Louis La Ravoire Morrow

Louis La Ravoire Morrow SDB - see also first name Alois or amalgamation LaRavoire or Laravoire (born December 24, 1892 in Weatherford , Texas , † August 31, 1987 in Krishnagar ) was an American religious priest , missionary and Roman Catholic bishop .

Life

His father was a French Catholic and his mother a New Jersey episcopal who later moved to Mexico City on business. In Mexico he also entered the novitiate in Puebla in 1911 and made his first vows the following year . After his philosophical and theological studies in Puebla, including at the Pontifical University of Palafox , he was ordained a priest on May 21, 1921 by Archbishop Henry Sanchez Parades in the Cathedral of St. Michael of Puebla . After another year as a teacher at the Salesian College in Puebla, in which he founded La Buena Prensa (The Good Press) on the model of Don Bosco , he followed the Apostolic Delegate Guglielmo Piani SDB as secretary to Manila in the Philippines and remained there at seventeen For years. He was responsible in the field of missions, especially in the catechetical apostolate, for which he himself developed a catechism , which was published under the title My Catholic Faith or later renamed Our Catholic Faith . During this time he also founded a “Catholic Truth Society” based on the American model in Manila. Some of his books have been translated into over forty languages ​​and dialects, mainly into Bengali by Austin Guarneri SDB. Morrow was instrumental in organizing the World Eucharistic Congress held in Manila in February 1937 .

On May 25, 1939, Pope Pius XII appointed him . as Bishop of Krishnagar in India . He received the episcopal ordination on October 29 of the same year in St. Peter's Basilica by the Pope himself and the co- consecrators Celso Costantini and Archbishop Henri Streicher MAfr. He headed this diocese until October 31, 1969, when Pope Paul VI. accepted his resignation and provided him with the titular diocese of Valliposita until April 27, 1971 .

During his time as bishop, with donations from a begging trip to the United States, he opened the Don Bosco boarding and industrial schools for boys, the Holy Family School for girls, supported by the Sisters of Charity of Vincenza Gerosa and Bartholomäa Maria Capitanio , who already have had worked in the diocese for a hundred years. In the Bengal famine of 1943/44 he suffered and shared with the faithful. He was elected chairman of the Emergency Food Relief Committee despite being the only Christian among the forty-nine members. He wrote countless begging letters to his previous benefactors and, in Calcutta, to the Indian, British, Australian and American officers there.

From 1950 to 1952, under his leadership, the Cathedral of the Holy Savior was tripled in size. In the period from 1952 to 1966 he was repeatedly elected commissioner of the “Municipal Board”. During this time he was able to accomplish the long-needed expansion of the municipal waterworks, especially since the population had quadrupled. The bishop was also appointed official visitor to the Nadia District Prison and Government Hospital. From 1944 on he was the representative of the "Catholic Relief Services" for Northeast India. It was not until 1959 that an independent authority was opened in Calcutta that he was released from this task. Friends of the Bishop of Cincinnati , Ohio, facilitated the construction of the large Krishagnar Theater Hall in 1957, which seats two thousand and is still in use today. From 1960 to 1968 the bishop was an advisor to the Indian Red Cross Society of West Bengal .

During the Second Vatican Council , the bishop was an advocate of the dialect and influenced the modification of the right to abstinence and changes in the Eucharistic fast .

After his resignation in 1969, Louis Gobetti SDB, who as vicar general and diocese secretary was the right hand of the bishop for twenty years, was appointed vicar capitular . The bishop lived since then in the Motherhouse, which was founded by him on December 12, 1948 Sisters of the Immaculate Conception (Sisters of Mary Immaculate, SMI). His apostolate was in the work of girls and women as well as in the care of the elderly and the sick. This community was recognized as a congregation under papal law in 1966 and has been part of the Don Bosco family since 1992 . Of the 500 sisters worldwide, 25 work in the care of the elderly in Bayreuth and Burgkunstadt .

In his retirement the bishop himself was mainly active as an author and in the dissemination of the Holy Scriptures in English and Bengali. He is considered an advocate for women's rights and advocated a non-sexist language in the liturgy and in publications.

literature

• Joseph Thekkedath: A history of the Salesians of Don Bosco in India. From the beginning up to 1951–52, 2005, 2 volumes - ISBN 978-81-87370-30-7

Web links

• Biography on mhchina.net (English)
• Entry for Louis La Ravoire Morrow on catholic-hierarchy.org