Hall in March. Gibbons is working with RCIA, the young adult group Seekers, the Emmaus discussion group and the student retreat program at Newman Hall, University of California Berkeley.

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