11.13.09

The Anchor Diocese of Fall River

F riday , November 13, 2009

Diocese’s Catholic schools taking swine-flu precautions

By Deacon James N. Dunbar

FALL RIVER — Concerned by the quick spread of the swine-flu virus across Massachusetts, and only small amounts of the vaccine available, Catholic schools in the Fall River Diocese are taking a variety of preventive steps.

“We have Catholic schools in 12 different cities and towns in southeastern Massachusetts, so as we and other schools await supplies of the vaccination we are following the preventive guidelines set forth by the Massachusetts Department of Health and the Center for Disease Control,” reported Superintendent of Catholic Schools George A. Milot.

Currently there are between 40 and 50 certified cases of the swine flu among students in our Catholic schools, Milot reported, “and they

are being treated. It amounts to four or five cases in some schools,” he noted.

“And we are currently seeing a higher than usual percentage of absenteeism among our students that is attributed to them having flu-like symptoms, and staying home,” he added.

Since August 30, the U.S. Center for Disease Control received 53 reports of childhood deaths blamed on influenza across the nation. Of the 53 deaths, 47 were confirmed as H1N1 or swine flu. Forty-three were in children ages five to 17.

As of October 15, there have been 14 deaths in Massachusetts documented as due to swine flu.

Although swine flu is typically a mild illness, it can be fatal in rare cases.

Turn to page 15

HEALTH ADVICE — Health education posters sit on a table in the student wellness department at St. John’s University in Jamaica, N.Y., recently. (CNS Photo)

MINISTERING TO THE MINISTERS — Franciscan Father Kenneth P. Paulli, OFM, addressed a gathering of more than 300 parish volunteers at the annual Office of Faith Formation Ministry Convention held in Mansfield last weekend. Father Paulli’s inspirational talk focused on the humility and self-sacrifice involved with parish ministries. Story on page 20. (Photo by Kenneth J. Souza)

Maine citizens uphold traditional marriage

By Christine M. Williams Anchor Correspondent

MAINE — Local traditional marriage supporters lauded Maine voters for striking down same-sex marriage legislation last week and looked forward to the day when Massachusetts voters would have the same opportunity.

On November 3, the citizens of Maine voted 52.8 to 47.2 percent in favor of repealing a law that would have made same-sex marriage legal in that state.

In an email to supporters the day after the election, Brian Brown, executive director of the National Organization for Marriage, called the Maine vote a “decisive and historic victory.” NOM is a national grassroots organization that supports traditional marriage.

“The importance of the win in Maine nationally can not be overstated,” he wrote. “Same-sex marriage activists saw Maine as their best chance to win a direct marriage vote.”

In an article for The Anchor last month, Brown urged the people of Massachusetts to “keep the faith”

that traditional marriage will be restored in the Commonwealth.

The fight is not over in Massachusetts,” he said.

Maine’s same-sex marriage bill was passed through the state Legislature and signed into law by Gov. John Baldacci in May. It defined marriage as “the legally recognized union of two people” and would have replaced the previous definition “the union of one man and one woman joined in traditional monogamous marriage,” passed by the Legislature in 1997.

Once the governor signed the bill, traditional marriage supporters mobilized and their successful petition drive put the law on hold pending the election.

Their campaign, Stand for Marriage Maine, launched an advertising campaign that featured Massachusetts residents, including parents whose grade school children were introduced to picture books aimed at normalizing same-sex relationships.

A law professor at Boston College, Scott Fitzgibbon, was also featured in an advertisement. A convert Turn to page 14

Bishop William Stang among a dozen 2009 R.I. Hall of Fame inductees

By Dave Jolivet, Editor

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame is chock full of historical, political, religious, and sports luminaries. The Hall was founded in 1965, and has since inducted hundreds of individuals who, according to its website, riheritagehalloffame. org, “added significantly to the heritage of the State of Rhode Island.”

Figures such as founder of the Ocean State, Roger Williams; Commodore Matthew Perry; Moses Brown; Sen.

John O. Pastore; baseball hall of famer Napoleon Lajoie; and heavyweight boxing champ Rocky Marciano, are among the early inductees.

This year, the first bishop of the Diocese of Fall River, Bishop William Stang, is among the dozen 2009 inductees. Father Stang, as a seminarian at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium, answered the call of Providence Bishop Matthew Harkins for priests to come to Rhode Island to care for German immigrants. Shortly after his June 15, 1878 ordination,

young Father Stang crossed the Atlantic to begin his ministry in southern New England. His

hard work and dedication to spreading the Gospel didn’t go unnoticed, and he was named

the first bishop of the fledgling Diocese of Fall River, an offshoot of the Providence Diocese, in March 1904.

Bishop Stang, a noted scholar, tirelessly shepherded the new diocese for an all too short 26 months, before succumbing to a post-surgical infection on Feb. 2, 1907.

Dr. Patrick Conley, a noted Rhode Island historian and author, and president of the R.I. Heritage Hall of Fame nominated Bishop Stang for the award. “I knew of the important role Bishop Stang played

as Bishop Harkins’ number one man in the 1880s and 90s,” he told The Anchor. Conley mentioned Bishop Stang’s great reputation as a scholar and his role as a teacher of the people he shepherded. It’s interesting to note that Bishop Stang’s predecessors, Bishop Harkins and Bishop Thomas F. Hendricken, with strong ties to the eventual Diocese of Fall River, are already inductees.

“This is the highest honor conferred on individuals who lived or worked in Rhode IsTurn to page 15

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News From the Vatican

November 13, 2009

Respect for life includes welcoming migrants, Vatican officials maintain

VATICAN CITY — Catholics’ respect for human life and dignity must be clear in the way they welcome migrants and refugees, offer them pastoral care and lobby their governments for fairer treatment of people on the move, Vatican officials said.

Archbishop Antonio Maria Veglio, president of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers, said globalization is not only an economic phenomenon. It also has an impact on the movement of people, and people must be the focus of Christian attention, he said.

“We know as Christians that life’s core is fundamentally spiritual and that the challenge is how to promote and safeguard every human person,” focusing particularly on the most vulnerable, including migrants who leave home in search of a better life and refugees forced to flee violence or oppression, the archbishop said.

The archbishop spoke at a Vatican press conference previewing the Sixth World Congress on the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees, which his office is currently convoking at the Vatican.

With globalization the Church not only has had to reach out to welcome and assist people on the move, but also to try to address situations that force them to seek a new life away from their homeland as well as attitudes and policies that make it difficult or impossible for them to live with dignity in a new land, Archbishop Veglio said.

Christians are obliged to work with other people of good will to build “a civilization that is wor-

thy of the human person, meaning a life model wherein each person can enjoy legitimate freedom and security; where suffering, discrimination and fear are eliminated to the greatest degree possible; (and) where respect for fundamental human rights — exercised with their corresponding duties — is guaranteed,” he said.

Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, secretary of the council, said the congress would bring together more than 300 representatives of bishops’ conferences, Catholic aid agencies and religious orders to look at how to improve the way Catholics welcome and assist newcomers.

Citizens have a right to be concerned about the security of their homelands, but for Christians security “must always been seen together with welcome — that is the Catholic approach,” Archbishop Marchetto said.

The council secretary said the number of people living outside their homelands is huge: an estimated 200 million migrants in the world and an estimated 11 million refugees who have fled violence or persecution.

“If we said probably 30 percent are Catholic, we probably would not be far off,” Archbishop Marchetto said.

The archbishop said he spent three weeks in the United States recently lecturing at Catholic universities on the obligation to welcome and assist people on the move.

He said the reaction to his talks made clear that many people have “difficulty in accepting migrants, and this was on the part of good Catholics.”

RULED A VIOLATION — A crucifix is seen on a wall in a school classroom in Rome November 3.

The Vatican has denounced a ruling by a European court that said crucifixes hanging in public classrooms violate religious freedom. (CNS photo/Reuters)

Vatican denounces ruling against crucifixes in schools

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Vatican said it experienced “surprise and sorrow” when a European court ruled that the crucifixes hanging in Italian public schools violate religious freedom.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled November 3 that the crucifixes hanging in every public classroom in Italy were “a violation of the freedom of parents to educate their children according to their own convictions and of the religious freedom of the students.”

Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, reacted to the decision saying, “The crucifix has always been a sign of God’s offer of love and a sign of union and welcome for all humanity. It is sad that it is being considered a sign of division, exclusion or limitation of freedom. That is not what it is and that is not the common feeling of

our people.”

In his statement Father Lombardi said, “It also is surprising that a European court is intervening so heavily in a matter that is deeply tied to the historic, cultural and spiritual identity of the Italian people.”

The case was brought to the court by a Finnish-born Italian citizen who had been trying since 2002 to get the crucifixes removed from the school her children attended in Abano Terme, Italy.

Italy’s minister of public education, Mariastella Gelmini, announced the government would appeal the decision, saying the presence of the crucifixes “does not mean adhesion to Catholicism, but is a symbol of our tradition.

The history of Italy includes symbols and removing them would be to remove a part of ourselves.”

Father Lombardi said it was particularly serious that the European court wants to remove from educational institutions “a fundamental sign of the importance of religious values in Italian history and culture.”

Religion, he said, contributes to the moral education and growth of individuals and is “an essential part of our civilization.”

Father Lombardi said it appeared that the court was trying to deny “the role of Christianity in

The Anchor

the formation of European identity, which has been and remains essential.”

The Italian bishops’ conference issued a statement saying the court was looking at the crucifix with “a partial and ideological vision” that ignored the fact that it is not only a symbol of faith, but also a symbol of one of the major influences on Italian culture.

In addition, the bishops said, the decision did not take into account the fact that as recently as 1984 the Italian government formally approved a treaty with the Vatican defining the principles of Catholic faith as “part of the historic patrimony of the Italian people.”

The ruling risks promoting “hostility to any form of religion’s political and cultural relevance” in public life, the bishops’ statement said.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state, was asked about the court decision during a visit to a Rome pediatric hospital.

The cardinal said, “This Europe of the third millennium has left us only the pumpkins of the recent holiday and has taken away our most precious symbols.”

“This is really a loss,” he said, adding, “we must try with all our strength to preserve the signs of our faith.”

OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER Vol. 53, No. 43

Member: Catholic Press Association, Catholic News Service

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

Subscription price by mail, postpaid $14.00 per year.

Send address changes to P.O. Box 7, Fall River, MA, call or use email address

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

POSTMASTERS send address changes to The Anchor, P.O. Box 7, Fall River, MA 02722.

THE ANCHOR (USPS-545-020) Periodical Postage Paid at Fall River, Mass.

November 13, 2009

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — Former Anglicans entering the Catholic Church can preserve their liturgical traditions, married priests in some circumstances and even a shade of their consultative decision-making processes, according to Pope Benedict XVI’s document on new structures for welcoming the former Anglicans.

The pope’s apostolic constitution “Anglicanorum Coetibus” (“Groups of Anglicans”) was published November 9 at the Vatican along with specific norms governing the establishment and governance of “personal ordinariates,” structures similar to dioceses, for former Anglicans who become Catholic.

As previously announced by the Vatican, the text said there could be exemptions to the Church’s celibacy rule to allow married former Anglican priests to be ordained as Catholic priests.

However, it emphasized that this would be done on a “case-by-case basis.”

An accompanying Vatican statement said the possibility of having some married clergy under this special arrangement “does not signify any change in the Church’s discipline of clerical celibacy.”

The International Church

Apostolic Constitution welcoming former Anglicans is published

The ordinariates will be established by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in consultation with the national bishops’ conference where the ordinariate is to be based, the constitution said.

The pope will appoint the head of each ordinariate, although he will choose from a list of three candidates nominated by the jurisdiction’s governing council, the norms said. The council will be made up of at least six priests belonging to the ordinariate.

A commentary published by the Vatican with the constitution and norms said the role of the governing council in choosing an ordinary, giving consent for a candidate to be ordained to the priesthood and establishing parishes and seminaries is a sign of “respect for the synodal tradition of Anglicanism.”

Within the Anglican Communion, synods are made up of clergy and laypeople and they directly elect bishops and set policy.

The ordinary, even if he is not a bishop, is automatically a member of the national bishops’ conference and is required to make an “ad limina” visit to the Vatican every five years to report on the status of the ordinariate, the constitution said.

The pope’s apostolic constitu-

Pope visits birthplace of Pope Paul VI in northern Italy

By Catholic News Service

BRESCIA, Italy — Pope Benedict XVI visited the birthplace of Pope Paul VI and praised his predecessor’s vision of a “poor and free” Church that inspires by example.

The pope traveled to Brescia in northern Italy for a one-day pilgrimage November 8, celebrating Mass with thousands of faithful in a driving rain, visiting the house where the pope was born in 1897 and inaugurating a new branch of an institute dedicated to Paul VI’s teachings.

In a homily, Pope Benedict paid tribute to the late pontiff, underlining Pope Paul’s love for the Church and his conviction that the more the Church conforms to Christ’s example, the better it will communicate with the modern world.

Noting the current Year for Priests, the pope said Pope Paul had special concern for priests and had strongly defended the value of priestly celibacy.

Pope Benedict also quoted with appreciation Pope Paul’s comment that while the world

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often expects a pope to make “grand gestures and energetic and decisive interventions,” a good pope will above all practice confidence in Christ and needs the prayers of the faithful to fulfill his ministry.

After visiting the late pope’s early home in the village of Concesio, Pope Benedict made an afternoon stop at the parish church there and recalled how Pope Paul had led the Church through a time of great internal and external changes.

The pope concluded by offering his own assessment of the Christian vocation in the modern world.

