12.07.12

The Anchor Diocese of Fall River

F riday , December 7, 2012

Devotion to Patroness of the Americas on the rise

By Dave Jolivet, Editor

NEW BEDFORD — When Blessed John Paul II visited the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City in 1999, he changed the face of the Catholic Church in the Americas for the good. While celebrating a Mass at the basilica on January 23 of that year, he declared December 12 as the liturgical feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and placed all of the Americas under her care as well as the innocent lives of children, especially those in danger of not being born.

The “Lady from Heaven” who appeared to St. Juan Diego on a hill northwest of Mexico City in 1531 with a message of life, peace and unity through her Son, Jesus Christ, now extends her motherly care to all in the Western Hemisphere with the same messages.

“From Argentina to Alaska, Our Lady of Guadalupe says to her children, ‘Don’t worry, I am here for you with the path to my Son,’” said Father Riley J. Williams, a parochial vicar at Holy Ghost, St. John the Evangelist, and St. Joseph parishes in Attleboro.

“Half the world is in her care,” added Father Eduardo Coll, IVE, pastor of St. Kilian’s Parish in New

Bedford, which will host a Mass for all the Hispanic Apostolates in the Fall River Diocese on December 12 at 7 p.m. “She unites her children in the Western Hemisphere where there are so many nationalities and cultures.”

Since Blessed John Paul II’s 1999 declaration, devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe has grown, not only among the Mexican community, but in the Latino and Hispanic communities and beyond. “Here in America, we bring so many different things to the table,” Father Williams told The Anchor, “not just Latinos and Hispanics, but the whole Church shares in her loving care.

While many people in this country see a cloudy future, Our Lady of Guadalupe seeks to bring all her children together in her Son, just as she did when she appeared to St. Juan Diego at a time when the indigenous people there experienced major changes.”

According to Father Coll, the feast day Mass at St. Kilian’s will bring together seven different Hispanic communities from the five diocesan deaneries. Father Coll, who was at St. Kilian’s in 1996-97, returned as Turn to page 18

our patroness — A family prays in the chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. earlier this year. (CNS photo/Nancy Phelan Wiechec)

Parish launches Year of Faith radio ads

By Becky Aubut Anchor Staff

education boost — Last week’s St. Mary’s Education Fund Fall Scholarship Dinner came to a close with the presentation of this big check to Bishop George W. Coleman in the amount of $643,295.15 for the benefit of the fund. The total represents proceeds from the Fall Dinner along with funds raised in events sponsored this year by the St. Mary’s Education Fund Cape Cod Committee and the annual interest accrued on the fund. Helping to hold the check are Bishop Coleman; Paul M. Lenahan, Fall Dinner chairman; and Roy Jarrett, chairman of the 2012 St. Mary’s Education Fund Summer Gala. (Photo by John Kearns)

Buses filling for 40th annual March for Life

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

BUZZARDS BAY — Catholics from dioceses throughout the United States will be heading to the nation’s capital next month for the 40th annual March for Life — a peaceful protest that was founded by the late Nellie Gray against the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling.

For the fifth consecutive year, busloads of faithful Pro-Life advocates from the Fall River Diocese will be making the trek to Wash-

ington, D.C. to support the effort.

According to Kevin Ward, president and co-founder of the Cape Cod Bus for Life, two charter buses are already filled and they have a third bus on hold in anticipation of more participants signing up in the weeks leading up to the Jan. 25, 2013 March for Life.

“The response has been excellent to date,” Ward told The Anchor. “Interest and attendance has increased every year and this year I think it’s really going to be over Turn to page 18

EAST SANDWICH — Corpus Christi Parish in East Sandwich has taken Pope Benedict’s message of evangelization to the airwaves with new radio ads that began airing a few weeks ago. Entitled “Year of Faith Moments,” the 30-second radio ads will run until Nov. 24, 2013.

“This is really Father George Harrison’s brainchild; he’s really the one who wanted to do it,” said John Dellamorte, parishio-

ner of Corpus Christi Parish. “He called the leaders of ministry at the end of the summer in preparation for the Year of Faith.”

The 30-member group devised numerous ideas to help propagate the New Evangelization, but the radio ads are “stepping out of the box and doing things differently,” said Dellamorte, “just trying to evangelize in any way we can do it.”

“In the design of it,” continued Dellamorte, “we wanted to make sure it was a personal-based wit-

ness radio campaign, that it was actual parishioners giving some testimony about their faith. Father Harrison thought long and hard about who would be the right people, and he wanted to make sure different ages were represented; the different stations in life — married, people with kids, people in their latter years, that type of thing.”

Twelve individuals were chosen, and while the number may seem to match the same number Turn to page 15

Second annual Mass remembering loss of pre-born children is tomorrow in Attleboro

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

ATTLEBORO — Kathy Davis remembers how losing three children before birth deeply affected her mother.

As one of eight siblings, Davis also struggled to understand how her mother could have coped with that kind of grief.

“The loss was still present with her up until the time she died,” Davis told The Anchor. “Within her last year of life we spent more time talking about her miscarriage experience. As an adult I was more eager to learn about her experience to understand why she was still holding on to the loss so tightly.”

Through Davis’ work with the Massachusetts Catholic Conference, she soon learned that many parishes in the Commonwealth were celebrating special Masses to honor the lives of children who died prior to birth and to support the grieving families and community left behind.

So last year Davis approached Father John Mur-

ray, then-pastor of St. Joseph’s Parish in Attleboro, to plan a similar Mass.

Tomorrow at 9 a.m. the second annual Mass of Remembrance for Pre-Born Children will be celebrated by Father Richard Wilson, the new pastor at St. Joseph’s, with a homily delivered by Father Riley Williams, parochial vicar.

“As those who profess our belief in Jesus as Savior, it is only right that we would undertake Turn to page 14

Second Sunday of Advent December 9, 2012

News From the Vatican

2

December 7, 2012

Reading Vatican II as break with tradition is heresy, prefect says

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Traditionalist and progressive camps that see the Second Vatican Council as breaking with the past both espouse a “heretical interpretation” of the council and its aims, said the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

What Pope Benedict XVI has termed “the hermeneutic of reform, of renewal in continuity” is the “only possible interpretation according to the principles of Catholic theology,” Archbishop Gerhard Muller said.

“Outside this sole orthodox interpretation unfortunately exists a heretical interpretation, that is, a hermeneutic of rupture, (found) on the progressive front and on the traditionalist” side, the archbishop said.

What the two camps have in common, he said, is their rejection of the council: “The progressives in their wanting to leave it behind, as if it were a season to abandon in order to get to another church, and the traditionalists in their not wanting to get there,” seeing the council as a Catholic “winter.”

A “council presided over by the successor of Peter as head of the visible Church” is the “highest expression” of the magisterium, he said, to be regarded as part of “an indissoluble whole,” along with Scripture and 2,000 years of tradition.

The doctrinal chief’s remarks were published in the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, to present the seventh volume of “The Complete Works of Joseph Ratzinger.” The volume collects published and unpublished notes, speeches, interviews and texts written or given by the future pope in the period shortly before, during and just after Vatican II. Archbishop Muller specified that by “continuity” Pope Benedict meant a “permanent correspondence with the origin, not an adaption of whatever has been, which also can lead the wrong way.”

The term “aggiornamento” or updating — one of the watchwords of the council — “does not mean the secularization of the faith, which would lead to its dissolution,” but a “making present” of the message of Jesus Christ, he said.

This “making present” is the “reform necessary for every era in constant fidelity to the whole Christ,” he said.

“The tradition of apostolic origin continues in the Church with help from the Holy Spirit,” he said, and leads to greater understanding through contemplation and study, intelligence garnered from a deeper experience of the spiritual, and preaching by those who through the “apostolic succession have received an assured charism of truth.”

Vatican says it will promote religious liberty in Saudi-backed center

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Vatican addressed concerns about its participation in a new Saudibacked interfaith center, insisting that it would use the forum to press for the religious liberty of Christians in Muslim lands. A Vatican delegation was scheduled to join U.N. Secretary-General Ban Kimoon and other dignitaries in Vienna recently for the inauguration of the King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Center, which is named for and financed by the king of Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia forbids the practice of any religion except Islam,

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even in private. Groups of liberal Muslims and members of the Austrian Green Party protested the center in the days leading up to its inauguration. “Some questions have been raised regarding the motives and the meaning of the Holy See’s adherence to this initiative,” said Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman.

He noted the Vatican is officially a “founding observer” of the center, and said the center’s purpose is “to foster dialogue among religions and cultures,” which he called a “basic and an urgent need for the humanity of today and tomorrow.”

OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER Vol. 56, No. 47

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weekly tradition — Pope Benedict XVI gives a recent Wednesday general audience in Paul VI Hall. (Photo Estefania Aguirre-CNA)

When sharing the faith, keep it simple, joyful, credible, pope says

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — In ity, “to teach us the art of living, kind in order to lead them to a world of hardened hearts and the road to happiness, to liberate God.” titillating distractions, Christians us from sin and make us children The way Jesus lived and what need to keep the Gospel message of God,” he said.

He preached “are entwined” simple and live what they teach “Jesus came to save us, show- and this style is “essential for us with love and joy, Pope Benedict ing us the good life of the Gos- Christians and our way of living XVI said. pels.” the faith in charity.”

The best place to start is with Another essential condition It demonstrates credibility one’s own family, he said, learn- for communicating the faith is and “that what we say is not just ing to spend time together, lis- to put Christ on center stage, not words, but reflects reality,” the tening and understanding one an- oneself, he said. pope said. other, and “being a sign For that reason, Chrishristians need to look at how tians for each other of God’s need to be aware Christ communicated. He spoke of “the potential, desires merciful love.”

During a recent week- about God and His kingdom showing and obstacles in current ly general audience, the “complete compassion for the distress culture, especially the pope spoke about the for authenticity, and difficulties of human existence,” the desire challenge of communithe yearning for the trancating the saving truth pope said. scendent and concern for of Jesus to today’s men safeguarding creation.” and women whose hearts are When St. Paul, for example, That way Christians can “often closed” and whose minds shared the faith, he didn’t es- “communicate, without fear, the are “sometimes distracted by the pouse a philosophy he developed answers that faith in God offers” glitz and glam” of the material or ideas he dreamed up, but rath- to people’s needs and today’s world. er stuck to the real presence of challenges.

In his catechesis to some 5,000 God in his life.

One of the best places to start pilgrims gathered in the Vatican’s The Apostle “didn’t talk about talking about God is in the famPaul VI hall, the pope said, “it’s himself; he didn’t want to create ily — “the first school for comnecessary to recover simplicity, to a fan club or lead some school municating the faith to new genreturn to the essentials.” of thought,” but wanted to lead erations,” he said.

The first condition to establish people directly to Christ, the Parents need to help their chilis that people can legitimately pope said. dren become aware of God’s love, talk about God because God This is the style individual talk about the Christian faith, fosHimself speaks to humanity, the Christians and their communi- ter a critical eye toward the many pope said. ties are called to follow: “to influences children are exposed to “The first condition for talk- show the transformative action and be prepared to answer chiling about God is, therefore, lis- of the grace of God, overcoming dren’s questions about God and tening to what God Himself has individualism, narrowness, ego- religion, the pope said. said to us,” he said. ism and indifference, and living But above all, he said, commu“God is not a distant hypothe- God’s love in daily interactions,” nicating the faith must always be sis about the origin of the world” he said. done with joy — a joy that doesn’t and He isn’t an abstract form Christians need to look at how ignore or hide from the pain, diffiof “mathematical intelligence,” Christ communicated. He spoke culties and conflicts of the world, rather He is real and “is con- about God and His kingdom but knows how to respond to cerned about us and loves us,” showing “complete compassion them with Christian hope. the pope said. for the distress and difficulties of “It’s important to help all In Jesus, people can see the human existence,” the pope said. family members understand that face of God, Who descended Jesus communicated by con- faith is not a burden, but a source from Heaven to be with human- tinually “bending down to man- of deep joy,” he said.

C

December 7, 2012

The International Church

3

Spain’s bishops urge united front against same-sex marriage

back to school — U.S. Cardinal Edwin F. O’Brien, right, accompanied by Auxiliary Bishop William Shomali of Jerusalem, visits with kindergartners at Our Lady of Fatima Parish School in the West Bank city of Beit Sahour recently. (CNS photo/Heidi Levine)

Cardinal O’Brien meets seminarians, students during Holy Land visit

BEIT JALLA, West Bank (CNS) — After a morning of visits to Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity and a local Catholic parish, U.S. Cardinal Edwin F. O’Brien was overcome with emotion during his meeting with seminarians at the Latin Patriarchate seminary.

“I can’t think of a more encouraging moment than this,” he told the young men who had gathered in their common room to greet him.

The cardinal, grand master of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher, said that, having served as a seminary rector for 12 years, he was “well aware of the work and sacrifices involved in creating the goodness I see here.”

“What better place to be formed than here?” he said.

“There is a lot of energy in this room, and I am grateful and enriched by your presence and young enthusiasm.”

He said the seminary was a “hopeful sign.”

Though Jesus’ formation was very different than the young seminarians, the base of “selfless, dispossessive love of people” was the same, he added.

“Dispossessive love is unique for Christians and should be unique for priests,” he said. “You are going to set the standards for our good people for selfless love. You will make saints in this area.”

The cardinal, a former archbishop of Baltimore whom Pope Benedict named to lead the chivalric order in August 2011, arrived in the Holy Land November 26 for a weeklong pilgrimage.

His itinerary included Jerusalem; Bethlehem, where he inaugurated the education department of Bethlehem University, which is supported by the knights; Nazareth, Israel, and the neighboring village of Rameh, where he was

to inaugurate the parish school.

He was also scheduled to visit Catholic parishes and holy sites in Jordan before returning to Rome.

Cardinal O’Brien was greeted

by Franciscan Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, custos of the Holy Land, and Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal during his visit to Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulcher — his first visit as grand master.

At the Church of the Nativity, Franciscan Father Stephane Milovitch, rector of the adjacent St. Catherine Church, led the cardinal through the holy site, recounting its history and archaeology. In a private moment, Cardinal O’Brien kneeled at the silver star in the grotto marking the spot traditionally believed to be where Jesus was born. Pilgrims prayed and sang “Silent Night” in Italian. The cardinal lit candles in front of the Altar of Our Lady Mary in St. Catherine Church.

