St. Joseph

On the panel to your right… starts off with St. Joseph… patron of fathers, men in general, the Universal Church – God’s household. His staff is flowering… the Old Testament prophecies about Jesus have been fulfilled… Joseph, descendant of David… would see it fulfilled.

St. Catherine of Siena

For 42 years, the Dominican Order staffed our Newman Center here… a lay Dominican chapter is still functioning here in the Valley. I felt it essential to acknowledge that none of this would be happening were it not for their labors… they did the ground work, we put into effect their vision for campus ministry here at ASU.

I chose St. Catherine of Siena… 14th century Italy… a Dominican nun… instrumental in solving a crisis in the life of the Church at the time… she told the Pope to get back to Rome from his extended – almost a century – vacation in southern France… and do something about corruption in the Church. Careful about messing with a strong Italian lady.

St. Andrew Kim

Maybe you all might remember the 2016 movie Silence. An historical drama about the Jesuits in Japan in the 1600s… about how Christianity was suppressed violently… lotta blood… but it gave rise to the so-called “Hidden Christians.” Good viewing… but intense.

A parallel suppression of Christ occurred in Korea in the 19th century. St. Andrew Kim, who you see, depicted in native garb of Korea. He’d barely been ordained a priest a single year, before he and his companions are captured, tortured, limbs lopped off… finally their heads. He was 24 years old… not easy to evangelize… but Korea today… apart from the Philippines is the largest Christian population in Asia.

Blessed Chiara Badano

Focolare – it’s Italian for “hearth.” It’s a strong lay movement of Catholics in Italy… its spirituality concentrates on the image of the Forsaken Christ as a way to make it through difficult times.

Blessed Chiara Badano – she’s not yet been canonized, it’s why her halo’s blue. She’s a normal teenager… likes pop music, dancing, staying out late. Heckuva a tennis player and swimmer… she, like the young man to her right, an avid hiker.

Chiara developed a bone cancer in 1988… gave it good fight, said No to all painkillers she said they affected her awareness. She died Christmas 1990 and is now a heavenly advocate for the unborn, whose right to life she was a champion.

Blessed Piergiorgio Frassatti

He kind of prefigured Chiara Badano by several decades. Growing up during the first world war… he was really dedicated to Catholic social issues. Active in St. Vincent de Paul, a third order Dominican… he was exceptionally attentive to the poor and less fortunate of his hometown Turin.

He was also a normal teenager and young adult… known as Il Terrore … The Terror. Why? He was amazing at pranks and good-natured practical jokes. Again, heckuva athlete like few others… a swimmer and a soccer player… a mountaineer and skier. He also enjoyed a good smoke… look closely and you can see a pipe in his left hand.

He died of polio in 1925… and as his casket was carried through the streets of Turin… thousands of the city’s poor lined the streets and spread flowers before him.