'Don't come home before midnight!' - a dying girl's gift to her parents

Blessed Chiara Luce Badano (1971-1990)

The patron of the Congress Youth Space  at the 50^th International Eucharistic Congress to be held in Dublin from 10 to 17 June is Blessed Chiara Luce Badano (1971-1990). In the September-October 2010 issue of Misyon we published an article about her, TheSaint Who Failed Math.  

Ruggero and Maria Teresa Badano with their infant daughter

In the June 2012 issue of Intercom, the monthly published by the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Fr Patrick Leahy tells a lovely story about this only child who was born to her parents Ruggero and Maria Teresa on 29 October 1971, eleven years after they married and who died 22 days short of her 19^th birthday. On St Valentine’s Day 1990, when she was already very sick, Blessed Chiara Luce booked a meal for her parents at a local restaurant. Before they went there she said to them, ‘This evening look at one another in the eyes, and don’t come home before midnight!’ She then turned to her mother and said, ‘And remember, Mum, before me, there was Dad’.

I wish that every married couple had the clarity that this young person had, that the foundational relationship in the family is that between husband and wife, not between parent and child. The latter is a consequence of the first.

Church honours Mexican martyrs today

Today the Church honours a group of 25 Mexican martyrs, 22 of them diocesan priests and three of them laymen, St Christopher Magallanes and Companions. There is a list of their names here. Fr Pedro de Jesus Maldonado was killed in 1915, the others between 1926 and 1928. 

The movie, For Greater Glory, in Spanish Cristiada, which tells something of the story of the martyrs, will be officially released on 1 June. Peter O'Toole plays the part of St Christopher. Above is the official trailer.

St Cristóbal (Christopher) Magallanes Jara was born on 30 July 1869 and executed by firing squad on 25 May 1927. The son of farmers, and a one-time shepherd, he was captured while on his way to celebrate Mass with farmers, becoming a shepherd in a much deeper sense by laying down his life for his sheep. His last words were, I die innocent, and ask God that my blood may serve to unite my Mexican brethren.

Blessed Pope John Paul II said in his homily during the Mass at which the saints were canonised on 21 May 2000, After the harsh trials that the Church endured in Mexico during those turbulent years, today Mexican Christians, encouraged by the witness of these witnesses to the faith, can live in peace and harmony, contributing the wealth of Gospel values to society. The Church grows and advances, since she is the crucible in which many priestly and religious vocations are born, where families are formed according to God's plan, and where young people, a substantial part of the Mexican population, can grow up with the hope of a better future. May the shining example of Cristóbal Magallanes and his companion martyrs help you to make a renewed commitment of fidelity to God, which can continue to transform Mexican society so that justice, fraternity and harmony will prevail among all.

Many Mexicans are suffering from a different kind of persecution today, that conducted by drug lords. Perhaps we can pray to the saints the Church honours today so that Blessed Pope John Paul's words will be fulfilled. 

Image of Blessed José Luis Sánchez Del Río (28 March 1913 - 10 February 1928)

One of the characters in For Greater Glory is 14-year-old Blessed José Luis Sánchez Del Río, beatified in Mexico on 20 November 2005. His part in the film is played by 14-year-old Mauricio Kuri. In an interview Mauricio speaks of the impact on him of the young Blessed and of his playing the martyr's part in the movie.

Pope Benedict in his message for this year's World Youth Day, celebrated in Rome on Palm Sunday, 13 April, wrote, Be enthusiastic witnesses of the new evangelization! Go to those who are suffering and those who are searching, and give them the joy that Jesus wants to bestow. Bring it to your families, your schools and universities, and your workplaces and your friends, wherever you live. You will see how it is contagious. You will receive a hundredfold: the joy of salvation for yourselves, and the joy of seeing God’s mercy at work in the hearts of others. And when you go to meet the Lord on that last day, you will hear him say: 'Well done, my good and faithful servant... Come, share your master’s joy' (Mt 25:21). 

Young actor Mauricio Kuri radiates some of that joy as he speaks about the young Mexican martyr whose part he played in For Greater Glory.

'I have always laboured lovingly for them. . .' St John Bosco

Statue of St John Bosco, Ronda, Spain

I have always admired St John Bosco (16 August 1815 - 31 January 1888). I gave more than a passing thought to the idea of being a Salesian, though that notion never really took hold. But a Salesian priest in England whom I never met did play a part in my desire to be a priest. He established a group called The Guild of St Dominic Savio and members received a newsletter each month. At one stage I wrote the priest to tell him that I hoped to be a missionary priest. I was about 16 at the time. He wrote me a personal letter in which he said that there were many good priests but that the Church needed holy priests. That has stayed with me for more than 50 years now.

