CC0605

Saint Lucia

June 2005
48th Year No. 6
Internet Edition
Page 3

Saint of the Month

Eucharistic Miracles
Stich, West Germany, 1970

by Sr. Theresa Corbie, S.J.C.

Stich is the smallest of three hamlets that form a parish located in the Bavarian region of West Germany near the Swiss border. In 1970, because the parish priest was ill, a visiting priest from Switzerland assumed his duties and prepared to celebrate a Tridentine Mass in the chapel of Stich at 8.00 in the evening of Tuesday, June 9, 1970.

After the consecration, the priest suddenly noticed on the corporal next to the chalice, a small reddish spot that soon grew to the size of a coin. At the elevation of the chalice, the priest noticed another red spot on the corporal at the place where the chalice had rested. Suspecting a leak, he quickly passed his hand under the base of the chalice, but found it was completely free of moisture.

At the end of the Mass the priest thoroughly examined the three cloths that covered the altar: the corporal, a small narrow cloth beneath it that served as a second corporal, and the long altar cloth. Since everything was completely clean no cause could be found for the unexplained appearance of the spots.

On Thursday, June 11, the stained cloths were more closely examined by the pastor and the Swiss priest. After being photographed, the cloths were sent to a chemical laboratory for analysis.

The results of the tests were conveyed to the priests by Sister Marta Brunner of the Polyclinical Institute of the University of Zurich. In her letter to them which was also signed by those who had conducted the test, she declared that the cloths had been handed over to four different persons engaged in analysis, without their being told a single word about what had occurred on the altar. She wrote:
“The results of the four analyses indicated that the stains were caused by human blood. In addition to this, the director of the clinical laboratory said that in his considered judgment the blood was most certainly that of a man in agony.”

On July 14, 1970, at 8 o’clock in the evening, the Swiss priest was scheduled to celebrate another Holy Mass, according to the Tridentine Missal, in the chapel of Stich. This date happens to have been the 40and anniversary of the issuance of Pope St. Pius V’s bull “Quo Primum” in 1570. In that document the Pope ordered that Mass throughout the world be said according to the Roman missal; bishops were thus no longer free to issue their own missals. The missal of Pope Pius V has come to be known as the “Tridentine” missal as it was issued as part of the reforms of the Council of Trent (1545 1563). Before beginning Mass the priest made certain that the altar stone, the altar cloths, the corporal and the chalice were absolutely clean and in good condition. Nevertheless, shortly after the Consecration red spots again appeared on the corporal.

The pastor decided to send the cloths of July 14 to the District Hospital of Cercee. The same precautions were taken, and nothing was said about the origin of the stains. The scientists were simply asked to identify the fluid that caused them. The results of the test were issued on August 3, 1970. The report stated briefly that the stains consisted of human blood. Many of the stains had a cross in the middle. In addition to this, both altar cloths were soaked with the same stain.

The Bishop of Augsburg, Joseph Stimpfle, appointed a commission of inquiry. The Swiss priest was asked to give all particulars of the two miracles. After study of the results of the scientific examinations and after interviews of the witnesses, the matter was referred to the Doctrinal Congregation in Rome.

The people of Stich feel privileged to have had two Eucharistic miracles occur in their humble chapel and as a result, have experienced a deeper reverence for the Holy Eucharist.

Sr. Patricia Ann Douglas, SJC

Patricia Ann Douglas was born on June 5 1946 in Portsmouth, Dominica, the sixth child of the sixteen children of Robert B. Douglas, RBD, and Bernadette Douglas. Her early education was in St. John’s School, Portsmouth, which was run by the ICM sisters.


Sr. Patricia Ann Douglas

She joined the family of St. Joseph of Cluny at the age of twelve, when the contingent of four Douglas sisters was brought by RBD to enter the boarding school of St. Joseph’s Convent, St. Georges, Grenada in 1958. All his daughters were fine, he told the sisters, but Pat was the jewel of the lot. And Patsy was a gem, bright, vivacious, talented, and a natural leader.

St. Joseph’s Convent, St. Georges was home for her until her graduation in 1964. She made fast friends there, among her peers and the sisters. Sr. Marie Joseph Gavin who had charge of the boarders was her “darling Mama” a title which adulthood and entry into the Congregation did not change.

