By Fr. Donal Halliden mssc

Arriving at O’ Hare International Airport in Chicago on a bitterly cold Winter’s day, I was warmly welcomed by a young Filipino woman who has become a very dear friend. I was pleasantly surprised when she conducted me to where she had parked her Volkswagen “Beetle” and which she then expertly drove trough the busy highways and streets of the “Windy City”. But I am getting ahead of my story...

SCA Leader

They young lady who welcomed me was Angelita Carandang Matick who had been an outstanding leader of Student Catholic Action (SCA) during my tern as chaplain at Centro Escolar University CEU in Manila. Lita Carandang had come from the nearby province of Batangas in 1964 to take up Medical Technology at CEU. Her leadership potential was evident from the beginning and this quickly blossomed in SCA so that she became president o that very active student organizations in 1966, the first to do so in her junior year.

Called to Chicago

After college graduation in 1968, she received an internship call from the Little Company of Mary hospital in Chicago. Her dedication and leadership skills came to the fore again and she was soon appointed assistant head of the hospital laboratory. It was at the hospital that Lita met her future husband, a young medical intern named Henry Matick. After their marriage, Henry continued his studies, specializing in Neurology. Lita, meanwhile, stayed on at the hospital laboratory for some years until their family began to grow. She then stopped working in order to devote herself being a full-time mother.

Lita’s Taxi

Lita and   Henry both wanted to have a large family eventually they had eight children. Oftentimes when Lita was in the hospital for the birth child, suggestions were made that she have herself sterilized. But with her strong faith and the support of her husband, she firmly resisted these importunities. Eventually, in 1994, the family grew to nine children when they adopted an abandoned newborn baby that Lita learned about while on a visit home to Batangas. Little Maria is blessed to have such wonderful parents and the family blessed to have her. And the mother of that great brood has replaced her little “Beetle” with a large station wagon with which she ferries the kids to their schools and to their many extra-curricular activities. She calls it Lita’s taxi!

‘Dr. Farmer’

Dr. Henry Matick loves to farm and once told me he should have been a farmer! He and the family had settled in the small railroad town of Vincennes, Indiana where they brought a farm outside the town. One my last visit there a few years ago they were sowing 50, 000 tomato plants. There are organically grew and much in demand from local markets and restaurants. The farm has surely been a great help in rearing such a large family although at the moment, due to local circumstances, it is being leased to some neighboring farmers. The good doctor himself has a very active practice in the town and its hospital, having gone there in response to an urgent plea from local medical practitioners to have him as a resident neurologist.

Woman of faith

Lita is a woman of deep faith, and is deeply conscious that this is due to the graces showered on her by God whom she has learned to love with all her heart and soul.  She speaks of SCA as “the fertile ground which helped me establish my priorities in life, placing God first, then family and studies in a way that I was able to achieve a well-rounded and balanced student life.

Taking her role in the community

Not surprisingly, Lita has continued in the U.S. the active apostolate she started in SCA at CEU. On my first visit in Chicago, she introduced me to her Bible study-prayer group in their Brookfield suburb. Them members were mostly young housewives, several of them non-Catholic, and all accepted her as their respected leader. Today in Vincennes, in spite of her heavy family responsibilities, she is still very close to the Church and active in Pro-life, Eucharistic ministry to the sick and youth guidance. Best of all, Lita is passing on leadership gifts to her young family who take an active role in promoting Christian values in the schools and in the community.

In a recent letter, Lita says that she finds life “manageable in spite of daily challenges in raising many children (particularly the teenagers!). Our merciful God helps us meet the demands of living in this very secular and materialistic society, so different from my upbringing and environment”. Indeed because of this background, Lita today makes a difference.