MISSIONARY JESUIT TO THE ESKIMOS

In this year we have  written about many missionaries:  Sister Clare Crockett (Blog 4/17), Irish nun who died in Ecuador, Bl. Richard Henkes (9/18), S of God Madeleine & Raoul Follereau (2/11) dedicated their lives to the lepers in East Africa,  Servant of God John Joseph McCauley (2/18),  to name a few. This next missionary is a bit closer to home in the Northwest.

FATHER SEGUNDO LLORENTE a Jesuit missionary spent most of his apostolic life deep in the Arctic Polar Circle. He was born on November 18, 1906 in Mansilla Mayor in the province of Leon, Spain. At the early age of 17 he answered the call to become a priest, and at 19 went to the missions. His brother Amando, also became a Jesuit, who became a teacher and mentor to Fidel Castro, and later was a chaplain and director of spiritual services for the U.S. Army in Miami.  

  

In 1930 he traveled to the US as a member of the Oregon's Jesuit Province to teach at Gonzaga High School in Spokane, Washington. In 1931 he studied theology in St. Mary’s College in Kansas, followed by ordination in1934.  He also spent time in studies in Alma, California.

In 1935 he departed for Alaska in a 37 days trip to Akulurak. He later did a tertionship in Port Townsend, Washington.

He had volunteered for "the most remote and difficult places", and soon after obtained permission to go to Alaska. Forty years among the Eskimos, he traveled thousands of miles and dwell on both sides of the Yukon River. He spent long seasons in Akurulak, Bethel, Kotzebue, and Alakanuc, the first being the place of some of his most exciting memories made famous in the book "Crónicas Akurulakeñas". Father Segundo went back to Spain only once, in 1963, a trip design to encourage vocations to the priesthood.

In 1938 he  was assigned to Kotzebue in Alaska and by 1941 was appointed Superior of Akulurak. In 1960, he won a seat in the 2nd Alaska State Legislature as a write-in candidate, becoming the state’s first Catholic priest elected to office.

In 1975 after 40 years in Alaska, he was transferred to Moses Lake, Washington, and six years  later to Pocatello, Idaho.

In 1984 he became chaplain at St. Joseph Hospital in Lewinston, Idaho and died five years later in Spokane, Washington. He was buried in Desmet, Idaho.

He wrote twelve books about Alaska, all of them in Spanish, even though four years of theology school in Kansas gave him a perfect command of the English language. He was also able to speak sufficient "Eskimo" language to make himself understood among the natives. He wrote thousands of letters, with his deep and habitual flare, inviting the youth of the world to join the priesthood and the rewards of becoming missioners. His letters and essays about life among the Eskimos were published in the magazines "Misiones" and "El Siglo de las Misiones". All this correspondence gave way to the publication of several books but the best is considered to be "40 Years in the Polar Circle", a work prepared by his brother, the Father Amando Llorente, SJ with the collaboration of Dr. Jose A. Mestre.

He never said no to God and  lived a happy life as a priest.  Testimonies about this attitude were attested several times in his writings, particularly in the following paragraph of the previously cited book: "Neither the Blessed Virgin nor the angels can do what priests do every day, Christ could have arranged things in many other ways; but He chose the intervention of the priests. Upon this figure He partakes to bring salvation to the human race". 


In spite of his many labors, there is a real contemplative side to his spiritual side.  Was it the long dark days and nights that gave him time to reflect and pray?   "In the darkness of the church in Nunajak, He and I, alone, without words, understand each other; we rest and make our heaven on Earth".

"During my visit to the U.S.A., when I entered those enormous temples it felt as if I was in a public plaza. Here in Nunajak there are no such temples; here, by the altar, I could swear that Jesus can hear the most silent whispers".

"In the great churches of the cities and even in the small towns, there is a tabernacle, so distant from the people that it looks as if one were also far from the Most Holy".

