(300) 2024: The Year of the Baby in Our Extended Family

 AMDG

From left to right Daniel, Anselm, & Stefcia Spiotta, her brother Joseph visit their Aunt Marycia & her son Mihal Pozoga in Kielce, Poland.  Then follows Elizabeth, Juan Pablito, & John-Paul, his godson Adash, his Uncle Janusz Pozoga and grandson Krisztof at his side.   May 2023 was their last chance for Juan Pablito and Anselmito to fly free before reaching their second birthdays on May 26 and May 29.  Here they are visiting a medieval castle in Poland.

 

      May 2023 our daughter Stephanie Sebastian Spiotta (Daniel) and daughter-in-law Elizabeth Herrera Sebastian (John-Paul) together with their respective families visited relatives in Poland (see above photo). It was their last chance for their toddler sons (Anselmito and Juan Palblito respectively) to travel free (less than two years old fly free).

       During their visit they made a pilgrimage to the great shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa. Both asked Mother Mary to intercede that each have a child.  Guess what? A couple of weeks after returning to the U.S., they were both pregnant!  This past February 27 Sophia Rose was born to Elizabeth and John-Paul.  Exactly one week later on March 5 Antonina Frederyka (named after her great grandmother and grandmother respectively) was born to Stephanie and Daniel.  They are truly Mary’s babies.

After considerable prayer by many people, Naomi and John Faro gave birth to a beautiful rainbow baby, Bennett James on July 28. The Lord indeed answers prayers!  Let us all prayerfully trust in His will which is somehow for the best in the long run. 2024 has become for us the Year of the Baby.  Thank you, Lord!

       Naomi and John previously kept it as a secret the sex of the baby they expected.  They kept us guessing until Naomi’s friends threw a baby shower/gender reveal party on June 15.  Everything was either pink or blue……dishes, utensils, balloons, etc. Each person was supposed to predict boy or girl.  I predicted girl because I heard they already had a name for a girl but not a boy. In the afternoon they took us out to the back yard and John shot off a toy cannon and out came a rain of blue confetti. The secret was revealed. It was a beautiful fun filled day.  What a great party that Naomi’s classy friends threw. Lizzy, her Franciscan University roommate came all the way from Boston! 

      So we were very busy with our babies……spending time in Front Royal, VA, Irving, TX, and Durham, NC.  As with Juan Pablito and Anselmito, Jaga was super in helping out with baby care, grocery shopping, and cooking.  You know, been there done that in helping the women to adjust to a first or second baby.  During this time I have been official dish washer and help out with babysitting.  

       I really appreciate Jaga more than ever now since she made it look so easy and I took her for granted in raising our four children, John-Paul, Stefcia, Naomi, and Joseph while working as a nurse 20 hours a week and when I was a full time professor at the University of Rio Grande, she took care of my ailing and aging mother who died in our living room at the age of 97 several months after a severe stroke.  She wanted no part of a nursing home and was happy sitting at the kitchen table and watching the kids run around.  Kathleen (four kids) and Kate (8 kids) were also super moms who we also tended to take for granted at the time.  And of course Elizabeth, Stephanie, and Naomi are doing great jobs, the first two handling a toddler and a baby and Naomi is adjusting to motherhood at all hours of the day and night.

 

      All five grandchildren are or will be familiar if not conversant in three languages.  Children are unusually gifted at language. Jaga speaks to them only in Polish (as John-Paul and Stefcia also do to some extent) and I speak to them only in Spanish. 

      The five grandchildren seem to be developing nicely with their share of crying and tantrums plus waking up at night.  Anselmito loves to put on shows for his little sister.  He loves to make her laugh by making faces and dancing. We’re happy that Juan Pablito and Anselmito have adapted well to the arrival of their new baby sisters. 

Bright eyed Sophia Rose Herrera Sebastian, born February 27.

Family picture of Elizabeth Herrera Sebastian, Sophia, John-Paul Sebastian, & Juan Pablito.

Antonina Frederyka Spiotta, born a week after her cousin Sophia on March 5, is baptized at St. John the Evangelist Church in Front Royal, VA.  Holding the baby are her godparents, Isaac and Julia Easton.  Looking on is their son. Charlie.  

