Holiday schedule
The Provincial Offices will be closed December 24-26 for Christmas, and December 31 and January 1 for New Year’s. Officially, the office is open December 27-28, but keep in mind that some members of the staff will be taking vacation days at that time. If you have business with the office, especially financial concerns, it is best to take care of it by the end of the day on Thursday, December 20.
Publication break
This is the last issue of Fridge Notes for 2018; the next issue will be published on Monday, January 7, 2019. However, the Province Facebook page will continue to be updated during the holiday break.
The weekly Dehonian Spirituality e-publication will also take a two-week break. Click here to view the last issue of 2018. Click here to access the Dehonian Spirituality section of the US Province website where you can find back issues of the publication as well as other resources from the Dehonian Associates Office.
Dehonian Spirituality will return to its weekly publication schedule on Friday, January 4, 2019.
New Dehonian chapel dedicated in Vietnam
December 15, 2018, marked another milestone for the District of Vietnam. “After nine months of construction, a new chapel – dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary – stands in the middle of the community’s property, Dehon House III, as a witness to our Dehonian charism,” said Fr. Francis Vu Tran, SCJ, district superior. “The name and its setting are very Dehonian, speaking of the heart as the center of our Dehonian spirituality and the availability of SCJs who are responding to the call to prophetic love as an oblation to God and humanity.”
The celebration began at 5:30 pm with the arrival of Bishop Joseph Tuoc Tan Nguyen, bishop of the diocese of Phu Cuong, where the district’s third community is located. Approximately 700 guests attended the chapel blessing, including SCJs, other priests and religious, benefactors, friends, family, neighbors, and local government leaders.
At the end of the Mass, Fr. Francis expressed the district’s joy and gratitude towards its benefactors, who significantly contributed to the cost of the construction. In particular, the chapel was made possible by donations from the US Province, the British-Irish Province and Mr. Joseph Reitter.
Click on the image below to view a video of the celebration.
CLICK HERE to view more photos.
A dyslexic French heart
Our apologies for last week’s dyslexic spelling of “Coeur,” as in Dehonian Esprit de Coeurs, the group organized by the Province Dehonian Associates Office to facilitate spiritual and social fellowship among SCJs, former SCJs and SCJ seminary alumni.
A reminder: the Esprit de Coeurs (not COUERS) reunion will be June 10-11, 2019, in Hales Corners, WI. Questions? Want to be added to the Dehonian Esprit de Coeurs mailing list? Contact David Schimmel at: dfschimmel@juno.com
SCJ provides Catholic insight to medical questions
“Sometimes the best that we can do is offer clarity and comfort in difficult situations, not just to the patient, but to their caregivers as well,” said Fr. Jan de Jong, SCJ
Advances in science have produced life-changing and even life-saving medicine. However, as opportunities in medicine increase, so too do challenging questions surrounding healthcare.
Approximately 40 years ago, hospitals started to develop multidisciplinary “ethics committees” to help medical professionals, administrators, patients and families wrestle with potentially life-changing situations, including end-of-life care. Fr. Jan de Jong, SCJ, a moral theologian, was one of the first Catholic priests to serve on such a committee in the Milwaukee area.
In a recent interview, Fr. Jan reflected the input of Catholic moral theology in the secular setting of medicine.
CLICK HERE to read more.
OLG featured on KHOU
Our Lady of Guadalupe parish in Houston was featured December 12 on KHOU news for its two-day celebration of the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Click here or on the image above to view the news clip.
Click here to view more videos and photos from the celebration on the OLG Facebook page.
January birthdays
Those celebrating birthdays in January include: Novice Angel Romero (35) on Jan. 3, Fr. Tom Westhoven (78) on Jan. 9, Candidate Hung Pham (32) on Jan. 12, Fr. Ralph Intranuovo (82) on Jan. 20, Fr. Bernie Rosinski (85) on Jan. 22, and Br. Andy Lewandowski (85) and Fr. Louis Mariano Fernandes (55) on Jan. 26. Happy birthday!!
