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Tuition-Free School Closer

The first “Rev. John J. O'Neill Awards Ceremony” was held on May 22 at the St. James School in Danielson. All 207 students in kindergarten through eighth grade received one of 46 different awards.

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Fr. John J. O’Neill, M.S.,
Pastor of St. James Parish
All 207 students will also receive tuition assistance for school year 2013-2014. The idea of giving financial aid to every student has been in the pipeline for more than 21 years, according to Fr. O'Neill, who has been pastor for the same amount of time.

“When I studied economics at Boston College, I realized church management was crucial,” he said. “Schools wouldn’t make it with the programs set up. You can’t make it. Even though our second collections and fundraisers are second to none, we’re still $100,000 short every year.”

The problems facing the Danielson school are the same ones facing Catholic schools across the nation. According to the National Catholic Education Association, nationwide enrollment declined 12 percent for 2012-2013.

O'Neill's solution was to build an endowment fund, solidify the Friends of La Salette, a group dedicated to the school, and to call on friends around the world for help. “We brought in the base,” O'Neill said. “We’re ecumenical. We’re international. We have all kinds of awards.”

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New Parish in Haiti

When Mary appeared at La Salette to the two poor, unschooled cowherds, she was teaching us by her attitude of concern and compassion as well as by her words, that we must reach out to “all her people,” especially to the most needy.

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St. Anne’s Church in Haute Feuille, Haiti
From its very beginnings, the Parish of Our Lady of the Cape in Brewster, MA, has been reaching out in many ways. Its own local community certainly has its own needs. Also their increased summer membership who come to share in the parish’s vibrancy and faith is another event of outreach. But the parish community’s significant 25-year efforts in its ministry of twinning with Saint Claire’s Parish in Dessalines, Haiti, is simply exceptional and yet a true blessing for all concerned.

From the first establishment of their connection with and visits to the main church in Dessalines, the parishioners of Our Lady of the Cape have given of their time, talent and treasure so that their sister parish could continue and flourish, including its eight chapels, a clinic and five schools with an enrollment of 3,000 students. The needs of their sister parish in Haiti are extensive and their response of deep gratitude has been just wonderful.

Read more New Parish in Haiti

La Salette YouTube Videos

 Youtube founders
From left to right: Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim.

In this digital age, we often hear about “YouTube” videos. Like many other elements of our digital society, this video-sharing website and service was only founded in 2005 and is now owned by Google. It is available in 57 countries.

 Its social impact is enormous, offering people a way of sharing videos, songs and other educational and personal content with the world at large. It’s easy to use and delivers about 100 million videos a day to its users from its store of 33.2 billion online videos. Unbelievable! Its statistics are even more astounding:

• Music videos (31%), entertainment (15%) and people and blogs (11%)
• Average length of videos is 4:12 minutes
• 20-to-35 year old bloggers are most frequent users of imbedded videos
• Some videos have been watched by nearly 425,000 people

Religious groups also use this service as a way of sharing their faith with others including weddings, ordinations, graduations, and the like. We offer you some of the content about La Salette that is presently on YouTube.

La Salette Apparition Message:

Images of Our Lady of La Salette from the Philippines, celebrating her feast day, Sept. 19, by Sergio Yuzon, Jr. with “Ave Maria” soundtrack (4:51 min.)

Text of the Apparition and Prayer of Consecration with music and visuals (2:52 min)

Read more La Salette YouTube Videos

Cement, Laughter and a Baptism

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We can now mix cement
with the best of them!

Editor: As he has done for many years, Fr. Ted Brown, M.S., Campus Minister at Long Island University, has led a group of his college students to work with the poor in Mexico. Here is one of the blogs of those participating in this yearly mission of mercy. Why not read reflections from others as well!

Yesterday we went to two different work sites for work. One group went back to Norma's house and another group met Ofelia and her family. At her house we continued to dig a trench in her backyard, laid bricks (building the walls of the home) and tied steel reinforcement bar (re-bar) into the cement.

It was a hard day with sore muscles, but with continued energy from the uplifting orphanage experience and the support of friends we pushed through the pain.

Read more Cement, Laughter and a Baptism

Attleboro Springs

Keeping faithful watch, this revered image of Mary has stood at the entrance to La Salette Seminary (formerly Attleboro Springs Sanatorium), welcoming generations of brothers, priests, seminarians, pilgrims and visitors, inviting all still to submit to Christ's gentle sway as it does today.

Solomon's Sanatorium

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The Solomon's Sanatorium, which became
the La Salette Seminary, Attleboro, MA.
James Solomon was gathering herbs and roots in the woods on this property for herbal remedies that he concocted and peddled. Although he was known as Dr. Solomon, he was not a medical doctor, but his dream was to build a great sanatorium on this spot where people would come to be healed of cancer. In 1894 an engineer surveyed the grounds and by March of 1901 the walls stood in place to receive the giant roof, and a local businessman pledged the necessary financial backing to complete the project. The sanatorium cost $400,000 to build!

On April 25, 1903 Solomon's "Sanatorium was dedicated and the statistics in the day" program included this information: bricks: 475,709; windows: 309; panes of glass: 3,254; fireplaces: 21; rooms: 200; electric wire: 27 miles.

The order of the day included a band concert on the Attleboro Common followed by a parade from the center of town. A contemporary account describes the event: With the coming of the dark, Dr. Solomon's dream sprang to life in a great blaze of electrical splendor; 1,800 electric lights outlined the exterior of the building, while an immense searchlight mounted on the roof threw its slender, graceful finger of light over four miles.

