Dig into archives sheds light on Pius XII

SOLDIER OF CHRIST: THE LIFE OF POPE PIUS XII
By Robert A. Ventresca
Published by Belknap Press, $35

With Soldier of Christ, Robert Ventresca has provided a real service, not only to the historical profession but also to the wider community. Part of the story is well-known — Eugenio Pacelli’s birth and early life in his native city of Rome, his poor health that necessitated his living at home while in the seminary, and his early education in canon and civil law. But Ventresca tells even the familiar parts of the story with such fluid strokes that one virtually feels the cobblestones under one’s feet as the young Pacelli walks the streets around St. Peter’s Square.

Except for his time in Germany, he spent his entire life within walking distance of his childhood home. His grandfather and father were members of the “Black Nobility,” the upper classes that remained faithful to the papacy after Italian capture of the Papal States, but while the family was comfortable, it was hardly wealthy.

Ordained in a private ceremony on Easter Sunday, 1899, Pacelli completed doctorates in canon and civil law. He was intent on becoming a parish priest when Cardinal Pietro Gasparri, secretary of the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, convinced Pacelli to come to work at the congregation. Pacelli then went to the Academy of Ecclesiastical Nobles, the school for the Holy See’s diplomats and later assisted Gasparri as a minutante in drafting the Code of Canon Law promulgated in 1917. By that time, Gasparri was secretary of state under Benedict XV, and Pacelli was nuncio to Bavaria.

Sections of the Vatican Secret Archives opened to scholars in September 2006 enable Ventresca to reveal Secretary of State Pacelli’s reservations toward the Weimar Republic, especially its efforts to maintain a centrist government and the anger of one of the Catholic Center Party’s leaders, Heinrich Brüning (chancellor, 1930-32), toward Pacelli for urging compromise with Hitler to gain a concordat with the government.

Ventresca deciphers the spidery handwritten accounts of Pacelli’s almost daily interviews with Pius XI, which disclose an emerging Vatican policy of leaving it to bishops in countries undergoing persecution to determine the best course of action against government abuses. Therefore, Pacelli and/or the pope accepted the request that the pope issue an encyclical against Nazism from five leading German prelates, including three cardinals. Pacelli’s hand can be easily discerned on the document that developed into Mit Brennender Sorge, published in March 1937. This did not mean, however, that bishops, or even cardinals, were free to pursue their own agenda independent of the Vatican. For instance, in an episode that the author passes over, Cardinal Theodor Innitzer of Vienna initially welcomed the Anschluss in March 1938, called for Austrian Catholics to vote for it in a plebiscite, and even signed a letter to the local Nazi leader with “Heil Hitler.” Pacelli summoned Innitzer to Rome, where he had to change his position, for his action undermined what the German bishops were doing.

The war years have caused the most controversy over Pope Pius XII. He did seem to rely too much on diplomatic exchanges and received conflicting advice from some bishops. Like his predecessor Pius XI, Pius XII relied too heavily on concordats, agreements between the Holy See and a government that guaranteed the rights of the church and its members, but did not give the church rights to intervene in the treatment of non-Catholics, as the German church would discover in regard to Jews.

Part of the problem in evaluating Pius XII and his attitude toward the Jews is one of papal rhetoric. Pius would not sign a statement of the Allies condemning Nazi atrocities in December 1942 because it did not mention atrocities of the Soviet Union, one of the Allies. Instead, in his Christmas address that year, he alluded to “the hundreds of thousands of persons who, without any fault on their part, sometimes only because of their nationality or race, have been consigned to death.” To the pope — and, incidentally, to the Nazis — this was a clear denunciation of Nazi policy toward Jews. To later generations, however, it was not so clear, but represented “Vaticanese” that preferred generalities to specifics.

Many people, including historians, see a sharp theological break between Pius and his successors. Ventresca, however, points to some of the new theological directions of Pius that would lead to the council. The pope issued three encyclicals during the war: Divino Afflante Spiritu, on the study of Scripture; Mystici Corporis Christi, on the church as the mystical body of Christ; and Mediator Dei, on the liturgy. Each of these documents would pave the way for the Second Vatican Council. But the author also notes the retrenchment that began to take place with Humani Generis in 1951.

In his conclusion, Ventresca suggests that the pope could have done more for the Jews during the war. The pope was not anti-Semitic, but lacked the bold witness to the Gospel that Jacques Maritain, the French philosopher and postwar ambassador to the Holy See, called for. Pius many times did act more the part of a diplomat than the supreme pastor.

