Tag: Christianity

The attorney general of Oklahoma has filed a lawsuit against the nation’s first religious charter school, claiming its establishment violates the state’s religious liberty protections.

State Attorney General Gentner Drummond, a Republican, announced the lawsuit in a press release on his website on Oct. 20. He filed the challenge in the Oklahoma State Supreme Court.

The Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board had earlier this month approved the contract of St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School. The board in June had approved the school’s application, with this month’s contract approval clearing another hurdle for the school’s projected opening next year.

Charter schools are special publicly funded education institutions; the National Charter School Resource Center defines a “charter school” as a public “school of choice,” one that remains “publicly accountable” while still retaining autonomy in how it is run and managed.

In his press release, Drummond said the contract approval “violated the religious liberty of every Oklahoman” by forcing state residents to fund “the teachings of a specific religious sect with our tax dollars.”

“Today, Oklahomans are being compelled to fund Catholicism,” Drummond said. “Because of the legal precedent created by the board’s actions, tomorrow we may be forced to fund radical Muslim teachings like Sharia law.”

Drummond’s lawsuit argues that state laws and regulations “strictly prohibit the sponsorship of a sectarian virtual charter school.”

Drummond in the suit declared himself “duty bound to file [the lawsuit] to protect religious liberty and prevent the type of state-funded religion that Oklahoma’s constitutional framers and the founders of our country sought to prevent.”

The attorney general’s office further argued that the state risks losing more than $1 billion in education dollars from the federal government. Those funds are contingent upon “compliance with applicable laws” regarding religious establishments.

The charter school “clearly violates the Establishment Clause and must be stopped,” the lawsuit states. It asks the court to “correct the board’s unlawful actions.”

In a statement provided to CNA, the Board of St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School said the lawsuit “employs the language of fear and discrimination, twists the law of religious liberty beyond recognition and ignores the very real successes of faith-based schools in our country.

“We are optimistic that the court will see this lawsuit for what it is: a baseless attempt to enforce exactly the kind of religious discrimination that the Supreme Court has made clear the First Amendment forbids,” the statement said. “We hope that the lawsuit will resolve quickly so that St. Isidore can focus instead on its critical mission to open the door to a new and innovative learning opportunity to those families and children most in need.”

Drummond’s lawsuit follows an earlier suit by several Oklahoma citizens and interest groups to head off the Catholic school’s funding by the state.

The charter board had previously rejected St. Isidore’s application in April before ultimately approving it in June.

The synodal process does not stop at listening but should lead to incorporating what was discussed at the Synod on Synodality into the life of the Catholic Church, said many of the members participating in the synod.

“Everything will depend on us returning to our dioceses and putting in practice what we are saying here, (about) what the church should be,” Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes of Mexico City said at a Vatican press briefing Oct. 23. “If we only stay at listening and don’t apply our responsibilities to our daily life, well, nothing happens.”

Speaking of his experience in Mexico City, Cardinal Aguiar said that since 2021, half of the 416 parishes in his archdiocese implemented parish assemblies for all members of the parish to speak together in a “methodology of consensus, of reciprocal listening, dialogue.”

“They told us bishops what they need to live their faith and transmit it to others,” he said.

By living synodality, “I am convinced that it is the way of the church,” he said. “If we do it, we will transmit the faith; if we don’t do it, we will turn into small groups of Catholics” as is happening in some places in the world, the cardinal added.

Synod participants entered the final week of the assembly Oct. 23, discussing a “Letter to the People of God” and the assembly’s synthesis document.

Discussing outcomes of the synod of synodality, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna said that “if an increase in faith, hope and charity does not come out of this experience, everything is in vain.”

Right now, “communion is essential for the church” especially as it becomes increasingly based outside of Europe, he said, adding that synodality “is the way of living communion.”

The cardinal, a veteran of synods, said that this assembly’s methodology was the best by far since it helps members listen to one another.

He said he had told Jeffrey Sachs, the economist and public policy analyst, about the methodology used for this Synod of Bishops, marked by long bouts of silence, reflection and prayer.

“If only the U.N. Security Council used this method, maybe we would have a bit more peace in the world,” he recalled Sachs saying in response. There, Cardinal Schönborn said, each representative “has the directives of their government, each one says their position and then there is no exchange.”

Sister Samuela Maria Rigon, superior general of the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother, said that listening is an essential aspect of the synod’s methodology which must also be applied outside the Vatican walls.

“Maybe we all need this, in families, in workplaces, in religious communities, in ecclesial assemblies,” she said. “In the synod, we have truly experienced this.”

Synod members will soon face the challenge of bringing back to their home dioceses, regions and continents the synodal way of inviting others, listening and discerning together that they are experiencing at the synod, two archbishops said.

“We all, as people, get into our habits and our ruts and you have to very consciously say, ‘We’re going to do things differently now,’” Archbishop Gintaras Grušas of Vilnius, Lithuania, said at a synod briefing Oct. 20.

“With yourself, you can do it. When you try to bring a whole diocese or a whole nation or a whole continent with you, it takes a lot more work,” said the archbishop, who is also president of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences.

“Being here for a month and really living the spiritual conversations, having them and valuing them,” he said, challenges members to try to bring that experience “into the same structure from which we came with all the same daily grinds that we have.” However, “I’m looking forward to it.”

