05.25.12

Diocese of Fall River

The Anchor

F riday , May 25, 2012

Five priests to retire; remain active in the diocese

By Dave Jolivet, Editor

Parish in Swansea; Father John “My years as a diocesan the last 45 years.”

FALL RIVER — To a man, A. Gomes, pastor of St. Mary’s priest have always been a good Father Chretien was ordained the five priests set to retire next Parish in South Dartmouth; and experience, no matter what was a priest of the Diocese of Fall month admit the time since their Msgr. John A. Perry, pastor of happening,” said Father Chre- River on May 20, 1967 at St. ordination to the priesthood has St. Patrick’s Parish in Falmouth, tien. “I’m not retiring from my Mary’s Cathedral in Fall River flown by. Through the last four- and diocesan vicar general and priestly ministry, I’m retiring to by Bishop James L. Connolly, -plus decades they have experi- moderator of the curia. a different type of ministry than after attending St. John’s Semienced good times and bad times, but find their vocations filled with blessings and gifts.

Set to retire are Father Richard L. Chretien, pastor of Immaculate Conception and Notre Dame parishes in Fall River; Father Philip A. Davignon, pastor of Our Lady of the Assumption Parish in Osterville; Father Richard R. Gendreau, pastor Father Richard L. Father Philip A. Father Richard R. Father John A. Mgsr. John J. of St. Louis de France Chretien Davignon Gendreau Gomes Perry

nary in Brighton and St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore, Md. “When I came out of the seminary, I wanted to save the world,” he told The Anchor. “But I soon realized you have to first make sure you save yourself. I learned that it is Jesus Who redeems the world, not us.”

He went on to say that his priestly ministry was more than he expected. “I enjoyed my ministry, the Liturgy, visiting the sick, and the people. People’s faith in all the parishes I’ve been has been inspiring. Their faith sustains you. I’m amazed at the holy and saintly people I’ve met along the way.”

Father Chretien was born Turn to page 18

Communications Office: The voice of the Diocese of Fall River

By Becky Aubut Anchor Staff

PERPETUAL LIGHT — Flowers and a constantly burning candle are placed on the grave of the late Humberto Cardinal Medeiros, former archbishop of Boston and a much beloved priest of the Fall River Diocese. (Photo by Kenneth J. Souza)

Gone but not forgotten: Honoring loved ones on Memorial Day

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

FALL RIVER — While Memorial Day traditionally marks the unofficial beginning of the summer season with backyard cookouts and other outdoor activities, it’s also a time for friends and family members to

FALL RIVER — It’s a quiet day at the office as John Kearns Jr., director of Communications for the Fall River Diocese, sits down at the conference table. The open floor plan of the renovated carriage house offers up his entire office layout at a glance, but the unassuming office design belies the complexity of his work.

“At different times, I’ve talk-

ed to everybody, from an editor of a high school paper to the BBC,” explained Kearns. “It just depends on the issue.”

When Kearns was hired in 1984, the Communications Office consisted of a priest as the diocesan media representative when responding to press inquiries or promoting events; Bishop Daniel A. Cronin made the decision that someone needed to be placed full-time in the position

for a more proactive approach to spreading the works of the Fall River Diocese. Kearns worked as an assistant to the director, became assistant director, finally becoming director in 2005.

“Local media has changed a lot since then,” said Kearns of his early days in the communications office. “There used to be a lot of local, independent weeklies still around. Communities Turn to page 13

Appeal nears $2 million mark — Page seven

remember their dear, departed loved ones.

Flowers and the bright specter of small American flags fluttering in the wind will pop up on the graves of those who fought for our freedom in cemeteries throughout the Fall RivTurn to page 15

junior achievers — Sixty-one young men and women from across the Diocese of Fall River were awarded the St. Pius X Youth Award at a ceremony at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Fall River on May 15. Pictured are the winners who gathered for a photo with Bishop George W. Coleman following the event. (Photo by Russell Pinto)

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May 25, 2012 News From the Vatican We are family: Pope to give Catholic families hope in troubled times

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI will meet with the world’s families at a time when the institution of the family is under threat and many are still struggling with a worldwide economic crisis and a lack of cultural and societal support.

As a sign of his deep concern for bolstering the family based on the lifelong union between a man and a woman, the pope will travel to Milan to meet with those attending the May 30-June 3 World Meeting of Families.

The pope will arrive June 1 and will close the event with an outdoor Mass. His three-day visit is an extraordinary sign of how much the pope wants to reaffirm the importance of families built on Christian values, Bishop Jean Laffitte, secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Family, told Catholic News Service.

“It’s as if the pope wants to say ‘I am giving the maximum importance to what you families live out and I want to be near you; I believe in what you are experiencing and want to renew this hope,’” the bishop said.

The Milan gathering will be the second world family meeting that Pope Benedict has attended in his pontificate. The meetings, held every three years, are hosted by different dioceses around the world and are sponsored by the Vatican’s council for the family as a way for families to meet, discuss critical issues and grow in the faith.

Even though the pope missed the sixth world meeting in Mexico City in 2009, he has always been a vocal advocate of families.

Almost all of his speeches to visiting diplomats, heads of state and the world’s bishops address the need for governments and the Church to support this fundamental building block of society. It’s the family where future generations are formed to be members of a constructive, generous, hopeful and peaceful world, the pope has said.

The pope’s message “will certainly be a message of hope, that,

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yes, it is worthwhile to live the fullness of the meaning of the family” as God designed and intended, as an indissoluble union between a man and a woman, Bishop Laffitte said.

The pope will meet with young people at San Siro Stadium, attend an evening celebration where he will hear people’s testimonies of

sue facing states in different parts of the world: the ongoing push to legalize or recognize same-sex unions and marriage.

The pope has repeatedly called on governments to respect and defend the traditional definition of marriage and urged the Church to promote the natural order in the institution of the family.

ple discover that its teaching not only makes sense, but also protects human dignity and creates a stable society, he has said.

In fact, on his way to his first World Meeting of Families in Valencia, Spain, the pope told reporters he was more interested in highlighting what works and makes families thrive than in lambasting

a tip of the cap — A priest waves a hat as he attends Pope Benedict XVI’s general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican recently. Pictured seated, second from left is Mordechay Lewy, Israel’s ambassador to the Vatican. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

faith, lead a Sunday morning outdoor Mass and have lunch with event organizers and families. He will pray with priests and religious at Milan’s Duomo Cathedral and venerate the relics of St. Charles Borromeo, patron saint of catechists, seminarians, learning and the arts, and co-patron saint of Milan.

The pope will also attend a concert held in his honor at the La Scala opera house, featuring Beethoven’s 9th Symphony conducted by Daniel Barenboim.

The pope will have a chance to get his message out to the wider world when he meets with the people of Milan and civilian authorities. It may be an opportunity for him to weigh in on a major isOFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER Vol. 56, No. 21

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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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Marriage between a man and a woman “is not a simple social convention,” the pope told the world’s ambassadors to the Vatican this year. The family is the basic unit of society and “policies which undermine the family threaten human dignity and the future of humanity itself,” he said.

The pope’s approach has been to win over people’s hearts and minds, in part by having Catholics themselves serve as credible witnesses to the joy and love that come from living in accordance with natural law.

The Church needs to help peo-

opponents.

He said that stressing what is positive about Christian living can help people see “why the Church cannot accept certain things, but at the same time wants to respect people and help them.”

Bishop Laffitte agreed that the Church always tries its best to explain its position and to reach out with pastoral concern to people of good will, even if they cannot or do not want to live a life founded on natural law.

However, he said, when it comes to people who are openly hostile to the Church’s contribu-

tion and propose changing laws in regard to the traditional definition of marriage, then the Church must “be very precise, firm and strong in reiterating the principles” of natural law.

The Church must “also denounce the relativistic principles” that give rise to a near-infinite array of subjective preferences about what human love and marriage are, he said.

This year’s theme for the gathering, “Work and Celebration,” comes at a critical time for many families struggling with the challenges of unemployment, low wages, long work hours for one or both parents, building a nest egg for a home or the children’s education and many other problems connected with working to support a family.

Pope Benedict is expected to address these real problems, as he did recently when he said work should not hurt the family, “but rather should support and unite it, help it to open itself to life” and take part more fully in the Church and community.

Marking the U.N.’s International Day of Families May 15, the pope said employers should also respect Sundays as a day of rest and a time families can strengthen their relationships with each other and with God. This year’s World Meeting of Families’ lecture series will feature Catholic economists, entrepreneurs, Church leaders and other experts sharing best practices for families seeking to sustain themselves both financially and spiritually.

Bishop Laffitte said that with so much attention being paid to resolving economic difficulties, people often forget about cultivating social and spiritual needs.

It’s important to also spend quality time with loved ones and “rediscover the source, inspiration, grace and spiritual strength in the Sunday Eucharist,” he said.

At audience, pope says work should help, not hinder, family life

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Work obligations should not harm a person’s family relationships but should provide support, giving couples the resources to have and raise children and spend time together, Pope Benedict XVI said.

At the end of his weekly general audience May 16, Pope Benedict noted how the United Nations chose “family and work” as the focus of the 2012 International Day of Families, which was celebrated May 15.

Work should not be an obstacle to the family, he said, “but rather should support and unite it, help it to open itself to life” and interact with society and the Church.

Pope Benedict also expressed his hope that Sundays would be respected by employers as “a day of rest and an occasion to reinforce family ties.”

In his main audience talk, the pope looked at prayer in the biblical letters of St. Paul. The New Testament letters, he said, include prayers of thanksgiving, praise, petition and intercession, demonstrating how prayer is appropriate for every occasion in life.

“Prayer should not be seen simply as a good work we do for God — something we do — but as a gift, the fruit of the living spirit of the Father and of Jesus Christ within us,” the pope said.

He said often “we do not know how to pray in the right way,” but simply opening oneself up and setting aside a bit of time for God, the Holy Spirit will take over.

“The absence of words, but the desire to enter into dialogue with God, is a prayer that the Holy Spirit not only understands, but carries to and interprets for God.” Of course, having a strong relationship with God does not mean nothing bad or painful will ever happen, the pope said.

But it does mean that a believer will never feel abandoned by God. “There is no human cry that is not heard by God,” he said.

May 25, 2012

The International Church

Patriarch urges Lebanese in U.S. to help save Lebanon

SHELBY TOWNSHIP, Mich. (CNS) — The spiritual leader of Maronite Catholics urged Lebanese in the Detroit area to play a role in the salvation of their homeland during his pastoral visit May 13.

Patriarch Bechara Rai said people of Lebanese origin or heritage in America should use their experience of the way people of various ethnicities, religions and political persuasions live peacefully together in the U.S. to help forge a new civil pact among the contending factions in Lebanon.

“You are living in the great country of the United States, and here the allegiance is not to the person, it is not to the party, it is to the country. It is from you the solution must come,” Patriarch Rai told the more than 850 people who attended a banquet in his honor in Shelby Township.

He spoke in Arabic with Bishop Paul Sayah, vicar general of the Maronite Patriarchate, serving as translator.

The patriarch’s remarks were made in the context of Lebanon’s laws, which allow Lebanese to continue to vote in their home country’s elections even after they settle in other countries. And he urged his audience to register their children in Lebanon, so that they can preserve their family’s ties to the country — including also being able to vote in elections.

Underscoring the importance of this participation by the Lebanese diaspora, he noted there are three times as many Lebanese outside Lebanon as inside it.

Speaking of the current situation in Lebanon, the patriarch said, “Now, each person, each party, has formed a Lebanon of their own. We will not accept that. We refuse that.”

The Lebanese people must develop a new ethos that differentiates between “belonging and having allegiance to,” Patriarch Rai continued. “You belong to a religion, you belong to a party, but you should have allegiance to the country.”

Describing the current situation in Lebanon, he characterized it as “chaos.” Government posts go unfilled because each faction wants it for its own person; 20 percent of the population is now below the United Nations’ poverty line; the national debt is $57 billion in a country where annual gross domestic product is $27 billion.

“Because of this, the Lebanese population is getting poorer and poorer. If we keep going the way we are going, the national debt will grow by $3 billion a year. I wonder what will happen to our country five years from now,” the patriarch said.

He also urged his audience to maintain their connection to their homeland by owning land or an apartment there, and encouraged them to invest in the country’s economy.

Reflecting the patriarch’s theme of unity among people of good will, both Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Francis R. Reiss and Imam Mohammad Mardini, president of the American Muslim Center in Dearborn, delivered invocations at the beginning of the banquet.

Among the other speakers, Detroit Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron spoke of the “common witness” of Maronite and Latin Catholics over the more than 100 years since Lebanese immigrants began arriving in southeast Michigan.

Referring to Patriarch Rai’s title as Maronite patriarch of Antioch and All the East, Archbishop Vigneron said, “In your presence here today, we have a link to the Church in Antioch, the Church of Peter, Paul and Barnabas.”

Earlier that day, the archbishop and Patriarch Rai concelebrated the Divine Liturgy — as Eastern Catholics call the Mass — at St. Sharbel (Maronite) Church in Warren.

On May 14, the patriarch celebrated Divine Liturgy at St. Maron (Maronite) Church in Detroit. On May 15, Patriarch Rai celebrated the Benediction of the Blessed Mother for members of St. Rafka Mission, Livonia, then traveled to Flint to celebrate the Divine Liturgy at Our Lady of Lebanon (Maronite) Church there.

The patriarch is on a pastoral visit to Maronite Catholics in Mexico, Canada and the United States. He serves as the head of the Maronite Church, one of the largest Eastern-rite communities of the Catholic Church.

The Maronites trace their origins to St. Maron, a Syrian hermit of the late fourth and early fifth centuries. Although there was a period of some centuries during which there was no contact between the Vatican and the Maronite Church, isolated in the mountains of Lebanon, the Maronites never considered themselves out of communion with the pope.

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4 VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI urged American Catholics to strive for greater unity, especially among ethnic groups and between bishops and religious orders, in order to carry out the Church’s mission in an increasingly hostile society.

The pope made his remarks May 18 in a speech to U.S. bishops from the Chaldean, Ruthenian, Maronite, Ukrainian, Armenian, Melkite, Syriac and Romanian Catholic churches, who were making their periodic “ad limina” visits to the Vatican.

They were the last of 15 groups of U.S. bishops to make to make “ad limina” visits since November 2011, reporting on the status of their dioceses to Pope Benedict XVI and holding discussions with Vatican officials.

In his speech, Pope Benedict called for greater “Catholic unity” to counter the “forces of disaggregation within the Church which increasingly represent a grave obstacle to her mission in the United States.”

The pope echoed his earlier warnings to other U.S. bishops about the dangers of secularization and state curbs on religious freedom.

“With the progressive weakening of traditional Christian values, and the threat of a season in which our fidelity to the Gospel may cost us dearly, the truth of Christ needs not only to be

The Church in the U.S. Pope tells U.S. bishops to build Church unity understood, articulated and defended, but to be proposed joyfully and confidently as the key to authentic human fulfillment and to the welfare of society as a whole,” he said.

