Thai priest on the way to being a Saint: Blessed Nicolas Kitbamrung

Most Thai people (or others, for that matter) are not aware that there are 5 Thai martyrs and a priest who were proclaimed Blessed (the step before sainthood) by the Catholic Church.  Here is the story of the priest, Blessed Nicolas Kitbamrung.

Bunkerd Kitbamrung was born to a Catholic family in Nakon Pathom province January 11, 1895.

His childhood was unremarkable but at sometime he felt called to be a priest. After training at the seminary in Penang, Malaysia he was ordained on January 24, 1926 at the age of 31 at Assumption Cathedral, Bangkok.  His Catholic name was 'Nicolas'.

He served in several parishes in North and Northeast Thailand, including Chiangmai.  In 1927, he assisted the Salesian Order missionaries helping to teach them Thai and also training Thai seminarians.   

At that time, Catholics were considered 'unpatriotic' as 'to be a Thai is to be a Buddhist'.  As well, disputes with France over borders with Laos caused Thai authorities to look with suspicion on those associated with the French, which in many cases were Catholic priests.

On the morning of January 12, 1941, Father Nicholas rang the church bell to summon parishioners to Mass. For this simple act he was arrested and sentenced to fifteen years of imprisonment at Bang Khwang. While in prison he contracted tuberculosis and died on January 12, 1944 at the age of 49. It was said he was denied care because he was a Catholic but this has not been verified.

While in prison he had heard confessions and administered the sacrament of baptism to his fellow prisoners. Approximately 68 persons were baptized by him while in prison. During his life Father Nicolas had a great concern for pastoral work and compassion for the poor. 

After a thorough examination of his life, Pope John Paul II proclaimed Fr. Nicolas Bunkerd Kitbamrung a Blessed on January 27, 2000 and the ceremony of beatification was held on March 5, 2000 at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

Thai Catholics, from all parts of the Kingdom of Thailand, joyfully celebrated the beatification in Father Nicolas' home town of Sam Phran, Nakhon Pratom on that day.

Brother Andre: The Humble Doorman

St. Joseph's Oratory Montreal, Quebec.

In Montreal's district of Côte-des-Neiges, The Oratory of St. Joseph rises on the north slope of Mount Royal. Its construction began in 1924, but it was not inaugurated until March 19, 1955.
At 124 m., it is higher than both St. Paul's in London (111 m) and Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris (90 m). In 2005 the Oratory was added to the List of National Historic Sites of Canada on the occasion of its 100th anniversary. But the story of the man behind the Oratory is even more amazing.
Alfred Bessette's Early Life
Alfred Bessette was born August 9, 1845 in Saint-Grégoire d'Iberville, a small town southeast of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He was the eighth child in a family of twelve and both his parents died when he was still a child. Little Alfred, now an orphan, found work in villages nearby and later went to work in the mills of New England.
After returning to Canada in 1867 (the year of Canada's Confederation) he joined the Congregation of the Holy Cross. At first, the Congregation, a teaching order, was somewhat reluctant to accept the frail and uneducated Alfred but in the end they did. He took the name of Brother André and was given the job of doorman (or porter) at Notre Dame College. He also rang the school bells and helped in the laundry and the infirmary. Throughout his life he suffered from stomach pains and was unable to eat much of the food served at the school but he never complained.
A Doorman at Notre Dame College
As a doorman he had the opportunity to meet many people and when talking to them they often gave him prayer requests. He would lay these prayers before St. Joseph, the Virgin Mary's husband, and many were cured of their illnesses. Brother André became well-known because of these cures even though he insisted, "It is not me, God is responsible, Saint Joseph is responsible."
The Chapel is Built
In 1904 Brother André and his friends built a small chapel across the street from the College in honour of St. Joseph. For twenty-five years Brother André received visitors in his tiny office connected to the chapel. The chapel and Brother André's room nearby are still there and are visited by over two million people each year.
Construction of the Basilica
Eventually the chapel was too small for the daily stream of sick and needy people coming to see the doorman for prayer. After several expansions of the chapel, work on a crypt was begun and in 1924 workers began to construct the basilica.
When the Depression hit in 1936, many felt the work should be stopped. Brother André, however, declared that, since it was not his work but that of St. Joseph, they should place the statue of St. Joseph in the unfinished shrine. "If he wishes to be covered, he'll take care of it." In two months people had given enough money to continue construction.
Brother Andre's Death
Brother André died two months later on January 6, 1937 and nearly a million people lined up to pay respects to the little doorman of Notre Dame College.
Canonization
In 1978, Brother André was declared venerable and in 1982, Pope John Paul II declared him blessed. On October 17, 2010 the 'humble doorman' was canonized (the final step of sainthood) by Pope Benedict XVI in Rome.
Sources
Dubuc, Jean-Guy Brother André and Saint Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal. Strasboug, France: Editions du Signe. 1995.
Turcotte, Jean-Claude Cardinal. Montreal's Porter and Heaven's Gatekeeper. in Lampstand. Toronto: Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation. Fall, 2010.