Archbishop Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi of Tokyo said the challenge in Japan is an ongoing lack of in-person activities as a consequence of the pandemic. “The people are still afraid, especially the elderly people are afraid, so we don’t have much opportunity to gather the people together to do this synodal process together.”

Also, “Asian countries are really quite clerical; still the clerics decide,” he said, and “I think we have to involve many more laity in the decision-making of the church.”

The challenge there is “we have to be serious” about how to involve lay men and women who are already short on time with very busy lives and families to take care of, the archbishop said.

The archbishop, who also is secretary-general of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences, said he also wants to work more on introducing into church life the Asian spirit of hospitality as expressed in the Asian continental report to the synod.

Their culture of welcome asks that people take off their shoes “and be free from daily life, be free from the daily worries, (and then) enter your house,” he said. “It is true that our structure is really Western structure, of course, the Catholic Church,” he said, but it is possible to “introduce our hospitality spirit into the parish activities.”

“First welcome all the people,” he said, to “take off your shoes, come in, don’t stand outside, but come into my house and let’s talk about your life.”

Sister Mary T. Barron, superior of the Sisters of Our Lady of the Apostles and president of the International Union of Superiors General, told reporters, “We need to listen more to the emerging churches, the younger churches, who still have that kind of grassroots participation in the life of the church.”

She compared her experience coming from Ireland where Christianity has existed since the fifth century and her missionary work in East Africa. One parish there, she said, was established in 1950 and had only two priests for an area nearly half the size of Ireland.

It was a “very vibrant faith community,” she said, and her role of accompanying young people and women’s groups in the parish was a synodal process. “We listened to each other, the decisions were taken together,” which then radiated out to the wider parish and “fed into the diocese.”

“I think possibly one of the advantages in the younger churches is that many people come to the faith as adults and make that choice to be baptized as adults, and are confirmed into a faith where they are challenged to be missionary disciples from the outset,” she said.

President Joe Biden and Pope Francis spoke by phone Oct. 22 to discuss the conflict in Israel and Gaza and facilitating a path to “durable peace” in the region, according to the press offices of both leaders.

According to a readout of the call from the White House, Biden and Pope Francis discussed “the latest developments in Israel and Gaza.”

“The President condemned the barbarous attack by Hamas against Israeli civilians and affirmed the need to protect civilians in Gaza,” the readout said, adding the pair discussed the president’s “recent visit to Israel and his efforts to ensure delivery of food, medicine, and other humanitarian assistance to help alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.”

“They also discussed the need to prevent escalation in the region and to work toward a durable peace in the Middle East,” the readout said.

The Holy See Press Office said the conversation lasted around 20 minutes, and that the pope and the president spoke about “situations of conflict in the world and the need to identify paths to peace.”

Earlier the same day at the Angelus prayer, Pope Francis called for peace in the Holy Land.
“I am very concerned, grieved,” he said. “I pray and I am close to all those who are suffering, the hostages, the wounded, the victims and their families.” He appealed for more humanitarian aid for Gaza and said he also was praying for the suffering people of Ukraine.

Biden also spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel the same day, per a White House pool report.

Reuters reported that the first humanitarian aid convoy allowed into Gaza since Hamas’ attack on Israel and the Israeli airstrikes in response arrived in southern Gaza from Egypt Oct. 21 following negotiations. The United Nations said a 20-truck convoy brought supplies including medicine and food. A second convoy of aid trucks arrived Oct. 22, the agency also reported.

Archpriest Vasily Gelevan is a priest of the Church of the Annunciation at the Airborne Forces in Moscow. For eight years Fr. Vasily served in Brazil, where he was the rector of the Church of the holy Martyr Zinaida in Rio de Janeiro. The head of a beautiful and closely-knit family, he has talked about what principles he and his wife Ekaterina are guided by in raising children and how to solve problems that inevitably arise in family life.

Archpriest Vasily Gelevan with his family     

“The most important thing in child raising is to give a personal example”

—Father Vasily, where did you meet your future wife?

—It was in 1996, when independently of each other my future wife and I entered the Theological Seminary in Smolensk. I enrolled in the pastoral department, and she—in the choir directing department.

It often happens that young people meet at an educational institution, make friends, and then become a Christian family. Future pastors are prepared for this: there are special lessons that will help them in the ministry. Girls are taught to direct a church choir, paint icons, and above all to be good wives of priests, good mothers of children and good helpers of pastors in parish life. Everything is not limited to knowledge of music, icon painting or restoration experience. A lot happens in this life. The main thing is that over the period of their studies both should begin to practice their faith and life in the Church. In parallel, they fall in love with each other, as all normal young people do. Then there comes great responsibility, spiritual joy and joy from communicating with each other, from the birth of children and life in general. Joy and The Science of Gratitude to God: Step By StepToday I want to reflect together with you, dear readers, on gratitude. And do you know why? Because the more grateful a man is, the closer to perfection he is, and that means to God.

“>gratitude to God. It all starts in a theological institution.

I remember going out on the streets of Smolensk, looking at the tram tracks, at people walking down the street, and wondering how they could live without God and the Church. What’s the meaning of such life? I felt a pity for such people, but they had themselves chosen such a path, they did not know what they were losing by refusing life in the Church and in Christ. At the same time, at such moments I sincerely thanked God: How good it was that I had met a believing girl at the seminary! I didn’t have to worry that she would say someday: “I won’t tolerate this lack of money, this obedience when they send you 10,000 miles away from home for eight years, while I have to be a thread that follows a needle.” I was sure that she would travel with me and would never say that I was not like everyone else and that I had a small salary. I knew for sure that this would not happen, because she was a religious girl.

