10.10.08

Diocese of Fall River

The Anchor

F riday , October 10, 2008

‘40 Days for Life’ witness at abortion clinic draws hundreds

By Deacon James N. Dunbar

ATTLEBORO — In what is an amazing overnight success, hundreds of people from across the Fall River Diocese have signed on to the “40 Days for Life” campaign to end abortion through prayer, fasting, outreach and peaceful vigils outside an abortion clinic here.

“It’s incredible to realize that in just a short span we have people signed up to cover every hour of our September 24 to November 2, 40-day, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily commitment to give public witness to Pro-

Life at the Four Women’s abortion clinic on Emory Street in Attleboro,” reported Steve Marcotte, co-director of the local Pro-Life project.

According to Marian Desrosiers, director of the diocese’s Pro-Life Apostolate, the abortion clinic is the last still operating within the confines of the diocese.

“It’s the Holy Spirit that has brought this about, no doubt, and we have been really blessed in mounting this challenge to abortion,” Marcotte told The Anchor last week.

Turn to page 15

CELEBRATING RELIGIOUS LIFE — Cardinal Franc Rode, center, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, celebrates Mass at Stonehill College with Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, left, and Fall River Bishop George W. Coleman, right, at the conclusion of a Religious Life symposium at the Easton college.

Nearly 600 gather at Religious Life symposium at Stonehill

By Gloria LaBonte Special to The Anchor

LIFE GOES ON — Clergy and lay faithful pray the rosary outside Four Women’s abortion clinic earlier this week. Pro-Life supporters have signed up to pray at the site September 24 to November 2, from 6 a.m to 6 p.m., as part of the “40 Days for Life” campaign.

Peace March to seek Mary’s help as widespread unrest sweeps world B y Deacon James N. Dunbar

FALL RIVER — Carrying candles, singing hymns and praying the rosary, hundreds will process over city streets on October 13 asking Mary the Queen of Peace to again spread her mantle over a troubled world.

Later they will attend Mass and implore her divine Son to heal its wounds of war.

Pilgrims from parishes across the Fall River Diocese are expected to join

Bishop George W. Coleman for the 34th annual Peace March that begins at 6 p.m., outside St. Mary’s Cathedral on Spring Street.

Led by cantors and clergy, the marchers will proceed south along South Main Street to St. Anne’s Church at the top of Kennedy Park where the bishop will be the principal concelebrant of the Mass at 7 p.m. and also the homilist.

The event, usually held on the CoTurn to page 11

EASTON — The challenges and opportunities confronting religious communities four decades after the Second Vatican Council were explored at Stonehill College by a Vatican representative well-acquainted with the topic — Cardinal Franc Rode.

Cardinal Rode gave the keynote address at the September. 27 symposium, “Apostolic Religious Life Since Vatican II … Reclaiming the Treasure: Bishops, Theologians, and Religious in Conversation,” that drew participants from New England and beyond, including bishops, priests, Brothers, Sisters, and lay Catholics.

Cardinal Rode, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, said great vitality and hope exists in many communities in the United States, yet “all is not well with religious life in America.”

The Cardinal expressed the esteem of the Holy Father and his own joy in meeting with “religious men and women who

generously devote their lives to Christ and his Gospel.”

The first keynote speaker, Sister Sara Butler, a professor of theology at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y., and a member of the International Theological Commission, said that something in apostolic religious life had been lost and needed to be reclaimed.

The Council, she said, presented great challenges through its universal call to holiness. In response, many communities abandoned disciplines in an effort to be in solidarity with the laity, and through its call for adaptation to modern needs that led some communities to alter practices and even give up the religious habit.

The Council also issued a commitment to social justice, she said, which prompted many religious to become involved in equal rights movements and to go from protesting injustices in society to protesting perceived injustices in the Church and to questioning many of its social teachings with the belief the Church itself must be a just institution in order to challenge global Turn to page 14

Huge stakes in November election

By Gail Besse Anchor Correspondent

RANDOLPH — At a meeting of the state’s largest Pro-Life group, national Pro-Life advocate Hadley Arkes outlined what he saw as the climactic stakes involved in the upcoming presidential election.

Arkes, an Amherst College political science professor and senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Pol-

icy Center, helped draft the Born Alive Infants Protection Act. In 2002, Congress unanimously passed this law, which gives legal protection to babies who survive a botched abortion.

That federal legislation was “the most modest first step,” Arkes said in his September 17 speech at the annual dinner of Massachusetts Citizens for Life Turn to page 19

2

News From the Vatican

October 10, 2008

Freedom means imitating Christ, especially serving poor, pope says

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Christian freedom is not being able to do anything one wants, but being free to imitate Christ, especially in serving the poor, Pope Benedict XVI said.

“Let us allow ourselves to be guided by the Spirit, trying to live in the freedom that finds direction in faith in Christ and becomes concrete in service to our brothers and sisters,” the pope said at his weekly general audience.

“Being increasingly like Christ is essential. That is how one becomes truly free,” the pope told an estimated 20,000 people gathered for his audience in St. Peter’s Square.

The pope’s audience talk focused on how St. Paul and the other apostles resolved differences they had, particularly regarding whether new Christians from pagan families were required to observe Jewish law.

“In the light of his encounter with the risen Christ,” St. Paul understood that righteousness for the new Christians came from following Christ, the pope said.

With great respect for the Twelve Apostles who had been with Jesus from the beginning of his public ministry, St. Paul nevertheless was frank about what he believed the Gospel required, said the pope. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, all of the apostles met

in Jerusalem and adopted St. Paul’s position.

“Only sincere dialogue, open to the truth of the Gospel, could orient the journey of the Church,” Pope Benedict said.

He quoted St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans: “The kingdom of God is not a matter of food and drink, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

Pope Benedict also noted how the Council of Jerusalem ended with a resolution for all the Christian communities to take up a collection to help poor Christians in Jerusalem.

“It was a completely new initiative in the panorama of religious activities,” the pope said. “So great was the value Paul attributed to this gesture of sharing that he rarely referred to it as a collection, but called it service, blessing, love, grace and even liturgy.”

St. Paul’s reference to the collection for the poor as liturgy recognizes that care for the poor is a sign of love for God, the pope said.

“Love for the poor and divine liturgy go together,” he said.

Love for God and for one’s brothers and sisters are part of every Mass celebrated in the Church, “which by its nature opposes the separation of worship and life, faith and works, prayer and charity for one’s brothers and sisters,” Pope Benedict said.

PAPAL SEA — Pope Benedict XVI waves to the faithful as he arrives to lead his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican recently. (CNS photo/Alessandro Bianchi, Reuters)

U.S. releases annual survey on freedom of religion

By Father John Flynn, LC

ROME, (Zenit.org) — Many people still suffer religious persecution, according to the annual report from the U.S. Department of State.

The “2008 Annual Report on International Religious Freedom,” was recently presented to the public by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The report, which covers the 12-month period up to June 30, began by noting in its introduction that this year marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The report’s publication comes as the lack of religious freedom in some countries has received widespread attention.

China is one country in the news and according to the Department of State the government’s repression of religious freedom intensified in some regions, including in Tibetan areas and in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.

The report also noted that unregistered Protestant religious groups in Beijing experienced intensified harassment from government authorities in the lead up to the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.

“Underground” Catholic clergy also faced repression, the report observed, in large part due to their avowed loyalty to the Vatican. As well, authorities in Shanghai implemented measures to prevent Catholic pilgrims from visiting the Marian Shrine of Sheshan during May. The Catholic Patriotic Association reports that 5.3 million persons worship in its churches. But according to the report, it is estimated that there are an additional 12 million or more persons who worship in unregistered Catholic churches that do not affiliate with the government association.

Although there continue to be conflicts between the Chinese government and the Vatican, particularly over the nomination of bishops, the report commented that the distinction between the Catholic Patriotic Association and the unregistered Catholic Church has become less clear over time Chinese authorities also restrict religion through restrictions on funding and clergy, the report explained. In addition, in general there is a severe shortage of trained clergy for both registered and unregistered religious groups.

India is another country where religious persecution has been in the headlines in recent weeks and the Department of State’s report contains ample information on the situation.

Some Indian state governments enacted and amended “anti-conversion” laws.

Hindu extremists attacked Christian villagers and churches in the Kandhamal district over the last Christmas holidays. Approximately 100 churches and Christian institutions were damaged, 700 Christian homes were destroyed causing villagers to

The Anchor

flee to nearby forests, and 22 Christian-owned businesses were affected.

According to the 2001 government census, Hindus constitute 80.5 percent of the population, Muslims 13.4 percent, Christians 2.3 percent, Sikhs 1.8 percent and others, including Buddhists, Jains, Parsis (Zoroastrians), Jews, and Baha’is, 1.percent.

Vietnam is another country where recent press reports have highlighted problems with a lack of religious freedom. However, according to the report by the State Department, respect for religious freedom and practice continued to improve during the past year.

The Catholic Church, various Protestant congregations, and other smaller religious groups reported that their ability to gather and worship improved, according to the State Department.

As Cardinal Oswald Gracias of India just repeated this week, “Religious liberty is the first of liberties.” These recent episodes of religious persecution provide a graphic reminder of the need to keep pressure on governments to guarantee the freedom of religion.

OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER Vol. 52, No. 38

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

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PUBLISHER - Most Reverend George W. Coleman EXECUTIVE EDITOR Father Roger J. Landry fatherrogerlandry@anchornews.org EDITOR David B. Jolivet davejolivet@anchornews.org NEWS EDITOR Deacon James N. Dunbar jimdunbar@anchornews.org OFFICE MANAGER Mary Chase m arychase@anchornews.org ADVERTISING Wayne Powers waynepowers@anchornews.org REPORTER Michael Pare michaelpare@anchornews.org REPORTER Kenneth J. Souza kensouza@anchornews.org Send Letters to the Editor to: fatherrogerlandry@anchornews.org POSTMASTERS send address changes to The Anchor, P.O. Box 7, Fall River, MA 02722.

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October 10, 2008

The International Church

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Cardinal Migliore urges U.N. to ‘Value humans over technology’

CHRISTIAN SUPPORT — School girls participate in a rally in Allahabad, India, recently to show solidarity with Christians living in the Indian state of Orissa. Thousands of Christians have taken shelter in makeshift government camps in Orissa after Hindu mobs went on a rampage that left 27 dead.

(CNS photo/Jitendra Prakash, Reuters)

Continued attacks in India’s Orissa state leave nearly 50 people dead

By Catholic News Service

BHUBANESWAR, India — One woman was axed to death and 10 people were wounded as anti-Christian violence in Orissa entered a sixth week.

The late September killing raised the number of confirmed deaths to 47 in the violence that began in the eastern Indian state August 24.

In the predawn attack, groups of armed Hindu extremists descended on Gadaguda and Rudangia villages in Orissa’s Kandhamal district and selectively attacked Christian homes, Father Leo Parichha, the parish priest, told the Asian church news agency UCA News.

The attackers came with gasoline bombs, swords, axes and knives and “brutally attacked sleeping families,” said the priest, who left the parish for safety in late August after the anti-Christian violence began.

The priest said his parish covers both villages. Several days earlier, on the night of September 25, hundreds of fanatics destroyed the church, the priest’s house and the Missionaries of Charity convent in the parish compound.

An eight-year-old boy and his mother were among those critically injured in the attack that began around 4 a.m., said the priest, who now stays in the state capital, Bhubaneswar.

Father Parichha said Catholics and Protestants in the villages did not expect the attack because most families there are Christian. About 35 of Rudangia’s 40 families belong to Christian denominations, while Gadaguda has 25 Christian and five Hindu

families.

According to information the priest received from survivors, the attackers burned down Christians’ houses using gasoline bombs and attacked the escaping people with knives, swords and wooden sticks. They looted valuables, demolished houses and burned the household items.

“The burning is still continuing. There is no one to stop them.

People are fleeing for their lives,” the priest told UCA News hours after the attacks.

On September 28, three bodies, including that of a woman, were fished out of the Salunki River. The same day, 30 Catholic houses in the Daringabadi area were attacked, looted and set on fire. The attackers also reportedly feasted on some livestock.

These attacks cannot happen without the support of the local Hindu families, Father Parichha said.

“They support, help and invite Hindus to attack us,” he said.

The hatred has several roots, including jealousy over Christians’ progress and the desire to possess Christian farmland, he added.

The attacks also have political significance for Hindu fanatic groups that support the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party, a partner in the state’s ruling coalition.

“There is no letup in the attacks,” Father Parichha said.

“The world does not get the details, but it has been constantly going on.”

The violence began August 24, the day after a Hindu leader and four associates were killed in the Kandhamal district. The leader, Swami Laxmanananda Saras-

wati, had for decades opposed Christian missionary activities and Hindus converting to Christianity. A Maoist group claimed responsibility for the murders, but the Hindu extremists blamed Christians for the murders and began attacking them.

By the end of September, extremists had burned down about 4,500 Christian houses, 100 churches and 20 other Church institutions, including convents and rectories. The violence has been concentrated in Kandhamal, where the slain swami was based.

The violence also has displaced an estimated 50,000 people, who are now hiding in forests, living in state-run relief camps or staying with relatives in cities and towns outside the troubled areas.

UNITED NATIONS (CNS) — The global community must work together to recognize “the centrality of humans in all aspects of political and technological development,” the Vatican representative at the United Nations said last week during general debate at the 63rd session of the U.N. General Assembly.

Archbishop Celestino Migliore focused his talk on a “preoccupation and inconsistency that exist today in the realm of international and national law, namely, that all that is technically possible must be legally licit.”

He said the global approach to climate change reflects a belief that “not all environmental activity should be allowed and sanctioned by law because it is technically possible and economically profitable.”

“Indiscriminate deforestation, the dumping of radioactive waste and invasive and devastating acts of nature are often more expedient and technically possible, but because they provoke our consciences as well as our responsibility toward creation, we come to the decision to invoke the principle that even though it is possible it should not be legally licit,” Archbishop Migliore said.

But the approach changes “when passing from the ecological field to that of humans,” he said.

“Whether it regards the production of arms for war, biotechnological engineering, the taking of human life, reproductive technology or the structure of the family itself, we have the tendency to advocate that all which is technologically possible should also be legally licit,” the archbishop said. “This inconsistency calls into question whether we truly place humans at the center of decision-making.”

He called on the U.N. community to “come together to reverse this contradiction.”

“The same principles that lead us to oppose unchecked technology and policies that destroy the environment should also guide us in our prudent use of technologies and creation of policies which directly impact the lives of individuals,” he added.

Archbishop Migliore said the general debate was a time for “those responsible for the national life of every country to come together to get the pulse of the world situation.” More than 100 heads of state and government came to U.N. headquarters for the September 23-October 1 general debate.

The Vatican representative said 2008 “has been dominated by a number of challenges and crises: natural and man-made calamities, staggering economies, financial turmoil, rising food and fuel prices, the impact of climate change, local wars and tensions.”

He said each crisis “presents a mixture of natural factors and elements of human responsibility ... too often compounded by tardy response, failures or reluctance of leaders to exercise their responsibility to protect their populations.”

But Archbishop Migliore said the concept of protection has been “too often a pretext for expansion and aggression” and warned against using it “as a pretext for the arbitrary use of military might.”

