Missionary Oblate Partnership Hosts De Mazenod Conference
by Alicia von Stamwitz
On the weekend of April 12—14, 2013, forty-five participants gathered at San Antonio’s Oblate Renewal Center and the new Whitley Center at Oblate School of Theology for the fourth annual De Mazenod Conference: “Discovering and Practicing the Presence of God: Catholic Spirituality for Everyday Living.”
Missionary Oblate Partners launched the conference series in 2010 with Artie Pingolt, President, convening the event and Fr. Tom Singer, Spiritual Director, coordinating. Fellow Missionary Oblate Partner and writer/editor Alicia von Stamwitz joined Tom in coordinating 2013’s gathering. The De Mazenod Conference seeks to promote broader collaboration and understanding around issues of faith and human development.
A lively mix of vowed Oblates, national leaders, partners, and friends attended the conference, including 11 Oblates from the U.S. and Lacombe, Canada provinces: Bill Antone, John Collet, Jim Deegan, Paul Feeley, David Kalert, Bill Morell, Frank Santucci, Dale Schlitt, Tom Singer, John Staak, and Lou Studer.
Tom Singer, our keynote speaker, reminded us that our previous De Mazenod Conferences were more externally focused on Church communications and evangelization. “For this year’s conference,” he said, “we thought it might be beneficial if we tried to share with our Partners some of our Oblate spirituality.”
Jim Deegan, our first presenter, led three sessions on, “The One Essential Thing” including practical exercises on Lectio Divina and Consciousness Examen. Frank Santucci, our second presenter, offered two sessions on “Eugene de Mazenod’s Vision and Spirituality,” and he guided us through dynamic small group sessions. Highlights of the sessions and further reflections from attendees and friends will be published later this year in our annual conference Journal.
At the start of the conference, Artie Pingolt expressed his hope that the conference would offer “spiritual oxygen” to the attendees. Apparently, this hope was realized. During our closing evaluation, attendees agree that the conference was a much-needed boost and breath of fresh air. One partner commented, “I’ve gotten more out of this conference than I have in all my previous eleven years as an associate!” A professed Oblate said, “It’s probably the best conference I’ve been to. Really!” Another simply gushed, “Wow!”
Artie extends special thanks to the sponsors of this year’s conference: Cliff & Mary Jo Bolner, Rosemary Walsh, HOMI, Renee Benson and John & Gee Gee Whitehurst.
- Participants commenting on presentation
- More comments
- Rosemary explains her ideas
- Rosemary Walsh, HOMI
- Active participation
- .. and individual comments
- Social in Blanco, TX
- Participants to the 2013 De Mazenod Conference
- Participants …
- Listening to the presentations
- Group discussions
- Group discussion
- Group discusion
- Group discussion
- Group discussion
- Group discussion
- Group discussion
- Group discussion
- Frank Santucci, OMI talking about St. Eugene’s spirituality
- Fr. Deegan
- Social in Blanco, TX
- Social in Blanco, TX
- Billy Morell, OMI presenting Frank Santucci, OMI
- Commenting on issues
February 17 is Oblate Day …
- At February 14, 2013
- By getchart
- In Communication, News, Partnership News
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Every year, on February 17, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate celebrates Oblate Day, the anniversary of day in 1826, when the congregation obtained recognition from Pope Leo XII.
On February 18, 1826, St. Eugene wrote to Fr, Tempier, his faithful partner:
No mere trifles, these are no longer simple regulations, no ordinary pious directions; they are Rules that have been approved by the Church after the most minute scrutiny. They have been judged holy and eminently capable of leading those who embraced them to their destination. They have become the property of the Church that adopted them… We are thus constituted… Be aware of your dignity… In the name of God let us be saints
No better way to mark our own celebration this year than recalling how Marseille has recently honored Oblates’ founder and city’s former Bishop, St. Eugene de Mazenod when opening the Year of Marseille-Provence 2013, European Capital of Culture. This is how Michel Courvoisier, OMI, describes it:
“Messo Soulenno Prouvençalo. Oumenage à Mounsegne de Mazenod” A solemn Mass in the Provencal language in the Saint Mary Major Cathedral of Marseille brought together 1,500 faithful on Sunday, January 13. With a choir of 200, with traditional musicians and their instruments, and about 50 groups in local costumes coming from all over Provence… Of course, the songs were also in that language: “O Diéu, benesisse toun pople. Donno-nous la pas!” (O God, bless your people. Give us peace!).
