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A new degree
This program revives the idea that a theologian is one who prays and prays someone who is a theologian. (INFO OMI 15 January 2015)
Early in January the Oblates at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Residence received a request from an Oblate canon lawyer in France who is promoting the causes of martyrdom of four Oblates killed in Laos in the 1960’s. The Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints requested the testimony of an Oblate in the community who knew and worked in Laos with the slain priests. For two weeks several Tewksbury Oblates prepared testimony, edited legal documents, scanned and sent electronic documents to Southeast Asia and France.
Oblates often ministered to Catholic Laotian people in, or close to, dangerous Communist areas. One of the Oblates gave this example: “Once I visited an outpost of Laotian soldiers to say mass for them. Around midnight Communist soldiers fired a rocket into the area and began spraying the outpost with gun fire.
“A Laotian soldier and I sat beside each, other putting on our shoes before seeking safety in a trench behind our hut. A bullet entered the soldier’s mouth and came out below his ear. We helped him to the trench, bleeding heavily. He needed intravenous fluids to replace his blood loss. A corpsman feared using light would draw gunfire. After a whispered argument with the corpsman, we used a sliver of light to insert the IV. The soldier survived, but had permanent balance problems from his wound.”
At that time, Oblates also searched for and retrieved some of the remains of their slain brothers, took eyewitness testimonies, and brought the bodies back to be safely buried. It all happened more than fifty years ago, but reading the documents and listening to the experiences, one can still sense the fear and suffering of the Laotian people and the Oblate missionaries who worked with them. The slain French and Italian Oblates, and all the Oblate missionaries who served in Laos in those troubled years, were intrepid men. May their sacrifice and martyrdom continue to inspire those who have come after them. (Northeast Area Newsletter, February 2015)