As Ventresca points out, the pope admired the German people and certain aspects of German culture — the pope made Mother Pascalina Lehnert, who had worked for him in the German nunciature, the head of his Vatican household and chose two German Jesuits, Robert Leiber and Wilhelm Hentrich, as his confidantes and a third, Augustin Bea, as his confessor. This did lead him to repudiate the Allied policy of assigning collective guilt to the German people, but in this he was not alone.

Ventresca makes every effort to be objective and balanced in his presentation of the controversial wartime pope. In this, he makes a refreshing and needed contribution to what has become a sometimes rancorous debate, which has more assertion of opinion than serious archival research. The author basically sums up his evaluation of Pius XII by citing a remark attributed to Leiber that Pius was a great pope, but not a saint.

[Historian and author Jesuit Fr. Gerald P. Fogarty is the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Religious Studies and History at the University of Virginia. His fields include American Catholic history; Vatican-American relations; history of Catholic theology since the French Revolution; and the history of Vatican II.]

Final gay Catholic mass held in Soho after Archbishop banned services

Tonight marks the final ever ‘Soho mass’ for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered Catholics at its central London church. LGBT Catholics will be offered ‘pastoral support’, but not the opportunity to worship Jesus instead.

Tonight’s final service follows the decision by made by the Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols who said that the lesbian and gay ‘Soho masses’ held at Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Soho, central London, were out of line with the church’s main teaching on sexuality

At the time he ruled: “The moral teaching of the church is that the proper use of our sexual faculty is within a marriage, between a man and a woman, open to the procreation and nurturing of new human life.”

The Diocese of Westminster, headed by the Archbishop insisted that pastoral care for gay Catholics would continue at London’s Jesuit Farm Street Church in Mayfair each Sunday evening.

Joe Stanley, chairman of Soho Masses Pastoral Council, told the BBC: “Because a lot of LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] people find a lot of difficulty in being open and honest in Church, what we offer here is the ability, twice a month, to come and stand openly and honestly and directly before God.”

Congregation member Renate Rothwell said that she felt sad that the masses were ending: “The tears which are shed are angry tears, because I feel angry that this didn’t need to have happened.”

Monsignor Seamus O’Boyle, parish priest of Soho Mass told the BBC: “To be able to reach out in love, which I think is what we have done, for me has been personally quite gratifying.

“To see this community grow, which it has, and to feel that they could come to church and be part of the church has been something quite marvelous, but it’s not construed that way by everyone else.”

When the Archbishop announced the ending of the inclusive masses, the group’s pastoral council said that the services had been “victims of our own success”. In a statement it said: “The purpose of the Soho Masses has been, and remains, to encourage the LGBT Catholic Community to participate fully in the life of the Church, the diverse body of Christ, through participation in the Mass, and through shared prayer. In this we have become victims of our own success, in terms of the number of people who have joined the Eucharistic Community of our congregation.

“This means that, while the body of the church in Warwick St. is still adequate to our number, the lack of other facilities in the 18th Century building has become a limiting factor in organising social and pastoral activity and prayer, in particular for elderly, infirm or disabled people.”

In the statement, Soho Masses Pastoral Council said the organisation would “respond positively to the Archbishop’s challenge to develop our pastoral work in this ‘new phase’ of our peripatetic existence.”

Discuss this →

Local Knights of Columbus to mark century of service

Group picture taken outside the new Knights of Columbus Council Home at 70 E. Main St., Freehold, probably in the early to mid-1920s. Photo taken by George A. Morris of Long Branch. For more than 100 years, the Knights of Columbus, the world’s largest fraternal Catholic organization, has been dedicated to providing charitable services, protecting Catholic education and actively defending Catholicism in various nations.

The organization, which was originally founded in the late 19th century to serve as a mutual benefit society to low-income immigrant Catholics, has been a part of the Freehold community since 1913, when the Freehold Knights of Columbus Council 1672 was chartered.

The Knights of Columbus Council 1672 will celebrate the council’s centennial with a Mass at St. Rose of Lima Church at 4 p.m. Feb. 23 in the old church on McLean Street, Freehold Borough. A gala reception will follow the Mass at South Gate Manor, Freehold Township, at 6 p.m.

