Marists All August 1991
ISSUE # 17
GMC PICNIC: Looking forward to seeing many of you at the annual Greater Marist Community picnic to be held again this year at Mt. St. Michael in the Bronx. The gathering will be in the garth area on Saturday, September 14th, from noon to 6 p.m. Indoor facilities are available in case of rain. Come with spouse and children or come alone. Bring your own beverage and a pot-luck dish for a shared meal. All Brothers are most welcome to join us. Thanks to the Mount community and to Br. Patrick Magee, recently appointed again as director, for warmly and enthusiastically welcoming us. Do mark this reunion on your calendar!
GMC MOUNT ST. MICHAEL
Saturday: 12 to 6 September 14, 1991
FROM JERRY DEVER ('55): Please put Bill Kawka on your mailing list. He is interested in the newsletter and in reunions, etc. Bill works at Chemical Bank . He is married and has a thirteen year old daughter. His wife, Jean, is a teacher at St. Francis Prep in Queens.
We ourselves enjoy getting the newsletter and finding out what the present and former Marists are doing In fact, through the newsletter we discovered that George Howard teaches at Notre Dame, and our fifteen year old son, Mike, will be at Notre Dame this summer attending a tennis camp. At that time we hope to get together with George and later to take a tour of the Lake Michigan area. Mike, who is a Stanner, will also be going to Esopus to help out with incoming Molloy freshmen. We hope to be sending you another letter for the Marist newsletter soon.
FROM ROBERT PARKER ('54): I am currently living in St. Mary's Hospital in San Francisco. This is a unit for people who have AIDS or are just HIV+. I do not have AIDS; I have ARC, which is defined as a condition in which the T4 cell count is low; 800 is normal and I have stayed between 100 and 200 for the last five years ... and am perfectly healthy. I work out every day. I am currently 55 years old and expect to live to 100.
After getting my Ph D in Theoretical Physics from the University of Notre Dame, I did research with Dr. Donnes Denekla at the Roche Institute for Molecular Biology in Nutley, New Jersey. He was able to identify parameters which change with age and was able to reverse them. I am now negotiating with the Life Extension Foundation to set up a laboratory at the University of Berkeley to continue working on the research.
I have teaching credentials in mathematics, physics, and chemistry; and I have taught chemistry for five years at Abraham Lincoln High School here in San Francisco. I am applying to teach again in September.
JUBILARIANS: 1991
25th: Br. Vito Aresto
25th: Br. Joseph Herrera
25th: Br. Anthony Huck
25th: Br. John Klein
25th: Br. James Redunski
25th: Br. Sean Sammon
25th: Br. Richard Sharpe
25th: Br. Robert Warren
30th: Br. Michael Brady
30th: Br. Joseph McAlister
30th: Br. James McKnight
35th: Br. Felix Anthony
35th: Br. Brendan Brennan
35th: Br. Stephen Kappes
35th: Br. Vincent Moriarty
35th: Br. Luke Pearson
40th: Br. Louis Richard
40th: Br. Luke Reddington
40th: Br. Albert Phillipp
40th: Br. Timothy McManus
40th: Br. Vincent Jerome
40th: Br. Gregory dela Noy
40th: Br. Denis Caverley
40th: Br. Robert Ryan
40th: Br. Richard Ryder
40th: Br. Martin Thomas
40th: Br. Julio Vitores
45th: Br. Raymond Albert
45th: Br. John Alexis
45th: Br. Raymond Bereicua
45th: Br. James Dixon
FROM GENE ZIRKEL ('53): I read in the wonderful newsletter, Marists All about the Hayes 50th anniversary. I taught at Hayes for four years from 1956 to 1960 under the name of Brother Louis Francis. That was the time of Louie Omer, Jimmy Bernard, Spud Carroll, Jimmy Venantius, Linus Foy, "Ti" Mike, George Damian, Kevin Carolan, Harold Philip, Simeon Gerald, and many others whose faces come to mind but whose names elude me. I would love to meet some of those wonderful people again and to reminisce with them on some of the old stories.
