For the CCHA Annual Conference in June 2013 at the University of Victoria, Patricia Roy will be the local arrangements chair. She is preparing a tour of St Ann’s Academy Historic Site in downtown Victoria which is near the the Sisters of St Ann pioneer school house site at the Royal British Columbia Museum. These are new sites since the CCHA Annual Conference in 1990.
The Redemptorist North American Historical Bulletin of Fall 2011, edited by Paul Laverdure, features the “Meehan Media Records Donated” to the Provincial Archives in Ontario. The records document “the longest continuous religious broadcasting career in Canada,” the media records of Rev. Matthew Gerald Meehan.
The Newman Association of Vancouver, the Jesuits, St Mark’s College and Corpus Christi College at the University of British Columbia sponsored three lectures by Brother Guy Consolmagno SJ in celebration of the 400 years of service of the Jesuits in Canada. Brother Consolmagno is the curator of the Vatican’s meteorite collection at Castel Gandolfo. He is also the Director of Public Relations for the Vatican Observatory. He gives more than 40 public talks per year on astronomy and the relation between science and religion. He was born in Detroit and earned undergraduate and masters’ degrees from MIT and a PhD in Planetary Science from the University of Arizona. In Vancouver in February 2012 Brother Consolmagno lectured on “Pluto and the Vatican: How do Science and Religion Handle Changes in Our Understanding of Reality?” and on “Discarded Worlds: Astronomical Ideas that were almost correct.”
The Catholic Women’s League of Canada in the Archdiocese of Edmonton is marking 100 years of service with an exhibit opening at the Provincial Archives of Alberta, June 11, 2012. The exhibit is entitled “We Simply turned to the Women” — 100 Years of the Catholic Women’s League in Edmonton.” The exhibit will tell the CWL story and will help establish a collection of photographs and documents on these laywomen at the provincial archives. The Edmonton CWL will host the National Convention August 12-15, 2012.
Silver Jubilee: The Basilian Fathers in Colombia
It is now twenty-five years since the Basilian Fathers extended their Latin-American apostolate to Colombia. The first foundation there, in 1987, was in the city of Cali, where the Archbishop at that time invited the Basilians to take over a parish, “Nuestra Señora de la Asunción,” in a region of the city with the usual problems of poverty and violence. There was a school attached, a school in lamentable conditions of poverty and disorder, so frequently encountered.
In due time the parish church and the school were repaired and renewed by the Basilians under the courageous and tenacious guidance of Fathers Frank Amico, Robert Seguin, and Rafael Lopera. Rafael was not ordained at the time, but as a native of Colombia, he was invaluable in the work of beginning, renewing, and . . . persevering.
Now, twenty-five years later, the work of the Basilians has spread to the two other largest cities in Colombia, Medellín and Bogotá. In Medellín, under the guidance of Father Bob Seguin, a new parish church, named “San Basilio” (who else?), in a very dangerous area, is the centre of much parochial, educational, and social activity, in spite of prevailing dangers of theft and violence. A third foundation has been made in the capital city of Bogotá, which foundation serves as a novitiate for young men aspiring to Basilian life, again under the aegis of Father Bob Seguin.
During these 25 years of Basilian presence in Colombia vocations have been slow but steady, and, at the moment, promising. There are seven novices in the novitiate in Bogotá, for whose perseverance your prayers are humbly requested . . . for them and for the Basilian ministry in Colombia.
Father Philip Wallace Platt on his return from 11 years of service for the Basilian Fathers in Cali, Medellín and Bogotá, Colombia.