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Diocese of Fall River, Mass.

F riday , July 3, 2015

Diocesan retreat provides quiet time for young women to hear that they are ‘Called by Name’

pointed associate director of Vocations for the Diocese of Fall River, and Paula Wilk, WAREHAM — In 1 Kings 19 when director of Faith Formation and Youth God spoke to Elijah, it wasn’t in the strong Ministry at St. Patrick’s Parish in Warewind rending the mountain and breaking ham, are offering a three-day respite from up the rocks; it wasn’t in the earthquake; the day-to-day busyness with a “Called by and it wasn’t in the fire. God spoke to Eli- Name Retreat for Young Women” at Sajah in a gentle breeze, a whisper. It was in cred Hearts Retreat Center in Wareham those conditions that the Almighty in- from August 21-23.

“God’s call comes through many ways formed Elijah what God wanted him to at the time we least expect,” Sister Hurtado.

Today God still speaks to His children, do told The Anchor. “Hearing and noticing wishing to guide them in a direction that God’s call requires being attentive. It may will make them happy and make the world come through simple events or through a better place for all. But it’s difficult to hear persons God puts on our way. Listenthe “whisper” amidst the noise and confu- ing or keeping a conversation with them, sion of social media, school, work, Netflix, praying, reading a book or listening to a Youtube and Pandora. The message is still song, a prayer or a poem allows our heart being transmitted but the receptors are be- to be touched and to respond. The Call by Name retreat is an occasion in the process ing neutralized.

To help young women block out the of readying our heart to hear God’s voice “strong winds, earthquakes, and fires,” calling us.”

Sister Paulina Hurtado, O.P., newly-apTurn to page 15

By Dave Jolivet Anchor Editor

Mother Olga of the Daughters of Nazareth, center, and her novices and postulants attended a past “Called by Name Retreat for Young Women” in the Diocese of Fall River.

The retreat is meant to help young women hear what vocation God may be calling them to pursue.

Father Joseph A. Koczera, S.J., a native of New Bedford, poses with his proud parents, Joseph and Helen Koczera, during his recent presbyteral ordination Mass at Queen of All Saints Basilica in Chicago, Ill. (Photo courtesy of Father Joseph A. Koczera, S.J.)

Diocesan native ordained a priest of the Society of Jesus

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

ROCHESTER — New Bedford native Joseph A. Koczera, 35, was recently ordained a priest of the Society of Jesus — the largest order of priests and Brothers in the Roman Catholic Church — during a Mass celebrated at Queen of All Saints Basilica in Chicago, along with seven other Jesuits.

Father Koczera and his classmates also had the distinction of being among 28 ordained in the Society of Jesus this summer — the largest group of new priests ordained into the order in more than 15 years.

Having professed his vows in the Society of Jesus during this Year of Consecrated Life as declared by fellow Jesuit Pope Francis, Father Koczera ultimately sees this uptick in ordinations as “a sign of hope.”

“Across the country, nearly 600

priests were ordained for various dioceses and religious orders, reflecting a steady increase in numbers over the past few years,” Father Koczera recently told The Anchor. “I believe that the Year of Consecrated Life gives members of religious communities a special opportunity to share our hope with the wider Church. By embracing this opportunity, I hope that we will see continued growth and that we will be able to offer an even more joyful and vibrant example of dedication to the Gospel.”

Born in New Bedford and baptized at St. Patrick’s Church in Wareham, Father Koczera spent most of his formative years in Rochester, where his parents, Joseph and Helen, still reside.

Although his home parish of St. Rose of Lima in Rochester is part of the Archdiocese of Boston, Father Koczera still has close ties within the Fall River Turn to page 18

Mercy abounds in the Diocese of Fall River

By Becky Aubut Anchor Staff

CUMBERLAND, R.I. — As The Anchor continues to recognize this Year of Consecrated Life, the Sisters of Mercy quietly toil away in the Fall River Diocese, from schools to hospitals to parishes to nursing homes — for more than 180 years, motivated by the Gospel of Jesus and inspired by the spirit of their founder Catherine McAuley, the Sisters of Mercy have responded to the continually changing needs of the times.

The Sisters sponsor and serve in more than 200 organizations that work with those in need in the U.S., Central and

South America, Jamaica, Guam and the Philippines.

Born on Sept. 29, 1778 in Dublin, Ireland, Catherine McAuley, found herself an orphan by 1798. By 1803, she was a household manager and companion of an elderly, childless and wealthy Protestant home. When the couple passed away — the wife in 1819 and husband in 1822 — McAuley became the sole residuary legatee of their estate and much of their savings.

In 1824, McAuley took her inheritance and built a large house in Dublin as a school for poor girls and a shelter for homeless servant girls and women.

Named the House of Mercy, the doors opened on Sept. 24, 1827.

As the number of lay co-workers increased at the home, critics began to question why the women looked like a religious order but did not abide by the normal regulations of religious orders.

By 1830, McAuley and her co-workers realized that the stability of the works of mercy they performed, including visiting the sick and poor in their homes and hospitals, and their continued appeal to co-workers, called for a revision of their lay community. On September 8, McAuley and two other co-workers Turn to page 14

Jeanne Pereira greets Mercy Sister Eileen Fitzpatrick at the front desk of Our Lady’s Haven in Fairhaven.

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News From the Vatican

July 3, 2015

Pope to families: If you hide your problems, they’ll only get worse

Vatican City (CNA/ EWTN News) — Family wounds that aren’t dealt with in a healthy and timely manner can have devastating effects on spouses and children, Pope Francis has said, and encouraged wounded families to work toward healing without letting bitterness build up.

“We know well that every family on occasion suffers moments when one family member offends another,” the pope told pilgrims present in St. Peter’s Square for a recent general audience.

The resulting wounds “come from words, actions and omissions which instead of expressing love, hurt those nearest and dearest, causing deep divisions among family members, above all between husband and wife,” he noted.

Hiding these hurts “only deepens such wounds,” and can lead to a buildup of anger and friction between loved ones, the pope continued.

“If these wounds are not healed in time, they worsen and turn into resentment and hostility, which (then) fall to the children,” he cautioned, adding that when the wounds are particularly deep, “they can even lead a spouse to search for understanding elsewhere, to the detriment of the family.”

Pope Francis’ address was the latest in a series of catechesis dedicated to the family. Since late last fall, the pope has been centering his Wednesday addresses on this theme as part of the lead-up to the World Meeting of Families in September, as well as October’s Synod of Bishops on the Family.

His most recent speeches have focused on the fragility of the human condition, poverty, illness in the family, and the death of family members.

In today’s address on family wounds, Francis noted how when one family member offends another it’s easy to get lost in the hurt and think only about oneself.

Those who suffer the most from this are the children, he said.

“When parents hurt each other, the soul of the children suffers and they are deeply marked,” he said, explaining that “In the family everything is intertwined.”

“Spouses are ‘one flesh’ in such a way that all wounds and abandonments affect the living flesh which is their children,” the pope continued. He said Jesus’ words on the “serious responsibility” of guarding the marital bond are proof of this.

Pope Francis continued with

the topic of children in wounded families, saying that despite all of our “refined psychological analysis” and our “apparent advanced sensitivity” toward children, we have become “anesthetized” to the wounds often inflicted on children’s souls.

He said that the more one tries to compensate for hurt with “gifts and snacks,” the more one loses their awareness of the deepest and most painful wounds that children can suffer.

“We speak a lot about behavioral problems, mental health, the well-being of the child, the anxiety of the parents and the children — but do we even know what a wound of the soul is?” he asked.

“Do we feel the weight of the mountain that crushes the soul of a child in families where there is wrongdoing and it does harm up to the point of breaking the bond of marital fidelity? What effect do our choices — often poor choices — have on the soul of children?”

When parents hurt and do wrong to each other, their children greatly suffer and can even feel a sense “of despair,” which leaves deep wounds that mark them for life, Francis observed.

He noted how there are some situations in which separation of families is “inevitable” and even “morally necessary” due to severe problems caused by arrogance, violence, humiliation, exploitation, extraneousness, and indifference.

Although he said he doesn’t like the term “irregular” family situations, the pope stressed that persons involved in these cases need to be helped, and that the Church and community of believers must reflect on ways to accompany them.

Francis also acknowledged that despite the many broken and wounded families in the world, there are also many cases in which spouses, “out of faith and love for their children, continue giving witness of their fidelity to the bond in which they have believed.”

The pope concluded by praying for both a “strong faith” in order to see the reality of family life with God’s eyes, and for “a deep love to approach all families with His merciful heart.”

He also offered prayers for all families passing through difficulties, asking that they learn how to overcome and heal their wounds without causing division and bitterness.

“May Jesus Christ heal every wound present in the life of your families, and may He make you witnesses of His mercy and love.”

Nuns greet Pope Francis as he arrives to lead his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican recently. (CNS photo/Tony Gentile, Reuters)

Synod working document expands scope of family issues, pastoral needs

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The working document, intended to guide discussions at the Synod of Bishops on the family in October, included a much wider array of issues affecting the family than were in the final document released after the extraordinary synod last year.

Last year’s “relatio” had 62 paragraphs; the new working document, issued at the Vatican June 23, had 147.

While some issues addressed in the “relatio” were expanded upon, more than a dozen others were entirely new and also based in the lived experiences of families, such as poverty, infertility, ecological degradation, bioethics, the role of women, the role of grandparents, aging, loss, disability, migration, prayer and fear of commitment.

The elaboration of many of these themes was drawn from the recent catecheses of Pope Francis on the family, which he has been giving at his weekly general audiences since December. Other points drew on his apostolic exhortation, “The Joy of the Gospel,” and other speeches he has given.

On the issue of poverty, the working document noted “concrete family life is strictly linked with economic reality.” Rooted in the practical, it cited insufficient wages, unemployment and financial insecurity, lack of dignified work, job insecurity, human trafficking and slave labor as the “most relevant problems” facing families in the area of economics.

The document said children suffer the greatest impact of these problems and called for “a structural change” in society, aimed at creating equality.

The document also cited “social contradictions,” where the lack of sufficient social and economic policies, even in welfare states,

leads to the impoverishment of many families, resulting in various forms of social exclusion and an increase in gambling, alcoholism and drug addiction.

On women, the document said the condition and status of women are not consistent from culture to culture. In developing countries, women continue to be exploited and subjected to different forms of violence, including forced abortions and sterilizations or, at the other end of the spectrum, “wombs for rent” for surrogate motherhood, the document said.

In developed countries, it said, “women’s emancipation” has led women to renegotiating their roles in the family, but also to their desire to have a child “at any cost,” which has “aggravated” the “inequality between men and women.”

In a separate sub-section on “cultural contradictions,” the document cited conflicting forms of feminism: one that sees “maternity as a pretext for the exploitation of the woman and an obstacle to her full realization” and one that sees having a child as a “tool for self-affirmation, to obtain by any means.” Citing Pope Francis, the document noted the need to develop a “better understanding” of sexual difference.

The document acknowledged that a greater role for women in the Church in decision-making processes, in “the governance of certain (Church) institutions” and in the formation of priests “can contribute to the recognition of the decisive role of women.”

Aging, widowhood and death were also new to the document.

The aging process and the “golden years” of a person’s life must be valued anew, said the document.

Recognizing the loneliness experienced by many elderly, the document said they must be more

appreciated. Grandparents in particular have the important function of offering their children and grandchildren support, a witness of faith and a sense of their roots.

On the experience of loss, the document said some widows and widowers are able to take on an “educative mission” with their children and grandchildren and experience a renewed sense of purpose in life. But such is not the case for all widows and widowers, who need the support of a Christian community, the document said. The document also noted how the loss of a child can tear families apart.

Migration, and all of the traumas, cultural adjustments and losses associated with it, has also wreaked havoc on families, the working document said. Migrant families require specific pastoral care that takes these aspects into consideration. Many families flee from war and violence, embarking on treacherous journeys to reach safety. Other situations require family members to spend long periods of time apart until they can finally be reunited.

Families that have members with a disability are challenged not only by the disability, but also by the social stigma and the concern about how their loved one will be cared for once the main caregivers die, the document said, as it encouraged communities to be more welcoming of people with disabilities.

The document recognized that infertility is a suffering for some married couples and called for more pastoral care for couples who cannot have biological children.

The document also noted a number of ecological issues that pose challenges to families, including a lack of access to clean water and the degradation of arable land for cultivation.

July 3, 2015

Archbishop Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki of Lviv, Ukraine, and Father Andriy Lehovych show Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Ky., president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Msgr. J. Brian Bransfield, USCCB associate general secretary, the poor conditions of a Ukrainian seminary in Kharkiv recently. The building was confiscated by the former Soviet regime, but only a small chapel in the structure was returned to Roman Catholic officials after Ukraine gained its independence in 1991. (CNS photo/ Markiian Lyseiko)

Ukraine church building projects attract interest from USCCB visitors

KHARKIV, Ukraine (CNS) — In post-Soviet Ukraine, churches are rebuilding. Not just structures, but parish communities as well.

A delegation from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops got to see for themselves the progress that Roman Catholic and Ukrainian Greek Catholic communities were making during a factfinding trip June 20-24.

At almost every stop, the five-member delegation had to step around construction supplies and equipment. Even the Kiev residence of Ukrainian Catholic Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kiev-Halych, where the delegation stayed, remains under construction.

But the group did not seem to mind.

“I see the growth, the energy and zeal of the Church in Ukraine,” said Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, USCCB president, during one of the stops June 22. He told Catholic News Service that he was aware of many of the projects funded by the bishops’ annual collection for the Church in central eastern Europe, but seeing them firsthand provided a new perspective.

“The church buildings themselves are visible signs of the faith that is in the hearts of people,” he said. “So when I see the cathedral, which is prominent, when I see a pas-

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The International Church

toral office of the Church, they are symbols of the great growth within the life of the Church.”

The reconstruction and renovation has continued since 1991, when Ukraine received its independence from the former Soviet Union and some Church property was returned to Church leaders. However, the need for church facilities remains great because communities of the faithful are growing.

The growth and development is noticeable especially in eastern Ukraine, where the Orthodox Church is dominant and Roman Catholics and Ukrainian Greek Catholics are small minorities. But the setting is not without its challenges as the delegation, which included Archbishop Blase J. Cupich of Chicago, chairman of the bishops’ Subcommittee on Aid to the Church in Central and Eastern Europe, learned.

For example, it took Father Mykhajlo Semenovych, rector of a small chapel, which now serves as the cathedral for recently ordained Ukrainian Catholic Bishop Vasyl Tuchapets of Kharkiv, several years to obtain the piece of land from the local government for construction. He said the project was delayed because it was opposed by local Orthodox officials.

So while the land has been in hand since 1999 and the

temporary chapel was built, cathedral construction has been slow and only a basement is in place. Funding and permits are being sought to continue. Father Semenovych said the faith community has grown faster than the church structure.

The presence of many young people in the Ukrainian Catholic parish makes the community vibrant. Maria Mytko is one member. She studies in a local music school and leads the parish choir.

She recently placed second in a church-sponsored singing contest.

Father Ihor Tabaka and his wife Iryna, who came to Lubotyn, 10 miles outside

of Kharkiv, as missionaries in 2006, faced another challenge. He said many people in the region still hold stereotypes about Catholics. A church building, he explained, is crucial for the pastoral work because a faith community without a proper building is considered a sect by others.

Similar growth is being experienced in both Catholic churches in western Ukraine.

In Lviv, the Ukrainian Catholic University is developing a new campus in an ambitious project. Student residence and multipurpose buildings already are in use and construction of a campus church will be completed by the end of the year. Work on a new library recently started.

About 200 students, a dozen resident fellows and three Redemptorist nuns who help with pastoral programs live in the student residence.

The school also has welcomed a group of people with mental disabilities. Bishop Borys Gudziak, university president, calls them “professors of human relations.” He believes they can teach trust and openness to the students who still feel the trauma of the Soviet past.

Archbishop Kurtz said their presence makes the university a distinctive place after the delegation’s June 22 visit.

Elsewhere in Lviv, the Roman Catholic Church is finishing renovation of the historic Our Lady of Perpetual Help Chapel, located in a deteriorating seminary building.

