09.04.09

Diocese of Fall River

The Anchor

F riday , September 4, 2009

Bishop Stang High School turns 50

School named for diocese’s first bishop

By Deacon James N. Dunbar

Stang family readies to celebrate

By Kenneth J. Souza, Anchor Staff

NORTH DARTMOUTH — For much of the first 50 years after the 1907 death of NORTH DARTMOUTH — The extended family of students, staff and alumni Bishop William Stang, the founding bishop from Bishop Stang High School will be comof the Fall River Diocese, whenever Catholic ing together to commemorate a half-century education or the need for parochial schools of academic excellence September 9 with a was talked about, the late bishop’s pastoral formal rededication ceremony and a 50th anletter on education was quoted. niversary Mass, celebrated by Bishop George The pastoral, his third, written just months W. Coleman. The rededication and blessing before Bishop Stang died following surgery of the high school will take place at 9:30 a.m. in what was a short, two-year and barely with the Mass following at the adjacent St. nine-month episcopacy, addressed the timeJulie Billiart Church on Slocum Road beginless principles and values of a solid educaning at 10:30 a.m. tional system, his preference for a school “We’ve been doing a lot of long-range in every parish, and elaborated on parental planning for this event,” said Theresa E. Dourights, paying double education taxes, the gall, president of Bishop Stang High School duty of laity, virtue, and the role of young and a member of the school’s second graduatpeople in the kingdom of God. ing class in 1964. “Fifty years go by quickly.

Even more poignant, in a prophetic letter It’s a year to celebrate, and that’s what we’re written the night before the catastrophic sur- THE PAST AND THE PRESENT — Members of Bishop Stang High doing.” gery, in what was actually his last will and School’s first graduating class in 1963 were present to greet this year’s The first of several diocesan high schools, testament, Bishop Stang dedicated one of incoming freshman class on the first day of school Tuesday as part of the Bishop Stang was officially dedicated on Turn to page 16 school’s 50th anniversary celebration. (Photo by Kenneth J. Souza) Turn to page 22

Conscience clause questions raise concerns in the health care field

By Dave Jolivet, Editor

FALL RIVER — It would be more believable had the story played out in Communist China or Nazi Germany. It didn’t. It happened this past May at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City.

According to a July 26 story in the New York Post, Catherina Cenzon-DeCarlo, a 35-year-old Catholic nurse, was ordered against her will to assist in a late-term abortion procedure, else possibly lose her job.

The Post story said that since taking part in the procedure, Cenzon-DeCarlo “has had gruesome nightmares and hasn’t

THIS IS THE CHURCH, THIS IS THE STEEPLE — Workers recently placed the steeple of the former St. William’s Church in Fall River on the new St. Mary’s Church currently under construction in Norton.

been able to sleep.” She filed a grievance with her union the day after the surgery.

Cenzon-DeCarlo told the Post that her supervisor advised her that the mother could die if she did not assist in the procedure. The nurse later discovered the hospital records categorized the procedure as “Category II,” which is not considered “immediately life-threatening.”

“I felt violated and betrayed,” Cenzon-DeCarlo told the Post.

“I couldn’t believe that this could happen. I emigrated to this country [from the Philippines] in the belief that here religious

freedom is sacred. Doctors and nurses shouldn’t be forced to abandon their beliefs and participate in abortion in order to keep their jobs.”

The Post also reported that Cenzon-DeCarlo told an administrator during her job interview for an operating-room nurse that she would not be willing to participate in abortions. “The nurse said she put her beliefs in writing,” the story continued. According to catholicnewsagency. com, “The Alliance Defense Fund is representing CenzonDeCarlo in a lawsuit that seeks Turn to page 21

Dedicated diocesan Pro-Lifers among MCFL award recipients

By Deacon James N. Dunbar

RANDOLPH — Known for their zeal in defense of life, five residents of the Fall River Diocese will receive well-deserved recognition of their years of efforts at the 2009 annual dinner of the Massachusetts Citizens for Life to be held at the Lantana Restaurant here September 18.

The local recipients include State Rep. Elizabeth A. Poirier and her husband Kevin Poirier of North Attleboro; Marian Desrosiers, director of the Pro-Life Apostolate in the diocese; and Madeleine Lavoie of Fall River and Patricia Stebbins of East

Sandwich, members of local MCFL chapters.

The keynote speaker will be Anthony Esolen, a dynamic speaker and author who is professor of English Literature and English, as well as Western Civilization, at Providence College.

“He will make this evening a memorable one and those to be honored are well deserving for their efforts to protect life from fertilization until natural death,” said Bea Martins of Fall River, a member of the MCFL Dinner Committee along with John Curry, Cathleen and Connie Murphy, Paulette MarTurn to page 20

News From the Vatican

2

September 4, 2009

Vatican official downplays report of planned liturgical reforms

By John Thavis Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — A Vatican spokesman downplayed a report that major liturgical reforms are being considered by Pope Benedict XVI. “At the moment, there are no institutional proposals for a modification of the liturgical books currently in use,” the spokesman, Father Ciro Benedettini, said August 24.

He was responding to a report that a document with proposed liturgical modifications, including a curb on the practice of receiving Communion in the hand, had been sent to the pope last April by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.

The article, published by the newspaper Il Giornale, said the document was a first concrete step toward the “reform of the reform” in liturgy planned by Pope Benedict. It said the congregation proposed to promote a greater sense of the sacred in liturgy, recover the use of the Latin language in celebrations, and reformulate introductive parts of the Roman Missal to end abuses and experimentation.

The article said the worship congregation had voted on and approved the recommendations almost unanimously during its plenary session last March.

Vatican sources told Catholic News Service that the worship congregation did not, in fact, suggest a program of liturgical change, but simply forwarded to the pope some considerations from its discussions focusing on eucharistic adoration, the theme of the plenary session.

Some individual members may

have added opinions on other liturgical issues, but they in no way constituted formal proposals, one source said.

The article in Il Giornale said one idea being studied by the worship congregation was a return to celebrating Mass with the priest facing the same direction as the people, known as “ad orientem.”

The Vatican sources told CNS that this issue, however, was not discussed by the congregation at its plenary.

The debate over Communion in the hand drew attention in 2008, when Sri Lankan Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith, then secretary of the Vatican’s worship congregation, said he thought it was time for the Catholic Church to reconsider the current policy.

The archbishop said the Second Vatican Council never authorized the practice of Catholics receiving Communion in the hand, a custom that he said was “introduced abusively and hurriedly in some spheres” and only later authorized by the Vatican.

Archbishop Ranjith recently left his Vatican post when he was named archbishop of Colombo, Sri Lanka. He was replaced by Archbishop J. Augustine DiNoia, a U.S. Dominican.

Last year, the Vatican announced that receiving the Eucharist on the tongue while kneeling before the pope would become the norm at papal liturgies. At that time, the Vatican’s chief liturgist, Msgr. Guido Marini, noted that the distribution of Communion in the hand remains an exception granted by the Vatican to the bishops’ conferences that have requested it.

In any era, being a virtuous Christian not easy, pope says

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (CNS) — Just as in Christ’s time, living the Christian virtues today is not an easy task because it often requires people to go against the current of society, Pope Benedict XVI said.

The pope recently spoke about the demands of the faith at a Sunday blessing at his villa outside Rome.

He recalled that the Gospel describes how when Christ’s own disciples found some of his teachings too hard to accept he challenged his apostles with the words, “Do you also want to leave?” It’s a question that has echoed down through the centuries among people grappling with faith, the pope said.

“Even today, not a few people remain scandalized by the paradox of the Christian faith. The teaching of Jesus seems hard, too difficult to welcome and put into practice,” he said.

“As a result, some refuse this teaching and abandon Christ. Some try to ‘adapt’ his words to the fashions of the time, distorting their meaning and value,” he said.

The pope said Christ is not satisfied with a superficial or formal adherence to the faith, or with an initial enthusiasm that dies out.

Christianity must be a lifelong commitment, he said.

“Following Christ fills the heart with joy and gives complete meaning to our existence, but it brings problems and sacrifices because very often one has to go against the current,” he said.

The 82-year-old pontiff joked with pilgrims that while his hand was no longer bound it was “still a little lazy,” and, referring to the physical therapy he was undergoing, added: “I must remain for a while in the school of penitence, but we are moving forward.”

ROOM WITH A VIEW — Pope Benedict XVI greets the crowd from the balcony of his summer residence during a recent weekly general audience in Castel Gandolfo, Italy. (CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano via Reuters)

Vatican and bishops urge respect, help for migrants

By Sarah Delaney Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — Prompted by a sea tragedy involving the apparent deaths of dozens of Eritreans trying to reach Italy in a rubber raft, the Vatican and the Italian bishops urged authorities to guarantee rescue, medical help and respect to migrants in trouble.

On August 20, Italian maritime border police rescued five Eritreans off the Sicilian island of Lampedusa. The survivors recounted that more than 70 others had died of hunger and thirst during a three-week voyage from Libya, and said that no passing vessels had stopped to save them, although some fishermen had given them some food.

Archbishop Antonio Maria Veglio, president of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers, said in an interview with Vatican Radio that such tragedies call for a “strong and farsighted policy of international cooperation.”

He said that while governments have the legitimate right to regulate immigration “there is nevertheless the human right to be rescued and given emergency help.” He said this right is even more necessary in extreme situations, “such as being adrift in the middle of the sea.”

Archbishop Veglio referred to the recent encyclical by Pope Benedict XVI, “Charity in Truth,” which said that “every migrant is a human person” who “possesses inalienable fundamental rights.”

“Our so-called civil societies in reality have developed feelings of refusal toward foreigners, that come not only from a lack of knowledge about others, but also from a selfishness in which one doesn’t want to share what others

don’t have,” Archbishop Veglio said.

Since 1988, he said, 14,660 migrants have died trying to reach Europe.

An editorial in Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian bishops’ conference, said the indifference to the plight of Africans who risk their lives fleeing poverty and war was comparable to the lack of public opposition as the Holocaust unfolded in Nazi Germany.

It criticized tough new Italian legislation, which includes sending back the rickety boats to Libyan coasts, as “the law of not seeing.”

“Certainly, the people then didn’t know; but those long trains, the voices, the screams in the train stations — did nobody see or hear? Then, it was totalitarianism and terror that closed people’s eyes. Today, no. There is a quiet, resigned indifference, if not an irritated aversion, that has fallen over the Mediterranean,” the editorial said.

The position of Church leaders has put them at odds with some members of the Italian government, which has defended the new laws as necessary to halt a steady

The Anchor

flow of illegal immigration.

Reforms Minister Umberto Bossi, the founder of the anti-immigrant Northern League party, said, “the Vatican should open its own doors” to refugees and “give a good example.”

The Italian government defended its handling of the situation, saying that it rescued the five Eritreans when no one else would.

Roberto Calderoli, another government minister from the Northern League, said that Archbishop Veglio’s comments to Vatican Radio should not be considered representative of the Vatican or the Italian bishops’ conference.

Archbishop Veglio replied in a communique that as head of the pontifical council he was authorized to comment in the name of the Holy See and that he had never been contradicted by the Holy See or the Italian bishops’ conference.

“My comments came from a solid, tragic fact: the deaths of many people, without accusing anyone, but calling everyone to take responsibility,” he said.

OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER Vol. 53, No. 33

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 m arychase@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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September 4, 2009

The International Church

3

Upcoming Vatican conference focuses on role of the deaf in the Church

REMEMBERING MOTHER — Missionaries of Charity pray beside the tomb of Blessed Mother Teresa in Calcutta, India, August 26, on what would have been her 99th birthday. Mother Teresa, who won a Nobel Peace Prize, died in 1997 and was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2003 at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Jayanta Shaw, Reuters)

Celebrations begin for centennial of Blessed Mother Teresa’s birth

By Catholic News Service

CALCUTTA, India — The Missionaries of Charity have launched a year of programs celebrating the 2010 centennial of the birth of Blessed Mother Teresa, the religious order’s founder who dedicated her life to serving some of India’s poorest people.

“Mother Teresa’s birth centenary begins today,” said retired Archbishop Henry D’Souza of Calcutta August 26 during a Mass marking what would have been the 99th birthday of the devoted caretaker at the congregation’s motherhouse chapel, according to the Asian church news agency UCA News.

Sister Mary Prema, the congregation’s superior general, said the celebrations would conclude Aug. 26, 2010. During the centennial year, “the best gift we can all prepare for Mother’s 100th birthday is our sincere endeavor to be channels of God’s love and peace to the poor,” she told a gathering at the motherhouse.

Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu Aug. 26, 1910, into an ethnic Albanian family in Skopje, in present-day Macedonia. She came to Calcutta as a member of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Loreto nuns) in 1929 and founded the Missionaries of Charity in 1950.

She died in 1997 and was beatified in 2003.

She became known around the world as Mother Teresa by “dedicating her life totally to God and serving the poorest of the poor, doing small things with great love and recognizing the dignity of a child of God in every person,” Sister Prema said.

The superior general also said that when people experience God’s love they want to share it with others in different ways.

Mother Teresa inspired many by loving all people, she said.

“Maybe there is someone in our families who is lonely, unloved or in need of forgiveness, so beginning at home we can be-

New Bedford church to host Mass for Blessed Mother Teresa September 5

NEW BEDFORD — There will be a Mass for the 12th anniversary of the death of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta on September 5 at 10 a.m. at St. Lawrence Martyr Church here, where Mother Teresa visited New Bedford and attended a Mass at St. Lawrence on June 14, 1995.

She established a community of her Missionaries

of Charity in New Bedford in 1992. The current superior of the Missionaries of Charity in New Bedford, Father Mary Aloka, MC, invites all those with a devotion to Mother Teresa to attend the anniversary Mass. Mother Teresa died on Sept. 5, 1997 in Calcutta at the age of 89. Father Roger Landry will be the celebrant and homilist of the Mass.

come a channel of love for them today,” Sister Prema said.

The example of Mother Teresa remains relevant, she explained, because poor people remain marginalized. “Mother taught us to give them the dignity of human beings, which is of significant need today and will always be needed,” she said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — In response to numerous requests for how the Catholic community could increase its attention toward the deaf, the Vatican has organized an upcoming conference focusing on the role of deaf people in the Church.

The Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry decided to dedicate its annual international conference this year to the condition, needs and experiences of deaf people, including deaf religious and laypeople and their families.

The theme of the November 19-21 Vatican gathering, “Ephphatha: Deaf People in the Life of the Church,” recalls the Aramaic word meaning “be opened” that Jesus used to heal a deaf man.

The council said on its website that it wished “to respond to the numerous requests that we have received asking for the possibility of organizing a symposium” focusing on how the Church could help raise awareness about the various situations faced by the deaf “so as to give them full dignity and respect of their rights.”

The council’s president, Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, presented Pope Benedict XVI with the finalized program of the 24th international meeting during a recent private audience, reported the Vatican newspaper,

L’Osservatore Romano.

The conference hopes to “offer the Church an opportunity to underline the contribution of the deaf in various fields of the apostolate, thus giving them full recognition of the significance of their work,” the archbishop told the Vatican newspaper.

The meeting’s aim is “to raise awareness and foster concrete and effective action in the Church and society toward alleviating the disadvantages the deaf face,” he said.

The U.S.- and U.K.-based International Catholic Foundation for the Service of Deaf Persons helped organize the event. Its president, Archbishop Patrick Kelly of Liverpool, England, and executive director, Terry O’Meara, were to participate at the conference.

Other speakers from around the world were to include religious and laypeople who are deaf, those who work with deaf people either in the Church or in society, and people who are in charge of pastoral programs dealing with health care issues.

Talks were to look at the medical, psychological and social aspects of deafness as well as pastoral programs that foster the participation of the deaf in Church life and the wider community, according to the council’s website.

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The Church in the U.S.

4

September 4, 2009

Majority of Catholics have no opinion on availability of Tridentine Mass

By Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON — Nearly two-thirds of U.S. Catholics surveyed said they have no opinion on the increased availability of the Tridentine Mass since Pope Benedict XVI made it easier for parishes to offer the traditional liturgy two years ago.

