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Diocese of Fall River, Mass.

F riday , December 6, 2013

Vatican survey focuses on family

By Becky Aubut Anchor Staff

Back at “home,” La Salette Father André “Pat” Patenaude is working on preparing the crèche at the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette’s Festival of Lights. After missing last year’s festival due to a serious illness, Father Pat is bringing his inspiring music ministry back to the festival this season. (Photo by Dave Jolivet)

FALL RIVER — For the first time, the Vatican has released a survey to dioceses around the world in preparation for the Synod on the Pastoral Challenges to the Family in the Context of Evangelization to be held in October 2014. Seeking the views of parishioners, the questions — all done within the framework of family — touch on topics like artificial birth control and same-sex marriage.

When Bishop George W. Coleman received a memo from Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, president of the USCCB,

the memo — dated October 30 — had been forwarded to the bishops from the Most Rev. Lorenzo Baldisseri, general secretary of the Synod of Bishops, asking that the questions be shared as widely as possible to deaneries and parishes so that input from local sources could be received.

The report, due by December 31, didn’t give much time to distribute the questions, collect and organize the responses, and prepare the report, but that didn’t deter Claire McManus, director of the Faith Formation Office in the Turn to page 15

Father Pat returns to Festival of Lights thanks to the prayers of many

By Dave Jolivet Anchor Editor

ATTLEBORO — When La Salette Father André “Pat” Patenaude was recuperating from a very serious illness in a Grenoble, France hospital last year, Bishop Emeritus Donald Pelletier, M.S., visited him and said, “Your music ministry will be more powerful than ever.” Bishop Pelletier, an Attleboro native, had earlier given Father Pat the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick because of the severity of his illness.

At the time, Father Pat, known world-wide for his inspiring spiritual song-writing, singing and guitar playing, was wondering if he would ever be able to talk again, never mind sing and

play again, let alone be “more powerful than ever.”

The Fall River native priest had recently awoken from an induced coma of nearly six weeks to help the healing process following a very dangerous surgery to correct a severe infection of the pancreas. “The medical professionals told me that I would be able to resume my music ministry in the future, but not being able to talk, let alone sing, and with my hands being very stiff, I thought about Bishop Pelletier’s words and thought maybe, but ‘not now.’”

But this “now,” some 17 months after he fell gravely ill at the original Turn to page 14

Catholic politicians twist pope’s thoughts about same-sex marriage

By Christine M. Williams Anchor Correspondent

BOSTON — When the Illinois legislature approved a measure to legalize same-sex marriage last month, some Catholic politicians said Pope Francis inspired their support of the measure.

On November 20, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco released a statement calling that manipulation of the pope’s words “disgraceful.”

In July, Pope Francis had said, “If someone is gay and is searching for the Lord and has good will, then who am I to judge him? The ‘Catechism of the Catholic Church’ explains this in a beautiful way, it says: ‘no one should marginalize these people for this, they must be integrated

into society.’”

In an article published by The Chicago Tribune, two Catholic legislators — Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia and House Speaker Michael Madigan — cited those comments as the reason they supported the Illinois measure. Madigan said, “For those that just happen to be gay — living in a very harmonious, productive relationship but illegal — who am I to judge that they should be illegal?”

Illinois previously legalized same-sex civil unions on June 1, 2011. The same-sex marriage law will take effect June 1, 2014.

Archbishop Cordileone, who serves as the chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops SubcomTurn to page 14

Robin Tower and her five-year-old daughter Alexandria work hand-in-hand to build one of the more than 30 gingerbread houses that were created and donated to people less fortunate. Tower is one of five siblings keeping their mother’s legacy alive with the annual building of gingerbread houses that also sees the collection and donation of nonperishable goods to area shelters and other organizations. (Photo by Becky Aubut)

Gingerbread houses help sweeten the lives of less fortunate in the area

Dexter more than 20 years ago, Tavares and her four siblings worked sidePOCASSET — The Pocasset Com- by-side with their mother during the munity Building in this neighborhood annual event until she passed away of Bourne came alive this past week two years ago, and now keep the tradias dozens of children descended on tion alive in her memory.

The ages of the participants ranged the small community building to load up boxes with canned goods, roll up from five to 82 years old. First-timer their sleeves, and continue their good- Janine Collymore traveled from Lexwill with the creation of more than 30 ington and brought her eight-year-old gingerbread houses that were donated, nephew Spencer.

“I love to help people, especially along with the canned goods, to area when I heard they were helping the shelters and other organizations.

The excitement was felt even before homeless and elderly. I take care of elthe doors officially opened at 8 a.m., derly relatives and I enjoy it,” said Colbecause by 8:30 the tables were com- lymore, who said her family is accustomed to helping others, including her pletely full, said Christine Tavares.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Tavares. nephew, who does a lot of good work “We don’t usually have them start un- as a Boy Scout. “We have brought him til nine but they know, once we run up to help people and he knows this is out — we run out. This was awesome.” something good. He’s doing good for Turn to page 15 Started by her mother Virginia

By Becky Aubut Anchor Staff

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December 6, 2013 News From the Vatican In document, pope lays out his vision for an evangelical Church

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — In his first extensive piece of writing as pope, Pope Francis lays out a vision of the Catholic Church dedicated to evangelization in a positive key, with a focus on society’s poorest and most vulnerable, including the aged and unborn.

“Evangelii Gaudium” (“The Joy of the Gospel”), released by the Vatican November 26, is an apostolic exhortation, one of the most authoritative categories of papal document (Pope Francis’ first encyclical, “Lumen Fidei,” published in July, was mostly the work of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI).

The pope wrote the new document in response to the October 2012 Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization, but declined to work from a draft provided by synod officials.

Pope Francis’ voice is unmistakable in the 50,000-word document’s relatively relaxed style — he writes that an “evangelizer must never look like someone who has just come back from a funeral!” — and its emphasis on some of his

signature themes, including the causes, but also to be their nancial crisis and attributes to dangers of economic globaliza- friends, to listen to them, to an “idolatry of money.”

He emphasizes that the tion and “spiritual worldliness.” speak for them and to embrace The Church’s message “has the mysterious wisdom which Church’s concern for the vulto concentrate on the essen- God wishes to share with us nerable extends to “unborn children, the most tials, on what is defenseless and inmost beautiful, nocent among us,” most grand, most whose defense is appealing and at “closely linked to the same time the defense of each most necessary,” and every other he writes. “In this human right.” basic core, what “A human being shines forth is the is always Sacred beauty of the savand inviolable, in ing love of God any situation and made manifest in at every stage of Jesus Christ Who development,” died and rose from the pope writes, in the dead.” his strongest writInspired by Jesus’ poverty and A copy of the apostolic exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium” (“The ten statement to concern for the Joy of the Gospel”) by Pope Francis is seen during a news date on the subject dispossessed dur- conference at the Vatican November 26. In his first extensive of abortion. “Once ing His earthly piece of writing as pope, Pope Francis lays out a vision of the this conviction disministry, Pope Catholic Church dedicated to evangelization, with a focus on appears, so do solid society’s poorest and most vulnerable, including the aged and and lasting founFrancis calls for a unborn. (CNS photo/Alessandro Bianchi, Reuters) dations for the “Church which is defense of human poor and for the rights, which would always be through them.” poor.”

Charity is more than mere subject to the passing whims of The poor “have much to handouts, “it means work- the powers that be.” teach us,” he writes. “We are The pope writes that evancalled to find Christ in them, ing to eliminate the structural to lend our voices to their causes of poverty and to pro- gelization entails peacemakmote the integral development ing, among other ways through of the poor,” the pope writes. ecumenical and interreligious “This means education, access dialogue. He “humbly” calls to health care, and above all on Muslim majority countries employment, for it is through to grant religious freedom to free creative, participatory and Christians, and enjoins Cathomutually supportive labor that lics to “avoid hateful generalizahuman beings express and en- tions” based on “disconcerting hance the dignity of their lives.” episodes of violent fundamenYet he adds that the “worst talism,” since “authentic Islam discrimination which the poor and the proper reading of the suffer is the lack of spiritual Quran are opposed to every care. They need God and we form of violence.”

Pope Francis characteristimust not fail to offer them His friendship, His blessing, cally directs some of his stronHis Word, the celebration of gest criticism at his fellow the Sacraments and a journey clergy, among other reasons, of growth and maturity in the for what he describes as largely inadequate preaching. faith.”

The faithful and “their orPope Francis reiterates his earlier criticisms of “ideologies dained ministers suffer because that defend the absolute au- of homilies,” he writes: “the tonomy of the marketplace and laity from having to listen to financial speculation,” which them and the clergy from havhe blames for the current fi- ing to preach them!”

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

The pope devotes several pages to suggestions for better homilies, based on careful study of the Scriptures and respect for the principle of brevity.

Pope Francis reaffirms Church teaching that only men can be priests, but notes that their “Sacramental power” must not be “too closely identified with power in general,” nor “understood as domination”; and he allows for the “possible role of women in decisionmaking in different areas of the Church’s life.”

As he has done in a number of his homilies and public statements, the pope stresses the importance of mercy, particularly with regard to the Church’s moral teaching. While lamenting “moral relativism” that paints the Church’s teaching on sexuality as unjustly discriminatory, he also warns against overemphasizing certain teachings out of the context of more essential Christian truths.

In words very close to those he used in an oft-quoted interview with a Jesuit journalist in August, Pope Francis writes that “pastoral ministry in a missionary style is not obsessed with the disjointed transmission of a multitude of doctrines to be insistently imposed,” lest they distract from the Gospel’s primary invitation to “respond to the God of love Who saves us.”

Returning to a theme of earlier statements, the pope also warns against “spiritual worldliness, which hides behind the appearance of piety and even love for the Church, (but) consists in seeking not the Lord’s glory but human glory and personal well-being,” either through embrace of a “purely subjective faith” or a “narcissistic and authoritarian elitism” that overemphasizes certain rules or a “particular Catholic style from the past.”

Despite his censures and warnings, the pope ends on a hopeful note true to his wellattested devotion to Mary, whom he invokes as the mother of evangelization and “wellspring of happiness for God’s little ones.”

A full English version of “Evangelii Gaudium” can be found on the Vatican website, http://www.vatican. va/holy_father/francesco/ apost_exhortations/documents/ papa-francesco_esortazioneap_20131124_evangeliigaudium_en.html.

December 6, 2013

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The International Church found there is much to appreciate in the country of 80 million people.

“In spite of the fact that the Western world sees this area in retrograde, there is a kind of sanity,” he said, adding that, unlike some of areas of the U.S. where

he’d lived, most Egyptians “don’t have guns and, generally speaking, are not on drugs.”

“In the states, life is too fast, so even if you have a lot, you cannot enjoy it. Here life is slower, and you can enjoy the little you have,” he said.

SPIRITUAL VACATION TO “HAWAII” Spiritual Director: Fr. Joseph P. McDermott, Pastor Immaculate Conception Church 122 Canton Street, Stoughton, MA 02072

A displaced boy holds a child as he sits on a bench on the 40-acre diocesan compound in Bossangoa, Central African Republic. Bishop Nestor-Desire Nongo Aziagbia of Bossangoa says more than 35,000 people are living on the compound, seeking protection from rebels who are targeting Christians. (CNS photo/Joe Penney, Reuters)

Comboni priest says time in L.A. prepared him for strife-ridden Egypt

CAIRO (CNS) — From his apartment overlooking a major Cairo thoroughfare, Comboni Father Giovanni Esti has witnessed the different stages of Egypt’s revolution: from mass demonstrations and the toppling of a 30-year-old autocratic regime in 2011, to the rise of an Islamic government a year later, its takeover by the army in July and the ensuing violence which has wounded thousands and claimed hundreds of lives.

Undeterred throughout, the Catholic priest has carried on his mission to create a social development center for young people in the heart of the Egyptian capital, refusing along the way attempts by well-meaning colleagues and friends trying to brand him “a hero.”

“To be a hero, go to South Central L.A.,” he tells them, referencing the 12 years he spent in Los Angeles working with homeless people and juvenile gangs beginning in 1991.

The 50-year-old native of Italy said the U.S. experience marked him profoundly and, in many ways, prepared him to serve in Egypt.

“I appreciate the civil rights tradition in the states. You can be who you want to be as long as you respect others,” he told Catholic News Service in his residence in a building attached to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church, which St. Daniel Comboni founded in 1880.

“The other thing I learned is a sort of entrepreneurial approach. You can make something out of the nothing. If you work hard you will get somewhere,” said Father Esti, who holds degrees from the Catho-

lic Theological Union in Chicago and Claremont Graduate University in California.

In Los Angeles, Father Esti was a true entrepreneur, finding ways to fund his ministry.

He was innovative enough to persuade local government officials and community leaders to help fund a shelter for homeless people. With funding in hand he helped a crew of volunteers to build the shelter.