The Dominican-run chapel serves as the pastoral center for students and youth. The chapel’s walls are decorated with frescoes by Polish-born painter Jan Henryk de Rosen that are being restored with the help of the Polish culture ministry.

The chapel was the only room in the building confiscated by the Soviet regime that has been returned to the Roman Catholics. Church officials hope to get back the rest of the building before it collapses.

Archbishop Cupich said the USCCB was pleased to be able to assist with such projects as well as others in eastern and central Europe.

“The damage done not only to economy and country but the human spirit is going to take a long time to overcome,” Archbishop Cupich told CNS. He said the U.S. bishops fund projects that create capacity for Catholic communities and that seeing the Roman and Ukrainian Catholic churches taking charge of the reconstruction efforts points to a sustainable future for such efforts.

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July 3, 2015 The Church in the U.S. Roundup of reaction to Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Here is a sampling of reaction to the June 26 Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling that samesex marriage is constitutional nationwide: “Marriage as the union of one man and one woman is a truth that predates courts and constitutions. This understanding transcends cultures, religions and all time — it is the foundation of civilization. Men and women are not interchangeable. Marriage is not ours to define. History, nature and revelation all profess these truths. Today’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court changes none of this.

The court deals with civil law not revealed truth or religious faith. The court’s opinion rightly affirms the freedom of religious organizations to continue to express and teach the truth of Marriage. Nonetheless, the court’s ruling has the potential to create circumstances in which the Church’s teaching and practices may be perceived to conflict with civil law.” — Archdiocese of Washington.

“Going forward, the Supreme Court’s decision to redefine Marriage will have a significant ripple effect upon the first amendment right to religious liberty. It sets the Church’s teaching about Marriage in opposition to the law and will create inestimable conflicts between the state and religious persons and institutions. As the impact of the decision plays out over the coming weeks and months the Catholic Church will continue to preach the truth about Marriage and will promote, in the public square, this truth as what is good for society and our world.” — Catholic bishops of Michigan.

“In his majority opinion today in Obergefell v. Hodges, Justice (Anthony) Kennedy affirmed that religious liberty and conscience rights must be a part of the implementation of this decision.

It’s encouraging to see the majority emphasize religious liberty throughout the opinion. Indeed it appears to be religious liberty that forms common ground between the majority and the dissenters.

If we are to maintain a pluralistic and vibrant society, people of faith must continue to be able to hold and express a multiplicity of views, and

today’s opinion affirmed that fundamental American principle.” — Ashley McGuire, The Catholic Association “Marriage precedes the creation of states and by its nature remains the union of one man and one woman. No court, no law, and no amount of political correctness or wishful thinking can really change what Marriage is. Men and women were designed by God in complementary relation to one another, and only a man and a woman can form a conjugal union that brings forth children. Today’s ruling blatantly ignores the fundamental right of all children to be raised, where possible, by a loving mother and a father in a stable home. The law should respect and protect every child’s basic rights.” — Catholic bishops of Colorado.

“I join many voices in denouncing this decision. This misfortune now attempts on a national basis what state of Illinois sought to do in 2013 in attempting to redefine Marriage to include same-sex couples. It was an ‘attempt’ because the state has no moral authority to change what God has created. The government certainly has the legal power in civil law to coerce its definition, but that does not make it morally valid in the higher realm of supernatural realities.” — Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of Springfield, Ill. “We fear the courts decisions redefining Marriage and the rights of the states will have a long term corrosive effect on the institution of Marriage which is the bedrock of our society. We pray that Marriage between a man and a woman will remain a strong truth in our world.

The common good of all, especially our children, depends upon a society that strives to uphold the truth of Marriage.” — Diocese of Harrisburg, Penn.

“All persons have inviolable dignity and deserve love and respect. Unjust discrimination is always wrong.

However, our commitment to Marriage is a matter of justice and fidelity to our Creator’s original design. Marriage is the only institution uniting one man and one woman with each other and with any child who comes from their union.

Redefining Marriage furthers no one’s rights, least of all those of children. As bish-

ops, we believe it is more vital than ever that we share the Church’s consistent witness to the truth about Marriage, and we call on Catholics and those concerned for the common good to continue to pray, live and speak out with charity about the true nature of Marriage. The truth cannot be marginalized.” — Catholic bishops of Virginia.

“We recognize that while the conversation about samesex marriage has changed dramatically in recent years there are many Americans who will disagree with the decision and among them many who are concerned about its impact on their sincerely held religious beliefs. We call for sensitivity and civility in this debate, understanding that the vast majority on all sides are people of good will. Adjusting to change is not always easy or swift. Our society and, no doubt, our courts will continue to be challenged with

the implementation of this decision. We call on all sides to respect the decision of the Supreme Court and each other’s religious and personal beliefs.” — Jewish Council for Public Affairs.

“We respect the dignity of all persons, not wishing to undermine their pursuit of happiness but only to preserve and defend the gift of Marriage as Divinely revealed in Scripture and in natural law. Although we respectfully disagree with those who would define Marriage otherwise, we firmly hold that all persons are loved by our compassionate God and deserve the respect and dignity that is inherently theirs as human beings. We acknowledge the right of our nation’s highest court to provide for a well ordered society by establishing laws that protect the common good and safeguard the civil and contractual rights and privileges of its citizens. At

the same time, we urge our lawmakers and judges to respect those institutions that are beyond state and federal jurisdiction, institutions such as Sacramental Marriage that transcend civil law and whose origins precede the existence of the state and go beyond its competence.” — Diocese of Salt Lake City.

“Just as Roe v. Wade was not the final word (on abortion), neither will today’s decision be the end of the matter. Roe created, and continues to create, a crisis of conscience for doctors and other medical professionals who, as a matter of faith, cannot participate in abortions. What Roe did to the medical profession, today’s decision does to the rest of us.

By redefining marriage, the Supreme Court has ensured that there will be churchstate conflict for generations to come.” — Bishop James V. Johnston of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, Mo.

USCCB president calls Supreme Court ruling on Marriage ‘tragic error’

WASHINGTON (CNS) — The president of the U.S. bishops’ conference called the Supreme Court’s June 26 Marriage ruling “a tragic error” and he urged Catholics to move forward with faith “in the unchanging truth about Marriage being between one man and one woman.”

“Regardless of what a narrow majority of the Supreme Court may declare at this moment in history, the nature of the human person and Marriage remains unchanged and unchangeable,” said Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Ky. “It is profoundly immoral and unjust for the government to declare that two people of the same sex can constitute a marriage,” he said.

In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court June 26 said same-sex marriage is constitutional nationwide.

“Just as Roe v. Wade did not settle the question of abortion over 40 years ago,” when it legalized abortion in the U.S. virtually on demand, Obergefell v. Hodges “does not settle the question of Marriage today,” Archbishop Kurtz said.

“Neither decision is rooted in the truth, and as a result, both will eventually fail,” he added.

The court had several Mar-

riage cases to consider and bundled them under the title of the Ohio case, Obergefell v. Hodges. That case arose after the October 2013 death of John Arthur of Cincinnati.

He and his longtime partner, Obergefell, had married earlier that year in Maryland. When the local Ohio registrar agreed to list Obergefell as the surviving spouse on Arthur’s death certificate — which is key to a range of survivor’s benefits — the state attorney general challenged the status because Ohio law bars same-sex marriages.

The other cases included: Tanco v. Haslam, the Tennessee case, and Bourke v. Beshear, the Kentucky case, which similarly challenge those states’ refusal to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions, and DeBoer v.

Snyder, the Michigan adoption case.

“The unique meaning of Marriage as the union of one man and one woman is inscribed in our bodies as male and female,” Archbishop Kurtz said in his statement. “The protection of this meaning is a critical dimension of the ‘integral ecology’ that Pope Francis has called us to promote.

“Mandating Marriage redefinition across the country is a tragic error that harms the common good and most vul-

nerable among us, especially children. The law has a duty to support every child’s basic right to be raised, where possible, by his or her married mother and father in a stable home.”

The archbishop said the U.S. bishops will continue to teach as Jesus did. Christ taught “with great love” and “unambiguously that from the beginning Marriage is the lifelong union of one man and one woman,” he added.

Archbishop Kurtz encouraged Catholics “to move forward with faith, hope, and love: faith in the unchanging truth about Marriage, rooted in the immutable nature of the human person and confirmed by divine revelation; hope that these truths will once again prevail in our society, not only by their logic, but by their great beauty and manifest service to the common good; and love for all our neighbors, even those who hate us or would punish us for our faith and moral convictions.”

He urged all people of goodwill to join the Catholic Church “in proclaiming the goodness, truth, and beauty of Marriage as rightly understood for millennia, and I ask all in positions of power and authority to respect the God-given freedom to seek, live by, and bear witness to the truth.

5 The Church in the U.S. ‘Become Who you receive’ in the Eucharist, Bishop Lynch tells congress

July 3, 2015

COLLEGE PARK, Ga. (CNS) — Worshipping Jesus present in the Eucharist is enriched when people move from adoration to action, a Florida bishop told tens of thousands of attendees at the 20th annual Eucharistic Congress in the Atlanta Archdiocese.

“Be who you are. Become Who you receive,” said Bishop Robert N. Lynch of St. Petersburg, Fla. He was among a number of speakers at the congress held in early June at the Georgia International Convention Center in College Park outside of Atlanta.

The 2015 theme, “I will be with you always,” was taken from the Gospel of St. Matthew.

The day-and-a-half event brought together people of different cultures, speaking a variety of languages, to explore the Catholic faith, worship together and greet nationally known speakers.

Organizers estimate that between 20,000 and 25,000 people attend annually, making it one of the largest celebrations of the Catholic faith in the Southeast.

“Our hearts no doubt will be touched by the grace of Jesus,”

Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory of Atlanta said in welcoming the crowd.

Bishop Lynch in a homily focused on the Eucharist spurring people to social justice.

“Our common act of remembrance of Jesus’ Passion reminds us that God is to be found in the one who suffers, God is to be found in the sick, God is to be found in the marginalized, God is to be found in the rejected, God is to be found in the outcasts. They teach us,” he said.

“The theme for this year’s congress, then, conveys two profound aspects of our Eucharistic faith: the reassurance of Jesus’ perpetual presence to us through His Real Presence in the Eucharist, and the Eucharist’s commissioning of us to an apostolate of justice and peace in the world in which we live,” Bishop Lynch said.

The theme comes from “Jesus’ words to His closest friends, to whom He has entrusted the continuation of His ministry.

These words are addressed to us as well.”

He cast a wide net of issues that represent the Church’s concerns, from respect for human dignity and just wages to

a large monstrance on the altar.

Speakers during the day included Rulli; Deacon Dennis Dorner, chancellor of the Atlanta Archdiocese; Kerri Caviezel, an advocate for youth and a Pro-Life counselor; Teresa Tomeo, an author and syndicated Catholic talk show host; and Steven Ray, apologetics speaker and Catholic convert.

Father Michael Depcik, a member of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales and one of the few deaf priests in the country, taught in the American Sign Language track.

Programs were offered in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, French and American Sign Language, along with one for young children. The main halls had enough chairs to seat 10,000 people.

“I have said this many times in the past: If just one person has a deeper relationship with Jesus because of the congress, then we have been blessed. We are all our brothers’ keeper. It’s our shared responsibility to help others get to Heaven. We do that both one-on-one and in community,” Deacon Dorner said later in an email to The Georgia Bulletin, Atlanta’s archdiocesan newspaper.

“This is what Heaven is going to look like,” said Rachel Barolette about the huge turnout for the congress. A member of St. Oliver Plunkett Church her care but to “be sure that in Snellville, she was a firstit doesn’t happen anywhere time attendee.

Nearly 70 exhibitors set up else.”

She wants to “let these girls in a lively marketplace, repreknow life can be changed — senting everything from Caththeir dignity can be restored.” olic schools to booksellers and The next step is to give from fair trade coffee to colorthem a voice, Sister Rosemary ful T-shirts.

Business was brisk at said, noting that she would Catholicmatch.com where like these women to tell their own stories explaining the visitors photographed themselves among life-size cutouts pain they went through.

An ideal outlet for this of Pope St. John Paul II, Pope would be through the me- Benedict XVI and Pope Frandia, she said, stressing that cis. “Nonstop picture-taking all reporters should “not sugarcoat evil” and can bring an end to violence by speaking up about its impact. Catholic media in particular, she said, has a history of standing up for wrongs.

“You have an important job of stopping evil,” she told the group, suggesting that they visit her ministry in Uganda and see it firsthand.

“It is not old news. This is something affecting humanity,” she said, urging them to find out “how you can talk about it” and “how you can help us.” concern for the environment and healthy Marriages and family life.

“These are all a part of our belief and our embrace of the Eucharist and the mission that God left us when He left Himself present to us,” he explained.

“If we go forth to share our faith, we will discover that He remains present to us in and through those whom we serve.

For they are the prolongation of the Incarnation for each of us.”

Atlanta Auxiliary Bishop David P. Talley celebrated an evening Mass to open the recent congress. Afterward, many joined in prayer for a healing service led by Alan Ames, an Australian who heads an international healing ministry.

Some 300 young adults moved on to hear SiriusXM radio personality Lino Rulli share his story of faith.

The opening Eucharistic procession included more than 100 banner-waving parish, school, ministry and spiritual groups, displaying different languages, dress, instruments, songs and dances. In a slow march, they filed into the convention center for about an hour, passing before the Eucharist displayed in

Sister who aids Ugandan women urges media not to ‘sugarcoat evil’

BUFFALO, N.Y. (CNS) — Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe said “in a million years” she never thought she would be a religious Sister.

But she was so impressed with the work of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, dubbed the “running nuns” for their efforts in helping refugee children in Uganda and South Sudan, that she joined the order.

She told participants at the recent Catholic Media Conference in Buffalo that her motivation for joining, mainly because she liked children, may have been childish at the time but her vocation has continued to evolve.

Now it primarily involves helping young women who were formerly held captive by Joseph Kony, former leader of Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army, to receive an education and learn sewing skills to provide for their families.

Many of these women had been abducted, raped, tortured and forced to kill their own family members as sol-

diers in Kony’s army.

Since 2001, more than 2,000 women have not only found safety but learned skills at St. Monica’s Vocational School in Gulu, Uganda, directed by Sister Rosemary. In her words: “They are fighting back with needles and sewing machines and not with machine guns.”

In her keynote address at the media conference, she described daily challenges of helping those still suffering from wounds of violence that many in the world have forgotten about.

She urged the group of Catholic journalists and communicators to tell the story of how these women are making steps to recovery, documented in the new movie “Sewing Hope.”

“Africa is being saved by African women,” she said, noting that if it sounds like she is “gender sensitive,” it is because she is.

She is focused on getting the story out not only to raise awareness for the women in

day, which is fun. That’s why we bring them,” said Brian Stashak, a booth volunteer.

The 13-year-old exclusively Catholic site recently reached its 1,000,000th customer, he said.

Folks with Ignatius Press said the fastest selling books at their booth at the congress included, “The Noonday Devil,” a book by Benedictine Abbot Jean-Charles Nault on acedia, which is the vice of sloth, gloominess and lack of purpose that the title calls “the unnamed evil of our times.”

Also selling out were “Five Pillars of the Spiritual Life” by Jesuit Father Robert Spitzer, Vinny Flynn’s “7 Secrets of Confession,” and “Tweeting With God,” questions from teens answered in tweets by Father Michael Remery, a priest of the Netherlands, now in an expanded book context.

Sister Kathleen Thomas from the Daughters of St. Paul was helping in the Pauline booth, where she said the best-seller was “still” the Bible, along with the “Catechism of the Catholic Church” in English and Spanish and children’s books.

“The Rosary With Pope Francis” was also popular, she told The Georgia Bulletin.

Nick Shaw, vice president of Carmel Communications, said interest in Spiritual books has remained strong even in the digital age.

For many, the congress opened their eyes to worldwide Church.

Teen-ager Dinachi Okonkwo, who worships at St. John Vianney Church in Lithia Springs and attends the congress often, said: “You see a whole bunch of people from different backgrounds and cultures, and they are all coming together for one common cause.

It’s because we are Catholic.”

6

July 3, 2015

Anchor Editorial

Teachings on the family

Last Friday the Supreme Court’s 5-4 majority declared that same-sex marriage is the law of the land, supposedly rooted in the Constitution.