The Knights of Columbus Fourth Degree Color Corps poses in front of the St. Rose Rectory in this photo taken by George J. Evans of Freehold between 1951 and 1959. According to Stan Buraczynski, the council’s district deputy, the Freehold Council was founded on Feb. 23, 1913, by 40 men dedicated to the principles of charity, unity, fraternity and patriotism.

Buraczynski explained that the Knights of Columbus had its beginnings in 1881 in a meeting led by the Rev. Michael J. Mc- Givney, a parish priest, in the basement of St. Mary’s Church in New Haven, Conn. Named in honor of the navigator Christopher Columbus, the Knights of Columbus was formally organized in March 1882.

Father McGivney, the founder, was given the title “Venerable Servant of God” by the Holy See in March 2008; the title is one of the steps on the path to sainthood.

Postcard of former Knights of Columbus home, published by E.G. Bacon, Freehold, and postmarked July 6, 1929, from Englishtown. The postcard is the property of the Monmouth County Historical Association Library and Archives, Freehold Borough. “During the past hundred years the men of the [Freehold] council have practiced these principles by supporting the community during times of feast and famine,” Buraczynski said. “They conduct fundraising events in order to support local charities and individuals in need. They have provided manpower to assist in disasters that have befallen the community and have fostered a sense of friendship among their members and the community at large.”

According to member Rick Scott, Freehold Council 1672 currently has 577 members. Last year the council logged more than 4,400 volunteer hours and disbursed more than $16,000 to local charities. The organization has numerous regular programs and events, including providing services and assistance to the parishes of St. Rose of Lima in Freehold Borough and St. Robert Bellarmine in Freehold Township; a monthly breakfast buffet and special dinner; the Eyes for the Needy eyeglass collection; an annual blood drive; an annual Kids’ Day; a children’s essay contest; and an annual Drive for the Developmentally Challenged. Proceeds from these events, according to Scott, go to support groups such as Feed All God’s Children, Freehold Area Open Door Inc., Freehold First Aid and Emergency Squad, Freehold Fire Department, Freehold Borough PBA and various other organizations.

Virtuous atheism is not enough

In Tuesday’s Telegraph Judith Woods drew attention to the most recent publication of philosopher and writer, Alain de Botton and his set of Ten Commandments for virtuous atheists. The aim of his manifesto is to “ignite a vital conversation around moral character to increase public interest in becoming more virtuous and connected as a society”.

His list goes: resilience, empathy, patience, sacrifice, politeness, humour, self-awareness, forgiveness, hope and confidence. It comprises an intriguing mixture. There are Christian virtues here: “Hope” is one of the supernatural virtues, along with faith and charity, while “forgiveness” and “sacrifice” are absolutely fundamental to Christian faith. English decency is reflected in resilience, patience, politeness, humour and confidence. And there are two staples of the therapy industry: empathy and self-awareness.

This list of secular commandments is easily understood as the self-help manual of a civilised and cultured atheist such as de Botton. Our national characteristics during the last war, according to the story exemplified by the slogan “Keep calm and carry on” rather than by the TV series Foyles’ War, certainly include humour, patience and resilience. “Self-awareness” is what is taught in psychotherapy: the idea is that if we all understood the roots of our quirky or anti-social behaviour we might become better people. Yet, as my parish priest pointed out the other week, it is possible, by paying qualified gurus a lot of money, to know just about everything about ourselves – but this in itself won’t help us to change (Father was contrasting this with the power of Christ to transform our lives.) “Empathy” is actually quite rare, as is true compassion, and often degenerates into Clintonesque maudlin sentimentality, as in “I feel your pain”.

“Forgiveness” for a Christian means loving your enemies, turning the other cheek to their insults and contempt (especially when they call you a “bigot”.) And “sacrifice” for Christians means rather more than de Botton’s opinion that “We won’t ever manage to raise a family, love someone else or save the planet if we don’t keep up the art of sacrifice.” “Sacrifice” could be described as an “art” in a rather Wildean sense, but really it means the death of the ego, dying to self, a lifelong struggle in which we will only emerge the victor with the help of supernatural grace.

I understand why de Botton is preoccupied with the concept of a virtuous atheist and I do not mock him; indeed I take his yearning to counter the supposedly superior claims of Christianity very seriously. It is a noble ideal and society would indeed be happier and more civilised if more irreligious people of the “Me-generation” were to reflect on his ideas. But just as that selfless quiet heroine of the Great War, Nurse Edith Cavell, realised that patriotism was not enough, so a noble and enlightened atheism, however fine its aspirations, is not enough if individuals or society are to be regenerated or renewed. The reason, as Catholic theology teaches us, is sin, original and personal, our own and Adam’s. We are not strong enough by ourselves to be good (as opposed to “nice”) without the grace of God. Politeness and resilience – indeed kindness and niceness – are not virtues in themselves; they are attractive characteristics of some people by nature; the rest of us have to fight against being “horrid”, like the little girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead.

