Feb 13, 2025
English | Spanish
Kính gửi quý anh chị em,
Vài năm trước, tôi đảm nhận vị trí chủ tịch Ủy Ban Công Lý và Hòa Bình Quốc Tế trực thuộc hội đồng giám mục. Trong vai trò đó, hàng năm tôi đã đi đến nhiều nơi trên thế giới đang phải đối mặt với một số vấn đề khó khăn nghiêm trọng nhất ở Trung Đông, Châu Á, Châu Phi và Châu Mỹ La-tinh. Những chuyến đi mục vụ này trước hết nhằm thể hiện tinh thần liên đới của giáo hội Hoa Kỳ với những cộng đoàn đang chịu đựng khó khăn gian khổ. Đồng thời, tôi sẽ quan sát tình hình địa phương và lắng nghe nhiều tiếng nói khác nhau (giáo dân và giáo sĩ, xã hội dân sự, giới ngoại giao, chính phủ, v.v.) để hiểu sâu hơn nguyên nhân của các cuộc xung đột, nhu cầu nhân đạo và tâm linh của họ, cũng như suy nghĩ của họ về các giải pháp khả thi cho những cuộc xung đột này. Sau đó, tôi sẽ trở về Hoa Kỳ và thay mặt hội đồng giám mục Hoa Kỳ vận động Quốc Hội và Bộ Ngoại Giao nhằm thúc đẩy những chính sách có thể hỗ trợ cho những tình huống cụ thể đó.
Sau khi liên lạc lần đầu với các nhà lãnh đạo giáo hội địa phương, tôi luôn kết nối với tổ chức Dịch Vụ Cứu Trợ Công Giáo (CRS) phục vụ tại những địa điểm cụ thể đó. CRS là chi nhánh nhân đạo toàn cầu của giáo hội Hoa Kỳ. Cho đến nay, CRS đã thực hiện cứu trợ nhân đạo cho người dân tại hơn 100 quốc gia trên thế giới. Tôi đã chứng kiến nỗ lực to lớn và mang tính chiến lược của CRS khi tổ chức này thích ứng với nhu cầu thực tế của từng địa phương. Khi ISIS thảm sát người Yazidi, người Hồi Giáo và người Ki-tô giáo trên cao nguyên Nineveh, những người sống sót đã chạy trốn đến các khu vực phía bắc Iraq. Tôi cảm thấy ấm lòng khi chứng kiến CRS có mặt tại Duhok, miền bắc Iraq, không chỉ cung cấp nhu yếu phẩm nhân đạo cho các gia đình và hỗ trợ tinh thần cho trẻ em bị sang chấn; họ còn đàm phán với chủ sở hữu của những ngôi nhà chưa hoàn thiện, đề nghị chống chịu thời tiết cho những ngôi nhà này để đổi lấy việc cho phép những gia đình đã chạy trốn khỏi Nineveh được trú ngụ trong những tháng mùa đông giá lạnh. Đây chỉ là một ví dụ về cách CRS thực hiện cứu trợ nhân đạo mang tính chiến lược trên thế giới.
Thật không may, thế giới đầy rẫy những cuộc khủng hoảng nhân đạo. May mắn là CRS đã có mặt để hỗ trợ mà không phân biệt chủng tộc, tôn giáo hoặc dân tộc.
CRS được tài trợ từ cả các khoản đóng góp tư nhân và hợp đồng chính phủ (Cơ Quan Phát Triển Quốc Tế Hoa Kỳ [USAID]). Tổng ngân sách của USAID mặc dù khá lớn nhưng chỉ chiếm chưa đến 1% tổng ngân sách liên bang. Đã có nhiều quan ngại về việc sử dụng sai mục đích quỹ USAID. Các mối quan ngại này nên được điều tra và ngừng việc phân bổ nếu đúng như vậy. Tuy nhiên, chúng ta hãy thận trọng để tránh sai lầm! Các chương trình nên được xem xét, điều tra và ngừng lại khi được phân bổ không phù hợp.
Mặc dù truyền thống Do Thái giáo – Ki-tô giáo ảnh hưởng rất lớn đến nền tảng của Hoa Kỳ nhưng đất nước thân yêu của chúng ta là một đất nước theo chủ nghĩa đa nguyên. Tuy nhiên, tôi tin rằng tất cả các tôn giáo lớn, cũng như những người theo chủ nghĩa nhân văn thế tục, đều đồng ý rằng việc giúp đỡ những người đồng loại đang trong cơn hoạn nạn là điều cần thiết đối với nhân loại. Trong truyền thống Ki-tô giáo của chúng ta, tôi nghĩ đến dụ ngôn của Chúa Giê-su về Lazarô và người phú hộ giàu có, dạy rằng việc quan tâm người nghèo là yếu tố cốt lõi của đời sống con người và đời sống Ki-tô hữu (Lk 16:19-31). Hoa Kỳ là quốc gia giàu có nhất thế giới và đã trở thành ngọn hải đăng hy vọng cho nhiều hoàn cảnh hoạn nạn trên toàn thế giới. Tôi cầu nguyện rằng chúng ta sẽ tiếp tục giữ vững sứ mệnh đó. Với mức chi tiêu chưa đến 1% ngân sách, tôi tin rằng chúng ta hoàn toàn có khả năng thực hiện điều đó.
