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Xaverian Mission
Volume 66 - No. 3| August 2018 Newsletter
www.worldcatholic.us• http://xaverianmissionaries.org/missionblog/
Fr. Joe Matteucig SX presides at the Xaverian Mission Festival in Franklin WI (Photo
credit: Frank Mutranowski).
Reflecting Christ
Xavier Knoll Mission Center One night, from the depths of my heart, a voice said to me, ‘Why do you torment
4500 Xavier Drive yourself like this? You must distinguish between God and the works of God.
Franklin, WI 53132-9066 Everything you have done and desire to continue doing — pastoral visits, formation
Tel.: (414) 421-0831
Fax: (414) 421-9108
of seminarians, of men and women religious, of the youth, construction of schools,
Email: centers for students, missions for the evangelization of non-Christians- all of these
franklin@xaverianmissionaries.org are excellent works, but they are works of God, they are not God!
Global Youth Mission Services (the God will entrust God’s works to others who are much more capable. You have chosen
GYMs) God alone, not God’s works!’ This light gave me a new peace…
Fatima Shrine
101 Summer Street
(Cardinal Francis Xavier Van Thuan, 1928-2002)
Holliston, MA 01746-2207
Tel.: (508) 429-2144 We are so busy in the rat race of daily life we often lose sight of what is most
Fax: (508) 429-4793 important, essential in our life-journey, called as we are to follow and be witnesses
Email: of the Risen and Living Lord, ever present in our midst when we gather in his name,
holliston@xaverianmissionaries.org
when we love and serve a neighbor in his name, when we reach out to others in his
Xaverian Mission Newsletter name so “to make of the world one family.”
Official publication of the
Xaverian Missionaries We may do so many good things each day, but it’s not enough that we do them in
of the United States order to show the goodness in our hearts, to show that we care, unless we do them
Publisher: Fr. Mark Marangone SX out of love for the One who called us to be “walking homilies,”and “good shepherds”
Communications Board: to each other. We are meant to be instruments, like pencils in the hands of “the
Fr. Carl Chudy SX Author” who knows how to write straight with crooked lines.
Fr. Alejandro Rodriguez Gómez
SX The more “room” we make in our hearts and lives for the Lord to carry out his
Fr. Tony Lalli SX mission, the more lasting will be the works we do out of love for God and neighbor,
Fr. Rocco Puopolo SX especially those sisters and brothers of ours who, in the eyes of the world, don’t
Fr. Aniello Salicone SX count, who are so often used and abused, who are part of a persecuted minority, or
Editor are discriminated against…
Mary Aktay
Am I doing anything concrete, even if it were something simple and small, to make
Printing
AlphaGraphics, Totowa, NJ this world a better place?
Email & Web: How does my life-style, my way of relating to others, speak of Jesus as the one who
missionmedia@xaverianmissionaries.org “means everything to me”?
Website: www.worldcatholic.us
Make it a good remainder of summer! Blessings and peace, With deep gratitude,
Donation: $5.00 per year
Fr. Mark Marangone SX and the Xaverian Missionaries
N
ear Mulenge there was a Christian family who had settled there for years and had lost any contact with the
missionaries. With the passing of time their Christian faith became somewhat clouded by pagan superstitions.
One day a relative stopped in for a short visit. He was touched by the presence of a 10 yr. old girl. Before
saying goodbye he made a proposal to her father. “What do you think if your daughter would marry my son in due
time when they are of age? My son is 12 and a good boy.” They had a brief exchange and they agreed. And since
the opportunity was advantageous and rather exceptional the girl followed the distant relative to his home. This
was an opportunity to get to know more about her future husband.
In the new family, Regina, that was her name, was very comfortable and kept up with her ways of the past. In the
evening, before going to bed, she would kneel and whisper strange words. Her distant relative became curious and
asked her. Regina repeated with a clear voice the prayer she was accustomed to say: “BABA YETU ULIYE MBINGUNI
…“Our Father who art in heaven”.
That man felt something opening up before him. For him it was a discovery, he asked her to repeat and explain
those words. Very soon he learned them by heart. However he could not keep just for himself the joy of that dis-
covery. He spoke to friends. In the evening around the fireplace he repeated for all of them the words of the OUR
FATHER and everyone wanted to learn them.
The relative visited his brother who told him about the missionaries living near the lake
in Uvira. He went and sought the missionaries. He said “We, too, want to know the God
who is in heaven.” The Superior of the mission had neither missionaries nor catechists
to send. He gave him a book. It was necessary to find somebody who could read it so
they could come to know the Father who is in heaven. But up there who was able to
read?
