03.22.19

Diocese of Fall River, Mass. † Friday, March 22, 2019

Deacon Pedro Guevara-Mann, a creative force behind the Salt + Light Media Foundation of Canada, was one of the dynamic speakers at the third annual diocesan Women and Men’s Conference held March 9 at Stonehill College.

(Photo by Mary Pat Tranter)

March 22, 2019 †

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Catholic singer-songwriter to perform for diocesan youth

By Kenneth J. Souza Editor

kensouza@anchornews.org

NORTH DARTMOUTH — Renowned Catholic singer-songwriter Jesse Manibusan acknowledges that one of our greatest faith challenges today is finding ways to connect with youth.

“One of the greatest challenges today in the Church is not getting youth involved, but to somehow regain the trust of young people in the Church, as well as and especially with their parents,” Manibusan recently told The Anchor. “We need heroic humility, honesty, transparency, and a bold accompaniment of young people in faith.”

To that end, Manibusan firmly believes in teaching by example.

“In other words, first and foremost, we must teach the faith by living the faith,” he said. “We should be sharing our stories of struggle and failure, to inspire courage in others — young and old — to share their stories!

Young people and adults freely connect and involve themselves, not only when they’re invited and welcomed, but moreover today when they feel valued and safe! I do everything I can to convey and provide an example of that.”

Manibusan hopes to set an example for the young people in the diocese when he headlines the annual High School Youth Convention on Sunday, March 31 at Bishop Stang High School in North Dartmouth and the subsequent Junior High School Rallies on Monday, April 1 at Bishop Stang and Tuesday, April 2 at Coyle and Cassidy High School in Taunton.

The High School Youth Convention is a day of fun and faith sharing for high school students.

It includes vibrant keynote speakers, the celebration of Mass with Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, S.D.V., workshops on various faith-related topics, and an opportunity to meet and mingle with other youth from all over the diocese.

The Junior High School Rallies 2

† March 22, 2019

are abridged versions of the High School Convention and will open and close with Manibusan, who will lead the students through prayerful and dynamic song and reflection.

In addition to his Godgiven talents as a musician and performer,

directing workshops, parish missions, and retreats. His music is published by Oregon Catholic Press and Spirit and Song, a division of Oregon Catholic Press.

In 2014, he was honored with the National Catholic Youth Award in the Presenter/Artist category from the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministries, Inc. “My ministry is essentially evangelization and catechesis,” Manibusan said. “My approach is unique in that I utilize music, storytelling, humor, audience participation, and multimedia to deliver the general message that ‘Jesus is the mission, and the mission has a Church.’ The sessions may be age-specific, multigenerational and even intercul8 Turn to page 13

Manibusan is also an engaging storyteller, humorist, cathechist, evangelizer and self-professed “encourager.” He is adept at working with any and every age group, and he has a “knack to build an instant rapport with others — connecting to his audience by creating life-giving memories that help deepen their faith and cultivate a joy that inspires service, sacrifice and the celebration of life,” according to the biography on his website.

“My friend, Dr. Bob McCarty, says, ‘Young people are not a problem to be solved, but rather a gift to be shared,’” Manibusan said. “The Apostle Barnabas is the only Apostle who would take ‘Saul’ — the former persecutor of Christians, so named ‘Paul’ — under his wing and encourage him to become one of the greatest evangelizers. I acknowledge, validate, invite, welcome and cheer on the presence and gifts that young people are. St. Barnabas’ name literally means ‘son of encouragement.’

It’s important to remember, without Barnabas, there is no Paul.”

Manibusan earned a master’s degree in Multicultural Ministries from the Franciscan School of Theology in Berkeley, Calif., and travels around the country performing concerts, and

Diocesan Mass of Atonement at St. Mary’s Cathedral will take place during USCCB’s Child Abuse Prevention month

By Kenneth J. Souza Editor

kensouza@anchornews.org

FALL RIVER — Every April, child- and youth-serving organizations — including many Catholic dioceses, parishes, and schools — participate in National Child Abuse Prevention Month as designated by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to highlight the importance of protecting minors from abuse.

These annual efforts are part of the ongoing work of the Church in the U.S. to carry out the bishops’ “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.”

This year, the Fall River Diocese will celebrate a special Mass of Atonement on Sunday, April 7 at 10 a.m. at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Fall River to commemorate this special month-long observance.

“The USCCB has designated April as Child Abuse Prevention month, and one of the highlights is a Mass of Atonement,” said Deacon Joseph E. Regali, director of the diocesan Office of Safe Environment. “Other dioceses may call it another name, but typically the general name is a Mass of Atonement and it is dedicated to the survivors of child sex abuse and clergy sex abuse. I believe this is the first time in our diocese that we will be holding such a Mass.”

Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, S.D.V., will be the principal celebrant and homilist at the Mass of Atonement that will offer special intentions for the young victims of sexual abuse.

“There are (special) Liturgies out there that are separate from a typical Sunday Mass,” Deacon Regali told The Anchor. “Maybe next year we’ll go down that road, but I just wanted to get things going this year and start with the Mass. Next year we’ll look to do something more (elaborate), but we wanted to begin slowly.”

According to Deacon Regali, the Mass of Atonement is just one aspect of Child Abuse Prevention month, and his Office of Safe Environment has been busy preparing to get the word out.

“There are five things, or five bullet points, that we are (hoping to achieve in) our Safe Environment community,” he said. “First of all, we focus during this month to help parents develop a loving and appropriate relationship with their children. Second, to teach their children safety. Third, to know who has access to their children. Fourth, to learn the warning signs of abuse. And fifth, and maybe maybe most important of all, to always trust your instincts.”

Deacon Regali, who was ap-

pointed by Bishop da Cunha last year to head the newly-established Office of Safe Environment for the Fall River Diocese, has been working to update all of the diocesan policies and procedures and its code of conduct in relation to those who have direct contact with young people and minors so that the diocese is in compliance with the USCCB’s aforementioned charter.

“We’ve updated all of our policies and procedures, which have been translated into Portuguese and Spanish, and they are now posted on our diocesan website,” Deacon Regali said. “We’ve also updated our code of conduct, which is brand new. We’re focusing on those individuals who have direct contact with minors.”

These updates now reflect some of the recent changes made at the U.S. bishops’ spring meeting in 2018, which are “more stringent,” according to Deacon Regali.

“The charter was updated this past year, and the language was changed ... to state that anyone who has contact with minors has to take the Safe Environment training,” he said. “I think it used to say ‘substantial contact,’ but now it’s anyone who has contact with minors must have a background check and take the Safe Environment training.”

Stressing that all diocesan clergy and professional teachers in the Catholic

schools are “designated, by law, as mandated reporters,” Deacon Regali said they are required to take the mandated reporter training so “they can identify potential situations of abuse or neglect and report it to the Department of Child and Family Services.”

“The online training is done through CMG Connect,” Deacon Regali said. “I brought that in and the training is good for six years.

Because not everybody has access to a computer, we’re also working on having onsite training. The training is very good and it addresses up-to-date issues like cell phones, texting and sexting, so it’s very up-to-date and very appropriate.”

One of the goals of Child Abuse Prevention month, according to Deacon Regali, is to know the warning signs and to realize that when we think about child molesters, “they look like everyone else,” he said. “They don’t look like scary people. They look like normal people.”

Some of the key warning signs of potential child abusers include: — People who always want to be alone with children, in areas where no one can monitor their interaction; — People who want children to do things that their parents would not permit; — People who are more excited to be with children than adults; and — People who discourage others from participating in activities involving kids.

It’s also important to notice any behavioral changes in children that may suggest they have been traumatized, such as: — Extreme mood swings; — Withdrawal; — Fearlessness; — Excessive crying; — Bed-wetting; — Nightmares; — Fear of going to bed; and — Sleep disorders.

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Bilingual Lenten mission to be led by returning Fall River priest

FALL RIVER — This year, a priest who once lived and was educated in Fall River will be returning to his roots to lead a Lenten mission in Portuguese and English for the parishes of the Fall River Deanery.

Father José Eduardo Medeiros, M.P.S., a member of the Missionary Community of the Most Holy Providence who spent part of his youth in the city,

will lead this year’s mission, preaching on the theme of “Living the Gospel as a Permanent Way of Life — A Lenten Journey of Commitment, Trust and Renewal.”

Father Medeiros currently serves as a Spiritual director, confessor and teacher in his community’s Formation House in São Paulo, Brazil, and also as a missionary, preaching and leading

Bishop da Cunha to speak on immigration at La Salette ATTLEBORO — Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, S.D.V., will be at the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette for an evening program on the timely and complex issue of immigration.

The program is titled “Responding to the Immigrants in our Midst: Is Building a Wall the Answer?”

