REMEMBER WHOSE YOU ARE

Bro. Mickey McGrath

Some of the Franciscan sisters who were on Shaw Island with us for 28 years, were in the novitiate with this next saint to be, whom they all loved.

SERVANT of GOD SISTER THEA BOWMAN F.S.P.A., was a  teacher, and scholar, who made a major contribution to the ministry of the Blacks in the Catholic Church.

She was born Bertha Bowman in Yazoo City, Mississippi in 1937. Her grandfather had been born a slave, but her father was a physician and her mother a teacher. She was raised in a Methodist home but, with her parents' permission, converted to the Roman Catholic faith at the age of nine, and later joined the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration at La Crosse, Wisconsin. There she attended Viterbo University, run by her congregation.

She later attended The Catholic University of America for advanced studies, where she wrote her doctoral thesis on the American writer, William Faulkner.

She taught at an elementary school in La Crosse, Wisconsin and then at a high school in Canton, Mississippi. She later taught at her alma maters, Viterbo College in La Crosse and the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., as well as at Xavier University in New Orleans, Louisiana.

She had a big impact upon Catholic liturgical music by providing intellectual, spiritual, historical, and cultural foundation for developing and legitimizing a distinct worship form for black Catholics. She explained: “When we understand our history and culture, then we can develop the ritual, the music and the devotional expression that satisfy us in the Church.”

She was instrumental in the publication in 1987 of a new Catholic hymnal, Lead Me, Guide Me: The African American Catholic Hymnal, the first such work directed to the Black community. 

After a career of 16 years in education, the Bishop of Jackson, Mississippi, invited Sister Thea to become a consultant for intercultural awareness for his diocese. She then became more directly involved with ministry to her fellow African-Americans. She began to give inspirational talks to Black congregations and found a tremendous response by the people to whom she spoke.

 Even after she developed cancer and her health began a steady decline, she continued to speak to religious groups, becoming a model of hope and faith. “Remember who you are and whose you are”, she said.

In 1989, shortly before her death, in recognition of her contributions to the service of the Church, she was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Religion by Boston College in Massachusetts.

She died of cancer in 1990, aged 52, in Canton, Mississippi, and was buried with her parents in Memphis, Tennessee. Sister Thea lived a full life. She fought evil, especially prejudice, suspicion, hatred and things that drive people apart. She fought for God and God's people until her death.

“I find that when I am involved in the business of life, when I'm working with people, particularly with children, I feel better. A kind of strength and energy comes with that.”

The Diocese of Youngstown as well as the Diocese of Jackson held a proposal towards the Canonization cause for Sister Thea , through the decree of Heroic Virtues for her untiring efforts of evangelization and Catholic missions. 

"Brother Sun -Sister Thea"  (Bro. Mickey McGrath)

THE ETERNAL WOMAN

As I have said in past Blogs, every generation in a monastery is exposed to great writers who influence our journey towards the Lord.  One, who is having a revival of sorts, is GERTRUD VON LE FORT.

She was born in the city of Minden, in the former Province of Westphalia, then the Kingdom of Prussia within the German Empire. She was the daughter of a colonel in the Prussian Army, who was of Swiss Huguenot descent. 

She and her siblings, Elisabeth and Stephan, grew up in a very secure and loving family . She was educated in Hildesheim, and went on to study at universities in Heidelberg,  Marburg and Berlin. She made her home in Bavaria in 1918, living in Baierbrunn until 1939.

Despite publishing some minor works previously, Gertrud's writing career really began with the publication in 1925 of the posthumous work Glaubenslehre by her mentor, Ernst Troeltsch, a major scholar in the field of the philosophy of religion, which she had edited. She converted to Roman Catholicism the following year. Most of her writings came after this conversion, and they were marked by the issue of the struggle between faith and conscience.

Another turning point in Gertrud von le Fort's life was the end of the World War I which meant a great disaster for the defeated Germany. Shortly after her mother died, and in 1920 their family estate Boek was confiscated following her brother's participation in an attempt to anti-government monarchist coup. Gertrud suddenly found herself completely alone and at first without any means. The situation was even more difficult for her because she was accustomed to social etiquette and secured living from her background.

In 1931 she published the novella, de:Die Letzte am Schafott (The Last One at the Scaffold), based on the 1794 execution of the Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne who were guillotined during the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror. The English translation, entitled The Song at the Scaffold, appeared in 1933, and is still considered as her greatest work. This work was the inspiration for the opera Dialogues of the Carmelites written by Francis Poulenc, which premiered in 1957. The opera was based on a similarly entitled libretto by Georges Bernanos.  

