Today's Marists Volume 6, Issue 2

Today’s 

2021 | Volume 6 | Issue 2 

Marists 

Society of Mary in the U.S. 

“Do Unto Others as You Would Have Them Do Unto You” – Norman Rockwell

Today’s 


2021 | Volume 6 | Issue 2 

Publisher 

Editor 

Editorial Assistants 

Archivist 

Editorial Board 

Paul Frechette, SM, Provincial 

Ted Keating, SM 

Elizabeth Ann Flens Avila 

Communications Coordinator 

Philip Gage, SM 

Randy Hoover, SM 

Susan Plews, SSND 

Susan Illis 

Ted Keating, SM, Editor 

Michael Coveny 

Mark Dannenfelser 

Thomas Ellerman, SM 

Mike Kelly 

Joseph Hindelang, SM 

Randy Hoover, SM 

Bishop Joel Konzen, SM 

Elizabeth Piper 

Jack Ridout 

Nik Rodewald, SM 

Bill Rowland, SM 

Linda Sevcik, SM 

Today’s Marists is published three times a year by The Marist 

Fathers and Brothers of the United States Province. The contents 

of this magazine consist of copyrightable material and cannot 

be reproduced without the expressed written permission of 

the authors and publisher. We wish to provide a public forum 

for ideas and opinion. Letters may be sent to: 

smpublications@maristsociety.org 

Editorial Office 

Editor: 202.529.2821 phone | 202.635.4627 fax 

Today’s Marists Magazine 

Society of Mary in the U.S. (The Marists) 

Editorial Office 

815 Varnum Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20017 

smpublications@maristsociety.org 

www.societyofmaryusa.org E Q 

Marist Provincial House 

815 Varnum Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20017 

Marist Center 

4408 8th Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20017-2298 

In this issue... 

3 from the Provincial 

by Paul Frechette, SM 

4 The Central Focus of Three Encyclicals and the 

Pastoral Vision of Pope Francis 

by Ted Keating, SM 

Society of Mary of the USA 

6 Fratelli Tutti: Dialogue, Mission and Cultural 

Disarmament 

by Gerard Hall, SM 

8 Teaching about the Sin of Racism in the Family 

by Elizabeth Piper 

10 A Call to One Familial Love for Brothers and 

Sisters All 

by Nik Rodewald, SM 

12 Reflections on Fratelli Tutti Chapter 2: 

“A Stranger on the Road” 

by Timothy Tilghman 

14 Marist Response to Racial Sensitivity in 

Our Ministries 

by Marist School Office of Inclusion & Diversity; Mike Kelly; 

and Ashley Morris 

18 Movie Review: Nomadland 

by Brian Cummings SM 

20 I am the Land: Indigenous Reflections 

on Laudato Si’ 

by Hemi Ropata, SM 

22 Jean-Claude Colin, SM …."Politically Correct" 

by Tom Ellerman, SM 

23 The “New Normal” – Or Is It? 

by Jack Ridout 

24 Marist Lives: Fr. Joseph Costello, SM 

by Susan J. Illis 

26 News Briefs 

26 Obituary 

27 Donor Thoughts: Why I Support the Marists 

by Jim and Barbara MacGinnitie 

Marist Center of the West 

625 Pine Street, San Francisco, CA 94108-3210 

Distributed freely by request to churches, schools and other 

organizations. Home delivery is available by free subscription. 

Contact our Editorial Office. Our website offers additional 

information of interest to friends of the Marists. It is refreshed 

regularly. 

© 2021 by Society of Mary in the U.S. All rights reserved. 

Printed on partially-recycled stock with a vegetable-based ink mixture. 

Design: Beth Ponticello | CEDC | www.cedc.org 

Cover Credit 

A mosaic based on Norman Rockwell’s (1894-1978) painting called the "Golden 

Rule", 1961 hangs outside the Trusteeship Council Chamber at the United Nations. 

The mosaic was presented during the 40th Anniversary of the UN by former US First 

Lady, Nancy Reagan, on behalf of the people of the US. 

https://enb.iisd.org/hlpf/hlpf2/2jul.html 

2 Today’s Marists Magazine

from the Provincial 

Fr. Paul Frechette, SM 

Why, you may ask, did the Editorial planning team chose this cover image of Norman Rockwell’s 

1961 – “Golden Rule” – Do Unto Other as You Would Have Them Do Unto You? 

A quick answer would be because it connects Pope Francis’s 

encyclical Fratelli Tutti to being a Marian Church for the Marists. 

You may recall the front cover of the Fall 2020 Today’s Marists 

issue which featured Pope Francis as the world’s pastor alone in 

St. Peter’s Square in March 2020 when he told us to keep the faith 

and not lose hope during this global pandemic. In this present 

encyclical, Pope Francis now challenges us to keep our faith and 

to respond with love, fraternity and friendship in a divided and 

hurting world. 

In this third encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, meaning “Brothers and 

sisters all,” Pope Francis compiles and categorizes the main 

proposals of the social discourses of his pontificate, in Rome 

and during his trips. The following are 5 key points from this 

encyclical (https://bit.ly/2RbRnXz): 

1. Good Samaritan: “On this idea Pope Francis asks to recognize 

the intrinsic dignity of every human being, who always : 

deserves to be acknowledged, valued and loved; regardless of 

individual ideas, feelings, practices and sins.” 

2. Model of Development: “Pope Francis bases this idea in that 

businessmen strive to create jobs for people, not for speculation. 

The pope warns against “reductive anthropological visions” and 

against “a profit-based economic model that does not hesitate to 

exploit, discard and even kill human beings.” 

3. Migrants: “The Pope recalls the drama of migration. He 

is concerned about outbreaks of xenophobia and racism. He 

advocates for helping people in their native countries so that 

they aren't forced to leave. Pope Francis asks that society, 

including Christians, recognize that it is treating migrants as if 

they were ‘less human.’” 

4. War and the Death Penalty: The Pope reiterates that war 

always leaves the world worse off than it was. He proposes 

looking at the effects war has on victims, to really understand 

its gravity. He calls for stopping the proliferation of nuclear 

weapons and instead, putting that money toward a global fund 

against hunger. He also notes the change previously made 

to the Catechism of the Church, making the death penalty 

inadmissible in all cases. 

5. Dialogue and Reconciliation: Pope Francis says, “dialogue 

isn't merely about listening to the other's perspective, but about 

being able “to admit that it may include legitimate convictions 

and concerns.” It's an attitude he says people of all religions must 

adopt. That's why he says acting alone is not enough. Rather, he 

says, it is essential to find ways to collaborate with others.” 

For Marists this encyclical inspires us to remember that “For 

Fr. Colin, SM, the communion of mind and heart was basic to 

the very mission of the Society. It would be the means by which 

Marists learn to discover the Gospel together and live it as Mary 

did.” (“The Work of Mary” The Marist Way pamphlet, Sharing the 

Marist Way) 

Marist ministry examples of living the Gospels around the US 

Province are seen in Brownsville, Texas with Fr. Tony O’Connor, 

SM, ministering to those on the border with various needs. 

There are two Marist priests serving as prison chaplains, René 

Iturbe, SM, in San Francisco, California and John Bolduc, SM, in 

Boston, Massachusetts. Our Marist School in Atlanta, Georgia 

operates an adult GED program (Centro Hispano Marista). 

Several of our parishes and schools around the country have 

involved their parishioners and students in service projects to 

help those in need and have participated in events for social 

justice and mutual aid ministry. Through the Province Justice 

and Peace publications we have expanded awareness of the 

issues and concerns that impact us both locally and globally. 

So, the image on the front cover of this issue encourages us to 

incorporate the love of brothers and sisters into our daily living 

of the Gospels. As Pope Francis said in his homily on the Feast 

of the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God, “In the Gospels, 

Mary appears as a woman of few words, with no great speeches 

or deeds, but with an attentive gaze capable of guarding the life 

and mission of her Son, and for this reason, of everything that 

He loves. She was able to watch over the beginnings of the first 

Christian community, and in this way she learned to be the 

mother of a multitude. … Mary gave us … the maternal warmth 

that keeps anything or anyone from extinguishing in the heart of 

the Church the revolution of tenderness inaugurated by her Son.” 

Since my initial writing of these reflections, tragically there have 

been two more shooting incidents in the United States. The first 

in Atlanta, Georgia where there is an active Marist presence, and 

the second incident in Boulder, Colorado. So many communities 

in our country are living in fear and pain. As followers of the 

Gospel, we Marists are “attentive to the cry … (for) the demands 

of social justice, (and) we shall be concerned about the needs 

and rights of those who suffer.” We stand as one with the 

victims and their families. (“The Work of Mary” The Marist Way 

pamphlet, Sharing the Marist Way) 

In conclusion, it is our hope that the stories in this issue of 

Today’s Marists will help you to discover that, “… as Marists we 

want to live in such a way that the Church is ever more clearly a 

church of mercy and compassion and a church where the Gospel 

is lived according to the manner of Mary, always reflecting 

Christ’s great love for the world…. A church with the ’face of 

’Mary' would make a choice for compassion over competition, 

an option for relationship over dogmatism, for humility over 

power, for service over control. … A Church with Mary’s features 

…” (“The Work of Mary” The Marist Way pamphlet, Sharing the 

Marist Way) 

Volume 6 | Issue 2 3

The Central Focus of Three 

Encyclicals and the Pastoral 

Vision of Pope Francis 

by Ted Keating, SM 

Our themes for the recent and present 

editions of Today’s Marists attempt to stay 

focused on the reality of our lives in these 

difficult times: the Pandemic which has 

tested and challenged so many areas of 

our lives; the fairly sudden reawakening 

to the racial dynamics of our society 

with fresh understandings of how they 

touch all our lives in this country; the 

difficulties in our political climate in the 

US; the so-called “populism” emerging 

in so many nations surfacing elements 

again of fascism and violent styles in 

politics; the frightening predictions of 

growing climate change around us that 

lead to anxious concern for our children 

and young people; and the reemergence 

of dangerous superstate confrontations 

not seen since the Cold War. We have not 

seen these levels of profound challenge to 

our world all at once in many decades (if 

ever?). 

Providentially, we have Pope Francis 

who can hold in his large imagination 

and heart all of these various sources 

of concern for humanity and so many 

aspects of our life together “in our 

common home” (Laudato Sí’, “Praise 

be to You”); sources of concern about 

inequality, poverty, and 60 million 

refugees on the move (Fratelli Tutti, 

“All Our Brothers and Sisters”); and the 

hungers of the human heart seeking 

a deeper life than the dehumanizing 

superficiality of so much of present 

culture (Gaudete et Exultate, “Rejoice 

and be glad”). He does this coming from 

a common center of Catholic thought 

since Vatican II - integral humanism. 

He did not invent the term, but he has 

enriched it thoroughly by applying 

it so brilliantly to the many difficult 

challenges of our times that sometimes 

seem beyond solution when looked at 

separately. He is calling “all humanity” 

to accountability for the condition of the 

world in a global movement of integral 

development to which all can commit 

because it is humanity itself that is at 

issue in all of them. I would like to break 

the phrases down a bit and help to unfold 

them in these few words because it will 

also provide the focus for the topics and 

articles in this issue. 

