Below is an article by the Catholic Herald depicting the two by two evangelization  experienced by the Neocatechumenal Way.  When we go out in two by two, our goal was not to promote the Neocatechumenal Way, but to spread the Gospels to the people.  
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Two by two: Dependence on God’s providence

During the week of July 16-22, four men traveled within the Diocese of Superior in total dependence on God’s providence. Not accepting monetary donations and without any means of communication or pre-arranged accommodations, they set out ‘two by two,’ sharing the Good News of the Gospel.

Approximately 1,500 people were sent out across the United States after a weekend get-together, or convivence, with the Neocatechumenal Way. Participants were paired at random, including the diocese they would visit. The week concluded with a gathering to share how they had encountered Christ and been his instruments in their various locations.

One of numerous charisms approved by the Catholic Church in the 20th century, the Neocatechumenate movement provides post-baptismal catechesis and experiences of ongoing personal conversion. Founded in the 1960s in Madrid, Spain, the group seeks out marginalized and lukewarm Catholics and forms communities within parishes.

A native of St. Paul, Minnesota, Dave Thornton came from Detroit, where he lives with his wife, Patricia, and their 10 children. Luis Aragon, 23, was from Clifton, New Jersey. Simultaneously traveling in the southern part of the diocese were (last names unknown) David, an Italian seminarian studying in Miami, and Angel, from the Dominican Republic, studying at a Boston seminary.

Thornton and Aragon started the week seeking the blessing of Bishop James P. Powers. As he was unavailable, they sought out Mass and met up with Fr. Adam Laski, parochial vicar at the Cathedral of Christ the King, Superior, and its cluster parishes.

Fr. Laski, not recognizing the two men, said he was impressed by their reverent participation in the liturgy.
They spoke afterwards, and Fr. Laski directed them to St. Anthony’s in Lake Nebagamon, inviting them to stay the night in the parish center.

Aragon’s story included varying family situations: in some cases, forgiveness was needed, and in others, sacramental grace. These were an impetus for his personal conversion and prayer life.

“When we remove the suffering, there is no need to ask God for anything,” Aragon shared. “I saw the Resurrection in the rebuilding of my family. I needed to experience God’s fatherly love within my family.”

While the past six years have been a struggle to grow in and live out his faith, Aragon is currently discerning his life vocation. In his experience, “the world has a lot of things to offer. We have to find the meaning of our life; not a lot of people I know have. I had to really detach from the idea of being ‘a somebody’ in this life with education and money … eternal life is something we really need to share with people.”

Thornton, on his fourth ‘two by two’ experience, said his lukewarm faith was ignited through the teaching of Natural Family Planning. He and his wife have 10 children; the youngest was born with Down’s Syndrome.

“Our whole lives are called to be a two by two,” he reflected. “When we are confronted with real situations, do we depend on the Lord? Or do we try and solve things by ourselves?”

The ‘two by two’ experience is meant to be a microcosm of the dependence on God we, as Christians, are called to in our everyday life, he added.

“Depend on the Lord for everything; at the core that is what Christianity is about,” Thornton told the Herald. “Faith has to be more than a theory; it has to be something more concrete.”

Describing his youngest son, Alex, as “the glue that holds our family together,” Thornton said the 8-year-old’s existence is his proof of God’s existence. After recently receiving his much-anticipated first Holy Communion, Alex high-fived his siblings with excitement.

Thornton remembers telling his wife, “Everyone should be that excited to receive communion!”

Fr. Laski offered the pair a donation, which they politely declined. Noticing some strawberries a parishioner dropped off, he offered those instead, as the answer to their prayer at Mass: “Give us this day our daily bread.”

They thanked him and started walking, later accepting a sheriff’s deputy’s offer to drive them the last nine miles.

Speaking with the Herald about the encounter, Fr. Adam reflected, “How often do we see ourselves as vessels of the Holy Spirit and instruments of God’s providence?”

Newly ordained Fr. Samuel Schneider met the other ‘two by two’ pair at St. Joseph’s, Rice Lake. David and Angel had been trying to hitchhike south from Superior. Their experience of God’s providence was that someone finally pulled over to offer them a ride once they stopped thumbing for one. It made them reflect on how often we depend on our own abilities rather than trust God to care for our needs, they told Fr. Schneider.

Friday morning, they attended Fr. Schneider’s morning Mass. He introduced the men and asked if anyone was heading towards Duluth and could give them a ride. A local man, going there for business, was happy to help.

The two men, both seminarians, explained to Fr. Samuel that they had both grown up in lukewarm Catholic families. Through the invitation of others, they experienced a personal relationship with Jesus. That lead them to intentional discipleship, and ultimately to discern the priesthood. Neither has received family support in the process.

Summing up the purpose of their ‘two by two’ experience, Thornton said, “so many live tragically without an answer in Christ. It is the impulse of the Church to go out and evangelize because so many don’t know Christ, really know Christ. So many fallen-away Catholics who haven’t had an experience of the Resurrection beyond the cross, beyond the suffering. We have to go through the cross to attain the Resurrection.”

