|
SNELLVILLE—Bishop Donald Pelletier, MS, of the island of
Madagascar, blessed the new education building at St. Oliver Plunkett Church
Nov. 12 while raising funds for and awareness of the church in his beloved home
in one of the world’s poorest countries.
Bishop Pelletier responded to the invitation of the pastor, Father
Tom Carroll, MS, to dedicate the St. Oliver facility during the bishop’s
fall trip to the United States. A native of Rhode Island, the bishop was
visiting family and fellow LaSalettes around the country, raising money and
receiving medical care.
With parish priests as concelebrants, he celebrated the dedication
Mass, which was attended by several hundred parishioners and community leaders,
including Snellville Mayor Brett Harrell. Afterward the bishop led the
dedication ceremony for the new Father Thomas J. Carroll Education Center. He
spoke at all Masses Nov. 11 and 12.
Born in Woonsocket, R.I., in 1931, Bishop Pelletier made his
Religious profession as a Missionary of LaSalette in 1951. After ordination to
the priesthood in Rome in 1956, he headed to Madagascar, the world’s
fourth largest island, which is off the southeast coast of Africa. Originally
he planned to stay just a few years, but he has spent over 40 years there. Now
69, he was ordained a bishop of the Diocese of Morondava, Madagascar, in
February 2000, becoming the third bishop to serve that region and the only
American LaSalette bishop.
While he was looking toward retirement before his appointment, he
is excited by his new opportunity and responsibility.
“It’s a tremendous challenge ... It’s revitalizing
me. It’s given me a whole new outlook on life, which is exciting.
It’s much better than retirement. It’s demanding. It’s tiring,
but thank God I have my health,” Bishop Pelletier said. “I love the
people. I love the country. I’ve been there for 42 years. It’s in
loyalty to the men there who
(Continued on page 2)
(Continued from page 1)
have given their lives there to that mission. If I can do that in
service to the church I’m only too happy.”
In a recent article in “The Sun Chronicle” newspaper in
Attleboro, R.I., he noted how his status as a bishop changes the way people
relate to him.
“I like them to relate to me the same as before, but they
can’t,” he said. “I always carried my own suitcase. Now everyone
runs to try to carry it. I’m not used to that.”
In his homily at St. Oliver Plunkett Church, the missionary bishop
described the church in Madagascar, as “very strong” and said it has
4.5 million members out of 15 million people on the island.
“I come to you to share with you our work and mission in
Madagascar, but also to invite you to share some of your wealth, some of your
money, with the mission in Madagascar,” he said. He spoke of Christ’s
command for his disciples to give up their possessions and follow him.
“This is very demanding. Many of us would hesitate. We don’t yet have
that tremendous faith to let go of all our possessions.”
He described the brighter side of the continent of Africa, which
includes Madagascar, as people often first think about the tragic realities
there of AIDS, famine, poverty and war.
“Today there is a very young, a very dynamic, a very living
church and we have much to be grateful for. Through this century the Lord has
really worked in Africa as hard as he has ever worked since the beginning of
the church. In the last 50 to 60 years the faith has spread tremendously in
Africa despite all the situations ... Despite this discouragement and this
frustration the church is well and alive and the church stays there as a sign
of hope,” he said. “It’s a powerful message that we’re
giving to the world. The Catholic Church is so active and present in Africa, a
sign of hope for all its people.”
His diocese, located on the tropical West Coast of the island, has
no paved roads and includes approximately 450,000 people and about 30,000
baptized Catholics. His first responsibility is to proclaim the Good News of
the Gospel throughout the diocese, where the predominant belief centers on
ancestor worship. He travels in a four-wheel drive vehicle to rural villages
where people live below the poverty level lacking electricity and water, cars
and decent homes. Families gather to hear his message. While diocesan quarters
have running water and cement buildings with generators, he said he and the
priests live like the people when traveling to villages. They speak on basic
Gospel values, on Sundays attracting up to 100 people to chapels that priests
visit once or twice a month.
Through the proclamation of the Gospel, he has seen people
abandoning superstitious beliefs such as that a child is sick because of a
curse.
“Christ did come to renew all things, to make all things new.
