Anchor 07.09.10

The Anchor Diocese of Fall River

F riday , July 9, 2010

Senate approves gambling bill

Diocesan native to oversee schools in Archdiocese of Washington

By Christine M. Williams Anchor Correspondent BOSTON — After more than a week of debate, the Massachusetts Senate approved a bill that would bring at least three casinos to the Bay State. On the evening of July 1, senators voted 25 to 15 in favor of the bill.

The next step will be to reconcile the Senate bill with the House gambling bill, passed in April. The bills have significant differences, and it is unclear what a compromise bill would look like and how that bill would fare in the House and Senate.

Both would need to approve the measure before July 31 — the end of the legislative session.

Those who support the ban on highstakes gambling in the Commonwealth told The Anchor that citizens need to remain vigilant. They recommend that voters contact their representatives as well as the conference committee members once those names are released.

“This is not a done deal. It’s not a finished product,” said Kathleen Norbut, Turn to page 12

Forgiveness is focus of family conference

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff NORTH EASTON — Holy Cross Family Ministries has taken a cue from the motto of its founder, Servant of God Father Patrick Peyton, by planning and hosting its first-ever Family Rosary Conference on July 17.

“It really goes along with our spirituality and Father Peyton’s message of ‘The family that prays together, stays together,’” said Beth Mahoney, mission director for Holy Cross Family Ministries. “We wanted to provide a forum and encourage families to gather together and pray.”

The day-long conference will be held from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Father Peyton Center on the campus of Stonehill College in North Easton and will include opportunities for reconciliation; eucharistic adoration; recitation of the rosary; a vigil Mass celebrated by Turn to page 18

By Dave Jolivet, Editor

fallen hero — The body of Army Specialist Scott A. Andrews, followed by family and friends, is carried into Holy Name Church in Fall River on July 3. Specialist Andrews was killed in Afghanistan on June 21. (Photo by Dave Jolivet)

Young Army Specialist remembered at funeral Mass at Fall River church Specialist Scott Andrews was second Fall River soldier killed in Afghanistan in two months B y Dave Jolivet, Editor FALL RIVER — On the morning of June 21, Jo Ann Mello, a parishioner of Holy Name Parish, was where she spent time every day before work — on her knees before the Blessed Sacrament in the adoration chapel, and in prayer at the foot of a statue of Our Lady of Grace at the church. As she did every day, she prayed to Our Lord, and for Our Lady’s intercession to protect her 21-year-old son, Army Specialist Scott A. Andrews, who was serving in Afghanistan.

The young soldier was killed by an improvised explosive device in the province of Zabul during an insurgents’ attack while serving in “Operation Enduring Freedom.”

“Those prayers were heard,” said Father Edward A. Murphy in his homily at Specialist Andrews’ funeral Mass at Holy Name Church last Saturday. “In his sermon on the mount, Jesus said, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, they shall be called children of God.’ God’s ways are not our ways. God wanted Scott home with him.”

Mello asked Father Murphy, who was a parochial vicar at Holy Name for many years, to celebrate her son’s funeral. She was part of a prayer group with Father Murphy and often attended daily Mass and often spent time in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament.

“She was in the adoration chapel every morning,” recalled former Holy Turn to page 19

road angels — Students from St. James-St. John School in New Bedford recently participated in the annual procession to celebrate the feast of St. John the Baptist Church.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Bert L’Homme’s Catholic school experience has come full circle. The young man who attended Sacred Heart School in North Attleboro and Bishop Feehan High School in Attleboro in the 1960s, was recently appointed superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C.,

by Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl.

L’Homme, a permanent deacon for the Diocese of Raleigh, N.C., takes the position after Deacon Bert 30 years of expeL’Homme rience in public school systems. “I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to combine my secular profession and my religious calling,” L’Homme told The Anchor.

“As Catholics it’s our baptismal call to proclaim God’s word to our young people that they may grow up to be good Christian adults. There is a need and a desire for our young people to be eduTurn to page 18

Summer waves of tourists impact Cape Cod parishes

By Deacon James N. Dunbar

HYANNIS — No matter what statistical source one taps, the summer tourism season influx is estimated to triple the winter population of Cape Cod’s 15 towns, topping half a million by way of vacationing residents and visitors.

The magnet the Cape plays in the lazy, hazy days of summer that Nat “King” Cole used to sing about, not only fills up restaurants, cottages and sugar white sandy beaches along what is one of the biggest and most scenic barrier islands in the world, but its many churches as well.

As the eastern-most landmass in the Diocese of Fall River, pastors at Catholic parishes that dot the Cape and its outer islands, are host to weekend congregations that from Memorial Day to Labor Day are swollen with visitors.

“We’re jammed from mid-June until the Sunday before Labor Day with seasonal residents and tourists until they head home when school opens,” reported Father JoTurn to page 15

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News From the Vatican

July 9, 2010

Pope establishes a pontifical council for new evangelization VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI announced he is establishing a pontifical council for new evangelization to find ways “to re-propose the perennial truth of the Gospel” in regions where secularism is smothering Church practice.

Leading an evening prayer service June 28 at Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, Pope Benedict said there are areas of the globe that have been known as Christian for centuries, but where in the past few centuries “the process of secularization has produced a serious crisis” in people’s sense of what it means to be Christian and to belong to the Church.

“I have decided to create a new organism, in the form of a pontifical council, with the principal task of promoting a renewed evangelization in the countries where the first proclamation of faith has already resounded and where there are churches of ancient foundation present, but which are living through a progressive secularization of society and a kind of ‘eclipse of the sense of God,’” he said.

The challenge, he said, is to find ways to help people rediscover the value of faith.

The pope did not say what the formal name of the pontifical council would be and he did not announce who would head it, although in the weeks leading to the announcement, Vatican commentators suggested it would be Italian Archbishop Rino Fisichella, currently president of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

Pope Benedict made the announcement at the basilica built over what is believed to be the tomb of St. Paul, who dedicated “his entire existence and his hard work for the kingdom of God,” the pope said.

The Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry, established

by Pope John Paul II in 1985, was

the last pontifical council created.

The pope’s evening prayer service marked the vigil of the feast of SS. Peter and Paul, the Vatican’s patron saints and the symbols of the Church’s unity and its universality, he said.

Saying he wanted to focus the evening service on the universal aspect of the Church, Pope Benedict recalled how Pope John Paul II repeatedly used the phrase “new evangelization” to describe the need for a new commitment to spreading the Gospel message in countries evangelized centuries ago and the need to find new ways to preach the Gospel that correspond both to the truth and to the needs of modern men and women.

The pope said the social and religious challenges of the Church leaders often feel like the disciples of Jesus faced with a hungry crowd but having only a few fish and a couple loaves of bread to divide among them.

“Jesus showed them that with faith in God nothing is impossible and that a few loaves of bread and fish, blessed and shared, could satisfy everyone,” he said.

“But there wasn’t — and there isn’t — only hunger for material food: There is a deeper hunger, which only God can satisfy,” the pope said.

Men and women today want “an authentic and full life, they need truth, profound freedom, unconditional love. Even in the deserts of the secularized world, the human soul thirsts for God,” he said.

Welcoming a delegation from the Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople, the pope said the task of new evangelization also is tied to the commitment to working for Christian unity. “SS. Peter and Paul obtain for the whole Church an ardent faith and apostolic courage to announce to the world the truth we all need, the truth that is God,” the pope prayed.

Pope says Catholics, Orthodox must work together in Middle East VATICAN CITY — Even as their ecumenical dialogue continues to tackle the divisive issue of the role of the pope in the Church, Catholics and Orthodox can and should work together for the good of their communities in the Middle East, Pope Benedict XVI said.

“The difficulties that the Christians of the Middle East are experiencing are in large measure common to all: living as a minority and yearning for authentic religious freedom and for peace,” the pope said June 28 as he welcomed a delegation from the Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople.

The delegation, led by Metropolitan Gennadios of Sassima, was

in Rome for the celebration June 29 of the feast of SS. Peter and Paul, the Vatican’s patron saints.

Pope Benedict said he would be happy to have a representative from the Ecumenical Patriarchate participate as a delegate in the special Synod of Bishops for the Middle East, which will take place at the Vatican in October.

The pope also expressed his hopes for further progress in the official Catholic-Orthodox theological dialogue, which, he said, has reached “a crucial point,” having begun to discuss the role of the bishop of Rome in the communion of the Church in the first millennium, before Catholics and Orthodox split.

forbidden fruit? — Might the Apple iPad be heading to the altar? An Italian priest plans to release in July an iPad application that features the Roman Missal. (CNS photo/Reuters)

New iPad application won’t replace liturgical books, its designer says

By John Thavis Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — Are Catholics soon going to see their parish priest celebrating Mass with an iPad instead of traditional liturgical books?

That’s the impression left by recent reports about Italian Father Paolo Padrini’s planned launch of an iPad application that features the Roman Missal on its 10-inch screen. But Father Padrini and Church officials say no one should throw the printed books out yet.

“Liturgical books on the altar will never be replaced by the iPad. This is an additional instrument, not an attempt to get rid of paper books,” Father Padrini said in late June.

“If I went on vacation, I’d take along my iPad and celebrate Mass that way. Obviously in my parish, where I have the books, I’m not going to deliberately use an iPad,” he said.

The application should be ready by the end of July and will feature the Roman Missal in various languages, including English, French, Italian, Latin and Spanish. It loads the missal and breviary, or book of prayers, for a particular day, with the option of pre-loading up to 10 days worth of texts.

Father Padrini said that for the English version, he plans to use the missal text as currently approved for use in the United States. But he apparently has not yet nailed down the necessary permissions.

Msgr. Andrew Wadsworth, executive director of the International Committee on English in the Liturgy, said June 25 that Father Padrini currently had not received authorization to publish

English liturgical texts as digital “applications.”

“We are trying to find a way forward in this situation and are currently in consultation with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops regarding the matter.

I imagine that it will take some time to reach a solution which is equally satisfactory to all the parties concerned,” Msgr. Wadsworth said in a statement to Catholic News Service.

Father Padrini did not run his idea past the Vatican’s liturgical experts, presuming that there should not be a problem.

“As far as I can see, there is no liturgical rule saying a printed instrument must be used. The rules do say the liturgy should be dignified and fitting and should not be disturbed,” he said.

In Father Padrini’s opinion, the small iPad would not detract from the liturgical decorum, and would be less noticeable than other objects placed on the altar these days.

But Vatican officials were not so certain that an iPad belongs on the altar.

Marist Father Anthony Ward,

The Anchor www.anchornews.org

an undersecretary at the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, said liturgical rules generally refer to “the book,” and there’s been an effort in recent years “to promote the book, and the embellishment of the book.” The idea of having a substitute for the book at public Masses seems to go against that consensus, he said.

Father Ward said the congregation wasn’t specifically considering the suitability of the iPad application, and that there didn’t appear to be explicit rules against such devices. But he added that in this case, one should not assume that if it is not forbidden, it is allowed.

The final judgment on the iPad-as-missal may come with experience. Father Padrini said he thinks the shock effect will disappear as more people carry such devices around with them.

“The liturgy should be beautiful. But personally, I’d rather celebrate Mass with an iPad, which is small and doesn’t disturb the faithful, than with an old, wornout missal with yellow pages and small type,” he said.

OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER Vol. 54, No. 27

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July 9, 2010

transfigured — The newly-restored Christ the Redeemer statue is seen atop Corcovado mountain in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 30. The famous statue of Jesus with his arms wide open was revealed after being covered during a four-month, $4 million renovation. The 125-foot-tall statue was erected in 1931 and is overseen by the Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro. (CNS photo/ Bruno Domingos, Reuters)

In major appointments, Cardinal Ouellet to head bishops’ congregation VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI has appointed new heads of several Vatican departments, naming Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet of Quebec as prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.

Cardinal Ouellet, 66, will head the office that helps the pope choose bishops for Latin-rite dioceses around the world. It’s the first time a North American cardinal has been placed in charge of the powerful congregation.

The pope also named Italian Archbishop Rino Fisichella as president of a newly-created agency, the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization. He named Spanish Msgr.

Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, a member of Opus Dei, to replace Archbishop Fisichella as president of the Pontifical Academy for Life. The appointments were announced June 30.

On July 1, the pope formally named Swiss Bishop Kurt Koch as president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, replacing German Cardinal Walter Kasper, who had headed the council since 2001.

Cardinal Ouellet, who succeeds 76-year-old Italian Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, is not a stranger to Rome or to the Roman Curia. He studied in Rome and returned to the city to teach in 1996.

A year later, he was appointed chair of dogmatic theology at the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family.

In 2001, he was named a bishop and appointed secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting

3

The International Church

Christian Unity and also served on the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews.

In 2002, Pope John Paul II named him archbishop of Quebec, and in 2003 he made him a cardinal. He serves on the Vatican congregations overseeing liturgy, clergy and Catholic education, and is also a member of the Pontifical Council for Culture.

He has been a member of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, which he will now serve as president; the commission was established in 1958 to study issues impacting Catholics in the region and to serve as a channel of communication between the Vatican and the Latin American bishops’ council.

Bishop Koch, who will take over the reins at the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, is a past president of the Swiss bishops’ conference, a former professor of dogmatic theology and liturgy and has served as a member of the Christian unity council since 2002. He has also been a member of the international Catholic-Orthodox theological commission and a member of the international Catholic-Lutheran dialogue commission.

In a letter June 30 to Catholics in Basel, Bishop Koch said the pope asked him in February if he would take the job. He said the pope stressed that he wanted someone who had both theological knowledge and practical experience in living and working

alongside Protestant communities.

The pope’s words, he said, demonstrate that improved relations with the Orthodox are not his only concern, but that the pope sees the unity of all Christians as the will of Jesus.

Born March 15, 1950, in Emmebrucke, he was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Basel in 1982. He studied at Lucerne University and at the University of Munich. After three years of service in a parish in Bern, he began teaching at Lucerne, eventually becoming rector of the theological faculty in 1995.

Following special traditional procedures, he was elected bishop of Basel by the priests of the cathedral chapter in August 1995, and Pope John Paul II confirmed the election four months later.

Bishop Koch replaces Cardinal Kasper, 77, who has been at the council for 11 years — first as secretary, then as president since 2001.

Meeting reporters June 25, Cardinal Kasper said that a challenge he faced repeatedly was clarifying the Church’s position when the wording of certain documents — from the Vatican as well as from Orthodox and Protestant churches — offended the other partner in ecumenical dialogue.

Particularly with the Anglicans and Protestants, he said, since the year 2000 there has been a noticeable loss of “the great enthusiasm” for the possibility of Christian unity that marked the years immediately after the Sec-

ond Vatican Council.

“Errors, or better, imprudence in formulating the truth have been committed by both sides, including our own,” he said.

Still, the cardinal said, the high-level ecumenical representation at the funeral of Pope John Paul and at the installation of Pope Benedict in 2005 “was a miracle,” that showed just how solid ecumenical relationships were even if the goal of full unity still appears far off.

Archbishop Fisichella, 58, will head the first major Roman Curia department created by Pope Benedict. The pope announced the formation of the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization June 27, saying it would help find ways to “to re-propose the perennial truth of the Gospel” in regions where secularism is smothering Church practice.

Details about the council and its tasks were to be announced in early July, Vatican sources said.

Archbishop Fisichella served as an auxiliary bishop of Rome from 1998 to 2008. He taught theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University and later at the Pontifical Lateran University, where he was named rector in 2002, a position he continued to hold until his latest appointment.

He is a member of Vatican congregations dealing with doctrine and saints’ causes.

Since 2008, Archbishop Fisichella has headed the Pontifical Academy for Life. He came under fire in recent months from a small number of academy members, who said in a statement that he should be replaced because he “does not understand what absolute respect for innocent human lives entails.”