From left to right are Daniel, Anselmito, and Stephanie Sebastian Spiotta.  Jaga Gajda Sebastian is holding her granddaughter Nina, followed by her Aunt Naomi Sebastian Faro, Grandfather Paul, and Uncle Joseph Sebastian.

Just arrived Bennett James Faro on July 28.  

Benito with his proud mother, Naomi and father, John Faro.  It was a tough ordeal for both mother and baby, but they made it with flying colors.  Welcome, welcome Benito to planet Earth!

       Please pray for my younger brother Deacon John (82).  He has fought Rheumatoid Arthritis for several years.  Now he is recovering from a new ailment.  His bone marrow is not producing red blood cells and thus has had 17 blood transfusions.  His energy level is minimal.  On top of that he is getting over a bad case of cellulitis in his badly swollen left leg that hospitalized him for a week.  He has handled it all with exemplary faith and courage.  John keeps saying that he’s grateful because “many others have it a lot worse”.  I have Stage Four kidney disease.  If it stays the way it is, I can live with it.  I can still walk two miles a day, but slow.  My filtration rate is way down and my bone marrow produces protein and not enough red blood cells.  So I can also use some prayers.  Please continue to pray for Kathleen, who had severe balance problems because of liquid around the brain.  The doctor put in a shunt and it seems to be working as she continues to recover beautifully.

 

      John has done a great job as deacon.  Read one of his homilies that received accolades.

(259) A Veteran Speaks Out on Patriotism and Wokism......... By Deacon John V. Sebastian Sr. in His Veterans      Day Homily  https://paulrsebastianphd.blogspot.com/2021/11/259-veteran-speaks-out-on-patriotism.html

Please also pray for my best friend, Joe Ladik; we were classmates at Carnegie Mellon U.  He was president of our Catholic Newman Club.  An avid gardener, he lost his balance and his head struck a rock.  That left him paralyzed from the neck down.  Shorty after that he lost his wife Carole, the former head of pharmacy at Pittsburgh’s Penn Magee Hospital, due to cancer.  For over three years Joe has heroically carried this huge cross while his son Jeff so faithfully takes care of him.  He continues to offer this great cross to the Lord and I am sure all of that is making a saint out of him.

 

      John-Paul, a great Math teacher, got burnt out doing it and elected to work from home for Pennymax, a mortgage broker. Very fulfilling is helping customers to manage huge debt and be able to keep their homes.  Qualified in actuarial science plus Excel and always a whiz at Math, he is allowed to work from home.  He’s done very well in that and has an excellent way with customers.  They have written glowing feedback reports and John Paul was commended by his immediate superior.   He’s a member of St. Basil’s Byzantine Catholic Church in Dallas and is a member of their choir.  It’s gratifying that he’s following our Byzantine Catholic heritage that his great grandfather, Fr. Vladimir Mihalich handed down.

 

      Daniel continues as professor of Literature at Christendom College, one of the very few Catholic Christ centered colleges, true to its founding mission.  His dissertation is slow, but hopefully sure. It’s so hard to teach full time, raise a family, and get the dissertation done.  Daniel is so gifted. Both John-Paul’s family and Stephanie’s family are so blessed to have full time mothers.  And it looks like Naomi will do the same except for some part time work.  Both Stephanie and Elizabeth are former teachers.

  

      John Faro is a full time medical doctor with a residency in radiology at Duke University, perhaps the best nationally in that field.  The work is demanding, but after a year of general interning in Dayton’s Kettering Hospital, he is in his second year of radiology residency with three more to go.  He will be among the country’s top radiologists in no time.  He’s blessed with a brilliant mind, patience, and perseverance.  Naomi had been a labor & delivery nurse in Cincinnati dealing with problem pregnancies.  In Durham, North Carolina she has been a pediatric nurse over the last year in the Duke University Health System. 

