04.15.11

Diocese of Fall River

The Anchor

F riday , April 15, 2011

Historic 1979 visit brought beloved JPII just next door

By Dave Jolivet, Editor

FALL RIVER — For Catholics across the Diocese of Fall River and Massachusetts, Oct. 1 1979 was a combination of the World Series, the Super Bowl, and Oscar night all rolled into one. That was the day the beloved Pope John Paul II, just two weeks shy of his first year anniversary of being elected as the successor to St. Peter, captured the hearts and souls of countless faith-

ful during a barnstorm visit to Beantown, part of a 10-day, 12-city tour of Ireland and the United States.

Although the young pope didn’t visit the Fall River Diocese, his presence a mere 50 miles away made it possible for hundreds here to make their way to the rain-soaked Boston Common for a huge outdoor Mass before nearly one-half million people, with even more watching on television.

Turn to page 15

YOUTH NOT WASTED ON THESE YOUNG — Students of Holy-Family Holy Name School in New Bedford pray outside the Four Women abortion facility in Attleboro during 40 Days For Life. From left to right: Andrew, John-Paul, Eamon, and Maggie Martin. (Photo by Colleen Martin)

40 Days For Life ends Sunday

By Christine M. Williams Anchor Correspondent

ATTLEBORO — The sixth 40 Days For Life campaign being held outside an Attleboro abortion facility will hold its closing prayer service on April 17 at 4 p.m. The service will be held at Angel Park, across the street from the Four Women, Inc., the only abortion facility in the

Diocese of Fall River. A reception at Abundant Hope Pregnancy Resource Center, one mile west of the clinic, will follow.

Abundant Hope opened its doors on March 5, four days before the start of 40 Days. They provide pregnancy counseling and testing as well as educational programs that include abstiTurn to page 18

Catholic composer brings music mission to Attleboro

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

tower of power — Built in 1929, the bell tower at St. Joseph’s Parish in Woods Hole holds bells named Mendel and Pasteur, after the scientists Gregor Mendel and Louis Pasteur. (Photo by Dave Jolivet)

The charm of the chimes

By Becky Aubut Anchor Staff

WOODS HOLE — In medieval times, bells were used as a way to notify people of fires, storms, wars and other events. In 2005, the sound of the Vatican bells of St. Peter’s Basilica announced to the world that a new pope had been

elected. For some residents near St. Joseph’s Parish in Woods Hole, the bells in the parish’s tower act as an alarm clock.

“The bell tower is an incredibly beautiful thing,” said Father Joseph Mauritzen, pastor of St. Joseph’s Parish. “It’s absolutely Turn to page 14

ATTLEBORO — Even though musician and composer Vince Ambrosetti has multiple honors and achievements to his credit — not the least of which include writing of more than 350 liturgical songs, recording of more than 25 CDs, and receiving three Grammy Award nominations and the 2001 Catholic Artist of the Year Award — he maintains the best part of his ministry is still playing music for parish missions.

“I love playing for parish missions and I hope more people’s hearts will be touched through my words and music,” Ambrosetti said. “For me, that’s the best part of what I do.”

Ambrosetti brought his fourpart Lenten “Awaken Our Hearts” Mission to St. John the Evangelist Parish in Attleboro this past week.

The mission opened Sunday night with a 90-minute performance before a packed church that featured Ambrosetti along with members of the parish choir, representatives of the Faith Formation classes, and pastor Father Richard M. Roy, a longtime friend of Ambrosetti who accompanied him on two duets.

“As you can see, this first-night concert is the portal or the doorway through which everyone enters the mission experience,” Ambrosetti said. “It’s a wonderful way to light the fire. Music is a powerful communicator, expressing that which words often cannot speak.”

Ambrosetti has presented more than 450 missions, seminars and concerts in 49 states, Canada, Ireland, Israel and Italy since beginning his ministry in 1992. From 1992 through 1999 he averaged about 50 missions per year.

“I only do about 30 a year now,” he said. “At that time I had sold my home and got rid of everything I owned except for some clothes and my piano and I went and lived at a different rectory every week for seven years. It was a great experience and it was a wonderful way to come to see the Church with a great deal of hope and affirmation.”

Today Ambrosetti divides his time between the parish missions and writing and publishing liturgiTurn to page 14

RAISING THE ROOF — Parishioners at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Attleboro raise their hands and voices to God during the opening-night performance of a four-day “Awaken Our Hearts” Lenten retreat featuring singer-composer Vince Ambrosetti, who is seated at the piano far right. (Photo by Kenneth J. Souza)

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News From the Vatican

April 15, 2011

French nun cured of Parkinson’s to speak at John Paul II prayer vigil

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The French nun whose healing was accepted as the miracle needed for Pope John Paul II’s beatification will share her story with pilgrims at a prayer vigil in Rome the night before the beatification Mass.

Cardinal Agostino Vallini, the papal vicar for Rome, said the vigil April 30 would include “the precious testimony” of Joaquin Navarro-Valls, the former papal spokesman; Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz of Krakow, Poland, who was the pope’s personal secretary for almost 40 years; and Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre, the member of the Little Sisters of the Catholic Motherhood, who had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease she was cured in 2005 through the intercession of Pope John Paul.

Cardinal Vallini, other officials from the Rome diocese and Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, held a news conference to discuss the details of Pope John Paul’s beatification May 1 and other events surrounding the ceremony.

After the prayer vigil at Rome’s Circus Maximus, eight churches located between the vigil site and the Vatican will remain open all night for pilgrims to pray, the cardinal said.

The cardinal also announced that prayers for the Mass and the office of readings for Pope John Paul’s feast day should be approved before the beatification.

The Vatican, he said, will be “very

flexible” in granting permission to use the Blessed John Paul Mass texts around the world.

Generally, when someone is beatified, only Catholics in his or her diocese or religious order can celebrate publicly the blessed’s feast day Mass. With canonization, the person — recognized as a saint — can be venerated throughout the Catholic Church.

Even after the beatifications of Pope John XXIII and Mother Teresa of Kolkata, the Vatican insisted on maintaining the restrictive rule even though bishops around the world requested permission to have feast day Masses in their dioceses.

Cardinal Vallini said that the Vatican recognizes that Pope John Paul is a “universal figure” and, therefore, public Masses are likely to be approved for more dioceses than just Rome and Krakow, where he served as archbishop.

Father Lombardi told reporters that the grotto under St. Peter’s Basilica would be closed to the public April 29 and 30 as Vatican workmen prepare to move Pope John Paul’s casket from its grotto burial site to the chapel of St. Sebastian on the main floor of the basilica.

The diocesan communications office, working with the Pontifical Council for Social Communications and assisted by young adult volunteers, announced the addition of a beatification page to the revamped website for young people, www. pope2you.net.

extreme makeover — A drastic difference is seen between restored and untouched areas of the colonnade in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican recently. The colonnade and its 140 statues of saints are being restored in a four-year project begun in 2009. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Vatican announces Masses, October 22 feast day for Blessed John Paul

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The feast day of Blessed John Paul II will be marked October 22 each year in Rome and the dioceses of Poland.

When the Vatican made the announcement April 11, it also said Catholics throughout the world will have a year to celebrate a Mass in thanksgiving for his beatification. While thanksgiving Masses for a beatification — like the observance of a feast day — usually are limited to places where the person lived or worked, “the exceptional character of the beatification of the Venerable John Paul II, recognized by the entire Catholic Church spread throughout the world,” led to a general permission for the thanksgiving Mass, said a decree from the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.

The decree was published in the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, and included information about the thanksgiving Mass, Pope John Paul’s feast day, annual Masses in his honor and naming churches after him. The newspaper also published the text of the opening prayer — formally the “collect” — for his feast day Mass in Latin, English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Polish.

A local bishop or the superior general of a religious order is free to choose the day or dates as well as the place or places for the thanksgiving Mass, as long as the Masses are celebrated by May 1, 2012,

which is one year after the beatification, the decree said.

In the Diocese of Rome, where Pope John Paul served as bishop, and in all the dioceses of his native Poland, his feast day is to be inserted automatically into the annual calendar, the decree said. October 22 was chosen as the day to remember him because it is the anniversary of the liturgical inauguration of his papacy in 1978.

Outside Rome and Poland, bishops will have to file a formal request with the Vatican to receive permission to mark the feast day, the decree said. The local-only celebration of a blessed’s feast is one of the most noticeable differences between being beatified and being canonized, which makes universal public liturgical veneration possible.

The only places where parishes and churches can be named after Blessed John Paul without special Vatican permission are in the Diocese of Rome and the dioceses of Poland or other places that have obtained specific Vatican permission to insert Pope John Paul’s October 22 feast in their liturgical calendar, the decree said.

The text of the opening prayer for the Mass in honor of Blessed John Paul is: “O God, who is rich in mercy and who willed that the Blessed John Paul II should preside as pope over Your universal Church, grant, we pray, that instructed by his teaching, we may open our hearts to the saving grace of Christ, the sole Redeemer of mankind. Who lives and reigns.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI called St. Therese of Lisieux’s autobiography, “The Story of a Soul,” a wonderful authentic “treasure” and invited everyone to read it. The 19th-century Carmelite saint’s teaching of “the ‘little way” of holiness has been so influential in our time,” he said at a recent weekly general audience.

His catechesis was a continuation of a series of talks dedicated to the “doctors of the Church,” men and women who made important contributions to Catholic theological understanding. St. Therese, who was born

in 1873 in France, died at the age of 24 of hemoptysis, or bleeding of the lungs. Her spirituality “centered on the contemplation of God’s love revealed in the mysteries of the incarnation and redemption,” the pope said.

The saint “sought to be little in all things and to seek the salvation of the world,” he said. Her autobiography was published a year after her death and was enormously successful in many parts of the world, he said. “I would like to invite all of you to rediscover this great little treasure, this glowing commentary on the Gospel fully lived,” the pope said.

Pope urges all to read St. Therese’s autobiography

The International Church

April 15, 2011

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Cartias bishop sees long days ahead in Japanese rebuilding

Niigata, Japan, (CNA/ EWTN News) — Japan’s top Catholic charities official says the people face great challenges rebuilding their lives in the wake of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

“I really have no idea how long it may take to restore their normal life,” Bishop Isao Kikuchi of Niigata, president of Caritas Japan, said in a March 29 email to CNA. The giant wave hit especially close to home for the bishop. It wiped out his seafront birthplace of Miyako City.

Sendai was the hardest hit diocese, with the tsunami wiping out entire coastal villages.

Neighboring Niigata is helping the people to pick up the pieces, Bishop Kikuchi said. Young people in particular have volunteered their services for the relief efforts.

More than 10,000 people have sought refuge in Niigata after being evacuated from a 12-mile radius of the damaged and still dangerous Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Nationally, Caritas has moved quickly to provide assistance to survivors. Bishop Kikuchi said that never before has Caritas had a more enthusiastic response to calls for donations and volunteers.

The organization had to request support from Japan’s bishops’ conference to process the enormous donation response since a domestic campaign was launched just days after the twin disasters struck.

In the Diocese of Sendai, a support center staffed in part by Caritas workers is coordinating the local

Fall River Diocese aids quake victims

FALL RIVER — Fifty-two parishes in the Fall River Diocese answered Bishop George W. Coleman’s call to assist the victims of the crisis in Japan, collecting $167,580 with additional collections and personal donations continuing to roll in as of press time. Catholic Relief Service in partnership with Caritas Japan, part of the Japanese Catholic Conference, will assist the immediate needs of those affected.

The Anchor www.anchornews.org

Church’s relief efforts. Immediate aid included food and blankets, but the Church’s efforts are aimed principally at long-term rehabilitation efforts.

The center’s phones “never stop ringing” with calls from willing volunteers all over Japan, said the bishop.

Caritas Japan’s greatest need at the moment is experienced human resources personnel to coordinate the operation.

The economy is in shambles and farmers and fisherman are dealing with total losses. The tsunami that roared ashore after the recordbreaking earthquake soaked farmland with seawater and destroyed fishermen’s boats and aquafarms.

“It would be very hard for them to re-build their houses and, at the same time, re-establish their profession,” said Bishop Kikuchi.

Last week, the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People launched a solidarity campaign through the Apostolate of the Sea to rehabilitate the fishing communities that were destroyed.

Even with the “enthusiastic” response to Sendai’s plight, Bishop Kikuchi said there will be “long and difficult days lying ahead of them.”

Even those farmers who escaped the tsunami’s wrath are now faced with the threat of radiation contamination from the damaged nuclear power plant at Fukushima.

Bishop Kicuchi said that situation is not a complete loss for the region’s people.

For him, the tsunami has also provided the local Church an opportunity to strengthen its spirit of community and witness to Gospel values in assisting victims.

Catholics represent just a “tiny minority” of the general population and are generally viewed as “caretakers of European traditional culture, rather than socially and politically-active figures,” he said.

“There is a lot to do for these people in present-day Japan,” the Niigata bishop said.

“The disaster,” he concluded, “reminded us of our role as Catholics in modern Japanese society. We are to evangelize through our living witnesses.”

OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER Vol. 55, No. 15

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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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whistle stop — Loreto Sister Cyril Mooney blows her whistle before evening prayers and wishing the children good night at the Rainbow Home in Kolkata, India, recently. Rainbow Home is a care and schooling program started by Sister Mooney for the orphans and street girls. (CNS photo/Anto Akkara)

Loreto-run Rainbow Home brings new hope for Kolkata’s street girls

KOLKATA, India (CNS) — Fourteen-year-old Maya Shaw dreams that someday she will be flying over India, perhaps even around the world.