At kindergarten classes in Beit Sahour’s Our Lady of Fatima Parish School, children were busy gluing cotton balls on pictures of Santa Claus, and another class sang an Arabic Christmas carol for the cardinal. He asked the students if they liked coming to school.

“Yes!” was the resounding response.

Afterward, Cardinal O’Brien said he was certain that Jesus also “looked down on (the children) as brothers and sisters who were born in the same place as He was and are experiencing a lot of the same things as He was.”

In a meeting with teachers from the school, the cardinal said that though at times they may feel alone, there were people abroad “with awareness, concern and prayer” for them who knew how important their work was.

“You have a lot of friends all over the world. There are 60 different countries represented in our Knights of the Holy Sepulcher who are all dedicated to the work you are doing, and they make great sacrifices to keep the schools open, the parishes strong and keep them growing,” he said.

Father Iyad Twal, parish priest, noted that although any visit from a cardinal to the parish was a sign of solidarity, the visit of Cardinal O’Brien as grand master of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher was specifically significant because the order is “practically a part of the patriarchate.”

“It is a visit of a father to his children,” said Father Twal.

Cardinal O’Brien told Catholic News Service that the Church does “a world of good ... (planting) seeds for the future.”

Pondering the future of the children he had visited, the cardinal said: “It could be tragic and it could be joyful and peaceful. It is up to us to make it the latter.”

He said he had come out of his visit “more informed and inspired” and hoped he would be able to better speak from his firsthand experience about the work carried out by the order.

“We need to have a greater presence with the native Christians. Christian presence has to be encouraged,” he said, and the Christians abroad need to show by their presence the need to address the pressing issues facing the Church.

Having come to the Holy Land just a week after an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire between Hamas and Israeli took hold, Cardinal O’Brien said the violence would continue unless the “rights of all people are addressed, including those in the West Bank.”

MADRID (CNS) — Spain’s Catholic bishops urged political parties to unite against same-sex marriage, after it was confirmed as legal by the Constitutional Court.

“Spanish legislation on Marriage is gravely unjust — it does not protect the parties’ right to be recognized in law as husband and wife, nor the right of children and young people to be brought up as future husbands and wives, and to enjoy a father and mother in a stable family,” the bishops’ conference said after its November 19-23 plenary in Madrid.

“We call again on politicians to take responsibility. Right reason demands everyone act according to conscience and beyond party discipline in this key area and that no one votes to endorse a law which so badly damages society’s basic structures.”

The statement follows the November 6 court judgment rejecting legal challenges to the 2005 law.

The bishops said the country was “witnessing the destruction of Marriage by legal means,” adding that all politicians should uphold the common good by changing the law.

More than 22,000 same-sex

marriages have been recorded under the law, which was constitutionally challenged after the 2011 election victory of the People’s Party under Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

The bishops’ conference spokesman, Madrid Auxiliary Bishop Juan Martinez Camino, said November 22 that the Constitutional Court had “submitted a correct interpretation of the law.”

However, he added that the Catholic Church believed the law needed “urgent reform” and was calling on the government to “form a coalition” with Catholics from all parties to abolish samesex marriage. The Church upholds the traditional definition of Marriage as between a man and a woman.

Besides Spain, same-sex marriage is allowed in Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, South Africa and Sweden.

A Socialist-backed law to permit same-sex marriage and adoption, scheduled for parliamentary debate in January, faces bitter opposition from the Catholic Church and other faith groups in neighboring France.

4

December 7, 2012 The Church in the U.S. Catholic relief efforts post-Sandy stretch from New York to Cuba

WASHINGTON (CNS) — As victims continue to recover from Hurricane Sandy, several dioceses and Catholic charities are still asking for support for the affected areas.

Catholic Charities USA and Catholic Relief Services are the two main charities dioceses were using to distribute these donations. Catholic Charities is working mainly in New York and New Jersey, while CRS is mostly in the Caribbean.

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul, which has branches throughout the country, also has been asking for continued support for hurricane victims.

Among the dioceses that had collected donations for at least one of these charities were the Archdiocese of Miami and the Dioceses of Fall River, Albany, N.Y., Youngstown, Ohio, and Scranton, Pa. With the memory of Hurricane Rita that hit the region hard in 2005, the Diocese of Lake Charles, La., took a second collection at Masses November 2425 as well.

“All of us here can relate to those who are recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Sandy with its torrential rains and winds,” said a statement from Father Wayne LeBleu, secretary for the diocese’s Ministry of Pastoral Services. “We also remember the benefits of those who assisted us in our time of

need and we would like to offer our prayerful support and gifts to assist those in need at this time.”

Earlier in November, second collections to fund relief for hurricane victims were conducted by the Archdiocese of Boston and the Dioceses of Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, Pa., Orlando and Pensacola-Tallahassee, Fla., and Raleigh, N.C. A planeload of nonperishable food items — about 8,500 pounds — left Miami November 19 for the hard-hit Archdiocese of Santiago de Cuba to help the Catholic Church there feed people affected by the ravages of Sandy.

“This is an initial response to the devastation wrought by the hurricane in Cuba,” said Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami at a news conference at Miami International Airport an hour before the flight took off.

“This will allow the Church in Cuba to minister to the people that were most severely affected by the storm.”

The food — cans of tuna, Vienna sausages, Parmalat milk, rice, beans and other nonperishable staples — was collected by various groups in south Florida, including the Friends of Caritas Cuba; the LaSallistas, alumni of schools run by the De LaSalle Brothers in Cuba; the Municipios de Santiago en el Exilio, an exile group of former residents of the various towns in the province of Santiago de Cuba; and the

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Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, who have convents throughout the island.

The archdiocese also took up a collection over two weekends in November at all of its parishes to raise funds to aid those hit by Sandy in Cuba, Haiti up the East Coast.

“We purchased the remaining food products so we could have the plane take off at capacity,” Archbishop Wenski said.

Miami Air Cargo loaned the airplane and the pilots donated their time, he noted. Santiago Archbishop Dionisio Garcia Ibanez and representatives of Caritas Cuba were among those who received the shipment in Santiago.

Within the Archdiocese of Santiago, 100,000 dwellings were destroyed, along with 13 church buildings.

The Knights of Columbus tallied more than $500,000 in donations for Sandy’s victims.

The amount was announced by Supreme Knight Carl Anderson in Dallas at an annual meeting of Texas state leaders.

In addition to more than $450,000 being distributed by the Knights of Columbus Supreme Council in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut with the help of local Knights in the affected area, the organization also sent two truckloads of supplies, one to New York and one to New Jersey.

The Archdiocese of New York is distributing nearly $1 million raised through parish collections to those in the archdiocese hardest hit by Sandy. Catholic Chari-

ties’ Sandy Relief Fund will forward the money to pastors in hard-hit communities so that they can provide immediate help to about 1,000 families and individuals in need.

The Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation donated money to Catholic Charities’ Sandy Relief Fund, to the parishes that were damaged by the storm, and to other agencies, while the Cardinal’s Appeal has dedicated $500,000 for relief efforts.

A committee of pastors was to meet after Thanksgiving to begin to assess long-term needs.

St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn, N.Y., donated about 2,500 early Thanksgiving dinners November 17 to affected residents at Long Beach Regional Catholic School in Long Beach, one area in the Diocese of Rockville Centre hit badly by Sandy. Among those dining were needy residents, senior citizens and first responders. Nurses from the hospital’s community health department gave flu shots and blood pressure screenings at the dinner.

In the Diocese of Brooklyn, N.Y., which encompasses the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, all 200 parishes throughout the diocese were collecting nonperishable food items and supplies for relief efforts, and also took up a second collection to assist those in distress.

In addition, through Catholic Charities USA, a shipment of 480 boxes of food — each box feeding a family of four for one week — is being delivered to diocesan distribution centers,

along with cleaning supplies.

The Diocese of Metuchen, N.J., has established telephone and email help lines for those either needing help or wanting to give help at 732-387-1222 or helpline@ccdom.org.

In addition to a central donation and distribution center, the diocese has set up a dozen parish-based satellite distribution centers. “All donated items are welcome,” said a message on the diocesan website. “Through its help line, Catholic Charities, Diocese of Metuchen is doing its best to match needs with available resources.”

Catholic Charities in the Diocese of Camden, N.J., shut down its disaster relief operations and has switched to disaster recovery mode. According to an announcement on the diocesan website, it “will soon be coordinating clean-up crews to assist those inside and outside of our diocese. We will also continue to make special deliveries of relief supplies to parishes and communities.”

The four-county Archdiocese of Newark, N.J., which took special collections at Masses the last three weekends of November, “will distribute all donations equally at the recommendation of the four regional bishops of the archdiocese to help fund parish-based initiatives in their own counties to aid people affected by the storm, in areas such as food pantries, warming/charging centers, local shelters and clothing distributions,” said a message on the archdiocesan website.”

The Church in the U.S. Lawsuits’ dismissal called disappointing but won’t end legal challenge

December 7, 2012

WASHINGTON (CNS) — After judges in two separate rulings November 27 dismissed lawsuits filed by Catholic organizations and dioceses in Pennsylvania and Tennessee challenging the federal contraceptive mandate, Catholic leaders in both states expressed disappointment but also some hope the rulings left the door open to refiling their claims.

Two days later, a federal appeals court in St. Louis granted a temporary injunction against enforcement of the mandate while a Catholic business owner prepares an appeal of a lower court ruling that rejected his claim the federal requirement is a burden on his religious rights because he is morally opposed to providing contraceptive coverage.

In Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh Bishop David A. Zubik said that he was disappointed in the U.S. District Court ruling but “very encouraged that it was ‘dismissed without prejudice.’ That means that we have every right to file again in the future.”

The Diocese of Pittsburgh, along with Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Pittsburgh Inc., and the Catholic Cemeteries Association of Pittsburgh, filed suit in May against a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services mandate that requires employers to include coverage for contraceptives, sterilization and some abortion-inducing drugs free of charge, even if the employer is morally opposed to such services.

In Tennessee, the Nashville Diocese in a statement said the order of dismissal by the U.S. District Court there “does not foreclose the bringing of similar claims once the alleged administrative change to the mandate takes place.”

The Diocese of Nashville, joined by Catholic Charities of Tennessee, Father Ryan High School, Pope John Paul II High School, Mary Queen of Angels assisted living facility, Villa Maria Manor and St. Mary Villa Child Development Center and Aquinas College, which is owned and operated by the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia Congregation filed suit in federal court in mid-September against the HHS contraception mandate.

“The Diocese of Nashville and the seven Catholic entities continue to evaluate all of their options in light of the court’s decision,” it added.

In his ruling, Judge Terrence F. McVerry of the U.S. District Court for the western district of

Pennsylvania said the plaintiffs have not yet suffered harm from the mandate, because the government will not “enforce the challenged regulations against plaintiffs while accommodations are under consideration, and in any event no sooner than January 2014.”

He noted that the plaintiffs’ claims “are not ripe for judicial review and that the plaintiffs have not alleged an injury” under the existing law “sufficient to establish standing.”

The final rule on the mandate takes effect in August 2013.

The Obama Administration has put in place a yearlong period, called “safe harbor,” that protects employers from immediate government action against them if they fail to comply with the mandate.

On Jan. 1, 2014, the U.S. government begins imposing penalties on those who do not comply; the government also will fine individuals not covered by health insurance and employers that do not offer any coverage.

Bishop Zubik said the Pittsburgh Diocese and the other Catholic groups that filed suit will “now await in good faith the accommodation to religious freedom that the federal government has claimed it will offer,” but also stressed that “no modification to the original HHS mandate in regard to religious freedom has yet been made.”

He also noted that other courts “have reached differing conclusions in the challenges to the HHS mandate, so this remains fluid.”

“I do want to make clear, however, that we cannot and will not negotiate away our constitutional rights to religious freedom and religious expression,” he said.

The mandate, part of the Affordable Care Act, has a narrow exemption that applies only to those religious institutions that seek to inculcate their religious values and primarily employ and serve people of their own faith. It does not include a conscience clause for employers who object to providing such coverage.

In June, the administration finalized what it calls an accommodation, allowing those employers who object to providing contraceptives to pass on the costs of the mandated coverage to their insurance carriers or a third party, rather than pay for them directly. But many dioceses are self-insured, and Catholic officials say this policy offers

no fundamental change.

In his ruling, Judge Todd Campbell of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, said in his ruling that the plaintiffs’ case “is not ripe for adjudication,” adding that the “plaintiffs’ desire to plan for future contingencies that may never arise does not constitute the sort of hardship that can establish the ripeness of their claims.”

In St. Louis, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit put the federal contraceptive on hold in a suit brought by O’Brien Industrial Holdings, a company that mines and processes ceramic and raw materials, pending the outcome of the appeals process.

In September, a federal court rejected the claims filed

by Frank O’Brien, chairman of Industrial Holdings. The court ruled that the federal government’s contraceptive mandate was not a substantial burden on the employer’s religious rights.

The judge also said that as a secular company, O’Brien Industrial Holdings “by definition cannot ‘exercise’ a religion and therefore cannot assert claims under (the Religious Freedom Restoration Act) or the First Amendment Free Exercise clause.”

Francis Manion, senior counsel of the Washingtonbased American Center for Law and Justice, which represents O’Brien and his company, said the temporary injunction “clears the way for our lawsuit to continue” and “sends a message that the religious beliefs of employers must be respected by the government.”

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true spirit — Paper ornaments hang from a Giving Tree.

Scenes like this appear in churches across the Fall River Diocese and the country. If the Christmas shopping crowds, costs and commercialism are at odds with how one is trying to observe Advent and the celebration of the birth of Christ, there’s a burgeoning world of alternative ways of gift-giving that are vying for attention.

(CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz)

Creating ordinariate for Anglicans makes for a complex first year

BALTIMORE (CNS) — The slideshow on important events of the first months of the U.S. ordinariate for former Episcopalians who have become Catholic was one indication of its unusual characteristics. The photos of ordinations featured the priests’ wives and children, for one thing.