Archbishop Georges Pontier of Marseille presided at the Eucharist which he concluded with a brief talk in that language. The pastor of Salon-de-Provence, Father Desplanches, spoke alternatively in Provencal and French in his homily, as he emphasized how Bishop de Mazenod kept to the language which the little people spoke, so as to tell them of the Gospel. In his welcoming speech, Fr. Michel Courvoisier stated that St. Eugene wanted this cathedral to gather in worship, as at this moment, the people of his diocese. As for Mr. Jean-Claude Gaudin, Senator-Mayor, he took the floor to reiterate how much Bishop de Mazenod belonged to Marseille and Provence.
The two-day event, January 12 and 13, in fact opened the Year of Marseille-Provence 2013, European Capital of Culture (along with Kosice, Slovakia). Among other festivities, wishing to give a Provencal touch to the opening, the Provencal Cultural Union had organized this celebration in “honor of Bishop de Mazenod.”
On the eve, the Symposium on “Eugene de Mazenod, a great Provencal”, among many other events, brought together over a hundred people in the auditorium of the Grande Bibliothèque de l’Alcazar in downtown Marseille. Michel COURVOISIER gave a presentation on “Bishop de Mazenod, visionary of Marseille”. While Bishop de Mazenod concerned himself as bishop with the development of the city, even using the term “Queen of the Mediterranean”, his vision was more that of a city he wished to see being attentive to situations of poverty and distress (cholera; troubled youth, along with the Fathers Fissiaux and Timon-David; blind children, along with Father DASSY).
An art historian, Mr. Rémy Kerténian, spoke of the “two lighthouses of Marseille”, namely, the Cathedral and Notre Damede la Garde, envisioned by St. Eugene and whose architecture borrows heavily from the East. Mrs. Chélini-Pont, from the University of Aix-Marseille, recalled several aspects of the Provencal roots of Bishop de Mazenod. The fourth speaker was Mr. Joseph Yacoub, Professor Emeritus at the Catholic University of Lyon, himself a Syro-Chaldean Christian and therefore particularly sensitive to the intercultural. He in turn stressed how the Oblates had followed the guidance provided by their founder, especially attention to local languages. He could only enumerate all too briefly the work of Frs. Emile PETITOT and Adrien MORICE with the Aboriginals of Canada, Fr. René JAOUEN in Cameroon, Fr. GNANAPRAKASAR in Sri Lanka, Fr. Yves BERTRAIS with the Hmong in Laos, Fr. Bruno ARENS in Thailand…
These were some opening events about the city and the greater world, of which Notre-Dame de la Garde is the symbol. It is up too us to further expand our horizons as St. Eugene de Mazenod always invites us to do. (Michel Courvoisier)
Note: The feature photo shows the main altar of the Church of the Mission, in Aix-en-Provence, where everything started.
Sources:
www.omiworld.org
St. Eugene de Mazenod speaks to us: www.eugenedemazenod.net
If You Only Had 6 Seconds…
- At December 07, 2012
- By getchart
- In Communication, Mission Stories, News, OMIUSA Columns
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…what would your message on some billboards be, to move people to consider the role of faith in their lives?
That is the question that several Partners and Oblates involved with “Invitation To Faith” (ITF), a billboard campaign jointly sponsored by the Partnership and the US Province, have been asking in discussions held over the past few months.
US Province delegates to the campaign are Art Flores, OMI , Greg Gallagher, OMI, and Will Shaw from Oblate Media. Partners involved include Vince Miller, Ed Murray, HOMI, Artie Pingolt, Tom Singer, OMI and Alicia von Stamwitz. Cameo appearances have also been made by Jim Brobst, OMI, Allen Maes, OMI , Tom O’Valle, OMI and Bill Undertajlo.