Pope Benedict noted efforts by various lay movements in the U.S. to encourage Catholics “to move forward together, speaking with one voice in addressing the urgent problems of the present moment.”

He also encouraged bishops to strengthen their “communication and cooperation” with religious orders.

“The urgent need in our time for credible and attractive witnesses to the redemptive and transformative power of the Gospel makes it essential to recapture a sense of the sublime dignity and beauty of the consecrated life,” he said.

In an apparent reference to two recent investigations of American women religious, Pope Benedict thanked “many consecrated women in your country” for their “example of fidelity and self-sacrifice,” and said he prayed that “this moment of discernment will bear abundant spiritual fruit for the revitalization and strengthening of their communities in fidelity to Christ and the Church, as well as to their founding charisms.”

In April, the Vatican announced that it had discovered “serious doctrinal problems” in

May 25, 2012

the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, and appointed Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle to lead a major reform of the group, whose members represent about 80 percent of America’s 57,000 religious women.

The reform will aim to ensure fidelity to Catholic teaching in areas including abortion, euthanasia, women’s ordination and homosexuality.

U.S. religious women are also awaiting results of an apostolic visitation of their communities, ordered by the congregation for religious in 2008, in light of the steep decline in numbers of American women in consecrated

life. The visitation’s final report was submitted in December but has not been made public.

In his speech to the bishops, Pope Benedict noted the large proportion of immigrants among American Catholics, and celebrated them as a resource for evangelization, saying that the “immense promise and the vibrant energies of a new generation of Catholics are waiting to be tapped for the renewal of the Church’s life and the rebuilding of the fabric of American society.”

But he cautioned that the ethnic diversity which immigration brings also poses the “demand-

ing pastoral task of fostering a communion of cultures” within the Church. That task requires a respect for linguistic differences and the provision of social services, the pope said, but also preaching and teaching “aimed at inspiring in all the faithful a deeper sense of their communion” in the faith and their responsibility for the Church’s mission.

Pope Benedict also praised the U.S. bishops’ “long-standing commitment to immigration reform,” as part of an effort to ensure the “just treatment and the defense of the human dignity of immigrants.”

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, is discontinuing its student health insurance plan in the upcoming school year in opposition to the Obama Administration’s mandate requiring most religious employers, including colleges, to provide no-cost contraceptive and sterilization coverage in its health insurance plans.

The school made the announcement to its students in mid-April and the news became public one month later when the university posted its campus health insurance policy on its website.

Media outlets announced that the university was the first Catholic college to drop students from its health insurance plan because of the contraception mandate required by the Department of Health and Human Services.

Michael Hernon, vice president of advancement, said university officials had not expected their decision to receive national media coverage.

When university students, alumni and benefactors were initially told of the change, he said, the reaction was “overwhelmingly supportive.”

“We never thought we would be in the position to choose between faith and health care,” he told Catholic News Service, adding that the university’s decision was not just to protect its religious liberty but to prevent its students from paying increased costs of student health care insurance with the new federal health care policy.

The statement on the university’s website outlining the new policy says: “We will not participate in a plan that requires us to violate the consistent teachings of the Catholic Church on the sacredness of life.”

On March 16, the Obama Administration said most college student health insurance plans will have to include free contraceptive coverage.

Although the policy will apply to all colleges and universities, religiously affiliated institutions will be given an additional year — by August 2013 — to comply with the mandate. Colleges that have self-insured student health coverage plans will not be required to offer free contraceptive coverage.

When asked why the university made its decision now when it still had a year before having to comply with the mandate,

Hernon said the university would likely have “one year of safe harbor” but there had “not been any talk of exemptions in student health plans.” He said the university knew this was a looming issue and felt it had to respond.

He also called the increase in costs that students would have to pay for student insurance a moral issue and said the university does what it can to keep costs low for its students.

An announcement about Franciscan University’s new policy on its website stated that the university has specifically excluded contraceptive and sterilization services from its student health insurance policy. It also noted that the new health plan increased the mandated maximum coverage amount for student policies which would have doubled students’ premium cost for the policy this fall.

“Due to these changes,” the university said it would no longer require full-time undergraduate students to carry health insurance and would no longer offer a student health insurance plan.

Less than 10 percent of the university’s 2,500 students currently use the college-sponsored health plan. Most students are covered by their parents’ plan, but for those who are not covered under a parent/guardian plan or personal plan, the university said it would no longer bill them for student health insurance.

“We encourage you to decide how you are going to provide for accidents or illnesses requiring visits to physicians, health clinics, or the hospital emergency room while you are a student here,” the statement said, adding that no insurance was needed for basic health related services at the campus health center where visits cost $5 at the time of service.

Franciscan University drops student health insurance plan

May 25, 2012

The Church in the U.S.

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Federal lawsuits by Catholic dioceses, groups seek to stop HHS mandate

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Forty-three Catholic dioceses, schools, hospitals, social service agencies and other institutions filed suit in federal court May 21 to stop three government agencies from implementing a mandate that would require them to cover contraceptives and sterilization in their health plans.

“Through this lawsuit, plaintiffs do not seek to impose their religious beliefs on others,” said one of the suits, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana by the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, diocesan Catholic Charities, St. Anne Home and Retirement Community, Franciscan Alliance, University of St. Francis and Our Sunday Visitor.

“They simply ask that the government not impose its values and policies on plaintiffs, in direct violation of their religious beliefs,” it added.

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, whose archdiocese is among the plaintiffs, said the lawsuits were “a compelling display of the unity of the Church in defense of religious liberty” and “a great show of the diversity of the Church’s ministries that serve the common good and that are jeopardized by the mandate.”

“We have tried negotiations with the administration and legislation with the Congress — and we’ll keep at it — but there’s still no fix,” the cardinal said.

“Time is running out and our valuable ministries and fundamental rights hang in the balance, so we have to resort to the courts now.”

Cardinal Dolan also is president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which is not a party to the lawsuits.

Catholic organizations have objected to the contraceptive mandate since it was announced last August 1 by Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Unless they are subject to a narrow religious exemption or have a grandfathered health plan, employers will be required to pay

for sterilizations and contraceptives, including some abortion-inducing drugs, as part of their health coverage beginning as soon as Aug. 1, 2012.

In all, 12 lawsuits were filed simultaneously May 21 in various U.S. district courts around the country. The defendants in each case were Sebelius; Labor Secretary Hilda Solis; and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, along with their departments.

Erin Shields, HHS director of communications for health care, told Catholic News Service May 21 that the department cannot comment on pending litigation.

In addition to the Archdiocese of New York and Diocese of Fort WayneSouth Bend, the dioceses involved are the archdioceses of Washington and St. Louis and the dioceses of Rockville Centre, N.Y.; Erie, Pa.; Pittsburgh; Dallas; Fort Worth, Texas; Jackson, Miss.; Biloxi, Miss.; Springfield, Ill.; and Joliet, Ill. The Michigan Catholic Conference, which provides medical benefits to more than 1,100 Catholic institutions and approximately 10,000 employees in the state, also is a plaintiff.

“We need to go to the court and say we are a Church institution, we are a provider of health care and, according to the U.S. Constitution, the laws must protect our religious freedom,” said Detroit Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron. “We have a very particular case to make.”

Catholic universities joining in the lawsuits included the University of Notre Dame, The Catholic University of America and Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, as well as the University of St. Francis in Indiana.

Holy Cross Father John I. Jenkins, president of Notre Dame, said the decision to file the lawsuit “came after much deliberation, discussion and efforts to find a solution acceptable to the various parties.”

“This filing is about the freedom of a religious organization to live its mission,

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Although the Obama Administration’s proposed “accommodation” for religious employers to the mandate that contraceptives and sterilization be included in most health plans “may create an appearance of moderation and compromise,” it does not change the administration’s fundamental position, attorneys for the U.S. bishops said in comments filed May 15.

“We are convinced that no public good is served by this unprecedented nationwide mandate, and that forcing individual and institutional stakeholders to sponsor and subsidize an otherwise widely available product over their religious and moral objections serves no legitimate, let alone compelling, government interest,” said the comments filed with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Signed by Anthony R. Picarello and Michael F. Moses, general counsel and as-

sociate general counsel, respectively, for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the 21-page comments were in response to the administration’s “advance notice of proposed rulemaking” published March 16 in the Federal Register, which proposed new ways for religious organizations that have moral objections to providing free contraceptives to their employees to comply with the requirement.

Among the administration’s suggestions are having the costs covered by a “third-party administrator” of a health plan or “independent agency” that receive funds from other sources, such as rebates from drug makers. The USCCB comments said the proposed changes would still require “conscientiously objecting nonexempt religious organizations to provide plans that serve as a conduit for contraceptives and sterilization procedures to their own employees, and their premiums will help pay for those items.”

Obama ‘accommodation’ offers no fundamental change, USCCB attorneys say

and its significance goes well beyond any debate about contraceptives,” he said.

“For if we concede that the government can decide which religious organizations are sufficiently religious to be awarded the freedom to follow the principles that define their mission, then we have begun to walk down a path that ultimately leads to the undermining of those institutions.”

Others filing suit include a Catholic cemeteries association, an agency that serves the deaf, health care and socialservices organizations, and Catholic elementary and secondary schools.

Our Sunday Visitor, a national Catholic newspaper based in Huntington, Ind., said in an editorial that it “stands proudly with our fellow Catholic apostolates and with our bishops in resisting this challenge.”

The newspaper asked readers “to stand with us — in charity, praying first and foremost for conversions of heart; in civility, arguing the facts of this case without recourse to bitter partisanship or political rhetoric; and in solidarity, knowing that whatever sacrifices we bear and whatever challenges we endure, we are only doing what is our responsibility as American citizens practicing our faith in the public square.”

Each of the lawsuits uses similar wording to make its case and each asks for a jury trial.

Noting that the Founding Fathers agreed “that the mixture of government

and religion is destructive to both institutions and divisive to the social fabric upon which the country depends,” the lawsuits contend that the U.S. Constitution and federal law “stand as bulwarks against oppressive government actions even if supported by a majority of citizens.”

“Despite repeated requests from Church leaders, the government has insisted that it will not change the core principle of the U.S. government mandate — that plaintiffs must subsidize and/or facilitate providing their employees free access to drugs and services that are contrary to plaintiffs’ religious beliefs,” the suits state. “If the government can force religious institutions to violate their beliefs in such a manner, there is no apparent limit to the government’s power.”

The suits were filed by Jones Day, an international law firm with more than 2,400 attorneys on five continents.

Jones Day said in a statement that the firm “looks forward to presenting its clients’ cases in court.”

The contraceptive mandate “unconstitutionally authorizes the federal government to determine which organizations are sufficiently ‘religious’ to warrant an exemption from the requirement,” the statement says. “This regulation is in violation of the religious liberties guaranteed by the First Amendment, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and other federal laws.”

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The Anchor Lessons from Acushnet

Prior to last Tuesday, the beautiful town of Acushnet was known mainly to residents of the south coast of Massachusetts. Most in other parts of the Commonwealth — not to mention outside its boundaries — would have had to use atlases or the Internet to locate this charming place of bogs, farms and a world-famous golfing equipment company. That all changed on May 15 with six words placed on the rectory lawn sign facing the city’s main intersection, “Two men are friends not spouses,” placed there by the parish director of Pastoral Services in response to President Barack Obama’s May 9 newlyannounced support for the redefinition of marriage to embrace two men or two women. The phrase was meant to express in a succinct way the Church’s teaching that those of the same sex not only can but are called to love each other, but that that love is not meant to take on the form of romantic or spousal love (what the Greeks called eros) but rather the deep love of friendship (philia) consistent with the selfcontrolled and -sacrificial love (agape) that Christ Himself gave and called us to imitate.

For Jesus and those who follow Him, love and truth are always united. Christ very clearly spoke about the truth of marriage when He said (Mt 19) that in the beginning God made them male and female (not male and male, or female and female) and for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother (not two fathers or two mothers) and cling to his wife (not to whomever he is sexually attracted) and the two shall become one flesh (which refers not merely to the ephemeral physical contact involved in sexual activity but to the fusion of the flesh of a man and a woman in a child, a fruit of which those of the same-sex are obviously incapable). Jesus also said that what God has joined, man must not divide, and this can be interpreted not just with regard to a particular man and a particular woman in a particular marital bond, but also to the marital communion intended in general between man and woman: The union of man and woman in marriage cannot be rent asunder to make marriage a husbandless or wifeless union. To believe in Jesus means to believe in what He taught. To follow Jesus means to seek to imitate the way He showed us how to love. St. Francis Xavier Parish was giving witness to its authentically Christian faith in the public square by reiterating the particular type of love to which those with same-sex attractions are called.

Based on the media attention the six-word message garnered, however, one might have thought that instead of reiterating the Church’s teaching on the meaning of marriage and the love of friendship, St. Francis Xavier had put up a message calling for the condemnation of all those with same-sex attractions.

One young woman started a Facebook campaign calling the message “hateful,” as if the six-word message had been, “The Church hates gays and lesbians.” Soon a blast got out to the wider gay community.

A few picketers showed up. Others started bringing other posters. Many started calling. And, curiously, within hours all the major television stations in Boston and Providence were coming to Acushnet to do interviews and live reports about the protests to putative Catholic hate-mongering. It’s worth noting — as a commentary on the media’s coverage of the Church as well as the issues concerning gays and lesbians — that five days a week, 240 students attend St. Francis Xavier School to learn the Church’s teaching on truth and love in classrooms and on Sunday more than 800 worshippers come to hear it from the pulpit. These activities garner no media attention at all. Yet when as few as three people come to hold protest placards on the city sidewalk near a parish sign — even after the message had been changed the following day to announce the Ascension Thursday Mass schedule — television from all the major news affiliates of the two closest metropolises somehow show up.

To the media’s credit, however, once journalists had arrived to cover a hyped-up story on homophobia and anti-gay hatred, they recognized, in talking with pastor Msgr. Gerard O’Connor and director of Pastoral Services Steven Guillotte, that not only was that animus totally absent, but another type of hatred — one of the most underreported forms of uncivility and bullying in our culture — was. And they reported it. They were shown various posters that had been left on the property. “Jesus freaks, come to your senses. Jesus freaks, pray for death,” said one. Another went straight after the Blessed Mother in a mockery of the angelic salutation, “Hail Mary, Virgin Whore.” Facebook and verbal messages referred to both pastor and parishioners as pederasts — a facilely-employed and relatively ubiquitous ad hominem used against Catholic ministers and believers today, especially whenever the Church speaks on human sexuality. The message that captured the journalists’ attention most was a voicemail left by an unidentified woman. In the span of 54 seconds, she somehow managed to employ 16 expletives while threatening, “Seriously, your Church should be burned,” insisting “God isn’t real,” and saying that the town of Acushnet, St. Francis Xavier Parish, and the Catholic Church and her teaching should nevertheless all go to hell. Apparently, God doesn’t exist but hell does. It didn’t take advanced degrees from Columbia school of journalism for reporters to figure out that such messages were hardly consistent with a side admonishing the Church to “Spread love, not hate,” as one poster left on the property declared.

