Welcome to the community!
During a tri-lingual liturgy of English, Vietnamese and Spanish, Luis Fernando Orozco Cardona and Joseph Pham Vu professed their first vows with the Priests of the Sacred Heart on August 15th at Sacred Heart Monastery/School of Theology. They are the newest members of the U.S. Province.
“Professing vows with the SCJs is important to me because I believe it is my response to God’s call to share my life with this specific community,” said Frater Joseph. “By professing, I have said that I believe I belong here, and that’s saying a lot.”
“I believe that Jesus loved me and gave his life for me,” said Frater Fernando. “So I give, offer, consecrate, and unite my life to his life in the service of God’s people just as Fr. Dehon understood his own vocation and his own mission in the world and in the Church.”
A feature about Fraters Joseph and Fernando has been posted on the province website under the “NEWS” section. Click here to go directly to it.
A few photos from the ceremony have been posted on the province photo site. To view them, click here.
Fraters Fernando and Joseph are just two of many young men professing vows with the Priests of the Sacred Heart this year. The congregational website reports this week that 12 men recently professed their first vows in Cameroon and another 10 professed vows in India.
Provincial’s time
After receiving the vows of Fraters Luis Fernando Orozco Cardona and Joseph Pham Vu on Sunday, Fr. Tom Cassidy spends the rest of the week in the Hales Corners area. He will be doing a visitation with the Villa Maria community as well as taking care of a few meetings at the office.
New ESL director
Fr. David Szatkowski has been named director of the ESL program at Sacred Heart School of Theology. The province canon lawyer, Fr. David will also be teaching a course in canon law at SHST this fall.
Please remember
Barbara Taylor, 71, died August 10 at her home in Janesville, Wis. She had been the administrative assistant for the Provincialate Offices for many years until her retirement in 2007. It is thought that she had a heart attack.
Originally from Milwaukee, she is survived by her children Michael Taylor and Sue Hinze, as well as four grandchildren and a great grandchild. Funeral services were in Janesville, where her daughter’s family also lived.
Keep in prayer
Fr. Frank Clancy had surgery on Friday to place an artificial skin graft on his foot where amputation had previously been done. The surgery is said to have gone very well. Once the graft has bonded with his own skin the difficult pain that he has been experiencing should subside. He will then be fitted for a prosthesis and start physical therapy so that he can again walk on his own.
“Frank thanks everyone for prayers and asks that you continue to remember him,” wrote Fr. Richard MacDonald. Fr. Frank was expected to be back at the community house in Raymondville early this week.
Updates
Fr. Frank Wittouck
Please note that the address that we listed last week for Fr. Frank (on Highway 6 in Houston) is not to be used yet.
Fr. Joe Dean
New email: frjdeanscj@parishmail.com
SCJ publication cited in NCR
The SCJs’ Il Regno was cited in John Allen’s “All Things Catholic” for the online National Catholic Reporter. On August 13 he noted a study by sociologist Paolo Segatti of the University of Milan that was published in “Il Regno, a popular Italian Catholic magazine published by the Dehnonian Fathers.”
Allen continues by writing that “Segatti’s sobering conclusion is that within a generation, Catholics could be a minority in Italy. The study carries an intentionally provocative title – ‘Religion in Italy: From Catholic to Generically Christian.’
“To be sure, the results aren’t all bad news for the church:
“-81.3 percent of Italians self-identify as Catholic (officially speaking, 96 percent were baptized as Catholics).
“-Almost 28 percent of Italian Catholics go to Mass on at least a weekly basis, a rate comparable to the United States and extraordinarily high by European standards.
“-Almost 60 percent of Italians say they feel personally offended when they hear someone speak badly of either the church or the pope.
“-Almost half of Italians say it’s important to be Catholic in order to be a “true Italian.”
“-More than two-thirds of Italians, 67.8 percent, say they trust the church, a significantly higher result than either the national parliament or political parties.”
To read the full article online, click here. The section that refers to is about midway down the page.
Update on the Congo
As we reported last week, the SCJ novitiate in the Congo was attacked. Several days later, threats of a subsequent attack forced the novitiate community to flee. Now, a tentative sense of calm has returned to the community. The novices and SCJs have returned to Kiragho-Butembo. To read an English translation of what has been posted on the congregational website about the situation, click here.
