CROSS WINTER 2019 VOLUME 15 CURRENTSSisters of Notre Dame de Namur • Ohio Province ISSUE 1 50 YEARS A SAINT The Canonization of Marie Rose Julie Billiart • June 22, 1969 CROSS CURRENTS SISTERS OF NOTRE DAME DE NAMUR CROSS CURRENTS Winter 2019 | Vol. 15/Issue 1 Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur change lives by making known ACT ONE: God’s goodness with you. THE DETERMINATION WERE IT This is a story not before told in one place. Throughout the world, we are OF SISTERS OF NOTRE DAME NOT FOR A committed to education. We Its parts have for decades resided take our stand with those living in poverty, especially AROUND THE WORLD FARMER in obscurity: in three paragraphs of women and children in the the 1952 internal communications most abandoned places. Cross Currents is published two times This is my first letter to appear in Cross Currents, which of a religious congregation; in sworn a year for friends of the Sisters has long chronicled the work of the Sisters of Notre affidavits of people long since deceased; of Notre Dame de Namur by Dame de Namur. In its pages are and have been the in the archived tomes of the Holy See. the Ohio Province Development Office. accomplishments of the Sisters, but also the challenges, Some accounts match, some differ. We invite reader responses on challenges we have faced — and continue to face — together. Some are in Portuguese, some English. the content of this publication In any given issue, you’re likely to read about Sisters in or on the work of the Sisters Some are reported in the weeks following, inner-city neighborhoods, in the deserts of the American of Notre Dame de Namur. some from a vantage point of thirty years Comments may be submitted Southwest, or in jungle locales thousands of miles away. to Kevin Manley, Director of hence. Development, at kmanley@ Cross Currents has helped me see the mission of Notre ohsnd.org. But at its root the story is this... Dame from all its many angles. It’s helped me learn new CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur things, and helped me experience our faith as seen through Ohio Province 701 E. Columbia Avenue the eyes — and through the work — of the Sisters. Now, Cincinnati, OH 45215 with the opportunity presented by this column, I have a 513-761-7636 / 513-761-6159 (fax) www.sndohio.org chance to be a part of the process. And I’m grateful. Leadership Team: In the current issue you’ll read about the canonization Sister Carol Lichtenberg, of Julie Billiart fifty years ago this summer, and how SNDdeN, Provincial Sister Kathleen Harmon, SNDdeN that canonization may never have happened were it not Sister Kristin Matthes, SNDdeN for the steady determination of Sisters of Notre Dame Sister Linda Soucek, SNDdeN around the world — the same kind of determination that Publisher: built schools where before there had been none, that Kevin Manley [email protected] today sinks wells to the far ends of the earth, and that 513-679-8117 no matter the circumstance, finds God in all things. Writer: It’s the same kind of determination, too, that leads young Joe Foley women to devote their lives to something larger than Editor & Production Manager: themselves (see page 8), and who, by doing so, are Angela Weisgerber continuing the tradition begun so long Photography: ago by Saint Julie Billiart. Cover and pages 6/7 (center): Permission granted by Servizio Fotografico – Vatican Media Sincerely, Page 5: Courtesy of the Coesfeld Sisters of Notre Dame Pages 6 (top, left, right) and 7 (right): Permission granted by Rodolfo Felici Page 8 and back cover (in calendar): Mary Dee Donovan KEVIN MANLEY Director of Development Page 11: Provided by family All others by staff 3 SISTERS OF NOTRE DAME DE NAMUR CROSS CURRENTS On a mild night in the village at it for a long time. But it was whereupon the family, with no Sister Ludvine explains what has of Mata Virgem, twenty-seven impossible.” other recourse, begins to pray. transpired. She speaks of Blessed miles from the Brazilian town They begin a fervent novena and Julie and of their petitions. “He is condemned,” said the of Campos Novos, a father — place upon Monsieur Rhodius She attaches a picture of the doctor. “There is no hope.” a farmer and most likely a a relic of the then Blessed Julie foundress to the wall and places beekeeper — is struggling to The Sisters move Otacilio, still Billiart, presumably supplied a relic over Otacilio’s incision. She help his son into a truck. The unconscious, to another room. by Sister Marie-Ludovica, his invites Otacilio to join them in a son — Otacilio Ribeiro da Silva, Sister Ludvine asks what further daughter and a Sister of the novena, which he does. Sister, there 29 years old, married, also a medical measures should be Namur branch of the Sisters Still, even after three days of is something farmer — is shaking with pain. undertaken. “Sister, Sister,” the of Notre Dame. After two days, further life, the doctor says The date: September 29, 1950. doctor says, “…he will not live Monsieur Rhodius wakes up. On so very unusual. again there is no hope. the fourth day, he is able to take The two drive to the town’s another hour.” I cannot explain nourishment. Within a month he But then something happens. hospital. Sister Maria Bardona, it but it is quite Sister Ludvine, Sister Bardona, returns to work. No sign of his a Coesfeld Sister of Notre Dame, and a third Sister, Sister Maria malady ever returns. On either the third evening or different.” meets them at the door. Of the Adelaide, begin to pray. Otacilio’s the fourth (Sister Ludvine, years son, she said later, “He looked father sits by the bedside. The Perhaps the Coesfeld Sisters of later, could not remember), — OTACILIO as if he would be gone if he night moves on. Notre Dame – a generation and Otacilio calls out, “Sister, there closed his eyes.” an ocean removed, speaking is something so very unusual. I a different language, praying cannot explain it but it is quite The hospital’s superior arrives, through the night in Campos different.” Sister Mary Ludvine. Upon Novos – recall this miracle. But seeing the son she calls both if they do, no mention is later “Otacilio,” says Sister Ludvine, a priest and a doctor. The making the sign of the cross on made of it in the congregation’s and a half kilograms of wax for Mother Verona, knowing very doctor’s name is Janh Martins his forehead, “the dear God is December 1952 Chimes candles. Otacilio promises, “If well of the 1919 miracle of Ribeiro (no relation to the good. He will be with you this newsletter, when Julie Billiart is the good Lord would give me Monsieur Homer Rhodius, much family). Dr. Ribeiro orders night. Pray to your saint.” Then still Blessed Julie, and when Sister one more daughter, she shall be involved in the decades-long immediate surgery. Otacilio’s Call his father she leaves, leaving him alone. Ludvine first writes, in a brief called Julie.” effort to canonize Blessed Julie, body is so contorted with pain for it is quite certain three paragraphs, of the incident The night passes. At five o’clock well connected with the Church he is unable to lie down. An Two months later he returns, of Otacilio Ribeiro preceded by Sister Ludvine returns. She finds hierarchy, reads casually of the anesthetic is administered. As he will not see him now on horseback. He swings the comings and goings of the day, Otacilio sitting up in bed, smiling. work of a Sister Bardona and a it takes hold, Dr. Ribeiro says to out of the saddle, calling, “Sister, again alive.” such as the number of calves and “I could get up,” he says. Sister Sister Ludvine in the faraway town the Sisters, “Call his father for it do you remember me yet?” chickens prepared for the Feast of of Campos Novos. She reads of is quite certain he will not see Ludvine, recovering from her — DR. RIBEIRO St. John the Baptist. the fatted calves slaughtered for him again alive.” shock, won’t allow it. They wait With that, and with the the Feast of St. John the Baptist, More likely is that the wee hours for the doctor. At nine the doctor 1952 mention in the Chimes The operation begins. A terrible and of the number of chickens of September 30, 1950 are a crush comes in. newsletter, the story might end. tumor comes into view. In the Stop now. Go back an even prepared. of panic, disbelief and sadness But it doesn’t. words of Sister Mary Ludvine: further thirty-one years and “What have you done to him?” displacing all else, the father now And Mother Verona reads “It was hard as a stone and of into another hemisphere. It’s he says. He examines the ACT TWO: joined by the mother at their son’s incision and abdomen. He says those three paragraphs of the a dark red color, and filled the November 20, 1919 in Namur, In 1952, Mother Mary Verona, bedside, the Sisters praying, the illness and recovery two years entire abdomen…The doctor Belgium. Monsieur Homer repeatedly, as much to himself an assistant mother general of 29-year-old Otacilio supine and earlier of the farmer from tried to loosen the tumor to Rhodius, long ill with renal as to others, “What has become the Coesfeld Sisters of Notre unresponsive.