Fr. Silvano Marisa, M.S., newly-elected Superior General, La Salette Missionaries |
Boccaldo, the small mountain village in which Fr. Silvano was born |
Monastery in Yenangyuang where Fr. Bernie studied as a young boy |
Fr. Bernie Taylor, M.S., with some orphans of the 2008 Nargis cyclone in Myanmar |
Fr. Jose Muttathan, M.S. |
Bro,. Juan in his workshop
at the Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette in Siador- Silleda, Pontevedra, Spain. |
His bronze statue of Our Lady of La Salette seated, turning to welcome the two children (and us) in the Attleboro Shrine’s Garden of the Apparition. |
Sr. Theresa Hkawn Htoi |
Pope Benedict XVI meeting with Archbishop Paul Z. Zinghtung Grawng |
Fr. Jim Donagher, M.S. |
Where were you born and raised?
I was born and raised in Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in Hartford, CT, and ironically I’m going back there in January 2012. My mother died when I was seven years of age and my dad was an uneducated immigrant from Ireland. We lived in an unheated flat with no hot water. This experience has helped me live very simply for my entire life. This simple lifestyle brought me to the La Salette Seminary in Hartford, next to my parish church.
My mom was a woman of faith, but I remember snippets of my experience of her. I had two brothers, but both died within a few months of birth.
Where has your life taken you?
I was ordained as a La Salette on May 28, 1966, at the La Salette Shrine in Ipswich, MA. I was always a “rebel” but my assignments included being Prefect of Discipline in Cheshire, CT, and Vocation Director for our community. I loved being vocation director and felt very responsible for bringing youngsters to our seminaries. I will be serving in Our Lady of Sorrows with one of my recruits, Fr. Brian Sheridan!
Sr. Marie-Victoire Rasoamanarivo, SNDS, speaks at their Chapter |
Fr. Hervé Bougeard, M.S., when he was rector of the Holy Mountain |
(center): Sr. Maria Josephine; (2nd from right) |
As a La Salette religious community, we have many things to be thankful for to God in our recent past and developing present. Our community is growing by leaps and bounds and growing more in our internationality.
For example, we just celebrated the first profession of the first American sister in the second generation of our history in North America. Sr. Rosanne Shemchuk, SNDS, professed her vows on Sept. 7, 2011, in our Novitiate House in Fairfax, VA. We see this as a new hope for the missionary presence of the sisters in North America. She is assigned at the National Shrine in Attleboro to strengthen the collaboration of the La Salette Missionaries and Sisters of our Lady of La Salette. Hopefully this will renew the original vision of the first La Salettes, Maximin and Melanie, as male and female counterparts.
This is also the original dream of Fr. François Denaz, M.S., who first wrote to the bishop of Grenoble when Fr. Denaz was still a novice, saying that he hoped that there would be a male and female presence of La Salettes in the church. This dream is becoming a reality – from France to the Philippines and now in North America. Our multicultural presence in North America includes sisters from North America, the Philippines, Madagascar, and Myanmar and soon from Poland. Our novice from Poland will be serving at the Shrine in Attleboro for four months as an exposure-experience, part of our international formation program.
Fr. Jerome Saw, M.S. |
Where do you come from and where do you minister?