“We said if you give us half the money we will meet the rest,” Father Esti explained. “I did a lot of advocacy, meeting people who were interested in supporting the project. You work with them and when people get together, the resources are more available.”

When Father Esti arrived in Cairo in 2007 he said he quickly saw the need for a center where Egypt’s youth could learn social skills to improve conditions in impoverished communities.

Relying on lessons learned in Los Angeles, he convinced his superiors to allow him to refurbish the adjacent church’s defunct foyer and — in a break with the norm — reopened it not only to Egypt’s Christian minority, but to the predominantly Muslim community as well.

Profits from the facility’s cafeteria allowed him to renovate some of the church’s longvacant offices. In 2010 Father Esti, along with a small group of volunteers and a few paid staff members, launched the center, called Markaz Comboni in Arabic.

He stressed that the center’s primary goal is to enable young people to effect change for the common good.

“You create the conditions for a change to happen, for people to make the change they want,” he said. “I don’t make the change. I just create the conditions as best I can.”

Operating on an annual budget of about $7,200, the center offers classes for first year participants in public speaking and organizes trips to local nongovernment organizations working on development projects.

A second year of study allows students to organize their own small-scale projects which are funded through events at the church. Projects have included activities aimed at helping refugees in Egypt, promoting green agriculture, supporting women’s rights and providing educational skills to orphaned children.

The center also offers foreign language training and classes in art and music. A mass media department distributes online news about the development work of other Comboni priest, nuns and lay volunteers across Egypt.

“There are people who wait for first steps, others who make them. We tell students ‘Be the first to make the steps,’” Father Esti said.

“You can inspire people. We (missionaries) are not the agents of change; we want to empower people to make change. I will go, so whatever I am doing will have to go on when I leave, so that no one misses me. It would be terrible if they missed me,” added the priest, who plans to leave Egypt in 2017.

Despite recent political violence in Egypt, some which has led to attacks on Christians and their properties, Father Esti has

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The Church in the U.S.

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December 6, 2013

Current state of U.S. immigration ‘an offense against God,’ say bishops

SAN ANTONIO (CNS) — In a new pastoral letter “Family Beyond Borders,” the bishops of the border region of Texas, New Mexico and Mexico humanize the immigration debate by placing it in a moral context with specific illustrations of struggling children and families.

It addresses the misconceptions concerning undocumented immigrants and their contribution to society in the United States, while outlining the serious threats facing immigrant families and tragic conditions under which children have been separated from their mothers and fathers.

Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller of San Antonio recently held a news conference in which he joined with his brother bishops in urging Catholics, national, state and local leaders, and all people of good will to engage in dialogue, advocacy and action to protect the human rights of immigrants and to help keep their families together.

Archbishop Garcia-Siller began his comments by say-

ing the bishops of the border region have published and are distributing “Family Beyond Borders” with a sense of urgency.

Dated for Thanksgiving, “Families without Borders” was made available on the Archdiocese of San Antonio website at www.archsa.org, and was printed in English and Spanish in the November 29 issue of Today’s Catholic, the archdiocesan newspaper.

It also was being distributed to President Barack Obama, U.S. senators and representatives from Texas, and a number of civic and faith leaders.

“We believe it is imperative that the people of the United States see that the broken immigration system of this land comes with tragic human cost,” he explained. “Families are torn apart, children are separated from their mothers and fathers, husbands are divided from wives, not just for days or weeks, or even months. Many may never see their families for decades, if ever.”

The San Antonio prelate said the border bishops acknowledge the right and responsibility of a nation to secure its borders.

“But at what price?” he questioned. “Immigration reform has evolved from an honest discussion about national security, to a partisan politics issue, thus blinding some Americans from seeing immigrants as suffering people who live among us, on our streets and in our neighborhoods.

“The fear that comes from misinformation denies their dignity and the positive contribution the undocumented immigrants make to our lives every day.”

The archbishop spoke emotionally about undocumented immigrant children — some as young as five years old — who brave the dangers of the desert and coyotes and hide from authorities as well as human traffickers in an attempt to reach the safety of a new home of hope.

In “Family Beyond Borders,” he said, “we attempt to

help our people see these children who cry in the darkness of isolation and often abuse.”

Archbishop Garcia-Siller stated that in fiscal year 2012, the U.S. Border Patrol reported apprehensions of more than 24,000 unaccompanied juveniles along the Southwest border.

“These children who are apprehended are often initially placed in short-term detention centers, where the lights stay on 24 hours a day and there are no showers or recreation spaces. At times, the facilities are so crowded with juveniles that the children have to take turns just to lie down to sleep on the concrete floor,” he said of conditions at some facilities. “Moreover, when unaccompanied minors are apprehended and deported to their countries of origin, this is often done in ways that put them at additional risk.”

The archbishop said that the border bishops believe that if the people of the United Sates understand what immigration policies and laws are doing to punish families and children just because they do not have the right documents, “they will join their voices with ours, their hearts with our brothers and sisters in need, and demand action by our legislators and our president, now.”

Archbishop Garcia-Siller acknowledged that often people will say, “Why don’t they just wait their turn?” but he said, “They truly do not understand how broken the system is.”

He explained that the U.S. State Department issues available visas through a complex system that has limits for various categories of familysponsored and employmentbased preferences and quotas for individual countries. Cur-

rently, he said, there is a 17- to 20-year “wait” for Mexicans to acquire a U.S. visa.

“How long can we ask a father to wait to be able to feed his family and offer them a future of hope? Can we in good conscience tell a father and mother that their children’s chance for a better life is out there, but they should wait 20 years to live it? How can you tell a mother that she must wait 20 years to be reunited with her husband or children?” he asked.

“Family Beyond Borders” quotes Pope Francis: “Life, which is a gift of God, a value always to be protected and promoted; the family, the foundation of coexistence and a remedy against social fragmentation.”

In this light, Archbishop Garcia-Siller stressed the border bishops believe that “what is happening to the immigrant family in the United States is an offense against God and the human conscience.”

“We implore our leaders to stop looking at immigration reform as simply a politically charged item of controversy.

It should no longer require an act of courage on the part of a legislator to apply the principles of moral ethics, true family values, decency and justice,” the archbishop emphasized.

The bishops who worked on “Families Without Borders” represent: the Mexican dioceses of Chihuahua, Ciudad Juarez, Cuauhtemoc-Madera, Matamoros, Monterrey, Nuevo Casas Grandes, Nuevo Laredo, Piedras Negras and Saltillo; the Diocese of Las Cruces, N.M., and the Texas dioceses of Amarillo, Brownsville, El Paso, Lubbock and San Angelo and the Archdiocese of San Antonio.

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The Church in the U.S. ‘Intensifying’ religious freedom threats show need to evangelize

December 6, 2013

Baltimore, Md. (CNA/ EWTN News) — In the face of growing restrictions on religious expression, Catholics must be able to explain the place of religious liberty in public life, said Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore.

“We need to evangelize,” he emphasized in a recent interview with CNA. He explained that the broader culture is not paying attention to many of the religious restrictions being enacted in the United States.

“This is part of the New Evangelization, and we need to talk neighbor-to-neighbor to those who do not yet understand or see the threats to religious liberty,” he said.

Archbishop Lori chairs the

U.S. bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty. In recent months, the bishops have voiced mounting religious liberty concerns in a variety of areas, including service to immigrants and a cultural push to redefine Marriage.

Health care has also been a major realm of concern for the bishops and other religious liberty advocates, as pressure increases on Catholic health care workers and systems to perform abortions and dispense contraception against their beliefs.

“Catholic health care provides a tremendous witness,” Archbishop Lori emphasized.

“It is the continuation of Jesus’s healing ministry. It has always been exceptionally generous to the poor and the needy.”

However, due to an increasing secularist influence, “there is a growing tendency to treat all hospitals, including faith-based hospitals, simply as public institutions and as quasi-governmental institutions, and therefore to say they cannot harbor any particular religious convictions,” he warned.

He described restrictions such as the federal contraception mandate as “a subset of that” trend.

The controversial mandate, which requires employers to offer health insurance plans covering contraception, sterilization and some drugs that can cause early abortions, has been widely criticized as violating the religious freedom of those who have moral objections to it.

Pope Francis restoring heart of the Church, says Cardinal Dolan

YONKERS, N.Y. (CNS) — Pope Francis’ words are an examination of conscience and a necessary prodding that keeps New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan tied to the vision and mission of Pentecost.

Speaking at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers, the cardinal quipped, “Every morning, I’m almost dreading to see what he preached about, because I know it’s going to be a push, I know it’s going to be just a little bit of a prod.”

The New York prelate spoke at a recent event to close out the Year of Faith.

St. Joseph’s, in the Dunwoodie section of Yonkers in Westchester County, is the major seminary for the Archdiocese of New York and the Brooklyn and Rockville Centre dioceses. Cardinal Dolan’s address was the final event of a lecture series at the seminary celebrating the Year of Faith.

Expanding on a metaphor he developed earlier this fall, Cardinal Dolan said the three most recent popes exemplify the soul, mind and heart of the mystical Body of Christ.

Blessed John Paul II provided a soul for the Church and the world by recovering the primacy of the supernatural, Cardinal Dolan said. “Everything he did came under the chapter heading, ‘Seek ye first the Kingdom of God,’” the cardinal said.

He called the late pope a man of intense prayer and intestinal fortitude who presided over the restoration of the exhausted interior life of the Church’s soul.

“John Paul wanted to return the Church to the shores of the Sea of Galilee, where we were walking with Jesus in discipleship,” Cardinal Dolan said. “For him, Jesus Christ is the answer to the question posed by every human life.”

As the mind of the Church, Pope Benedict XVI reminded the world that reason and faith are not enemies, but best friends, Cardinal Dolan said. “In a world of new atheism where a secular culture on steroids tries to reduce belief to a private hobby at best, or to a silly, oppressive, medieval superstition at worst, reason itself shows us the truth and point to God.” Reason in partnership with revelation and faith is liberating and affirming of all that is good, true and beautiful in the human project, he said.

The Church is an engine of genuine human progress, Cardinal Dolan said. “The Church’s high intellectual tradition is hardly some museum piece but as timely as they come.”

“Pope Benedict would renew the intellectual wattage of the Church through affirmative orthodoxy,” Cardinal Dolan said.

“The Church is not in the business of saying, ‘No!’ all the time.

The Church is in the business of saying, ‘Yes! Yes! Yes!’ to everything that is good and liberating and ennobling and enlightening and sacred in the human person.”

He said Pope Benedict was a prophetic voice who called on believers to be a creative minority that embraces the good, the true and the beautiful.

Cardinal Dolan said Pope

Francis is restoring the heart of the Church. The pope’s heart breaks for refugees and those in need and goes out to those at the side of the road, he said. Francis is also unafraid to speak of tenderness and wants the Church to be like the colonnade of Bernini that encircles St. Peter’s Square the way a mother’s arms enfold her children, the cardinal said.

Cardinal Dolan said each of the three popes had the traits he associated with heart, mind and soul, but certain of the traits dominated at the times they were needed.

Pope Francis has heightened the insights of his two predecessors by focusing on reintroducing the world to the Person of Jesus Christ before concentrating on doctrine and morality, which are very important, he said.

More than 200 plaintiffs across the country have filed religious liberty lawsuits against the mandate. On November 26, the Supreme Court announced that it would hear two cases from for-profit cases challenging the regulation. A ruling is expected in the cases next summer.

At their fall general assembly last month, the U.S. bishops issued a statement voicing their unanimous opposition to the mandate and support for efforts to defend religious freedom.

Archbishop Lori noted that other challenges to religious liberty have begun emerging “at all levels of government,” and these “challenges are, if anything, intensifying.”

Many federal rules, state laws and city ordinances have good intentions, he explained, but they result in the often unintended restriction of religious expression.

In addition, political discourse in much of society has shifted towards the views of “secularists who really want to exclude religion and religious values” from American life.

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These challenges can be difficult to address, Archbishop Lori said, because many of the threats and restrictions are “just under the radar screen,” and consequently, “most people don’t pay too much attention to them.”

Efforts to educated American Catholics of these troubling trends have resulted in a “much greater consciousness of the need to promote and defend religious liberty,” as well as “more attention to what the Church teaches, and more attention to our heritage as Americans,” he said.

However, he continued, the greater public needs to be aware of the threats facing religious activity and expression.

“There’s got to be a lot of neighbor-to-neighbor explaining,” the archbishop stressed.

In addition, he said, Catholics should strive to “be really great citizens, and that means participating very actively in the political process and making their voice heard.”

“When our elected officials hear from us and realize that a lot of people are paying attention, it really makes a difference.”

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December 6, 2013

Anchor Editorial

‘Evangelii Gaudium’: A first look

Much has been written in the press and on the Internet about Pope Francis’ first apostolic exhortation, “Evangelii Gaudium.” Church documents get their names for the first words of the document, translated into Latin. In recent times, the Holy See tries to make sure that those words reflect the primary theme or message of the document.