Archpriest Vasily Gelevan and his wife Ekaterina —One educationalist said that happy parents have happy children. Was the life of your and your spouse’s parents a model for you?

—Yes. They gave us an example of On PrayerWhat should someone do who doesn’t know any prayers, but desires to pray, to save his soul?

“>prayer. I know it from experience how important it is when parents pray for their children and when they pray in general. It is vital for a believer, and it really helps. My mother-in-law is such a person. True, she may be very simple and naive in some ways, but she knows firmly that God exists, that He is a living God and works in our lives, and we must pray to Him. She knows it even more firmly than I do. Every conversation with her is spiritual. Everything that happens in her life has only a spiritual dimension for her. She has serious illnesses (may God grant her good health), but she prays for us continuously. And we pray that the Lord will strengthen her; we do everything in our power to comfort and help her. She is a disabled pensioner and can hardly move, but she is moving in one direction—towards God. She has only two paths—to church and home, home and to church. There’s nothing else in her life, and she doesn’t want anything else.

I think about our children: and they look at us, taking our example. There is such a law in our life—for some reason our children pick up all our shortcomings. Of course, I don’t want them to pick up my weaknesses, but this happens automatically. All of my imperfections, as in a mirror, are visible in my children. You should always instill some good, kind and positive traits in children and it requires efforts. For example, if I stop praying, my children immediately stop praying as well. Even worse: If I sit down, they will lie down. If you stand up to pray, your children look at you and imitate you.

We encourage our children to read simple prayers from their childhood. In the evening we all stand up together to pray, and in the morning we also read the rule. Prayer is something very personal, it is difficult to convey, to understand whether you are praying or not. Children should not only be present, but also participate, and this requires practice.

The same goes for our speech, actions, decisions, attitudes to things and convictions: not only moral, but also political. Children are exposed to the influence of the street and liberal media, and at home they are sometimes told the opposite things. I tell them about moral principles, about what sin is, as well as personal beliefs—what our country is, who is a patriot, and what a true believer should be like. Everything is criticized around us, so you have to stand up in defense of your firm beliefs so that there can be no falsehood. If you say one thing and do otherwise, your children will notice it. They are like litmus paper and notice even slight falsity. It’s useless to lie to them. If you have sincere convictions, then you have them. If you try not to sin, it means you really make efforts, and children see it. In parenting the most important thing is to give a personal example. All words fade if your example contradicts what you say. I respect people who say one thing and do… the same thing.

“Choosing for yourself, you choose for your children”

—In Russian fairy tales you’ll find specific tests for fiancés and fiancées: to catch a firebird, to sew a shirt in one night, etc. In the customs of many peoples there are such tests as well; for example, when a future wife cooks soup. Will such tasks help build a good family in our days?

—I believe that the customs that we saw in our ancestors had a practical application and were intended for testing a potential husband or wife. They were veiled in beautiful rituals, wonderful traditions and habits, but in fact it was a test of survival. The mother was expected to be a housewife; she would do the cooking. And not once, but three times a day for many years in a row. Children, especially boys, have good appetites. It’s good if a girl knows how to cook, and most importantly, to have a positive, calm attitude to this. It’s great if a future wife is taught this as a child and is supported, and this skill develops. She will understand that it is a vital part of life.

It is also good if a future husband is aware of his responsibility to the family, understanding that he is obligated to be the breadwinner, as has been the case since the most ancient times when human society was just being formed. And so it remained when the Lord Jesus Christ became incarnate. All the apostles labored. The Apostle Paul had a specific profession: He cut leather belts and wove baskets and tents from them. The great missionary, who could afford not to care about anything at all and could be fed everywhere, had his own profession. He realized a simple thing: Through physical labor we get to know God. Relaxing is bad even for your health. All hernias, protrusions develop when we move very little. Doctors constantly tell us that we should move a lot, and we return to the clear commandment that was given to man after the fall: In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread (Gen. 3:19). As long as we live on earth, we must work hard. It’s not a curse, but a blessing. If we have found another profession and earn a living by intellectual work (art etc.), that’s fine, but we become less physically active. But it is necessary for us to stay physically active.

The father must work and be the head of the family, so that the mother can always consult with him. This is harmony: On How a Man Can Become the Head of an Orthodox FamilyWhat kills the family and children is the fact that a man is afraid to even try to do what he is supposed to do!

“>the husband is at the head of the family. At the same time, no one loves this woman as much as the husband does. He loves her so much that he is ready to lay down his life to make her happy. This is harmony: He is a father, she is a mother and his beloved woman.

—And yet, how can young people get to know their special ones better in modern conditions?

—There is a period of romance when each tries to show himself in the best light. The future lady of the house demonstrates her qualities, and the future breadwinner shows himself as a diligent master of the house, as a faithful friend, showing his generosity not at his parents’ expense. He earned it himself and can flaunt it. This is his right—a man is seeking his beloved’s hand. Everything in the perspective of family life is taken into consideration: the way he behaves in company, how communicates with friends, etc.

