20 CENTURY HOLY WRITER

When we are young in formation some writers have a profound effect on our religious development.  Recently I read  the Archdiocese of Munich, Germany, will soon open a cause for the beatification of the theologian ROMANO GUARDINI, one of my favorite spiritual masters.

He was born  in Verona, Italy in 1885 but soon after his birth, his family moved to the city of Mainz, Germany, where his father went to pursue his career as an import/export merchant.  Romano grew up in a faithful, if not excessively devout, Catholic home.  This merely conventional Catholic upbringing left him unable to respond to the intellectual challenges posed by the rampant agnosticism and atheism he encountered as a young man attending the University of Munich.  He soon began to question his own faith and underwent a period of spiritual crisis that he would later compare to that of St. Augustine.  Guardini’s conversion moment came while on vacation from university at his parent’s home in Mainz.  The scripture passage that drew him out of his confusion was Matthew 10:39:  “Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” 

Father Guardini taught at the University of Berlin until he was forced out by the Nazis in 1939.  He later taught at the University of Tübingen and the University of Munich.

He had a powerful influence on the thought of both Pope Francis and Pope Benedict XVI. The former once considered making Father Guardini the subject of his doctoral dissertation. 

According to Bishop Robert Barron  of Los Angeles & founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries (see Blog 7/29/16). “In 1986, after serving in a variety of capacities in the Jesuit province of Argentina, Jorge Mario Bergoglio (now Pope Francis)  began his doctoral studies in Germany. The focus of his research was Romano Guardini, who had been a key influence on, among many others, Karl Rahner, Henri de Lubac, and Joseph Ratzinger. As things turned out, Jorge Bergoglio never finished his doctoral degree (he probably started too late in life), but his immersion in the writings of Father Guardini decisively shaped his thinking.

Father Guardini's master work, The Spirit of the Liturgy, was the inspiration for a book of the same title by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. But the book he is perhaps most famous for, and one of our favorites is The Lord.

Romano Guardini was one of the first to offer to the modern world a vision of the Church nurturing the flourishing of free personality within community.

 “The Church is not an institution devised and built at table, but a living reality. She lives along the course of time by transforming Herself, like any living being, yet Her nature remains the same. At Her heart is Christ.”

He died in Munich in 1968.

MESSENGER OF JESUS CHRIST FOR THE 21st CENTURY

One of my new favorite people is a new auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese of Los Angeles ordained in 2015. BISHOP ROBERT BARRON is the founder of Word on Fire Ministries.

 and the host of Catholicism,  a groundbreaking, award-winning documentary about the Catholic Faith. Bishop Barron is a #1 Amazon bestselling author and has published numerous books, essays, and articles on theology and the spiritual life.

Bishop Robert Emmet Barron was born on November 19, 1959, in Chicago. He spent his childhood first in Detroit, then in the Chicago suburb of Western Springs. His mother was a homemaker, and his father, who died in 1987, was a national sales manager for  a national food distributor company.

Bishop Barron discovered Thomas Aquinas when he was a freshman in high school where he was educated by Benedictines. He was ordained a priest in 1986 by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin. He earned his M.A. at Catholic University of America, where he had won the Basselin Scholarship in philosophy and public speaking. He is a Doctor of Sacred Theology under the pontifical system from the Institut Catholique de Paris in 1992.  In addition to his native English, he is fluent in French, Spanish, German, and Latin.

He was the Professor of Faith and Culture at University of St. Mary of the Lake near Chicago until his installation as auxiliary bishop. The late Cardinal Francis George (whom Bishop Barron considers a mentor) called Bishop Barron "one of the Church's best messengers". He is a prominent theologian having lectured around the western world.

 Archbishop Gomez of Los Angeles gave each of the three forthcoming auxiliary bishops pectoral crosses modeled after the one Pope Francis wears, noting that Bishop Barron's media talent and rapport with young people, as well as his outreach to other faiths and to the world of culture (including with non-believers and non-practicing or fallen away Catholics) and education, would be good for the archdiocese. Bishop Barron's website, WordOnFire.org, reaches millions of people each year. His regular YouTube videos have been viewed over 14 million times. Next to Pope Francis, he is the most-followed Catholic leader on social media.