New Approach To Molding Future Priests

The RMS priests are diocesan priests.  We only call them RMS priests because they were formed in the Redemptoris Mater Seminary.  Unlike other seminaries, the Redemptoris Mater Seminary is like a throwback to the medieval ages in that they are more strict in their rules and regulations.  RMS is a fruit of the Second Vatican Council and are distributed worldwide. The characteristics of RMS are:

• an international character with vocations coming from different nations.
• a missionary spirit.
• they have a connection to the Neocatechumenal Way. 

The disciplinary style of the Redemptoris Mater Seminary has been noticed by the Vatican.  According to the article below: 

"When a Vatican office summarized a 2005-06 study of U.S. seminaries seeking answers to the clergy sex abuse scandal, it recommended that seminaries make their rules more demanding so men shed a "worldly style of life" - and it suggested that Redemptoris Mater seminaries were examples worth following."  

Many of the seminarians from RMS came from the Neocatechumenal Way.  The Way not only inspires boys into the priesthood, but also girls into the convent. The article below explains how seminarians live their life in the Redemptoris Mater Seminary.  

The seminarians' wallets are empty, except for driver's licenses and insurance cards. To buy cigarettes or clothes or anything else, they must ask their superiors for money - an exercise in obedience and a reminder that material things aren't important.  

They have virtually no time alone, on or off campus, and are required to travel in pairs, "two by two," like Jesus' disciples. They live in a world without cell phones or personal computers, and their evenings end promptly at 10.

No Roman Catholic seminary is a resort. But few men who study for the priesthood endure the sort of rules that govern life at the Redemptoris Mater House of Formation. 

Redemptoris Mater is a new experiment in molding Catholic priests who are faithful to church teaching and authority and zealous in their desire to lead other Catholics down that same road. 

On the one hand, the rules are a throwback to 50 years ago, when would-be priests led regimented existences apart from the rest of the world. But Redemptoris Mater men also teach the faith at parishes and spend two years on mission trips, knocking on doors looking for Catholics in Bronx housing projects or Minneapolis suburbs. 

The rules "are difficult to get used to, but it's because we come from this very individualistic society, where it's just me," says seminarian Joseph Toledo. "Those things have to be torn down. But it isn't like we're living in a bubble, either." 

Toledo is the 29-year-old son of a Puerto Rican cabdriver and is one of the few American-born seminarians on the rolls in 2008-09. All told, there are 33 students from 14 countries. 

In this, they reflect the changing face of the U.S. priesthood. Their greater ethnic diversity and hunger to show fidelity to the church are hallmarks of the coming generation of priests, according to a study released this month by the National Religious Vocation Conference, an organization of Catholic vocation directors. 

In other ways, Redemptoris Mater seminarians stand apart from their peers. 

The seminary is not the province of a religious order or a diocese headed by priests and bishops. Instead, Redemptoris Mater seminarians and the priests who oversee them come from Neocatechumenal Way communities, groups of 20 to 50 who bond over intense study and an evangelism foreign to most Catholics. 

The Way, an international movement largely run by Catholic laypeople, is controversial; some critics say it is separatist and causes division in parishes, though its defenders deny it. 

The group's approach to discipline at the seminaries it operates in the United States (besides Denver, Redemptoris Mater seminaries have opened in Boston; Dallas; Newark, N.J.; and Washington, D.C.) has attracted notice in important places. 

When a Vatican office summarized a 2005-06 study of U.S. seminaries seeking answers to the clergy sex abuse scandal, it recommended that seminaries make their rules more demanding so men shed a "worldly style of life" - and it suggested that Redemptoris Mater seminaries were examples worth following. 

The Redemptoris Mater House of Formation sits in a leafy residential neighborhood in southeast Denver, on a Spanish mission-style campus called the John Paul II Center for the New Evangelization. The campus is also home to a larger seminary - St. John Vianney, or SJV - which trains men mostly from Colorado and the Midwest for the Denver archdiocese. 

Seminarians from the two institutions receive the same education in the same classes, grounded in reverence for traditional Catholic teaching. Neither is an institution for questioning the church on contraception or the merits of the celibate, male-only priesthood. 

But SJV mirrors contemporary seminary life. The men take notes on laptops, carry BlackBerries, live in single rooms, gather for TV watching in a common room, maintain their own blogs and spread news about snow-canceled classes on Facebook. Basically, that's the rule when it comes to contemporary Catholic seminary life in the United States. 

The men of Redemptoris Mater - the name is Latin for "Mother of the Redeemer" - take notes on steno pads, must seek permission before hanging anything on their residence hall walls and share everything, down to a single e-mail address on a second-floor computer. 

Jose de Jesus Garcia arrived at Redemptoris Mater a decade ago from Veracruz, Mexico. Although he was used to living on his own, he says, he quickly came to appreciate the rules. 

Traveling two-by-two gave him someone to depend on, like a brother. Being penniless and depending on others was a lesson in humility - God would provide. 

