08.07.09

Diocese of Fall River

The Anchor

F riday , August 7, 2009

U.S. veterans wage war on peers’ homelessness

By Dave Jolivet, Editor

NEW BEDFORD — The “Pledge of Allegiance” concludes with the statement that America is a land “with liberty and justice for all.” That theory, however, is tested by a disturbing statistic. According to Dan LaBlanc, USMC retired, the Veterans Service Officer for

the City of New Bedford, most homeless in the Whaling City are veterans. That hardly seems like the justice referred to in “The Pledge.”

Yet, there is a group of veterans that is doing something about that. For the past nine years members of Welcome Turn to page 18

PRAYING FOR PROTECTION — Participants at the St. Pius X Vacation Bible School in South Yarmouth recently took part in a ceremony asking God to bless the Yarmouth ladder truck and protect Firefighters and EMS personnel.

New diocesan directory packed with information

By Deacon James N. Dunbar

FIGHTING FOR HER COMRADES — Kathy Splinter, a parishioner of Notre Dame Parish in Fall River and a former Army nurse, speaks at a ground-breaking ceremony in New Bedford where a former mill will be transformed into 19 housing units for veterans in need. At left is Father Robert A. Oliveira, pastor of Holy Name of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in New Bedford. Both are members of Welcome Home Veterans Housing, Inc., which is responsible for getting the project off the ground. Below are family members of Sean Brooke, for whom the units will be named. Brooke, a former Army combat medic in Iraq, was killed in a car accident in Hawaii in 2005. From left, Brooke’s mother Laurie, his sister Christine, his father Darren, and brother Parker. (Photos by Dave Jolivet)

FALL RIVER — The new, 2009-2010 Catholic Directory for the Diocese of Fall River, soon to be available, is a virtual gold mine of information providing a ready source not only for parish needs but for every Catholic who wants to know about the local Church.

“We’ve gone farther in offering ready, easy to find information not only about diocesan officials, priests, deacons and religious, parishes, sacraments and Mass times, but also listings of schools, colleges and officials, shrines, retreat centers, cemeteries and directors, hospitals and extended care facilities and the telephone numbers to contact them,” said Kenneth J. Souza, staff reporter

second consecutive year.

The 160-page directory —

30 pages more than those in previous years — for the first time includes photos of priests and deacons, active and retired; a thumbnail sketch of 2008 statistics for parishes in the five diocesan deaneries; and where sacramental records of parishioners who worshipped in churches and parishes currently closed or merged can be found.

“We also have included an easy, alphabetical listing of parishes and telephone numbers, and did away with many of the redundancies previous directories had,” said Souza, who noted that streamlining the directory was foremost in his overall plan.

“Although compiling the Turn to page 18

ter and YouTube via his own website, www.pope2you.net, Father Barron had the foresight to see the benefits of reaching out to greater numbers of Catholics through the world wide web a decade earlier.

“We welcomed the pope to YouTube and said ‘we’re ahead of you, Holy Father,’” Father Barron joked. “But I agree it’s something the Church has been behind on. Why not use

these amazing technologies?

You go on the Internet and just like that, 24/7, you’re all over the world. I just think this is the way we have to go. I have been giving talks all around the country for years but I can’t gather the number of people in a room that I can reach through one YouTube video. It’s the way we have to go if we’re serious about evangelizing the Turn to page 15

at The Anchor and architect of the extensive directory for the

Pioneering Word on Fire website taps into technology to reach faithful

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

FALL RIVER — It’s not often that a priest gets to oneup the pope, but Father Robert Barron inadvertently did by founding Word on Fire, a popular evangelical website, 10 years ago.

While the Holy Father just recently started taking advantage of such Internet-based technology as Facebook, Twit-

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News From the Vatican

August 7, 2009

With his writing hand in a cast, pope uses recorder to put down his ideas

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (CNS) — With his right hand immobilized in a cast, Pope Benedict XVI is using a voice recorder to put down his thoughts and ideas, said the Vatican spokesman.

Weeks after he underwent minor surgery to repair a broken wrist sustained in a fall at his vacation home in northern Italy July 17, the pope was still doing well and was “in a good mood,” said Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi.

The right-handed pope “is still learning how to live with a wrist in a cast,” the spokesman said in a written statement.

Pope Benedict normally has used his vacation period to work on his writing projects and, before the accident, it had been expected he would spend some of his free time to continue work on the second volume of his book about Jesus.

The pope “has equipped himself with a recorder so as to be able to dictate his reflections since he is unable to use a pen easily,” Father Lombardi said in the statement.

The pope had received a portable laptop computer as a recent gift, but Father Lombardi told reporters that the 82-yearold pope “is not used to writing with a PC; he isn’t very technological,” adding that “especially in creative work he prefers to use a pen.”

Every day after lunch and again in the late afternoon during his vacation in the Alps, the pope would take a brief walk, the spokesman said.

During one of his excursions, the pope ran into a group of five children and three women near

the village of Les Combes.

One of the children told the pope that the valley where he lives gets 19 feet of snow in the winter, to which the pope reacted with “amazement and curiosity,” Father Lombardi said in a statement.

The spokesman said medical staff from Aosta’s hospital brought a portable X-ray machine to the retreat house in Les Combes so that doctors could do a follow-up scan of the pope’s wrist.

The doctor who performed the surgery on his wrist, the pope’s two personal physicians and an orthopedic specialist from Rome’s Fatebenefratelli hospital were present for the late July check up and X-ray, he said.

The specialist from Rome, Dr. Vincenzo Sessa, provided follow-up care once the pope arrived at the papal summer villa in Castel Gandolfo on July 29, said Father Lombardi.

The Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, visited the pope to discuss Church matters, leave off documents for the pope to look at, and deliver a number of get-well wishes that had been sent by world leaders, said the spokesman.

Father Lombardi said Pope Benedict has been speaking regularly by phone with his older brother, Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, who lives in Regensburg, Germany.

The 85-year-old monsignor will spend four weeks with the pope at the papal summer villa at Castel Gandolfo, Father Lombardi said.

Popes generally stay at Castel Gandolfo until late September.

LES COMBES, Italy — Pope Benedict XVI said the Vatican and Italian police who watched over him while he was on vacation in the Italian Alps were like “guardian angels, discreet and efficient.”

But he was not quite so sure what his own guardian angel was up to.

“Unfortunately, my guardian angel — certainly following orders from above — did not prevent my accident,” he said, referring to the fact that he tripped in the dark July 17 and broke his wrist.

Before leaving Les Combes to fly to the papal summer villa in Castel Gandolfo south of Rome July 29, the pope met with the police, firefighters and other officials who were involved in maintaining public order and security while he vacationed in northern Italy.

Still referring to his broken right wrist, the right-handed pope told them, “Perhaps the Lord wanted to teach me greater patience and humility, and give me more time for prayer and meditation.”

The pope said he had spent the past 16 days immersed in a “heavenly peace,” with the silence interrupted only by the songs of birds, rain falling on the grass and the wind blowing through the trees.

He told the dozens of security officers, “Angels are invisible, but efficient at the same time.

And you were the same — invisible, but efficient.”

“I enjoyed a heavenly peace here. No disturbance could enter.

But many good things — both material and immaterial — got in. Many cakes, cheeses, wines,” he said.

Pope wonders where guardian angel was

CASTING A WAVE — Pope Benedict XVI waves during his Sunday Angelus prayer while on vacation in Les Combes, Italy, recently. (CNS photo/L’ Osservatore Romano via Reuters)

Pope confirms visit to Shroud of Turin; new evidence on shroud emerges

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI confirmed his intention to visit the Shroud of Turin when it goes on public display in Turin’s cathedral April 10-May 23, 2010.

Cardinal Severino Poletto of Turin, papal custodian of the Shroud of Turin, visited the pope in Les Combes, Italy, where the pope was spending part of his vacation. The Alpine village is about 85 miles from Turin.

The cardinal gave the pope the latest news concerning preparations for next year’s public exposition of the shroud and the pope “confirmed his intention to go to Turin for the occasion,” said the Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi.

The specific date of the papal visit has yet to be determined, the priest added.

The last time the Shroud of Turin was displayed to the public was in 2000 for the jubilee year. The shroud is removed from a specially designed protective case only for very special spiritual occasions, and its removal for study or display to the public must be approved by the pope.

The shroud underwent major cleaning and restoration in 2002.

According to tradition, the 14-foot-by-4-foot linen cloth is the burial shroud of Jesus.

The shroud has a full-length photonegative image of a man, front and back, bearing signs of wounds that correspond to the Gospel accounts of the torture Jesus endured in his passion

and death.

The Church has never officially ruled on the shroud’s authenticity, saying judgments about its age and origin belonged to scientific investigation. Scientists have debated its authenticity for decades, and studies have led to conflicting results.

A recent study by French scientist Thierry Castex has revealed that on the shroud are traces of words in Aramaic spelled with Hebrew letters.

A Vatican researcher, Barbara Frale, told Vatican Radio that her own studies suggest the letters on the shroud were written more than 1,800 years ago.

She said that in 1978 a Latin professor in Milan noticed Aramaic writing on the shroud and in 1989 scholars discovered Hebrew characters that probably were portions of the phrase “The king of the Jews.”

Castex’s recent discovery of the word “found” with another word next to it, which still has to be deciphered, “together may mean ‘because found’ or ‘we found,’” she said.

The Anchor

What is interesting, she said, is that it recalls a passage in the Gospel of St. Luke, “We found this man misleading our people,” which was what several Jewish leaders told Pontius Pilate when they asked him to condemn Jesus.

She said it would not be unusual for something to be written on a burial cloth in order to indicate the identity of the deceased.

Frale, who is a researcher at the Vatican Secret Archives, has written a new book on the shroud and the Knights Templar, the medieval crusading order which, she says, may have held secret custody of the Shroud of Turin during the 13th and 14th centuries.

She told Vatican Radio that she has studied the writings on the shroud in an effort to find out if the Knights had written them.

“When I analyzed these writings, I saw that they had nothing to do with the Templars because they were written at least 1,000 years before the Order of the Temple was founded” in the 12th century, she said.

OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER Vol. 53, No. 29

Member: Catholic Press Association, Catholic News Service

Published weekly except for two weeks in the summer and the week after Christmas by the Catholic Press of the Diocese of Fall River, 887 Highland Avenue, Fall River, MA 02720, Telephone 508-675-7151 — FAX 508-675-7048, email: theanchor@anchornews.org.

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PUBLISHER - Most Reverend George W. Coleman EXECUTIVE EDITOR Father Roger J. Landry fatherrogerlandry@anchornews.org EDITOR David B. Jolivet davejolivet@anchornews.org NEWS EDITOR Deacon James N. Dunbar jimdunbar@anchornews.org OFFICE MANAGER Mary Chase marychase@anchornews.org ADVERTISING Wayne R. Powers waynepowers@anchornews.org REPORTER Kenneth J. Souza kensouza@anchornews.org Send Letters to the Editor to: fatherrogerlandry@anchornews.org

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August 7, 2009

The International Church

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500,000 protest anti-Catholic violence

JUST CLOWNING AROUND — A volunteer from Caring Clowns International plays with children at a shantytown in Lima, Peru, recently. Members of the Caring Clowns International visited some of Lima’s poorest places to bring a little joy to people there and to hand over some donations. (CNS photo/Pilar Olivares, Reuters)

Vatican laicizes former spiritual director to Medjugorje visionaries

LONDON (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI has laicized a Franciscan priest who served as the spiritual adviser to the Marian visionaries in Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The pontiff, in a document issued “motu proprio” (on his own initiative), returned Father Tomislav Vlasic to the lay state and dispensed him from his religious vows as a member of the Order of Friars Minor.

Vlasic was confined to a Franciscan monastery in L’Aquila, Italy, in February 2008 after he refused to cooperate in a Vatican investigation of his activities for suspected heresy and schism.

He also was being investigated for “the diffusion of dubious doctrine, manipulation of consciences, suspected mysticism, disobedience towards legitimately issued orders and charges contra sextum (against the Sixth Commandment not to commit adultery),” as stated in the interdict signed by Cardinal William J. Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

According to the congregation, all the charges against Vlasic were “in the context of the Medjugorje phenomenon.”

Vlasic was placed under an interdict threatening “severe cautionary and disciplinary measures” if he violated a range of prohibitions that included making any public appearances.

However, his laicization was the result of a request from Vlasic himself, according to a letter sent

by Franciscan Father Jose Rodriguez Carballo, the order’s minister general, to Franciscan provincials in the Adriatic region.

In the letter dated March 10 and made public July 24, Father

Rodriguez said Vlasic was “responsible for conduct harmful to ecclesial communion in the spheres of doctrine and discipline.”

Pope Benedict has imposed conditions on Vlasic “under pain of excommunication ... and if necessary without prior canonical warning,” among them the “absolute prohibition from exercising any form of apostolate,” the letter said.

There is an “absolute prohibition from releasing declarations on religious matters, especially regarding the phenomenon of Medjugorje,” and Vlasic is banned from residing in Franciscan houses, the letter said.

Father Rodriguez told the provincials to “instruct the guardians and superiors of friaries about full compliance, by Tomislav Vlasic, with the pontifical measures regarding him, in particular relative to the prohibition of residing in any houses belonging to the Order of Friars Minor, under pain of removal from office.”

Vlasic was a central figure in the early days of the apparitions, which began in 1981 when Mirjana Dragicevic, Marija Pavlovic, Vicka Ivankovic, Ivan Dragicevic, Ivanka Ivankovic and Jakov Colo said they had seen Mary on a hillside near their town.

In 1984 Vlasic wrote to Pope John Paul II to say that he was the one “who through divine providence guides the seers of Medjugorje.”

But retired Bishop Pavao Zanic of Mostar-Duvno did not believe the claims of the visionaries and accused Vlasic of creating the phenomenon.

Vlasic left Medjugorje in the mid-1980s to establish the Queen of Peace community in Parma,

Italy, for both men and women after it was publicly revealed that he had fathered a child with a Franciscan nun and then tried to cover up their affair.

The visionaries say they are still seeing apparitions and that they have received more than 40,000 visits from Mary.

But three Church commissions failed to find evidence to support the visionaries’ claims and the bishops of the former Yugoslavia declared in 1991 that “it cannot be affirmed that these matters concern supernatural apparitions or revelations.”

In 1985, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, then prefect of the doctrinal congregation and now Pope Benedict, banned official, diocesan or parish-sponsored pilgrimages to the shrine. However, individual Catholics are still free to visit and have a priest with them.

HANOI, Vietnam, (Zenit.org) — Catholics organized protests in several Vietnamese cities after two priests and other laypeople were savagely beaten by police and thugs.

AsiaNews reported today that Father Paul Nguyen Dinh Phu and Father Peter Nguyen The Binh are in critical condition after the attacks.

The former has broken ribs and head injuries, and the latter was beaten into a coma and then thrown from a second floor window.

The Diocese of Vinh released a statement condemning the police violence against the priests and other Catholics during the past week.

On July 20, hundreds of Catholics were attacked at the church of Tam Toa, where they had gathered to erect a cross and altar.

The 120-year-old church, damaged after an American bombing in 1968, was seized in 1996 by the government to create a “U.S. war crimes memorial.”

The people were too poor to rebuild their church immediately, but they still regard it as the seat of their parish and come together there for ceremonies.

After repeated requests for the return of the land, Bishop PaulMarie Cao Dinh Thuyen of Vinh celebrated a February 2 Mass at the parish, which was attended by 14 priests and thousands of faithful.

Last week, when the faithful gathered again to bring a cross and an altar, police launched tear gas bombs at them, and then began to beat them with sticks and stun guns.

Many were injured, and others were carried away in police vans.

A protest was planned for Sunday, joining people in different cities to denounce this violence and request the return of imprisoned Catholics.

Approximately 500,000 people, along with 170 priests and 420 religious, joined in the peaceful march, praying the rosary through the streets of cities in the Nghe An, Ha Tinh and Quang Binh regions.

Father Dinh Phu Nguyen was on his way to the Tam Toa parish that morning, to celebrate Mass along with five other priests before the demonstration, when he was attacked.

He had been trying to intervene to protect three women being beaten by a group of men.

He said that the gang recognized him as a priest and turned to beat him “with brutality” instead, while some 30 uniformed policemen watched.

A group of laypeople came to save him and take him to the hospital.

The diocese issued a public complaint to People’s Committee of Quang Binh province, and asked Father Nguyen The Binh, the pastor of a nearby parish, to visit the hospitalized priest, along with the vice governor, Tran Cong Thuat.

