02.25.11

Diocese of Fall River

The Anchor

F riday , February 25, 2011

Recession indirectly helping some marriages

By Christine M. Williams Anchor Correspondent

BOSTON — While the economic downturn has put financial stress on many families, some married couples report that the recession has strengthened their union.

The National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia conducted a survey of more than 1,000 married Americans in December 2010 and January

2011 and released a report on the impact the recession had on the quality and stability of marriage in the United States.

The survey found that 38 percent of husbands and wives who were considering divorce before the recession began have put those plans aside because of the current state of the economy.

Nearly a third of respondents actually reported that the recession Turn to page 18

life support — Sitting in the shadow of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish at St. James Church sits the Donovan House, a sober transitional housing program for homeless women and their children.

The dorm-style living facility houses up to 12 families, sharing a kitchen and community rooms while the staff works to connect the women with support services to allow them to move on to independent living. (Photo by Rebecca Aubut)

Homelessness: Being your brother’s keeper

By Rebecca Aubut Anchor Staff

divine intervention — Four Franciscan Sisters from New Bedford miraculously escaped from this van with minor injuries following an accident in New York where the van flipped over four times.

Franciscan Sisters miraculously survive violent car accident

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

NEW BEDFORD — It began as just another routine monthly trip for four Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate.

They climbed into the eightpassenger Chevy Venture van on the Friday before Valentine’s Day to make the six-hour trek to Maine, N.Y. to teach catechism classes to children attending a retreat at the Franciscan friary as part of their missionary apostolate.

“Every month we’ve been sending the Sisters up there,” said Mother Maria Simona, superior of the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate based at St. Anthony of Padua Parish in New Bedford. “They usually leave on Friday morning and stay overnight at the hermitage and then drive back to New Bedford the next day.”

But just two hours into the long drive back to their convent the next day, they apparently hit Turn to page 18

NEW BEDFORD — As many as 3.5 million Americans are homeless each year and according to a recent Massachusetts Continuum of Care report, there were nearly 2,320 chronically homeless individuals in

the state. The number of homeless families has increased 128 percent since 2005, with the report stating that more than 3,000 households with dependent children are homeless. The vast majority of these people are thrown into homelessness by a life-altering event — such as

the loss of a job, domestic violence or substance abuse — and often reach out to area shelters for support.

“We have many different types, everyone is unique,” said Maria Sullivan, program manager of the Sister Rose House Turn to page 15

contraceptives,” said Dr. Paul Carpentier, a Certified Fertility Care Medical Consultant who heads the In His Image Family Medicine practice in Gardner, Mass. “But Natural Family Planning so much strengthens the communication between husband and wife; and if we strengthen the communication, we strengthen the family.”

Carpentier is a rare find

among medical professionals.

He has more than 25 years’ experience with NFP and was trained at the Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction.

“I’m familiar with all the NFP methods, and they’re all equally effective, so I don’t try to steer people in one direction or the other,” Carpentier told The AnTurn to page 14

Natural Family Planning: Program for a happier marriage

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

FALL RIVER — Children are one of the most important fruits of any marriage. But too often Catholic couples are forced to deal with medical methods and personnel that are clearly at odds with the Church’s teaching on life and contraception.

“There can be successful marriages, of course, using

Wareham parish celebrates its centennial looking towards the future

By Dave Jolivet, Editor

WAREHAM — The Town of Wareham is nestled amongst some of the most northernmost inlets of picturesque Buzzards Bay. It’s a community with a strong Catholic presence.

Attesting to that fact is the current ongoing, yearlong celebrations marking the centennial of St. Patrick’s Parish there. Pastor Father John M. Sullivan

told The Anchor, “We began our 100th anniversary celebration on Dec. 8, 2010, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, and will culminate on December 8 this year. Bishop George W. Coleman is scheduled to celebrate a special Mass with us in December followed by a parish banquet to cap things off.”

Father Sullivan said the parish community has Turn to page 11

2

News From the Vatican

February 25, 2011

At prayer service, Irish archbishop repents for clergy sexual abuse

DUBLIN (CNS) — Repenting for the crimes of priestly sex abuse does not mean that the Irish Catholic Church can return to business as usual, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin told abuse survivors during a February 20 prayer service joined by an American cardinal.

However, seeking forgiveness can be an important step toward healing and overcoming the pain that survivors feel, he added as Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston listened during the “Liturgy of Lament and Repentance” at Dublin’s Pro-Cathedral.

Both prelates offered apologies for the Church’s failure to respond to reports of abuse during the afternoon service attended by 1,000 survivors and their families and supporters.

Many in attendance were visibly moved when Archbishop Martin and Cardinal O’Malley washed the feet of eight survivors as a sign of humility.

“The Archdiocese of Dublin will never be the same again,” Archbishop Martin said. “It will always bear this wound within it. The Archdiocese of Dublin can never rest until the day in which the last victim has found his or her peace and he or she can rejoice in being fully the person that God in his plan wants them to be.”

Cardinal O’Malley was in Dublin conducting an apostolic visitation of the archdiocese in the wake of a scandal that found Church leaders doing little to investigate abuse claims and working to keep abuse reports under wraps to protect the clergy involved and the Church’s reputation. Other prelates also visited various Irish dioceses and religious congregations as part of the visitation.

“On behalf of the Holy Father, I ask forgiveness for the sexual abuse of children perpetrated by priests and past failures of the Church’s hierarchy, here and in Rome, the failure to respond appropriately to the problem of sexual abuse,” Cardinal O’Malley told the congregation in his concluding remarks.

“Publicly atoning for the Church’s failures is an important element of asking the forgiveness of those who have been harmed by priests and bishops, whose actions — and inactions — gravely harmed the lives of children entrusted to their care,” he said.

Planned principally by survivors, the service began with the two prelates lying prostrate in repentance before a silent congregation.

A handful of protesters gathered outside insisting they could “neither forgive nor forget” the abuse.

Marie Collins, who was abused as a 12-year-old in 1960 and was one of the first survivors in the archdiocese to go public, told Catholic News Service that the ceremony was “to ask God’s forgiveness for sins and crimes of sexual, physical, emotional and spiritual abuse

perpetrated in the Catholic Church against the young.”

“Conscious of ourselves as members of the body of Christ we collectively repent of these great evils,” she said.

Archbishop Martin paid tribute to the survivors who had the courage to raise their voices and not be silenced by the Church.

“Some of you in your hurt and your disgust will have rejected the Church that you had once loved, but paradoxically your rejection may have helped purify the Church through challenging it to face the truth, to move out of denial, to recognize the evil that was done and the hurt that was caused,” he said.

“I, as archbishop of Dublin and as Diarmuid Martin, stand here in this silence and I ask forgiveness of God and I ask for the first steps of forgiveness from all of the survivors of abuse,” he said.

Excerpts from judicial reports that uncovered the extent of abuse suffered by children in Church-run institutions and parishes were read aloud during the service. The pain still felt by many survivors was on display not only in the reflections of those involved in the ceremony but also when proceedings were interrupted on three occasions by survivors who wished to share their experiences and sense of betrayal.

Cardinal Desmond Connell, retired archbishop of Dublin who was heavily criticized in judicial reports for his handling of abuse cases, sat quietly at the back of cathedral and heard Archbishop Martin denounce the Church’s response to abuse as “a silence which is a failure of courage and truth.”

Cardinal O’Malley said that during his visit he discovered “there is a window of opportunity for the Church here to respond to the crisis in a way that will build a holier Church that strives to be more humble even as it grows stronger.”

“While we have understandably heard much anger and learned of much suffering, we have also witnessed a sincere desire to strengthen and rebuild the Church here.

We have seen that there is a vast resource, a reservoir of faith and a genuine desire to work for reconciliation and renewal,” he said.

Near the end of the service, a “candle of protection” was blessed and lit from the Easter Candle as a sign of hope for the future. It will remain “as a sign for all who worship” in the cathedral, Archbishop Martin said.

Speaking to CNS after the service, the archbishop described the event as “very moving.”

“You’d really want to have a hard heart not to be moved by the honesty and dignity of the survivors,” he said.

Cardinal O’Malley told CNS he hoped that his “presence would underline just how seriously the Holy Father is taking the need for healing and renewal in Ireland.”

travel aid — Pope Benedict XVI receives the official World Youth Day 2011 backpack from Cardinal Antonio Rouco Varela of Madrid during a private meeting at the Vatican recently. The backpack will contain, among other items, a rosary, a book of pilgrim’s prayers, a city guide and a copy of “Youcat,” a catechism for young people. (CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano via Reuters)

Vatican ruling against closure of three Mass. churches might not be final

Vatican (CNA) — While a decree from the Vatican held that three churches in the Diocese of Springfield should not be closed, a canon lawyer who analyzed the ruling said that the document leaves open the possibility that the churches can still be shut down if proper procedure is followed.

Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell of Springfield sought “immediate clarification” about the decree from Cardinal Mauro Piacenza of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy, the diocese said on February 16.

Officials at the congregation told CNA that they could not immediately respond to requests for comment on the case and that replies to inquiries would only come through official channels.

The congregation upheld the diocese’s decision to merge St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish in Adams, and two parishes in Chicopee, — St. George and St. Patrick — with other local parishes. However, the congregation said that sufficiently grave reason was not given to close each of the church buildings and they should be used in some manner as determined by the bishop.

The diocese stressed that in each instance the parish itself is not being reestablished and any permitted use of the church buildings “will not be the same as when it was a parish church.”

The congregation “seems to be undertaking a new application of Church law,” the diocese said. In the diocese’s view, the circumstances in the three disputed cases were consistent with its reasoning in the case of another diocesan church whose closure was upheld.

Denver-area canon lawyer J.D. Flynn, evaluating the case for CNA, emphasized the immense complexity of such rulings.

According to Flynn, the decree affirmed that the bishop followed appropriate procedures to merge the parishes. However, the procedures were not followed in closing churches like St. Stanislaus Kostka.

“The Holy See admitted that there may have been grave reason to close the church (relegate it to profane use) but expressed that doing so requires observing canonical procedure,” he commented. “I’m not sure that is news.”

The “grave reasons” required to close a church were not provided in the documentation, and so the documentation is judged to be insufficient.

“But the Holy See leaves open the possibility that pastoral reasons exists to relegate the church to profane use, according to the proper procedure,” Flynn said.

More than 200 of the former parishioners of St. Stanislaus Kostka have been conducting a round-theclock prayer vigil since December 2008.

Laurie Haas of Adams said the parishioners “look forward to a respectful dialogue with Bishop McDonnell in an effort to bring our

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vigil to a conclusion and to reopen St. Stan’s Church in a manner that will best serve the interests of the Catholic Community of Adams, as well as the Diocese of Springfield.”

Under canon law a parish and a church are defined as separate entities, Flynn explained. While a parish is “a stable community of the faithful,” a church is a sacred building designated for divine worship where the faithful have “the right of entry.”

The two types of entities are opened and closed by different procedures and involve different consultations.

“For me,” Flynn continued, “the real reminder here is that our buildings are truly sacred spaces, set aside for the worship of God. That is why canon law takes them so seriously.”

The Vatican ruling “is not an indictment of the bishop, it is really a technical issue — but it does remind us how important sacred worship, and respect for our sacred places, really is.”

The diocese noted that the Congregation for the Clergy upheld other decisions to merge other parishes and close the former parish churches.

OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER Vol. 55, No. 08

Member: Catholic Press Association, Catholic News Service

Published weekly except for two weeks in the summer and the week after Christmas by the Catholic Press of the Diocese of Fall River, 887 Highland Avenue, Fall River, MA 02720, Telephone 508-675-7151 — FAX 508-675-7048, email: theanchor@anchornews.org.

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3 The International Church Middle East expert calls Egypt revolution one of many ‘signs of spring’ February 25, 2011

By Gretchen R. Crowe Catholic News Service

ARLINGTON, Va. — The success of a nonviolent revolution in Egypt is one of “multiple signs of spring in the North African winter,” an expert on the Middle East told participants in a Catholic forum on peace and justice February 12.

Jesuit Father Drew Christiansen, editor-in-chief of America magazine and former director of the U.S. bishops’ Office of International Justice and Peace, was keynote speaker at the Diocese of Arlington’s annual peace symposium, held at St. Charles Borromeo Church in Arlington.

“I think it’s wonderful that Egypt was a nonviolent revolution. It was so unexpected.

For 18 days in a country of 80 million people, how do you get that to happen?” Father Christiansen asked. “Those who preached that nonviolence wasn’t to be found in the Muslim world have been proved wrong again.”

Discussing signs of hope,

Father Christiansen highlighted the reports of Egyptian Christians and Muslims working together during the revolution. One photo, in particular, of Christians holding hands in a circle around Muslims while they prayed made its way rapidly through the blogosphere.

As for what’s next for Egypt, he said, “It’s anybody’s guess.”

It’ll be a waiting game, with the hope that the country will end up with a responsible democratic government, he said.

The priest focused his talk on religious freedom in other Middle Eastern countries and the role the United States is playing and has played.

U.S. policy in the Middle East has been a “disaster” for Middle Eastern Christians, Father Christiansen said. The United States failed to come to the aid of Christians fleeing Iraq after increased violence and persecution by Islamic terrorists, including last October’s bombing at a Syrian Catholic cathedral in Baghdad that killed nearly 60 people gath-

ered for Mass.

“Jordan and Syria took more than half the refugees, where they remain underground, unregistered,” he said. “What do we owe to Iraqi Christians?

American policy seems to answer: nothing.”

Father Christiansen also focused on Christian identity in the Arab-Muslim world, reminding those gathered the Arab Christians have been alive since “the first Pentecost.”

“They are not converts,” he said. “That has not penetrated Western Christian consciousness.”

Though they are a minority, the Christians are an integral part of the society in which they live. The goal is “to live as Muslims and Christians together” with both groups “united by belief in one God and love of God and neighbor,” Father Christiansen said.

Though secularism is not a word often used in a positive context, especially by Pope Benedict XVI (usually in reference to places like Western Eu-

rope), the pope has encouraged “positive secularism” in the Middle East — that is, a secular regime that allows religious pluralism and a fully functioning religion.

Encouragement of this “positive secularity” is the constructive mission of the Church in the Middle East, Father Christiansen said. Complicating that mission are Muslims who, because of the close alignment of policy and religion in Islam, sometimes have difficulty separating church and state, he said.

Turning to the situation of Christians in Israel and Palestine, the Jesuit said the “war of competing narratives” that stems from the Holy Land makes it difficult to learn the truth.

“If I had two decades ... I would have a hard time sorting out the competing claims myself,” he said. In Israel, it can be difficult to promote Christianity without seeming antiSemitic, he said.

“The Jewish people think we don’t get what Israel means to them,” he said. “We have to

show them we understand how much it means to them. Without Israel, the Jewish community will be extinct again. We love Israel when it’s truly Israel, when it’s true to its ancient virtues of justice and compassion.”

