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Diocese of Fall River, Mass.

F riday , September 6, 2013

Catholic Voices USA names Boston media leader as new head

Twin brother of diocesan priest accepts national post

Boston (CNA/EWTN News) their faith and voices heard.”

Based on its British counterpart, Catho— The communications training group lic Voices USA was founded to train lay Catholic Voices USA has named as its next executive director Scot Landry, a lead- people to present Catholicism in a positive ing media official with the Archdiocese of way, mobilizing them to counter misrepresentations and make the case for the CathBoston.

“I am very excited for the opportunity olic Church in the public square, through to lead the Catholic Voices apostolate and debates, media interviews and other forto continue to participate in the Church’s mats.

The group’s previous director, Kim DanNew Evangelization efforts,” Landry said iels, was named spokesin an interview published woman for U.S. bishops’ recently in the Boston conference president Cararchdiocese’s newspaper dinal Timothy Dolan earThe Pilot. lier this year.

Landry’s twin brother, Landry is currently the Father Roger J. Landry, is Archdiocese of Boston’s pastor of St. Bernadette’s secretary for media, as well Parish in Fall River. as president and CEO of “As national chaplain to iCatholic Media, the corCatholic Voices and Scot’s poration overseeing the twin brother, I’m doubly archdiocese’s media efforts. thrilled about this ap“We’re beyond delightpointment,” Father Landry ed,” Catholic Voices directold The Anchor. “Catholic tor Kathryn Jean Lopez Voices is a very important said. “His organizational apostolate helping to train skills, evangelical zeal, and Scot Landry lay people effectively to leadership talents are a defend and advance the Catholic faith. As secularism grows and great gift for this apostolic project — one becomes more aggressive in the United that so many people seem to crave.”

Landry said Catholic Voices “meets a States, we need lay people to rise up to become the ‘mouth’ of the Mystical Body. huge need in the Church for lay people Scot’s experience in various components of to become articulate, well-catechized and the Church’s media mission in the Arch- media-ready communicators, particularly diocese of Boston, not to mention his ex- on hot-button issues.”

He said that many media-trained indiperience in Church fund-raising, business school training and background building viduals who comment on Catholic issues solid organizations from the ground up, for the secular media sometimes “have an makes him, in my highly biased opinion, agenda that isn’t always faithful to Church highly capable to serve as national director. teaching” and can lead people astray.

“The good news is that we have many I look forward very much to seeing how well-catechized lay Catholics who love the he’s going to grow Catholic Voices to serve Church and have the authority of direct the Church throughout our country and, hopefully, inspire many Catholics to make Turn to page 14

The American Heritage Girls MA Troop 3712 got in touch with nature during a recent hike in June at the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette in Attleboro. From left to right: Madison Burbank, Ana Pittsley, Sierra Larkin, Emily Day, Ireland Larkin, Amanda Abbott, Callie Dansereau, Caitlin Brawley and Teresa Cazzaniga.

Newly-launched Christian-based Scout troop helping build girls of integrity

By Becky Aubut Anchor Staff

Brawley, charter representative.

“It includes God in everything you do, SEEKONK — The American Heri- values life and its virtues, and gives the tage Girls scouting program added its girls morals, represented in the badges newest troop to its membership this past the girls earn,” said Brawley, adding that year when MA Troop 3712 formed and though her troop is the first Cathobegan meeting at Our Lady of Mount lic troop in Massachusetts, “it’s nondenominational so you don’t have to be Carmel Parish Center in Seekonk.

Founded in 1995 in Ohio by a group Catholic to join.”

The troop formed over the winter and of parents wanting a “wholesome program for their daughters,” the Christian- did many service projects and other acbased Scouting program had troops tivities during its initial run from Februquickly springing up all over the United ary through June. An interest meeting States. The group’s mission of “building held in August has the group at about women of integrity through service to 10 girls, but those involved know that as God, family, community and country” word spreads the numbers will grow.

“I was so excited to hear they were is a vision that appeals to many families who want to keep God at the forefront starting a group,” said Sharon Abbott, of their daughter’s most formative years vice coordinator and troop leader for the while also teaching community service six- to nine-year olds. Abbott had heard and outreach to others, said Maureen Turn to page 18

Pastor prepares to challenge runners again for charity road race

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

EAST TAUNTON — Father Kevin Cook, pastor at Holy Family Parish in East Taunton and assistant vocations director for the Fall River Diocese, can be a bit competitive sometimes.

“I must admit I am pretty competitive in sports and games, but always just for fun,” Father Cook told The Anchor.

For the past few years now, he’s turned that competitive drive into a way of raising money and awareness

for the Knights of Columbus council at his parish by not only participating in the annual five-kilometer road race fund-raiser but also by challenging other runners to beat him.

“I started in our first year my personal challenge to runners so as to help raise money for the Knights and to create a little personal competition,” Father Cook said. “The challenge is if a runner beats me, I pay an extra $5 — but if I beat them they must pay an extra $10. But they must make the challenge before the race begins. It is

all in good fun.”

The fourth annual Knights of Columbus 5K Road Race will once again step off from the Holy Family Parish Center, 438 Middleboro Avenue, at 10 a.m. on September 14. All proceeds will benefit the charitable works of the KOC. “Each year the numbers have increased and it has been a very enjoyable experience,” Father Cook said.

“The race is a mix of runners and walkers … and they go through a few of the neighborhoods of East Taunton. The

Knights do a great job and I find many runners enjoy the day.”

While he enjoys competition and sporting events, Father Cook said he doesn’t consider himself a dedicated runner.

“Even though St. Paul uses the imagery of running the race, I am not big on running and I find very little enjoyment in jogging,” he said. “I love to run in a sporting event — things like soccer, football, or basketball — but jogging long distances is not as much fun for me.”

Turn to page 18

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News From the Vatican

September 6, 2013

Rape victim consoled, encouraged by call from Pope Francis

Rome, Italy (CNA/ EWTN News) — A 44-yearold woman from Argentina said that after writing a letter to Pope Francis telling him that she had been raped by a local police officer, the pope called her to tell her, “You are not alone.”

“The pope told me he receives thousands of letters each day, but that what I wrote moved him and touched his heart,” the woman said in an interview with the National University of Cordoba’s Canal 10 TV station.

“When I heard the pope’s voice, it was like feeling the hand of God,” she said.

The woman explained that in her letter, she asked the Holy Father for help and explained that she had been raped on two occasions by a police officer, who later threatened her.

On Sunday afternoon, her cell phone rang, and when she asked who it was, the voice said, “It’s the pope.”

“I was petrified,” she confessed.

The conversation lasted about half an hour and cen-

tered on “faith and trust.”

“The pope listened attentively to my story,” the woman said. “I’ll do anything now to go to the Vatican. He told me he would meet with me.”

The woman told the television station that justice has been thwarted because local officials have covered up the crime, refusing to hear her story and even giving a promotion to the alleged perpetrator.

“Now I know that I am not alone and I will pick myself up again,” she said. “The pope told me that I am not alone and that I should have faith that justice will be done.”

The phone call is the latest in a series of similar personal phone calls that Pope Francis has made since he became pope in March.

Other recipients of recent papal phone calls include an Italian man who has struggled to forgive God after the murder of his brother, a young doorman at the Jesuit motherhouse in Rome, the pope’s shoemaker in Argentina, and the owner of the kiosk in Buenos Aires that delivered his daily paper.

Pope says Christians should have restless hearts like St. Augustine’s

ROME (CNS) — St. Au- moved away from it. He didn’t love God and others from his gustine famously said that find in it the answer to his mother.

“How many tears that holy people’s hearts are restless until questions, to the desires of his they rest in God, but too many heart and he became attracted woman shed for the conversion of her son. And how many people, Pope Francis said, have to other things.” mothers today shed tears that He studied, he had fun, “he allowed their hearts to be “anestheir children would return knew intense love” and began thetized” and no longer search to Christ,” Pope Francis said. a brilliant career as a teacher of for God and for love.

Celebrating the saint’s rhetoric, the pope said. “He had “Don’t lose hope in the grace of God.” feast day with members of arrived in every way.”

Like St. Monica, he said, “But in his heart, there rethe Order of St. Augustine, Pope Francis prayed that mained the restlessness of the Christians are called to love they would always be restless search for the profound mean- others to the point of shedding tears for their well-being in their search for God, their desire to share the ugustine continued to seek and Salvation.

Too often in religious Gospel and their drive God, the pope said, and “he life, the Jesuit pope said, to demonstrate their love Pope Emeritus Benedict discovered that God was waiting “community means comfor everyone they meet.

XVI and his personal secretary Although the Vati- for him and, in fact, never stopped fort,” and just as some had traveled there from the people don’t know their can described the Liturgy looking for him first.”

Vatican to celebrate the town’s next-door neighbors, some as a “private” Mass with feast of Our Lady of the Lake religious don’t know their members of the Augusthe day prior, which included confreres. ing of life,” Pope Francis said. tinian fathers’ general chapter, an evening Mass presided by “The restlessness of love alhundreds of people gathered “His heart was not asleep, it the retired pontiff. ways pushes you forward to go outside Rome’s Basilica of St. was not anesthetized by suc“The pope emeritus is very well out and encounter the other Augustine to get a glimpse of cess, by things, by power.” and he was here to visit the palace Augustine continued to seek without waiting for the other the pope and shake his hand. because there was a small concert The pope obliged before enter- God, the pope said, and “he to tell us what he needs,” the and to take a beautiful walk in the discovered that God was wait- pope said. ing the church. gardens and have dinner there,” Father Prevost, superior of Ninety members of the or- ing for him and, in fact, never the archbishop said. the order that has about 2,800 stopped looking for him first.” der, founded in 1244, were On February 11 of this members, told the Vatican Pope Francis said Christians gathered in the basilica to open year, Pope Emeritus Benedict newspaper that the pope’s offer their order’s general chapter must “look into your hearts XVI announced his resignaand elect a successor to U.S. and ask yourself if you have a to preside at the opening Mass tion which went into effect on Father Robert Prevost, who has heart that wants great things or was a “great and generous gesFebruary 28. He then stayed completed two six-year terms a heart that is asleep. Has your ture.” in Castel Gandolfo during the “We were amazed after we and is ineligible to serve again. heart maintained that restlesscardinals’ election of a new requested an audience with the ness or has it been suffocated by In his homily, Pope Francis pope.

Holy Father for the chapter things?” said St. Augustine’s use of the After Pope Francis was choand found out that he decided Every Christian, he said, term “restlessness” was striksen, the former pontiff moved to celebrate Mass with us,” Faing and led him to think about must “let yourself be restless for back to the Vatican to live in three basic areas in which every God” and, like St. Augustine, ther Prevost told L’Osservatore a monastery with Archbishop Christian should be restless: in never tire of sharing the Good Romano.

Gänswein, who is also prefect The Basilica of St. Augustine the spiritual life, in the search News of God’s love and promof the papal household. is around the corner from the ise of Salvation with others for God and in love for others.

The archbishop reflected that Paul VI Residence where the who are as lost as he was.

Augustine lived a life like annually for the last eight years, former Cardinal Jorge BergoThe pope, who as a cardinal that of many young people tohe and the Holy Father along glio stayed before the conclave would visit the basilica during day, the pope said. with others from the Vatican “He was educated by his trips to Rome to pray at the that elected him pope in March came to Castel Gandolfo for “a mother Monica in the Chris- tomb of St. Monica, mother and where he returned after his few weeks” — an “experience,” tian faith, although he was not of St. Augustine, said St. Au- election to personally pay his he said, “that we now miss.

Baptized, but as he grew he gustine must have learned to bill.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s personal secretary debunks ‘mystical experience’

Vatican City (CNA/ EWTN News) — The retired pontiff ’s personal secretary said that the recent and widely circulated news story claiming that Benedict XVI stepped down after having a “mystical experience” is false.

“It was invented from the alpha to the omega,”Archbishop Georg Gänswein said recently.

“There is nothing true in this article,” he added in an interview with journalist Alessandra Buzzetti on Italian television channel Tg5.

Rome-based Catholic news outlet “Zenit” had reported last week that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI resigned after having a mystical experience in which God told him to do so.

The agency said that the former pope told a visitor to Mater Ecclesiae, the monastery in the Vatican where he currently resides, that God “did not speak to him in a vision but in a mystical experience.”

Tg5 interviewed the Archbishop Gänswein on August 25 in the town of Castel Gandolfo, where the papal summer residence is located.

Pope Francis waves to well-wishers as he arrives to celebrate Mass at the Basilica of St. Augustine in Rome on the saint’s feast day. (CNS photo/Max Rossi, Reuters)

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3 The International Church U.S., other nations weighing response to purported chemical attack in Syria September 6, 2013

WASHINGTON (CNS) — President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry were consulting with other world leaders about how to respond to Syria’s apparent chemical weapons attack on civilians.

On August 26, Kerry called the August 21 attack an inexcusable and undeniable “indiscriminate slaughter of civilians, the killing of women and children and innocent bystanders, by chemical weapons,” and a “moral obscenity.”