Overall, 63 percent of Catholics held a neutral opinion about the availability of the Tridentine Mass, according to findings released August 24 by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, a research center based at Georgetown University in Washington.

“Such a large segment of the Catholic population has no experience of this; they tend to have no opinion,” said Mark Gray, a research associate at the center. For “even some people who attended this Mass as children, the interest has faded a bit,” he added. “It’s not negative. They just have no opinion.”

Of the survey’s 1,007 Catholic respondents, those who favor having the traditional Mass offered more widely outnumbered those who oppose the increased availability of the Tridentine rite by more than a two-to-one ratio, or 25 percent to 12 percent.

“It’s an experience people don’t know. There’s some interest in the novelty of it certainly for some people who are neutral or positive about it and there is an interest in actually experiencing it,” Gray told Catholic News Service.

Pope Benedict, in a July 2007 apostolic letter, “Summorum Pontificum,” said that Mass celebrated according to the 1962 Roman Missal, commonly known as the Latin or Tridentine rite, should be made available in every parish where groups of the faithful desire it. In his letter, the pope said the Mass from the Roman Missal in use since 1970 remains the ordinary form of the Mass, while celebration of the Tridentine Mass is the extraordinary form.

The pope’s letter allowed the Tridentine Mass to be celebrated without a priest first getting a bishop’s approval. The statement updated the 1984 decision of Pope John Paul II that allowed the Tridentine liturgy to be celebrated with the local bishop’s approval.

The CARA survey was patterned after a 1985 Gallup Poll, replicating the questions while making slight alterations to reflect changed events, such as the election of Pope Benedict in 2005.

In contrast with the CARA survey, the 1985 poll indicated that 25 percent of Catholics had no opinion on the availability of the Tridentine Mass. At that time, 35 percent of respondents opposed the return of the traditional rite while 40 percent favored it.

The responses in the CARA study varied based on the frequency of Mass attendance. Among the strongest supporters for the return of the Tridentine Mass were weekly Massgoers, with 33 percent favoring its availability. Among those who attend Mass a few times a year or less often, 21 percent favored increasing its availability.

The survey also showed that 47 percent of those who attend Mass weekly had no opinion on the Tridentine Mass while 20 percent of the same group opposed wider availability of the rite.

Catholics born between 1943 and 1961 indicated the greatest support for the traditional liturgy at 32 percent.

Only 13 percent of that age group opposed the rite. Thirty percent of Catholics born before 1943 supported the Tridentine Mass while 24 percent opposed it.

Younger generations — those born between 1961 and 1981, who came of age after the Second Vatican Council, and those born since 1982, who are considered the millennial generation — had the lowest level of support for the Tridentine Mass being made more widely available, at 21 percent and 16 percent, respectively.

Support for the Tridentine Mass was highest among people holding a graduate degree (43 percent) and those who were political independents (37 percent). Republicans (27 percent) and those who leaned Republican (33 percent) were more likely to support the old rite than Democrats (27 percent) and those who leaned Democrat (10 percent).

Women also favored the increased availability of the Tridentine Mass more than men did: 28 percent to 23 percent.

The survey found that nearly three in 10 Catholics — 29 percent — who do not oppose bringing back the Tridentine Mass would attend such a liturgy if it was available at convenient times and locations. CARA said the number represents about 11 percent of all U.S. Catholics, or about 5.7 million individuals.

The survey, taken in February 2008, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

VATICAN-BOUND — Catholic theologian Miguel Diaz is sworn in as ambassador to the Vatican. Assistant Secretary of State Phil Gordon administered the standard governmental oath of office. (CNS photo/courtesy of the State Department)

New U.S. ambassador to Vatican sworn in

WASHINGTON (CNS) — With a roomful of theologians, college professors and presidents, political activists, leaders of various Church organizations, and family and longtime friends looking on, Catholic theologian Miguel Diaz was sworn in as ambassador to the Vatican August 21.

In a brief, invitation-only ceremony in the ornate Benjamin Franklin room at the State Department, Assistant Secretary of State Phil Gordon administered the standard governmental oath of office and supervised as Diaz signed an assortment of official papers.

The process of stepping into the job as ambassador concludes with Diaz’s formal presentation of his diplomatic credentials to the Vatican.

Diaz, a professor at St. John’s University and the College of St. Benedict, both in Minnesota, is the first Hispanic and the first theologian to represent the U.S. at the Vatican. His predecessors have all come to the job with more extensive backgrounds in political activism or diplomacy.

Diaz was active in President Barack Obama’s campaign, serving on his board of Catholic advisers and as a campaign representative at times, particularly with Spanish-language news media.

In brief comments after the ceremonial part of the event, Diaz said he would bring to the position at the Vatican a strong belief in Obama’s commitment to the idea that “it’s possible to disagree without being disagreeable.”

Diaz said he believes Obama’s presidency and approach to his office have “revived the American tradition that unity comes through diversity,” which he intends to apply to his diplomatic position.

A native of Cuba who came to the United States as a child with his parents, Felix and Silvia Diaz, he was the first of his family to attend college. He is a former president of the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians and a board member of the Catholic Theological Society of America. He is fluent in Italian, Spanish and French.

Diaz, 45, has been at St. John’s and St. Benedict since 2004. Prior to that he taught at Barry University in Miami Shores, Fla.; St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach, Fla.; the University of Dayton in Ohio; and the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.

Colleagues from those schools and friends from around the country joined Diaz and his family and various political activists at the ceremony, which was not open to the general press.

As Diaz thanked people who have helped him prepare for the ambassadorship — State Department personnel, White House representatives, Vatican nuncio Archbishop Pietro Sambi, colleagues and family members — his father, who worked as a waiter to support his family in Miami, was among those in the room who became choked up with emotion.

“Thank you for all your sacrifices,” Diaz told his parents.

He also echoed comments Gordon made about the entire Diaz family becoming ambassadors for the United States. Diaz and his wife, Marian, who has been director of a program for the theological exploration of vocations at St. John’s and St. Benedict, have four children.

September 4, 2009

The Church in the U.S.

5

Bishop promotes health care reform

HERE’S TO YOU — Contractors for the Army Corps of Engineers build a flood wall along the Harvey Canal in Harvey, La., in early April. Labor Day, honoring working people of America, is observed September 7 this year. (CNS photo/Jim West)

Wisconsin bishops object to state mandating contraception coverage

By Catholic News Service

MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin’s Catholic bishops have called a provision in the recently enacted state budget that mandates employer health insurance policies to cover contraceptive services as “blatantly insensitive” to the moral values of Catholics and the Church’s teaching against artificial contraception.

The bishops commented on the provision in an August 20 letter to Catholics. The letter was distributed to the state’s diocesan newspapers.

The mandate takes effect early in 2010, or upon the expiration of any existing contract or agreement.

It affects the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and the Green Bay and Madison dioceses, whose employee health insurance policies are the kind that must be altered to comply with the new law when they are renewed next year.

The mandate does not apply to the self-funded health insurance plans of the La Crosse and Superior dioceses.

Most states that have adopted this type of mandate include an exception for religious institutions or for certain employers.

However, the provision in the Wisconsin state budget did not include such an exception.

In their letter, the bishops wrote they would continue to provide health insurance to employees as they consider their options for contesting the policy.

Diocesan leaders were assessing how to react to the mandate.

“Whatever course we pursue in this matter, we want all Catholics in Wisconsin to know that

we will also continue to affirm and communicate the teachings of our faith,” the bishops wrote.

“No legislation can repeal or annul our commitment to upholding the dignity of human life and the means by which each life is conceived.

“We know that many of you find the teaching of our faith on contraception difficult to accept or live out in practice,” they said.

“As pastors and teachers, we find our conviction much reinforced because artificial contraception is not, in the first place, a ‘Catholic issue,’” they continued.

“Rather, the prohibition of artificial contraception is a principle of the natural moral law, which is inscribed in the mind and heart of all human beings.”

“Many fail to recognize the truth of our conviction, not because they are irrational, but because, in our day and age, the fashionable proposition that there is no objective truth renders human reason itself directionless,” the bishops said.

They said it was incumbent on them “as pastors and teachers” to keep engaging Catholics on the issue “in charity.”

Signing the letter were: Bishops Robert C. Morlino of Madison, David L. Ricken of Green Bay, Jerome E. Listecki of La Crosse, and Peter F. Christiansen of Superior, and Auxiliary Bishop William P. Callahan of Milwaukee, archdiocesan administrator.

John Huebscher, executive director of the Wisconsin Catholic Conference in Madison, the public policy arm of the state’s bish-

ops, noted that dioceses in other states with similar laws have opted to self-fund their health insurance plans, but he emphasized that no Wisconsin diocese affected by the new law has made any decisions at this time.

“There is time to review and analyze all the options carefully and the diocesan leadership is doing just that,” he said.

FARGO, N.D. (CNA) — Bishop of Fargo, N.D., Samuel J. Aquila has written a letter encouraging priests, deacons, vowed religious and laymen to become engaged in promoting “genuine health care reform.” His letter presents four principles on which to evaluate legislative proposals for health care plans.

He said health care plans must exclude any provisions which deny “the dignity of human life,” such as abortion, passive or active euthanasia and embryonic stem-cell research. It would be “inherently inconsistent” to expand access to health care without safeguarding human life from conception onward, Bishop Aquila wrote.

“True health care begins with the unborn child in the womb,” he explained. “When a given plan to provide care fails to protect that life, it is no longer animated by a source of truth and justice, thus it will not, and cannot, flourish.”

Killing unborn children, he continued, has “nothing to do with promoting health.”

The bishop listed conscience protection as another important facet of health care for health care professionals, participants in health care plans, and society in general.

“The doctors, nurses and health care professionals who possess such medical expertise are prime candidates for coercion from those who would destroy the most vulnerable human lives. The right to follow one’s conscience, as informed

by God, must be guaranteed,” he

stated.

“In no way should taxpayers or policy holders be forced to participate in plans, whether private or public, which fund procedures that violate the moral precepts of the faith.”

Another principle of reform is access for all, Bishop Aquila added.

“Finding ways to provide medical care to those who have none is a perennial priority for the Church,” he wrote, adding that access to health care must be ensured for the poor, the elderly, the handicapped, legal immigrants and the unborn.

The bishop invoked the concept of subsidiarity as his fourth principle. He quoted the “Catechism of the Catholic Church’s” description of subsidiarity, which holds that a “higher order” of society should not needlessly interfere with or displace a “lower order.”

“As a society seeks to bring about any good such as health care, there are many organic and intermediate groups which cooperate together to reach the desired goal. There is a danger in being persuaded to think that the national government is the sole instrument of the common good,” he continued.

“Many different communities within society share this responsibility,” Bishop Aquila explained, naming communities such as the state, towns, fraternal organizations, businesses, cooperatives, parishes and the family as contributors to the social fabric.

6

The Anchor Senator Kennedy’s legacy

There is no debating that Senator Edward Kennedy lived a highly consequential life. Over the span of his 47-year career in the Senate, he became one of the nation’s most effective and powerful politicians. By ferociously championing often revolutionary pieces of legislation and hammering them through to completion, he forged a reputation as the lion of the Senate. He wanted to make a difference and through his own hard work and the assistance of a highly competent and enviable staff, he did. He accomplished a lot of good for a whole lot of people, as many people have remembered publicly and privately since his August 25 death.

It would be great if that were Senator Kennedy’s sole public legacy. But as much as many in the media and even within some segments of the Church would prefer to it to be glossed over, we cannot ignore the aborted baby in the living room. With regard to the defense of innocent human life, Senator Kennedy was the cowardly lion of the Senate.

In 1971, he wrote in a letter to Tom Dennelly, “It is my personal feeling that the legalization of abortion is not in accordance with the value which our civilization places on human life. Wanted or unwanted, I believe that human life, even at its earliest stages, has certain rights which must be recognized — the right to be born, the right to love, the right to grow old. … Once life has begun, no matter what stage of growth, it is my belief that termination should not be decided merely by desire. … When history looks back to this era, it should recognize this generation as one which cared about human beings enough to halt the practice of war, to provide a decent living for every family, and to fulfill its responsibility to its children from the very moment of conception.”

By the standards the Senator himself articulated, as we look back at his subsequent record that eventually garnered him repeatedly a perfect pro-abortion voting record from the National Abortion Rights Action League, we cannot help but conclude that he personally did not care about human beings enough to fulfill his responsibility to our children from the very moment of conception.

He became one of the staunchest leaders, in fact, of two generations that have sought to extirpate “the value our civilization places on human life” so that the termination of unborn life, imposed on us by the Supreme Court in 1973, could in fact be decided “merely by desire.”

This does not eliminate or vitiate the good that he did, but neither does the good that he did excuse this tremendous evil. This evil — which is both symbolic and substantive — is part of his legacy.

Had Senator Kennedy remained both publicly and privately faithful to the sentiments he expressed in his 1971 letter, the abortion landscape in our country would almost certainly be markedly different. First, the Democratic Party would probably have never developed into the staunchly pro-abortion party that it is today. As Father Raymond DeSouza wrote last week in The National Catholic Register, “Kennedy’s family legacy, his impregnable position in Massachusetts (he won more than 60 percent of the vote the year after Chappaquiddick) and his national prominence rendered him immune from the pressures other politicians had to face. He could always choose his own path. Had he chosen to remain economically liberal but culturally conservative, he would have prevented the Democratic Party from embracing the orthodoxy of the unlimited abortion license.

Had he remained Pro-Life the Democratic Party would have had to make place for other Pro-Life politicians. Had he remained Pro-Life many others — Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Jesse Jackson — would not have abandoned their Pro-Life positions as the price to be paid for national ambition.”

Like almost no one else in his generation, Senator Kennedy had the stature and the electoral security to have led the Democratic Party down a very different path than the one it ended up taking. He was a vigorous leader that could have inspired many other aspiring politicians, particularly Catholic Democratic politicians, to go with him into battle. He at least had the ability and the political skills to wage a spirited defense of the civilization he described in his 1971 letter. But he didn’t, many others likewise capitulated, and a pro-abortion Democratic Party is the result. That is clearly part of his legacy.

Had Senator Kennedy remained publicly and privately faithful to his 1971 sentiments, moreover, we would also have a far different, and far less divided, Catholic Church in our country today.

At his death and for most of the second half of his life, he was the most well-known American Catholic in public life. His example was enormous — and enormously scandalous. Because of the choices he made, the expression “Kennedy Catholic” has become a synonym, sadly, not for “good Catholic,” but for a hypocritical one, one who pays lip service to the Church’s teachings on intrinsically evil acts while seeking to justify and facilitate public violations of them. This is part of his legacy, too. If Senator Kennedy had remained true to his Catholic faith and a “doer” of the Word of God proclaimed by the Church (James 1:22), there would without a doubt be far fewer Catholics who support abortion, or same-sex pseudomatrimony, or other such intrinsic evils today that he supported. His example taught other Catholics that one can pick-and-choose what areas of the faith on which to be faithful, as long as one tries to do good in some other areas of your Catholic faith.

We have to admit, however, that one of the reasons why Kennedy’s example was so injurious to the Church was because the pastors of the Church, for the most part, made the imprudent call to do little or nothing about it beyond general teaching statements that they hoped offending politicians would apply to themselves. There were no real consequences, and as a result, Senator Kennedy, scores of other Catholic politicians, and millions of American Catholic lay people concluded that the Church’s teachings in defense of human life cannot be that important to it if those who publicly and repeatedly act in violation of it do so with impunity. It would be very hard for an abortionsupporting Catholic politician to have watched Senator Kennedy’s very public and panegyrical funeral rites and not have concluded that the Church’s teachings on life are, in the end, a very small matter indeed. It would have been even harder for him or others who support the evil of abortion to have been inspired toward conversion.

