Homily of Most Rev. Robert J. McManus, Bishop of Worcester
Assumption International Education Congress
Opening Mass / July 17, 2016

1. Saint John Paul II often states that for the person of faith, there is no such thing as pure coincidence or sheer good luck. Rather for the person of faith, every good gift comes from the Providence of God who only wills that you and I are healed, flourish and ultimately be saved. So it is providential that today as we gather to celebrate this Holy Mass on the campus of Assumption College whose motto is “…until Christ be formed in you” that the Church gives as our second liturgical reading St Paul’s Letter to the Colossians in which he insistently reminds that early Christians that in baptism, they have died with Christ and their very existence is rooted in the mystery of God in Christ alone is their hope for future glory. Yes, my dear Assumptionist friends, it is good for us to be here so as to enter more deeply into the mystery of the crucified and risen Christ who is our only hope of future glory.

2. During my 12 years as Bishop of Worcester, I have visited this campus many times and have come to learn something about the extraordinary life and ministry of Father Emmanuel d’Alzon. D’Alzon was a missionary priest who was on fire with the zealous conviction of faith that the Church, society and the academy could be transformed and significantly enriched “by extending the reign of Christ in our souls,” especially through education in all its various forms (First Constitutions, 1855).

Novena to Saint Anne - July 18-26, 2016 - pdf file

129^th Annual Novena to Saint Anne - pdf file

This past Saturday, July 2, 2016, a contingent of Assumptionists, family, and friends went to the Buenos Aires neighborhood of La Manuelita de San Miguel, in response to an invitation from the local Comisión de la Memoria por los desaparecidos (neighborhood Commission of Remembrance for the Disappeared), those who disappeared during the dictatorship of the years 1976 and 1982.

The invitation included a Mass in the nearby chapel of St. Francis Xavier where two of our Assumptionist brothers, Carlos Antonio Di Pietro and Raúl Rodríguez, had worshiped regularly Their ministry back in that period was social outreach in this neighborhood under the direction of Jesuits stationed at the Colegio Mäximo, whose director was a certain  Fr. Jorge Bergoglio.

40 years have passed since that fateful day of their disappearance, June 4, 1976, although the chapel and other buildings and rooms seem hardly to have changed.... apart from a few modifications to the chapel and the former Assumptionist house.