Early in Christian History the great 

theologian St. Irenaeus said that “the 

glory of God is humanity full alive.” 

That phrase centers on the centrality 

of humanity to God’s purposes in 

history. It is a fairly easy jump from the 

very meaning of Jesus Christ coming 

among us for our liberation from evil 

and our salvation as a full human being. 

Jesus, as God, could not become fully 

human unless there was something 

divine in humanity already that could 

be seen as dimly awaiting the coming 

of Jesus as fully human yet God for the 

transformation of all humanity. 

St. Paul says: 

“For creation awaits with eager 

expectation the revelation of the 

children of God…. We know that all 

creation is groaning in labor pains 

even until now; and not only that, but 

we ourselves, who have the first fruits 

of the Spirit, we also groan within 

ourselves as we wait for adoption, 

the redemption of our bodies.” 

(Romans 8:19) 

We also know that for three centuries 

the early Church was torn in conflict 

trying to understand the meaning of 

Jesus coming among us as a human 

being while remaining God. After 

several Councils, the Church ended 

up protecting the total reality of Jesus’ 

humanity against all efforts to distort, 

qualify and weaken this mystery. 

Whether Jesus needed all this effort to 

be protected from distortion is a matter 

for discussion, but even now historians 

are seeing that what may have been at 

issue in these Councils was the meaning 

of humanity itself both in secular history 

and in the Church. We would be living 

in an entirely different Western world if 

those efforts had gone astray weakening 

our sense of the dignity of humanity. 

Anyone quarrelling with the Church’s 

clear social mission of the protection of 

human dignity in all situations as a core 

element of its proclamation of the Gospel 

would have to contend with the weight of 

these Councils of the early Church. The 

reality of Jesus was at issue but so was His 

and our humanity. The Eastern Church 

is clearer in saying that the divinization 

of humanity is at the center of Christian 

spirituality because that is what Jesus is 

about in his Incarnation. The Western 

Church has other approaches to this 

foundational mandate of human dignity 

in its very destiny in God’s purposes for 

creation. That is where the quote from St. 

Paul is taking us in his statement and it 

further explains the words of Irenaeus. 

Paul takes us to the next step showing 

that the nature and destiny of all of God’s 

creation is at issue in our redemption. 

This is central to Pope Francis’ Encyclical 

Letter Laudato Sí’, but also to his whole 

approach in each of his three Encyclicals. 

It also is the unifying background of 

this edition of Today’s Marists giving the 

deeper meaning to every issue being 

discussed here. 

In Volume 3, Issue 2 of Today’s Marists, 

we incorporated the Encyclical of Paul 

VI just after the Second Vatican Council 

On the Progress of Peoples, especially its 

summary statement that “Dialogue is the 

new word for Love,” a central theme of 

the Encyclical making clear that without 

dialogue there cannot be any real human 

progress. Communication and freedom 

are in the very nature of what it means 

to be human. The protection of Jesus’ 

freedom in the last of the great Councils 


closed the Church’s book on this mystery 

of Jesus’ Incarnation because even He 

had the freedom to obey His Father’s 

will and suffered temptation, a freedom 

at the heart of being human. So now, 

love and development in the face of an 

enormously pluralistic world trying to 

engage differences of culture, religion, 

philosophy, race and thought can only 

be faithful by asserting the dignity of the 

whole human person. The alternative, 

as so evident in the twentieth century, 

leads to authoritarianism, closed brutal 

ideologies, and, ultimately, violence. It 

can bring neither peace nor development. 

The power to effect peace and progress 

can always be tragically and violently 

manipulated by and for the few. 

Using the phrase integral development 

and integral humanism, Pope Paul 

clarified their meaning: 

• the development of each and every 

human being and of the whole human 

being - body, soul, mind, heart without 

which it is not a development befitting 

human being; 

• the integration of all the peoples of 

the earth into a progress that undoes 

inequality and poverty for some while 

others have most of the power and the 

wealth - the only way to a future of 

humanity with peace and hope; 

• social integration so all will be 

included and the contributions of all 

valued, respecting the principle of 

subsidiarity where the voice of those 

most affected by change can be heard 

and respected in decisions about them; 

• integrating the systems of the 

economy, finance, labor, culture, 

family life and religion so that each is 

creatively in concert and cooperation 

with the others rather than competing 

and dominating; 

• integrating individuals with society 

and community overcoming the 

effects and dangers of destructive 

individualism; 

• integrating body and soul/spirit rather 

than a materialistic approach that 

devalues the human person in favor of 

developing their material needs only as 

consumers and workers. 

In a later Encyclical of Pope Paul VI on 

Evangelization, he went further and 

redefined, based on the teaching of 

Vatican II, that “salvation” itself as we 

define it must be seen as integral to all of 

human nature and not just our “souls” 

directing the pastoral mission of the 

Church to body and soul, mind and 

heart, the social and community life of 

humanity, etc., establishing the move in 

the Church toward justice and peace as 

being a central aspect of preaching the 

Gospel in our time. 

It should be clear by now what Pope 

Francis means by an integral approach 

to human progress for analyzing the 

profound challenges that face us in our 

times. He is reaching back into the period 

of Pope John XXIII and on to the Second 

Vatican Council and from there to the 

foundational Encyclicals of Pope Paul 

VI whom he often quotes. But also, he is 

rooted in the early Church of Irenaeus 

and the battles of the early Councils 

protecting the truth about Christ and 

about the dignity of humanity. 

So, we view an integral spirituality in 

the everyday life of building the “reign 

of God” and not just personal piety in 

Gaudete et Exultate, “Rejoice and be 

glad”; an integral ecology with concern 

and love for all creation and humanity’s 

place within it in Laudato Sí’, “Praise 

be to You”; and integral love for all the 

human family as one community in 

Fratelli Tutti, “All Our Brothers and 

Sisters.” 

There is nothing in any of these three 

Encyclicals that is unique only to 

Christians. Integral humanism and 

integral development are projects of all 

humanity in furtherance of the absolute 

center of the meaning of humanity in 

the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. Francis 

and all the Church in calling the world 

to an awareness of the true meaning 

of human destiny, unites the Church 

with all such efforts in the world and 

invites all into an integral development 

of an integral humanism. So, we are 

back to the inspirational opening of the 

Pastoral Constitution on the Church in 

the Modern World from Vatican II that 

stirred the hope of so many of us that a 

new definition of the Church’s mission 

for our times was emerging: “The joys 

and hopes, the grief s and anxieties 

of the men (sic) of this age, especially 

those who are poor and afflicted in any 

way, are the joys and hopes, and the 

griefs and anxieties of the followers of 

Christ as well.” (1) “Dialogue is the new 

word for love” for Pope Paul VI. Integral 

development and integral humanism 

are the new words for love in our 

difficult times for Pope Francis. Crisis, 

hopelessness and partisanship are not a 

fertile ground for this universalizing love. 


Fratelli Tutti: 

Dialogue, Mission and Cultural 

Disarmament 

by Gerard Hall, SM 

In many ways Pope Francis’ recent 

encyclical – Fratelli Tutti: On Fraternity 

and Social Friendship [FT] (2020) – 

continues in the spirit of his former 

encyclical – Laudato Si’: On Care for Our 

Common Home [LS] (2015) – calling for 

a “bold cultural revolution” (#114) in 

response to the profound challenges 

of climate change and environmental 

degradation. Both encyclicals are 

addressed to all people of goodwill, 

calling them to urgent dialogue in the 

interests of the future of our planet 

and human life. These two encyclicals 

are also exercises in synodality insofar 

as Francis makes productive use of 

statements from Catholic Bishops’ 

Conferences throughout the world. 

The focus of FT is on a new paradigm 

for relationship and solidarity among 

human beings for the creation of a 

peaceful and just world. Quite radical 

implications for society, economics and 

politics are clearly enunciated. Here 

I present a brief overview of FT while 

giving prominence to its understanding 

of mission as dialogue – and dialogue 

as mission. Finally, with reference to a 

work by interreligious scholar Raimon 

Panikkar, I will discuss FT as a call to 

“dialogical dialogue” and “cultural 

disarmament.” 

Francis does not just talk about dialogue 

but makes it integral to his method. 

Whereas LS emerged in dialogue with 

Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew, FT 

is partly a response to Francis’ meeting 

with Grand Imam Ahmad Al-Tayyeb 

in Abu Dhabi resulting in their joint 

declaration: “God has created all 

human beings equal in rights, duties 

and dignity, and has called them to live 

together as brothers and sisters” (#5). 

Francis’ ecumenical and interreligious 

sensibilities are also evident in his 

referencing Martin Luther King Jr., 

Desmond Tutu and Mahatma Gandhi as 

inspirers of his reflections on ‘universal 

fraternity.’ 

Given the challenges facing our “Closed 

World” (ch.1), Francis presents to us the 

biblical story of the Good Samaritan 

which Jesus tells in answer to the 

question: “Who is my neighbor?” (ch.2). 

Critiquing the ‘virus of individualism,’ 

Francis uses the parable to teach us that 

love must go beyond tribe, family and 

nation to include the stranger, migrant 

and refugee (chs.3-4). This will also 

result in a more equitable sharing of the 

earth’s resources and improved politics 

to promote social friendship and human 

dignity – while protecting the vulnerable 

and safeguarding local and indigenous 

cultures (chs.5-6). 

The final two chapters (7-8) of FT focus 

more specifically on the urgency of 

intercultural and interreligious dialogue 

if we are to become peacemakers in 

an increasingly fractured world. In 

this world of pain, conflict and bitter 

memories, we need to seek reconciliation 

and forgiveness. This does not mean 

forgetting the past – such as the Shoah, 

atomic bombs in Japan, ethnic killings, 

the slave trade – but being determined 

through renewed human encounters 

never to repeat such atrocities. Noting 

that Jesus never advocated violence or 

intolerance, we too should be ‘artisans of 

peace’ building ‘social friendship’ and a 

‘culture of encounter.’ 

For Francis, while every human being 

is called to this mission of peace 

and justice through friendship and 

dialogue, religions have a special 

responsibility because of their belief in 

a ‘transcendent truth.’ In theistic terms, 

interreligious dialogue is committed 

to “God’s way of seeing things” (#281) 

thereby offsetting modern tendencies 

towards totalitarianism, individualism 

and materialism which are enemies of 


true peace and fraternity. Recognizing 

religions have not always played such 

a noble path, Francis calls on every 

religion to deepen its true identity by 

returning to its sources and abhorring 

the distortions which justified violence. 

Particular attention is given to the 

Church’s mission which includes 

being a ‘spiritual energy’ in the public 

sphere. Challenging the distancing and 

privatizing of religion in the modern 

West, Francis highlights the Church’s 

public-political role in advancing 

the ‘common good,’ ‘integral human 

development’ and ‘universal fraternity.’ 

Lest these phrases be misunderstood as 

vague, abstract ideals, he reconnects our 

sense of Christian mission to what he 

calls “the music of the Gospel” leading 

us “to encounter the sacred mystery of 

the other (and) to universal communion 

with the entire human family” (#277). 