White House statements referenced Obama’s calls with the prime ministers of Canada and Australia, and Kerry said he had been speaking with foreign ministers around the world about the situation.

Bishop Richard E. Pates of Des Moines, Iowa, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace, called on Secretary of State John Kerry to work with other governments to “obtain a cease-fire” in Syria and create “a future for all Syrians, one that respects human rights and religious freedom.”

Bishop Pates made the call in an August 29 letter to Secretary Kerry.

[The letter can be found at http://www.usccb.org/issuesand-action/human-lifeand-dignity/global-issues/ middle-east/syria/upload/ letter-to-secretary-kerryregarding-syria-2013-08-29. pdf.]

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops previously had

urged an end to violence in Syria.

“The longstanding position of our Conference of Bishops is that the Syrian people urgently need a political solution that ends the fighting and creates a future for all Syrians, one that respects human rights and re-

SAO PAULO (CNS) — More than 50 pilgrims who attended World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro are seeking asylum in Brazil.

Aline Thuller, Caritas’ coordinator for refugees in the Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro, said the archdiocese received approximately 40 asylum requests from pilgrims from Pakistan, Sierra Leone and Congo.

Thuller said two parishes in Rio are providing housing for these asylum seekers.

The Archdiocese of Sao Paulo reported that at least 12 pilgrims — including five Pakistani nationals — who attended World Youth Day have approached the archdiocese to ask for help in staying in the country.

Larissa Leite, who works for

Caritas in Sao Paulo, said the five Pakistanis stated they felt a strong religious persecution in their home country and wished to remain in Brazil.

As with all who seek asylum in Brazil, the pilgrims will have their cases analyzed by the National Committee for Refugees, an agency of the Justice Ministry.

“As soon as they apply for asylum status, we are able to help them get work permits, national registry numbers and provide them with Portuguese classes while they wait for their case to be reviewed,” said Thuller.

Almost three million people attended World Youth Day in Rio July 23-28. The event was Pope Francis’ first international trip after being elected pope.

urging Obama to consult with them before any military action against Syria. Both houses of Congress are in recess, however, and are scheduled to resume business September 9. Kerry and White House chief of staff were reported to be talking with con-

Ghouta, not far from the capital Damascus, a stronghold for opponents of the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Hospitals reported treating thousands of people suffering with symptoms consistent with a poison gas attack. Videos

U.N. chemical weapons experts inspect one of the sites of an alleged poison gas attack in the Damascus suburb of Mouadamiya recently. The U.N. inspectors in Syria met and took samples from victims of an apparent poison gas attack in the rebel-held area. ( CNS photo/Abo Alnour Alhaji, Reuters)

ligious freedom,” Bishop Pates said. “We ask the United States to work with other governments to obtain a cease-fire, initiate serious negotiations, provide impartial and neutral humanitarian assistance, and encourage building an inclusive society in Syria that protects the rights of all its citizens, including Christians and other minorities.”

In the U.S., some members of Congress of both parties were

Dozens of World Youth Day pilgrims seek asylum in Brazil

gressional leaders about how to proceed with a response to Syria.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said that the U.S. military stood ready to strike at Syria as soon as Obama gave the order.

In the August 27 White House press briefing, White House spokesman Jay Carney said the use of chemical weapons is opposed by 188 nations, in addition to the U.S., which have signed a convention to that effect, and that those countries have a stake in making sure such norms are respected.

The actions followed an August 21 attack on the town of

and photos posted to the Internet showed children gasping for breath. The group Doctors Without Borders put the death toll at 355.

Assad denied using chemical weapons. But Kerry noted that despite the Syrian government’s offer of transparency to prove the attack claims were false, “instead, for five days, the Syrian regime refused to allow the U.N. investigators access to the site of the attack that would allegedly exonerate them. Instead, it attacked the area further, shelling it and systematically destroying evidence. That is not the behav-

ior of a government that has nothing to hide. That is not the action of a regime eager to prove to the world that it had not used chemical weapons.”

Meanwhile, Catholic bishops in Syria weighed in with calls to cautious action.

Archbishop Mario Zenari, the Vatican nuncio to Syria, told Vatican Radio that looking at the images of the alleged chemical attack, “I hear the cry of these children, these innocent victims.”

At the same time, he said he prayed that the leaders of both sides in the conflict as well as leaders in the international community “would be gifted with much wisdom and much prudence” as they decide how to move forward.

“We must do so in a way that these crimes, these massacres never happen again,” the archbishop said. “We must find the most appropriate and opportune means to react, ways that will not complicate the situation.”

Chaldean Catholic Bishop Antoine Audo of Aleppo told Vatican Radio that Pope Francis was calling for a real commitment by the international community to encourage dialogue and negotiations in Syria.

“If there were a military intervention, I think this would lead to a world war,” the bishop said.

“There is this risk.

“Let’s hope that the pope’s appeal will promote a real dialogue between the parties in conflict,” he said. The objective must not be more fighting, but acting so that “the people will be free to move around, travel, communicate (and) work.”

“This is what we hope for: an international effort that will help dialogue and not make war,” he said.

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The Church in the U.S.

September 6, 2013

Bishop urges U.S. to help Egyptians end violence, build democracy

WASHINGTON (CNS) — The United States should work with the international community to help Egyptians end violence, restore the rule of law and build an inclusive democracy in their country, said the chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace.

In a recent letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, Bishop Richard E. Pates of Des Moines, Iowa, urged a path of dialogue and reconciliation that promotes peace, human rights and religious freedom in Egypt.

“Amidst the tragedy of violence and bloodshed in Egypt, our conference has a special concern for the Christian community,” Bishop Pates wrote.

“Extremists have scapegoated Christians, blaming them for the current state of affairs, and viciously attacked Christian churches, institutions and communities, destroying property and terrorizing people. The destruction of Christian churches and the targeting of Christians are unacceptable.”

Bishop Pates said U.S. bishops join Pope Francis in praying for “all the victims and their families, the injured and all those who are suffering.” He echoed the words of Coptic Catholic

Patriarch Ibrahim Isaac Sedrak who commended the Muslims in Egypt who stood with Christians and defended their churches and institutions. Bishop Pates also expressed concern for Egypt’s poor and refugees, who are particularly vulnerable in a time of upheaval.

“We urge the United States to preserve, and even increase, humanitarian and economic assistance,” Bishop Pates wrote.

“Poor and vulnerable Egyptians should not pay the price of the political turmoil and violence gripping their nation.”

In a recent memo to all U.S. bishops, Bishop Pates and Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson, Ariz., chairman of the board of directors of CRS, pointed out that CRS is working in Egypt to help those most affected by the violence and unrest.

CRS is helping rehabilitate Church schools that have been burned and looted. The agency’s ongoing work includes educating refugee children; aiding young women vulnerable to sex trafficking; helping people find work during the recent years of turmoil and economic uncertainty; and fostering dialogue and acceptance among religions.

In 2012, CRS began a program with the Coptic Catholic Church bringing together thousands of Christians and Muslims.

Army chaplain Father Christopher Butera administers ashes to soldiers training in the field on Ash Wednesday earlier this year. Father Butera, who was deployed to Afghanistan in mid-August, is a priest of the Diocese of Allentown, Pa. (CNS photo/courtesy of Father Butera)

Priest chaplain nurtures soldiers’ faith in Afghanistan deployment

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (CNS) — After more than a year of preparation, Father Christopher Butera has made his way to Afghanistan, serving as chaplain to an Army unit helping train Afghan soldiers as the U.S. presence in the mountainous country winds down.

A priest of the Diocese of Allentown, Father Butera began his deployment in mid-August. It is his first assignment to Afghanistan.

“As an Army chaplain, my core mission is three-fold: nurture the living, care for the wounded and honor the dead,” said Father Butera, son of Kathleen (Lynch) and retired Lt. Col. Ralph Butera of Pottsville, Pa. Ordained in 2007, Father Butera is in the Army Chaplain Corps, holding the rank of captain and senior priest for the U.S. Army Garrison Grafenwoehr, headquartered in what is known as Rose Barracks in Vilseck, Germany.

He has been on active duty for three years since leaving his diocesan assignment at St. Thomas More Parish in Allentown. He also served at the Army’s Aviation Center of Excellence at Fort Rucker, Ala., where he was the warrant officer career college chaplain and senior priest.

It took Father Butera 14 months to prepare for duty in Afghanistan.

“Our overall strategic mission is to advise and assist the Afghanistan military in assuming the regular and day-to-day military operations,” Father Butera said.

“Although we are transitioning in this way, the region is becoming slightly more dangerous as attacks on U.S. forces have

spiked,” he said. “Within this mission, my mission as a chaplain never changes but adapts to the operation, terrain and logistics of the situation we are involved in. So I basically always provide religious support and advise the commander.

“As a squadron chaplain — my squadron call sign is ‘Holy Smoke’ — I belong to the personal staff of the squadron commander. This means that I have direct access to the squadron commander and that no officer exercises authority over me except for the squadron commander himself, and I have free access to the entire squadron without hindrance,” he explained.

In his role, Father Butera also is key resource for the Army personnel with whom he works, serving as an expert on religion, morality, ethics and religion-related issues.

“This is very important in our current operations and has been for the past decade as our operations in the Middle East involve interaction, cooperation with our allies and understanding our enemies, who both are very much religious, primarily Islamic,” Father Butera said.

“A chaplain in the Army also has absolute confidentiality, which for all intents and purposes is equivalent to the Sacramental Seal of Confession.”

His work has earned him the Meritorious Service Medal.

Because of his position, Father Butera is not allowed under the Geneva Conventions to carry a weapon. Instead, he is assigned an assistant whose primary job is to protect and guard him.

“As we will be travelling a lot in Afghanistan, this will be a very important part of his job, espe-

cially since Christian chaplains in Afghanistan have monetary prizes on our heads from our enemies,” Father Butera said.

As a unit chaplain, Father Butera responds to all emergencies or critical incidents to provide care for the soldiers and their families and to the unit as a whole as needed. He must be available around the clock seven days a week, answering calls for official or private needs.

As the senior Catholic priest for the garrison, Father Butera responsibilities are like those of a parish priest: administering the Sacraments, leading prayer and Bible study, celebrating Mass and conducting retreats.

“With all the different aspects of being a chaplain in the U.S. military, from providing religious support to being a staff officer, I always remind myself why I am a priest who serves in the military, and that is simply to try to bridge that gap between man and God where one’s mortality and thus one’s judgment before God is an aspect of daily life,” he said.

“I want to be able to provide the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist and Confession, to those who literally put their lives on the line to protect our freedoms, it’s the least I can do.

“It is a great privilege to serve those who serve our country.

Prayers for me and my soldiers are most welcome, as God’s grace provides all the success not only with what I do, but with my soldiers as well.”

Father Butera remains a member of the clergy of Diocese of Allentown, however, while on active duty he also falls under the auspices of the Archdiocese for the Military Services.

The Church in the U.S. Crowds in D.C. urged to continue work of Martin Luther King Jr.

September 6, 2013

Washington D.C., (CNA/ EWTN News) — Thousands of people gathered in downtown Washington, D.C., on August 28 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s now-famous “I Have a Dream Speech.”

King’s words remain with us today, said U.S. President Barack Obama, because they “belong to the ages, possessing a power and prophecy unmatched in our time.”

The hours-long event, entitled “Let Freedom Ring,” celebrated half a century since the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which took place on Aug. 28, 1963. The march was a pivotal point in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement and was the backdrop for King’s speech.

“America changed for you and for me,” because of that march, Obama said, pointing to sweeping changes in the treatment of minorities in the United States over the past five decades.

He highlighted the work of both famous civil rights leaders and “those ordinary people whose names never appeared in the history books” but who responded to segregation and discrimination with peaceful action.

“In the face of hatred, they prayed for their tormentors. In the face of violence, they stood up and sat in with the moral force of nonviolence,” the president said.

“Willingly, they went to jail to protest unjust laws, their cells swelling with the sound of freedom songs. A lifetime of indignities had taught them that no man can take away the dignity and grace that God grants us.”

Obama warned, however, that “we would dishonor those heroes as well to suggest that the work of this nation is somehow complete.” He pointed to the economic difficulties that have plagued many Americans in recent years, along with other indications of social injustice,

Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl, center, joins religious leaders during an interfaith service marking the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington at Shiloh Baptist Church in the nation’s capital. (CNS photo/Matthew Barrick)

U.S. government condemns killings

by Nigerian extremist group

Washington D.C. (CNA/ EWTN News) — A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department said the United States “strongly condemns” recent killings in Nigeria and a recent attack on a mosque reportedly perpetrated by Boko Haram-affiliated extremists.

“We extend our deepest sympathies to the families of those killed and concern for those wounded. The United States stands with the people of Nigeria to reject the indiscriminate attacks on worshippers of all faiths,” the spokesperson said.

The U.S. also condemned the extrajudicial executions of suspected Boko Haram members.

For the past decade, the militant Islamist group Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is sinful,” has sought to impose Shariah law throughout Nigeria.

