“A Son of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is a man on fire with love, who spreads its flames wherever he goes. He desires mightily and strives by all means possible to set everyone on fire with God’s love. Nothing daunts him: he delights in privations, welcomes work, embraces sacrifices, smiles at slander, rejoices in all the torments and sorrows he suffers, and glories in the cross of Jesus Christ. His only concern is how he may follow Christ and imitate him in praying, working, enduring and striving constantly and solely for the greater glory of God and the salvation of humankind.”
With the words “Today a great work begins,” pronounced by Mosén Antonio Claret, gathered with five young priests in a small room of the Seminary of Vic, on July 16, 1849, the life of the Congregation of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary takes off.
Claret’s initiative was not improvised. For a long time he had been thinking about the convenience, first of all, of preparing priests for the preaching of the Gospel, and then, of getting together with those who were animated “by his own spirit,” to do with them, what he could not do alone. His experience as an itinerant missionary throughout Catalonia and the Canaries had carried him to the conviction that the people needed to be evangelized and that there were not enough priests prepared and zealous for this mission. However, as Claret himself recognized, it was not his own idea, but a divine inspiration that led him to set in motion an enterprise as risky as it was fragile: “how important could it be, since we were so young and so few?” Manuel Vilaró exclaimed, one of the priests gathered in the Seminary of Vic.
Had it not been God’s own, the circumstances in which this work had been born propitiated its failure. Twenty days after the foundation, the news reached Fr. Claret of his appointment as Archbishop of Cuba, which he had to accept, in spite of his resistance. The Congregation remained in the hands of God and under the guide of one of the co-founders, Fr. Stephen Sala, who died in 1858.
At this moment, another one of the co-founders, José Xifré, assumes the leadership. Archbishop Claret, called to Madrid in 1857 to become Confessor of Queen Isabel II, tried to be very close to the new Superior General and to all the missionaries: he participated in the General Chapters, wrote the Constitutions which were approved by the Holy See on February 11, 1870, a few months before his death, gave directives and financially contributed in their needs. For the Congregation and by order of the Superior General, he wrote his Autobiography in 1862.
The Congregation suffered a new and serious trial. With the 1868 revolution the Congregation was civilly suppressed, a good number of missionaries had to take refuge in France and the Archbishop Claret had to go into exile, where he died a holy death in 1870. This is the time of the first martyr, Fr. Francis Crusats. However, the Founder could still see with great satisfaction how houses were being founded in different regions of Spain and even reached Algiers and Chile.
Fr. José Xifré’s generalate lasted more than 41 years, since 1858 to 1899. When his mandate began, the Congregation had 1 house and 16 persons; when he died, the Institute had 61 houses and close to 1,300 missionaries.
Once the monarchy was reinstated in Spain in 1875, the Congregation could recover the houses of which it had been dispossessed by the revolution and an era of expansion began, not only in Spain but also in Africa and America.
The missions of Cuba (1880), Equatorial Guinea (1883) and Mexico (1884) deserve to be emphasized. The missionaries developed an impressive apostolic, cultural and social work, in many cases with enormous sacrifices, including the life of the missionaries. Let it suffice to say, as an example, that the 11 missionaries that formed the first expedition to Cuba, except two, died a few weeks after their arrival to the island.
The growth in number required the establishment of formation centres. And with the expansion, the juridical reorganization of the Congregation into Provinces became necessary to give place to better governance.
The process of consolidation and expansion was constant. The Congregation was becoming present in several countries of Europe, America and China. It developed its ministry of preaching the Gospel both in its traditional forms (popular missions and spiritual exercises) and in other new ones for the Congregation (teaching and parishes). Magazines were founded and publishing houses were opened, everything in line with the Claretian inspiration of the apostolate of the pen.
Trials and sufferings were not lacking either in these years: during the Mexican revolution (1927) Fr. Andrés Solá died a martyr; and in the Spanish war (1936) 271 missionaries -fathers, brothers and students-, obtained the palm of martyrdom, among whom were the 51 Blessed Martyrs of Barbastro. In 1949 all the Claretian Missionaries were expelled from China.
In 1949 the Congregation celebrated the first centenary of its life. It had then 2,638 professed members and 160 novices. The Congregation had become international: it was present in 25 countries and the Superior General, elected that same year, was Fr. Peter Schweiger, a German.