“It’s not easy to be a Christian.

One needs courage and tenacity not to conform to the mentality of the world, not to be seduced by the sometimes powerful calls of hedonism and consumerism, and to face if necessary misunderstandings and even true persecution,” he said.

To live as a Christian, he said, means “remaining strongly united to the Church, even when we see in her face some shadows or some stains.”

tion and the norms for implementing it repeatedly state a preference for celibacy for priests in the Latin rite of the Catholic Church.

“The ordinary, in full observance of the discipline of celibate clergy in the Latin Church, as a rule will admit only celibate men to the order of presbyter” or priest, the constitution said. The ordinary may petition the pope for an exemption to allow married men to be ordained Catholic priests, it said.

The norms explicitly exclude the possibility of ordaining married Anglican priests who previously were ordained as Catholic priests as well as excluding Anglican priests who are in “irregular marriage situations,” such as those who have been divorced and remarried.

Only celibate former Anglican bishops may be ordained Catholic bishops in keeping with the tradition of both the Catholic Church and the Orthodox churches, the new norms said.

Unmarried men who want to be ordained “must submit to the norm of clerical celibacy,” the constitution said.

According to the norms, new seminarians must be part of the personal ordinariate or be former Anglicans who have established full communion with the Catholic Church. They may not be originally baptized Catholics who later became Anglicans or joined the personal ordinariate.

In fact, the norms said, “Those baptized previously as Catholics outside the ordinariate are not ordinarily eligible for membership” in the ordinariate itself “unless they are members of a family belonging to the ordinariate.”

The norms called for the new personal ordinariates to provide

an adequate salary, pension and insurance for their priests, but the rules also recognize that may be a challenge with priests who are married and have children. The norms allow for priests, with the permission of their ordinary, to “engage in a secular profession compatible with the exercise of priestly ministry.”

In the apostolic constitution, dated November 4, Pope Benedict reaffirmed his commitment to promoting Christian unity and said that as the one chosen “to preside over and safeguard the universal communion of all the

churches,” he had to find a way to accept the request of Anglican individuals and groups who wanted “to be received into full Catholic communion.”

While the former Anglicans will be able to celebrate the Latinrite Mass like any other Catholic, he said, members of the ordinariate also will be able “to celebrate the holy Eucharist and the other sacraments, the Liturgy of the Hours and other liturgical celebrations according to the liturgical books proper to the Anglican tradition, which have been approved by the Holy See.”

Diocese of Fall River

OFFICIAL

His Excellency, the Most Reverend George W. Coleman, Bishop of Fall River, has announced the following appointments: Very Rev. John J. Oliveira, V.F. Pastor of St. John the Baptist Parish, New Bedford, while remaining Pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish, New Bedford.

Rev. Maurice O. Gauvin, Temporary Parochial Vicar of Holy Trinity Parish, West Harwich.

Rev. Michael M. Camara, Parochial Vicar of St. John the Baptist Parish, New Bedford, while remaining Parochial Vicar of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish, New Bedford.

Rev. William Rodrigues, Parochial Vicar of St. John the Baptist Parish, New Bedford while remaining Parochial Vicar of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish, New Bedford.

Effective November 25, 2009 Deacon Paul J. Macedo, Permanent Deacon of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish, New Bedford, while remaining Permanent Deacon of St. John the Baptist Parish, New Bedford.

Deacon Abilio Dos Anjos Pires, Permanent Deacon of St. John the Baptist Parish, New Bedford, while remaining Permanent Deacon of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish, New Bedford.

Effective November 25, 2009

The Church in the U.S.

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Successful inclusion of abortion ban spells success for health bill

WASHINGTON — In the end, the successful battle to include strict language prohibiting funding for abortions, led by ProLife congressional Democrats with the strong support of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, is what made the difference in the November 7 House vote to pass a sweeping health care reform bill.

The House approved the Affordable Health Care for America Act, 220-215, moving the legislation on to the Senate, which was expected to take up debate on its own health care bill later in November.

Assuming the Senate passes a version of the legislation, differences between the two bills will have to be reconciled separately.

That legislation would go back to both houses of Congress for final approval.

Key to passing the House bill was the approval of an amendment by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., to prohibit the use of federal funds to pay for abortion, including barring abortion coverage from insurance plans which consumers purchase using government subsidies. The USCCB and other Pro-Life organizations had threatened to oppose any final bill that did not include such provisions.

The final bill would bar people who are in the country illegally from receiving any government assistance to get health coverage.

The U.S. bishops had urged that the legislation allow all immigrants access to the health care system, regardless of legal status.

What the bill does do is expand health insurance to an estimated 30 million people who currently lack coverage, meaning an estimated 96 percent of Americans would have access to more affordable health care.

News sources as well as people involved on the Hill reported on the critical role of last-minute, behind-the-scenes negotiations among House leaders, White House staff, Catholic bishops and their staff. Also essential were talks with Stupak and others who were holding firm on withholding their votes pending acceptance of his amendment.

Chicago Cardinal Francis E. George, president of the USCCB, spoke with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, encouraging her to let Stupak’s amendment come for a vote. Other bishops also weighed in by phone with various members of Congress, including by encouraging Republican leaders not to try to block progress that was being made in getting the abortion amendment passed.

The bill includes reforms for the uninsured and those who already have insurance.

Medicare recipients will receive additional prescription drug coverage and be entitled to full coverage for preventative care.

Other components of the bill include: — insurance companies would be prohibited from discriminating against people with pre-existing medical conditions. They also would no longer be able to impose lifetime caps on benefits or cancel coverage for any excuse when policyholders become ill; — it would give tax subsidies to small employers to help them provide insurance for their workers; — it would create a health insurance exchange where people who are not currently covered through an employer-purchased plan, Medicare, Medicaid, Veterans Affairs or other government insurance could get coverage through private or federal providers.

November 13, 2009

Heart’s Home in Brooklyn cares for poor, sick and fosters vocations

By Paul Sanchez Catholic News Service

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — It might seem unusual for the residents of the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn to see French missionaries walking their streets each afternoon reciting the rosary together.

And Catholics might be surprised to learn that the organization which sends out the missionaries encompasses nearly the full spectrum of church vocations — an order for priests, an order for nuns, a fraternity of consecrated laypeople and lay volunteers.

Heart’s Home, started in 1990 as strictly a volunteer organization by Father Thierry de Roucy, serves the poor and suffering in the world by letting these people know someone cares about them. Volunteers visit the poor, the sick, the terminally ill and the incarcerated.

The French priest found that after a few years, some of the volunteers wanted to continue in Heart’s Home through a lifelong commitment.

So Father de Roucy founded the Servants of God’s Presence, an order of religious Sisters within the organization; there are 30 nuns in the order around the world. The Sacerdotal Fraternity of Molokai for the priesthood was founded in 1995 and currently has 28 priests and seminarians.

A fraternity was founded for men and women who wanted to pursue the lay consecrated vocation, and in 1997, at the request of former Heart’s Home volunteers, the Fraternity of Maximilian Kolbe was founded to maintain the spirit of their mission in their daily lives and responsibilities in the professional world.

But what has been most prevalent for Heart’s Home is the vocation of the lay volunteer. They serve in 35 missions in 20 different countries, in places such as Peru, Senegal, Brazil, Thailand, Italy, Romania, Argentina, Germany and El Salvador.

Since 1990, the organization based in France has trained 1,200 volunteers.

Community life is sustained by daily Mass and daily rosary.

Father de Roucy said that while praying the rosary he received the call to found a “work of compassion and consolation” to send young people on missionary work abroad for a year or two.

Heart’s Home requires a commitment of at least 14 months.

Its only mission in the U.S. was opened in 2003 in the South Bronx to minister to Spanish-speaking people.

“Many people couldn’t believe it when they came,” said resident Lourdes Renero Alvarez. “Here were young French people who left their careers behind to serve poor Hispanics in the South Bronx, becoming part of their family and becoming their friends.”

The group spent five years there, relocating to Brooklyn in 2008.

The U.S. community currently consists of three nuns, a recently ordained transitional deacon, two lay consecrated women, a lay consecrated man and three volunteers. The only non-French citizen

in the group is Sister Mariana Canteros, who became acquainted with Heart’s Home in her native Argentina.

She was a volunteer in Brazil for two years and later joined the group’s order of nuns. Similarly, the two other nuns in Brooklyn, Sisters Regine Fohrer and Blandine Paponaud, also were Heart’s Home volunteers prior to joining the Servants of God’s Presence.

Sister Blandine, who has a degree in statistics and computer science, was a Heart’s Home missionary in Honduras.

“The majority of Heart’s Home volunteers do not become priests, religious or consecrated after their mission,” she said.

But for her, the experience “of unconditional love in the community” and “of God’s love” gave her “the desire to go on this mission of love and compassion,” she said. “To give in my turn what I had received and in the same way that I had received.”

Sylvie Muller, who was a volunteer in Argentina, is a consecrated laywoman.

Many Catholics, especially in the U.S., do not know enough about the lay consecrated vocation, she said.

“Lay consecrated people are not as visible: they just try to live their baptism, without any signs such as the sisters with their habits,” she said.

According to the U.S. Association of Consecrated Virgins, there are an estimated 150 consecrated virgins in the United States. France has the highest number of consecrated virgins with more than 600, while there are an estimated 3,000 consecrated virgins worldwide.

There are also consecrated laymen, though they are not too common throughout the world.

Heart’s Home has three, all of them previous volunteers within the organization.

Muller said consecrated laypeople show their vocation through their life’s witness, example and friendship.

“It is the way for the Church to reach all those who will not come to her, to provide witness of God to many,” she added.

The number of Heart’s Home lay volunteers is currently 200, spread among its 35 missions worldwide. Last year saw the highest number ever of U.S. and Canadian volunteers.

“I have met nuns and consecrated people in Heart’s Home but it is important to not forget that the vocation of being a lay volunteer is the most common one,” said Amy Koreski of Spokane, Wash., who graduated from Gonzaga University in 2007. She recently returned to the U.S. from 14 months as a Heart’s Home volunteer in Honduras.

She noted that Heart’s Home accepts volunteers any time of the year.

“For me, my work among the poor and suffering was greatly complemented by daily adoration, daily Mass and daily rosary and community life,” Koreski said.

More information about Heart’s Home is available at the community’s website, http://usa.heartshome.org, or by calling (718) 522-2121.

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The Anchor

November 13, 2009

Bishops hope to conclude work on Roman Missal at Baltimore meeting

By Nancy Frazier O’Brien Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON — Nearly six years after beginning the task, the U.S. bishops hope to conclude their work on the English translation and U.S. adaptations of the Roman Missal first introduced in Latin in 2002.

The final five action items related to the missal will come before the bishops at their fall general meeting November 16-19 in Baltimore. Each must be approved by two-thirds of the Latin-rite members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, then must go to the Vatican for confirmation.

The first drafts of the missal translation, prepared by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy, arrived at the bishops’ conferences of English-speaking countries in 2004. The current English version of the Roman Missal was adopted shortly after the Sec-

ond Vatican Council.

The items to be debated and voted on in Baltimore are: — the proper of saints, a collection of specific prayers to each saint included in the universal liturgical calendar; — the commons, a collection of general prayers for celebrating saints listed in the “Roman Martyrology” who are not included in the universal calendar; — the Roman Missal supplement, which provides additional prayers and formularies for recently canonized saints as well as the order for an extended vigil for Pentecost; — the U.S. propers, a collection of orations and formularies for the feasts, memorials and commemorations particular to the U.S. liturgical calendar, including two sets of prayers for Independence Day; — U.S. adaptations to the Roman Missal which are included in

the current Sacramentary but need to be approved again with the new text.

“These five items will conclude the work of the U.S. bishops on the Roman Missal,” said Msgr. Anthony Sherman, executive director of the USCCB Office of Divine Worship, in a news release.

While awaiting Vatican approval of all sections of the missal, the U.S. Church will begin “a process of catechesis, ... so that everyone is ready to move along when we get the final text from the Vatican.”

To help both priests and the people prepare for the changes, the USCCB has posted catechetical materials at www.usccb.org/ romanmissal.

Once the revised missal is in use, priests and people will have to get used to changes in the Mass.

The Nicene Creed, for example, will read in part: “I believe in one God, the Father almighty,

maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible, and in one Lord Jesus Christ, ... begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father.”

That section of the Nicene Creed currently reads: “We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen. We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, ... begotten not made, one in being with the Father.”

In the Agnus Dei, the people will say, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” At present they say: “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed.”

Although the ICEL translations have been heavily amended by the U.S. bishops, controversy continues over some elements of the translation.

Bishop Donald W. Trautman of Erie, Pa., who headed the bishops’ liturgy committee when the approval process began, recently criticized what he called the “slavishly literal” translations from the original Latin.

He said in an October 22 speech at The Catholic University of America in Washington that the “sacred language” used by translators “tends to be elitist and remote from everyday speech and frequently not understandable.” The new missal could lead to a “pastoral disaster,” he added.

“The vast majority of God’s people in the assembly are not familiar with words of the new missal like ‘ineffable,’ ‘consubstantial,’ ‘incarnate,’ ‘inviolate,’ ‘oblation,’ ‘ignominy,’ ‘precursor,’ ‘suffused’ and ‘unvanquished.’ The vocabulary is not readily understandable by the average Catholic,” Bishop Trautman said.

gation of nearly 1,200, including faithful downstairs and outside the church listening on speakers, Father Costa said, “We’ve been blessed to know a young man of values, morals, and principles.”

