Southern Catholic College Has New Leadership

ATLANTA (July 16) – The Legion of Christ and Southern Catholic College (SCC) have now officially agreed to make the college a Legion institution.

“This is a great step for Southern Catholic and, we hope, for Catholic higher education in North America,” said Jeremiah J. Ashcroft, president of SCC. “With the Legion’s experience and leadership, we’ll be able to attract students from across North America and develop programs with institutions around the world. This expanded reach and support greatly enhances our ability to achieve our mission to prepare moral and ethical leaders who will enlighten society and glorify God.”

“We want to build on the great reputation SCC has established,” said Father Scott Reilly, LC, territorial director for the Legion. “There will be considerable sharing of best practices with our existing institutions. I expect that SCC will experience significant growth in the years ahead, as we can expand the availability of Catholic higher education to students from across North America.”

Southern Catholic College is a co-educational liberal arts college, Georgia’s first and only residential Catholic college. The school provides a learning environment for academic excellence grounded in the Catholic intellectual and moral tradition. SCC was founded in 2000 and has more than 200 students from 25 states on its campus in Dawsonville, GA, an hour north of Atlanta.

The Legion of Christ currently operates 15 universities, 50 institutes of higher education and 176 schools. It is present in 22 countries, with 800 priests and over 2600 seminarians worldwide.

For more information about Southern Catholic College, visit the web site at www.southerncatholic.org.

St. Kolbe Radio: Radio Niepokalanow

Radio good for dancing and praying

Artur Stelmasiak

Radio Niepokalanow celebrates its 70th anniversary. The radio, created by St Maximilian before the war, has numerous listeners today and a team of dedicated journalists who have continued the work of the holy Franciscan. Over 70 years ago (8 December 1938) St Maximilian Maria Kolbe uttered the first words on the air in a test programme. Thus Radio Niepokalanow (RN) became the first Catholic radio in Poland. Although the plans of the Franciscan broadcasting station were destroyed by the Second World War and then the long years of communism the idea of St Maximilian was restored successfully in independent Poland and nowadays the 70 year old radio experiences its second youth. ‘We are trying to make a radio that is good both for dancing and for praying. And I think we have succeeded’, says Fr Marek Wodka, deputy programme director of Radio Niepokalanow.

Live broadcast from the monastery

The inhabitants of the vicinity of Warsaw had to wait over 50 years to hear again the voice, ‘You are listening to Radio Niepokalanow, 102.7 FM’. ‘However, many things have changed since that time. The station has been granted a wider range and today it broadcasts between Lodz and Warsaw and Plock and Radom and in the city of Lodz on 98.6FM’, Katarzyna Bodych, programme director of the Radio informs. ‘But this is not the end. In the near future we want to be heard in central Poland and to the south of Lodz towards Czestochowa’, she adds. The Radio has been strongly promoting its on-line version www.radioniepokalanow.pl, thanks to which the radio can be heard all over the world. The new web page and a system of film cameras in the Niepokalanow monastery are almost completed. ‘Thanks to that one can watch what is going on in the radio studio, the basilica or the monastery. Of course, with the exception of the enclosure’, says Izabela Andryszczyk from the RN promotion office. Thus the radio wants to reach to the listeners and potential viewers who want to listen and see what is happening in Niepokalanow.

Not only prayer

The main studio is located in the so-called old western part of the monastery. ‘This building was erected before the war at the initiative of St Maximilian’, Katarzyna Bodych says. Currently, there are 24 people working in the radio. And in the opinion of its director they are the biggest success of the radio. ‘There is nobody that does not fit in with the team. These are really carefully matched people who enjoy working here’, Bodych thinks. The employees are also responsible for the unique atmosphere of the Franciscan radio. We have managed to create a very family, friendly atmosphere. And this atmosphere radiates on the radio waves. ‘Surely, our listeners like us for doing that’, stresses Fr Wodka.

You can experience the family atmosphere during a short visit to the radio studio. In the opinion of journalist Malwina Szymanska those who want to serve other people will find their way here. ‘Since if you want to do this job you should enjoy talking and meeting people. Every journalist should have a heart for people’, Szymanska says.

We look for good sensational news

The programme format is so prepared that everyone can find something for himself/herself. In the programme broadcast all day there is some time for prayer (e.g. daily Mass at 11.00 a.m., broadcast from the basilica) and for entertainment, journalism and good music. ‘Prayer and religious journalism will always be important elements of our programme but we want to meet other spheres of life. Man does not only live on prayer. And therefore, a Catholic radio should propose both reliable news and good entertainment’ Fr Wodka stresses.