You can read some good responses to this decision on pages four, nine, and 13.

Pope Francis did not put out a statement on it, but looking over the series of talks he has been giving at his weekly Wednesday audiences, in preparation for the Synod on the Family this fall, one can see his thoughts on the topic and the theology which underlies the Church’s teaching on Marriage and family.

In a recent editorial ( June 12) we quoted what he had to say on April 15. That talk was entitled “The Family — Male and Female I.” Something we did not quote then was this line: “Man and woman are the image and likeness of God. It is not man alone who is the image of God or woman alone who is the image of God, but man and woman as a couple who are the image of God.” This is a dramatic statement by the pope. He was not denigrating other people, but he was stating that the closest symbol we have on earth representing God is that of the couple united in Holy Matrimony.

On April 22 the pope spoke about the account of the creation of woman from the rib of Adam: “The fact that God moulds woman while man sleeps means precisely that she is in no way man’s creation, but God’s. He also suggests another point: in order to find woman — and we could say to find love in woman — man first must dream of her and then find her.”

The pope then warned that “if we do not find a surge of respect for this covenant, capable of protecting new generations from distrust and indifference,” then we will live in a world in which “children coming into the world [are] ever more uprooted from the mother’s womb. The social devaluation for the stable and generative alliance between man and woman is certainly a loss for everyone. We must return Marriage and the family to the place of honor!”

The pope reminded us that “the responsibility of guarding this covenant between man and woman is ours.” He then noted how God made clothing for Adam and Eve (Gen 3:21): “It is an image of tenderness towards the sinful couple that leaves our mouths agape: the tenderness God has for man and woman! God Himself cares for and protects His masterpiece.”

A week later, on April 29 the pope spoke directly on Marriage. He began by recalling the wedding at Cana ( Jn 2:1-11): “This reminds us of the Book of Genesis, when God completes His work of creation and makes His masterpiece; the masterpiece is man and woman. And here at a Marriage, at a wedding feast, Jesus begins His own miracles with this masterpiece: a man and a woman. Thus Jesus teaches us that the masterpiece of society is the family: a man and a woman who love each other!”

Regarding Marriages breaking up, the pope said, “The difficulty of staying together — both as a couple and as a family — leads to bonds being broken with ever increasing frequency and swiftness, and the children themselves are the first to suffer the consequences.”

He said that children, growing up surrounded by Marriages which are only “temporary,” will “unconsciously” choose temporary relationships, instead of lifelong Marriage.

The pope noted the Sacramental power of Holy Matrimony: “When Christians

marry ‘in the Lord,’ they are transformed into an effective sign of God’s love [their sign makes really present God’s love]. Christians do not marry for themselves alone: they marry in the Lord for the good of the entire community, society as a whole.”

May 6 Pope Francis gave Part II of his talk on Marriage. “Christian Marriage is a Sacrament that takes place in the Church, and which also makes the Church, by giving rise to a new family community.”

He then quoted St. Paul (in one the readings we often cringe at, due to the earlier lines about the obedience of wives). Paul said about Marriage, “This mystery is a profound one, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the Church” (Eph 5:32). Pope Francis then echoed what he said above about the married couple being the image of God. “Paul says that the love between spouses is an image of the love between Christ and His Church.”

In an earlier audience (April 8) Pope Francis spoke about some shameful parents.

“There are those who dare to say, as if to justify themselves, that it was a mistake to bring these children into the world. This is shameful! Let’s not unload our faults onto the children, please! Children are never a ‘mistake.’

“Children also pay the price for immature unions and irresponsible separations: they are the first victims; they suffer the outcome of a culture of exaggerated individual rights, and then the children are forced to grow up too early. They often absorb the violence they are not able to ‘ward off ’ and before the very eyes of adults are forced to grow accustomed to degradation.”

The pope expressed in that audience a hope for an end to parental selfishness.

“Think what a society would be like if it decided, once and for all, to establish this principle, ‘When it comes to the children who come into the world, no sacrifice on the part of adults is too costly or too great, to ensure that no child believes he or she was a mistake, is worthless or is abandoned to a life of wounds and to the arrogance of men.’ How beautiful a society like this would be!”

The pope gave a talk about “engagement” before Marriage on May 27 and spoke against premarital relations. “The Church, in her wisdom, guards the distinction between being engaged and being spouses — it’s not the same — especially in view of the delicateness and depth of this test. Let us be careful not to disregard lightheartedly the wisdom of this teaching, which also comes from the experience of happy married life. The powerful symbols of the body hold the keys to the soul: We cannot treat the bonds of the flesh lightly, without opening some lasting wound in the Spirit” (cf. 1 Cor 6:15-20).

The quotes of Pope Francis do not mention homosexuality, but they do reflect the world in which “gay marriage” became legal. It is a world in which a contraceptive, utilitarian approach to “love” has come to dominate. In this world arguing that Marriage has something to do with the procreation of children seems quaint (as we heard in the Supreme Court oral arguments this spring).

The pope realizes this and knows that just repeating condemnations will convert few people. Instead, he is trying to, over time, reconstruct the building blocks of the family. In the meantime the Church and other faithful believers will face many challenges and will be put to the test. May we learn (and live) what the Church teaches so that we can get an “A” (and not the Scarlet Letter type one).

Pope Francis’ Angelus message of June 28 Dear brothers and sisters, good day!

Today’s Solemnity of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul is celebrated, as you know, by the Universal Church, but it is experienced with joy all its own by the Church of Rome, because in their witness, sealed in blood, it [the Church in Rome] has its foundations. Rome nourishes

special affection and gratitude for these men of God, who came from a distant land to proclaim, with their lives, the Gospel of Christ to which they were totally dedicated. The glorious legacy of these two Apostles is a source of Spiritual pride in Rome and at the same time, it is a renewed call to live the Christian virtues, especially faith and charity: faith OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER

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in Jesus as Messiah and Son of God, that Peter professed first and Paul proclaimed to the nations; and charity, this Church is called to serve with a universal horizon.

In the prayer of the Angelus, while remembering SS. Peter and Paul, we also associate Mary, the living image of the Church, which is the bride of Christ, to the two Apostles, who “have fertilized with their blood” (entrance antiphon of the Mass of the day). Peter personally knew Mary and was in conversation with her, especially in the days before Pentecost (cf. Acts 1:14), so that he was able to deepen his knowledge of the mystery of Christ.

Paul, in the fulfillment of the saving plan “in the fullness of time,” did not fail to remember the “woman” from whom the Son of God was born in time (cf. Gal 4.4). In the evangelization of the two Apostles here in

Rome, there are also the roots of the deep and civil devotion to the Virgin of the Romans, especially invoked as Salus Populi Romani. Mary, Peter and Paul are our fellow travelers in search of God; they are our guides in the journey of faith and holiness; they push us towards Jesus, to do all that He asks of us. We invoke their help, so that our hearts will always be open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and to encountering our brothers and sisters.

In the Eucharistic celebration, which was held this morning in St. Peter’s Basilica, I blessed the pallium of the metropolitan archbishops appointed in the last year, from various parts of the world. I renew my greetings and good wishes to them, to their families and to those who accompany them on this important occasion, and I hope that the pallium will increase their

bonds of communion with the See of Peter and be a stimulus for a more generous service to the people entrusted to their pastoral zeal. In the same Liturgy I had the pleasure to greet the members of the delegation that came to Rome on behalf of the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew I, our beloved brother, to participate, as every year, in the feast of SS. Peter and Paul. Even this presence is a sign of fraternal ties existing between our Churches. We pray that you will strengthen the path of unity between us.

Our prayer today is especially for the city of Rome, for its Spiritual and temporal welfare: may Divine grace support all the Roman people, so that they live in the fullness of the Christian faith, which was witnessed with intrepid zeal by SS. Peter and Paul. Intercede for us, O Blessed Virgin, Queen of the Apostles.

July 3, 2015

T

he Christian week has a holy rhythm that those who are striving to respond to the Lord’s call to holiness through a plan of life should note and live.

The most important day of the week is obviously Sunday, the day we call the Lord’s because it needs to be dedicated above all to Him. It’s the day on which Jesus rose from the dead and therefore the day Christians as a body celebrate with joy His Resurrection as we recalibrate ourselves to seeking the things that are above. Thursdays, the day on which Jesus gave us His Body and Blood, ought to have a particularly Eucharistic character and Fridays, the day on which Jesus died for us, are supposed to be particularly penitential.

But from the earliest days of the Church, the most important day after Sunday to a Christian’s weekly rhythm has been Saturday, consecrated in a particular way in Christian piety to developing our relationship with the mother God the Father chose for His Son and that Son from the cross chose to be our mother.

Saturdays developed this Marian character, first, because it was the day immediately before Sunday. Since Sunday was the day of the Lord Jesus and Mary

Anchor Columnist The weekly Mother’s Day

gave the world Jesus according they were baptized at the Easter to His humanity, the day before Vigil at the Lateran Cathedral, Sunday was considered Mary’s the pope would lead the hunday. dreds of neophytes on pilgrimage The second reason was from the Lateran to the Esquibecause Saturday was the day line Hill, dedicated since 354 to Jesus was in the tomb and the veneration of Our Lady and therefore was a particular day where now the Church of St. of Marian faith: when all of the Mary Major stands. other disciples were dejectedly Over the course of centuries, thinking Jesus was dead never to this Sabbatine Marian piety return, Mary alone lived that day with ardent faith awaiting His ResurrecPutting Into tion in fulfillment of her the Deep Son’s promises and the archangel’s word that of her Son’s Kingdom there

By Father would “be no end.”

Roger J. Landry A third reason was that Saturday was the day God rested after Creation would grow. In the eighth centuwas completed, when He looked ry the Benedictine Monk Alcuin upon all He had done and composed two votive Masses to pronounced it very good. Mary be offered through Mary’s interwas viewed as the person whose cession on Saturday, something “fiat” led to the fulfillment of that immediately became popuGod’s plan for the recreation of lar among clergy and faithful the world and it was she who alike. When the recitation of the incarnated how “very good” the Rosary spread through the work human person is ontologically of the Dominican fathers, Saturand can be morally. day was dedicated to pondering The early Church trained new the Joyful Mysteries in which Christians to celebrate Saturdays Mary is featured so prominently. with Marian devotion from their Saturday also became a day of earliest days. After the legalizaMarian pilgrimages, the meettion of Christianity in ancient ings of Marian sodalities, the Rome, on the first Saturday after occasion for pious practices like

Church leaders celebrate July 1 start of earned sick time law New Bedford and Fall River congregations played key role

NEW BEDFORD — The earned sick time law passed by voters last fall took effect July 1. The nearly one million hardworking people in Massachusetts without any access to paid sick time began earning their sick time on July 1.

The faith-based group United Interfaith Action played a key role in its passage. UIA is made up of religious congregations in New Bedford and Fall River, including many Catholic parishes. Congregations in UIA collected 9,000 of the signatures of voters that qualified this for the ballot.

“The earned sick time law gives every worker a fair workplace to earn a living,” said Jack Livramento, a leader in United Interfaith Action and a parishioner of Our Lady of Assumption Parish in New Bedford.

The new law guarantees every worker in Massachusetts access to the benefit of earned sick time, and prohibits employer retaliation against workers who take time off due to illness. At companies with 10 or fewer employees, workers can now earn

up to 40 hours of unpaid sick time to visit the doctor or take care of a sick family member. At companies with 11 or more employees, workers can earn up to 40 hours of paid sick time.

Providing earned sick time has shown to benefit businesses by reducing employee turnover and lost productivity. States and municipalities that have implemented earned sick time have seen job growth, and most employers report no negative impact on their profitability.

Economists say that job retention policies such as earned sick time reduce unemployment and strengthen the economy, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

Question 4 on the ballot last fall won by a 59-41 percent vote. The Diocese of Fall River as part of the Mass. Catholic Conference supported this measure.

“No longer will parents have to choose whether they will go to work or stay home taking care of a sick child or a sick loved one,” said Margaret LaFleur, another leader in United

Interfaith Action and a member of St. Michael’s Parish in Fall River. “All workers have fewer worries if they are sick and have to take a day off from work.

Lost pay or the threat of a lost job is now in the past.”

Twenty-one Catholic parishes collected signatures to help enable this to get on the ballot last fall.

From New Bedford, they included Our Lady of Assumption, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Our Lady of Guadalupe at St. James, St. Lawrence, and St. Anthony’s parishes.

Catholic parishes collecting signatures in Fall River included St. Michael’s, St. Joseph’s, Santo Christo, St. Mary’s Cathedral, Sacred Heart, Holy Name, Holy Trinity, and St. Anthony’s.

Additionally, the parishes of St. Bernard’s in Assonet, St. George’s in Westport, St. Dominic’s in Swansea, St. Vincent de Paul and St. John the Evangelist in Attleboro, St. Patrick’s in Wareham, St. John Neumann in East Freetown, St. Anthony’s in Mattapoisett, and St. Joseph’s in Fairhaven took part.

meditating on the seven sorrows of Our Lady on seven consecutive Saturdays and for pondering the then 15 mysteries of the Rosary on 15 consecutive Saturdays leading up to the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.

When Mary appeared in Fatima in 1917, she seemed to give approval to this Saturday Marian tradition, asking the shepherd children to consecrate themselves to her Immaculate Heart and do reparation in a particular way on the first Saturday of five consecutive months.

How should Christians seeking to live a plan of life live well the Marian character of Saturday?

Some Christians add to their prayers a particular hymn, like the “Hail, Holy Queen,” pray all the mysteries of the Rosary, do a small mortification in union with Our Lady’s sorrows, or make a visit to a Marian shrine nearby.

The greatest means available to us to mark it, however, is by attending Mass on Saturday and giving Mary the joy of leading us to the blessed Fruit of her womb.

One of the greatest Liturgical treasures the Church has is the “Collection of Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary,” which contains 46 different votive Masses that feature — by far!

— the richest and most eloquent prayers in the Latin Rite.

Compiled from contemplative communities dedicated to Mary, they were published after the Second Vatican Council in 1986 precisely in order to nourish Marian piety from a Scriptural key and to enrich the Masses to Our Lady celebrated on Saturdays or at Marian shrines.

Sadly in a lot of places these votive Masses aren’t known because many parishes don’t celebrate Saturday morning Masses.

Why? Sometimes priests, because they have Sunday Masses in anticipation on Saturday afternoon as well as frequent Saturday funerals and weddings, don’t schedule Mass on Saturday morning lest they break the canonical limit for Masses on a given day.

Sometimes, however, I wonder whether these priests who don’t celebrate Mass on Saturday morning were daily Massgoers before they entered the seminary.

When I was a layman, in various places it was so hard to find Saturday morning Masses that one of my promises upon ordination was that I would always offer a Saturday morning Mass so that Catholics around me not only would be able to be truly

7 daily Massgoers but also have the occasion to grow in Marian devotion.

The Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen made a promise on his ordination that he would offer a Mass each Saturday through Our Lady’s intercession so that she would protect and nourish his priesthood. She did. I occasionally wonder whether one of the reasons why some priests tragically lose their zeal — or, even worse, their vocations — might be because they’re sleeping on Saturday mornings rather than growing as Marian priests and giving their parishioners a chance to grow in love of Mary and to receive her Son. If every priest kept Archbishop Sheen’s resolution, the whole Church, and the parishioners they love, would be better off.

When Saturdays are lived well, we are helped to become more like Mary. There’s no great way to live a plan of life, and no greatest synthesis of the path to holiness, than imitating her and allowing her to nurture us to become more like her Son. Tomorrow let’s take advantage of our national holiday to live our weekly Spiritual Mother’s Day as a holy day!

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

Mercy Sister Lucille Socciarelli looks on during a tribute to Tim Russert at the recent 2015 Catholic Media Conference in Buffalo, N.Y. Sister Socciarelli was Russert’s seventh-grade teacher in 1963 at St. Bonaventure School in Buffalo. Russert, an NBC News Washington bureau chief and moderator of “Meet the Press,” died in 2008. Sister Socciarelli is a long-time member of the Pastoral Care of the Sick team at Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River. (CNS photo/Bob Roller)

8

I

f you desire to persuade others toward your point of view, say the rhetors (classic argument-makers), your words must make some worthwhile impact on the reason or intellect of your audience, on the force of their emotions, and on their overall opinion of who you are. If you are the prophet Ezekiel whom God is sending to a rebellious people, “hard of face and obstinate of heart,” (Ez 2:4) then you are in for a difficult time. If, like Jesus in this week’s Gospel, you speak the Word of God in your hometown, among your own kin and in your own house, in other words, to those who are convinced they already know all about you and anything you have to say or do, then you may be like one trying to shout into a whirlwind.

