READ: Monsignor Schwartz, friend of poor children

This article comes out at Baltimore Sun two days after Father Aloysius Schwartz died in Manila, Philippines. Photos courtesy of the Sisters of Mary. Old yet refreshing news - worth reading...:)

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Monsignor Schwartz, friend of poor children

March 18, 1992|By Robert A. Erlandson | Robert A. Erlandson,Staff Writer

Monsignor Aloysius Schwartz, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee for his ministry to thousands of poor children around the world, died Monday at an orphanage he established in Manila. He was 61.

A member of a Baltimore family, Monsignor Schwartz was diagnosed in October 1989 with Lou Gehrig's disease, a degenerative illness of the nervous system. Undeterred, he continued his work even as his short, slender and once-athletic body weakened. He delivered his final sermon last week, in a voice barely audible beyond the altar.

Monsignor Schwartz's legacy is the orphanages and hospitals he founded for more than 12,000 children in Korea, the Philippines and Mexico.

The children are cared for by the brothers of the Order of Christ and the nuns of the Sisters of Mary, religious orders he founded in Korea in the 1960s to work in his "Boystowns" and "Girlstowns."

Monsignor Schwartz will be buried at his orphanage in Silang, outside Manila, where Philippine primate Jaime Cardinal Sin will celebrate a special Mass next Wednesday.

A memorial Mass will be scheduled later at St. Bernard's Church, Riverdale, Md., said William J. Vita, the priest's brother-in-law and executive director of Asian Relief Inc., the Hyattsville-based fund-raising arm of Monsignor Schwartz's missions.

Determined to expand his mission to the Western Hemisphere, Monsignor Schwartz battled his illness and in October 1991 oversaw dedication of his last orphanage, in Chalco, Mexico. It now cares for between 800 and 1,000 needy children from middle-school through high-school age.

In 1983, Monsignor Schwartz, who eschewed personal publicity, received the Ramon Magsaysay Award, called the Nobel Prize of the Pacific, for his foundation of orphanages in Pusan and Seoul, Korea. He was named a monsignor in 1990.

Despite his reticence, this friend of the lowly was well known to the mighty, who began paying final tributes even before his death.

Rep. Robert K. Dornan, a California Republican, wrote the dying priest last month, calling him "a hero and a saint" for his lifelong commitment to the needy, and saying he had nominated Monsignor Schwartz for the Nobel Prize.

When President and Mrs. Ronald Reagan traveled to Korea in 1983, the first lady visited Monsignor Schwartz's orphanage in Seoul. Last January, Mr. Reagan wrote to the priest, saying he had just learned of his illness and praising his "courage and exemplary dedication to continuing your work with the orphans of the world."

Cardinal Sin, who persuaded Monsignor Schwartz to open an orphanage in Manila, has compared him with Mother Teresa of Calcutta and other heroic missionaries.

Born in Washington, Aloysius was the third of seven children of Louis and Cedelia Schwartz, who had moved from Baltimore, the father's home town. He grew up in Northeast Washington, attended Holy Name Parochial School and served as an altar boy at the adjacent church.

The young Aloysius discovered his priestly vocation early -- in the third grade -- and soon decided he wanted to be a missionary, Mr. Vita said. He attended high school at St. Charles Seminary in Catonsville, and in 1952 graduated from Maryknoll College in Glen Ellen, Ill.

But fearful that the Maryknolls would make him a teacher, he went to Europe to study theology at Louvain University in Belgium. In June 1957, he returned to Washington long enough to be ordained as a priest before leaving to begin his mission in Korea, a country still recovering from a bitter war. Then, while recovering from hepatitis, Father Schwartz preached at parishes around the U.S. to raise money for his mission. Before leaving for Korea, he went on retreat to a Trappist Monastery at Berryville, Va.

There he met a man who was expert in direct-mail solicitation. The man persuaded Father Schwartz to give him more than $30,000 he had raised preaching to launch a nationwide fund-raising drive.