"Among the promises to the devotes of his Sacred Heart we could not miss a most special one for his priests, the promised grace to soften the hearts of those most hardened"

"It seems very common for the Lord having to obey; when I consecrate He must obey; when I absolve He must approve, if there is no faulty impediment; When I baptize He must adopt the creature. He voluntarily submitted Himself to us, as it is often said: "He opted to be at our service".

NEW WOMEN SAINTS FROM ACROSS THE GLOBE

There are four women who were  canonized today with  CARDINAL JOHN HENRY NEWMAN.

Our chaplains rejoice as they have a new saint in  MOTHER MIRIAM THRESIA (1876-1926) an Indian mystic and founder of the Congregation of the Holy Family. Her prayer life was characterized by frequent ecstasies in which she would sometimes levitate above the ground. In 1909, Thresia received the stigmata, after which she also suffered from demonic attacks.

Mother Thresia cared for the poor, sick, and dying in Kerala, visiting those with leprosy and measles. She also preached to the poor and the rich alike the importance of happy, healthy families to uplift all of society.  In 1914 Thresia founded the Congregation of the Holy Family, which has grown to have 176 houses around the world with 1,500 professed sisters.

And the Swiss, who do not count many saints in their number, have a new saint with MARGARITE BAYS a 19th century laywoman and stigmatist, who dedicated her life to prayer and service to her parish community without marrying or entering a religious community. As a Third Order Franciscan, she lived a simple life as a dressmaker and carried out a lay apostolate as a catechist.

When she was diagnosed with advanced cancer in 1853, she prayed to the Virgin Mary to be able to suffer with Jesus rather than to be healed. However, on the day that Bl. Pius IX proclaimed the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception, Sept. 8, 1854, she was miraculously healed. Pope Pius made the proclamation on Marguerite’s 39th birthday. Marguerite died on the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1879 at the age of 63

MOTHER GIUSEPPINA VANNINI a 19th century religious sister from Rome known for founding the congregation of the Daughters of St. Camillus dedicated to serving the sick and suffering. She is the first Roman woman to be canonized in more than 400 years.

She spent much of her childhood in an orphanage near St. Peter’s Square after losing her father when she was four, and her mother when she was seven. She grew up among the Daughters of Charity sisters, who ran the orphanage. On the day of her first communion, young Giuseppina felt that she was called to a religious vocation.

This desire was not realized until 1892 when she was 33 because she was rejected by the Daughters of Charity after her novitiate due to her poor health. Despite her own health problems, shei went on to found the Daughters of St. Camillus, whose charism is to serve the sick, even at the risk of their own lives. She died at the age of 51 in 1911.

SISTER DULCE LOPES a Brazilian sister was nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize. Born as Maria Rita Lopes in 1914 in Salvador de Bahia, the new saint began inviting the elderly and those in need into her home at the age of 16. Two years later she joined the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God.

In 1959, she founded the Charitable Works Foundation of Sister Dulce, which grew into largest charitable organization in Brazil providing healthcare, welfare, and education services. Today the foundation includes Roma teaching hospital in Bahia and the Santo Antonio Educational Center which provides free education to 800 children living in extreme poverty.

Sister Dulce died in 1992 after 30 years of respiratory illness. After her body was found to be incorrupt, Sister Dulce was beatified in 2011 and was selected as one of the patrons of World Youth Day in Krakow as a model of charity.  She is the first Brazilian-born female saint.

THE LAITY AS MISSIONARIES

In Go and Make Disciples-  a National Plan and Strategy for Catholic Evangelization in the United States- the Catholic bishops of the United States have expressed a sincere desire to invite all of God’s children to their place in the Church: “We want to let our inactive brothers and sisters know that they always have a place in the Church and that we are hurt by their absence—as they are. . . . we want to help them see that, however they feel about the Church, we want to talk with them, share with them, and accept them as brothers and sisters.”