The first words of this document (in English) are, “The joy of the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus.” So, this document’s theme is the joy of the Gospel — that the Good News truly gives us joy, a joy which we want to share.

Pope Francis knows that he is “fighting an uphill battle” in some quarters with this theme, against those who are skeptical of Christianity, who think that we are a bunch of killjoys, and against those of us Christians who truly do think that our religion is no laughing matter at all.

Nonetheless, the Holy Father soldiers on, mentioning in the first paragraph, “with Christ, joy is constantly born anew.” What a thought to meditate upon this Advent!

After setting the theme of joy, the pope makes his first mention (in this document) of the challenging world which we face (it sounds like something right out of Black Friday).

“The great danger in today’s world, pervaded as it is by consumerism, is the desolation and anguish born of a complacent yet covetous heart, the feverish pursuit of frivolous pleasures, and a blunted conscience. Whenever our interior life becomes caught up in its own interests and concerns, there is no longer room for others, no place for the poor.”

When our hearts become like that, we become like the inns in Bethlehem back at the first Christmas — “no vacancy” signs flashing from our vacant faces. “God’s voice is no longer heard, the quiet joy of His love is no longer felt, and the desire to do good fades. This is a very real danger for believers too. Many fall prey to it, and end up resentful, angry and listless.”

The pope then issues an invitation. He realizes that it is a challenging one, so he does offer an alternate way, which is not dependent upon us, but upon Jesus. “I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting Him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day. No one should think that this invitation is not meant for him or her, since ‘no one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord’” (the quote within the quote was from Pope Paul VI, “Gaudete in Domino,” 22).

We are called to be risk takers in opening up to God in this fashion, but it is a risk worth taking, according to the Holy Father. “The Lord does not disappoint those who take this risk; whenever we take a step towards Jesus, we come to realize that He is already there, waiting for us with open arms.” Jesus is like the father in the radio advertisement, who asks his daughter to trust in him and jump into his arms in the swimming pool. The girl does so and rejoices. Jesus wants us to jump in; the water is fine.

After being cleansed by the Baptismal waters, we often end up re-dirtying our souls, so we need the cleansing of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Pope Francis speaks about this immediately after encouraging us to take the risk of opening up to Jesus. “How good it feels to come back to Him whenever we are lost! Let me say this once more: God never tires of forgiving us; we are the ones who tire of seeking His mercy. Christ, Who told us to forgive one another ‘70 times seven’ (Mt 18:22) has given us His example: He has forgiven us 70

times seven. Time and time again He bears us on His shoulders. No one can strip us of the dignity bestowed upon us by this boundless and unfailing love. With a tenderness which never disappoints, but is always capable of restoring our joy, He makes it possible for us to lift up our heads and to start anew.”

The pope then writes about joy in the Old Testament and then the joy which Mary, Elizabeth and John the Baptist experience at the beginnings of the New Testament. He then quotes Jesus at the Last Supper, Who said to the Apostles (and to us), “I have said these things to you, so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete” ( Jn 15:11).

Pope Francis is not a rose-colored-glasses-wearing Pollyanna; he is very mindful of the suffering which exists in this world. That being said, Jesus Himself was aware of the tortures He was going to receive a few hours after He spoke the words quoted above, but He had joy in His heart.

To understand how we can have Christian joy in the midst of sadness, the Holy Father quoted from the book of Lamentations (from a reading often heard at funerals); “My soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. It is good that one should wait quietly for the Salvation of the Lord” (Lam 3:17, 21-23, 26).

The pope warns us against being sourpusses. “There are Christians whose lives seem like Lent without Easter. Sometimes we are tempted to find excuses and complain, acting as if we could only be happy if a thousand conditions were met. To some extent this is because our ‘technological society has succeeded in multiplying occasions of pleasure, yet has found it very difficult to engender joy’” (the quote within the quote is from Pope Benedict, “Deus Caritas Est,” 1).

Probably drawing on his experiences in Argentina, the Holy Father says that “the most beautiful and natural expressions of joy which I have seen in my life were in poor people who had little to hold on to.” They didn’t have to worry about losing something. He also acknowledged the joy which sometimes can be found in those busy people who are always willing to help someone else with kindness and joy, manifesting that they are “able to preserve, in detachment and simplicity, a heart full of faith.” Because of this trust in God, they can take a moment out of their pressing duties, trusting that God will provide.

Linking this joy to our encounters with Jesus Who forgives us, Pope Francis then asks, “For if we have received the love which restores meaning to our lives, how can we fail to share that love with others?” Again, this involves risk, but (quoting the bishops of Latin America at their meeting in Aparecida, which included himself at the time), he says, “Life grows by being given away, and it weakens in isolation and comfort. Indeed, those who enjoy life most are those who leave security on the shore and become excited by the mission of communicating life to others.” We need to be evangelizers who do not “look like someone who has just come from a funeral! May the world receive the Good News not from evangelizers who are dejected, discouraged, impatient or anxious, but from ministers of the Gospel whose lives glow with fervor, who have first received the joy of Christ” (here he is quoting Pope Paul VI, “Evangelii Nuntiandi,” 80).

Pope Francis’ weekly Angelus address and prayer

Dear brothers and sisters, hello!

Today, the first Sunday of Advent, we begin a new Liturgical year, that is, a new journey of the people of God with Jesus, our Shepherd, Who guides us through history toward the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God. Thus, this day has a special appeal. Through it we experience a profound sense of the meaning of history. We rediscover the beauty of all being on a journey: the Church, with her vocation and mission, and the whole of humanity, nations, civilizations, cultures, all on a journey along the paths of time.

But where is this journey headed? Is there a common goal? And what is this goal?

The Lord answers us through the prophet Isaiah and says: “At the end of days the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest mountain and raised above the hills. All nations shall stream toward it; many peoples shall come and say: ‘Come, let us climb the

Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may instruct us in His ways, and we may walk in His paths’” (Is 2:2-3). This is what Isaiah says about where we are going.

It is a universal pilgrimage toward a common goal, which in the Old Testament is Jerusalem, where the Lord’s temple stands, because from there, from Jerusalem, comes the revelation of the Face of God and His law.

Revelation found its fulfillment in Jesus Christ, and He Himself is the “Lord’s temple,” the Word made Flesh: He is both the leader and the goal of our pilgrimage, of the pilgrimage of the whole people of God; and in its light other peoples too can journey toward the Kingdom of justice, toward the Kingdom of peace. The prophet says further: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again” (Is 2:4). Let me repeat what

the prophet says. Listen well: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again.” But when will this happen? What a beautiful day it will be when weapons are destroyed to be transformed into tools for work! What a beautiful day that will be! And this is possible! Let us bet on hope, on the hope of peace, and it will be possible!

This journey is never finished. Just as in the life of each one of us there is always a need to start again, to get back up, to rediscover the meaning of our existence, so for the great human family it is necessary always to redirect ourselves toward the common horizon that is the goal of our journey. It is the horizon of hope! This is the horizon of a good journey. The season of Advent that today we begin once again, restores the horizon of hope for us, a hope that does not disappoint because it is founded on the Word

of God. It is a hope that does not disappoint simply because the Lord never disappoints! He is faithful! He does not disappoint! Let us think about and feel this beauty.

The model of this spiritual attitude, of this way of being and of this journey of life, is the Virgin Mary. A simple village girl, who carries all the hope of God in her heart! In her womb the hope of God took flesh, became Man, became history: Jesus Christ. Her Magnificat is the song of the people of God on its journey, and of all men and women who hope in God, in the power of His mercy. Let us be guided by her, who is a mother, a mamma, and knows how to guide us. Let us be guided by her during this time of waiting and active vigilance.

The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary, and she conceived by work of the Holy Spirit.

Hail Mary ...

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

Hail Mary ...

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

Hail Mary ...

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

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

Dear brothers and sisters, Today is the World Day for the fight against HIV/AIDS. Let us express our nearness to persons who are affected, especially children; a nearness that is very concrete for the silent work of many missionaries and workers. Let us pray for everyone, for doctors and for researchers. May every sick person, without exception, find the cure that he needs.

I wish everyone a good beginning of Advent.

Anchor Columnist Reading, practicing and spreading the joy of the Gospel

December 6, 2013

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n today’s world of instant communication and occasionally biased media coverage, the message we preach runs a greater risk of being distorted or reduced to some of its secondary aspects,” Pope Francis wrote in his new apostolic exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium,” “The Joy of the Gospel.”

“The biggest problem is when the message we preach then seems identified with those secondary aspects that, important as they are, do not in and of themselves convey the heart of Christ’s message.”

Those insights have all been confirmed in the distorted media coverage of the new exhortation, dedicated to the proclamation of the Gospel in today’s world.

Reviewing most of the headlines, news stories, and commentaries after the November 26 release of the document, one might think that Pope Francis had written a document not on evangelization but on trickledown economics, capitalism and autonomous markets, peace and justice, the preferential option for the poor, the decentralization of the Church, the nature of Islam, women’s ordination, the reform of the papacy, and Church discipline concerning divorced-and-remarried Catholics.

Part of this distortion comes from a general media bias toward things that are controversial and changing.

DIOCESAN TRIBUNAL FALL RIVER, MASSACHUSETTS Decree of Citation Since her present domicile is unknown, in accord with the provision of Canon 1509.1, we hereby cite Meghan S. Borges to appear in person before the Tribunal of the Diocese of Fall River (887 Highland Avenue in Fall River, Bristol County, Massachusetts) on December 12, 2013 at 2:30 PM to give her testimony regarding the question: IS THE BORGES-HYLAND MARRIAGE NULL ACCORDING TO CHURCH LAW? Anyone who has knowledge of the domicile of Meghan S. Borges is hereby required to inform her of this citation.

Given at the offices of the Diocesan Tribunal in Fall River, Bristol County, Massachusetts on November 21, 2013.

(Rev.) Jeffrey Cabral, J.C.L. Judicial Vicar (Mrs.) Denise D. Berube Ecclesiastical Notary

This leads many journalists Church to share it and live to dismiss the main point it when he includes whole of the document — sharing sections and a slew of soundthe joy of the Christian faith bytes on economic policy, — as boring and “same old, poverty, and peace that are same old,” while zooming in much more within the comon lines about an economy fort zone and interest of methat “kills,” priests who turn dia members. It would be like the confessional into a “torasking hungry boys to eat all ture chamber” or a Church their asparagus when there’s that is “dirty.” These subordinate points are considered “interestPutting Into ing” and “newsworthy,” the Deep because they are much more into the media’s predilection for the

By Father sensational.

Roger J. Landry At the same time, part of the blame for the slanted media coverage a big, tempting chocolate rests, to be honest, with the cake on the table. document itself.

It would have been wise Pope Francis has been for Pope Francis to follow regularly trumpeting that his own advice to prevent in the proclamation of the these distortions. As imGospel we need to focus — portant as it is to provoke a almost obsess — about the conversation on economic “kerygma,” the proclamation injustices, the cause of peace, of the merciful love of God and various needed institumade possible for all of us by tional reforms, it’s even more Jesus’ life, death and Resurimportant for the Church rection. Sometimes, he notes, and the world to focus anew “the message we preach” gets on what Pope Francis rightly identified with “secondary calls the “heart of the Gosaspects” that aren’t an essenpel,” which was the point of tial part of that kerygma. this exhortation. The result In interviews, he has said of his including various that this identification with “secondary” issues in the secondary aspects regularly exhortation is that few are happens with the presentatalking about the “primary.” tion, coverage and underFrancis has given us most the standing of Church’s teachpractical program on evanings on human sexuality. But, gelization any pope has ever as the coverage of the exhor- written and most think that tation makes clear, the same he has written an exhortation distortions can happen with on social policy. regard to the Church’s social This is one of the reateaching on poverty and the sons why serious Catholics markets. need to read the exhortaIt’s frankly unrealistic to tion, which is available for expect the media to focus on the kerygma and Francis’ summons to the whole

free on the Vatican’s website (vatican.va) and it can also be picked up at low cost at Catholic bookstores or on Amazon.

Pope Francis wrote it not only to “bishops, clergy, [and] consecrated persons,” but also to the “lay faithful.”

To the extent Catholics can read, they should use this God-given skill to grow in their faith by reading what the Holy Father has written. We generally read — and never ignore — letters written to us by family members.

The same should apply to letters written to us by our Holy Father in faith.

Outside of the length — it took me about five hours to read — it’s one of the most accessible papal teaching documents I can recall, made so by Pope Francis’s downto-earth and straightforward language.

As you read it, you’re likely to have various thoughts and questions. If you’d like to have a chance to discuss them, I’d encourage you to come to the presentation on the exhortation I’ll be giving next Thursday, December 12, at 6:30 p.m. at St. Bernadette’s Parish in Fall River.

