Provincial’s Time
Fr. Cassidy is in the office for much of this week. On Thursday he leaves for Tucson, Az., for the CMSM national board meeting. February 22-25 he will be at St. Joseph’s Indian School in Chamberlain, S.D.
Health blog
As many of you know, Fr. Stephen Huffstetter is being treated for cancer. He started a blog to share information about his health with the community at St. Joseph’s Indian School. You can view it at: http://stjosephsindianschool.wordpress.com
Raising money for OLG students
On Feb. 20, Fr. Ed Kilianski, pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Houston, will be participating in “Steps for Students,” a 5K run/walk sponsored by the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston to raise money for tuition assistance to needy children. Many of OLG’s students benefit from tuition assistance.
If you would like to sponsor Fr. Ed go to: http://www.firstgiving.com/edwardkilianskiscj
Or, you can send a check, written to the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, to Fr. Ed at OLG, 2405 Navigation Blvd, Houston, TX 77003
Three communities come together
As noted in the January 11th Fridge Notes, the new Good Shepherd church in Robinsonville, Miss., was blessed and dedicated. The new church is home to a new parish that brings together the faith communities of St. Anthony in Nesbit and Sacred Heart in Walls, as well as a third community –– Catholic tourists who visit the nearby casinos in Tunica.
Tourists come by the busload not only from Memphis and other neighboring cities but from across the country. And many of them are Catholic.
“The first time we had a tour bus of 50 pile in for Mass we knew that we had to do something,” said parishioner Camille Leatherman.
The next issue of the SCJ News features an article on the new parish. The article is also available online by clicking HERE.
Updates
–Fr. Frank Wittouck’s address while he is on sabbatical: 109 Oblate Dr, San Antonio, TX, 78216
–Fr. Pat Lloyd
St. Anthony Parish
P.O. Box 106
Tigerton, WI 54486-0106
715-535-2571 (phone)
715-535-2953 (fax)
Room dedication
The Fr. Justin Guiltnane Exercise Room at Sacred Heart School of Theology will be dedicated on February 10 at 12:45 p.m. If you are in the Milwaukee area you are welcome to join in the celebration.
St. Joseph’s featured in national publication
St. Joseph’s Indian School in South Dakota has been a part of the national Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) program for over 30 years. In RIF’s publication “A Program for All Communities,” St Joe’s was one of six organizations highlighted.
“Each summer our RIF van goes out to roughly 30 small towns on the reservations in South Dakota giving free books to children,” said Mary Jane Alexander, coordinator of the RIF program at St. Joe’s. “Besides the books we purchase with our RIF grant we are able to provide used books as well for any child who would like them.”
In its feature on St. Joe’s RIF staff state that the school serves “more than 2,000 children” providing free books at the school and with the bookmobile in the summer that visits “30 reservation communities. Some bookmobile distribution sites are so remote, children have arrived on horseback to choose their RIF book.”
The school also holds literacy events that promote Lakota culture, and reading contests. When students reached their goal for a recent contest “RIF coordinator Mary Jane Alexander went down a playground slide into a kiddie pool of red cherry Jello-O,” noted the RIF article.
For more about St Joseph’s, go to its website at: www.stjo.org
New book on the Eucharist
Peter Paul Di Cresce, a former SCJ who was known by his religious name of “Br. Bonaventure,” recently published a book titled “Eucharist: Miracle of All Miracles, Love of All Loves.” It is a mix of artwork, stories and poems inspired by the Eucharist.
The book can be ordered by phone at 888-232-4444 (from outside of Canada or the United States: 250-383-6864) or by mail through Trafford Publishing, 1663 Liberty Dr., Suite 200, Bloomington, IN 47403.
If you would like to connect with the author he can be found on Facebook.
Remembering those who built the province
As we have for the past several months we will continue to share a bit of information about deceased members of the province on or near the anniversary of their death. This week we remember two SCJs:
Fr. Rosalind Russell (February 14, 1991): Fr. Rosalind (or “Russ” as most called him) was one of the first black Catholic priests to be ordained in northern Mississippi.
A native of Mississippi, Fr. Russ attended the SCJs’ Holy Family School in Holly Springs, Miss., when it was originally known as St. Mary’s. In 1981, his ordination was held in the school’s gym with over 400 family members, friends and fellow alumni. The ordination Mass was concelebrated by Bishops Joseph Brunini of Jackson and James Lykes, auxiliary of Cleveland. Fr. Russ professed his first vows with the SCJs in 1972.
After ordination, he spent many years at St. Joseph’s Indian School in South Dakota, where he served as chaplain to the Native American students, as well as supervisor of the boys dorm.
He also ministered for a brief period at St. John’s Parish in Memphis, before health concerns forced him to retire from full-time ministry in 1989.
An accomplished artist, he had a distinct style of sculpture that was featured in several gallery exhibits.
Battling leukemia for several years, he died in Milwaukee at the age of 45.
Fr. Wm. Denis Devine (February 14, 1998): A New York native, Fr. Denis was born in 1902 and professed his first vows with the SCJs in 1940. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1945.
After two years of pastoral ministry in northern Mississippi he was assigned to St. Joseph’s Indian School in Chamberlain, S.D. As prefect of boys he supervised the teaching staff and assisted at local parishes. In 1953, he came to East Chicago, Ind., where he began a long-term commitment to Catholics of northwest Indiana.
Fr. Denis spent 20 years as pastor of St. Jude parish in East Chicago, a primarily Hispanic parish. Fr. Denis developed several programs for the Spanish-speaking, including “Dehon College,” an informal ESL program (English as a Second Language). The venture was financed in part by Inland Steel Company, where many of the Spanish-speaking parishioners worked.
When the parish closed in 1973, Fr. Devine left Indiana briefly to serve as a chaplain to Valley Baptist Hospital in Harlingen, Texas. After several years as associate pastor of St. Stanislaus parish in Dorr, Mich,, he returned to northwest Indiana in 1977 to become associate pastor of Immaculate Conception parish in Whiting.
In 1980, he was appointed associate pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe in East Chicago, where he stayed until 1986. He was then named parochial vicar of nearby St. Mary’s parish, an assignment he held until his retirement in 1993. He remained at St. Mary’s for several years, visiting the sick at St. Catherine’s Hospital and celebrating Mass at the parish.
He later joined the Villa Maria community in Franklin, Wis.
