National Hispanic Heritage Monthis a period from 15 September to 15 October in the United States for recognizing the contributions and influence of Hispanic Americans to the history, culture, and achievements of the United States.

Hispanic Americans are the largest minority group in the United Statestoday, and generations of Hispanic Americans have consistently helped make our country strong and prosperous. 

National Hispanic Heritage Month, with roots going back to 1968, celebrates the anniversary of independence of five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Mexico, Chile, and Belize also celebrate their independence days during this period. Columbus Day in Mexico (Día de la Raza) is on October 12.

Well, I am not Hispanic, nor do I think anyone in my lineage came from anywhere near south of the border.  What I do know is my favorite cuisine is Mexican* and having grown up in S. California I ate the best.  Every Thursday my  Father took us to Joe’s - not the  name of the restaurant, which fails me- but the owner/chef Joe and his family. It was the best food you could get anywhere. By my family’s standards it was a bit of a “dive” with maybe 8 tables, but could Joe cook.   Once in awhile we would go to a "fancy" place, but none compared with Joe's. I always started my meal with the albondigas- and to this day I can still taste it- and have never had another like it-  It was pure rich broth with those small meatballs.  Today so many adulterate it with vegetables and other things not necessary.

I am not sure if Joe is the most common Hispanic name, but my Father had a man working for him, also a Joe, who every year at Christmas made the traditional tamales.  And that was his gift to us.  Until recently I have not have a tamale that good.  Now there is a family near us on the mainland doing fresh ones daily- take your pick, pork or beef! 

Of course this was all before the introduction of the Tex-Mex, which maybe has adulterated good Mexican cooking.  I not only love to eat Mexican cuisine, but I love to cook it.  I have been called the best “Mexican” cook north of the border (of California that is.), which is sad, as I feel so many of the local restaurants feel “gringos”  want things out of the cans- and not homemade, take the refried beans for instance!

Some years ago, I found 1,000 Mexican Recipes by Marge Poore. It is a comprehensive guide to accessible Mexican home cookingoffering recipes of traditional fare from all the regions of Mexico, as well as dishes inspired by the nueva cocina of today's top Mexican chefs.  The author shares the cultural and culinary heritage of the people and food of Mexico from her perspective as a traveler and impassioned enthusiast of the country. Mark Miller, owner of Coyote Café (New Mexico) called it the Joy of Cooking for the Mexican kitchen.

I realize that as in our own country, there are many ways to do one dish, so in Mexico. One example is the corn vs flour tortilla.  If the flour was around 50+ years ago, I never saw it.  I tell people " where my people came from we only ate corn!"   To this day, my favorite breakfast is a corn tortilla with cheese and chili and coffee. I love things spicy and a bit edgy with heat, but unfortunately live with a community of wimps, so have to tame it down.  But the bottle of hot sauce sits at my place!  Ole, Ole!

So during this month, especially when so many are still staying close to home, try some new Mexican dish, like a Mole, the dark, rich, chocolaty sauce which is one of Mexico’s most famous and celebrated sauces- no it is not a dessert. It comes from the states of Puebla, Oaxaca, and Tlaxcala.  

Or maybe Pozole, a traditional Mexican stew with hominy, pork, and a spicy red chile sauce. Go online and find some recipes.  One thing, ingredients always easy to find.

While this Blog is about the great foods Hispanics enjoy, don’t forget their saints, especially the new ones!  Sometimes I wonder if it is because I was born on the feast of our Lady of Guadalupe, that while I am 100% non - Hispanic, I have a bit of Mexican in my heart!

* While I here mention Mexican,  I am also addicted to Peruvian (having been there twice for extended stays) which is considered the Parisian cuisine of South America.

Image is San Pasqual (by our dear friend Arturo Olivas) patron of the kitchen

What is amazing is both are “cheese nuns”.  Nov. 28, 2013, I wrote of the West Coast Cheese nun, our own Mother Therese, mentioning the “famous” cheese nun, Mother Noella. 

Mother Therese has given of herself to this foundation from its first days.  She willingly accepted the mission to leave her native Connecticut and her close family ties to travel over 3,000 miles to the unknown.  Her gentle spirit was welcomed by the islanders and old timers, who were suspicious of anything that smacked religion. 

