09.23.11

Diocese of Fall River

The Anchor

F riday , September 23, 2011

Crucifix sculpted by parishioner is dedicated, blessed at Harwich parish

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

WEST HARWICH — After more than five years of planning, designing and sculpting, the parishioners of Holy Trinity Parish in West Harwich came together on Sunday officially to dedicate and bless the lifesized bronze crucifix that was installed at the entrance to the Our Lady of Life Perpetual Adoration Chapel.

A longtime labor of love for artist and parishioner Robert Johnson, the crucifix was sculpted out of clay and cast in bronze and was originally

borne out of a project to create a new cross for the main church. But Johnson’s pastor, Father Edward L. Healey Jr., said they needed a new crucifix for the adoration chapel and for the grounds of the adjacent memorial columbarium wall.

“It’s really been a faith journey for me,” Johnson said. “I would say I’m feeling more satisfaction than pride now that the crucifix is finished.”

With the perpetual adoration chapel and adjacent cemetery in the form of a six-foot high, 180-foot long memorial coTurn to page 14

Ready for the close-up — Emmanuel Moreira (left) readies the camera into position before the 140th anniversary celebration Mass of St. John the Baptist Parish of New Bedford, while from the sanctuary Carlos Pacheco gauges his view that overlooks the parishioners. Each of the two technicians has been covering Masses for the Portuguese Channel for more than 20 years. (Photo

by Becky Aubut)

A voice and a view for the fieis

By Becky Aubut Anchor Staff

NEW BEDFORD — They are the silent observers catching every movement and word spoken, but for the three-man crew that shows up every Sunday to different parishes within the Fall River Diocese, their silent observance provides the loudest voice in reaching the faithful Portuguese community who watch the broadcast on the local Portuguese Channel in New Bedford.

“The broadcasting of the Mass has been a great public service to support evangelization and a great service to the sick and the elderly,” said Father Gastão Oliveira, pastor of Santo Christo Parish in Fall River and director of Portuguese Communications for the Fall River Diocese. “The people who view the televised Mass, even those who are nonCatholics, share the experience that today is Sunday; it’s a special day. Like the church bells, the televised Mass resonates with the viewers.”

Since its first broadcast of a televised Mass in the Diocese of Fall River on the day of Pentecost in 1978, the weekly Mass was initially broadcast from Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish of New Bedford until 1994 when it branched out to add additional parishes in area cities and towns including Fall River, Taunton and some Portuguese parishes in Rhode Island.

There are some 600,000 viewers of the Portuguese Channel. Along with broadcasting several programs featuring newscasts, lecture-based discussions and others, the filming of the weekly Mass is a special devotion, said Edward Lima, operations manager of the Portuguese Channel.

“That’s one of the best services we provide to our Portuguese community, especially the elderly,” said Lima.

When Father Oliveira was appointed in 1994 by then-Bishop Sean P. O’Malley as the director Turn to page 14

Courage — A compassionate arm of the Church

By Dave Jolivet, Editor

for the glory of God — A life-size bronze sculpture of a crucifix sculpted by Robert Johnson was unveiled, dedicated and blessed at Holy Trinity Parish in West Harwich last Sunday. (Photo

by Barbara-Anne Foley)

NORWALK, Conn. — It’s a ministry whose clients are often misunderstood, confused and burdened by a sense of hopelessness about their relationship with the Catholic Church. The Courage Apostolate is a compassionate support group of the Church, reaching out to those struggling with same-sex attractions and inviting them to experience fully the love that Jesus Christ has for them, and kindling in them a sense of hope and peace in their

desire to live their lives as faithful Catholics.

Established in September of 1980 through the loving efforts of New York Cardinal Terence Cooke, Capuchin Friar of the Renewal Father Benedict Groeschel and Oblate of St. Francis de Sales Father John Harvey, the Courage Apostolate took on as its mission to provide a spiritual support system to assist men and women with same-sex attractions live chaste lives in fellowship, truth and love.

With endorsement from the Vatican, Courage now has more than 100 chapters worldwide, including one in the Fall River Diocese, helping individuals find peace through fellowship, prayer and the Sacraments.

The apostolate is now in the hands of Father Paul Check, a former U.S. Marine Corps captain and a priest from the Diocese of Bridgeport, Conn.

In an interview with The Anchor, Father Check said Courage Turn to page 18

Mass. bishops’ statement on expanded gambling - Page 13

News From the Vatican

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September 23, 2011

Bishops must help Catholics use gifts for good of Church, pope says

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A bishop must help Catholics in his diocese learn to recognize the gifts the Holy Spirit has given them and place them at the service of the entire Church, Pope Benedict XVI told new bishops.

Addressing about 120 Latin- and Eastern-rite bishops ordained in the past year, the pope focused on the role of a bishop in educating Catholics to take responsibility for the Church’s life, evaluating and coordinating their gifts in a way that builds up the whole Church.

The pope met the new bishops September 15 at the papal villa in Castel Gandolfo near the end of a 10-day course designed to give them both theoretical and practical information about their role and their new relationship to the Vatican and its congregations and councils.

Auxiliary Bishop Christopher J. Coyne of Indianapolis attempted to post items to Twitter about the meeting, but didn’t get much further than letting his Twitter followers know access to Wi-Fi was spotty at best at the Legionaries of Christ center where the course was held.

He did, however, post a blog September 14 about the workshops and discussions.

“Right across the board there is a real concern for the ‘new evangelization,’ the desire to reach those peoples and families who were at one time Catholic, who no longer practice their faith, and to somehow open to them once more the gift of the Catholic faith,” he said.

The bishops, including 18 from the United States, also

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spoke about dealing with a shortage of priests, promoting transparency in diocesan finances and in “priestly behavior” and working with the Church’s new movements, he said.

The blogging bishop also reported “a great deal of discussion around the new media: How does one use the Internet, texting, Twitter, etc., to spread the Good News in an authentic and successful manner?”

In his talk to the bishops, Pope Benedict talked about the bishop and unity — both the unity he must maintain with the pope and other bishops, as well as the unity he must safeguard and strengthen in his diocese.

The pope said World Youth Day in Madrid was a vivid example of many different kinds of Church movements and gifts coming together with the bishops around the pope, sparking “a vitality that reinforces the work of evangelization and the presence of the Church in the world.”

As the sign of the unity of the diocese, he said, the bishop has “the task of unifying and harmonizing” the different gifts of church members and movements, “promoting reciprocity between the hierarchical priesthood (of the ordained) and the baptismal priesthood” of all church members.

The bishop must respect and promote the role of the laity, he said, but the Church entrusts to bishops “the pastoral ministry of judging whether charisms are genuine and giving order to their exercise, without extinguishing the Spirit.”

The only way a bishop can fulfill his ministry is by ensuring his own personal growth as a Christian and by modeling his actions on that of Christ, the Good Shepherd, Pope Benedict said.

He told the bishops to make sure they take time for personal prayer, Bible reading, study and rest.

OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER Vol. 55, No. 36

Member: Catholic Press Association, Catholic News Service

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

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PUBLISHER - Most Reverend George W. Coleman EXECUTIVE EDITOR Father Roger J. Landry fatherrogerlandry@anchornews.org EDITOR David B. Jolivet davejolivet@anchornews.org OFFICE MANAGER Mary Chase marychase@anchornews.org ADVERTISING Wayne R. Powers waynepowers@anchornews.org REPORTER Kenneth J. Souza k ensouza@anchornews.org REPORTER Rebecca Aubut beckyaubut@anchornews.org Send Letters to the Editor to: fatherrogerlandry@anchornews.org

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meeting spot — The Basilica of St. Francis is seen in Assisi, Italy, recently. Pope Benedict XVI has convoked an October 27 gathering with religious leaders in Assisi. The event will mark the 25th anniversary of Blessed Pope John Paul II’s ground-breaking 1986 interreligious encounter. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Religious leaders look forward to renewing ‘spirit of Assisi’ with pope

MUNICH (CNS) — St. Francis of Assisi appeals to believers and nonbelievers alike because they long for a world where people see each other as brothers and sisters and where they recognize and respect Creation as a gift to all, said the superior of the Franciscan convent in Assisi.

Conventual Franciscan Father Giuseppe Piemontese, custodian of the Sacred Convent of St. Francis, was one of eight religious leaders who spoke about “The Spirit of Assisi” during an interreligious meeting September 1113 in Munich. The meeting was sponsored by the Community of Sant’Egidio, a Rome-based lay movement.

To mark the 25th anniversary of Blessed John Paul II’s gathering with religious leaders in Assisi, Pope Benedict XVI has convoked a new gathering in the Italian town October 27.

Father Piemontese said the encounter will underline how important Blessed John Paul’s gathering was for promoting dialogue and collaboration among religions, but it also will be a “reminder of what still remains to be done” to ensure true collaboration, respect and mutual support among peoples.

Holding the gathering in Assisi makes sense to people because St. Francis “incarnated those high aspects of humanity, simplicity, humility” that enable people to recognize each other as brothers and sisters and to see all of creation as the work of the same hands that made them, he said.

Syrian Orthodox Metropolitan Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim of Aleppo, Syria, said marking the anniversary of the 1986 Assisi meeting “challenges us to reflect on these last 25 years. They were brimming with fruitful experiences” and helped religious leaders “strengthen their faith and enrich their enthusiasm and enhance their collective vision.”

The Assisi gatherings, he said, are a reminder that “supplication to the Creator” is something that unites all faiths.

“We are all exhausted by the needless and endless wars around us. If the aim of our prayers is peace, then it is the loftiest of goals that we are aiming for,” he said.

Oded Wiener, director general of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, told those gathered in Munich, “The darkness and violence cannot be chased away with sticks (and) certainly not with knives and

Diocese of Fall River

OFFICIAL

His Excellency, the Most Reverend George W. Coleman, Bishop of Fall River, has announced the following appointments: Rev. Jay Mello, Assistant Director of Vocations, while remaining Parochial Vicar at St. Patrick Church in Falmouth.

Rev. Michael Fitzpatrick, Temporary Parochial Vicar at Corpus Christi Church, East Sandwich.

Effective September 28, 2011

guns,” but only with “the light of faith and the light of positive action on the part of religious leaders.”

“This is, in fact, the spirit of Assisi,” he said.

“Religious leaders and their views are of unique importance and strongly influence the interreligious mosaic,” he said. “At many events, we have found that where politicians and statesmen have failed, religious leaders have succeeded in inflaming or calming down various groups.”

Gijun Sugitani, a leader of Japan’s Tendai Buddhist movement, said that after the Berlin Wall fell and the Cold War ended — events that occurred after the first Assisi meeting — “people expected the swift arrival of world peace.”

Instead, he said, there have been new conflicts based on ethnicity, ideology and rage.

Returning to Assisi in October is important, he said, because “we have a responsibility to spread the spirit of Assisi that transcends differences between the ethnicities and religions and unites us all.”

Mohammed Amine Smaili, a Moroccan professor of Muslim dogma and comparative religion, told the gathering that the 1986 Assisi meeting “marked a decisive and memorable about-face in our history” because the world’s religions established a consensus that dialogue is the only way that humanity can understand itself.

He said the democratic reform movements sweeping across North Africa and the Middle East also have reflected the spirit of Assisi as they bring people of different religions together to promote greater freedoms and human rights.

Religious leaders, he said, “must speak of the holiness of peace and the curse of disrespect and hatred.”

The International Church Vatican gives traditionalists doctrinal statement to sign

September 23, 2011

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Vatican has given the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X a formal “doctrinal preamble” listing several principles they must agree with in order to move toward full reconciliation with Church.

U.S. Cardinal William J. Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, gave the statement to Bishop Bernard Fellay, head of the society, September 14 during a meeting at the Vatican that lasted more than two hours.

Although the Vatican did not give the society a deadline, in order to move toward full reconciliation, leaders are expected to study and sign the preamble “within a few months,” said Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman.

The cardinal and bishop also discussed possible “elements of a canonical solution” for the society after “the eventual and hopedfor reconciliation,” said a statement issued by the Vatican after the meeting.

Father Lombardi said, “Today the most likely solution would be a personal prelature,” which is a Church jurisdiction without geographical boundaries designed to carry out particular pastoral initiatives. It is headed by a prelate, who is appointed by the pope; currently the Church’s only per-

sonal prelature is Opus Dei. The document given to Bishop Fellay to sign “states some doctrinal principles and criteria for the interpretation of Catholic doctrine necessary to guarantee fidelity” to the formal teaching of the Church, said a statement issued by the Vatican after the meeting.

At the same time, the statement said, the preamble leaves room for “legitimate discussion” about “individual expressions or formulations present in the documents of the Second Vatican Council and the successive magisterium” of the popes who came after the council.

Father Lombardi would not respond to questions about specific Church teachings and developments listed in the preamble, but said Church tradition always has held there are varying degrees of Church teaching; some require an absolute assent while others are open to interpretation.

In a recent statement on the U.S. district website, Bishop Fellay said the meeting was conducted “with great courtesy and with equally great candor.” He said he would study the document given him by the Vatican and “consult with those who are chiefly responsible for the Society of St. Pius X, because in such an important matter I have promised my confreres not to make a decision

without consulting them first.”

The Vatican talks with the society were launched in late 2009 in an effort by Pope Benedict XVI to repair a 21-year break. The pope said that full communion for the group’s members would depend on “true recognition of the magisterium and the authority of the pope and of the Second Vatican Council.”

The Vatican statement did not mention any of the specific areas where Bishop Fellay’s group has said the Catholic Church and the popes since the Second Vatican Council had broken with true Catholic tradition. They object to the reform of the Mass, to much of the Church’s work in ecumenical and interreligious dialogue, and to the council’s stand on religious freedom.

Bishop Fellay had said his society went into the talks aiming to show the contradictions between the Church’s traditional teachings and its practices since Vatican II. That is “the only goal that we are pursuing,” he had said, adding that the dialogue with the Vatican is not a search for compromise but “a question of faith.”

In addition to the society’s rejection of many Vatican II teachings, members also objected to the beatification of Pope John Paul II and, particularly, to Pope Benedict’s convocation of an-

WASHINGTON (CNS) — By sending World Youth Day back to Latin America, Pope Benedict XVI is calling the world’s attention to the region’s Christian past, said Archbishop Orani Tempesta of Rio de Janeiro, host city for the 2013 event.

The region’s Christian roots “are being lost, little by little, to the false belief that we are secular country,” he said in an interview posted on the Brazilian bishops’ World Youth Day website, www. jovensconectados.org.br.

He added that the events of World Youth Day will help “reaffirm our commitment to help the world, Brazil, and our city to become better and better.”

“Catholic youth make a difference in the world,” he added.

The last World Youth Day in South America was in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1987. The choice of Rio de Janeiro to host the World Youth Day creates a “big challenge” but also “a very special moment for the Church in Brazil,” the archbishop told reporters after the pope announced that Rio would host the next World Youth Day. With less than two years to organize the event, scheduled for July 23-28, 2013, the archdiocese is

working with the bishops’ conference to form planning teams.

“Several steps have been taken, the fees are already being developed and we hope that by the end of this year, everything will be organized so that we can finalize the selection of locations and all the programming,” said the archbishop.

On September 18, the symbols of World Youth Day — a cross and an icon of Mary — arrive at Campo de Marte airport, where Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass during his 2007 visit. Activities at the event, called “Botafe,” a Brazilian expression meaning “believe in it,” will include singers, celebrations, testimonies and Mass.

Following the World Youth Day theme, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all ye nations,” the cross and icon will travel through the 17 regions of Brazil and four other countries in South America: Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile and Argentina.

In a September meeting with archdiocesan clergy, Archbishop Tempesta told them World Youth Day would “be a great opportunity for evangelization, for working with youth, and at the same time, transforming each one of us in the mission to proclaim Jesus Christ to

the world.”

Archbishop Tempesta, the 61-year-old host of the international youth gathering, is already an active communicator with young people through social networks such as blogs, Twitter and Facebook. He is a member of the Brazilian bishops’ social communications commission.

The youngest of nine brothers, he served as an altar server and catechist, and he joined the Cistercian order in 1968.