In follow-up discussions with the symposium participants, Father Christiansen recommended they visit the Holy Land in person.

“Even though it’s a difficult time to do a pilgrimage, there’s nothing like really meeting the people, seeing what they’re doing and also visiting the sites of salvation yourself,” he said.

“It’s really important.”

He also recommended joining Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation, an organization based in Bethesda, Md., that, according to its mission statement, “is committed to the continued presence and well-being of Arab Christians in the Holy Land and to developing the bonds of solidarity between them and Christians elsewhere.”

4

The Church in the U.S.

February 25, 2011

USCCB officials have mixed reactions to HHS conscience rule revision WASHINGTON (CNS) — Although the U.S. bishops’ Pro-Life spokeswoman expressed disappointment at the Obama administration’s partial rescission of a federal regulation protecting the conscience rights of health care workers, she said there are “reasons for hope” in the new education and outreach effort announced by the Department of Health and Human Services.

Deirdre McQuade, assistant director for policy and communications at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities, was commenting February 18 on the final rule issued earlier that day by HHS to rescind elements of a December 2008 rule on conscience protection. The 2008 rule came down in the final days of the administration of President George W. Bush.

“It is very disappointing that the (Obama) administration has chosen to eliminate much of the existing regulation on conscience issued in December 2008,” McQuade said.

“Among other things, the final rule issued today eliminates important clarifications that would have helped in interpreting and enforcing long-standing federal statutes protecting the conscience rights of health care providers,” she said. “It also eliminates a regulatory requirement that recipients of federal funds certify compliance with those statutes.

“However, it is welcome news that the

administration says it will take initiatives to increase awareness of the conscience statutes, work to ensure compliance with them, and require that all government grants make clear that compliance is required,” she added.

In its announcement of the final rule, HHS officials stressed that the partial rescission has no effect on existing laws protecting the conscience rights of health care providers.

“Strong conscience laws make it clear that health care providers cannot be compelled to perform or assist in an abortion,” the announcement said. “The rule being issued today builds on these laws by providing a clear enforcement process.”

HHS said parts of the 2008 regulation had “caused confusion and could be taken as overly broad.”

The 41-page final rule summarized and responded to the major themes of the more than 300,000 comments received by HHS to the proposed rescission.

More than 97,000 individuals and organizations supported the move to rescind, with most saying the 2008 rule “unacceptably impacted patient rights and restricted access to health care and conflicted with federal law, state law and other guidelines addressing informed consent,” HHS said.

Nearly 187,000 comments opposed the proposal to rescind, expressing the conviction that “health care workers

should not be required to perform procedures that violate their religious or moral convictions” or that rescission “would violate the First Amendment religious freedom rights of providers or the tenets or the Hippocratic Oath, and would impact the ethical integrity of the medical profession.”

“While the department carefully considered these comments, we do not specifically address them because this partial rescission does not alter or affect the existing federal health care provider conscience protections,” the HHS final rule said.

It cited the Church amendment, section 245 of the Public Health Service Act and the Weldon amendment as the “federal health care provider conscience protection statutes” that collectively “prohibit recipients of certain federal funds from discriminating against certain health care providers based on their refusal to participate in health care services they find religiously or morally objectionable.”

Both the Church and Weldon amendments, named for former members of Congress, have to be passed annually as part of the appropriations bill for HHS

and the departments of Labor and Education.

In its final rule, HHS expressed concern at the number of comments that reflected “a lack of understanding that the statutory protections are in effect irrespective of department regulations or the 2008 final rule.”

“The department fully intends to continue to enforce all the laws it has been charged with administering,” it added.

The HHS Office for Civil Rights, which is charged with enforcing the existing conscience protection laws and regulations, will begin a “new awareness initiative for our grantees to ensure they understand the statutory conscience protections and the enforcement process for those who believe their rights have been violated,” HHS said.

McQuade said she hoped the administration would now “place its full support behind efforts in Congress to clarify conscience protections and make them more secure by endorsing such initiatives as the Protect Life Act (H.R. 358), the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act (H.R. 3) and the Abortion Non-Discrimination Act (H.R. 361).”

MILWAUKEE (CNS) — Quoting Popes Benedict XVI and John Paul II, Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki issued a statement February 16 that came down squarely in favor of workers’ rights in the face of efforts by Wisconsin’s new governor to restrict those rights.

“Hard times do not nullify the moral obligation each of us has to respect the legitimate rights of workers,” Archbishop Listecki said.

“Every union, like every other economic actor, is called to work for the common good, to make sacrifices when required, and to adjust to new economic realities,” he said.

“However, it is equally a mistake to marginalize or dismiss unions as impediments to economic growth.”

Archbishop Listecki was responding to efforts by new Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, to push through measures restricting the rights of unions in a special session of the state legislature.

The bill would strip most government workers — at the state, county and local levels, including teachers — of nearly all collective bargaining rights. The only exceptions would be for police, firefighters and the state patrol. Unions would have to gain approval in a public referendum to seek pay raises higher than the consumer price index. The legislation would also require union members to vote every year on whether they wanted to continue to be represented by their union, and would forbid unions from forcing employees to pay dues, known as “right to work.”

The legislation would require state employees to pay half of their pension costs and 12.6 percent of their health care coverage, moves Walker expects to save the state $30 million in the short term and up

to $300 million over the next two years. In exchange for the savings, Walker promised no layoffs or furloughs — but threatened to lay off 6,000 workers if the bills failed to pass. Republicans, who hold majorities in both houses of the Legislature, have said they have enough votes to pass the bills.

About 15,000 people rallied February 15 in Madison, the state capital, to protest the planned moves. The protests continued in the following days, as opponents of the measures clogged hallways in the capitol building and jammed legislative hearing rooms. Dozens of schools in Madison closed because of high absence rates.

Archbishop Listecki noted that Pope Benedict XVI said in his 2009 encyclical “Caritas in Veritate,” “The repeated calls issued within the Church’s social doctrine, beginning with ‘Rerum Novarum,’ for the promotion of workers’ associations that can defend their rights must therefore be honored today even more than in the past.”

The archbishop also took note of what Pope John Paul II said in his 1981 encyclical “Laborem Exercens,” that a union “remains a constructive factor of social order and solidarity, and it is impossible to ignore it.”

“It is especially in times of crisis that new forms of cooperation and open communication become essential,” Archbishop Listecki said. “We request that lawmakers carefully consider the implications of this proposal and evaluate it in terms of its impact on the common good.

We also appeal to everyone — lawmakers, citizens, workers and labor unions — to move beyond divisive words and actions and work together, so that Wisconsin can recover in a humane way from the current fiscal crisis.”

Archbishop says hard times don’t justify restricting workers’ rights

February 25, 2011

The Church in the U.S.

5

Former Planned Parenthood director, now Pro-Life, to become Catholic

SAN FRANCISCO (CNS) — A woman who walked away from her job as a Planned Parenthood clinic director after helping with an ultrasound-guided abortion is preparing to enter the Catholic Church.

Abby Johnson, 30, who has been speaking at Pro-Life events around the country, will become a Catholic, along with her husband, Doug, in her native Texas within the next few months. The couple has a four-year-old daughter.

“When we went to the Catholic Church for the first time, we knew that was where we were supposed to be and we have been there ever since,” said Johnson, who said she particularly loves the Church’s reverence for Mary as the mother of God. “The more we started learning about the beliefs of the Church and the Eucharist and everything, it seemed like this was what had been missing our whole lives.”

After eight years as a Planned Parenthood volunteer and em-

ployee, Johnson walked away from her job as director of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Bryan/College Station, Texas, Oct. 6, 2009, during a prayer vigil by 40 Days for Life.

Johnson, who had one abortion at age 20 and another at 23, first began working as a clinic escort while a student at Texas A&M University. Assisting with an ultrasound during an abortion in September 2009 turned her into a Pro-Life advocate.

She describes the experience in her book “Unplanned: The Dramatic True Story of the Planned Parenthood Leader Who Crossed the Life Line to Fight for Women in Crisis,” written with Cindy Lambert (Ignatius Press, 2011).

In the book’s first chapter, Johnson describes holding the ultrasound probe on the woman’s abdomen and watching the screen as the abortion doctor worked and the mother cried. The fetus was at 13 weeks’ gestation based on the abortion doctor’s estimate, John-

son wrote.

“At first, the baby didn’t seem aware of the cannula,” she writes.

“It gently probed the baby’s side, and for a quick second I felt relief.

Of course, I thought. The fetus doesn’t feel pain. I had reassured countless women of this as I’d been taught by Planned Parenthood. The fetal tissue feels nothing as it is removed. Get a grip, Abby. This is a simple, quick medical procedure. My head was working hard to control my responses, but I couldn’t shake an inner disquiet that was quickly mounting to horror as I watched the screen.

“The next movement was the sudden jerk of a tiny foot as the baby started kicking, as if it were trying to move away from the probing invader,” she continues.

“As the cannula pressed its side, the baby began struggling to turn and twist away. It seemed clear to me that it could feel the cannula, and it did not like what it was feeling. And then the doctor’s

Dr. Nathanson, abortion proponent turned Pro-Life, dies

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Dr. Bernard N. Nathanson, once a leading figure in the movement to legalize abortion and to keep it legal, spent the last decades of his life raising awareness about the horrors of abortion and repenting for the tens of thousands of abortions for which he felt responsible.

Nathanson, who died of cancer February 21 in New York, also described himself for many years as a Jewish atheist but was baptized a Catholic in 1996 by New York Cardinal John J. O’Connor.

Nathanson, who was 84, was one of the founders of the organization now known as NARAL Pro-Choice America (originally the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws) and director of New York’s Center for Reproductive and Sexual Health, which he described as the largest abortion facility in the Western world.

But he first began expressing doubts about his involvement in abortions in a 1974 article in the New England Journal of Medicine in which he said he was “deeply troubled by my own increasing certainty that I had in fact presided over 60,000 deaths.”

Nathanson stopped performing abortions in the late 1970s and later narrated “The Silent Scream,” a 28-minute film depicting the abortion of a 12-week-old fetus. He also wrote and lectured widely about the evils of abortion.

“We see the child’s mouth open in a silent scream,” he said as the ultrasound image showed the child attempting to move away from the surgical instruments. “This is the silent scream of a child threatened imminently with extinction.”

Former Sen. Gordon Humphrey

told Time magazine in 1984 that the film represented “a high-technology ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin,’ arousing public opinion just as Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 anti-slavery novel ignited the abolitionist movement.”

Father Frank Pavone, who said he visited with Nathanson in the week before his death, described the doctor’s life as a remarkable story of God’s mercy and power.

“I will never forget the workshop at which I introduced him at the 1994 Human Life International conference in Irvine, Calif.,” said the national director of Priests for Life. “He was supposed to talk about chemical abortion, but at the last minute decided instead to speak of his spiritual journey.

“At the end of his talk, he said that he was standing on the brink of conversion to the Catholic Church.

The room exploded. People were leaping into the air,” Father Pavone continued. “He said that he hoped God could forgive him and I said, ‘Dr. Nathanson, he already has.’

And I reminded him of that exchange just last week.”

Jeanne Head, who represents the National Right to Life Committee at the United Nations in New York, said Nathanson “was probably one of the individuals most responsible for Roe v. Wade and, once he realized his error, he dedicated the rest of his life to reversing it.”

In his 1996 autobiography, “The Hand of God,” Nathanson wrote: “Abortion is now a monster so unimaginably gargantuan that even to think of stuffing it back into its cage ... is ludicrous beyond words. Yet that is our charge — a herculean endeavor.”

Born July 31, 1926, in New

York City, Nathanson followed in his father’s footsteps to become an obstetrician-gynecologist after studies at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., and McGill University Medical College in Montreal and residency assignments in Chicago and New York.

In his autobiography, Nathanson acknowledged performing an illegal abortion of his own child when a girlfriend got pregnant in the 1960s.

In all, Nathanson said he performed about 5,000 abortions, presided over 60,000 of them as director of the New York clinic and instructed fellow doctors in performing 15,000 more.

More than a decade after he became Pro-Life, Nathanson was baptized in a private ceremony at St. Patrick’s Cathedral by Cardinal O’Connor. Joan Andrews Bell, who spent more than a year in jail because of abortion clinic protests, was his godmother.

“He was like St. Paul, who was a great persecutor of the Church, yet when he saw the light of Christ, he was perhaps the greatest apostle for the Gospel,” Bell told the National Catholic Register newspaper. “Dr. Nathanson was like that after his conversion. He went all around the world talking about the babies and the evils of abortion.”

Also in 1996, Nathanson earned a degree in bioethics from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.

Nathanson’s first three marriages ended in divorce, but shortly after his baptism he was married in the Church to the former Christine Reisner, who survives him.

He also is survived by an adult son, Joseph, from an earlier marriage.

voice broke through, startling me. “‘Beam me up, Scotty,’ he said lightheartedly to the nurse. “He was telling her to turn on the suction — in an abortion the suction isn’t turned on until the doctor feels he has the cannula in exactly the right place. I had a sudden urge to yell, ‘Stop.’”

(According to a description by Priests for Life, the cannula is a hollow plastic tube that is connected to a vacuum-type pump by a flexible hose. The doctor runs the tip of the cannula along the surface of the uterus causing the baby to be dislodged and sucked into the tube — either whole or in pieces.)

Johnson watched the entire abortion and went home, shaking and in tears, to tell her husband she had to find a new job. A few days later, she walked out of the clinic and joined people praying outside the clinic. They were members of the 40 Days for Life group, which had held six prayer vigils outside her clinic and whose headquarters was just a few doors away.

Johnson is in the process of obtaining an annulment of the

marriage to the man who was her husband at the time she had her abortions, so that the Catholic Church will officially recognize her second marriage — a process called “convalidation’’ in Church law — and she and husband Doug can enter the Church.

“We are ready to come into the Church as soon as we are able,” Johnson said.

Johnson counsels others who have left the abortion industry, she said, and there are more than most people would think. She said rallies like the one that drew an estimated 40,000 people to San Francisco for the annual Walk for Life West Coast are an important witness.

“In California, one of the most pro-choice and liberal states in the country it is important to show up en masse and tell the leaders of the state and the leaders of our nation how important the sanctity of life is to us,” she said. “We do not have the luxury anymore to stand around and say I can’t tell someone what to do. When it comes to taking the lives of our children, we don’t want to give our opinion? That doesn’t make sense.”

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For further information please contact: The Espousal Retreat House 544 Lexington St., Waltham, MA 02454 Phone: (781) 209-3120 www.espousal.org or E-mail: espousaladmin@gmail.com

6

The Anchor Defunding Planned Parenthood

February has been a momentous month in Washington with respect to defending innocent human life from abortion.