Gertrud went on to publish over 20 books, comprising poems, novels and short stories. Her work gained her the accolade of being "the greatest contemporary transcendent poet". Her works are appreciated for their depth and beauty of their ideas, and for her sophisticated refinement of style.

She became friends with  the theologian and philosopher Romano Guardini (see Blog 8/2/16). In 1920's he was active at Rothenfels/Main castle that was a centre of the Catholic youth movement. As early as 1921 Gertrud  read Guardini's The Spirit of the Liturgy and in the following years helped to bring it to awareness of the general public. Father Guardini did the same when Gertrud  published her book of poetry Hymns to the Church  (another masterpiece in my opinion) in 1924. It was read in the Catholic youth movement and gained popularity there.

She was nominated by Hermann Hesse for the Nobel Prize in Literature, and was granted an honorary Doctorate of Theology for her contributions to the issue of faith in her works.

In 1952, she won the Gottfried-Keller Prize, an esteemed Swiss literary award.

German Stamp- 1975

Among her many other works, were The Eternal Woman (my favorite)  in 1934, which appeared in paperback in English in 2010. In this work, she countered the modernist distortions of the feminine, a meditation on what it means to be a woman.

Last year, Ignatius Press brought out a collection of three of her novellas,The Wife of Pilate and Other Stories, thus introducing her to a new generation of readers. 

In 1939  Gertrud made her home in the town of Oberstdorf in the Bavarian Alps, and it was there that she died on  the feast of All Saints, 1 November 1971, aged 95. 

JESUIT MARTYRS IN INDIA

Recent tragedies have produced new Jesuit martyrs, and their stories suggest a new direction not only for martyrdom but for the Church in our world today.  They died because they took risks in working and speaking for human rights, in situations where doing so put them in grave danger.

However the Church adapts to the fast paced, often violent world of today, it needs the steadfast faith of witnesses such as these martyrs who surrendered their lives to help others in the Lord's name.

In a recent Blog we met Archbishop Christophe Mwene Ngabo Munzihara of Bukavu, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), who was murdered  in 1996 with fellow Church workers, because of his forthright stand against violence in that troubled region.

Icon by Fr. Wm McNichols

Another recent Jesuit martyr is FATHER ANCHANIKAL THOMAS in state of Jharkhand, India, who was beheaded in 1997 by bandits who resented the vigor of his work for justice for India's untouchables. Like St. Teresa of Calcutta he gave his life for the poorest of the poor.

Passion for human dignity guided his ministry. He worked ceaselessly to develop a network of night schools around Hazaribag, which gave people an opportunity to share their concerns-  a whole range of social issues and needs. Father Thomas  became involved in every aspect of people’s lives. He felt himself called to be on the side of the poor, the victims of injustice in whatever form. He sought dialogue and initiated methods to help the people such as bonded laborers held in the crippling clutches of landlords and money lenders. He helped people to buy their own land and build proper homes, escaping from enslavement.

Because of him some people now can hope in a brighter future for their own children. He is still loved and cherished by those whom he selflessly served.

Every year, thousands of Dalits and Tribals come from around the district to visit his tomb and the place where he made the ultimate sacrifice.

Jesuits in Hazaribagh province run two social action centers and offer low-castes education, health services and women´s development programs for their socio-economic advancement.

JESUIT MARTYR IN THE CONGO

Having had a chaplain several years ago who was from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we are always interested in saints from that area, and this new martyr fits into our summer theme of Jesuits.

More than 300 Jesuits died during the 20th century for love of God. Some of them were murdered, others died as a result of maltreatment and others were simply made to "disappear" by terrorist regimes. All of them form part of our martyrology for the twentieth and twenty first centuries.

SERVANT of GOD ARCHBISHOP CHRISTOPHE  MUNZIHIRWA MWENE NGABO lost his life in 1996 during the most ignored war of our modern times. 

The Congo Wars, which flared off and on between 1995 and 2003, at one time or another involved eight nations and roughly 25 armed groups, producing a staggering total of 5.4 million deaths. Had this been Europe or North America, it would be considered one of the most important chapters of late 20th century history, but it was Africa, so the carnage rates, at best, a footnote.

Archbishop Christophe was among its early victims. As Rwandan troops poured into the eastern part of what was then Zaire in the fall of 1996, he issued a final, fervent plea for help.

"We hope that God will not abandon us and that from some part of the world will rise for us a small flare of hope."

Born in 1926 in Burhale (Lukumbo) Christophe studied first at local schools before entering the minor seminary where he studied Greek & Latin. Feeling the call to the priesthood he continued his training at the seminary of Moba (formerly Baudouinville). He was ordained in 1958.