However, the gang who beat the first priest was surrounding the hospital, armed with clubs.

Thuat fled, and the thugs attacked the abandoned pastor, beating him unconscious and then throwing him from an upper level of the building.

Protests against this violence have arisen in many cities. Monday evening in Ho Chi Minh City, over 2,000 Catholics attended a prayer vigil to appeal to the Vietnamese government to stop this persecution.

Last Friday, the Vinh Diocese publicized a statement calling for the government to “stop immediately the distortion of truth, the defamation of religion, and the instigation of hatred between Catholics and non-Catholics.”

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The Church in the U.S.

August 7, 2009

U.S. among countries receiving reproduction of Guadalupe image

B y Catholic News Service

MIDLAND, Texas — A Church-authorized reproduction of the original image of Our Lady of Guadalupe that hangs in the Mexico City basilica dedicated to her is scheduled to arrive in Midland in the Diocese of San Angelo August 13.

It will be enshrined permanently at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church and Shrine in Midland. A special Mass and enshrinement ceremony has been planned.

Another authorized duplicate — both are digital images — will be sent to Alaska, the only other state that will receive one. The United States is one of about a dozen countries receiving the reproductions, according to an announcement from the San Angelo Diocese.

Germany and Poland are expected to receive the images in the coming months. Countries that already have received reproductions are Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Panama, Nicaragua, Cameroon, Nigeria and Zambia.

“As bishop of the Diocese of San Angelo, it gives me great joy to receive one of the very unique images of Our Lady of Guadalupe,” said Bishop Michael D. Pfeifer. The reproduction coming to his diocese has, like the others, been touched to the original image in Mexico City.

Bishop Pfeifer explained that “the special image” was offered to him for his diocese by one of his former students.

For some years after his priestly ordination as a Missionary Oblate of Mary Immaculate in

1964, he served in Mexico.

Today, his former student, Fernando Anchustegui of Mexico City, promotes devotion to Mary under the title of Our Lady of Guadalupe and planned to bring the reproduction to west Texas himself.

In December 1531 Mary appeared to St. Juan Diego at Tepeyac, Mexico. She left her image on his “tilma,” or cloak.

It is that same cloak that hangs in the Mexico City basilica.

Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patroness of the Americas.

For nearly 478 years her image has been a symbol of unity, peace, compassion and hope for people around the world.

Her feast day is December 12.

“The Blessed Mother is again appearing to us here,” said Father Ed deLeon, pastor of the Midland church and shrine. “Many people cannot travel to Mexico City to see her and she wants to be with us and this is a great occasion for her to be with us forever.”

Like the bishop, he noted that “when the Church gave permission for the copies to be made and distributed around the world” the reproductions “were laid on the original before being sent to each continent.”

“Anyone or any parish is welcome to come see her, to touch her and to pray to her, asking for her intercessions,” Father deLeon added.

He also said the presence of the image would spur an increase in pilgrimages to his church and shrine and in turn would have a direct impact on the local tourism industry, which will help the area’s extremely poor economy.

HEALING TOUCH — Dr. Kenton Gregory of Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, Ore., has been using designs from nature to create new healing techniques for wounded soldiers.

(CNS photo/courtesy of Providence Health and Services)

Portland doctor saves wounded soldiers’ lives with new bandage

By Ed Langlois Catholic News Service

PORTLAND, Ore. — He rebuilds the blown-up and regenerates the maimed.

Someday, he hopes to restore the brain-damaged, all using designs from the Almighty — designs found in nature.

Dr. Kenton Gregory, a researcher at Catholic-run Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, has gained worldwide kudos for inventing a new bandage that quickly halts bleeding. On top of that, it seals wounds and kills bacteria. Compared to the cloth gauze that had been used from the days of Alexander the Great until the Gulf War, the bandage is a miracle.

Now, this Harvard-trained physician is getting grants from the U.S. Army to develop stemcell therapies to heal wounded soldiers. He never uses embryonic stem cells, but only cells that come from the patient, snar-

ing Mother Nature’s latent healing powers.

“The most important cell is your own,” said Gregory, 54. “It won’t get rejected or cause cancer.”

Hurt soldiers often write to Gregory and his colleagues, or even visit to give testimony about the new bandages. Many say they owe their lives to the Oregon lab.

“My top priority is taking care of injured U.S. soldiers with wounds that will haunt them for the rest of their lives,” Gregory told the Catholic Sentinel, newspaper of the Portland Archdiocese. “They are risking their lives for us. It’s something our country owes them.”

The bandage is a good example of the work done at the Oregon Medical Laser Center, which Gregory founded and which is located at Providence St. Vincent. The dressing’s material is based on a design almost as old as life itself, the shells of shrimps and insects.

The compounds in the resilient bandages have a positive electrical charge, while red blood cells have a negative charge. The two bond like magnets, stopping the flow. The bandages also grab the membranes of bacteria, blotting out infection.

With the military’s support, the bandage in 2002 received the second fastest approval in the history of the Food and Drug Administration. Members of Congress worked to expedite the process and had secured initial research funding.

Every U.S. soldier now carries the Oregon-made HemCon dressings, which they can apply to wounded buddies, or even to themselves. Bleeding is the single leading cause of death among soldiers killed in action. Researchers say the shrimp-based

bandages will prevent 20 to 30 percent of battlefield deaths. The key is using proteins — like collagen — that are the base of connective tissues in organisms.

The medical center is also developing natural protein-based replacements for arteries, stomachs and intestines. Gregory early on developed replacement skin tissue, “using what Mother Nature uses,” he said.

Taking more lessons from elegant natural design, Gregory and other researchers at the center are now focusing on ways to repair tissue damaged in arms and legs, mostly because of roadside bombs. Extreme swelling from hard-fragment blows brings pressure that cuts off the blood supply, which can lead to irreversible nerve and muscle damage.

Founded in 1991, the Oregon Medical Laser Center started by using lasers to repair serious wounds and halt strokes and heart attacks. When the Army caught wind of the work in the late 1990s and started giving grants, the discoveries increased.

The center’s team is comprised of physicians, chemists, biologists, biomaterial engineers, clinicians, physicists and administrative staff.

With the military asking for technology to instantly plug bullet wounds without needing to apply pressure, the lab is working on a sort of spray to inject into the wound. Also on the horizon are methods to regenerate lungs damaged by pneumonia.

The Army may have the most interest in ways of restoring damaged brain tissue, another common injury caused by the bombs in Afghanistan and Iraq. Gregory described the method as “helping the brain heal itself.” The work may have implications for treating multiple sclerosis.

August 7, 2009

The Church in the U.S.

Latest advance said to prove no need to kill embryos

By Nancy Frazier O’Brien Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON — The work of two teams of Chinese scientists who created live mice from induced pluripotent stem cells is “another demonstration that researchers don’t need to destroy embryos” to achieve stem-cell advances, according to a Pro-Life official at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The research done by separate teams in Shanghai and Beijing and published in July in the scientific journals Nature and Cell Stem Cell showed that the so-called iPS cells have “the full range of uses that embryonic stem cells are proposed for,” said Richard M. Doerflinger, associate director of the USCCB Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities.

“The immediate finding is that induced pluripotent stem cells, created without harming any embryos, really are as versatile as embryonic stem cells,” he said.

But Doerflinger also warned in a late July interview with Catholic News Service that this latest breakthrough in stem-cell research shows that iPS cells are “so powerful” that researchers “might be able to put them in a human embryo and change the genetic makeup of that child and all the future generations” related to the child.

“It’s an ominous thing, that they could be remaking people’s

genetic traits,” he added. “It’s a powerful technology and it could be misused.”

The two Chinese teams had varying degrees of success in cre-

reported hundreds of second-generation and more than 100 thirdgeneration mice.

The second team, headed by Shaorong Gao of the National

LITTLE BIG MOUSE — Tiny, a mouse created from stem cells created from mouse skin, is pictured in China in this January 2009 photograph made available July 24. The work of two teams of Chinese scientists who created the mice from induced pluripotent stem cells is “another demonstration that researchers don’t need to destroy embryos” to achieve stem-cell advances, according to a Pro-Life official at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. (CNS photo/Research Team Leader Qi Zhou/Chinese Academy of Sciences handout via Reuters)

ating genetic duplicates of mice by reprogramming skin cells from adult mice into iPS cells and then implanting the embryos created into a surrogate mother.

The first team, led by Qi Zhou of the Institute of Zoology in Beijing and Fanyi Zeng of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, reported 27 live births, starting with a mouse named Xiao Xiao or “Tiny.” All 12 of the genetic duplicates that were mated produced offspring without abnormalities; the team

Institute of Biological Sciences in Beijing, produced only two live births using the same technique, with one of those dying in infancy.

The team is currently trying to mate the surviving mouse.

In the U.S., the National Institutes of Health recently issued final guidelines for federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research, requiring that such research use only embryos created for reproductive purposes at in vitro fertilization clinics and no longer needed for that purpose.

Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities, strongly criticized the final guidelines and said the debate over embryonic stem-cell research “now

to do with making the man walk again? Sin is a real disease that makes us spiritually blind, deaf, mute and lame. We are disabled so that we cannot perform the works of mercy. Sin is a disability making us unable to reach out to God or our neighbor,” he added.

Archbishop Gomez spoke of the many ways in which people are “all concerned about their health, but have no concern for their spiritual health.” He reminded his listeners that health of the body “lasts maybe another 50 years, but then everyone dies.”

The greatest need, Archbishop Gomez told his audience, is to show people that sin is real, that evil is an obstacle in their lives.

“People live as if God does not exist,” he said. “Without a daily awareness of God, we have no sensitivity to the law of God.” By way of contrast, Christ’s words of forgiveness show people the face of the Father, he said.

“You (priests) must speak as Jesus speaks to the paralyzed man, calling him ‘child,’” Archbishop Gomez said. “Remind people that they are children of God.” He challenged the priests pres-

ent to make God’s mercy alive to their people: “God will forgive every trespass as long as the sinner is truly sorry and wants to amend his life.”

The Confraternity of Catholic Clergy’s annual conference took place in late July at the Drury Hotel Riverwalk in San Antonio.

About two dozen priests and deacons hailing from dioceses from California to Pennsylvania attended.

“It’s good to be with fellow clergy who are faithful in every way to the Church,” said Deacon Russ Swin of the Diocese of Peoria, Ill. “I always learn something” at the organization’s conferences.

Other speakers at the conference included Father Brian Harrison, an Australian-born priest of the Oblates of Wisdom now living in St. Louis, and Msgr. Stuart W. Swetland, vice president for Catholic identity and mission at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md. Membership in the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy is open to bishops, priests and deacons, and seminarians and deacon candidates.

Do all so as to be in Jesus’ presence, archbishop tells clergy conference

SAN ANTONIO (CNS) — Catholic clergy and laypeople must imitate the spirit that led friends of the paralyzed man in the Gospel account to do “everything they could so that the man could be in the presence of Jesus,” because “real joy comes when we make Jesus the center of our lives.”

That was the message from Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of San Antonio to participants in the recent annual conference of the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy, a support and education organization for U.S. Catholic priests and deacons.

Archbishop Gomez called the story — in Chapter 9 of Matthew’s Gospel, the paralyzed man was lowered through a hole in the roof of the house where Jesus was teaching — a “graphic example” of healing.

Christ told the man, “Have courage, child, your sins are forgiven.” Why, the archbishop asked, is this pardon the first gift Christ gave the man? After all, it prompted the Pharisees to anger and an accusation that Christ was blaspheming.

“What does forgiveness have

shifts to Congress, where some members have said even this policy does not go far enough in treating some human beings as objects to be created, manipulated and destroyed for others’ use.”

Some had predicted that President Barack Obama’s decision to reverse the limits on funding of embryonic stem-cell research established under President George W. Bush would lead to the rapid expansion of such research, particularly at the university level.

The results of a survey by The Chronicle of Higher Education, published July 21, found that six percent of major research universities — those with $100 million or more in federal grants — planned to increase research on human embryonic stem cells “by a large amount.”

The survey also found that most of the universities said they had increased their contribution to the indirect costs of scientific research on campus by 50 percent or more over the past five years.

A federal policy established in 1991 limits the indirect costs that a university may collect on each federal research grant for expenses like photocopying, accounting and electricity.

5

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6

The Anchor Genuine health care reform

Everyone knows that our health care system is in need of reform. Rising costs are crippling the budgets of families, small businesses and even large corporations. Insurance plans are charging more to cover less. Roughly 15 percent of Americans have no health insurance at all. Doctors, saddled with astronomical medical school loans and even higher annual malpractice insurance rates, often are forced to adopt working hours and styles contrary to their own good and their patients’ care. There is a critical shortage of nurses.

At the same time, parts of the system remain the envy of the world. In terms of medical training, advanced equipment, research and diagnostic capabilities, surgical and trauma care, America is without equal. Few Americans, if they or a loved one had a life-threatening medical emergency, would prefer to be in Toronto or London, rather than in Boston or any other major American city.

Any legitimate reform needs to seek to fix what’s broken, rather than break the parts that are in no need of repair. It’s not the whole system that is ailing, but only parts of the system; prudent reform will seek not to replace the entire system with foreign models that have never produced excellence, but to fix the evident problems while maintaining the conditions that help foster the excellence. Otherwise, we might not achieve genuine reform, but a deformation and worsening of our health care system — essentially killing the patient as a whole rather than treating what’s diseased.

Because our health care system is complex, real reform is obviously complicated work. That’s why it is alarming and absurd that the presidential administration and certain legislators on Capitol Hill were in a frantic rush to ram through what they were calling “reform” by an artificial deadline, before the president himself and many of the legislators had even had a chance to read what was in the proposed bills under discussion. To ensure that change doesn’t end up for the worse, it’s important that all aspects of the proposed legislation have a chance to be reviewed, not merely by the legislators but by concerned citizens, institutions and experts. This is the way that we can seek to ensure that we get real reform, rather than are forced for no reason other than Congressional impatience to accept the bad with the good.

Leaders of the U.S. Bishops Conference, which has long advocated comprehensive health care reform, have had a chance to review the bills in the House of Representatives and in the Senate and have called attention to two of the most problematic aspects. The first involves abortion coverage.

Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, chairman of the Pro-Life Activities Committee of the U.S. Bishops, wrote in a July 29 letter to Congress that “much-needed reform must not become a vehicle for promoting an ‘abortion rights’ agenda or reversing longstanding current policies against federal abortion mandates and funding.”

He specified three ways that the proposed legislation in the House of Representatives can be used to promote abortion. First, “the legislation delegates to the Secretary of Health and Human Services the power to make abortion a basic or essential benefit in all health plans, or in the ‘public plan’ created by the legislation.” Second, “because some federal funds are authorized and appropriated by this legislation without passing through the Labor/HHS appropriations bill, they are not covered by the Hyde amendment and other provisions that have prevented direct federal funding of abortion for over three decades.” He says that the legislation needs to add a provision to prevent funding abortion. Third, “provisions such as those requiring timely access to all benefits covered by qualified health plans could be used by courts to override and invalidate state laws regulating abortion, such as laws to ensure women’s safety and informed consent and to promote parental involvement when minors consider abortion.” He said that the legislation must be reworked to make clear that such laws will not be preempted.

Dr. Louis Breschi, president of the Catholic Medical Association, spoke out directly about the ethical concern Catholic doctors have about the proposed legislation. “Most analysts think that, without explicit exclusion, abortion will be mandated by the Secretary of HHS and/or by the courts. … Few people realize that, as things stand, abortion could be a required benefit in all health insurance plans, and it would be subsidized not only in health-care premiums, but also through taxation.

This unjust mandate must be excluded.”

The second major threat Cardinal Rigali specified was to the conscience rights of health care providers not to have to participate in practices — like abortion, euthanasia and sterilization — that violate the well-informed conscience of any Catholic. The executive director of the Catholic Medical Association, Dr. John Behany, noted, “The House Tri-Committee bill does not even mention the topic of conscience rights of health-care providers, and Democrats on the Senate H.E.L.P. Committee voted against an amendment that would have prohibited forcing health-care providers to perform or participate in abortion. This issue is very timely, since the department of Health and Human Services canceled a Conscience Protection Rule earlier this year and has not announced what will replace it.” Since the Department of Health and Human Services, which is slated to be the lead agency in the implementation of health care reform, has just this March already weakened conscience protections, the bishops and Catholic doctors want to make sure protections are in place ahead of time.

