In recognition of the feast day of St. Joseph the Worker, the patron saint of religious brothers, we share the story of Brother José María Torres Valentines, C.M.F. Brother José Torres was a Spanish-born Claretian whose self-sacrificing nature and missionary spirit has inspired decades of Claretians priests and brothers alike. After completing his Claretian spiritual …
Kristen, Associate Archivist, was browsing the stacks and came across ten archival boxes of pamphlets and booklets produced by Claretian Publications. While alphabetized, a listing had not yet been created. Her inventory now numbers over 300 titles and is filled with works that embody the Claretians’ embrace of Vatican II ideals. As Deborah, historian, began …
“Am I still a Catholic?” and Other Pamphlets of the Vatican II Era Read More »
Mexico was the mother province of the US Claretians until 1922. In the 1880s the Claretians Missionaries in Spain decided that Mexico offered a good challenge, with its “faith as robust as oak trees” but hampered by “poor circumstances for religion.” The Spanish congregation established its first residence in Mexico City in 1887, and gradually …
“A Faith as Robust as Oak Trees”: Early Claretian Missions in Mexico Read More »
When readers of The Voice of St. Jude paged through the August 1935 magazine, many paused to examine the large black and white photo of a bishop flanked by four Kuna children, in front of thatched huts. The bishop, a bit corpulent, strains a bit at his black cassock, but smiles benignly notwithstanding the draining …
“With Rings in Their Noses”: Early Claretian Missions in Panama Read More »
On December 4, 2022, Mexican Catholics will mount the 91st annual Procession and Mass to honor Our Lady of Guadalupe in East Los Angeles. The tradition began in 1931, as the Claretians took on their third parish in Los Angeles: Our Lady of Solitude, or Soledad as everyone calls it. On that December 12, fervent …
As a grade school boy in South Chicago on the cusp of the Depression, Severino Lopez was a newsboy for the Chicago Herald Examiner. For a three-cent ticket, he enjoyed the Western movies at the Petes Theater. So inspired, he played cowboys with brother, “slapping the sides of our corduroy pants to imitate the sound …
From a South Chicago Boyhood to Claretian Missionary Read More »
Fiesta. Carnival. Kermesse. Jamaica. All of these titles describe the annual fundraising fairs at Latino parishes across the country. Since the 1910s the Claretian Missionaries and lay leaders in the US have organized these community-based events and they continue to do so today. St. John the Evangelist Church, a former Claretian parish in San Marcos, …
When the Claretian Missionaries celebrated Mass in Assembly on June 2, 2022, they heard the day’s necrology: the names and places of death of confreres from that date over the past century. These included Wenceslao Fernández who died in Sweetwater, Texas, in 1927. This young priest’s tragic death shook the congregation at the time and …
Three months later, on a sunny November day in 1936, the Claretians broke ground for the new seminary. As the St. Jude community recorded that day: “The ground was blessed and broken by his Excellency Bishop Preciado. Several pictures were taken both right after their arrival by the Grotto of St. Jude, and on the …
Two transplants from Spain, dressed in black clerical suits and collars, walked through Chicago’s bustling Loop on August 10, 1936. Fr. Aloysius Ellacuria, CMF, rector of the fledgling St. Jude Seminary, walked alongside Fr. Antonio Catalina, CMF, pastor at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. They chatted, en castellano, about the business at hand: the purchase …