No. 7 - FEBRUARY 2000
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THE MOST IMPORTANT DUTCH CATHOLIC OF THE CENTURY |
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Last December the Dutch Catholic Broadcasting Corporation RKK/KRO launched a survey about the most important Catholic of the Century. The organisers presented a list of 50 Dutch Catholics who played an important role in the Netherlands during the 20th century. There were two juries: the "public jury" and the "expert jury". During the programme "Kruispunt" the speaker reported the results
of the survey. The "public jury", made of over 7000 Catholics, had to vote
by phone or by e-mail. In this poll the first three places were given to
three important Dutch bishops: Bekkers, Muskens and Alfrink. Next to them
was placed Bl. Titus Brandsma, Carmelite.
The second "expert jury" put Titus Brandsma in the first place! The Chairman of this jury, the former politician Norbert Schmelzer, said that the reason of this preference is because: "Titus Brandsma was a great mystical and spiritual man, who was always in contact with reality. He offered much inspiration to others and this same inspiration has also led him to involve himself. He gave his life for freedom and for Christ". Cardinal Simonis, who was present during the transmission, said that Titus Brandsma is also for him the Catholic of the Century, "because he is a saint, a man who lived his priesthood in the best way and with an enormous mystical force. He gave his life for what is good, just and truth." For further information:
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THREE NEW GROUPS OF RELIGIOUS |
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There have been three groups of religious recently affiliated to the
Carmelite Order and they are all from the U.S.A. They are also all eremitical
communities. The first to be affiliated was the "Hermits of Our Lady
of Mount Carmel", a community of female hermits based in Chester, New
Jersey. They were affiliated on 25 March 1998. The superior of the community
is also the foundress, Sr. Mary of Jesus and St. Joseph. The other two
groups of male hermits were affiliated on 8 December 1999. Both are named
"Hermits of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel" although
they were founded completely independently of one another. One community
is based in Christoval, Texas, and the other community is based in Lake
Elmo, Minnesota. In Christoval, the founder is Fr. Fabian Rosette and in
Lake Elmo, Fr. John Burns.
The Hermits of Christoval together with
Although each of these communities is at present small, all the founders have great hope and trust in the providence of God. The three newly affiliated communities share many things in common although each has its own particular spirit. They share a focus on the eremitical life and have the individual hermitages grouped round the chapel in the centre. They share a love for the Carmelite tradition and have had contact with the Order for several years. The female "Hermits of Our Lady of Mount Carmel" have a particular emphasis on reconciliation through self-revelation. The hermits in Lake Elmo are very interested in the Carmelite Liturgy while the hermits in Christoval try to live an integrated life of prayer both liturgical and personal and manual work. For further information:
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Fr. Robbie MacCabe, O.Carm., was a young medical doctor not long graduated when he entered the Irish Carmelites as a novice in 1953. He is now a missionary priest, working in the Turkana Desert in Northern Kenya, a place served by the Kiltegan Fathers (St. Patrick's Missionary Society). Where Fr. Robbie lives and works is a remote and lonely place, thirty miles from the nearest post office - he is as eremitical as any of the Desert Fathers. In 1961, after his ordination, Fr. Robbie was assigned to the Carmelite Mission in Zimbabwe (then called Southern Rhodesia) which covered the Diocese of Umtali along the eastern boundary of the country. When the War for Independence broke out, which saw the expulsion of Bishop Donal Lamont, O.Carm., and some of the Carmelite friars, Fr. Robbie had also to leave in 1977. While he is truly a practitioner, he is also an expert in tropical medicine so that when he returned to Dublin he resumed research and subsequently received the M.D. degree from the University of Liverpool. He continues to lecture in the Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin, for a few months every year. Prevented from working in Southern Rhodesia during the war, Fr. Robbie agreed to help the Kiltegan Fathers in Kenya and there, in Turkana, he has since had his apostolic work. He stayed for several years, first in a village settlement and later in the town of Lokitaung where he saw patients in the hospital at which he established a small laboratory. Lokitaung is some 600 miles north of Nairobi, near to the borders of Sudan and Ethiopia. He now lives in Kaling, some 30 Kms from Lokitaung, where he has a small clinic. He has a mobile laboratory, which he drives daily to remote watering places where he holds clinics, which enables him to treat the nomadic people. At the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland where Fr. Robbie teaches for a few months every year in the Department of Tropical Medicine, he was nominated for the Student Union Teaching Awards (1997-98) and in the Pre-Clinical and Clinical Teaching was awarded: Highly Commended. For further information:
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This is the title of a letter published on 14 November 1999 by the OCD and O.Carm., Superiors General, Fr. Camilo Maccise and Fr. Joseph Chalmers, to mark the Third Millennium and addressed to all Carmelite brothers and sisters. In the introduction of their message, the two Superiors General affirm:
"God has pitched His tent in our midst" (Jn 1:14). He dwells amongst
us and dialogues with us; He frees us from every servitude and teaches
us the path of solidarity and service.
