This is an amazing video of an exciting project in Cleveland. I can't help but wonder what sort of project could be done at OLQP.
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Moo News
At this time last year I reported the arrival of our cows, purchased with funds raised by family and friends, principally at a fundraiser organized by my friend Rob Loeb and my sister Toni Arman with assistance from two other Toledo friends, Pete McHugh and Tom Antonini. In my first year they raised funds for library books (and SPCHS has the best holdings of a high school library in the nation, I'm told); in the second, they raised funds for the livestock (pigs and cows); last September they raised funds for a bakery -- and they've agreed to raise funds for an apiary this next year.
You might see the theme. With the exception of the first year, when the school needed to establish a library, they have raised money to support projects that will produce an income for the school.
Here's the news -- the five cows have become ten! You'll also see some pictures of the bakery equipment purchased with funds raised.
Interested in helping? Click here, click on International Missions, and note SPCHS in the comment section.
You might see the theme. With the exception of the first year, when the school needed to establish a library, they have raised money to support projects that will produce an income for the school.
Here's the news -- the five cows have become ten! You'll also see some pictures of the bakery equipment purchased with funds raised.
Interested in helping? Click here, click on International Missions, and note SPCHS in the comment section.
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| And then there were ten! |
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| The thatched structure in the background is a study hut. |
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| Bacon! |
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| This is the growing pen. |
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| Baking equipment |
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| The bakery -- notice the louvres are screened. |
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Father Dick Cherry, SJ, RIP
I received news yesterday that Fr. Dick Cherry, SJ, had passed away. He was a fellow Toledoan serving in the Eastern Africa Province. Here's the official obituary:
I met countless graduates of Loyola High School, Dar es Salaam, who could not stop talking about the difference he made in their lives.
Beyond that, one must admire him for his willingness to put himself in one of the most dangerous missions, where the lives of missionaries are under threat.
Well done, good and faithful servant!
Folks who would like to make a memorial contribution in his honor -- to either Loyola High School, Wau, or to Saint Peter Claver High School, which was his last assignment (which he could not take up because of his health), please use the link in the upper right of this page.
What the obituary does not capture is what an amazing impact he had. Dick Cherry was the best physics teacher in Tanzania, bar none. He took a different approach than other teachers -- his principal concern was not his teaching but his students' learning. And he designed his teaching with their learning in mind. That doesn't sound so radical, but believe me it is about as radical was it gets!
Fr. Richard W. Cherry, SJ
April 3, 1937, to
April 2, 2013Let us pray in thanksgiving for the life of our brother, Fr. Richard W. Cherry, S.J. (AOR), who died at 6:55 pm (EDT) on Tuesday, April 2, 2013, at Colombiere Center in Clarkston, Michigan. May he rest in peace.
Fr. Dick Cherry, SJ Dick was born on April 3, 1937 in Toledo, Ohio. He entered the Society of Jesus on September 1, 1955 at Milford, Ohio. He was ordained on March 18, 1969 in Poona, India, and took final vows on August 15, 1977. As a Jesuit, Dick earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Latin, Licentiate Degrees in Philosophy and Theology, and Master’s Degrees in Mathematics and Physics.Dick’s Juniorate Studies were at Milford (1957-1960) and his Philosophy Studies were at West Baden College in southern Indiana (1960-1962). Dick did his Regency at University of Detroit High School, Detroit, Michigan (1962-1965). With a view to his working as a missionary in India, Dick was assigned to study Theology at the Papal Athenaeum in Poona (1966-1970) and was ordained in Patna on March 18, 1969. Dick subsequently taught science at various Jesuit high schools in the Patna Province: New Delhi (1970-72), Jaipur (1974-82), and Patna (1982-85).Dick was first assigned to Eastern Africa in 1985 to teach at Loyola Secondary School in Wau (in its first incarnation) where he taught until Loyola had to be closed in 1987 due to the civil war. Dick continued to teach in Wau, usually as the only Jesuit there, at St. Mary’s Senior Secondary Seminary and at John Paul II Intermediate School.Dick moved to Adjumani to work as Assistant Project Director for JRS (1992-1994). He moved to Dar es Salaam and taught science at Loyola Secondary School (1995-2006) and also served as Superior of the Jesuit Community (2000-2004). Dick returned to Wau in 2006 to be involved with preparing for the reopening of Loyola Secondary School. He was Acting Superior (2006-2007) and taught when the school reopened in 2008. In 2012 Dick was missioned to supervise the laboratories and teach at St. Peter Claver Secondary School in Dodoma, but he fell sick before he was able to take this mission. He went to Colombiere Center in Clarkston, MI, to deal with health needs.Suffrages: As we remember with gratitude all that God has done through his life of service to God and God’s people, we are reminded of our privilege and obligation to offer Masses and prayers for his eternal repose. All members of the Chicago-Detroit Province and those applied to it are to offer one Mass intention for Dick. Members of the Colombiere Jesuit Community will offer one additional Mass intention. All will wish to remember Dick in their prayers and Masses.Wake:
Friday, April 5, 2013
4:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Prayer Service 7:30 p.m.