This leads to one of the most important lessons that pastors in the United States need to draw from the history of its interactions with Senator Kennedy for its engagement of pro-abortion Catholic politicians in the future. Despite the good intentions to try to engage him, teach him, and help bring him to conversion, the strategy seems to have failed. There were many words given about Senator Kennedy’s “private faith,” but private faith is not enough. “Faith without deeds is dead,” as St. James reminds us. The Church had a responsibility to help bring him from his private faith to see the consequences of it in his public actions, and, in his case, we didn’t succeed. When excerpts of his July letter to Pope Benedict were read at his committal at Arlington National Cemetery, those hoping for some sign of repentance for his formal cooperation in the blood of millions of unborn children were left disappointed: “I have always tried to be a faithful Catholic,” he wrote, “and though I have fallen short through human failings, I have never failed to believe and respect the fundamental teachings.” If we take him at his word while looking at his many past statements and work in favor of abortion, same-sex marriage, and other evils — in which he showed a total disrespect and disregard for the Church’s teachings — it’s impossible not to conclude that after almost 35 years of patient pastoral pedagogy, he still failed to grasp that abortion and marriage are “fundamental teachings” of the Church. The pastors of the Church obviously need to come up with a more effective way to get politicians to grasp the importance of the Church’s teaching that they employed with Senator Kennedy.

As we pray with sincerity that the Lord will remember the good Senator Kennedy has done and forgive him his sins, we also pray that the Lord will strengthen all faithful Catholics to help bring to conversion those who have followed the lamentable parts of the Senator’s legacy.

September 4, 2009

The greatest action we can do

The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council world!” He explained how valuable the Mass taught that Jesus in the Eucharist is meant to was, stating, “All the good works taken together be the “source and the summit of the Christian do not equal the sacrifice of the Mass, because life.” In other words, for a life to be truly Chris- they are the works of men and the holy Mass is tian, Jesus in the Eucharist is meant to be not the work of God. The martyr is nothing in commerely a part of a person’s existence, but the parison, because martyrdom is the sacrifice that reality from whom everything in his life flows man makes to God of his life; the Mass is the and the goal toward whom everything in his life sacrifice that God makes for man of his Body goes. and Blood.” He passed on his own wondrous Following the same line of thought, Pope recognition that at Mass we receive a greater John Paul II in his 2003 encyclical on the holy privilege than the elderly Simeon in the Gospel: Eucharist said that the Church as a whole, and Simeon just held the baby Jesus in his arms; we faithful Christians in particular, must live off the have a chance to receive him within and truly Eucharist. become one with him.

If we seek to be a good, faithful Catholic, Once his people began to grasp how importhen, we need to determine whether we are re- tant the Mass was, he passed on to a third stage: ally living off Jesus in the Eucharist, whether to help them to grow in appreciation — not just Jesus is really the alpha and the omega of our intellectually but existentially — of the Lord’s life. But that begs the question: What does it real presence in the Eucharist. He preached mean to live a truly eucharistic life? Is it enough about Christ’s real presence first by his examfor us to be coming to Mass on Sunday and ple, through his genuflections, his reverence afworthily receiving him? ter the consecration at Mass, and his kneeling I think the easiest way to determine whether in prayer before the tabernacle. He eyes would we are genuinely living off Jesus in the Eucha- tear up when he spoke about this gift of Jesus. rist is to determine what our reaction is when He would often only be able to point to the tabwe do not receive him. If we’re truly living off ernacle and repeat, “He is there!” At times he of Jesus then it would follow that we would feel would say, “How beautiful it is! After the consespiritually dead if cration, the good we were not, for God is there, like whatever reason, he is in heaven. able to receive If man knew Jesus. this mystery he One illustrawould die of tion of those love.” With canwho lived a eudid wonder, he

By Father charistic life is exclaimed, “If Roger J. Landry often cited by we had one faPope Benedict: vor to ask of Our the martyrs of Lord, we would Abitene. In 304, the local Roman governor never have thought to ask him that,” meaning, to warned Christians in what is modern day Tuni- ask the Father to send his Son first to die for our sia that the emperor Diocletian had ordered that sins and then to become our spiritual food and if Christians came together for the Eucharist, constant companion. they were to be arrested and executed. Defying He described that Jesus is in the tabernacle the orders, 49 Christians convened early Sunday “waiting for us,” and he therefore urged his pamorning to celebrate Mass. They were arrested rishioners to come to him with their loving adoand sentenced to death. When the governor ration, friendship and prayerful petitions. “If asked why they had defied the emperor’s orders you are passing before a church, enter to greet and his admonition, one of them, Octavius Fe- our Lord,” he encouraged his flock. “Could lix, responded, “Sine Dominico non possumus,” you pass the door of a friend without saying which translated means, “Without the Lord on hello?”

Sunday, we can’t make it.” They couldn’t live Once he had them contemplating how they without Jesus in the Eucharist, and chose to die could and should respond to the Lord’s abidphysically rather than suffer spiritually. ing presence in the tabernacle, he could pass to Helping Catholics learn to live a truly eu- the fourth and final stage of the curriculum of charistic life is the aim of the Church and the a truly eucharistic life: to help them desire and goal of parish priests. come to receive him worthily in holy CommuLast week we described the indefagitable ef- nion as frequently as possible, even every day. forts of St. John Vianney to get his parishioners He helped them to see Jesus in the Eucharist as to return to Sunday Mass. After several years their daily manna, as the response of God the of prayer, penance, preaching, and personal Father to our prayers to give us each day our supersuasion, the patron of priests succeeded in per-substantial “bread.” He described the power getting almost all of the residents of Ars to show of the Eucharist to make them saints. He used up for the three-hour Mass at 8 a.m. each Sun- an unforgettable image: “Next to this sacrament, day. But he didn’t stop there. He knew that at- we are like someone who dies of hunger next tendance at Sunday Mass was merely the first, to a river, just needing to bend the head down not the last, stage on the road to a truly eucharis- to drink; or like a poor man next to a treasure tic life. Now that almost all of his parishioners chest, when all that is needed is to stretch out the were present on Sunday, he would finally have hand.” All we needed, he said, to advance on the the chance, in his hour-long homilies, to help path to holiness and heaven was to come thirsty them advance on the eucharistic path to happi- to Mass to receive the living water and poor to ness, holiness and heaven. receive the world’s greatest treasure. He tried to A month ago, at a night of recollection at St. get them to “upgrade” their faith from weekly Francis Xavier Parish in Acushnet to celebrate communicants to daily. He lamented how many the 150th anniversary of St. John Vianney’s good people remained merely good: “What a birth into eternal life, Msgr. Gerard O’Connor shame. If they communicated more often, they gave a superb talk on the three other stages of would be saints.” the holy Cure’s eucharistic pastoral plan. I sumHis entire plan was based around his, and the marize what he presented.

Church’s conviction, that “attending Mass is the Once they had returned to Sunday Mass, greatest action we can do.” his next goal was to help them understand what The people responded to the loving appeals the Mass really is. He was convinced that if his of their saintly pastor. Eventually St. John Vianpeople truly understood the Mass, they would ney rejoiced that every morning the 7 a.m. Mass be filled with such amazement that they would was packed with Catholics who were receiving not only hunger to attend every week but open the Lord as the source and the summit of their themselves to receive far more of the Mass’ life. Visitors to Ars soon began to be amazed not infinite graces. He patiently catechized and just with the holy Curé of Ars but, with the holy preached on how Mass is our participation in Catholics of Ars. time in Jesus’ eternal loving self-sacrifice from St. John Vianney’s pastoral plan to help his the Last Supper and Calvary. He described the parishioners become saints is the Church’s pasmiracle of transubstantiation, how the “tongue toral plan in every age. of the priest, and a piece of bread, makes God,” Father Landry is pastor of St. Anthony’s which is described as “greater than creating the Parish in New Bedford.

Putting Into the Deep

September 4, 2009

A

s I write this, I have been a priest for less than a month. In many ways I am still learning what it is to be a priest — what it really means to act in the person of Christ, to be the minister of forgiveness, and by saying a few words to turn bread into the Eucharist. I look back during my years of seminary formation and I see how God, through his providence shaped things to bring me to this point, has formed me into a priest.

When I first entered seminary, there was no “Aha!” moment, no super spiritual experience that informed me that I was to enter the seminary and become a priest. Rather, when I was in high school, there were times when I thought it would be rather “neat” to be a priest. I thought that it was a great job.

When I became a junior in high school the time was nearing when I had to choose where to go to college. It was around that moment, after talking with my parish priest and the voca-

A

7

The Anchor

In the right place

tion director, that I decided to ticipates with spiritual fatherenter into the seminary. My hood, as a seminarian — how mentality was that it is easier much more so could I do as a to enter now and give it a shot priest? That was the moment than to enter in 15 years or so. in which I was as certain as I I figured if I did not like the could be that I was called to seminary I could leave and it be a priest. would not be that hard to get a One of the moments in degree in a field with which I which I have been closest to could teach.

It was not until six years of seminary Year For Priests formation, and half way Vocational Reflection through my pastoral year, that I finally had an “Aha!” moment.

By Father During the year I spent Peter J. Fournier doing pastoral work in a parish, I spent much time during the week teaching and being present to Christ, as a priest, was the day the kids in the classrooms of after my first Mass. It was in the parish school. When I first the morning and the pastor of started the kids were just “those the parish asked if I wanted to kids.” Slowly I started to learn celebrate the daily Mass since their names. One day the kids he had a later Mass for a school ceased being “those kids” and graduation. I said yes. The became “my kids.” It was at Mass was going well. I made it that moment that I realized through the introductory rites that if I could understand and by reading the Sacramentary. experience this type of relation- The readings were proclaimed. ship — which in a real way par- I was even in the right mind-set

to give a brief homily. I made it through the Eucharistic Prayer, the prayers of consecration and even the Lamb of God. When I was distributing Communion, however, and raised the host to say, “The Body of Christ,” it hit me. I just stopped and stared at the Eucharist. It was as though at that moment I understood what it meant to be a priest and what it meant to be a minister of the Eucharist. Though the moment seems to have lasted for almost a lifetime, it probably only occurred for about 30 seconds in real life. In my brief priesthood, it was the closest I’ve been aware of being to Christ in my priestly ministry.

I knew that I was in the right place.

In my first few weeks as a priest, I have experienced many things that I never imagined I would actually ever do. I remember within the first week of my parish assignment I went to do a vigil service for a pa-

rishioner who had passed away.

On the way back to the parish afterward, there was a drenching downpour. As I approached an intersection, I saw that there was what appeared to have been a mild accident. Turning to the right, I saw that there was an SUV whose front end was totally crushed. I thought about it for a minute and I pulled over and walked a little way to find the police officer.

I asked if there was anyone injured or if anyone needed the sacraments.

“No, no one is injured,” he said.

I said OK, and started to leave, but the officer called out, “Hey Father, thanks for stopping, though.”

So on that little trip I got soaking wet, did not distribute a sacrament, but I was there and was ready: ready to be present and ready to be a minister of Christ’s sacraments.

Father Fournier was ordained on June 13 and is parochial vicar at St. Francis Xavier Parish in Hyannis.

Episcopal Church (2.5 million), can, origin: Evangelicalism, with the National Missionary Baptist its “born again” enthusiasms, and Convention of America (2.5 milPentecostalism, with its emphasis lion), the Progressive National on the continued manifestation of Baptist Convention (2.5 million), the gifts of the Holy Spirit. the Lutheran Church–Missouri The prevailing tendency of at Synod (2.4 million), the Episleast American Protestants has copal Church (2.2 million), the been to treat all churchly organizaChurches of Christ (1.6 million), tion as a product of human creativthe Pentecostal Assemblies (1.5 million), the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (1.4 The Fullness million), the American of the Truth Baptist Churches in the USA (1.4 million),

By Father the United Church of Thomas M. Kocik Christ (1.2 million), the Baptist Bible Fellowship International (1.2 million), and the Christian ity and an object of human manipChurches and Churches of ulation. By contrast, Lutheranism Christ (1.1 million). provides a sense of catholicity by Our tour of modern-day Protemphasizing the historic creeds, estantism will follow a taxonomic liturgical worship, and carefully classification scheme, based on constructed theology. In fact, the theological similarity and historical Lutheran Churches of Scandinavia descent. Such a scheme enables preserved the apostolic succession us to see what groups are subsets of ordaining bishops even after of other groups; for example, their break with Rome. all Presbyterian denominations In the Reformed branch of are grouped together because Protestantism are many denominathey belong to the Presbyterian tions, all strongly influenced by denominational family, which is Calvinism. These are chiefly the part of the Reformed branch of Presbyterians and the various naProtestantism. First we’ll cover the tional Reformed Churches (Dutch major branches stemming from Reformed, Swiss Reformed, the Reformation – the Lutheran, Hungarian Reformed, etc.). The the Reformed, the Anglican, and Baptists and Congregationalists the Radical (in that order) – and can be seen as tributaries of the Retheir respective denominational formed Churches, though both of offshoots. Then we’ll turn to other these denominational families have forms of Protestantism having roots also in the Radical wing. more recent, and peculiarly Ameri- The United Church of Christ, an

American denomination, was formed when several Congregationalist bodies merged with the Evangelical and Reformed Church (itself an amalgamation of Lutherans and Calvinists). To some extent the anti-dogmatic Unitarians in the U.S. stemmed from the Congregationalists, though we must place Unitarianism in a different category.

Protestantism’s third branch grew from the Anglican Church, or Church of England. Besides the Church of England, Anglicanism includes other self-governing Churches throughout the world; its American branch is known as the Episcopal Church.

Originating in the Church of England, yet no longer in communion with it, are the Methodists.

The Anabaptist movement formed the most radical wing of the Reformation. Among its denominational successors today are the Quakers and the old congregations set here and there on the checkerboard of America’s farmland: the Amish, Mennonites, and Hutterites. The Puritans of England and their Baptist branch arose independently of Anabaptism but were clearly influenced by it, and some historians consider early Unitarianism as stemming from the Radical Reformation.

A final preliminary is necessary before launching into contemporary Protestantism. According to Catholic doctrine, as notably set forth by the Second Vatican Council’s dog-

matic constitution Lumen Gentium (1964) and reaffirmed most recently in June 2007 by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, only those Christian communities that possess, by apostolic succession in the sacrament of holy orders, the ministerial priesthood and a valid Eucharist are properly called Churches; all other Christian bodies are “ecclesial communities.” This may seem like a nit-picky point of semantics, but it’s of a piece with the Council’s teaching that the Eucharist is “the source and summit” of the Church’s life. More than the Church makes the Eucharist, the Eucharist makes the Church; and without the priesthood there is no Eucharist.

In the Catholic understanding, the separated Eastern Churches merit the title “Church” because they have the priesthood and the Eucharist, even though they lack the ministry of Peter exercised by the Bishop of Rome. On the other hand, the Protestant communities are not Church in the proper sense, because they have lost the apostolic succession in ministry and are therefore deprived of a valid Eucharist, at least according to purely institutional criteria. (Unlike other Protestants, Anglicans insist they are Church in the Catholic sense, but that’s a topic for another day.) Any reference in this series to Protestant communities as Churches is intended merely in an analogous sense.

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

Present-day Protestantism, continued: Thumbnail previews

ccording to United Nations statistics, almost 400 million of the world’s two billion Christians are Protestant; these include some 123 million in North America. Estimates place the number of Protestant denominations in the United States alone at more than 250, with approximately 35 percent of Americans identifying themselves as Protestant. The Lutheran, Reformed (Calvinist), and Anglican traditions have dominated world Protestantism, but in the U.S. it was the Radical wing (also variously known as Anabaptist, Nonconformist, or Free Church) that gained ascendancy, developing into the various Baptist, Congregationalist, Disciples of Christ, Mennonite, Adventist, and Pentecostal bodies. The issue of slavery in the mid-19th century further split several American Protestant denominations into northern and southern branches.