The subject of the letter is developed around three main themes: I. Keep our true founders before us, II. Crossing the threshold of the third millennium with a renewed identity, III. Practical guidelines for crossing the threshold of the new millennium. The letter then concludes with an exhortation to cross the threshold of the third millennium "under the protection of Mary…in company of the great prophet Elias and of our saints…through the light of Christ… We go through all those closed doors which separate, blocking communication, dividing and denying fraternity and communion. We go through the door of this new millennium with living faith and active hope to serve the Lord of the Centuries with a pure heart and unalloyed generosity." For further information:
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On the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the birth of the Servant of God, Mother Maddalena Mazzoni Sangiorgi, Foundress of the Carmelite Sisters of Graces, on 26 December 1999, in Bologna (Italy), in the parish church of St. Caterina, the Cause for Canonisation was opened at the first sitting of the diocesan inquiry. During this sitting, at which the Cardinal Archbishop Giacomo Biffi presided, in the presence of the members of the tribunal, the Postulator General of the Carmelite Order and the Vice Postulator for the Cause, took the oath to carry out their work faithfully. This was followed by a celebration of the Eucharist in thanksgiving to God for the gift of Mother Maddalena and for the success of the Cause. In his homily the Cardinal referred to the importance of this Cause because it has to do with someone who lived in the 18th century, but whose message is very relevant for today. On 30 December 1999, while still in Bologna, the Postulator General, Fr. Felip Amenós, at the end of a year dedicated to Mother Mazzoni, gave a talk at the Mother House of the Sisters. The subject of the talk was "Carmelite Holiness and Mother Maria Maddalena Mazzoni". Mother Maddalena united her prayer, her union with God, with a deep desire to take care of the needy in her society. As a married woman, the mother of a family, widow and foundress, in touch with the world of her time she could be a very good model for women today. For further information:
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The origin of the cult to St. Mary of Carmel, so-called "La Bruna", in Naples (Italy), goes back to the XIIIth century and is connected with an icon of the Virgin with the Child kept in a small church dedicated to St. Nicholas of Bari. According to one tradition, the said icon was brought by the Carmelite friars who were forced to leave Mount Carmel and landed in Naples about the middle of the XIIIth century (certainly before 1268). In 1500, on the occasion of the jubilee proclaimed by Pope Alexander
VI, the confraternity of tanners went on pilgrimage to Rome carrying the
icon of the Bruna Virgin. On the journey, which they accomplished on foot,
"many miracles to several people in various lands" took place by the intercession
of the Virgin. When they arrived in Rome, they exposed the picture of the
Bruna in the Vatican Basilica for the veneration of the faithful and there
Pope Alexander VI himself also paid homage to it. On the way back the same
graces and prodigies took place again so much so that it was decided to
place the picture, which previously had been kept in the crypt of the small
church of St. Nicholas, above the main altar to take the place of a picture
of the Assumption.
on its way back to Naples By order of Frederic II of Aragon, on 24 June of that same year, 1500, many sick people gathered in the Carmelite church to implore, through the mediation of Mary, the desired cure. Later, many cures were reported. Now 24 June was a Wednesday. This determined the choice of day for venerating the Bruna Virgin in a special way. Thus were born the "Carmelite Wednesdays", a pious devotion which soon spread from Naples not only throughout the ancient Kingdom of Naples, but also further afield and especially in the churches of the Carmelite Order. This devotion is still practised today and the pious pilgrimage remains a reality in the devotion of all the peoples towards the Blessed Virgin. Nevertheless, the "Wednesday", while keeping some of the traditional elements, today is practised by many Carmelite communities as a day of catechesis, every year elaborating a special theme, thus perpetuating in time the great works which God has accomplished by the mediation of Mary. For further information: |
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The chronicles of some hundred years ago say: "It was the dawn of
31 October 1894 when, after Mass, the Most Blessed Virgin of Carmel appeared
to those present in church pale and her eyes seemed lifeless. Those present
and others who came later noted that the pillars of the altar, the face
of the Virgin as well as the walls of the church were dripping water. The
Virgin also kept closing and opening her eyes, constantly changing the
colour of her face, now pale now cheerful. On 16 November the people decided
to carry the Most Blessed Virgin of Carmel in procession. They took her
around the streets of the city. A very large crowd followed the venerated
statue. When they came to the edge of the city, far from any buildings,
a terrible underground rumble, a deep, whirling and immensely violent motion,
manifested God’s just indignation which spares the lives of people, but
punishes them materially and physically. In one minute, the prosperous
and rich city of Palmi was destroyed and rendered uninhabitable, but the
inhabitants were safe".
On 16 November 1999, on the anniversary of the liturgical feast commemorating the miracle of 1894, in the hall of the Carmelite Shrine of Palmi (Italy), the first regional meeting was held on the theme "The Motherly Protection of Mary – The role of Carmelite Congregations at the threshold of the Third Millennium". About 200 representatives, priors of Carmelite Congregations from Calabria and Sicily, priests and religious and spiritual assistants, various representatives of the Carmelite Family and members of the Scapular confraternity were present at the meeting, which was organised by the Noble Congregation of Carmel in Palmi under the management of the rector of the Shrine, Fr. Giovanni Demilito, O.Carm. For further information:
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On 27 November 1999 the 20th Anniversary of the "Foundation
of the Dining Room", in the Carmelite parish of Zaragoza (Spain) was celebrated.
This is a social programme organised by over three hundred volunteers under
the leadership of the Parish Priest, Fr. Frutuoso Aisa and Fr. Roberto
Barreneche, Carmelites. Along with the dining room, which can seat 130
guests, there are also other services such as the laundry and the distribution
of clothing. It has been calculated that in one year the operation serves
around 36,500 meals and gives out around 13,000 items of clothing.
The parish’s social action extends even further to include:
For further information:
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