The canonization of the Founder, Anthony Mary Claret, on May 7, 1950, marked a congregational historic milestone. It was not only the recognition of a man’s holiness, but above all, a Church’s back-up to the work of the Congregation.
The celebration of the Vatican II Council had a great importance, because of its effect in the congregational renewal, in the deepening in the very Claretian identity within the Church and in a new missionary impulse. This renewal process continued being reaffirmed in the following years, simultaneously with the expansion of the Congregation in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe. Not only positions have been opened in new countries, but also new fronts and pastoral activities: basically, biblical centres, renewed popular missions, specific service to the consecrated, specific commitments to justice, peace and the safeguard of creation, presence among the poor, marginalized and migrants, promotion of social communications media and interreligious dialogue.
In 1999 we reached the 150 years of the life of the Congregation of the Claretian Missionaries. A guarantee of its fidelity to the mission received and, at the same time, a motive of suffering and of glory have been the martyrdom of our Filipino brother, Fr. Rhoel Gallardo, in May, 2000, the persecutions, kidnappings and all forms of violence suffered during these years in different parts of the world.
The XXIV General Chapter unanimously approved a mission at the UN. The Claretians already had some access to the United Nations Organizations but in 2009 the Department of Public Information (DPI) confirmed the Associated NGO Statute to the Congregation.
During this period, new independent delegations emerged due to the important vocational growth and maturity acquired by the various congregational areas in Africa and Asia. In June 2010 the Independent Delegation of Korea officially started. Two years later, in July 2012, Congo and Cameroon began to operate as independent organisms, leaving Gabon as a Mission dependent on the General Government. In February 2012, once the conflict in the island was over, the mission of Sri Lanka became the Dependent Delegation of Sri Lanka dependent to Deutschland.
If something is characterized in this stage of the history of the Congregation, it is through the processes of reorganization carried out. In January 2011, the First Chapter of the newly created Province of Peru-Bolivia was held in Lima. In February of 2011 the new Province of the United States is constituted, resulting from the union of the until then Provinces of USA East and USA West. On July 16, 2011 begins the journey of the newly constituted Province called San Jose del Sur, which involves the Organisms of Argentina and Chile plus the missions of Humahuaca (Argentina) and Paraguay, dependent respectively on the Provinces of Bética and Santiago. In October 2011, the new Directory of the Congregation was published, reflecting the legal innovations adopted since the publication of the previous 1999 Directory. These innovations aim to “promote a vigorous missionary life and encourage a bold and creative response to the apostolic challenges of the world. from today”.
Another model of reorganization is that of the new Continental Conferences. The first had been the division in two of the Asian Conference in 2007: ASCLA EAST AND ASCLA WEST. The new Conference of America, which brings together the previous CICLA and NACLA, came to be called MICLA and brought together all the organisms of America. It was formally constituted in March 2012. The other Conference was the European (ECLA) which was born in January 2013 and joined the two previous European conferences: Iberia and CEC.
An era rich in congregational film events of different ranks. We list them: In Spain, Miniseries about Mons. Pedro Casaldáliga “Descalzos sobre la tierra roja”. Two episodes about his life centered on the fight for the peasants of Mato Grosso. And TV report about the mother house of Vic on TV3. Premiere of the movie “Un Dios Prohibido”, about the Claretian martyrs of Barbastro. Spanish TV presented a program on PROCLADE and the Claretian mission in Honduras. In Mexico: premiere of “La Cristiada”, with great success in Mexico and the United States. It relates the time of struggle for religious freedom, where martyr died, among others, our Fr. Andrea Solá. Several of our missionaries were elected at this stage Presidents of the respective Conferences of National Religious: Fr. Henry Omonisaye of the Conference of Nigeria, Fr. Luis Ángel de las Heras of the Spanish Conference, Fr. Leo Dalmao of the Conference of Philippines and Fr. Artur Texeira of the Portuguese Conference. On October 13, 2013, 23 Claretian martyrs from Sigüenza, Fernán Caballero and Tarragona were beatified in Tarragona, Spain, along with other almost five hundred other martyrs of the Spanish Civil War. The celebration was presided over by Cardinal Angelo Amato, with the attendance of some 25,000 people, including a large number of Claretians presided by the Superior General and his Council. The beatification of the first Colombian martyr, Jesús Aníbal Gómez, Claretian missionary. Their Liturgical Memoria is celebrated on October 13.