In 2000 Barron launched "Word on Fire Catholic Ministries", a non-profit organization, that supports his evangelistic endeavors. Word on Fire programs have been broadcast regularly on WGN America, EWTN, Telecare, Relevant Radio and the Word on Fire YouTube Channel. His Word on Fire website offers daily blogs, articles, commentaries and over ten years of weekly sermon podcasts. Bishop Barron's pioneering work in evangelizing through the new media led Francis Cardinal George to describe him as “one of the Church’s best messengers.”

I advise everyone to tune into Youtube  to watch this riveting messenger of Christ. He is bright, funny, warm, and most definitely a man who loves Christ and the Church. As I write this he is in Krakow, Poland for World Youth Day and daily sending news. 

NEW MARTYR FOR CHRIST

REST IN THE PEACE OF THE LORD, PERE JACQUES HAMEL

ROUEN, FRANCE, JULY 26, 2016 

Hope has a face, the face of Christ giving his life as a sacrifice, that men might have life in abundance. It is this hope, at the heart of the test, which forever bars the path of despair, of vengeance, and of death. It is this hope that animated the ministry of Father Jacques Hamel when he celebrated the Eucharist during which he was savagely executed. It is this hope which supports the Christians from the East when they must flee before persecution, and they choose to leave everything rather than renounce their faith. It is this hope that lives in the heart of hundreds of thousands of young people gathered around Pope Francis in Krakow. It is this same hope which permits us not to succumb to hate when we are taken by torment.

                                                                                  Cardinal André Vingt-Trois 

JESUIT AMONG THE NATIVES

Another amazing and interesting Jesuit for consideration is BROTHER VICENTE CANAS (1939- 1987)  a Spanish  missionary and Jesuit brother, who is credited with making the first peaceful contact with the Enawene NaweIndian tribe in Brazil in 1974. He lived with them for over ten years, adopting their way of life and helping them with necessary medical supplies. Due to his help, this indigenous people rebounded from a low 97 individuals to a population of over 430. Similar to Chico Mendes and Wilson Pinheiro, he died at the hands of cattle ranchers who are destroying the Amazon Rainfores.

Brother Canas helped the Enawene Nawe secure lands they considered necessary for their survival. In spite of receiving death threats from land owners and cattle ranchers, he successfully lobbied the Brazilian government for the territory to be officially granted for use by the tribe.

The tribe was campaigning for the use of a tract of land known as the Rio Preto, an important fishing area, which was omitted from inclusion in their original territory. They received numerous death threats from the local cattle ranchers subsequent to their lobbying.

The cultural survival of the Enawene Nawe is under constant threat. Their most pressing problem is the location of 5 mini hydroelectric generators located in the Juruena River, which is decreasing the native fish population. Because of this, the performing of the celebrated Yakwa festival may soon become impossible, putting at risk the heart of their rich religious tradition.

The Rio Preto (Adawina/Adowina) region has still not been demarcated, despite many years of work by the Enawene Nawe and a local indigenist NGO, OPAN (Operação Amazonia Nativa).

These threats are because of what Brother Vicente (Kiwxi) saw all those years ago - colonization of the state of Mato Grosso and Amazonia by soya mono-culturalists led by the Maggi family.

In 1987, a group of ranchers entered the home of Brother Vicente, near the village of the Enawene Nawe tribe, and stabbed him to death. Subsequently, the investigation into his murder was marred by corruption and incompetence and none of the 6 suspected murderers people were initially charged.

Nineteen years after his murder, the trial of those accused of killing him began in Cuiabá, capital of Mato Grosso state. The landmark trial began on the 24th of October 2006 and as of this date, the outcome has not been determined. Three men, which include the former police chief are finally on trial. Two of the other accused murderers have long since died and a third man has been deemed "too old" to stand trial.