 

       Joseph, a Ohio State graduate in Engineering & Computer Science, is a program developer for Epic that computerizes patient records.  Although he had only one year at Franciscan University, he had an even better formation with St. Paul's Outreach which has something like fraternity and sorority houses on a number of college campuses.  They received good formation in community living and go out and bring in other students for dinner and Bible studies.  For the past two years Joseph has been a software Engineer for Microsoft in Atlanta.  He’s been so faithful with his weekly telephone calls to us.  He manages to attend every family function (Baptisms, weddings, Christmas, Easter, etc.).  All of them have been faithful Catholics.  May it continue that way, I pray. 

        As a team Jaga and Paul continue to bring Holy Communion to the sick every Sunday, pray with them, and give moral support.  We encourage them to trust in the Lord and to unite their crosses with the Lord's cross, offering it all to Him as a dynamic prayer for the conversion of sinners as Mary requested at Fatima, for the world, for the Church in crisis, and for their loved ones.  Research shows that patients who spiritualize their suffering, do better.  Then suffering has meaning and purpose, becoming productive and more bearable. Suffering born with patience, faith, and trust is a path to sanctity. See

http://paulrsebastianphd.blogspot.com/2014/02/133-lourdes-and-world-day-of-sick.html . 

 

      Jaga gave up her role as First Communion teacher to give time for our grand babies, but she still helps out at a weekly soup kitchen and another on the last Sunday of the month before the welfare checks arrive.  Paul writes blurbs and inserts for the church bulletin and his blog at (http://paulrsebastianphd.blogspot.com).  He’s also very active in the Knights of Columbus.

 

      Another big event in our family was the reception of our son-in-law, John Faro into the Church.  I don’t remember sharing it.  We told him not to convert unless he truly believed.  Read about it at

 

(282) AN UNFORGETTABLE EASTER VIGIL…… Our Son-in-Law Is Received Into the Catholic Church                     https://paulrsebastianphd.blogspot.com/2023/07/282-unforgettable-easter-vigil-john.html  

Every January, the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion in 1973, I participate with about 300,000 other pilgrims in the March for Life in Washington.  See details at of one of them at http://paulrsebastianphd.blogspot.com/2018/02/203-diversity-as-east-meets-west-at.html.  In the past we've had all kinds of bad weather.......rain, sleet, snow, and bitter cold, including being stuck on the Pennsylvania Turnpike for 18 hours.  But the weather for the 2018 March was absolutely beautiful.  I usually devote a blog for each March.  On the eve of the March there's a standing room only crowd for a Mass at the huge Basilica of the Immaculate Conception.  The fellowship is always great.  During a break I meet with my godson, Danny Turk in the Archives Building.

 

To close you might be interested in a couple of my more recent blog articles.  The first is perhaps the best I’ve ever written….what one can do during Eucharistic Adoration and a meditation on the great love of God for each one of us.

 

        (293) “A Forty Hours Eucharistic Meditation: The Greatest Love Story of All Time and True”

   https://paulrsebastianphd.blogspot.com/2024/08/293-forty-hours-eucharistic-meditation.html

    On July 17-21 the very successful National Eucharistic Congress was held as part of the National Eucharistic Revival.  Over 54,000 people attended, many of whom made walking pilgrimages from the extreme north, south, west, and east.  The following article blog tells all about it with photos and videos of the talks.  

(291) It's Over But You Can Still Attend the National Eucharistic Congress Via EWTN On Demand and Youtube: Be a Eucharistic Missionary and/or Knight of the Eucharist

            https://paulrsebastianphd.blogspot.com/2024/07/291-attend-10th-national-eucharistic.html

       We just celebrated Labor Day not long ago and below is a Labor Day reflection on how the economy works and the role of the worker in it.

(267) “THE FRUITS OF YOUR LABOR IN THE ECONOMY: A Labor Day Reflection From a Christian World View, a Simple Model of How the Economy Works”

             https://paulrsebastianphd.blogspot.com/2022/09/267-fruits-of-your-labor-in-economy.html  

(299) The Sacred Heart of Jesus: the Symbol of Christ's Intense Love For Each One of Us and the New Knights of Columbus Pilgrim Icon Program

AMDG 

The 1767 painting of the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Italian artist Pompeo Batoni was chosen to be restored and reproduced by the Knights of Columbus for visits to the many councils as the centerpiece of the Order’s upcoming Pilgrim Icon Program in 2025.  