All this indicates the necessity of 

developing an understanding of 

Church and Christian mission which is 

identifiably Marian. In words that have a 

profound Marist missionary resonance, 

Francis wants a Church “in imitation of 

Mary the Mother of Jesus … a Church 

that serves, that leaves home and goes 

from its places of worship … in order 

to accompany life, to sustain hope, to 

be the sign of unity … to build bridges, 

to break down walls, to sow seeds of 

reconciliation” (#276). This is precisely 

the call to ‘beginning a new Church’ 

with ‘Mary at its heart’ – for which Colin, 

Champagnat, Chavoin, Perroton, Chanel 

and the first Marists dedicated their 

lives. Francis now calls all Christians to 

develop such a Marian Church. 

For interreligious scholar Raimon 

Panikkar, if we are to find a way to peace in 

today’s world we need to embark on what 

he calls Cultural Disarmament. (Cultural 

Disarmament: The Way to Peace, 1996) 

The basis of his thought, in agreement 

with Francis, is that peace and harmony 

require genuine human dialogue. 

Panikkar specifies such dialogue is not 

just rational, logical, ‘dialectical’ dialogue, 

but needs to be ‘dialogical’ dialogue 

involving minds, hearts and spirits – the 

‘meeting of persons,’ what Francis calls 

‘social friendship.’ Panikkar specifies such 

dialogue can only proceed on the basis 

of genuine equality between dialogical 

partners; Francis stresses such equality 

is based on the shared dignity of every 

human person created in the divine image. 

Our problem is that the modern world 

is caught up with a dominant culture 

privileging market forces and the 

technoscientific gods as more important 

than ancient and local cultures, human 

conscience or the religious and classic 

voices of tradition. In Panikkar’s terms, 

this requires us to ‘disarm’ that part 

of humanity whose monetary wealth, 

military might and control over politics 

services the powerful few over the 

increasingly voiceless majority. All this is 

covered in different terms by Francis who 

focuses on the plight of the disabled, the 

poor, migrants, refugees and the many 

more discarded to the margins without a 

voice in their own human destinies. 

Current changes in the world order do 

not give immediate cause for optimism 

regarding the implementation of FT’s 

principles for peace, fraternity and social 

friendship. Democracy is under attack; 

populism and totalitarianism are on 

the rise; ideological divisions between 

nations are increasing; the called-for 

reform of the United Nations is subverted 

by controlling powers; fundamental 

corruption in many nation-states is 

incorrigible and seemingly increasing. 

However, the stakes are high. In the 

words of FT, unless we respond to the 

challenge of affording every human 

being the right to dignity, “there will 

be no future either for fraternity or 

for the survival of humanity” (#107). 

Panikkar says we need a “radical 

metanoia, a complete turning of mind, 

heart and spirit.” This makes us realize 

more than ever our dependence on 

the transcendent reality we call God 

to overturn human intransigence if we 

are to alter the course of our world. Our 

missionary task is to engage with all 

others in dialogue to promote peace, 

harmony and fraternity. Especially as 

Marists, we should do so with the joy of 

Mary’s Magnificat. 


Teaching about the Sin 

of Racism in the Family 

by Elizabeth Piper, National Formation Leader for Catechesis of the Good Shepherd; Co-Leader of World Lay Marist; 

Director of Faith Formation, Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church, Atlanta, Georgia 

I give you a new commandment, that you LOVE 

one another. Just as I have LOVED you, you 

also should LOVE one another. 

(John 13:34) 

Teaching about the sin of racism in the family was an 

interesting request for me. Growing up in the segregated south 

my perspective on this topic was formed by my mother and 

my Church. My mother, Mary Dauch Davis, was an activist in 

our small town in North Carolina who received death threats 

because of her editorials against racism in the local paper. 

These threats came so often that she and I were forced to leave 

the town to let some of them die down. My Mom who passed 

away this year lived her deep faith in service and charity to 

others. She stressed to me the importance of standing up to 

injustice in life. Going through my mother’s papers after she 

died I discovered that she did even more than I ever knew 

through service and charity. 

Through the actions of my Mom, the teachings of the Church 

and the ardent LOVE of neighbor, these core values stand out 

as key to understanding the role of LOVE in teaching about 

the sin of racism in the family. In my experience as a National 

Formation Leader for the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd 

(CGS), this LOVE is the foundation of our work with children. 

As a parent we are called to model this LOVE in our family, 

not only to each other, but also to all with whom we come into 

contact. Understanding that this LOVE, this ardent LOVE of 

neighbor, is what will change the world. 

“I am the good shepherd.” 

The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 

(John 10:11) 

Center Family Life around the LOVE of the 

Good Shepherd 

The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd program introduces the 

3- to 6-year-old age group to Jesus in the image of the Good 

Shepherd. Catechists begin with the question to the children, 

“What would make a shepherd good?” The children begin with 

naming how the shepherd feeds and protects the sheep, then 

move on to learning how the shepherd knows each sheep by 

name. Ultimately learning that the shepherd would lay down 

his life for these sheep. Catechists poses the question to the 

children, “How must the shepherd feel about these sheep?” 

They are led to understand that this great LOVE expressed to 

the sheep, that depend on the shepherd to provide for all their 

needs, expresses how much Jesus LOVEs us and wants us to 

depend on Him for all our needs. We are called in our families 

to reflect this great LOVE to each other and to those around us. 

I am the vine, you are the branches. 

(John 15:5) 

Centering our life around LOVE changes how we act with each 

other in our families and in our communities. Jesus gives us 

the image of the Good Shepherd to offer an understanding 

of His great personal LOVE. This relationship grows when 

Jesus tells us that He is the vine and we are the branches. With 

children who are in the CGS 6 -to 9-year-old age group this 

image of the vine is offered to the child to show how this LOVE 

of Jesus is not only for us but shared among all the branches on 

the vine. Not only is this LOVE flowing between Jesus and each 

person individually, but this LOVE also flows between each 

person. We are all one with Jesus. 

In our family life we not only LOVE our parents because of 

what they provide for us, but also LOVE our brothers and 

sisters because we are all part of the same family. We support 

each other in our daily life. This support is seen around the 

dinner table talking about the day. In our families we think 

through ideas with people that we LOVE and respect. We 

celebrate triumphs in sports, hobbies and work; turning to this 

safe space where we are rejuvenated and replenished. Marist 

founder Father Jean-Claude Colin called this place of 

rejuvenation and replenishment ‘Nazareth.’ 

“Through Him, With Him and In Him in the 

unity of the Holy Spirit.” 

(Prayer of Doxology, Roman Missal) 

In our families we are called to reflect this LOVE of Jesus. 

Parents are to provide for all the needs of the family, protect 

the family and model the LOVE of Jesus to each other and to 

their children. The family then goes out into the community to 

share this LOVE in their work and schools, returning home to 

be nourished and comforted; just as sheep returning to the fold 

of the Good Shepherd. The family sees God in each other so 

that they can go out to share this LOVE of God with the people 

around them. 

If therefore they are and wish to be true sons of this 

dear Mother, let them continually strive to draw upon 

her spirit and breathe it: a spirit of humility, selfdenial, 

intimate union with God, and the most ardent 

love of neighbour; and so they must think as Mary, 

judge as Mary, feel and act as Mary in all things, …. 

(Society of Mary 1872 Constitutions, Article X, 49) 


Ardent LOVE of Neighbor 

Father Colin, in Article X of the 1872 Constitutions, calls us 

as Marists to the most ardent LOVE of neighbor. The LOVE 

that God gives to us and we nurture in our families is what we 

recognize as God in all of us. We are called to act on this LOVE. 

…so that God may be all in all. 

(1 Corinthians 15:28) 

How can the sin of racism live in the LOVE that is of God? It 

cannot. God’s LOVE is for ALL. We must strive to reach this 

point where “God may be all in all.” We are called as people of 

God and as Marists to see this great LOVE in ALL. There is no 

room for this sin. As families of God we build this base of LOVE 

and, through our actions, we show others that there is no room 

for the sin of racism in this LOVE. 

This is the path of charity, that is, of the LOVE of 

God and of neighbor. Charity is the greatest social 

commandment. It respects others and their rights. 

It requires the practice of justice, and it alone makes 

us capable of it. Charity inspires a life of self-giving: 

“Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but 

whoever loses his life will preserve it.” 

(Lk 17:33, Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1889) 

Top: CGS Material on the reflection of the Good Shepherd – The two pillars of our 

liturgy: The Word and the liturgy 

Bottom: Brian Piper (age 3) and Sarah Piper (age 11) reflecting on the gesture and 

prayer of the Doxology 


Students in Betsy Holcomb’s Christian Scriptures class discuss what it means to live out one’s vocation (Credit: Betsy Holcomb, Marist School) 

A Call to One Familial Love 

for Brothers and Sisters All 

by Nik Rodewald, SM 

From March 6-8, 2021 Pope Francis – amidst a global pandemic 

and ongoing tensions in the nation and region – became 

the first pope to visit the nation of Iraq, home to an ancient 

Christian community that has been decimated by violence in 

recent years. In making the trip, Pope Francis faced significant 

criticism: Why would the Holy Father risk spreading Covid-19 

through this international trip? Why would he meet with the 

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani? While Pope Francis explains 

that these actions were taken – after significant time spent in 

prayer – in the name of peace and offering hope to a nation 

in danger of despair, the Holy Father’s actions may be seen 

as enfleshing the teaching he offers in his recent writings, 

Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future (Simon & Schuster, 

2020) and Fratelli Tutti: On Fraternity and Social Friendship 

(Encyclical, 2020). In word and deed, Pope Francis provides us 

with an example of what it looks like to live out the call of our 

baptism, that is, our vocation. 

In recent months, students at Marist School in Atlanta, Georgia 

have been asked to explore what it means to live out their 

vocation, which we define as an ongoing, active and dynamic 

process of putting the pieces of my life together, in light of my 

faith. With this definition in mind, we then ask students to 

encounter various ‘stories’ and identify how the protagonist 

in each story lives out their vocation through listening, 

hearing a call and responding. It is our hope that, with years of 

experience applying this paradigm to external stories, students 

will develop the tools needed to discern how God is calling 

them, both now and in the future. In the remainder of this 

article, I will explore how Pope Francis’ words and deeds can 

provide us with a framework for discerning our own vocation, 

particularly in the context of the Church’s continued call to 

combat racism. 

Listening 

Just prior to visiting Iraq, Pope Francis remarked that, “for 

a long time I have wanted to meet those people who have 

suffered so much; to meet that martyred church in the land 

of Abraham.” Throughout his pontificate, Pope Francis has 

been insistent that encounter is at the heart of Christian 

life, precisely because encounter is at the heart of God’s life. 

This is what the Church contemplates in the mystery of the 

Incarnation, that God – not dependent on human beings for 

anything – chose to become human. Moreover, as Pope Francis 

reminds us: “When God wanted to regenerate creation, He 

chose to go to the margins – to places of sin and misery, of 

exclusion and suffering, of illness and solitude – because they 

were also places full of possibility: ‘where sin increased, grace 

abounded all the more’ (Romans 5:20) …. But you can’t go to 

the periphery in the abstract” (Let Us Dream, 12). 