Brother Vicente Canas Costa was born on October 22, 1939 in Alborea in Albacete, Spain. He entered the Jesuits on April 21, 1961 and quickly became the head of the Provincial Jesuit Brothers of Aragón, who were subsequently directed to travel to Brazil. He arrived in Brazil on January 19, 1966 and worked with both the Beiço-de-pau and the Miky indigenous tribes, watching as their populations were decimated due to contact with Europeans and the illnesses the Europeans brought. After taking his final vows on August 15, 1975, he first came into contact with the “Benedictines of the forest,” or the Enawenê-Nawê Indians. He began living with them in an attempt to protect their land and provide healthcare to them in 1977.

Brother Vicente was found dead on May 16, 1987 in his cabin next to the Juruema River in the state of Mato Grosso in Brazil. He was stabbed to death by people who desired the land of the Enawenê-Nawê and realized that they would never obtain it while Brother Vicente was alive to defend it. His estimated date of death was April 6, 1987. His murderers, have still not been brought to justice.

ANOTHER JESUIT BLESSED

Recently I did the Blog on. Alfred Delp, SJ. In the biography it mentions BL. RUPERT MAYER one of Father Alfred’s mentors. He was born on 23 January 1876 in Stuttgart, Germany. On completing his secondary education he told his father he wanted to be a Jesuit. His father suggested he get ordained first and enter the Jesuits later, if that was still his wish. Rupert took this advice studying philosophy and theology before completing his final year at the seminary in Rottenburg. He was ordained on 2 May 1899 and celebrated his first Mass two days later.

He served for a year as a curate in Spaichingen before entering the Jesuit novitiate at Feldkirch in Austria on 1 Oct 1900. Following his novitiate, he went to the Netherlands for further studies between 1906 and 1911. He then traveled through Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands, preaching missions in many parishes. 

Bl. Rupert’s real apostolate began when he was transferred to Munich in 1912. There he devoted the rest of his 31 years to migrants who came to the city from farms and small towns looking for a job and a place to stay. He was totally committed to their needs- collecting food and clothing, looking for jobs and places for them to live. He also helped them preserve their Christian faith in a city which was rapidly becoming secular. 

With the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Bl. Rupert at first offered his services to a camp hospital. But later was made Field Captain and travelled together with his men to France, Poland and Romania which brought him to the front line of battle. His courage and solidarity with his men became legendary. He was with them in the trenches and stayed with the dying to the very end. His courage was infectious and gave hope to his men in appalling conditions. In Dec. 1915 he was awarded the Iron Cross for bravery, a rare honor for a chaplain. His army career ended abruptly in 1916 when a badly broken leg had to be amputated. 

Military Chaplain

By the time he had fully recovered the war was over (1918) and he returned to Munich doing all he could to help people get back to a normal life. In November 1921 he became director of a Marian Congregation (Sodality of Our Lady) for men and within nine years its membership had grown to 7,000, coming from 53 different parishes. This meant that Bl. Rupert had to give up to 70 talks a month to reach all of them. For the convenience of travelers, he introduced Sunday Masses in 1925 at the main railway station. He himself would celebrate the earliest Masses, beginning at 3.10 a.m. In time, it could be said that the whole city of Munich had become his parish.

With huge social problems developing in Germany after World War I, Munich saw the rise of Communist and other social movements. Bl. Rupert took a close interest in these. He attended their meetings and even addressed them. His aim was to highlight Christian principles and to point out the fallacies in other speakers’ ideas which could mislead people. He was one of the first to recognize the dangers of  Hitler and Nazism challenging Nazi policy with Christian principles. It was inevitable that he would come in conflict with the Nazi movement.

When Hitler became chancellor of the Reich in 1933, he began to shut down church-affiliated schools and began a campaign to discredit the religious orders. Preaching in St Michael’s Church in downtown Munich, Bl. Rupert denounced these moves. As a very influential voice in the city, the Nazis could not allow him to continue his attacks on them. On 16 May 1937, the Gestapo ordered Bl. Rupert to stop speaking in public places. This he did but continued to preach in church. Two weeks later he was arrested and put in prison for six weeks. At his trial he was found guilty but given a suspended sentence. He then obeyed his superiors’ orders to remain silent but the Nazis took advantage of this to defame him in public. His superiors then allowed him to preach again in order to defend himself against the Nazis’ slanderous attacks. He was arrested six months later and served his formerly suspended sentence in Landsberg prison for five months. Then a general amnesty made it possible for him to return to Munich and work quietly in small discussion groups.

