BY HIS HOLY CROSS

                                                               Abraham Rattner (USA- d. 1978)

HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH

Every year from September 15 to October 15, Americans celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month by appreciating the community’s history, heritage, and contributions of the ancestors of American citizens who came from Mexico, Spain, the Caribbean, and South- and Central America. 

 Hispanic Heritage Month originally started with one week of commemoration when it was first introduced by Congressman George E. Brown in June 1968. With the civil rights movement, the need to recognize the contributions of the Latin community gained traction in the 1960s. Awareness of the multicultural groups living in the United States was also gradually growing. 

Two heavily Latinx and Hispanic populated areas, the San Gabriel Valley and East Los Angeles  (where our Mother Dilecta grew up), were represented by Brown. His aim was to recognize the integral roles of these communities in American history. 

Observation of Hispanic Heritage Week started in 1968 under President Lyndon B. Johnson and was later extended to a 30-day celebration by President Ronald Reagan, starting on September 15 and ending on October 15. It was enacted into law via approval of Public Law 100-402 on August 17, 1988. 

 September 15 is set as the starting date for the month as it is important for many reasons. It is the independence anniversary for Latin American countries El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Honduras. From here onwards, the independence days of Mexico and Chile fall on September 16 and September 18, respectively. Dia de la Raza or Columbus Day also falls within this month, on October 12.

Hispanic Americans have been integral to the prosperity of the U.S. Their contributions to the nation are immeasurable, and they embody the best of American values. The Hispanic-American community has left an indelible mark on the U.S. culture and economy.

What will we do this month to celebrate?  Since we have a Mexican dish in one form or another weekly, I will try another Hispanic culture, maybe Peruvian?

EUCHARISTIC REMINDER

 

Pope Francis encouraged Catholics at the International Eucharistic Congress in Budapest to spend more time in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament to become more like Christ.

“The Eucharist is here to remind us who God is. It does not do so just in words, but in a concrete way, showing us God as bread broken, as love crucified and bestowed.

Today, as in the past, the cross is not fashionable or attractive. Yet it heals us from within. Standing before the crucified Lord, we experience a fruitful interior struggle, a bitter conflict between ‘thinking as God does’ and ‘thinking as humans do.

There is God’s side and the world’s side. The difference is not between who is religious or not, but ultimately between the true God and the ‘god of self.

How different is Christ, who presents Himself with love alone, from all the powerful and winning messiahs worshiped by the world. Jesus unsettles us; He is not satisfied with declarations of faith, but asks us to purify our religiosity before His cross, before the Eucharist.

Let us allow Jesus the Living Bread to heal us of our self-absorption, open our hearts to self-giving, liberate us from our rigidity and self-concern, free us from the paralyzing slavery of defending our image, and inspire us to follow Him wherever He would lead us.

The Christian journey is not a race towards ‘success;’ it begins by stepping back, finding freedom by not needing to be at the center of everything.

It is to step out each day ... to an encounter with our brothers and sisters. The Eucharist impels us to this encounter, to the realization that we are one Body, to the willingness to let ourselves be broken for others,”

The Holy Father commended the example of  Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński and Elizabeth Czacka who were beatified on Sunday in Warsaw, Poland. (See Blog  5/24/2021)

“May the example of these new Blesseds encourage us to transform darkness into light with the power of love.

PAPAL BENEDICTINE

 

There is a new Benedictine in the Vatican!  Father Kolumban Reichlin,O.S.B. , 50, was appointed chaplain of The Pontifical Swiss Guard by Pope Francis on Sept. 1 and will take up his new position in October.

The Swiss Guard was established by Pope Julius II in 1506 and is charged with serving and protecting the pope.  I don’t know how things stand in the Vatican today, or even St. Peter’s, but in my day no one entered without proper dress.  These colorful, well dressed gentlemen made sure of it.

Members of the world’s smallest but oldest standing army are responsible for Vatican security together with the Vatican gendarmes. (Yes, they are really Swiss).

Father Kolumban entered the Order of St. Benedict in 1991 at Einsiedeln Abbey in Switzerland. He studied for the priesthood at the Einsiedeln seminary and at Saint Meinrad in St. Meinrad, Indiana, which is affiliated with the Swiss abbey.

