Paradise Visited

After finishing our visit to the Province of Medan, John Antony and I flew to Port Moresby for a visitation of the Vice Province of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. Travelers entering the international terminal of Port Moresby's airport are greeted by a large sign saying, "Welcome to Paradise!" If that sounds presumptuous to you, it can only mean that you have never been to PNG. Not only is the country stunningly beautiful, but the hospitality of the friars and the friendliness of the people were outstanding.

Port Moresby looks many other large cities in less developed countries, with the possible exception that the traffic is not quite as bad. It isn't until you get out of the capital that you begin to notice real differences. As I flew to Mendi, capital of the Southern Highlands Province and location of the Vice Provincialate, I was impressed with the pristine beauty of the forests below. Occasionally I could spot a narrow road snaking through the trees or the huts of a small village, but otherwise the endless expanse of forest seemed untouched by human hand. Apparently, this is not exactly the case, as I was told that large areas of forest are being bought very cheaply by Chinese and Japanese companies, who then clear-cut them and take the wood to their respective countries.

The first permanent presence of the Capuchins in Papua New Guinea was begun a little more than fifty years ago when, at the request of Propaganda Fide, friars from the Pennsylvania Province went to evangelize the Southern Highlands Province. The focus of the mission has now changed from first evangelization to implantatio Ordinis, although the friars are still very involved in parochial work in the Mendi Diocese. The Mendi Diocese has had only two bishops in its history, both of them Capuchins. The ministry of the Vice Province is now shared by friars from the Mid-America Province and the Province of St. Joseph-Kerala. At various times in the past, there have also been friars from Great Britain, the Philippines, the Western America Province and the Holy Trinity Province in India.

Although the people of PNG lack many of the modern technologies that people in developed countries take for granted, they seldom lack basic necessities. The friars share this simplicity of life to a great extent. Their houses are simple wooden structures built by the friars themselves with mostly local materials. Although many of the houses are forty or more years old, they are comfortable and well-maintained by the friars. Since the Diocese has had a policy from its very beginning that the people are financially responsible for building their own churches, the churches also tend to be built from local materials and are easily maintained. Even the Mendi Cathedral (pictured) was largely built and financed by the people of the diocese. Despite, or perhaps because of the simple materials used in the churches, I found them very beautiful and prayerful.

Moving about the Vice Province is very challenging since the roads are quite rough. As we drove together from Mendi to Tari in his seventeen year-old car, Br. Bill Fey, the recently-elected Vice Provincial, remarked on how nice the road was, to which I responded, "You are easily impressed." Somewhat like Jesus, I could "count all my bones" at the end of the journey! Two days later, when we drove to Pureni, I understood why Br. Bill thought the Mendi-Tari road was good. Parts of the "road" to Pureni were what I would call a muddy path. Many of the outstations are not even accessible by road so the friars have to walk several hours to reach them.

The friars take all the physical challenges of the country into stride. They love their work and the people to whom they minister, a love that is obviously returned. Only a seriously illness could convince the American missionaries with whom I spoke to return to their native provinces. Br. John Antony expressed on several occasions that seeing the simple life of the friars made him feel that he was seeing Capuchin life as it was lived by the earliest friars. One might say it felt a bit like Paradise.

Canonical Recognition of St. Pio

As a member of the General Definitory, I had the privilege of attending the canonical recognition ceremony for the remains of St. Pio of Pietralcina. The ceremony took place on Sunday, March 2nd, in the crypt of Santa Maria delle Grazie, around the tomb of St. Pio. A small group of people—friars, ecclesiastical dignitaries, relatives of St. Pio and the two people who were miraculously cured through his intercession—were on hand to witness the ceremony. Everything was carried out in an atmosphere of utmost dignity and solemnity.

The actual recognition process began a few days previously, when five eyewitnesses of Pio's burial were called to examine the tomb for any signs of tampering. All agreed that the tomb was in essentially the same condition as on the day of the burial. After that, the blocks of green and red marble (altogether weighing over 3000 lbs. or 1500 kg.) and the white sand that covered the tomb were removed, leaving only four concrete slabs covering it.

The second phase of the ceremony, which began at 10 o'clock p.m. with the reading of documents authorizing the exhumation and the Recognition Process: a Rescript from the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, the Decree of His Excellency Domenico Umberto D'Ambrosio, Archbishop of Manfredonia-Vieste-San Giovanni Rotondo, and the Authorization of the civil authorities. This was followed by a reading of the transcript from the first phase of the recognition process. It seems that, even after death, you still have to follow the rules!