“The use of violence to resolve disagreements is always a failure of vision and a failure of humanity,” he said. “It is incumbent not only upon states, but also the United Nations, to ensure that the responsibility to protect serves as the underlying measure and motivation of all its work.”

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The Church in the U.S.

October 10, 2008

Cardinal Rigali warns Catholics about Freedom of Choice Act

WASHINGTON (CNS) — All Catholics are called “to help build a culture of life in which every human life without exception is respected and defended,” the chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities said in a message for Respect Life Sunday October 5.

Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia invited Catholics to build a culture of life and to “rededicate ourselves to defending the basic rights of those who are weakest and most marginalized: the poor, the homeless, the innocent unborn, and the frail and elderly who need our respect and our assistance” in a statement released September 30.

The statement outlined the cardinal’s immediate concerns regarding assisted suicide, embryonic stem-cell research and abortion.

Two initiatives on the November 4 ballot in the state of Washington and Michigan were held up by the cardinal as examples where respect for life has waned. The Washington proposal would legalize doctorassisted suicide for terminally ill patients. In Michigan, an initiative would endorse “the deliberate destruction of human beings” for embryonic stem-cell research, Cardinal Rigali said.

At the same time, the cardinal hailed therapeutic successes in research on adult stem cells and umbilical-cord blood.

“The Catholic Church strongly supports promising and ethically sound stem-cell research and strongly opposes killing week-old human embryos, or human beings at any stage, to extract their stem cells,” he said.

The cardinal also noted that most Americans favor banning all abortion or permitting it only in rare cases, such as rape, incest or danger to the mother’s life. He cited a recent Guttmacher Institute study which found that the U.S. abortion rate declined by 26 percent between 1989 and 2004.

However, the cardinal again raised concern about the Freedom of Choice Act — FOCA — which is pending in Congress. He said the legislation would roll back gains made as abortion rates have declined, especially among teen-age girls.

Cardinal Rigali echoed his September 19 call for defeat of the bill when it comes up for a vote, whether in the closing days of the current session after the November 4 election or when the next Congress convenes in January and a new version of the legislation is introduced.

“FOCA establishes abortion as a ‘fundamental right’ throughout the nine months of pregnancy and forbids any law or policy that could ‘interfere’ with that right or ‘discriminate’ against it in public funding and programs,” Cardinal Rigali explained. “If FOCA became law, hundreds of reasonable, widely supported and constitutionally sound abortion regulations now in place would be invalidated.”

“We cannot tolerate an even greater loss of innocent human lives. We cannot subject more women and men” to post-abortion grief and suffering, he said.

The bishops’ Respect Life Program began in 1972 and has focused on the value and dignity of all human life.

REASON TO REJOICE — Worshippers stream into the new Cathedral of Christ the Light during the dedication ceremony in Oakland, Calif., September 25. The cathedral, under construction since 2005, replaces St. Francis de Sales, which was damaged beyond repair in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. (CNS photo/Greg Tarczynski)

Archbishop Burke says Democrats risk becoming the ‘party of death’

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

ROME — The Democratic Party in the United States “risks transforming itself definitively into a ‘party of death,’” said U.S. Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, prefect of the Vatican’s highest court.

An interview with the former archbishop of St. Louis was published in the September 27 edition of Avvenire, a daily Catholic newspaper sponsored by the Italian bishops’ conference.

The newspaper asked the archbishop, the new head of the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature, for his reaction to reports that his Vatican job was designed to get him away from St. Louis.

“I have too much respect for the pope to believe that in order to move someone away from a diocese he would nominate him to a very sensitive dicastery like this one,” said the archbishop, whose office is in charge of ensuring that lower Church courts correctly administer justice in accordance with canon law.

Archbishop Burke was asked

if he knew that the August Democratic National Convention in Denver featured a guest appearance by Sheryl Crow, a musician whose performance at a 2007 benefit for a Catholic children’s hospital the archbishop had opposed because of her support for abortion and embryonic stemcell research.

“That does not surprise me much,” the archbishop said. “At this point the Democratic Party risks transforming itself definitely into a ‘party of death’ because of its choices on bioethical questions as Ramesh Ponnuru wrote in his book, ‘The Party of Death: The Democrats, the Media, the Courts and the Disregard for Human Life.’”

Archbishop Burke said the Democratic Party once was “the party that helped our immigrant parents and grandparents better integrate and prosper in American society. But it is not the same anymore.”

Pro-Life Democrats are “rare, unfortunately,” he said.

Archbishop Burke also was asked about being one of a few

Take out 401-272-3618 or 401-621-3618 or 401-621-9190

U.S. bishops to publicly ban Catholic politicians who hold positions contrary to Church teaching from receiving Communion.

“Mine was not an isolated position,” the archbishop said.

“It was shared by Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Denver, by Bishop Peter J. Jugis of Charlotte, N.C. and by others.”

“But it is true that the bishops’ conference has not taken this position, leaving each bishop free to act as he believes best. For my part, I always have maintained that there must be a united position in order to demonstrate the unity of the Church in facing this serious question,” he said.

“Recently, I have noticed that other bishops are coming to this position,” he said, especially after Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., “while presenting themselves as good Catholics, have represented Church teaching on abortion in a false and tendentious manner.”

Archbishop Burke said he is convinced that a 2004 letter from then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to the U.S. bishops and canon law say “it is not licit to give holy Communion to one who is publicly and obstinately a sinner.

And it is logical that one who publicly and obstinately acts in favor of procured abortion enters into this category.”

The newspaper asked Archbishop Burke if he ever wondered why the issue of Communion for Catholic politicians was almost unheard of in Europe, where abortion is legal in most countries.

“I don’t know if Catholic politicians in Europe are more coherent, although I would have some doubts,” he said.

However, he said, “I am convinced that the Church must always be very clear on this point.”

October 10, 2008

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The Anchor ‘Spiritual nourishment’ of Bible to be a synod focus, says Cardinal Levada

GOD AND COUNTRY — A man holding a rosary with the U.S. flag as a backdrop is silhouetted in this photo illustration. The U.S. bishops’ document “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” seeks to provide a blueprint on how Catholic social teaching should affect political participation by Catholics. (CNS illustration/Mike Crupi, Catholic Courier)

Catholics contend impact of ‘Faithful Citizenship’ goes beyond November

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Across the country — in group discussions, adult education programs, diocesan conferences, DVD presentations and Sunday Mass homilies — U.S. Catholics are taking a close look at the bishops’ 2007 document intended to help Catholic voters form their consciences on a variety of issues.

Even though there is a push to review the document, “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship: A Call to Political Responsibility,” during the election season, many Catholics do not plan to put it aside after November 4.

“Voting isn’t the end of being a faithful citizen. It’s really about continuing to advocate for our visions and values,” said Barbara Budde, director of the parish social ministry office of Catholic Charities in the Diocese of Austin, Texas.

“As a matter of fact, we’re starting to turn our attention toward after the elections,” she told Catholic News Service, noting that Catholic leaders are making sure people are knowledgeable about issues that might come up in the Texas Legislature and in Congress.

Four years ago, Catholic leaders in Austin were urging people to vote and conducting frequent parish voter-registration drives.

Now, Budde said, with voting in place the current focus is on “forming consciences.”

Although “Faithful Citizenship” was first published in 1975, the bishops produce a new version of it about every four years to coincide with the national elections. The document for the 2008 election was overwhelmingly approved by the bishops last November.

Since then, Joan Rosenhauer, associate director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development, has been giving talks about the document across the country. In various workshops and group discussions, she said, she has seen how Catholics are “taking very seriously the bishops’ message that forming one’s conscience is critical as we make decisions in political life.”

“Part of this process involves studying Scripture and the Church’s teaching,” she said. “Catholics are reading and reflecting on the document carefully to learn what is involved in forming one’s conscience and

to learn about the basic principles and ideas from Catholic teaching that should shape decisions in public life.”

Rosenhauer said the document’s emphasis on having a well-formed conscience seems to “strike a chord with many people.”

“It’s not an entirely new idea,” she added.

“But it’s one they may not have considered as directly and fully as they are asked to do” with this document.

Brian Corbin, executive director of Catholic Charities for the Diocese of Youngstown, Ohio, and diocesan director of social action, said this year’s efforts to spread the message of “Faithful Citizenship” involved the work of several diocesan offices and months of planning. The key goal, he said, was to “help parishes do what they do best: forming consciences.”

Youngstown diocesan leaders not only supplied “Faithful Citizenship” materials to parishes but they also helped provide specific ways the document could be used.

For example, Youngstown Bishop George V. Murry led priests and deacons through homily suggestions and went over the “dos and don’ts” that parishes must practice in their election-related discussions or activities. Pastoral leaders attended a workshop reviewing details of the document and available resources for using it in group discussions in schools, youth ministry or adult education.

As he sees it, “Faithful Citizenship” provides “good formation” and is an “ongoing teaching tool” that people need.

“I sense a real hunger from people to really think about these issues,” he said.

Therese Brown, associate director for marketing, sales and service at USCCB Publishing, said “Faithful Citizenship” has already sold more copies than it did four years ago. As of late September, 1.7 million copies of the document and its summary version had been sold in English and Spanish, compared to 1.3 million total copies in 2004.

She said “Faithful Citizenship” is “uniting Catholics, whatever their passions may be: from ending abortions to greater access to health care or ending poverty. Politicians may split these issues,” she said, “but we don’t.”

SAN FRANCISCO (CNS) — A renewed appreciation for the “spiritual nourishment” available in sacred Scripture, a shot in the arm for ecumenical dialogue and enhanced preaching on “the word of God in Scripture” are among hopeful outcomes of the world Synod of Bishops on the Bible, a U.S. cardinal said.

Cardinal William J. Levada, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, made the comments in an interview in San Francisco with the newspaper of the archdiocese, Catholic San Francisco.

The cardinal, who is the former archbishop of San Francisco, was in town to dedicate a replica of St. Francis of Assisi’s tiny Porziuncola church that now graces a building adjoining the National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi.

“For all the rekindling of the love for Scripture that the (Second) Vatican Council proposed, I would say that perhaps we have not integrated” the study and appreciation of the Bible into the daily lives of average Catholics as much as the Church would hope, he said.

Cardinal Levada is one of three delegate presidents who will take turns presiding over the synod’s daily sessions October 5-26 at the Vatican.

“I am speaking in generalities,” he said, “but there are sources that indicate that a lot of people perhaps do not have their own Bi-

bles, that they have not learned how to use it every day and make it part of their spiritual nourishment.”

“The pastoral implications of the Second Vatican Council, particularly ‘Dei Verbum’ (the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation), still need encouragement for fuller implementation,” Cardinal Levada said.

He also said it “would be one of our great hopes” that the synod might provide “a great point of connection” with other Christian denominations and stimulate “renewed dialogue toward the ecumenical efforts that we all have to continue to make according to the prayer of Christ that all may be one.”

Among other potential pastoral applications for the synod would be preaching, he said, “which the Church has always employed to break open the meaning of the Scriptures for our people.”

He also noted the inclusion of more women and a number of representatives of other faiths as synod consultants and participants — including a rabbi who will be the first non-Christian to address a bishops’ synod — “is going to have its own dynamic.”

Cardinal Levada noted that he, Pope Benedict XVI and other Church leaders were invited by a major Italian television network to take part in a “10- to 15-minute reading of a passage from Scripture” every day of the synod during prime time “as a contribution to helping the Bible come into people’s lives.”

6

The Anchor Living up to legitimate expectations

No news story marking yesterday’s 50th anniversary of the death of Pope Pius XII failed to include the controversy over his actions with respect to the Holocaust during the Second World War. While the accusations against him — thanks much to the work of Rabbi David Dalin and the Jewish scholars in the Pave the Way Foundation — are gradually being demonstrated to be calumnies orchestrated by Eastern bloc communists and introduced through literature to discredit the moral authority of the Church in the West, the question remains as to why so many so easily and uncritically believed the propaganda as historical fact rather than perfidious fabrication. Why were so many ready to interpret Pius XII’s lack of an explicit condemnation of Nazism as an example of his and the Church’s supposed moral cowardice — or worse, of his and the Church’s sympathy toward Nazi designs?

Part of the reason can be ascribed to a lack of familiarity with all that Pius XII did say and do, for which he was rightly praised by contemporary Jewish leaders and media, as detailed in the Putting Into The Deep column elsewhere on this page. Part of it as well is based on a series of naïve assumptions about what was achievable for the pope in direct confrontation with a megalomanic psychopath who had already demonstrated himself not only incapable of correction but predisposed to respond with even greater anti-Semitic sadism to the merest provocation.

But much of the explanation likely lies in another factor, which began to grow in prominence after the heavy black fog hovering over the world after the Second World War started to dissipate.

Once people had recovered from the daze accompanying the moral trauma of the Holocaust — which for obvious psychological reasons many just preferred to forget rather than confront — they started to look back and question how something like the Shoah could ever have happened. How could the German people have elected a person like Adolf Hitler? How could so many people have collaborated with him in seeking his “final solution”? How could the vast majority of ordinary people have done so little as their neighborhoods were gradually depopulated of Jews, the mentally handicapped, gays, socialists, trade unionists, outspoken clerics and journalists, and basically anyone who criticized the regime? How could most of the world have looked the other way? These were all tough and important questions in an important historical examination of conscience.

Many simultaneously also began to ask why, in the face of such evil, Pius XII didn’t say and do more. Despite the fact that his indirect approach probably saved tens of thousands of Jewish lives, people naturally had other expectations for the world’s greatest moral authority. More than anyone else, they believed, he should have condemned Nazi evil with the ferocity of Jeremiah, no matter the cost. The fact that he didn’t speak out more explicitly put the complicity of everyone else into context and somewhat assuaged the enormous collective guilt that the world was rightly feeling for so many sins of omission. If the pope were guilty of cowardly inaction in the face of such systematic wickedness, then no one could throw a stone at them. Pius XII in essence became a scapegoat to atone for the enormous evil of the concentration camps and everything that led to them.

The readiness of people unjustly to condemn Pius XII for his prudential approach during the Holocaust teaches us a very important lesson: the deep desire and need that people — and not just Catholics — have for the pope, for bishops and clergy, for the Church to speak out with courage and clarity in response to evil.

There’s a famous story about a church built next to train tracks that led to one of the concentration camps. Each Sunday, churchgoers would be interrupted by the cattle cars transporting Jews to the incinerators. The train would rattle the church and the cries for help would unsettle the worshippers. The pastor and parishioners decided, in response to the screams, to “sing louder.” This parish was one of many that tried to go on with life ignoring what was really happening, pretending that God would be pleased by their worship while they were behaving like the priest and the Levite in the parable of the Good Samaritan. Everyone knows that such inaction is unworthy of Christian faithful, of Christian clergy, of the Church as a whole.

All of this puts into context what the responsibilities of Catholic faithful, clergy and the whole Church are with respect to the ongoing holocaust of the unborn through abortion. Since Roe v.

Wade, 48 million human beings, one out of every three children conceived in our country, has been executed in the womb in gruesome ways that not even Dr. Josef Mengele would have imagined doing to his dehumanized Jewish guinea pigs. Most of us would be horrified if we discovered that dogs were being systematically dismembered, or burned to death in caustic fluid, or blendered in superpower vacuum cleaners, or, after being half-delivered, were having their skulls pierced and brains sucked out. Yet these techniques are being used to abort a pre-born boy or girl every 23 seconds in the U.S. Most of us would never for a minute countenance giving mothers the right to have doctors kill their babies in the maternity ward. But many Americans support a so-called right of women to have doctors do so to their unborn babies, when the only real differences between a child in an incubator and a child in the womb are size and age — and sometimes, with premature children, not even these two.