On the negative side, last Friday President Barack Obama rescinded a 2008 executive order by President Bush that protected the conscience rights of medical students and health care workers from having to participate in immoral activities that violate their consciences. President Bush’s order also gave those whose rights had been violated clear recourse in the government to have their rights vindicated. President Obama’s action, done with almost surreptitious silence at the beginning of the Presidents’ Day holiday weekend — when the attention of most citizens and media members was on the revolutions occurring in the Middle East, the legislation being passed in the House, or on upcoming school vacations with children — also seemed to expose something about his conception of presidential leadership: that he, sadly, doesn’t have a high respect for protecting the conscience of health care workers. Rather, he acted on a promise he had made to the abortion lobby to strip away protections preventing health care workers from being forced, at the risk of losing their jobs, to participate in practices that they believe violate human dignity — for example, being compelled to dispense abortion-inducing morning after pills or contraception. Despite his pro-choice rhetoric, the president and his pro-abortion allies do not believe that health care workers should have the right to choose to follow their consciences instead of violating the first principle of medical ethics, primum non nocere, first do no harm.

Thankfully, there are some elected leaders in Washington who do respect and seek to protect the consciences of those who elected them. The new Pro-Life majority in the House of Representatives have acted on several pieces of legislation in the last few weeks intended not only to protect the conscience rights of health care workers but also to protect all citizens from having to cooperate in the evil of abortion through their taxes.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee on February 15 approved the “Protect Life Act” (H.R. 358), which would amend last year’s health care reforms to prevent federal funds from being used to cover any part of the costs of any health plan that includes coverage of abortion services; to impede any federal, state or local government agency that receives federal funds from discriminating against an individual or agency who refuses to participate in abortion procedures or training; and to establish recourse protocols when individuals or entities believe their rights are being threatened or have been violated. On February 1, the same House Committee also held hearings on the “Abortion Non-Discrimination Act” (H.R. 361), a bill designed specifically to protect health care workers and institutions from suffering on account of their refusal to participate in abortion procedures and training and give them adequate recourse for redress. These protections are needed not only in view of President Obama’s executive order but because of the concerted effort by the pro-abortion lobby and the American Civil Liberties Union to have present federal laws interpreted in such a way as to compel Catholic hospitals to provide abortions and other “life-saving care.” As Rep. Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania noted, President Obama’s executive order “demonstrated exactly why we need to have strong conscience protection for health workers written into our laws. Without legal protection, we can certain expect even more bureaucratic assaults on the conscience of medical workers.”

There were also hearings held February 8 in the House Judiciary Committee on the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act” (H.R. 3), which would prohibit any federal funds being used for abortion, for health care plans that cover abortions, and for health care services or facilities that include abortions — essentially making the Hyde Amendment, which has been included in all labor, health and human services bills for the past three-and-a-half decades a federal statute that applies to all federal appropriations bills. This act is designed to eliminate a loophole to last year’s health care reforms that pro-abortion Democrats in the Senate craftily constructed in order to fund abortions, since the health care reforms were outside of the orbit of the Hyde Amendment. Like H.R. 358 and H.R. 361, H.R. 3 also prevents discrimination against individuals and entities that refuse to provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions and it establishes concrete recourses when they suffer on account of that refusal.

The furthest reaching Pro-Life advances, however, happened at the level of full House when it passed the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act (H.R. 1) on February 19. Included in this legislation that funds all government departments and agencies were amendments that, among other things, would permanently restrict U.S. funds for population assistance to countries unless they agree not to promote or perform abortions; strip funding from the United Nation’s Population Fund, which facilitates abortions in developing countries through the U.N., including China’s brutal “one child policy”; stop paying for abortions in the District of Columbia; and remove all federal funding from Planned Parenthood.

The amendment that has by far caught the most attention so far has been the one introduced by Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana that would prohibit any federal funds from going to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Passed 240-185 by the House, this amendment has been called by Planned Parenthood “the most dangerous legislative assault in our history” and the organization has been mounting a nationwide effort to try to persuade Senators to seek to overturn it. Planned Parenthood has with characteristic duplicity sought to portray the House vote as one eliminating federal funding for “birth control, cancer screenings, HIV testing and other life-saving care,” but it fails even to mention the principle and most lucrative part of its business: the grisly practice of abortion.

A third of Planned Parenthood’s annual budget comes through government grants ($363.2 million in 2008-2009). Rep. Pence has said that by banning funding the House of Representatives has “taken a stand for millions of Americans who believe their tax dollars should not be used to subsidize the largest abortion provider in America.” In other words, if Planned Parenthood would like to receive federal funds for its other programs, “they ought not be in the business of providing abortions. As long as they aspire to do that, I’ll be after them,” Congressman Pence promised. In 2008, Planned Parenthood performed 328,300 abortions, which was one-quarter of all the abortions done in the United States and is roughly equivalent to the population of all cities and towns within the Diocese of Fall River combined.

While federal dollars cannot go directly to paying for abortions in Planned Parenthood facilities, it can go to underwriting all of their other operating expenses, freeing up other funds to perform abortions, encourage promiscuity and other types of behavior that lead to abortions, and lobby for even more funds.

In recent days, Planned Parenthood has been getting exposed for the type of organization it really is. A powerful new book entitled “Unplanned” by Abby Johnson, a former director of Planned Parenthood’s largest facility in the western hemisphere (Houston), documents in the first person just how driven Planned Parenthood is to increase its abortion business and remorsefully describes the grisly details of the work she did there. Undercover video stings in New Jersey and Virginia by Live Action have shown Planned Parenthood employees aiding and abetting international child-trafficking and prostitution, advising an undercover “pimp” how to secure abortions for underage prostitutes and to return them to the streets as soon as possible. Despite its lip service to the contrary, Planned Parenthood demonstrated no intention to follow the law and turn over to the authorities even child-traffickers and those who exploit 14-year-old girls into prostitution. As a confirmation of this criminal and immoral negligence, a 107-count criminal case against Planned Parenthood in Johnson County, Kan., is now proceeding to trial. It includes 23 felony charges related to the manufacturing of evidence to cover-up failure to report child-abuse discovered when underage girls came in to abort babies fathered by much older men.

It’s about time that the U.S. Congress prevented morally corrupt organizations like Planned Parenthood from receiving our tax dollars. It’s about time that the U.S. Congress started to act on widespread consensus to make abortion “rare,” by seeking to eliminate any subsidies for abortions or abortionpromoting businesses. And 38 years after Roe v. Wade, it’s also about time U.S. citizens got the type of representation we’ve been receiving since the new Congress was sworn in.

P

February 25, 2011

Do I really need this?

erhaps you have had an experience confronted with the things that appeal to when shopping that is similar to one us. It is temperance that helps us see that that I often have. Especially when I go to we don’t need that second piece of cake stores like Walmart or Target, I head in for or that third or fourth drink. It is temperone or two specific items and come out not ance that assists us to recognize that we understanding how I spent so much money don’t have to spend hours in front of the and or why I now have all these things that television or computer. It is temperance I didn’t intend to buy or don’t really even that tells us that a little of something good need. is enough.

How do these things happen? The Pope Benedict XVI explains the answer is probably because we are all a importance that the virtue of temperance bit too attached to material possessions, at plays in our lives of faith. “The religious least I am. Everywhere we look, we are sense planted within the human heart saturated with the temptation to indulge opens men and women to God and leads in something, to buy this or that item. The them to discover that personal fulfillment message is that without these things we does not consist in the selfish gratification can’t possibly be satisfied, popular or look of momentary desires,” he said. “Rather, good. it leads us to meet the needs of others and Is this the way a Catholic is supposed to search for concrete ways to contribute to think or behave? How do we face all to the common good” (Address, July 18, of these temptations? The answer is the 2009). virtue of “temperance.” Temperance The pope is explaining that the Chrisacknowledges that these material possestian is called to rise above the worldly sions are not evil in and of themselves, but desires that induce us to give into lavish our abuse or overuse of them certainly can lifestyles or to embrace every extravabe, and so we can consume them, but with gance. This is not to say that we must moderation. live a life of The strict poverty, “Catechism” but it is does Putting Into explains to challenge us the Deep us, “Temperto find our ance is the true treasure in moral virtue eternal life.

By Father that moderates Perhaps Jay Mello the attraction a reference of pleasures to a classic and provides balance in the use of created movie would help to further illustrate my goods. It ensures the will’s mastery over point. In the classic, “Willy Wonka and the instincts and keeps desires within the limits Chocolate Factory,” the world is astounded of what is honorable. The temperate person when Willy Wonka, for years a recluse directs the sensitive appetites toward what in his factory, announces that five lucky is good and maintains a healthy discretion” people will be given a tour of the factory, (CCC 1809). shown all the secrets of his amazing candy, The Old Testament exhorts us, “Do and one of them will win a lifetime supply not follow your inclination and strength, of Wonka chocolate. walking according to the desires of your Charlie, the main character, along with heart” (Sir 5:2). Elsewhere it adds, “Do four other somewhat detestable children, not follow your base desires, but restrain gets the chance of a lifetime and wins the your appetites” (Sir 18:30). In the New opportunity to take a tour of the factory.

Testament temperance is referred to by Throughout the movie, mild disasters be“moderation” or “sobriety.” We ought “to fall each of the children except for Charlie. live sober, upright, and godly lives in this Only Charlie is able to exercise restraint world” (Ti 2:2). and self-control when it comes to all the Our modern culture certainly does not delicious chocolate before him. encourage temperance. Whereas our faith The other four children have no sense teaches us to enjoy the things in life with of temperance; there is never enough of moderation, exercising self-control, the anything for them. They want what they world tells us to overindulge in everything, want, they want it now and they want whether it is watching television for hours more of it than they can handle. Because on end, eating whenever we want and of their greed and lack of temperance, they whatever we want, or drinking to the point lose everything. The basic lesson is that that it is beyond mere socializing. when we try to find our happiness in mateThe secular world, with the help of the rial things that cannot satisfy our deepest media, encourages us to consume as much longings, we end up losing so much more. as possible. Enough isn’t really enough: In the same address referenced earlier, with money, there is never enough; with Pope Benedict highlighted the point that, food, it has to be “super-sized.” These are “it is incumbent upon people of faith to examples of things that appeal to our flesh demonstrate that it is possible to find joy and the appetites of our body. in living simply and modesty, generously The Gospel teaches us, however, that sharing one’s surplus with those suffering we are not just a physical body, but that we from want.” are a unity of body and soul. It is our ratioLiving a temperate lifestyle, one of nal soul, formed by our faith, that is to lead moderation and simplicity, allows us to the body, not the other way around. When grow also in freedom from material poswe overindulge and give into to temptasessions. Our Holy Father explained, “We tion, we in fact become slaves to our flesh. must not depend on material possessions This is where the virtue of temperance but instead must learn renunciation, simcomes into play. plicity, austerity and moderation” (General As the “Catechism” says, temperance Audience, May 27 2009). helps us to have mastery over our senses, Father Mello is a parochial vicar at St. and provides us balance when we are Patrick’s Parish in Falmouth.

February 25, 2011

Q: What is the general opinion on listening to confessions during Mass? — M.G., Malmoe, Sweden A: This is a point which often stirs heated debate among priests. Some condemn the practice because it easily distracts the faithful from the Mass itself.

Others ardently defend it as an excellent opportunity to offer the sacrament when the faithful are present in significant numbers and likely to be moved to confess by the mere fact of availability.

Cultural factors also come into play. Priests and faithful hailing from an Irish, AngloSaxon and North European heritage are, by and large, accustomed to a separation of the two sacraments. The priests are generally reluctant to make confession available during Mass.

The practice is more com-

T

he modern Liturgical Movement had become subject to many influences, from those who simply continued the work that had been done earlier by promoting Gregorian chant, sung Mass and Vespers, to those who engaged in novel experiments. Much of the effort had been directed toward propagating greater knowledge and appreciation of the liturgy among the Catholic faithful. This, it was hoped, would increase lay participation, which needs to be external (gestures, postures, responses, singing) as well as internal (personal prayer, contemplation, moments of silence).

Yet even as late as 1960, these efforts had enjoyed only modest success. Every scholar of the liturgy knew that the “normative” form of the Roman liturgy was the High Mass, in fact the Pontifical High Mass (i.e., Mass sung by a bishop, with the assistance of a deacon, subdeacon, and the other required ministers and choir). The practical experience of most Catholics, however, was the exact opposite: Low Mass was “normal” and High Mass was a rare aberration for oddballs. At most parish Masses on a typical Sunday morning, one was unlikely to find the priest singing his part of the liturgy and the people led by a choir singing theirs. Instead, one usually found a silent congregation reading prayer books or whispering the rosary while the priest quietly went about his business at the altar. Hymns were sometimes sung at Low Mass, but the selection of material did not necessarily relate to the liturgy of the day. Neither did the sermon if one was given; moral exhortation or instruc-

7

The Anchor

Hearing confessions during Mass

mon, although not universal, in during Mass. It even recomItalian, Latino and Polish commends that, during large concelmunities, and many faithful go ebrations attended by numerous to confession during Mass even faithful, some priests refrain though it is also offered at other from concelebrating so as to be times.

From the normative point of view it is certainly not forbidden. In 2001 the Holy See gave an official answer to this question in a letter

By Father published in the JuneEdward McNamara July edition of Notitiae, the official organ of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments. available for confession.

In its response the congregaIn the light of this reply we tion affirmed the preference could say that it is clearly preffor celebrating reconciliation erable that confession and Mass outside of Mass. But in virtue of be held at different times so that the canonical norm that “Recthe faithful can live the euchaonciliation may be carried out at ristic celebration to the fullest. any time and day” (“Ordo PaeThis implies that reconciliation nitentiæ,” 13), it specifically albe scheduled at times when the lows the hearing of confessions faithful are able to go.

Confession during Mass should respond to concrete pastoral needs such as when the habitual number of penitents exceeds the regularly scheduled confession times; when a priest has to attend more than one parish; and other situations that would make it pastorally advisable.

For the sake of clarity by confession during Mass, I mean that one or more priests are hearing confessions while another celebrates Mass.

This might seem obvious, but I have personally found situations where priests heard confessions at the celebrant’s chair during the readings. While such a practice might appear to be pastoral zeal, I believe it is misplaced.

The celebrant should never

tion on some aspect of Catholic Concilium lays down general doctrine was more usual. principles for the restoration and In addition, many seminary promotion of the liturgy. It defines instructors and religious superithe liturgy as “an exercise of the ors discouraged serious interest priestly office of Jesus Christ,” in the liturgy; courses on “litin which the worship of God “is urgy” were little more than courses on memorizing rubrics. One of the most damning epithets that could be applied to a student or a young cleric was amator liturgiarum,

By Father “lover of the liturgy.”

Thomas M. Kocik The French Oratorian priest Louis Bouyer, a convert from Lutheranism performed by the Mystical Body and one of the Liturgical Moveof Christ, that is, by the Head and ment’s great voices, reports that his members” (SC 7). The liturgy after joining the Oratory, he was is also “a foretaste of that heavtold by his superiors, “You’re enly liturgy celebrated in the holy much too interested in things city of Jerusalem toward which like Holy Scripture or the liturgy. we journey as pilgrims” (SC 8).

