We Would Love
to Keep in Touch!
A Myanmar Priest from Diocese of Banmaw arrested by the Army
The Myanmar army has arrested Fr. Colombano Labang Lar Di, a Catholic priest from the Diocese of Banmaw, Myanmar.
According to information confirmed to Agenzia Fides by the local Church, the priest was arrested on May 14, 2021 while on his way to the city of Myitkyina where he was supposed to collect aid funds to support poor families who are unemployed and who are participating in the disobedience movement against the military coup that took place in Myanmar on February 1.
Read more A Myanmar Priest from Diocese of Banmaw arrested by the Army
Two people killed in Miytkyina; night raids in Yangon, Myanmar
March 8, 2021: The two victims were shot in the head with firearms. The police fired stun grenades and tear gas bullets. In addition to Miytkyina , today there were demonstrations in Yangon, Mandalay , Dawei, and Monywa.
Churches, mosques, monasteries subject to raids and searches. Over 600 policemen have laid down their weapons to join the civil disobedience. Funeral of Khin Maung Latt, collaborator of Aung San Suu Kyi. He died in prison and was in all likelihood tortured (see photo four).
Two people were killed in Miytkyina, the capital of the Kachin state, in the far north. Witnesses say they were taking part in a protest when police fired stun grenades and tear gas bullets. Several people were injured by firearms. The two dead were shot in the head with bullets, in a style that is increasingly common among the security forces.
Read more Two people killed in Miytkyina; night raids in Yangon, Myanmar
Peace is possible in Myanmar; Democracy is the only path
Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, Archbishop of Yangon and president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Myanmar, issued a message recently, posted on the website of his archdiocese, which he ends saying: “Peace is possible. Peace is the only way. Democracy is the only light to that path.”
Addressed “to the people of Myanmar” and “our international communities,” the message expresses opinions and suggestions on the events that are currently underway in the country. Defining what is happening, i.e. the military coup, as “periodic darkness”, he calls on the people of Myanmar to “stay calm” and not fall “victim to violence” because “We have shed enough blood.”
Read more Peace is possible in Myanmar; Democracy is the only path
La Salette in Burma
Editor: We hereby republish sections of the Centennial Booklet, “La Salette—1846-1946: Ten Decades with Our Lady,” edited by Fr. Emile Ladouceur, M.S., describing the first hundred years of making Mary’s message known. This is the last of twelve articles.
In 1937, the La Salette Missionaries of the North American Province took over the Mission of Arakan, Burma, then in charge of the Holy Cross Fathers. On November 9th of that year, the first contingent of five Missionaries, headed by Fr. Thomas M. Newman, M.S., arrived at Akyab (now Sittwe) where the chief post of the Arakan mission is located. They were warmly welcomed by the Holy Cross Fathers whose duty it was to initiate them in the work of converting Arakan.
The Fathers could not have had better initiators and guides. Less than a year and a half passed when they were able to assume the entire responsibility of the Mission and the last of the five Holy Cross Fathers transferred to the Bengalian Mission of Arakan.
The Arakan Mission area
The Mission comprises the entire district of Arakan which stretches for some 400 miles along the Bay of Bengal. This part of lower Western Burma, varying in breadth from 15 to 90 miles, is cut off from Central Burma by a mountain chain that runs North and South. This strip of land — undoubtedly the wettest section of Burma, since it averages 200 inches of rain during the rainy season — is inhabited by at least a million people.
Who is Our Lady of Burma?
Editor: The following letter was received by the Province Mission Procurator in April, 1950 from Fr. James Mannering, M.S., a La Salette Missionary stationed in Prome (central-west coast, now Sittwe), Burma (now Myanmar). It shows the dedication of our La Salette Missionaries, dealing with the challenges of their ministry and travel in the Burma of 1950.
I have come down to Akyab from Prome to make a retreat and also to get a few days of rest. I got through the Bamboo Curtain without any difficulty and made the long journey by train, bus and jeep. The train runs with wood and somehow the engineer manages to get up enough steam to make the wheels turn; the bus is just a truck and the jeep is the genuine article – no springs.
A letter from the La Salettes in Haiti
In the spirit of the Breviary versicle during this past Christmas season, we have a seasonal invitation:
“From the point where the sun rises to the limits of the earth,
let us sing of Christ our Lord, born of the Virgin Mary."
Fr. Rakotondraibe Maminiaina Romuald, M.S. welcomes children from the La Salette Parish School in BayonnaisAs a Community of La Salette Missionaries in Haiti, we send you greetings. Christmas time is the period during which Missionaries, like all the faithful, are filled with joy for this gift from God, the Word who became flesh, born of the Virgin Mary. We are all called to announce and convey this joy of the Good News. The world needs to contemplate and taste this incarnate God and his graces.
Also, our presence in the world is a grace, a gift because as Missionaries we participate in the proclamation of this Good News. It is for this reason that we wish you a Happy New Year of Our Lord, 2021. May the Lord our God help us and accompany us to pass on and proclaim “This grace of the Incarnation…” and welcome Christ our Lord, born of the Virgin Mary."
Looking back over this year...
The end of the year is a time for us to be thankful of the gift received and a time for sharing. We are happy to share with you some of the realities of our new mission in Haiti throughout the year 2020. It was for us, as for so many other missions, a year of many challenges, a journey of shadows, but also a year of some lights for our mission in Haiti.
La Salette in England
Editor: We hereby republish sections of the Centennial Booklet, “La Salette—1846-1946: Ten Decades with Our Lady,” edited by Fr. Emile Ladouceur, M.S., describing the first hundred years of making Mary’s message known. This is the tenfth of twelve articles.