One of the problems for me living in this great Northwest is the lack of faith found in its people. Many have more faith in mother nature, than they do in her Creator. And there are also so, so many fallen away Catholics.  While we must try and spread the Gospel to all God’s children, I believe in this time of Evangelization, we need to address the problem of the fallen. All Catholics must realize that in this day of rampant consumerism, they are called to be missionaries.

Some people ask me, “what can I do”, as they have a desire to take on the call to evangelize but feel ill prepared to explain Church teachings. Some believe they lack the formation to be personal witnesses to Christ. More and more I say to Catholics who visit, we as a chosen people need to stand up and make ourselves heard in our neighborhood, in our place of work, in schools, in the community we live in.  We can show humility, patience, and love, as these are the tenants of Jesus’ teachings. We can show by our example living our faith day by day. Remember many saints did not do wondrous things while on earth, but they were an example to those around them.

Pope Benedict XVI has called for the “re-proposing” of the Gospel to those regions where the roots of Christianity are deep but that have experienced “a serious crisis” of faith due to secularization – which certainly fits most of our country today.

He clarified that the New Evangelization is new, not in its content but rather in its inner thrust; new in its methods that must correspond to the times; and new because it is necessary to proclaim the Gospel to those who have already heard it.  Pope Benedict XVI- who I consider astute and deeply spiritual - noted that the Church is being challenged by “an abandonment of the faith—a phenomenon progressively more manifest in societies and cultures which for centuries seemed to be permeated by the Gospel.”

Faith is a precious gift from God and it is the duty of all the faithful to spread this gift to others. There are many, very many, sources of information today for laity. Bishop Barron’s site ("Word on Fire"), EWTN, "The World Over" with Raymond Arroyo,  Father Mike Schmitz (funny, funny man) just to name a few. Many parishes today are offering courses for the laity on evangelization and how better to present the faith to others. 

MODERN MISSIONARIES

“The importance of renewing the Church’s missionary commitment and giving fresh evangelical impulse to her work of preaching and bringing to the world the salvation of Jesus Christ” is the focus of Pope Francis’s message for World Mission Sunday Oct. 20 and for the special celebration in 2019 of October as “Missionary Month.”

In many past Blogs we have spoken of missionary saints, even some not canonized. When we recall  missionaries we think of Sts. Paul, Augustine, Patrick, Benedict, Francis of Assisi, Ignatius  of Loyola, Damien of Molokai and some women like Marianne of Molokai and Mother Teresa. But some of the great women, who stayed more at home than the men, were also evangelizers in their day:  Hildegard of Bingen, Catherine of Siena, Teresa of Avila.

ST. THERESA of the CHILD JESUS (The Little Flower) never left her convent and yet is considered the patroness of the missions, a title given to her by Pope Pius XI because of her devotion of praying for missionaries.

 In our own country we had JACQUES MARQUETTE, S.J., JUNIPERO SERRA, FATHER KENO- who evangelized the southwest.

In past Blogs we have noted JOHN HENRY NEWMAN, to be canonized next Sunday. He influenced countless people to convert and today his name is given to the Newman Centers on numerous college & university campuses which seek to proclaim the Good News of Christ to young adults.

Another modern saint whose efforts in the new mediums of radio and television proved to be quite epic and prescient was BISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN. I have no doubt in my mind my own mother would have converted if this Venerable had lived longer.

And then we have ST. JOHN PAUL II,  the most traveled and beloved pope of modern times. This man knew the Good News and shared it with others whenever and how ever he could. He was not afraid to be joyful. Indeed, he told us to “Be not afraid! Open wide the doors to Christ!”

Sometimes I tell people that even though I am in a Contemplative order, I am a missionary.  Growing up I had visions of being a doctor-missionary, traipsing through the jungles of some far off wild country. In fact I am more a missionary here in our small islands, than if I was in those far off places, as there are so few people here who practice religion of any kind. And there are many who have heard the Word, but have fallen along the wayside.