Invitation To Faith will be launched in the first quarter of 2013 , with billboards in the St. Louis and Houston areas. The campaign has been made possible by Vince Miller, who orchestrated the gift of 7 billboards, for one year, from the Drury Corporation. Will Shaw has also recruited pro bono creative guidance from the Belleville firm InFocus Marketing. Private donor funds will be raised to create the large printed vinyl sheets that will be mounted on the boards and a grant application is being submitted for the “back end” portion of ITF.
The “back end” resources of the campaign will include a dedicated internet location for responders, leading to dialogue via email, phone or special events with select Oblates who will comprise the Billboard Pastoral Team (BPT).
“Invitation To Faith is about more than putting a message out there that moves people to reach out,”
says Pingolt. “It is about thoughtful and welcoming stewardship of those responders, individuals who have the courage to come to us and share their faith questions and struggles.”
What is known now is that millions of people will see the message once the boards are up. Look for updates on Invitation To Faith in 2013!
MARY IMMACULATE, a guiding light in Eugene’s life
- At December 07, 2012
- By getchart
- In Communication, News, Partnership News
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As we prepare to celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, let’s do so remembering the words of our founder, St. Eugene de Mazenod:
To this end, I invoke the intercession of the Most Holy and Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of
God, daring to remind her in all humility, but with consolation, of the filial devotion of my whole life, and of the desire I have always had to make her known and loved, and to spread her devotion everywhere through the ministry of those whom the Church has given to me as children, who have had the same desire as myself…
St. Eugene de Mazenod’s will, 1854
Reference: St. Eugene de Mazeno speaks to us, posting of November 12, 2012.
Our Lady’s Hospice gets new solar geysers for the wards
- At November 12, 2012
- By getchart
- In Africa, Communication, Mission Stories, News, Our Mission Work, Zambia
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Our Lady’s Hospice was founded in 2001 in Kalingalinga, a neighborhood of Lusaka, Zambia, when caregivers were first trained for a Home-Based Care program for people suffering from HIV/ AIDS.
Kalingalinga is one of the poorest areas of Lusaka and has a population of around 200,000 – 250,000 people. The public hospitals are overflowing with terminally ill patients, and there is a need to house and care for these patients.
The Zambia Delegation of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate was one of the four religious congregations involved in building the Hospice that helps providing palliative end-of-life care for patients with HIV/AIDS.
The first inpatients were admitted in 2003. Free Anti-Retroviral drugs came in 2004 and revolutionized the care that the Hospice offers to HIV+ clients.
Today, the hospice runs an Outpatient Clinic, a Children’s Clinic, and offers inpatient services through 30 beds spread across wards – St Joseph (male ward), St Anne (female ward), St Clare (income generating high cost ward), St Jude (semi private), and Maluba House (Children’s ward).
St Joseph and St Anne are the general wards, and patients admitted to these wards are provided with clinical and nursing care, meals and drugs for a nominal fee that does not cover the cost of care. Also, a hostel has been built for volunteers to stay in.
The Oblate Partnership also ssisted the Hospice to obtain a grant for $5,000 to purchase and install geysers to provide hot water for showers in the male ward and the hostel, all other wards already had hot water.
The geysers are now installed and working well and the patients are benefiting tremendously from the availability of running hot water.
- St. Joseph Ward’s new geyser
Not so Stray Thought s on the Fiftieth Anniversary of Vatican II
Presentation by David N. Power, OMI, on September 28th, 2012, during the Partnership’s Annual Meeting and Oblate Forum.
It is impossible to say much in a few pages of an event that took three years to prepare, lasted four years, and has been nearly fifty years in the process of reception into the life of the church. Thus I use a little anecdote which serves me to encapsulate a vision of a Church renewed and reformed.
As a young priest studying in Rome during two of the sessions of the Council, by the good offices of Dr Peter Birch, Bishop of Ossory in Ireland, I was able to get a ticket which allowed me access to the conciliar sessions over two weeks. This meant entrance to St Peter’s, a place to follow the debates next to the Observers’ tribune, the freedom to wander the corridors and talk to bishops, observers, and theologians, many of whom proved friendly and forthcoming even to a young student like myself. It also gave access to the bar where refreshments were available in the course of the morning.