“I want to become an air hostess,” she said confidently in English at the school she attends run by the Loreto Sisters in the Sealdah area of Kolkata.

Her ambition is not that of a girl born in a middle class or elite family, but of an abandoned girl picked up along with her younger sister, Chaya, as they roamed aimlessly at the Sealdah railway station seven years ago.

Both girls had been left on the railway platform by their widowed mother, who was unable to look after them following the death of her husband.

The girls now live and study in the comfort of Rainbow Home, a distinctive program for orphaned, abandoned and street girls founded

by Loreto Sister Cyril Mooney that combines schooling with life’s necessities such as food, hygiene and housing.

Maya is in fifth grade at a Loreto-run school connected with the program. That makes her four years older than most of her classmates because her schooling started late, at age seven, shortly after she and her sister were discovered at the railway station.

Still, Maya, like dozens of other girls, are far better off than their peers who remain on the crowded streets of Kolkata, Sister Cyril told Catholic News Service.

Sister Cyril said the idea to reach out to forgotten girls came after she realized that most Catholic school buildings in Kolkata were used for only a few hours a day. She wanted to help the girls in a broader way than just getting them off the streets.

“It is a criminal waste of our resources (not to use the schools more fully) when thousands struggle outside without a home,” said

the 75-year-old Irish nun who has been principal at her school since 1979.

Initially, poor students were educated in off-hours, separate from tuition-paying students from more well-to-do families. In 1997 though, Sister Cyril began mixing students in classrooms.

It was the following year, after a four-year-old girl was raped outside the school gate, that Sister Cyril launched Rainbow Home to provide a home-like environment on school premises for the forgotten girls.

Gradually, more and more girls were enrolled as two field workers made the rounds of railway stations and red light districts to look for lost children. Today, half of the school’s 1,500 students are from poor families or the streets. Older girls and volunteer teachers coach newcomers on the basics of studying and hygiene prior to formal enrollment.

“Those who picked up English are admitted to our (English medium) school while other girls are sent to Bengali (language) medium government schools while they stay with us,” Sister Cyril said.

At first, Sister Cyril’s efforts drew objections from some tuitionpaying parents who felt their children should never be made to sit with girls from the streets. But Sister Cyril convinced them that true education comes from understanding the poverty and social inequities existing across Indian society.

Over the years, Sister Cyril has persuaded her fellow nuns to open Rainbow Homes at the six other Loreto schools across Kolkata.

The Loreto congregation — formally known as the Sisters of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary — now takes care of more than 700 forgotten girls in the Rainbow Homes. Tuition is waived for poor children, while fees for students from affluent families begin at $33 a month and rise in propor-

tion to family income. Their tuition subsidizes the education of the poor children.

A joyful atmosphere in the Rainbow Home resonates when the orphan girls go to bed at night, after dinner and an entertainment hour.

Sister Cyril steps in and blows a whistle to get the girls’ attention.

Together, the girls and Sister Cyril, whom they call “Mother,” say a brief prayer.

Sister Cyril then moves to a staircase, where each girl embraces her before climbing three floors to reach their dormitory.

As the news of Sister Cyril’s revolutionary education system spread, hundreds of poorer parents started flocking to the nun seeking admission to the schools. That posed another problem to tackle.

“Then I thought the best option would be to educate the children in the slums itself as it would be impossible for many of them to go to school,” Sister Cyril explained.

So she started a school program in the slums in 2002. The idea spread quickly, and now 380 schools educate nearly 20,000 students across Kolkata. The school network employs more than 1,000 teachers.

West Bengal state officials have acknowledged Sister Cyril’s pioneering work by freely distributing textbooks for the 20,000 slum children and printing teaching aids she developed specifically suited for the poor students.

Sister Cyril’s work has garnered several awards, including recognition from UNESCO, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Indian government.

The Catholic Church in India also acknowledges her education model by requiring that seminarians in their final year at Morning Star Regional Seminary in Kolkata spend two weeks at the schools for pastoral training under Sister Cyril’s direction.

April 15, 2011 The Church in the U.S. Civil War time priests ministered to Catholic soldiers on both sides

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Thoughts hearken back on 150th anniversary of the start of the war

american unrest — Holy Cross Father William Corby, seated at right, poses with men from the Irish brigade in a photo from Harrison’s Landing, Va., dated 1862. In the picture are two other Holy Cross priests, Father Patrick Dillon, standing at left, and Father James Dillon, seated at center. The other men are unidentified. Father Patrick Dillon and Father Corby served as the second and third presidents of the University of Notre Dame in the years following the Civil War. (CNS photo/University of Notre Dame Archives/Library of Congress)

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ALBANY, N.Y. (CNS) — In 1863, a joint committee of Congress held a hearing to assay how the Civil War was proceeding after two years of combat.

A number of experts were summoned to testify, including General Benjamin F. Butler.

During his appearance, a lawmaker posed an unusual question: “What has been your experience in regard to chaplains?”

The military man replied, “The chaplains, as a rule, in the forces I commanded, were not worth their pay by any manner of means. (But) I am bound to say that I have never seen a Roman Catholic chaplain that did not do his duty, because he was responsible to another power than that of the military. They have always been faithful, so far as my experience goes. They are able men, appointed by the bishop, and are responsible to the bishop for the proper discharge of their duties.”

The Catholic chaplains he lauded served the armies of both the North and South during the conflict. Many of the priests were born in Ireland or were of Irish descent, as were the soldiers to whom they ministered.

A newspaper article in 1862 reckoned that there were only 22 priests out of 472 military chaplains. Nevertheless, their duties were fulfilled down to the most minute detail. An example was recorded in an 1864 issue of The New York Times, which shared letters exchanged between a chaplain and a general.

The former mailed $16 to the officer and informed him that it was “restitution for injury done to the U.S. government. By no possible supposition can you ever know the name of the party making the restitution, nor can you ever know the circumstances of the case. The knowledge of the fact was obtained through the Catholic confessional, the secret of which is inviolable. The sum, though small, compensates the

government, to the last fraction, for the injury done.”

The major general replied that the money was “just restitution, the acknowledgment of the fault having been made in the confessional.”

Contrast that small detail by one chaplain with the large effort exerted by Father Peter McGrane, chaplain at the U.S. Army Hospital in Philadelphia.

He joined 25 Sisters of Charity who were assigned by the military to care for injured and dying soldiers between 1862 and the end of the war three years later.

One of the nuns kept a diary of the experience, noting that “on the 16th of August (1862) over 1,500 sick and wounded soldiers were brought to the hospital, most of them from the (second) battle of Bull Run. Many had died on the way [to the hospital] from exhaustion, others were in a dying state, so that the chaplain, Father McGrane, was sent to administer the sacraments.”

The priest continued to minister in the hospital, baptizing converts, celebrating Mass, hearing Confessions and anointing the dying. While he was stationary, most chaplains performed their ministry in mobile camps and on shifting battlefields for Union and Confederate forces. Among the latter, one of the most famous was Father John Bannon.

A tribute to him, written at the end of the 19th century, said that Father Bannon “left a comfortable living and prosperous parish in this city (St. Louis) for the privations and discomforts of an army life. His influence was felt by all who associated with him, and his presence wherever he went repressed the rude manners of the camp.

“Not that he objected to gaiety and mirthful pleasure, for he had the most affable manners and genial nature, but he always frowned upon the soldiers’ un-

restrained expressions and rude jests. He became noted for his bravery in the field in attending the wounded and dying in very exposed places. He was both a pious and a practical man, and became a ministering angel wherever broken and bruised humanity needed help and consolation.”

Father Bannon became so renowned that Confederate President Jefferson Davis dispatched him to Ireland to appeal for support for the South. The priest remained there until his death in 1913.

On the other side of the front lines, Holy Cross Father William Corby, who would later become president of the University of Notre Dame, served Northern troops during the Battle of Gettysburg, Pa. He did so with such distinction that a statue of him now stands on that battleground.

The sculpture portrays him with his hand raised in blessing.

A plaque informs visitors that the monument shows “Father Corby, a chaplain of the Irish brigade, giving general absolution and blessing before battle at Gettysburg, July 2, 1863.”

The priest really did don a stole, climb atop a rock and address hundreds of soldiers, offering them absolution if they were genuinely penitent and reminding them of the justice of their cause. The scene was witnessed by an officer who later wrote that “every man fell on his knees, his head bowed down. The scene was more than impressive; it was awe-inspiring. I do not think there was a man in the brigade who did not offer up a heartfelt prayer. For some, it was their last.”

In his memoirs, Father Corby, who vowed to stay “within gunshot” of his men, likened his fidelity to the Irish brigade to a marriage. Being a chaplain, he said, was “much like getting married, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, till death do us part.”

Lincoln called on N.Y. archbishop to provide priests as chaplains

ALBANY, N.Y. (CNS) — On Oct. 21, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln penned a letter to Archbishop John Hughes of New York City.

Lincoln began with an apology for his ignorance of the proper term of address for an archbishop.

“Rt. Rev. Sir,” he wrote, “I am sure you will pardon me if, in my ignorance, I do not address (you) with technical correctness.”

He then proceeded to invite the prelate to name priests who could serve as hospital chaplains. By doing so, the president admitted, he was sidestepping the law.

“I find no law authorizing the appointment of

chaplains for our hospitals,” he wrote, “and yet the services of chaplains are more needed, perhaps, in the hospitals, than with the healthy soldiers in the field. With this view, I have given a sort of quasi appointment, (a copy of which I enclose) to each of three protestant ministers, who have accepted, and entered upon the duties.”

Lincoln continued, “If you perceive no objection, I will thank you to give me the name or names of one or more suitable persons of the Catholic Church, to whom I may with propriety, tender the same service.”

He signed off “with the highest respect, Your Obt. Servt. A. LINCOLN.”

April 15, 2011

The Church in the U.S.

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Knights of Columbus’ Carl Anderson speaks in Boston

Special from The Boston Pilot

BOSTON — “Upon what can we rely? In what can we find hope for the future? The answer, I believe, lies ultimately in the very principles which we honor tonight — the principles of our religious heritage,” then-Sen. John F. Kennedy told his brother Knights of Columbus in 1958. The event, held in Boston, commemorated the 50th anniversary of Pere Marquette Council.

He went on to say that the Catholic faith teaches self-discipline, which enables sacrifice and determination.

Some Catholics have often criticized President Kennedy for words spoken at a different event in Texas two years later. They have said he put aside his faith while trying to attain the nation’s highest office.

“I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute,” he told the Greater Houston Ministerial Association in 1960. “I believe in a president whose views on religion are his own private affair, neither imposed upon him by the nation, nor imposed by the nation upon him as a condition to holding that office.”

Kennedy added that as president, he would make decisions — on issues such as birth control, divorce, censorship and gambling — in accordance with the national interest. If he had to choose between violating his conscience or the national interest, he promised to resign from office.

Carl A. Anderson, supreme knight of the Knights of Columbus, spoke about JFK at Faneuil Hall on April 7. The Knights, who sponsored the talk, belong to the world’s largest fraternal service organization with 1.8 million members.

Anderson’s Boston remarks fo-

cused on Kennedy’s inaugural address, given 50 years ago. According to a poll commissioned by the Knights in January, nine out of 10 Americans still see importance in that speech.

“Few presidential speeches in our history have so clearly presented the spirit of our nation’s historical, philosophical and moral foundation,” said Anderson.

In it, Kennedy challenged Americans with a moral imperative. His most famous words were, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

“It is the principle that goes to the heart of who we are as citizens and goes to the heart of who we are as a people. It speaks not only of the relationship between the governed and the government, it speaks also of the relationship between each of us and our neighbors. In answering the question, ‘What can we do for our country?’ I believe the simple answer is that we ought to strive to make our great country even greater,” Anderson said.

He added that Americans must be faithful citizens who exercise their rights and duties, and they must reach out to their neighbors in “a spirit of charity.”

But these principles are not and were not meant to be a reinvention of the United States. Rather, they were a restatement of principles that underpin our rights as Americans, Anderson said.

Like Kennedy, the forefathers believed that the rights of man come, not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God. The Declaration of Independence states that men are “endowed by their Creator” with the rights of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

“In declaring this nation independent, the signers of the Declaration stated that the rights cited in their claim were not simply matters of opinion or even of belief. Rather, they were God-given rights that could not be taken away by any person or any government. These rights are self-evident and those words were unanimously adopted.

On this moral foundation, America staked its claim for liberty,” Anderson said.

The belief in God-given rights makes America’s revolution different from another revolution that occurred in the 18th century. The French who fought for independence believed that rights came from the state and that religious belief was an obstacle to liberty.

Anderson called Kennedy’s inaugural words a “timely reminder” of our fundamental rights. He also affirmed the dignity of every human person and encouraged Americans to be their neighbors’ keeper.

“Kennedy admonished us that if a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich,” he said. “In his inaugural, Kennedy found a way to present Americans’ JudeoChristian heritage in a way that Americans — Catholics and nonCatholics alike — could agree with. Obviously he believed that he could reaffirm America’s moral and spiritual heritage without imposing his Catholic beliefs, and Americans, for their part, overwhelmingly approved of Kennedy’s speech.”