It is Pelagianism (and de Botton strikes me as something of a neo-Pelagian) to think we can pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and achieve virtue on our own. I reviewed de Botton’s book Religion for Atheists a couple of years ago. Brought up an atheist he wrote that he experienced “a crisis of faithlessness” in his mid-20s which set him on a quest to rescue “some of what is beautiful, touching and wise from all that no longer seems true.” During his research he attended a Catholic Mass and commented, “Not the ideal habitat for an atheist. Much of the dialogue is either offensive to reason or simply incomprehensible.”

The readings at Mass for today are inspirational – to a believer: in the letter to the Hebrews, with the opening exhortation “Continue to love each other like brothers, and remember always to welcome strangers, for by doing this, some people have entertained angels without knowing it”, we discover a mode of discourse utterly foreign to the sacred books of atheism. This passionate and intensely personal dialogue continues with the Psalm: “The Lord is my light and my help/whom shall I fear?” The Gospel text is the dramatic, deeply memorable passage in Mark’s Gospel which was to fire the imagination of Oscar Wilde, where the daughter of Herodias dances before Herod and then makes her appalling request.

My advice to de Botton is: leave aside your secular commandments and go back to a Catholic Mass, not for research purposes but as a genuine seeker after truth. Then who knows? You might entertain angels unawares.

Bushranger Ned Kelly is farewelled in a Catholic service at Wangaratta, Victoria

Descendants of Ned Kelly carry his coffin from the church in Wangaratta. Picture: Chris Scott
Source: Herald Sun

HUNDREDS of Ned Kelly’s descendants have mourned the bushranger at a traditional Catholic mass in the regional Victorian town of Wangaratta, 132 years after his hanging.

With Kelly’s remains in a coffin, St Patrick’s Church parish priest Monsignor John White told mourners he’d received offensive phone calls and emails leading up to the service when it was revealed that he was to deliver the outlaw’s liturgy.

But as a baptised Catholic, he said, Kelly was entitled to the dignified burial he was denied following his hanging at in Melbourne in 1880, when his decapitated body was entombed in the dirt with no family members present.

“Today, we’re righting that wrong,” Monsignor White said.

It was not his – nor any Catholic’s – place to judge Kelly, as the ultimate judgment was God’s alone, he said, before delivering a prayer.

Australian bushranger Ned Kelly the day before he was hanged in 1880.

Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.

End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.

“I speak simply as a priest who resides at his requiem mass … about a man who occupies a unique place in the Australian story.”

Reflecting briefly on Kelly’s life, he said the mass was not the time to retell a story that’s been told and retold through literature, art and media – sometimes celebratory, sometimes laudatory.

But like countless Australians, he’d been captivated by the Kelly legend, all the more so having lived in the region where he dwelled.

“Jerilderie and Euroa were the two towns where Ned did his banking,” Monsignor White said with a tongue-in-cheek reference to the sites of outlaw and his gang’s infamous bank robberies, prompting laughter.

Hundreds turned out for Ned Kelly’s memorial service in Wangaratta. Picture: Chris Scott

Kelly’s great-grand-niece Joanne Griffiths said after the service she was happy to be seeing Kelly receive his dying wish for a dignified burial.

“We’re very relieved to have given Edward what he wished for and what he asked for,” she told reporters outside the church.

“He might be an Australian icon, but he’s family to us.”

Hundreds turned out for Ned Kelly’s memorial service in Wangaratta. Picture: Chris Scott

Women, children held hostage in Kelly’s last stand

Behind Kelly’s last stand

A bushranger’s life

Ned Kelly, an Australian folk hero

133 years after his death, Ned Kelly’s family will be granted his wish to bury his body in sacred ground.

Kelly’s dying wish

Kelly hanging judge was much more

Kelly remains identified

How the Kelly mystery was solved

Laying Kelly to rest would give the family closure and end a multi-generational cycle of pain, Ms Griffiths said.

She called for privacy ahead of the burial of Kelly’s remains in an unmarked grave at the cemetery in Greta, alongside his mother and other relatives.

