CONTEMPLATING THE GOOD LIFE!

 

                                      

                                          ZARAH  ALWAYS ON THE LOOKOUT

THE FATHER OF EUROPE

 

Catholic veneration of the saints is rooted in this loving reverence we accord to those who have allowed themselves to be transformed by Christ’s love. The saints are the embodiments of grace triumphing over the forces of mediocrity and evil within the spirit of man. They show the possibility of holiness, becoming models to imitate in our own lives, and inspirations to light up the darkness which surrounds us all. When we study their lives, we take courage in the knowledge that other human beings succeeded in loving even though they had to face external difficulties and internal obstacles similar to our own.                    Ronda Chervin                                                                                                                                                           

Since I have missed almost a month doing this Blog, I want to consider holy people who made a difference in the world order, during their lifetime. The first of these, and perhaps the most well known, more for his politics than his holiness is, SERVANT of GOD ALCIDE DE GASPERI. 

After the Second World War Alcide De Gasperi was one of the promoters of the project for a united Europe along with the former French minister of foreign affairs, Robert Schuman, (already declared venerable by Pope Francis- see Blog 5/18/21), and the German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. They were inspired by the values ​​of Christian humanism. Alcide De Gaspari was a man who acted in the interests of the patria, not for self-serving reasons, or from personal egoism. 

 Alcide De Gasperi was born in Pieve Tesino in Tyrol, which at that time belonged to Austria-Hungary, now part of the province of Trento in Italy. His father was a local police officer of limited financial means. From his adolescence Alcide was active in the Social Christian Movement. At 19, he joined the Faculty of Literature and Philosophy in Vienna, where he played an important role in the foundation of the Christian student movement.

 After his degree in Philology, he started to work as a journalist and politician. In 1911 he became a congressman for the Popular Political Union of Trentino in the Austrian Parliament, a post he held for six years. When his home region was transferred to Italy in the post-war settlement, he accepted Italian citizenship. He however never tried to hide his love for Austria and the German culture and often preferred speaking German to his family, many of whom spoke German as their first language.

 
In 1919, he was among one of the founders of the Italian People’s Party. He served as a deputy in the Italian Parliament from 1921 to 1924, a period marked by the rise of Fascism. As Mussolini’s hold on the Italian government grew stronger, he soon diverged with the Fascists. In November 1926, in a climate of overt violence and intimidation by the Fascists, the People’s Party was dissolved.

 Alcide De Gasperi married Francesca in 1922, after a courtship during which he wrote very passionate love letters. They had four daughters. The eldest, Maria Romana, is his biographer.  (Photo with wife)

Alcide De Gasperi was arrested in March 1927 and sentenced to four years in prison. The Vatican negotiated his release. A year and a half in prison nearly broke his health. After his release in July 1928, he was unemployed and in serious financial hardship, until in 1929 his ecclesiastical contacts secured him a job as a cataloguer in the Vatican Library, where he spent the next fourteen years until the collapse of Fascism in July 1943.

During the reconstruction years, De Gasperi was the undisputed head of the Christian Democrats, the party that dominated Parliament for decades. From 1945 to 1953, he was the prime minister of eight successive Christian Democratic governments.

 Although he could have formed an exclusively Christian Democratic government, he instead formed a “centrist” coalition with Liberals, Republicans and Social Democrats. “De Gasperi’s policy is patience,” according to the foreign news correspondent for the New York Times, Anne McCormick. “He seems to be feeling his way among the explosive problems he has to deal with, but perhaps this wary mine-detecting method is the stabilizing force that holds the country in balance.”

In domestic policy, a number of social security reforms were carried out by various ministers of De Gasperi’s cabinets in the areas of rents and social housing, health and unemployment, insurance and pensions. He directed the Italian economic boom to the advantage of the many and contributed to create Italy’s successful welfare state.

 The Holy See actively supported Christian Democracy, declaring that it would be a mortal sin for a Catholic to vote for the Communist Party and excommunicating all its supporters. In practice, however, many Communists remained religious. 

In August 1953, the seventh government led by De Gasperi was forced to resign by Parliament. He consequently retired from active politics and gave his last year to the European cause.

Alcide De Gasperi used to speak of “Our homeland Europe”. He wrote: “At the origin of our European civilization, as stated by Toynbee, there is Christianity. I only want to mention our common heritage, that moral vision which enhances the responsibility of the human person, with its ferment of Christian fraternity, with its cult for beauty inherited from our forefathers, with its will for justice sharpened by the experience of two thousand years.”