“I heard that God was calling me to religious life,” said Archbishop Tempesta. “It is a call that you experience in your heart. It is not a profession that you go to for economic interests, it is a decision that is not explicable.”

When Father Tempesta was named a bishop in 1997, Abbot Luigi Rottini, head of the Italian Cistercians, said he “always stood for precious human qualities — intellectual, spiritual and pastoral care and love for the monastic congregation.”

In October 2004, Bishop Tempesta was named archbishop of Belem, and in 2009, Pope Benedict XVI named him to replace retiring Cardinal Eusebio Scheid of Rio de Janeiro.

Rio archbishop: World Youth Day to help Christians reconnect with faith

other interreligious meeting for peace in Assisi.

Pope Benedict cleared the way for reconciliation talks with the Society of St. Pius X in early 2009 when he lifted the excommunications of Bishop Fellay and three other society bishops ordained against papal orders in 1988. The Vatican said the dialogue was designed to restore “full communion” with members of the society, which was founded by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.

The Vatican said the talks were to focus on the concept of tradition, liturgical reform, interpretation of Vatican II in continuity with Catholic doctrinal tradition, Church unity, ecumenism, the relationship between Christianity and non-Christian religions, and religious freedom.

The Vatican and the society appointed a commission to discuss the issues and members met eight times between October 2009 and April 2011, the Vatican said.

The meetings “reached the aim of clarifying the respective positions” of the two sides, it said.

Cardinal Levada’s meeting with Bishop Fellay “is an important step in this process,” which has moved from the work of a study commission to direct talks between the doctrinal congregation chief and the head of the society “with the obvious intent of arriving at positions and conclusions in this process of searching for reconciliation,” Father Lom-

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bardi said.

Announcing the September meeting, the superior of the society in Germany, Father Franz Schmidberger, said on the group’s website that Cardinal Levada and Bishop Fellay would discuss the results of the commission’s dialogues from the past two years, but also would focus on questions concerning the canonical status of the society and its members.

While the pope lifted the excommunication of the four bishops, he said that “until the doctrinal questions are clarified, the society has no canonical status in the Church, and its ministers ... do not legitimately exercise any ministry in the Church.”

On its U.S. district website September 6, the society published parts of an interview Bishop Fellay gave in June. In it, he said, contacts were ongoing, although “we have probably reached the end of a period of discussions. It is not yet totally clear. What is going to happen? What is going to be the result of this phase?”

“We cannot deceive ourselves: We are truly in a crisis of the Church. It is certainly not over,” he said. “We work for the restoration of the Church, but it may still last a decade or two. We need much courage and perseverance.

Our situation might be solved tomorrow and it might be solved after tomorrow. Everything is in the hands of the good Lord. Let us simply remain faithful.”

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4

The Church in the U.S.

September 23, 2011

Knights of Holy Sepulcher welcome Archbishop O’Brien in ceremony

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Officials at the Vatican headquarters of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem welcomed U.S. Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien as their new pro-grand master.

Archbishop Giuseppe De Andrea, the assessor of the chivalric organization, placed a gold chain and pendant around Archbishop O’Brien’s neck and told him his new role “is like a chain that ties him to the Holy Land” and to the knightly order of the Holy Sepulcher.

The informal ceremony September 16 took place in the order’s headquarters — a 15thcentury palace housing ornate ceilings and rooms decorated with three-dimensional illusions of finely detailed trompe l’oeil.

Archbishop O’Brien thanked everyone present, including the order’s honorary assessor, Cardinal Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo, for their warm welcome.

The archbishop said that just a month ago he had no idea that he would go from leading the Archdiocese of Baltimore to heading an order made up of nearly 25,000 members around the world. His appointment was announced August 29.

“I am grateful to the Holy Father for his trust in me and hope in the years ahead I will be a help to the Holy See and to the wonderful land where Christ walked,” he said to all those gathered.

Archbishop O’Brien succeeds U.S. Cardinal John P. Foley, who resigned in February due to ill health.

In an interview with Catholic News Service, the 72-yearold archbishop praised the work Cardinal Foley had done for the order and said “I hope, if not to fill his shoes, to follow his footsteps.”

The archbishop has extensive experience in theology, education, communications and pastoral and spiritual care. He served

as archbishop of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services for 10 years, as rector of the Pontifical North American College from 1990 to 1994 and as rector of the seminary at Dunwoodie, in New York. He was archbishop of Baltimore 2007-2011.

He said he believes some of the assets he’ll be bringing to his new appointment include his experience traveling the world helping Catholics in the military service, as well as knowing “most of the bishops pretty well in the United States.” About half of the order’s membership is from North America, he said.

He said as pro-grand master, he hopes to convince more people of the importance of belonging to the chivalric organization and “that this is a worthy spiritual endeavor.”

“We look to forward the cause of peace in the Holy Land — that’s the Holy Father’s burning desire — and to stopping the exodus of Christians, to make more available the holy places to more people and to encourage pilgrimage to the Holy Land,” he told CNS. The number of pilgrims from the United States and other parts of the world to the Holy Land has dwindled considerable and he said he would like to see more people visit the “singular, unique part of the world where Christ walked, taught, performed miracles and rose from the dead.”

The archbishop said he would not begin his work at the order until his successor in Baltimore had been installed.

The fraternal organization, a more than 900-year-old order of chivalry under the patronage of the Holy See, is dedicated to supporting the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and to responding to the needs of Catholics in the Holy Land. Its work covers Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Cyprus. The knights fund seminaries, schools, hospitals and social centers throughout the patriarchate.

hard times — Jon Proctor wipes a counter clean after arriving home to Catholic Charities’ Christ House in Alexandria, Va., recently following his late-night shift at a nearby grocery store. The Vietnam veteran and trained electrician — who makes a little more than $200 a week — is among the millions of Americans who struggle below the poverty line. (CNS photo/Nancy Wiechec)

Symposium prepares theologians for New Evangelization

Washington D.C. (CNA/ EWTN News) — Theology professors at a symposium held in the nation’s capital were told that they must combine faith and reason to create a new apologetics based on the love of God. The symposium, which was intended to prepare modern theologians to participate in the New Evangelization, was open to selected non-tenured theology or religious studies faculty who received doctoral degrees within the last five years.

Speakers at the symposium, held September 15-17, looked to the Church’s rich history as they offered advice on how to present the Gospel in a modern university setting.

Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, Texas stressed the important role that college professors must play in the New Evangelization.

“Young people today are hungry for the Word of God,” he said.

The cardinal offered the example of St. Irenaeus of Lyons as someone who “forged a remarkable response to the challenge of making the Gospel known in an environment that was new and even threatening.”

Tracing the writings of St. Irenaeus, Cardinal DiNardo offered several proposals to help the conference participants contribute to the New Evangelization.

“We should show great attentiveness to the doctrine of creation ex nihilo,” he said. “The absolutely infinite, transcendent God is not needful, but creates and forms out of goodness.”

With the sophistication of modern science, he explained, “there can be a tendency for a theologian to treat this fundamental theme too obliquely.”

He also emphasized the necessary pairing of Scripture and the rule of faith. The two belong

together, he said, and theologians must not lose contact with the rule of faith when interpreting the Word of God. In addition, Cardinal DiNardo called for a more holistic view of the human being in academic life, warning against modern cognitive sciences that reduce the human mind to a mere brain, run by principles of biology and chemistry.

“I really want to challenge theologians,” he said. “They need to be in this dialogue and not to be afraid of the cognitive scientists.”

“There needs to be an attentiveness in the New Evangelization to the role of faith and reason,” the cardinal continued.

“This is Catholic excellence at its greatest, and it needs to be emphasized today.”

He urged the symposium participants to remember that faith and reason are in harmony and not to approach them as if they are conflicting.

Dr. John Cavadini, who served as the chair of the theology department at Notre Dame from 19972010, expanded upon the complementary roles of faith and reason.

He recalled the early Christian writer Origen, who was hesitant to write an apology of Christianity based merely on reason because he feared giving the appearance that the Gospel was a product of human reason that could be understood entirely within its boundaries.

Cavadini emphasized the need to “create an apologetics that, while using reason, does not reduce Christian faith to a religion that can be accepted purely on the grounds of argumentation or plausibility.”

Since God is love, he explained, Christianity is founded on something that needs no apology, because love is the one thing that is credible in its own right.

The role of the Christian apologist, he said, is to “get out of the way and let love speak,” remembering that love is not an abstract concept to be understood, but rather a person to be encountered.

Cavadini praised Origen’s apology, observing that it has been compared to the painting of an icon, which he noted, “is intended in later Greek Christianity to mediate an encounter with the person of Christ.”

Archbishop J. A. DiNoia, O.P., also spoke at the conference.

Archbishop DiNoia serves as the secretary for the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

He addressed the symposium participants on the nature of theology as a field of study having internal roots within man.

God’s immense love for us is not something that we could have figured out simply “on the basis of thinking about God,” he said.

It is the infused theological virtue of faith received in Baptism that allows for “the participation in God’s knowledge of Himself,” he said.

Therefore, the archbishop explained, the principles of theology come from the knowledge of God infused in us.

The challenge for the New Evangelization, said Archbishop DiNoia is “securing the integrity and finality of theology as a distinctive field of inquiry.”

He urged the symposium participants to resist the “fragmentation of theology into disparate subviews and specializations,” as well as internal secularization within the Church.

In addition, he called for them to be courageous in recognizing the “compatibility between an academic profession and an ecclesial vocation,” seeing their work not merely as a job, but as a calling.

September 23, 2011

The Church in the U.S.

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Pope Benedict accepts Manchester bishop’s resignation, names successor

fond remembrance — Images of Archbishop Pietro Sambi are seen as people enter for a memorial Mass in his honor at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington earlier this month. Archbishop Sambi, Vatican nuncio to the United States since early 2006, died July 27 at age 73. (CNS photo/Bob Roller)

Cross always present in late nuncio’s life, USCCB head says at memorial

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Archbishop Pietro Sambi, the late Vatican nuncio to the United States, “viewed his diplomatic vocation, as an ambassador of the vicar of the crucified One, as an extension of the invitation to mercy, reconciliation, unity, peace and life inherent in the Triumph of the Cross,” Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York said September 14.

Archbishop Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, was the principal celebrant and homilist at a memorial Mass for the Italian prelate at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.

The nuncio, who died July 27 at age 73, “saw the cross in his varied diplomatic missions, in the poverty and oppression of peoples, in religious acrimony and war,” said Archbishop Dolan.

“We bishops of the United States will never forget the warm, personable manner in which he summoned us to be ambassadors of the healing and reconciliation won by Jesus on the cross, and be ever grateful for the tender way he unfailingly responded to our own needs.”

Dozens of U.S. bishops, many of them in Washington for a meeting of the USCCB Administrative Committee, concelebrated the Mass, along with nearly 80 priests.

More than 2,000 people, including Vice President Joe Biden and Miguel Diaz, U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, attended the Mass. The congregation also included representatives of the U.S. State Department, members of the diplomatic corps, representatives of other faiths, and the staff of the apostolic nunciature.

September 14 was the feast of the Triumph of the Cross, which

Archbishop Dolan used as a theme in his homily.

While Archbishop Sambi’s service in the Vatican’s diplomatic corps was important, Archbishop Dolan said, “what is of far more profound meaning and of everlasting consequence in his life was that the cross of Christ, triumphant over sin, Satan, and death, was on his heart.”

“He saw the cross in his varied diplomatic missions, in the poverty and oppression of peoples, in religious acrimony and war,” Archbishop Dolan said in a prepared text of his homily. “He saw his diplomatic mission as an encouragement of the most noble virtues illuminated by the light of the cross: trust, honesty, and unity.”

Archbishop Dolan recalled a time when, as archbishop of Milwaukee, he was vesting with Archbishop Sambi — still relatively new to his U.S. posting — and other bishops for the installation Mass of a new Wisconsin bishop.

“He asked me if we bishops here in America wore our pectoral cross on the inside or outside of the chasuble,” Archbishop Dolan said. “I replied ‘Eccellenza, as a matter of fact, all the bishops will watch to see what you do and then follow suit!’

“His eyes sparkled and he said, ‘Then I will keep changing it back and forth to confuse everybody.’

Then he commented, ‘As long as it is over our heart, it does not really make any difference.’”

Seven U.S. cardinals were among the concelebrants: Cardinals Donald W. Wuerl of Washington, Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston and Francis E. George of Chicago, plus four cardinals who are retired archbishops — Cardinals Roger M. Mahony,

Los Angeles, William H. Keeler, Baltimore, Justin Rigali, Philadelphia, and William W. Baum, Washington.

In addition to Catholic clergy and diplomatic dignitaries, representatives of many other faiths were at the memorial Mass, including representatives of the Episcopal Church, the United Church of Christ, the Greek Orthodox Church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, the American Jewish Committee, the Islamic Circle of North America, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness and the World Sikh Council.

In remarks at the beginning of Mass, Cardinal Wuerl said the late archbishop had “faithfully carried out the work of the Lord in this country.”

At the time of Archbishop Sambi’s death, Cardinal Wuerl noted that everyone in the Washington Archdiocese felt a particular bond with him, because the nuncio and the archdiocese had worked together to welcome Pope Benedict XVI when he visited in 2008.

Msgr. Jean-Francois Lantheaume, charge d’affaires at the apostolic nunciature, was among the concelebrants at the Mass.

Addressing the congregation at the end, he offered thanks to the State Department and the diplomatic corps for the “concern and respect” shown to the nunciature after Archbishop Sambi’s death.

Speaking in several languages, he noted that the large turnout for the Mass was “a wonderful sign of respect for that great diplomat.”

Directly addressing nunciature staffers in attendance, Msgr.

Lantheaume said “in these difficult days, you have done your job very well — the nuncio should be proud of you.”

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of Bishop John B. McCormack of Manchester, N.H., and has named Auxiliary Bishop Peter A. Libasci of Rockville Centre, N.Y., as his successor.

The changes were announced in Washington September 19 by Msgr. Jean-Francois Lantheaume, charge d’affaires at the apostolic nunciature.

Bishop McCormack, who has headed the Diocese of Manchester since 1998, is 76 years old. Bishops are required by canon law to turn in their resignation when they turn 75.

Bishop Libasci, 59, was ordained a priest of the Rockville Centre Diocese in 1978 and was appointed an auxiliary bishop for the diocese in 2007.

He will be installed as Manchester’s new bishop December 8 at St. Joseph Cathedral.

“When in 2007, I was told that I was chosen to be an auxiliary bishop for the Diocese of Rockville Centre, I was overwhelmed at the thought that anyone knew that I even existed,” Bishop Libasci said in a statement.

“And now, four years later, I have been called, yet again, but now to be the bishop and shepherd of the Church, the household of faith in, what will be for me a new home, a new family, a new beginning in grace.”

The bishop added that he was eager to be in the Diocese of Manchester and New Hampshire. “I de-

sire so much to meet all of you and to see Christ so alive and so present in you. I desire so much to share in this work that is ours: to be true to and thus carry on the mission of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

He thanked Bishop McCormack for his “years of ministry and faithful witness” and also thanked Bishop William F. Murphy of Rockville Centre, the priests and deacons, and the lay Catholics of that diocese, saying it was a privilege to serve as priest and bishop there.

In a statement, Bishop Murphy said he would miss Bishop Libasci’s “wise counsel and tireless apostolic spirit” as vicar of Rockville Centre’s eastern region but added that he rejoiced in the fact the pope chose one of the diocese’s priests to be Manchester’s bishop.

“As priest, as pastor and as bishop, Bishop Libasci brought a deep sense of the holy to all the many pastoral efforts that have marked his tenure in this diocese, which will always be his home,” Bishop Murphy said.

Peter Anthony Libasci was born Nov. 9, 1951, in the New York borough of Queens. He has a bachelor’s degree from St. John’s University in Jamaica, N.Y., a master of divinity degree from St. Meinrad’s Seminary in Indiana, and a master’s in theology and catechetics from St. John’s University.