The National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette and the La Salette chapter of Pax Christi are cosponsoring the event, which will begin at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 4 in the Welcome Center at the shrine, located at 947 Park Street in Attleboro. Pax Christi is an international peace and justice movement.

Bishop da Cunha will talk about Catholic social teaching which should frame our positive response to newcomers who seek refuge and a new life in the United States. Bishop da Cunha is a member of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration, and currently serves on its subcommittee on the 4

Pastoral Care of Migrants, Refugees and Travelers.

His talk will be followed by a short question-andanswer period. Participants will then view a half-hour film entitled “Dying to Live,” which presents a migrant’s perspective on leaving Central America for the U.S. There will be time for reflection and discussion following the film. Light refreshments will be available.

This evening program is open to all. In support of Catholic Social Services, which works to assist local immigrant families, a collection box will be available for those who wish to donate items.

Current needs include warm blankets, adults’ and children’s warm clothing, towels, toiletries, toddler art supplies (crayons, markers, construction paper, coloring books) and gently-used children’s DVDs. If you can help with this effort, it would be greatly appreciated.

For more information about the program, please contact Sheila Matthews at 508-674-8220 or email her at sheilamatthews@aol.com.

† March 22, 2019

retreats in Brazil, North America and Europe.

A native of St. Michael in the Azores, Father Medeiros came with his family to the United States in 1974, completing his secondary education at B.M.C. Durfee High School in Fall River.

After a three-year stint in the U.S. Army, he began preparing for the priesthood, earning a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and a master’s degree in theological studies.

He was ordained to the priesthood in 1991. Since then his priestly ministry has included work with Latin-American and Portuguese communities both in the U.S. and Portugal, and parish work in Canada, where he has been pastor of three parishes in the Archdiocese of Winnipeg.

Father Medeiros will initially lead a first-time citywide Portuguese Lenten mission April 1-4

with Confessions nightly beginning at 6 p.m., followed by Mass with homily at 7 p.m.

These will be held at the following locations: — Monday, April 1: St. Michael’s Church, 189 Essex Street, Fall River; — Tuesday, April 2: St. Anthony of Padua Church, 48 Sixteenth Street, Fall River; — Wednesday, April 3: Espirito Santo Church, 311 Alden Street, Fall River; and — Thursday, April 4: Santo Christo Church, 185 Canal Street, Fall River.

In addition, bilingual Confessions will be heard on Thursday, April 4 at 11 a.m. at Santo Christo Church in Fall River.

The following week, Father Medeiros will lead an English version of the same Lenten mission from April 8 through April 11, with both afternoon and evening sessions.

The English mission will take place each evening at 7 p.m. in locations that will rotate among different churches within the Fall River Deanery as follows: — Monday, April 8: St. Joseph Church, 1335 North Main Street, Fall River; — Tuesday, April 9: St. Louis de France Church, 56 Buffington Street, Swansea; — Wednesday, April 10: St. Bernard Church, 32 South Main Street, Assonet; and — Thursday, April 11: St. Anthony of the Desert Church, 300 North Eastern Avenue, Fall River.

Confessions will be available each evening beginning at 6 p.m.

Additionally, an afternoon mission with homily by Father Medeiros will be offered each day, Monday through Thursday, at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Fall River within the context of its daily 12:05 p.m. Mass.

D

riving around a nearby city one day, I passed a nondenominational church called The Church of Recovery. It conjured up the image of the “Church as field hospital” that Pope Francis held up as the model of the New Evangelization.

Not far away from this church is a Catholic parish that was once filled with an ethnic group that no longer lives in the city. The remnants of this community cling to the old ways and insist that the parish must not change, despite the few who attend on the weekend to worship in the native tongue of the old country.

Low-income housing surrounds the church, but there is no outreach to the poor. The basement of the church is the gathering place for three different 12-step recovery programs; yet none of the recovering ventures upstairs to join the community. The upstairs community is locked in an imaginary church of grace-filled saints while the folks downstairs linger until they reach the worthy step. Both communities need to

Sinners at the well adjust their concept of Church.

Imagine how filled to capacity our churches would be if we truly believed that we are a field hospital for recovering sinners. Our greatest obstacle to achieving this goal is our misguided understanding of the necessity of sin, or as the Exultet sings, “O happy fault; O necessary sin of Adam which gained for us so glorious a Redeemer.”

The Christian faith is filled with paradox: die to self to gain eternal life; love your enemy.

The greatest of these paradoxes is that the path to Salvation is gained by recognizing our sinfulness, not our goodness. This is the crux of the kerygma, the Good News that Jesus came to save us. We were made to be in union with God, but we broke our relationship with God because of our sin. Jesus came to be with us, show us the path back to God, gather up our sins and nail them to the cross.

The problem with our Salvation is that we

aren’t always aware of the need for it. We can look upon the other and see their need, or we hear of the dramatic conversion of the notorious sinner and think, “How nice that Jesus finally rescued him.”

We hear the account this weekend of the Samaritan woman at the well. Theologians and scholars have parsed this Scripture to pieces, finding symbolism and greater meaning beyond the obvious. They presume that the woman was alone at noontime because she was a sinful outcast, but Jesus’ call to this woman is not the warm, compassionate rescue of the sick, blind and marginalized. “Give me a drink” sounds challenging! The woman is bold and her response to Jesus is equally challenging. “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a

drink?”

This is not a person who feels the need for Salvation, yet Jesus offers it to her anyway. He gives the woman insight into her life, and where to find her sinfulness.

The result is as dramatic a conversion as any healed leper or blind man could have displayed.

Sin is not a laundry list of broken Commandments, or just some philosophical labels like original, venial, or mortal. Sin is always personal, and shapes who we are, and how we are saved. The further along we travel on our journey with God, the more complex sin becomes.

We start seeing sin in all of its disguises, from societal to the personal; sins of commission and omission; sins that lock us into a revolving door of doubt and unworthiness. Sin is all of the worries and anxieties that stay deep within our psyche and eats away our hope. With this understanding of sin we can see more clearly how much we have in common with everyone

around us. Our need for Salvation is shared with the people next to us and the people sitting in those basement groups.

Ronald Rolheiser explains in “The Holy Longing” that “To go to church is to seek the therapy of a public life and to be part of that therapy for others. We go to church so that other people might help us carry what is unhealthy inside of us.” If we pay close attention to the words of our Liturgy each weekend, there is little doubt that we sinners are meant to be there. The Penitential Act reminds us that Jesus came to call sinners, and as we look around us we must recognize that this refers to us, not them. Whether we are the blind, the leper, the tax collector or the woman at the well, if we respond to the invitation for Salvation with full knowledge of our sinfulness, we will be empowered to be spreaders of the Good News.

Anchor columnist Claire McManus is the director of the Diocesan Off ice of Faith Formation.

March 22, 2019 †

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Editorial After Christchurch Last Friday dozens of innocent Moslims were killed while at prayer in two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.The killer, an Australian citizen, said that he did it to defend “our lands” from “invaders.”

This past Monday a Turkish-born man attacked a streetcar in the Dutch city of Utrecht, killing three and injuring others. It came out on Tuesday that he left a note which indicates a “terrorist” motive.

We edit The Anchor on Tuesday and hope that no other major killing sprees have happened by the time you read this newspaper (or ever again, for that matter).

The white nationalist murderer in New Zealand wrote that he hopes that “a civil war” will break out in the United States, due to “conflict over the second amendment and the attempted removal of firearms rights,” leading to a “Balkan[ization of] the U.S. along political, cultural and, most importantly, racial lines.”The Moslim murderer’s note in the Netherlands has not yet been made public.

One might think, “Why quote crazy people?”We do not want to give publicity to the Christchurch killer, which is why we (like the New Zealand prime minister) are not going to use his name or the other killer’s name. However, the killer was able to read about other mass killers, in particular the one who killed the parishioners at the Mother Emmanuel church in Charleston on June 17, 2015 and the one who hunted down and killed 77 progressive youth and adults in Norway in 2011. The Norwegian and the Australian in particular have offered a cogent, although hate-filled, rationale to their murders, as have some Islamic extremists.

They are not just “crazy people,” but people who have chosen to use their intellect for evil (although supposedly doing this for some “greater good,” either for “the white race” or for a warped version of Islam).

There is a lot of division in our country and in our world. However, the vast majority of people of either side would not carry out such heinous acts. That does not mean that we don’t fall into the temptation of ascribing to our more moderate “opponents” the actions of the more extreme people from their “side.” For one exaggerated example, witness the blaming of Chelsea Clinton for the Christchurch massacre (because she had criticized anti-Jewish statements made by a Muslim congresswoman, she was now supposedly responsible for that killing spree).

By coincidence, NPR aired this past weekend a show called “Hidden Brain” in which the topic was “malicious envy.”Towards the end of the hour-long broadcast, the announcer discussed studies of conservatives who were happy that the Iran hostage crisis ran long (so that President Jimmy Carter would be hurt politically) and of “some people [that] felt joy when American service members died in large numbers in the war in Iraq, because it made the other political party look bad.”