“The conditions of the society in which we live oblige all of us therefore to revise methods, to seek by every means to study how we can bring the Christian message to modern man. For it is only in the Christian message that modern man can find the answer to his questions and the energy for his commitment of human solidarity.” (St. Paul VI)

 The simplest way to say what evangelization means is to follow Pope Paul VI, whose message Evangelii Nuntiandi (On Evangelization in the Modern World) has inspired so much recent thought and activity in the Church. We can rephrase his words to say that evangelizing means bringing the Good News of Jesus into every human situation and seeking to convert individuals and society by the divine power of the Gospel itself. At its essence are the proclamation of salvation in Jesus Christ and the response of a person in faith, which are both works of the Spirit of God.

On my mother's side there is a long tradition of missionaries- granted they were Scottish Presbyterian, but lay Christians who felt it their duty to spread the Gospel of Christ.  In the 1800s it is said my ancestors, the MacMillans, gave up home and country to do missionary work- I believe in New Zealand!  Then there is the famous cousin of my grandmother, Donaldina Cameron, who rescued the Chinese girls from the opium dens of San Francisco (see Blog 2/25/2013). So I guess you could say this desire to evangelize is in my blood, though I am not often conscious of this and think of it as a "side-effect" of my call to religious life.

Donaldina with some of her "children"

“Let us therefore preserve our fervor of spirit. Let us preserve the delightful and comforting joy of evangelizing, even when it is in tears that we must sow. May it mean for us – as it did for John the Baptist, for Peter and Paul, for the other apostles and for a multitude of splendid evangelizers all through the Church’s history – an interior enthusiasm that nobody and nothing can quench. May it be the great joy of our consecrated lives."

The bottom line is all Catholics are called to be a missionary. It is not just reserved for a religious who has dedicated their life to this apostolate.  And we do not have to travel far to do this work.  We are called to be missionaries in our neighborhoods and work places. 

"And may the world of our time, which is searching, sometimes with anguish, sometimes with hope, be enabled to receive the Good News not from evangelizers who are dejected, discouraged, impatient or anxious, but from ministers of the Gospel whose lives glow with fervor, who have first received the joy of Christ, and who are willing to risk their lives so that the kingdom may be proclaimed and the Church established in the midst of the world.” (St. Paul VI)

WHERE O WHERE ARE THE BIRDS?

When I throw bird seed onto my deck each morning I see fewer and fewer birds in both species and numbers. Where have they all gone? Two years ago there would be a hundred or more. Now I am lucky to see 20.  There used to be many more species especially sparrows.  Now I have one, the white crowned.

In September scientists reported  that the number of birds in the United States and Canada has fallen by 29 percent since 1970. There are 2.9 billion fewer birds taking wing now than there were 50 years ago.

David Yarnold, president and chief executive of the National Audubon Society, called the findings “a full-blown crisis.” Experts have long known that some bird species have become vulnerable to extinction. But the new study, based on a broad survey of more than 500 species, reveals steep losses even among such traditionally abundant birds as robins and sparrows.

The losses include favorite species seen at bird feeders, such as Dark-eyed Juncos (or “snowbirds,” down by 168 million) and sweet-singing White-throated Sparrows (down by 93 million). Eastern and Western Meadowlarks are down by a combined 139 million individuals. Even the beloved Red-winged Blackbird—a common sight in virtually every marsh and wet roadside across the continent—has declined by 92 million birds.

“We want to keep common birds common, and we’re not even doing that,” said Pete Marra, a study coauthor who formerly directed the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center and now directs the Georgetown Environment Initiative.

So what is exactly going on? There are likely many causes, the most important of which include habitat loss and wider use of pesticides. “Silent Spring,” Rachel Carson’s prophetic book in 1962 about the harms caused by pesticides, takes its title from the unnatural quiet settling on a world that has lost its birds:

“On the mornings that had once throbbed with the dawn chorus of robins, catbirds, doves, jays, wrens, and scores of other bird voices, there was now no sound.” 