Suspected Boko Haram militants killed 44 people in a grisly attack on a northeast Nigerian village last week, adding to the conflict in the region.

“They set houses ablaze, shot people and even slit some people’s throats,” an emergency worker told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The attack came in the village of Dumba in the northeastern state of Borno before sunrise on August 20. The attackers may have slit their victims’ throats because gunfire would attract the attention of security forces, the Associated Press reports.

The attackers also reportedly gouged out the eyes of some survivors.

Several religious liberty groups have called on the U.S. government to officially recognize Boko Haram as a terrorist organization for its ongoing violent attacks against Christians.

Official designation of Boko Haram as a foreign terrorist group would allow the U.S. government to freeze or seize its bank accounts, to deport its members and associates, and to sanction the group’s funders.

More than 2,000 deaths have been attributed to the group since 2009.

including higher unemployment levels within minority communities, inequality and lack of social mobility for lower classes, poorly performing schools, insufficient health care and violence.

The “good news,” he said, is that “just as was true in 1963, we now have a choice.”

As a nation, “we are not trapped by the mistakes of history,” but can bring about the type of transformative change in the name of justice that “does not come from Washington but to Washington.”

This change, the president said, “has always been built on our willingness, we, the people, to take on the mantle of citizenship.”

Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington also spoke to commemorate the anniversary of the Civil Rights march, addressing participants at an interfaith prayer gathering.

In addition, the cardinal penned an article in Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, recognizing the historic anniversary and calling upon the faithful to honor the legacy of civil rights leaders “by continuing their work.”

He noted that Archbishop Patrick O’Boyle, previous archbishop of Washington, had offered the invocation at the March on Washington in 1963, and led Catholics from across the diocese in the march.

Cardinal Wuerl highlighted several ar-

5

eas in which Catholics today can continue the “legacy reflective of the commitment of King.”

Within the Church, he said that he has “witnessed King’s vision of Americans praying and marching together for justice.”

“Each year at the march, rallies and Masses for life, hundreds of thousands of people from across the country gather to pray and then march together in defense of the dignity of human life in all its stages,” he explained.

The effort to realize justice in the United States “also takes the form of providing educational opportunities for all children, but particularly for those who would otherwise be consigned to schools too often designated as ‘failing,’” the cardinal said.

Additionally, the drive to spread the Gospel “is why Catholic Charities programs and Catholic hospitals continue to bring Christ’s love and hope to those who need it regardless of race, religion, gender, nationality or sexual orientation,” he said, adding that this also explains “why we must continue to stand for the dignity of human life, for religious freedom and for justice for immigrants.”

People of faith “can never be relegated to just an hour inside church on Sunday,” Cardinal Wuerl stressed, urging Catholics “to ‘go out’ and bring Christ’s love and hope to our communities and our world.”

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September 6, 2013

Anchor Editorial

The day of prayer and fasting for Syria

As you can read below in Pope Francis’ Angelus message from this past Sunday, tomorrow we are being called upon to pray and fast for the intention of peace in Syria.

The pope shared with the crowd in St. Peter’s Square and with all the world his horror at what is going on in that ancient country and called upon the various sides in the conflict to put down their arms and called upon the international community to lend humanitarian assistance to Syrians, at home and in exile.

At this moment the United States government is debating whether or not to take military action in Syria (and debating what type of military action should be taken, if that course is chosen). As you can read on page three, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is urging our government to labor strenuously to find a peaceful end to this conflict.

Many people have spoken about what must be done to “preserve American credibility,” while saying that we have “done little” up until now because being killed with guns or knives does not rise to the need for an intervention, while being killed with chemical weapons does. People have bandied about the question of why the United States has not intervened in other conflicts around the world (especially in Sub-Saharan Africa [with the exception of Somalia in the early 1990s, which ended in disaster for Americans and even more so for Somalis]), where thousands are also dying.

Pope Francis repeated in his Angelus message something which we have sung repeatedly — “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.” He called upon individual Catholics, other Christians, believers in other faiths and non-believers to all realize that peace needs to come from individuals working to build a “culture of encounter and a culture of dialogue,” thus replacing the “culture of confrontation and of conflict” that we currently have.

Pope Francis is a man of prayer and one wonders what type of warnings he is receiving in his prayer. Pope Emeritus Benedict’s secretary recently had to deny that the Holy Father resigned due to a special mystical experience. The secretary said that the resignation came after prayer, but not after some explicit message from God. In other words, Pope Benedict had to step out into the unknown in faith and trust what he had experienced in prayer.

Pope Francis would not need to have a special mystical experience, telling him explicitly about possible futures (e.g., a retaliatory attack by Iran on Israel, Syrian retaliation on Turkey, etc.), for him to have concluded in prayer that working for peace

(without turning to missile attacks) is what we really need to do.

This past Tuesday at daily Mass, Pope Francis said, “Jesus doesn’t need an army to cast out the demons, He has no need of pride, no need of force, of arrogance. ‘What is there about His word?’ [asked the onlookers]. ‘For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.’ This is a humble word, meek, with so much love; it is a word that accompanies us in the moments of the cross. Let us ask the Lord to give us today the grace of His Light, and to teach us to distinguish when the light is from Him, and when it is an artificial light, made by the enemy to deceive us.”

The enemy has certainly been having a delightful time for himself in Syria over these last few years of violence, after having his “appetizer” of the decades of oppression that he had in that country. However, as Pope Francis warned, Satan has a way of tricking us with his “artificial light.”

“It’s true that many times the devil comes dressed as an angel of light: he likes to imitate Jesus and do good, he speaks to us quietly, as he spoke to Jesus after the fast in the desert,” the Holy Father preached. He said that we need to ask God for “the wisdom of discernment to understand when it is Jesus Who gives us the light, and when it is the devil, disguised as an angel of light.”

Let us pray and fast tomorrow (and many other days) for discernment and wisdom for our leaders in this country as they decide what to do about the Syrian crisis and let us pray for all the people in Syria, from whatever side, that they might be open to the light and love that Jesus offers them (even if they don’t believe Him to be God).

May we also work to convert our own relationships, from ones of confrontation and conflict to ones of encounter and dialogue. As Msgr. Oliveira wrote on page nine, even in dialogue sometimes people will not be happy with what we are saying.

We need the loving prudence which Father Landry described in the column to the right of this editorial, beginning our relationships not with the points of disagreement, but with the love of Jesus, the true point of encounter for any loving relationship in this world.

This personal conversion of attitude will also call upon us to act in the public square.

Msgr. Hoye told us on page eight, “Our charity cannot be confined to personal acts of mercy but must encompass social justice issues as well, issues involving systems and governments.” May our prayer guide us in knowing how we should influence our leaders in this critical situation.

Pope Francis’ weekly Angelus address and prayer lo!

Dear brothers and sisters, hel-

Today, dear brothers and sisters, I wish to add my voice to the cry which rises up with increasing anguish from every part of the world, from every people, from the heart of each person, from the one great family which is humanity: it is the cry for peace! It is a cry which declares with force: we want a peaceful world, we want to be men and women of peace, and we want in our society, torn apart by divisions and conflict, that peace break out! War never again! Never again war! Peace is a precious gift, which must be promoted and protected.

There are so many conflicts in this world which cause me great suffering and worry, but in these days my heart is deeply wounded

in particular by what is happening in Syria and anguished by the dramatic developments which are looming.

I appeal strongly for peace, an appeal which arises from deep within me. How much suffering, how much devastation, how much pain has the use of arms carried in its wake in that martyred country, especially among civilians and the unarmed! I think of many children who will not see the light of the future! With utmost firmness I condemn the use of chemical weapons: I tell you that those terrible images from recent days are burned into my mind and heart.

There is a judgment of God and of history upon our actions which are inescapable! Never has the use of violence brought peace in its wake.

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War begets war, violence begets violence.

With all my strength, I ask each party in this conflict to listen to the voice of their own conscience, not to close themselves in solely on their own interests, but rather to look at each other as brothers and decisively and courageously to follow the path of encounter and negotiation, and so overcome blind conflict. With similar vigor I exhort the international community to make every effort to promote clear proposals for peace in that country without further delay, a peace based on dialogue and negotiation, for the good of the entire Syrian people.

May no effort be spared in guaranteeing humanitarian assistance to those wounded by this terrible conflict, in particular those forced to flee and the many refugees in nearby countries. May humanitarian workers, charged with the task of alleviating the sufferings of these people, be granted access so as to provide the necessary aid.

What can we do to make peace in the world? As Pope John said, it pertains to each individual to establish new relationships in human society under the mastery and guidance of justice and love (cf. John XXIII, Pacem in Terris, [11 April 1963]: AAS 55, [1963], 301-302).

All men and women of good will are bound by the task of pursuing peace. I make a forceful and urgent call to the entire Catholic Church, and also to every Chris-

tian of other confessions, as well as to followers of every religion and to those brothers and sisters who do not believe: peace is a good which overcomes every barrier, because it belongs all of humanity!

I repeat forcefully: it is neither a culture of confrontation nor a culture of conflict which builds harmony within and between peoples, but rather a culture of encounter and a culture of dialogue; this is the only way to peace.

May the plea for peace rise up and touch the heart of everyone so that they may lay down their weapons and let themselves be led by the desire for peace.

To this end, brothers and sisters, I have decided to proclaim for the whole Church on 7 September next, the vigil of the birth of Mary, Queen of Peace, a day of fasting and prayer for peace in Syria, the Middle East, and throughout the world, and I also invite each person, including our fellow Christians, followers of other religions and all men of good will, to participate, in whatever way they can, in this initiative.

On 7 September, in St. Peter’s Square, here, from 19:00 until 24:00, we will gather in prayer and in a spirit of penance, invoking God’s great gift of peace upon the beloved nation of Syria and upon each situation of conflict and violence around the world. Humanity needs to see these gestures of peace and to hear words of hope and peace! I ask all the local churches,

in addition to fasting, that they gather to pray for this intention.

Let us ask Mary to help us to respond to violence, to conflict and to war, with the power of dialogue, reconciliation and love. She is our mother: may she help us to find peace; all of us are her children!

Help us, Mary, to overcome this most difficult moment and to dedicate ourselves each day to building in every situation an authentic culture of encounter and peace. Mary, Queen of Peace, pray for us!

The Angel of the Lord declared to Mary: And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Behold the handmaid of the Lord: Be it done unto me according to Thy Word.

Hail Mary . . .

And the Word was made Flesh: And dwelt among us.

Hail Mary . . .

Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray: Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts; that we, to whom the Incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection, through the same Christ Our Lord. Amen.

September 6, 2013

L

ast week, we pondered Pope Francis’ method in the New Evangelization.

The Church, he believes, needs to exercise a genuine maternal, loving warmth and closeness to people, going out to meet them just as Christ met the disciples on the road to Emmaus, entering into their journey and discussions, shining the light of faith on their deepest questions and troubles, and seeking to make their hearts burn anew for God. Once they get this holy heartburn, they can begin to recognize Christ and see how He alone can satisfy what they yearn for most.

This modern road to Emmaus, however, isn’t an easy, swift and smooth road. It requires patience, prudence and perseverance, because most conversions take time.

One area where this comes up regularly is how we approach those we know who are living in a way conspicuously incompatible with the Gospel.

Parents, for example, whose children have stopped coming to Mass, or have adopted a gay lifestyle, or are cohabitating or planning to get married outside of the Church often find themselves in a painful quandary. As much as they try to bring their children to

Anchor Columnists Pope Francis and pastoral prudence

conversion, their efforts seem has already spoken clearly only to drive their children about these topics, just as it further away from Christ, His has about cheating and lying, Church and even the family. which he likewise didn’t adLikewise, many apostolidress in Rio. cally zealous Catholics, who When the reporter pressed sacrifice themselves heroically that the young want to know to try to bring fallen away where he stands, he said that Catholics back to Church, his position is clearly that of or who try to advance God’s teachings on the dignity of every human Putting Into life and importance of the Deep the family, often discouragingly find their

By Father efforts bear little fruit.

Roger J. Landry The reason this happens is often because many begin their apostolic efforts at “omega” rather the Church. He added, howthan “alpha,” at the end of the ever, that rather than speaking alphabet rather than at the about those issues in Rio, he beginning. They concentrate thought it was more imporon the particular areas most tant to speak of the “positive obviously in need of converthings that open up the path sion rather than on the much to young people.” deeper issue of the conversion That’s been his strategy of one’s entire life. not just with the young, but Pope Francis is trying to with the entire Church and teach the Church to begin at modern world. Pope Francis “alpha.” wants to draw people to the This was made very clear in “path” of truly following Jesus the lengthy press conference Christ. He wants to show with journalists returning them the “positive things” of aboard Shepherd One from a life of faith, conscious that Rio. The pope was asked why it’s only when they’re on that he hadn’t spoken specifically path that they’ll be able to to the young people about understand how the teachabortion and same-sex marings the world often finds riage. “negative” are truly part of the He replied that the Church Good News.