Unfortunately, in the years to follow lack of funds resulting in changes of ownership was to form a pattern. In 1919, when the Methodist Church purchased it, the name was changed to Attleboro Springs, due to the natural spring on the grounds and it was under that name that it shut down in 1938.

About La Salette Seminary

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Fr. René Bisaillon’s Anniversary

Editor of Hawaii Catholic Herald: Father René Bisaillon, a retired Missionary of our Lady of La Salette in residence at St. Theresa Church in Kekaha, Kauai, was listed among those celebrating jubilee years of their religious professions and ordinations in the Hawaii Catholic Herald. Father “Biz,” as he is affectionately known, came to Hawaii in 1991 after more than 30 years of missionary work in the Philippines. This year marks his 60th year as a La Salette missionary. He wrote the following reflection of the occasion of this anniversary.


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Fr. René in his early years serving in the Philippines
I was born March 17, 1931, in Cohoes, N.Y., son of Mr. and Mrs. Leonel Bisaillon. I was ordained on April 25, 1959. On Sept. 19, I went to the Philippines. I soon found out that Filipinos had three great qualities: faith, love and happiness, though poor.

The people accepted me right away. And the Lord was with me those 32 years. The weather was hot, but I adjusted before long. I said Mass in the towns where I lived, and the near and far barrios by jeep, on foot, through muddy roads, etc.

In Gamu, Isabela, many people had tuberculosis. I drove many to the doctors, some recovered, some died. Almost miraculously I never caught that disease!

Read more Fr. René Bisaillon’s Anniversary

La Salettes with Youth in Brazil

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(from left) La Salettes: Bro. Flávio Jardim,
Fr. Edegard Silva Júnior, Fr. Isidro Perin,
Provincial, and Bros. Jean Carvalho
and Claudir Costenaro.

Fr. Edegard Silva Júnior, m.S., together with other Brazilian La Salettes, take seriously their mission of tending “Mombitaba House” – which in the Tupi Guaraní language means “resting place”. This house is in the Taizé Community neighborhood in Alagoinhas, Bahia, Brazil, located on the east-central shore of Brazil.

Among other activities that were developed, they decided to create a blog as a space for sharing, giving the La Salettes and youth access to a shared virtual world. They have let youth know that the La Salettes are open to their comments and contributions.

As reconcilers, they want to join with those who want to understand and love our youth and exchange knowledge between sometimes very different ways of living. La Salettes want to retain a youthful heart and continue to dream and to fight for a better world.

From the moment that the Conference of Religious of Brazil (CRB) took the initiative in addressing the issue of youth in 2010, the religious have offered some information and approaches to help in their own reflection on and discussion of this challenging reality of youth and their quest for faith. Their efforts are aimed not only at encouraging their country’s churches, congregations and youth ministers to welcome more youth back to church, but also simply meeting with youth wherever they are. They feel strongly that youth should have a place in the heart of all Catholic people!

Read more La Salettes with Youth in Brazil

Memories and Hopes

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Signs and La Salette Provincial
House in Curitiba, Brazil

I am honored to offer a few thoughts and reflections on the April, 2013 visit of our Provincial Administration to Curitiba, Brazil at the invitation of our La Salette confreres serving in South America. Their ministry and dedication deserve a chapter all its own. Here are some fond memories filled with enthusiasm and hope.

The hospitality was inherently Saletine. The fraternity was exceptional. The dialogue was creative. The prayer was memorable. The proposals were promising. The collaboration was bonding. These statements collectively capture the spirit and the optimism of the Second Council of the Americas, the joint sessions of the La Salette Provinces of Brazil and North America, joining with the Region of Argentina/Bolivia. The sessions took place in the beautiful cosmopolitan city of Curitiba, Brazil in April.

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The Best of Who We Are

Boston Marathon bombing first bomb site 54 minute before explosionThere is something almost indescribable about tragedies and how we respond to them. Certain images of 9/11 have been seared in our brains, and, no doubt, have touched our hearts deeply. The images of the firemen rushing into the twin towers just before the buildings fell into a pile of rubble were simply abhorrent. And truly we will never be the same.

And now just a few weeks ago the surprising sights and sounds of exploding bombs near the finish line of this year’s Boston Marathon have arrested our attention as we tried to get our head around the fact that anyone could even consider doing such a senseless thing!

From a beautiful, often inspiring sporting event involving some heroic runners, we were forced to witness this unbelievable act of violence in our own city of Boston, perhaps involving people we knew, in a place we may have frequented at one time or another. And we are led to ask: Why?!

Albert Einstein once said: “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.” Or as my mother was wont to say, with a knowing smile: “You know, unfortunately the stupid people are not all locked up. Some of them I work with.”

Our Common Bond

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La Salette Spirit Remains

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First Church of the Immaculate
Conception in Holyoke, MA, which
eventually became the Parish Hall
I have fond memories of my childhood and my parish experiences. Recently I received an email from a fellow parishioner of Immaculate Conception Parish in Holyoke, MA. It read:

"I hope you and your family are well. I just got some sad news this weekend. I was talking at all the Masses at our parish this weekend promoting Men's Retreats. Fr. John Higgins, M.S., is here but only temporarily. After 100 years, the La Salette presence will be gone. I’m very sad about it.”

This bit of news set my mind turning so I began gathering information in the internet about my old parish. Fortunately I found the booklet of the 50th anniversary of the parish.

The picture above shows the first church which was eventually used as a Parish Hall when the second Church was built. As the postcard shows, it was a truly majestic Gothic church built in the European style with beautiful stained glass windows and a large pipe organ, donated in 1949. It stood on that site for over 100 years and was all that a church was supposed to be — a very holy place.

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