Sunday, April 11, 2010 Fr. Allan Weinert

Second Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday

I would like to thank Fr. Brian for those very kind words of introduction and welcome. I’m sure that I’m a complete stranger to you so very briefly I would like to introduce myself a little bit further. Again my first name is Allan and my last name is Weinert and I belong to the Redemptorist congregation of priests. My original home town is in that eastern part of Minnesota called Wisconsin. I grew up in a very small village located about 40 miles north of Milwaukee, and they tell me that my accent gives me away. But I live in Denver, Colorado now, I live and work there with the Redemptorist province administration.

My purpose for being at St. Alphonsus Parish here this weekend is to speak to you today about a very important organization that has been a vital part of the Denver province of Redemptorists for the last 50 years. And that organization is the Co-Redemptorist organization. In essence the purpose of the Co-Redemptorist organization is to help and assist Redemptorist seminarians in their process of education and formation. It is a program of prayer and a program of assistance. I believe that most of the Redemptorists in this community, and most of the Redemptorists that have served St. Alphonsus Parish in the past have benefited by the generosity of the Co-Redemptorists through many, many years.

In the history of the church religious orders are founded often by a charismatic leader for an unmet need in the church, and that certainly is true for the Redemptorists. I’m sure over the years you’ve heard much about St. Alphonsus but I’d like to review just very briefly his life. Alphonsus was the son of a naval officer and a very accomplished mother. They had great plans for Alphonsus, that he would have a distinguished career in law. I don’t know what this exactly means but at the age of 14 or 16, as a very young man, Alphonsus had a degree in Canon Law and in civil law. I’m sure that doesn’t translate complete across lines and means what it means today, but it certainly was a significant accomplishment.

Now the story that comes down to the Redemptorists is that in one of the cases that Alphonsus was trying he either did not prepare adequately, which is unlikely, or there was some corruption in the process and Alphonsus lost a civil case. He was so devastated by that that he decided to give up civil law and study for the priesthood.

He studied for the diocese of Naples and was ordained for that diocese and as is priesthood began he began to work himself into exhaustion. His bishop required that he take time off. And to do that he went up into the mountains around the city of Naples and there he saw people more abandoned than he saw in the city of Naples. Very simply, they won his heart. Because of those experiences Alphonsus began to start a religious congregation that today are know as the Redemptorists.

Currently we work in about 33 countries around the world and some of those areas are difficult and troublesome areas. Alphonsus founded the Redemptorists to serve the poor and the abandoned.

I’d like to share with you the most profound example I have seen of that, of Redemptorists working for the poor and the abandoned. For me that Redemptorist is Father Joe Meier. Father Joe Meier came from Spokane, Washington and after ordination was assigned to Thailand, in the city of Bangkok. His first assignment was to a parish in the Kwontoi, which is the port authority land, public land, in the city of Bangkok. A slum area. His church there was for the people who worked in the slaughter house and they were primarily Christian because no devout Hindu or Buddhist would work in that industry. Fr. Joe lived in the slum for many, many years and then because of a very generous donation from a gentleman from Atlanta he was able to move out of the slum, but more importantly build a very important center called Mercy Center. Mercy Center serves the poor and the abandoned in that area of the city of Bangkok.

When I visited him, Fr. Joe Meier about seven years ago he took me on a tour of the slum and he showed me one of the kindergartens that he established. He has established about 30 kindergartens, one in every slum in the city of Bangkok. It’s a very simple start but it’s a right start for the young children of that area. Mercy Center takes care of children who are suffering from AIDS. It is an advocate for teenagers who must go to court on their own. A variety of services for the people, poor people of that area.

When we came back to Mercy Center in the afternoon there were two beautiful young Thai girls that were residents of the center. And I asked Fr. Joe about their backgrounds, what their names were and what their background was. Their names were Sunusha and Ammi. And Fr. Joe told me that they came from the up-country of Thailand and their family were tea-cutters. Literally cutting the tea leaves off the tea bushes, selling them commercially. I don’t know the circumstances but the family went into debt and they had to secure a loan. The person who gave them the loan came back later and said, “I will forgive the loan if you will allow me to take your two daughters, Sunusha and Ammi into Bangkok to work in the tea houses.” Every parent in the world wants what’s best for their children. Every parent in Bangkok, every parent in Thailand wants what’s best for their children. But every parent in Thailand also knows what working the tea houses really means. For whatever reason the parents agreed to that and the person who provided the loan took the young girls into the city of Bangkok.