In a 2010 book length interview with Sergio Rubin, the future pope stressed that conversion has to begin with making Jesus come alive in expo exhibition center. Archbishop Robu told Catholic News Service August 28 that Msgr. Ghika would represent many other “unknown and unrecognized Christian martyrs” who died in Romania during four decades of communist rule, which ended in December 1989.

“This latest beatification proves the Church doesn’t forget those who generously gave their lives in this way, whose testimonies can still be understood and valued by contemporary society,” the archbishop said.

Romanian priest who died in communist prison to be beatified

WARSAW, Poland (CNS) — A priest who died of cold and hunger in a communist prison will be beatified as a martyr in Romania. The sanctity of Msgr. Vladimir Ghika has “given us an important new example of a life lived for Church and faith,” said Archbishop Ioan Robu of Bucharest, president of the Romanian bishops’ conference.

Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Saints’ Causes, was scheduled to celebrate the August 31 beatification Mass in Bucharest’s Rom-

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people’s lives, rather than with particular moral issues.

“The most important thing in preaching,” he emphasized, “is to proclaim Jesus Christ, what in theology is called the kerygma, that Jesus Christ is God, became man to save us, lived in the world like any one of us, suffered, died, was buried and rose.

[This] provokes astonishment, and brings one to contemplation and to faith. After the encounter with Jesus comes reflection, where one can deduce the principles of religious and moral behavior.”

He expressed his concern that sometimes there can be a “degrading reductionism” in the preaching of the Church, focusing above all on sexual morality and what’s licit and illicit.

“When this happens,” he stated, “we bury the treasure of the Living Jesus, the treasure of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, the treasure of the project of Christian life that has many other aspects beyond sexual questions. We push to the side a rich catechesis, with the mysteries of faith and the Creed, and we center ourselves on whether we should organize a rally against a political proposal to legalize condoms.”

The essential principle he was describing is that the Church’s priority must be to help people to come to

7 encounter Jesus and begin, through prayer, the Word of God, the Sacraments, and a Christian community, to align their thoughts, hearts, will and action to Jesus’.

That’s the essence of conversion.

Once the individual begins to live more by faith, to make God his priority and Supreme love, then that person can begin to get the strength of the Gospel to make big changes in the parts of his life not aligned with Jesus.

If a person, however, hasn’t experienced this deeper conversion, then asking him or her to make a radical change of his love life, for example, not only makes the mistake of focusing on a symptom instead of its cause, but plays into the false frame that the Church is obsessed with sexual morality rather that helping people to experience true happiness and the love that comes from God. Francis went to Rio to proclaim the path of Christ with enthusiasm, warmth, and patience in order to help not just young people but all of us adopt Christ’s way as our own. That is the path of genuine conversion, which is the first step of the New Evangelization.

Anchor columnist Father Landry is pastor of St. Bernadette Parish in Fall River. His email address is fatherlandry@ catholicpreaching.com.

8

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ave you ever noticed the ads for leasing a car? Only $275 a month the ad might say.

But at the end, there is some fine print that flashes on the screen for a brief moment. What does it say?

It’s telling you how much the lease really costs. It mentions how much of a down-payment is necessary and how much the lease will cost over a set period.

One of the points in this week’s Gospel has to do with what something costs.

It’s not a car but rather the cost of discipleship, the cost we should be ready to pay for following Christ.

We are talking not about cost in terms of monetary value but rather in terms of what we must do or not do because of our commitment to the Lord.

Let’s look first at the Gospel of Luke and try to appreciate what it was that

September 6, 2013

The cost of discipleship Jesus was telling His disciis trying to get the people ples and then ask what the to appreciate the implicacost of discipleship might tions of their decision to entail in our lives today. follow Him. They must Since June we have been see what the cost might be reading from the section of Luke’s Gospel which has Homily of the Week Christ journeyTwenty-third Sunday ing to Jerusalem. in Ordinary Time Each week we have a different short

By Msgr. story taken from Daniel F. Hoye the teachings and sayings of Jesus. In this week’s passage, Jesus is attempting to get and be willing to pay that His followers to see that a price. He uses the parable commitment to follow Him of the person who built a meant that the Lord had tower but can’t finish it to to come first and everyillustrate the situation of a thing else second, even person who starts to follow mother and father, spouse Christ but can’t seem to and children, even self. As follow through with his or someone once said, if we her commitment. Christ follow Christ we must alwas trying to teach the ways be third: God is first, people on His journey to the other is second and I Jerusalem that substantial am third. demands would be made In Luke’s Gospel, Christ on them if they followed

Christ and that they should be prepared to pay the price if they chose to follow Him. What might this mean to you and me as we hear Luke’s Gospel proclaimed?

Are we ready to pay the price? Are we, for example, ready to stand for our Christian principles even when it means being seen as “odd” or “out of it”? Sometimes the cost of our discipleship might be the loss of so-called friends who are not comfortable with one living out his or her Christianity.

Students who are returning to school will have many opportunities to see if they are willing to pay the price. College students living away from home will be challenged to see what cost they are willing to ab-

sorb for following Christ.

It may mean that your parish needs to become even more sensitive to the demands others can make on us simply because we are followers of Christ.

Our charity cannot be limited to our fellow Catholics but must reach beyond our parochial borders. Moreover, our charity cannot be confined to personal acts of mercy but must encompass social justice issues as well, issues involving systems and governments. We don’t have a real choice in this matter — it’s the cost of discipleship.

The cost of discipleship is not a yard sale. We can’t bargain with the Lord to see if He will reduce the cost.

It requires our very lives, one day at a time.

Msgr. Hoye is pastor of Christ the King Parish in Mashpee.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. Sept. 7, Col 1:21-23; Ps 54:3-4,6-8; Lk 6:1-5. Sun. Sept. 8, Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Wis 9:13-18b; Ps 90:36,12-17; Phlm 9-10,12-17; Lk 14:25-33. Mon. Sept. 9, Col 1:24—2:3; Ps 62:6-7,9; Lk 6:6-11. Tues. Sept. 10, Col 2:6-15; Ps 145:1-2,8-11; Lk 6:12-19. Wed. Sept. 11, Col 3:1-11; Ps 145:2-3,10-13; Lk 6:20-26. Thurs. Sept. 12, Col 3:12-17; Ps 150:1-6; Lk 6:27-38. Fri. Sept. 13, 1 Tm 1:1-2,12-14; Ps 16:1-2,5,7-8,11; Lk 6:39-42.

T

he chapel in the archbishop’s residence in Krakow — which everyone calls by its street name, “Franciszkanska 3” — has witnessed a lot of modern Church history. Here, clandestine seminarians watched the city’s heroic archbishop, Adam Stefan Sapieha, put the terrible problems of the long, dark night of occupation before the Lord, every night during World War II. Here, the worker-studentpoet-playwright who would become pope, Karol Wojtyla, was ordained by Cardinal Sapieha on Nov. 1, 1946, beginning a priestly ministry that would bend history in a more humane direction by transforming consciences.

Here, in his own years as archbishop of Krakow, Wojtyla began his days with prayer and Mass. And here he returned after breakfast for two hours of intellectual work — preparing sermons, articles, books — at a desk set up so that he could think and write before the Blessed Sacrament. Here, Wojtyla celebrated the Baptisms of

A chapel of consequence his friends’ children. Here, he together, an hour in which my faculty colleagues and I prayed with his collaborators in running one of the world’s can sense serious vocational wrestling and discernment most impressive diocesan happening within our stuimplementations of Vatican dents.

II. Here, he thought out new It’s a place where sancpastoral initiatives for a society stifled by totalitarianism. Here, the man who would shortly be elected John Paul II came, immediately after receiving the shocking telephone

By George Weigel call announcing the death of John Paul I — and here he prayed, tity seems, not something we might imagine, that he ephemeral, but a quality of would come home from the real people, living lives not impending conclave. unlike our own in their chalThanks to the courtesy lenges, and meeting those of Cardinal Stanislaw Dzichallenges through the grace wisz, John Paul II’s longtime that makes heroic virtue possecretary and the current sible. metropolitan of Krakow, Cardinal Dziwisz has my students and colleagues enhanced this historic chain the annual “Tertio Milpel with a new silver reredos lennio Seminar on the Free that imaginatively displays Society” celebrate one of our eight churches that played daily Masses in the chapel of key roles in the itinerary of Franciszkanska 3, which now sanctity that Karol Wojtyla, includes a beautifully disPope John Paul II, followed played relic of Blessed John Paul II. It’s an emotional mo- on his earthly pilgrimage: the church of his Baptism in ment during our three weeks

The Catholic Difference

Wadowice, now the basilica of Our Lady of the Presentation; Wawel Cathedral, where he said his first Masses on Nov. 2, 1946, and from which he exercised his ministry as archbishop of Krakow; the Jasna Gora monastery church in Czestochowa, home of the Black Madonna and Poland’s greatest pilgrimage destination; the patriarchal Vatican basilica in Rome, St. Peter’s, from whose front porch the Polish pope challenged the world to live beyond its fears by opening its door to Christ; the Mariacki basilica in Krakow’s central market square, where hundreds of thousands, dressed in white, gathered to pray for John Paul’s life after the assassination attempt of May 13, 1981; the basilica at the Portuguese Marian shrine of Fatima, where John Paul went on May 13, 1982, to give thanks for his life having been spared a year before; the basilica of Divine Mercy in the Krakow suburb of Lagiewniki, near the convent

of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska, apostle of the devotion John Paul thought especially apt for the post-modern world; and the basilica of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, to which, in a symbolic way, John Paul carried the entire Church during his epic Holy Land pilgrimage of 2000, so that the Church might experience again the Risen Lord’s call to the Great Commission.

The tabernacle, an integral part of the reredos, displays the triumphant Lamb of the Book of Revelation (flanked by the Alpha and Omega). And from the tabernacle “grows” a medievalstyle polychromed crucifix, a reminder of the sacrificial dimension of the Eucharist — and of the truth that all history is, finally, cruciform.

A chapel of consequence: in it, a spirit of consequence was formed by being conformed to the liberating power of the cross.

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

September 6, 2013

A

s much as I hate to admit it, summer is over.

While perhaps “officially” it is still summer, with the passing of Labor Day and the commencement of school, summer has ended realistically. In parishes, the pastoral year has begun.

While I say the pastoral year has begun, it has never ended.

The work of the Church continues throughout the year. There is no summer vacation from God, nor do weddings, Baptisms, funerals, etc. cease during the summer months. In fact, for the Cape and Island parishes, pastoral work increases during the summer months. But so do the collections, unlike the city parishes.

By saying the pastoral year has begun, I really mean that the Religious Education program has been scheduled.

Registration is usually held in September. Teachers have been recruited where necessary and retreat and sacramental dates have been scheduled. The pastoral calendar year is ready.

Yet, as I say this, it is sad that we connect the pastoral year with the months when Religious Education is taught. This part of parochial life only exists for about 24 hours a year in

P

ope Francis never ceases to amaze me and every day we hear of something else he has done or said. Recently there has been news of him placing personal phone calls to those who have reached out to him.

He could have very easily written a response, or let someone else handle the correspondence or phone calls that more than likely flood the Vatican on a daily basis.

But yet this shepherd feels the need to personally tend to his sheep. His actions remind me of a quote I cherish by Maya Angelou, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Here is a man who has chosen to be Christ to those in his care and to leave them with a feeling of being someone who deserves to be loved and is loved.

Too often we find ourselves falling back on old rules and ways of life, hoping that this will restore what was good; whether in our personal lives, work environments or even in our spiritual and social lives. We forget to live in the present, forget to cherish what is right in front of us, choosing rather to fill in any

Anchor Columnists The pastoral year is lived every day

is an element of truth as we see most parishes. Perhaps it is the lack of church attendance, when attendance at church decline each year. there is no Religious EducaThe work of evangelization is tion that helps us frame a time to make Christ known. Perhaps in which most of our “pastoral” we are too conscious of protectwork can be done.

No program has been proven ing what we have, “maintenance,” rather than seeking out effective, to my knowledge, others, “mission.” whereby most parishioners In a sense, there should be come to church every weekend.

Not that weekend attendance is the goal of Living evangelization, but it is manifestation of belief. the I am glad to see a Faith “D-to-D” approach to evangelization

By Msgr. has been tried in our John J. Oliveira diocese. The door-todoor campaign at St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Attleboro is worth watching. no pastoral year. Each of us is called unceasingly to make I hope more information on it the Lord known. This is done will be shared in The Anchor. It by our words and actions, and is reminiscent of the “We Care We Share” program of years ago. perhaps by our lack of words Parishioners went door-to-door and actions.

None of us likes a fight or to make Christ known.

In fact, it has been suggested a confrontation. Therefore, we ignore, pretend not to care, or that we need a more modern perhaps even change our values interpretation of the Scripture when confronted. It is so much passage that tells us the 99 easier to let it be. sheep were left behind to seek Someone recently said that the one lost sheep. It suggests he saw a tombstone that read; we leave the one sheep behind “He offended no one.” When and seek the 99 lost. This is an exaggeration of course, but there you think of it, it is rather sad

that this person had no fundamental beliefs that he would stand up for lest he offend someone. It happens frequently that we do not offend and keep the peace at any price.

