Funeral Announcement for Father Pius

On January 29, at Mater Dei Hospital, Fr. PIJU M. Of The Child Jesus (Edwin Sammut), of the Discalced Carmelites, Cospicua, aged 72, passed away suddenly yet peacefully, comforted by the rites of Holy Church.  He is survived and mourned by his fellow Brothers and Sisters of the Maltese Semi-Province of the Discalced Carmelites, his siblings, in-laws and family members, members of the Neo-Catechumenal Way, other relatives and friends.  A concelebrated funeral Mass, praesente cadavere, will be ccelebrated at 9:30 am at St. Therese Sanctuary, Birkirkara, on Monday, February 1, followed by private internment in the vaults of St. Theresa Convent, Cospicua.  Due to the current situation, attendance will be limited and monitored according to the protocol established by the Health Authorities.  Live Cam Birkirkara - St. Therese Church will be in operation.  No flowers by request but donations to Qaddejja tac-Cenaklu, Id-Dar tal-Kleru, Fleur-de-Lys, Kirkirkara, will be greatly appreciated.  The Carmelite Community and his family would like to thank the staff at the Emergency Department and Ward M4 at Mater Dei Hospital for their prompt attention and care.  Lord, grant him eternal rest. 

(Taken from Times Malta) 

In Memory of Father Edwin "Pius" Sammut O.C.D.

Father Edwin "Pius" Sammut O.C.D. was our lead catechist who brought the Neocatechumenal Way to Guam in the mid-1990s.  He will always be remembered with love and fondness by all the brothers in Guam.  Father Pius once said to one of the brothers in the Agana Community that he is ready to go with the Heavenly Father, but doesn't know when that will be. The funeral for Father Pius will be on Monday, February 1st at 9:30 a.m. in Malta, which will be at 6:30 p.m. Guam time.  The funeral will be live streamed at the St. Therese Church in Birkirkara, Malta.  A link for the live streaming was sent to all the brothers in the communities. 

We were taught in the Way that death is not the end.  It is a reality and the beginning of eternal life.  Father Pius will always live on in our hearts, and one day we will see him again.  He is now in a better place, interceding to Christ for all of us.  We love you, Father Pius!    

Take Me to Heaven.

This was the last article that was sent to me by our beloved priest in Malta with the song entitled “Take Me to Heaven.”  He wanted me to publish this article.  You can find the article here.

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Rome Newsroom, Jan 21, 2021 / 04:30 am MT (CNA).- A recently ordained Catholic priest died in hospital early Thursday morning after an explosion destroyed a parish building in the Spanish capital, Madrid.

Fr. Rubén Pérez Ayala was ordained to the priesthood last June. His first assignment was at the Virgen de la Paloma parish near the Puerta de Toledo in the center of Madrid, where he was serving when an explosion destroyed much of the parish rectory and office at 3 p.m. on Jan. 20.

The young priest was taken to hospital and underwent an operation for his injuries. His brother, Pablo, also a diocesan priest, administered the anointing of the sick.

Cardinal Carlos Osoro Sierra, the archbishop of Madrid, announced the following morning that Fr. Pérez Ayala had died from his wounds overnight. He was 36 years old.

“Last night the young priest has died, Rubén Pérez Ayala, whom I ordained only seven months ago. I am grateful for his life of dedication to Christ and to his Church,” the cardinal wrote on Twitter on Jan. 21.

At least four people have now died from the explosion, according to the Archdiocese of Madrid, which released a statement citing a gas leak in the parish building as a possible cause for the blast on Calle Toledo.

Cardinal Osoro said that he was praying for the victims of the explosion and all those affected by it.

The archdiocese identified one of the deceased as 35-year-old electrician David Santos Muñoz, a parishioner and father of four, who had come to the building “to lend a hand” with the building’s boiler.

Another victim was an 85-year-old woman, according to CNN. Two pedestrians who had been walking by the building at the time of the explosion were among the victims, according to ABC News.

Madrid’s emergency services reported on Jan. 20 that at least 11 people were injured in the explosion.

The building, owned by the Parish of the Virgen de la Paloma, had two floors that made up the priests’ residence and also contained space used by the parish and Caritas.

At Fr. Rubén Pérez Ayala’s first Mass, offered at the Virgen de la Paloma parish on June 21, the priest, who was part of the Neocatechumenal Way, invited those present and watching his livestreamed homily “to look to the Lord, to trust him.”

He said: “When difficulties come, let us cry out to the Lord.”