Her love of animals is legend.  She has often been called the St. Francis of our Order.  She has raised prize Scottish Highland cattle, rare breed chickens, Jersey cows and been the general overseer of the monastery farm.  She started the dairy, which was the first raw milk dairy in the state (cows milk)  and later was helpful in  helping others get certification.

To the Community she has been Mother, counselor, infirmarian, cook, singer, and a stabilizing force.  She stands only 4'11"  but is mighty in her strength, which comes from her heritage.  She has taken this foundation from three to where it is today, graciously handing over the baton to Mother Noella.  She will remain on Shaw and we pray her remaining years be gracefilled and gentle!

 I APOLOGIZE TO MY FOLLOWERS  FOR THE FORMAT OF THE BLOGS-  WHY THESE TECH PEOPLE CANT LEAVE WELL ENOUGH ALONE , IS BEYOND ME-  AFTER TEN + YEARS OF DOING THINGS THE SAME,  I NOT ONLY HAVE TO FIND NEW TOPICS, BUT I HAVE TO LEARN A WHOLE NEW SYSTEM-  AT MY AGE! IT IS ENOUGH TO DRIVE ONE NUTS!

This week we celebrate the feast of St. Padre Pio and it is no coincidence that an Italian archbishop has opened the cause for beatification of a Capuchin friar and spiritual son of St. Padre Pio.

In 1944, the future FRA MODESTINO, born in 1917 to farmers in the area of  Pietrelcina, went to San Giovanni Rotondo and spent two weeks with Padre Pio.

He confided to him that, during his military service in Rome, he had often gone to pray in the church of St Francesof Rome, where he had developed an ancient religious vocation and had decided to enter a Benedictine community in the capital. Padre Pio replied that the Lord was not calling him to serve him in the Benedictine Order, and faced with the insistence of the young man from Pietrelcina, he said: “If you want to go to Rome, go. But a very ugly disaster has been reserved for you ”.

Three years later, in fact, that abbey was stormed by some young robbers who entered through the window and, to take possession of 15,000 lire, stabbed the abbot to death under the eyes of his lay brother and left the latter tied up and gagged. By the time the rescuers arrived, he was dead. “That fate, said Fra Modestino, was reserved for me”.

 Then Padre Pio ordered him to return home and move for some time to San Giovanni Rotondo. He stayed there for a whole year. Thus he had the opportunity to know the intimate relationship that bound the Friar to the Lord and decided to become a Capuchin too. At the moment Padre Pio welcomed the news with an exhortation: "Paesano (countryman), do not make me look bad!". 

Fra Modestino was a Capuchin who lived for 28 years alongside Padre Pio. Every day he welcomed hundreds and hundreds of pilgrims, who spoke with him, for a prayer of intercession and for a particular blessing precisely with the imposition of the crucifix of Padre Pio on the forehead.  Padre Pio gave him that crucifix making him responsible to carry in his mission. He also wore a Padre Pio glove, which  pilgrims touched. Padre Modestino was said to be the heir of Padre Pio.

Friar Modestino was also a witness in the cause for the beatification of Padre Pio.

 He died in  at the age of 94 in 2011.

FATHER FRANCIS MARY of the CROSS JORDAN, founder of the Salvatorians, will be beatified May 15, 2021, at the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran in Rome. 

The future Blessed was named Johann Baptist Jordan after his birth in 1848 in Gurtweil, a town in the modern-day German state of Baden-Württemberg  at the edge of the Black Forest.  Due to his family’s poverty, he was not at first able to pursue his calling to be a priest, working instead as a laborer and painter-decorator.

But stirred by the anti-Catholic “Kulturkampf,” which attempted to restrict the Church’s activities, he began to study for the priesthood. 

On July 21, 1878 Johann was ordained a priest in Freiburg, Germany. Because he was known to have a gift for languages, he was sent by his bishop to Romefor advanced language studies, becoming fluent in Syrian, Aramaic, Coptic, Arabic, Hebrew and Greek. 

Still, he was sensing that something else was in store for his future. He began thinking about ways to renew spirituality and restore interest in religion. In September 1880, Father Johann met privately with Pope Leo XIII in the Vatican, where he outlined his plan to begin a society devoted to spreading the teachings of the faith. The Pope gave  his blessing to move forward with his plan

He believed that God was calling him to found a new apostolic work in the Church. Following a trip to the Middle East, he sought to establish a community of religious and lay people in Rome, dedicated to proclaiming that Jesus Christ is the only Savior.  

