A Reflection on St. André of Montreal
By Father Thomas Rosica, CSB
- Among those to be canonized by Benedict XVI on Sunday at the Vatican is Canadian Brother André Bessette, of the Congregation of Holy Cross. Born Alfred Bessette into a large Catholic family in 1845 in the Quebec village of Saint-Grégoire d'Iberville, the baby was so frail as a newborn that his father, Isaac, didn’t expect him to live for more than a day.
The Bessette family was besieged with tragedies. In 1855, when Alfred was 10 years old, his father died in a logging accident. In order to provide for her children, Alfred’s mother was forced to separate them from each other and sent them to live with various members of their extended family. Only Alfred was able to stay with his mother due to his own delicate health. Two years later Madame Bessette died of tuberculosis.
After Alfred was orphaned, he lived with his aunt's family. He was frequently sick as a young boy and rarely attended school. At age 10 he began suffering from painful stomach problems that would stay with him throughout his life. He tried various jobs before turning 18 years old. He then set out for the United States where he followed the path of many French-Canadians before him. Alfred moved from one job to another, laboring on farms, in factories and in textile mills in New England. Throughout his four years in the United States, Alfred remained frail and sickly, searching for his real vocation.
In 1867, Alfred returned to Canada, taking up various jobs before finally settling in Sainte-Césaire, the village where, after his mother’s death, he had made his first holy Communion. He began helping Father André Provençal, the local pastor, with chores around the church. He was also spending more and more time in prayer, particularly before the statue of St. Joseph in the parish church. Father Provençal realized that Alfred’s interior prayer was genuine and authentic. In 1870, convinced that his young parishioner was surely being called by God, the kind and perceptive priest asked Alfred to consider religious life within the Congregation of Holy Cross. Despite misgivings over his worthiness and suitability, Alfred reluctantly agreed to allow his pastor to present him to Holy Cross for further formal discernment in their formation program. Alfred was 25 years old. Father Provençal wrote to the superiors of the Congregation of Holy Cross: “I am sending you a saint.”
Unfortunately Alfred’s frail health soon proved an obstacle for the Holy Cross authorities, who were evaluating his call to vows within the Congregation. Toward the end of his novitiate year, Alfred applied for temporary vows. His religious superiors decided they could not accept him knowing that his poor health would be an impediment to his perpetual profession of the religious vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Alfred was devastated.
A few weeks after that fateful decision, the Bishop of Montreal, Ignace Bourget, visited College Notre-Dame, which was also the location of the novitiate community. Alfred sought out the Bishop and begged him to intercede with the Holy Cross superiors, saying “My only ambition is to serve God in the most humble tasks.” The Bishop was deeply moved by his plea. The superiors relented and admitted Alfred to vows as a consecrated brother of Holy Cross. On Feb. 2, 1874, Bessette's religious name, André, was conferred on him by his superiors. Alfred had chosen the name in honor of his parish priest who sent him to Holy Cross. The Superior of Novices, upon accepting Brother André as a lay brother, wrote: "If this young man becomes incapable of working, at least he will know how to pray very well."
Most members of the Congregation of Holy Cross were priests or teachers. Lay brothers contributed to the work of the order by performing the manual labor necessary to keep the school running. For nearly 40 years Brother André worked as a porter at the College of Notre-Dame-du-Sacré-Coeur in the Montreal neighborhood of Côtes-des-Neiges. Speaking about his assignment as doorman, he once quipped, "When I joined this community, the superiors showed me the door."
As porter of the College, Brother André lived in a small room located near the main entrance that also served as his office. He was also occupied with many menial tasks such as washing the floors and windows, cleaning lamps, and bringing in the firewood. Every day he rang the wake-up bell, cleaned rooms, picked up mail at the post office and, weekly, couriered laundry to and from resident pupils' houses. Another task that must have given him the opportunity for wonderful conversations was his role as barber for the students.
Brother André urged people who came to him to pray with confidence and perseverance, while remaining open to God’s will. He admonished people to begin their path to healing through commitments to faith and humility, through confession and a return to the sacraments. He encouraged the sick to seek a doctor’s care. He saw value in suffering that is joined to the sufferings of Christ. He allowed himself to be fully present to the sadness of others but always retained a joyful nature and good humor. At times he was seen weeping along with his visitors as they recounted to him their sorrows and difficulties. Word spread quickly when many of those with whom he prayed were healed. As Brother André was becoming known as a miracle worker, he insisted all the more, "I am nothing ... only a tool in the hands of Providence, a lowly instrument at the service of St. Joseph."
As the tensions increased at the College with so many of the sick coming to see the porter, the school officials decided that Brother André could no longer continue with his ministry. He was permitted to receive the sick in the nearby tramway station rather than the College. As his reputation spread, Brother André became quite a controversial figure. There were many religious in the Congregation of Holy Cross, teachers and parents of students at the College who supported him but many others opposed him and even considered him dangerous to the well-being of the school’s reputation because they regarded him as a charlatan. Others were concerned for the good health of the children, fearing the possibility of contagion in the school spread from diseases carried by the sick who frequented Brother André.
Brother André always had a strong devotion to St. Joseph, and in 1900 he received permission to raise money for a shrine to St. Joseph. The first shelter was constructed in 1904. Holy Cross authorities allowed for a room to be added to the Chapel and Brother André was assigned to live in that room where he could readily receive pilgrims and pray for them. He abandoned the tramway station and began receiving pilgrims at the Chapel of St. Joseph that would become the Oratory.
In 1909 Brother André was assigned full-time as the caretaker of the Oratory. He spent his days seeing sick people who came to him, and spent his evenings visiting the sick who could not make it to the Oratory. Construction on what would become known as St. Joseph’s Oratory began in 1914. A crypt church seating 1,000 was completed in 1917. By the 1920s the Oratory hosted over 1 million pilgrims annually, and hundreds of cures were attributed to his prayers every year.
Brother André died in Montreal on Jan. 6, 1937, without seeing the completion of his dream. It is estimated that over a million people visited his body during the week following his death. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on May 23, 1982, at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. On Oct. 17, 2010, Brother André Bessette will be canonized, becoming the first male Canadian-born saint.
The miracle leading to his canonization occurred in 1999 when a 9-year-old boy had been the victim of an automobile accident, leaving him with a serious cranial injury and putting him in an irreversible coma leading toward death. The prayers of the people closest to him, along with the intercession of Brother André, brought him back to consciousness and health, and this was deemed scientifically unexplainable by medical experts.
“Pauper, servus et umilis”
Through Brother André’s efforts, suffering and faith, from a little chapel on a hillside of Mount Royal came forth a great Basilica that now dominates Montreal’s mountain and Canada’s spiritual landscape. St. Joseph’s Oratory is the world’s largest shrine dedicated to St. Joseph, built from a dream of Brother André Bessette. In this frail Brother of Holy Cross, God’s strength and might were revealed to the world. “Pauper, servus et umilis” are the Latin words written above his tomb at the Oratory in Montreal, meaning poor, servant and humble. They are also the words that are sung in the Panis Angelicus, the magnificent hymn about the Eucharist: poor, servant and humble. Who can say why was André chosen? In a beautiful circular letter to the Holy Cross family earlier this year, former Holy Cross Superior General Father Hugh Cleary wrote: “…perhaps André was chosen, like Mary and Joseph, because in the eyes of this world he was no one; he possessed nothing, nothing possessed him. … God possessed him giving him what he cared for most, giving him fulfillment to the deepest longing of his heart.”
Vocation of a Religious Lay Brother
In his 1996 Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata, the Servant of God Pope John Paul II stated: “Consecrated persons are asked to be true experts of communion and to practice its spirituality as witnesses and artisans of that plan of communion which stands at the center of history according to God” (VC 46).
Religious brothers offer invaluable service to God’s people, though theirs is one that is lesser known in our Church. There is also an overwhelming sense that religious brothers are our peers, living and working in our midst as companions on our journey of faith. They are men who are examples of how the actions of our daily lives can in themselves be holy.
Brother André Bessette was a true expert and artisan of communion who lived and worked in our midst and was companion to so many people on their journey of faith. His vocation as a religious lay brother was a gracious and mysterious gift of God. His witnessing was prophetic, radical, visible, effective, credible and joyful. As an adult, Brother André stood just five feet tall. But he was a giant of faith and spirituality, whose shadow still hovers mightily over Montreal and Canada. He shows us what can be achieved through faith and love. In the humble porter’s own words, “It is with the smallest brushes that the artists paint the most beautiful pictures.”
Opening the doors of our hearts and Church
Christ is the door to the Father, who knocks at the doors of our hearts, our homes and our Church. The Church, and especially St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal, is the door to salvation, the portal of the Kingdom of God. Brother André was the porter of that blessed place. The Lord worked through his doubts, infirmities, strengths, perseverance and human ingenuity to build a Church and build up the Church.
Each day we enter and leave by so many doors without ever noticing. We all remember the stories of the days of our grandparents when "no one locked their doors." We now live in an age of deadbolts and alarm systems. Gone are the days we once knew when the doors of our homes would open regularly and easily to relatives, friends and neighbors. The doors of our homes and churches don't seem to swing open quite so easily or as often as they used to. We must find ways to open the doors of our homes, our hearts and our churches to all who need us.
In his day, Brother André was Montreal’s Porter and he is now one of Heaven’s special gatekeepers. He teaches us the importance of greeting each person as the Lord, himself. Some will come to our doors rejoicing, and others in fear; some will come healed and others to seek that healing. St. André teaches us to be sensitive and welcoming to all who knock on our doors. May he continue to inspire us to open doors and build bridges to the people whom the Lord sends us each day, especially those who are sick, broken, poor and lonely. May St. André of Montreal make us instruments of healing, friendship, joy and peace in our day.
Showing posts with label Canadian Catholic Church. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Canadian Catholic Church. Show all posts
Monday, October 18, 2010
Papal Homily at Canonization Mass
"The Celebration of Sanctity Is Renewed in St. Peter’s Square Today"
- Here is a translation of the homily Benedict XVI gave today in St. Peter's at the canonization Mass of six newly recognized saints.
The homily was given in various languages.
Those canonized were: Stanislaw Soltys of Poland, André Bessette of Canada, Cándida María de Jesús Cipitria y Barriola of Spain, Mary of the Cross MacKillop of Australia, Giulia Salzano of Italy and Camilla Battista da Varano of Italy.
* * *
Dear brothers and sisters! The celebration of sanctity is renewed in St. Peter’s Square today. With joy I extend my cordial welcome to you who have come, also from a great distance, to take part in this event. A particular greeting to the cardinals, bishops and superior generals of the institutes founded by the new saints, and to the official delegations and all the civil authorities. Let us try to grasp together what the Lord tells us in the readings that were just proclaimed. This Sunday’s liturgy offers us a fundamental teaching: the necessity to pray always, without tiring. Sometimes we grow tired of prayer, we have the impression that prayer is not very useful for life, that it is not very effective. Thus, we are tempted to dedicate ourselves to activity, to employ every human method to accomplish our goals, and we do not approach God. But Jesus says that we must pray always, and he does this through a specific parable (cf. Luke 18:1-8).
This parable speaks of a judge who does not fear God and does not respect anyone, a judge who does not have a positive attitude, but pursues only his own interests. He does not fear God’s judgment and does not respect his neighbor. The other figure is a widow, a person in a situation of weakness. In the Bible, the widows and the orphans are the most needy classes because they are defenseless and without means. The widow goes to the judge and asks him for justice. Her possibilities of being heard are almost non-existent because the judge despises her and she can put no pressure on him. She cannot even appeal to religious principles because the judge does not fear God. So, this widow seems to be deprived of all recourse. But she insists, she does not tire in asking, she harasses the judge, and thus in the end succeeds in obtaining what she wants from the judge. At this point Jesus reflects, using an “a fortiori” argument: if a dishonest judge in the end allows himself to be convinced by the entreaties of a widow, how much more will God, who is good, listen to those who pray. God in fact is generosity in person, he is merciful, and so he is always disposed to listen to prayers. For this reason, we must not give up hope, but always insist in prayer.
The conclusion of the Gospel passage speaks of faith: “The Son of Man, when he comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). It is a question that intends to awaken a growth of faith in us. It is clear, in fact, that prayer must be the expression of faith, otherwise it is not true prayer. If one does not believe in the goodness of God, he cannot pray in a truly adequate way. Faith is essential as the basis of the attitude of prayer. The six new saints proposed today for veneration by the universal Church made faith such a basis: Stanislaw Soltys, André Bessette, Cándida María de Jesús Cipitria y Barriola, Mary of the Cross MacKillop, Giulia Salzano and Battista Camilla Varano.
[In Polish:]
St. Stanislaw Kazimierczyk, a religious of the 15th century, can be an example and an intercessor for us too. His whole life was bound to the Eucharist. First of all in the church of Corpus Domini is Kazimierz, in modern-day Krakow, where with his mother and father, he learned faith and piety; where he took religious vows with the Canons Regular; where he worked as a priest, educator, attentive to the care of the needy. In a particular way, however, he was bound to the Eucharist by the ardent love for Christ present under the species of bread and of wine; living the mystery of death and resurrection, which takes place in a bloodless way in Holy Mass; through the practice of love of neighbor, of which Communion is a source and sign.
[In French:]
Brother André Bessette, originally from Quebec in Canada and a religious of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, experienced suffering and poverty starting very young. This led him to pay recourse to God in prayer and an intense interior life. As porter of the College of Notre Dame in Montreal, he showed limitless charity and made every effort to relieve the sufferings of those who went to entrust themselves to him.
Though a man of little education, he nevertheless understood where to find the essential of his faith. For him, to believe meant to freely submit himself out of love to the divine will. Abiding everything in the mystery of Jesus, he lived the beatitude of the pure hearts, of personal uprightness. This simplicity has enabled many to see God.
He was responsible for building the Oratory of St. Joseph in Mont Royal, where he would stay as a faithful guardian until his death in 1937.
"Do not try to have your struggles taken away," he said, "rather ask for the grace to carry them well." For him, everything spoke of God and his presence. May we, following him, seek God with simplicity to find him always present in the midst of our lives!
