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J an uar y 2016

The Xaverian Missionaries USA

50 YEARS OF PRIESTHOOD
January

9Death anniversary of
Fr. Natale Vaccari
19Death anniversary of
Fr. Romano Rolli
2250th anniversary of
priesthood for Frrs.
Caldognetto and Lalli
28Death anniversary of
Fr. Lino Pelerzi
29Death anniversary of
Fr. Giobatta Mondin

February
2Anniversary of priest

On January 22, fifty years ago, Frs.

Ivan Marchesin, Graziano Rossato,
Dominic Caldognetto, and Tony Lalli
were ordained to the missionary
priesthood on a cold, snowy day. The
storm was so bad that only one parishioner of St. Roberts Church attended, Mrs. Froddert.
Archbishop Cousins was the presiding
bishop and Tonys three brothers,
Frank, Luciano, and Lino served the
mass.

Since then our confreres extended

the reach of the gospel from Bangladesh, Colombia, Sierra Leone,
and Brazil. Grazziano passed away
on December 2, 2006 in Sierra Leone.
The USA Region is planning two
celebrations. The first is May 21 in
Holliston, and the second will be in
Franklin on June 4. Let us celebrate
what God continues to do through
the lives of our confreres.
1

hood of Fr. Francis Signorelli

16Birthday of Fr. Adolph
Menendez
16Death anniversary of
Fr. Luciano Peterlini
17Birthday of Fr. Tonino
Senno
21Birthday of Fr. Dominic Caldognetto
21Death anniversary of
Fr. Pio Mattevi

March

12Birthday of Fr. Aniello

Salicone

22Anniversary of priesthood of Fr. Larry Crosara

31Anniversary of death
of Fr. Bruno Orru

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Rethinking our Relationship with the Cosmos

During he Thanksgiving week
Mary Aktay, and Frs. Davitti and
Chudy spent a week in our UK
Region in Scotland to participate
in their Common Ground conference involving Interfaith Scotland and the Scottish Humanist
Association around the issue of
global climate change. Fr. Carl
shares a reflection on this experience in our blog, Catholic Global
Mission.
Where is God?
This is the question I ask as millions across the globe raise their
voices in the disastrous effects
of climate change on those who
have no recourse on adjusting
to climate change. I worked in
the Philippines for 13 years and
saw first hand how warming
oceans create bigger storms,
acidified oceans curtail fishing,
air pollution that kills many
asthma sufferers, rising oceans
that displace those with little
place else to go. We are connecting the dots from climate
change to exasperated poverty
and even war and terrorism is
fostered through these forces
which show no sign of let up.
Pope Francis is also helping us
connect the dots between the
faith, the presence of God, our
role in salvation, and the complexities of ecological crisis. As
important as science is in this
great challenge, it is not the
only way to interpret this crisis.
Pope Francis speaks of the role
of faith, the cultural richness of
humanity, art, poetry, the interior life, and spirituality. The

conversation of faith and reason, science and theology bring

new vigor to the answers we all
seek. Pope Francis says that the
Church wants this to occur.
An extraordinary book by Diana
Butler Bass called Grounded:
Finding God in the World, has
been my companion this Advent. The rising hope of the
prophets in these weeks of Advent, and the birth of the Savior
in the nitty gritty of life is all
about finding the mysterious
and ineffable power of God in
the world, the stuff of life we
live and breath everyday.
The Breath of God
The very creation of the world
that evolved over billions of
years is about the Creator that
continues to create through the
movement of stars, planets,
and tectonic plates in the earth.
The science that helps us understand the evolution over
billions of years is the very hand
of God.
Diana emphasizes this point in
her sense of the breath of God.
"After 2.3 billion years ago, ancient organisms called cyanobacteria appeared on the earth.
They survived on photosynthesis, using energy from the sun
to produce oxygen. Oceans became saturated with this oxygen and escaped into the atmosphere, and thus the air we
breath today came into being.
Scientists call this the Great
Oxygenation Event. We call it
"the breath of God."
2

In the second verse of the book of

Genesis it reads,"The earth was a
formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a
wind from God swept over the
face of the waters."At each stage
of creation, God breathes new
life in the world. God is literally
the air by which all human life
depends. (Bass, Chapter 3)
Faith and Science
On November 28-29, 2015 in
Coatbridge, Scotland, we gathered with the Xaverian Missionaries at Conforti Institute in a project we are both working on
called Common Ground. We began this program in November
2013 where we gathered with
religious believers of different
traditions, and atheists and humanists interested in dialogue in
order to find the common ground
we all stand on. In this past conference in Coatbridge, our common ground was global climate
change, or what Pope Francis