Real Catholics don’t attach such Far from being just one among importance to those things.” many things the Church does, the On Oct. 11, 1962, the Second liturgy is both “the summit toward Vatican Council opened. The first which the activity of the Church document passed by the Council is directed” and “the fount from was Sacrosanctum Concilium, which all the Church’s power the Constitution on the Sacred flows” (SC 10).

Liturgy. It was approved on Nov. Continuing on the path 22, 1963, the day President John opened by St. Pius X, the liturgy F. Kennedy was assassinated and constitution points to the “full 60 years to the day after Pope St. and active participation by all the Pius X issued his instruction on people” as “the aim to be conthe reform of Church music. With sidered before all else” (SC 14). the constitution’s formal promulIt sets forth, as an overarching gation on Dec. 4, 1963, exactly principle, the distinction between 400 years after the close of the those parts of the liturgy that are Council of Trent, the Liturgical divinely instituted and therefore Movement gained its moment of unchangeable, and those that triumph. The movement had enought to be changed “if they joyed the support of earlier popes, have suffered from the intrusion each in his own way; now an of anything out of harmony with ecumenical council had taken up the inner nature of the liturgy or many of its principles and made have become pointless” (SC 21). them the common teaching of the Any modifications to the liturgy Church. should, however, be done in organChapter I of Sacrosanctum ic continuity with the past (SC 23)

and must preserve “the substantial unity of the Roman Rite” (SC 38), as kept throughout its 1,500year history. The “substance” or “substantial unity” denotes what remains the same even in the course of development.

A good comparison can be made with the human body, which changes considerably in appearance and in what it can physically manage as it ages; whatever these changes, the person remains the same.

Chapter II (articles 47 to 58) contains norms for a revision of the Mass. The existing rite is to be simplified by peeling away historical accretions that have obscured its basic contours.

A wider portion of Scripture is to be read. Preaching is not to be omitted on Sundays and feasts

Liturgical Q&A

The Third Phase: Vatican II

The Liturgical Movement

act as if he were extraneous to the liturgical assembly. He leads the faithful in prayer not only in virtue of his ordination but also through his example, in this case listening attentively to God’s word which is also directed toward him.

It is hard to expect the people to pay attention to the readings if the priest does not do so himself. Likewise, it should be remembered that reconciliation and Mass may never be combined to form a single rite.

Father Edward McNamara is a Legionary of Christ and professor of Liturgy at Regina Apostolorum University in Rome. His column appears weekly at zenit.org. To submit questions, email liturgy@ zenit.org. Please put the word “Liturgy” in the subject field.

The text should include your initials, your city and state. of obligation except for a serious reason. The “Prayer of the Faithful” is to be restored. A suitable place may be allotted to the vernacular languages, provided that the people may also be able to say or sing together in Latin the parts belonging to them. Bishops may allow Communion under both species in certain circumstances. Priests may concelebrate on specific occasions.

The remaining five chapters concern the other sacraments and sacramentals, the Divine Office, the liturgical year, and sacred music, arts and furnishings.

Father Kocik, parochial vicar of Santo Christo Parish in Fall River, is editor of “Antiphon: A Journal for Liturgical Renewal,” author of two liturgy-related books, and contributor to the forthcoming “T&T Clark Companion to Liturgical Studies.”

8

I

n this Sunday’s Gospel, reading, Jesus begins by informing us that we cannot serve two masters. We are told that we will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. We cannot serve God and mammon.

We’ve heard this before.

Indeed, taken by itself, this teaching doesn’t strike out at us. We look at it and think, “Well, of course not.” If, however, we take this not as a stand-alone statement, but tie it with the rest of the reading, and if, just for fun, we throw in a couple verses from before the reading starts, then we can see that Jesus is teaching something quite radical.

What follows Jesus’ statement about mammon are two examples. The first is birds.

Jesus points out that birds

February 25, 2011

The Anchor

Our dependence on, and allegiance to God don’t do what we do, and earth it will rot and decay God takes care of them just and be stolen. In heaven, it fine, so don’t worry about will last. Where your heart what you’re going to eat or is, we are told, is where your drink. The second example treasure is. is about clothes. Jesus tells If we look at these things us not to worry about that, together, we see that Jesus either. In another translation, Jesus tells us to “ConHomily of the Week sider the lilies of Eighth Sunday the field.” The long in Ordinary Time and short here is that God clothes the

By Father David C. grass in great glory: Deston Jr. If he makes the field look so beautiful, Jesus says, will he not much more provide for you, is denouncing possessions O you of little faith? as a false god that demands Now for context, let’s exclusive attention. We include something that Jesus know, of course, that the first discusses with his disciples Commandment tells us not a few verses before the start to have other gods before of the reading. He tells the the Lord. So then, we are disciples to store up treasure called to repudiate totally in heaven, not on earth. On and freely all claims against

us by our stuff. After having declared our independence from our stuff, we are called to declare our dependence on, and allegiance to, God alone.

This level of trust is really hard for us to reach.

Part of our issue is that we can touch and feel our stuff.

We can rely on it to do what it is supposed to do. I think we want to love God. I think we really want to rely on him and trust him.

We can’t see him, though, and that makes things really difficult for us because we worry and feel compelled to do something. What do we do, then?

First, we realize that worry is very closely related to fear. With that in mind,

we turn to Pope John Paul II and his frequent quote from the Gospels — do not be afraid. He said this so often, it became a theme of his pontificate. Do not be afraid. Why not? Because we are loved. Because the Lord created each of us for a unique purpose. Because we are more than the stuff in our house and the car in the garage, or the lack thereof.

John Paul offers us proof; God shows us this love through the Eucharist, in which we are filled anew with his love. We are strengthened by him and transformed by him. In and through him, we have the power to break the hold of stuff and live in the freedom Jesus won for us on the cross.

Father Deston is a parochial vicar at St. Pius X Parish in South Yarmouth.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. Feb. 26, Sir 17:1-15; Ps 103:13-18; Mk 10:13-16. Sun. Feb. 27, Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Is 49:14-15; Ps 62:2-3,6-9; 1 Cor 4:1-5; Mt 6:2434. Mon. Feb. 28, Sir 17:20-24; Ps 32:1-2,5-7; Mk 10:17-27. Tues. Mar. 1, Sir 35:1-12; Ps 50:5-8,14,23; Mk 10:28-31. Wed. Mar. 2, Sir 36:1,4-5a,10-17: Ps 79:8-9,11,13; Mk 10:32-45.

Thur. Mar. 3, Sir 42:15-25; Ps 32:2-9; Mk 10:46-52. Fri. Mar. 4, Sir 42:15-25; Ps 32:2-9; Mk 10:46-52.

T

he recent controversy over the termination of a pregnancy at Phoenix’s St. Joseph’s Hospital, which Phoenix Bishop Thomas Olmstead determined to have been a direct abortion and thus a grave moral evil, has generated a secondary controversy over the meaning of the Church’s traditional moral principle of “double effect.”

Some have argued — mistakenly, in my view — that what was done in Phoenix satisfied the classic double effect criteria of Catholic moral theology The National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia, an indispensable source of Catholic information and analysis on bioethical and medical ethical issues, recently issued a statement on the Phoenix case. The statement clarified the doubleeffect issue in language that people without any special training in moral theology or moral philosophy can under-

Clarifying ‘double effect’

stand, and is worth quoting at no harm.”

“The classic case of a length: difficult pregnancy to which “The principle of double this principle can be applied effect in the Church’s moral tradition teaches that one may is the pregnant woman who perform a good action even if has advanced uterine cancer. it is foreseen that a bad effect The removal of the cancerous will arise only if four conditions are met: First, he act itself must be good. Second, the only thing that one can intend is the good act, not the foreseen but uninBy George Weigel tended bad effect.

Third, the good effect cannot arise from the bad effect; otherwise, uterus will result in the death one would do evil to achieve of the baby but it would be good. Fourth, the unintended but foreseen bad effect cannot permissible under the principle of double effect. be disproportionate to the “One can see how the congood being performed. ditions would be satisfied in “This principle has been this case: First, the act itself applied to many cases in health care, always respecting is good; it is the removal of a diseased organ. Second, all the most fundamental moral that one intends is the reprinciple of medical ethics, primum non nocere, “first, do moval of the diseased organ.

The Catholic Difference

One does not want the death of the baby, either as a means or an end. Nonetheless, one sees that the unborn child will die as a result of the removal of the diseased organ. Third, the good action, the healing of the woman, arises from the removal of the diseased uterus, not from the regrettable death of the baby which is foreseen and unintended.

Fourth, the unintended and indirect death of the child is not disproportionate to the good which is done, which is saving the mother’s life.”

In the wake of the Phoenix case, other Catholic hospitals have been asked what they would do in the rare and wrenching circumstance where continuing a pregnancy would put the lives of the mother and child at risk. The first answer usually given is the correct one: “We would try to save both lives.” But some have gone on to give a further answer: “But if that were impossible, we would save the life we could save” — by means, one assumes, of terminating the pregnancy.

This is not right. It violates the bedrock principle of “first, do no harm.” There is no moral casuistry that can justify doing the “harm” that

is the intentional taking of an innocent human life — period. Attempts to justify termination in such circumstances by redefining the act of termination border on the Orwellian, further confusing the public discussion. (Recent horror stories from the Philadelphia abortuary should have taught us where the language of euphemism leads.) Furthermore, “we’ll save the life we can save” does not meet the standards of the principle of double effect, as outlined above, because the saving of the mother’s life comes only through the killing of her child, an evil that clearly violates the third criterion of the principal of double effect.

The Catholic Church is one of the last major institutions defending the Hippocratic principle that the true physician’s first responsibility is to “do no harm.”

Attempts to chip away at that Catholic commitment — by public authorities untutored in the meaning of religious freedom, or by theologians and philosophers advancing speculative views detached from clinical reality — damage the common good and impede the building of a culture of life.

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

Creatures of habit

Saturday 26 February mate that out of every 11,000 2011 — Levi Strauss, creator messages our brain receives, of blue jeans born in 1829 — we consciously process only Members of the U.S. Congress about 40 of them. raised their own pay to $7,500 each in 1907 e are all creatures of Reflections of a habit.” I have no idea Parish Priest who first said this, but it’s true. Human beings

By Father Tim do most things withGoldrick out having to stop and think. We live our daily lives on automatic pilot. This Not all habits are bad. has definite advantages. With- Many Church people are in out habits, we would spend so the habit of praying, meditatmuch time and energy making ing, worshipping, studying decisions we wouldn’t actual- the Bible, and practicing ly do anything. Scientists esti- works of charity. Virtue is a

“W

A

9

The Anchor

February 25, 2011

The Ship’s Log

habit, according to St. Thomas Aquinas. So is sin, but that’s another matter.

I enjoy “people watching.”

I observe folks as they arrive for Mass. I’ve spent much effort trying to convince people to enter the church parking lot by one gate and exit by the other.

This was to correct a potentially dangerous traffic pattern. I posted directional signs and placed strategic orange traffic cones.

By now, most of the signs are cockeyed. People crashed into them. The cones are far fewer in number. People drove off,

Treasures untold

women’s bones are lighter, we t age 15 I experienced have a higher proportion of the most shocking diffat, we have different muscular ference ever between my five tissue, our skin is softer and our brothers and me, the only girl. bodies are shaped differently.

Bill, who is two years older Differences between men and than I am, rarely had anything women are genetic, structural, negative to say about anyone. At hormonal, psychological, sexutimes, however, he would menal, intellectual and spiritual. tion how much he disliked this Yet people today, particularone guy on his football team. ly male academics, can be apBeing a loyal, adoring sister, I prehensive about distinguishing loathed the guy, even though I between male and female traits. had never even met him.

They’re afraid of the backlash, Sometime later I heard that which can be very real. this very boy was outside in our garage tinkering on the cars alongside my brother. I felt betrayed

by Bill. I stayed far away from the garage that day, wondering how he could just switch his attitude so

By Joan Kingsland abruptly, so completely.

As soon as the boy was gone I demanded an That’s too bad, because explanation. masculinity and femininity are My brother went on to tell mutual gifts. Both were deme that the two of them had fisigned by God to enrich and ennally had it out with each other noble the other. Men and women in a fist fight. They went for a are complementary, with each drink together afterwards and enjoying the dignity of being were friends from then on. My made in the image and likeness brother said it was as simple as of God. Not to understand the that. It didn’t even matter who qualities of each is to undervalue won the fight. This was unfaththem and be impoverished. omable for me at the time; and In fact, the woman still in fact, it’s still hard for me to suffers a degraded position grasp. in many parts of the world.

When I feel antagonism for Even in the developed counothers I have no desire to punch tries, where there’s equality in them. If I were to give into an many aspects, there is still the impulse, I would avoid them violence of pornography and and have as little to do with prostitution. Unwed mothers them as possible. are all too often left to fend for There are some who mainthemselves without adequate tain that differences between social support. men and women are a mere soIn his Letter to Women, cial construct. My studies at the Pope John Paul II observed, John Paul II Institute for Mar“Women’s dignity has often riage and the Family revealed been unacknowledged and their that a person’s sexual identity is prerogatives misrepresented; certainly influenced by society; they have often been relegated however, there are also many to the margins of society and other factors involved. even reduced to servitude. This Just on the physical side,

Feminine Gifts

has prevented women from truly being themselves and it has resulted in a spiritual impoverishment of humanity. …

How many women have been and continue to be valued more for their physical appearance than for their skill, their professionalism, their intellectual abilities, their deep sensitivity; in a word, the very dignity of their being”(n.3).

On the other hand, Pope Benedict has acknowledged the need for the woman’s gifts in today’s society: “In a world like ours, dominated by technology, we feel the need for this feminine complementarity, so that the human race can live in the world without completely losing its humanity” (Address, 22 March 2009).

With this series of articles I would like to delve into the question of what women have to offer humanity. I’ll consider five of woman’s most outstanding traits that enrich and ennoble humanity, both within the Church as well as society in general.

Foundational for my approach is the concept of the human person as gift. “If the human person is the only creature on earth that God has wanted for its own sake,” the Second Vatican Council fathers wrote, “the person can fully discover his true self only in a sincere giving of himself” (Gaudium et spes, n.24).

Women will find fulfillment to the extent that we spend the treasure of our femininity on those around us.

Joan Kingsland, a consecrated woman of Regnum Christi, teaches theology at Mater Ecclesiae College in Greenville, R.I. She received a doctorate from the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family in Rome.

dragging them under their vehicles. Changes in routine take time.

There are those in the habit of always parking in the same spot. Should someone beat them to it, they become discombobulated. “Someone’s in my parking space. I can’t attend Mass.”

Once your car is parked, you enter the church and genuflect at the end of the pew.

You are genuflecting to the Blessed Sacrament reserved in the tabernacle in front of you. But in some churches the tabernacle has a special side chapel. Never mind. You genuflect anyway out of habit.

