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The La Salette Charlet Family Chapel
When one travels from Grenoble to La Salette, passing the town of La Mure and past the dizzying banks of Pont-Haut (High Bridge), one quickly arrives at the quiet little hamlet of Charlet.
(from left) Charlet Family crest; Charlet Family Chapel on road to La Salette in France.
In the early nineteenth century a local family founded this hamlet on a site which rich in water and a wooden construction built for a master baker and carpenter. This hamlet is part of the nearby municipality of Saint-Laurent in Beaumont. The local Fuzat household, the founders, had four children, with three boys, two of which went to war in 1870.
The third boy became a priest, and was pastor of Viriville at the foot of the Chambaran plateau in the region of Isère. That priest made a vow to build a chapel at Charlet on the pilgrimage route to the Holy Mountain of La Salette if his brothers returned safely from the war. That they did.
This chapel was therefore dedicated to Our Lady of La Salette. The façade of the chapel was crowned with the Conversation Scene of the Beautiful Lady of La Salette in conversation with the two little shepherds and can be seen from miles away.
Young La Salettes on the Holy Mountain
Editor: This is a letter from several young La Salette Missionaries explaining their special program given to them in September of 2015 on the Holy Mountain.Greetings from the Holy Mountain of La Salette!
The La Salette Junior Religious Group of September, 2015The special program for the JRMS (Junior/Young La Salette Religious) 2015 began on September 5, 2015. We were sixteen young La Salette priests (14) and brothers (2) coming from the different parts of the globe participating in this program.
Within these two weeks, we have reflected, shared and deepened our La Salette spirituality, charism and ministry. We were very excited and inspired to explore our roots and to reflect on how our Weeping Mother has truly inspired us here and continues to do so daily.
The sharing, witnessing and reflections of the other La Salette members surely have helped us all to be more encouraged to live out and be witnesses to the La Salette message. All our learning sessions, group reflections and group sharing have inspired us to be instruments of this Reconciliation in our own Provinces, Regions and Districts.
We are all hopeful that this will continue to unite us as brothers and as members of one international religious family. The topics we discussed included: our Religious Congregation, our Ministry and Charism, our Community Life, the La Salette Rule as well as the qualities mercy and conversion as seen in the La Salette Event.
Beginning in La Banda, Argentina
Present-day Church in La Banda: façade (left) and
La Salette Shrine in their Church sanctuary (right)Editor: In the Winter 1975-76 Mission Newsletter, Fr. Jack Toner, M.S., Procurator for our La Salette Missions, reported on the beginning of our ministry in La Banda, Argentina – now celebrating its 40th anniversary as a La Salette Mission. We share with you the excitement and challenge of his report, including the comments of Fr. Roland Nadeau. M.S., ministering in Argentina at that time.
Providentially, increasing numbers of missionaries to Argentina in recent years have enabled us to meet the responsibilities already accepted, and so it was decided at a meeting of the missionary personnel in Argentina, earlier in the current year, that our efforts be expanded, and specifically in an area that would be very poor, disorganized, and largely or completely lacking in priests.
Bringing La Salette to Costa Rica
I am a La Salette Associate, connected with the large group of Associates at the La Salette National Shrine in Attleboro, MA. I am a native of Costa Rica, with many family members still living there.
La Salette in a Small Chapel
The statue of the Weeping MotherThree years ago in a return visit, I decided to bring the image of Our Lady of La Salette, a large statue of the Weeping Mother, to place in a local chapel near my sister’s house in Costa Rica. It was my gift to the local Catholics. On the day of the blessing, I was invited to speak at the conclusion of Mass and provide some information about La Salette in Spanish for the congregation. Three years later I received the inspiration to provide even more details about the history and message of La Salette to that Costa Rican community.
One of the first steps in my recent journey back home came from a discussion with my sister. She works in a High School in Costa Rica. She had spoken with a School Religious Educator who heard that I was going to give a presentation during my upcoming visit in May to a small prayer group. She asked if she could also have an image of Our Lady of La Salette to use in their school. For the entire month of May, the students reflected on the Apparition of Mary at La Salette and they placed a La Salette poster in the school as part of a display.
Making La Salette Known to Several Groups
On May 18, I was invited to a small church where local Catholics gather every Monday to pray. They invite different speakers almost every week. After they had joined in singing, praising God and praying the rosary, I was given the opportunity to speak to them about the La Salette Apparition.
Our Busy Holy Mountain
Summertime for many people is vacation time but here on the Mountain of La Salette in France this is our high season. It is an absolutely beautiful, peaceful place unless you minister to our pilgrims and many vacationing visitors. Most of the time I feel like I’m leading the life of a busy Martha in the gospel of Luke:
The stunningly beautiful Mountain panorama surrounding the La Salette Shrine on the Holy Mountain in FranceAs (Jesus and his disciples) continued their journey he entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him. She had a sister named Mary [who] sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me.”
The Lord said to her in reply, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.” (Luke 10:38-42)
In this gospel lesson I hear that there are some who are called to be “Marthas” and some who are called to be “Marys”. Of course, I am busy being Martha most of my day.
Busy About Many Things
For example, each day, there is an average of 350 pilgrims sleeping here plus 150 staff and volunteers. That’s a lot of people to feed! The responsibility of the religious programs for the pilgrims is the Rector’s, Fr. Manuel dos Reis Bonfim, M.S. He is from Brazil and has been at the Shrine for three years now.