I would give this advice to young people in order to test each other: Go to visit their parents. You look at his or her mother and father and figure out what your fiancé or fiancée will be like in some years, because, unfortunately, children often repeat the mistakes of their parents; but at the same time, the older generation can instill virtues in their sons and daughters. If you see that one or another virtue has blossomed in the father, you know that his son has tasted this joy too—like father, like son. Accordingly, both sins and virtues are repeated. As I said, it is easy to pass on sins and it is hard to pass on virtues; nevertheless, parents teach us a lot. We take after our mothers and fathers. When there is a saint, a confessor of the faith in the family who prays for his descendants, it is a blessing for the whole family. When there is a new martyr among someone’s relatives, he prays, and you understand that this family is blessed by God.

And it’s also true the other way round—how difficult it is for a person to live if there is a grave sinner in his family. For instance, suicide is a terrible sin: suicides are not even buried in the church graveyard. When a suicide’s son faces difficulties in life, the door to the abyss is already open in front of him. He may think: “My father committed suicide, so I can enter this door too.” Why? Because someone has already opened it before him. Choosing for himself, the first suicide prepared a temptation for his offspring.

The same can be said about fidelity in marriage: when you are faithful to your spouse, you don’t choose only for yourself, but also for your children. Or if the wife forgave her husband who is filled with remorse, giving him a chance to live on together, thereby preserving the family, this means that the children have the right to see both parents every day, and not just listen to some stories about their father, good or even bad. They can wake up and say, “Good morning, Dad! Good morning, Mom!”, and say in the evening: “Daddy, good night! Dear Mommy, good night!” The children will hug them both and go to sleep in peace. That’s very precious. Choosing for yourself, you also choose for your children. And not only for the present, when they are small, but also for the future, when they face problems in their family life. When faced with problems, a son will say to himself: “My father preserved the family, and I must do the same. If he could do it, so can I.” And likewise, an adult daughter will decide: “My mother separated from my father, and I will do the same. Why not? She did it, so I can do it too.” We answer not only for ourselves, but also for our children.

To be continued…

As I run the traditional spooky gauntlet of Halloween movies this time of year, I’m reminded how often ghost movies explain away the paranormal activity just by revealing that the haunted house is built on an old Native American burial ground. It’s an explanation requiring no further explanation, for American audiences know deep down that that’s a karmic blank check for revenge: our country was built on a Native American burial ground, and we’ve been haunted by it ever since.

Martin Scorsese’s latest feature, “Killers of the Flower Moon,” has the trappings of a Western but the bone marrow despair of proper horror. Adapted from David Grann’s nonfiction book of the same name, Scorsese reconfigures a story initially structured as a whodunnit into a slasher film in broad daylight, one where the killers don’t even bother with masks.

The film follows the plight of the Osage people, who were booted from Missouri to barren Oklahoma only to discover oil under their reservation. They enter the Jazz Age living in the richest per capita town in America, wearing fancy new digs and driving fancy new cars down the muddied streets of rural Oklahoma. Those cars are now driven by white chauffeurs, and those chauffeurs are in turn driven by a violent need to seize back control of the wheel.

The center of this white conspiracy against the Osage is William Hale (played by Robert De Niro), a local cattle baron who demurely refers to himself as “King.” Hale paints himself a friend of the Osage, speaking their language and assisting them when he can, and the Osage themselves regard him as such. King Hale isn’t revealed as the ringleader until the third act of Grann’s book, but here Hale’s charity and savagery walk abreast. He’ll kill a native for the insurance money, then sit down and have supper with the man’s family.

Scorsese frames this less as hypocrisy than cognitive dissonance. One senses that Hale really does consider himself a friend to this people, as his voice genuinely wells when he speaks of them in the abstract. His murders are just business — it’s not his fault the natives are more profitable to exploit than oil. 

This discrepancy is taken to the limits with Hale’s nephew Ernest Burkhart (Leonard DiCaprio), whom Hale pressures to woo Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone), a full-blooded Osage with an extensive fortune. Burkhart is privy to his uncle’s wider machinations, and indeed the inevitable fate for Kyle. He’s participated in too many of these crimes to pretend to be an innocent.

But if the courtship is genuinely awkward, it’s also awkwardly genuine. Kyle is a Catholic, and when he accompanies her to Mass, she chuckles at how he’s always a half step behind the rest. This is the dance of the lapsed, which is as familiar and vital to Catholic courtship as the hops and struts of those Birds of Paradise in the Attenborough nature documentaries.

Kyle and Burkhart like each other, and when they marry it’s with a smile on their faces. But like Hale he doesn’t stop in his mission. Instead, he compartmentalizes, arranging assassinations then climbing into bed with his wife.

Burkhart genuinely believes he can exist in both worlds, one foot in oppression and the other in love. His uncle doesn’t split these worlds, the same leg straddling both. In conversation he paints a fatalistic picture to his nephew. To him the Osage are doomed regardless, that despite their modern garb and gadget they are a people who won’t make it into the new America. And if they’re riding off into the sunset, it would be a sin to just let all their wealth go to waste, no? “This is no longer the age of miracles,” he tells Burkhart, abandoning his moral duty to the incoming wave of progress.

Forget about heart disease; passivity is the true silent killer. Burkhart is a stupid and weak-willed man, bossed around by his uncle and then by the wife he’s supposed to be trying to kill. You see the flickers of conscience within him, like a fish darting around an empty bowl. But he’s so convinced of his own lack of will that he effectively has none. After all, not making a decision is still making a decision. Kyle isn’t wholly innocent in this. She’s clearly the wiser of the two, but is powerless to stop a plot she sees is in motion. Theirs is a love story, but it is also a slow-motion suicide. Couldn’t the same be said of Romeo and Juliet?