One photo showed a fatherson pair of new Catholic priests.

Another picture showed an unidentified bishop, apparently ordaining a priest, with a cartoonlike dialogue bubble asking, “What have I done?” For a presentation at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ annual fall general assembly, led by a member of the conference, about activities within a dioceselike entity, it was rather an extraordinary moment.

Hesitant chuckles were replaced by warm laughter as the bishops realized this was something a little different, in fact, a lot different. Msgr. Jeffrey

Steenson, who heads the ordinariate established by the Vatican this year, took to the podium November 12 to explain to the bishops the ins and outs of setting up what is officially known as the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter.

The former bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande who became a Catholic in 2007, Msgr. Steenson is both the only nonbishop in the USCCB and its only married member. He is a full voting member of the conference and his authority includes nearly everything a bishop does. But because he is married, he cannot be ordained a bishop and he may not ordain priests. Pope Benedict XVI’s 2009 apostolic constitution “Anglicanorum coetibus” provided for the establishment of ordinariates for former Anglicans who join the Catholic Church while retaining some of their Anglican traditions, spirituality and prayer.

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The Anchor Death and life in Advent

This space has been used quite a bit in the last six months to comment on the deaths of famous people and their relevance for us, who remain living on this earth (that chain of “obitutorials” ended when we failed to mark the passing of Phyllis Diller with an analysis of her humor and hairstyle). Today, back in the year 374 A.D., St. Ambrose was ordained bishop of Milan. Unlike the feast days of other saints, which we normally observe on the day of their deaths (due to that being the day of their birth into eternal life), we observe St. Ambrose today because he died on Holy Saturday, April 4, 397. If April 4 were his feast day, it would often be “bumped” by Holy Week and Easter Week.

St. Ambrose wrote a book upon the death of his brother. In it he said, “Death was not part of nature; it became part of nature. God did not decree death from the beginning; He prescribed it as a remedy. Human life was condemned because of sin to unremitting labor and unbearable sorrow and so we began to experience the burden of wretchedness.

There had to be a limit to its evils; death had to restore what life had forfeited. Without the assistance of grace, immortality is more of a burden than a blessing.”

In other words, Ambrose was saying that even before Christ died on the cross and opened Heaven for those who had embraced God’s will as well as they could before Good Friday, those people were blessed to not have had to remain alive on this earth endlessly, waiting for Christ to come. Their shadowy experience in Sheol, the reality for the “good” dead before Good Friday, was better than remaining on earth forever.

Blessed John Paul II explained back in 2002 what faithful Jewish people believed about Sheol. “According to the ancient conception of Israel, death introduced one into a subterranean existence, in Hebrew Sheol, where light was put out, life faded away and became almost ghostlike, time came to a halt, hope was extinguished, and above all there was no longer any possibility of calling upon God and meeting Him in worship.” Purgatory sounds delightful in comparison to this and yet, according to Ambrose, this was still better than wandering this earth endlessly.

The Church’s International Theological Commission in 1992 explained that Jewish thought on Sheol did progress from what the Holy Father described in the previous paragraph. The commission, in a document entitled “Some Current Questions in Eschatology,” wrote, “There began to appear the Israelite belief that the omnipotence of God could bring someone back from sheol (1 Sam 2:6; Amos 9:2; etc.). Through this faith the idea of a resurrection of the dead was prepared, the idea expressed in Daniel 12:2 and Isaiah 26:19, and at the time of Jesus widely prevalent among the Jews, with the notable exception of the Sadducees (cf. Mk 12:18). Faith in the resurrection [not that of Jesus, since it was before Christ, but in a future resurrection] introduced an evolution in the way of conceiving of sheol. Sheol was no longer conceived as the common domicile of the dead, but was divided as it were into two floors or levels, of which one was destined for the just and the other for the wicked. The dead remain there up to the last judgment, in which a definitive sentence will be pronounced; but already in these different “floors” they receive a due retribution. This way of conceiving matters … is presupposed in Luke 16:19-31,” when Jesus tells the story of poor Lazarus resting on the bosom of Abraham while the rich man (known as “Dives,” which is just the Latin word for “rich”) is suffering in torment, due to his sins of selfishness.

On December 7 we recall the many who died at Pearl Harbor on the “day that will live in infamy.” We entrust their souls to God, as we do the millions who died in World War II and those who are dying in wars right now. We pray for Americans and others, including our “enemies,” since we all were enemies of God when Christ died for us on the cross (cf. Romans 5:8).

We recall St. Ambrose and Pearl Harbor in the middle of Advent, trying to live out this time focused on Christ, while so many things in our society distract us from Him in this time of year (please see Father Cook’s homily on page eight and Frank Lucca’s column on page 17). The mystery of sin and death is the reason why we use the Advent Wreath — to remind us of the spiritual darkness, for the living and the dead, which existed before God the Son became incarnate about 2,016 years ago. With His coming, the “dawn from on high” broke upon us, as Zechariah said upon the birth of his son, St. John the Baptist.

We Christians are called to reflect that “dawn” in all the situations of our lives. We are called to bring the light of Christ into the darkness of those who are saddened at this time of year due to loneliness, death of a loved one, illness or some other reason. Throughout this edition (and almost every other edition of The Anchor) one can read about beautiful things which people are doing here in the diocese and throughout the world, bringing Christ’s love to people in darkness of one form or another.

We are also called upon the reflect that “dawn” in how we react to the “Christmas wars,” the controversies each year (especially in Rhode Island, it seems) about using the word “holiday” instead of “Christmas” and the banishing of more and more symbols because they might, even indirectly, refer back to Christianity (the main force for oppression, in some people’s minds). It began with Nativity scenes, then moved on to Christmas trees and Santa Claus. Just as winning the struggle over abortion will involve truly reaching out with love to everyone involved in the abortion “industry” (the parents, doctors, staff, activists, etc.) (Mike Williams, speaking November 10 at La Salette at the Abundant Hope Pregnancy Resource Center dinner, shared the successes which the Pro-Life movement has had using this tactic, causing many a clinic to close and the doctor to convert), so our victories in regards to Christmas truly have to be achieved using the tools of Christ, letting our swords become plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks (cf. Isaiah 2:4). In other words, we need to be kind to the store clerk who is forced to say “Happy Holidays” and in our complaints to management, we need to take the time to present what we say in a loving way, not in a hectoring reaction. Our goal is not to get a two-word greeting (“Merry Christmas”) but to be able to spend eternity with this person in the mansion prepared for the just by our Heavenly Father.

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December 7, 2012

The most prestigious sorority of all

he day before Thanksgiving was a mined her own struggles and gave her a model rare treat when I had no afternoon or of faith, femininity, freedom and good fun that evening appointments. I decided to download she could admire and appropriate. to my iPad Pope Benedict’s third and final The second crisis happened when she volume of “Jesus of Nazareth,” focusing on the was a college senior and her father Tom was Infancy Narratives, which had been released diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease. She the day before. gives a very moving account of not only her It’s a great journey into the mind and heart father’s virtues in his illness but the struggles of someone whom I believe one day will be she and her mother had in caring for him. The numbered among the greatest doctors in the first saint who came to her aid was St. Therese history of the Church. In it he examines the Lisieux, whose own father suffered with Gospel genealogies, Jesus’ conception, birth dementia for six years at the end of his life. and presentation, the visit of the Magi, the Holy The other was Blessed Mother Teresa, whose Family’s flight into Egypt and finding of Jesus struggles with spiritual darkness provided in the Temple and applies the truths he unveils Colleen with light to understand her father’s to our lives and to the life of the Church. sufferings and her own and helped her to emI anticipated, based on the first two volumes brace Christ in the midst of them. For anyone in the series, that the Infancy Narratives would with a loved one suffering from Alzheimer’s, occupy the rest of my day, but it’s much shorter this part of the book will move you and fill than the other volumes and took up only a you with hope. couple of hours.

The next challenge took place when ColSo, happily nestled in my comfortable chair, leen unexpectedly was offered a job as one I turned to another book I had downloaded a of President Bush’s speech-writers. She was few weeks prior, Colleen Carroll Campbell’s persuaded by her fiancé that it was an op“My Sisters the Saints.” Within minutes I portunity too good to pass up and she moved recognized I wasn’t going to be able to put it to D.C. While there was a certain exhilaration down. I also that came from grasped that, putting your even in comown words in parison to Pope the mouth of the Benedict’s new most powerful work — featurpolitician in the ing his characworld, it didn’t teristic lucidity make up for

By Father that has led me what she knew Roger J. Landry to devour more she was missing than three dozen with her family of his books and her fiancé. over the years — “My Sisters the Saints” was As she wrestled with what to do, she befriendgoing to be the best work I read the day before ed St. Faustina Kowalska, Jesus’ “secretary” Thanksgiving, and one of the most inspirational in giving to the world His message of Divine books I’ve read in years.

Mercy. Praying with her the Chaplet of Divine I met Colleen in August when she invited Mercy early each morning at the White House, me to New York to tape an episode for her she learned from her Polish sister the humility, EWTN series “Faith and Culture.” I had been trust and courage she needed to leave a dream impressed seeing her on television a couple of job at the White House and prioritize marriage times as well as reading some of her op-eds and family back home in St. Louis. for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, but I really The final trial she describes was to remain didn’t know much about her. Google soon faithful and hopeful despite several years of agtaught me she had been a speech-writer for onizing struggles trying to conceive a child afPresident George W. Bush as well as had writter her marriage. Wanting to remain true to the ten an important book — “The New Faithful: Church’s teachings that children are supposed Why Young Adults Are Embracing Christian to begotten of conjugal love not manufactured Orthodoxy” — that several people had recom- via in-vitro fertilization, yet worn down by mended but I had never had the chance to read. years of medical interventions, pressure from When we were conversing prior to the taping, I doctors, unsolicited advice from those who discovered we had several good friends in com- benignly thought they had all the answers, and mon and that we were both alumni of a great a litany of failed pregnancy tests, she was left summer seminar in Krakow, having missed in a moral and existential quandary. St. Edith each other by a year.

Stein’s writings on womanhood and spiritual For the program she wanted to talk about maternity helped her rediscover her femininhow Catholics can make a compelling case ity in light of her faith and fertility struggles. for the Church’s most controversial teachings, Colleen’s crisp, clear and comprehensible sumparticularly on contraception. It became obvimary of Stein’s theology of woman is the best ous over the course of our half-hour together I’ve ever read. In our sexually-confused age, not just that she’s a very poised and down-toI hope every woman — and every man who earth host, but is able to articulate the Church’s loves a woman and wants to figure her out! — teachings with clarity, personal warmth and will ponder it. freshness. Those traits are even more on display Merely seeing her fertility struggles through in her new book. the lens of faith, however, didn’t take away “My Sisters the Saints” is a riveting spiritual the pain. Her faith led her to turn in prayer to memoir in which Campbell illustrates how six another spiritual sister, the most famous saint female saints helped her endure, understand of all. Years of Memorares to the one whose and sanctify four different personal crises.

Immaculate Conception we’ll celebrate tomorAlong the way, we not only learn much about row led finally to Colleen’s and her husband’s Campbell and about the saints who accompaconceiving twins. And Mary continued to nied and inspired her through these trials, but, accompany all four Campbells through serious insofar as the ordeals she describes are not scares during pregnancy and childbirth. In this unique, we learn by entering into her experisection Colleen gives far more than a grateful ences how better to approach those and other tribute to an intercessor. She presents a beautiadversities with faith, courage and heavenly ful and accessible treatise on Marian devotion help. that will be helpful to all, and will provide The first crisis happened at Marquette special hope for those contending with similar University as an undergrad in the ’90s when fertility struggles. she became a self-described party girl who The best gifts we can give to others at kept the letter of her Catholic faith but not its Christmas, especially in this Year of Faith, are spirit. After hangovers and courses on radical those that can inspire them to live by faith. If feminism, however, she recognized that there you introduce your family and friends to Colhad to be something more to life than smashing leen Campbell this Christmas, she’ll bring over the patriarchy and the pursuit of pleasure. On her six saintly sisters who may impact their a trip home to St. Louis, her father gave her a lives even more than they’ve impacted hers. biography of St. Teresa of Avila, whose “spicy, Father Landry is Pastor of St. Bernadette messy and meandering spiritual journey” illuParish in Fall River.

Putting Into the Deep

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he liturgical season began on the first Sunday of Advent. This year it began on the weekend of December 1-2.

As one of the seasons of the year, I think Advent is the one most ignored, perhaps even lost in its celebration. Liturgically this season begins the new year for Catholics. The four weeks of waiting and preparation for Christ’s coming has as its purpose to help us to be spiritually ready and it prepares us for the celebration of Christmas.

Who waits for Christmas any longer? Years ago the Christmas push began the day after Thanksgiving Day. Each year the push moved ahead. Now before Halloween, Christmas decorations are in the stores and the catalogues keep coming. I can foresee that we will start the Christmas rush right after Labor Day in a few years.

The General Norms of the Roman Missal tell us that: “Advent has a two-fold character as a season to prepare for Christmas when Christ’s first coming to us is remembered; as a season when that remembrance directs our mind and heart to await Christ’s second

By Dave Jolivet, Editor

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The Anchor

December 7, 2012

Symbolism in the Advent Wreath

coming at the end of time. Ad- wreath. It provides light and vent thus is a period of devout warmth in the cold and darkand joyful expectation.” ness of winter.

Those characteristics do In Scandinavia during the not really come across in the winter, lighted candles were lives of most Christians. It is placed around the wheel and difficult to keep the spirit of prayers were offered to the Advent in a church. god of light to turn the “wheel With the dwindling resource of the earth” back toward the of volunteers to decorate for Christmas, little by little our churches can be eerily ready for Christmas by midAdvent. In some cases, it indeed has

By Msgr. to be that way, espeJohn J. Oliveira cially this year when Christmas Eve is on a Monday.