The criticism of Archbishop Fisichella stemmed from an article he wrote in 2009, which said a Brazilian archbishop’s response to an abortion performed on a nine-year-old girl had

shown a lack of pastoral care and compassion. The Vatican later issued a clarification reiterating its teaching against abortion and saying the Brazilian archbishop had, in fact, acted with “pastoral delicacy” in the matter.

Msgr. Carrasco de Paula, Archbishop Fisichella’s replacement as president of the academy, has served as the academy’s chancellor since 2004. He has degrees in medicine as well as philosophy, and has published numerous articles on questions of medical ethics and medical law.

The Vatican also announced that the pope was naming Archbishop Celestino Migliore as the new papal nuncio to Poland.

Archbishop Migliore had been the Vatican representative to the United Nations in New York since 2002, delivering numerous speeches on international topics and helping to arrange Pope Benedict’s visit to the United Nations General Assembly in 2008.

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July 9, 2010 The Church in the U.S. Sainthood cause opened for Brooklyn Anonymous gift allows Indiana teacher to pay debt, enter religious life priest known for fighting bigotry INDIANAPOLIS (CNS) — a quarter of them, the level of the

By Alice Mikolyzk Catholic News Service

He recalled with emotion and humor his “negotiations” with Msgr. Quinn that day: “I said, ‘OK, Msgr. Quinn, if you help me, I will help you.’ We made a deal. He was from Newark as I am, and in Newark we have a way of doing things.”

On a serious note, Bishop DiMarzio explained his reasons for supporting the beatification of Msgr. Quinn: “He was a man of prayer and of deep spiritual life,

ny Hernandez, episcopal delegate; Father Witold Mroziewski, promoter of justice; Msgr. Paul BROOKLYN, N.Y. — In the Jervis, pastor of St. Martin de midst of a New York heat wave, a Porres Parish and postulator of small parish in Brooklyn opened the cause; Violet Chandler, notaa new chapter in the diocese’s ry; and Mary Jane Therese Ryan, history. copier of the cause.

About 200 people gathered According to a news release June 24 at St. Peter Claver Church from the Brooklyn Diocese, Berfor the formal opening of an innard Quinn was born in Newark, quiry into the cause of canonizaN.J., on Jan. 15, 1888, the same tion of Msgr. Bernard J. Quinn, day that Pope Leo XIII canonized who spent his life advocating St. Peter Claver and 41 for African-American years before the Rev. Catholics in the DioMartin Luther King Jr. cese of Brooklyn. was born on that same Msgr. Quinn, who date. was born in 1888 As a newly-ordained and died in 1940, priest, he “recognized was founding pasthat African-American tor of the all-black St. Catholics were nePeter Claver Parish glected in the diocese” and founder of Little and approached Bishop Flower Children SerCharles E. McDonvices to care for black nell, then head of the orphans.

Brooklyn Diocese, with Today, St. Peter his idea of starting an Claver is one of three “apostolate to blacks,” worship sites in St. the release said. The Martin de Porres Parbishop refused his reish in Brooklyn’s quest and Father Quinn Bedford-Stuyvesant instead volunteered to neighborhood. serve as an Army chapAfter vespers on lain. World War I ended the feast of St. John shortly after he landed the Baptist, Bishop in France, but he stayed Nicholas DiMarzio of on to minister to the Brooklyn spoke about a brooklyn giant — Msgr. Bernard J. Quinn, his personal connec- a Brooklyn, N.Y., priest who spent his life advocat- wounded.

Upon his return from tion to Msgr. Quinn. A ing for African-Americans, is pictured with children little more than a year in an undated photo from the Diocese of Brooklyn. France, Father Quinn ago, on his 65th birth- The diocese opened an inquiry June 24 into the was granted permission day, the bishop under- cause for his canonization. It’s the first step toward to begin his apostolate went coronary bypass the Church’s recognition of a saint. Msgr. Quinn, to black Catholics. He surgery. The doctors who was born in 1888 and died in 1940, founded bought a former Protesconsidered the surgery the all-black St. Peter Claver Parish in Brooklyn and tant church; the building a success, he said, but Little Flower Children Services for black orphans. was blessed and dedicated to St. Peter Claver a week later he found (CNS photo/courtesy of Msgr. Paul Jervis) on Feb. 26, 1922. himself back in the not just of words, but the insight “The zealous priest would later hospital after fainting.

He said blood clots in his lungs of someone in communion with go on to found Little Flower Children Services, to care for the inand heart threatened his life, and God,” the bishop said.

The individuals who will form creasing number of black children during the fervor that surrounded his second surgery, Msgr. Quinn the inquiry group each read aloud orphaned as a result of the Great came to his mind. He could not and then signed an oath to up- Depression,” the release said. Fasay why he thought of him or hold the duty bestowed on them ther Quinn and his collaborators whether it was a miracle, but his and keep secret all that they learn “heroically opposed the Ku Klux prayers to him during that period during the course of the inquiry. Klan who in two separate attacks have turned into a wellspring of Taking the oath along with Bish- had burned the orphanage to the op DiMarzio were Msgr. Antho- ground,” it added. devotion.

At the start of June, Jennifer Prickel was still wondering when God might allow her to follow her call into religious life.

More than $50,000 in student loan debt stood in the way of the 23-year-old Indiana teacher fulfilling her desire to serve God and the Church as a member of the Sisters of Reparation to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, based in Steubenville, Ohio.

But 10 days after her story appeared in May 28 issue of The Criterion, Indianapolis archdiocesan newspaper, Prickel’s prayers were answered in a dramatic way.

On June 7, a woman called Prickel, a member of St. Anthony Parish in Morris, and told her she felt that she was supposed to pay off her debt. The woman wanted to know the exact amount needed to do that, and asked to meet Prickel later that day.

When Prickel met the woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, she gave the aspiring religious a cashier’s check for approximately $52,000.

Prickel, who was teaching at St. Nicholas School in Ripley County, now expects to enter the Sisters of Reparation as a postulant August 5 — and she couldn’t be happier.

“The overwhelming feeling has just been joy and peace,” she said. “I’ve just been so joyful and just so excited about being able to finally fulfill this desire that I’ve had to live in a religious community, and dedicate my time to God in prayer. I just can’t stop smiling, especially when I tell people.”

There also were a lot of smiles on the faces of the Sisters in the community that she will be joining when she shared the news with its superior, Mother M. Wendy McMenamy.

“There was great joy and prayers of gratitude,” Mother Wendy said. “In the midst of a meeting, I received the call and the excitement in Jennifer’s voice was enough to make us equally excited. However, it was above all a deep gratitude that we felt as we saw God’s hand so clearly at work in providing for Jennifer’s needs.”

The Mater Ecclesiae Fund for Vocations, a public charity based in northern Virginia, had awarded Prickel a grant to pay off part of her student loan debt over time.

Corey Huber, who is cofounder and president of the fund that was established in 2007, said that as many as half of all aspirants to religious life had student loan debt at one time and that, for

debt is high enough to prevent them from easily retiring it so they can enter religious life.

“It’s very prevalent,” Huber said.

Mother Wendy of the Sisters of Reparation, agreed.

“We have met several young women whose desire to follow the call to religious life has been hampered by loans,” she said.

“Some have begun what might be a slow process of working and seeking aid. To all (of) them, we can readily say that God does not issue a call without giving the graces to fulfill that call.”

To date, the Mater Ecclesiae Fund for Vocations has awarded 86 grants. The grant funds are disbursed as monthly payments to pay off loans. But Huber said that, in the past year, he has had to turn down many applicants because of a lack of financial resources in the fund.

Prickel, a 2009 graduate of Franciscan University of Steubenville, said she had been waiting for God to answer her prayers over the past academic year as she worked as a religion and English teacher at St. Nicholas — the same school that she attended from kindergarten through the eighth grade.

Up until June 7, she expected to be teaching there again starting in August.

“I was gearing myself up to teach for another year,” Prickel said. “I would have done whatever God had wanted me to do.”

Judy Luhring, St. Nicholas’ principal, taught Prickel when she was in the third grade and has mixed feelings about losing such a good educator.

“It is very bittersweet that Jennifer will be leaving St. Nicholas School (because) she is a spiritfilled teacher full of love for God and her students,” Luhring said.

“It is sad to see her leave but, deep in all our hearts, we are extremely happy for her.”

The sudden and dramatic answering of her prayers just confirmed for Prickel the importance of having complete trust in God. “We always have to believe that our prayers are going to produce results. Otherwise, it would be useless to pray,” she said. “But I think that the Lord really taught me that when we have full confidence in him, ... he can move mountains for us. He delights in our confidence in him.”

For more information about the Mater Ecclesiae Fund for Vocations, go to http://fundforvocations.org. To donate, send a check to MEFV, P.O. Box 7433, Falls Church, Va. 22040.

The Church in the U.S. Two new Boston auxiliary bishops named; Bishop Allue retires

July 9, 2010

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI has named two seminary rectors as auxiliary bishops of Boston and accepted the resignation of Boston Auxiliary Bishop Emilio S. Allue, 75.

The appointments of Fathers Arthur L. Kennedy and Peter J. Uglietto, both priests of the Boston Archdiocese, and Bishop Allue’s resignation were made public June 30 by Msgr. JeanFrancois Lantheaume, charge d’affaires at the apostolic nunciature in Washington.

Bishop-elect Kennedy, 68, has been rector of St. John Seminary in Brighton, and formerly headed the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs in Washington. Bishop-elect Uglietto, 58, has served as rector of Blessed John XXIII National Seminary in Weston, since 2005.

Bishop Allue, a native of Spain and a member of the Salesians of Don Bosco, has been an auxiliary bishop in Boston since 1996.

In a news conference at the archdiocesan headquarters in Braintree, Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley expressed gratitude to Pope Benedict “who has recognized in them the qualities necessary to be bishops in the church” and thanked the new bishops-elect “for their willingness to accept the Holy Father’s call to serve.”

When the cardinal ordains them to the episcopacy September 14 at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, they will join three other auxiliary bishops active in the archdiocese, which includes nearly two million Catholics. In addition to Bishop Allue, two other Boston auxiliary bishops are retired.

Bishop-elect Kennedy will continue to serve as rector of St. John’s Seminary for a year until Cardinal O’Malley chooses his successor. Since he took

the post in July 2007, the size of the seminary community has quadrupled from 20 to 80 for the incoming fall 2010 class.

Born in Boston Jan. 9, 1942, and ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Boston on Dec. 17, 1966, in St. Peter’s Basil-

of St. Paul and Minneapolis from 1985 to 2000.

Bishop-elect Kennedy also served on the faculty of the now-closed St. John Seminary College (2000-2001) and the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome

important archdiocese in the United States.”

“Pope Benedict’s love of Christ and his church, and his careful attention to the faithful commitments of priests in all such rebuilding, stands as an example for us all,” he added.

boston double play — Bishop-elect Peter Uglietto, Bishop-elect Arthur Kennedy and Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley answer questions from the media during a press conference at the Archdiocese of Boston Pastoral Center in Braintree. Pope Benedict XVI chose the two seminary rectors to become auxiliary bishops for the archdiocese. The Boston Archdiocese serves nearly two million Catholics. (CNS photo/Gregory L. Tracy, The Pilot)

ica at the Vatican, then-Father Kennedy held various parish posts before earning a doctorate in theology from Boston University in 1978.

For almost 33 years he served in various faculty positions at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., and he was director of the master of arts in theology program at the archdiocesan seminary in St. Paul between 1993 and 1998.

He also worked as director of the ecumenical and interreligious office in the Archdiocese

(2000 and 2007) and headed the U.S. bishops’ ecumenical and interreligious office from 2002 to 2005.

In comments at the news conference, Bishop-elect Kennedy said he looked forward “to collaborating with (Cardinal O’Malley) in the rebuilding of the church here in this most

Bishop-elect Uglietto, born in Cambridge, on Sept. 24, 1951, was ordained a priest at Holy Cross Cathedral in Boston on May 21, 1977.

Between ordination and 1984, he was an associate pastor at three archdiocesan parishes. He also was director of the archdiocese’s permanent

5

diaconate program, 1986-88.

He completed a master’s degree in Christian spirituality at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., in 1986 and earned a licentiate (1990) and doctorate (1996) in sacred theology from the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Washington.

From 1990 to 1993 he was campus minister at Regis College in Weston. In addition to serving as rector-president at Blessed John XXIII National Seminary since 2005, he has served there as professor of moral theology (1990-93 and 1997-2010), director of field education (1996-2001) and academic dean (2001-05).

Bishop-elect Uglietto said he would miss the “very challenging but gratifying work” of priestly formation.

“For Catholics of the archdiocese, the last eight years have been difficult,” he said.

“Cardinal Sean has given witness to Christ the shepherd’s desire to bring healing and reconciliation — between God and his people and the people with each other. As an auxiliary bishop I look forward to supporting the cardinal in the important ministry of reconciliation.”

Bishop Allue, who turned 75 February 18, had been one of 27 active Hispanic bishops and was the first Salesian to serve as a bishop in the United States.

Born in Huesca, Spain, he was ordained a priest on Dec. 22, 1966, and became a U.S. citizen in 1974.

Bishop Allue was ordained auxiliary bishop of Boston on Sept. 17, 1996, and named episcopal vicar for the Hispanic Apostolate in 2008.

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The Anchor A reckless gamble

In gambling, the house always wins. That’s why it is particularly worrisome to see those we have elected to guide us wisely behaving like a desperate gambler in the false belief that casino gambling will rescue us from our economic woes. Just as it would obviously be foolish for an individual in economic difficulties to think that he can gamble his way to financial security, so it is imprudent for our state representatives, senators and governor to think that expanding gambling will bring the state to greater economic stability.

Yet that is the course we are currently on. On July 1, the Massachusetts Senate approved a bill to authorize three resort casinos in Massachusetts, following up the April 14 move by the House of Representatives to pave the way for two casinos and the expansion of slot machines at race tracks.

Currently the two chambers are working to reconcile the differences in the bills in order to pass something that Gov. Deval Patrick, a strong supporter of bringing casino gambling to the Bay State, can sign. The subject is particularly relevant to those in southeastern Massachusetts, where city leaders in Fall River and New Bedford are aggressively seeking to bring one of the possible future casinos within their municipal boundaries.

Proponents of authorizing casino gambling argue that casinos will create thousands of good jobs, stimulate tax revenue that will help balance the state budget, enable more money for cities and towns, and recover billions of dollars that Massachusetts residents lose at Connecticut resort casinos. But all claims are exaggerated.

It is certainly true that casinos will create temporary construction jobs — as any new large-scale building project would — as well as some permanent jobs. But they will also cost jobs as casinos always negatively impact many small businesses in the areas surrounding the casino, like restaurants, hotels, retail outlets and entertainment establishments. With regard to the jobs gained, it is important to note that casino jobs are listed by Forbes magazine as among the worst paying ones in America. The U.S. Department of Labor in 2007 calculated that the median hourly wage for gambling service employees was $6.34, for an annual salary of $13,179. As the Commonwealth looks at job creation, we should be trying to create good jobs that will at least help people get over the poverty line — and it’s obvious that the vast amount of money transferred from gamblers to casino owners does not make its way back to the employees.

