05.15.20

Diocese of Fall River, Mass. † Friday, May 15, 2020

New Bedford fifth-grade teacher chalks special message to each of her 18 students during pandemic separation. Page two.

Video extols diocesan schools’ quick transition during COVID-19 pandemic

By Kenneth J. Souza Web Editor

kensouza@anchornews.org

FALL RIVER — The Catholic Schools Alliance of the Fall River Diocese recently posted a two-and-a-half-minute video extolling the diocesan schools’ quick response in dealing with the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus.

In response to Governor Charlie Baker’s March 13 decision to close all schools in Massachusetts, the Fall River Diocese within three days had already shifted “to an online platform quickly for older grades and a blend

of online and home packets for younger grades,” according to the video narration.

The video acknowledged how this swift response wouldn’t have been possible without the generous donation made by Jack and Susan Dawley of Osterville back in 2017, that was supplemented with federal funding to provide nearly $1 million in technology upgrades for the diocesan schools.

“This project will provide Wi-Fi in all the classrooms, faster access to data and to all kinds of online information, and that’s going to be the new method of teaching, so 8 Turn to page 10

On what was to be their First Communion celebration, children at the Catholic Community of Falmouth prayed the ‘Act of Spiritual Communion of St. Alphonsus de Liguori’ with pastor, Msgr. Stephen Avila. Page three.

Diocesan school employees, Denise and Jessica Peixoto, team up to make face masks for health-care providers, family, friends and co-workers. Page 10.

An example of a sad sign of the times, the visitors’ parking lot at Catholic Memorial Home in Fall River remains empty. (Photo by Dave Jolivet) May 15, 2020 †

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Chalk this gesture up as a prime example of a special bond between a fifth-grade teacher and her students

By Dave Jolivet Print Editor

davejolivet@anchornews.org

NEW BEDFORD — There was a time when chalk was used by youngsters to map out a hopscotch diagram on the sidewalk; to create a strike zone on an outside school wall to play stick ball; and for the Sisters in our parochial schools to illustrate lessons on a blackboard.

Rarely has it been used to buoy the spirits of homebound students with messages of hope and love.

But these are rare times, and fifth-grade teacher Ashley Medeiros at St. James-St. John’s School in New Bedford recently spent two days, encompassing more than five hours, to communicate a personal message on the sidewalk or driveway of each of her 18 students currently locked down at home.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to alter life as we know it, more and more examples of Christian kindness and selflessness become evident.

Like every teacher and student in all of the Diocese of Fall River’s schools, Medeiros and her students are finishing the school year joined together by Zoom and Google Classrooms — physically separated, but nothing can break the bond established during the first seven months of the school year.

Medeiros, who also teaches fourth-grade Vocabulary and Grammar Mechanics, told The An2

chor, “Talk about a strong and resilient group of individuals! They have surely been prime examples of perseverance. At times, it is difficult and some days are better or worse than others. Everyone is navigating

challenge them, support them, guide them, and even give them a break.”

Medeiros, now in her fifth year as the fifthgrade teacher has deep SJSJ ties. She attended the New Bedford school for

been with the school for a dozen years.

But the new virtual classroom wasn’t enough for Medeiros and she wanted to do something extra for this wonderful group of students. “I knew I want-

Ashley Medeiros, a fifth-grade teacher at St. James-St. John School in New Bedford recently left a chalk message on the sidewalk or driveway of each of her 18 students during April break from what has now become their virtual school year.

Each of the students and their families “paid if forward” by organizing a parade past Medeiros’ home, honking horns and displaying signs of love, thanks and appreciation.

this experience differently, students and adults alike.

“We have many family members who are first-responders which adds another emotional element which affects their learning. Of all times, now is the time to practice educating the whole child. A benefit of creating true bonds with your individual students is that you learn when to

† May 15, 2020

grades one through eight, and her mother, Christine Medeiros, is a long-time first-grade teacher at the school. “I am a proud alum,” Medeiros said. “I went on to attend Bishop Stang High School then Bridgewater State College only to return to SJSJ as a part-time employee while I completed my college classes.” All-in-all she has

ed to try to do something special for my students within the social distance limits to help them kick-off April vacation,” Medeiros told The Anchor. “I missed them and I missed our classroom, so my fiancé, Alex Simon, who has provided a great deal of moral support during this time, and I set out on a road trip adventure to chalk

each one of my student’s sidewalks or driveways as a surprise. I left personalized messages for each one of them, and documented each with a selfie.

“It took a span of two days, five-plus hours for 18 deserving smiles. It was well worth it! An adventure whose main mission was for me to spread positivity and smiles turned into one of the most memorable experiences of my teaching career.”

Medeiros’ not-so-random act of kindness was very quickly and powerfully paid forward by her students and their families.

“It was Wednesday, April 22 and just the day before Governor [Charlie] Baker had announced that Massachusetts schools would be closed for the remainder of the year,” Medeiros said.

“I was devastated. I refused to believe that this was the way our year would continue/end. I threw my hair in what I call the ‘self-pity messy bun,’ put on one of my dad’s sweaters — you know that article of clothing that just brings you comfort — and started baking a family cookie recipe as a feel-good treat.”

The news of the cancellation of the rest of the school year rocked Medeiros, as it has many others.

“I felt the wind was taken out of my sails and our year would conclude with us just kind of fading away,” Medeiros continued.

“I was venting and crying to my mom whom I knew shared my disappointment 8 Turn to page 13

First Communion, Confirmation celebrations waiting to see if restrictions are lifted

By Kenneth J. Souza Web Editor

kensouza@anchornews.org

FALL RIVER — As if this past Holy Week and Easter weren’t already strange enough, pastors everywhere now find themselves in the midst of the month of May — typically peak season for First Communion celebrations and preparing candidates to receive Confirmation — waiting to see when the Coronavirus restrictions are finally lifted and they can reschedule these eagerly-anticipated events.

“Our First Communion was scheduled for May 2,” said Father Jay Maddock, pastor of Holy Name Parish in Fall River.

“We always have it that first Saturday in May. And then on Sunday we have the May procession, so the kids come back, dressed up in their dresses and suits. Sadly, that (date) has come and gone and our Confirmation had been scheduled for May 22.”

Like his fellow diocesan priests, Father Maddock said he is patiently waiting until May 18, which is when Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker is expected to announce whether the restrictions can be eased or extended.

“For me one of the keys is May 18 — the current restrictions go until then,” Father Maddock told The Anchor.

“But as we know they can be extended, they can be amended, we don’t know what might happen. So,

before we can make any definitive plans and dates, we have to find that information out.”

“We have been reaching out to everyone in the parish by phone, email and mail,” said Father David Frederici, pastor of St. Mary’s Parish in Dartmouth. “In addition, Beni Costa-Reedy, our director of Faith Formation, has been in contact with our First Communion families with some information to help continue the preparation of our young parishioners to receive the Eucharist for the first time.

Our celebrations would have begun last weekend, but obviously that is not possible.”

When the quarantine began, Father Frederici said his parish was also in the midst of two adult Faith Formation programs.

“We were able to move them over to online platforms and continue the programs,” he said. “The Faith Formation programs for our children were almost over for the year, so we cancelled those with the exception of sending our First Communion families information to continue their formation.”

Even once the restrictions are lifted, Father Frederici thinks they will certainly have to adjust to post-pandemic life.

“The timing of our First Communions will depend on whether the resumption of public Masses is based on a percentage of occupancy of the church, or a specific

number,” he said. “First Communions will happen, but they may have to be spread out over a period of time to keep the numbers down.”

Father Frederici also thinks multiple Confirmation ceremonies are likely unless “we base the numbers on a percentage of occupancy and then only allow the candidate, a sponsor and a parent” to attend.

“We have met with our Confirmation candidates, as well as our middle school students via Zoom,” he said. “I want to be sure that we are walking this journey with them in every way possible.”

Like everything else during life under COVID-19, pastors and Faith Formation coordinators have had to take advantage of computer technology to stay connected with students and parents.

“As Faith Formation classes were concluding at the April break, we suspended classes a few weeks earlier,” said Msgr.

Stephen Avila, pastor of the Catholic Community

of Falmouth. “Our director of Faith Formation, Jonathan Galo, produced several online videos for ongoing formation, including an explanation of Holy Week and a virtual retreat for First Communion students. On the weekend of what was to be First Communion, we asked the children to pray the Act of Spiritual Communion of St. Alphonsus de Liguori and produced a video of them praying it together.”

He agreed with Father Frederici that “if numbers of congregants are (still) restricted, perhaps communicants will receive First Holy Communion in smaller groups over the summer.”

Msgr. Avila added that the 30 Confirmation candidates at his parish this year were on the verge of receiving the Sacrament from the bishop the weekend Masses were suspended.