Doctors at the Catholic Medical Association listed additional problems. “Apart from ethical concerns, the CMA finds significant shortcomings in the economic and clinical aspects of current legislation. First, as the Congressional Budget Office points out, the legislation does nothing to reduce long-term costs. Rather, current legislation increases costs by hundreds of billions of dollars even after tax increases and creative accounting measures. Second, the bills’ attempts to control costs and increase access rely on heavy-handed government control that is antithetical to the rights of patients and physicians, and to good clinical care.” It is contrary to the principle of subsidiarity — one of the central principles of Catholic social justice that teaches that authority should always be vested at the lowest feasible organizational level — to locate so much authority for medical care and decision-making at the federal level with the Secretary of Health and Human Services and with the “Health Choices Commissioner.” Although there are obvious inefficiencies in the current health care system, which need to be fixed, few would consider the inefficiency of a massive government bureaucracy a genuine solution.

The CMA also points out, “This heavy-handed federal control is made worse by two additional provisions. First, House bill regulations make it almost impossible for any current health insurance plan to survive in a new government-controlled regime. … Second, House and Senate bills plan to extend health insurance coverage to millions of people by moving them onto the Medicaid rolls.

However, the flaws of Medicaid are well-known — its costs have run out of control in most states, and 40 percent of physicians are compelled to refuse Medicaid patients because Medicaid’s low reimbursement rates do not even cover the overhead cost of office visits. Adding millions of people to this flawed system will not constitute meaningful health insurance coverage.” These problems would be exacerbated by a ‘public option’ plan which would ‘compete’ with private health insurance, as called for in the House Tri-Committee bill. But there is no way that private companies can fairly compete with the federal government. … The result is that everyone, sooner than later, will be forced to become participants in the ‘public option’ plan and fully subject to the costs and regulations of government health care. When this happens, the American people will have lost the freedom to make important decisions about their life and health.”

The CMA summarizes its review of the bills by stating, “Sound reform must be based on sound ethics and economics; but so far, the House and Senate bills meet neither standard.” Genuine health care reform deserves both.

August 7, 2009

The divine vocation strategy

Sacred Scripture abounds in examples of how make spectacularly wrong judgment calls!

God has repeatedly taken the least and made Having received very little formal schooling, them great in salvation history. Abraham was a Vianney began his formal studies to the priestchildless octogenarian who became the father of hood at the age of 19 in the presbytery school of many nations. Moses was an abandoned baby and Father Balley. He was not unintelligent, just unwanted murderer whom God exalted as the great educated, but most of his fellow students didn’t liberator of his people. Gideon was the weakest know the difference. All they knew was that they, family member of the weakest clan in his region though many years his junior, learned things far and God chose him to topple the mighty Midian- more easily. No matter how hard Vianney labored, ites. David, the least son in his shepherding fam- and he did so diligently for months, he couldn’t ily, overcame the fearsome Goliath with a simple master Latin. He eventually thought it better for slingshot and rose to become the triumphant King him to return home than continue to frustrate both of Israel and progenitor of the Lord. his teachers and fellow students.

There are so many other examples: Amos was This was the first time he thought it could be a dresser of Sycamore trees, Jeremiah an insecure over. Father Balley, however, persuaded him not to boy, Esther a powerless exile, Peter a sinful and give up. He made a 120-mile round-trip pilgrimoften unsuccessful fisherman, Matthew a detested age to the shrine of St. Francis Regis, begging for tax-collector, Paul a Christian persecutor, Mary a his intercession that he might learn enough Latin girl from a village from which people doubted to do theology. He returned no longer dismayed. whether any good could ever come, and Christ As he began to apply himself once again, his Jesus, a crucified criminal born in a stranger’s studies were interrupted when he drafted into the cave, buried in a stranger’s grave, who is Son of Napoleonic army, an 18-month odyssey that was God and Savior of the world. the second time his vocation was almost ended.

These are just a sampling of the many After he had returned, Father Balley was imthroughout sacred Scripture who are living ex- patient to see this much older candidate move foramples of the perennial principle St. Paul wrote mally to the seminary, to do the one year of philosabout to the first Christians in Corinth. “The fool- ophy and two years of theology that were required ishness of God is at the time. When wiser than men, he arrived in Verand the weakness rières to begin of God is stronhis philosophy ger than men. studies, Vianney For consider your found that he call, brethren; not couldn’t even unmany of you were derstand the LatBy Father wise according in queries posed to worldly stanby the priest proRoger J. Landry dards, not many fessor who was were powerful, younger than he not many were of was. With a few noble birth; but God chose what is foolish in the others, he was separated for classes in French, world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak but despite his increased comprehension, he still in the world to shame the strong” (1 Cor 1:25-27). received on his report card the overall grade of “a It’s unsurprising that if God routinely chose weak student to the extreme.” This was the third prophets and judges, and Christ selected Apostles, major temptation. He persevered through it, howfrom among those with ridiculously unqualified ever, and was assigned to the major seminary in resumés, he would continue to choose the weak Lyons to do his theology. as priests and make them strong in bearing witThere again the problem of his weak Latin ness to him. Perhaps no one is a greater witness comprehension got him into trouble. He was so of this principle than the saint whose 150th an- hopeless in responding to the professors’ questions niversary the Church celebrated on Tuesday, St. in class that they stopped calling on him altogethJohn Vianney, the famous curé or pastor of Ars, er. He was assigned a tutor, to review the lessons France. with him in French. After six months, however, If 200 years ago we had taken a poll of those the faculty came to the conclusion that there was preparing with Vianney to be priests, few would no hope that he would ever know enough Latin have ventured that, with his “mauvaise tête” that to become a priest, so they dismissed the future just couldn’t grasp Latin no matter how hard he patron saint of the clergy from the seminary. The tried, he would ever get ordained. It’s certain that fourth major obstacle. no one would have guessed that the likable but After he began, reluctantly, to think of becomstruggling older student would one day go on ing a religious Brother, Father Balley again internot just to become a priest but be exalted by the vened, tutoring him in Latin and in French and Church as the patron saint and model of every preparing him outside of the seminary for the capriest to come after him. nonical examinations. Father Balley was faithfully Every saint’s life is a commentary on the gambling on his own reputation and the hopes that Gospel, an illustration of the heroic virtues and an exception might be made, or a miracle given. love to which every Christian is called to aspire The exams were another total failure; Vianney did and acquire through God’s grace. St. John Vian- not even know what questions were being asked ney’s life is a lesson for all of us in the virtue of of him. This was the fifth crisis. perseverance. It’s also a powerful witness of the Even though Vianney saw no path forward, miracle of grace that God can work in someone Father Balley spoke to the examiners and used who generously gives the Lord whatever meager his reputation to secure that two of them come to five fish and two loaves he has. examine Vianney in French the following day at I alluded to some of John Vianney’s struggles the rectory. In his native tongue, he did well, but on the road to the priesthood in the last column, it would be an uphill battle to find a bishop who which was dedicated to his holy mentor, Father would ordain a man with so little knowledge of Charles Balley, who sustained him and interceded the language of the Church. for him through all of them. It’s worthwhile to reFather Balley arranged an interview with the call these trials in greater detail, however, not just vicar general of Lyons, Msgr. Courbon, who was because they are a testimony to how one should administering the archdiocese during the archnever lose hope even in the midst of insurmount- bishop’s exile. He informed him of Vianney’s able odds, but also because Vianney’s persever- history and asked him to call him to holy orders. ance is precisely the means by which most priests The vicar general, doubtless inspired by God, initially come to relate to him. asked, “Is he pious? Does he have a devotion to Most priests read the life of the Curé of Ars our Lady? Does he know how to say the rosary?” for the first time when we’re discerning a voca- Upon being told by Father Balley that young Vition to the priesthood or when we’re in our first anney was exemplary in his piety, Msgr. Courbon years of seminary. His chronicle of persever- prophetically replied, “”Very well, I summon him ance through so many obstacles often serves as a to come up for ordination. The grace of God will powerful inspiration to us when we’re struggling do the rest.” through academic, formational or other challengThe grace of God, which had helped John Vies. The fact that the future patron saint of priests anney persevere until then, did in fact do the rest. was once kicked out of the seminary is, after all, Father Landry is pastor of St. Anthony of a witness that occasionally priests on faculty can Padua Parish in New Bedford.

Putting Into the Deep

August 7, 2009

P

riests and religious were not foreign to my family.

Dad had a brother who was a priest (Msgr. Henri A. Hamel), two aunts who were Sisters of Holy Cross, an uncle who was a Brother of Christian Schools, a first cousin who was a priest for the Archdiocese of Boston, and six first cousins who were religious women.

Not to be outdone, mom had three brothers who were priests (Msgr. Gerard J. Chabot, Father Luke M. Chabot, OFM, and Father Bertrand R. Chabot), a sister who was a nun (Sister Armand Marie Chabot, SUSC — the same community as we had in school.

She also had an aunt who was a Religious of Jesus and Mary, plus a first cousin and a second cousin who were also women religious.

Both of mom’s parents also had relatives in religious life, some of whom functioned in this diocese (Msgr. Alfred Bonneau, Msgr.

Louis Prevost, Father Daniel Gamache) … and the list still isn’t exhausted.

As a youngster, I wanted to be a priest. Serving as an altar boy and being so close to the altar while Mass was being celebrated and Christ was made present was for me the best thing possible.

Things took a serious turn when I was in high school and met the diocesan director of vocations, Father John J. Smith. To finalize my entry into the seminary college, I

H

7

The Anchor

The absolute best job in the world

had a meeting with Father Smith at moment and answered him with St. James Rectory in New Bedford, another question. “Do you suppose that it’s because my parents created where he was parochial vicar. I remember the meeting as though it in their home the same type of environment that my grandparhappened last month, even though ents created in their home where it took place in 1973. the seeds of a religious vocation Father Smith, knowing at least could take root?” I don’t think he three of my four priest uncles, was expecting that response, but commented that they must have he agreed that it was probably the had an extraordinary influence on case. my decision to pursue a priestly I did mention, too, that I was vocation. He was somewhat taken aback when I responded with a simple, “No.” “No?” he asked. And I Year of the Priesthood responded “no” a second Vocational Reflection time.

“I really don’t know my uncles all that well,” I

By Father replied. “They work when Philip N. Hamel my parents have time off, and my parents work when they have time off. very lucky as a kid to have some We really only see them on holigreat priests as role models in the days, and at that point, the adults parish: Msgr. Alfred Gendreau, Fatalk, and the kids stick to themther Dan Gamache, Father Andre selves.” And it was true. While I “knew” them all, and was likewise Jussaume, Father Dick Beaulieu, Father Ray Robillard, and Father so proud to say that I had four Paul Canuel. priest uncles, they really didn’t I guess the answer must have have that much of an impact on my life — aside from explaining to my satisfied him since he continued to friends why we had so many priest recommend me to Bishop Daniel A. Cronin as a possible candidate. pictures on the lowboy.

Bishop Cronin is the one “Well,” asked Father Smith, from whose hands I received the “if they didn’t have that much sacrament of holy orders, as a influence on your decision, how deacon and as a priest. Priesthood do your explain the fact that you ordination was in June and I still might have a vocation?” have so many vivid recollections I thought about it for just a

of the Mass of Ordination. My favorite moment, after the laying on of hands, was when I got to kneel before the bishop so that he might anoint my hands with sacred Chrism. There was not a spot on the palms of my hands or the underside of my fingers that was not anointed. While “all of me” was ordained, the hands in particular are singled out for the priestly work that we do. From that point on, my hands would hold the gifts of the community that the Lord Jesus himself would consecrate into his Body and Blood through me, as his tool. And what an extraordinary joy it was the following day to celebrate my first Mass and know beyond doubt that Jesus himself was using me to bring the gifts of his Body and Blood to the community of believers. My voice. My ritual action. His power. His presence.

His Eucharist.

As a young priest I had the good fortune to be assigned to a parish that also had a hospital attached. Father Frank Wallace took the hospital as his ministry and he excelled at it. I got to cover it on his days off.

One evening when I was talking to my mom on the phone, I recapped the previous 24 hours that I had spent at the hospital with six anointings involving

some pretty serious, if not horrific, circumstances. Once I was done telling her of the various scenes, she said: “You know, Phil, I don’t care what some people might think. You have one tough job, and I wouldn’t want it for all the money in the world.”

I suspect that it might be the grace of the sacrament that prompted my response to her. I said: “Great. I have no intention of giving it to you. You could have gone into all of those same situations, said the same things and not have had the same impact. A lot of what I did today wasn’t so great to these people because Phil Hamel was there, but because the priest was there. Christ used me as a priest to bring his grace and healing to his people. And I wouldn’t give it up for all the money in the world.”

My uncle Bert — Father Bertrand R. Chabot — baptized me and also honored me by vesting me in chasuble at my ordination as a priest. Anyone who knew him heard him say on many occasions that he had the absolute best job in the whole world. He was absolutely convinced of it.

So maybe my uncles influenced me a bit more than I suspected.

God is good.

Father Hamel was ordained in 1985 and is pastor of St. Joseph-St. Therese Parish in New Bedford.

The authentic transformation of ‘useless’ human suffering

uman beings naturally recoil at the prospect of pain and suffering. When a sharp object pokes us, we instinctively pull away. When the unpleasant neighbor comes up on caller ID, we recoil from answering the phone. Our initial response is to avoid noxious stimuli and pain, similar to most animals.

Yet when dealing with painful or unpleasant situations, we can also respond deliberately and in ways that radically differentiate us from the rest of the animal kingdom.

We can choose, for example, to confront and endure our pain for higher reasons. We know that a needle will hurt, but we decide to hold our arm still when getting an injection because our powers of reason tell us it will improve our health. We know the pain of talking to our difficult neighbor, but we figure that we should rise to the challenge and do it anyway, attempting to build peace in the neighborhood.

We can also approach our pain and suffering in unreasonable ways, driven by worry and fear. When we suffer from a difficult relationship, we can turn to drugs, alcohol or bingeeating. When we suffer from the thought of continuing a pregnan-

cy, we can terminate it by taking accept its deeper meaning. Pope the life of our son or daughter by John Paul II often remarked that the answer to the question of the abortion. When we suffer from the pain of cancer, we can short- meaning of suffering has been given by God to man in the cross circuit everything by physicianof Jesus Christ. assisted suicide.

In the field of Catholic healthHow we decide to respond to care, the question of suffering suffering, whether rationally or arises with regularity, and while irrationally, is one of the most the dedicated practice of mediimportant human choices we make. For many in our society, suffering has become a singular evil to be avoided at all costs, leading to many irrational and destructive decisions.

By Father Tad While physical pain is Pacholczyk widespread in the animal world, the real difference for human beings is that cine strives to lessen suffering we know we are suffering and and pain, it can never completely we wonder why; and we suffer eliminate it. The U.S. Conferin an even deeper way if we fail ence of Catholic Bishops, in an to find a satisfactory answer. important document called the We need to know whether our Ethical and Religious Directives suffering has meaning. From for Catholic Health Care Serour hospital bed or wheelchair, we can hardly avoid the piercing vices, reminds us that “patients question of “why,” as grave sick- experiencing suffering that cannot be alleviated should be ness and weakness make us feel helped to appreciate the Chrisuseless and even burdensome tian understanding of redemptive to others. In the final analysis, suffering.” however, no suffering is “useThe very concept of “redempless,” though a great deal of suftive suffering” suggests that fering is lost or wasted because it is rejected by us, and we fail to there is much more to human

Making Sense Out of Bioethics

suffering than meets the eye, and that it is not simply an unmitigated evil from which we should instinctively flee. Rather, it is a mysterious force that can mold us in important ways and mature us, a force we ought to learn to work with and accept as part of our human journey and destiny.

Each of us, in our pain and suffering, can become a sharer in the redemptive suffering of Christ.

As children, we may have been taught those famous three words by our parents when pain and suffering would come our way: “Offer it up.” Those simple words served to remind us how our sufferings can benefit not only ourselves, but those around us in the mystery of our human communion with them. When we are immobilized in our hospital bed, we become like Christ, immobilized on the wood of the cross, and powerful redemptive moments open before us, if we accept and embrace our own situation in union with him.

Because of the personal love of the Lord towards us, we can in fact make a very real addition to his plan of salvation by uniting our sufferings to his

saving cross, just as a little child can make a very real addition to the construction of her mother’s cake when she lovingly allows her to add the eggs, flour, and salt. While the mother could do it all unaided, the child’s addition is real and meaningful, as the love of the mother meets the cooperation of the child to create something new and wonderful.