As reported in the 2008 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches, published by the National Council of Churches, the 20 largest Protestant denominations in the U.S. are: the Southern Baptist Convention (16 million), the United Methodist Church (8 million), the Church of God in Christ (5.5 million), the National Baptist Convention USA, Inc. (5 million), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (4.8 million), the National Baptist Convention of America (3.5 million), the Presbyterian Church USA (3 million), the Assemblies of God (2.8 million), the African Methodist

8

M

y father, who has been completely deaf since a child, once told me that deaf people do not like crowds. They do much better when they talk to someone one on one.

In today’s Gospel from St. Mark we hear that some people brought a deaf man who also had a speech impediment and asked Jesus to heal him. Jesus took him off by himself away from the crowd, touched him, and the man was healed.

This Gospel has always had special meaning in my

The Anchor

September 4, 2009

Jesus’ concern for the individual

life because of the words then touched him so as to of my father. It shows us heal him. the love that Jesus has for Isaiah tells us in the first each individual person. By reading “Here is your God removing that man from the crowd, he was showing him Homily of the Week that he understood Twenty-Third Sunday what was best for in Ordinary Time him. Jesus could

By Deacon have cured him Paul J. Macedo amidst the crowd but did not do so. This was to show the deaf man, and all of us today, ... he comes to save you.” that Jesus is concerned with He goes on to tell us that each person as an individuthe Messiah will make the al. He put that man at ease, deaf hear, the blind see and

the lame shall walk. We know and believe that Jesus is the Messiah. Knowing this we need to approach Jesus and ask him to heal us. And Jesus in turn will call each one of aside and touch us so that we may be healed. But he can only do this if we allow him to touch our lives.

After Jesus heals the deaf man, he tells them not to tell anyone. “But the more he ordered them not to, the more they pro-

claimed it.” Once Jesus has touched our lives, we too should have the need and the desire to shout out what Jesus has done for us. But we do this not in words, but in action. The way we treat others, the love and respect that we have for all people, should cry out that Jesus is alive. Jesus loves each one of us. Jesus is our salvation, the way to eternal life.

Deacon Macedo is married with two children, was ordained in 1987, and serves at St. John the Baptist Parish in New Bedford.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. Sept. 5, Col 1:21-23; Ps 54:3-4,6-8; Lk 6:1-5. Sun. Sept. 6, Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Is 35:4-7a; Ps 146:7-10; Jas 2:1-5; Mk 7:31-37. Mon. Sept. 7, Col 1:24-2:3; Ps 62:6-7,9; Lk 6:6-11. Tues. Sept. 8, The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mic 5:1-4a or Rom 8:28-30; Ps 13:6; Mt 1:1-16,18-23 or 1:18-23. Wed. Sept. 9, Col 3:1-11; Ps 145:2-3,10-13; Lk 6:20-26, Thur. Sept. 10, Col 3:12-17; Ps 150:1-6; Lk 6:27-38. Fri. Sept. 11, 1 Tm 1:1-2,12-14; Ps 16:1-2,5,7-8,11; Lk 6:39-42.

T

he media’s obsession with salvation-through-latex in the matter of AIDS prevention in Africa so dominated the coverage of Pope Benedict XVI’s March pilgrimage to Cameroon and Angola that one of the most impressive addresses of the pontificate was virtually ignored.

Delivered to the Muslim leaders of Cameroon at the apostolic nunciature in Yaounde on March 19, Benedict’s concise remarks represented perhaps the most refined statement of the point the pope has been making since his September 2006 Regensburg Lecture sent the world press into another tailspin.

Here are the key passages: “My friends, I believe a particularly urgent task of religion today is to unveil the vast potential of human reason, which is itself God’s gift and which is elevated by revelation and faith.

Faith and reason, irrationality and terror

Belief in the one God, far from deduce, and scientific experistunting our capacity to undermentation can demonstrate; it stand ourselves and the world, includes the goodness and innate broadens it. Far from setting us against the world, it commits us to it. We are called to help others see the subtle traces and mysterious presence of God in the world which

By George Weigel he has marvelously created and continually sustains with his ineffable and all-embracing attractiveness of upright and ethilove. Although his infinite glory cal living made known to us in can never be directly grasped by the very language of creation. our finite minds in this life, we “This insight prompts us to nonetheless catch glimpses of it seek all that is right and just, to in the beauty that surrounds us. step outside the restricted sphere When men and women allow the of our own self-interest and act magnificent order of the world for the good of others. Genuine and the splendor of human digreligion thus widens the horizon nity to illumine their hearts, they of human understanding and discover that what is ‘reasonable’ stands at the base of any authenextends far beyond what mathtically human culture. It rejects ematics can calculate, logic can all forms of violence and totali-

The Catholic Difference

tarianism: not only on principles of faith, but also of right reason.

Indeed, religion and reason mutually reinforce one another since religion is purified and structured by reason, and reason’s full potential is unleashed by revelation and faith.”

For three years now, the Holy Father has been quietly insisting that the problem of jihadist terrorism and the lethal threat it poses, both to the West and to Muslims of moderate temperament, is rooted in the detachment of faith from reason.

Cut that cord theologically, and you end up with a God of sheer willfulness who can command anything, including the murder of innocents. Tighten the cord that binds faith and reason in a mutually supportive synthesis and the religious case for jihadist

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

Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina Dear children! Today I call you anew to conversion. Little children, you are not holy enough and you do not radiate holiness to others, therefore pray, pray, pray and work on your personal conversion, so that you may be a sign of God’s love to others. I am with you and am leading you towards eternity, for which every heart must yearn.

“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

terrorism collapses of its own irrationality.

No one knows why Islam, which in the early Middle Ages created cultures open to philosophical inquiry and respectful of the canons of reason, underwent what seems to have been a kind of intellectual shut-down, so that by the 14th century the wellsprings of intellectual imagination had largely dried up throughout the Islamic world, leaving only the endless exegesis of Islamic law by Muslim lawyers. Whatever its causes, however, this desiccation was a crucial factor in creating the irrationalism of contemporary jihadism, embodied in the Taliban slogan, “Throw reason to the dogs — it stinks of corruption.”

It would be helpful if western governments took this history seriously — and took the pope’s analysis of the problem of faith and reason seriously.

It is not government’s task to foster the kind of interreligious dialogue implied by Benedict’s speech in Yaounde: an interreligious dialogue that aims to understand revelation through reason, thus opening up the prospects of a joint exploration of the “splendor of human dignity” and the implications of that dignity for religious freedom and the governance of just societies. On the other hand, governments that don’t recognize that the detachment of faith from reason defines the fault-line between the jihadists and the rest of us are likely to misread what remains a mortal threat, eight years after 9/11.

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

Cool Lady Gaga

: D means big grin food, adventure, cars, sports, Tuesday 1 September 2009 and girls (not necessarily in that — Battleship Cove, Fall River order.)

— “One-on-one Month” begins 8-I means rolling your (dedicated to spending quality time with family and friends) efore he begins Reflections of a his senior year in Parish Priest high school, my nephew

By Father Tim Henry flew up from Goldrick Florida to visit relatives in Massachusetts.

I haven’t seen Henry eyes since he was 12 years old. That He phoned to make arrangewas five years ago. Although I ments for me to pick him up thought I was out of touch with at another uncle’s house. He young men his age, this proved phoned again a minute later. He not to be the case. “I’ll be 18 in just a few months,” he boasted. had forgotten to mention someLike most 17-year-old boys, he thing of extreme importance to seems interested in five things: any growing boy. “Do you think

B

A

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The Anchor

September 4, 2009

The Ship’s Log

we could stop for lunch?” he asked hopefully. Sure. “Cool.”

B-) means cool After lunch, I gave Henry a tour of the parish center, rectory, and church. In the church, he was most interested in seeing the Penance Room. “You can remain anonymous while going to confession?” he asked. I assured him this was true.

Checking out the screen, he observed, “It is true. You can’t see anything through this.”

Henry is a Methodist.

I thought the kid might appreciate a briefing on our family history. I’m the designated keeper of the family history. I shared funny stories and tidbits of

The importance of modesty

we find, is that chastity isn’t s another school year universally seen as a good begins, parents are thing, and thus modesty finding it increasingly difis not given the weight it ficult to teach their young deserves. In sum: the culture ones about modesty without will not promote modesty the support of the wider because it is deeply conculture. With an “anything flicted about the value (or goes” attitude all around us, definition) of chastity. those who fuss about preThe “Catechism” is the vailing fashions are roundly best place to start, and denounced as old fashioned or prudes. Even if a girl were there we find this definition: “Chastity means the uncomfortable about showsuccessful integration of ing the expected amount of skin, she would find little quarter for her natural modesty, since the confusion even among parents and educators has blurred the overriding

By Genevieve Kineke concern: Immodesty in dress undermines both the dignity owed sexuality within the person to the human person and the and thus the inner unity life of virtue towards which of man in his bodily and we are called. spiritual being. Sexuality, The charge, “old fashin which man’s belonging ioned,” points to the essential to the bodily and biological confusion about modesty. world is expressed, becomes Whether fashions are old personal and truly human or new, this year’s or last is when it is integrated into the not important. When argurelationship of one person to ments for more coverage are another, in the complete and dismissed as out of date, they lifelong mutual gift of a man assume that the 1950s (or and a woman” (CCC, 2337).

1850s for that matter) were Integration is the key, and not only a matter of style, thus the problem with unbut that modern sensibilities chastity is that it allows indiexude greater sophistication, vidual parts of one person to and suffer from fewer hangbe used by others — which is ups. Yet even those with vastantithetical to human dignity. ly different tastes in clothes One might use a bottle opener can find common ground if or a snow plow, but one canthey can agree to the basic not in good conscience use tenet: immodesty tempts a person — even with his or young men and women into her permission. unchaste behavior, and such Ah, but it’s just innocent behavior is harmful to everyfun — to tease, to play, to one involved. cavort, to draw attention The underlying problem,

The Feminine Genius

through immodesty. Actually, it’s not. If you ask respected men in your life what they thought of the teasing and cavorting of girls in their youth, you may just find a measure of pain and disillusionment that they wish they hadn’t endured.

For others, like Tim McGraw, who laugh over old memories (“She was killing me in that mini skirt”) we may have to look beyond the mundane to see how men are being teased towards concupiscence, which the “Catechism” reminds us, “unsettles man’s moral faculties and, without being in itself an offense, inclines man to commit sin” (CCC, 2515).

It’s the ensuing actions that cause lives to be disrupted, young people to be traumatized and subsequent relationships to be impaired or even impossible. This is the terrain about which the older generation must warn the young — to protect them from lasting injury as a measure of kindness — for if anyone knows the damage caused by giving into concupiscence, it’s our generation so badly scarred by the sexual revolution.

This must be the backdrop to the discussion about wardrobes — not fashion, not the cool factor, not what others are wearing. In the end, modesty is simply charity.

Mrs. Kineke is the author of “The Authentic Catholic Woman” (Servant Books).

She can be found online at www.feminine-genius.com.

information. He was very interested in old photos of his father, my brother. He had never heard of his distant relative, the notorious Lizzie Borden. By the time I hit the Civil War, I could see Henry was losing interest. When I reached the Mayflower, Henry was busy “texting” his friends on his cell phone. :-> means sigh Henry “texts” constantly.

This is something that didn’t happen when I was 17. At one point in our visit, Henry commented, “Oh, look. Somebody left me a voice mail instead of texting. How old-fashioned.” I was feeling older by the minute. : ( means sad Having exhausted the family lore, I took Henry for a drive to The Big City — Fall River.

What can I say? I was desperate. On the road, he could identify passing sports cars by make, model, and serial number.

“Cool. It’s a Saber-tooth GTO 37-Z Class” (Something like that.) I wouldn’t know a GTO from a Lamborghini, but I didn’t let on. It wouldn’t be cool. ; ) means wink Strolling through Bicentennial Park, he was mesmerized, of all things, by a swan. “Cool.

I’ve never seen a goose,” he declared. It’s a swan, Henry. I tried to convince him that the pigeons were rare and unusual, too, but he wouldn’t bite. The kid wasn’t born yesterday.

At Battleship Cove, Henry whipped out his cell phone and took pictures of the ships. He transmitted them to his mother.

“Having a Great Adventure” was the message. :-bd means thumbs up We went to St. Anne’s Church and checked out the downstairs shrine. We drove up Columbia Street to see the Portuguese cultural district. He mentioned he liked “old houses and stuff,” so we drove around the Highlands. “They’re cutting the lawn,” said Henry, opening the car window. “Cool. Freshly mown grass up here smells good,” he pronounced, “and look at all these different kinds

of trees. Florida has nothing like this.”

Back we came to St. Nicholas rectory for a little respite.

Now what? Think. “Henry, would you like to go visit your cousin Heidi and her family?

She lives just 15 minutes away.”

Off we went to see Heidi. First, of course, we texted ahead. “I’ll send out for pizza,” Heidi texted back. “What kind do you like?”

“Uncle Tim, how do you spell ‘linguiça’?” asked Henry. His Portuguese genes were surfacing.

Henry looks very much like his father, my brother. Henry has the same facial expressions. He has the same mannerisms. He laughs easily and often. Forty years vanished in an instant. :-o means surprised The kid shared with me his hopes of working in law enforcement after college. “Go for it, kid,” I advised, and showed him my police chaplain identification card.

He showed me a wallet photo of his latest girlfriend. I teased him by saying I had seen photos on Facebook, and showed him the photos on-line to prove it.

In the photos, a bevy of beauty queens surrounds him. Henry is a popular high school football player. “This new one is a church girl, Uncle Tim,” he assured me (twice, to make sure I got the point.)

Just to make conversation, I asked Henry if he had heard the latest on Lady Gaga, the overthe-top celebrity vocalist who is so fond of futuristic costumes.

“You follow Lady Gaga?” he asked, and broke into uncontrollable laughter. Yes, kid, hard to believe, but true. Old Uncle Tim is cool. =)) means rolling on the floor with laughter Author’s note: I have included emotion icons or emoticons commonly used in texting. I’m sure you know to view them sideways. :> means smug Father Goldrick is pastor of St. Nicholas of Myra Parish in North Dighton.

10 days in Northern Italy/ Switzerland/Bavaria

including two rare opportunities: • Attend a special exhibition of the Shroud of Turin • Enjoy the Passion Play of Oberammergau May 12-21, 2010 $3099 from Boston Contact: Father Edward Healey Holy Trinity Church, West Harwich 508-432-4000 for further information

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CNS Movie Capsules NEW YORK (CNS) — The following is a capsule review of a movie recently reviewed by the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“Inglourious Basterds” (Weinstein/Universal) Provocative World War II fantasy in which a team of ruthless Jewish-American commandoes led by a hard-bitten Southern officer (Brad Pitt) and a young French Jewish woman (Melanie Laurent) passing as a gentile cinema owner in occupied Paris plot independently to assassinate key Nazi leaders during a gala film premiere, even as the German officer (Christoph Waltz) who killed her family threatens both schemes. Between episodes of graphic bloodletting, writer-director Quentin Tarantino weaves a suspenseful, though somewhat lurid, alternate history, but the Americans’ systematic brutality toward enemy soldiers can only be accepted within a genre far removed from reality and on the supposition that all Teutonic combatants were Holocaust enablers. Strong vio-

The Anchor lent content, including torture and mutilation, complex moral issues, a few uses of profanity, and much rough and some crude language.

The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is L — limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling.

“Taking Woodstock” (Focus) This fact-based slice of psychedelic history sees the young manager (Demetri Martin) of a failing Catskills motel owned by his downtrodden immigrant parents (Henry Goodman and Imelda Staunton) inadvertently becoming a crucial player in the staging of the iconic 1969 music festival when he uses a legal permit to ease the way for the event’s organizer (Jonathan Groff) and introduces him to the owner (Eugene Levy) of the dairy farm that would serve as the concert’s setting. Along with the flower people’s fondness for disrobing and drug-taking, director Ang Lee’s gently rambling adaptation of Elliot Tiber’s 2007 memoir portrays its protagonist’s public avowal of his homosexuality as a positive step toward emotional maturity.

Benign view of homosexual acts, group sex and transvestism, nonsexual full frontal nudity, drug use, a half-dozen uses of profanity, and frequent rough and some crude language. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is O — morally offensive.

