6594: Canonization cause of Haitian-American picks up steam (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Murraywrite@aol.com

>From the December 2000 issue of The Josephite Harvest 
(www.josephite.com/harvest):

Mother Lange canonization effort picks up momentum

Although the canonization cause for the foundress of the first religious 
order dedicated to educating African-American children got off to a slow 
start, it's picked up momentum during the past 10 years.

Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange founded the Oblate Sisters of Providence in 
Baltimore in 1829, but the order didn't petition the archdiocese until 1989 
to investigate her cause. Mother Lange died in 1882. 

"It's not a mystery to those who know black history in the U.S.," why the 
order didn't make the petition sooner, said Sr. M. Virginie Fish, O.S.P., the 
vice postulator of Mother Lange's cause. In addition to the Oblate Sisters' 
lack of economic resources to promote the cause - they have just 106 members 
and work primarily with the poor - she cited the "social element of the slave 
mentality," in the U.S., as well as racial discrimination and a 
"male-dominated environment," in the Church, which previously gave most of 
the credit for the Oblate Sisters' foundation to Sulpician Father James 
Joubert, their first confessor and spiritual director.

It took 171 years for the City of Baltimore to dedicate a historical market 
at 610 George Street, where Mother Lange and three other women took vows of 
chastity, poverty and obedience, thus forming the Oblate Sisters of 
Providence during a time of legalized slavery in Maryland. Mayor Martin 
O'Malley dedicated the marker on Feb. 13, 2000. The Oblates founded St. 
Frances Academy in 1828, which is the oldest U.S. continuing educational 
facility for black children, and they later moved it to the 610 George Street 
site.

A free black woman who came to Baltimore after fleeing her native San Domingo 
(now Haiti) with her family and first living in Cuba, Mother Lange educated 
black children, many of them orphans, with her own money for 10 years. She 
had thought about becoming a sister during that time, but religious orders 
didn't accept blacks then, Sr. Virginie said. Fr. Joubert encouraged Mother 
Lange to form a religious order to educate black children. Mother Lange, a 
small-framed but determined woman who didn't speak English well, received the 
support of Archbishop James Whitfield of Baltimore to found her order. 

At a time when black children could receive religious instruction but no 
other education, Mother Lange suffered from discrimination by a prospective 
landlord who refused to rent to her when he found out about her apostolate, 
and neighbors and Catholic Baltimoreans showed their scorn for the black 
religious, Sr. Virginie said. 

Baltimore Archbishop Samuel Eccleston ordered the Oblates to disband in 1844 
and serve as domestics because he didn't see what good it would do to educate 
black children. Until Father John Neumann - later archbishop of Philadelphia 
and canonized saint - sent a fellow Redemptorist to rescue the abandoned 
sisters - they hadn't taken a retreat for three years and had difficulty 
going to Mass and didn't have a regular confessor.

Through the trials, Mother Lange kept her love of the Blessed Sacrament and 
her faith in God's will. She regular volunteered to do menial tasks, 
according to Sr. Virginie, and refused to serve consecutive terms as mother 
superior so her personality wouldn't dominate the order too much. When a 
cholera epidemic hit Baltimore, New York and Philadelphia in 1832, all 11 
Oblate members volunteered to serve as nurses to the sick. One Oblate died as 
a result of her nursing work.

Since the U.S. bishops gave their approval to Baltimore's Cardinal William 
Keeler to investigate the life of Mother Lange in 1991, Sr. Virginie has 
compiled "several notebooks" filled with favors that people have received 
after praying for Mother Lange's intercession, she said. Letters inquiring 
about Mother Lange's life have come from 18 countries and "just about every" 
U.S. state, she said.

Josephites - who served as spiritual directors and confessors for the Oblates 
from 1879 through the Second Vatican Council - and Josephite parishioners are 
some of the strongest backers of the Mother Lange canonization effort. Fr. 
Donald Fest, S.S.J., helped found a Mother Lange Chapter at St. Veronica's 
Church in Baltimore, and Fr. Lowell Case, S.S.J., wants to launch one at Our 
Lady of Perpetual Help parish in Washington, Sr. Virginie said.

Maria M. Lannon, the Josephite Pastoral Center director in Washington, wrote 
Response to Love, a 19-page Mother Lange biography in 1992 with additional 
background information on the Oblate Sisters. Phyllis Douglass, the member of 
Josephite-staffed St. Francis Xavier Parish in Baltimore and principal of 
that city's Rosa Parks Catholic Middle School, is the Mother Mary Lange Guild 
president, and Fr. John L.H. Filipelli, S.S.J., has served as a guild board 
member.

In addition to proving that Mother Lange lived the virtues to a heroic 
degree, her canonization cause needs medically-confirmed miracles to go 
further. While Mother Lange and her Oblates largely didn't succeed from a 
human perspective during her lifetime - their order's early annals are filled 
with failed attempts to staff schools in other cities - perhaps she can serve 
as a powerful advocate in Heaven for anyone who prays for her intercession.

For more information on the Mother Mary Lange Guild, please contact Sr. 
Virginie Fish at the Oblate Sisters of Providence/701 Gun Road/Baltimore, MD 
21227-3899.

Please respond directly to Bill Murray at murraywrite@aol.com with any 
questions about this posting.