America's Largest Catholic Newspaper
The Sisters of St. John the Baptist celebrated the canonization of their founder, St. Alfonso Maria Fusco, by Pope Francis at the Vatican on Oct. 16 and are now preparing for a celebration in New York in March 2017.
“We’ve begun the planning, but some of the sisters on the committee were in Rome” for the canonization, said Sister Mary Crucifix Pandullo, C.S.JB., director for the Staten Island Regional Catechetical Office.
Watching the canonization on television “was wonderful,” she said. “It was like being there and sharing the moment. I saw some of our sisters there in the crowd. It was really an unbelievable grace. We’ve been praying for this. This is a great gift to the Church as well.’’
St. Alfonso was one of seven people—six men and one woman—canonized in front of 80,000 people from around the world by the Holy Father.
Sister Claudette Jaszczynski, C.S.JB., provincial superior for the Sisters of St. John the Baptist’s American Province which covers New York and New Jersey, was one of the sisters from the United States in St. Peter’s Square for the canonization.
“To be present at this canonization was a great grace and gift for me as I witnessed the Church’s recognition and its proclamation that these seven holy men and woman have lived lives in accord with the Gospel,” said Sister Claudette in an email from the “shadows of the Vatican wall!”
“What I will remember the most is I was part of the Baptistine global family that gathered here in St. Peter’s Square to celebrate our founder’s life of love and charity and his legacy of implanting his charisma in many lands and cultures.”
St. Alfonso, who was beatified by St. John Paul II in 2001, was born in the Italian province of Salerno in 1839. Eleven years later, he told his parents he wanted to be a priest. He was ordained in 1863 and formed the Sisters of St. John the Baptist after meeting with Maddalena Caputo, who with three other women organized the religious order in 1878 with a mission to feed, clothe, shelter and educate the poor and abandoned children.
The congregation, which arrived in the United States four years before St. Alfonso’s death in 1910, now has about 900 members in 17 countries.
“He was a great parish priest at a time when there were difficulties in Italy,” Sister Mary Crucifix said. “There were orphan children and he realized the necessity of education for the children to be good citizens of the world. He was very much into the liturgy and prayer. He was a great gift and model for priests at this time.”
Locally, the sisters have a provincial home in the Bronx. The sisters in the archdiocese work at Providence Rest nursing home in the Bronx and St. John Villa Academy on Staten Island. They do pastoral work on Staten Island at Blessed Sacrament and St. Christopher and St. Margaret Mary parishes, and serve at Msgr. Farrell High School on Staten Island and St. Raymond Elementary School in the Bronx. They also do catechetical work on Staten Island.
“This occasion is a boon for us in that it validates for us to be faithful to the movement of the Holy Spirit that moved him to be a servant of the poor and the little ones,” Sister Claudette said. “The Holy Father wanted his canonization—to be part of this Year of Mercy as his priestly life was a model in fulfilling the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.”