May the example of Brother André always inspire Canadian Christian life!
[In Spanish:]
When the Son of Man comes to bring justice to the chosen ones, will he find faith on earth? (cf. Luke 18:18). Today with consolation and strength contemplating figures such as Mother Cándida María de Jesús Cipitria y Barriola, we can say that yes [he will find faith].
This woman of simple origins -- with a heart upon which God put his seal and whom he would take to himself very quickly -- under the guidance of her Jesuit spiritual directors made the firm resolution to live "only for God." It was a decision maintained with firmness, as she herself would recall when she was about to die. She lived for God and for what he most wanted: to reach everyone, to bring to everyone the hope that does not waver, especially to those who most need it.
"Where there is not a place for the poor, there is no place for me," said the new saint, who, with few resources, inspired other sisters to follow Jesus and dedicate themselves to education and the promotion of the woman. Thus was born the Daughters of Jesus, who today have in their founder a very exalted model to imitate, and a fascinating mission to pursue in the many nations where the spirit and the apostolic desires of Mother Cándida have arrived.
[In English:]
"Remember who your teachers were -- from these you can learn the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus." For many years countless young people throughout Australia have been blessed with teachers who were inspired by the courageous and saintly example of zeal, perseverance and prayer of Mother Mary McKillop. She dedicated herself as a young woman to the education of the poor in the difficult and demanding terrain of rural Australia, inspiring other women to join her in the first women’s community of religious sisters of that country. She attended to the needs of each young person entrusted to her, without regard for station or wealth, providing both intellectual and spiritual formation. Despite many challenges, her prayers to Saint Joseph and her unflagging devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to whom she dedicated her new congregation, gave this holy woman the graces needed to remain faithful to God and to the Church. Through her intercession, may her followers today continue to serve God and the Church with faith and humility!
[Again in Italian:]
In the second half of the 19th century in Campania, in southern Italy, the Lord called a young elementary school teacher, Giulia Salzano, and made her an apostle of Christian education, founder of the Congregation of the Sisters Catechists of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Mother Giulia understood well the importance of catechesis in the Church, and, uniting pedagogical formation with spiritual fervor, she dedicated herself to it with generosity and intelligence, contributing to the formation of persons of every age and social condition. She repeated to her sisters that she wanted to teach the catechism to the very last hour of her life, demonstrating with her whole being that if “God created us to know him, love him and serve him in this life,” nothing must come before this task. May the example and intercession of St. Giulia Salzano sustain the Church in her perennial task of announcing Christ and form authentic Christian consciences.
St. Battista Camilla Varano, a nun of the Poor Clares in the 15th century, bore witness to the Gospel meaning of life in a radical way, especially through her perseverance in prayer. She entered the monastery of Urbino at 23 and was a protagonist in the vast reform movement of Franciscan women’s spirituality, which had as its aim the complete recovery of the charism of St. Clare of Assisi. She promoted new monastic foundations at Camerino, where she was many times elected abbess, and at Fermo and San Severino.
The life of St. Battista, completely immersed in the depths of the divine, was a constant ascent in the life of perfection, with a heroic love of God and neighbor. It was marked by great sufferings and mystical consolations; she had decided in fact, as she herself wrote, to "enter into the most Sacred Heart of Jesus and to drown in the ocean of his most bitter sufferings."
In a time in which the Church was suffering from a lack of discipline, she set out decisively on the road of penance and prayer, animated by the ardent desire for the renewal of the mystical body of Christ.
Dear brothers and sisters, let us give thanks to the Lord for the gift of holiness, which shines in the Church and today illumines the faces of these brothers and sisters of ours. Jesus also invites each of us to follow him to inherit eternal life. Let us be drawn by the luminous examples, let us be guided by their teachings, so that our existence be a canticle of praise to God.
May the Virgin Mary and the intercession of the six new saints, whom we venerate today with joy, obtain this grace for us. Amen.
- Here is a translation of the homily Benedict XVI gave today in St. Peter's at the canonization Mass of six newly recognized saints.
The homily was given in various languages.
Those canonized were: Stanislaw Soltys of Poland, André Bessette of Canada, Cándida María de Jesús Cipitria y Barriola of Spain, Mary of the Cross MacKillop of Australia, Giulia Salzano of Italy and Camilla Battista da Varano of Italy.
* * *
Dear brothers and sisters! The celebration of sanctity is renewed in St. Peter’s Square today. With joy I extend my cordial welcome to you who have come, also from a great distance, to take part in this event. A particular greeting to the cardinals, bishops and superior generals of the institutes founded by the new saints, and to the official delegations and all the civil authorities. Let us try to grasp together what the Lord tells us in the readings that were just proclaimed. This Sunday’s liturgy offers us a fundamental teaching: the necessity to pray always, without tiring. Sometimes we grow tired of prayer, we have the impression that prayer is not very useful for life, that it is not very effective. Thus, we are tempted to dedicate ourselves to activity, to employ every human method to accomplish our goals, and we do not approach God. But Jesus says that we must pray always, and he does this through a specific parable (cf. Luke 18:1-8).
This parable speaks of a judge who does not fear God and does not respect anyone, a judge who does not have a positive attitude, but pursues only his own interests. He does not fear God’s judgment and does not respect his neighbor. The other figure is a widow, a person in a situation of weakness. In the Bible, the widows and the orphans are the most needy classes because they are defenseless and without means. The widow goes to the judge and asks him for justice. Her possibilities of being heard are almost non-existent because the judge despises her and she can put no pressure on him. She cannot even appeal to religious principles because the judge does not fear God. So, this widow seems to be deprived of all recourse. But she insists, she does not tire in asking, she harasses the judge, and thus in the end succeeds in obtaining what she wants from the judge. At this point Jesus reflects, using an “a fortiori” argument: if a dishonest judge in the end allows himself to be convinced by the entreaties of a widow, how much more will God, who is good, listen to those who pray. God in fact is generosity in person, he is merciful, and so he is always disposed to listen to prayers. For this reason, we must not give up hope, but always insist in prayer.
The conclusion of the Gospel passage speaks of faith: “The Son of Man, when he comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). It is a question that intends to awaken a growth of faith in us. It is clear, in fact, that prayer must be the expression of faith, otherwise it is not true prayer. If one does not believe in the goodness of God, he cannot pray in a truly adequate way. Faith is essential as the basis of the attitude of prayer. The six new saints proposed today for veneration by the universal Church made faith such a basis: Stanislaw Soltys, André Bessette, Cándida María de Jesús Cipitria y Barriola, Mary of the Cross MacKillop, Giulia Salzano and Battista Camilla Varano.
[In Polish:]
St. Stanislaw Kazimierczyk, a religious of the 15th century, can be an example and an intercessor for us too. His whole life was bound to the Eucharist. First of all in the church of Corpus Domini is Kazimierz, in modern-day Krakow, where with his mother and father, he learned faith and piety; where he took religious vows with the Canons Regular; where he worked as a priest, educator, attentive to the care of the needy. In a particular way, however, he was bound to the Eucharist by the ardent love for Christ present under the species of bread and of wine; living the mystery of death and resurrection, which takes place in a bloodless way in Holy Mass; through the practice of love of neighbor, of which Communion is a source and sign.
[In French:]
Brother André Bessette, originally from Quebec in Canada and a religious of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, experienced suffering and poverty starting very young. This led him to pay recourse to God in prayer and an intense interior life. As porter of the College of Notre Dame in Montreal, he showed limitless charity and made every effort to relieve the sufferings of those who went to entrust themselves to him.
Though a man of little education, he nevertheless understood where to find the essential of his faith. For him, to believe meant to freely submit himself out of love to the divine will. Abiding everything in the mystery of Jesus, he lived the beatitude of the pure hearts, of personal uprightness. This simplicity has enabled many to see God.
He was responsible for building the Oratory of St. Joseph in Mont Royal, where he would stay as a faithful guardian until his death in 1937.
"Do not try to have your struggles taken away," he said, "rather ask for the grace to carry them well." For him, everything spoke of God and his presence. May we, following him, seek God with simplicity to find him always present in the midst of our lives!
May the example of Brother André always inspire Canadian Christian life!
[In Spanish:]
When the Son of Man comes to bring justice to the chosen ones, will he find faith on earth? (cf. Luke 18:18). Today with consolation and strength contemplating figures such as Mother Cándida María de Jesús Cipitria y Barriola, we can say that yes [he will find faith].
This woman of simple origins -- with a heart upon which God put his seal and whom he would take to himself very quickly -- under the guidance of her Jesuit spiritual directors made the firm resolution to live "only for God." It was a decision maintained with firmness, as she herself would recall when she was about to die. She lived for God and for what he most wanted: to reach everyone, to bring to everyone the hope that does not waver, especially to those who most need it.
"Where there is not a place for the poor, there is no place for me," said the new saint, who, with few resources, inspired other sisters to follow Jesus and dedicate themselves to education and the promotion of the woman. Thus was born the Daughters of Jesus, who today have in their founder a very exalted model to imitate, and a fascinating mission to pursue in the many nations where the spirit and the apostolic desires of Mother Cándida have arrived.
[In English:]
"Remember who your teachers were -- from these you can learn the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus." For many years countless young people throughout Australia have been blessed with teachers who were inspired by the courageous and saintly example of zeal, perseverance and prayer of Mother Mary McKillop. She dedicated herself as a young woman to the education of the poor in the difficult and demanding terrain of rural Australia, inspiring other women to join her in the first women’s community of religious sisters of that country. She attended to the needs of each young person entrusted to her, without regard for station or wealth, providing both intellectual and spiritual formation. Despite many challenges, her prayers to Saint Joseph and her unflagging devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to whom she dedicated her new congregation, gave this holy woman the graces needed to remain faithful to God and to the Church. Through her intercession, may her followers today continue to serve God and the Church with faith and humility!
[Again in Italian:]
In the second half of the 19th century in Campania, in southern Italy, the Lord called a young elementary school teacher, Giulia Salzano, and made her an apostle of Christian education, founder of the Congregation of the Sisters Catechists of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Mother Giulia understood well the importance of catechesis in the Church, and, uniting pedagogical formation with spiritual fervor, she dedicated herself to it with generosity and intelligence, contributing to the formation of persons of every age and social condition. She repeated to her sisters that she wanted to teach the catechism to the very last hour of her life, demonstrating with her whole being that if “God created us to know him, love him and serve him in this life,” nothing must come before this task. May the example and intercession of St. Giulia Salzano sustain the Church in her perennial task of announcing Christ and form authentic Christian consciences.
St. Battista Camilla Varano, a nun of the Poor Clares in the 15th century, bore witness to the Gospel meaning of life in a radical way, especially through her perseverance in prayer. She entered the monastery of Urbino at 23 and was a protagonist in the vast reform movement of Franciscan women’s spirituality, which had as its aim the complete recovery of the charism of St. Clare of Assisi. She promoted new monastic foundations at Camerino, where she was many times elected abbess, and at Fermo and San Severino.
The life of St. Battista, completely immersed in the depths of the divine, was a constant ascent in the life of perfection, with a heroic love of God and neighbor. It was marked by great sufferings and mystical consolations; she had decided in fact, as she herself wrote, to "enter into the most Sacred Heart of Jesus and to drown in the ocean of his most bitter sufferings."
In a time in which the Church was suffering from a lack of discipline, she set out decisively on the road of penance and prayer, animated by the ardent desire for the renewal of the mystical body of Christ.
Dear brothers and sisters, let us give thanks to the Lord for the gift of holiness, which shines in the Church and today illumines the faces of these brothers and sisters of ours. Jesus also invites each of us to follow him to inherit eternal life. Let us be drawn by the luminous examples, let us be guided by their teachings, so that our existence be a canticle of praise to God.
May the Virgin Mary and the intercession of the six new saints, whom we venerate today with joy, obtain this grace for us. Amen.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
FR. ANDRÉ BESSETTE, L'UMILE PORTIERE CHE SARÀ CANONIZZATO
Apparteneva alla Congregazione della Santa Croce in Canada
di Carmen Elena Villa
- “Vi sto mandando un santo”. Furono queste le parole di padre André Provençal, che conobbe il giovane Alfred Bessette e decise di presentarlo alla Congregazione della Santa Croce a Montreal (Canada). L'allora aspirante prese poi il nome di fr. André.
Papa Benedetto XVI lo canonizzerà il 17 ottobre, insieme ad altri cinque beati. Sarà il primo santo di questa Congregazione. Migliaia di persone visitano a tutt'oggi la sua tomba, situata nel santuario di San Giuseppe, che egli stesso fece costruire sul cosiddetto Mont Royal.
Parlando con ZENIT, padre Mario Lasciabell, il vicepostulatore della sua causa, ha detto che i fedeli “hanno manifestato per iscritto il proprio desiderio che la Chiesa riconoscesse quanto prima la santità dell'umile amico dei poveri e degli afflitti”.
Sofferenza fin da piccolo
Bessette nacque nel 1845 in un paese chiamato Mont-Saint-Grégorie, a 40 chilometri da Montreal, in una famiglia della classe operaia. Il piccolo aveva tanti problemi di salute che i genitori vollero battezzarlo il giorno stesso della nascita, pensando che non sarebbe sopravvissuto. Ma morì 91 anni dopo...
Rimase orfano di padre quando aveva 9 anni e di madre a 12, per cui insieme agli 11 fratelli venne affidato alla zia Rosalie Nadeau e a suo marito Timothée.
“Maria e Giuseppe divennero i suoi genitori adottivi”, ha indicato padre Lasciabell. “Quel periodo permise a fr. André di consolidare fortemente il suo rapporto con Dio anziché di allontanarsi per i dolorosi fatti della sua vita”.
A 20 anni si recò negli Stati Uniti insieme a un gruppo di immigrati per lavorare nel settore tessile. Nel 1867 tornò in Canada per svolgere altri lavori.