Working several years with Therese von Wüllenweber, now known as Blessed Mary of the Apostles since her 1968 beatification, they founded a community of women in their shared cause. On December 8, 1888, Father Jordan witnessed Therese profess her vows, which marked the beginning of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Divine Savior.  Therese was known in her religious community as Mother Mary. Together, members of the men’s and women’s communities became known as “Salvatorians,” derived from the Latin word salvator, meaning “Savior.”

Father Francis and Mother Mary shared a vision to bring lay women and men into their work and mission as well, but at that time it didn’t fit the vision of the Church. Not until after the Second Vatican Council closed in 1965 was the dream of Father Francis and Mother Mary fully realized. In the early 1970s, the first Lay Salvatorians made their formal commitment. 

Today, more than two thousand Salvatorians around the world continue the mission of Bl. Francis and Bl. Mary: To proclaim the goodness and kindness of Jesus, the Divine Savior, by all ways and means the love of God inspire

In 1915, the First World War forced him to leave Rome for neutral Switzerland, where he died in 1918.

In 2014, two lay members of the Salvatorians in Jundiaí, Brazil, prayed for Father Jordan to intercede for their unborn child, who was believed to be suffering from an incurable bone disease known as skeletal dysplasia.

The child was born in a healthy condition on Sept. 8, 2014, the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the anniversary of Jordan’s death. 

Shrewsbury-born nun is on course to become Britain’s first female non-martyr saint in 800 years after the Vatican ruled she lived a life of ‘heroic virtue’.

MOTHER ELIZABETH PROUT labored in the slums of Victorian Manchester and towns of North West England until her death at 43 from tuberculosis.

The so-called “Mother Teresa of Manchester” opened a chain of schools for poor children and homes for destitute women across the industrialized region, and was ahead of her time in teaching women crucial skills to earn their own livings.

 Her canonization could mean she will become the first English female since Pope St Paul VI in 1970 included Ss Margaret Clitheroe, Anne Line and Margaret Ward among 40 canonized martyrs of Englandand Wales. She would be the first non-martyr English female saint since St Margaret of Wessex, an 11th century Anglo-Saxon princess who became Queen of Scotland after the Norman invasion of William the Conqueror, and who was canonized in 1250.

 Swift progress would also mean that, after a break of nearly half a century, Englandwould have another saint in a short space of time, given that Pope Francis declared Cardinal John Henry Newman a saint only in October.

The breakthrough in the cause was revealed by Sister Dominic Savio Hamer, her biographer and a member of the Passionist Sisters, the order founded by Mother Elizabeth in 1854. Writing in the Christmas edition of the Shrewsbury Catholic Voice, she said: ““We can imitate Elizabeth Prout in many ways and pray to her with confidence.”

“She was such a practical person – so entirely God-centred, so forgetful of self, so generous in giving herself to others, so willing to suffer in union with Our Lord’s Passion, always so that God’s will might be done.” 

Elizabeth was born into an Anglican family in Shrewsbury in 1820 and has been described as “refined, intelligent and gently nurtured”.  She was received into the Catholic faith in her early 20s by Bl Dominic Barberi, the Italian missionary who would later receive St John Henry Newman into the Catholic Church.

At the age of 28 she became a nun and a few years later was given a teaching post in some of the poorest areas of industrial Manchester, working largely among Irish migrants and factory workers.

At the time, poverty in Manchesterwas dire with Friedrich Engels, co-author of The Communist Manifesto, in 1844 describing parts of the city as “this hell upon earth”.

Four years later one observer described the Angel Meadow district as “the lowest,most filthy, most unhealthy and most wicked locality in Manchester… the home of prostitutes, their bullies, thieves, codgers, vagrants, tramps, and in the very worst sties of filth and darkness… the low Irish”.

It was in such a social context that Mother Elizabeth developed a reputation for her tireless efforts in teaching, sheltering, feeding and nursing the needy and opening an archipelago of schools and hostels across the most poverty-stricken parts of the region.

After other women joined her, she founded a religious community, but many people, including Catholics, criticized the new institute for its so-called “revolutionary ideas” – namely that of obliging nuns to earn their own wages to support themselves and by showing other women how to do the same.