In 1963 he joined the Jesuits and was sent to the Louvain in Belgium to study. In 1978 he was appointed Rector of the Jesuit seminary in Kenshasa. Two years later he was appointed provincial superior of the Jesuits of Central Africa. In 1986 he became bishop of the Diocese of Kasongo.

In 1994 he was appointed Archbishop of the diocese of Bukavu.  As Archbishop, he participated in the special synod on the Church in Africa convened by Pope (St.) John Paul II in Rome in April-May 1994 . On his return from Rome he had to face the tragedy of hundreds of thousands of people arriving in South Kivu , driven out of Rwanda by genocide. The whole region was destabilized and beyond the control of civilian authorities.

 For two years ' Mzee ' (" the old wise one", a title given to him by his followers) visited the refugee camps in his diocese. He drew the attention of local authorities as well as the international world of the catastrophic situation of these people, courageously stressing the need to find a just solution to the conflict that upset the whole region.

Archbishop Munzihirwa was all that stood between hundreds of thousands of Hutu refugees and potential annihilation. He had long criticized all parties to the violence. His last hope, shared with the handful of missionaries and diocesan personnel who stayed with him, was for rapid intervention by the international community. But no one listened to his appeals and Oct. 29, 1996, he was murdered along with other religious in the area.

At his Nov. 29 funeral, someone recalled the Archbishop’s favorite saying: "There are things that can be seen only with eyes that have cried.” He has been called the "Oscar Romero of Congo".

At the end of the millennium Pope  (St.) John Paul II commissioned a Martyrology for the 20th century, so that we might not forget the witness of love of God and neighbor which so many men and women of our time have given with their lives and with their deaths.

JESUIT CARDINAL

CARDINAL AVERY DULLES, SJ, (1918-2008) was the first U.S. theologian to be named to the College of Cardinals. Avery Dulles was also the first American Jesuit to receive that honor.

Avery Dulles was the son of former U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, (for whom Washington Dulles International Airport is named). While his parents’ religious background was Presbyterian, Dulles was raised in a generally secular household

His religious doubts were diminished during a personally profound moment when he stepped out into a rainy day and saw a tree beginning to flower along the Charles River; after that moment he never again "doubted the existence of an all-good and omnipotent God." 

He noted how his theism turned toward conversion to Catholicism: "The more I examined, the more I was impressed with the consistency and sublimity of Catholic doctrine."  Reading the Gospels led him to the loving and merciful God who redeemed us in Jesus Christ. He converted to Catholicism in the fall of 1940. 

He continued his studies and was led closer to the Catholic faith through them. He especially admired Thomistic philosophers Etienne Gibson and Jacques Maritain. Dulles was also attracted to the active Catholic liturgical life he observed in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Finally, Dulles asked a Jesuit priest to instruct him in the faith, and he was received into the Church in 1940.

Cardinal Dulles entered the Jesuits in 1946 and began a life of studying and teaching theology. He taught at the Jesuit House of Studies at Woodstock College, the Catholic University of America, and finally at Fordham University in New York.

Cardinal Dulles’s aim as a theologian was to present the Catholic tradition as it speaks to contemporary culture. He did this in 22 books and over 700 articles and reviews. His book Models of the Church (1974) has had a lasting influence on how the Church is perceived and remains a useful guide for exploring the nature of the Church.

So the theologian must participate in the prayer life of the church and be a praying person himself or herself in order to think the thoughts of God, as we theologians try to do. Cardinal Dulles acknowledged that the foundation for teaching is a life of prayer.

 At the time of his elevation to cardinal, he was not raised to the rank of bishop, as is normally the case, as he had successfully petitioned the pope for a dispensation from Episcopal consecration due to his advanced age.

In his later years, the cardinal suffered from the effects of polio from his youth. In addition to the loss of speech, the use of his arms was impaired but his mind remained clear and he continued to work and communicate using his computer keyboard. The cardinal reflected on his weakening condition:

“Suffering and diminishment are not the greatest of evils but are normal ingredients in life, especially in old age. They are to be expected as elements of a full human existence.

Well into my 90th year I have been able to work productively. As I become increasingly paralyzed and unable to speak, I can identify with the many paralytics and mute persons in the Gospels, grateful for the loving and skillful care I receive and for the hope of everlasting life in Christ. If the Lord now calls me to a period of weakness, I know well that his power can be made perfect in infirmity”.

Cardinal Dulles died on December 12 (My birthday and the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe), 2008 at Fordham University in the Bronx, where he had lived for many years. He is being considered for canonization.

THE SERVANT OF LEPERS

BLESSED JAN BEYZYM was a Polish Jesuit  known as  "the Servant of Lepers”, having worked for many years in a leprosarium in Madagascar.

