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It can be hard settling into a new country and cultural situation. We found this out in July 2004, when we arrived for 2 years at Franciscan University of Steubenville in America. The blessing of friends is an enormous help at such times of transition.
December 2004: Craig Dyke, Alan and Joe Roderique at the Office of Catechetics in Steubenville.
Going back to 'school' in a foreign country, at the age of 32, was made much easier for me by the friendship of some good-hearted Catholic guys in Steubenville. Craig Dyke and Joe Roderique made us feel especially welcome from the first time we met them Stateside.Â
I went with Craig to see my first ever game of American Football and Angie and I spent our first Thanksgiving with him, his wife, young children and friends. Craig was in the year above us and graduated in 2005. Soon afterwards, he was hired by the Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, to give catechesis on the sacrament of marriage. After eventually heading up the Office of Catechetics and Evangelization there, he is now Director of Family Life in the Archdiocese of Boston. Craig and his wife are raising their 5 children in the Faith.
Joe Roderique also made me feel right at home from the first time I met him waiting outside a catechetics classroom. From that day, he always made me feel welcome and valued in class, around campus and 'on the hill' where Angie and I, like many other students, rented duplex apartments.
Joe introduced Angie and I to the concept of 'brunch' and to maple-syrup on hash-browns! At the time, Joe and I were both running somewhat sporty Toyota Camrys.
Joe's was white with a potent V6, while mine had an eager 2.5 engine, 6-spoke polished alloys on low-profile tyres (tires over there!), and a paint-job that I insisted was British Racing Green!Â
I had planned to buy this chrome-laden Cadillac coupe at the same price, but Angie thought it would be a gas-guzzler. She was probably right!
Anyway, I digress...
I always knew that Joe was going places; he was as eloquent talking about Christology as he was about Quantum Science. Although he came from a large, strongly Catholic family, he had come through a powerful conversion experience himself and was on fire for the Faith.Â
Joe had such a clear love for Our Lord and the Church, combined with such obvious gifts of leadership and pastoral care, that I asked him in those early days if he had ever considered a call to the priesthood. He laughed and said, ''Yeah, just before I met you I was in pre-seminary!''
Not long after this conversation, Joe met a holy young lady called Monica, who also came from a large and strong Catholic family. They got married to each other a couple of years later in the Christ the King Chapel on campus.
Here are Joe and I with Bill Unanue before the campus statue of St. Francis, on the day we all graduated from the MA course in 2006. I met Bill in my second year in America. He was another good, young Catholic man and is now a Director with the major Hispanic food supplier Goya Foods in Madrid; a company his devout-Catholic grandfather established.
Graduation Day, June 2006: Bill Unanue, Alan and Joe Roderique.
(I'd clearly eaten too many Mrs. Freshley's Honey Buns during revision for the Comprehensive Exams!).
Minutes before this photo was taken, all the graduates had been commissioned by Fr. Terence Henry (TOR), in the Christ the King Chapel, to take the Catholic Faith out to a wounded and lost, post-modern culture. Â
Fr. Terence Henry (TOR): One of the key figures whose priesthood and words have helped to inspire Torch of The Faith.
Arriving back in England was a bit of an anti-climax after the orthodox, catechetical formation and community in Steubenville. We very soon had to leave a parish we moved into; after confronting the priest for announcing, from the pulpit during Sunday Mass, that same-sex civil partnerships were here to stay, suggesting it was OK to attend same-sex ceremonies and arguing that the divorced-'remarried' should be ''allowed to have their fling!'' The same man would later welcome Cardinal Walter Kasper to a study-event in England...Â
Meanwhile Joe and Monica wrote to tell us that they had gone on to Medical School in Virginia. After a couple of house moves in England and Wales, we gradually lost track of our American friends as they too moved around the States for further study and work.Â
Imagine our delight then to find out recently that Joe Roderique is now Lieutenant Joseph Roderique (Medical Doctor) with the US Navy Medical Corps!
Lt. Joseph Roderique M.D. (Viriginia Commonwealth University).
Not only that, he was recently awarded the prize for Best Young Investigator by the Military Health System Research Symposium (MHSRS) for his ground-breaking work on an Injectable Antidote for Carbon Monoxide Poisoning.
Viriginia Commonwealth University (VCU)Â did a feature on Joe's research recently. As Dr. Joe was an alumnus of the School of Medicine there, they were highlighting his research and determination to succeed in finding such an injectionable antidote.
It seems that, in his first year at the school, Joe had started knocking on the doors of lab-directors on the 10th Floor to pitch his idea and preliminary research. Everyone turned him down. Undeterred, Joe kept knocking on doors until he reached the sub-basement level, where he knocked on the door of Bruce Spiess M.D., professor of anesthetics.
Dr. Spiess saw the value in Joe's project and offered to help with the securing of sponsorship for his research. This helped Joe to take a year out from clinical medical training to work in anesthesiology laboratories and experiment with a unique form of Vitamin B12, to show that it could be an effective treatment for experimental carbon monoxide poisoning.
Since then, Joe's research has flourished. He is now a surgery resident with the US Navy Medical Corps and Dr. Spiess believes that Dr. Joe's research could now have far-reaching and exciting benefits.
Carbon monoxide is an odourless, colourless gas that can cause sudden illness and death. It is the No. 1 cause of lethal poisoning worldwide. In the US alone, it causes 15,000 emergency room visits, 5,000 neurologic injuries and up to 500 deaths per annum.
Dr. Joe is now 5 years into his research and he is planning to publish major medical manuscripts in the near future. Intellectual property and patent claims have been filed. Joe told VCU that his work represents a paradigm shift in the way carbon monoxide poisoning is treated.
A while back, Joe and Monica did an article in Franciscan Way magazine, in which they explained how they met and married on campus at Steubenville and are now raising up children of their own to love Christ.
This is all beautiful news from America. We congratulate Joe, Monica and their family on this breakthrough, which has the potential to save countless lives.
I'd also like to thank Joe for looking after the 'Limey' in Steuby! God bless you Joe and well done - I knew you were going places mate and I'm proud of you!
