“Love is creative and redemptive. Love builds up and unites; hate tears down and destroys. The aftermath of the ‘fight with fire’ method is bitterness and chaos; the aftermath of the love method is reconciliation and creation of the beloved community. Physical force can repress, restrain, coerce, destroy, but it cannot create and organize anything permanent; only love can do that. Yes, love—which means understanding, creative, redemptive goodwill, even for one’s enemies—is the solution.”

             —Martin Luther King, Jr., 1957

“As for me, love comprises EVERYTHING.”

  —Fr. Leo John Dehon (Crowns of Love), founder of the Priests of the Sacred Heart

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Clean-up and restoration underway

As noted last week, a burst pipe in the sprinkler system in the SCJ wing of Sacred Heart at Monastery Lake caused significant damage on all four floors. Twelve of the apartments are considered “totaled,” meaning that they have to be completely rebuilt.

Now begins the extensive process of replacing damaged walls, insulation, electrical work, and other material. Also a part of the process — inspection! Systems are being tested to ensure that such damage doesn’t happen again.

Repairs and restoration are expected to take approximately two months.

A few more photos from the clean-up have been posted on the SCJ Facebook page. Click here to view them.

First stop: Mumbai!

As noted last week, Fr. Tom Cassidy is in India, where he will assist in the district’s theology program until early March. The following was written soon after his arrival in Mumbai late last week:

“Fr. Aji was there to greet me. When all was said and done it took us about an hour to get to our SCJ house (less than 14 miles from the airport). Even though we left the airport after 10:00 p.m. there was a lot of traffic on the road. Mumbai, like many mega-cities, is one that never sleeps.

“On the way to our house Fr. Aji asked if I would be willing to be the main celebrant at the 7:00 a.m. parish Mass. It would make for a short night but I would probably be awake anyway so I agreed. I stayed in a house just in front of the parish that belongs to an elderly gentlemen who has been very generous to the Priests of the Sacred Heart…

“From the very beginning there was the idea to find ministries in the north, or at least north of the states of Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. About two years ago work began on securing a presence in the Mumbai area, and as of 2012 the SCJs were tasked with staffing the parish of Divine Mercy in Thane (next to Mumbai), along with its attached missions. I was told this is the third parish SCJs now staff in India.

“Divine Mercy has about 500 families. The vast majority of parishioners are migrants to Mumbai who have come to look for work. As a consequence, the parish is multi-lingual and multi-cultural.”

Click here to read the rest of this and further posts from Fr. Tom on the province blog.

Ministry brings academics to life

As noted previously, Fr. Charles Brown is a presenter this month at The Bluff Sabbatical 2014 in Durban, South Africa. Organized by the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC), the three-month sabbatical program is for priests and religious in Africa. Fr. Charlie’s conferences focus on the synoptic gospels and the historical ministry of Jesus as a model for ministry today.

“The program is going very well,” he wrote, sending a photo of himself with program participants. “This is a marvelous group to work with, an even mixture of men and women. Their experiences in active ministry make the academic material come to live in ways that are amazing!”

Keep in prayer

Mr. Joseph Gray, the 95-year-old father of Fr. Tim Gray, has been placed in hospice care. Fr. Tim and his siblings are now in Maine to be with him. “We have the peace of knowing he is without significant pain, due to hospice service, and he is resting in his own bed,” said Fr. Tim.

Also, Br. Ray Kozuch is scheduled to undergo a surgical procedure today (January 20).

New director of Dehon Study Center in Rome

Fr Stefan Tertünte has been named as the new director of the Dehon Study Center at the Generalate in Rome. Fr. Stefan is familiar to SCJs in North America after joining them at the North American Continental Conference last September where he gave the keynote presentation.

Among the center’s tasks is the continued digitization of the founder’s writings and other congregational resources, making them more readily available to others. Also, the new director will be coordinating historical and theological reflections on SCJ spirituality, offering resources to SCJ entities and the wider Dehonian Family.

High tech classroom at St. Joe’s

Fifth-grade students at St. Joseph’s Indian School recently participated in “Starbase.” The high-tech science program operates out of a mobile classroom, reaching students all over South Dakota.

“It’s a pretty amazing experience,” said Brock, one of St. Joseph’s fifth-grade instructors. “The technology we have access to through the mobile classroom isn’t what we would normally use. The students have a lot of fun and learn so much.”

As an introduction to engineering, students used a computer program to create a space station, which was then printed off as a poster. They learned about chemistry by building molecules and, through the construction and launching of a rocket, they now better understand the laws of physics.

In addition to launching rockets, they conducted experiments that involved mixing materials together, measuring and weighing objects, and recording temperatures.

Click here to read more about the program on the website of St. Joseph’s Indian School.

Priesthood led to Church

When Novice Justin Krenke was in Mississippi last week he sat down to talk about his vocation with Laura Grisham, public relations and communications manager for Sacred Heart Southern Missions.

A convert to Catholicism, Justin noted that “Most people say that they are led to the priesthood by the Church. I was led to the Church by the priesthood!”

He continued, saying that “I was 17. I picked up the phone and called St. Margaret Mary parish, the closest one to our home. A nun answered the phone and I asked her ‘how old do you have to be to become Catholic without permission?’ She asked me how old I was. I told her; she said that I was old enough, but she wanted to speak to my mother. When my mother got home from work, I told her that she needed to call the nun. I was a little nervous, but I was determined that I was going to do this. My mother eventually made the call. That was almost six years ago.”

Justin contacted several religious communities but it was Fr. Mark Mastin, an SCJ vocation director at the time, who got back to him first. Justin became a candidate with the Priests of the Sacred Heart in 2010. He hopes to profess his first vows on August 15.

Did you?

Br. Frank Presto reminds members of the US Province to send their “In Case of Emergency” papers to him (green information sheets mailed to SCJs in December) as well as documentation of their training hours for Praesidium accreditation.

Questions? Contact Br. Frank at 414-427-4263 or email him at provsec@usporvince.org.

Provincial’s time

Fr. Stephen Huffstetter is back in Milwaukee after last week’s visitation at Pinellas Park. Monday he will take part in the Dehonian Associates meeting at the Provincial Conference Center. The committee is meeting for the first time with David Schimmel,  the newly hired director of Dehonian Associates.

 

Bishop-elect visits SHST

Bishop-elect John Doerfler came back to Sacred Heart School of Theology last Wednesday (January 15) to celebrate Mass with the seminary community. Until he was recently named bishop of the Diocese of Marquette, he had been an adjunct lecturer at SHST, most recently teaching systematic theology.