I now teach math and computer science at Nasau Community College and am doing training and consulting in schools and businesses as the New Horizon Learning Center.
****** The idea for Marists All was first discussed in mid-summer of 1986 and shortly after at a Greater Marist Community meeting in Pksie and at the annual GMC picnic in September of 1986. The newsletter was more widely proposed in a single sheet mailing that was included with GMC greetings before Christmas of 1986; it was sent to 250 addresses. The first issue of Marists All was published in the spring of 1987; it consisted of four pages. The second issue was eight pages long. All succeeding issues to date have had ten pages.
JUBILARIANS: 1991
70th: Br. Edward Michael
70th: Br. Francis Gerard
65th: Br. Gabriel Vincent
65th: Br. Henry Joseph
65th: Br. Joseph Cerin
60th: Br. Daniel Andrew
60th: Br. Mary Oswald
60th: Br. Philip Gilbert
60th: Br. Valerian Doiron
55th: Br. Bernard Curtin
55th: Br. Denis Buckley
55th: Br. Francis Hughes
55th: Br. Victor Eugene
50th: Br. Alphonse Matuga
50th: Br. Chanel Lambert
50th: Br. Giles Keogh
50th: Br. Godfrey Robertson
50th: Br. Rafael Martin
FROM ALEX SENES ('64): Thank you for your dedication and generosity in giving your time to putting together so many truly inspiring, at times very moving, editions of Marists All. I find the lives of the men I lived with for seven years truly admirable. It's amazing how we all did not stray too far from the fold after we left community life. Many of us married, have kids, and have jobs that allow us to carry on the Marist work of "doing good quietly," doing God's will as we were taught by the example of our founder and of the Virgin Mary. As I drive to work every morning, I make sure I get a half hour of prayer and meditation time. The Palisade Parkway is very conducive to this, especially from 6:30 to 7 a.m.
Please find enclosed a small contribution to help pay for the postage and the ink. I wonder, like others I'm sure, why you don't ask for a subscription fee like other newspapers and magazines we receive. We all live in a real world, and as far as I know there hasn't been a multiplication of loaves and fishes in a while. Take care and keep up the good work. Maybe some day I'll send you a summary of my life since 1968. By the way, did we ever meet? (For crying out loud, Alex, I was your "boss" in Tyngsboro for two years:) Hint B.D.O.
****** We have been using the mast head on page one since issue #2 was published in November of 1989. The mast head, Marists All., is the creation and gift of Bill Schulz, a good friend and a favorite contact with the Lutheran community. We have had numerous stimulating theological discussions. Maureen Schulz is as much of a friend and was a colleague on a faculty in the Litchfield, Connecticut, school system.
FROM BR. HUGH TURLEY ('54): An interesting article about Br. Dermot Healey came to my attention recently. Br. Dermot works with abused native Americans of the Sioux tribe on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. It's tough work, and results are never evident. I must personally attest to Dermot's expertise in cooking. I lived with him in our Marist community at Pine Ridge twelve years ago. I was teaching at Oglala Sioux Communtiy College, and Dermot had just arrived to start his work. His culinary skill was well practiced by the time he arrived on the reservation.
ABOUT BR. DERMOT HEALY ('79) in the Rapid City Journal, January 2, 1991-
In beef and fry bread country of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation the pungent aroma of Little Italy catches an unsuspecting visitor by surprise. It's Brother Dermot pursuing his gourmet hobby in the kitchen of the Marist Brothers' house behind Our Lady of the Sioux Catholic Church. Most of the time Dermot works with the Kola shelter and treatment program for physically and sexually abused teenagers. For an avocation, he cooks ... with a flair
Dermot Healy may be Irish by blood and New Yorker by birth. In the kitchen, however, he is all Italian. And when Brother Dermot takes his turn cooking, the dining room tends to fill up with other brothers, nuns, priests, and assorted sojourners. After training for restaurant and hotel management, he opted instead for social service and the church. Yet cooking remains a recreation for him, and at the same time it enhances communal spiritual life. "The center of the religious life is community life," he says. That's how we get the energy to go out and do the work we do." Sharing meals, then, by bringing the members together becomes a form of ministry to the community.