    The Knights of Columbus is launching a new Pilgrim Icon Program in 2025 centered on the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The new prayer program — announced by Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly at the 142nd Supreme Convention in August — coincides with the 350th anniversary of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque’s visions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which began around 1674 in France.       

Our Lord’s apparitions to St. Faustina and message of divine mercy almost three centuries later in the 1930s reinforce that message of intense love for each one of us.  The Divine Mercy devotion focuses more on the meditation of our Lord’s passion.  Furthermore, our Lord promised that when the Divine Mercy Chaplet is recited in the presence of a dying person,  He would come to him/her.  In those apparitions Christ made many revelations to St. Faustina which as instructed, she recorded in her book, “The Diary of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul”.

“Our Lord reminded [St. Margaret Mary] of that ancient and beautiful devotion, and she shared that gift with the world,….In the heart of Christ, we see the heart of the Father, and we ask Our Lord to help us make His heart our own, so that we may see and love in others what He sees and loves in us. That is what the world needs. And on the 350th anniversary of St. Margaret Mary’s visions, we will make this mission our own”, Patrick Kelly emphasized.

Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly speaks about the Order’s new pilgrim icon of the Sacred Heart at the Midyear Membership Meeting of State Deputies on Nov. 3 in National Harbor, Md.

The Order’s founder, Blessed Fr. Michael McGivney, had a deep devotion to the Sacred Heart.  Since childhood his family had in their home an ornate devotional plaque of the Sacred Heart that is still in the Order’s possession.   In 1881, when Father McGivney accompanied convicted murderer Chip Smith to the gallows, this man on Death Row wore a Sacred Heart badge given to him by the priest.  A century later, when Father McGivney’s body was exhumed in 1981, it was discovered that he had been buried with a cloth image of the Sacred Heart.

The Knights selected a painting of the Sacred Heart by Italian artist Pompeo Batoni, located in Rome’s Church of the Gesù, to be the centerpiece of the new pilgrim icon program.  A copy of the image, blessed by the papal almoner, will soon be given to each K of C jurisdiction and, beginning in 2025, will travel from council to council, serving as the focus for prayer throughout the Order, perfect for the Holy Year of Hope.  The Knights did the same with over 100 reproduced copies of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe a few years ago.              

Supreme Chaplain Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, with Supreme Officers and other K of C leaders, celebrates a votive Mass of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Sacred Heart Chapel of the Church of the Gesù in Rome on Oct. 23. Earlier in 2024, the chapel’s 1767 painting of the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Italian artist Pompeo Batoni was chosen to be restored and reproduced for visits to the many councils as the centerpiece of the Order’s upcoming Pilgrim Icon Program in 2025. 

During their visit to Rome for the unveiling of the newly restored baldacchino in St. Peter’s Basilica, Supreme Knight Kelly and other Supreme Officers gathered Oct. 23 at the Church of the Gesù for a votive Mass of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, celebrated by Supreme Chaplain Archbishop William Lori.  Jesuit Father James Conn, superior of the Pontifical North American College’s Casa Santa Maria, concelebrated and gave the homily.  The 325-year-old side chapel in which they gathered was renamed the Chapel of the Sacred Heart in 1920 when Batoni’s 1767 painting was placed above the altar. The Supreme Council had agreed to sponsor the restoration of the chapel, including Batoni’s painting, in honor of the 350th anniversary celebration.

In his homily, Father Conn called devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus “the symbol of the boundless and passionate love of God for humankind” and reflected on the all-encompassing intentions of the traditional “Morning Offering” prayers to the Sacred Heart.  “It occurred to me that that is what we seek as we contemplate the intentions of the Most Sacred Heart: What is it that he desires of us and the world, seeking to redeem all mankind?  It is our privilege, not just to reproduce this image, but to reproduce the reality of the boundless and compassionate love of God in our own lives and in our care for our brothers and sisters.” 

