Winter 2016

IN THIS ISSUE2015 A HistoricYear 1

Welcome to theFamily 2

Relocation 2

Human Trafficking 3

Peace & Justice 3

Following in theFootsteps 4

Dead Man Walking 5

New Journey 6

Assembly ofMajor Superiors 6

Changing World 7

In Memoriam 7

Province of the Good Shepherd

Corporate Office(815) 472-3131

Province of the Good Shepherd

Development Office(815) 450-6076

www.sjog-na.org

How to Reach Us:

2015 A Historic Year

The years fly by. It’s the days that are long. Whoever said this, how true it is. 2015 is over. We are sad/glad to see it go. It was a great year filled with many exciting and memorable successes.

To close out 2015, we say thank you—to our friends, family, benefactors, co-workers, and partners. 2015 was fun. Let’s do it again in 2016

Brothers Tom and Charles with Pope Francis in Philadelphia.

The Brothers in Hamilton celebrate theHarvest Gala.

Issue 1

2

Brother Tom introduces a student at the Westville Grove, New Jersey Meet & Greet.

Hospitaller Brothers from around the world joined in the Celebration Mass of Fusion of the Little Brothers of the Good Shepherd with the Hospitaller Order of St. John of God in Albuquerque, New Mexico in January 2015.

As part of combining the two orders, Hospi-taller Brothers of St. John of God Province of the Good Shepherd in North America was created. The new Province combined the ex-isting North American ministries of the Little

Welcome to the Family

Brothers of the Good Shepherd with the existing Hospitaller ministries in Montreal and New Jersey.

Heritage of Hospitality Dinner in Hamilton, Ontario

The new province was wel-comed into the Hospitaller Family with a Welcoming Ceremony during the Broth-ers’ Assembly in Dublin, Ire-land; Masses of Celebration at Camillus House in Miami, Florida and Good Shepherd Manor in Momence, Illinois; the Heritage of Hospitality Mass and Dinner at St. Law-rence Church in Hamilton,

A Christmas Open House recognized the relocation of the Finance, Corporate and Development Of-fices of the Province of the Good Shepherd in North America. The new location, 114 W. Washington Street, Momence, Illinois, allows for expansion and increased staff.

Brothers Justin, Vincent, Alphonsus, Joseph and Charles attended along with many local friends and family.

Relocation

Brothers Justin, Vincent and Charles meet wih friends during the open house.The Finance and Corporate Offices in Momence, Illinois

Ontario; and a Meet and Greet at St. John of God Community Ser-vices in Westville Grove, New Jersery. All were joyous celebrations filled with significance and inspiration.

“Do good to yourself

by doing good to others.”-St. John of God

Welcoming ceremony in Dublin, Ireland

Brothers David, Justin, Alphonsus, Charles and Joseph with Bish-op Conlon at the Mass of Celebration in Momence, Illinois.

Recycle cans and bottles instead of just throwing them away. Each recycled aluminum can, saves enough energy to run a 25 watt compact fluorescent bulb for nearly 16 hours.

After dinner don’t wash off those plates – put everything in the dishwasher and run the rinse and hold cycle until ready for a full load. This tip can save up to 6,500 gallons of water per year – imag-ine the savings from this!

Carpool to work and back home – just one more passenger in each car can save 32 million gallons of gasoline, and save on pollution, each day.

When stopping for gas be sure to check the tire pressure – if we work at this, we can save 2.8 billion gallons of gasoline a year and help curb global warming.

Unplug chargers for all your electronics when they aren’t charging.

Shut off your computer when not in use – you can save up to $1000 a year in energy costs!

Spot clean your clothing items to avoid rewashing the item. And run your cy-cles on cold or warm water – hot water skyrockets your energy bill!

Get regular tune-ups on your car.

When stopping for a snack along the way, be sure to take only the napkins that you will need – saving trees is our goal!

Check out this site, nrdc.org, for addi-tional tips and tools to help protect our planet.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Peace & JusticeThe Issue of Stewardship of Our

Environment…Things You Many Not Know

The following 10 tips can help us become good stewards of the environment.

