VOCATIONS

St. Basil's Parish is very fortunate and proud to have two very special young men from its parish committing their life to Christ. and studying to become Priests.

Frank Altere is studying in a Seminary in Italy. Frank has his work cut out for him though, he is a member of an order that celebrates mass in Latin if that is not hard enough he is being taught Latin in French. When Frank is ordained he hopes will be assigned somewhere in the United States. At the present time there is 7 groups of his order in the U.S.

Chris Landes is studying at St Charles in Philadelphia. Chris is in his first year theology and three and a half years to go. Chris is also working very hard to priesthood. Unlike Frank Chris is able to make it back to St Basil's a few more times a year.

St. Basil's Council is proud to support Frank and Chris in their quest for priesthood and present them each a $500.00 award to assist him in his studies.

October 12^th 2009

Dear Grand Knight and Brother Knights,

This note comes to you from Toulouse, in south-western France, not far from the Pyrenees mountains. I am now in my third year of seminary, but I am spending this year on “assignment” rather than at the seminary in Italy. I will return to the seminary at Gricigliano (near Florence, Italy) next year; this year I will be doing my coursework by correspondence. Every year the superiors send a few seminarians to help the priests in their apostolates, which also helps to give a semblance of community life in the various assignments and gives the seminarians some practical formation. It also makes room in the seminary! This year fourteen new seminarians arrived, so fourteen veterans have to leave for a year to make room. Two of my American confreres were sent to help at our missions in Africa, so I am lucky to be here in Toulouse! I arrived three weeks ago; it is a beautiful city, with several universities and many students. (Every other week we run a doctrine class for university students and young professionals, which is very well attended.) In addition to my studies and various responsibilities in the house, I also teach a catechism class for children in the parish and help train the altar boys. The members of the congregation have been very welcoming, in spite of my accent, and our priest here and I have been invited often to meals with the various families and even to go hiking in the mountains one weekend.

As you know, the Holy Father has designated this year—the 150^th anniversary of the death of St. Jean-Marie Vianney, the only canonized parish priest—as the “year of the priest” to pray particularly for the sanctification of priests and for vocations. Of course, this intention has always been very close to the hearts of the Knights of Columbus, and so please be assured of my deep gratitude for all your support and above all for your prayers. As always, but especially in this month of October traditionally devoted to the Rosary, you and your families also are in my prayers.

Yours faithfully,

Francis Altiere.

December 31, 2007

Grand Knight Glenn Deery Knights of Columbus

Dear Mr. Deery,

I am writing to express my deep gratitude to the Saint Basil's chapter of the Knights of Columbus for the very generous gift of $500 towards my seminary studies. I am profoundly thankful for this financial assistance provided by our local chapter of the Knights, who do so much for the Church in the United States and in Rome. I will be happy to send you updates from the seminary, but for now let me give you a little bit of information about my order.

The congregation to which I belong is called the Institute of Christ the King. Our order was founded in 1990, and we have our international headquarters and seminary in the archdiocese of Florence, Italy. We work in a number of countries, including the United States, France, Belgium, England, Ireland, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, and Gabon (in Africa). In the United States we work in about ten dioceses such as Newark, San Jose, Oakland, Milwaukee, Chicago, Saint Louis, and Kansas City.' At the present time we are mostly concentrated in the Midwest; and our American. headquarters are in Chicago. The Institute of Christ the King is based on a· combination of community life, ---our priests and brothers live and pray together in all of our apostolate --- and all the active ministry., We run parishes, chapels, schools, 'foreign missions, retreats; etc. ;

The main focus of our order is missionary work, with the goal of promoting the kingship of Christ in all domains of human life. We have a number of priests stationed at our missions in the jungles of Mica, but even in Europe and the United States it is necessary to evangelize a world which is becoming more de-Christianized all the time. Thus our goal is to expose the riches of the Catholic faith and tradition to those who may not previously have experienced them, and also to help attract converts to the Church and to bring lapsed Catholics back to the Church. One of the main instruments we rely on to accomplish this task is the solemn celebration of the liturgy in its traditional Latin form. We take to heart what Pope Benedict XVI said on this subject last summer: "what earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too." We have had the experience, especially among the young, that the riches of the Church's tradition help to express the mystery of the majesty of God and to cultivate a sense of the sacred. Placing a great emphasis also on Christian civilization and the sacred arts, our Institute has restored and beautified a number of formerly derelict churches. Our seminary (dedicated to Saint Philip Neri) is located in Gricigliano, not far from Florence.

The seminary program takes seven years in all: a "year of spirituality", in which we become accustomed to, life in the seminary and take lessons in Latin and Gregorian chant as well as introductory classes in Doctrine, Scripture; etc. two years of philosophy, and four years of theology. As our seminary includes people from many different countries, we need a common language. Since our founders, and most of the other seminarians and the professors, are French,

we use French as the common language for classes and communication. It is difficult at first but now after the first few months have passed by it's possible to follow without too much trouble. I am in my first year at the seminary. In our class there are fifteen seminarians, of whom four are Americans.

In addition to the academic work, we also have daily chores and manual labor, including the annual grape and olive harvest (we make and sell our own wine and olive oil). One of the patron saints of our order is Saint Benedict, whose example we try to follow: ora et labora-"pray and work"! In matters of spirituality we follow the example of "the gentleman saint" Francis de Sales, a bishop of Geneva in the seventeenth century whose preaching and example won back most of his subjects, who had fallen into Protestantism during the Reformation. The spirituality of Saint Francis de Sales is not based on doing huge heroic deeds but in practicing regular exercises of piety such as frequent confession and communion and in developing the simple virtues of humility, obedience, kindness, meekness, and so on. Life at seminary is structured around the Mass and the common prayers (Vespers, the rosary, holy hour, etc.). We have a period of recreation each day after lunch and dinner, and a free afternoon each week when we can go on a walk, or rest, or visit Florence. We are always very happy to welcome guests, and should any of the Knights ever be in Florence please tell them not to hesitate to contact me in case they would like to visit the seminary.

Once again, thank you so very much for your help and your kindness. Please be assured of my prayers and my best wishes for the new year.

pictured above left to right.. Dominick Aquilante, Tom Murphy, Glenn Deery, Father McLaughlin, Frank Altere Jr, Mrs Altere, Frank Altere Sr, Frank Mastrangelo

pictured above left to right... Dominick Aquilante, Tom Murphy, Glenn Deery, Father McLaughlin, Chris Landes, Mrs Landes, Ray Landes, Frank Mastrangelo