What is the larger lesson to be learned from what was really going on in Acushnet? It’s about the verbal nuclear attack that the gay movement regularly employs against the Church for her opposition to the redefinition of marriage. Whenever the Church expresses its principled objection to the redefinition of marriage — not only out of fidelity to Jesus’ teachings but out of concern for the future of our nation, because of the importance of the marriage between one man and one woman for the procreation and education of our nation’s future citizens, teachers, defenders, and leaders — she is accused of “homophobia,” “gay-bashing,” and “hatred.” This is part of a strategy directed against the Church and Christian believers that has been publicly described by various gay leaders. Notice that when President Obama, up until the “evolution” he announced on May 9, stressed his support for marriage as the union of one man and one woman, he was never accused of an irrational fear of those with same-sex attractions or of despising gays. When President Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996, passed overwhelmingly

by Democrats and Republicans in both the House and the Senate, they weren’t accused of collective antipathy toward gay fellow citizens. It’s only when Christian believers defend marriage as the union between one man and one woman that we begin to hear the accusations of hatred and homophobia.

Why? The reason, gay strategists have declared in interviews, is because with politicians and citizens in general, the gay movement is trying to persuade them patiently to abandon the wisdom of the centuries about marriage and redefine its meaning as the crowning achievement of the social normalization of same-sex behavior. But since those who truly believe in Jesus and His teachings will never be persuaded of the same-sex ideal of marriage as a husbandless or wifeless institution with no intrinsic connection to children flowing from that privileged bond — and the Catholic Church in particular is seen as a bulwark against this revolution in social and sexual morés — what needs to be done is demonize and marginalize believers’ convictions altogether. Nobody, after all, likes to associate with “bigots,” especially in the politically-correct milieus of education and media that mold public opinion.

In Acushnet, this strategy backfired. The real bigotry at play — against Catholic teaching and faithful Catholics— was exposed. The Church loves and welcomes those with same-sex attractions and defends them against all unjust discrimination. But the Church’s — and society’s — defense of marriage as the union of one man and one woman is not unjust discrimination, because gays do not have the right to change what marriage means and is. The “right to marriage” is not the unlimited right to marry anyone one wants. Laws rightly discriminate against certain types of attempted “marriages” in order to protect what marriage is and thereby serve the common good, and to affirm that those of the same-sex do not have the right to marry each other is not unjust discrimination any more than to say that people do not have the right to marry kids, or siblings, or another person’s spouse.

It’s not hateful or homophobic to say this; rather, it’s the common sense and wisdom of the centuries, even from before the Church was founded. The truth about marriage as the union of one man and one woman, however, is also part of what the God of love has revealed. This is a message that all Catholics should confidently, charitably, and courageously proclaim from their rooftops, bell-towers and parish lawns.

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May 25, 2012

‘Quo Vadis’

radition tells us that during the in other dioceses in the United States. persecution of Christians in Rome Some of them are attracting more than during the first century, St. Peter was 50 young men each year, a number leaving the city along the Via Appia Antica of whom go on to further discern the when the risen Lord appeared to him.

Lord’s call in the seminary. The last two Peter asked Jesus, “Domine, quo vadis?” years we have had more than 20 young (Lord, where are You going?). Christ told men participating each year, two of Peter that He was going to Rome to be whom are currently in the application crucified again, which reminded Peter of process to the seminary. what our Lord said to him on the Sea of The idea for the Quo Vadis retreat Galilee about the death that Peter would comes from Msgr. John Cihak, a priest of endure. the Archdiocese of Portland, Ore. During This encounter with the risen Lord the jubilee year he began thinking of compelled Peter to turn around and go ways in which he could actively promote back to Rome to continue preaching vocations to the priesthood in his diocese. the Gospel. Peter is soon arrested as a The annual Quo Vadis retreat is the fruit prisoner of the state and sentenced to of his efforts. death. We know that Peter was crucified Msgr. Cihak’s model of Quo Vadis is upside down in the center of the circus of growing rapidly throughout the United Nero and was later buried on the Vatican States. By an abundance of grace, this hillside. Today the Vatican basilica named little idea, with prayer and some effort, after him is built over the spot of his tomb. is growing and drawing young men to The real point of this article is not discern the Lord’s call in their lives. Now so much St. in its third year Peter or his in our own martyrdom, but diocese, we it is about his Putting Into are hoping that encounter with more young the Deep our Lord and men from those powerful around our words, “Quo diocese would

By Father Vadis?” — participate Jay Mello “Where are in this great you going?” event. With I would like to speak about the Vocation your support and prayers, we hope to Office’s annual discernment retreat that provide many young men a positive and takes this expression as its name. Perhaps faith-filled experience. you have seen the posters for this event in This year’s retreat will be held from your parish church.

Monday, July 9, through Friday, July Where are you going? This is one of 13, at the Sacred Hearts Retreat Center the essential questions of discernment, in Wareham. Any young man who is especially in the context of our Christian between 14 and 18 years old is welcome faith. We all need to be asked, “Where to attend. Please contact your parish priest are you going with your life?” Are you or one of our vocation directors for more following our Lord as St. Peter and so information about registration. many other such courageous men and Personally, I wish there had been women have throughout the centuries or something like this when I was in high are you going somewhere else, perhaps school considering the priesthood because down one of the many different paths that more than anything else, it puts young the world offers. men into contact with other young I firmly believe that the Lord in His men who are also open to God’s will great love has a wonderful plan for each and thinking about the possibility of of us. Jesus’ plan for some men is to be priesthood. one of His priests. The priesthood, as I But I think that the most beneficial have been trying to explain these past aspect of this retreat is that it helps couple of weeks, is the indispensable, young men to understand the importance awesome and powerful way in which of being men of faith. Whether or not our Lord’s sacramental mission is carried a man is being called to the priesthood, out. And even though Jesus continues to this retreat helps to strengthen one’s call young men to this life, sometimes relationship with our Lord. If one is the world we live in makes it difficult for being called, this retreat will give them them to hear His call. the tools to discern properly the Lord’s This is the very focus of the Quo Vadis call. If one is not being called, it will retreat that is organized each year by the still help them to become the holy diocesan Vocation Office. The annual Catholic men that our Lord is asking of Quo Vadis retreat is a time of recreation, each of them. fellowship, prayer and discussion to help Another great advantage of this retreat young men explore our Lord’s call. This is putting the young men into contact with week-long experience enables young the priests and seminarians of our diocese men from around our diocese to gather who are there to assist them in their for a retreat at the Sacred Hearts Retreat spiritual growth during their challenging Center in Wareham, where priests and teen-age years. seminarians of our diocese will be there By signing up for and attending the providing conferences, spiritual guidance Quo Vadis retreat, a young man is not and fraternity. necessarily saying that he wants to be Some of the activities include prayer, priest, but that he is open to being with the celebration of Holy Mass, adoration other young Catholic men for a week of of the Blessed Sacrament, Liturgy of the prayer, fraternity and fun. Please consider Hours, and the Rosary. There is hiking, asking a young man from your family swimming, and other sports including flag or parish to consider attending this great football, soccer, and ultimate Frisbee. retreat experience.

Many of you may not be familiar with Father Mello is a parochial vicar at this retreat that has had great success St. Patrick’s Parish in Falmouth.

May 25, 2012

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The Anchor

Catholic Charities Appeal nears $2 million mark

FALL RIVER — With the third week of the 2012 Catholic Charities Appeal coming to a close, the total reported from the parishes was nearing the $2 million dollar mark. The Appeal, which began on the traditional first day of May, will continue until June 21.

A true indicator that the Charities Appeal is in full swing is the strong showing from the parish reports. The reports indicate several matching gift forms from companies whose employees are parishioners and who have requested their donation to the Appeal be matched or sometimes doubled by their employer. “People have no idea how significant these matching gifts can be to the final Appeal total,” said diocesan director

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of Development, Mike Donly.

“Many also don’t realize that their employer may match donations to not-for-profit organizations like Catholic Charities.

“Some feel it is a complicated process, but actually all of the work is done by the employer and us. The donor just has to ask for a form at their personnel office, fill out a couple of lines and then return it to them for processing. The employer in turn sends it to us for verification and the deal is done, so to speak.”

Other indicators the Appeal is in full swing are the stories coming in from parishes that show the importance people put on the Appeal and their part in it. One parish related the story of two women, both senior

citizens on fixed incomes, who come in each year separately and make a donation in cash at the beginning of the Appeal

and promise to come back (and they always do) and make a second donation before the Appeal ends.

The parish representative

When the saints go marchin’ in

book entitled “Greater Perfecn May 10, the Vatican tion,” revealing for the first proclaimed the hetime that she was indeed the roic virtue of two Americans, author. Here’s a sample: Sister Miriam Teresa Dem“The reason we have not janovich (1901-1927) from yet become saints is because Bayonne, N.J., and Bishop we have not understood what Frederic Baraga (1797it means to love. We think we 1868) of Marquette, Mich. do, but we do not. To love These two new “venerables” means to annihilate oneself now each need an approved for the beloved. The selfmiracle to be proclaimed “blessed,” and then another fresh one to be proclaimed “saint.” While in a future column I hope to write about Bishop Baraga,

By Dwight Duncan for now I want to concentrate on Sister Miriam Teresa, the closer to us in time sacrifice of a mother for her and space. child is only a shadow of the Sister Miriam Teresa died love wherewith we should at the young age of 26, and love the Beloved of our soul. lived her life entirely beTo love is to conform oneself tween Bayonne and Elizato the Beloved in the most beth, N.J. The daughter of intimate manner of which we immigrants from Slovakia, are capable.” she was an Eastern-rite “The imitation of Christ in Catholic who entered the the lives of the saints is alSisters of Charity at age 24. ways possible and compatible A novice contemplative in with every state of life. The an active religious order, saints did but one thing — the she ghost-wrote a series of will of God. But they did it spiritual conferences for the with all their might. We have nuns, given by her spirionly to do the same thing; tual director, a Benedictine and according to the degree priest. In some ways, she is of intensity with which we an American Little Flower, labor shall our sanctification also named Teresa, given progress. We shall attain that to mystical experiences, height of glory in Heaven that and dying at a young age. corresponds to the depths of St. Therese of Lisieux was the humility we have sounded canonized in May, 1925, on earth. The harder you hit a just two years before Sister ball on the ground, the higher Miriam Teresa died. it rebounds. The perfection After her death, her brothof humility is the annihilaer, a priest, edited and pubtion of our will, its absolute lished her conferences in a

Judge For Yourself

submission to the Divine in every least detail. That is what made Joan a saint. And Teresa, too.”

Less than a year before she died, she wrote: “I have lived long enough to be absolutely sure that in this life I can be absolutely certain of only one thing: one thing that will not fail me: one thing that every person must face.

Some day, and very soon, no matter how far distant, time for me will cease, and eternity begin. I shall die. Some day, and very soon, curious eyes will pause before a little gravestone in God’s acre and read: ‘Here lies yours truly born: It matters not when.

Died: Yesterday, in the Lord.

While in the world He filled a place, now filled a little better than just as well, by another.

R.I.P.’” It is wonderful to think that someone a little younger than my Irish grandmother, who liked to say similarly that we could be certain of two things in this life: death and taxes, that someone from New Jersey, the noisome-industrialcorridor-just-after-New-YorkCity part of the Garden State, might be canonized a saint.

Sister Miriam Teresa Demjanovich died 75 years ago, but her luminous example and teaching are still very much with us. Venerable Miriam Teresa, pray for us.

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

said it was obvious that with the Appeal spanning two different months these women were making donations from their monthly Social Security checks, which the person said were extremely small to begin with. “These women are a true reflection of the widow in the Scriptures who gave from her want not from a surplus,” added Donly. “These are the greatest gifts of all. People in need helping those they perceive to be in greater need.

These people put into words what St. Leo the Great said centuries ago, ‘When you give alms, do not be anxious but full of happiness. The greatest treasure will go to the one who has kept the least for himself.’”

As the 71st annual Appeal continues the hope is that this

same mentality will be pervasive within the 90 parish communities in the Diocese of Fall River, and in the end the $4,241,000 total of last year will be eclipsed allowing the diocese to minister to even more of the thousands of men, women, and children who will look to it for some of their most basic human needs.

Donations to the Appeal can be sent to the Catholic Charities Appeal Office, P.O. Box 1470, Fall River, Mass. 02722; dropped off at any parish in the Diocese of Fall River, or made on the Appeal website: www. frdioc-catholiccharities.org.

For information visit the website or contact the Appeal Office at 508-6751311.

Be sure to visit the Diocese of Fall River website at fallriverdiocese.org The site includes links to parishes, diocesan offices and national sites.

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8

I

was sitting there 10 years ago, waiting for my name to be called, numb with nervousness, not daring to turn to see the hundreds of people watching us.

The fellow next to me leaned over and said, “If I can’t get up, push me up.” Leaning back, I said, “OK, but do the same for me.”

He was able to get up on his own and walk over. When I stood up as my name was called, I felt as though I were walking for the first time, my legs stiff and uncertain. I knelt before (then) Bishop Sean P. O’Malley, and he put his hands on my head, praying over me in silence for what seemed the longest time. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this moment, but what I felt, wasn’t it.

Just numbness and doubt.

No driving wind, no tongues of fire. Only my heart pulsing with contained fear, my sins staring up at me from the ice I kept them under, my mind wondering what God was actually thinking about my ordination to the diaconate.

May 25, 2012

The Anchor

Come Holy Spirit

The next day, assisting at my But still I felt no driving wind, first Mass as a deacon, reading no tongues of fire — no powerthe Gospel and preaching for the ful movement of the Holy Spirit first time, I was still numb. It was within me. Was I missing the Pentecost Sunday, but still no presence of the Holy Spirit in driving wind, no tongues of fire. the very love and kindness that Was I being presumptuous to expect something extraordinary? Who Homily of the Week was I, after all? Nothing much. But Holy Orders Pentecost — that’s something — Sunday even at the lowest level

By Deacon of diaconate.

David Pepin For two days, my family and friends had made a fuss over me.

The director of the Diaconate, surrounded me by expecting Msgr. John Moore, and his staff, something else? assistant director Deacon Larry Later that same Pentecost St. Onge and secretary Catherine morning, I went to St. Dominic’s Audette, had done all they could Parish in Swansea. Father Joe Vito prepare our sixth class for veiros, a good friend, had invited ordination and to make the day me to assist him at Mass and truly special. My pastor then, to help him after Mass with the Father Henry Dahl, could not Crowning of the Holy Spirit, the have been more gracious, having beautiful Portuguese tradition of a reception for me after Mass in blessing people with a beautiful the parish hall and presenting me sterling silver crown representing with a beautiful stole. the Holy Spirit.

When Father Joe’s arms got tired, he gave the crown to me.

Holding it over the head of the first person who came to me, I began to pray, “Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of Your love,” and at that moment, He came to me in a rush. I felt the love of God, the fire of His love, pass forcefully, like a driving wind, into me and through me. It was the strangest feeling, for all I felt was an overwhelming wave of humility and thanksgiving, and I can’t explain why, but I knew clearly that God’s burning love for us was the cause.