September 4, 2009

President Obama threatens Defense of Marriage Act

By Christine M. Williams Anchor Correspondent

BOSTON — While much of the country focused its political attention on health care reform, President Barack Obama briefly eyed a different issue — samesex marriage.

Last month, Obama pledged to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). In a statement he also said his administration would “examine and implement measures that will help extend rights and benefits to LGBT couples under existing law.”

Kris Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, said Obama’s stand on DOMA is “disingenuous at best.”

During his presidential bid, Obama defined marriage as “the union between a man and a woman,” but he is now “on a crusade to redefine marriage,” Mineau said.

On the campaign trail, Obama convinced millions of Americans that he opposed same-sex marriage by defining marriage as “the union between a man and a woman.” He went on to say that he supported civil unions for same-sex couples.

Mineau warned that if DOMA were overturned, the constitutional amendments passed in 30 states could be struck down.

“It would create a leapfrog chaos across the United States,” he said.

Mineau also noted that samesex marriage was first legalized here in Massachusetts — the result of a Supreme Judicial Court ruling in 2004.

Vermont, which recognized civil unions in 2000, was the first state to sanction same-sex relationships. On Sept. 1, 2009, Vermont became the first state to recognize same-sex marriage because of a bill passed in the legis-

lature, rather than court order.

Maine is slated to become the second state to legalize same-sex marriage through the legislative process on September 11. New Hampshire, which legalized civil unions at the beginning of this year, is scheduled to become the third such state on Jan. 1, 2010.

Same-sex marriage is legal by virtue of judicial rulings in two states other than Massachusetts — Connecticut and Iowa. California offered marriage licenses to same-sex couples for nearly five months last year before citizens voted to annul the state court’s decision.

Civil unions are legal in New Jersey, and several states and some U.S. cities allow same-sex couples to enter into domestic partnerships.

“This began in Massachusetts, and in five years this cancer is growing and of course now we have political leadership at the highest places,” said Mineau, referring to Obama’s support of same-sex marriage.

He added that the failure of legislative action to restore the traditional definition of marriage in Massachusetts has not stopped residents from wanting the opportunity to vote on the definition of marriage. He warned that if DOMA is overturned, the people in Massachusetts might never have the chance to vote on this issue.

Mineau also noted that in every state where the issue has come before the people, they have passed a constitutional amendment. The most recent polls show that only 30 percent of the American population supports legalization of same-sex marriage.

“This is a radical agenda that goes against the will of the people,” he said.

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

Celebrant is Father Ronald P. Floyd, a parochial vicar at St. Patrick’s Parish, Wareham

In an August 17 press release, leaders of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), a national grassroots organization that supports traditional marriage, asserted that Obama is under extreme pressure from samesex marriage advocates.

Last June, the Justice Department filed a motion to dismiss a case challenging DOMA that was brought by a California same-sex couple. The motion asserted that awarding federal marriage benefits to same-sex couples would infringe on the rights of taxpayers in the 30 states that uphold traditional marriage. In one passage, the lawyers wrote that heterosexual marriage is “the traditional and universally recognized form.”

Then on August 17, the Obama administration filed court papers that assert that DOMA discriminates against homosexuals and should be repealed.

In response, NOM leaders are gathering traditional marriage advocates in their “2 Million for Marriage” campaign, which currently has more than 500,000 members. Those who join agree that they are willing to fight efforts to repeal DOMA. The Defense of Marriage Act, a federal law that was passed in 1996, was signed by then-President Bill Clinton. Its two effects are that no state needs to treat same-sex relationships as marriages even if the union is recognized in another state and that the federal government defines marriage as the legal union between one man and one woman.

Last month, Clinton also came out in support of same-sex marriage, saying that he does not support DOMA. Maggie Gallagher, president of NOM, said that those who advocate traditional marriage are sometimes intimidated from speaking out on the issue. She cited a poll conducted in Massachusetts last May that found that one-third of marriage supporters reported “fear and anxiety” about voicing their views.

Gallagher added that one of the strategies of the same-sex marriage movement is to silence opponents, which disheartens those who believe that there is something special about the relationship between husband and wife.

She encouraged traditional marriage supporters in this state to keep their views alive and pass them on to their children despite a hostile environment.

“I wouldn’t buy the progressive myth that this is the way of the future,” she said.

The Anchor

news briefs

Pope says global leaders must take care of environment, remember poor CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI urged world leaders to address global environmental issues “with generous courage” and reminded them that the world’s resources are to be shared by all, including poorer countries. The pope, speaking August 26 at the summer papal residence outside Rome, addressed his remarks to representatives of governments and international agencies who will attend a high-level United Nations summit on climate change in September.

The pope, addressing some 3,000 people at his weekly audience in the courtyard of his villa, said the recent forest fires near Athens and water shortages elsewhere were signs that “creation is under threat.” He said it was everyone’s responsibility to protect the environment because “the earth is indeed a precious gift of the Creator.” Government leaders have an obligation to work together for the “protection of the environment, and the safeguarding of resources and of the climate,” in respect of the law and in solidarity with weaker nations, he said.

Bishop Skylstad visits Vietnam to help strengthen Church relations LA VANG, Vietnam (CNS) — Seeking to strengthen relations between American and Vietnamese Catholics, Bishop William S. Skylstad of Spokane, Wash., led a small U.S. delegation on a tour of three Vietnamese dioceses that included a stop at a Marian shrine. Bishop Skylstad, a former president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and two others visited the Shrine of Our Lady of La Vang, near Hue, August 20; there he concelebrated Mass with two Vietnamese clerics for a congregation of more than 2,000 people, reported the Asian church news agency UCA News. “I am very happy to be at the shrine,” Bishop Skylstad told the congregation, which included 35 priests and a contingent of men and women religious from across the country. The American bishop praised Vietnamese Catholics for their strong faith and deep devotion to the Eucharist. Also concelebrating the Mass were Archbishop Etienne Nguyen Nhu The and Auxiliary Bishop Francis Xavier Le Van Hong, both of the Hue Archdiocese.

Upcoming Events

Sept. 12 - A Day of Recollection: “And Holy is His (Her) (Sat.) 10am-3pm Name” Luke 1:49. Presenter: Fr. Mike MacNamara Sept. 13 (Sun.) 2pm

-

Healing Service: “Come and Experience the Power of God.” Presenter: Maria Rocha

Sept. 26 - A Day of Recollection: “We Are God’s Earthen (Sat.) 10am-3pm Vessels” 2 Cor. 4:7-18. Presenter: Barbara Wright Oct. 10 - A Day of Healing: Presenter: Dr. Joseph (Sat.) 10am-1:30pm Coyle, Ph. D. Christian Psychologist Oct. 24 - A Time of Healing: “A Day of Inner Healing.”

(Sat.) 10am-3pm Presenter: Dorothea Degrandis Sudol Oct. 28 - Praise and Worship: Presenter: Father Tom (Wed.) 10am-3pm DiLorenzo Nov. 1 - (Sun.) 3pm

Healing Service: Presenter: Father Joe McDermott

Nov. 7 - (Sat.) 10am-3pm

A Day of Healing: “Seeing Yourself Thru God’s Eyes!!!” “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.” Jer. 1:5. Healing Your Self-Worth and Self-Esteem.” Presenter: Jacqueline M. Sitte, RN, CARN, LADC I, LRC

Nov. 18 - Praise and Worship: Presenter: Father Tom (Wed.) 10am-3pm DiLorenzo Nov. 21 - (Sat.) 10am-3pm

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The Anchor

September 4, 2009

A Time For Healing: “Lord Jesus Heal Me To Maintain My Self-worth When I Have Failed You, Others, And/Or Myself.” Dan. 10:15-19 & Heb. 13:5-6. Presenter: Dr. Hugh Boyle Jr., Ed.D., Christian Psychologist

Nov. 22 - A Time of Healing: Presenter: Frank Kelly (Sun.) 2pm

Fifty years working with students in Cambridge

F

journalist who studied at Harifty years is a long time. vard in the early 90s, has this Fifty years ago, I was recollection: “When a fellow about to enter third grade in student in the house where I lived Rockville, Md. (I’m 58 now.) challenged me on how CathoNewly-elected Pope John XXIII suddenly announced in late Janu- lic doctrine can be reconciled with the Bible — something I ary 1959 that he was convoking an ecumenical council, Vatican II, knew very little about — residents at Elmbrook provided me to begin in the early 60s. Senator with just the right book as well John Kennedy of Massachusetts as tips from their own studies was gearing up for his successand experiences. The exchange ful run for president the followopened for me a world of theoling year. And on Follen Street ogy and Scripture that helped in Cambridge, a block north of me understand my faith better Cambridge Common and a couple of blocks away from Harvard and present it to others. I don’t think I ever would have lost my Law School, the first Mass was faith (at least I pray that’s true), celebrated at Elmbrook Student but I never would have been able Center on Sept. 15, 1959.

Elmbrook is a corporate apos- to nurture it as well without the help of my friends at Elmbrook. tolate of Opus Dei, the Catholic prelature dedicated to fostering the search for holiness through daily work and the Christian’s ordinary duties. When I was an undergrad decades ago, the “Harvard

By Dwight Duncan Crimson” published an article about Elmbrook entitled “Holiness While I never joined Opus Dei, North of the Common.” While I admire it, thanks to my experithe title may have been intended ences at Elmbrook. I cherish the ironically, at least the quest for holiness in ordinary secular life at friendships I made at Elmbrook, the things I learned there, and the Elmbrook is completely sincere. help I received there to grow in Since its founding, countless the Roman Catholic faith.”

Boston-area college and graduFather Roger J. Landry, execuate students have frequented tive editor of The Anchor, also Elmbrook for study, prayer and describes how much of a role friendship. I should know, as I lived there from 1970 until 1973, Elmbrook played in his growth in faith during his Harvard years. “It and again from 1987 to the present — a quarter of a century (and was meeting with the priests at Elmbrook that I began to take my half of Elmbrook’s existence) faith much more seriously. They — so I’m hardly a disinterested encouraged me to attend daily observer.

Mass and go to confession much Much has happened in Cammore regularly. They inspired bridge, the Catholic Church, and me to begin praying more and the United States since those last days of the 50s: the turbulent 60s, doing spiritual reading. Spurred on by the help of some of the the assassination of President graduate students who lived Kennedy, Vatican II, Harvard student strikes, M.I.T. hacks, 9/11, there, I began to study the papal encyclicals and various classics. and several wars and economic It was there that I began to do downturns. Throughout all that first Friday vigils and was set on time, in a quiet but effective way, fire with zeal for the apostolate.

Elmbrook Student Center has In Elmbrook’s chapel I received been offering students an atmofrom God in prayer the confirmasphere conducive to cultivating tion that he was calling me to be both professionalism and the faith. We continue to have a week- a priest. I lived there during my last semester and I learned much ly meditation for college men (a spiritual conference preached by our chaplain), circles or practical classes in Christian life, and student get-togethers with professors and area professionals.

College and grad school can be a challenging and difficult time in the lives of students, perhaps more so at places like Harvard and M.I.T., and other Boston-area colleges and universities. An oasis like Elmbrook for refreshing heart and soul has been a boon for many. I know it has been for me.

Matt McDonald, an area

Judge For Yourself

more about the spirit of Opus Dei and how to sanctify my studies.

To this day, I continue to apply the lessons I learned there and nourish the friendships I formed there.”

Among the motives for thanksgiving occasioned by this anniversary, one thinks of the saintly Father Sal Ferigle, who lived there the last 25 years of his life, from 1972 until 1997. He provided priceless spiritual guidance to untold souls throughout the area. People went from Elmbrook to start or support Opus Dei in countries like the Philippines, Australia, Canada, and Kenya. Well-known philosophers like Michael Pakaluk were Elmbrook regulars when they were students. Just last week, the New York Times reported on a major film based on episodes from the life of St. Josemaria Escriva, the founder of Opus Dei, and said that the adviser for the film is Father John Wauck, who happened to live at Elmbrook while he was a Harvard undergraduate.

There’s a facebook group for Elmbrook Alumni and Friends.

Dr. Carl Schmitt, a medieval historian who was the first director at Elmbrook in 1959, and again in the 1970s, will visit these days to talk about the early days of the center. On September 13, there will be a reunion cookout in Elmbrook’s backyard at 1 p.m.

While the first center of Opus Dei in the country, Woodlawn in Chicago, dates back to 1949, Elmbrook is the oldest center continuously in operation in the United States. The Prelate of Opus Dei, Bishop Javier Echevarria, recently wrote John Almandoz, the director, to encourage us to prepare with many acts of thanksgiving, “because the Lord has wanted to call upon you to achieve wondrous things.” Please pray for us and our work here.

The need is proportionate to the challenge we face.

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

The Anchor

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September 4, 2009

Simply put, her faith makes her happy B y Michael Pare A nchor Correspondent

WAREHAM — Maureen Lindquist knows that when she serves a special minister

of holy Communion at St. Patrick’s Parish she is supposed to remain as reverent as possible, that she should keep her emotions in check.

But it isn’t always easy. was about 19, being at Mass her own, and now, with othSometimes her emotions get when Father James Lyons ers. Today, she is the grade the best of her. implored the congregation level coordinator for the Re“I can’t help but smile when during his homily to get in- ligious Education program I am giving holy Communion volved, to help out their par- at St. Patrick’s, as well as a to people,” said Lindquist. ish however they could. Ev- teacher for second grade.

To describe it as a la“It overcomes me. I get bor of love would be an such joy out of giving understatement.

Christ to other people.

“I just love the little It is such an honor. How kids,” she said. “They can I not smile?” are so honest and sinThat unbridled encere. They want to thusiasm may best delearn. I see in their facfine the way Lindquist es how much they enlives her faith. Whether joy everything and how she is serving as a spethey eat it all up. For cial minister of holy me, the reward is that I Communion or teachenjoy it so much.” ing second-graders in Lindquist recognizes the parish first Commuthat teaching children nion program, Lindquist about God is work that finds joy in her faith. In needs to be done. what is a simple, yet “It is so important profound product of her for the next generarelationship with God, tion,” she said.

Lindquist’s faith makes Father John Sullivan her happy. has been the pastor at A native of WareSt. Patrick’s for just a ham, Lindquist traces few months. But he has the roots of her Catholic faith to her parents, the ANCHOR PERSON OF THE WEEK — Maureen known Lindquist for years and he was thrilled late Charles and Joan Lindquist. to find her among his VanderStaay. Theirs was the quintessential Roman eryone, he said, could find a congregation when he arrived.

He mentions the enthusiasm Catholic household. Sun- way to help. days centered on Mass in the That message resonated in that she brings to all that she does for the parish. morning, and the young woman.

It is a wonderfully infecholy rosary in “I wanted to thank God the afternoon. for all that he had given me,” tious approach to spreading Of course, the she said. “I was fresh out of God’s word.

“The laity is essential to s a c r a m e n t s school and I was a secretary. were vitally im- I had always been close to the the spread of the Gospel,” portant.

Sisters at St. Patrick’s and so said Father Sullivan. “And But maybe I came in and did all the of- day-to-day living is the most what was most fice work for Religious Edu- important way that we all share the Gospel.” important was cation.”

It seems fair to suggest that that Lindquist For Lindquist, volunteersaw that her ing at church was some- maybe Lindquist has evolved parents were thing you did. It was a lesson as a teacher in part because always kind to taught to her by her parents she possesses the ability to one another. when she was a child. It grasp life lessons, as well as They were also was an integral part of be- to recognize God’s hands at kind to others. ing Catholic. So when Father work. She thinks back now And if their Lyons asked for help, there and recalls being sick as a parish needed was no question she would child and needing to visit the something, they respond. Maybe the key has hospital.

“You see and learn things were generous been that Lindquist has never with their time seen the volunteering as one- that you can’t explain,” said and talents. So sided. Even then, the way she Lindquist. “But you know as a young girl, saw it, God had given her so that it is your faith that gets Lindquist didn’t much, she had a responsibil- you through the trials and tribulations of life.” just hear about ity to give back.