 He has also studied history and liturgy in Bern, Freiburg, and Rome. In his monastery, he was responsible for pilgrimages and was also a part of liturgy commissions.

From 2009 to 2020, the he was provost of the Provostry of St. Gerold in Austria, a church and monastery founded in the High Middle Ages, which has belonged to the Benedictine Monastery of Einsiedeln since the 13th century.

The Pontifical Swiss Guard has its own oratory inside Vatican City where members regularly attend Mass, and ceremonies such as weddings and baptisms sometimes take place.

The Church of Saints Martin and Sebastian of the Swiss was built in 1568 by Pope Pius V to be the Swiss Guard’s private chapel. It is located just behind the colonnade of St. Peter’s Square on the north side, next to the Swiss Guard barracks and the Apostolic Palace.

  (photo of Father Kolumban-  Joachim Schwald)

COVID AND THE EUCHARIST

 

This week In Budapest, Hungary, a Eucharistic Congress is taking place.  We have known such an emphasis on the Eucharist in our own country, since the beginning of the pandemic. It is gratifying to know that this theme continues on a wider scale.

 

There are more than 60 speakers from nearly 40 countries on five continents participating, with the congress closing with a Mass celebrated by Pope Francis on Sunday Sept. 12. The congress, which is held every four years and was postponed from 2020 because of COVID-19 restrictions, aims to deepen knowledge and respect for the Eucharist. The theme is “All my springs are in you,” and each day includes Mass and cultural and spiritual events around the Hungarian capital.

 

 At the Congress’ opening Mass Sept. 5, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, president of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences, said the Eucharist “goes beyond all loneliness, all distance and all indifference...faith is not a series of prohibitions, but rather a great ‘yes’ to joy, even when it is demanding, because love is a serious thing.”

Celebrating Mass Sept. 7, Archbishop José Palma of Cebu, Philippines, spoke about the experience of being family each time the Eucharist is celebrated.

“Right at the start of the Holy Mass, we let go of our social status and the many things that divide us, for we become one family of believers. It is also in every Eucharist where we let go of our titles and call each one as brothers and sisters, and we ask the Lord to make ‘my sacrifice and yours be acceptable to the almighty Father.'”

The congress is important “because it deals with all aspects of life,” Cardinal Gérald C. Lacroix of Quebec told Vatican Radio.The congress is “a place where we come to the Source, where we come to the Lord as humanity, as church and allow Him to renew us, give us more strength so we can continue living in the midst of this very troubled world and find hope."

On the feast of the Birth of Our Lady, Sept. 8, Burma’s Cardinal Charles Maung Bo spoke of the importance of imitating Jesus’ patience amid the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Look at our world and our lives. The modern man lives in a feverish pitch. He is in a tearing hurry. He is rushing all the time. He is restless. He wants to acquire more, consume more. He is not content. He abhors silence. He cannot wait. Speed, speed is the number one value today. Being slow is considered a vice, a waste of time. But Jesus waits. He came to us because he loves us.  Time is not a commodity; it is a communion of hearts. Jesus waits patiently in the Eucharist.”

“Life is not a fast-food restaurant; it is a patient pilgrimage. Fast internet may connect smartphones; only patience connects hearts,” The 72-year-old Salesian cardinal called the COVID-19 pandemic the “irritating teacher of patience.

 "COVID has taught us this virtue in the most painful way.  COVID robbed us of our Sunday Communion, Eucharist, the source and summit of our spiritual life. It did bring spiritual and emotional challenges. But through this darkness, the Lord has worked to rebuild us to have patience amidst this existential threat.”

Pope Francis has designated Quito, Ecuador, as the venue for the 2024 International Eucharistic Congress.

 

SEATTLE'S PIONEER PRIEST

Monsignor FRANCIS XAVIER PREFONTAINE, born  in 1838 was a French Candian priest and missionary , an early resident in the pioneer days of SEATTLE.  He was a noted figure in the history of Seattle and the Puget Sound region of Washington State and Seattle's first resident Catholic priest who built Seattle's first Catholic church.