We can think of the priest who does not challenge a person when they ask for a godparent’s certificate, but do not come to Mass or belong to the parish. Or, in a wedding interview, the priest might slide over the fact the engaged couple is living together before Marriage.

After all, “Everyone is doing it and I don’t want to offend them,” may be reasoned.

This happens every day in our society when Catholic Christians do not challenge others, even those in their own families regarding their behavior. Why aren’t you going with us to church today? Why are you living together before you are Married in the Church?

Perhaps even hesitating to honestly ask why there is so much use of alcohol or abuse of drugs.

Why confront anyone? Let it be, peace at any cost.

Jesus promised to give us peace. His peace is truth. There

is an old Turkish proverb that states: “Whoever says the truth will be chased out of nine villages.” None of us like to be told the truth. Imagine what you would think if someone criticized your golf swing and stance.

To live a pastoral year is to seek justice over complacency, zeal over indifference, and unwelcome prophetic speech over the “status quo.”

Another proverb says: “The candle says to the darkness, I beg to differ.” Jesus tells us we are the light of the world and our light should shine before men. As the children’s song states: “This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine.”

We are called to live a pastoral year every day of our lives. We do it by the example of our life, our words, and our challenging of others in a gentle, kindly manner that the Light of Christ within us might shine in the darkness.

Let this be our challenge as the summer season ends and life continues.

Anchor columnist Msgr.

Oliveira is pastor of St. Mary’s Parish in New Bedford and director of the diocesan Propagation of the Faith Office.

our family dynamics. How did my parents approach God and prayer, what values and beliefs did they hold dear? Was it my grandparent’s influence that brought me this far? Or if there was no faith life present at home, what led me to seek out that something more in my life? There are so many variables that add up to who we have become, who we continue to become. The key is to reach out beyond ourselves and allow the growth.

As a teen-ager I was blessed to have a priest in my life who gave me the tools needed to continue to grow in my faith life. I grew up in an era when you didn’t question anything — doctors were always right, priests were the authority, teachers had all the answers, you get my drift. So here I was with a mind full of questions, especially when it came to my faith, and who to ask. Finally I mustered the courage to ask my questions, and to my surprise, I was not chastised, but rather encouraged to continue. Father’s words to me then still echo true today, he looked at me and said,

“When you doubt you question, when you question you ask, when you ask you learn and when you learn you deepen your faith and gain a clearer understanding.”

When others around me see defiance and disregard for what is sacred, I see challenge and opportunity; an opportunity to teach, encourage and hopefully enlighten. The beauty is that there is always the added benefit of learning something new, bringing me into a closer relationship with Christ and all He desires for me, for us. Nothing says it better than the words of Matthew and Luke’s Gospels, “Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened” (Mt 7:7-8; Lk 11:9-10).

Anchor columnist Rose Mary Saraiva lives in Fall River and is a parishioner of St. Michael’s Parish, and she is the Events Coordinator and Bereavement Ministry for the diocesan Office of Faith Formation. She is married with three children and two grandchildren. rmsaraiva@dfrcec.com.

Are you knocking?

voids with noise, with familiar sights and sounds, and even rules and regulations, hoping that everyone else will come along.

When I look at my own life and faith, I can see how I have grown, sometimes forced to stretch in ways that were, and continue to be, uncomfortable and unfamiliar, yet when I have allowed myself to step outside of the box created by ritual and conventionality; I have come to understand a deeper more meaningful existence. This awareness has brought me to the realization that we are definitely not “cookie cutter” Catholics. Yes, we all read the same Scripture, know our responses and prayers, understand the Commandments, do our best to live out the Beatitudes, but each of us has our own personal style.

This personal style is reflected in how we respond to others, to our own lives and whatever comes our way. When I look to Pope Francis, I recognize that confident knowledge that he is doing what God wants, and that he is being allowed to do it his way. The same echoes true for

each and every one of us. We are all being asked to be that person who makes a difference, using whatever means works best for us. Writing and photography are some of my tools, for others it is

In the Palm of His Hands

By Rose Mary Saraiva simply being a helping hand, quietly working in the background getting things done, seemingly unnoticed by others. The very people whose names may be unknown, but yet are not forgotten because they made someone feel cared for and loved. For others it is taking on leadership roles, where their influence can work toward the greater good. The list can go on and on, with each role allowing the individual to make a difference their way.

Yet what is our personal style and how did we develop it? Like anything else in life, it is born out of our experiences. Our faith and prayer life has its roots in

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September 6, 2013

Catholic Memorial Home in Fall River celebrated the feast of the Holy Ghost with a Mass that was celebrated by Father JosÊ Maria Almeida at the home’s chapel. In the photo he holds the crown that is used in the traditional blessing above Madison Arruda, who had the honor of carrying the crown during the processions in and out of the SS. Martha and Mary Chapel at the skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility.

Visit The Anchor online at http://www.anchornews.org

September 6, 2013

A sculpture of Jesus embracing the twin towers of New York’s former World Trade Center is seen outside St. Ephrem Church in the Dyker Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York. The sculpture honors the nine members of the parish who died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This year marks the 12th anniversary of the attacks that claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 people in New York, at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pa. (CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz)

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September 6, 2013

New York City talks to share Catholic perspectives on art, beauty

New York City (CNA) — A series of talks on art and beauty aims to bring a Catholic understanding of the arts into the heart of New York City’s Greenwich Village.

The Catholic Center at New York University is hosting the Saturday lecture series “The Art of the Beautiful” with the aim of exploring the “nature and purpose” of art and beauty and “their place in the social order.”

It aims to reach professional artists in all disciplines, students and patrons of the arts, and all those interested in culture and art, the Catholic Artists’ Society of New York City said on its website.

The series’ sponsors include the Catholic Artists Society and the Washington, D.C.based Thomistic Institute at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception, a Dominican institution.

The lecture series begins September 14 and runs

through February. Lectures begin at 7:30 p.m. A reception and sung compline prayer will follow each event.

The speakers include both academics and artists.

Gregory Wolfe, the editor of Image Journal, will deliver the first September lecture on the topic “Art: For Whose Sake?”

The editor of Magnif icat magazine, Father Peter John Cameron, O.P., will speak on October 12 on “The Responsibility of the Artist.”

David Clayton, an artistin-residence at New Hampshire’s Thomas More College, will speak November 16 on the topic “Forming the Artist, ” and philosophy professor at New York’s St. John’s University — Alice Ramos — will deliver a December 14 lecture on “Beauty and the Real.”

Anthony Esolen, an English professor at Providence College in Rhode Island, will speak January 25 on “Love and Artistic Genesis,” and Fordham University philosophy professor Father Joseph Koterski, S.J., will speak February 15 on “Virtue and the Artistic Imagination.”

All lectures are free and open to the public. The Catholic Center at New York University is located at 238 Thomson Street in New York. Its website is www.catholiccenternyu.org.

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on WLNE Channel 6 Sunday, September 8, 11:00 a.m.

Celebrant is retired Father Thomas C. Lopes, living at the Cardinal Medeiros Residence in Fall River

Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, Harry Styles and Niall Horan star in a scene from the movie “One Direction: This Is Us.” For a brief review of this film, see CNS Movie Capsules below. (CNS photo/ Sony)

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

“Closed Circuit” (Focus) Polished but plodding British thriller in which a hard-driving defense attorney (Eric Bana) and a courtappointed special advocate (Rebecca Hall) investigate the bombing of a crowded London market on behalf of the Turkish immigrant (Denis Moschitto) accused of masterminding the attack.

Assisted by a senior colleague (Ciaran Hinds), the pair uncovers evidence that the case has been rigged by the military intelligence service (represented by Riz Ahmed) in a conspiracy supported at the highest levels of the legal establishment (led by Jim Broadbent). Complicating matters is the duo’s past adulterous relationship, an ethically disqualifying connection they’ve both lied under oath to conceal. Director John Crowley’s semiparanoid film — which portrays UK government spies as routinely resorting to the murder of their fellow citizens — deals with the sinful

bond in the background of its plot ambiguously: Bana’s divorced-dad character bemoans the damage wreaked by his unfaithfulness, yet the prospect of a happy romantic outcome based on it remains. Occasional scenes of violence, mature themes, including adultery and suicide, at least one use of profanity, a handful of rough and crude terms. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

“One Direction: This Is Us” (TriStar) Mostly harmless concert film showcasing the boy band of the title (Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson). Director Morgan Spurlock captures various upbeat stage performances during a world tour, and chronicles the group’s creation by talent judge and pop impresario Simon Cowell. Besides the good-natured horseplay going on backstage, viewers are also shown more serious aspects of the lads’ lives, including their work for charity and strong emotional bonds with their families. However, a touch of salty language makes this unsuitable for the youngest moviegoers, while an inordinate number of shots showing the young stars either shirtless or in their underwear hint that all that screaming from overwrought fans isn’t just about

the music. One use of profanity, brief scatological humor, a half-dozen mildly crass terms. The Catholic News Service classification is A-II — adults and adolescents.

The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG — parental guidance suggested.

“The World’s End” (Focus) While re-creating an unfinished pub crawl they first attempted in their younger years, five middle-aged friends (led by Simon Pegg) reflect on the conformity of adult life, then, out of the blue, find themselves the last hope for humanity when an invading race of robots ushers in a potential apocalypse.

Director Edgar Wright, who co-wrote the screenplay with Pegg, doesn’t have a lot of new ideas to toss out there, and the proceedings are occasionally coarse, though never vulgar. But the film — the completion of a trilogy that began with 2004’s “Shaun of the Dead” and continued with “Hot Fuzz” in 2007 — has intelligent discussions of existential angst, at least when the guys aren’t too busy ripping the heads off robots.

Some physical violence, two scenes of drug use, references to premarital sex, a few uses of profanity, considerable crude and crass language. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III — adults.

The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

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September 6, 2013

Bishops’ immigration outreach based on ‘pastoral’ concern

Washington D.C. (CNA/EWTN News) — Underlying an effort by U.S. bishops to coordinate messages on the need for comprehensive immigration reform is a profound sense of pastoral care, said an official at the bishops’ conference.

“Sometimes (the bishops) are criticized that they’re encouraging lawbreaking, but the fact is, these folks are here, and their families are getting separated, and what the bishops are trying to do is change the law so they can help them,” said Kevin Appleby, director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ migration policy and public affairs office.

“It’s not only a public policy of national interest — for the Church, it’s a pastoral policy as well,” he told CNA recently.

“It’s a way of trying to help ensure that their families are kept together.”

The U.S. Senate has passed a bipartisan-backed bill for comprehensive immigration reform that would provide a 13-year path to citizenship for most of the 11 million undocumented immigrants currently in the country, as well as a new worker visa program and border security enhancements.

The plan of numerous dioceses to coordinate their messages on immigration comes as the Republican-controlled House returns to Washington and will consider the Senate bill, or their own, more piecemeal approaches to immigration reform.

House GOP leaders have indicated they are unlikely to support the Senate’s bill, and may focus on border security measures ahead of the legalization of undocumented migrants.

Appleby said that the bish-

op conference’s suggestion of an early September push — centered on Sunday Masses on September 8 — was for “practical reasons” more than anything else, as Congress will just be returning to Washington and “more attention would be paid to the issue” so that coordinated efforts might then “have the biggest impact.”

In particular, the bishops’ conference is hoping to encourage Catholics, having let their faith inform their decisions, to contact their Congressmen in support of comprehensive immigration reform.

Appleby described a “disconnect between the polling — which has overwhelming support among Catholics for a comprehensive bill with a path to citizenship — and action.”

“We’ve had a hard time transitioning from ‘I support the bishops on this issue,’ to people picking up the phone, sending an email, writing a letter, being active on it. With this push we’re trying to change that a bit, we’ll hopefully get more Catholics to speak up, and say, ‘We want this done.’”

The dioceses of Chicago, Cincinnati, Los Angeles, Brooklyn, San Antonio, St. Louis, and St. Paul and Minneapolis have all agreed to encourage their faithful to speak up about immigration reform in coming weeks. Several more bishops and dioceses are considering how to participate in the push.

“It’s coming in a lot of different forms,” Appleby said, with some dioceses holding Masses or forums, or encouraging pastors to address immigration in their homilies, or passing out bulletin inserts.

He explained that it is important for Catholics to read Church documents, and the

writings and homilies of bishops on the issues. While “we can sit here and have an argument over whether something is a prudential judgment versus a doctrinal issue,” he said, it is important to remember that a bishop’s teaching, even on matters of prudential judgment, “calls for careful consideration by Catholics.”

To disregard — refusing to even consider — the bishops’ position on immigration reform because it is a matter of prudential judgment is a “disconnect,” Appleby explained.

“Even under a prudential judgment analysis, someone is required to at least consider the arguments being put forth by the Church, to take them into consideration, there is a responsibility to at least consider what the Church is saying, and then incorporate it into their position to the degree that they can.”

He added that the tendency of Catholics in America to put their party affiliation, be it Republican or Democrat, ahead of their faith, means that “there’s a lot of education to be done.”