It is also true that, in addition to paying one-time licensing fees, casinos will generate tax revenue for the Commonwealth. Casino proponents, however, generally mention only “gross” tax revenue figures, which are often exaggerated, rather than what could be called “net” tax benefits after we factor in the enormous costs. Attorney General Martha Coakley testified in June that, based on the experience of other states, there would need to be a new state commission with at least 500 employees — at the likely cost of $20 million annually — to audit, regulate, inspect and oversee the casinos and deal with the increased problems of money laundering and organized crime. Cities and towns close to casinos often have to pay for millions in expanded police details for traffic, emergency calls and increased crime (especially DUIs, robberies, burglaries, car thefts, prostitution, aggravated assaults, domestic violence and child neglect), for road repairs and expansions, and other services; Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal admitted at a public forum that his state had made a huge mistake in not planning adequately for the local impacts casinos have. There’s also the lost tax revenue from the many small businesses that are run out of business when a huge resort casino moves in. Finally, there is the enormous fiscal price tag for the huge social costs concomitant with casinos: bankruptcies, foreclosures, family violence and breakups, treatment for addictions, underperformance at work and more. The Attorney General of California estimates that it pays $1 billion per year for social costs associated with gambling. The 1999 National Gambling Impact Study, funded by the U.S. government, concluded casinos bring with them a 50 percent increase in the number of problem gamblers within a short driving radius, which in a state as compact as Massachusetts, with three possible casinos, will cost Massachusetts mightily. UMass-Dartmouth’s Center for Policy Analysis estimates that gambling addiction in Massachusetts already costs $170 million annually; with the licensing of three casinos, estimates are that those costs could rise to as much as $750 million annually. The Senate bill at least recognizes these costs and has earmarked 2.5 percent of proceeds to go to treating gambling addictions. But this is totally inadequate, financially and philosophically: we would never legalize addictive narcotics for economic purposes thinking that concern for the common good would be satisfied by setting aside one out of every 40 dollars earned by drug dealers to treat the new wave of addicts.

With regard to the millions of tax dollars that some Massachusetts legislators say are lost at Connecticut casinos, this, too, is exaggerated. The generally accepted estimate is that in 2009, Massachusetts gamblers contributed $93 million to the Connecticut treasury. This figure, however, is identical to what the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce predicts will be a 10 percent decrease in state lottery revenues should casinos be introduced in Massachusetts, leading to no economic gain at all. As the United to Stop Slots in Massachusetts website (uss-mass.org) notes, for the Commonwealth to collect $200 million in tax revenue, 40,000 people would have to lose $234 every day, 365 days a year. Those concentrated figures are relevant, because casinos make 90 percent of their revenues from 10 percent of their patrons, and 40 percent of these latter patrons are gambling addicts. For the state to make the tax revenue figures proponents are promising, it would need residents and visitors to spend — and lose — large amounts of money at these casinos. Also, the more Massachusetts residents spend at casinos, the less they will have to spend on clothing, electronics, furniture, automobiles and other local products. One 2004 study showed that for every $1,000 in increased casino revenues, businesses within a 30-mile radius lost $243.

In terms of the economics, which is the main argument being cited by casino proponents, it’s important to recognize that casinos do not really create revenue — like, for example, high-tech or manufacturing jobs do — but basically transfer revenue from other, healthier, more productive sectors. There are some short-term gains do to licensing fees, but similar to a gambler who wins big on the first hand of cards or play of the slots, the longer the Commonwealth continues to gamble with casinos, the more it — and its citizens — will lose due to lost businesses and jobs in other areas, increased costs for police protection and social services, as well the enormous human costs.

To go into business with casinos, which make most of their money not from recreational gamblers who go for fun and entertainment but by preying on the four percent of addictive gamblers who can least afford it, is civically irresponsible. Is it wise and good for the welfare of the state for legislators knowingly to roll the dice with an industry that study after study has shown brings with it an enormous human “cost of doing business,” a cost paid for by their spouses, dependents, families, employers and communities?

Sometimes the lure of big casino jackpots can blind individuals to the reality that the house always wins and that gamblers therefore lose. But the same lure can blind politicians into making similar miscalculations. Those who gamble recreationally know this and wisely go to a casino with a limit they’re prepared to lose. They grasp that the odds that they will win more than they lose long-term are very slim. What goes for individuals goes also for communities. By state leaders’ licensing casino gambling, the citizens of our Commonwealth will lose more than we gain. If we think otherwise, we haven’t learned the wisdom of the average recreational gambler.

Anchor readers should contact Gov. Patrick and their state senators and representatives to tell them they do not want them risking the future of the Commonwealth in this desperate, economically unwise and socially reckless gamble.

July 9, 2010

False accusations

One of the least covered aspects of the clergy work with outsiders and even denied him the privisex abuse crisis concerns priests falsely accused. It lege of receiving holy Communion. These were is hard to put into words what it is like for a man excruciating penalties for Brother Gerard, which who has dedicated himself to the love of God and he offered up for his accuser’s conversion and salothers, who has sought not only to preach but to put vation. He simply said, “There is a God in heaven. into practice the Gospel, and who has tried to be He will provide.” Several months later, Neria bea model of Christian conduct for his parishioners came dangerously ill, and thinking that she might all of a sudden to be accused not only of being a die, realized she could not go to her particular hypocrite against his priestly promises but of be- judgment with such a calumny on her conscience. ing guilty of having committed some of the most She wrote a letter to St. Alphonsus confessing that despicable actions anyone could imagine. she invented the charges. The founder, overjoyed Even if the priest’s reputation is impeccable at the innocence of his spiritual son, fully restored and the allegations patently ludicrous, it is still ter- him, but St. Gerard’s example of trust in God even ribly shameful and embarrassing for the priest to in the midst of terrible accusations and penances have to deny to parishioners, family members, fel- quickly became a model not only for his religious low clergy, the police and the public in general that family but for the whole Church: he is now the pahe is child molester. tron saint of those falsely accused.

In those cases when a preliminary ecclesiastiThe story of St. Vincent de Paul is equally as cal investigation determines that the allegation is powerful. As a young priest in Paris, the judge at credible — meaning that it is possible, not prob- whose home he was boarding found that a large able — the ignominy only grows, as, out of an sum of money was missing and accused Father Vinabundance of caution, Church policy requires the cent of having stolen it. He calmly insisted that he priest immediately to vacate the rectory, go on a hadn’t taken the money, but he wasn’t able to prove leave of absence from the parish and other assign- his innocence any more than prosecutors could ments, stop wearing clerical dress and functioning prove his guilt. Nevertheless, most people — inpublicly as a priest, and participate in a process that cluding those who had been his friends — thought is supposed to be swift but often in practice takes that he had committed the crime. Father Vincent years to clear his name. While this is going on, his kept saying, “God knows the truth.” Finally, six photograph and name are prominently featured on years later, the thief who had robbed the safe was the front pages of newspapers, at the beginning of arrested for another burglary and, wanting to clear television newscasts, and throughout the internet his conscience, confessed to the crime of which next to the horriFather Vincent ble words “sexual had been unjustly abuse of minors.” accused. Father And despite the Vincent was expresumption of inonerated, to the nocence in society great edification and in canon law, of Paris society. he is often treated What unites

By Father by the majority as them — and sevRoger J. Landry guilty until his ineral other similar nocence is proven. examples from Priests — hagiographical except, obviously, those who have been falsely annals — is a deep trust in God in the midst of false accused — can take some solace in the fact that accusations. St. Josemaria Escrivà once prayed mendacious incriminations are relatively rare. Ac- aloud, in the midst of suffering calumny, “Lord, if cording to the 2004 study by the John Jay College you don’t need my good name, what should I want of Criminal Justice, only 1.5 percent of all sex abuse it for?” Like Christ, they bore the unjust accusaallegations against Catholic priests in the United tions with confidence that the truth would come States between 1950-2002 were determined to be out in this world or in the next and, until it did, they false after investigation. Experts say, however, that offered their sufferings for their accusers. the percentage of false accusations has increased The second and complementary camp we see somewhat since then as large monetary awards in the life of St. John Vianney. Like St. Gerard, he given in mediated settlements have enticed some was accused, among other types of debauchery, dishonest claimants to come forward. A report pre- of impregnating a young woman who lived near pared for the U.S. bishops earlier this year docu- the church in Ars. His instinctive response was mented that in 2009, there were 21 allegations of to forgive and pray for his accusers as well as for the sexual abuse of minors against Catholic priests the young woman. But he also came to recognize in America: eight of these were acknowledged as that it was not merely his own reputation that was truthful by the offending clergy, four were deter- suffering because of the calumnies, but also the mined to be without foundation, one accusation reputation of the priesthood. For that reason, he was recanted and eight are still under investigation. undertook a defense, lest by failing to do so, he Right now, according to the organization Justice would give any plausibility to the vile rumors. The for Priests and Deacons, there are 300 American truth eventually came out. His serenity in the midst priests insisting on their innocence in cases before of the false and confidence that the truth would the Vatican. emerge, however, were lessons his parishioners In this mini-series on what we can learn from never forgot. saints to respond in a holy way to the sexual abuse Saints are distinguished by their heroic virtue crisis, it’s important for us to tackle the question of — and responding to false accusations as the saints how to respond to false allegations. It is obviously above did is clearly heroic. It is totally understandsomething of enormous relevance to priests who able that those who have been falsely accused may have been untruthfully accused. It is also useful for undertake a vigorous defense of their reputation, as all priests and seminarians who humanly cannot some like Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago but think about it and who often alter their behav- or Cardinal George Pell of Sydney have, so as not ior to minimize the possibility of false accusations only to clear their name and remove the stigma ever being considered credible. Lastly it’s impor- from the priesthood and their entire ministry, but tant for all those who care about priests who have also to dissuade others from making similar false been or may be unjustly accused. accusations in the future. But whatever one’s exThe practical wisdom of the saints with regard ternal strategy is, the interior strategy of total conto false accusations falls into two complementary fidence in God in union with Christ in the midst of camps. The first camp is illustrated by the example calumny is the type of heroism to which God calls of St. Gerard Majella and St. Vincent de Paul. all his priests.

In 1754, a young woman named Neria CagJesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, giano accused St. Gerard, a 28 year-old Redemp- “Blessed are you when they revile you … and uttorist brother, of lecherous conduct. She had been ter every kind of evil against you falsely on my dismissed from a convent and was seeking revenge account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward on the one who had recommended her there. St. will be great in heaven” (Mt 5:11-12). Among Alphonsus Ligouri, the founder of the Redemptor- the greatest in heaven will be those who have sufists, called St. Gerard in to answer the accusation. fered false accusations, in union with the Lord JeRather than defending himself, Brother Gerard re- sus, who was — we should never forget — killed mained silent, not seeking to do any damage to his through false accusations, but rose triumphant on accuser’s reputation. The superior thought he had the third day. no choice but to discipline him severely: he forFather Landry is pastor of St. Anthony of bade him from all contact not to mention pastoral Padua Parish in New Bedford.

Putting Into the Deep

July 9, 2010

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7

The Anchor

The social vision of John Henry Newman: ‘Two ends in view’

emarking on what John Henry Newman called “the Executive” in government, he concluded, “We consider it better that it should work badly, than work to the inconvenience and danger of our national liberties. Such is self-government.

Ideal standards, generous motives, pure principles, precise aims, scientific methods, must be excluded, and national utility must be the rule of administration. It is not a high system, but no human system is such. … Injustice is the exception; a free and easy mode of living is the rule. It is a venal régime; que voulez-vous? [‘what do you want?’]”

He apparently considered himself a political realist, for whom “satisfaction, peace, liberty, conservative interests, were the supreme end of the law, and not mere raw justice, as such.”

Newman did not require a “politics of meaning” to fill a void in his life. His meaning in life came from Jesus Christ.

Poet, playwright and critic T.S. Eliot — who admired Newman — wrote that a vibrant culture needs subcultures represented by regions, social classes, etc. Eliot echoed the great historian Christopher Dawson, whose influence on his essays Eliot acknowledged.

Whom did Dawson echo? Very

probably Newman, who, like all must have their part and their Eliot, also admired Newman. proportion in the administraNewman wrote that the Church tion. Such is the will of the gained strength historically by Nation, which had rather that its assimilating widely varying institutions should be firm and ideas from multiple cultures. stable, than that they should be All three men proposed a effective.” genuine diversity in thought and Conflicting interests partially culture. Newman, however, also neutralize one another (albeit considered that diversity Eliot described as key to protecting “local” inThe Enduring terests of class, occupaImportance of tion, and culture, to slow attempts at imposing Cardinal Newman one-size-fits-all soluDr. Peter J. Mango tions on people. Newman wrote, “The Nation has two ends in view, quite distinct from the proper without, one might hope, resultend of the Executive itself; first, ing in permanent paralysis). All that the Government should “voices” are thus heard in the not do too much, and next, that process. itself should have a real share “You cannot eat your cake in the Government. … Some and have it,” concluded NewStates are cemented by loyalty, man. “You cannot be at once a others by religion; but ours by self-governing nation and have self-interest, in a large sense of a strong government.” Hence, the word … power is commithe continued, the 19th-century ted, not to the highest capacity, Englishman “prefers the system but to the largest possible conof checks and counter-checks, stituency. The general public, the division of power, the imthe constituency, the press, the perative concurrence of disconaristocracy, the capital of the nected officials, and his own country, the mercantile interest, supervision and revision — the the Crown, the Court, the great method of hitches, cross-purConstitutional parties, Whig and poses, collisions, deadlocks….

Tory, the great religious parties, I am not quarrelling with what Church and Dissent, the country is inevitable in his system of gentlemen, the professions — self-government. … They will

forbid the concentration of power; they will multiply its seats, complicate its acts, and make it safe by making it inefficient. They will take care that it is the worst-worked of all the many organizations … found in their country. As despotisms keep their subjects in ignorance, lest they should rebel, so will a free people maim and cripple their government, lest it should tyrannize.”

While Newman would have distrusted the revolutionary tendencies of Thomas Jefferson, he sounds curiously like Jefferson when he writes, “A people so alive, so curious, so busy … will be a power in themselves, independently of political arrangements; and will be on that very ground jealous of a rival, impatient of a master. … A government is their natural foe; they cannot do without it altogether, but they will have of it as little as they can.”

Newman had no illusions regarding the drawbacks of England’s spiritual state, constitution, or foreign policy.. He considered England a postChristian country. The point of his popular Parochial and Plain Sermons was to awaken what he saw as a country in spiritual

torpor. He was embarrassed over England’s domination of Ireland. “I wish to stare facts in the face,” he said. Still, though not a nationalist, Newman was a patriot.

St. Thomas Aquinas called love of one’s homeland a component of the virtue of “justice” — though, for Thomas, his homeland may have meant his hometown. According to the sisters of her Dutch Carmelite convent, St. Edith Stein stood up for her fellow Jews, whenever they came up in conversation.

St. Maximilian Kolbe gently defended his fellow Poles when their defects (real or alleged) were brought to his attention.

We don’t expect saints to whitewash their country’s history (or present), defensively sheltering navel-gazing egos or fragile identities. Yet, when informed by that virtue of charity “which binds all the rest together” as St. Paul wrote, justice also means acknowledging goods received from a people.

Dr. Mango, who wrote his doctoral dissertation on Cardinal Newman, teaches philosophy at the Thornwood Center for Higher Studies as well as at the Archdiocese of New York’s St. John Neumann Pre-Theology Program and Institute for Religious Studies. This is the sixth in a 10-part series.

Difficult pregnancies, precarious choices, and the absolute value of innocent lives

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ome medical conditions can be made worse by becoming pregnant. Pulmonary hypertension, for example, is often exacerbated by pregnancy: the additional blood volume of the pregnancy burdens the mother’s weakened heart and, in extreme cases, can result in heart failure and the death of mother and child.

Although direct abortion is sometimes counseled to pregnant women who face this life-threatening difficulty, such a choice can never be moral. In these circumstances, medical strategies which seek to care for mother and child need to be pursued, as they often provide satisfactory outcomes for both.

Recent advances in obstetrics and pre-natal medicine, along with so-called “expectant management” (close monitoring of a pregnancy with tailored interventions), have enabled an ever greater number of these highrisk pregnancies to be managed at least until the child reaches viability. Labor can then be induced or a C-section delivery can be scheduled. This ordinarily allows mother and child to be saved.

An April 2010 research study trapped on the third floor. The showed impressive survival firefighters discover that part of rates for pregnant mothers with the building has collapsed onto pulmonary hypertension. This the only stairwell, with heavy, was achieved by combining immobile concrete girders multi-specialty collaboration blocking the passageway further with planned and managed up to the landing. There is only delivery. The results, published a small hole in the girders that in the British Journal of Obstet- the firemen would need to crawl rics and Gynecology, indicated that all nine of the patients in the small study group survived along with their unborn children.