Jerzy Popieluszko: A 20th Century Martyr

What were you doing in 1984? Were you using your new Apple personal computer which had just been put on sale in the US? Or were you watching The Space Shuttle Discovery take off on its maiden voyage? Perhaps you watched the winter Olympics in Sarajevo or the summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

While we were doing these rather mundane tasks, Polish workers were standing up to the Communist government in their country in what was called ‘the Solidarity Movement’. Some were imprisoned and others were killed for doing so. We occasionally heard news about Lech Walesa, and even about the visit of the new Polish Pope, John Paul II, to his country. But have you ever heard of Father Jerzy Popieluszko? Probably not. Most of the world did not hear all the events that took place in Poland at that time.

First let’s go back in history a bit further in order to better understand the events of 1984 -1989 in Eastern Europe.

World War II And After
In September 1939 Hitler’s Germany and Russia both invaded Poland and divided Poland between them. Germany later broke the agreement and invaded the Soviet territory causing Russia to join the Allies against Hitler.

During this terrible war three million Polish Jews died in the Holocaust and three million Polish non-Jews died in battle, in concentration camps and by execution.
But Poland’s suffering did not end when World War II ended. Poland, and other countries, were handed over to the Soviet Union by the Allied leaders who met at Yalta (1945). During the next 44 years of Russian occupation the Catholic Church in Poland was persecuted by propaganda campaigns and constant spying by secret police. Poles, even those who were not particularly religious before, looked to the Church as the center of their struggle for justice. Because of the strength of the Polish Church, the Soviets had to allow a certain amount of freedom to it which they did not in the other European countries they occupied. When Karol Wojtyla, the young Bishop of Krakow, was elected Pope in 1978, Poles celebrated with joy as they realized God had not forgotten them. But Communist leaders were very worried about the outcome. They feared that the Polish Church could become a huge problem.

Popieluszko’s Early Life
On Sept 14, 1947 a farmer and his wife in the small village of Okopy, welcomed their fifth child whom they named Alfons. A few years earlier, his mother had prayed that one of her sons would become a priest.
From the time he was seven the boy served as an altar boy in his parish church and, although he was not a brilliant student, he worked hard at his studies. His hero was Maximillian Kolbe, the priest who had sacrificed his life for another prisoner while in the Auschwitz concentration camp. At seventeen Jerzy Popieluscko (who by this time had changed his first name) applied to a seminary in Warsaw. Popieluszko was ordained in 1972 and served as a parish priest in the Diocese of Warsaw. Because he had a number of health problems; hyperthyroidism, anaemia and Addison’s Disease, he was frequently hospitalized but he still managed to fulfil his duties as a parish priest.

The Solidarity Movement
In 1980 he was asked to say Mass for striking steelworkers in Warsaw and he became the first priest to enter the front gates at the steel plant. Father Jerzy later told of this experience, “I was quaking. How would the workers receive me? Would there be a place appropriate for saying Mass? ... And then as I approached the gate, I was astonished. The crowds were smiling and crying and clapping. At first I thought there was somebody important behind me. But they were clapping for me - the first priest in the history of this plant to enter through the main gate. But it seemed to me that this applause was for the Church, which has been knocking at the gates of industrial plants over the past thirty years.” (from Companion booklet produced by Focus Producers and Ignatius Press and distributed with the DVD, Popieluszko).
As the chaplain of the Solidarity movement he not only said Masses but heard confessions, arranged for a regular pilgrimage for workers, travelled to Gdansk, led the public praying of the Rosary and organized relief effort and financial assistance for families of imprisoned workers. More than that, he became their friend.