Brother Dermot especially likes to draw kitchen duty on weekends. He has the time then to concentrate on his culinary art. "It's a way of relaxing. It's a hobby," he says. "I like Italian, I like spices, and I like to try a lot of things. I use a lot of onions and a good lot of garlic ... and olive oil by the gallon! Oh, and fresh black pepper is totally different from the canned stuff,"
FROM BILL DOHERTY ('62): Hope this most beautiful of seasons finds you well and happy. As we never get around to sending copy for M.A., maybe we can help support the shipment of copies. It would be a great disappointment if the newsletter disappeared.
GMC MOUNT ST. MICHAEL Saturday: 12 to 6 September 14, 1991
At present Marists All is mailed to 389 lay people, to 40 Marist communities and to 33 monks on individual assignments. To date, July 1, 1991, 208 different people have written to or for Marists All, forty of them were Brothers. In all there have been 237 articles and 35 short notes.
FROM TOM HANLON ('65): Well, we've done it! We have actually moved from the Hudson Valley and are now living in the Midwest. Since joining the Oldsmobile Division of General Motors in 1984, we always felt that we might have to move, but never really believed it, especially moving to Lansing, Michigan, the HOME OFFICE. I was informed of the transfer in May of 1990, and it was effective August '90. That amount of lead time (very, very unusual) enabled us to literally get our house in order and to say so long to our friends and relatives in a somewhat normal manner.
Nancy and I were initially preoccupied with the "fun" of establishing a new home ... from the empty lot right up to the finished product. The builder was very agreeable and was open to our modifications and ideas. I think I may have been a little too "new york" for the guy at times, since the midwest seems to move in warp time; slower than what I'm used to, would be an understatement! In the end everything is the way we want it and in the place we want it, too. Our subdivision is brand new, and there's plenty of guilding going on even in the heart of the winter. Housing prices have remained relatively stable out here as has the economy, unlike the business/housing climate back home in the Newburg/Poughkeepsie area.
Nancy and the kids, Tommy and Christina, have been adapting with some highs and lows, to an area in which they know virtually no one. After getting the house in order, Nancy got a part time job with the realty office that is handling the development of our subdivision (keeps her out of the malls). And the kids began to adapt to the new school environment. Tommy is in his second year of high school, and Christina is in the fifth grade. Both miss the closeness of the friends they had back in New York, but they are finding out that the kids out here do basically the same things as kids all over. It's just not as glitzy as they think they remember things used to be. We joined the local YMCA which has a great facility and enough things going on to keep both of them occupied during the Michigan winters.
Speaking of winter, I don't ever remember experiencing wind and cold like I have since coming out here. Wind chills 20 to 40 below zero are not all that infrequent, and the norm is 10 below to zero. And yes, it does snow and blow and snow some more. The winds blow no matter what the season though, since it's so flat. Your cheeks tend to stay rather rosy!
My job is OK, though a bit slow. Believe it or not, things do not necessarily move with the same intensity as they did in the New York zone office. I do miss the pace and some of the stress, too! To liven things up a bit, I've enrolled in a master's program at Central Michigan University. Returning to school should be very interesting. It will give me an opportunity to put some of the things I've learned in the auto business to the test of academia.
I haven't typed this much in my life! Before I sign off though: should any of you find yourselves traveling around and about this way, pleas call oror better, stop by. It would be great to see people from the old country!
C H A M P A G N A T
Statements of witnesses before the first Diocesan Tribunal investigating the sanctity of the Servant of God, Marcellin Joseph Benedict Champagnat:
"My name is Julienne Epalle, born in Le Rosey in 1795. I knew Pere Champagnat from 1512 on, when he came to spend his vacation in Marlhes while he was a seminarian ... and I declare that at that time the young cleric was consumed with zeal for the glory of God. During the very first week of his vacation he told us, If you come, I will teach you the catechism, and I will show you how you should spend your life."'