Nevertheless, there

By Father Tad are times when our best Pacholczyk medical efforts to save mother and child will fail, and we face the heartthrough to get to the trapped wrenching situation where nachild, but the passage is blocked ture may have to take its course. by the body of a man who colIn these circumstances, some lapsed from smoke inhalation ask: Wouldn’t a direct aborright in the crawl space where tion be permissible to save the the firefighters need to go. He is mother (for example, a suction wedged in there in such a way curettage procedure, a common that his unconscious, but living, form of abortion where the fetus body cannot be moved aside or is often dismembered and parts out of the way. are evacuated from the uterus)?

As the fire pulses dangerAn analogy can help us grasp ously around them, it becomes the unacceptability of direct apparent that the only way the abortion in a situation like this. firefighters might be able to Let’s suppose that sevquickly pass would be to take a eral firefighters enter a burning saw and cut the body of the colbuilding to evacuate a child lapsed man into pieces, causing

Making Sense Out of Bioethics

his death, and then pull out sections of his body until a passage large enough for them to pass through had been opened up.

Clearly, the firefighters would be obligated to try everything else to save the child and the collapsed man (shifting his body this way or that, trying to rouse him from his unconsciousness, etc.) but they could never choose to directly kill him by cutting up his body, even for the very good reason of gaining access to the next floor and saving the trapped child.

This example points towards an old adage sometimes cited by moralists: Better two deaths than one murder.

Some might say that “murder” would not fit here, given that the term generally connotes a callous, wanton, and premeditated act of killing, instead of an urgent, emotional and difficult decision in the face of few or no alternatives. But even the strongest emotion and the greatest difficulties surrounding such cases must be focused through the lens of a similar affirmation: Better two deaths than the direct taking of

an innocent life.

Directly killing an innocent human being, even in the hopes of saving his or her mother, is an instance of engaging in an intrinsic — or absolute — evil, even if good may follow. By always repudiating the direct killing of the innocent, and acknowledging that this represents an exceptionless norm, we set in place the framework to safeguard human dignity at its root. Affirming this most basic norm leads us away from the injustice of playing God with other people’s lives. These challenging “life of the mother” cases allow us to begin acknowledging some of our own limitations, and the mystery of God’s greater providence, in the realization that we may not be able to “manage” or “correct” every difficult medical situation we face.

Father Pacholczyk earned his doctorate in neuroscience from Yale and did post-doctoral work at Harvard. He is a priest of the Diocese of Fall River, and serves as the director of Education at The National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia. See www.ncbcenter.org.

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July 9, 2010

The Anchor

Neighborly neighbor

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ast Sunday, we Americans celebrated Independence Day. On that day, we remembered the July 4,1776 document that said in part “that man is endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Thomas Jefferson’s point was that man is born with certain rights that cannot be taken from him.

This Sunday’s first reading from Deuteronomy says much the same thing about our responsibilities. The sacred author of the book tells us that God’s commands are not mysterious. They are not in the sky or across the sea that someone will have to go and bring them to us and tell us what they are. “No, it is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts: you have only to carry it out” (Deut: 30, 14 ).

Keeping these thoughts in mind, let us turn our atten-

chapter six and Leviticus, tion to this Sunday’s Gospel. chapter 19, “You shall love During this year’s cycle c, the Lord, your God, with the Gospel of St. Luke is our all your heart, with all your guide. Luke’s Jesus is always being, with all your strength, telling us to look out for and and with all your mind, and take care of the poor and the marginalized. The parable of the Good Samaritan highlights Homily of the Week the message of Jesus.

Fifteenth Sunday During Jesus’ ministry, many people in Ordinary Time approached him with

By Deacon questions. Some Robert J. Hill asked for cures for themselves or family members. Some, like you neighbor as yourself.” the Scribes and Pharisees Because the scholar wished asked him questions to try to justify himself, he asked, and trip him. Others, like the “And who is my neighbor?” legal scholar, asked about the Jesus answered with the wellrequirements for eternal life known parable of the Good to test Jesus’ response.

Samaritan. A brief outline of The scholar asks, “Teacher, the story might be helpful. what must I do to inherit eterA man was on his way from nal life?” Jesus, knowing the Jerusalem to Jericho, fell in questioner is a scholar, asks with robbers and was left him,” What is written in the half dead on the roadside. law?” The scholar correctly A priest and a Levite passed quoted from Deuteronomy,

by, saw the beaten man and passed him by on the other side of the road. Along came a Samaritan man who saw the man, cleaned him up, put him on his own animal and took him to the inn where he cared for him.

When the Samaritan was leaving the next day, he gave money to the innkeeper to care for the victim. He also promised to reimburse the innkeeper for any additional expenses.

Why did the priest and the Levite pass by? They were Temple officials. If the man was dead, and they touched him, they would be “ritually unclean” and have to serve a period of purification before resuming their temple duties. Are we sometimes like these officials — not wanting to get involved because it might be inconvenient? The Samaritans and the Jews of Jesus’ time did not get along,

to put it mildly. For a Samaritan to help would be unheard of. Yet, that is what he did.

He did love his “neighbor as himself.”

Who is our neighbor?

Jesus tells us that it is anyone in need. This is something to consider. Really consider.

How, then, are we to treat our neighbor? We are to treat our “neighbor” the same way we want to be treated.

These thoughts are “endowed by the creator” in us. As we continue to reflect on our national independence, let us also reflect on how we are to treat all our brothers and sisters in a Christ-like “neighborly” manner. This week, take some time to think on how we can be a “neighborly neighbor.”

Deacon Hill is retired from active ministry and lives in Mattapoisett with his wife, Terri. They are parishioners of St. Anthony’s in that town.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. July 10, Is 6:1-8; Ps 93:1-2,5; Mt 10:24-33. Sun. July 11, Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Dt 30:10-14; Ps 69:14,17,30-31,3334,36,37 or Ps 19:8-11; Col 1:15-20; Lk 10:25-37. Mon. July 12, Is 1:10-17; Ps 50:8-9,16bc-17,21,23; Mt 10:34-11:1. Tues. July 13, Is 7:1-9; Ps 48:2-8; Mt 11:20-24; Wed. July 14, Is 10:5-7,13b-16; Ps 94:5-10,14-15; Mt 11:25-27. Thur. July 15, Is 26:7-9,12,16-19; Ps 102:13-14ab,15-21; Mt 11:28-30. Fri. July 16, Is 38:1-6,21-22,78; (Ps) Is 38:19-12,16; Mt 12:1-8.

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Papal kudos for the secular media’s sex abuse coverage?

hat Pope Benedict XVI is Catholicism’s most effective spokesman and navigator through the rocks and shoals of Scandal Time II was demonstrated yet again in May, during a flying papal press conference en route to Portugal. Discussing the enduring meaning of the “message of Fatima,” the pope said the following: “As for the new things we can find in this message today, there is also the fact that attacks on the pope and the Church come not only from without, but the sufferings of the Church

come precisely from within justice.” the Church, from sin existing Beautiful, profound, unexwithin the Church. This, too, is ceptionable: yet this lesson in something we have always known, but today we are seeing it in a really terrifying way: that the greatest persecution of the Church comes not from her enemies

By George Weigel without but arises from sin within the Church, and thus the Church has a deep need to relearn theology and piety was interpenance, to accept purification, to learn forgiveness on the preted by virtually the entire press corps as a papal blessing one hand, but also the need for on the way Scandal Time II had been covered since March — and an implicit criticism of those who had suggested that recent reporting and commentary on priestly sexual abuse and episcopal misgovernance had been, at times, shoddy and agenda-driven (the agenda being the disempowerment of pope and Church). There is nothing in the pope’s actual words, however, that supports that little bit of auto-absolution by the brethren of the fourth estate.

Thus “…attacks on the pope and the Church come not only from without”: what can that mean other than that there have, in fact, been attacks from the Church “from without”?

That “the greatest persecution of the Church comes not from her enemies without

The Catholic Difference

but arises from sin within the Church” is certainly true (and has been said repeatedly by John Paul II and Benedict XVI). But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t persecutors “from without.” Measured against the Evil One and the damage he can cause, those outsiders may be pretty small beer; but they’re persecutors nonetheless.

The pope was entirely right to remind everyone of what he called, in his Good Friday meditations in 2005, the “filth” in the Church: infidelity is the cause of Scandal Time II, as it was the cause of the Long Lent of 2002. Dealing with that infidelity, as the Holy Father continued, requires “conversion, prayer, penance, and the theological virtues” [of faith, hope, and love]. Here are the essentials in the Church’s response to evil, which “attacks from within and without.”

These are ancient truths.

Recognizing their contemporary salience does not, however, require us to stand mute on the occasions when the press manifestly gets it wrong. Charity does require us to acknowledge that, in most cases — not all, but most — getting-it-wrong is the result of ignorance rather than malice. Still, one significant difference between 2002

and 2010 has been that the malice of some newspapers and magazines has been clear to anyone with a critical eye.

That unhappy fact underscores the necessity of reforming the Holy See’s communications operation, which has retreated from the advances made under John Paul II’s longtime spokesman, the Spanish layman Joaquin Navarro-Valls.

As John Paul and Navarro-Valls demonstrated, the pope-press spokesman relationship works well when the spokesman is well-established in the confidence and confidences of the pontiff, and has ready access to the man he’s interpreting to the world. Building such a relationship with a spokesman may require a pope to alter his habitual patterns of work, but the effort seems worth it, judging by the results.

The ingrained media defensiveness of the Roman Curia must also change: the attitude, entrenched over centuries, that the best story is no story. No, the best story is a good story that presents facts accurately and does so in such a way that the essentials of the Church’s evangelical message get communicated. That takes work, but again, the effort is worth it.

George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.

July 9, 2010

Yippee kyote kyay Saturday 3 July 2010 — out my head recently as I was out standing in my field — Dog Days at dawn walking my pet greybegin — “when the sea boils, wine turns sour, dogs grow mad and all creatures become languid Reflections of a ....” (Brady’s Clavis Parish Priest Calendarium, 1813) ippee kyote

By Father Tim kyay” wasn’t Goldrick exactly what Gene Autry and Roy Rogers were singing in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, but that’s how I heard it hounds. as a child. “Kyote” popped into In these lazy, hazy, crazy days

The Ship’s Log

“Y

I

9

The Anchor of summer, I try to take time to smell the roses. That’s just a figure of speech, dear readers. Actually, I don’t have any rose bushes.

These new-fangled hybrid varieties are too difficult to maintain, what with insect, black spot, and mildew control, not to mention constant watering, pruning, and feeding. Fancy roses look lovely but don’t occur naturally.

They do have their fans. Msgr.

Sacramental imagination

between God and all of creation, nfluenced by theologian which is God’s gift and therefore David Tracy, Father Andrew Greeley wrote a book called “The God’s grace. In this way, all of creation is an analogy to God, his Catholic Imagination” elaboratnature, and his goodness. ing on the differences between One can understand creation, the Catholic imagination and the then, as a metaphor for a larger Protestant imagination in art and divine reality. (There is a differliterature. Do Catholics imagine, ence between metaphor and analcreate, and experience art in difogy, but for our purposes here, it ferent ways than non-Catholics? suffices to think of them as the For Tracy and Greeley, the answer is undeniably yes. It is not same.) Furthermore, that God regularly becomes not symbolithat the Catholic imagination is cally but fully and incarnationally superior to the Protestant imagipresent for us in the Eucharist, nation; in fact both Tracy and is also an analogy for how God Greeley agree that both imagienters and is present in creation. native modes are complementary and form a whole together. It remains, however, that they are different. It is a difference that inescapably influences Catholic art and literature, and gives it an identifiable charBy Jennifer Pierce acter, a distinct Catholic flavor. “Religion,” wrote Father Greeley As a result, David Tracy and in another book “is imagination several others have noted that before it is anything else. The Catholic art has historically been Catholic imagination is different about God’s presence in the than the Protestant imagination. world, Protestant art has marked You know, Flannery O’Connor is his absence from the world; furnot John Updike.” ther, Catholic art has traditionally The Catholic imagination is often described as the “sacramen- presented metaphors between human domains and Godly tal imagination,” because Cathoones, whereas Protestant art has lic sacraments present a singular emphasized the way in which way of looking at the world. human domains are not like God. We believe that God’s presence Again — neither imaginative is everywhere through grace, mode is correct or incorrect. Both and we believe that grace has a represent different aspects of special and actual presence in divine truth. It is possible for the the sacraments, the tangible and merely human to be both flawed outward manifestation of God’s and participate in divine goodgrace. It means something quite ness; human love is not God’s significant that we believe there love after all. But it is certainly are outward signs of grace all like it, and we can use it to stir around us and that God is present in the world and in all of creation. our imagination about the nature of God’s love. This is the essence The outward signs are not merely of the sacramental imagination: symbols. They are actual. They it imagines that God’s grace is don’t just represent God’s grace, mystically present in the created they deliver it. world and we can then use all The sacramental imagination aspects of that created world as a is also called “analogic,” which means to receive, understand (in is a way of saying we imagine part), and experience God. things as representing and being And so, the Incarnation — like other things. The analogic that God didn’t just pretend to be imagination, therefore, imagines or imitate but actually became that there are correspondences between things, relationships, and man — and the transubstantiation points of contact. Ultimately, this — that God alters the essence of the bread and wine and becomes points to a divine correspondence

On Great Catholic Writers

fully (or substantially) present while retaining the appearances of the bread and wine — are crucial to our faith and inescapably alter our world view. Just as Christ alters the essence of the bread in wine through transubstantiation, our faith in that doctrine alters our mind and our perception. We learn this divine mystery at a young age, we rehearse it each time we attend Mass, and it shapes how we see the world.

It also transforms how we see art-making. What is art-making but an imitation of incarnation in creative form? The history of Catholic art-making is full of sensuous expressions of God’s grace with an often almost scandalous emphasis on the human form, rich colors.

Our churches and the priests vestments are often made of textured, opulent, and lush fabrics. Our stained glass windows even use light as a medium as lighting designers would later do for film, television, and theater — but it started with the streaming beams of colored light pouring into cathedrals through exquisite visual representations of holy Scripture, sacred tradition, and the communion of saints. Gold, flickering, candles, holy water in ornate fonts, burning incense, and statues that look as if they might come to life and walk amongst the people — truly the Catholic world is an enchanted world.

How has that world affected the literary imagination of Catholic writers? Surely, it must.

After having written a series on the Great Catholic Thinkers of our heritage, I’m going to spend some time chatting with you about the Great Catholic Writers of western history, looking at how the sacramental imagination has shaped their work, the stories they tell, and their manner of expressing themselves.

Jennifer Pierce, Ph.D. is a parishioner of Corpus Christi in East Sandwich, where she lives with her husband Jim and two daughters. This begins the series On Great Catholic Writers.

Luis Mendonca was one of them. He once showed me his classy rose garden at Mount Carmel Church, New Bedford. You can’t stop to smell hybrid roses because most have no aroma.

Just as well — I’m allergic.

I do take time to admire the ancient maple trees in full leaf in front of the rectory, the birds singing melodiously, the scraggy “kyote” streaking through the yard. Oh, wait. There’s something wrong with this picture.

What is a coyote doing here?

This is not the Arizona desert.

This is New England.

Come to think of it, here in Dighton we do have the world-famous annual Cow Chip Festival. This year I noticed a cowboy (whom you may have recognized) serving as one of the three judges. Is Dighton the wild, wild East?

This coyote didn’t appear to be ill. The animal wasn’t aggressive. It seemed to be more frightened of my dogs and me than we were of it. Off to the safety of the fields fled the coyote in a flash.

Since it was a slow day in The Dightons, I researched the subject of coyotes. I found that they are no longer confined to the American Southwest. They now roam New England. They hang out in woods, abandoned farmlands, and grassy fields.