An average listener to Radio Niepokalanow is at the age of 40-60. ‘We are glad that our listeners have been involved in social activities but on the other hand we try to win younger generation’, the Franciscan friar says. Therefore, the format has included more programmes for children and young people. One can find almost all radio forms in our offer. ‘We have not got only cabarets and radio plays’, the programme director explains. Journalists’ concern is to present good news from the region. ‘But we do not pick holes in the news. We do not want to kick anyone. We try to find positive sensational news, i.e. simply good news’, adds Izabela Andryszczyk.

Man is most important

Katarzyna Bodych says about herself that she is a local dinosaur. Since she has been working in the editorial board for long. She remembers very well the beginnings of the reactivated Radio Niepokalanow when she was proposed to work here in the middle 1990s. There have been various difficulties. The radio has tried to follow the technological novelties. ‘In the epoch of common computerisation things change so quickly that you do not even know what a modern radio should look like. There is even a certain temptation that like in other radio stations the work is done by computers instead of people. But we do not want that. It would be an insincere approach towards our listeners. Since people are most important to us, those who sit in the studio and those who listen to us in the solitude of their homes’, Katarzyna Bodych stresses.

Day in Radio Niepokalanow

6.30 -11 – Morning with Radio Niepokalanow, focused on national and regional news, press review and infotrafic (news for drivers). The programmes are interwoven with dynamic music.

Between 11 and 16 – Religious programmes. It begins with Mass broadcast from the basilica in Niepokalanow. There are also local self-government, cultural, religious-historical programmes and peaceful music.

Between 16 and 20 – Information-journalistic programmes; reports from the region of Mazowsze and from Lodz, Vatican Radio and cultural programmes.

20 – Evening programmes begin. Vatican Radio, the rosary prayed by the brothers from Niepokalanow, and after the Appeal of Jasna Gora there are various discussions and debates, live broadcast from the studio.

"Niedziela" 1/2009

Link (here)

Archbishop Gregory Of Atlanta Praises Legionaries

Mission Network Receives Honored Guest
By Trish Bailey

September 5, 2008. Atlanta, Georgia. On Thursday, September 4, the Mission Network headquarters in Atlanta opened its doors to receive Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory, who came to dedicate the altar of the chapel, leave the Blessed Sacrament to the tabernacle, and visit the team in our new offices. His visit brought inspiration and encouragement to the staff, and confirmed our sense of unity with the archdiocese.

The visit began with Mass at 10:00 a.m. Archbishop Gregory presided, with four Legionary priests and one diocesan priest concelebrating: Fr Scott Reilly, Fr Emilio Diaz-Torre, Fr Eamonn Shelly, Fr David Daly, and Fr John Howren of St Brendan’s parish in Cumming, Georgia. Legionary deacon Jacob DuMont also served during the Mass

During his homily, Archbishop Gregory commented on the first reading from Corinthians 3:18-23, saying that for all of us in the Church, the principle of unity and the focal point of our mission is always Christ.

“Christ is the center. Everything else is peripheral,” he said.

The dedication of the altar took place after the homily. Archbishop Gregory poured sacred chrism on the bare altar in the shape of three crosses, and then took a towel and carefully rubbed the oil into the surface of the wood. After the altar was dressed and prepared, the Mass continued in an atmosphere of fervent prayer.

Just before communion, Deacon Jacob DuMont carefully placed the consecrated host in the tabernacle to stay.

After Mass, Archbishop Gregory stopped for a photo with the entire staff outside and then took a tour of the offices. With his characteristic good humor and warmth, he teased the staff about their “new digs in the corporate world” and thanked them sincerely for their work.

The tour was followed by a 15-minute presentation about Mission Network, which coordinates a wide range of national apostolate programs serving children, youth, families, and vocations. The presentation also touched on the Regnum Christi Movement’s work in the field of education and mass media, and showed how our various programs and initiatives respond to the archdiocese’s mission objectives. After the presentation, Archbishop Gregory addressed the team with words of fatherly kindness, saying that the Legionaries and Regnum Christi members are a blessing in the archdiocese.

After saying with smile, “I wish you wild success,” he concluded: “I want you to know that your archbishop is pleased with you.”

For the team, these words were an encouragement to keep building up programs that serve the local church in the Atlanta and New York territories. The entire staff is extremely grateful to Archbishop Gregory for the inspiring visit, for his fatherly support, and for the lasting gift that he left us in the Blessed Sacrament.

Link (here).