But the Vatican approved the order in 1863 and named the deeply practical Elizabethas the first Superior General.  

She can certainly be an intercessor to so many of the world's poor who are suffering under horrendous conditions- a sin in the day and age of such wealth.

Some interesting statistics, and one wonders why these numbers don’t hold true in our public schools?

“A Black or Latino child is 42% more likely to graduate from high school, and two-and-a-half times more likely to graduate from college if he or she attends a Catholic school,” wrote Bishops Michael Barber of Oakland, California, Joseph Perry of Chicagoand Shelton Fabre of the Houma-Thibodaux Diocese in Louisiana.

 At the National Catholic Educational Association, there’s acute concern about the closures’ consequences.

“Catholic schools have a very profound impact on young people of low-income backgrounds, students of color, kids from single-parent homes,” said the NCEA’s chief innovation officer, Kevin Baxter “That makes it all the more tragic if we lose the Catholic schools that serve those populations.”

Other studies have repeatedly shown the benefits of attending Catholic schools for minority children. Minority children in Catholic schools often have better educational outcomes and fewer behavioral issues (Greeley, 1982). Black students are considered to benefit most from attending Catholic schools (Brinig & Garnett, 2014), as they have been shown to have higher grades than their White Catholic school counterparts and their Black public school counterparts (Aldana, 2014; Hoffer, 2000; Polite, 2000). Furthermore, the closing of Catholic schools has impacted the educational outcomes of minority students and the overall social quality of the neighborhoods in which these schools were located (Brinig & Garnett, 2014). 

When I was doing my PhD, I took a course on suicide in the young given by a brilliant  professor who happened to be Hispanic.  I will never forget his own story, in which he told of being thrown out of public school in the 7^th grade. His mother was able to enroll him in a Catholic school nearby, and the nun who taught him made such an impression on him, that many years later he was able to choose the better path, which “saved his life”.

Like many youth in his neighborhood, and perhaps due to their influence, he veered towards the wrong road, doing drugs and generally getting into all kinds of trouble.  When he was 22 he had a major choice to make in how he would live the rest of his life.  The seed that 7^th grade nun planted in him gave him the knowledge and courage to choose another path, leading to where he is today.

Catholic schools are transforming the lives of thousands of poor black and Hispanic children, many of whom are not Catholic, while often public schools trivialize the curriculum, abandoning their standards in the name of multiculturalism. Catholic educators more often try to remain committed to the ideal that minority children have a real place in the heritage of our country and our Church.  

Pope Francis's new encyclical FRATELLI TUTTI(Brothers All) is very relevant for the crises in our own country today regarding racial tensions, which are overwhelming.  Archbishop Gomez of Los Angeles wrote:

“Pope Francis’ teaching here is profound and beautiful: God our Father has created every human being with equal sanctity and dignity, equal rights and duties, and our Creator calls us to form a single human family in which we live as brothers and sisters. 

In analyzing conditions in the world today, the Holy Father provides us with a powerful and urgent vision for the moral renewal of politics and political and economic institutions from the local level to the global level, calling us to build a common future that truly serves the good of the human person.

For the Church, the Pope is challenging us to overcome the individualism in our culture and to serve our neighbors in love, seeing Jesus Christ in every person, and seeking a society of justice and mercy, compassion and mutual concern.

BLESSED OLINTO MARELLAwas an Italian Roman Catholic priest who exercised his pastoral service in the Archdiocese of Bologna. The new blessed was a classmate of Pope St. John XXIII in Rome and the pope held him in high esteem and supporting his pastoral initiatives.

He was proclaimed to be Venerable on 27 March 2013 after Pope Francis recognized that he had lived a life of heroic virtue. Pope Francis confirmed a miracle attributed to him on 28 November 2019 and Padre Marella was beatified in Bolognaon 4 October 2020.

Olinto Giuseppe Marella was born on 14 June 1882 in Pellestrina, one of three children to Luigi Marella and Carolinade' Bei. His father died when he was  ten in 1892 and his brother Ugo died in 1902. His other brother was Tullio. His uncle - Archbishop Giuseppe Marella - took care of his education.