“You will experience that the Lord is your tranquility ... May we experience the joy that the Lord is with us,” he said.

In an interview with Info Madrid shortly after his ordination, Fr. Pérez Ayala said: “Only when I realized that Christ was calling me to give my whole life without keeping anything for myself was I able to live it with joy.”

Priestly Vocations

 Vocations for the priesthood has been a problem for the universal Church.  However, the Neocatechumenal Way has been known to foster such vocations.  In Guam, we have seen 17 men ordained into the priesthood.  These men were from the communities of the Neocatechumenal Way.  The Way encourages vocations among its members whether it be an itinerant, religious, or the married life.  Below is an article of a cardinal who laments of the lack of priestly vocation in his archdiocese.  He was able to ordain only one man into the priesthood, and that man came from the Neocatechumenal Way.  You can find the article here.

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Cardinal laments lack of priestly vocations in Florentine archdiocese

Florence, Italy, Jan 10, 2021 / 03:01 pm MT (CNA).- The Archbishop of Florence has said no new students have entered his diocesan seminary this year, calling the low number of priestly vocations a “wound” in his episcopate.

Cardinal Giuseppe Betori, who has led the Archdiocese of Florence since 2008, said in 2009 he ordained seven men as priests for the diocese, while this year he will ordain one man, a member of the Neocatechumenal Way. In 2020 there were no ordinations.

“I consider it one of the biggest wounds of my episcopate,” Betori said in a video press conference last month. This “is a truly tragic situation.”

The 73-year-old cardinal said he believes the low number of men entering the seminary in his diocese is part of a larger vocational crisis that also includes the sacrament of marriage.

“The problem of the vocational crisis to the priesthood lies within a vocational crisis of the human person,” he stated.

The latest Statistical Yearbook of the Catholic Church, published in March 2020, indicated that the number of priests worldwide fell in 2018 to 414,065, with Europe registering the largest decrease, though Italy still has one of the higher concentrations of priests, at around one priest for every 1,500 Catholics.

Like most of Europe, Italy’s demographics have been affected by a 50-year decline in birth rate. An aging population means fewer young people, and according to national statistics, fewer young Italians than ever are choosing to marry.

According to Betori, a “provisional” culture has likely influenced young adults’ choice of a permanent state of life, such as marriage or priesthood.

“A life that wants many experiences cannot be a life that is consecrated to a finality, to a purpose. It is true for marriage, for the priesthood, for all the choices of people,” he said.

The Best Christmas Song I've Ever Heard. It Will Give You Chills.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

 

Help Pornchai Moontri by Bill Donohue

Bill Donohue from Catholic League wrote an article on Father Gordon's blog.  Those who wish to help Mr. Pornchai Moontri, there is a petition being sent to President Donald Trump to help Mr. Pornchai Moontri return to his country of Thailand. You can find the article and sign the petition here. 

An Open and Urgent Letter to President Donald Trump

The following was written by Father Gordon to President Donald Trump.  You can find his letter here .

Hopefully, justice can also be found for Pornchai's mother who was murdered in Guam.  Pornchai's lawyer have been in contact with the Office of the Attorney General in Guam, but to no avail.  The murder of Pornchai's mother remains a cold case due to the unresponsive manner of Guam's police department and the Guam's Office of Attorney General.  

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December 2, 2020

Dear Mr. President: 

I write on behalf of many Catholic followers of Divine Mercy with an urgent but simple appeal.  Putting the politics of this nation's polarization aside, I join many American Catholics and people of other faiths who have been moved by your consistent agenda to promote both law and order and much needed reform of the criminal justice system.  I wrote for publication about your landmark effort in "President Donald Trump's First Step Act for Prison Reform." 

It is a basic tenet of your First Step Act that when a prison term has been fully served, it should not continue in other forms such as joblessness, job discrimination, and society's ongoing pointed finger of shame.  Your First Step Act is a second chance for many to rise above the past and embrace a future of hope. This will be a part of your legacy for years to come.  

I am writing to request the assistance of your Administration in what should be a simple matter.  As a teenager at age eighteen, Pornchai Moontri committed a crime out of desperation.  He has served every day of his sentence and was released at age forty-seven on September 11, 2020 to the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation to his native Thailand.  

Mr. President, it is important to note that neither Mr. Moontri nor his many advocates and friends who have become his family in America are seeking commutation of his removal order.  However, that could also be a just and merciful outcome.  In lieu of that, what he and we seek is his rapid repatriation to his native Thailand, a nation from which, as you read below, he was removed at age eleven as a victim of human trafficking.  Since having fully served his prison sentence, Mr. Moontri has experienced an unjust and merciless three-month extension of that sentence with no end in sight.  