Pope Francis echoes these themes in his new encyclical dedicated to the Sacred Heart, Dilexit Nos (He Loves Us), which was published the following day, Oct. 24.  “The heart of Christ, as the symbol of the deepest and most personal source of his love for us, is the very core of the initial preaching of the Gospel. It stands at the origin of our faith, as the wellspring that refreshes and enlivens our Christian beliefs.”     

Knights process with the Sacred Heart pilgrim icon during a Mass and Holy Hour on January 3 at St. Mary’s Church where our founder Blessed Fr. Michael McGivney served in New Haven, Connecticut. (Photo by Paul Haring) 

    The Supreme Knight reflected on the Sacred Heart of Jesus in light of the encyclical, encouraging all Knights to make devotion to the Sacred Heart a priority in their families.  Every home should have an image of the Sacred Heart in a prominent place of honor for the family as part of your domestic church.  

    “Devotion to the Sacred Heart is simple — it reminds us of God’s love for us. And it’s meant to inspire our love in return for Christ.  In many ways, this encyclical is perfect for the Knights of Columbus.  Pope Francis writes that we live in a fragmented and divided society, but the heart of Christ is a unifying center.  The heart of Christ is the source of truth and goodness that we all need”.

An artist’s depiction of an apparition of Our Lord to the Visitation Nun, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque at the Monastery of the Visitation at Paray-le-Monial near the Loire River in East Central France.  Today the monastery is a shrine for all to visit and pray.  Notice the parallel with the image of Divine Mercy.  In 1830 and again in 1864 her body was exhumed and her brain continued to be incorrupt 174 years after her death.  Amidst controversy and scrutiny the Jesuits championed her cause, devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Communion on First Fridays, Eucharistic Adoration Holy Hour on Thursdays, and celebrating the Feast of the Sacred Heart), which was officially recognized by the Church 75 years after her death.  The Sacred Heart of Jesus is the symbol of our Lord’s intense love for every one of us.  St. Margaret Mary is the patron saint of devotees of the Sacred Heart, and those suffering with polio and from the loss of parents.  Her feast day is celebrated on October 16.

      Our Lord made and astounding promise to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690 & Canonized 1920).  In a series of visions between 1673-1675, He revealed the wonders of His love and asked her to spread the treasures of His goodness.   "I PROMISE you in the excessive mercy of My Heart that My all-powerful love will grant to all those who shall receive Communion on the First Friday in nine consecutive months the grace of final penance; they shall not die in My disgrace nor without receiving their sacraments; My Divine Heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment”.  

    In this new year let’s resolve to make the nine First Fridays this year and again next year in honor of the Sacred Heart.  Let’s promote this devotion!    

    In another vision, Margaret Mary also stated that she was instructed to spend an hour every Thursday night from 11 pm to midnight in prayer, known as a Holy Hour of Eucharistic Adoration in honor of Christ's agony in the Garden of Gethsemani with meditation, particularly appropriate on Holy Thursday.  Eight days after the Feast of Corpus Christi we observe the Feast of the Sacred Heart.

(298) Philip Hannan: From World War II Combat Chaplain 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment 82nd Airborne Division to Archbishop of New Orleans

 AMDG

Chaplain Philip Hannan of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82^nd Airborne Division in World War II, making parachute jumps with his men and serving God, Church, and Country

Born to an Irish-American family in the Washington D. C. area in 1913 of immigrant parents.  Patrick, his father, started out as a plumber and soon had a prosperous business of his own.  Young Philip showed great promise in the secular world.  He was captain of the award winning cadet company at his St. John’s College High School in Washington.  Instead of opting for West Point, he surprised everyone by choosing to go to the seminary.    

       His priestly studies took him to St. Charles in Catonsville, MD, Sulpician Seminary at Catholic U where he graduated in 1936 with a Master’s degree, and then was sent by his Bishop to study Theology at the Pontifical North American College in Rome from 1936-39.  He saw the rise of Fascism in Europe while studying and traveling during breaks, including to Nazi Germany.  He later received a doctorate in Canon Law from Catholic U. 