 In 1909 his pastoral assignments were suspended after he allowed the excommunicated Romolo Murri (Priest and politician, one of the founders of social Christianity in Italy, he was excommunicated in 1909, which was revoked in 1943.)  into his home. He did not protest the decision and accepted it with a humble heart. Cardinal Giovanni Nasalli Rocca di Corneliano later rehabilitated him in 1925.

Other priests objected to his work as being too evangelical but it did not matter for he had the support of Pope John XXIII who considered Marella to be a "dear friend".

   Padre Olinto Marella also  tried to stimulate the innovative principles of Pope Leo XIII and Rerum Novarum. 

He also knew (St.) Gianna Beretta Molla - (Catholic pediatrician who refused both an abortion and a hysterectomy while pregnant with her fourth child despite knowing that her refusal could result in her own death, which did later occur)  and (Bl) Maria Bolognesi (lay mystic and stigmatic who died in 1980).

Bl. Olinto Marella died on 6 September 1969 with hundreds attending his funeral.  His feast day will be September 6.

On October 8 the Holy Father  in speaking to members of the Women’s Consultation Group of the Pontifical Council for Culture taking part in a webinar praised St. Hildegard of Bingen.

He compared the 12th-century visionary to St. Francis of Assisi, the inspiration for his new encyclical, “Fratelli tutti.”

“Like St. Francis of Assisi, she composed a harmonious hymn in which she celebrated and praised the Lord of and in creation. Hildegard united scientific knowledge and spirituality. For a thousand years, she has masterfully taught men and women through her writings, her commentaries and her art.”

 “She broke with the customs of her time, which prevented women from study and access to libraries, and, as abbess, she also demanded this for her sisters. She learned to sing and compose music, which for her was a means of drawing nearer to God. For Hildegard, music was not only an art or science; it was also a liturgy.”

The pope highlighted the central role of women in Christianity. “In the history of salvation, it was a woman who welcomed God’s Word. Women too kept alive the flame of faith in the dark night, awaiting and then proclaiming the Resurrection. Women find deep and joyful fulfillment in precisely these two acts: welcoming and proclaiming.” 

“They are the protagonists of a Church that goes forth, listening and caring for the needs of others, capable of fostering true processes of justice and bringing the warmth of a home to the various social environments where they find themselves.” 

“Listening, reflection and loving activity: these are the elements of a joy ever renewed and shared with others through feminine insight, the care of creation, the gestation of a more just world, and the creation of a dialogue that respects and values differences.”

This certainly fits with the Holy Father’s intention for the month of October: The Laity’s Missionin the Church, especially  that women may participate more in areas of responsibility in the Church.

Years ago we read a wonderful book  (Paths to the Northwest,  Wilfred Schoenberg, SJ)  on the arrival of the Jesuits in the Pacific Northwest.  If other missionaries were mentioned, I don’t remember, but recently I came across one of the very first.  Catholic missionary EUGENE CASIMIR CHIROUSE, Oblates of Mary Immaculate (O.M.I.), traveled from his native Franceto OregonTerritorywith four Missionary Oblates and, after an arduous trip, arrived at FortWalla Walla on October 5, 1847 -- only a month before the Whitman Massacre.

 By the time the Oblates of Mary Immaculate arrived in the Oregon Territory, fur trappers, the military, Protestant missionaries, and Catholic bishops had preceded them. Traveling from Canada with parties of the Hudson’s Bay Company, Father Francois  Blanchet (1795-1883) and the Rev. Modeste Demers (1809-1871) arrived at Fort Vancouver in 1838, the first Catholic priests to establish themselves in what eventually became Washington.

 Much of the missionary passion to Christianize the West is attributed to one event. In 1831, four Indians (possibly Nez Perce) traveled from west of the Rocky Mountains to St. Louis to meet with explorer William Clark (1770-1838), Superintendent of Indian Affairs. They asked to learn more about the white man’s religion.

He was ordained with Charles M. Pandosy (1824-1891) at FortWalla Walla on January 2, 1848, the first Catholic ordination in what would become the state of Washington. Father Chirouse lived and worked among the Yakamas from 1848-1856 and for a short time was missionary to the Cayuse tribe. The Oblates attempted peacemaking during the tensions that culminated in the Yakama Indian War, but in 1857 were transferred to Olympia for their safety. 