Similarly, nowadays it seems that some conservatives feel vindicated by attacks like the one done in Utrecht, while some liberals can point to Christchurch or Charleston and say, “I told you so.”The days after 9/11, when we were all united as a country and the vast majority of the world felt a bond with us, seem so different from what we are living today.

OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER Vol. 63, No. 6

www.anchornews.org

Published biweekly 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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† March 22, 2019

Part of the difference between 2001 and 2019 is the continuing battle for the culture. Here in the U.S. we have the conflict over abortion, with some on the left this year wanting to make it legal even beyond birth (why not? What’s the real difference between a baby in the womb and a baby outside of it?), while some on the right speak about immigrants, documented and undocumented, as if they were some subhuman race come to destroy us. If we took some leading Democrats and Republicans from even just 1990 and could bring them in a time machine to now, they’d be astounded by how their parties had changed.

Amongst us Catholics we also are greatly divided. Unfortunately, we can look back all the way to the Acts of the Apostles to see conflicts between Jesus’ followers. At least back then we did not take up arms against each other. In the last few centuries, however, we have seen Catholics kill each other with abandon in the French Revolution in the 1700s, the Mexican Revolution in the early part of the 20th century, the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s, the Rwandan genocide, etc.

Who rejoices in that? The devil.

The Second Vatican Council in 1965 issued Nostra Aetate, a declaration on the Church’s relationship with non-Christian religions. In No. 3 it stated, “The Church regards with esteem also the Moslems. They adore the one God, living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all-powerful, the Creator of Heaven and earth, Who has spoken to men; they take pains to submit wholeheartedly to even His inscrutable decrees, just as Abraham, with whom the faith of Islam takes pleasure in linking itself, submitted to God. Though they do not acknowledge Jesus as God, they revere Him as a prophet. They also honor Mary, His virgin Mother; at times they even call on her with devotion. In addition, they await the day of judgment when God will render their deserts to all those who have been raised up from the dead. Finally, they value the moral life and worship God especially through prayer, almsgiving and fasting. Since in the course of centuries not a few quarrels and hostilities have arisen between Christians and Moslems, this Sacred synod urges all to forget the past and to work sincerely for mutual understanding and to preserve as well as to promote together for the benefit of all mankind social justice and moral welfare, as well as peace and freedom.”

These words are good to ponder, to bring to our “thoughts and prayers,” both in regards to our relationship with our Moslem sisters and brothers, but also in regards to our fellow Christians. We do need to work for justice, but that work cannot be carried out (if we are to truly be Christians) by “demonizing” our opponents, because that will neither win them over nor is it real. People who support terrible policies are not demons.The real demons don’t want us to get to know our neighbors as human beings, to love them even though they may be misguided, to listen to them and find out why they think the way they do. Jesus hung out with the Samaritan woman, even though she was “the enemy” and a fairly “tough customer.” In the end His love won her over. With His help (and a lot of patience), we can do the same.

Daily Readings March 9 – March 22

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. Mar. 23, Mi 7:14-15,18-20; Ps 103:1-4,9-12; Lk 15:13,11-32. Sun. Mar. 24, Third Sunday of Lent, Ex 3:1-8a,13-15; Ps 103:1-4,6-8,11; 1 Cor 10:1-6,10-12; Lk 13:1-9. Mon. Mar. 25, Annunciation of the Lord, Is 7:10-14; 8:10; Ps 40:7-11; Heb 10:4-10; Lk 1:26-38. Tues. Mar. 26, Dn 3:25,34-43; Ps 25:4bc5ab,6,7bc,8-9; Mt 18:21-35. Optional for any day this week: Ex17:1-7; Ps 95:1-2,6-9; Jn 4:5-42. Wed. Mar. 27, Dt 4:1,5-9; Ps 147:12-13,15-16,19-20; Mt 5:17-19. Thurs.

Mar. 28, Jer 7:23-28; Ps 95:1-2,6-9; Lk 11:14-23. Fri. Mar. 29, Hos 14:2-10; Ps 81:6c11b,14,17; Mk 12:28-34.

Sat. Mar. 30, Hos 6:1-6; Ps 51:3-4,18-21b; Lk 18:9-14. Sun. Mar. 31, Fourth Sunday of Lent, Jos 5:9a,10-12; Ps 34:2-7; 2 Cor 5:17-21; Lk 15:1-3,11-32. Mon. Apr. 1, Is 65:1721; Ps 30:2,4-6,11-12a,13b; Jn 4:43-54. Optional for any day this week: Mi 7:7-9; Ps 27:1,7-9abc,13-14; Jn 9:1-41. Tues. Apr. 2, Ez 47:1-9,12; Ps 46:2-3,5-6,8-9; Jn 5:1-16.

Wed. Apr. 3, Is 49:8-15; Ps 145:8-9,13c-14,17-18; Jn 5:17-30. Thurs. Apr. 4, Ex 32:7-14; Ps 106:19-23; Jn 5:31-47. Fri. Apr. 5, Wis 2:1a,12-22; Ps 34:17-21,23; Jn 7:1-2,10,25-30.

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An expiatory sacrifice for the sins of clerical sexual abuse

ent is a time in which we relive Spiritually the events of Jesus’ sham trials for the crimes of blasphemy and sedition and His crucifixion.

It’s also a time in which we ponder His words from the Last Supper, “No slave is greater than his master.

If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you” (Jn 15:20). Jesus sends us out “like sheep in the midst of wolves” promising that people, including those closest to us, will hand us over to courts, scourge us in places of worship, and lead us before civil leaders to give witness.

He says that we will be “hated by all” because of His name and some of us will, like Him, even be put to death (Mt 10:16-22). But He assured us, “Blessed are you when they revile you ... and utter every kind of evil against you falsely on My account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in Heaven” (Mt 5:1112).

For me these reminders provide the proper context to try to comprehend the unbelievable injustice that is happening to Cardinal George Pell in Australia, who on March 12 was sentenced to six years in prison after having been found “guilty” on December 11 of five charges that he sexually abused two choristers of the Melbourne cathedral choir in 1996.

The just response to the Church’s failure adequately to protect and help sexual abuse victims in the past, however, is not to allow innocent clerics or other personnel to become victims of character assassination through false accusations — or worse, to be convicted of crimes by perhaps the worst of all calumnies.

That’s why it’s important for all Catholics to be praying for Cardinal Pell and for those who seek justice to raise up our voices as strongly as the young prophet Daniel when

Susanna was falsely accused by two corrupt judges for refusing their advances (Dan 13).

The accusation is that on Dec. 15 or 22, 1996, in one of the first two Masses in the newly-renovated Cathedral of Melbourne, the six-footthree-inch Archbishop Pell ditched his Master of Ceremonies, miter bearer and crozier bearer, and everyone else, to leave the militaresque recessional procession and follow two 13-year-old choir boys — who were supposed to be processing directly to a Christmas concert rehearsal — into the Sacristy behind the altar. There, after busting the singers for gulping red Sacramental wine, he abused them over the course of six minutes while the Sacristy door remained open.

One of the supposed victims died in 2014 before testifying, but told his mother on two separate occasions that he had never been abused by anyone. The other supposed victim said that Pell forced him to perform a sex act on him while the archbishop was still fully vested in pants, a shoe-length cassock, a shoelength alb, a tight belt-like cincture, a stole and chasuble, even though every priest will tell you that it is supremely cumbersome even to go to the restroom fully vested in that way. All of this happened with no one intruding, in a Sacristy that is ordinarily like Grand Central Station on Sundays.

The sacristan had disappeared.

The lectors had disappeared.

The concelebrating priests had disappeared. The altar servers had disappeared.

After the abuse was completed, the choirboys supposedly returned to choir rehearsal without their director or any of their several dozen fellow choristers noticing that they and their voices had been missing —

the director, in fact, said that they had not been missing — and the archbishop returned fully vested to the entrance of the cathedral to greet exiting Massgoers who were excited to meet their new archbishop and apparently had waited patiently the whole time.

During trial, there was no corroboration of the accusations at all, including by witnesses called by the prosecution, whereas Pell

provided 20 alibis. Moreover, the supposed victims never told anyone about the putative abuse for more than 20 years.

The victim who testified said that Pell had parted his episcopal garments down the middle to facilitate the abuse, despite the fact that albs can’t part, the cassock would have to be unbuttoned one button at a time underneath the alb, and the pants and belt holding them would somehow need to be reached by only God knows how. Employees of the cathedral testified that those in the Sacristy had no access to wine — it was locked in a vault — and that the wine used was always white, not red. The victim’s memory of the layout of the cathedral also did not align at all with the accusations made.