As I reflected upon it later, realizing that the Holy Spirit came to me as I prayed for Him to come to someone else, I felt that He was allowing me to realize and experience more fully the truth that one is ordained for service to others and that in that service one finds self-fulfillment.

It’s a paradox but a simple universal truth nonetheless: it’s in giving that we receive. Jesus said it most profoundly: “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Mt. 16:25).

On Pentecost Sunday, the Holy Spirit entered the Apostles, drawing them out of the locked room in which fear had kept them, sending them out into the world to bring peace to it. And through the Church the Holy Spirit founded upon the Apostles, we all are called by Baptism and Confirmation, by Matrimony and the Eucharist, as well as by Holy Orders, to leave the locked room of self-absorption to serve others in love, which is the native language of the heart, the language we all can understand, the language which makes brothers and sisters of us all, the language spoken so passionately and so perfectly by God’s tongue of fire.

Deacon Pepin serves at St. Francis Xavier Parish in Acushnet.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. May 26, ­­Acts 28:16-20,30-31; Ps 11:4-5,7; Jn 21:20-25. Sun. May 27, Pentecost Sunday, Acts 2:1-11; Ps 104:1ab,24ac,29bc-30,31,34; 1 Cor 12:3b-7,12-13 or Gal 5:16-25; Jn 20:19-23 or Jn 15:26-27;16:12-15. Mon. May 28, 1 Pt 1:3-9; Ps 111:1-2,5-6,9,10c; Mk 10:17-27. Tues. May 29, 1 Pt 1:10-16; Ps 98:14; Mk 10:28-31. Wed. May 30, 1 Pt 1:18-25; Ps 147:12-15,19-20; Mk 10:32-45. Thurs. May 31, Zep 3:14-18a or Rom 12:9-16; (Ps) Is 12:2-3,4bcd,5-6; Lk 1:39-56. Fri. June 1, 1 Pt 4:7-13; Ps 96:10-13; Mk 11:11-26.

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osed as ever on the cutting edge of the politically-correct and theologically-dubious, the Episcopal Church USA will soon consider adopting a Burial Service for Beloved Animals, in which the following two Collects appear: At the burial of a farm animal: “Most gracious, good Lord, we are the people of Your pasture and the sheep of Your hand: We thank You for placing among us the beasts of the field and allowing us to care for them, and to receive from them food and clothing to meet our necessities.

We grieve this day the death of A., and we return to you a creature of Your own making, one who served as an effective

Critter prayers and transhumanism

sign of the generosity of Your with You and the Holy Spirit, love for us; through Jesus One God, for ever and ever.

Christ our Good Shepherd, Amen.”

Who lives and reigns with A former Vatican official You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.”

At the death of a wild animal: “Almighty God, Who make the beasts of the wild move

By George Weigel in beauty and show forth the glory of Your name: We grieve the death of this creature, in known for his prowess with whose living and dying the a deer rifle commented on power of Your Spirit was the latter: “I have my own made manifest. We reverprayer at the death of a wild ence the loss of that which animal. It begins, ‘Bless, O was never ours to claim but Lord, and these Thy gifts.’” only to behold with wonder; Another priest, seeing this, through Jesus Christ our Re“There’s plenty of room for deemer, Who lives and reigns all of God’s creatures … next to the mashed potatoes.” To which the former Vatican Official replied, “Don’t forget the gravy.”

As all but the most dour of PETA people will agree, some of us have far too much fun online.

On a more serious note, however, this exchange coincided with an email from a Canadian theologian, noting that the New Age transhumanist Barbara Marx Hubbard is the designated keynote speaker at the August

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The Catholic Difference

general assembly of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which the Vatican has taken into ecclesiastical receivership. My Canadian colleague did some digging and found the following, instructive excerpt from the collected works of Ms. Marx Hubbard: “Although we may never know what really happened, we do know that the story told in the Gospels is that Jesus’ Resurrection was a first demonstration of what I call the post-human universal person.

We are told that He did not die. He made His transition, released His animal body, and reappeared in a new body at the next level of physicality to tell all of us that we would do what He did. The new person that He became had continuity of consciousness with His life as Jesus of Nazareth, an earthly life in which He had become fully human and fully divine. Jesus’ life stands as a model of the transition from homo sapiens to homo universalis.”

Irrespective of the insight that this remarkable passage gives us into the cast of mind at the Leadership Confer-

ence of Women Religious, Marx Hubbard’s blundering through Scripture and Christology does suggest one path to which the Episcopal critter prayers can lead. When the biblical metaphors used by the Lord (“people of Your pasture” and “sheep of Your hand”) are taken to imply that there is no substantial difference between human beings and the animal kingdom, then the temptation to transhumanism — the deliberate manipulation of the human condition through biotechnology — intensifies. As we can “improve” beef cattle, chickens and turkeys by manipulating breeding, we can make “better” human beings: transhumanized human beings, cyberhuman hybrids who are immortal. Prometheus, call your office. Aldous Huxley, how did you see this coming 80 years ago, when you were finishing “Brave New World”?

“Babe” was a great movie, but animatronics is not theology. Under today’s technological and cultural circumstances, confusing animals with human beings often leads to serious weirdness and deep trouble.

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

May 25, 2012

Comings and goings

Sunday 20 May 2012 — at does not prevent both laity and home on the Taunton River — clergy from guessing who is night of the New Moon going where and who is not. n the life of a priest, the Rumors are inevitable. No clerseasons of the year are not gy assignment is guaranteed just summer, fall, winter, and until it has been made by the spring. Priests observe more than four seasons. As the school year ends and summer Reflections of a approaches, you might Parish Priest think priests would have a little time to

By Father Tim take a deep breath Goldrick and unwind. Not so.

After the Confirmation and First Communion seasons, we come to the clergy bishop, accepted by the priest, transfer season. and publicly announced. In our Before the clergy transfer diocese, it appears in an official season arrives, the rumor mill “box” in The Anchor. Until kicks in. I would venture to then, things can change — and guess that rumors have some sometimes do. There are a lot transfers as a “done deal” even of urban legends out there reif they have not even crossed garding how things did change the desk of the bishop. This at the last minute. Some of the

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The Ship’s Log

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The Anchor stories may actually be true.

The clergy transfer season tends to raise questions. Priests and laity wonder what governs the process of clergy transfers and how it all comes about.

Answers will vary.

They vary even more these days, given the aging priesthood, the closing and merging of parishes, demographic shifts, and the shrinking number of priests. Then there is sometimes the need to assign priests to ministries other than parochial ones.

The basic principle for the naming and transfer of pastors is spelled out in the universal law of the Church. “A pastor must possess stability and therefore is to be appointed for an indefinite period of time.

The diocesan bishop can ap-

‘Fleeting’ memories

Once the Massachusetts was nearly nine years was secured and prepared, old in June of 1965. It she became a floating was then when, with my dad museum ... a fitting tribute to and my brother, we found all those who fought in the grandstand seats to watch Atlantic and Pacific oceans, tugboats tow and guide the and everywhere in between, majestic USS Massachusetts during those tumultuous north up the Taunton River to times in the 1940s. her new, permanent home at I must admit, the glory Battleship Cove in Fall River. of the Massachusetts wasn’t I remember experiencing on my list of priorities as a the awe of viewing the lad. What lured me and my massive battleship as she gracefully slid past. It would be a little while longer before I would get to see her in full dress, with her radar system having been removed to enable her to maneuver beneath

By Dave Jolivet the Braga Bridge.

Luckily, I still have video of the event. My friends to the battleship many dad, with his trusty 35mm a weekend, was her guns, her movie camera, captured the decks, her hundreds of places water ballet. The images have to hide and explore. since been transferred to VHS A fistful of us would take tape, which have since been the half-hour walk to the transferred to DVD, which cove in the morning, pay our will eventually be transferred 50-cent admission cost, and to some type of hologram or eventually make the return whatever the future holds for trip home in late afternoon. taped media.

We would separate into With today’s movie two teams and spend hours special effects and realistic playing a high-seas version video games, watching a of hide-and-seek, which we decommissioned World War called around-the-ship-tag.

II battleship being pulled up We wouldn’t see each other the river may not seem like a for hours as we roamed the big deal. But to a nine-yearMassachusetts and all the old boy in 1965, it was a real secrets she had to offer. I charge. can’t say what went through “Big Mamie” as she was my friends’ minds as they affectionately called by the romped the decks, but for me brave crews who served on it was Heaven. her, would eventually play an I haven’t been on Big important part in the life of Mamie in decades, and she is that nine-year-old.

My View From the Stands

still just a stone’s throw from my home. But I now have a greater appreciation for her and what she stands for.

Commissioned 70 years ago, on May 12,1942, six months later, the Massachusetts was already peppering Axis forces in North Africa with her 16inch shells, helping sink one battleship, two destroyers and a cruiser.

In 1943 she headed for the Pacific Theater to attack when necessary and protect sister ships in the Pacific Fleet. She fought in places like the Solomon Islands, the Marshall Islands, Iwo Jima, Guam, the Philippines, and Japan.

She once had to return to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, to have her gun barrels overhauled and relined because they were worn from all the fighting. Then back she went.

The Massachusetts never lost a sailor or marine in combat, although she did have one crewman injured and two planes lost in a Pacific typhoon.

This Memorial Day, I realize just what a treasure we have in Fall River at Battleship Cove — a well-preserved history and memorial to all who fought, and still fight for our freedom. I just may revisit my “playground” soon, this time with a greater respect and reverence for what she and her crews endured.

point him only for a specific period if the conference of bishops has permitted this by a decree.”

A key word for the assignment of pastors, then, is “stability.” Note that the law refers to the placement of pastors and not necessarily to priests in other forms of ministry. I remember the days when pastors seldom retired or even changed pastoral assignments (or so it seemed to me). It was not uncommon for an elderly pastor to die in office. With a pastor of, say, 90 years of age, the day-to-day operation of the parish fell to a bevy of curates. Times have changed. Pastors (including those who are bishops) are required to submit a letter requesting retirement from the active ministry at the age of 75 years. In some dioceses, optional retirement becomes available at a younger age.

In our diocese, that would be 70 years. Thanks to Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, former bishop of Fall River, we have the Cardinal Medeiros Residence for retired priests who are in relatively good health.

Retirements are one of the factors that begin to tumble the dominos of pastoral assignments. Retirements involve more than the pastorates being vacated. They impact the whole diocesan Church. There are other factors as well, such as sabbaticals and medical leaves and priests on special assignment.

The responsibility for diocesan clergy transfers ultimately belongs to the diocesan bishop. It always has. His task is to balance the overall needs of the diocesan Church, the particular needs of any given parish, and the human resources available. It is an unenvi-

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able task. As in any situation, I suppose, you just have to do the best you can with what you have. The law reads: “A diocesan bishop is to entrust a vacant parish to the one whom he considers suited to fulfill its parochial care, after weighing all the circumstances and without any favoritism.”

The diocesan ordinary does not make these decisions alone.

Dependent on local custom, a bishop might consult a vicar general, episcopal vicars, deans, clergy personnel boards or offices, boards of consultors, parish pastoral councils, planning offices, etc.

Let’s look more closely at the canonical reference to an “indefinite period of time.”

This remains the norm, but even this is not absolute. The law itself provides a suggestion of exception to conferences of bishops. In the United States, the option of six-year terms is available. Some dioceses across the country subscribe to the practice of terms of pastoral assignment, others choose not to. In our diocese, that option has not been chosen.

It’s not as cut and dry as it might first appear. Even with a certain presumed sense of stability and the lack of proscribed terms for pastors, the good of the whole diocesan Church remains paramount.

Priests and laity alike are called to a vision of Church beyond that of the parish. In the Catholic tradition, the local Church is not the parish but the diocese.

So, dear readers, we have come once again to clergy transfer season. Hang on to your hats.

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

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The Anchor

May 25, 2012

Parishioner utilizes her expertise to help guide the parish

By Becky Aubut Anchor Staff

NORTH DIGHTON — Nancy Goulart has a head for business and a heart for her faith, and she puts both to good use as a parishioner at St. Nicholas of Myra Parish in North Dighton by having a hand in numerous parish affairs, including being a member of the parish Finance Council, and parish chairman for the Catholic Charities Appeal and the parish’s annual collection.

“She is very knowledgeable about town matters and finance, and brings that expertise here,” said Father Timothy Goldrick, pastor of St. Nicholas of Myra. “She’s a whiz at it and it’s much appreciated.”

The Berkley native grew up as one of eight children, and was raised a Methodist until she met her husband in high school. Goulart said she was baptized before she was married at St. Peter’s Parish in Dighton in 1962, and was confirmed in the Catholic faith shortly thereafter.

“I didn’t really feel there was a big difference between the way I was raised and what I learned to become a Catholic,” said Goulart, who said her family was active at the Methodist parish and attended weekly services. “As far as the basic beliefs, how you treat

one another and how you should help shower and everybody brought things one another; my feeling was the basic that we could donate to Birthright in threads were there, and it wasn’t some Taunton.” big secret, mysterious change or anyGoulart’s return to higher education thing like that. The transition wasn’t curtailed her duties in the guild, but difficult for me at all.” she said her family continued to parGoulart and her husband settled into ticipate in parish a home that was activities, includfive houses down ing the Saturday from St. Peter’s night suppers at Parish in Dighthe newly-renoton. The couple’s vated parish hall, only son was and attend weekly born in 1964 and Mass. When Goureceived all his lart was informed Sacraments from that St. Peter’s the small parish. and St. Joseph’s Goulart said she Parish of Dighenjoyed being a ton were going member of the to merge, she beWomen’s Guild at came a member of St. Peter’s, attendthe parish founding meetings and ing task force. holding office po“I was on the sitions throughout hospitality comthe years. mittee; I was part “I remember of that part of when Birthright the parish task first came to be,” force,” explained she said of the Goulart.

“What guild’s many acI found was, of tivities. “We used Anchor Person of the week course, there to have a baby — Nancy Goulart. were people who were very upset.

Some [said they] weren’t going to go to the new church in the north end — the usual kind of resistance in mergers.

My feeling was, when people ask me, I say there’s only going to be one Catholic Church in Dighton, and if you want to attend a Catholic Church in Dighton, it’s going to be where St. Joseph’s is now, and that’s how it’s going to be.”

She added, “I pretty much tried to encourage people to recognize that the building and location aren’t really the Church, it’s where the people go that makes it the Church.”

As a member of the hospitality committee, Goulart was one of those who suggested that prior to the official merging of the churches, the two parish communities should have a get-together. The summer before the merger was completed, the Lions’ Pavilion in the town of Dighton came alive as families from both parishes gathered for a potluck-style barbeque.

“It went very well. People brought food; it was really nice,” said Goulart, saying that the newly-formed St. Nicholas of Myra marked its third anniversary this past fall in the same way. “It

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was so popular, maybe it will become an annual thing.”

Right now Goulart is immersed in her fourth year chairing the parish’s Catholic Charities Appeal, a position where she created the foundation for keeping track of the annual data, and charting the growth of the contributions from the parish.

“It’s worked very well. Initially there were no records or details on how it was done, so my first year was creating how to do it,” said Goulart, who applied her educational background in business and finance to that first-year learning curve. “Now I have a really good system. I have joked saying that if I dropped dead tomorrow, someone could look at the book and know what to do.”