After giving an overview of the exhortation for those who haven’t had a chance to read the document and mentioning the background for many of the significant points Pope Francis makes, I hope to have a lively Q&A, with you a part of it.

In the next few columns, I’d like to tackle various aspects of the exhortation.

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Next week, I will focus on the exhortation’s main message, how the Church doesn’t merely have a mission but is a mission and how everything in the Church must be reformed to participate in this missionary paradigm.

The week after, I’ll tackle Pope Francis’s challenging words on economic reform and how the cult of the new golden calf not only injures the poor but harms the idolaters and all of society.

Then we’ll ponder the lengthy section he writes to bishop, priests and deacons on the reform of preaching and examine how those thoughts should influence how all of us share the message of the faith.

Pope Francis laconically noted that papal documents “do not arouse the same interest as in the past” and are often “quickly forgotten.” That, of course, happens because many Catholics allow it to happen, basing their knowledge of the documents on news stories and short-lived news cycles. It doesn’t have to be that way.

If we want to help Pope Francis in his reform of the Church, let’s arouse our interest to read this powerful presentation of his papal priorities, prayerfully ponder its points, remember and practice its teaching, and learn how, together with Francis, to pass on the joy of the Gospel.

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

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or what do you get hungry? A particular food or drink, perhaps?

Maybe a favorite TV show, or the next time your favorite team plays?

What makes you feel anticipation and excitement in life?

Now, think: How do you feel when you’re going to church on Sunday for Mass? I’m sure that we all feel the pull of grace drawing us to Mass — that our relationship with God makes us want to attend to take part in the Eucharistic sacrifice. But do we really hunger for what we receive there? Do we go to bed the night before thinking about what is going to happen the next day? Is it all we can think of that morning, before we “set out in haste to meet [God’s] Son,” as the Collect of this weekend’s Mass says?

A hunger like this must

December 6, 2013

A hunger only God can satisfy have been felt by those of travel, they squeezed who went to see and hear through the crowds, they St. John the Baptist duraccepted with open hearts ing his time spent preachthe message of repentance ing a message of repenpreached by the baptist. tance in the wilderness, Why? What made them as we hear in this week’s hungry enough to go Gospel. We read: “At through all of this? that time Jerusalem, all Judea, and Homily of the Week the whole region around the Jordan Second Sunday were going out to of Advent him and were being Baptized by him

By Father in the Jordan River Riley J. Williams as they acknowledged their sins.”

For us from New England, going to a store Was it perhaps because in the next town can be a they had come to the big deal; for what reason realization that only God would we even consider could give them a true going out into the middle sense of purpose in life? of nowhere — and this, to That their lives would only hear someone tell us we be fulfilled if they put God were sinners in need of at the center of them? repentance? Yet this is just This desire for somewhat the Judeans 2,000 thing greater in life is years ago were doing. shared by all members They braved the hardships of the human race. Al-

though it takes countless forms around the globe, what has been termed the “religious impulse” by academics is manifested in nearly all cultures. We all seem to realize, on a basic human level, that we are made for something greater than this world alone.

That God calls all people to Himself is clear from this week’s readings, from Isaiah who prophecies that “the root of Jesse, set up as a signal for the nations, the Gentiles shall seek out,” while St. Paul in his letter to the Romans writes about how Christ is sent to Jews and Gentiles in a mission that encompasses all of Adam’s children.

Yet at the same time, we must realize that in order to satisfy this hunger that only a relation-

ship with God can satisfy, we must enter into it on His terms, and not our own. When the Pharisees and Sadducees came to St. John the Baptist seeking to be Baptized, he greeted them by saying, “You brood of vipers!

Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance.”

Only God can satisfy the fundamental longing of the human heart, but in order to sustain this relationship, we must allow God’s life to take root in our own. Following the command of the baptist, may we produce in our own lives good works and the fruits of repentance, and so be graced each day with the presence of God. Father Williams is a parochial vicar at St. Vincent de Paul and St. John the Evangelist parishes in Attleboro.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. Dec. 7, Is 30:19-21,23-26; Mt 9:35—10:1,5a,6-8. Sun. Dec. 8, Second Sunday of Advent, Is 11:1-10; Ps 72:1-2,7-8,1213,17; Rom 15:4-9; Mt 3:1-12. Mon. Dec. 9, Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, Gn 3:9-15,20; Ps 98:1-4; Eph 1:3-6,11-12; Lk 1:26-38. Tues. Dec. 10, Is 40:1-11; Mt 18:12-14. Wed. Dec. 11, Is 40:25-31; Mt 11:28-30. Thurs. Dec. 12, Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Zec 2:14-17 or Rv 11:19a;12:16a,10ab; Lk 1:26-38 or Lk 1:39-47 or 707-712 . Fri. Dec. 13, Is 48:17-19; Mt 11:16-19.

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n his 2008 book, “The Faithful: A History of Catholics in America,” Boston College historian James M. O’Toole did a fine job of fleshing out the conventional U.S. Catholic story-line by emphasizing the role prominent lay men and women played in the Catholic experience in these United States. Yet there seemed to be something of a political filter at work in O’Toole’s perceptions, such that only the lamentable Joseph R. McCarthy got a mention among post-World War II Catholic Republicans notable in American public life.

Or to illustrate the point another way: the index to “The Faithful” lacks the following entries: Buckley, William F. Jr.; Clark, William P. Jr.; Flanigan, Peter M.; Haig, Alexander M. Jr.; Hyde, Henry J. This seems, not only odd, but not right (no pun intended).

Bill Buckley (+2008) ranks with Orestes Brownson as one of the most important lay Catholic intellectuals and publicists in American his-

Let us now praise famous men found themselves betrayed tory. Bill Clark, who died in by the Democratic Party in August, was one of Ronald its embrace of lifestyle liberReagan’s closest confidants, national security adviser dur- tinism and neo-isolationism.

It says something about ing the martial law period the character of my friend in Poland, and a key link in the conversation between Reagan and Pope John Paul II. Al Haig (+2010) helped hold the government together during the Watergate meltdown.

By George Weigel Henry Hyde (+2007) was arguably the most influential Peter Flanigan that, when Catholic legislator in the his children wanted to throw history of the U.S. House of him a 90th birthday party Representatives. this past June, Peter insisted And then there was Peter that it be a “celebration of Magnus Flanigan, of whom the public knew far less than ideas,” not of him. So we gathered in Newport, R.I., it did of these other giants.

Yet Flanigan was an integral to honor Peter by thinking part of that group of Catho- with him about the state of the culture and the country. lic World War II veterans Roger Kimball of the New who re-cast American conCriterion and I may have servatism, helped effect one of the great political realign- thought that we had gotten the proceedings off to a great ments in American history, start by exploring the culand made the Republican Party a more comfortable (if tural lava-flows beneath the surface of today’s politics. not necessarily permanent) But when Princeton’s Robby home for Catholics who

The Catholic Difference

George, who couldn’t be with us in person because of illness, nevertheless joined the party by Skype and played Peter two tunes on his banjo, Kimball and I knew we had been well and truly bested.

It was a marvelous evening, made all the more poignant retrospectively by Peter’s sudden death seven-and-a-half weeks later. The obituaries noted his wartime service as an F-4 Wildcat pilot, his government work, and his business career as managing director of Dillon Read. But it was a Wall Street Journal editorial that best captured Peter Flanigan the man, the Catholic, and the citizen: “Through the bright autumn of his years, Flanigan turned to education philanthropy. His unstinting focus was on giving poor kids better school options. He sat on the board of the Alliance for School Choice and founded Student Sponsor Partners, a privately funded school-

voucher program. Peter Flanigan used his political skills and personal fortune to put in motion a small movement that has since grown into an army of benefactors working across the U.S. to give the country’s poorest kids an educational break.”

Peter once said that his goal for the children he served by his philanthropy was “educational freedom.”

That vision, and the generosity that brought the vision to life, was shaped by Peter’s deep Catholic faith, his confidence in Catholic schools, and his appreciation of Catholic social doctrine — especially the principle of subsidiarity, with its cautions against turning citizens into wards of the state. Having been given much, he gave much in turn.

And although Peter Flanigan will be sorely missed, his memory will be blessed, especially by the kids he gave a chance.

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

December 6, 2013

Friday 6 December 2013 — at home on Falmouth Harbor — St. Nicholas Day hoy, dear readers! The time has come to again set sail. And what a fitting day it is — the feast of St. Nicholas, patron of sailors (as well as children, bankers, pawnbrokers, perfumers, brides, unmarried women, travelers, fishermen, dock workers, brewers, poets, prisoners and, in his spare time, all of Russia, Greece, and Sicily).

To misquote Mark Twain, “Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” So, where have I been? Well, I’m here at St. Patrick Church, Falmouth. It’s a bigger ship than my former one and it has its own “personality.”

Every parish does. No parish is a duplicate of another. I have taken a year or so to learn the ropes and get my sea legs before setting sail again. How can I tell the story of parish life if I know nothing about the parish? Of course, ignorance of the subject has never before prevented me from writing about it. It is my habit that, on reporting to a new pastoral assignment, I take time to listen and observe. As Father Lou Pereira always says, “A

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dvent is a season of anticipating Jesus’ entry into the world. Usually we see Advent as a period preparing to celebrate the past (Bethlehem) or to anticipate the future (Second Coming of Christ). However, there is an immediacy or present tense to Advent if we choose to find and follow today’s wise men (and women). They live in God’s love thereby helping to bring peace and joy to our world.

Thus, the issue today is really the same as it was in Bethlehem some 2,000 years ago, how to recognize, and then join with such wise men and women in their quest.

What guided those Wise Men 2,000 years ago? Yes, everyone saw that light, but only a few recognized its importance.

For the first week in Advent, the wreath has a single candle which casts away the darkness. This light symbolizes God’s love carried by the Holy Spirit to each and every one of us. As Robert Morneau says in “Fathoming Bethlehem: Advent Meditations,” “When the Holy Spirit comes we experience a love that drives out fear. There are certain individuals who say yes to the Holy Spirit. We marvel in their presence at their gentleness,

Anchor Columnists Just in time newly-appointed pastor should make it his highest priority to stop, look and listen for one year, one month, and one day.”

Father Pereira has the wisdom of many years in ministry. What a shipwreck it would be if a new pastor were to sail into a parish and begin to change everything (and all at once) so that it better suited his own tastes and preferences. That would disrespect the history and the uniqueness of the parish.

So, how do I like it here in Falmouth?

Well, to quote a pithy McDonald’s hamburger wrapper I once read, “I’m lovin’ it.” Cape Cod life is not unknown to me. I have spent some 20 years of my priestly ministry on the Cape.

That being said, I am celebrating the uniqueness of one particular Cape Cod parish — St. Patrick, Falmouth.

Rectory life is wonderful. Also living here is Father Peter John Fournier, four years ordained. He has many young priest and seminarian friends who often come to visit. How delightful! Then there’s Father

Francis X. Wallace in residence.

FXW, as he calls himself, just turned 92 years old and is going strong. There’s Father Jack Andrews, retired priest of the Diocese of Fall River who joins us in the rectory on weekends.

He is willing and able to do just about anything when it comes to pastoral ministry. Then, of

course, there are the two resident animal athletes, the greyhounds Transit and Just-In-Time (aka Justin).

That’s right, dear readers, another greyhound has joined the pack. Greyhound Transit is now 13 years old and remains as peppy as any young dog. His new friend is greyhound Justin.

No, Justin is not my dog. Justin belongs to Father Peter John.

How, pray tell, did that happen?

Here’s the story:

Father Peter John loves animals, but Transit will not tolerate any other breed but greyhound. Cats are out of the question. As far as Transit is concerned, cats are nothing more than rabbits with short ears. We all know about greyhounds and rabbits. Then, one day, I received a phone call from a priest-friend of the Diocese of Providence.

He mentioned that he had recently moved into another rectory and his greyhound Justin was not adjusting well. “I know someone,” I said helpfully, “who would love to adopt Justin,” and proceeded to transfer the phone call to Father Peter John.

Within minutes, Justin had a new owner and tentative plans for the transfer were made.

As it turned out, on the day of Justin’s imminent arrival, I was in Duxbury for the annual diocesan priests’ retreat. This was not good. I needed to be in Falmouth to introduce the two dogs to each other. As luck would have it, there was a threehour window in the retreat schedule. I was able to sneak out

Light of the world

goodness and graciousness.”

Years ago, the song “Love is the Answer” by England Dan and John Ford Coley expressed this transformative power in the words, “Light of the world, Shine on me; Love is the answer; Shine on us all; Set us free; Love is the answer.”

The kindness and love shown to themselves and to others through their daily actions allows us to recognize the wise person.

Michael Smith’s “Open the eyes of my heart, Lord; I want to see You” is a great mantra for us this Advent. It calls on each of us to explore our world in God’s light. The anonymous poem “A Bit of God” aptly sums up how to recognize the wise people of our age who point us towards God. The poem reads, “As I went about my chores today, I knew that God was present.