“As we are unsure how things are going to look after the restrictions are relaxed, no plans have been discussed as of yet,” Msgr. Avila said. “We will await to hear from the

bishop’s office whether he will reschedule or delegate pastors to confer the Sacrament.”

In a May 4 video message addressed to all candidates hoping to receive First Communion and Confirmation this year, Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, S.D.V., said he’s been praying for them all and thinking of them “as we face these difficult times of the Coronavirus pandemic.”

“We all have been waiting and preparing for the day when we can reopen our churches to be able to celebrate Mass in public, be able to gather people and to receive the Sacraments,” Bishop da Cunha said. “We are waiting for the guidance of the civil authorities and the medical experts to let us know when restrictions can be lifted and when we can safely return to 8 Turn to page 16

May 15, 2020 †

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I

Mary, Mother of the Church and the Holy Mass

n this time when our access to the Eucharist has been made so difficult, let us all the more unite with Mary, Mother of the Church.

Her life in union with Jesus was a daily taking up of the cross in preparation for Calvary and an anticipation of Heaven. Mary is for us today, as at Cana, interceding with Our Lord, with her words, “They have no wine.”

The joy of Sunday worship has been somewhat muted for us and yet she teaches us to trust in Him through the Church, “Do whatever He tells you.” As a mother, Mary can hasten the moment and help us to prepare for the joyful return of Holy Mass to the faithful once again so as to live more intensely the Holy Mass in our daily lives.

Preparation for Mass First, Mary Immaculate, was “full of grace” so we also should always be in a state of grace in preparation for Holy Mass. If we are conscious of any mortal sin, our soul is effectively dead so we must be reconciled with God in the Sacrament of Reconciliation before receiving Holy Communion. Like Mary, conscious of Him Whom we receive, our interior dispositions and our exterior dress should reflect this.

We should not be casual or vain but clean and modest because we are temples of the Holy Spirit and we want to glorify God in our bodies, thanking Him with the best He has given us.

We should prepare by prayer and silence to enter the church early in order to recollect ourselves, turn off our cell phones, pray the Rosary or the prayers before Communion found at the back of the missals, or simply enter the Sacred silence to be with God. We avoid all talking and socializing in the house of God, which ought to be a house of prayer for all people. We genuflect before the Tabernacle where the Sanctuary lamp burns to acknowledge the presence of 4

the all Holy God we worship and Who loves us. With dispositions of humility, thanksgiving and reverence we observe silence in God’s presence to listen to what He is speaking to our hearts and to allow our brothers and sisters to hear Him speak as well. As we bless ourselves with Holy Water this one act done reverently washes us of any venial sins and we remember as the priest begins the Holy Mass that we are all gathering as God’s family “In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

At the Liturgy of the Word We contemplate Mary, who listened and pondered the Word of God. In preparation for the “Liturgy of the Eucharist” where the “Word became Flesh” we also should review the readings to enter into the mystery of God more deeply. In the different readings, we hear about the various ways God has prepared and continues to prepare His chosen people for life in Christ already here and in preparation for the Kingdom of Heaven. We remember that we are a chosen people delivered from this world and translated into the Heavenly life of union with the Trinity, Mary, the angels and saints. We can prepare for Sunday Mass by reading the readings ahead of time, asking God for light to understand them, to know God better and to listen to what He is speaking to our souls through them.

At the Offertory Consider Mary at the foot of the cross who was predestined to be Mother of the Church. Mary offered herself with Christ in the Temple, and now she pronounces her “Fiat” once again and offers herself with Christ for the Salvation of the world. We too, should

† May 15, 2020

offer our entire selves with Mary as the gifts of bread and wine are offered to God. She receives us and unites herself to us, offering her children to Christ the Priest and Victim in His offering to the Almighty Father. We can ask Mary to take all our sacrifices and sufferings and unite them with those of Christ. Remember at Fatima, Mary instructed her children, “Make of everything you do a sacrifice and say, O Jesus it is for love of You,

for the conversion of sinners and in reparation for the sins against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.” We should live our Spiritual priesthood more fully consciously offering our daily sacrifices and uniting them to Christ’s perfect sacrifice through Mary.

Consecration Consider Mary participating at the Holy Mass celebrated by St. John the Apostle. She recalled Calvary when Jesus gave her to the Church as its mother.

“When Pope Paul VI proclaimed Mary Mother of the Church after the Second Vatican Council, this was only a confirmation of a reality the Church had been living throughout her entire history, a history that began at the foot of the cross.

When John invited Mary to live with him, it was the Church that acknowledged Mary as her mother.” St. John as a priest re-presented the Paschal Mystery in her presence. The Holy Mass is a covenant of love uniting the Bride, the mystical Body of Christ with her only Bridegroom, Christ the Lord. Just

as Jesus changed water into wine, He now, through the ordained priest, changes ordinary bread and wine into His Body and Blood. Without fully understanding this great mystery but with living faith in the Word of God, we embrace the living Jesus Who comes to us with the greatest promise, “He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has eternal life” (Jn 6:54). Blessed are we who believe this Good News, this mystery of Divine love!

Communion Mary is the Mother of God who received Jesus in her womb and nurtured Him with her own immaculate flesh and blood.

Imagine how Our Blessed Mother participated in the Holy Mass during her earthly life and how she received Her Son with profound reverence and thanksgiving in Holy Communion from St. John the Apostle. Father Stefano M. Manelli states, “at every Holy Communion we receive, it would be quite correct, and a very beautiful thing, to take notice of our Holy Mother’s sweet and mysterious presence, inseparably united with Jesus in the Host. Jesus is always the Son she adores.

He is Flesh of her flesh and Blood of her blood.” Mary received Jesus with glowing ardor of love and thanksgiving into her Immaculate Heart as into His Tabernacle.

The Christian life then is to imitate Mary and join with our Mother, given to us by Jesus at the foot of the cross.

Mary helps us receive Jesus with her perfect dispositions of pure love and thanksgiving. Some may say that we are not little children who need a mother or that we can receive as we wish, but remember the words of Jesus, “Unless you become little children you cannot enter the Kingdom of God.” We

who are consecrated to Mary can offer Christ to her for all her intentions and ask the graces we need to become the loving disciples of Jesus as she is the most perfect disciple.

Thanksgiving Mary would have spent time in Adoration of the Eucharistic Lord in the Tabernacle of her heart after she received Him in Holy Communion. Pope Pius XII stated, “The faith of the Church is this: That one and identical is the Word of God and the Son of Mary Who suffered on the cross, Who is present in the Eucharist, and Who rules in Heaven.” How blessed are we to awaken our faith striving to remain in silence after Holy Communion praying our thanksgiving to God for the gift of Himself.

Jesus remains truly present within us. Let us create an altar in our heart for Jesus to come with His Father and the Holy Spirit. These are the most important moments in our lives to adore God in our soul, to thank Him, to tell Him of our love for Him and the graces we need for ourselves and others. We should, like the disciples at Emmaus, strive to constrain Jesus to stay with us longer: “Stay with us, Lord.” We should ask of God great graces especially the graces of holy perseverance in our Catholic faith and the virtues and perfections to become great saints. We may ask Mary as Our Mother to receive Jesus in our hearts and offer Him the love and thanksgiving of her Immaculate Heart thereby allowing Mary to live her love for Jesus once again.

Mission Like Mary who carried Jesus in her womb in the visitation to her cousin Elizabeth, we too, are called to carry Christ in us and be transformed and conformed to Christ. Each Holy Communion which we receive should increase 8 Turn to page nine

T

Celebrating the centenary of St. John Paul II’s birth

he typical Polish Happy Birthday song is “Sto Lat,” which translates into English as “100 years, 100 years, may he/she live, live for us 100 years.” It’s a prayerful wish that the one being celebrated will have a long, healthy life. It was intoned by Polish pilgrims regularly when they were with St. John Paul II in the Vatican, especially but not exclusively around his birthday.

On May 18, all of those well wishes chanted over the decades for him will come true, as we mark the centenary of St. John Paul II’s birth.

The baby born Karol Wojtyla now experiences, as his canonization affirms, a life far greater than the extension of days on earth, dwelling in a house not made by human hands, prepared for him by the One Whom he served as earthly vicar (2 Cor 5:1, Jn 14:3). While we are not privy to how such events are observed where even “a thousand years are like a day” (2 Pet 3:8), it is fitting here on earth to mark the day with gratitude to God, reflecting on the meaning of John Paul II’s life and our own, and prayers through his intercession.

Saints are gifts of God to the people of each age. They show us how to live. They teach us how to love. They help us learn to die. They reveal to us our exalted origin, dignity and destiny. They make the life of faith attractive and Christian hope realistic. They are not just exemplars of heroic virtue but mediators, praying for us that we might follow their footsteps as they followed Christ’s.