As record keeper of the parish, the Catholic Charities Appeal “has come a very long way” under her guidance, said Father Goldrick, adding that St. Nicholas of Myra often ranks in the top 10 regarding dollar amounts contributed, last year ranking eighth out of the 90 parishes in the Fall River Diocese.

“That’s incredible,” said Father Goldrick.

“We’re very fortunate because each succeeding year we have done very well,” said Goulart. “When the actual charity ends, I can take all the data that I’ve collected and sometime in a few weeks after Catholic Charities ends, I usually sit down with Father Goldrick and show how we ended up this year in comparison to previous years.”

Goulart also chairs the annual collection at the parish, a takeoff from an annual collection that used to happen at St. Peter’s Parish. Last year was her first year chairing that, and Goulart said she set it up just like she did for the Catholic Charities Appeal with the money being raised to be earmarked for certain expenses within the parish.

Goulart took early retirement after 33 years in public service, but has said that though her body may have retired, her mind certainly has not.

“I always said if I retired, if I was physically fit, I would do something.

I’m just not the type of person to sit around and not do anything,” she said.

“Once you have certain things ingrained in you like your education and experience, there are opportunities to use it, you just have to look around.”

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

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May 25, 2012

Cardinal Dolan’s arrival on Twitter draws thousands

New York City, N.Y. (CNA) — Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York debuted on Twitter last week, adapting his engaging, humorous style to the popular microblogging site and quickly becoming the third most followed cardinal.

“Hey everybody. It’s Timothy Cardinal Tebow. I mean Dolan,” the cardinal’s first tweet said May 8, alluding to the new New York Jets quarterback and football star Tim Tebow.

The cardinal uses Twitter to talk about his daily actions, his appearances on SiriusXM Radio’s The Catholic Channel, and events like Mother’s Day. Although limited to 140 characters per tweet, he has also touched on spiritual matters.

“St Therese of Lisieux reminds us that doing the ordinary things of life extraordinarily well, for the glory of God, is the path to sanctity,” he said May 10.

“Every person or institution will eventually let us down. Our ultimate trust must be in God and we will never be disappointed,” he said the day before.

Cardinal Dolan also uses Twitter to send his readers to the full texts of his speeches and statements. He published a link to his full commencement speech

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for the Catholic University of America and sent out a link to his May 9 statement which called President Obama’s support for same-sex marriage “deeply saddening.”

As of Wednesday, more than 7,500 people were following the cardinal, who heads the U.S. bishops’ conference. By comparison, the bishops’ conference itself has attracted about 18,700 followers on Twitter since its January 2009 debut.

The cardinal added more than 2,500 followers on each of his first two days on Twitter, according to the website TwitterCounter.com.

At least six other cardinals have taken to Twitter. Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council of Culture, has 18,600 followers, Cardinal Odilo Scherer of Sao Paolo has 13,700 and Cardinal Angelo Scola of Milan has 7,200.

After Cardinal Dolan come Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, who has 3,800 followers, Cardinal Norberto Rivera of Mexico City with 2,800, and Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier of Durban, South Africa, who has 1,300 followers.

Cardinal Dolan’s Twitter page is at twitter.com/CardinalDolan.

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May 25, 2012

The Anchor

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

“Battleship” (Universal) Feel-good nonsense about a rowdy naval officer (Taylor Kitsch) who has to grow up fast when he’s called upon to save the world from a seemingly invincible force of invading aliens. He’s aided, initially, by his steadier older brother and navy comrade (Alexander Skarsgard) and later by the shore-side efforts of his would-be fiancee (Brooklyn Decker). She’s a physical therapist for wounded vets (most prominently real-life Purple Heart-winner Gregory D. Gadson) whose admiral father (Liam Neeson) takes a dim view of her relationship with our hero. And music star Rihanna gets thrown into the mix representing the tough-as-nails distaff side of the duty roster.

Director Peter Berg’s action adventure, which is supposed to have something to do with the titular Hasbro game, pulls out every patriotic stop and waves every flag within reach, offering a largely harmless, if quickly forgotten, diversion for mature viewers. Much action violence and some painful slapstick, at least one use of profanity, about a dozen crude and a handful of crass terms. The Catholic News

Service classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

“The Dictator” (Paramount) Foul language and grossout sludge predominate in director Larry Charles’ comedic portrait of a composite, but Moammar Gadhafi-like tyrant (Sacha Baron Cohen) from the fictional North African nation of Wadiya. After his scheming uncle (Ben Kingsley) uses his absence on a state visit to the United Nations as the opportunity to stage a coup, replacing the outrageously bearded goof with a more pliable imposter, the true leader finds himself wandering the streets of Manhattan, whiskerless and penniless. Taking an alternate identity, he befriends, and eventually romances, a hippydippy vegan collective grocer (Anna Faris), muddles his way into a job at her food store and plots to retake his title. Besides the blatantly sexist and racist jokes in which the script trades, there are gags playing on subjects as rape, pedophilia, prostitution, AIDS, abortion, necrophilia, suicide and homosexuality. Occasional violence, strong sexual content including pervasive sexual humor, fleeting full nudity, a same-sex kiss and an explicit endorsement of aberrant acts, frequent rough and crude language. The Catholic News Service classification is O — morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on WLNE Channel 6

Sunday, May 27, 10:30 a.m.* * Please note time change because of ABC’s coverage of the Indianapolis 500 Celebrant is Father Daniel W. Lacroix, Pastor of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Hyannis

Film revisits the many sides of Mexico’s Cristero Rebellion

MEXICO CITY (CNS) — Even as modern-day Churchstate relations improve, the impact of Mexico’s three-year Cristero Rebellion in the 1920s on the Catholic Church remains widely debated in Mexican society.

The rebellion saw Catholic clergy and laity taking up arms to oppose government efforts to harshly restrict the influence of the Church and defend religious freedom. In the end, the rebellion of the Cristero — soldiers for Christ — was quelled in 1929, leaving the Church sidelined for much of the last century and its role limited to pastoral concerns with no say in the public policy arena.

Ask Mexicans about the rebellion and the answers about what it means today depends on a person’s point of view.

Catholic leaders consider the government’s actions to limit Church influence that led to the rebellion an attack on religious freedom. Selfdescribed liberals and many in the Mexican political and intellectual classes consider the suppression of the revolt a triumph of the secular state.

Some academics and authors are less passionate, describing the uprising as an agrarian conflict with political and religious overtones.

Now the conflict comes to the big screen at a time with improved Church-state interaction — even if the interpretations of one of Mexico’s defining events remain controversial.

“What price would you pay for freedom?” posed the synopsis for the movie, “For Greater Glory,” which stars Andy Garcia and Eva Longoria and opens in the United States June 1.

The synopsis continued, “An impassioned group of men and women each make the decision to risk it all for family, faith and the very future of their country.”

Gen. Enrique Gorostieta Velarde, the protagonist played by Garcia and leader of the Cristero forces, is a “retired military man who at first thinks he has nothing personal at stake.

Yet the man who hesitates in joining the cause will soon become the resistance’s most inspiring and self-sacrificing leader, as he begins to see the cost of religious persecution on his countrymen.”

Like various histories of the rebellion, Gorostieta’s actions remain open to interpretation.

Some question his motives for

leading the rebel cause despite being a nonbeliever; others wonder if he really did have a conversion late in life.

Victor Ramos Cortes, a professor at the University of Guadalajara, said any reading of history must consider the factors of religious intolerance, agrarian land issues in a country with numerous landless farmers and the threat posed by the Church hierarchy to the liberal elites of the time.

Such nuanced readings of the era are rare.

“In our country, each history is presented as if it were the only true version and the other is erroneous,” Ramos said.

The Cristero legacy remains somewhat divisive, with the conflict and the beatification and canonization of Cristero martyrs at the center of the Church’s agenda.

The Archdiocese of Guadalajara is building a large sanctuary on a prominent hilltop to memorialize Mexico’s martyrs, and Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass during his visit in March for 640,000 people at the foot of the Cerro del Cubilete, site of a giant Christ statue built to remember those fighting the rebellion.

Father Manuel Corral, Mexican bishops’ conference spokesman, has seen the film and speaks well of its message of “showing young people that there’s something worth fighting for.”

He also considers its release a sign of how much Mexico has changed in terms of religious tolerance and the more prominent role the Church is taking in public life.

“Twenty-five years ago, it would have been impossible to release a movie like this,” he said.

How far Mexico has come is evident in the film’s subject matter, too.

“It was a violent era and there were a lot of ambitious generals. Gen. Gorostieta was one of them,” said Richard Grabman, author of “Gorostieta and the Cristiada, Mexico’s Catholic Insurgency 1926-1929.”

“The Cristeros attracted a lot of people that were not necessarily religious, but looking for a military solution to social problems,” he said.

Mexico had emerged from a violent revolution during the 1910s, which was fought mainly to end the enduring rule of then-President Jose de la Cruz Porfirio Diaz and give properties to the landless peasants being exploited by hacienda own-

ers.

The revolutionary elite emerging from the conflict were anti-clerical and had approved a 1917 constitution forbidding the Church to own property and operate schools, limiting worship to authorized churches and stripping priests of civil political rights. “Iniquis Afflictisque” (“On the Persecution of the Church in Mexico”), a 1926 encyclical by Pope Pius XI, said the constitution “placed (priests) in the same class with criminals and the insane.”

Grabman said that, especially in rural areas, priests competed for influence with teachers whose orders were to spread a secular ethos. Teachers were viewed by the central government as a counterweight to clergy and as such, he explained, were killed in large numbers by Cristero fighters.

Many of the Cristeros were small landowners, unlike those taking up arms in the revolution.

Haciendas were less common in the main areas of the conflict, which covered an area of west-central Mexican known as the Bajio.

“Cristeros were small landowners threatened by social change,” Grabman said. “They feared (agrarian reform) would be collective agriculture.”

The relationship between the Bajio landowners and their workers was different from the exploitation on haciendas suffered by peons taking up arms in the revolution.

“They saw their farm workers as family, instead of peons,” Grabman said.

Gorostieta, the retired general, had experience with attempting to suppress peasant uprisings in Morelos state, fighting the forces of revolutionary leader Emilano Zapata, whose troops were fighting for “land and liberty.” Grabman said it left an impression on Gorostieta when he learned that “farmers without military training could be a formidable force when fighting for a belief.”

The Cristero Rebellion was suppressed in 1929, but many of the small landowners persisted, even if the Church hierarchy was moving on.

“We have people who are children of Cristeros,” said Father Jorge Raul Villegas, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Leon, which encompasses Bajio.

“For us, it’s a historic reality since there were men who died defending the faith. This isn’t forgotten.”

May 25, 2012

Words Behind the Action — It may look like a benign day at the office but for John Kearns, the Communications director of the Fall River Diocese, all it can take is one phone call to set the wheels in motion for a busy day. The office is designed for multiple uses regarding media; in the background is the press area, used in the past for official announcements by the diocese, including when a new bishop is named. (Photo by Becky Aubut)

Communications Office: The voice of the diocese continued from page one

had local radio stations with almost full-time local news folks.

Consolidation has impacted that.”

Typewriters have been replaced with computers, press releases are sent out by email instead of postal mail, and a website updated and maintained by Kearns allows members of the diocese to click and read about upcoming events. What hasn’t changed for Kearns is his relationship with media outlets and maintaining the decree by Vatican II on the subject of social media.

“It basically said that the Church must use all means of social communication to further its ends — to educate, to inform and to evangelize,” said Kearns.

“That message has been repeated in a couple of key pastorals that have come out of the Vatican since then.”

Kearns is present at many diocesan events, making sure to maintain contact between the diocese and the media. He also fields questions coming into the office regarding programs or events, or from reporters looking for a local reaction to a national event, often asking how the event may impact the diocese on a local level.

“I sometimes get calls from the USCCB looking to get diocesan stats when they’re trying to present a picture of the Church to the nation,” said Kearns, who recently fielded an inquiry by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops regarding the number of people who were part of the Fall River Diocese’s Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults.

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Not all inquiries are easy, said Kearns, adding the 1990s was a turning point when the media began to take a harder look at the Church.

“We had the Porter case break here in the early ’90s,” said Kearns about Father James R. Porter, who abused dozens of young boys and girls at parishes in North Attleboro, New Bedford and Fall River in the 1960s.

Porter was ultimately convicted and sentenced to 18-20 years in prison.

“It was a tough time because Bishop Cronin had left and we were without a bishop, and then the story broke,” recalled Kearns.

“The fact that we didn’t have a sitting bishop to make commitments and respond to what was happening was a challenge. That brought on media that I had never encountered before.”

Bishop Sean P. O’Malley was soon chosen and installed, taking the reins and addressing the problem, eventually settling abuse claims and initiating a zero-tolerance policy against sexual abuse.

The naming of new bishops is one of the bigger media events Kearns has had to organize, but while the 1990s carried the mark of the Porter case, the arrival of Mother Teresa of Calcutta to New Bedford in 1995 helped wash away the stain.

“We announced it just two weeks before she was to come.

There were all kinds of interest,” said Kearns. “We had meetings with officials from the city of New Bedford; we had no idea how many people were going to show up and the estimates were

all over the place. It was challenging and there was some anxiety, as we got closer to it.”

Two different checkpoints for security existed to get onto the grounds and into St. Lawrence, Martyr Parish of New Bedford, where Mother Teresa would be attending. Space was limited, rain was predicted and Mother Teresa’s health was always in question, said Kearns, who had to ask for no flash photography to be used during Mass due to the flashbulbs possibly affecting Mother Teresa’s eyesight.

Kearns arranged news coverage of the Mass, providing three Providence news affiliates with a signal to show the Mass live, and two radio stations were also connected to broadcast the Mass.

“I had to take care of making the arrangements for all that, and I think every TV, radio station and newspaper from Boston to Providence had folks there,” said Kearns, who not only contended with mobs of people, but also had the added distraction of news helicopters flying overhead. “I had to make all that happen while keeping in mind the need for se-

curity. That was special because it was planning with diocesan officials and civic officials.”

In 2008, Kearns was asked by the bishops’ conference to assist them during Pope Benedict’s trip to the United States. Kearns was assigned to escort the international media that always travels with the pope; he recalls the pope’s visit to Ground Zero and a Mass at Yankee Stadium.

“It was interesting that I saw that what I do on a local level is very similar to what they do in the ‘big leagues,’” said Kearns.

Kearns’ daily routine is more answering phones and fielding questions than organizing trips for the Holy Father, but his networking generates media interest that works to highlight the ministries and events at the diocese’s parishes and schools.

“One of the great things of value to me with the web is that I have immediate access to what’s out there for news,” said Kearns. “I do try to scan the five daily newspapers in the diocese on a daily basis. Obviously I follow through to see how they’ve covered diocesan news, but also what’s happening in those communities.”

“I think one of the things I’ve grown in, in my work in the diocese, is being a resource person for communications and events that involve media. From things like installations, ordinations, centennial events, planning for announcements or parish mergers,” said Kearns, adding that when it comes to mergers, emotions often block out explanations, becoming “things that are complex issues take some explaining because reactions may not be favorable.”