Recalling a conversation he had with Megan, Father Costa said, “Megan shared with me that Kyle was certainly struggling in this last deployment with the God question.

Where is God in the experience of war, in the reality of such violence, such hatred?

“But a few weeks ago, out of the clear blue, Kyle wrote in an email that when he returned, he and Megan and Avery and their new son would be going to church. It was

important to him — and to them.”

Capt. Van De Giesen’s death came even as he was about to end his tour of duty, in time to be home for the birth of his second child expected this month. He was on his third tour of duty, having previously served two tours in Iraq.

The couple’s 18-month-old daughter, Avery Grace, was baptized in Sacred Heart Church in North Attleboro in 2008.

In an October 26 statement following the report of the pilot’s death, his family said, “It is with sadness that we learned that our son, brother and husband … was killed today in the line of duty in Afghanistan. He fulfilled his life-

long dream of becoming a Marine helicopter pilot, protecting his family and serving his country.”

According to news reports, Van De Giesen was killed along with three others in the collision of an UH-1 helicopter and an AH-1 helicopter over Helmand Province in Afghanistan, where he had been serving since March as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.

One of the many remembrances came from Father Jonathan DeFelice, OSB, president of St. Anselm’s College in Manchester, N.H., where Kyle Van De Giesen graduated in 2002.

“Many of us remember Kyle as an upstanding young man, who

held a military bearing while he was still a student,” Father DeFelice recalled. “Having played (football) at North Attleboro High School he quarterbacked our football team.

His performance in that first game against UMass-Lowell, made him one of the all-time leaders in school history.”

He noted, “Despite that, however, Kyle played only a single varsity season. He left the team to concentrate on his studies as a criminal justice major and to pursue his dream of becoming a military pilot.

“We recognize the contributions of all our military alumni, as we extend our deepest sympathies to family and loved ones of Kyle.”

North Attleboro rites for Marine pilot killed in Afghanistan

By Deacon James N. Dunbar

NORTH ATTLEBORO — At a time when the Church commemorates All Saints and the nation remembers its war dead on November 11, Veterans Day, Marine Capt. Kyle Van De Giesen bridged the time span between the two memorials as he was buried from St. Mary’s Church on November 6.

Van De Giesen, 29, was killed in one of two separate helicopter crashes, including his own, in Afghanistan on October 26, the deadliest day for U.S. forces in four years.

Hundreds joined with the family and friends of the late Marine and 1998 North Attleboro High School outstanding quarterback at the prayer service conducted by St. Mary’s pastor Father David A. Costa.

Burial was in the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne.

Those attending the service included former coaches, teachers, local, county and state officials, as well as military colleagues, who recalled the “special” young man who had always “distinguished himself “ in all that he did, and always wanted to be a pilot.

Among the family at the rites were the Marine’s wife, Megan (Francis) Van De Giesen, a 2000 graduate of Bishop Feehan High School; parents Calvin and Ruth Ann Van De Giesen, and siblings, sister Caitlin and brothers Ryan and Christian.

On November 5, hundreds gathered at Community Field for a candlelight vigil to remember the fallen Marine who was a star quarterback at North Attleboro High School.

He was inducted into the Attleboro Area Hall of Fame in 2005.

In his homily, before a congre-

6

The Anchor Naming and shaming anti-Catholicism

Two weeks ago New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan captured the attention of Catholics across the country by writing a compelling critique of recent examples of anti-Catholicism in the New York Times. The national daily ironically augmented the publicity of the article by refusing to print it. Archbishop Dolan responded by publishing a slightly expanded version on his new blog, “The Gospel in the Digital Age,” and then it took on a life of its own in cyberspace.

It would be big news whenever the most famous newspaper in the country is directly criticized by the occupant of the most famous Catholic see, but the archbishop’s article is noteworthy for several other reasons, too.

First, Archbishop Dolan has a reputation for being what he calls an “engager,” rather than a “confronter,” of those who disagree with the Church. That he took on a more combative tone in a scathing op-ed is a sign, minimally, of how serious he takes the Times’ infractions. He seemed to respond with the fervor of a husband whose wife is being falsely maligned.

Second, as a priest with a doctorate in U.S. Church history and therefore very much aware of the history of American anti-Catholicism, he intimates that what the Times is doing is more than just innocuously calling the Church bad names. It is an ugly prejudice that, whether by design or unintentional effect, is harmful to the Church’s reputation and ability to fulfill her mission.

He fought back, therefore, like a good shepherd must always respond to wolves endangering the flock.

The main reason why his op-ed was remarkable, however, is because it was the boldest response yet to a new wave of ugly anti-Catholicism that has arisen since the clergy sexual abuse scandals in 2002. While it is obviously fair to criticize many in the Church for their sinful conduct with respect to protecting the young from those who were trying to harm them, some have used the revelations of the scandals as a broad license to justify almost every attack on the Church, however outlandish. Many Catholic clergy and faithful have been so beaten down by the constant waves of vitriol — not to mention natural shame at the sins of their spiritual family members — that they’ve almost started to behave like battered spouses who grow to believe, falsely, that they somehow deserve whatever abuse that comes. Archbishop Dolan’s article is important and timely because it demonstrates not only that Catholics no longer need to remain reticent in the face of such prejudice but how they should respond to it.

“It is not hyperbole to call prejudice against the Catholic Church a national pastime,” Archbishop Dolan begins his October 29 article. “Scholars such as Arthur Schlesinger Sr. referred to it as ‘the deepest bias in the history of the American people,’ while John Higham described it as ‘the most luxuriant, tenacious tradition of paranoiac agitation in American history.’ ‘The anti-semitism of the left’ is how Paul Viereck reads it, and Professor Philip Jenkins subtitles his book on the topic ‘the last acceptable prejudice.’” Archbishop Dolan then illustrates this bias, paranoiac agitation and leftist anti-Semitism by mentioning four articles from the Times.

The first “exposed the sad extent of child sexual abuse in Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish community.” Last year alone, the article stated, there were 40 cases in this tiny community. “Yet the Times did not demand,” Archbishop Dolan charged, “what it has called for incessantly when addressing the same kind of abuse by a tiny minority of priests: release of names of abusers, rollback of statute of limitations, external investigations, release of all records, and total transparency. Instead, an attorney is quoted urging law enforcement officials to recognize ‘religious sensitivities,’ and no criticism was offered of the DA’s office for allowing Orthodox rabbis to settle these cases ‘internally.’ Given the Catholic Church’s own recent horrible experience, I am hardly in any position to criticize our Orthodox Jewish neighbors, and have no wish to do so, but I can criticize this kind of ‘selective outrage.’” There is, in short, a double-standard at work, which focuses so much energy on the sexual abuse in the Church while ignoring it or downplaying it in other contexts, like Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn or the huge problem in the nation’s public schools. “Papers such as the New York Times only seem to have priests in their crosshairs,” Archbishop Dolan concluded.

The second example was an October 16 front-page story on a Franciscan priest who fathered a child 25 years ago in Wisconsin. “Even taking into account that the relationship with the mother was consensual and between two adults, and that the Franciscans have attempted to deal justly with the errant priest’s responsibilities to his son,” he noted, “this action is still sinful, scandalous, and indefensible. However, one still has to wonder why a quarter-century old story of a sin by a priest is now suddenly more pressing and newsworthy than the war in Afghanistan, health care, and starvation-genocide in Sudan. No other cleric from religions other than Catholic ever seems to merit such attention.” It’s not unfair to cover such a story, the archbishop is saying, but to put a 25-year-old story on the front page above the fold evinces a biased editorial choice to feature Catholic transgressions far beyond the sins of those in any other religious group.

The third article concerned the decision of the Vatican to welcome into the Church Anglicans who had requested union with Rome. The article was framed as if the “Holy See lured and bid for the Anglicans,” the archbishop commented. “Of course, the reality is simply that for years thousands of Anglicans have been asking Rome to be accepted into the Catholic Church with a special sensitivity for their own tradition. As Cardinal Walter Kasper, the Vatican’s chief ecumenist, observed, ‘We are not fishing in the Anglican pond.’ Not enough for the Times; for them, this was another case of the conniving Vatican luring and bidding unsuspecting, good people, greedily capitalizing on the current internal tensions in Anglicanism.” The Church’s actions, in other words, are routinely treated as suspect, which is contrary to journalistic objectivity and once again demonstrates the Times’ bias.

The fourth and last example seemed to be the one that really stoked Archbishop Dolan’s Irish ire. It was a “combustible,” “intemperate and scurrilous” opinion piece by disgruntled Catholic columnist Maureen Dowd. Archbishop Dolan says that her “diatribe” would have “never passed muster with the editors had it so criticized an Islamic, Jewish, or African-American religious issue.” Whereas Archbishop Dolan notes that there’s sensitivity to all those other groups, editors selectively allow such attacks only on the Church. He notes that Dowd “digs deep into the nativist handbook to use every anti-Catholic caricature possible, from the Inquisition to the Holocaust, condoms, obsession with sex, pedophile priests, and oppression of women, all the while slashing Pope Benedict XVI for his shoes, his forced conscription — along with every other German teen-age boy — into the German army, his outreach to former Catholics, and his recent welcome to Anglicans.” He adds that “the matter that triggered her spasm — the current visitation of women religious by Vatican representatives — is well-worth discussing, and hardly exempt from legitimate questioning,” but stated that “her prejudice, while maybe appropriate for the Know-Nothing newspaper of the 1850s, The Menace, has no place in a major publication today.” That Archbishop Dolan compared the New York Times’ standards to those of the The Menace is a telling criticism at how low he believes the Times’ standards have fallen.

The archbishop concludes, “The Catholic Church is not above criticism. We Catholics do a fair amount of it ourselves. We welcome and expect it. All we ask is that such critique be fair, rational, and accurate, what we would expect for anybody.”

It’s important for all Catholics to echo that demand.

November 13, 2009

Training to become better penitents

During his fruitful decades as the Curé of to true and genuine repentance until they realize Ars, St. John Vianney not only labored to get that sin is contrary to the ethical norm written his people to come to confession but to help in their inmost being; until they admit that they them become good and better penitents. In his have had a personal and responsible experience instructions on making good confessions — by of this contrast; until they say not only that ‘sin which he meant not merely minimally “valid” exists’ but also ‘I have sinned’; until they adones but truly fruitful and life-changing experi- mit that sin has introduced a division into their ences of conversion — he drew on the tradition- consciences, which then pervades their whole al teachings of the Church, his own experience being and separates them from God and from as a penitent, and mainly on the unparalleled their brothers and sisters. The sacramental sign expertise he gained from confessing so many of this clarity of conscience is the act traditionpeople from so many walks of life for so many ally called the examination of conscience, an act years. He was a privileged witness not only to that must never be one of anxious psychological hundreds of thousands of beautiful confessions, introspection but a sincere and calm comparison but also scores of poorly done and even invalid with the interior moral law, with the evangelical ones. He synthesized this accumulated wisdom norms proposed by the Church, with Jesus Christ in catechetical instructions and sermons and this himself who is our teacher and model of life, and spiritual coaching remains eminently practical with the heavenly Father, who calls us to goodand helpful for Catholics today. ness and perfection” (31).

Since many penitents would need to wait The patron saint of priests tried to help his several days in line to go to confession, he people achieve this clarity of conscience in his wanted them to spend that time well, and hence own inimitable way. He began by describing gave them regular conferences on making bet- what sin is without mincing words: sin “is the exter confessions. He phrased the general disposi- ecutioner of the good God and the assassin of the tions needed to confess well in terms of the three soul.” By sin we give “blows to the face of our theological virtues of faith, hope and love. The Father” and choose the most horrible Barabbas first virtue is a “faith that sees God in the priest.” over Christ. Vianney once asked, “If you were to To believe in see a man buildChrist means to ing a large pyre, believe in what piling up the he said and did, piece of wood and our faith in one on top of the Christ needs to other, and you take seriously asked him what that Christ estabhe was doing lished a concrete and he replied, ‘I

By Father means by which am preparing the Roger J. Landry sins can be forfire that will burn given, when on me,’ what would Easter Sunday you think? In evening he breathed the Holy Spirit on his min- committing sin, that’s however what we do. It’s isters and sent them out to forgive sins just as not God who throws us in hell; we do that by God the Father had sent him (John 20:19-23). our sins. The damned will say: I lost God by my The second preparatory virtue is “hope that fault.” St. John Vianney admitted, “We are weak can make us believe that God will give us the and can fall into sin,” but stressed that we should grace of forgiveness.” Hope is a trust that God never despair because we are still free moral will make good on his promises. In the Gospel, agents to whom “the good God doesn’t refuse Jesus repeatedly reminds us that God does not us his grace.” To examine our conscience well, wish the death of the sinner, that his merciful therefore, we need to begin with what St. John love is everlasting and that heaven rejoices more Vianney called a “holy horror” for the sins comin the return of one of God’s “lost and dead” mitted and for what sin does to God and to our sons or daughters than basically everything else. souls.

The Curé of Ars said that, without ever preNext, in our examination, we need to focus on sumptuously taking God’s mercy for granted, particular sins. That’s why he routinely preached we should approach the sacrament with confi- on various vices and their corresponding virtues, dence that God will joyfully welcome us back. to help their consciences become sensitive.