There is power in the word of God. When hearts are open to the word, you see
how it changes lives,” he said. “I’ve been able to see miracles
in villages ... They can forgive. There’s a new spirit in them.
Evangelization, it does change lives, we’ve seen this and so many people
have responded to the word.”
In such a poor country, severely deficient in health care and
education, he said that social work is an essential language for communicating
the Gospel. The diocese has 7,600 students, about half of whom are Catholic, in
24 Catholic schools staffed by 182 teachers. The bishop is trying to raise
$100,000 to build a home for Religious sisters so they can teach at one of the
schools. Since Catholics in Madagascar earn $35 to $50 per week, it’s very
difficult for them to contribute to such projects.
The church also runs medical centers and, since 85 percent of the
people are farmers, the church has agricultural projects to increase
production, teach new farming methods and deliver clean water.
“We have the one purpose—to let the people know that
Christ came on earth 2,000 years ago to save humanity, to give us a better way
of life, to live as brothers and sisters, and God is there to help us,” he
said.
“It’s been a very exciting, a very challenging mission
... I feel very humbled that God called and gave me a missionary vocation to
serve in Madagascar for all these years. I’m going back ... with renewed
energy and enthusiasm because I know there’s so much work to be done over
there. And I’ve been very enriched, I’ve been strengthened, I’ve
been affirmed by the Catholic Church in the U.S. which has been so generous in
supporting our work,” he said. “Christians in Madagascar and Africa,
they have a lot of time to pray ... They remember to pray for their
benefactors, for all the generosity of the Americans here in the U.S.”
Following the Mass the congregation processed around the church to
an outside entrance to the new building where Bishop Pelletier cut a dedication
ribbon and blessed the building. A plaque was revealed, naming it the Father
Thomas J. Carroll, MS, Education Center, in honor of the pastor. The bishop
then sprinkled holy water throughout the new educational areas as the annual
parish family picnic began with games for children.
Following the service, Bishop Pelletier commented on how sisters
in Madagascar, representing 80 religious communities, play an invaluable role
in uplifting African women by providing education and medical care, and
teaching home economics, child care and love and self- respect.
“Every 16 or 17 months women have babies. Native sisters can
promote human dignity and women’s rights. When they get into a village or
a town they can have tremendous influence ... (The) African woman suffers very,
very much,” he said. “When the nuns come into the area there’s a
big change ... We need the sisters to really complete the work of the ministry
of priests.”
One of Bishop Pelletier’s biggest challenges there and the
reason for his work is to establish the local church and make it financially
independent from Rome and the United States. He works “to get native
priests to establish their local church so the next bishop would be a native
bishop.”
“Our mission is to work ourselves out of a job,” he
said. “There are vocations. God is calling. They have to be nurtured. We
have to care for them. We’re presently building a minor seminary and we
have some in major seminary and I’m giving them all my time.”
He described the people as happy and “very, very simple.
They’re very friendly. They do receive people very well.” He believes
the republic has great beauty and potential but its progress is hindered by
political corruption.
The LaSalette Missionaries opened the mission in Madagascar in
1899. The first Americans arrived in 1920. A new mission was started in
Morondava in 1928 and was confided to the American province from Hartford,
Conn. In 1958 care of the mission was assumed by the province in St. Louis, Mo.
Today over 100 professed LaSalettes work in five dioceses on Madagascar, which
is now an independent LaSalette province.
Since arriving in Madagascar, then-Father Pelletier has served as
the director of isolated mission districts; administrator of the cathedral;
vicar general; director of the catechetical school; and chaplain of every
diocesan organization. Dedicated to the poorest of the poor, he founded an
organization that cares for people with physical and mental disabilities and a
home for the aged.
Bishop Pelletier’s visit to Atlanta was also his first trip
to the South, where he was surprised by the number of Catholics and the
vitality of the church.
“It’s exciting to see that there are so many Catholics
here and that the parishes are so young and so vital and so generous. You
don’t find that in New England. There it’s an aging church ... Some
areas of the country you get the impression that the church is dying, but here
you get the impression that the church is really alive.”
