Volume 3 Issue 2 Fall 2010
Communio
Communio Message: August 2010
Dear SOLT Ecclesial Family,
The Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity is
facing new challenges and opportunities this
year. Upon receiving the grace of the Regional
Assemblies both in the American and Asian-Pacific
Regions, I believe that we, as an ecclesial family, are
led to discover a kind of newness in our life.
As you might have known, the Holy See, through the
Congregations of the Institutes of Consecrated Life
and the Societies of Apostolic Life where the Society
of Our Lady belongs, has been guiding us for the past
years. We were working for the recognition of our
community as one Ecclesial Family through the New
Forms of Consecrated Life, but there seems to be
some difficulties. And so upon the recommendations
of some canon lawyers and advisers, and with the
direction of our founder, Fr. James Flanagan, we will
be applying for Pontifical Status with the present
structure, as who we are, that is, as a Society of
Apostolic Life. It‘s also been a blessing that in a
meeting held last July 15, 2010 with Bishop Michael
Mulvey of Corpus Christi, His Excellency
reconfirmed the direction of Bishop Emeritus
Edmond Carmody for this work of Pontifical
Recognition of Our Lady‘s Society. The new Bishop
of the Principal Seat said that he will support us
regarding this matter.
As I had mentioned to you in our last Regional
Assembly in the American Region, we just recently
had several members from both regions who
obtained licensure and doctoral degrees in various
fields of studies, like administration, philosophy,
theology, liturgy and canon law. They can surely use
their knowledge in serving the needs of our
community in our different missions and for
formation and administration.
As we work on the Pontifical Status, our Doctor in
Canon law, Fr. Jerry Drolshagen, will help check the
Constitutions and Directories not only of the Priests‘
community but also of the Sisters and the Laity. He
will be very much involved in the
work of the core groups who were
chosen by the General Servants,
to do this very important
task. We will be working side by
side with Canon lawyers of the
Holy See and some others who
will be involved in this work.
I would like to give you the timeline for this very
important work and thereby ask for your prayers:
August 2010: Review and polishing of our
Constitutions by our canon lawyer;
September: Meeting of the Core Groups;
October: Send the Constitutions to all the
members for comments;
November and December: Finalize the draft of
the Constitutions and Directories to be checked by
Canon Lawyers; and Election of the Official
delegates of the Chapter;
January 17-23, 2011: Extra-Ordinary Chapters of
the Priest‘s Society, Sisters Society and the Laity,
which will be held Our Lady of Corpus Christi, Texas
-to approve the Constitutions and Directories.
I would like all of you to pray for the guidance of the
Holy Spirit for this very important event and task
that we will all be working on for the Society of Our
Lady. Let us always be one in this historical event in
the Society, so that we can serve the Church more as
God wants us to.
May the blessings of the Most the Most Holy Trinity
be in each and every one of us.
In Communion, +
REV. FR. ROGEL B.
ROSALINAS, SOLT
General Priest Servant
So how was Rome, Brother?
– by Br. Juan Villagomez SOLT

―So how was Rome, Brother?‖ A common question there, as G.K. Chesterton puts it: ―Rome wasn‘t loved
especially around assembly time, and the answer is because she was great; she was great because she
more or less on the way to becoming standardized: was loved.‖
―It was great!‖ An answer that I myself have given
not without feeling a slight sensation of mental There is not enough room in this paper; many things
asphyxia: gasping for words that would do the cannot be said at the risk of making serious
Eternal City some justice, but eventually I end up oversimplifications that would distort the truth, as
surrendering to the fact that Rome is the kind of every faithful catholic that has lived and studied here
thing that you simply cannot put ―in a nutshell‖… will agree, but you can be sure of one thing: the
The following little essay is nothing more than a privilege of being here is well worth every single
bigger ―nutshell‖. challenge involved. This satisfaction is well
preserved in that little one-liner response that we are
It is very easy to walk around Rome with the so used to saying, and we will continue saying,
sensation that you are in a studio where they are because it is true: ―So, how was Rome, Brother?‖…
filming some epic movie like ―Ben Hur‖ or ―Quo ―It was great!‖
Vadis‖ because many of her monuments are out in
the open for everybody to admire. But the
narrowness of some streets and the relative height of
the buildings in some parts of town not only make it Pictures from 2010 Assembly
challenging for the newcomer to find his bearings;
they become real ―urban hidden treasure fields‖.
Ancient monuments and beautiful churches play
hide-and-seek with the tourists. Some are so well
hidden that one may spend years walking by them
without being aware of their presence because he
didn‘t make the right turn. A good example of this
would be the Pantheon (feel free to ―Google it‖): a
building that is notorious for ―sneaking-up‖ on
people, because it is so large and yet so well hidden.

