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CURRENT ISSUE: September 3, 2007 • VOL. 45, NO. 15 • Okland, CA
Moreau High delegation to attend
beatification of Father Basil Moreau
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Fr. Basil Anthony Moreau |
A delegation from Moreau Catholic High School in Hayward
will join representatives from Holy Cross religious and educational communities
throughout the world for the Sept. 15 beatification of Father Basil Anthony
Moreau, founder of the religious family of Holy Cross Sisters, Brothers
and priests. The ceremony will take place in Le Mans, France.
The elevation of the Holy Cross priest has special meaning for Moreau
High, the only high school within the Holy Cross network that bears the
founder’s name.
“For 42 years, the students and staff at Moreau Catholic have maintained
a deep devotion to Father Moreau, and this beatification brings great
joy to the entire community,” said Terry Lee, the school’s
principal. “Father Moreau said that the mind shall not be cultivated
at the expense of the heart, and we use those words to guide our educational
mission every day at Moreau Catholic High School.”
In addition to Lee, other members of the school delegation are: David
Capurro, Moreau Board of Trustees chair and alumnus; Peter Francis Shelley,
assistant principal; and Joseph Connell, former Moreau High president.
The beatification festivities, which include a pilgrimage to Father Moreau’s
birthplace, extend from Sept. 14 – 16. Bishop Jacques Faivre of
Le Mans will be the main celebrant at the beatification Mass on Sept.
15 in the Centre Antares. Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, prefect of the
Vatican Congregation of the Causes of the Saints, will represent Pope
Benedict XVI.
Father Moreau was born in Laigne-en-Belin, a town in the Diocese of Le
Mans, on Feb. 11, 1799. Ordained at 22 years of age, he taught and served
as assistant superior of the major seminary in Le Mans. During this period
he united the Brothers of St. Joseph and the Auxiliary Priests to form
the Association of the Holy Cross. With papal approval of the constitutions,
the Association became the Congregation of the Holy Cross in 1857.
Father Moreau founded a group of women religious in 1841. Today, the women
of Holy Cross form three distinct Holy Cross congregations.
The men and women of Holy Cross have founded and continue to operate educational
institutions and numerous pastoral and social ministries in North and
South America, Africa and Asia.
Father Moreau, who resigned as superior general of the congregation in
1866, remained active in preaching and retreat ministry until his death
on Jan. 30, 1873.
The LeMans Diocese initiated the cause for Father Moreau’s beatification
in 1946. But the cause was not formally presented to the Congregation
for the Causes of Saints in Rome until 1955. Pope John Paul II bestowed
the title of Venerable on the Holy Cross founder on April 12, 2003.
Three years later Pope Benedict XVI formally acknowledged the beatification
miracle – the 1948 cure of a Canadian woman suffering from pleuritis
of the left lung.
In honor of Blessed Basil Moreau, Moreau Catholic High will rededicate
the school on Sept. 29.
