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By Bishop John, April 20, 2012 5:59 am

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com

I am talking about Father Walter J. Ciszek, S.J., an American Jesuit, born in Pennsylvania in 1904 and died in 1984. I share the Jesuits enthusiasm and happiness that the Vatican has now given formal permission for the canonization process to begin for this wonderful American priest.

Father Ciszek as a young man volunteered to go to serve as a missionary in Poland. When the German army rolled over Poland in 1939 Ciszek became a refugee moving into Russia. Following the war, the Russians falsely accused him of being a spy. After five years of brutal interrogation in Moscow’s notorious Lubyanka prison, he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. Amazingly, he survived both of these experiences. In 1963, President Kennedy secured his release from Russia and he returned to the United States where he would later write two extraordinarily powerful and popular books, With God in Russia and He Leadeth Me.

This man’s life was truly amazing. His heroism, patience and, yes, let me mention here, forgiveness, for he carried no bitterness against those who caused his terrible experience, is really an example of a follower of Jesus. May God bless the Jesuits and may God bless Father Ciszek.

I think that canonization of men and women of this caliber will do much to bring the various factions of the Church in the United States closer together, and maybe once again we can be Catholics and not liberal Catholics or conservative Catholics.
Coming – A New American Saint!

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By Bishop John, March 3, 2011 4:34 am

Today is the feast of St. Katharine Drexel. Catherine was born to a wealthy Philadelphia banking family just before the Civil War. She was truly an extraordinary woman. Although raised amidst the wealth and luxury of Philadelphia, she saw beyond the confines of her own family. At an early age, she became very conscious of the tragic amount of suffering in this country among Native Americans and African Americans, most of whom were struggling with abject poverty.

Katharine felt called to the religious life and in the process of serving the poor formed a new religious community called the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People. Sister Katharine transferred her entire personal fortune to her new community and, over the course of time, financed more than sixty missions and schools around the United States.

Xavier University in New Orleans was also established by Sister Katharine and is the only historically black Catholic university in our country. This holy and extraordinarily generous woman was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2000 becoming the second canonized American born saint. St. Elizabeth Ann Seton got there first!

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