Two things have redefined my understanding of the

word ―big‖ and these are the Grand Canyon and the
inside of Saint Peter‘s Basilica. You could spend a
long time just contemplating her statues and her
ornamented ceiling. If you stare at them long enough
your eyes will get used to them and they won‘t seem
so incredibly enormous, but then when you lower
your sight to ground level you will be amazed to see
just how incredibly tiny the people are.

All of Rome‘s beautiful stones are understandably

mute; they are in need of someone who is acquainted
with their history to help them ―speak‖, such a one
has been, through God‘s providence, Fr. Edmund
Ditton, O.P., our professor of history and Christian
Archeology at the Pontifical University of Saint
Thomas Aquinas. Through Father Ditton‘s historical
lens we have seen Rome in several of her stages of
life, including her infancy: a little mosquito-infested
valley that was not much to look at. Who would have 5. Jordan River
thought that it would turn into the Eternal City? And 1. Galilee 2. Judea 3. Sea of Galilee 4. Dead Sea
all because some people had the crazy idea of staying Answers to Kommunio Kids Corner:

2
Deacon Paul Michael McArdle—December 9, 1933 - June 24, 2010
– from the website of Thomae-Garza Funeral Home
Deacon Paul Michael McArdle, 76, went to be with
the Lord on June 24, 2010 in Brownsville. He was
born December 9, 1933 in Holyoke, MA to John and
Katherine McArdle. He was one of eight children.
He was baptized in late 1933 at the beautiful, neo-
Gothic Church of the Holy Cross in Holyoke, Mass.
One of his earliest memories was of kneeling before
the Christmas crib there and contemplating the
Mother and Child. As a teenager he was blessed
with Catholic friends who were active in youth
programs. Paul often accompanied his father on his
plumbing jobs, and worked in the tobacco fields in
his teens. Because of his size and nimbleness, he
had the job of climbing up in the rafters to hang
tobacco leaves. Throughout his life, he also worked
in a bakery, drove a school bus, did construction
work, taught school and was a school principal.
His greatest joy, however, was serving Christ and
the church. At the age of twenty, he discerned a call
to the priesthood and was accepted into the minor
seminary of the Passionist community, two of the
happiest years of his life. He developed a devotion
to Our Lady at that time doing nightly Rosaries and
hymns to her. After the novitiate year he received
the habit and the leather belt with its attached,
beautiful rosary, and after six more years of
advanced theological training in the monastery he
was not approved for major orders. He went home,
took a job and proudly purchased a good, used car
for his parents (a ‘56 Chevy Belair).
In July of 1963, he was invited to serve in a mission
school in Mora, NM with SOLT. Paul often
reminisced about the pranks played on him by the
school children—pulling spark plugs out of the bus
to avoid school and overstocking the wood burning
stove causing sooty explosions. He gained lifelong
friends among the volunteers, and founders of
SOLT, Fr. Jim Flanagan and Fr. John McHugh. One
special volunteer stood out, his future bride,
Barbara Pulese.
In 1965, Paul relocated to Phoenix, Arizona as an
assistant teacher in a small, private school and did
his graduate studies in education at Arizona State
University. In the summer of 1965, Fr. Flanagan
asked him to staff Holy Rosary elementary school in
East St. Louis, Illinois, and encouraged him to host
a Legion of Mary presidium. On June 10, 1967, he
was married, and he and Barbara (and baby John)
spent 1969 at the seminary at Orchard Lake, MI,
where he studied for the
diaconate. He was
ordained on May 24,
1970, the first married
permanent deacon in
the United States. They
spent the next six
months in Kansas City
waiting for their second
child, Maria, to be old
enough to travel to their
new assignment with
Fr. John McHugh and Deacon Paul at the 2008
the SOLT community in assembly.
Belize. For nine years,
Deacon Paul worked in the beautiful remote parish
missions in Belize and Guatemala, sharing Christ
with the local people. He and Barbara were blessed
with two more daughters, Paula and Patrice. Nine
years later, Paul and his family came to Brownsville,
TX, at the invitation of Bishop John Fitzpatrick, and
for several years, worked full-time as a deacon,
often playing his guitar at Masses and singing
―Buenos Dias, Paloma Blanca‖ and ―Adios, Reina
del Cielo‖ among others. His children attended the
Catholic schools of the Incarnate Word Sisters and
he fondly remembered his daughter, Patrice,
crowning the image of Our Lady one year.
His wife, Barbara, passed away in 1996, and in April
of 1999 he began full-time employment as a hospice