With the formalities out of the way, Archbishop Domenico Umberto D'Ambrosio led the assembly in a celebration of the Office of Readings, taken from the Common of Pastors. The second reading of the Office was from the letter of Pio, written at the request of his superiors, in which he described the beginnings of his stigmata. After the Liturgy of the Hours, the Archbishop gave a brief reflection on the meaning of the evening's events, calling it an act of "affectionate, gentle, respectful devotion." The underlying reason for the exhumation, explained the Archbishop, was the "responsibility of guaranteeing, by means of appropriate procedures, the lasting preservation of our saint's body in order to allow future generations to venerate and safeguard his relics."

Next, the Notary read the official account by the city officials of San Giovanni Rotondo regarding the burial of Pio of Pietralcina on September 26, 1968. Then the concrete slabs covering the tomb were removed, and the casket was lifted out. Before opening the casket, the Archbishop along with the Promoter of Justice and the Notary inspected the seals that had been applied to the tomb when it was closed almost forty years ago, making sure that they had not been broken. Satisfied that the seals were intact, they were removed with a small hammer and chisel, and the outer cover of the casket was removed. Next, the inner cover, make of zinc, was cut away, exposing a glass plate covering the body of the saint. There was a buzz of anticipation as the zinc cover was removed, and the assembly strained to get a glimpse inside the casket. This was followed by palpable disappointment since condensation on the glass covering made it impossible to see inside the casket.

At this point, the casket was moved to a specially-equipped room where a team of specialists will spend the next forty days working to preserve the mortal remains of St. Pio. Inside the room, a four-member tribunal and a team of doctors inspected the body after the glass covering was removed. The Archbishop later informed the assembly that the upper portion of St. Pio's body was partially skeletonized, but that the lower portion was relatively well preserved. Excessive humidity inside the casket, possibly caused by the fresh plaster on the walls of the tomb, had unfortunately contributed to the decomposition of his remains.

The ceremony concluded with an address by the General Minister, Mauro Jöhri, and a reading of the transcript of the evening's events. Around April 24, after the specialists have finished treating the remains, the body of St. Pio will be exhibited for public devotion for a few months.

Many of you are probably questioning the need for such an elaborate ceremony, and maybe even question the reasons for the exhumation itself. Those questions certainly occurred to me. I think, however, that the historical experience of the Church with regard to its saints can provide at least a partial explanation. Centuries ago, it was not uncommon for cities to fight over the bodies of saintly people. St. Francis of Assisi, for instance, was buried in a secret location for fear that his body would be stolen by the people of Perugia. While most of the remains of St. Catherine of Siena are buried in her hometown, her head somehow found its way to Rome. The list of such "separations" is quite long. It would have been natural for the Vatican to develop procedures for handling the relics of saints in order to prevent disagreements over them or desecrations of their graves.

The Church has also struggled with determining the authenticity of certain saints. Not long ago, for instance, researchers determined that St. Christopher, whose statue once adorned the dashboard of every Catholic-owned car in America, was only a pious legend. Today, it is hard to imagine how the transformation from legend to real person could have happened. Then again, try looking through your parents' photographs and see how many of the people in them you can name! Now imagine someone looking at those photographs 200 years from now. In its 2000-year history—wracked with wars, earthquakes, fires, plagues, etc.—it is understandable that accurate records for all the Church's saints are hard to find. Perhaps to prevent future generations from having similar doubts about the authenticity of today's saints, the Church has developed a "recognition" process. Because the tomb and the remains of St. Pio were inspected by people who were present at the time of his death, and a signed document attesting to the inspection now resides in the Vatican's files, future generations will have the assurance that the relics are authentic. Thus our brother Pio can continue to inspire people for many years to come with the example of his faithfulness and devotion.

Perceptions challenged

One of the things I like about this job is that it constantly challenges my perceptions. Br John Antony and I just completed a visitation of the Province of Medan in Indonesia. Before the visit, what I knew about Indonesia could fit on a matchbook cover: it was made up of many islands, it was home to Bali (where a lot of people were killed in a terrorist bombing), and it has the largest Muslim population of any country in the world.