The month of June 2014 created a new Organism was constituted composed of the Province of USA and the Delegation of Canada under the name of “USA-Canada Province”. That same month and year the new Independent Delegation of “St. Charles Lwanga” was created, which integrated the missions of East Africa: Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya.
In 2014, the long-awaited work of Fr. Jaume Sidera, the biography of Father Xifré was published in 3 volumes. The biography, deeply valued by the experts, also became a point of reference about the origin and development of the Congregation. In 2015, the new statistics of the Congregation are published. In them it appears that the total number of the Claretian Missionaries was 3,002. Of them 20 bishops, 2,176 priests, 1 permanent deacon, 157 brothers, 533 students and 115 novices. At that time, the Congregation added 34 Major Organisms and 458 Minor Organisms (houses). In 2015, the “Pere Casaldáliga Prize for Solidarity” was awarded to the Casal Claret Association of Vic. Shortly afterwards, the Spanish Catholic Mission of Paris awarded the Medal of Honor to Emigration by the Spanish Minister of Employment and Social Security. Also in June this year the Claretian College Valls was awarded the Prize for Civic Initiative 2015. That June Maximino Cerezo Barredo received from the Spanish magazine Alandar its annual award in recognition of its work in building a better and fairer world with its religious murals both in Spain and in Latin America. In the month of August Uniclaretiana of Colombia received from the OCHA and the IEH the recognition to the best investigation in the category of Approach of Rights. In Rome, in October, Father Pablo Largo received the “Renè Laurentin-pro Ancilla Domini” Prize at the “Marianum” Theological Faculty.
After 105 years of taking responsibility for the “Mission of Our Lady Queen of Angels” in the city of Los Angeles (USA), commonly called “La Placita”, it was surrendered to the Diocese in the month of June. It closed a beautiful Claretian missionary history in which thousands of Latin American immigrants had taken refuge.
The month of August 2015 was the XXV General Chapter in Rome under the theme “Witnesses and Messengers of the Joy of the Gospel.” During the Chapter, Father Mathew Vattamattam, a native of India, and until then General Prefect of Formation, was elected as the new Superior General. During the Chapter a new congregational stage was designed in which the Congregation was invited to enter into a process in tune with a church going-forth that at all times testifies to the joy of the Gospel. During the Audience to the Holy Father, Pope Francis invited the Claretians to “adore, walk and accompany”.
In November, the Claretian missionaries began a new mission in Hong Kong, assuming a parish in the periphery titled of the Epiphany, the largest in the territory of the diocese, since it covers half of the island of Lantao, the largest of Hong Kong. On the other hand, the Claretians of India visited Kathmandu, Nepal, taking the decision to collaborate with five people in two district centers for the year 2016 with the intention of taking on a mission in that country in the future. Likewise, the Claretian missionaries of the Province of Poland opened a new mission in Koudougou, Burkina Faso, 75 km away. From Ouagadougou, the capital of the country. They assumed a parish titled Our Lady of Mercy.
In a letter of the month of December 2015, Fr. General announces the start of the process of reorganization of the Congregation in Europe that will include the following Provinces: Bética-Portugal-United Kingdom-Ireland; Catalunya-EuskalHerría-Francia-Italia; Germany-Poland and Santiago. Always with the aim of forming one Province in the future.
In December 2015, the Holy Father appointed Bishop Rubén González Obispo de Poce, in Puerto Rico. In February 2016, news of the appointment of Fr. Jacek Kicinski as auxiliary bishop of Wroclaw in Poland arrived. Bishop Angel Garachana was elected president of the Episcopal Conference of Honduras. In March, Father Luis Ángel de las Heras was appointed Bishop of Mondoñedo-Ferrol in Spain. And two bishops died during this time: in August of August 2015 Mons. Carlos M. Ariz and in Spain in June of 2016 Bishop Luis Gutiérrez. On November 14, His Holiness Pope Francis appointed Fr. Argemiro de Azevedo, CMF, Bishop of Assis, in Brazil.
On December 22, 2016 Pope Francis authorized the beatification of 109 Spanish Claretian martyrs: Mateu Casals, priest, Teófilo Casajús, student, and Ferran Saperas, brother, and companions. And they were beatified on October 21, 2017 at the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain.