Persecution and Martyrdom
The Polish government began to take notice of this young priest and had spies follow him everywhere. His sermons were taped and photos were taken during the Masses. Father Jerzy named his little dog, Snitch, in mockery of the secret police who constantly watched his apartment. False stories about Fr. Jerzy, which suggested scandal, were printed in newspapers and his apartment was bombed. In 1983 anti-government pamphlets and other material were planted in his apartment and ‘found’ during a search. He was promptly arrested and put into prison but Church officials were able to get him freed.
After an attempt to kill him in a car accident failed, Father Jerzy was kidnapped on October 13, 1984. Ten days later his badly beaten body was found in the Vistula River. A vigil of prayers for him had been kept by the people for those ten days and Masses had been said for him every hour. The grief of the people was kept under control by the public praying of the words, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”. The gatherings remained peaceful.

The Funeral
Father Jerzy’s funeral was the largest gathering of people in Poland since the Papal Masses during John Paul II’s visits. The leader of the Solidarity Movement, Lech Walesa, was permitted to speak in public to the 400,000 mourners. He said, “Solidarity is alive because you have given your life for it.”

The Struggle Ends
The non-violent struggle for freedom continued until 1989. Through the efforts of Pope John Paul II and other leaders in the free world, Communism in Eastern Europe finally ended. Poland was the first country to gain freedom.
Father Jerzy Popieluszko was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI on June 6, 2010. His grave is near the parish church, St. Stanislaw Kostka, in Warsaw where he served as a priest.

Sources

Ignatius Press and Focus Producers DVD Popieluszko: Freedom is Within Us. Directed by Rafal Wieczynski and starring Adam Woronowicz as Jerzy Popieluszcko. and Collector’s Companion Booklet. 2013
Museum website http://www.popieluszko.net.pl/english/muzeum_eng/index_eng.htm
Personal Travel notes.
Photos by L. Shelstad ©2013.

Who is Maximilian Kolbe?

  In July, 1941 a prisoner from one of the barracks at Auschwitz, the infamous Nazi prison camp, had disappeared. To discourage further escape attempts, the deputy camp commander picked ten men to die by starvation. Franciszek Gajowniczek, a Jewish man, was one of the men chosen. On knowing his fate he cried out in agony, "My wife! My children! I will never see them again." Nearby, Maximilian Kolbe stepped forward, "I am a Catholic Priest from Poland. I would like to take his place because he has a wife and children."
The Nazi camp commander could have refused or could have taken both to Block 13 for starvation but for some reason he agreed and Kolbe was thrown into the cell with the nine others whereas Gajowniczek remained in the barracks. Perhaps the commander considered Gajowniczek as more use alive as he was younger than Kolbe and would be able to work longer. Ironically, the missing prisoner, that had started the incident, was found dead in one of the latrines.
After three weeks of dehydration and starvation, only four of the men in Block 13 remained; one of them was Kolbe. Since the cell was needed for others, the guards gave each of the men an injection of carbolic acid.
Who Was Maximilian Kolbe?
Born Raymond Kolbe in 1894 in Zdunska Wola, Poland (then part of Russia) his parents were poor weavers. Kolbe had four brothers. In 1907, Kolbe and his elder brother illegally crossed the border into Austria-Hungary to join the Order of Conventual Franciscans. He took the name "Maximilian" at his first vows in 1911 and in 1912, he was sent to Rome where he studied philosophy, theology, mathematics and physics. He earned his doctorate in philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University and was ordained in 1918.

Before Auschwitz
During his time in Rome, Kolbe witnessed demonstrations against the Pope and decided to establish the Militia of the Immaculata (Army of Mary) to pray and work towards conversion of enemies of the Catholic Church. The organization published pamphlets, a monthly magazine (circulation of over one million) and a daily newspaper.
Kolbe also went to Japan where he founded a monastery near Nagasaki. He had been advised to build the monastery on one side of the mountain but instead built it on the opposite side. When the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, the monastery was not destroyed but would have been if it had been built on the other side.
He returned to Poland because of tuberculosis and there Kolbe provided shelter to a number of refugees, including 2,000 Jews. For this reason and because of the anti-Nazi literature he published, he was arrested on February 17, 1941 by the Gestapo.