Fr. Aloysius Schwartz in Korea

That was the start of Korean Relief Inc., which in 1985 became Asian Relief Inc. as the orphanage network expanded to the Philippines and then to Mexico. It now has a multimillion-dollar operating budget, Mr. Vita said.

The expansion from Korea, Mr. Vita said, arose from Cardinal Sin's intervention during Pope John Paul II's 1983 visit to Korea. Cardinal Sin joined the pontiff, met Monsignor Schwartz and begged him to establish refuges for children in the Philippines.

After resisting initially, Monsignor Schwartz agreed to a feasibility study in 1984. The sight of so much poverty moved him, and the next year the first Boystown/Girlstown was opened in Manila, with others to follow in Cebu and Silang. They serve more than 7,000 children and adults in the homes and hospitals.

Monsignor Schwartz is survived by six brothers and sisters: Mary Flanagan of Princeton, N.J.; Louis Schwartz Jr. of Bethesda; Rose Herold of Atlanta; Dolores Vita of Lanham; Margaret Mercier of Vienna, Va.; and Joan Baur of Calverton, Md.

Mr. Vita said memorial contributions to further the work of Asian Relief Inc. may be sent to 4815 Edmonston Road, Hyattsville, Md. 20781.

READ: "Story of Aloysius Schwartz" by Vincent J. O'Malley,C.M.

"Story of Aloysius Schwartz"
Saints of Asia: 1500 to the Present
Vincent J. O'Malley,C.M.

Born in Washington, D.C., the third of seven children, Aloysius Schwartz (1930-1992) attended Holy Name Grammar School, Saint Maryknoll College at Lakewood, New Jersey and Glen Ellyn, Illinois: and matriculated in theology at Louvain University, in Belgium. After visiting the shrine of the Virgin of the Poor at Banneux, Belgium, he dedicated his life to serving the poorest of the poor.

After ordination on June 29, 1957, Father Al was assigned to Pusan, South Korea, where he arrived on December 8. Evidence of post-war poverty abounded, especially among orphaned or abandoned street children. These children lacked the necessities of life. For these innocent victims, Fr. Al conceived and oversaw the construction of a Childrens Village to provide the poorest youth with basic necessities. To assist him in this mission, he founded two religious congregations: in 1964, the Sisters of Mary; and seventeen years later, the Brothers of Christ.

In 1985 and 1990, he extended his ministry to the Philippines and Mexico respectively. His foucus remained
the poor, and especially children. He founded Children's Villages in South Korea at Pusan(1964) and Seoul (1975); in the Phillipines at Manila (1985), Talisay (1990) and Silang (1991); and in Mexico at Chalco (1990).

In November 1989, this servant of the poorest of the poor was diagnosed with ALS, known popularly as Lou Gehrig's disease, and medically as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. As his muscles gradually weakened, his mobility lessened, and he became increasingly dependent on the use of a walker, and the wheelchair. As his voice weakened, he no longer preached to large crowds, but to small groups, and eventually, his spoken word gave way to written messages. He, nonetheless, continued his ministry. As his activities diminished, his prayers increased; he spent hours praying in front of the Blessed Sacrament, also saying the rosary, and hearing confessions. He writes in an autobiography:

"Pain is pain and suffering is suffering no matter how deep the faith, how bright the hope and how pure the love. At the same time, in the depths of the pain there is this oneness of spirits, and in the heart of the suffering there is this union of souls. And from this oneness and this union there rises a very pure, spiritual peace- this peace of God which surpasses all human understanding."

In recognition of his extraordinary contribution to society, he was nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize-- in 1984 and 1992.

On March 16, 1992 he died at Manila. The funeral procession took several hours to wind its very way through Silang as the poor poured out of their hovels to line the streets in demonstration of their affection for their advocate. Dignataries followed the cortege in grateful recognition of all that this priest had done for the church and the community. His remains were buried at the Children's Village at Silang, in Cavite Province, Philippines.