Like the honey bee, which is also loosing ground in nature, we can see that common species of birds are vital to ecosystems They  control pests, pollinate flowers, spread seeds and regenerate our forests. When these birds disappear, their former habitats often are not the same.

Science Magazine

And while we can put blame on the use of pesticides, certainly habitat loss is a major factor. Grassland species have suffered the biggest declines by far, having lost 717 million birds. These birds have probably been decimated by modern agriculture and development.  They’ve lost 700 million individuals across 31 species, equivalent to a 53 percent population loss since 1970. 

Forest-dwelling birds, which are more abundant, lost one billion individuals. Shorebirds, which traverse across full hemispheres during migration, are “experiencing consistent, steep populations loss” at a rate of 37 percent in less than 50 years.

“Declines in your common sparrow or other little brown bird may not receive the same attention as historic losses of bald eagles or sandhill cranes, but they are going to have much more of an impact,” said Hillary Young, a conservation biologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Among the worst-hit groups were warblers, with a population that dropped by 617 million. Vireos which share the same habitat are thriving and no one knows why.

There are 440 million fewer blackbirds than there once were. Even starlings, a species that became a fast-breeding pest after its introduction to the United States in 1890, have dwindled by 83 million birds, a 49 percent decline. Europe is experiencing a similar loss of birds, also among common species.

Scientifically speaking, birds are considered indicator species, or animals used to infer the health of an entire ecosystem. They are worldwide “canaries in the coal mine,” which refers to the 20th-century practice of carrying caged birds into mines to detect toxic gases before humans suffer harmful effects.

Roger Tory Peterson called birds “an ecological litmus paper.” They are crucial to the health of many ecosystems, and their populations anticipate the health of whole environments.

While all of this is bad news, researchers found some positive signs. Bald eagles are thriving,  falcon populations have grown by 33 percent and waterfowl are on the upswing.

Many recovering bird species that were nearly wiped out in the last century by pesticides, hunting and other pressures  have been saved by conservation.   This shows that we have the power to save other species.

WOMEN AS MISSIONARIES

Yesterday, Pope Francis opened the Extraordinary Missionary Month invoking St. Therese of Liseux, the patron saint of missionaries.   “Saint Therese of the Child Jesus shows us the way: she made prayer the fuel for missionary activity in the world.”

“This is also the Month of the Rosary: how much are we praying for the spread of the Gospel and our conversion from omission to mission?... do not forget that prayer is the real soul, the beating heart, of all missionary work of the Church.’”

 

St. Therese by my friend Arturo Olivas

Pope Pius XI declared St. Therese of Liseux,  the patroness of missions in 1927. The saint, who died at the age of 23, offered prayer and sacrifice for the sake of missionaries and wrote of her burning desire to save many souls in her spiritual autobiography The Story of a Soul.

Frédéric Fornos Fornos, the director of the Pope's World Prayer Network, said at a Vatican press conference: “On this day when we celebrate St. Therese of Lisieux, patron of missions, who learned to pray for the mission of the church with the apostolate of prayer, it is beautiful to remember that prayer is a way to love.”

Cardinal Fernando Filoni, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, said, “October is traditionally considered the month of missionaries; we proposed that [this year] it would be an Extraordinary Missionary Month, extraordinary in its intensity and extraordinary in its vision.”

The Cardinal explained that this month is not about doing philanthropy because philanthropy is “not the first dimension of missionary life.” The first dimension of missionary life is “a passion for Jesus” and “a passion for people,” he said.

The theme of the Extraordinary Missionary Month is “Baptized and sent: the Church of Christ on mission in the world.” Pope Francis stressed that this means that “no one is excluded from the Church’s mission.”

“In this month the Lord is also calling you, because you, fathers and mothers of families; you, young people who dream great things; you, who work in a factory, a store, a bank or a restaurant; you who are unemployed; you are in a hospital bed... The Lord is asking you to be a gift wherever you are, and just as you are, with everyone around you.”