In either case, the Word of God is light from Heaven —

July 3, 2015

To the Word-bearer

people should welcome the Nevertheless, Word-bearer, illumination of their minds. whether or not your audience The power of the Word of is convinced of your mesGod and the signs that acsage may well come down to company it are preponderant their perception of you. Are and utterly awe-inspiring — you believable, trustworthy? the hearts of people should Does your manner of living leap inside themselves at its mere presence like the unborn John Homily of the Week the Baptist. Yet we Fourteenth Sunday Christians, all of us in Ordinary Time bearers of the Word of God, cannot expect

By Deacon to deal with people as Peter R. Cote they should be, only as they are. Even Jesus had to do that, and contradict the substance of He was “amazed at their lack your words? The sober truth of faith” (Mk 6:6). is that we are charged by The Word of God is God with bearing the Word whole, sublime, and impecto others and, if we are not cable wisdom; aided by ourselves sincere servants of faith, the intellect can reach the Word, we are its detracno higher than to grasp it, tors. Moreover, as we are nor can the heart do betlimited messengers trying to ter than to embrace it with convince limited audiences all the force of its emotions. of a perfect Word, our most

enlightened efforts may yet be flatly rejected. Is there anyone more worthy of trust, of belief, of devotion than the Divine Person of Jesus?

Is there anyone more persuasive, more inspiring, more desirable to thirsty hearts than He Who is Lord of them all?

Yet Jesus could not overcome the fixed opinions of the people of Nazareth.

Jesus was never naïve; He knew that, despite His words and His wonders, despite His radical and unwavering obedience to His Father and His unparalleled example of self-giving love for all to see, as many would reject Him as love Him. Since we can, in no way, present ourselves better than He, no more than we can relinquish our responsibility as Word-bearers,

our best effort is to adopt the attitude of St. Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians: “I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me, for when I am weak, then I am strong” (12:9-10). Should Paul, impassioned as he was, “become too elated’’ with the prowess of his own person, he feared that he would have become a detractor of the Person, the Word he gave his life to serve. The integrity of Paul’s person, then, his whole persuasive presentation to his audiences, rested on his total self-giving. Take that, Word-bearer, and run with it, “and they shall know that a prophet has been among them” (Ez 2:5).

Deacon Cote currently ministers at St. Mary’s Cathedral and Catholic Memorial Home in Fall River.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. July 4, Gn 27:1-5,15-29; Ps 135:1b-6; Mt 9:14-17. Sun. July 5, Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Ez 2:2-5; Ps 123:14; 2 Cor 12:7-10; Mk 6:1-6a. Mon. July 6, Gn 28:10-22a; Ps 91:1-4,14-15b; Mt 9:18-26. Tues. July 7, Gn 32:23-33; Ps 17:1b,2-3,6-8b,15; Mt 9:32-38. Wed. July 8, Gn 41:55-57,42:5-7a,17-24a; Ps 33:2-3,10-11,18-19; Mt 10:1-7. Thurs. July 9, Gn 44:18-21,23b-29,45:1-5; Ps 105:16-21; Mt 10:7-15. Fri. July 10, Gn 46:1-7,28-30; Ps 37:3-4,18-19,27-28,39-40; Mt 10:16-23.

S

everal days ago I received an invitation from Deacon Jack Schrader to attend his ordination and first Mass. He will be ordained a priest by Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, S.D.V., at our cathedral on July 11 at 11 in the morning. I believe it will be Bishop da Cunha’s first ordination of a priest for the Diocese of Fall River. While invitations have been sent, all are invited to attend this prayerful and very meaningful ceremony.

Father Schrader will celebrate his first Mass of Thanksgiving the next day at his home parish of Corpus Christi in East Sandwich. It is my understanding that he will spend his summer months visiting various parishes in the diocese preaching on vocations. He will return to Rome in the fall to continue his studies and earn an advanced degree in theology.

We pray in gratitude that this man has answered the call from God to be a priest.

Ordination, like Marriage, is a special day. For the priests, the diocese, and the members of the faithful in our diocese, it is a blessing to have another man “ordered” through the Sacrament of Holy Orders to serve God’s people. He will make Christ present through

Pray for vocations will not be able to go to Mass. the Sacramental ministry of the However, the shortage of Church. priests already means that the Although it is 48 years since my ordination day in 1967, I can priest is not as available as he still recall that day. Bishop James used to be. At St. Mary’s there were three priests stationed L. Connolly ordained us during a Mass celebrated in Latin at St. here. Now I, like most priests, Mary’s Cathedral. Two members am alone in serving the parish. of our class have died and others The downside is that priests are now serve the diocese as retired priests. Nine of us were ordained that day.

Living Much has changed in the those 48 years. I could Faith elucidate on the many changes in the Church

By Msgr. and in society in those John J. Oliveira years. I feel among the saddest changes during working harder and cannot do that time is the shortage of vocations. We thank God we have all they would like to do. All the requests of people cannot be one priest, because there have met. We depend on parishioners been and will be years when no to take over some of the funcone will be ordained.

We are fortunate as a diocese. tions performed by the priest No one will go without Mass on that were not relegated solely to clergy. A good aspect of the any weekend. In some dioceses clergy shortage is the greater priests cannot get to a parish involvement of the laity in fulevery week. Some priests have to travel to two or three parishes filling their baptismal vocation.

A priest is needed to make on a Sunday morning to provide Christ present in the Eucharist, Mass. Here in the diocese, in to forgive our sins in the Person most cases, we can find two or of Christ and to anoint us when three churches close to each other. Within about a mile of St. we are sick. A priest is there to make Christ present in many Mary’s in New Bedford there ways, including His example of are seven churches. The shortprayer and Christian living. We ages of priests will not mean we

are also called to share priests with our brothers and sisters in countries and areas who have no priests.

Videos, retreats, and programs like “Quo Vadis,” assist in fostering vocations. Visitations by seminarians and vocation teams to schools and catechetical programs help to instill a desire for priesthood and religious life. Family and school support is essential in forming vocations. But the most important way to get vocations is to pray. Jesus asked us to pray to the Master of the harvest to send laborers into the vineyard.

On the occasion of the ordination to priesthood this year it might be good for us to examine how often we pray for vocations.

How regularly do we hear prayers or Masses offered in our parishes for vocations to the priesthood? I believe we do not pray frequently for this intention.

In our parish bulletin we have some empty spaces for ads. Each quarter I add something on the back page to utilize the space.

This quarter I have inserted a prayer for vocations. I am adding it here in the hope that you will cut it out and recite it

daily. After all, would you not want a priest to be there for you and your family in those special moments of your life? Please recite this diocesan prayer for vocations: “Heavenly Father, You desire the happiness and Salvation of all. Stir up the grace of a holy vocation in the hearts of many within our diocese. Grant them the willingness and generosity to give themselves completely to the service of Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ and to His Holy Church. May more young men and women be sent forth as priests, deacons, and religious to bring the truth of our Catholic faith to a sinful world. May these whom You are calling, come to know You better and to love You more, and may they find true happiness in serving You as priests and religious for the Salvation of their souls and the souls of others. We especially invoke the intercession of Our Lady of the Assumption, patroness of our diocese, to send us young men to serve in the Sacred ministry here in the Diocese of Fall River.

Amen.”

Anchor columnist Msgr.

Oliveira is pastor of St. Mary’s Parish, New Bedford and director of the diocesan Propagation of the Faith and Permanent Diaconate offices.

July 3, 2015

Wednesday 1 July 2015 — Homeport: 02541 — U.S. Postal Service introduces ZIP codes (1963) n the real estate trade, dear readers, we use the expression “move-in ready.” It means prepared for immediate occupancy. Standards will vary from place to place. An igloo in the Arctic would have different requirements than, say, the papal apartments. One would think that if you happened to be the newly-elected pope, your living space would be ready for you. This has proven not to be the case.

Upon the death of St. John Paul II, the Church proceeded to elect Pope Benedict.

Unfortunately, there was no place for him to live. The papal apartments weren’t movein ready.

The wiring and plumbing failed building codes. There were buckets (actually, steel drums) catching the leaks in the roof. The wallpaper and furnishings were shabby. The kitchen was outdated. The place was a real “fixer-upper,” as we say in the trade.

Meanwhile, Benedict remained in his old apartment until he moved to Castle Gandolfo while the work on the papal apartments was being done. The project was carried out by more than 200 archi-

I

M

y first reaction to the judicial decision to call same-sex unions “marriages” was the grief and discouragement common to many, but it quickly gave way to a sense of relief.

This may be surprising — even scandalous — but there it is. There is no more pretending that we’ve effectively carried forth a JudeoChristian culture into the 21st century, or that we are grounded in the natural law that guided the Founding Fathers. We’ve jettisoned basic moral principles, and now the courts have recognized that truth: the truth that we will not be guided by truth.

Until now, we could call ourselves Christians while paying mere lip-service to Divine precepts. Modernity decreed that human life was expendable, sexual intimacy mere sport, and suffering a horror. Goodness could be severed from godliness,

Anchor Columnists Move-in ready After the work was comtects, engineers, and workers. pleted, His Holiness Pope It took three months to get the place in shape before Pope Francis was given a tour of the refreshed papal apartments.

Benedict (bringing along his The apartments were very piano) could move in. There nice, I’m sure, with a medical/ Benedict lived happily until dental suite, private chapel, his unexpected retirement.

Where do you put a retired library, study, bedroom, living room, dining room, kitchen, pope? There was a convent in roof garden, and staff quarters. the Vatican Gardens rented by contemplative nuns. The lease was up. The decision was The Ship’s Log that Pope Emeritus Reflections of a Benedict XVI would Parish Priest retire there, once the nuns moved back to

By Father Tim France.

Goldrick But now there was another problem.

Benedict’s retirement Pope Francis found it to be home wasn’t ready for him altogether too much for him. either. History was repeating He decided not to live there itself. Again Benedict moved after all. to the summer residence at There was a brief period Castle Gandolfo while the conof speculation as to where in vent was being rehabbed. the world His Holiness might Once Pope Francis was choose to live, if not in the elected, the doors to the papal apartment were unsealed papal apartments. I put my money on the extraterritorial so that the rooms might be Lateran Palace. After all, that prepared for the arrival of had been the primary resiPope Francis. Meanwhile, dence of the popes from 313 Francis stayed at the guest(when Pope Miltiades moved house where he and the in) until 1309 (when Clement other cardinals had lived V moved out). To this day, the during the conclave. Since Basilica of St. John Lateran the cardinal from Argentina (and not St. Peter Basilica) was now the pope, he was remains the cathedral of the upgraded from a single to a Bishop of Rome. double room.

I lost the bet. Pope Francis decided to stay right where he was — in St. Martha’s Guesthouse. Surely you know, dear readers that the pope has lived in the papal apartments in Vatican City since 1377.

But the pope doesn’t live there anymore. The papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace stand empty.

If this sort of residential instability is standard operating procedure for the popes, I figure it’s good enough for the priests of the Diocese of Fall River.

Clergy transfers have recently taken place.

All over the diocese there was a scramble to get various rectories ready for the next inhabitants.

Father Peter John Fournier, being a younger priest, still travels lightly. His transfer to Mansfield was not a complicated logistic. I did notice, however, that when Father Peter John arrived here at St. Patrick Church, all of his belongings fit in just one car.

Three years later, when he moved on, it took two cars.

That’s a 100 percent increase in stuff. The older you get the more stuff you accumulate, until it’s time to reverse the process as you approach

9 retirement age.

In came Father Ray Cambra. Father Cambra is a seasoned priest, just five years younger than I. This means of course he has more stuff. He moved here from the former Sacred Heart Rectory in Fall River, which was the former convent of the Holy Union Sisters. That convent-turnedrectory had 42 rooms. He lived alone.

How to fit Father Cambra (and Maximillian, his Great Dane) into St. Patrick Rectory? The largest suite here consists of three rooms. I didn’t need three rooms, so I packed up and moved into a two-room apartment.

Father Cambra arranges and composes music. One of his three rooms he designated as his music studio.

The windows, floors, walls and ceilings had to be washed, the drapes dry-cleaned, the closets cleared of clutter, and the floors waxed — all within a couple of days. Father Cambra and I are now busy settling in.

This happens (or maybe not) throughout the diocese during clergy transfer season.

No rectory is ever move-in ready.

Anchor columnist Father Tim Goldrick is pastor of St. Patrick’s Parish in Falmouth.

Foundering on confusion we will destroy ourselves. purity is actually prudery, Every news story will cause love a passing sentiment, us to grind our teeth, every and righteousness bigotry.

Today, the noblest religion is display of debauchery will send us into orbit. We can the one entrenched in vague mourn and sob and sigh over and muddled pieties, and the prevailing fraud enjoys the patina of legal sanction. The irony of materialists rejecting biological truth, Spiritual souls disparaging religious

By Genevieve Kineke liberty, and diversity gurus denouncing certain creeds is lost on the bulk of the how things used to be, with Rainbow Coalition, but that the result that we will be the is to be expected. Students most morose souls around. of history have seen this all We will attract and inspire before. precisely no one.

How do we find peace A better approach to this within the pagan culture new normal is to remember that has overtaken us? It’s a question of attitude — an at- what it teaches us about truth. When there is no titude that must be adjusted truth, all things are permisif we are to bear the proper sible — and these things will witness. If we believe that be paraded before us like a we are to wrest the nation pageant of nightmares. Why back from those who have destroyed its great potential, should we be shocked? We

The Feminine Genius

are a sinful race that has lost sight of its sinfulness, and there is nothing new under the sun. If Nero married a man — whom he castrated and decked in his murdered wife’s gowns — what can we add to the mix? Christians should know the drill: why should we expect those who utterly reject God to choose virtue over vice — or even to recognize the difference?

Interestingly, the reason we expect more is that we believe natural law to be self-evident, and that good makes itself known in the bosom of all persons. That may be so when a soul is inclined to distinguish the good, but when the conscience has been deliberately buried in sensuality for decades, nature has been renounced as a man-made construct, and authority has

been defined as an obstacle to freedom, then 2015 is the most natural of destinations.

We must weep for the children — and they’re all God’s children — and commit ourselves to the truth.

Our bodies are made for faithful, fruitful love and our souls are ordered to happiness. This is not the short-sighted happiness of a hook-up generation, but eternal beatitude made possible through the Blood of Christ. If we remain close to the Sacraments and show others what authentic love makes possible, we will offer an attractive alternative to this confused generation.

The tranquility of God’s order must reside in our hearts and radiate from there — for grace alone can counteract the madness of the day.

Anchor columnist Mrs. Kineke is the author of “ The Authentic Catholic Woman.”

She blogs at feminine-genius. typepad.com.

10

July 3, 2015

For Archbishop Chaput, Vatican synod, Philly family meeting providentially linked Vatican City (CNA/ EWTN News) — Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia sees a providential link between September’s World Meeting of Families and October’s Synod on the Family.

As a participant in both, he says the fresh experience from Philadelphia will be on his mind as he enters the Vatican Synod hall mere weeks later.

“I’m blessed with the opportunity of going to the Synod, and (the World Meeting of Families) is certainly going to impact me,” Archbishop Chaput recently told CNA. Archbishop Chaput is one of four representatives chosen by his fellow US bishops to take part in the three-week October synod.

With the September 27 conclusion of the World Meeting so close to the October 4 start date of the Synod of Bishops, Archbishop Chaput said he is often asked if the juxtaposition was planned.

“I always respond that it must be God’s providence,” he related, adding that the World Meeting of Families was ac-

tually announced before the topic for the synod was.

While there will be no “formal” influence from the World Meeting of Families on the synod, he said many bishops participating in the Philadelphia event will also be at the Vatican for the three weeks of discussions on the family.

He and the pope himself are two of them.

