In This Issue:

Ÿ         Words of Welcome

Ÿ         Upcoming Dates

Ÿ         Electronic Lay Movement

Ÿ         XII General Chapter

Ÿ         November 2000 lay symposium

Ÿ         News from Toronto, Montreal, Rhode Island and Cúcuta, Colombia

Ÿ         Forthcoming book on Mother Cabrini

Ÿ         Message from Bishop Scalabrini

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Mark Your Calendars

Ÿ         Holy Week this year is April 8 (Palm Sunday) to April 15 (Easter Sunday)

Ÿ         May 1-3, 2001, Provincial Assembly of the Scalabrinians’ Saint Charles Province.  A full report should be in the next newsletter.

Ÿ         May 24 is the Feast of the Ascension.  We should remember this feast in a special way, because Blessed Scalabrini died on this feastday, which was on another calendar day in the year of his death.

Ÿ         June 1.  Blessed Scalabrini died on this date at his episcopal residence in Piacenza, Italy, in 1905.

Ÿ         June 11.  On this date in 1888, Father Francesco Zaboglio sailed for New York City to prepare the way for missionaries coming later that year.

Ÿ         July 8.  Blessed Scalabrini born on this date in Fino Mornasco, Como, Italy, in 1839.

Ÿ         About July 9, 1887, Blessed Scalabrini organized a lay committee in Piacenza for the protection of Italian immigrants.

Words of Welcome

            Once, I overheard my pastor mulling over whom to ask to serve on a parish committee.  He mentioned several active, dedicated parishioners he would love to have.  Then he said he hesitated to ask them, because he knew they were also busy with their families, with work, and with other community projects.  In short, they were already being Christians in the world, and the Church needed that more than it needed them on parish committees.

            I have thought of that soliloquy often in connection with the Scalabrinian Lay Movement.  I am impressed that people who are already so active--so busy with families and work and community activities and other parish activities--set aside time for formation and for commitment to migrants.  I pray daily that everyone holds up under the strain!

            You all have helped me to realize that the Scalabrinian Lay Movement is not always additional work so much as it is a new way at looking at work I already do.  Many of my students are migrants, as are my fellow workers.  The fruits and vegetables at our neighborhood produce stand were picked by the hands of migrant farmers, are arranged on the shelves by Spanish-speaking workers, and are bagged for me by a Russian-born cashier.  Almost all of my everyday actions can be part of treating a migrant like a fellow human being.

            Perhaps the point of the Scalabrinian Lay Movement is to put people out in the world, to where God and the Church most need us to work.

Mary Elizabeth Brown