"If you see the rules as something that limits you from doing something, it becomes a heavy burden," Garcia said. "We see it as a way to help because our vocation, the same as marriage, is a daily fight." 

As a teenager, Garcia drifted away from the church. He dated off and on. He went to college. Then his father persuaded him to attend Mass one Sunday, when someone from the Neocatechumenal Way was speaking. 

The message was standard - Jesus loves you as you are and doesn't care about your past - but it touched something in Garcia. He returned to the church and eventually heard what he believed was the call to the priesthood. But he didn't heed it immediately, instead going to work for a pharmaceutical company before answering the call. 

"I think the Lord, he is always a gentleman," Garcia says. "He called me that time, but he knew I was new, in a way, rediscovering my faith. He didn't push me." 

Like the others, Garcia received his seminary assignment by lottery. His name was plucked from a basket and matched to Denver. Here, he took up a life structured around prayer and school. Bells ring in the hallway at 6 a.m., and a half hour later the men gather in a small chapel for morning prayer. 

It's like a Mass set to a flamenco soundtrack. On one Wednesday, the men chanted psalms accompanied by Spanish guitar, gathered around an altar draped in white cloth and covered with fresh flowers. 

"The Lord is passing by again," says the Rev. Federico Colautti, the vice rector. "He wants us to come with him. Are you ready to go? Are you ready to go with him? Because if you don't, you remain empty." 

Most U.S. seminaries loosened their rules after the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s, which brought a shift in how the Catholic Church perceived its place in the world, says the Rev. Donald Cozzens, writer in residence and adjunct professor of theology at John Carroll University in Cleveland. 

"Before, secular life was looked at with great suspicion," says Cozzens, a former seminary rector. "With the Second Vatican Council, the world is God's creation. So our task then was to train seminarians to be in the world, to know it, but not to be of it any profound secular sense." 

Some Catholics, particularly conservatives, believe vocations to the priesthood dropped drastically post-Vatican II, in part because seminaries allowed too much freedom, resulting in dissent and short-lived vocations. Others point to societal changes, including much smaller Catholic families that shrink the candidate pool. 

The reasons for decline may be in dispute, but the numbers are not: The number of priests in the United States has dropped from 58,000, in 1965, to 40,000 today. The past decade has seen an uptick in ordinations; this year's class is 472, up from 442 in 2000. But it's still not enough to replenish the priesthood's aging ranks. 

Colautti, the Redemptoris Mater vice rector, says the seminary's prohibitions on television, the off-campus buddy system and other rules are meant to foster communion, or togetherness - especially at an international seminary, where structure provides safe harbor for new arrivals, many of whom come from poor countries and suffer culture shock. 

"Some people will say, 'You protect them too much,' " says Colautti, who is from Argentina. 

"It's important to have a time in your life in which you experience that it's possible to live without TV, that you don't need the Internet. It's possible to overcome temptation, to have a celibate life, a chaste life. The society presents you these things as impossible. So if they're impossible, you don't even fight it, you say, 'What the heck?' The culture is always pressing, pressing." 

Some seminarians, like Garcia, follow a twisting path to the priesthood. Others seem preordained. 

Toledo, who arrived a few months after Garcia in 1999, started dressing like a priest for Halloween when he was 3, growing up in Bridgeport, Conn. He pretended to say Mass at a desk in his room. 

Why the priesthood? 

"It's really hard to answer," Toledo says. "There is no one reason. When God calls, you know, why not? I'm definitely not in it for the money or because I want to become a bishop. I'm not in it for the popularity because it's not always popular to be a priest. The 'why' is that people are suffering. People need the church, the sacraments. People need to be baptized. The sick need to be visited. There is a need." 

For Toledo, that call means teaching people that the faith is not just a matter of attending Mass each week; it means living Catholic tenets on a daily basis. 

"The world needs Christians," he says. "The world doesn't need half-baked Catholics. It's got plenty of those." 

The rules and structure at Redemptoris Mater become as familiar as the motions of Mass. On a weekday last spring, Toledo was in charge of a team of seminarians assigned to kitchen duty. What most would view as a tedious chore is considered another step toward the priesthood, a lesson in humility and service. 

When lunch was over, a seminarian stood to announce that he had a dentist appointment. 

"Find someone to go with you," advised the rector, the Rev. Florian Martin-Calama. 

Cozzens says a rule-bound atmosphere doesn't always breed maturity.
"There's a subtle message of 'We don't trust you,' " he said. 

"Especially now, seminarians are older. You're relating to adult men like you might boarding school students." 

But Redemptoris Mater seminaries aren't cloistered, either. When Cozzens studied for the priesthood, his main contact with the outside world was teaching at a Catholic elementary school one day a week. 

Toledo, like the others, spent two years on missions. He was sent to Neocatechumenal Way communities in Gainsville, Ga., and the Minneapolis area. He knocked on doors seeking out Catholics, as the movement is premised on the belief that Catholics stop their religious education at an early age and need more. 