The third virtue is “love that brings us to love Third, he cautioned them to look not just at God and makes us regret in the heart ever having the sins but at the relationship they wound. We offended him.” This love helps us to form genu- need to look at our correspondence to the God of ine sorrow for sins and moves us to seek recon- the Commandments and not just the Commandciliation with the beloved we’ve displeased by ments of God. An examination of conscience choosing other persons or things ahead of him is far more than a forensic accounting of moral and what he asks of us. Without this love, con- deficits, but a look at how and why we’ve chosen fession remains just an exercise in shameful against God and those he loves. self-disclosure, akin to a child’s being forced Fourth, he said that the examination nevagainst his will to apologize in order to avoid ertheless needs to be a thorough and regular further punishment. With love, the sacrament of accounting. The Curé of Ars once counseled a penance facilitates a real reconciliation with the businessman who had made a poor examinaGod who loves us first. tion, “It is necessary to put your conscience in Vianney applied these virtues to the three better order than you put in order your business traditional areas of preparation for confession: affairs.” The stakes of one’s soul are far more how to make a thorough and prayerful examina- important than of one’s money. If we’re going tion of conscience, how to grow in sorrow for to take our “moral bottom line” more seriously our sins out of love for God, and how to make a than a businessman takes his economic health, firm game plan to overcome in the present and Vianney taught, “we will do well to make an future the sins to which we’ve succumbed in the examination of conscience every night.” It is past. Today we’ll focus on the examination of easier to make reconciliations on a daily basis, conscience. after all, than to try to do it over the course of Many of the parishioners of Ars had really a week, months or years. A general examinanever been trained how to make a good exami- tion of conscience at night before going to bed nation of conscience. The indoctrination of the is a crucially important practice in the Christian French Revolution worsened the situation and spiritual life in general and a sine qua non for deformed many consciences, by pretending that becoming a holy penitent. some sins were in fact good actions, like exLastly, he taught that we need to beware of ecuting priests and religious. St. John Vianney our tendency to make excuses or exculpations for therefore needed to begin his training on how the sins we commit. To a priest who once said, to examine the conscience well with a thorough “but my intentions are good,” St. John Vianney catechesis on what sin is before he was able to replied in a phrase that’s since become famous. teach them about specific sins.

“O my friend, good intentions! Hell is paved Pope John Paul II wrote about the impor- with them!” The spirit may indeed be willing, tance of the catechesis that John Vianney needed but if the flesh is weak, we still end up betraying to do in his apostolic exhortation “Reconcilia- the Lord and need to repent like St. Peter. tion and Penance.” “First of all,” the pope stated, Next week we will focus on St. John Vian“an indispensable condition [for a good prepara- ney’s counsels on contrition. tion for confession] is the rectitude and clarity of Father Landry is pastor of St. Anthony’s the penitent’s conscience. People cannot come Parish in New Bedford.

Putting Into the Deep

November 13, 2009

7

The Anchor

From transitional deacon to priesthood to permanent diaconate

“L

ord, Teach Us” is the motto of our parish preparatory school; it should be the motto of all priests ordained to ministry in the Diocese of Fall River.

On June 4, 1988 Bishop Daniel A. Cronin ordained George Scales and me to the priesthood for service to the people of the Fall River Diocese. I knew that the charism of a diocesan priest is different from that of a religious order priest, such as a Franciscan, Jesuit, or Dominican.

I knew I was at the service of the bishop to be assigned anywhere in the diocese and could be re-assigned at anytime because of need, but I imagined my ministry would be limited to the parish to which I was assigned, and that it would be parochial ministry. I anticipated I would be doing solely parish work, Masses, baptisms, weddings, funerals, Religious Education, parish meetings and appointments for one particular parish. I would spend five days a week ministering to a particular

M

from Scripture to tradition, and parish family. while it can be accomplished on My narrow view of ministry the parish level at Mass during widened in the mid-1990s when the homily, it always becomes then-Father John F. Moore, limited by time and, sometimes, the director of the Permanent interest. Having the opportunity Diaconate Office, invited me to teach a course on sacraments for to teach men who want to know about our sacramental Church, the permanent deacon candiits history, its tradition of prayer dates. Father Moore had been the pastor of my home parish of St. Mary’s, Year For Priests New Bedford and had known of my backVocational Reflection ground in teaching prior to entering St. John’s Seminary in 1983. He

By Father asked if I would teach Daniel W. Lacroix a course in sacraments.

That moment of grace has permitted me to journey now and its worship style is uplifting.

It is humbling to see men, with three deacon ordination most of whom are married and classes. The last two I taught a with families, who get up at 5 course on “Prayer and Spirituala.m. to put in a full day’s work in ity” and with one class, “Prayer the secular world, and then come and Spirituality” and an “Introand gather two evenings a week, duction to Liturgy.” from September to December I can truly say having the opand from January to May, from portunity to come to know these 7-9 p.m. to pray and study all dedicated and hard-working that they need to minister as men has been a great grace in permanent deacons. It’s energizmy life. A major part of priestly ing to my priesthood to witness ministry is teaching the faith,

their openness and desire to learn and then go out into the world to work alongside others and bring Christ and his message to those who may or may not be active Catholics.

I have had the privilege to work with permanent deacons: Deacon Bill Martin at St. Patrick’s in Wareham; Deacon Thomas Palanza and Deacon Walter Thomas at St. Mary’s, Mansfield; Deacon Michael Guy and then (a former student) Deacon David Pepin at St. Francis Xavier in Acushnet; and finally now Deacon Richard Dresser and Deacon Richard Murphy here at St. Francis Xavier, Hyannis. I have seen their desire to assist the parish priests build up their parish families and minister in the wider local community, extensions of love to the mystical Body of Christ.

As I look back 21 years since being called to orders, it amazes me to think of the number of baptisms, funerals, weddings, liturgies, meetings and appoint-

of barbiturates. Switzerland per- concern about “imposing” upon family or friends. In the final mits foreigners to come and kill analysis, of course, each of us themselves, placing few restrichas the right to be a burden to tions on the process. Doctors others. As infants, children and stand ready to provide a veteriespecially as adolescents, we nary drug for patients, so that were “burdens” to our parents. several minutes after drinking a glass of water laced with sodium We can appreciate how the very pentobarbital, they become unconscious, with death following in less than an hour.

Euthanasia, when requested or sought out, may be pointing towards

By Father Tad other concerns and fears Pacholczyk of the patient. In the words of two hospice idea of family (including the physicians, Dr. Teno and Dr. “human family”) is rooted in the Lynn: notion of a mutual burdensome“New patients to hospice ness that is shared among all often state they want to ‘get it those within the family. We face over with.’ At face value this the very real challenge of buildmay seem a request for active ing up a stronger familial culture euthanasia. However, these requests are often an expression of (including a health-care culture) that promotes such mutual supthe patient’s concerns regarding port. pain, suffering, and isolation, Whenever individuals comand their fears about whether mit suicide, they cut across that their dying will be prolonged grain of familial support and by technology. Furthermore, unity. The one who kills himself these requests may be attempts may suppose that no one will be by the patient to see if anyone particularly harmed or affected really cares whether he or she except for him. Yet the opposite lives. Meeting such a request typically occurs. Even when with ready acceptance could be the suicide is linked to mental disastrous for the patient who interprets the response as confir- illness, as is often the case, relatives and family members may mation of his or her worthlessstill be acutely aware of a kind of ness.”

Those who are frail or elderly violation or betrayal behind the loss of their loved one. may fear “being a burden” to Whenever voluntary euthaothers, and a request for euthanasia touches a family, the same nasia may be connected to a

sense of violation often occurs.

Certain family members not “in on it” may blame themselves for not “seeing it coming” while others struggle to rationalize the occurrence, putting it into the best light they can: “Mom took the matter into her own hands and decided that she was going to call the shots,” or “Her friends helped walk her down that long, long road and made it easier for her to say goodbye on her own terms.”

In the final analysis, though, euthanasia and assisted suicide are little more than ways of shortcircuiting our human interrelatedness and interconnectedness, acts of violence on a basic level that harm rather than help. Such choices cast a long shadow over the life that was ended. To end

ments I have participated in, but the most personally memorable events in my journey so far have been the opportunities to share not only what I have learned, but who I am to these young and sometimes, not so young men, that they may have the same desire and love I have for the Church. They form the core of the community that will act as a leaven for the others to see and follow through their ability to baptize, preside at wakes, funerals and weddings outside Mass, preach and teach, conduct parish meetings and continue the work of ministry germane to their order of deacon.

The new class of deacons is currently being discerned as I write this. I anticipate, and hopefully not with arrogance, a phone call to ask if I wish to teach a course or two for this new class.

It not only helps the diaconate program and its current director, Msgr. John J. Oliveira, but it helps me re-learn and become re-energized about my ministry.

Father Lacroix is Pastor of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Hyannis.

Euthanasia — Broken memories, broken bonds

ost people fear the process of dying, which involves radical dependency, a sense of powerlessness, and sometimes significant pain as well. Pain management is a serious, if not central obligation for health care professionals and for all who care for the dying.

Although we may never choose directly to cause death by using high doses of pain medication, such medicines may be given to dying persons, even if the successively higher doses required for effective pain remediation may indirectly end up shortening their life. Good hospice or palliative care diligently seeks to provide effective, but not excessive, pain medication.

Some individuals, however, when faced with the prospect of pain and disease at the end of life, even while in possession of their faculties, will pursue active euthanasia rather than hospice or palliative care. During the summer of 2009, Sir Edward Downes, regarded as the preeminent British conductor of Verdi, and his wife, Joan, made the decision to travel to the Dignitas assisted suicide clinic in Zurich to end their lives.

Joan had been diagnosed with terminal cancer; Sir Edward, age 85, had no terminal condition, but found himself dealing with failing eyesight and increasing deafness. At the Dignitas clinic they were able to lie down on a bed in an industrial park building and drink a lethal dose

Making Sense Out of Bioethics

Nov. 29, 2009 Dec. 4 - 6, 2009 Dec. 11 - 13, 2009 Dec. 31 - Jan. 1 Jan. 10, 2010 Jan. 15 - 17, 2010 Jan. 22 - 24, 2010 Feb. 19 - 21, 2010

our lives well, on the other hand, is to be open to receiving loving assistance from others, and to accept the measure of suffering that may come our way, thereby humanizing, rather than demonizing, the frailities of sickness and aging. By reaching out to one another at the end of life, in our moments of fear, loneliness and suffering, we elevate this important journey that each of us must make, with death coming in God’s providential time as a completion of his work in us.

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.

~ Advent Recollection ~ Advent Retreat ~ Pat Hastings Retreat ~ New Year’s Eve ~ Peggy Patenaude Couples ~ Yoga Retreat ~ Women’s Retreat ~ Winter Spa Retreat

8

W

e have this weekend an interesting reading from the book of Daniel in which we hear about future gloom and doom. In our Gospel, Jesus tells us a similar message. Both deal with the end times and the events that will lead up to this ending.

Daniel speaks of a time of great distress unlike any other, but he also speaks of a great hope that tells us that the wise and the just shall shine like stars. Jesus speaks of a time when the sun and moon will be darkened and stars will fall from the sky. But he also goes on to speak about the Son of Man coming with great power and glory and gathering his followers to be with him.

It’s so easy to look at messages such as these and only see the frightening images,

The Anchor

November 13, 2009

From tragedy to triumph

the gloom and doom, the bad tendency to forget the “good” things. We focus on the image and dwell on the “bad.” In this of a shattering world, a world case, the bad being the end of being destroyed in complete the world as we know it. The chaos and our society today good, however, promises us makes such images easy to visualize. We are inundated with Homily of the Week stories and movies of Thirty-Third Sunday catastrophic events, in Ordinary Time stories about ancient

By Deacon Robert calendars that even G.L. Normandin pinpoint the exact date of the end of times.

Jesus reminds us, that no one, not even he himself, eternal life in a place unlike knows the day or the hour, any we can imagine. For the only God the Father knows.

Christian, the one who believes But there is more than doom in the promises of Jesus, life and gloom in these readings, is not ended, it is changed. there is good news to hear. The We live in a world filled with Good News is the message of tragedy, but with God, tragedy hope, a message of great and need not triumph over us, for wonderful things to come. from what is bad, God can As humans, we have a bring good.

We hold in our minds eye, the tragedy of Christ crucified, but we remember that through that tragedy comes the triumph of Christ resurrected.

There is our focus, that is the message that Jesus wants so much for us to understand. It may be hard, but we need to live each day in the knowledge that we are God’s children, we are loved and our God will not forsake us.

It is time to put aside our fear of what is to come. We are told not to be afraid. Those words “Be not afraid,” “Fear not,” “Do not be troubled,” appear in some form in every book of the Bible. Those words that are spoken by God, by Jesus, and by the angels and prophets are not empty words;

they call us to trust God. We need to look beyond whatever “tragedies” there are in our lives and know that we will share in the “triumph” of everlasting life with Jesus Christ. Trust God in all that he has given us and continues to give us in his Son Jesus.

When we pray Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, we end the prayer with the words, “world without end.” This statement should fill us with hope; for our world will not end; through the power of God it will be transformed.

God bless you.

Deacon Normandin was ordained in 1987. He and his wife Paulette, have three children and six grandchildren.

He is assigned to St. Louis de France Parish in Swansea.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. Nov. 14, Wis 18:14-16;19:6-9; Ps 105:2-3,36-37,42-43; Lk 18:1-8. Sun. Nov. 15, Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Dn 12:1-3; Ps 16:5,8-11; Heb 10:11-14,18; Mk 13:24-32. Mon. Nov. 16, Mc 1:10-15,41-43,54-57,62-63; Ps 119:53,61,134,150,155,158; Lk 18:35-43. Tues. Nov. 17, Mc 6:18-31; Ps 3:2-7; Lk 19:1-10. Wed. Nov. 18, 2 Mc 7:1,20-31 Ps 17:1,5-6,8,15; Lk 19:11-28. Thur. Nov. 19, 1 Mc 2:15-29; Ps 50:1-2,5-6,14-15; Lk 19:41-44. Fri. Nov. 20, 1 Mc 4:3637,52-59; (Ps) 1 Chr 29:10-12; Lk 19:45-48.