Taxpayers already have spent far more for Mr. Moontri's detention than would have been spent for his removal.  We, his advocates, are more than willing to purchase his airfare to Thailand if permitted.  We have built a future for him there with good people who anxiously await his return.  This could be remedied easily by your office with a simple phone call. 

There is much more to this story which should become part of your discernment on the right course of action.  Pornchai Moontri was a child victim of human trafficking.  He was abandoned by his mother at age two in Thailand.  She fell under the influence and control of an American, Richard Alan Bailey, who brought her to the U.S. After a passage of nine years, Bailey sent her to retrieve Pornchai at age eleven and bring him to this country.  

Pornchai was imprisoned by Bailey who repeatedly raped and beat him.  At age thirteen he escaped but was returned by local police who did not understand his Thai protests.  At age fourteen he escaped again and became a homeless adolescent living on the streets of a foreign country.  At age eighteen, intoxicated and broken, he took a man's life during a struggle.  

While awaiting trial at age eighteen in 1992, Pornchai was visited by his mother who told him that Richard Bailey would harm her if Pornchai divulged any of what had happened to him.  In fear for his mother's life, Pornchai thus remained silent throughout his trial, refusing to participate in his own defense.  In 2000, while attempting to leave Richard Bailey, Pornchai's mother was murdered on the U.S. Territorial Island of Guam while in Bailey's company.  She was beaten to death.  This matter remains an unsolved "cold case" homicide despite new evidence pointing to an obvious suspect who has never answered for this crime.  

In 2018, after becoming fully aware of this story, from articles I had written and published, Pornchai's advocates brought Richard Bailey to justice.  On September 12, 2018 Bailey was convicted in Penobscot (Maine) Superior Court on forty felony counts of child sexual abuse against Pornchai Moontri.  

A simple Google search of "Pornchai Moontri" will reveal much documentation of the above.  It will also reveal the talented, gifted, intelligent man that Pornchai has become.  Pornchai became a devout Catholic convert and a celebrated member of the Divine Mercy movement in the Catholic Church.  He has been the subject of numerous published articles and a book, Love, Lost, Found by Marian Press editor and author, Felix Carroll.  

As I mentioned above, it would be both justice and mercy if Porchai's deportation order could be commuted, but he would nonetheless leave the United States for Thailand of his own accord.  A life and future have been for him there as a valued member of Divine Mercy Thailand.  Regardless of what you decide in this matter, Mr. President, we implore you to help us get him out of ICE custody to commence rapid repatriation to his native land.  Pornchai has suffered more than enough for one lifetime.  

Respectfully Yours, 

Father Gordon J. MacRae

BeyondTheseStoneWalls.com

Filipino Catholic Realizes Dreams By Crafting Rosaries

 A young Filipino Catholic wanted to attend the pilgrimage in Poland, but didn't have the money for the trip.  However, God created a way for him to attend using the talent God had given him.  You can find the following article here:

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Mark Carlo Herrera Cruz had about a year to prepare for what he called “a pilgrimage of a lifetime” in Krakow, Poland.

It was already mid-2015 and he was not sure where to get the money for his trip. He needed at least US$2,500 to cover all his expenses.

One evening, Cruz prayed the Holy Rosary and asked God to give him the “strength and resources” needed “to fulfill this mission.”

The next morning, the then-22-year-old native of Batangas province realized that his prayers had already been answered even before he asked for it.

“The answer to my prayers was already in the palm of my hand, the rosary beads,” he said.

Earlier, Cruz got interested in crafting rosaries. He started with simple beads and designs that he acquired in a local bead shop.

So, months before the World Youth Day, “I dared myself to make and sell rosaries.” He said “there was no grand plan.”

“I just took my tools and started crafting,” he said.

After finishing several pieces, he took photos and posted it on his social media account. He later received messages placing orders of his rosaries that were priced at US$7 a piece.

Cruz spent sleepless nights crafting and selling rosaries.

“I was surprised by how people responded,” he said. “I got a lot of inquiries and orders. Honestly, I don’t know how many rosaries I made that year.”

Cruz earned about US$4,000 from crafting and selling rosaries, enough for him to travel to Poland in July 2016.

After the week-long pilgrimage, Cruz thought it was over, still he continued to receive messages from people expressing their interest in his rosaries.