However, he was still seen as a threat and so was arrested again in November 1940 on the pretext that he had cooperated in a royalist movement. Now 63 years old, Rupert was sent to the notorious Oranienburg-Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin. After a few months, his health had deteriorated so badly that it was feared he might die in the camp and be seen as a martyr. So he was sent to stay in the beautiful Benedictine Abbey in Ettal, in the Bavarian Alps. Bl. Rupert spent his time there in prayer, leaving his future in the Lord’s hands. He remained in the abbey for almost six years until freed by American forces in May 1945.

He at once returned to Munich, where he received a hero’s welcome, and took up his pastoral work at St. Michael’s. However, the years in prison and the camp had undermined his health. On 1 Nov 1945 Bl. Rupert was celebrant at the 8 a.m. Mass on the feast of All Saints in St Michael’s. He had just read the Gospel and began preaching on the Christian’s duty to imitate the saints, when he had a stroke and collapsed. Facing the congregation,”The Lord… the Lord… the Lord…” were his last words. He died shortly afterwards. He was 69 years old. He was buried in the Jesuit cemetery in Pullach, outside Munich but his remains were later brought back to the city and interred in the crypt of the Burgersaal, the church next to St Michael’s, where the men’s sodality regularly met.

With St. Benedicta of the Cross

In 1956, Pope Pius XII, who had personally known Rupert Mayer during his time as papal nuncio in Munich, awarded him the title Servant of God. Rupert Mayer was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 3 May 1987 in Munich. His grave was visited by Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, whose parents had venerated him. He is remembered for his staunch opposition to Nazi inhumanity and for his selfless dedication in helping the poor.

JESUIT LEADER FOR JUSTICE

Continuing with the theme of great Jesuits I give you one of my favorites, a man of astute insight and humility
. 

PEDRO ARRUPE, SJ, was the 28th Superior General of the Society of Jesus, leading the Society in the realities of serving the Church and people in the post-Vatican II world. Father Arrupe was a man of great spiritual depth who was committed to justice. 

Father Arrupe was born in the Basque region of Spain in 1907. After some years of medical training, he entered the Jesuits in 1927. In 1932, the Republican government in Spain expelled the Jesuits from the country. Father Arrupe continued his studies in Belgium, Holland, and the United States. After being ordained, he was sent to Japan in 1938 where he hoped to work as a missionary for the rest of his life.

After the December 7, 1941, bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese security forces arrested Father Arrupe on suspicion of espionage. He was kept in solitary confinement. He described the privation and uncertainty he suffered as he waited for the disposition of his case. He missed celebrating the Eucharist most of all. In the midst of his suffering, Father Arrupe experienced a special moment of grace. On Christmas night, 1941, he heard a group of people gathering outside his cell door. He could not see them and wondered if the time of his execution had come.

“Suddenly, above the murmur that was reaching me, there arose a soft, sweet, consoling Christmas carol, one of the songs which I had myself taught to my Christians. I was unable to contain myself. I burst into tears. They were my Christians who, heedless of the danger of being themselves imprisoned, had come to console me.” (Pedro Arrupe: Essential Writings, Kevin Burke, Maryknoll)

After the few minutes of song, Father Arrupe reflected in the presence of Jesus, who would soon descend onto the altar during the Christmas celebration: “I felt that he also descended into my heart, and that night I made the best spiritual communion of all my life.”

When the security forces came after 33 days to release him from captivity, he was convinced that they were coming to execute him. The experience of captivity filled him with a deep inner calm founded on a radical trust in God.

Father Arrupe moved to Nagatsuka, on the outskirts of Hiroshima, where he resumed his duties as the master of novices for the Japanese mission. On August 6, 1945, he heard the sirens wail as a single American B-29 bomber flew over the city. He did not think much of it and expected to hear the all-clear siren soon. Instead he heard an enormous explosion and felt the concussion that blew in the doors and windows of his residence.