Catholics need to be reminded, he said, that religious or faith interests are not incompatible with political interests.

The bishops’ concern about immigration reform, Appleby said, is part of their duty in caring for the people “who are in their parishes” and social service programs.

Kim Daniels, spokesperson for the U.S. bishops’ conference president, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, echoed that statement.

“We support immigration reform as a response to Pope Francis’ call to resist indiffer-

Many of Egypt’s Christians think U.S. aligned with wrong side

CAIRO (CNS) — Two weeks after the churches he used to pray in were ransacked and burned to the ground in the Egyptian port city of Suez, Istafanos Youssif sat “searching for God” in a Cairo convent. He said he hoped to get over the pain, through “reflection and prayer,” and that he understood who was behind the church burnings.

What he said he could not understand was the U.S. position toward his country, Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood “only has one goal,

either to rule the country, or burn it. We love the American people, but not what (U.S. President Barack) Obama is doing. He is supporting the Brotherhood, the terrorists,” said Youssif, a second-year university student and member of Egypt’s Coptic Catholic community.

Since the military’s overthrow of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in early July, many Christians in Cairo told Catholic News Service the United States is taking the wrong side, with some, like

21-year-old Youssif, even accusing Washington of openly supporting terrorism.

Their concerns echo, almost to the word, Egypt’s military and its new interim government’s claims that Morsi was deposed by popular demand, that now-dismantled proMorsi camps in Cairo were armed, and that the Muslim Brotherhood and other groups with which Morsi was aligned are the ones behind a wave of attacks on state, security and Christian institutions around the country.

ence and to regain a sense of ‘fraternal responsibility’ regarding the suffering of immigrants,” she told CNA recently.

“Many Catholics support immigration reform as a response to the serious humanitarian problems caused by our current broken system.

Our parishes and social service ministries encounter these problems every day, seeing families divided, workers exploited, and migrants dying in the desert.”

The fundamental principles of “solidarity, human dignity, and family unity,” she said, “transcend party politics.”

“At this important moment Catholics can help bridge partisan differences, bringing attention to the human face of immigration reform, and answering our faith’s call to serve those most in need.”

While the bishops’ con-

ference itself does not have a “mandate of teaching,” individual bishops do exercise the teaching authority of the magisterium, and many U.S. bishops have been teaching about the importance of comprehensive immigration reform in this country.

In a July 21 homily, Archbishop José Gomez taught that “God comes to us in the person of the stranger,” that hospitality is a “Sacred duty,” and that immigration is “not only a matter of politics,” but is “a matter of our relationship with God.” Archbishop Gomez has been joined in his support of comprehensive immigration reform by numerous bishops, including Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia, Bishop John Wester of Salt Lake City and Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami.

EldersFirst program adds new member

FALL RIVER — EldersFirst Care Management Program is pleased to announce the addition to the program of Susan Sparks, RN, BSN. Sparks is a graduate of UMass Amherst, majoring in family and community services and Curry College where she received her BSN, and has been employed

Susan Sparks

for seven years at Sturdy Memorial Hospital.

In this new position, she will join Joan Jakuboski, RN, BSN, in the EldersFirst community program that is part of the Diocesan Health Facilities system, in helping seniors maintain their independence while assisting them with the appropriate mix of services to meet their individual needs.

The EldersFirst program currently covers the greater Attleboro, Taunton, Fall River, New Bedford and Fairhaven areas.

EldersFirst is there to help with home health care coordination, medical management, medication management, act as liaison with physicians and family, and provide patient advocacy as needed.

For more information about EldersFirst, call 508-6774367 or go to www.dhfo.org/ eldersfirst.

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September 6, 2013

There’s no ‘I’ in team ... yet

icking up where I left off sity, who had his own off-field in last week’s column, the problems this year, came back first thing I did this morning after a half-game suspension when I awoke, after saying good (why bother?), and pretty much morning to God of course, was rubbed everyone but his classto reach over to my cell phone mates the wrong way with his to check the baseball scores to on-field antics. see how Tampa Bay made out Scores of players strutted on the west coast while I was around the gridiron after maksleeping. ing a catch, tackle, hit or block After getting the good news like they were the only person of a Rays’ loss, I checked the in the world who knows how other sports headlines. One of to perform such a feat. They act them read that Patriots’ coach like they’re God’s gift to sports Bill Belichick would consider when in actuality, they’re misusbringing Tim Tebow back to the Pats.

On my ride in, one radio DJ said, according to “his sources,” Tebow would be back.

I hope so.

By Dave Jolivet When Tebow was cut last week, I was genuinely disappointed ... not surprised though. Sports, ing God’s gift to them. in particular football, needs With the NFL kicking off more people like Tebow in the the 2013 season this week, we limelight. can expect a more exaggerated Every off season for what arrogance from some pro playseems like quite a stretch now, ers for similar feats. the NFL suffers black eye after The touchdown celebrablack eye with players being tions are getting more and accused or convicted of major more nauseating. I guess no one crimes. has heard of, or heeds the old But it’s not just the NFL expression, “Act like you’ve been any longer. I am a huge colthere before.” lege football fan, but the We need more Tim Tebows trickle down effect seems to who act with humility and class. have reached the college level I want to see Tebow make it with players being accused or in the NFL — if not with the convicted maybe not of maPatriots, then with anyone. jor crimes but minor ones or But I think even Tim has infractions of NCAA rules and one problem. He thinks he’s an regulations.

NFL quarterback, but I don’t Just in the first weekend of think so (This is coming from college pigskin action alone, the the same writer who said the arrogance level has seemed to Red Sox would be looking up have hit an all-time high. at the rest of the AL East this Johnny “Football” Manziel year). from Texas A & M UniverTim graciously Tweeted

My View From the Stands

This week in

50 years ago — Bishop James L. Connolly announced that the Society of Jesus — better known as the Jesuit order — would staff the new diocesan high school to be located in Fall River, later to be named after Bishop Connolly himself.

25 years ago — After a lapse of more than a quarter of a century, St. John the Evangelist School in Attleboro restored its kindergarten grade level. Sister Martha Mulligan, RSM, principal, announced that 32 youngsters were enrolled in the new program.

after he was released by the Pats thanking Bob Kraft and Belichick for the opportunity, and that he would relentlessly pursue his long-time dream of becoming an NFL quarterback.

Tim Tebow is an athlete, and a good one. If he can loosen the grip on his quarterback dreams, I truly believe he could be molded into a very good player at another position — given the time and the proper guidance. And he has plenty of time, being just a pup by NFL standards.

Tebow, by my estimation, could learn to play on the other side of the ball on defense. He’s big, strong and quick.

Football experts seem to disagree, but they, like me, have missed the mark on their observations more than once.

But even if Tim refuses to let go of the QB dream, he’s still better than some other NFL quarterbacks, who also shouldn’t be quarterbacks but are on teams that are extremely desperate.

I may be all wet with these observations, except for the one that the NFL needs character players like Tebow. Because unless America’s new past-time receives a transfusion of some good blood, team will indeed be spelled with an “I” in it.

But then again based on the reactions of far too many football fans to the antics and actions of many NFL and college players, football fandom would need a similar transfusion.

Anchor columnist Dave Jolivet can be reached at davejolivet@anchornews.org.

diocesan history

10 years ago — The Diocese of Fall River coordinated a Pilgrimage to Rome and Assisi as part of its centennial celebration. The trip included visits to St. Peter’s Basilica, attendance at a papal audience, and Mass celebrated at the tomb of St. Pius X, founder of the Fall River Diocese.

One year ago — Father Hugo Cardenas, IVE, pastor of St. Kilian’s Parish in New Bedford, left the diocese to become the pastor of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Charity, a small town in Guyana, South America.

Secretary Kerry asks Iran to release American pastor

Washington D.C. (CNA/EWTN News) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has renewed calls for the Iranian government to release American citizen Saeed Abedini, a Christian pastor serving an eight-year sentence on religion-related charges.

“The United States respectfully asks the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to work cooperatively with us in our efforts to help U.S. citizens,” Secretary Kerry asked in an August 29 press release, to “return to their families after lengthy detentions.”

“These men belong at home with those who love them and miss them.”

In his statement, Kerry also asked for the release and location of Amir Hekmati and Robert Levinson, who are detained and missing in the country as well.

Kerry explained that as of September 26, “Mr. Abedini will have spent a year in detention in Iran.

He was sentenced to eight years in prison on charges related to his religious beliefs.”

Born in Iran, Abedini converted to Christianity in 2000 and obtained U.S. citizenship after marrying a U.S. citizen. The pastor lived with his wife and their two children in Idaho. He was arrested in 2012 during a visit to Iran to work with non-religious orphanages in the country.

Until 2009, Abedini worked with house churches in Iran, an action that drew opposition from the government, despite being technically legal. As a result of government objection, he switched his work to the nonreligious orphanages.

Following his arrest, Abedini was charged with posing a threat to national security for his earlier work with the churches. He

is now serving an eight-year sentence in Iran’s Evin Prison, and has reportedly been faced with brutal beatings, attempts to make him renounce his faith, and insufficient medical attention.

On August 26, it was announced that Abedini’s appeal for a reduction in his sentence’s length was denied.

Kerry noted that Hassan Rouhani, the newly-elected Iranian president who took office August 3, “has shared in his speeches and interviews over the past few months his hope and vision to improve the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s relationship with the world.”

Kerry asked that in light of this wish, Rouhani urge the government to release the prisoners “so that they may be reunited with their families as safely and as soon as possible.”

Naghmeh Abedini, Saeed’s wife, said in a statement that she is “very thankful for the statement that Secretary of State John Kerry made to Iran regarding Saeed’s immediate return to our family.”

She added that she hopes “that the State Department is truly willing explore all avenues to secure my husband’s release.”

She mentioned, however that while “I am pleased with this development,” she hopes that President Obama will “speak out on this very critical human rights issue and let the Iranian government and the world know that religious freedom is still a top priority for our government.”

“President Obama must demonstrate that America will not stay silent in the face of religious persecution, nor will it let an American citizen waste away in an Iranian prison simply because he chose to follow Jesus.”

Scot Landry to head Catholic Voices USA continued from page one

lived experience,” he added. “They simply need some media training to be comfortable and effective sharing, explaining and defending the Catholic faith particularly in the media. Training these individuals is the main purpose of Catholic Voices.”

Landry has served with the Archdiocese of Boston since 2006.

He previously served as the archdiocese’s secretary for Institutional Advancement, overseeing the annual Catholic appeal. As secretary for media, he is responsible for The Pilot, the archdiocese’s CatholicTV station, and archdiocesan websites and new media.

He helped bring a Catholic ra-

dio station to Boston and led the use of social media in the archdiocese. He also served on teams that managed initiatives like “Catholics Come Home,” “The Light is On For You,” and the educational campaign to defeat an assisted suicide initiative in Massachusetts.

Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley, OFM, Cap., praised Landry’s “gifts for leadership, organization, training and communication.”

The Pilot reports that Landry will continue to play a role in the Boston archdiocese, serving as a consultant for the cardinal, writing newspaper columns and hosting the radio program “The Good Catholic Life.”

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September 6, 2013

Pope Francis names Italian archbishop to top Vatican post

Vatican City (CNA/ EWTN News) — Pope Francis made a key appointment at the Vatican, naming 58-yearold Italian Archbishop Pietro Parolin as his new Secretary of State.

“It is with trepidation that I place myself in this new service to the Gospel, to the Church and to Pope Francis,” said Archbishop Parolin in an August 31 statement, which was released by the Holy See press office along with the news of his appointment.

For the last four years, Archbishop Parolin has been serving as the Vatican’s top diplomat, or Apostolic Nuncio, to Venezuela.

In the much-awaited appointment, Pope Francis has tapped him to replace current secretary of state, 78-year-old Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, appointed in 2006 by Benedict XVI. Cardinal Bertone, a canon lawyer and theologian by training, has continued to serve Pope Francis since his March 13 election.

Archbishop Parolin was trained at the Vatican’s dip-

lomatic school and has extensive experience working with the Secretariat of State both in Rome and abroad.

He served in Nigeria and Mexico before working in the Vatican Secretary of State from 2002-2009, where he served in the high-ranking position of Undersecretary for Relations with States.

“He knows how the Vatican works, and how the Catholic Church works around the world,” commented Greg Burke, senior communications advisor to the Vatican Secretary of State, following the appointment.

The Vatican announced that Pope Francis has also confirmed Archbishop Giovanni Angelo Becciu as Subsitute for General Affairs; Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, Secretary for Relations with States; Archbishop George Ganswein, Prefect of the Papal Household; Msgr. Peter Wells, Assessor for General Affairs; and Msgr. Antoine Camilleri, Under-Secretary for Relations with States.

However Archbishop Pa-

rolin’s appointment as Secretary of State — the top Vatican post — is particularly important.

“Pope Francis will rely on him heavily for everything regarding international relations,” Burke noted.

Archbishop Parolin has particular experience facing challenging diplomatic situations.