Imprisonment at Auschwitz
Kolbe was transferred to Auschwitz on May 25, 1941. In the prison camp he heard confessions and acted as a spiritual guide to all those who came to him. He offered to die for Gajowniczek in July of that year. After the war, Franciszek Gajowniczek returned home to find his wife alive but his two sons dead. He died in 1995 at the age of 95.

Sainthood
Maximilian Kolbe was beatified in 1971 and canonized on October 10, 1982 by Pope John Paul II. The Jewish man he saved from death, Franciszek Gajowniczek was among those in the audience.

Sources:
Hallam, Elizabeth, (Editor) Saints. New York: Simon and Schuster 1994.
Marytown, National Shrine of Saint Maximilian Kolbe website, Accessed August 23, 2010
Jewish Virtual Library Website. Accessed August 15, 2010.
Auschwitz - Denmark website. Accessed August 15, 2010.
photo Seibo no Kishi、Eｘｔｒａ Issue of Jan. 1983

Kateri Tekakwitha: A First Nation's Saint

On October 21, 2012, a Mohawk woman who lived in North America in the 17th century, Kateri Tekakwitha. was recognized as a Saint. Here is her story. 

Who is Kateri Tekakwitha?
Kateri Tekakwitha was born in 1656 in what is now New York State. Of course, at that time the territory was the Mohawk nation as the United States of America did not exist as a country. Kateri’s mother was a Christian Algonquin who had been captured by the Iroquois. Her husband saved her from the fate of a captive by marrying her.
When Kateri was only four years old (some sources say six), her parents died of smallpox and she, too, contracted the disease. As a result, her face was badly scarred and she was left partially blind.
In 1667 two Jesuit missionaries from Quebec came and stayed with Kateri’s uncle. It was from them that she first learned about Christianity and believed. She lived a life of virtue in a place where carnage and debauchery were common. Furthermore, she resisted all efforts to marriages arranged by her relatives.
When she was eighteen she was baptized by Father Jacques de Lamberville and afterwards faced great opposition to her faith in her village. Kateri was her baptismal name, a form of 'Caterina' and previously she had been known only as Tekakwitha. Finally, a Christian friend helped her to escape to Kahnawake on the St. Lawrence River in New France (now Quebec). There her life, which she dedicated to God, and her deeds impressed both the French and her own people.
Kateri worked at the Mission of St. Francis Xavier until her death at the young age of 24.
It is said that she scourged herself and sat on hot coals to endure the suffering that Christ had endured and that this caused her early death. Critics have commented on an 'evil institution' that would require such acts. The Catholic Church does not require these acts but she did learn about this from those around her at the Mission. It was common at this time to increase one's suffering in order to partake in Christ's suffering. One can read about these scourgings in books written at the time. In the movie, Black Robe, which tells of the Jesuits in early Quebec, a priest scourges himself after being tempted. In today's world, it is difficult to understand this practice. Whether or not it hastened her death cannot be known for certain; life in those times was difficult in any case.
People who were present said that the scars from smallpox disappeared from her face almost immediately after her death and her skin was once again beautiful. People began to call her ‘The Lily of the Mohawks’. Devotion to her by Native Americans began shortly after her death and her grave was visited by many pilgrims. In 1884 a monument was erected to her memory by Rev. Clarence Walworth.
On January 3, 1943, Kateri was declared venerable by Pope Pius XII, the first step towards sainthood. On June 22, 1980, she was beatified by Pope John Paul II, the second step towards sainthood and in October 2012 she was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI raising her to ‘sainthood’. This means that the Catholic Church recognizes her as a saint - the Church does not make her a saint.
What then is a saint?
St. Paul addresses all those who are Christians as saints, for example, “to the saints in Colossae, our faithful brothers and sisters in Christ.” (Colossians 1:2) and so all Christians are in this respect ‘saints’.
Early in the Christian Church, it was seen that some Christians lived lives of extraordinary virtue. These people were then venerated or honoured in their local church and eventually, the Catholic Church began a process called ‘canonization’ by which these people could be recognized in a special way by all.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that all Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life; all are called to holiness. (CCC 2013) i.e. we are all called to be saints. Saints are examples of holiness and show us the kind of life we can lead. Instead of looking to movie stars and sports heroes, who often fail us, we can look to the saints for examples of how we should live.
Saints are also ‘companions in prayer’. Just as we ask our friends to pray for us we can ask the saints to intercede for us. One of the requirements for being recognized as a saint is a healing or other miracle, scientifically unexplainable, attributed to the intercession of the candidate for sainthood.
One miracle is required for beatification and a second is required for canonization. In the case of Kateri Tekakwitha, there were reported healings after her death. One case was that of a Protestant child, Joseph Kellog, captured by Native Americans in the 18th century. After he contracted smallpox the Jesuits were asked to treat him. The Jesuits used relics from Kateri’s grave and he was reportedly healed. Another priest reported that he had been healed of deafness after prayer to Kateri and a Native woman was healed of pneumonia.
In 2006 a half-native child in Washington State, Jake Finkbonner, had necrotizing fasciitis commonly known as ‘flesh-eating disease’. It was not responding to treatment and his family had already called a priest for the sacrament of the sick (formerly known as ‘the last rites’) expecting that he would not live much longer. They also made arrangements to donate his organs after his death. Mortality rates for necrotizing fasciitis are reported to be very high.
A Catholic nun, also a Mohawk, Sister Kateri Mitchell, brought a relic (see Matt 9:20-22 and Acts 19:11-12 about relics).  The relic was a fragment of a bone of Kateri Tekakwitha, placed it on Jake’s body and prayed with his parents asking for Kateri's intercession for healing. The next day the infection stopped its progression. There is no clear scientific explanation for the abrupt change in Jake’s condition and Jake and his family believe that his healing was due to Blessed Kateri’s intercession. Miracles to be used in the 'cause of saints' are investigated by a panel of experts in their field - they are not necessarily Catholics. 