Future generations are going to look back on our time much like we look back at the 1930s and 1940s and ask similar questions. How is it that such carnage was allowed? How could people have voted for those who supported the systematic killing of their fellow human beings? How could they have believed the ridiculous propaganda that the unborn, like the Jews, were somehow less human than they were? How could so many who called themselves Christians, clergy and lay both, have simply “sung louder” as the demagogues of their era continued to justify the practice? How could they have considered this systematic destruction of their fellow human beings just “one issue among many”? Historians tell us, of course, that one of the issues that brought Hitler to power was the economy: many Germans thought that the Nazis had a better economic strategy to return Germany to prominence after the punishments following the First World War. Many Germans looked the other way on Mein Kampf for the sake of mammon.

The bishops of the United States are now speaking out about the issue of abortion with the clarity and moral force that the ghastly subject matter requires. They have exposed the hypocrisy of those who claim to be “personally opposed” to the destruction of their innocent brothers and sisters but who in Congress or in the voting booth publicly cooperate with those who support or carry out the practice. They have been reminding the faithful that our duty before this evil goes beyond “singing louder,” or praying in private, or being personally against the killing of other human beings, but involves living up to our baptismal call to be the salt of the earth without letting the lies of a secularized culture weaken our saltiness.

Not everyone is happy that the bishops are doing this. Many think that they should remain above or outside of politics. Everyone knows, however, that remaining on the sidelines would have been a totally inadequate response in Germany last century. It is totally inadequate today. The question is how long it will take Catholic faithful in America to learn from the omissions of Catholic and others in Germany and follow with courage and conviction the prophetic bishops’ lead.

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October 10, 2008

Another form of heroism

esterday the Church marked the 50th anni- mained silent during the war because he was indifversary of the death of Pope Pius XII, the ferent to the fate of the Jews. After the fall of the man chosen by God to lead the Church during one Soviet Union, KGB files came to light that showed that the Soviet agency and various Marxist secret of the most terrible times in human history.

Born in Rome in 1876, Eugenio Pacelli grew societies concocted the outrageous calumny that up in a home that was a school of civic and Church Pius XII was a Nazi sympathizer in order to disleadership. His grandfather was Minister of Fi- credit the Church’s moral authority and weaken nance and Secretary of the Interior for the last 19 Christianity in the west. The propaganda campaign years of the papal city states. His father was the largely worked. Almost overnight, Pius XII was dean of the Sacred Roman Rota. His brother was successively downgraded — especially among the top civil lawyer for Pope Pius XI and negoti- those segments in the media and academy generally ated the 1929 Lateran Treaty between Italy and the unsympathetic to the Church — from hero, to coward, to hypocrite, to scoundrel, to Hitler’s pope.

Holy See. The question can and should be asked: Why At 12, Eugenio discerned that God was calling him to be a priest, gave up his family’s plans for didn’t Pius XII speak out more explicitly against him to become a lawyer, and dedicated himself to the Nazi atrocities or excommunicate Nazis who priestly studies. At 23, he earned a triple crown of happened to be Catholic? Why was he content only doctorates in theology, civil law and canon law. Af- to condemn in general terms those who “simply on ter two years as parochial vicar of Rome’s Chiesa account of their nationality and origin, have been Nuova, where he had been an altar server, he was killed or reduced to utter destruction?”

The fundamental reason is because Jewish leadassigned to the Vatican Secretariat of State, where his talents were immediately put to good use work- ers and bishops in Nazi-occupied lands had begged ing with Cardinal Pietro Gasparri in the first codi- him not to, fearing that it would just incite the fication of canon law. By the age of 35 in 1911, psychopathic Hitler to retaliation, something that he had become secretary of the Vatican’s foreign could lead to his killing even more Jews than he already was, and perhaps even raiding the churches, ministry. monasteries and In 1917, Pope convents where Benedict XV Jews until then appointed him had successfully papal nuncio to been hiding. This Bavaria as well as was a lesson Jews representative to and Christians Prussia, where he alike had already assisted in the neBy Father learned in Holgotiations to bring land after Church World War I to an Roger J. Landry leaders spoke out end. He remained forcefully against as a popular nunNazi inhumanity. cio in Germany through the tumultuous times of Another reason he didn’t speak out more forcethe Weimar Republic, until he was named a Cardinal and appointed Vatican Secretary of State in fully was because he didn’t have to: everyone al1929. From Rome he continued his difficult diplo- ready knew what he was saying between the lines. matic work with Germany, to prevent what he saw As the London Times stated in 1942 about the as the rising menace of Nazism under Adolf Hitler pope’s declarations, “A study of the words which and secure the legitimate rights of the Church. Af- Pope Pius XII has addressed since his accession ter the death of Pius XI in 1939, Cardinal Pacelli leaves no room for doubt. He condemns the worwas elected the 261st successor of St. Peter on the ship of force and its concrete manifestations in the suppression of national liberties and in the persecuthird ballot.

An incredibly hard worker, during his 19-year tion of the Jewish race.”

It is tempting in hindsight for some to look back pontificate he wrote a staggering 41 encyclicals and composed about a thousand other discourses, as armchair pontiffs and declare that Pius should allocutions, letters and documents. He renewed the have acted differently, but he was concerned funChurch’s liturgy, spurred Biblical scholarship, pro- damentally with saving as many lives as he could claimed the dogma Mary’s Assumption, revitalized from a genocidal madman in a situation in which the Church’s self-understanding as the Mystical normal rules no longer applied. Heroism can adopt Body of Christ, and related Catholic teaching to al- different forms. Sometimes — and this is hard for most every aspect of modern life, from education, the rash to understand — more lives can be saved to medicine, politics, war and peace, marriage, and by diplomatic prudence than verbal kamikaze misthe life of the saints. The theological richness of sions.

One person intimately acquainted with the evil his pontificate laid the groundwork for much of the of Nazism as well as the burdens of the papacy has teaching of the Second Vatican Council.

What Pius XII is most remembered for, how- pointed toward Pius XII’s character and courage ever, is his conduct during the Second World War, through it all.

In addressing a group of Jewish scholars from particularly with respect to the Jews.

During the war and after it, he was unanimous- the Pave the Way foundation three weeks ago, Pope ly considered a hero by almost everyone except Benedict said that his predecessor’s 50th anniverthe Nazis. He repeatedly spoke out in measured, sary “provides an important opportunity to deepen prudent, but unambiguous terms about the evil our knowledge of him, to meditate on his rich of the Holocaust. This outraged the Nazis but led teaching and to analyze thoroughly his activities.

“When one draws close to this noble pope, free the New York Times in 1941 to call him “a lonely voice in the silence and darkness enveloping Eu- from ideological prejudices, in addition to being rope.” He instructed not only Vatican personnel but struck by his lofty spiritual and human character religious houses throughout Europe to do all they one … can come to appreciate the human wisdom could to hide Jews lest they be deported to con- and pastoral intensity that guided him in his long centration camps. Jewish theologian and Israeli years of ministry, especially in providing organized diplomat Pinchas Lapide, in an exhaustively docu- assistance to the Jewish people. … Wherever posmented 1960s work on the pope’s activities during sible he spared no effort in intervening in their favor the war, estimated that Pius was “instrumental in either directly or through instructions given to other saving at least 700,000 but probably as many as individuals or to institutions of the Catholic Church.

860,000 Jews from certain death at Nazi hands.” … Given the concrete situation of that difficult hisHe was praised as a “righteous gentile” and praised torical moment, only in this way was it possible to

by Israeli Prime Ministers Golda Meir and Moshe avoid the worst and save the greatest number of Sharett, President Chaim Weizmann, and Chief Jews. This courageous and paternal dedication was Rabbi Isaac Herzog. Rome’s Chief Rabbi, Israel recognized and appreciated during and after the Zolli, was so moved by Pius XII’s hidden heroism terrible world conflict by Jewish communities and during the war in favor of Italian Jews, that he end- individuals who showed their gratitude for what the ed up converting to Catholicism. For his baptismal pope had done for them.”

Pope Pius XII simply did the work of more than name, he took Eugenio, in honor of the pope.

Papa Pacelli’s actions were held in near univer- 600 Oskar Schindlers.

The 50th anniversary of his death is a time to set sal esteem until five years after his death, when a communist playwright in Germany, Rudolf Hoch- the record straight — and to thank God for him.

Father Landry is pastor of St. Anthony’s Parhuth, published a play called “The Deputy.” In it, he portrayed Pius XII as a wimpy fraud who re- ish in New Bedford.

Putting Into the Deep

Are science and religion really enemies?

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ne subject I often end up religion make competing claims over the same questions, in realdiscussing with friends ity they do not. and acquaintances is the apAlready back in the late parent conflict between religion and science. A surprising number of people believe these two powerful forces in our society are incompatible with each other.

By Father Tad Some even claim there Pacholczyk is an “inherent conflict” between them.

When people learn that I am a scientist and a Catho- 1500s a well-known Churchman named Cardinal Baronius lic priest, a common response made the point that religion is, “Wow, how do you do it?” teaches us “the way to go to Although it may appear to a casual observer that science and heaven, not the way the heavens

Making Sense Out of Bioethics

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October 10, 2008

go.” Science, on the other hand, addresses the physical world and “how the heavens go.” This simple but important distinction, which was later incorporated into the writings of Galileo, reminds us that science and religion are objectively compatible with each other since they have distinct and unique domains.

Yet even if they deal with different domains, science and religion can and must speak to each other. Albert Einstein already saw this when he made his now-famous remark: “Science without religion

At the threshold of the Church

s we did at the beginning for certain that they pray to the of this year, let’s take same God, the God of Abraa moment to look back on the ham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jesus. ground we’ve covered since this Although Christians profess the tour of world religions began in one God of Israel in three disMay 2007. On the first leg, we tinct Persons, it is undoubtedly explored the religions of South the one God of Israel whom they and East Asian origin: Hinduprofess. Moreover, they profess ism, Buddhism, Confucianism, him as a Trinity according to his and Taoism. Although the idea final revelation in Jesus Christ, of a creator God is not at the the Jew who fulfills the hope of Israel and is the Savior of the center these traditions and in world. some cases not even part of the We stand now, in a manner picture, it is possible to find of speaking, at the threshold in Oriental religion glimpses of the Church, the communion and intuitions of the God who reveals himself even as he conof faith and love (as St. Ignaceals himself.

In February, we entered the biblical orbit and found additional The Fullness knowledge of God (for of the Truth those who accept it) in direct revelations to

By Father particular human beings in actual historical Thomas M. Kocik time: Adam and Eve, Abraham, Moses, and the prophets. In the span of four months, we tius of Antioch defined it), the reviewed the highlights of the community of saints who are centuries-long drama of the Christ’s own very members as religious journey of the people his body and bride. On the next of Israel, as it is recorded in and penultimate leg of our tour, the Old Testament, and were we’ll traverse the various Chrisbrought to a deeper appreciatian communities outside the tion of the Jewish origins of our Catholic fold, beginning with Christian faith. those that separated themselves From there we turned to from Catholic unity in the first Islam, a derivative of JudaChristian millennium and which ism and Christianity, devoting still exist. Next, we’ll look at the three months to the religion of Orthodox Churches of the East, Muhammad. In spite of Islam’s which broke communion with absolute monotheism and other the Catholic Church in 1054 but doctrines it has in common with which are very close to CaJudaism and Christianity, neither tholicism in terms of apostolic Jews nor Christians can accept doctrine, sacramental worship, Muhammad as a prophet. It is and ordered ministry. Then we’ll hard to recognize the God of the explore the various forms of Bible in the God of the Qur’an, Protestantism, some of which and two very different conare more in contact with their cepts of the human person have Catholic past than others. emerged from the Christian and The divisions among ChrisMuslim understandings of God. tians, while sad and scandalous, Most recently, we took note of are at times unavoidable. Truth Baha’i, a heretical offshoot of obliges, and sometimes truth Islam, and Sikhism, a monothedivides. There are different and istic religion blending elements sometimes conflicting ways of Islam and Hinduism. of understanding and adherTaking all this into account, ing to “the faith once for all it seems that it is only with delivered to the saints” (Jude Jews that Christians can know 3). The Catholic Church has a

very definite position on what constitutes Christian orthodoxy, a position for which it claims the authority of 2,000 years of doctrine, institutionalized in the Church’s Magisterium, or teaching office. In keeping with the stated purpose of this series, our chief interest in what follows is to recognize the ways in which Catholicism complements and enriches the authentically Christian elements present in those separated churches and communities.

Half a century ago, the English Catholic writer Cecily Hastings wrote: “Whenever there is a choice between giving to some part of the Christian revelation either a more expansive, many-dimensioned, richly complex, open interpretation or, alternatively, a narrower, flatter, thinner, more restricted one, the former is always the Catholic one.” The more evident her pithy observation becomes to us over time, the more compelled we should feel to thank God for the “Catholic faith that comes to us from the Apostles” (to quote the Roman Canon of the Mass) and for the Catholic Church in which alone that same faith is found in its fullest dimensions.

Such gratitude entails a serious commitment to bringing our separated brothers and sisters into full communion with the Catholic Church. It is as if to say (paraphrasing our Lord), “Friends, come up higher,” into the fullness of God’s saving truth, and into the eucharistic fellowship made possible by our visible unity in the fullness of truth. For he whom we jointly confess as Lord and Savior wills nothing less for you than the spiritual direction, pastoral governance, and nourishing grace that he commissioned St. Peter and his successors to provide.

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

is lame; religion without science is blind.” Science and religion need each other and must work together. Pope John Paul II asserted this same fundamental point when he said: “Science can purify religion from error and superstition. Religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes.”

This task of collaboration and purification, however, is not an easy one in an environment of mutual doubt, suspicion and hostility. One reason for such hostility is that religion often purifies science by insisting on the primacy of ethics. Yet many scientists are clearly unwilling to acknowledge that the interests of humanity are authentically served only when scientific knowledge is joined to a truthful conscience, and the pursuit of science is attenuated through the filter of ethics.

In fact, the much-hyped conflict between religion and science turns out to be largely a conflict between men of science and men of religion, rather than between science itself and religion itself. Ultimately, some scientists may become uncomfortable when they perceive that science cannot adequately address value questions or provide answers to the ultimate questions that religion addresses. Some men of faith may similarly feel threatened when they finally have to acknowledge that the Bible is not, in fact, a scientific textbook.

A further explanation for the suspicion between scientists and men of faith can be the ill will generated by a vocal minority of scientists who suggest that religion has a “softening influence on the brain,” or that men and women of faith are “spared the trouble of thinking” when they live by religious dogma and strong ethical principles. Quite the opposite is actually the case. True religion, like good science, promotes a more measured rationality, and a more ordered thoughtfulness as we consider the created world we are a part of. Absolute religious dogmas and invariable ethical principles do not stifle thinking any more than abso-

lute definitions and unalterable geometric postulates stifle the thinking of the student of geometry. The rules of geometry do not “spare us the trouble of thinking” but, on the contrary, help us to think in a structured way, providing us with the very categories we need in order to be able to enter more deeply into this branch of mathematics.