How one presents a response to any issue is carefully thought out, said Kearns; “I think most reporters that I’ve dealt with try to be fair but they see it different; their experience is different, and how they craft a story impacts how your words come across.

You always have to keep that in mind.”

Kearns has also been involved with the Sunday TV Mass on Channel 6 since the late ’80s, and schedules celebrants, readers and lectors, works in concert

with TV stations and independent TV production, and keeps costs down by doing multiple tapings at one time. He works with Msgr. Stephen J. Avila, director of the Television Apostolate, to make sure every Mass is liturgically sound.

“I do the nuts and bolts of the arrangements,” said Kearns, “and on taping day, I become the audio person and sit at the board and do sound.”

Along with helping shape a video for the annual St. Mary’s Education Fund, Kearns also has a hand in formulating the videos played during the Catholic Charities’ annual appeal. The videos help spread the word, said Kearns, “for the folks in the pews who are so generous. We found the Appeal achieved greater success the more they knew what they were supporting, and because we had a good story to tell, we wanted to show what those dollars do support. The video is a great way to do that.”

Kearns attends conferences, meeting annually with his peers from dioceses in Massachusetts and across the country. By bringing in speakers and meeting other communication directors, Kearns said the conferences provide additional tools in preparing for possible events.

“You learn a great deal about the Church,” said Kearns. “It’s helpful, particularly for someone like me who is more or less a one-man show here, to know that others are facing similar kinds of things and to learn from them how they responded.”

And while he may field an unusual call every once in a while — someone once called to complain about a CYO official who refereed a basketball game — he considers his office an invaluable resource for parishes and schools.

“Through the years, this job has opened up a stronger and deeper appreciation for what the people in the diocese do, in very quiet ways, to really carry out the work of the Church,” said Kearns, adding that every story he hears deepens his appreciation of “those folks from the diocesan and parish ministries who pick up the call.”

14 Praise for Acushnet parish A Catholic parish in Acushnet posts a one sentence message on Church property that states a basic truth consistent with our Catholic faith that is met with a fire storm of ugly invective and threats from various members of the gay community. Objecting to same-sex marriage is not homophobic, bigoted or hateful.

Catholics can no longer sit idly by when our freedoms of speech and religion are undermined, when real voices of hatred try to take away our voice. We have been called by Pope Benedict XVI and USCCB president Cardinal Timothy Dolan to come forward and take our message into the market places, to defend our faith! God bless St. Francis Xavier Parish of Acushnet for doing so.

Patricia Stebbins East Sandwich In Praise of Bishop McManus I would like to go on record in support of Bishop McManus for his stance on the withdrawal of Ms. Victoria Kennedy as commencement speaker at a college in his diocese. We need more bishops like him to help keep Catholic colleges Catholic.

Al Laurino Plymouth, Mass.

Real war on women Abortion is the real “war on women.” It is performed only on women. It has killed more than 53 million babies since “Roe v. Wade” in the United States alone, roughly half of whom have been girls. The results have included physical, psychological and emotional damage done to women.

Contraceptives and abortioninducing drugs alter women’s normal hormonal cycles with little regard for the effects on women’s future health. They are especially harmful to young girls.

Planned Parenthood’s “war on women” involves a $1 billion annual budget, which is 46 percent government-funded. In 2010, more than nine out of 10 services to pregnant women at Planned Parenthood were abortions. This war is particularly on minority women: Black women represent 13 percent of the population, but receive 37 percent of abortions.

Planned Parenthood targets minority neighborhoods, especially with its new “state-of-the-art” mega-clinics.

This is the true “war on women.” The administration’s claim

The Anchor

May 25, 2012

Our readers respond

of a war on women is nothing but a political ploy to silence anyone who opposes its radical pro-abortion agenda.

Doris Toohill Orleans

Crisis Time Thank you for the timely article, “Faithful urged to pray, fast, repent to ‘take back’ America” on April 13. This article articulates what countless numbers of Catholics and many others have been saying for some time: our country is in crisis mode politically as God is being forced out of everything and sacred values are being dismissed. Kudos to Mike Valerio, Dr. Rick Scarborough, and Don Feder for establishing 40 Days to Save America and to The Anchor for its leadership in addressing this most important issue. I, for one, will be encouraging those priests and faithful I know to participate in the 40 Days to Save America (September 24 through November 2), and I am praying that all fellow Catholics and others will encourage their acquaintances and religious leaders to do the same.

Daryl Gonyon Fall River Editor’s note: Since the story ran on April 13, the 40 Days to Save America planners have changed the dates to September 28 through November 6.

Don’t vote for ‘letters’ (With gratitude and apologies to St. Paul.) When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child; and, when I went to the movies, it was easy to pick out the bad guys from the good guys. The good guys always wore white hats, and the bad guys always wore black hats. But, now that I am a man, I have put away the things of a child, especially when it comes to voting. For, unlike many voters who have not grown up but continue to base their votes on the letter (“D” or “R”) following a candidate’s name, I don’t look for party labels (or hats). My vote is determined by how a candidate acts and by what he or she stands for. I ask myself, “Does it coincide with what I stand for?”

(Remember, if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.)

So, in this election year, support the candidates (from U.S. senator to dog catcher to U.S. president), who share your values. If, among your values,

you include the first and most fundamental right, upon which our nation was founded — the Declaration of Independencedescribed unalienable Right to Life, then support those candidates who support this most basic right. If you believe in the freedom to practice your faith, the first freedom enunciated in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, then support those candidates who support this basic right. Otherwise, our political leaders, from president on down, will continue to promote their anti-life and anti-liberty policies.

If we should speak with the eloquence of the greatest orators, if we should write with the persuasiveness of the greatest authors, and if we should pray with the piety of the greatest saints, it profits us nothing, if we do not back up our convictions in the voting booth. For if we are truly Pro-Life and pro-liberty, we will vote Pro-Life and pro-liberty.

(Simply to complain profits us nothing.) The choice is ours. Life and liberty are in our hands.

Now, there remain these three things: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness — but the greatest of these is Life.

Richard A. Carey Neeham, Mass.

President Carter Reading George Weigel’s hatchet job on Jimmy Carter (April 13), especially in a Catholic newspaper, shocked and disgusted me. The caustic nature of his remarks did not seem like the words of someone trying to build a better Church.

As for Carter being “the worst ex-president ever,” I must admit that Carter has not spent his retirement years earning big bucks on corporate boards or being highly paid making speeches to national organizations (as have a number of recent ex-presidents), but has done much humanitarian work in Africa. With his Atlantabased organization he has helped bring clean water to many who didn’t have it and worked hard to eradicate some of the diseases endemic to that continent. Carter not only cares about and writes about Christianity — he practices it.

Warren Witzmann Henderson, Nev. Who’s lost the way?

If we were to take your May 4 editorial seriously we would believe that the majority of Religious Sisters in the United States unwittingly belong to an

organization (LCWR) that is destructive and is composed of renegade radical feminists, who have lost their way. I believe it is you that has lost your way. The Sisters are the Church. Once they taught many of us to read and write. Now, by their example, they teach us how to be responsible, thinking Christians. They are good teachers. We learned from them back then and all of us would do well to learn from them now.

Edward McDonagh Cumberland, R.I. Taking exception We are deeply saddened by your May 4 editorial entitled “The call and path of needed reform and renewal” referring to the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) and their membership. We find the language incendiary with invalid assumptions against an organization whose purpose is to “assist its members personally and communally to carry out more collaboratively their service of leadership in order to accomplish further the mission of Christ in today’s world.”

The editorial suggests that the positions taken by LCWR are responsible for the dearth of vocations in member congregations. As we know, many factors can be attributed to the lack of vocations in the Church. The editorial also accuses LCWR of not reforming itself. LCWR, as a well-established organization, continually evaluates itself and holds annual meetings with the appropriate offices at the Vatican as its accountability to the Church.

We feel that the editorial is more than just about LCWR. The majority of readers of The Anchor do not know LCWR, but they do know the Sisters who have taught them, nursed them, and ministered to them for decades in the diocese. The editorial casts a shadow on all religious in the diocese, especially those who are not wearing habits. The Sisters who were praised so publicly in the past are the same Sisters who minister today. Their appearance may look different, but their dedication to Christ is as faith-filled today as it was then. The Sisters continue to be a powerhouse of prayer. How wonderful it would be if an editorial in The Anchor publicly thanked the Sisters for their witness to God’s loving presence in the Diocese of Fall River!

Holy Union Sisters have

served faithfully in the Diocese of Fall River for over 125 years.

Our charism is one of union. Article 1 of our Constitutions directs us to “spend ourselves to make all people one in Christ.”

We will continue to serve God’s people in joy and in faithfulness to the Gospel of Jesus.

Sister Mary Catherine Burns, SUSC, Sister Paula Coelho, SUSC, Sister Maryellen Ryan, SUSC, Milton, Mass.

Executive Editor replies: The work that the Holy Union Sisters has done in the Diocese of Fall River is legendary. We need to distinguish, however, between the great and laudable work done by the vast majority of women religious who have given of themselves in schools, hospitals, parishes, social agencies and more to build up Christ’s Kingdom — something we rightly praised in the editorial — from some of the disturbing trends that have been happening in the LCWR. Like the Vatican’s action, the editorial was concerned with the LCWR as an association of superiors of religious communities and various positions it has taken that seem to be more faithful to the principles of radical feminism than to the magisterium, positions that have trickled down into a few member communities. As the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith established, the LCWR is in need of reform, which is something different in kind from annual selfevaluations or regular meetings with Vatican dicasteries. It requires actually changing the way the LCWR in its meetings and some of its materials has been dissenting from defined teaching of the Church on the Trinity, on the Sacrament of Holy Orders, on sexual morality, on abortion, euthanasia and more. That public discordance is not only scandalous but unworthy of the religious communities LCWR represents and of the tens of thousands of Sisters who have sacrificed heroically to plant the true seeds of the Gospel in our country. The Vatican’s action, and our editorial explaining it, are not attacks on the great work so many Sisters have done and continue to do.

They are a response solely to attacks on the Catholic faith by some Sisters in leadership positions in contradiction to their commitment to know, teach, live and defend it.

May 25, 2012

Honoring loved ones on Memorial Day continued from page one

er Diocese this weekend.

According to Russell Charette, an auxiliary member at the Private Joseph Francis Post 486 VFW in Fall River, members of his post go out to cemeteries such as Notre Dame in Fall River in the days leading up to Memorial Day to walk the grounds and place the miniature Stars and Stripes on the graves of deceased veterans to honor them.

“We have a group of members that will take a section of the cemetery and look for veterans’ markers and place flags on the grave,” he said.

“We also get calls from family members who request that an American flag be placed on certain graves.”

According to Raymond E. Hague, director of Veterans Services for Fall River, his office will place some 10,000 American flags on the graves of deceased veterans in all of the cemeteries within the city for Memorial Day. “There are a lot of volunteers who go to the cemeteries to place American flags on the graves,” Hague said. “We have a list of veterans’ graves and most gravestones have a medallion on them identifying them as veterans.”

At St. Patrick’s Cemetery in Fall River, there’s a different kind of marker flanking a small basket of flowers in front of an otherwise inconspicuous headstone.

It’s a perpetual candle burning inside a red glass hurricane holder — the only one of its kind allowed in the cemetery — on the grave of the late Humberto Cardinal Medeiros, the former archbishop of Boston and much beloved priest of the Fall River Diocese.

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The Anchor

Even though it’s been nearly 30 years since Cardinal Medeiros passed away on Sept. 17, 1983, his surviving relatives still miss and remember him.

“I think about him everyday and I pray to him,” said Natalie Souza, Cardinal Medeiros’ sister.

“We all remember him fondly,” agreed her daughter, Deborah Desmarais. “I can’t say enough good things about him.

He was a wonderful, holy man and a wonderful priest.”

Born Oct. 6, 1915 in the Azores, Cardinal Medeiros immigrated to the United States with his family in 1931 and settled in Fall River where they attended St. Michael’s Parish.

The future cardinal was a quick learner, and quickly excelled in his studies.

“He worked sweeping floors and then he went to Durfee High School when he was 20 years old,” said his sister, who is six years younger. “My brothers Leo and Manny went to work and that’s how Bert was able to go to school. He completed his four-year high school studies in two years. He was very smart.”

After graduating from BMC Durfee High School in Fall River in 1937, Cardinal Medeiros entered the Catholic University of America, where he obtained a Master of Philosophy degree in 1942 and a Licentiate of Sacred Theology in 1946.

“He was the first in the family to go to college; none of his other siblings even finished high school,” said Desmarais. “Considering English was his second language, that was amazing. He ended up speaking seven languages fluently.”

The family was proud when Cardinal Medeiros decided

This week in 50 years ago — St. Casimir’s Church in the north end of New Bedford was dedicated and blessed by Bishop James L. Connolly. Constructed of warm golden brick, the church on Acushnet Avenue was blessed and dedicated with a solemn High Mass that included 30 members of the clergy in attendance.

25 years ago — Delegates from the diocese met in Washington D.C. for the first National Black Catholic Congress since 1894. Their goal was the development of a national pastoral plan emphasizing evangelization and the sending of a message to the larger U.S. Church. They included an eight-member delegation from Our Lady of the Assumption Parish in New Bedford.

to answer the calling to the priesthood and was ordained

by Bishop James E. Cassidy on June 15, 1946. He served several parishes in the diocese, including St. John of God in Somerset, Holy Name in Fall River, and ultimately his home parish of St. Michael’s in Fall River, where he became pastor in 1960.

But the future archbishop of Boston had a higher calling and was next named bishop of the Diocese of Brownsville, Texas six years later.

“He did like Brownsville … he liked working with the migrant workers there,” Desmarais said. “He really enjoyed that.”

“He was there for about five years, then he came back to become archbishop in Boston on Sept. 8, 1970,” Souza said.

“He replaced Cardinal Richard Cushing, who was retiring.”

Cardinal Medeiros would serve as the fourth archbishop of Boston until his death in 1983.

“We were happy he came back to Boston, but he was very busy there,” Souza said.

“We would only see him on holidays.”

“We didn’t see him as much as people might think, because he was just so busy,” Desmarais agreed. “Every year we’d have a family clam boil at my uncle Leo’s house in Somerset and he would always come to that and he brought his priestsecretary with him. He looked forward to that clam boil every year, because he’d get to spend time with the family.”

When Cardinal Medeiros died suddenly during openheart surgery in 1983 at the age of 67, it was hard on the family.

“It was such a shock,” Des-

Diocesan history

10 years ago — The parishes of Blessed Sacrament, Our Lady of the Angels and St. Patrick’s in Fall River were merged to become Good Shepherd Parish, housed within the former St. Patrick’s Church on South Main Street.

A handicap-accessible connector building was constructed between the church and rectory for the new parish.

One year ago — Singer/songwriter Tatiana “Tajci” Cameron performed in concert at Corpus Christi Parish in Sandwich. Born Tatjana Matejas in Zagreb, Croatia, Cameron grew up in what was then communist Yugoslavia and was introduced to Christianity through a friend when she turned 21.

marais said. “He had been ill and we knew he had some heart issues, but nobody knew how bad it was.”