La Salette in Myanmar – Growing Slowly But Surely
Fr. Philip Aung, M.S., presently Regional Superior of the Myanmar Mission.Fr. Philip Aung, MS, was born in the northern part of Burma (now Myanmar) in 1973. La Salette was well known in the country because of the work of the La Salette Missionaries which began in 1937. After finishing high school in 1991, Philip wanted to become a priest and learned about La Salette from a lay catechist. A nearby parish priest helped him discern his La Salette vocation.
Once in contact with Fr. Bernie U Mya Thein, MS – the only Myanmar La Salette at that time – he left home. Accompanied by the parish priest who had helped him in his vocational discernment, he traveled about half way across the country to Prome where there was still a very strong La Salette atmosphere. Here he waited two years to get his passport and visa.
In 1993 he journeyed to the Philippines for studies. Years of academic study followed. In May, 2004, Fr. Philip was ordained a priest. He tells us of how the present-day La Salettes came to be established at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary in Chantagone, Mandalay.
Efforts to Reestablish La Salette in Myanmar
Fr. Philip writes:
In the summer of 2004, I was traveling to the north of Burma to say my First Mass of Thanksgiving in my hometown. I passed through Mandalay City and a friend of mine unexpectedly brought me to visit a Marian Shrine which is about 15 miles outside the city. I never thought it would become a place where we would begin our mission.
Burmese Courage and Hospitality
Editor: In this excerpt from the 1967 issue of the La Salette Mission Newsletter, we hear about the qualities of the Burmese people whom we serve in what is now called Myanmar. It is certainly true that as La Salette Missionaries, we receive far more than we could ever share.
Our faithful correspondent, Fr. John O'Reilly, M.S., sent the following interesting item.
Wonderful, Quiet Courage
Fr. John O'Reilly, M.S., accompanied
by his native catechis“A few days ago a young man from Rangoon, a Buddhist who is about to enter the Church, came to arrange his marriage with one of the girls from our village. The same night both he and his fiancé left on the night train to visit his parents in Rangoon and then to visit his unit in the Burma Air Force in Hmawbi.
“Shortly after midnight the train was mined by the rebels and machine-gunned. Ten people were killed and it would have been much worse had not the military escort driven off the rebels with accurate gunfire from their armored car on the train. Our young friends escaped unharmed, thank God, and continued on to visit his parents, following which he received permission at his unit to return here on the same train that had been attacked by the rebels on the way down. They were here a few minutes ago, and now all is ready for their wedding.
A New Library for La Salettes in Myanmar
The La Salette District Community of Myanmar has been in existence for the past nine years and we are truly blessed to have vocations. We have one seminarian in second year of theology, five seminarians in the second year of theology and three seminarians in philosophy studies as well as two aspirants who are preparing for the English Entrance Exam to Philosophy this year. There are a total of eleven seminarians and thirteen perpetually professed members. We are very thankful to God!
After having settled down in our ministries, the focus of our district community during these foundational years is to set up formation programs and formation houses. We now have a house for philosophy students in the town of Pyin Oo Lwin in the Mandalay Diocese, and construction of a novitiate house is being planned in the same locality.
from left: Fr. Bernie Taylor, M.S. with other Myanmar La Salettes; Fr. Phil Negley, M.S.; Fr. Lucas Swan Za Lian, M.S.; Church in town of Pyin Oo Lwin, near our House for Philosophy students
An Interview with Fr. Viktor Andereggen, M.S.
Editor: Fr. Victor’s responses to this 1993 interview can give us an appreciation of the complexity and dangerous and challenging nature of his ministry in Angola.Can you tell me, Father Viktor, how the civil war affects the daily life of the people in Angola?
Fr. Viktor Andereggen, M.S., celebrates Mass with his people.In this tropical country, many people lived in the bush before the war. Political and racial persecutions brought people into the cities in search of security. Thousands were victims of guerilla warfare by UNITA and reprisals by government troops. Thirty-seven missionaries were killed, most of them native Angolans, and sixty-eight others were abducted.After independence from Portugal, the Church, which had worked closely with the colonials, was greatly criticized by the new Marxist leaders. Possessions of all kinds, even schools and churches, were confiscated by the government. But during the war, the Church, siding with the common people, denounced the government's actions and championed the cause of human rights, peace and justice.
From what you say, the Church seems to be an important reality in this country.
That's right. 55% of the people are Catholic, 12% are Protestant. There is a real inter-faith solidarity, particularly in the area of charitable help.
Despite the years of persecution, there are 15 dioceses, 247 parishes and 3,486 mission posts. 18 Bishops are helped by 322 priests,1,025 sisters, and 93 brothers. There are over 135,000 catechists.
The Spirit Has Not Fallen Asleep
Editor: An impressive event from 1993 is shared by then-Fr. Donald Pelletier, M.S., which happened in our La Salette Mission in Madagascar.
Each year, January 7th is a very important Islamic holy day, the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed. The Moslem Community in Morondava – merchants, planters and small industrialists – wanted to do something important and they chose our Rehabilitation Center known as “The Beautiful Gate.” At four o'clock in the afternoon, a motorcade arrived with civil authorities, police, video cameras and some thirty men, all fervent leaders of the Islamic Community. In a speech, their leader explained their faith in Mohammed and their joy for this holy day, which was the real reason that they wanted to help the project for the handicapped.
I thanked them and explained that there was no discrimination at the Center, whose goals are for a total and complete rehabilitation of all forms of the physically and mentally handicapped. In Goujherrati, one of the Center's young men thanked the Islamic Community in the name of all the children.