Fu allora che il suo parroco decise di inviarlo alla Congregazione della Santa Croce, dove all'inizio venne respinto per i suoi problemi di salute, che lo accompagnarono per tutta la vita. Il Vescovo di Montreal, monsignor Ignace Bourget, chiese che la decisione venisse rivista e Alfred venne accettato nel 1872.
Molto più di un portiere
A fr. Bessette venne affidato l'incarico di portiere del collegio di Nostra Signora delle Nevi, vicino Montreal. Svolgeva anche altri lavori occasionali, ma volle fare di questo compito una missione che andava al di là dell'aprire la porta: “Riceveva i visitatori e i loro parenti. Il prossimo divenne così una realtà importante per fr. Andre”, ha detto il vicepostulatore.
La sua vita spirituale, le sue parole semplici ma piene di senso fecero sì che sempre più persone parlassero al portiere di quel collegio. Molti malati andavano a chiedergli consolazione, preghiere e consigli. “Sapeva che non si può amare davvero Dio senza amare il prossimo, né amare gli altri senza riconoscere la presenza di Dio in loro”, ha dichiarato il vicepostulatore.
“Una folla quotidiana di malati, di afflitti, di poveri di ogni tipo, di handicappati o feriti dalla vita trovavano presso di lui, al parlatorio del collegio, all’Oratorio, accoglienza, ascolto, conforto e fede in Dio”, ha detto Papa Giovanni Paolo II nell'omelia della sua beatificazione nel maggio 1982. Fr. Bessette dava a tutti lo stesso consiglio: cercare l'intercessione di San Giuseppe, pregare e accostarsi ai sacramenti.
Diceva ai malati di ungersi con l'olio della lampada che si trovava in una cappella che aveva il nome del santo. Molti fedeli che lo facevano venivano guariti, anche se da un punto di vista medico non avevano speranze. Alcuni iniziarono a dire che il religioso compiva miracoli, ma egli insisteva nel dire che il responsabile di quelle guarigioni era San Giuseppe. Per questo, nel 1904, ebbe l'iniziativa di costruire un santuario in suo onore.
Fr. Bessette iniziò a riunire un numero sempre più ampio di seguaci, ma la sua vita provocò anche alcune reazioni negative. Tra queste, quella del dottor Josep Charette, che ridicolizzava i suoi atteggiamenti. Un giorno sua moglie ebbe una forte emorragia nasale che non si riusciva a fermare in alcun modo. La donna chiese di essere portata dal religioso, ma il medico si rifiutò. “Dici che mi ami e saresti capace di farmi morire dissanguata?”, gli chiese la moglie. Charette andò da fr. André, che gli disse: “Dottore, torni a casa, l'emorragia si è fermata”, e così fu.
Nel 1924 culminò la costruzione dell'oratorio dedicato al Santo Custode. “Fr. André fu il costruttore non solo di un edificio di pietre, ma di una comunità cristiana vivente. Divenne un fattore unificante”, ha detto padre Lasciabell.
Fr. Bessette morì nel 1937. “Non ho mai portato a fr. André una persona malata senza che questa tornasse a casa felice. Alcuni venivano guariti, altri morivano tempo dopo, ma fr. André li consolava”, diceva uno dei suoi amici.
“Più di un milione di persone andò a rendergli omaggio anche se i suoi funerali si svolsero nel freddo invernale. E ancora oggi, più di due milioni e mezzo di pellegrini e visitatori arrivano ogni anno all'oratorio di San Giuseppe sul Mont Royal”, ha segnalato padre
Lasciabell.
“In un'epoca difficile per la Chiesa canadese, i credenti di questo Paese si rallegrano di constatare che Dio è tra loro e che questo manifesta segni inequivocabili della sua presenza”, ha concluso il vicepostulatore di fr. Bessette.
di Carmen Elena Villa
- “Vi sto mandando un santo”. Furono queste le parole di padre André Provençal, che conobbe il giovane Alfred Bessette e decise di presentarlo alla Congregazione della Santa Croce a Montreal (Canada). L'allora aspirante prese poi il nome di fr. André.
Papa Benedetto XVI lo canonizzerà il 17 ottobre, insieme ad altri cinque beati. Sarà il primo santo di questa Congregazione. Migliaia di persone visitano a tutt'oggi la sua tomba, situata nel santuario di San Giuseppe, che egli stesso fece costruire sul cosiddetto Mont Royal.
Parlando con ZENIT, padre Mario Lasciabell, il vicepostulatore della sua causa, ha detto che i fedeli “hanno manifestato per iscritto il proprio desiderio che la Chiesa riconoscesse quanto prima la santità dell'umile amico dei poveri e degli afflitti”.
Sofferenza fin da piccolo
Bessette nacque nel 1845 in un paese chiamato Mont-Saint-Grégorie, a 40 chilometri da Montreal, in una famiglia della classe operaia. Il piccolo aveva tanti problemi di salute che i genitori vollero battezzarlo il giorno stesso della nascita, pensando che non sarebbe sopravvissuto. Ma morì 91 anni dopo...
Rimase orfano di padre quando aveva 9 anni e di madre a 12, per cui insieme agli 11 fratelli venne affidato alla zia Rosalie Nadeau e a suo marito Timothée.
“Maria e Giuseppe divennero i suoi genitori adottivi”, ha indicato padre Lasciabell. “Quel periodo permise a fr. André di consolidare fortemente il suo rapporto con Dio anziché di allontanarsi per i dolorosi fatti della sua vita”.
A 20 anni si recò negli Stati Uniti insieme a un gruppo di immigrati per lavorare nel settore tessile. Nel 1867 tornò in Canada per svolgere altri lavori.
Fu allora che il suo parroco decise di inviarlo alla Congregazione della Santa Croce, dove all'inizio venne respinto per i suoi problemi di salute, che lo accompagnarono per tutta la vita. Il Vescovo di Montreal, monsignor Ignace Bourget, chiese che la decisione venisse rivista e Alfred venne accettato nel 1872.
Molto più di un portiere
A fr. Bessette venne affidato l'incarico di portiere del collegio di Nostra Signora delle Nevi, vicino Montreal. Svolgeva anche altri lavori occasionali, ma volle fare di questo compito una missione che andava al di là dell'aprire la porta: “Riceveva i visitatori e i loro parenti. Il prossimo divenne così una realtà importante per fr. Andre”, ha detto il vicepostulatore.
La sua vita spirituale, le sue parole semplici ma piene di senso fecero sì che sempre più persone parlassero al portiere di quel collegio. Molti malati andavano a chiedergli consolazione, preghiere e consigli. “Sapeva che non si può amare davvero Dio senza amare il prossimo, né amare gli altri senza riconoscere la presenza di Dio in loro”, ha dichiarato il vicepostulatore.
“Una folla quotidiana di malati, di afflitti, di poveri di ogni tipo, di handicappati o feriti dalla vita trovavano presso di lui, al parlatorio del collegio, all’Oratorio, accoglienza, ascolto, conforto e fede in Dio”, ha detto Papa Giovanni Paolo II nell'omelia della sua beatificazione nel maggio 1982. Fr. Bessette dava a tutti lo stesso consiglio: cercare l'intercessione di San Giuseppe, pregare e accostarsi ai sacramenti.
Diceva ai malati di ungersi con l'olio della lampada che si trovava in una cappella che aveva il nome del santo. Molti fedeli che lo facevano venivano guariti, anche se da un punto di vista medico non avevano speranze. Alcuni iniziarono a dire che il religioso compiva miracoli, ma egli insisteva nel dire che il responsabile di quelle guarigioni era San Giuseppe. Per questo, nel 1904, ebbe l'iniziativa di costruire un santuario in suo onore.
Fr. Bessette iniziò a riunire un numero sempre più ampio di seguaci, ma la sua vita provocò anche alcune reazioni negative. Tra queste, quella del dottor Josep Charette, che ridicolizzava i suoi atteggiamenti. Un giorno sua moglie ebbe una forte emorragia nasale che non si riusciva a fermare in alcun modo. La donna chiese di essere portata dal religioso, ma il medico si rifiutò. “Dici che mi ami e saresti capace di farmi morire dissanguata?”, gli chiese la moglie. Charette andò da fr. André, che gli disse: “Dottore, torni a casa, l'emorragia si è fermata”, e così fu.
Nel 1924 culminò la costruzione dell'oratorio dedicato al Santo Custode. “Fr. André fu il costruttore non solo di un edificio di pietre, ma di una comunità cristiana vivente. Divenne un fattore unificante”, ha detto padre Lasciabell.
Fr. Bessette morì nel 1937. “Non ho mai portato a fr. André una persona malata senza che questa tornasse a casa felice. Alcuni venivano guariti, altri morivano tempo dopo, ma fr. André li consolava”, diceva uno dei suoi amici.
“Più di un milione di persone andò a rendergli omaggio anche se i suoi funerali si svolsero nel freddo invernale. E ancora oggi, più di due milioni e mezzo di pellegrini e visitatori arrivano ogni anno all'oratorio di San Giuseppe sul Mont Royal”, ha segnalato padre
Lasciabell.
“In un'epoca difficile per la Chiesa canadese, i credenti di questo Paese si rallegrano di constatare che Dio è tra loro e che questo manifesta segni inequivocabili della sua presenza”, ha concluso il vicepostulatore di fr. Bessette.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
In Honor of the Canonization of Brother Andre of Montreal
Canada's First Native-Born Male Saint
From Catholicism.com
In the city of Montreal, Province of Quebec, Canada, on a rise of earth known as Mount Royal, there stands a religious edifice of staggering proportions. It is three hundred and sixty-one feet high, taller than either Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York or the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. Its girth is so massive that it could hold within itself any one of most of the world’s great shrines, including Saint Anne de Beaupré and Saint Paul of London. The cross atop its domed roof can be seen for miles around, guiding the millions of pilgrims who come there each year. It is the Oratory of Saint Joseph, a worthy tribute to him who is the head of the Holy Family and the Patron of the Universal Church.
If one were to ask any Canadian for the name of the person who built this magnificent House of God, he would be told, “Brother André.” Yet, this little lay brother’s name does not appear on any of the official records of the building of the Oratory. He was only a porter — a doorman — at a college owned and operated by his religious congregation. He was a little man, both in size and, if one were to judge by appearance, in importance. He was not a priest; therefore he could neither offer Mass nor preach. Because of poor education, he did not know how to read or write until he reached the age of twenty-five.
How is it, then, that this little brother is known and venerated all over the world as the little saint who built the Oratory of Saint Joseph in Montreal? It is our privilege within the following pages to provide you an answer to that question.
The Early Years.
On August 9, 1845, Alfred Bessette was born to Isaac and Clothilde Bessette, the eighth in what would become a family of twelve children. The Bessettes were a poor French Canadian family who lived in the farming village of St. Gregoire, thirty miles from Montreal, and about the same distance from the border of the United States. Isaac and Clothilde were devout Catholics who, by their own example, taught their children the virtuous habits of prayer and hard work, habits which were to become for little Alfred the key to his ultimate sanctity as Brother André.
Alfred was born a very sick baby; so sick, in fact, that his father baptized him shortly after birth, fearing he would not survive. This lack of physical health and strength stayed with him throughout his entire life, yet he lived to the incredible age of ninety-one.
Recalling what he could of those early years, Brother André later told of how happy they were for him, of how great was his love for his parents, especially his mother, who had special affection for her frail child. But that happiness was soon tempered by tragedy. When he was six years old, his father was killed in a lumbering accident near the town of Farnham. Four years later, his mother, trying to raise twelve children single-handedly, contracted tuberculosis and was forced to put the children up for adoption. Keeping with her only the feeblest one, Alfred, she went to live with her sister, Mrs. Timothée Nadeau, in St. Cesaire. Two years later, in 1857, she died. Brother André later recalled, with great love and affection, her last days. Knowing her end was near, she summoned her children to her bedside and addressed them sweetly:
“My dear little ones, it has been six years since your papa left us to go to Heaven. The good God is coming to look for me in my turn. Pray for me. Do not forget the tomb of your father. My body will repose beside his in the cemetery at Farnham. From the height of Heaven I will watch over you.”
These parting words from his devout mother left a lasting impression on the frail youth. Years later, he would say of her, “I rarely pray for her, but very often I pray to her.”
Alfred was but twelve years old when his mother died. He was now an orphan, separated from his brothers and sisters. But the next ten years of his life would see the accelerated formation of a saint.
After the death of his mother, he remained with the Nadeau family. Timothée put him to work on the family farm, but, try as he may, little Alfred could not cope with strenuous farm labor. He simply did not have the physical stamina required to perform the chores asked of him. Then his uncle sent him to a cobbler to learn the shoemaking trade, but this didn’t work either. The poor lad was so clumsy that he was constantly pricking his fingers with the sharp cobbler’s awl. This scenario was repeated over and over again: He would take a job and work at it as hard as he could, but always his poor health made it impossible for him to continue. Here are Brother André’s own words describing these years of his life:
“I was never very strong. From the time when I was a little boy, ten years old, I have suffered from dyspepsia [indigestion]. It seems as if I was always sick from it. I have had it all during my life, and it still annoys me.
“When I was living with my uncle and was very young, I could not go to school much because I was always sick. Once I tried to become a shoemaker, but I could not stand bending over and being inside the place so much, and my health made me give it up. Then, after a little while, when I thought I was strong enough, I tried to become a baker, but again I found that my health would not let me do inside work. It seems that I was never very strong.”
So much for the physical deficiencies of little Alfred Bessette. Now let us tell of the one great strength which made this peasant weakling such an exceptional boy — his astonishing holiness.
Father André Provençal
During the canonical proceedings for his cause, Father Henri Bergeron, C.S.C., related a comment made to him by Brother André’s sister: “Ah, if you only knew my brother in his youth! On Sunday he passed the greater part of the afternoon in the church.”
We should not quickly pass over this statement without reflection. Sunday was probably the only day of the week on which the boy had no assigned chores. It was most likely the only time he had to play with other children in the village, but Alfred chose to stay in prayer for “the greater part of the afternoon.” This is truly heroic in a child.
