All posts by Anne Tschanz

News, Saints

Tomb of St. Philip the Apostle Found

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On May 2, Zenit conducted an interview with Professor Francesco D’Andria, director of the archaeological mission that located the tomb of St. Philip in Hierapolis, Phrygia (Turkey) in 2010/2011. The search was based upon a letter that Polycrates, the bishop of Ephesus, wrote to Pope Victor I (c. 190) stating that Philip “was one of the twelve Apostles and died in Hierapolis, as did two of his daughters who grew old in virginity.”

The discovery was the culmination of 50 years worth of archaeological work and strangely enough was confirmed by a bronze seal located in a museum in Richmond, Virginia which showed the complex of buildings then existing around St. Philip’s tomb. On the border of the seal is a phrase in Greek: Agios o Theos, agios ischyros, agios athanatos, eleison imas (Holy God, strong Holy One, immortal Holy One, have mercy on us).

It is very touching to see the evidence of the devotion of the pilgrims. The surface of a marble staircase leading to and from the tomb was “completely consumed by the steps of thousands upon thousands of people. Hence, the tomb received an extraordinary tribute of veneration.”

Read all the exciting details in the Zenit article.

Men's communities, News

Where Would We be Without EWTN?

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I once told a priest from Germany that I thought that EWTN had saved Catholicism in America. He looked surprised and startled at my pronouncement.  But where on the TV waves was (and is)  authentic Catholicism being taught? How many Catholic and non-Catholic lives have been transformed through the network?

Congratulations to EWTN which celebrated its 25th anniversary on May 2, 2012.

“There is significance that Mother Angelica started EWTN to defend Jesus Christ, and we were founded on the feast of St. Athanasius, a doctor of the Church, defender of the divinity of Jesus Christ and the ‘Father of Orthodoxy,’” said Father Joseph Wolfe, MFVA, the first priest ordained for the new Public Clerical Association of the Faithful in 1993. “Mother Angelica wanted us to be a spiritual support for the television network.”  He uses the analogy that their cloistered nuns are to be the heart of the mission and the friars and EWTN are to be the voice of the mission.

Today, there are 17 Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word (MFVA) friars who are priests or brothers. Twelve are in perpetual profession. On June 2, two men will be ordained to the transitional deaconate and two to the priesthood, increasing MFVA priests’ numbers to seven.

May the friars continue to be true to the their motto: The lost I will seek out; the strays I will bring back  (Ezekiel 34:16).

News

Catholic Chaplains

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Did you know that four Catholic chaplains have been awarded the US Medal of Honor? The one pictured to the right was  Fr.  Joseph T. O’Callahan, USNR, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism on board the USS Franklin (CV-13), off Japan on March 19, 1945. Seventy Catholic chaplains died during World War II.

I bring this up because Kansas politicians are petitioning to award of Fr. Emil Kapaun, a US Army Chaplain who died in a prisoner-of-war camp during the Korean War, a posthumous Congressional Medal of  Honor. On the Father Kapaun website it states: 

In the seven months in prison, Father Kapaun spent himself in heroic service to his fellow prisoners without regard for race, color or creed.  To this there is testimony of men of all faiths.  Ignoring his own ill health, he nursed the sick and wounded until a blood clot in his leg prevented his daily rounds.  Moved to a so-called hospital, but denied medical assistance, his death soon followed on May 23, 1951. 

The Diocese of Wichita officially opened the cause for his beatification on June 29, 2008.

 

 



 

Saints

St. Damian and Bl. Marianne Cope

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Two weeks ago, at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, a three-foot statue of St. Damian of Molokai was blessed by Bishop Clarence Silva of Honolulu, Hawaii, while he was in Rome for his ad limina visit. A second copy, blessed by Pope Benedict XVI, will become part of the Vatican collections. The artist, Dale Zarrella, said that the sculpture portrays Saint Damian “surveying all the pain and suffering.” At his side is a child whose face is covered by a blanket, hiding the disfigurement caused by leprosy.

This is an exciting time for Hawaii. On October 21, 2012,  Bl. Marianne Cope will be canonized. As superior of the  Sisters of St. Francis in Syracuse, New York, Bl. Marianne was the only one who responded to the King of Hawaii’s appeal for sisters to come and help the leprosy patients. Neither she nor any of the other sisters ever contracted the dreaded disease.

In 1885, King Kalakaua gave her a medal in gratitude for the work she had done for the islanders. Robert Louis Stevenson honored her with a poetic tribute in 1889. After her death, her leprosy patients themselves raised money to erect a fitting statue in her honor over her burial place

News

Recruiting More Chaplains!

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I have two nephews in the navy who have both been deployed to the Middle East and and now a nephew-in-law back in the same arena. In one case, they did not see a Catholic priest for 9 months!

Please pray for more priests who serve our young men and women in the military. It is a very  fertile vineyard for vocations. This prayer comes from  Bishop Richard Moth, Catholic Bishop of the Forces in the United Kingdom.

 

O Lord Jesus Christ, instill in the hearts of priests

the desire to dedicate their lives to you as chaplains to our Armed Services.

Give them wisdom and strength, to hear your call.

Give courage and compassion to those who serve you as Forces Chaplains.

May their hearts be filled with zeal and love of you so that your name may be better known and loved,

for you live and reign for ever and ever.

Amen

Women's Communities

St. Joseph the Worker

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Today, the Sisters of St. Joseph the Worker of Walton, Kentucky, will celebrate their patronal feast day. They have a special devotion to St. Joseph observing with joy all of his feast days and offering a special weekly votive mass in his honor.

The Sisters chose the title “Sisters of St. Joseph the Worker” because the Church had instituted the feast of St. Joseph the Worker just a few years before, in 1955, during the pontificate of Pius XII.