In addition to bringing the experience of the faithful to the synod, the Philadelphia archbishop said he will also be focused on bringing the message of the Vatican discussions to the faithful.

“Seeing all those people, interested in the improvement of their family life is going to make me — I would be serious anyway — but especially serious about making sure that whatever happens in the synod will be clearly communicated to the people of the Church because they really do depend on the bishops for the clear proclamation of Jesus Christ.

And it’s important that we do that.”

During a press conference

to update press on the 2015 World Meeting of Families at the Holy See press office, he said he’s expecting a broader perspective on family life to come from this year’s edition of the synod.

The archbishop lamented that during and since the 2014 synod, just “two or three questions that everyone seemed interested in” were given great focus, though “those are not the questions most families deal with.”

He said most families in fact cope with “a multiplicity of issues” and that “we are trying to talk about all of those issues.”

The president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, also participated in the June 25 press conference. “The link

is not by chance,” Archbishop Paglia said of the World Meeting-Synod connection.

“It pushes all of us to promote, increase, create a new atmosphere among families.

All families have to bring their vocation, their mission all over the world,” he added.

Between the two events, he’s hoping for “a new spring of families” and “a new wave, a new effort of the families in order to build a new kind of world, to push all people to become one family.”

With a $45 million price tag only for organization, security, clean-up and other costs associated with the 2015 World Meeting of Families, Archbishop Chaput said it would be “a foolish waste of personal and financial resources” if it

didn’t leave a long-lasting legacy.

“If we just encourage husbands and wives to talk to one another more honestly and profoundly, to care for children in more secure kinds of ways and then encourage their neighbors and grandchildren to do the same, I think it can be a force for transformation of the society,” he told journalists.

The pope, too, has the World Meeting of Families on his mind, and is counting down the days.

At the General Audience in St. Peter’s Square on June 24, he greeted the delegation from Philadelphia by holding up three fingers and saying, “Three months! Don’t forget.”

California legislators renew push against Junipero Serra, saint and Hispanic ‘founding father’

Sacramento, Calif.

(CNA/EWTN News) — A statue of Franciscan missionary and saint-to-be Father Junipero Serra has stood in the U.S. Capitol since 1931, but its future may depend on an upcoming hearing in the California legislature and the success of a “Let’s Save Serra” campaign.

The legislature could vote to remove the priest’s statue and replace it with a statue of astronaut Sally Ride, the first American woman to travel to space.

On June 30, the California Assembly’s Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism and Internet Media Committee will hold a 10 a.m. hearing at the state capitol in Sacramento to consider the proposal, Senate Joint Resolution 4. The resolution has already passed the state senate, by a 22-10 vote.

Blessed Junipero Serra played a leading role in California history, helping to convert thousands of native Californians to Christianity and teaching them new technologies. The 18th-century priest founded many of the missions that would go on to become the centers of major California cities.

In a May 2 homily, Pope Francis called Blessed Serra “one of the founding fathers of the United States, a saintly example of the Church’s universality, and special patron of the Hispanic people of the country.”

The pope will canonize Father Serra September 23 during his visit to Washington, D.C. The priest was beatified Sept. 25, 1988 by St. John Paul II. Blessed Serra’s statue is now in the U.S. Capitol’s National Statuary Hall Collection. His statue cradles a church in his left arm and holds a cross aloft in his outstretched right arm.

The website of the Architect of the Capitol, which maintains the statue, describes Father Serra as “one of the most important Spanish missionaries in the New World.”

State legislatures have the authority to decide which two statues will represent their state.

The campaign to save Blessed Serra’s statue includes “Salvemos a Serra,” or “Let’s Save Serra,” a Spanish-language site which has called on Californians to write their legislators in opposition to the resolution that would remove his statue.

“U.S. Hispanics need your support to maintain the presence of our first saint in the U.S. Capitol,” the website said.

“Salvemos a Serra” has also asked supporters of Blessed Serra to sign English- and Spanish-language petitions on the website CitizenGo.org.

More than 46,000 have signed.

The petitions ask legislators to “defend the memory of this Founding Father of California who protected the Native Americans and had a key role

in the formation of this country.”

The petitions were posted

by Alejandro Bermudez, executive director of Catholic News Agency.

“In a state that counts Hispanics as its largest ethnic group, California’s elected leaders are about to banish the first and one of the only two Hispanics from statuary hall,” Bermudez said in a May 22 essay at the Latino media website NewsTaco.

“To add insult to injury, they plan to go on the record with this just in time to welcome the first Latin American pope in history to the United States,” he added. “It’s quite the insult to the pope, who will visit the Capitol and canonize Serra during his September visit — making him the first saint to be named by a pope on American soil.”

Some activist groups have attacked Blessed Serra as a symbol of European colonialism and have characterized the missions as engaged in the forced labor of Native Americans, sometimes claiming Blessed Serra himself was abusive.

Many of Blessed Serra’s defenders vigorously dispute the claims, noting the many natives he helped during his life, and their outpouring of grief at his death.

If the resolution passes the California Assembly, it would still require the approval of state governor Jerry Brown.

11

July 3, 2015

Street evangelists make pamphlets, Rosary beads available to passers-by BERKELEY, Calif. (CNS) — It’s just before noon on a sunny Saturday on Berkeley’s Fourth Street, a busy boulevard of upscale cafes, shops and businesses.

The gleaming Apple store is doing a bang-up business in the next newest thing; a steady stream of customers await tables at Bette’s Oceanview Diner, where weekend breakfast is a daylong opportunity; across the street, an animal rescue group will soon set up an array of crates of cats that through no fault of their own need rehoming.

The rhythm is so Berkeley.

Today, there’s a new table in town.

Near that line of waiting pancake aficionados is a table lined with pamphlets with titles such as “Praying to the Saints,” “The Bible Alone?” and “Reasons to Return to the Catholic Church.” Arranged to the right are dozens of Rosary beads.

The sandwich sign on the sidewalk reads: CATHOLIC TRUTH Got Questions?

Free Pamphlets Need Prayer?

Find True Joy! And two members of the Berkeley chapter of the St. Paul Street Evangelists make the personal pitch. “Would you like some Rosary beads?” they ask a woman who slows down to eye the table.

Yes, please, she replies, sharing that perhaps she shouldn’t, she’s Episcopalian.

“Well, that’s low Catholic,” she says, accepting a string of plastic black Rosary beads.

And the conversation begins.

David Brandt, a parishioner at St. Joseph Church in Pinole, is the leader of the Berkeley area evangelists, who are part of a network of 190 teams nationwide. He and his handful of fellow evangelists — he’s recruiting more — have brought their pamphlets and Rosary beads to some places that have a lot of questions.

But St. Paul Street Evangelists know a thing or two about bringing the message to a tough crowd. Founder and national director Steve Dawson did his first evangelizing in Portland, Ore., before moving the ministry to the Detroit area.

After a 14-month journey with the Franciscans, Dawson did not feel the call to the priesthood and religious life. “I still felt called to be active in

the Church, specifically in the New Evangelization,” he told The Catholic Voice, newspaper of the Diocese of Oakland.

The New Evangelization, he said, has been endorsed by the past three popes, and its roots run “all the way back to Jesus.”

But Dawson said he didn’t see much evangelization. “I had heard a lot of talk,” he said. “I looked around and I didn’t see a lot of feet on the ground.”

So he started with his own.

He decided to go out and talk to people in Portland, where he was finishing his degree.

Among the city’s street vendors culture, the evangelist “fit right in, in a sense,” he said.

“We were amazed at the experiences we were having,” he said. He said 99 percent of the interactions were positive.

“We weren’t in your face,” he said. “If people didn’t want to talk to us, they kept walking.”

But for those who stopped to talk, there were changes.

Dawson said one man told him he’d like to come back to the Church. Dawson suggested he start with Confession, and met him at his church.

When the man came out of the confessional, he said to Dawson, “I’m a new man.”

Dawson wanted to “show other Catholics what we were doing,” and did so through social media.

From its beginnings in 2012, the ministry has grown to 190 teams, including in two foreign countries, and more than 6,000 street evangelists who receive training and encouragement through the ministry’s website, http://streetevangelization.com.

The ministry is based in Michigan, where among his supporters is Detroit Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron, who was the third bishop of Oakland.

He headed the diocese from 2003 to 2009.

Although Dawson and Brandt have some seminary training, it is not a prerequisite to joining the street evangelists. “A love for Jesus and His Church” is the main attribute, Dawson said. The evangelist should be a Catholic in good standing.

“We don’t make people into theologians,” he said. The street evangelization “is not a lot of apologetics,” he said.

Street evangelists, Dawson said, do their best to find common ground with a person, make an invitation, make a personal statement and share the Good News.

Most of the evangelization teams, he said, set up in a public place. “Lay-run teams that do street evangelization talk to more people in the shortest amount of time,” Dawson said.

Brandt’s blog is full of encounters that are examples of faith sharing. During a session at El Cerrito Plaza, for example, he met some people who said they would like to attend a Chinese-language Mass. At the downtown Berkeley transit station they were able to direct a new student to Newman Hall.

Sometimes passersby will try to draw the evangelists into debates, which is not their purpose. Evangelists follow up their street work with a brief meeting to talk over what went right, and what went not so right during their time.

Brandt has also taken his ministry, which is less than a year old, to the Berkeley Marina. “The hard part was starting,” he said. He said he plans to grow the ministry, which now spends two Saturday mornings a month offering pamphlets, prayers and encounter.

Pamphlets and Rosary beads are made available by the St. Paul Street Evangelists to passers-by in Berkeley, Calif. (CNS photo/Michele Jurich, The Catholic Voice)

12

July 3, 2015

Extension’s Flat Francis image helps build excitement for pope’s visit WASHINGTON (CNS) — Pope Francis isn’t going to be visiting the United States until September, but that hasn’t kept the pope from going all around the nation, if only as a simple piece of paper for the time being.

Chicago-based Catholic Extension is helping to build excitement and support for Pope Francis’ upcoming trip to the United States by creating Flat Francis.

The project takes some inspiration from “The Flat Stanley Project,” which centers on a paper cutout of Flat Stanley, a cartoon drawing based on books of the same name, being photographed with people in numerous locations.

A cute cartoon drawing of the pope can be found on the Catholic Extension website www.flatfrancis.org and printed out. The idea is for people to take selfies as they hold up a Flat Francis printout. The pope is holding the Catholic Extension logo and #FlatFrancis is printed at the bottom of his cassock.

This paper pope has steadily been making the rounds and creating smiles for many weeks now. All Catholic Extension asks is that people post their photos online using Twitter and Instagram, or even just email photos directly to the

organization: socialmedia@ catholicextension.org.

“We want to see selfies, families, youth groups, campus ministries, church ministries, choirs, service projects,” Catholic Extension said in a posting about Flat Francis on its website. “Just share your experience of the Catholic Church! We will post the photos on our website and social media channels and we will also send a collage of all the photos to Pope Francis.”

“Be creative and share #FlatFrancis with your church and on your own social networks.

Let’s show Pope Francis how excited we are for his arrival in America!”

Since its founding in 1905, Catholic Extension has been supporting the work and ministries of U.S. mission dioceses, including outreach to Catholic teens and young adults.

Its Flat Francis outreach seems to have caught on. A search of Twitter shows a wide array of people, particularly younger people, expressing their Catholic spirit and excitement about the papal trip.

Those who have taken to Flat Francis’ charm range from priests to families to Catholic schoolchildren. Even wellknown comedian Jim Gaffigan and his family joined in on the fun in a photo posted to his wife Jeannie’s Twitter account.

A Washington-based editor sizes up a cartoon image of Pope Francis June 24. Catholic Extension created “Flat Francis” to help people welcome the pontiff when he makes his U.S. visit in September.

(CNS photo/Chaz Muth)

Robbie Amell stars in a scene from the movie “Max.” For a brief review of this film, see CNS Movie Capsules below. (CNS photo/Warner Bros. Pictures)

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

“Dope” (Open Road) An academically gifted high school student (Shameik Moore) struggles to dodge the lawlessness of his inner-city Los Angeles neighborhood until he accidentally acquires a large stash of narcotics. Together with his two best friends (Kiersey Clemons and Tony Revolori), he then markets the drugs online in what writer-director Rick Famuyiwa’s blend of comedy and drama perversely presents as an ingenious extracurricular activity proving the lad’s resourcefulness and affording him a new level of self-awareness. While taking a brief sneering swipe at religion, Famuyiwa’s script not only normalizes wayward sexuality but misuses the array of social ills it endeavors to satirize as a justification for criminal behavior. Distorted values, considerable, sometimes gory violence, drug use and underage drinking, strong sexual content — including scenes of masturbation and obscured full nudity as well as tacit approval of homosexual acts — at least one use of profanity, pervasive rough and crude language. The Catholic News Service classification is O — morally offensive.

“Max” (Warner Bros.)

A “military working dog”

returns from Afghanistan to vanquish evil while mending a broken home in this wholesome — and welcome — family drama. When the eponymous canine’s handler (Robbie Amell), a Marine, is killed, the distraught animal is honorably discharged and sent home to Texas to live with the Leatherneck’s parents (Lauren Graham and Thomas Haden Church) and his troubled younger brother ( Josh Wiggins).

With the encouragement of the sassy girl (Mia Xitlali), for whom he’s fallen, the rebellious teen overcomes his initial resistance and bonds with his new pet.

Together, they uncover a nefarious plot by an ex-Marine (Luke Kleintank) to peddle illegal weapons. Director and co-writer Boaz Yakin nicely conveys his youthful main character’s evolution from zero to hero while underscoring the importance of telling the truth and respecting your parents. Scenes of combat and human peril as well as

dog-fighting, a few mild oaths.

The Catholic News Service classification is A-II — adults and adolescents.

“Ted 2” (Universal) Sequel to the 2013 film is another wallow in sexist, racist, stoner vulgarity. Seth MacFarlane, who directed, co-wrote the screenplay with Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild and voices the potty-mouthed teddy bear as a fuzzy, bawdier version of Peter Griffin from “Family Guy,” ventures into crude sexual gags and casually expressed racism along with his trademark pop-culture riffs. Casual racist remarks including the N-word, references to aberrant sexual behavior, fleeting female nudity, pervasive drug use, pervasive crude, crass and profane 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, July 5, 11:00 a.m.

Celebrant is Father John M. Sullivan, pastor of St. Patrick Parish in Wareham.

13

July 3, 2015

I

n the wake of the Supreme Court’s Marriage decision, these sober thoughts occur: (1.) The Supreme Court of the United States [SCOTUS] has rendered a decision that puts the Court at odds with the Constitution, with reason, and with Biblical religion.

(2.) SCOTUS has gotten it wrong before. It got it wrong on race in Dred Scott and it repeated the mistake in Plessy vs. Ferguson (which upheld segregated public facilities).

It got it wrong by concocting a constitutional “right” to abortionon-demand in Roe vs. Wade and doubled-down on that mistake by getting it wrong on abortion again in Casey vs. Planned Parenthood.

Now SCOTUS has gotten it wrong on Marriage. There are remedies to SCOTUS getting it wrong; one of them is a careful re-examination, during the 2016 campaign, of the theory of “judicial supremacy,” which holds that the Constitution means whatever a majority of the Court says it means.

(3.) The Marriage battle was lost in the culture long before it was lost in the courts. The foundations of our culture have eroded; now, the “new normal” insists that literally everything is plastic, malleable, and subject to acts of human will. The result is a moment of profound moral inco-

The Church and the ‘new normal’

herence in which understandings of It might have happened. But too human nature and human happiness much of the Church’s clerical and lay that have stood the test of experileadership lost its nerve after Humaence for millennia are being discard- nae Vitae; the window of opportunity ed as mere rubbish — and those who closed amidst the maelstrom of the resist trashing the moral patrimony 60s and the decadence of the 70s; of humanity are dismissed as irratio- and the forces of incoherence won nal bigots, religious fanatics, or both. the day.