Father Carroll was grateful to have Bishop Pelletier dedicate the
building. The pastor said his talks on Madagascar reminded the congregation of
“the universality of the church, knowing it’s not the U.S.,
Snellville or Georgia. He is from Madagascar, the poorest country in the world,
and we have over 100 LaSalette fathers working in that country.”
For the pastor, who has served parishes in the archdiocese for 20
years, it was a “very emotional” surprise to have the building named
after him. “I had no idea whatsoever. Usually I pick up on these things.
That was an utter surprise to me.”
The two-story building, constructed from January to September
2000, was designed by the Atlanta architectural firm of Cunningham, Forehand,
Matthews and Moore. The general contractor was Hamby Construction Co. of
Lawrenceville. Father Carroll headed the building project with assistance from
a committee led by former parish council president Tom Witts. The approximately
$1 million building was funded through a 1999 parish fund drive. The 10,000
square-foot building houses the religious education offices, the youth ministry
office, six classrooms, which will also serve as meeting rooms, a parish
library and media center and an expanded commercial kitchen.
The old space will provide more classroom space and Father Carroll
said that, with the new addition, the parish has 19 classrooms to better serve
the 900 children in the religious education program.
“We needed offices badly. We did need more classrooms,”
he said. “It gives us more classrooms. It gives us seven new meeting rooms
for different organizations plus the classrooms and the library. The library is
a tremendous asset. The adults are using it. The kids are using it. I think
it’s going to be a very good library. We have a lot of good reference
books on Catholic history.”
Carpentry has always been one of Father Carroll’s hobbies
and, as a pastor, he has been involved in many construction projects. The
original St. Oliver Plunkett Church of the 22-year-old congregation was built
in 1981 and he initiated construction of the current church built in 1994.
“I did all the buildings at St. Ann’s (Marietta). I
built the church in Canton. Then I built the church here and education center.
We turned the old church into a parish center. I’ve always enjoyed
construction,” he said. “My hobby was carpentry when I was in
seminary. I did all the carpentry work being done.”
He added that this expansion is a natural outcome of the increase
in members from about 450 families in 1991 to the current 1,175 families.
Carol Kruskamp, director of religious education, was particularly
happy on dedication day. “I’m excited. I think it added to the
specialness of the day to have our parish picnic with the dedication. To have a
visiting bishop kind of contributes to the festivities of the day.”
“Due to the growth of our parish and religious education
program we needed to expand. We needed so much more classroom space and also,
as the parish has grown, so too has the religious education staff. The staff
was scrunched in an old classroom. It was kind of overcrowded. Father Tom had a
vision we could expand and have some new offices,” said Kruskamp. “We
have so much more space to care for the needs in our religious education
program. We’ve grown over the past three years from about 600 to 900 kids.
There’s a whole lot of growth out here ... It’s sort of the natural
progression of growth within Gwinnett County.”
“We are blessed to be a LaSalette community,” she added.
“I think Father Tom is (greatly) responsible for the growth within our
parish (through) his vision and his commitment. The people love him here. The
people really care about Father Tom and our LaSalette priests.”
Witts said the building was named after Father Carroll as
“our way of thanking him” for his dedication and service to the
parish. “He was very instrumental in building St. Ann’s in Marietta
and when he came here the first thing he did was build the new sanctuary.
He’s a very unassuming man.”
Witts’ contribution to the project was a way to give back to
the parish that eight years ago supported him when his wife had a brain tumor
and he was falling away from the church. “I’m just so thankful for
what I’ve been given. It’s an honor to give back. I’ve certainly
gotten more than I’ve given. The community here, the way they embraced us,
it’s a wonderful community,” he said.
Parishioner Sharon Springstead also liked having the bishop from
Madagascar for the occasion to inform her and her young children about the
church in Africa. She particularly liked what he said about offering social
services to the community.
“He was really good,” she said. “... Our children
live in this environment where it’s really hard to picture poverty ...
It’s good for them to hear about it and having somebody speak about it
brings it to real life.”
As parishioners enjoyed their new building and community picnic,
Bishop Pelletier looked forward to being among his own community the next week.
“Definitely that’s home. I’m going home,” he said.
|
