to download pdf - Congregation of The Resurrection

Provincial Newsletter
Ontario – Kentucky Province
October 2010
Give Thanks
He who supplies seed to the
sower and bread for food will
supply and multiply your seed
for sowing and increase the
harvest of your righteousness.
You will be enriched in every
way for your great generosity,
which will produce thanksgiving
to God through us.
2 Cor. 9:10, 11

Giovanni Battista Cardinal Re
1500 th Anniversary of Our Lady of Grace
Shrine, Mentorella
(Report by Sudie MacDonald)
On the last weekend in August, the
Church celebrated the 1500th Anniversary
of the Shrine, “Our Lady of Graces”, at
Mentorella, Italy. We all knew that the
shrine was celebrating its 1500th year of
existence then, but I wonder if we were all
aware of the ecclesial importance of this
celebration. It was not just our Community
celebrating an anniversary of our shrine, but
the main liturgy of the Eucharist was
presided over by Giovanni Battista Cardinal
Re, personal legate of Pope Benedict XVI
for the occasion. It is quite obvious that
Pope Benedict could not be present in
person because of the impossibility of
providing a secure venue for him for such a
public event. In this case he sent a formal
two page letter to those at the shrine
congratulating the Congregation and
containing also the nomination of Cardinal
Re as “Nostro Inviato Speciale alle
celebrazioni”. The Holy Father also made
special reference to the anniversary in his
Sunday Angelus. We should all be
honoured as Resurrectionists that the
occasion was marked by a public,
Pontifical, and therefore Church event.
“Mentorella”, as the shrine is
commonly referred to, is a foundational
element in Resurrectionist history. When
Pope Pius IX was granting the care of the
shrine to the young newly-founded
Congregation in 1857, in his Rescript he
referred to the small Congregation as,
“Religious Priests of the Resurrection of our
Lord Jesus Christ.” This was the first formal
recognition of those who were living under
the banner of the Risen Saviour as an
accepted group within the Church.
It was an honour for me to be invited
by the Rector of the Shrine to join in this
celebration and I was glad also to be asked
by our Provincial Superior to be the O-K
Province’s representative to it. It was not
just one Mass, but there was a Triduum of
Masses and devotions in preparation before
the feast. Fr. Wes Spiewak, C.R.,
Provincial Superior of the Polish Province,
and Fr. Andrew Sosnowski, C.R., Assistant
Provincial Superior, Fr. Adam Otrębski,
C.R., Rector of the Shrine, and I
concelebrated and took turns presiding
during this Triduum. There followed three
Masses for the Sunday celebration of the
feast itself. The first, the Vigil on Saturday
night was presided over by Fr. Wes who
also preached. The three others of us who
had concelebrated the Triduum concelebrated
this Mass also: it was broadcast
live on Radio Maria. Fr. Wes did a superb
job both of presiding and preaching and
staying within the confines of a live
broadcast. Radio Maria surprised us all,
however, when they put in an element of
their own after communion. We were asked
just to pause for a moment by the radio
commentator, and very shortly over the
speaker system of the shrine as well as on
2

the radio came the words of Pope John
Paul II on his first historic visit to Mentorella
after his election as Pope. He talked about
the beauty and the simplicity of the shrine,
and how it was a place where one could
find God. As his voice was being
broadcast, I looked around, and I have to
tell you there wasn’t a dry eye in the
Church. What a way to begin the
celebrations!
On Sunday morning at 11 o’clock,
Cardinal Re presided over a concelebrated
Mass in the main courtyard of the shrine.
People were crammed in everywhere: five
bishops; the Abbot of Subiaco; our Superior
General, Fr. Norbert Raszeja, C.R., along
with Frs. Adam and Steve, all of whom had
come from Rome for this Mass; and a
number of priest guests concelebrated.
Mother Dolores, C.R., Superior General of
the Sisters of the Resurrection along with
some Sisters from their General Council, as
well as the Benedictine Samaritan Sisters
who work in our Generalate and Brother
Peter from Rome also participated. There
were many religious communities
represented. Music for the Mass as well as
prelude was provided by the Choir of the
Diocese of Rome under the direction of
Monsignor Bruno Frisina. (Who directed the
same choir for the beatification of Mother
Celine, Foundress of the Sisters of the
Resurrection.)
A pranzo (dinner) followed the Mass
using all of the various dining rooms at the
shrine as well as the garden terrace and the
rec-room. I wasn’t feeling the best by that
time, so I skipped the cocktails and dinner
and went to bed for a bit. From all
accounts, though, the meal was superb and
done in the normal Italian style. In the
afternoon, at 4:00 p.m. the choir put on a
concert in the courtyard where we had had
the main Mass, and they sang the works of
the director, Msgr. Bruno, that he wrote for
JP II, “Totus Tuus.” I was rejuvenated by
that time, and I enjoyed the concert a great
deal. In fact, I have video of a part of it.
In the evening there was a closing
Mass celebrated by Bishop Mario
Parmeggiani, Bishop of Tivoli, in which
Diocese the shrine is canonically territorially
present. The Mass was again concelebrated
by about 15 priests, and it was
impossible for all the people present to
enter the church. Thus, the courtyard was
quite a lively traffic area.
Perhaps many in the O-K Province
don’t know, but the care of the shrine at
Mentorella was given to the Polish Province
of the Congregation by Fr. Ted Kaszuba,
C.R. and his Council when he was Superior
General. This was a fortuitous move as
there were no Italian members ready to
carry on there. The Polish Province
members who have served at the shrine
over the years have made incredible
improvements to the physical locale as well
as having provided constant spiritual
support to those who come “to find God” as
Pope John Paul said. The Shrine was
given to us by Pope Pius IX, but we as a
Congregation had to buy it when the Papal
States ceased to exist, (Fr. Kaszuba says
“twice”): so, it is ours and really a gift to us
from our Founders. Let us thank God for
such a wonderful gift. (And continue to
support it when we can as we receive no
government nor ecclesiastical support, i.e.
salaries – it is ours!)
3