Ms Griffiths said she’s not surprised to hear Monsignor White was subjected to abuse ahead of the funeral.

“The family has suffered that type of negativity for generations, which is why they don’t usually speak out,” she said.

Getting Kelly to a family burial has been an incredibly long process, she said, but: “At least we’ve made it here.”

No integrity in school award name

{ story.summary|safe|escape }

• Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced last year a Royal Commission to probe decades of child abuse in churches, schools and foster homes.

A family broken by the alleged sexual assault by a priest
50 years ago was devastated to find an integrity award in his name presented
annually to a student at St Joseph’s Primary School in Dungog.

Jan Van-Even said her sister was only seven-and-a-half
when she was sexually assaulted by Fr William Cantwell when he worked as a
parish priest in the Mayfield diocese in the 1960s.

Fr Cantwell was also a parish priest at St Mary’s in
Dungog from 1975 to 1984.

“He had access to her as she and class members were
studying for their first Communion,” Ms Van-Even said.

“I only found out about the assault 17 years ago and only
told our mother 12 months ago.

“My sister still struggles with what happened to this
very day.”

The Newcastle Herald held a public forum in mid-September
last year following journalist Joanne McCarthy’s stories into sexual abuse by
Catholic priests.

The Herald reported on September 25 about a woman who attempted suicide after years of
breakdowns who has received support for her case that she was repeatedly
sexually abused by a Hunter priest.

An emotional
appeal by the woman’s sister at the forum at Newcastle Panthers prompted
another woman to report her experiences with the late Father William Cantwell
as a child.

“I can
verify the probable truthfulness of this allegation,” the woman, Karen,
said.

“Father
Cantwell worked in the Mayfield parish in the 1960s when I was a child and ran
many birthday parties and games afternoons which I attended.

“His mantra
was ‘Bring the little children unto me’. “

“My
experience of Father Cantwell’s ‘creepy’ style was that he would kiss some
children and indeed managed to stick his tongue in my mouth when I was caught
and unable to get out of his ‘fatherly kiss’ on two occasions.

“After those
two experiences, I kept away from him. Thankfully I was a bit older, around
eight or nine years.

“I haven’t
reported this to any authorities as I figured Father Cantwell is long gone and
I hope that he is explaining his actions to a higher being.”

Ms Van-Even said
she found out just before last year’s school presentation that the integrity
award had been ongoing for more than 20 years, not long after he died in 1984.

“I just couldn’t
believe that an award was being handed out in this man’s name,” she said.

“I phoned the
school and spoke to the principal and asked him what the award was for.

“He was unsure
and then I told him about what this man had done to my sister.

“I then contacted
the Director of the Catholic Schools Ray Collins and told him the story and about
the award and I must say he acted immediately and changed the name of the
award.

“But what do you
do about the children who have received the award since it was created?”

Director of Catholic Schools in the Diocese of
Maitland-Newcastle, Ray Collins, said each year at St Joseph’s
Primary School, Dungog, a nominated student receives an award for integrity.

“In 2012 some
objections to the name traditionally given to the award were raised with the
school,” Mr Collins said.

“Given the award
is about acknowledging the achievement of the student, not about who the award
is named after, the principal agreed to change the name of the award to the St
Joseph’s Award for Integrity.

“The focus of the
award should be on the person to whom the award is being given, so in the
interests of all involved, the name was changed.”

Royal Commission

Prime Minister
Julia Gillard announced last year a Royal Commission to probe decades of child
abuse in churches, schools and foster homes. 

The announcement
was made about four months since the suicide of John Pirona, a victim of a
notorious Hunter paedophile priest, triggered the Newcastle Herald’s Shine the
Light campaign.

Ms Gillard said
the investigation would address “institutional responses to child
abuse” – the instances of abuse as well as the manner in which they have
been dealt – by a range of institutions.

The police
response should also be examined, she said.

Individuals and organisations wishing to provide input to
be considered by the Royal Commission will have ample opportunity to do so. The
terms of reference for the Royal Commission will ask that it seek submissions
from the public. The Commission will also have the power to call witnesses and
take evidence. It is likely the Royal Commission will begin its work in early this year.

If you would like your details passed on to the
Secretariat of the Royal Commission, you may phone the national call centre on 1800 099 340.

If you, or someone you know, is
suffering ring Lifeline on 13 11 14.