chaplain, preparing families for the death of a loved
one and in helping them during the grieving
process. He had a great love for the people of
Brownsville, and was never more delighted than
when he was baptizing, marrying, burying and
preaching the Word. The McArdle family is grateful
for the many years of hospitality, friendship and
love shown him by the Brownsville community and
SOLT. We will miss his faithful fatherhood, his
generosity, his sense of humor and his lively spirit.
He is survived by his son John McArdle and his wife
Ann, and their children Kelli and Sean; Maria
Rodriguez and her husband Oscar and their
children Mia, Oscar and Francisco; Paula McArdle;
Patrice Resendez and her husband Mike, and their
children Noah, Emma, Annie and Isabella; as well
as Edgar DeLeon and his wife Peggy and their
children. He is also survived by his siblings Louise
Clemens, Mary Balk, Connie Rodrigue, Nancy
Ferriter, Laura Eckstein and Fred McArdle.
3
A Glimpse of Our Lady’s Society in the Philippines
– by Sr. Mary Emmanuel Schmidt, SOLT
His big brown eyes held mine with a look of
longing. A little boy was trying to sell me some
small cakes he was holding up in a plastic bag. He
had no shoes on his feet and his clothes looked like
they hadn‘t been washed in a long time. He couldn‘t
speak English and I couldn‘t speak Bicol (the local
dialect). I sadly shook my head. ―No thank you,‖ I
said. I was sitting in the community truck waiting
for our driver to come back. He was helping the
Sisters load some food. I turned around to see if I
could find a Sister to translate, but
everyone had gotten out and gone into
the store.
The Sisters usually sat in the back of
the truck on two long seats that faced
each other. I‘d tried it a few times, but I
would just turn green from the fumes,
so I was moved to the front cab. I
enjoyed it up there because I could sit
and talk with Monoy Glen, the long
time official driver for our Regional
Headquarters in the Philippines. He
was a humorous man with one of those
faces that seemed to always hold a
smile and who could tell lots of stories
about Society members from the past.
As I sat looking out at the busy street
filled with packed jeepneys (the Philippine version
of ‗mini taxi buses‘) and motor bikes, I wondered
what this little boy‘s life must be like. All the world
was moving and whirling around him, and he just
wanted to sell some little cakes. I tried to
communicate a bit more, ―Dai ko aram,‖ I kept
trying to say (I don‘t know). It was an odd thing to
say but my Bicol was so limited. He looked at me
with a funny face and then his eyes lit up and he
held up his hand as if to say, ―I‘ve got it!‖ ―Re-lax!‖
he blurted out. We both laughed. Where had he
learned that? TV no doubt. Every home seemed to
have a television, no matter how poor.
I had been in the Philippines for only a few weeks.
Sr. Anne Marie Walsh, our General Sister Servant,
had recently shared with us (Sisters) that our SOLT
community in the Philippines desired the presence
of members from the American Region. When I
asked if I could take a ‗mini sabbatical‘ she asked if
I‘d like to go to the Philippines. After praying about
it, I said yes and was sent from November 7, 2009 -
February 6, 2010.
4
So what was it like? Well, it‘s hard to put it all in a
nut shell. There are so many different realities I
could speak of. People have asked me since I got
back, ―What did you eat? Where did you sleep? Was
it hot?‖ Well, it is probably no surprise that I ate a
lot of rice and fish, I slept on a thin mattress on a
wooden frame and yes, it was hot. But the Sisters
spoiled me and they let me stay in our convent in
Putiao with screens on the windows AND I had a
fan (which I wasn‘t expecting).
Priests at Family Day
As I‘m sure many of you are aware, the country
itself is rather poor. Yet, because of the strong
heritage of the Catholic faith, it is so very rich! Can
you imagine a mega-mall with an adoration chapel
in it? Yes! On the fifth floor of a mega mall in
Manila, there is a huge chapel for Mass and right
next to it, a breath-taking perpetual adoration
chapel!!! When I saw that, I thought, ―Wow, Jesus,
You really will go anywhere for man.‖
Our community in the Philippines is filled with
some very amazing people. I know I cannot do
justice in explaining all that our brothers and sisters
do in full. The Asian-Pacific region recently
published a book on the Society‘s foundations in the
Philippines, Thailand, Papau New Guinea, and
Australia. It is filled with 40 years of history of the
Society being established. Amongst our members,
the charism is spoken of and strived for and
preached. We serve on numerous islands and have a
seminary, houses of study, formation houses,
parishes and the Trinitas Retreat Center.