Giám Mục Oscar Cantú
Giáo Phận San Jose
Feb 10, 2025
Spanish | Vietnamese
Dear brothers and sisters,
Some years ago, I served as the chairman of the bishops’ Committee for International Justice and Peace. In that capacity, I traveled each year to parts of the world facing some of the gravest hardships in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The purpose of these pastoral trips was, first of all, to express solidarity on behalf of the church in the United States with those suffering hardship. Secondly, I would observe the local situation and listen to a variety of voices (church lay and clergy, civil society, diplomatic, governmental, etc.) in order to understand deeply the dynamics of the conflicts, their humanitarian and spiritual needs, as well as their thoughts on possible solutions to such conflicts. I would then return to the U.S. and advocate on behalf of the U.S. bishops to Congress and the State Department for policy that would help those particular situations.
After making first contacts with local church leaders, I always connected with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) serving in those particular locations. CRS is the global humanitarian arm of the church in the United States. Up until now CRS has offered humanitarian relief to people in over 100 countries across the globe. I was a witness to the tremendous and strategic work of CRS, as it adapted to the needs of the local circumstances. When ISIS had massacred Yazidis, Muslims, and Christians on the Nineveh heights, survivors fled to the northern regions of Iraq. I was heartened to find CRS present in Duhok, in northern Iraq, not only providing humanitarian supplies for families and emotional support for traumatized children; they also negotiated with the owners of unfinished houses, offering to weatherize the houses in exchange for allowing the families who had fled Nineveh to stay in their homes during the bitterly cold winter months. This is just one example of the kind of strategic humanitarian aid that CRS provides around the globe.
Unfortunately, the world is not scarce when it comes to humanitarian crises. Thankfully, CRS has been present to provide assistance without regard to race, religion, or ethnicity.
CRS is funded by both private donations and government contracts (USAID). The total budget of USAID, while sizable, represents less than 1% of the total federal budget. Concerns have been raised that USAID funds have been misused. Those concerns should be investigated and the allocations discontinued, if true. However, let us not throw out the proverbial baby with the bath water! Programs should be scrutinized and investigated, and discontinued when inappropriately allocated.
While the Judeo-Christian tradition heavily influenced the foundation of the United States, our beloved country is a pluralistic one. Yet, I believe that all major religions, as well as secular humanists, would agree that helping fellow human beings in dire need is essential to humanity. In our Christian tradition, I think of Jesus’ parable about Lazarus and the rich man, teaching that care for the poor is essential to human and Christian living (Lk 16:19-31). The United States is the wealthiest country in the world, and one that has been a beacon of hope in many instances across the world. I pray that we will continue to be so. At less than 1% of our budget, I believe we can afford it.
Bishop Oscar Cantú
Diocese of San Jose
Feb 3, 2025
The Province of the United States recommends to our fraternal prayers our dear brother James Allen DELONG, priest, of the Cupertino Marianist Community of Cupertino, California, USA, who died in the service of the Blessed Virgin Mary on January 18, 2025, in Cupertino, at the age of 92 with 71 years of religious profession.
Father Allen was a beloved teacher, administrator, chaplain, campus minister, vocation director, and religious formator who cherished the decades he spent in the Society of Mary. While still a novice, he wrote that he could not “conceive of another way of life that could be more perfect, could offer such a high perfection, and could have such a guide as Mary for attaining conformity with Christ.” Although much of his ministry would focus on work in California and Hawaíi, he also served for a time in Kenya and India.
James Allen DeLong was born on April 23, 1932, in San Gabriel, California. He was the oldest of two children in the family of James and Constance (Lenzini) DeLong, and is survived by his sister, Joan Gori. Allen attended several different parish grade schools in the San Francisco Bay area. He recalled first experiencing a desire for religious life as a seventh grader, a feeling that would grow during his years at St. Vincent High School (Petaluma, California) and as he began undergraduate studies at the University of California (Berkeley).
Taking the initiative to explore this life-path, Allen joined a Trappist monastery for a brief time in 1950 but soon returned to college. He then wrote a letter to Brother William Shmitt to inquire about life in the Society of Mary – a correspondence that provided Allen’s first-ever contact with the Marianists. Thereafter, Allen became a postulate and entered the novitiate at Santa Cruz, California, in August 1952.