They hunt at night. Helpful hint: don’t let the cat out. Coyotes eat small animals. They also eat fruits and vegetables. Coyotes aren’t picky.

With any luck, they say, you can frighten off a coyote with bright lights, loud noises, or barking guard dogs. I doubt my greyhounds qualify for the latter category. Not only do greyhounds normally choose flight over fight, but also they run away faster than any mammal on earth.

I telephoned Stacy Ferry, the Town Animal Control Officer, to inquire what a coyote might be doing in my yard. She explained in two words, “March floods.”

It seems the spring flooding of the town came when the coyotes were stirring from hibernation and giving birth to their litters.

Many of their dens were washed away. The coyote population became confused. The natural order of things had been disrupted.

These disoriented coyotes are full-grown adults, not juveniles.

Here in the East, they can weigh up to 50 pounds. In the West, 35 pounds is considered large. My wimpy greyhounds weigh 75 pounds.

There are perhaps 80 or 90 coyotes in Dighton. You can hear them running through the woods.

Many people enjoy observing wildlife in their back yards, but please don’t feed the coyotes. Stick with the chickadees.

Chickadees don’t eat pet cats (at least not that I’m aware of.) Cars are hitting increasing numbers of coyotes in these parts. These wild animals are ending up as road kill. How sad.

I asked the Animal Control Officer if coyotes were making the barking and howling sounds I hear just about every morning.

“Probably not,” she answered.

“Coyotes yap and yip. What you are most likely hearing is feral dogs.”

“We have those, too?” I asked.

“Oh yes, and also foxes misplaced by the March flooding.”

I live in a semi-rural suburban neighborhood. It’s quaint, but it’s not the hinterlands.

Hundreds of vehicles pass my front door every day. Yes, dear readers, we do have “rush hour” in The Dightons. I take my life in my hands every morning at 6 a.m. as I attempt to leave my driveway to get my morning coffee at Alice’s. Coyotes had better look both ways before crossing the street.

Well, I’ve learned a lesson about how delicate is the balance of nature. To think that all of this was caused by the spring floods — an “Act of God” as they say in the insurance industry (which refuses to pay for the repair of my flooded church furnace). You want an Act of God: I’ll show you an Act of God. Consider oil spills, global warming, genetic engineering, nuclear accidents, and other catastrophes. If an act of our allknowing God can cause disruption in The Dightons, what kind of confusion can an act of unknowing man (or woman) cause in our world? I don’t know, but this I do know: it’s not nice to fool with Mother Nature.

Father Goldrick is pastor of St. Nicholas of Myra Parish in North Dighton.

Specializing in: Brand Name/ Foreign Auto Parts 1420 Fall River Avenue (Route 6) Seekonk, MA 02771

10

The Anchor

July 9, 2010

Marion man continues a lifetime of service to the Church

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

MARION — At nearly 80 years of age, James B. Barron has to be one of the oldest altar servers serving Mass in the diocese.

Although it’s not his official job at St. Rita’s in Marion, he willingly helps out his pastor, Father Paul A. Caron, whenever needed.

So with a shortage of altar servers during a recent summer Mass, Barron slipped back into the role that began a lifetime of service to the Church.

“It’s different today, though,” Barron told The Anchor from his picturesque Marion home. “Things have changed and it seems every priest has his own way of doing things. But at least they don’t holler at you like they used to.”

Barron was jokingly referring to his fledgling years as an altar boy, when he used to serve the Latin Mass and sing in his church choir.

“We had to do all that stuff,” he said with a grin. “My mother even made me go to confession every two weeks whether I needed it or not.”

But his mother’s faith and devotion to the Church obviously made a lasting impression on Barron.

He continued to remain an active, practicing Catholic into his adult years and he and his wife, Mary, managed to pass along those same values to their six children.

“All my kids are pretty good practicing Catholics,” he said. “My daughter Kelly teaches Sunday

school and we have great family tion classes, and even took care of maker, Barron admitted he’s not reunions every year. We’ll be go- the grounds and buildings for the as active in the parish as he used ing to Martha’s Vineyard in a cou- parish. to be and he’s been forced to scale ple of weeks for the next one with “I used to mow the lawn and back his activities. them and all 13 grandchil“I still do what I can,” dren. My oldest grandchild he said. “I still serve as exis 20 and the youngest is traordinary minister of holy seven. And one of our kids Communion, I’m a lector still hasn’t had children yet, at Mass, and I fill in as an so I don’t know how many altar boy sometimes, but I more we’re going to have.” certainly don’t do what I A graduate of Boston used to do.”

College, he said he has Father Caron considers learned a great deal from Barron a vital parishioner. the Jesuit priests and Do“He loves his parish and minican Sisters, and afcommunity and is always firmed that his faith has willing to go the extra mile always been an important to help,” Father Caron said. part of his life.

“His service to St. Rita’s is “My faith is very iminvaluable.” portant to me,” he said. “I While some have exdon’t go to Mass everyday, pressed concern that St. Ribut I try to go as often as I ta’s Parish may be destined can.” to close — especially after After a successful career Father Caron was assigned in banking shuffled him as pastor of both St. Rita’s from Braintree to a new poand St. Anthony’s Parish sition in New Bedford, Barin nearby Mattapoisett — ron and his family finally Barron remains optimistic settled in the scenic seaside about his close-knit comtown of Marion — and his munity. beloved St. Rita’s Parish — “A lot of people have more than a decade ago. left — they don’t feel it’s a Having previously been Anchor person of the week — James B. parish anymore, but I still involved with St. Thomas Barron. (Photo by Kenneth J. Souza) think it is,” he said.

More Parish in Braintree, Although they often Barron didn’t miss a beat when I’d clear trees and take them to the attend Sunday Masses in Matjoining his new community. He dump,” Barron said. “But I can’t tapoisett these days, Barron said served for many years on the par- do that anymore. I’ve been severe- there’s still a core group from St. ish council, assisted with the joint ly limited in my extracurricular Rita’s that keeps traditions alive. parish planning committee for St. activities of late.”

“We have an unofficial group Rita’s and St. Anthony’s in MatAfter a heart attack two years here at St. Rita’s Parish — we call tapoisett, taught Religious Educa- ago and the implanting of a pace- it the ‘Hail Mary Coffee Club’ —

and we gather together after Mass for coffee,” he said. “There are still a half dozen of us who keep it going.”

In fact, Barron suggested the lack of such social groups and formal gatherings in parishes is one possible reason why people are drifting away from the Church.

“I think we’ve become too enamored of what’s going on in the world and not paying attention to what our ultimate salvation will be,” he said. “One of the things we’re missing is that kind of cohesiveness we had years ago. We were altar boys, we belonged to the choir, we had sodalities — we had Holy Name Societies, we had Women’s Guilds. We had all these social functions that brought people together — dances, dinners, CYO and basketball games.

Today there are so many other distractions in life that cohesiveness is lacking in local parishes. I really think it would behoove us to try and get some of that back.”

While he may have a point, Barron is also sympathetic to the reasons these programs are no longer thriving.

“I realize part of the problem is the parishes don’t have the staff to organize these things,” he added.

“Most have only one priest — or like ours, one pastor running two parishes — and they don’t have the time or the resources to spare.

But I wish each parish had enough money to hire someone to help the priest full-time. If someone could come in and help the priest with his administrative duties, and be a liaison with the community, I think we could see some changes.”

Barron said his involvement with the Church over the years has “meant a lot to him” and he thanks God everyday for everything he has.

“I hope we can find a way to entice more people to come to Church, get more people to stay and, more importantly, get people to participate in their parish,” he said. “But we have to be able to provide the functions to do that.”

To nominate a Person of the Week, send an email to FatherRogerLandry@anchornews.org.

July 9, 2010

I

ndependence Day in the U.S. is like Christmas in July. It’s a time for joy and food and family and friends. There’s not much better than firing up the grill and barbecuing every kind of meat that’s not good for you. Oh, the aromas of fat sizzling on the grill.

Throw some of that on your plate along with salads made of ingredients that raise cholesterol and find a home in your arteries, and you have the perfect Fourth of July feast. Add to that fireworks, and Old Glory flying from every flag pole, porch, gate and home, and you’re reminded of what a great nation the good old U.S.A. is. In fact, I love seeing the U.S. flag flying in so many places. But on Saturday, July 3, I wit-

The Anchor

11

Defending our liberties nessed hundreds of flags waving in the warm summer breeze, and the mood was not joyful, but quite somber. Yet, it was another reminder of what the U.S. is and stands for.

While covering the funeral of Army Specialist Scott A. Andrews at Holy Name

By Dave Jolivet Church in Fall River I saw flags in the clutches of men, women and children of all ages. Yet the most poignant of all was the one draped over the 21-year-old hero’s coffin as he was carried into church

by seven fellow Army paratroopers.

Specialist Andrews was killed in action in Afghanistan a few weeks back, just two months after Army National Guard Sgt. Robert Barrett was killed in Afghanistan.

This scene has played out thousands upon thousands of times across this country since, and before, July 4, 1776. It was, is, and always will be the sacrifice of men and women who choose to risk their lives that allows all Americans to live in freedom.

I don’t care what anyone thinks of the war in Afghanistan or Iraq. The bottom line is that there are those Americans who care enough about the rest of us to be sent across the world to defend our liberties.

There are many who oppose these wars, just as there have been many who opposed Vietnam, Korea, World War II, World War I, the War of 1812, the Civil War, and the Revolutionary War. That is their right, and they do it based on their convictions and sense of right and wrong. But never should our soldiers bear the burden of something over which they have no control.

It was heartwarming to see the support Specialist Andrews and his family

My View From the Stands

received from complete strangers. And again, this scene plays out too many times across this country, as it did during most of this country’s military confrontations. Regardless of what people think about U.S. policy, most love and respect their soldiers.

One of the only blotches came from my generation, many of whom literally turned their collective backs on the young men and women who returned home, dead or alive from Vietnam.

Why these heroes took the blame for a questionable war is beyond belief — and inexcusable. The respect and remembrance they earned and deserved was long overdue.

If anyone wants to truly understand that generation’s sacrifice, visit the Vietnam War Memorial in D.C. I dare you not to shed a tear or two.

Thank you to Specialist Andrews and Sgt. Barrett. Thank you to all men and women who gave their lives to allow us to enjoy the simple, often taken-for-granted freedoms we all experience every day.

Thank you to all veterans still alive today. Thank you to all our men and women carrying the torch of freedom today as enlisted personnel.

Thank you all for letting me have such a great Fourth of July weekend.

Thanks for letting me fill myself with unhealthy foods, with family and friends. My saturated fat-ladened heart goes out to you — always.

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The Anchor

July 9, 2010

Senate approves gambling bill continued from page one

president of United to Stop Slots in Massachusetts (USS Mass), the non-profit grassroots coalition of casino opponents.

Norbut said she is disappointed with both the process and the product. She had called for more public hearings, held in multiple regions across the state as well as an independent cost-benefits analysis.

“To have pushed this forward in the manner that it was through the Senate, really speaks to the disregard for the taxpayers and for the communities that will be negatively impacted,” she said.

Kris Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, called high-stakes gambling a “regressive tax” that hurts most the people who can least afford it.

“We stand against the House bill and the Senate bill. They are both horrible pieces of legislation that exploit the citizens of our Commonwealth, particularly those in the lower income brackets,” he said.

The website for USS Mass says that between 70-90 percent of casinos’ profits come from 10 percent of the gamblers. Casinos and slots prey on the addicted, gaining the highest profits from the few who visit frequently and lose the most money.

The Senate plan would approve three casinos, one in Southeastern Massachusetts, one in Western Massachusetts and one in the greater Boston area.

One of the casinos would first be offered to one of the state’s two federally-recognized Native American tribes — the Aquinnah Wampanoag and Mashpee Wampanoag tribes.

Both tribes have expressed interest in bidding on a state casino license and have plans to build a casino in Fall River. In May, the Mashpees reached an agreement with the city to build a resortstyle casino with three hotels and a spa off Route 24. The plan would necessitate the relocation of a planned biotechnology park.

The Aquinnahs have announced that the relocation would not be necessary with their plan to build a casino near Route 195.

Proponents of the Senate bill say three casinos would bring 15,000 new jobs and around $300 million annually to the Bay State. Each casino would pay a one-time licensing fee of $75 million. Revenues would go to cities and towns, state debt payment and economic development. The Senate set aside 10 percent of proceeds toward battling social ills.

The House bill approved two casinos and slots at the state’s four racetracks, which proponents say would save 1,000 jobs.

A bill without slots is more like-

ly to get past the governor’s desk as Deval Patrick has voiced opposition to the machines outside of casinos.

Supporters base their jobs creation and revenue claims on a study by a gambling group that considered the benefits and not the cost. The study by the Spectrum Gaming Group of New Jersey predicted high profits for Massachusetts gambling. It contended that more than half of Massachusetts residents who currently gamble out of state would stay closer to home. It also assumed that out-of-staters would travel here to gamble and that Massachusetts residents would spend more money — $200 million more — on gambling.

Opponents say the figures have been inflated by those who would benefit from expanded gambling.

Edward Saunders, director of the Massachusetts Catholic Conference, testified to the Church’s stance on casinos at the Senate hearing on June 8. The MCC is the public policy office of the four Massachusetts bishops.

“The Roman Catholic Church recognizes that gambling can be a legitimate form of recreation,” he said. “However, it can be accompanied by a passion that risks becoming an enslavement.

The Church considers gambling morally unacceptable when it deprives someone of what is necessary to provide for his needs and those of others.”

“The Conference respectfully submits that the human costs of expanded gambling have not been adequately considered or adequately addressed in any proposed legislation authorizing expanded gambling,” he added.

Saunders said legislators who support expanded gambling treat the inevitable increased crime, bankruptcies, domestic violence and other hardships as a “cost of doing business.”

According to USS Mass, studies have shown that five years after a casino opens, the neighborhood sees an increase in robberies by 136 percent, aggravated assaults by 91 percent, auto theft by 78 percent, burglary 50 percent, larceny 38 percent and rape 21 percent.

Mineau said the social costs that accompany casinos outweigh any benefit to the state, he added.

He also noted that there is a huge amount of “Las Vegas money” behind the push for casinos. “That money is very influential right now, and if this bill is passed and casinos and slots come to Massachusetts, that money will start truly controlling the state Legislature,” he said.

elementary — Noah Ringer, Nicola Peltz and Jackson Rathbone star in a scene from the movie “The Last Airbender.” For a brief review of this film, see CNS Movie Capsules below. (CNS photo/Paramount Pictures)

CNS Movie Capsules NEW YORK (CNS) — The following are capsule reviews of movies recently reviewed

by Catholic News Service.

“The Last Airbender” (Paramount) Strained 3-D fantasy adventure, set in an alternate world where some human beings have the power to “bend,” that is, control, one of the basic elements of fire, earth, air and water, and where a brother and sister (Jackson Rathbone and Nicola Peltz) assist a child (Noah Ringer) who is the latest incarnation of a global peacegiver in his quest to restore order to society by ending the oppressive rule of a warlike, imperialist nation (led by Cliff Curtis and Aasif Mandvi).

Though free of objectionable language or behavior, writerdirector M. Night Shyamalan’s live-action adaptation of an animated TV series — which also features Dev Patel as a disgraced prince out to prove his mettle by capturing the boy wonder — fails to gain dramatic traction, bogging down in stilted dialogue and endless explanations of its back story, some aspects of which suggest pantheism or nonscriptural beliefs. Potentially confusing religious themes and much nongraphic martial arts and combat violence. The Catholic News Service classification is A-II — adults and adolescents.