Professions—Fr. Ogie was in attendance
During my visit, I was blessed to attend a Diaconate
Ordination as well as a Profession of First Vows of 4
of our Sisters. Two of the men ordained were from
the Philippines and one was from Vietnam. Of the
newly professed Sisters, two were Filipina, one was
from Thailand and one was from Papua New
Guinea. It is exciting to note that we now have two
native Papuan Priests in Our Lady‘s Society and two
native Papuan Sisters. I was so happy to meet these
brothers and sisters of ours and so thankful for the
gift of their vocations. They come to the Philippines
not knowing the native language and stay for three,
four or five years before they are able to go home
again. They sacrifice tremendously to gift their lives
to Our Lady‘s Society. Our Thai brothers and sisters
also come to the Philippines often not knowing
English nor any Philippine language. They also do
not go home for up to four and five years.
I would like to clarify that this isn‘t because they
don‘t want to go home or that their formators don‘t
want them to go home, it‘s a financial problem. The
Sr. Pia and novices visiting the elderly.
country is very poor, hence our community is very
poor. I visited our mission in Badian, one of our
poorest parishes about 5 hours from the Regional
headquarters, and was told that their Christmas
collection (which is the biggest of the year) collected
only an equivalent of $10 U.S.
My hope with this little article is to not only make
everyone aware of the financial needs of our
Community in the Philippines but to also
strengthen our family ties, so to speak. We are
growing, thanks be to God, but with that growth
comes tremendous responsibility. Being
international means that our generosity must
stretch literally, across the ocean.
Our Sisters on San Miguel island do not have a
refrigerator. Part of the reason is by choice. They
would prefer to make the sacrifice rather than pay
for the extra electricity, but another part of the
reason is to live as Fr. Jim has taught us; to be one
with the poor. The people know how we live, they
see it. Our witness is important. Our SOLT
community in the Philippines is known to be
simple, modest, eager to serve where others would
rather not go, and happy. The challenge, from a
financial point of view, is to provide for our growing
membership while still maintaining a oneness with
the poor.
If you ever feel like you‘re in a slump or need a
boost, go to the Philippines. You will be spoiled by
our members there with their love, care and
concern. You will sing (and sing and sing) and laugh
and tease and joke and occasionally cry. The heat
might make you crazy but you won‘t be in it alone.
Everyone will be sweating right along with you.
You‘ll experience the charism of Our Lady‘s Society
in a whole new way with a joy and exuberance that
truly mark the Philippine
people.
“Thank you po” to Our
Lady’s Family in the
Philippines! I am truly
grateful for my time spent
there with you and remain
united with you in prayer,
in the Communion of the
Most Holy Trinity through
the hands of Our Mother. ~
Sr. Mary Emmanuel
Sr. Mabelle with children
5
Priest keeps on running in the spirit of Christ
– provided by England SOLT, from a newspaper article
Marathon running priest Fr. Morty O‘Shea hit the
headlines last year when he raised more than £8000
($12,713.60 US) for Aid to the Church in Need‘s Gaza
appeal. But his commitment to helping the
vulnerable also extends to the unborn, and he set up
the first memorial for aborted babies in the United
Kingdom. The priest of the Society of Our Lady of
the Most Holy Trinity, SOLT, was inspired to raise
money for CAN after seeing media coverage of the
aerial bombing of Gaza and hearing the personal
testimonies of those working there, including Gaza‘s
Catholic parish priest, Fr. Manuel Musallam.
Fr. Morty described how people responded
generously to 5k run for the charity‘s Gaza appeal:
―The media coverage of the bombing of Gaza made a
deep impression on many – one man was so moved
that he gave a contribution of £5000.‖
The priest finds time to run despite a busy parish
schedule. He said: ―I don‘t watch TV or go to the
pub, so running is a type of chilling-out or
unwinding at the end of the day.‖
His sponsored run for CAN was only the latest in a
long line of races that the super-fit priest had
undertaken. In 1994, while still at seminary, he ran a