Alcide De Gasperi certainly  knew how to embody the Christian faith into the complex socio-political realities of his time. He was passionately fond of the Church’s Social Doctrine with its ideals of putting into society the salt and yeast of the Bible’s integral humanism and the centrality of the human person so that the “City of Man” might be the vanguard of the “City of God”.

Politics was for him the highest form of charity in as much as it was the translation of the parable of the Good Samaritan in institutionalized reforms that respond to the needs of the poorest.  For Alcide De Gasperi politics and spirituality were inextricably intertwined so that the former was offering reasons to the latter.

 He wrote: “The first commandment of God in the Bible is a social and cultural commandment: ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and conquer it’ (Genesis 1:26). Conquer the earth with progress, work, arts and sciences. Do not close yourselves in your individual microcosm, says the Creator, but live a social life and dedicate your energies to the earth and the community of men. God has entrusted the world with all its riches to human beings, to their disputes, their efforts for progress, and their search for goodness and truth.”

 On August 19, 1954, he died in Sella di Valsugana, in Trentino. It is said that he had to be given a State funeral as he had died with almost no means of his own. He is buried in the basilica of San Lorenzo, in Rome.

 Conrad Adenauer wrote: “After the war, it was a true blessing for Italy to have entrusted the politics of the country to such a valid person as Alcide De Gasperi. My many encounters with him remain in my memory for the moral and spiritual seriousness of a man to whom I am still very grateful. He has been not only a great Italian but a European of high conscience and as such he will enter world history.”  

(Photos:  with Winston Churchhill, Konrad Adenauer, and daughter Maria Romana)

NEW SAINTS FOR THE WORLD

In honor of  today's canonization of  Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis, The Vatican City State,  the Republic of San Marino, and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta announced they have issued stamps to commemorate this wonderous occasion. 

St. Pier Giorgio  was known for his social commitment, his charity toward others, and his joyful spirituality,  while St. Carlos used his innovative knowledge of technology as a means of  spreading the gospel.

St. Pier Giorgio's feast will be July 4 and St. Carlos is set for  October 12.

May these two young saints encourage the youth of this generation towards a hope in a sometimes hopeless world. May they be a light which leads to a love of Jesus, especially in the Eucharistic. And may they show the world that holiness can be won by anyone.

"The new saints “are an invitation to all of us, especially young people, not to squander our lives, but to direct them upwards and make them masterpieces,” Pope Leo said at the conclusion of his homily. “They encourage us with their words: ‘Not I, but God,’ as Carlo used to say. And Pier Giorgio: ‘If you have God at the center of all your actions, then you will reach the end.’ This is the simple but winning formula of their holiness. It is also the type of witness we are called to follow, in order to enjoy life to the full and meet the Lord in the feast of heaven.”

PRAYER ON UKRAINE'S NATIONAL FEAST DAY

 

“Today we join our Ukrainian brothers and sisters who, with the spiritual initiative ‘World Prayer for Ukraine’, ask the Lord to give peace to their martyred country,” Leo said while speaking to St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican.

With a heart wounded by the violence that ravages your land, I address you on this day of your national feast.

I wish to assure of my prayer for the people of Ukraine who suffer from war – especially for all those wounded in body, for those bereaved by the death of a loved one, and for those deprived of their homes.

May God Himself console them; may He strengthen the injured and grant eternal rest to the departed. I implore the Lord to move the hearts of people of good will, that the clamor of arms may fall silent and give way to dialogue, opening the path to peace for the good of all.”.

Ukraine’s Independence Day, celebrated annually on Aug. 24, commemorates the country’s 1991 declaration of independence from the Soviet Union.

PROBLEMS IN PARADISE!

 

DUE TO CIRUMSTANCE BEYOND MY CONTROL (IE. TECHNOLOGY PROBLEM) THERE WILL BE LIMITED BLOGS. THANKS TO ALL MY READERS. 

Art by my Australian friend Tricia Reust

HOLY DOCTOR

 

We are into another month and so many new saints- or those whose lives are presetly being studied. Our next saint reminds me of one of my favorites, St. Giuseppi Moscata: Doctor to the Poor (I can't believe I have not done a Blog on him, but have in past mentioned the wonderful film about him, which can be viewed on Youtube.)   

ST. RICARDO PAMPURI (born Erminio Filippo Pampuri) in 1897 in Trivolzio, Italy,  was an Italian medical doctor and a veteran of World War I who later became a professed member of the Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God. He worked as a field doctor on the battlefield during the Great War and was discharged in 1920 when he was able to resume his medical studies, becoming a doctor where he tended to the poor without charge. He became a member of the Third Order of Saint Francis as "Antonio" while founding the Band of Pius X, which he dedicated to the medical care of poor people.