American Catholics seek neither theocracy nor secularism but a moral way forward for our country, informed by the values that have guided the nation. The challenge is to make Christianity a positive force in the political world without

it being turned into a political instrument, he added.

“We are called to transform society. Our job is not an easy one,” he said. “We must have the same values in the public square that we have at church.”

Attempts to remove religious values threaten to “sever our country from its historical roots” and “place its future in peril.”

“The belief that our rights to life and liberty are from the Creator, compel millions of our fellow citizens to question how the state can supersede that right with legalized abortion or euthanasia, and millions more question how we can believe that God is the foundation of our rights and remain silent as

others attempt to rid the public square of religious values in order to fashion a completely secular society,” he said.

Anthony Cusack, a seminarian at St. John’s Seminary in Brighton, said that Anderson’s talk brought faith and politics together in a positive way. Once he is ordained, he expects to teach about abortion and same-sex marriage and to encounter arguments about the separation of church and state.

“Preaching, for us, is very key because that’s how we communicate to people that as, not only citizens but as Catholic citizens, these are the issues we need to be aware of and this is how our faith needs to impact those decisions,” he said.

My Father’s House P.O. Box 22, 39 North Moodus Rd. Moodus, CT 06469 . 860-873-1906 Website: www.myfathershouse.com Email: jz1mfh@gmail.com

Church culture must change after sex abuse scandal, archbishop says

MILWAUKEE (CNS) — Much more remains to be done to “turn around the culture of an institution” that allowed thousands of children to be abused by priests in the Archdiocese of Dublin, the head of the archdiocese told an international conference on the clergy sex abuse scandal.

Opening the two-day conference at Marquette University Law School in Milwaukee, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin was harsh in his assessment of most of the priest abusers he had met since becoming archbishop of Dublin in 2004.

“I can honestly say that with perhaps two exceptions, I have not encountered a real and unconditional admission of guilt and responsibility on the part of priest offenders in my diocese,” he said.

“Survivors have repeatedly told me that one of the greatest insults

and hurts they have experienced is to see the lack of real remorse on the part of offenders even when they plead guilty in court.”

Archbishop Martin said a February 20 “liturgy of lament and repentance” at the Dublin cathedral “was a truly restorative moment” for many abuse survivors, who “felt that they had encountered in it a Church which was beginning to identify with their hurt and their journey.”

“But there are so many survivors who have not yet had that experience of being surrounded by a Church in lament, rather than a Church still wanting to be in charge,” he added.

The Dublin leader said the Church must analyze whether “the culture of clericalism” might have “somehow facilitated disastrous abusive behavior to continue for so long” and must repent for the

“false understanding of mercy and human nature” that allow offenders to continue to abuse children.

“Serial sexual abusers manipulatively weaved their way in and out of the net of mercy for years, when what they really needed was that they be firmly blocked in their path,” he said.

Archbishop Martin also urged greater attention to seminary formation and warned against accepting candidates for priesthood who “may be looking not to serve but for some form of personal security or status which priesthood may seem to offer them.”

He said he planned to require all future priests to “carry out some part of their formation together with lay people so that they can establish mature relationships with men and women and do not develop any sense of their priesthood giving them a special social position.”

Check out our website at www.myfathershouse.com for upcoming Parish Missions

6

The Anchor

A school of sanctification, penance, love, and hope

The theme of Lent is encapsulated on Ash Wednesday when the words of Christ with which He began His public ministry echo throughout the world as ashes are imposed: “Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.” Lent is a time in which the Church cries out to God, “Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.” It’s a 40-day pilgrimage not so much into the desert but back from the prodigal son’s pigsty to the Father’s house and graces. That’s why one of the most important aspects of a well-lived Lent is receiving the Sacrament of Penance because it not only prepares us for Easter but helps us to experience the spiritual essence of Easter in Lent. Every reconciliation is a resurrection, when — to use the words Jesus puts in the mouth of the father in the parable of prodigal son — “My son was dead and has been brought back to life again” (Lk 15:24). This connection between reconciliation and resurrection is one of the reasons why it is so fitting Jesus founded the Sacrament of Reconciliation on the day He rose from the dead, when He breathed the power of the Holy Spirit on the apostles, told them that just as the Father had sent Him to take away the sins of the world, so He was sending them, and finally instructed them that whatever sins they forgive or retain are respectively forgiven or retained (Jn 20:23).

Therefore, it’s unsurprising that during Lent, the leaders of the Church would be reiterating St. Paul’s appeal to the Corinthians that the Church attentively hears on Ash Wednesday: “In Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself … and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. … We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God!” (2 Cor 5:19-20).

On March 25, Pope Benedict gave an address to the young priests and those soon to be ordained who were participating in an annual training course held by the Vatican’s Apostolic Penitentiary, the Vatican department that supervises the administration of the Sacrament of Penance, indulgences and other internal forum matters, for the Holy Father.

The pope focused on something he said that has not been “sufficiently thought about but which is of great spiritual and pastoral importance: the pedagogical value of sacramental Confession.” The Sacrament of Confession is, he said, a school of sanctification, penance, love and hope that “educates the faith of both the minister and the penitent.”

It’s first a school of sanctification. Pope Benedict named several priests — SS. John Mary Vianney, John Bosco, Josemaria Escriva, Padré Pio, Joseph Cafasso and Leopold Mandic —who became holy or holier through their heroism in the confessional. He also marveled at the “real miracles of conversion” that occur in the sacrament and “how many truly holy lives began in a confessional!”

Since it is a school that educates in holiness, it is necessarily a school of penance.

He said that the practice of examining one’s conscience has an enormous “pedagogical value.” It helps us “to look squarely at our life, to compare it with the truth of the Gospel and to evaluate it with parameters that are not only human but are also borrowed from divine Revelation. Comparison with the Commandments, with the Beatitudes and, especially, with the precept of love, constitutes the first great ‘school of penance.’” It is a time in which the Church’s entire sacramental power is placed at the service of the one person, not just to absolve that person of his sins, but also to help bind up his wounds and accompany him on the path to holiness. “In our time, marked by noise, distraction and loneliness,” the Holy Father said, “the penitent’s conversation with the confessor can be one of the few — if not the only — opportunities to be truly heard in depth.”

It’s also a “true school of love and hope” that “guides the person to full trust in the God of Love, revealed in Jesus Christ,” in which those who have received mercy are enriched to share that merciful love and those who have realized that no situation is hopeless learn how to become witnesses of hope to others.

On March 17, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York in his characteristically direct and humorous way announced that that school has an open enrollment and free tuition and encouraged all Catholics to take advantage of this gift. Just like we will not grow as human beings without formal education, so we can’t grow spiritually without the Sacrament of Reconciliation. “Catholic life,” he said in a pastoral letter on the Sacrament of Penance, “cannot be lived properly without the Sacrament of Penance. We need the forgiveness of our sins. We need the grace of this sacrament to grow in virtue.” He noted, however, that “this fundamental part of our Catholic life … has been neglected by too many — both priests and parishioners — for too long.”

“Among priests,” he added to emphasize the point, “one hears a joke in which a pastor tells his parishioners that he is terribly afraid of dying in the confessional. ‘Why?’ they ask him. ‘Because no one would find me for days!’ he replies. Another priest told me that, after six months in his new parish, he announced to the people that he was asking the bishop for a transfer. ‘You don’t need me. I’ve sat in the confessional for half-a-year, and nobody has come. You must all be saints. I want to serve sinners.’ We can laugh, but I am afraid there is too much truth here.”

He went on to stress the centrality of the Sacrament of Penance in Christ’s plan for our redemption. “My fellow Catholics, reading the four Gospel accounts together, we can see that the Sacrament of Penance is not some kind of later invention, some afterthought, something leftover, something ancillary. Rather it belongs to the very heart of Christ’s saving and redeeming work. On the day that His passion begins, the Lord Jesus gave us the Eucharist and the priesthood. On the day of the resurrection, the Lord Jesus gave us the Sacrament of Penance and, as it were, completed the institution of the priesthood.

All three sacraments are born from the heart of the Church in the Cenacle; all three are inserted into the heart of the redemptive and salvific work of Christ Jesus; all are three lie at the heart of the Catholic life in every age.”

He said that we are living in the midst of a “confessional culture” that “has an almost perverse delight in detailing the sins and scandals of those in the public eye. … We produce an entire genre of ‘reality shows’ that put on public display much sinful behavior that people should be embarrassed about, not celebrated for. … There are a parade of talk shows in which the troubled and afflicted share their intimate secrets with a vast television audience. People use social networks to make available to all on the internet what should be treated with utmost discretion. … We see the trivialization in the celebrity scandals that become not occasions for averted eyes, but fodder for jokes.”

Our culture, he added, “does not need to be taught how to confess. It needs to discover where forgiveness can be found. Our culture does not need to further expose the stain of its sinfulness; it needs to discover the only One who can wash it away.” It needs to find absolution.

That absolution is found in the school where the Master Himself — through the same priests through whom He gives us His Body and Blood — helps us progress in holiness, penance, love and hope.

April 15, 2011

Gift and mystery: John Paul the priest

D

uring last year’s celebration of the Cor 4:1-2).

It is from this perspective that he “Year For Priests,” Pope Benedict explained the priesthood also in terms XVI gave the Church the opportunity to of it being a great “gift.” He said that in reflect deeply upon the priesthood and what it means to us today. Throughout the speaking of the priesthood, we must do so course of the year, we had the opportunity in great humility, “knowing that God has called us with a holy calling, not in virtue to reflect upon many saintly examples of of our own works, but in virtue of His priests, beginning with St. John Vianown purpose and the grace which He has ney, whose 150th anniversary we were given us” (2 Tim 1:9). celebrating.

One of John Paul’s greatest visible For many priests it was an opportunity qualities was his priestly heart, never to think back upon their own priesthood and in particular to the priests who had in- seeing people as a distraction or nuisance, spired, taught or mentored them along the but as someone with whom to share the way. For some of us, especially those of a love of Christ. Those who were blessed to be in his presence were certainly able to younger generation, one of those priestly witness this in the way that he would look heroes was Pope John Paul II. at you, almost as if he were looking into For many priests, their tireless and your soul. courageous pastoral efforts will go unIn addition to his own priestly witness, known to all but God, but there are some whose priestly lives get highlighted as an he also provided the Church, and in particular priests themselves, with a radically example to others. Perhaps John Paul’s priestly ministry was well known only be- new way of living out one’s priestly vocation, no longer strictly in terms of funccause he was elected the successor of St. Peter, but that election didn’t mean that he tion (what the priest does, i.e., celebrating stopped being a priest. In fact, being pope Mass, the sacraments and preaching) but in terms of allowed John who the priest Paul II to show becomes at orthe world what Putting Into dination — an it meant to be a “alter Chrispriest. the Deep tus” (another On Nov. Christ), one 1, 1996 Pope

By Father who is “onJohn Paul II tologically” celebrated the Jay Mello conformed 50th anniverto Christ in sary of his ordination to the priesthood of Jesus Christ. such a way that the priest is able to act “in I presume that such a significant anniver- persona Christi” (in the person of Christ) — a sacramental representation of Christ sary, whether it is 50 years of priesthood Himself. or married life, provides one the opporThis sacramental reality is most tunity to reflect back upon the events and clearly experienced when a priest celpeople that have filled those years.

John Paul II understood this milestone ebrates Mass and is able to say, “This is event in his life as a golden opportunity to My Body, this is the cup of My Blood.”

The pope explained that celebrating the speak about his priesthood and how important it was to him. To mark this event, Eucharist is the most sublime and most sacred function of every priest. “As for he wrote the book: “Gift and Mystery: me, from the very first years of my priestOn the 50th Anniversary of My Priestly hood, the celebration of the Eucharist has Ordination.” been not only my most sacred duty, but Unlike his magisterial writings or above all, my soul’s deepest need,” he theological reflections, this much more said. personal reflection traces his priestly John Paul II gave a compelling identity from his initial thinking about personal example of this priestly witness the priesthood as a young man back in through his own personal holiness and Poland right up to how he exercised his understanding of the gift and mystery of priestly ministry even as pope. the priesthood. He restored the morale of He spoke of the vocation to priestpriests after the challenging times that the hood in terms of “Great mystery which Church faced in the wake of the Second infinitely transcends the individual.” He Vatican Council and inspired thousands referenced the Gospel of St. John to illustrate this point — “You did not choose of young men to give their lives to Christ and the Church. John Paul showed us me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that what a priest really is — “a steward of the mysteries of God.” your fruit should abide” (Jn 15:16).

John Paul II’s priestly life echoed John Paul II also understood that the the reflection on the priesthood of priesthood is not something that men Jean-Baptiste Lacordaire, OP, “To live choose to do with their lives, but rather something to which God has called a few in the midst of the world with no desire for its pleasures; to be a member to share in. He recalled the words of the of every family, yet belong to none; prophet Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were to share all sufferings; to penetrate all secrets, to heal all wounds; to daily go born I consecrated you; I appointed you from men to God to offer Him their to be a prophet to the nations” (Jer 1:5). homage and petitions; to return from Priesthood was never viewed as a God to men to bring them His pardon “profession” or a “career” by John Paul, and hope; to have a heart of fire for as if it were something that one “does.” charity and heart of bronze for chasUnderstood as a “vocation,” the priesttity; to bless and to be blest forever. hood was understood by John Paul as O God, what a life, and it is yours, O something that one “is.” When asked what it means to be a priest, he explained, Priest of Jesus Christ!”