For many years, he led annual Vatican discussions of Church-state issues with Vietnam’s communist government. The eventual result was Vietnam’s acceptance of a non-resident papal representative to the country.

Additionally, the archbishop has represented the Vatican at international conferences on topics such as human trafficking and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“Archbishop Parolin is going to be one of the most influential aides of Pope Francis,” said Burke.

In addition to his native Italian, Archbishop Parolin speaks French, English, and Spanish fluently.

His professional experience was not the only reason for his appointment, said Burke.

“The pope certainly chose Parolin for his diplomatic experience,” he explained, “but above all because he’s a good priest, who shares the same vision of why people should work for the Church: to serve Christ and serve others.”

The archbishop entrusted himself to God’s protection before such a “difficult and challenging mission,” but he also expressed gratitude to Pope Francis for showing him “unmerited trust.”

He pledged his “willing-

ness and complete availability to work with [Pope Francis] and under his guidance for the greater glory of God, the good of the Holy Church, and the progress and peace of humanity, that humanity might find reasons to live and to hope.”

Besides a deep devotion to the service of the Church, Archbishop Parolin seems to share something else in common with Pope Francis: the addition of a personal touch.

At the end of his official remarks regarding his appointment, he added in Spanish, “And, as they say in Venezuela, ‘May God bless you!’”

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

ATTENTION CLERGY, PRINCIPALS, TEACHERS, FAITH FORMATION PERSONNEL, VENDORS AND ANYONE WHO NEEDS TO KNOW THE WHO’S AND WHERE’S OF THE FALL RIVER DIOCESE! THE NEW IMPROVED 2013-2014 DIOCESAN CATHOLIC DIRECTORY HAS ARRIVED AND IS HOT OFF THE PRESSES.

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16

Youth Pages

September 6, 2013

The eighth-grade class at St. Mary-Sacred Heart School arrived for first day of school and gathered in the Sacred Heart Church hall before a prayer service to kick off the year. This year marks the 90th year of the Catholic school in North Attleboro. In 1923, five Sisters of the Holy Union taught the first year of Catholic school in the same building that St. Mary-Sacred Heart School is in now. Ninety years later and with 289 students, kindergarten through grade eight, the 2013-14 year commenced. Father David Costa led a prayer service thanking the community that helps continue to make Catholic school a factor in North Attleboro through their prayers, wisdom and financial contributions. He also welcomed all of the new students and the two new teachers, Elyse Sackal, grade three, and Theresa Montesano, grade five.

Students at St. James-St. John School in New Bedford prepared for the first day of school with prayer.

Bishop Connolly High School in Fall River welcomed incoming freshmen, transfer students, L.E.A.P. students and international students to their first day of school for the 2013-2014 school year. Smiling faces and new friendships kicked off the start of a great day.

Students from St. Mary’s Parish in Mansfield enjoyed their Vacation Bible School program in August where they learned to “Stand Strong for God.”

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

Youth Pages A new journey

September 6, 2013

T

hirty-five days until ordination to the Permanent Diaconate! There, I’ve said it! It is hard to believe that the moment is nearly here. Some of you may be surprised, as it is not a part of my life that I’ve shared much, if at all, in these pages over these nearly five years of formation.

I’m not sure why. Perhaps, I was worried that I wouldn’t get to this point. In any case, with great joy, I share it with you today!

The reality of this calling is beginning to settle in. I’ve had a good amount of time to ponder and discern this call. Many years, actually. Some of you may very well be saying: What? Him? How can this be? Trust me, I’ve said the same thing!

So how did I get here? Well, to fully share the crooked road I took to get to this point would take many more words than my editors will permit me in this article. Suffice it to say that it was not a direct route. Actually, I probably traveled in the wrong direction more often than in the right, otherwise I may have arrived here long before now.

Over the years, I often felt what I describe now as a “tug on my heart.” My wife Kris and I discussed the possibility of this vocation to the diaconate each time. However, the time never seemed right. About six years ago, that tug on my heart came bounding back.

After a good deal of prayer, discussion with some deacons, my priest friends and my pastor, I opened myself up to the possibility that I was truly being called by God to this vocation of service.

Now, the time has finally come to say yes to this call. Kris and I are both committed to a lifetime of service to God and His Church. We know that we have been truly blessed and we are even more committed to living out the rest of our lives in service.

You see, in calling each of us, God asks us whether we are willing to help Him reach others so that all will be saved. Our calling, no matter what our vocation, is an invitation from God not

because of any merit on our part but just because He chose us out of love, because He wanted us. Why He has called us may remain a mystery to us. Anyone who asks this question “Why was I called?” will only get the answer God had already given

Be Not Afraid

By Frank Lucca to the chosen people in the Old Testament: “I did not choose you because you were more virtuous, more gifted, more suited. No, I chose you because I loved you.”

“You did not choose Me, but I chose you” ( Jn 15:16). The call is from eternity even before the one called consciously realizes it.

This means we are someone; we have a place in God’s plan. You don’t have to be ordained to have a place in God’s plan. You only need to be open to what He is calling you to do.

17 God’s fidelity prevails over all our failures and unfaithfulness. If God chooses someone, He will stay with that person no matter how unfaithful the person may turn out to be. Pope Francis has said a number of times that, “The Lord is faithful. He is faithful!” If something is obvious about God in the Bible it is His faithfulness to us and, in particular, to those whom He has called to help Him accomplish His purposes. If I refuse, God will not stop loving me but He might have to use others to reach me. It was my wife that God first used to reach me so that I could finally say yes!

As I approach ordination, even though my journey of discipleship has had its hills and valleys and its winding curves, I feel that now, without a doubt, this is where I’m supposed to be.

Of course, I have felt fear and doubt along the way, but I know now that, with God’s grace, I will be prepared to respond a

resounding “I do” to Bishop George W. Coleman for each of the promises I will make on that ordination day. A new journey is about to begin.

I ask for your prayers for me, for my fellow candidates, our families, and for all of our deacons, priests, our Bishop George, and our Pope Francis, and for all who serve God’s people. Please continue to pray for an increase in vocations to the priesthood, the diaconate and religious life.

Know that you will always be in my prayers.

Frank Lucca is a youth minister at St. Dominic’s Parish in Swansea, and a campus minister at UMass Dartmouth. He is chairman and a director of the YES! Retreat and director of the Christian Leadership Institute.

He is married to his wife of 35 years, Kristine, and a father of two daughters and a son-in-law and is so fortunate to have the love and support of 15 brother deacon candidates. Comments, ideas or suggestions? Please email him at StDominicYouthMinistry@ comcast.net.

Pope to youth: Ward off harmful culture with truth, beauty, good VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Fight off a drug- and alcoholpushing culture and other hazardous trends sweeping across today’s world, Pope Francis told young people.

“In life, there will always be people who will make you offers to slow or impede you on your way. Please, go against the current. Be courageous,” he said.

He also asked for prayers for his ministry “because this work is unhealthy, it’s not good for you,” he said with a laugh.

The pope made his comments during a recent meeting in St. Peter’s Basilica with some 500 young people from the northern Italian diocese of Piacenza-Bobbio. They were in Rome as part of a Year of Faith pilgrimage with their bishop.

In unscripted remarks, the pope said he loved being with young people because they always carry and share the joy and hope in their hearts.

If older adults complain about how miserable things are in life and that nothing can be done about it, the pope said he just reminds them that something can be done and an individual can actually do a lot.

However, if a young person shows similar pessimism, “I send him to a psychiatrist”

because it’s incomprehensible when a young person doesn’t want to conquer the world, “do something great and bet on big, great ideals for the future.”

“You are the makers, the craftsmen of the future,” he said.

Young people need to follow and build on the desire they carry in their hearts: their love of and quest for beauty, goodness and truth, he said.

Pope Francis cautioned them against being too lazy or sad and melancholy.

“This is the challenge, your challenge,” because a sad or lazy young person “is an awful thing,” he said, and it will distort or take away the beauty, goodness and truth that person should be looking for.

If people say they already know the truth and don’t need to go looking for it, the pope said he tells them they are mistaken “because the truth cannot be had, we don’t carry it, it’s encountered. It’s an encounter with the truth, Who is God, but it’s necessary to go looking for it.”

He urged his audience to go out and “make noise” because “where there are young people there must be noise.”

Be courageous, he said, and when people say “‘Have a little alcohol, take a bit of drugs.’ No. Go against this civilization that is causing us so much harm.”

Going against the current, he said, means making noise with the virtues of beauty, goodness and truth.

Pope Francis poses with youths during a meeting with young people from the northern Italian diocese of Piacenza-Bobbio in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican recently. (CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano)

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September 6, 2013

Pastor challenges runners for charity race continued from page one

During his one-year stint on the cross country team in high school, Father Cook said he came to have a greater appreciation for runners. But his favorite sport remains soccer.

“Fortunately, I still do OK in the road race,” he said. “I enjoy the fraternity of people — we have everyone from young kids to elderly take part — and I run the race to help promote the event and support the Knights in their great work.”

It’s clear that Father Cook enjoys staying active — especially when it can somehow benefit one of his ministries.

In recent years he’s led an extensive hiking trip for the diocesan boys who attend the annual Quo Vadis Days retreat in Wareham and he’s always up for a friendly challenge.

“Unfortunately for the Knights, not many have taken me up on the challenge because it would raise more money for the KOC,” Father Cook said. “It’s probably fortunate for me many haven’t, because I probably would be paying a lot of money to the charity.”

Having won the award for the first Knight to cross the finish line for the first three

consecutive 5K road races, Father Cook is ready to defend his title again this year.

“The pressure is on to keep my streak alive,” he said. “Of course most of the Knights are working the race, so the challenge to be the first Knight to cross the finish line isn’t as impressive as one may think!”

The fourth annual Knights of Columbus Charity 5K Road Race will be held on September 14 beginning at 10 a.m. at the Holy Family Parish Center in East Taunton. Guaranteed T-shirts will be provided to the first 125 to register.

Pre-registration for $20 must be done by September 8, but registrants will be allowed after that for $25 up to the day of the race.

Medals will be awarded for the top three finishers in eight age groups and there will be plenty of refreshments and raffles at the event. Registration forms are available at Holy Family Parish or can be done online at www.oplusracemanagement. com.

For more information about the road race, call the rectory at Holy Family Parish at 508-824-5665 or visit www. hfparish.net.

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Military archbishop opposes death penalty for Fort Hood shooter

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Archbishop Timothy M. Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services said he opposes capital punishment for Army Major Nidal Hasan, who was sentenced to death August 28 following his conviction of the shootings in the 2009 massacre at Fort Hood, Texas.

“The Church teaches that unjustified killing is wrong in all circumstances. That includes the death penalty,” Archbishop Broglio said in a recent statement.

“Major Hasan and his victims are all entitled to justice,” the archbishop added. “Major Hasan, at least, now has recourse to a scrupulous appeals process.

Would that his victims have received as much fairness.”

The jury at a military court-

martial convicted Hasan of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder in connection with the massacre, which a U.S. Senate report later called “the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, 2001.”

Hasan was himself wounded in a gun battle with Army civilian police when he followed a wounded victim outside. Hasan was shot in the spine and has had to use a wheelchair ever since.

According to documents obtained and published by the New York Times, Hasan told medical health experts in 2010 that he “would still be a martyr” even if he was convicted and executed.

Hasan, who received permission to act as his own attorney, questioned only three of the wit-

nesses called during the courtmartial, introduced no defense witnesses and gave no closing argument. At the penalty phase of the trial, he cross-examined none of the 24 witnesses called. In addition to the death sentence, the jury recommended that Hasan also be stripped of his pay and dismissed from the Army.

When the trial started August 6, Hasan said in his opening statement that he was the gunman, adding the evidence would show he was the shooter. He also told the hearing that he had “switched sides” and considered himself a “mujahideen” waging “jihad” against the United States.

He had last year offered twice to plead guilty to the charges, but Army rules forbid the entry of a guilty plea in a death-penalty case.

New Christian-based Scout group molding girls of integrity continued from page one

about American Heritage Girls a few years before but could not locate a group that was close to her home; when during Mass she heard that Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish was starting a group, she immediately signed up her daughter.

“My daughter has loved it.

We do a lot of service projects and the girls, my daughter and the girls at the Tenderheart level (six- to nine-year olds), love having that connection and helping people in the community,” said Abbott. “I find the girls really enjoy that connection with other leaders, the elderly, the police officers — you can see it in their eyes; they’re just touched. There’s not enough of that in today’s society and I just love being a part of it.”

The group has a list of projects coming up, including cosponsoring the “Catholicism” series with St. Vincent de Paul Society at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish, as well as cleaning up and helping landscape the parish center. Some projects are timelier than others, like the “My Style” badge that will have girls learning how to dress modestly, a lesson coming on the heels of the media-saturated images of Miley Cyrus’ obscene performance at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards.

“You see society put these images out of these former good girls from Disney, and they’re not role models,” said Brawley.

“We’re very lucky to have a program like this to be able to give them a solid base and help them form a good compass for their

future. It’s hard today and for this program, they’re surrounded by good friends and great moms.”