When I first entered this bustling enclave, I held back timidly from the crowd of cardinals, bishops and observers in their bright robes milling about the table with coffee and pastries, until an Italian cardinal in his bright scarlet dug me in the ribs, urging me to push in and get my coffee, since in this situation all were equal: “qui, tutti sono uguali (here, we are all equal).”
Having received formation in the fifties before the Council, lived the experience of the event, and joined in the efforts to implement it, I can be conscious of some great changes which it wrought and which are still in process in many regions of the world. I name but a few which seem to me of lasting significance, changes more in process than in some final state of accomplishment.
One is the access which Catholics now have to the scriptures, whereas even in the fifties they were warned of the dangers inherent to reading the Bible. Knowing, hearing, reflecting upon the Word of God is a foundation for renewal and has been encouraged, its importance marked within the last decade by a Synod devoted to the place of scripture in Christian life. Only a few days ago, Pope Benedict noted that “conversation (colloquio)” with God who speaks to his people through the Word, is the foundation of good liturgy, this of course being at the heart of the life of the Church. Note the term “conversation.” God through his word speaks to us and we respond, talking of the place it has in our lives and of how it illumines our way and helps us to read the signs of the times and the signs of the kingdom. That conversation now shapes Catholic life in diverse ways, and most powerfully perhaps in small, or base, Christian communities across the world. In his two apostolic letters regarding the Jubilee year of 2000, Tertio Millenio Adveniente and Novo Millenio Ineunte, Pope John Paul II affirmed to the effort of the Council to return to the scripture and to base its teaching on Jesus Christ and all its teachings in the scriptural word. For him this is to place the mystery of the Incarnation within history and to give a historically founded face to Jesus, whom he calls the Nazarene. He audaciously says in the second of these documents that from the Gospels “the face of the Nazarene emerges with a solid historical foundation,” even as he recognizes the different approach of each of the four Gospels.
Another point I wish to mention is how Catholics join with other Christians in the engagement with the world. Into the fifties the Church had resisted this engagement, building itself up as a stronghold of defence against the secularization of modern culture and society. In convoking the council, Pope John XXIII invited people to open the windows and take on a style of life which would be one of openness, conversation and cooperation with the world around them, in its endeavours to seek the peace, justice and humanity of a global community. In this endeavour, he saw Christian communion as a sign of reconciliation and of the presence of God’s kingdom. We may miss the audacity of this move because we can easily forget how divided and fractious the world was, being still in the aftermath of the many wars which we include under the generic World War II, then caught in the thrall of wars that continued to be waged and fearful in face of the dangers inherent to the Cold War. Through the agency of the UNO and other organizations, states and peoples were trying out a common search for unity, peace, justice, human rights and human development on a global scale. The Church had to find its own relevant role in this endeavour, a role which the Council saw based on a reading of the signs of the times. This turn to cooperation with others was not entirely new, as we can see for example in the work of the lay apostolate since the thirties, but it was new that it became a common call, something at the heart of the Church, something in which all engaged by reason of their baptismal vocation.
In conjunction with this second point, we can not how commitment to the service of the world in its total reality, and at the same time commitment to service of the kingdom, gives a fresh perspective on the evangelical counsels and of a vow or a promise to follow them. This is not withdrawal but a new Spirit-filled way of engagement, one which is selfless and which is attentive to the spiritual and divine dimension of all creation.
This then means the third change which I wish to note, namely, that every Catholic learns to think and act out the apostolic and missionary character of being a member of the body of Christ, of the people of God. When Vatican II spoke of the church as the people of God on its pilgrim way, it thought of how all are part of the historical reality of the presence of the kingdom of God in the world and in the affairs of the world. This too had to be the basis of dialogue and communion with members of all Christian Churches and communities and indeed with people of all religions. Happily too this has meant a gradual affirmation of the place of women in society and in the Church. Obviously, women were long engaged in pastoral work, in education and in mission: nothing would ever have happened without this. Now however we are on the difficult and strained road to finding how to give practical form and legal position to the place of women. Much is yet to be done but we know that there is no true future unless we continue to make progress as a Church in this regard.