He was the eldest of five children in a French-speaking, devout Catholic family. His early education took place at parochial schools and Nicolet College and he went on to study for the priesthood at the Grand Seminary of Montreal in 1859. Within three weeks after his graduation and ordination on November 20, 1863, he departed on a long sea voyage for Washington Territory in the United States via the Isthmus of Panama. He was never to return to his native Quebec.

Father Prefontaine's voyage brought him to Vancouver, Washington, in February 1864. In Vancouver he served under Augustin-Magloire Blanchet, Bishop of the Diocese of Nesqually (now the Archdiocese of Seattle)  and a fellow French Canadian. Father Prefontaine spoke no English, so during his stay in Vancouver he studied English and also Chinook jargon, a pidgin trade language of the Pacific Northwest. 

Bishop Blanchet assigned the young priest to a ministry at Fort Stevens on the Oregon side of the mouth of the Columbia River. During his trip out to this rainy and foggy coast, he lost his way and had to spend a night out in the open. When he awoke in the morning he discovered that he had spent the night in an Indian burial ground.

Upon completion of his  assignment at Fort Stevens, Bishop Blanchet sent him to Steilacoom, near Tacoma. The bishop assigned him to such duties as saying Mass for the nuns and parishioners, providing for the education of the children, and supervising the building of several churches in the area. While he was in Steilacoom he met and worked with Mother Joseph of the Sisters of Providence. She was a fellow French Canadian missionary, whose mission was also to build churches and schools.

In 1865 Bishop Blanchet divided the Puget Sound region of the diocese into two missions. He assigned Father Prefontaine to the northern mission where he set up his headquarters in the only town that had a Catholic church, Port Townsend (which sits across the waters north of Seattle). From there he journeyed around the entire territory, travelling in canoes with the Indians and sleeping in forests and on stream banks. He ministered to the Indians and the white settlers, both Catholics and non-Catholics.

Fr. Prefontaine first landed in Seattle, at what is now Pioneer Square, and decided to set up a ministry there. At that time Seattle was a lumber-mill town and had only about 600 residents. Father Prefontaine counted only ten Catholics in the town and only three attended the first Mass that he conducted.

Bishop Blanchet warned him that Seattle had little potential as a Catholic mission, but nevertheless, the bishop gave him permission to establish a permanent parish there.

Father Prefontaine rented a small two-room house at Third Avenue and Yesler Way in Seattle for $6 per month to be used as a church as well as his living quarters. He converted one room into a small chapel so that he could conduct services there while working to raise funds to build a church. He held his first Mass there on November 24, 1867.

In order to raise money for the church, he held fairs in various towns around the Puget Sound area, including Seattle, Olympia, and Port Gamble, eventually raising $2,000. He then purchased a plot of land near his house on Third Avenue and Washington Street and began construction of a small church. He did most of the work himself, including clearing the land and constructing the building.

The plot of land that he purchased was heavily wooded and had to be cleared in order to build the church.

Recalled Father. Prefontaine in 1902:

I have vivid recollection of the time we had clearing the land for the new church. Every foot of it was covered with monster trees and dense underbrush. One giant of the forest that we cut down I remember measured eight feet in diameter at the butt and had roots which extended from one side of the block to the other and which on the south drank in the waters of a little creek that ran down the ravine on the north side of which the church was to stand. We were three months in getting rid of the stumps and underbrush that remained after the trees were felled. In clearing the ground we dug up three relics of the Indian War of 1856, one was a monstrous iron key which belonged to the quartermaster of the sloop of war Decatur and two government bayonets.

 Father Prefontaine began construction of the church in the winter of 1868–69 and the church was completed and dedicated in the autumn of 1870.

The church was small,  measuring only 50′ × 25′. After the church was completed, attendance at services increased rapidly and by 1882 the congregation of 300 had outgrown the small church.

So Father Prefontaine once again set to work to remodel and enlarge the edifice at a cost of $16,000.  Only the belfry and spire of the old church were used in the rebuilt church. The new church was considerably larger with inside dimensions of 35′ × 120, space for 700 parishioners. It was dedicated in May 1883. His home was in the basement of the church, where he lived for more than 20 years.

In 1876 Father Prefontaine secured a contract from King County to care for the sick. He purchased an old soap factory at Fifth Avenue and Madison Street and persuaded the Sisters of Providence  to come to Seattle and establish a hospital there.