The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG — parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

“The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” (Summit) A well-behaved vampire (Robert Pattinson) and an equally courtly werewolf (Taylor Lautner) overcome their natural antipathy and temporarily unite to protect the teen mortal (Kristen Stewart) they both love from the threat posed by a vengeance-driven bloodsucker (Bryce Dallas Howard) and her plasma-hungry minions. Director David Slade’s third installment in the hugely popular Gothic romance franchise — based on the best-selling novels

of Stephenie Meyer — draws on self-referential humor to leaven its potentially ridiculous, and occasionally over-familiar, proceedings as it ramps up the mostly bloodless supernatural battling, but shifts the basis of the main couple’s chaste interaction from a matter of constraint to one of choice. Considerable stylized violence, an off-screen rape, a scene of nongraphic sensuality, a birth control reference and a few mildly crass terms. The Catholic News Service classification is A-II — adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on WLNE Channel 6 Sunday, July 11 at 11:00 a.m.

Celebrant is Father Barry W. Wall, a retired priest of the Fall River Diocese living at Cardinal Medeiros Residence in Fall River

July 9, 2010

13

The Anchor

Priestly ministry, una persona a la vez Editor’s note: As a fitting conclusion to The Anchor’s Vocational Reflection series, we offer this submission by Father Edward L. Healey Jr. as a reminder for diocesan faithful to continue to pray for priests and future vocations.

Father Healey also touches upon a subject that is becoming an increasingly important factor in priestly ministry in this country — that of the Hispanic Apostolate. uring March I was asked to say Mass for the Spanish Apostolate of Cape Cod that worships at St. Francis Xavier Church in Hyannis. I was also invited to give a reflection on my priesthood to the Couples’ Club of Holy Name of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in New Bedford where I had served my deacon year 23 years ago.

As I celebrated the Spanish Mass and prepared to deliver my remarks about my experiences as a priest, both occasions converged to bring into focus a different insight about my experience of the priesthood that I realized I could sum up by saying that things just haven’t turned out as planned.

Even a bit more than two decades later it is easy to go back in my mind to my experience at the then-Holy Name Parish, New Bedford in the months and days before my ordination as a priest. As I recalled my expectations about the priesthood back then, I knew that I would probably serve as a parochial vicar and I imagined that I might one day be a pastor. What I could not have imagined then is all of the unexpected and deeply enriching experiences that have come with the priesthood. They are too numerous to mention here, but I will cite the Hispanic Apostolate on Cape Cod as one major example.

I had never studied Spanish until my third year in theology when I took it as an elective at the urging of Bishop Daniel A. Cronin, who wanted all the seminarians of our diocese to learn either Portuguese or Spanish.

Unfortunately, the teacher had a condition called narcolepsy and kept falling asleep during class; needless to say I didn’t learn very much.

While in my first priestly assignment a family approached me with the news that a son and brother was seriously ill and returning to the Cape to live with them. Their greatest concern was that he was not expected to live more than another year or two and he was alienated from the Church. They were asking me to do the nearly impossible,

D

which was to convince this during this time and asked if it middle-aged man to come back would be possible to provide to the practice of the faith after a service in Spanish for an having been away from it for Hispanic man who had died most of his adult life. I told them tragically. With the promise I couldn’t promise anything of assistance from my tutor, I but, if I ever got the opportunity was able to provide the funeral to speak with him, I would do service — much to the funeral whatever I could. director’s amazement and the Much to my surprise, I family’s comfort. When I saw so did bump into this gentleman many Hispanic people in attenseveral months later and, after he introduced himself, I tried Year For Priests to keep him engaged Vocational Reflection in conversation. I was very aware that this might be my first, last

By Father and only opportunity Edward L. Healey Jr. to do whatever I could to win him back. When I inquired as to his professional background, he dance at the funeral I assumed mentioned that in addition to that they were all from Boston, his regular work he did Spanish but this notion was quickly cortranslations. rected when one among them I then told him that I could who spoke English told me they really use a tutor to improve my were all from Cape Cod. Spanish and so could my friend I asked if they went to Mass Father Tom Mara. I asked him and was told that they tried now if he’d be interested in the job. I and then but felt uncomfortable must confess that I hadn’t really in the English-speaking parbeen planning to study Spanishes. Instead they were gatherish any further, but I was ready ing in homes to pray together on to do so if that’s what it might a regular basis. I was invited to take to have the time to work on join them. Although I was more his return to the Church. Father than a bit insecure about my Mara, a retired priest from the ability to communicate in their Diocese of Richmond, was a language, I agreed to do so. This bit surprised that I was involvended up being the beginning of ing him in my plan, but was the Hispanic Apostolate of Cape prepared to go along with it in Cod. hopes of winning a soul back to I sought the assistance of the faith.

Father Peter Graziano, director Soon enough we were meetof Catholic Social Services at ing every other Monday in the the time, who secured for me the kitchen of Father Mara’s home help of Father Alfredo Garcia, a — practicing enough vocabulary Sacred Hearts priest from Spain and pronunciation to make it who was on sabbatical in Warelook like we were really serious ham for a few months. Over the about the language, but discussing more theology and spirituality than Spanish. Within a few months the gentleman was back to Mass and the sacraments and Father Mara and I felt that our mission had been accomplished.

Yet — much to my surprise — I was soon to learn that I really did need to improve my meager Spanish. The local funeral home called the parish

course of a couple of months in the late fall of 1989 and early winter of 1990, Father Garcia worked with me to help me to learn the Mass in Spanish. In the meantime, I continued to meet with the people in their homes to pray the rosary. In midFebruary of 1990 we moved the little group into church to begin the celebration of a weekly Spanish Mass. By Easter, Father Garcia was returning to Spain so he left me on my own to sink or swim in Spanish. I can say that, with the patience and the help of the people, I did at least learn to tread water. It is still a bit unbelievable to me that I ended up shepherding this ever-growing community for nearly a decade until I left the Cape for Fall River in February of 1999.

When I celebrated the Mass for the community recently, I was amazed at how much it has grown and diversified in its second decade of existence since my departure. Yet as I reflect back to its beginnings, I am still amazed at how it ever came to be in the first place. An ethnic apostolate had certainly not ever been on the radar screen for me as I set out from Holy Name, New Bedford to begin my priestly ministry in 1987.

I smile now at the irony of

thinking that studying Spanish was my plan to win a single soul back to the faith, yet in retrospect it seems to have been part of a larger plan to ensure that many more people, indeed strangers in a new land, would be welcomed by the Church. It is a reminder to me of how God has used me as I believe he uses all priests to accomplish his purposes and more often than not in very unexpected ways.

The call to priesthood is answered initially when a man decides to leave his other options aside and study in the seminary, and then it is answered definitively on the day of his ordination. It seems, however, that the Lord’s call to be a priest continues to be given in new, different and sometimes ever more challenging ways throughout one’s priesthood.

As I look back over the past 23 years, I know that when I have overcome my own hesitations and answered yes to these calls within the call, the Kingdom has been better served and I have been amazed at what the Lord has accomplished through me. That is why I find the priesthood to be a wonderful adventure — ever the same but never the same — and so I look forward to many more surprises in the priesthood in the time the Lord allots to me in ministry.

Father Healey, ordained in 1987, is pastor of Holy Trinity Parish, West Harwich.

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For further information you may contact Margaret Oliverio @ 781-762-2029 or @ 781-344-2073

The Catholic Response

14

July 9, 2010

Going to court in the Church: Canon lawyer explains penal procedures WASHINGTON, D.C. (Zenit.org) — The proceedings of a canonical penal trial take place under the mantel of the “pontifical secret,” but a one-day seminar sponsored by the U.S. bishops gave a look at what goes on during such a trial.

An overview of the details in a penal proceeding as established in canon law were explained by Father Lawrence DiNardo of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at the May 25 event.

Father DiNardo was the last of four canon lawyers who presented at the seminar various aspects of their field, as it relates to clergy sexual abusers.

Videos and texts of the four speakers’ presentations, the questions-and-answers sessions, and a panel discussion are available online. ZENIT has this week provided commentaries on the talks.

Father DiNardo’s address aimed to simplify canon law terminology and give an outline of some of the most relevant documents that, coupled with the actual Code of Canon Law, give policy and procedure for dealing with clergy sexual abusers.

He also illustrated a potential course of events that could take place from the moment a bishop has received an allegation that a priest or deacon has sexually abused a minor.

The first stage of the process is explained in Canon 1717 and is called the prior investigation — prior, that is, to the trial itself.

The bishop himself, or more usually, someone delegated by him, sets about determining if the allegation is valid: if a crime

has been committed and if it is actionable. Father DiNardo explained that sometimes an allegation will fold in this first step. By way of example, he recounted a case in which the priest accused had never even worked in the parish where the alleged crime was to have taken place, and a very preliminary investigation showed the allegations to be false.

The lawyer also explained the role of diocesan review boards, not established by canon law, but which enter into the process at this point.

If the case is valid, that is, the allegation has a sufficient degree of credibility, then it is turned over to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. That Holy See office will decide how to proceed: to begin a judicial trial, or an administrative proceeding, or for some cases (particularly if the priest has admitted to the crimes or a civil trial has found him guilty, or in other grave circumstances), the doctrinal congregation can petition the Holy Father “ex officio” for the dismissal of the priest from the clerical state.

Father DiNardo noted that during this preliminary investigation, the faculties of the accused priest can be (at least temporarily) suspended. During the panel discussion following his talk, it was explained that the exact timing of that possible suspension often depends on agreements with civil authorities, and the effort to avoid hampering civil investigation.

The Pittsburgh lawyer explained what a tribunal is like if the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith decrees that a

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penal procedure, a judicial trial, should be held.

The tribunal itself is made up of three judges — one presiding judge and two collegiate judges. There is a promoter of justice (similar to a prosecuting attorney in a civil system), an advocate or advocates for the accused. There can also be auditors — people delegated by the judge to hear testimony.

And there is a notary entrusted with ensuring that all the acts of the trial are authenticated.

For the tribunal to be formed for a particular case, the accused has the right to approve the members. And then the tribunal sets about establishing what is the issue at hand.

Declarations from parties and witnesses are heard, but not in the method of examination and cross-examination that civil courts use, Father DiNardo clarified. Instead, the promoter of justice develops the questions, and the judge determines what will be asked.

The priest explained that it is an investigative, not adversarial process, “not one lawyer trying to out-lawyer the other. It’s really a judge or judges seeking the truth.”

Expert witnesses (such as psychologists or psychiatrists) and documentary evidence can also be presented.

At the concluding state, the promoter or justice and the advocate for the accused present briefs. The latter has the opportunity to offer a rebuttal to the presentation of the former.

Finally, the tribunal makes its decision, and determines the penalty.

The seminar participants concluded the day with a brief question-and-answer session directed to all four panel participants.

The lawyers further clarified the reason for the pontifical secret, saying that it is not to “keep things a secret,” but to ensure that testimony is not polluted by interaction among witnesses. They recalled that even in civil legal proceedings, a similar demand of “secrecy” is made.

Though the process might seem cumbersome, Father DiNardo proposed that it is neither better nor worse than civil proceedings. And he offered his own experience that processes can be completed in as few as seven months or as many as more than 18 — other lawyers, he said, could give cases of even faster or slower trials.

High court won’t review case of Vatican liability for priest abuser WASHINGTON (CNS) — The U.S. Supreme Court has left standing a lower court ruling that will allow an Oregon man to try to hold the Vatican financially responsible for his sexual abuse by a priest, if he can persuade the court that the priest was an employee of the Vatican.

By declining to take Holy See v. John Doe, the court June 28 left intact the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that said because of the way Oregon law defines employment, the Vatican is not protected under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act from potential liability for the actions of a priest who Doe, the unidentified plaintiff, said sexually abused him in the 1960s.

The case will now go back to U.S. District Court, where Doe’s attorneys will attempt to prove that the late Andrew Ronan, a former Servite priest who was laicized in 1966, was a Vatican employee at the time the events took place.

In order for the District Court to have ruled that the case could move forward, a lower standard of having adequately “pleaded” a connection between Ronan and the Vatican had to be met. Before the issue of liability of the Holy See can be addressed, Doe’s attorneys will have to persuade the court under a higher standard “proving” that Ronan was a Vatican employee.

In other actions on the final day of the 2009-10 term, the court upheld a 9th Circuit ruling that said the University of California’s Hastings College of Law may exclude the Christian Legal Society from campus benefits.

The school had denied campus recognition to the group because the club requires that its voting members sign a statement of faith that rejects “unrepentant participation in or advocacy of a sexually immoral lifestyle.” The

school said that requirement is inconsistent with a campus policy barring recognition to groups that exclude people because of religious belief or sexual orientation.

The session also was the final day on the bench for Justice John Paul Stevens, 90, who announced his retirement this spring.

The Oregon case involves the efforts of Doe to get compensation from the Vatican for sexual abuse he said was committed by Ronan when he was assigned to St. Albert’s Parish in Portland, Ore. Ronan admitted to abusing boys in the Archdiocese of Armagh, Ireland, and while assigned at St. Philip’s High School in Chicago, before he was posted to Portland. Ronan died in 1992.

When the case returns to the District Court, Doe must first prove that Ronan was an employee of the Holy See. Should that standard be met, the case will hinge on proving that the Vatican is liable for Doe’s abuse by ignoring Ronan’s history of abusing minors and moving him from place to place.

In a second case over liability for the sexual abuse of three men in Kentucky, papers filed in U.S. District Court in Louisville on behalf of the Holy See June 24 argue that there is no legal link between the Vatican and priests who served in Louisville decades ago. That case also revolves around whether the Holy See can even be taken to court in the matter, or if it is protected under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. The filing by the Holy See said, “There is no evidence whatsoever in the archdiocesan files showing that the archbishop was the Holy See’s ‘employee’ or that the archbishop followed a mandatory Holy See policy relating to the handling of child sexual abuse by priests.”

July 9, 2010

joyous occasion — Deacons from the New Bedford Deanery and the Cape recently came to celebrate the 30th anniversary of ordination of Deacons Jim Meloni, Leo W. Racine, and Vin Walsh at St. Anthony of Padua, New Bedford. Present to chant Vespers and pray the rosary during exposition of the Blessed Sacrament were Father Roger J. Landry, pastor of St. Anthony’s, Father Michael Racine of St. Bernard’s Parish in Assonet and Father Hugo Cardenas, IVE, pastor of St. Kilian’s Parish in New Bedford; as well as family and friends. Vespers were led by the Sisters of the Immaculata and Deacon Leo Racine officiated at Benediction. Dinner was served at the parish facility.

Waves of tourists impact Cape Cod parishes continued from page one seph H. Mauritzen, pastor of St. Joseph’s in Woods Hole.

The winter schedule has a 4 p.m., Mass on Saturday and an 8 a.m., Mass on Sunday.

“We add a 10 a.m., Mass in the summer months and this is the one visitors are likely to attend because they obviously don’t want to get up early when they’re on vacation,” he said laughing.

With 200 families in the parish, he finds “approximately a quarter of them regularly come to Mass in the winter months, although they contribute very well to their parish.”

What is wonderful about the visitors, Father Mauritzen noted, “is that they are all happy and always in a good mood — and also very generous — and they all come up to receive the Eucharist,” he noted.

“But what’s sad is that very few come to confession, to the sacra-

15

The Anchor

ment of reconciliation,” he said.

“I think we have to pray more that people’s understanding of the importance of this sacrament will grow.”

Because he is the sole priest serving his parish, it means he celebrates all three weekend Masses in the church, as well as another on Sundays throughout the year for patients at Falmouth Hospital.

“I’m nicely busy summers as a pastor of a Catholic church,” he said. But it is not so at the houses of worship of other denominations, he added.

“Having met some time ago with the minister at the Congregation Church, I discovered that he encounters few visitors attending there in the summers. Although many Catholics traveling usually attend Mass, Protestant visitors customarily visit with clergy instead of going to services on vacation,” Father Mauritzen com-

This week in 50 years ago — Fall River native, Maryknoll Father Thomas J. Plunkett described the destruction that recently hit Chile. Father Plunkett was stationed at St. John of God Parish in Santiago. In all seven cathedrals, 185 churches, three seminaries and 86 schools were destroyed. “No one but God knows how many are dead and how many are homeless,” he told The Anchor.