When the man at the wallpaper store said, ‘Take the whole roll and see if it matches,’ God is helpfulness. When my niece suggested, ‘If I fold the clothes, you won’t have that job to do,’ God is thoughtfulness. When a shopper mentioned, ‘Go ahead of me, you have just a few items,’

God is consideration. When I saw a boy cradling a hurt kitten in his arms, God is compassion.

When my husband said, ‘Don’t hurry, I’ll wait for you,’ God is patience. Yes I saw a bit of God in all these people today.” I am

certain that if you close your eyes and reflect for a moment, you will remember one or more acts of kindness shown to you today.

Did you recognize the Face of God in your neighbor?

When we are exhausted with holiday preparations, it can be tempting to imitate George Bailey at the start of “It’s a Wonderful Life.” That is we grumble or question whether anyone notices or what difference do these kindnesses make? As my answer, I challenge you to find one decoration, or ornament, or family story/tradition that makes Christmas for you. When you examine it, you will find at its essence kindness and love.

I am looking at the crossstitch I made for my mom for Christmas a little over a quarter of a century ago. It reads, “The Spirit of Christmas is found in the singing, the bright Christmas trees and the bells that are ringing. The spirit is found in the lights everywhere, but the meaning is found in the love people share.” When I put this up each year, I read the poem and then my eyes go to the frame.

To be honest, I don’t even really notice all the detailed stitching I put into it.

As I smile, what I remember are my two friends Cathy and Mohga who helped me complete the project. Mohga ran interference for me in graduate school that December because I needed some extra stitching time. Cathy helped me learn cross-stitching. Her husband is a cabinet maker. They gave me the wood and helped me make my own frame. I was in graduate school; and, with Cathy’s encouragement I had spent what little money I had on the special glass for the frame.

The fact that I now have the completed project attests to the meaning of Christmas being

9 and drive from Duxbury to Falmouth without anyone noticing my absence. I arrived just in time to introduce the two animals to each other.

All went very well. I then raced back to the retreat house for the 4 p.m. conference. After the conference, as we priests were sitting in the parlor waiting for the dinner bell, Father Dan Lacroix received an incoming photo on his cellphone. “Tim, look!” he announced in front of the group. “While you are here on retreat, Father Peter John has gone and adopted a greyhound!”

I had to think quickly. “Arrrggg!” said I with feigned surprise. “He has? Why, these young priests!”

That, dear readers, was not a lie.

It was what St. Thomas Aquinas refers to as a “mental reservation.” I mentally reserved the information that I was there when Greyhound Justin arrived.

“Ah, yes,” said the older priests, shaking their heads knowingly. “These young priests,” they repeated. So, let’s just keep this between you and me, dear readers, shall we?

Anchor columnist Father Tim Goldrick is pastor of St. Patrick’s Parish in Falmouth. frxmas@aol.com.

found in the love people share.

There is, of course, one more challenge for each of us this Advent. That is to strive to be one of the wise men or women leading others to God. As Robert Morneau says, “The wise person does God’s Will and refuses to remain in the antechamber of just knowing. Advent is a season of wise men and women following the example of Jesus and thereby constructing a spiritual life on solid principles.” It isn’t really as hard as it sounds. Let’s go back to the poem “A Bit of God.” The last line fully reads, “Yes, I saw a bit of God in all these people today … and now I’m wondering did anyone see a bit of God in me?” When they do, the Light of God has been active in us thus enabling each of us to serve God as a wise person.

Anchor columnist Helen Flavin is a Catholic scientist, educator and writer born and raised in Fall River. She is a member of St. Bernadette’s Parish and received her Ph.D. in neurochemistry from Boston College and teaches in the Chemistry Department at Rhode Island College. She is also a science instructor at Bishop Connolly High School. She can be reached at: hflavin@bishopconnolly.com.

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December 6, 2013

Diocesan pilgrims preparing for annual March for Life Benefit Christmas concert to be held December 27 in Onset

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

fortable motor coaches and two nights’ accommodations BUZZARDS BAY — For at the Hampton Inn, located the sixth consecutive year, on Sixth Street in Washington, members of the non-profit D.C. “The hotel is located right Cape Cod Bus for Life, Inc., based here in the Fall River near the National Mall, so Diocese, will be sponsoring we’re very close to the march several buses to the annual and other Pro-Life events,” March for Life in Washington, Ward told The Anchor.

Accommodations include D.C. next month.

This year’s march in the na- a complimentary continental tion’s capital, marking the 41st breakfast, free high-speed Inanniversary of the Roe v. Wade ternet service, and a pizza party Supreme Court decision le- to be held in the hotel on the galizing abortion, will be held evening of the march, during on Jan. 22, 2014, and pilgrims which participants can unwind traveling aboard the Cape Cod and discuss the day’s events.

“We’re also going to have a Bus for Life fleet will depart on January 21 and return on Janu- Mass available for those arriving on the first night,” Ward ary 23.

“Right now we have three said, “and on the day we return, buses booked; we were able to January 23, we’ll be attending fill three last year and we hope a Mass in the morning with to do it again this year,” said Bishop George W. Coleman Kevin Ward, president and co- and all the high school students founder of the Cape Cod Bus from the Fall River Diocese at for Life. “There’s certainly been St. Matthew’s Cathedral.”

Calling the closing day a lot of interest, which is good.”

Arrangements for the pil- Mass celebrated with pilgrims grimage include round-trip and students from the varitransportation aboard com- ous Catholic high schools in

the diocese “a highlight of the trip,” Ward said it speaks to the bishop’s obvious dedication to the Gospel of Life. “(Bishop Coleman) has always been a very good ProLife advocate and we always enjoy the annual Masses with him. We always get good comments about it,” Ward said.

“And the bishop is always very patient about meeting with everyone and taking pictures with them.”

Noting that the Fall River Diocese is very blessed to have people like Bishop Coleman along with Marian Desrosiers and Jean Arsenault of the diocesan Pro-Life Apostolate, Ward said these annual excursions wouldn’t be possible without their support.

“When he was bishop here, Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, OFM, Cap., really started the ball rolling and Bishop Coleman has kept it going over the years,” Ward said. “There are so many great people who help support the Pro-Life effort in this diocese.”

Those interested in joining the March for Life are urged to contact Ward as soon as possible since the buses and reserved hotel rooms are quickly filling up.

In addition to the student groups traveling from various diocesan high schools, buses this year will be departing from locations throughout the diocese including Attleboro, East Sandwich, Mansfield, North Dartmouth, Orleans, and Wareham.

“We are leading a bus from Mansfield this year,” said Father Jay Mello, parochial vicar at St. Mary’s Parish. “I believe that organizing a group

of parishioners to go down to Washington D.C. for the annual March for Life is very much following our Holy Father’s desire that we go out into the world and make some noise.

“The March for Life is an annual event that is a peaceful protest against the destruction of human life in its most vulnerable stages, which should rank first among all social jusContinued on page 11

The Rebel Kellys, a renowned family musical group now living here in the diocese, will be performing a concert for the Cape Cod Bus for Life on December 27 at St. Mary’s Church in Onset beginning at 7 p.m. All proceeds will benefit the annual pilgrimage to the March for Life in Washington, D.C. next month.

11

December 6, 2013

Diocesan pilgrims preparing for benefit concert in Onset continued from page 10

tice issues.”

Having personally attended every March for Life since 2001, Ward said he thinks the tide is turning and support for the Pro-Life cause has increased over the years.

“I think the overall attitude in our country is certainly more Pro-Life today than it was back in 2001 when I started,” he said. “I’ve seen a definite change for the better.”

Citing the ongoing problems with Obamacare and, more specifically, the Health and Human Services mandate which requires funding for contraceptives and sterilization, Ward said it’s important to stand up for those who can’t defend themselves.

“This whole health care law and HHS mandate is a nightmare,” Ward said. “When you think about our First Amendment rights — no matter if you are Protestant, or Catholic or Jewish — that’s the whole reason people first came here to America: for freedom of religion. That’s the cornerstone of our country.”

As the March for Life draws near, a special benefit Christmas concert featuring The Rebel Kellys, a renowned family act that recently moved into the diocese, will be held on December 27.

“The Cape Cod Bus for Life has held fund-raisers over the years to offset the costs to transport the pilgrims to the Pro-Life March every January,” explained Tom Keogh of the Cape Cod Bus for Life.

“Adam and Jessi Kelly and their three children moved to the area this year and their musical troupe certainly speaks to Pro-Life.”

The Rebel Kellys, whose members have performed with the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Lionel Richie and Tajci Cameron, will perform at St. Mary Star of the Sea Church in On-

set from 7 to 9 p.m. on December 27. A free-will offering will be accepted, with all proceeds to benefit the Cape Cod Bus for Life.

“They’re a family — mother and father and two children — who provide musical entertainment,” Ward said. “They all play instruments and they are quite the group.”

With 20 years’ of musical experience that includes touring in Nashville, Tenn., Europe and Australia performing original and traditional folk and Irish songs, The Rebel Kellys is comprised of band leader Adam Kelly, who plays guitar and sings. His wife, Jessi, plays violin and supports the group with vocal harmonies. The couple’s son, seven-year-old Yeshuae, plays drums, bongos and tambourine and also sings solo and backup vocals. His sister, five-year-old Evelyn, provides percussion, vocals and dance routines.

“We had recently performed a concert for the Buzzards Bay Knights of Columbus Council and through that we were asked if we had any interest in doing another in connection with the Cape Cod Bus for Life,” patriarch Adam Kelly told The Anchor. “It is a good endeavor —

it’s an extension of the Culture of Life. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?”

While Ward was hopeful that last year’s landmark 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade might be one of the last times he had to travel to Washington for the March for Life, he remains committed to returning every year until the cause is won.

“We were hoping we wouldn’t have to do this again, but we’re going to keep attending until (Roe v. Wade is overturned),” Ward said.

Those interested in joining the Cape Cod Bus for Life next month should contact Kevin Ward at 508-291-0949 or visit www.capecodbusforlife.org.

If you can’t travel but would like to support the effort, donations can be made payable to the “Cape Cod Bus for Life, Inc.” and mailed to P.O. Box 175, Buzzards Bay, Mass. 02532.

Those interested in joining Father Jay Mello and his group from Mansfield are urged to contact him directly at 508339-2981 or by emailing fatherjaymello@gmail.com.

For more information about The Rebel Kellys and their music, visit www.therebelkellys.com.

To advertise in The Anchor, contact Wayne Powers at 508-675-7151 or Email waynepowers@anchornews.org

12

L

et’s see. What can I give as a gift to celebrate the birth of a tiny Infant in a cold, dark cavern? What can I give as a symbol of thanks to this Infant for growing in age and wisdom and paddling against the tide to deliver a message of peace and love? What can I give to those whom I love to represent this Infant Who was ridiculed, tortured, and put to death in a most inhumane way by His fellow man — all because of my sins?

Anchor Columnist A Cadillac or a rocking horse?

Hmmm. Where do I turn for help?

I know, Madison Avenue! They know always what I like and what I “need.”

OK, based on their suggestions, I have quite a few options to celebrate the Christ Child.

I could give those I love a Cadillac.

After all it’s the car Santa prefers. But to give me more options, I could always wrap up a Lexus or an Acura.

Then again, what says Emmanuel like

jewelry? I can give diamonds colored like chocolate or flavored like coffee, as a pendant, ring, bracelet, necklace, or earrings.

The price range is anywhere from $199 to $999. I guess the more you love a person, the more you should spend.

These are great choices, yet I’m still torn. I could always celebrate the birth of our Savior by gifting a new smart phone! But what would express my love more: iPhone, Android, or Windows?

Staying in the electronics aisle, I’m prodded to hand out the

By Dave Jolivet newest tablets and laptops, or a combination of the two.

Hold on, maybe my loved ones would prefer a new washer and dryer. Or better yet a new oven that is conventional, convection, microwave and serves the meals for you.

Yet another option would be to supply my peeps with some footwear this holy day — a pair of sneakers that cost more than my car (not a Cadillac, Lexus or Acura, mind you).

Oh, I’m so confused. Not to worry though. There are a plethora of inane jingles and commercials to sift through to help me commemorate the birth of our

My View From the Stands

December 6, 2013

Messiah.

Things have gotten so complicated. As I look back on my past Christmases as a lad, two simple gifts stand out far above anything else. I received a rocking horse as a youngster, and I rode that baby as hard and as long as a young boy could. I swear, had I let go of the handles I would have been catapulted from Fall River across the Taunton River into Somerset.

By the way, I still have that steed.

The other gift was a G.I. Joe. Just one, with no tanks, jet fighters, ships, or jeeps.

Just the G.I. Joe. That soldier and I went on countless missions together, and always came back to tell about it. Sad to say, I don’t know what happened to good old Joe. I know Christmas is not all about giving gifts, but it does play a small role.