"My name is Marie Moulin, nee Duvernay. I am a widow, born in LaValla in 1509.I knew Champagnat from the time I was eight or nine. He gave me my First Communion. Even if the weather was bad, he walked more than an hour to visit me every two weeks to supervise the class and encourage the children. He was associate pastor in LaValla then. I knew him for twenty years. How much good he did! We were very edified at the poverty in which he lived with his Brothers. When he arrived in LaValla, the church was in terrible condition. He acted as plasterer and stonemason to repair it. We gave him a lot, because we loved him so much. I have never seen anyone so wise as he."
"My name is Jean-Baptiste Defour, in religious life, Brother Theodose. I was born in 1516. I knew the Servant of God for five years. I lived in community with him for eight months, and later I often returned to the Hermitage to discuss matters with him and to make my retreat. I heard our first Brothers and other people speak about him, especially in LaValla where I taught for a year and in Marlhes where I have relatives. During his life time everyone considered him to be a saint. I heard some outstanding clergymen say, 'Your Father Champagnat is a saint:. He was deeply pious, but he could never stand any kind of exaggerated or misplaced piety. He held firmly to the Rule, but he disapproved of the kind of rigorism which destroys charity in communities."
"My name is Pierre Louis Malaure.I was born in LaValla in 1523, and I am presently parish priest in Valbenoite.I knew Father Champagnat personally for ten years. He even came to visit my family. I often had long conversations about him with my relatives, as well as with his Brothers. I often attended Masses he celebrated. Out of all the priests I have seen at the altar, there is none who left me with an impression of such lively faith and burning love as the one I have of Champagnat."
"My name is Jean-Francois Badard, born in LaValla in 1513. I knew the Servant of God during my childhood, and since I was the son of the sacristan, I accompanied him several times when he carried the Lord to the sick, and sometimes I served his Mass. He preached the gospel simply, and not too long. He was well liked by the solid citizens of LaValla. How many edifying things I would be able to say if I were not so old; Father Champagnat is a saint: And so were his first Brothers."
GMC MOUNT ST. MICHAEL Saturday: 12 to 6 September 14, 1991
From the beginning there was no subscription fee for Marists All. Not until issues #2 and #3 was mention made of the costs of publication and of the need for help. The response was so great that after mailing issue #4 we still had enough funds for #5. After mailing #5, we had a large enough balance for three more issues. In following issues we simply reported on the financial situation six times, and we did not even mention money in five of the issues. One hundred twenty-one people have been so generous that we have had to make no request since issue #3.
JUBILIARIANS: 1992
50th: Br. Peter Cassidy
50th: Br. Lucien Duguay
50th: Br. Lawrence Hanshumaker
50th: Br. Denis Liuzzo
50th: Br. Victor Liuzzo
50th: Br. Alcide Ouellette
55th: Br. Peter Chanel
60th: Br. Lawrence Corbin
60th: Br. Peter Leonard
65th: Br. John Berchmans
65th: Br. Wallace Hamel
LUMEN CHRISTI AWARD: On September 15, 1990, Brother Thomas Petitte received the 1990 Lumen Christi Award at a celebration in Chicago. Extention Society created this annual award to honor Catholics who have dedicated their lives to extending the Faith among the poor and unchurched in America.
Brother Thomas was honored for his years of dedication in bringing Christ's light to the poor of his city. At the heart of.his work is Lazarus House, a shelter which provides thousands of needy people every year with emergency food, clothing, counseling, aid in finding affordable housing and jobs, and many other supports. It is a service that transcends the purely humanitarian because Christ is its source and motivation. (Taken from FMS Echo)
***** We are grateful to all who have encouraged us in the publication of Marists All to the 208 people who have written, to the 121 who have backed us financially, and to the many who have expressed their appreciation. Ten people sent $5, twenty-five sent $10, ten sent $15, twenty-five sent $20, thirty sent $25 and over, fifteen sent $50 and over, and six have sent $100 and over. Merci beaucoup a tous!