Birthday calendar
Many thanks to those who responded to our informal survey about the “Birthday Calendar” (Days of Celebration and Commemoration).
A small number of SCJs indicated that they use the printed calendar regularly but the vast majority who responded said that they either didn’t use it or that they were open to accessing the information online. Because of this, we have decided not to print the Birthday Calendar in 2019. If it is missed, we are happy to bring it back in 2020.
Birthdays will continue to be listed in the Fridge Notes each month. You can also access birthdays on the province Google Calendar. A link to the calendar is at the bottom of each week’s Fridge Notes and at the bottom of every page on the US Province website. Birthdays are also listed next to each name in both the printed and online North American Personnel Directory.
The North American Necrology is in the Members’ section of the website (the link can be found under the banner image). No password is needed.
To those who regularly used the printed Birthday Calendar, our thanks for your understanding of the decision not to publish a 2019 edition.
Lux Center
In its final newsletter of the year the Lux Center for Catholic-Jewish Studies at Sacred Heart Seminary and School of Theology focuses on the diversity of the Jewish world in the time of Jesus.
“In the polytheistic world of ancient humanity, battles were fought to determine whose gods were the strongest and most powerful ones,” wrote Bonnie Shafrin, the center’s director. “These battles of religious superiority carried over into monotheism, not to establish whose god was the best since the majority of the world’s religions attest to worshipping the one God over all humanity, but the argument began concerning which way was the right way to worship God.
“The major purpose for interreligious dialogue is to diffuse on-going conflicts and to avert misconceptions by striving to understand the beliefs and practices inherent to faiths that are not our own. In that way, we are able to appreciate and gain respect for paths to God that may be different from our own accepted path. Dialogue can also enhance understanding of our own faith by delving into and expressing what we ourselves believe and comparing and contrasting those beliefs with the beliefs of other religions.”
Click here to download a PDF of the newsletter.
Christmas letter from Fr. General
“In this month of December, we remember that 150 years ago Fr. Dehon was preparing to celebrate his first Christmas as a priest,” writes Fr. Carlos Luis Súarez Codorniú, SCJ, superior general, in his Christmas letter to the congregation. “His ministry in the Church was a continuous learning to walk with others and for others. If this is so, it is because he fully understood the road to Bethlehem.
“Contemplating once again what happened there spurred the life of our Founder. Bethlehem, the Holy night of Christmas, was the starting point for him. There he learned to remain and to walk hand in hand with God, to go out of himself and go out to meet others. He directed his way to meet and accompany those he knew would be most in need of attention and care, especially the youth around him.”
Click here to download a PDF of the letter.
Centro Studi Dehoniani newsletter
If you haven’t seen it yet, CLICK HERE to read the latest newsletter from the Centro Studi Dehoniani (Dehon Study Center) in Rome. The first half of the publication is in Italian; English follows. Topics this month include the publication of Dr. David Neuhold’s biography of Fr. Leo John Dehon, a symposium hosted by the Polish Province about Fr. Dehon and the priesthood, the most recent meeting of the International Dehonian Theological Commission, the availability of back issues of Dehoniana on DehonDocs, and a recent day of recollection about the founder led by Fr. Juan José Arnaiz Ecker, deputy director of the Dehon Studies Center.
Last meeting of the year
Fr. Ed Kilianski, SCJ, and the Provincial Council have their final meeting of 2018 on December 18-19 (Tuesday-Wednesday). Topics are to include the upcoming January Provincial Conference and June Assembly. The actual “business” part of the meeting does not begin until tomorrow afternoon; tomorrow morning, Fr. Ed and the council will spend time in extended prayer and reflection.
Closing photo
Fr. Charles Brown, SCJ, is pictured below being received by students in the District of India. He is there to give a retreat on Dehonian spirituality using St. Paul. “Fr. Dehon was a great fan of St. Paul,” wrote Fr. Charles. The series of spirituality conferences is for the scholastics and novices in India. Fr. Charles is an assistant professor of Scripture Studies at Sacred Heart Seminary and School of Theology.
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