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Tuesday, January 26, 2016

About Immaculate Heart of Mary School at Saint Benedict Center

Immaculate Heart of Mary School is a traditional primary and secondary school (K-12) in the Catholic tradition, run by the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Richmond, New Hampshire. This is in the Keene area, part of the Monadnock Region.

For students from grades K through twelve, Immaculate Heart of Mary School offers an integrated curriculum, laying a solid foundation in the liberal arts, Latin, music, history and the highest scholastic arts.

Go to the Immaculate Heart of Mary School website.


IHM_School_Site

Saturday, August 6, 2011

SBC Triumphs, Chapel Moves Forward

The following is excerpted from "Victory! And a Building Project" at SBC's main site. We here at SBC Watch are overjoyed!

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A Major Legal Victory
We have fought six years for our right to build. In a landmark civil and religious rights case in New Hampshire, a Cheshire County Superior Court judge ruled that our right of free exercise was violated by the Town of Richmond. This was the judge’s decision in a motion for summary judgment. (You can read a PDF of that order.) It took a long time, but rather than allow the case to go to trial, the Town elected to settle out of court. The settlement included a cash payment from the Town’s insurance carrier.

We invested most of that settlement money, after paying our attorneys, on needed building repairs and maintenance of our present physical plant, which is now more functional and beautiful than ever. Even with the cash settlement in hand, we could not build the chapel, because the litigation was not yet over (keep reading to see why).

The Town also agreed, almost a year later, to drop the outlandish thirty plus conditions the Planning Board imposed on us. It was these conditions — some impossible, some illegal, all expensive — that brought us to the courts in the first place. The litigation was complicated by a group of “interveners,” Richmond residents hostile to the Center, who became a third party to the case. They dragged things out and made the proceedings more costly for both the Town and the Center.

But now it’s finally over, appeals and all — after two agonizing years of site plan review and four years of litigation — and we have prevailed! Or, rather, Our Lady has prevailed through us. Deo Gratias!

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

SBC Will Have a Papal Knight at Their Conference!

From Brother André Marie's Blog...

The theme of this year’s conference will be Right and Freedom: Catholic Considerations on Misused Concepts.

Included in the list of speakers is author, papal historian, and lecturer, Charles A. Coulombe, K.C.S.S. By order of Pope John Paul II, Mr. Coulombe was created a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Sylvester for his services rendered to the Holy See. Author of the chart-climbing The Pope’s Legion, and Puritan’s Empire: A Catholic Perspective on American History, Coulombe is recognized internationally for his in-depth knowledge of Vatican politics and the influence of Catholicism in America and Europe. His audiences regularly range from graduate students at Oxford University, England to the New Mexico Military Institute, from which he graduated. His international articles have appeared in the New Oxford Review, National Catholic Register, American Thinker, Los Angeles Catholic Mission, Monarchy Canada, and The Irish Democrat.

Read the full press release here. Learn more about the conference here.

Monday, April 11, 2011

About Father Leonard Feeney, M.I.C.M.

Leonard Feeney was born in Lynn, Massachusetts on February 15, 1897. On the eve of Our Lady's Nativity, September 7, 1914, he entered the Jesuit Novitiate of Saint Andrew in upstate New York. During his 14 year formation as a Jesuit, he studied in England, Wales, Belgium, France, and the U.S.A. At the end of a brilliant scholasticate and theologate, he took religious vows as a son of Saint Ignatius, and was ordained a priest on June 20, 1928.

Father Feeney then embarked on what would become one of the most celebrated careers any priest could enjoy as a writer, lecturer and editor. During the 1930's he was literary editor of America, the Jesuit-run Catholic monthly. At the same time, his books, published by some of the major publishers of that time, were becoming standards in Catholic schools and homes all across the country. They include Riddle and Reverie (MacMillan, 1936), Song for a Listener (MacMillan, 1936), You'd Better Come Quietly (Sheed and Ward, 1939), The Leonard Feeney Omnibus (Sheed and Ward, 1943), Your Second Childhood (Bruce Publishing Company, 1945) Mother Seton, an American Woman (Dodd, Mead & Company, 1948), Survival Till Seventeen (Sheed and Ward, 1948).

Father's genius as a writer, speaker and theologian, was attested to by some of the most prominent Catholic figures of his day. Bishop Fulton Sheen once said that the only substitute he would allow on his radio show was Father Feeney. Frank Sheed, of Sheed and Ward said, "For Father Feeney, dogma is not only true; it is breathlessly exciting. That is his special vocation. . . to make his readers feel the thrill." During Father's days at Oxford, Lord Cecil, the famous Oxford don admitted, "I am getting more out of my association with Leonard Feeney than he could possibly get from me." Of the Jesuit's writing, Cecil said, "it shines with a pure, clear light."

