THE NEWS FOR THE WEEK OF June 4, 2007...
Provincial’s time Fr. MacDonald is here in Hales Corners, along with most of the U.S. Province, taking part in the Election Assembly. Thank you Fr. Mark Fortner thanks SCJs for their prayers and concern following his heart attack in May. He said that he is doing much better. There was 99% blockage in one of the arteries of his heart, but a stent seems to have addressed the issue. Please remember… Fr. Joannes van Kampen, a member of the Indonesian Province who died June 2. He was born in 1928, professed in 1950, and ordained in 1957. OLG news Fr. Rick DiLeo writes that “We were able to raise $6,000 in scholarship money for three eighth graders graduating from Our Lady of Guadalupe School this spring.” Pictured on the web page (www.fridgenotes.org) is Fr. Rick with the scholarship students. They include John Maldonado, who was given a scholarship in honor of the Priests of the Sacred Heart; Zahira Alfaro, who received the scholarship in memory of Fr. Rick’s brother, Juan Carlos DiLeo; and Ivan Gonzalez, who received the scholarship in memory of Fr. Rick’s father, Santiago DiLeo. “Each scholarship was worth $2,000. Ivan and John will attend St. Pius High School. Zahira Alfaro will attend Incarnate Word Academy. Fifteen of the 21 graduates are going on to Catholic high schools in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston… “We also had a spring dance on May 19 that raised over $10,000 through the parishioners who ran for King and Queen of the dance.” Update Br. Duane Lemke has a new e-mail address: duanelemke@gmail.com Mission intention The Holy Father’s mission intention for the month of June: the North African Church –– that the Church in North Africa may bear witness to God’s love for every individual and all peoples. Birthday oops In the birthday calendar (Days of Commemoration and Celebration) we have made Br. Larry Gauthier a perpetual 80-year-old. His birthday is June 24, as noted in the calendar and in last week’s Fridge Notes, but he will be 81, not 80. The Fridge Notes’ editor simply thought that he looked younger than his actual age. Election Assembly This week is the Election Assembly for the U.S. Province. Joining the membership in Hales Corners will be Fr. Claudio Dalla Zuanna of the General Council. The assembly begins with extended Eucharistic Adoration on Monday morning; the first working session is scheduled for 1:30, Monday afternoon. Besides the obvious business of the assembly (provincial elections), the province will also celebrate Frater Mark Mastin’s final vows, a mission-sending ceremony for Fr. Charles Bisgrove, and the installation of the ministry of acolyte for Fraters Duy Nguyen and Greg Schill. Monitor www.fridgenotes.org during the week. We will post names on the web site as SCJs are elected to leadership positions. Feast-day letter Fr. General has his letters for the feast of the Sacred Heart posted at www.dehon.it. There is one for the SCJ congregation and one for the wider Dehonian Family. Both are available in English translations. To the congregation he begins: “By way of preparation for the feast of the Sacred Heart over the past few years we asked you to deepen your appreciation for the invitation extended by the 21st General Chapter to renew our SCJ and religious life. We dwelt on the three pillars that ought to give support to our entire consecrated life: a heart that is attentive to God (spirituality), a heart that is open to our brothers (communion); a heart that listens to and is one with the church and the world (mission). After the General Conference, we delineated a social structure and a spirituality that set forth the heart as both the start and the fulfillment of a way to understand both our spirituality and our mission. “We wish to continue this reflection keeping in mind the celebration of the feast of the Sacred Heart which is almost upon us. We want to focus our attention on the life of communion as a way to make our spirituality take flesh and as a point of departure for our Gospel witness…” To the wider Dehonian Family he writes “…These last few days we have been engaged in preparing a reflection on community life for the members of the congregation; it is called: The Gift of a Fraternal Heart. Through it we want to call upon them to pay special attention to the life of communion, the need to have the sense of fraternity grow among them, a fraternity that was given shape beneath the cross in the tiny nucleus constituted by Mary and John… The text states the following: ‘Our fraternal life is born from a gaze at the pierced side of Jesus (Jn. 19:25-37)... It is there that we learn of the manifestation of the immeasurable love of God for humanity. We are present at the birth of the church, the redemption of mankind, coming about through the gift of the Spirit and all made visible in the blood and water flowing from the Heart of Jesus.’”