GMC MOUNT ST. MICHAEL Saturday: 12 to 6 September 14, 1991
FROM JOHN REDMOND ('51): I am writing this letter to ask you to mention in the next newsletter that I am currently unemployed. I was excessed at Malverne High School. Unfortunately I was only there for four years. Budget cuts and consolidation of positions have left me out to dry. I'm 57 years of age, have two children in college and a sixteen year old in high school. My years in Catholic high school have not put any money in the bank, as you can well imagine. I'm applying for teaching jobs, but the market place is very dry. I'm going to look into a change of careers, but my age maybe a drawback. Thanks for the newsletter and keep well.
From a paper by BR. RICHARD RANCOURT: May 18, 1991, marked the 45th commencement at Marist College. As usual it was a time to feel a sense of pride in a wonderful accomplishment, a time to celebrate! It was time also for a brief reflection on what I, as a Marist Brother, am doing here and what has taken place over the last four years ...
Blessed Champagnat, the founder of the Marist Brothers, described the life of a Brother as one that was simple, humble, and modest, a life of doing good quietly. Despite the changes wrought by Vatican II, this life in its spiritual orientation remains essentially the same. Through his vows and consecration a Brother seeks God in a life of committed service to others. As an educator, a Brother does more than just transmit academic knowledge of mathematics, science, literature, languages ... His life gives witness to a sense of religious and moral values frequently ignored in predominantly secular cultures. In a world that has much unbelief, injustice, indifference, and violence, he invites people to test their assumptions about faith, justice, love, and peace. A Brother continues ever so gently to prod individuals to make full use of what is best in themselves. He listens to those alienated from the institutional church; perhaps even from church as People of God and from society at large. In short, he assists individuals to grow and to understand those values that will open each person up to one another and to the world in a truly loving and gentle way.
This to me is a major part of the mission of a Brother: a life of caring, concern, and compassion for the other in Christ. By no means do I wake up each morning thinking about this full agenda. All I know is that somewhere, sometime during the day one of these human issues will probably surface. And somehow I must be prepared to deal with it. Thanks to Vatican II that provided a new fit for a Brother and the modern world, it is now possible to be more available to students in different social settings.
As I review in my mind the parade of graduates, I thank so many of them who with me explored the thoughts, ideals, aspirations, and sensibilities characteristic of their generation. Through their expressions of candor and friendship these are the people I have grown to love with an unconditional and non-possessive love. From each of them I have learned to be different in a different way. Only time will tell how that difference will eventually express itself in the work ahead. These individuals have reaffirmed for me the belief that each generation owes the other the opportunity for independence, while maintaining a comfortable level of interdependence.
***** From the introductory letter proposing the newsletter, Marists All: "We propose to share news about all of us that we may rejoice with one another and be concerned about the distressed."
FROM DAVID KAMMER ('42): This past September Judy and I made a "tour de France" to celebrate our final retirement, not only from teaching but also from "doing taxes." Rented a car in Frankfurt, headed for Heidelberg, crossed into France at Strasbourg, and continued for a total of 3382 miles in four weeks. Cathedrals, shrines, chateaux, war monuments, museums and cemeteries. Taize, Ars, Cluny, Fourviere, SSJ motherhouse in Lyon, LaValla, Hermitage, LePuy, Paray-le-Monial, Nevers, Solemnes, Orleans, Mont St. Michel, and Lisieux. By and large we did not do places we had visited before, like Lourdes, Reims, Paris. Thought of Chanel Lambert with whom I first traveled in France and of Bill Murphy who first showed Chanel and me around Paris.
Tried to see the chateau in St. Quentin Fallavier, site of my '56-'57 second novitiate, but the original entrance road is now blocked off by a dirt and concrete overpass which bridges the railroad tracks; did not take the time to find another entrance, but did have a beer at the cafe next to the "ancienne eglise." Encountered Claude, the second novitiate singing teacher, at L'Hermitage; now 72 years old, he was on his way from his home province in Canada to the missions in Cameroon. Also surprised to find Phil Robert, present A.G., at the Hermitage; he was helping to staff a " school for novice masters" conference. We got the royal treatment, lunch with the monks and complete tour, many renovations including the chapel, which no longer resembles the Tyngsboro chapel of old.