Similarly, religious dogma and sound ethical teaching afford us the essential categories we need to enter reasonably into a discussion of the ultimate questions that every person faces, questions of purpose, morality and human destiny. Religion, in the words of G.K. Chesterton, is never “an arrest of thought, but a fertile basis and constant provocation of thought.”

Moving past the mutual suspicion that has arisen between scientists and men of faith is thus a critical first step in seeing how religion and science are not, in fact, enemies at all.

The two are able not only to coexist peaceably, but within the person of the scientist, religion and science can ultimately interconnect and strengthen one another. The pioneering astronomer and mathematician Johannes Kepler, who first calculated the elliptical orbits of the planets, perhaps put it best when he wrote: “The chief aim of all investigations of the external world should be to discover the rational order and harmony which has been imposed on it by God and which he revealed to us in the language of mathematics.”

That source of rationality, which is God himself, should be a source of continual wonder for each of us, as it was for Einstein when he mused: “The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible.”

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

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even hundred billion dollars is a great deal of money. The recent Wall Street bailout has upset the average citizen. Many taxpayer questions why they are being required to come to the assistance of banks and securities firms who made reckless decisions. Why is it our responsibility to bailout corporations who have become too big to fail? What angers people the most is the feeling that the bailout helps to keep many Wall Street types living lavish lifestyles beyond the means of the average person.

Over the last several weeks, the second reading has come from Paul’s Letter to the Philippians. This letter is really Paul’s thank you note to his favorite community. As we now read the letter’s final verses Paul sends his thanks for the faithful support the Philippian people have given him in his ministry.

The Anchor

October 10, 2008

With God, there is no need for a bailout

The Philippians were Paul’s and sent Paul money to provide first converts when he brought for his wellbeing in prison. his ministry to Greece. They While Paul is appreciative generously supported Paul as he of their support and does not moved on to establish churches want to sound ungrateful, he in Corinth and Thessalonica. The wants to remind them that he Philippians sent Paul money to has lived with both poverty and provide for his needs as he preached the Gospel in new communities. The Homily of the Week Philippians were always Twenty-eighth Sunday ready to help bail Paul in Ordinary Time out of need. We might consider them the first

By Father Christian Missionary John M. Sullivan Society.

An imprisoned Paul writes to them to thank them for abundance. He is happy for their their spiritual and financial supsupport because it was support port during his confinement. In for the Gospel. Paul also wanted the prisons of Paul’s day, it was them to know he could survive the responsibility of the inmate to without it. Paul could make do provide for his own needs. The because he is not self-sufficient family and friends of the prisoner but God-sufficient. Paul said the often assumed the task of providsecret of peace in life is to live ing for their necessities. The with circumstances beyond our Philippians assumed that duty control.

Paul is encouraging the Philippians to follow his example and place their trust in God. That is how Paul has learned to live his life. In his letters Paul writes of the many hardships, he faced in this preaching. He faced beatings with rods, stoning, shipwrecks, and imprisonment because of his fidelity to the Gospel. In all these sufferings, he had coped because he walked with Christ. With Christ beside him, he had been able to cope with many sufferings.

For many of us the current economic situation seems very precarious. We would like someone to come and bail us out of our predicament. For most of us that is not likely to happen. We do not have the taxpayers or even the family and friends who can come to our rescue. However, we are not without help. The wed-

ding feast prepared by the King in today’s Gospel reminds us that God has prepared an abundant feast for all the faithful. God promises to provide the faithful with what we truly need.

Like Paul, our faith tells us that we can depend on God. That does not mean that God will send us a check to wipe out our credit card balances and mortgage payments. It does mean that through prayer and the sacraments God will give us the same peace given to Paul. Like Paul, we can become God dependent.

We can learn to live with our circumstances especially those we cannot change. Like Jesus and Paul we can turn our hearts over to God and let his will and not ours take control and guide us to the joy of living life according to God’s will.

Father Sullivan is pastor St. Lawrence Martyr Parish in New Bedford.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. Oct. 11, Gal 3:22-29; Ps 105:2-7; Lk 11:27-28;; Sun. Oct. 12, Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Is 25:6-10a; Ps 23:1-6; Phil 4:12-14,1920; Mt 22:1-14 or 22:1-10; Mon. Oct 13, Gal 4:22-24,26-27, 31-5:1; Ps 113:1b-5a,6-7; Lk 11:29-32; Tues. Oct. 14, Gal 5:1-6; Ps 119:41,43-45,47-48; Lk 11:37-41; Wed. Oct. 15, Gal 5:18-25; Ps 1:1-4,6; Lk 11:42-46; Thu. Oct. 16, Eph 1:1-10; Ps 98:1-6; Lk 11:47-54; Fri. Oct. 17, Eph 1:11-14; Ps 33:1-2,4-5,12-13; Lk 12:1-7.

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ustice John Paul Stevens is 88, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is 75. Justice Anthony Kennedy is 72. Justice Stephen Breyer is 70. Justice David Souter is 68. Given those demographics, the next president of the United States will likely nominate at least one, and perhaps several, justices to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Once upon a time, that would have been considered a non-issue in a presidential election. Things have changed, however: the court now plays a major, substantive role in our national political life that would have surprised, and perhaps dismayed, the Constitution’s Framers. Indeed, the combination of its own assertiveness and the Congress’s pusillanimity has turned the Supreme Court into the cockpit of the American culture war.

Beginning with the Everson decision in 1947, the Court has read the First Amendment in ways that seem to imply an

The Supremes and the rest of us

establishment of secularism in effectively reversing the misAmerican public life. Supreme take the Court made in Plessy v.

Court decisions upholding racial Ferguson, the 1896 case in which quotas and defending a “right to segregation laws were held conpornography” (including Internet stitutionally permissible). Some child pornography) have incensed would argue, and not without many Americans, of all races, classes, and religions. The Court’s abortion jurisprudence since the early 1970s has imposed a radical regime of abortion-on-demand on the entire country,

By George Weigel Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s confusions on the facts here notwithstanding.

The recent Boumediene decision reason, that that moral authority on the alleged habeas corpus has now decayed into potentially rights of alien terrorist suspects dangerous forms of judicial arheld abroad inserted the Court rogance. Mistaken decisions are into the national security debate bad enough; to have nine unin an unprecedented way. elected lawyers instructing more The Court acquired considthan 300 million Americans to erable moral authority in 1954 fall in line and stop criticizing by its wise decision in Brown the Court’s work raises grave v. Board of Education, which questions about the health of our accelerated the nation’s journey democracy. to equality before the law (while This trend toward the judicial usurpation of politics — which is widespread throughout the

The Catholic Difference

federal judiciary, and culminates in the Supreme Court acting as an unelected and unaccountable national legislature — has been challenged intellectually by notable legal scholars, whose work has now borne fruit in a genuine debate, within the federal courts and on the Supreme Court, over the limits of the judiciary’s role in our public life. That debate, in turn, has begun to have real effect in some federal judging. Yet things are now balanced on a knife’s edge, such that the next president could well determine whether, for the foreseeable future, the Supreme Court and the lower federal courts play a more modest role in settling controverted issues or become an even more dominant force in both domestic and foreign policy.

Thus Catholic voters may wish to pose several questions to both major presidential candidates: 1) In the encyclical Centesimus Annus, the late Pope John Paul

Specializing in: Brand Name/ Foreign Auto Parts 1420 Fall River Avenue (Route 6) Seekonk, MA 02771

II wrote that the Church’s regard for democracy rests in part on the possibility of citizens participating in governance, and in part on the democratic system’s public accountability. Are you concerned that the increasing role played by federal courts in adjudicating hotly contested questions of public policy threatens the moral texture of our democracy, and indeed the entire democratic process?

2) Recent Supreme Court opinions have cited foreign and international legal materials in interpreting our Constitution. What role, in any, should contemporary foreign law play in American legal reasoning?

3) Does the Constitution mandate a “naked public square,” shorn of religiously-informed moral argument?

4) Was Justice Byron White (appointed to the Court by President Kennedy) correct in describing Roe v. Wade as an exercise in “raw judicial power”?

5) How do you regard recent Supreme Court thinking on the rights of alien terrorists in U.S. custody?

6) Has the Supreme Court’s acceptance of certain types of racial and gender quotas advanced or impeded the project of “liberty and justice for all”?

7) Does the Supreme Court have the authority to impose same-sex “marriage” as a constitutional right?

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

Fair weather friends

Tuesday 30 September 2008 — coast. It was lovely — the quaint Fryeburg, Maine — 273rd day of villages, the fishing ports, the the year turning maples. It was a gift, just Enough already. I’m out of as I had suspected. I turned to here. I’m off to the fair. That the bluegrass station on my radio would be the 158th annual agri(they call Bluegrass Folk Music cultural fair in Fryeburg, Maine.

I hopped in my truck and headed towards Boston. North of the city, Reflections of a I missed a little turn-off Parish Priest called Route 95. “Oh well, just keep on trucking,” I

By Father Tim told myself. “Perhaps my Goldrick poor sense of direction will today be a gift.” I’m a firm believer in unexpected gifts. I receive gifts from God in overdrive) and started singing all the time, but only when I let go along. In just a few hours, I knew of my own agenda. all the words of all the latest tunes.

As it happened, I took the I had morphed into a good old scenic route all the way up the country boy. I’m ready for the fair.

The Ship’s Log

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Bring it on.

Country people come to the fair from all around. There were farmers, growers, and livestock raisers.

There were people in agribusiness, young families out for an excursion, and teens dressed in the Gothic style (of course, Goth went out years ago, but remember, this in Maine we’re talking here.) “People watching” is an enjoyable pastime and there were plenty of people — 182,000 visitors expected.

Among the produce displays, I saw a man staffing a booth. “Pastor Chuck’s Orchards” said the sign. Sure enough, the man was Pastor Chuck himself (The Reverend Charles Waite

Reviving All Saints Day, Part I

ald Isle, being held captive and here is a philosophical sentenced to death multiple times question that asks, “If by polytheistic Druid priests, being Catholic were a crime, and then miraculously escapwould there be enough evidence ing from their clutches. At great to convict you?” It is an alarmperil to his own life, St. Patrick ing question until we remember rescued entire Celtic tribes from that being convicted is exactly the practices of human sacrifice, what we want to have happen at sorcery, and the belief that souls the Pearly Gates, and if we want could come back from the dead to be convicted up there, then and haunt the mortal world. we must live lives of conviction One pagan ritual St. Patrick down here.

As a Catholic people, we have developed a process of recognizing those who have lived lives of Christian conviction called canonization.

We call these canonized believers, “Saints” with

By Heidi Bratton a capital S, and have every confidence that they are now citizens of heaven. Fast approaching fought against was an annual, is an opportunity for us parents harvest-time festival called Samto celebrate these superheroes of hain. During this festival, Druid the faith with our children on All priests would light enormous Saints’ Day, November 1. I write communal bonfires in order about this in October, because to ward off ghosts, goblins, I’d like to invite families to make zombies, and witches that they better use of this holy day than believed were returning from the they might have done previously. underworld with evil intentions.

I’m going to cover this theme So as not to be identified and in two parts, starting here with harassed by this ghoulish mob, a condensed history of the holy common folks were instructed day and an idea on how to better to dress up like them and to offer prepare for its arrival. gifts of food to all those wanderI begin by divulging the fact ing about in disguise. that I am partially Irish CathoNow, in order to spread the lic, thus St. Patrick is the patron Gospel, missionaries like St. super hero of my people. I’d tip Patrick often used the tactic of my top hat to St. Patrick even if overlaying pre-existing pagan beit weren’t for the marvel of green beer in March, and the occasional liefs and traditions with Christian meaning. This meant that instead dispensation from meatless Friof trying to erase a pagan festival, days in Lent. I recall St. Patthey would simply change the rick’s legacy here, however, not because of my great love of green meaning of the celebration to uphold and propagate Christian beverages and meat, but because beliefs. Popes Gregory III and of the heroic virtue he exercised Gregory IV used such tactics in converting my ancestors from in the ninth century when they nature worshippers to followers moved the Church-wide celebraof Jesus Christ during the 400s. tion of All Hallow’s Day — The life of St. Patrick was as known today as All Saints’ Day spectacular as that of any cartoon — from May 13 to November 1. super hero, maybe even more so.

It is important to know that It involved dramatic showdowns only recently did we calculate a with pagan kings of the Emer-

Home Grown Faith

new day as beginning at midnight. Before precision watches were commonplace, the beginning of a new day was marked by sundown. Because of this, the evening before a feast or holy day, and the sunlight hours of a holy day itself were considered to be one event. Therefore, by placing All Hallow’s Day on November 1, the popes also created All-hallows-eve on October 31.

It was intended that this new solemn vigil would supersede Samhain and other pagan harvest festivals held throughout Europe on the night of the full, harvest moon — typically around the end of October. Unfortunately, this replacement tactic was not 100 percent successful, and many of the same ghoulish rituals of Samhain continued to be practiced right alongside the new Christian rituals of All-hallows-eve.

Here’s the thing. St. Patrick is so much more than the caricature we see in March of a shamrocktoting, snake-dispelling, lover of all things green, and so are most of the Saints. To begin to prepare our families for All Saints’ Day, one of the best things we can do during the month of October is to dust off our Book of Saints, or log onto http://saints.sqpn.com/ and begin to learn more about the patrons of our own families, and the convictions they lived that paved the way for our faith. Plus, if you haven’t already discovered it, Father Landry’s column in this newspaper, Putting into the Deep, is the perfect place to read about saintly superheroes every week.

In the next column we’ll consider how All Saints’ Day fits into today’s culture, and ways to strengthen our Christian convictions by following the Saints’ example of heroic virtue.

Heidi and her husband raise their six children in Falmouth. homegrownfaith@ gmail.com.

Maclin.) Pastor Chuck told me he was a retired Episcopal priest who set out to do something entirely different and ended up growing apples commercially. Now he produces Pastor Chuck’s Organic Applesauce. His slogan is very biblical: “One taste and you’ll know the difference between good and bad.” I thought of that world expert on myth and religion, the late Joseph Campbell, and of his famous saying, “Follow your bliss.” Pastor Chuck did just that, although I suspect Red Bliss are potatoes, not apples, but close enough.

Then I came upon something quite unusual at a country fair — a man dressed in a three-piece suit.

Wearing a straw hat with red, white, and blue banding he was cheerfully greeting every passerby.

“You act like a politician,” I joked, just to make conversation. “I am a politician,” he responded. “Vote for me.” “But I don’t live in this state,” I commented. “Well, just pick up and move to Maine. Then vote for me.” These politicians can be so impractical.

I know nothing about racing, except for adopting greyhounds.

I’ve never bet on anything in my life, but off I went to the fairground races just the same. It turned out that these were harness races, a sport that originated in the United States. These were not the finest thoroughbreds in the world, but farm animals trained by farmhands in their spare time. I may not know horses, but I know beautiful animals when I see them.

One thing led to another and I found myself high over the grandstands in the announcer’s booth.

Although I had the perfect view, I

still had no idea what I was watching. Fortunately, I wasn’t invited to make any announcements over the public address system. After shouting “They’re off!” I would have fallen silent.