In keeping with his humble nature, Souza said her brother opted to be buried in the family plot at St. Patrick’s Cemetery with her mother and father.

“That’s where he wanted to be,” she said. “He wanted to be with mom and dad.”

“In fact, there was another stone there, but the Archdiocese of Boston bought the gravestone that is there now,” Desmarais said. “But it’s not a big, ornate one. It’s just the way he would have wanted it.”

Cardinal Medeiros’ sister and niece concurred that he was an extremely humble man.

“I’ve been told that his name, Humberto, was close to humble, which he was,” Souza said. “I remember he came home from Rome one time and he had holes in his shoes. My mother asked him about it, and he said he used to give all his clothes away, because some of the people there have nothing.

He told her: ‘Mother, you don’t know the misery that is going on in this world.’”

While she can no longer frequent her brother’s grave at St. Patrick’s Cemetery, her daughter still visits her uncle on all major holidays and anniversaries.

“His former secretary, Msgr.

William Helmick, never forgets to send flowers on the anniversary of his death every

year,” Desmarais added. “It’s very touching, because it’s going to be 29 years since he passed away this September.”

Even though the gravestone is no taller than the others surrounding it and its sole adornment is the cardinal’s coat of arms etched onto its surface, Cardinal Medeiros’ grave site remains one of the most visited in the cemetery.

“It’s funny, because at St. Patrick’s Cemetery when you go into the office to ask for directions, they have a map prepared with the location of his grave already marked on it,” Desmarais said.

While she may not be able to pay her respects at the cemetery, Souza still has many visible mementos of her late brother.

There are several religious statues — many of them from Rome — lining her shelves in the living room that were gifts from him.

There’s also one of the cardinal’s tell-tale birettas sitting next to a statue of Santo Christo.

“I’ve got them all there because I just didn’t want to put them in a drawer,” she said.

“Despite all the ceremonies and celebrations around him, he really wasn’t a flamboyant person,” Desmarais agreed.

“He was a good and decent man who really practiced what he preached. We still remember him after all this time — I think of him everyday.”

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16

Youth Pages

the write stuff — Teachers from SS. Peter and Paul School in Fall River recently met children’s author Jerry Pallotta at the NCEA convention held in Boston.

have a heart — Students from St. James-St. John School in New Bedford recently kicked off Jump Rope and Hoops for Heart, a fund-raiser for the American Heart Association, and invited a contestant from the “Biggest Loser,” Mark Kreuger, to get things going. He talked with the students about making healthier choices and encouraged students to go outside and play rather than watching TV and playing video games.

May 25, 2012

science guys — Ten of the top science fair winners at St. Joseph’s School in Fairhaven recently went on to compete in the Massachusetts Region III Science Fair. Seventh-grader Ryan Busse was one of the big winners with his project “Does stress vary with age?” Ryan came in first and was the highest scoring project for the whole middle school level. Elizabeth Cardelli, a sixth-grader, competed with “Do you see what I see?” and won second place. They will compete June 2 at the state level and go on to compete nationally through Broadcom Masters. From left: Principal Julie Vareika, Elizabeth Carde, Ethan Rapoza, Hannah Nordstrom, Skyler Callahan, Busse, and science teacher Daphne Costa.

pleading the fifth (OF MAY) — Spanish students at Holy Name School in Fall River recently had a “smashing” good time at their Piñata party, a Cinco de Mayo celebration. Piñatas were made by the fourth-graders under the direction of Mrs. Bonneau.

pillars of the community — The kindergarten class at St. Michael’s School in Fall River recently dressed as their favorite community helpers with all the tools of the trade. It was part of an end-of-the-school-year social studies project.

spreading the word — David Stringham, alumni and past parent of St. John the Evangelist School in Attleboro, a member of the Attleboro Elks recently donated dictionaries to the third-graders. He is shown here presenting a dictionary to Kevin Medeiros, as Nicholas Roy, Molly Janicki, and Savannah Blanchard await their turn. One of the many goals of the Attleboro Elks is for all the third-grade students in the city of Attleboro area to have their own dictionaries.

Youth Pages

May 25, 2012

17

Send Your Spirit like dewfall

T

a day to remember — Students from St. Mary’s School, Mansfield, are pictured here as they prepared to receive First Holy Communion this month.

NATO summit, protests provide some lessons for Catholic school students

CHICAGO (CNS) — With world leaders descending on Chicago for the May 20-21 NATO summit, some Catholic school teachers were incorporating lessons about the political-military alliance for their students.

And with thousands of people coming to the city to demonstrate and draw attention to focus on issues ranging from war to the environment to poverty, they included a lesson or two about the history of protests, too.

“Since the time of Christ, people have been protesting,” said Mary Lee Calihan, principal of Old St. Mary’s School. “What’s a useful form of protest? What have people done? What has been effective?”

Calihan’s school and a few oth-

ers were closing for a couple days during the summit, which was to include the leaders of the 28 NATO countries as well as other world leaders. The meeting was taking place at McCormick Place convention center along the lakefront.

Security measures coupled with demonstrations promised to make getting around the downtown area and South Loop a nightmare.

Churches in the area planned to stay open, but DePaul University’s downtown campus was closing.

Old St. Mary’s originally planned to be open May 18 and close May 21, but Calihan changed her plans after hearing that a local newscaster had announced the school would be closed both days.

“They made the decision for

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.

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me,” she told the Catholic New World, newspaper of the Chicago Archdiocese.

More seriously, she said, “we’re on the path of everything happening between Grant Park and McCormick Place.”

That means that, at best, it will be difficult for parents and teachers to get to the school because of the security measures in place and road closures in the surrounding area, she said. Even peaceful protests could completely cut off access, not only for parents and staff but for emergency vehicles.

“School administrators have to plan for the worst and hope for the best,” she said.

The school closures didn’t necessarily mean students would have days to make up, as some extra days were built into the school year.

Old St. Mary’s Church planned to remain open for Masses despite the added commotion. The general thought was that parishioners are used to enduring Bears fans during football season and the Chicago Marathon in October, which goes right past its door, so they would be up for the NATO crowds.

Regarding the protesters, members of the Catholic Worker movement were holding nonviolence training for protesters, and on May 14 kicked off “a week without capitalism.”

On May 16 about 150 protesters marched to banks and government offices calling for a yearlong moratorium on evictions and foreclosures in the Chicago area.

As of May 17, 12 people had been arrested at NATO-related demonstrations, according to Chicago police.

Media reports quoted Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy as saying 10 arrestees had been taken into custody in “voluntary” fashion.

The Chicago Tribune daily newspaper reported one protester, a Los Angeles man had been, charged with a felony “for physically attacking a police officer.”

here are so many images There were no tongues of fire, no of the Holy Spirit: the rushing wind, no dove descendrushing wind and tongues of fire ing. It was more like the dewfall. at Pentecost, the dove descendYou don’t see it happen, but you ing on Jesus at His Baptism, see and feel the effects. Everyone the Spirit descending like the in the room was covered with dewfall upon the gifts on the a gentle washing, so gentle you altar, and so many more. Since didn’t know it was happening this weekend is the feast of Pen- until you became aware that tecost, marking the end of the this was different. It was unlike Easter season and the birthday retreats of the past, although the of the Church, it seems fitting schedule and activities were the to reflect on the workings of the same. I just love to watch God Holy Spirit in our lives. working among us!

This past Friday, I was priviWhen God comes in the leged to be part of the junior class retreat of Bishop Stang High School and I was so aware of the presence

By Jean Revil of the Holy Spirit. In the course of the whispers, we really have to pay day, 160 juniors laughed, cried, attention. How many whispers cheered, listened, played and have we missed in our rushing prayed together in such a way and busyness? How many blessthat there was no question the ings have been poured out on us day was guided by the Holy daily, yet we have not allowed Spirit. People shared pieces of their lives and were treated with ourselves to be aware of them or we’ve just taken them for such respect, compassion and love that it made me proud to be granted? We all need experiences like last Friday’s retreat: a part of it all. In an age when moments when we stop and people often tear each other just take in all that is happening down, it was so refreshing to before our eyes and recognize be with such a large group of God’s presence among us. When young people who were buildyou finish reading this, take a ing each other up. few moments and go outside if The theme of the retreat was you can. Look at the flowers, leadership, since the senior class listen to the birds, feel the sun will be graduating in just two on your face and the breeze on weeks, and the junior class will become the newest leaders of the your skin and thank God for sending His Spirit to us that we school. If the retreat is any indication, this is a class that is ready might recognize His presence in all of it. Blessed Pentecost! to step up to the challenge.

Jean Revil teaches theology There are moments when you and is campus minister at just know that God is in charge; His Spirit is so present it’s palpa- Bishop Stang High School.

Comments welcome at: jrevil@ ble. That’s what this retreat was bishopStang.com. like. It wasn’t earth-shattering.

Be Not Afraid

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The Anchor

Five priests set to retire; remain active in the diocese continued from page one

in Fall River to the late Charles E. and the late Lena R. (Longchamps) Chretien. He attend Msgr. Prevost High School in Fall River and from there he went to St. John’s Seminary in Brighton. He graduated from there in 1963.

He went on to attend St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore, Md., from 1963 to 1967. Father Chretien was ordained a priest of the Fall River Diocese by Bishop James L. Connolly at St. Mary’s Cathedral on May 20, 1967.

His first assignment was at St. George’s Parish in Westport.

Later parochial vicar assignments included Sacred Heart Parish in Attleboro, St. Joseph’s in New Bedford, and St. Therese’s also in New Bedford.

His first pastorship was at St. Therese’s in 1983. Father Chretien served there until 1990, at which time he became pastor of Our Lady of Grace Parish in Westport.

In 2000 he was named pastor of Notre Dame de Lourdes Parish in Fall River. He became administrator of Immaculate Conception Parish in Fall River in 2003 while remaining pastor of Notre Dame, becoming pastor of both parishes shortly after.

Father Chretien’s diocesan appointments included chaplain of Nazareth Hall School in Attleboro and to the Girl Scouts; the director of the New Bedford Catholic Charities Appeal from 1980-99; and he has served on the diocesan Personnel Board and the Presbyteral Council; and as a moderator of the Pre-Cana program.

A dinner for Father Chretien is planned at White’s Restaurant in Westport on June 30. He will live at a family home in Fall River, while continuing to help out in the diocese.

“I can’t imagine myself as anything but a priest,” said Father Davignon, reflecting his 50 years as a priest in the Diocese of Fall River. “The people who make up the parishes are what I will remember most. I’ve always been very happy at every parish I’ve been at.”

Ordained by Bishop Connolly at St. Mary’s Cathedral on May 11, 1962, Father Davignon’s first assignment was at St. Pius X in South Yarmouth. “It was overwhelming at first,” he told The Anchor. “It was a growing parish with many people. I was taking care of the CCD program there and we had 200 kids. And I became the CCD and CYO director for the Cape Cod and the Islands Deanery. But I really enjoyed it.”

Father Davignon, the son of the late Philip A. Sr. and the late Alma Grace (Malay) Davignon was born in Attleboro. He graduated from Attleboro High School in 1954. He attended St. Thomas Seminary in Bloomfield, Conn. from 1954-56, and St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore from 1957-62.

Following his first assignment as a parochial vicar at St. Pius X Parish in South Yarmouth, he served in the same capacity at Sacred Heart Parish in Oak Bluffs and St. Mary’s in Mansfield. In 1979 he was appointed pastor of St. Mary Our Lady of the Isle on Nantucket. Subsequent pastorships included St. Anne’s in Raynham from 19912000, and his current position at Our Lady of the Assumption in Osterville, which he assumed in 2000.

He has also been the moderator of the Diocesan Council of Catholic Women and District VI moderator of the DCCW. Father Davignon will retire to a house in Attleboro where he was born. “I will make myself available wherever I’m needed in the diocese,” he said. “And I want to travel a bit as well.”

He will celebrate his last Mass at his parish on June 24 at noon followed by a reception at the parish. The parish Ladies’ Guild held a special luncheon for his 50th anniversary earlier this month at New Seabury Country Club in Mashpee. Father Davignon’s family has planned a 50th celebration in August.

“I have mixed feelings about my upcoming retirement,” said Father Gendreau. “I’m eager to retire, yet I leave a lot of my heart in active ministry. It’s held a big space in my life.

“I hope someday I’m remembered as a priest who helped the people he served. I tried, as the Church does, to make everyone feel welcome. I love the priesthood and I hope I did the Lord’s work by touching the lives of people.”

Father Gendreau said he’s proud of the work he’s done over his 43 years as a priest serving the Diocese of Fall River. He has had some serious health problems along the way that he hopes to see to in retirement. “In spite of my ailments, I loved my ministries,” he added.

“Through the years, the people have always enriched me,” he told The Anchor. “There are countless incidences of their genuineness. They do love their priests. Even through the thick of the scandals people came and supported us, not lumping us all into one category.

They’ve made me feel a part of

the family.”

Father Gendreau was born in Fall River, the son of the late Louis (Pete) and the late Blanche (Proux) Gendreau. He attended Notre Dame and Prevost Grammar schools in Fall River, Msgr.

Prevost High School there, and graduated from Stonehill College in Easton, then Boston College, graduating from there in 1974.

He attended St. John’s Seminary in Brighton, and was ordained a priest of the Fall River Diocese on May 3, 1969 by Bishop Connolly.

Father Gendreau’s very first assignment was as an associate at St. Michael’s Parish in Swansea.

He also served as an associate at St. Louis de France in Swansea, St. James in New Bedford, and St. George’s in Westport.

In 1986, he was appointed as pastor of St. Stephen’s Parish in Attleboro, ministering there until 1993. He became pastor of St. Joseph’s in North Dighton in 1993, and later as pastor of St. Michael’s in Swansea in 1994. He returned to St. Louis de France, this time as pastor, in 2006.

Father Gendreau also served as chaplain at Southeastern Massachusetts University (now UMass-Dartmouth) from 19811986.

Father Gendreau will celebrate a special farewell Mass at his Swansea parish on the last weekend in June. The parish will hold a dinner for him on June 15 at White’s in Westport.

“People have already been contacting me and I’m finding out I did make a difference in their lives. That’s the glory of the priesthood; leading people to God,” he added.

He will reside at the Cardinal Medeiros Residence in Fall River.

“Every parish and hospital at which I was assigned was unique and a blessing for me,” said Father Gomes. “It’s been 43 wonderful years. There were good days and bad days, but it was all wonderful.”

Father Gomes was ordained as a priest of the Diocese of Fall River on May 3, 1969 at St. Mary’s Cathedral by Bishop Connolly.

“I became a young priest at the beginning of Vatican II,” Father Gomes told The Anchor. “It gave the Church a new energy, a positive outlook. Part of that was the involvement of the lay people. It was wonderful and they’ve done a wonderful job since.”

Father Gomes said he enjoyed all his parish assignments as well as his duties as a hospi-

May 25, 2012 tal chaplain. “Hospital ministry was a very positive experience for me,” he said. “Dealing with illness and death gave me a better dimension of the priesthood.