In the same way, God permits our sufferings, offered up, to make an indelible mark in his work of salvation. This transformation of the “uselessness” of our suffering into something profoundly meaningful serves as a source of spiritual joy to those who enter into it. For those who are in Christ, suffering and death represent the birth pangs of a new and redeemed creation. Our sufferings, while never desirable in themselves, always point towards transcendent possibilities when we do not flee from them in fear.

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

8

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oday we enter into the third week of Jesus’ fiveweek course on the mystery of his Body and Blood in the Eucharist, which Jesus taught for the first time in the synagogue of Capernaum and renews for us live every third summer. Today we enter into the heart of his teaching, in which Jesus begins to tackle in very clear language what the Eucharist is and what its relevance is for our salvation.

He frames it literally as a matter of eternal life and death — and therefore we should give his words our full attention.

Following upon the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fish and his declaration that too many seek him for merely human reasons as a free meal rather than out of a desire to know, love and serve God, Jesus today gets right to the point about what he came from heaven to give us. “The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” Next week he will add, even more explicitly, that “My flesh is true food; my blood is true drink.”

These sentences point to

The Anchor

August 7, 2009

The real presence and our response

what we call the real presence ing, touching, tasting are in thee of Christ in the holy Euchadeceived; only by listening is rist. Catholics believe with the this all believed; I believe whatcertainty of faith that after Jesus ever the Son of God has said. says the words of consecration Nothing is truer than the word through the priest, the reality of truth.” We believe in the realof bread and wine completely ity of the Eucharist ultimately changes into Jesus, his Body, because Jesus told us it was true Blood soul and divinity (the and he cannot lie. whole person of Christ); there is no bread or wine left, just the appearances of bread and wine.

Homily of the Week We believe this Nineteenth Sunday incredible truth, not bein Ordinary Time cause it appears that way to the senses — it obviBy Father ously doesn’t — but on Roger J. Landry account of the explicit testimony of Jesus, the truth incarnate, who said, “The To believe in the real presbread that I will give for the life ence of Christ in the Eucharist of the world is my flesh.” “My is not easy. When Jesus talked flesh is true food.” “Unless you about the reality of eating his eat my flesh and drink my blood, flesh and drinking his Blood for you have no life in you.” We the first time, many of his listenbelieve in Jesus and therefore we ers responded, “This is a hard believe what he says, even when teaching! Who can endure it?” it is hard to believe.

Many of his disciples — those St. Thomas Aquinas dewho already believed in Jesus scribed this ground for our faith — abandoned him. None of in the Eucharist in his beautiful Jesus’ words would fully make hymn “Adoro Te Devote”: “Seesense until exactly a year later

when, during the Last Supper, Jesus would take bread and wine, miraculously change their substance into his Body and Blood while maintaining their appearances, and then turn to his Apostles and say, “Take and eat; this is my body” and “Take, drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant” (Mt 26:25-28).

The Church has consistently taught that Jesus in the Eucharist is “the source and the summit of the Christian life.” In other words, for a life to be truly Christian, Jesus in the Eucharist has to be the beginning and end, the alpha and the omega, of what a person aspires to, says, and does. The Christian is called literally to live off of Jesus, who gives his flesh “for the life of the world.”

One specific application of this truth would be to daily Mass. The manna was given to the Israelites every day to sustain them one day at a time. So God the Father gives us his Son, the Living Bread, each day on the

altar. Do we at least aspire to come to take that daily nourishment? Are we prepared to “work for the food that endures to eternal life” by overcoming obstacles to daily Mass attendance?

Jesus’ first listeners said, “Lord, give us this Bread always,” and God the Father responded to that prayer by giving us the daily Eucharist.

The Curé of Ars, the 150th anniversary of whose birth into eternal life the Church celebrated on Tuesday, worked for 41 years to get all his parishioners to attend Mass daily. By the end of his life, he rejoiced to see his church filled each day with those who came to receive the “life of the world” from his hands. It would be great if, through his intercession during this Year for Priests, every Catholic in our diocese, including you, would concretely follow the example of the Christians in Ars and make Christ in the Eucharist the source and summit of each day.

Father Landry is pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Parish in New Bedford.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. Aug. 8, Dt 6:4-13; Ps 18:2-4,47,51; Mt 17:14-20. Sun. Aug. 9, Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, 1 Kgs 19:4-8; Ps 34:2-9; Eph 4:30-5:2; Jn 6:41-51. Mon. Aug. 10, feast of St. Lawrence, Deacon, Martyr, 2 Cor 9:6-10; Ps 112:1-2,5-9; Jn 12:24-26. Tues. Aug. 11, Dt 31:1-8; (Ps) Dt 32:3-4,7-9,12; Mt 18:1-5,10,1214. Wed. Aug. 12, Dt. 34:1-12; Ps 66:1-3,5,8,16-17; Mt 18:15-20. Thur. Aug. 13, Jos 3:7-10a,11,13-17; Ps 114:1-6; Mt 18:21-19:1. Fri. Aug. 14, Jos 24:1-13; Ps 136:1-3,1618,21-22,24; Mt 19:3-12.

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ope Benedict XVI’s social encyclical, Caritas in Veritate [Charity in Truth], is a complex and occasionally obscure document, replete with possible implications for the future development of Catholic social doctrine. Sorting those implications out will take much time and even more careful reflection. Along the information superhighway, however, careful reflection hit a few potholes in the early going, as sundry partisans sought to capture Caritas in Veritate as a weapon with which to bolster the Obama administration’s economic, health care, and social welfare policies.

Thus in the days immediately following the encyclical’s July

Benedict XVI and the truth about charity 7 release, we were treated to the four excommunicate Lefebvrist amusing, if somewhat ironic, bishops to the Church? spectacle of self-consciously But that was before we entered progressive Catholic magazines, the new Messianic Age. bloggers, and free-lancers, many In any event, there is an imporof whom would have preferred to tant theme in Caritas in Veritate eat ground glass rather than see that, were all Catholics to take it Joseph Ratzinger as Bishop of seriously, might have a measurable Rome, blasting those who dared impact on the American culture raise questions about the encyclical’s intellectual provenance and some of its formulations. Where were these stout-hearted crusaders when the going was tough — when, for

By George Weigel example, the pope was under fire for his Regensburg Lecture on Islam, or for attempting to reconcile wars and on the U.S. Church’s internal struggle to define Catholic identity — and that is the encyclical’s insistence, repeated several times, that the life issues are social justice issues, so that Catholic social doctrine includes the Church’s defense of life from conception until natural death.

This teaching began with John Paul II’s 1995 encyclical, “Evangelium Vitae” [The Gospel of Life], in which John Paul warned that democracies risk becoming “tyrant states” if moral wrongs are legally declared “rights.” ThenCardinal Joseph Ratzinger went a step further in his homily at the Mass for the election of a pope,

The Catholic Difference

on April 18, 2005. There, Ratzinger warned against a “dictatorship of relativism” in which coercive state power would be used to enforce the by-products of a culture skeptical about the human capacity to know the moral truth of anything: by-products such as abortion-on-demand, euthanasia, and “gay marriage.”

Now, as Benedict XVI, Ratzinger has moved the discussion further still, teaching that the defense of life is crucial to building the “human ecology” necessary to sustain just economic practices and protect the natural environment.

Caritas in Veritate has now put Catholic legislators and politicians on notice: you can’t duck the life issues, or vote the wrong way on the life issues, by hiding behind an alleged commitment to the Church’s social justice agenda.

Catholic social doctrine and the Church’s commitment to the right to life flow from the same source: the Catholic conviction about the inalienable dignity of every human life. A robust culture of life, the pope proposes, is essential for economic justice and environmental protection; it is also necessary if we are to avoid the dehumanization of a brave new

world of stunted and manufactured humanity, the slippery slope to which is paved with misconceived compassion and embryodestructive stem cell research.

Caritas in Veritate thus reminds the whole Church that there is neither justice nor charity without truth. No society can claim to be promoting justice or solidarity if its law denies the truth of others’ humanity. That is what Roe v. Wade and its judicial progeny have done in the United States; that is why laws protective of life from conception until natural death are an imperative of social justice; and that is why “common ground” efforts to lower the incidence of abortion, while welcome, are inadequate from the point of view of Catholic social doctrine — the moral equivalent of saying, in 1955, “OK, let’s see if we can’t get you black folks into one or two segregated restaurants in every county.”

Catholic legislators have been forcefully reminded of all this by the new Benedictine encyclical.

The results in the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, and our state legislatures should be instructive.

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

Robo priests

Tuesday 4 August 2009 — at robotics. One robot used by the home on Three Mile River — St. Lahey Clinic provides a virtual visit from a doctor unable to be John Vianney Day present personally. The physi’ve found the solution to the vocation crisis.

My idea came from a billboard on Interstate Route 195 in Fall Reflections of a River, the one picturing a Charlton Hospital Parish Priest surgeon with four arms.

By Father Tim Robotics. Some medical Goldrick robots cost less than $2 million, others rent for only $7,000 a month. cian may be miles away, but Let’s invest in clergy robots. the robot is right there at the As the ratio of parish priests nurse’s station. Controlled by a to parishioners plummets, phyphysician using remote hooksicians too are being swamped ups and a joystick, the machine with increasing numbers of glides down the corridor to patients and dwindling time to the patient’s room. On top is a meet with them. One way the screen showing the doctor in medical world is addressing real time. It also has swiveling the issue is the emerging field cameras so that the doctor can of telemedicine. This includes

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The Ship’s Log

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The Anchor

August 7, 2009

observe the patient and read the hospital monitors. Microphones and speakers allow for verbal communication. I am not making this up. Could robotics be the solution to the Church’s vocation crisis?

Priests are no strangers to developing technologies. Most rectories had a telephone before many private homes did. Initially, there was only one telephone per rectory. In my rectory, the shelf for the one telephone is located next to the curate’s bedroom.

Parish complexes now have multiple telephones, but I’m unsure as to whether or not this has improved communication. Modern systems have voicemail, but somehow a live person answering the phone is

Who’s the boss?

to international relations – but hildhood squabbles, at immoral gain, violence and least the ones witinjustice should never be connessed in this household, have fused with authority. often included an important Sadly, the modern world line of demarcation: “You’re has lost sight of the basic not the boss of me.” Certainly moral authority that rests in if one child is ever dispatched an office, and what is most to instruct another — espeperplexing is the lack of cially in assigning a chore, he respect that Catholics have for must begin with the caveat, the Magisterium, or teach“Dad [or Mom] said…,” in ing authority, of their own order to hold any sway.

Church. Despite the authority This keen ability to weigh vested in its pastors and the legitimate authority is rightfully carried into adulthood, where the fundamental respect initially given to parents and teachers is extended to the various legal entities.

By Genevieve Kineke There is also a looser form of authority given to those with solemn guarantee that Jesus degrees or specific life experihimself would remain with ence. From medical experts the Church, the majority of to child rearing gurus, many Catholics in our country seem seek advice that they are free to weigh her ageless teachings to take or leave. Wisdom must like passing fashions: “Peasparse the ways of thinking ant blouses again? Great, I’ve that come into vogue (with always liked those. Virginthe mass media fueling the ity before marriage? Not so trends), and those who later much.” wax nostalgic often smile at The “Catechism” puts it like their gullibility. “Remember this: “The task of giving an when we all thought?” authentic interpretation of the Money and power have Word of God, whether in its always confused the issue. written form or in the form of While financial remuneraTradition, has been entrusted tion compels people to act to the living teaching office of — whether for a paycheck the Church alone. Its authority or more dubious motives, the wealthy often have remarkable in this matter is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ. This influence flowing from permeans that the task of interverse respect of many in our pretation has been entrusted culture for the material world. to the bishops in communion As to power, sheer strength with the successor of Peter, the brings compliance virtually Bishop of Rome” (CCC, 85). everywhere — from playThus, as we continue to ground bullies to drug cartels

The Feminine Genius

observe this year dedicated to the priesthood, we should take the time to consider the status of authority and influence in our lives, and where our fealty rests. In particular, it would be beneficial to assess our relationship to the Church and how much respect we give to her Magisterium.

Those who are completely honest in this assessment will find that there is comfort in the part of the Church that caresses and confirms us — from the beauty and culture that affirms our sense of dignity to the embrace that is couched in divine love.

And yet we balk when that same love reminds us of obligations, sacrifices and our ultimate dependence on grace.

From our own great desire to have good returned for good, we should recognize the authentic goodness of the priesthood — lives poured as gifts, responding to the overflowing generosity of our Creator. The authority of a priest rests in the same chain of being that children intuit.

He speaks from a heart of love, ordained by his bishop, sent forth by the Church, who herself is wedded to Christ himself and his primordial mission. Ultimately, God is “the boss of us,” and thereby, we must trust and honor that clergy commissioned to reveal his will.

Mrs. Kineke is the author of The Authentic Catholic Woman (Servant Books). She can be found online at www. feminine-genius.com.

hard to beat. “All of our priests are currently busy serving other parishioners. Your call will be answered in the order in which it was received. If this is a venial sin, press one. If this is a mortal sin, press two. If you are under pain of interdict or excommunication, please stay on the line. A priest will be with you shortly.” Then the automated Gregorian chant kicks in. I don’t think so.

In 1996, our chancery office ordered all parishes to install a facsimile machine. The very first fax transmission informed us of the death of a brother priest. It was like receiving a singing telegram intoning, “Your grandmother is dead.”

Back then, faxes were innovative, now they’re archaic. The only faxes I receive anymore are either from the chancery or from some flimflam company announcing a sale on vinylwrapped replacement windows.

Faxes were supplanted by electronic mail years ago. People of all ages use email. The young also use text messaging, but I never received many of those. I eventually canceled the text messaging service on my cell phone.

Today, it’s all about Facebook, Twitter, and blogging.

I’m on Twitter and Facebook and, at one time, I had five blogs going simultaneously.

I’m “Facebook friends” with several of our younger priests and seminarians. These include Fathers Jeff Cabral, Jay Mello, and Rodney Thibault as well as seminarian Chris Peshel. Of course, Father Cabral has 631 other “Facebook friends,” Chris Peshel 665, and Father Mello 753 — but who’s counting?

In digital technologies, only a limited amount of words can be used. One has to be succinct.

I’m reminded of the wag who

remarked, “I had to write a long sermon today because I didn’t have time to prepare a short one.” According to Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson, Ariz., language has to be “crisp, punctuated with images, and resonating with feeling.” He added, “Abstract, theoretical, disembodied language has little place either in theater, in the pulpit, or in most communication from the Church.” I read this in The Anchor.

I’m all for technology in pastoral ministry. For this reason, during the diocesan Catholic Charities Campaign, I projected in church a digital video disc of the bishop’s message. I suspect that robots, though, can never replace parish priests.

The sacraments are personal encounters with God and community. In the sacrament of baptism, the candidate needs to feel the cool water and smell the fragrant Chrism. At the celebration of the Eucharist, the communicant needs to taste the sacred Species. In the sacrament of confirmation, the candidate comes to be anointed and embraced. In the sacrament of holy orders, anointing and the laying on of hands are necessary. In the sacrament of penance, the laying on of hands and the words of forgiveness are real, not virtual. In the sacrament of marriage, speaking the solemn vows aloud is essential. In the sacrament of the sick, there is again the laying on of hands and the anointing.

Sacraments are not for disembodied spirits. Sacraments rely on our five senses.

If we ever do have clergy robots, which I doubt, I bet Father R2D3 never makes monsignor.

Welcome to our world, St. John Vianney, and happy feast day.