Father Mello is a parochial vicar at quoting St. Paul, that to be a priest is to be a “steward of the mysteries of God” (1 St. Patrick’s Parish in Falmouth.

April 15, 2011

Q: During the Gospel readings on Palm Sunday and Good Friday (the Passion of our Lord) the readings normally have parts assigned for the priest, the laity and other lectors. But in our parish, the choir director divides the readings in chunks between lectors and the priests and deacons without order. And the choir sings at particular places with a chorus that is not related to the Passion of Our Lord. Is that proper? — E.K., San Diego, Calif.

Q: In the reading of the Passion with several readers — where there is a deacon, should he, as normal minister of the Gospel, take the part of Christ?

If so, what part should the priest take? — C.M., Drogheda, Ireland A: In 1988 the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments published “Paschales Solemnitatis,” a “Circular Letter Concerning the Preparation and Celebration of the Easter Feasts.”

Regarding Good Friday it states: “64. The Order for the Celebration of the Lord’s Passion (the Liturgy of the Word, the adoration of the cross, and Holy Communion), that stems from an ancient tradition of the Church, should be observed faithfully and religiously, and may not be changed by anyone on his own initiative.”

Indeed, Good Friday is perhaps the most archaic of all liturgical

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7

The Anchor

Reading the Passion

Christ, narrator, other individuals, services. For centuries it conand the multitude. This latter role served elements, such as the is carried out by the choir who general intercessions, that had sing phrases such as “Crucify disappeared from other parts of him” in dramatic polyphony. The the liturgy. fourfold division can also be used “Paschales Solemnitatis” conin a read Passion, with a group tinues in No. 66: “The readings are to be read in their entirety. The responsorial psalm and the chant before the Gospel are to be sung in the usual manner. The narrative of the Lord’s passion

By Father according to John is sung or read in the way Edward McNamara prescribed for the previous Sunday (cf. n. 33).

After the reading of the passion of readers taking the part of the a homily should be given, at the multitude. end of which the faithful may be I once held the opinion that beinvited to spend a short time in cause of this practice of a choir’s meditation.” taking the place of the multitude, The aforementioned No. 33 the people could substitute a says: choir. Both reflection and pastoral “The passion narrative ocexperience led me to change my cupies a special place. It should opinion. The proclamation of be sung or read in the traditional way, that is, by three persons who God’s word is best assimilated in silence. I found that when the take the parts of Christ, the narrapeople were asked to take an tor and the people. The passion is active part in this reading, many proclaimed by deacons or priests, were so attentive to intervening or by lay readers. In the latter at the right moment that they lost case, the part of Christ should be track of the whole reading. Therereserved to the priest. fore, based on the legal principle This indication would appear to exclude any intervention of the mentioned above and on personal choir; however, it is also common experience, I would not recommend this practice. practice in some places, notably From the statement that the St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, to Passion is proclaimed “by deause a fourfold division of parts:

Liturgical Q&A

cons or priests, or by lay readers,” it appears that the ideal situation is for the Passion narrative to be sung or read by three deacons while the priest remains at the chair, a situation that occurs mainly in cathedrals and seminaries. This is because reading the Gospel is not considered a presidential function in the Roman rite, and the deacon is the proper minister of this liturgical action. Indeed, in normal circumstances, a priest should not read the Gospel if a deacon is present.

If no deacons are present, then it would appear that the next preferred situation is that the Passion narrative be read by three priests.

This situation is more likely to occur on Good Friday, when there is only one celebration, than on Palm Sunday when the priests are occupied with several Masses.

If there are no deacons and only one priest, then the priest takes the part of Christ while lay readers take the other parts.

If there are one or two deacons, the indication that the deacon asks for a blessing would suggest that the priest may remain at the chair while the deacon proclaims the Passion narrative along with one or two lay readers.

In this case it is not stated that the deacon take the part of Christ.

It would appear that he may take

any part. For example, as the most experienced reader, it might be better for the deacon to take the extensive part of narrator on Good Friday’s reading of the Passion according to St. John.

The document speaks of deacons or priests and makes no mention of a priest reading with one or two deacons. I believe, however, that because these two days are somewhat out of the ordinary, this situation cannot be excluded a priori and is not prohibited by the norms. In some cases it might even be necessary.

If this situation were to arise, it would be congruous to reserve the part of Christ to the priest.

A reader from Birmingham, England, asked: “Can a deacon officiate as the only minister at the solemn Commemoration of the Passion on Good Friday afternoon? I have been told that the solemn liturgy on Good Friday can only be celebrated by a priest.

Please let me know which is correct.”

Effectively, this rite is reserved to the priest, although not necessarily the same priest.

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. Send questions to liturgy@ zenit.org. Put the word “Liturgy” in the subject field. Text should include initials, city and state.

Series Conclusion: A New Liturgical Movement?

igh marks go to the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA), promulgated in 1972 and appearing in English in 1974. The order and logic of the rites, with their culmination in the Easter Vigil, add up to quite a splendid picture. The heritage of the Church Fathers shines forth clearly: conversion as a process rather than an event; adult Baptism as the norm for Christian initiation; the Eucharist as the summit to which Baptism and Confirmation point. On the other hand, the RCIA is susceptible to cooption by parish and diocesan leaders with agendas beyond what the Church could ever embrace, including overly subjective-experiential approaches to the sacramental rites and an anti-doctrinal bias in catechesis. I worry, too, that given its susceptibility to bureaucratization, the RCIA might collapse under its own weight. Some pastors fear they lack the resources for a full and faithful implementation of the RCIA. A useful reminder: any programming of the RCIA that cannot be performed by a country pastor with the help of the members of his small community is questionable.

The 1973 Rite of Penance takes three forms. Form One, individual Confession, contains Scripture passages proclaiming God’s mercy and a wide variety of prayers and

Too often the ethos that pervades responses. The problem, in my the modern funeral rites (deteropinion, is that the rite contains so mined largely by the celebrant’s many options as to be simply impracticable. I suppose this explains preaching and choice of options) suggests an instant canonization, why, when it comes to the first even in cases where neither the form, Catholics are virtually all “Tridentine” practitioners, going to deceased nor the survivors would Confession much as they did in 1950, although the atmosphere may be friendlier today. Form Two, the communal service followed by individual Confession and absolution, has had success but is

By Father its own worst enemy: the Thomas M. Kocik more people it attracts, the more truncated becomes have wanted such pretense. The the element of individual Conpromise of eternal life for those fession, especially when priests who abide in Christ does not take encourage “quick” Confessions or away our right and our need to the (normally invalid) Confession mourn; nor does it entitle us to of “one sin only.” Form Three, know the outcome of a soul’s judggeneral absolution, is reserved for ment before God. truly extraordinary circumstances.

Probably no ritual is more The focus on the Paschal susceptible to cultural adaptation character of Christian death in the than the 1969 Rite of Marriage light of the risen Christ is surely a (revised in 1990). The rite is genercommendable achievement of the ally successful structurally. While reform of the funeral rites. This is it makes clear the equality of the evident especially in the “greeting spouses, the sacrificial and Paschal of faith” to the deceased’s family character of the sacrament — well and friends, and in the prayers for supplied for in the Nuptial Mass the dead with their dominant note — is, unfortunately, rarely drawn of hope. On the other hand, the out in readings, homilies, and 1969 Order of Christian Funerals (revised in 1989), particularly in its admonitions.

De Benedictionibus, the 1984 English translation, seems to have Roman book of blessings, pubsuccumbed to an easy optimism.

The Liturgical Movement

lished in English in 1989, seems on the whole an arid and overly complex work, which is why it never became popular. This is no small matter, for it is through this book that the liturgy is extended into homes, workplaces, and social occasions. When the links between liturgy and daily life are severed, liturgical life retreats to the parish church.

I have attempted in this series to provide a way of evaluating post-Vatican II liturgical renewal, informed by study and pastoral experience. Another way is to pose some questions for you, the reader, to mull over: Where do you find your own spiritual sustenance? Is it primarily from the liturgy? Do you shape your life according to the liturgical seasons, fasting and feasting with the Church as she celebrates the life of Christ? Does Advent disappear beneath a barrage of Christmas celebrations? Does the Christmas Season end on December 26?

Where are you each year for the Paschal Triduum? Do you engage your mind and heart with the rites and prayers of the Mass, pondering their meaning? Do you participate in the Liturgy of the Hours where it is available? Could you pray some of the hours at home — perhaps Lauds, Vespers, or Compline

— thereby taking up the Psalter, the most traditional prayer book known to the Church, and adding your voice to the sacrifice of praise she offers day and night? Or could you perhaps begin the day with the beautiful Laudate psalms (Psalms 148-150), which in all likelihood formed part of Our Savior’s own morning prayer? Where do you place the emphasis when arranging Baptisms, weddings, or funerals: on the best possible celebration of the liturgy, or on the reception afterwards?

I think this liturgical “examination of conscience” offers at least some ways in which each of us can grow in liturgical piety as well as lay some popular foundations for a new or revived Liturgical Movement. All of these things are possible, and when they become habits, we will start to reap the spiritual rewards of a wholesome liturgical diet. Faith lived as liturgy: that is what the Liturgical Movement was all about. That is what Little Placid, whom we met at the beginning of this series, meant by “singing His life so as to live my song.”

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

April 15, 2011

The Anchor

“I

t’s tough when the mighty fall.” Unfortunately there are enough examples today among political leaders, business leaders, and yes, even Church leaders who prove this saying to be true.

When one of these leaders falls from grace, so to speak, it not surprising to react with feelings of shock anger and pain. These feelings can make us depressed, discouraged and cynical. There are also the personal betrayals, when a spouse is unfaithful or a friend in whom we have confided betrays that trust. But the most disturbing betrayal of all is when we discover that we are the betrayer, and are forced to admit the evil in ourselves.

Twelve-step programs are full of people who have taken this journey and have admitted to God, themselves, and another person the exact nature of their wrongs.

Which crowd are we in?

G.K. Chesterton was an essential work. We have had early 20th-century English time to reflect and pray. The writer whose body of work Scriptures have helped us included philosophy, poetry, focus on our failures, disturbplays and fiction, including though that may be. If we ing detective fiction. He have taken advantage of this wrote wonderful fictional Lenten time, we are probstories of Father Brown, who was an amateur detective.

Homily of the Week When asked how he Palm solved crimes, Father Brown explained that Sunday he found that part of

By Father James himself that could H. Morse do evil and from there he was able to identify the criminal.

Knowing our capacity for sin ably ready to begin this most and identifying the evil we solemn week of our Church’s have done and the good we year, remembering the sufferhave failed to do is essential ing, death and resurrection of to being able to let it go and Jesus. to continue our journey back Palm Sunday is an amto God. bivalent day. We begin our During this season of Lent liturgy with an upbeat Gospel we have had an opportunity where the streets of Jerusato go into our own symbolic lem are filled with jubilant desert experience and do this shouting and rejoicing as they

welcome their Savior. Jesus is being given the red carpet treatment. But the atmosphere quickly turns dark. And the Liturgy of the Word swiftly moves into the Passion narrative, the longest single story in all the Synoptic Gospels. Those same Jerusalem streets that echoed with joyful exuberance and hope minutes before, now echo with shouts of anger and betrayal, “Crucify Him!” “Crucify Him!” How many of those in the first crowd were also in the second? In the Passion we read of Judas who betrays Jesus, and who is, indeed, plotting this betrayal even as they share the Passover feast, his last meal with Jesus, that most sacred meal. But Judas isn’t the only betrayer. There are the other disciples who cannot watch one hour with

Him. There is Peter, the rock on whom He depends to build the Church, who denies Him. And then there are the rest of the disciples who abandon Him to save themselves. They hide for fear of a similar fate.

We don’t even want to imagine that we would have been part of that second crowd in Jerusalem, shouting those angry murderous words. But if we are honest with ourselves, I think we have to admit that sometimes we are.

As we begin the most solemn week of our liturgical year let us prepare by asking Jesus to give us the honesty to admit our sinfulness and ask Him to forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us. Amen.

Father Morse is a retired Senior Priest at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs, Seekonk.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. Apr. 16, Ez 37:21-28; (Ps) Jer 31:10, 11-12abcd, 13; Jn 11:45-56. Sun. Apr. 17, Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion, Mt 21:1-11; Is 50:4-7 (procession); Ps 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24; Phil 2:6-11; Mt 26:14—27:66 or 27:11-54. Mon. Apr. 18, Monday of Holy Week, Is 42:1-7; Ps 27:1, 2, 3, 13-14; Jn 12:1-11. Tues. Apr. 19, Tuesday of Holy Week, Is 49:1-6; Ps 71:1-2, 3-4a, 5ab-6ab, 15 and 17; Jn 13:21-33, 36-38. Wed. Apr. 20, Wednesday of Holy Week, Is 50:4-9a; Ps 69:8-10, 21-22, 31 and 33-34; Mt 26:14-25. Thur. Apr. 21, Holy Thursday, Mass of Chrism, Is 61:1-3a, 6a, 8b-9; Ps 89:21-22, 25 and 27; Rv 1:5-8; Lk 4:16-21. Mass of the Lord’s Supper, Ex 12:1-8, 11-14; Ps 116:12-13, 15-16bc, 17-18; 1 Cor 11:23-26; Jn 13:1-15. Fri. Apr. 22, Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion, Is 52:13—53:12; Ps 31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-16, 17, 25; Heb 4:14-16; 5:7-9; Jn 18:1—19:42.