It was during this time that he came into contact with the priest who proved to be the worthy spiritual tutor of a saint, Father André Provençal, the Curé of Saint Césaire. It was Father Provençal who instructed little Alfred for his first Holy Communion. It was Father Provençal who inspired devotion to Saint Joseph. And it was also this holy parish priest who put Brother André on that road which, for him, would end in perfection — the road to a religious vocation.
Even in his youth, Brother André practiced severe penances. His aunt, Madame Nadeau, several times had to take away instruments of mortification from the boy. A leather belt pierced with tacks and worn around the waist, an iron chain, and sleeping on the floor were all penances that his poor aunt had to forbid for fear of his health. Little Alfred never disobeyed; when he was told not to practice one penance, he simply adopted another. Some may think these penances were just childish excess which would fade away with maturity, but they continued throughout his lifetime, making him a truly mortified religious.
Penance is nothing without prayer, though. And here was the true sign of the lad’s holiness: He relished being united with God in prayer. His spare time was spent either in the presbytery of the parish, talking to Father Provençal, or in the church itself in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, absorbed in prayer for hours at a time. It was during these years that he started what was to be his lifelong habit — long, deep conversations with Saint Joseph. In his Epistle to the Philippians (3:20), Saint Paul said, “Our conversation is in Heaven.” For our little French Canadian pauper, these words were not a pious platitude, but a beautiful reality.
To the U.S. and Back
About the year 1863, when he was eighteen years old, he emigrated to the United States, thinking that the milder climate of New England and the opportunities for better employment would benefit his frail health. He settled in Connecticut and worked in various towns including Hartford, alternating higher paying, but more strenuous, factory labor with less difficult, lower paying, farm work. Not much is known about this period except that his vagabond existence never changed; it seemed he would always be a wanderer.
Many years later, Brother André related an incident from his laboring years: One day, while working in a field, he stopped momentarily to rest. As he leaned on his rake for support, he asked Saint Joseph where he would die. At that moment, he had not exactly a vision, but a vivid daydream in which he saw a large stone building with a cross on top. He had never seen this building before, but received a definite mental impression of its size, proportion, color and windows, all of which suggested a barracks. Years later, the vision was confirmed when he became the brother porter of that very building — the College of Notre Dame in Côte-des-Neiges.
Biographers have assumed that, since Brother André actually died in a hospital in Saint Laurent and not the College of Notre Dame, he misinterpreted his dream. But this is not so, for the word “death” can have many meanings, naturally as well as supernaturally. Just as in the case of the Old Testament Joseph, it was in the mystical sense that this dream was fulfilled. Alfred did die at the College of Notre Dame. When a priest stood over him and pronounced, “Alfred Bessette, henceforth thy name will be Brother André,” Alfred Bessette died, cloaked in the black pall of the religious habit, and Brother André, a religious of the of the Holy Cross Congregation was born.
We will discuss his religious vocation soon enough. For now, let us continue with his travels: After three years in the United States, the young wayfarer returned to his native country, still a vagabond and, by worldly standards, still a failure. But he came back weary of the world, for it had nothing to offer him but distractions from the things of God.
While in New England, his associates used to marvel at the fact that almost all of his spare time was spent in prayer. Little did they know that this was only the beginning, for Alfred wanted to give himself completely. Though as yet he had no plans for the religious life, he knew that he would have to take leave of worldly affairs to enter a greater union with his Beloved. It must have been a wondrous thing to see the pious young man begging for guidance, storming Heaven with petition after petition, and offering up his many trials and sufferings in an effort to discern what his true vocation was.
His prayers and supplications were answered. Not long after his return to Canada, Alfred went to see his spiritual Father with whom he had kept contact during his travels, Father Provençal. The same loving, paternal hand which guided Alfred to Saint Joseph while still a child, also brought him to his vocation. He didn’t have to take his little one far. Across the street from Father Provençal’s parish Church was a new building that had been built during the time Alfred was away from Saint Césaire. The building was a school where some eighty pupils were taught by six brothers, members of a fledgling religious congregation known as the Congregation of the Holy Cross. To fully appreciate the next phase of Brother André’s life, we must learn a little about this noble institution.
Congregation of the Holy Cross
The religious whom Alfred met were the spiritual children of two fathers.
In 1820, Father Jacques François Dujarie founded an association meant to provide sacristans and teachers for the parish priests of France. Such men were sorely needed, for the Masonic French Revolution had suppressed the religious orders in France, depriving the faithful of teachers and the parish priests of the assistance they needed from brothers and nuns. Many religious were martyred for the Faith during the Reign of Terror.
Father Dujarie was a parish priest in a village near Le Mans, France, and founded his association there. He called these men the Brothers of Saint Joseph. Fifteen years later, he put his brothers under the care of Canon Basile Moreau, who had just founded a group of priests called the Auxiliary Priests. Two years after that, in 1837, the Congregation of the Holy Cross was formed. In 1857, Venerable Pope Pius IX made Holy Cross an official Congregation of the Church.
Saint John Vianney, the Curé of Ars, said of the institute, “The Congregation of Holy Cross is destined after many trials, to perform great works.” Indeed the Congregation did perform many great works all over the world. Missionary work, teaching, and writing are all part of the Holy Cross apostolate. It is impossible to go to a theological library and not find several scholarly books written by Holy Cross priests and brothers. Many were great poets too. But they were best known for the Catholicity and academic excellence of their schools. In addition to countless high schools, the Congregation founded, and still operates, Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana. We do not know just what the particular work is that the Curé of Ars was referring to, but it is not too unlikely a guess that he meant the great work of Brother André. For, though this Order has accomplished much (the early days in Indiana are replete with edifying stories of astounding zeal and piety), its only candidate for canonization to date is Brother André.
In 1847, a small group of religious was sent to Canada to open a foundation in the diocese of Montreal. The group was led by a Holy Cross priest and included six brothers and two nuns. They came at the request of the bishop of Montreal, Bishop Bourget, who went to France to ask Father Moreau for their assistance. These pioneer religious founded a college in Saint Laurent, in the diocese of Montreal.
Acceptance and Profession
Alfred’s meeting with these brothers was an event of singular importance. He was impressed by them; their black habit with Roman collar, cincture and medal of Saint Joseph, their manly bearing and devotion all attracted him. Nevertheless, he was nervous. These men were educated; they ran a school — just the six of them — with eighty children. Alfred was still an illiterate. But Father Provençal soon relieved him of that worry, assuring his young friend there was a need in the order for janitors and manual laborers. His fears allayed, Alfred soon came fully to desire the life which he saw before him in these six men.
On the brothers’ part, however, there was reservation. Could this frail little one actually live up to the great rigor of religious life? Could he take the formation that they had all been through? Was his apparent piety enough to overcome such deficiencies? These were real concerns for the brothers, though they did not express them to the lad. They simply answered the questions Alfred asked about their rule, their history, and their devotion to the Holy Patriarch, Saint Joseph. Without discouraging him, they said nothing to indicate any desire that he join them.
Alfred was not at all put off by the brothers’ lack of enthusiasm. As was already his common practice, he sought Divine Assistance to overcome this challenge and prayed all the more. Then, in 1870, he made up his mind that, if they would have him, he would join the Congregation. They accepted him into the novitiate in Côte-des-Neiges, and he took the habit of the order. The novice master, Father Gastineau, gave him a great welcome. Perhaps he was expecting much of the new arrival, because before Brother André got to the novitiate, the novice master received a letter from Father Provençal which said, “I am sending a saint to your Congregation.”
Brother André was a good novice, well liked by his superiors and respected by the brothers. During the novitiate he progressed in the spiritual life under his spiritual director, Father Hupier, and in the religious life under his novice master, Father Gastineau. He also learned to read, a skill which he applied with great fervor to the Holy Scriptures and the Imitation of Christ, as well as to the lives of the saints. As part of the Holy Cross religious formation, novices were required to memorize the entire Sermon on the Mount. But Brother André didn’t stop there. In later years, he memorized the Passion of Our Lord as it is contained in each of the four Gospels, being able to recite the entire Passion word for word according to whichever Evangelist he wished. In addition to this, he had whole sections of many spiritual books memorized.
As it would happen, one area of his life which did not improve during the novitiate was Brother André’s miserable health. It was so bad that he was not allowed to make his temporary vows as a Holy Cross brother. There was even talk of dismissing him from the community. Naturally, this upset the frail little servant of God, who wanted to work out his salvation as a religious. Desperate to save his vocation, he took advantage of a visit by Bishop Bourget, the bishop of Montreal, to the college. Overcoming his timidity, the novice knocked on the door of the prelate’s room and, once admitted inside, threw himself at the feet of his Excellency. In tears, he explained the situation. Towards the end of the conversation, the young brother humbly declared, “My only ambition is to serve God in the most obscure tasks.” The bishop, having heard all he needed, said, “Don’t be afraid, child. You will be admitted to the religious profession.” He was true to his word; Brother André made his profession on August 22, 1872.
Our Lady’s Porter
His first assignment was as porter of the College of Notre-Dame-du-Sacré-Coeur in Côte-des-Neiges, the same college where he spent much of his novitiate. This was the position he held for nearly forty years. As is common in the lives of all of the saints — and, indeed, in the lives of all men — there was never a time when he was without crosses, some of them serious. His superior at the College, Father Louage, was not particularly impressed by Brother André and oftentimes disciplined him in what seemed to be an unfair manner. Because of this, Brother André was given the name “the lightning rod of the college” by the other religious, who said, “He receives the bolts of Father Louage.” In all of this, the pious religious persevered without the slightest protest, wishing to unite his sufferings to Christ’s instead of wasting them by complaining.
It was soon after his assignment at the college that those supernatural phenomena which marked the rest of his life started to happen.
Miracles
God, knowing that men do not think often enough of their final end, nor of Him, nor of the truths of religion, gives human nature external signs of His presence and the truth of His religion. Our Lord Himself, when the disciples of Saint John the Baptist approached him, asking if He were the Messias, said, Go and relate to John what you have heard and seen. The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead rise again, the poor have the gospel preached to them. Culminating with His own miraculously prolonged passion and His glorious Resurrection, Our Lord gave ample proof of His Divinity. In addition to His own miracles, He promised His Apostles that signs would follow their preaching. He was true to this promise: But they going forth preached every where: the Lord working withal, and confirming the word with signs that followed. (Mark 16:20) As is plain from Church History and the lives of the saints, the divine foundation of the Church was proved by miracles in every age.
Since Our Lord’s time, then, there have been sufficient — and oftentimes more than sufficient — extraordinary proofs for all to know the One True God and His One True Religion. And so, in this age of great intellectual pride, God manifests his mercy again to an unbelieving people to give them more than ample opportunity to save their souls.
As for Brother André, the public nature and frequency of the miracles he worked make them impossible to dispute. He cured many of the students at the college, so many that he developed a reputation as a great miracle worker.
One day, as the pious porter was scrubbing the floor in the parlor of the college, a lady came to see him, having heard of his reputation. She was so afflicted with rheumatism that she could only walk with the assistance of two men supporting her by holding each arm. Her request to Brother André was simple enough: “I am suffering from rheumatism. I want you to heal me.” Not looking up from the floor he was still busily scrubbing, Brother André said to the men assisting her, “Let her walk.” The woman walked out unassisted.
As the school’s doorkeeper, Frère André saluted and bid farewell to the many guests who came to the college. Having a keen interest in their spiritual welfare and a symphetic ear for their problems, the little doorman could often tell who was in need of his prayers or counsel. One day he noticed on the face of a guest — the father of a boarding student — a preoccupied, strained expression. When Brother André learned that the man was worried about his sick wife, he told him, “But she is not so sick as you think. At this very moment she became better.” The man was quite cynical, for he knew that his wife had been ill for many years. Yet upon arriving home, his wife greeted him at the door, perfectly healthy, in good spirits, and inquiring about the couple’s children. The man later learned, upon speaking with his wife’s nurse, that she had asked to be taken out of bed exactly when Brother André pronounced the words, “At this very moment, she became better.”
Father Henri-Paul Bergeron, a Holy Cross Priest who knew Frère André, gives an account in his book, The Wonder Man of Mount Royal, of an event that recalls some of those recorded in the Gospels:
“One day as he was going along Bienville Street in Montreal, a sick woman was brought to him. Immediately all of the sick of the neighborhood, children, men and women, were brought out until the whole street was filled with the sick and the infirm. Brother André attended to all with kindness, and his chauffeur. . . making his way through the crowd, remarked:
‘How wonderful; it is like a scene from the life of Our Lord: everyone rushed forth to beg for favors and cures.’
‘Perhaps so’ replied the Brother, ‘but God is surely making use of a very vile instrument.’”
On another occasion, when the porter was in the infirmary, he saw a student sick in bed. He told the boy, who had been ordered to rest by the school doctor, to get up. “You’re not sick, you lazy bones! Go and play with the others.” This the boy did, in perfect health and good cheer. The story of the incident soon spread around the college. Teachers, the doctor, students and parents alike marveled at the miracles wrought by the confident prayer of the young brother.
We say that the miracles were wrought by the prayers of the brother. Perhaps, if he were here, he would rebuke us for saying this. He never claimed that he worked a single miracle. In his humility he gave all the credit to Saint Joseph, in whose power Brother André had infinite confidence. In fact, any attempt to credit him with miracles brought a stern reprimand from the normally kind religious. One day a visitor said to him, “You are better than Saint Joseph. We pray to him and nothing happens, but when we come to see you we are cured.” The brother was so incensed at the slander of the Holy Patriarch that he screamed, “Get out of here. It is Saint Joseph who cured you, not I. Get out! Throw him out!” The incident shook the frail constitution of the holy man so much that he spent three days sick in bed.
If miracles are proof of the True God and His True Religion, then the miracle workers chosen by God are going to have enemies, just as God Himself did when He dwelt amongst us. It didn’t take long, then, for Brother André to acquire enemies of his own.