Patsy was one of the thirteen who entered the Novitiate of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny, Arouca on February 11 1965. Bishop Boghaert of Roseau had been asking the Provincial Superior, Sr. Francis Xavier Urich to send sisters to his diocese, and he was promised a foundation once there were three Dominican sisters. Patsy, and her cousin, Sr. Sylvia Toulon were the first fruits of his prayers. Sr. Martha Sebastien is the third one and we do have a community in Portsmouth.

The thirteen were a dynamic, questioning group, the daughters of the sixties and of the reforms of Vatican Two. Theologically and socially aware, they challenged the structures of religious life and of its relations with the world, whose joys and griefs, hopes and fears were very much part of the life of the modern religious.

But life in the years of formation was not all serious. Patsy was a livewire, storytelling and wisecracking at recreation, and keeping the group of some twenty novices and postulants entertained with her repartee and sense of fun. Patricia Ann loved life, and her vitality never ebbed.

Preparation for service continued in earnest after Novitiate. Patricia Ann was sent on to Mt. St. Vincent University, Nova Scotia in 1967 to read for a Bachelor of Science degree, majoring in Chemistry. When she returned in 1971, she was sent to St. Joseph’s Convent, Castries, St. Lucia, 19 71 to 1973, after which she joined the staff of St. Joseph’s Convent, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. Here she taught chemistry and religion. The Renewal Movement was sweeping the region, and it appealed to Patsy’s warm and emotive nature. Shared prayer sessions and later Life in the Spirit Seminars, and Bible study became very much part of Patsy’s prayer life and she introduced many people in the community and the school to these forms of prayer and spirituality. She was a dedicated teacher and here as everywhere she went, she formed fast friendships with her colleagues, many of whom came to value the sterling person who hid behind the moodiness and high activity and occasional levity.

In 1975 Sister was transferred to St. Joseph’s Convent, Grenville, Grenada, where she remained until September 1980. Then came the final posting to Marriaqua Secondary School, in the Mesopotamia Valley of St. Vincent. Sister was to make this place her home and the scene of her missionary zeal until her death on May 20, 2005. She served in the school as principal, expanding the curriculum and extending the facilities to accommodate her vision for the youth of the region. She was particularly solicitous for the marginalized and the oppressed, providing a haven for young women and girls in distress of any kind. Her particular reading of the life of Blessed Anne Marie led her to resist any attempts that she judged would compromise of her efforts to improve the lot of women and girls.

In 1985, she completed her Masters in Education at the University of Birmingham, England, and she returned with renewed fervour to her post and so immersed herself in her work of expansion, improvement and diversification of her ministry there that she could not accept her superiors’ requests that she take up responsibilities for schools of the Province in Grenville in 1993, and later in 1999 in Castries, St. Lucia. Marriaqua School, now renamed St. Joseph’s Convent, Mesopotamia could not exist without her vision and dynamic support.

And indeed, Sr. Patricia Ann did not spare herself. Youth work in and out of school, World Youth days, retreats, catechesis, human and social development programmes, procurement and distribution of resources for the feeding, training and advancement of young people are but some of the tasks to which she devoted herself.

Sr. Patricia Ann was blessed with gifts of organization and leadership. She was persuasive and would not be stopped by the constraints of time, space, money or approval from carrying out those projects she set her heart on doing. People loved her, and she found support for her many projects from persons and agencies near and far.

Sr. Patricia Ann loved the Church, she was a close collaborator of the leadership of the diocese of Kingstown and the local church benefited from her organizational and entrepreneurial ability. She tried to penetrate the teachings of Scripture by her meditation on the Letters of St. Paul and by pilgrimages to the places hallowed by the Apostle.
Patsy loved life. Vivacious, blessed with an attractive personality and a capacity for enjoyment, she loved to travel, to meet people and to engage in argument and discussion. Ill health troubled her often during her life, but she dealt with the presenting problem and pressed on. She was often so busy that she deferred taking care of herself in favour of her ministry. Even when, at the insistence of friends and family she stopped to attend to her evident ill-health two years ago, she prayed to God for full restoration, or that He take her to himself. She would accept no half measures. She had too much to do.

Patsy loved her family. She was first and last a Douglas. It is in character then that her death occurred in the context of her family. Swift, painless and surrounded by those she loved was the way she left this life to meet her Lord, the God she had sought to serve in the Congregation for 37 years – a short life as sisters go, but a full and rich life. Many people have been blessed by her life. We have a responsibility to pray that she may soon hear her Divine Bridegroom say to her, “Veni, sponsa Christi”, “Come, bride of Christ”, and offer her the reward reserved for those who do the Will of the Father. May we not fail in our responsibility.