25 years ago — Approximately 400 diocesan faithful were commissioned as extraordinary ministers of holy Communion at a ceremony at Holy Name Church in New Bedford.

mented.

In Provincetown, at the tip of the Cape peninsula formed as the terminal moraine of a glacier eons ago and facing the Atlantic Ocean, sits St. Peter the Apostle Church which serves the community there. The beautiful new church building, completed in July 2008, is resplendent with biblical/nautical themes.

“Our numbers easily double in the summer, mostly because of the visitors, but our church seats 440 and the vigil Mass Saturday afternoon at 4 o’clock and Masses Sundays at 8:30 and 10:30 a.m., accommodate all those who come,” reported pastor, Father Henry J. Dahl.

“In the winter months approximately 300 people attended our Masses, and in the summer that number increases to at least 700,” he noted.

“But what is most pleasing,”

Diocesan history 10 years ago — The Cape Verdean community from across the Diocese of Fall River along with folks from Rhode Island and Boston gathered to celebrate a Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral with Bishop Sean P. O’Malley, marking the 25th anniversary of the independence of Cape Verde. The Mass included a tribute to Padre Pio who served the Cape Verdean Community in the U.S. and Cape Verde.

One year ago — Bishop George W. Coleman asked Father Marcel H. Bouchard to coordinate activities in the Fall River Diocese with regards to the Year For Priests. Father Bouchard enlisted the help of Father Mark R. Hession and representatives from each of the five deaneries.

he said, “is knowing that so many Catholics, even on vacation and away from home, are coming to Mass,” he said. “That is the real blessing.”

Although he is the only priest at the popular church, “I have two deacons who alternately serve here and at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Wellfleet, and do so very well and preach, and I’m happy to have them,” he added.

While increased numbers of summer visitors affect the ongoing and widespread ministry at St. Francis Xavier Parish in Hyannis, several factors keep it from being the popular mecca for tourists it once was, pastor, Father Daniel W. Lacroix, reported.

“Although visitors come to see the church where President John F. and Jackie Kennedy attended Mass, we no longer see the large number of tourists who vacation in more popular suburban vacation areas and go to Mass in parishes that reportedly have collections totaling more than $16,000.”

Instead, he said, “We are like an inner-city parish serving a community comprised of the poor and indigent,” he noted. “In Hyannis we have low-income housing; a population whose median age is 62 to 67; immigrants and few young families — most of whose members are employed in lowpaying services jobs that engage them on weekends.”

To meet the needs of travelers, he hosts two additional Masses on summer weekends “for those who come to us at the main church downtown and at the Sacred Heart Chapel in Yarmouth Port, while maintaining our usual schedule of several Masses,” he said.

Masses are celebrated at the Saturday vigils at 4 and 5:30 p.m.; Sundays at 7, 9, and 11 a.m., as well as 7 p.m., all in English; Sundays at 1 p.m. in Latin, 3 p.m., in Spanish, and 7 p.m., in Brazilian.

“Father Peter J. Fournier and I celebrate Masses; retired Msgr.

Henry T. Munroe celebrates one Mass; a hospital chaplain celebrates another; a Spanish priest and a Brazilian priest also offer Masses; as well as a priest versed in the Latin Rite,” Father Lacroix told The Anchor.

“In round numbers,” he said, “approximately 900 attended the English Masses, 60 the Latin Mass, 125 the Spanish Mass and 500 the Brazilian Mass.”

However, one of many happy and positive experiences “is seeing so many people come into our confessional,” Father Lacroix noted.

At Christ the King Parish in Mashpee, “welcoming back the snowbirds” comprises the greatest hike in Mass attendance along with the summer “renters” to the year-round congregation, said pastor Msgr. Daniel F. Hoye.

“We have lots of them who go south for the winter … some beginning Labor Day, others in October and the diehards who last much later in the year,” he quipped “Because our church holds 1,000 people, and we find an approximate 25 percent increase in attendance in the summer, we don’t have to add any Masses to our regular schedule,” he explained.

“However, at the current 4 p.m., vigil Mass on Saturdays as well as the 10:30 a.m., Mass on Sundays, it is standing room only,” he reported. Depending on several factors attendance frequently also increases at the 8:30 a.m., and 5:30 p.m., Masses on Sundays.

Msgr. Hoye says that in addition to Masses, he also sees an increase of those who attend summer parish events, for instance the speakers’ series set for June, July and August.

“We also see an increase in the well-attended 24-hour adoration held every Friday, and that is also a blessing,” he told The Anchor.

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Youth Pages

July 9, 2010

lending a hand — St. Mary-Sacred Heart School’s two classes of kindergartners comprised of 38 students put on a graduation program for their parents. Led by music teacher Andy Solberg on guitar, the students sang prayers and songs during the ceremony. Director of the school, Father David A. Costa, and Principal Denise Peixoto distributed the diplomas to the students. Following the ceremony the students and parents enjoyed a reception in the church hall.

Here, the kindergartners perform a song with hand motions.

great in any language — The largest number of Bishop Feehan High School world language students to date attained national recognition for excellent performances on the 2010 National Spanish Examinations and the 2010 National French Contest, Grand Concours. Students from the Attleboro school’s French Exam group, left, earned one bronze medal, seven Tableau d’Honneur achievement medals, and 17 honorable mentions in national recognition for their excellent performance on the 2010 National French Concours. A total of six gold, 18 silver and 26 bronze medals, as well as 46 honorable mentions were earned by Feehan Spanish Exam students, right, in the National Spanish Exam.

play ball — Pope John Paul II High School announced the hiring of Mark A. Santos as head baseball coach at the Hyannis school. The three-year-old school is a member of the newly formed Cape & Islands League. They will begin playing varsity baseball next spring after two years playing a junior varsity schedule.

what a year — The fourth-grade class of St. Michael School in Fall River recently presented Father Edward E. Correira with a class photo and a class-made cake in honor of the Year For Priests.

W

elcome home. What?

I turned with a start and looked at the elderly gentleman holding the door.

He repeated: Welcome home.

I replied, “Thank you” and entered the church.

I was simultaneously confused and intrigued. Welcome home? I wasn’t a member of this parish. I had only been here a few times over the many years that we visited Walt Disney World in Florida.

I didn’t know the man and I’m sure he didn’t know me.

Maybe he had confused me with someone else?

After all, the Basilica of Mary, Queen of the Universe is located in Orlando just outside of Walt Disney World, far from my home. The basilica grew from the simple “tourist ministry” originally held in hotels when Walt Disney World first opened. This 2,000-seat basilica is a shrine and as such isn’t a regular parish. Just about everyone is a visitor so who was this elderly gentleman welcoming

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Youth Pages

July 9, 2010

Welcome home

Mass is essentially the same me home? in structure. While there are Then it hit me. He was some local customs or some welcoming me and my family to our true home. Our spiritual variance in language, the Mass is the same everywhere. home. Our home away from We, as a people of God, home where we had the opportunity to enter this spiritual participate in this most sacred oasis where we could share in liturgy together. No matter where we are it’s like coming the holy Mass with our brothers and sisters from across the country and the world, amidst the prayerful serenity of God’s preserve that are the grounds of the basilica smack dab in the center of everything

By Frank Lucca Disney. He was echoing Pope John Paul II’s call to “open wide the home. It holds a familiarity, doors to Christ,” and he did. a comfortableness of coming I have been fortunate to home to family, to our Father, attend Mass in many parts of with all of our siblings surour country and in various parts of the world. Whether at rounding us.

Every one of us knows a CLI liturgy planned by our someone who doesn’t know candidates, a YES! Retreat Jesus and his Church. Some of Mass, an Echo or Emmaus those may have walked away Mass, or a Mass at St. Patafter disagreements or confurick’s Cathedral or at St. Pesion. Others just stopped comter’s in Rome or in my home ing for no reason at all … they parish of St. Dominic, the

Be Not Afraid

just kind of let other things fill that time. They missed one Mass, then two, and then three. Before they knew it … they stopped going altogether. Maybe no one noticed.

No one took the time to see what happened and why he or she stopped going. That’s not how a family should act. Wouldn’t we inquire if one of our brothers and sisters stopped coming home for a visit? Why are we not willing to talk to these friends about what has happened in their lives spiritually? Do we worry about offending? There is nothing more important than our relationship with our Lord. Why do we hesitate?

I don’t have the answers here, only the questions. I know we are called to be Christ to each other and to bring Christ to each other. So then, what are we afraid of?

Why won’t we step out and

share our faith like we are willing to share just about everything else today? There is no doubt that we share just about everything. Just spend a few moments reading Facebook posts and comments.

Sometimes I feel I know more about those posting there than I do about my own family.

It’s time to step out and take the risk on behalf of our brothers and sisters. Approach someone you know that may just be waiting for an invitation to come home. Open wide the doors to Christ. Don’t make excuses. Don’t worry that you are too young. Don’t worry that you’ll offend someone. Just give it a try. Christ is counting on you and so is your friend.

Frank Lucca is a youth minister at St. Dominic’s Parish in Swansea. He is chair and director of the YES! Retreat and director of the Christian Leadership Institute (CLI). He is a husband and a father of two daughters.

Priest urges Pro-Life teens to ‘bring your joy into the debate’

By William Cone Catholic News Service PITTSBURGH — It can be difficult keeping a smile on your face when dealing with people who don’t share your Pro-Life views. Conversations can sometimes erupt into hurtful arguments, so it’s vital that you maintain an attitude of compassion and understanding.

Msgr. Jim Lisante of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, N.Y., gave young people that advice June 26 during the National Teens for Life convention, held during the National Right to Life Committee convention at the Hyatt Regency Hotel at Pittsburgh International Airport.

“Bring some joy to the situation. I find, very often in the church especially, people feel that somberness or sourness is a sign of holiness. And I’m a big believer, with Father John Powell, that you earn more opportunities for changing people’s hearts if you approach with joy,” he said.

“Be joyous that you are a ProLifer, but bring your joy into the debate, too, and don’t become negative, critical, nasty or put down because they don’t see things the way you do,” he said.

Besides being a pastor for 14 years and former director of the diocesan family life office, Msgr.

Lisante is well known as the host of “Personally Speaking” on TV and Sirius XM satellite radio. He formerly hosted “Christopher

Closeup” on television, and a new TV program, “Close Encounter,” is coming soon to CBS and PBS affiliates.

“What the show’s about is what all these shows are about: It’s me interviewing people about their faith, values and ideals to get people to talk about spirituality and religion as a positive force in the world,” he said in an interview with the Pittsburgh Catholic, a diocesan newspaper.

Recent interviewees have included actors Carol Channing and Stephen Baldwin, novelists Nicholas Sparks and Mary Higgins Clark, and shortstop Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees.

Upcoming guests include New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees and actor-comedian Billy Crystal.

“They all bring different perspectives. I discover so much with each guest, that’s what I love,” Msgr. Lisante said.

Among his favorite TV guests were actresses Rue McClanahan and Patricia Neal.

The late McClanahan, who was best known for appearing on “The Golden Girls” sitcom, once spoke of her faith journey.

“What I loved was she said she was raised in a Baptist tradition in Oklahoma and was so scared of everything about God from an early age,” but when McClanahan was in her 70s, Msgr.

Lisante said, she was relieved to have come to an understanding

that Jesus was far more loving.

Neal, who recently became a Catholic, spoke movingly about how, in the early 1950s, she became pregnant by actor Gary Cooper, who was married.

“And she just said on the show, ‘I have for 45 years, alone in the night, cried for the stupid decision I made to abort that child,’ and, she said, ‘So my message would be, don’t make my mistake and let your child live.’”

Msgr. Lisante gave the keynote speech at National Right to Life’s closing banquet June 26, focusing on “Keeping the Faith in Obama-esque Times.” He said President Barack Obama’s life illustrates the Pro-Life message.

“If I worked at Planned Parenthood and someone came in to me and said, ‘I’m in an interracial marriage, we’re poor, I have an abusive husband who’s rarely present and my child is going to have to be raised for several years by the grandparents, what should I do?’ they would certainly have indicated abortion. And that’s my point,” Msgr. Lisante said.

“If he could just get that, that he wouldn’t be here if we followed the traditional pro-choice thinking.

“I’m a believer that we have to approach him (Obama) with respect and love,” he said. “He is, in fact, in my mind a great example of our message.”

Msgr. Lisante considers health care reform and concern over the

use of taxpayer funds to pay for abortion to be the most urgent life-related issue.

“There’s no doubt that the more we create laws that in any way service or promote abortion we’re just creating more abortion. And at a time when you have polls indicating that now the majority of Americans consider themselves Pro-Life, this is exactly the time to stop that,” Msgr.

Lisante said.

He is disheartened when opinion polls indicate that Catholics are as likely, if not more likely, to undergo or support abortion than the rest of American society.

Certainly there’s a need for more catechesis and preaching, he said,

though often priests seem afraid to deliver a powerful Pro-Life talk because some parishioners may have had abortions.

“We say to people, ‘Know the church teaching,’ but I wonder how well they know it, how deeply they know it,” he said. “If you’re not doing adult education in the parish and you’re not preaching about it, why should we presume people know something when we don’t talk about it? Whether it’s about contraception or whether it’s about the right to life, at least give people the facts.”

The 38th annual convention June 24-26 featured five general sessions, more than 60 workshops and an annual prayer breakfast.

The Anchor is always pleased to run news and photos about our diocesan youth.

If schools, parish Religious Education programs, or Vacation Bible Schools have newsworthy stories and photos they would like to share with our readers, send them to: schools@anchornews.org

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The Anchor

July 9, 2010

Diocesan native to head schools in Washington Archdiocese

Forgiveness is focus of family conference

continued from page one

continued from page one

cated beyond reading, writing and mathematics to form the whole child.”

L’Homme will be responsible for 64 archdiocesan pre-school, elementary and secondary schools, as well as be involved with nearly three dozen independent Catholic schools in the region. In all there are 29,000 students attending Catholic schools in the archdiocese.

“I am pleased with the recommendation of the search committee and am delighted to appoint Deacon L’Homme as superintendent because of his extensive experience as a superintendent and his commitment to the Catholic Church,” said Archbishop Wuerl.

After attending Bishop Feehan, L’Homme attended St. John’s Seminary in Brighton for two years and Providence College for one before enlisting in the U.S. Air Force. Following a four-year stint in the military, he received a bachelor’s degree and a doctorate from the University of Maryland, and a master’s degree from American University in the nation’s capital.

His teaching career began in Washington and he later moved to North Carolina where he eventually became superintendent of schools for the Franklin County Schools.

At the time of his appoint-

ment by Archbishop Wuerl, L’Homme was interim chief operating officer and the director of education policy for the Children’s Defense Fund.

“I am totally a product of Catholic education,” he said.

“The nuns at Sacred Heart School and the faculty at Bishop Feehan made a great impression on me. Holy Union Sister Ann Raymond when I was in third grade, and Mercy Sister Mary Faith at Feehan particularly stand out. My Catholic education laid the foundation for what I was to become.”

L’Homme told The Anchor that his family was the influence for his great faith. “The main focus in my family was Church,” he said. “My family was always very active in the parish, and Father Richard L. Chretien was a great influence on me as a youth. He was always there for my family, through thick and thin.”

“I would hire Bert to do anything,” Father Chretien told The Anchor. “He is so very capable and a strong faith-based person.

I know he will do a wonderful job as superintendent in Washington.”

“I’m so very proud of Bert,” said his mother, Therese L’Homme, still a parishioner of Sacred Heart Parish. “Religion means so much to our family and the Catholic Church is the

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NEW! COMMUNION BREAKFAST & BIBLE STUDY The 4th Saturday of the Month Begins August 28, 2010 Topic: Influence of Women in the Bible Presenter: Fr. Martin Jones Each Study will begin with Registration at 8:30 a.m. and Breakfast at 8:45 a.m. followed by TALK - - SHARING - - MASS Each month will cover a different topic Cost $20 COME ALL & BRING SOME FRIENDS!!!