If you, or someone you know, is
suffering ring Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Contemplative Prayer and God’s Creation

CORPUS CHRISTI, TX (Catholic Online) – One of the busiest times of the year for a parish priest are the liturgical seasons of Advent and Christmas.  I have always believed that a Catholic parish is not simply a place to go to Mass, put some money in the basket and then leave.  A parish must be a vibrant community where the Catholic Faith is celebrated fully.

Hispanics, like other strong ethnic communities, delight in living out Catholicism with joy. 

At Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, we celebrated the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception and the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe with beautiful liturgies and lots of delicious food and music after each Mass.  Then, beginning on the evening of December 16, we celebrated each of the nine Las Posadas throughout the neighborhoods of our parish. 

This year, I thoroughly enjoyed building a large outdoor manger scene, and I was very moved by the devotion of my parishioners as I invited them to venerate the Christ Child after all of the principle Masses of the Christmas season. 

It is time now to return to our discussion on contemplative prayer, a topic that interests me greatly. 

To my critics who think that I am writing about New Age or Buddhism, I found this beautiful quote from an excellent book on contemplative prayer. 

“Contemplation is the immediately transforming and directly consuming activity of God himself with the soul calling forth its voluntary undergoing of that transformation and purgation in love and faith.  It is a silent, imageless and loving communion with God himself which transcends all discursiveness.  Contemplation is none other than a secret, peaceful and loving infusion of God which, if the soul allows it to happen, enflames it in the spirit of love.  Most simply, contemplation is being loved by God himself from within oneself and loving him with all one’s being in return: Estarse amando al Amado – “Remembering loving one’s Beloved” (Contemplation by Frances Kelly Nemeck, O.M.I. and Marie Theresa Coombs, Hermit, pp. 39-40).

Just as centering prayer and lectio divina are proven methods that predispose the soul to receive, from the Holy Spirit, the awesome gift of contemplative prayer, so is our immersion into God’s creation.

“When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and stars that you set in place- What is man that you are mindful of him, and a son of man that you care for him?  Yet you have made him little less than a god, crowned him with glory and honor” (Psalm 8: 4-6). 

Finding silence and solitude in the mountains, the woods and along the ocean provide a backdrop for a profound experience of God. 

Brief or prolonged periods of silence and solitude within nature are very healthy.  Most of us live hyperactive lives filled with noise and endless deadlines. 

Taking the time to turn off the computer and the cell phone, and to enter into nature will help us find the serenity and the peace that we long for. 

“But ask the animals, and they will teach you; the birds of the air, and they will tell you; ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of every human being” (Job 12: 7-10).

Finding God in nature will renew us so that we can fulfill the duties of our own particular calling with renewed energy and enthusiasm.

—–

Father James Farfaglia is a contributing writer for Catholic Online.  You can visit him on the web at www.fatherjames.org.

Retirement brings Bishop Walsh full circle to boyhood parish

(Photo by George Raine/Catholic San Francisco)

Retired Santa Rosa Bishop Daniel F. Walsh pictured outside St. Anne Parish in San Francisco, where he graduated in the class of 1951 and now enjoys new blessings in his vocation as a priest who welcomes children starting their day at the parish school.

•


•


•   Printer Friendly

January 8th, 2013
By George Raine

Every weekday at 7:50 a.m. sharp, retired Santa Rosa Bishop Daniel F. Walsh is in the schoolyard at St. Anne of the Sunset greeting youngsters as they’re dropped off for the day by their parents. He chats with some of the kids, but mostly offers “Good morning,” with a smile seemingly as wide as the grand old church on Judah Street.

The pastor, Father Raymund Reyes, joins Bishop Walsh, “and it means a lot to the parents,” he said, “being welcomed by priests and the feeling of the kids being safe as they go to work.”

Having retired as bishop of the Diocese of Santa Rosa in 2011, after 11 years on the job, Bishop Walsh could do as little as he likes in his in-residence role at St. Anne, but no – he’s relishing his time in a parish that was his as a child and, at 75, he’s still learning.

“I was ordained to be a parish priest,” said Bishop Walsh, although during his career – the 50th anniversary of his ordination will be March 30 – he worked largely in administration, beginning at the Archdiocese of San Francisco in 1970.

‘Obedience brings you peace’
There are no regrets. “I learned early on, obedience brings you peace,” he said. “And if the archbishop asked me to do this, that or the other thing, I would obey. I was at peace.” Here’s the upside to his current in-residence position: “I am available, and not in a great position of authority, which is a wonderful position.”

