NEW and (we hope!) improved

The province website underwent a facelift this weekend and the bandages were taken off this morning. The address is the same: www.sacredheartusa.org.

One of the goals of the new design is to help people find news and feature articles more easily. On the left side of the home page (scroll down a bit if your browser only shows the first third of the site)  you’ll notice a list of the most recently posted items, both features and weekly news. And that’s another change: on the website the “Fridge Notes” is now simply known as “Weekly News,” since many of the people who visit our site are not familiar with what “Fridge Notes” is. Just above this list is a link to “subscribe to weekly newsletter.” This is for the email version of the Fridge Notes that most SCJs already receive. Please note that anyone is welcome to receive the email version, including co-workers and family. Click here if you would like to add someone to the mailing list.

A major change for SCJs is the access to the Members’ section. Click on the “Members” button as before (at the top, to the left of the “Donate” button) but now you will be taken to a page with only ONE question! Just a password, no login name. The new password has been sent to all SCJs in North America. If you have problems accessing the Members’ section, contact Mary Gorski.

Finally, please have a bit of patience. Although the design is new, we are still updating a few components of the site. And as with all things new, there are bound to be a few bugs to work out.

Comments and suggestions are welcome; click here if you have anything to share.

What did he say?

A person can have a dictionary’s worth of words in his head, but to really be fluent in a language one also needs to be understood.

“It’s a shame to hear ‘We love Fr. Jacobs, he is great with youth and he has such a wonderful smile. It’s just too bad we can’t understand his homilies.’”

The quote comes from a member of Sacred Heart School of Theology’s staff.

Sacred Heart has hosted an ESL (English as Second Language) program for over 25 years. Well respected around the world, the program focuses on teaching English to those who will be using it in a church context. Students learn the terminology and nuances needed in parish ministry and other religious environments.

However, understanding a new language is only half the battle in learning it.

“There are seminarians who have completed ESL and are proficient in their reading and writing skills but might be difficult to understand during a course presentation,” said Kelly. “Of course, looking ahead a few years, it stands to reason that they will be difficult to understand during confessions, a homily and other pastoral work.”

This year SHST started an “accent modification program” to help those new to English not only understand the language but also BE understood. It is a unique –– but vital –– program for a seminary.

Click here to read more about it.

Ribbon cutting at new Alumni Center

“After more than 40 years of work at St. Joseph’s Indian School, Mark Shields has plenty of stories,” starts an article published in the Mitchell Daily Republic.

“As Shields, a retired school maintenance worker, looked around the Akta Lakota Museum, located on the campus of St. Joseph’s, on Sunday in Chamberlain, he recalled two buses the school bought in 1959.

“’We drove them for years and years,’ he said. ‘We had a lot of experiences with them.’

“Shields remembers a particular incident when he took one of the buses, packed with students, to Howard for a basketball game.

“’We got up there and the bus wouldn’t start,’ he said. ‘We called everybody and nobody could come to help.’

“Another St. Joseph’s employee along on the trip asked Shields what they should do, he said. Shields came up with a plan.

“’We’ve got 60 kids sitting in that bus, let them get in the back and push it,’ he said. ‘So they did, and that’s how we got it started.’”

Mr. Shields was in-charge of the scissors at a May 12 ribbon cutting ceremony for the new Alumni Center attached to the Atka Lakota Museum at St. Joseph’s Indian School.

Click here to read the full article.

Brothers Think Tank

Over the weekend Br. Ray Kozuch participated in the second “Brother’s Think Tank,” a project created by the Conference of Major Superiors of Men to explore the vocation of brother in the United States.

The meeting was at St. Anthony of Padua Friary in Ellicott, MD, and attended by members of CMSM, the National Religious Vocation Conference, the National Religious Formation Conference and the Religious Brothers Conference (Br. Ray is vice president of the RBC board).

Two on-going issues were discussed at length: (1) that the vocation of the religious brother tends to be downplayed among formators in mixed communities, and (2) the impression that the vocation of the religious brother is not well valued among church leadership (stemming from a lack of legitimate power among religious brothers).

Br. Ray said that the Priests of the Sacred Heart do not face the same issues in formation as were noted by other communities. Since the 1970s the SCJs have had formation programs in place for those pursuing brotherhood (which are regularly reviewed by the province fomation committee) and there is a continuing emphasis on inclusion in the province.

“The second issue is one of the larger church; it surfaced in recent research by the CMSM staff,” said Br. Ray. A pilot project titled “Brothers, Men of Mission and Ministry” is being developed to better educate others, especially those in church ministry, on the brothers’ vocation. Sacred Heart School of Theology and Catholic Theological Union have been proposed as possible sites for the project. Br. Ray is on the project’s organizing committee.

“Think Tank III” will meet in December in Maryknoll, NY.

Two weeks to go!

In two weeks the province membership will gather in Hales Corners to begin the election process. The election assembly begins on Monday, June 3, at Sacred Heart School of Theology. From 10 a.m. until noon there will be an optional extended Eucharistic adoration at SHST’s main chapel. Lunch is at noon in the SHST dining room and the first working session will be at 1:30 p.m. at the Provincialate Conference Center.

Liturgy will be at 4:30 p.m. in the main chapel, followed by a social and dinner.

Preparatory information, including local communities’ reflections on the State of the Province, are in the Members’ section of the province website.

Note: on Tuesday there is a schedule update. The tailgate party for the evening’s baseball game will take place outside the SHST dining room. ALL SCJs are invited to take part. The picnic will be held after the 4:30 p.m. liturgy. This will be the only dinner option offered at SHST that evening.

Please remember

Fr. Paul Moriau, a member of the Dutch-Flemish Confederation, died May 6. He was born in 1936, professed in 1955 and ordained in 1962.

WSJ article focuses on older vocations

Last week the Wall Street Journal published an article on older Americans pursuing second “careers” as chaplains, counselors, missionaries, educators and as social workers. Two SHST alumni are featured in a sidebar on the story.

“The Rev. Larry Letourneau remembers clearly when he first talked to his three grown sons about his decision to become a priest. It was the day of his wife’s funeral,” writes the WSJ reporter.

“’I wanted to get their blessing,’ he says quietly. ‘They were all for it… There is a plan—for everyone,’ he says today. ‘I just think if you take the time to listen, God will give you some answers.’”

Click here to read the sidebar story and click here to read the full WSJ article.

Provincial’s time

Fr. Tom Cassidy will be in the office for most of the weeks leading up to the June election assembly.