And it is her faith that the Catholic David Lindquist used to faith at Sunday spend summers in Wareham, brings a smile to her face.

So if you are a parishioner Mass, in her before moving there permaparents she saw nently, where he met Mau- at St. Patrick’s in Wareham it being carried reen and married her. To- or if you are visiting there out each day. gether they have built a life some Sunday and the special To Lindquist, anchored by faith and family. minister of holy Communion faith never has The couple has two children, seems to be smiling, trust that it is no sign of disrespect. been an idea or Elizabeth and Michael. concept. It has For Lindquist, her volun- Maureen Lindquist is giving been real. It has teer work for St. Patrick’s Christ to others — and she been a way of Religious Education program couldn’t be happier.

To nominate a Person life. proved to be the beginning of She remem- a long-term commitment by of the Week, send an email bers vividly one her to passing on her Catho- message to FatherRogerLanday when she lic faith to children, first with dry@AnchorNews.org.

September 4, 2009

The Anchor

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The Anchor

September 4, 2009

Military chaplain describes bringing faith to troops on front lines

B y S cott A lessi C atholic N ews S ervice

TRENTON, N.J. — Celebrating Mass, offering the sacraments and providing spiritual guidance are common activities for most Catholic priests. But for a select few, being a priest can also include time on the grenade range or participating in field exercises with men and women of the U.S. military.

Although it is not an easy life, Father Paul Halladay, a Catholic chaplain recruiter stationed in Fort Meade, Md., called it a vocation filled with blessings and rewards.

As a military chaplain, a priest must face numerous challenges not often encountered by a parish priest, such as working in all possible weather conditions and putting in long, grueling hours of service.

But Father Halladay, a priest of the Archdiocese of Mobile, Ala., said such conditions also lead to a much deeper bond between a priest and the people he serves.

“Oftentimes you find yourself out in the field, right next to guys who are doing their military training,” the priest said. “It is not just a relationship where they come to Mass on Sundays or they have their children in the school and they run into you in the school parking lot; they are working shoulder to shoulder with you every single day.”

As a result of the close working relationship between a soldier and a chaplain, a priest in the military can serve as a personal spiritual guide to those in his flock, helping them through the challenges and stresses of military life.

“You end up spending a lot of time on marriage counseling and a lot of time just counseling soldiers through personal difficulties,” the priest told The Monitor, newspaper of the Diocese of Trenton, in a phone interview.

A major problem for priests in the military today, he said, is their multiple duties because of the current shortage of chaplains.

He explained that most chaplains have two distinct jobs. They are assigned to run the religious program for a battalion, which can consist of 300 to 900 soldiers of varying religious denominations. At the same time, many also are called upon to serve as Catholic chaplain for a military installation where they tend to the needs of all the Catholic

soldiers on post.

The military’s ecumenical environment also provides other unique working conditions, he said.

Father Halladay said that every day he goes to work next to Baptist chaplains, Presbyterian chaplains, Lutheran chaplains, rabbis and imams.

“I have to be able to work side by side with these guys without letting religious differences or prejudices get in the way,” he said, adding that it provides a unique opportunity for talking about the

Catholic faith.

From a personal standpoint, Father Halladay said, the greatest reason for a priest to want to go into military service is to find a more fulfilling means of living out his own vocation.

“It is worth it whenever you are able to get through to a soldier or you are able to help out a family that has been seriously affected by what they’ve been required to do in defense of this nation,” he said. “It is just a great way to operate as a priest.”

A WELCOME PRESENCE — Father Paul Halladay, a Catholic chaplain recruiter stationed in Fort Meade, Md., is seen with soldiers while stationed in Iraq in 2005. (CNS photo/courtesy of Father Brian Kane)

September 4, 2009

15

The Anchor

Kennedy laid to rest at Arlington cemetery after Boston funeral

By Catholic News Service

BOSTON — Sen. Edward M. Kennedy was mourned at a Boston church and laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery August 29, amid words of comfort from the Book of Wisdom, Paul’s Letter to the Romans and the Gospel of Matthew, and recollections of his life by his sons, his pastor, President Barack Obama and Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick.

During the funeral Mass for the senator at Boston’s Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Father Mark Hession, pastor of Our Lady of Victory Parish in Centerville, linked the Scripture readings — chosen by Kennedy, his wife, Vicki, and their family — with elements of the senator’s own life and faith.

“St. Paul states our case with his usual confidence,” Father Hession noted of the reading that opens: “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all, how will he not also give us everything else along with him?”

Father Hession said “that confidence (that) the triumph of life over death is rooted in the central belief of Christian faith” is the conviction on which all Christian faith is built — “that Christ who passed through death to new life will, as he promised, lead us through death to new life as well.”

“We hold the life of Sen. Kennedy with reverence and respect,” Father Hession continued. “We also recognize that like all of us his life has a destiny beyond history, destiny of risen life in the kingdom of God.” Boston Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley presided at the funeral Mass and said the final prayers of commendation. Boston College chancellor Jesuit Father J. Donald Monan, a longtime friend, was the main celebrant.

Four other priests concelebrated: Father Raymond Collins, pastor of the basilica, also known as

the Mission Church, and the senator’s longtime friends Father Gerry Creedon, pastor of St. Charles Borromeo Church in Arlington, Va.; Father Percival D’Silva, pas-

sick child who could not see a doctor; the young soldier sent to battle without armor; the citizen denied her rights because of what she looks like or who she loves or

McCarrick.

Cardinal McCarrick also read excerpts of letters exchanged by Kennedy and Pope Benedict XVI in the last few weeks. Kennedy

AS DARKNESS FELL — Family members gather during the burial service for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., August 29. During the service, Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, retired archbishop of Washington, read parts of two recent letters exchanged between Kennedy and Pope Benedict XVI. Kennedy died August 25 after a battle with brain cancer.

(CNS photo/Doug Mills, pool via Reuters)

tor of Holy Redeemer Church in Kensington, Md.; and Jesuit Father Donald MacMillan, chaplain at Boston College.

A long list of family members participated by giving the readings and petitions, taking up offertory gifts or serving as pallbearers or ushers. Music was provided by cellist Yo-Yo Ma, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, mezzo-soprano Susan Graham and tenor Placido Domingo.

Kennedy’s two sons, Patrick and Ted Jr., offered remembrances at the end of the Mass.

Each recalled lessons learned and strength gained from their father.

In his eulogy, Obama said that through a variety of types of suffering in his life, Kennedy “became more alive to the plight and suffering of others — the

where she comes from.”

Later, during the burial service at twilight at Arlington Cemetery in Virginia, Cardinal McCarrick, Washington’s retired archbishop, said Kennedy deserved his reputation as the lion of the Senate.

“His roar and his zeal for what he believed made a difference in our nation’s life,” said Cardinal

sent a personal letter to the pope that Obama delivered during their meeting at the Vatican in July.

The Vatican responded a couple of weeks later, the cardinal said.

Kennedy wrote to the pope: “I have been blessed to be a part of a wonderful family, and both of my parents, particularly my mother, kept our Catholic faith at the cen-

ter of our lives. That gift of faith has sustained, nurtured and provided solace to me in the darkest hours. I know that I have been an imperfect human being, but with the help of my faith, I have tried to right my path.

Kennedy also told the pope: “I have always tried to be a faithful Catholic, your Holiness, and though I have fallen short through human failings, I have never failed to believe and respect the fundamental teachings. I continue to pray for God’s blessings on you and our Church and would be most thankful for your prayers for me.”

Cardinal McCarrick said that two weeks later, Kennedy received a reply.

It read, in part: “The Holy Father ... was saddened to know of your illness, and has asked me to assure you of his concern and his spiritual closeness. He is particularly grateful for your promise of prayers for him and for the needs of the universal Church.

“His Holiness prays that in the days ahead you may be sustained in faith and hope, and granted the precious grace of joyful surrender to the will of God our merciful father. He invokes upon you the consolation and peace promised by the risen Savior to all who share in his sufferings and trust in his promise of eternal life,” it said.

“Commending you and the members of your family to the loving intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Holy Father cordially imparts his apostolic blessing as a pledge of wisdom, comfort and strength in the Lord.”

16

The Anchor

September 4, 2009

School named after founding Fall River bishop continued from page one

its eight paragraphs to the children: “This year’s Pastoral Letter will be my last will and testament to my people. May it sink deeply into the Catholic hearts of my beloved children. They will be grateful for it when their own end approaches.”

So it was most appropriate that when the first co-ed regional Catholic high school in the diocese was dedicated on Nov. 11, 1959, it was named after him.

The words spoken by Bishop James L. Connolly — who himself would be memorialized when Bishop Connolly High School in Fall River was dedicated in 1966 — at the Bishop Stang High School dedication were themselves a legacy: “It is my earnest prayer that the young boys and girls privileged to go to … the new high school, imbibe the spirit of holy faith and understanding, and imitate the irresistible will to be of service to God and man that dominated the thoughts and deeds of Bishop Stang.”

The Anchor, at the time in only its second publishing year, in one of its stories rhetorically asked the question being echoed across the region, “Did the new Bishop Stang High School cost $2.5 million?

The answer provided a wonderful overview: “No. The $2.5 million built five complete structures — a four-story convent for 36 Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur who would staff the school, a chapel, an administration and academic building for 1,100 students, and a combination auditorium gymnasium with a seating capacity of more than 1,100.”

“It has no peer in the six-state New England Area,” the story went on to say.

When the new school opened its doors on Sept. 8, 1959, it featured what was considered ultra-modern features of its day, warm pastel colors, a well-designed stainless-steel cafeteria, an emergency power plant, double window glass, one-piece desks, a 12,000-book library and mini-libraries in each classroom, quarry tile on the floors, acoustic tile on ceilings, TV reception in the classroom as well as large birch storage units, an intercommunication system, sound-proofed band and music rooms, all with a fireproof construction, four science laboratories, an elevator and snack room for the nuns, and regulation size athletic fields and courts.

The Annunciation Chapel, called “a miracle of simplicity” featured a brass tabernacle, and large, stained glass window be-

hind the altar. It could accommodate 100 worshippers. It was dedicated to Mary, the Mother of God. Tuition in 1959 was $125 a year, which could be paid over a 10-month period, amounting to $12.50 a month.

The 18-acre tract at Route 6 and Slocum Road, which had been a golf driving range, was purchased by the diocese on Oct. 26, 1946 from Elmer M. and Erford W. Poole.

First news that eight acres would be used for a high school came on Nov. 25, 1957, when Bishop Connolly’s pastoral letter was read at all Masses. He stressed that he needed the sympathetic support and financial aid of the whole diocese before so great an undertaking.

And the support came quickly.

In October, a minimal goal of $1.5 million to help defray the new school’s cost was set.

By November 5, the official

opening of the funding campaign, $840,000 was already gifted. A whopping $2.4 million was already received by February 1959 when registration of 240 students for the September freshman class opened.

The March 1959 gift of $50,000 from an anonymous donor announced by Cardinal Richard Cushing of Boston in memory of the late Bishop James E. Cassidy who served the diocese from 1934 to 1951, put the campaign fund over the top.

The school was readied under the careful eye of Father Edward J. Gorman, superintendent of schools at the time.

Notre Dame de Namur Sister Ann Denise was the first principal, and she led the original staff comprised of six nuns. But after 17 years of dedicated service, the Sisters faced the reality of fewer vocations and made the difficult decision to leave the school.

By the 1970s the vast majority of faculty and administrators were lay personnel.

The list of those who served as principal at Bishop Stang comprises a mini-litany of the area’s leading Catholic educators.

Following Sister Ann Denise as principal were other nuns of the Notre Dame de Namur congregation including Sisters Julie Marie, Maureen Francis, Mary St. Michael, and Barbara Shea.

George A. Milot, currently the superintendent of Catholic Schools in the diocese was principal from 1974 to 1982, when Thomas Donahue succeeded him. Theresa E. Dougall, currently president of Bishop Stang High School, who is also a Bishop Stang alumna, followed him in 1988.

Others who over the years played leading academic roles at Bishop Stang High School as assistant principals included James A. McNamee, former superintendent of schools and principal at Bishop Connolly High School, and Robert Zukowski.

By 1986 the school had 932 students representing 23 towns and 68 parishes; including Little Compton and Tiverton in Rhode Island. The senior class comprised 228 students. The staff included 51 lay teachers and two religious.

The school’s academic strength is seen in the fact that never has the school sent less than 80 percent on to further education in any given year. Currently more than 96 percent of graduating students pursue advanced education.

To date, the school has graduated more than 9,000 young adults.

In the late 1980s, when the school prepared to celebrate its 30th anniversary, it opened its first capital campaign since the school opened, setting a goal of $1.5 million with Patrick Carney, a Stang alumnus, as chairman.

Bishop Daniel A. Cronin was the honorary chairman, and Dr. Arthur F. Buckley — the chairman of the original drive to build the school — was honorary cochairman.

The campaign — from 1988 to 1994 — earmarked $800,000 to improve the buildings; $350,000 to upgrade the athletic fields and facilities; and $350,000 to establish an endowment fund for financial aid and faculty enrichment.

Currently there are approximately 790 students and 60 teachers.

Besides its diverse academic program, Bishop Stang High School offers 22 varsity and junior varsity sports teams that include baseball, softball, football, basketball, ice hockey, field hockey, soccer lacrosse, swimming, golf, tennis, and winter and spring track and field.

September 4, 2009

W

e have a small collection of sports jerseys that are just perfect for wearing while painting a ceiling or cleaning out a basement.

Included in the attire amassed

by Denise, Emilie and me, are treasures such as Johnny Damon, Manny Ramirez, Adam Vinatieri, Coco Crisp, Ty Law, and a DiceK shirt ready to join the select.

There is only one jersey in my collection that I never once worried would become obsolete — No. 54 for the New England Patriots, Tedy Bruschi.

While the thought of wearing the other jerseys inside-out crossed my mind, I have never, ever been ashamed of donning Tedy’s garment. My only reservation was that on Tedy, the bulges were in all the right places — the shoulders and arms. On me, it more appeared that I was absent when they handed out the shoulder pads and they were substituted with belly pads.

No. 54 called it a career this

17

The Anchor

Life without Tedy will be tough to bear

week, walking with grace and ter returning an interception for dignity away from the game he a touch down; his return from a loved and to which he gave his near-certain career-ending stroke; his jet black hair and brilliant heart and soul.

Tedy’s 13-year NFL career, all with the Patriots was not glamorous, not Hollywood-esque, and not arrogant and pretentious. It was a career overflowing with hard

By Dave Jolivet work, commitment, dedication, and pride — work ethics that were common in my dad’s generation, but not toothy grin flashing on the sidelines after another great Patriots’s as prevalent today.

Tedy Bruschi was proud to be defensive stand; his waving three a New England Patriot and took fingers at the a home-town discount to keep it camera mouththat way. New England is proud ing “Three, three, to have Tedy as a Patriot — three,” following the Pats’ third something he will always be.

There are so many memories Super Bowl win of Bruschi that come to mind at in five years; his this time: his flying sorties over rough-housing offensive lines to zero in on an with his two enemy running back; his sliding boys a few days through the snow on his knees in earlier on that the Miami Dolphins end zone af- same field; and

My View From the Stands

THEIR SECOND FIRST-DAY AT STANG — Members of Bishop Stang High School’s first graduating class in 1963 were present to greet this year’s incoming freshman class on the first day of school Tuesday as part of the school’s 50th anniversary celebration. Members of the class of 1963 (from left) include Cecilia Smith, Jim Donnelly, Sheila Ward, Diane LaFlamme, Lorraine Charest and Joanne Gracia. (Photo

by Kenneth J. Souza)

his eloquent farewell to the Patriots and the job he loved.

Bruschi knew when it was time to quit. You’ll not see him return like so many athletes have after retiring. Bruschi may have given his heart and soul to the Patriots, but there’s still plenty left and that’s reserved for his wife and family now. There will be no comeback.