He is biritual, meaning he is permitted to celebrate the Latinrite Mass and the Divine Liturgy of the Byzantine Ruthenian Catholic Church.

Corpus Christi Church 324 Quaker Meeting House Road , East Sandwich, MA 02537 Sat., 1 October 2011• 508-888-0209

SELECTION OF VENUES FOR 2011: Saturday, 5 Nov St. Lawrence Church, Brookline, MA Saturday, 3 Dec St. Brendan Church, Bellingham, MA

6

The Anchor Stopping the collateral damage

Last week we focused on the Solomonic balance the Church needs to find between caring for those who have suffered child sexual abuse by ministers of the Church, defending other children from the same evil, and protecting Church ministers from false accusations of having committed this evil.

One area in which this prudential fairness comes up is with respect to releasing names of those accused of having committed the sexual abuse of minors. On August 25, Cardinal Sean O’Malley released the names of 159 priests from the Archdiocese of Boston who were found guilty by Church or state of sexually abusing a child, laicized before or after having been accused, publicly accused of sexually abusing a child (while Church proceedings still need to be completed) or deceased after having been publicly accused of sexually abusing minors but against whom criminal or canonical proceedings were not completed. Cardinal O’Malley intentionally did not release the names of living or deceased clergy against whom allegations have not been made public, a move that has brought intense criticism from some victims’ groups.

Cardinal O’Malley confessed that sharing information about clergy accused of sexually abusing minors is “a complex issue involving several competing considerations” and therefore a proper prudential balance is required. “On the one hand, there is the critically important need to assure the protection of children and also important considerations related to transparency and healing; on the other, there are interests related to the due process rights and reputations of those accused clergy whose cases have not been fully adjudicated, including deceased priests who were not alive to respond to the allegations.” How to determine what to do when these two goals seem to work against each other is not an exact science. He shared his rationale for not releasing the names of priests against whom public accusations have never been known. “Not only must the archdiocese honor its commitment to protect children, it must also be mindful of the due process concerns of those whose guilt has not been established. In the present environment, a priest who is accused of sexually abusing a minor may never be able to fully restore his reputation, even if cleared after civil or canonical proceedings. Reputational concerns also become acute in cases concerning deceased priests, who are often accused years after their death with no opportunity to address the accusations against them.”

Those who have long pressured the Archdiocese of Boston and other dioceses to release the names of all priests accused of the sexual abuse of minors were critical of Cardinal O’Malley’s decision. Clergy sex abuse victims, they say, often carry with them the guilt of what they suffered; seeing the names of those who abused them made public brings enormous validation of their most painful experiences. Indisputably, there’s clearly a benefit for victims to have their abusers named, and this is something that the Church should want to do out of pastoral concern and reparation for those who have suffered in this manner. But that solace cannot come at any cost. The good end of bringing comfort to those who have suffered from clergy sexual abuse can never be morally achieved through the immoral means of abetting calumnious allegations.

Some in the Church today — including some victims’ rights groups — seem to have become desensitized to the harm of false accusations against Church leaders in an analogous way to how many were once insensitive to the evil and harm of the sexual abuse of minors. False accusations, some victims’ advocates say, are relatively rare; in the United States, historically less than 10 percent of accusations have been demonstrated to be false. When someone is accused, they imply, there’s a 90 percent chance that he or she is guilty, and therefore the good obtained by releasing all names outweighs the evil that might come to a few. Such proportionalistic reasoning, however, fails to consider adequately the harm done to the 10 percent or more who are falsely accused of something as hideous as child abuse. No one would ever want to see the reputation of a living or deceased father, mother, beloved teacher, coach, athlete, actor, president or other public figure destroyed by the actual or posthumous reporting of an untrue allegation of sexually abusing kids.

A good reputation earned by a lifetime of virtue should never be able to be annihilated simply by the bringing of an accusation, because the accusation maybe false or frivolous; with people we care about, we would justly demand that before such an allegation be publicized it would need to be substantiated. The same principle of fairness must reign within the Church. This isn’t a lack of sensitivity or concern for victims of sexual abuse, but a just principle to prevent making another class of victims.

Some in our society have begun to awaken to the reality of false accusations of the sexual abuse of minors and the often irreparable harm that comes through them. In a powerful June 15 Boston Globe article entitled “Collateral Damage,” columnist Brian McGrory wrote about the case of Boston priest Father Charles Murphy, who was falsely accused not once but twice of sexual abuse. Both accusations were brought by attorney Mitchell Garabedian, the first in 2006 involving a woman from 25 years ago, the second in 2010 involving a man from 40 years ago. On both occasions Father Murphy had to vacate his rectory to suffer the ignominy of others’ thinking he had molested youth he had been ordained to serve and love, and to undergo the painfully slow process of the Church’s preliminary investigation, which shamefully occurred after, not prior, to Father Murphy’s suffering all of these tangible harms. McGrory described how, after the second accusation, many of the priest’s friends and parishioners hired a private investigator, “who discovered that the alleged victim was mired in financial problems, had a long list of liens placed against him, and faced massive credibility issues even within his own family.” These are all items that should have been discovered before Father Murphy’s reputation was damaged again. “It took nearly six months — about five months longer than it should have — before an archdiocesan review board cleared Murphy of the allegations in September and Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley restored him as a senior priest.” But the suffering had taken its toll and Murphy died soon thereafter, of “a broken 77-year-old heart that refused to mend.” McGrory called Garabedian’s bringing these false accusations without adequately investigating his client’s motives and accusations “a disgrace.” He wrote, “Garabedian told me this week his Milton client was ‘credible.’ He wasn’t. He lashed out at what he described as a ‘kangaroo court,’ the respected, independent archdiocesan panel that cleared Murphy. He didn’t utter the only words worth hearing: ‘I made a mistake.’”

Regardless of whether mendacious accusations are intentionally made or “mistakes” happen, it’s clear that there need to be policies that prevent the injustice that happened to Father Murphy from happening to other priests and Church workers, whether alive or dead. As tough as it was for Father Murphy to suffer these accusations and see them publicized before they were demonstrated to be more than suspicious, at least he was still alive for his friends and parishioners to hear him emphatically deny them and be led to help him restore his reputation. Such a partial rehabilitation would have been much more difficult if he had been deceased when they arose. That’s why it’s obviously prudent and just for the Church not to publish names of those — whether living or dead — who have been accused of the sexual abuse of minors until, minimally, an investigation demonstrates that they’re plausible, or, even better, until guilt is admitted or proven. Injustices aren’t remedied by committing other injustices.

As the Church prepares in 2012 to mark the 10th anniversary of the public part of the sexual abuse crisis and the Church’s response to it in Dallas, it is time for Church faithful and leaders to begin to achieve a yet unrealized Solomonic balance between the rights of accusers and accused. This will ensure that in the Church’s understandable zeal to bring healing to those who have suffered sexual abuse and prevent children from suffering similar harm in the future, we not lump the good guys in with the bad by treating all accusations, both true and calumnious, as worthy of publication until at least a minimal standard of veracity and substantiation has been established.

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September 23, 2011

The Benedict Generation

ver the past several weeks I have the First World War. He was a courageous attempted to present my personal and authentic prophet of peace and strove reflections and thoughts about our Holy with brave courage first of all to avert the Father, Pope Benedict XVI. I did so betragedy of the war and then to limit its cause I sense that there is a general lack of harmful consequences.” awareness of how blessed we are to have “Treading in his footsteps,” he continsuch a faithful, holy and brilliant pope as ued, “I would like to place my ministry at we have in Joseph Ratzinger. Because of the service of reconciliation and harmony this lack of awareness, there is also a lack between persons and peoples, since I am of appreciation for all that he has done and profoundly convinced that the great good continues to do. of peace is first and foremost a gift of I began a few weeks ago by explaining God, a precious but unfortunately fragile that some in the media have made unfair gift to pray for, safeguard and build up, comparisons between Pope John Paul II day after day, with the help of all.” and Pope Benedict XVI in order to set up Benedict XV died before Joseph Ratza false dichotomy. This week, as I coninger was even born, but his contributions clude this series on Pope Benedict, I wish to the Church during difficult times clearly to begin by making my own comparison had an affect on him. But perhaps another between these two great men of faith, but reason that Ratzinger had a connection not as a dichotomy, but one of complewith him is because he is often one of the mentarity. forgotten popes of the 20th century. In John Paul II was pope for 26 years and light of the fact that Ratzinger succeeded 168 days. His longevity and charismatic John Paul “the Great” and with his own personality made it very easy for him humble nature, maybe he was subtly to influence indicating that several genhe would be erations. Those a quiet but Putting Into who grew up steady pastor in the 1980s of the Church the Deep and 1990s during chalwould be lenging times

By Father considered part much like his Jay Mello of the “JPII namesake. generation.”

The pope Those who went on to exconsidered themselves loyal or devoted to plain the other “Benedict” from whom he Pope John Paul II would have as their pri- chose his name. “The name Benedict,” the orities, evangelization and catechesis, an pope said, “calls to mind the extraordinary awareness of the vocation of the laity, the figure of the great ‘Patriarch of Western universal call to holiness, all done under Monasticism,’” St. Benedict of Norcia, the banner of “Be Not Afraid.” co-patron of Europe.

Pope Benedict just celebrated his sixth “The gradual expansion of the Beneyear as pope this past April. As I mendictine Order that he founded had an enortioned previously, he has a very different mous influence on the spread of Christipersonality than his predecessor, but what anity across the continent. St. Benedict isn’t much different is the focus of his is therefore deeply venerated, also in ministry as the successor of St. Peter. The Germany and particularly in Bavaria, my things that were important to John Paul birthplace; he is a fundamental reference are equally as important to Pope Benedict. point for European unity and a powerful Like John Paul, Benedict travels the globe reminder of the indispensable Christian proclaiming Jesus Christ and calling all roots of his culture and civilization.”

Catholics to greater fidelity to the Gospel!

Clearly, Pope Benedict XVI has shown Pope Benedict XVI has continued a great priority to restoring the Christian where John Paul II left off, by guiding the faith to Europe that has suffered so much Church as a true Vicar of Christ. He is a at the hands of secularism. It isn’t just teacher, a pastor, a prophet and a shepherd the “Dictatorship of Relativism” or the guiding the flock of Christ in the present growth of Islam throughout Europe that day. For those of us who were part of the threatens the continent with such strong JPII generation, we are now part of the Catholic roots. There is a complacency “Benedict Generation.” toward the faith and a lack of evangelizaI would like to conclude this series on tion which has led to a very sad situation Pope Benedict XVI with a reflection upon in Europe. the name that he chose when elected to In choosing the name Benedict, the Chair of Peter. When one is elected Joseph Ratzinger gives us a glimpse pope by his brother cardinals, he is asked into his pastoral vision for the Church to choose a name. This in part reminds us and also of what he is asking of us. Like of how Christ changed the name of Simon Pope Benedict XV we are to follow the to Peter. The name chosen gives us insight pope’s lead in seeking reconciliation into the nature of the pope’s mission and and peace in our families and commuhow he will carry it out. In choosing the nities. In following the example of St. name Benedict, Joseph Ratzinger explains Benedict, we are to recall our Catholic his vision but also of what it then means heritage and recommit ourselves to what for us to be part of the “Benedict Generait means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ tion.” and a Roman Catholic.

At the first general audience after his In order that we might continue to “Put election, Joseph Ratzinger explained out into the deep” let us faithfully follow why he chose the name Benedict. He our Holy Father. Let us listen carefully to explained that it was to recall the memory what he teaches and strive to put it into both of Pope Benedict XV and of St. practice in our lives. And let us not forget Benedict. His own words articulate this to pray for him each day, that God may most clearly: give him the grace and strength that he “I wanted to be called Benedict XVI needs to faithfully carry out his ministry in order to create a spiritual bond with as the successor of St. Peter.

Benedict XV, who steered the Church Father Mello is a parochial vicar at through the period of turmoil caused by St. Patrick’s Parish in Falmouth.

September 23, 2011

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Body language: The connection of words and actions at Mass

o understand fully the nature of Catholic worship in the Liturgy, we must always be mindful of one extremely important truth: Liturgy involves our whole being. In other words, true worship of God will not only be in mind and heart, nor only in words. Rather, true worship involves our whole person — body and soul. Hence, it is only proper that in our continuing overview of the new translation of the words for Mass, we ought to consider our actions with our bodies, and how these work together in the Liturgy of the Church.

The words of John 1:14 once more can serve us well: “And the Word became flesh, and made His dwelling among us.”

These words of truth express how God, who is “pure spirit,” wills to take on our human nature. In this topic of how our bodies are involved in worship, what can be taken from the truth of God becoming flesh (which is a mystery of faith that is referred to as the “Incarnation”) is that

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7

The Anchor

his Sunday, September 25, the annual Red Mass takes place at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption in Fall River. The Red Mass is an annual ritual for judges, lawyers, public officials, law professors and students to ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance in seeking justice. It is usually held at the beginning of the judicial year.

The tradition dates back to the high Middle Ages. Red is the liturgical color of the Holy Spirit, representing the seeming flames of fire that descended upon the Apostles and Mary at the first Pentecost. Bishop George W. Coleman and the concelebrating priests will wear red priestly vestments. In England during the Middle Ages, the judges of King’s Bench in Westminster also wore red judicial robes, and doctors of law also wore red robes or academic hoods.

Now, of course, judicial robes are black; and most academic gowns are black as well. Priests, too, normally wear black. Liturgical texts are normally printed in black and white, though there are often red “rubrics” to provide instructions on what to do next, and often altar Missals have red covers.

The first part of every Mass, the Liturgy of the Word, involves readings from the Bible and preaching and prayers from the priest, a textual exercise in black and white. Catholics and non-Catholics alike can join in hearing and reflecting on God’s

ourselves to become humble of our bodies are integral to who heart, making ready to receive we are. Hence, to worship God the Lord’s real presence in the fully truly requires our whole Eucharist. Sitting, for its part, being — body and soul. In fact, offers us a way of making our if we do not acknowledge the bodies comfortable, that we necessity of our bodies in wormight listen and meditate with shiping God fully, none of the Sacraments of the Church would greater ease. Each of these poshave any meaning, as the Sacraments use material realities (bread and wine, for example) to communicate and offer us spiritual gifts or graces — the divine life of God.

By Father Certainly all are Joel Hastings clearly aware that the celebration of Mass contains times of standing, sitting, and kneeling. These actions tures, taken alone, has a depth of purpose. When understood in are not by chance. Each action connection with each other and or gesture seeks to place us in within the whole Mass, they can proper frame of mind and heart facilitate our entrance into an to encounter God’s presence. encountering of God with all our For example, during the times that we stand, we use our bodies being.

Where do the words of the to help keep our minds attentive to the sung or spoken words prayers fit into this praying with our bodies? Consider those of prayer or sacred Scripture. prayers that are prayed at the When we are to kneel, we invite

Praying the Mass Anew

given moments. We stand for the beginning of Mass, uniting ourselves and our intentions with all who are present (and with the whole Church). We kneel during those most sacred of words, spoken first by Jesus Himself at the Last Supper, through which bread and wine become His own sacred flesh and blood. In these, or any of the parts of Mass, we will find that the outward action fits the importance or the intentions of the words, so that our bodies help our minds and hearts to receive what we hear, and to express what we say.

Similarly, the gesture of “bowing” is frequent at Mass, as another way of showing reverence. Truly, all are to make “a bow of the head” not only before receiving Jesus in the Eucharist, but for each and every speaking of the holy names of Jesus and Mary, and on the feasts of saints, the name of the given saint — once more connecting our bodies

Black and white and red all over

Word and its relevance to their Jesus on the Cross for love of responsibilities in the legal us that was first accomplished profession to serve the common on Calvary in a bloody manner. good through justice.

St. Thomas More, chief judicial White is also a color associofficer in England under Henry ated with the pope, who uses a VIII, and patron saint of stateswhite cassock. Every Roman Catholic Mass involves prayer for, and communion with, the successor of St. Peter who is bishop of Rome. (White smoke

By Dwight Duncan from the Sistine Chapel betokens the election of a new pope.)

