Rest in Peace Mr. Ángel Fernández Fernández – Heartfelt Condolences to the Rector Major

by | Sep 15, 2021 | Death, RIP - Requiescat in pace, Salesian Family

15 September 2021 (ANS – Rome) – At 7 am today, 15 September, Ángel Fernández Fernández, the father of our Rector Major, Fr Ángel Fernández Artime, breathed his last after a long illness. Born in Luanco, Asturias, Spain, on 12 June 1932, he passed away after 89 years of life and 61 years of marriage, by the side of his mother Isabel Artime. The Rector Major, had a deep attachment to his father and recalls with affection some of his significant traits: “Every day, when the weather was good, he would go to see ‘his sea’. He started working as a fisherman at the age of 13 and continued until he was 78, accompanying and helping another young fisherman”. “He was a serene and calm man, with qualities that he might have acquired from his many hours spent alone at sea. He was simple, good-hearted, and very much committed to the family, and did not look for anything much to be happy. He was a tireless worker, and I feel like a novice in front of the master, when I compare myself to him,” added Don Ángel. Talking about the spiritual life of his father he stated: “Since he had...

Fr Eusebio Muñoz, SDB, has returned to the Father’s House

by | Sep 9, 2021 | Death, Salesian Family, Salesian News, Salesians of Don Bosco, SDB - RIP

02 September 2021 (ANS – Rome) – Fr Eusebio Muñoz, SDB, passed away at noon yesterday, 1 September 2021, at the “San Carlos” Clinical Hospital in Madrid. He was the Director of the Salesian Mission Office in Madrid and the former Central Delegate of the Rector Major for the Secretariat of the Salesian Family. After defeating Covid-19 a few months ago, he suffered a stroke and developed subsequent infection, which ultimately led to his death. With 76 years of age, 59 years of Salesian life and 49 years of priesthood, a Salesian with a capital “S” has left us. He was a man endowed with an overwhelming personality and great intelligence, who was and remains loved as a father from the many people lucky enough to to have lived with him. Fr Muñoz was born on 26 December 1944 in Pozoblanco, a Spanish town near Córdoba where the Salesian charism has ancient roots and which penetrated deeply into the soul of the young Eusebio. He completed his novitiate in San José del Valle and made his first profession on 16 August 1962 and his perpetual profession on July 26, 1968 and was ordained a priest on July 22, 1972....

Where Our Souls Go When We Die: A Thomistic Introduction to the Afterlife

by | Mar 24, 2021 | Death, Heaven

The empyrean heaven is a corporeal place, and yet as soon as it was made it was filled with the holy angels, as Bede … says. Since then angels even as separated souls are incorporeal, it would seem that some place should also be assigned to receive separated souls. — St. Thomas Aquinas, Supplement, 69, […] Source: Where Our Souls Go When We Die: A Thomistic Introduction to the...

ALL SOULS DAY

by | Nov 2, 2020 | Death, Eternal Life

FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD 31st Monday of Ordinary Time November 2, 2020 ALL SOULS DAY WORD of the DAY Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me, because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me. And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it [on] the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him [on] the last day.” (John 6: 37-40) How shall I live this Word? Looking at death as Christians is a very different thing from the widespread lamentation in front of an image worn by time, enriched by remembrances and affective memories. If many – perhaps most – look at death as the end of everything, at the cessation of every possibility, at the decay of every project, the Christian is called to read it in a different light....

Fr. Dominique Britschu, SDB – RIP

by | Mar 2, 2020 | Ad maiorem Dei gloriam and the salvation of souls!, Death, Obituary, Salesians of Don Bosco, SDB - RIP

Fr. Dominique Britschu, SDB (1932-2020) by Fr. Mike Mendl, SDB At the end of a long and distinguished priestly service in the Salesian Society, Fr. Dominique Britschu passed into eternity on February 27 at the age of 87.  He would have been 88 in three more days.  He had suffered a brain hematoma earlier in the month. Fr. Britschu was a professed Salesian for 65 years and a priest for almost 55 years.  His service had two important phases, one focused on the worldwide Congregation at the Generalate as a secretary and regional councilor, the other dedicated to priestly ministry in the Salesian parishes in Montreal.  He served in the Canada Vice Province/U.S. East Province from 1996 to July 21, 2018. Dominique Britschu was born in Strasbourg, France, on March 1, 1932, to Georges Joseph and Marie Angélique Britschu.  He was baptized five days later at Clinique Ste. Anne in Strasbourg. Dominique earned both a degree in classical literature in 1951 and his Bachelor’s in philosophy in 1952 at the Lycee Fustel de Coulanges in Strasbourg, after which he entered the Salesians at St.-Dizier, France, in 1952.  He made his novitiate at Dormans, France, in 1953-1954, and professed vows...