 Jake is now 12 and, except for scars from surgery, he is fully recovered and is an enthusiastic basketball player. Jake and his family and other members of the Lummi tribe attended the canonization ceremony in Rome.

A saint would be the last person to claim that a healing or other miracle was ‘performed’ by them. The miracle is always done by the power of God and not the saint. The saint only intercedes for us and leads us to Jesus, the real Healer. Neither do Catholics ‘worship’ saints; worshipping anyone or anything other than God is a sin. We have pictures of our family members in order to remember them but we do not worship the pictures. In the same way, a statue of a saint is only a representation of the saint; it is not an ‘idol’.
Link to Residential School Abuse?
The media and commentators on some media sites suggested at the time that the Catholic Church had conveniently proclaimed Kateri Tekakwitha a saint in order to ‘pacify’ First Nations people for the abuse at Residential Schools. However, Kateri was recognized as someone with extraordinary virtue shortly after her death; schools and churches have been named for her for many years. Her sainthood cause (investigation of her life in order to see if should be declared a saint) was opened in 1932, long before residential schools were called into question and she was declared venerable in 1943. 

The abuse in Residential Schools was not publicly known until 1990. It was in that year that Phil Fontaine published a book, A Knock on the Door, about the sexual abuse he and schoolmates endured from priests, Indian Agents and the Mounted Police. Fontaine later became the leader of the Association of Manitoba Chiefs and he called for those involved in Residential Schools to acknowledge the abuse. A year later the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples was convened by the Canadian government. The timing of Kateri's canonization indicates that it had nothing to do with the ‘abuse’ and would have gone ahead even if there had been no scandals regarding Residential Schools.
First Nations People and Hope
An estimated 2,000 Native people from North America attended the canonization ceremony in Rome. Several of them were interviewed by the journalists. They expressed joy that a fellow First Nation's woman was raised to such an honour and said that this gave them hope. They mentioned how their people had asked for Kateri’s prayers for many years. The fact that there are many devout Catholics amongst the First Nations people of Canada suggests that not all students of residential schools had bad experiences at the schools. This, of course, does not wipe out the wrong that was done: abusing innocent children and tearing them away from their families. However, it should caution us not to paint all who worked in the schools with the same brush.
Another Native woman of the Carrier Nation, Rose Prince, who lived in British Columbia, may also be on the road to sainthood. When her grave had to be moved for construction, her body was found incorrupt. Relics from the gravesite have been reported in several miracles. Rose attended a Residential School in LeJac, BC and when her schooling was completed she asked to stay on and work there as she did not want to return to her home. Her cause to sainthood is being investigated.