He is called “Holiness,” because his office and men and lawyers, was beheaded duty is to impart holiness, just rather than betray the truth of as judges on the Supreme Court his conscience. are called “Justice” because it is With such a rich history their sworn duty to do justice. teeming with religious signifiThe presence of differcance, why would a non-Cathoent races and ethnic groups in lic attend a Red Mass? After all, the Catholic Church is also a non-Catholics do not necessarily reminder that Catholic means share our understanding of the universal. It’s black and white pope’s authority, or the Mass as and red all over, and brown and a prolongation in space and time Irish and Italian and Polish and of Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross, Portuguese and Haitian and Ninor accept the Trinitarian belief gerian and Latino and Filippino, in the Holy Spirit, nor even the and virtually every other ethnic divinity of Jesus, nor want to be and racial group. reminded of duties they don’t Different shades of red still necessarily recognize. mark the clerical offices of But it is possible to approach bishop and cardinal. Red, of the Red Mass as an ecumenical course, is also the liturgical coloccasion, to pray together that or associated with martyrdom, justice be done with wisdom giving witness to the truth to the and mercy, and to honor our rich point of shedding blood. Blood heritage of religious freedom is red, and the shedding of blood as Americans. That doesn’t just involves sacrifice. Every Mass, mean freedom from religion, in the Liturgy of the Eucharist, but freedom to freely exercise involves a re-enactment in an religion. Ex-mayor of New York unbloody way of the sacrifice of City Ed Koch, for example, who

Judge For Yourself

is Jewish, went to St. Patrick’s Cathedral to light a candle and pray and grieve in the wake of the attacks of 9/11.

Our own John Adams, as representative of the Massachusetts delegation to the Continental Congress, on one occasion in 1774 went to St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Philadelphia, and reported to his wife Abigail: “This afternoon, led by curiosity and good company, I strolled away to mother church, or rather grandmother church.

I mean the Romish chapel. I heard a good, short moral essay upon the duty of parents to their children, founded in justice and charity, to take care of their interests, temporal and spiritual. The dress of the priest was rich white lace. His pulpit was velvet and gold. The altar-piece was very rich, little images and crucifixes about; wax candles

to the spoken word. In addition, all are to make a profound bow, that is, a bow “from the waist” in praying the words of the Creed that refer to the mystery of the Incarnation. In the new translation, these words are: “and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.” In this way, we do not simply say the words, but our whole being, body and soul, word and action, takes part in our worship of God. In our continuing exploration of the new translation, might we all keep in mind these truths: that liturgical prayer is not only in words — but it involves our whole being. Our bodies truly do help us to worship God properly, opening us up to a deeper encounter with the Word, “who gives His flesh for the life of the world.”

Father Hastings is Director of the Office of Liturgy and Worship of the Diocese of Duluth and pastor of St. Rose Parish in Proctor, Minn.

lighted up. But how shall I describe the picture of our Saviour in a frame of marble over the altar, at full length, upon the cross in the agonies, and the blood dropping and streaming from His wounds! The music, consisting of an organ and a choir of singers, went all the afternoon except sermon time, and the assembly chanted most sweetly and exquisitely.

“Here is everything which can lay hold of the eye, ear, and imagination — everything which can charm and bewitch the simple and ignorant. I wonder how Luther ever broke the spell. Adieu.” Of course, I would add that the appeal is not just to the simple and ignorant. Even somewhat complicated and relatively knowledgeable people, like lawyers and law professors, can also be “charmed.”

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

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

8

September 23, 2011

The Anchor

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he teaching of Jesus in the Gospel is often surprising to us even 2,000 years later. It was especially so on several occasions to the Jewish people of Jesus’ time.

This Sunday Jesus affirms that prostitutes and tax collectors (the most rejected kind of public sinners at that time) were entering the Kingdom of Heaven before the religious authorities. This was unbelievably shocking. Yet it was true, because prostitutes like the woman caught in adultery and tax collectors like St. Matthew were in fact embracing the Gospel while many religious authorities were rejecting Christ’s kingship and the kingdom He had come to inaugurate.

What did many scribes and Pharisees lack that the prostitutes and tax collectors had? The latter faith in Jesus and what true faith leads to, a trusting obedience to what the One trusted reveals. To obey

The obedience of faith

in faith means to commit oneangel Gabriel, she replied, “I self totally to the God Who am the handmaid of the Lord. reveals Himself, to accept the Let it be done to me according authority of the Word that was to your word.” God’s word, heard because the One saying announced through His holy that word is truth incarnate, messenger, was all that was God in the flesh. needed for her faithful “fiat.”

Abraham is our father in Later, St. Elizabeth, filled faith and shows us what the obedience of faith looks like, heedHomily of the Week ing God’s command to leave his native Ur Twenty-sixth Sunday and go to a place that in Ordinary Time God “would” show

By Father Hugo him later, a place he’d Cardenas, IVE need to fight for even after he was certifiably a senior citizen; a place where eventually he’d with the Holy Spirit, would be asked to sacrifice his own praise her for believing what son Isaac. But he was willing the Lord had told her would to do all of this because of the come true. She remained in obedience that flowed from faithful obedience through the his trust in the God who was Cross, where yet again she asking him to do each of these said “amen” to God’s plans things. for our Salvation, even though Likewise the Blessed her maternal heart would be Virgin Mary is our mother in crucified on Calvary along faith. In response to the Archwith her Son.

The parable of the two sons that Jesus gives us this Sunday leads us to examine our conscience as to what our true attitude is before Him. Do I really respond to His words with faith? Is that faith shown in my actions? St. James says clearly that we’re called to become “doers” of the Word and not just “listeners,” to show others our faith by our deeds (James 1:22; 2:18).

In our society, it is very easy to excuse ourselves from the responsibilities of our faith. We often prioritize our comforts and easily give in to selfishness.

In the Gospel, the first son who initially refused his father had a conversion and ended up doing his father’s will. We all need that type of conversion, permanently and continuously, in the midst of a culture that waters

down the Christian commitment, that has us say “yes” at Baptism, at Confirmation, in religious formation to the Commandments, to the Beatitudes and more, but then almost applauds us when we don’t follow that formation, much as the second son did.

Today is a time to unite ourselves to the obedient faith of Abraham and of Mary, who both said yes and followed it up. It’s also a time to unite ourselves to the repentant tax collectors and prostitutes of Jesus’ own day, who accepted His invitation to conversion without which entering into His kingdom is impossible.

Our Father is asking us to go and work in His vineyard.

He’s awaiting our response — and waiting to see the fruit of our obedient work!

Father Cardenas is a priest of the Institute of the Incarnate Word and is pastor of St. Kilian Parish in New Bedford.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. Sept. 24, Zec 2:5-9,14-15a; (Ps) Jer 31:10-13; Lk 9:43b-45. Sun. Sept. 25, Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Ez 18:25-28; Ps 25:4-9; Phil 2:1-11 or 2:1-5; Mt 21:28-32. Mon. Sept. 26, Zec 8:1-8: Ps 102:2,16-23; Lk 9:46-50. Tues. Sept. 27, Zec 8:20-23; Ps 87:1-7; Lk 9:51-56. Wed. Sept. 28, Neh 2:1-8; Ps 137:1-6; Lk 9:57-62. Thu. Sept. 29, Dn 7:9-10,13-14 or Rv 12:7-12a; Ps 138:1-5; Jn 1:47-51. Fri. Sept. 30, Bar 1:15-22; Ps 79:1-5,8-9; Lk 10:13-16.

I

n the fall of 1972, a group of us, philosophy majors all, approached our dean of studies, Father Bob Evers, with a request: Under the supervision of a faculty member, could we build a two-credit senior seminar in our last college semester around Kenneth Clark’s BBC series, “Civilization,” which had been shown on American public television? Father Evers agreed, and we had a ball. “Civilization” was the perfect way to finish a serious undergraduate liberal arts education; it brought together

its teaching, its art, its music, its ideas, art, architecture and hisarchitecture — and above all, tory in a visually-compelling through the lives it shaped. That synthesis of the history of western culture that respected Catholicism’s role in shaping the West.

Over the next four decades, I wondered whether someone, somewhere, at some

By George Weigel point, would do a “Civilization”-like series on Catholicism itself: a Grand Tour of the Catholic world that explored has now happened. The result is the most important media initiathe Church as a culture through tive in the history of the Catholic Church in the United States.

The man responsible for this dalupe, Saint Anne and Saint feat is Father Robert Barron, James, all in New Bedford, a priest of the archdiocese of were joined in 2004 to become Chicago and a faculty member Our Lady of Guadalupe at Saint at Mundelein Seminary. Father James Parish in that city. The Barron is an old friend (and a former Saint Stephen Parish in colleague on NBC’s Vatican Attleboro and the former Saint coverage), but I’ll risk the charge Mary Parish in Seekonk were of special pleading by stating unjoined in 2010 to become the equivocally that Father Barron’s Our Lady Queen of Martyrs “Catholicism,” a 10-part series Parish, Seekonk. In accordance premiering on public television with Canon Law, the decision of stations around the country this the bishop to issue the decrees fall, is a master work by a master on the Church of Saint Hedwig teacher. In 10 episodes that take and the Church of Saint Stephen the viewer around the Cathofollowed consultation with the lic world, from Chartres to the pastors of Our Lady of Guada- slums of Calcutta and dozens of lupe and Our Lady Queen of points in-between, Father Barron Martyrs Parishes, the respective lays out the Catholic proposal in parish’s leadership and the Pres- a visually-stunning and engagbyteral Council of the Fall River ing series of presentations that invites everyone into the heart Diocese.

Decrees issued

Bishop George W. Coleman has decreed that the Church of Saint Hedwig in New Bedford and the Church of Saint Stephen in Attleboro be relegated to profane but not sordid use.

These actions were taken in accord with Canon 1222, §2 of the Code of Canon Law. The decrees were given Friday, September 23, 2011 and will take effect on Thursday, October 13, 2011.

Relegation to profane use is a term used in Church law when a Church building is converted from sacred uses to secular uses and will no longer be used for Catholic liturgical worship.

The former Saint Hedwig Parish and the former Parishes of Nuestra Senora de Gua-

Father Barron’s ‘Catholicism’

The Catholic Difference

of the faith, which is friendship with Jesus Christ.

Having talked with Father Barron and his colleagues at Word on Fire, his media ministry, throughout the production of “Catholicism,” I can testify that this was a great labor of love: love for the Lord, love for the Church, and love for the truths the Church teaches. Yet there is nothing saccharine here, nothing cheesy, nothing pop-trendy. It’s Catholic Classic, not Catholic Lite, but John Cummings’ cinematography is so beautiful, Steve Mullen’s original score is so fetching (drawing on ancient chants in a thoroughly contemporary way), and Father Barron’s narration is so deft — the man has a genius for the telling example or analogy — that even the most difficult facets of Catholic belief and practice come alive in a completely accessible way.

At the center of it all is Jesus of Nazareth, posing that unavoidable and disturbing question: “Who do you say that I am?” Viewers of “Catholicism” will get to know many of the great minds and spirits who wrestled with that question over two millennia — Peter and Paul; Augustine and Thomas Aquinas and Dante; Teresa of Avila

and John of the Cross; Edith Stein and Katherine Drexel. But throughout the series, the focus keeps coming back to the Lord Jesus. “Catholicism” is built on the firm convictions that it is His Church and that it is His truth that measures all truth. Father Barron understands that postmodern culture poses special challenges for the proclamation of the Gospel. That’s why this committed believer, who is also a fine theologian, can sympathetically but forcefully invite his viewers into a thorough exploration of the Creed (an exploration deepened in the series’ companion book, “Catholicism: A Journey to the Heart of the Faith” [Doubleday]).

There is no dithering about the bad news, either: Father Barron knows that the Catholic Church is a community of sinners whose infidelities have often marred the face of the Lord. At the same time, Father Barron’s series displays the innumerable ways that the Catholic Church has been and remains a force for truth, decency, compassion, and sanity in an often-cruel world.

Watch it. Politely lobby your local public television station to show the series in its entirety.

Spread the word.

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

September 23, 2011

Stage Six sisters

Thursday 22 September 2011 Austill. It brought back a flood — Estes Park, Colo. — National of memories Centenarian’s Day I knew Anne and Isabel to recently visited my sister be what psychologist Lawrence Mary. She lives in “high Kohlberg called “Stage Six.” plains country,” “Mile High City,” on the “high grass prairie.”

Everything out there is Reflections of a so high.

We visited several Parish Priest local attractions. On a

By Father Tim short drive to the old Goldrick mining town of Idaho Springs, in a museum shop, I happened to pick up a book called “The Stage Six people are not like the Magnificent Mountain Women” rest of us. They have reached

by Janet Robertson. The title the highest level of moral desounded vaguely familiar. I velopment. They are as wholly thumbed through. There on human as God intended us to page 28 were my dear Cape Cod be. To be human means to be friends, the late Pifer sisters, holy. They live life to the full.

Isabel Pifer and Anne Pifer A person on this advanced level

I

The Ship’s Log

S

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The Anchor

God is bigger

illness, unemployment, war, or ometimes my perspective living in deprived or dangeron life gets skewed and ous circumstances. As is it with the obstacles in my path to living Machu Picchu or the Grand a victoriously Catholic life seem Canyon, we play little to no part to loom larger than God Himself. in the existence of these exterior It’s comparable to how a mounobstacles, but they do loom large tain appears to be larger than in our life’s path, often causing the sun setting behind it, even us to zig and zag in our faith though I know it’s really not. instead of walking steadily on.

In the middle of one of these I also saw that there could be times I sat down, opened up interior obstacles to faith in God. my Bible, and read the followThese interior blockades would ing from the book of Isaiah: “I will raise up Cyrus in my righteousness: I will make all his ways straight. He will rebuild my city and set my exiles free, but not for a price or reward, says the

By Heidi Bratton Lord” (Is 45:13).

Setting aside the obstacles to faith loombe things like simple ignorance ing my life’s path, I engaged in of the faith, misinformation or Cyrus’s story and wondered, “If confusion about the Good News, the shortest distance between mental illness, emotional trauma, two points is a straight line, why ego, and pride. A hiker in the wouldn’t Cyrus (or anyone) Judean desert whose canteen has journey in a straight line in the gone dry would be a good analfirst place?” An image formed ogy for the effects of interior obin my mind of Cyrus hiking stacles on our faith. Like bodily through the hill country of Israel, dehydration triggers mental and it occurred to me that at least disorientation, faith dehydration one good reason to zigzag on a triggers spiritual disorientation journey would be to get around causing a hiker to wander in physical obstacles such as steep circles instead of heading straight cliffs or deep canyons. Switch for an oasis/heaven. back trails such as the ones used I closed my Bible and conto hike up to Machu Picchu or sidered the various obstacles to down into the Grand Canyon are faith I had encountered in my good examples of this. lifetime. Sometimes God had While envisioning Cyrus miraculously leveled them. Oh, on his zigzag hike, I saw that how I loved that! Sometimes, obstacle to a person’s faith though, God had not cleared journey could be compared to my path, but instead given me obstacle in the path of Cyrus’s the grace and stamina to plow physical journey. Our life can be straight through or to trod strewn with exterior, inescapable around the obstacles. At other blockades to faith in God such times He had provided a travel as when and where we are born,

Homegrown Faith

routinely does what is right and just simply because it is right and just; people like Mother Teresa and the Mahatma Gandhi.

Not all Stage Six individuals, though, are household names. Don’t let that fool you. And don’t go by appearances. The frail elderly may very well be more fully alive than you are. They may be keepers of the key to wisdom.

Anne was born in Ohio in 1901 and Isabel two years thereafter. Anne enjoyed the outdoors: swimming, boating, and hiking. She loved to read, sing, and play the piano.

In 1920, Anne was 19 years old when she and her sister first arrived in Estes Park, Colo.,

companion to point out that, really, I was making mountains out of mole hills.

In all times past God had given me the same means to overcoming any and all obstacles to faith that He had given to Cyrus.

