CHAPTER 4 : SETTLING IN: BENICIA [1] During the '60s and '70s the fathers were not negligent of their fundamental work as Dominicans, i.e. preaching. Certainly there were the weekly sermons in the various parishes and missions and the often daily instructions given to children and adults alike who were new to the Faith. But the records speak of a wider orbit of preaching, and what is expressly mentioned is probably only a fraction of what actually occurred. In his Chronicle for 1870 Vilarrasa notes that "In this year the Fathers began to give missions and retreats and from then on devoted themselves with great assiduity to these labors of the sacred ministry." In his Journal he becomes more specific. For 1872: "In the month of July Father Lentz gave the retreat for the clergy of the diocese of San Francisco. Also our brothers gave the sisters of Sacred Doctrine (Holy Family Sisters) their retreat." For 1873:
Three other missions, plus one retreat (to the Sisters of Mercy) are listed for the remainder of the year. One of these missions is detailed in the Monitor of October of 1873. The preachers were Frs. Vinyes, Caldwell, Horgan, and Fitzsimons. The schedule was:
We are told that the church was crowded throughout the mission and that about three thousand received the sacraments. Says the Monitor about the sermons:
No other special preaching is specified in Vilarrasa's journal which takes us up to 1880. But in other of his papers we find a report on the preaching done in 1879. During this year the Dominicans gave thirteen missions, with as many as five fathers engaged in a single mission, six retreats, including those for the diocesan clergy of San Francisco and Los Angeles, and several tridua. Such a full schedule on record for these years suggests that there must also have been special preaching, perhaps more, perhaps less, during the unrecorded years. But most of the friars' ministry was directed to parish life, that of Benicia and of its various missions. As we have seen, in 1854 there was, in addition to St. Dominic's in Benicia, St. Catherine's across the straits in Martinez. Initially this mission required only weekend services. One of the fathers in residence at Benicia would leave St. Dominic's on a Saturday, ferry across the Strait to the small Martinez dock, and walk or ride the short distance to the church. The first "church" was a store owned and operated by T.A. Brown. Prior to the coming of the Dominicans, Mass would be offered here once a month, which Vilarrasa changed to a weekly affair. Under the direction of the Dominicans, a bona fide adobe church was built in 1856 with a single room over the sacristy which served as the priest's overnight quarters, his meals being furnished by the parishioners. Prior to this church and the priest's quarters, the priest must have been housed as well as fed by the parishioners. Of course there was more to serving the mission church than simply saying Mass on the weekends. There were confessions to be heard, instructions to be given, marriages to be performed, etc. And often enough the "vicar" would have to travel far into the mission's territory to tend to the sick or offer the sacraments in other populated areas. Thus in 1864 Fr. Vinyes ministering in Martinez was called to the Empire Mine south of Antioch to tend to a seriously injured miner. He took this opportunity to call together the Catholics of the area and celebrated Mass with them in the home of John Mulhare, a short distance southwest of Antioch. This occasioned the building of Holy Rosary Church the same year, which became still another Dominican mission. Toward the end of this year we find Archbishop Alemany at the infant church and noting in his Journal of Correspondence: "Blessed the church at Antioch under the title of Our Lady of the Rosary. Confirmed about six." St. Dominic's continued to serve Antioch on weekends until the early 1870s when at last a resident pastor, Fr. J.P. Callaghan, was appointed. This was pretty much the pattern for the other missions served from St. Dominic's in Benicia. In Solano County, each weekend one of the Benicia priests would journey to Vallejo and there minister to the people of St. Vincent's, until a resident pastor was appointed there in 1869. Across the straits in Contra Costa County, Holy Rosary of Antioch, first served from Benicia, was later ministered to by Fr. James Aerden once he became resident pastor of St. Catherine's in Martinez in 1873, and it remained a mission of St. Catherine's until it too received a resident pastor in 1874. With the help of Benicia, Martinez also oversaw the other Dominican missions springing up in Contra Costa County -- St. Michael's in Pacheco, Saint Patrick's in Somersville, Queen of All Saints in Concord (Todos los Santos), Saint Patrick's in Port Costa, St. Peter Martyr's in Pittsburgh (first served from Antioch), Saint Mary's in Walnut Creek, Saint Rose's in Valona (later moved to Crockett), Saint Anthony's in Brentwood (served from Antioch, and transferred to Oakley in 1909), Saint Francis of Rome in Bay Point (Port Chicago). Some of these missions lasted only briefly (Somersville, Port Costa, Port Chicago), others eventually became full-fledged parishes with a resident Dominican pastor, most ended up in the hands of the diocesan clergy. But any reader of the early history of the western Dominicans cannot help realizing how much of the ministry of the friars centered upon the parochial, precisely because the country was missionary requiring missionaries to institute and/or deepen the Faith within it. How manage this except through the establishment, maintenance, and development of parishes? Yet always the problem: what of religious community life with so many of the brethren scattered and on their own abroad, whether as frequently traveling from place to place and so habitually absent from the convent, or assigned as a lone resident pastor away from all community living? The problem was recognized, and faced -- in legislation and in follow-ups by letter and visitations -- though little might thereby be accomplished. Martinez, again, may serve as an example of the problem and attempts to deal with it. When Fr. Aerden was alone in residence he had, of course, his own ingrained Dominican formation to guide him, plus the Order's Rule and Constitutions and the biennial Acts to make the Constitutions specific and concrete in the present situation. These Acts would be a continual reminder to the brethren of the seriousness of their commitment to the fullness of the life they professed. So Ordinance III of the 1875 biennial congregation:
In the following ordination we find this one specifically applied to houses where there are three clerical brothers present. In such houses the choral recitation of the office, though it may be slightly abbreviated for a grave reason, is never to be omitted. "If, however, a grave impediment should at times intervene, an hour of the Divine Office may be omitted or postponed, though this may not be done lightly." The ordination concludes: "We ordain the same with regard to the obligation of mental prayer." The Acts are also firm in their insistence on other duties of the religious life. Thus poverty: "It is allowed to no one, as has already often been ordained, to keep under any title any money he has received nor to purchase anything for himself, but let all be provided by the community with regard to religious necessities, and we order fathers procurators to provide promptly and sufficiently for all necessities." The vow of chastity also features in the legislation, positively in the promotion of prayer and ministry, but also in prudential guides given and insisted upon. The cloister, for instance, is strictly to be maintained, even in small houses. Already in the first biennial congregation we find it stated, and to be repeated time and time again: "Recalling the most salutary and necessary 24th Ordination of the encyclical of the Master General, July 30, 1864, we strictly prohibit, especially for small houses, anyone to leave the premises after sunset except to fulfill a ministry that cannot be omitted or postponed... Having before our eyes the 44th ordination of the same encyclical and seriously urging its observance, we ordain that pastors, that is vicars of houses, take care that a rigorous cloister be observed in their houses, and that no woman be allowed entrance into the interior of the house, except in a designated place for conferences." (1865, ord. II and III). The brethren are warned against idling away their time by visiting the homes of the laity and becoming too familiar with them, "mindful that under the appearance of good the devil often lies hidden, the reputation of the Order is harmed, the good repute of the brethren is brought into question, and the soul is exposed to the imminent danger of shipwreck." The ordination concludes: "Let our conversation, then, be such that in it nothing be offensive to the sight or hearing of anyone, but only what is becoming to the state which we profess." (1875, ord. XII). Much of this a Dominican like Fr. Aerden, living alone, could live to the letter, but much else would have to go by the board, such as, obviously, the choral recitation of the Divine Office. Even when two men were in the house such an obligation would be unduly cumbersome to say the least. Allowance was accordingly made. So when in 1916 only two men were stationed in Martinez, the then provincial, Fr. Lawrence McMahon, drew up a special list of ordinances to be followed. They are modest enough. "In order that there may be something distinctly and evidently Dominican in the daily life of the Fathers, and that, as far as their number will permit, they may better keep up the common observance of the Order," they are ordinarily to wear the habit in the house and "always" at meals and when called to the parlor. They are to pray the conventual prayers before and after meals. They are to promote in the parish the confraternities of the Order. And they are to fulfill the specified ordinances with regard to parish and house finances. Nothing is said concerning choir or other communal activities, but the provincial's cover letter suggests that not much was being done, or could be done, about it.
But even the minimum could be too much. We do not have Fr. Henry Shaw's response to these visitation ordinances, but a year later (April 25, 1917) we find him responding to other apparently similar ordinations:
Even attendance at the annual community retreat might sometimes have to be forgone, but the brethren, especially those living alone, would be alerted to their need of it and provisions would be made for it. So in a letter to the same Fr. Shaw in Martinez dated Dec. 6, 1913, Fr. McMahon writes:
Fr. Shaw replies that he could not "conveniently" attend the retreat in Benicia (and, supposedly, in San Francisco). No explanation was given, nor, apparently, was any required. The reader will have noted the air of dissatisfaction in McMahon's letter with regard to the small parish houses. "While we hold the 'outside places'," is his phrase, indicating a temporary arrangement and not altogether satisfactory since there are in such houses "Fathers who are all the year without community observances." The friars were missionaries in a missionary land, but their particular Dominican style of mission -- ministry out of a contemplative life and leading back into it -- was in disrepair, precisely because of the need to maintain small, isolated parishes. The problem would continue to vex the brethren. >>> |