He was born into the gentry, yet knew hardship in his youth. His family were dispossessed of their ancestral home following a failed revolt against Russian rule.

Bl. Jan entered the Jesuits at age 22 in 1872. As a  novice he helped other Jesuits in caring for victims of a cholera epidemic. This experience may have planted a seed in his desire to help others. He was ordained in 1881, and spent the next 17 years teaching in Jesuit schools in Poland. During these years he repeatedly requested to be assigned to the missions to work with lepers.

In 1898, his wishes were fulfilled and he was sent to Madagascar.  He found the conditions deplorable, with the 150 patients lacking shelter, nutrition & medical treatment.  He immediately began to improve the terrible conditions while laying plans for a new hospital.

He also worked to change social attitudes toward the stigma of leprosy (shades of St. Damien of Molokai).

He said: One must be in constant union with God and pray without respite. One must get used to the stench, for here we can’t breathe the scent of flowers but the putrefaction of bodies generated by leprosy.”

In 1911, a year before he died, Bl. Jan inaugurated the new hospital for his people.  Many came, not only because of the better care, but because of the devotion of the priest who had served them with such love.

Bl. Jan was beatified by Pope St. John Paul in 2002. As a missionary he was conscious of the global dimension of the Jesuit Society’s work to meet the needs of humanity. “One’s country is where the greater service of God and help of souls is found. It does not matter where you live, at the Equator or the North Pole. What really matters is to die in the service of the Lord Jesus as a a member of our holy Society. 

MISSIONARY TO YOUTH

SERVANT of GOD GEORGE J. WILLMANN, S.J. was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1897. His parents were William Godfrey Willmann and Julia Corcoran Willmann. George had two brothers, Edward and William Jr. and four sisters, Miriam, Dorothy, Ruth and Agnes. His sisters Ruth and Agnes became members of Franciscan Missionary of Mary.

From 1902 to 1908, George studied at the Our Lady of Good Counsel Grammar School in Brooklyn, and from 1908 to 1913 and at the Boys High and Brooklyn Preparatory High School. On August 15, 1915, He entered the into Society of Jesus Seminary at Poughkeepsie, New York.

He was then sent to the Philippines in 1922 as a seminarian for a teaching stint at the Ateneo de Manila, later returning to the United States in 1925 to continue his theological studies.

In June 20, 1928, he was ordained at the Woodstock College in Maryland by Archbishop Michael Joseph Curley. Father George served as Director of New York Jesuit Seminary and Mission Bureau from 1930 to 1936. Then he  returned to the Philippines to continue teaching at the Ateneo de Manila. The next year he became dean of Ateneo de Manila.

In 1938, Father Willmann established the Catholic Youth Organization in the Philippines, a religious and recreational organization for the youth. He became the chaplain of the organization on its establishment until 1977. He  was also initiated into Order of Knights of Columbus June 30 of the same year. He was appointed Chaplain of Manila Council 1000 based in Intramuros, Manila.

In 1941 Servicemen clubs were established under the guidance of the Army-Navy Morale Committee, of which Father Willmann and the auxiliary bishop of Manila, Msgr. Rufino Santos, were members. In 1942, he taught Social Sciences at the Manila San Jose Seminary.

Father Willmann became a prisoner of war during the Japanese occupation of Manila where he was arrested at the University of Santo Tomas by the Japanese on July 1944. He and the other prisoners where later put into a concentration camp in Los Banos, Laguna and were later freed by American forces in 1945.

On July 1, 1975, Father George was granted Filipino citizenship by then President Ferdinand Marcos  for his "virtuous acts, compassionate and kind and loving service for the Filipino people.”

On June 29, 1977, Pope Paul VI awarded him the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice medal.

Father Willmann later went to New York presumely to pay a visit to his sisters, Ruth, and Agnes, nuns living in Roslyn. He was prone to falls because of weaking limbs and had a fall while he was in New York, resulting in hip surgery. After his stay in the hospital, he was transferred to the Murray-Weigel Hall, an infirmary owned by the Jesuits in New York state.

Father Willmann died on September 14, 1977, due to cardiac arrest. His remains were interred at the Jesuit Cemetery in Novaliches, Quezon City, Philippines.

"He spent all 40 years of his priesthood here in the Philippines," said Msgr. Pedro Quitorio, one of the postulators for Father Willman's beatification. He described the late priest as "a friend of the poor" and a "missionary to the youth." adding that "it is only right that he be recognized as a Filipino saint, if and when the time comes."

Father Willman is now one of eight Filipinos currently undergoing the process for beatification and canonization