      On December 8, 1939, Philip Hannan was ordained a priest in Rome for the Baltimore Archdiocese which included Washington at the time.  In 1940 American seminarians were ordered by the Government to return to the U.S. because of the war.  He was then assigned as a parish priest at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Baltimore.  He described his experience in the book he wrote, “Rome: Living under the Axis”.

Chaplain Fr. Philip Hannan ready for a jump with the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division During World War II

    Once the U.S. entered World War II, Fr. Hannan had to do his part and enlisted as an Army chaplain in 1942.  He considered his assignment in Florida to minister to recruits as being confining.  Thus he made a number of requests to be sent to the front lines where he was the most needed and could do the most good.  Finally, Chaplain Hannan served with the men of 505^th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82^nd Airborne Division. 

     He was in the thick of it at the Battle of the Bulge and the Ardennes Offensive, where he ministered to the paratroopers.  Chaplain Hannan tended to wounded men, Americans and Germans alike. He spoke in awe of his fellow officers: “They were absolutely admirable…It didn’t matter to them if the wounded were German or American; if they were alive they would bring them into the hospital.”  

      He felt a very different type of awe when weeks later his unit entered a concentration camp, an experience he would never forget as he witnessed the liberation of starved prisoners at the Wöbbelin concentration camp in Ludwigslust, Germany. 

         When hostilities ended, Chaplain Hannan played a major role in preserving the priceless art and relics in the historic Cologne Cathedral from looting, after being badly damaged by bombs and street fighting.  Through negotiations with the German Archbishop of Cologne, Chaplain Hannan was made temporary protector and pastor of the ancient Cologne Cathedral in order to both preserve the artwork and minister to the troops of the 505^th PIR during the occupation.  This Army chaplain remained a revered member of the Cologne Cathedral for the rest of his life.

Continuing to serve God, Church, and Country as Archbishop of New Orleans until his death at the age of 98 in 2011 (Archbishop Emeritus since his retirement in 1988).

       After being discharged, Fr. Hannan returned to the United States and served the Catholic community as a parish priest.  In 1951, he founded the Catholic Standard diocesan newspaper in Washington and served as its editor-in-chief before being chosen Vice-Chancellor of the newly formed Washington Archdiocese.   It was in this latter capacity that the young priest become well-acquainted with Congressman John F. Kennedy and his family. 

In 1956 he was consecrated as Auxiliary Bishop of Washington.  During John Kennedy’s administration, he became the President’s unofficial advisor on matters of religion and social justice and gave the homily at his Requiem Mass in 1963.  

In 1965 he was installed as Archbishop of New Orleans in the deep South.  One of his first tasks was to help with recovery efforts from the devastation of Hurricane Betsy reminiscent of World War II’s devastation of Europe.  Again when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, he was there at the age of 92 to personally  help with the cleanup and stayed at the television station he founded to protect it from looting.  His Army experience served him well. 

    During his entire time as a priest, Archbishop Hannan was a staunch defender of the Right to Life and a fighter for social justice.  In 1963 as the officer in charge of a busload of troops for reserve army training, I had to stop at several restaurants in North Carolina to find one willing to serve all of my men, some of whom were black.  The Catholic churches in the deep south went along with the custom of requiring blacks to sit in the back pews.   

For years in Kennywood Park near Pittsburgh in the industrial North, one of the largest amusement parks in the Country at the time, blacks were not permitted to use the beautiful spacious swimming pool.  When the blacks complained in the 1950s, Park management simply closed down the pool for everyone and used it for boat riding and today other amusements.  Thus it took a lot of courage on the Archbishop’s part to open the Notre Dame Seminary swimming pool in New Orleans to the public, black and white alike.

   Archbishop Hannan was the third oldest U.S. bishop when he died and the last surviving U.S. bishop to have attended all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) as a bishop. He addressed the council twice, once on “The Role of the Laity” and the other on “Nuclear Warfare,” when he argued for the morality of nuclear deterrence.  He instituted the reforms of Vatican II in his archdiocese as the Council Fathers intended.

