Future Wisconsin Saint?

Fom The Madison Catholic Herald:

After thanking the tribunal for their willingness to serve, Bishop Morlino gave a synopsis of the life of Samuel Mazzuchelli.

In 1828, the young Mazzuchelli - just 21 years old, a Dominican friar not yet a priest - left his native Italy to labor as a missionary in the United States. Not even knowing how to speak English, he came in response to an appeal that he heard from Bishop Fenwick of Cincinnati.
After further studies and ordination, Father Mazzuchelli was sent to Mackinac Island on the northwestern frontier of the Diocese of Cincinnati as the only priest to serve an area larger than Italy.

Father Mazzuchelli spent most of his remaining years working tirelessly to build up the Church in southwestern Wisconsin and the adjacent parts of Iowa and Illinois. He established more than 30 parishes and designed and built more than 20 church buildings, along with a number of civic buildings for his pioneer territory. He also founded the congregation of Dominican Sisters, whose motherhouse remains at Sinsinawa.

The outstanding virtues and heroic labors of Father Mazzuchelli were never forgotten by the people of this area nor by the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters.

Cause for canonization

His cause for canonization was formally opened in 1964. After an exhaustive investigation of the facts of his life and his surviving writings, Father Mazzuchelli was declared a Servant of God - honored with the title "Venerable" - on July 6, 1993.

Before he can become "Blessed," the Church waits for his sanctity to be proven by testimony in the form of miraculous favors granted through his intercession.

Fr. Vito Gomez, a Dominican who is postulator of the Cause of Venerable Samuel Mazzuchelli, has named Sr. Mary Paynter, a Sinsinawa Dominican, as vice-postulator for the cause. Sister Mary asked that a diocesan inquiry be convened to examine whether a miraculous cure was granted to a Madison man through the intercession of Father Mazzuchelli.

For more on Venerable Samuel Mazzuchelli and other North American Saints (and causes) check out Father Vincent O'Malley's:

Saints of North America

Bishop: Penny a Pittance for Poor

From the St. Petersburg Times:

Bishop Robert N. Lynch, after his homily Sunday at Most Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church, told parishioners:

"I would never, ever put myself in the position where I would encourage people to vote for a particular candidate or against a particular candidate or even on issues. But I do have grave concerns about the way in which the poor, and the vulnerable elderly, especially, and the homeless are accommodated in Pinellas County. ... On the county level, you're being asked on Tuesday to vote for a renewal of a 1-penny tax that's been in effect for 17 years. You're being asked to vote for a renewal of a 1-penny tax that has in the past had zero in it for human services - nothing for the poor, the homeless or the vulnerable elderly. Now what do I mean about the vulnerable elderly? A lot of you in this church understand. You live on the edge of fixed incomes. And so many of our people who came here to spend their final years with us have found, for example, that the political jurisdictions have allowed the owners of trailer parks just to sell them and move everybody off. And they don't have any place to go. And in many other communities throughout the country, the community rises and provides low-cost housing as an alternative in these kinds of situations. We can't do it. We haven't done it. And if this penny tax passes as proposed, we won't be able to do very much. This tax will realize $1.9-billion over the 10 years from the year 2010 to 1019. They have, to their credit, allocated 1.5 percent for affordable and low-cost housing. They've never done that before. They've done it largely because of an organization like F.A.S.T., which has talked to them. I believe that $30-million out of $1.9-billion is a pittance, and we should be ashamed of that. And so I'm asking our Catholic people and others of goodwill to reflect this weekend on this particular political issue."

Open Book/Annunciation's Blog Bestseller's List

Our Bestseller's List

What Books People who Read Amy's Open Book blog and Michael's Annunciation blog are buying this month.

March 2007 (3/11/07)

1. A Pocket Guide to the Meaning of Life (A Pocket Guide to)

2. The Roman Catholic Church: An Illustrated History

3. Atticus: Novel, A

4. A Stay Against Confusion: Essays on Faith and Fiction

5. Cities of God: The Real Story of How Christianity Became an Urban Movement and Conquered Rome

Last Month's Bestseller's

February 2007

1. The Power of the Cross: Meditations for the Lenten Season

2. The How-To Book of the Mass: Everything You Need to Know but No One Ever Taught You

3.The Gift of Faith

Pope's Angelus

From Asia News Italy:

Christ invites us to respond to evil first and foremost by seriously examining our own conscience and purifying our lives. Otherwise – he says – we will perish in a similar way. In fact the people and societies which live their lives without every questioning themselves are destined for ruination. Instead Conversion, though it will not save us from problems or misadventures, permits us to face them in a different ‘way’. Above all it helps us prevent evil, by defusing some of its threats. And it allows good to win over evil, maybe not at always at a practical level – often events occur beyond our will – but certainly at a spiritual level. In short: Conversion defeats evil at its very root which is sin, even if it may not always prevent its consequences.