Pope Francis pointed to the example of  Venerable Pauline Jaricot, a 19th century French lay woman who helped to found the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, and supported the Church’s missionary work with the offerings she made from her wages.

“This extraordinary Missionary Month should jolt us and motivate us to be active in doing good.  Can we, who have discovered that we are children of the heavenly Father, keep silent about the joy of being loved, the certainty of being ever precious in God’s eyes? That is a message that so many people are waiting to hear. And it is our responsibility.”

EXTRAORDINARY MISSIONARY MONTH

October has been designated by Pope Francis as EXTRAORDINARY MISSIONARY MONTH, so we will concentrate this month on what it means to evangelize in the 21^st century and missionaries  who have gone before our present day missionaries.

Missionaries have brought the Catholic faith not only to the poor and the oppressed but to anyone open to learning about the life of Jesus Christ.

Pope Francis has said that the Church’s mission is a “passion for Jesus and a passion for His people”. This year we celebrate the hundred anniversary of POPE BENEDICT XV’s apostolic letter MAXIMUM ILLUD. (From the opening words of the original Latin text, meaning "that momentous". Pope Benedict begins by recalling "that momentous and holy charge" found in Mark 16:15: "Go into the whole world and preach the gospel to all creation.")

Pope’s since 1919  have had much to say to God’s people regarding their role in evangelization:

"The Gospel has transformed the world, and it is still transforming it, like a river that waters a great field. Let us turn in prayer to the Virgin Mary that in the whole Church priestly, religious and lay vocations ripen in service to   the new evangelization." POPE BENEDICT XVI

ST. JOHN XXIII called the Vatican Council because he wanted the ancient faith to be exactly preserved and yet proclaimed in a way in which it could be heard and embraced in our age and circumstances.

“What is needed at the present time is a new enthusiasm, a new joy and serenity of mind in the unreserved acceptance by all of the entire Christian faith . . .  What is needed, and what everyone imbued with a truly Christian, Catholic and apostolic spirit craves today, is that this doctrine shall be more widely known, more deeply understood, and more penetrating in its effects on men’s moral lives. What is needed is that this certain and immutable doctrine, to which the faithful owe obedience, be studied afresh and reformulated in contemporary terms.”

In his 1999 Apostolic Exhortation the "Church in America" ST. JOHN PAUL II wrote, "With the passage of time, pastors and faithful alike have grown increasingly conscious of the role of the Virgin Mary in the evangelization of America. In the prayer composed for the Special Assembly for America of the Synod of Bishops, Holy Mary of Guadalupe is invoked as 'Patroness of all America and Star of the first and new evangelization'."

“The saints are not supermen, nor were they born perfect,” POPE FRANCIS said. “They are like us, like each one of us. They are people who, before reaching the glory of heaven, lived normal lives with joys and sorrows,struggles and hopes. What changed their lives? When they recognized God’s love, they followed it with all their heart without reserve or hypocrisy. They spent their lives serving others, they endured suffering     and adversity without hatred and responded to evil with good, spreading joy and peace. This is the life of a saint”.

EVANGELII NUNTIANDI  Apostolic Exhortation of ST. POPE PAUL VI, to the Church: Bishops, clergy, religious, and to all the faithful.

“Evangelizing is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize, that is to say, in order to preach and teach, to be the channel of the gift of grace, to reconcile sinners with God, and to perpetuate Christ's sacrifice in the Mass, which is the memorial of His death and glorious Resurrection.

The Church is the depositary of the Good News to be proclaimed. The promises of the New Alliance in Jesus Christ, the teaching of the Lord and the apostles, the Word of life, the sources of grace and of God's loving kindness, the path of salvation - all these things have been entrusted to her. It is the content of the Gospel, and therefore of evangelization, that she preserves as a precious living heritage, not in order to keep it hidden but to communicate it.”