While saints are always consequential figures in the real, real world, even if hidden to most human eyes, John Paul II’s life has had an enormous impact in what also makes history books, most notably the role he played in the fall of Soviet communism. His impact within the Church, in implementing the teachings and authentic Spirit of the Second Vatican Council, and leading the Church through various ideological storms that were buffeting the Church from within and without, was

perhaps even greater.

I had the joy to get to observe him up close during my years in Rome as a seminarian and young priest. I participated in hundreds of Liturgies and audiences with him, attended the institute founded by and named after him, and had a chance to speak to him on 11 occasions. He gave me a nickname, “Gemello Americano” (American twin), extended great pastoral advice as I was preparing to return to the States, enthusiastically blessed my parents on their 30th wedding anniversary, and mischievously imposed hands on my head as photos were being taken seven months before he died.

Like so many in my generation who received vocations to the priesthood during his papacy, I didn’t have to look hard for a priestly role model.

Except for Sacred Scripture, his writings have had the greatest influence in forming the way I look at the world and the Church.

In honor of his 10 decades, I’d like to focus on 10 distinctive marks of his papacy that have deeply impacted the life of the Church and her engagement with the world.

He was the pope of the universal call to holiness, re-proposing to all the high standard of ordinary Christian living. During his 26 years and seven months as successor of St. Peter, he canonized from all walks of life 482 saints and beatified 1,327, more than all his predecessors from the previous five centuries combined.

He was the pope of theological anthropology. He took the Second Vatican Council’s teachings that Christ reveals the meaning and supreme vocation of human life and that we will only discover who we are through the unselfish gift of ourselves toward others (Gaudium et Spes, 22, 24) and spent his papacy elaborating that connection. His first encyclical, Christ the Redeemer of Man, laid out the leitmotif of his papacy, describing, in response to

the reductive understandings of the human person that have led to so much confusion and destruction — communism, individualism, subjectivism, materialism, empiricism, relativism, racism, chauvinism and other “isms” — the full understanding of the person revealed and redeemed by Christ, body and soul, male and female. He chartered the path of Christian humanism.

He was the pope of courage. His repeated echo of Jesus’ “Be not afraid!” in his inaugural Mass homily characterized the whole of his life

and papacy. He boldly helped establish and act in the Rhapsodic Theater as a young man under Nazi occupation. As a priest and bishop he helped the Polish people remain intrepid during Soviet oppression. As pope, he was constantly urging people to “put out into the deep,” and led by example, in boldly and prudently opposing dictators and evil.

He was the pope of human love in the Divine plan. As a young priest, he said, he “fell in love with human love” and spent the rest of his priesthood trying to “introduce love into love,” namely Christ’s agape into the experience of human eros. Whereas many priests and bishops still today are afraid to talk about love, Marriage, sex and family, he did so with great confidence, appeal and effectiveness. He gave university lectures, wrote his landmark “Love and Responsibility,” authored plays, poems and articles on the dynamics of betrothed love, established interdisciplinary diocesan commissions on Marriage, wrote and delivered his catecheses on the theology of the body, published a tremendous exhortation on the Christian family in the modern world (Familia-

ris Consortio) in 1981 and the Letter to Families, met with newlyweds after every general audience, and established at the Lateran University the John Paul II Institute for the Study of Marriage and Family.

He was a Marian pope. His papal motto, Totus Tuus, was taken from St. Louis de Montfort’s prayer of total consecration to Mary and he consecrated the world to her immaculate heart on March 25, 1984. He gave her credit for saving his life with her maternal hand after his assassination attempt on her feast day, presenting the bullet that pierced five vital organs to her in Fatima one year later.

He proclaimed a Marian year and wrote “Mother of the Redeemer,” fulfilling the Second Vatican Council’s call for a more Scripture-based Mariology. He prayed the Rosary continuously between appointments, gave us the Luminous Mysteries, declared a Year of the Rosary and taught us how to pray the Rosary better in his exhortation The Rosary of the Virgin Mary. He put the first Marian image, Mother of the Church, in St. Peter’s Square.

He was the pope of youth, founding the World Youth Days in 1985, meeting with young people on every foreign trip and responding to their questions, hosting regular audiences with young people in the Vatican, writing a profound letter to the young people of the world in 1985, and regularly speaking to bishops and priests about how to be more effective youth ministers, through identifying and appealing to what is perennial rather than faddish in young people.

He was the pope of life, battling the culture of death and helping the Church not be ashamed to proclaim and live her teachings on the sanctity of every human life at a time in which elites were promoting abortion as a paragon of freedom, and communist countries as a means of population control. His 1995 encyclical The Gospel of Life remains the greatest Pro-Life manifesto of

all time.

He was the pope of evangelization. He made 104 foreign trips, logging 700,000 miles, more than all of his predecessors combined and three times the distance of a round trip to the moon. He felt a Divine vocation, he said, to be a “pilgrim pope of evangelization,” doing “traveling catechesis,” hoping to stir up the entire Church to take up the “New Evangelization,” a phrase he himself coined.

He was the pope of holy years. The Polish bishops in 1966 had a jubilee to celebrate the 1,000th anniversary of the arrival of Christianity in their country and he saw how such jubilees could renew the Church. As pope, he had special jubilees to focus on the 1,950th anniversary of our Redemption (1983), Mary (1987), The Holy Spirit (1998), God the Father (1999), Christ the Redeemer (2000), the Rosary (2003-4) and the Eucharist (2004-5). The Church has continued these helpful thematic years since, with the Year of St. Paul (2008-9), Priests (200910), Faith (2012-13) and Mercy (2015-6).

He was the pope of suffering. He endured Mehmet Ali Agca’s assassination attempt in 1981, bone breaks and several years on public display with Parkinson’s disease, becoming one of the modern world’s most well-known images of perseverance in a euthanizing age. His 1984 exhortation on the Christian meaning of human suffering (Salvifici Doloris), in which he said God permits suffering to “unleash love in the human person,” remains the greatest theological window into the mystery of suffering ever produced.

As we mark the 100th anniversary of St. John Paul II’s birth, we thank God for all the blessings He gave him and, through him, all of us. We pray through his intercession that we may build on those foundations — and with him live 100 years and more.

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

May 15, 2020 †

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Editorial Counsel and fortitude

We continue looking at the Gifts of the Holy Spirit this week by meditating on two more of them: counsel and fortitude.

In Psalm 16, King David prays, “I bless the Lord Who counsels me; even at night my heart exhorts me. I keep the Lord always before me; with Him at my right hand, I shall never be shaken” (Ps 16:7-8). In what Jesus’ ancestor wrote here, we see the way in which we develop this Gift of the Holy Spirit — by prayer. David prayed day and night and thus was able to receive the counsel of God. When David failed to do this, he fell into terrible sins. His example is one that we should all keep in mind — since he was a “man after God’s own heart” (Acts 13:22), yet became an adulterer and a murderer (and later a repentant sinner).

If we are faithful to God, then Jesus promises us that He will provide the counsel that we need in crucial moments. “When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say. For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you” (Mt 10: 19-20).

The Old Testament book of Sirach warns us that we have to make a habit of seeking God’s counsel in our youth. If we do not, it warns, “In your youth you did not gather. How will you find anything in your old age?” (Sir 25:3).

It then praises older people who did seek God’s guidance throughout their lives — who can then be a source of counsel for others. “How appropriate is sound judgment in the gray-haired, and good counsel in the elderly! How appropriate is wisdom in the aged, understanding and counsel in the venerable!” (Sir 25: 4-5).

St. Jerome wrote, “Read the Divine Scriptures frequently; rather, may your hands never set the Holy Book down. Learn here what you must teach.”

In other words, by praying over the Bible, we can be led by God as to how we are to give counsel to other people.

This saint also wrote about the duty of parents to give good counsel.

Writing to a girl’s mother, he said, “May she find in you her teacher, and may she look to you with the inexperienced wonder of childhood. Neither in you, nor in her father should she ever see behavior that could lead to sin, as it could be copied. Remember that you can educate her more by example than with words.” So, counsel is not just a matter of words spoken, but also of actions observed by others.

Fortitude is one of the four cardinal virtues. The “Catechism of the Catholic Church” states, “Four virtues play a pivotal role and accordingly are called ‘cardinal’; all the others are grouped around them. They are: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. Fortitude is the moral virtue that ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good. It strengthens the resolve to resist temptations and to overcome obstacles in the moral life. The virtue of fortitude enables one to conquer OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER Vol. 64, No. 11

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† May 15, 2020

fear, even fear of death, and to face trials and persecutions. It disposes one even to renounce and sacrifice his life in defense of a just cause” (“CCC” 1805, 1808).

