Inside this issue:
Midwest Province Ordains Rev. Derek Swanson
Perboyre Mission House Opens Its Doors in Chicago
The Partnership Against Poverty
Gateway Vincentian Volunteers 2003-2004
Also visit:
Around the Provinces:
Confrere News and Updates
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| Tom Croak | Tom Esselman | Al Hoernig | Oscar Lukefahr | Tom O’Hern |
Chicago:
Tom Croak has been re-appointed to three-year terms on the Boards of Trustees of St. Vincent de Paul Center and Marillac House in Chicago. The two Boards are responsible bodies for the two institutions under a single corporate heading.
St. Lazare House, St. Louis:
Renovations at the Arsenal buildings are moving along with all rooms finished in 2904 and only the basement remaining. The first floor and basement of 2912 were completed in time for the arrival of the Gateway Vincentian Volunteers, while construction continues on the second floor.
As always, it was our pleasure to have John Rybolt staying with us over the past months. The movers have arrived to take his boxes to his new home in Chicago.
The novices are involved at Guardian Angel Settlement, Hosea House and St. Patrick Center (homeless ministry) for their apostolic experience. They recently went to New York and were delighted to be a part of the Vincentian Leadership Conference.
Tom Esselman has begun his sabbatical with a retreat in Colorado and a trip to the West Coast to visit his brother. He passed through St. Louis to pack up and move to Boston where he is living with the Jesuits and studying and writing.
After Derek Swanson's ordination tour, he returned to Arsenal briefly before his move to Cape Girardeau. We miss his presence in our community.
Students Steve Wiederkehr and John Roarick moved to Chicago mid-August to take up studies at DePaul and CTU. They have been great members of our community and we are confident that they will find great success in Chicago.
Barry Moriarty just returned from vacationing with his family in Chicago and Grand Beach, Illinois, and we welcome him home.
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| Dan Ricci | John Rybolt | Chas Shelby | Paul Golden | Lennoxie Lusabe |
St. Mary’s of the Barrens, Perryville:
It has been dry and hot in Missouri and, therefore, at The Barrens. Fr. Bob Zimney is home after three weeks in the hospital with a new heart valve. Bob says he is doing fine and thanks all for the prayers. Our prayers and sympathy are with Fr. Shelby at the death of his mother, Ruth. She visited us annually in October to see the trees change color. Our seniors went to Cahokia Mounds this summer and all enjoyed the excursion. We welcomed the ordination class 1978 with a thunderstorm, changing their plans for a pool party -- sorry guys but we needed the rain! Fr. Dan Ricci has returned to his home in St. Louis;
Fr. Lukefahr is giving a mission in Montana; Fr. Hoernig is having a wedding in Texas; and Fr. Shelby went on a well-deserved vacation. So, there is always plenty of room for visitors. Come and see us soon.
Nairobi:
From the 6th to the 25th of July, Tom O’Hern hosted the COVIAM formators meeting at DePaul Centre. The meeting brought together African confreres to provide ongoing formation opportunities for confreres working in seminaries and houses of study. This year, 12 confreres from 8 African countries attended the meeting. The presenters included Manny Ginete, the Provincial of the Philippines, Tom O’Hern and members of the Institute of Social Ministry at Tangaza College. Victor Bieler of the Roman Curia also attended and acted as presenter and translator. This is the last time that Victor will be present for our meetings since he leaves office next year. Many thanks for his years of dedicated service to the Vincentians of Africa.
In June and July, DePaul Centre sent out 10 students to apostolic placements in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Four students traveled to Uganda to work with the St. Vincent DePaul Society forming an experimental community house and working among the poor. The other eight students were disbursed among a variety of placements working with youth, Small Christian communities, and people living with HIV/Aids, among a variety of other works. (There was one unfortunate incident…a short while after a Ugandan student named Moses Amacha returned home, the Lord’s Resistance Army raided his village and kidnapped his younger brother. Please pray for his safe return.)
On August 15th, the feast of the Assumption, Lennoxie Lusabe took his perpetual vows. George Busieka, Angelus Njagi, and Philip Njenga will take their vows one-month later on September 27th. Please keep them in your prayers. One other note: our students have established the Vincentian Marian Youth in Kenya and Lennoxie received word that his submission of Kenya’s constitutions and statutes have been approved. Congratulations!