I once attended a performance in which the stage set resembled a sanctuary. People entering the theater automatically genuflected in the general direction of the stage. You knew who the Catholics in the audience were.

Now, it’s time to take your seat — and I do mean your seat. People tend to sit in the same seat. What to do if your favorite seat is occupied?

Well, if you’re a woman, you could whack the interloper with your purse. A guy might use the hockey maneuver known as “the body check.”

It’s best not to sit on their lap, however. It’s too obvious. Of course, you can always lean against the back wall with those who have that particular habit.

I was amused at the end of the Christmas season when volunteers who had been disassembling the church manger got as far as the last pew before running out of steam.

When people arrived for Sunday Mass, some found their seat already occupied by a wayward camel. Not to worry.

Push the camel over into somebody else’s seat. When “somebody else” arrives, he pushes the camel back at you.

Of course, nobody thought to put the darn camel away in the closet.

Well, you have your seat and Mass has begun. Maybe you’re in the habit of reading the parish bulletin during

the homily. If so, I bet you’ve never heard a good sermon.

Conversely, a good listener never hears a bad sermon.

Maybe you are in the habit of following every spoken word in the “missalette.” It doesn’t matter if the missalette fails to correspond with the liturgical options chosen that day. Pretend it does. The charade is up, however, when you turn the pages at all the wrong times.

And now, it’s time for the collection. Here’s a Church habit from the 1920s — the one dollar bill in the collection basket. Notice, please, that times have changed.

In one church there was a creative person with a unique habit. He or she would routinely fold a dollar bill into a Japanese origami bird. After a few months of this, the collection counters secretly yearned to contort the artist into an uncomfortable shape.

At Communion time, you head for the exit, should that be your habit. You will find yourself in a crowded parking lot with scores of others who share the same habit. Be sure to wave at them. Now be nice.

Not all the habits of Church people are bad. In fact, our Catholic Church in particular considers habitual word and action essential to worship.

This is why those ordained are obligated to safeguard the ritual as it has been handed down, not change it on a personal whim.

Aside from individual styles of celebration, some of the words used at Mass throughout the English speaking world will be changing slightly this year. At first, most of us will occasionally slip into the former translation. We’ll all unconsciously blurt out a wrong word now and again. Don’t be embarrassed. Old habits may die hard, but they do. Before long, we’ll be creatures of new and improved habits.

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

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By Rebecca Aubut Anchor Staff

NEW BEDFORD — The first clue is the statue of St. Francis adorning the front lawn. But it’s when you meet Paul Carrier in person that you know you are in the presence of a Christian gentleman.

“Living a Franciscan life as a layman,” said Father Philip N. Hamel, pastor of St. Joseph-St. Therese Parish of New Bedford, “Paul is an extraordinarily prayerful and humble man.”

Outgoing and personable by nature, Carrier started his life’s journey in Fall River with some of his earliest memories being an altar server for Mass at a convent of religious women.

“I was an altar boy for St. John the Baptist. I used to serve Mass at a convent,” said Carrier, adding that the Fall River convent had been a former home of his, but because he barely remembers living there, he didn’t realize it until

Joyfully living the Christian life

a little later in life. retreat that he experienced and his words and witness had His childhood was spent a major step forward in his a profound impact. participating in sports “That was my con— playing baseball, version day,” said Carfootball and “running rier. through the woods and When Carrier was all that stuff,” laughed hired at The StandardCarrier.

Times, he had moved Joining the Church his wife and children choir at age 15 made a to New Bedford. That lasting impression on was providential behim. “Everywhere we cause a group of Franwent, no matter what ciscan friars were also parish we belonged relocating to the city. to, I was in the choir,” “When we came to said Carrier.

New Bedford, we were He found work interested in the Franat area newspapers, ciscan friars,” recalled eventually ending up Carrier. “At the time at The Standard-Times they had opened a friof New Bedford as a liary on County Street notype operator; a job near The Standardhe would go on to hold Times.” for 37 years. Carrier Opposite the newsattended a few differpaper was a men’s ent parishes, including clothing store called Anchor Person of the Week — Paul CarSt. Anne’s in Fall Riv- rier. (Photo by Rebecca Aubut) Lahey’s. er and Our Lady of the “The family donatImmaculate Conceped the store and turned tion in New Bedford. It was at Christian life. A Franciscan it into a chapel while waiting that parish during a springtime friar come to preach the retreat to build the big chapel next door,” said Carrier. “The friars jokingly called it, ‘Our Lahey’s Chapel.’”

That’s when Carrier fully devoted his life to being part of the Third Order of St. Francis. Based on the ideals of St. Francis of Assisi, members live simple lives immersed in faith and devotion. The location of the chapel across from the newspaper made morning

February 25, 2011

Mass his daily ritual before staring his workday, said Carrier.

When Carrier joined the order, there were many members, among them a local judge. The group is still active, but smaller.

“We’re the remnants. There are only about 30 or 40 of us who are active in the Third Order now,” said Carrier.

Still meeting on the third Sunday every month — aptly chosen because they are the Third Order, making it easy to remember, joked Carrier — they are working hard to build up membership.

“It’s hard to find people who wish to serve in any capacity,” said Carrier. “It’s a commitment.”

The group is also helping guide a Third Order group based out of Wareham to become canonically accepted.

Carrier currently attends St. Joseph-St. Therese and continues to be active in the music ministry, is a lector, member of the parish’s finance council and is an extraordinary minister of holy Communion.

Carrier continues his faith at home, reciting morning and evening prayers, including The Chaplet of the Divine Mercy. The father of three is proud of his two daughters and a musically-inclined son.

“He has done a lot of good music,” said Carrier. “He arranged the music for the dedication of St. Mary’s Church in New Bedford.”

Carrier is also a grandfather of four and great-grandfather of five, and makes sure to keep his family in his daily devotions, especially a grandchild who is very ill.

“We’ve been praying hard,” said Carrier.

Carrier also had health issues, suffering an ischemic stroke in January; a health scare about which Carrier simply said, “I survived it.”

“He has been very involved in parish life,” said Father Hamel. “His service to the parish is never for show and never for gain, but rather a genuine desire to serve the Lord through the parish community.”

To submit a Person of the Week nominee, send an email to fatherrogerlandry@ anchornews.org.

Wareham parish celebrates its centennial, looks to the future continued from page one

been very receptive of activities that have taken place and those planned for the coming months.

“Folks have been taking part, and they’re now gearing up for what’s to come,” he added.

One of the unique centennial events has been the guest-speaker series that runs at the church one Sunday in each month. “Each month we invite a priest or deacon who served at St. Patrick’s to come and visit us and discuss a topic of his choice. It’s been very interesting,” said Father Sullivan. Father John Ozug will be speaking on March 13 at 4 p.m.

The parish centennial committee has been very instrumental in the celebration process said Father Sullivan. One undertaking was the creation of a parish centennial directory, featuring photos of parishioners who chose to be included in the publication.

Several events are slated for the next few weeks.

The Wareham parish will, not surprisingly, celebrate St. Patrick’s Day on March 17 with a Mass on that Thursday and a corned beef and cabbage dinner to follow.

On March 19, the St. Patrick Family Players from St. Patrick’s Church in Watertown will perform the musical cantata, “Resurrection.” The story is based on the story of St. Peter’s experience of the forgiveness of Jesus following his denying the Lord three times shortly before the crucifixion.

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February 25, 2011

The performance was written and produced as part of the Watertown parish’s 150th anniversary celebration in 1997. It’s been so well-received that the group has continued the production since.

Father Sullivan said that the celebrations not only include social events, but also spiritual ones. “We are making plans for a parish self-study event in the near future.

On a larger scale, the parish is coordinating a pilgrimage to Ireland set for October 6-15. “We will visit Dublin, the Boyne Valley, Armagh, Downpatrick, Croagh Patrick and many other sites associated with the life and ministry of St. Patrick,” said Father Sullivan.

While recalling the past 100 years, the parish is also looking toward the future, with a scheduled capital campaign slated for the fall to finance renovations in the parish hall and Faith Formation center.

The parish’s confirmation class will receive the sacrament at a Mass celebrated by vicar general and moderator of the curia, Msgr.

John A. Perry, on May 23, the actual 100th anniversary of the founding of the parish.

In the early 1800s, Catholics in the scenic coastal community had to travel nearly 18 miles to worship at the nearest church located in Sandwich, then part of the Boston Diocese.

The Diocese of Providence, R.I. was formed and 1872, and

absorbed much of southeastern Massachusetts, including Sandwich and Wareham.

The Fall River Diocese was founded in 1904, and Wareham, still a mission of Sandwich, became a part of the fledgling diocese.

As the 19th century evolved into the 20th century, Wareham’s population, including the Catholic sector, grew and the need for a new parish became evident. On May 23, 1911 St. Patrick’s Parish was born, with Father William F. Sullivan as its first pastor.

As time passed, the summer population of the tourist town swelled so much that St. Patrick’s Church, a former Baptist church on High Street, couldn’t accommodate the large congregations.

St. Anthony’s Chapel in West Harwich became a mission of St. Patrick’s in 1935.

On the feast of the Immaculate Conception in 1940, Bishop James E. Cassidy dedicated the new St. Patrick’s Church located next door to its predecessor. The building was a charming, colonial-style edifice.

Through the years, many dedicated priests and parishioners helped build the parish into what it is today.

Very instrumental in the parish growth and vitality was the arrival of the Sisters of the Missionary Servants of the Most Blessed Trinity in 1940. The Sisters served as catechists and ran a kindergar-

ten class from 1950 to 1967. Their influence is still alive today with Sister Catherine Lamb’s ministry to the home-bound.

Father John M. Sullivan became pastor in June of 2009, and Father Ron Floyd currently serves as a parochial vicar.

The Catholics of Wareham once had to walk nearly 20 miles to attend Mass. Today, Catholics in the town located far into Buzzards Bay celebrate their rich history all the while ensuring a future as fruitful as the last 100 years as a parish family.

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February 25, 2011

On 80th birthday, Vatican Radio rides wave of digital technology

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Eighty years ago, a persistent pope and a scientific pioneer teamed up to create Vatican Radio, launching an evangelization tool that reached virtually every corner of the globe.

Today, Vatican Radio is riding the latest wave of digital technology to expand its audience and its services, with an Internet presence in more than 40 languages.

The anniversary celebrations kicked off in February with a retrospective Vatican Museums exhibit.

Among the items on display was the microphone Pope Pius XI used to broadcast the first radio message to the world — in Latin, of course — on Feb. 12, 1931.

At that time, radio broadcasting was still in its infancy, but the pope insisted he wanted his own radio station. He turned the project over to Guglielmo Marconi, the Italian inventor who developed wireless technology, who was only too happy to help.

It still stands as one of the most successful collaborative efforts involving the Church and modern science. The image of Pope Pius at the microphone seemed to change the role of the papacy itself; from then on, every pope would be the Church’s “first communicator.”

It’s a legacy Pope Benedict XVI wants to preserve and build on as the Vatican’s media adapt to the digital age. One of the pope’s first in-house visits at the Vatican was to Vatican Radio, where employees gave him an iPod nano pre-loaded with classical music.

In late April, the pope will address members of the European Broadcasting Union when they meet in Rome, and his speech is expected to highlight the Church’s ongoing investment in communications resources and technology.

In 1931, Pope Pius saw radio as a God-given opportunity to reach countries where missionaries and other Church personnel were not free to work. At the center of Vatican Radio’s mission, then and now, was the pope’s voice.

“The electric radio waves will carry your word of peace and your blessing through space to the whole world,” Marconi told the pope before the inaugural broadcast.

During and immediately after World War II, Vatican Radio broadcast more than 1.5 million messages to help reunite prisoners of war and refugees with their families. Some prisoners still remember the radio’s transmissions being played through the loudspeakers of internment camps.

After the war, Vatican Radio began a new chapter, broadcasting daily to communist countries behind the Iron Curtain. When East European communism gave way to democracy, the radio was inundated with more than 40,000 letters of thanks from Catholics and others who had listened to the programs for decades.

Vatican Radio still transmits to Catholic populations that are culturally isolated, which increasingly include large groups of foreign work-

ers. In parts of the Middle East, for example, millions of Christian immigrants from Asia can tune in to Vatican Radio programs in various languages. Other broadcasts reach Catholic minorities in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan.

Over the years, Vatican Radio has developed a staff that works not only in many languages but in 15 different alphabets. It’s a unique resource at the Vatican, one that positions Vatican Radio to be a key player in the digital age.

At a Vatican event in mid-February, U.S. Msgr. Peter B. Wells said in a speech that Vatican Radio has a crucial role in the modern world, as a voice for religious freedom, dialogue and harmony. To do that, he said, the radio needs to be savvy about modern media and technology, which can deliver a message to millions of people on their cell phones or other personal devices.

“It is no longer enough to go on air, to publish, to write. Today, one needs to be present in the marketplaces, to update the webpages, in order to reach a world ever hungrier for news,” Msgr. Wells said.

“In other words, not having new technical tools at one’s full disposal, or not knowing about the most current tools, will mean that one’s message will arrive late, will arrive wrong and might even arrive in vain,” he said.

Msgr. Wells also spoke about media convergence at the Vatican.

“Convergence,” a term used by Pope Benedict in 2008, has become a watchword among Vatican officials as they attempt to unify and coordinate the Vatican’s wide variety of communications tools — including TV, radio, newspaper, publishing and press office.

Msgr. Wells said convergence has already moved ahead, with increased cooperation between Vatican Radio, the Vatican Television Center and the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. But he said there are much broader and bigger plans to “establish the permanent presence of the Holy See in the world of new media.”

The speech by Msgr. Wells was significant in ways unique to the Vatican, and sent important signals.

In effect, the U.S. monsignor was speaking for the Secretariat of State, where he is assessor for general affairs. He left no doubt that media convergence will not simply be a slogan at the Vatican.

In fact, Vatican officials are excited about the next big step in communications: the unveiling of a Vatican multimedia news site. The site will be a one-stop Internet portal for news and features from CTV, Vatican Radio, the Vatican newspaper, the Vatican press office and the missionary news agency Fides.

Officials plan to launch the project perhaps as early as Easter. When it’s running, many expect Vatican Radio to take a leading role in providing content — the latest transformation of an institution that began with a pope and a microphone.

prepping to hit the stage — Justin Bieber is pictured in a scene from the 3-D movie “Never Say Never.” For a brief review of this film, see CNS Movie Capsules below. (CNS photo/Paramount)

CNS Movie Capsules NEW YORK (CNS) — The following are capsule reviews of movies recently reviewed by Catholic News Service.

“Justin Bieber: Never Say Never” (Paramount) This genial 3-D profile of teen pop singer and musician Justin Bieber showcases home movies of his childhood, footage documenting his rise to stardom via social media celebrity, backstage preparations for his sold-out concert at New York’s Madison Square Garden as well as musical performances recorded there and at other venues. Director Jon M. Chu’s portrait of a likable young man striving to resist the temptations of suddenonset fame is not only perfectly acceptable for audiences of any age, it also highlights his close bonds with his mother and grandparents and the Christian faith he shares with them, typified onscreen by the prayers he and his entourage recite before each show. The Catholic News Service classification is A-I — general patronage. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is G — general audiences.