I’ve had my Bruschi jersey for more than a half-dozen years now and the numbers are

peeling and fading. It’s pretty beaten up. I told my wife that maybe I should get a new one, but thought that’s what Tedy was all about. No glitz, no glitter. The sign in the corner of Gillette Stadium says it best about Tedy: “Full tilt, full time.”

I’ll keep my beat-up Bruschi jersey and wear it proudly when his number is retired, when he’s elected into the Patriots Hall of Fame, and when he’s inducted into the National Football League Hall of Fame.

Thanks for everything, Tedy.

Youth Pages

18

HYANNIS — A determined group of students from Pope John Paul II High School in Hyannis turned down a day at the beach and got to work last month installing clapboard, strapping for ceilings, and landscaping at a Habitat for Humanity site in Harwich.

The latest summer workday project followed on the heels of

September 4, 2009

JPII High School students spend summer heeding late pope’s call

spending a day working at the Cape Abilities Farm in Dennis.

Students concluded the summer with a Saturday project with CHAMP Homes on August 22.

“These are yet additional examples of bringing the classroom to the students and not just the students to the classroom,” said JPII Principal Christopher Keavy. “Addition-

ally, these projects embrace our mission and Pope John Paul II’s declaration to youth to ‘communicate Christ to others’ in a very real and tangible way,” he concluded.

Keavy also stated JPII HS and St. Francis Xavier Prep School are collaborating on plans to have Loretta Claiborne, Special Olympian and friend of

Eunice Kennedy Shriver, address the students at each school this fall.

At lunchtime, one of the homeowners on the Habitat project invited the students into her home to share her Habitat experience with them making the day an even more valuable experience for the students.

The Habitat for Humanity

homes are made possible and affordable through community donations, volunteers, land donations, the sweat equity of the homeowners, and Habitat’s nointerest 20–25-year mortgage.

This project was conceived by the Housing Committee of the Town of Harwich, and is built on land donated by the Town of Harwich.

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

MEET AND GREET — St. Mary-Sacred Heart School’s Family School Alliance recently hosted its annual kindergarten and new students picnic. With more than 100 participants, the incoming students and their families enjoyed an afternoon of pizza, ice cream, fun and sun while mixing and mingling with their fellow classmates. During the festivities, they had the opportunity to meet their teachers, Maria Stathakis, rear, left, and Elizabeth Moura, middle, as well as principal of the school, Denise Peixoto, right. The North Attleboro school offers two all day kindergarten classes and will welcome the 40 incoming students September 8 to be the future class of 2018.

Youth Pages

September 4, 2009

T

19

No room for mediocrity

courage is an incredible example his article is a challenge I have dreams of people findto everyone who knows him. For for every person in the dio- ing new ways to care for each those readers who have continucese, young and old. If you don’t other. I envision acts of charity like to be challenged, you may throughout the school, small and ally kept Matt in their prayers these past years, we are so gratewant to stop reading right now. large, and that love overflowful. If you wish to keep updated As the new school year being to the community around on Matt’s progress, or leave him gins, it brings with it a wonderus. An act of charity every day, a note of encouragement, please ful opportunity to set new goals performed by 800-plus people, visit his site at http://www.carand to begin again. So, first of how incredible would that be. ingbridge.org/visit/matthewdesiall, I would encourage everyI’m taking a risk talking about one who is preparing for a new this before seeing if it will really mas. Matt and his family have been blessed with the courage to take off, but that’s the kind of school year, begin with the sacstrive for greatness. He rament of reconciliation; was the perfect foundthis includes students, ing member for the pact teachers, staff, parents, effort we begin this grandparents, siblings, year. Please join us … everyone. Through this one prayer, one act of sacrament, we are able charity at a time … we to give everything over

By Jean Revil can radically improve to God. We seek God’s the lives of everyone forgiveness, accept his we encounter. forgiveness, and, in surThis is the Prayer for Courage: rendering everything, we give risk that striving for greatness Heavenly Father, give me the him permission to use everyinvolves. And it’s a risk worth courage to strive for the highest thing in our lives for building taking. If even one person, not goals, to flee every temptation to up his kingdom. This will create connected to Bishop Stang High be mediocre.

Enable me to aspire more positive growth than any School reads this and makes the to greatness, as Pier Giorgio did, new notebooks, pens, or outfits pact, than the force of love will and to open my heart with joy we may be shopping for. be set in motion and who knows to your call to holiness. Free me The second part of this chalwhat will come of it. lenge is an invitation to make The first person in the Bishop from the fear of failure. I want to be, Lord, firmly and forever a pact to pray and to reach for Stang community to make this united to you. Grant me the graces greatness. This idea of such a pact was Matthew DeSimas.

I ask you through Pier Giorgio’s pact is not my own. It is really You may remember my speakthe idea of Blessed Pier Giorgio ing about Matt a couple of years intercession, by the merits of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Frassati. I found, or God led me ago, and asking for prayers Jean Revil teaches theology and to, an explanation of such a pact for him. Matt suffers from a is campus minister at Bishop Stang on the website of www.frassavery rare disease called LaFora High School.

Comments welcome tiusa.org which states: ‘The disease. He is at home where at: jrevil@bishopStang.com. pact is a simple commitment to his parents care for him, and his radically change the world — one act of charity at a time. All it requires is your willingness to pray each day the prayer for the courage to be great and to do each day one small act of charity. That’s it.”

As Bishop Stang High School celebrates its 50th year, the Campus Ministry Office is challenging everyone to make this pact, and to keep this pact. Too often we all fall victim to mediocrity. We tend to settle for an effort that’s “good enough,” but certainly not worthy of greatness.

What would happen if we just tried, really tried, for greatness?

How different would our lives be? How much better would report cards be? How much fuller would our friendships be?

How much deeper would we love? How much more would we learn? How much holier would we become? Obviously, the report cards are small potatoes compared to the richness that could come to our lives if we reached for the greatness that God envisions for his children.

But since it’s the start of a new school year, better grades seem to be a goal that many people oyle and assidy igh chool have.

Making this challenge in aunton our school, and to our parents,

Be Not Afraid

Congratulations to the students and staff of Bishop Stang High School as you observe your Golden Jubilee!

C

C T

H

S

We extend our best wishes to Bishop Stang High School as you celebrate your 50th Anniversary!

54 MILL ROAD ACUSHNET, MA 02743

508-995-1259

20

The Anchor

Diocesan Pro-Lifers among MCFL award recipients continued from page one

tinville, June Newman and Andreas St. Germaine.

“The proceeds will help support vital, ongoing work,” Martins added.

Esolen is a noted translator of classic works, as well as a popular writer for Claremont Review and Touchstone magazine, of which he is a senior editor. He has translated Dante’s “Divine Comedy,” Lucretius’ “On the Nature of Things,” and Torquato Tasso’s “Jerusalem Delivered.”

He also writes a column for the Inside Catholic website. He is the author of several books including the best-selling “The Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization.”

“I’m so very honored — as is my husband, Kevin — to receive the Dr. Joseph Stanton Award,” said Poirier.

The Poirier’s are members of St. Mary’s Parish in North Attleboro The Dr. Stanton Award is for “outspoken courage in defense of life, through tireless personal example.”

“We’ve certainly strived to be that,” said Poirier.

“I’ve been in elected office for 11 years representing residents in parts of Attleboro, Mansfield and Norton, and throughout that time I’ve tried very hard to move Pro-Life issues on the legislative agenda to the forefront,” she said.

“It hasn’t been easy, especially having lost many allies in the Pro-Life effort over the years,” she added. “There doesn’t seem to be the same great enthusiasm among current legislators we used to find when dealing with Pro-Life matters. But we can’t rest. It means we have to work harder.”

Currently she’s battling against unfavorable facets of legislative health care proposals affecting the sex education of children in the public schools.

“We’ve beaten it back for two years,” and we’ll keep trying,” she said. She’s also promoting the passage of MCFL-supported legislation giving women information on abortions risks and consent. It is named after Laura Smith, a 22-year-old who died following a botched legal abortion by a Hyannis abortionist.

“We’re in the minority, but again, we’ll keep trying,” she said.

The Ignatius O’Connor Memorial Award, given for outstanding contributions to the Pro-Life Movement will go to Desrosiers.

Her involvement began in the 1980s in her Corpus Christi Parish and with Birthright in Hyannis, and since then has touched the lives of countless children

and adults of all ages. She has led the Pro-Life Apostolate as director since 2005, after having served in its office since 1992; and has been the director of Project Rachel, which includes a prison outreach, for more than 15 years.

Her post includes visiting parishes and schools across the diocese educating children and adults about Pro-Life faith tenets.

She is an active member of Life Athletes, an organization of more than 300 professional and Olympic athletes dedicated to spreading the message of virtue, abstinence and respect for life.

She developed and promoted the organization’s curriculum “See, I Make All Things New,” which is being used by dioceses throughout the country. She was also involved in the concept of the “Book of Innocents,” which was authorized for publication by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2003 and is a resource used in post-abortion healing.

Desrosiers is also a member of the Pro-Life/Pro-Family Subcommittee of the Massachusetts Catholic Conference, the public voice of the four Roman Catholic bishops in Massachusetts. She is also a member of the Diocesan Education Curriculum Board.

In 2008, Desrosiers developed a PowerPoint presentation about the hidden truths behind the Freedom of Choice Act, submitted to Congress. It has been distributed and used in states nationwide and in Hawaii to help educate people on the dangers of the bill and has encouraged people to take action, To all of her Pro-Life endeavors, she brings her personal experience as a wife, a mother of six and grandmother of four.

Acknowledging that her family has played a key role in her being nominated for the award, Desrosiers also credited many others: “Clergy, religious, the Diocesan Pro-Life Apostolate, The Anchor, Pro-Life organizations, educators, volunteers and friends who by your prayers, guidance, strength, encouragement and/or financial support have made it all work,” she said.

“By your living example and acts of kindness your have promoted the Gospel of Life. We live in a time when the culture of death is stealing our children and devouring them. You are their beacons of faith, hope and goodness. Stay united, even when the differences occur among you and refuse to compromise on the principles of the sacredness and dignity for all human life,” she added.

Madeleine Lavoie, known to many as “Maddie,” will receive the Local Chapter award “given to the unsung hero of a chapter who has demonstrated outstanding service.”

While that fits Maddie to a “T,” it also finds the Westport resident and Our Lady of Grace parishioner — where she chairs the Pro-Life Committee — wearing a number of service hats.

“I’m very happy, very honored to be named for this award,” said Lavoie, who admits she can’t remember when her many Pro-Life services began. “Fifteen or perhaps 20 years at least,” she admitted to The Anchor, where she is a regular visitor, bringing reports and photos on behalf of the Diocesan Council of Catholic Women, of which she a board member, the Pro-Life chairman and also the public relations liaison.

She is also a board member of the diocese’s Pro-Life Apostolate.

She has been the chairman of the MCFL local chair of the annual Rose Drive held on Mother’s Day in 24 diocesan parishes in six different cities, all on the same weekend, which raises thousands of dollars for Pro-Life causes.

And the annual Mothers and Children’s Walk in Boston each October as well as the January Pro-Life March in Washington D.C., would be incomplete if Maddie Lavoie were not there.

Patricia Stebbins, who will receive the MCFL’s Pro-Community Award, which is given to a person or a group that demonstrates outstanding support of the chapter’s mission, is president of the Cape Cod Family Life Alliance.

“We founded the Alliance because we felt there was little communication on many important matters on the Cape and after 12 years we currently have 14 parishes involved,” she said.

“We’re educational in nature and among many things our very active members are involved in is preparing with popular speakers on TV programs for stations on the Cape.”

A parishioner of Corpus Christ; Parish in East Sandwich, Stebbins said she was “surprised and very much honored to be nominated for this award, but I can’t help feeling it is the Cape Cod Family Alliance which so much is a part and shares in the award, too.”

The Alliance members are active in Pro-Life matters, “producing literature and lecturing on such things as sexual abstinence among our young people,” said Stebbins, who, with her husband John, have four children,

September 4, 2009 six grandchildren, and six greatgrandchildren.

“I think our Pro-Life fight has taken us into politics and there is where our mission is right now,” Stebbins opined. “Catholics aren’t as spirited as they need to be to … more vocal in speaking out against some of those elected officials who shame us for having put them into office.”

Other members of MCFL chapters across the state to receive awards include Clare Donohoe, Don Golden, James

Loughman, Eleanor McCullen, Msgr. Francis McGann, and the Watertown Knights of Columbus Charitable Trust.

Those interested in making reservations or to make a donation, have the following options: Visit the website at masscitizensforlife.org and scroll down to events; call the office at 617242-4199 and Dana will process a credit card payment; or mail a check made out to MCFL, Inc., 529 Main Street, Boston MA 02129.

BALTIMORE, Maryland, (Zenit.org) — On Thursday, a community of Episcopal nuns and their chaplain will be received into the Catholic Church by the archbishop of Baltimore.

Ten Sisters from the Society of All Saints’ Sisters of the Poor will be received into the Church

by Archbishop Edwin O’Brien, along with Episcopal Father Warren Tange, the Baltimore archdiocesan newspaper reported last Thursday.

Having spent seven years in prayer and discernment, the Sisters felt drawn to the Catholic faith due to its orthodoxy and unity.

The superior of the community in Catonsville, Mother Christina Christie, affirmed that after studying Catholic teaching for two years, the Sisters are “very excited” for their upcoming reception.

In their convent chapel, the nuns will receive the sacrament of confirmation, and will renew their vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.

Their chaplain will also enter the Church at that time, though he is still discerning the possibility of becoming a Catholic priest.

Mother Christina affirmed, “We felt God was leading us in this direction for a long time.”

The communiqué noted that many of them were troubled by recent changes in the Episcopal church, including the approval of women’s ordination, the ordination of a gay bishop and other “lax” stances on moral issues.

Another nun, Sister Mary Joan Walker, said, “We kept thinking we could help by being a witness for orthodoxy.”

The superior explained, however, that the effort was “not as helpful as we had hoped it would be.”

She continued: “People who did not know us looked at us as if we were in agreement with what had been going on [in the Episcopal church]; by staying put and not doing anything, we were sending a message which

was not correct.”

They acknowledged that some friends in the Episcopal church have been hurt by their decision to leave, accusing them of abandoning the fight to maintain orthodoxy.

“We’re not,” said Sister Emily Ann Lindsey. “We’re doing it in another realm right now.”

In the uneasiness with certain issues in their church, the Sisters spent time researching various Episcopal splinter groups, as well as other Christian denominations. Finally, they came to the realization that they were independently feeling drawn to the Catholic Church.

“This is very much the work of the Holy Spirit,” Mother Christina said.

Now, two years after having begun the study of the Second Vatican Council and other Church teachings, they affirmed that there were hardly any theological obstacles to overcome.

The concept of papal infallibility was a difficulty at first for some, but now the Sisters affirm that the pope exercises an authority not found in the Episcopal church.

“The unity that Christ called for can be found in the Catholic Church under the leadership of the pope,” they said “Unity is right in the midst of all this,” said Sister Catherine Grace Bowen. “That is the main thrust.”

Two nuns who decided not to become Catholic will nonetheless continue to live with the community and work together with their religious Sisters.

The nuns dedicate themselves to prayer, giving retreats, visiting people in hospice care, and designing religious cards.

The community, which maintains a traditional full black habit with a white wimple, is a branch of the society founded in England. The American branch has been in Baltimore since 1872, working with the poor in the region as part of their charism of hospitality.

Ten Episcopal nuns to join Catholic Church

Conscience clause questions raise concerns in health care field continued from page one

to force Mount Sinai to surrender their federal funding because it has violated a federal rule protecting employees who morally object to controversial procedures.”

That federal rule entitled “Ensuring That Department of Heath and Human Services Funds Do Not Support Coercive or Discriminatory Policies or Practices in Violation of Federal Law” (73 FR 78072), commonly referred to as the “provider conscience clause regulation,” was passed by the Bush administration, becoming effective January 20 of this year. The Obama administration is currently planning to reverse that regulation, which could lead to many more instances similar to that of Cenzon-DeCarlo’s.