Beyond this, in 1996, upon becoming Archbishop of Melbourne, Pell had created the Australian Church’s foremost response to the sexual abuse crisis, by insisting upon Safe Environment requirements that would only happen in the U.S. six years later. Pell would have known intricately what would have given even the appearance of

scandal — and conspicuously leaving a procession to follow boys into a Sacristy alone would surely have qualified.

Moreover, if someone was so desperate to commit sexual crimes against minors that he would do so on one of his first Sundays in his newlyrenovated cathedral, in a public place, while others were waiting for him, would not common sense tell us that he would have left a whole string of victims abused in far less cavalier ways?

And yet there are none.

So how was such a 12-0 guilty jury verdict possible?

Evidently, because the jury pool had been tainted by unrelenting attacks on the Church as a whole as well as on Cardinal Pell.

The 2013-2017 Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse focused much of its attention on the failures of the Church, creating the impression that the Church was almost like a crime syndicate protecting its own from prosecution for crimes against minors. With regard to Pell, he was by far the most notable face of Australian Catholicism for a generation as Archbishop of Melbourne, then Sydney, then cardinal, and finally the one chosen in 2013 by Pope Francis to fix Vatican finances. He was a regular newspaper columnist, television and radio commentator, who was very happy to debate — with the toughness that befits a former Australian rules football player — people who attacked Church teaching on abortion, gay rights, women’s ordination, or various other progressive issues, or scientific ones like climate change. He was the focal point of antiCatholicism, anti-clericalism, and anti-conservatism in

a highly secular country.

Many prominent Australian legal commentators have questioned before, during and after the jury proceedings, where a fair trial for Pell was possible.

American journalist John Allen recently wrote, “Due to negative media coverage and his own combative disposition, Pell occupies roughly the same spot in public opinion as Osama bin Laden did in the United States post 9/11.” Would you on a jury acquit Osama even if the prosecution’s case had holes?

It would be similarly hard for a jury in Melbourne as well to let Cardinal Pell walk free. And yet in the first trial, 10 of the 12 jurors found him not guilty with 11 needed to acquit, resulting in a mistrial.

That first trial raises the possibility that the second jury, which convicted Pell 12-0, might have not given the same weight to the exonerating evidence as the first and might have chosen to overlook the many inconsistencies and impossibilities in the testimony of the accuser.

Pell has appealed to a panel of senior judges, who have the option of declaring an “unsafe verdict,” one that pronounces that the jury could not have rationally reached the conclusion it did based on the evidence, and thereby making Pell’s conviction null and void.

That’s what we all should be praying for now.

In the meantime Cardinal Pell is in a solitary confinement jail cell prevented from celebrating Mass, as he enters in the Passion of the Lord and helps lead the reparation of the Church for the sins of clerical sexual abuse, even though he is as guilty of those sins as Jesus was of blasphemy and sedition.

Anchor columnist Father Landry can be contacted at fatherlandry@ catholicpreaching.com.

March 22, 2019 †

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(Roman?) Catholic — Part Three

long with the misconception that the Catholic Church is the Roman Catholic Church, in recent centuries many people thought that the head of the Church, the pope, had to be Italian.

Actually, there have been three popes from Africa (Victor I, Miltiades, Gelasius I), one from England (Adrian IV), six Syrians (Anicetus, John V, Sisinnius, Sergius I, Constantine, Gregory III), and several other nations as well. In recent years, we have seen Poland (St. John Paul II), Germany (Benedict XVI), and Argentina (Francis) represented in the papacy.

Also, many people thought that only a Roman Catholic (Catholic of the Roman Rite) could become pope — not so!

The Syrian popes just mentioned came from outside the territory of the Roman Rite, as did others from eastern Mediterranean lands. Patriarch Gregory Peter XV Agagianian of Cilicia, head of the Armenian Rite was widely considered papabile (i.e. could be chosen as pope) in the papal election conclaves of 1958 and 1963. It is to be noted

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that while Patriarch Agagianian was not chosen in 1963, another non-Roman Rite prelate was chosen: Giovanni Battista Cardinal Montini, Pope Paul VI, who was of the Ambrosian Rite. He joined the list of non-Roman Rite popes along with two other Ambrosian Rite popes, Pius XI (1922) and Gregory XIV (1590).

Whatever the misconceptions and misrepresentations of Protestantism may be, our Church is not the Roman Catholic Church since the pope lives in Rome, nor the Antiochean Catholic Church since the first pope (Peter) had his first headquarters in Antioch, nor the Avignon Catholic Church since a number of popes resided in the French city during the 14th century.

We are simply members of the Catholic Church, whatever our nationality or rite. It is a grand brotherhood/family in Christ.

The Ambrosian Rite (also known as the Milanese Rite) takes the name from St. Ambrose; the most distinguished

† March 22, 2019

Bishop of Milan during the fourth century, though he cannot be proclaimed as the source for the rite. Like the Mozarabic Rite, the Ambrosian Rite experienced several efforts to suppress it, from Rome (e.g. Pope Nicholas II) and from the secular government (e.g. Charlemagne).

Today it is used by some five million Catholics in the greater part of the Arch-

diocese of Milan, Italy (excluding the areas of Monza, Treviglio, Trezzo sull’Adda, and a few other parishes), in some parishes of the Diocese of Como, Bergamo, Novara, Lodi and in about 50 parishes in the Diocese of Lugano in the Canton Ticino, Switzerland.

There are many points on which the Roman Rite and the Ambrosian Rite differ in the Mass, the Breviary, the Lectionary and the calendar of the Liturgical Year. Most of these are minor and would not cause major confusion for a member of either rite attending the other. After Vatican II, the Ambrosian Rite was reformed and new editions of the Liturgical books were published. A new Ambrosian Missal was published April 11, 1976. A new Ambrosian Lectionary came out, being effective from Nov. 16, 2008. A new edition of the Breviary (the Liturgy of the Hours) came out in the years 1984-1985.

There is no regular presence of the Ambrosian Rite in the United States. An attempt was made to celebrate

the Mass according to that rite in December of 2006, but the Milanese priest did not have the chant books to do it properly. I do not know if he, or others, has had success since that time. Pope St. John Paul II celebrated Mass in Milan using the Ambrosian Rite in 1983, as did Pope Francis in 2017. If you have Italians friends who come from Milan, then you know some Catholics who are not of the Roman Rite. A Catholic of any rite is welcome to attend Mass in any other Catholic Rite.

These three installments have given a brief introduction to the three surviving Rites of the West, or Latin, Church. As these three Catholic Rites are sometimes called the Western (or Occidental) Catholic Rites, so all the other rites of the Church are called Eastern (or Oriental) Rites. In each of the places mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles where an early Christian community was established, there was a pre-existing Jewish presence to which the missionaries first addressed their message.

As these Jewish communities had their own customs, it would have been natural for some of these customs to have passed into a new Christian culture, the seed of the developing rites.

Worldwide today, Jews from distinct geographic regions vary greatly in their diet, language, dress, and folk customs. Most pre-modern Diaspora communities are categorized into a few ethnic groups which in Hebrew are sometimes called ediot, or “communities.”

— Ashkenazim – The Jews of Europe with language (Yiddish) and many customs

coming from Germany and Northern France.

— Sephardim – The Jews of Iberia and the Spanish diaspora.

— Mizrahi – The oriental Jews of Iraq, Iran, etc.

— Ethiopian Jews – We shall see certain connections here when we investigate the Ethiopian Rite of the Church.

The Book of Exodus in the Bible gives us the story of Moses leading the Jews from slavery in Egypt to the land of promise in Canaan, the area now known as the nation of Israel. That was not the last of the Jewish connection to eastern Africa. We have no reason to believe that all Egyptian Jews left with Moses, and we know that in the following years there was travel back and forth. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph themselves made the trip.

We can get an idea how flourishing the Jewish presence in Africa was when we recall that besides the (supposedly) one, exclusive Temple in Jerusalem, there was another at Elephantine Island in Egypt near Aswan.

A second witness to the Jewish presence in Egypt is the fact that it was in Alexandria that the Bible was translated into Greek (the Septuagint version, abbreviated as LXX).

Another connection between Eastern Africa and the Jews is found in the meeting between Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, referenced in the Old and New Testaments, the Quran, and other ancient sources. Legend has it that she and Solomon had a son, Menelik, whose activities form an important part of the lore of Ethiopian Christianity.

Father Buote is a retired priest of the Fall River Diocese and a frequent contributor to The Anchor.

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shes to ashes and dust to dust, if the women don’t get me, the drink it must.”

It has been 50 years since I first heard those rather irreverent lines spoken by Lee Marvin in the 1969 movie, “Paint Your Wagon.”

Now I am not about to further quote from the gospel of Lee Marvin anymore than that of his costar in that movie, Clint Eastwood.