D

r. Habib Malik of the Lebanese American University has been a friend for many years. Few men have such an informed and humane view of the sad, even desperate, position of Christians in the Middle East. As a Lebanese Maronite with a Harvard doctorate in intellectual history, what Dr. Malik knows comes from experience as well as impeccable scholarship.

The Hoover Institution Press at Stanford University recently published a short booklet by Dr. Malik that should be required reading for anyone concerned with the fate of ancient Christian communities throughout the Levant, including the Holy Land. “Islamism and the Future of the Christians of the Middle East” can be read in one sitting.

Its brevity is an advantage: a concise mind and an accomplished pen distilling a vast

Specializing in: Brand Name/ Foreign Auto Parts

Christians in the Middle East

3) Christians who have been amount of knowledge and exsubjugated for generations perience into 68 pages. Let me have, over time, “lost all sense try, with far greater brevity, to of what it meant to experihighlight several of the book’s ence a life of true liberty.” key points.

1) Middle East Christians today have had two distinct historical experiences. One is an experience of freedom. The other is an experience of being

By George Weigel a dhimmi, a secondclass citizen existing on the sufferance of the Muslim majority in Thus they have developed a an Islamic state. variety of survival strategies 2) Ninety percent of Chriswhich, having been thoroughly tian Arabs live in conditions of dhimmitude today, including the internalized, now seem natural: kowtowing to authority; Copts in Egypt, the Chaldeans accepting benefactions from and Assyrians in Iraq, and the Greek Orthodox and Melkites in dictators like Saddam Hussein in Iraq or the Assad dynasty in Syria, Jordan, and the PalestinSyria; remaining silent in the ian Authority. These are the face of atrocities committed Christians at greatest risk from against Christians by Islamists Islamism and jihadism. and other Muslims; blaming the current problems of Christians in the Middle East on that great bugbear, the State of Israel.

4) Christian communities in the Middle East are also under tremendous pressure because their numbers are shrinking while Muslim populations are growing. Emigration (to escape persecution or to seek prosper1420 Fall River Avenue (Route 6) ity) has played a considerable Seekonk, MA 02771 role here; so has contraception.

The Catholic Difference

5) Both free Christian communities and dhimmi Christian communities suffer from a paucity of indigenous leadership. (Dr. Malik doesn’t say it, but I expect he means both political leadership and religious leadership.) This has created another comparative disadvantage for Christian communities in the Middle East. For their Muslim neighbors, having rejected various secular ideologies, have increasingly turned to more stringent (and thus more intolerant) forms of Islam in recent decades — and have done so at a time when few Christian leaders, clerical or lay, have been defending Christians’ rights, much less proposing Christianity as an attractive alternative to secular ideologies.

6) Western indifference to the fate of Arab and other Middle Eastern Christians has also contributed to their decline and their present peril. This blindness has also imperiled the West. Vibrant Christian communities can be a check on Islamism and jihadism by promoting Islamic moderation and openness. In Malik’s own words: “Such moderation is sure to

be strengthened when Muslims interact daily with confident fellow-native adherents to a creed that does not condone suicide bombers, respects women, is not out for religious domination, upholds the principle of religious pluralism, is compatible with liberal democracy, defends personal and group rights, emphasizes the centrality of education, and is not uncomfortable with many features of modern secular living. Whenever local Christians have felt relatively unmolested, they have acted as catalysts for positive change and as conduits for some of the West’s finest and most enduring universal values, and this in turn has advanced Islamic tolerance and moderation.”

The defense of religious freedom for persecuted Christians in the Middle East is a moral obligation. It is also a strategic imperative. Middle East Christians who share a historical experience of freedom, or who can shake off the psychological shackles of dhimmitude, are a strategic asset, not the headache the State Department usually imagines them to be.

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

Sheep stealing 101

Wednesday 13 April 2011 — City of Taunton — Guy Fakes birth anniversary (1570) used to think cattle rustling and sheep stealing were found only in grade B westerns from the 1950s. Then one day I was approached separately by several agitated parishioners.

As it turns out, they had received an upsetting postcard addressed “To Our Neighbors At ….”

The postcard reads “Need a change? Come and find a change at ‘Mount Genericus Church’” (not the real name). I’m sure not everyone at Mount Genericus agrees with whatever committee or

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April 15, 2011

n deference to Lent, I hadn’t followed the congressional budget battle as closely as I might have.

Reading about high-stakes wrangling over numbers and programs wouldn’t help my efforts to prioritize God during this time, I figured, although I did glance at headlines more than I usually do during this season of greater spiritual focus.

And yet, when the battle began to coalesce around the government subsidy for Planned Parenthood, the numbers game assumed a decidedly moral twist, and I began to pay more attention.

Obviously when an annual budget hovers in the trillions, $360 million is a relatively small amount — so miniscule that it became evident that either cutting or maintaining it was not a budgetary imperative but a philosophical one.

And this imperative wasn’t one that either side was willing to sacrifice without a ferocious fight.

While the abortion battle raged (and yes, since abortion constitutes the bulk of Planned Parenthood’s business this is about abortion) the larger conflict emerged: Pro-Life citizens don’t want to contribute money to something to which they are philosophically and morally opposed. This doesn’t touch the notion of banning the procedure or even restricting it, but only the funding mechanism.

Crabby abortion proponents have said for years, “If you

individual initiated the campaign. I believe that people of good faith (any good faith) would be appalled.

This postcard was produced

by a professional public relations firm. My friends in the advertising business tell me that a postcard has the greatest chance of being read.

You have only a second

or two to gain the recipient’s attention before the mailing goes into the recycling bin at the Post Office. The front of the postcard should be uncluttered, containing lots of blank space. If a word is to be used, the most attention-grabbing word is “free.” “Free money” is sure-fire.

If a picture is to be used, the image should be something warm and fuzzy — a puppy or a baby for example. The postcard in question features a diaperclad baby who, I presume, needs a change. He’s smiling. How cute. Bam! You now have my attention. Wait

The price of life don’t like abortion, then don’t have one,” while ignoring the fact that those who don’t like abortion are deeply insulted to have to pay for them. We can grumble forever about wasted tax dollars, inefficient programs, duplication of services or outlandish schemes but none of these compare

with the horror that our own hard-earned dollars are in turn passed onto a corporation that exists primarily to kill — one child every 90 seconds.

Most Republicans sensed the wider implication of the Planned Parenthood issue and held fast to the opportunity to honor the growing Pro-Life sentiments of their constituents. The gaudy display of abortion supporters, though, was beyond all parody. Just before the final votes were cast, the nation’s capitol was subject to a barrage of pink, flung about in myriad forms as a way of showing that feminists were as wedded to sterility as they were to sexual license. Not only did they insist on celebrating their sacrament of “free love” (meaning intimacy free of its natural consequences) but their “choice” wouldn’t mean a thing without the country picking up the tab. One local clinic director from Texas was aghast that the budget battle

had become embroiled over her organization, which “provides vital services to communities in need.”

A curious choice of words.

It’s precisely life (the root of the word “vital”) which makes so many taxpayers loathe to contribute to her organization.

To provide a “vital” service would be to serve life, not death, and the deep-seated emotions that surround abortion have been stirred up once more.

This is a good thing, and essential for the country. Will we be a nation that preserves innocent life? Will we draw a line that protects those whose conscience will not allow them to collaborate with the merchants of death? Will the traditional Judeo-Christian underpinnings of America be honored in any way, or will individualism trump every effort to speak for the defenseless?

Surely, money matters, and there is an important lesson being illustrated for the upcoming generation concerning fiscal accountability and living within one’s means. But if that very debate loses sight of the actual members of that younger generation — the ones who have run the gauntlet even to inherit the discussion — then their solvency will be a slave to their existence, which shouldn’t be in the hands of Planned Parenthood, but in God’s alone.

Mrs. Kineke is the author of “The Authentic Catholic Woman” (Servant Books) and serves as an editor at catholicexhange.com

a minute. The babies I know don’t smile when they need a diaper change.

Flip over the postcard and it goes straight for the jugular. The target audience, it unabashedly announces, is “recovering Catholics.” Oh, dear — red flag.

Then comes a list of the current “hot button” issues, the stuff of trash-talk media: married priests, female priests, divorce and remarriage, and, of course, disordered sexual acts.

On it goes to explain why a person should switch from the Catholic Church to Mount Genericus. The latter has valid and full worship. It has a youth group. It’s friendly.

It offers Bible study. It feeds people spiritually. It offers a sense of community. Hello?

This is contrary to what happens in a Catholic Church? I don’t think so. Someone over there is misinformed.

The postcard gives directions to Mount Genericus. A phone number and website are listed. It shows a photograph of the building. (I removed pictures of the building from my parish publications because I believe Church is not a building.)

If you are liturgically-challenged, it suggests you participate in the “Come As You Are” service on a Saturday night. There’s no music. It’s quick. I guess it’s for people in a hurry to get it over with and get on with their fun plans for the evening. If you prefer tradition, show up at the 10 a.m. Sunday service.

There are apparently no services on weekdays. If you want to do something extra for Lent, come Friday, eat clam chowder, and discuss Islam. I guarantee there will be no Muslims participating.

Muslims do not eat clams.

The Koran forbids it. Somebody knows doodley about Islam.

The postcard finally comes straight out and urges Catholics to “dispose of your current life” (spiritual, I presume) and assures that

no questions will be asked at Mount Genericus.

I checked around. Some but not all of my parishioners had received the postcard.

Some but not all Catholics in the deanery had received the mailing. Some but not all parishioners found the postcard slipped under the windshield wiper while they were at Mass.

What’s a poor pastor to do?

I listened to the opinions of the parish Ministry Team, the Parish Pastoral Council and the parish Knights of Columbus Council.

Most parishioners just shrugged it off and threw the postcard away. Good for them.

I worry, though, that some might believe this hogwash to be true. They may eventually forget where the disinformation originated. Should we respond? If so, who? How? The subject was addressed at the April meeting of priests of the deanery.

I don’t think we should retaliate in-kind. That would do more harm than good. We must refrain from sending a brigade of the Fourth Degree Knights of Columbus (the ones who carry swords) to intimidate the congregation over at Mount Genericus.

I do hope we will somehow reach out and engage those members of the Church of Mount Genericus. They need to know the truth.

Maybe we can find common ground. Maybe there is some Gospel work we could do together.

In the spirit of true ecumenism, you respect each other’s differences and you rejoice in beliefs held in common. Based on those commonly-held beliefs, you work together in the vineyard of the Lord.

Somehow, somewhere, somebody needs to sit down and talk calmly about this with the people over at Mount Genericus. The truth will set us free.

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

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By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

April 15, 2011

Taunton couple’s marriage forged in faith

TAUNTON — As a devout Catholic, Paula Yetman remembers praying to God for her life’s vocation.

“I just didn’t know if God wanted me to be married,” Yetman said, noting that she was approaching 40 at the time and had always hoped to find someone who shared in her faith. “I went to Rome on a pilgrimage to pray about my vocation and within five months of returning, my future husband Daniel wrote to me.”

Although Paula and Daniel had first connected via the popular online CatholicSingles.com website, she attributes their ultimate bond to her strong devotion to the Blessed Mother and the Rosary, and also that pivotal pilgrimage to Rome.

“Our first date was at La Salette Shrine in Attleboro, because Dan knew I had a great devotion to the Rosary. We went to pray the Rosary for Life and ended up praying 15 decades, which was a little over the top for him,” Yetman said, laughing. “I always say that I feel like I fell in love with his love for Jesus before I fell in love with him. I know that Our Lord brought us together.”

A parishioner at St. Patrick’s Parish

in Watertown at the time she met Dan- for Massachusetts Citizens for Life iel, Paula has since joined her hus- group, serving as extraordinary minisband’s home parish of Our Lady of the ters of Holy Communion, and volunHoly Rosary in teering for the Taunton, where Faith Formathe couple has tion program. remained ac“I taught tive and vibrant catechism in members for Watertown for the past decade. many years and “Our Lady helped with the is a very powConfirmation erful force in classes,” Paula my life and the said. “I think Rosary is my our youth are major devotion, not very well-inso it’s pretty formed in their ironic that my faith and I like husband alto share my exready belonged periences as a to Our Lady of witness to how the Holy Rosaimportant faith ry Parish,” she is in my life.” said. “I’ve been She added a parishioner that sharing her here for about own love and nine years.” devotion for the Paula and Anchor Persons of the Week — Paula and Blessed SacraDaniel have Daniel Yetman, having their wedding blessed ment has been

by Pope John Paul II on their honeymoon. jointly been insomething she’s volved in such enjoyed passing parish activities as sponsoring a lo- onto them. cal prayer group, acting as witnesses “I try to educate them on the beautiful gift of the Blessed Sacrament exposed on the altar,” she said. “Kids today are very rarely exposed to that.

It’s literally helped me in my life to find my purpose and my vocation in a more prayerful way.”

