New statue at shrine carries on a tradition

HUMAN CONDITION

At about 5:10 p.m. on June 9, 1953, the whirlwind that came to be known as the “Worcester Tornado” crashed into Assumption College in Worcester , shrouding it with menacing, black-ink clouds and furiously pummeling it with fist-sized hail, driving rain and train-roaring winds.

When the skies abruptly cleared, the Greendale campus lay in ruin.

A priest and two nuns were killed.

Given the damage from the storm and the cost to rebuild, it looked like the decades-old presence of the Augustinians of the Assumption Order in Worcester was over.

On Saturday, August 28, the feast of St. Augustine, our father, in the outdoor pavilion of St. Anne's Shrine in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, thousands of miles away from their homeland, but surrounded by hundreds of their fellow countrymen, parishioners, friends, and members of the Assumption family, male and female, Brothers Clemente Boleche, Jr., Alex Castro, and Carlos Melocoton made their first vows, committing their lives freely and fully to God in the Augustinians of the Assumption. Their profession marks another important step in the dream of an Assumptionist foundation in the Philippines, scheduled for the summer of 2006. The ceremony was capped off by a delightful and delicious meal of Filipino dishes, including lechon (roast pig). Filipino song and dance followed, of course. Together with their brother, Ricky Montañez, who made his first vows in January in Chile, Clem, Alex, and Carlos will begin seminary studies at St. John's Seminary in Boston in September.

::PICTURE GALLERY

Brother Ricky "Ricardo" Montañez Cañet, A.A. made his First Profession of Vows at the Capilla San Antonio de Padua in Pomaire, Chile on January 4, 2004 along with 3 Brazilians: Bro. José Carlos da Silva, A.A., Bro. Luiz Antonio Quirino Adao, A.A. and Bro. Joao Gomes da Silva, A.A., and 2 Columbians: Bro. Carlos Gustavo Rick and his good friend and brother, Carlos Gustavo Silva Virguez, A.A. and Bro. Delimiro Ramon Jaime Pacheco, A.A. The mass and ceremony were presided by Rev. Fr. Miguel Fuentealba Melo, A.A., Provincial Superior (Chile-Argentina) and Rev. Fr. Marcos L

To all Assumptionists at Christmastime