God calls us through our human circumstances. We will not 

discover our call unless we are willing to foster authentic 

encounters, both with ourselves and with others. Listening, 

the first step of discerning our vocation, begins with listening 

to the deepest desires of our own hearts, which we discover 

through prayer and silence. Plunging beneath our superficial 

desires allows the deeper yearnings for love and communion 

to rise to the surface of our consciousness. Only an authentic 

encounter with the self gives the inner 

freedom needed to de-center and allow 

the experiences of others to change 

our perspective and our life. 

As we discern our individual call 

within the Church to combat racism, 

our first call is to listen. While 

statistics render clear that poverty, 

incarceration and gun violence in 

the United States are not colorblind, 

we cannot be satisfied with knowing 

statistics; our encounter must be with 

actual human beings. Encounters with 

people who are different from us will 

not take place unless we seek them 

out. So, we must ask ourselves: what 

will I do to seek these encounters? How 

do the people I meet change my way 

of thinking? What do I hear in their 

stories? 

Hearing a Call 

We move from encounter with another 

to discovery of God’s call by learning 

to read reality in light of the Gospel. 

Pope Francis writes that Jesus, in 

the Beatitudes, “summed up the 

grammar of the Kingdom of God” (Let 

Us Dream, 52). The more familiar 

we become, through prayer and 

reflection, with this “grammar” 

the more easily we will be able 

to recognize what God is 

calling us to in a particular 

situation. The Beatitudes 

should leave us shocked 

and scandalized, as Jesus 

tells us that it is the poor 

who will see the Kingdom 

of God, the hungry who will 

be filled, the weeping who 

will laugh, and the excluded 

who will leap for joy (cf Luke 

6:20-22). 

As we discern our role in the 

Church’s call to conversion, we 

must learn to read the stories of 

those we encounter in light of the 

scandal of the Beatitudes. How, in these 

stories, do I see the Kingdom of God coming 

Brook Astil proclaims the Word of God during an Ash 

Wednesday liturgy at Marist School on February 12, 2021 

To Call 

Vocation 

To Listen 

to birth? What do I see that could change? Knowing what and 

whom I know, what can I do about it? Through asking these 

challenging questions, we can hear how God might be calling 

us to respond as individuals. 

Responding 

In all things, Christians are called to love as Christ first loved 

us. Love, as we remind our students, is only real insofar as it 

manifests itself in actions. Allowing 

ourselves to be changed and called 

through encounters with other people 

is only a start; it must lead to action. In 

responding to God’s call, we concretize 

what we perceived through encounter 

and prayer. The Holy Father’s visit to 

Iraq can be seen as an example of this: 

Pope Francis was not simply content to 

write about rebuilding a better world or 

the call to one familial love for brothers 

and sisters all; he felt the need to put it 

into practice by visiting one of the most 

marginalized Christian communities 

in the world today. Our vocations 

should lead us also to concretize the 

message that we have heard God speak 

within our heart. We may not know 

where to start, but this should not stop 

us. As Pope Francis writes: 

To Respond 

“Let yourself be pulled along, shaken 

up, challenged…maybe it’ll be through 

a group of people you’ve heard about on 

the news, or that you know about in your 

neighborhood, whose story has moved 

you. Perhaps it’ll be a local elderly 

people’s home or refugee hospitality 

center or ecological regeneration 

project that is calling to you.… Open 

yourself…decenter … transcend. 

And then act. Call up, go visit, 

offer your service. Say you 

don’t have a clue what they 

do, but maybe you can help. 

Say you’d like to be part of 

a different world, and you 

thought this might be a 

good place to start” (Let Us 

Dream, 137). 

Racism is a sin that afflicts 

all of us by afflicting the 

Body of Christ. How will you 

listen to the situation of our 

world, hear a call within it and 

respond in such a way that will 

build up the Body of Christ? 


Reflections on Fratelli Tutti Chapter 2: 

“A Stranger on the Road” 

by Timothy Tilghman, Deacon, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, Washington, DC 

Deacon Timothy Tilghman was ordained 

to serve the Church of the Washington 

Archdiocese in June 2010 and currently serves 

at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, in the 

Anacostia section of Washington, DC. He 

authored Going to the Well to Build Community: 

A Pastor’s Guide to Evangelization, with ACTA 

Publications in September 2016. He is a 1975 

graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy 

and holds two master’s degrees, in Public 

Administration from The George Washington 

University (1997) and Theology from St. Mary’s 

Seminary & University’s Ecumenical Institute. 

Pope Francis titled Chapter 2 of Fratelli 

Tutti “A Stranger on the Road” and 

says, “… the joys and hopes, the grief 

and the anguish of the people of our 

time, especially those who are poor and 

afflicted, are the joys, hopes, the grief 

and the anguish of the followers of Christ 

(Fratelli Tutti, #56). What is striking 

about the Pope’s words is that it means 

there will be no strangers in heaven. 

And, why, you might ask? Most followers 

of Christ, regardless of faith tradition 

would agree that the Holy Scriptures 

are the inspired word of God. And no 

believer in Christ would take exception 

to St. Paul’s words in Romans 13:8: Owe 

nothing to anyone, except to love one 

another; for the one who loves another has 

fulfilled the law. If so many in our world 

claim to be followers of Christ, why is 

there so much suffering in the world? 

This is a great question that Pope Francis 

invites us to explore. 

As an African American, a Catholic and 

a Permanent Deacon, I am often invited 

into discussions about the Church’s 

response to matters impacting the 

poor and afflicted, especially when 

race is part of the discussion. In the 

1990s, long before I realized that God’s 

plan for me included ordination to the 

Permanent Diaconate, I envisioned 

running for office in Prince George’s 

County, Maryland or in Washington, 

DC. Since racism was most always a 

subtext in discussions related to politics 

and social justice, I would include in 

my editorial commentary a statement 

that in the United States, race (and 

racism), is still a subtext. When asked 

to join a conversation about racism, 

Catholic Social Teaching and its practice 

in response to perceived racism in 

matters like the death of George Floyd in 

Minneapolis, Minnesota, at the hands 

of local police, I used the teaching and 

preaching of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther 

King, Jr. and our Church’s teachings as 

articulated by Pope Francis. King and 

Pope Francis, Protestant and Catholic, 

approached the practical application of 

the Gospel in the same manner. I would 

not be surprised to discover that Pope 

Francis studied Dr. King’s April 3, 1968 

arguments in pursuit of justice for the 

poor and disenfranchised. 

Reading Pope Francis, I kept hearing 

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s April 3, 

1968 sermon, especially the echoes of Dr. 

King’s words about the meaning of the 

Samaritan’s journey down the Jericho 

Road. In his final sermon of April 3, 1968, 

Dr. King says: 

You remember that a Levite and a 

priest passed by on the other side. 

They did not stop to help him. And, 

finally, a man of another race came 

by. He got down from his beast, 

decided not to be compassionate by 

proxy. But with him, administered 

first aid, and helped the man in 

need. Jesus ended up saying, this 

was a good man, this was a great 

man, because he had the capacity to 

project the “I” into the “thou” and be 

concerned about his brother. 

Today, when such questions are 

presented to me, people are not looking 

for my political views. Their question 

is this: “What does the Church say, and 

what should I do when I confront racism 

and injustice in my neighborhood? How 

do I respond?” I am Black and Catholic, 

and by virtue of ordination, I am not 

just a citizen, I am one who took a vow 

of obedience to the local bishop and his 

successors. I am, thus, an extension of 

the bishop’s teaching authority. 

Rather than look at questions of race 

and social justice in the larger society, 

I want to look at questions of race and 

justice solely within the Church of the 

United States. If the Church can answer 

these questions, I believe that people 

with questions will not be conflicted. 

The questions are related to priests and 

religious and the Church’s response to 

them as they figuratively walked the 

Jericho Road, and chose to stop and 

assist the strangers they encountered. 


The questions: 

1. What about the Healy brothers? Fr. Cyprian Davis, in 

his 1995 book The History of Black Catholics in the United 

States (pp. 146-151), chronicles the contributions of these 

three Irish-African-American brothers who were ordained 

before the more well-known Fr. Augustus Tolton, Alexander 

Sherwood Healy, the personal theologian for the Bishop 

of Boston at the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore in 

1866 and the First Vatican Council in Rome in 1870; James 

Healy, the second bishop of Portland, Maine in 1875; and 

Patrick Healy began teaching at Georgetown University 

in 1866, was elevated to vice-president in 1873 and to 

president of the University in 1874. 

2. What about Augustus Tolton? Stephen J. Ochs, in his 

1993 book, Desegregating the Altar: The Josephites and 

the Struggle for Black Priests - 1871-1960 (p. 78), speaks of 

resentment of Fr. Tolton because priests in his diocese 

entertained doubts about his capacity to serve and 

resented the fact that White parishioners elected to join 

Tolton’s parish. Tolton’s bishop in Quincy, Illinois shared 

that Tolton created problems in the community because he 

favored integration. 

3. What about Mother Mary Lange? Last year after the 

Holy See evaluated the case for verification of a miracle 

attributed to Mother Lange, a priest who was present for 

the deliberations in Rome returned and briefed the Mother 

Lange Guild, of which I am a member. His presentation 

included this question from the Holy See: Why is it that the 

Church of Baltimore did not submit a petition for Mother 

Lange’s canonization immediately after her death at the 

end of the 19th century? 

Each of these questions has an associated “why.” Why didn’t 

the Healy brothers present themselves to the Church of the 

United States as Negroes? Why is it that a future saint was not 

admitted to a seminary in the United States or that priests and 

bishops vilified Fr. Tolton without consequence? Why is it that 

Mother Lange’s petition for canonization was not presented by 

the Church of Baltimore at the end of the 19th century? 

At the end of the chapter, Pope Francis writes, “Finally, I would 

note that in another passage of the Gospel Jesus says: “I was a 

stranger and you welcomed me” (Matthew 25:35) (Fratelli Tutti 

#84). At the end of his final sermon, King says: The question 

that the Levite asked was, “If I stop to help this man, what will 

happen to me?” He {the Samaritan} reversed the question: “If I 

do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?” Pope 

Francis indirectly poses a question to the Church in the United 

States: Why weren’t the Healy brothers, Augustus Tolton, and 

Mary Lange welcomed into the Church in the 19th century? 

People around the world are asking Dr. King’s question: “If I do 

not stop to help this man, what will happen to him, to me?” 

Pope Francis invites the Church and world leaders to answer 

these questions. Will we answer? What happens if we, as 

Church, do not address these questions as the Samaritan did? 


Marist Response to Racial 

Sensitivity in Our Ministries 

Marist School, in November 2021 Fearless Dialogues led faculty 

and staff in a half-day workshop focused on transformation 

and change in self and others. The experience helped to open 

eyes to gifts rather than stereotypes, to cultivate the hope that 

leads to sustainable change and to create an environment 

for hard conversations. This type of training session will be 

incorporated into new employee orientations each year and is 

uplifted by a classroom and curriculum equity audit currently 

underway. 