Another beautiful ministry that the Yetmans have shared is bringing Holy Communion to those who are unable to attend weekly Mass at their parish.

“It’s an honor to even be in that position and it just brings a real smile to my face while I’m doing it,” Paula said. “I’m really humbled that Our Lord allows me to be that close to Him and to bring Him to other people.”

She recalled one memorable experience where she brought Holy Communion to a woman who was confined to a special room within her final days of a long battle with cancer.

“I was just wondering to myself: ‘What am I doing here?’ I asked the Lord, ‘What do you want me to say?’

Then I saw this little picture of the Divine Mercy on the woman’s bedside table and I asked her if she’d like to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet and it was just so beautiful to share that experience with her and her family,” she said. “I know that Jesus allowed me to do that.”

That experience resonates with Paula even more now that Daniel has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and is facing his own battle with

the disease. It’s also unfortunately curtailed many of their parochial activities at Our Lady of the Holy Rosary.

“We had to give up visiting the sick in the hospital a couple of years ago,” Paula said. “We’ve been traveling to Boston during the week and we used to attend Mass here in Taunton on Saturday. But because Dan hasn’t been well, I’ve been able to bring Communion home for him and to be able to do that has really been a gift for us.”

Paula said her faith has helped her and Daniel cope with the situation.

“I don’t know how people do it without faith,” she said.

With the pending beatification of Pope John Paul II next month, the Yetmans also feel privileged to have had their marriage blessed by the revered former pontiff.

“We went to Rome on our honeymoon and our marriage was blessed

by Pope John Paul II,” Paula said. “I had my wedding dress on and we went to the Wednesday audience where he blesses all newlyweds. I gave him a white rose and I wrote him a note.

It was a silly little card saying how much I loved him and how inspirational he was in my life.

“Two weeks later, when we got home from our honeymoon, we had a letter from the Vatican. It was written by one of his secretaries, but it thanked me for my thoughtful note and assured us we were both in his prayers. It was such a powerful moment in both of our lives. It’s obviously something that’s carried us through our nine years of marriage.”

Despite Daniel’s recent health concerns, Paula continues to contribute to the parish as much as she can. Even now, she’s preparing to cook for the annual Taunton Deanery dinner next month that her pastor, Father David M. Stopyra, will host.

“I think God gives us each special talents and gifts,” she said. “So I use my talent to cook. When I cook, I cook with Our Lady — the Blessed Mother is always in the kitchen with me. I’m happy to share that gift with our priests who serve us so well and so selflessly.”

“In this day and age when we don’t have many vocations to the priesthood, we all should give something back to our faith,” she added. “We need to help build our Church community for the greater glory of God as a way of giving back all that He’s given us. And whenever you give to someone else, you always end up getting more back in return.”

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

April 15, 2011

The Anchor

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April 15, 2011

To advertise in The Anchor, contact Wayne Powers at 508-675-7151 or Email waynepowers@anchornews.org

Holy Thursday Mass - April 21 at 9:30PM Good Friday (Passion of the Lord) April 22 at 7:30 PM TV Program “Boa Nova da Vida” (Good News for Life) April 20 at 9:30 PM

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on WLNE Channel 6 Sunday, April 17 at 11:00 a.m.

Celebrant is Msgr. Stephen J. Avila, pastor of St. Mary’s Parish in Mansfield

April 15, 2011

A

n electrician by trade, Tim Roach is married with two children and lives about an hour outside Minneapolis. He was laid off from his job in July 2009. After looking for work for more than a year-and-a-half, he got a call from his local union in February 2011 with the news anyone who is unemployed longs for, not just a job offer, but one with responsibility and a good salary of almost $70,000 a year. He ultimately turned the offer down, however, because he discovered that he was being asked to oversee the electrical work at a new Planned Parenthood facility under construction in St. Paul on University Avenue. Aware that abortions would be performed there, he knew his work would involve him in “cooperation with evil,” and he courageously declined the offer.

Significant moral issues can arise if we knowingly cooperate in another’s evil actions, even though we don’t perform those evil actions ourselves.

Some helpful “principles of cooperation” have been developed over the centuries in the Catholic moral tradition as a way of discerning how properly to avoid, limit, or distance ourselves from evil, especially intrinsically evil actions. In particular, these principles enable us to recognize that there are certain real-life situations when we must refuse to cooperate.

A simple example can be helpful to illustrate some of these principles: suppose a nurse were to hand the instruments to a physician performing a direct abortion, or turn on the suction machine used to dismember the unborn baby. If the nurse intended the abortion, she would be guilty of

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The courage to refuse to cooperate in evil

formal cooperation in evil. Yet stitute an essential ingredient even if she personally opposed to the wrongful destruction of the abortion and did not share human life that occurs there. the intention of the physician On the other hand, driving performing the procedure, someone to an abortion clinic there would still be grave so she can undergo an abormoral objections to her cooption, assisting as a nurse in the eration. Because she would operating room during a tubal be participating in circumstances essential to the performance of that particular act of abortion, like handing instruments or turning on the suction maBy Father Tad chine, her cooperation Pacholczyk would be morally unacceptable, and would be known as immediate material cooperation. ligation, or thawing out human The key point, then, is that embryos from the deep freeze both types of cooperation so that a researcher might (formal and immediate matevivisect them for their stem rial) are morally unacceptable. cells — even if we opposed the Whenever we are faced with practices — all would constithe temptation to cooperate in tute unacceptable forms of imintrinsically evil actions like mediate material cooperation abortion, destruction of emwith evil. bryos for stem-cell research, Real world decisions about euthanasia, assisted suicide, or cooperation can be daunting direct sterilization, morally we and complex. Pharmacists, for must refuse. This is different, example, cannot in good confor example, from what theoscience provide the morninglogians call “remote cooperaafter pill for use by a woman tion” in another’s evil, as, for who has had consensual sex example, is done by the postal and wishes to avoid a pregnancarrier who delivers letters to cy. The morning-after pill has an abortion facility; although a contraceptive effect, and may what occurs there might sicken sometimes also work by alterthe carrier’s stomach, delivering the uterine environment ing the mail would not conand preventing implantation of

Making Sense Out of Bioethics

an embryo (causing a pregnancy loss/abortion). Even if the pharmacist were personally opposed both contraception and abortion, by providing the pill and knowing the purposes to which it would be put, he would cooperate in wrongdoing in an immediate and material way.

In fact, a pharmacist in these circumstances would not even be able to refer the woman to a co-worker, because if he were to do so, he would still be cooperating in an essential way in the causal chain leading to the prevention or ending of a pregnancy. He would rather have to decline to assist her, forcing the woman herself to initiate a new sequence of choices and actions that would not involve him — approaching a different pharmacist, for example, who might then provide the drug. For a pharmacist to choose the morally correct course of action in this situation not only requires fortitude,

but also could cause significant tension with his supervisor, the pharmacy owner and with others who work there, particularly if such a scenario had not been discussed ahead of time.

Modern health care is replete with situations that tempt us to cooperate immorally in evil. Clearly, certain activities like abortion are not authentic medicine at all, but rather, acts of immorality veiled behind the professionalism of white coats and institutional protocols. Great care, discretion, and courage are required as we seek to avoid cooperation in medical situations where immoral practices may not only be tolerated, but even at times almost imposed on us.

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

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It’s a commemoration, not a celebration

T

he news tease I heard on through the years. a television news show A website devoted to Ken this morning made me stop in my Burns’ unmatched documentary, tracks.

“The Civil War,” contains some I heard that to mark the 150th very sobering facts about the anniversary of the beginning of conflict that tore apart not only a the Civil War at Fort Sumter, country, but families and friends S.C., bands would be playing and as well. canons would be firing.

The war took a great toll on “What,” I shouted to myself.

Americans. Lasting from April “How can this anniversary be a celebration?”

I couldn’t let it rest.

I had to jump online to read more into this “tease.”

The “bands playing,”

By Dave Jolivet was a candlelight concert at the historic fort around 4:30 a.m., the time the first canon volleys of the Civil 12, 1861 to April 9, 1865, the War were fired on April 12, 1861. war claimed the lives of more The concert was aptly entitled, than 622,000 men — two percent “When Jesus Wept.” of the entire population of the At around 4 a.m., a single ray United States at the time. Stagof light reached from the fort, gering. And it’s said that disease skyward. At about the time of the claimed more lives than war first shots of the war 150 years wounds did. prior, two beams of light reached One of the bloodiest days in towards heaven — symbolizing a U.S. history was Sept. 17, 1862, nation torn in two. the Battle of Antietam (near I was much relieved that the Sharpsburg, Md.). The one-day event was a commemoration and battle claimed 23,000 casualties. not a celebration. The Civil War The Battle of Gettysburg (Pa.) is one of the darkest moments was a three-day affair, July 1-3, of this still-great country of ours 1863, with more than 50,000 ... despite the shortcomings of war casualties. Completely mindsome of her citizens and leaders boggling if one remembers the

My View From the Stands

The charm of the chimes continued from page one

gorgeous from every angle. It’s magnificent in its simplicity.”

Built in 1929 by Mrs. Frances Crane Lillie to commemorate her conversion to Catholicism from the Episcopalian faith, the bell tower houses two bells named Mendel and Pasteur, after the famous scientists Gregor Mendel and Louis Pasteur. Made from local Falmouth granite, the mechanical mechanism to ring out the bells hasn’t changed since the bell tower was built, but the effects of being close to the ocean came to the pastor’s attention in a most dramatic way.

“The spring arms holding the bells had become like Swiss cheese and we didn’t even know it,” said Father Mauritzen, after an alert parishioner noticed the damage. “They were just riddled with holes; I just don’t know how they stood up. It was by the grace of God, the angels were holding them up.”

The bells were silenced until repairs were done. In keeping with the parish’s schedule and to accommodate his neighbors, instead of ringing the bells at the traditional 6 a.m. Angelus hour, Father Mauritzen begins the parish’s day by having the bells ring out at 7, then followed by noon and then 6 p.m.

Msgr. Gerard O’Connor, pastor of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Acushnet also begins Angelus hours at 7 a.m., though he added a 3 p.m. afternoon toll of the electronic bells for the hour of Divine Mercy.

“We just had an increase in devotion to the Divine Mercy, and it was something that we often think about at the three o’clock hour,” said Msgr. O’Connor. “The Lord told us that it was the hour of mercy, and it was important to us. I think it resonates with a lot of people at three o’clock. We have a lot of people devoted to Divine Mercy.”

The Liturgical season is reflected in the carillon bell system of the Acushnet parish, with programmed hymns played during the Lenten season while Easter will have “Hallelujah” rolling over the Acushnet countryside.

“I think even if people are not practicing any faith, if they’re believers in God, [the carillon] points to people worshipping the Lord,” said Msgr. O’Connor. “That there is a church here. They know where it is if they want to come, that it’s reassuring that is there. Bells have always been a part of Catholic life.”

Something Msgr. O’Connor would like to make a regular part of his parish’s life is the use of the

adversaries were countrymen.

The war sent shock waves across the globe. The sea battle of the ironclads Monitor (Union Navy) and the Merrimack (salvaged and renamed the Virginia by the Confederate Navy) in the mouth of the James River in Virginia on March 9, 1862 changed the way every navy in the world would wage sea battles in the future. The day of the wooden ship was over.

When the bombs and bullets ceased to fly and the smoke from countless southern cities began to clear, what emerged was a broken and bloodied United States of America.

It took years for the wounds to heal. Some still haven’t. It’s said that some good did come from the war — the abolition of slavery. That’s true enough, but it took nearly another century before African-Americans were truly free in this country.

The war left thousands dead, thousands more permanently maimed, and thousands more emotionally scarred ... and a great American president was senselessly slain in a theater.

Every reason in the world that this be a commemoration and not a celebration.

parish’s single bell, sitting unused long before the monsignor came to the parish. Though it only makes one tone, it could be a beautiful addition to the church, said the monsignor.

“It’s in pretty good condition, but the bell there has not been used for a while,” he said. “We’re hoping, as a project in the future, to restore the bell tower.”

A parish that operates with electronic carillon bells and a single bell is Good Shepherd Parish on Martha’s Vineyard. To commemorate the union of a wedding, someone will pull the single rope to ring out the bell in celebration; and like many parishes, bells will begin to ring to signal Mass is about to begin.

“It heightens people’s awareness, calling us to focus on God,” said Father Michael Nagle, “to take a little time to step back and reflect.”

While the carillon system’s duties during winter is to simply ring out the Angelus hours, during the summer holidays, like the Fourth of July, patriotic songs can be heard through the speakers at Good Shepherd Parish.

Another tradition carried out by many of the parishes is the single tolling of a bell during a funeral.

If someone from the armed forces

April 15, 2011

Composer brings music mission to Attleboro continued from page one

cal music.

Ambrosetti is proud that he and his fellow composers are wellrepresented in the new “St. Augustine Hymnal” that he said is “the only hymnal in the United States to have a big block of music from all the different Catholic publishers under the same cover.”

“We’re one of the approved publishers of the new Mass liturgy and we’re also the exclusive publisher of the Mass of Renewal which won top honors at the National Association of Pastoral Music Convention,” he added.

Among his many achievements, Ambrosetti was also honored to have performed his original composition “Sanctuary” at the funeral of Blessed Mother Teresa and he also performed the first English Mass ever sung at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome for the soon-to-be-beatified Pope John Paul II. “I had the privilege of playing for the two giants of our faith,” he said. “Having played for the Holy Father and Blessed Mother Teresa are just unbelievable honors.”

