Bishop J. Donald Pelletier, M.S., celebrates World Mission Sunday Mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Boston. Photo courtesy/Bill Heil
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The Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette, and indeed the whole of the mission world, recently lost a giant. Bishop J. Donald Pelletier, M.S., passed away in June, just days shy of his 91st birthday. He was ordained as a priest over 65 years ago. For all but two of those years, he ministered to the Malagasy people in Morondava, Madagascar; he was ordained their bishop in 2000.
We were blessed in this office to get to know Bishop Donald, first as a speaker in the Mission Co-Operative program, where we assign a missionary to speak in every parish, and later as the celebrant and homilist of our annual World Mission Sunday celebration.
Wherever he went, Bishop Donald made a lasting impression with his humble nature, his wit, and his great love for the Gospel.
Bishop Donald credited the depth of the seeds of his faith to his extended family -- grandparents, parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins. He said, "I was born into an extraordinary Christian family where faith and love were alive and active. The witness of their faith helped mine to grow." As our World Mission Sunday homilist in 2015, Bishop Donald challenged each of us, as baptized Christians, to live as a missionary disciple. He added that by doing so, we would better form our children in the faith, since they learn more from quiet example than shouted rhetoric.
In his homily at the bishop's funeral, Father Jack Nuelle, M.S., read portions of an autobiographical reflection written by Bishop Donald. In it he reflected on his years missioning in Madagascar, saying that it was there that he learned the true meaning of the 25th chapter of Matthew's Gospel. In it, Jesus is at the final judgement, separating us into sheep and goats; the sheep have reached out to the marginalized in life and helped however possible. They are to be eternally rewarded. The goats turned a blind eye and are not.
Bishop Donald reminds us that besides those of us being categorized as sheep and goats, there are other people in that Gospel, and Jesus stands with them: the least of His children. Bishop Donald said that by doing the same, our faith will grow as his did.
"As often as I come among the poor and marginalized, among those who don't have enough to eat, clothes to wear, homes to sleep in, are outcasts and downtrodden; as often as I am among them, they open their hearts and homes to me, and their faith allows me to accept personally the Gospel message I proclaim to them."
May we honor him by doing the same.
- Maureen Crowley Heil is Director of Programs and Development for the Pontifical Mission Societies, Boston.