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biggest thing in our lives. This is like the frosting on the cake for him.”

Father David A. Costa, pastor of Sacred Heart Parish said he believes L’Homme is the perfect choice for the position.

“He is such a man of faith,” said Father Costa. “With his background and experience, especially in the faith dimension he will do a great job.”

L’Homme is not the only one in his family with strong ties to Catholic education. His sister Camille Gingras teaches fifth and sixth grades at St. MarySacred Heart School in North Attleboro, and his brother Robert L’Homme teaches at Bishop Feehan.

L’Homme’s assignment becomes effective July 26, and he is excited about his new position. “Archbishop Wuerl is extremely committed to keeping Catholic schools alive and vital in the archdiocese,” he said. “My hope for the future is a renaissance in Catholic education. Now more than ever, we need strong Catholic schools.”

The superintendent position became available when former superintendent Patricia Weitzel-O’Neill stepped down to become executive director of the Center for Catholic Education at Boston College’s Lynch School of Education.

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Apart from this initial track session, Mahoney said the rest of the day is designed for families to participate collectively as a group.

“One exciting thing we hope will be beneficial for families is a panel discussion with microphones at all different levels so even children will feel comfortable enough to go up and ask a question or make a comment,” Mahoney said. “We’re hoping this will encourage a dialogue between all family members during this forum.”

Although the focus of the conference is on families and forgiveness, Mahoney said she anticipates attendees will take something away with them that will impact others even outside their immediate family circle.

“We hope that families will take the resources that are shared with them on this day and implement them into their own prayer and family life,” she said. “And, of course, that reaches out to where you work, to your friends in your neighborhood — it’s really a ripple effect.”

Mahoney encouraged families interested in attending to register in advance since the conference includes lunch for a nominal fee. To register, call toll-free 1-800-299-7729 or visit www.hcfm.org.

“We’re hoping this will become an annual event,” Mahoney said. “We’re hoping to gather a good number of families together and that it’s a good success so we can hold it again next year.”

Correction The Catholic Charities Office was in error in its omission of St. Joseph’s in Fall River in its listing of the top parishes in percentage gain in the 2010 Appeal. In fact, St. Joseph’s Parish in Fall River had a gain of 28.53 percent, the largest in the diocese.

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Bishop Daniel P. Reilly, DD, Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Worcester; and a keynote address from Dr. Gregory Popcak, a nationally-recognized expert in Catholic pastoral counseling with an emphasis on marriage and family problems.

“We’re hoping it will be similar to a retreat day for the participants and their families,” Mahoney said. “Our hope is that Dr. Popcak and his wife, Lisa, will set the tone for the whole day of reflection on forgiveness within the family.”

While many such spiritual convocations are designed around a specific sacrament — confirmation, marriage — or geared to a specific age group, this inaugural “As We Forgive: Reconciliation in the Context of the Family” gathering is unique in that it is open to all family members; once again, recalling Father Peyton’s mantra.

“We only have one time during the day that the family will be separated,” Mahoney said.

“Right after Dr. Popcak’s talk, the family members will go into three tracks — one for adults, one for teens, and another for children. Those will last about an hour and will get into more practical ways of looking at forgiveness within the family: how children can forgive their siblings, children asking for forgiveness of their parents,

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Please note The Anchor will not publish on July 23 and July 30.

We will return with the August 6 edition.

Fall River soldier killed in Afghanistan remembered continued from page one

Name pastor, Father George E. Harrison. “It is so painful for a mother to lose her son. There is great sorrow, and while it doesn’t make it easy at all, she has the tools of faith to get through this difficult time.”

Specialist Andrews was assigned to the 618 Engineers Co. of the 27th Engineer Battalion out of Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, N.C. He enlisted in the Army in 2008. He is also survived by his father Alfred Andrews and two brothers, Matthew and David Andrews, all of Fall River.

Specialist Andrews was the second Fall River soldier killed in Afghanistan within two months. Army National Guard Sgt. Robert Barrett was killed by a suicide bomber on April 19. His funeral Mass was celebrated at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Fall River.

Father Murphy told The Anchor he was part of a July 1 entourage to bring Specialist Andrews’ body home from Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford. Along with the young soldier’s father and brothers, Mello was there to greet her son, clutching a set of red rosary beads.

“We live in a violent, uncertain time in history,” Father Murphy said in his homily.

“We have a duty to protect this

In Your Prayers Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks July 13 Rev. Arthur P. Deneault, M.S., La Salette Father, 1979 July 14 Rev. Nicholas Fett, SS.CC., Pastor, St. Boniface, New Bedford, 1938 Rev. Edmund J. Neenan, Assistant, Sacred Heart, Oak Bluffs, 1949 Rev. Vincent F. Diaferio, Pastor, Holy Rosary, Fall River, 1998 July 16 Rev. Bernard Percot, O.P., Founder, St. Dominic, Swansea, 1937 Rev. Matthew F. Sullivan, SS.CC. Retired Chaplain Bristol County House of Correction, Former Pastor, St. Mary, Fairhaven, 2002 July 17 Rev. William J. Smith, Pastor, St. Jacques, Taunton, 1960 Rev. Edmond Rego, Assistant, Espirito Santo, Fall River, 1981 Rev. Ernest N. Bessette, Retired Pastor, St. Joseph, Attleboro, 1997 July 18 Rev. Adalbert Szklanny, Assistant, St. Patrick, Fall River, 1968 Rev. Lionel G. Doraisi, SSS., 1984 Rev. Joseph M. Quinn, C.S.C., 2007

19

The Anchor

July 9, 2010

country. The Church respects those who dedicate their lives to defending our nation. If they carry out their duties honorably they truly contribute to the common good and for peace.

“Specialist Andrews was awarded many medals, including the Purple Heart.

That award cannot be earned.

The Purple Heart represents sacrifice given to defend our country. It’s given to soldiers wounded or killed in battle.

There is no such thing as a successful life without sacrifice. Jo Ann lost her son because he gave his life for his country.”

Specialist Andrews’ enlistment was due to expire this coming December 12, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patroness of the Americas.

“He was to come home December 12,” said Father Murphy. “Scott is truly home in

the compassion of our Lord and savior. As John quotes Jesus in his Gospel, ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms.’”

“The greatest gift we can give to those who go before us is to offer up the holy sacrifice of the Mass for their soul,” added Father Murphy.

Bishop George W. Coleman presided in choir at the Mass.

Concelebrating with Father Murphy were Fathers Jeffrey Cabral, Stephen Salvador, Michael Racine, Msgr. Thomas Harrington and Maronite Chorbishop Joseph Kaddo.

Following the funeral Mass, Specialist Andrews’ body processed past his Martha Street home before being interred with full military honors in St. Patrick’s Cemetery in Fall River.

Around the Diocese 7/11 7/17

A healing Mass will be held at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Pocasset on Sunday at 2 p.m. Refreshments will follow in the parish hall. For more information call Betty at 508-563-9020.

St. Joseph Manor’s Barbecue Bash will be held on July 17 at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 375 Foundry Street (Route 106), North Easton, from 6 to 10 p.m. Enjoy this fun summertime event with all-you-can eat barbecue, live music and great raffle prizes. For tickets or more information call 508-583-5834 or email mdunton@SJMBrockton.org.

7/17

Plan to gather your family July 17 for a Family Rosary Conference at Holy Cross Family Ministries, 518 Washington Street, North Easton. It will include workshops for adults, teens and youth, a Mission Rosary, vigil Mass, reconciliation, and keynote speaker. For more information visit www.hcfm.org or call 800-299-7729.

7/17

Please pray for La Salette Missionary Joseph Lamartine Ellscar, upon his ordination to the priesthood on July 17 at 10 a.m. and Brother David Eubank, M.S., on July 18 at his Mass of Perpetual Profession at 12:10 p.m.

Eucharistic Adoration in the Diocese Acushnet — Eucharistic adoration takes place at St. Francis Xavier Parish on Mondays and Wednesdays 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.; Fridays 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Saturdays 8 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays end with Evening Prayer and Benediction at 6:30 p.m.; Saturdays end with Benediction at 2:45 p.m.

ATTLEBORO — St. Joseph Church holds eucharistic adoration in the Adoration Chapel located at the (south) side entrance at 208 South Main Street, Sunday through Thursday from 6 a.m. to midnight, with overnight adoration on Friday and Saturday only.

Brewster — Eucharistic adoration takes place in the La Salette Chapel in the lower level of Our Lady of the Cape Church, 468 Stony Brook Road, on First Fridays following the 11 a.m. Mass until 7:45 a.m. on the First Saturday of the month, concluding with Benediction and Mass.

Buzzards Bay — Eucharistic adoration takes place at St. Margaret Church, 141 Main Street, every first Friday after the 8 a.m. Mass and ending the following day before the 8 a.m. Mass.

EAST TAUNTON — Eucharistic adoration takes place First Fridays at Holy Family Church, 370 Middleboro Avenue, following the 8:30 a.m. Mass until Benediction at 8 p.m.

FAIRHAVEN — St. Mary’s Church, Main St., has a First Friday Mass each month at 7 p.m., followed by a Holy Hour with eucharistic adoration. Refreshments follow.

FALL RIVER — St. Anthony of the Desert Church, 300 North Eastern Avenue, has eucharistic adoration Mondays and Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and on the first Sunday of the month from noon to 4 p.m.

FALL RIVER — Holy Name Church, 709 Hanover Street, has eucharistic adoration Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the Our Lady of Grace Chapel.

HYANNIS — A Holy Hour with eucharistic adoration will take place each First Friday at St. Francis Xavier Church, 21 Cross Street, beginning at 4 p.m.

FALL RIVER — Good Shepherd Parish has eucharistic adoration every Friday following the 8 a.m. Mass until 6 p.m. in the Daily Mass Chapel. There is a bilingual Holy Hour in English and Portuguese from 5-6 p.m. Park behind the church and enter the back door of the connector between the church and the rectory.

MASHPEE — Christ the King Parish, Route 151 and Job’s Fishing Road has 8:30 a.m. Mass every First Friday with special intentions for Respect Life, followed by 24 hours of eucharistic adoration in the Chapel, concluding with Benediction Saturday morning followed immediately by an 8:30 Mass.

NEW BEDFORD — Eucharistic adoration takes place 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesdays at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, 233 County Street, with night prayer and Benediction at 8:45 p.m., and confessions offered during the evening.

NEW BEDFORD — There is a daily holy hour from 5:15-6:15 p.m. Monday through Thursday at St. Anthony of Padua Church, 1359 Acushnet Avenue. It includes adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, Liturgy of the Hours, recitation of the rosary, and the opportunity for confession.

SEEKONK ­— Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish has eucharistic adoration seven days a week, 24 hours a day in the chapel at 984 Taunton Avenue. For information call 508-336-5549.

NORTH DIGHTON — Eucharistic adoration takes place every First Friday at St. Nicholas of Myra Church, 499 Spring Street following the 8 a.m. Mass, ending with Benediction at 6 p.m. The rosary is recited Monday through Friday from 7:30 to 8 a.m.

The Sonquest Rainforest Vacation Bible School will be held July 19 to July 23 from 9 a.m. to noon at St. Julie Billiart Parish, North Dartmouth. For more information call Terry LeBlanc at 508-995-

OSTERVILLE — Eucharistic adoration takes place at Our Lady of the Assumption Church, 76 Wianno Avenue on First Fridays following the 8 a.m. Mass until Benediction at 5 p.m. The Divine Mercy Chaplet is prayed at 4:45 p.m.; on the third Friday of the month from 1 p.m. to Benediction at 5 p.m.; and for the Year For Priests, the second Thursday of the month from 1 p.m. to Benediction at 5 p.m.

COURAGE, a welcoming support group for Catholics wounded by same-sex attraction who gather to seek God’s wisdom, mercy and love, will next meet July 24 at 7 p.m. For location information call Father Richard Wilson at 508-992-9408.

Taunton — Eucharistic adoration takes place every Tuesday at St. Anthony Church, 126 School Street, following the 8 a.m. Mass with prayers including the Chaplet of Divine Mercy for vocations, concluding at 6 p.m. with Chaplet of St. Anthony and Benediction. Recitation of the rosary for peace is prayed Monday through Saturday at 7:30 a.m. prior to the 8 a.m. Mass.

7/19 2476.

7/24 7/26

The Sonquest Rainforest Vacation Bible School will be held July 26 to July 30 from 9 a.m. to noon at Immaculate Conception Parish, New Bedford. For more information call Terry LeBlanc at 508-995-2476.

8/14

“A Life in the Spirit Weekend” will be offered at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Parish (formerly St. Mary’s), 385 Central Avenue, Seekonk on the weekend of August 14-15. Sign-up deadline is August 4. For more information or to register call Rita Beaudet at 508-399-7519 or Janet Nerbonne at 508-944-2431.

8/16

Summer Vacation Bible School for kindergarten through grade five students will be held at Holy Cross Church, 225 Purchase Street, South Easton, August 16-20 from 9 a.m. to noon. Registration forms are available at the parish office or online at www.holycrosseaston.org. For more information call 508-238-2235.

WAREHAM — Beginning in May, adoration with opportunities for private and formal prayer is offered on the First Friday of each month from 8:30 a.m. until 8 p.m. The Prayer Schedule is as follows: 7:30 a.m. the rosary; 8 a.m. Mass; 8:30 a.m. exposition and Morning Prayer; 12 p.m. the Angelus; 3 p.m. Divine Mercy Chaplet; 5:30 p.m. Evening Prayer; 7 p.m. sacrament of confession; 8 p.m. Benediction.

WEST HARWICH — Our Lady of Life Perpetual Adoration Chapel at Holy Trinity Parish, 246 Main Street (Rte. 28), holds perpetual eucharistic adoration.

We are a regional chapel serving all of the surrounding parishes. All from other parishes are invited to sign up to cover open hours. For open hours, or to sign up call 508-430-4716.

WOODS HOLE — Eucharistic adoration takes place at St. Joseph’s Church, 33 Millfield Street, year-round on weekdays 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. No adoration on Sundays, Wednesdays, and holidays. For information call 508-274-5435.

20

The Anchor

July 9, 2010

Good pastors uphold morals but also know their people, pope says VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Greeting hundreds of pilgrims who came to Rome with their archbishops, Pope Benedict XVI said a good pastor is one who knows and upholds the Church’s moral teaching but also knows the worries and concerns of his people.

At a recent weekly general audience, the day after he gave 38 archbishops a pallium as a sign of their authority as pastors, the pope focused his remarks on the life and ministry of St. Joseph Cafasso, an Italian priest who died 150 years ago.

“He loved the Lord totally, was animated by a deeply rooted faith, sustained by profound and prolonged prayer and lived with sincere charity toward all,” the pope said about the Italian saint who was the spiritual director of St. John Bosco and the uncle of Blessed Giuseppe Al-

lamano, founder of the Consolata Missionaries.

St. Joseph Cafasso was a professor and later rector of an institute in Turin, which taught newly ordained priests moral theology and trained them to hear confessions and to preach.

“He knew moral theology, but he also knew the situations and the hearts of the people and took on their burdens like a good shepherd.

Those who had the grace of being close to him also were transformed into good pastors and valid confessors,” the pope said.

In addition to his personal prayer life and his work in training priests, St. Joseph Cafasso dedicated more than 20 years of his life to serving as a chaplain in the Turin prison, “a inhuman and dehumanizing place,” the pope said.

“He was always a good pastor, understanding and compassionate,” the pope said.

The saint devoted particular time and attention to inmates condemned to death; “after having heard their confessions and giving them the Eucharist, he accompanied 57 condemned men to the gallows. He accompanied them with deep love until they took their last breaths,” the pope said.

After reading a brief summary of his talk, the pope greeted by name the archbishops who had received their palliums the previous day and asked their pilgrim groups to continue praying for their archbishops.