“Unknown” (Warner Bros.)

Injured in a taxi accident while visiting Berlin for a biotechnology conference, an American botanist (Liam Neeson) awakens to find that his wife (January Jones) doesn’t recognize him and that a stranger (Aidan Quinn) has assumed his identity. His efforts to unravel the mystery are aided by the cab driver (Diane Kruger) who saved his life in the smashup and by an ex-East German secret police official (Bruno Ganz) now working as a private investigator. Based on Didier van Cauwelaert’s novel — and also featuring Frank Langella as the stateside colleague to whom the scientist turns to confirm

his story — director Jaume ColletSerra’s reasonably diverting thriller benefits from Neeson’s strong presence. A late-reel conversion story aside, though, there is little on offer beyond surface entertainment.

Brief semi-graphic marital lovemaking, considerable hand-to-hand violence, a suicide, fleeting sexual humor, a few uses of profanity, a couple of instances each of crude and crass language. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG13 — parents strongly cautioned.

Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

“The Roommate” (Screen Gems) Bottom-of-the-class campus horror flick about an Iowa-bred University of Los Angeles freshman (Minka Kelly) whose obsessive roommate (Leighton Meester) secretly makes life difficult — and ultimately dangerous — for anyone who seems likely to come between them. Those discovering to their cost that three’s a crowd include

a couple of the wide-eyed Hawkeye’s friends (Danneel Harris and Aly Michalka), her frat-boy love interest (Cam Gigandet), a predatory professor (Billy Zane) and — perhaps most tragically — a kitten named Cuddles. As directed

by Christian E. Christiansen, the proceedings drag along sluggishly until an overheated climax and, though the level of onscreen violence is low, so too is the bedroom behavior of some of the characters.

Bloodless but occasionally deadly mayhem, nongraphic nonmarital sexual activity, cohabitation, samesex kissing, brief partial nudity, at least one use of profanity, about a dozen crude terms and a bit of crass language. The Catholic News Service classification is L — limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. 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, February 27 at 11:00 a.m.

Celebrant is Father Timothy J. Goldrick, pastor of St. Nicholas of Myra Parish in North Dighton

February 25, 2011

E

veryone’s life is a journey, and we’re all a work in progress. Hopefully, there’s a happy ending — heaven — but that depends on our making the right choices in response to God’s grace along the way, or at least on the rebound at the end of our life. (That’s why we ask so insistently in the Hail Mary for her to pray for us sinners … at the hour of our death.)

For we have various and sometimes conflicting desires and urges: to eat, drink, be merry, rest, show and be shown affection — all things that give us pleasure at a fairly basic physical level. But we also desire what could be called second-order preferences, more spiritual: for truth, goodness, beauty, love, success in sports, relationships, family, work — in short, all that comprises happiness in life.

Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” He is the way, and his way leads to Calvary and then the resurrection and eternal life.

Self-denial is a necessary part of this journey. We must be ready to give up present

I can resist everything except temptation

Little and Short” reminding us pleasure for future gain. This that “whatsoever delight” may is a law of life. The athlete attract our appetite will always must practice, exercise and be “little, simple, short and diet if he wants to be successsuddenly past.” Or Weapon 3, ful. The student must buckle “The Loss of Something Betdown and hit the books if he wants to master a subject. No self-denial, no virtue. First-order preferences must sometimes be sacrificed to second-order ones. Indeed, that is what distinguishes

By Dwight Duncan man from the other animals, that we can subject our desires to ter” succinctly and memorably the rule of reason, subordinatwants us not to be a “mad ing lower to higher desires. merchant” who “sells your I was reminded of this soul” in order “to buy a trifle.” recently when reading the But perhaps most powerful is introduction by Gerard WeWeapon 9, “The Peace of a gemer, Director of the Center Good Mind,” which begins by for Thomas More Studies at asking, “Why dote so on these the University of Dallas, to transient, worldly joys” and the new edition of St. Thomas concludes with the strongly More’s “The Life of Pico,” rhymed declaration: just published by Scepter “You shall no pleasure comPress. Commenting on the parable find life of Italian Renaissance “To th’ inward gladness of a humanist Pico della Miranvirtuous mind.’” dola (1463-1494), St. Thomas Self-restraint and self-concomposed “12 short ‘Weapons trol are a particular challenge of Spiritual Battle.’” These amidst our culture of plenty weapons are maxims easand abundance. The average ily remembered and quickly recalled. The first is “Pleasure American can now enjoy food

Judge For Yourself

Pope to create three new saints, including founder of Xaverian order

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI will create three new saints October 23, including the founder of the Xaverian missionaries, Blessed Guido Maria Conforti.

The pope announced the date for the canonization ceremony at the end of what is known as an ordinary public consistory, a formal ceremony opened and closed with prayer, during which cardinals present in Rome express their support for the pope’s decision to create new saints.

Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes, read brief biographies of the three in Latin February 21.

Blessed Conforti, founder of the Xaverian Foreign Missionary Society, was born in 1865 in Italy.

Vice rector of a seminary even before his priestly ordination, he was said to have filled seminarians with an awareness of their obligation to be missionaries.

In 1895, seven years after becoming a priest, he founded a congregation of consecrated men dedicated to the evangelization of non-Christians.

Named bishop of Ravenna in 1902, he was plagued by ill

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health and decided to resign.

But five years later, he was once again named a bishop, this time as head of the Diocese of Parma.

He visited the Xaverian missionaries in China a few years before his death in 1931. Pope John Paul II declared him “blessed” in 1996.

The Xaverian missionaries today include 793 priests and brothers, and 183 Xaverian Sisters; they have a strong presence in Europe and the Americas.

The others to be canonized October 23, World Mission Sun-

day, are: — Blessed Louis Guanella, an Italian priest who lived 18421915. He founded the Servants of Charity, the Daughters of St. Mary of Providence, and the Confraternity of St. Joseph, whose members pledge to pray for the sick and dying.

— Blessed Bonifacia Rodriguez Castro, who lived 18371905. The Spanish founded the Servants of St. Joseph, a congregation originally dedicated to providing a religious and technical education to poor women.

and drink and amusement that only decadent Roman emperors or a Louis XIV could enjoy in ages past.

The result is an epidemic of obesity, proliferation of addictions to tobacco, alcohol and drugs (not to mention Internet pornography), and record levels of personal and collective indebtedness, not for the sake of investment in a better future, but to fund consumption.

People are borrowing against their future to spend lavishly on present consumption.

We have lost all sense of moderation, shame, guilt and personal responsibility. Pope John Paul II lamented the “loss of the sense of sin.”

Oscar Wilde said, “I can resist everything except temptation.”

Impulsivity is a problem.

One trick is to put temptation out of reach, like Odysseus having himself tied to the mast so he wouldn’t succumb to the sirens. We’ve got to plan ahead to live according to reason. Getting up at a set time in the morning, rather than succumbing to laziness,

gets the day off to a good start.

Pardon the admittedly scatter-shot hectoring, but we need to exercise moderation in food and drink. We need always to treat everyone with respect. Marital fidelity is crucial. Love is the only adequate response to people, and in order to make the sincere gift of self, we need self-possession and self-control.

While television and the Internet definitely have their legitimate uses, we shouldn’t be wasting hours each day watching television at home or just surfing the Internet at work. We need to stop being a couch potato or like Pavlov’s dog and become the human being we were meant to be (and actually, are, even in spite of ourselves.)

Moderation in the pursuit of pleasure is the cardinal virtue of temperance. Moderation is also key to avoid the seven capital sins of pride, greed, lust, anger, gluttony, envy and sloth. We need self-control, it turns out, not just to thrive, but to survive. Who’d a thunk it?

Dwight Duncan is a professor at UMass School of Law Dartmouth. He holds degrees in civil and canon law.

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NFP — A program for a happier marriage continued from page one

chor. “NFP is a very natural and respectful method. A woman should expect her husband to respect and not medicate her body.

They shouldn’t be making their wives take birth control pills; not to mention that it separates the unitive from the procreative aspects of a relationship.”

Married Catholics have viable options when it comes to planning and preparing for a family that don’t include prescribed contraceptives, although often this information is not readily given by doctors.

“First of all, most doctors aren’t instructed in NFP,” said Celina Dellamorte, who has been practicing NFP for the last 20 years with her husband John. As parishioners at Corpus Christi Parish in East Sandwich, the duo also has been training other couples in NFP for the last decade.

“They’re not going to recommend a natural form of childbirth,” she added. “But there are doctors out there who are NFP-only and they’ll work with couples. Once a woman thinks her cycles are irregular or has a medical problem, she goes to a doctor and quite often the doctor will prescribe things she doesn’t really need.”

Catherine Fraga, a parishioner at St. Julie Billiart Parish in North Dartmouth, has adopted an NFP method known as the Sympto-Thermal Method es-

poused by the Couple to Couple League and she stressed that popping pills was never an option for her.

“We have all this concern about buying food without artificial hormones but we’re taking pills every morning and pumping our bodies with hormones,” said Fraga, who is helping to promote a new Couple to Couple League training session beginning March 26. “It just shows the bias they have, because if it wasn’t religiously motivated, you’d think it would have more credence. Because people have a problem with the Church and having God in the bedroom, they dismiss it.”

The Sympto-Thermal Method basically examines three key signs for fertility: the presence of cervical mucus, which appears in response to estrogen; an elevation in the woman’s basal body temperature, which rises after ovulation in response to progesterone; and changes in the cervix, such as the appearance of an indentation or dimple where the cervical opening is located.

“I know some methods will just teach about cervical mucus and how to determine whether a woman is fertile or not,” Fraga said. “This teaches you multiple factors that can help you, because sometimes your temperature can be out of whack and it’s really not going to tell you

Revise d and Updat ed

anything.”

Like Fraga, John and Celina Dellamorte adopted the Couple to Couple League’s technique when they first got married in 1990 and they have been offering training sessions in the Sympto-Thermal Method in English and Spanish throughout the Fall River Diocese for the last 10 years.

Celina noted that if a couple is properly instructed and motivated, the method is known to be “99.9 percent effective.”

“The reason for that is it employs a series of cross-checks,” John Dellamorte added. “It’s not just one physical sign — you’re looking for the occurrence of three independent physical signs that occur at the same time. So you know when things are happening.”

Another popular NFP method is known as the Creighton Model FertilityCare System, sometimes referred to as CrMS or simply FertilityCare. It was developed by Dr. Thomas Hilgers, founder and director of the Pope Paul VI Institute in Omaha, Neb., and is also based on observations of cervical mucus to track a woman’s fertility.

The Creighton Model has women observe certain biological signs to identify times of fertility and infertility. These signs include cervical mucus and bleeding patterns, and can be observed and analyzed daily in all types of menstrual cycles.

“There are two parts to it,” said Monica Bergeron, a certified Creighton Model Fertili-

February 25, 2011 tyCare Practitioner. “There’s fertile care, which is the actual charting and teaching couples to appreciate fertility. Then there’s Natural Procreative Technology, known as NaPro Technology.

Instead of trying to manipulate the woman’s body to try to stem the tide of fertility or make the woman fertile, what we do is try to find out what is actually happening within the woman’s body and allow the couples to take advantage of either their fertility or infertility on any given day. That’s why the Church supports this method. It’s not contraception. It’s a beautiful method. I’ve been using it in my marriage for eight years now and we have three children.”

Doctors and practitioners like Bergeron can work with the couple to teach them how to chart a woman’s fertile periods and then conduct blood tests to determine estrogen and progesterone levels prior to and after ovulation. This data can help doctors diagnose any potential abnormalities or hormonal deficiencies as well.

“With single women who have problems with PMS or hormone imbalances, a lot of times they are put automatically on contraceptives because the doctors think it will alleviate the symptoms, but the medication doesn’t solve the problem, it just masks it,” Bergeron said.

“If they were trained in the Creighton Model and were able to track their hormones and the different changes in their cycles, it would serve as a medical record that doctors can use to figure out whether they have progesterone deficiencies. Women

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going through menopause can chart it as well, so there are a lot of different uses for the method.

It’s not just for people who are trying to achieve or avoid pregnancy.”

Dr. Carpentier cautioned that the widely used “birth control pill is not a treatment for anything” and there are often documented risks involved with taking it, especially over prolonged periods of time.

“It gives you fake periods, it changes the hormone status in your body by putting artificial and very potent hormones into your blood stream, but it doesn’t cure anything,” he said. “Breast cancer is also a hidden risk that the medical world doesn’t like to talk about, but some studies are showing a 44 percent increased chance of breast cancer in taking hormonal contraceptives. Even the World Health Organization has listed the birth control pill as a class one carcinogen.”

Having a married couple share in the NFP experience is also an important by product that doesn’t happen when the full responsibility of taking contraceptives is placed solely on the woman’s shoulders.

“When you’re just taking a pill, you don’t have to talk about anything,” Fraga said. “In fact, a lot of women don’t talk to their husbands about it. They just go to their ob-gyn and take the pill or have a device put in and they don’t discuss it with their husbands.”

“What surprises many couples when they get involved in the Creighton Method is it teaches the husband and wife to talk about what is most important to them,” Bergeron agreed.

“I think NFP is a form of marriage insurance. The divorce rate for those using NFP is typically below five percent, which is drastically different from the national average, which is now more than 50 percent. That’s a beautiful result of literally just talking to each other about the most important thing in life.”

“I think the hardest part of NFP is saying ‘yes,’” said John Dellamorte. “The hard part is saying yes and putting your trust in God and believing he has a better way. That’s a recurring theme for us Catholics in general.”

For more information about the Couple to Couple League and the upcoming March 26 SymptoThermal Method training session in the diocese, visit www. ccli.org, call 508-264-8466, or email nfp4blessedmarriages@ gmail.com.

For more information about the Creighton Method visit www.fertilitycare.org or www. popepaulvi.com, call 401-4414034, or email iconfertility@ cox.net.

February 25, 2011

Homelessness —Being your brother’s keeper continued from page one

in downtown New Bedford. “It could be a neighbor or a friend, you don’t know what the economy is going to do to yourself. A lot of people think that it’s because of substance abuse, but it’s anyone. We have a lot of people who, for them, it’s their first time in a homeless shelter.”

Originally part of the Market Ministries program, the Sister Rose House was renamed after Sister Rosellen Gallogly, a longtime director of Market Ministries, when the program was subsumed by Catholic Social Services. Now a 90-day sober program that hosts 25 beds, the all-men’s shelter is the only one of its kind in the city.

An extensive intake interview is given to an incoming resident, said Sullivan. It focuses on his medical history, determines what the long-term goals will be, assesses his skills, and then sees to his needs. Everything from working with the housing authority to find a permanent home to setting a gentleman up at the New Bedford career center is all part of the shelter’s attempts to help get residents back on their feet. Even veterans have found their way to the shelter’s door.