His is a story of a priest who says he was blessed to be called to a vocation – “I am delighted God gave me that vocation and that I was able to fulfill it” – and how he was able to come full circle, back to the parish where he was a member of the class of 1951 at St. Anne School, was confirmed, had first Communion, his first confession and, on March 31, 1963, celebrated his first Mass.

His was a career with increasing challenges through the years, particularly in Santa Rosa, bedeviled by a sexual scandal and a $16 million debt when Bishop Walsh took over May 22, 2000. His predecessor, he said, had 75 employees at the relatively small diocese, salary and benefits draining funds. Bishop Walsh launched a fundraising effort while an incoming director of finance, Msgr. John Brenkle, terminated 50 people in one week. In time, the diocese was financially stabilized.

Inspired by boyhood pastor, sisters
The seed for his vocation was planted by Msgr. Patrick Moriarty (pastor at St. Anne from 1936 to 1970), who one day asked the boys in Bishop Walsh’s first or second grade class, “Who wants to be a priest?” Bishop Walsh thought being like Msgr. Moriarty would be a good thing, although he subsequently thought being a fireman and a pilot were worthy pursuits, too. The Sisters of the Presentation, “who were great teachers and great formers,” helped him respond to his calling and he was off to the seminary.

Bishop Walsh’s first assignment was at St. Pius in Redwood City, where Msgr. Michael Fitzsimon, the pastor, was a prayerful priest. That influenced him, and he said he would tell new priests this: “First of all, be a man of prayer. Love your people.”

The following year he earned a master’s degree in American history at The Catholic University of America and taught from 1965 to 1970 at Junipero Serra High School in San Mateo. That helped develop his pastoral style – “He’s great with the kids, engaging them,” said Father Reyes – while at the same time he was in residence at a parish being formed, St. Mark’s, in Belmont. The year he left, 1970, the church was built, while earlier the priests rented a former plumbing garage with bowling alley chairs, known around Belmont as “God’s Garage.”

Beginning in 1970, Bishop Walsh had various positions at the Archdiocese of San Francisco, including chancellor and vicar general. He became an auxiliary bishop in 1981, bishop of Reno-Las Vegas in 1987, bishop of Las Vegas in 1995 when it became a separate diocese and bishop of Santa Rosa in 2000.

In 2011, he asked Auxiliary Bishop Robert W. McElroy if he could take up residence in San Francisco. St. Anne was recommended, to Bishop Walsh’s pleasure.

It’s no small thing, said Father Reyes, that with an emeritus bishop and a deacon helping at St. Anne, the full sacrament of holy orders is represented. “I remind parishioners about that blessing we have,” said Father Reyes.

‘Live in the present’
Bishop Walsh celebrates either the 6:30 a.m. or 8:45 a.m. daily Mass, and one day in November was struck by a reading from Luke – one he has known most of his life but found inspiration in that day. Jerusalem is to be destroyed, and the people are told to watch for signs of it and “stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand.” That means “live in the present, this is the moment that you are being sanctified,” said Bishop Walsh. He’s still learning, he said.

He became a priest in another era, in which the Mass was celebrated in Latin, the priest with his back to the assembly. There have been many other changes and priests are not widely held in high esteem like they were in the 1960s, but “it’s a great time” to be a priest, he said.

“First of all there is the faith of the people. For me, that is the joy. Today we had Mass for the fifth and third graders. Now, most of them are not Catholic. There is a heavy Asian population in our school, and yet dealing with them on a faith level, as innocent and childish as they are, is just marvelous for me. They are beautiful,” he said.

He’s just as optimistic about the church: “It’s God’s church. He takes care of it.”

From January 11, 2013 issue of Catholic San Francisco.

More Vocations   

Muskegon native ordained as Canada’s first deaf Catholic priest – Muskegon Chronicle

EDMONTON, Alberta — When Muskegon native Matthew
Anthony Hysell was ordained last week at St. Joseph’s Cathedral Basilica in
Edmonton, he became Canada’s first deaf priest.

“The
distinction of being the first deaf priest in Canada was certainly not an honor
I was looking for” Hysell said in an e-mail. “But
I do admit that I am pleased with the recognition that this occasion is
bringing to the needs of the deaf community.”

Matthew Anthony Hysell, right, assisting at a recent ordination of a bishop.  Courtesy | Archdiocese of Edmonton

There are nearly 129,000 deaf Catholics in Canada, according
to the Archdiocese of Edmonton. Hysell, who is active in St. Mark’s Catholic
Community of the Deaf, will serve as a parish priest at St. Thomas Church in
Mill Woods.