Cruz said he usually spends at least 45 minutes to craft a rosary with a simple design and at least six hours to finish a rosary with intricate and elaborate patterns.

“I can only craft them during weekends and in the evening before going to bed because I have a day job,” he said, adding that it is not a money-making venture.

“Crafting rosaries is a passion,” he said. “Every detail and every bead comes from how I interpret the personality of the person who would use the rosary.”

Cruz said some of his clients are priests, nuns, and members of church organizations, “but a lot of them are individuals, common people, or the lay faithful.”

In 2018, Cruz was again chosen to participate in an international gathering in Rome to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Neocatechumenal Way, also known as the Neocatechumenate, an itinerary of Christian formation within the Catholic Church.

He was “a little bit confident” that he could fund his next international pilgrimage by crafting and selling rosaries.

“The Holy Rosary again answered my prayer,” he said. He was able to go to Rome.

In recent months, Cruz made more than a dozen hand-crafted habit rosaries for the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary of La Naval de Manila.

The rosaries were placed on images of Dominican Saints and on the image of the Our Lady of the Holy Rosary of La Naval during its feast in October 2019.

He also crafted rosaries that were used for more than 200 religious images in dioceses across the country, including one that was used for the Our Lady of Lourdes of Punta Princesa in the Archdiocese of Cebu.

“I don’t consider rosary-making a business but a charism that is given to me to help spread the devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary,” he said.

“As a sinner, I used to say that it is my privilege and great joy to be an instrument of someone’s devotion,” he said.

While a simple hand-crafted rosary costs US$7, the price gets higher depending on the design and the materials.

The most expensive piece of the rosary that he crafted sold for about US$300.

In March, Cruz thought orders for handcrafted rosaries would decline because of the coronavirus pandemic, but the demand continued to grow.

“It only shows that the devotion to the Holy Rosary and to the Blessed Virgin Mary is growing amidst the challenges that we are facing because of the pandemic,” he said.––LiCas News

Seminarian on the Road to Vocation

 Deacon Paul Pierce was a catechumen of Father Pius in Hawaii.  Deacon Paul walks in the Neocatechumenal Way and is studying to be a priest.  He still has a long journey ahead of him.  His story is found here.

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Deacon Paul Pierce, one of the first seminarians to study at the Neocatechumenal Way’s Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Hialeah, Fla., gives a tour of the seminary’s many chapels and religious artworks Sept. 2, 2020. (CNS photo/Tom Tracy)

By Tom Tracy Catholic News Service

MIAMI (CNS) — Deacon Paul Pierce, a transitional deacon hoping to be ordained a priest as soon as next year, has been on a long, improbable but faith-filled journey for a young adult.

Born and raised in Maui, Hawaii, he was raised by an agnostic, science-driven father and a New Age-influenced mother steeped in Hindu belief at the time. He was living a typical teen’s life in a tropical paradise — but paradise hadn’t been all that fulfilling, as it turned out.

“How I got to be into the seminary and how I will be ordained a priest very soon, God willing, is a miracle — because I shouldn’t be here,” said Deacon Pierce, 30.

He talked about his vocation and long road to the Neocatechumenal Way’s Redemptoris Mater Seminary in the Archdiocese of Miami in an interview with the Florida Catholic, the archdiocesan newspaper.

Opened in 2011, Redemptoris Mater is situated in Hialeah, adjacent to St. Cecilia Church. It serves as a Florida-based international seminary for the Neocatechumenal Way under the auspices of the Miami Archdiocese.

A decade ago, Deacon Pierce was chosen as one of its first 12 seminarians: men from different countries who study together and are ordained for the local church. But they also commit themselves to serving in whatever corner of the world they are most needed. In tandem with the Neocatechumenal Way’s missionary thrust, they can serve locally or internationally throughout their lifetime.

In Maui, Deacon Pierce recalled a reasonably comfortable upbringing as a well-adjusted student in a household fumbling around for answers to the great questions of life. His parents had moved to Hawaii to be closer to Pierce’s grandmother and neither parent had ever professed any form of Christianity. His mother’s search for a spiritual home took her along widely divergent paths over the course of his youth.

“I was living my life like any normal guy from the island,” Deacon Pierce recalled.

But when his mother and father separated, this triggered a traumatic and difficult period for him. He always longed to be in a family with brothers and sisters but found it difficult to experience family love.

As he grew older, he wondered why he couldn’t love his parents more deeply and if he was maybe “living in a hell of selfishness.”