Toledo befriended families at a suburban Denver parish, adhering to boundaries taught in seminary. When visiting a home, he'd play a game of Risk with the kids but wouldn't spend time alone with them. If a woman asked him to bless the family house, he would make sure her husband was home first. 

On a Saturday morning in late May, Toledo gathered with classmates Garcia and Carlos Wilson Bello, a Colombian who had a career as a chemical engineer before he, too, heard the call. 

The setting was the sacristy of the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, the equivalent of backstage at the city's towering white Catholic symbol. 

"Good morning," a priest told Garcia. "Congratulations, padre to be."
In Toledo's right pocket is a cross he carries everywhere, the same kind carried by all the seminarians. In his left pocket is his mother's rosary. The handmade beads are his family's birthstones. 

Like children peering around a curtain waiting for their father to home from work, every few minutes the men walk over and peek through a narrow slit of a window at friends, family and seminarians taking their places in the front. 

A few weeks earlier, the three men sat in the back of an empty classroom and chose the Gospel reading for this, their ordination Mass. 

The unanimous pick was Matthew 9:35-38. It concludes with Jesus telling his disciples: "The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest." 

It was a fitting choice. Thirteen years into the existence of Redemptoris Mater Denver, this bright morning would usher in the seminary's 11th, 12th and 13th priests, all bound for parishes in Colorado. 

Midway through the Mass, the archbishop rested his hands on the men's heads and said a few words of prayer. And with that, these men of Redemptoris Mater were priests.

Saving Marriages

One reason why Archbishop Apuron invited the Neocatechumenal Way into Guam is due to its excellent track record in saving marriages.  Guam has a very high divorce rate, and many people here would rather shack up rather than marry. The laws in Guam also made it much easier to get a divorce.  Although the Way has been criticized of its liturgies, it has been the most successful in getting its members to live out a Christian marriage.  In the Way, families were also willing to give up everything to evangelize in foreign countries far from their homes.  These are called "mission families" in the Way. According to the article:

In reality, what most distinguishes the Way from other ecclesial movements and from the faithful as a whole is the centrality of the family in it, theorized and lived in perfect obedience to the magisterium of the Church of all times but in particular of the most recent popes, including that encyclical “Humanae Vitae” which is ignored and disobeyed by almost all Catholics with the general complicity of the clergy, but certainly not by the Neocatechumenals, in view of their generous fecundity.

It is no surprise, therefore, that in 2009 the pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family should have awarded Kiko, the founder of the Way, with a doctorate “honoris causa” precisely for his efforts in support of Christian marriage.

Pope Francis receives 250 mission families from the Neocatechumenal Way and sends them out to evangelize in foreign countries.

Innocent Until Proven Guilty

It is ironic that Tim Rohr has been accusing SNAP and Joelle Casteix of undermining everything he has done. Tim criticized Joelle Casteix for casting doubt in the canonical trial by pointing to Father Wachs sexual harassment. Yet, he said nothing about David Lujan doing the same thing that Joelle Casteix had done. Such double standards! According to the Guam Daily Post:

Lujan said the proceedings were shrouded by a "heavy cloak of secrecy" and the accusations against Wach, and the apparent "promotion" due to the transfer by the church in Rome makes him even more skeptical about the truthfulness of the information Wachs transcribed.

"Even the people involved in the canonical trial who keep it secret have secrets," Lujan said. "How can one trust anything this man writes, if he is lacking in virtue and character?"

 The following article was written by Dr. Ric Eusebio in the opinion page of the Pacific Daily News (the bold is mine):

The recent media headlines reporting allegations of sexual impropriety involving Rev. Justin Wachs in the diocese of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is recycled news from a news report from June. As reported, Wachs served as a notary for the Vatican tribunal investigating sex abuse charges against Archbishop Anthony Apuron.

However, he is not one of the five judges tasked with examining evidence, evaluating and determining the validity of the evidence and finally rendering judgment. He has no say or influence in the case’s outcome.

Nevertheless, all the media appear to deem this newsworthy enough to publish as the expected conclusion of the trial draws near. Yet it aligns with the schema of those who stand to gain from Apuron’s permanent ouster from the island.

Why? By discrediting the Vatican tribunal — which has conducted the most thorough investigation into the claims against Apuron to date — those accusing the Church have more leeway to negotiate via mediation a growing number of unproven sex abuse claims. They have steered the public, via the media, to question his innocence and deemed him guilty before, during and now, near the conclusion of his trial, by discrediting the legal process.

This delayed and deliberate smearing of Wachs is more of the same of what we’ve come to expect from those campaigning for the premature removal and defrocking of Apuron.

Indeed, an article quoted Attorney David Lujan as wondering: “How can one trust anything this man writes, if he is lacking in virtue and character?" Already Lujan is hoping to cast doubt on the tribunal.

One of the most difficult conundrums for the naysayers is: What if he is innocent? Then it is understandable to openly question the legal process to invalidate the result and lead one to think that he is guilty anyway.