Also on the agenda that day were draft horse, pony, sheep, and llama judging; and Jersey, Guernsey, Charolais and Belted Galloway judging (they all looked like cows to me.) There were tractor pulls and horse pulls. My favorites were the oxen. These animals are huge — some weigh more than 3,000 pounds. I learned that oxen start off as regular steers, but instead of being turned into steaks at a tender age, they are groomed to achieve maximum size and maturity. Oxen work in pairs. I thought of the Lord’s advice: “Take my yoke upon you.” With Jesus as my yokemate, no load is too heavy.

The time came to leave and head back to Three Mile River. I gassed up, turned on the bluegrass station, and set course for home.

(This time I took Interstate 95.)

For a couple of days, I had lived in another world. This gives me a fresh perspective on my own.

Of course, my associate Father Furlong says I always live in another world. He’s such a kidder, that one.

No one can work 24/7, especially those in the fields of ministry and care-giving. There’s no end to our work but we all still need time away. I just happen to be one of those individuals who fixes his attention on a project and won’t let go until it’s completed.

Nobody ever said I was normal.

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

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10

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Strange days indeed

t was Beatle great John Lennon who penned, “Nobody told me there’d be days like these.

Strange days indeed. Most peculiar mama.”

October has always been my favorite month — and it still is. But things are so much different now then when I was puppy — strange days indeed.

October in Fall River in the 60s was a busy time for my friends and me. Once we got through the school and home work thing each week day, we’d agree to meet at the top of South Park, turned Kennedy Park, turned South Park again, turned Kennedy Park again.

For a while we didn’t know what it was called so we’d simply meet at

My View From the Stands

By Dave Jolivet the top of the park.

Once there, we’d strap on whatever shoulder pads and football helmets we had in our possession, and get ready to choose up sides.

Most of the guys had N.Y. Giants or Dallas Cowboys gear. I proudly donned Boston Patriots wear, usually evoking a great deal of ribbing from my mates. Back then, the Pats were the lobsters of the football world — bottom feeders.

With sweatshirts and hats marking the boundaries, we played until it got dark. I must admit one of the smallest players on the field was also one of the swiftest. Often did the Pat Patriot helmet leave the Giants and the Cowboys in the dust on the way to pay dirt.

At dusk, when the street lights came on, we’d all limp back home, scoff down a good old meat and potato supper, we’d scrub off the

dirt that was visible, and settle in to watch “Gilligan’s Island” or “Lucy” or the “Brady Bunch.”

On weekends we’d reassemble at the top of the park for another football session. Then we’d head to someone’s garage that had a basketball hoop attached, again choose up sides, and play round ball with red, raw hands and a rock-hard basketball.

Then we’d rake up a bunch of leaves into a large pile and recklessly dive in, hoping nothing disgusting unknowingly got raked into the pile.

Between school and play, there really wasn’t much time to watch the World Series, which were all day games. There really wasn’t a need to watch, except for 1967 of course.

Today? Most peculiar mama.

Everything is so organized now: Pop Warner football; CYO hoops; soccer leagues; fall baseball and softball.

No more pick-up games.

The castaways have long since been rescued, Lucy is wreaking havoc in heaven, and Marsha Brady is in her 50s.

But that’s all good — I think.

The Boston Red Sox have changed the way we think about the good old month of October. They begin their fourth American League Championship Series in the last six years — shooting for their third title in five years.

Nobody told me there’d be days like these. It is kind of fun though, while these strange days last.

But I do miss coming home and finding leaves in my socks and long johns, taping up a sprained finger, or wiping the mud from my eyes after a sloppy tackle on a make-shift field at the top of the park.

October 10, 2008

Wareham woman provides humble example of faith

B y Michael Pare A nchor Staff

do their work as St. Vincent would have wanted them to … very quietly.”

WAREHAM — Barbara Ramsay doesn’t And that is what Father Medeiros sees in like to make a fuss over all that she does Ramsay — a quiet yet deep dedication to for St. Patrick Parish on High Street, where her faith. she has been a loyal parishioner for four Ramsay has leaned on that faith. In Nodecades. Helping to clean the sanctuary vember of 2006 she was diagnosed with and care for the altar linens, after all, is a pancreatic cancer. She had surgery that Desmall way to give back to a parish that has cember. always been there for her. And by serving “I was very fortunate,” she said. “It was as a extraordinary minister of holy Commu- caught early and so I have survived. I thank nion for the homebound, well, Ramsay gets God every day.” something out of that for herself.

Father Medeiros sees Ramsay’s devotion She tells the story as a wonderful lesson of visiting a particufor all Catholics. lar woman for years, “She comes to first at her home, and Mass daily,” he said. now, at a local nurs“She is appreciative ing home. The womof what God has given an has myriad health her.” problems, including A native of East the fact that she can Braintree, Ramsay no longer see or hear. arrived in West WareBut on those days ham in 1964, after when Ramsay brings having lived for a time the Eucharist to the in Illinois. She was woman, something divorced and was raisso special is shared. ing five children. Her It is a bond between father died in 1966. two people that goes She and the children beyond any sort of lived with her mother, routine meeting. The Lena. woman, of course, A registered nurse, receives the Body of Ramsay worked the Christ and the comnight shift at Tobey pany of Ramsay, who Hospital. She loved so looks forward to ANCHOR PERSON OF THE WEEK — Bar- the job, especially the the visit. personal contact with bara Ramsay.

“It gives me a patients. And the shift sense of satisfaction,” allowed her time to be said Ramsay. “I am able to give her some home during the day. stimulation. But I get a lot out of it. It’s not Her mother helped raise the kids. She one-sided.” was a special person. And in a fateful twist, It is an example of Ramsay’s simple ap- it was Ramsay who was able to care for her proach to living her faith. mother in her later years. Lena died in 2006, “I try to do the best that I can,” she said. at the age of 103.

“I have a long way to go, but I do try to live Ramsay remembers her fondly. my faith. I try to do what I think is right.”

“My mother was very religious,” she And so Ramsay brings the Eucharist to said. “We used to walk to Mass together to shut-ins. And helps to clean the sanctuary. Sacred Heart at Weymouth Landing.”

She is a member of the St. Vincent de Paul In retrospect, Ramsay sees that her reSociety. She has always been willing to tirement in 1995 allowed her to spend even help out at parish events. more time at St. Patrick’s. She was able to Ask the pastor at St. Patrick’s about her, replace the personal contact she missed as and Father Arnold R. Medeiros rattles off a nurse. a litany of things she does for the parish.

“The Church has always been an imporHe, in fact, nominated her for the Marion tant part of my life,” she said. “I gravitated Medal, that she received. But in reflect- toward the Church, as opposed to anything ing on Ramsay’s faith, Father Medeiros is else.” drawn to her work with the St. Vincent de If you are in any way connected to St. Paul Society.

Patrick’s Parish, you know Barbara RamIt is a fitting example, he said, of her say. Ann Correia, for example, is the selflessness. housekeeper and cook at the parish. CorAs it is in so many parishes, the St. Vin- reia works closely with Ramsay and decent de Paul Society at St. Patrick’s is com- scribes has a “very dedicated, faith-filled prised of a dedicated group of parishioners person.” who reach out to the poor. The group runs “She is a strong person,” Correia said. a food pantry and responds to requests to “She was very dedicated to her mother. And help parishioners struggling more than ever whether she is sick or not, she just keeps these days under the weight of a depressed going.” economy.

That’s the beauty of Barbara Ramsay’s By design, their work most often goes faith. It just keeps going — and growing. unnoticed.

To nominate a Person of the Week, send “They don’t look to take credit for their an email message to FatherRogerLandry@ good deeds,” said Father Medeiros. “They AnchorNews.org.

SUMMER SWAN SONG — As one of the last events of the summer season, folks from St. Margaret’s Parish in Buzzards Bay and its mission St. Mary Star of the Sea held a parish picnic in Onset.

More than 100 people enjoyed great food, weather, and a wonderful view of the Cape Cod Canal.

Peace march to seek Mary’s help continued from page one

lumbus Day weekend, is held even if the weather is inclement.

Traditionally at the front of the procession is a statue of Our Lady of Fatima, carried by men of Espirito Santo Parish, which has been the longtime sponsor of the Peace March.

At one point in the liturgy, the statue of the Virgin of Fatima, as described by the three shepherd children to whom she appeared, will be blessed and enshrined before the main altar after it arrives at St. Anne’s.

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October 10, 2008

History has pointed up just how instrumental prayers to Our Lady of Fatima and to Mary as the Queen of Peace and of the Rosary can be in asking for timely divine intervention.

St. Dominic, who, traditions credits with the formulation of the rosary devotion, is said to have received its inspiration after an appearance from the Virgin Mary whom he had prayed to for intercession to end the Albigensian heresy that had ravaged Christendom in the 12th and 13th centuries.

The victory by the Holy League Coalition galleys over the Ottomans in the naval battle of Lepanto in the Gulf of Petras off Greece in October 1571, prohibiting the Ottomans from sacking Europe and entering the Vatican, is

attributed to the Virgin Mary, whose intercession the coalition sought as together they prayed the rosary.

As World War I spread across Europe and involved nearly all its nations, Pope Benedict XV made repeated but forlorn pleas for peace, and in May 1917 made a direct appeal to Mary the Mother of God to intercede for us with Jesus for peace.

Just a week later, on May 13, 1917, the Virgin appeared to three Portuguese shepherd children, 10-year-old Lucia, and her cousins Francisco, age eight, and Jacinta, seven, and urged them to pray for peace in the world.

A year earlier they had been prepared for Mary’s visits through the appearance of an angel.

The apparitions and cosmic events witnessed by thousands brought many to their knees.

The Armistice that ended World War I was signed on November 11, 1918 at Versailles.

Europe mourned 2.8 million dead in the war-torn nations.

But Central Europe continued to simmer politically and 21 years later war broke out there once again.

Throughout War World II that followed and subsequently the Korean War, Vietnam War, the Gulf War, the War in Iraq — and various warring campaigns and acts of terrorism in between — the several popes have constantly urged people of every place and generation to pray to the Mother of God and work for peace in the world.

Their efforts — probably best attested to by the promised and miraculous wane of Communism in just several hours of decision-making a decade ago — after its 92 years of powerful domination across the globe, shows the mighty strength of prayer.

On October 13, in a tradition that reflects the many nations and nationalities caught up in the sad litany of wars to date, the rosary for peace will be recited by many in St. Anne’s in several languages prior to the upcoming Mass.

And at Mass, at which the choir from Espirito Santo Parish will perform, the readings in English, Spanish and Portuguese, will reflect a small ethnical portion of a frustrated, but hopeful world searching outside itself for peace.

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October 10, 2008

Paul’s relationship with the Church and the other Apostles

he last catechesis of the has received and now transmits to Holy Father touched on a new Christians. fascinating topic: St. Paul’s relaHere is the first text, from 1 tionship with the Twelve, the first Cor 11:23-25: “For I received Disciples of the Lord who had from the Lord what I also known him in his earthly life as delivered to you, that the Lord Paul himself had not. This week Jesus on the night when he was he leads us further into the matter. betrayed took bread, and when he There are several places in had given thanks, he broke it, and his letters where St. Paul refers said, ‘This is my body which is to his stay in Jerusalem, especially with Peter, James and John, whom he Living the referred to as the “pillars” of the Jerusalem Church.

Pauline Year Benedict asks, What did Paul learn during his stay

By Father Andrew Johnin Jerusalem with Peter son, OCSO and the others? The event on the road to Damascus was the definitive event of his calling to be an apostle, but for you. Do this in remembrance surely Paul was eager to learn of me.’ In the same way also the more from those who had been cup, after supper, saying, ‘This in on it from the very begincup is the new covenant in my ning. There are the two principle blood. Do this, as often as you texts, one on the institution of the drink it, in remembrance of me.’”

Eucharist, one on the events of For Paul, Benedict says, “Jesus’ Easter. They both begin with a words at the Last Supper are truly sacred formula: “For I received the center of the Church’s life: the from the Lord what I also delivChurch is built on this center, thus ered to you” thus alerting us to the becoming herself. In addition to fact that these texts (confessions this eucharistic center, in which of faith, really) are very ancient the Church is constantly reborn, in the Church’s life, going back these words have a considerable to the late 30s, very soon after impact on Paul’s personal relathe events themselves. In using tionship with Jesus.” this formula, Paul means to insist Then, the second text, from 1 on his fidelity to what he himself Cor 15:3-8: “For I delivered to

you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. Then he appeared to more than 500 brethren at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the Apostles.

Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.”

The unspoken link between the two texts is the fact of Jesus’ selfgiving, in the Eucharist, and “on the cross for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures.”

Benedict makes the parallel truths explicit: Jesus made himself a heavenly bread for our nourishment, and “made himself to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5: 21). Jesus takes on himself our sin and gives us his holiness, at the Last Supper and in his Resurrection. As the liturgy says, O wondrous exchange!

Resurrection and Eucharist, the truths of faith which Paul is careful to transmit with precise formulas, are the elements that constitute the Church and make her endure through the ages.

Those who would say that St. Paul “invented Christianity” or gave the Church a gospel different from the Gospel of Jesus ignore the care he takes faithfully to record his encounter with the risen one on the Damascus road, and to pass on the living tradition of the Church.

Benedict ends with a word of solid Pauline exhortation: “The more we try to trace the footsteps of Jesus of Nazareth on the roads of Galilee, the better we shall be able to understand that he took on our humanity, sharing it in all things except sin. Our faith is not born from a myth or from an idea, but from the encounter with the risen one in the life of the Church.”

Father Johnson is the diocesan director of the Pauline Year and parochial vicar at St. Francis Xavier Parish in Hyannis.

IT’S IN THE BAG — Jamie Lee Curtis stars in a scene from the movie “Beverly Hills Chihuahua.” For a brief review of this film, see CNS Movie Capsules below. (CNS photo/Disney)

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

“Beverly Hills Chihuahua” (Disney) A pampered pooch (voice of Drew Barrymore) is kidnapped by a Mexican dog-fighting ring while on a junket in the custody of her doting owner’s (Jamie Lee Curtis) self-absorbed niece (Piper Perabo), escapes with the help of a protective ex-police dog (voice of Andy Garcia) and discovers life on the streets while the ardent Chihuahua (voice of George Lopez) she once spurned leads the search for her. Along with entertaining adventures, director Raja Gosnell’s sprightly live-action canine quest offers lessons about ethnic prejudice and class distinctions while also portraying the personality-warping effects of materialism. Mild menace. The USCCB Office for

Film & Broadcasting classification is A-I — general patronage.

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

“Flash of Genius” (Universal) Greg Kinnear gives an excellent performance as Robert Kearns, the real-life Detroit inventor of the intermittent windshield wiper who, with the support of his wife (Lauren Graham) and six children, obsessively persevered in taking Ford Motor Co. to court for the infringement of his patent. Though director Marc Abraham’s absorbing film is formulaic in its basic structure, with the “bad guys” too obvious from the get-go and the “quality film” trappings a bit heavy-handed, the story of an individual standing up for his rights against impossible odds is irresistible and beautifully underscores the importance of family and human dignity. Some crude words, one instance of the F-word and intermittent profanity. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-II — adults and adolescents.

The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned.

Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on WLNE Channel 6 Sunday, October 12 at 11:00 a.m.

Scheduled celebrant is Father Robert A. Oliveira, pastor of Holy Name of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in New Bedford.