A popular symbol of Advent sun to lengthen the days and however, can be found in most restore warmth. churches. It is the Advent These and similar traditions Wreath. It serves to remind us lead to the Advent Wreath as of the Advent Season along we know it. with the purple vestments If we look at its symbolism, and Lectionary readings and perhaps we can appreciate it prayers. more and it will assist us to The use of the wreath is reflect on the true meaning of actually taken from a winter Advent. practice. It seems the farmers The greens that make the would take the wheels of the wreath signify continuous life. wagons used for harvesting The circle of the wreath, and put them up in the barn. which has no beginning or To add light to the barn durend, symbolizes the eternity of ing the cold winter months, God. He is the Alpha and the they would put candles on the Omega; He has no beginning

and no end. The circle also can symbolize the immortality of the soul and everlasting life found in Christ.

On each wreath are four candles that are lit successively for each week of Advent.

The color of three of them should be purple and one a rose color.

The purple is a symbol of the sacrifice, penances, etc. we make to prepare us for the celebration of the coming of Christ at Christmas. The color of the rose candle, lit on the third Sunday of Advent, comes from the mixture of purple and white. It is a season of penance (purple), yet it is time of joyful expectation (white). That special candle reminds us of the nearness of Christmas.

Tradition has it that each candle represents 1,000 years or together, the 4,000 years from Adam and Eve to the birth of Christ.

The progressive lighting of the candles symbolize the expectation and hope surrounding the Lord’s coming into the world and the awaiting of His second coming at the end of the world.

The priest at Mass on the first weekend of Advent may bless the wreath. He may use these or similar words: “My brothers and sisters, today we begin the season of Advent. We open our hearts to God’s love as we prepare to welcome Christ into our lives and homes. The candles of the wreath remind us that Jesus Christ came to conquer the darkness of sin and lead us into the light of His glorious Kingdom.”

The final prayer of blessing is this: “Lord God Your Church joyfully awaits the coming of its Savior, Who enlightens our hearts and dispels the darkness of ignorance and sin. Pour forth Your blessings on us as we light the candles of this wreath; may their light reflect the splendor of Christ, Who is Lord, forever and ever. Amen.”

May the Advent wreath remind you of the true meaning of Christmas. May the days of Advent be used to bring you closer to Him Who is the reason for the Season. God bless you and Happy Advent!

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

see me, a disabled priest.’ He responded, ‘They’re as handicapped and broken as anyone you’ll ever see. I have parishioners with black lung, cancer, alcoholism, broken marriages, and broken families.’”

One of the focuses of his missions and retreats is to help people discover what they can Father Patrick do with the Martin “gift side” of their disabilities, regardless what type.

In the 1990s, Father Martin was asked to take his teachings “on the road.” Since the time of that retreat in Pennsylvania, Father Martin has given more than 1,200 missions and retreats.

Father Martin told The Anchor, “My favorite biblical quote is Psalm 103:4, ‘Who redeems your life from the pit, Who crowns you with loving kindness and compassion.’ People don’t give God the proper credit.

Instead of crediting God with giving an affliction, they should

credit Him with providing a way to utilize the affliction. I don’t spend any more time praying to see again as you would praying to go blind.”

St. Francis’ pastor, Father Michael Ciryak told The Anchor that he heard of Father Martin through several people who come to him for spiritual direction. “These people are serious about their spiritual journeys, so I felt good about asking Father Martin to come,” he said.

“And, he’s coming at a time of year when it’s the darkest time of year. Father Martin is such a light to other people. What would be more appropriate than that?”

Father Martin will bring his unique and powerful message to St. Francis during the weekend Sunday Masses on December 15 and 16, preaching the homily at each. On December 17-19, he

will celebrate Mass at St. Francis at 7 p.m., again giving the homily. Monday’s topic will be “Who is this God Who loves us?”; Tuesday — “The forgiving God”; and Wednesday — “The scandal of suffering in the Face of a loving God.” “Many people question how God can let so much suffering go on in the world,” he added.

Father Martin will be available for Confessions and counseling each weekday from 9 to 11 a.m., and each weeknight at 6 p.m. “It will give people a chance to come and talk, and find God’s Christmas peace.

This is a perfect time of year for a mission. I love a parish that dares to have a mission a week before Christmas,” he quipped.

For more information, contact St. Francis of Assisi Parish at 508-673-2808.

Living the Faith

Swansea parish offers unique Advent mission

SWANSEA — Father Patrick Martin has spent the last four decades of his life on a mission — giving missions and retreats across “the entire Englishspeaking world,” he told The Anchor. One of the next stops on his incredible journey will be December 15-19 at St. Francis of Assisi Parish, 530 Gardner’s Neck Road in Swansea. The theme of his Advent mission will be “God’s love in our broken lives.”

While every mission and retreat given to spread the message of God’s love is different and pleasing to the Lord, Father Martin’s is unique in that he has been totally blind since he was nine years old, at which time meningitis took his sight away. “Not only did I lose my sight,” he said, “meningitis took away my memory of having seen at all.”

He said it was God’s way of not having him “spending my whole life worrying about not seeing. When it happened everyone went around saying, ‘Poor him.’ Even some doctors told my parents, ‘It would be better if he had died. What kind of life will he have now?’”

Father Martin went on to say,

“It was God smiling and saying, ‘Wait until you see what I’m going to do with him.’” What God did for him was to allow Father Martin to work with his disability to reach others with disabilities and “show the God’s love. Everybody has a disability. They’re different in different people.”

Father Martin began answering God’s call as a Brother.

“Back then, you couldn’t be ordained to the priesthood if blind,” he said. Sensing the young man’s calling, a bishop friend sought and obtained a special indult from Pope Paul VI, and that opened the door for him to become Father Martin.

He told The Anchor that in the 1970s, he was instructed to begin a ministry for the handicapped.

It was meant to help parents of disabled children, but at the first mission, the church was filled with “disabled adults.” Father Martin said, “It was then that the mission changed from ministry for the handicapped to ministry of the handicapped.

“In the 1980s I received a request from a priest in Pennsylvania to come and speak to his whole parish. I told him, ‘They’re not going to come and

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

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or many people at this time they are focused on getting ready for Christmas, getting their shopping done, putting up decorations, sending out Christmas cards, etc. (which often leads to anxieties or frustrations about this season). But what many are failing to do is focus on what and Who we celebrate: the coming of the Messiah Jesus Christ (and our anticipation and desire for His coming again in glory). We know Christ has come and redeemed mankind, and He now remains with us through His Bride and Body, the Church (and through her abiding presence in the Sacraments), and one day will come in His glory.

And although the giving of gifts, the decorating, the sending of cards, etc. are nice external expressions of the season to come, our primary focus should be our response from our heart and lives to our daily encounter with Christ.

As we continue in this holy season of Advent, we are given in the Gospel this Sunday the example of John the Baptist. As spoken of by

December 7, 2012

The Anchor

Preparing the way for the Lord

the prophet Isaiah, St. John are we preparing ourselves would be called by God to to encounter the Lord with a prepare the way for the Lord. greater heart? As we prepare He prepared others to be for Christmas, are we strivable to recognize and follow ing to help others prepare the the Christ, as well as having way for the Lord? For us to the humility to recognize be effective instruments for his own unworthiness and need for the Savior. The ScripHomily of the Week tures speak of so many people going Second Sunday out to see and hear of Advent John the Baptist (and many wondering

By Father if he was the mesKevin A. Cook siah). It was clear to them at first sight of St. John his passion for God, his love for God’s the Lord, we must always will and commands, and his look to see how well we are faith, humility, and courage. striving to know, love, and God used St. John’s example serve Him and change whatand words to touch countever is contrary to Christ in less hearts so they could be our lives (recognizing our more properly disposed for sins and the need to ask His the encounter with the Lord. forgiveness especially in the When the Lord came many Sacrament of Reconciliadid respond, but not all (even tion; our need to trust in the though John pointed to Jesus Lord more in the daily things as the Lamb of God). of our lives; the need to let Looking at St. John the go of certain attachments Baptist gives us the opto certain vices or material portunity to see how we are things). Striving all the more responding to Christ and to live what St. Peter speaks trying to lead others to Him. of in the second reading, to As we prepare for Christmas, conduct ourselves in holiness

and devotion.

The more we strive to grow in these areas, the more effective we will be to share the joy of Christ in a more genuine way. It is in this way we can help prepare the way of the Lord for others. God offers us so many opportunities in such ordinary settings. How often God puts people in our lives that we are called to bring closer to the Lord, or they are called to bring us closer to Christ. So often it is in the daily ordinary opportunities that God uses to prepare someone for something greater: using the gift of personal friendships, or when praying for people we know, or when we have the courage to speak the truth to someone with charity and humility. I think about how God used the love and example of Nikolle and Drana Bernai in their Marriage and the joyful living of their faith to move the heart of their daughter Gonxha to grow in her desire for the love of Christ (preparing her to be able one day to respond

to the Lord’s call to give her life for the poorest of the poor … she became Mother Teresa). Or how God worked through the friendship of a young man named Lolek and a friend Jan Tyranowski who taught Lolek about the writings of the Carmelite mystic St. John of the Cross and how that would impact the life of prayer for Lolek … he would later become Pope John Paul II. Let us ask the Lord for the grace to discover in greater ways the ultimate gift that God has given, His only begotten Son. May we be more willing to seek to know and love Him and rid ourselves or those things that take away from His love. As we prepare for Christmas, may we make more time to let our hearts encounter Him and seek to help others encounter Him, rather than focusing on things that may be nice but distract us and others from a gift that is eternal.

Father Cook is Pastor of Holy Family Parish in East Taunton, and Associate Director of Vocations and Seminarians for the diocesan Vocations Office.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. Dec. 8, Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Gn 3:9-15,20; Ps 98:1-4; Eph 1:3-6,11-12; Lk 1:2638. Sun. Dec. 9, Second Sunday of Advent, Bar 5:1-9; Ps 126:1-6; Phil 1:4-6,8-11; Lk 3:1-6. Mon. Dec. 10, Is 35:1-10; Lk 5:17-26. Tues. Dec. 11, Is 40:1-11; Mt 18:12-14. Wed. Dec. 12, Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Zec 2:14-17 or Rv 11:19a;12:1-6a,10ab; Lk 1:26-38 or Lk 1:39-47 or 707-712.

Thurs. Dec. 13, Is 41:13-20; Mt 11:11-15. Fri. Dec. 14, Is 48:17-19; Mt 11:16-19.

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startling sexual abuse scandal recently broke out in Great Britain. The villain was the late Sir Jimmy Savile, a celebrated (if talent-free) BBC disc jockey and children’s TV-show host who, it turns out, serially abused young women for four decades — perhaps as many as a thousand girls, according to investigators from Scotland Yard, one of the 14 police jurisdictions digging into his crimes. Yet Savile’s demonic behavior, according to Mark Steyn, made a chilling kind of sense, given our cultural moment: “For an ice-cold loner of limited social skills, Savile networked very efficiently. If celebrity is being famous for being famous, he took it to the next reductio: He was celebrated for being celebrated, a friend of policemen and politicians. There’s a particularly cringe-worthy photo from the Highland Games of the Prince of Wales beaming with delights as he spots his pal approaching. His Royal Highness

The abuse plague is universal

is wearing a kilt, Sir Jimmy a to tell, Mr. Savile prosecuted tartan version of his trademark his disgusting activities in a tracksuit. What 12-year-old manner that was very successstaggering from the dressing fully and skillfully concealed. room would want to take on a Experts in pedophile behavior confidant of palace and police? have pointed out that this is “Wherever he is now, I doubt the yodeling grotesque cares about his exposure. It seems to me he was a man who lived principally for sex — prodigious

By George Weigel amounts of anonymous, aberrant sex — and he concluded very rationally that contemporary celeb- often the case. People build rity in an infantilized culture long-range plans to put them was the perfect cover.” in contact with their targets.

As police investigations into These things are institutionthis predatory goon intensified, ally, it seems, very difficult to another controversy emerged: deal with.”

What did the BBC know about Now imagine what the New Sir Jimmy Savile, sexual York Times (and indeed every abuser, and when did it know other newspaper in America) it? The current director general would have written in 2002, or of the BBC, testifying before a since, if an American bishop Select Committee of the House had said that about a serial sex of Commons, had this to say abuser in his presbyterate. about one of his network’s While the Savile case was former stars and his crimes: breaking, reports of large-scale “So far as I have been able sexual abuse in Boy Scout

The Catholic Difference

troops were being released by court order. Those crimes, plus the extensive (if largely ignored) research on sexual abuse in U.S. public schools, plus heart-rending accounts of children sold into sex-slavery around the world, make clear that sexual assault on the young is a universal plague, not a disorder peculiar to any profession or institution.

That hard fact does not in any way excuse clerical sexual predation; nor do the facts about this plague absolve bishops who were malfeasant in their responsibilities as shepherds, or who trusted to psychology more than moral theology in making their decisions. But the facts — and the selective way they are dealt with in too much of the mainstream media — do suggest that the story-line declaring the Catholic Church a uniquely perverse institution is a lie; those who perpetrate it are either ignorant bigots, or

people with agendas other than the protection of young people, or both.

The Church, however, must always hold itself to a stricter standard. That is why the failure to make a full public accounting of the depredations of Father Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legionaries of Christ, is a grave mistake on the part of the Legion and the Holy See — as is the failure of the Legion and the Vatican to ask a very hard question: Is the community Maciel founded, and manipulated to facilitate his crimes, a work of God? No one can or should doubt that individual Legionary vocations to the priesthood are gifts of God; the fruits of those vocations testify to their authenticity. But the Legion itself?

Surely a religious community, and the Holy See, should be more self-critical and transparent than the BBC. George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.

December 7, 2012

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ome Catholics stop going to church or abandon their faith altogether citing inconsistencies or “errors” in the Catholic faith as their reason for straying.

In general they don’t present any philosophical or theological reason as to why they disagree with the Catholic Church’s teachings. Instead they will point to how faith is not consistent with science or that the Bible contains facts that don’t make sense.

Luckily, the misconceptions are not about the deep-rooted, complex beliefs that our religion is based on, but rather basic understandings that any Catholic should be able to explain.

One of these major misconceptions is the relationship between faith and science.