In this regard, it is alarming to hear the recent news of criminal conspiracy charges, violations of the Open Government Law and official misconduct by six members of the Guam Housing Board. At the center of the criminal charges is David Sablan, the president of Concerned Catholics of Guam, the group that has spearheaded the campaign against Archbishop Apuron and the archdiocese.

It is remarkable that someone who has accused the church of financial and administrative misconduct is now under investigation for, among other things, steering $4.1 million in tax credits to a favored company behind closed doors.

Concerned Catholics of Guam has demanded without any proven evidence of misconduct that Apuron be defrocked, without due process, hoping to deny him the right to a fair trial. What is the hurry? Are not the accused presumed innocent until proven guilty?

Over the last year, we have watched in pain as acrimony and tension, primarily over money and power … have divided the Church that has nurtured our faith here in Guam. But frequently the truth is present in our midst, staring at us in the face. We simply have been blinded by those who stand to gain in discoloring or shading the truth.

We need to strive more clearly to see the light of truth and open ourselves to receive the grace God gives us to accept it.

R.B. Eusebio, M.D., FACS, is president of I Familian Mangatoliku Sihab.

Pray For Peace

Ask our Blessed Mother to intercede to Christ for us.  Let there be peace among the nations of North Korea and the United States.  May all our families be kept safe.  May the leaders of the nations work for a peaceful resolution. 

St. Maximilian Kolbe And The Gift Of Noble Defiance

There is an NCW community in the Department of Corrections.  They have always been invited to the announcements.  Unfortunately, due to a shortage of guards, they rarely show up.  However, they were always called and recognized during the introductions.  The catechists continually check up on the community at DOC.  They have not been abandoned. 

The following article came from Father MacRae who encountered a brother priest who was also in prison. Like him, he was charged of a sexual abuse that his accuser says happened decades ago.  Unfortunately, the Catholic Church abandoned him, and he lost his faith.  However, he later found Jesus and his faith returned while he was in prison.  Sometimes, one would find Jesus in the most unlikeliest of places.  One can find Christ among the poor, the lepers, the sick, the persecuted, and even among the forgotten prisoners.  According to the article:
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Pornchai Moontri looked on the death chamber of Maximilian Kolbe and saw devouring jaws of evil. I saw that evil too, but choking on a brave soul’s noble defiance.

Auschwitz 1941: “After the so-called dinner, I was invited between Blocks 18 and 19 where some prisoners had gathered among whom were several priests… Our colleague, Kolbe, spoke of the Feast of Corpus Christi, of the great omnipresent God, and of our sufferings by which He was trying to make us ready for a better life.” (A priest at Auschwitz, from “Depositions of Fellow Prisoners,” 1970, p. 34)  

The photograph in this post has deep meaning and significance for us. TSW reader Lupe Gwiazdowski stood with her camera before the gaping maw of a prison window at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp in Poland. She photographed the window of the death chamber that consumed the life of our Patron Saint but could not extinguish the light of his sacrificial priesthood.

When Lupe’s letter with the photograph arrived in early July, Pornchai “Max” Moontri and I were standing with 100 other prisoners for Mail Call. The mail handlers here reversed the pages before stuffing the letter back in its envelope so the page with this photo was on top when I unfolded the letter.

I did not know what the photo was, but right off Pornchai pointed to it. It’s a face!” he said. “An evil face!” Study the photograph above for a moment. Once I saw what Pornchai saw, I could not look at the photo again without instantly seeing that same demonic face. You will see it too.

But what Pornchai saw as the gaping jaws of evil ready to devour, I saw those same jaws choking on whatever was inside. When I suggested this to Pornchai, he saw it too. Stare at the photo for another moment, and you may see what I mean.

Then I read the letter that accompanied Lupe’s photo, and realized with a jolt that it was behind these gaping jaws that our Patron Saint, Maximilian Kolbe, surrendered his life in defiance of the great evil that manifested itself at Auschwitz.

Over two weeks of forced starvation followed his choice to die in place of an innocent young man. When Father Kolbe did not die in a timely manner that suited his captors, his life was taken by lethal injection on August 14, 1941. After a lifetime of devotion to “The Immaculata,” death came on the Vigil of the Solemnity of the Assumption. Lupe tells the story of the photo in her letter of June 29, 2017 that touched our hearts deeply:

“Hi Father G: I wanted to send you this photo and I hope you get it. I went to Poland this month, and I made a mental note to pray for you and Pornchai “Max” Moontri at the Auschwitz cell of St Maximilian Kolbe.

As is often the case with my mental notes, when I got to the cell I was so overwhelmed that I forgot it. As soon as we exited the block of cells I remembered. I left the group and tried to push my way back to the cell, but Polish tour guides are not to be pushed against! I didn’t make it.

I was downcast as I caught up with the group, and then realized that the guide was pointing to the bars of the Saint’s cell window from the outside. I didn’t even hear what she was saying as I looked upon this sacred spot. I thought of how this priest and his companion prisoners died
giving such powerful witness through those same bars to so many whose hope was perishing. I lifted you and Pornchai up right there, and then snapped this photo for you. Father, I do not know what else to say.