We’re all complicit. At the beginning we are given a montage of Osage dead, each shot of a corpse capped by the narrator listing the cause of death and saying, “no investigation.” The police are in the pocket of Hale, but society at large is happy to believe that no investigation means no crime. How many times have we thrown our hands up at our politicians, or ignored the manufacturing method of the very laptop we type on now? It’s far easier to pretend we have no say in the matter, no choice but to press onward through the path of least resistance.

But if this is no longer the age of miracles, no one informed the Osage. It is they who hire outside investigators, they who travel to Washington, D.C., and demand to Calvin Coolidge’s face that they need help, which in turn finally spurns the FBI to investigate. 

If the entrenched white class believes that God no longer intervenes, the Osage keep the faith and demand an answer. They too believe in one God, called Wah’Kon-Tah, and their naming rituals are performed by a shaman who also wears a cross. They are not the ones a half step behind at Mass.

Spoilers follow, though the story could really end nowhere else. When the FBI start making arrests and “Ernest Goes to Jail,” (though in a manner highly different from that 1990 movie) he’s eventually brought to confess his litany of crimes to Kyle.

The scene offers a glimmer of hope that, through some miracle, she’s willing to forgive him. But when his eyes advert and he denies poisoning her insulin, she leaves at once and never looks back. The only sin that can’t be forgiven is the one you don’t confess, and Burkhart damns himself by denying his own responsibility one last time.

On October 23 we celebrate the memory of Elder Ambrose of Optina

“>St. Ambrose of Optina—a disciple of Sts. Leo and Macarius, the most well-known and glorified of the Optina elders, who had an enormous influence on the spiritual life of all nineteenth century Russia.

St. Ambrose of Optina     

St. Ambrose could talk with any person in his own language—he could help the illiterate peasant who complained that her turkeys were dying and the mistress might kick her out of the yard, and answer Feodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, and other most educated people of that time. I am made all things to all men, that I might save some (1 Cor. 9:22). The elder’s words were simple, on-target, and often with a sense of humor:

“We should live on earth like the wheel turns: as soon as one spot touches the earth, the rest of the wheel goes upward. But as for us, when we lie down, we can’t get up.”

“Where there’s simplicity, there’re angels in multiplicity; but where complexity’s begun, there’s not a single one.”

“What makes a person feel bad? When he’s forgotten that God is over him.”

“Whoever thinks he’s got something will lose it.”

“It’s best of all to live simply. Don’t bust your brains. Pray to God. The Lord will set all aright, just live more simply. Don’t torture yourself by mulling over how and what to do. Let it be as it will be. And this is what it means to live simply.”

“We have to live and not grieve, not offending anyone or tormenting them, and to all—’my respects’.

“Live and not grieve, be happy as it is. It’s really not co complicated.”

“If you want to have love, then do works of love, even if they’re done at first without love.”

And when someone said to him, “Batiushka, you speak very simply,” the elder smiled and said, “Yes, for twenty years I asked God for this simplicity.”

Through the grace that God gave to him, St. Ambrose healed a multitude of the sick and suffering. Even today, we still have recourse to his intercessions. Miracles happen at his relics, people are healed, often from incurable illnesses.

Much testimony of miraculous help from St. Ambrose has been preserved, and this reveals a little of the countenance of this wondrous man who consoled everyone.

St. Ambrose of Optina     

A teacher from Moscow, Mrs. M. P-a, nee Princess Da-ya, had great faith in the elder. Her only son was near death from typhoid fever. Tearing herself away from him, she flew to Optina and begged Batiushka to help her son. “Let’s pray together,” said the elder, and they got down on their knees together. After several days, the mother returned to her son, who met her on his own two feet. At the very hour when the elder prayed for him there was a change in his condition, and a rapid recovery began.

Again, this same lady, now with her healthy son, was in Optina in 1881 and lived there longer than they had intended. Her husband, who was in the southern governates, was worried about them and finally appointed a telegram day, when he would send a horse to meet them at the station. M. P-a went to say goodbye to Batiushka. Fr. Ambrose, who never held restrained anyone without a special reason, announced that he does not bless her to go. She started explaining to him why she couldn’t stay any longer in Optina, but he said, “I don’t bless you to leave today. Tomorrow is a feast day—attend the late Liturgy to the end, and then we’ll see.”

She returned to the guesthouse, where her son who was waiting for her was very displeased with Batiushka’s decision, especially since there was no reason at all to stay; but his mother obeyed the elder. On the next day Batiushka said, “Now go with God.” After passing Kursk they learned that the Kuryevsky (Tcherny) catastrophe had happened to the train that they were supposed to take the day before [this was one of the worst train derailment accidents in Russian history, with forty people killed].

Healing from illness

The state serf from the village of Manaenok, Lebedyanksaya region, Tambov governate, Anisia F. Monaenkova, had such a terrible pain in her lower belly that she couldn’t walk or lie down. No medical means helped. The midwife who checked her said that she had an ulcer, and advised her to go to Moscow for surgery if she wants to remain among the living. But she went first to Elder Ambrose in order to get his blessing on this trip, and he quickly received her. “Silly!” said the elder. “Why should you go to Moscow? I’ll give you some herbs.” Soon he sent a monk to her with some herbs. She started drinking it, and her illness passed.