Faith is believing in something

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Faith does not contradict science

the basic tenets of the Catholic that we can’t observe or prove. religion. It includes believing in No experimentation or analysis has been done nor can be done to One God, Who is Almighty and prove beliefs and claims made by the Creator of Heaven and earth; Jesus Christ, the only Son of God faith. In a nutshell, it is trust or belief without definitive proof. Faith in the context of religion foRelating faith, cuses on questions and science and the beliefs pertaining to the spiritual, the afterBible life, and the supernatuBy Alex Pacheco ral. The definition of supernatural, as found in Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, is a Who was conceived by the power good one for our purposes: “Of of the Holy Spirit, Who suffered or relating to an order of exisand died for our salvation; the tence beyond the visible observable universe; especially: of or re- Holy Spirit; and life everlasting.

Science, on the other hand, is lating to God or a god, demigod, the study of the natural world and spirit, or devil.” For an example the laws and principles that govof faith, we can look at a few of

Our own unrepeatable today

on what marriage is. Is it any aving offered my wonder that there may be a initial response to the sense of foreboding about election of 2012, I promised what our children stand to a more positive column, inherit? and that promise is easy to In his homily reflectfulfill — Christ is risen, and ing the 50th anniversary of faith in Him is stronger than the opening of the Second death.

Vatican Council and the Although I missed livbeginning of the Year of ing in the 1950s by a hair’s Faith, Pope Benedict said, breadth, that decades’s “The Council did not formuculture was long celebrated late anything new in matters in movies, books, and music.

Whatever may have lain in the hearts and minds of that generation, from a distance the prevailing word that comes to mind is “convention.” Skirt

By Genevieve Kineke lengths, hair cuts, meal preparation, school discipline, and of faith, nor did it wish to cultural tastes were widely replace what was ancient. chosen by convention, and Rather, it concerned itself those who didn’t conform with seeing that the same (due to choice or poverty) faith might continue to be felt the opprobrium of those lived in the present day, that around them. Even church it might remain a living faith attendance on Sunday was in a world of change.” highly conventional, and the The Holy Father warned pews were filled on a regular against two errors, “anachrobasis. nistic nostalgia and runWhy were they there? It’s ning too far ahead,” — both impossible to tell, and it’s of which can tear us from probable that the motives Christ, Who is the same, were highly mixed — from yesterday, today, and always. person to person, and even Is it possible that when many within each heart. Which important virtues ran hand of us always does the right in hand with the popular thing for the purest of moculture, that people lost their tives? sense of Christ, Who is the Convention no longer measure of all things? Could drives us to Mass, or comit be that convention was mands our choices. Quite the embraced as a way of creatopposite. However much we ing order and stability rather may miss the “Donna Reed” than as a means of acknowlculture, the “Leave it to Beaedging our need for constant ver” milieu, we are living in renewal? Is it possible that a post-Christian era whose Christian piety had become members cannot even agree

The Feminine Genius

ossified and stale?

The recent election made clear that those human constructs — Christian or otherwise — are no longer welcome in this individualistic paradise. Human dignity, the sanctity of life, marital fidelity, and many normal expressions of virtue are scorned as anachronistic by those who have “run too far ahead.”

Is there anything positive in this? How can good come of it? First, it purifies our intentions — we must now do the right thing for the right reason, which is what mature Christians do. We must not be swept along with the mainstream, but stake a claim in a Church that is increasingly embattled. Secondly, it allows us to join myriad fellow Christians as martyrs — those called to witness as lamps amidst the creeping darkness, living lives of joy that springs from authentic faith. That means we choose to imitate Christ, not prevailing customs.

Surely, we weep over those who are shredded by the mounting sins, but that, too, will help focus our prayer lives on the One Who has redeemed us. That One is not couched in law, or convention, or political discourse: He is God, Who alone can save us from ourselves. Come, let us adore.

Genevieve Kineke lives in Rhode Island and can be found online at femininegenius.com.

ern it. Chemistry, geology, and physics are supported by experiments that observe and measure repeatable results. Everything that we experience with our senses as well as some things that we can’t, such as gravity and electricity, can be measured by science. Science doesn’t and can’t explain things that can’t be measured, such as why out of all the planets known to us, Earth is the only one chosen to support life. Moreover, science doesn’t attempt to explain human behavior, morals, or even why we’re on this earth. These questions are answered by philosophy, theology, and religion often based on faith.

It is understandable that someone might challenge God’s existence (after all, there is no scientific proof), but to say that gravity doesn’t keep us on the ground is absurd. Similarly, you don’t need faith to believe that Jesus of Nazareth walked this earth; records by the early historian Josephus show that a man named Jesus lived at that time and did “magic.” You do, however, need faith to believe

that Jesus is the Son of God. Also, we know that Mary existed and was Jesus’ mother. Whether or not she conceived Him “by the power of the Holy Spirit” is a matter of faith.

What many people fail to realize is that faith and science are compatible. In summary, it is important to keep in mind the difference between faith and science and the role that each one plays. Faith does not contradict science. Human behavior, our existence and the afterlife can’t be explained by science, so we rely on faith to comprehend these things that science can’t explain: the mysteries of God. We can accept what science can prove as fact and accept what the Church tells us through faith.

Editor’s note: For the next two editions, Alex Pacheco’s column on faith, science and the Bible will run. He is a junior at Bishop Stang High School in North Dartmouth. He is a parishioner of Espirito Santo Parish in Fall River.

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The Anchor

December 7, 2012

The Anchor

December 7, 2012

Duo keys on keeping Christ in Christmas

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

letins that Father Tim Goldrick was doing a presentation on the flowers of the crèche and we went down and found out there was this whole group and I thought, ‘well, I guess I am a crèche collector.’”

While she estimated she has about 100 different crèche sets in her collection, Engel said that’s modest compared to some of her

on eBay. If we don’t have a formal presentation planned, we do a HYANNIS — Having grown show-and-tell and everyone brings up in an Italian family, Christmas in their latest finds.” was always a “big deal” for Gina Engel thinks her fascination Cavalluzzo. with Nativity scenes stems from “Christmas Eve we always had her childhood. the big fish meal — we kept it up “We always had a manger even after we were no longer regrowing up and seeing Christ in the quired to abstain from meat,” she manger to me is a gift,” she said. told The Anchor. “My “Our huge manger scene mother never went as far started as something as to having to have seven small that my mother crefishes, but we did have ated by commandeering fish and we all went to my dolls and dressing midnight Mass together them. Then it just got bigand when we came back ger and bigger.” we had yet more food Cavalluzzo agreed and opened a few presthat the doll-like figures ents. It was always a very in a crèche can be a great food-focused holiday, but teaching tool. we never forgot about “It’s a way for children church.” to see that this is the true So it made sense that meaning of Christmas,” she would find a kinshe said. “It’s not all about dred spirit in friend and Santa Claus and getting roommate Cynthia Engifts. Giving to others is gel, whom she first met also part of it. Some peoin 1977 while both were ple don’t have enough to parishioners at Blessed give their children a lot Sacrament Parish in Manof presents, so we should hattan, N.Y. give something to the less “She was working in fortunate.” films and I was working Another aspect that in theater at the time,” Engel and Cavalluzzo Engel said. “We were at- Anchor Living stones — Cynthia En- have come to love about tending the same church gel, left, and Gina Cavalluzzo. (Photo by Ken- the various crèches neth J. Souza) and people said we have they’ve collected over the things in common and we years is how every culbecame friendly.” fellow society members. ture tends to put its own stamp on After an initial move to Cape “A lot of them are just small, mi- the birth of Christ.

Cod in 1986, the pair briefly re- nor sets but some of the members “Every culture depicts the Naturned to New York but when em- of the crèche society have elaboTurn to page 14 ployment opportunities changed rate, gorgeous sets,” she said. they found themselves lured back Although the Friends of the to Massachusetts where they Crèche boasts more than 400 memeventually settled in Hyannis and bers nationwide, Engel said the became active parishioners at St. decade-old Cape Cod affiliate has Francis Xavier Parish. about 20 members and of that only The move would be fortuitous about a dozen remain currently acin that it led to them becoming in- tive. volved with the Cape Cod Crèche “We have meetings once a Society, a local chapter of the na- month and we always try to do tional Friends of the Crèche orga- something crèche-related,” she nization. said. “One dealer spoke about dolls “About 10 years ago, they had of the crèche and I did a presentaan event at the Cape Codder Hotel tion on buying and selling crèches and we went and became interested,” Cavalluzzo said. “They filled the ballroom at the hotel with people and they had all kinds of sets and collections on display.”

“They held their national meeting here on the Cape and the people who put it together had such a wonderful time they ended up forming a local chapter,” Engel said. “In fact, we are the only local chapter of the Friends of the Crèche.”

Before attending the Cape Cod event, Engel didn’t realize there were so many people devoted to collecting crèches and Nativity sets.

“Like most collectors, I didn’t realize I was a collector,” she said.

“I just picked them up from time to time. I saw an ad in one of the bul-

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December 7, 2012

The Anchor

Pope calls on bishops to run charities better

Vatican City (CNA/ EWTN News) — Pope Benedict XVI has released an apostolic letter on charitable activities that asks bishops to improve their supervision of local charities and ensure that these groups’ work does not contradict Catholic teaching.

The pope’s six-page letter, released December 1, notes the duty of the diocesan bishops and parish priests to see that in charitable service the faithful “are not led into error or misunderstanding.”

Bishops and parish priests “are to prevent publicity being given through parish or diocesan structures to initiatives which, while presenting themselves as charitable, propose choices or methods at odds with the Church’s teaching,” he said.

Benedict XVI’s “motu proprio” letter, a document written on the pope’s own initiative, gives new regulations on how to better organize the Church’s charitable activities.

“I intend to provide an organic legislative framework for the better overall ordering of the various organized ecclesial forms of the service of charity,” said the pope, referring to those organizations closely related to the ministry of the bishop and the “diaconal nature” of the Church.

The pope noted that the diversity of those initiatives is “a manifestation of the freedom of the baptized, who use their own unique gifts to respond to the call of charity.”

The pontiff said that these initiatives must adhere to Catholic teaching, conform to the inten-

tions of the faithful and respect legitimate civil regulation, adding that it is the bishops’ responsibility to ensure this.

“Charity must express a genuine love for people, a love animated by a personal encounter with Christ,” Pope Benedict said, warning that Catholic charities must avoid becoming “just another form of organized social assistance.”

“In carrying out charitable works the Catholic organizations shouldn’t limit themselves merely to collecting and distributing funds, but should also show special concern for individuals in need,” he continued.

“They should exercise a valuable educational function within the Christian community, helping people to appreciate the importance of sharing, respect and love in the spirit of the Gospel of Christ.”

The pope had specific praise for the international Catholic charity Caritas, which works in disaster relief and in human development. He said that Caritas is an organization that has earned the esteem and trust of people around the world for its “generous and consistent witness of faith and ability to respond to the needs of the poor.”

“The bishop is to encourage in every parish of his territory the creation of a local Caritas service or a similar body, which will also promote in the whole community educational activities aimed at fostering a spirit of sharing and authentic charity,” he said.

The U.S. members of Caritas are Catholic Relief Services and Catholic Charities USA.

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

facing north — North (Alec Baldwin) welcomes Jack Frost (Chris Pine) in this scene from the animated movie “Rise of the Guardians.” For a brief review of this movie, see CNS Movie Capsules below. (CNS/DreamWorks Animation)

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

“Killing Them Softly” (Weinstein) Brutally violent, deeply cynical crime drama in which a trio of small-time thieves (Vincent Curatola, Scoot McNairy and Ben Mendelsohn) plots a raid on a mafia protected gambling den, hoping to pin the blame for their heist on the card dealer (Ray Liotta) who runs the operation. But their initial success begins to unravel when a businesslike Cosa Nostra middle manager (Richard Jenkins) sets a relentlessly professional hit man (subdued, smoldering Brad Pitt) on their trail. Writer-director Andrew Dominik uses sound bites from the 2008 financial crisis to suggest a moral equivalence between Wall Street and organized crime.

He also employs then-Sen. Barack Obama’s soaring rhetoric from the same year’s presidential campaign to imply that the American dream is an idealistic delusion. As embodied in Pitt’s casually murderous character, and that of another killer who’s on the skids (James Gandolfini), Dominik’s corrosive satire goes deeper still, undermining all notions of morality and, indeed, of meaning. Excessive graphic violence, including gruesome murders and a prolonged, bloody beating, drug use, brief partial rear nudity, a prostitution theme, seamy sexual talk, numerous instances of profanity, pervasive rough and crude language.

The Catholic News Service classification is O — morally offensive.

The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R — restricted.

Under 17 requires accompanying

parent or adult guardian.

“Rise of the Guardians” (Paramount) Delightful 3-D animated adventure, based on books by William Joyce and focusing on the destiny of the legendary bringer of winter, Jack Frost (voice of Chris Pine).

Free-spirited and mischievous, youthful Jack is also lonely and uncertain of his purpose in life until he’s invited to join the Guardians, a force of mythical characters who protect children against the machinations of the Bogeyman (voice of Jude Law). Jack’s newfound comrades include Santa Claus (voice of Alec Baldwin), the Easter Bunny (voice of Hugh Jackman), the Tooth Fairy (voice of Isla Fisher) and the mute but cheerful Sandman. In his feature debut, director Peter Ramsey, working from a script by David Lindsay-Abaire, pits hope and wonder against fear and self-doubt in a tenderhearted and touching film entirely free of objectionable content. Perilous situations. The Catholic News Service classification is A-I — general patronage. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG — parental guidance suggested.

Some material may not be suitable for children.

“The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2” (Summit) This fifth and final installment of the popular franchise sees its domesticated vampire hero (Robert Pattinson) and his once-mortal, but

now undead bride (Kristen Stewart) enjoying both married life and newfound parenthood. But when their half-human, half-bloodsucker daughter (Mackenzie Foy) is mistaken for a type of being long banned by the ruling clique of the vampire world, a conflict erupts between the young couple’s allies (most prominently Taylor Lautner, Peter Facinelli and Elizabeth Reaser) and the elite defenders of the established order (led by Michael Sheen). Themes of family loyalty, tolerance for others and the corrupting effects of power underlie the easy-to-laugh-at but undeniably entertaining proceedings of director Bill Condon’s gothic romance — adapted, like its immediate predecessor, from novelist Stephenie Meyer’s blockbuster “Breaking Dawn.” Parents will have to assess how well mature adolescents may cope with the unsettling means by which the vein-drainers dispose of each other during a climactic battle — essentially gore-free decapitation, followed by burning — as well as with scenes of intimacy between the central pair. Some harsh but bloodless violence, fleeting gore, semi-graphic marital lovemaking with partial nudity, a couple of crass terms. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III — adults.