Father Chirouse was assigned to oversee Puget Sound tribes and lived on the Tulalip (very close to our island) reservation from 1857 to 1878. Here he established a school and church, the Mission of St. Anne, and helped to build missions on the Lummi (even closer and we have many friends from that tribe) and Port Madison reservations.

Father Chirouse was a master of Salish dialects, translating the scriptures, authoring a grammar and a catechism, and creating an English-Salish/Salish-English dictionary. In his advancing years, the well-loved priest was transferred to a post in British Columbia, despite protests from his Tulalip parishioners. He returned to Tulalip many times to visit friends and to perform weddings and baptisms. Father Chirouse died in British Columbiain 1892.

 “A humble apostle of the poor and the unlettered, he well deserved to be accompanied to his last resting place by the disinherited ones of the earth. Our valiant missionary was one of our first pioneers in those early days on the Pacific coast. Having arrived in Oregon in1846 (1847) he carried his tent to all the native encampments of that vast province. In the end he settled for many long years in Tulalip. 

He endured all the privations of those early days. He suffered from hunger and thirst, lived for a long time without bread, and was content to eat the most vulgar food. More than once, to protect himself against the rigours of the cold, his priestly hands had to take up the axe to cut down the trees of the forest and build himself a hut. He could truly say with Saint Paul: these hands have been used to answer my needs and those of the people around me. Certainly his kind­heartedness was never at fault but his body must have suffered and he developed illnesses that accompanied him until his death, sad and glorious memories like those of a war veteran… He cooperated in the conversion of the Lamys and the Snohomish; he visited the Yougoultas, baptized a great number of pagans everywhere and, finally, he founded a school in Tulalip which today is under the direction of the United States government. Therefore he has passed through doing good; his work lives on and his name is blessed everywhere.”

The Archdiocese of Seattle and University of Washington have a great reading list for the Catholic History of the Northwest.  I am showing only the works of Father Wilfred Schoenberg, SJ as he was so prolific in his research and his book  Paths to the Northwest reads like an adventure novel in the first half.

Father Peter De Smet

  Locations:

  AA = Archdiocese Archives (non-circulating)

  MC = Archdiocesan Library (circulating)

 UW = University of Washington- Seattle

Schoenberg, Wilfred P., S.J.. A Chronicle of Catholic History of the Pacific Northwest, 1743-1960. GonzagaPreparatory School, 1962. Location: AA, LMC, UW A chronicle of Catholic missions in the Northwest during 1743 to 1960.

Schoenberg, Wilfred P., S.J.. A Pictorial History of the Catholic Church in the Pacific Northwest. Knights of Columbus, 1996. Location: AA, LMC

Schoenberg, Wilfred P., S.J.. Bishops of the Nesqually. St James Historical Society. [n.d.] Location: AA, LMC Brief histories of the first three bishops of the Archdiocese of Seattle.

Schoenberg, Wilfred P., S.J.. GonzagaUniversity: Seventy-Five Years, 1887-1962. GonzagaUniversity, 1963. Location: AA, UW

Schoenberg, Wilfred P., S.J.. A History of the Catholic Church in the Pacific Northwest, 1743- 1983. The Pastoral Press, 1987. Location: AA, LMC, UW A compiled history of the Catholic Church in the Pacific Northwest from 1743-1983.

Schoenberg, Wilfred P., S.J.. Paths to the Northwest: A Jesuit History of the OregonProvince. LoyolaUniversity Press, 1982. Location: AA, UW A history of the Province history from its pioneer beginnings to the building of parishes, high schools and universities.

According to the Vatican, the number of Catholics worldwide increased by almost 16 million in a year to 1.33 billion. 

The figures, shared by the Fides News Service Oct. 16, showed that there were 15,716,000 more Catholics at the end of 2018 -- the most recent year where numbers are available -- compared to 2017. 

The growth was spread across all inhabited continents, with an increase of 94,000 in Europe, 9.2 million in Africa, 4.5 million in the Americas, 1.8 million in Asia, and 177,000 in Oceania. 

Fides noted that this was the third successive year that the number of Catholics in Europe had risen.

Fides, the information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927, presents the statistics annually ahead of World Mission Sunday, which takes place this Sunday, Oct. 18.