Bishop William Bernard Ullathorne, O.S.B. (1806-1889), author of the early work, “The Holy Mountain of La Salette: a Pilgrimage of the Year 1854”The devotion to Our Lady of La Salette was introduced in England a short time after the Apparition. As early as 1854, the Church of Our Lady of the Reconciliation of La Salette was dedicated at Liverpool, England and another Church to Our Lady of La Salette was dedicated on May 2, 1861 at Bermondsey, London, England
About this time also the Archconfraternity to the Reconciling Virgin was inaugurated at Birmingham, no doubt with the approbation of Bishop William Bernard Ullathorne, O.S.B. (1806-1889), one of the first champions of La Salette. It is due very likely to this veneration on the part of English Catholics that the Missionaries themselves later arrived to settle definitely in England.
The merciful love with which Our Lady brought about a foundation of her own Sons in that country is clearly evident. In November 1927, Fr. Cecil McDonald, a Missionary of La Salette from the United States, then on his way to Madagascar, obtained an audience with Most Rev. Arthur Henry Doubleday (1865-1951), Bishop of Brentwood, England, who was also visiting in the Eternal City. Our Lady of La Salette was not unknown to Bishop Doubleday.
There is in the very heart of London, at Melchoir Street, not far from the Tower of London whose name fills the pages of English history, a parish that bears the name of Our Lady of La Salette. A church dedicated to her was built as a consequence of a miracle obtained through her intercession.
La Salette in Brazil
Editor: We hereby republish sections of the Centennial Booklet, “La Salette—1846-1946: Ten Decades with Our Lady,” edited by Fr. Emile Ladouceur, M.S., describing the first hundred years of making Mary’s message known. This is the ninth of twelve articles.
Genuine devotion to Our Lady of La Salette in the land of Brazil has grown ever more popular with the years since the first missionaries from France and the United States brought the message of Mary's tears to her people beneath the Southern Cross.
A splendid Shrine to Our Lady under her Alpine title of La Salette now rises with towering grace in the heart of Rio de Janeiro. And the greatest pilgrimage center in the Southern Brazil was dedicated, the Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette at Marcellino Ramos.
La Salette in Poland
Editor: We hereby republish sections of the Centennial Booklet, “La Salette—1846-1946: Ten Decades with Our Lady,” edited by Fr. Emile Ladouceur, M.S., describing the first hundred years of making Mary’s message known. This is the eighth of twelve articles.
Bp. Thomas Daniel Beaven (1851-1920) of Springfield, MassachusettsIn the annals of the La Salette Community, the Chapter on Poland bears the character which marks the general; history of that heroic Catholic country. Throughout the centuries, Poland lost its territory, its wealth and its independence, but never its Faith. Having been drenched in floods of tears and torrents of blood, Poland, more than any other country, is able to learn and to love the sorrowing message of Our Lady of La Salette.
Help for Poland by way of the United States
The coming of the La Salette Fathers in Poland was providentially set by the persecution in France and the clarion call for assistance from the Polish immigrants in the United States. Voicing the plea for Polish-speaking missionaries to serve the faithful in his diocese, Bishop Thomas Daniel Beaven (1851-1920), Bishop of Springfield, Massachusetts appealed to the Superior General of the La Salette Missionaries for trained priests who might minister to the Polish people in his flock. In response to this demand, the Very Rev. Father Joseph Perrin, M.S., Superior General, chose five young Swiss priests who had just finished their studies at the Gregorian University in Rome and in 1902, and sent them to Poland in order to learn Polish with the Lazarist Fathers in Kraców, Poland.
After obtaining a working knowledge of the language, these Fathers remained for some time engaged in parochial work in order to complete their training. When some left for America, others stayed in Poland to take charge of the Parish of Putzniki, entrusted to them by Bishop Jósef Bilczewski (1860-1923), Archbishop of Lemberg [later canonized by Pope Benedict in 2005].
La Salette in Belgium
Editor: We hereby republish sections of the Centennial Booklet, “La Salette—1846-1946: Ten Decades with Our Lady,” edited by Fr. Emile Ladouceur, M.S., describing the first hundred years of making Mary’s message known. This is the seventh of twelve articles.
The devotion to Our Lady of La Salette made an early appearance in Belgium from the first years following the event. The foremost Bishops of the country were quick to endorse the doctrinal judgment of Bishop de Bruillard.
La Salette’s extensive complex in Tournai, Belgium including a the gardens, the Chapel, an Apostolic School and a Scholasticate
(for theology students)
The devotion to Mary of La Salette found ready welcome in the brave hearts of the Flemish and the Walloons—from Belgian’s southern region of Wallonia—in this sturdy Catholic Kingdom. Even today shrines dedicated to the Weeping Mother of the Alps abound in the churches and the very wayside of the war-scarred country are strewn with Calvary shrines oftentimes honoring Our Lady of La Salette.
Moving the School to Tournai, the Cathedral City
At the outbreak of persecution in France, the Apostolic school at the foot of the Holy Mountain was reorganized in a frontier town of Belgium well known for its generous hospitality towards exiled religious orders. For this reason it has come to be called the Rome of the North. Here at Tournai near the 220-mile long Scheldt River, a kind-hearted priest, Rev. Father Friant, pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in that Cathedral City, had offered the use of his Parish Hall as a temporary refuge for the students and faculty of the Minor Seminary of St. Joseph in Corps, near La Salette. Here in Tournai the pupils gathered and resumed their formation for the missionary religious life, inspired by the heroism of their teachers and directors.