half-marathon in one hour, 25 minutes and – despite
being ill before the race – he did his first marathon
the following year in just under three hours, nine
minutes.
He then began running for good causes and shortly
afterwards ran the Dublin marathon after being
shocked into action on hearing a nun speak about
the plight of orphans in Romania. Two other
seminarians ran with him, raising around £8000 for
the orphans.
Fr. Morty is as passionate about the unborn as he is
about the poor and suffering – having been
committed to the pro-life cause since overhearing
the abortion procedure being discussed by relatives
as a child. St. Mary‘s Church, Carmarthen, where he
is based, has the only memorial for aborted children
in the UK – and Fr. Morty was key in setting it up in
2008.
The idea was inspired by a similar initiative at the
Franciscan University of Steubenville in America.
The priest from SOLT said: ―We should be
responding to the killing of 200,000 pre-born babies
6
every year as we would otherwise
respond to the annual killing of
200,000 born babies.‖
Fr. Morty believes we often forget
the victims of abortion: ―Like the
priest and the Levite of the Good
Samaritan parable, we pass by on
the other side and get on with our
daily business.‖
Yet the unborn are not the only ones who suffer
according to Fr. Morty. He says: ―In the sacrament of
reconciliation I also encounter the other victims of
abortion – the mother who was deceived by
propaganda of the culture of death.‖
Money for the memorial for aborted babies was
raised in a low-key way. Fr. Morty put a notice in the
parish newsletter appealing for support ―and the
memorial cost of £795 came rather quickly!‖ Fr.
Morty recently added a perpetual flame to the
memorial after one generous parishioner donated a
year‘s worth of vigil lights.
It was through his involvement with the pro-life
movement that Fr. Morty first thought about the
priesthood. But he was disinterested in being a priest
to begin with that is why he is ―relatively certain‖ the
Holy Spirit drew him towards his vocation. Although
as a boy he was inspired by the missionaries who
talked about their work at his school – and admired
the priests who ministered secretly in Britain and
Ireland after the Reformation – he thought
priesthood was not for him.
Yet he felt the Holy Spirit calling and can still
remember the exact moment he discerned his
vocation – he was a 28-year-old, working as an
electronics engineer in America. On Mother‘s Day
1990 he was taking part in a pro-life fundraiser at St.
Ann‘s Church, West Peabody, Massachusetts. Fr.
Morty said: ―I was in the parking lot at the time with
another co-worker, Marian Cormier.
―We were chatting to pass the time and I was
complaining about how little the Church was
promoting pro-life activism. In a spontaneous, throw
-away statement Marian said ‗Why don‘t you get in
there [into the clergy] and sort them out.‘‖
Cont’d on page 8
Christmas Antiphons from “The Liturgy of the Hours”
―Tell us shepherds what have you seen? Who has
appeared on earth? We have seen a newborn infant
and choir of angels praising the Lord alleluia.‖
Oh shepherd please tell me of this newborn infant
and tell me of His Mother and her spouse.
What does a choir of angels sound like? Tell me of
their music and their beauty.
Do you sing their song? Does it murmur always in
your heart?
Tell me, tell me of this infant. Did the Virgin Mother
let you hold her sweet Babe?
Did His little body wrapped with love in swaddling
clothes feel warm and sweet and did He nestle in
your arms like a newborn lamb?
Did you burst with joy as you held Him next to your
heart?
Was He startled as if to say ―this is another‘s
heartbeat because I know my mother‘s heart. It was
my sound in her womb.‖
Did you see His hands? Did you kiss His little
fingers? Little hands and yet creator of all the
galaxies.
Angels tell me of your song that Holy Night.
Our song praises His first cry.
His little infant‘s cry that barely filled that cave in
Bethlehem went forth throughout the universe, to all
the stars that ever were or ever would be to where
the mysteries of time and light bend and swirl
through the never ending space of creation, to tell
His Father that He had obeyed and the Redeemer of
all mankind has been born for all ages.
And when we sang we joined with all the choirs of
the angels to bow low and adore Divine Humility,
Jesus Christ, Son of Mary.
Rosemary Fesen, CW
December 29, 2007