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| Tom Munster | Richard Ryan | Lou Brusatti | Derek Swanson | Paul Sisul |
Austin, Texas:
Lou Brusatti reports he is now on the Mission/Ethics Committee at Seton Hospital and Children's Hopital in Austin, both of which are sponsored by the Daughters of Charity. He has also just completed his first year as Dean of the School of Humanities at St. Edward's University.
Lou made his theater debut in "The Kentucky Cycle" by Robert Shekenkem at the Mary Moody Northern Theatre of St. Edward's this past semester. The play, actually nine one-act plays staged over two nights, follows three eastern Kentucky families over 200 years from 1775 to 1975. Lou played Patrick Rowen in play 4 and 5 of the cycle. The production won five "bests" from the Austin Critic's Association.
Denver, Colorado:
Paul Golden continues his ministry of teaching and canonical advocacy. He assisted Jim Swift in drafting several provincial policies and helped draft a policy on handling allegations of sexual abuse of minors that will be part of the Practical Guide for Visitors published by the General Curia. He also taught a theology course at Regis University in the Spring.
Bob Schwane conducted Sunday Masses in Spanish at St. Francis de Sales (St. Louis) during the month of August.
Confreres who have visited De Paul House recently are Milton Ryan, Dick Preuss, Mark Elder, Jim Swift, Mike Joyce, Tom Esselman, Ed Tomasiewicz, Jim Fischer and Jack Cawley.
Updates & News:
We have recently learned of the death of John Sauerhage. He was ordained in 1965 with Tom Croak, Cawley, and Golden. (He was actually in the class ahead of Grace, Gus Melito, Lou Fortenberry, etc.). He passed away in Houston, Texas, on August 4, 2003, from a blood clot to the lung or heart.
Fr. Ed Schreiber recently passed away. He was a pastor/mentor to several deacons from De Andreis over the years–and a good friend to Vincentians. Many remember him from over the years.
Tom Munster is continuing to recover well from his surgery — he is close to his normal morning walking rate.
Paul Sisul made his 12th annual ‘retreat’ in Oshkosh, WI, visiting the world’s largest air show — experimental aircraft and WWII war birds dominated the scene — all in celebration of the 100th anniversary of flight.
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| Dan Borlik | Bob Schwane | Chad Howat |
International Student Scene:
Natal Bosio (Brazil) spent one week in Dublin, Ireland, for his Public Service program. He had extra time so he extended his trip to tour Ireland for a week and spend time in England. Gebre Tesfaye (Ethiopia) will spend some time in Oakland with his brother and family. (His brother asked him if he could do some of the driving when they traveled from Oakland to LA, so Tesfaye got an Illinois driver’s license
in one day!) Another confrere from Ethiopia who arrived in the middle of August was Daniel Hasso. This brings the total number of international confreres to eight, including Fr. Humberto (Columbia) who will be here until late November this year when he finishes his third term in the English Language Academy program.
Vincentian Urban Educators:
The Vincentian Urban Educators (VUE) started up their program with a 3-day retreat at Kenmore Vincentian Residence from Aug 4-7. The program began with the first six students, recent graduates from DePaul’s School of Education, who will begin their two-year mentoring in Catholic elementary and high schools of the Chicago archdiocese. The goal of the program is to provide these young people opportunities to learn about the Vincentian mission as it applies to teaching and to encourage them to participate in the Vincentian life style — live in a community of teachers, participate in Vincentian seminars, reflect and pray regularly. They will be joining the Chicago Vincentian communities when possible and, as Jack Minogue states, get a "good meal once in a while to keep them sustained for doing service." The students in this first group are: Jennifer Fijalkowski, Liliana Jimenez, Tai Basurto, Sandra Tapia, and Anastasia Liosatos.
Southern Province:
We had a delightful task at the last meeting of our Provincial Council to approve Chad Howat’s formal request for candidacy as a pre-theology seminarian for our Province. Thanks be to God for this hopeful sign and fine young man! Many of you have met Chad already — 28 years old, native of New Orleans and a young man who has been in discernment for years about his call to evangelize the poor. He credits Jim Ward for much of his interest and decision about the Vincentians and we can also thank a number of other confreres who walked with Chad over the years, especially Mark Ford and Tom Stehlik. After our own discussion of a number of options for pre-theology, we have decided to send Chad to St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, California. Their intensive, one-year program begins in September and is highly respected and the Vincentian staff and seminarians there assure us of their strong encouragement around Vincentian community and spirituality. Once those involved in this process weighed in and we made our decision, Mark Ford and I worked out the details with Dick Benson. Chad is particularly delighted with the choice, and so we are on our way.