I have been blessed all my life as a priest - more than 44 years now - through involvement with young people, as a teacher, a retreat-giver, a confessor, an editor replying to letters, as a friend. At times young people have exasperated me but they have always given me hope and have called forth the best in me. They have been forgiving and understanding.

The second reading in the Office of Readings today, the Feast of St John Bosco, is from a letter of St John Bosco to his confreres in the Salesian Congregation which he founded to respond to the needs of boys who had little hope or direction in their lives. It is a letter that shows an understanding of human nature and of God's call to be loving.

I have highlighted some parts and added [comments].



St Dominic Savio, 2 April 1842 - 9 March 1857, a student of St John Bosco



I have always laboured out of love

First of all, if we wish to appear concerned about the true happiness of our foster children and if we would move them to fulfil their duties, you must never forget that you are taking the place of the parents of these beloved young people. I have always laboured lovingly for them, and carried out my priestly duties with zeal. And the whole Salesian society has done this with me.

My sons, in my long experience very often I had to be convinced of this great truth. It is easier to become angry than to restrain oneself, and to threaten a boy than to persuade him. Yes, indeed, it is more fitting to be persistent in punishing our own impatience and pride than to correct the boys. We must be firm but kind, and be patient with them. [So often I've seen young persons respond positively and with gratitude to kind firmness, what may be called at times 'tough love'.]

I give you as a model the charity of Paul which he showed to his new converts. They often reduced him to tears and entreaties when he found them lacking docility and even opposing his loving efforts. [No young person has ever reduced me to tears by his or her behaviour but I have been close to tears on occasion when a young person has thanked me for being firm and showing care.]

See that no one finds you motivated by impetuosity or wilfulness. It is difficult to keep calm when administering punishment, but this must be done if we are to keep ourselves from showing off our authority or spilling out our anger. [This echoes last Sunday's gospel, Mark 1:21-28, where the people recognised the inner authority of Jesus.]

Let us regard those boys over whom we have some authority as our own sons. Let us place ourselves in their service. Let us be ashamed to assume an attitude of superiority. [The Handbook of the Legion of Mary, written by its founder, the Venerable Frank Duff, urges a similar approach to persons.] Let us not rule over them except for the purpose of serving them better. [Elected officials and anyone in a position of authority might take this to heart.]

This was the method that Jesus used with the apostles. He put up with their ignorance and roughness and even their infidelity. He treated sinners with a kindness and affection that caused some to be shocked, others to be scandalised, and still others to hope for God’s mercy. [Read an extraordinary instance of this in yesterday's post in Remembering Fr William Doyle SJ.] And so he bade us to be gentle and humble of heart.

They are our sons, and so in correcting their mistakes we must lay aside all anger and restrain it so firmly that it is extinguished entirely.

There must be no hostility in our minds, no contempt in our eyes, no insult on our lips. We must use mercy for the present and have hope for the future, as is fitting for true fathers who are eager for real correction and improvement.

In serious matters it is better to beg God humbly than to send forth a flood of words that will only offend the listeners and have no effect on those who are guilty.

Blessed Laura Vicuña (5 April 1891, Chile – 22 January 1904, Argentina, educated by the Salesian Sisters, Patron of victims of abuse



'Live, don't just get by': Pope Benedict to young people in Turin

YOUNG PEOPLE: BE PART OF THE GREAT MOSAIC OF THE CHURCH


The Vatican Information Service carried the report below last Monday, 3 May. I have highlighted some parts of it and [made some comments].

Pope Benedict in Turin, 2 May 2010

VATICAN CITY, 2 MAY 2010 (VIS) - At 4.30 p.m. today, the Pope returned to Piazza San Carlo where he met with young people from the archdiocese of Turin and surrounding dioceses. Following a welcome speech by Cardinal Severino Poletto, archbishop of Turin , and a greeting from the young people, the Pope delivered his address.