Colombiere Center
9075 Big Lake Road
Clarkston, MI 48346-1015Funeral:
Saturday, April 6, 2013
10:45 a.m.
Colombiere Center
9075 Big Lake Road
Clarkston, MI 48346-1015Burial Service:
Immediately following the funeral
I met countless graduates of Loyola High School, Dar es Salaam, who could not stop talking about the difference he made in their lives.
Beyond that, one must admire him for his willingness to put himself in one of the most dangerous missions, where the lives of missionaries are under threat.
Well done, good and faithful servant!
Folks who would like to make a memorial contribution in his honor -- to either Loyola High School, Wau, or to Saint Peter Claver High School, which was his last assignment (which he could not take up because of his health), please use the link in the upper right of this page.
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Extra! Extra! Read All About It!
While it isn't an "extra" edition, I am happy to announce the publication of the first issue of the student newspaper at St Peter Claver High School, the Mercury. Sean Kenney and I tried to get this accomplished during our time in Dodoma but didn't succeed. Happy to see that the wait was worth it. Congratulations, Journalism Club!
Do you want to help to financially support the extra curricular activities at SPCHS? Please contact me.
Do you want to help to financially support the extra curricular activities at SPCHS? Please contact me.
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Hongera, Baba Mtakatifu Fransisko!
Congratulations, Holy Father Francis.
No doubt readers have heard by this time of the extraordinary news that the Jesuit cardinal archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentino, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was elected on Wednesday as the 265th successor of St. Peter.
The news is extraordinary because it is rare for a Jesuit even to be a bishop. In fact, as part of their formal, final incorporation into the Society of Jesus, Jesuits vow not to seek or accept ecclesiastical dignities. The founder of the Jesuits, St. Ignatius Loyola, observed that many of the ills that beset the Church of his time could be traced to the unfettered ambition of the clergy. He wanted holy priests less worried about promotion and more worried about the care of souls. This in part accounts for the pope's humility that the world has witnessed in these first days of his pontificate, I believe.
How else might Pope Francis' Jesuit background affect his petrine ministry? These words from his predecessor Benedict XVI might give some clue. They were delivered to the last General Congregation of Jesuits that took place in early 2008.
No doubt readers have heard by this time of the extraordinary news that the Jesuit cardinal archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentino, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was elected on Wednesday as the 265th successor of St. Peter.
The news is extraordinary because it is rare for a Jesuit even to be a bishop. In fact, as part of their formal, final incorporation into the Society of Jesus, Jesuits vow not to seek or accept ecclesiastical dignities. The founder of the Jesuits, St. Ignatius Loyola, observed that many of the ills that beset the Church of his time could be traced to the unfettered ambition of the clergy. He wanted holy priests less worried about promotion and more worried about the care of souls. This in part accounts for the pope's humility that the world has witnessed in these first days of his pontificate, I believe.
How else might Pope Francis' Jesuit background affect his petrine ministry? These words from his predecessor Benedict XVI might give some clue. They were delivered to the last General Congregation of Jesuits that took place in early 2008.
If you are a visitor to this blog and want to know more about the work of the Jesuits in Dodoma, Tanzania, please feel free contact me: martin.t.connell(at)gmail.com....Nowadays the new peoples who do not know the Lord or know him badly, so that they do not recognize him as the Saviour, are far away not so much from the geographical point of view as from the cultural one. The obstacles challenging the evangelisers are not so much the seas or the long distances as the frontiers that, due to a mistaken or superficial vision of God and of man, are raised between faith and human knowledge, faith and modern science, faith and the fight for justice.This is why the Church is in urgent need of people of solid and deep faith, of a serious culture and a genuine human and social sensitivity, of religious priests who devote their lives to stand on those frontiers in order to witness and help to understand that there is in fact a profound harmony between faith and reason, between evangelical spirit, thirst for justice and action for peace. Only thus will it be possible to make the face of the Lord known to so many for whom it remains hidden or unrecognisable. This must therefore be the preferential task of the Society of Jesus. Faithful to its best tradition, it must continue to form its members with great care in science and virtue, not satisfied with mediocrity, because the task of facing and entering into a dialogue with very diverse social and cultural contexts and the different mentalities of today’s world is one of the most difficult and demanding. This search of quality and human solidity, spiritual and cultural, must also characterize all the many activities of formation and education of the Jesuits, as it meets the most diverse kinds of persons wherever they are.
Thursday, March 7, 2013
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