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

Shrine of The Little Flower of Jesus JUBILEE CHURCH & SHRINE

16th Annual Feast Day Celebration First Shrine To St. Theresa In America

Sunday, August 16, 2009 Rain or Shine

9:30 AM ~ Prayers at Holy Stairs 10:30 AM ~ Stations of the Cross 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM ~ Lunch 12:30 PM ~ Concert 1:30 PM ~ Outdoor Living Rosary 2:45 PM ~ Procession with St. Theresa 3:00 PM ~ Chaplet of Divine Mercy Solemn Feast Mass - Celebrant: Father Gerard Caron (Pastor of St. Theresa’s) Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament - Blessing with St. Theresa’s Relic ~ Continuous video showing of St. Theresa’s life ~

• Gift Shop • Food & Refreshments • Canopy - Covered benches at outdoor altar • Bus Groups welcome • Priests are invited to concelebrate the Feast Mass • Bring Chairs and umbrellas for the sun

For information please call (401) 568-0575 • (401) 568-8280 E-mail: shiirl@cox.net www.SaintTheresaShrine.com

Shrine is located at intersection of Rt. 102 and Rt. 7 in Nasonville (Burrillville), R.I. (near Wright’s Farm Restaurant)

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The Anchor

August 7, 2009

Lifelong St. Anne’s parishioner keeps a promise

By Michael Pare Anchor Correspondent

DESERVED RECOGNITION — The Diocesan Health Facilities system of skilled nursing and rehabilitative care facilities recently held its annual Employee Awards and Scholarship Banquet. Each year, employees are recognized for their years of service, scholarships are awarded for continuing education and the Reflection of Mission award is given to employees for their commitment to excellence. Top photo, with Msgr. Edmund J. Fitzgerald, diocesan director of DHF, the Mission Award recipients were, from left to right: Mary Balanos; Sandra Medeiros; Jean M. Golitz; Donald Perry; and Jocelyn Cunha. Below, with Msgr. Fitzgerald the scholarship recipients were, from left: Debra Roias, LPN; Leah Schofield, CNA; Jameson O’Berry, LPN; Management Scholarship, Sherrilynn Shannon; Shailyn Kelly, CNA; and Amanda Borges, senior dietary aide.

fice in Providence and he raised his three children. And five years after his wife had died, he was at a Little League baseball game in Fall River and he met Louise. She was a widow with three children.

Michaud figured God was looking after him.

Their first date was a Bobby Vinton concert at the Warwick Musical Theater — The Tent, as it was widely known. They were married at St. Anne’s and with six

been the constant in Michaud’s life. Retiring from the U.S. Postal Service seven years ago afforded FALL RIVER — Maurice Mihim the opportunity to spend even chaud is old school. He’s not one more time there. He serves as a for high-tech gadgets or fancy special minister of holy Commuthings. A simple life works just nion. He also became a sacristan, fine for him. And when Michaud joining a handful of other parishmakes a promise, he keeps it. ioners in setting up for daily Mass, Fourteen years ago, about six as well as for funerals, weddings, months after one of his grandsons and one of the Sunday Masses. was born, the baby had a heart “I enjoy doing it,” he said. problem and had to go to a BosMichaud remembers vividly ton hospital to undergo a serious his days long ago as an procedure. Michaud did altar server on the same alwhat came most natural in tar. And he laughs now to such a situation. He turned think that he is back doing to God. And he made a so many of the things he promise. did as a boy. When the Mi“I went to the adoration chauds babysit their grandchapel and I promised that son Cory, of Attleboro, he if he came through, I would will sometimes join his try to go to Mass every grandfather, serving a daily day,” said Michaud. “That Mass if they need somewas 14 years ago.” one.

Michaud has made good “Father Bergeron will on that promise. joke that we’re importing “I don’t begrudge doing servers from Attleboro,” it,” said Michaud. “Every said Michaud. time I look at my grandson It means a lot to Mi… he’s six-foot-two now.” chaud, to see the legacy he That’s Michaud. He has has established. Life may always turned to God, even not be as simple today as it during those times when was when he was a child, some folks would have but there is still faith. There been tempted to turn away. is always faith. To help pass Fall River native and that on from one generation lifelong parishioner of St. to another is rewarding.

Anne’s on Middle Street, Father Marc H. Michaud was an only child ANCHOR PERSON OF THE WEEK — Maurice Bergeron, pastor at St. raised by strong Catholic Michaud.

Anne’s, appreciates the parents. It was a simpler work of all of his sacristime. You respected your parents. You went to Mass. You kids together it wasn’t long be- tans. To walk in to the sacristy fore people took to calling them and have the altar expertly presaid your prayers. pared for Mass is a much appreI remember saying the rosary “The Brady Bunch.”

It was a big family all of a sud- ciated luxury. In Michaud, Father every day with my mother and den. But the Michauds figured Bergeron sees that wonderful my father,” said Michaud.

It is that deeply-rooted faith they weren’t in it alone. God was quality of selflessness.

“His generosity is overflowthat Michaud has come to rely always with them.

“When times were tight, it ing in everything that he does,” on throughout the journey of his life. And at no time did he lean seemed like I would get overtime he said. “People respond nicely on that faith more than when his at the post office,” said Michaud. to that.”

Michaud looks at life and sees first wife lost her year-long battle “And I would say to myself, God’s plan. Placed in his hands, with cancer barely 10 years into ‘God’s taking care of us.’”

Michaud has always had that things tend to work out. their marriage. Michaud suddenly “I have been very fortunate,” found himself a single father of ability to see through to the good three children ages six and under. in things. It’s one of the many he said. “I’ve had two wonderful Facing an enormous challenge, he things Louise Michaud loves wives.”

And as a result, he said, is a large turned toward his faith, not away about her husband. In addition to each of them having the three and wonderful family that continfrom it.

“I couldn’t really understand children, there is so much they ues to deliver him blessings. It is, why it happened and I was hurt,” have in common, like that shared after all, how you decide to look at said Michaud. “But I said, ‘You belief in a simple life. And a deep things. As part of God’s plan is a comforting way to see them. must have a reason.’ I know some faith in God. “He tries to stay on the positive “I believe in miracles,” he said, people may have stopped going to church, but not me. I figured he side,” she said. “And he always and in keeping a promise. looks to God. He knows that we To nominate a person, send was testing me.” an email message to FatherRogSo Michaud did what he had have really been blessed.”

St. Anne’s Parish has always erLandry@AnchorNews.org. to do. He worked at the post of-

The Anchor

August 7, 2009

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Baseball history, with a side of Rice

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he fact that Jim Ed Rice’s induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame was long overdue, didn’t make the event any less sweet — it, in fact, added to it.

Waiting for the ceremonies to begin in a field in Cooperstown, N.Y. — a stone’s throw from the Hall of Fame building which is now home to big Jim’s plaque, reminded me of the throngs of people Jesus fed on the mountainside with five loaves and a few fish. The two big differences — there were plenty of hot dogs to go around, and there were no words of wisdom from Our Lord.

Denise, Emilie and I

By Dave Jolivet trekked to upstate New York to witness perhaps the last Red Sox to ever be inducted into the elite corps of baseball immortals who played his entire career with one team. In contrast, fellow inductee, base-stealer extraordinaire Rickey Henderson played for nine teams.

We spent three days in the beautiful Leatherstocking region of the Empire State, along the historic Mohawk River. I must say one would have thought it was the Bay State instead, with Red Sox jerseys and hats appearing everywhere.

The Jolivet Clan took a tour of the Howe Caverns a few miles east of Cooperstown. There, nearly 200 feet below the surface, in caves formed over millions of years by underground rivers and streams, were scores of Red Sox Nation citizens proudly adorned in team colors. I swear I could detect faces of Red Sox immortals etched into the stalagmites and stalactites.

The tour guide claimed it was the faces of witches and turtles and sharks — but I saw what I saw. Much to my disappointment Denise and Emilie saw witches, turtles and sharks.

Later that day we sojourned to the National Shrine of the North American Martyrs in Auriesville. It was there that St. Rene Goupil, a Jesuit Brother; St. Isaac Jogues, a Jesuit priest; and St. John Lalande, a 16-year-old lay missioner, were martyred for the faith in the 1600s. It was also the birthplace of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha.

After learning a bit about us, a Jesuit priest from Buffalo introduced us to a delightful curator at one of the Shrine museums. He made a point to advise us she was a Yankee fan. I told the curator not to worry, “We have no differences here, we’re on holy ground.”

Our lodging was located nearly 60 miles from the Hall of Fame, yet the motel restaurant resembled a Red Sox convention more than an eatery. I’m sure that scene played out at Holiday Inns and Super 8s across upstate

My View From the Stands

New York that weekend.

The big day finally arrived and we drove to the shuttle that would take us into baseball heaven, tiny Cooperstown. It was no surprise we were surrounded

by Red Sox Nation.

From the shuttle we were bused to the field where the ceremonies would take place — again fully loaded with Sawx fans.

The ceremony was to start at 1:30 p.m. and we arrived at 10 a.m. We settled in, chomped on hot dogs and cold soda and witnessed the influx of thousands more Red Sox fans. It couldn’t get any better than that.

Jim Ed was eloquent, gracious and received a most deserved thunderous ovation.

Come Monday morning came a mass exodus of Red Sox Nation, returning the Empire State to its rightful owners.

I’m not certain, but I believe I heard a collective sigh of relief emanating from the west as I headed east onto the Mass. Turnpike. I also felt a bit more relaxed driving in a car with a Red Sox, Bruins, Celtics and Patriots sticker in each of the four corners of my rear window.

And I’m proud to claim that after nearly 700 miles of driving, the only time I got lost was finding my pew after Communion at the Shrine of Martyrs.

LONG OVERDUE — Jim Rice delivers his acceptance speech at the recent Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony, surrounded by such baseball illuminaries as Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Joe Morgan, Carl Yastrzemski and Sandy Koufax. At far left, the “Man of Steal,” Rickey Henderson awaits his turn. (Photo by Dave Jolivet)

MY VIEW FROM THE LAND — Anchor editor, left, relaxes waiting for the show to begin as Denise attempts to lead the Domino’s delivery guy through thousands of attendees. (Photo by Emilie Jolivet)

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ver the past few months, we’ve covered the four major movements of the Protestant Reformation: Lutheran, Reformed, Radical, and Anglican. All center on Luther’s key principles of sola gratia (salvation by grace alone) and sola Scriptura (Scripture alone as the source and authority for doctrine).

As I stated at the outset of this series, now into its third year, my intention is not only to acquaint Catholic readers with the beliefs and practices of other religions and other Christian traditions, but also to show how Catholicism is necessary for the full flowering of all that is good and true outside the Catholic Church. Especially useful to our present purpose is the work of Father Louis Bouyer (1913-2004), a Lutheran convert to Catholicism. In his book “The Spirit and Forms of Protestantism” (1956), Bouyer argues that the Reformation solas were essentially consistent with Catholic belief, but that Luther and the Reformers had drawn erroneous conclusions from them.

Luther’s basic intuition, that without grace man can neither dispose himself for salvation nor attain it, is perfectly orthodox. The Council of Trent reiterated the teaching of the Second Council of Orange (529), which asserted that human free will is so weakened

CNS Movie Capsules NEW YORK (CNS) — The following are capsule reviews of movies recently reviewed by the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“The Collector” (Freestyle) Gruesome horror tale in which a handyman (Josh Stewart) breaks into his employer’s (Michael Reilly Burke) isolated country home, believing it to be empty, but finds that the boss, his wife (Andrea

The Anchor

August 7, 2009

The Reformation in review

as a result of original sin that we they rejected the Catholic “faith cannot love God and neighbor and good works” because they as we ought unless moved by misunderstood it to mean that God grace. Nevertheless, Trent added, does his part, and man in turn does we freely cooperate in our own his part independently of grace. salvation; yet our cooperation is Catholics can accept sola fide if itself the result of grace. (Precisely care is taken not to oppose faith to how this is so is a mystery, and the charity.

Church was careful not to commit Before we turn to the principle herself to any particular theological of sola Scriptura, another clarificaexplanation.) Therefore, Bouyer tion is in order. The farther Luther concludes, “the Catholic not only may, but must in virtue of his own faith, give a full and unreThe Fullness served adherence to the of the Truth sola gratia.”

But what about the

By Father flipside of sola gratia, Thomas M. Kocik the Protestant claim that the grace of justification is received sola fide, through faith alone? The advanced in his conflicts with answer depends on what “faith” Rome, the more closely he identimeans. Late-medieval Catholic fied sola gratia with a particular theologians generally defined faith theory known as forensic justificaas a grace-enabled intellectual tion, that is, justification as a legal assent to the truths of revelation: declaration. According to this view, God gives us faith so that we can we sinners can stand innocent entrust ourselves to him in hope before God’s tribunal because God and love. Faith, in this sense, is but acquits us by a kind of legal ficthe beginning of salvation; without tion, crediting to us the holiness of charity, also the work of grace, it Christ even while we continue to isn’t “saving faith” but dead faith stay stuck in the mire of sin. In Lu(Jas. 2:20). The Reformers, on ther’s words, the Christian is simul the other hand, spoke of faith as a iustus et peccator, at once justitrusting response to what God has fied and a sinner. By contrast, the done for us in Christ. Doing the consensual teaching of the Church right thing for the wrong reason, prior to the Reformation holds that

God justifies sinners, not merely by declaring them righteous on account of Christ’s sacrifice, but by transforming them interiorly, removing all that can properly be called sin and establishing his grace within them.

Turning now to the matter of Scripture, no serious Christian would dispute that God’s Word, rather than man’s, must govern the life of the Church. Since the canonical Scriptures alone have God as their primary Author, the Bible possesses a unique authority: this, Bouyer says, is the sense in which Catholics can accept sola Scriptura.

However, the sovereign authority of Scripture doesn’t imply that God’s Word should be interpreted apart from the Church’s creeds, councils, liturgy, and moral codes. The Church is “the pillar and bulwark of the truth” (1 Tim 3:15), and it was to her that the Apostles entrusted what they had received from the Lord (1 Cor 11:23; 15:3), namely, the revealed truths certified in Scripture and the early creeds.

Indeed, the Tradition and authority of the Church were needed to determine which books did or didn’t belong in the Bible. In the Catholic view, Scripture and Tradition form an indissoluble whole that is

authoritatively interpreted by the successors of the Apostles.

The problem arose, Bouyer informs us, when many Protestants took the position that Scripture alone conveyed God’s Word, and was therefore the norm by which all doctrines and practices were to be tested. They did so, not in opposition to Catholicism initially, but to the Radicals “who declined to accept any authority other than themselves.” Just the same, the links between the Bible and the Church were severed, and Scripture came to be seen, paradoxically, as alien to the very Tradition that had produced it and handed it down over the centuries. Having wrenched Scripture from the rule of faith and its authoritative teachers, the Reformers unwittingly undercut the truth of sola Scriptura: now the Bible’s authority extended only so far as the individual believer’s interpretation of it allowed.

As paradoxical as it may seem, all of this suggests, first, that it’s possible to reinterpret the most substantial Protestant principles in a sense that is no longer basically anti-Catholic, and second, that those principles are best safeguarded within the full stream of Tradition that is Catholicism.

Father Kocik is a parochial vicar at Santo Christo Parish in Fall River.

Roth) and their daughter (Karley Scott-Collins) have all been taken captive by a sadistic lunatic, who also has booby-trapped the house with killing devices. Director and co-writer Marcus Dunstan’s pitchblack painfest leaves aside the fish hooks, barbed wire and bear traps only long enough for a gratuitous teen sexual encounter. Pervasive gory violence, including dismemberment and torture, graphic nonmarital sexual activity, upper female nudity, some rough language, and a few crude terms and uses of profanity. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is O — morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

“Funny People” (Universal) Told he has only a short time to live, a successful but isolated Hol-

many adults would find troubling.

The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R — restricted.

Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

“G-Force” (Disney) 3-D fantasy adventure, combining live action and animation, in which a team of three guinea pigs (voices of Sam Rockwell, Tracy Morgan and Penelope Cruz) and a mole (voice of Nicolas Cage), all trained and equipped as government agents by an innovative scientist (Zach Galifianakis), work to foil the plans of a sinister industrialist (Bill Nighy) bent on world domination. As directed by Hoyt H. Yeatman Jr., this exuberant, at times spectacular, rodent romp portrays the crime-fighting team, which eventually includes an enthusiastic but inept pet-store guinea pig (voice of Jon Favreau), as an improvised family, sustained by cooperation, self-sacrifice and forgiveness; these are positive lessons

for all but the most impressionable viewers, who might be frightened by repeated scenes of peril. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-I — general patronage. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG — parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

“Harry Potter and the HalfBlood Prince” (Warner Bros.)

At the behest of his mentor (Michael Gambon), the now-teenage wizard (Daniel Radcliffe) ingratiates himself with a returning Hogwarts instructor (Jim Broadbent) who once taught his archenemy Lord Voldemort and whose memories may hold the key to defeating the villain, while adolescent romantic tensions complicate the lad’s relationship with his two closest friends (Rupert Grint and Emma Watson). As directed by David Yates, this sixth adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s hugely popular fantasy novel series is a richly textured, though at times overcrowded, adventure narrative in which good and evil are clearly delineated, but characters present a range of moral shading. Also shown in Imax.

Moderate action violence, occasional peril, a couple of crass expressions, and a few vaguely sexual references. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-II — adults and adolescents.