When I got back to a computer, I saw your post, “Thoughts Upon My 35th Anniversary of Priesthood Ordination,” and realized that your anniversary was on the same day I prayed for you and Pornchai-Max at Auschwitz. Father, thank you for your priesthood.”

IN NOBLE DEFIANCE OF EVIL

Today, virtually everyone knows the story of Saint Maximilian Kolbe. His Earthly remains were reduced to smoke and ash in the ovens of Hitler to drift in the skies above Auschwitz. But what he wrote and said and did, the glow of his soul, still moves mountains and the hearts of millions.

In Father Maximilian Kolbe, evil did not destroy what it set out to destroy. It imprisoned and killed the body of a man, but the priest lived on in noble sacrifice and love. The jaws of that window choked on the goodness of the soul contained therein.

Of all the thousands of accounts about the witness and strength of Father Maximilian Kolbe, for me the most powerful account comes from Herrmann Langbein who was a prisoner at Dachau and then at Auschwitz. He is best known for his book, Against All Hope: Resistance in the Nazi Concentration Camps, 1938-1945. He singles out one man’s defiance that I have cited in other posts about our Patron Saint:

“The best-known act of resistance was that of Maximilian Rajmund Kolbe, who deprived the camp administration of the power to make arbitrary decisions about life and death.” (People in Auschwitz, p. 241)

https://www.amazon.com/People-Auschwitz-Published-Association-Holocaust/dp/0807828165

Langbein went on to write powerfully of the witness, not only of Father Kolbe’s sacrifice by volunteering to take upon himself the death sentence of a fellow prisoner, but of his demeanor in prison:

“Kolbe and his companions in misfortune had to spend almost three weeks [in starvation] in an unlit cell. On. August 14 (1941) a lethal injection ended the suffering of the man whose bearing elicited the respect of the supervising SS men to the very end.” (p. 241)

https://www.amazon.com/Screwtape-Letters-C-S-Lewis/dp/0060652934

I pray for the gift of this brave priest’s noble defiance of evil. It’s easier to just succumb to it, enduring it for as long as we can until it starts to bring about subtle changes in our resolve. My favorite passage in The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis (Harper, 1942) is Letter 12. You have seen this passage before in these pages. The demonic “Uncle Screwtape” describes perfectly the slippery slope that suffering and sin conspire to spread the contagion of evil. Their cumulative effect…

“…is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing…. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one – the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”

In no place is a man or woman without defiance “edged away from the Light out into the Nothing” more than in prison. Like all prisons – whether they be prisons of iron, or fear, or trauma, or loneliness, or sickness, or pain – year upon year of it can set us upon the subtle turnings C.S. Lewis describes. For some, no doubt, resistance to the evils of our prisons seems futile.

Something happened recently – something profoundly humbling – that I thought about when I read the short passage at the top of this post from a priest-prisoner in Auschwitz with Maximilian Kolbe. The passage is from a published collection, “Depositions of Fellow Prisoners,” in the investigation of Maximilian Kolbe’s cause for sainthood.

More than 12,000 priests died in Auschwitz and the other camps of Germany and Poland, but the priest who wrote the passage atop this post survived. I wonder about those who perished there, those whose hope was siphoned off by the evil in their midst.

But for Maximilian Kolbe, resistance to evil was the one charism of a sacrificial priesthood available to him in a place where priesthood and sacrifice were deemed meaningless by worldly powers. Prison can quickly descend into “every man for himself,” but Maximilian lived and died on life’s road less traveled.

PRIESTHOOD LOST IN TRANSLATION

Over the last twenty of the nearly twenty-three years that I have been in this prison unjustly, there has been another priest here. He is a priest of my diocese, but I never knew him outside of prison. In fact, I barely knew him here. He was convicted of a sexual abuse charge in 1997, one alleged to have taken place long before then, and has been here ever since.

I know that in 2001, this priest acquiesced to a demand that he be voluntarily laicized (dismissed from the clerical state). Over the ensuing years, after 25 years of priesthood, he never again heard from our bishop or diocese. He was discarded. The prisoner-priest lost his faith. He became unable to be present at Mass for the next sixteen years. He was in a different prison unit than me, and I saw him only in rare passing.

However, when printed copies of some TSW posts were mailed to me, the sender would often send two. So, with the clandestine help of friends here, I started to send the other copy to this priest. I did not send him every post, just the ones about priesthood. One post reached an untapped well of faith and hope.

It was “St Maximilian Kolbe: A Knight at My Own Armageddon” posted one year ago this week. It was the middle of an important three-part post, and was the only post for which the priest sent back – via the same circuitous prison channels – a request to see more. These posts were the limits of our contact.

The same week that Lupe’s letter and photo arrived, Pornchai Moontri and I were climbing the multiple tiers of stairs on a Sunday morning for Mass in the prison chapel. As we passed the second floor landing, the priest mentioned above was just then emerging from the prison medical unit. I greeted him and shook his hand (another act of resistance as shaking someone’s hand is forbidden here) and then something strange happened.