He did not have the easiest beginning, as when he was three years old his mother died and he was then taken into the home of his mother's sister, at Torrino, a village near Trivolzio. In 1907 his father died in a traffic accident in Milan.

He went to two primary schools at nearby villages and then attended a junior high school in Milan. He completed his high school studies as a boarder at Augustine's College, Pavia, where after graduation, he enrolled in the Medical Faculty of Pavia University.

Between the years 1915 and 1920, he was in the fighting zone of World War I. He served firstly as a sergeant and later went into training as an officer in the Medical Corps. In 1921, he graduated top of his class in Medicine and Surgery at Pavia.  After a three years experience with this doctor uncle, and for a short time as temporary assistant in the medical practice at Vernate, he was appointed to the practice of Morimondo (Milan). In 1922 he passed his internship with high honors at the Milan Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. In 1923 he was registered at Pavia University as a General Practitioner of Medicine and Surgery. He began to figure a way to  incorporate his work in medicine with Christian ideals. Even as a young boy he wanted to become a missionary priest, but was dissuaded from this on account of his delicate health. While living in the midst of the world, he openly and consistently professed the Gospel message and practised works of charity with generosity and devotion. He loved prayer and kept himself constantly in close union with God, even when he was kept very busy. He had a great devotion to the Euchrist and would spend long periods before the tabernacle. He also had a devotion to the Blessed Mother and prayed the Rosary often more than once a day. He was an active member of Pavia University's Severino Boezio Club for Catholic Action. He also belonged to the St. Vincent de Paul Society and the Third Order of St. Francis. Since his boyhood he was involved in Catholic Action so when he arrived at Morimondo to practice medicine, he gave valuable assistance to the parish priest, helping him to set up a musical band and a Catholic Action Youth Club of which he was the first president.  He organised regular retreats for the Youth Club, farm laborers and local workers, at the Jesuit Fathers' "Villa del Sacro Cuore" at Triuggio, generally paying their expenses. He used to invite his colleagues and friends to come along as well. He was generous, charitable and very concerned for his patients,  visiting them both by day and night, never sparing himself. Since most of his patients were poor, he gave them medicines, money, food, clothing, and blankets. His charity extended to the poor rural workers and needy folk in and around Morimondo and even going further afield to other towns and districts. When eventually he was to leave his practice in six years time, to become a religious, the grief at having lost the "holy doctor" was so greatly felt everywhere, that even the daily press took up the story. Dr. Pampuri joined the Hospitaller Order of St. John of God so as to follow the way of evangelical holiness more closely and at the same time to be able to carry on his medical profession so as to alleviate the suffering of his neighbor. He joined the St. John of God Brothers at Milan on 22 June 1927. He did his novitiate year at Brescia and when it was over, made his profession of religious vows on 24 October 1928. He was then appointed Director of the dental clinic attached to the St. John of God Brothers' Hospital at Brescia. This was mostly frequented by working people and the poor. Brother Richard untiringly gave himself fully to serving them with such wonderful charity that he was admired by all. Throughout his life as a religious, Brother Richard was, as he had always been before he became a St. John of God Brother, a model of virtue and charity: to his Brothers in the Order, the patients, the doctors, the paramedics, the nurses, and all who came into contact with him. Everybody agreed upon his sanctity. He suffered a fresh outbreak of pleurisy, which he first contracted during his military service, and this turned into broncal pneumonia. On 18 April 1930 he was taken from Brescia to Milan, where he died  on 1 May at the age of 33 years: "leaving behind, the memory of a doctor who knew how to transform his own profession into a mission of charity; and a religious brother who reproduced within himself, the charism of a true son of St. John of God" (Decree of heroic virtue, 12 June 1978). After his death, his reputation of sanctity which he demonstrated throughout his life, greatly expanded throughout Italy, Europe and the entire world. Many of the faithful received significant graces from God, even miraculous ones, through his intercession. The two required miracles were accepted and he was beatified by St. John Paul II on 4 October 1981. Later on, a miraculous healing through the intercession of Blessed Richard Pampuri, took place on 5 January 1982 at Alcadozo (Albacete, Spain). This was approved as a miracle and so, on the feast of All Saints, 1 November 1989, he was solemnly canonized. "The brief, but intense life, of Brother Richard Pampuri is a stimulus for the entire People of God, but especially so for youth, doctors and religious brothers and sisters. He invites the youth of today, to live joyfully and courageously in the Christian faith; to always listen to the Word of God, generously follow the teachings of Christ's message and give themselves to the service of others. He appeals to his colleagues, the doctors, to responsibly carry out their delicate art of healing; vivifying it with Christian, human and professional ideals, because theirs is a real mission of service to others, of fraternal charity and a real promotion of human life. Brother Richard recommends to religious brothers and sisters, especially those who quietly and humbly go about their consecrated work in hospital wards and other centres, to hold fast to the original charism of their Institute in their lives, loving both God and their neighbour who is in need" (Homily, 4 October 1981). St. Richard Pampuri's body is in the Parish Church of Trivolzio (Pavia, Italy). His feastday is celebrated on 1 May.

