A Big Farewell

On Pentecost Sunday, a very special chapter of life here at the Kartause came to an end, as we said good-bye to the founding directors of the Language & Catechetical Institute (LCI), Jenny Healy and Bobette Huzovic.

 

Nearly 30 years ago, Jenny and Bobette founded LCI:  

The Institute was founded in 1992, in the wake of the Soviet Union’s collapse. Undermining the family and destroying the Faith, the governments of the East built an atheist culture based on despair and mutual distrust. They shuttered churches and closed seminaries; imprisoned, tortured, and executed priests and religious; and made it all but impossible for the lay faithful to express and live their faith in the world. They also made it all but impossible for the Church to help, closing borders and blocking communication between Catholics in the West and Catholics in the East.

That began to change after the Berlin wall came tumbling down in 1989. Despite the Communist’s best efforts, pockets of the faithful remained. They were eager to begin the process of rebuilding. They just needed help.

Three years later, the Language and Catechetical Institute (LCI) was founded to provide that help, supplying Catholics from the East, who were eager to serve the Church in their native lands, with a foundational knowledge of both Church teaching and the English language, as well as spiritual formation.

In the years since, LCI has expanded its reach, welcoming students from countries currently living under atheist rule and from countries where the Faith has never been widely preached. These countries include China, Myanmar, Mongolia, and Cameroon.

Our family has been incredibly blessed to get to know many of the LCI students during our time in Gaming.  Many have gone on to spread the faith in their formally-Communist countries.  Below I copied a letter that a former LCI student wrote to Brian's parents thanking them for a donation they made to LCI in 2002, which describes just how much the LCI meant to him.  That former student is now the legal counsel to Cardinal Archbishop Erdo of Budapest.

We are SO blessed to call Jenny and Bobette friends, and are sad to see them leave Gaming.  Bobette was not only a friend, but she and her family were our next-door neighbor these past 3 years.  Despite our sadness in seeing them go, we are happy for them as we see the Lord has called them onto the next chapter in their lives!  Both are moving to the USA this summer and will continue to spread the faith in their new positions.  We look forward to living not so far away when we move back to the States!

To celebrate the "passing of the torch" from the last remaining members of the original Kartause community to those of us who are here now - we gathered in the upper room, aka the Map Room, for the farewell party.  It was a beautiful evening as Jenny, Bobette and her husband Maros thanked us, and as the community honored and thanked them.  After the honoring, we moved onto the entertainment :)

Jenny not only ran the LCI program but also taught the Art History class for FUS students here.  So to honor her, we re-enacted several classic art pieces!

Every year at Christmas time, the LCI students put on A Christmas Carol, and as Maros was always counting down until Christmas - we knew the perfect gift would be to act of a A Huzovic Carol for their family!  

It was a beautiful night, one we won't soon forget!

(2) SCHOOL OF ATHENS



















A Woman Reading a Letter by Vermeer









A Huzovic Carol: https://youtu.be/86PiYj_N0NY