400 th Anniversary of Our Lady of Sorrow
Shrine, Sulislawice
(Report by George Nowak)
My home town in Poland was
celebrating, and I wanted to celebrate with
them. So in September I flew to
Sulislawice, in the diocese of Sandomierz,
150km from Krakow. My family welcomed
me, and I was very happy to see my
mother, who has been struggling with the
effects of a stroke. At any rate, we were
thrilled to be brought together again by such
a happy event as the celebration of 400
years of the presence of the Miraculous
Image of the Sorrowful Mother.
The village of Sulislawice was
founded in the 11 th century. The parish was
erected in the 12 th century, under the title of
the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
This same parish was entrusted into the
hands of the Polish Province of the
Congregation of the Resurrection in 1951.
But the miraculous image of the Sorrowful
Mother arrived in 1610 which is precisely
what we were celebrating.
In Poland there are over 150
crowned images of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
This is a special designation which likely
refers back to 1656 when Mary was
officially crowned as Queen of Poland. The
Polish Monarchy not only supported the
move but actively participated in it. When
Poland was partitioned in 1795, and the
monarchy ended, Poles looked to Mary as
their official Queen. A devotion that remains
to this day. Our Lady of Sulislawice was
crowned on September 8 th , 1913. The
miraculous image was the 40 th image to be
permitted to be crowned.
The celebration began on Sept. 7 th ,
2010 with prayers in Ruszcza (my home)
and continued with a procession of about
500 people to the Shrine. Bishop
Frankowski celebrated Mass in the evening
followed by an all-night vigil. A second
Mass was celebrated at midnight, 4 more in
the morning and the main celebration with
Archbishop Ziemba and Bishop Nitkiewicz
in the afternoon, with about 5,000 people in
attendance. A reception was served for
clergy and dignitaries who numbered
around 150.
Much preparation went into this
celebration, and it is far from over. In fact it
will continue for the next three years, and
climax with the 100 th anniversary of the
crowning of the miraculous image. The
shrine is a pilgrimage site, and expectations
are that there will be a substantial increase
in visitors over the Jubilee Years 2010-
2013. The Image is considered miraculous
because of the numerous healings and
4

other miracles that have been attributed to
the Sorrowful Mother over the years.
The image itself is mysterious. In
fact there are two images. The first is that
of the Sorrowful Mother standing next to the
Risen Christ, who reveals his wounds and
is himself standing in a tomb that is often
described as a wine press. This image is
called Misericordia Domini. Originally, it
was found as the lid to a priest’s sick kit.
When lifted, the inside of the cover revealed
a second picture; that of the Sacred Face of
Jesus. Many mystical interpretations have
been made by the faithful, connecting the
healing powers of the sick kit with the
miracles that followed from the veneration
of the images. This is the only
Resurrectionist Shrine dedicated to Our
Lady in all of Poland, and therefore holds a
prime place among Resurrectionists, like
myself.
Resurrectionist Missions
The Resurrectionist Mission in Brazil
was begun in 1959 by a small group of
three priests from Poland. In the last fifty
years the Mission has grown and now has
about thirty members, half of them native
Brazilians and the other half from Poland.
When we learned of their difficult financial
situation, it was decided that the
RESURRECTIONIST MISSIONS group
here in Canada would assist them from the
funds which we have received from
generous donors. After Fr. Jerome
Kroetsch, CR travelled to Brazil in the
spring of 2010 to assess the needs of the
mission, and to inform the missionaries of
what they needed to do in order for us to
send money out of Canada, it was decided
to undertake six projects for the mission.
Three projects involved sending money to
them for regular operating expenses, two
projects to repair buildings, and one to
purchase a vehicle for the students to travel
to the university and seminary which they
attend.
Three of the projects have now been
completed: the purchase of a mini-bus, and
the repair of the novitiate building (repair of
damaged walls and painting the interior and
exterior) and the seminary building
(installing a new roof and improving the
electrical system). We have received
documentation on these projects as well as
photos showing what has been done.
The other three projects are for regular
expenses, i.e. salaries of lay workers,
insurance, student tuition, utilities, etc. at
the regional office, the seminary and the
novitiate. We are pleased to have been able
to assist our CR’s in Brazil. Their cooperation
with us has made the projects
move along smoothly. We were able to
assist them because of the generous
donations received from our benefactors of
the missions.
The committee has also been busy
assisting Resurrectionists missionaries in
Tanzania, East Africa. There are three CR
priests in the mission ministering to two
very large and scattered parishes. The
committee has assisted them in the
purchase of furniture for one of the parish
halls, as well as for living expenses.
5

Please remember in your prayers both
the CR’s ministering in our missions
and our generous benefactors to
Resurrectionist Missions.
Photo: Father Flavio Bittencourt de Aguiar C.R. (Rector)
standing on the roof of the seminary. The original roof was
dark and was replaced by the white roof shown behind him.
6