It was hard but they found one, a pagan, like the rest, who had attended a
Protestant school in Lemera and agreed to read the booklet. So for several eve-
nings, around the fireplace, the elders of Kahusi and other curious people heard
and repeated the catechism answers until they learned them all.
The Xaverian Superior of Uvira provided more instruction. Later on he wanted to
know through a little exam what the mountaineers of Kahusi had learned. He was
amazed. They knew everything. A quick course was offered to perfect their knowl-
edge and the first group of Christians was established at Kahusi.
This sounds like a made up story but instead it is history. “A Little Child HAD LED
Them!”
Fr. Frank Grappoli SX
O
n April 28, 2018 the new parish church of ously, as much as they could.
Saint Joseph the Worker was inaugurated and Last April, the wide smiles on the faces of our faith-
blessed by the bishop of Nakhon Sawan, ful, from the smallest to the oldest, expressed all the
Joseph Pibul Visitnondachai. joy and satisfaction for the new church. Many wore
We three Xaverians, Fr. Thierry Kengne SX, Fr. the traditional costume of the Akha, the ethnic group
Reynaldo F. Tardelly SX and Fr. Giovanni Matteazzi SX, to which most of our parishioners belong. Fr.
have been working in the parish for almost four Alessandro Brai SX, our superior in Thailand, came
years along with the evangelization of the numerous from Bangkok together with two catechists and
villages around its periphery. Xaverian Missionary Sisters of Mary. Priests from the
‘nearby’ parishes including those in Burma came with
One of the first things that our parishioners asked us groups of their faithful. There were also two Baptist
when we arrived in July 2014, was that we build a pastors (in our village there are as many as 11
new church, bigger than the previous one. We Protestant churches) and also a group of Burmese
replied that we did not have enough money. For us refugees who were allowed to come from the refugee
the church that was there was welcoming, with space camp of Um Piam, the one where Fr. Matteazzi goes
enough for the number of faithful of the parish. Even regularly to celebrate Mass.
so, every now and then prominent parishioners
returned to the request, a little joking and a little And the old church? It will still serve us for a long
seriously. time as a meeting and catechism room and for other
activities. And from the new church, which stands
Two years ago, at the conclusion of the Mass on the opposite, on the other side of the road, St. Joseph
day of the parish feast, Father Prachuachop, who had will continue to watch over it.
been one of the first priests of this parish, and who
had built the previous church, solemnly announced ~ Fr. Giovanni Matteazzi SX
You can help the Xaverian Missionaries “build the Church” in Thailand. Either clip this paper and send it to
the address below or help the environment by donating online at http://www.xaverianmissionaries.org/support/
Name: Donation Amount:
Address: City: State: Zip
Email: Phone: Xaverian House Supported:
Mail to: Fr. Mark Marangone SX, 12 Helene Ct., Wayne, NJ 07470 □Xaverian Knoll, Franklin WI; □Fatima Shrine
Holliston, MA; □Provincial House Wayne, NJ
I
By Fr. Guglielmo Camera SX
t is starting from this concept of spirituality that we can understand the unifying center of Guido Maria
Conforti’s entire life. Conforti was all for the mission. “It is as if his action, his thought and virtues were
under the catalytic influence of his missionary vocation. This established the role, measure and place of
prayer and mortification, of pastoral zeal, recollection, study, and so on in his scheme of spiritual life. Thus
one can speak of the roots of his spirituality, individuating them in his original inclination for the missions, and
later in his elevation to the episcopate where he became a successor of the Apostles. He considered everything,
he undertook everything for the salvation of others, in order to lead them to God.” (Ballarin L., Tutto per
la missione, EMI, Bologna, 1981. --Revised re-print of the author’s graduate thesis in Ecclesiastical History
(Gregorian), formerly published with the title: «L’anima missionaria di Guido Maria Conforti», ISME, Parma 1962.)
For Conforti the missionary ideal was the unifying center of his entire life starting from his first years in the seminary.
