In 1999 Pope John Paul II created a Commission on New Martyrs. He shrewdly appointed Bishop Michael

Hrynchyshyn, a Ukrainian Rite Re-demptorist, as the chair. The Redemp-torists lost many confreres to martyr-dom in the 20th century. In 2001 the Holy Father beatified as martyrs four Ukrainian and one Slo-vak Redemptorist. Although they are not beatified, on August 6, 1944, thirty Redemptorists from our community in Warsaw were executed by German forces: 15 priests, nine brothers, and six students. They marched our confreres down the street, shot them in an open square, and burned their bodies. On October 12 and 13, 2013, in Tar-ragona, Spain, 25,000 people attended the beatification of 522 Spanish mar-tyrs of the Spanish Civil War. Six of these modern martyrs were Redemp-torists. These six Spanish martyrs died during the Spanish Civil War. Some background: the Spanish Communists had won the nation-al elections in 1931 and deposed the King of Spain. Francisco Franco, a general in the Spanish Army, led a re-volt against the Communists that de-veloped into the Spanish Civil War, 1936–39, a war of fascism versus com-munism, the republicans, or Commu-nists, versus the Nationalists, led by

General Franco. The Church was caught in the mid-dle. The Communists could not si-lence the bishops nor control the Church, so they persecuted the Church and executed between 5,000 and 6,000 ordinary Catholics, espe-cially priests and nuns. For the beatification ceremony Octo-ber 13, Pope Francis sent a video mes-sage: “Let us implore the intercession of these martyrs to be concrete Chris-tians, Christians with works and not just words, so as not to be mediocre Christians, Christians varnished with Christianity but without substance. These martyrs were not varnished; they were Christians to the end.” Most of the Redemptorists mar-tyrs were missionaries from the same community, St. Philip Neri Church in Cuenca, in northern Spain. They were martyred in July and August of 1936, the first martyrs in the Congre-gation of the Most Holy Redeemer. When the Communists threatened our community in Cuenca, the Re-demptorists decided to disperse and take refuge with families in the parish. When they realized that this put the families in danger, they took asylum in the diocesan seminary. Two of the Redemptorists were dragged out of the seminary and shot in the head at close range.

Two other Redemptorists were ar-rested and dragged through the city as the people shouted, “Long Live Rus-sia,” and sang Marxist songs. These two were shot and left to die. As they lay bleeding on the side of the road, they encouraged each other and made their confessions to each other. Blessed Julián Pozo was the youngest to die, at the age of 33. Blessed Vic-toriano Calvo became the second Re-demptorist brother to be raised to the altar, after St. Gerard. The bodies of our six martyr con-freres were later recovered, and their remains are in Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, the Redemptorist par-ish in Madrid. n

Beatification of the Spanish Redemptorist martyrs

St. Mary’s, North East & St. Alphonsus College, Suffield

AlumniNotes

Volume 2, Fall/Winter 2013

2 | Alumni Notes, Fall/Winter 2013

Top row: Ned Ken­ny is a married teach­er whose daughter just gave birth to a son, named Pierce, in memory of Father Pierce Kenny, ’62, who died last year. Ned and wife Janet have two adult chil­dren and now live in Wall, N.J. Father Tom O’Connor battled cancer for 25 years and died in 1997. He was the rector in the Virgin Islands, Phil­adelphia, and Low­er Manhattan. Tom Dengel of New Jer­sey. His uncle was a Redemptorist

Third row: Dan Dwy­er of Bayside Queens is a retired financial adviser. He’s married to Eileen and has two daughters, Me­gan and Erin, who is recently engaged. Lou Garden. Father Ed Heilmann was a diocesan priest in Baltimore and died almost 30 years ago. Frank Bergman is retired from IBM. Father Tom Siconolfi had been rector in Baltimore; Annapolis; Bethpage, N.Y.; Canandaigua; and the San Alfonso Retreat House in Long Branch, N.J. He now lives in Ephrata.

Second row: Jim Caskey has two daughters and lives in Cincinnati. John Nolan worked for the Fed­eral Government’s Drug Enforcement Agency. He and his wife have four daughters and live in Clif­ton, Va. Father José Rached spent his priesthood in Puerto Rico, where he has been Provincial, and is now stationed in Guayama. John Scanlon died in 1977. Father Jim Wallace was professor of hom­iletics at Esopus and Washington Theological Union for 39 years. He has written books, articles, and several collections of homilies and is presently rector of San Alfonso Retreat House in Long Branch. Ken Knapp, now retired, had worked for the Treasury Department.

Bottom row: Miguel Mahfoud of Las Matas de Farfan in the Dominican Republic worked for years for Catholic Relief Services in the Dominican Republic. Peter Jurgens lives in Bethlehem, Pa., and is married, with three daughters. Father Ray Collins, now rector at Mission Church in Boston, was also rector in the Virgin Islands, Bethpage, and Ephrata. Gerry Dwyer. John O’Shaughnessy owns a med­ical software company and lives with wife Pamela in Alexandria, Va., and Florida. Father Tom Curley, 1977, did doctoral studies in linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania and taught sacred Scripture at Esopus. He was tragically hit by a truck while riding his bike and died instantly. Jim Conlan.