Pornchai did not even know who he was and I did not want to put the priest on the spot so we parted company and proceeded up the next flight of stairs. Then Pornchai turned and said, “Do you want to come with us?” The priest paused for a moment looking puzzled, and then quietly followed us up the stairs. Before we entered the Chapel, I asked Pornchai to go find us some seats while the prisoner-priest told me that this is his first time at Mass in 16 years. He became reconciled, and we sat with him.

The next week – being an idiot sometimes – I took our usual seats and Pornchai stood glaring at me. “What are you doing?” he asked, and then pointed to that other priest still standing outside the door. “Go get him and bring him in to sit with us,” said Pornchai. God bless Pornchai!

In early July I spotted that prisoner-priest on the local news. He was appearing before the New Hampshire Parole Board with a request for medical parole because he was dying of cancer.

A physician who spoke at the hearing reported that he has no more than six months to live, and his care would be a burdensome expense for the state. After some callous remarks from a victim advocate on the State’s payroll about whether he “looks sick enough,” and whether twenty years in prison exacts sufficient reckoning, the Parole Board granted his medical parole.

ON THE MOVE

A week later, Pornchai and I were suddenly moved – he to one place and me to another. Apart for the first time in over ten years, this has been a great hardship for us both. We are trying to reunite, but once anything like this is done here, it resists being undone. Pornchai is trying to be moved to the same place I am in. I plan to write more of this very soon, and hopefully will have a happier ending for you.

The place I was sent to is the unit the other priest has been living in for the last twenty years. My first week there was his last week there, and we were able to walk each morning and talk. He is restored to faith and hope that our sufferings will make us ready for a better life.

I was with him early in the morning as he left prison a few days ago, and went home to his sister to die. I like to think that we managed to fill in some of the cold abyss in which our Church let him wander alone in exile these twenty years. I cannot imagine, even in my most vengeful thoughts, that such alienation and abandonment are what Christ summons forth from the Apostolic witness of His Church.

Most of all, I like to think we helped to prepare my brother priest for something essential imparted to us by a Patron Saint who guides us on a right path through prison: the gift of a noble defiance of evil while living the witness of a sacrificial priesthood.

Australian Church Supports Cardinal Pell

Bill Donohue wrote: "Remember that what will always be of service to the Church is the truth.  Pursue the whole truth, and you are pursuing what is best for the Church."  However, when the statutes of limitations is lifted and anyone can bring a lawsuit saying they were sexually abused 40 or 50 years ago, how can the truth be determine when the witnesses are dead and there are no evidence.  

Pope John Paul II also stated: "The Church must be a mirror of Justice."  There is no justice when the statutes of limitations are lifted.  The reason for the existence of the statutes of limitations is so that justice can be served and that the truth can be determined.  There is also no justice when the accused is judged guilty by the media and people without due process of a trial.  In our society, the person is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Of course, this does not mean that the accusers are "liars", but we live in a democratic society that recognizes the presumption of innocence and the accused having a just and fair trial.  

According to news report:


The Australian Catholic Church has spoken in support of Cardinal George Pell, emphasising his contribution to the church and warning against a trial by media in the wake of sex abuse charges.

In a statement released after Victoria Police confirmed Cardinal Pell has been charged over historical sex abuse allegations, the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne defended the 76-year-old's character.

Archbishop Denis Hart, who took over from Cardinal Pell as Archbishop of Melbourne in 2001, said he was "aware of the significance" of the decision to charge his predecessor but went on to highlight the work of the man who is  Australia's most senior Catholic figure.

"Cardinal Pell has been a friend and brother priest of Archbishop Hart for more than 50 years," the statement read.

"The Archbishop is conscious of the Cardinal's many good works which have been acknowledged both nationally and internationally.

"It is a matter of public record that Cardinal Pell addressed the evil of sexual abuse in the Church on becoming Archbishop of Melbourne in 1996.

"It is important all in society recognise that the presumption of innocence applies and that Cardinal Pell, like all Australians, is entitled to a fair trial."

Cardinal Pell served as Archbishop of Melbourne between 1996 to 2001, before becoming Archbishop of Sydney and subsequently the chief financial adviser to Pope Francis in the Vatican in 2014.

In a statement from the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, Cardinal Pell vowed to return to Australia to "vigorously" defend himself against multiple charges of sex offences.

"Cardinal Pell will return to Australia, as soon as possible, to clear his name following advice and approval by his doctors who will also advise on his travel arrangements."

He will hold a press conference in Rome at the Holy See at 4.30pm AEST.

Cardinal Pell blamed poor health last year when he failed to return to Australia to testify at the child abuse royal commission in March, instead appearing via video link from Rome.

Victoria Police on Thursday confirmed Cardinal Pell has been charged on summons over multiple allegations against multiple victims and is due to face Melbourne Magistrates Court on July 26 for a filing hearing.

Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton confirmed in a brief press conference that Cardinal Pell had been issued with multiple charges relating to historic sexual abuse allegations.

The charges were served on Cardinal Pell's legal representatives in Melbourne on Thursday, Mr Patton said.

News of the charges reached Rome about 2.30am local time.

Victorian government minister Martin Foley said the matter needed to be treated "very carefully" now that charges had been laid. 

"We need to make sure that any person facing convictions or charges has the opportunity of a presumption of innocence," he said.

"If we want to make sure that the interests of survivors of sexual assault by churches and other institutions are dealt with fairly we need to let this process take its own course." 

Mr Foley declined to comment on whether Cardinal Pell should return to Australia to face the charges. 

Asked how the Catholic Church had generally responded to abuse, Mr Foley said it had a "sorry record it needs to overcome in this space".

"We can't prejudge any individual case. We need to make sure that anyone facing charges is given a presumption of innocence.

"But what we also need to do is make sure that we support those survivors."

Apuron Wants Day In Court

Archbishop Apuron refused to participate in any settlements.  He wants his "day in court", and he is challenging the constitutionality of the law, which lifted the statutes of limitations.  According to the Guam Daily Post:

Suspended Archbishop Anthony Apuron will get his "day in court" as the District Court of Guam will hear his motion to dismiss four child sex abuse lawsuits later this month.

Apuron's attorney, Jacqueline Terlaje, opposed a stay in the lawsuits involving allegations of sexual abuse filed against her client.

"There is no absolute necessity at this juncture that Apuron participate," Terlaje told the court during a status hearing yesterday.

The parties in the other 73 cases have agreed to a stay of the cases to participate in non-binding mediation that will be held in Guam beginning Oct. 30. But Terlaje urged the court to proceed with her client's cases.

"I think it is important for Apuron to have his day in court," the archbishop's attorney said. Terlaje asked that the court address her client's motion to dismiss and weigh the competing interests in the case.

Apuron has objected to participating in mediation as he contends there is no liability on his part. The suspended archbishop filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuits, arguing the claims are time-barred and that Public Law 33-187, which provided a mechanism for victims to pursue civil action, is "inorganic and unconstitutional," court documents state.

Terlaje said the allegations against her client are 40 years old and the archbishop will be 72 years old this year.

"The longer this case is delayed, the higher risk my client will die with this case hanging over his head," Terlaje said.

'Unholy conspiracy'

The plaintiffs' attorney, David Lujan, opposed the stay, accusing the Archdiocese of Agana and Apuron of engaging in an "unholy conspiracy" and a "secret compact."

In an opposition to the motion to dismiss, Lujan accused the defendants of choosing to dodge responsibility by challenging the legality of the recently enacted statute that allowed sex abuse victims to sue for past abuse that had previously been time-barred by the prior statute of limitations.

Lujan alleges Apuron's motion to dismiss is being used to "scare" the plaintiffs into a quick and cheap settlement through mediation.

"It is Apuron's and the Archdiocese's secret conspiracy to minimize financial loss to the church on Guam, and perhaps Apuron's ticket not to be completely removed as an archbishop," Lujan wrote in his opposition to the motion to dismiss.

Archdiocese of Agana attorney Michael Patterson participated in the status hearing, via teleconference, expressing the church's opposition to proceeding with the Apuron cases.

"The best way to approach a resolution of the cases is through mediation. We want a resolution without destroying the church and that will bring healing and hope to his clients," Patterson said.

Patterson said a stay and any ruling on Apuron's motion to dismiss would have an impact on the Archdiocese of Agana. "It may also affect insurance coverage and my client's ability to resolve the cases," he advised the court.

Judge Joaquin Manibusan denied the stay for the Apuron cases but granted the stay for the Archdiocese of Agana to proceed with mediation. The court said forcing a party into mediation is often a "fruitless process" because the defendant who doesn't want to participate and comes in with a closed mind.

"The court must recognize that right and enforce the right of the defendant," Manibusan said.

The judge is scheduled to hear arguments on the motion to dismiss on Aug. 29. He will make a report and recommendation that will be reviewed by District Court Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood, who makes the final decision on the issue.

Lujan said he didn't expect that to happen until next year.

Mediation starts Oct. 30

While the four Apuron cases proceed, the parties in the remaining 73 cases will engage in alternative dispute resolution with retired federal Judge Michael Hogan.

A conference will be held Sept. 5 in Hawaii, with mediation expected to begin in Guam on Oct. 30, Lujan told the court.

Should Apuron's motion to dismiss be denied, Lujan has made it clear he and his clients will have "no more interest" in mediation.

"We're prepared to take this all the way to trial," Lujan said, expressing suspicions about Apuron and the church's motives about why the suspended archbishop wouldn't agree to mediation.

"You would think that a guy like Apuron would have some concern about the people of Guam and the Archdicoese and the finances, and ensuring the church he led in Guam will not be bankrupt. Why risk bankrupting it?" Lujan questioned.