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October 10, 2008

news briefs

Catholic agencies cautiously prepare for economic future WASHINGTON (CNS) — Officials at Catholic aid agencies said it is too early to tell how the shaky economy will affect their donations and investments and noted they are cautiously preparing for the future. John F. Galbraith, president and chief executive officer of the New York-based Catholic Medical Mission Board, said nonprofit organizations tend to react more slowly to market punches than other sectors of the economy. Although “it is premature to look at our results (of donation revenue) in the past two months,” he told Catholic News Service, the board has “to be prudent at this point in time. The psychology of the stock market is just as important as the reality of the stock market; if people think they have less money we have to prepare for it — that they will give less money,” Galbraith said. “If they are on a fixed income, they will be much more diligent. We’re not going to lose them (as donors), but they will be more careful of how they allocate that portion of money they can afford to be charitable with.” The Catholic Medical Mission Board sends medical supplies and volunteers to poor missionary countries.

End food commodities speculation, religious groups, others urge WASHINGTON (CNS) — While much of the nation’s attention has been focused on the stock market, a coalition of religious, social justice, rural and environmental groups is working to bring attention to damage it says has been caused worldwide by a speculative commodities futures market. “Food is not a speculative investment,” said the coalition in a letter to President George W. Bush and members of Congress. “The artificial demand that has been created by investors’ rampant speculation in commodities futures has put tremendous upward price pressure on food and energy commodities.” More than three billion people around the world subsist on less than $2 a day, half of which goes to pay for food, the letter said. With the doubling or tripling of food prices caused by speculators, “many of the world’s poor can no longer afford the food that they need to survive,” it added. Although commodity futures prices have recently come down, the letter said, “the regulatory loopholes that undermine the intent of the Commodity Exchange Act remain open, ready to reintroduce extreme market volatility, political instability and much human suffering.”

New book, report assess status of abortion at state level CHICAGO (CNS) — A new book by constitutional scholar Paul Benjamin Linton assesses the legal status of abortion in each of the 50 states, concluding that more than half the abortions performed in the U.S. would remain “constitutionally protected” if Roe v.

Wade were overturned. “Abortion Under State Constitutions” was published with the assistance of the Thomas More Society in Chicago. At about the same time, the Chicago-based Americans United for Life released its annual report on abortion-related actions in state legislatures around the country in 2008. Linton’s book provides “a road map for the Pro-Life movement in every state of the nation,” said Tom Brejcha, president and chief counsel for the society, a national public-interest law firm. The Americans United for Life report says 45 states considered nearly 450 measures related to abortion in 2008, a 12 percent increase over the previous year. “We are seeing more and more legislation designed to protect women from the negative consequences of abortion,” said Denise Burke, vice president and legal director of the organization.

Lung cancer and breast cancer: Two approaches

A

mericans are famil— and irresponsibly — ignored. iar with the Surgeon Clearly, not all women who General’s warnings that achave abortions get breast cancer company the sales of tobacco and not all women with breast products. Every item must carry cancer have procured abortions, notification that its use has been but significant links are still credibly linked to lung cancer, there. Estrogen overexposure is heart disease, emphysema, fetal the key. The full explanation can injury, premature birth, low be found at www.bcpinstitute. birth weight, and overall health org but one has to begin by realcomplications. While smoking izing that estrogen is actually a remains legal, educational and secondary carcinogen. Despite public institutions have collabo- the good it does, it also has rated to discourage the practhe capacity to produce abnortice — and rightfully so. The mal tissue, especially when an choice to smoke is now a fully abortion interrupts the body’s informed choice.

Not so with abortion. Dozens of studies have credibly linked the alarming increases in the rate of breast cancer with the deliberate termination of pregnancy and yet

By Genevieve Kineke women are not informed about the inherent risks to the procedure.

Evidence surrounding childdelicate process of preparing for bearing and breast cancer has pregnancy and nursing. long been available and undisDr. Joel Brind, combining puted. For centuries, the medimany studies for a meta-analycal community called it “the sis, concludes that nearly 10,000 preventative effect of childbear- cases of breast cancer are presing.” Beginning in 1970 with ently related to the abortion link a landmark study by Harvard each year, and with abortions University, scientists simply being procured by increasingly quantified what lay wisdom had younger women, that number already recognized: having a will rise to almost 50,000 annufirst child before the age of 24, ally by the year 2020. having several children, and While many of the studies breast-feeding them markedly acknowledging the increased reduces a woman’s risk of breast breast cancer risk are conducted cancer. by abortions supporters, the Since then, with the legalizacontrary studies have been tion and growth of the abortion shown to be flawed, biased, and industry into a multi-billion unethically tied to those whose dollar business, the avoidable business is the marketing of medical risks have been buried abortion. Even as the public for the sake of selling a highly proved too wise to succumb to politicized product. The prolifer- such a strategy from the tobacco ation of breast cancer it its wake industry, confusion about what has caught the nation’s attention, makes an informed “choice” and yet the insidious contributconcerning abortion has allowed ing factors have been studiously them to turn a blind eye to

The Feminine Genius

industry-based sleight of hand in this realm.

It is gratifying that breast cancer is very much in the news considering its 40 percent increase in the last 30 years. It legitimately draws on the sympathies of a genuinely concerned population, but to ignore one of the greatest contributing factors is an egregious disservice to all women. Abortion supporters have long argued that the ProLife community is singularly concerned with the welfare of the child, not the mother, and yet it is the proponents of “choice” who have suppressed this critical information. Who really cares for women, we must ask?

The pink ribbons are all around us. Most media outlets cooperate freely in raising both awareness and money to fight this horrendous disease.

Perhaps your contribution to the cause this year could be to spread the word about the avoidable risks that can lead to breast cancer. Pro-Lifers do care about women — and revealing the abortion link would be a real act of charity.

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

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Stonehill Religious Life symposium draws 600 continued from page one

injustice.

Then the sexual abuse crisis and the inadequate response affirmed suspicions that the hierarchy could not be trusted, Sister Butler said, and many religious responded by calling for institutional change, putting them “on a collision course” with the Church.

Now a new challenge has arrived to reclaim the treasure that was lost, Sister Butler said, which she described as the covenant relationship with Jesus Christ. To do that, she said, religious communities must return to the moral authority of Christ and the Church, and to the charism of their founders.

In the morning panel discussion, Father Hugh Cleary, C.S.C.

Oct. 8,15,22,29, 2008 Oct. 12, 2008 Oct. 14 & 15, 2008 Nov. 2, 2008 Nov. 14 - 16, 2008 Nov. 15, 2008 Nov. 16, 2008

’69, superior general of the Congregation, offered inspiration by calling consecrated life “a great living treasure of the Church.”

Referring to the call by Jesus to “Come, follow me,” Father Cleary said, “How blessed we are in our magnificent vocation to follow him — truly follow him.”

Sister Gill Goulding, a member of the Congregation of Jesus and a professor at Regis College in Toronto, Ontario, stressed that the love of Christ is “the root, ground, heart of religious life.”

She encouraged religious to follow obedience out of love, not fear, and to reclaim the contemplative way in prayer and practice.

Jesuit Father Joseph Lienhard, a professor of theology at Ford-

~ Seminar - Transitioning ~ Therese of Lisieux ~ Prayer Shawl Ministry ~ Evening of Prayer ~ Discovering Life After Loss ~ Aging Gracefully ~ Genealogy of Jesus

ham University in Bronx, N.Y., focused on the importance of signs and symbols in religious life, like common dress and communal living.

He said a community without these signs has difficulty communicating its meaning, and loses the meaning it had meant to express.

Cardinal Sean O’Malley, archbishop of Boston, introduced Cardinal Rode for his afternoon keynote address, which was read in part by Father David O’Connell, president of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Cardinal Rode said religious communities have been involved in a great crisis over the past 40 years. He cited the decline in the number of members, the abandonment of ministries, the closing of communities, and the debts of some congregations.

Despite these facts, he said, some communities are reversing the trend, seeking renewal based on a correct interpretation of Vatican II. While there was much in religious life to improve after the Council, he said, secular culture penetrated the effort, and that led

October 10, 2008 to a dilution of faith, a rejection of traditional prayer, the exodus of members, and the disappearance of many apostolic ministries.

The true spirit of the Council, he said, encompassed both continuity and reform based on clear guidelines centered on Christ and the Gospels, and aimed at more faithful observance to the rule of the community.

New religious orders begun since Vatican II have adhered to that authentic spirit, he said, and they are growing because of it.

Yet new vocations are not coming in many other communities, said Cardinal Rode, and that points to the need for more formation programs aimed at the new generation, which he called “essential if we want to flourish.”

In the afternoon, Sister Elizabeth McDonough, a Dominican and a professor of canon law and theology at Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, said the Second Vatican Council took place in a decade of assassinations, war protests, equal rights, and the feminist movement.

The hierarchy greatly underestimated the impact of the times and the extent of renewal in religious communities, she said, and adopted a principle of not inter-

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vening, which meant that crucial oversight was absent. Now that is changing, she said, as witnessed by the symposium and the number and variety of religious in attendance, including several bishops and Cardinal Rode.

“Hierarchical neglect seems to be changing, right here, right now,” Sister McDonough said, and a new awareness has now emerged.

Father Kurt Pritzl, a Dominican priest and dean and associate professor of philosophy at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., related religious life to the Church’s teaching on marriage and noted that the consecrated life is symbolic of the marriage of Christ to the Church. But he said that means congregations also have the responsibilities of family life.

Ann Carey, a Catholic journalist and author, offered her “view from the pew” by saying that lay Catholics expect religious men and women to reflect the teachings of the Church, yet some religious today do not accept teachings on several issues.

Many religious, she said, are also invisible to the laity, and although they are doing good work, that work is often for secular causes. One reason for the lack of new vocations, she said, is that religious life does not seem very different from the lay life, and young people are not attracted to religious orders that do not know what they are about and where they are going.

Members, she said, need to conduct themselves as religious and if they do, they will discover the keys to renewing their orders, and will draw the esteem of the laity.

In his closing remarks, Bishop Robert Morlino of Madison, Wisc., said obedience is the basis for all of religious life. Attempts were made to redefine obedience in the 1960s, he said, as the emphasis was placed on following one’s conscience. But he said conscience has to be shaped by the truths of Scripture and the teachings of the Church.

The symposium concluded with a vigil Mass celebrated by Cardinal Rode with a number of concelebrants, including Cardinal O’Malley who was also the homilist.

Stonehill and the Diocese of Fall River sponsored the symposium in honor of the 200th anniversary of the Archdiocese of Boston. Stonehill President Mark Cregan, C.S.C. welcomed the participants and Bishop George Coleman of the Diocese of Fall River offered the opening prayer.

Following the event, Cardinal Rode was presented with an honorary degree in humanities from Stonehill. As an educator in the faith and a theologian, he was recognized for his nearly 50 years of service to Christ and his Church.

Witness at abortion clinic draws hundreds continued from page one

“We have seen an absolutely amazing response from Catholics and clergy as well from a cross section of young adults, students and even our seniors, all supported and endorsed by Bishop George W. Coleman,” said Marcotte, a member of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish in Seekonk, and a professional firefighter for the Town of Attleboro.

“Although co-director Ron Larose and I had hoped for success of this grass-roots local campaign, we never expected to receive such outstanding support … and it goes to show the tremendous power of prayer,” he added.

Larose, director of the Pro-Life Program at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, was reached at his job site in Bridgeport, Conn.

“I’m working here as a comptroller for a time, but I keep up to date and maintain my daily email profiles to make sure we keep contacts,” he reported.

“We are most grateful for the response from the hundreds of parishioners, youth groups, members of the Knights of Columbus, and priests and religious who are already taking part — and also from The Anchor in getting out the message,” said Larose.

“And we are equally grateful for the outstanding support we’ve received from the Pro-Life Apostolate in the diocese and Marian Desrosiers and assistant director Jean Arsenault — without whom we would never have gotten anywhere.”

According to Marcotte and Larose, while signups for the necessary daily hours have been completed, there is a dedicated 90-member back-up group that is standing by, waiting to fill in should gaps appear.

On October 2, Marcotte welcomed a group of approximately 50 led by Father Roger J. Landry, pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Parish in New Bedford, including priests, that prayed the rosary and a litany at the clinic between the hours of 3 and 5 p.m., joining others already there.

Sue Cauthey, a co-chairman of the Respect Life Committee at St. Mary’s in Mansfield, said in a telephone interview from the site that she was “absolutely inspired” by participating in the vigil. “It was wonderful joining in the prayers led by the several priests and knowing we were taking part in such an important effort on behalf of Pro-Life.”

She said that while it was her first visit, “I’ll be back again.”

Martine Palanza, also of St. Mary’s, said her initial visit at the vigil, “brought me to tears. I felt so much a part of the message our presence brought. The experience

15

The Anchor

October 10, 2008

prompts me to bring the older of our six children — who are 14, 12, 10 and seven along with me the next time I come.”

Among the clergy giving witness was Father Joseph H. Mauritzen, pastor of St. Joseph’s Parish in Woods Hole.

“One can’t help being inspired by being among those praying together in this most meaningful Pro-Life event,” he said from outside the clinic. “Although there are several buildings in the clinic’s complex and the entrance used is partially hidden, we can see the goings and comings. So this is an important witness and while this is my first time, it won’t be my last,” Father Mauritzen commented.

Other priests in the group in-

cluded Father Michael Carvill, pastor of St. Joseph’s in Attleboro; Father Hugo Cardenas, IVE, of St. Kilian’s in New Bedford; Father Andrew Johnson of St. Francis Xavier in Hyannis; Msgr. Gerard P. O’Connor, pastor of St. Francis Xavier in Acushnet; and Father Jay Mello, parochial vicar at St. Julie Billiart in North Dartmouth and chaplain at Bishop Stang High School there.

“It is typical of the great support — such as we have also received from Msgr. Stephen J. Avila, pastor of St. Mary’s Parish in Mansfield, and Father James W. Fahey, pastor of St. Theresa of the Child Jesus Parish in South Attleboro,” Marcotte added.

“And so many other parishes too are sending members in this for life effort.”

The local “40 Days for Life” effort in the Fall River Diocese, is among 173 national campaigns at abortion clinics in 45 states, two Canadian provinces and Puerto Rico, for the largest Pro-Life mobilization in history.

In essence, it is comprised of three components: fervent prayer and fasting — in which people of faith in the area are asked to join in; standing for life through a 40-day peaceful public witness outside an abortion clinic; and through community outreach take a positive, upbeat, Pro-Life message through the community via media efforts, Church liturgies, petition drives and public visibility.

“I have found much joy in praying the decades of the rosary

with others — which I haven’t done much of before this,” said Marcotte.

He related that as he stood with a group outside the abortion clinic recently, a woman pulled up in a car to ask directions, and it opened up a meaningful conversation on Pro-Life issues.

“It makes one understand how just being there — the public visibility — can itself be instrumental in not just educating the community that abortion is wrong, but that death of a child is never an option or a solution,” he said.

Anyone wanting to volunteer can get more information and sign-up online at the Website www.40daysforlife.com/ Attleboro; or by calling Steven Marcotte at 508-406-1211, or contacting him at 40dflattleboro@comcast.net.