St. John Paul II gave an audience on Nov. 15, 1978 about this gift of the Holy Spirit. “The virtue of fortitude proceeds hand in hand with the capacity of sacrificing oneself. The Gospel is addressed to weak, poor, meek and humble men, peacemakers and to the merciful, but, at the same time, it contains a constant appeal to fortitude. It often repeats: ‘Fear not’ (Mt 14: 27). It teaches man that, for a just cause, for truth, for justice, one must be able to ‘lay down one’s life’ (Jn 15:13). I wish here to refer to yet another example, which goes back 400 years ago. It is the case of St. Stanislaus Kostka, the patron saint of the young. By nature he was very sensitive and tender, yet very courageous. Fortitude led him, coming from a noble family, to choose to be poor, following the example of Christ, and to put himself in His exclusive service. Although his decision met with firm opposition on the part of his circle, he succeeded with great love, but also with great firmness, in realizing his resolution, contained in the motto: ‘Ad maiora natus sum’ (‘I was born for greater things’).”

The Polish pontiff then said that “our generation, too, needs men who can repeat with holy ‘obstinacy’: ‘Ad maiora natus sum.’ We need strong men! To be men we need fortitude. The truly prudent man, in fact, is only he who possesses the virtue of fortitude; just as also the truly just man is only he who has the virtue of fortitude. Let us pray for this gift of the Holy Spirit. When man lacks the strength to ‘transcend’ himself, in view of higher values, such as truth, justice, vocation, faithfulness in Marriage, this ‘gift from above’ must make each of us a strong man and, at the right moment, say to us ‘deep down’: Courage!”

Speaking of women with fortitude, St. John Paul said, “I am thinking, for example, of a woman, already mother of a large family, who is ‘advised’ by so many to suppress a new life conceived in her womb, by undergoing ‘the operation’ of interruption of pregnancy; and she replies firmly: ‘no.’ She certainly feels all the difficulty that this ‘no’ brings with it, difficulty for herself, for her husband, for the whole family, and yet she replies: ‘no.’ The new human life conceived in her is a value too great, too ‘Sacred,’ for her to be able to give in to such pressure.”

Often our fortitude might be observed only by an audience of one. “There are many, a great many manifestations of fortitude, often heroic, of which nothing is written in the newspapers, or of which little is known. Only human conscience knows them — and God knows!” St. John Paul knew of what he spoke, having lived under the Nazis and Communists.

May we be open to the Spirit’s gifts of counsel and fortitude and generously share them with others.

Daily Readings † May 16 - May 29

Sat. May 16, Acts 16:1-10; Ps 100:1b-2,3,5; Jn 15:18-21. Sun. May 17, Sixth Sunday of Easter, Acts 8:5-8,14-17; Ps 66:1-7,16,20; 1 Pt 3:15-18; Jn 14:1521. Mon. May 18, Acts 16:11-15; Ps 149:1b-6a,9b; Jn 15:26—16:4a. Tue. May 19, Acts 16:22-34; Ps 138:1-3,7c-8; Jn 16:5-11. Wed. May 20, Acts 17:15,22—18:1; Ps 148:1-2,11-14; Jn 16:12-15. Thu. May 21, Acts 18:1-8; Ps 98:1-4; Jn 16:16-20. Fri. May 22, Acts 18:9-18; Ps 47:2-7; Jn 16:20-23.

Sat. May 23, Acts 18:23-28; Ps 47:2-3,8-10; Jn 16:23b-28. Sun. May 24, Ascension of the Lord, Acts 1:1-11; Ps 47:2-3,6-9; Eph 1:17-23; Mt 28:16-20.

Mon. May 25, Acts 19:1-8; Ps 68:2-5acd,6-7ab; Jn 16:29-33. Tue. May 26, Acts 20:17-27; Ps 68:10-11,20-21; Jn 17:1-11a. Wed. May 27, Acts 20:28-38; Ps 68:29-30,33-36ab,35bc-36b; Jn 17:11b-19. Thu. May 28, Acts 22:30; 23:611; Ps 16:1-2a,5,7-11; Jn 17:20-26. Fri. May 29, Acts 25:13b-21; Ps 103:12,11-12,19-20ab; Jn 21:15-19.

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eing older, I can confirm that the playgrounds of my childhood were somewhat less safe than those at present, and one encounter with a particularly unfriendly beast provided me with a lasting memento. It was made of iron — a large, round platform with scattered rails. While those who sat on it held on for dear life, others ran alongside pushing, for it spun like a monstrous top.

It was a dizzying confrontation with the concrete laws of centrifugal force. Beyond a severe blow to my shin, it impressed on me two valuable lessons — the obvious one in physics, the other far more subtle.

The latter lesson is applicable to every generation, for the world has always been like the playground toy, though we are sensing it somewhat more keenly today as present events serve to disorient and destabilize us.

In addition to sensing an increasing speed, now the invisible pushers seem to have added a new twist, for the iron platform won’t even stay horizontal. That to which we cling has begun to rock and tilt, adding more strain to an already precarious grip.

If we will simply acknowledge this great Christian truth, God is to be praised. In response, we should begin with the prayer familiar to those who have spent any time with 12 Step programs: the prayer for serenity, which calls to mind the perpetual need to sift through the circumstances in one’s life to separate that which can be changed from that over which we have no control. And even though we find ourselves at the mercy of large, uncontrollable forces, there are many things that we can take in hand if we wish.

Indeed, the easiest part of our life to control is prioritizing

The tilt of the world

prayer. This task can be done anywhere and everywhere if we only discipline our thoughts and tear ourselves away from the distractions — no doubt the very distractions that are making us restless and despondent.

St. John Henry Newman speaks firmly of the need for daily prayer, which “breaks the current of worldly thoughts.” His insistence that lifting our minds to God “keeps us from being drawn into the great whirlpool of time and sense” speaks specifically to this agitating time that God is allowing us to endure, and by entering into the calming routine of prayer we will have a clearer sense of just what is at stake.

Moreover, rather than engaging in a chaotic conversation with God Who may seem quite distant, prayer over His very words in the Bible would be time well spent. I remember at a time of intense personal loss, when I turned to Scripture the words practically leapt off the page — for that is what is different about this book. It is not merely a matter of plunging into long familiar words or dusty old ideas. It is truly a means of hearing God’s voice, spoken gently, personally, as by a friend — a Friend Whose voice is ever ancient and yet ever new.

This, truly, is the Friend Who knows every detail of your lock-down, from its petty annoyances to the full-blown anxieties that keep you up at night.

God sees it all, and has it all well in hand. It is not that there are no serious consequences to our situation, but that it has been allowed as a time to sift and rattle

us so that we see the world with a purified vision. It provides a setting in which we must ask ourselves, What exactly are we clinging to?

Serenity will only come when we have the wisdom to know what lies in our power to be changed, and the rest is given to God in trust. The witness of countless

saints reminds us to hold fast, for nothing can separate us from the love of God — but attend to what lies beneath those white knuckles.

Sometimes what we stubbornly cling to keeps us from God’s more perfect will in our lives. In that case, ironically, it’s a case of letting go and falling into His powerful arms. Let go, He’s got this!

Anchor columnist Genevieve Kineke is the author of “The Authentic Catholic Woman.” She blogs at femininegenius.typepad.com.

May 15, 2020 †

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Mother-daughter duo and members of diocesan school system team up to create masks for health-care workers and more

By Dave Jolivet Co-Editor

davejolivet@anchornews.org

ATTLEBORO — With fabric, elastic, pipe cleaners and thread that, in total, could span nearly two football fields, a mother-daughter combo has teamed up to create an essential item for essential workers — face masks.

It also turns out that both mask-makers are employees of the Fall River Diocese’s school system.

Denise Peixoto, assistant superintendent of the diocesan Catholic Schools Office and Jessica Peixoto, Fine Arts director and a teacher at Bishop Feehan High School in Attleboro, and a member of Feehan’s Class of 2004, began their labor of love even before masks became mandated in public.

“We started seeing the writing on the wall before the mandates came through,” Denise told The Anchor. “We had heard from friends and family who are nurses that it had been very difficult to get new masks at work, sometimes even having to reuse the PPE (personal protective equipment). Since the mandates went into effect in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, we’ve had families reach out to make sure parents, children, grandparents, etc. had face coverings.

“We first checked in with two relatives who are in the medical field to see if their places could use these cloth masks. Both said yes, they’d like them to put aside to use as needed.”

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Since that time in early April the pair have burned through more than 20 yards of fabric, 140-plus yards of elastic, 300-plus pipe cleaners and countless spools of thread to keep others safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.

All this was done, and is still being done, in Denise’s and Jessica’s spare time, since both are still active

Department in Boston, the Central Health Center in Providence, R.I., and for friends who are nurses at different locations, for friends, co-workers, and family members reaching from New England to Virginia and Washington.