Savouring the Texture of Caribbean Plurality
12th Annual Conference on Catholic Theology in the Caribbean Today


Participants of the Twelfth Conference in front the chapel built on the site of Blessed Peter Donders’ Church

The tourist brochures proclaim it loud and clear : ‘Suriname the beating heart of the Amazon’ and “a multicultural society at its very best.” It sounded like empty boast, until we arrived in Paramaribo for the 12th Annual Conference on Catholic Theology in the Caribbean Today, which ran from May 30th – June 3rd, 2005. There one experienced a tapestry of cultures unparalleled in the rest of the region. It was the right location for our conference on the theme “Being Church in a Plural Society”.

The local coordinators, Peter Sjak-Shie, Duncan Wielzan and Paul Tjon Kiem Sang, went out of their way to make sure we understood what they mean by saying that despite their different backgrounds they are “proud to be ‘wan pipel’: one people!” Our participants who came from Jamaica, Barbados, St. Lucia, Grenada, Trinidad & Tobago and USA were exposed to different cultural groups representing the Maroons, the Javanese and the Indigenous Peoples, (the Caribs), as well as to a variety of cuisines. Even the locally designed chasuble worn by Bishop Wilhelmus de Bekker as he presided at the opening Mass of the conference mirrored the cultural diversity.


Fr. Esteban Kross describes the Life and Ministry of Blessed Peter Donders, C.S.S.R.

The richness of the Surinamese immersion became even more evident as local presenters, Duncan Wielzen (“Popular religiosity in a plural society”) and Peter Sjak-Shie (“Catholic education in a plural society”) shared their struggles and challenges. Their insights and reflections were supported by the Surinamese participants at the conference, among whom were Catholic clergy, pastoral workers, catechists, and some pastors from the Dutch Reformed and Moravian Churches. It was true that Surinamers ‘pray together , dance together and share a joy of life’ and that here “temples, mosques, churches and a synagogue sit comfortably side beside a Bahai centre and a freemason’s lodge.”

The Surinamese presentations provided an interesting backdrop for comparative analysis of the dynamics of plural society in other parts of the Caribbean such as could be gleaned from other papers presented during the conference. These included Jason Gordon’s study of Trinidad carnival “Being Church in a Plural Society—Carnival and the Church : Testing Plurality, Forging Hybridity,” Martin Sirju’s two case studies of “Religious double-belonging among Catholics in Trinidad”, Henry Charles’ thoughts on morality in a plural society entitled “Moral Theology and Moral Public Policy” and Anna Kasafi Perkins’ “En/gendering church in a plural society: a Jamaican reflection.”

Besides those papers which dealt specifically with the theme of the conference, there were other presentations on areas of specialization, pastoral need and ongoing research. Both Stephen Geofroy (“Exploring the Epistemic Dimensions of the ‘Culture of Unresponsibility’”) and Martin Schade (“Understanding the self and critical thinking in the church of a plural society”) continued to share insights from their doctoral research with their colleagues. Linda Wyke (“Walking the Christ Journey: Coming Home to Christ—Living in Christ”) looked at her experience with an RCIA programme in Trinidad, while Curtis Moise OP, a Barbadian seminarian, gave a theological appraisal of a pastoral project in Gonzales, Trinidad. There were two presentations based on poetry. Patrick Anthony’s ongoing research on Derek Walcott was presented in multi-media form under the title “Eucharistic Symbols in Derek Walcott’s The Prodigal”, while Rose-Ann Walker explored the theological implications of poems recently published by two Trinidadian Catholic women, Marie Ursula Raymond and Jennifer Rahim. Her paper was entitled “Poetry as a medium for being Church in a plural society: Two articulations.”


Cultural immersion: Maroon dancers

During the conference there were three business meetings which looked at outstanding issues such as publications, the website, relations with the AEC, date, place and theme of the next conference. One of the meetings was with the AEC’s liaison with the conference, Bishop Malzaire, who offered his diocese as venue for the next conference. The invitation was accepted. And so the next conference will be held in Dominica under the theme “The Challenges of Being Catholic in the Caribbean Today.” The 12th Annual Conference came to a fitting climax with a visit to Batavia, the site of the leper colony of Blessed Peter Donders, and the celebration of our closing Eucharist in the chapel where his church once stood.