God gave Cyrus a purpose in life, a reason to keep on that was bigger than the obstacles to keeping on. Cyrus’ way was not straightened for the sake of being straight, but so that Cyrus could to freely rebuild God’s city and set God’s exiles free thereby bringing glory to God. Holding firm to a purpose that is bigger than the obstacles to achieving it is what allows Olympic athletes to endure grueling workouts and women to endure childbirth. It is what allowed Christ to endure the cross. And so, what is the biggest, Godgiven purpose for me to hold onto as I strive to overcome to the current obstacles in my life?

To show forth God’s goodness in all I say and do (1 Pt 2:9 and CCC 1-7). A big, but, all in all, a pretty straight forward purpose for life.

Straightening up from my time in prayer, I thanked God for straightening out my skewed perspective. Despite any appearance to the contrary, the sun is bigger than any mountain on the surface of the planet, and God is bigger than any exterior or interior obstacle in the way of our living victoriously Catholic lives.

Heidi is an author, photographer, and full-time mother of six. To contact her, email homegrownfaith@gmail.com.

where their father oversaw the YMCA Camp of the Rockies.

Anne graduated from the University of Denver with a degree in political science. After graduation, she and Isabel taught school in Estes Park.

It was in Estes Park that the Pifer sisters learned to climb mountains. This was a very daring thing for a woman to do at the time. Soon, the sisters Pifer became among the first licensed female mountain guides in the Rockies.

Anne and Isabel figured the right thing to do while leading a mountain climb was to know the lay of the land, watch the weather, carry sandwiches and fruit, and wear sensible clothing — corduroy trousers and knee-length laced boots. The 1922 photograph in the book shows my friend Anne wearing a middy-blouse and stylish neck scarf, but in those days these feminine touches were not enough to dissuade scandal at the sight of a woman in pants.

The Pifer sisters were beyond all that.

The sisters guided mountain tours up Longs Peak for four summers. They began their junkets well before dawn.

For Anne and Isabel, the most important thing was not reaching the peak but savoring the journey, pausing to take in the sights and sounds of nature, and praising God for Creation. They wouldn’t return to camp until about 8 p.m., just in time for a hot bath and supper.

In their spare time, the Pifer sisters climbed other local mountains. Anne told me of encountering a snarly she-bear and her two cubs; of being stalked by a huge mountain lion, and of taking lessons from an imported Swiss ski instructor (in 1923).

Anne eventually lived in 10 states. She went on to earn a master’s degree in Religious Ed-

ucation and social work; marry an Army chaplain, Colonel Bill Austill; raise two children of her own (and host international students from Japan, China, Lebanon, and Greece) and together with her husband led several world tours. The tour in 1964, for example, included Japan, Taiwan, Manila, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, India, Kashmir, Pakistan, Iran, Lebanon, Turkey, Greece and Italy.

The Anchor published a feature on Anne and her worldwide Nativity collection in December 1987.

Anne and her family continued to summer in the Rockies.

In 1991, the YMCA camp even held an “Anne Austill Day.” Anne was the guest of honor.

Then came the sad day her advanced age finally kept her from her beloved Rockies. Anne died in Cataumet in 1997 at the age of 96 years.

Anne was deeply aware of the needs of the world’s poor and dispossessed. During the Korean War, for three years she lived and worked in a rag picker’s settlement near Tokyo.

Neither was she was oblivious of the local poor. She directed a camp for underprivileged children for 12 years. The campers called her “Chief.” She spoke fondly of her time spent studying International Relations in Geneva, Switzerland. She followed international affairs her entire life. “God wants people to be whole,” said Anne. That would be Stage Six in psychological terms.

I closed the book on magnificent mountain women and brought it to the cashier. “I know women in this book,” I remarked. “That’s nice,” answered the clerk obligingly. I just smiled. Not a Stage Six person.

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

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The Anchor

September 23, 2011

A faithful parish servant for more than three decades

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

POCASSET — Those who regularly attend the 4 p.m. Saturday vigil Mass at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Pocasset probably refer to it by its more familiar name: “Jamie’s Mass.”

That’s because, with few exceptions, there’s a faithful altar server who makes a point of attending that Mass every week.

And if he’s not there, parishioners will often ask: “Where’s Jamie?”

A fixture at the parish for the past 33 years, Jamie Lambert began serving Masses when he was 17 years old; and he just celebrated his 50th birthday on September 9.

“I’m a 50-year-old man,” Lambert said, smiling. He then quickly pointed to his mother and father, revealing they were 85 and 86, respectively.

“He loves to tell people our ages,” his mother said.

Despite his Down syndrome, Lambert remains active in his parish activities and faithfully attends not only the 4 p.m. Saturday Mass, but also the 8 a.m. Saturday Mass and the 7:30 a.m. daily Masses on Monday through Friday with his parents, Marion and Ray. “On Sunday mornings, we sleep in,” his mother said, laughing. “I tell Jamie, don’t wake momma.”

The ninth child of 12 with whom God blessed the Lamberts, Jamie is always happy and, according to his mother, is often the first person his siblings seek out when they are down or feeling blue.

“He was the ninth child born on the ninth day of the ninth month,”

er his home and parish families. his father said.

“The parishioners really like Does that mean nine is his lucky him and they all ask about him,” he number? said. “And if anyone is a little bit “Nah,” Lambert said.

But Lambert does consider himself lucky to be able to serve Mass in a parish that has become his second home.

“I like being on the altar and serving Mass,” Lambert said. “All the people know me at church. They all say ‘hi’ to me.”

His mother said on occasional trips to other parishes or to Boston for the Special Olympics, Jamie is often recognized by even those outside of his parish.

“There’s always someone who recognizes him,” she said.

Lambert generally serves the daily Masses by himself and has become an invaluable asset to the parish.

“Jamie has been an altar server for many years,” said his pastor, Father Arnold Medeiros. “He is punctual and very dedicated and very proud to be on the altar and serving Mass. Anchor Person of the Week He is also very much Lambert. aware of what’s going on in the Sanctuary. One day I for- unhappy, he cheers them up.”

“He’s our gift. He keeps the got my Missalette and he promptly left to get it for me. I wish we had whole family closer,” his mother agreed. “Our boys all ask where he more like him.”

Lambert’s father said Jamie has is when he’s not around. He makes become the glue that holds togeth- everybody happy.”

His mother added she’s not surprised that Jamie has such a close connection to God and maintains a strong sense of faith.

“When he was born, they told us he wouldn’t live long,” she said. “People questioned why we would keep him. I would just say: ‘God gives you what you can cope with.’ And he’s been one of our greatest blessings.”

When he’s not busy with his parish, Lambert also maintains an active social life that includes spending his weekdays at Community Connections of Cape Cod, and keeping up with several hobbies such as coloring intricate patterns with colored markers.

“He does pretty good and takes his time with them,” his father said.

“I like coloring and puzzles,” Lambert said, “even the puzzles with small pieces. I’ll work on — Jamie them all day.”

His father said Jamie gets his daily exercise by either biking around the Scraggy Neck neighborhood where they live on Cape Cod or by swimming in the water adjacent to their home.

Lambert also enjoys bowling

and fishing.

“I caught a small one the other day, but I let it go,” Lambert said.

Lambert previously worked at the Daniel Webster Inn for 17 years, where he helped set up tables and assisted in the kitchen until foot problems forced him to give it up.

In nominating Lambert as Person of the Week, fellow parishioner and Faith Formation assistant Lori Marquez noted: “Jamie is such a huge part of St. John’s Parish. He always makes everyone smile and likes to make people laugh. Some of us think that he has a direct line to God’s ear, because he always looks at the crucifix above the altar like he is actually speaking to Jesus. He is so sweet and special; we all love him.”

Briefly retreating to his room, Lambert returns to proudly show off a handmade photo booklet, captioned like a comic book, that one of his parishioners made for him. It follows Lambert’s daily routine, step-by-step, of preparing for and serving Mass.

It’s clear he enjoys being a key participant in the Liturgy.

“My mom wakes me up every morning,” he said, “and I like getting up for Mass.”

“A woman who goes to daily Mass came up to me the other day and said she loves looking at Jamie on the altar,” his mother added.

“She said he looks up at the statue with so much piety.”

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

September 23, 2011

The Anchor

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The Anchor

September 23, 2011

Media send unhealthy messages to women, says Catholic talk show host

ROME (CNS) — A new book by a Catholic talk show host looks at how media and culture are sending unhealthy messages to women and how the Church can fill the emotional and spiritual void left behind.

The book, “Extreme Makeover: Women Transformed by Christ, Not Conformed to the Culture,” looks at how the culture is “going after women” and how women are hurt, “whether it be body image, eating disorders and sexual objectification,” said the book’s author, Teresa Tomeo.

Tomeo, a syndicated talk show host on Eternal Word Television Network, told Catholic News Service in Rome that women are pressured into being many different things to different people: a powerhouse professional, a flawless wife and beautiful woman.

She said much in society is contradictory: “We have all these advancements and yet we’re more objectified than ever.”

There’s a kind of “split personality” in the media, she said, when a newspaper or newscast reports on studies showing how influential media are on an audience, especially children, or studies showing ways women are still objectified.

“And then they turn around and promote sex at two in the afternoon in a soap opera or a commercial,” she said.

Women’s self-image is often distorted because of too much emphasis on youth, physical beauty and sexuality, she said.

Add to the mix the modernday “freedoms” of contraception, abortion, and sex outside of marriage and women end up being not more free or equal “but more in bondage, and you don’t realize it when you’re accepting it.”

“You have to go through your own crisis” to see there is another way, she said.

In her book, published by Ignatius Press, Tomeo details the personal crises she weathered — an eating disorder, a frenetic work ethic and a

crumbling marriage. She had been living distant from God, she said, and just accepted the current culture’s stereotypes wholesale.

“I realized I was living in the world so strongly, it consumed me. My career was everything and I let everything else slide and almost lost everything in the process,” she said.

Many people, whether they are religious or not, “are sick and tired of the way women are treated, the way families are treated and the way marriage is disrespected,” she said.

The women’s liberation movement failed to provide the solution, she said, because what brings freedom and dignity to women are in the teachings of Christ and the Catholic Church, Tomeo said.

“The Church has been teaching for 2,000 years that there is a plan” called natural law, she said.

Natural law, whose basic norms are reflected in the Ten Commandments, are rights and wrongs that are part of human nature and can be identified by the use of human reason, according to Church teaching.

Pope Benedict XVI has said natural law is the only sure foundation for regulating social life and can guarantee that people live in true freedom with their dignity respected.

Tomeo said it was becoming familiar with natural law and the Church’s writings on women and life that led her back to the Church.

In her book, Tomeo makes a considerable number of references to surveys, studies and research done by well-known secular organizations to support her arguments and show how natural law reveals itself in reality.

She said she hopes the book will inspire women, especially teens, to learn about the Catholic faith, study it, pray and find out who they are in Christ.

By transforming themselves, women can change the culture, she said, quoting St. Catherine of Siena: “When we are whom we are called to be, we will set the world ablaze.”

an eye for art — Rutger Hauer stars in a scene from the movie “The Mill and the Cross.” For a brief review of this film, see CNS Movie Capsules below. (CNS photo/Kino Lorber)

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

“Drive” (FilmDistrict) A dark and introspective drama about Driver (Ryan Gosling), a self-absorbed loner who lives for the open road but unexpectedly finds his conscience along the way.

By day, Driver is a stunt car driver for action movies, and fixes cars at the auto body shop run by Shannon (Bryan Cranston). By night, Driver and Shannon run heists around Los Angeles. Not content with petty crime, Shannon buys a race car for Driver, and seeks the backing of two mob bosses (Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman), who have more than NASCAR in mind. So does Driver, who embarks on a romance with his married neighbor, Irene (Carey Mulligan). When her husband (Oscar Isaac) is released from prison, Driver decides to help him with one final heist that goes terribly wrong. Brutal bloody violence and gore, upper female nudity, and frequent rough language. The Catholic News Service classification is O — morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

“I Don’t Know How She Does It” (Weinstein) Sarah Jessica Parker stars in this sentimental goo about a wife and mother struggling to succeed in high finance while juggling the needs of her husband and two young children. Director Doug McGrath and screenwriter Aline Brosh

McKenna, working from the novel

by Allison Pearson, create a gentle upper-crust world filled with wisecracking friends, warm parents, the occasional understanding boss and picture-postcard views of Boston and New York. A fleeting reference to abortion, frequent crude and crass language and fleeting profane language. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III — adults.

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

“Straw Dogs” (Screen Gems) Dreary Southern stereotypes and grotesque, by-rote violence devalue this pointless remake of the 1971 Sam Peckinpah film.

Director-screenwriter Rod Lurie moves the setting from England to deepest Mississippi for a repulsive story of how a peaceful man (Nick Marsden) becomes violent to defend his property. Two violent rapes, implied upper female nudity, frequent sexual banter, gun violence, pervasive gore, pervasive rough and crude language, fleeting profanity. The Catholic News Service classification is O — morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R — restricted. Under 17

requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

“The Mill & The Cross” (Kino Lorber) Ingenious blend of art history and filmmaking, inspired by a book-length study of Pieter Bruegel’s painting “The Way to Calvary,” stars Rutger Hauer as the Flemish artist, Michael York as his patron, and Charlotte Rampling as the Virgin Mary. Polish director Lech Majewski re-imagines the Passion, dramatizes a dark episode in the history of the Catholic Church, experiments with pictorial representation, and issues an appeal for religious tolerance — all without pretension or bias. Catholics won’t find the movie radical from a theological standpoint, since links between the paschal mystery and social justice are integral to the faith, yet the immersion in Bruegel’s masterpiece forces viewers to confront regrettable historical truths. Moderately graphic violence, including four crucifixions, several whippings and beatings, and a woman being buried alive; a few instances of groping; and brief frontal and rear female nudity. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III — adults. Not rated by the Motion Picture Association of America.

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on WLNE Channel 6 Sunday, September 25, 11:00 a.m.

Celebrant is Father Edward A. Murphy, Chaplain at Morton Hospital in Taunton

September 23, 2011

40 Days kickoff event is September 24

ATTLEBORO — This fall, 40 Days for Life vigilers hope new posters will encourage women to drive on by the abortion clinic to the pregnancy resource center just one mile west.

When the campaign begins on September 28, those who gather to pray outside the Four Women abortion clinic in Attleboro will hold large signs advertising the services of the Abundant Hope Pregnancy Resource Center. The center, which opened just four days before the last 40 Days campaign in March, provides women with free pregnancy tests, resources for abortion alternatives and accurate information about the risks of abortion.

The opening 40 Days event will be held at the monthly Knights of Columbus Mass for the Unborn at La Salette Shrine in Attleboro on September 24 at 4:30 p.m. The location is one mile east of the abortion clinic.

Darlene Howard, coordinator for 40 Days in Attleboro and member of the board of directors of Abundant Hope, told The Anchor that she wants pregnant women to know that the center is there to assist them. The center, which does not refer women for abortions, does counsel them on their options including parenting, adoption and abortion.

“We provide a calm, reassuring, objective atmosphere where you can think things through without pressure,” its website says. “You owe it to yourself to take the time to get the facts. All abortion procedures, including the abortion pill, have inherent risks that should not be ignored.”

The center also notes on its web-

site that a positive pregnancy test does not always indicate a viable pregnancy that will result in a live birth and that abortion clinics have a financial interest in a woman’s abortion decision.

The website refers to the women as mothers in need of “honest help” and instructs them on biological truths about their child.

“By eight weeks, your fetus has tiny toes, fingers, and ears. Sex was determined weeks ago at the time of conception: you have a boy or a girl! His or her heart is beating, and he or she responds to stimuli, including pain. Your fetus is in your body but he or she is not a part of your body,” the website says.

If women choose to keep their child, the center can provide them with parenting classes, financial advising, referrals to community resources as well as baby food, clothing and care items.

“Women are depending on them for those things,” said Howard. “We want them to know that there’s a friendly voice, someone to help them.”

Those praying for the unborn and their mothers at “Angel Park,” across the street from the only abortion facility in the Diocese of Fall River, also want to offer assistance.

