Two Province Observances

By Fr. Mike Mendl, SDB

(New Rochelle, NY – February 9) – On Saturday, February 4, two province observances occurred at the Marian Shrine in Haverstraw, NY.

The first occurrence was the annual celebration of Province Day, moved up from its customary date in May in order to accommodate the second occurrence, one of four province meetings aimed at helping the Rector Major discern the appointment of a new provincial.

Fr. Hugo Orozco, the regional councilor for Interamerica, presided at both Mass in the Shrine chapel and the assembly in Fr. Lee Hall of the confreres from the New York metro area and from Boston.

The Eucharistic celebration was a votive Mass of Mary Help of Christians with the readings of the weekday. It began on time at 9:00 am ET and lasted just 40 minutes. The congregation included 34 concelebrating priests, two deacons, 19 brothers, a prenovice, four candidates from Orange, and two other priests—a total of 52 confreres.

Fr. Hugo gave what was probably the shortest homily in the history of provincial feast days in our province. The gospel reading (Mark 6:30-34) called our attention to Jesus’ compassion for the crowds who had come to him. Fr. Hugo urged the confreres to strive to be like Jesus, to have compassionate hearts.

The assembly for the discernment process in Lee Hall was basically the same group. After a coffee break, Fr. Hugo initiated the discernment by explaining the multi-step process to be followed. Later he also explained the process that the Rector Major and general council would follow, probably in July, in selecting the confrere who will lead the province for the next six years, based in large part on the consultation of the province.

After praying, the Salesians and candidates, sitting at 10 or 12 tables, discussed the strengths, weaknesses, and challenges of the province; some of these were voiced for everyone to hear. Then Fr. Hugo asked the professed participants to write 3 names on slips of paper and pass these to him. Two brothers helped him compile a list of all the names put forward—about 20 of them—which were projected without any indication of the number of times they were listed.

Then the confreres were asked to fill out an online form, partly about themselves (in order to weigh the relative value of the suggestions) and partly with first, second, and third choices for a provincial and their reasons for those choices. This information constitutes the heart of what Fr. Hugo will take back to Turin from this Marian Shrine assembly as well as from parallel assemblies in Tampa, Etobicoke, and Surrey. (The general council has been meeting at the Motherhouse in Turin while Sacro Cuore in Rome undergoes renovation.)

Province Day 2 — (from left to right)
Br. Michael Nguyen, SDB; Fr. Hugo;
and Br. Travis Gunther, SDB
Photo by Fr. Mike Mendl, SDB

This consultation process took two and a half hours. By 12:30 pm ET, everyone was ready to eat and did justice to the hors d’oeuvres and the buffet luncheon. Fr. Tim Zak presented a film clip about what the Salesians are doing for the suffering people in Ukraine, who will be the beneficiaries again this year of the communities’ gifts for Province Day. The confreres from Orange, under the leadership of Br. Sal Sammarco, sang two hymns that Br. Sal had composed. There was a surfeit of leftovers for confreres to take home, and thus closed the day’s festivities.