However, it does bring back to mind that glorious summer of my ordination when I picked up my sister Kathleen, a nurse in Galway Regional Hospital, and we went

Ashes to Ashes to the movies. I confess that this flashes through my thoughts on Ash Wednesday every year when we give and receive ashes on our foreheads, signaling the beginning of the penitential season of Lent.

Memories of Ash Wednesdays past bring back to me times of great Spiritual moments in ministry, as well as moments of aggravation.

I remember churches filled with ardent worshipers intent on making a new beginning in their Christian lives.

I also remember the seemingly unending

phone calls with the questioner at the other end saying, “What time are the ashes?”

I believe very much in the practice of patience

and the virtue of patience and on such days must have merited some points because I often felt like saying, “Didn’t you see it in the bulletin last weekend?” Those were indeed moments of grace.

Of course patience

is very much a part of the Lenten season. The ashes on our foreheads remind us of our mortality and, at the same time, of our need to be patient with ourselves and with others on this, our journey to eternity. The visible sign of the cross in ashes on our foreheads may seem odd or silly to others but perhaps this year it may have served as a reminder, not just of our mortality but that we must respect the religious rights and practices of all faiths.

For we are all sisters and brothers in the hu-

man family.

Here in Kalaupapa, I believe we do share this respect and while on Ash Wednesday we do not see too many foreheads marked with ashes, I believe that many hearts are marked likewise. We have learned to be patient when the planes get delayed by the weather, or when the power is off for most of the day, as it was today.

“Ashes to ashes and dust to dust, from now to eternity in God we trust.”

Aloha.

Anchor columnist Father Killilea is pastor of St. Francis Parish in Kalaupapa, Hawaii.

March 22, 2019 †

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As smoke clears from devastating New Year’s Day fire, stories of warmth and God-instances arise

By Dave Jolivet

davejolivet@anchornews.org

FALL RIVER — It was a catastrophe that seemingly touched the hearts of an entire region. Perhaps it was because of the magnitude, or maybe because it happened only hours into a New Year when things are meant to start anew, fresh and hopeful. It was also a catastrophe that brought out the best in people and had some not-so-coincidental bright moments over the last few months.

The January 1 fire at Four Winds Apartments on North Main Street in Fall River that left nearly 80 people homeless happened mid-morning when a car lost control and crashed into the building containing 36 units. When the accident first occurred, the fire was contained to a small section of the building. But a series of unfortunate circumstances,

10

including the difficulty of safely fighting the fire from within, and an increase in the winds, caused the fire to spread rapidly, ultimately consuming the entire building as horrified residents looked on.

The two sisters in the car that crashed into the building lost their lives; everyone else in the building lost everything they owned except what they had on their backs and were able to bring out, which wasn’t much because at the onset it was expected they would eventually return to their homes once the flames were safely extinguished.

Two people who lost everything were Deacon Jesse Martins and his wife, Agnes — parishioners of St. Bernard’s Parish in Assonet.

“I never dreamed we’d lose everything,” Agnes recently told The Anchor. “We lived on the other side of

† March 22, 2019

the building from where the accident occurred.

My husband and I just watched along with other residents of the building.

Many of us wanted to go back in for medicines, but the fire department said it would be a little while before we could.

“But then things changed quickly. The wind shifted and the fire started to spread quickly. All I had with me were my slippers, a winter coat and my phone in my purse. Jesse lost all of his identifications.”

Agnes told The Anchor that once it looked like all would be lost, they left the scene. “My two sons stayed and watch it all destroyed,” she said. “They were traumatized by that.”

The response from the community, the Church, the Red Cross, the firefighters’ wives, and the building owners was nothing short of heart-warming and extremely generous.

“So many people responded to help all of us,” Agnes told The Anchor. “I can’t

name them all because I’d be afraid of leaving someone out. I cannot thank enough everyone who helped in any way. Thank you and God bless you.”

Just about two months after their home was razed, the Martins have moved

into a new apartment at Four Winds. “It’s the same layout as our former apartment and it overlooks the scene of what was once our home — now just an empty space. But it’s not depressing. What hap8 Turn to page 16

This olive wood statue from the Holy Land of Jesus washing the feet of Peter was recovered from the rubble of the building destroyed by a January 1 fire in Fall River.

Fall River Diocese 2019 Women and Men’s Conference The third annual Women and Men’s Conference for the Fall River Diocese was held on Saturday, March 9 at Stonehill College in North Easton. Among this year’s dynamic presenters were Bishop Robert Reed, auxiliary bishop of the Boston Archdiocese and president of the Catholic TV Network; Dr. Mary Healy, professor of Sacred Scripture at Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit and an international speaker on Scripture, evangelization, and the Spiritual life; and Deacon Pedro Guevara-Mann, a creative force behind the Salt + Light Media Foundation of Canada, where he works as a producer, writer, director and host. The day included a Q&A session with and closing Liturgy celebrated by Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, S.D.V. (Photos by Mary Pat Tranter and Deacon Alan Thadeu)

March 22, 2019 †

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St. Mary’s Parish pastoral plan is ‘action in motion’ NEW BEDFORD — The energy the pastoral council at St. Mary’s Parish in New Bedford put into creating a framework of stewardship and ministries in a five-year plan is already proving its efforts.

A Mardis Gras Breakfast social event on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday brought dozens of families into the St. Mary’s Pastoral Center gym for pancakes, bacon and beverages with the door prize raffle of a King Cake being drawn by pastor Father Daniel Lacroix and presented to a family who was present.

Chairman Lynne Kuczewski commented: “This is the first social event the parish has sponsored in quite some time and families were excited to attend and are already asking about our planned summer BBQ. We actually had to scramble a bit when it looked like we were running short on food. The committee is very pleased with the result.”

Two more events being planned by the Parish Spiritual Life Team will build upon the success of last year.

An Agapé Dinner Theater slated for Saturday, April 13 will again be the meal shared by members of the parish which, in essence, mirrors the meals Jesus shared with His Apostles and others throughout His ministry.

Fellowship and community are celebrated around the theme of the meal as well as a play of the events that would have taken place in Jerusalem during the time Jesus was in the tomb.

Wednesday of Holy Week will see the Tenebrae (Latin for “darkness”), which goes back at least to the ninth century and takes place in the darkened church. Tenebrae brings together Catholics to reflect on the “Seven Last Words from the Cross” as five candles are extinguished in the celebration.

Spiritual Life Director Barbara Bonneville pointed out, “St. Mary’s Parish families have been extremely receptive of the Spiritual Life Team’s efforts to heighten awareness of our 12

† March 22, 2019

faith, our Advent, Agapé and Tenebrae services, as well as educational materials, the Meet-and-Greet, the Catholicism Series and the Meet the Saints sessions are just

great examples.”

For more information, please contact St. Mary’s Parish in New Bedford at 508-9953593.

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on the Portuguese Channel Sunday, March 24 at 7 p.m.

Broadcast from St. Francis Xavier Church in East Providence, R.I.

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on the Portuguese Channel Sunday, March 31 at 7 p.m.

Broadcast from Espirito Santo Church in Fall River

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on WLNE Channel 6 Sunday, March 24 at 11:00 a.m.

Celebrant is Father Richard D. Wilson, pastor of Holy Family Parish in East Taunton and Executive Editor of The Anchor

Sunday, March 31 at 11:00 a.m.

Celebrant is Father Daniel M. Nunes, parochial vicar at Holy Name Parish in Fall River

Singer-songwriter to perform for diocesan youth continued from page two

heroes like Servant of God Dorothy Day; St. Mother Teresa; St. Oscar Romero; St. Francis of Assisi; St. Augustine; and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. A prolific composer and recording artist who currently resides in Caly City, Calif., Manibusan may be best known for his songs “Open My Eyes” and “Bless the Lord.”

His CD collections include “Sing of Mary,” “Power of Peace” and his latest, “Life You’re Living.”

To listen to some of his songs, visit: jessemanibusan. com/music.

When asked what firstJesse Manibusan will be performing for diocesan youth time audiences can expect on March 31, April 1 and 2. to see when he arrives in the Fall River Diocese tural. The essential thing well as hundreds of parish later this month, Manibuis that whoever shows up and diocesan events, insan jokingly said: “Bruno will hear a message that cluding retreats and conMars.” they are loved and gifted certs at St. Patrick Parish in “I expect that the attendby God, and they are called Youngstown, Ohio, and St. ees of the Fall River Dioceto respond by sharing that Jude Parish in Columbiana, san celebration won’t know love and giftedness with Ohio. what to expect at all,” he others.”

“I’ve been on the road said. “Which will be great!