Legion of Christ University In New York In Planning Stages

Legion of Christ withdraws New Castle seminary plan

By Elizabeth Ganga

The Journal News
NEW CASTLE - The Legionaries of Christ, a conservative Roman Catholic order with a worldwide network of schools and universities, has withdrawn an application dating to 1995 for a seminary for 465 students, faculty and staff on Armonk Road. The letter to the town of New Castle announcing the withdrawal of the special permit application did not state the reason for abandoning the long-standing plans but said the order reserves the right to submit a new application in the future.

In the meantime the Legion of Christ, as it is also known, is pressing ahead with an application filed last year to expand the activities permitted on its property, which hosts retreats and marriage preparation classes.

Jay Dunlap, a spokesman for the Legion, also did not give a detailed reason for the withdrawal of the seminary application. He said the order wanted to focus on the retreat center. The property was developed for that use and is well suited to it, he said. "It seems, at this point, more practical to be focusing on the retreat center uses," Dunlap said. He said he was not aware of any longer-term plans. The Zoning Board of Appeals, which had jurisdiction over the special permit, had given the Legion a July 1 deadline to begin moving the seminary application along or abandon it because the approval process had been suspended since April 2006. "The application had, we thought, become very stale," said David Levine, the former chairman of the Zoning Board. Neighbors, who have long opposed the seminary plans and complained in the past that the retreat center was used more than the current permit allows, said they were thrilled the seminary application was withdrawn. "From the start, we thought this was an untenable proposal," said Sharon Greene, a neighbor who has long followed its twists through the town approval process. Steve Krongard, another neighbor on Tripp Street, said he was concerned the expansion would have dramatically changed the neighborhood. "It's a very quiet street," he said. "It's a very dark street. At night you can see the stars." But even with the withdrawal of the larger proposal, the town still needs to look hard at the application for expanded events to understand exactly how the property will be used, Greene said. "I just think it needs to be brought out in the open what they're doing there," she said.

The Legion bought the property at 773 Armonk Road in 1994 from the Unification Church. It was previously owned by the Sisters of the Cenacle and before that by theater producer and songwriter Billy Rose.

A permit for a seminary for up to 100 students was granted in 1994 and the next year the Legion applied for the expanded seminary for 465 students and staff on the 98-acre property. In 1998, the Legion was granted a permit for retreats limiting the number of visitors and events, intended to be in place until the seminary was up and running. But for years the Legion has only intermittently pursued the seminary application, at one point substituting a plan for a center to train missionary women that was later withdrawn. The existing buildings - the old mansion, living quarters built by the sisters and a chapel - total about 70,000 square feet of space. The seminary plan would have added about 315,000 square feet in a dormitory, recreation building, classrooms and other buildings.

Next door in Mount Pleasant, the Legion has plans to build a university for 2,000 students and faculty on 165 acres

that is moving through approvals after hearings earlier this year on its environmental impact.

Link (here)

Photo is of Father Álvaro Corcuera, L.C.,

Legion Of Christ, Ordains 56 New Transitional Deacons

Nuncio ordains 34 legionaries to Diaconate
VATICAN CITY (Zenit.org): When one puts Christ at the center of his life, he thinks and speaks of nothing other than him and his Kingdom, the apostolic nuncio to Italy told 34 candidates to the diaconate of the Legionaries of Christ. Archbishop Giuseppe Bertello said this Sunday before ordaining the deacons in a liturgy held at the Center of Higher Studies of the Legionaries of Christ in Rome.

The diaconate is the first of three ranks in the ordained ministry, and the last step for seminarians before being ordained to the priesthood. "Jesus must be the center of our thoughts, the argument of our speech, and the model of our life," said Archbishop Bertello.

"If we truly have this contact with our Lord, we will think of nothing other than his Kingdom, we will speak of nothing other than him and his Kingdom, and we will make our life an apostolate, giving ourselves totally to God. "I am sure that each one of you has in his heart a spirit, a missionary ardor that is proper to your congregation." Ranging in age from 29 to 35, the deacons hail from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Spain, the United States, France, Italy, Mexico and Venezuela. An additional 15 Legionaries were ordained over the past few weeks in Mexico, the United States and Germany.

Six more will be ordained in Medellin, Colombia; Milan, Italy and Dublin, Ireland. In total, 56 Legionaries will be ordained to the diaconate during this period.

Sunday marked the 25th anniversary of the approval of the constitutions of the Legionaries of Christ. The congregation, founded in 1941 by Father Marcial Maciel, has 760 priests and over 2,500 seminarians.

Link (here)