Most of the masks were sent by mail and some were dropped off in friends’ mailboxes.

protect themselves as well as others. We had people asking to give us money for the masks, and we decided to share with them a link to our Diocesan COVID Fund https://www.givecentral. org/fallriverschoolcovid19 to help our Catholic schools.

“I think almost every person we’ve sent masks to has donated. We’ve only

Denise Peixoto, left, assistant superintendent of the diocesan Catholic Schools Office, and her daughter, Jessica Peixoto, the Fine Arts director and a teacher at Bishop Feehan High School in Attleboro, have been making face masks for health-care workers and others since early April. in their diocesan school duties. At the onset of the lock down, Jessica temporarily moved back to her parents’ home. “We have been working almost every weekend since early April, and any time we have free time to get as many made as we can,” said Denise.

“We even spent quite a few days over April vacation all day sewing.”

The women have provided masks for the Tufts Medical Center Emergency

† May 15, 2020

As things have progressed, or regressed, during the pandemic, it became evident that the need for face masks would extend beyond the healthcare field. “When we first decided to make these masks, it was truly to help the nurses and doctors that have been working so diligently,” Denise told The Anchor. “As time went on, it became clear that it was best practice for everyone to wear a mask in public to

accepted a few dollars for shipping. Some friends have given us Dunkin cards as a thank you. We’re not doing this to make money, but to do our part to help people.

“If schools are going to be required to have students and staff wear masks while attending school in the fall (whenever we are allowed to open), we’ll probably continue to make some for the many teachers that Jess works

with and families who have students that might need them in the fall.”

Denise told The Anchor that she and Jessica will continue to make masks as long as they have the supplies to do so. They have fabric in abundance, and enough elastic to last for a while, but like a plethora of other products right now, elastic is becoming more difficult to obtain.

Denise explained that she and her daughter are just trying to do their part to keep others safe and healthy. “It’s heartwarming to see stories in the news about how the public is supporting our first responders, delivery people, store clerks, etc.,” she said.

“Seeing those little things that people are doing like leaving a chalk message of thank you on the front walkway for delivery drivers, etc., sparked us to talk about what we could do during this crisis.”

And while both women are skilled in sewing and project-making, putting together safe face masks was not on their list of talents — until now. “This was definitely our first attempt at making masks, and took a bit of trial and error,” said Denise.

“I definitely have a huge stash of cloth, elastic, thread, etc. that I’ll never be able to use up, so that pushed us to look online to see what could be done with these materials. The mask-making idea was all over the Internet so we decided to give this project a try. I don’t think we ever 8 Turn to page 14

S

ome people awake to the sound of an alarm, some to the call of one or more roosters and some have a natural awakening. It was that way for me last week during this lock-down because of the Coronavirus. One morning I awoke to the memory of childhood days and “The Wind In The Willows.” Just in case you are wondering, this is the title of a book written in 1908 for secondand third-graders by a Scot, Kenneth Grahame. As a child, he had lived with his grandmother on the banks of the River Thames and so developed a love for nature.

Now on early retirement

Wind in the willows

from the Bank of England, he returned to that same location in the Thames Valley. In this book he attempted to attribute human traits to its main characters.

These were Mole, Rat, Mr. Toad and Badger. This book was prescribed to us for reading in the second grade. No wonder then that it lives on in my memory. Of course there are some who would suggest that I still live on in that grade level.

Now in Kalaupapa the wind does not, as far as I know, sound in the willows but it certainly does

in the palm trees in front of my house. We have no moles here. At least I have not seen one surface. We

as the spouse of the Holy Spirit and Mediatrix of all graces.

Anchor guest columnist Grace Small and her husband Bill are parishioners of St. Vincent’s Parish in Attleboro and have recently made their solemn profes-

sion as Third Order Franciscans of the Immaculate on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. They are also attending classes with TINE at the Pastoral Center in Braintree, toward a certificate in Catechetical Studies.

do have lots of mongoose, including one that Father Chris would feed on the porch. We do not see any rats in the churchyard because my four cats have put them on lock down.

On occasion I see Mr. Toad

Mother of the Mass continued from page four

our love for God and neighbor. Eucharistic Adoration outside of Holy Mass also enables us to strengthen our bond of love with Jesus and Mary. According to St. Peter Julian Eymard, “Jesus leads a hidden life in the Most Blessed Sacrament. Such was the life of Mary after the Ascension of her Divine Son. She retired to the Cenacle, on Mount Sion, and she wrapped herself up in obscurity and oblivion at the foot of the adorable Eucharist in the habitual exercise of humble and self-effacing Adoration.”

The dynamism of Mary’s Divine love, nurtured by reception and Adoration of the most Blessed Eucharist, compels us for service, to be other-centered, laying down our lives for others, full of merciful love as were Christ and Mary at Calvary. And this source of love remains open to us down the ages as we participate in the Eucharistic sacrifice in the Church, together with Mary.

In the next article we will meditate on the Memorial of Mary, Mother of the Church

when the rains come down from the mountain. Then we have those Axis deer which come out at night.

We may or may not see them but they do leave their calling card on the lawn out front, assuring us that they are with us all the way. Badgers have not made it to Kalaupapa but wild pigs in great numbers are lurking in the woods ready to squeal on us.

When one walks the west side beaches, they are in for a special treat.

Not only does one experience the natural unspoiled beauty of the sand and water, strewn with lava rocks, you may get lucky and come upon a newly-born monk seal pup

resting beside its mother on the sandy shore. One should not approach too closely thereby upsetting them and running the risk of losing the seat of one’s pants — with flesh attached. Then one might spend a night in the local brig for this offense. So far this year we are celebrating three births. In the cool of the day, if you would like some further adventure, you might want to hike up to the Kauhako Crater, on the way listening to the wind whispering in the ironwood trees, then return to ground zero as you are serenaded by various tropical birds. Aloha.

Anchor columnist Father Pat Killilea SS.CC., is pastor of St. Francis Church, Kalaupapa, Hawaii.

Heroes wanted

FALL RIVER — The Anchor staff has devoted many of its news and feature stories reflecting the good works being done across the Diocese of Fall River by clergy, diocesan employees, teachers, students and parishioners.

We feel that at this time, it is crucial that the good happening in spite of this pandemic be featured as a beacon of hope to Anchor readers.

We ask our readers to inform The Anchor staff if you know of someone or some group that deserves to be recognized, as a way of thanking them, and also to provide an example of what can be done in the most dire of situations.

You can reach Ken Souza, Dave Jolivet or Father Richard Wilson at the following email addresses: kensouza@anchornews.org; davejolivet@anchornews.org; FatherWilson@anchornews.org You can also call the Anchor office, which is open for several hours per week, leave a message and we’ll get back to you. It should be noted that email is the most efficient form of communication.

Please be assured of our continued prayers for all, and our best wishes for healing, good health, courage and peace, as we all manage the COVID-19 pandemic.

May 15, 2020 †

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Video extols diocesan schools’ quick transitioning continued from page one

that students are not just sitting at a desk looking at the teacher,” Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, S.D.V., said in an Aug. 25, 2017 article in The Anchor. “They will be interacting and involved in a new process of learning. I think that is going to make a huge difference for the teachers and for the students, because they are benefiting from technology that is available now. And if we don’t do it, we are going to be really behind.”

In the video narration it states: “Years later, because of the generosity of the Dawley Family, in conjunction with federal funding, the Diocese of Fall River Catholic schools were afforded state-of-theart Wi-Fi capabilities to enable teachers to expand their use of technology in the classroom and (ensure) students did not miss critical learning due to extended winter school closings.”

With this plan for snow days or winter storms already in place, the Catholic schools in the diocese were well-prepared for the COVID-19 closures.

According to Sandi M. Duxbury, vice president of Marketing and Corporate Partnerships for the Catholic School Alliance, when the governor announced the school closures, “our immediate thought was to implement the protocols developed for snow days so that our students could maintain a learning environment and not lose skills during what we originally thought was a twoweek period.”

“As the shelter-inplace mandate extended beyond two weeks, it was very apparent that some modifications were necessary to make the remote learning more sustainable for both teachers and students, but still ensure the rigorous academics that parents rely on from a Catholic school,” Duxbury told The Anchor.

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“Most schools sent out surveys to solicit feedback from parents and teachers which helped modify the structure of the remote learning curriculum as well.”

Duxbury expressed her

just a few years later,” she said. “Parents who choose Catholic education for their children do so for many reasons and surveys indicate that rigorous academics are usually one

the workforce.”

The video also noted how “the positive feedback from parents and families was immediate and plentiful” to the swift transition to online learning.