The figures also indicated that the number of priests worldwide fell in 2018 to 414,065, with Europe registering the largest decrease, followed by the Americas. Africa, Asia, and Oceania all reported higher numbers of priests. 

Overall, there was a modest increase in the number of diocesan priests and a drop in the number of religious priests. The number of Catholics per priest increased slightly, with a global average of 3,210.

Permanent deacons continued to increase, reaching a total of 47,504, with the biggest rises recorded in Americaand Europe.

The number of young men attending a minor seminary decreased for the third consecutive year, to 100,164. But the number attending major seminaries rose to 115,880. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:

The Eucharist is “the source and summit of the Christian life. The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward It. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ Himself, our Pasch.

 The Eucharist is the efficacious sign and sublime cause of that communion in the divine life and that unity of the People of God by which the Church is kept in being. It is the culmination both of God’s action sanctifying the world in Christ and of the worship men offer to Christ and through Him to the Father in the Holy Spirit.

CARLOS ACUTIS,  who was beatified in Assisi Oct. 10, is an example of a teen who used the internet to “influence” people to draw closer to God, his mother, Antonia Salzano, said.

“Carlo was able to use social media and especially the internet as an ‘influencer’ for God.”

 Carlo  (see Blog  De. 2013) was 15 when he died from leukemia in 2006. He was a computer whiz who taught himself how to program and created a website cataloging the world’s Eucharistic miracles.

From age 11, he started helping out teaching catechism to kids at his parish, and he was always helping the poor and homeless in his neighborhood.

His mother said Carlo lived ordinary things in an extraordinary way.

“Obviously, being a boy of our times, he experienced what all the young people of his generation have -- so, computers, video games, football, school, friends...” These things might feel common to us,  “he managed to transform it into the extraordinary.” 

Like many teens, Carlo liked to play video games. His mom said he could teach young people today about how to properly enjoy them and other technology, without falling prey to the pitfalls of internet and social media use.

“Because he understood that they were potentially very harmful, very dangerous, he wanted to be the master of these means, not a slave,” she said. Her son practiced the virtue of temperance, she explained, so he “imposed on himself a maximum of one hour per week to use these means of communication.”

“So for Carlo, for sure the first point is to teach young people to have temperance, that is, to understand the need to maintain the proper autonomy and the need to be always able to say ‘no, enough,’ to not become a slave.” 

We all know the plight of the great city of Detroit.  Friends told us that in the past few  years things have been looking up, more building, more repairs, more business moving in, more jobs, but the pandemic has changed this forward movement. At present the city needs all the help it can get  and a possible  intercessor isFATHER  GABRIEL RICHARD, a 19th century priest who wrote Detroit's official city motto: Speramus meliora; resurget cineribus ("We hope for better things; it will arise from the ashes.")

Archbishop Allen Vigneron has said: "Fr. Richard was a zealous pastor whose missionary heart guided all that he did. At a time when we in the Archdiocese are coming to a renewed awareness of our missionary vocation, I am grateful that we are able to raise up Fr. Richard as a model and inspiration for our mission today."

"It is particularly poignant now, amid the difficulties of the pandemic, to be starting on this journey studying the life of a beloved pastor who died while caring for the sick," said Monsignor Charles Kosanke, current rector of the Basilica of Ste. Anne. "Father Gabriel Richard left an indelible mark on all of Michigan, from the life-saving ministries of his parish to the immeasurable contributions of those who have attended and taught at the University of Michigan."

Gabriel Richard was born in La Ville de Saintes, France (1767)  and entered the seminary in Angers in 1784 and was ordained on 15 October 1790. In 1792, he emigrated to Baltimore, Maryland. He taught mathematics at St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore, until being assigned by Bishop John Carroll  (First Bishop of the US) to do missionary work to the Indians in the Northwest Territory. He was first stationed in what is now Kaskaskia, Illinois, and later in Detroit, Michigan. Fr. Richard was a priest of the Society of Saint-Sulpice.

Fr. Richard organized the shipment of food aid to the city from neighboring farms in order to alleviate a food crisis following the loss of the city's supply of livestock and grain.

 Together with Chief Justice Augustus B. Woodward, Father Richard was a co-founder of the Catholepistemiad of Michigania (which would later be renamed the University of Michigan), authorized by the legislature in 1817. He served as its Vice-President from 1817 to 1821. Following the reorganization of the University in 1821, he was appointed to its Board of Trustees and served until his death, while ministering to the sick during a cholera epidemic. Not only a good intercessor for Detroit, but for all of us in this pandemic mess!

