Congratulations!

Congratulations to Fr. Francis Vu Tran who last Thursday successfully finished his final exam (with high marks: 9.8 out of 10) at the Gregorian Pontifical University in Rome. With this completed he will now receive a licentia in Biblical Theology. Fr. Francis, formerly associate pastor of St. Martin of Tours in Franklin, WI, will remain in Rome to continue work on his doctoral thesis.

How did Fr. Francis celebrate? Pizza at the North Americans’ favorite spot near the Generalate –– Sardo’s –– with Fr. Terry Langley (in Rome for the secretaries workshop), Fr. John van den Hengel (general councilor from Canada), Fr. Wayne Jenkins (U.S. archivist currently working in Rome) and others.

 

Speaking of grads

As we noted previously, Fr. Joseph Dinh successfully defended his thesis to earn his D.Min. from the Houston Graduate School of Theology. Click here to see photos from his May graduation ceremony. Use the code hgst-16

SCJ student writes from the Holy Land

Frater Joseph Vu, a student with the Dehon Formation Community, is taking part in the Bethsaida dig at the Holy Land this month. The archeology expedition is sponsored, in part, by Sacred Heart School of Theology. The following is taken from a journal entry that he wrote on the Bethsaida Facebook page:

“Hi everybody! This is Joseph with the Bethsaida group with a write-up of today’s activities. Today was our orientation at the Bethsaida excavation site itself. We were introduced to the leader of the excavation project, Dr. Rami Arav.

“Dr. Arav was the person who discovered the site in 1987. He began by talking about the geology and geography of the area. Bethsaida lies on the Arabian tectonic plate, while Galilee, which is across the Sea of Galilee, lies on the African tectonic plate. Being on two different plates, which are moving in opposite directions, explained why the area around Bethsaida was so susceptible to earthquakes. In fact, the rift is such a large fault line that it rivals the San Andreas Fault line…

“Dr. Arav continued by giving us a short history about Bethsaida and why the archeological work done there is so important. Bethsaida is the only site where finds dating back to 10 BC have been found. This is unique because in the surrounding regions, although there were kingdoms and settlements in 10BC, no information was able to be extracted from the ground. The reason? Because of the continuous conquering, destruction, and rebuilding of these cities, very little was preserved. However, fragments have been found preserved in Bethsaida. Bethsaida is also surmised to be the capitol city for the kingdom of Golan..

Afterwards, Dr. Arav led us through the excavation site. We saw that the city was built with two walls, an outer and an inner city wall. It was explained that this provided the city with a military advantage over invaders. In fact, the road into the city ran to the left of the city so that the right arm of any potential invaders was exposed to the defenders. A soldier’s weapon-wielding arm was right while the left arm held the shield. Southpaws (left-handed) people were much luckier…”

Click here to go to the Bethsaida Facebook page and read Frater Joseph’s full post as well as other posts and see photos from the dig.

Happy St. Jean Baptiste!

Today is an important day for our Quebecois SCJs; it is the feast of St. Jean Baptiste, the patron saint of Quebec. Celebrated as a provincial holiday, the feast is known for its festivals and other celebrations. Fr. Maurice Légaré, treasurer of the Canadian Region and a member of the Montréal community, will be celebrating the feast in Rome where he just finished taking part in the secretaries workshop.

 

“I stand in awe of our young people”

As noted last week, Fr. Terry Langley, provincial secretary, took part in the General Curia’s workshop for secretaries at the Generalate. After his first few days in Rome Fr. Terry posted a reflection on the province blog. He wrote:

“I’m enjoying Rome. Heru and Roberto [Fr. Heru is the secretary general and Br. Roberto is vice general secretary] have organized an excellent meeting. Yesterday, Fr. John van den Hengel and Fr. Tullio Benini spoke about the mission and tasks of the provincial secretary.

“Fr. John talked about the power of the written word, which is to say that the interminable letters we provincial secretaries have to write can be instruments that help further the mission of the congregation and also break down the social isolation that our confreres sometimes feel…

“In the afternoon we broke up into small groups (according to language) and talked about specific duties we have as provincial secretaries in our respective provinces, as well as difficulties we often experience and ways in which our working relationship with the Secretary General might be improved…

“[Being here] “the internationality of our congregation is something to behold. I stand in awe of our young people from the countries we have recently entered. I am filled with hope for the congregation.”

Click here to read the full blog post.

Please remember

Marcella Tonsor Pohlman Schroeder, the 91-year-old stepmother of Fr. Jim Schroeder, died June 20. Arrangements are as follows:

The wake is 4-8:00 p.m. Wednesday (June 26) at Crawford Funeral Home,1308 Illinois 109 (south of town), and the funeral is at 10:00 a.m. Thursday at St. Francis Xavier Church, 506 South State St., Jerseyville.IL.

Calendar notes

– The installation of the new provincial administration is tentatively planned for 4:30 p.m. on August 1, at Sacred Heart at Monastery Lake. Details will be finalized and shared soon.

– On August 14 Justin Krenke will be received into the novitiate during a 5 p.m. Adoration service at Sacred Heart School of Theology. All SCJs are welcome to attend; no formal invitations will be sent.

– James Nguyen and Juan Carlos Castañeda Rojas will make their first profession of vows during a 10:30 a.m. Mass at Sacred Heart School of Theology on August 15. Invitations will be in the mail soon.

Provincial’s Time

Fr. Stephen Huffstetter, the provincial-elect, is making a short visit to Hales Corners this week to move some of his belongings from South Dakota to his new home in Wisconsin.

Fr. Tom Cassidy, our current provincial superior, will be in the Milwaukee area until July 15, when he travels to Houston via Mississippi.