It didn’t take very long for Sunusha and Ammi to realize what working in the tea houses really meant. And after they realized it they began to plan their escape. Now this was very difficult for these two young girls who were probably about 15 or 16 years old, because in the up-country there was no electricity so they never in their life made a phone call. They never used the Thai currency as a means of exchange. But they figured it all out. They had a brother who was at Mercy House with Fr. Joe and their only phone call was to him. Their brother told Fr. Joe about his sisters and he said to his sisters, he said to Sunusha and Ammi, “I want you to hide in plain sight. I want you to stand on busy street corner and within about 5 minutes I’ll send two motorcycles over and we will pick you up.” It worked, the rescue was made probably about 5 or 10 minutes before the owner of the tea houses came looking for these two beautiful young girls.

That is the work of the Redemptorists. It’s one of the wonderful examples of working for the poor and the abandoned. Fr. Joe has really embodied the spirit of St. Alphonsus by working for the poor as was the intention of St. Alphonsus.

We are very fortunate in our formation program. We have three levels of formation, college, novitiate and then post-graduate work. We have approximately 10 seminarians in those programs. And no seminarian is ever turned away for financial reasons. We owe that in a great deal to the Co-Redemptorist program who have supported the Redemptorists for over 50 years now.

I want to close with two personal stories, one very short. I knew for many years, since I was very young, that my mother made a donation to a religious order. I’m not sure who it was. I think it was the White Fathers of Africa. I know it could not have been very much money. But every year, in the summertime she would write out a check, and I believe it was the White Fathers of Africa.

One summer I was home visiting my parents and my mother was sitting at her desk and she was writing out a check. And I asked my mother, “What are you doing?” She said, “Well there’s this religious order that I help and I just write out a small donation to them.” I thought this is a great time to kid my mother. And I said to my mother, “Mom, you don’t know any White Father. You don’t know what they do. And no White Father ever come to you and says, ‘Thank you’ for what you do for them.” I said, “Here I am. I’m your son. You know what I do. I’m ordained. Maybe you would like to give that money to me.” Well, it wasn’t a very good joke. My mother found absolutely no humor in it and she actually got mad at me. She said, “Allan, I don’t want to give that money to you.” And I said, “Why not? I’m your son. I’m right here. You know what I do. I could say ‘Thank you’ for it.” And she said, “I do not want to give that money to you because sometimes in my life I want to do things for which I’m not thanked.” I think there was great wisdom in that, in what my mother said.

Redemptorist owe a great deal of gratitude to the Co-Redemptorist organization and we cannot in any adequate way say “Thank you” for what you have done for us. A special word of gratitude to the Parish of St. Alphonsus here in Minneapolis because among the Redemptorists of the Denver province we know how generous you have been to us over these many years

At the risk of going too long let me say one more personal story. I owe a great deal of gratitude to St. Alphonsus Parish. I owe my vocation to the Redemptorists of St. Alphonsus Parish. And the reason for that is because I did not know the Redemptorists. I grew up in a diocesan parish in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. But I had a cousin who lived on Xenia Avenue just off Bass Lake Road. He belonged to St. Raphael’s Parish but he came here for Mass. And he was attracted to the Redemptorists. In 1959 the Redemptorists opened a Prep Seminary in Edgerton, Wisconsin. In the fall of that year they had an open house and my cousin, Gene Redmond invited me, actually his mother invited all of her sisters and their families to come to the open house. We toured the seminary and at the end of the day we went out for supper. At supper my cousin, Gene asked me if I would come here next year.

Seldom is a vocational choice ever made so clear to anyone. We know for most of us it’s a zigzag through the woods until we find really what our life’s vocation and what our calling is. I owe a great deal of gratitude to my cousin Gene and Gene and I owe a great deal of gratitude to the Parish of St. Alphonsus here, who formed Gene and also influenced me. So I want to express my gratitude for that.

I’m going to end. I must end this way. At the ends of the pews are some envelopes and small wooden pencils. I’d ask a favor, if you are near them if you would take them and pass one of each to each adult sitting with you here at St. Alphonsus this morning. I’d ask you just to take a moment to look over that envelop. It’s an enrollment in the Co-Redemptorist program. I think the information is very clear and straightforward. There are the terms there. Also we had to use two different forms, we have an old form and a new form. The new form has the picture of Redemptorist seminarians currently studying at our theology residence in Chicago, Illinois. If you are able and can support the work of the Redemptorists, especially through the Co-Redemptorist program I want to say a sincere, heartfelt “Thank you” for that. I think there are two ways to do this. If you want to look that over today and whatever is reasonable for you to do, or if you want to take it home and look it over and bring it back next week either would be fine. If today then I’d ask you just to drop this envelop in the collection basket when the ushers pass through the congregation at the offertory time of the Mass.

God bless you today. Thank you for your goodness. Thank you for presence.