The Stations of Our Lives: A Visit to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help (Champion)

The National Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in Champion, Wisconsin was a kind of “home away from home” for Father Ubald, who frequently visited this Marian site of visitation — the only approved apparition site in the U.S. — to conduct his healing prayer services and to recharge his spiritual batteries. And so when I had an opportunity to go and see this beautiful place, which was to be the site of Fr. Ubald’s memorial Mass, Craig and I leaped at the chance. And we are so glad we did! From the white marble Stations to the underground oratory, which contains relics from all the apostles as well a St. Teresa of Calcutta, St. Teresa of Avila, and St. Faustina, the shrine was a wonderful place to hear stories of those whose lives touched and transformed by divine visitation.

On Saturday morning, I gave a talk about my favorite memories of Fr. Ubald, and how he recognized in the years following the Genocide how God was calling him to “take up your cross, Ubald.” As I looked over the burgeoning crowd  of nearly 1000 people at his memorial Mass,  I was reminded of all the milestones mentioned in his book, and thought of how they corresponded to the Via Dolorosa walked by Christ himself.

Jesus is condemned and receives his cross. In the decades prior to the three-month blood-letting that left over a million Tutsis and sympathetic Hutu dead, five-year-old Ubald felt the condemnation of those who shared his ethnic heritage in the most horrifying way: the beating of his father, who spent the rest of his life suffering from the effects. Two years later, violence erupted again, leaving his mother a widow and his family impoverished.

Jesus falls the first time. Watching his mother struggle to provide for her children’s educational expenses, Fr. felt powerless to lighten her load. When robbers came to take away what little they had, he remembers, “I could not help her in any way. I could only entrust her to God.”

Jesus meets his mother. The figure of Father’s mother Anysie is a powerful icon of hope and forgiveness in his story. Her husband’s murder in 1963 represented the ultimate challenge, in which Fr. Ubald witnessed her “forgive the unforgiveable.” In the only surviving picture of her, taken by a European friend at Fr. Ubald’s 1984 ordination, she is standing on one side of her son – her husband’s killer, whom she invited to the celebration, was on the other.

Jesus is aided by Simon of Cyrene. When the load became too heavy for him to move forward, aid came from unexpected quarters in the figure of Simon of Cyrene. In 1973 when Father’s family fled to Burundi, he briefly contemplated a different vocation. his classmate Nasar taught him to become “a true son of Mary” by praying the rosary regularly. And after Father’s 1984 ordination he was introduced to a charismatic prayer group that taught him how to pray for healing. Every member of that group later died in the genocide.

Jesus meets Veronica, who wipes his face. When Fr. Ubald returned to his homeland after the genocide, and began conducting retreats in parishes and preaching in prisons, he encountered a blind old woman, Horizana (pl 54) whose condition reminded him to pray for those blind to the reality of God because they are blinded by their own shame. He begins to teach about the need for victims and perpetrators to “release” one another.

Jesus fell a second time. While preaching in prison, Fr’s story comes to the attention of a former burgomeister, Straton, who recognizes the family whose execution he had ordered after they had come to him for sanctuary. He vows to confess his actions to Fr. Ubald, which he later does at the tribal (Gachacha) courts. Staggered by grief and pain, Fr. cried out to the Lord, “How can I forgive? How can I show mercy?” He receives his answer when Straton’s wife dies a short time later, giving him the opportunity to care for his children.

Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem. Here we recall all the women, sisters of faith, who came alongside Father Ubald during the course of his ministry, both in the U.S. and in Rwanda, from his sister Pascasie who helped at the Center, and Sister Donata who cofounded with him the Missionaries of Peace of Christ the King, to Katsie Long, Corrie Campbell, and Monique Stephens who kept his schedule — and of course Immaculee, who invited Fr. to tour the U.S. since 2009.

Here I draw a curtain over the comparison. Since I was not with Fr. Ubald in the final months of his life, when the “shelter in place” order prevented him from returning to his homeland in 2020. Yet as he was stripped, and suffered, and died, and was finally buried in his homeland, he continued to pray for all of us, for “where America goes, there goes the world.”

The last time I saw Fr. Ubald, in February 2020, he told me that it was time for me to start writing my own stories. My next project, The Ave Prayer Book for Catholic Mothers, will be released in October 2021. As the release date draws closer, I’ll be sharing updates on the “Praying Across America” series I’m hoping will provide opportunities to share #prayerstories with you. In the meantime … Fr. Ubald, pray for us!