“We tell everyone that we’re here to help them,” said Sullivan. “We do our best to help everybody become responsible so that they can gain their freedom through independent living, to become part of the community and feel good about themselves.

That’s what we are here for, to help one another.”

Across town at the Donovan House, it’s women and children who find stability within its walls. Offering transitional housing for single mothers with children, the shelter works to connect the families with supportive services such as food pantries, child care and education.

“These are young mothers and they are coming to us for assistance. It’s hard to ask for help,” said Julie Gilespie, who recently joined the staff at the shelter. “They don’t come right out of the woodwork. We don’t know where they are, or who they are; it could be your neighbor and you don’t know it. It can be a very humbling experience to ask for help.”

When Catholic Social Services threw its support behind Market Ministries after funding became an issue, no one was more grateful than Luke Almeida, coordinator of the meals program for more than 20 years.

“I take it as a blessing for Catholic Social Services’ stepping in and continuing the services that Market Ministries

15

The Anchor was doing,” he said, of the soup kitchen that serves an average of 100 people a day.

“A big misconception is you have people thinking that people getting the services don’t need the services,” said Almeida. “I honestly think if someone didn’t need the services, they wouldn’t be there. Too many people are very conscious about entering these places; there are a lot of people who have pride and don’t step in, and they can use the service.”

Not only can people get a meal, said Almeida, but staff and volunteers will work to help those in need find additional sources of support.

“We all work together as a referral system,” said Almeida. “If they need something we don’t offer, we try and steer them to where they can continue services.”

The same network of support is found at Sister Rose House; if a woman walks through the door, the staff will immediately work to find appropriate housing, said Sullivan. A prime example of the network support among all the programs.

“We don’t turn people away,” said Sullivan, who said that even with a limit of 25 beds at the shelter, additional mattresses, blankets and pillows were setup during this year’s extremely cold winter nights to allow for an overflow of extra bodies.

“Even if someone calls, we’ll give them some numbers and try to brainstorm support services for them.”

There are success stories within the shelters. Sullivan cites men who have become self-supportive or moved back in with their families. Gilespie shared a story of a woman who recently earned her GED and was in the process attending a college in the Springfield area.

“That’s a success in our book,” she said.

Even as success stories filter out, the whisper of additional state budget cuts may become a

louder voice within area shelters, food pantries and soup kitchens.

“It would be devastating to this population,” said Sullivan.

“It would be detrimental for them if the services were lost to them. It would be horrible.”

“If they cut all the services that people are utilizing, people will wonder how they are going to survive,” said Almeida.

“I guess all the people-that-be who are making these cuts aren’t seeing the big picture. It always seems that the services in the human field are the first to get cut.”

Almeida hopes that regardless of what Beacon Hill deems the state’s priorities, people will not lose sight of helping their fellow man.

“People need to continue to donate and try to help fund the services,” said Almeida. “People can feel it in their hearts and donate to different agencies to keep us afloat and to help us to continue the services to the public. I hope that everybody is compassionate and realizes there are two sides to the picture, not just one side. Put yourself in the shoes of the people out here: how would you want to be treated?”

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THANK YOU

Diocesan history

50 years ago — Father Alfred J. Gendreau was named pastor of Blessed Sacrament Parish in Fall River and Father William H. O’Reilly was named administrator at St. Peter’s Parish in Dighton, succeeding Father Gendreau.

10 years ago — A faith-based cancer support program for Catholics was established at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in North Falmouth by then-pastor and former Anchor editor Msgr. John F. Moore, who himself is a two-time cancer survivor.

25 years ago — Bernard Cardinal Law, Archbishop of Boston, accepted the invitation of the Most Reverend Daniel A. Cronin, Bishop of Fall River, to make a pastoral visit to clergy, religious and laity of the diocese.

Cardinal Law was principal celebrant of a Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Fall River.

One year ago — Linda Santo, mother of Little Audrey Marie Santo, whose sainthood cause has been opened at the Vatican, gave a talk at St. Kilian’s Parish in New Bedford.

Little Audrey is the girl from Worcester, Mass. who survived a near-fatal dose of phenobarbital and lived out her life in a coma.

16

Youth Pages

February 25, 2011

cool cats — Students in kindergarten through grade four at St. John the Evangelist School in Attleboro were visited by Cat Country WCTK 98.1 radio recently as part of a promotion program at the station. Children recited the “Pledge of Allegiance” which was then broadcast each weekday morning the following week. Shown are first-graders with their certificates for participating in the program.

honduran helpers — Pamela Potenza of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Seekonk recently visited Coyle and Cassidy High School to thank the members of the Oscar A. Romero Chapter of the Spanish Honor Society for organizing a service project to benefit the Diocesan Mission in Guaimaca, Honduras.

Honor Society members asked all students taking Spanish to contribute $7 to purchase a T-shirt for the more than 70 poor girls who attend the Centro Marie Poussepin which is operated by the Dominican Sisters of the Presentation. Enough money was collected to purchase 280 T-shirts printed with the school logo. Additionally 21 scientific calculators were purchased and as an added surprise, was a donation of 20 girls’ soccer uniforms by Thomas Peleski, athletic director at the Taunton school. The Sisters at the center have formed a girls’ soccer team and now the girls will have uniforms. An additional donation of $100 was given to Potenza to purchase athletic socks for the girls. Kevin Dupont and Julia Aparicio of Mr. Nunes’ Spanish III Honors class were the student leaders for the project. From left: Aparicio, Dupont, Potenza and Nunes.

mummy’s the word — St. Stanislaus School fifth-graders stand near the pyramid they constructed as part of their unit of study on ancient Egypt. Students at the Fall River school also constructed a sarcophagus, a mummy, canopic jars, and other artifacts found in pyramids. They prepared a multimedia presentation explaining how pyramids were built and took younger students on tour of their pyramid.

century celebration — The two first-grade classes at St. Mary-Sacred Heart School in North Attleboro celebrated the 100th day of school which happened to coincide with Valentine’s Day this year. In recognition, students participated in a variety of activities revolving around the number 100. They sorted and strung 100 dyed macaroni pieces to make necklaces, colored in a 100-inch snake, and stacked 100 cups. They all participated in a treasure hunt for dots, numbered 1-100, placed around the classroom. Most dressed up as if they were 100 years old. They baked 100 sugar cookies, and each student helped number them with red icing up to 100. Pictured is Mrs. Sullivan’s first-grade class.

February 25, 2011

W

hat is freedom? What does it mean to you?

What freedoms do you live and try to defend every day?

Over the past few weeks we have witnessed the Egyptian people, especially the young, rallying their country into one voice and one cause in order to bring about a freedom that many of them have never experienced in their lives — the right to choose their leaders and have their voice be heard in their government’s service to their people. Their revolution became their liberation.

Their liberation became their answered prayer. But, they know, this is only the beginning.

With every freedom comes responsibilities, especially the moral responsibility to use one’s freedom for the good and to respect the freedom of others. As a teen-ager there are many things your parents give you freedom to do, and still many others they do not.

And those that they do not

Youth Pages

17

The desire to be free

are always the ones you find the sacrament of reconciliayourself arguing about. Right? tion can give us that freedom.

Although it seems you’re both It eases the heavy burdens we walking in different direccarry. God wants so much to tions you’ll soon realize that give us that freedom that all the destination is the same — we need to do is ask for it. But your well-being. What difwe need to face up to these fers is your personal points of view. Who is the expert in these matters? Remember this: your parent’s intentions are always good ones. The freeBy Ozzie Pacheco dom they give you is for teaching you how to honor and love them. The freedom they don’t sins we’ve committed and the give you is to teach you how inner drives that lead us to sin. much they care and love you.

This is the first step toward What freedom do you most healing and receiving freedom desire? I bet you’re probably from sin. In the Old Testament thinking of one related to we hear how David cried out, some human need. There is “Create in me a clean heart, O a freedom that we all should God, and put a new and right strive to have. Many of us, spirit within me” (Ps 51:10). however, choose to ignore it Like David, we too must realwhile others try to gain the ize that we can’t change our strength and courage to reheart on our own. Only God ceive it. Yes, it is that desire to can free us from the desires be free of our sins. Receiving that cause us so much pain

Be Not Afraid

science guys and gals — Students in grades six-eight at St. James-St. John School in New Bedford recently exhibited their Science Fair projects. Pictured are the top three winners from each grade level.

onward and upward? — Pictured are science fair winners from Holy Trinity School in Fall River. These students will advance to Bristol Community College for the regional fair.

and grief and havoc. It’s not enough to be sorry. We must also have a deep change of heart in order to love as God loves.

When children argue or fight, they seem to get over their differences very quickly. But for adults, it takes much longer to forgive or ask for forgiveness. Maybe we need to think like children again. How different our world would be! Perhaps we need to become more sensitive to the sins in our lives and turn to the Lord in repentance.

After all, isn’t God’s love for us greater than any sin we can commit? Isn’t God’s forgiveness the greatest freedom we can obtain?

In Rachel Lampa’s song, “Day of Freedom,” she reminds us of God’s great love and forgiveness: “One man lived to bring a vision.

One man died to save a nation. One voice calls us all to

freedom in the name of love, reaching out to one another, joining hands of every color.

Name each one a sister and brother in the name of love.

Let us praise the name of Jesus all across the world.

We’re all children of the faith, though we walk in different ways, let’s live our lives to celebrate the day of freedom. Tear down all the walls between us. Break up all the chains that bound us. Find the common ground beneath us in the name of love.”

So whether you’re fighting for the freedom of a nation, freedom from sin, or simply to be worry free, don’t despair.

Don’t be afraid. God is by your side. Just remember, however, that with every freedom comes a responsibility. Respond to it with the love that God has given you and the respect for others who defend and live that same freedom.

Ozzie Pacheco is Faith Formation director at Santo Christo Parish, Fall River.

catholic school fan — Students at St. Joseph’s School in Fairhaven were asked to write an essay about Catholic schools for Catholic Schools Week. The following is an excerpt from Rachel McGuire’s submission: “A Catholic school is a religious gem.

Your flower of faith grows here. It starts as a seed little and weak, waiting for someone to nurture it and give it the chance to grow strong and tall. So through the course of eight years your blossom of faith plants strong roots and a sturdy stem, leaves and a flower head. A beauty of carefully grown faith, a work of love, a peaceful sight, and a place sheltered from society’s sneers where only you hear of God’s goodness and love, his hands of mercy. Catholic school is a place where wisdom’s wind blows softly through the garden, whispering into students’ ears. A wondrous place for God’s love to be taught from the start of pre-school until the end of eighth grade. Where loyal and true friends are found. A place filled with good teachers. A place filled with God’s light. A garden of faith and Catholic belief, a place called St. Joseph School.”

The Anchor is always pleased to run news and photos about our diocesan youth. If schools or parish Religious Education programs have newsworthy stories and photos they would like to share with our readers, send them to: schools@anchornews.org

18

The Anchor

February 25, 2011

Franciscan Sisters miraculously survive violent car accident

Recession indirectly helping some marriages

a patch of black ice that sent the van careening and then rolling over four times before landing in a snow-covered ditch off the side of the highway.

Eyewitnesses driving behind them were amazed to find that not only did all four Sisters survive the violent accident, but also escaped with only minor cuts and bruises.

“I think it was black ice, because we didn’t hit anything and the steering wheel didn’t move,” said aspirant Claudia, who was taking her turn in the driver’s seat when the accident occurred.

“The van started spinning and that’s when I realized what was happening. We rolled off the left side of the highway and thank God we didn’t hit anyone else.”

While the fact that all four passengers in the van were wearing seat belts is certainly one reason they survived the crash, the Sisters also believe that God and their beloved Mother Mary had a hand in allowing them to walk away from the incident relatively unscathed.

“People stopped right away to help us and they were amazed when I opened the door and got out of the car,” said aspirant Agnes.

“People told us the van flipped over,” said Sister Maria Lydwine. “One of the persons who stopped after the accident told us he was praying to Mother Mary that no one died in the accident.

deepened their commitment to their marriages.

The survey also discovered that couples who regularly attend religious services together are more likely to agree that the recession has strengthened that commitment. They are more likely to report having a very happy marriage and less likely to be at high risk for divorce.

The National Marriage Project was founded in 1997 and housed at Rutgers University until 2009. The Project’s mission is to provide research and analysis on the health of marriage in America, to analyze the social and cultural forces shaping contemporary marriage, and to identify strategies to increase marital quality and stability.

Brad Wilcox, director of the NMP, told The Anchor that all things being equal, the recession could have been an “unmitigated disaster” for marriage. Although frequent disagreements about money are a great predictor of divorce and financial hardship increases marital stress, there are more factors at play in tough economic times.

How the recession impacts individuals and how it affects marriage as a whole is different.

Some individual couples will encounter greater stress and have more thoughts of divorce, but a dramatic increase in unemployment correlates with a decline in the national divorce rate, he said.

“The recession has lead to a kind of sobering up in the culture that has indirectly benefited marriage,” he said.

There has been an increase in the saving rate and decline in the number of people accumulating credit card debt. Wilcox called it a “new spirit of thrift.”

“There are some people responding to that stress in their lives by relying more upon their spouse and their family and some just got this general message that we’re living in tough times and need to pay more attention to one of our most fundamental relationships,” he said.

Wilcox acknowledged that some couples that shelved divorce proceedings during the recession may pick up where they left off as the economy improves. For others divorce might be permanently off the table.

Studies have shown that the vast majority of couples who report unhappy marriages will say they are happy five years down the road if they remain together, he said.

“There are ebbs and flows in any marriage,” he said, adding that he would not be surprised if couples “grow out of that marital difficulty.”

Sheila Weber, executive director of National Marriage Week

continued from page one

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It’s a miracle that no one did.”

When Mother Simona was first notified about the accident, she praised God that no one had been killed or injured.

“The only thing I was thinking is a van can be replaced, but the Sisters are not easy to replace,” Mother Simona said.

“It’s just incredible that no one was killed and that no one even suffered any serious injuries: no broken arms or legs. And as the superior I can’t imagine what it would be like to be preparing for four funerals right now and having to call their families.”

“It’s a frightening thing and that’s why we just want to publicly give thanks to God and to the Immaculate for this because it’s just inexplicable,” she added.

The four Sisters involved in the accident are equally amazed and grateful that God’s grace and the guiding hand of the Blessed Mother spared them.

“The people who came to help us, especially the rescue workers, were so happy to see us and to see we were OK,” said Sister Maria Eucharistica. “All of the people who helped us were so concerned. It was so touching that they were worried about us.”

Sister Eucharistica said the accident happened so fast she didn’t feel anything until the van abruptly slammed into the ditch.

“I just braced myself and closed my eyes when we started

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to spin,” she said. “Only my head and back hurt a little afterwards. I was in the back and I guess I was the one tossed around the most.”