After we did the war beaches in Normandy, we detoured to look up Judy's family roots in Rouen and Chambois, a small village at the bottleneck of the famous Falaise gap of WWII fame. Claude Poulin left Rouen and Etienne de Lessart left Chambois in the mid 1600's for Quebec; both were involved in building the first chapel at St. Anne de Beaupre, and are so honored on plaques on either side of the entrance to the chapel. As we covered the WWI sites, we popped across the border into Belgium at Arlon to see Frederick, another second novitiate companion. He's 69, still into chem and physics, keeping the labs up but not teaching. The monks' place in Arlon is really impressive, reminds me of the Mount, but much bigger, "Mixite" and many lay teachers, about a dozen or so monks, half retired. Drove a few miles outside Arlon to a retreat house/youth center, a former novitiate, to find Br. Joseph Bossaert, a friend whom we first met at the boat in New York in 1969 when he came to show his art work in New York, at the college in Pksie, and at Woodstock; he has had much to do with the renovation of chapels at the generalate in Rome and at the Hermitage ... created a great set of stations of the cross.
We had studied in Paris in 1972, and we passed through France again in 1975. On this latest trip we found France much tidier, much cleaner. There were more signs of prosperity ... no old, junky cars, all late-model automobiles; no horse-drawn plows or rusty, worn-out farm equipment, all large modern combines. And the people were pleasant and accommodating! It was truly a memorable trip ... and the weather was great, only about a day and a half of showers, mild September temperatures, too!
***** Since a list of names of those receiving Marists All was published in issues #3 and #4, we have lost the correct mailing addresses of 22 people. Also, at least five of the original recipients have died: Jeremiah Dean, Clem Martin, Terry McMahon, John Penteck, and Al Shurkus. However, along the way from the spring of 1987 to the summer of 1991 we have added 75 names and addresses to our mailing list. At present Marists All goes out to 40 Marist communities, to 33 monks in individual ministries, and to 389 other members of our Marist family.
DECEASED: Since our last newsletter three Brothers have died: Br. Nilus Vincent Donnelly ('27 ), Br. Gilbert Osmund Barry ('35)., and Br. Peter Hilary ('29).
May all of our deceased friends rest in peace.
JUBILARIANS: 1992
25th: Br. John Byrd
25th: Br. John Cummings
25th: Br. Robert Van Houten
25th: Br. Robert McCauley
30th: Br. Gerard Brown
30th: Br. David Cooney
30th: Br. Gerald Doherty
30th: Br. Eladio Gonzalez
30th: Br. Sumner Herrick
30th: Br. Anthony Iazzetti
30th: Br. Michael Laratonda
30th: Br. Marcos Longoria
30th: Br. Joseph Madsen
30th: Br. John Raeihle
35th: Br. George Fontana
35th: Br. Kevin Handibode
35th: Br. Patrick Hogan
35th: Br. William Lambert
35th: Br. Ronald Marcellin
35th: Br. Fabian Mayor
35th: Br. Bernard Ruth
40th: Br. Bonaventura Cocco
40th: Br. Vincent Damian
40th: Br. Roy Mooney
40th: Br. Patrick McNulty
40th: Br. Dominic O'Brien
40th: Br. Leo Richard
40th: Br. Leo Shea
45th: Br. Alfred George
45th: Br. Martin Healey
45th: Br. Kenneth Marino
45th: Br. Stephen Martin
45th: Br. Cornelius Russell
45th: Br. Eugene Trzeciesk
***** At this writing, July 1, 1991, we have a balance of $376.01 in our Marists All Account. This issue #17 will use up about $242 of that sum, leaving us $134 toward a future issue. We look forward to receiving news for the next issue.
GMC MOUNT ST. MICHAEL Saturday: 12 to 6 September 14, 1991
Source: Original Marists All Site
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