3

Human TraffickingIn June, Florida State’s Attorney Katherine Fernandez wrote a letter to Governor Rick Scott requesting financial assistance for a new program at Camillus House. In it she said that Camillus House had stepped up to assist in helping women over the age of 18, as these clients were unsuit-able for shelters that held victims of domestic violence and children. She requested public funds to set up the operation. The Florida legislature obliged with a grant of $500,000.00. The third floor of the ISPA Building on the Ca-millus Campus has been converted for the Phoe-nix Program. Here clients see a psychiatrist and receive therapy and training to help them on the road to recovery.

Tour of Marseille, including a visit to Notre-Dame de la Garde, where Brother Mathias went to pray before taking a train to Paris in 1950.

Visit to the emergency and rehabilitation center for homeless men, “Forbin.”

Visit to the provincial archives to follow the history of Brother Mathias when he was a member of the French Province and review documents about him when he was in Stillorgan, Lyon, Paris, and Montréal.

Visit to the center for the elderly, “Saint-Barthélemy.”

Arrival in Lyon and visit to the psychiatric hospital, “St. John of God of Lyon,” where Brother Mathias made his novitiate, lived, worked and made vows.

Arrival in Paris and meeting with the “Young Hospi-tallers.”

Visit to the center for disabled children and adults, “Lecourbe.”

Visit to the surgical clinic, “ Oudinot,” where Brother Mathias lived and worked as a nurse in 1925-27 be-fore being sent to Montreal.

Visit to places in Paris where Brother Mathias went with the Brothers, such as Notre-Dame, the Sacré-Coeur, and Madeleine Church.

Following in the Footsteps of Brother Mathias BarrettFollowing their attendance at the Fusion Cere-mony, Brother Paul-Marie Taufana, Brother Paul Adnot and Marie Rablat, Councilors and Ar-chivist of the French Province, realized August 2015 would be the 25th Anniversary of Brother Mathias’ death. Following in his Footsteps in France between the fusion and anniversary was an idea they pursued with their Provincial. Several months later, Brothers Justin, Marcel-lus, Richard, Raphael, Sean, Thomas O’Grady and Judy Brinkmann were guests of the French Province for a week. Marie was the tour guide for the trip along with Antoine Soubrier for part of the trip. The time of learning and fellowship with our French Brothers and co-workers was very enjoyable.

Trip Highlights

4

5

The Provincial and General Council were privileged to spend time with Sister Helen Prejean at Camillus House in Miami, Florida. Sister Helen is a member of the Congregation of St. Joseph. She began her prison ministry in 1981 when she dedicated her life to the poor in New Orleans. While living in the St. Thomas housing project, she became pen pals

with Patrick Sonnier, the convicted killer of two teenag-ers, sentenced to die in the electric chair of Louisiana’s Angola State Prison.

Upon Sonnier’s request, Sister Helen repeatedly visited him as his spiritual advisor. In doing so, her eyes were opened to the Louisiana execution process. Sister Helen turned her experiences into a book that made the 1994 American Library Associates Notable Book List. "Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States" was number one on the New York Times Best Seller List for 31 weeks. It also was an international best seller and has been translated into ten different languages.

In January 1996, the book was developed into a major

“Dead Man Walking”motion picture starring Susan Sarandon as Sister Helen and Sean Penn as a death row inmate.

Fifteen years after beginning her crusade, Sister Helen has witnessed five executions in Louisiana and today educates the public about the death penalty by lecturing, organizing and writing. As the founder of “Survive,” a victim’s advocacy group in New Orleans, she continues to counsel not only inmates on death row, but the fami-lies of murder victims, as well.

During her in time in Miami, Sister Helen spoke at a Camillus Community Event, Miami Dade College and met with staff.

Sister Helen Prejean meets with the Brothers in Miami, FL.

Montreal MinistryFather Gaston celebrates mass with residents at Residence Les Deux Aires, in Montreal, Quebec.

5

6

The Assembly of Major Superiors of the Order held its first session at the General Curia in October. As usual, the Provincials held a meeting with the Prior General and his Council to reflect and dialogue collegially on the life and mission of the Order, the challenges and the hopes, particularly in relation to our future. The inaugural Mass was presided over by the Father General, Brother Jesús Etayo. Referring in his homily to the Brothers martyred in 20th century Spain, he called to mind the legacy bequeathed to us by the Brothers who have preceded us along the path of Hospitality which we are being called today to render alive and present. He also recalled the Brothers and the co-work-ers who died last year after having contracted the Ebola virus in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Speaking of the numerous awards and honours con-ferred on the Order this year for the mission of service it performs for the poor, sick and needy, he emphasised that they are source of encouragement to us, but also an imperative to do more and better so that we are always ready to respond.