“We’re not there to judge anyone. We’re there to help,” she said.

Those gathered want to show the women compassion and communicate to them that there are other options than the “terrible decision of abortion,” she said.

Howard added that sometimes there’s a perception that Pro-Life protesters are there to harass people. Over time, the community around the Attleboro park has come to understand the peaceful intentions of the vigilers of all ages who

pray quietly and greet those who pass by.

“People are waving instead of waving their middle finger,” Howard said, adding that sometimes people bring those praying coffee.

Though they cannot know how many unborn children may have been saved through their efforts, the change in people’s reaction to them indicates that their presence is making a difference, she said.

This will be the Attleboro group’s seventh campaign.

The nationwide 40 Days For Life has grown exponentially since the first campaign, conducted in College Station, Texas in 2004. The campaign is built on a foundation of prayer, fasting and peaceful vigil and takes a Christ-like approach to women entering abortion clinics.

This fall, 46 new locations will participate, bringing the total to nearly 300. Reports document 4,313 lives that have been spared from abortion since the first campaign, and as the 40 Days website indicates, not every life saved could possibly be confirmed. There have been 53 abortion workers who have quit their jobs — with some citing 40 Days as the reason they walked away from the abortion industry.

Many groups report that the campaigns have re-energized local ProLife efforts.

The 40 Days website encourages all to participate at their local vigil and acknowledges the fact that people are often apprehensive and unsure before their first visit.

“Concern about going to pray at the abortion facility is common and normal,” the site says. “The only sign you really need to bring is yourself, for you represent God’s love.”

For more information, visit www.40daysforlife.com/attleboro.

Denver (CNA/EWTN News) — Today, the Catholic Church remembers the Italian Franciscan priest St. Pio of Petrelcina, better known as “Padre Pio” and known for his suffering, humility and miracles.

The man later known by these names was originally named Francesco Forgione, born to his parents Grazio and Maria in 1887. His parents had seven children, two of whom died in infancy. They taught the five surviving children to live their faith through daily Mass, family prayer of the Rosary, and regular acts of penance.

Francesco had already decided at a young age to dedicate his entire life to God. At age 10, he felt inspired by the example of a young Capuchin Franciscan, and told his parents: “I want to be a friar — with a beard.” Francesco’s father spent time in America, working to finance his son’s education so he could enter the religious life.

On Jan. 22, 1903, Francesco donned the Franciscan habit for the first time. He took the new name Pio, a modernized Italian form of “Pius,” in honor of Pope St. Pius V. He made his solemn vows four years later, and received priestly ordination in the summer of 1910.

Shortly after, he first received the Stigmata — Christ’s wounds, present in his own flesh.

Along with these mystical but real wounds, Padre Pio also suffered health problems that forced him to live apart from his Franciscan community for the first six years of his priesthood. By 1916 he managed to re-enter community life at the Friary of San Giovanni Rotondo, where he lived until his death. He handled many duties as a spiritual director and teacher, covering for brothers drafted into World War I. During 1917 and 1918, Padre Pio himself briefly served in a medical unit of the Italian army. He later

offered himself as a spiritual “victim” for an end to the war, accepting suffering as a form of prayer for peace. Once again, he received the wounds of Christ on his body.

They would remain with him for 50 years, through a succession of global conflicts.

Against his own wishes, the friar’s reputation for holiness, and attending miracles, began to attract huge crowds. Some Church officials, however, denounced the priest and had him banned from public ministry in 1931. Pope Pius XI ended the ban two years later, and his successor Pius XII encouraged pilgrimages to Padre Pio’s friary.

Known for patient suffering, fervent prayer, and compassionate spiritual guidance, Padre Pio also lent his efforts to the establishment of a major hospital, the “Home to Relieve Suffering.”

Padre Pio died in 1968, and was declared a saint in 2002.

By Christine M. Williams Anchor Correspondent

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St. Padre Pio, ‘a man of prayer and suffering,’ celebrated today

Mass. bishops’ statement on expanded gambling legislation

September 16, 2011

Today, the issue of expanded gambling within the Commonwealth has once again come to the forefront of the public arena. We, the four bishops of the four dioceses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, again feel compelled to oppose the expansion of gambling in Massachusetts.

the poorest in the community.

Many of our churches, schools, and other nonprofit organizations rely upon bingo and other games-of-chance for relatively small amounts of revenue. We hope the citizens of the Commonwealth will recognize the difference between a local fund-raiser managed by volunteers and a multiWe understand that billion dollar industry that these are difficult times exploits vulnerable memfor many families within bers of the community for the Commonwealth of financial gain.

Massachusetts. The unemployment rate remains The gambling industry high, currently at 7.4 per- can threaten local busicent, thousands of fami- ness and change the entire lies continue to rely upon make-up of communities. state assistance to sur- If Massachusetts were to vive, and more and more pass the proposed gampeople are facing the bling legislation and open harsh realities of pover- the door for casinos and ty. Naturally, the state is slot parlors in our state, searching for new ways to it could diminish our rich increase revenue and cre- heritage and history as a ate jobs aimed at meeting Commonwealth. There is these difficult challenges too much at stake for Masand to bring about eco- sachusetts to open the door nomic stimuli. However, to expanded gambling. expanded gambling in the

form of slot parlors and We urge the Massachucasinos is an illusory so- setts State Senate not to lution to this complicated follow the lead of their problem. If anything, ex- colleagues in the House of panded, predatory gam- Representatives, but vote bling will only add to the against the expansion of need for state assistance predatory gambling. in the Commonwealth.

While the Catholic Church views gambling as a legitimate form of entertainment when done in moderation, the gaming legislation opens the door to a new form of predatory gaming which threatens the moral fabric of our society. We are concerned that the Commonwealth’s reliance on gambling revenue continues to escalate. This reliance upon an unstable form of revenue, which has been shrinking in other states, would depend upon those who are addicted to gambling, many of whom are already among the ranks of

Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley Archbishop Archdiocese of Boston

Most Rev. George W. Coleman Bishop Diocese of Fall River

Most. Rev. Timothy A. McDonnell Bishop Diocese of Springfield

Most Rev. Robert J. McManus Bishop Diocese of Worcester

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The Anchor

A voice and a view for the fieis continued from page one

of Portuguese communications, other parishes had begun to request that Mass be broadcast from their church. Realizing he could spread the cost of each production, Father Oliveira began to put together an annual schedule in four-month blocks to help accommodate the number of requests. Giving priority to those holding feasts for the patron saint of their parish or hosting a centennial celebration for the parish, Father Oliveira said maintaining an open dialogue with all those involved keeps the schedule running smoothly.

Lima, whose father owns the Portuguese Channel, said that juggling the schedule means making sure to look at the company calendar before heading out for a shoot.

“I’m just glancing at a calendar here and I can see 10 different churches and that’s just in a matter of three months. That’s been great,” said Lima.

All those involved, from the technicians to the priests, said Father Oliveira, “do their very best to present a high quality transmission that reflects the dignity of the eucharistic celebration. In the words of Bishop George W. Coleman, ‘They recognize the importance of this TV Mass apostolate.’”

A challenge of a different sort has begun to creep into the schedule. Parish mergers and the reassignment of priests have impact-

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ed the number of parishes that participate on a regular basis.

“Unfortunately, more recently there’s been a few churches that have closed down, which impacted us a little,” said Lima.

“And others, with all the changes being made in all the parishes, some of the Portuguese-speaking parishes still have pastors who speak Portuguese, but maybe not as comfortably as the ones before them. Some have opted out of the television masses.

“We’re hoping that we’ll be able to maintain the churches we have now, but it is becoming more and more difficult. Every Sunday, we look forward to going to the different churches and helping out our elderly and the Portuguese community in any way we can. It is becoming more difficult but what I see for the future, if it continues on this path, it’s not good if these churches continue to close and continue to struggle the way that it has recently; the future may not be so great for the Masses. I hope I’m wrong. I hope I’m very wrong and hope it’s the exact opposite and that the situation can turn around and improve.”

Father Oliveira said that the continuing support of the bishop has helped sustain this “essential apostolate in our diocese” but has faith that even as he gets older, the Portuguese community will not lose out on seeing prayer, the “heart and soul of Sunday

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New bronze crucifix is blessed, dedicated Mass,” televised in their home.

Having been part of the Portuguese Channel for more than 16 years, Lima said that it’s important that the channel continue to serve the community.

And while the Portuguese voices from the altar may have grown slightly more silent, the Portuguese viewers’ voices from home have not.

“We’re constantly getting positive feedback. I just got a call from somebody who was watching the repeat of the Mass at St. John’s,” said Lima, of the airing that showed the celebration of the 140th anniversary of St. John the Baptist Parish in New Bedford. “He loved it, and it was an English-speaking person but second-generation Portuguese. It’s good to see that they’re watching and that they participate, even if it’s not at Mass but through television. That was great.

“He called just to say that we did a wonderful job and that he was happy with the work that he saw. That was nice to hear. A lot of times, as you can imagine, we get complaints, so it was nice to hear. We get positive feedback all the time, not only from the parishioners or from people that watch it on television, but from the priests as well.

“That makes it all worthwhile, and gives us the desire and drive to continue to do this for a long time. Every Sunday is a big commitment to go, it’s the same guys and it can get tiring after a while.

There is no disrespect; it just is an enormous commitment. When you hear those positive things, that positive feedback, it makes it all worthwhile. We hope to continue to do this for many more years. It’s a very important part of our programming and it’s important to the people who are home watching it at home as well.”

continued from page one

lumbarium wall, Father Healey said it’s traditional to mark the holy ground with a crucifix.

“Instead of something we ordered out of a catalog, this was something that was carefully, painstakingly and lovingly created by a parishioner and that makes it especially meaningful for us,” he said. “This project wouldn’t have been possible if the parishioners hadn’t gotten behind it and supported it with their contributions. I think it’s stunning and it will be something beautiful and inspirational for people for years to come.”

A former professor at Cape Cod Community College for 30 years who was trained in business administration, Johnson only began dabbling in sculpture in his late 40s. But from the beginning, he’s always been drawn to religious imagery and artwork.

“The focus of my art has always been religious depictions,” he said. “I’ve found just a wealth of imagery and spiritual growth doing this. Just about every piece I’ve ever done has had a religious theme.”

Johnson began this latest project by sculpting a small model of the crucifix for Father Healey’s approval; he then started building a life-sized armature or steel frame to hold the various pieces of the sculpture together. A combination of Styrofoam and clay was used to “add bulk” to it and he used an old beam for the upright portion of the cross, opting to sculpt the horizontal cross beam himself.

For his depiction of Jesus as a “physically thin but rugged person, about five-feet-11-inches tall,” Johnson had several male models pose in his studio.

“I actually had 11 models

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50 years ago — Bishop James L. Connolly blessed St. Anne’s Convent in St. Peter’s Parish, Provincetown. Located on Court Street, the new home for the Love of God Sisters would house six nuns and contain a chapel and 10 rooms.

25 years ago — St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Fall River celebrated its 75th anniversary year with a special pontifical Mass celebrated by Bishop Daniel A. Cronin. Other concelebrants included Father Evaristo Tavares, pastor, and Father Maurice Sousa, a retired parochial vicar.

who posed for me — some of them actually hung on a cross with hand straps so that I could get the anatomy correct,” he said.

Now that the project has come to fruition, Johnson is reluctant to take all the credit for the finished product. He first gives credit to the Holy Spirit, then to the many fellow parishioners and people who helped him with suggestions, donations and support.

“I was trying to let go and let God work through me,” he said.

“People also look at a work of art and assume it’s the work of one person, but this is really the work of more than 200 of God’s people who participated in one way or another. We’ve had 135 donors who helped fund the project along with a lot of prayers along the way.”

With the finished bronze crucifix installed and blessed, Johnson said he himself feels blessed to have been able to create an enduring representation of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.

“Now it’s in a glorious setting with a granite wall behind it with the names of loved ones of donors on it,” Johnson said.

“It just glorifies the statue and it will draw people to our 24hour adoration chapel, because it’s right at the entrance to the grounds. I think this will only enhance the overall experience.”

Looking back over the more than five years it took to complete the sculpture, Johnson said the finished artwork has exceeded his own expectations.

“My goal was to provide a personal encounter with Christ when standing in front of the crucifix,” he said. “I’m trying to keep my ego out of it, but I’m just elated with the final results.”

Diocesan history 10 years ago — Memorial Masses were held throughout the diocese for locals who died in the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The initial reports of those dead included Holy Cross Father Francis Grogan, 76, former superior of the congregation’s Mission House in North Dartmouth.

One year ago — More than 100 people joined statues of Our Lady of Good Voyage and St. Joseph, along with the PortugueseAmerican Band, to make the trek from Our Lady’s Chapel on Pleasant Street in New Bedford to the city’s State Pier in the annual Our Lady of Good Voyage procession.

September 23, 2011

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The Anchor

Wareham parish names new K of C council after Holy Cross priest lost in 9/11 tragedy

By Dave Jolivet, Editor

WAREHAM — A few short weeks before he boarded United Flight 175 at Logan International Airport in Boston on Sept. 11, 2001, Holy Cross Father Francis Grogan spent the summer ministering at St. Patrick’s Parish in Wareham.

The 76-year-old priest celebrated Masses there and anything else he could do to help out before he headed to the West Coast to visit family before beginning a new assignment with the Congregation of Holy Cross Fathers.

Father Grogan never made it to California, having unwittingly become a victim of the horrendous terrorist attacks against the United States when the airliner on which he traveled crashed into the south tower of the World Trade Center.

“He was such a gentile priest,” St. Patrick’s parishioner Rich Zopatti Jr. told The Anchor. “My wife Nancy and I are extraordinary ministers of holy Communion and that summer we got to know and enjoy Father Grogan.

You could easily talk to him. He had no pretenses and he had a great deal of experience that he brought to his ministry here. He was a good priest for me and I’m sure for others.”

Zopatti and his wife also shared another bond with Fa-

of a council named after Father Grogan,” Zopatti added. “We have a great group of guys who are not afraid to get involved in the parish and help others. They all feel good about this. Father

Knights of Columbus council emerged from the Wareham parish, encompassing St. Patrick’s and its mission St. Anthony’s in West Wareham. Zopatti became the fledgling council’s financial secretary.

At a meeting this past April,

ately I thought of Father Grogan and suggested we name the council after him. The motion passed right away.”

From then on, Council No. 15280 was known as the Father Francis Grogan Council. “I consider it an honor to be a member

Grogan had the same qualities.”

The new council contacted Father Grogan’s sister living in California and told her about the motion to name the group after her brother. “She said that she and the family were very happy that people in Massachu-

setts would want to remember her brother in that way,” Zopatti said. “She was very honored.”

Zopatti said he and his wife were devastated when they found out their friend was on board one of the jets that plunged into the Twin Towers that fateful day. “We were shocked.” he said, “This was the first time something like this ever happened to someone we knew, dying in a means like this.”

Pastor Father John M. Sullivan and Father Ron P. Floyd celebrated a special Mass and service at St. Patrick’s Church on the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

Labeled a “Blue Mass,” the Liturgy was attended by members of the Wareham police and fire departments, EMS and emergency services workers, the Knights of Columbus and many parishioners. The event remembered all those who lost their lives or were affected by the attacks of September 11. Also remembered at the Mass and service was Father Grogan.

“The Mass was well attended,” Zopatti told The Anchor.

“And about 80 percent who attended the Mass stayed for the ceremony at the flag pole afterwards.” Testimony to the man who ministered to the parish in the summer of 2001 and what he meant to them as a priest and a human being.

director Steven Spielberg.

An ardent fan of baseball — and the first woman journalist to enter the Red Sox locker room — she also penned the bestselling “Wait till Next Year: A Memoir” about growing up in 1950s New York following the fortunes of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Goodwin served as a White House Fellow in 1967 and became a special assistant to President Lyndon B. Johnson during his final year in the White House. Upon his retirement, she began a decade of work as a professor of Government at Harvard University, from which she had earned her Ph.D. in that subject. During breaks from Harvard in her early years there, she would travel to the Johnson ranch in Texas to assist the ex-president in the preparation of his memoir, which was published in 1971.