The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG — parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

lywood comedian (a pitch-perfect Adam Sandler) hires a struggling comedy novice (Seth Rogen) as his assistant and sidekick, but their budding friendship is threatened by the protege’s disapproval of his mentor’s potentially destructive reunion with a now-married exgirlfriend (Leslie Mann). Under a thick crust of raunchy humor and ostensibly misguided sexual attitudes, mature viewers willing to endure a barrage of vulgarity may discern a moving affirmation of moral courage, marital fidelity and the pursuit, however halting, of a meaningful, committed life in writer-director Judd Apatow’s overlong but generally effective seriocomic tale. Brief graphic nonmarital sexual activity, adultery, upper female nudity, pervasive rough and crude language, and a half-dozen uses of profanity. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is L — limited adult audience, films whose problematic content

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on WLNE Channel 6 Sunday, August 9 at 11:00 a.m.

Celebrant is Father George E. Harrison, pastor of Holy Name Parish in Fall River

The Anchor

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The Anchor

August 7, 2009

news briefs

Pope prays priests will be in love with Christ CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI prayed that the world’s priests would be totally in love with Christ and would serve God and their brothers and sisters like many saintly priests did.

Reciting the Angelus prayer recently with visitors gathered in the courtyard of the papal villa at Castel Gandolfo, Pope Benedict spoke about the 2009-2010 Year for Priests. In deepening an understanding of the role of priests, he said, the Church’s calendar of saints offers “true models of spirituality and priestly dedication.” Remembering St. Alphonsus Liguori August 1, the Church honored a “great master of moral theology and model of Christian and pastoral virtue,” he said.

The celebration August 2 of the “Pardon of Assisi,” a plenary indulgence St. Francis of Assisi convinced the pope to grant in 1216 — and one which still is granted annually at Franciscan churches and shrines — demonstrates the concern of St. Francis for the forgiveness and salvation of all people, he said. The feast of St. John Vianney, patron of parish priests, was August 4. The Year for Priests coincides with the 150th anniversary of the French priest’s death and Pope Benedict talked about the saint during his weekly general audience the day after St. John Vianney’s feast day at Castel Gandolfo.

Pope expresses sadness at death of Aquino, praises her leadership VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI expressed his sadness at the death of former Philippine President Corazon Aquino and praised her commitment to freedom and justice for Filipinos. Aquino, 76, died August 1 after a battle with colon cancer. Tens of thousands of Filipinos lined the streets August 3 as her coffin made its way from San Juan City to Manila’s cathedral for a wake and an August 5 funeral. The pope, in a telegram to Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales of Manila, the Philippine capital, recalled Aquino as “a woman of deep and unwavering faith” who took on a crucial political role. Pope Benedict praised Aquino’s “courageous commitment to the freedom of the Filipino people, her firm rejection of violence and intolerance, and her contribution to the rebuilding of a just and cohesive political order in her beloved homeland.” Aquino was installed as president in 1986 after a Church-led people’s uprising in Manila deposed President Ferdinand Marcos and paved the way for restoring the country’s democratic institutions. She served as the country’s first female president until stepping down in 1992.

Pope deplores latest killings of Christians in Pakistan VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI deplored the killing of eight Christians in Pakistan by a Muslim mob and urged the minority Christian community not to be deterred by the attack. The Christians, including four women and a child, were either shot or burned alive August 1 when a crowd attacked the eastern Pakistani town of Gojra, setting fire to dozens of Christian homes. Authorities said tensions were running high in the area, fueled by a false rumor that a Quran, the sacred book of Islam, had been desecrated. A telegram sent in the pope’s name said the pontiff was “deeply grieved to learn of the senseless attack” on the Christian community. Noting the “tragic deaths” and the immense destruction in the neighborhood, he sent condolences to the families of the victims and expressed solidarity with the survivors. The telegram, sent to Bishop Joseph Coutts of Faisalabad, asked the bishop to “encourage the whole diocesan community, and all Christians in Pakistan, not to be deterred in their efforts to help build a society which, with a profound sense of trust in religious and human values, is marked by mutual respect among all its members.”

Turkish government denies Christian request for church in Tarsus VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Despite a personal request from Pope Benedict XVI and repeated requests by Christian leaders in Turkey, the Turkish government has decided that the only church in Tarsus, the city of St. Paul’s birth, will remain a government museum. The Church of St. Paul, built as a Catholic church in the 1800s and confiscated by the government in 1943, was used throughout the 2008-2009 year of St. Paul for prayer services by Christian pilgrims. After the end of the yearlong celebration commemorating the 2,000th anniversary of St. Paul’s birth, the Turkish government decided the building could not be used exclusively for worship. Bishop Luigi Padovese, the apostolic vicar for Anatolia and president of the Catholic bishops’ conference of Turkey, told the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano that the government decided to return to the practice of allowing Christians to pray in the church as long as they made reservations three days in advance and bought an admission ticket.

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Where pills can’t reach: Checking out a local miracle

ohn “Jack” Sullivan, 70, is showed five vertebrae squeezacting clerk magistrate of ing his spinal cord and creating a Plymouth District Court, generally bulge, which meant that he could not the kind of place where one lose his lower body function at any expects to encounter miracles. In time and be paralyzed. He could any case, Jack is a happily married only walk doubled over. Referred husband, father, and soon-to-be to a specialist at Brigham and grandfather who lives in MarshWomen’s Hospital, he was told it field. He went to Suffolk Law was the worst back problem the School in Boston in the 60s, but doctor had seen in 17 years. since 2002 he has also been a perSurgery was indicated, which manent Deacon in the Archdiocese would take at least six months to of Boston, currently serving at St. recuperate from. He was told to Thecla’s parish in Pembroke. Deforget about resuming his studscribing himself as “very ordinary” ies for the diaconate. He prayed, though “somewhat good looking “Please, Cardinal Newman, inter— at least my wife thought I was,” cede with God so that I might go he considers himself “very lucky back to classes and be ordained.” both professionally” and familyHe stresses that he did not pray wise. for a miracle, just that he could In 2000 and again in 2001, resume his studies. The following however, some extraordinary morning, he felt no pain, had full things happened to him, which mobility, and could walk without make him even more fortunate. difficulty, with strength in his legs.

Pope Benedict XVI on July 3 He then met with another spedecreed that he had been cured of cialist, this time at New England his crippling back pain through the Baptist Hospital, who told him intercession of the Venerable John that it was no longer necessary to Henry Cardinal Newman and that the cure had no medical or scientific explanation. The cure therefore qualifies as a miracle, which means that Cardinal Newman, the great 19thcentury English convert

By Dwight Duncan and Catholic theologian whom many consider the Father of Vatican II, will be beatified next year. Miracles undergo surgery and that he could happen — even to Boston lawyers. resume his classes.

Jack Sullivan spoke last July Jack finished his third year 18, at Arnold Hall Conference without difficulty, but the day after Center in Pembroke to a gathering his last class in 2001 the debilitatof diocesan priests from around ing pain resumed, so that he was the country affiliated with Opus effectively confined to a wheelDei’s Priestly Society of the Holy chair. Surgery was performed in Cross. He was invited by Father August of 2001. Complications C. John McCloskey, a Newman ensued, as the surgeon discovered scholar who in 2000 hosted a that the protective membrane surseries of programs for EWTN on rounding his spine had ruptured, Cardinal Newman. At the end of and the fluids had leaked out. one of his programs interviewThe prognosis was not good, and ing Father Ian Ker, the renowned recovery was expected to last eight Newman biographer from Oxford, months to a year. He needed to Father McCloskey put a message be carried back to his bed in the on the television screen: if you hospital. receive any favors from CardiFive days after the surgery, he nal Newman, please contact the prayed again to Cardinal Newman Birmingham Oratory in England. to be able to walk and resume his (This is where Newman had lived studies. He then felt great heat and died and where the postulator and a tingling sensation all over of his cause of beatification, Father accompanied by a tremendous Paul Chavasse, resides.) Jack Sulsense of peace. Though he had no livan happened to be watching this sensation of time, the nurse told program, which he found interesthim this lasted for about 10 mining. He said that if there had been utes. He stood up straight, was able no notice at the program’s end, he to walk without a walker or cane, probably would not have prayed without any difficulty or pain. to Cardinal Newman, whom he When he was discharged from the previously knew very little about. hospital, they gave him a huge jar The program came at a crucial of percocet, a potent pain-killer. time for Jack, who was eager to He didn’t take the drug because he be ordained a permanent deacon didn’t need it. Where pills couldn’t even though the way forward reach, prayer did. then seemed impossible. Jack had He called his doctor, Robert J. just finished his second year of a Banco of New England Baptist, four-year course of studies for the who said he could resume his studdiaconate, when he woke up on ies. It was only in October of 2001 June 6, 2000 with a tremendous after his post-operative meeting pain in the back of his legs so that with Dr. Banco that he contacted he could hardly walk. At Jordan Father C. John McCloskey in order Hospital in Plymouth a CAT scan to get in touch with the Birming-

Judge For Yourself

ham Oratory. His doctor had told Jack that he had no medical or scientific explanation for his recovery: “If you want answers, ask God.” It was the following year, on Sept. 14, 2002, that he was ordained a permanent deacon along with his classmates. The rest, as they say, is history. He walks a mile and a half every day and does heavy lifting in caring for his large home garden. He has not had any relapse or recurrence since the August 2001 cure. A tribunal in Boston gathered the evidence, and took testimony from 10 witnesses, which was then approved by panels of medical experts and theologians in Rome before being approved by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and finally by Pope Benedict XVI himself.

One might well ask, “Why Jack Sullivan?” Father George Rutler, a well-known Anglican convert himself, uncovered an interesting coincidence from the memoirs of Herbert Vaughan, future Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, relating to 1889, the year before Cardinal Newman died: ‘‘I slept at the Oratory and the Cardinal came in to see me for 20 minutes. I hardly knew him again: doubled up like a shrimp and walking with a stick longer than his body.” But a few days before his death the next year, the Cardinal surprised his caregiver, Father Neville, by returning to his rooms “unbent, erect to the full height of his best days in the 50s; he was without support of any kind.” All of which means that Cardinal Newman had an affliction like Jack Sullivan’s, and that he too had been cured of it. Maybe he heard Jack’s plea for intercession because he knew from personal experience how debilitating a back injury can be. Been there, done that.

Another possible connection, also speculative, is that Cardinal Newman, the “Father of Vatican II,” thought Jack’s a good cause.

Perhaps the venerable Cardinal wanted to signal approval of Jack’s studies for the permanent diaconate, a feature of Newman’s beloved Church of the Fathers. The permanent diaconate had disappeared in the West during the Middle Ages, but it was restored to the Latin rite of the Roman Catholic Church by the Second Vatican Council. It was to get back on track with his studies for the diaconate that Jack Sullivan had prayed to Cardinal Newman. And he was heard.

Jack’s response? “God doesn’t raise up the mighty. He lifts up the lowly.” Humble recognition of God’s favors worked through the saints and abiding gratitude to soonto-be Blessed John Henry Newman.

Dwight Duncan is a professor at Southern New England School of Law in North Dartmouth. He holds degrees in civil and canon law.

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The Anchor

Dangerous changes lurk in health care

By Gail Besse Anchor Correspondent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Unless changes are made, the sweeping health care overhaul that Congress could soon pass will mandate government-sponsored abortion, ration services, and lead to euthanasia of the elderly and disabled.

It will deprive consumers of the right to choose a health plan and negate conscience protections for doctors and nurses. Such is the grim reality spelled out by national Pro-Life advocates.

After their August recesses, both the Senate and House will tackle their versions of bills emerging from committees.

One such proposal sponsored

by Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy — a bill that National Right to Life Legislative Director Douglas Johnson said “would result in the greatest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade” — was approved July 15 by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.

Numerous Pro-Life bipartisan amendments to both House and Senate bills have been defeated in committees. These would have prevented the inclusion of abortion as a mandated “essential benefit” that both private insurers and the public option could be forced to provide, according to the Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council.

Representative Chris Smith of New Jersey, co-chairman of the House Pro-Life Caucus, has been fighting to amend H.R. 3200, the “Affordable Health Choices Act” advocated by President Barack Obama.

On July 29 Smith charged that “ObamaCare” amounts to “the Abortion Industry Bailout Act of 2009,” LifeSiteNews.com reported.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee, working on its version of the bill, on July 30 passed an amendment by Representative Lois Capps of California ensuring that abortion will be covered and requiring that an abortion plan be made available in every U.S. region.

This came one day after the U.S. Bishops’ Pro-Life Committee chairman Cardinal Justin Rigali urged the committee to amend the legislation so that it will not cover abortion and will protect the consciences of medical personnel.

The proposals contain no conscience protections or exemptions for health care workers. “This could force the 624 Catholic hospitals that provide one fifth of health care in America to either violate their principles or close their doors,” concluded Raymond Arroyo, news commentator for the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN).

American Life League President Judie Brown said the latest Capps amendment shows “the abortion lobby’s vice-grip on the healthcare bill — abortion will be mandated, tax subsidized, entrenched into law as ‘basic healthcare.’”

Arroyo pointed to another nail in the coffin for the unborn. The “essential benefits package” covered by the government plan won’t be determined until after the reform bill is passed,” he reported July 25.

“An amorphous ‘Advisory Committee’ run by pro-choice Catholic Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius will establish benefits and covered treatments.”

In addition, WorldNetDaily. com reported July 31, the President’s plan would dictate medications, treatments and mental health services; determine coverage that people are allowed; and operate with real-time access to personal bank accounts, according to a new analysis.

That analysis of the 1,017-page bill was done by Florida-based Liberty Counsel, an advocacy group for religious freedom. Its founder Mathew Staver called the plan a “euthanasia bill.”

“In the same way that the bill pushes elderly or the sick toward euthanasia, it is a pill that would cause economic suicide,” he said.

The Congressional Budget Office projects the massive overhaul will cost far more than $1 trillion and hike the federal budget deficit by $239 billion over the next decade.

The bill calls for a bureaucracy called the Center for Comparative Effectiveness Research to be set up. Federal employees could determine whether any treatment is “comparatively effective” for any individual based on the cost, likely success and probably the years left in life, the analysis found.

The government will select “qualified plans” in which consumers must enroll. Employers will have a five-year “grace period” in which to switch to offering only qualified plans.

Although appearing to contain costs while simultaneously extending health coverage to everyone, Arroyo said, the proposals target the vulnerable unborn, old and disabled. “It all comes down to cost,” he said. “How to pay for this colossus remains a question on the Hill.

But the consensus seems to be: raise taxes and ration care.”

Arroyo interviewed Betsy McCaughey, a patient advocate and former lieutenant governor of New York who has analyzed the proposals. She found that one provision in the House bill compels seniors to submit to a counseling session every five years (and more often if they become sick or go into a

nursing home) about alternatives for end-of-life care (House bill, p.

425-430).

“The sessions cover highly sensitive matters such as whether to receive antibiotics and ‘the use of artificially administered nutrition and hydration.’ This mandate invites abuse, and seniors could easily be pushed to refuse care,” McCaughey said.

Arroyo continued: “This ‘Advance Care Planning Consultation’ would encourage all of us, but especially those with severe illnesses to submit to hospices rather than pursue expensive therapies that might extend life (and cost a bundle.)

“The bill also establishes a tracking system to insure that doctors are advocating ‘advance care directives’ where you predetermine what type of care you would accept or refuse at the end of life.

The problem with all of this is it assigns a utilitarian value to human life.”

And the Catholic Medical Association warned July 30 that the existing proposals “could make our current, flawed system even worse.”

“Unprecedented powers are entrusted to the Secretary of Health and Human Services (as evidenced by more than 1,120 references to the ‘Secretary’ and his/her powers in the House bill) and to a new authority — the ‘Health Choices Commissioner,”’ the CMA noted.

“Moreover, a Federal Coordinating Council on Comparative Effectiveness was created and funded, without adequate debate, by the Stimulus Bill; and there are valid concerns that the FCCCE could soon start regulating medical treatments based not only on clinical, but also ‘economic’ criteria.”

Follow the money, advised Dr. Katherine Schlaerth, an associate professor of family medicine at Loma Linda University School of Medicine in an interview with The National Catholic Register.

“The real reason for these draconian provisions directed against elders who are not terminal, I believe, is to save on Social Security payments as well as Medicare payments,” she said. “The math is obvious. If you kill the disabled and give ‘quality preventive care’ to the well, your health-care statistics will look excellent.”