***

In the summer of 1898, the noblewoman from the Dankov region of Ryazan governate, a maidan named Maria Timofeyevna Turchanova, gave the Optina hieromonk Fr. Benedict in the Kaluga St. Tikhon Hermitage a letter in which she explained that from her childhood she suffered from nosebleeds, but in 1890 she was healed by the elder, Fr. Ambrose.

“Well, was I nimble?”

St. Ambrose sometimes liked to hide his wondrous help with a jocular word or movement in order to distract people’s attention away from it. For example, one monk came to the elder with a terrible toothache. The elder walked past him and with all his might, punched him in the teeth. He then asked him gaily, “Well, was I nimble?” “Nimble, Batiushka,” replied the monk as everyone laughed, “but awfully painful.” However, when he left the elder, he felt that the pain was gone—and it never came back.

Peasant women took good note of this trait of Fr. Ambrose’s, and those who suffered from headaches would come to him and ask, Batiushka Abrosim, beat me a little, I have a headache.”

***

There were even more amazing incidents. Although elder Ambrose was too sickly to leave the monastery, he nevertheless appeared to people hundreds of miles away—people who had never even seen or heard of him before. He would warn them of some danger, or give the sick instructions on how to get rid of their ailments—or heal them then and there.

The story of Fr. Benedict, a hieromonk of the Skete

“Mrs. A. D. Karbonier was seriously ill and lay on her bed for several days without getting up. At one time she saw how Fr. Ambrose entered her room, walked up to her bed, took her by the hand, and said, “Get up! Enough of being sick!” And then he disappeared from sight. At the same time, she felt so strong that she rose from her sickbed and the next day set off on foot from the town of Kozelsk to Shamordino (where Batiushka was living at the time) to thank him for the healing. Batiiushka received her, but did not bless her to tell anyone about it until his death.”

The story of Anisia Andreyevna Shishkova

“In 1877 I was very sick for almost a year with a serious throat ailment, which resulted after catching a cold some time ago on the peaks of the snowy Pyrenees Mountains, and I was barely able to swallow even liquids. I was living then in the village and treating it. Seeing that my ailment was only getting worse, the doctor advised me to go to Moscow, call a concilium and live abroad in a warm climate.

“At that time, to the neighboring Troekurov Convent arrived Mrs. Kliuchareva, who lived with her grandchildren at Optina Monastery where she had an nearby estate. When she learned that I was so sick, she suggested that the nuns of that convent take me her advice—to turn to the Optina Elder Ambrose in a letter and ask his prayers, for she knew of their great miracle-working power. At first I did not pay any attention to these words. But seeing my sickness progress, I decided to write the elder (although I didn’t know him), asking his prayers for me, a sick one.

“Batiushka soon answered me. ‘Come to Optina, and have no doubts; only have a moleben to the Savior, the Mother of God, Holy Martyr John the Soldier, and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.’ The invitation to Optina made me terribly frightened, for I know what a difficult and long trip I would have to make; meanwhile my strength was so drained that I was unable to rise. ‘How will I go there?’ I thought to myself. But the words, ‘Have no doubts,’ were underlined, and this strengthened my spirit and powers; regardless of my children’s pleas and the doctor’s persuasions not to go, I invited a priest, served a moleben, and the next day quietly left in the carriage for Efremovo, from there by train to the city of Kaluga, and from there by horse to Optina Monastery. Everywhere along the way I of course rested a long time due to my great weakness and fatigue.

“When I arrived at Optina I requested that Batiushka in the Skete be asked when I may come to him. He ordered them to tell me that I should rest now, and on the next day go to the Liturgy and from there to him. I was barely able to walk, but I did it all through the elder’s prayers, which apparently gave me the strength. When I went in to Batiushka’s room with Mrs. Kliuchareva, she knelt before him and asked him tearfully, ‘Batiushka! Heal her, like you know how to heal.’ The elder was very angry at these words and ordered Mrs. Kliuchareva to leave right away. But to me he said, ‘I don’t heal, it’s the Queen of Heaven who heals; turn to her for help.’ In the corner of the room hung an icon of the Most Holy Theotokos. Then he asked where my throat hurt. I pointed to the right side of it. The elder with prayer made the sign of the cross three times over it. Immediately, it was as if I received a certain vigor. Receiving a blessing from Batiushka and thanking him for mercifully receiving me, I departed.

“I came to the guesthouse, where my husband and my acquaintance, Lady V. D. Musina-Pushkina, were waiting for me. With them I tried swallowing a piece of bread, in order to make sure that I had gotten better at the elder’s prayers. Before, I was unable to swallow any solid food. And suddenly—to my great joy!—I was able to eat it all easily, without pain, and the pain has not returned since. It has now been fifteen years since that time.”

To be continued…

Surgeon. Diplomat. Soldier. Olympian. 

The life and accomplishments of Tirso del Junco, who died at the age of 98 on Sept. 4, are not easy to keep track of. 

An immigrant from Cuba, he forged a successful career that included taking part in the Bay of Pigs liberation attempt, founding Los Angeles National Bank, and serving twice as the chairman of the California Republican Party.

Yet it was always back in his office as a surgeon that del Junco’s greatest honor — a quiet life of charity — was best demonstrated. There, he kept a wide range of mementos — religious statues, family photos, notes, and more — from countless patients who needed help but did not have the ability to pay. 