These three things noted, we know well enough that not all in the Church view the implementation of Vatican II in the same way and that for this reason there is an inner tension in how we try to live out the conciliar impulse. To find our path, it helps to remember what Pope John wanted the Council to be: he wished for a pastoral council, one concerned with the life of the church and its mission, visiting its doctrines and its traditions and its structures only to see how brought up to date they shaped its life and its mission. Looking outwards all the time was necessary, even when it was necessary to look inwards to see how inner renewal was as vital part of pastoral and missionary work and presence. If doctrines were to be rethought and even given new formulation, it was so that they might better serve the church’s missionary vocation of bringing the Gospel to the modern world and to peoples of many and various cultures. Engaging with historical reality, with cultures, with religions and with those of no religion, how may the Church engage with its own traditions in a newly creative and life-giving way that brings the Gospel and reconciliation to the many and the diverse? This is obviously an ongoing task since formulations of the sixties can themselves be outmoded in the encounter with new events and newly appreciated cultures and histories, and it is also clear that from new situations the Church local and universal gives fresh readings of the scriptures, following out the principle that the Gospel has to find its roots in individual cultures.
As indicated above, one thing that some have noted from the sixties onward is that engagement with the world, that finding the divine and the spiritual in it, means being true mystics. Shortly after the Council the great German theologian, Karl Rahner noted: from now on, we are either mystics or nothing. What are known as the liberation movements of the poor within the Churches of Latin America, Africa and Asia, have always witnessed to this mystical character of Christian vision and work and engagement with the world in the quest for peace and justice. Reading the signs of the times, being one with others and with nature, means being sensitive to the spiritual, to the divine, in all things. It means seeing the signs of the kingdom in the sense that Jesus meant when he talked of how God shows his presence in the midst of earthly and historical realities.
In all of this, a key factor in the mission to bring the Gospel to the world is the privileged place that God has given to the poor, not because they are better people but out of divine love. Not only are we to work that justice for them may be done and that they are to be freed from inhuman poverty, but they are truly our brothers and sisters whose voice in the conversation with the scriptures and with the world has to be heard and entertained. There were those at the Council who wanted the Church to become in truth in its own poverty and inner communion the Church of the Poor. We may be on the way but we are not yet there.
An interview given by the late Cardinal Martini to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera is much quoted for his remarks on how the Church has grown old and needs reform and change to truly evangelize our world and its cultures. What is not always noted is how this is a plea for love of the Church. In his own illness in experiencing incapacity he had also found the love and care of others which is needed to make even the least thing possible. Can the Church too be given life by love, renewed and reformed within itself and in the face it deliberately shows to the world?
Washington, DC, 28th September 2012
Missionary Oblate Partnership Annual Meeting and Oblate Forum
During September 28 – 30, the Missionary Oblate Partnership celebrated its 2012 Annual Meeting and Oblate Forum. More than 40 Partners, Oblates, and friends participated to reflect on the topic of Faith Serving Justice.
The meeting started on the evening of Friday, September 28, with a video and a moving “Personal recollection of Vatican II” by Fr. David Power, OMI, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Council.
On Saturday, September 29, Partnership staff provided the annual report to partners, presentation that was followed by two panel discussions. The first panel, integrated by Partners Paul Dietrich, Bob Klosterman, Rob Lively, Bill Ritter, Sr. Theresa Sandok, OSM and moderated by Seamus Finn, OMI, reflected on Faith Serving Justice in Corporate and Public Life. The second panel that included Bill Antone, OMI, Seamus Finn, OMI, Rufus Whitley, OMI, discussed the topic of Faith Service Justice in Religious and Church Lifeand was led by Andrew Small, OMI.