“Just as God spoke to the human family as a human person in
the incarnate word, Jesus Christ, my ordination is an occasion for the church
to promote its message to the deaf community in the language of deaf
people — sign language — in the person of a deaf priest,” Hysell said.

He added that the recognition of the pastoral needs of the deaf people and his ordination to the priesthood remains true to the church’s
missionary spirit.

“The key word here, I think, is ‘solidarity’ — my ministry
will be the church’s solidarity with the deaf,” Hysell said.

Hysell
lost his hearing after contracting meningitis as a toddler. It was his mother
who wanted him to learn to speak and be fluent in sign language.

Born at Mercy Health Partners Hackley Campus, Hysell attended Marquette
Elementary School and spent a year at Steele Middle School before moving on to Fruitport Middle and High Schools.  

“My
fonder memories of Muskegon include the Seaway Festival, Hackley Public Library,
the L.C. Walker Arena with the Muskegon Lumberjacks and the art fair at Hackley
Park,” Hysell said.

Hysell
first wanted to be a priest when he was in seventh grade at Steele Middle School.
He recalled reading a black and white picture book called “The Catholic Priest”
during a study hall.

“I
was deeply impressed at the self-donation of priests in their ministry that I
decided there and then that’s what I wanted to do with my life,” Hysell said.

Raised
Baptist, he converted to Catholicism when he was 16 years old. He said his
formal journey began when he moved to New York in 1990 into a house of formation
begun by the late Cardinal John O’Connor.

After
receiving his undergraduate degree in philosophy, Hysell attended the Dominican
School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley, Calif., where he studied Catholic theology.

“It
wasn’t until I went to World Youth Day in Denver that the possibility of becoming
a priest became viable,” Hysell said.

While
there, he met Father Thomas Coughlin, the first-born deaf priest in the United
States. It was through his agency and friendship, Hysell said, that he was able
to undertake his journey to priesthood.

“It was through him that I began to understand that my defects
of deafness were in fact blessings in disguise,” Hysell said.

Hysell’s connection to Edmonton began when the Sisters of
Providence invited him to give presentations on spiritual topics at St. Mark’s
Catholic Community of the Deaf. He later attended Newman Theological College in Edmonton,
where he met Archbishop Richard Smith, who knew sign
language.

Smith said Hysell’s openness in faith of where the Lord
wants him to be and his strong desire to serve people has impressed him.

“He is just anxious — as he would put it, ‘To get to work’ — so
he would be guiding people,” Smith said.

He also said Hysell doesn’t want this recognition to draw attention
to him.

“He says, ‘Listen this isn’t about me, this is about the
Lord. I’m only his instrument,’” Smith said, “There’s humility and modesty,
which is wonderful.”

The Muskegon native said priesthood is like the military, where
you are sent where you are told.

“Would I like to come back? Most certainly,” Hysell said, “Will
I? It’s too early to tell and somewhat unlikely.”

Suffer the children

THE St Pius X Parish in Raiwaqa was a hive of activity yesterday as parish members, families and friends marked the first communion of 44 children at the parish.

First communion marks the first time a child receives the sacrament of the holy eucharist and is one of the most important occasions in a Catholic’s life.

St Pius X Parish priest Father Tom Rouse said the first Holy Communion celebrations marked the moment a child became a part of the community and took part in the work of the church.

“For these young people it’s a very special occasion because they have been preparing to receive this and it’s a very sacred moment for them,” Fr Rouse said.

“This is a moment in which they will share in the gift which Jesus has to share which is his body and blood so that is why this occasion is important for them.”

Fr Rouse said the children had gone through roughly a year of learning before receiving their first communion and it was good to see them in such high spirits.

And the occasion of the first communion was especially significant for 11-year-old Olivia Burese.

Miss Burese, who is deaf, said through a sign language interpreter that she had faced many difficulties during the one-year process of learning about her first communion.

However the Gospel School for the Deaf student said she was happy her hard work had finally paid off.

Miss Burese — the fifth child in a family of nine — said she had watched members of the parish receiving their holy communion and always anticipated the time when she would be able to do the same.

Her father, Dan Burese said it was a big milestone for the young lady to receive her first communion adding that he was very happy with the assistance given by the interpreters.

• Print this story
• Back to top
•