Fearless Dialogues student ambassador training workshop, March 2021 

Addressing the Fears that Stifle 

Hard Conversation 

by Marist School Office of Inclusion & Diversity, Atlanta, Georgia 

As a Catholic and Marist institution, Marist School follows the 

teachings of the Gospel, the Catholic Church and the Society 

of Mary, all which call us to love and accept one another 

unconditionally. We believe that diversity of humanity is a 

blessing from God, and we seek to respect, understand and 

celebrate the God-given gifts and dignity of each individual 

in our school community and beyond. To support us in that 

mission, Marist recently entered a two-year partnership 

with cultural competency experts, Fearless Dialogues. Led 

by theological educator Dr. Gregory Ellison, Ph.D. who has 

a wealth of experience working with faith-based schools, 

Fearless Dialogues is helping us build a model of openness at 

Marist School while ensuring we stay true to our mission and 

core values. 

In May 2020, Fearless Dialogues completed an audit of the 

26 annual programs sponsored by Marist School’s Office of 

Inclusion & Diversity over the last decade, evaluating them 

in terms of execution, outcomes and overall effectiveness in 

reinforcing a sense of belonging. Most programs received high 

marks, particularly those promoting student participation 

and leadership. As enhancements are being made to address 

the recommendations in areas of potential growth, Fearless 

Dialogues has also spent time with teachers and students, 

creating intentional space for dialogue and personal 

connection. 

Faculty and staff deliver the school’s mission every day, 

advancing the school's diversity, equity and inclusion 

standards, and encouraging students as they learn to 

understand those around them through a lens of Christ-like 

compassion. Given the important role of these individuals at 

In March 2021 Fearless Dialogues began a series of workshops 

for 200 faculty-nominated Marist students. These students will 

become ambassadors among their peers working to foster a 

culture of meaningful engagement across differences for the 

remainder of this school year and in school years to come. 

During their training, utilizing the signature Fearless 

Dialogues methodology and online pedagogy, the student 

leaders were divided into cohort groups and introduced 

to the “Five Fears that Stifle Hard Conversation.” In 

consecutive online sessions, Dialogues’ team of animators 

moved students through several interactive experiments that 

allowed participants to develop strategies to circumnavigate 

these five fears and feel empowered to engage in challenging 

conversations. 

The first two fears were the Fear of the Unknown and the Fear 

of Strangers. In unpacking these, student leaders participated 

in two activities that asked them to problem-solve together 

and then consider how they might proactively demonstrate the 

Marist value of Radical Hospitality to both friends and familiar 

strangers in order to share their authentic truths, both inside 

and outside the classroom. 

Next, students explored the Fear of Plopping. “Plopping” is 

a term coined by master educator Jane Vella that references 

moments when a person shares their authentic truth in the 

company of others and that disclosed truth is disregarded or 

ignored. In short, the disclosed truth “hits the floor and plops.” 

According to Vella, plopping is a violent act because it devalues 

the speaker’s contribution to the ongoing conversation. 

Plopping is also considered viral because if one person plops 

others in the room may feel susceptible to a similar trauma and 

refrain from sharing. In response to the experiment related 

to this fear, participants came up with ideas for the student 

population that would maintain an anti-plopping environment 

at Marist. 

Our biggest fears to tackle were the Fear of Appearing Ignorant 

and the Fear of Oppressive Systems. Far too often individuals 

believe that systemic ills like racism, sexism and homophobia 

are too large for a single individual to make any lasting 

impact. To contest this myth and address these fears, Fearless 

Dialogues invited student leaders to identify a core energizing 


value that can reframe, re-envision and revise the most 

important roles they play in their daily lives. They also had 

everyone engage in dialogue about life lessons and the great 

hopes that guide them. 

Overall, these workshops for students and faculty, along with 

the audits and recommendations from Fearless Dialogues, 

complement the school’s mission to form global-ready servant 

leaders. It is our aim to produce graduates and community 

members who understand and express the inherent value, 

dignity, needs and perspectives of people from a variety of 

cultures, places and experiences around the world, as well as 

close to home. As expressed in the fourth priority of Marist 

School’s Strategic Plan 2025, constructive dialogue goes handin-hand 

with community outreach and spiritual practice 

as the cornerstones of Christ-centered global readiness. At 

Marist School, we are continuing to develop an inclusive 

community that is built upon these principles and fosters 

trust, accountability and mutual support for all members. 

 

Pontiac Notre Dame ‘AIMs’ for 

comprehensive DE&I program 

Taking cues from the pope’s third encyclical, Fratelli 

Tutti, Notre Dame continues its journey to a more 

just and equitable campus using its Assessment of 

Inclusivity and Multiculturalism (AIM) initiative. 

by Mike Kelly, Director of Marketing, Notre Dame Preparatory and 

Marist Academy, Pontiac, Michigan 

In February, during Black History Month, Notre Dame 

Preparatory School and Marist Academy’s (NDPMA) Head 

of School, Andrew J. Guest, talked about the importance of 

diversity with lower school students (Pre-K through 5th grade) 

after one of their regular Wednesday Masses. 

“As a Catholic school, we believe there is room here for 

everybody,” he said. “We were all created in the image and 

likeness of God and that’s why we are all different for a reason.” 

He told the students that God made every person in the world 

unique for a reason. 

“We are all special. Some of us are tall, some of us are short. 

ABOVE: Notre Dame Prep seniors Devarshi Mukherji, 

left, and Nathaniel Nosegbe are in the school's 

robotics center 

RIGHT: Huge banners promoting NDPMA's "Many 

Differences, One Inclusive Community" initiative are 

displayed around the school's Pontiac campus 

Some of us are old. Some of us are 

young. Some of us can sing, some of 

us play an instrument, some of us like 

sports, some of us like creating and 

inventing.” 

He concluded by challenging the children to embrace Black 

History Month and use it as an opportunity to learn more 

about each other. 

“Learn more about American history,” he added. “Embrace our 

differences, and most of all, let us use this as an opportunity to 

be nice and make our school the best school in the world.” 

For the youngest students at Notre Dame, it was another touch 

point for the school's ongoing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion 

(DE&I) initiative that has at its core the third encyclical of Pope 

Francis, Fratelli Tutti: On Fraternity and Social Friendship. 

NDPMA's DE&I program has most recently been focused on 

determining where exactly the school stands on fraternity and 

social friendship as well as its diversity journey through the 

lens of all constituents. 

Kala Parker, Notre Dame's Director of Diversity and 

Inclusion, has worked with a committee on the School 

Board on administering the Assessment of Inclusivity 

and Multiculturalism (AIM). The data obtained from this 

assessment will provide more information about the school 

climate from every member of the community: students, 

parents, alumni, faculty/staff/coaches and administrators. 

“AIM will provide school leadership with the necessary data 

to identify school needs, set goals, and track progress towards 

improvement and allow for the development and prioritization 

of diversity, equity and inclusion [as specific] strategic goals 

and objectives,” Parker said. 

One of the Zoom focus-group sessions as part of the self-assessment portion of 

NDPMA's Assessment of Inclusivity and Multiculturalism (AIM) program included 

alumni, faculty, staff and coaches 

Notre Dame's AIM has two parts: school self-assessment 

(qualitative element) and an online climate survey 

(quantitative element). The desired outcomes, according to 

continues on page 16 


Parker are: 

• Define diversity, equity and inclusion goals; 

• Provide data to begin developing diversity and 

multicultural programs and initiatives; 

• Identify the school's current level of inclusivity as perceived 

by multiple constituencies; 

• Identify areas of need, whether in curriculum, 

infrastructure, governance or services; and 

• Facilitate an engagement process that illuminates patterns, 

multiple perspectives and opportunities for improvement. 

Recently, Parker and other school officials on the DE&I 

committee, including board member Mia Burbank, wrapped 

up the self-assessment portion of AIM. It involved several 

intense focus groups conducted through Zoom. 

“We believe it's critical to get all perspectives and having 

everyone 'in the same room,'” Burbank said. “We went to great 

lengths to get diverse representation from every constituency 

on the Zoom sessions. For us, our entire community, past, 

present and future, has a stake in the work and the safe, 

equitable, affirming and just community we want to become.” 

A total of seven Zoom calls were conducted with school 

community members representing the following categories or 

groups: parent/guardians; faculty and staff; admissions and 

financial aid; student life; teaching and learning; alumni; and 

school governance/leadership. Participants were encouraged 

to be open and honest during the sessions and, according to 

Parker, many were very spirited. 

“Our Zoom facilitators said they had no problem getting people 

to open up about diversity and inclusion issues within the 

context of our Notre Dame/Marist school,” she said. “It also 

was very clear that all were extremely passionate about DE&I 

while at the same time recognizing the need to prioritize this 

important work.” 

Parker said that now her team's focus is on the second phase of 

the school's AIM initiative, the climate survey. 

“We launched the survey on April 12 and look forward to 

presenting our findings along with the overall comprehensive 

AIM report and recommendations at the June Board of 

Trustees meeting,” Parker said. 

Board member Burbank affirms the importance of this work. 

“I'm so glad that DE&I is a priority at NDPMA and within our 

Marist leadership,” she said. “We have done an amazing job 

educating our students, but I believe, just as importantly, we 

need to prepare them for a highly diverse world in which we 

are all accepting and tolerant of other views and perspectives. 

 

Encounters of Love and 

Accompaniment: A Marist 

Response to Racial Injustice 

by Mr. Ashley Morris, Th.M., Associate Director, Office of 

Intercultural Ministries, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta 

We have arrived to the point 

where we have struggled with 

the dual pandemics of the novel 

coronavirus and the sin of racism 

for one straight year. As we 

consider the past year of protests, 

riots and cries for racial justice, 

as well as a rise in attacks against 

sisters and brothers of Asian or 

Pacific Island descent - including 

the horrendous March 16th spa 

shootings in Atlanta, Georgia 

that took the lives of six Asian 

women - there still remains a 

sense of urgency in our hunger 

for racial reconciliation and 

justice. 

Responding to Christ’s call to love our neighbors as we 

love ourselves (Matthew 22:36-40) requires an intentional 

commitment on our part. Our Christ-centered response to 

racial injustice necessitates striving for God’s mercy and 

grace to reconcile and restore relationships fractured by this 

egregious sin. That reconciliation and restoration must happen 

between sisters and brothers in Christ, as St. Paul reminds us 

in his first letter to the Corinthians, “If one member suffers, all 

suffer together…” (1 Corinthians 12:26) We cannot continue to 

think of racism solely as a set of individual acts, behaviors or 

beliefs as the sin continues to erode the human dignity of all 

within our communities and institutions. 