In 1942, during the height of his literary fame, Father Feeney was transferred by his Jesuit superiors to Saint Benedict Center, a Catholic student center which had been founded two years earlier by Catherine Goddard Clarke. Mrs. Clarke had sought the permission of the then-Archbishop of Boston, William Cardinal O'Connell, to establish an educational oasis of Catholic truth close to the renowned secular universities in that area. The Cardinal readily agreed to the project, admonishing Mrs. Clarke to "teach the Faith without compromise." So it was that Saint Benedict Center quietly came into existence that year at the intersection of Bow and Arrow Streets in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The Center's initial purpose was to provide religious instruction for the Catholic students of the universities and, in keeping with the instructions of Cardinal O'Connell, its policy was to teach the authentic doctrines of the Church through the study of Holy Scripture, and the writings of the Fathers, Doctors, and Saints of the Church. This program of studies achieved immediate success, filling the spiritual vacuum created by an obvious deficiency in the neighboring academic institutions. The Center was attended in large and growing numbers.

With Father Feeney's transfer to Saint Benedict Center, a whole new era in his life — and in the lives of countless others — was to commence. Within three years, he came to see clearly that the Church was headed down a dangerous path of compromise and accommodation, leading to what is now universally recognized as a "crisis in the Church." Not only did Father see the problem before anybody else, he also saw the primary cause: the obscuring of the Catholic Church's teaching "outside the Church, there is no salvation" (extra ecclesiam nulla salus).

In 1949, with the loyal support of those who had become his spiritual children, Father Feeney founded the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. From the foundation of the Congregation until his death in 1978, Father Feeney continued to teach his disciples and form them into a community of apostles dedicated, not only to the restoration of the Dogma of Faith, extra ecclesiam nulla salus, but also to the conversion of the United States of America to the One, True Faith, outside of which no one at all is saved.

After Father Feeney’s death in 1978, the great Scottish apostle of Christ the King, Hamish Fraser, eulogized him as "one of the most outstanding prophets of our time. For not only did he most accurately diagnose the contemporary malaise, long before others became aware of it; he also put his finger on the very omission which was both symptom and cause of the plague of liberal indifferentism which eventually surfaced as post-Conciliar Neomodernism and oecumania."

About Brother Francis Maluf, M.I.C.M.


Brother Francis was born, in the town of Mashrah, Lebanon, about thirty miles from Beirut, in 1913. His given name was Fakhri Boutros Maluf. The Maluf family is descended from the ancient Ghassanids, Christian and Catholic Arabs who courageously kept the Faith in the face of Moslem aggression.

Though poor, Fakhri’s family saw to his education, which was provided at home, in a small school that his father operated. In 1934, Fakhri graduated from the American University of Beirut with a Bachelor’s Degree in mathematics. From 1934 to 1939, he taught physics at that same University.

In 1939, he moved to the United States to attend the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he received first an M.A. and, in 1942, a Ph.D. in philosophy. After receiving his Ph.D., he continued post-graduate studies at Harvard University and Saint Bonaventure University.

From 1942 to 1945, Dr. Maluf taught mathematics and science at Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts. From 1945 to 1949, he taught philosophy, theology, and mathematics at Boston College.

In addition to his academic career, Dr. Maluf's first decade in America was filled with great religious activity. On the Feast of St. Andrew (Nov. 30) in 1940, he became a Catholic. (Although he came from an historic Catholic family, his father had become a Mason and raised the children with no religion.) Two years later, he met Father Leonard Feeney, chaplain of Saint Benedict Center. In 1949, Dr. Maluf and two other professors at Boston College were dismissed from the faculty after charging the College, in a letter to Pope Pius XII and the Superior General of the Jesuit Order, with promoting the liberal doctrine of salvation outside the Church. That same year, Dr. Maluf became one of the pioneer members of Father Feeney’s religious Order, the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, eventually taking the vows of religion and the name Brother Francis, after Saint Francis Xavier.

Since that time, Brother Francis continued to teach Sacred Scripture, philosophy, theology, science and mathematics at various levels. For many years he was the Superior of the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary monastery in Richmond, New Hampshire. While in his 90s, he continued to give weekly lectures on various topics, teach high school, head the Saint Augustine Institute of Catholic Studies, and oversee the publishing apostolate of Saint Benedict Center.

On July 19, 2009, Brother Francis marked his 96th birthday. On September 5 of that year — a first Saturday — Brother went to his reward.

Although our Order is of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, Brother Francis was a Melkite Rite (Byzantine) Catholic. 

Please read Brother Francis’ Obituary and the Ad Rem, The Funeral of Brother Francis, in Thoughts and Pictures.

He gave numerous lectures and courses that are available on our online store in books or on audio.

About Brother Andre Marie, M.I.C.M.

A native of New Orleans, Louisiana, Brother Andre Marie graduated from that city's Holy Cross School in 1988. He went on to study at Louisiana State University's (LSU) main campus in Baton Rouge, on full scholarship as a music major. After three years at LSU, he transferred to Holy Apostles College and Seminary, in Cromwell, Connecticut, where he took a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spring of 1993 (major in Humanities with a minor in Philosophy). In September of 2007, he received the degree of Master of Arts in Theology, Summa cum Laude, also from Holy Apostles.