This last fact especially colored my perceptions about the three provinces of Indonesia. I assumed that the Catholic population of the country would be relatively small, and therefore well served by the more than 300 Capuchin friars in the country. What I found surprised me. The Province of Medan covers the northern part of the island of Sumatra. The Christian population of the area is actually quite large, and about 60% of those Christians are Catholic. Add to that the fact that there are only about 20 diocesan priests in the area, and that other religious congregations have only recently begun to enter the area. As a result, most parishes are still staffed by Capuchins. More surprising to me was the size of the parishes. The smallest parish that I encountered during my visit had about 9,000 parishioners, with about 6 outstations. The largest parish had 35,000 parishioners and 63 outstations! Even the largest parishes had at most two full-time priests to serve it, although friars in other ministries often covered some of the Sunday masses. Because of the number of outstations, the main parish church might be able to have a Sunday mass twice a month. The people in the outstations might have to wait three months between masses.

Obviously, given the great need, most Capuchins in the Province have until recently been parish priests. Recently, however, the Province has been turning some of the parishes over to the diocese and to other congregations, leaving friars available to serve in other ministries or in missions.

Another surprising discovery during my visit to Medan was the way the friars have tried to inculturate the Catholic faith. The predominant cultural group of northern Sumatra is the Batak, whose homes have a very distinctive architectural style. The friars have incorporated many of these architectural elements into their churches, to beautiful effect. They also use Batak musical instruments in their liturgies. Such attempts at inculturation have lead to the large scale acceptance of the Catholic faith among the Batak. The friars of the Medan Province, most of whom are Batak, are now enriching the Church and the Order with their friendliness and strong work ethic.

Miter flu claims another victim

On 30 January, I attended the episcopal ordination of our former General Minister, Br John Corriveau. Although the episcopal see is in Nelson, British Columbia, Canada, the ordination took place in Kelowna in order to accommodate those coming from a distance.

The ordaining prelate was Archbishop Luigi Ventura, Apostolic Delegate for Canada. His homily drew extensively from the writings and biographies of St Francis, and at one point he urged John to bring his Franciscan joy to the pastoral care of the people of his diocese.

About 30 Capuchins from around the world braved the frigid Canadian winter to attend the ordination. Among them were 4 Capuchin bishops: Charles Chaput, Archbishop of Denver (USA), Joseph Oudeman, Auxiliary Bishop of Brisbane (Australia), Luis Pepeu, Bishop of Afogados da Ingazeira (Brazil) and Andrés Stanovnik, Archbishop of Corrientes (Argentina). Also present were the provincial ministers of all the provinces of the United States and Canada, friars from Great Britain, Poland, Italy and, of course, many from his own Province of Central Canada. Four Friars Minor who minister in British Columbia were also in attendance, happy to welcome a bishop from the Franciscan family.

John's ordination was a bittersweet moment for me. Of course, I was happy that John's abilities were recognized by the Holy See. He will be a great bishop for the Diocese of Nelson. On the other hand, I was sad that the Order is losing John's energy, enthusiasm and creativity. The title of this post reflects my frustration that we have lost so much leadership in the Order to the episcopate. I don't want to be selfish, but, hey, we need strong leadership, too! I am reminded of the comment made by a friar of my province when our then-Provincial Minister, Charles Chaput, was named a bishop and shortly afterward I was assigned to work in the General Curia. He complained about Rome "reaching in" and taking the good friars, then added, "And what are we left with? Excrement!" (not the actual word he used). I'm sure it's not as bad as that, but you get the point. As an Order that emphasizes its obedience to the Holy Father, clearly John could not have refused the Holy See's request.


In case you are interested, Nelson is a town of about 10,000 people. It has a small airport nearby and few hotels, but was until recently one of the more historical and important towns in the area due to mining for gold and other metals in the area. As the importance of mining wained, Kelowna overtook Nelson in terms of population and importance, with people being drawn there by viticulture and tourism. Kelowna is a 350 kilometer (215 mile) drive from Nelson.

A global brotherhood

The General Definitory and the members of the North American-Pacific Capuchin Conference have just comcluded their joint meeting in Tampa, Florida. Such meetings between the international leadership and the individual conferences of the Order during the early years of each sexennium were begun during Flavio Roberto Carraro's second term as General Minister, 1988-1994. The meetings serve the dual purpose of helping the General Definitory understand the particular environment in which the friars live and work, as well as the concerns that they have, and of communicating more directly to the Order's major superiors the concerns and plans of the General Definitory.

After an opening talk from the General Minister, Mauro Jöhri, members of the General Definitory delivered talks on Solidarity of Personnel, the project of moving parts of the Constitutions to a General Statutes or similar document, the Order's response to CPO's VI and VII, and Formation. In addition, the General Bursar presented a talk on The Fraternal Economy. After each talk, members of the Conference were asked to respond to the suggestions made and to relate their experiences and concerns regarding the topics. The members of the NAPCC were also asked to share any other concerns regarding the life of the friars in North America, Guam and Australia.

