Letter from the Pastor
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September 13, 2020
We welcome to our Parish this weekend, Fr. Alphonso Kim, MM a member of the Maryknoll, who will speak on behalf of the Society of the Propagation of the Faith and Catholic Missions.
The Vatican considered the United States mission territory until 1906. On June 29, 1911, the Solemnity of SS. Peter and Paul, Maryknoll was founded. Fathers Thomas F. Price, and James A. Walsh, are the co-founders of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers. At that time there were about 17,000 Catholic priests in our country, the number of missionaries were only 14!
In 1907, Fr. Walsh of the Archdiocese of Boston began publishing The Field Afar, a magazine about the Missions, it would later become Maryknoll Magazine.
In 1910, Fr. Price from North Carolina was facing failure to begin a Catholic order for mission work right here in the United States particularly in the South. Frs. Price and Walsh had corresponded and met in person that year at a conference in Montreal, Canada. The pair immediately began planning a national foreign mission seminary. They were complementary in character; Fr. Walsh had organizational and planning skills while Fr. Price was personable and charismatic.
Fr. Walsh soon put an ad in The Field Afar: "looking for young men who wanted to become missionaries. In 1912, The Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America (CFMSA) was launched in a rented property in Hawthorne, NY with six men.
The two priests began a search for a permanent home for their new society. They bought a piece of land in Pocantico Hills in July, 1912. Their neighbor was John D. Rockefeller who owned the property on the other side. Mr. Rockefeller did not want a seminary as a neighbor, so he contested the purchase in court, bought out the priests and the land. So Frs. Walsh and Price found a 93-acre hill in Ossining that included three houses and a barn and was now affordable due to the Rockefeller payout. The property was dedicated to our Blessed Lady and the name "Mary's Knoll" was coined.
Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers and Sisters, Lay Associates and Affiliates are still very active spreading the Gospel of Jesus in foreign countries. If you have never been to Ossining to see Maryknoll, it is quite the beautiful place, peaceful and one feels the presence of God on the beautiful Mary’s Knoll.
This past Tuesday, our School opened seamlessly. The saying goes “The devil is in the detail”, and “90% of the shot in golf is the set-up”, and the “preparation is the most important component of any endeavor”, certainly rang true on Sept. 8th. For at least two and a half months of preparation, discussion and decision-making our school was preparing for opening day. No detail was left to chance. From the great signs on the front lawn (thanks to the Parents’ organization) that welcomed the students back to school, the sanitizers, the temperature taking, the buses and car drop-off and pick-ups, even lunch and recess went well. Thanks to our School Principal, all our staff and teachers, our parents and of course our students. The year unlike all others, started very well.
Tomorrow, our little Pre-K students begin their school.
Let us keep Saint Margaret’s School in our prayers; their Guardian Angels will be kept busy, keeping our children safe!