In 1880  he asked the Sisters of the Holy Names to set up Catholic education for the children of Seattle. He purchased a plot of land at Second Avenue and Seneca Street for $6,800, and in that year the order established the Holy Names Academy at that location. In his final years he served as chaplain at the academy, which is still in operation in Seattle.  (Our Mother Martina attended this school many years later).

 By 1900 Father Prefontaine's health was declining, so his niece Marie Rose Pauze came to live with him and tend to him. He retired in 1903 and purchased a roomy, three-story house on Capitol Hill near Volunteer Park and enjoyed reading from his large library there.

Father Prefontaine was a secular priest, which meant that he had not taken a vow of poverty. Thus he was able to accumulate property and wealth. His niece once stated that he had a "sound head for business" and "expensive tastes." Over the years he bought and sold numerous properties and accumulated a comfortable fortune.

 When he died in 1909, at the age of 70, he left an estate worth over $33,000, which was a considerable sum of money in the early 20th century.

Judging by the scrapbook of collected stories told about him, Father Prefontaine was one of Seattle’s more beloved pioneers. C.T. Conover, himself a pioneer, as well as longtime and often-quoted Seattle Times correspondent, described Father Prefontaine as, “large, ruddy, genial and jovial with a liking for his fellow man.” 

His relaxed candor included a taste for expensive cigars, whiskey and real estate. His reputation as a fine cook mixed well with his conviviality.

The Catholic Church of our region owes much to this little known missionary: Churches, schools and hospitals.

2nd image: Bishop Augustin-Magloire Blanchet

A DOCTOR'S TALE

My friend, DR  JOHN PEZZIMENTI  wanted his grandchildren to know his story and like our Mother Felicitas in her  “Cord of Longing” (see Blog July 1, 2017)  never realized in the beginning that the book would one day be published  to be read by many. John's wife  was my roommate at Creighton and we have remained friends all these years. Like so many women of our day, she raised the family, while John pursued his career. 

His book, A DOCTOR’S TALE is a fast read that should be given to anyone considering the medical profession- and perhaps to those already in it who have become jaded or discouraged. It is a book about courage, the drive to serve and of hope. It is a book about knowing more can be done, and in spite of “experts” telling him no, he pushed forward till he had answers.

 It is obvious that the mentors he had throughout his career, valued his brilliance as an innovator and healer.  He is often too modest about his role in the research in hematology and cancer therapies we have today.

 John seemed to have an instinct who to trust and who not to trust! He pulls no punches, while explaining how medical science has done so much for us he does not ignore its failings.

I found his revelations about heads of major medical institutions and their rigid, and at times greed for power play, to be shocking, as if they cared more for their own glory than the welfare of humanity. And one wonders how bright young M.D.s ever got out of the shadow of "greats" to do their own research.  John quotes Neil Bohr (Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922):  "an expert was someone who has made every conceivable mistake in a very narrow field".   This gave John confidence in his work later, in spite of the fact he did not graduate from an ivy league school.  Years later his mentor  John Lindenbaum (world class M.D. in hematology) would tell him he was  the best fellow that ever came through Columbia. 

 Oncology was not a recognized speciality in 1970  (in 1975 it would be seen  as a sub-speciality of Internal Medicine)  and when John wanted to do training in cancer medicine he was told it was "on the lunatic fringe of medicine". John had to apply to Yale's school of pharmacy in order to do his training. He had the vision to see the future in cancer treatment and cure.

One of our island friends is a world class MD in the field of orthopedics.  He made his mark through surgical inventions which made him a very rich man. I once asked him why countries like Sweden and Japan, which are ahead of us in many ways, were using his devices and not many physicians in the USA. His answer was it is hard for Americans to change their ways.  This is certainly borne out in John’s book.

John would go on to set up an oncology center in Danbury, Connecticut, as well as teach at Columbia and Yale. He would pioneer bone marrow transplantation.  John practiced for 53 years, was triple certified in Internal Medicine, Hematology and Oncology, was chief of Hematology, chief of Oncology and director of Cancer Medicine in Danbury Hospital.

 His personal story is informative about the history of cancer treatment in the U.S., but also one that demonstrates the importance of staying true to one's self. 

 

(Note the hat - while on a visit to Shaw Island).