Space does not permit an adequate summary of each talk here. An English translation of most of the talks was provided to each member of the NAPCC and can be requested from them, if you are interested (or from me if you are not in the NAPCC). Some salient points from the talks were as follows:

1. Solidarity of Personnel: The Order has made great strides in economic solidarity and has also seen an increase in the sharing of brothers among jurisdictions. The General Definitory wishes to encourage this form of solidarity, but also wants it to be practiced in an orderly, equitable manner.
2. Constitutions: The General Chapter of 2006 mandated the General Definitory to prepare drafts of Constitutions and General Statutes based on the present Constitutions. According to the Chapter decision, juridical elements not essential to our charism should be moved from the Constitutions to the General Statutes. The present text of the Constitutions is to be respected and enriched with elements from recent Plenary Councils of the Order and documents of the Church. The work is now underway, and soon the friars of the Order will be asked to begin studying the question and making their suggestions.
3. Formation: Collaboration in formation was strongly encouraged as a good in itself, not just as something to do when candidates are few. An apparent tendency toward abandoning the period of post-novitiate formation free of academic studies is a step backward for the Order. Going straight from the novitiate to philosophical and theological studies is a return to a less fraternal, more clerical form of formation.
4. Fraternal economy: The traditional Capuchin charism of austerity needs to be re-discovered in the Order, in poor countries as well as in wealthier countries. Values such as transparency and accountability are still not sufficiently practiced in some parts of the world.

The meeting in Tampa was preceeded by a similar meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico, with the Capuchin Conference of the Andes (CCA) and the Capuchin Conference of Central America (CONCAM). From Tampa, the General Definitory will meet with the Capuchin Conference of Brazil (CCB) in Manaus, Brazil, where they hope not to loose too many extremities to the piranhas or too much blood to the mosquitos!

Down Under, part 2

While visiting the former Capuchin seminary in Plumpton, which is now used as a retreat/conference center, I was able to visit the tomb of Br. Rudolph Blockinger. Rudolph was a member of the Pennsylvania Province who went to China as a missionary. When the missionaries were forced out, he went to Australia so that he could finish out his days as a missionary. I never knew Rudolph myself, by I heard many stories about him and I knew his younger brother, Br. Cletus.




Having basically completed my visitation, I was able to spend last Saturday seeing some of Sydney's sights. The picture below was taken outside the Cathedral of Syndey. The friars in the photo are (left to right): Thomas McFadden, me, Lam Vu, Nestor Sinaga (Medan Province), James Grant and Bernard Morawski (Warsaw Province). Robert Stewart is taking the picture.

Down Under

For about the past two weeks, I have been conducting a visitation of the friars in Australia. This is my first time in the "Down Under", and I have been very impressed by the life and work of the friars here. There is a commemorative plaque in front of the provincialate in Leichhardt (Sydney) that gives a good summary of the history of the Capuchins in Australia. Here is a portion of that commemoration:

The Catholic Church, anticipating a boom in unassisted Italian migration after the Second World War, handed over St Fiacres to the Capuchin Order in 1946, to provide assistance. The first priests were Italian Americans including Fr Atanasio Paoletti. They met the boats and provided advice on housing and jobs to initially mainly single men. As well as providing religious services they became a meeting place, conducted dances, set up sporting clubs etc. Many settled at least initially in Leichhardt, some 90 families lived along Catherine Street, and many worked in local industry or construction, or established businesses here. As a consequence Leichhardt became associated with Italians.

Some 60,000 Italian migrants were assisted by the Capuchins, many married and baptised their children here. Many of the children attended St Fiacres School.
...

The San Francesco Catholic Italian Association set up sporting and social programs, ran dances, sporting clubs, built a recreation hall at St Fiacres, and a kindergarten in Styles Street, all with volunteers. The annual Australia Day picnics on the Harbour and at Clifton Gardens were major events in the 1950's. The Capuchins also started the Italian press that became La Fiamma, and Italian language programs for children, now carried out by Co.As.It.
...

As the consequence of the Italian influx, Parramatta Road boomed from the 1950s as the Saturday morning shopping strip and 'passeggiatta'. Many clubs, restaurants, cafes and shops were established along Parramatta Road and into Norton Street forming the nucleus of what is now the centre of Italian Australian culture in Sydney.

The Capuchins at St Fiacres have a central place in the history of Italians throughout Australia.