This “new (5.) The normal” is “new norwillfulnessmal” will on-steroids, not leave especially the Cathowhen that lic Church willfulness alone. Like involves hueveryone else

By George Weigel man sexualwho contests ity. Nothing, the “new it seems, normal’s” constitutes aberrant behavior — ex- ideology of “anything goes,” the cept the public defense of traditional Catholic Church will be aggressively virtue. attacked for daring to oppose that (4.) The Catholic Church in the ideology. So the Church must learn, United States bears its share of fast, how to play good defense, deresponsibility for this incoherence. fending the right of our people and It was clear 60 years ago that the old our institutions to be themselves; it mainline Protestant cultural hegewill do a service to America in the mony was fading, that an alternative process. (A good primer for thinkcultural foundation for American ing through these issues is the recent democracy was necessary, and that a pastoral letter by Cardinal Donald new cadre of citizen-leaders, capable Wuerl of Washington, “Being Cathof articulating the moral truths on olic Today: Catholic Identity in an which the American democratic Age of Challenge.”) experiment rests, had to be raised up (6.) The long-term answer to the — and the prime candidate for do“new normal” — and to the dictatoring all that was the Catholic Church. ship of relativism the “new normal” is

The Catholic Difference

trying to impose on the universities and professions (without encountering much resistance), on traditional religious communities (less successfully, so far), and on individuals (through reprehensible but effective bullying and shaming) — is the reconversion of the United States to right reason, moral truth, and a Biblical way of seeing the world. This is a multigenerational project; it will necessarily be ecumenical and interreligious. From the Catholic point of view, the only possible response to the New Normal is a robustly evangelical Catholicism: one that displays true happiness in lives of solidarity with others; one that links that happiness and solidarity to friendship with Jesus Christ and the truths His Church teaches, inviting others to consider “a still more excellent way” (1 Cor 12.31).

(7.) And that means a thorough catechesis of the Catholic people of the United States, not least through preaching: preaching that forthrightly challenges the toooften-typical Catholic shrug at the New Normal; preaching that calls Catholics to deeper friendship with Christ, meaning deeper conversion to His truth.

George Weigel is a senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.

Vatican signs agreement with Palestine, calls for two-state solution

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Holy See and Palestine have signed a historic agreement that supports a two-state solution to the ongoing conflict in the Holy Land, based on the 1967 borders between Israel and Palestine.

The two parties recently signed the “Comprehensive Agreement between the Holy See and the State of Palestine” at the Vatican. The accord, which includes a preamble and 32 articles, focuses mostly on the status and activity of the Catholic Church in Palestine. It assures the Church “juridical recognition” and “guarantees” for its work and institutions in Palestine.

The second chapter of the agreement focuses entirely on freedom of religion and conscience and includes the right to worship and practice one’s faith, as well as the rights of Christian parents to give their children Religious Education, of Christians to take holy days off work, and of military personnel to have access to pastoral care.

The preamble recognizes the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people, the importance of Jerusalem and its Sacred character for Jews, Christians and Muslims, and the objective of a two-state solution.

At the signing ceremony, Archbishop Paul R. Gallagher, the Vatican’s secretary for relations with states, said he hoped the agreement would pro-

vide a “stimulus” for a “definitive end to the long-standing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

“I also hope the much desired twostate solution may become a reality as soon as possible,” the archbishop said.

He said the peace process could only move forward if it were “negotiated between the parties,” along with the support of the international community.

In his address, Palestine Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki, underlined that the agreement supports the twostate solution based on Israel and Palestine’s 1967 borders.

He said the agreement includes “new and unprecedented provisions related to the special status of Palestine as the birthplace of Christianity” and cradle of monotheistic religions.

The agreement comes at a time of “extremism, barbaric violence and ignorance” in the Middle East, noted alMalki, adding that Palestine was committed to combat extremism and to promote tolerance, human rights and religious freedom. The latter are values that “reflect the beliefs and aspirations of the Palestinian people,” he said.

Archbishop Gallagher said the agreement was a “good example of dialogue and cooperation,” which he said he hopes can “serve as a model for other Arab and Muslim-majority countries.”

The “Comprehensive Agreement” follows up on the “Basic Agreement,” signed in 2000, between the Holy See and the Palestinian Liberation Organization and was the result of yearslong bilateral negotiations.

“For the first time, the agreement includes an official recognition by the Holy See of Palestine as a state,” noted al-Malki in his speech.

Passionist Father Ciro Benedettini, a Vatican spokesman, told Catholic News Service the agreement is not the first time the Vatican recognizes Palestine as a state.

Without fanfare, the Vatican has been referring to the “State of Palestine” at least since January 2013. The “Annuario Pontif icio,” the Vatican’s official yearbook, lists a diplomatic relationship with the “State of Palestine.”

Furthermore, the Vatican had praised the United Nations’ recognition of Palestinian sovereignty in 2012.

Israel issued sharp disapproval of the new agreement.

Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement June 26, saying it regretted the Holy See’s recognition of Palestine as a state, calling it a “hasty step” that “damages the prospects for advancing a peace agreement, and harms the international effort to convince” Palestine “to return to direct negotiations with Israel.”

The ministry also expressed regret

for the “one-sided texts in the agreement which ignore the historic rights of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel and to the places holy to Judaism in Jerusalem.”

“Israel cannot accept the unilateral determinations in the agreement which do not take into account Israel’s essential interests and the special historic status of the Jewish people in Jerusalem,” the statement said. The ministry said it would study the agreement and “its implications for future cooperation between Israel and the Vatican.”

The day before the signing, Pope Francis met with a delegation of B’nai B’rith International, a Jewish organization that seeks to serve the Jewish community and defend against antiSemitism.

During their meeting at the Vatican, the pope expressed gratitude for the “great progress” made between the Catholic Church and the Jewish community since the Second Vatican Council.

He said Jews and Christians were “called to pray and work together for peace” and “for the good of the peoples.”

“Respect for life and creation, human dignity, justice and solidarity unite us for the development of society and for securing a future rich in hope for generations to come.”

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July 3, 2015

Mercy abounds in the Diocese of Fall River continued from page one

entered the Presentation Convent in Dublin to begin formal preparation for the founding of the Sisters of Mercy.

On Dec. 12, 1831, McAuley and the other two women professed their religious vows as the first Sisters of Mercy, thereby founding the congregation.

They returned to the House of Mercy where seven more women received the habit on Jan. 23, 1832, including McAuley’s niece, Mary Teresa Macauley.

McAuley founded nine additional autonomous convents of Mercy in Tullamore (1836), Charleville (1836), Carlow (1837), Cork (1837), Limerick (1838), Bermondsey, London (1839), Galway (1840), Birr (1840), and Birmingham (1841), and branch houses of the Dublin community in Kingstown (1835) and Booterstown (1838).

McAuley traveled with the founding parties by stagecoach, canal boat, steam packet and railway, humorously enduring fatigue and inconvenience such travel entailed, and remained at least a month with each new community. She was anxious to “begin well,” so the poor could be immediately served, claiming, “God knows I would rather be cold and hungry than that the poor in Kingstown or elsewhere should be deprived of any consolation in our power to afford.”

A two-year controversy over the appointment of a chaplain to serve the House of Mercy began and a lawsuit was unfairly settled against her for the cost of building a poor school in Kingstown. By then she had lost two nieces and two nephews to illness. In the midst of these sufferings, she chose to embrace the “Cross of Christ,”

and wrote hundreds of affectionate letters to the Sisters in the new foundations, along with submitting to the officials in Rome her proposed Rule and Constitutions of the Sisters of Mercy.

By May 1841, McAuley was almost 63 years old, and was beginning to get worn out and was “tormented” by a persistent cough. Pope Gregory XVI confirmed the Rule and Constitutions of the Sisters of Mercy on June 6, 1841. McAuley received the document three months later, and continued with her duties. By September 21, a physician declared her right lung “diseased,” but McAuley made light of his diagnosis but did delegate some duties to others, though in her letters to fellow Sisters she scarcely mentioned her illness.

At the end of October she became bedridden, and was Anointed on November 8, ultimately dying on November 11 after making one last request of a Sister to tell the community to “get a good cup of tea — I think the community room would be a good place — when I am gone — to comfort one another, but God will comfort them.”

Sisters of Mercy (www.

SistersOfMercy.org) continue to respond to a call to serve people in need and commit themselves to follow Jesus Christ. They profess lifelong religious vows of chastity, poverty and obedience and service to people who are poor, sick and uneducated. To this end, they serve God’s people through education, health care, social services, and ministries that further social, political, economic and Spiritual well-being.

A number of Sisters of Mercy are part of the parishes, schools, hospitals, and other ministries and organizations in the Diocese of Fall River, including Our Lady of the Assumption Parish in New Bedford, Christ the King Parish in Mashpee, St. Vincent’s Home in Fall River, Steward Morton Hospital in Taunton, and

many others. The late Sister Patricia Harrington, who was a staff member at Bishop Feehan High School in Attleboro for 45 years, was a Sister of Mercy.

In 1833, Mother Frances Warde became the first Sister of Mercy to be professed by Catherine McAuley. In 1843, Frances Warde and her six companions established in Pittsburgh, Penn. the first foundation of the Sisters of Mercy in the United States.

Frances was responsible for four foundations in Ireland: Carlow, Naas, Wexford and Westport.

During her 41 years in the United States, Frances spent the longest periods of time at the foundations she established in Pittsburgh (1843), Providence, R.I. (1851), and Manchester, N.H. (1858). From these foundations she established nearly 100 others.

The Sisters, associates and companions of the Northeast Community based in Cumberland, R.I., are active social justice advocates on all issues relating to women and children, and have most recently focused on immigration reform, climate change, and healthcare.

The Northeast Community has taken corporate stands calling for the recognition of the fundamental human right to water, for action in response to climate change, for the repeal of the death penalty and, in March 2014, for the abolition of human trafficking.

Originally from New Bedford, Sister Maureen Mitchell, RSM, went to Holy Family High School and at the time, all the teachers were Sisters of Mercy “and every year they would have some of the postulates come and talk to us about their life,” she said, “so it was something at that time — I was only 18 — that I felt I needed to at least try. I couldn’t say I felt a strong calling but there was something in me that said I needed to explore this more.”

The current vice president of the Sisters of Mercy of the Northeast Community, Sister Mitchell entered in 1962 right after high school, a common occurrence back then “but nowadays we wouldn’t take someone that young, but in those days they took people right from high school.

“A vocation is a funny thing, it isn’t like one day,” she said.

“The process we went through involved a lot of discernment.

We were postulates for a year, then we took the step of being

received, then after the three years we took our temporary vows as a way of exploring deeper. We were always receiving Spiritual guidance, and after eight years of entrance we could ask to take our Perpetual Vows.

“You took them believing you were called to this life and knowing it would always require recommitting yourself, so at different times in your life you recommit. It’s the same as being a Catholic; you were born a Catholic but at different times you decide if you’re going to remain a Catholic. It’s not just blind faith; it becomes a recommitment over and over.”

Sister Mitchell said she always wanted to be a teacher, and being raised in a strong Catholic family helped shape her path. Being part of a religious community that vows to serve God’s people through education has given Sister Mitchell a very fulfilling life.

“It has been a continuous discernment and continuous recommitment,” she said. “As a child I always wanted to be a special-needs teacher; I had a cousin who had special needs.

I watched my aunt teach my cousin and at that time public schools didn’t always take special-needs students. I always felt that teaching was my commitment and doing it with the motive that we’re all God’s creatures and worthy of dignity, that was my motivation and I think is what drew me. There were times it was difficult; we went through many changes. With every loss, there was a recommitment. It’s very hard to capture a Spiritual journey, but I can say now I am where I should be.”

Sister Eileen Fitzpatrick works at the Diocesan Health Facilities skilled nursing center, Our Lady’s Haven in Fairhaven, and she felt the call around 12 years old.

“I was in grade school and I just felt very drawn towards religious life,” she said. “I continued my education with the Sisters of Mercy in Galway, Ireland. During that time I felt an even stronger calling and Mercy was the order that I was very drawn to because of the goodness of the Sisters in the school system at the time.

They had a great love for the Lord and their prayer life inspired me.”

She entered Tullamore Mercy Convent, one of the original convents founded by McAuley, in 1970. Three years later she went to Dublin and trained in childcare, returning to Tul-

lamore after her training. She made her final vows in 1976.

She spent 27 years in Ireland as a Sister, and then she felt she needed to take a sabbatical and chose to come to the United States and spend some time at the Genesis Spiritual Life Center in Westfield, that was run by the Sisters of Providence.

She spent 15 months there, and during that time she discerned what would be the best thing for her to do. She ultimately trained in interfaith healthcare ministries in Providence, R.I., and started working at Our Lady’s Haven in Fairhaven in March of 2003.

“I love it here,” she said. “I love the residents and staff; I just feel so fulfilled at the end of the day.”

During a normal day she checks in with the front desk, asking if there are any changes “like, did anyone pass during the night or did we get any new admissions?” she said. “Did anything happen in the facility that I need to know? Then I go to the Sacristy and set up for Mass, which starts at 9:30 a.m. If we have residents who are not doing well, I’ll go see them.”

Though a Catholic diocesan health facility, Our Lady’s Haven takes care of everyone regardless of his or her faith.

“Everybody is welcome, there’s no distinction,” said Sister Fitzpatrick. “A lot of residents come here principally because there is a religious presence here, and we have a chapel and Mass every day. They know they’ll receive the Sacraments and for them, this can be a great consolation. It’s also very comforting for family members to know that there’s someone who keeps that extra eye on things.

I’m always available to family members and residents to talk or discuss anything.”

During a resident’s end-oflife, “we keep a watchful eye and gentle presence with that person,” said Sister Fitzpatrick in her gentle Irish lilt. “I have to say the staff is just wonderful in that area. They go in and out to take care of that person; nobody dies alone. It can be a frightening moment in the dying process, so it’s always nice to have somebody there who can hold your hand and touch your brow. Presence is so important.”

Forty-five years in religious life, and Sister Fitzpatrick said she never had any major doubts about her decision: “Thank you God for the gift of this wonderful calling,” she added.

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July 3, 2015

Helping the poor involves Knights in faith in ‘deep way,’ says Anderson WASHINGTON (CNS) — The volunteerism of the Knights of Columbus and the fraternal organization’s fund-raising for charitable works fit right in with Pope Francis’ emphasis on the idea of “a Church of and for the poor,” according to Supreme Knight Carl Anderson.

Lending a hand for charity is not only giving “the gift of your own time” but also “the gift of yourself ” to those in need, he said.

“Once you see what a difference your work makes, it encourages you to do more,” he added.

Anderson spoke with Catholic News Service shortly after the release of an annual report showing the Knights set a record last year for charitable giving and service hours with more than $173 million in donations and more than 71.5 million hours of service.

The number of hours contributed by members rose in 2014 by more than a million hours over the 2013 total with each member donating nearly a full workweek on average.

During the past decade, Knights, who today number about 1.9 million, have donated nearly $1.55 billion to charity and 691 million hours of volunteer service.

Anderson sees a strong “Catholic commitment to neighbor and community” and said that “even in hard times, people will step up.” The Knights’ programs also provide “a way of being involved in your faith in a deep way,” he noted.

Each year during the past 15 years, the Knights broke the previous year’s record,

despite the recession caused by the 2008 porting projects that feed and aid homeless children and refugees living on the stock market crash.

For Anderson, the record giving of time streets of the capital city of Kiev.

— Ran the Black Friday Coats for Kids and treasure is also a special way to prepare program to give winter coats to children for Pope Francis’ U.S. visit in September.

“Charity has been at the heart of the who don’t have them. (“Black Friday” is Knights’ mission for the past 133 years,” the Friday following Thanksgiving and Anderson said in a statement accompany- traditionally the day many Americans ing the report, which was released at an head out to do shopping for Christmas.)

Knights also conannual meeting of ending a hand for charity is not tributed to lothe Knights’ state only giving “the gift of your own cal food pantries, leaders held earlier in June at the or- time” but also “the gift of yourself ” said community food ganization’s head- Anderson. “Once you see what a differ- banks and soup kitchens through quarters in New ence your work makes, it encourages the Food for Haven, Conn.

Families program, “In America, you to do more.” and members Pope Francis will find a Church that is alive with the love participated in blood drives, Habitat for of God and love of neighbor, and the Humanity and the American Wheelchair Knights of Columbus are excellent ex- Mission, which delivers new wheelchairs and mobility aids free to physically disamples of this reality,” he added.

Anderson told CNS that he thinks abled children.