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

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on WLNE Channel 6 Sunday, December 9, 11:00 a.m.

Celebrant is Father Andrew Johnson, Pastor of Good Shepherd and St. Stanislaus parishes in Fall River.

December 7, 2012

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Catholics strongly support new Mass translation after first year

Washington D.C. (CNA) — One year after the Church introduced revisions to the Englishlanguage Liturgy, an overwhelming majority of Catholics continue to view the changes in a positive light.

A new poll finds that 70 percent of U.S. adult self-identified Catholics agree with the statement, “Overall, I think the new translation of the Mass is a good thing.”

The poll, conducted in September 2012 by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, sought to gain an understanding of how adult Catholics perceived the third edition of the Roman Missal that went into use on Nov. 27, 2011.

The overwhelming majority of respondents either agreed, 50 percent, or strongly agreed, 20 percent, that the new translation is a good thing.

Catholics who attend Mass at least once a week were most likely to approve of the revised Liturgy, with more than 80 percent agreeing that it was a good thing.

However, even among those who rarely attend Mass, more than 60 percent approved of the new translation.

Respondents who said that 2012 survey and a similar study lence.” they had noticed great changes in conducted by the Center for ApThis method, which was used the Mass were more likely to view plied Research in the Apostolate in the previous edition, sought to the new translation in a negative in 2011, before the revised Liturgy translate the Latin into the ordilight, compared to those who had was in use. nary “language of the people.” noticed moderate changes, small The results of the new survey However, it was replaced with a changes or none at all. more literal and accurate Commissioned by translation in the third edin the meantime, he suggested, it is tion of the Roman Missal the Institute for Policy good for priests to continue preach- in order to restore some of Research and Catholic Studies at The Catholic ing on the texts of the Mass, particularly the theological meaning University of America, when they fit in closely with the readings. that may have been lost. the survey asked parWhile every generaticipants whether they tion included in the surhave a good undervey demonstrated a posistanding of the meaning of the were first presented by Father An- tive view of the new translation, prayers recited by the priest and thony J. Pogorelc of The Catholic Father Pogorelc said that age difpeople at Mass, and if the words University of America at a recent ference could have an impact on of those prayers make it easier for meeting of the Society for the Sci- how different groups are reacting them to participate in the Mass. entific Study of Religion and the to the changes.

They were also asked whether Religious Research Association in For example, while they overthose prayers of the Mass help Phoenix, Ariz. whelmingly believe the changes them feel closer to God and in“This is a preliminary study,” to be a good thing, members of spire them to be a more faithful Father Pogorelc told CNA, add- the pre-Vatican II generation, born Catholic in their daily lives. ing that various follow up projects before 1943, may find the new In each case, at least three-quar- could be conducted to explore Liturgy challenging, struggling to ters of respondents either agreed why people have responded in remember the new responses due or strongly agreed. Catholics who various ways. to their age, he said. attend Mass more regularly were Those who do not see the The millennial generation, more likely than others to strongly changes to the Mass as a good born in 1982 or later, shows the agree with each statement. thing may have a poor under- highest rate of dissatisfaction with Among weekly church-goers, standing of the new texts, he ex- the new translation, although even there were no significant differ- plained, or they may think that it is among this group, nearly 60 perences between the responses to better to translate the Liturgy us- cent approve of the changes. these questions in the September ing a method of “dynamic equivaWhile the reasons for this

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job well done — Michael J. Donly, right, displays the Timothy Cotter Friend of Catholic Education Award moments after receiving it from Bishop George W. Coleman during the recent St. Mary’s Education Fund Fall Dinner program. Donly retired this year after 44 years of service to the Fall River Diocese, for the past 15 years as the first director of its Development Office and prior to that as headmaster and teacher at Coyle and Cassidy High School in Taunton. (Photo by John Kearns)

Marian Medals Ceremony Available on DVD The November 2012 Marian Medals Awards Ceremony is available on DVD from the Diocesan Office of Communications. The DVD cost is $24.95. To obtain one, please forward a check in that amount payable to the Diocesan Office of Communications, Diocese of Fall River, P.O. Box 7, Fall River, Mass., 02722. Shipping is included in the video cost.

are not clear, Father Pogorelc suggested that it may be tied to findings in other studies that this younger generation is less affiliated with religion and churches in general.

In addition, he said, social factors could influence this group of Catholics. For example, the decline of the family meal could be leading to a weaker understanding of “ritual” in connection with the Mass.

“It would be interesting to explore this a bit more, now that we have this basic data,” Father Pogorelc said, observing that perhaps focus groups could be assembled in the future to better assess people’s understanding of the liturgical changes at a deeper and more thorough level.

In the meantime, he suggested, it is good for priests to continue preaching on the texts of the Mass, particularly when they fit in closely with the readings.

Much of the Mass references Scripture, he observed, and “integrating some of the texts of the Mass into the preaching” can show the people the close connection between the two.

“I think that kind of thing can be very helpful,” he said.

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December 7, 2012

Mass remembering loss of unborn children is tomorrow

Living Stones: Keep Christ in Christmas

the charitable action of praying for those who died while still unable to pray themselves,” Father Williams said of this unique celebration. “I always tell people that there is no greater act of love than to pray for someone else who is in need, and I think that this is especially the case with children who died before birth.

Each of us should realize how much we stand in need of God’s mercy, and at the same time, commend others to the mercy of God as well.”

Father Williams said the Mass is not only offered for the souls of those innocents who died in the womb, but also for those expectant parents and family members who experience the loss.

“Each child leaves behind a father, a mother, and other family members who grieve their passing,” he said. “While the Mass will be offered for the intention of the peaceful repose of each child’s soul, we hope to offer consolation to all those who mourn their passing as well.”

Not long after her mom passed away, Davis said a close friend also experienced a surprise pregnancy, followed by the sudden shock of a miscarriage.

“The unnamed loss she experienced was obvious to me, but I felt unsure what to do and helpless to help,” she said.

But she was able to use the experience of dealing with her own mother’s grief to comfort her friend.

Most importantly, she convinced her to give the child a name, so she could talk to and pray for the baby.

“For my mom, giving her child a name appeared to be healing,” she said. “Maybe because the naming of the child validated

tivity scene in the way they see Christ,” Cavalluzzo said. “We might see him as a western European or simply with a little Middleeastern flair, but the Japanese, the Chinese — they all see Christ in their own way. And that’s the way it should be: Christ is in everybody.”

While variety may be the spice of life, Engel does draw the line when it comes to Nativity depictions featuring animals dressed up as the Holy Family.

“There’s something about dogs or bears dressed up that seems a bit disrespectful,” she said. “I don’t like seeing animals dressed up for a Nativity scene.”

“It also detracts from the holiness of the scene,” Cavalluzzo agreed. “It reduces it to a cartoon.”

When asked about Pope Benedict XVI’s recently-published book, “Jesus of Nazareth — The Infancy Narratives,” in which the Holy Father’s research revealed there was no evidence that the traditional cattle, donkeys and other animals were actually present during the birth of Christ, Cavalluzzo suggested St. Francis of Assisi may have gotten “a little carried away” when he first popularized the crèche scene as we know it today.

“But then again, he was Italian,” she joked. “I think the animals commonly depicted in the Nativity scene are those that were indigenous to Bethlehem, but St. Francis used other animals that were there in Assisi when he created the first crèche.”

As can be expected, Engel and Cavalluzzo began in earnest decorating their house for Christmas right after Thanksgiving.

“We decorate for every season and we had pilgrims all over the house, so they went away and we brought out the snowmen and crèches,” Engel said, adding the Christmas season culminates with a big party on the Feast of the Epiphany. “It’s always held on January 6, whatever day of the week it falls on.”

Tomorrow, on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, they’ll join the crèche society for a special daylong sale being held at Christ the King Parish in Mashpee.

“We’ll be open for business right after the 8 a.m. Mass — it’s a holy day of obligation — and I think we’re planning to stay open until after the 4 p.m. Mass,” Cavalluzzo said.

The event will feature a wide variety of Christmas items, including more than a few coveted crèche sets.

When they’re not busy decorating or getting together with their crèche society friends, the duo also keeps active with parish ministries.

Engel is a longtime lector at the parish, while Cavalluzzo serves

continued from page one

the ‘invisible’ loss she had been feeling.”

As such, all parents and family members have been invited to offer the names of the children they’ve lost for a special “Book of Names” that will be available at St. John the Evangelist, St. Joseph and Holy Ghost parishes, all in Attleboro, until tonight.

Those names will be read during tomorrow’s Liturgy.

“Giving the unseen child a name is an important part of these special Masses,” Davis said. “Knowing how healing this naming process was to my mother and feeling helpless to support my grieving friend gave me the courage to present the idea of the Mass to Father Murray last year.”

Father Williams said it is important to offer prayers for all children who die before birth — be they victims of a miscarriage, stillbirth or an abortion.

“We, as Catholics, need to show a true compassion — a word that literally means ‘suffering with’ (cum-passio) — to those mourning the death of a child before birth,” Father Williams said. “In particular, we need to always be ready to reach out to those suffering in the aftermath of an abortion. The suffering faced by the mother and father of an aborted child must be met with an attitude of ready forgiveness and love, to help bring about reconciliation and healing.”

“Parents and family members who survive a miscarriage, stillbirth or abortion grieve in different ways and at different times,” Davis added. “Letting them lead the process — accepting them, validating them, being patient with them, and referring them to appropriate resources can be helpful.”

This week in 50 years — H. Frank Riley, president of the diocesan St. Vincent de Paul Society, and Mrs. Gilbert Noonan, announced that the eighth annual Bishop’s Charity Ball would take place Jan. 9, 1963 at Lincoln Park in Dartmouth.

25 years — The Fall River diocesan Office of Communications, under the direction of Father John F. Moore, assisted by John E. Kearns Jr., received an Award of Merit for its Parish Communication Packet in the Catholic Communication Campaign 1987 Proclaim Awards program.

Now in its second year, Davis is pleased that the Mass of Remembrance for Pre-Born Children is on its way to becoming a fixture within the Fall River Diocese.

“The Mass was set-up to give the Catholic community a way to comfort those who are grieving,” she said. “Catholics can attend this Mass with their loved ones. Simply being present to acknowledge the loss and pray for the family is a supportive act.”

And with the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade looming just around the corner, Davis said there’s no better time to remember and celebrate God’s great gift of life.

“Perhaps the culture of death in our society is able to thrive because we as Catholics have forgotten our call to live the Gospel message,” she said. “We can begin to turn the tide away from the culture of death by taking a personal inventory of our own thoughts, words and actions and continue to make the daily changes needed to promote the Gospel of Life.”

“We must pray to discern how God is guiding us to build a culture of life,” Father Williams added. “While it’s easy to point out all of the things that are wrong in our society, it’s more difficult to take concrete steps to make our culture a more welcoming place for life. We have to ask ourselves, are we prepared to help support a young mother who is facing a difficult pregnancy, or contribute to the costs associated with raising a child, or help bring healing to those suffering after an abortion?

“The act of building a culture of life must begin on the local level — in our families, our parishes, our schools, and our local communities.”

Diocesan history

10 years — La Salette Shrine in Attleboro opened its 40th Festival of Lights, offering an expected one-half million visitors the spectacle of more than 150,000 lights. The theme of the festival was “Lord of All Nations.”

One year — Composer and music minister Tom Kendzia presented a workshop for fellow music ministers from about a half-dozen parishes in the diocese at St. Margaret’s Parish in Buzzards Bay. He began his discussion by noting that a recent poll of Catholics indicated the two most popular reasons for attending Mass were the homily and the music.

continued from page 14

as extraordinary minister of Holy Communion.

“I was intimidated to get involved at first,” Cavalluzzo said.

“I can talk to people one-on-one, but I did not want to get up on the altar. But giving out Communion you don’t have to talk to anyone and you’re giving them Christ. It’s a very humbling experience.”

Both women are also active members of the parish’s St. Vincent de Paul Society, which sponsors a food pantry every Tuesday and Friday and provides meals on Thanksgiving and Christmas.

“We had beautiful Christmas cards printed up and when you buy one for $25 you feed a family,” Cavalluzzo said. “Inside the card it says a donation has been made in your name to feed a needy family.”

She suggested this simple act of generosity is an ideal Christmas gift for someone “who has everything.”

“I can remember I had a couple of older aunts and they didn’t want or need another fruit basket,” she said. “I was always running out of ideas of what to get them. So this way a family gets fed, someone gets a special gift, and you feel good about it.”

There’s also the Prayer Shawl Group that meets weekly at the parish.

“We knit the prayer shawls and we also do hats and mittens for kids in the winter,” Engel said. “You can do it on your own time — you don’t have to attend all the meetings — and the shawls are beautiful.”

Cavalluzzo said the handmade blessed shawls are provided to the sick, expectant mothers, or anyone in need of prayers.

“If you have a husband or wife who has been deployed, they can request one, too,” she said. “You don’t have to be terminally-ill — everyone needs prayers. People say it helps them feel protected and loved and like someone is giving them a hug.”

“There have been some people who have even been buried with their prayer shawls — they found them so comforting,” Engel added.

With the increasing secularization of Christmas in our society, Engel and Cavalluzzo remain committed to keeping Christ in Christmas.

“I think it’s important for us to keep reminding people of the reason for the season,” Engel said.

“Although not as important as Easter … Christmas is very important to our faith. You want the emphasis not just to be on Santa Claus — who is a great guy — but on the birth of Christ.”

To submit a Living Stone nominee, send an email with information to fatherwilson@anchornews.org.

I

’ve written quite a few times about how animals have an instinctive nature about them when it comes to taking care of their own, or even we humans.

Dogs will go to unthinkable extremes for their alpha dogs.