A high point of the Saturday agenda was when Partners Len and Marge Busch and Richard and Linda Scott received the [Blessed] Joseph Gerard Award from the hands of Oblate Provincial Superior, Fr. Bill Antone, OMI. With this Award, named after one of the first Oblate Missionaries to Africa, the Partnership thanked these partners for their continued and valuable contributions in support of the poor and most abandoned around the world, charism first outlined by Oblates’ founder St. Eugene de Mazenod.
During the weekend, Partners also had a chance to do some sightseeing, to visit the Capitol building, led by Partner Rob Lively, KOM, and Maggie Pingolt, and to attend Mass in the Crypt Chapel of Our Lady of the Snows of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. An outdoors BBQ at the OMI House ended the productive gathering.
Double click on each photo for a better view.
- Participants to 2012 Annual Meeting and Oblate Forum
- Fr. David Power, OMI, talks about Vatican II
- Len and Marge Busch
- Richard and Linda Scott
- Panel I
- Panel II
- Listening to presentations
- Partners enjoying the city
- Fr. Barnabas Simatende, OMI, making a presentation about the Zambia Delegation
- Partners attending Mass at Our Lady of the Snows Chapel
- Attending presentations
- Fr. Tom Singer, OMI, Partnership’s Spiritual Director, talking about the 2012 De Mazenod Conference
- Will Shaw, from Oblate Media, explaining the idea of a billboard
- Graciela Etchart, PhD, Partnership’s Officer, talking about the work with the missions
- Arthur A. Pingolt, Jr., Partnership’s President, explaining the new Endowment
- Fr. Bill Antone, OMI, Provincial Superior, explaining the new place of the Partnership in the US Province
Specialists In Difficult Missions
- At August 27, 2012
- By getchart
- In Communication, News, Partnership News
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The Missionary Oblate Partnership assists the work of United States Province of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate to fulfill St. Eugene de Mazenod’s charism by:
Reaching out in a special way to the poor and most abandoned people;
Helping those that have fallen through the cracks in our society;
Sharing the Good News of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection as events that are for all of us.
We support the Oblate method of evangelizing that brings the “Good News” to the most needed by personal care that includes: building schools, clinics and nutrition centers, as well as retreat centers, churches, radio stations and seminaries.
To learn more about the Missionary Oblate Partnership please visit our Partnership News Section.
Professional training for young women in Luanda, Angola
- At August 21, 2012
- By getchart
- In Africa, Communication, Mission Stories, News
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The Oblate Santo André Oblate Parish is situated in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Luanda, the capital of Angola. Most of the 16,000 parishioners are former refugees of the country’s 27-year civil war.
Angola is now as a post conflict country and has begun its reconstruction.
During the period of civil war, many children and youth could not attend school for reasons, such as being orphans of both parents, poverty, being refugees, or for lack of functioning schools in the areas they lived. The result is a current high number of illiterate adults that are at disadvantage at finding employment.
Particularly vulnerable among these persons are young women and girls.
Many of them not only did not attend school but got pregnant very early in life either because they had married very young or because they were forced to live with men in order to survive the war.
Rather than completing secondary school, many of these young ladies want to get their lives back and to support their children as single mothers. Many times, professional formation is the only alternative they have.
The Missionary Oblate Partnership is supporting a project launched in 2011 with the assistance of two private foundations, to train these young women in three areas with good employment opportunities: interior decoration, culinary arts and pastry cooking, and hotel keeping and hospitality
The courses are offered in a center that belongs to the Santo André Oblate Parish and is under the authority of ProMAICa (Promoção da Mulher Angolana na Igreja Catolica.or Promotion of Angolan Women in the Catholic Church), a Catholic women organization. The center has a capacity to train 75 women and girls per year.
Many of the attendees pay full or partial tuition but many others need financial assistance. The local Oblates address this situation and the sustainability of the program through strategies such as catering for local events, selling what the students have prepared, and providing the students’ services.
Celebrating the 230th birthday of our Founder, St. Eugene de Mazenod
- At July 25, 2012
- By getchart
- In Communication, News, Partnership News
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St. Eugene de Mazenod’s impassionate commitment to help the most marginalized of society has profoundly influenced the lives of millions of persons around the world.