— Provided $1.4 million to directly “Pope Francis is doing a great job,” praising the pontiff for being “so strong in his support athletes who will take part in encouragement of people to do more for this summer’s Special Olympics World Games in Los Angeles. The funds will those in need.”

He highlighted some of the ways the cover the cost of transportation, housing and meals for the athletes as they travel to Knights helped others in 2014: — Launched the Knights of Colum- the games, stay there during the competibus Christian Refugee Relief Fund last tion and return home.

Anderson said the Knights have long August and through it contributed $2.6 million for humanitarian assistance to supported the Special Olympics, because those suffering persecution and disloca- Sargent Shriver, husband of the games’ founder, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, was a tion in Iraq and the surrounding region.

— Gave $200,000 each to the Eastern member of the Knights. Beyond donating and Latin Catholic communities in war- funds for athletes in the upcoming comtorn Ukraine for humanitarian relief, sup- petition, state Knights councils also were

encouraged to boost their already strong ties to the Special Olympics.

The Knights also are active in pro-life efforts, he said, having helped put more than 600 ultrasound machines in crisis pregnancy centers that couldn’t afford them. Seeing a sonogram of an unborn baby “really gets people to change their minds” about abortion, he explained.

Through all of these programs, members of the Knights can see the impact they have on people.

Whether it’s a woman showing off her child and saying, “Here’s the baby I had because I went through your ultrasound machine,” or being able to pick up a disabled child “and put him in a wheelchair,” ultimately “you see how you change people’s lives,” Anderson said.

When asked about his goals for 2015, Anderson responded he’d like to “continue that momentum” on record-breaking fund raising and service hours, because “that’s priority number one.”

The top 10 U.S. states for money raised by local Knights in 2014 were: Texas (first place), Illinois, California, Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, Missouri, New York, Ohio and Wisconsin (10th place).

He also said the organization wants to “open our doors even wider” by reaching out more to the Hispanic community.

The Knights of Columbus has more than 14,000 councils in North and Central America, the Philippines, the Caribbean and Europe. Membership is open to men age 18 or older who are practicing Catholics.

participant will receive the book, ‘He Speaks to You,’ by Sister Helena Burns, FSP. It is a lovely daily mediation on God’s call in your life. We will be doing this with the ladies and of course we will have a lot of fun by the beach and lots of delicious food.”

Anamaria Artaega is entering her senior year at Salve Regina University in Newport, R.I, double majoring in psychology and religious studies. “I went on the Called by Name retreat after my first year at Salve Regina University,” she told The Anchor. “At the time I finished my first year of college and had learned a lot about myself and others but I wanted to focus more on what was the purpose for my life. What did God create me for and what gifts and talents did God give me to use to fulfill my purpose? The retreat was for young women discerning where they fit into God’s plan.

“The retreat allowed for us to be together in a quiet place surrounded by nature and supportive adults helping us see more clearly what our plan entails. I found that weekend experience to be one of the most personal experiences for me. In a world full of busy schedules, busy people, and a busy culture, silence and spending time with your soul is something that is seldom done.

I enjoyed the experience very much! I am now following one of my callings in serving children on the autism spectrum with applied behavioral analysis.”

Each year the retreat concludes with guest speakers. “This year we are delighted to have the Little Sisters of the Poor,” added Wilk. “Each year we try to change things up a bit so that if we have returning participants they will find something new and different.”

Sister Hurtado said that Pope Francis has asked that everyone be open to God’s call in our lives. “Vocation is about God’s call and our response to that call, so find a moment to journey deep within your heart and mind,” she said. “As Pope Francis put it, ‘Be open to the action of the Spirit of God, without fear of what He asks us or where He leads us. Let us entrust ourselves to Him.’” The retreat is open to all young women of high school and college age. The retreat brochure tells of the opportunity to “meet new friends and find new skills that will help you grow in your relationship with Jesus and what God is calling you to do.”

Whether it be Marriage, single life, or religious life, retreatants will learn the skills necessary to discern their vocations.

“The invitation is to leave your cares and worries behind,” said Wilk. “Come and retreat with us.”

For information and/or a registration form contact Paula Wilk at 774-283-0441; email stpatricksre@yahoo.com; or Sister Paulina Hurtado at 508-675-1311, extension 105 or email sr.paulina@dioc-fr.org.

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Diocesan retreat offers young women quiet time to discern God’s call for them in life continued from page one

“This three-day retreat is a wonderful opportunity for young women in high school or college to take the time to reflect on what their vocation in life is, or at least start to think about it,” said Wilk, who has been involved with the annual retreat since its inception in 2011. “God calls us many times during the day, speaking to us through the Eucharist, the teachings of the Church, Scripture, and people and events in our lives. By following a simple plan of discernment.”

The retreat experience will illustrate Wilk’s statement and offer insights to the young women in ways to deepen their relationship with God by listening for that whisper, the call from Him to lead the individual to her vocation in life, whether it be as a religious, as a wife and mother, or as a single woman.

“It was my First Communion what brought me to a deep Spiritual awakening,” said Sister Hurtado. Because she didn’t belong to a “very Church-going family,” she received the Sacrament two years later than her classmates. “The preparation which the school provided made me feel part of an exclusive group in the school. It was not so much a time of study but of joyful expectation, and when the First Communion day came I was ready to join Jesus and to follow Him.” Since that time, Sister Hurtado continued to follow the call, even through a very

serious childhood illness. Her ministry as a Dominican Sister took her all over the world. “Now in the Diocese of Fall River, I join in the efforts of Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, S.D.V., and every parish in the same Spirit of collaboration to invite and to welcome vocations to the consecrated life and to the priesthood.”

Assisting on the retreat, as she has in the past, will be Missionary Servant of the Most Blessed Trinity Sister Catherine Lamb, director of the Homebound Ministry at St. Patrick’s Parish in Wareham.

In her more than 60 as a religious, Sister Lamb has ministered to Cape Verdeans, Mexicans, African-Americans, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians and Eastern European people.

The charism of the Missionary Servants of the Most Blessed Trinity is reaching out to others, and it is with that Spirit that Sister Catherine and two others from her order, Sisters Mary Kay McDonald and Barbara McIntyre will share their experiences with the young women on the weekend.

Held on the beautiful grounds of the Sacred Hearts Retreat Center in Wareham, the retreat offers young women the time for reflection, guidance, food and fun.

There are presentations, prayer and daily Mass.

“The retreat changes a bit each year,” Wilk told The Anchor. “This year we will be doing a bit more on discernment. Each

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Youth Pages

Kindergarten students at St. John the Evangelist School in Attleboro recently celebrated their “Rockin’ Around Kindergarten” Class Day. The students, dressed in jeans, rolled up white T-shirts sleeves, pink scarves and sunglasses, sang songs from the 50s such as “Rockin’ Around the Clock,” “Yakety Yak” and “Good Bye,” in celebration of the school’s opening in 1954. They also enjoyed refreshments with their classmates, teachers and faculty.

Pre-kindergarten students at Our Lady of Lourdes in Taunton recently enjoyed a visit from Miss Teresa, the children’s librarian from Lakeville Public Library.

July 3, 2015

​ he children at St. Michael School in Fall River recently learned about the Holy Ghost T Traditions brought from the Islands of the Açores. The entire faculty and staff then prayed the Rosary.

St. Mary-Sacred Heart School in North Attleboro recently held its annual art show hosted by art teacher Shauwn Sweet and music teacher Andrew Solberg. At the show the art was displayed in themes with four pieces from each of the 270 students. From left: Bryan Welch, Sean Welch, Emma Roy, Madison Iwuc, Erin Parkinson, Amy Parkinson, Bryan Parkinson, Max Certuse and William Sadler.

To culminate the year-long program “A Feathery Focus,” third-graders at Holy Name School in Fall River visited the Lloyd Center in Dartmouth recently. Activities included recognizing birds by their field marks, walking on a trail to discover bird habitats, and observing a live raptor.

Hannah Arede, a seventh-grader at All Saints Catholic School in New Bedford, recently won the first-place Broadcom Masters GEMS Award at the Mass. State Science and Engineering Fair. Her science fair project explored the electric conductivity of Play-Doh.

July 3, 2015

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ast year at Bishop Stang High School the administration started a new “legacy” recognition for faculty on the last day of school.

Teachers who were there for 10 years were recognized with a plaque and then every five-year increments after that initial 10 years. So this year was my 10-year anniversary as a teacher at Stang! That is so crazy! It feels like yesterday that I started my daily treks across the Braga Bridge to the foreign land of the Diocese of Fall River (as I am a transplant from the Diocese of Providence, R.I.).

I should rewind further back than 10 years to explain how I got here and how God is so good. I started working for the Diocese of Providence as an ACTS 29 youth minister in 2000. I made a decision when I went into ministry that I would go wherever God sends me. This was the first time in my life I really began to trust God. ACTS 29 is a nine-month service program with the option to decide if you want to renew at the end of the nine months. I remained in this program for three years total but you can only do a nine-month service program before you have to move on to the real world.

I trusted in God and ended up in a parish as a coordinator of youth ministry at a parish in the Diocese of Providence.

This proved to be some of the most trying times in my ministry. There were times I questioned God as to why He would send me there. There were times I even questioned whether or not I was actually

Youth Pages Wherever You send me called to ministry. I found myself on my knees in the church, questioning where I was going, but finally reminding myself that in fact I knew exactly where I was going; wherever He sends me.

I stopped naval gazing and tried to focus on God’s Will for me. A woman at the parish informed me that Bishop Stang High School in North Dartmouth was hiring a campus minister and a theology teacher.

My response: “Bishop who? In what the heck, where?” As a Cranston girl, Stang was not a bishop I had ever heard of and Dartmouth was a place that I thought was an Ivy League school in New Hampshire. That one statement of a job opportunity tugged on my heart and I figured why not give it a chance?

Two days after my application went in, I was called for an interview. Two days after the interview I received a call asking me if I wanted the job.

In my foolish youthful mind, I said, “Can I pray about it and get back to you?” Thankfully, I did not need much time for God to push me in the right direction.

Everyday God had been preparing me for Stang, I just was not aware of it until I took a moment to look back at these last two years. I have some significant losses that I would not have handled as well if I was not working at Stang. I have some great joys that I would not have been open to receive, had God not placed me where He had.

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

I have an amazing support system that I would not have had if God had not tugged on my heart and said, “Go!” I have heard many times that if you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans. However, if you want great joy, listen to His plans.

Be Not Afraid

By Amanda Tarantelli I recently heard a story about St. Isadore the farmer.

St. Isadore started working for a local farmer from an early age. He had a great faith and spent most of his time on the farm walking behind the plow talking with God. St. Isadore would go to church every morning to pray before

he went to work and it was said that some of his coworkers were upset because he was often late for work because he was spending too much time at church. Stories however have said that on the days that St. Isadore was running late, the oxen would be seen plowing the fields without him!

God was working in the life of St. Isadore without St. Isadore having to do anything except go where he was sent.

God works in our lives so greatly when we just get out of His way and let Him do His job. He continues to guide me in the right places and to the right people because I have tried to stop directing my life. I have grown so much in the last 10 years. I have come to see just how great God’s plans are for me and just how plain

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and boring my plans are in comparison. It reminds me of the tandem-bike story with Jesus. In the beginning we are riding in the front of the bike and steering it where we want it to go. At some point we look ahead and realize that Jesus is in front and the journey is so much greater and we just have to sit back and pedal.

So when you find that you are not where you think you should be, when you feel that tug on your heart calling you to move, remember to go where He sends you and sit back and pedal!

Anchor columnist Amanda Tarantelli has been a campus minister at Bishop Stang High School in North Dartmouth since 2005. She is married, a die-hard sports fan, and resides in Cranston, R.I. She can be reached at atarantelli@bishopstang. com.

Bishop Feehan High School’s first graduating class of 1965 celebrated its 50th class reunion. Festivities were timed to coincide with the high school’s graduation ceremony where nearly 50 alumni donned academic robes and received a golden diploma from former faculty member Sister Mary Ann Postiglione (at that time, known as Sister Rochelle), who taught French, directed the chorus, and also wrote the school’s alma mater, which is still sung after every Mass to this day at the Attleboro school. Here alumni enjoyed a luncheon at Highland Country Club in Attleboro.

Bishop Stang High School in North Dartmouth recently hosted its incoming freshman with a welcome picnic for the Class of 2019.

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July 3, 2015 were able to find God through intellectual endeavor,” Father Koczera said. “Before I went Inspired by the example of to Georgetown, I had never “many fine Jesuit priests I had known priests who were also as professors,” Father Koczera teachers, and the idea that one singled out Father Thomas M. could be both made me think King as someone who greatly about the priesthood in a way that I had not done before.” influenced his vocation.

With a strong background “Father King was the first priest I ever had as a teacher, in law and politics and a growbut he also had a major impact ing interest in teaching, Father on me because he offered Mass Koczera seemed well-suited in the university chapel six for the central mission of the nights a week at 11:15 p.m.,” Society of Jesus, and he looks Father Koczera said. “That forward to teaching at one of 11:15 Mass provided a kind the order’s prestigious universiof Spiritual study break for me ties.

“I have already had an opand many others, but it also offered a Spiritually-nurturing portunity to work in this minenvironment in which I could istry, as I taught philosophy begin to discern God’s Will for three years at St. Joseph’s and to consider a vocation to University in Philadelphia as part of my Jesuit formation,” the priesthood.”

Although that initial spark he said. “I hope that my interwas lit, Father Koczera ad- est in teaching and scholarship mitted he wasn’t quite ready will give me an opportunity to enter the Society of Jesus to make a positive impact in when he graduated in 2001. an area of ministry where the But he continued discerning a Jesuits have traditionally been vocation while studying law at strong.”

Father Koczera said his reNotre Dame.

“I attended Jesuit discern- cent profession and ordination ment events and met regularly in the Society of Jesus in Chiwith a Spiritual director,” he cago was something he’ll never said. “My Spiritual director forget. His parents and siblings at that time was Father Brian were all present, along with Daley, a Jesuit who teaches the- friends from the various places ology at Notre Dame. Meeting he’s lived and worked over the regularly with Father Daley years.

“I like to say that the mix helped me to come to the clarity I needed to decide to apply of people who came to witness to enter the Jesuit novitiate, the ordination gave the event and he has remained a good a sort of ‘this is your life’ qualfriend and a positive influence ity,” Father Koczera said. “I was vested by two Jesuit priests I’ve on my vocation ever since.”

Father Koczera said his known for a long time, Fathers decision to become a Jesuit Joel Medina and Peter Nguypriest stems back to his ini- en. I’ve known Joel since I first tial encounters with Jesuits at began discerning my vocation, and Peter is someone I have Georgetown University.

“What particularly im- lived with during my theology pressed me was the way they studies in Toronto. I was also were able to harmonize the honored to have my Spiritual life of the Spirit and the life director, Father Brian Daley, of the mind — as priests, they preach at my first Mass the day were men of prayer who had after the ordination.”

Just over a week later, Father devoted themselves to offering Koczera returned home to celthe Sacraments and leading others to God, but they were ebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving also teachers and scholars who at St. Rose of Lima Church in

Diocesan native ordained a priest in the Society of Jesus continued from page one

Diocese, including a brother and sister who live in Wareham.

“Much of my extended family lives on the South Coast, so I still feel a strong connection to the region even though I have spent a lot of my adult life elsewhere,” he said.

Having graduated from Old Rochester Regional High School in Mattapoisett in 1997, Father Koczera initially expressed an interest in politics, which led to his involvement in local and state elections and an internship at the Massachusetts State House. Upon graduating from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. in 2001, he went on to study law at the University of Notre Dame, receiving his Juris Doctor degree in 2004.

Since entering the Society of Jesus in August 2004, Father Koczera has also earned a master’s degree in philosophy from Fordham University and a Master of Divinity degree from Regis College in Toronto.

It was somewhere between his interests in politics and law, between studying for high school and college, that Father

Koczera discerned a vocation to the priesthood.

“I wouldn’t say that I had an exceptionally devout upbringing, but I always had an awareness of being Catholic,” Father Koczera said. “I never thought about becoming a priest as I was growing up; but on reflection I can see how some youthful experiences impacted my vocation.”

Thinking back, Father Koczera fondly recalled making annual pilgrimages to La Salette Shrine in Attleboro with his family for the yearly Christmas Festival of Lights.