MOTHER TERESA OF PUERTO RICO

Sometimes I forget that Puerto Rico is an unincorporated U.S. territory and while our next saint to be hails from there, she did a lot of work in mainland USA. 

ISOLINA FERRE AGUAYO was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, in 1914. She belonged to a Christian family with substantial financial resources. Among these relatives was her brother, Luis A. Ferré, founder of the Ponce Museum of Art, the New Progressive Party, and later governor of Puerto Rico (PR). She was also the aunt of writer Rosario Ferré and businessman Antonio Luis Ferré, founder of the newspaper El Nuevo Día in Puerto Rico. 

Although Isolina was part of a well-off family, both economically and socially, she chose a somewhat different path. A dream of serving others was brewing within her. Her interest led her to drop out of college, and at 21, she moved to the United States, where she joined the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity.

 Sister Isolina stood out for her humanitarian work. She worked in poor communities in the United States. By the late 1950s, she had settled in New York City. There, she completed a Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Joseph's College for Women (1957) and a Master of Arts degree with a specialization in Sociology from Fordham University (1961). She also served on the faculty of Blessed Trinity College in Philadelphia (1959–1962). Upon graduation, she returned to New York. There, she directed the Dr. White Community Center in Brooklyn, which provided education and various community services. Sister Isolina focused primarily on intervention between rival gangs, particularly among Black and Puerto Ricans.

 Her humane perspective allowed her to work hand in hand with communities plagued by crime, addiction, and poverty. Her strategy was to restore self-respect and dignity to their inhabitants, following the belief that if we are all children of God, we are also brothers and sisters and, therefore, equal. Sister Isolina treated everyone as equals: rich and poor, wise and ignorant, black and white.

 Upon returning to Puerto Rico in 1968, after years of steady work in the United States, she began a new life in the land of her birth. She was assigned to Ponce Beach, a neighborhood in her hometown where the residents were predominantly poor and where crime had risen to alarming levels. Here, she began a community regeneration project that took the community's interests and needs into consideration. In other words, to improve the community's social and economic situation, residents must be given the necessary tools to achieve their own improvement.

Over the years, she wanted to bring this concept of community action to other communities on the island. This is how the Sor Isolina Ferré Centers emerged . There are five in Ponce and other towns in Puerto Rico, such as Guayama and San Juan. The mission of these centers was to revitalize the low-income communities where they are located through education and social, economic, and spiritual support.

In Ponce, she also founded Trinity College of Puerto Rico, an educational institution that prepares low-income youth for short-term careers; and the Artesanías Tabaiba cultural center, also located in the Tabaiba district of Ponce Beach, where artists gather to create works about the island, which are sold to raise funds.

For her humanitarian work, Sister Isolina Ferré has received numerous honors and awards. More than ten educational institutions have awarded her honorary doctorates, including the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico, the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico in San Germán, Saint Francis College in Brooklyn, NY, the Universidad del Sagrado Corazón in Santurce, Yale University in Connecticut, St. Joseph's College in Brooklyn, and Loyola University in New Orleans.

In the 1980s, he won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Puerto Rican National Coalition, the Alonso Manso Cross from the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico, the Alexis Tocqueville Award from Fondos Unidos, the Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Award from Johns Hopkins University, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bill Clinton.

Sister Isolina Ferré passed away on August 3, 2000. Currently, the Centers operate forty community programs and provide assistance to more than 12,000 people annually

Sister Isolina, with the help of nuns from her congregation, missionaries from other churches, and private donations, created counseling and educational programs in Ponce and Cabo Rojo, including an industrial sewing school, childcare, sports-related activities, and photography workshops, among others. She created an official community publication called "El Playero."