Benedict XVI in Turin, 2 May 2010

Recalling how twenty-five years ago John Paul II wrote a Letter for young people focusing on Jesus' meeting with the rich young man who asked Him what me had to do to gain eternal life, Benedict XVI said: "Today it is not easy to talk about eternal life and things everlasting because the mentality of our time tells us that nothing definitive exists; everything changes, and changes quickly. In many cases, 'change' has become a watchword, ... and in this way you young people are also led to think that it is impossible to make definitive choices that commit you for life". [Many couples prefer to live together, for example, than to make the life-long commitment that marriage involves. This attitude became very prevalent in the Western world in the late 1960s and affected the Church greatly, with priests and religious leaving in huge numbers.]

Pope's visit to Turin, 2 May 2010

However, the Pope asked, "is it true that in order to be happy we have to make do with small and fleeting moments of joy, the which, once over, leave bitterness in our hearts? Dear young people, this is not true freedom, happiness cannot be attained in this way. Each of us was created to make, not provisional and reversible choices, but definitive and irrevocable choices which give full meaning to existence. [We won't experience the truth of this until we make such choices.] We see this in our own lives: we would like every beautiful experience which fills us with joy never to end. God created us with a view to the 'forever'. In each of our hearts He placed the seed for a life that creates something great and beautiful". [Pope Benedict never short-changes us by proposing the trivial or the transitory as the goal of life.]

"In his dialogue with the rich young man, Jesus indicated life's greatest wealth: love. To love God and others with all of ourselves. ... For humans, who are mortal and limited beings, nothing is greater than participating in God's life of love. [Note: 'participating in God's life of love'. What could be greater than this?] Today we live in a cultural context that does not favour profound and disinterested human relationships, on the contrary, it often leads us to close in on ourselves, inducing individualism. ... But the hearts of the young are by nature sensitive to true love. Thus, with great trust, ['with great trust' - Benedict, the Holy Father, calls forth what is best in those who are young] I address myself to each of you and say: it is not easy to make something great and beautiful of your lives, it is demanding, but with Christ everything is possible".

"Experience this meeting with Christ's love in a strong personal relationship with Him; experience this in the Church and primarily in the Sacraments", Benedict XVI exhorted the young people. [One of the recurring themes in Pope Benedict's teaching is this strong personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Don't be led astray by 'Born Again' people who tell you that Catholics don't have that. The Pope tells us how to nourish that - through the sacraments.] "Christ's love for the young man of the Gospel is the same as that He has for each of you. It is not a love confined to the past, it is not an illusion, it is not reserved for the few. ... May each of you feel yourselves to be a 'living part' of the Church, unafraid, involved in the work of evangelisation ... [everyone is called to be a saint, a central teaching of Vatican II] with your brothers and sisters in the faith, and in communion with pastors, avoiding individualist tendencies even in the life of faith, [each is unique but God does not call us to be 'loners'] in order deeply to absorb the beauty of being part of the great mosaic that is the Church of Christ".

The Holy Father gave the example of Blessed Piergiorgio Frassati, [photo above, he was born in Turin and died in 1925, aged 24] the twentieth anniversary of whose beatification falls this month. He "put his Christian formation into practice with great commitment, giving a simple and effective witness of his faith", said the Pope recalling how Blessed Frassati's motto was "live, don't just get by". In this context, he invited his audience "to discover that it is worthwhile committing yourselves for God and with God, responding to His call in all your choices, the fundamental and the mundane, even when there is a price to pay".

Blessed Piergiorgio (center)

"May the Holy Shroud", he concluded, "be an invitation for you to inscribe the face of God's love into your hearts, in order to become, in your own lives and among your peers, a credible expression of the face of Christ".

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A quote from Blessed Piergiorgio, who was on of the patrons of World Youth Day in Sydney in 2008, that reflects what the Holy Father said on Sunday in Turin: 'To live without faith, without a patrimony to defend, without a steady struggle for truth, that is not living, but merely existing; we must never just "exist".'

A prince known for his sense of justice and for his purity

St Casimir (1461-1484) was a prince who is now the principal patron saint of Lithuania and also a patron of Poland. The reading from the Office of Readings for his feast, which in Lent is observed as a commemoration, in other words it is optional, taken from a life of the saint, 'written by a close contemporary', highlights some of this young man's deeply Christian qualities.