Dolphins are well-known for their concern and courage. And of course there’s the story of Jambo the gorilla who watched over a five-year-old boy who had fallen into the gorilla cage at the Jersey Zoo back in 1986. Jambo’s story is now out on DVD. But sometimes humans, too, can display that instinctive nature to take care of someone or something less fortunate or in

It’s enough to make a gorilla proud

these past few Christmases by dire straits. the unconditional love shown We see it often with works by a small group with no church of charity in our parishes and affiliation. in parishes across the U.S. and the world every day of the year, and particularly around Christmas, when, as the gentleman in Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” says to Scrooge while soliciting Christian

By Dave Jolivet charity, “We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when want Emilie attends Diman Regionis keenly felt, and abundance al High School in Fall River. It’s rejoices.”

It’s no surprise when Christian not a Christian school (although it is named after Father John Hugh church groups act in this manor.

Diman who founded the school).

But my heart has been warmed

My View From the Stands

Parish launches Year of Faith radio ads continued from page one

as the Apostles, it was not intentional. The outline for the radio ads was simple. The design was to create varied and non-scripted answers, with participants using a list of questions to help prompt them on what to say.

“Just simple questions like, what brings you to Mass on Sunday?” said Dellamorte. “How do you live your faith life with your children? How have the Sacraments impacted you? Just some big, open-ended questions, and one by one these 12 went into a radio booth, were asked these questions, and the people would talk two to three minutes on any given subject.”

Even with no outline of trying to hit certain points when stating their answers, the responses were so organic and insightful that the results went beyond anyone’s expectations. The participants told stories that were significant to them and when the group began to sift through transcripts made of the recordings to whittle the answers down to fit the 30-second ads, Dellamorte said, “There were so many gems in so many diverse areas.”

The final product is each ad opens with Father Harrison’s voice stating, “This is Father George Harrison, pastor of Corpus Christi Parish in East Sandwich bringing you another Year of Faith moment,” and the following are a few examples of the ads: “The Lord literally guides everything I do every day,” says a male voice. “The Catholic Church, it’s not a hotel for saints, it’s a hospital for sinners and we all stumble but it’s great that we have direction to get closer to the Word of God.” “I was a non-practicing, vaguely Christian,” said a different male voice. “My understanding of what the Church means to me; it’s many things. It’s an opportunity to worship. It’s a community that provides strength

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The Anchor

December 7, 2012

and support. That’s what was always inspiring to me, how you could move through life so guided by your faith.”

“Sunday morning is family time and Church time,” says a female voice, adding that the Church keeps her priorities in order. “God first, family second, friends next.”

Dellamorte said that the ads run the gamut and having lay people as the leading voice in each ad makes the ads work on a sincerely faith-driven level; “You just couldn’t have planned it,” said Dellamorte of the stories. “To me, that’s when you see the Holy Spirit coming through.”

It isn’t just the people giving witness; the background music is also of note. The whole commercial is set upon a piece of music that was recorded by the parish’s music director, Bridgette Wargovich. “Veni creator Spiritus” which means “Come Creator Spirit,” is a summoning of the Holy Spirit.

“We thought that was important because the ad opens up with ‘Veni creator Spiritus’ and is calling the Holy Spirit,” explained Dellamorte.

Father Harrison closes out each ad with the words, “We at Corpus Christi Parish in East Sandwich invite you. Come. Let

he who is thirsty, come.”

“That’s a Scripture passage from the last part of the Book of Revelations. We have roadside banners visible that say, ‘Come.

Let he who is thirsty, come,’” said Dellamorte of the roadside banners that echo what is said in each commercial.

The two stations chosen to air the ads, WQRC 99.9 and WKPE 103.9, favor a younger demographic, said Dellamorte.

The ads run the first two weeks of every month, with all 12 ads being cycled through by one station during the first week and the second station during the second week. Even though the ads haven’t been running for that long, the feedback has been positive.

“I think all of our hopes are that it will bring some people back to the Church that may have been away or forgotten the true value of our faith and the Church,” said Dellamorte.

All 12 ads can be found on the Corpus Christi Parish website.

Go to www.corpuschristiparish. org, click on Year of Faith from the list on the left side of the screen, then scroll down to the bottom of the screen on the right side to the Year of Faith radio ads player box.

In her vocational shop time, she and her classmates have been together for four years now. They are teen-agers from all faiths, if any at all, and different backgrounds and ethnicities. Yet, they have one common thread. The genuinely love each other.

They are also typical teens, and as such, they enjoy this time of year a great deal, anticipating the season, and what they’ll find beneath the tree this year.

Not so typically, they see there are those in their pod who may not have much, if anything beneath the tree, if there’s a tree at all.

These teens feel bad for their classmates, but they also realize feeling bad isn’t enough.

For the second year in a row, they’ve taken it upon themselves to chip in to put a smile on their friends’ faces come Christmas.

There has been no guidance from teachers or parents. It’s all their doing.

Some of these teens are Catholic or other Christian faiths, some are of a faith other than Christian, and others have no faith of which

to speak.

But there’s something in their hearts that unites them. This small group of friends are in the process of making Christmas special for a couple of their peeps who for one reason or another won’t have much of a Christmas without them. They’re putting smiles on faces.

I watch these young people in action and see a love for each other that’s unconditional. To me that only comes from one source.

Christ.

It warms my heart to know that Christ is in their hearts and some don’t even know it. I have a feeling they will some day.

Each one, a “Diman” in the rough.

In the meantime, I also sense that Jambo the gorilla would be proud of Emilie and her mates.

And some day, when Christ thanks them for “feeding Me when I was hungry,” some will say, “When did I feed You when You were hungry?” Jesus will respond, “On My birthday, remember guys?”

That’s enough to make a gorilla proud. A dad too. And that’s also enough to put a smile on this dad’s face this Christmas.

16

Youth Pages

emergency preparedness — The kindergarten class at St. Mary’s, Mansfield, received a visit from Lieutenant Sherrill of the Canton Police Department, who explained the role of the local police, when and how to dial 911, and gave each child the chance to sit in her patrol car!

spreading knowledge — The fifth-graders at Holy Name School in Fall River recently made butter out of heavy whipping cream. It took about 20 minutes of hard shaking the glass jar to convert the cream into creamy butter.

The students needed to pour off the butter milk. The students decided it was much easier than using a churn! They wrote a procedure detailing the steps.

The best part was eating the butter on Portuguese sweet bread and crackers.

going once, twice ... — Students in Kathleen Harrington’s second-grade class at St. John the Evangelist School in Attleboro hold a monthly auction to award good behavior. Every week, the students keep track of their good deeds on a chart.

For each day with no check marks against their behavior, the students each receive one “Harrington Dollar.” Every month the students bid on donated items. The purpose of the auction is to encourage children to make good choices and to think about economics and choices about spending.

December 7, 2012

common cause — Hoping to educate the Coyle and Cassidy community pertaining to health-related issues, Anne Marie Pavao of the science department started a Health Club. Each month of the school year is dedicated to educating the students at the Taunton school on a new trending topic such as anti-bullying. Students and faculty wore orange wrist bands and shirts in a sign of solidarity for this issue.

SPREADING CHRISTMAS CHEER — Faith Formation students of St. Mary’s Parish in Fairhaven brought their voices and bright smiles to the residents of Our Lady’s Haven in Fairhaven. Wearing Christmas hats and jingling bells, the 11 students walked through the halls of the nursing home singing Christmas carols and handing out homemade Christmas cards colored by the youngest members of the Faith Formation program. Sharon McGraw is the organizer of the annual event that is now in its fourth year.

the choice is theirs — Faculty, staff and students of St. James-St. John School in New Bedford recently cast their votes in a mock election.

Youth Pages

December 7, 2012

J

ust gotta have that new iPad 4. Can I have it … can I, can I, can I PLEEEEEZZZZ? Does this sound like one of your younger brothers or sisters? Does it sound like you?

Or perhaps it’s the sound of your dad pleading for the latest and greatest tablet with retina display to hit the streets … ever?

This is the time of the year that most of us think about getting and giving stuff. We make the list and we check it twice.

We don’t want to disappoint or be disappointed by those whom we love. We need to find the latest video or toy, LED TV — the bigger, the better — the iPad Mini or any other item that we know we just can’t live without and that will truly make us happy … this year.

Then we hear about those who are going without. We see that our parishes sponsor Giving Tree projects or collect food and money for those less fortunate.

We see people drop a dollar into those red pots staffed by those wonderful volunteers outside of the mall. And we hear about those that make annual pilgrimages to La Salette Shrine. We feel for those people who don’t have the stuff. We want to help … some day.

As a young person in today’s world, you are pulled in

17

Just gotta have it

many directions. You’re told stuff she had. I’ll never forget that you need and should want when she turned to the person stuff and others tell you that and said, “I’m not spoiled. I’m you shouldn’t want stuff. The blessed!” Wow, what wisdom difficulty is that you get a mixed from the mouths of babes! And message. Unfortunately for she was right. We are blessed. most, the “you need and should We have been given so much. It want stuff” message is usually was at that point that we realized stronger and better received than how much we had to give back. the “you shouldn’t want stuff” message.

I have to admit to all of you that, even though I’ve been working at it, I still have a lot of stuff.

I’ve got the latest Mac

By Frank Lucca computer, the iPad, the house, and the “stuff” of life. Christmas, until a few years back, was another Over the years since that day opportunity to add to the stuff. we have made an effort as a famOh yeah! Family would gather ily to give back. We no longer round the tree with dozens and exchange dozens of gifts, but dozens of presents underneath. rather try to give of ourselves to I recall that sometimes, when others and to each other. Finally, the girls were young, Christmas last year for the first time, we gift-opening went on for hours. cut back on gifts to other family We wanted our children to have members to not exceed a total of everything! Their aunt, uncle $25. I didn’t think it could hapand grandparents wanted them pen, but it did. And you know, to have everything too. And beChristmas wasn’t any less excitlieve me … they got everything! ing last year. It takes a lot of hard However, I recall, as if it work to find a meaningful gift were yesterday, an important for little money. It was fun to see turning point in our lives. One what we all got. I got socks. I can day, my eldest daughter (who always use more socks! was very young at the time) was Every year since junior high told by a friend that she was school, our girls have never spoiled because of all of the received traditional gifts from

Be Not Afraid

us. We have instead created a photo book each year entitled, “ A Year in the Life.” They so look forward to this gift each year. In these books they will have a visual reminder of their life from the day they were born as well as a letter from my wife and I on the highlights of the year and what they mean to us. Each year’s book highlights the important moments in their lives.

Someday they will be able to share the books with their children and hopefully carry on this important family tradition. Under $25. Better than socks … priceless!

Of course, we all still want “stuff.” That new boat or car, that new iPod, but as long as it doesn’t take top priority in our lives; as long as we don’t “worship” the stuff as more important that anything else; as long as the stuff doesn’t stand between us and others, especially our God; as long as we know that we’re “blessed” and that we work hard to help others, we know we’re OK with our God. Our family motto, that we all adhere to, is taken from the Gospel of Luke 12:48: “To whom much is given, much is expected.” We know that the more blessed we are, the more

we’re expected to give back.

Sometimes that is a daunting thought, but we strive everyday to follow what God asks of us.

He says that if He blesses us with anything — health, good families, or a roof over our heads — then we in turn must also think of others.

Give some thought to where you are this Christmas season.

The joy of giving and receiving is part of our lives. But remember, that it is not the only thing that is important. Christmas is the time to remember and celebrate the greatest gift ever given … the gift of God’s own Son. We’ve received that awesome Gift. We are truly blessed.

By that one Gift alone we have been given much. As a result of that one Gift alone, much is therefore expected of us. What more could we need or want?

So what are you giving this Christmas?

Frank is a youth minister at St. Dominic’s Parish in Swansea. He is chairman and a director of the YES! Retreat and director of the Christian Leadership Institute. He is a husband and a father of two daughters and a son-in-law.

Comments, ideas or suggestions? Please email him at StDominicYouthMinistry@ comcast.net.

St. Joseph’s students, faculty make a difference for Starlight Children’s Foundation

Fairhaven — Reading, writing, and arithmetic are undoubtedly important when it comes to the education of a child.

But what about helping children understand the value of doing good for others?

At St. Joseph School in Fairhaven, children have been working hard to show the community that they want to make a difference, particularly in the

lives of children suffering from serious illnesses. Recently, students raised $150 and wore purple, a departure from their daily school uniforms, to show their support for the Starlight Children’s Foundation.

Students learned of this organization and what it offers for seriously-ill children and their families from the coordinator for the school, and current Mrs. Massa-

chusetts, Misti Nordstrom. Nordstrom has been actively volunteering for the foundation this year, and when she shared the details of the foundation with faculty at the school, Principal Julie Vareika offered students the opportunity to dress down and raise money.

Nordstrom commented, “Starlight offers support, education, and entertainment for seriouslyill children and their families.

This national organization helps children enjoy activities and outings with their families, and raises funds to install fun centers in hospitals. All of this allows children to escape form the pain and isolation they often experience as a result of being sick. I’ve met a lot of the children and the families, and I can honestly say that I will continue to offer my time and support long after my reign

as Mrs. Massachusetts ends.”

Students participate in a variety of community service projects throughout the year, and are taught that being charitable is a responsibility, not an option. “I know the school could use that money for supplies, or field trips, but the generosity that they’ve shown for these children they’ve never even met is priceless,” Nordstrom added.

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The Anchor

December 7, 2012

Our Lady of Guadalupe

Buses filling for 40th annual March For Life in Washington

pastor there earlier this year.

“For the last 14 years, I have been ministering in Philadelphia. “There was a large Mexican community in Philadelphia and the devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe was great,” he told The Anchor. “On her feast day there would be mariachi bands and celebrations and of course Mass. Here in the New Bedford area, there is a large Hispanic community that also has great devotion to her.

“She is special to me because I became a deacon on her feast day and I made my vows on her feast day. She has great significance for me.”

There will be a dinner following the St. Kilian’s Mass. “Everyone is welcome to attend,” he added.

In Attleboro, the large Hispanic community there will also be commemorating the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. “At St. Joseph’s Church, we will begin at 6 a.m. on December 12 with mañanitas, traditional songs in her honor, before an image of Our Lady,” said Father Williams. “That will be followed by the Rosary, which is also a feast day tradition.”