“My dad was one of those people who was so generous, but people didn’t know,” said Rosie Erikson, one of del Junco’s four children. “In the last few weeks, I have gotten some calls and I just didn’t realize how many people my dad helped because he just didn’t talk about that.”

His commitment to his patients was demonstrated not only by helping those without means, but in the way he chose to treat each client with dignity.

“Every patient he had, he took a lot of time to sit down and listen and hear what they were going through,” Erikson said. “Not just about their physical ailments. It was very important for him to really talk to his patients, and I truly believe his patients loved him.”

Those who knew say del Junco’s charitable work flowed from a life of faith, equally quiet but just as important.

“He could barely walk,” Erikson said, “but he was still going to Sunday Mass.” 

It was that crossroads of faith and charity which led to one of his greatest accomplishments: At the time of his death, del Junco was the longest serving member of the Western Association of the Sovereign Order of Malta, a prestigious order of Catholic laity devoted to medical and humanitarian aid. 

As a Knight of Malta, del Junco participated frequently in service projects and as a representative of the order at special liturgies. 

He had a special connection with the Carmelite Sisters at Santa Teresita, eventually connecting Erikson to serve as charity coordinator. Perhaps the highlight of his tenure as a Knight was when he joined the order’s 2014 pilgrimage to Lourdes — a long-held dream for a man who had a deep love for Our Lady.

Apart from his faith, Del Junco’s list of human accomplishments can seem dizzying. He was a multisport athlete who represented Cuba in the 1948 Olympics in rowing. After graduating from medical school, del Junco eventually became a resident at Queen of Angels Hospital in Los Angeles. He also served in the U.S. Army, becoming the chief surgeon at Camp Hanford Army Hospital and serving as a medical officer during the Bay of Pigs invasion.

After settling in Pasadena with his wife, Celia, and having four children, del Junco became chairman of the California Republican Party twice and began serving as a delegate to the Republican National Conventions starting in 1968.

“It was unusual at the time to see a member of a minority group rise to such political leadership and prominence,” said Lance Izumi, senior director for the Center for Education at the Pacific Research Institute and former colleague through the California Republican Party. “So Dr. del Junco’s accomplishment inspired me, as a member of a minority group, in my own political and public policy career.”

In his leisure time, he was a regular at the racetrack — Santa Anita in his youth and more recently at Los Alamitos — where he was known to spend his weekends. Erikson said that when she informed the employees at Los Alamitos of her father’s death, they began to cry.

Del Junco is succeeded by his four children, each of whom carries on his legacy in their own way.

“My two brothers are doctors and my sister is a nurse,” Erikson said. “And they all practice with the same kindness and generosity as my father did.” 

Erikson joined her father as a member of the Order of Malta nearly a decade ago, accompanying him on his cherished pilgrimage to Lourdes. 

“He loved that he left that legacy in his family,” she said. 

A funeral Mass for Dr. Tirso del Junco was held at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels on Oct. 13. Donations can be made to the Order of Malta, Western Association, 324 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025.

St. John was born in Italy in 1385, and his father died when he was young. His mother secured his education, and he learned Latin, civil law, and Church law. He married the daughter of a well-known man in the community, and became the governor of Perugia in 1412. 

A few years later, he was jailed as a political prisoner. While he was behind bars, John had a dream about St. Francis of Assisi, and was inspired to commit himself to a religious life. Through his wife’s influence, he was released from prison, and then paraded through his town, sitting backwards on a donkey and wearing a paper hat which listed all of his sins in penance. 

Having repented, John joined the order of Franciscans of the Strict Observance. He was ordained in 1425, and was sent to preach all across Italy. John was a talented speaker, and thousands came to hear him, inspiring many conversions and renewals of faith. 

John was drawn into internal controversy among the Franciscans, but was unsuccessful in resolving anything. He defended St. Bernardine of Siena, his mentor and friend, from accusations of heresy, and was a trusted advisor to several of the popes in his lifetime. John was an instrumental part of the Ecumenical Council of Florence as well. 

Due to his preaching success in Italy, John was sent throughout Central Europe to share the Gospel. Pope Nicholas V included John in a mission to rally European leaders after the fall of Constantinople in 1453. He personally led a part of the ensuing battle defending Belgrade in 1456.

After the battle, John suffered a serious illness and died on Oct. 23, 1456. He was canonized in 1724, and is a patron of military chaplains. 

The pilgrim images of Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Juan Diego are back for their annual tour of Los Angeles. The kick-off celebration was held at St. Catherine of Alexandria Church in Avalon on Oct. 20, where LA Catholics processed with the images before a welcome Mass and potluck. From there, the images traveled by boat to All Souls Cemetery and Mortuary in Long Beach. 

Every year, the images are hosted at different parishes throughout the archdiocese, and venerated with special Masses and celebrations. The pilgrimage ends in a procession and Mass to celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe in December. 

The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe is an exact digital reproduction of the original image in Mexico City’s Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. It has been blessed and touched to the original image. 

The full schedule for the pilgrimage is below. 