Kommunio Kids Korner

(for kids ages 4-144)
Find a map of the Land of Israel at the time of Jesus in your Bible or in a Bible atlas. Use the map to
answer the following questions.

1. The Angel Gabriel came to Mary in the town of Nazareth. What region is Nazareth
located in?
__ __ __ __ __ __ __

2. Jesus was born in Bethlehem; Jesus died and is risen in Jerusalem. Both Jerusalem
and Nazareth are located in what region?
__ __ __ __ __

3. What sea is near the region of Galilee? __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

4. What sea is near the region of Judea? __ __ __ __ __ __ __

5. What river connects these two seas? __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

Answers are on page 2

7
Please pray for the health of:
Fr. Jim Flanagan, SOLT
Fr. Tito Ayo, SOLT
Br. Philip Howard, SOLT
Br. Michael Brady, SOLT
Br. Duran Jensen, SOLT
Sr. Trinity Vaughn, SOLT
Sr. Eileen Dougherty, SOLT
Mary Ellen Theisen, CW, SOLT
Sr. Mary Joseph, SOLT

Please pray for the repose of the souls of:

Deacon Paul McCardle, SOLT
Fr. Joe O‘Connell, SOLT
Leocadia Serban, SOLT
Br. Wayne Williams, SOLT
Fr. Isidore Sitnyein
Fr. Neal Stull, SOLT
Fr. Joe Flanagan, SJ
Geraldine Mary Grala
Viola—mother of Sr. Mary of the Holy Eucharist

Priest keeps on running in the spirit of Christ

Cont’d from page 6
In that instant he felt a warm, positive disposition to
the idea of following a priestly vocation. Fr. Morty
said: ―It came as a complete surprise, even shock. I
thought it was whim of my emotions which would
shortly go away.‖
But at the end of the month it had not gone and he
decided to investigate several religious orders.
Despite deciding to follow in the footsteps of the
missionaries who inspired him in his school days, he
was a ―little disillusioned‖ with the missionary
orders he initially explored. Fr. Morty said: ―I felt
that their ‗liberal‘ attitude was at odds with due
faithfulness to the Magisterium both in terms of
liturgy and important Catholic beliefs – I was also
unimpressed with their understanding of the
evangelical counsel of poverty.‖
He added: ―Even apart from the vows of religious
life, I have always held a deep conviction that the
maxim ‗live simply so that others may simply live‘
was a binding imperative for Christian living, arising
from the second great commandment: Love your
neighbor as yourself.‖
8
Fr. Morty ―almost despaired‖ of finding the
community he was looking for – then somebody
suggested he visit a new religious community in
Texas, the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy
Trinity. He said: ―When I went down for a week it
was like putting on a shoe that was the perfect fit.‖
Fr. Morty said he was particularly struck by the
―holiness and asceticism as well as heroic sense of
self-sacrifice‖ of the order‘s founder, Fr. Jim
Flanagan.
Moved by the great injustices of our world, Fr. Morty
quoted the words of Elie Wiesel, holocaust survivor
and Nobel Laureate, who said: ―I swore never to be
silent whenever and wherever human beings endure
suffering and humiliation. We must always take
sides.
―Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.
Silence encourages the tormentor, never the
tormented.‖ Whether in the womb or in the world,
Fr. Morty is determined that he will not be silent,
and that a voice will be found for the victims.