Many parents who sent their boys to the school were alarmed at the activities of its brother porter. Large numbers of sick were coming to the school where their children not only went to classes, but boarded as well. These pathetic masses — many of whom had contagious diseases — crowded about the train station across from the college. In their quest to see Frère André they constantly filed in and out of the very building where the students were housed. The just concerns of the parents, coupled with ill feelings (perhaps jealousy) of many at the college, spelled trouble for the porter. And worse yet, many physicians, whose hatred of religion was deposited upon the little man they styled a “fake healer,” added their venom to the rising fury. Soon Brother André had a mob of hostile enemies complaining to his superiors, the bishop, and even the public health officials.
The Bishop of Montreal — at this time, Bishop Bruchesi — dismissed the multitudes who came to complain to him. But this did not mean he was unconcerned. He scheduled an appointment with Brother André’s superiors, many of whom were not convinced of the divine origin of the miracles. During the meeting, the bishop asked whether Brother André would cease his activities if told under obedience. The reply came, “He would obey blindly.” To this the bishop said, ” Then let him alone. If this work is from God, it will live; if not, it will crumble away.”
Not only was the Bishop won over by the porter’s virtue; even the public health officials, who were forced to investigate the goings on at the college, came back from their meeting with him impressed at his common sense and stability. The enemies of Brother André failed, and Bishop Bruchesi’s statement was proven true: the work was from God and it did live.
The Oratory of Saint Joseph
In the midst of all of the excitement, the brother’s heart became fixed on one holy ambition: the erection in Montreal of a shrine to Saint Joseph.
Brother André was not the first to conceive such an idea. Years before, in 1855, the saintly Bishop Bourget had written in the decrees of the Second Plenary Council of Quebec:
St. Joseph, then, must have a church which will in a certain sense supply the service of all the others, and in which he may receive every day the public honors due to his eminent virtues . . . We wish to consecrate whatever is left to us of strength and life in the task of having him honored in such a church and of making that church a place of pilgrimage whither the faithful will come to visit him. . .
This is the same bishop whom we reported earlier saved Brother André’s vocation
nearly twenty years after writing these words. Perhaps he knew that the holy little novice who pleaded with him was the humble instrument through which the Patron of Canada would finally have a worthy shrine built. But even Bishop Bourget was not the first to express the desire that such a shrine be built. Father Moreau had dreamt of a place of pilgrimage to Saint Joseph in the very early years of the Holy Cross Congregation in France. He thought of using the novitiate at Charbonnière, near Le Mans, for such a site. Both men were dead and buried before the Oratory was started, but both had a hand in its foundation all the same.
The shrine was in the thoughts and prayers of the porter for quite some time before he dared ask permission to build such a thing. He let only a handful of privileged friends know of his holy aspiration. Every once in a while he would let out a stray remark impressing on the hearer the need for a chapel to Saint Joseph. Some of these occasions came with certain signs of the divine origin of the brother’s dream. One of his confreres told him of a strange phenomenon in his cell: It seemed that every time this religious put his statue of Saint Joseph facing his bed, he came back to find the statue turned around, facing the Mount Royal. Laughing, Frère André told his confrere, “It is not strange at all; it simply means that Saint Joseph wants to be honored on the mountain.”
Certainly Brother André wanted Saint Joseph honored on the mountain. In 1890, he took a young student with him on one of his regular Thursday meditation walks. Taking the student up to the mountainside across the street from the school, he told him, “I have hidden a medal of Saint Joseph here. We will pray that he will arrange the purchase of this land for us.” For six years he persevered in prayer for that intention, and in 1896, his prayers were rewarded. The Holy Cross Congregation purchased the land, fearing that such a prime piece of real estate would attract a club or resort which would be an unwholesome distraction so near the students. After the land was purchased, Brother André put a statue of Saint Joseph in a little cave on his chosen site. Placing a bowl in front of the statue, he planned on collecting alms from Saint Joseph’s petitioners, alms which would be used to build a chapel.
The building of the shrine was a complex thing. It would be a distraction in this short biography to go into all of the details of what was completed and when. Indeed, at times the biographies of the Blessed read more like architectural manuals than the life of a saint. This is because the life of the little brother was so intimately connected with the building of this shrine that one cannot be discussed without the other. To put it simply, what started out as a fifteen-by eighteen foot chapel in 1904 became a minor basilica in 1955, and was completed — interior and all — in 1966. In his lifetime, the shrine became big enough to warrant having a full-time guardian, a job to which Brother André was appointed in 1909. For the present, however, we would rather discuss the life of the holy builder than the building itself.
From the moment that he conceived the idea to the day he died, the Oratory of Saint Joseph was a sacred task which Blessed André pursued with burning zeal. Everything that he could do in the confines of religious obedience to make the shrine a reality, he did immediately.
In his days as porter in the college, he also became the school’s barber, a position which gave him opportunity to give holy counsel to the boys. When the students paid him the small fee for their haircuts, Brother André would set the money aside for the shrine.
Miracles in the U.S.A.
The determination that our brother had to build the shrine to Saint Joseph took him well beyond the confines of Montreal to find the money needed for the project. He toured many cities in the United States and Canada in this holy pursuit. Many of the French-Canadian towns around Boston, including the industrial cities of Lowell and Fitchburg, were on his itinerary. In these forays, he made the rounds of factories to beg contributions from their workers.
Even today can be found residents of these areas who vividly recall the visits of the saint. A religious in our own order once met such a privileged resident, who related the story of a young couple with an infant diagnosed as having a brain tumor. Upon learning of the child’s malady, Blessed André took the baby into his arms, gently rubbing the afflicted infant’s head. The moving scene of the aged Brother caressing the infirm baby was more than just a tender moment; the child, it was later discovered, was completely cured.
Another episode in his American travels saw the conversion of a young non-Catholic named Henry Paine. Mr. Paine had pierced his hand with ice tongs and it was so infected that the doctors talked of amputating the affected member. The young man promised his Canadian visitor that that he would convert if he was healed. At the touch of Frère André’s hand, the pain left. Almost immediately, the hand was completely cured. Mr.Paine kept his promise: he did indeed convert; and soon after, he married a Catholic young lady.
The miracles wrought at the Oratory were many and spectacular. Still there were critics. Many cynics doubted the efficacy of St. Joseph’s oil, medals and novenas for healing bodily illnesses. Others took the cures for granted, thinking that it was the good work of the kindly brother, who, like any other humanitarian, had no other aim in mind than taking away people’s suffering. But for Blessed André, the working of miracles had one end and one end only: Faith.
Zeal for Souls
Many of the people who sought cures from Frère André were good Catholics; but others were heretics and unbelievers of all kinds. One of the witnesses at his cause for beatification said, “As to heretics, schismatics and also unbelievers, Brother André treated them with more kindness and sympathy than the Catholics. He wanted to gain the confidence of such people. When the right time came he talked to them of the goodness of God and of religion. . . He profited by the visits of Protestants and unbelievers to slide in a good word to them, an evangelical word.”
It was by this kind of work that the guardian of the Oratory wrought thousands of conversions, many among lapsed and lukewarm Catholics, but also among Protestants, Freemasons and Jews. Brother André looked upon the humility of the non-Catholic, in coming to a Catholic brother for a cure, as the beginning of faith. In this he was imitating Our Lord Himself. When the father of the possessed boy in Saint Mark’s Gospel begged for a cure, Jesus told him that all things were possible to those who had faith. And immediately the father of the boy crying out, with tears said: I do believe, Lord. Help my unbelief. Like Our Lord, Blessed André took every opportunity to give the gift of faith to the unbeliever. About this, the Blessed said, “Those who are cured quickly often are people who have no faith or little faith. On the other hand, those who have solid faith are not cured so quickly, for the good God prefers to allow them to suffer that they will be sanctified even more.”
Devotional Life
In early life, our diminutive porter acquired the habit of frequent, long, and devout prayer. As he advanced in years, this habit never waned. During the daytime, which he typically spent cleaning and doing other chores, Frère André received many visitors. At night he frequently visited hospitals, oftentimes returning with crutches to add to the growing collection in the Oratory. After such a day, he would spend much of the night in prayer. One of his intimates said about this, “Frequently, after his sick calls, he invited me to sleep in his cell over the primitive chapel. More than once I struggled against sleep in order to watch him. Towards morning I fell asleep while he remained in prayer. When I awoke, about five o’clock, I often noticed his bed had not been touched.”
Though he is known for his tremendous devotion to Saint Joseph, all those who knew him said that Blessed André’s central devotion was to the Passion of Our Lord. Many times, he would turn a worldly conversation into an emotional narration of Our Lord’s sufferings, often bringing those present, including himself, to tears. Because of this devotion, the good brother led Friday Stations of the Cross every week at the Oratory, hoping one day to construct a large set of stations around the Basilica’s exterior.
His devotion to Our Lady was quite conspicuous too. Logically, with such a love of the Passion, he often invoked Mary as Our Lady of Sorrows, the title under which she is the Patroness of the Holy Cross Congregation. Frequently he walked around with Our Lady’s Rosary in his hand; and in visiting the sick or raising funds for the Oratory, he would take advantage of the car ride to recite not one but several Rosaries. In his simplicity, he spoke of the Virgin as a child would: “If you consider all the saints, you will see that all of them had a devotion to the Blessed Virgin; Her intercession is most powerful, she is the Mother of God and the Mother of men.”
The piety that he had toward the Patron of the Universal Church was simple and childlike too: “When you invoke Saint Joseph, you don’t have to speak much. You know your Father in heaven knows what you need; well, so does His friend Saint Joseph.” “Tell him, ‘If you were in my place, Saint Joseph, what would you do? Well, pray for this in my behalf.’” To the people who came to him with their troubles — and thousands did — the friend of Saint Joseph recommended the use of sacramentals, like Saint Joseph’s oil or a Saint Joseph medal. Most of all, he recommended persevering and confident prayer, usually prescribing a novena to his powerful benefactor.
A typical example of the favors wrought through the intercession of Saint Joseph is this one: A girl at a convent school not far from Quebec was severely injured when another child struck her in the right eye with an oar. The doctors tried to save the eye, but paralysis of the optic nerve set in, causing the girl to lose her sight. The sisters at the school had heard of the cures at the Oratory and procured a medal of Saint Joseph which had been blessed there. They decided to make a novena. For nine days, all the Sisters and students received Holy Communion and prayed to the foster-father of Jesus, applying the medal to the child’s eye. There was no progress at all during the course of the novena, but they remained confident. On the ninth day, after everyone had received Holy Communion, the child opened her eye to see the chapel’s statue of Blessed Joseph. Before the cure, the seriousness and permanence of the damage had been verified in writing by two competent ophthalmologists. Later, these two declared that the eye was perfectly cured, with no trace of injury. Neither could explain the cure.
Though Brother André was given the grace to heal others, he was constantly sick himself. He suffered from stomach illness all of his life. As a result, he could eat little more than a mixture of flour and watered-down milk, or sometimes bread soaked in the same. To him, these sufferings were an opportunity for reaching greater sanctity. As we shall see, his final sickness provided him with many such opportunities. When asked if he was in great pain, he said, “Indeed I am, but I thank God for giving me the grace to suffer; I need it so much!”
The Death of a Saint
In the ninety-first year of a life dedicated to Jesus, Mary and Joseph, the miracle man sensed his imminent departure from this vale of tears. Late in 1936, he told one of the priests in his order that Christmas of that year would be his last in this life. Once, when he passed the tiny hospital of Saint-Laurent, he commented, “What a fine place for patients to prepare for death.” At 8:30 in the evening of December 31, the wonder worker who cured so many was himself admitted to that very hospital for what the physician thought was a mild heart attack, but was later diagnosed as acute gastritis.
He spent his dying days as he had spent his whole life, unconcerned with his own sufferings — which were great, considering that he refused any pain medication — and constantly praying for others. He offered up his prayers and mortifications for Catholic Spain, then being torn asunder by civil war, prior to General Franco’s defeat of the Communists. He also prayed for the Holy Father, Pope Pius XI, who was sick and near to death. With friends at the side of his own deathbed telling him how much he was still needed, the good brother said, “There is one who is far more necessary than Brother André in this world: that is the Pope. If the Holy Father passed away, it would be disaster; he still has much to accomplish.”
The Pontiff lived for two more years, years in which he did accomplish much, addressing problems all over the globe: the Germans losing their faith to Nazism, the Mexicans being oppressed by an evil Masonic government, and the even more horrible menace of Communism. On March 19, 1937 — the Feast of Saint Joseph — the Holy Pontiff published Divini Redemptoris, an encyclical letter condemning Communism. As if in gratitude for his own recovery and with great confidence in the mighty Patriarch, towards the end of the encylical Pius wrote,
. . .We place the vast campaign of the Church against world Communism under the standard of Saint Joseph, her mighty Protector.
Like Our Blessed Lord on the Cross, his faithful imitator spoke many words of piety and holy resignation to God’s will during his final agony: “My God how I suffer. . . Heaven is so beautiful that it is worth all the trouble with which one prepares for it.. . . How good God is. . . How beautiful. . . How powerful. . . Mary, Sweet mother, mother of my sweet Savior, be merciful to me and help me . . . Saint Joseph. . . “
The name of his holy patron was the last intelligible word issued from the holy lips of Blessed André.
Immortality
So Brother André died as he had lived, suffering heroically, praying fervently, and even working great cures. The purely spiritual mission of his life became more evident when, during the exposition of his body — which lasted a week — confessionals were filled with repentant sinners who had been away from God’s grace too long. Not only at the Oratory, but all over Montreal sinners were returning to God in great numbers as more than one million people streamed past his poor little coffin. Some of these people had been sworn enemies who had spurned the miracle worker as a fake, having dubbed him, “the old fool on the mountain.” The “old fool’s” prayers very well may have saved many of these from an eternity without God, just as they may have saved Canada from the clutches of Communism.
Today, the mortal remains of Blessed Brother André lie in a black marble sepulcher in the back of the Oratory, the shrine he dedicated his life to erecting for Saint Joseph. In front of the Basilica towers a statue of Saint Joseph holding the Child Jesus. The millions who file past it every year see on its stone pedestal the words which the saintly old guardian calls out from heaven:
ITE AD JOSEPH — GO TO JOSEPH!