That’s what drew Liz Day to enroll her youngest daughter in the troop. The American Heritage Girls mission statement “hits all the areas that are important and I want my daughter to be involved in all those areas, with God as the base of everything,” said Day, knowing that as her eight-year-old grows with the group, her daughter and the other girls will learn “the values, the virtues and the character development that we’re trying to focus on, and that these girls will grow up to be women of integrity and be serving their family and communities.”

The girls are divided into age/ grade-appropriate levels: “Pathfinder,” ages five to six and in kindergarten; “Tenderheart,” ages six to nine and in grades first through third; “Explorer,” ages nine to 12 and in grades four through sixth; “Pioneer,” ages 12-14 and in grades seven and eight; “Patriot,” ages 14-18 and in high school.

During leader meetings, the group helps develop projects that will allow the girls to grow in their faith and show a solid presence in the community at the same time. Girls earn badges, but the experience is what will stay with them the most; as Abbott pointed out, her daughter is excited for Christmas, but not in the way some may think.

“Operation Christmas Child” will see each Scout work with Samaritan’s Purse and take a shoebox, fill it with items rang-

ing from pencils to crayons to bars of soap, and send it to needy children from all over the world.

“We’ll do a wrapping party, where they’ll take Christmas wrap and wrap [the boxes] and get them ready to send off to the collection center,” said Abbott. “It’s exciting because it’s the little things; if you give a pack of pencils, the child can go to school for the whole year. My daughter is really excited about helping children who don’t have these things and will be able to help someone.”

Brawley acknowledges that traveling to Seekonk may be a long trip for those interested, and if there are individuals who want to start an American Heritage Girls troop in their area, she said she’d happily donate her time to get them started.

“When we first started, it was a lot of work,” she said. “This group does do its due diligence as far as checking on everything.

An incredible amount of paperwork had to be filled out; if anyone wants to start their own troop, we’ve been through it and would be willing to help with the process.”

For those interested in attending a registration/ informational meeting to become a member of the MA Troop 3712 in Seekonk, the next meetings will be held September 12 at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish Center on Taunton Avenue in Seekonk. You can call the office at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish at 508-336-8608 or check out the American Heritage Girls website: www.ahgonline.org.

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September 6, 2013

Eucharistic Adoration in the Diocese Acushnet — Eucharistic Adoration takes place at St. Francis Xavier Parish on Monday and Tuesday from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.; Wednesday from 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Thursday from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 2:45 p.m.

Evening prayer and Benediction is held Monday through Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.

ATTLEBORO — Eucharistic Adoration takes place in the St. Joseph Adoration Chapel at Holy Ghost Church, 71 Linden Street, from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.

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

Brewster — Eucharistic Adoration takes place in the La Salette Chapel in the lower level of Our Lady of the Cape Church, 468 Stony Brook Road, on First Fridays beginning at noon until 7:45 a.m. First Saturday, concluding with Benediction and concluding with Mass at 8 a.m. buzzards Bay — Eucharistic Adoration takes place at St. Margaret Church, 141 Main Street, every first Friday after the 8 a.m. Mass and ending the following day before the 8 a.m.

Mass.

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

East Sandwich — The Corpus Christi Parish Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration Chapel is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 324 Quaker Meeting House Road, East Sandwich.

Use the Chapel entrance on the side of the church.

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

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

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

FALL RIVER — St. Bernadette’s Church, 529 Eastern Ave., has Eucharistic Adoration on Fridays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the chapel.

FALL RIVER — St. Anthony of the Desert Church, 300 North Eastern Avenue, has Eucharistic Adoration Mondays and Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

FALL RIVER — Holy Name Church, 709 Hanover Street, has Eucharistic Adoration Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the Our Lady of Grace Chapel.

FALL RIVER — Good Shepherd Parish has Eucharistic Adoration every Friday following the 8 a.m. Mass and concluding with 3 p.m. Benediction in the Daily Mass Chapel. A bilingual holy hour takes place from 2 to 3 p.m. Park behind the church and enter the back door of the connector between the church and the rectory.

Falmouth — St. Patrick’s Church has Eucharistic Adoration each First Friday, following the 9 a.m. Mass until Benediction at 4:30 p.m. The Rosary is recited Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 9 a.m.

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

Mass every First Friday with special intentions for Respect Life, followed by 24 hours of Eucharistic Adoration in the Chapel, concluding with Benediction Saturday morning followed immediately by an 8:30 Mass.

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

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

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

NORTH DARTMOUTH — Eucharistic Adoration takes place at St. Julie Billiart Church, 494 Slocum Road, every Tuesday from 7 to 8 p.m., ending with Benediction. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is available at this time.

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

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

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

Taunton — Eucharistic Adoration takes place every Tuesday at St. Anthony Church, 126 School Street, following the 8 a.m. Mass with prayers including the Chaplet of Divine Mercy for vocations, concluding at 6 p.m. with Chaplet of St. Anthony and Benediction.

Recitation of the Rosary for peace is prayed Monday through Saturday at 7:30 a.m. prior to the 8 a.m. Mass.

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

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

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

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

Domenica Bellenoit, mother of Msgr. George C. Bellenoit

NEW BEDFORD — Domenica (Bollea) Bellenoit, 102, of New Bedford, mother of Msgr.

George C. Bellenoit, pastor of St. Pius X Church in South Yarmouth, died August 28 at Sacred Heart Home. She was the wife of the late Omer G. Bellenoit.

Born in New Bedford on Aug. 27, 1911, the daughter of the late Ernest and Madelyn (Malione) Bollea, she lived in New Bedford all of her life.

She was a communicant of Holy Name of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish.

Mrs. Bellenoit attended New Bedford schools, Eastern State Teachers College in Castine, Maine, and Hyannis Teachers College in Hyannis.

After graduating from college, she taught nursery school in New Bedford and later was a Special Education teacher at the DeValles School in New Bedford for many years until her retirement.

She is survived by her son; nieces, Madelyn Pesci and Karen Isherwood; nephews, Dennis Bollea, Harold and Pierre Trem-

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, 2004 Rev. Terence F. Keenan, Former Pastor, St. Mary, South Dartmouth, Former Pastor, Immaculate Conception, Fall River, 2010 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, 1951-70, 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

blay; and grand and great-grand nieces and nephews.

She was the sister of the late Ernest Bollea Jr. and Sebastian Bollea, and aunt of the late Father Richard Bollea.

Her funeral Mass was cel-

ebrated on September 2 at Holy Name of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church. Burial followed at Sacred Heart Cemetery. Arrangements were handled by Saunders-Dwyer Home for Funerals, 495 Park Street, New Bedford.

Around the Diocese

Holy Hours for Syria will take place tomorrow at St. John the Evangelist Parish, 1 St. John’s Place, Attleboro, and at St. Vincent de Paul Parish, 71 Linden St., Attleboro, offered in union with the call of Pope Francis for prayer and fasting for the situation in Syria. Each Holy Hour will begin after the 4 p.m. Mass at the respective churches (around 4:50-5 p.m.). People may come for the whole hour or for whatever portion they can make.

The Lazarus Ministry of Our Lady of the Cape Parish in Brewster is offering a sixweek Bereavement Support Program called “Come Walk With Me” that begins September 12 and runs through October 17 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. each night. The program meets in the parish center and is designed for people who have experienced the loss of a loved one within the past year. For more information or to pre-register call 508-385-3252 or 508-394-0616.

The Fall River Diocesan Council of Catholic Women invites all to its next meeting, September 14 at 9 a.m. at St. Jude the Apostle Church, 249 Whittenton Street, Taunton. All Catholic women are invited. For information call 508-6726900.

The Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption, 327 Second Street in Fall River, will host its annual parish breakfast on September 15 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. in the parish hall. Join them for a delicious breakfast including eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns, pancakes, French toast, pastry, fruit cup, orange juice, tea and coffee.

Tickets can be purchased after all Masses or by calling the rectory at 508-6732833.

A Healing Mass will be celebrated on September 19 at St. Anthony of Padua Church, 1359 Acushnet Avenue in New Bedford. The Mass will begin at 6:30 p.m. and includes Benediction and healing prayers. At 5:15 p.m. there will also be a holy hour including the Rosary. For location and more information visit www.saintanthonyofnewbedford.com or call 508-993-1691.

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Seekonk and American Heritage Troop MA 3712 are co-sponsoring a presentation of Father Robert Barron’s “Catholicism” series on five Sundays, beginning September 22 and running through November 3. The series will be screened from 2 to 4:30 p.m. and again from 6 to 8:30 p.m. each day. Admission is free. The series will be shown in the upper parish center, 1040 Taunton Avenue in Seekonk. For more information call 508-336-8608.

On September 24 at 7 p.m., St. Bernadette’s Parish, 529 Eastern Avenue in Fall River, will host Father R. Scott Hurd of Alexandria, Va., who will speak on his new book, “When Faith Feels Fragile: Help for the Wary, Weak and Wandering.” Father Hurd is also the award-winning author of “Forgiveness: A Catholic Approach” and “Daily Devotions for Lent 2013.” His newest book offers concrete, practical wisdom to strengthen your faith at any stage of the journey. Father Hurd is a priest with the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. This presentation is free and open to the public.

The second annual Harvest Fair will be held October 5 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the grounds of St. Francis Xavier Church in Hyannis. There will be food booths, work from local crafters, a kids’ corner, a White Elephant area, a native pumpkin sale and a silent auction. There will be something to do and eat for all ages. Crafters who would like to participate should contact Germaine at 508-775-9017 for more information on reserving tables.

20

September 6, 2013

Lasting bonds: Vatican invites extended families to join pilgrimage

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — As part of the Year of Faith, the Vatican wants to celebrate bonds that last a lifetime.

The international pilgrimage of families October 26-27 is being planned as a celebration and not a protest against any policy or

trend, said Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family.

“The time has come to set

aside conflicts,” he said, and “hit the streets” simply with the joy and happiness of being part of a loving family.

Obviously, the archbishop said, building a family and keeping it strong requires sacrifices, “but it’s still beautiful to say, ‘I love you,’ to say, ‘I’m not afraid of tomorrow because I know you are there,’ and to say, ‘I’m not afraid of the years passing, because I know you’ll be with me.’”

The Vatican is not pretending that the institution of Marriage and the family aren’t under attack in many societies, he said, but “it’s time not for condemnation, but to extend a hand. It’s time for a warm friendship to help the sad, raise up the weak and console those who are hurting.”

The archbishop and his staff are hoping the pilgrimage will be “a beautiful celebration of parents and children, grandchildren and grandparents and families with other families,” he said.

The central message will be that “happiness does not lie in going it alone,” the archbishop said.

In the run-up to the event, the Pontifical Council for the Family is seeking help from the younger generation: It is collecting children’s drawings of their families as a gift to the pope; encouraging teen-agers to post photographs illustrating “living life to the fullest” on the council’s Facebook page; and accepting audition tapes or videos from young adults 18-32 who want to sing or dance at the pilgrimage gathering spot in Rome October 26.

The rules and instructions for submissions from all three age groups are found on the council’s website: www. family.va.

For the 68-year-old Archbishop Paglia, the presence of grandparents at the pilgrimage will be particularly important because, as Pope Francis has emphasized on several occasions recently, modern culture seems to see some human lives — particularly the lives of the elderly and the unborn — as “disposable.”

“I want to help people rediscover the positive force of bonds that last from one generation to the next,” the archbishop said.

“It’s not an accident that Pope Francis continues to emphasize the importance of keeping intact the bonds between the beginning of life and the end of life.

After all, a tree without roots is a tree without leaves and without fruit; it’s just a trunk and that’s sad to see.”

Highlighting the central role of the family in the life of an individual and of society by promoting a lifelong bond between one man and one woman and insisting on the importance of strengthening relations among generations are, he said, responses to “a deep wound” many people carry, the wound of “a lack of love.”

“Despite the fact that one sees a growing desire to love and be loved, in reality it is increasingly rare. This is a wound that cuts deep and marks not just individual lives, but societal life as well,” he said.

For Archbishop Paglia, long involved in the Sant’Egidio Community’s efforts to promote peace and solidarity, the lack of love and of commitment to the good of others is at the root of wars, abortion, infanticide and the abandonment of the elderly and the weak.

At a time when there seems to be a “mad dash toward individualism and satisfying oneself,” he said, “it is necessary to demonstrate that the ‘we’ of a family is not only possible, but beautiful.”

Archbishop Paglia said he hopes tens of thousands of families show up — grandparents and parents with kids. All of them are equally welcome and show “the extraordinary ordinariness of Catholic family life.”

Holding the pilgrimage as part of the Year of Faith is not an attempt by the Vatican to claim that only Catholics have real families, Archbishop Paglia said, “but I see a special responsibility on the part of Christians to live well the grace of Marriage and family life in order to help everyone in the world recognize how beautiful it is.”

The archbishop hopes many families feel like he does and come to Rome to show it; “I don’t want to be one of those who stands on the sidelines mourning the destruction of the family and the fracturing of society. As a Christian, I will continue to stand up and proclaim the beauty of being a community, starting with the family.”