Their apostolate is prayer and through their union with Christ pours forth their ministry to the elderly and to children. At Taylor Manor, they prepare their residents for eternal life, upholding the dignity of human life and the unique witness the elderly have to offer. At St. Joseph Academy, they provide an authentically Catholic education for grades Preschool-8th, cultivating not only the intellectual well-being of their students, but their appreciation for and knowledge of the Catholic faith.

“My Sisters, I exhort you to continuously recall God’s goodness to us, to take full responsibility for the holiness of the Church and the Community, by being ourselves holy.  Let us never rest on our laurels and feel that we have done enough in the pursuit of holiness.  We will have all eternity to rest and to realize that no hardship or sacrifice was too great to obtain the ‘pearl of great price.’” Mother Ellen Curran (d. 2008), Foundress


 

 

News, Women's Communities

“That All of Them May Be One” John 17:21

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Some communities believe that as their numbers dwindle, their job is to empower the laity to do what they used to do. The laity however needs to empower them, through our prayers, to live out their vocation, infused with the charism upon which their community was founded. They need to rediscover anew their historical roots in this upcoming Year of Faith. We also need unity among women religious in this country, an “ecclesiology of communion founded on faith in Jesus Christ and the Church.”

A case in point is the recent document issued by the Holy See about the needed renewal of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR). It cites the following issues:

– Talks at assemblies mentioning things like “moving beyond the Church” or even beyond Jesus, and distorting faith in Jesus, His Father, the Holy Trinity, the divinity of Christ and the inspiration of Sacred Scripture

– Letters from the LCWR taking positions contrary to the Church in matters of women’s ordination and a correct pastoral approach to homosexual men and women.

– Silence on abortion and euthanasia

– Non-promotion of the Church’s teaching on family life and human sexuality

– Public statements disagreeing with positions taken by bishops

Let us pray for the renewal of the LCWR and for all women religious who are called to be a symbol, as spouses of Christ,  of Christ’s union with His Body the Church.

News, Women's Communities

Safeguarding the Consecrated Life

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A very thoughtful response to the Leadership Conference of Women Religious’  doctrinal assessment by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith comes from Mother Mary Assumpta Long, OP. Mother asks:  Why spend three years assessing the state of the LCWR and then subsequently mandate a five-year plan of change going forward?

Answer: It is the Church’s responsibility, assumed in love, to safeguard the beauty and gift of consecrated life at all times. This responsibility is most acute when the integrity of consecrated life begins to diminish, evidenced in this case by clear examples of dissent from the hierarchy and lack of authentic ecclesial communion. The CDF hopes that, through this mandate, members of the LCWR will awaken to once again “think with the Church.”

Read all entire article and the background behind Mother’s assessment at the National Catholic Register website.

Pope John Paul II wrote: Its universal presence and the evangelical nature of its witness are clear evidence — if any were needed — that the consecrated life is not something isolated and marginal, but a reality which affects the whole Church. … In effect, the consecrated life is at the very heart of the Church as a decisive element for her mission (Vita Consecrata, 36).

 

Men's communities

How to Tell a Humble Priest

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On Saturday, April 14th, the Very Rev.  Cassian Folsom, OSB, received the IRL’s Pro Fidelitate et Virtute Award.  This video contains his acceptance speech entitled: “The Inseparable Link Between Holiness and Worship”.  I encourage everyone to listen to it in its entirety but we include a brief, written sample here. As one who witnessed his reverent celebration of the Holy Eucharist, I can definitely say that it felt like a small glimpse of Heaven on earth!

“The humble priest has a certain ars celebrandi, a certain way of carrying himself, a certain respect for the holy things, a fitting decorum in the presence of God. The arrogant priest has a different ars celebrandi, and the faithful can tell the difference immediately. The humble celebrant is transparent, so that the Lord can shine through. The priest knows that the liturgy is not primarily his work, but the work of the Holy Trinity, and his job is to be a good instrument and to get out of the way as much as possible so that the Lord is free to accomplish his work of grace within the hearts of those present.”

Fr. Cassian started his religious life at St. Meinrad Archabbey in Indiana, but in 1998 founded a new Benedictine community in Rome, moving in 2000 to the Monastery of San Benedetto in Norcia, Italy , the birthplace of Saint Benedict and his twin sister Saint Scholastica. The monastery follows a full observance of the Benedictine Rule and uses both the ordinary and extraordinary forms of the Roman Rite.

To support the monastery and become a Friend of Norcia, visit their website. Also, Father’s talks from the conference can be ordered from the IRL by calling (847)573-8975.

 

 

News

Mission of Our Lady of the Angels

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In 1958, a fire raced though the Our Lady of the Angels School in Chicago, killing 92 students and three Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This traumatic and terrible event forever changed fire safety codes and the lives of all Chicagoans.

The parish closed in 1991 but in 2005, the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George invited Father Bob Lombardo, CFR, a Franciscan Friar of the Renewal, to come to Chicago to re-establish a Catholic presence in the neighborhood where the population is now the non-Catholic poor. Seven years later, on Saturday, April 14th, Cardinal Francis George, OMI, officially rededicated Our Lady of the Angels Church.

“I didn’t know the history of this place until I got here. To be honest, it was depressing,” says the Rev. Bob Lombardo, an IRL Board Member. But what a difference a few years and many prayers make. The decaying structures are beautifully renovated. The presence of Fr. Bob, the volunteers and now a fledgling community called the Franciscans of the Eucharist, are really having an impact on the neighborhood, one of the poorest in Chicago. Programs offered include after school tutoring, classes for the elderly and a food pantry.

“It is not for us to be captured by death, tragedy and sorrow, but for us who have faith to walk through those moments with courage,” said Cardinal Francis George.