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Visitation Sisters celebrate 400 years

jeffg — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 12:20:11 +0000

By Barbara Watkins, Review Staff Writer

As the Sisters of the Visitation of Holy Mary celebrate their 400th anniversary worldwide this year, the Visitation Sisters in St. Louis are living their charism of humility, gentleness, simplicity and a strong interior life, and striving to share it with others.

"Now our great mission is to pass our charism on," said Sister Marie Therese Ruthmann, a former Visitation Academy teacher and former superior at the monastery.

The Sisters of the Visitation hosted a Mass celebrating the 400th anniversary in June in the Visitation Academy Chapel in Town and Country. Among those attending were Sisters of the Good Shepherd, Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet and members of the Religious of the Sacred Heart, all of whom were influenced by St. Francis de Sales, said Sister Marie Therese. Another celebration, including the Visitation Sisters across the United States, will be held at Visitation Monastery in June 2011.

Visitation Monastery and Academy is one of 11 communities in the United States and nearly 100 worldwide. Visitation Academy has been serving students in the St. Louis region for 177 years, since its modest beginning in Kaskaskia, Ill., in an abandoned hotel. Since then, Visitation Academy and Monastery moved three times within the City of St. Louis before its final move to Town and Country in 1962.

Continue reading about the Visitation Sisters on the St. Louis Review website »

Archdiocese of St. Louis

USCCB: Migration Chairman Urges Comprehensive Immigration Reform

jeffg — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 17:45:18 +0000

WASHINGTON—As chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Migration, Bishop John C. Wester of Salt Lake City applauded the July 28 decision by U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton to halt some of the most controversial provisions of Arizona SB 1070 from going into effect the next day. Bishop Wester lamented the status quo on immigration as “unacceptable” and called for the Federal government to act immediately on immigration reform.

"It is the right decision,” Bishop Wester said. “Any law that provides legal cover to profiling affects all members of our communities, including legal residents and citizens. It is a very slippery slope. What is needed now is for Congress and the Administration to live up to their responsibilities and address this issue by passing immigration reform."

The U.S. Catholic bishops believe that any comprehensive immigration reform bill should contain the following elements: a legalization program that gives migrant workers and their families an opportunity to earn legal permanent residency and eventual citizenship; a new worker visa program that protects the labor rights of both U.S. and foreign workers and gives participants the option to earn permanent residency; reform of the U.S. family-based immigration system to reduce waiting times for family reunification; and restoration of due process protections for immigrants, including asylum-seekers. In the longer term, policies that address the root causes of migration, such as the lack of sustainable development in sending nations, should also be part of the equation.

Archdiocese of St. Louis

Archbishop Carlson: An Offer to the Parishioners of St. Stanislaus

jeffg — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:00:00 +0000

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,

Peace, and my greetings to each of you. You are, I am aware, in a time of discernment and are faced with a decision regarding the return of St. Stanislaus to again be a Roman Catholic parish.

Over the past year, since arriving in St. Louis, I have met with the members of the board of directors of St. Stanislaus to find a way in which the parish could be re-established while, at the same time, addressing the fears expressed by many of you over the last seven years that the parish would be closed and its property sold with the proceeds being used for other purposes within the archdiocese.

One of the concerns expressed again and again was that, even if an archbishop made a commitment to keep the parish operating so long as Roman Catholics of Polish heritage wanted to have a parish and were willing to support it, he could not bind his successors.

Working with the members of the St. Stanislaus Board, we have developed the concept of the present corporation continuing to own the parish property and the cash and securities that it holds and leasing, without charge, the parish church and rectory to a new parish corporation, founded on the model of other parish corporations in the archdiocese, of which the pastor would be the president. The Polish Heritage Center would not be leased to the parish corporation, but it would be available, without charge, for all parish functions. The pastor and the board of directors of the St. Stanislaus Corporation would collaborate on fundraising and in other matters relating to the parish and the parish property.

It is my intention that this arrangement continue in perpetuity and that St. Stanislaus always be there as a personal parish for Roman Catholics of Polish ethnicity or language.

Continue reading this story on the St. Louis Review website »

Archdiocese of St. Louis

Annual Appeal for Latin America Apostolate to be held July 31-August 1

jeffg — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:00:00 +0000

Since 1956, the Archdiocese of Saint Louis has sent its own priests of the Archdiocese as missionaries to La Paz, Bolivia in South America. Due to the shortage of native priests in the Archdiocese of La Paz, Archbishop Abel Antezana requested that Archbishop Joseph Ritter send priests from Saint Louis to serve in La Paz.

Archbishop Ritter said that the decision to send priests of the Archdiocese of Saint Louis as foreign missionaries was the most important decision in his twenty-three years as a bishop. This has been a special blessing for the priests, as well as for other missionaries, whether the Sisters of the Most Precious Blood in O’Fallon, Missouri, or the Papal Volunteers in Latin America (PAVLA).

The 2010 Annual Collection for the support of the Latin America Apostolate will take place on the weekend of July 31-August 1, 2010. Our St. Louis priest missionaries and the people they serve in Bolivia depend on our support. Please help us to continue this extraordinary missionary work by offering your prayers and sacrifices on the weekend of July 31-August 1. Thank you!

More: Archbishop Carlson asks, "Please give generously to the Latin America Apostolate collection" [St. Louis Review]

Archdiocese of St. Louis

Archbishop Carlson: Please Give Generously to Latin America Apostolate

jeffg — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 20:25:54 +0000

Dear Friends in Christ,

Since 1956, the Latin America Apostolate of the Archdiocese of St. Louis has enabled us as an archdiocese to fulfill the missionary mandate of Our Lord: "Go into the whole world, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Mt 28: 19). The shortage of native Bolivian priests and the request by the papal nuncio to Bolivia made to Archbishop Ritter was the reason our St. Louis missionary priests were sent to serve there. In 2010, two native Bolivian priests were ordained for service of the Archdiocese of La Paz. Both had spent part of their seminary formation in apostolic work in Maria Reina Parish in La Paz, where most of our St. Louis priest missionaries serve in Bolivia.

Besides the shortage of native clergy, other challenges in Bolivia include: great poverty, unemployment, diseases and malnutrition. These difficulties persist for the people of Bolivia even today. Our missionaries preach the Gospel, form catechists, celebrate the sacraments and help form the people as missionary disciples of the Lord. A health clinic in Maria Reina Parish in La Paz helps meet the needs of the poor who seek medical care and food. This year our missionary priests at Maria Reina are trying to finish the construction of a chapel called Santa Barbara. While the parishioners are trying to raise the funds, the chapel cannot be completed without our financial support.

Our missionary priests also serve in a rural parish among the Aymara people in Calamarca, 45 miles outside La Paz, where there are 30 villages, in addition to the main church in Calamarca. Were it not for our priest missionaries, Masses would not be available in these 30 villages, nor in the main church.

Bishop Morgan Casey also receives our support from the Latin America Apostolate for his ministry as the vicar apostolic for the Vicariate of the Pando in Northern Bolivia. There are 160,000 Catholics in his pastoral care.

As the Servant of God, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen once wrote: "Some people give to the missions by going; others go to the missions by giving. Without both, there is no mission." Please be generous in the collection for the Latin America Apostolate on Aug. 1 and pray for our missionaries. Missionaries can only do what we make possible through our prayers and donations.

Sincerely yours in Christ,
Most Reverend Robert J. Carlson
Archbishop of St. Louis

Archdiocese of St. Louis