Pro-Life advocates, under Stop the Abortion Mandate coalition, are urging people to pray, to educate others about the danger, write letters to the editor and contact their congressmen.

Websites for more information: StoptheAbortionMandate. com; DefendYourHealthCare.us; NRLC.org (National Right to Life Committee; MovementforaBetterAmerica.org.

August 7, 2009

Our readers respond

Concerning who deserves hero worship I am a 61-year-old grandmother who usually doesn’t read Dave Jolivet’s column because I am not so much into sports and don’t know who you are talking about.

But today, when I received my Anchor, I did read your column and it was excellent. Well written, easy to understand, written for readers of all ages.

Your words echoed exactly what my husband and I have been saying since MJ (Michael Jackson) died. We couldn’t believe how people reacted. I told my husband that God sent his Son to die on the cross for us and for ours sins and nobody reacts like that to him and he alone is the one who deserves all that hero worship.

I hope your column will make people think about what you have written.

Beverly Savery, Fairhaven No compromise in being Pro-Life I enjoyed your July 3 editorial on the Foundations of our Freedom. I am continually struck by the way Catholics like Professor Kmiec, Obama’s most prominent Catholic Pro-Life supporter, vote overwhelming for proabortion candidates. You cannot have it both ways. If Catholics are going to argue for the ProLife position and then vote for pro-choice candidates, then what good is accomplished?

There are many Catholics who like to refer to themselves as Pro-Life but always manage to excuse themselves when it comes time to vote. They believe in liberalism and redistribution of wealth much more than Pro-Life. True Christians need to embrace personal responsibility and self-reliance to go along with generosity and self sacrifice. Too many Catholics, and I have been one for 55 years, are way too liberal and the Catholic Church has not been vocal enough to persuade them away from their liberalism. The Catholic Church takes a stand on abortion and then looks the other way as priests and lay people vote overwhelmingly for pro-choice candidates. It’s shameful and we will all have to answer to Jesus for it.

The Catholic Church is slipping away and in the end it will be because the Church compromised and does not stand firmly on the side of the Christian values that made it so great.

Paul McGowan Suit against DOMA has hollow ring Attorney General Martha Coakley claims that it is unfair for the federal government to deny federal marriage benefits to same-sex couples in Massachusetts who have obtained marriage licenses. Her lawsuit

challenges the Defense of Marriage Act, signed into law 1996 by then-President Bill Clinton, that defines marriage under federal law as the union of a man and a woman. She argues that DOMA overrides states’ rights by eclipsing state sovereignty. How ironic. Coakley was among those who endorsed the unfair efforts to override citizens’ rights, that is, the fundamental right to vote guaranteed by the Massachusetts Constitution. She backed the outrageous move by the state Legislature in 2007 to deny Massachusetts voters the opportunity to decide the definition of marriage at the ballot box. So which is more important? States’ rights or voting rights? As long as the citizens in Massachusetts, the true sovereigns of this state, continue to be barred from voting on marriage, the argument rings hollow when Coakley cries foul with respect to states’ rights.

Maria C. Parker Former associate director for Public Policy; Mass Catholic Conference, Westerly, R.I. Those who can’t compromise speak out The air of relativism so evident in the letter “My Way or the Highway” of June 26 is astounding.

So those of us who believe that the life issue is the foundational issue and that embryonic stemcell research — not just “stem” cell as the writer describes it — is anathema to the teachings of the Church; that there cannot be common ground or in-vitro fertilization (“Evangelium Vitae”) and contraception (“Evangelium Vitae”) and contraception (“Humanae Vitae”), or gay marriage etc., and that an intrinsic evil such as abortion cannot be equated with ancillary issues such as war, capital punishment, immigration, etc., are the right wing lunatics according to the letter’s author.

So those of us who believe we cannot compromise on these absolutes and they cannot be “integrated into the world around us” as the author opines, are intransigent Catholics? No, rather we must ask the question, are you Pro-Life? We are free to judge situations like Notre Dame’s or the appointment of pro-abortion Governor Sabelius (a Catholic?) as health czar, and we do so critically and justly using the teachings of the Catholic Church. The ridiculous notion that people should be persecuted or jailed if they don’t agree is not ours but the author’s. The belief that we are our brother’s and sister’s keepers is more valid. When their eternal salvation is in jeopardy because of their errors in faith, then we are obligated to speak out in correction.

Doris Toohill, Orleans

August 7, 2009

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The Anchor and now the Internet, he continues to spread the Gospel on a daily basis.

“Father Barron really has a very unique way of expressing himself and he’s always positive, always intelligent and wise,” said Vella, who agreed the Church needs to continue using modern technology to spread the faith to the younger generation.

“It’s so easy and accessible these days to go to something

like YouTube or the Word on Fire website,” he said. “I think the Church really needs to be involved with YouTube and on Internet sites like Facebook and Twitter because that’s where people are right now and we have to go meet them where they are.”

For more information, visit www.wordonfire.org.

INTERNET ASSISTANCE — For the past decade www.wordonfire.org has maintained a strong presence on the Internet, offering the homilies and teachings of Father Robert Barron on Catholic faith and popular culture. Father Barron set up the website to initially promote his radio series in Chicago.

Website taps into technology to reach faithful continued from page one

next generation.”

Father Barron’s slick and compelling site, www.wordonfire.org, initially began as a promotional tool for a series of radio programs he was doing in Chicago. It started simply as a vehicle to post his weekly sermons, but eventually grew in both popularity and scope.

In turn, his radio series also gained popularity and was picked up by Relevant Radio, a national Catholic syndicate, and the website started getting national attention.

“Then we branched out with some help from generous donors and I realized that YouTube, for example, was a great venue for hosting little commentaries and reactions to popular culture and movies and books and what’s going on,” Father Barron told The Anchor from Lourdes, France, where he is currently working on his latest project.

“So we began to post those things on the website. This has all gradually evolved over the last 10 years.”

Father Barron’s posted video commentaries, audio sermons and written updates cover a wide range of topics and media, offering his unique insights on everything from William P. Young’s recent bestseller “The Shack” and the Oscar-winning film “Slumdog Millionaire” to the HBO series’ “The Sopranos” and the recent controversy over President Barack Obama’s speech at Notre Dame. But he also chimes in on more traditional Churchrelated topics such as the PBS

ban on religious programming and his interpretation of the pope’s recent encyclical Caritas in Veritate.

“I talk about elements of religion, theology and philosophy but I also try to touch on elements of popular culture which is where people are at,” Father Barron said. “I talk about movies, books, TV shows — I think you can find religious themes all over the place. I also think the goal in using YouTube — where you have the good, the bad and the ugly — is to try to get a religious point of view out there as well.”

“Father Barron really reaches out to such a broad spectrum,” said Chad Vella, a parishioner at St. Margaret Mary Parish in Westwood, Mass. “It’s a very unique combination, because he knows where the heart of today’s Catholics are and he speaks to that, but he’s also drawing upon the timeless wisdom of the Church.”

Vella first discovered Word on Fire while searching for Catholic-related websites online. He was so impressed with the site that he has since become a local ambassador for the online ministry.

“The ambassador program was the brainchild of a wonderful staff member of mine,” Father Barron said. “She suggested we get an ambassador in every country and every state in America. So we’ve tried to do that to help spread the word about Word on Fire. The great thing about the Internet is it’s all free-of-charge. We’re not

asking for any money, we’re just saying here’s something we’re doing, come check it out.”

Father Barron’s latest project — and the reason he is currently in Lourdes — is a 10part documentary series called “The Catholicism Project.” The series includes segments from Rome, Israel, France, Germany, Poland and Spain and has been hailed by writer George Weigel as “one of the most significant efforts ever to advance what Pope John Paul II called ‘The New Evangelization.’”

“We’re looking at the great themes of Catholicism,” Father Barron said. “We’re a true religion, we’re a theologicallyrich religion, and we’re also a beautiful religion. We use art, we use color and architecture and imagery, so I’m trying to go to these places to show what I’m discussing. We’re in Lourdes now to talk about Mary and to talk about prayer.

We just finished shooting in Spain where we talked about spiritual life and prayer using John of the Cross, Theresa of Avila and the sites associated with them.”

Once completed, “The Catholicism Project” will be made available as a DVD series and hopefully aired on TV at some point. “It’s a challenge to get on mainstream TV, but I’m going to try,” Father Barron said.

“I want to reach as many people as possible.”

Although Father Barron has already reached countless people through radio, television

Our Lady’s Monthly Message From Medjugorje July 25, 2009

Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina

“Dear children! May this time be a time of prayer for you.

“Thank you for having responded to my call.”

Spiritual Life Center of Marian Community One Marian Way Medway, MA 02053 • Tel. 508-533-5377 Paid advertisement

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Youth Page

A PROUD DAY — The kindergarten graduating class of St. Mary-Sacred Heart School in North Attleboro gathered for a group photo. The 29 grads sang songs such as “Rainbow Connection,” “The Garden Song,” “Jenny Dreamed of Trains,” “This is the Day,” and “First Grade.” Several students spoke about their time in kindergarten and what they learned.

August 7, 2009

NEW A.D. — Peter Shaughnessy has been appointed as the fourth athletic director at Bishop Stang High School in North Dartmouth. Shaughnessy, who recently relocated to the area from Illinois, was assistant principal at St. Francis High School in Wheaton where he was responsible for the athletic department while also serving as Religion Department chairperson.

’GIMME SOME SKIN — Third- and fourthgraders from St. Mary-Sacred Heart School in North Attleboro recently visited the Ecotarium in Worcester, a facility that houses 55 different animals that are either endangered or hurt. The institution’s goals are to help rehabilitate these animals as well as educate the public. The students attended a class on how to be nature detectives where they learned about animal tracks and other clues animals leave behind, from feathers and fur to teeth and tail marks. During the classroom session, students had the opportunity to study and analyze everything from animal and snake skins to antlers and shells. Following the hands-on presentation, the students toured many exhibits and walked the outdoor trails to learn more about animals, plants and their habitats. Third-graders Gabrielle Landry, Christine Lee, and Anneka Ignatius inspect a fox skin.

TREND-SETTERS — Recently, student designers in Bishop Feehan High School’s Fashion Club modeled their creations at the second annual fashion show at the Attleboro school. Designers created styles in three categories: footwear, shifts, and eco-friendly wearables. Jacquelyn Hardenburg, left, models her design made from biodegradable paper. Emma Oti, right, dons a cocktail dress she made from recycled tinfoil and plastic wrap.

TEAM WORK — A golf team consisting of a six-year-old to an 83-year-old recently won the Knights of Columbus Council 2911, Buzzards Bay fifth annual Charity Golf Tournament. The tourney was held at Bay Pointe Country Club in Onset and raised more than $5,000 for charity. In the past the Buzzards Bay Knights have funded the following charitable causes from their tournament and other fund-raising events: Bibles for the prison ministry, Catholic Charities, equipment for special needs children, college and private school scholarships, to name a few. From left: Past grand knight and tournament chairman, Kevin Ward congratulated the team of Fred Alden; Ray Gauvin; six-year-old William Moore, who sank a 30-foot putt; and Bill Moore.

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The Anchor

August 7, 2009

‘The Almighty has done great things for me’

hings don’t always work out the way you plan.

This summer is a perfect example. It’s already August and summer hasn’t at all been what I had pictured. The weather certainly has something to do with it. It’s hard to relax on the beach or enjoy kayaking when most of the month of July was either raining or significantly cooler than average. The summer seems to be slipping through my fingers. Health issues among family members and friends have required time, energy and prayer. My friend Liz came home after a year of mission work in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and her re-entry into the culture of the U.S. is more difficult than anticipated. Preparing to move back into campus ministry this

year is filling my mind with help my faith life to grow as all of the things that need to well. I would rather look to be done before the school year the days of vacation remaining begins. I could go on with the than bemoan the weather of the list of things that just were not past month. Along with the on my list of ways to relax this summer, but I would rather concentrate on all of the graces that have been poured into my life instead.

In the words of the

By Jean Revil holy Mother, “the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.” I am so grateful beach and kayaking, summer to have these days and weeks also brings the opportunity for to rest and to be more available daily Mass, spiritual reading, to my parents and family mem- gardening, and just swinging bers. I am so grateful that my in the hammock chair under friend Liz has returned safely the tree. God is so good. from her mission work and that I’ve learned to knot braceher experiences will hopefully lets, ride a moped, and care

for my first vegetable garden.

There has been time to catch up with old friends, and time for personal prayer and reflection. There are baby birds in the bird house hanging not far from the hammock chair and I love to hear them chirp away when their mother brings food.

God’s presence can be found throughout each day and even in the difficult moments I know everything is in his hands, and it’s going to be alright.

I share these things with you because I want you to see that it really is all about our choices. We can choose to be upset that things aren’t going the way we want, or we can

work with what we’ve been given, say “thank you, God” and hold onto the grace of each moment. And there is grace in every moment. Never does a second pass that God is not with us. Never is a breath taken that isn’t filled with God’s love. You and I are here because God wills us to be here ... he wants us to be here … he loves us here and now, just the way we are. Honestly, what else do we need? I encourage you to make your own list of gifts you have encountered so far this summer. The Almighty has done great things for us, and holy is his name.

Jean Revil teaches spiritual theology and thanatology at Bishop Stang High School.

Comments welcome at: jrevil@bishopStang.com.

TRAFALGAR, Ind. (CNS) — It was a time to play. It was a time to pray.

But just as important, vocations summer camp in Indiana was an opportunity to bring together teen-age boys in middle school and high school who are open to the idea God might be calling them to the priesthood.

“It shows me that I’m not alone in this world, that others want to (consider the priesthood),” said Nick Porter, 15, who will begin attending Cardinal Rittner Junior/ Senior High School in Indianapolis in the fall. Porter said he became interested in the priesthood in the fourth grade.

He was one of 58 boys who attended the fourth annual Bishop Brute Days held recently near Trafalgar, a small town about 30 miles south of Indianapolis.

The camp, sponsored by Bishop Simon Brute Seminary in Indianapolis, allows teen-agers considering priestly vocations to spend time among like-minded peers.

Archdiocesan priests gave presentations on the faith, celebrated Mass, heard confessions and presided at Benediction. Meals were provided by the Knights of Columbus and the Indianapolis Serra Club.

The camp was staffed largely by seminarians, who served as counselors and mentors to the teens. They also took part in canoeing and other outdoor activities and offered advice as campers tackled an obstacle course and played dodge ball and other games.

“Part of the work of a seminarian is to find more seminarians,” said Martin Rodriguez, a seminarian who recently completed his coursework at Bishop Brute

Seminary, “and I think with the youths there are a lot of people who are called to be priests, but sometimes they are isolated in their own parishes and they don’t know there are other guys thinking about this stuff.”

Seeing the teens offered a “good refresher” on how God worked in his life, added Rodriguez, who is continuing his priestly studies at the Pontifical North American College in Rome.

“These guys have their own story, and each story enriches mine,” he told The Criterion, newspaper of the Indianapolis Archdiocese. “When I see them, I see myself at this age, and how I started discerning.”

Father Robert Robeson, rector of Bishop Brute Seminary, said he believes there is a growing interest among teen-age boys in the possibility of pursuing priestly vocations.

But having an interest is only

a priest,” Derrick said. “He tries to encourage me every chance he can.”

While family can play a key role in helping young people discern their vocation, being around like-minded teens also can be a positive thing, Father Robeson stated.

“God calls each person in a very different way, but the important thing is to connect them with (like-minded) kids,” he said.

“This retreat demonstrates to them that there are many other young men who are thinking (about the priesthood) and open in the same way.”

Be Not Afraid

Indiana summer camp brings together teen-agers considering priesthood the starting point, he said.

“I think that the first thing you’ve got to work on with young people before you can really start talking about priesthood or vocation is the call to holiness and the conversion of life,” Father Robeson said, “and trying to deepen your love for Christ, deepen that day-to-day appreciation for the Eucharist and Mary and the teachings of the Church.”

Some of the campers have developed such strong vocational interests that they attend the camp multiple times.

Derrick Roll, 14, came back to the retreat and camplike atmosphere for a second straight year to continue discerning whether a calling to the priesthood will be a part of his future.

He said his parents, particularly his father, have been very supportive.

“My dad just feels like God is pointing me in the direction to be

GIVING IT A WACK — Kevin Wack talks with high school students during a conference at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., recently. After three years in the university’s college seminary, Wack will combine his senior year at Notre Dame with his novitiate year at Moreau Seminary for the Congregation of Holy Cross. (CNS photo/Heather Gollatz, courtesy of University of Notre Dame)

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

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Veterans wage war against homelessness of peers continued from page one

Home Veterans Housing, Inc. have been doggedly pursuing affordable, safe and permanent housing for veterans in New Bedford.