After professing first vows in August 1953, Brother Allen pursued scholasticate studies at St. Mary’s College in Alhambra, California, earning a Bachelor of Physics degree there in 1956. For the next three years, he taught at St. Anthony’s School on Maui (Hawaíi) and, during this period, professed his final vows (at Santa Cruz) in 1957. Brother Allen was then assigned in 1959 to Archbishop Riordan High School in San Francisco, California. He taught there until 1963 while taking a year on leave to earn a Master of Arts degree in Education at the University of San Francisco.
In 1964, Brother Allen began a new phase in his education ministry when he was named the founding principal for Archbishop Mitty High School in San José, California – a role that included supervision of construction work for the new school. He served at Archbishop Mitty for 10 years and then entered priestly formation at the Marianist Seminary in Toronto, Ontario (Canada) in 1974. Earning a Master of Divinity degree from St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto, Father Allen was ordained to the priesthood on May 14, 1977, at Queen of Apostles Church in San José. He then completed seminary studies the following year at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri.
Father Allen’s next move brought him to southern California where he started working at Chaminade College Preparatory High School in Los Angeles (West Hills). Initially serving as a teacher and campus minister there, he was named president of the school in 1986. He continued in that leadership role for the next 10 years. After Chaminade, Father Allen served as Vocation Director for the Province for several years before moving into retreat ministry at the Marianist Community in Cupertino, California. Father Allen returned to Hawaíi in 2000, serving as president of Saint Louis School in Honolulu until 2006.
Taking a brief sabbatical in 2007, Father Allen prepared to serve in a new ministry half a world away – becoming assistant novice master for the Society of Mary in Limuru, Kenya (Africa). He served in this role until 2012, spiritually forming young men as they discerned whether to become Marianists and even spending a summer teaching physics to young Brothers in India.
From Kenya, he returned to Hawaíi, where he served as associate pastor at St. Anthony Parish on Maui until 2015. He then accepted a position as campus minister at Saint Louis School in Honolulu, serving there until his retirement from active ministry. Father Allen returned to his native California in 2021, joining the Marianist Community in Cupertino for his final years. Glenn Medeiros, current president of Saint Louis School, paid tribute to Father Allen in a recent edition of the school’s newsletter. “Father Allen made a positive impact on the lives of many people,” Glenn wrote. “His passion for strengthening and supporting a faith-centered education continues today, with many of the practices we have in place now at Saint Louis School. We will dedicate time in school to honor his life and work, and we will pray for all those who are grieving his loss here and elsewhere.”
It’s a legacy that Christopher Casupang recalls fondly as well. The Director of Campus Ministry at Saint Louis School and coordinator of the Marianist LIFE Pacific program says, “When I started in Campus Ministry in the ’90s, I had heard of the name Fr. Allen and his reputation for leadership and ministry. Several years later, he arrived on Kalaepōhaku, and we quickly started the Kairos and Emmaus retreats. Through these retreats, his guidance and mentorship spanned the years as he impacted the lives of many students and colleagues.”
Marianist Father Marty Solma reflected on the impact of the years that Father Allen spent at the Marianist novitiate in Kenya. “He was deeply appreciated by Father Joseph Mwaura, the novice director, and the novices,” Father Marty says. “And Father Allen recently told me that those five years in Kenya were among the most happy, meaningful, and productive of his ministerial life. High praise, I think – for both himself and for the African novices he assisted and taught.”
Jim Muneno, music director for the Mystical Rose Oratory (MRO) on the campus shared by Saint Louis School and Chaminade University in Honolulu, remembers how he drew both personal and professional strength from Father Allen’s counsel. “He was, in some ways, a spiritual father to me,” Jim says. “His advice was always practical and encouraging. He would always ask, what is God calling you to now? Once, he said, after telling him some of my struggles and uncertainties, maybe you are right where God wants you. In reference to our music ministry at MRO, he also said that that ministry is the spiritual life of our family. That stuck with me. He always reminded me to stay in tune with the liturgical seasons.”
During their years together in Hawaíi, Marianist Father Patrick McDaid grew to appreciate Father Allen’s friendship, spirituality, and professionalism. “His love of Jesus and our Blessed Mother was contagious: You only had to be around him for 30 seconds to pick that up!” Father Patrick says. “Allen was a born teacher. Whether teaching physics or religion, as a chaplain or administrator, he was a natural in a school setting. And his preferred setting was any venture that would help the men and women under his care to become saints. Especially in the sacrament of Reconciliation and at Mass, he was like no other. Leading an Emmaus or Kairos retreat was heaven for Allen. How blessed we were to experience his passion and tenderness in sharing the faith!”
May he rest in peace.