National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette 947 Park Street - Attleboro, MA 02703 Tel. 508-222-5410 www.lasaletteshrine.org

OCTOBER EVENTS FALL BOOK DISCUSSION

Sat. Oct. 2 - 7:15 p.m. - Prayer by Joyce Rupp Welcome Center Auditorium ~ Fr. Victor Chaupetta, M.S.

FIRST FRIDAY EUCHARISTIC ADORATION

Fri. Oct. 3 - 1:00-5:00 p.m. Mass at 5:15 p.m. followed by Extreme-East Youth Prayer Meeting at 6:30 p.m. in Church

BLESSING OF THE ANIMALS

Sat. Oct. 4 - 10:00 a.m. - Fr. Victor Chaupetta, M.S.

BIBLE STUDY

Sat. Oct. 4 - 11:00 a.m. - WRITINGS OF ST. PAUL “Apostle, Mystic, Writer” Reconciliation Chapel ~ Fr. Donald Paradis, M.S.

MARY: WOMAN OF THE EUCHARIST Sat. Oct. 4 - 1:00 p.m. with Anna Rae-Kelly ~ Welcome Center Hall

HISPANIC PILGRIMAGE DAY

Sat. Oct. 4 - 2:00 p.m. Fr. John Patrick Sullivan, M.S., Church

HEALING SERVICE WITH MASS

Sun. Oct. 5 - 2:30 p.m. Hispanic Healing Service - Fr. John Sullivan, M.S.

PAX CHRISTI

Tues. Oct. 21 - 7:15 p.m. Fr. John Sullivan, M.S. Reconciliation Chapel

BIBLE STUDY

Sat. Oct. 25 - 11:00 a.m. - WRITINGS OF ST. PAUL “Apostle, Mystic, Writer” Reconciliation Chapel ~ Fr. Donald Paradis, M.S.

WELCOMING A STRANGER

Sat. Oct. 25 - 1:00 p.m. Pax Christi Film & Discussion Fr. John Patrick Sullivan, M.S. - Welcome Center

BIBLE STUDY

Sat. Oct. 25 - 11:00 a.m. - WRITINGS OF ST. PAUL “Apostle, Mystic, Writer” Reconciliation Chapel ~ Fr. Donald Paradis, M.S.

DINNER & ENTERTAINMENT AT LA SALETTE! “Misgivings” “A Divine Comedy” Patrick Aloysius Sat. Oct. 25 - 6:00 p.m. Italian Dinner Tickets - $30.00 Dinner will be served in the Cafeteria Show - Welcome Center 7:00 p.m.

Proceeds to benefit the Shrine.

For reservations call (508) 222-5410

FALL BOOK DISCUSSION

NOVENA TO OUR LADY OF LA SALETTE

Thurs. Oct. 30 - 7:15 p.m. - Prayer by Joyce Rupp Welcome Center Auditorium ~ Fr. Victor Chaupetta, M.S.

DIVINE MERCY & LA SALETTE HOLY HOUR

Sun. Oct. 26 - 2:00 p.m. English Healing Service - Fr. Andre Patenaude, M.S.

Every Wednesday at 12:10 & 6:30 Masses

Every Wednesday at 7:15 p.m. in Church

FALL BOOK DISCUSSION

Sat. Oct. 9 - 7:15 p.m. - Prayer by Joyce Rupp Welcome Center Auditorium ~ Fr. Victor Chaupetta, M.S.

BIBLE STUDY

Sat. Oct. 11 - 11:00 a.m. - WRITINGS OF ST. PAUL “Apostle, Mystic, Writer” Fr. Donald Paradis, M.S. - Reconciliation Chapel

LAY FAST FOR PRIESTS

Sat. Oct. 11 - 1:00 p.m. Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament 3:00 p.m. Devotion & Benediction

VOCATION AWARENESS SUNDAY

Sun. Oct. 12 - 3:00 p.m. Fr. John Welch, M.S. & Fr. Pat, M.S.

PADRE PIO & EUCHARISTIC ADORATION Mon. Oct. 13 - 7:15 p.m. - Reconciliation Chapel

FALL BOOK DISCUSSION

Thurs. Oct. 16 - 7:15 p.m. - Prayer by Joyce Rupp Welcome Center Auditorium ~ Fr. Victor Chaupetta, M.S.

HEALING SERVICE WITH MASS

LIFE IN THE SPIRIT OF RECONCILIATION Tues. Oct. 28 - 7:15 p.m. - Reconciliation Chapel

PRAYER & DISCUSSION MEETING

Thurs. Oct. 30 - 7:15 p.m. Reconciliation Chapel Dr. Ryan Welter For information call (508) 345-5492

BETHANY NIGHTS “A Place to Begin Again”

Fri. Oct. 31 - 7:30 p.m. John Polce & Guests - Good-will offering - Shrine Church

SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION

Monday & Tuesday — Thursday & Friday 2:00 - 3:00 p.m.

Wednesday .........................2:00 - 3:00 & 5:00 - 6:00 p.m.

Saturday-Sunday......................................1:00 - 4:00 p.m.

BISTRO

Now serving: Sandwiches and Soup Open daily: Monday - Sunday 10:00 a.m. — 5:00 p.m.

Tel: (508) 222-5410 ext. 155

GIFT SHOP/ BOOKSTORE

Thurs. Oct. 16 - 7:15 p.m. - Reconciliation Chapel

INTERCESSORY GROUP

Open every day from 10:00 - 5:00 p.m. Tel: (508) 236-9090 Featuring gifts for All Occasions - Huge selection of Bibles, Books, CDs, Videos, DVDs & Children’s items. For online orders log on to our Website: www.lasalette-shrine.org

BIBLE STUDY

CONFERENCE HALL & CAFETERIA RENTALS AVAILABLE

Sat. Oct. 18 - 11:00 a.m. - WRITINGS OF ST. PAUL “Apostle, Mystic, Writer” Reconciliation Chapel ~ Fr. Donald Paradis, M.S.

HEALING SERVICE WITH MASS

Sun. Oct. 19 - 2:00 p.m. Portuguese Healing Service - Fr. Manuel Pereira, M.S.

Contact: Programs Office - Tel: (508) 236-9068 or Fax (508) 236-9096

LA SALETTE RETREAT CENTER

For more information or to register call (508) 222-8530 or Fax: (508) 236-9089

16

Youth Pages

October 10, 2008

ARMED WITH COATS — Beginning last March, Bishop Connolly High School students from the French, Spanish and Portuguese Language Honors societies began collecting used coats, jackets, sweaters and sweatshirts to pass along to those less fortunate in the Fall River community. As the donations piled up, students helped after school to sort and box the donated items for men, women and young children. Many were brand new and in excellent condition. Recently, eight huge boxes containing several hundred items were delivered to Sacred Heart Parish in Fall River. This has become an annual charitable project for the language students. Toward the end of winter, another appeal will go out to the Bishop Connolly community. From left, Alicia Cabral, Christopher Parayno and Jasiel Correira II. HONORABLE MENTION — Fall River Mayor Robert Correia recently attended Santo Christo Parish’s monthly youth gathering.

Youth groups from Good Shepherd, Holy Trinity and St. Anthony of Padua parishes participated. The mayor addressed crime and safety and what the city is doing to protect all citizens. He challenged them to take an active role in city issues and events: cleaning up neighborhoods, participating in city events, informing the mayor of youth concerns through the city’s Youth Forum. The mayor was warmly greeted and answered their questions. (Photo

by Eric Rodrigues)

THE ROARIN’ 2000s — F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, portrayed by Gerry Hickman and his wife, Kathy, helped promote Attleboro’s 1ABC Big Read program by rolling onto the Bishop Feehan campus in a vintage 1938 Packard to speak with students. The Hickmans stayed in character as each talked about the life and times of Fitzgerald and critiqued his most popular work, “The Great Gatsby.”

It was clear that students’ enthusiasm for the book grew as they enjoyed the fresh air presentation and a close look at the beautiful car. From left, “the Fitzgeralds” pose with English department chairman, Jeff Day.

THE VOTES ARE IN — Bishop Stang High School, North Dartmouth, recently held elections to seat senior officers for the year. The winners were, from left, Nicholas DeLeo, Lea Noonan, Julie Mills, and Rebecca Cheney.

Youth Pages

October 10, 2008

I

God is faithful

carry a small token in my We sometimes have difficulty pocket with three words even keeping our commitments inscribed on it: “God is faithto ourselves. But God is faithful. ful.” It’s a reminder for me when The further we go into his I get stressed out about things, Word, the more we understand which is a fairly common expeabout the promise. The more rience. I just slip my hand in my we understand God’s fidelity, pocket, take a breath, and hold the more grateful we become onto the promise. In this Sunfor everything in life … the day’s second reading, St. Paul obvious blessings and the tells us “My God will fully supply whatever you need.” I know that in my heart, but my head sometimes thinks that life depends on me. My heart knows the truth, my head get distracted.

By Jean Revil As the school year is now well underway and Religious Education classes get into full swing, blessings that may be disguised I would encourage all of us to as hardships. The more gratehold onto the simple truth that ful we become, the more we God is faithful. It’s easy to get will be compelled to share the caught up in the hectic pace of truth. Before we know it, we’re life, especially if you’re in high passing on the message: God is school. You have classes and faithful. homework, projects and tests, It is so important that we family responsibilities, sports, share our faith with others. At part-time jobs, and friendships.

Bishop Stang High School, You are plugged in to the comthere is a team of approximateputer, the iPod, the video games, ly 70 seniors and 30 juniors and the television. We are not getting ready to serve the freshalways faithful in our commitmen class on their retreat. The ments to family, friends, or God. freshmen will take in the words

Be Not Afraid

and examples of the upperclassmen. The juniors and seniors can reach the freshmen in ways that adults can’t. That’s true at every level of school. High school students are great teachers of the faith to middle school students. Middle school students can be Christ in so many ways to the elementary school students. And even the elementary school students can pass on the pieces of the faith they have come to know to the pre-schoolers.

Evangelization is needed now. At every level, in every school and parish and home, we need to share the story of our faith and the truth of God’s love. God will never leave us or forsake us. He continually offers his grace, his mercy, his love. There are times when it may be hard for us to sense his presence, but our faith tells us that he is with us, even when our senses may not. Even when difficulties arise, and we find ourselves in painful circumstances, the truth remains: God is faithful. We may think that everything depends on us, but we’re delusional. Everything

17 depends on God. And thank God it does. God lays the plans and God weaves the threads of our lives. He created us and he will continue to call us until we are at home in him at last. Though we may be tempted to think

otherwise, nothing else really matters.

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

Comments welcome at: jrevil@ bishopstang.com.

18

The Anchor

A load of endorsements Thank you for speaking up so boldly for the unborn, as you did in your September 26 editorial, “Morally Exhausted Arguments.” You are on the front lines in this spiritual war and the attacks, I’m sure, are constant. Be assured, a great crowd of witnesses are watching over you and cheering you on.

Maryjean Cannata, Sandwich Reflecting on what is an anti-life candidate Every four years Pro-Life Americans allow themselves to be duped by intellectually dishonest Democratic presidential and vicepresidential candidates, who duck the question of when the life of a human being begins, and, consequently, when that life should be protected by law. They try to make it a matter of theology instead of biology by pretending it’s a personal opinion and/or a religious view when, in fact, it is a scientific fact that an individual life beings at fertilization (conception). And these are the same people who pile on Sarah Palin for supporting creationism — go figure.

The Democratic Party, once called the party of “the little guy” is now known as the party of abortion, because its pro-abortion platform plank demonstrates that the donkeys couldn’t care less about the littlest of the little guys. For

October 10, 2008

Our readers respond

Democrats deny legal right-to-life protection to innocent and helpless human beings described in our Declaration of Independence as being endowed by their creator with the unalienable right to life, a right that outweighs all the other rights and issues combined.

This year’s extremist Democratic standard bearer, Barack Obama, has voted in lock step with the antilife lobby earning for himself a 100 percent pro-abortion ranking by denying babies, whom he has equated with punishment, before, during, and after birth, legal right-to-life protection and, also, by promising pro-abortion groups to kill all ProLife legislation within his power as president, which will result in the legal killing of more innocent human beings. In short, he has been a perfect puppet in the hands of abortion pushers and, if elected president, will continue in that capacity.

No Pro-Life American, Democrat or not, can vote for such an anti-life candidate. For, if you are truly ProLife, you will vote Pro-Life. Life is in your hands. The choice is yours.

Choose life.

Richard A. Carey, Needham Meeting the issues head on I wanted to drop you a note to tell you that I am really loving The Anchor these days. The temperature of issues is heating up and The Anchor is facing them head on and unapologetically. I love it when

Catholic teaching meets the issues of the day in a concise, reasoned and honest way. I must say I really look forward to pulling the paper out of my mailbox each week and reading it. Keep up the great work John DellaMorte, Barnstable

Time to uphold Christian principles It’s sad and disheartening to see a graduate of a Catholic elementary school, a Catholic high school, and a Catholic college disagree with the Church’s position on abortion (9/26/08 Letter to the Editor). It is sadder still to see cars with Obama bumper stickers in Catholic church parking lots. This is the man who when asked by the Rev. Rick Warren what he thought our nation’s greatest moral failing was, replied, “America’s greatest moral failure in my lifetime” has been not following Jesus’ call in Matthew of “whatever you do for the least of my brothers, you do for me.” Are not unborn babies the least of our brothers? Does he not realize that most abortions are performed on minority babies? The underlying goal of Planned Parenthood foundress Margaret Sanger in her birth control and abortion crusade was the reduction in minority, what she called “inferior,” races and the “superiority” of the white race. In the excellent “Voter’s Guide for Serious Catholics” produced by Catholic Answers, there are five non-negotiable issues presented for us Catholics: abortion, euthanasia, fetal stem-cell research, human cloning, and homosexual “marriage.” Other issues are important, but they pale in comparison to these five. The most important of these five is abortion because of its great injustice and large numbers (more than a million a year). As Catholics and as Americans, we are obligated to uphold the sanctity of life and the pursuit of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness as our forefathers intended. Our government was founded on Christian principles, by Christians. It’s time to uphold that at the polls.

Liz Day, Rehoboth Who are we letting down?

After reading this week’s issue of The Anchor I am frustrated.

Where do these Catholics come from that deny the issue of abor-

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tion to the point of voting for someone who will open wide the doors of abortion, not to mention gay marriage and euthanasia. For that matter, I cannot see how we, as Americans, are upholding our own Constitution in denying millions of defenseless infants the “Right to Life.” The IV article of the Constitution states that people “have the right to be secure in their persons.”

What security has an innocent child in the womb, who is at the mercy of it’s mother’s will (choice) to either kill the infant or give birth? Many Catholics who will vote for an abortion candidate have not only negated the Constitutional provision, but have given their approval that life inside of a mother can be worthless. How can this be?

Take all I have said and hold it up against the story in the Anchor’s column “Putting into the Deep” about Thomas Vander Woude. He gave up his beautiful and fruitful life to save his son Josie who has Down’s Syndrome, from drowning in a septic tank. What greater love hath a man for another? This story is truly the “Imitation of Christ.”