The very heart of the Gospel empowers us to invite all into 

an intimate relationship with God through Christ Jesus. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church is clear on this matter, 

noting that “every form of social or cultural discrimination in 

fundamental personal rights on the grounds of sex, race, color, 


All participants were invited to experience a “conversion of 

heart” in order to fully understand how racism affects the 

victims, perpetrators, allies and alike. Participants were 

encouraged to encounter and accompany one another in these 

moments with a particular sense of compassion and empathy 

that is not always present or easily visible in our conversations 

today. Simply put, we must embrace the gift of accompaniment 

and encounter on the straight and narrow path of celebrating 

one another’s God-given human dignity, living as true 

witnesses to the love that God extends to all through His 

only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Parishioners of OLA have 

begun taking those steps as a model for neighboring parishes, 

Christian communities and people of God and goodwill. 

social conditions, language, or religion must be curbed and 

eradicated as incompatible with God’s design.” (Catechism of the 

Catholic Church, no. 1935) 

The Marist community at Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic 

Church (OLA), located within the Atlanta, Georgia suburb 

of Brookhaven, continues to take courageous and radical 

steps towards bearing witness to these Gospel truths in their 

local fight for racial justice. Beginning in late January of 2021, 

parishioners at OLA participated in a four-week virtual series 

focused on key components of Father Bryan Massingale’s 

influential book, Racial Justice and the Catholic Church, and 

the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Pastoral 

Letter against racism, Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring 

Call to Love. 

Three key components to Massingale’s work integral to the 

four-week discussion on the Church’s response to racism 

were understanding the sin of racism beyond individual acts 

or behaviors, considering what has already been said and 

implemented by the Church when it comes to racial justice 

and utilizing the sacraments as a means to truly begin racial 

healing and restoration. The Bishops’ message in the Open 

Wide Our Hearts pastoral reiterates the necessity of Christians 

to allow God’s love to resonate from our hearts into the world 

to end racism and its manifestations. Both resources found a 

perfect home in the parish family as the community at large 

has hosted several conversations on race and reconciliation 

through their Social Justice Ministry prior to this event. 

What made these specific dialogues unique in the parish’s 

racial justice toolbox is that Massingale’s perspectives as a 

Roman Catholic priest providing academic, spiritual and 

personal experiences with racism offered a patently different 

lens through which parishioners could discern their own 

experiences. With participants expressing a wide variety 

of perspectives and beliefs regarding their knowledge and 

understanding of the sin of racism, several moments of the 

dialogues early on proved to be extremely challenging and 

uncomfortable. It became evident through constructive 

feedback and further discernment of the dialogues that 

trust, vulnerability, compassion and listening would be key 

values to embrace and exemplify within the gathering first 

before embarking upon any program or activity to address 

racial injustice within the parish and within the Brookhaven 

neighborhoods. 

The call for conversion undergirds all efforts to respond to 

racial injustice. We embark upon these efforts by inviting God 

to guide our hearts and minds and encountering one another 

in an all-encompassing spirit of fraternal love. 


MOVIE REVIEW 

The Need for Hope 

Prayerful Reflection with the Movie Nomadland 

by Brian Cummings, SM, Director, Pā Maria Marist Spirituality Centre, Wellington, New Zealand 

Frances McDormand is one of the leading 

actresses of the current era. In fact, it 

could well be argued that she is the leading 

actress, having already won two Academy 

Awards for Best Actress (Fargo (1996) and 

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri 

(2017)) and being highly likely to win a 

third this year, following her nomination 

for her performance in Nomadland. 

In her latest film she shares the attention 

with director Chloé Zhao, who has made 

Oscar history by being the first Asian 

woman to be nominated for Best Director. 

In one sense, it is challenging to see just 

why Nomadland has gained so much 

attention and has won an Academy Award 

nomination for the Best Picture. It has 

very few actors (McDormand and David 

Strathairn being the main two) with nearly 

everyone else playing themselves. 

It is slow moving and reflective rather than 

spectacular and dramatic. And yet it says 

far more in its silences, vistas and brief 

conversations than many high-paced and 

fraught dramas. 

The movie is based on Jessica Bruder’s 

non-fiction book Nomadland: Surviving 

America in the Twenty-First Century (2017). 

In the movie McDormand plays Fern, 

“a woman whose circumstances – the 

death of her husband and the post-Gobal 

Financial Crisis and economic collapse of 

the Nevada mining company where they 

lived – has led her to a life in her van. She 

drives where the seasonal work is. She’s 

a packer in a Christmas-rush Amazon 

warehouse, a beet harvester in Nebraska, a 

campground cleaner in the Badlands too. 

That, and her interactions with her fellow 

nomads, all mostly scraping by and unable 

to retire comfortably, is pretty much the 

movie.” (Russell Baillie, NZ Listener, 

January 2, 2021). 

And yet, there is much more to Nomadland 

than that. The movie is not so much “a film 

of the book” but rather an “interpretation” 

of it, in which director Zhao invites us not 

to simply observe the world of the nomads 

(as if the movie were a documentary), but 

to enter into that world. 

In the Foreword to the book, Bruder 

writes: “They [nomads] are surviving 

America. But for them – as for anyone – 

survival isn’t enough. So what began as 

a last-ditch effort has become a battle 

cry for something greater. Being human 

means yearning for something more 

than subsistence. As much as food or 

shelter, we require hope.” (Jessica Bruder, 

Nomadland, Swift Press, 2021, p xiii). 

Nomadland is not, as noted previously, 

a documentary; nor does it endeavor to 

present an idealized version of life as a 

wanderer as if it is a lifestyle only and 

always adopted by choice (although it is 

true that is the case for some). Rather, it is 

a movie about identity – about what gives 

value and meaning to our lives; about 

community; and about the value of human 

relationships. 

It doesn’t provide answers so much as ask 

questions – frequently through a glance 

or sideways look or a brief comment from 

McDormand (who has the wonderful 

quality of being able to convey an 

enormous amount of meaning with a 

minimum of self-intrusion into a scene). 

Viewed from a Marist perspective, 

Nomadland immediately resonates with 

something very deep in our “Marist DNA” 

– the missions to the Bugey – a region in 

the department of Ain in eastern France. 

There might seem little in common 

between RVs roaming the vast areas of 

America and the mountainous area of 

France between the Ain river and Gex, 

near the border of Geneva. And nor did the 

early Marists drive to the various villages 

in which they gave missions – instead, they 

generally walked through snow and mud. 

Rather, the similarities are found in the 

lives of the people. Both in Nomadland 

and in the Bugey, the people have been 

left behind by the world in which they live. 

They struggle, as Bruder suggests, not only 

to find food or shelter but also hope. 

Watching Nomadland becomes an 

experience in understanding – albeit from 

a different perspective – the world in which 

Marist founder Jean-Claude Colin and the 

early Marists immersed themselves. 

It was from these formative years in 

the Bugey that Colin saw elements he 

considered essential to Marist life and 

ministry, and the “place” where Marists 

should find themselves most at home: 

among the abandoned; those on the 

margins; those in danger of being left 

aside. (cf The Marist Places, Marist Internet 

Project - https://www.maristplaces.org/). 

And what could be said to bring both 

Nomadland and the Bugey together for 

Marists today is the encyclical, Fratelli 

Tutti, by Pope Francis. 


In many ways, this encyclical is summed 

up in No.8: “Let us dream, then, as a single 

human family, as fellow travelers sharing 

the same flesh, as children of the same 

earth which is our common home, each 

of us bringing the richness of his or her 

beliefs and convictions, each of us with his 

or her own voice, brothers and sisters all.” 

Those are desires the travelers in 

Nomadland could easily identify with; 

they are desires every Marist can easily 

resonate with. 

And yet the very fact that Pope Francis 

writes “Let us dream” reminds us that 

there is still much to be done before the 

dream can be called a reality. 

It is not possible here to work through 

all the rich themes in Fratelli Tutti and 

identify how we as Marists could respond 

to them. 

However, there is what has been called the 

centerpiece of the Letter – the Parable of 

the Good Samaritan: 

“The parable is clear and straightforward, 

yet it also evokes the interior struggle that 

each of us experiences as we gradually come 

to know ourselves through our relationships 

with our brothers and sisters. Sooner or 

later, we will all encounter a person who is 

suffering. Today there are more and more 

of them. The decision to include or exclude 

those lying wounded along the roadside 

can serve as a criterion for judging every 

economic, political, social and religious 

project. Each day we have to decide whether 

to be Good Samaritans or indifferent 

bystanders. And if we extend our gaze to the 

history of our own lives and that of the entire 

world, all of us are, or have been, like each 

of the characters in the parable. All of us 

have in ourselves something of the wounded 

man, something of the robber, something of 

the passers-by, and something of the Good 

Samaritan.” [No.69] 

“Each day we have to decide whether 

to be Good Samaritans or indifferent 

bystanders.” In this world in which we 

live today, there are no shortages of 

opportunities to make that decision – and 

no way to be ignorant of them. 

And amongst the many that present 

themselves – economic, political, social 

and religious situations and policies – 

there is perhaps one underlying theme 

that both highlights and typifies the 

challenges. It is one that the priest and the 

Levite were very conscious of; it is one that 

we here in New Zealand had put starkly 

before us in the Christchurch Mosque 

shootings of 2019; it is one that has been 

highlighted in very recent days in the 

Asian-American shootings in Atlanta, 

Georgia: “they are not us.” 

Ultimately, the priest and the Levite did 

not recognize anything in common with 

the wounded man. In New Zealand, the 

Prime Minister worked very hard after the 

Mosque shootings to stress “they are us” 

(but surveys two years on suggest that has 

only gained slight traction as a change in 

attitude); and the Atlanta shootings have 

highlighted the fear that Asian-Americans 

and others (such as Latin American 

immigrants and Pacific Islanders) feel 

every day because they are conscious so 

many view them as “not us.” 

It can seem overwhelming, faced as we 

are with so many lying wounded – not just 

overseas but right at our feet in our cities 

and in our neighbourhoods – and it can 

also be very dangerous to stand up and 

say, “they are us.” 

But that is the call of Pope Francis in 

Fratelli Tutti. And it is the call of Colin from 

the Bugey where he experienced the mercy 

of God; the strengths of working together; 

the awareness of their limited resources 

and the immense power of God at work in 

them. 

That is both the invitation and the call to 

all Marists today – to act together; to do 

what we can (rather than focus on what we 

can’t because of limited resources) and to 

bring hope to people through the power of 

God working through us. 

Perhaps the final word can be left to a film 

critic in New Zealand commenting on 

Nomadland: “Personally, I found it to be 

pretty much the perfect film for 2020; a 

paean to all people who have re-examined 

their lives, shifted their priorities and 

rediscovered the profound magic of 

empathy and quiet resilience.” (Graeme 

Tuckett, Stuff www.stuff.co.nz, December 

22, 2020). 


I AM THE LAND 

Indigenous Reflections 

on Laudato Si’ 

by Hemi Ropata, SM 

The indigenous M – aori people of New 

Zealand claim a connection to land that 

is both profound and formational. We 

say ‘ko au te whenua, ko te whenua ko 

au.’ which means, ‘I am the land, and 

the land is me.’ This is not a metaphor – 

in Thomistic terms we might say that the 

land is substantive to who we are. It is the 

foundation of our identity and of our being. 

And yet, the land is dying. Pollution 

and commercial run-offs poison our 

waterways. Climate change affects 

the availability of natural resources. 

Traditional seafoods that were once 

plentiful and available, even in my 

own childhood, have been overfished 

and effectively have disappeared. Only 

11% of M – aori are proficient in their 

own language. M – aori make up 14% of 

the New Zealand population and 50% 

of the incarcerated population (the 

discrepancy is worse for M – aori women 

who make up 63% of the female prison 

population). Two-thirds of all people 

shot by police are M – aori. M – aori who 

work earn $140 per week less than the 

general population. M – aori children live 

in ‘material hardship.’ M – aori suicide 

rates are nearly twice as high as those of 

non-M – aori. 