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Canada Celebrates Baptism of Mi'kmaq Chief
Aboriginal Nation Celebrates 400 Years as Christians
CHAPEL ISLAND, Nova Scotia, JULY 26, 2010 - This year's annual Chapel Island pilgrimage in honor of St. Anne holds special significance due to the 400th anniversary of the baptism of indigenous chief who started the tradition.
Grand Chief Henri Membertou of the Mi'kmaq nation was baptized June 24, 1610, by French Father Jessé Fléché. Another 20 members of the indigenous leader's family were also baptized, and within 50 years the entire nation was Christian.
The chief, who was the first aboriginal in North America to become Christian, led the Mi'kmaq people in the choice of St. Anne as their patron.
The people began to celebrate St. Anne's Day at the end of July, close to her feast, which is marked today.
The Mi'kmaq started an annual pilgrimage to St. Anne's Mission on Chapel Island, marking the event with a procession, Mass, and feasting.
This year's St. Anne's Day, which will be held on Sunday, holds special significance for that nation, as it also marks the 4th centenary of the baptism of its first Christian leader.
In recognition of this event, Benedict XVI named Cardinal Marc Ouellet, former archbishop of Quebec, Canada, as his special envoy to Sunday's celebration on Chapel Island.
Today the Vatican publicized the appointment letter from the Pope, in which the Pontiff expressed the hope that all who participate in this celebration would find their faith strengthened.
The Holy Father sent his apostolic blessing to all participants.
Mass and powwow
Though Sunday will mark a special event, in reality the people of that region have been celebrating this anniversary for the past month.
On June 24, the actual anniversary date of the baptism, a celebration was held in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia.
A Mass was celebrated by Archbishop Martin Currie of St. John's, Newfoundland, along with Archbishop Pedro López Quintana, apostolic nuncio to Canada, and Bishop Brian Dunn of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, and other prelates.
The baptism of Membertou and his family was reenacted. Afterward, a powwow was held in Halifax Common, Halifax, which became the largest ever held in that region.
On Sunday, the Mi'kmaq people of Lennox Island, Prince Edward Island, held their own celebration, which was attended by the consul general of France in Canada, Gilles Courregelongue, and the French cultural attaché to Canada, Anne-Cecile Grunenwald.
A Mass was celebrated by Bishop Richard Grecco of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. Sunday's celebration was preceded by another powwow, which tied in dancing and other cultural expressions of the people.
Archbishop Terrence Prendergast of Ottawa, Ontario, who previously served as archbishop of Halifax, told the Canadian Catholic Register that the Catholics of the East Coast owe a debt of gratitude to the Mi'kmaq nation.
He explained that in the mid 18th century, French Catholics were being deported from that region by the British army. Yet in 1752, the Holy See signed a treaty with the British to allow for a French priest to enter that region to care for the Mi'kmaq.
"And so when the priest came to minister to the Mi'kmaq," the archbishop explained, "he also came to minister to [other Catholics], rather clandestinely, but nonetheless he gave them the opportunity when he was in the area."
The prelate affirmed that the people of that region had access to the sacraments due to the treaty with the Mi'kmaq people, which helped the Church to survive in that region.
CHAPEL ISLAND, Nova Scotia, JULY 26, 2010 - This year's annual Chapel Island pilgrimage in honor of St. Anne holds special significance due to the 400th anniversary of the baptism of indigenous chief who started the tradition.
Grand Chief Henri Membertou of the Mi'kmaq nation was baptized June 24, 1610, by French Father Jessé Fléché. Another 20 members of the indigenous leader's family were also baptized, and within 50 years the entire nation was Christian.
The chief, who was the first aboriginal in North America to become Christian, led the Mi'kmaq people in the choice of St. Anne as their patron.
The people began to celebrate St. Anne's Day at the end of July, close to her feast, which is marked today.
The Mi'kmaq started an annual pilgrimage to St. Anne's Mission on Chapel Island, marking the event with a procession, Mass, and feasting.
This year's St. Anne's Day, which will be held on Sunday, holds special significance for that nation, as it also marks the 4th centenary of the baptism of its first Christian leader.
In recognition of this event, Benedict XVI named Cardinal Marc Ouellet, former archbishop of Quebec, Canada, as his special envoy to Sunday's celebration on Chapel Island.
Today the Vatican publicized the appointment letter from the Pope, in which the Pontiff expressed the hope that all who participate in this celebration would find their faith strengthened.
The Holy Father sent his apostolic blessing to all participants.
Mass and powwow
Though Sunday will mark a special event, in reality the people of that region have been celebrating this anniversary for the past month.
On June 24, the actual anniversary date of the baptism, a celebration was held in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia.
A Mass was celebrated by Archbishop Martin Currie of St. John's, Newfoundland, along with Archbishop Pedro López Quintana, apostolic nuncio to Canada, and Bishop Brian Dunn of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, and other prelates.
The baptism of Membertou and his family was reenacted. Afterward, a powwow was held in Halifax Common, Halifax, which became the largest ever held in that region.
On Sunday, the Mi'kmaq people of Lennox Island, Prince Edward Island, held their own celebration, which was attended by the consul general of France in Canada, Gilles Courregelongue, and the French cultural attaché to Canada, Anne-Cecile Grunenwald.
A Mass was celebrated by Bishop Richard Grecco of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. Sunday's celebration was preceded by another powwow, which tied in dancing and other cultural expressions of the people.
Archbishop Terrence Prendergast of Ottawa, Ontario, who previously served as archbishop of Halifax, told the Canadian Catholic Register that the Catholics of the East Coast owe a debt of gratitude to the Mi'kmaq nation.
He explained that in the mid 18th century, French Catholics were being deported from that region by the British army. Yet in 1752, the Holy See signed a treaty with the British to allow for a French priest to enter that region to care for the Mi'kmaq.
"And so when the priest came to minister to the Mi'kmaq," the archbishop explained, "he also came to minister to [other Catholics], rather clandestinely, but nonetheless he gave them the opportunity when he was in the area."
The prelate affirmed that the people of that region had access to the sacraments due to the treaty with the Mi'kmaq people, which helped the Church to survive in that region.
Friday, May 14, 2010
NEW CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS SITE IS NOW ONLINE
Ottawa – May 14, 2010 - In his message for the 44th World Communications Day, Pope Benedict XVI invited priests to “make astute use of the unique possibilities offered by modern communications.” The Bishops of Canada have answered the call.
Today, Most Reverend Pierre Morissette, President of the Canadian Conference of Catholics Bishops (CCCB) unveiled the new and improved CCCB web site.
“The revamped site still contains all of the information everyone has come to expect to find on www.ccb.ca,” said the President “but with a sleek, dynamic new look, functional and user-friendly interface and many additional features such as a Bishop’s Blog, article sharing over Facebook and more.”
Fourteen years ago, recognizing the growing potential of the Internet, the CCCB launched its web site. It was the first Bishops Conference ever to do so. Since then, however, the Web has evolved to the point where simply being online is no longer enough.
In the words of the Holy Father, “the increased availability of the new technologies demands greater responsibility on the part of those called to proclaim the Word, but it also requires them to become more focused, efficient and compelling in their efforts.”
“Teach - Govern - Sanctify”, the role of the Bishop, was selected as the tagline. The new site will better assist the Bishops in their mission of service to the Church in Canada. In their new blog, Canada’s Bishops will provide a first-person account of how this role is fulfilled here today and in just a few clicks, visitors will discover who their Bishops are and what they do.
Today, Most Reverend Pierre Morissette, President of the Canadian Conference of Catholics Bishops (CCCB) unveiled the new and improved CCCB web site.
“The revamped site still contains all of the information everyone has come to expect to find on www.ccb.ca,” said the President “but with a sleek, dynamic new look, functional and user-friendly interface and many additional features such as a Bishop’s Blog, article sharing over Facebook and more.”
Fourteen years ago, recognizing the growing potential of the Internet, the CCCB launched its web site. It was the first Bishops Conference ever to do so. Since then, however, the Web has evolved to the point where simply being online is no longer enough.
In the words of the Holy Father, “the increased availability of the new technologies demands greater responsibility on the part of those called to proclaim the Word, but it also requires them to become more focused, efficient and compelling in their efforts.”
“Teach - Govern - Sanctify”, the role of the Bishop, was selected as the tagline. The new site will better assist the Bishops in their mission of service to the Church in Canada. In their new blog, Canada’s Bishops will provide a first-person account of how this role is fulfilled here today and in just a few clicks, visitors will discover who their Bishops are and what they do.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Archbishop Speaks on Aquinas and Universities
"We Must Reaffirm the Passion for Truth That Animated St. Thomas"
- Here is a compilation of excerpts from a Jan. 28 public lecture given by Archbishop Michael Miller of Vancouver, British Columbia, at the University of St. Thomas in Houston. The lecture was published April 14 by L'Osservatore Romano.
* * *
The Church's "Common Doctor:" Aquinas and the Contemporary Catholic University
St Thomas himself never put his mind to worrying about how to think about a Catholic university of his time or any other. His writings never touch upon matters of faculty, students or curriculum as they concern us today. Yet he does propose specific views about the acquisition of knowledge about truth and the relationship of faith and reason which are, I believe, of permanent value to understanding how the contemporary Catholic university should carry out its teaching and research.
After a look at the study of Thomism in centers of higher education universities and seminaries following the revival initiated by Pope Leo XIII, what I suggest in this lecture are several reasons why St Thomas is rightly called "a light for the Church and the whole world", above all the world of the Catholic Academy at the dawn of this Third Christian Millennium.
Second Vatican Council: Apex and Decline
Following the long tradition according official approval to Thomas' teaching, which the Church used so widely and successfully "as an instrument superbly adapted to her purposes, thus casting the mantle of her own magisterial authority over Aquinas", the Second Vatican Council followed suit. It highly praised Thomas, whose thought had prepared for it in so many ways.
The Decree on Priestly Formation, for example, recommended that seminarians be taught according to "that philosophical heritage which is perennially valid". Moreover, their dogmatic theology should be taught so as to illumine the mysteries of salvation as completely as possible, and seminarians "should learn to penetrate them more deeply with the help of speculation, under the guidance of St Thomas, and to perceive their interconnections".
In like fashion, the Declaration on Christian Education praised Aquinas' teaching for showing how faith and science can work in harmony in Catholic colleges and universities. For the first time an ecumenical council recommended an individual theologian for study, and they gave that honor to St Thomas, even though the Fathers themselves made less use of him in their final documents than in those previously prepared for their deliberations.
Ironically, right around the same time as the Council, a decline what some have called a "collapse" in the study of St Thomas was taking place. Several reasons for this slow falling into neglect can be suggested. First, the renewal of biblical scholarship prompted by Pius XII's Divino Afflante Spiritu, published in 1943, introduced scriptural themes and categories more directly into theology, thereby making Thomas seem outdated. This was accompanied by a more general ressourcement among theologians, a return to the study of the Church Fathers, thereby bypassing the Scholastics, including Aquinas, in favor of the tradition of a presumed earlier golden age. At the same time, creating an almost perfect storm, a third movement was in the wind, one which, even if not intending to do so, undercut the privileged place of Thomism, especially in seminaries. Aidan Nichols comments on this new emphasis that emerged: theology itself should be preachable; that is, it should be readily and immediately able to be "translated" into a Sunday homily relevant to contemporary situations. In achieving this purpose Aquinas was held to be no help; he was insufficiently biblical, excessively philosophical and too complicated. Some blame for the hasty exit of St Thomas from the Academy should also be placed on what Nichols calls "the off-putting mode of the pedagogical and literary presentation in which Thomism was often cast.... [I]ts communication in many seminaries and Catholic philosophy faculties appears to have become dessicated and ahistorical". Pius xi's admonition to "go to Thomas" was insufficiently observed. A dry summary of certain theses replaced the texts of the Master himself.
Despite this evident decline in the study of Aquinas, in 1974, Paul VI rather surprisingly expressed his delight in what he optimistically called "the extraordinary, even if unforeseen, "return' of St Thomas, which has confirmed the wisdom of the supreme Magisterium in declaring him to be the authoritative, irreplaceable guide in philosophy and theology". For his part, John Paul II hoped that the Council's encouragement, together his own particular blend of Thomism and phenomenology, would give a new impetus to the Church's intellectual apostolate. To be sure, John Paul did not propose that Thomism was the Church's only philosophy, as had Leo xiii, who had affirmed that "insistence upon the thought of the Angelic Doctor" is "the best way to recover the practice of a philosophy consonant with faith". Rather, John Paul allows for a plurality of philosophical systems, with the caveat that to be acceptable they must share Aquinas' metaphysical realism, including his position on the natural knowability of the existence of God. Certainly Thomas is a "model" for the philosopher. Nevertheless, the Pope adds, despite the high praise owed to Thomas, "the Church has no philosophy of her own nor does she canonize any one particular philosophy in preference to others".
As for theology, John Paul lauds St Thomas as "a model of the right way to do theology", adding that "the Magisterium has repeatedly acclaimed the merits of Saint Thomas' thought and made him the guide and model for theological studies".
Doctor Veritatis: Relativism and the Crisis of Truth
Much can be said about the intellectual malaise, the so-called "weak thought" of our contemporaries. Probably there is no single cause for the corruption of the modern mind. But I would submit that a good place to begin finding a cause is the penetrating analysis of Pope Benedict.
According to the Holy Father, among the major challenges to the Church of the 21st century, and one which presents "a particularly insidious obstacle in the task of educating", is the massive presence of relativism in society and in the halls of the Academy. The central problem of our system higher education is not its failure to provide strong intellectual and marketable skills, which it can do well enough, but its premise that reality does not exist independently of the human mind and cannot be known with any certainty. In this way, even if not intentionally, far too many colleges and universities stifle the students' natural desire to know, and to know the truth. This entices them to avoid the humanities and liberal arts and take refuge in the professional and practical arts alone, with their expected financial rewards.