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called care for our common

home.
Although humanists see the reasons for the evolution of life to
be different from those of religious believers, what we do hold
in common is the science we rely
on today to understand creation.
Catholics, for example, are at
liberty to believe that creation
took a few days or a much longer
period, according to how they
see the evidence, and subject to
any future judgment of the
Church (Pius XIIs 1950 encyclical
Humani Generis 3637). They
need not be hostile to modern
cosmology. The Catechism of
the Catholic Church states, "[M]
any scientific studies . . . have
splendidly enriched our
knowledge of the age and dimensions of the cosmos, the
development of life forms, and
the appearance of man. These
studies invite us to even greater
admiration for the greatness of
the Creator" (CCC 283)
During the conference we
shared from Christian, Muslim,

In Holliston you wont be hearing

the pitter patter of Fr. Roccos
feet because he is representing
the region in an international
workshop on social media entitled, Xaverian Charism and Social
Media. It is taking place in
Tavernrio and organized by the
General Direction, a strong encouragement from the last General Chapter. Social media is an
essential to0l in mission animation, particularly with young people, and growing tool for evangelization.

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Jewish, Buddhist, and Humanist perspectives why we need

to strengthen our resolve to
reverse ecological disaster for
the sake of humanity and the
planet we share. What we attempted to show is what Pope
Francis shared, it takes all of
us, religious and non-religious
neighbors to halt the tide of
destruction. The encyclical of
Pope Francis on care for our
common home was written for
a worldwide audience, not
merely Catholic or religious in
order to underline that point.
Science and faith can help
each other root ourselves in a
new way we envision the
world, humanity, and our vital
link to the Lord of Creation. A
great cultural, spiritual, and
educational stands before us
as we look toward a new lifestyle, a more profound and
honest relationship between
humanity and the environment, and an ecological conversion. (Pope Francis, Laudato Si 201-204)

In a step forward in our Common Ground Project (dialogue

with humanists and atheists) Fr.
Carl was accepted as a blog
writer on the Secular Spectrum,
an atheist blog as part of the
Patheos.com project. Patheos is
probably the largest online interfaith conversation going on
in the internet today. Fr. Carls
last blog post, Rethinking our
Relationship with the Cosmos,
was shared almost 200 times.
The first blog post: The Compassion
of Secular and Religious Voices..

Fr. Carl Chudy, SX

Office of the Provincial
12 Helene Court
Wayne, New Jersey 08046
973-942-2975
provincial@xaviermissonaries.org
Xaviermissionaries.org

Xaverian charism
and Social Media
Structures and effects of
Social Media language in the
mission ad gentes

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Bulletin of the Provincial Council

We welcome Fr. Tonino Senno to the USA Region. After an elongated visa application, he finally arrived in
the Holliston community in
early December. He is assigned to assist the Shrine
Team. He is spending time
now coming accustomed to
American culture and this
new region for him. Give him
a call and welcome him
yourself.
The Provincial and Council
will be attending their yearly
ongoing formation program
in leadership in Tucson Arizona, January 2431.. Archbishop Tobin will be leading
the program.
The Region offered donations to the missions. The
Philippines received a substantial amount in the honor
of Fr. Aldo dos Santos, who
suddenly passed away in
December. We also provided
a donation to the Longoni
Fund for the needs of African formation. These monies were made available by
he Grimshaw Foundation
which provides a grant yearly.

The council talked over details for the upcoming Provincial Chapter.

Fr. Chudy reported on the

dialogue with the confreres
of the UK Region in our ongoing desire to collaborate
and to work more together.

Fr. Senno reported on the

Elder Summit, a gathering
of religious men congregations organized by
Maryknoll Missioners and
the Archdiocese of New
York. We are searching for
ways to work together and
collaborate regarding elder
care issues and costs.
The council talked over our
next steps as we enter
back into investments in
the region. We were given
permission by the GD last
fall. Our Investment Advisory Committee are three
friends of the Lay Advisory
Board in Franklin.

The Holliston community

asked for assistance from
the region to renovate the
roof of the our church on
the shrine. The council approved this request and
awaits the letter of request
from Fr. Joe.
The council discussed the
need to organize better
archives of the local communities and to be more
conscious of a faithful
keeping of the history of
each community. The updated Vademecum was
sent to each of the rectors.

Important Meetings

CMSM Leadership Gathering,

January 2428, Tucson, AZ
(Provincial Council)

Xaverian Charism and Social

Media, Jan 1730, Tavernerio (Fr. Puopolo)

CMSM National Board, Tucson, AZ (Fr. Chudy)

Excecutive Board of the

USCCB National Advisory
Council, Feb 2223, Wasshington DC (Fr. Chudy)

USCCB National Advisory

Council, March 36, Baltimore, (Fr. Chudy)

CMSM Region II, March 9

10, New York, (Fr. Chudy)

Communications Board,
March 14, Wayne

Provincial Council Meeting,

March 1415, Wayne.

PROVINCIAL CHAPTER
PREPARATION
February 1Revisions to
the two working papers of
he chapter are due to the
provincial
February 20Pre-chapter
ballots sent out to the confreres and due back to the
Provincial by February 29.
February 29Redraft of
papers sent back out to confreres.