Ministering to the sick allows one to see results instantly. The people are so grateful for the spiritual comfort. In parish work sometimes it takes a while to see the results, especially in the youth, where you plant the seed and wait for it to grow. I tell the wonderful youth of my parish that ‘You are not the Church of tomorrow, you are the Church of today.’”

Father Gomes was born on Madeira Island, Portugal, to the late Alexander and Cisaltina (Freitas) Gomes. His family emigrated to the United States when he was five years old. He graduated from Our Lady of Mount Carmel School in New Bedford in 1956, and Holy Family High School, also in the Whaling City, in 1960.

He attended St. Thomas Seminary in Bloomfield, Conn., and St. Mary’s in Baltimore, graduating from there in 1969.

His first assignment was at Our Lady of Lourdes in Taunton, subsequently serving at St. Anthony of Padua in Fall River, and St. John of God in Somerset. In 1986 he was named pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Oak Bluffs.

He also served as pastor at Our Lady of Angels in Fall River, Our Lady of Lourdes in Taunton, and Annunciation of the Lord in Taunton.

He was appointed to his current position as pastor of St. Mary’s in South Dartmouth in 2007.

His diocesan appointments included the Taunton area CYO director, from 1971-73 and director of Taunton Catholic Cemeteries from 2003-07. He was also in Catholic ministry at Union-Truesdale Hospital in Fall River, Union division.

After his retirement, Father Gomes will reside in Taunton, the city of his first parish assignment. “I will miss parish involvement. Not the administrative part, but the pastoral,” he added. “I will continue to offer spiritual guidance where needed.”

Father Gomes said the parish will hold a “low key” gathering at the parish center.

“The people I’ve met along the way, the worshipping community, is what I’ll remember most,” said Msgr. Perry. “My priesthood, like a marriage, has been an evolution. The longer you’re at it the better it becomes.

There have been many changes in my nearly 50 years as priest, but most of the changes have been for the good.”

For the last 10 years, Msgr.

Perry, in addition to his pastoral assignment in Falmouth, has been serving as vicar general and moderator in the curia, based at the Chancery Office in Fall River. “The everyday commute over the bridges has never been a problem for me,” he added. “I have enjoyed the last 50 years.”

Msgr. Perry was born in Pawtucket, R.I., the son of the late Albert and the late Gertrude (King) Perry. He is a 1955 graduate of Msgr. Coyle High School in Taunton.

He attended Cardinal O’Connell Minor Seminary in Jamaica Plain from 1955-57, and St. John’s Seminary in Brighton from 1957-1963.

He was ordained as a priest of the Fall River Diocese by Bishop Connolly at St. Mary’s Cathedral on Feb. 2, 1963. Sacred Heart Parish in Oak Bluffs was Msgr. Perry’s first assignment as a priest. He also served at St. Peter the Apostle in Provincetown, St. Mary’s in New Bedford, and St. Julie Billiart in North Dartmouth.

His first pastorate was in 1980 at Our Lady of Victory Parish in Centerville. From 1995 to 2000 he was pastor of St. John Neumann Parish in East Freetown and he became pastor of his current parish, St. Patrick’s in Falmouth in June of 2000.

On Aug. 19, 1999 he was named a monsignor and invested on Oct. 22, 1999 at St. Mary’s Cathedral. Earlier this month, he was named a Protonotary Apostolic, the highest honorary title that is awarded to a priest.

Msgr. Perry became vicar general and moderator of the curia of the Diocese of Fall River on Sept. 1, 2003. As such, he assists the bishop as his deputy in the administration of the diocese.

He has been chaplain at UMass-Dartmouth and Bishop Stang High School, both in North Dartmouth, and for the Serra Club of New Bedford. He has also been dean of the Cape Cod and the Islands Deanery, and a diocesan consultor and secretary for Ministerial Personnel.

He is on the Priests’ Personnel Board, having served as chairman, and is a member of the Diocesan College of Consultors.

His parishioners are planning a small reception for him on the parish grounds.

Msgr. Perry will retire to the Cardinal Medeiros Residence in Fall River, where he’ll make himself available to “help around different parishes.”

In addition to his parish duties, Msgr. Perry is also retiring as vicar general and moderator of the curia.

May 25, 2012

Eucharistic Adoration in the Diocese

Acushnet — Eucharistic adoration takes place at St. Francis Xavier Parish on Monday and Tuesday from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.; Wednesday from 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Thursday from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. Evening prayer and Benediction is held Monday through Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.

ATTLEBORO — The National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette holds eucharistic adoration in the Shrine Church every Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m. through November 17.

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 beginning at noon until 7:45 a.m. First Saturday, concluding with Benediction and concluding with Mass at 8 a.m. 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 — The Corpus Christi Parish Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration Chapel is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 324 Quaker Meeting House Road, East Sandwich. Use the Chapel entrance on the side of the church.

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

FAIRHAVEN — St. Mary’s Church, Main St., has eucharistic adoration every Wednesday from 8:30 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 — SS. Peter and Paul Parish will have eucharistic adoration on March 30 in the parish chapel, 240 Dover Street, from 8:30 a.m. until noon.

Fall River — Espirito Santo Parish, 311 Alden Street, Fall River. Eucharistic adoration on Mondays following the 8 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, 347 South Street, beginning immediately after the 12:10 p.m.

Mass and ending with adoration 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.

NEW BEDFORD — St. Lawrence Martyr Parish, 565 County Street, holds eucharistic adoration in the side chapel every Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

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 — Every First Friday, eucharistic adoration takes place from 8:30 a.m. through Benediction at 5:30 p.m. Morning prayer is prayed at 9; the Angelus at noon; the Divine Mercy Chaplet at 3 p.m.; and Evening Prayer at 5 p.m.

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.

19

The Anchor Pope outlines power of the Holy Spirit in prayer

Vatican City (CNA/EWTN News) — Pope Benedict XVI says Christians should avail themselves to the Holy Spirit in prayer — particularly when they cannot find the words or inspiration to pray.

“St. Paul teaches us that in our prayer we must open ourselves to the presence and action of the Holy Spirit, who prays in us with inexpressible groanings, to bring us to adhere to God with our whole heart and with all our being,” the pope said.

“The Spirit of Christ becomes the strength of our ‘weak’ prayer, the light of our ‘dimmed’ prayer, the focus of our ‘dry’ prayer, giving us true inner freedom, teaching us to live by facing our trials, in the certainty we are not alone.”

Continuing his weekly catechesis on Christian prayer, Pope Benedict XVI used this week’s General Audience to explore the theme of prayer in the Letters of St. Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, in the New Testament.

He told more than 11,000 pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square to take on board the advice of St. Paul to turn to the Holy Spirit when “we want to pray, but God is far away, we do not have the words, the language to talk with God, not even the thought.”

It is then, said the pope, that “we can only open ourselves up, make time available for God” knowing that this mere desire to get in touch with God “is prayer that the Holy Spirit not only understands, but it brings, interprets before God.” “In prayer we experience, more than in other dimensions of existence, our weakness, our poverty, our being creatures, because we are faced with the omnipotence and transcendence of God,” he said.

It is therefore the Holy Spirit “who helps our inability, enlightens our minds and warms our hearts, guiding our turning to God.” The pope concluded his observations by highlighting three con-

In Your Prayers Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks May 28 Rev. Lionel A. Bourque, Former Chaplain, Cardinal Cushing Hospital, Brockton, 1982 May 30 Rev. Jordan Harpin, O.P., Dominican Priory, Fall River, 1929 Rev. Edmond J. Potvin, Pastor, St. Jean Baptiste, Fall River, 1937 Rev. James M. Quinn, Pastor, St. John the Evangelist, Attleboro, 1950 Rev. Robert T. Canuel, Assistant, St. Anne, Fall River, 1993 May 31 Rev. Vincent A. Wolski, OFM Conv., Pastor, Holy Cross, Fall River, 1964 June 1 Rev. James A. Ward, Former Pastor, St. Peter, Provincetown, 1911

sequences of allowing “the Spirit of Christ as an inner principle of all our actions.”

First of all “we are enabled to abandon and overcome every form of fear or slavery, experiencing the true freedom of the children of God.” This freedom is not identified by St. Paul as the possibility of choosing evil which, said the pope, leads to “alienation of human beings” and “the destruction of our freedom.”

Instead the freedom espoused by the Apostle is a “true freedom” that allows us “to really follow our desire for good” and “not be overwhelmed by the circumstances that lead us in other directions.”

This freedom manifests itself in the “fruits of the Spirit” which are “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gen-

tleness, self-control.”

A second consequence is that “our relationship with God becomes so deep that it is not be impacted by any reality or situation.”

Therefore we are not freed from trial or suffering in our prayer but “we can live them in union with Christ, His sufferings, with a view to participating in His glory.”

This should encourage us whenever we have the impression of “not being listened to and then we risk losing heart and perseverance,” as in reality “there is no human cry that is not heard by God.” The third and final outcome of reliance on the Holy Spirit is that “the prayer of the believer is also open to the dimensions of humanity and all of creation.” This sees prayer “open to the sharing the sufferings of our time, of others.”

Around the Diocese 5/27

There will be a Divine Mercy devotion service at St. Margaret’s Parish, 141 Main Street, Buzzards Bay Sunday beginning at 3 p.m. with two Sisters from the Congregation of Our Lady of Mercy in Dorchester. The devotion will include exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, holy hour and Chaplet of the Divine Mercy. Mercy Sister Catarina will also offer an inspirational talk. Refreshments and an opportunity to meet the Sisters will follow in the school hall. For more information call 508-295-8952.

5/30

The Pro-Life Prayer Groups of Holy Trinity and Holy Redeemer parishes will host a holy hour May 30 following the 9 a.m. Mass at Holy Trinity Church, 246 Main Street, West Harwich. There will be Pro-Life prayers, the Rosary, and Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament. All are invited to pray for an end to abortion.

6/1

The Fall River Area Men’s First Friday Club will meet June 1 at the Parish of the Good Shepherd, 1598 South Main Street, Fall River. Following the 6 p.m. Mass celebrated by Father Freddie Babiczuk, there will be a hot-meal in the church hall. The guest speaker will be Dr. Ross Rutkowski, chiropractor. Any gentleman wishing to attend may do so. For information phone 508-672-8174.

6/2

Holy Cross Family Ministries is sponsoring a Family Rosary Retreat entitled, “Closest Neighbors, Trustworthy Friends, Brothers & Sisters: Living the Beatitudes Together in Christ,” on June 2, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Cardinal Spellman High School, Brockton, Mass. It is a full day of activities for all members of the family and lunch is included. Day includes: keynotes by Sister Theresa Rickard, O.P. and Dr. José Fermín; eucharistic adoration; Mission Rosary; and vigil Mass presided by Auxiliary Bishop John Dooher, D.D. The cost is $10 individual/$50 maximum for a family, including lunch. For more information or to register call 508-238-4095 or 800-2997729 or www.FamilyRosary.org/retreat.

6/8

An Emmaus retreat weekend will be held June 8-10 at the La Salette Retreat Center in Attleboro. Emmaus is a weekend retreat program for people who are seeking to grow in their relationship with Christ, regardless of their present level of faith and practice. For more information call 508-646-3902.

6/14

“Strong Catholic Families: Strong Catholic Youth,” an evening designed for parents and children of all ages, especially those preparing for Baptism, First Reconciliation, First Communion and Confirmation, will be held June 14 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at St. Mary Parish in South Dartmouth. There is no cost to attend, but registration is required. To register or for more information, contact your pastor, parish youth minister, or Crystal-Lynn Medeiros, assistant director of Youth and Young Adult Ministry for the Fall River Diocese, at 508-678-2828 or email cmedeiros@dfrcec.com.

7/7

Our Lady of the Cape Parish in Brewster will host its annual summer fair on July 7 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in at the parish center, 468 Stony Brook Road in Brewster. Come by for toys, crafts, jewelry, books, antiques, attic treasures, collectibles, art work, tools and baked goods along with kids’ face painting, cash raffle and silent auction, cafe goodies and outdoor barbecue. Admission is free.

20

The Anchor

May 25, 2012

Acushnet parish threatened, harassed over sign opposing ‘gay marriage’

Acushnet (CNA/EWTN News) — St. Francis Xavier Parish in Acushnet received threats of arson and other harassing messages after posting a sign with the Church’s position on same-sex “marriage.”

“It went viral,” said Steven Guillotte, Director of Pastoral Services at the parish, recalling an “explosion” of responses to the message displayed on the sign in front of the church recently. It read: “Two men are friends, not spouses.”

Guillotte posted the message on the morning of May 15, and responded within hours to an email “saying that it was hateful.” Later that day, Guillotte’s email response ended up being posted to Facebook.

“Next thing you know, the nasty telephone calls started to come, and they were coming every few minutes,” said the pastoral director in an interview with CNA. After local media took an interest, there were “some horrible emails overnight,” and

a phone call from a woman “saying the church should be burned down.”

“We had a group of three young men and a woman who were upset. They were actually planning on going into the church,” he recounted. Guillotte steered them away, while trying to field an inquiry from a reporter.

“She witnessed one of the guys scream across the parking lot that he was going to burn the church down. We hear that, here and there.”

Guillotte said the sign was intended to clarify Catholic beliefs after President Obama’s recent support for redefining marriage. After the president’s announcement, he recalled, “there were a lot of Catholics out there misrepresenting, or even maligning, the Church’s position on gay marriage.”

“So I came in on this past Tuesday morning and just decided to put up a sign expressing the Church’s teaching in a very concise way … saying that the proper relationship between two men — or for that matter, two women — is friendship, and not marriage.”

Opponents of the message starting posting their own signs on or near the parish property.

One of them contained an invitation to “spread LOVE, not hate,” while another used a sexual insult to describe the Virgin Mary. Others read “Jesus

Freaks, come to your senses,” and “Pray for death.”

Many of the phone calls “were just f-words and people hanging up,” along with others “saying they were disgusted with the sign” and asking “how could we do it, because it was so ‘hateful.’”

But Guillotte said the expressions of “hate” or “intolerance” seemed to be coming from the Church’s critics in this case.

“If the Methodist church down the street put a sign up that said they were in favor of gay marriage,” he observed, “you wouldn’t see me down their with a hammer and nails on their property.”

Another phone call came from a concerned Catholic, who worried that the sign would drive people away from the Church. Guillotte disagrees.

“We have a pastor who’s taken a firm, orthodox stand on Church teaching, and our staff is the same way,” he said. “Our census has actually gone up this last year.”

Although the Church sign was changed after a day to announce the Mass schedule for Ascension Thursday, Guillotte stands by the message on same-sex marriage as one that should be brought into the public square. He said Catholics should show patience and love in the debate over marriage, but also be “firm in our presentation of what the truth is.”

Otherwise, he warned, “next thing you know, you’re agreeing with the other side, which is exactly what they’re really striving for.”

He believes advocates for sexual radicalism “don’t really want tolerance, in my opinion; they want us to agree with them.”

“When we do that,” he said, “we give up our Catholic faith, and I think we turn our back on Christ.”