Friday, October 20

St. Catherine of Alexandria Church, 800 Beacon St., Avalon

11 a.m. Arrival of images at the Green Pier

11:30 a.m. Procession begins at Wrigley Stage

12 p.m. Welcome Mass

1 p.m. Potluck in parish hall 

3-5 p.m. veneration and prayer, confessions available 

6 p.m. Aztec dancers

6:30 p.m. Bilingual Mass 

8 p.m. serenade to the image

Saturday, October 21

6 a.m. Mañanitas and farewell

7 a.m. Images leave Avalon by boat at Green Pier

 

Sunday, October 22

All Souls Catholic Cemetery and Mortuary, 4400 Cherry Ave., Long Beach 

12 p.m.: Procession with Aztec dancers, welcome, blessings, dance by folklorico group

12:30 p.m.: Rosary and homily

1:00 p.m.: Aztec dancers, mariachi music, folklorico dancers

1:30 p.m.: Final blessing by Deacon Frank and procession

1:35-2:45 p.m.: veneration 

 

Monday, October 24 – Tuesday, October 25

St. Mary of the Assumption Church, 7215 Newlin Ave., Whittier

Sunday, October 22

4:30 p.m. Welcome of images with dancers

5 p.m. Rosary in Spanish

6 p.m. Mass in English

Monday, October 23

8 a.m. Rosary in English

8:30 a.m. Mass in English

12 p.m. Angelus

5:30 p.m Rosary in Spanish

6:30 p.m. Mass in Spanish

Tuesday, October 24

8 a.m. Rosary in English

8:30 a.m Mass in English

12 p.m. Angelus

3 p.m. bilingual holy hour

5:30 p.m. Rosary in Spanish

6:30 p.m. Mass in Spanish

7:30 p.m. dancers

 

Wednesday, October 25 – Thursday, October 26

St. Francis Xavier Church, 4245 Acacia Ave., Pico Rivera, 

Wednesday, October 25

5 p.m. Reception and welcome with procession by catechism children

5:30 p.m. Rosary led by prayer group 

6:30 p.m.: Marian serenade

7 p.m. Mass

8 p.m. Marian talk

Thursday, October 26

7:25 a.m. Mass

11 a.m. Mass

12 p.m. Rosary for priests

1 p.m. Veneration by groups and ministries

2-6 p.m. Veneration 

6:15 p.m. Rosary of Divine Mercy (chapter)

7 p.m. Farewell Mass

8 p.m. Procession and rosary

 

Friday, October 27 – Saturday, October 28

St. Pancratius Church, 3519 St. Pancratius Pl., Lakewood

Friday, October 27

5 p.m. Welcome with music and prayer

6 p.m. Mass

7-9 p.m. Veneration

Saturday, October 28

8 a.m. Mass

8:30-11:45 a.m. Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament

8:30 a.m. Rosary and chaplet of Divine Mercy

12 p.m. Mass with mariachi

1-4 p.m. Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament

3:30 p.m. rosary

3:30-4:30 p.m. confessions

4:30 p.m. Vigil and farewell Mass

 

Sunday, October 29 – Monday, October 30

Saint Joseph Church, 1500 Linden Ave., Carpinteria 

Sunday, October 29

9 a.m. Mass in English

10 a.m. Welcome with mariachi, songs, and flowers (families with children will offer flowers)

11 a.m. Holy Guadalupe rosary 

11:30 a.m. Mass

12:30 p.m. fellowship

5:30 p.m. Mass in English with youth from Sunday school

6:30 p.m. Catechesis on Marian Devotion and the rosary

Pope St. John Paul II was born Karol Jozef Wojtyla, in the polish town of Wadowice, on May 18, 1920. He was the youngest of three children. His mother died when he was 9, his brother Edmund, when Karol was 12, and his father 9 years later. His sister Olga had died before Karol was born. 

After graduation, Karol enrolled in Jagiellonian University, and a school for drama. When the Nazis closed the university the following year, Karol had to work in a quarry and factories to earn a living. He became aware that God was calling him to be a priest, and started studying in the clandestine seminary of Krakow. 

Once World War II was over, he continued his studies, and was ordained on November 1, 1946. He went to Rome for a time, finishing a doctorate in theology with a thesis on the faith in the works of St. John of the Cross. From there, he returned to Poland, as vicar of several parishes, and chaplain to the university students there. 

He was made bishop of Ombi and auxiliary of Krakow in 1958, and in 1964, archbishop of Krakow. Pope St. Paul VI made him a cardinal in 1967. As Cardinal Wojtyla, he participated in the second Vatican Council, and the assemblies of the Synod of Bishops. 

On Oct. 16, 1978, Cardinal Wojtyla was elected pope. He took the name of John Paul II, and on Oct. 22, he became the 263rd pope in the Church. His pontificate is one of the longest in Church history, lasting almost 27 years. 

John Paul II made 104 visits outside Italy, and 146 within Italy. He visited 317 of Rome’s 333 parishes. He held hundreds of meetings with leaders of nations, pilgrims, and faithful. He established World Youth Days as a way to connect with young people, and the 19 celebrated during his time as pope brought together millions of young Catholics around the world. 

He promoted spiritual renewal within the Church, through the Year of Redemption, the Marian Year, and the Year of the Eucharist. He proclaimed 1,338 blesseds and 51 saints, and made St. Therese of the Child Jesus a Doctor of the Church. His writings are many, and have informed Church teachings throughout his pontificate and into the present day.  

On April 2, 2005, John Paul II died. More than three million pilgrims came to Rome to pay homage to his remains, some waiting in line for 24 hours to enter the Basilica. 

On April 28, Pope Benedict XVI waived the five-year waiting period before beginning the cause for beatification, and Pope John Paul II was beatified on May 1, 2011. He was canonized on April 27, 2014, by Pope Francis.