Manibusan’s ministry for about 40 years, and It’s awesome to surprise an work began in 1980 as a have covered the 50 states, audience. I’m certain they’ll Liturgical musician with various Canadian provinces, be happily surprised. his parish. That expanded in and numerous other coun“I don’t give lectures nor 1987, when he was invited tries as a Catholic lay evan- do I talk at people. My by the late Father Gregory gelizer,” Manibusan said. approach is to welcome David Comella, C.P.P.S., to It’s clear that Manibuan audience, build a rapprovide music for Masses san’s own faith was fostered port, create a safe space and and prayer services at early on by his grandparengage them. I do this with various parish missions and ents, who “took me to daily the confidence that it’s the Holy Spirit at work, and we conferences around the Mass in the summertime,” are just being openly attencountry. he said. tive and active. My hope is In 1993, he was invited “My parents plugged that there will be deepening by the planners of World me into the choir before of joy, reflection, inspiration Youth Day in Denver, I believed I could sing or and celebration — all in the Colo., to present at three play guitar,” he added. “I name of our Catholic faith catechetical sessions with remember Mr. Judd, my and in Jesus, the source of St. Pope John Paul II in fifth-grade teacher, along our faith.” attendance. with Mrs. Kinchen, my For more information Additionally, Manibuchoir teacher, made me feel about Jesse Manibusan, san has spoken, performed, special just by their kind visit www.jessemanibusan. emceed and led worship words.” at the National Catholic Over the years, Manibu- com or www.facebook.com/ jessemanibusanmusic.

Youth Conference, the Los san has been inspired and For more information about Angeles Religious Educaencouraged by people like tion Congress, and the the aforementioned Father the youth convention and rallies, or to register, visit www.

National Conference on Greg Comella and Sister fallriverfaithformation.org.

Catholic Youth Ministry as Anne Russell, O.P.; and March 22, 2019 †

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For and About Our Church Youth

The student choir from St. John Paul II High School in Hyannis, right, recently had the honor of performing inside St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City on Friday, March 15. Among the choir’s selections were “Adoramus Te Christi,” “Let all Mortal Flesh Keep Silence,” and “Tu es Sacerdos.” Video clips of the performances can be viewed on the school’s Facebook page.

(Photo courtesy of Christopher W. Keavy)

The diocesan Catholic Schools Alliance held a professional development day on Friday, March 16 with close to 600 Catholic school teachers, administrators, and support staff at Bishop Stang High School in North Dartmouth. The theme was “Celebrating the Beauty of Every Child,” and opened with a keynote talk by Christopher Duffley and his mother Christine. Christopher has an amazing story and an amazing gift that he shared with everyone. Then the attendees broke up into round tables or breakout sessions. Pictured below is Christopher Duffley with Assistant School Superintendent Sandra Drummey before his talk.

(Photo courtesy of Sarah Heaton)

On Sunday, March 10 at the CYO Hall on Anawan Street in Fall River, more than 23 boys and girls, aged nine to 14, participated in the Knights Council 12380 Free Throw Championship. Pictured above are the winners in the girls’ competition who, along with the winners of the boys’ competition, advanced to the regional level March 16 in Kingston, Mass. Each winner received a Council Champion Certificate as well as Winner Medals from the District Deputy of the Knights, Richard Zopatti. The Knights would like to thank Tom Chippendale and his team from the CYO Hall for all their support for this event.

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† March 22, 2019

For and About Our Church Youth

The fourth-graders at St. John the Evangelist School in Attleboro, left, recently joined in the school’s annual Presidents Presentation. Each student dressed up as a particular president and gave a two-minute speech about the importance of their presidency.

In addition, the students rapped to a special song that included all the presidents and made poster boards about their president’s life.

(Photo courtesy of Gina Cuccovia-Simoneau)

Pictured below are the top three Pro-Life Essay contest winners from Holy Name School in Fall River along with pastor Father Jay Maddock and interim school principal Dr. Jana McHenry.

(Photo courtesy of Jayme Chippendale)

Middle school students at St. James-St. John School in New Bedford, above, pose with the new digital microscope they recently won. Mrs. Costa entered her students in a Neuroscience for Kids Drawing Contest. Out of a total of 309 drawings from 29 states and five countries that were submitted, SJSJ school won the group prize.

Dr. Eric Chudler from Center of Neurotechnology and the Bill and Melinda Gates Center for Computer Science and Engineering congratulated the students with the microscope as a reward for their efforts. He mentioned in the letter that everyone’s artwork was very creative and the judges really enjoyed the devotion that was put into the drawings. (Photo courtesy of Cristina Viveiros-Serra) March 22, 2019 †

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Stories of God-instances rise from New Year’s Day fire continued from page 10

pened was an accident and if you dwell on the bad it can make you sick.

“Our faith, which began with both our upbringings, got us through this.

God gives us the strength, and we took one day at a time. We were both raised in the Church and always turn to God — in good times and in bad.”

Looking back on the day of the fire and the days that followed, Agnes recalled going back to the scene of the devastation. “My sons didn’t want me to go back, but I told them I was OK, I felt I had to go there. Something I own may come out of those ashes.”

One day on one of her visits to the site, Agnes spied a small bag in the wreckage of her former home. “It was behind a fence and I asked a firefighter if he could retrieve it for me,” she said. “Once I got it, I saw it was a doll I had started to make.

None of it was damaged at all. I’m going to finish the doll and name it Phoenix because it rose from the ashes.”

The doll wasn’t the only possession of the Martins that survived.

“On another visit, I saw part of a statue Jesse and I bought when we went to the Holy Land years ago,” Agnes said. “It was made of olive wood and it was a statue of Jesus washing the feet of Peter. We liked the statue because that’s what Jesus asks of us every day of our lives — to wash the feet of others. When the statue was retrieved, the paint had melted off, but the wood was still beautiful. The only part damaged was one of Jesus’ hands had broken off.

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This meant a great deal to Jesse and me.

“In his ministry as a permanent deacon, Jesse often tells a story of a church in Normandy during World War II that was burned in one of the battles there. The parish members found the pieces of a statue of Jesus on the site. They toiled to put the pieces together and restore the statue, which they did. But they couldn’t find Jesus’ hands.

The faithful displayed the statue with a sign reading: ‘You are my hands.’

“I am going to get a dome to cover our statue and display it in a prominent place in our new home. We are so thrilled to get it back. We take it as a special meaning that things are going to be OK in our new lives. We treasure it even more now.

And we have to be Jesus’ hands to everyone.”

Discoveries such as these only complement the good things that came out of a very bad situation in the January 1 fire.

“There were many positive things that came out of all of this,” Agnes reiterated. “The day of the fire, as we were watching, we became friends with people who live in our building, but never before met. And the friends we already had there, became even closer friends. Everyone was helping others find family members to make sure they were OK. “I remember one woman coming up to me and giving me the cross she was wearing on her neck. She told me that she had once received it from someone when she was going through a difficult time. She also told me to

† March 22, 2019

pass it on to someone who needs it when I was feeling better.

Agnes told The Anchor that one of her favorite pastimes is knitting. “I lost all of my knitting supplies in the fire,” she said. “But a group of friends from another parish bought me all of the knitting supplies I needed — yarn, needles, everything. They knew I felt that knitting had a calming effect on me, so they made a point to have me knitting again.

“So many little stories of people rallying behind us.”

A few weeks back the Martins and others moved into empty apartments at Four Winds to start their lives over again. “The people at Four Winds were incredibly kind,” added Agnes. “They gave us cash to help us and they put all of us at the top of the waiting list for new apartments.

“Jesse and I have always valued community, and that’s why we wanted to stay at Four Winds. It’s a wonderful place, quiet and friendly. Many of our friends have stayed and we’re blessed to be back here. And we also love it because it is so close to our parish of St. Bernard’s in Assonet. We love Father Mike [Racine]. He was so good to us, on the day of the fire and beyond.

And the parishioners at St. Bernard’s have been remarkable. So it was important to stay in our Four Winds community and our St. Bernard’s community.”

Jan. 1, 2019 had a horrible beginning for scores of people in northern Fall River as a result of the

devastating fire. But like the Phoenix, they have risen from the ashes with the help of family, friends, and people they don’t even know. There are likely as many stories of Godinstances as there were residents of that building that day — good coming from bad.

The Martins can attest to that. “I keep all who

were affected by that fire and the countless people who helped in my prayers every night,” Agnes told The Anchor.