There is no way I could meet Madison Avenue’s expectations, but the beauty is, no one I know is expecting that. We’re simple folk, and that is more in line with a little Infant Who was born in a cold, dark cavern.

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

13

December 6, 2013

Catholic sees comedy as part of everyday life, a form of evangelization ‘You know how you want to be INDIANAPOLIS (CNS) Daisy helps her cope.

— A peek into the halls of “Life is life. I think we tend a comedian? Well, this is God’s the Indiana Convention Cen- to compartmentalize God into way of shoving you into that ter during the recent National a separate area, and He doesn’t because we don’t have enough Catholic Youth Conference in want that. He wants all of it,” money to pay you anymore.’ I Indianapolis would show dif- she continued. “So I think, why was like, ‘Thank you?’ But now ferent aspects of the faith. not put Catholicism in comedy I praise God for it.”

She switched to full-time A bishop talked about turn- and comedy in Catholicism? comedy in 2003, speaking at ing off electronic devices to find It’s part of our life.” time for God. McDonald, who lives in San faith-based conferences, Lifeevents and parA priest discussed “Life is life. I think we tend to compart- Teen ishes. how to combine fitness mentalize God into a separate area, and Soon she was invited and prayer time.

And on a stage in a He doesn’t want that. He wants all of it. So to go overseas to perlarge exhibit hall, co- I think, why not put Catholicism in comedy form at garrisons and median Judy McDon- and comedy in Catholicism? It’s part of our Army bases. That led to speaking at parishes in ald commented on the life.”

Ireland and other counquestions she is asked as tries, and eventually result of her service dog, Daisy.

Diego, sees comedy as a form of large venues like the biennial National Catholic Youth Con“They’ll ask if I’m blind — the New Evangelization. while I’m texting,” she jokes.

“I integrate a funny talk with ference.

But all was not comedy and McDonald and Daisy were sharing my faith. I did that part of the conference’s after- even in secular clubs. I was part laughter in McDonald’s life.

“My childhood was not noon recreation portion in an of the New Evangelization, and particularly good, and no one hour-and-a-half session called I didn’t even know it.” the Comedy Club.

McDonald has been per- knew about it until I was about The pair was joined by seven forming as a comedian for 20 30,” she said.

Her post-traumatic stress other comedy acts to lighten years. She started doing comthe mood after two-and-a-half edy on the side while a fresh- disorder is a result of the incidays of praise, worship and man at the University of San dents of her past.

“My doctor said getting a faith-growing sessions.

Diego. After graduating, she “Comedy is in our life every was a campus minister for her service dog would be good for me, but that it was $10,000. I day, like depression and dinner alma mater. and pancakes,” said McDonald, Later, while working as didn’t exactly have that in the a lifelong Catholic and former youth minister for a junior high cookie jar,” she said.

McDonald prayed about youth and campus minister. school, she felt a push toward McDonald has struggled with full-time comedy — out of ne- what to do. She decided to send a letter to all those for whom post-traumatic stress disorder cessity. for the last three years, and “The priest at the time said, she’d worked in the past, as well as adding the plea to her Facebook fan page.

“I really felt the Holy Spirit nudging me to trust that if these people cared for me then they would help me.”

Within two weeks, McDonald had the $10,000.

“I really feel like God gave me Daisy,” she said. “She came from the aptly named ‘Little Angels Service Dogs’ in San Diego. She alerts me when I’m going to have a panic attack or flashback or nightmares,” McDonald explained.

“She’s not the end-all be-all, but God has certainly put her in my pathway as a gift, and I respect her as such. She really is my little angel.”

McDonald is a fan of the National Catholic Youth ConSunday, December 8, 11:00 a.m. ference, which this year drew 23,000 participants.

“These kids aren’t the Church of the future, they’re Celebrant is Father Jason Brilhante, a the Church right now,” said parochial vicar at St. Pius X Parish in McDonald. “Anybody could South Yarmouth come here and have hope. If anyone is disillusioned about the Church, they need to come here and see this.”

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on WLNE Channel 6

Forest Whitaker and Jacob Latimore star in a scene from the movie “Black Nativity.” For a brief review of this film, see CNS Movie Capsule below. (CNS photo/Fox)

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

“Black Nativity” (Fox Searchlight) Christian faith pervades this rousing adaptation — and updating — of poet Langston Hughes’ 1961 song-play. Sent by his cash-strapped single mother ( Jennifer Hudson) to live with her estranged parents: a stern Harlem minister (Forest Whitaker) and his more sympathetic wife (Angela Bassett), a good-hearted but naive Baltimore youth ( Jacob Latimore) is tempted to solve his fam-

ily’s financial woes by stealing enough loot to put mom back on her feet. But the annual holiday pageant Granddad’s church puts on — during which the lad has a vision of the first Christmas — together with the unexpected intervention of a concerned acquaintance (Tyrese Gibson) helps him to see the light. Soulful musical performances, unabashed piety and resoundingly positive values go a long way to smoothing over the rough patches in screenwriter and director Kasi Lemmons’ drama. Though not a film for small children, this screen parable, with its heartfelt salute to forgiveness, family unity and the power of religious belief, will likely delight most others. Mature themes and the occasional threat of violence.

The Catholic News Service classification is A-II — adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG — parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

14

December 6, 2013

Father Pat returns to ministry thanks to prayers of many continued from page one

La Salette Shrine in the French Alps, Father Pat is again resuming a busy schedule of his prayerful, spiritual music at the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette’s Festival of Lights that began on Thanksgiving and runs through Jan. 5, 2014. Father Pat will perform every day but Saturdays and Mondays at 3 and 7 p.m. during the festival.

In addition to returning “home” to the Festival of Lights after missing last year, Father Pat will be performing tracks off his newly-released CD, “Who Is This God?” The recording includes six new original songs and six standard Christian pieces. Some of his new material contains emotions and revelations he experienced during his healing process.

“I am very happy to be meeting and greeting people through my ministry at La Salette again,” he told The Anchor. “I look forward to seeing people I know and the many people I haven’t yet met.

I missed it a great deal last year.”

While Father Pat may have not been capable of performing for the Festival of Lights as he had so many times in the past, he did make sure he sang at the shrine’s Midnight Mass for Christmas. “I had sung in one way or another at Midnight Mass ever since I was 10 or 11,” he said. “I made the effort to do that last year. Not in the way I’ve done in the past, but I was there.”

It’s been a long year-and-a-half for the La Salette priest, six weeks of which he doesn’t recall while in the induced coma. “I didn’t have any revelations of God while I was in the coma,” he said, “but when I did awake and ‘wound down’ from my busy schedule, I developed a deeper awareness of God, myself and the people around me.

“I didn’t regain my energy, but I did experience a renewal of sorts — a deeper appreciation of life, and a deeper awareness that God is in my life.

People don’t always realize that, but that time gave me the occasion to pray and think.”

Father Pat also said that some of the songs in his new recording are an attempt to minister to healing, gaining a better understanding of Who and What God is. Many feel that music is healing.

“I’m hoping the title, “Who Is This God?” will cause people to stop and think,” said Father Pat. “Sometimes things are taken for granted. God is in everyone — in all the people we meet; the poor, the sick, the ordinary people.”

He said that message is very similar to the teaching of Pope Francis.

“He’s brought about a buzz around the world,” he continued. “He’s reaching out to everyone. His election gave me great confidence in the power of the Holy Spirit. He’s bringing his pastoral experiences in Argentina to the world.”

Stating that God often brings good things from bad, he said, “I’m happy to have this rejuvenation of my spiri-

tual life that came from the quiet time when I had the opportunity to pray.”

Looking back on all that happened since August 2011, Father Pat told The Anchor, “It was fitting that this happened to me at La Salette in France.

The priests there were so very good to me. I received excellent care at the hospital in Grenoble. As a matter of fact, one physician in the U.S. told me that if this had happened here, I might not have made it — the Grenoble hospital was that good, and it has a reputation for being so.”

When he did eventually open his eyes and awaken from the coma, it was on the eve of the feast of Our Lady of La Salette. “I felt blessed that Our Lady of La Salette interceded for me through her prayers and the prayers of the many, many people who prayed for me.”

“I didn’t find time recovering all that long,” he recalled, admitting he can’t recall six weeks of that time. “When I awoke and asked my sister Rita what the date was, she told me it was more than a month later. I thought it was only a couple of days.”

While recovering and in rehab, Father Pat said he received countless cards and prayers and well wishes “from people I didn’t even know. I couldn’t respond to them because there we so many.”

During his recovery in France, the Fathers there brought Father Pat a guitar. “It was difficult to play, my hands were so stiff from the effects of the coma,” he said. “But it was good therapy. The neck was thicker than my guitars and it helped to strengthen my hand.”

Eventually he was reunited with his 12-string Martin guitar. “It felt good to play it again. It was like a little reunion.”

Father Pat is still experiencing stiffness in his hands that does hamper his playing a bit, but he’s ready and looking forward to his Festival of Lights schedule. “I’ll have Saturdays and Mondays off,” he said. “I look forward to singing and playing at the shrine this season.”

During his Anchor interview, Father Pat did want to thank everyone who prayed for him during this period in his life.

“People should realize the power of intercessory prayer,” he said. “People I didn’t know, and children in schools prayed for me. I am so appreciative of their prayers. God hears prayers. People should know that it works. I thank everyone.”

It’s through and because of all the prayers of the many unknown people, and the power of Our Lady of La Salette’s intercession with the Lord, that Father Pat has returned to the Festival of Lights with the opportunity to make his music ministry “more powerful than ever.”

Catholic politicians twist pope’s words continued from page one

mittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, said that Pope Francis promotes respect for all but does not support the redefinition of Marriage.

“Pope Francis has forcefully reminded us that we are to show love and respect to all people and to seek their greatest good, and he therefore continues to clearly promote and defend Marriage and family, recognizing that this is in everyone’s best interest as members of a common society,” the archbishop said.

In a September interview with America, the Jesuit magazine, Pope Francis said that the teaching of the Church on Marriage is clear, adding that he is a “son of the Church.”

As archbishop of Buenos Aires, the pope opposed an effort to redefine Marriage there. “The identity of the family, and its survival, are in jeopardy here: father, mother, and children,” he said. “At stake is the total rejection of God’s law engraved in our hearts.”

Archbishop Cordileone called the redefinition of Marriage a “serious injustice,” adding that children have the right to a married mother and father.

The “Catechism of the Catholic Church” rejects unjust discrimination against people who experience same-sex attraction but maintains that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered.”

The Anchor contacted pastors from all over the Diocese of Fall River who expressed varied reactions to the comments by the Catholic legislators in Illinois.

Father Gregory Mathias, pastor of St. John Neumann Parish in East Freetown, called the legalization of same-sex marriage in Illinois “disappointing.” He added that Pope Francis upholds the teachings of the Church and nothing he has said would indicate that he supports the redefinition of Marriage.

“He wants people who have same-sex orientation welcomed into the Church

This week in

and to feel at home, but I think to use his words as a justification [for same-sex marriage] is an extreme stretch,” he said.

Father John Raposo, pastor at St. Michael’s and St. Joseph’s parishes in Fall River, said that it sounds like the legislators are trying to excuse their own position. “Marriage is between one man and one woman, a permanent union, a Sacred bond,” he said.

Father Rodney Thibault of St. Mary Parish in South Dartmouth said that he supports same-sex civil unions.

“We cannot call something Marriage that isn’t Marriage,” Father Thibault said.

“However, the Church needs to recognize that we live in a society that recognizes some sort of union between peoples of the same gender.”

He added that he believes Pope Francis would support an arrangement where citizens civilly register their union before approaching the Church for Marriage.

Father Bernard Baris of Our Lady of the Cape Parish in Brewster also supports same-sex civil unions. However, Marriage is a term that must be reserved for the bond between husband and wife, he said.

Father Baris added that how the Church should care for people living in same-sex relationships is a “very difficult question” that he hopes will be clarified through a questionnaire recently sent to the world’s bishops.

On November 5, the Vatican issued the questionnaire asking bishops about the “many new situations requiring the Church’s attention and pastoral care,” citing both the “widespread practice of cohabitation” and “same-sex unions.” Referring to gay couples, one question asks: “What pastoral attention can be given to people who have chosen to live in these types of union?”

Claims have been made and denied that as archbishop of Buenos Aires, Pope Francis supported same-sex civil unions.

Diocesan history

50 years ago — Boys enrolled in the first-ever chef’s course at Bishop Feehan High School in Attleboro. One of the first lessons included how to serve poultry for the Christmas season.

10 years ago — Seminarians of the Fall River Diocese wrote a timely booklet of inspiring reflections entitled “100 Days of Prayer” to commemorate the diocese’s centennial celebration.

25 years ago — St. Mary’s School in Taunton celebrated the successful completion of the National Catholic Education Association’s “Verifying the Vision” self-evaluation process, which factored into the school’s accreditation.