A July 2 Catholic News Agency story said that President Obama “had only reversed the Bush administration’s conscience provisions because ‘it hadn’t been properly reviewed’ and there were questions about ‘how broad it might be and what its manifestations would be once implemented.’”

CNN.com reported that Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council said, “Protecting the right of all health care providers to make professional judgments based on moral convictions and ethical standards is foundational to federal law and is necessary to ensure that access to health care is not diminished, which will occur if health care workers are forced out of their jobs because of their ethical stances. President Obama’s intention to change the language of those protections would result in the government becoming the conscience and not the individual. It is a person’s right to exercise their moral judgment,

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September 4, 2009

not the government’s to decide it for them.”

Father Rodney E. Thibault, director of Pastoral Care and a chaplain at St. Luke’s Hospital in New Bedford, told The Anchor the health care staff there doesn’t talk about the tenuous nature of the conscience clause because compromising their morals, “rarely happens. For now.”

Father Thibault does worry about the future of Catholic health care workers. “Right now, because of the economy, there are many jobs in jeopardy, particularly LPNs. One nurse told me that she ‘would do anything’ to keep her job. No specifics were mentioned, but I did get the sense that meant the compromising of her moral beliefs. I’m afraid this will happen more and more if the conscience clause is rescinded. It will be the beginning of a slippery slope effect.”

He also said that the conscience clause is not a religious issue, but an issue of right and wrong. “Our founding fathers would be greatly disappointed,” he said. “They were faith-filled men who picked up a Bible every day, and weren’t afraid to pray for God to guide them.

“We’re the last super power on earth, and it’s not about money. It’s about setting the bar for caring for all people. Society needs to be accountable. What message are we sending our future generation when we say it’s OK to terminate the unborn or elderly? Fifty years ago, this wasn’t even thought of. What will it be like 50 years from now?”

Father Thibault fears Catholic health care workers will face faith dilemmas. “It’s a scary thought, but some will com-

promise, but some will become the martyrs of the 21st century.

Some will give up their careers and put themselves into financial jeopardy, but will maintain their morals. And I truly believe that God will eventually provide for these martyrs, giving up comforts for the sake of the Gospel.

It may not be in they way they think, or when they want, but he will take care of them” The Anchor attempted to contact nurses and doctors in the diocese to comment on the potential dilemmas facing those in their field, but one nurse said many are leery about going on the record at this time because it could jeopardize their positions, or the institutions for which they are employed. Another highranking official in the health care field said right now people have to be “very careful” about what they say and to whom with regards to the provider conscience clause regulation and how they will react to potential legislative changes.

Mary Lees, a retired nurse from Our Lady of Victory Parish in Centerville told The Anchor that she did not experience threats to her moral convictions while she was an active nurse.

“But as a Catholic, I feel no one should be coerced into something that is against their moral convictions. There must be an obligation to conscientious objectors.”

Tom Pasternak, of Fall River, a Catholic, has been a registered pharmacist for 41 years, and the owner of Walsh Pharmacy in Fall River for 39 of those years. In 2005 he received the prestigious Bowl of Hygeia Award from the Massachusetts Pharmacists Association.

He told The Anchor that he is not “a strong proponent of a

new national health care plan because no one, and I mean no one, has told us what it will look like.”

He added that one of the concerns among pharmacists he speaks with, is whether they will have the right to refuse to dispense medication that goes against their own pharmaceutical beliefs or our religious/ethical beliefs.

He said that many of his peers are afraid to comment on this topic. “If a pharmacist working for a large chain goes on record and says ‘I won’t fill a prescription for contraceptives because I’m morally against it,’ he or she can be in jeopardy of losing his or her job.”

With regards to the Federal Law 73 FR 78072, Pasternak said, “We have more interpretations than the federal government has deficits.”

Pasternak said dialogue is crucial before any national health care plan or changes to the conscience clause occur.

“We need open and honest discussions without the fear of a health care provider to be hurt, or the patient, but too many government agencies do not want to hear the truth, never mind deal with it.”

On its website, pharmacist.

com/ga, the American Pharmacists Association (AphA) states its position on the Federal Conscience Clause, “AphA recognizes the individual pharmacist’s right to exercise conscientious refusal and supports the establishment of systems to ensure patient’s rights access to legally prescribed therapy without compromising the pharmacist’s right of conscientious refusal. When this policy is implemented correctly, and proactively, it is seamless to the patient, and the patient is not aware that the pharmacist is stepping away from the situation. In sum, AphA supports the ability of the pharmacist to step away, not in the way, and supports the establishment of an alternative system for delivery of patient care.”

The future of Catholic health care workers in this country is cloudy at best. There is a chance the government may end up dictating what services they will have to perform under law or else face the consequences.

“Well-formed consciences know their jobs,” said Father Thibault. That could cost them their careers. The Cenzon-DeCarlo episode at Mount Sinai Hospital may be only the tip of the iceberg.

Rev. Msgr. John J. Oliveira, V.E. 106 Illinois St., New Bedford, MA 02745 ANCH. 09/04/09

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September 4, 2009

Bishop Stang High School family readies to celebrate 50th continued from page one

Nov. 11, 1959. Named after the first bishop of the Fall River Diocese, the school initially only had a freshman class that first year. In subsequent years, that class would advance as another freshman class came in each year through 1963 when the school had a full complement of freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors.

“The rededication and Mass were planned for September 9 because Sept. 9, 1959 was the first day the school opened its doors to the first freshman class,” Dougall said. “So it’s going to be 50 years to the day since Bishop Stang accepted its first students.”

Noting that the first graduating class has been “greatly involved” in planning this year’s anniversary events, Dougall said things already kicked off September 1 when members of the class of ’63 were on hand to welcome the new crop of incoming freshmen with a meetand-greet.

“They provided refreshments and donuts and met with the new students and talked to them about the history of the school and the tradition Bishop Stang High School has been known for over the past 50 years,” she said.

Looking ahead to the rededication, Dougall said the ceremony will include a blessing

at the original site where Bishop James L. Connolly first dedicated the building — the school’s cornerstone near the entrance — inside which they will place two small time capsules: one with materials from the original 1959 dedication, the other with current information for 2009.

“When we went inside the container placed in the original cornerstone in 1959, it was broken and water had gotten inside,” Dougall said. “So some of the materials were damaged, but we saved most of the original items and we’re going to duplicate the rest. We’ve purchased two small time capsules — one that will include the original materials that were placed in the cornerstone in 1959, and another that will contain some important information from 2009.”

Among items found in the original 1959 cornerstone: three coins; copies of the dedication pamphlets, program and school brochure; editions of The Anchor, the New Bedford Standard-Times and the Fall River Herald News; photographs of the building during construction; and medals of the Sacred Heart. These will all be replaced along with 2009 additions such as a complete listing of the 790 students currently enrolled at Bishop Stang, current newspapers, and memorabilia about the 50th anniversary celebration.

“We have a seal that is going to say ‘to be opened in 2059 at the 100th anniversary of the school,’” Dougall said. “It’s important, because one of our alums is bringing his young son here and he wants his son to go to the 100th anniversary and be able to say he was at the 50th anniversary … similar to some of us who can say we were at the original dedication and now we’re here at the 50th.”

The anniversary Mass will follow the rededication at 10:30 a.m. at St. Julie Billiart Church.

Dougall anticipates more than 200 invited guests to attend, along with the entire student body and a contingent of priests and deacons. “We’re actually opening the entire church so there’s additional space in the back to accommodate up to 1,400 people,” she said.

“There’s also a group of the Sisters of Notre Dame, the founding sisters who staffed the school, coming from Ipswich,” added Suzy Burke, director of advancement for Bishop Stang.

“And we expect a large number of priests and deacons in attendance, many of whom are also graduates of Bishop Stang. Father Marcel H. Bouchard is a graduate himself and he’s coordinating all the priests and deacons who were graduates for the celebration.”

Immediately following the Mass, a luncheon for all guests will be held at the New Bedford

Country Club.

“It will really be a time for a lot of people from the past and the present to be able to gather together and socialize and bring out the memories of Bishop Stang High School they all have,” Dougall said. “It will be fun to see a lot of the faces that we haven’t seen in a while.”

While the rededication and Mass are the two key 50th anniversary events, Dougall said there will also be an anniversary gala held November 14 at White’s of Westport beginning with a reception at 5:30 p.m., followed by dinner at 6:30 p.m.

The gala will include the premiere of a video presentation on the past, present and future of Bishop Stang High School, created by another former graduate, David Fortin.

“We are obviously celebrating the past, joined with the present, but we are also looking forward to an even brighter future,” Dougall said. “Part of that includes plans to expand, enhance and endow Bishop Stang High School for future generations through a capital campaign. Those three areas will all be touched upon at the gala — not only in the video, but also through some talks and presentations.”

Other plans-in-progress to run throughout the school’s anniversary year into 2010 include select celebrations in honor of the various people and groups who have made an impact on Bishop Stang High School over the last half-century: from the

various religious staff, to the athletic directors and coaches, to the priests and deacons of the New Bedford Deanery.

“It’s not uncommon that no matter where you go, you find somebody associated with Bishop Stang,” Dougall said. “That’s what happens when you’ve have 8,805 graduates over the last 47 years.”

It’s this strong bond to the school, and its ongoing tradition of academic excellence, that has helped Bishop Stang prosper for the past 50 years, and what promises to make it continue for another 50.

“If you talk to our alums and ask them, in a word, what Bishop Stang means to them, many will times you will hear ‘family.’

That’s part of why things work at Bishop Stang and why we have this tradition of excellence and why parents choose to send their children to the school,” Dougall said.

“This whole idea of tradition over time is what’s important to the school, because the stronger your roots, the stronger the school,” she added. “The fact that we have so many people who have given their lives to the school over the years because of their love for Catholic education and young people — that really has contributed to the excellence that we’re celebrating this year. But it’s also the responsibility of the people today to make sure that continues and strengthens as we go into the next 50 years.”

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EasternTelevision

September 4, 2009

Around the Diocese 9/5

A Day With Mary will take place tomorrow from 7:50 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. at Good Shepherd Church, 1598 Main Street, Fall River. The day will include a video, instruction, a procession and crowning of Mary, along with Mass, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and an opportunity for the sacrament of reconciliation. For more information, call 508-984-1823.

9/8

The Catholic Cancer Support Group at Our Lady of Victory Parish, 230 South Main Street, Centerville, will meet September 8 at 7 p.m in the parish center. All are welcome. The meeting will consist of Mass, anointing of the sick, a speaker and social hour. For more information, call 508-771-1106.

9/12

All members of the Fall River Diocesan Council of Catholic Women are requested to attend the television Mass September 12 in the Bishop Stang High School Chapel, Slocum Road, North Dartmouth, at 10 a.m. Father Philip A. Davignon, pastor of Our Lady of the Assumption Parish, Osterville, will celebrate. The Mass will mark the opening of the 2009-2010 season for the council.

9/12

A healing seminar, “I Am the Lord Thy Healer,” will be presented by Lucille L. Pimentel, September 12 from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Holy Name of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish Center, 121 Mount Pleasant Street, New Bedford. To register, call 508-995-6711. No lunch will be provided.

9/12

Celebrate the parish of St. Mark’s annual fair September 12 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the parish grounds on Stanley Street in Attleboro Falls. The day will include a wide variety of activities, music and food. St. Mark’s Fair is a traditional “end of summer” ritual.

9/13

A new support group for separated and divorced Catholics will be held at Christ the King Parish Center, The Commons, Mashpee, September 13 from 12:30 to 2 p.m. All are welcome and no registration is required. For more information, email ma_eaton_46@yahoo.com or call 508-999-6420.

9/19

Benedictine Sister Paula Hagen, founder of the MOMS Ministry, will lead a mini retreat September 19 beginning at 8 a.m. at St. Pius X Parish Life Center, 5 Barbara Street, South Yarmouth. All women, spiritual friends and companions are welcome to join Sister Hagen for a morning of prayer and reflection. For more information call Tricia Mullaney at 508-362-1583 or email Beth Davis at beth_gdb@comcast.net.

9/20

Our Lady of Purgatory Church, 11 Franklin Street, New Bedford, will host an annual Homecoming Maharajan and Heritage Festival September 20 beginning with a Maronite Catholic Mass at 11 a.m. at the Horseneck Holy Ghost Grounds, Dartmouth. For tickets or more information, email mahrajan2009olop@yahoo.com or call 617-803-4087.

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.

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 — 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.

SEEKONK ­— Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish has eucharistic adoration seven days a week, 24 hours a day in the chapel at 984 Taunton Avenue. For information call 508336-5549.

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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The Anchor

Retreat for Religious is September 12

NORTH DARTMOUTH — The annual Day of Recollection for Men and Women Religious in the Diocese of Fall River will take place September 12 at St. Julie Billiart Parish.

Sister of Mercy Catherine Donovan, episcopal representative for religious and director of the Office for Religious has announced the day will begin

at 9:30 a.m. in the parish center with the scheduled guest speaker, noted author, lecturer, and retreat director, La Salette Father Joseph G. Bachand.

Bishop George W. Coleman will celebrate a Mass with the religious at St. Julie Billiart Church at 11:30. Several religious celebrating various jubilees will be recognized at the Mass.

La Salette Father Joseph G. Bachand

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (CNS) — Robert Schindler Sr., a Catholic and the father of the late Terri Schiavo, died from heart failure early August 29 in St. Petersburg. He was 71. Schiavo, who died in 2005, was at the center of a lengthy legal battle that resulted in a Florida court ordering her feeding tube removed.

“My dad was a man of integrity, character and compassion who was blessed with a close and loving family,” his son, Bobby Schindler, said in a statement.

“He taught all three of his children to respect and value life and to love our fellow man.

Even at the height of the battle to save my sister Terri’s life, when his patience and temperance was near exhaustion, he managed to display a gentleness of spirit,” he said. “Yet it

was his unfathomable strength that allowed him to shoulder up his own heartache and lead us

through our darkest hour. What greater legacy could a man leave behind?”

Father who fought to care for daughter Terri Schiavo, dies

In Your Prayers Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks Sept. 7 Very Rev. James E. McMahon, V.F., Pastor, Sacred Heart, Oak Bluffs, 1966 Rev. Raymond Pelletier, M.S., La Salette Shrine, North Attleboro, 1984 Sept. 8 Rev. Thomas Sheehan, Founder, Holy Trinity, Harwich Center, 1868 Sept. 10 Rev. Hugo Dylla, Pastor, St. Stanislaus, Fall River, 1966 Rt. Rev. Felix S. Childs, Retired Pastor, Sacred Heart, Fall River, 1969 Sept. 11 Rev. Joachim Shults, SS.CC., Our Lady of Assumption, New Bedford, 1987 Rev. Cyril Augustyn, OFM Conv., Pastor, Holy Rosary, Taunton, 1997 Rev. Francis E. Grogan, CSC, Superior, Holy Cross Residence, North Dartmouth, 2001 Rev. Martin Grena, Retired, Missionary, 2004 Sept. 12 Rev. John J. Galvin, STD, Assistant, SS. Peter and Paul, Fall River, 1962 Most Rev. James L. Connolly, Sc.H D, Fourth Bishop of Fall River, 195170, 1986 Rev. John R. Folster, Pastor, St. Louis de France, Swansea, 1995 Sept. 13 Rev. Charles A.J. Donovan, Pastor, Immaculate Conception, North Easton, 1949 Rev. Isadore Kowalski, OFM Conv., Our Lady’s Haven, Fairhaven, 2003

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September 4, 2009

The Anchor staff extends warm congratulations to Bishop Stang High School

We extend our best wishes to Bishop Stang High School as you celebrate your 50th anniversary! from Rev. Arnold Medeiros, Deacons William Martin, Peter Guresh & Vincent Coates, and Parishioners of

ST. ELIZABETH SETON CHURCH NORTH FALMOUTH