“The schools responded quickly to families in

Joshua and James Oliver, Pre-K students at Holy Trinity School in Fall River, recently created a wormery in their back yard after their teacher, Gretchen Arcouette, read the story of ‘The Hungry Caterpillar’ and encouraged them to attempt the project as part of their remote learning class. It’s another example of how diocesan Catholic school teachers are staying connected to their students during the COVID-19 crisis. (Photo collage courtesy of Brenda Gagnon) appreciation for the foresight and generosity of the Dawley family in providing the diocesan Catholic schools with the latest technological tools to make this smooth transition possible.

“We are so blessed that the Dawley Family provided our students with a gift that they never expected to be the backbone of our entire educational system

† May 15, 2020

of the top reasons. Thus, in order to provide a 21stcentury education, our schools need to incorporate state-of-the-art technology to deliver our uniquely robust academic program in a manner consistent with other school systems’ technology. Our schools realize that technology is necessary in order to prepare our students for college and

need in a variety of ways, including providing devices such as Chromebooks as necessary,” the video narrator said. “The online learning isn’t just for science and math. The schools have maintained their Catholic identity even remotely by featuring online prayer services, Adoration and messages from pastors.”

One of the earliest

examples of students banding together was when the choir from Bishop Stang High School posted a “virtual” a cappella performance of The Turtles’ hit “Happy Together,” which garnered more than 17,000 views in its first two weeks.

“We are constantly amazed at the creativity of our teachers and school leaders to ensure that our students feel as connected as possible to the community of the school,” said Duxbury.

“From show-and-tell with the younger students, to weekly prayer services with the school pastor, to creating and presenting Great American symbols to the class, our teachers have gone above and beyond to deliver a meaningful and impactful educational experience.

“What’s most impressive is that while many other school systems are remaining status quo in teaching skills, our teachers and school leaders are focused on each individual student’s progress to keep them on track as much as possible. Our schools take a personal interest in reaching out to work with families who may be struggling due to this crisis, and offer support, extra assistance, and prayers to help each student reach their best potential — even under these circumstances.”

While future plans to return to the classroom remain uncertain under the threat of the Coronavirus, the video touted that Catholic schools in the Fall River Diocese are “prepared to meet and exceed this challenge.”

“There is a deep commitment to the students and families to provide a meaningful curriculum as well as challenge students to put their best effort into all they do,” the narration concluded.

You can view the diocesan Catholic schools video at https://vimeo. com/413612958.

Accelerating vaccine development

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reating a new vaccine and bringing it to market typically requires more than a decade of research and clinical testing. Many companies and research groups are working overtime to shorten this timeline dramatically in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some have suggested it may be possible to develop a vaccine within a year or two, but such a feat would be a first, especially considering that no vaccine for any type of coronavirus has ever been successfully developed.

The former director at the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Biotechnology put it this way: “Scientists have tried unsuccessfully for decades to develop a vaccine to prevent HIV/AIDS and a ‘universal’ flu vaccine that wouldn’t need to be reformulated and readministered every year.

All have been duds.”

Another specialist in the field of infectious diseases, when asked about the prospects of a quick COVID-19 vaccine, demurred, saying it would require a “home run” and “nearly everything to go right.”

Some vaccines end up taking so long to develop

that the original threat disappears by the time they become available, as happened, for example, with the Ebola vaccine after the original viral outbreak in Africa.

Nevertheless, scores of laboratories are now urgently working to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. Their haste in trying not only to save lives, but also to beat their competitors, raises the concern that biomedical researchers may succumb to temptations to cut corners ethically in the research and development phases of their work.

One concern involves safety testing.

The bar for safety has always been very high for vaccines that are to be administered to healthy people, and typically tens of thousands of people need to be systematically tested before a new vaccine receives approval and becomes widely available. The first rotavirus vaccine (RotaTeq) was tested on 72,000 healthy infants, while the newest shingles vaccine (Shingrix) underwent safety testing on about 29,000 people. And those tests were done only after extensive testing on animals had been

Wareham parish to offer confidential forums for divorced and separated Catholics WAREHAM — Often Catholics struggle to find support when dealing with the pain, suffering and anger associated with divorce or separation. There are feelings that members of their faith may not understand so they often don’t know where to turn.

Given the present situation with Coronavirus precautions, housebound situations can cause additional tensions, or loneliness. Realizing these situations, St. Patrick’s Parish in Wareham is reaching to let people know they are here for them to listen, providing non-judgmental support through a divorce support group. Members understand what people are experiencing and rely on the tenets of our faith to provide Christian compassion. To seek support, visit the Facebook page: Ministry to the Divorced at St. Patrick’s WAREHAM, or email: Ministryfordivorced@ gmail.com, or call the parish rectory, 508-295-2411.

completed.

Such large-scale testing is a formidable and meticulous task requiring a good deal of time and expense so that the purported treatment doesn’t unintentionally harm those it intends to help. In terms of COVID-19, the concerns about safety are even greater, since some developers are looking at novel and largely unproven technologies, like mRNA vaccines and DNA

vaccines, raising further safety questions that may require additional time to sort through during the phase of clinical trials.

Another concern involves the proposal to shorten the timeline by soliciting young, uninfected volunteers who would be intentionally infected with the virus after having been given either the potential vaccine or a placebo. This “challenge trial” approach would enable researchers to assess the effectiveness of a proposed vaccine more rapidly than a traditional clinical trial, which would require waiting for some of the participants to become infected in the course of ordinary life.

Experts who favor this approach say that they have already heard from many people willing to volunteer.

Carrying out a challenge trial for a virus with no known cure clearly involves risk.

There is no way to predict what kind of reaction a volunteer may have from either the virus or the proposed vaccine; even the young and healthy could end up hospi-

talized or dying.

While it is not intrinsically unethical to take actions with a degree of risk for the good of the community, provided that it comes with the patients’ full and informed consent, questions about whether it would be prudent to do so need to be carefully addressed. Given the significant competitive pressures arising from many dozens of companies and research teams trying to get to the finish line first, big pharma needs to remain vigilant about over-stepping the boundaries of reasonable risk.

A final concern in attempting to speed up vaccine development involves the use of human cell lines derived from abortions. A variety of cell lines are available for COVID-19 research and vaccine development, some originating from hamsters, mice or other mammals, some from insects, and some from humans. The cell lines from humans may come from acceptable sources, like human skin, or from prob-

lematic sources, like direct abortions. Regrettably, several of the COVID-19 vaccine candidates that are being developed today have relied on cell lines that were harvested from aborted fetuses. Scientists have a duty to avoid the use of such unethically derived cell lines and should instead select available alternatives as they ramp up their research programs.

Vaccines, of course, are real “game changers” in public health. As a society, we must continue to insist that vaccine development and production be held to the highest ethical standards.

This is especially true during the accelerated push arising from the present pandemic, lest we foster practices meant to save lives by risking the lives of other vulnerable human beings.

Anchor columnist 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

May 15, 2020 †

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I

F ocus on C hurch Y outh Family prayer — a witness to children of love of God

f you are like me you are probably getting tired of “all-COVID-19-allthe-time” news. Every article I see online seems to be about COVID-19, there are no new sports to keep us occupied, and even though we are in an election year, politics is not particularly inspiring at the moment.

So I thought I would reflect on something that is important during any season: prayer with our families.

I consider myself incredibly blessed to have been raised in a family where my father was a permanent deacon in the Catholic Church and my mother a very devoted Catholic high school Religion and English teacher. Needless to say, I had a very strong upbringing in the Catholic faith! My parents were extraordinary witnesses to their Catholic faith. As disciples of Jesus Christ, their lives were deeply rooted in prayer. Their decisions and actions flowed from their relationship with God and that was nurtured by prayer.

My dad has passed, but my

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mom, now a Third Order Carmelite, continues to lead a life of devotion and prayer.

My parents taught their eight children how to pray and how to live.

Now, as the father of four children, my wife and I try to do our best in this highly secular and incredibly busy world to achieve something similar for our own children. My wife, Anabela, also has a great benefit of two parents who have been incredibly faithful and greatly devoted to their parish.

In my family, we prayed the Rosary every day during the months of May and October. My wife, brought up in a faithful Portuguese Catholic family, actually prayed the Rosary every day of the year (they continue to pray as a couple every day)! As parents, we have not always lived up to this example in our own family, but it gives us an important model to strive towards.

† May 15, 2020

Praying the Rosary is a very special prayer for families and offers the opportunity for tremendous grace.

However, for some families the Rosary may not be practical or may prove difficult at times. This shouldn’t

be an obstacle to prayer with the family. The Rosary, while especially powerful, is not the only way families can pray together.

The Divine Mercy Chaplet offers a shorter form of prayer that we have found can be accessible to our children. We always pray before meals, whether at home or in public. I always remember my father leading us in prayer as a family of 10 at busy restaurants, and I now do the same today with my own family as a

public witness to our faith.