One year ago — James and Theresa Orcutt, founders of My Brother’s Keeper in Easton, were honored with the prestigious Spirit of Holy Cross Award, which was presented during an Advent Prayer Service at the Chapel of Mary at Stonehill College.

15

December 6, 2013

In conversations with parishioners, pope reveals he once was a bouncer

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — In addition to having worked sweeping floors and running tests in a chemical laboratory as a teen-ager, Pope Francis revealed he also used to work as a bouncer.

No longer kicking troublemakers out of clubs, he has discovered the secret to bringing people back, this time, into the Church, according to the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano.

The pope recently spent four hours at a parish visit of the church of San Cirillo Alessandrino in a working-class neighborhood on the outskirts of Rome. He chatted informally with a large number of parishioners before and after celebrating Mass.

He told one group that when he was young, he worked as a bouncer, and that his work later in life, teaching literature and psychology, taught him how to get people back into the Church.

He said it’s enough to be a witness of hope and, as St. Peter said, “always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope.”

Recounting how he discovered his vocation to the priesthood after Confession with a priest he had never met before, the pope joked it was common knowledge that the best confessors are priests the penitent does not know and priests who are deaf.

“Hypocrisy is a grave sin,” he said, underlining how important credibility was in helping the Church grow, not through proselytism, but by attraction.

He also confided that he prayed “for the grace of simplicity for me and the Church” when he prayed at the tomb of his namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, October 4.

A woman asked the pope how she should pray for one of her relatives who was going to become a Franciscan friar.

The pope said to pray that the man would have “the perseverance to go forward, but also the courage to turn back if he understands that this is not the right path.”

Before celebrating Mass, he met with parents whose newborns were Baptized within the last year, and he urged them to be patient with their children.

“When we Baptize them, we bring home not just our child but also a seed of Divinity that we have to help grow,” he said, according to the Vatican newspaper.

“Patience with children is beautiful just as it’s beautiful to talk with them and teach” them the things that matter in life, he said. But even more beautiful is remembering Baptism brings “a sign of the Divine” back to the home.

Parish youngsters preparing for their Confirmation presented Pope Francis with a paper daisy. They asked him to pluck each heart-shaped petal to reveal a question they had prepared.

The first question was whether he expected to be chosen as the cardinals’ “favorite” in the conclave that elected him pope.

Pope Francis said, “For the Lord, the ‘favorites’ are children.” But he added that he never dreamed that he would become the Successor of Peter, not when he was ordained a priest and not even when he arrived for the conclave.

The next question was how the pope spent his day. “I pray, then I celebrate Mass, and then I start work,” which includes reading letters, cards, documents and reports as well as meeting cardinals, bishops, priests and lay people, he told them.

He said he eats lunch between noon and 1 p.m., then rests for about 30 minutes before returning to work until the evening.

Vatican survey focuses on family continued from page one

Fall River Diocese, from taking the survey and breaking it down even further to help those receiving it understand exactly what the Church was asking.

Father Michael McManus, chancellor/moderator of the curia, in addition to emailing the document to priests and deacons, called Claire the week Bishop Coleman received the letter, asking her to “collate the responses,” she said.

“Since Bishop Coleman wished to receive input from people in the parish that would have insight into the pastoral concern of families, we also discussed how to further disseminate the questions,” explained Claire. “We decided that parish coordinators of Faith Formation would have good insight into the needs of the family, so to help facilitate the process of responding to the lengthy questionnaire, I created an electronic form with the questions that the coordinators could most likely answer.

“We then discussed getting more input from the laity, so I also created a form for the parish pastoral councils be-

cause they are representative of the parishioners and as part of their function should know the needs of the people.

Realizing that answering the questions and submitting the responses could be a cumbersome task for the clergy, I created another electronic form that has all of the questions so that clergy can respond electronically, too.”

The survey’s questions deal with sensitive subjects, including sex outside of Marriage and the teaching that those who have been remarried without an annulment cannot receive Communion. As individuals submit their responses, Claire receives the data in a spreadsheet, allowing her to create a summary from there.

The deadline for submitting responses is December 7, giving Claire enough time to put the data together for Bishop Coleman, who will use the data to prepare his own response due December 31.

“This is an extraordinary opportunity for the local Church to discuss issues that truly impact our families,” said Claire.

Gingerbread houses sweeten lives of less fortunate continued from page one

the community and those who need help.”

Traveling from her home in Maine, Robin Tower joined her siblings in helping continue her mother’s legacy and this time her five-year-old daughter Alexandria — only an infant last time Tower was able to participate — was on hand to help create her own gingerbread house.

“When my mom started it years ago, it was just fun,” said Tower. “Now to see it become so much a part of the community, giving back to the community; I think a lot of people look forward to it. It’s something they enjoy to do. It’s just what we do [as a family] and to see the faces light up — I just love to come.”

As the event has grown, so have the headaches — though some years, everything goes off without a hitch, this year Tavares found herself without a place to begin the prep work of making and baking the gingerbread. Done usually two weeks prior to the actual assembly, when Tavares called to reserve the kitchen at St. John’s Parish Center in Pocasset, she discovered that she would be able to roll and cut out the dough but forget baking it — the big stove at the church hall was broken.

“I started to panic. I called my brother-in-law to see if he could get down to [the parish center] and look at the stove,” said Tavares, adding she continued to explore other options, including the pricey and time-limiting option of using a local school’s kitchen, but Tavares was running out of time.

Incredibly, once her brother-in-law was able to get to the church hall, it was as simple fix; “It turns out the breaker just wasn’t pushed all the way on,” said Tavares. “That was it. I kept saying to him, ‘Are you sure? Are you sure?’ and he said the stove fired up.”

When their mom decided one Christmas that her five children needed to learn the gift of giving rather than receiving during the holiday season, her small enterprise of making a few gingerbread houses and donating them has grown beyond anyone’s expectations more than two decades later; and while she doesn’t think her mom set out for it to become the community event it is today, “I think she’s very proud it has,” said Tower.

Her sister said she felt her mother’s presence, even with the stress of looking for a working stove: “I think she was totally with us this year,” said Tavares. “It just felt like it.”

Youth Pages

16

Third- and fourth-grade students from St. Mary-Sacred Heart School in North Attleboro recently visited Plimoth Plantation in Plymouth to learn about the pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving.

December 6, 2013

St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Swansea recently held a Willow Tree Chicken Dinner fund-raiser with the proceeds going to the family of Braxton McHale, a two-year-old boy battling leukemia. These young parishioners, from left: Daniel Brodeur, Eliza Patota and Elijah LaCroix, did their part by making and selling bracelets at the event.

Fifth-grade students in the Spanish class at St. John the Evangelist School in Attleboro recently learned about “Dia de Los Muertos,� an All Souls Day. They made calaveras (skulls) masks and papel picado (confetti).

Students from St. James-St. John School in New Bedford recently celebrated National Diabetes Awareness Day with crazy hair day and all students wore blue. The students raised more than $475 for Joslin Clinic in Boston.

Mrs. Aguiar and her fourth-grade class from St. Michael School in Fall River prepared apple crisp as part of their recent Johnny Apple Seed project.

St. Pius X School in South Yarmouth recently hosted a question-and-answer panel presentation on vocations. Participating from left, were: Rodney and Erin Lynch, Deacon Tony Surozenski, Father Ron Floyd, and Sister Faustina Kolbe from the Daughters of Mary of Nazareth.

December 6, 2013

L

Youth Pages Shouldn’t God be involved in the process?

to hearing what they had spokesperson. This celebrity to say and perhaps see their was someone who we would product as something that trust and be more apt to we need. listen to. Their endorsement Well, the reality is, all of a product would alleviate our concerns and suspicions. Other ads would have someone who would appeal to our situation in life: the busy mom or dad, the person struggling

By Father with working hard David C. Frederici and coping with some level of injustice, the young man trying to impress of these people are actors.

While they may be (and his date, etc., etc., etc. Here, probably are) good people too, the attempt is to preswho wouldn’t want to harm ent a person or situation anyone, they do not know that we can relate to in the hopes that we would be open you or me. Their ultimate concern in the role is to get you to buy the product they are advertising. If you do, they get paid. Now, I’m not trying to get a campaign going against actors or advertising. Certainly, they need to earn a living and advertising is a means of getting information to us about their product. After all, we may be very interested in their product or may even need it.

What resonates with us is a desire to be understood. As a result, we put a lot of energy and resources in attaining stuff because of what is an ultimately false message.

Bishop Stang High School in North Dartmouth announced its 50th Many saints and spiritual anniversary celebration of its first graduating class. Weekend-long writers in our tradition have events culminated with a trip of classmates exploring Iceland. “The warned us about the “false” Class of 1963 is very special as they are the founding students of Bishself. That is the image we op Stang High School,” said Peter Shaughnessy, president/principal of Bishop Stang. “Our alumni have always had a strong bond of sup- try to present to the world port with Stang and one another. It’s inspiring to see that after 50 and to ourselves. We are years, the Class of 1963 is so excited to celebrate the high school that aware of darkness in our

ike many of you, amidst the turkey and all the fixings, the conversations with family and friends, I spent some time in front of the TV for some football. I don’t get the opportunity very often to sit and watch a game. Even if you didn’t watch football, it is highly likely you watched some television over the holiday weekend. You would have seen a lot of ads for Black Friday sales and other sales for Christmas shoppers.

Many of these ads attempted to connect with the viewers in various ways. A celebrity who is held in high regard by many would serve as

was the foundation for so much success and blessings in their lives.”

On the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the junior and senior classes at Coyle and Cassidy High School in Taunton, sat riveted listening to Principal Robert Gay’s indepth analysis of the assassination and the events that led up to that fateful event. As a sign of respect, a collective moment of silence was taken at the precise time of the president’s passing. Gay has an extensive background in teaching history and examining events that have shaped history, once teaching a course on assassinations and conspiracy theories.

Be Not Afraid

lives or something we don’t like about ourselves. Instead of allowing ourselves to be healed, to bring Christ’s light to those places of darkness, we “reinvent” ourselves in an image we want to be. Sometimes we are able to fool others and ourselves. More often we are only fooling ourselves.

I suspect that the “false self ” gets more attention because we really don’t know who our true self is. Certainly high school and college is an intense time of self-discovery of who you truly are. Unfortunately, I’ve met many people much older who have never taken the time to discover that truth.

Perhaps it seemed easier to be what other people thought or wanted them to be. Perhaps they were afraid to find out. I don’t know, but what I do know is many of them have spent their lives wandering. There has always been a nagging feeling that something is missing or a desire for something more.

Part of this search for the true self is a lifelong process, but it doesn’t mean that we will never be happy or satisfied. The Church stresses the need for discernment that is, including God in this process of self-discovery.

After all, God is the One Who made you and knows you better than anyone else.

When we take the time to

17 learn what our gifts and talents are and what we are meant to do in life, don’t we listen to family and friends?

Shouldn’t God be involved in that process?

Last Saturday was the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle.

The first reading was from Paul’s Letter to the Romans.

Paul asks some very important questions that are relevant to discernment: “How can they call on Him in Whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in Him Whom they have not heard?

And how can they hear without someone to preach? And how can people preach unless they have been sent?”

God calls out to you because He loves you. He offers you His love and mercy and invites you to allow Him to be a part of your daily life so that you may live life happy, fulfilled and confident of His love and presence in your life. The challenge is will you respond to the call and message from God that is forever and personalized to you or to the ones from the world, messages that are impersonal and in things that are at best temporary?

That decision is totally up to you.

Anchor columnist Father Frederici is pastor of St. John the Evangelist Parish in Pocasset and diocesan director of Campus Ministry and chaplain at UMass Dartmouth and Cape Cod Community College.

The Bishop Connolly High School Food Pantry and National Honor Society took initiative to help out the greater Fall River community for this holiday season. Through the donations of the student body, Bishop Connolly was able to collect more than 50 baskets filled with various canned goods for families in need. Each basket also contained a turkey bought with money donations. Back row: Stephanie Martino, Brooke Aguiar, Brendan Sasse, and Daniel Boudria. Front: Victoria Simonetti, Miranda Howayeck, and Brittany Cordeiro.

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December 6, 2013

Irene A. Lacroix, mother of Father Daniel W. Lacroix

NEW BEDFORD — Irene A. (Depault) Lacroix, 92, of New Bedford died November 23, at Sacred Heart Home. She was the wife of Norman C. Lacroix.

Born in New Bedford, the

daughter of the late Victor and Emma (Francoeur) Depault, she lived in New Bedford all of her life. She was a communicant of St. Mary’s Church in New Bedford.

