Vocations Newsletter

With deep faith and courageous hope, Saint Maximilian Kolbe endured the extreme horrors of Auschwitz, the notorious Nazi concentration camp in Poland. He proved that self-giving love and compassion can thrive even in extreme darkness and cruelty. His heroic life inspired other prisoners, giving them hope that kindness and self-sacrifice were possible—even in Auschwitz. This “factory of death” functioned from 1940 until 1945; studies demonstrate that between 1.1 and 1.5 million people perished there.
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Allow me to tell you about a unique celebration of Easter from the Philippines, where I happily served as a missionary for over five decades. Filipinos celebrate a ritual, known locally as the “meeting” (encuentro); it dramatizes the encounter of the risen Lord and his mother Mary on Easter morning.
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On September 7, 1918, the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers sent four Missioners to China, including Maryknoll co-founder Fr. Thomas F. Price, Fr. James E. Walsh, M.M., Fr. Francis X. Ford, M.M., and Fr. Bernard F. Meyer, M.M.This year as we prepare to celebrate 100 years of Mission Sending on September 7th, we had the privilege of sitting down with Fr. John Cioppa, M.M., an 86-year-old Maryknoll Missioner, who knew one of the original 4 Maryknoll Missioners to China – Bishop James E. Walsh. In fact Fr. John was there in 1970 when Bishop James E. Walsh was released from a Shanghai prison after spending 12 years of his 20-year sentence primarily in solitary confinement.   After the Communist takeover of China in 1949, Bishop Walsh was arrested on charges that he had spied for the Vatican and the United States in 1958.  It is believed that he was the last of 7,000 foreign Roman Catholic and Protestant missionaries to have been expelled from China.   Most of Fr. John’s Missionary career was spent in Hong Kong, a former British Colony, and in 1978, he was the first Maryknoll priest to be able to re-enter China since the communist takeover. Join us as we learn more about Fr….
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Good Friday of the Lord’s PassionJn 18:1—19:42But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs, but one soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed out. An eyewitness has testified, and his testimony is true; he knows that he is speaking the truth, so that you also may come to believe.
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