Another consequence of this underlying assumption and one even more serious is that, even if a person practices his or her faith, such faith has nothing to do with truth; hence, nothing to do with the core purpose of a university; that is, teaching and research. In situations where what makes a university "Catholic" is not the content of what is taught in other words, the curriculum - but only the laudable concern for the "whole student", then its intellectual foundation has been weakened, perhaps beyond repair. Important as student life is to expressing one's faith, it can never replace the curriculum as the principal locus of genuine catholicity in the world of higher education.
All too often relativism and privatized faith are not only the academic's creed, but also that of the person on the street. Indeed, relativism has become a secular dogma and "it is considered dangerous and "authoritarian' to speak of truth". A "dictatorship of relativism" prevails in the now famous phrase from Cardinal Ratzinger's homily before he was elected Pope.
In fact, in many universities, seeking truth is considered a hopelessly impossible, even naive, undertaking. Academics are suspicious, if not hostile, to any claim to know the truth. They often suffer from "the widespread conviction that the possibility of attaining truth is an illusion of traditional metaphysics", accepting as true only what can be experienced.
In the university world skepticism reigns about truth: nothing is definitive except in the empirically verifiable scientific realm. If this University is going to fulfill its mission in the Church as a community of teachers and learners, its curriculum is going to have to meet this crisis of truth head-on. It can do so by arguing convincingly, with passion and respect, that the truth can be pursued and, to a limited but real extent, attained by the human mind and communicated to others. Such a service to the truth is the intellectual foundation of every Catholic university. Today we must reaffirm the "the "passion for truth" that animated St Thomas in order to harness the intellectual forces necessary for the development of a future of authentic human flourishing. Failure to engage this quest leads a scholarly community to see itself merely as an educational provider, trapped in a hall of mirrors of endless choices without focus or purpose. Consequently, as Ralph McInerny has noted in typical pithy fashion, "The main reason to read Thomas is to learn things that are true".
Catholic universities can imitate today what Aquinas did in the thirteenth century by imbuing their curricula with the desire to search freely "the whole truth about nature, man and God". Although his serene openness alarmed not a few of his contemporaries, he searched for truth diligently and lovingly among pre-Christian and non-Christian philosophers, willing to engage in intellectual dialogue with all wise teachers. Thomas showed great liberty of spirit and intellectual honest in dealing with new questions and by not rejecting secularist philosophies a priori and without examination.
Aquinas was ever alert to the truth buried in the opinion of others: "There is no false teaching which does not have some truth admixed in it", he affirmed. John Paul ii observed that for Thomas "this presence of truth even if it be incomplete and imperfect and at times distorted is a bridge uniting every man to other men and makes understanding possible when there is good will".
Whence the source of the Saint's conviction? In his unrelenting search for the good and the true, Thomas recognized that the Holy Spirit was already at work, opening the human heart and making it ready to welcome the truth of the Gospel. In a celebrated phrase he states: "any truth, no matter by whom it is spoken, is from the Holy Spirit". The action of the Spirit creates an affinity for the truth and draws the human heart towards it; he helps human knowledge mature in wisdom and in trusting abandonment to what is true. Just as he succeeded in establishing a fruitful confrontation with the Arab and Hebrew thought of his time, treating them respectfully but refusing to let himself be overawed by their authority, so must scholars and students in a Catholic university, with a similar grace bequeathed by the Holy Spirit, be free to examine the truth wherever it may be found.
Pope Paul VI sums up this attitude of Thomas to all the great masters of human thought, an attitude which might well undergird every university which strives to preserve, hand on and enrich the Catholic intellectual, moral and artistic tradition. First, he began with great admiration for the intellectual patrimony of other traditions. Second, he recognized the value and significance but also the limitations of each thinker. Finally, he was compassionate towards those who, like the philosophers of antiquity, lacked the light of faith. The Holy Father then speculated on how Thomas would confront contemporary questions:
"We are convinced that were he among us today he would be no less eager to investigate the forces that are bringing about changes in man, his conditions, his manner of thinking and his way of life. Whatever would help him now to speak of God more worthily and persuasively than ever before would be in his eyes a cause for rejoicing. Yet in all this he would never lose that serene, magnanimous sense of security which faith alone can bestow on the human mind".
The Angelic Doctor is a marvelous example of Christian scholars open to the signs of the times shaping their age and yet remaining faithful to the path marked out by faith, tradition and the Church's teaching. What a lesson this is for civilized and respectful scholarly interchange in the Academy!
Doctor Concordiae: Harmony of Faith and Reason
Besides being, par excellence, the Doctor Veritatis, Thomas is also the Doctor Concordiae; that is, he is the pre-eminent teacher of the harmony between faith and reason, the "two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth".
In addressing the University community at Leuven in 1985, Pope John Paul II affirmed: "The whole living tradition of the Church teaches us this: faith seeks understanding, and understanding seeks faith. Both the need to understand and the need to believe are deeply rooted in man's heart. It is for this reason that the Church herself was the point of departure for the creation of universities". Nonetheless, a particular challenge faces universities today in that many would detach faith from reason, and reason from faith. This challenge can be met if teachers and learners take the Angelic Doctor as their master. "With his charism as a philosopher and theologian", says Pope Benedict, "he [Thomas] offered an effective model of harmony between reason and faith, dimensions of the human spirit that are completely fulfilled in the encounter and dialogue with one another".
For Aquinas, then, faith and reason should be neither separated nor placed in competition; rather, they go hand in hand. "Both the light of reason and the light of faith come from God, he [Thomas] argued; hence there can be no contradiction between them".
On the relationship St Thomas is truly enlightening. Commenting on this, Pope John Paul II has said:
"Philosophical and theological truth converge into a single truth. The truth of reason ascends from creatures to God; the truth of faith descends directly from God to man. But this diversity of method and origin does not detract from their fundamental unity, because there is a single identical Author of truth manifested through creation, and truth communicated personally to man by means of His Word. Philosophical research and theological research are two different directions of movement of a single truth, destined to meet, but not collide, on the same road, in order to help each other. Thus reason, illuminated, strengthened and guaranteed by faith, becomes a faithful companion of faith itself and faith immensely widens the limited horizon of human reason".
Pope Benedict reaffirms his predecessors' views that Aquinas offers "an effective model of harmony between reason and faith, dimensions of the human spirit that are completely fulfilled in the encounter and dialogue with one another". Indeed, "an intellectual "culture' which is genuinely Catholic", must be "confident in the profound harmony of faith and reason". The Holy Father affirms that "a natural friendship exists between faith and reason, founded in the order of Creation itself". The synergy between the two is the linchpin of Benedict's thought. At the origin of the Christian faith there is not only the Jerusalem of the theologians but also the Athens of the philosophers.
In dealing with the harmony between faith and reason developed so exquisitely by Aquinas, the Holy Father leaves no doubt about the Christological center of this vision. For Thomas, he writes, "the definitive fulfilment of every authentic human aspiration rests in Jesus Christ". But it was the genius of Aquinas to have highlighted the autonomy of philosophy, and with it the laws proper to reason. He gave a new emphasis to the specific responsibility of reason, which was not to be absorbed by faith. According to Thomas, Christianity was obliged to argue the case for its own reasonableness.
Drawing, then, on St Thomas, Pope Benedict is convinced that it is urgent for contemporary thinkers "to rediscover anew human rationality open to the light of the divine Logos and his perfect revelation which is Jesus Christ, Son of God made man". Nor does exhort only scholars. In countless homilies and discourses he cites St Peter's injunction to every Christian: "Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you" (1 Pet 3: 15). It is the Christian faith which safeguards reason in the modern world. Indeed, faith liberates reason from its own limitations. God has revealed himself as creative Reason and, precisely as the Logos, has acted and continues to act lovingly on our behalf. "In the beginning was the Word", the Logos, and "the Word became flesh" (Jn 1: 1, 14). The divine Logos is thus the origin of the universe, and this same Logos was united once and for all with humanity, the world and history, in Christ. Moreover, this Reason is not a mathematics of the universe nor a first cause that withdrew after producing the Big Bang. Rather, it has "a heart such as to be able to renounce its own immensity and take flesh".
The Holy Father addresses directly the consequence for higher education of holding to such an understanding of reason. In his first major address to academics he affirmed: "This then is the great challenge to Catholic universities: to impart knowledge in the perspective of true rationality, different from that of today which largely prevails, in accordance with a reason open to the question of the truth and to the great values inscribed in being itself, hence, open to the transcendent, to God".
Because God is Reason, our faith has something that has to do with reason; it can be passed on through it and has no cause to hide from it. Whenever faith in God separates itself from its rational foundation, such a faith is put at risk.
Without the light of faith, however, human reason cannot find sure and fulfilling answers to today's many urgent problems. Catholic universities, if they are to remain true to the intellectual tradition which has shaped them from their beginning, are called to bear witness not only to the dignity of human reason and its capacity for knowing reality but also to the role played by faith in learning. Our universities are broader, not narrower, in their outlook, since the study of divine revelation opens up a whole area of reality beyond the reach of reason left to its own natural resources. As Fr Victor Brezik once reminded us, "the combination of the world of revealed knowledge with the world of rational knowledge gives the Catholic university a much more challenging horizon of study".
The Mall without the Chapel would be incomplete; and the Chapel without the Mall would be in exile. What we are blessed to have at UST is an architectural embodiment of a sound Thomism. The Catholic sacramental imagination demanded the completion of the Academic Mall crowned by the Chapel and we are forever grateful to Dr Joe McFadden for that. Moreover, that the Chapel bespeak a certain prominence for faith is also necessary. When the study of the world guided by reason and faith is taken seriously, a certain hierarchy of importance emerges. That is why theology and philosophy have long been accorded a kind of primi inter pares status in the University's curriculum.
Furthermore, fidelity to Thomas also demands that a Catholic university teach theology as a divine science, and not religious studies, a human one dependent on rational inquiry alone. Even though the core beliefs of Christianity are revealed and held by faith, students have to be informed of what they are. Aquinas never suggests that explaining the content of the articles of faith will bring about a response of faith, but he does think that we need to be told them. Theology courses at a Catholic university propose sacra doctrina. They set out what Christ taught in the Gospels, since he "is the first and chief teacher of spiritual doctrine and faith". Consequently, a Catholic university should be a place in where special attention is given to ensuring that students learn from theologians who propose the teaching of Christ as historical and authoritative.
Authentic Christian faith does not fear reason "but seeks it out and has trust in it". Faith presupposes reason and perfects it. Nor does human reason lose anything by opening itself to the content of faith. When reason is illumined by faith, it "is set free from the fragility and limitations deriving from the disobedience of sin and finds the strength required to rise to the knowledge of the Triune God". The Holy Father observes that St Thomas thinks that human reason, as it were, "breathes" by moving within a vast horizon open to transcendence. If, instead, "a person reduces himself to thinking only of material objects or those that can be proven, he closes himself to the great questions about life, himself and God and is impoverished". Such a person has far too summarily divorced reason from faith, rendering asunder the very dynamic of the intellect.
What does this mean for Catholic universities today? Pope Benedict answers in this way: "The Catholic university is [therefore] a vast laboratory where, in accordance with the different disciplines, ever new areas of research are developed in a stimulating confrontation between faith and reason that aims to recover the harmonious synthesis achieved by Thomas Aquinas and other great Christian thinkers". When firmly grounded in St Thomas' understanding of faith and reason, Catholic institutions of higher learning can confidently face every new challenge on the horizon, since the truths discovered by any genuine science can never contradict the one Truth, who is God himself.
- Here is a compilation of excerpts from a Jan. 28 public lecture given by Archbishop Michael Miller of Vancouver, British Columbia, at the University of St. Thomas in Houston. The lecture was published April 14 by L'Osservatore Romano.
* * *
The Church's "Common Doctor:" Aquinas and the Contemporary Catholic University
St Thomas himself never put his mind to worrying about how to think about a Catholic university of his time or any other. His writings never touch upon matters of faculty, students or curriculum as they concern us today. Yet he does propose specific views about the acquisition of knowledge about truth and the relationship of faith and reason which are, I believe, of permanent value to understanding how the contemporary Catholic university should carry out its teaching and research.
After a look at the study of Thomism in centers of higher education universities and seminaries following the revival initiated by Pope Leo XIII, what I suggest in this lecture are several reasons why St Thomas is rightly called "a light for the Church and the whole world", above all the world of the Catholic Academy at the dawn of this Third Christian Millennium.
Second Vatican Council: Apex and Decline
Following the long tradition according official approval to Thomas' teaching, which the Church used so widely and successfully "as an instrument superbly adapted to her purposes, thus casting the mantle of her own magisterial authority over Aquinas", the Second Vatican Council followed suit. It highly praised Thomas, whose thought had prepared for it in so many ways.
The Decree on Priestly Formation, for example, recommended that seminarians be taught according to "that philosophical heritage which is perennially valid". Moreover, their dogmatic theology should be taught so as to illumine the mysteries of salvation as completely as possible, and seminarians "should learn to penetrate them more deeply with the help of speculation, under the guidance of St Thomas, and to perceive their interconnections".
In like fashion, the Declaration on Christian Education praised Aquinas' teaching for showing how faith and science can work in harmony in Catholic colleges and universities. For the first time an ecumenical council recommended an individual theologian for study, and they gave that honor to St Thomas, even though the Fathers themselves made less use of him in their final documents than in those previously prepared for their deliberations.
Ironically, right around the same time as the Council, a decline what some have called a "collapse" in the study of St Thomas was taking place. Several reasons for this slow falling into neglect can be suggested. First, the renewal of biblical scholarship prompted by Pius XII's Divino Afflante Spiritu, published in 1943, introduced scriptural themes and categories more directly into theology, thereby making Thomas seem outdated. This was accompanied by a more general ressourcement among theologians, a return to the study of the Church Fathers, thereby bypassing the Scholastics, including Aquinas, in favor of the tradition of a presumed earlier golden age. At the same time, creating an almost perfect storm, a third movement was in the wind, one which, even if not intending to do so, undercut the privileged place of Thomism, especially in seminaries. Aidan Nichols comments on this new emphasis that emerged: theology itself should be preachable; that is, it should be readily and immediately able to be "translated" into a Sunday homily relevant to contemporary situations. In achieving this purpose Aquinas was held to be no help; he was insufficiently biblical, excessively philosophical and too complicated. Some blame for the hasty exit of St Thomas from the Academy should also be placed on what Nichols calls "the off-putting mode of the pedagogical and literary presentation in which Thomism was often cast.... [I]ts communication in many seminaries and Catholic philosophy faculties appears to have become dessicated and ahistorical". Pius xi's admonition to "go to Thomas" was insufficiently observed. A dry summary of certain theses replaced the texts of the Master himself.