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From: Shorelines Newsletter Archives
Published by : Vocation.com

TESTIMONY: "A Miracle in Mexico"

"A Miracle in Mexico"
By Alejandro Grattan
December 2002 Guadalajara-Lakeside Volume 19, Number 4

In a deeply religious country which is fraught with inexplicable phenomena, we have seen one such miracle with our own eyes. Few people at Lakeside have heard of this modern-day marvel, even fewer have visited its site, though thousands of us probably have passed only a couple of hundred yards away from it.

At first glance, it would appear to be a beautifully-laid-out junior college campus which could be anywhere in the U.S. or Canada, a campus equipped with several dormitories, a large gymnasium, a soccer field, basketball and volleyball courts, a semi-Olympic-sized swimming pool, classrooms fitted with dozens of late-model computers, and an enrollment of more than two thousand students.

There, however, all similarity ends.

For this magnificent monument to one man’s courage, vision and indomitability is known as Villa de Los Niños, located about ten miles north of Jocotepec, on the highway to Guadalajara. It is a sight that has to be seen to be believed. Here some 2000 of the poorest boys in Mexico, under the firm but loving guidance of Sister Cecilia Lee and her staff of about fifteen Sisters of Mary, are provided with food, shelter, clothing and a secondary technical, vocational training, all free of charge. Upon completion of their three-year course, the graduates then proudly take their places amongst Mexico’s fast-growing middle-class.

Villa de Los Niños, Guadalajara

The educational training is intensive, with the students given only a two-week yearly vacation, and allowed but one parental visit each year. But at the end of the three years, the boys have been given, in addition to the standard education for lads in the secondary age-range, vocational training in any one or more trades such as woodworking, cooking, computers, auto mechanics, refrigeration, baking, jewelry, music, electronics, etc.

The equipment and supplies are provided free by many of Mexico’s largest corporations, and the facilities we saw are state-of-the-art. The auto repair training center was equipped by Volkswagen Mexico, which provides the students with several late-model cars, and all the necessary tools. The area is maintained by the students, and is so spotless one could eat off the floor. Best of all, as with many of the other vocations, the students are guaranteed a job upon graduation with the sponsor company.
      

Finally, however, it is not the adult instructors or the corporations who have made this place what it is—but rather the Sisters of Mary and the students themselves. It was inspiring to witness the sense of quiet joy and deep dedication which seemed to permeate the very halls of this marvelous institution of learning. The boys we saw (and we saw hundreds of them!) seemed happy, focused and keenly aware that they had been given one of the greatest strokes of luck they are likely to ever encounter. All of them come from extremely poor backgrounds, and proudly wear the neat, clean regulation clothing they were issued upon admittance.

The day Cuca Tingen and I visited, our guide was Sister Zeny, a diminutive nun from the Philippines whose broad smile and cheerful cooperation made our short stay a delight. Of the fifteen nuns, most are from the Philippines and South Korea, with a sprinkling of Mexican sisters mixed in for local flavor.

The man responsible for this miracle in Mexico is the late Msgr. Aloysius Schwartz. Creating just one such monument to the power of courage, vision and love would be enough for any man—but over the course of his life, he founded other such facilities in Korea and the Philippines, as well as hospitals, orphanages and homes for the homeless. Little wonder that he was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Equally amazing was that he did much of this while confined to a wheelchair. In 1989, Msgr. Schwartz was stricken with the malady known today as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease,” an affliction which finally took his life in 1992. Now the good Sisters of Mary carry on with his magnificent dream, doing it mainly through contributions. Anyone wishing to know more about this great effort and who has the desire to take part in this charitable work may call Sister Cecilia Lee at (37472) 5-0207.

As we drove away, I glanced back at the hundreds of young boys and the beautiful grounds and buildings, and a line from a now-forgotten play came to mind, in which one of the characters—reflecting on how every now and then, good people and noble ideas can create miracles—says “Sometimes there’s God.”

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Published by: - El Ojo del Lago - Mexico's Leading English Language Publication
Additional Image: From SMS Files.