Joe
Navarro is an engineer who has worked with Silicon Valley companies
such as Signetics and Exxon Enterprises. He was the president of the
Legion of Mary's Blessed Sacrament Praesidium in Santa Clara.
Since you were an agnostic and a scientist, what do you say to people who are agnostics and scientists about the Faith?
Scientists
like to deal with data, information, something they can see, hold or
feel; so, when I have to talk to scientists or engineers who don't
believe, I give them information; for example, the story of Fatima.
There
is physical evidence of that miracle -- 70,000 to 100,000 people
witnessed it. They call it the "dancing of the sun." The book, Our Lady
of Fatima by William Thomas Walsh, contains interviews with people who
were eyewitnesses to the miracle.
I also give them information
on Padre Pio and the historical Blessed Sacrament miracles, and I
explain to them what our beliefs are. I always give them data, so they
will be forced to follow the logic of what I am saying, along with the
information.
Typically what happens is that they reach a point
where they realize where this is going. Then within themselves they have
to make a decision: am I going to stick to my old ways or am I going to
follow the data? Some don't want to change their old ways; but, there
are honest people who are forced to accept the data because they are
facts
What made you decide to become a member of the Legion of Mary?
I
grew up without a good Catholic religious upbringing -- when I was
young, my mother even allowed me to go to some Baptist bible classes and
services. So, in high school, I really got involved with science. I
even converted my Mom's kitchen into a chemistry lab.
I went to
the University of California, Berkeley, in 1966, where I majored in
physics. I was also an agnostic. I couldn't say there wasn't a God,
because I couldn't prove there wasn't any God. But at the same time I
did have this emptiness and longing inside of me.
I went to a Cal
Berkeley bookstore where I saw a book on Our Lady of Fatima. Then I saw
a front-page article on the Fatima Pilgrim Virgin statue in the Oakland
Tribune. So I went and bought the book. Then I spent a lot of time in
the Richmond library reading about Fatima, Lourdes and Our Lady of
Guadalupe. So, in 1972, I converted and went to confession.
[Once]
I went to pray for guidance in front of the exposed Blessed Sacrament. A
young lady came up to me and asked me if I wanted to join the Legion of
Mary. I was a new convert and I hadn't even received communion; still, I
joined the Legion praesidium which met at St. Patrick's church between
Third and Fourth Streets in San Francisco. Two years later, a group of
us started a new praesidium in the North Beach area.
Please, describe the Legion of Mary.
The Legion of Mary is the lay group that does the missionary work in the parish.
Many
times people are shocked when we come to the door. They say, "we didn't
know that Catholics did that." They say that it's always the Mormons or
Jehovah's Witnesses who go door to door.
The most important work
is the door to door visitation where we're able to reach people and
help them either return to the church or inform them when and where to
go to Mass.
You can call it an active lay group in the church.
We're like the extension of the pastor. We do things such as- visiting
the homes of a parish, door to door work, visiting hospitals, senior
homes, jails and the sick.
We also have what we call the book
barrel where we set up and give away free religious literature, rosaries
and medals. We do this now at some of the shopping malls in Sunnyvale
and Cupertino.
What are active praesidium members required to do?
Each
active member is required to meet with the praesidium once a week. They
report on their required two hours of work at each meeting, as well as
say Legion prayers.
Because of our work -- such as the
door-to-door apostolate -- we come across sensitive situations where
there are personal problems which should be respected for their
confidential nature. So we are required to keep the discussion of these
reports secret.
Doing these assigned Legion works is following
the commission that Jesus gave us at His ascension. He said go to the
ends of the earth and spread the gospel. The commission is to be
missionary.
What was your most difficult time in the Legion of Mary?
I won't say that I had any difficult times. Sometimes when you do door to door, people say, "oh, we're not interested!"
But, as a rule people are polite. I would say my Legion work has been a pure joy.
There
have been so many happy times. Often we come to a house and someone has
fallen away from the Church. We talk and give them papers I've written
defending the church and the pope, using historical information. They
are happy because they've never heard this information.
A few
days ago we were talking to a Protestant Christian and we spoke to him
about the Blessed Sacrament, using these papers. He became very
interested and asked for more information. I get my happiness from
seeing people make the decision to really change.
Please tell us about your spiritual life.
The key to my spiritual life is the Blessed Sacrament.
When
I was reading the story of Fatima, I read about the angel teaching the
children the Fatima prayer, which refers to the true presence of Jesus,
body, blood, soul and divinity, in the Blessed Sacrament.
So I do
holy hours of prayer in front of the Blessed Sacrament. When I go to
adoration, besides the peace I receive, I notice things change. Things
happen after I do the holy hour. They seem to be normal, but I can tell
-- one way or another people are drawn to God, whether it's family or
someone else.
Devotion to the Blessed Sacrament also drew me to Our Blessed Mother.
Reading the stories of the saints I saw this same parallel -- they had devotion to the Blessed Mother and the Blessed Sacrament.
An
example of such devotion is St. John Bosco. He had a vision that, in
the future, the Church would undergo turmoil. He saw the pope as the
captain of a big ship, which was attacked and in trouble. The pope
steered the ship (that is, the Church) between two pillars; on one
pillar [the higher one] was the Blessed Sacrament, and on the shorter
pillar was Our Blessed Mother.
Once the ship went between the two pillars, there was peace and harmony.
Do you think we are living in that time?
Yes,
our church is being very seriously attacked, not only from without, but
from within. I think, as in the vision of John Bosco, the solution is
to increase our devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and to Our Blessed
Mother. The Blessed Sacrament used to be at the center of the church and
there used to be kneelers in all churches; but, over the years,
devotion to the Blessed Sacrament has waned.
Why do you think devotion to the Blessed Sacrament has waned?
It's the devil's work. He has attacked the Church in so many ways -- both from without and from within.
I had a friend who was looking for a seminary. He found the seminaries
were very liberal and did not teach the traditions of the church. He
ended up going to a seminary in Italy and became a priest.
More
recently, I know one person who was in the seminary and had to tone down
his beliefs in the traditions of the Faith because he was afraid he
would be kicked out of the seminary.
The problems in the Church
come from the seminaries. In the seminaries, instead of focusing on the
traditions of the Faith (on what we believe and why we believe those
traditions), they are bringing in other philosophies and beliefs that
are against the Church's teachings.
Note: What
is needed right now to save America from those
who would destroy our God given
rights is to pray at home or in church and if called to even go to
outdoor prayer rallies in every town and city across the United States
for God
to pour out His grace on our country to save us from those who would use
a Reichstag Fire-like incident to destroy our civil liberties. [Is the DC Capitol Incident Comparable to the Nazi Reichstag Fire Incident where the German People Lost their Civil Liberties?: http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/is-dc-capital-incident-comparable-to.html?m=1 and Epoch Times Show Crossroads on Capitol Incident: "Anitfa 'Agent Provocateurs'":
Note: Please put the America and