He entered as a postulant for the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in May of 1993, and went on to the novitiate on Christmas of that year. He made profession of vows on Epiphany of 1996.
Since 1993, he was mentored in philosophy and theology by Brother Francis Maluf, M.I.C.M., Ph.D., a published philosopher of note.

His apostolic work has included various facets of the publishing apostolate of the congregation. For ten years, he was also part of the community's small "mission band" of brothers who traveled to different cities distributing literature to interested persons in an effort to spread the Catholic Faith and bring wayward Catholics back to a sacramental life. He oversaw that apostolate for four years.
He has edited three of the Order's books, published dozens of articles, and presented numerous lectures in apologetics, the history of doctrine, the Church's ecumenical councils, ecclesiology, and devotional topics. He is currently giving lectures on making America Catholic as part of the "Catholic America Tour."

Since 2002, he has been Prior of St. Benedict Center, an apostolate of the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Richmond, New Hampshire.

Past memberships include the Knights of Columbus, the Tubists Universal Brotherhood Association, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. Brother maintains a weblog called Brother André Marie’s Theology Blog.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Battle over Richmond project isn’t over yet

St. Benedict’s and neighbors ask judge for help

By Kyle Jarvis
Sentinel Staff
Published:
Sunday, January 23, 2011 8:47 AM EST
Though the town of Richmond and the St. Benedict Center settled a religious discrimination lawsuit last year, the legal battle rages on.

The center is asking the court to approve an agreement previously negotiated with the town on conditions of approval for a proposed construction project, while a group of residents, including abutters to the center’s property, is asking the court to send the matter back to the town’s planning and zoning boards. Residents say they’d then have a chance to be heard.

At a hearing in Cheshire County Superior Court Thursday, the center and the group of residents each argued that town officials have not followed the proper process on a previous court order.

The discrimination lawsuit stemmed from the center’s plans to build a 10,000-square-foot school and chapel on its Fay Martin Road property.

Following several hearings, the project received approval from the town’s planning and zoning boards, but with that approval came a list of 30 conditions.

The center argued it could never meet all 30 conditions, which amounted to a violation of its constitutional rights under the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, and Judge Philip P. Mangones agreed.

Rather than go to trial, the town settled for $1.15 million. It was hailed as one of the largest settlements of its kind.

In April, officials from the center met several times with some members of the planning board and board of selectmen to revisit the conditions, said Michael J. Tierney, the center’s attorney. The result was a revised list of 23 conditions.

In June, the center and the town asked Mangones to approve the conditions. The judge Mangones declined the request, instead ordering the town to seek “meaningful input” from the planning board and zoning board.

“It is not clear ... that the planning board and zoning board of adjustment, as the entities with the power to make decisions with respect to land use issues, had authorized counsel to enter this settlement,” Mangones said in the order from June.

Then, things changed when some planning board members made 21 changes to the new revisions, “which I argued are more onerous than the 23 conditions agreed upon in April,” Tierney said.

But the full planning board never gave the okay for going ahead with the changes, according to two planning board members, which didn’t sit well with Tierney and the residents.

At least two planning board members claim a selectman told them their input wasn’t needed.

Mangones took the matter under advisement and will be issuing a ruling.

Richmond attorney Daniel J. Mullen could not be reached for comment on the town’s position.

Kyle Jarvis can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1433, or kjarvis@keenesentinel.com

Friday, December 31, 2010

Letter to the Editor: Jesus Insulted at Christmas

Spotlight photo was insulting to all Christians

Published: Friday, December 31, 2010
“ ’tis the season,” right?

It seems as though ’tis the season to insult and revile Christ and Christianity!

I refer to the photograph in your Spotlight section of Thursday, Dec. 9, “celebrating” holiday concerts and shows in the region.

This offensive photograph purports to publicize a show called “Jewmongous” which “pokes fun at the producer’s Jewish heritage and modern Jewish life.”

So I ask, why in heaven’s name does one of the figures in the picture obviously represent Jesus Christ? Is he a part of modern Jewish life? I don’t think so. Too bad the makeup man did not include the blood streaming from his head and face as a result of that crown of thorns and a torn bloody cloak from the terrible scourging he received.

This is funny? It is an outright mockery of Christ and every Christian, no matter what his or her affiliation, should be outraged at the newspaper’s selection of this particular photograph from the show.

Would you print such a depiction of Mohammad? I seriously doubt it, as it would call upon your heads a fatwah (sentence of death for blasphemy).

Remember the cartoonist in the Netherlands? He still fears for his life long after the incident and is under 24-hour guard.

Shame on you!

ELEONORE VILLARRUBIA

22 Fatima Way

Richmond

Edited for style.

Monday, December 27, 2010

Merry, Marian Christmas!

This is from the main SBC site:

To all our tertiaries, friends, benefactors, and regular readers, I express the heartfelt wishes of all the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Brothers and Sisters: May the tender Virgin and St. Joseph bring Jesus into your homes, and may the grace of God the Father, the wisdom of His eternal Child, and the charity of Their Holy Ghost be with you all this Christmas.

Please feel free to read our Christmas selections on this site, as well as my Christmas Letter.