G

eorge and Betsy Weigel would have marked their diamond wedding anniversary on November 12 — “would have,” because my father died on Oct. 19, 2004, and my mother died, at age 95-and-a-half, this past October 25. I’ve no idea about the arrangements for anniversary parties around the Throne of Grace. But if what we’re promised there is the perfection of earthly goods, then a more-than-decent vintage (a 1997 Barolo, perhaps) will likely be uncorked. In this vale of tears, perhaps the best I can do for my late parents as I remember their diamond jubilee

George and Betsy 60 years later

is to offer a wider readership a Annapolis graduate, both of glimpse into their lives through whom served America and the cause of freedom in the fragments of the tributes I ofPacific. On one occasion I fered at their funeral Masses: At the funeral Mass for George Shillow Weigel, Oct. 23, 2004: “For the seven years I served as president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center,

By George Weigel I was privileged to have Admiral Bud Zumwalt, the former told Bud that dad, who like Chief of Naval Operations, as others of his generation spoke my board chairman. Dad and Bud were contemporaries, one very little about his service, had once made a mildly ironic a reserve naval officer who graduated from the University comment about the wisdom of the United States Navy, of Pennsylvania, the other an turning an economics major into a landing craft commander rather than using him in supply or management or something for which his education had prepared him.

Bud laughed and said, ‘I bet your father never told you that they screened those reserve officers for qualities of leadership — and then assigned the leaders to command those

The Catholic Difference

landing craft.’

“Of course, dad hadn’t told me that. His leadership was of a piece with his other qualities: understated (which, given the personalities of his sons, suggests that understatement is not genetically transmitted in the male line down the generations). … His volunteer work, teaching reading to adult illiterates, or doing ‘Meals on Wheels,’ was understated; but he kept feeding the hungry until he was unable to do so any longer.

His successful professional life was understated; yet one of his colleagues told me that dad, in addition to being a skilled manager, was a terrific salesman. I expect he was that because people knew they could trust him.”

At the funeral Mass for Betsy Schmitz Weigel, Oct. 28, 2009: “Five months after mom was born, European civilization imploded in the First World War and the 20th century began in earnest. Mom lived through that entire epoch— from the guns of August 1914 through the collapse of Soviet communism in 1991 — and then lived for another decade and a half in the 21st century, which as an epoch began in 1991, as the 20th century as an epoch really began in 1914.

Her life spanned nine pontificates and 16 presidencies,

three world wars (counting the Cold War), an ecumenical council, the civil rights revolution, the contemporary women’s movement, the Sixties, the Pro-Life movement, the Revolution of 1989 (and) 9/11. … At her death, America had traveled as far, in time, from her birth as the country had traveled from the first administration of President James Monroe to the day Betsy Hebner Schmitz entered the world.

“Mom was (my brother) John’s and my first evangelist: she taught us our prayers, helped us learn the “Baltimore Catechism,” later helped us memorize the Latin responses that enabled us to become altar boys, (and) … drove us to serve the 6:45 a.m. Mass with jelly sandwiches in our bookbags for breakfast afterwards. Her example of prayer, and dad’s, which was both profound and unobtrusive, left its mark; so did their patience with occasionally rambunctious sons, who later experienced the joys of raising teen-agers themselves; and so did the noble Baltimore German habit of offering sauerkraut with the Thanksgiving turkey, a tradition which continues to the third and fourth generation....”

George and Betsy, dad and mom: requiescant in pace.

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

It’s a dog’s life

Saturday 14 November 2009 the kennel. I picked up only two.

— Old Dighton Village Lolo had died in my absence. t’s been a week since I The emergency telephone call returned from the annual came early in the morning. It was priests’ retreat. More than 30 of us gathered at the Miramar Retreat House overlooking Reflections of a Kingston Bay. Since Parish Priest 1922, this has been the property of the Society

By Father Tim of the Divine Word.

Goldrick Before that, it was, in part, the summer home of William Cardinal O’Connell, the veterinarian’s office. When the Archbishop of Boston. It’s a animal hospital opened its doors lovely, peaceful place. that morning, the staff found Lolo Before I left on retreat, I made near death. He was rushed into arrangements for my three depen- surgery. The medical situation dants, my animal companions. I proved to be both irreparable and board the greyhounds at their vet- fatal. Lolo died on the operaterinarian’s while I’m away. There ing table. As the word spread they get the best of care and I can among my brother priests, several confidently go about my business approached me to offer sincere without worrying. Even in the condolences. best of situations, however, bad A dog is, well, a dog, but there things can happen. And so they are very real emotional bonds did. I brought three greyhounds to between animals and humans.

I

The Ship’s Log

R

Animal companions leave tracks on our hearts. In times of disaster, rescuers are now beginning to pay attention to the pets of the people they are attempting to rescue. Sometimes humans will resolutely refuse to leave a burning building or abandon a sinking boat without their pets. Only those who have had a pet understand this.

At first I was stunned by the news. This was something I would never have anticipated in a million years. Then I wondered why. The animal was only four years old, bright-eyed, full of energy and life. There was no sign whatsoever of illness. The veterinarian explained that the death was caused by a common physiological malfunction found in animals of a certain size and body type. In a word, the animal explodes. The cause is unknown.

Most often, there is little that can be done to save the animal. Poor

Fatherhood interrupted

hode Islanders are scratching their heads over a recent murder in which a 47-year-old man was killed by the mother of one of his children. There were actually six women in that category, and five of them thought he was an excellent father. The other? Not so much.

After his death, the five other mothers and various relatives gathered at a nearby apartment to talk about his life.

They said he had been characterized unfairly in the local paper as an abuser.

“There was also love there,” said Candace Smith, a niece. “He took care of his children. He spent time with them.

The mothers of his children put aside all of their differences, and the kids spent time with all of their mothers.”

These five women insisted he had wanted them all to be one happy family. “They hugged each other and said in unison, ‘We love our baby mamas!’”

While no one was bothered that the man never married the mothers of his children, neither were they bothered that what support he did provide came from his success as a drug dealer — instead, they justified it. It was the best he could do, they insisted, because he was a high-school dropout and had so many children so quickly. His mother considered him to be a good son who provided what she

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November 13, 2009

needed with those drug profits, explaining that he couldn’t help himself, having had his first child at age 15 (with a woman 10 years older).

Where does one begin? The first “baby mama” passed him on to her best friend, and he roved from bed to bed after that — with each woman fully aware of who she was inviting into her life. This is not a question of “more contraception,” but of the standards women must set concerning the men to which they attach themselves.

How did they get to this point?

Well, to beat the proverbial dead horse, we must move the hands of the clock back to the 1960s and consider how contraception separated the marital embrace from the possibility of children; abortion played clean-up to that assumption, and soon the marital embrace was effectively separated from marriage — so much so that “free love” (intimacy without consequences) was in the air that kids breathed (the kids, that is, who survived the gauntlet of birth control and abortion).

A combination of no-fault divorce, society’s collective

shrug of the shoulders over the ensuing promiscuity and the government’s ability to step in financially to replace the roving fathers have led us to the current morass, whereby six women can share one man, eight children, drug profits and a group hug in which they can say with a straight face: “It’s normal! Everybody goes through it.”

Well, perhaps they’re right.

More people are enduring such moral freefalls than we’d like, considering that only a minority of children are raised with a biological father in the home. The loving grandmother said her son didn’t like drama, and yet he lived one in spades thanks to decades of lies about the dignity of persons and what God has in store for them if they choose well.

So now we have one less drug dealer on the streets, eight children without even shards of a father to share, that much more for welfare to pick up in the coming years, and five smiling women who still cannot see that he wasn’t such a good man after all.

Who will take the initiative and say that there are better ways to live? Who will grant that the Humanae Vitae has made its point?

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

Lolo’s death must have been extremely painful.

That night, I sat alone in a wooden garden swing in Cardinal Connell’s front yard. Under the light of the full moon, the leafless branches of the trees reached their skeletal fingers towards the charcoal sky. I was embarrassed by the feelings of grief I was experiencing. This was not a macho reaction. This was, after all, a dog, not a person.

Perhaps I dozed off. I dreamed I saw the passing shadow of His Eminence, accompanied by Moro, his French poodle. The Cardinal was very fond of animals and was often seen in their company. He must have spent many peaceful hours walking with his dogs the grounds of what he called his villa. He left behind an ode to this place: When from the weariness of earth My soul yearns for relief, I seek the shelter of thy walls And there find rest and peace For in thy silence, Miramar, The voice of heaven I hear; And in thy calm and sweet repose I know that God is near.

I have one elderly friend who writes to me, often mentioning her cherished memories of a long-dead pet rabbit. I can understand this. Animals leave tracks on our hearts. I remember my greyhounds that died over the years: Aran All-stars Only, Miss Molly Malone, Napoleon, and now Lolo. Each was a living

being, one of God’s creatures, with its own will and its own kind of intelligence. Each had its own personality, its own likes and dislikes. Even so, each lived a dog’s life.

Lolo was a “special needs” dog. Born in Spain, he was technically a galgo, although hardly anyone in the United States has ever heard of this breed. It was simpler to call him a “Spanish greyhound.” He was trained to hunt birds and small game. This meant I had to keep him several yards distant from any passing bird. He could strike like a cobra.

A feather duster could never be used in household chores. Lolo would mistake the dusty feathers for some rare, dirty bird and stalk the housekeeper through the house.

Like most galgos, Lolo hunted for only one season.

At the end of the hunting season galgos are usually put down. Lolo was lucky. He was abandoned in some alley to scavenge garbage cans. Lolo was twice lucky. He was rescued and shipped to the United States. Lolo was thrice lucky.

We struck it off immediately. I adopted him.

Lolo lived two years in my world. I hope he enjoyed his stay.

I think he did. But Lolo’s luck finally ran out. Even though his was a dog’s life, that life will be sorely missed.

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

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November 13, 2009

The Anchor

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November 13, 2009

An example of what Jesus wants us to be

By Michael Pare Anchor Correspondent

LABOR OF LOVE — From left: Elizabeth Dost, vice president and executive director of Guardian Hospice, and Greg Grove, CEO of Guardian Hospice, present Pat Brophy; Virginia Croak, Holy Cross Parish Nurse; and pastor, Holy Cross Father James Fenstermaker, with the Outstanding Service Award to the South Easton parish’s Prayer Shawl Ministry.

South Easton parish Prayer Shawl Ministry receives award

SOUTH EASTON — Guardian Hospice, Inc. of Massachusetts recently awarded the First Outstanding Service Award to the Prayer Shawl Ministry of Holy Cross Church. Pastor, Holy Cross Father James Fenstermaker said, “One of the ministries that contributes to the vibrant nature of Holy Cross Parish is our Prayer Shawl Ministry involving more than a dozen women of the parish. Prayer is an integral part of their ministry. While much of the knitting takes place at home, the group meets once a month in the parish center to continue knitting their prayer shawls together and pray for those who will receive the prayer shawls, which are blessed at these monthly meetings.”

Last week the members of the Prayer Shawl Ministry gathered in the parish center to receive the very first Outstanding Service Award from Guardian Hospice

of Massachusetts. The president of Guardian Hospice, along with parishioner Beth Dost who works for Guardian Hospice, presented the award to Pat Brophy, head of the Prayer Shawl Ministry, and Ginny Croak, director of the parish Health Ministry.

Excerpts from the citation that accompanied the certificate presented to the Prayer Shawl Ministry read: “Guardian Hospice professionals have distributed some 40 prayer shawls over a geographic area which includes southeastern Massachusetts, north to Boston and west to Pittsfield.

“The gift of a prayer shawl provides comfort and solace to clients of all denominations and beliefs, their families and, at times, their caregivers. This single act of knitting provides a metaphor to those strands which bind us together in the framework of our humanity.”

of his own when they met.

“He’s just a great guy,” she said.

“He works at the Steamship AuWEST HARWICH — Beverly thority. So he works and I play.”

Camerlengo is a real life “teachable The spirit of giving to others is moment.” She started volunteering a bond they share. It is a bond, said at Holy Trinity Regional School a Camerlengo, which strengthens decade ago when her son Anthony their relationship. Larry, she said, enrolled there as a student. It was enjoys visiting Cranberry an ideal situation, a chance Point Nursing Home, where for her to be near her son he visits with residents and and watch him grow, while helps them get to Mass. doing something she truly “He works with the old, loved. And so when it came I work with the young,” she time for Anthony to move said with a laugh. on to middle school, CamCamerlengo sees now erlengo remained. that the desire inside her to That was two years ago. care for children is surely “Mrs. C” continues to vola product of her Catholic unteer in the kindergarten faith. class at Holy Trinity, three “I see faith as believing in days each week. doing something good,” she “I just kind of continued,” said. “Maybe by being kind, she said. “I enjoy being by sharing time and energy, there for the kids. It keeps that’s a way of setting an exme out of trouble. And it’s ample for others.” such a nice place and a great Camerlengo’s dedicaschool. The kids get not only tion to children does not a great education … there is stop when the school week so much nurturing.” comes to an end. Weekends, Ask the school’s princishe is at St. Pius, where she pal, Linda Mattson, and she is now in her 27th year of will tell you that Camerlengo is being modest. It isn’t ANCHOR PERSON OF THE WEEK — Bev- teaching second grade Reabout staying out of trouble erly Camerlengo and a young friend at Holy ligious Education. Second grade is such a critical time or occupying time. It’s about Trinity School in West Harwich. in the development of a loving kids. It’s about wanting to help shape their lives. because she loves them. That’s an child’s Catholic faith. There is rec“The kids absolutely love her important message for them to re- onciliation and holy Communion.

