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Dear Friends

At long last I am able to prepare a Newsletter. My brother was in hospital 33 days instead of 10 /14 days and it was all very trying. On leaving hospital he stayed with me in Hull for four days before returning to Whitby, where he is chaplain to the Convent of Mercy and the nuns have looked after him with great care and affection. Recently he returned to Hull to see the surgeon and the report on the operation was most encouraging. Thank you for all the prayers. Life may now return to some of its normal pattern.

The day of Recollection in Wallsend was a great success. Eventually a coach from Hull collected the Middlesbrough members and we enjoyed the warm hospitality of Tyneside. Agnes McGrogan gave a PowerPoint presentation on Marcellin Champagnat SM, Founder of the Marist Brothers. Charles Jenkinson and Brian Salmon presented a history of the works of the Marist Way in England. The technology looked pretty complicated at times, but we have great hopes for the future. By next year we hope that more people will be prepared to take on the responsibility of giving the input at the various Days of Recollection.

MARIST PILGRIMAGES The programme for 2008 is taking shape. This will be the 30^th annual pilgrimage to Lourdes and so we have a special badge. To mark the occasion we are going to stay in Lourdes an extra day, celebrate a mass of Thanksgiving and enjoy a special meal together. It is possible that there will be a very special guest in Lourdes at this time! Depart Saturday 24^th May and return Sunday 1^st June. Booking forms are now available.

In July we will visit Compostela, for the feast of St James, 25^th July, and Fatima. Travel will be by coach and ferry (P.O. Portsmouth / Bilbao). Details to be announced.

SUNDAY 28^TH OCTOBER

498 Spanish Martyrs* of the XXth Century were Beatified in Rome. No less than 47 Marist Brothers were included in the total. Br Bernado’s cause was introduced separately. I was fortunate enough to be present and concelebrate at the mass in St Peter’s Square. I estimated a crowd of 100,000. It was a memorable occasion which raises questions concerning ALL who died in Spain at this time. The horrors of the years of strife must never be repeated.

Mariano Alonso Fuente (Brother Laurentino) was born in 1881 in Castrecias (Burgos). His life as a Marist Brother took him to various places: Cartagena, Burgos, Barcelona. In 1928 he was appointed as Provincial of Spain. As Provincial, he had to suffer the difficult times of the Spanish civil war and personally had to witness the destruction of tens of Marist houses, the workshops of the publishing house belonging to the congregation, the imprisonment and murder of hundreds of the brothers... In 1936, the valiant Brother Virgilio was on the point of replacing him as Provincial. Trifon Lacunza Unzu (Virgilio) was born in Ciriza (Navarra) in 1891; he had been the Director of the college in Burgos, responsible for the novitiate in Grugliasco and Director of Murcia. He was a devoted and generous brother, very knowledgeable, author of works who professed a great love of his brothers. In 1936 the Civil war broke out and extended over the entire peninsula. Brother Laurentino and Virgilio were arrested in Barcelona together with many other Marist Brothers. They were firstly detained in a prison-boat in the port, and then transferred to a kind of prison in San Elias Street. During the night from the 8^th to the 9^th October 1936, forty-six brothers were murdered without prior judgment simply because they were religious.

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M. Coleman SM Marist Way Delegation Animator