Led by Vietnam veteran, and former first lieutenant in the Army Nurse Corps, Kathleen M. Splinter, a parishioner of Notre Dame Parish in Fall River, the Welcome Home group has secured an out-of-service sweater mill at 280 North Street that will be transformed into 19 apartments for U.S. veterans in need. Splinter is president of Welcome Home.

The housing unit will be named the Sean Brooke House, after an Army combat medic who was killed by a drunk driver on the Island of Oahu, Hawaii in 2005, while returning to his base following a charity function.

Brooke served a 14-month tour of duty in Iraq shortly before his death, where he treated U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians.

At a ground-breaking ceremony at the North Street site last week, Splinter said she could relate to Brooke since they both served wounded soldiers in combat. “I got to know Sean and felt a camaraderie with him and his work,” she said. “Those who knew him prayed for his safe return from Iraq, and cheered when he made it back in one piece.”

Then tragedy struck. “He was

like a son to many of us,” she added, “our hearts go out to the Brooke Family and we’re proud to name this unit after him.”

Brooke’s father Darren, his mother Laurie, his sister Christine, and brother Parker, were in attendance at the ceremony, traveling from their home in Detroit Lakes, Minn.

Splinter later told The Anchor that the Welcome Home group began corresponding with Brooke shortly after the Iraqi war began and they periodically sent his unit care packages.

“Many of us were medics and the letters Sean sent to us could have been written by us at one time or another, and probably were,” she said. “He was a field medic, and they are a gift to the units they serve. Not only do they tend the soldiers’ physical injuries, but they follow up and make sure they are cared for emotionally after their battle experiences. And it’s not only soldiers. They cared for civilians and POWs as well.”

Splinter also said Brooke was more concerned about the welfare of his peers and not for his own well-being. “He poured out his feelings in letters to us, because he couldn’t over there.”

“We must take care of our veterans, especially those in need,” said Splinter who was awarded the Bronze Star in 1969 for outstanding service to her patients. She said the nine-

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year process to get the housing project off the ground was like, “a ride on the old roller coaster at Lincoln Park in Westport.

It was full of twists and turns, where sometimes you were screaming for the ride to end. It felt like you wouldn’t survive, but we did. All involved are filled with gratitude and hope that we will offer 19 veterans safe, affordable and permanent housing.”

Father Robert A. Oliveira, pastor of Holy Name of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in New Bedford, and an honorary member of Welcome Home Veterans Housing also spoke at the ceremony. “I knew Kathy Walsh for 50 years, and when she married and her name became Splinter, I thought it was appropriate,” he said. “A splinter can be a persistent annoyance, and that’s what Kathy is like when she has a goal in mind. It was her persistence that paid off in helping to get this done. And that’s a good annoyance.”

At the closing Benediction, Father Oliveira said, “Benediction means saying good things, and we’re here to say good things about people and to hope for good things for people. Let us speak well of others and hope well for others. May the veterans who inhabit this house be blessed with hope as they share their life stories with one another.”

Nelson Ostiguy, USMC retired, of the New Bedford Mayor’s office said that Splinter, who was named Outstanding Woman Veteran of the Year in Massachusetts last year, “saw the worst of the worst in her duties as an Army nurse in Vietnam.” He added she could have come home and felt she did her duty, but “she wanted to do something to help other veterans. There were a few snags in the process that could have strayed her from the course, but she and her committee were committed to getting this done.”

Splinter added, “I’m only the mouthpiece for Welcome Home Veterans Housing. The whole committee has worked tirelessly to get this accomplished.

EasternTelevision

August 7, 2009 And we’ve had fun doing it.”

Also present at the event was the Riley Family, who made the North Street property available; Richard, USN retired; his wife Rosemary, who volunteers at Holy Family-Holy Name School in New Bedford; and their seven children.

The hope is to have the Sean Brooke House ready for residents to move in by next summer.

“All of the residents will meet requirements,” Splinter told The Anchor. “They will be CORI’d and they must meet financial requirements of the Housing Authority and HUD guidelines.

Partnering in the financial and construction support for the

project is the City of New Bedford, Citizens Bank, Mass. Technology Council, Federal Home Loan Bank Boston, the Mass.

Dept. of Housing & Community Development, Mass. Affordable Housing Trust, Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation, Charlesbank Homes, MassHousing CCRI Foundation, Caritas Communities, South Shore Housing Development Corporation, Durkee Brown Viveiros Werenfels, Bufftree Building Co., and Welcome Home Veterans Housing, Inc. For those who would like to help in this nearly $5M project, donations can be sent to Welcome Home Veterans Housing, Inc., 280 North Street, New Bedford, MA, 02740.

Diocesan directory is bigger and better continued from page one

various listings had been ongoing for the past year, the final two months of designing the directory and getting last minute and up-to-date assignments of priests and pastors was a real challenge,” Souza added, laughing.

But it wasn’t all just computer work.

“We traveled out to various locations across the diocese in order to take photos of people, places and things. And we invited clergy and personnel to come to The Anchor office where we had a setup for immediate photo taking for walkins. It is still ongoing,” he added, “and while we didn’t get photos of every priest and deacon in the directory this year, we’re looking for 100 percent next year.”

Not “fully content” with the new directory, Souza says he’s looking to a more uniform listing, as well as more of the who’s who in the various parishes.

“We’re looking forward to not only listing the pastors, parochial vicars and deacons in the individual parishes, but also administrative assistants, those in the various apostolates and ministries of music, Religious Education, youth and adult education — and even parish secretaries,” Souza explained.

“Parish secretaries are important because they are usually the first contact with a parish,” he noted.

The listings also include an easy to find, all inclusive alphabetical listing of all diocesan offices, personnel, archives, priests’ residences, councils and apostolates ranging from the AIDS Ministry to Catholic Social Services and its many offices; Campus Ministry, summer camps, Catholic

Charities Appeal, the Development Office, Chancery, Cursillo, Family Ministry, Insurance, Legal, Communications, Scouting, Shelters, Vocations, and Youth and Adult Ministry; and a necrology of priests and deacons.

To find those, Souza utilized tabs for quick reference.

“We had three such tabs last year, but this year we made it all easier by using eight tabs,” he pointed out.

Another interesting new feature of the directory takes a look at projections in the number of priests into the years 2015 and 2020.

Currently there are 113 priests serving an estimated 324,359 parishioners in the diocese.

An alphabetical listing of the 65 advertisers is also featured.

“It amounts to 23 more advertisers than previous, representing a 28 percent increase in those who wisely wanted to make their services known and offered in the directory to those across our diocese,” said Wayne R. Powers, director of advertising for The Anchor, and for the directory.

The directory is also a handy and pictorial reminder of the ongoing Year for Priests, and Pope Benedict XVI’s call for Catholics the world over to daily pray for their priests.

The colorful cover of the directory presents a stained glass window from St. Anthony of Padua Parish in New Bedford.

It portrays of St. John Mary Vianney, the famed Curé of Ars in France, whose holiness should be a model for all priests, Pope Benedict has said.

To order a directory, use the form on the advertisement on page 20 of this week’s Anchor.

August 7, 2009

Around the Diocese 8/7

In honor of the Year of the Priesthood St. Patrick’s Parish in Wareham will host a 40-hour devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. It will continue tonight at 6 p.m. at St. Anthony’s Chapel, 35 Gault Road, West Wareham and will end with 9 a.m. Mass tomorrow at St. Anthony’s Church, 82 High Street. All are encouraged to give an hour of their day to pray for vocations to the priesthood, religious life and marriage. For more information, call 508-295-2411.

8/10

A biweekly support group for separated and divorced persons will begin August 10 at 7 p.m. at the La Salette Retreat Center, 947 Park Street, Attleboro. Dorothy J. Levesque, a member of the retreat staff, will facilitate the meeting that will conclude at 8:30 p.m. For more information, call 508-236-9083.

8/11

A Holy Hour of Prayer for Vocations with Bishop George W. Coleman, seminarians and parish vocation teams will be held 7 p.m.

August 11 at St. Julie Billiart Church, 494 Slocum Road, North Dartmouth. Light refreshments will follow and all are invited to attend.

8/12

The 20th annual Christ the King Catholic Women’s Club Cocktail Party will be held August 12, 6 p.m. at the Coonamesett Inn, Falmouth.

All proceeds from the event will benefit Christ the King Parish, Mashpee. For tickets or more information, call the parish office at 508-477-7700.

8/12 basis.

Following the 7 p.m. Mass at Holy Family Church, 370 Middleboro Avenue, East Taunton, Frank Kelly will give an update on his recent activities and offer intercessory healing prayer on an individual

8/15

The second annual “Cool Jazz on a Hot Summer Night” to benefit Holy Family-Holy Name School in New Bedford will be held August 15 at 8 p.m. at the Wamsutta Club, 427 County Street. For tickets or information, call 508-993-3547 or e-mail cfelix@hfhn.org.

8/19

Holy Name of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish, New Bedford, will host its annual baseball outing to the Pawtucket Red Sox on August 19. The PawSox will be hosting the Rochester Red Wings at 6 p.m.

For tickets and more information, call the parish rectory at 508-992-3184.

8/22

Courage, a welcoming support group for Catholics wounded by same-sex attraction who gather to seek God’s wisdom, mercy and love, will meet August 22 at 7 p.m. For location information, call Father Richard Wilson at 508-992-9408.

Eucharistic Adoration in the Diocese: ACUSHNET — Eucharistic adoration takes place at St. Francis Xavier Parish on Mondays 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.; Fridays 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Saturdays 8 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. Mondays end with Evening Prayer and Benediction at 6:30 p.m.; Saturdays end with Benediction at 2:45 p.m.

BREWSTER — Eucharistic adoration takes place in the La Salette Chapel in the lower level of Our Lady of the Cape Church, 468 Stony Brook Road, on First Fridays following the 11 a.m. Mass until 7:45 a.m. on the First Saturday of the month, concluding with Benediction and Mass.

BUZZARDS BAY — Eucharistic adoration takes place at St. Margaret Church, 141 Main Street, every first Friday after the 8 a.m. Mass and ending the following day before the 8 a.m. Mass.

EASTON — Eucharistic adoration in honor of the feast of the Immaculate Conception will take place in the chapel at the Father Peyton Center, 518 Washington Street, on August 14, beginning with the rosary at 9 a.m. until 11:45 a.m., followed by noon Mass.

To sign up for a half-hour interval or for more information, contact Holy Cross Family Ministries at 508-238-4095.

EAST TAUNTON — Eucharistic adoration takes place First Fridays at Holy Family Church, 370 Middleboro Avenue, following the 8:30 a.m. Mass until Benediction at 8 p.m.

FAIRHAVEN — St. Mary’s Church, Main St., has a First Friday Mass each month at 7 p.m., followed by a Holy Hour with eucharistic adoration. Refreshments follow.

NEW BEDFORD — Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament takes place at St. Joseph-St. Therese Church, 51 Duncan Street, Mondays following the 8:30 a.m. Mass until 1:30 p.m. For more information call 508-995-2354.

NEW BEDFORD — Eucharistic adoration takes place 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesdays at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, 233 County Street, with night prayer and Benediction at 8:45 p.m., and confessions offered during the evening.

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

OSTERVILLE — Eucharistic adoration takes place at Our Lady of the Assumption Church, 76 Wianno Avenue on First Fridays following the 8 a.m. Mass until Benediction at 5 p.m. The Divine Mercy Chaplet is prayed at 4:45 p.m.; on the third Friday of the month from 1 p.m. to Benediction at 5 p.m.; and for the Year For Priests, the second Thursday of the month from 1 p.m. to Benediction at 5 p.m.

TAUNTON — Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament takes place every First Friday at Annunciation of the Lord Church, 31 First Street, immediately following the 8 a.m.

Mass and continues throughout the day. Confessions are heard from 5:15 to 6:15 p.m., concluding with recitation of the rosary and Benediction at 6:30 p.m.

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.

WEST HARWICH — Our Lady of Life Perpetual Adoration Chapel at Holy Trinity Parish, 246 Main Street, holds perpetual eucharistic adoration. For open hours, or to sign up call 508-430-4716.

WOODS HOLE — Eucharistic adoration takes place at St. Joseph’s Church, 33 Millfield Street, year-round on weekdays 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. No adoration on Sundays, Wednesdays, and holidays. For information call 508-274-5435.

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MOUNT VERNON, N.Y. — Dominican Sister of Hope Angele Morin, 95, who taught at many Fall River, Mass. diocesan schools and also served as a local novice mistress and prioress, died July 19.

Born in New Bedford, the daughter of the late Joseph S., and the late Laura (Thibault) Morin, she entered the novitiate of the Dominican Sisters of Fall River in August 1932 and made her final profession in 1937.

She taught at schools in New York and Massachusetts. Locally,

Sister Angele Morin OP; was teacher and prioress she taught at St. Anne’s School and Dominican Academy in Fall River and St. Francis Xavier School in Acushnet.

She served as mistress of novices and as prioress of St. Catherine’s Convent in Fall Sister Angele River; and Morin, O.P. later was infirmarian and ministered in pastoral care at the Dominican Sisters of Hope Cen-

ter in Newburgh, N.Y. This year she was in residence at The Wartburg in Mount Vernon, N.Y. She leaves two sisters, Dolora Hebert and Victoria Dumar of New Bedford, Mass. She was also the sister of four brothers, Theodore, Victor, Hector, and Marcel; and two sisters, Marguerite and Imelda.

Her Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated July 23, in the chapel of the Dominican Sisters of Hope in Newburgh, N.Y. Burial was in the Dominican Sisters cemetery there.

Pope will visit Viterbo, where the papal conclave was born

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI will interrupt his stay at the papal summer villa to make a one-day trip to the Italian city where the papal conclave was born.

In fact, he will visit the conclave room in the Palace of the Popes in Viterbo September 6 before celebrating an outdoor Mass. The town is about 65 miles north of Rome.

Between 1261 and 1281, five of the eight popes who reigned were elected in Viterbo: Pope Urban IV, elected in 1261; Pope Gregory X in 1271; Pope John XXI in 1276; Pope Nicolas III in 1277; and Pope Martin IV in 1281.

In Your Prayers Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks Aug. 12 Rev. Victor O. Masse, M.S., Retired Pastor, St. Anthony, New Bedford, 1974 Aug. 13 Rev. Edward J. Sheridan, Pastor, St. Mary, Taunton, 1896 Rt. Rev. Leonard J. Daley, Pastor, St. Francis Xavier, Hyannis, 1964 Rev. Gabriel Swol, OFM Conv., Former Associate Pastor, Holy Rosary, Taunton, 1991 Aug. 14 Rev. Raphael Marciniak, OFM Conv., Pastor, Holy Cross, Fall River, 1947 Rev. Conrad Lamb, O.S.B., Missionary in Guatemala, 1969 Aug. 15 1926, Rev. Charles W. Cullen, Founder, Holy Family, East Taunton

Until 1271, the gathering of cardinals for the election was not called a conclave — the word means under lock and key.

After Pope Clement IV died in 1268, the cardinals meeting in Viterbo could not elect his successor. The election dragged on, ultimately lasting 33 months. It was not until city officials locked all of the cardinals in the meeting room, reduced their diet to bread and water and took the roof off the meeting hall that the cardinals elected Pope Gregory.

It was Pope Gregory who made it Church law that papal elections would take place in a conclave.

Pope Benedict will travel to Viterbo by helicopter from the papal summer villa at Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome.

Before returning to Castel Gandolfo, the pope will transfer by helicopter from Viterbo to Bagnoregio, where St. Bonaventure was born in 1217.

Pope Benedict wrote his postdoctoral thesis on the doctrine of revelation in the works of St. Bonaventure, a doctor of the Church. The pope is scheduled to venerate the “holy arm” of the saint, which is kept in Bagnoregio’s cathedral. The rest of the saint’s body is buried in France.

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TEA TIME — Library volunteers at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Attleboro share a spot of tea recently to celebrate their library ministry. From left: Lauren McBarron, Gerry Green, Yolanda Donnelly, Lisa Cote (rear), Sarah Pimental, and Anne Duffy. The library was established 10 years ago and offers a wide variety of materials for adults and children. For information on what the library offers and the hours of operation, contact the rectory at 508-222-1206.

August 7, 2009