Within a few years of Johnson’s death, Goodwin’s own conversations with the former president became the foundation of her first book.

Goodwin can be seen often as a panelist on “Meet the Press” and other news shows and is frequent contributor to publications on political and baseball matters. She and her husband Richard live in

Concord, Mass.

“We are honored to have Doris Kearns Goodwin join us for our 20th annual St. Mary’s Education Fund Fall Dinner,” said din-

rishioner of Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Parish in Seekonk, is on board as Fall Dinner chairman for a second year after serving as a longtime member of the Attleboro area planning committee.

The annual Fall Dinner is one of two principal yearly fund-raisers to support the St. Mary’s Education Fund. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the St. Mary’s Education Fund has brought a Catholic education within the financial reach of thousands of students by providing need-based partial tuition assistance.

In the 2010-2011 academic year alone, the fund provided $607,000 in tuition assistance to 735 students. Fund administrators anticipate that at least as many students will receive support in the current school year by the time all disbursements are made.

In a recent letter on the St. Mary’s Education Fund, Bishop George W. Coleman recalled something Pope Benedict XVI said regarding Catholic education during his 2008 U.S. visit: “No child should be denied his or her right to an education in faith, which in turn nurtures the soul of a nation.”

Renewing his request for support of the St. Mary’s Education

Fund, the bishop went on to write, “Together we can continue to provide financial aid to those children who would otherwise be denied the opportunity to receive what the pope terms ‘an education in faith.’

With the help of your contribution, we can ‘nurture the soul’ of the next generation.”

The Fall Dinner will feature a reception and an extensive multicourse meal followed by a program to include a video snapshot of Catholic schools and the guest speaker’s presentation.

Tamburro and committees in four areas of the diocese are now reaching out to businesses and individuals to extend an invitation to sponsor a table or purchase a ticket for the Fall Dinner in support of tuition assistance.

Leading the area committees are, in Attleboro, Paul Lenahan; in Fall River, Nick Christ; in New Bedford, Jim Kalife; and in Taunton, Harry Rose.

Those interested in supporting the Fall Dinner or obtaining more information on the St. Mary’s Education Fund, should contact Mike Tamburro, any area committee chairman, or Michael Donly at the diocesan Development Office at 508-675-1311.

ther Grogan. Both are alumni of Stonehill College, having attended when the priest was assistant registrar there.

Nearly 10 years after Father Grogan’s tragic death, a new

the group met to establish a name. “The district deputy suggested we call it St. Patrick-St. Anthony’s Council,” said Zopatti who has been with the Knights since 1988. “Almost immedi-

PRAYERS FOR THE NATION — On September 11, St. Patrick’s Parish in Wareham had a “Blue Mass” followed by a prayer service before the flag pole flying Old Glory in front of the church where they prayed together with fire fighters, police, EMS and emergency service workers and in remembrance of all those who gave their lives 10 years ago trying to save those affected by the terrorist attacks.

Pulitzer Prize-winner is guest speaker at St. Mary’s Fund Fall Dinner

WESTPORT — Doris Kearns Goodwin, the Pulitzer Prize winning biographer and historian, will be the featured speaker at this year’s St. Mary’s Education Fund Fall Dinner.

The Fall Dinner will take place on Wednesday, November 30, at White’s of Westport beginning with a 5:30 p.m. reception.

Proceeds from the annual event benefit the St. Mary’s Education Fund, which provides need-based financial scholarships to students at Catholic elementary and middle schools throughout the Fall River Diocese.

Goodwin is the author of several best-selling biographies of U.S. presidents including “Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream,” “The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys,” and “No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The American Home Front during World War II,” which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1995.

Her most recent book, published in 2005, looked at the 16th president of the United States.

“Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln” became a New York Times #1 Bestseller, won numerous book awards and is now being turned into a movie by

Doris Kearns Goodwin

ner chairman Mike Tamburro. “It should be a memorable night for the St. Mary’s Education Fund, and we invite the community to join us both in welcoming this celebrated author and commentator and in raising funds to assist so many deserving youngsters of the Fall River Diocese.”

Tamburro, who is president of the Pawtucket Red Sox and a pa-

16

Youth Pages

9/11 tribute — The students at Bishop Feehan High School in Attleboro honored the memory of the victims of 9/11 with prayer, reflection and a moment of silence. All students stood for a special morning prayer dedicated to those who suffered, and still do, from the tragic event. Students remained standing while the “National Anthem” and “God Bless America” were sung over the public address system by Sarah Fischbach and Meghan Murray. The students sat in silence and reflected upon the freedom that God has given them. This was followed by a 10-bell salute for the 10th anniversary and a silent procession to class. Katherine Perry and Ryan Semple raise the flag to half-staff.

September 23, 2011

solemn march — Msgr. Stephen J. Avila led students at St. Mary’s School in Mansfield in prayer in memory of September 11. Students joined him in a decade of the Rosary before a moment of silence. Seventh-grade students paraded the grounds of the school displaying the Flag of Honor.

giving them a hand — Students from St. James-St. John School in New Bedford honored the service men and women and all the lives lost during September 11 and all their heroes during a special Mass and created a flag made of all the students, faculty, and staff handprints. The students also wrote letters and made card for our soldiers.

papal appreciation — This past spring, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated the 60th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood. At that time, the fifth-grade students in Sister Mary Dumond’s class at St. John the Evangelist School in Attleboro sent His Holiness a handmade card of congratulations. With the entire class, Alexander Simoneau holds a photo of the pope and Abby Quinn holds the thank you note sent to the students from Msgr. Peter B. Wells, Vatican assessor.

it’s an honor — Bishop Connolly High School in Fall River announced its newly-elected officers of The National Honor Society for the 2011-2012 school year. This year’s officers are: President Peter Le, Vice President Mary Catherine Maher, Secretary Julianne Earle, and Treasurer Kristyn Furtado.

Youth Pages

September 23, 2011

O

ne day last week, my alarm went off and as is part of my morning routine, I turned on the “Today Show” to get the latest sound-bytes of what was going on in the world.

Amazed at what I saw emanating from the television, I was hooked.

There on the screen a group of men and women, whom I could only assume at the time were strangers, lifted a burning BMW sedan and pulled a man out from underneath it.

Apparently, 21-year-old Brandon Wright drove his motorcycle and crashed into the BMW. The gas tank of the motorcycle caught fire, ignited flames in the BMW all while Brandon lay trapped underneath falling in and out of consciousness. According to one news report, six people witnessed Brandon trapped underneath and tried to lift the car but to no avail. They then recruited several more people to assist while a young woman lay on the ground to check if Brandon was

And then a hero comes along

still alive. These “heavy lifters” accident, the media and Brandon and strangers united together to himself have called the strangers save Brandon’s life by lifting the who saved his life heroes. Yet, burning car and pulling his body when one of the rescuers was to safety. interviewed, he stated that he Two days later, Brandon’s doctor stated that had these Good Samaritans not lifted the car, Brandon’s injuries could have been fatal.

As I watched the story

By Crystal Medeiros unfold, a refrain from Mariah Carey’s popular song “Hero” kept replaying in my head.

“And then a hero comes didn’t want to be called a hero along, explaining that he was just doing With the strength to carry on, what anyone would do.

And you cast your fears aside, Unfortunately, there are And you know you can survive, many instances where people So when you feel like hope is will not intervene on behalf of gone, their fellow man because they Look inside you and be strong, do not want to become involved.

And you’ll finally see the truth, Perhaps most of us would have That a hero lies in you.” stopped to help Brandon out from These men and women put underneath that burning car. But their own safety aside to truly of the 12 or so who helped him, help someone in need. Since the how many people kept walking

Be Not Afraid

Does Mario go to Mass? Catholic gamers and the video game industry

NEW YORK (CNS) — Is it possible to be a faithful Catholic and a video gamer?

That’s a question all Catholic gaming enthusiasts — including the young adults at whom many of the industry’s offerings are primarily targeted — must ask themselves as this medium continues to develop and expand its influence over contemporary society.

Once upon a time, back in the 1980s and early 1990s, classic games such as “Pac-Man” and “Super Mario Bros.” raised few if any moral issues. So youthful Catholics could casually — and comfortably — pick up whatever new release was available at the local store. There was no need for them to worry that the sensitivities of their faith would be assaulted or that troublesome opinions would be aggressively foisted on them by game developers.

Things are different, of course, in the second decade of the 21st century. The world of video games has never been more exciting or more innovative. Instead of the primitive platforms of 30 years ago or the basic, blocky shooters available 10 years after that, today’s games are accompanied by hyper-realistic graphics and complex, multifaceted storylines. In short, the best of them present an entire alternate reality just waiting to be explored.

It would be uselessly contrarian to deny that this is, in itself, a positive thing. Yet, along with such increased sophistication, come a number of difficulties and

17

dilemmas for gamers striving to stay faithful to Christ and His Church.

The Catholic gamer knows that, as with most things in our modern world, there are aspects of this pastime we can enjoy, but also aspects we would be well advised to avoid. This process of discernment can sometimes be easy; all too often, it can prove extremely difficult.

When initially making a purchase, for example, the consumer is frequently flying blind, with no knowledge of all that the game will ultimately contain. And, unlike a $15 movie ticket or an even less expensive video rental, where the option always exists simply to walk out of the theater or turn off the disc, a $60 product to which the buyer has already devoted some hours of play is likely to be a lot harder to just set aside and forget.

This belated discovery that a game’s content is tasteless and/ or morally offensive is one of the most frustrating aspects of being a Catholic gamer, especially with increasingly stringent returns policies being enforced.

That’s where Catholic News Service hopes its video game reviews will come in handy. In keeping with CNS’ approach to assessing other media, games will be analyzed from a faith perspective as well as providing a summary of their aesthetic and technical qualities. The emphasis will not be on condemning, but on providing guidance.

Along with informing young

adult and older gamers — and, of course, parents — about objectionable content (i.e., gore, language and sexuality), CNS also will provide a theological assessment of the issues and themes raised within each game. We’ll examine what sort of message the game is attempting to promote, what the motivations of its lead characters are, and what sort of mindset it’s encouraging. In this way, we hope to explore the full range of spiritual and moral questions posed by interactive entertainment.

Given that readers may have differing levels of tolerance for certain content, reviewers will note in some detail the potentially offensive elements each game includes, and assign a classification indicating its appropriate audience — from everyone to no one at all. These classifications will be identical with those used in CNS’ film reviews; game reviews also will carry the Entertainment Software Rating Board’s rating.

As experienced gamers themselves, CNS’ reviewers recognize the importance of a title’s technical distinction. So, while their work will focus primarily on matters of philosophical outlook and morality, the quality of the game-play will by no means be ignored.

So to the initial question of whether a faithful Catholic can also be an avid gamer, the answer is an emphatic yes. But prudence is required — and so too, perhaps, is the well-grounded advice of some like-minded fellow players.

or driving by?

As young people and even adults, how many times do we witness someone bullied by another person or group of people and turn our heads the other way assuming that someone else will intervene? How about to the poor who stand with their hand out hoping for some miniscule amount of money to buy a meal?

Do we take the time to help them when we can or do we simply assume that they will use the money to score drugs or buy alcohol? Have we lost faith in our fellow man?

When I first heard that rescuer’s response that he did not consider himself a hero, immediately I disagreed with him because I bought into the sensationalism and the media and cultural need to label a simple act of human kindness as heroism.

Could it be that we have this need to do so because not enough of

us complete those random acts of kindness or place the needs of someone else before our own?

Perhaps. Instead, this rescuer and all of the others who joined him simply assisted a fellow human being in need.

Is this not what Jesus teaches us in Scripture? Not only does Jesus give us the greatest commandment: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself,” (Lk 10:27). But He gives us The Beatitudes as well.

These are the “guidelines” given us to by Jesus to be His true disciples.

It is how we can “finally see the truth” that a hero lies in each and every one of us if we simply cast our fears aside and follow Him. Crystal is assistant director for Youth & Young Adult Ministry for the diocese. She can be contacted at cmedeiros@dfrcec.com.

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

18

The Anchor

Courage — A compassionate arm of the Church continued from page one

is a ministry that wants people living with same-sex attractions to understand that they “are children of God.” “Courage is more than just the Church saying ‘no’ to acting on same-sex attraction urges,” he continued. As with everything in the Church, to every no is a yes.”

And the yes is that they possess a human dignity, a shared human nature, and “the feelings that they have do not define them.

Their identity is not collapsed into sexual inclinations. They are for more rich and complex than that.”

Listed at the Courage website (couragec.net) are the five goals of the ministry, created by members themselves when the apostolate was created: to live chaste lives in accordance with the Roman Catholic Church’s teaching on homosexuality; to dedicate one’s life to Christ through service to others, spiritual reading, prayer, meditation, individual spiritual direction, frequent attendance at Mass, and the frequent reception of the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Holy Eucharist; to foster a spirit of fellowship in which all may share thoughts and experiences, and so ensure that no one will have to face the problems of homosexuality alone; to be mindful of the truth that chaste friendships are not only possible but necessary in a chaste Chris-

tian life and in doing so provide encouragement to one another in forming and sustaining them; and to live lives that may serve as good examples to others.

Father Check said that many individuals with same-sex attractions have a desire to adhere to Church teaching. “What people are looking for is help from the Church,” he said. “They want to be able to trust the Church. In fact I hear from many people, ‘I had no idea the Church had such an apostolate as Courage.’”

Father Check said that the Church realizes that same-sex feelings do exist. “The Church knows its a lived reality for some people,” he said. The “Catechism of the Catholic Church” expresses that same-sex attraction is a disorder, but acting on the feelings does not bring true happiness. “It’s not just about theological anthropology,” he said. “We also look at the psychological sciences involved.

We want to understand why they have same-sex attractions. Often there is a deep-seeded emotional wound at the heart of it.”

He added that individuals with same-sex attractions usually chose one of two options with regards to their feelings. “The first is that the person chooses radical isolation, in that there is a sadness and a shame. They are afraid to talk about it to anyone, including family, friends and

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clergy. The second option is by choosing to live the gay lifestyle.

“Often individual with samesex attractions have low self esteem. The shame they feel can impede their seeking help from the Church. They feel incomplete as human beings. Courage helps them overcome that.”

As with abortion, contraception, cohabitation and divorce, same-sex attraction is, according to Father Check, one of the “cultural controversies” of this era of which “the Church had to raise her voice.”

“As Christ said to the woman caught in adultery in John 8, Christ says ‘nor do I condemn you,’ to those with same-sex attractions,” Father Check told The Anchor. “There’s a vulnerability of all human nature, but Christ adds ‘go and sin no more.’ He calls everyone to conversion.”

The reaction of those who regularly attend Courage meetings has been very positive, he said.

“There is a sense of gratitude and relief knowing that someone will listen to them,” added Father Check. “People realize that they aren’t limited to the two choices mentioned earlier. They learn what the Church teaches and why. They feel comfortable going where they are understood and welcome. There’s a thanksgiving.

“Often its the testimonies of those who come to the meetings that is of the most benefit. They know what they are feeling and the conflicts, and they know the Church’s pastoral response.”

For anyone wishing to obtain information about Courage and what it can offer those struggling with same-sex attractions, Father Check suggests visiting the website (couragec.net). “In privacy, men and women can read on the site and gain a lot of self-understanding about the Church’s teachings, about Courage chapters and listings,” he said. “Individuals are more than welcome to call the national office or email us. We are happy to hear from people.”

People should know that the meetings are discreet and offer an environment of complete trust and confidentiality. “No one is made to say anything they don’t want to and we don’t publicly post times and places of meetings,” he said.

“Also,” Father Check added, “priests struggling with these feelings should know that there is a great desire for their brother priests to help them. Courage offers them the same confidentiality and we offer small group meetings and retreats. There is fraternal support and help offering the love of Christ the High

September 23, 2011 Priest.”