Around the Diocese The parishes of St. Anthony’s in Mattapoisett and St. Rita’s in Marion will hold their annual Magic of Christmas Fair from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. tomorrow at St. Anthony’s church hall, 22 Barstow Street in Mattapoisett. Enjoy hot coffee with your malasada as you shop for beautiful hand-crafted gifts, pick out a fresh wreath or Christmas arrangement, take a chance on one of 10 themed raffle baskets or buy a ticket to win the grand raffle, with a top prize of $500 cash. New this year will be sales of “True Joy of Christmas,” a CD of upbeat Christmas music sure to put you in the holiday mood. Parking is free and the church hall is handicapaccessible via the Barstow Street entrance.

The Catholic Women’s Club of Christ the King Parish, Jobs Fishing Road in Mashpee, will sponsor its Annual Christmas Fair tomorrow from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the parish center. Featured will be a variety of crafters selling handmade items including old world Santas, nautical jewelry, knitted hats and scarves, homemade chocolates and treats, and much more. There will also be original hand-crafted Christmas wreaths and seasonal arrangements, gift and cash raffles, boutique gift items, hostess baskets, baked goods and a children’s shopping room with face painting and games. Hungry shoppers can relax over lunch at the Holly Café.

A Mass of Remembrance for Pre-Born Children will be celebrated Sunday at St. Vincent de Paul Parish, 71 Linden Street, Attleboro, at 5:30 p.m. All are welcome to attend this Mass, but a special invitation is extended to parents, grandparents and siblings who grieve the death of children as a result of miscarriage, stillbirth or abortion. These losses may be recent or extend over many years. All are welcome to attend the “pot-luck” gathering in the parish hall after Mass. For more information, contact Kathy Davis 774-2544431.

Please help the Society of St. Vincent de Paul collect toys for families who request help for their children this Christmas. The group will meet at St. Anthony’s Parish in East Falmouth (Route 28) on Sunday beginning at 5 p.m.

Bring a new, unwrapped toy and enjoy some homemade cookies and cake while knowing you are giving a needy child a gift of Christian love.

On December 12 at 6:30 p.m. at St. Bernadette’s Parish in Fall River (529 Eastern Avenue), Father Roger Landry will give a presentation on Pope Francis’ new apostolic letter, “The Joy of the Gospel,” to help people understand and apply it to their lives as the Church in Advent applies to receive and announce the “good news of great joy” of the presence of God-with-us at Christmas. All are welcome.

On December 15 at 3 p.m. the Spirit of St. Anthony Choir will celebrate this joyful season with its annual Christmas Concert and Caroling sing-along. Begin your Sunday afternoon of fun with a free trolley ride to St. Anthony of Padua Church from the Whale’s Tooth ferry parking lot in downtown New Bedford.

Then enjoy the 50-voice choir directed by Cassandra Morgan, accompanied

by Isleila Rodrigues on piano, and many star-quality soloist singers and musicians. For more information, visit www.saintanthonynewbedford.org or call the rectory at 508-993-1691.

She is survived by her husband, Norman; her son, Father Daniel W. Lacroix, pastor of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Hyannis; and several nieces and nephews.

She was the sister of the late Emelia Lizotte, Lea Lussier, Jeanette Payette, Armand Depault, Roland Depault, and Henri Depault.

Her Funeral Mass was celebrated on November 27 at St. Mary’s Church, in New Bedford. Burial followed at Sacred Heart Cemetery.

Donations in her memory may be made to either St. Mary’s Parish Restoration Fund, 106 Illinois Street, New Bedford, Mass., 02745, or Community Nurse and Hospice Care, P.O. Box 751, Fairhaven, Mass., 02719, or Sacred Heart Home, 359 Summer Street, New Bedford, Mass., 02740.

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

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

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

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

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

Mass.

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

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

Use the Chapel entrance on the side of the church.

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

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

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

In Your Prayers

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

Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks

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

Dec. 7 Rev. Thomas F. Daley, Retired Pastor, St. James, New Bedford, 1976 Rev. Ambrose Bowen, Retired Pastor, St. Joseph, Taunton, 1977 Rev. James W. Clark, Retired Pastor, St. Joan of Arc, Orleans, 2000 Dec. 8 Rev. John F. Broderick, Pastor, St. Mary, South Dartmouth, 1940 Dec. 9 Rev. Rene Patenaude, O.P., Retired Associate Pastor, St. Anne, Fall River, 1983 Dec. 10 Rev. Thomas C. Briscoe, Former Pastor, St. Anne, Fall River, 1918 Rev. Andrew S.P. Baj, Former Pastor, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, New Bedford, 1971 Dec. 11 Rev. Edward L. Killigrew, Pastor, St. Kilian, New Bedford, 1959 Dec. 12 Rev. Paul F. McCarrick, Pastor, St. Joseph, Fall River, 1996 Dec. 13 Rev. Reginald Theriault, O.P., St. Anne, Dominican Priory, Fall River, 1972 Rev. Adrien L. Francoeur, M.S., La Salette Shrine, North Attleboro, 1991

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

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

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

MANSFIELD — St. Mary’s Parish, 330 Pratt Street, has Eucharistic Adoration every First Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., with Benediction at 5:45 p.m.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Taunton — Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament takes place every First Friday at Annunciation of the Lord, 31 First Street. Exposition begins following the 8 a.m.

Mass. The Blessed Sacrament will be exposed, and Adoration will continue throughout the day. Confessions are heard from 5:15 to 6:15 p.m. Rosary and Benediction begin at 6:30 p.m.

WAREHAM — Eucharistic Adoration at St. Patrick’s Church begins each Wednesday evening at 6 p.m. and ends on Friday night at midnight. Adoration is held in our Adoration Chapel in the lower Parish Hall.

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

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December 6, 2013

Despite typhoon damage, Philippine archdiocese ordains seven priests

PALO, Philippines (CNS) — Seven priests of the Archdiocese of Palo were ordained amid the ruins of the typhoon-ravaged Cathedral of the Transfiguration of Our Lord in recent ceremonies. Although Super Typhoon Haiyan caused the roof of the 16th-century cathedral to collapse and destroy much of the interior furnishings, Archbishop John Forrosuelo Du decided to ordain the priests in the church as a sign of hope for the Catholic community. The ordination occurred as clergy and hundreds of faithful filled the church in bright sunshine. Blue lightweight coverings strung from the cathedral’s walls provided some shade for the congregation as the new priests vowed to serve the Church and God in ministering to the people of the archdiocese. Palo is located a few miles south of Tacloban, the provincial capital of Leyte, one of the provinces scoured by the storm November 8. “We may have lost everything, but our faith is becoming stronger ever.

No trial or storm or typhoon can destroy our resolve to have faith in Jesus. And it should be manifested in action,” Father Amadeo

To advertise in The Anchor, contact Wayne Powers at 508-675-7151 or Email waynepowers@ anchornews.org

Alvero, the archdiocese’s spokesman, told the Asian church news agency UCA News.

He said the ordinations served

as a “concrete action” to show the people’s faith in God despite the devastation brought about by Typhoon Haiyan.

20

A

letter was recently circulated under the letterhead of Gerard V. Bradley, professor of law at Notre Dame University, signed by a number of self-identified “Catholic scholars,” offering a number of concerns about the Common Core State Standards.

The letter, with a brief response

by Sister John Mary Fleming, executive director for Catholic education at the USCCB, was summarized in an article entitled “Catholic scholars voice concern over Common Core Curriculum” in The Anchor (Nov. 15, 2013, page four).

I would like to share some perspectives on the authors’ comments, the Common Core, and our own Fall River diocesan standards.

The standards for Catholic schools in the Diocese of Fall River are developed through the Catholic Schools Office in collaboration with committees comprised of principals and teachers.

These standards are officially entitled “Learning Outcomes” and are found on the Catholic schools website (www.dfrcec. com or follow the link from the Diocese of Fall River website).

The Common Core State Standards have never been “adopted” as the standards for the diocese. For many years, the primary guide for the development of diocesan standards has been, and continues to be, the Massachusetts Curriculum

December 6, 2013

Catholic schools follow diocesan standards Frameworks. Even then, any no doubt that the Common standard from the frameworks is Core has been a topic of extenaccepted only following a review sive discussion and influence in by our diocesan committees and education across the country. It approval by the Catholic Schools has widespread support among Office. Any standard that could educators and scholars, includconflict with Catholic Church ing those from Catholic colleges teaching, such as some standards and universities. The National in the state’s health curriculum, Catholic Educational Assohave been rejected and are not included in our standards. The diocese may also revise a standard or add a new one it may feel important to include.

In 2011 the MasBy Dr. sachusetts Frameworks Michael S. Griffin were revised in English/ Language Arts and Mathematics. The Diocese of Fall River then proceeded ciation, issued a statement on to fully implement the review May 31, 2013 describing these process described above, examin- standards as “… a set of high ing each standard in the revised quality academic expectations Massachusetts Frameworks that all students should master and making a determination by the end of each grade level.” regarding each one. The diocese Catholic schools will continue to also added some standards. For engage in reflection and dialogue example, cursive writing was kept on standards, and will continue in the grade-three diocesan stan- to evaluate positions on different dards, even though it was not in sides of educational issues. the Massachusetts Frameworks.

In our view, the criticism The diocesan standards were of the Common Core in The revised in English/Language Anchor article, appears to center Arts and Mathematics for grades significantly on a misunderstandpre-k through eight, while the ing of the difference between high school standards are still “standards” and “curriculum.” undergoing review.

The article’s authors do not make While there has not been a a distinction. However, at least formal “adoption” of the Comin the Catholic schools in the mon Core standards in the Diocese of Fall River, there is a Diocese of Fall River, there is significant difference between

Guest Columnist

base-level standards, which are intended to reflect a minimal level of achievement for every student, and each school’s curriculum, which is geared toward enabling every student to attain his/her highest level of achievement. As Sister John Mary Fleming, executive director for Catholic Education at the USCCB was quoted in the article: “... standards should be regarded not as a ceiling, but as a floor.”

A curriculum includes what is taught, when it is taught, and what materials to use. While “standards” are developed at the diocesan level, “curriculum” in Catholic schools is primarily developed at the local school level, often in collaboration with other Catholic schools. The concern of the article’s authors about losing the classics would not apply to our diocesan schools. None of the classics have been removed from the secondary school curriculum.

Shakespearean plays are studied in all four years of high school.

Poetry is studied every year and there has been an addition of contemporary literature to the curriculum. In fact, shifting a portion of the teaching of writing and reading (e.g. “informational texts”) to content disciplines such as science, history, social studies, religion, and world languages may allow English departments to delve more deeply into the classics. Teachers in our schools are encouraged to collaborate in preserving the rich, historical approaches of Catholic education that are grounded in classical traditions, and to capitalize on opportunities in other subject areas to utilize informational texts. An appropriate balance of classics and narrative fiction with informational texts is maintained by each school’s curriculum oversight.

The difference between standards and curriculum is also reflected by the rigor and content of our Catholic schools’ college preparatory courses, which extend to honors and AP levels.

Within our own schools, there are students who may need to work hard just to achieve a C level of performance. Other students may have stronger academic gifts and are rightly challenged by the curriculum and their teachers to higher levels of rigor and performance associated with more demanding courses.

The same is true of the differentiation that occurs in all our classrooms throughout elementary and high school. All students are called to surpass minimum standards to the best of their

abilities, but having a standard helps ensure essential areas are mastered by all students. Because the intended effect of revisions to most standards in recent years has been to add more rigor to previous standards, our Catholic school students will benefit from the challenges these updated standards provide and are reflected in the Diocesan Learning Outcomes.

An example of how the diocese distinguishes itself from state standards, and incorporates Catholic teachings is reflected in a process related to the health standards. After examining the Massachusetts Frameworks in 2003, and finding them lacking in ways that did not align with some teachings of the Catholic Church, the Catholic Schools Office undertook the rewriting of a complete new set of standards using the Framework of the State, but engaging other departments of the diocese (Catholic Social Services, Pro-Life Apostolate, a diocesan priest, Catholic nurses, bioethics trained teachers, theology teachers, science teachers and principals). The Pro-Life Apostolate continues to support these standards with personnel and materials. We systematically update this document to keep abreast of the new health issues.

The academic environment of the Catholic schools of the Diocese of Fall River is evidenced by the schools’ accomplishments. Our diocese is one of only 33 school districts in Massachusetts to have achieved the 2013 Advanced Placement District Honor Roll status. Our high school SAT scores averaged 1632 this year, surpassing the state average of 1526 and national average of 1500. In our elementary schools, the average composite score percentile of all of our students was 66 percent.

The curriculum followed by these students was developed by our Catholic schools, in alignment with the Massachusetts Frameworks, and this continues to be the case. The Catholic schools of the Diocese of Fall River plan to continue to keep abreast of ongoing developments in technology, curriculum development, teaching methodologies and other areas that may have an impact on education in the 21st century.

At the same time, the academic and faith traditions on which our schools have been established will continue to guide our efforts in preparing young people for success, service and leadership in society and the Church of tomorrow.

Dr. Michael Griffin is the superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Fall River.