It is a year the child will remember and the teachers who work with ceive, said Mattson. her love her,” said Mattson.

“It is so important for them to forever.

“It’s just amazing to help get But Mattson makes an even see someone from her generation deeper point, the kind that maybe coming in to be with them,” said them ready for two sacraments only an educator can see. Camer- Mattson. “When she enters the each year,” she said.

And summers, there is Bible lengo, through her dedication and school, her kindness follows her deep commitment to the children into every inch of the building. She camp to run. There is no time off. at Holy Trinity, is teaching them is a wonderful Christian woman But then, Camerlengo wouldn’t a valuable lesson. The kids, said who is so outstanding in giving of want it any other way.

There are tangible rewards for Mattson, know that “Mrs. C” is her time. She is a true example of the time and energy that Camerwhat Jesus wants all of us to be.”

And the kids do see her. They lengo has expended over the years. do notice. When Camerlengo is not She and Larry enjoy a wonderful in the kindergarten classroom, she extended family that now includes can be found at lunchtime distrib- eight grandchildren and three greatgrandchildren. uting hot lunch to the kids.

There are the foster children, Camerlengo has a simple explanation for her dedication, for what now grown, who return often to drives her to put so much time in at catch up.

“A lot of my foster kids, they the school. come back with children of their “I enjoy kids,” she said.

That may be best described as own,” she said. “We talk. It’s an understatement. Kids, after all, nice.”

And there are the countless exhave always been at the epicenter changes with students, who smile of her life.

Camerlengo and her husband when they see “Mrs. C.” Some of Larry live in South Yarmouth and the Religious Education students attend St. Pius X Parish. She is the are now parents. Camerlengo feels proud mother of seven children, truly blessed to witness that beautiwho range in age from 12 to 50. ful circle of life.

Just the other day she saw a She was a widow with five children when she and Larry married woman, now with a child herself, 32 years ago. The couple would who told her that she had been a serve as foster parents for three de- camper at summer Bible school.

“Do you still teach that in the cades, raising many children along summer, Mrs. C,” she asked? the way.

“Of course,” said Camerlengo.

Ultimately, they adopted two To nominate a person, send an children, including Anthony.

Camerlengo laughs now, think- email message to FatherRogering of Larry, who had no children Landry@AnchorNews.org. not a regular teacher at the school.

They are an insightful bunch. They know there is something else that motivates “Mrs. C” to volunteer her time for them. They see it in the warm way in which she responds to them. They know that she is there because she cares for them,

T

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November 13, 2009

From reformed to restorationist: A unity movement

he early years of the 19th century saw the rise of the largest Christian movement born on American soil: the Restoration Movement, also called the Stone-Campbell Movement, after Barton W. Stone (17721844) and Alexander Campbell (1788-1866). Its goal was to overcome denominationalism and “restore” the true Church of the New Testament. Paradoxically, that effort contributed more denominations to the roster of Protestant sects.

Alexander Campbell, son of Thomas Campbell, a Presbyterian minister, was born in Ireland. Educated in Ireland and at Glasgow University, he immigrated to America in 1809 with his mother and siblings, where they reunited with the elder Campbell, who had settled in western Pennsylvania. He joined in his father’s rejection of Presbyterianism and organized an independent church at Brush Run. Persuaded that adult baptism by immersion was the only valid baptism, the Campbells were rebaptized in 1812 and entered into fellowship with the Baptists. Alexander founded (1823) and edited (until 1830) the “Christian Baptist,” a widely circulated monthly.

For all their rhetoric about “Scripture alone,” Protestants in the 16th century, and Baptists in the seventeenth and eighteenth, not only affirmed the dogmas of the early Church in the language of the ancient creeds, but also added to these classic statements

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.

“A Christmas Carol” (Disney) Lavish, well-crafted but fre-

their own particular confessions interpretation that split many of faith. But Campbell would Protestant churches around the have “no creed but Christ.” All turn of the twentieth century. In religious authority was reduced 1906 the fundamentalist wing to a simple maxim: “Where the separated from the Disciples to Bible speaks, we speak; where form the “Churches of Christ.” the Bible is silent, we are silent.”

The breakaway of the Believing it was possible and Churches of Christ was not the desirable to strip Christianonly schism in the Restoration ity of all post-New Testament Movement. A desire for a stronaccretions, he permitted only a ger national organization led to cappella singing in church, since a restructuring of the Disciples the New Testament makes no mention of instrumental music The Fullness in Christian worship of the Truth (sola Scriptura with a vengeance!).

By Father By the late 1820s Thomas M. Kocik the Baptists had had enough of Campbell’s primitivism, and the Campbellites (the nickname of Christ in 1968. Opponents dates to 1832) were being of the move saw it as the “last forced out of Baptist churches. straw” of a decades-long slide At Campbell’s suggestion, his into denominationalism; they followers formed congregations left the Disciples and organized and called themselves Disciples the “Christian Churches and of Christ. They were attracted Churches of Christ,” also known by a similarity of purpose to as the “Independent Christian the “Christians” in Kentucky Churches.” led by Barton Warren Stone, a Most of the 700,000 Disciples Maryland-born ex-Presbyterian, live in half a dozen southern and in 1832 the two movements and Midwestern states. Like united to form the “Christian the other two Restorationist Church (Disciples of Christ).” branches, Disciples baptize by Since Campbell neither supimmersion and pride themselves ported nor condemned slavery, on remaining creedless. No the Disciples managed to avoid Disciple, minister or layperson, schism during the Civil War, giv- need affirm belief in any specific ing them an advantage over the Christian doctrine. Unlike most sundered Baptists, Presbyterians, Protestants, Disciples observe and Methodists. However, they the Lord’s Supper every Sunday. were not spared the controverLocal Disciples churches may sies over biblical authority and choose to join district and state

conferences; most churches belong to the Disciples of Christ International Convention, with headquarters in Indianapolis.

Disciples colleges include Bethany in West Virginia (founded

by Alexander Campbell in 1840) and Texas Christian.

With an estimated membership of one million, the Churches of Christ is more loosely organized than the Disciples.

The closest thing to a convention is the annual Bible lectureship on the campus of Abilene Christian College, which draws as many as ten thousand people. Among the other Churches of Christ institutions are Pepperdine (California), Harding (Arkansas), Faulkner (Alabama), and Lipscomb (Tennessee).

Churches of Christ congregations exist throughout the United States and in many other countries, but membership is concentrated in Tennessee, West Virginia, the Ozark regions of Missouri and Arkansas, and the plains of central Texas. Rejection of instrumental music in worship is a test of fellowship.

The “undenominational” Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, with 1.1 million members, stands to the “right” of the theologically liberal Disciples and to the “left” of the fundamentalist Churches of Christ.

It sponsors an extensive missionary program in more than fifty countries, and operates 18 liberal

arts and Bible colleges, the two largest being Lincoln (Illinois) Christian and Cincinnati Christian. The heartland of its strength is approximately the same as that of the Disciples of Christ: from western Pennsylvania across the Midwest to Missouri and Iowa, but with sizable membership also in Kentucky, northern California, and the Pacific Northwest.

Attempting to distinguish among the churches of the three Restorationist branches is enough to make anyone’s head spin. Disciples churches seldom include the word “Disciples” in their name; they’re usually known simply as “Christian” (e.g., “First Christian Church” or “Davis Street Christian Church”). Likewise, many independent congregations go by the name “Christian Church.”

Some Disciples churches use the term “Church of Christ,” but so do most Churches of Christ churches and many congregations of the Independent Christian Churches fellowship. In the quest for the true Church, names are unpersuasive.

Rather than delivering Christians from disunity, Campbell’s efforts to restore apostolic Christianity increased their divisions.

There is but one basis for union: the inherited truths of the Gospel as they are doctrinally interpreted within the one Church of the Bible and of the creeds.

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

quently eerie 3-D animated adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic 1843 novella in which miserly misanthrope Ebenezer Scrooge (voice of Jim Carrey) is urged to change his ways by the tortured specter of his late business partner (voice of Gary Oldman) and by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come (all voiced by Carrey). Though free of objectionable content, and unabashed about the Christian context of its conversion story, writer-director Robert Zemeckis’ largely faithful retelling features images and special effects likely to disturb the most sensitive

is at least partially set right by the main character’s explicitly Christian faith. Some violence, including a short scene of gory murder, brief nongraphic marital lovemaking, a half-dozen uses of profanity and a few crude terms.

The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is AIII — adults. Motion Picture Association of America rating, PG13 — parents strongly cautioned.

Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on WLNE Channel 6 Sunday, November 15 at 11:00 a.m.

Celebrant is Father Freddie Babiczuk, pastor of Good Shepherd Parish in Fall River

youngsters. Also shown in Imax.

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.

“The Fourth Kind” (Universal) Supposedly fact-based thriller about a recently widowed Alaska psychologist (Milla Jovovich) who becomes convinced that several patients she has been treating for a sleep disorder are in fact victims of alien abduction, and that the malevolent interplanetary visitors also killed her husband, though the local sheriff (Will Patton) and a colleague (Elias Koteas) she consults remain skeptical. The occasional jolt aside, writer-director Olatunde Osunsanmi’s pseudo-dramatization, which intersperses “actual” video and audio of the case with alleged re-enactments, is slow-moving and largely ineffective, though the script’s fleeting, potentially troublesome foray into theology

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November 13, 2009

Maine voters defend traditional marriage continued from page one

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to the Catholic faith, Fitzgibbon used the spot as a chance to speak about the effects same-sex marriage has had in Massachusetts. In widening the definition of marriage to include same-sex couples, the Supreme Judicial Court indicated that the central elements of marriage are “emotions or sentiments.”

“Marriage is the basis of the family and the foundation of the civil order. Protecting that institution and fostering a clear and sound understanding of what it is should be important to everyone,” he told The Anchor.

Such a redefinition has a profound impact that affects society and public schools. Parents have had their right to be notified about material on same-sex couples denied in court, he said.

He said of the ruling on Parker v. Hurley in 2007, “It proposes that the public schools are charged with the task of producing a certain sort of society and training students to shape society along certain lines.”

The other side, Protect Maine Equality, put together commercials that appealed to Mainers’ fairness and “live and let live” mentality.

They argued that residents should be allowed to marry “the person they love,” and outspent their opponents by nearly 2-1.

Scott Fish, Stand for Marriage’s communications director, said that despite polls that put samesex marriage supporters ahead by a slim margin, campaign leaders believed voters would protect traditional marriage.

“We were pretty confident going into Election Day,” he told The Anchor.

Fish said the campaign informed Maine voters that legislation would affect the state and public schools.

The campaign also addressed the fact that many of same-sex marriage proponents concerns — such as tax benefits — could be addressed in the law without redefining marriage.

Stand for Marriage Maine declared victory on November 4 at 12:30 a.m. and Maine became the 31st state where voters upheld traditional marriage. Voters have passed constitutional amendments defining marriage as the union between one man and one woman in 30 states.

Fish praised the work of the Catholic Church in preserving marriage in Maine. The Church and individual Catholics worked to get out the vote and contributed financially to the campaign, he said.

“I don’t think it could have happened without their support,” he said. “Bishop Malone came out early in support of the campaign.”

In a statement about Question 1, Bishop Richard Malone of Portland thanked Maine voters for re-

affirming their support of marriage and said that the Church remains devoted to preserving the “precious gift of marriage.”

“These past few months have served as a teaching opportunity to explain to parishioners and the wider community about how and why the Church views and values marriage as the union of one man and one woman. It has also been an opportunity for listening, and I trust that those who voted for such a radical change did so out of concern for our gay brothers and sisters. Respect and acceptance of all people regardless of sexual orientation is not a point of controversy — indeed, it is a teaching of the Church,” he said.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops also applauded the Maine vote in a November 4 statement.

In that statement Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, chairman of the bishop’s Ad Hoc Committee for the Defense of Marriage, said society should work to strengthen marriage rather than try to redefine it. Children deserve to be welcomed as a gift of spousal love, he said.

He said of the vote in Maine, “The voice of the people in this country has spoken once again on the side of justice, in favor of the truth about marriage.”

In Massachusetts, voters never had the opportunity to have their say on marriage. The Supreme Judicial Court legalized same-sex marriage in a 2004 ruling. Efforts to restore traditional marriage through the Legislature failed, and a citizen’s petition was struck down by the Legislature in 2007. Elected officials voted 151 to 45 in opposition, which meant the ballot initiative fell just five votes shy of the 50 votes needed to move to the ballot box. In Maine, such measures do not need the approval of the Legislature to appear on the ballot.

Currently, same-sex marriage is legal in four states. The three by virtue of judicial rulings are Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa.

Vermont, which recognized civil unions in 2000, legalized same-sex marriage through the Legislature in September, and New Hampshire, which currently has civil unions, has legalized same-sex marriage, and that law is scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1, 2010.

Victor Pap, executive director for Catholic Citizenship, said it is important for the Catholic Church to encourage its members to practice faithful citizenship.

“I think it is critically important for the Catholic Church to stand in the public square,” he said. “Today it’s marriage. You never know what tomorrow can bring.”

Kris Mineau, president of the

Massachusetts Family Institute, characterized the loss in Maine as a “huge setback” for same-sex marriage proponents.