(Bust- Tim Hinkle)   

The last couple of years have seen a bit of a boom in American saint making. Before the beatification of Bl Stanley Rother in September 2017, no American-born man had yet risen to the distinction of Blessed in the Catholic Church. But with Father  McGivney's beatification, he will become the fourth American-born male Blessed (or fifth depending on when Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s beatification takes place!).

Our Mother Therese (past Prioress) was born and raised near Hartford, Connecticut, so has always had a devotion to FATHER MICHAEL McGIVNEY.

We relate to so many Knights of Columbas in our area, that we all feel we too  have a personal connection to this soon to become blessed priest.

A devoted parish priest of the Archdiocese of Hartford, Father McGivney founded the Knights of Columbus 138 years ago in order to serve the spiritual and material needs of Catholic men and their families.

“Father McGivney was ahead of his time in enhancing the laity's role in the Church and inspiring the laity to put their faith into action in countless ways,” Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson said. “Today, his spirit continues to shape the extraordinary charitable work of Knights as they continue to serve those on the margins of society as he served widows and orphans in the 1880s.”

“By permission of our Rt. Rev. Bishop, and in accordance with an Act of the Legislature of the State of Connecticut, we have formed an organization under the name of the Knights of Columbus,” he wrote in April 1882 to a long list of parish priests in Connecticut. He saw the fledgling Order as addressing a pressing need of the Catholic Church in America, and concluded with an earnest request: “that you will exert your influence in the formation of a Council in your parish.”

In May of 2020, following extensive investigations by Vaticanmedical experts and theologians, Pope Francis confirmed that Mikey Schachle, an unborn child with Down Syndrome, was miraculously cured of fetal hydrops, an uncommon and typically fatal condition, after the intercession of Father McGivney.

 The recognition of this miracle led the way to his beatification, which will occur on October 31.

How do we keep great feasts of the year in the midst of a pandemic, which seems to be on the rise worldwide? The Church helps us by giving new regulations  to help us stay safe.

Plenary or full indulgences traditionally obtained during the first week of November for the souls of the faithful in purgatory can now be gained throughout the entire month of November, the Vaticansaid.

Traditionally, the faithful could receive a full indulgence each day from Nov. 1 to Nov. 8 when they visited a cemetery to pray for the departed and fulfilled other conditions, and, in particular, when they went to a church or an oratory to pray Nov. 2, All Souls' Day.

Also, those who are ill or homebound and would not be able to physically visit a church or cemetery in the prescribed timeframe still will be able to receive a plenary indulgence when meeting certain conditions, the Apostolic Penitentiary, a Vatican tribunal that deals with matters of conscience, said in a notice recently released.

The new provisions were made after a number of bishops asked for guidance as to how the faithful could perform the works required for receiving a plenary indulgence given the ongoing pandemic and restrictions in many parts of the world limiting the number of people who can gather in one place.

Bishops' conferences in countries where large numbers of faithful traditionally go to confession, attend Mass and visit cemeteries during the week had asked how the faithful could be accommodated given COVID-19 restrictions or in the case that a member of the faithful was ill, in isolation or in quarantine, the cardinal said.

Those who cannot leave their homes or residence for "serious reasons," which includes government restrictions during a pandemic, he said, also can receive a plenary indulgence after reciting specific prayers for the deceased or reflecting on a Gospel reading designated for Masses of the dead before an image of Jesus or the Blessed Virgin Mary, or by performing a work of mercy.

In all cases, one also must fulfill the normal requirements set by the church for all plenary indulgences, which demonstrate a resolve to turn away from sin and convert to God. Those conditions include: having a spirit detached from sin; going to confession as soon as possible; receiving the Eucharist as soon as possible; praying for the pope's intentions; and being united spiritually with all the faithful.

“Have we any right to take it strange, if, in this English land, the spring-time of the Church should turn out to be an English spring, an uncertain, anxious time of hope and fear, of joy and suffering,—of bright promise and budding hopes, yet withal, of keen blasts, and cold showers, and sudden storms?”

                                             St. John Henry Newman, Second Spring Sermon, 1852