542 - March 2014
January 28th, 2014 - February 25th, 2014

GENERAL ADMINISTRATION

In conformity with the norms of the Congregation of the Causes of Saints, which recently established an age limit for Postulators, Fr. Joaquín MARTÍNEZ VEGA has ended his tenure as General Postulator of the Congregation of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Father General in Council has named Fr. Thomas KLOSTERKAMP as the new Postulator. The General Postulator, as delegate of Father General, is the principal agent for all the Oblate Causes.

Fr. Martínez, the outgoing Postulator, was officially appointed on 14 September 2006, with the approval of the Prefect of the Congregation of the Holy See on 10 November of that same year.

Fr. Klosterkamp was born in Monheim, Germany, in 1965. He made his first oblation in 1988 and was ordained a priest in 1994. Among other assignments or responsibilities, he was the provincial superior of Germany for four years and then he served six more years as the first superior the new Province of Central Europe made up of Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. He currently lives in Rome and is superior of the General House. (Joaquín Martínez)

In March 2010, as General Postulator of the Causes of Oblates, I wrote to the bishop of Bayeux-Lisieux to know what was happening with the Cause of the Servant of God, Bishop Pierre Fallaize, a Cause promoted by that diocese. The Chancellor of the Diocese, Daniel Austin, answered me, reassuring me that it had not been buried, but the nun who was directing the work had fallen seriously ill and that the Bishop, Pierre Auguste Pican, SDB, was looking for a new postulator. The new Bishop, Jean-Claude Boulanger, has appointed one in the person of Fr. Raymond Zambelli, who says: “Currently we are totally restructuring the diocesan Commission for this Cause. Bishop Boulanger must appoint new members.” And so it is starting again. That is good news.

Bishop Pierre Fallaize (1887-1964) was a pure-blooded Norman. He was born in Gonneville-sur-Honfleur (Calvados, France). Orphaned of father and mother, he entered the minor seminary of Lisieux in 1899.

He did his military service and upon being discharged, he followed the steps of his countryman, Bishop Arsène TURQUETIL, the legendary missionary bishop of the Polar Regions. He applied to enter the Missionary Oblates and, without awaiting a reply, presented himself at Bestin (Belgium) to begin his novitiate on 8 December 1906. He made his first vows on 25 December 1907 and was ordained a priest in 1912. The following year, he was sent to the polar missions of Mackenzie, considered then as the most difficult.

He was ordained a bishop on 13 September 1931 at the age of 44.

Eight years later, he had to submit his resignation because of almost total blindness which he accepted with heroic patience. The Inuit or Eskimos called him “Inúk Ilaranaikor” (the man who never gets angry).

He went back to his homeland and exchanged his episcopal crosier for the white cane of the blind and the “sled” of a guide-dog. For many years, he was a faithful confessor for the Carmelites and the many pilgrims that go to Lisieux: the Carmel and the basilica of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, his fellow country woman, friend and patron…these would be his new mission fields.

In his old age, he let himself be seduced by missionary nostalgia and he decided to go back to the North Pole where he would give his soul back to God three years later, in Fort Smith, on 10 August 1964. (Joaquín MARTÍNEZ VEGA)

“There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.” So said U.S. humorist Mark Twain, and those words hold true for the annual statistics presented by the General Secretariat of the Oblates to the Vatican and posted each February on our web site, and especially so this year.

A number of people have noted significant differences in the numbers, particularly of scholastics, in the report for 2013 from that of 2012. “It must have been a terrible year,” some said, “to go from 627 to 558 seminarians in one year.” Although not a lie, and certainly not a damned lie, these are statistics, and they depend entirely on the source.

The source for Oblate statistics is the database of Oblates in the secretariat, upgraded and adjusted with reports which come in from the various Oblate provinces, delegations and missions. The records of first vows, final vows, ordinations, departures and deaths which are received daily in Rome go to make up the annual report.

The process runs smoothly where communication by e-mail, fax, and regular mail works well. But, in many of the places where Oblates minister, electricity is haphazard at best, the mail about the same, and telephone lines for faxes function occasionally. Where these services don’t work is where the “lies” part of it enters, since the General Administration’s Roman statistics depend on the local information getting to Rome.

This year, a concerted attempt was made to “catch up” and led to what appeared to be inconsistencies. A number of cases where Oblates were ordained a few years ago, and the records never made it to the secretariat, were discovered and corrected. Oblates listed as scholastics for two, three or four years who were actually priests for that period were now listed as priests instead of scholastics. And, some whose departure information had never reached Rome finally were removed from the list. On the positive side, a number who had taken first vows over that period were able to be added to the list of Oblates.

All in all, it was a major adjustment, and, we hope, a one-time move. Next year’s figures should be more consistent with reality and the word “statistics”, at least in Oblate reports, can be removed from the Mark Twain quote. (William O’DONNELL)