tories
are easy to remember and easy to tell. Each
of us has his/her story to tell. We
are stories, part of God’s story of salvation.
We tell our stories, and in the process we are telling about our values
and goals and our very identity. The
Xaverian Missionaries are celebrating their 50th anniversary in the
USA, and this is summarily their story, a story of partners in mission.”
Our
Home is the World
For the past 50 years, the Xaverians, whose first American foundation is located in Holliston, MA, have been part of the local Church as bearers of a charism which makes them unique: the Xaverians are a religious society “exclusively dedicated to the foreign missions.” In their anthem they sing: “In every land is our hoe – the world. The love of Christ compels us.” Their story has always a foreign or better an international accent, for it tells of family, friends and peoples, of work and different ways of living, of faith that is shared and struggles, is nurtured and survives in the farthest corners of the world. You and I are part of that story, “Partners in Mission.” Partners in faith.
The tale told has its obvious meaning, but at a deeper insight and experience, it hides secrets of life and partnerships, of sacrifice and sharing, that part of the story which is never fully fathomable, but is alive with meaning, and is known only to those whose life it has touched and impacted.
Blessed Guido M. Conforti founded the Xaverians in Parma, Italy, in 1895, as a religious congregation dedicated to work in foreign missions. In 1946 they established themselves in Holliston, MA, and there, in 1949, Bishop John Wright – later Cardinal – dedicated Our Lady of Fatima Shrine, as a gathering and focusing holy grounds for those who wished to be partners in mission. The Fatima Shrine is visited by many thousands of people every year, and all sense there a pervasive missionary spirit and aura. Indeed, the first Xaverians were sent by Bishop Conforti as missionaries to China, which was a major missionary effort at that time. And the Xaverians came to Holliston from China, not from Italy.
First Xaverian American Foundation
Fr. Henry Frassineti was in the United States on his was back to Italy from China, when World War II broke out. His journey halted by the war, he remained in New York as guest of the Maryknoll Fathers, and helped out in parishes in New York and later in the Boston Archdiocese during the war years. Through the efforts of Fr. Maschi, the legendary pasto of St. Tarcisius Church in Framingham, MA, who was a friend of the Xaverians back in his homeland of Italy, Fr. Frassineti was introduced to Archbishop Richard Cushing of Boston. The archbishop, who would later establish his own Missionary Society of St. James for work in Latin America, was supportive of the stranded missionary, and encouraged him to establish the first Xaverian American foundation in his Archdiocese of Boston.
In 1947, the Xaverian Mission House officially opened in a property known as writer Kate Sanborn’s “Abandoned Farm,” and a long-vacant building became home to immigrant Fathers Henry Frassineti, Paul Illuminati and Alphonse Begheldo. The first American seminarian joined the small band of Xaverians at that time. Robert S. Maloney, who hails from Lawrence, MA, studied for the priesthood at St. John’s seminary, commuting to Brighton every day by hopping on the freight train of the Milford-Boston line whose railroad tracks boarded their property. After his ordination, Fr. Maloney undertook further studies in Rome, and then served in the Xaverian mission in Bangladesh before returning to the States. Hence he has held various positions of service within the Congregation.
From the very beginning of the American foundation seminarians were sent from Italy and other countries to form community together with US young candidates and to complete their preparation for the priesthood here. It was the first effort at an experiment of “international formation” in the Congregation which has now become the norm in every Xaverian Theology House in the world. Missionaries who have to live and work in the most varied cultural environments must first learn to adapt to each other, varied as their own cultural origins may be, be it Brazilian or Mexican, Italian, Indonesian or American, Congolese, Filipino or Spaniard, Scot, Sierra Leonean or Colombian, Japanese, Chinese, Bengali…
To
the Ends of the Earth
The seven “American survivors of the experiment” besides Fr. Maloney, are, or have been, themselves scattered in mission fields the world over, true to the charism of doing evangelization “ad extra,” in foreign lands. So, Fr. Tony Lalli was in Brazil for over a dozen years; Fr. Adolph Menendez was in Mexico; Jim and Rocco in Sierra Leone; Greg in Japan; Carl and Ken in the Philippines.
These US Xaverians have made, and are making, their valid and valuable contribution within the Congregation and in the missions. They, as many others throughout the world, find their missionary life to be a beautiful one, full of challenges, yes, and demanding, yet none happier and more fulfilling. By their mostly unassuming witness, they help piece together the mission of the Church and make Christ known “to the ends of the earth.”
The first Xaverian ordained to the priesthood in America was Rev. Angelo Frosi in 1949. Fr. Frosi left his mark in the States as a gentle and dedicated missionary until he was called to the missions of the Amazon in Brazil. There he served as bishop of the diocese of Abaetetuba for 28 years before his unexpected death in 1995.
While the Fatima Shrine has been the Xaverians’ point of contact with hundreds of thousands of people for half a century, the work of the Xaverians has continued to focus on the foreign missions, and they have expanded their presence in the USA. In the 60’s their Provincial headquarters moved to Wayne, N.J., to a house donated by Mr. and Mrs.
William Kearns. Yet already in 1957 they had opened their seminary in Franklin, WI. And in the 70’s the Theology House in Chicago, IL, in connection with CTU (Catholic Theological Union). Several years of presence in San Jose, CA, came to a close in 1995.
The past 50 years in the USA have seen 73 Xaverians being ordained upon completion of their studies here; 85 Xaverians have worked here; 350 have visited here for study, health reasons, or just en route to and from some mission field.
Partners in Mission
These are few and simple numbers, but they also hide the story of each and all of the many thousands of people who have made it happen, by prayers, contributions and sacrifices.
You are a beacon of hope to all people in need and a guiding light to those who serve them. Never do you fail to give, to care, to believe. As witnessed by your dedication to our efforts to do more for the poor with what you provide.
By determination of their rule of life, the Xaverians don’t have institutions or activities, such as parishes or schools, from which to draw resources for their works and endeavors, particularly for the formation of new missionaries and of local leaders. They rely wholly on the goodwill, the support and the sharing of the Church that sends them. It is in their name, also, and as Partners in Mission that they go and make the Gospel known to peoples afar.
Our friends may have joined the Xaverian Mission League, or be members of the Xaverian Board, may have been families of the Xaverians themselves, or outstanding or longtime benefactors, but by far in the greatest number as generous and caring good people with no claim other than to be partners in mission.
And each one of these has his/her story, which like so many threads in a beautiful tapestry interweaves in the one story of the Xaverians in their 50 years in the USA, this, part of the greater story of the Church’s mission and of God’s salvation.
Through the pages of the Xaverian Mission Newsletter we become more conscious of the story of these 50 years. We celebrate, and say “THANKS !” Yet, and in different ways, we are reminded that we cannot afford to skim over the surface or get lost in the details of the story because there is a here and now reality, maybe elusive and untouchable, that more than matches the Once Upon a Time…
(From Xaverian Mission Newsletter)