It might seem strange that I have listed 

M – aori inequality statistics alongside the 

effects of pollution and climate change. 

Recall that for M – aori, the land and 

the person are inseparable. Where in 

Laudato Si’ Pope Francis states that “the 

human environment and the natural 

environment deteriorate together” (48), 

keep in mind the M – aori position: the 

human environment and the natural 

environment are the same thing. So, it is 

reasonable to think that the continued 

degradation of the earth correlates with 

poor social outcomes for M – aori because 

ecology is a statement of human dignity. 

It is truly an issue of social justice. The 

proper care of the earth corresponds 

to the proper care of our brothers 

and sisters. Political structures that 

hand over resources to the powerful 

perpetuate systemic racism. Unfettered 

greed and destruction lead only to death. 

To paraphrase Patriarch Bartholomew, 

“to commit a crime against the natural 

world is a sin against ourselves, a sin 

against one another, and a sin against 

God” (Laudato Si’ 8). It is [a] violence 

against the poor and the oppressed. 

Therefore, what is the Christian 

response? Pope Francis speaks 

extensively on an integral ecology, 

one that realizes that everything is 

connected. An understanding of the 

world in which consumption is replaced 

with sacrifice, greed with generosity and 

wastefulness with a spirit of sharing. A 

way of loving, moving gradually away 

from what I want towards what the world 

needs, a liberation from fear, greed and 

compulsion (See Laudato Si’ 7). And 

what of a Marist response? This might 

be illustrated in three M – aori concepts: 

whanau (family), manaakitanga (care 

and hospitality) and kaitiakitanga 

(guardianship). Everything is connected 

and so all of creation is one family given 

to one another for the benefit of all. In 

the same way that St. Francis was called 

to care for all that exists, so too are we 

called to care for and show hospitality to 

our brothers and sisters. Ownership is a 

foreign concept to M – aori; rather, having 

possessions was only for the purpose of 

serving future generations. 

Nevertheless, despite all the injustice in 

the world, there is still hope. For hope 

“speaks to us of something deeply rooted 

in every human heart, independently 

of our circumstances and historical 

conditioning. Hope speaks to us of a 

thirst, an aspiration, a longing for a life 

of fulfilment, a desire to achieve great 

things, things that fill our heart and lift 

our spirit to lofty realities like truth, 

goodness and beauty, justice and love…. 

Hope is bold” (Fratelli Tutti 55). Perhaps 

as Marists we are called to live in love so 

that goodness, beauty and justice can 

prevail, and so that we can promote the 

boldness of hope to future generations. 


Tenei au e tu ana ki runga i te 

Marae tapu o Katihiku. 

Here I stand upon the sacred 

land of Katihiku. 

E tiro ana au ki te Whare 

Tipuna ko Tama Te Hura. 

I see the ancestral house of 

Tama te Hura. 

Kei muri mai ko te motu tapu 

o Kapiti, huri noa ki Tararua e 

tu whakamaro mai i ahau. 

Behind is the sacred island 

of Kapiti, and the Tararua 

mountains that abide and 

protect. 

E rongo au ki te rere o te awa 

Otaki, e rongo hoki au ki te 

iwi o Ngati Raukawa, ki te 

hapu o Ngati Huia e karanga 

mai ki au. 

I hear the running of the 

Otaki river, and of the people 

of Ngati Raukawa and Ngati 

Huia that call to me. 


Jean-Claude Colin, SM…“Politically Correct” 


Without a doubt in recent times politics 

and economics are the subject of much 

public and private discourse among both 

the enlightened and the uninformed. 

In the minds of the majority, politics is 

associated with law, government, elected 

officials, justice and opinions. Economics 

has to do with money, labor, the rich and 

the poor. Why do those topics occupy so 

much of our attention and conversation? 

“One heart 

and one mind” 

We forget that economics and politics are 

really branches of ethics and that ethics 

deals with topics of individuality and 

community, unity and diversity. Ethics 

does not stop with describing things as 

they are but asks how they should be. Put 

simply, “economics” asks the question, 

“How should people live together in a 

household?” while “politics” asks how 

they should do so in the wider world. 

How can humans be both individual and 

communitarian? How can we be both 

one and many; independent and interdependent; 

diverse and the same? 

In writing a Rule for a free-will society, 

our founder, Father Jean-Claude Colin 

had to deal with all these problems 

and questions. How should Marists live 

together in the Society of Mary and how 

should the Society relate with the Church 

and the world in which it exists? 

Throughout his “Constitutions” (1872) 

Father Founder uses many images for the 

Society of Mary. Not all of them fit easily 

together and the temptation is to hold on 

to a simple image and forget the others. 

Already within Article I Marists are looked 

upon as a congregation, a society, an army 

and a family. In Article III Father Colin 

shows his awareness that the Marists 

live in a wider world and that they must 

deal with this wider world without being 

absorbed by it. 

In Article IV Colin turns to the Marists 

themselves. Not only is the Society made 

up of a diversity of members, but there are 

diverse levels of membership “depending 

on the bond by which they belong to the 

Society or the duties to which they are 

obliged.” Father Colin, facing diversity 

within the Marists, insists that they all 

“form one and the same family” and so 

“there should be no difference between 

them with regard to food or spiritual care.” 

In Article V Colin takes up the topic of 

“Unity among the members of the Society.” 

We are told that there can be no unity 

unless the members cooperate with God’s 

grace by practicing the virtues and the 

bond of charity. Father Founder proceeds 

to describe how the bond of charity looks 

in action. 

Much more needs to be said about the 

economics and the politics of the Society 

of Mary, but something should be said 

about the organizational images of Father 

Colin. In Article I, #1 of his Rule, Colin 

describes the Society as being under 

the military banner of Mary “to serve in 

fighting the battle of the Lord.” 

In Chapter VIII on the government of the 

whole Society he returns to a military 

image in describing the Superior General. 

The Society of Mary is described as “an 

army arranged against the enemies 

of salvation under the leadership and 

protection of the Mother of God.” 

The observations made in this article 

about the economics and politics of the 

Society of Mary raise many questions 

about its interior organization and 

its relationship to Church and world. 

Nazareth and Pentecost form a kind of 

tension that will hopefully be creative. 

In #437 of Father Colin’s “Constitutions” 

Marists are reminded: “…all must 

remember that they form one and the 

same family and are members of the same 

body, whose good or bad rebounds to 

the whole body; and since among them 

all other things are held in common, 

they must also have but one heart and 

one mind; otherwise they can in no 

way achieve the purpose they set before 

themselves in joining the Society.” 

Cause for Canonization of Venerable Fr. Jean-Claude Colin, SM 

Founder of the Marist Fathers and Brothers 


Some have said that Father Colin would be against his own canonization. Such a view shows a misunderstanding of the purpose of the 

beatification/canonization of some of the deceased members of the Church. The purpose is not to glorify the individual person, but to 

glorify God by showing how God’s grace can transform and operate through ordinary, imperfect humans, as long as they cooperate with 

God’s will. Thus, they become examples and intercessors for the living. Certainly, Father Colin would cooperate and want any process 

that would bring glory to God and benefit to us. Mary, his Queen and example, has never been known to reject any honor shown to her 

by the Church. 

Please report any special and extraordinary favor granted through the intercession of Jean-Claude Colin to: 

Marist Center | 815 Varnum Street, N.E. | Washington, DC 20017-2298 | USA 


The “New Normal” 

...Or Is It? 

by Jack Ridout, Administrator of the Notre Dame des Victoires Retirement Community, San Francisco, California 

Anything ‘normal’ has been challenged 

for the past year, including our 

relationship with others and our practice 

of faith. We have been told to stay home, 

not to interact with others, socially 

distance and so on. 

How has this distancing changed or 

enhanced your relationship with God? 

With others? Has it been strengthened 

or are you staying away from others 

as it is the "right thing to do" during a 

pandemic? So many questions arise 

when you look at your life and how it has 

changed. Things are changed because 

of the pandemic while others allow us 

to hide from what we know is the right 

thing to do. 

Is it now ‘normal’ to pray by yourself 

or has it changed? We can certainly 

look back to Old Testament times when 

a leper approached others shouting 

"unclean!" Are we not in the same 

situation now by avoiding others thus 

setting oneself up as "clean" while others 

are infected? 

‘normal’ is not ‘new,’ it is the same, and 

we need to see Christ in those faces 

and not let a mask stand in the way of 

reaching out to them. 

The “new normal” is not really new at 

all, but simply what a virus has done 

to us. Has it changed things? I am sure 

for many it has; how we work, how we 

interact, how we pray, how we move 

about in our daily lives. 

Is this long lasting? For some yes, others 

not so much; but we do have a choice to 

not let this become the “new” normal 

of our lives. It is possible that some now 

view the world and those we share it with 

as something or someone to be feared 

not something or someone to be loved. 

We only need to look to Mary as we seek 

the way she looks to her Son and how we 

can do the same to those around us. 

This has separated us and we are in the 

middle of the "new normal", but is it 

really just an excuse to not care? To avoid 

that new "leper" we wear a mask to keep 

us from either spreading or catching 

Covid-19, but has it also kept us from 

being Christ like to all we meet in our 

daily life? 

A basic Marist value comes to mind 

when Marists instinctively interact with 

others as they are and not where they are 

expected to be in society. This value is 

shown in Mary’s example of compassion 

to her Son, Jesus, and we are challenged 

to extend that same compassion to 

all with whom we come in contact as 

“instruments of God’s mercy.” 

This very human of trait transcends 

pandemics, lepers, those with AIDS, 

those different from us, those in need 

and those who are hungry. Their 

(Picture Credit: John Ahern) 


MARIST LIVES 

REV. JOSEPH A. COSTELLO, SM 

Early Catholic Voice Against 

Segregation in the South 

by Susan J. Illis, Archivist, Archives of the Society of Mary, US Province 

Reverend Joseph A. Costello, SM, 

“…let there be no 

further discrimination 

or segregation in the 

pews, at the Communion 

rail, at the confessional 

and in parish meetings, 

just as there will be 

no segregation in the 

kingdom of heaven.” 

– Archbishop Joseph F. Rummel, 1953 

Reverend Joseph A. Costello, SM, was 

serving on the faculty of Notre Dame 

Seminary in New Orleans, Louisiana in 

1953 when Archbishop Joseph Rummel 

issued “Blessed are the Peacemakers,” 

a pastoral letter calling for complete 

desegregation of the Archdiocese of 

New Orleans. Two years later, Rummel 

signaled his commitment to racial equity 

by discontinuing services at a Catholic 

chapel where parishioners refused to 

allow an African American priest to 

preside at Mass. The following year he 

issued another pastoral letter declaring 

racial segregation “morally wrong and 

sinful.” 