Fredy Lozada (CM Colombia) has completed his intensive English studies in Dallas. Congratulations, Fredy! While fluency in English is a long-term commitment, (as any of us who labor over our Spanish know only too well!) Fredy has done quite well (his teachers and classmates will miss his enthusiasm!) and he is now ready and willing for an assignment in an apostolate. This past summer he assisted Miles Heinen in Northwest Arkansas and had a month-long visit to Colombia.
In July, George Weber officially assumed leadership as pastor of St. Stephen Church and Mark Ford arrived to take up residence at St. Stephen Rectory, to continue his work in Vocations and Youth Ministry and be part-time parochial vicar for St. Joseph / St. John the Baptist parishes. By the way, Perry Henry was installed as pastor of St. John the Baptist on May 25, 2003. Congratulations and many thanks to all these confreres!
Also in July, Dan Borlik moved back to Little Rock (his "official" residence) but was on the road most of the summer months visiting many and attending meetings such as the NAICE (North American Institute for Catholic Evangelization) in Portland, Oregon, and the August National meetings of the CMSM (Conference of Major Superiors for Men).
All are encouraged to check out the Province’s refurbished web site, www.cmsouth.org, with its makeover by our web master, Jon Zawislak, in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
The Provincial Finance Council for the Southern Province met on June 24, 2003, in Dallas to discuss portfolio performance with representatives of our two managers. Our group includes Miles Heinen, Tom Stehlik, and Lou Franz as member confreres along with Dan Borlik, Buzz Crutcher and Greg Mullen.
There is always something going on, whether through our committees or task forces. Rex Hays, having completed a term of five years as our representative to the VSI (Vincentian Studies Institute) has agreed to another term of five years.
Jack Cawley represented us at a National CM Initial Formation Commission meeting in mid-June. Mark Ford is working as our consulting representative to a task force chaired by Aid Ronnie (CM East) to develop a useful Vincentian National Prayer Resource book.
Our thanks to Tom Stehlik and his Commission who are helping us prepare for the General Assembly that will take place in the summer of 2004. The Commission (Tom Stehlik, Lou Arceneaux and George Weber) is working on the October 20-24 Provincial Assembly to be held at the Christian Renewal Center in Dickinson, Texas.
Finally, a sad story…during the war with Iraq, a young Hopi woman from Tuba City, and a parishioner at Jude’s Church, was killed when the maintenance division of which she was a part was ambushed. Private Lori Piestewa was a roommate and friend to Private Jessica Lynch who was rescued during the war. Her death made national news and Fr. Godden Menard became a local interviewee regarding this situation with CNN, USA Today, People Magazine, and many other news sources.
Lori and her family were one of the few active Hopi Catholic families on the Reservation, and her grandparents work at St. Jude’s Church as the maintenance personnel. They were well known to the Vincentians. Some years ago, Mark Ford helped prepare Lori for her celebration of the sacrament of Confirmation and attended the funeral and burial ceremonies. Fr. Menard celebrated the funeral and was a great support for the family during this time. Fr. Lou Franz had also served there and knew the family.
A public ceremony was held at the Tuba City High school gym to honor
Lori. Over 5000 people attended including the governor of Arizona and
the presidents of the Hopi and Navajo tribes. The governor of Arizona
renamed "Squaw Peak" and "Squaw Peak Parkway" into
"Piestewa Peak" and "Piestewa Parkway" in honor of
the first Native American woman killed in combat. The family appreciates
the prayers and support from all those who prayed for them and Lori during
this time. They also appreciate the support from the Vincentians who have
served in that area since 1994.
Vincentian is published bimonthly by the Midwest and Southern Provinces of the Congregation of the Mission, the Vincentian Priests and Brothers, to promote the apostolic works of its members and those of the larger Vincentian Family.
Congregation of the Mission, Vincentian
Attn: News Editor
13663 Rider Trail North
Earth City, MO 63045
phone: 314-344-1184
fax: 314-344-2989
email: info@vincentian.org
web: www.vincentian.org