• He dedicated himself completely and entirely to Christ's poor, to the pilgrims, the sick, the prisoners,and to all in distress.
• To widows, orphans and the oppressed, he was not only a protector and defender, but a father, son and brother.
• Nor is it possible to tell or even imagine the extent to which he promoted justice and exercised temperance, or the prudence with which he was endowed, or the strength and constancy of is character, and that in an age of permissiveness, when men were very much inclined to fall into evil ways . . .
• Day by day her urged his father to rule the kingdom and the subject peoples with justice . . .
• He took up the causes of the poor and wretched, and followed them up as if they were his own. Because of this the people called him the defender of the poor . . .
• It was always his preference to mix with the poor and the weak . . .
• He never sought the power which belongs to men of the highest rank . . .
• We have the word of important and trustworthy men, who were close to him and in whom he confided, that he lived as a virgin all his life, and died a virgin.

We have elections here in the Philippines in May for everything from the presidency down to local councillors. It is difficult to find evidence of the virtues of St Casimir among the candidates for the major offices. A convicted but unrepentant plunderer, who has never served a day in prison for his crimes, who uses a false name and was pardoned by President Gloria Arroyo, who succeeded him when he was deposed, is running for president again. Three of the Marcos family, who destroyed the Philippines during the Marcos dictatorship, are running for office and the 84-year-old president of the Senate, the architect of Marcos's Martial Law and who tried to bring the scouting movement directly under the control of the military in 1985, is running again for the senate.

One of the things that happened during Martial Law was the forced sterilisation of many women after they gave birth in government hospitals. The Population Commission at the time was pushing a very aggressive population control programme at the time. It was widely believed that each government hospital had a quota of sterilisations that they were expected to meet. Husbands weren't consulted and wives often made decisions that they later regretted because they were under pressure from those who should have been taking care of them.

On the other hand, government doctors and nurses are poorly paid. Today, many fully qualified nurses who cannot afford to go overseas where they will get jobs with decent pay, often have to offer their services as 'volunteers' in government hospitals.

There is no question that many Filipinos have a strong Catholic faith. Many died during the Martial Law years in witness to that. But there is a woeful absence of a sense of  the justice the Gospel demands, especially when it concerns the poor and the good of the wider community, as shown in the Human Face column of Ma. Ceres P Doyo (photo) in today's Philippine Daily Inquirer, Confessions of a highwayman. You can also find the article on Ceres' own blog, Human Face by Ceres. Ceres is one of the best journalists in the Philippines.

A saint-in-the-making who failed in mathematics

Chiara 'Luce'Badano

For two or three years I've been intending to write an article for Misyon, which I edit on behalf of the Columbans in the Philippines, about a young Italian woman who died just short of her 19th birthday in 1990. Her name was Chiara 'Luce' Badano. Recently I asked someone else to use the material I had gathered to write the article. One of the things that had attracted me was that Chiara failed mathematics in high school. Though I had no difficulty with mathematics until my last two years in school I never liked the subject and sympathise with those who finds it difficult. The terms 'trigonometry' and 'applied mathematics' are simply words to me now. I have a vague recollection of trigonometry being a cross between algebra and geometry. One of the happiest moments in my life was when I finished my exams in mathematics and science in my Leaving Certificate in Ireland in 1961. I have never opened a book in either subject since.

I have a young friend in first year high school here in Bacolod who is struggling with mathematics (in Ireland we shorten that to 'maths' but here in the Philippines it's 'math') and when we meet I usually ask her 'How is "Mattie"?' (At the moment 'Mattie' is not too well!)

I really will have to make sure the article is written very soon for Misyon because yesterday Pope Benedict gave the 'green light' for Chiara to be beatified. The Pope also declared both Pope Pius XII and Pope John Paul II as 'Venerable', meaning that they may be venerated. The next step, if a miracle through their intercession is officially declared by the Church, then they may be beatified.

Chiara was a member of Focolare, whose foundress, Chiara Lubich, who died earlier this year, gave her the name 'Luce', the Italian for 'light'. 'Chiara' is the Italian form of 'Claire'.

Chiara was her parents' only child and she arrived more than 11 years after they were married. Coincidentally, the Vatican announcement was made yesterday when the readings at Mass dealt with that very same theme - childless parents who longed for a son or daughter. God heard the prayers of Manoah and his wife and gifted them with a son named Samson. God equally heard the prayers of St Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah. The son of their old age was St John the Baptist.

Chiara's mother is quoted as saying after her birth, 'Even though we were so immensely happy, we understood straightaway that this child wasn’t ours alone. She belonged to God first of all.'

Though the commentary in the video above is in Italian you can see many photos of Chiara.

You can read more about Chiara here.

Chiara as an infant with her parents, Ruggero, a truck-driver, and Maria Teresa Caviglia

This video features a song in Chiara's honour, also in Italian, with the words on the screen.