In Your Prayers Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks March 23 Rev. James F. Kelley, USN Retired, Archdiocese of Anchorage, Former Assistant, St. Mary’s Mansfield, 2002 Rev. Normand J. Boulet, 2015 March 24 Rev. John J. Murphy, C.S.C., 2004 March 25 Rev. John J. Brennan, SS.CC. Retired, Founder Holy Redeemer, Chatham, 1991 Permanent Deacon Thomas Prevost, 2007 March 27 Rev. James W. Conlin, Pastor, St. Patrick, Somerset, 1918 Rev. Msgr. Antonio P. Vieira, Pastor, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, New Bedford, 1964 Rev. Richard W. Beaulieu, Former Diocesan Director of Education, Former Pastor, Notre Dame de Lourdes, Fall River, 2007 March 28 Rev. Alfred J. Levesque, Pastor, St. Jacques, Taunton, 1960 Rev. Bernard A. Lavoie, Chaplain, Catholic Memorial Home, Fall River, 1972 Rev. Dieudonne Masse, OFM, Retired, Montreal, Canada, 1983 Rev. Howard A. Waldron, Retired Pastor, St. Thomas More, Somerset, 1985 March 29 Rev. James H. Carr, S.T.L., Assistant, St. Patrick, Fall River, 1923 Rev. Msgr. Edward J. Moriarty, Pastor, St. Patrick, Fall River, 1951 March 30 Rev. Aime Barre, On Sick Leave, Fall River, 1963 Rev. Benoit R. Galland, USN Retired Chaplain, 1985 Rev. Lucio B. Phillipino, Retired Pastor, Immaculate Conception, North Easton, 2002 Rev. Robert F. Kirby, Catholic Memorial Home, Retired Pastor, St. Theresa of the Child Jesus, South Attleboro, 2015 March 31 Rt. Rev. Msgr. George C. Maxwell, Pastor, SS. Peter and Paul, Fall River, 1953 April 1 Rev. George A. Lewin, Pastor, St. Mary, Hebronville, 1958 Rev. Edwin J. Loew, Pastor, St. Joseph, Woods Hole, 1974 April 2 Rev. Adolph Banach, OFM Conv., Pastor, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, New Bedford, 1961 Rev. Donald Belanger, Pastor, St. Stephen, Attleboro, 1976 Rev. James B. Coyle, Retired Pastor, St. Dorothea, Eatontown, N.J., 1993 April 3 Rev. Henry F. Kinnerny, Former Pastor, St. Peter, Sandwich, 1905 Rev. Roger G. Blain, O.P., 2000 Rev. Clarence P. Murphy, Former Pastor, Our Lady of the Assumption, Osterville, 2010 April 4 Rev. Lionel Gamache, S.M.M., 1972 Rev. James F. McCarthy, Retired Pastor, Sacred Heart, Fall River, 1985 Rev. Gaspar L. Parente, Retired Pastor, St. Theresa, Patagonia, Ariz., 1991

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sh Wednesday I was visiting a large urban area on business. The church I visited had a Lenten theme of “Who is my neighbor?”

I smiled as I remembered a young boy in Faith Formation. We had been studying the “Our Father.” We had easily covered “Forgive us our trespasses.” We were moving to the latter half, “As we forgive those who have trespassed against us.” I had told him the one characteristic that had set early Christians apart from their world was loving one’s enemies. He asked me if I were sure.

Recognizing his question was more about the possibility of living that way as opposed to historical accuracy, I gently told him that the idea was as shocking then as it was today.

Yet, that is what Jesus had

Who is my neighbor? challenged each of us to find a way to do. We were called to love our neighbor as ourselves.

We clarified that loving one’s enemies most definitely did not mean letting people walk all over them. As he is a young child beginning his journey of understanding of this mystery, we also left it at the person who did the hurt apologized. Then, one was called to forgive and love one’s former enemy.

We would end our sessions with him drawing a picture of what we had studied. As he sketched a school situation of someone choosing to love another who had hurt him, my mind reviewed the scourge of classroom bullies.

In school I had been a shy

kid who liked to read. There was this one class where, every time I relaxed, this classmate would jab me with her pencil.

I remember one day the teacher demanding to know why I disrupted her class. I stared at her in disbelief.

I forgave the bully, but never forgot that teacher.

As an educator, I made my classroom a “kingdom of

kindness.” I had the positive messages about finding out how special one’s neighbor was and appreciating him or her for the unique person he or she was. I also had the “not on my watch” vigilance against bullying.

At a residential summer program for gifted students, my teaching assistant let me know two girls were bullying this other girl. Stunned, I realized I had failed to protect all my students. To make a long

story short, eventually the two girls doing the abusing were dismissed.

From this experience three images remained with me.

First, the mother of one dismissed girl letting me know that she was going to have a long talk with her daughter.

Second, the main bully sitting alone in a chair. A secretary was on the way as neither parent would come for her. Finally, after the bullies left, the other student was a new and different person in class. The transformation was amazing.

She made me two origami birds. One bird is larger than the other. To me they symbolized the importance of watching out for all of those within my care.

A number of years later there was another bullying situation. The actual bullying was happening outside my classroom. I read every antibullying publication available.

With the victim and her mother’s permission, I made the bully and victim lab partners. The girl who had been victimized had a special hand

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

If schools, parish Religious Education programs or homeschoolers have newsworthy stories and photos they would like to share with our readers, please email them to:

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signal. If she gave that signal, I’d separate them instantly.

I honestly had the hardest time the first few times I headed over to their group to give each of them praise.

When I looked at that bully at first all I could see was the pain and hurt she had brought. My gut instinct was to protect others from her, not to cuddle her. However, the image of that other child alone on a chair reminded me of the importance of continuing.

Perhaps even more important than the science was the support and praise I gave each student. I marveled at how the bully and former victim each were finding a new friend. I had the bully’s former right-hand person as my special science helper. I wondered if I had done all that I could.

In my mind, I again saw the teen-age me standing before my teacher. This time, though, I imagined perhaps she was wondering what to do. I realized that her answer no longer mattered. I had found within forgiveness and peace.

The Parable of the Prodigal Son (Lk 15: 11-32) reminds us that God’s unconditional love is infinite for each and every one of His children. The true depth and peace of the love received is made manifest only when the older brother chooses to move past his pride and stubbornness to join in the celebration for his returned brother. Jesus’ call to live loving our enemies (Mt 5:44) is a work in progress for us all. However, it is truly an invitation to experience and live God’s love more deeply in our lives.

Anchor columnist Dr. Helen J. Flavin is a Catholic scientist, educator and writer.

March 22, 2019 †

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Around the Diocese Our Lady of the Assumption Parish, 47 South Sixth Street in New Bedford, will host a Lenten Mission with Tom Kendzia, nationally-known speaker and Liturgical musician, on Friday, March 29 and Saturday, March 30 beginning at 6 p.m. each night. The mission will be based on Henri Nouwen’s book, “With Burning Hearts,” and CDs will be available to purchase (cash only).

St. John Neumann Parish, located at 157 Middleboro Road in East Freetown invites all to its “One Day Only Barn Sale” being held in the parish barn on Saturday, March 30 from 9 a.m. to 2 pm., rain or shine! The Barn Sale has a large variety of items to choose from, and the prices can’t be beat!

La Salette Shrine and St. Nicholas of Myra Parish will present a retreat entitled “The Transforming Power of Holiness” on Saturday, March 30 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at La Salette Shrine, 947 Park Street in Attleboro. Cost is $20 per person and includes lunch. For more information, call the La Salette office (508-2225410) or St. Nicholas of Myra Parish (508-822-1425). Deadline to register is March 22.

St. Peter the Apostle Church, 11 Prince Street in Provincetown, will hold an educational program on Cape Cod Immigrants on Sunday, March 31 beginning at 6 p.m. Speakers will include Father Richard D. Wilson, pastor of Holy Family Parish in East Taunton, minister to the Hispanic Community in Taunton, and in New Bedford during the ICE Raid; G. Thomas Ryan, chairman of the Migrant and Refugee Committee, Cape Cod Council of Churches; and Collin Mickle, lawyer and coordinator of the Immigration Resource Center for the Community Action Committee of Cape and Islands. For more information, call Eileen Cabral at 508-487-1630. All are welcome.

Catholic Memorial Home, 2446 Highland Avenue in Fall River, will host its 16th annual Flower Show, “Fly to Neverland,” from April 3 through April 12. Come think happy thoughts and fly from London to Neverland in a garden filled with adventure. For more information, contact Mary Jean Storino at 508-679-0011.

Pax Christi of La Salette will host “Responding to Immigrants in Our Midst” with Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, S.D.V. on Thursday, April 4 beginning at 7 p.m. in the welcome center at La Salette Shrine, 947 Park Street in Attleboro. The evening will aim to answer the question: “How should we respond to the plight of the immigrant seeking refuge and a new life in the United States?” All are welcome.

The Fall River Area Men’s First Friday Club will meet on April 5 at St. Joseph Church on North Main Street in Fall River. Mass begins at 6 p.m. and is open to the public. The celebrant will be Father Jay Mello, pastor of St. Michael and St. Joseph parishes.

Following Mass, members of the club and women guests will gather in the church hall for a hot meal prepared by White’s of Westport. After the meal there will be a presentation by Representative Alan Silvia, who will speak on the topic of Abortion in Massachusetts. All members and guests are welcome to participate in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at 5 p.m. prior to Mass. New members are always welcome. For more information, contact Norm Valiquette at 508-672-8174.