While he won’t be attending Pope John Paul II’s beatification in Rome next month, Ambrosetti said he hopes to “be involved with the next phase of his canonization.”

“I think it’s wonderful that we’ve had such a strong and very focused and deeply spiritual man in our lifetime,” he added.

Another priest Ambrosetti holds in high esteem is Father Roy, whom he first met 19 years ago while Father Roy was serving at St. Joan of Arc Parish in Orleans.

“I used to be the director of training for Merrill Lynch, and my mentor there asked me to come and sing at his daughter’s wedding which was at St. Joan of Arc,” he said. “That’s where I first met Father Roy. He celebrated the wedding Mass and we became good friends and I’ve had the great honor of helping him over the years at his different assignments.”

Father Roy expressed joy at having his friend present his fourpart Lenten mission at his parish.

“We are excited about providing this opportunity for the people of the Attleboro area to enrich their Lenten experience,” Father Roy said. “I think it will enliven and inspire people as we move toward the Holy Week remembrance of Christ’s Passion and death and the joyful celebration of His resurrection on Easter Sunday.”

For more information about Vince Ambrosetti, visit www. vinceambrosetti.org or www. parishmission.org.

passes away in their parish, Father Richard Chretien of Notre Dame de Lourdes Parish in Fall River will play a hymn representing their branch. For Father Chretien, the bells hearken back to centuries of tradition.

The basic roll of the bells has been to call those to worship and prayer during different times of the day,” said Father Chretien. “I think it brings an awareness of what the Church is about; we come and pray.”

While the bells make people aware of the Church’s presence within its midst, occasionally people complain. Father Daniel Lacroix has been made aware of some noise complaints by those surrounding his St. Francis Xavier Parish in Hyannis.

“A number of people have complained in the area that the bells are noisy and would like us to stop,” said Father Lacroix, who states the bells ring all of 60 seconds during the Angelus hours. “I find that it’s very nice to have that remembrance of the olds days of a call to worship when people didn’t have watches, didn’t have the ability to know the time, per se. The bells would ring 10 or 15 minutes before Mass began to get people in from the fields. It’s an old tradition from the medieval towns and it’s nice to continue it.”

Father Lacroix’s bell system is straightforward, using an electrified striker in the cupola to ring out through the town.

“It’s a call to worship and reminds them that this is sacred space; it’s the time for prayer and to sanctify the hours. We forget that so much,” said Father Lacroix. “The old days too, the tower bell would ring during Mass to remind those that Mass was going on, that was a consecration. We’ve lost all of that tradition; it would be nice to reclaim it.”

Tradition is the common thread that holds the parishes together when it comes to using bells as part of their ministry, so it was no surprise that when Father Mauritzen suggested updating his parish’s two bells to the more multilayered-sounding carillon system, the answer was a resounding no.

“The parishioners didn’t want to change it,” said Father Mauritzen.

He added, “I see all of St. Joseph’s as a bright star in darkness. We have adoration all day, five days a week. The bell tower is gorgeous; God is beauty. I am totally opposed to artificial flowers, artificial bells; anything artificial isn’t God. Here we have real bells in a beautiful tower, and that [points to] God.”

April 15, 2011

Historic 1979 Boston visit brought beloved JPII just next door continued from page one

Many diocesan clergy and individuals were part of that special day. None more than Msgr. (then Father) Daniel A. Hoye, who traveled with the

15

The Anchor Holy Father the entire 10-day, two-continent trip. Father Hoye was an aide to Bishop Thomas Kelly, who was then secretary of the National Council of

Catholic Bishops. The trip included stops in Dublin, Ireland; Boston; New York City including a Mass at Yankee Stadium, a speech at the United Nations,

a Community of communities — Bishop George W. Coleman recently met with major superiors of several religious communities at St. Julie Billiart Parish Center in North Dartmouth. Mercy Sister Ann McGovern, Northeast Mercy vocation director, facilitated the program. The gathering included shared reflection and informal conversation, and a viewing of the USCCB film “Interrupted Lives,” a documentary that explores the trials and experiences of Eastern and Roman Rite Catholic Sisters and clergy during the Soviet domination of Eastern Europe after World War II. From left: Brother Jerome Lessard, FIC; Sister Ann McGovern, RSM; Sister Cynthia Bauer, OP; Father James Preskenis, CSC; Bishop Coleman; and Brother Ronald Taylor, MS.

convention-bound — The Fall River Diocesan Council of Catholic Women recently held its annual luncheon meeting at the Coonamessett Inn in Falmouth. Plans for the annual DCCW Convention were discussed. From left: Virginia Wade, first vice president; Father Philip Davignon, District V moderator; Jeanne Alves, president; and Betty Mazzucchelli, fourth vice president and convention chairman. The convention will take place at St. John the Evangelist Parish Center in Pocasset on May 14. The guest speaker will be Father Frank L. Sutman, OP.

and a large youth gathering at Madison Square Garden; Philadelphia; Des Moines, Iowa; Chicago; and Washington, D.C., that included a visit with U.S. President Jimmy Carter.

Then-Fall River Bishop Daniel A. Cronin was a concelebrant at a Mass at Boston’s Holy Cross Cathedral prior to the Boston Common liturgy.

Diocesan Chancellor Msgr.

Thomas J. Harrington, and Vice Chancellor Msgr. John J. Oliveira were ministers of the Eucharist for the service.

Father Jon-Paul Gallant was part of the choir that sang at the Boston Common Mass. He was accompanied by several seminarians who are now diocesan priests: Paul Caron, David Costa, Richard Degagne, Thomas Frechette, Gerard Hebert, Mark Hession, and John Perry.

Then-Anchor editor Father John F. Moore and Father Edmond Rego provided Mass commentary in English and Spanish for WLNE Channel 6.

Father Barry W. Wall provided radio commentary on WSAR in Fall River.

In 1979, Father Timothy J. Goldrick was the president of the Fall River Priests’ Council, so he represented the diocese at the papal Mass a few days later in Philadelphia.

More than 100 buses were chartered from across the diocese to bring pilgrims to Boston, including from Bishop Feehan High School in Attleboro, St. Mary’s Cathedral in Fall River, the Dominican Sisters of the Presentation, and the Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena.

It was also a very exciting time for The Anchor, the newspaper for the Diocese of Fall River. An above-the-fold headline in the Sept. 27, 1979 edition screamed “Four Days To Go On Papal Countdown.”

Also on page one of that edition was an announcement that “most of our regular features” would not appear the following week because of an October 4 Souvenir Papal Edition.

Illustrating just how quickly the young pope was capturing the hearts of people in the U.S., the September 20 Anchor carried a quarter-page advertisement from the nationally-published “TV Guide,” announcing its next edition with John Paul II gracing the cover along with the headline, “Pope John Paul II And Television: A Perfect Match.”

The special Papal Edition was twice the size of the usual

The cover of the Oct. 4, 1979 special Souvenir Papal Edition of The Anchor.

16-page Anchor. The publication was laden with advertisements welcoming the Holy Father, from diocesan parishes and offices, area merchants, and even a full-page message from the Mayor of Fall River, Carlton Viveiros, and his family.

The excitement still hadn’t worn off come the October 11 edition that had a five-column banner across the bottom of page one proclaiming “Pope John Paul II: We love you!!”

For many across the diocese, the excitement still hasn’t faded nearly 32 years later.

16

Youth Pages

short-order chefs — First-grade students at St. John the Evangelist School in Attleboro recently packaged peanut butter and jelly sandwiches along with fruit and snack bags of cookies and chips as part of the Breadlines/And You Feed Me program. The packages were delivered to the homeless in Providence and shelters in Rhode Island.

following the leader — The Santo Christo Parish Confirmation class in Fall River recently held its retreat at Oakhurst Retreat Center in Whitinsville, Mass. The retreat theme was “Come, Follow Me” (Mt 4:19).

they are the champions — The St. Joseph’s Fairhaven Boys A team (the Deacons) won the 2010-11 diocesan CYO championship. The road wasn’t an easy one. In the semi-final series against Espirito Santo of Fall River, the Deacons won the deciding third game by a score of 56-50 to move on to the finals. St. Joe’s faced St. Ann’s of Raynham in the finals where a third game was needed again to crown a champion. St. Joe’s prevailed 49-47.

April 15, 2011

AND LITTLE CHILDREN SHALL LEAD THEM — For weeks the students of the Faith Formation classes at St. Mary’s Parish in Fairhaven colored more than 300 Easter cards to be distributed to three nursing homes and an assisted living home in Fairhaven. Our Lady’s Haven, The Royal, and Alden Court residents were among those who appreciated the young visitors walking the halls, handing out cards and wishing them a happy and blessed Easter. From left: Hayleigh Aubut greets Charlotte Spooner as Luke McGraw and Ricky Andre look on.

brothers and sisters on another continent — The students attending Holy Trinity Regional School in West Harwich keep in contact with Father Joseph’s school in Cotonou in the Republic of Benin, Africa. While visiting Holy Trinity Parish this past fall, Father Joseph came to the school to explain to the students how every day is a challenge in the schools of Africa. Pictured are students from the St. Peter Claver School in Cotonou.

a part of history — As part of the summer reading program at Bishop Stang High School, North Dartmouth, each year the entire student body and faculty read one universal book. This year’s was “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” by John Boyne which is set in 1942 Nazi Germany. The English and Social Studies departments at Bishop Stang recently collaborated on the Jewish Federation of Greater New Bedford’s Holocaust project. The two departments partnered by having its students write or design artwork that drew from the book and aligned with the theme of this year’s local Holocaust project “Shattered Lives: Children During the Holocaust.” First-place writing winners were Melissa Cieto, Trevor Collins, Owen Leary, Maeve McQueen, and Zach Torres. First place art winners were Madison McClarren, Cody Moniz, and Hannah Olson. The students have been invited to participate in this year’s annual Holocaust Observance program on May 1 at 6:30 p.m. at Buttonwood Park. Front from left: Jen Thomas (Library/Media Center director), Hannah Olson, Maeve McQueen, Madison McClarren, Melissa Cieto and Donna McDougal (Social Studies Dept. chairperson) Back: Owen Leary, Zach Torres, Cody Moniz, and Trevor Collins.

April 15, 2011

Youth Pages

17

The Measure of Love is to Love without Measure

The following are the two winning entries in the annual Diocese of Fall River Pro-Life Essay Contest sponsored by the diocesan Pro-Life Apostolate. At left is winning essay in the High School division, and at right is the winner in the Junior High School division.

T

o love, in the Catholic perspective, means to show care, concern, and affection towards all others.

As Christians, we are called to love as Jesus loved. All human beings are made in God’s image and likeness and therefore, our vocation is to love all others unconditionally. As Pope Benedict XVI said, this is “the key to our entire existence.” Through our love of others, we must respect and protect the life and dignity of each human person. Whether the issue is taking the lives of unborn children, suffering people, or people with disabilities, we, as human beings and as a society, are failing to love and stand up for life. These problems must be addressed and stopped in our society today.

Since the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, over 46 million abortions have been performed. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines abortion as the deliberate termination of a pregnancy, at any time from conception to natural birth, by the removal or expulsion of a human fetus or embryo from the womb, resulting in its death. This issue has become one of the most controversial social justice and human rights issues in the world, and it must be addressed. Catholic social teaching recognizes the sanctity of life and the dignity of the human person. Since life begins at conception, according to Catholic teaching as well as scientific evidence, a human being has dignity from the moment of fertilization to the moment of natural death. When an abortion is performed, the dignity and life of an innocent, unborn child is taken away. When a person is denied this right, love is absent; we fail to love as God loves. As the leading cause of death in the United States, must be not only addressed, but eliminated.

In the same way, the practice of euthanasia, or ending life in a manner that relieves pain and suffering, has been the source of thousands of deaths in the United States. Though it may seem beneficial to the suffering person on the surface, it is a practice that the Catholic Church considers as immoral. Despite a person’s suffering, euthanasia interferes with God’s plan for each human being, and takes a person’s right to life away before natural death. Who is to say the person at stake will not experience a miracle of healing? Who is to decide that he or she is in charge of another death? In this way, euthanasia fails to respect life from the beginning to the natural end. It is, thus, failing to love. When a person chooses to commit euthanasia against another, he or she is not morally caring for another’s life. Rather, that person is denying another person life and the chance to heal. Not only is this person’s physical life taken away, but his or her example of strength, determination, and love, through the experience of suffering, is also denied. This decision of euthanasia brings about the absence of love and respect for others and life. Euthanasia is an immoral, anti-life practice.

Awareness must be raised and action must be taken against its failure to love.

“The measure of love is to love without measure.” Christ calls all human persons to love unconditionally.

This vocation is the sole reason we, as human beings, live. Truly living out this mission to love means to respect and to care for the lives of others, particularly the most vulnerable among us. Through the practices of abortion and euthanasia, and other Pro-Life issues, society as a whole is failing to love. These problems are among the leading causes of death in our nation and are taking the lives of innocent human beings every day. It is crucial to take a stand against these happenings and to work towards putting an end to them in our nation. What’s the message? Love life without measure.