I also recall fondly having a children’s Bible that I often read, and we have made it a point to ensure that our children have children-focused Scripture and books focused on our Catholic tradition. We also pray on long trips, and especially before bedtime.

Making pilgrimages to holy sites and beautiful churches are wonderful memories from my own childhood and something we try to continue with our own family.

Being active members of our parishes provide myriad opportunities to pray together as families.

Spending time in Adoration before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, participating in days of reflection, being active participants in Sacramental preparation programs, being a part of parish prayer and study groups, are all ways we can pray together as families.

Going to Confession together, and getting to Mass

beyond our Sunday obligation are also simple, but essential aspects of family prayer.

I will be the first to admit that both as a person and parent I have often fallen short of the ideal when it comes to family prayer. However, rather than beat myself up for not attaining the ideal, I think my energies are better spent focusing on what I can do with my family! When parents commit to praying as a family they are witnessing to their children that they love God with their whole heart, soul, mind and strength. I don’t think there is anything more important that a parent can do for their children.

Anchor columnist Peter Shaughnessy is president/ principal of Bishop Stang High School in North Dartmouth. He resides in Fairhaven with his wife, Anabela Vasconcelos Shaughnessy (Class of ’94), and their four children: Luke (Class of ’24), Emilia (Class of ’25), Dominic (Class of ’27) and Clare (Class of ’30).

New Bedford teacher chalks up a gesture of kindness

continued from page two being away from our students. I just had so much more to do with my students and so much more I wanted them to experience! I was concerned for my students and how they would internalize such an experience.

“In the middle of this

mini emotional breakdown, I heard honking, cheering, and music playing. I went to my front door to see my entire class and parents lined down my street in a big car caravan parade for me. They made signs, drew pictures, wrote sentimental cards, made

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on the Portuguese Channel Sunday, May 17 at 7 p.m.

Broadcast from Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in New Bedford

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

Broadcast from Espirito Santo Church in Fall River

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

Celebrant is Msgr. Stephen J. Avila, V.F., Pastor of St. Anthony’s Parish, East Falmouth; St. Elizabeth Seton Parish, North Falmouth; and St. Patrick’s Parish in Falmouth

cards, photo-books, and homemade gifts, and presented me with flowers.”

Medeiros sent a thankyou email to each student and their family telling them she was at one of the lowest moments of her career, “Then you all showed up,” she wrote. “You showed up for me. When I needed you the most and you didn’t know, you showed up for me. I absolutely and unconditionally love you all. I cannot begin to explain how filled with love my heart is. Whether near or far, more than students and parents — you are my family. We will be together again and celebrate our year, whenever that may be. We will make it happen!”

Medeiros told The Anchor, “The best part about being part of this SJSJ family is that someone is always there to lift you up and that is exactly what my students and parents did for me.”

In a time of fear and doubt this wonderful example of “what goes

around, comes around,” sends a comforting and hopeful message. In diocesan schools, teachers are still there for their students, and the students are there for their teachers. “Children are resilient and I think we need to give them credit for that asset,” said Medeiros about all students carrying on in these uncharted waters. “Along with trying our best to meet the curriculum’s standards, I think as teachers it is important for us to focus on experiencing this tumultuous time with them, show empathy when needed, and confirm their concerns or disappointments.

“No one has the answers as to how all this will unfold. As for the future, I trust in my students and I believe that we will come back stronger than ever with a new appreciation for the time spent together.”

When Medeiros was asked why she chose a teaching career, she told The Anchor, “I feel the better question for me is, ‘Why not choose teaching?’ As a teacher, your

legacy is carried out in the success and progression of your students, and I don’t just mean academically.

Every year my students and I create our own creative and safe environment — our own fifthgrade family. They start to recognize their strengths and weaknesses and play towards them, develop their own moral compass, understand the meaning of responsibility, and truly transform into independent individuals throughout the year. Sure, I would love for them to remember every grammatical trick or science lesson I have taught them, but more importantly I choose teaching because of how we make each feel and the sense of connection we create. To see 18 students, grow in so many facets or have former students come back to visit and get excited to tell you about what they have accomplished, who wouldn’t want to be part of that? It is a sense of belonging that I strive to instill in my students and undoubtedly, my students and parents give right back to me.”

Sunday, May 24 at 11:00 a.m.

Celebrant is Father Riley J. Williams, Pastor of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Acushnet

May 15, 2020 †

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ROCKVILLE, Md. — Ramon Dominguez, age 86, of Rockville Md., passed away May 3. He was he beloved husband of Carmen R. Dominguez; father of Father Ramon Dominguez, Y.A., Carmen T. D. Garcia (Efren), Jose I. Dominguez (Soledad) and Francisco J. Dominguez (Tiffany) and the late Rosa Maria Dominguez; grandfather of Carmen Maria (Andrew) DeCelle, Enrique, Francisco, Miguel, Sofia, Carlos, Javier Garcia, Raquel, Jose, Maria Soledad, Antonio, Angela, Pablo, Matthew and Lucas Dominguez; great-grandfather of Joseph, Xavier and Maria Cecilia; and brother of the late Clotilde Dominguez He is also survived by many nephews, nieces and beloved family members.

Born in Madrid, Spain,

Ramon Dominguez, father of Father Ramon Dominguez, Y.A.

Ramon moved to Cuba at the age of six on a ship dodging the German U-boats. A graduate of the University of Havana with a BS in Electrical Engineering

and MS in Physics at NYU, he worked as a professional engineer at Machlett Labs (now Raytheon) in Connecticut and in 1975 joined Solarex Corp. retiring as its vice president. He pioneered the commercial use of solar

photovoltaics and has several patents to his name.

A devoted father and husband he volunteered extensively in the Catholic Church and was a member of the Agrupacion Catolica Universitaria (ACU). He taught citizenship classes and adult formation for Hispanic Catholic leaders.

He volunteered and was interim executive director of the Spanish Catholic Center in Washington, D.C. and at his parish (Shrine of St. Jude in Rockville, Md.). He was a lifelong daily communicant and faithfully went on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola each year.

Even after his “retirement,” he started consulting as a professional engineer and continued to volunteer as a money counter for St.

Mother-daughter combo teams up to make masks continued from page eight

expected to get requests for more than 350 masks when we started, but obviously the need is there. We’ve had a few people reach out to us to get more after having tried ours saying that they were very comfortable.”

As was mentioned previously, both are still maintaining a full schedule with their diocesan school duties.

“For me this school year has been wild,” Jessica told The Anchor. “This has been my 11th school year teaching art at Bishop Feehan High School, and I am also the Fine Arts director. As you can imagine, teaching art virtually has been a bit of a challenge, but both I and my department have been working incredibly hard to give students as much of our regular curriculum as we can.

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“I tell my students every class that this is incredibly hard, but we are all in it together.”

And through it all, Jessica is trying to maintain contact with her peers. “I’ve been trying to connect to friends and co-workers through Facetime and Google Meets as much as I can outside of department and faculty meetings,” she added.

“This situation with the schools being closed has just reinforced how dedicated, hard-working and supportive our school teachers and administrators are to Catholic education, said Denise. “Our Catholic Schools Office leadership team couldn’t be prouder of the work these people are doing every day with our Catholic school students and families.

† May 15, 2020

“They are going above and beyond to help our students not only continue their learning, but also helping the students and families deal with the social emotional piece of this crisis. We are blessed to have these people as teachers and administrators in our schools.”

Denise and Jessica Peixoto don’t consider themselves heroes or anything of the like. They feel that they, like countless others across the diocese and country, are just chipping in to help those who are putting themselves in danger every day to keep others alive and well. “We are happy to help people in this unprecedented time,” said Denise.

And those are sentiments you just can’t mask.

Jude and for various projects of the ACU. No task was too small to escape his attention. From organizing electrical installations to helping install lights for the Missionaries of Charity, he always did it with a smile and great wit.

Donations may be made

to the Father Amando Llorente, S.J., Foundation, Inc. in honor or Ramon Dominguez. 1208 SW 6th St., Miami, Fla. 33184.

After a private Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated he was interred at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Rockville, Md.

