People Really Do Care About You!

From Life-After-RC:

Have you had the traumatizing experience of leaving your own Congregation, or contemplating doing it, heartbroken yet still full of zeal of the Church and not knowing where to go or where to start? Perhaps you could relate well to the Mission Society of Mandeville, a vibrant community of priests and brothers found in Jamaica, West-Indies (the Caribbean). An ex-Lc visited them some time ago.

This Mission Society was Founded by the first Bishop of Mandeville, the Most Rev. Bishop Paul M. Boyle, former Superior General of the Passionist Order upon the urging of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in Rome almost a decade ago. It is a diocesan Society of Apostolic life which has received a number of diocesan approvals as well as a Decree of Encouragement from the Bishops of the island nation of Jamaica, including the President of the Episcopal Conference.

The initial members of this missionary society went through something very similar to what the LC's are going through. They belonged to the Sons of Mary, a Canadian group which basically "went mad" and is now in schism with the Church because of false mysticism and other warped attitudes too long to describe here. Having also known the Sons of Mary, this ex-LC also knows that there were some healthy spiritual characteristics in the Sons of Mary that were identical to the LC's. Indeed in the mid 80s, the Sons of Mary were the only religious with which the members of the LC's could mingle freely. Their devotion to the Eucharist, to the Blessed Mother and their faithfulness to the Pope were akin to that of the LC's.

At any rate, the Sons of Mary were an international group serving in Italy (in two dioceses) in France, in Canada the United States and Jamaica. Once the group went "off the deep end" a group of these religious left the Sons of Mary "en bloc" in an act of faith, desiring to continue to serve the Church as priests and brothers and yet maintain what was "salvagable." The trauma they felt was deep. The separation from their institute cut them to the innermost recesses of their being. Yet out of this "death experience" came new life! I am sure that some of you out there would find in them a sympathetic ear. Perhaps some of you would want to join them.

God helped this group of brave men that this ex-LC personally knows. Indeed the Bishop of Mandeville for a few years before these sad events concerning the Sons of Mary took place was nurturing the idea to found a Society dedicated to Mission for Life in the Caribbean. When the tragic events affected this group, he decided to go ahead with this dream and found a Mission Society. He "seized the day" and he asked these ex Sons of Mary if they wanted to engage themselves in forming a new group. After prayer and discernment, these first few members agreed to the Bishops' proposition. The Bishop then officially founded the Society and gave the Society its statutes. The first elected Superior was the very Rev. Monsignor Michael Palud who is presently the Vicar General of the Diocese of Mandeville. He is also the official translator of the Bishop's Conference of the Antilles Region. He can be reached at msgrmichael@gmail.com. They have a website: www.themissionsocietyofmandeville.org.

Later, after the Foundation, other members joined. Most of the members of this society are tri-lingual and speak English, French and Italian. A number of them also speak Spanish and Portuguese. The Society runs a secondary school, a home for abandoned children, a retreat house and a number of parishes. A few months ago, Cardinal Dias of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples wrote to another Archbishop in the Caribbean telling the Most Rev. Robert Rivas, O.P. archbishop of Castries to look to The Mission Society of Mandeville for help for his Diocese. Just consider...because of the similarities, maybe that could be a solution for some of you out there. Think about it, think about the potential this might create for the good of the Caribbean church ! I have a feeling that you would be received with open arms.