Hannah Dulmaine, Grade 12, Pope John Paul II High School, Hyannis Corpus Christi Parish, East Sandwich

W

hen I was young, the Sunday before Easter was always known as Palm Sunday. Today it is known as Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion. It got me thinking about the relationship between the palm branches and the Passion of Christ. According to the Gospel of Matthew, when Christ entered Jerusalem people “cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!’”

The word “passion” is often defined as strong emotion, such as love. When we look at the passion of the people welcoming Christ into the city, when can see the emotion and the excitement as they waved their

“B

efore I was born, the Lord chose me and appointed me to be His servant” (Isaiah 49:1). This Old Testament quotation proclaims that every human being is loved and willed by God from conception to natural death. Isaiah teaches that ever since our birth, God has appointed us to be missionaries of peace, justice and love. We as Christians are called to be instruments and examples of God’s divine providence through our words and deeds. The way we treat our less fortunate brothers and sisters reflects our love for God. God has a deep and unending love for every human being, and our Christ-like image epitomizes this love.

Two human beings who have realized the value of God’s everlasting love are Italian singer Andrea Bocelli and his mother, Edi. While she was pregnant with Andrea, Edi Bocelli was mistakenly diagnosed with appendicitis. Doctors advised her to terminate her pregnancy since there was a high probability that the appendicitis treatments would cause a disability in her child. However, Edi, a devout Roman Catholic, chose not to abort her son. She realized that God had a plan for her beloved unborn child. Because of her willingness to put God first, Edi bore a son who is now universally renowned for his angelic voice.

At the age of 12, Andrea Bocelli was blinded during a sports accident, but he still witnesses God’s love without physically seeing it. Bocelli’s purity of heart and beauty of sound is demonstrated in his breathtaking performances that involve his faith. He has strived to be a true Christian through his benevolence and his celestial voice.

The lives of Andrea and Edi Bocelli can inspire every Christian to always act with respect for life. This includes caring for an unexpected child or someone suffering from a disability. Furthermore, this includes fearlessly standing up for one’s Pro-Life beliefs. Being part of the Kingdom of God involves being Pro-Life as God shows everlasting love for us, we must show everlasting love for God’s children.

Kevin Agostinelli, Grade Eight, St. Francis Xavier Preparatory School, Hyannis Christ the King Parish, Mashpee

Palms and the Passion

This Sunday, as we pick palms and layered the road up our blessed palms and with their branches. One could easily describe the crowd as passionate, but emotions are so fleeting and changeable. Within the week those same people would be yellBy Jean Revil ing for Pilate to crucify Christ. How fickle we are! How telling hold them high at Mass, it is that the palms we wave this Sunday will become the let us remember the times and the situations where we ashes we wear next year. have been so fickle in our When we look at the commitment to love. Let us Passion of Christ, all of the suffering that He endured for remember that when Christ our sakes, we don’t see mere died on the cross, He died for our sins, not just the sins emotion; we see the choice, the decision to love us to the of those who lived in His lifetime. He died for all of end. This Passion does not change with the mood of the us, knowing that we would people, and is not dependent so often fail to love Him, and fail to love each other. on positive emotions or excitement. This is the Passion He died to save us from all that sin would do to us. of the Lord, an act of His Hold those palms high, free will to lay down His life and remember what true for His friends. This is what passion, true love really is. love really means.

Be Not Afraid

It’s not about the nice feelings; it’s about the sacrificial love, the choice, the decision to give all that we are in service to our God. In this final week of Lent, may we commit ourselves more fully to prayer, fasting and almsgiving, in atonement for our sins and as first step

in loving more fully. Ashes and palms, in a way, are both signs of our passing nature.

We are just travelers on our way home. May the grace of God guide us each step of the way.

Jean Revil teaches theology and is campus minister at Bishop Stang High School. Comments welcome at: jrevil@ bishopStang.com

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

40 Days For Life ends Sunday continued from page one

nence, parenting and adoption placement.

Ron Larose, coordinator for the campaign in Attleboro, said the two ministries are linked.

The center will benefit prayer volunteers because it gives them a nearby place to recommend to women and those accompanying them to the clinic.

People unsure of the decision to have an abortion are only a few minutes’ drive from the center.

“This resource will help them to have an immediate resource that they can stay in their car and actually go over there and talk to somebody about their situation,” he told The Anchor.

He added that the center is one of the fruits of the 40 Days For Life campaign, saying, “It’s part of God’s plan working through us.”

The center is planning to make signs for the vigil site, where a “very faithful” group of volunteers pray on Thursdays and Saturdays throughout the year, he said.

The 40 Days’ closing prayer service on April 17 will feature time for fellowship and for sharing stories about the spring 2011 campaign. Sure to be mentioned is the one confirmed

“save” during this campaign, and another last campaign, in which women who were planning to have abortions didn’t go through with it after witnessing people praying for them. There have been a total of four confirmed saves in six seasons.

Organizers wrote in an April 1 email to supporters, “We extend our heartfelt thanks to all those who have come out to pray under much less than ideal conditions these past few weeks. Community support is on the rise and it seems opposition to our presence has greatly diminished from previous campaigns.”

One group of high school and college students have spent every Saturday morning on their knees, praying for an end to abortion. The email calls them an “inspiration.”

Larose said this Lent the 40 Days in Attleboro has seen the largest number of new people signing up since it began — an increase of more than 10 percent. He attributed the increase to outreach to Catholic churches.

Organizers sent emails to all Fall River parishes and asked them to run bulletin announcements.

“We are continuing our outreach,” he said. “We are optimistic that the campaign will

Visit The Anchor online at http://www.anchornews.org

continue to grow as it has.”

The nationwide 40 Days For Life has grown exponentially since the first campaign, conducted in College Station, Texas in 2004. This year, 247 communities in the United States, Canada, Australia, England Ireland, Spain, Belize, Armenia and the nation of Georgia are participating. So far there have been nearly 300 confirmed saves in the 2011 campaign alone.

The campaign is built on a foundation of prayer, fasting and peaceful vigil and takes a Christ-like approach to women entering abortion clinics.

It is not only abortion-minded women who are affected by 40 Days. In 2009, a Planned Parenthood director, Abby Johnson, witnessed an ultra-

In Your Prayers Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks April 16 Rev. Arthur E. Langlois, on sick leave, Denver, Colo., 1928 Rev. Norman F. Lord, C.S.Sp., Hemet, Calif., 1995 Rev. John W. Pegnam, USN, Retired Chaplain, 1996

April 18 Rev. Hugh B. Harrold, Pastor, St. Mary, Mansfield, 1935 Rt. Rev. John F. McKeon, P.R., Pastor, St. Lawrence, New Bedford, 1956 Rev. Joao Vieira Resendes, Retired Pastor, Espirito Santo, Fall River, 1984 Rev. Wilfred C. Boulanger, M.S., La Salette Shrine, Attleboro, 1985 Rev. George E. Amaral, Retired Pastor, St. Anthony, Taunton, 1992 April 19 Rev. William Wiley, Pastor, St. Mary, Taunton, 1855 Rev. Msgr. Leo J. Duart, Pastor, St. Peter the Apostle, Provincetown, 1975 Rev. Daniel E. Carey, Chaplain, Catholic Memorial Home, Retired Pastor, St. Dominic, Swansea, 1990 Rev. Msgr. Antonino Tavares, Retired Pastor, Santo Christo, Fall River, 2008 April 20 Rev. Edward F. Coyle, S.S., St. Mary Seminary, Baltimore, Md., 1954 Rev. James E. O’Reilly, Retired Pastor, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Seekonk, 1970 Rev. James P. Dalzell, Retired Pastor St. Joseph, Woods Hole, 1999 April 21 Rev. John O’Beirne, Pastor St. Mary, Taunton Rev. Thomas Feeley, C.S.C., Holy Cross Family Ministries, North Easton, 2004 April 22 Rev. James L. Smith, Pastor, Sacred Heart, Taunton, 1910 Rev. Thomas F. Fitzgerald, Pastor, St. Mary, Nantucket, 1954

April 15, 2011 sound-guided abortion and a few days later she walked out of the clinic to join the vigilers in prayer. She details her conversion story in her book “Unplanned.”

She wrote that she tried to convince herself that the abortion she was witnessing via ultrasound was just “a simple, quick medical procedure” as she watched the vacuum tube, called a cannula, approach the fetus.

“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,” she added. “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. As the cannula pressed its side, the baby began strug-

gling 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.”

This Lent, Johnson and her husband are planning another conversion — to the Catholic Church.

“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,” she told LifeNews.com in February.

“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,” she said, adding that she particularly loves the Church’s reverence for Mary as the Mother of God. For more information, visit www.40daysforlife.com/ attleboro.

Around the Diocese 4/18

A series of mini retreats during Holy Week will be held at the Father Peyton Center, 500 Washington Street, North Easton from April 18 through 20. The daily talks will begin at 11 a.m. each day followed by Mass at noon in the St. Joseph Chapel. Topics will include “Reflection on the Eucharist” by Father David Marcham; “Reflection on the Cross” by Beth Mahoney; and “Reflection on the Exultant” by Father John Phalen, CSC. For more information call 508-238-4095.

4/19

Adoption by Choice, an adoption and pregnancy counseling program sponsored by Catholic Social Services, will hold an informational session for individuals interested in domestic newborn or international adoptions on April 19 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Catholic Social Services, 1600 Bay Street, Fall River. To register or for more information call 508-674-4681 or visit www.cssdioc.org.

4/22

The Catholic movement Communion and Liberation will sponsor a Way of the Cross beginning at St. Joseph-St. Therese Church, 1960 Acushnet Avenue, New Bedford, and processing through Brooklawn Park to Ashley Boulevard and Tarkiln Hill Road on Good Friday, April 22 beginning at 11 a.m. All are invited to join this procession. The Way of the Cross will include prayers, readings and hymns and will be accompanied by Father Karl Bissinger, who will provide brief meditations at various stops in the park. The Way of the Cross will conclude at 1 p.m. at St. Mary’s Church on Tarkiln Hill Road. For more information contact Robert Sampson at 508-525-0051.

4/22

The 35th annual Canal Walk for Haiti will take place on Good Friday, April 22 along the Cape Cod Canal service road starting at the railroad bridge in Buzzards Bay. Walkers will proceed to the Herring Run Visitors Center where rest rooms and free refreshments will be available. The total distance of the walk is 10 kilometers, or about 6.3 miles.

For more information email vtortora@capecod.net or ourladyofthecape@ yahoo.com

4/28

The Lazarus Ministry of Our Lady of the Cape Parish, Brewster, is offering a six-week bereavement support program called “Come Walk With Me” beginning April 28 through June 2 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The program will meet at the parish center and is designed for people who have experienced the loss of a loved one within the past year.

For more information or to pre-register, call Happy Whitman (508-385-3252) or Eileen Burch (508-394-0616).

4/30

Courage, a welcoming support group for Catholics wounded by same-sex attraction who gather to seek God’s wisdom, mercy and love, will next meet April 30 at 7 p.m. For location information call Father Richard Wilson at 508-992-9408.

4/30

“Spring into Health,” a health fair presented by the parish nursing ministries of St. Anthony Parish, East Falmouth; Our Lady of Victory Parish, Centerville; and Christ the King Parish, Mashpee will be held April 30 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Christ the King Parish Hall in Mashpee. The fair is open to the public and will include free screenings and presentations on hearing, blood pressure and CPR with doctors, pharmacists and nurses. For directions or more information, visit www.christthekingparishparish.com

5/1

St. Mary’s Parish, Fairhaven will host a Spring Buffet Breakfast on May 1. Share in the delight of a May Day buffet of plain and blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs, baked ham, sausage, homemade potatoes, fruit cup, juice and coffee while visiting with family, friends and neighbors. Tickets are available after all weekend Masses and at the rectory during business hours. For more information call 508-992-7300 or visit www.sscc.org/stmaryfhvn.

April 15, 2011

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 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, following the 8 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 — Espirito Santo Parish, 311 Alden Street, Fall River. Eucharistic adoration on Mondays following the 8:00 a.m. Mass until Rosary and Benediction at 6:30 p.m.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

The Anchor Cardinal: Pope John Paul’s rapport with press was important

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — No one can fully understand the personality and courage of Pope John Paul II without examining the “flying press conferences” he held on airplanes during 104 trips outside of Italy, said retired Cardinal Roberto Tucci, who organized most of those trips. “He was not evasive.

He wasn’t afraid to answer, even if sometimes he was irritated by the question,” Cardinal Tucci said at the presentation of a book containing the transcripts in Italian of most of Pope John Paul’s high-altitude encounters with the press.

Cardinal Tucci said the speeches, books and poetry of Pope John Paul give people what he thought when he had time to reflect in a methodical way, but his responses to reporters — which include some light-hearted joking and some goodnatured scolding — show more of his personality, his ability to think on his feet and his real facility with languages, since he would respond in the language in which the question was posed.

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The Anchor

Paschal Triduum Services

Holy Thursday: 7 pm - Mass of the Lord’s Supper

Good Friday: Noon - Ecumenical Stations of the Cross,

St. Peter’s Episcopal Church 12:10 pm - Stations of the Cross in Church 7 pm - Celebration of the Lord’s Passion

Holy Saturday: 11 am-Noon - Confessions 7 pm - Solemn Vigil of Easter

Easter Sunday: Masses at 6, 7, 8:30, 10:30 am and Noon

April 15, 2011