“It’s a huge win for New England and the nation,” he said. “Our opponents were planning on Maine being a watershed for them to start the momentum going their way.”

He added that the victory should be a “wake up call” for the citizens of Massachusetts who were denied their right to vote on marriage.

Mineau who was the spokesperson for VoteOnMarriage.org, the campaign behind the Massachusetts ballot initiative, told The Anchor that it is a “travesty” that in Massachusetts, the “cradle of liberty,” the citizens were denied their right to vote.

“The situation in Massachusetts is that the Legislature is beholden to special interest groups,” he said.

He added that even after five years of same-sex marriage, the issue is far from over in Massachusetts. Just this past May a poll found that 44 percent of voters support traditional marriage, 43 percent support same-sex marriage and another 17 percent are undecided — numbers that are similar to those in Maine, he said.

Traditional marriage supporters in Massachusetts are currently working to support changes in the Legislature that will allow a vote to take place, Mineau said.

Volunteers attend faith convention continued from page 20

provided him with some insight into the daily workings of a typical diocesan parish. “I already picked up a lot of information about parish mission statements and what they imply,” he said. “It’s been very interesting.”

“The highlight for me was Father Paulli’s keynote address,” said Andrea St. Germaine of St. Pius X Parish, South Yarmouth, who is a frequent conference attendee.

“He really put a stamp on what it means to be humble, what it means to be Christ-like, and how when you’re serving others you’re serving Christ. I never looked at it that way before.”

St. Germaine is already looking forward to next year’s conference, which diocesan Faith Formation Director Claire M. McManus announced would be held at The Cape Codder Resort in Hyannis, in keeping with a promise to hold the event in a different deanery each year.

“I am so happy, it’s the first time it will be held on Cape Cod,” St. Germaine said. “We won’t have to travel an hour — we’ll be five minutes away. We’ve wanted this for so long, I am so excited.”

November 13, 2009

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The Anchor

Diocesan schools taking flu precautions

Bishop Stang to be inducted into R.I. Hall of Fame

Closer to home, a 12-year-old Bristol girl, a seventh-grade student at St. Philomena’s School in Portsmouth, R.I., died from the swine flu on October 26. Another 12-year-old girl, a seventh-grader at the Lincoln Middle School in Lincoln, R.I., succumbed to the virus on October 31.

For those attending school, the simple preventive steps currently being taken include training and guiding students to frequently wash their hands; use hand sanitizers; teaching them how to confine their sneezes and coughs; and to refrain from touching one another as much as possible Although an estimated 22 million doses of the swine flu vaccine reportedly are available nationwide, “no vaccines are yet available in sufficient quantity to inoculate all students, but when they arrive in Massachusetts, our Catholic schools will receive them at the same time, I have been informed by the various communities,” Milot said last week.

But before that happens, parents will have to sign forms allowing their children to receive the vaccine, he noted.

“As part of preventive measures we have notified student’s parents to keep students at home and out of school if they show flu-like symptoms, especially a fever, and to have them examined by a physician or medical personnel as soon as possible,” Milot added.

He noted that the state guidelines indicated the child must be fever-free without medications for 24 hours before returning to school.

Among other information distributed to parents of students initially showing flu symptoms includes making sure the children drink a large amount of liquids, receive medications, get sufficient rest and stay away from people as much as possible.

At the same time many families are bringing their children to their general practitioners to receive the vaccinations which are in limited supply, although already distributed to many physicians nationwide for vaccinating those with chronic health problems, high risk children ages two to five, and pregnant women.

Milot also said he was advised that it takes up to three weeks for the vaccination to become effective.

land,” Conley added. “The Hall of Fame recognizes the inductees significant contributions to the benefit of Rhode Island in any way.”

“I was very pleased to hear Bishop Stang has been given this honor,” Fall River Bishop George W. Coleman told The Anchor.

“Before coming to the Diocese of Fall River, he carried out an extensive pastoral work in the Diocese of Providence. This honor is evidence that his good work has endured. So I’m very grateful that this award has been given, showing the esteem of Rhode Island for one of its priests.”

The induction ceremony will take place November 15 at Conley’s Wharf, 200 Allens Avenue, Providence at 2 p.m. Bishop Stang’s induction ironically occurs during the 50th anniversary celebrations of Bishop Stang High School in North Dartmouth, the first Catholic high school in the Fall River Diocese. School President Theresa E. Dougall, will be accepting the plaque and citation for Bishop Stang. “This is so fitting to occur within our 50th anniversary,” Dougall told The Anchor. “We’re going back to our roots as the first Catholic high school, named after the first bishop of the Diocese of Fall River. What Bishop Stang stood for in education is a big part of our ideals and traditions today. We will display this award in a very prominent place in the school.”

Since Bishop Coleman will be in Baltimore for the U.S. bishops’ meeting on November 15, diocesan archivist, Father Barry W. Wall will represent the diocese at the ceremony. “Bishop Stang was a scholar and a pastor,” Father Wall told The Anchor. “He involved himself in writing a number of books, not only on religious subjects in themselves but also very often with an outlook to the community and to special needs. He wrote a textbook for seminary students on pastoral theology, practical advice as it were in English. He wrote as bishop a book on socialism and Christianity, expressing truths for the times and the culture with concerns for

continued from page one

Having attended regional meetings on the H1N1 virus and vaccination plans being proposed in several communities in the diocese, Milot said he was informed that among the positive steps being taken “is that physicians are currently treating every influenza case on the assumption that it is the swine flu,” he told The Anchor.

“Wherever I went I found that the various boards of health are planning to distribute the vaccine to Catholic schools along with their public schools when it arrives,” Milot said.

“Unfortunately, it looks now that the vaccine won’t arrive here in sufficient numbers until December.”

At Holy Family-Holy Name School in New Bedford, Principal Cecilia Felix reported that Karen Regan RN, who directs all school nurses in that community, has been in contact with her and various school administrations as vaccinations by a team of medical personnel at the schools are being planned.

No vaccinations at schools in Fall River, Taunton, New Bedford, and the Attleboros or on Cape Cod have yet taken place.

“It looks like medical teams will be visiting the schools or there will be clinics set up,” Milot reported.

“But definitive plans are still up in the air until it is decided how much vaccine will be available and where.”

At Diman Regional Technical High School in Fall River, there are no current plans to offer swine-flu vaccine to students or faculty, said Brian Bentley, assistant superintendent as well as director and principal. However, the common influenza shots were made available.

“We have approximately a dozen students who are certified as having H1N1 currently,” he reported. “And we’re seeing no real spike in absenteeism. We normally have a 97 percent attendance every day.

We’re currently seeing attendance at 95 percent, but I think we will be all right,” he added.

However, Diman has implemented precautions that include hand sanitizers available in classrooms, the cafeteria and rest rooms as well as in other locations, “and along with those we’ve instructed faculty and students to take extra care in dealing with one another,” he added.

continued from page one

working people and for the evils of socialism that would depersonalize the workers. His concern was always for people.”

Bishop Coleman added, “In Providence but also here in his too short time as Bishop of Fall River, he was a great teacher, following his work as a professor at the University of Louvain. In Providence he was a member of the team that preached parish missions all over the Diocese of Providence. He continued that zealous proclamation of the Gospel during his time here in Fall River.”

Father Wall also extolled Bishop Stang’s strong commitment to pastoral concerns. “As far as the community at large, he was very much involved in the founding of St. Joseph’s in Providence. He was chairman of the fund-raising for the hospital, which Bishop Harkins considered extremely important. He maintained a keen interest in the hospital. His journal shows that every time he visited Providence he stayed there and he always remained very connected to it.

“His ministry involved the preaching of parish missions. He was the head of a band of diocesan priests that went from parish to parish giving parish missions, following the Paulists Fathers’ model of reaching out particularly to non-Catholics.”

Among this year’s 12 inductees is another Catholic priest with Fall River ties. Father John Diman, a former Episcopalian who later converted to Catholicism and became a priest, will also be honored. Father Diman founded St. George’s School in Newport, R.I.; Portsmouth Abbey in Portsmouth, R.I.; and what is now Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School in Fall River, which serves Fall River, Swansea, Somerset, and Westport.

According to a June 3, 1946 Time Magazine article on Father Diman, he “wanted to do something for working-class boys.

In 1912, the Diman Vocational School opened its doors in Fall River, the big mill town where Diman’s father had been a minister. Backed by Unionist John

Golden, the school trained boys of 14 to 16 (too old for grammar school, too young for the mills) in manual trades.”

The article also said, “As headmaster and teacher, Diman preferred respect to love; he once complained of a picture that it did not make him look strict enough.

He was kindly to his boys, but rarely familiar; at his most informal, he would give them friendly pokes in the ribs with his walking stick. Few ‘Mr. Chips’ stories were told about him. More often the boys talked about his bad driving (he permanently scarred a driveway maple tree at St. George’s) or his absentmindedness.”

William Douglas Jr. from St. George’s, Father Dom Stead, O.S.B., from Portsmouth Abbey, and Brian Bentley from Diman High School will accept Father Diman’s award.

Each inductee will receive an induction plaque and a citation containing a 300-word biography of the individual. Conley said the Hall of Fame is scheduled to become a major exhibit at the new Heritage Harbor Museum slated to open in 2012.

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Youth Pages

16

November 13, 2009

LEADERS OF THE PACK — The current diocesan Christian Leadership Institute team and 2009 grads, shown here with Father Jeffrey Cabral, recently designed and implemented the Diocesan Youth Convention.

SAINTS ... — Grade one students from St. Patrick’s Faith Formation Class in Wareham held an All Saints Parade led by Volunteer Grade Level Coordinator, Diane Zine.

Music was provided by Mary Iacobucci and Mary Peabody who led the parents in singing “When the Saints Go Marching In.”

... SAINTS ... — Grade two teacher, Mrs. Bjerre, and her students recently dressed as saints at Holy Name School, Fall River. A special auditorium program was held in which second- and third-grade students dressed as a saint, shared information about the saint, and songs with the student body.

RAISING MONEY BY DRESSING DOWN — In honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the students at St. Mary’s Primary School in Taunton were allowed to pay $1 for the opportunity to dress casually for one day.

Hundreds of students took advantage of the lenient dress code raising nearly $400 for the Ellie Fund, a local breast cancer charity. As a token of appreciation for their donation, each student was given a pink ribbon magnet from the Ellie Fund.

... AND MORE SAINTS — First-grade students held their annual saints program at St. John the Evangelist School in Attleboro before the All Saints Day celebration on November 1. Shown are the first-graders dressed to depict the saint they represented. Each student also stated a pertinent fact in the life of that saint.

November 13, 2009

T

wo weeks ago, children everywhere dressed as their favorite ghosts, goblins and superheroes. Two weeks from now, our dining room tables will be trimmed with gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce and a scrumptious roast turkey in the center.

Yet walk through any department store or mall and it’s as if Christmas is the holiday we will be celebrating in two weeks and not Thanksgiving.

What ever happened to our distinct seasons? What happened to our patience in waiting for one season to end and another to begin?

When I was a child, there was one defining moment that ushered in the Christmas season.

It was the appearance of Santa Claus at the end of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. Only then would Christmas music be played on the radio and retailers adorned their windows with fake pines, sleds and enough twinkling lights to illuminate a small country. But today, that’s not the case. Jack-o’-lantern doesn’t even have the chance to wrinkle

Youth Pages

17

Happy Hallow-Thanks-Mas

and wither with age before he is friends and celebrate the joys and mourn the losses of the past tossed in the trash and replaced year. Most importantly, Jesus with evergreen trees, icicle himself seems to have been lights, chasing lights, white disinvited from his own birthday lights, colored lights, and inflatable snow globes and Santas that adorn the front lawns.

Retailers encourage shoppers to rush out and grab the sales now before all the “hot item”

By Crystal Medeiros merchandise disappears from the store shelves.

If we wait and don’t get party. the hottest iPod in the hottest Who forgets to invite the color or the latest Rockbandguest of honor to his own birthguitar hero-DJ hero video game combination, then we’re missing day party? Perhaps it is those people who want to take Christ out and we will have deprived out of Christmas and sell us our loved ones of that “onlygift-I-want-and-you-don’t-have- holiday trees instead of Christmas trees. No thank you, I’ll to-get-me-anything-else-fortake my Christmas tree. Better Christmas” gift.

But there is something drasti- yet, I’ll forgo the tree and opt for a crèche and manger set with cally missing from the sales Jesus in the center. reports of Walmart, Macy’s and Without our distinctive JCPenny or the credit reports seasons, the holidays become from Visa, American Express a competition. Have to beat the and MasterCard. It’s the paclock. Have to be the first in line tience and the time to savor on Black Friday. Have to get the the holidays with family and

Be Not Afraid

CAMPAIGN CONQUERORS — Holy Trinity School in Fall River recently held elections for class officers for the current school year. Pictured are the victors.

TOP VOTE GETTERS — Class officers for St. Pius X School in South Yarmouth recently gathered for a group photo shortly after their elections.

latest hi-tech gadget. Have to get all of the hours I can at work so I can pay off that American Express card in January. Have to this … have to that. What about having to take a pause and recall why it is we are supposed to be celebrating instead of cursing each other in the parking lots for the last available space at the mall?

I know that this article is supposed to be written with the youth in mind but I’m going to ask something of the adults instead. Be examples to your young people this Christmas season. Take the time to pray with them, to read Scripture with them, to

light an Advent wreath them, to show them that Christmas isn’t about the newest toy or hippest clothes. But that it’s a time of celebration because our Lord and Savior is born.