He would have liked to dedicate his life entirely to the spread of the Gospel and leave
his homeland to go to lands that had still not been reached by the light of the Gospel,
but circumstances prevented this. He had asked to join both the Company of Jesus
and the Salesians of St. John Bosco, but on condition that he could depart for the
missions. However, he was not accepted either by the Jesuits, because
the Company did not accept conditions, or by Don Bosco, which did
not even answer his request. Later serious health problems, intervened
to hinder his chances of departing for the missions. Indeed he even
had to defer his ordination to the diaconate and the priesthood on
account of these. It is what he himself testifies in a letter written to Cardinal
M . Ledóchowski, Prefect of the Propagation of the Faith: “Since my
youth I have always felt the most intense desire to dedicate my life
to the Foreign Missions, and since reasons that were entirely beyond
my control prevented me from fulfilling this holy inclination…” Having
failed in his attempt to dedicate himself wholly to the missions, he did
not renounce an even more challenging missionary project.
The thought of the propagation of the faith was not simply one of his many
personal projects, but it was the catalytic center of his entire life, “the” project
of God for him. He stated: “The passing years and changing circumstances have
not diminished my desire in any way; on the contrary, it has grown stronger and,
upon the wise counsel of holy people, I consider it to be inspired by none other
than God.”
AFRICA/DR CONGO AMERICA/UNITED STATES saying that Jesus himself, would be detained today.
The Bishops: 770,000 children Bishops Decry Family Separation and He urged Christians to think about the families
under 5 years of age risk hunger Detention seeking asylum in the U.S., what they’re going
in Kasai WASHINGTON, D.C. (Crux) The country’s Catholic through and said “is the fundamental question
Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides) - More than 770,000 bishops have joined a chorus of organizations, of being Christian today, of being a person of
children under the age of five suffer from severe institutions and high-profile individuals urging faith today in our country and on the continent
malnutrition in the center of the Democratic the Trump administration to stop separating that is suffering an hour of Christ’s passion.”
Republic of Congo,the Bishops of Kasai announced children from their parents as they seek ASIA/Thailand
on the basis of statistics recently published by respite in the U.S. from dire conditions in their How Buddhist meditation kept the
UNICEF. The Bishops underline that insecurity and home countries, largely in Central America. Thai boys calm in the cave
the violence linked to the guerrilla movement None have been more outspoken than the bishops MAE SAI, Thailand (Vox) When the 12 Thai
that refers to Kamuina Nsapu, have provoked with dioceses on or near the border between the boys who were trapped in a cave were first
a very serious humanitarian crisis in the area. U.S. and Mexico, where many migrants, adults discovered, they were reportedly meditating.
During their pastoral visits, the local Bishops as well as children, are being held in detention Their coach, Ekapol Chanthawong, who led them
personally witnessed the humanitarian drama centers in geographic areas where many of the on a hike into the cave when it flooded on June
and the state of serious malnutrition of the prelates come into contact with families affected. 23, had trained in meditation as a Buddhist monk
populations. Archbishop Marcel Madila of “Refugee children belong to their parents, not to for a decade before becoming a soccer coach. He
Kananga launched an appeal for “an urgent and the government or other institutions. To steal taught the boys, ages 11 to 16, to meditate
massive intervention, because the dry season is children from their parents is a grave sin, immoral in the cave to keep them calm and preserve
about to begin. If the children are not assisted and evil,” said San Antonio’s Archbishop Gustavo their energy through their two-week ordeal.
now, we risk having thousands of deaths.” Garcia-Siller. “Their lives have already been That meditation would be a useful practice in
The Focal Point of Kasai of Caritas Congo is extremely difficult. Why do we (the U.S.) torture an extremely stressful situation is really no
working closely with the 8 diocesan Caritas of them even more, treating them as criminals?” surprise. Buddhist meditation has been around
the Ecclesiastical Province of Kananga to prepare Bishop Daniel E. Flores of the Diocese of for 2,600 years, since the Buddha began teaching
a response plan for this crisis, the effects of Brownsville, Texas said that “separating immigrant it as tool for achieving clarity and peace of
which will probably be worse than the Ebola parents and children as a supposed deterrent to mind, and ultimately, liberation from suffering.
epidemic. “Malnutrition is destined to worsen immigration is a cruel and reprehensible policy.”
with the start of the dry season, a period during Recently, scientific researchers have shown in
which there is usually a lack of food in families”, New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan said: “St. Paul clinical settings that mindfulness meditation (a
said Emmanuel Mbuna, national coordinator of said he wouldn’t obey Roman law when it said it specific meditation practice and one that’s taught
the emergency department of Caritas Congo. was mandatory to worship the emperor,” “I don’t in Thai Buddhism and elsewhere around the world)
think we should obey a law that goes against what can reduce anxiety and depression, as well as pain.
God intends that you would take a baby, a child,
from their mom. I mean, that’s just unjust.” Bishop
Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, compared Christ’s
time as a refugee in the Holy Land to the migrants,
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