Born in Aix-en-Provence, France, on August 1, 1782 to a noble father and a wealthy bourgeois mother, Eugene’s prospective of a comfortable life was shattered by the French Revolution that obliged the family to flee into exile. When after an impoverished and lonely adolescence and a broken home he returned to post-revolutionary France at the age of 20 his main goal was to make up for lost time.

Members of the Missionary Oblate Partnership in the room where the Missionary Oblates Congregation was founded.
Then, during the adoration of the cross on Good Friday, 1807, Eugene finally acknowledged the “conversion” that had been taking place within him and decided to dedicate his life to Christ. He was ordained a priest in 1811; his dream was to become the servant and priest of the poor, the abandoned youth, the prisoners, the farm and domestic workers, of all those had fallen into the cracks of society and the Church.
Soon, he founded a group of missionaries, whose major task was the preaching of parochial missions in the local language as part of the restoration of the Church that had been shattered by the French Revolution. In February 1826, Pope Leo XII formally approved the Congregation of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Their goal:
to lead people to act like human beings, first of all, and then like Christians, and finally, … to help them to become saints.
(Oblate Rule of 1818, cited by Dulier, “15 days of prayer with Saint Eugene de Mazenod,” 2009)
Named Bishop of Marseille in 1837, the diocese grew steadily under Eugene’s direction. As bishop, he felt equally comfortable meeting with the mayor of the city or the fishwives and beggars; he received them all by strict order of arrival. He was known for wandering the alleyways of Marseille. Usually dressed as a simple priest, and often accompanied by members of the religious sodality he created from among the fishwives, together they would bring the Sacraments to the sick and dying in the poorest slums. He remained at his post throughout the plague epidemics, making up for the deficiencies in services, because
when new needs arise we must, if necessary, invent new means to meet them.
(Hubenig, OMI, “Living in the Spirit’s Fire,” 1995)
St. Eugene’s charism of radical love for the poor translated into the care of the whole person, the spiritual but also the physical needs. His belief in the equal dignity of all persons was best expressed on Ash Wednesday 1813, when to the annoyance of the upper classes of Aix he preached to the poor of all sorts not in the usual French or Latin that were the languages of the Church and the wealthy, but in Provençal the tongue of the people:
… You, the poor, the needy, whom the injustice of men obliges to beg for the bread which will sustain your existence … The world sees you as the rejects of society … But you, … my very dear and respectable people,… you are the children of God, the heirs of his eternal kingdom, … You are … the brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ … you are kings, you are priests, you are, in a way, gods … Within each of you there is an immortal soul, made in the image of God … ”
(Hubenig, OMI, “Living in the Spirit’s Fire,” 1995, page 53).
Eugene’s other concern was to bring the Gospel where it had not yet been proclaimed. During his life, his missionaries carried the Good News of Christ’s personal love for each of us to England, Ireland, Ceylon, North America, and Southern Africa. Today, more than 4,000 Oblates and their Associates serve the poor and marginalized in 67 countries. Eugene de Mazenod died on May 21, 1861 and was canonized on December 3, 1995. He is considered the Patron Saint of dysfunctional families.
References:
“St Eugene speaks to us” www.eugenedemazenod.net
Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate; Congregation’s website: http://www.omiworld.org
Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, US Province’s website: www.omiusa.org
Dullier, Berndard. “15 days of prayer with Saint Eugene de Mazenod,” New City Press, New York, 2009.
Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, US Province, “Guide for Oblate Associates,” Mission Enrichment and Oblates Associates, Belleville, 2008.
Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, US Province, “Elements of Oblate Spirituality for Associates of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate,” Mission Enrichment and Oblates Associates, Belleville, 2007.
Santucci, OMI. Francis, “Eugene de Mazenod. Co-operator of Christ the Saviour, Communicates his Spirit,” Association for Oblate Studies and Research, Rome, 2004.
Aubin, OMI, Hervé, “The Founder of the Oblates. Saint Eugene de Mazenod,” Mariam Press Ltd., Battleford (SK, Canada), 1997.
Hubenig, OMI, Alfred A., “Living in the Spirit’s Fire,” Novalis, Ottawa, 1995.