On December 10, 2017, eventually, the Claretian Missionaries of Independent Delegation of Indonesia-Timor Leste gave an answer to the big, long dream of Fr. Xifre to embark our missionary story in the big island of Borneo, now known as Kalimantan Island.
During the first quarter of 2018, the Statistics of the Congregation: 467 Houses with 2,937 Members (20 Bishops, 1 Permanent Deacon, 132 Brothers, 2204 Priests, 455 Professed, 125 Novices)
On May 20, 2018, the Supreme Pontiff announced during the Regina Cæli the appointment of our former General, Fr. Aquilino Bocos Merino as Cardinal. He was ordained bishop, Titular Archbishop of the Diocese of Urusi, on the 16th of June at at the Parroquia San Antonio María Claret in Madrid. He was elevated to Cardinal Deacon of Santa Lucia del Gonfalone on the 28th of July by Pope Francis. The Thanksgiving Mass took place at the Minor Basilica of Immaculate Heart of Mary in Rome on the 30th of the same month.
On July 16, 2018, on the 169th anniversary of the Foundation of our beloved Congregation, at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Tamatsukuri Church) in Japan, our former Superior General, Fr. Josep Maria Abella Batlle, CMF together with Fr. Paul Toshihiro Sakai of the Opus Dei, were both consecrated to the Order of the Episcopate by His Eminence Thomas Aquinas Cardinal Manyo Maeda, Archbishop of Osaka. Both are being installed as Auxiliary Bishops of the Archdiocese of Osaka.
On that same day, the canonical erection of the Padre Xifré Independent Delegation took place, as a result of the fusion of the then Independent Delegation of Equatorial Guinea and the General Mission of Gabon. Fr. José Engonga Mayo Abeng, CMF is the first Major Superior of the newly created Organism.
The Claretian Family is made-up of a group of congregations and institutions which have Saint Anthony Mary Claret as their Founder, or who share his spirit, and together we continue the mission for which the Holy Spirit sustains it in the Church.
The Mission belongs to the core of our most fundamental identity. We have received from the Spirit a charism that conforms us to Jesus and makes us similar to the apostles, in a communion of life, totally dedicated to the Father and to the Kingdom (cf. CC 3-4). One hundred and fifty years ago, our Claretian community experienced a great joy when the Church approved our Constitutions and recognized, with joy, that our Congregation of Missionaries is a gift of the Spirit. Today, also with great joy, we proclaim gratefully with Mary the greatness of the Lord.
We have been graced with a particular spirituality, inherited from St. Anthony Mary Claret and from our rich tradition. As Sons of the Heart of Mary, we are called to be men open to the Spirit, led by him and always docile to his motions; men on fire with love.
Our charismatic heritage defines us as “listeners and servants of the Word”. We are in the Church and in society an echo of Claret (cf. Aut 686), passionate minister of the Gospel in season and out of season, using all means at his disposal. We, like Mary, as Sons of her Heart, want to welcome and meditate upon the Word in our hearts and to proclaim it with passion.
As witnesses and messengers of the joy of the Gospel, in apostolic community, we strive to have a common vision in addressing the human peripheries that challenge us in every place to have an attitude of missionary outreach.
One cannot be Claretian if he acts as if the poor did not exist. Nor can he be Claretian without denouncing unfair structures, fighting against the system that subjugates the poor and proposing alternatives.
For our Congregation the dimension of “evangelizing with others”, multiplying evangelizing leaders, and shared mission is an indispensable charismatic trait (cf. CC 3, 7, 48) that we understand and carry out in various ways.
Dialogue takes different forms: dialogue as presence – living more than doing–, inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue which promotes peace and reconciliation; dialogue with creation that leads to ecological conversion. In this dialogue we live the announcement and the denouncement that is part of prophecy, a dialogue which we also extend to the new digital continent and to the new generations of youth to evangelize and to be evangelized. We are men on fire with love (charity) and “dialogue is the new name of charity” (VC 74).
These are the 51 Blessed Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Claretians) killed in hatred of the faith in August 1936. The all belonged to the Community of Barbastro, a large community, composed of 60 persons, dedicated to the formation of the missionaries; it was a Seminary of the Congregation.