But can I make one suggestion? Can we please do this after Thanksgiving instead of rushing the season? If we continue to succumb to a Christmas in July mentality, we may soon be wishing each other a Happy New-Patrick’s-Easter-Memorial4th-Labor-Columbus-HallowThanks-Mas Day. Crystal is assistant director for Youth & Young Adult Ministry for the diocese. She can be contacted at cmedeiros@ dfrcec.com.

St. Vincent’s Home seeks holiday gift donations

Help wishes come true for children in need

FALL RIVER — St. Vincent’s Home is asking everyone to help give a child a gift this Christmas by donating Christmas presents and contributions for the children’s Holiday Wishes Initiative. The holidays are difficult times for the 100-plus children and youth, ages four to 21, who call St. Vincent’s “home.” Separated from their families for various reasons, the children will wake up on Christmas morning at St. Vincent’s with the understandable expectation of seeing brightly wrapped packages, boxes, and bags about which they have dreamed for some time.

Any help will make certain that every child at St. Vincent’s has a gift to open on Christmas morning. Specific items can be chosen from the children’s “Wish Lists” during our Holiday Wishes Initiative in November and December. The goal is to offer crucial support to the children

and youth in St. Vincent’s residential and community-based programs by fulfilling their “holiday wishes.”

The need for such gifts is on-going, and now — more than ever — St. Vincent’s relies on the kindness and deep commitment of companies, local businesses and private donors to meet the needs that are so often outside of budget constraints.

Members of the community are invited to partner with St. Vincent’s to make this holiday season festive, joyous, and healing for children in need. They are requested to call Melissa at 508-235-3228 to inquire about how they can donate holiday gifts, as well as contributions to support youth-related activities and programs, so that children and youth who are separated from their families this Christmas will wake up on December 25 with wishes fulfilled and hope for a brighter tomorrow.

18

The Anchor Eucharistic Adoration in the Diocese

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

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

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

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

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

Father Joseph Hurley CSSR; Provincial and Fall Riverite

DELAWARE — Redemptorist Father Joseph Hurley, 81, a native of Fall River and formerly provincial superior of the Baltimore Province, died October 30 in Our Lady of Lourdes Rectory in Seaford, of a heart attack.

The son of the late Joseph L. Hurley, a former lieutenant governor of Massachusetts and later a justice of the Superior Court, and the late Celeste (Tracy) Hurley, he graduated from Msgr.

Coyle High School and attended Harvard for a year before applying to the Redemptorists.

Following studies at St. Mary’s

FALL RIVER — St. Anthony of the Desert Church, 300 North Eastern Avenue, has eucharistic adoration Mondays and Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and on the first Sunday of the month from noon to 4 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

November 13, 2009 Seminary in North East, Penn., and Mount St. Alphonsus Seminary in Esopus, N.Y., he was ordained to the priesthood on June 20, 1954.

After graduate studies at The Catholic University in Washington and at Father Joseph the Graduate Hurley, CSSR T h e o l o g i cal Union in Berkley, Calif., he served as a seminary rector and in parish

ministry. He served as provincial vicar and as provincial from 1975 to 1984 when he ministered in the retreat house and as a pastor in Enfield, Conn.

He served as a novice master for three years until his final assignment in July 2005, as associate pastor at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish.

He leaves brothers John and William; and four nieces.

His funeral Mass was celebrated Thursday at Mount St. Alphonsus in Esopus, N.Y., followed by burial in the Redemptorist Cemetery there.

Mrs. Odilia Medeiros; mother of Father Arnold R. Medeiros

FALL RIVER — Mrs. Odilia (Chaves) Medeiros, 89, wife of Albert Medeiros and mother of Father Arnold R. Medeiros, pastor of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

Parish in North Falmouth, died November 2 at home.

Born in Fall River, the daughter of the late Joao and Maria Carmo (de Ponte)

Around the Diocese 11/14 11/14

Crafters are wanted for the Holy Family-Holy Name Holiday Fair, 91 Summer Street, New Bedford, tomorrow. For information call 508993-3547.

A Liturgy Planning Workshop will be held at the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette, 947 Park Street, Attleboro, tomorrow from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Father Thomas Kane, CSP, will be teaching on “The Structure and Theology of the Word” and Sharon Dickinson will be teaching on “Planning Children’s Liturgy of the Word.” For more information or to register, call 508-222-5410 or visit www.lasalette-shrine.org.

11/17

The Daughters of Isabella Catholic organization will meet November 17 at Holy Name of the Sacred Heart Parish, Mount Pleasant Street, New Bedford. Prior to the monthly business meeting, they will meet in church for Mass at 6:30 p.m. for all deceased members.

All Catholic women over the age of 18 are welcome to join. For information call 508-567-3288.

11/19 11/19

A healing Mass will be held at St. Anne’s Church, 818 Middle Street, Fall River on November 19 at 6:30 p.m. Rosary will precede at 6 p.m. with benediction and healing prayers after Mass.

St. Mary’s School will host its fifth annual Christmas shopping extravaganza November 19 from 6 to 9 p.m. in the school gym, located behind St. Mary’s Church, 330 Pratt Street, Mansfield.

For more information, call 508-339-4800 (extension 201) or visit www.stmarymansschool.org.

11/20

The Tifereth Israel Congregation of 145 Brownell Avenue, New Bedford is hosting a community-wide Interfaith Thanksgiving Service, November 20 at 7:30 p.m. Share in the Friday evening service of the congregration led by Rabbi Raphael Kanter and Cantor Nathaniel Schudrich. Msgr. John J. Oliveira, pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish, New Bedford will give the homily. The Pilgrim Handbell Ringers will play “Thanksgiving Bells,” and “The God of Abraham Praise.” Other participants include the Rev. David Lima, the Rev. Pamela J. Cole, Herta Said, organist, and students from Our Sisters’ School and the Bernard H. Ziskind School of Judaism. All are invited to a reception following the service. For more information call 508-997-3171 or visit www.tinewbedford.org.

11/21

The placement exam for prospective students of Bishop Connolly High School, 373 Elsbree Street, Fall River, will take place November 21 at 8 a.m. A make-up test is scheduled for December 5 at 8 a.m. For more information, call Anthony Ciampanelli, director of admissions, at 508-676-1071, extension 333.

11/21

Our Lady’s Haven, 71 Center Street, Fairhaven, will host its second annual holiday craft fair November 21 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Artists and crafters will feature a wide variety of unique handmade items, books, jewelry, food and gifts. For more information, contact Kate Hancock at 508-999-4561.

11/21

St. Jude the Apostle Parish will host its annual Penny Sale at the former St. Jacques Church Hall, 249 Whittenton Street, Taunton, on November 21 at 6 p.m. Doors open at 5 p.m. In addition to three regular series, there will be specials, roll-ups, refreshments, a raffle on 15 turkey dinner baskets, and a money raffle with $1,000 as first prize. For more information call 508-824-9650.

11/28

Courage, a welcoming support group for Catholics wounded by same-sex attraction will gather to seek God’s wisdom, mercy and love. The next meeting will be held November 28 at 7 p.m.

For location information, call Father Richard Wilson at 508-992-9408.

12/6

The Providence Adult String Ensemble, directed by John Gomes, and the Fall River Diocesan Choir and Cathedral Youth Choir, led

by Madeleine Grace, will present an Advent Concert at St. Mary’s Cathedral, corner of Spring and Second streets, Fall River, on December 6 at 3 p.m. A free will offering will be accepted for the Cathedral Pipe Organ Fund.

Chaves, she was a homemaker and a member of Santo Christo Parish.

Besides her husband and priest son, she leaves three other sons, James and Joseph B. Medeiros of Fall River, and John A. Medeiros of Westport; a daughter, Maria Fatima “Mary” Mello of Fall River; two sisters, Cecilia Rego of Fall River, and Lydia Medeiros of Sao Paulo, Brazil; 11 grandchildren; 13 great-grandchildren; and nieces and nephews.

She was also the mother of the late Henry W. Medeiros and sister of the late James Chaves.

Her funeral Mass was celebrated November 6 in Santo Christo Church. Burial was in Notre Dame Cemetery.

The Oliveira Funeral Home in Fall River was in charge of arrangements.

In Your Prayers Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks Nov. 16 Rev. John Brady, Former Pastor, Sandwich, New Bedford, Wareham, 1856 Nov. 17 Rev. Henry R. Canuel, Former Pastor, Sacred Heart, New Bedford, 1980 Nov. 18 Rev. William Beston, C.S.C., 2004 Nov. 19 Rev. Msgr. Lester L. Hull, Retired Pastor St. Mary, Our Lady of the Isle, Nantucket, 1982 Rev. Philodore H. Lemay, M.S., La Salette Provincial House, Attleboro, 1990 Nov. 21 Rev. Stephen J. Downey, Retired Pastor, Holy Ghost, Attleboro, 1975 Rev. James F. Kenney, Retired Pastor, Corpus Christi, Sandwich, 1994

All’s well that ends Welker

T

he New England Patriots’ website lists wide receiver Wes Welker as standing five-foot-eight-inches tall, weighing 185 lbs.

In truth, he is 10 times that size in worth to Tom Brady and the Patriots’ offense.

Over the last several weeks, the Pats have blossomed into what most of us have been expecting — a dangerous offensive

My View From the Stands

By Dave Jolivet team, mixed with a bone-rattling defense. The greatest test of the season so far will take place Sunday in America’s heartland when the Pats travel to Indianapolis to duke it out with Peyton Manning and the Colts.

The Patriots are a completely different team with Little Wes on the gridiron.

The man is fearless, consistently flying across the most dangerous turf on the field, the middle. Uncannily, he almost always finds an opening in any defense and that means Brady almost always has someone to whom he can fire a missile.

Not only does Welker safely secure the pigskin after the catch,

19

The Anchor

November 13, 2009 but he absorbs filling-loosening hits and keeps on chugging.

Having Wes Welker on the field completely opens up the other receivers, including the deadly Randy Moss, and also gives the running backs a fighting chance, since defenses must be aware of where Wes is at all times, thereby preventing the opponents to completely concentrate on one Patriots’ weapon.

By professional football standards, Wes Welker is not a big man. Yet he is our little big man. He is a giant — and not of the New York Football variety — on the field, and a major reason the Patriots are on the rise after a lackluster start this season.

According to the Patriots website, running back Kevin Faulk stands eye-to-eye with Welker, but has a good 20 extra pounds attached.

Kevin Faulk is as valuable an offensive weapon for Brady and company as is Welker.

Need eight yards for a first down? Either hand off or throw the ball to Faulk and watch the bodies fly in his wake as he moves the chains for a fresh four downs. My neighbor and I have nick-named Kevin “First Down Faulk” — rightly so.

The Patriots may have their superstars, but they shine more brightly thanks to our little big man duo.

Moving north 33 miles from Foxboro to Fenway, expect a very different Red Sox team to

take the field next season.

I expect JBay to flee to greener pastures, Tek to move on to other pastures, and some of our talented young arms to find new homes via the trade route.

I’ll miss Bay, but I no longer

become attached to players.

They change homes more than Eric Clapton changes his appearance.

Even be wary of Welker, Faulk, and even Brady — they may not be in Foxboro forever.

20

The Anchor

Parish volunteers gather support, info at Faith Formation Convention

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

MANSFIELD — More than 300 parish volunteers from across the Fall River Diocese turned out for the ministry convention sponsored by the diocesan Office of Faith Formation last weekend. The annual convocation, whose theme this year was “Moments of Grace, Our Sacramental Gift,” was held at the Holiday Inn in Mansfield and featured a keynote address by Franciscan Father Kenneth P. Paulli, OFM, who spoke of the importance of humility and self-sacrifice in serving fellow parishioners.

“The most important prayer of intercession is that we ask the Holy Spirit to do two things: first, transform the gifts of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ; second, we ask the Holy Spirit to transform us,” Father Paulli said.

“Having prayed to be transformed, we share in the transformed bread, now the Body of Christ, and the transformed wine, now the Blood of Christ, that what we receive we may become for one another and the world — body broken, blood poured out.”

Using an exercise in which he solicited reactions from different parishes to the notion of requiring everyone’s feet to be washed as part of their parish’s weekly Mass celebration, Father Paulli drew comparisons to this somewhat radical suggestion and Jesus’ own humble gesture at the Last Supper.

The theme of Father Paulli’s talk, titled “Must You Wash My Feet? Conversations Around the Eucharistic Table,” was that we are all called to be servants of God and to each other.

Aimed at parish volunteers who work as extraordinary ministers, of holy Communion, Faith Formation teachers, Religious Education coordinators, music ministers, youth ministers and lectors, the conference included a series of informational workshops on such topics as “Celebrating the Sacraments with Music,” “Give Me a Well-Trained Tongue: Proclaiming the Word of God Effectively,” and “Setting Hearts on Fire: Confirmation and the RCIA.” Conference participants were uniformly impressed with the quantity and quality of information presented throughout the morning and afternoon sessions.

“The conference has helped us with some ideas we were already working on for our parish youth group,” said Colleen Dias of Holy Family Parish in Taunton, a firsttime conference attendee who plans to return next year.

“I think a lot of people are in the same boat as far as teaching Faith Formation to the kids,” said David Saba of St. John the Evangelist Par-

ish, Pocasset. “It’s a challenge to keep them engaged and we need to find ways to keep them interested in going to church and staying involved with the parish.”

For lector and extraordinary minister of holy Communion Robert Fife of St. John the Evangelist Parish in Attleboro, the conference Turn to page 14

November 13, 2009