North East graduating class of 1963

Alumni Notes, Fall/Winter 2013 | 3

Father Dan Carboy, ’60, Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air Force, died on Au-

gust 22, 2013, in hospice care at the St. John Neumann wing of Stella Maris in Timonium, Md. The cause of death was cancer. Dan had been in declin-ing health for the past few years after suffering a stroke. Born on November 6, 1939, Dan was raised on the 400 block of 63 Street in Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Brooklyn, N.Y. Af-ter graduating from North East in 1960, he professed his vows as a Redemptorist in 1961 and was ordained in 1966. He spent two years as a parish priest at Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Baltimore. After a short time at our retreat house in Canandaigua, N.Y., and time as as-sistant Novice Master in Ilchester, Md., Dan served 20 years as an Air Force chaplain in the Archdiocese for the Military. In 1992 Father Carboy retired from the Air Force with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He returned to the Vice-province of Richmond as rector in Concord, N.C. (1993–99), and in Sumter, S.C. (1999–2005). He then became rector at our St. Alphonsus Villa in New Smyrna Beach, Fla. After a year in Hampton, Va., ill health forced his return to the Villa from 2009 until just a few months before his death.

Father Clem Cahill died on August 3. He was from our Re-demptorist parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Help on 61st Street on the East Side of Manhattan. For most of his 62 years as a priest, Father Clem was in Puerto Rico, with short stays in the Virgin Islands. He was sta-tioned in Fajardo, Christian-sted, and Aguadilla before he became rector in Ponce.

He was also chaplain to the military personnel in Puerto Rico. Father Clem was especially devoted to the sick and was faithful to visiting the hospitals in

the parish. Father Willie Straub, ’52, died on October 21. From his days in North East he was known as “Willie,” and from his days in Puerto Rico he was known was Father Pablo, but his real name was Robert. Willie was ordained in 1958 and spent the next 20 years doing priestly work in Puerto Rico. Willie was a dynamic and charismatic priest, and he was soon ministering all over the world: through-out the United States, Canada, Peru, and the Philip-pines—and in Mexico for his final 20 years. Willie was a regular preacher on EWTN television and radio in both English and Spanish. Father Straub founded two religious communities: Los Consagra-dos y Consagradas del Santisimo Salvador—the Con-secrated of the Most Holy Savior. Their convent and seminary is located on the Pacific Coast, just north of Acapulco.

Father Alec Reid died on No-vember 22. He was an Irish Re-demptorist priest who was central to the peace pro-cess in Northern Ireland. He was stationed at our

Redemptorist Monastery in Belfast, right on the di-viding line between the Catholic Community on Falls Road and the Protestant Shankill Road. He was also involved in the peace process between the Basques and the Spanish government. He was frequently nom-inated for the Nobel Peace Prize. In the photo Fa-ther Reid is giving the last rites to two British soldiers killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army. John Slymon, ’65, and Celso de los Santos,’71, also died recently. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and may the light of Our Mother of Perpetual Help shine upon them forever. Amen. n

Remember our deceased alumni

Father Robert StraubFather Dan Carboy

Father Clem Cahill

Father Alec Reid

4 | Alumni Notes, Fall/Winter 2013

Mercyhurst North East will welcome the St.

Mary’s Seminary alumni back home for a three-day reunion celebration from Friday, July 25, to Sun-day, July 27, 2014. In the same Redemp-torist spirit that fostered three previous reunions in 1998, 2006, and 2010, the alumni and their fam-ilies can renew old friend-ships, share cherished

memories, and celebrate our common heritage fos-tered at North East. The schedule will re-main the same as before. On Friday afternoon, settle into your room ei-ther in the town houses, dorm suites, or the for-mer priests’ house, then greet your fellow alumni at a welcoming evening reception. On Saturday, follow-

ing breakfast, we will cel-ebrate the liturgy in the chapel, then enjoy lunch in the refectory and a free afternoon (e.g., a softball game for forever-young athletes). After OLPH de-votions in the grotto, we will gather for a barbecue and gab fest. Although the formal reunion concludes with Mass and lunch on Sun-day morning, you can enjoy an afternoon boat ride on Lake Erie. Ac-commodations will be also available for Thurs-day and Sunday evenings. Website and reserva-tion information will be mailed out (via electron-ic and snail mail) in Janu-ary, but save the date now to join us. For more informa-tion, contact Jack Bres-lin by email (jbreslin@

iona.edu) or by phone (914-632-9805). See you on the promi! n

St. Mary’s reunion: July 25–27, 2014

St. Mary’s Chapel

Above, Redemptorist seminarians in the Bronx pose with a banner depicting the recently beatified Spanish martyrs (see the story on page 1). They are (from left) Richie Hennessy, Kevin McGraw, Peter Le, Guy Mier, Royce Thomas, Phuong To, Vincent Nguyen, Father Francis Mulvaney, C.Ss.R., Ken Stigner, Augustus Rivière, Eumir Bautista, and Ivan Dzhur.

From a past reunion in North East, class of 1961 (from left): Joe Happeny, Brian Morgan, Paul Coyle, and Tom Ryan, with Brian’s son.