Nine were priests who had charges of responsibility in the house and in the Seminary. Of the 12 Brothers of the community, only 5 received the palm of martyrdom, because they did not kill the elderly nor those that were very sick.
The rest of the community (39) were seminarians who were in the last years of theology. One was a subdeacon and 11 had received minor Orders. Two Argentinians were saved from death: they were freed at the last minute because they were foreigners. Only 9 of these martyrs were over 25 years old; 36 of them had not reached that age, and three were only 21 years old.
WEBSITE: http://www.martiresdebarbastro.org/He was born on 7 October 1895 in Can Vilarrasa, Spain. In September 1922 he was ordained, and in 1923 he was sent to Mexico as a Claretian missionary priest.
The anti-Catholic and anticlerical laws that were passed at the time forced Fr Solá y Molist into hiding; he went to live in the home of Josefina and Jovita Alba in León so that he would not be obliged to leave the Country. He continued to administer Holy Communion to the sick and to hear confessions and celebrate many baptisms and marriages, all at the risk of his very life.
By 1927 the persecution had worsened and his local superior, Fr Fernando Santesteban, directed him to leave León and to go to Mexico City. He remain ed there for some days, and then with the permission of the Provincial Superior he returned to León to continue his ministry.
On 23 April, he received a letter from the superior of the community informing him that there was a warrant for his arrest and that he should suspend his activity, go into hiding or change residence. Fr Solá gave no importance to the letter, believing that nothing would happen. Instead, the next day he was arrested.
When soldiers entered the home of the Alba sisters to take him away, he confirmed that he was a priest. He was led away to his martyrdom and shot on 25 April 1927.
The Martyrs of Fernan Caballero make up a group of 14 young seminarians, close to their priestly ordination, along with Br Felipe Gonzalez (47 years).
For the Cause of their canonization, Fr Jose Maria Ruiz Cano (29 years) linked them altogether as protagonists of a moving story of martyrdom in the city of Siguenza. All of them, sixteen in total, were recognized as martyrs of the Church by Pope Benedict XVI on July 1st 2010, for having testified to their faith by surrendering their lives.
The events of their martyrdom occurred in two different places, Siguenza (Guadalajara) and Fernan Caballero (Ciuda d Real), but were brought together under the same Cause. It is not geographical distance that counts here but the coincidence of the same youthful illusions, full of faith and generosity, truncated in both places with the same violence.
The seven Claretian martyrs of Tarragona came from two communities very close to each other: Tarragona and La Selva del Camp. Their martyrdoms took place separately, at different times and places.
The Claretian Community of Tarragona, living in a very humble house, had the privilege of having a group of Claretians who worked as lecturers in the Seminary and the Pontifical University, where their work as distinguished teachers was always greatly valued.
WEBSITE: http://www.beatificacion2013.com/These 109 Martyrs from the Spanish religious persecution in 1936, are addition to the previously beatified: 51 in Barbastro, 16 in Fernan Caballero and 7 in Terragona, with a total of 183 Claretian Missionaries glorified by the Church.
The 109 martyrs are from the Claretian communities of Barcelona (8), Castro Urdiales (3), Cervera-Mas Claret (60), Sabadell (8), Vic-Sallent (15), Lleida (11) and Valencia (4). At the head of this large group of martyrs are three names: Mateu Casals (priest), Teófilo Casajús (student) and Ferran Saperas (brother). They symbolize the 49 priests, 31 brothers and 29 students who will be beatified. Catalans (the majority), Navarrese, Aragonese, Castilians … all shared the common religious profession and a great love for Jesus Christ and for the Church. Except for two, who died in 1937, all were martyred in the final months of 1936, during the religious persecution that took place in the Spanish Civil War. The biographies of each of them and various accounts of their martyrdom can be found on the website indicated below.
On March 11, 2001, M. Maria Patrocinio Giner Gomis, a Claretian Missionary Sister, was beatified, along with 232 other martyrs from the same archdiocese of Valencia. She was born in Tortosa (Tarragona – Spain) in 1874. Her first name was María Cinta Asunción and belonged to a large family of deep religious tradition. For many years she held the position of formatress of the young Claretian generations and educator in Carcagente (Valencia – Spain). She died a martyr in Portichol de Valldigna (Valencia – Spain) on November 13, 1936 during the religious persecution in Spain.