Moving outside Father Arrupe and his colleagues saw the first of the 200,000 casualties of the atomic bomb. Walking up the hill they saw the city of Hiroshima turning into a lake of fire.

Father Arrupe decided to use his medical training to help whomever he could. He and his colleagues were able to give aide to 150 victims. Knowing nothing of the dangers of atomic radiation, they were perplexed and distressed at the many deaths of people who seemed to have no external injuries. He and his fellow Jesuits had only the most basic food and medical supplies and had to care for people without anesthetics or modern drugs. Nevertheless, of the 150 people whom they were able to take in, only one boy died from the effects of his injuries.

When visiting a Jesuit province in Latin America, Pedro Arrupe celebrated the Mass in a suburban slum, the poorest in the region. He was moved by the attentiveness and respect with which the people celebrated the Mass. His hands trembled as he distributed communion and watched the tears fall from the faces of the communicants.

Afterwards, one man invited Father Arrupe to his home. The man’s home was a half-falling shack. The man seated him in a rickety chair and invited Father Arrupe to observe the setting sun with him. After the sun went down, the man explained that he was so grateful for what Father had brought to the community. The man wanted to share the only gift he had, the opportunity to share in the beautiful setting sun.

Father Arrupe reflected, “He gave me his hand. As I was leaving, I thought: ‘I have met very few hearts that are so kind.’”

Pedro Arrupe was serving as the Superior of the Jesuits’ Japanese Province when he was elected Superior General of the Society of Jesus in 1965. He held the position until 1983.

As the 28th Superior, or “Father General,” it was his task to guide the community through the changes following Vatican II. He was most concerned that the Jesuits make a commitment to addressing the needs of the poor. His work resulted in the decree from the 32nd General Congregation, Our Mission Today: The Service of Faith and the Promotion of Justice, passed in 1975. This led the Jesuits, especially in Latin America, to work in practical ways with the poor. In spite of threats against their lives - threats that led to the murder of six priests in El Salvador in 1989 - the Jesuits continued their justice work with the poor, with Father Arrupe’s support.

His belief in justice informed his understanding of the goal of Jesuit education. He said:

Today our prime educational objective must be to form men-and-women-for-others; men and women who will live not for themselves but for God and his Christ—for the God-human who lived and died for all the world; men and women who cannot even conceive of love of God which does not include love for the least of their neighbors; men and women completely convinced that love of God which does not issue in justice for others is a farce. 

In 1981 Father Arrupe suffered a debilitating stroke. An appointee named by Pope John Paul II served as interim superior until 1983, when Father Arrupe was forced to resign. He was wheeled in to the opening session of the 33rd General Congregation, and his final prayer was read to the community.

"More than ever I find myself in the hands of God. This is what I have wanted all my life from my youth. But now there is a difference; the initiative is entirely with God. It is indeed a profound spiritual experience to know and feel myself so totally in God’s hands."

 

OBLATE ARTIST

Some interesting art for the feast of St. Benedict by a Benedictine Oblate, one who influenced Catholic art in the USA.

Born in 1920 in St. Paul, FRANK KACMARIK won a scholarship to the Minneapolis School of Art, where his painting and typography courses had a lifelong influence on him.

Frank entered St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota in 1941. His mentor was an Austrian monk who inspired him to regard his artwork as an authentic ministry. When he left the monastery to serve in World War II, he was stationed in Western Europe, where he observed the magnificent cathedrals, monasteries, and museums.

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He eventually studied further both at MCAD and in Paris, returning in 1950 to teach at St. John's. While there, he worked with the great Bauhaus architect Marcel Breuer on the design of the landmark Abbey church. He and Marcel became close friends, and Marcel designed a home and studio for Frank in St. Paul, refusing payment for the work.

Frank won over sixty national and international awards in book design and the graphic arts. He had a widespread influence in church design and communications after the liberalizations of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65).

His own collection of fine and rare books, manuscripts, fine art prints, and religious art objects, which he called Arca Atrium, "The Ark of the Arts"—was donated. to St. John's as a scholarly resource.prints

MCAD awarded Kacmarcik an Alumni Achievement Award in 1999. He died in 2004.