Correction to the correction!

Fr. Jerry Burr writes from the Philippines:

 I am sure I will not be the only one to offer "corrections" .........and of course, I may be wrong....... (God forbid).......  but I believe others have checked out while on the G.C. Was not Fr. James Drought the VG when he crashed in a plane and died? Perhaps just a Council member......????

When I was matriculating in Theology, Fr. Gerard Grondin died, whilst on the Council. I think it went like this..... Pardy was VG and elected Bishop in Korea, Jackie Donovan moved up to Vicar slot, and Grondin was brought in to round out the Council.  I do remember being in the Rotunda during the wake, and SG Comber came in the door (from a three-month visitation trip) and asked me "Who died?"  I replied, Father Grondin..... Comber was SG and didn't know one of his Council guys died.

 Of course, if I am wrong on any of this...it won't be the first time. 

Cheers!  Old Burr

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Blogger's note: good to know you guys actually read this stuff and keep me on my toes!

Correction!

Fr. Ed Hayes, in from Africa, was gracious enough to point out an error in the previous post about the death of Fr. José Arámburu. I had stated José was the first incumbent General Council member to die. Not true, says Fr. Ed. In the mid 1960s,  Fr. Gerry Grondin was elected to the GC in Bishop Comber's Council, to fill the vacancy created when Father James Pardy left to become bishop in Korea. Fr. Grondin died in office. José is the first Maryknoll vicar general to die in office. (*Nope! See correction above!)

Many thanks also to Br. Kevin Dargan, (Maryknoll's answer to Google) for filling in these details.

Fr. Paul Masson, general council member, has arrived safely in Puerto Rico where he was to accompany the body of Fr. José back to his homeland for burial. As for Fr. José,  his remains took a little longer to arrive in San Juan. A Maryknoller to the end (and apparently beyond), José seemed determined to visit as much of the world as he can. But he finally made it back home and the funeral Mass and burial have already taken place.

And not a minute too soon:

Tropical Storm Isaac sideswiped P.R. and is now bearing down on Hispaniola, Cuba and perhaps Florida by Monday, by which time it might be upgraded to a full-blown hurricane.

Other interesting bits of news:

· Two weeks ago, some 60+ music ministers, directors and choir conductors gathered in our main chapel for a two-hour participatory sight-reading of new music coming out this year by GIA. The music ministers were from parishes in New York, but also from as far away as Ogdensburg and Baltimore. Thanks to our own music director, Mr. Christopher Reilly, for organizing this opportunity to introduce Maryknoll to a whole new constituency.

· This weekend, some 25 Sunday School teachers from St. Paul's Church in Flushing, NY, will be here for their annual workshop. (This is the same group that produced Sem. Dae Wook Kim and the same parish that gave us Fr. Alfonso Kim.)

· Four of our 10 seminarians are completing extra courses and structured autobiographies this week here at Mother Knoll. They'll be returning to Chicago on Sunday by car. (Oy!)

Wake for Fr. José

More than 300 mourners (Maryknoll Fathers, Brothers, Sisters, Lay Missioners, employees, former classmates and friends) gather in Queen of Apostles at Maryknoll, NY, chapel for the wake service honoring Fr. José Arámburu, vicar general.

A sad, historical first...

The funeral for Fr. José Arámburu, vicar general, (on Thursday, Aug. 23 at 10 a.m.) will be the first time in our 100 year history for an incumbent member of our General Council. To allow for the larger number of people paying respects, longer communion time as well as testimonials, the Mass time was moved up an hour. As per José's wish, his body will then be flown back to his native Puerto Rico for burial.

In others news: at last month's national meeting of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men (CMSM) our own U.S. Reguonal Superior Father Mike Duggan was elected to the CMSM governing board. Mike hopes to keep the mission of the Church front and center. Congratulations and best wishes to him!

At the CMSM meeting, they approved an official statement in support of our counterpart among the Sisters, the now-famous LCWR (Leadership Conference of Women Religious) in their on-going "dialogue" with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (formerly the Office of the Inquisition).

Since the opening salvo was fired last April 18 when the CDF issued its "assessment" of the umbrella organization that includes the Maryknoll Sisters, I and many other Maryknollers waited impatiently for some letter of support from our side of the road. We were told to wait for the LCWR to respond, which they did in May. Then we were told to wait for our Extended Leadership Board to meet, which they did and after two days of discussions, decided to study the situation further.

In the meantime, the Franciscans (!) did not hesitate to issue their own bold letter of support. When the Franciscans beat Maryknoll to the barricades, you know our once much heralded "prophetic" role (read the documents from the 2002 Chapter) has become instead, in my not-so-humble opinion, pathetic.

The Common Table initiative, in the meantime, discussed and debated issuing our own letter of support to the Sisters. The overall membership was invited to sign on and to date I have 100+ signatories. After this is delivered to the Sisters, I will publish the letter here, so stay tuned!

Start of the new school year

Ten candidates, fresh off a retreat with Fr. John Moran, gather at the Knoll to meet the veteran missioners. Two other seminarians, Shawn Crumb (Bolivia) and Daniel Kim (China) are in the Overseas Training Program of their formation.

Old meets new

Candidates' reception

Newbies

We welcome two new candidates: Dr. Andrea Eum and Greg McPhee, Esq., to our initial formation program, along with Fr. Bill Mullan joining the formation team.