“Even though I was spoiled, given everything, and an only child who lived in Hawaii, in that ‘American Dream,’ I was very unhappy,” he said. “At a certain point I would do everything for myself: I would study for myself, I would go to the beach for myself, I would go to be with my friends for myself — the islands, the beauty — it was all for myself.”

His mother’s yoga teacher at the time directed her to a local Neocatechumenal Way community, which hosted weekly talks and liturgies in Maui.

Begun in Spain in 1964 by two laypeople — Kiko Argüello and Carmen Hernandez — the Neocatechumenal Way developed a system of evangelizing the residents of one of Madrid’s poorest slums.

Over the years the movement expanded into a network of small, parish-based communities of up to 50 people with thousands of parish communities throughout the world, with an estimated million Catholic members.

Today, there are 102 Neocatechumenal seminaries around the world. There are seven in the United States: Miami,Washington, Denver, Boston, Dallas and Newark, New Jersey, and in Guam.

Deacon Pierce was about 12 when his mother started going to the group’s catechesis. She entered the Catholic Church several years later. His grandmother also would be baptized eventually.

“It was very providential, very unexpected,” he said. “My mom had been searching for a new religion for some time when she kind of rebelled against the new age Hinduism she was raised with.”

Little by little young Paul began to tear himself away from playing video games and other interests to sit quietly at weekly Neocatechumenate talks. He saw the transformative power the group had on its culturally diverse members, imbuing them with a sense of Christian charity and forgiveness.

He attended the talks for a year, stopped for a year, came back and noticed the community started growing.

“I started seeing things I had never seen anywhere else: unity, love, community, forgiveness,” he said.

“For seven years I started walking like that, little by little, listening to the word of God, being with brothers and sisters, seeing forgiveness and reconciliation in front of our eyes, seeing something that held us together that I know now was the Holy Spirit and the love of Christ,” he said.

Then he offered himself for mission in the Neocatechumenate, leading to his baptism, confirmation and first Communion in 2010 at age 19.

He was invited to go on retreat in New York and then was sent to New Mexico, where he was part of a small team of catechists establishing a community in Albuquerque. “I was there helping in parishes, and for the first time in my life, I started to live for someone else, with freedom from money, and with chastity,” he said.

He traveled to World Youth Day events in Germany in 2005 and Australia in 2008. Then came World Youth Day in Madrid with Pope Benedict XVI in 2011, which was a life-changing experience. During down time, the Neocatechumenate members from around the world held large vocation-forming meetings, inviting members to consider making deeper commitments.

“This time my ear was open. If you had asked me a day or even the moment before I felt called to the priesthood I would have said you are crazy,” Deacon Pierce said, adding that he had always envisioned getting married to a Christian girl, starting a family and running a successful entrepreneurial business.

But listening to a talk by Kiko Argüello “announcing the love of God with courage and strength” changed all that.

“In that moment I had a conviction that to do the will of God was my happiness and that I would be happier giving my life as a priest in China or wherever than to do my will and plan for my life,” Deacon Pierce said. “It was a certainty and that still helps me today.”

After a period of discernment in Rome, he was invited to move to Miami and help establish the fledgling Neocatechumenate seminary in October 2011. He has studied at both the minor and major seminaries serving the archdiocese — St. John Vianney in Miami and St. Vincent de Paul in Boynton Beach — and has spent additional time in local missionary service.

Miami Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski ordained him and one other Neocatechumenal seminarian, Alberto Chávez, to the transitional diaconate April 26. If all goes as planned, they will be ordained priests next May.

Political Controversy in the United States

There is much controversy going on in the United States over the 2020 Presidential election.  To this day, we still do not know whether Joe Biden or Donald Trump is the official President of the United States.  News media have been reporting a Biden win even when before the voting was officially concluded.  President Trump is now bringing a lawsuit against certain states because of voting irregularities.  Democracy and the rule of law is important in our society.  We have already seen in our society that the due process of accused individuals have been eroding as they are being judged by the media who can easily sway public opinion.  Public opinion can condemn an innocent person.  It's always best to allow the process and the rule of law to take place and not deprive the person of their individual rights to due process. 

 

The rule of law is important in our democracy.  If there is indeed voting fraud being committed, it must be brought to light otherwise the voice of the people will be suppressed. Voting is sacred and makes democracy what it is  Voting is the will of the people.  Any corruption in the voting system deprives the American people their right to freedom of expression. The following is an interesting video regarding the political controversy surrounding the presidential election.