In Your Prayers

Please pray for these priests and deacons during the coming weeks:

May 16 Rev. William McDonald, S.S., St. Patrick, Falmouth, 1941 Rev. Msgr. J. Joseph Sullivan, P.R., Pastor, Sacred Heart, 1960 Rev. Arthur dos Reis, Retired Pastor, Santo Christo, Fall River, 1981 May 17 Most Rev. James E. Cassidy, D.D., Third Bishop of Fall River, 1934-51, 1951 Rev. Albert Evans, SS.CC., 2003 May 19 Rev. Ambrose Lamarre, O.P., 1940 Rev. Thomas Trainor, Pastor, St. Louis, Fall River, 1941 Rev. Arthur C. Levesque, Pastor, Our Lady of Fatima, New Bedford, 1988 May 20 Rev. Antonio L. daSilva, Pastor, Our Lady of Health, Fall River, 1952 May 22 Rev. Daniel L. Freitas, Retired, Former Pastor, St. John of God, Somerset, 2012 May 23 Rev. William F. Donahue, Assistant, St. Francis Xavier, Hyannis, 1944 Rev. Alfred J. Guenette, A.A., 1995 May 24 Rev. James F. Clark, Founder, St. James, New Bedford, 1907 Rev. Patrick Heran, SS.CC., Former Rector, Sacred Hearts Seminary, Fairhaven, 1985 Rev. Msgr. John J. Regan, Retired, Former Pastor, St. Patrick, Falmouth, 2015 May 25 Rev. Michael P. Kirby, Former Assistant St. Mary, North Attleboro, 1925 Rev. James V. Mendes, Pastor, Our Lady of Angels, Fall River, 1961 May 26 Chorbishop Norman J. Ferris, Retired Pastor, St. Anthony of the Desert, Fall River, 2006 Rev. Thomas F. Murray, Assistant, St. Patrick, Falmouth; St. Francis Xavier, Hyannis, 2012 May 28 Rev. Lionel A. Bourque, Former Chaplain, Cardinal Cushing Hospital, Brockton, 1982 Rev. Kenneth J. Delano, Founder, St. Francis of Assisi, New Bedford; Former Pastor, Immaculate Conception, Fall River, 2017

I

t was the great Bob Dylan who groaned out the iconic, “The Times They Are A-Changin’” in 1964. I’m sure the poet and voice of my generation didn’t foresee 2020 when he penned those lyrics.

I think by now we’re all ready to chuck our 2020 calendars and start fresh with 1/1/21.

It’s safe to say we’ve lost spring and even if things loosen up for summer, it will be different.

I have to say, though, 2020 isn’t my first rodeo having lost two seasons.

Just two years after Dylan’s ballad release, this young 10-year-old’s world came crashing down, so to speak.

It was the beginning of the summer of 1966 and St. Anne’s School in Fall River had just begun summer vacation — that time that every red-blooded 10-yearold American boy awaited all school year.

Just days into the summer break came my big break. I was playing in my pépère’s yard. It was a big yard that boasted the largest maple tree in the neighborhood and beyond.

It was a source of shade, of massive leaf piles in the fall, and enough branches and limbs to put the inner I-495 loop in Boston to shame.

Early that summer morning the sun was shining and the temperature was delightful — the perfect recipe for tree-climbing.

I climbed the neighbor’s fence and made a leap toward a branch about 10-feet high. I had made that flight dozens of times before.

This time I lost my grip and went into Olympic mode, rotating out of control to the ground.

Safe to say, I didn’t nail the landing — the landing nailed me. I landed on my belly with my left arm beneath. When I got up my arm more resembled a tree

Not only leaves fall from trees

limb than a human one. I had completely broken the radius and ulna about five inches above the wrist.

Cutting through all the drama that ensued, I ended up spending five days in Saint Anne’s Hospital. I really did a job on that arm.

So my first five days of vacation I spent hospitalized.

Great. Add to that the fact that I had a cast on my arm from my fingers to my armpit.

It should be noted that back in the day there was no such thing as a removable cast. This thing was plastered to my little body and it weighed about 500 pounds.

When I was allowed to go home, I had more restrictions placed on me than a walk through a supermarket today.

I couldn’t go swimming, I couldn’t play ball, I couldn’t run around, I couldn’t sleep on my left side, and worst of all, I couldn’t scratch my arm that was in a constant state of itch from my fingers to my armpit.

I refused to go anywhere with my friends because it killed me to watch them doing everything I wanted to do, but couldn’t.

I was also told that if I whacked my arm again, it could break again. I remember sitting under the

tree of doom in the shade on a folding chair. I leaned back too much and over I went — right on my arm. It ended up OK, but add sitting normally to the litany of things I couldn’t do.

The summer of 1966 morphed into the fall and I

still had old faithful glued to my body. The new school year began, and with it came more restrictions. I couldn’t play in the school yard with my chums. I couldn’t jump into the massive pile of leaves left by the tree of doom. But, I did have to do homework.

Somehow I couldn’t find the justice in that.

Well most of the autumn crawled forward and by then I had lost two full seasons.

The day finally came for me to shed my plaster skin. I went to the doctor’s office and he asked if I was excited to get the cast off.

Luckily I hadn’t learned the fine art of sarcasm yet. “Yes sir!” I exclaimed. He left the room and came back with a pair of hand-operated plaster cutters. They looked like sheers that could easily lop

off any of the tree of doom’s limbs.

I wanted out! The man with the enormous scissors assured me that they were safe and he would be careful. “Sure they are,” I thought. Hmmm. Maybe that’s when my sarcasm chord was struck.

He gently sliced his way from my fingers to my armpit. Voila! The 500-pound cast fell to the floor (or through it, I’m not sure which).

My arm immediately floated to the ceiling — at least that’s the way it felt. It was light as a feather. And not only that, it was all brown and scaly and hairy! I had one arm with hair and one without!

I wanted the cast back on!

One of my uncles who was bald saw my arm and asked if the doctor could put a cast on his head. I got a chuckle out of that. Daily doses of calamine lotion got my arm looking like the other one and the hair fell out too, much to my uncle’s

dismay.

Even after the cast was removed, I had many precautions to follow to ensure complete healing. I think by Christmas I was back to normal. Just in time to go ice skating at Kennedy Park! Now that I think back, I must have driven my parents nuts with worry.

It took a while, but I did return to climbing the tree of doom — without incident. And I never stopped loving that big old maple, even though it robbed me of the summer and fall of 1966.

I’m not sure how long we’re all going to have restrictions and precautions to follow; how long we’re going to have to stay at home and social distance.

We may lose one season, maybe two, or maybe more.

But I’m confident that just like the summer and fall of 1966, this will pass, we will shed our 500-pound casts and be able to play with our friends again. Here’s to that day! Peace and good health y’all. davejolivet@anchornews.org

May 15, 2020 †

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Students await word on First Communion, Confirmation continued from page three

church. I know that you are also waiting for that day.”

To this year’s First Communion class, the bishop said: “I want you and your families to work with the director of Faith Formation and with the pastor of your parish to coordinate the date when you can receive Holy Communion.”

And to the Confirmation class, he suggested they “continue preparing for that day” and “work with the Faith Formation director of your parish and with the pastor of your parish and then coordinate with my office so that we can schedule the date of your Confirmation.”

“We will continue praying for each other and we look forward to the day when we can be together again and celebrate our faith,” the bishop said.

For Father Tom Washburn, pastor of the Catholic Community of Central Fall River, his collective three parishes “moved our Faith Formation into the virtual environment” online, once the COVID-19 pandemic effectively closed churches.

“We use an email 16

service to send content for parents to use with their children each week,” Father Washburn told The Anchor. “This includes readings from their textbooks, worksheets, videos, projects and other

would have been celebrating their First Holy Communions at this time.

“I sent a recorded video specifically to those families offering support and prayer for them,” he said. “And, yes, we will

“We have held online Masses specifically for our school community (and) we will continue with these new strategies in the fall if we are still under restrictions,” Father Washburn said.

On the weekend of what was to be their First Holy Communion celebration, children at the Catholic Community of Falmouth were asked to pray the ‘Act of Spiritual Communion of St. Alphonsus de Liguori’ with their pastor, Msgr. Stephen Avila, which was recorded and posted on the collaborative’s website. The students are eager to receive First Communion once restrictions have been lifted. ways to receive input from them. This has included, of course, our First Holy Communion young people.”

Earlier this month, Father Washburn also sent out a personal video message to those who

† May 15, 2020

reschedule these events as soon as it is safe and possible. We await direction from the bishop.”

Additionally, the students in school who are of age to receive Confirmation have “also been a part of our online offerings.”

The pastors all agreed that the best option while waiting to see when these celebrations can be held is to stay in contact and pray for these young people about to receive the Sacraments of Initiation.

“We’ve been trying

to keep them in the forefront so that, despite the fact they can’t receive the Sacrament right now, that they will keep their mind and heart on it, and we’ll rearrange it for them,” Father Maddock said.

“My goal for both groups is to have them receive the Sacraments as soon as possible, because they were right at the end of the preparation when all this hit.”

“There are more questions than answers right now, but we will do our best to keep the youth engaged,” Msgr. Avila agreed. “Along with my director of Faith Formation, we are exploring Religious Education programs available that use both books as well as online learning. This could be very helpful to engage the parents, who are after all, the first teachers of their children in the ways of faith.”

Despite the present uncertainty, Father Frederici is certain of one thing once we all adjust to life in the “new normal.”

“Parish ministry will be forever changed from what it was like before,” he said.