“I always looked forward to going to La Salette, and on an instinctive level I think I was drawn to the beauty of the faith,” he said. “I was also fascinated by the rituals of the Mass, by the sights and sounds of worship. It took many years for me to feel a sense of being called to the priesthood, but in retrospect I can see how the signs were there from an early age.”

It was during his time as an undergraduate at Georgetown University that Father Koczera felt drawn to seriously consider the priesthood.

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Rochester on June 21, which was, appropriately enough, Father’s Day. “The experience of celebrating Mass in my home parish made the sense of being called from among the people to serve as a priest a bit more tangible for me,” Father Koczera said.

“I was surrounded by family, friends, neighbors, and fellow parishioners whom I’ve known my entire life, but for the first time I was able to minister to them as a priest. Having lived in a number of different cities and countries over the course of my Jesuit formation, being able to return home at the start of my priestly ministry also reminded me of the importance of my small-town roots. Wherever I go as a Jesuit, I hope that I am able to retain a strong connection to the place where I grew up and came to faith.”

Father Koczera said he will spend his first year completing work towards his Licentiate in Sacred Theology at Regis College in Toronto, Canada, and he hopes to be teaching somewhere after obtaining the degree. But he is already eager to begin hearing Confessions and administering the other Sacraments that he considers “the heart of my ministry.”

When asked if he or his fellow Jesuits had any pearls of wisdom on how to deal with what many have deemed to be a “vocations crisis” in the Church, Father Koczera said he would offer three pieces of advice.

“The first is to pray, both on your own and also by attending Mass regularly,” he said. “The second is to find a Spiritual director, someone with whom you can discuss your prayer and who can help you to better understand where God may be leading you. Finally, take up Jesus’ invitation to ‘come and see’ — visit the religious communities or seminaries you are considering, both to get to know them better and to see whether there is a good fit. I wouldn’t be a priest today if I hadn’t done these three things.”

And he added that words of encouragement from people you know can go a long way in helping you to answer God’s call.

“If you know someone who would make a good priest, tell him so,” Father Koczera said.

“I wouldn’t have considered a vocation to the Society of Jesus if I had not been encouraged to consider it by others, so I believe strongly in the importance of a personal invitation.”

19

July 3, 2015

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

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

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 — There is a weekly Holy Hour of Eucharistic Adoration Thursdays from 5:30 to 6:30 pm at St. John the Evangelist Church on N. Main St. 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, Monday through Saturday, from 6:30 to 8 a.m.; and every first Friday from noon to 8 a.m. on Saturday.

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

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

FAIRHAVEN — St. Mary’s Church, Main St., has Eucharistic Adoration every Wednesday from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in the Chapel of Reconciliation, with Benediction at 11:30 a.m. Also, there is a First Friday Mass each month at 7 p.m., followed by a Holy Hour with Eucharistic Adoration. Refreshments follow.

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

FALL RIVER — St. Bernadette’s Church, 529 Eastern Ave., has continuous Eucharistic Adoration from 8 a.m. on Thursday until 8 a.m. on Saturday.

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

Falmouth — For July and August St. Patrick’s Church has Eucharistic Adoration on Wednesday and Friday 9 a.m. to noon Benediction at St. Thomas Chapel, Falmouth Heights.

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

MASHPEE — Christ the King Parish, Route 151 and Job’s Fishing Road has 8:30 a.m. 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. Please use the side entrance.

NEW BEDFORD — There is a daily holy hour from 5:15-6:15 p.m. Monday through Thursday at St. Anthony of Padua Church, 1359 Acushnet Avenue. It includes Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, Liturgy of the Hours, recitation of the Rosary, and the opportunity for Confession.

NEW BEDFORD — St. Lawrence Martyr Parish, 565 County Street, holds Eucharistic Adoration in the side chapel Fridays from 7:30-11:45 a.m. ending with a simple Benediction NORTH DARTMOUTH — Eucharistic Adoration takes place at St. Julie Billiart Church, 494 Slocum Road, every Tuesday from 7 to 8 p.m., ending with Benediction.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation is available at this time.

NORTH DIGHTON — Eucharistic Adoration takes place every Wednesday following 8:00 a.m. Mass and concludes with Benediction at 5 p.m. Eucharistic Adoration also takes place every First Friday at St. Nicholas of Myra Church, 499 Spring Street following the 8 a.m. Mass, ending with Benediction at 6 p.m. The Rosary is recited Monday through Friday from 7:30 to 8 a.m.

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

ORLEANS — St. Joan of Arc Parish, 61 Canal Road, has Eucharistic Adoration every First Friday starting after the 8 a.m. Mass and ending with Benediction at 11:45 a.m. The Sacrament of the Sick is also available immediately after the 8 a.m. Mass.

OSTERVILLE — Eucharistic Adoration takes place at Our Lady of the Assumption Church, 76 Wianno Avenue on First Fridays from 8:30 a.m. to noon.

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

Taunton — Eucharistic Adoration takes place every Tuesday at St. Anthony Church, 126 School Street, following the 8 a.m. Mass with prayers including the Chaplet of Divine Mercy for vocations, concluding at 6 p.m. with Chaplet of St. Anthony and Benediction. Recitation of the Rosary for peace is prayed Monday through Saturday at 7:30 a.m. prior to the 8 a.m. Mass.

Taunton — Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament takes place every First Friday at Annunciation of the Lord, 31 First Street. Exposition begins following the 8 a.m. Mass. The Blessed Sacrament will be exposed, and Adoration will continue throughout the day. Confessions are heard from 5:15 to 6:15 p.m. Rosary and Benediction begin at 6:30 p.m.

WAREHAM — Eucharistic Adoration at St. Patrick’s Church begins each Wednesday evening at 6 p.m. and ends on Friday night at midnight. Adoration is held in our Adoration Chapel in the lower Parish Hall. ~ PERPETUAL EUCHARISTIC ADORATION ~ East Sandwich — The Corpus Christi Parish Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration Chapel is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 324 Quaker Meeting House Road, East Sandwich. Use the Chapel entrance on the side of the church.

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

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

WEST HARWICH — Our Lady of Life Perpetual Adoration Chapel at Holy Trinity Parish, 246 Main Street (Rte. 28), holds perpetual Eucharistic Adoration. We are a regional chapel serving all of the surrounding parishes. All are invited to sign up to cover open hours. For open hours, or to sign up call 508-430-4716.

Day of Recollection to take place in Dighton July 22 for area faithful

DIGHTON — The grounds of the Dominican Sisters of the Presentation will be the site of a Day of Recollection on July 22.

Themed “God’s Love and Mercy,” the event begins with registration at 9:30 a.m., with the conference beginning at 10 a.m.

The day is an opportunity to make time for God and one’s self, meeting Him in a new and unexpected way while enjoying the beauty and peace of the grounds located at 3012 Elm Street in Dighton.

All are invited to share good food, good company and hear the Word of God fresh and ever new as participants find a quiet place to appreciate the love God has for everyone.

Father Edward A. Murphy will celebrate Mass, followed by a healing service and then the Divine Mercy Chaplet will be prayed at 3 p.m.

Lunch will be provided.

The day’s events are free. To register call Donna, Lay Associate of the Dominican Sisters of the Presentation, at 774644-5878.

In Your Prayers Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks July 4 Rev. James A. Coyle, S.T.L., Pastor, Holy Name, Fall River, 1955 Rev. Pierre E. Lachance, O.P., St. Anne Shrine, Fall River, 2006 July 5 Rev. J.F. LaBonte, Retired Assistant, Sacred Heart, New Bedford, 1943 Rev. Edward P. Versailles, M.S., LaSalette Shrine, North Attleboro, 1985 July 6 Rev. Edmond Francis, SS.CC., Pastor, St. Mary, Fairhaven, 1963 Rev. Paul J. Price, SS.CC., 2006 July 7 Rev. James E. Lynch, Founder, St. Joan of Arc, Orleans, 1965 July 8 Rev. Edward Murphy, Pastor, St. Mary, Fall River, 1887 Msgr. Patrick J. O’Neill, Retired Pastor, St. Julie Billiart, North Dartmouth, 1995 July 10 Rev. Pie Marie Berard, O.P., Dominican Priory, Fall River, 1938 Rev. Maurice E. Parent, Assistant, St. Michael, Swansea, 1972 Rev. John E. Morris, M.M., Retired Maryknoll Missioner, Former Assistant, St. Joseph, Fall River, 1987 Rev. Theodore M. Morin, M.S., La Salette Shrine, North Attleboro, 1987

Around the Diocese A Mass and meeting of the Cancer Support Group will be held on July 6 at 6 p.m. at Our Lady of Victory Church, 230 South Main Street in Centerville. All are invited to this monthly Mass of Healing. If you know of any friend, neighbor or family dealing with any illness, please reach out to them and invite them to join this service. The Mass is open to all who would like to attend: patients, survivors, caregivers and families affected by cancer, as well as any other serious illness of body, mind or spirit. The Mass is sponsored by Our Lady of Victory Catholic Cancer Support Group, which meets immediately following the Mass in the parish center at 7 p.m. for a summer ice cream social. For more information regarding the support group, contact Geri Medeiros at 508-362- 6909.

Corpus Christi Parish in East Sandwich will begin the next in a series of personal retreats of “33 Days Consecration to Mary” on July 13, concluding with Consecration after Mass on August 15, the feast of the Assumption. Come closer, or deepen your relationship, to Jesus in these troubling times by Consecrating to Our Lady. The retreat is done at home, with daily readings. All are welcome to gather on Saturday mornings at 10 a.m. in the parish center for coffee and conversation about the readings. To question, register and order your book call Pat at 508-833-8432.

A support group to help people cope with the loss of a loved one will meet on Tuesdays from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Catholic Education Center, 423 Highland Avenue in Fall River from July 14 through August 25. For more information about these sessions, call 508-678-2828, extension 27, or email rsaraiva@dfrcs.org. The group will also meet from September 23 through November 4 beginning at 6:30 p.m. every Wednesday at St. Mary’s Parish, 783 Dartmouth Street in Dartmouth. For more information, call 508-992-7505 or email beni@stmarysdartmouth.org.

St. Anthony of the Desert Parish will hold its First Annual Clamboil at Lepage’s Seafood Restaurant on Martine Street in Fall River on July 19. Serving will start at 4 p.m. and continue until 8 p.m. You can eat in or take it out. Tickets are $25 per person and can be purchased by emailing terrygalib@comcast.net. While you are enjoying your meal you can also purchase a raffle ticket for a money tree and lottery ticket basket as well as a 50/50 raffle. All proceeds will benefit St. Anthony of the Desert Parish.

A summer twilight concert on the patio featuring Gregory Norbet will be held on July 19 beginning at 6:30 p.m. at St. John Neumann Church in East Freetown.

Attendees are asked to bring their own picnic lunch, lawn chairs and/or blankets.

Gregory Norbet is a respected Spiritual leader, composer, singer and retreat director. He has published 12 music collections and has also released several prayer books. He is director of the Hosea Foundation, a non-profit ministry dedicated to the renewal of the Church and Spiritual development in individuals. All are welcome and a freewill offering will be accepted.

The newly-installed pipe organ in the loft of St. Mary’s Cathedral in Fall River is to be celebrated with a Dedication Recital on July 26 at 4 p.m., with David Carrier as guest organist. All are welcome to attend. Pipes from the instruments at the former Sacred Heart and St. Louis churches form the core of the new instrument.

Fund raising continues and donations in any amount will be recognized in the recital program and on the parish website. Donations may be sent to: St. Mary’s Cathedral Pipe Organ Fund, 327 Second Street, Fall River, Mass. 02721. For more information about the organ, visit the parish website at www.cathedralfallriver. com.

The Diocesan Health Facilities will be hosting its Eighth Annual Golf Classic to benefit the more than 900 adults serviced in its skilled nursing and rehab care facilities and community programs on August 24 at the LeBaron Hills Country Club in Lakeville. Participation opportunities include corporate sponsorships, golf foursomes, prize donations for raffles and advertising on tee signs and in the event program book. For information call the Diocesan Health Facilities Office at 508-679-8154. Printable registration forms are also available at www.dhfo.org.

20

July 3, 2015

T

Deacon Leo W. Racine, right, with his wife, Marguerite, and Father Edward A. Murphy, pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Church, New Bedford, recently celebrated the 35th anniversary of Deacon Racine’s ordination as a permanent deacon.

‘First-class’ permanent deacon celebrates 35 years of ordained life

NEW BEDFORD — Deacon Leo W. Racine recently celebrated the 35th anniversary of his ordination with his wife Marguerite, family and parishioners at St. Anthony of Padua Church, New Bedford. Father Edward A. Murphy, pastor, was the principal celebrant on the same day to celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi.

Deacon Racine recalled Bishop Daniel A. Cronin ordained him as a member of the first class of permanent deacons to serve the Fall River Diocese.

Deacon Racine served at St. Julie Billiart Parish in North Dartmouth from 1980-1990, with a special assignment to

the Carmelite Nuns at Sol-E Mar, South Dartmouth, until its closing in 1987.

Deacon Racine’s second assignment was to serve at St. Therese in New Bedford from 1990 until its merger with St. Joseph in New Bedford in 1999. Bishop Sean O’Malley, O.F.M., Cap., was then the Ordinary of the Fall River Diocese and included Deacon Racine as part of the merger.

In 2006, Deacon Racine officially retired from active ministry; however, he now serves at St. Anthony of Padua Church in New Bedford where and he and Marguerite were married on Sept. 1, 1958.

Boots on the ground, ships on the sea, and eagle eyes in the sky

here are many out there dals, evils, prejudices, bigotries, lamenting the state of and selfishness: a devastating our union in the U.S. Some beCivil War rocked this union; the lieve good is rapidly losing rights inhumane treatment of Afriand privileges while the balance can-Americans and any other of power shifts over to evil. non-Caucasian race; political Some see a government underhandedness; gangster- and that has become too big for its mafia-run deadly dealings; the britches with no checks-anduphill fight for the presidency balances to prevent it from happening.

Some see Christianity becoming the victim of the prejudices and bigotries of which they’ve been accused for

By Dave Jolivet many years.

Some question why their prayers and social justice efforts appear to be because a candidate was Cathogrossly ineffective. lic; and even the Church scandal Our existence on this planet that had a crushing effect on is a fleeting moment in the thousands across this country. larger scheme of things. PreviYet, the U.S. has always ous fleeting moments have been bounced back. Some say this rife with similar, if not worse country will follow the selfcircumstances and conditions. destructive path of the decadent I know that some see the Roman and Greek empires. But moral standards of this country I don’t think so. on the wane, and a titanic wave God is not dumb. God sees of decadence washing over the that this country has been the country. world-wide checks-and-balancMaybe that’s true. But it isn’t es for more than 200 years. One the first time in American hisman and one administration tory that the stars (and stripes) cannot stop that. have aligned in such a fashion.

God may punish the U.S. World history, and yes even someday, if He’s not already. But U.S. history is filled with scanthere are millions of good people

My View From the Stands

in this country in every race, color, creed or orientation.

God has a plan for the U.S. and He will continue to use the U.S. to combat evil — after it cleans up its own act.

But no matter what, please don’t blame the men and women who have served this great land in the military; from the Revolutionary War to the current battle against terrorism.

This country has stifled the spread of world-wide evil for two centuries because of the behind-thescenes men and women who risk their lives for our safety and freedoms; and yes we still do have freedoms. If you don’t believe that, try living in another country.

This Fourth of July weekend, when you’re cooking on the grill, lazing on the beach, gathering with family and friends, and oohing and aahing at fireworks, take the time to say a prayer for, and to thank those boots on the ground, ships on the sea, and eagle eyes in the sky.

These heroes don’t partake in games of politics, greed, selfishness or evil. They do their jobs. And that job is to protect us and our rights, including the right to complain about how bad this country is.

It seems that past history and history in the making is predestined. Yes, God is omnipotent, but what’s also predestined is our part in the great plan.

Let us pray for America, that she will continue to be a beacon of hope for the rest of the world; that she regain her strength and resolve and rise above the petty and not-so-petty differences that separate Americans. United we stand. It’s what God wants so America can continue to fulfill her destiny. davejolivet@anchornews.org.