The Secret Power of the Cross

Jesus knew it, Blessed Mother Teresa knew it...but it isn't "The Secret" that some would have you believe, but another that will bear fruit in eternity. ..




Learn the "law of attraction" that led the hordes to seek Christ out, that longed to hear Mother Teresa, still flock to hear the message of Pope Benedict XVI!

Train Depot Monastic Reading

It became a ritual of mine, last Fall to take a book during lunchtime to a little train depot restaurant that was relatively quiet (except when a train would pass a few feet from the windows). While doing this I read three books, all of them strangely similar, but all of them unique. The first two dealt with the Carthusians living at Parkminster in England. I found An Infinity of Little Hours: Five Young Men and Their Trial of Faith in the Western World's Most Austere Monastic Order to be not only engaging, but in many ways spiritual reading in the genre of all great conversion stories. While reading it, I found that the Carthusians of this community now have their own website which made it all the more interesting--as well as a documentary has been made about them entitled Into the Great Silence.

It is a very rough life and few last. If I remember right of the five that are detailed in the Maguire book only one is still there some forty years after the five of them entered. One that didn't last is the author's husband. The book, a hardcover is under $8 for a new copy and is a great read--I would think an excellent Lenten book if you are still looking for one.

After reading An Infinity of Little Hours: Five Young Men and Their Trial of Faith in the Western World's Most Austere Monastic Order I found that I wanted to know more about the Carthusians and came across a book written about the same community in the past ten years. Then I came across Hear Our Silence which was a book that the Carthusians advertised on their web site, written by John Skinner who goes into the community (from the Guest House anyway) and spends time living on the fringe of the Carthusian community in the early 1990's. This was an interesting update on the community and had the air of reading another person's search for God in their life through the experience of those making a radical call to make God alone their one priority in life.
The third book that completed my trilogy of train depot luncheon reading, that brought me to the edge of Advent began in many ways like the other two. The book Clerical Error: A True Story (Handbooks of Catholic Theology) begins like the above books while a young Robert Blair Kaiser is enrolled as a young Jesuit in the early years of formation. Much of the same monastic experiences are recounted, but then this book takes off in an entirely different direction into the disfunction of life spinning out of control.
Now I confess that my initial reason for reading Clerical Error did not come from an attempt to continue reading about monastic life, but rather from a manuscript that had been submitted to me some years ago by Bishop Mark Hurley that detailed the "other side" of Malachy Martin. I have recounted in other places on this blog some aspects of that manuscript but somehow I came across that the key actor in this story, Kaiser, had written a book detailing the account of Martin's "other side." This is a sad book, because although it begins with someone searching for God, it ends with someone in the atmosphere of Vatican II (when most of the story takes place at the Council)of throwing off God and going headon into the 60's lifestyle. Someday Kaiser may reread this book of his and see that he was closer to God picking apples for the Jesuits, than he is in slamming Pope Benedict for trying to repair a church that is falling into ruin. So this book is Lenten reading of a different sort, but in the end might not be a bad primer for why reform is so badly needed today.

Cardinal Dziwisz Says Mass at John Paul II's Tomb

Prays for healing in the Polish Church.

From Zenit:

Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, archbishop of Krakow, celebrated a solemn Mass at the tomb of Pope John Paul II as a sign of reconciliation for the Church and the Polish nation.

Vatican Radio said that 50 priests took part in this morning's celebration with the cardinal, who was the Polish Pontiff's personal secretary.

For those who endured wrongs during communism, Cardinal Dziwisz prayed "that they not be led by emotions but look to Christ, who forgave from the cross."

During the Mass, prayers were said for the beatification of John Paul II. Prayers were also offered for the Polish people to experience heartfelt forgiveness and reconciliation.