     I might add that the language of communications at the Vatican Council was in Latin, the liturgical language of the Roman Rite at the time and the universal language of the Church for centuries.  However, Latin proficiency of the American prelates was poor.  But Bishop Hannan was a notable exception since he was able to deliver two major interventions there in Latin.  

He also reformed the Archdiocesan Catholic Charities system, which now serves as the largest non-governmental social service agency in the New Orleans metropolitan area, including giving 20 million pounds of food to the needy each year. 

The Archbishop received numerous civic honors, including the most prestigious award presented to a New Orleans civic leader, The Times-Picayune Loving Cup.  The Science Building at CUA, Hannan Hall is named after him.

    Archbishop Hannan continued to serve the people of the Archdiocese of New Orleans until his mandatory retirement age of 75 in 1988.  Even then he continued to serve until his death in 2011 at the age of 98.  In 2010 his autobiography was published to promote chaplains in the military: “The Archbishop Wore Combat Boots”.  

  As a veteran he narrated a great video documentary on the heroic life of Lt. Fr. Vincent Capodanno (available from www.ewtnrc.com).  Fr. Capodanno, whose cause for canonization is advancing, is one of only five chaplains to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor since the Civil War, the highest honor given by the military for heroism beyond the call of duty.  All five are Catholic priests.   See

(31-C) Fr. Vincent Capodanno M.M.: A Medal of Honor Marine Chaplain of the Vietnam War & a Maryknoll Father

             http://paulrsebastianphd.blogspot.com/2011/11/31-c-fr-vincent-capodanno-mm-medal-of.html 

(82) Prayer For the Military and Veterans Still Hurting –

        http://paulrsebastianphd.blogspot.com/2012/05/82-nationaland-day-of-prayer-prayer-for.html

See also https://www.usccb.org/news/2011/archbishop-hannan-former-archbishop-new-orleans-dead-98 

and

The Chaplain Kit | The Online Chaplain History Museum providing Chaplain History, Information and Resources or https://thechaplainkit.com/

(297) St. Pope John Paul II and President Reagan Worked Together in the Overthrow of Communism in Europe

 AMDG

President Ronald Reagan speaking with St. Pope John Paul II at one of their four meetings in the 1980s, in which they laid the groundwork for the overthrow of Communism in Europe.  Both were actors in their youth and had a remarkable stage presence.  Reagan stared in many black and white Hollywood movies.  This acting experience served both of them well on the world stage and contributed to their charisma.  President Reagan would always be civil and presidential, even joking with those who opposed him in his presidential campaigns.  He would even play golf with the Speaker of the House, Tip O’Neil, a leader of the Democratic Party.  That relationship helped them to act in a bipartisan way for the common good of the Country as opposed to a hostile polarization and tearing each other apart with insults.  He showed how a democracy should work.  

    Sincerely following President Reagan's example would have helped Donald Trump to achieve even landslide victories in the elections of 2016, 2020, and 2024.  When Reagan first ran for president, I voted against him and for George H. W. Bush in the Republican Presidential Primary of 1980.  I was wrong and Reagan turned out to be one of our better presidents.  This time I intend to vote for Peter Sonski, the candidate of the American Solidarity Party (https://religionnews.com/2024/11/04/this-election-some-christians-are-choosing-a-third-path/ and https://www.petersonski.com/).  If Trump wins, I hope that I am wrong again and will have faith that God spared his life for a reason as he did with the attempted assassination of President Reagan.  Let us pray for the new president, whoever it may be and work together for the common good while preserving the ideals of democracy, the rule of law, and the Constitution, no matter how cumbersome they may appear to be.

    When Pope John Paul II and President Ronald Reagan met in private for the first time in 1982, the encounter went far beyond formalities and official business. According to the Knights of Columbus publication, Knightline for its members, the two men shared their spiritual views.  They discussed the assassination   attempts that nearly ended both of their lives the year before. They prayed.  Was it providential that both survived? 

During that meeting, “they forged a lasting spiritual bond and a close friendship,” recalled Past Supreme Knight Carl Anderson, a member of the White House staff at the time. “Years later, Mrs. Nancy Reagan would say that the Pope was her husband’s ‘closest friend.’”