Lillian Heffernan, East Falmouth Disappointed with book advertisement As a parishioner of Out Lady of Victory and as a coordinator of Pax Christi Massachusetts, I was very disappointed to find a paid advertisement in The Anchor (September 12) attacking the moral values of the Democratic Party candidate, Sen. Barack Obama. First, the candidate made his position on abortion known in a positive way: “Our goal should be to make abortion less common.” Second, by judging a candidate’s moral values on one of his beliefs, the ad ignores the other qualities required from a president, as well as disregards the balance of power built into the Constitution. Finally, publication of an ad basing the morality of a candidate on a single issue deprives your readers from a wider understanding of the candidate. We are all proud of the way the Fall River Diocese handled the raids in New Bedford, of the work of Catholic Social Services for the poor. We are also proud of the commitment of the U.S. Catholic Relief Services.

But we also realize that the yearly

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budget of the CRS is equivalent to the cost of two days of the Iraq war.

The pope has condemned the Iraq war as unjust, illegal and immoral.

The Anchor has not published any clear article condemning the morality of the Iraq war. After publication of the anti-Obama ad, your readers are wondering what the priorities of our diocesan newspaper are. What if God had put all the oil of the Middle East in the land of Abraham as a test for the three monotheist religions? Would we pass the test? The nonviolent Jesus would say a definite no.

Edouard Rocher, Centerville “Morally exhausted arguments” In response to your September 26 editorial entitled, “Morally Exhausted Arguments,” I’d say that the bishops of the United States are not vigilant on matters relating to human sexuality. They have lost their moral authority on matters relating to human sexuality.

For many years now, they have said that any Catholic who believes that artificial methods of birth control are acceptable, and needed in many circumstances, should not receive holy Communion.

They have not only had their heads in the proverbial sand during the sexual abuse crisis, but they perpetuated the crisis by repeatedly and knowingly transferring pedophile priests from parish to unsuspecting parish.

They have steadfastly kept women out of the priesthood. They have essentially labeled all homosexuals as being “intrinsically evil” people by saying that the homosexual orientation is intrinsically disordered and homosexual acts are intrinsically evil. The list goes on.

Now, many say that unless we effectively vote Republican, then we can’t receive Communion. The past eight years of “the Catholic candidate,” George W. Bush have brought our country to edge of bankruptcy and has waged war with impunity while cutting social justice issues to immoral levels.

Ed Scahill, Mashpee Father Landry replies: No bishop, of course, has ever said that Catholics must vote for Republicans. The U.S. bishops, however, have insisted that Catholics cannot morally vote for a candidate who supports abortion without grave reasons proportionate to the evil done by abortion. For that reason, the Democratic Party, by its strongly pro-abortion platform plank and very few Pro-Life candidates, has made it harder for faithful Catholics to support Democratic candidates. For the same reason, Republican candidates who support abortion also make it harder for them to gain the support of faithful Catholics.

October 10, 2008

Around the Diocese Eucharistic Adoration:

Eucharistic Adoration

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

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

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.

NEW BEDFORD — A seven-hour eucharistic adoration Prayer Vigil being offered for priests and religious will take place October 19 at Our Lady’s Chapel beginning at 6 p.m. with Mass, continuing until 1 a.m. with public and private prayers. All are welcome. For information call 508-996-8274 or 508-994-5035.

TAUNTON — Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament takes place every First Friday at Annunciation of the Lord Church, 31 First Street, immediately following the 8 a.m., Mass and continues throughout the day. Confessions are heard from 5:15 to 6:15 p.m., concluding with recitation of the rosary and Benediction at 6:30 p.m.

TAUNTON — Eucharistic adoration takes place every Tuesday at St. Anthony Church, 126 School St., 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’s and Benediction. Recitation of the rosary for peace is prayed Monday through Saturday at 7:30 a.m. prior to the 8 a.m. Mass.

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

Miscellaneous Miscellaneous:

CHATHAM — A Tridentine Mass is celebrated 11:30 a.m. every Sunday at Our Lady of Grace Chapel on Route 137.

EAST SANDWICH — A rosary rally will take place tomorrow at noon at the entrance of Corpus Christi Church, 324 Quaker Meeting House Road. America Needs Fatima, the organizer of the event, hopes to have 3,000 rosary rallies at this time. All are invited. Rosary beads will be provided for those who do not have them.

FALL RIVER — Bishop George W. Coleman will celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving October 19 at 3 p.m. at St. Mary’s Cathedral for couples observing significant anniversaries, including first year, during 2008. If you would like an invitation to this event, contact your parish pastor.

FALL RIVER — The diocesan Communications Office will present “Good News for Life, (“Boa Nova da Vida”) on the Portuguese Channel October 15 at 9:30 p.m. This month’s program is “The Word of God in the Ministry of the Church.”

HYANNIS — St. Francis Xavier Church, 347 South Street, will host a Vespers service every Thursday evening at 6 p.m. (except Thanksgiving). Join them for Evening Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours.

INDIA — Father Paul Cruz is seeking donations of pens, pencils, rosaries, used cards, used magazines, and statues for the three schools in his diocese, attended by 5,000 students. Send donations to Father Cruz at P.O. Box — 691571, Kottiyam — P.O., Kollam — 691571, Kerala, India.

OSTERVILLE — The rosary is recited the First Friday of each month at 7:30 a.m. at Our Lady of the Assumption Church, before the 8 a.m. Mass, for vocations to the priesthood, diaconate and religious life.

PORTSMOUTH, R.I. — St. Philomena School, 324 Cory’s Lane, is holding an open house October 21 at 10:30 a.m. and another at 1:30 p.m. in the school’s Student Activity Center, for grades pre-K through eight. There are limited openings for September 2009. For more information call the Admissions/Development Office at 401-683-0268 or visit www.saintphilomena.org.

SOMERSET — The St. John of God Women’s Guild will join with parishioners for a candlelight procession in honor of Our Lady of Fatima October 14. The rosary will be recited at 6:30 p.m., followed by Mass at 7. The outdoor procession will follow immediately. Refreshments will be served in the parish center. For information, call 508-673-6145.

Support Groups NEW BEDFORD — Courage, a group for people who are experiencing samesex attraction and would like to live the Church’s teachings of chastity is holding a meeting October 25 at 7 p.m. Encourage, a ministry dedicated to the spiritual needs of parents, siblings, children, and relatives of people with same-sex attractions will meet at the same time. For locations call Father Richard Wilson at 508-992-9408.

NORTH DARTMOUTH — A meeting of the diocesan Divorced and Separated Support Group will take place October 29 at 7 p.m. at the Family Life Center, 500 Slocum Road. The video, “The Road to Healing and Help,” will be shown, followed by group discussion and refreshments. For information call 508-999-6420.

Pro-Life ATTLEBORO — Concerned faithful are needed to pray the rosary outside Four Women, Inc., an abortion clinic at 150 Emory Street, Thursdays from 3-4 p.m., or 4-5 p.m. and Saturdays from 7:30-8:30 a.m. For information call 508-238-5743.

NEW BEDFORD — The 40 Days for Life Campaign continues at St. Kilian Church, 306 Ashley Boulevard with Mass at 8:15 a.m.; exposition of the Blessed Sacrament beginning at 9 a.m.; 5:30 p.m. recitation of the rosary; and Benediction at 6 p.m. For information call 508-992-7587.

19

The Anchor Huge stakes in November elections continued from page one

(MCFL). Even national abortion groups did not oppose the bornalive law, as they were counseled against supporting infanticide.

Arkes compared the positions of the presidential candidates toward minimally protective legislation like this. As an Arizona senator, Republican John McCain supported the bill. On the other hand, as an Illinois lawmaker, Democrat Barack Obama in 2003 led the opposition in defeating an identical bill in the Illinois State Senate.

“Now, this most modest of all bills is generating with deep resonance, because the premises it put into place are flourishing to challenge Obama,” Arkes said.

The premise is that even a child marked for abortion has a claim to the protection of the law if the child is delivered alive.

But Obama voted against the Illinois born-alive bill because he thought it would threaten the “right” to abortion, he said.

“Therein lies the depth of his radicalism,” said Arkes. “For Obama, the right to abortion is nothing less than the right to an ‘effective abortion’ or a dead child. For all of his nimbleness and his Ivy League bearing, that is the unlovely truth of his position, the truth that the media cannot quite grasp or report.”

For a documented history, Arkes referred listeners to BornAliveTruth.org, a political group that aims to educate the public on the issue.

Although he also expressed

In Your Prayers Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks

Oct. 13 Rev. David I. Walsh, Maryknoll Missioner, 1999 Rev. James J. Doyle, C.S.C., Holy Cross Residence, North Dartmouth, 2002 Rev. J. Marc Hebert, C.S.C., Holy Cross Community, North Dartmouth, 2006

reservations about McCain’s understanding of the Pro-Life cause, Arkes clearly saw “grounds for hope” in a McCain presidency.

“McCain has professed to be Pro-Life because he voted the right way. But the question is — does he understand the grounds of the argument?” he said. “When he favored research involving the destruction of embryos, when he suggested that the choice of a running mate who was not Pro-Life wasn’t such a big deal — he let us know where this stood in his ranking of the issues.”

But because he is leading a party with a Pro-Life platform, McCain would respect the commitment that entails, Arkes predicted.

“McCain learned very early to absorb obligations, to respect the law beyond his own inclinations,” he said. “That aspect of his character becomes one of the grounds for our hope that this man, who may not be overly reflective of our issues, would yet recruit leaders to give us an administration that is again Pro-Life on every level: Health and Human Services, the Department of Justice, and the White House. That is the grounds for our hope.”

If Obama is elected, said Arkes, “We know with virtual certainty — nay, with death certainty — what he will do on the first day in office: exactly what Bill Clinton did — overturn Reagan’s and Bush’s executive orders in the Mexico City Policy, which refuses to provide American funds to any entity domestic or foreign that provides abortion. We know what he can do with executive orders in stamping out all opposition to abortion on demand.”

Obama has pledged to sign the proposed Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), which would eliminate any restrictions on abortion.

On September 19, Cardinal Justin Rigali, archbishop of Philadelphia and chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, wrote every member of Congress urging them to oppose this legislation. In addition to codifying Roe v. Wade, FOCA would nullify laws requiring parental involvement, informed consent, and restrictions on government funding of abortions.

If Massachusetts had an informed consent law last year, said a second speaker at the MCFL dinner, then her daughter and grandchild might be alive today.

Eileen Smith’s unborn grandchild and daughter Laura Hope Smith died in 2007 during a legal abortion in Hyannis. Smith said that tragedy made her realize that she should have done more in defense of life.

“I was Pro-Life in my heart, but that’s where it stayed,” she said. “Why? Well, I never heard it talked about in church. I thought abortion was here to stay, and that people who picketed clinics were spitting in the wind.

“I thought if I raised my children to be Christian, that would be enough. It was a real wake-up call to me that my daughter was capable of having an abortion,” she said.

Smith urged listeners to support an informed consent bill that MCFL will refile this year. The Woman’s Right to Know Bill, now dubbed “Laura’s Law” in memory of her daughter, would ensure that women seeking an abortion are entitled to accurate medical information on their baby’s development and the risks involved.

“Laura had a conscience,” Smith said. “If she had seen a sonagram, she’d know it wasn’t just a blob of tissue. When you start counting toes and fingers, the lies disappear.”

Oct. 14 Rev. Dennis M. Lowney, Assistant, Sacred Heart, Taunton, 1918 Rev. Msgr. Edward B. Booth, Retired Pastor, St. Mary, North Attleboro, 1972 Rev. Frederick G. Furey, SS.CC. Former Pastor, Our Lady of Assumption, New Bedford, 1999 Rev. Andre P. Jussaume, Pastor, St. Louis de France, Swansea, 2003 Oct. 15 Rev. Msgr. Raymond T. Considine, PA, Retired Pastor, St. William, Fall River, 1996 Oct. 16 Rev. Raymond M. Drouin, O.P., Former Pastor, St. Anne, Fall River, 1987

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Oct. 17 Rev. Gerald E. Lachance, Missionaries of Africa, 1984

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Oct. 19 Rev. Manuel A. Silvia, Pastor, Santo Christo, Fall River, 1928

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20

The Anchor

October 10, 2008

Pope urges Church to help couples see beauty of natural procreation

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — The Church must find ways to help Catholic couples see the beauty of respecting the true design of procreation and avoid artificial reproduction and contraception, Pope Benedict XVI said.

Pope Benedict asked why is it that the world and many Catholics

still have a difficult time understanding the Church’s teachings 40 years after Pope Paul VI’s encyclical on human life and birth control.

The encyclical, “Humanae Vitae” (“Of Human Life”), “illustrates and defends the beauty of conjugal love” while respecting the divine laws of nature, he said in a written message addressed

October 3 to participants of an international congress dedicated to the encyclical.

The October 3-4 congress in Rome was sponsored by Rome’s Catholic University of the Sacred Heart and the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family. The Vatican released a copy of the message October 3.

Pope Benedict said technical re-

sponses to “the great human questions” such as life and death often seem to offer the easier solution.

“But in reality (a technical solution such as artificial contraception) obscures the underlying question concerning the meaning of human sexuality” and the need for couples to exercise “responsible control” over their sexual desires so that the expression of those desires may become expressions of self-giving, “personal love,” he said.

When talking about love between two people, technical responses cannot replace “a maturation of freedom,” the pope said.

Reason is not enough for understanding the true meaning of conjugal love, he said, as “the eyes of the heart” also are needed to grasp the demands of true love and “embrace the totality of the human being.”

The Church, in its teachings and pastoral programs concern-

ing marriage and the family, “must know how to guide couples to understand with their hearts the wonderful plan God has inscribed in the human body.”

Pope Benedict also praised and encouraged the work of Catholic research institutes for their efforts in helping couples overcome infertility through natural methods that fully safeguard the dignity of human procreation.

“The possibility of procreating a new human life is included in the full giving” of husband and wife, he wrote.

By creating life, the expression of conjugal love not only “resembles, but takes part in the love of God who wants to express himself by calling people” to be open to life, he said.

Excluding the possibility of bringing new life into the world denies “the intimate truth of nuptial love,” he said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — At the beginning of the world Synod of Bishops on the Bible, Pope Benedict XVI explained why he thinks such meetings are important.

He did it in typical Benedict style — reviewing a bit of Church history and explaining the roots of the Greek word “synodos” to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

The basic role of the Synod of Bishops, held every three years or so, is to advise the pope and solidify Church communion, the pope said October 5.

He recalled that the synod was established as a regular institution

by Pope Paul VI in 1965, during the final phase of the Second Vatican Council.

Pope Benedict listed four main functions of the assemblies: — To promote closer union and cooperation between the pope and the bishops of the world; — to furnish direct and accurate information about the Church’s situation and problems; — to encourage harmony between doctrine and pastoral action; and — to deal with themes of great importance and timeliness.

Over the years, some bishops have called for decision-making powers for the synod. The pope made no reference to a possible change in its strictly consultative role.

He said the Greek roots of the word “synod” — “syn” meaning “with” and “odos” meaning “road” — suggest the idea of traveling together, which he said was the Church’s experience through history.

“The synodal dimension is an essential component of the Church.

It consists in the coming together of every population and culture to become one in Christ and to walk together behind him,” he said.

Pope Benedict, who presided over a Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist in 2005, has modified some of the synod’s rules. He has shortened the length of the assemblies to three weeks and reduced the maximum length of individual speeches from eight minutes to five minutes.

At the same time, he has created more opportunity for open discussion at the end of the daily sessions in the synod hall.

Pope explains history, importance of synod meetings