The national Courage office desires to make the support Courage offers available to more people. “We would like parish priests to know that there is a way to help their parishioners struggling with these feelings, that there is a way to help minister to the souls in their care.

There is an increasing need for parish priests to have knowledge of the Church’s teaching and also the science of it and the biological theories involved. We want to help them to be spiritual fathers to them.”

The website offers valuable

information in this regard, and there are annual conferences for priests who want to learn more.

“But the best way to learn is by actually sitting with members,” Father Check added.

“Courage is not just a support group,” Father Check said. “It’s Christ’s actual reaching out to them. It’s not just about prayers and the Sacraments. It’s about the whole human person.”

For more information about the Courage Apostolate visit couragec.net, or for information about the Fall River diocesan chapter, call Father Richard Wilson at 508-992-9408.

I’ll have cider instead

W

hile researching information for an Anchor article, I discovered that I have been writing a column for this fine publication for a dozen years now. The topic for my very first Anchor column was, of course, the Boston Red Sox. Entitled, “Lord, why did you frown on the Red Sox?” the work of art that ran in the Oct. 22, 1999 edition lamented the fact that the 20th century was coming to a close and I, and an untold number of other Red Sox loonies had never seen a World Series championship. And worse yet, we had to watch the N.Y. Yan-

My View From the Stands

By Dave Jolivet kees in the 1999 fall classic (a four-game sweep by the Yanks).

I concluded the column this way: “And I know I’m not supposed to question You God, but one last quick one. ‘If the Red Sox drought is to be perpetual, why was I born in New England?’ The Lord’s response was, ‘It was either there or Chicago.’”

A lot has changed since my heartfelt plea to the Almighty 12 years ago: The Red Sox have won two World Series, and even one of the Chicago teams got one, the White Sox. The Cubbies, not so much.

But the more things change the more they stay the same.

Here we are again sweating out the home stretch of the 2011 baseball season, desperately hanging on to our postseason aspirations.

Those who have read or tolerated my column for the last dozen years know that I am not a big fan of many of the famous adages out there; phrases like “Everything happens for a reason,” and similar “glass is half

full,” sentiments. Another one is “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”

Allow me to alter that one a bit to fit the season and the circumstances: “When given rotten apples, brew hot apple cider.” Makes me all cozy inside.

Despite the Home Towne Team’s nail-biting finish, the sports world has recently provided some apple cider moments for me.

It’s been nice to see a couple of nice guys rewarded for their years of hard work and dedication: The Red Sox’ Tim Wakefield getting his 200th career win, and the Yankees’ Mariano Rivera setting the alltime record for saves. Two class acts. There are no steroid scandals involving Wakefield. Why should there be? Juicing would only give him a 74-mile-per-hour knuckleball instead of one at 72 m.p.h.

Also, the recent surge by the Tampa Bay Rays has been refreshing for baseball. The Rays may sneak into the playoffs despite an anemic payroll compared with the rich kids, the Yanks and Sox, and they’re actually having fun playing the game of baseball. And their skipper, Joe Madden, is my kind of boss.

In the football world, it’s nice to see the early success of the Buffalo Bills. Despite the fact that they play in the AFC East with the Patriots, I’m hoping they give us a run for our money (Sunday and all season). Those poor folks sit through some of the worst weather in the country to cheer on their Bills. I hope they’ll have some cider to keep them warm this season.

Should the Red Sox fall short this season, it’s OK, I won’t question the Almighty this year.

I know there’s plenty of cider to go around. That and things aren’t so desperate as 12 years ago.

September 23, 2011

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 — St. Joseph Church holds eucharistic adoration in the Adoration Chapel located at the (south) side entrance at 208 South Main Street, Sunday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Brewster — Eucharistic adoration takes place in the La Salette Chapel in the lower level of Our Lady of the Cape Church, 468 Stony Brook Road, on First Fridays following the 11 a.m. Mass until 7:45 a.m. on the First Saturday, concluding with Benediction and Mass. buzzards Bay — Eucharistic adoration takes place at St. Margaret Church, 141 Main Street, every first Friday after the 8 a.m. Mass and ending the following day before the 8 a.m. Mass.

East 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 — Eucharistic adoration takes place at the Corpus Christi Parish Adoration Chapel, 324 Quaker Meeting House Road, Monday through Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday, 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. Also, 24-hour eucharistic adoration takes place on the First Friday of every month.

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, following the 8 a.m. Mass until Benediction at 8 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 8:00 a.m. Mass until Rosary and Benediction at 6:30 p.m.

FALL RIVER — Notre Dame Church, 529 Eastern Ave., has eucharistic adoration on Fridays from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. in the chapel.

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

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

FALL RIVER — Good Shepherd Parish has eucharistic adoration every Friday following the 8 a.m. Mass until 6 p.m. in the Daily Mass Chapel. There is a bilingual Holy Hour in English and Portuguese from 5-6 p.m. Park behind the church and enter the back door of the connector between the church and the rectory.

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

HYANNIS — A Holy Hour with eucharistic adoration will take place each First Friday at St. Francis Xavier Church, 347 South Street, beginning immediately after the 12:10 p.m. Mass and ending with adoration at 4 p.m.

MASHPEE — Christ the King Parish, Route 151 and Job’s Fishing Road has 8:30 a.m. Mass every First Friday with special intentions for Respect Life, followed by 24 hours of eucharistic adoration in the Chapel, concluding with Benediction Saturday morning followed immediately by an 8:30 Mass.

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

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

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

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

OSTERVILLE — Eucharistic adoration takes place at Our Lady of the Assumption Church, 76 Wianno Avenue on First Fridays from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and every Friday from noon to 5 p.m., with Benediction at 5 p.m.

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

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

WAREHAM — Adoration with opportunities for private and formal prayer is offered on the First Friday of each month from 8:30 a.m. until 8 p.m. at St. Patrick’s Church, High Street. The Prayer Schedule is as follows: 7:30 a.m. the Rosary; 8 a.m.

Mass; 8:30 a.m. exposition and Morning Prayer; 12 p.m. the Angelus; 3 p.m. Divine Mercy Chaplet; 5:30 p.m. Evening Prayer; 7 p.m. Sacrament of Confession; 8 p.m.

Benediction.

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

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

19

The Anchor Willie R. Frechette

Osterville — Willie R. Frechette, 96, father of Father Thomas A. Frechette, died September 3, after a brief illness.

He was born Sept. 6, 1914, in Lewiston, Maine, one of 10 children to Joseph and Clarina (Roux) Frechette.

Following service in the Army in WWII, he married in 1946 the late Mary Della (Adams) Frechette of Osterville. In 1947 they bought the family home, where they raised their family for more than 60 years.

During his military service in the U.S. Army he honed his culinary skills, later developing this into a career, which saw him serve as a cook at several local restaurants, including the former Osterville Manor and the East Bay Lodge. He later became chef at the Barnstable High School and served in this position for 20 years.

He was a parishioner of Our Lady of the Assumption Parish in Osterville, and a regular worshiper at daily Mass.

He is survived by his children, his priest son; Sister Marie Frechette, MSBT, of Charlotte, N.C.; Robert A. Frechette of Rio Rancho, N.M.; John A. Frechette of Yarmouthport; Carol A. (Frechette) Gonneville of Forestdale; and seven grandchildren. Emile Frechette and Cecile (Frechette) Poulin, both of Lewiston, also survive him.

A funeral Mass was celebrated at Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Osterville, with burial at St. Francis Xavier Cemetery, Centerville. Donations in his memory may be sent to the Missionary Ser-

In Your Prayers Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks Sept. 24 Rev. Joseph E.C. Bourque, Pastor, Blessed Sacrament, Fall River, 1955

Sept. 25 Rev. Robert J. Woodley, S.J., Missionary, Taunton, New Bedford, Fall River, 1857 Deacon Robert B. Raymond, 2007 Sept. 26 Rev. John J. Donahue, Assistant, St. William, Fall River, 1944 Rev. Flavius Gamache, SMM, Former Pastor, St. Peter, Dighton, 1996 Rev. John C. Martins, Former Pastor, St. Anthony of Padua Parish, Fall River, 2008 Rev. Clement E. Dufour, Retired, Former Pastor, Sacred Heart Parish, New Bedford, 2009 Sept. 27 Rev. John W. Greene, S.J., former teacher at Bishop Connolly High School, Fall River, 1991 Sept. 29 Rev. J.A. Payan, Founder, St. Mathieu, Fall River, 1899 Sept. 30 Rev. John J. Griffin, Pastor, St. Paul, Taunton, 1963 Rev. George Taraska, OFM Conv., Parochial Vicar, Holy Rosary, Taunton, 1993

vants of the Most Blessed Trinity (known locally as the Trinitarians),

3501 Solly Ave., Philadelphia, Penn., 19136-2397.

Around the Diocese 9/24

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

9/24

The St. Margaret and St. Mary Conference of St. Vincent de Paul of Buzzards Bay will hold its annual fund-raising walk, “Walk a Mile in My Shoes,” tomorrow beginning at 9 a.m. at the head of the Cape Cod Canal by the train depot. It is a one-mile hike each way and a great learning opportunities for families to share with the poor.

Registration will take place on the lawn of St. Margaret’s Church, 141 Main Street, starting at 8:15 a.m. and pre-registration forms are available inside the church. A Rosary for the poor will also be recited following the 8 a.m. Mass.

9/24

Holy Cross Parish, 225 Purchase Street, South Easton, will hold its second annual Fall Festival tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. This year’s event will feature a performance by the Toe Jam Puppet Band at 12 p.m. and an hour-long juggling performance featuring Henry the Juggler. There will also be plenty of games, raffles, prizes, wine tasting, arts and crafts, and great food of all kinds. For more information and a schedule of events visit http://www.holycrosseaston.org.

9/24

The Women’s Guild at Immaculate Conception Parish in Fall River will be sponsoring a Flea Market tomorrow from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. They will be accepting clean items in good condition through today, which can be dropped off at the church hall on County Street. For more information call 508-674-8695 or email dotnic566@verizon.net.

9/24

The Fall River District Council of the St. Vincent de Paul Society will host the fourth annual Friends of the Poor Walk at 10 a.m. tomorrow beginning at Kennedy Park in Fall River at the corner of Bradford Avenue and South Main Street. All proceeds will directly benefit those in need in greater Fall River. For more information call the Thrift Store at 508-672-9129, Lou Yokell at 508-642-3440, or visit svdpfriendsofthepoorwalk.org.

9/24

The Fall River Diocesan Council of Catholic Women has been reorganized and district levels have been eliminated. Members of the diocesan board, together with members of parish affiliates and individual members are invited to three meetings held each year. The first meeting will be tomorrow at Annunciation of the Lord Parish, 31 First Street, Taunton. A short meeting will start at 9:30 a.m. followed by a presentation from Msgr. Stephen J. Avila, director of the diocesan Worship Office, entitled, “New Words.

Same Mass. Examining the New English Translation of the Roman Missal.” All are invited and refreshments will be served. The meeting will end at noon.

9/25

The Social Justice Committee of the St. Vincent de Paul Society of St. Mary’s Parish, Mansfield, will be hosting a panel discussion, “Perspectives: Justice and Immigration,” Sunday at 6 p.m. in the parish center. Participants will be Bob Hildreth, Boston philanthropist and founder of Families in Educational Leadership; Father Richard Wilson, pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish at St. James Church in New Bedford; and Sarang Sekhavat, Federal Policy Director for the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition. This free program will feature presentations by the participants, questions and answers and a facilitated discussion. Refreshments will be served. For more information call 401-438-6511 (day) or 508-339-6156 (evening) or visit http://www.svdpattleboro.org/ SocialJustice/SJcommittee.html.

9/28

Msgr. Stephen J. Avila will give a presentation entitled “New Words, Same Mass: Examining the New English Translation of the Mass” at St. Julie Billiart Parish in North Dartmouth on September 28. The same presentation will be given at 10:30 in the morning and at 7 p.m. All are welcome.

10/1

A Day of Reflection titled “Fall Back in Love with God” will be held in the St. Francis Xavier Prep School Gymnasium in Hyannis, located behind St. Francis Xavier Church, on October 1 from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., ending with a 4 p.m. Mass in St. Francis Xavier Church.

10/1

A Day with Mary will take place October 1 from 7:50 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. at Corpus Christi Parish, 324 Quaker Meeting House Road, East Sandwich. It will include a video instruction, a procession and crowning of the Blessed Mother along with Mass, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament,and an opportunity for Reconciliation.

For more information call 774-328-8394.

10/2

On October 2 Sacred Heart Church at the corner of Seabury and Pine Streets in Fall River will hold its annual Chopstick Auction. Doors will open after the 10 a.m. Mass and food will be available beginning at 11:30 a.m. The auction will start at 1 p.m. and there will be more than 100 gifts, four special items and a $500 cash raffle, all to benefit the parish.

10/7

The Fall River Area Men’s First Friday Club will meet October 7 at the Parish of the Good Shepherd, 1598 South Main Street, Fall River. Following the 6 p.m. Mass celebrated by Father Freddie Babiczuk, there will be a hot meal in the church hall. The guest speaker is Joseph “Ben” Levesque, retired Capt. Fire Fighter, active in Knights of Columbus. Any gentleman wishing to attend may do so. Call Norman Valiquette at 508672-8174 for guest seat reservations or with any questions.

10/7

The public is invited to join in a Rosary Prayer at 11 a.m. on October 7, at the Rosary Walk on the grounds of the Father Peyton Center, 518 Washington Street, Easton, in observance of the Feast of our Lady of the Rosary. Mass will be celebrated at noon in the chapel of the center. For additional information call Holy Cross Family Ministries at 508-238-4095 or visit www.FamilyRosary.org.

20

The Anchor

September 23, 2011

Military archdiocese sees increase in chaplains

WASHINGTON (CNS) — The U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services is reporting an increase in the number of seminarians who want to become military chaplains.

For the 2011-2012 academic year, there are 31 co-sponsored and military-affiliated seminarians.

Last year there were 23; in 2009-2010 there were 12 and the previous year only three.

Co-sponsorship means that a diocesan bishop agrees to accept the seminarian who will participate in the chaplain candidacy program of one of the branches of the U.S. armed forces. The bishop agrees to release him for service as a military chaplain after three years of pastoral experience as a priest in his diocese. When the priest leaves military service, he returns to the diocese.

Conventual Franciscan Father Kerry Abbott, director of vocations for the military archdiocese, called the increase one of the “untold stories” of spiritual blessings. He said Catholic seminaries in the U.S. and the Pontifical North American College in Rome are straining to accommodate the influx of seminarians and many seminaries have converted guest rooms to seminarian quarters.

The outlook for future vocations is just as bright, he said. The archdiocese is currently processing hundreds of inquiries from prospective military chaplains. Father Abbott expects anywhere from five to 10 more to enter seminaries next year, with still more to come in years to follow.

The timing could not be better. The U.S. armed forces have seen a steady decline in Catholic military chaplains over the past 10 years as priests reach the military retirement age of 62. Their numbers are down from more than 400 active in 2001 to 274 this year.

Father Abbott attributes the increase to the support of bishops and successful recruiting over the past three years.

The growing influx of new co-sponsored seminarians poses an increased cost for the military archdiocese, which pays for half of the five-year education. The archdiocese splits tuition and related costs evenly with each diocese where the co-sponsored seminarian is educated and ordained. In just three years, the archdiocese’s annual seminary bill has climbed from less than $40,000 to more than $350,000.

The Knights of Columbus recently announced a new Venerable Father McGivney Military Chaplain Scholarship that will provide $200,000 a year over the next five years. The archdiocese is now in search of additional funding sources to make up the difference.

Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the military archdiocese recently urged a group of military chaplains to model their ministry after Maryknoll Father Vincent R. Capodanno, a chaplain who was killed in 1967 while performing last rites for dying soldiers in Vietnam.

During a September 6 memorial Mass for the priest at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the archbishop said he was certain that Father Capodanno was only doing his duty when he died.

“We honor him so as to cultivate within ourselves that same spirit of devotion and fidelity.

Putting into practice his example would be the highest form of praise,” he said.