Despite this evident decline in the study of Aquinas, in 1974, Paul VI rather surprisingly expressed his delight in what he optimistically called "the extraordinary, even if unforeseen, "return' of St Thomas, which has confirmed the wisdom of the supreme Magisterium in declaring him to be the authoritative, irreplaceable guide in philosophy and theology". For his part, John Paul II hoped that the Council's encouragement, together his own particular blend of Thomism and phenomenology, would give a new impetus to the Church's intellectual apostolate. To be sure, John Paul did not propose that Thomism was the Church's only philosophy, as had Leo xiii, who had affirmed that "insistence upon the thought of the Angelic Doctor" is "the best way to recover the practice of a philosophy consonant with faith". Rather, John Paul allows for a plurality of philosophical systems, with the caveat that to be acceptable they must share Aquinas' metaphysical realism, including his position on the natural knowability of the existence of God. Certainly Thomas is a "model" for the philosopher. Nevertheless, the Pope adds, despite the high praise owed to Thomas, "the Church has no philosophy of her own nor does she canonize any one particular philosophy in preference to others".
As for theology, John Paul lauds St Thomas as "a model of the right way to do theology", adding that "the Magisterium has repeatedly acclaimed the merits of Saint Thomas' thought and made him the guide and model for theological studies".
Doctor Veritatis: Relativism and the Crisis of Truth
Much can be said about the intellectual malaise, the so-called "weak thought" of our contemporaries. Probably there is no single cause for the corruption of the modern mind. But I would submit that a good place to begin finding a cause is the penetrating analysis of Pope Benedict.
According to the Holy Father, among the major challenges to the Church of the 21st century, and one which presents "a particularly insidious obstacle in the task of educating", is the massive presence of relativism in society and in the halls of the Academy. The central problem of our system higher education is not its failure to provide strong intellectual and marketable skills, which it can do well enough, but its premise that reality does not exist independently of the human mind and cannot be known with any certainty. In this way, even if not intentionally, far too many colleges and universities stifle the students' natural desire to know, and to know the truth. This entices them to avoid the humanities and liberal arts and take refuge in the professional and practical arts alone, with their expected financial rewards.
Another consequence of this underlying assumption and one even more serious is that, even if a person practices his or her faith, such faith has nothing to do with truth; hence, nothing to do with the core purpose of a university; that is, teaching and research. In situations where what makes a university "Catholic" is not the content of what is taught in other words, the curriculum - but only the laudable concern for the "whole student", then its intellectual foundation has been weakened, perhaps beyond repair. Important as student life is to expressing one's faith, it can never replace the curriculum as the principal locus of genuine catholicity in the world of higher education.
All too often relativism and privatized faith are not only the academic's creed, but also that of the person on the street. Indeed, relativism has become a secular dogma and "it is considered dangerous and "authoritarian' to speak of truth". A "dictatorship of relativism" prevails in the now famous phrase from Cardinal Ratzinger's homily before he was elected Pope.
In fact, in many universities, seeking truth is considered a hopelessly impossible, even naive, undertaking. Academics are suspicious, if not hostile, to any claim to know the truth. They often suffer from "the widespread conviction that the possibility of attaining truth is an illusion of traditional metaphysics", accepting as true only what can be experienced.
In the university world skepticism reigns about truth: nothing is definitive except in the empirically verifiable scientific realm. If this University is going to fulfill its mission in the Church as a community of teachers and learners, its curriculum is going to have to meet this crisis of truth head-on. It can do so by arguing convincingly, with passion and respect, that the truth can be pursued and, to a limited but real extent, attained by the human mind and communicated to others. Such a service to the truth is the intellectual foundation of every Catholic university. Today we must reaffirm the "the "passion for truth" that animated St Thomas in order to harness the intellectual forces necessary for the development of a future of authentic human flourishing. Failure to engage this quest leads a scholarly community to see itself merely as an educational provider, trapped in a hall of mirrors of endless choices without focus or purpose. Consequently, as Ralph McInerny has noted in typical pithy fashion, "The main reason to read Thomas is to learn things that are true".
Catholic universities can imitate today what Aquinas did in the thirteenth century by imbuing their curricula with the desire to search freely "the whole truth about nature, man and God". Although his serene openness alarmed not a few of his contemporaries, he searched for truth diligently and lovingly among pre-Christian and non-Christian philosophers, willing to engage in intellectual dialogue with all wise teachers. Thomas showed great liberty of spirit and intellectual honest in dealing with new questions and by not rejecting secularist philosophies a priori and without examination.
Aquinas was ever alert to the truth buried in the opinion of others: "There is no false teaching which does not have some truth admixed in it", he affirmed. John Paul ii observed that for Thomas "this presence of truth even if it be incomplete and imperfect and at times distorted is a bridge uniting every man to other men and makes understanding possible when there is good will".
Whence the source of the Saint's conviction? In his unrelenting search for the good and the true, Thomas recognized that the Holy Spirit was already at work, opening the human heart and making it ready to welcome the truth of the Gospel. In a celebrated phrase he states: "any truth, no matter by whom it is spoken, is from the Holy Spirit". The action of the Spirit creates an affinity for the truth and draws the human heart towards it; he helps human knowledge mature in wisdom and in trusting abandonment to what is true. Just as he succeeded in establishing a fruitful confrontation with the Arab and Hebrew thought of his time, treating them respectfully but refusing to let himself be overawed by their authority, so must scholars and students in a Catholic university, with a similar grace bequeathed by the Holy Spirit, be free to examine the truth wherever it may be found.
Pope Paul VI sums up this attitude of Thomas to all the great masters of human thought, an attitude which might well undergird every university which strives to preserve, hand on and enrich the Catholic intellectual, moral and artistic tradition. First, he began with great admiration for the intellectual patrimony of other traditions. Second, he recognized the value and significance but also the limitations of each thinker. Finally, he was compassionate towards those who, like the philosophers of antiquity, lacked the light of faith. The Holy Father then speculated on how Thomas would confront contemporary questions:
"We are convinced that were he among us today he would be no less eager to investigate the forces that are bringing about changes in man, his conditions, his manner of thinking and his way of life. Whatever would help him now to speak of God more worthily and persuasively than ever before would be in his eyes a cause for rejoicing. Yet in all this he would never lose that serene, magnanimous sense of security which faith alone can bestow on the human mind".
The Angelic Doctor is a marvelous example of Christian scholars open to the signs of the times shaping their age and yet remaining faithful to the path marked out by faith, tradition and the Church's teaching. What a lesson this is for civilized and respectful scholarly interchange in the Academy!
Doctor Concordiae: Harmony of Faith and Reason
Besides being, par excellence, the Doctor Veritatis, Thomas is also the Doctor Concordiae; that is, he is the pre-eminent teacher of the harmony between faith and reason, the "two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth".
In addressing the University community at Leuven in 1985, Pope John Paul II affirmed: "The whole living tradition of the Church teaches us this: faith seeks understanding, and understanding seeks faith. Both the need to understand and the need to believe are deeply rooted in man's heart. It is for this reason that the Church herself was the point of departure for the creation of universities". Nonetheless, a particular challenge faces universities today in that many would detach faith from reason, and reason from faith. This challenge can be met if teachers and learners take the Angelic Doctor as their master. "With his charism as a philosopher and theologian", says Pope Benedict, "he [Thomas] offered an effective model of harmony between reason and faith, dimensions of the human spirit that are completely fulfilled in the encounter and dialogue with one another".
For Aquinas, then, faith and reason should be neither separated nor placed in competition; rather, they go hand in hand. "Both the light of reason and the light of faith come from God, he [Thomas] argued; hence there can be no contradiction between them".
On the relationship St Thomas is truly enlightening. Commenting on this, Pope John Paul II has said:
"Philosophical and theological truth converge into a single truth. The truth of reason ascends from creatures to God; the truth of faith descends directly from God to man. But this diversity of method and origin does not detract from their fundamental unity, because there is a single identical Author of truth manifested through creation, and truth communicated personally to man by means of His Word. Philosophical research and theological research are two different directions of movement of a single truth, destined to meet, but not collide, on the same road, in order to help each other. Thus reason, illuminated, strengthened and guaranteed by faith, becomes a faithful companion of faith itself and faith immensely widens the limited horizon of human reason".
Pope Benedict reaffirms his predecessors' views that Aquinas offers "an effective model of harmony between reason and faith, dimensions of the human spirit that are completely fulfilled in the encounter and dialogue with one another". Indeed, "an intellectual "culture' which is genuinely Catholic", must be "confident in the profound harmony of faith and reason". The Holy Father affirms that "a natural friendship exists between faith and reason, founded in the order of Creation itself". The synergy between the two is the linchpin of Benedict's thought. At the origin of the Christian faith there is not only the Jerusalem of the theologians but also the Athens of the philosophers.
In dealing with the harmony between faith and reason developed so exquisitely by Aquinas, the Holy Father leaves no doubt about the Christological center of this vision. For Thomas, he writes, "the definitive fulfilment of every authentic human aspiration rests in Jesus Christ". But it was the genius of Aquinas to have highlighted the autonomy of philosophy, and with it the laws proper to reason. He gave a new emphasis to the specific responsibility of reason, which was not to be absorbed by faith. According to Thomas, Christianity was obliged to argue the case for its own reasonableness.
Drawing, then, on St Thomas, Pope Benedict is convinced that it is urgent for contemporary thinkers "to rediscover anew human rationality open to the light of the divine Logos and his perfect revelation which is Jesus Christ, Son of God made man". Nor does exhort only scholars. In countless homilies and discourses he cites St Peter's injunction to every Christian: "Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you" (1 Pet 3: 15). It is the Christian faith which safeguards reason in the modern world. Indeed, faith liberates reason from its own limitations. God has revealed himself as creative Reason and, precisely as the Logos, has acted and continues to act lovingly on our behalf. "In the beginning was the Word", the Logos, and "the Word became flesh" (Jn 1: 1, 14). The divine Logos is thus the origin of the universe, and this same Logos was united once and for all with humanity, the world and history, in Christ. Moreover, this Reason is not a mathematics of the universe nor a first cause that withdrew after producing the Big Bang. Rather, it has "a heart such as to be able to renounce its own immensity and take flesh".
The Holy Father addresses directly the consequence for higher education of holding to such an understanding of reason. In his first major address to academics he affirmed: "This then is the great challenge to Catholic universities: to impart knowledge in the perspective of true rationality, different from that of today which largely prevails, in accordance with a reason open to the question of the truth and to the great values inscribed in being itself, hence, open to the transcendent, to God".
Because God is Reason, our faith has something that has to do with reason; it can be passed on through it and has no cause to hide from it. Whenever faith in God separates itself from its rational foundation, such a faith is put at risk.
Without the light of faith, however, human reason cannot find sure and fulfilling answers to today's many urgent problems. Catholic universities, if they are to remain true to the intellectual tradition which has shaped them from their beginning, are called to bear witness not only to the dignity of human reason and its capacity for knowing reality but also to the role played by faith in learning. Our universities are broader, not narrower, in their outlook, since the study of divine revelation opens up a whole area of reality beyond the reach of reason left to its own natural resources. As Fr Victor Brezik once reminded us, "the combination of the world of revealed knowledge with the world of rational knowledge gives the Catholic university a much more challenging horizon of study".
The Mall without the Chapel would be incomplete; and the Chapel without the Mall would be in exile. What we are blessed to have at UST is an architectural embodiment of a sound Thomism. The Catholic sacramental imagination demanded the completion of the Academic Mall crowned by the Chapel and we are forever grateful to Dr Joe McFadden for that. Moreover, that the Chapel bespeak a certain prominence for faith is also necessary. When the study of the world guided by reason and faith is taken seriously, a certain hierarchy of importance emerges. That is why theology and philosophy have long been accorded a kind of primi inter pares status in the University's curriculum.
Furthermore, fidelity to Thomas also demands that a Catholic university teach theology as a divine science, and not religious studies, a human one dependent on rational inquiry alone. Even though the core beliefs of Christianity are revealed and held by faith, students have to be informed of what they are. Aquinas never suggests that explaining the content of the articles of faith will bring about a response of faith, but he does think that we need to be told them. Theology courses at a Catholic university propose sacra doctrina. They set out what Christ taught in the Gospels, since he "is the first and chief teacher of spiritual doctrine and faith". Consequently, a Catholic university should be a place in where special attention is given to ensuring that students learn from theologians who propose the teaching of Christ as historical and authoritative.
Authentic Christian faith does not fear reason "but seeks it out and has trust in it". Faith presupposes reason and perfects it. Nor does human reason lose anything by opening itself to the content of faith. When reason is illumined by faith, it "is set free from the fragility and limitations deriving from the disobedience of sin and finds the strength required to rise to the knowledge of the Triune God". The Holy Father observes that St Thomas thinks that human reason, as it were, "breathes" by moving within a vast horizon open to transcendence. If, instead, "a person reduces himself to thinking only of material objects or those that can be proven, he closes himself to the great questions about life, himself and God and is impoverished". Such a person has far too summarily divorced reason from faith, rendering asunder the very dynamic of the intellect.
What does this mean for Catholic universities today? Pope Benedict answers in this way: "The Catholic university is [therefore] a vast laboratory where, in accordance with the different disciplines, ever new areas of research are developed in a stimulating confrontation between faith and reason that aims to recover the harmonious synthesis achieved by Thomas Aquinas and other great Christian thinkers". When firmly grounded in St Thomas' understanding of faith and reason, Catholic institutions of higher learning can confidently face every new challenge on the horizon, since the truths discovered by any genuine science can never contradict the one Truth, who is God himself.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)