Assembly of Major Superiors

Brother Justin Howson’s Golden Jubilee celebration

During one evening of fellowship, Brother Justin How-son’s Golden Jubilee was celebrated. He was recog-nized for his fraternal love, sacrifice and service for 50 years.

Superiors from around the world meet in Rome.

Brother Sean McIsaac has recently returned from two years in Dublin, Ireland. During this time, Brother Sean completed a course of study in Religious Formation Ministry at Loretta House and a Clinical Pastoral Edu-cation Program at St. John of God Hospital in Stillor-gan.

Brother Sean has been appointed Director of Postulants and will join Brother Vincent Kocham, Scholastic/Nov-ice Master in Albuquerque, New Mexico to begin a new journey in vocation ministry.

Beginning a New Journey

Brother Sean with his instructor and fellow graduates in the Clinical Pastoral Education Program

Our new website is now live. To learn more about the Province of the Good Shepherd in North America, visit www.sjog-na.org

New Website

7

In MemoriamIt seems that every day in the news there are stories of mass movements of people across the world, stories of poor and desperate people leaving their home countries to seek a better life elsewhere. Through our work with the homeless and poor, the Brothers in Wolverhampton are directly affected by these migrations.

Wolverhampton has long been home to large ethnic minorities. Earlier waves of immigrants from the West Indies and the Indian sub-continent made their way here in the 1950’s and 1960’s, attracted by the jobs then available in heavy industry. The majority are now well settled here – for example, a number of our donors and volunteers are of West Indian origin or members of the Hindu and Sikh communities.

In more recent times, the expansion of the European Community to include countries of Eastern Europe has resulted in many citizens of these countries coming to town and cities in the UK to seek work. They are re-sourceful and hard-working, and many of them do very well. However, for some of these immigrants things go badly wrong. Difficulties in finding work, lack of fluen-cy in English, and special problems, such as addictions, cause them to end up on the streets. Citizens from coun-tries such as Romania, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia now constitute a substantial proportion of our service users. We provide them with food, clothing, bedding and other basic necessities, and help them to make contact with other agencies for more long-term help.

Over the last year it has become evident that a further wave of migrants is arriving in Wolverhampton – asy-lum-seekers from war-ravaged countries. They are people in great need. They are not allowed to seek work while their cases are being processed and receive only a small allowance for their survival. They live with the memories of what they have suffered in their na-tive countries and the fear of being returned. They are generally very grateful for any help we can give them. Hopefully, one day many of this group will be settled and contributing to society.

The faces of the poor may be constantly changing, but our welcome must be unchanging. This is the challenge of hospitality.

Changing World

Brother Eric Lapierre, OH

Brother Robert Goane, OH

Brother John Chenier, OH

March 5, 1924 - May 21, 2015

December 3, 1939 - November 1, 2015

June 11, 1945 - November 13, 2015

Brother John first professed vows in June 1965. Places he served include Albuquerque, New Mexico; Montreal, Quebec; Miami, Florida; Port-au-Prince, Haiti and Toronto, Ontario.

Brother Robert first professed vows in February 1956. Places he served include Stillorgan, Ire-land; Rome, Italy; Seoul, Korea; and Westville Grove, New Jersey.

Brother Eric first professed vows in May 1942. Places he served include Montreal, Quebec; Blainville, Que-bec; and Rome, Italy.

8

t 25th Anniversary PrayerBrother Mathias Barrett - Born to Eternal Life - August 12th, 1990

O Lord, you have called us in this fragment of time to sing Your praise and build Your kingdom in close association with others, under the guidance and inspiration of Brother Mathias Barrett. This is a great mystery. We bow in thankfulness and praise be-fore you as we reflect on it. But, today, Lord give us new light to see the depths of this guidance and inspiration. Send Your power-ful Spirit into our hearts and minds that we might search out the signs of the times, answer the needs of our world, and give daily witness of your presence and love to all we encounter. Let us, under the blessing of our dearly beloved Brother Mathias Barrett, continue today to Never Stop Loving and let The Love of Christ Inspire Us as professed brothers of the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of God. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.