The relationship between President Reagan and John Paul II, world leaders united in the struggle to defeat Soviet communism and bring a peaceful end to the Cold War, was the subject of an exhibit at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California.   The exhibit “The Pope and the President: Bringing Hope to the World” opened August 31 and ran through October 27 with major sponsorship from the Knights of Columbus.

Past Supreme Knight Anderson, who served as a special assistant to President Reagan from 1985 to 1987 and worked with St. Pope John Paul II as founding vice president of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Washington, spoke at the exhibit’s opening ceremony on August 29.  “Our exhibit gets the relationship between these two extraordinary world leaders just right: They were men of peace, of hope and, perhaps most of all, they were men of courage with a united vision,” Anderson said. “I would suggest that even more than friendship, what really united these two men was … their moral vision regarding the demands of freedom.”

Included in the exhibit are documents and items related to the four face-to-face meetings between the two men: at the Vatican in 1982 and again in 1987, in Alaska in 1984, and in Miami in 1987.  Also on display were never-before-seen gifts between the President and the Pope, as well as a ciborium used by John Paul II during his 1987 visit to Los Angeles and a new bronze bust of St. Pope John Paul II by the American sculptor Gordon Kray. The bust, a gift of the Friends of John Paul II Foundation, remains on permanent display at the Reagan Library.

In 1982, President Reagan addressed the 100th Supreme Convention of the Knights of Columbus in Hartford, Connecticut, and described the Order as “unrivaled in its dedication to family, community, country and Church.”  “What [President Reagan] said during those remarks still rings true today,” said Melissa Giller, chief marketing officer of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute. “The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute is deeply grateful to the Knights of Columbus for its generous support of this exhibition.”

For more information visit  www.ReaganLibrary.com.  Very interesting is their Christmas Around the World exhibition at www.reaganfoundation.org/library-museum/special-exhibits/christmas-around-the-world.  It includes a Christmas Tree from the Vatican decorated entirely with white ornaments featuring a life-size white peacock.  The Gold Star Family Memorial Tree honors families who lost a loved one in the military. 

     The Vatican was especially valuable in providing information to Alan Dulles, Director of the CIA regarding the Solidarity movement and conditions in Poland which was placed under martial law.  Thus the Vatican was able to channel funds to the Solidarity Movement for informing the people and undermining the communist regime.

    On November 9, 1989 the Berlin Wall separating Communist Europe from free Europe was torn down by the people themselves.  Communism suddenly and miraculously collapsed in Europe; no one expected that.  It was reminiscent of the walls of Jericho collapsing after God’s command.  The Cold War ended without a shot being fired.  The Soviet Union lost control of its satellite countries and it too collapsed in 1991. Ukraine broke away and declared its independence.  Today most of the former Soviet satellite countries are now free democracies, namely Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, East Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia.  Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Communist dictator of the Soviet Union, admitted that it probably would not have happened without St. Pope John Paul II.  With the help of God he changed the world.   

However, the same cannot be said of the Russian Federation, an aggressive dictatorship, more Fascist than Communist, that has subjugated former members of the Soviet Union that aspired to be independent democracies and is trying to do the same with its invasion of Ukraine, another former member of the Soviet Union, on February 24, 2022.  

Although not communist as such, the dictator Vladimir Putin, a former member of the dreaded KGB, uses the same methods including murder to smother opposition to his rule.  His goal is to restore the old Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, thus endangering the Baltic States in particular and even its former satellites.  Unless there is spiritual conversion, one tyranny will be replaced by another.

Please continue to pray the Rosary for peace in Ukraine as well as the world and for the conversion of Russia as Mary requested at Fatima.  St. John Paul II had a tremendous devotion to Mary and the Rosary which he prayed daily and more during trips by auto and air.  The loss of his earthly mother at an early age brought him ever closer to our heavenly mother whom Christ gave us from the cross.  His theme for his papacy and coat of arms is “Totus tuus” which means all is yours, Mary.  John Paul II was indeed the Marian Pope.  May we also have a strong devotion to Mary, our common mother.