Father Williams will celebrate a feast day Mass at 6:30 a.m. “This is the first time we’ve had a celebration like this,” he added. “When St. Joseph’s and Holy Ghost parishes merge next year, we will continue this tradition. There is a rich multi-cultural life in Attleboro.”

“I think the importance of the feast for the Americas has always been present,” said Father Craig A. Pregana, pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish at St. James Church in New Bedford.

“However, I think the influx of many Hispanics into the U.S. has caused a greater response for celebrating it. There is a real deep devotion to Our Lady in the Spanish community, and in a particular way to Our Lady of Guadalupe.”

At St. Mary’s Parish in Taunton, devotees will be arriving at the church at 11 p.m. on December 11 for music and prayer in anticipation of a feast day midnight Mass. “Last year, we had a service with traditional feast day songs and prayers in the side chapel at 5 a.m. on December 12,” said Holy Cross Father Marc F. Fallon, a parochial vicar at the parish.

Father Fallon explained that three years ago, a family in the parish opened a Mexican restaurant, El Mariachi, in Taunton, and eventually in South Easton as well. “These people worked very hard to make these restau-

the top.”

While the March for Life has always drawn national attention, Ward said interest this year is at an all-time high due to the 40th anniversary of the Roe v. Ward decision and, sadly, the recent passing of founder Nellie Gray, who was recently succeeded by Jeanne Monahan as the new full-time president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, which organizes and runs the march each January.

“I’ve heard different figures every year, but I know it’s in the tens of thousands who attend,” Ward said. “The times I’ve marched, I’ve been in the middle of the pack and I look behind me and I can’t see the end.”

Ward, who attended his first March for Life in 2001 and has been faithful ever since, said he’s hopeful that this year’s show of support in Washington, D.C. will continue to influence people that abortion remains one of society’s gravest sins.

“More Americans — around 52 percent or better — are now Pro-Life,” Ward said. “I know (advancements with) ultrasounds have played a great role in that because people can see their grandchildren and children … there’s no denying what they’re looking at (in the womb).”

For Ward, it’s clear that life begins at conception.

“If it looks like a human, it’s a human,” he said. “(Roe v. Wade) is just a bad law; it’s horrible.”

While the abortion issue is often touted as something controversial that divides Americans, Ward said that notion has been promulgated by politicians who are only pandering to voters.

“They’re making it a political issue, but to me it’s a moral issue,” he said. “It’s estimated that around 55 million Americans — little babies — have been aborted since this law was passed in 1973.

“Can you imagine if we had a war where we lost 55 million people? I think in World War II it was estimated that 60 million people died worldwide — and we’re at 55 million lost just in our own country. It’s some kind of madness.”

In the nearly four decades since Roe v. Wade became the law of the land, Ward said the pro-choice movement — which he prefers to call “pro-abortion” — has garnered support by using deceptive practices and outright lies.

“It started right from day one,” he said. “Norma McCorvey was ‘Jane Roe,’ the plaintiff in the Roe v. Wade case. She’s actually ProLife now and she feels she was duped and hoodwinked just to get this crazy law passed. The proabortion people have thrown out

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rants successful, yet they also find the time to be very active in the parish as well. It was them and workers at the restaurant who were instrumental in the 5 a.m. service last year. It was very well attended. I saw many of the staff and customers there and a good deal of parishioners too.

“This year we saw the need to use the regular church for the observance. It’s a great way to bridge and bring together the hard-working population of the Taunton area. The devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe is a strong component to the faith life of the Spanish-speaking community.”

Our Lady of Guadalupe first appeared to Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, member of the Chichimeca people who converted to Christianity on top of Tepeyac hill. She introduced herself as, “the Immaculate Mother of God.” She asked that he request from Bishop Juan de Zumárraga, head of the Church of Mexico that a church be built at the site of the apparition. She warned Juan the task would not be an easy one.

As predicted, the bishop was skeptical and sent Juan away, but promised to see him again.

He returned to Our Lady and asked she send someone with more authority. She gently refused and sent him back to the bishop. The bishop asked Juan to return with “evidence” of the apparition.

On this third visit, Our Lady showed Juan a garden filled with sweet-smelling flowers — in the middle of a barren, wintry locale. Juan picked some of the flowers and brought them to Our Lady, who placed them in his tilma (cloak).

Juan brought the flowers to the bishop and when he opened his tilma the flowers fell out and left behind was an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on the tilma.

The bishop believed and the church was built.

The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe is still on the tilma which hangs over the altar at the basilica.

The image itself is filled with symbolism: an angel holds up Our Lady; the face is that of a 15-year-old Mexican girl. On her dress is a sash around the waist, slightly bulging, a symbol of pregnancy; her hands are folded in prayer; among other features.

The tilma has showed no signs of deterioration over the years, and it’s said that in the reflection in Our Lady’s eyes on the tilma are images of what was in front of her in 1532.

continued from page one

so many lies over the years that they have finally caught up with them.”

Despite the recent re-election of President Barack Obama, who remains staunchly pro-choice and will likely appoint one or two new Justices to the Supreme Court during his second term of office, Ward said it’s important to keep praying that all life is respected and protected.

“We could have some new Supreme Court appointees that could surprise us all in the long run — you never know,” he said. “You just don’t know how it’s going to turn out. But I think prayer is very important. We can’t overlook that.”

Ward said this year’s March for Life is being held a bit later than usual so it wouldn’t interfere with the presidential inauguration on January 21.

As such, the 2013 Cape Cod Bus for Life convoy will depart from the diocese first-thing on January 24.

“We always try to attend the big Mass celebrated at the National Basilica of the Immaculate Conception that first night,” he said. “That’s our goal and we try to get there in time. Although it’s very crowded, people really enjoy attending that Mass.”

Before the March for Life on January 25, Ward said the group has been invited by Marian Desrosiers of the diocesan Pro-Life Apostolate to participate in a youth rally and Mass to be held at the Comcast Center in College Park, Md. “It’s about 25 miles roughly from the Hyatt Regency where we will be staying,” Ward said. “We’ll attend the rally and the Mass and then we’ll be dropped off by the Washington Monument for the march. We probably won’t catch all the speakers by the time we get to the staging area for the march, but that’s OK.” After the march, Ward said they hope to have a pizza party for all attendees back at the hotel that night.

On January 26 the group will celebrate Mass with Bishop George W. Coleman at 9:30 a.m. at St. Matthew’s Cathedral, where President John F. Kennedy’s funeral Mass was held.

“That’s become a tradition of the Cape Cod Bus for Life to attend Mass with our bishop and we’re very pleased to be with him,” Ward said.

After Mass, the buses will head back north to New England and are slated to arrive back home later that night.

“Everyone needs to pray for good weather,” Ward added.

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.

“This year the response was so great that we had to grab rooms at the hotel before Halloween,” he said. “I put 52 rooms on hold at the Hyatt Regency.”

And Ward was proud to report that representation from the Fall River Diocese has expanded well beyond the Cape Cod boundaries.

“I’m very pleased and honored that we have a sizeable group joining us from the Attleboro area this year,” Ward said. “We have people from the lower Cape to New Bedford to Dartmouth to Attleboro going with us.”

As he prepares to embark on his 12th March for Life on this 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Ward said it’s always an experience he enjoys and looks forward to with great anticipation.

“There are a lot of Catholics, but I’ve seen all groups and denominations represented,” he said.

“There are a lot of different people … and everyone who goes to the march is astounded at how prayerful, how nice the people are, and how diverse the group is, too. It’s pretty amazing.”

For more information about the Cape Cod Bus for Life, including a complete trip itinerary, visit www.ccbfl.org, or call Kevin Ward at 508-291-0949.

WHEELS ON THE BUS — Spaces are filling quickly for the Cape Cod Bus for Life trip to participate in the annual March for Life on the 40th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade ruling in Washington, D.C. on January 25. Pictured here are attendees from the diocese en route to last year’s event.

December 7, 2012

Eucharistic Adoration in the Diocese

Acushnet — Eucharistic Adoration takes place at St. Francis Xavier Parish on Monday and Tuesday from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.; Wednesday from 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Thursday from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. Evening prayer and Benediction is held Monday through Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.

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

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

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

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

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

Use the Chapel entrance on the side of the church.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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 Eucharistic Adoration seven days a week, 24 hours a day in the chapel at 984 Taunton Avenue. For information call 508-336-5549.

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

Recitation of the Rosary for peace is prayed Monday through Saturday at 7:30 a.m. prior to the 8 a.m. Mass. taunton — Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament takes place every First Friday at Annunciation of the Lord, 31 First Street. Expostition begins following the 8 a.m. Mass.

The Blessed Sacrament will be exposed, and Adoration will continue throughout the day.

Confessions are heard from 5:15 to 6:15 p.m. Rosary and Benediction begin at 6:30 p.m.

Irish Bishop Murphy, Pro-Lifers concerned abortion may widen

DUBLIN (CNS) — An Irish bishop and Pro-Life activists insisted that any legislation to provide abortion in limited situations would inevitably lead to widespread abortion. “If abortion is introduced, even on a very limited basis, it becomes widespread,” Bishop William Murphy of Kerry said during a recent radio interview. Days earlier, Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny promised “swift action” after a report by a study group recommended that the government introduce legislation to provide for abortion in limited circumstances.

In practice, abortion is illegal in Ireland. However, a controversial 1992 Supreme Court judgment — known as the X case — found that there is a constitutional right to abortion where there is a substantial risk to the life of the mother, including the risk of suicide, up to birth.

Six successive governments have not acted on the issue. However, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2010 that Ireland must clarify when women can access abortion under the 1992 ruling.

The expert group was charged in January with advising the government in response to the European Court ruling. The Pro-Life Campaign, Ireland’s largest Pro-Life lobby, has said that it does not support legislation or statutory regulations on abortion in line with the expert group report. Cora Sherlock, the campaign’s deputy chairwoman, described the 1992 Supreme Court decision as “deeply flawed.”

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

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.

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

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

Dec. 14 Rev. Msgr. John J. Hayes, Pastor, Holy Name, New Bedford, 1970

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

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The Anchor

Around the Diocese 12/7

The Fall River Area Men’s First Friday Club will meet tonight in the Chapel of St. Mary’s Cathedral, 327 Second Street in Fall River, continuing its 65th year of activity. Following the 6 p.m. Mass celebrated by Father Karl Bissinger, secretary to Bishop George W. Coleman, there will be a hot meal served in the school hall across the street.

Several members will talk briefly about their conversion to Catholicism. Attendance at the meal and the brief talks is open to any gentleman interested, or any special guest of a club member. Guests or their member sponsors should notify Norman Valiquette at 508-672-8174 for seat reservations or with any questions.

12/8

The Cape Cod Chapter of Friends of the Crèche will be holding an “All Things Christmas” Sale tomorrow at Christ the King Parish, 3 Job’s Road in Mashpee from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Come and find a unique Nativity set that will take center stage among your Christmas decorations and reflect on the real meaning of this holy season in your home.

New, gently-used, modern, and vintage pieces along with complete sets will be offered. For more information call 508-394-7141.

12/9

The annual Deacon Joseph Stanley Mass of Hope and Remembrance for bereaved parents who have experienced the loss of a child in pregnancy, infancy, sudden death, illness, accident, murder or suicide will be held Sunday at 11:30 a.m. at Our Lady of Victory Church in Centerville. Refreshments will be served in the parish center immediately following the Mass. Please bring the whole family to share the memory.

It will be a spiritual Christmas gift to your child and yourselves. All are welcome.

For more information contact jeanmarie.fraser@gmail.com or the parish office at 508-775-5744.

12/11

The Christmas meeting of the Catholic Cancer Support Group will be held on December 11 at Our Lady of Victory Church in Centerville. The group is faith-based, but all are welcome — cancer patients, survivors, family and friends. The meeting begins with Mass and anointing of the sick at 6 p.m. in the church. Following Mass, the group will move to the parish center where at 7 p.m. Lorraine Dunnett and Janet Martin and their helpers will be putting on a chicken pot pie dinner with coffee and dessert. Please bring your favorite dessert to share and wear a Christmas outfit if you wish. If you want to join in a gift exchange, bring a small Christmas-themed gift of $5 or less. Please RSVP if you plan to attend by emailing maryplees@comcast.net or calling 508-771-1106.

12/13

On December 13 legal staff from Catholic Social Services will assist with the N400 Application for Naturalization and provide information about the process of becoming a U.S. Citizen. The Naturalization Workshop will be held at the offices of Catholic Social Services, 261 South Street in Hyannis. For more information contact Alanna Keane at 508-674-4681 or email akeane@cssdioc.org.

12/16

A Christmas concert will be performed on December 16 at 4 p.m. at Our Lady of the Cape Church, 468 Stony Brook Road in Brewster featuring choral, solo, harp and organ music. Doors open at 3:30 p.m. and there is no reserve seating. Admission is free. For more information call 508-896-2950.

12/20

A Healing Mass will be held on December 20 at St. Anthony of Padua Church, 1359 Acushnet Avenue in New Bedford.

The Mass will begin at 6:30 p.m. and will include Benediction and healing prayers. At 5:15 p.m. there will also be a holy hour including the Rosary. For directions or more information, call 508-993-1691 or visit www. saintanthonyofnewbedford.com.

1/5

A Day with Mary will be held January 5 at Our Lady’s Chapel, 600 Pleasant Street in New Bedford from 8:45 a.m. to 4:50 p.m. It will include a video presentation, procession and crowning of the Blessed Mother with Mass and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and an opportunity for Reconciliation. There is a bookstore available during breaks.

Please bring a bag lunch. For more information call 508-996-8274.

1/24

Adoption by Choice, an adoption and pregnancy counseling program of Catholic Social Services of the Diocese of Fall River, will hold an information session for individuals interested in domestic newborn or international adoptions on January 24 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Catholic Social Services central office, 1600 Bay Street in Fall River. For more information or directions, call 508-674-4681 or visit www. cssdioc.org. Handouts and refreshments will be available and there is no charge for the session.

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The Anchor

December 7, 2012

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