A non-residential Worldwide Marriage Encounter experience will be held at Our Lady of the Cape Parish in Brewster on Saturday, April 13 and Sunday, April 14. This is a non-residential weekend, but discounted accommodations are available on a limited basis. For more information, call Steve and Michelle O’Leary at 1-800-710-WWME or visit www.wwmema.org.

Space is limited.

To submit an event for consideration in The Anchor’s “Around the Diocese” listing, send the information by email to kensouza@anchornews.org.

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† March 22, 2019

Eucharistic Adoration in the Diocese Acushnet — Eucharistic Adoration takes place at St. Francis Xavier Parish on Monday from 9:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.; Tuesday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.; and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Evening prayer and Benediction is held Monday through Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.

ASSONET — St. Bernard’s Parish will have Eucharistic Adoration every Monday from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. The Blessed Sacrament will be exposed on the altar at the conclusion of 9 a.m. Mass and the church will be open all day, concluding with evening prayer and Benediction at 6:30 p.m.

ATTLEBORO — The National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette holds 6:30 p.m. Mass followed by the Chaplet of Divine Mercy Adoration at 7:15 p.m. every Wednesday evening.

ATTLEBORO — Eucharistic Adoration takes place at St. John the Evangelist Church, North Main Street, Mondays and Wednesdays from 5-6:30 p.m.

ATTLEBORO — Eucharistic Adoration takes place in the Adoration Chapel at St. Vincent de Paul Parish, 71 Linden Street, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.

Brewster — Eucharistic Adoration takes place at Our Lady of the Cape Church, 468 Stony Brook Road, on First Fridays from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. buzzards Bay — Eucharistic Adoration takes place at St. Margaret Church, 141 Main Street, every First Friday following the 8 a.m. Mass, ending at 5 p.m.

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 TAUNTON — Eucharistic Adoration takes place in the chapel at Holy Family Parish Center, 438 Middleboro Avenue, Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. On First Fridays, Eucharistic Adoration takes place at Holy Family Church, 370 Middleboro Avenue, from 8:30 a.m. until 7:45 p.m.

FAIRHAVEN — St. Mary’s Church, Main St., has Eucharistic Adoration every Wednesday from 8:30-11:30 a.m. in the Chapel of Reconciliation, with Benediction at 11:30 a.m.

FALL RIVER — St. Anthony of Padua Church, on the corner of Bedford and Sixteenth streets, has Eucharistic Adoration accompanied by music and prayer every first Wednesday of the month from 6-7 p.m.

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., and Thursdays following the 8 a.m. Mass until Friday at 8 a.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 and concluding with 3 p.m. Benediction in the Daily Mass Chapel. A bilingual holy hour takes place from 2 to 3 p.m. Park behind the church and enter the back door of the connector between the church and the rectory.

FALL RIVER — St. Joseph’s Church has a Holy Hour every Tuesday from 6-7 p.m., with Benediction at 6:45 p.m.

FALL RIVER — St. Michael’s Church has Eucharistic Adoration every Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with Benediction at 5:30 p.m.

Falmouth — St. Patrick’s Church has Eucharistic Adoration each First Friday following the 7 a.m. Mass, with Benediction at 4:30 p.m.

HYANNIS — St. Francis Xavier Parish in Hyannis, 347 South Street, Hyannis, has Eucharistic Adoration from noon to 3 p.m., daily Monday through Friday.

MANSFIELD — St. Mary’s Parish, 330 Pratt Street, has Eucharistic Adoration every First Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., with Benediction at 5:45 p.m.

MASHPEE — Christ the King Parish, Route 151 and Job’s Fishing Road has 8:30 a.m. Each First Friday Mass ends with exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and Adoration continues until Benediction at 5 p.m.

NEW BEDFORD — Eucharistic Adoration is held every Thursday, with Confessions, from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Our Lady of Guadalupe at St. James Church. Please use the side entrance.

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.

NEW BEDFORD — St. Lawrence Martyr Parish, 565 County Street, holds Eucharistic Adoration in the side chapel Fridays from 7:30-11:45 a.m. ending with a simple Benediction NORTH DARTMOUTH — Eucharistic Adoration takes place at St. Julie Billiart Church, 494 Slocum Road, every Tuesday from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., ending with Benediction. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is available at this time.

NORTH DIGHTON — Eucharistic Adoration takes place every Wednesday following 8:00 a.m. Mass and concludes with Benediction at 5 p.m. Eucharistic Adoration also 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.

NORTH EASTON — A Holy Hour for Families including Eucharistic Adoration is held every Friday from 3-4 p.m. at The Father Peyton Center, 518 Washington Street.

NORTH EASTON — Eucharistic Adoration takes place at Immaculate Conception Church Chapel on the first Wednesday of the month beginning after the 8:30 a.m. Mass, until 6:40 p.m. Those wishing to make a monthly commitment can sign up on the parish website at www.icceaston.org or call the parish office at 508-238-3232.

ORLEANS — St. Joan of Arc Parish, 61 Canal Road, has Eucharistic Adoration every First Friday starting after the 8 a.m.

Mass and ending with Benediction at 11:45 a.m. The Sacrament of the Sick is also available immediately after the 8 a.m.

Mass.

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

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.

Taunton — Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament takes place every First Friday at Annunciation of the Lord, 31 First Street. Exposition begins following the 8 a.m. Mass. The Blessed Sacrament will be exposed, and Adoration will continue throughout the day. Confessions are heard from 4:15 to 4:45 p.m. Rosary and Benediction begin at 5 p.m.

Taunton — The Chapel of St. Andrew the Apostle, 19 Kilmer Avenue, Taunton, will host Eucharistic Adoration Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. until 7 p.m.

Taunton — St. Jude the Apostle Parish in Taunton will host Eucharistic Adoration on Mondays following the 9 a.m. Mass and the St. Jude Novena, until 11:30, ending with Benediction. It will take place at Holy Rosary Chapel during the summer months.

WAREHAM — Eucharistic Adoration at St. Patrick’s Church takes place 9 a.m. Thursday through 7 p.m. Friday. Adoration is held in our Adoration Chapel in the lower Parish Hall. ~ PERPETUAL EUCHARISTIC ADORATION ~

East Sandwich — The Corpus Christi Parish Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration Chapel is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 324 Quaker Meeting House Road, East Sandwich. Use the Chapel entrance on the side of the church.

NEW BEDFORD — Our Lady’s Chapel, 600 Pleasant Street, offers Eucharistic Adoration seven days a week, 24 hours a day. For information call 508-996-8274.

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

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 are invited to sign up to cover open hours. For open hours, or to sign up call 508-430-4716.

Mass of Atonement for Child Abuse Prevention month continued from page three

“And we can’t forget single parents,” Deacon Regali said. “There is a whole host of different challenges they face as they try to balance their work week, school, and other commitments. Typically single parents will entrust their children to a trusted friend, a close confidant or an extended family member. The most important thing to point out to single parents is to make sure that they know

their people well and to make sure that the kids understand that there are no secrets. They can’t keep secrets from anyone, at anytime.”

In an effort to educate diocesan youth about these potential dangers, Deacon Regali said they are implementing a new program for students in parish Religious Education classes from Kindergarten through grade eight.

“We’ve purchased the

Circle of Grace program, which comes out of the Archdiocese of Omaha, Neb., and right now it’s being piloted by the advisory group of the (diocesan) Faith Formation office under Claire McManus,” he said. “We’re looking at full implementation of that probably by summertime. I’m going to be speaking with the Catholic Schools office and we’ll be looking at implementing it in Kinder-

garten through grade eight in our diocesan schools as well.”

According to Deacon Regali, the Circle of Grace program has the imprimatur of the Archdiocese of Omaha, which is the primary reason he selected it.

Several dioceses across the country are already using it, and from his research they are all very happy with the results.

“It’s really appropriate that April is designated as Child Abuse Prevention month, because it’s held during the Lenten and Easter season,” Deacon Regali added. “And there is no better time than Easter to celebrate the protection of our most valuable gift from God: our children.”

In addition to participating in the Mass of Atonement on April 7 and praying for the past vic-

tims of child abuse, Deacon Regali said it’s critical to always remain alert and vigilant.

“The bottom line is to be vigilant,” he said.

“Preventing child abuse is everyone’s responsibility and we’re all responsible to observe the behavior of those who interact with our children. It’s our moral responsibility to protect possible victims by reporting the suspected abuse or neglect to responsible authorities.”

The diocesan “Policies and Procedures for the Protection of Minors and Vulnerable Adults” can be found online at www.fallriverdiocese.org/ wp-content/uploads/2018/10/ DFR-Policies-andProcedures.pdf.

The updated “Diocesan Code of Conduct” can be accessed online at www. fallriverdiocese.org/diocesancode-of-conduct/.

March 22, 2019 †

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† March 22, 2019