“I had some minor scratches on my hands,” added Claudia.

“I remember I grabbed onto the steering wheel and I think that helped me from getting hurt. It all happened so quickly. I can imagine people who die in car accidents don’t even have a chance to think about it. All I could think about at the time was Our Lady.”

Mother Simona was amazed that the window on the passenger’s side of the van where Agnes was sitting didn’t break during the impact, since all the others shattered.

“We even had a guitar with us and when I took it out of the case, it was in perfect condition,” Sister Lydwine said.

Speaking of music, Sister Lydwine couldn’t resist noting the Sisters had been listening to and singing along with Marian hymns when the accident happened.

“Some of the people who stopped noticed the music was still playing inside the van,” she said, laughing.

“I remember the song that was playing as the van was flipping was ‘Sweet, Sweet Mother,’” Sister Eucharistica added, smiling. “I think Our Lady was certainly holding us in her mantel.”

Now that all the Sisters are back, safe and sound, at their New Bedford convent, their only remaining concern is finding a replacement for the van — which was totaled — to continue their apostolic work.

“That van was provided to us by the third order members of the friary in New York,” Mother Simona said. “We’re trying to look for a replacement now so we can continue this apostolate.

Sometimes obstacles like this are a sign that it’s a very fruitful apostolate. I think this is a sign that we need to continue.”

Since the Franciscan Sisters take a strict vow of poverty and cannot own any property in common, they are hoping to raise money to purchase another van or find someone to generously donate a vehicle for them to use.

“We rely on God’s providence for everything: from the little things to the big things,” Mother Simona said. “And we rely on the generosity of people to help us out.”

Those interested in making a donation towards a replacement van for the Sisters can send them to: St. Anthony of Padua Parish, 1359 Acushnet Avenue, New Bedford, Mass. 02746.

Checks should be made payable to “St. Anthony’s Parish” with “Van Fund” in the memo line.

continued from page one

USA, echoed his comments in an interview with The Anchor.

Couples can be on the “brink of disaster,” work through their problems and come out reporting increased companionship with their spouse. They report that resolving conflict is worth the effort, she said.

National Marriage Week USA, which was held February 7-14 this year, seeks to elevate marriage as a national concern and help couples to work to better their own relationships. The initiative, now in its second year, is part of Marriage Week International, founded in Britain in 1997.

Weber added that marriage is good for couples and their children. Research shows that married individuals have greater financial stability, live longer lives, are in better health and report greater personal happiness. Children raised by both their mother and father do better in school, have less trouble with the law and are less likely to face teen pregnancy.

“Putting divorce on hold is not a bad idea,” she said. “We do believe that many more married couples are capable of working through the hard times than they think they are.”

Ann Moberg, who along with her husband Ed serves as coordinator for Retrouvaille of New England, told The Anchor that she has seen married couples rediscover their spouses and heal their relationships. Catholic in origin, Retrouvaille (pronounced re-tro-vi with a long i) is a ministry that allows those in troubled marriages to work through their problems on a weekend experience and six follow-up sessions.

“We are encouraging them to know themselves as people and to share that with their spouse so they can both understand where the other one is coming from,” she said. “You give them hope that they can change.”

Moberg said the number of couples attending the retreats has decreased in the last year and of the couples that are coming, more of them are seeking financial assistance.

“Money’s a big issue,” she said. Although some people may be put off by the cost, Retrouvaille coordinators work to make sure that no couple is turned away because of insufficient finances. They want everyone who needs the program to receive the help it provides.

“People go on the weekend and sometimes it’s their last hope of saving the marriage,” she said.

“I think we all know couples that are hurting and we need to encourage them the best we can to seek the help that they need.”

The Anchor

February 25, 2011 FALL RIVER — Holy Union Sister Ruth Curry (Sister Marie Thomas) a resident of The Landmark in Fall River, died February 13, at the age of 82. She was born in Fall River in 1929, the daughter of the late Joseph and Edith (Bake) Curry, both of Fall River. In addition to her Holy Union Sisters, she is survived by her close friends, Msgr. Ronald Tosti and the Nott Family of Portsmouth, R.I. Sister Curry was a graduate of the former Sacred Hearts Academy, in Fall River. She entered the Holy Union Sisters in Fall River in 1946 and pronounced her final vows on Aug. 22, 1954. She received a B.Ed. from Catholic Teachers College, Providence, R.I. and a M. Ed.

Marian Medal awards presentation on video

FALL RIVER — The 2010 Marian Medals Awards Ceremony is now available on DVD from the Diocesan Office of Communications. The DVD cost is $24.95. To obtain one, please forward a check in that amount payable to the Diocesan Office of Communications, Diocese of Fall River, PO Box 7, Fall River, Mass. 02722. Shipping is included in the video cost.

In Your Prayers Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks Feb. 27 1874, Rev. Philip Gillick, Founder, St. Mary, North Attleboro 1956, Rev. Joseph N. Hamel, Founder, St. Theresa, New Bedford 1995, Rev. John G. Carroll, Retired Pastor, St. Margaret, Buzzards Bay 2005, Rev. Roland B. Boule, Retired Pastor, St. Anne, New Bedford

Feb. 29 1980, Rev. Msgr. James Dolan, Retired Pastor, St. Mary, Taunton March 1 Rev. James F. Masterson, Founder, St. Patrick, Somerset, 1906 Rev. Msgr. P L. Damase Robert, P.R., Pastor, Notre Dame, Fall River, 1948 Rev. John McCarthy, CSC, Stonehill College, North Easton, 2003 Rev. William W. Norton, Retired Pastor, Our Lady of Lourdes, Wellfleet, 2004 March 2 Rev. Antoine Berube, Pastor, St. Joseph, Attleboro, 1936 Rev. James J. Brady, Retired Pastor, St. Kilian, New Bedford, 1941 Rev. Tarcisius Dreesen, SS.CC., Sacred Hearts Monastery, Fairhaven, 1952 Rev. Alphonse E. Gauthier, Pastor, Sacred Heart, New Bedford, 1962 Rev. J. Omer Lussier, Pastor, Sacred Heart, North Attleboro, 1970 March 3 Rt. Rev. Msgr. Timothy P. Sweeney, LL.D., Pastor, Holy Name, New Bedford, 1960

Sister Ruth Curry, SUSC in Reading from the University of Rhode Island.

She taught primary grades for 35 years in schools in Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Penn-

Sister Ruth Curry, SUSC

sylvania and Rhode Island. When she retired from teaching in 1983, she served as assistant coordinator in the Fall River Diocesan Office of Family Ministry in North Dart-

mouth until 1998.

From 1998-2009, Sister Curry was a resource coordinator in the Office of Family Ministry. On weekends from 1994-1997, she was the receptionist for the Religious Education Office of Christ the King Parish in Mashpee.

In 2007 she joined the Holy Union Sisters retirement community at The Landmark where she offered her services to the other Sisters. For the last two years, she volunteered in the SMILE Mentoring Program in the Fall River Public Schools. Sister Curry would have celebrated her 65th anniversary as a Holy Union Sister this December.

Funeral services took place at Holy Name Church in Fall River on February 16. Burial was at St. Patrick’s Cemetery. Donations in Sister Curry’s memory may be made to The Holy Union Sisters Mission Advancement Office, P.O. Box 410 Milton, Mass. 02186-0006.

Around the Diocese 2/26

Courage, a group for people dealing with same-sex attraction while trying to live chastely, will next meet tomorrow at 7 p.m. The group is faithful to the Catholic Church’s teaching on human sexuality. The meeting lasts about an hour and all are welcome. For location and more information call Father Richard Wilson at 508-992-9408.

2/26

An indoor yard sale sponsored by the Couples Club at Holy Name of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish, 121 Mount Pleasant Street, New Bedford, will be held tomorrow from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. For more information call 508-992-6583.

3/4

A World Day of Prayer 2011 service will be held March 4 at 7 p.m. at St. Patrick’s Church, 82 High Street, Wareham. World Day of Prayer is a worldwide ecumenical movement of Christian women of many traditions who come together to observe a common day of prayer each year on the first Friday of March. For more information visit www.wdpusa.org or contact Judith Hewey at 508295-1787.

3/4

The Fall River Area Men’s First Friday Club will meet March 4 at Good Shepherd Parish, 1598 South Main Street, Fall River. Following a 6 p.m.

Mass celebrated by Father Freddie Babiczuk, pastor, the club will enjoy a hot meal in the church hall with guest speaker Norman Sorel, chairman of the St. Anne’s Shrine Historical Restoration Committee. For more information call 508-672-8174.

19 Eucharistic Adoration in the Diocese Acushnet — Eucharistic adoration takes place at St. Francis Xavier Parish on Mondays, Tuesdays, 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, Tuesdays, 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 Saturday from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

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, 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 Freetown — Eucharistic Adoration takes place at St. John Neumann Church every Monday (excluding legal holidays) 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the Our Lady, Mother of All Nations Chapel. (The base of the bell tower).

East Sandwich — Eucharistic Adoration takes place at the Corpus Christi Parish Adoration Chapel, 324 Quaker Meeting House Road, Monday through Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday, 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. Also, 24-hour eucharistic adoration takes place on the First Friday of every month with Benediction at 9 a.m. on Saturday morning.

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 eucharistic adoration every Wednesday from 8:30 a.m. to noon in the Chapel of Reconciliation, with Benediction at noon. Also, there is a First Friday Mass each month at 7 p.m., followed by a Holy Hour with eucharistic adoration. Refreshments follow.

FALL RIVER — Notre Dame Church, 529 Eastern Ave., has eucharistic adoration on Fridays from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. in the chapel.

FALL RIVER — St. Anthony of the Desert Church, 300 North Eastern Avenue, has eucharistic adoration Mondays and Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 7 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.

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.

Falmouth — St. Patrick’s Church has eucharistic adoration each First Friday, following the 9 a.m. Mass until Benediction at 4:30 p.m. The rosary is recited Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 9 a.m.

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.

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.

NORTH DARTMOUTH — Eucharistic adoration takes place at St. Julie Billiart Church, 494 Slocum Road, every Tuesday from 7 to 8 p.m., ending with Benediction.

The sacrament of reconciliation is available at this time.

3/8

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 508336-5549.

3/10

OSTERVILLE — Eucharistic adoration takes place at Our Lady of the Assumption Church, 76 Wianno Avenue on First Fridays from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and every Friday from noon to 5 p.m., with Benediction at 5 p.m.

The next meeting of the Catholic Cancer Support Group will be at Our Lady of Victory Parish in Centerville on March 8 beginning with Mass and anointing of the sick at 7 p.m. in the church. Following Mass the group will move to the parish center for a meeting and social. There will not be a speaker this month, so there will be more time for discussion and support. For more information call Mary Lees at 508-771-1106 or email maryplees@comcast.net.

The Cape and Islands Prayer Group Deanery will sponsor a Day of Recollection March 10 at the Sacred Hearts Retreat Center in Wareham. Father Joseph Byrne, retired priest from the Boston Archdiocese, will speak about prayer, God’s gift to his people. The day will begin at 8:45 a.m. with registration and coffee followed by two presentations, confessions, lunch and quiet time ending with Mass at 3 p.m. For more information call 508-255-4679 or 508-759-2737.

3/10

lowing Mass.

A healing Mass will be celebrated at St. Anne’s Shrine, 818 Middle Street, Fall River on March 10 beginning at 6:30 p.m. Rosary will be recited at 6 p.m. with Benediction and healing prayers immediately fol-

3/10

The Divorced and Separated Support Group will meet March 10 at 7 p.m. in the parish center of St. Julie Billiart Parish, 494 Slocum Road, North Dartmouth. The session will include a screening of “Marriage Breakdown Today,” with discussion to follow. For more information call 508-678-2828, 508-993-0589 or 508-673-2997.

3/26

St. Louis de France Parish, 56 Buffington Street, Swansea, will host weekly Centering Prayer gatherings using a Lectio Divina format beginning March 26 through June 6. The group will meet in the family room of the main church at 6:15 p.m., with prayer beginning promptly at 6:30 p.m. For more information call 508-264-5823 or email forums4ami@gmail.com.

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.

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.

WAREHAM — 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. at St. Patrick’s Church, High Street. 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

A

rguably, the sport of football has, for quite some time now, replaced the venerable

The Anchor

February 25, 2011

The pie is getting more expensive to make game of baseball as “America’s Game.” That could explain why, as of press time, the owners and

the players’ union are embattled of apparel. And unless we fanatics in a sometimes messy negotiation buy a jersey that would set us back session to iron out a new colleca month’s mortgage payment, the tive bargaining agreement. “official” NFL jersey will begin to The main issue? Revenue, fade and peal after several washfinance, capital, cash, respect, or ings. I guess so we’ll have to buy more simply put, money. No matanother in a year or so. ter what, it all boils down to money. How typically new-generation America — easy come, give me more. That’s why football is a great illustration of “America’s Game.”

Here we have two

By Dave Jolivet groups of greedy human beings, each wanting a bigger piece of the pie. As the pie grows larger and larger, the I’ve hummed this mantra a two parties want bigger and bigger millions times through the years slices. in this column, but it must be said Unfortunately, the owners and that the players make obscene the players don’t give a hoot for amounts of respect each year to the old bakers — you and me. play a game ... and they want We’re the saps, I mean the fans more. Sure, there’s a great risk who shell out huge sums of our of serious injury at any moment, hard-earned cash to buy incredibly but they’ve been handsomely expensive tickets to the games; rewarded for playing since they and to buy incredibly expensive were pups — first with praise and jerseys, hats, and assorted pieces adulation as kids, then with special

My View From the Stands

privileges in high school and college, then with millions of bucks as adults.

The owners put a lot of their cash on the line with stadiums and salaries, but most certainly reap more than they sow.

Granted, a great deal of NFL revenue comes from TV coverage, but if the bakers didn’t watch, there wouldn’t be a demand.

Both sides want a bigger slice of the pie, but the ingredients to bake the pie are more expensive.

Yet, no one cares about the bakers. Some day the ovens are going to shut down.

They simply can’t keep producing such expensive pies to be gobbled up by owners and players.

I doubt it, but there may come a day in this country when these individuals will realize the value of a dollar, and what it means to earn one.

Those of us who have or had parents or grandparents who had to go to work as children instead of going to school, or who had to work two or three jobs to support their families, know the value of a buck.

Those of us who raised young children with an anemic salary coming in and had to cut corners every step of the way, know what the value of a dollar is.

Those of us for whom generic products weren’t a money-saving option, but a necessity, know the value of a dollar.

The football labor dispute may be resolved by the time you read this column, but if not, and if a resolution doesn’t come before the proposed lockout, I for one would love to see the sport reel from the effects of the greed of its principals.

It took baseball years to regain the trust of its fans following the lost season of 1994 and the shortened 1995 season. But there’s a new generation of fans out there, and it’s a generation in which many don’t know the value of a dollar, so America’s Game should rebound nicely — as the older bakers slave away.