What's New

October 2006 

Most Rev. Clarence R. "Larry" Silva, Fifth Bishop of the Diocese of Honolulu

Bishop Larry Silva of the Honolulu Diocese 

The probability of having two Bishops from Honolulu and Syracuse share honors at the Beatification of Mother Marianne could not be because the Diocese of Honolulu was without a Bishop at the time.  This situation of the diocese being without a bishop no longer exists.

One day after the Papal Audience took place on May 16th, 2005, an announcement in Washington was made by the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States that Pope Benedict XVI named Father Clarence "Larry" Silva, vicar general of the Diocese of Oakland, California, to be  the fifth Diocesan Bishop of Honolulu.  Bishop Silva was born in Honolulu in 1949.         

Bishop Honors Two Blesseds Who Served in Hawaii

Father Silva was ordained a bishop and installed as diocesan bishop on July 21, during a Mass at the Neal Blaisdell Arena in Honolulu, with thousands in attendance.  Hanging above the stage was a 14-foot tall banner of the new bishop’s coat of arms. To the sides, hung 10-foot high banners of  two candidates for sainthood, Blessed Marianne Cope and Blessed Damien DeVeuster, whose representations the Bishop had requested to be featured. 

Bishop Silva has expressed publicly that one of his new goals is to promote devotion to the two candidates for sainthood, Blessed Marianne and Blessed Damien. Among other goals, he advocates a renewed commitment to serve the needy and poor, after their examples. To help accomplish this end, he has initiated a Commission that meets periodically in Honolulu to bring forth ideas and give leadership in executing them. One of the charges of the new commissioni of special interest to all of us is that it is studying the development of pilgrimages to the places the two Blesseds served in the Hawaiian Islands, especially Kalaupapa.  [see "What's New " in the future to keep track of developments].

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Relatives of Mother Marianne - September Visits   

September must be travel month for Mother's relatives;  at least,  this was true in 2006.

A little background first to set the scene of relationships:  three of Mother's siblings, Eva Cope Lehrscholl,  Mathias Cope, and John Cope had children and so on down the line with descendants having more descendants.

Younger sibling, John Peter Cope

Mother Marianne's much younger brother has a living granddaughter,  Bea Fischer.  She is Mother's great niece.   Bea and two of her daughters,  Beth and Pat, visited here on September 13th &  14th.  Bea, a retired nurse, is 86 years of age and lives with her daughter Beth, a nurse,  in Florham, NJ.  The trip across the ocean for Mother Marianne's beatification was ruled out medically for  Bea who has a heart problem.

Their visit here was a delightful one.

It really is a pull on the heart strings and one's imagination when a relative of Mother Marianne is able to point out  that the beautiful pen set that Bea donated to the Museum was given to her by an aunt who knew Mother personally. The set was received first by Mother Marianne as a present who sent it on to her family.   Her aunt's baptismal name, Mary Bernardina Cope, certainly catches our attention. It is worth pondering in what it tells us.

When Mother Marianne entered the convent at age 24 and moved to Syracuse,  her brother, John,  and two sisters were teenagers living with their mother at  their Utica home on Schuyler Street .  Mother Bernardina kept an eye out for the family welfare from nearby St. Elizabeth Hospital.  John's affection and appreciation certainly is apparent in that his first child was named for her.  Bea knew her  "Aunt Mamie "  for about  twenty years.   Because John died before his granddaughter Bea was born and they had moved from Utica when Mamie was a child,  no pertinent history was learned  from her .        

Older sibling, Eva Cope Lehrscholl

Dr. Paul DeMare of Honolulu is a descendant of Eva Cope. His mother Elizabeth was Mother Marianne's great-great niece.  Dr. DeMare sponsored a birthday party on September 30th for his mother's two living sisters,  Helen and Marion Ruff.  It was held at their current residence, St. Joseph Nursing Home in Utica.  Helen celebrated her hundredth birthday whereas her sister Marion recently had reached her 92nd birthday.  The doctor visited the Shrine at the Motherhouse on the 27th, his airborne arrival date in Syracuse.

Older sibling, Mathias Cope

Dorothy Cope Parry and her husband Joe from Vermont stopped in a few weeks ago for a pleasant visit at the Shrine and Museum. Dorothy is a descendant of one of Mathias Cope's three sons.  Mathias's son, Louis Cope,  was a well-to-do salesperson for Swift Company of Chicago. Louis lived in several locales apparently ending up in the New England States. There are numerous descendants.  The family Cope is so glad that we decided to use the spelling C-o-p-e for Mother's surname. As you know, the surname has numerous variations both in the United States and in Germany.  The choice really was made by Mother Marianne who signed her surname Cope in community records.  

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Heaven-sent --Once again

Each time the Cause has had a special need of a person  with a particular talent to work with the Office,  this person has showed up whether it was a co-biographer, a translator, a handwriting expert, a contact in Rome,  a lawyer, or whoever. This time the need was fulfilled by a lady who came to visit the Shrine who has Website knowledge abilities.  Nearly a year ago Anne Marie Saphara had called ahead about Shrine visitation before visiting from Falls Church, VA where she lives and from where she works as a graphic artist doing layout and design of Websites and print literature for the Defense Department.   Anne Marie comes to the area as often as possible to visit her mother and other relatives in Auburn, N. Y.

During the visit, Anne Marie offered to build a Website for the cause. The offer was filed mentally until the time it was good  for us to have one as a link to our larger community one being arranged by Sr. Marcella.  When this happened, Anne Marie immediately set to work and planned a design  that she sent on by e-mail. She also sent on a list of topics to send her data about.   Darlene Yamrose was kind enough to help type out some information already on hand which helped tremendously.  As yet, we do need some permissions for use of more photos to be able to feature them.  Yet,  the good news is that the first edition is completed.   Anne Marie is deeply thanked for her diligence in using her special talents  for this need and especially for her love and devotion to Mother Marianne which inspired her generous offer.  It probably goes without saying that it was good to be able to call her up to ask-- remember that offer?