Despite the fact the Supreme Court had 

already declared school segregation 

unconstitutional in 1954, Rummel 

still faced criticism and angry attacks 

from staunch segregationists in the 

Archdiocese of New Orleans. In response 

to the unrest over the issue, Father 

Costello published “Moral Aspects of 

Segregation,” supporting Archbishop 

Rummel’s calls for desegregation and 

underscoring the sinfulness of the 

practice. 

In writing this booklet, Costello drew 

from both religious scholarship and his 

own experience as a teacher of moral 

theology and canon law. Since 1944 he 

had taught at Notre Dame Seminary, 

which Rummel had integrated in 1948 

along with other seminaries in the 

archdiocese. Father Costello, a native of 

Boston, was born in 1916 and ordained 

a Marist priest by Bishop Michael 

Keyes, SM, in 1943. Costello earned 

his doctorate in Sacred Theology from 

The Catholic University of America 

in Washington, DC, and continued 

teaching at Notre Dame Seminary 

until 1963. 

In “Moral Aspects of Segregation” 

Father Costello reminds Catholics that 

because something, such as segregation 

in the Deep South in the 1950s, is 

customary does not mean it is moral, 

and individuals should independently 

distinguish moral right from wrong, 

regardless of common practice or even 

law. He also reinforces the authority of 

the archbishop in making decisions and 

leading Catholics within his charge while 

also defending him against ridiculous 

accusations, such as aligning himself 

with Communist propaganda. He further 

states that segregation contradicts the 

principles of charity and neighborly love. 

The entire text of Father Costello’s 

publication may be read at https://bit. 

ly/2R8m0gA. A few excerpts from this 

publication are: 

“…there is no inequality in human 

dignity.” 

“Charity is violated in customsanctioned 

racial segregation.” 

“Love of neighbor is violated in the 

practice of racial segregation.” 

“Basic natural rights flow from the 

worth of a person and no particular 

person can claim to be superior 

to another in intrinsic worth and 

dignity, for all essentially are equal.” 

“Segregation - as now practiced - 

involves discriminations which are 

sinful and unjust.” 

Racial segregation “should have 

no place in Catholic life. To hold 

the supremacy of the white race, 

explicitly or implicitly, is a sin 

contrary to the virtue of faith, if 

knowingly and deliberately, it is a 

grave sin.” 


Archbishop Joseph F. Rummel at Notre Dame Seminary. Notre Dame opened in 1923; from the time of its founding until 1967, it was administered by the Society of Mary (Marists). 

While a few outspoken segregationist 

Catholics threatened to withhold 

donations to the Church if Catholic 

schools were desegregated, Father 

Costello called upon Catholics to take 

the lead in achieving social change: 

“That Catholics have, as a social body, 

a duty to follow the Commandments 

of God, to repair, in so far as they 

can, the evils that affect society is 

clear.” 

Ultimately parochial schools in New 

Orleans desegregated peacefully for the 

1963-1964 school year. 

In addition to teaching at Notre Dame 

in New Orleans, Father Costello 

served as defender of the bond on the 

archdiocesan marriage tribunal. He 

also served on the Court of Inquiry 

to examine a miraculous cure in the 

beatification process of Elizabeth Ann 

Seton, who was canonized as the first 

United States-born saint in 1975. 

In 1963, Father Costello began another 

stage of ministry - that of parish priest. 

After serving as pastor of St. Vincent de 

Paul Parish in Wheeling, West Virginia 

for a few years, he was transferred to 

Georgia, where he served in various 

churches for the next twenty years. 

His assignments included Waycross, 

Saint Simons Island, Brunswick, and 

Darien, where he was known as the 

“Pope of Darien.” Throughout this time, 

he continued his work on the marriage 

tribunal for the Diocese of Savannah. 

Although Father Costello spent his career 

in the Deep South, his life ended near 

where it began in New England. While 

visiting family on vacation in 1996, 

Father Costello broke his hip. During his 

rehabilitation, he suffered a heart attack 

and died on July 11, 1996. He is buried in 

the Marist plot at Holy Cross Cemetery in 

Malden, Massachusetts. 

Booklet Cover (circa 1956) 

“That Catholics have, as a social body, a duty to follow the Commandments of God, 

to repair, in so far as they can, the evils that affect society is clear.” 


News Briefs 

Society of Mary USA New Provincial 

In February 2021, the final round of voting 

for the office of Provincial of the United 

States Province of the Marists concluded. 

Fr. Joseph Hindelang, who is currently 

the principal at Notre Dame Preparatory 

School in Pontiac, Michigan, was elected 

as Provincial of the United States Province. 

His election has been confirmed by the 

Superior General in Rome. His appointment 

for the term is from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2024. 

We extend our congratulations to Fr. Joseph on the 

announcement. 

Marist Teaching Brothers USA 

New Provincial 

Br. Dan O’Riordan, FMS has been elected 

to serve as the next Provincial of the 

Marist Brothers United States Province. Br. 

Dan, who has spent the last six years as 

Vice Provincial, will begin Provincial duties 

at the USA Province Chapter Meeting, 

scheduled for April 2021. 

We extend our congratulations to Br. Dan 

on the announcement. 

Two New Appointments for 

Today’s Marists Editorial Board 

We are pleased to 

announce the addition of 

two new members to our 

Today’s Marists Editorial 

team, Elizabeth Piper 

and Sr. Linda Sevcik, SM. 

Elizabeth is Director of 

Faith Formation at Our 

Lady of the Assumption 

Catholic Church in Atlanta, 

Elizabeth Piper Sr. Linda Sevcik, SM 

Georgia (a Marist ministry); a National Formation Leader for 

Catechesis of the Good Shepherd; and Co-Leader of World 

Lay Marist. Sr. Linda is the Executive Director of Manresa 

Jesuit Retreat House in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and serves 

as regional leader with the Marist Sisters of Ireland, Canada, 

Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil and the United States. She has an 

advanced degree in Psychology and Spirituality from the 

Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Italy, and has worked 

extensively in formation with seminarians for the priesthood. 

Both women bring enormous amounts of talents and gifts 

to our Board and we are grateful for their willingness to 

participate. 

OBITUARY 

Father Peter Richard Blanchard, SM (1940-2021) 

Father Peter Richard Blanchard, SM entered eternal life on March 17, 2021. He was born on April 19, 1940, 

to Paul and Hazel Blanchard in Johnson City, New York. He attended elementary school at St. Anthony’s 

in Atlanta, Georgia and graduated from Marist High School in Atlanta, Georgia. Fr. Blanchard was a novice 

at the Monastery of Our Lady of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Georgia. Fr. Blanchard made his profession to 

the Society of Mary on September 12, 1963 at the Marist Novitiate in Rhinebeck, New York. Fr. Blanchard 

completed his philosophy and theology program in 1967 at Marist College, Washington, DC. On February 

2, 1967, Fr. Blanchard was ordained a Marist priest by Bishop Thomas J. Wade, SM. Fr. Blanchard received 

his B.S. degree in education from Loyola University in New Orleans in 1971 and in 1973 was awarded his 

M.A in religious education from Catholic University in Washington, DC. 

From 1967 to 2012 Fr. Blanchard’s assignments included: Immaculata Minor Seminary in Lafayette, Louisiana; Chanel High School 

in Bedford, Ohio; Marist Collegiate Community in New Orleans, Louisiana; De La Salle High School in New Orleans, Louisiana; and 

as Chaplain for several nursing homes in Covington, Louisiana. In 2012, Fr. Blanchard retired from ministry. 

Memorial donations may be made to the Society of Mary (Marists) online at: societyofmaryusa.org. 


DONOR THOUGHTS 

Why I Support the Marists 

by Jim and Barbara MacGinnitie 

Our Marist connection began many years ago 

when we enrolled our oldest child in 8th 

grade at Marist School in Atlanta, Georgia. 

Later our two other children followed 

and all three graduated from Marist 

School, well prepared for college and 

professional life. Since then three of 

our grandchildren have attended the 

school with the last one graduating in 

May 2021. Through the years we have 

enjoyed attending numerous sporting 

events, plays, concerts, graduations, 

grandparent days and many other events. 

When our children were enrolled in Marist 

School we had the opportunity to work with 

many of the Marists through various school 

groups and events. They were always friendly, gracious, 

compassionate and helpful. Over nearly four decades we have seen 

them work with the students through school Masses, retreats, mission trips and on an 

individual basis. 

We feel so fortunate that our children and several of our grandchildren have had the 

opportunity to be taught and mentored by the Marists. The school’s mission, “To form 

the whole person in the image of Christ,” has been of great value to them. 

We have also been very fortunate to have become dear friends with some of the 

Marists, including now Bishop Joel Konzen SM and Father John Walls, SM of New 

Zealand. A special experience was to be guided around New Zealand by Fr. Walls, 

visiting several of the historic Marist sites in that lovely country. 

We have often been impressed by the quotation from Fr. Jean-Claude Colin, founder 

of the Marists, which is prominently displayed on the wall in the Marist School 

gymnasium: “Marists ought to have one ambition, the ambition to do good, and in 

no way to make a show.” That motto – Do Good, No Show - epitomizes what we know 

of the Marists. They have always been there for the school, working hard to make it a 

school of excellence, employing the best teachers and yet staying in the background, 

never seeking reward or attention. 

To reach out to underserved communities, the Marists have created additional 

programs at the school. One program, Centro Hispano Marista, offers adult GED 

preparation classes for the Hispanic community of Atlanta. Another program, 

Reach for Excellence, provides an enrichment curriculum to talented middle school 

students to help them prepare academically for high school and beyond. As believers 

in the value of education, particularly for the underserved, we have enthusiastically 

supported these programs. 

Through the years we have continued to support not only Marist School but also the 

Marist Fathers and Brothers who have dedicated their lives to the school and other 

ministries. Their commitment to education and to the students they mentor has made 

a huge contribution to the lives of generations of young people and their families. 

We will always be grateful for the guidance and dedication of the Marists. We believe 

that supporting the Marists is important to help them continue their mission of 

educating young people and to thank them for all they have done in fulfilling this 

mission. We encourage all who have been touched and influenced by the Marists to 

support them as they are able. 

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Are you drawn to a life of 

mercy and compassion? 

We Marists seek to bring compassion and mercy to the Church and world in 

the footsteps of Mary who brought Jesus Himself into our world. We breathe 

her spirit in lives devoted to prayer and ministry, witnessing to those values 

daily in community. 

To speak with a member of the Vocational Team, call toll-free 866.298.3715. 

Visit us online at: societyofmaryusa.org 

All About Mary is an encyclopedia of 

information on Mary, the Mother of 

Jesus Christ. Created and maintained 

by the International Marian Research 

Institute, it is an online destination 

with resources on the subject of the 

Blessed Virgin Mary. 

Locate online resources including: 

• Art 

• Life of Mary 

• Music 

Checkout the website: 

https://udayton.edu/imri/mary 

Spirituality of the Society of Mary: 

Contemplatives in Action 

While the Church has always 

emphasized Marian devotion, “We 

(Marists) are called to something 

much deeper … we are called to 

become Mary’s devotion in the midst 

of the Church.” – Fr. Ed Keel, SM 

For featured articles and talks 

checkout the website: 

www.maristspirituality.org

Today's Marists Volume 6, Issue 2

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