12.12.08

Diocese of Fall River

The Anchor

F riday , December 12, 2008

Celebrating the feast of the ‘Virgin of Advent’

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

BUSY TIME — Sande Amaral, a client advocate at the Fall River Diocese’s Catholic Social Services, organizes items that had been donated to the Giving Tree initiative. She was working at the CSS center on Bay Street in Fall River. (Photo by Michael Pare)

Tough economy only fuels spirit of giving to the poor

By Michael Pare Anchor Staff

FALL RIVER — Arlene McNamee, executive director at Catholic Social Services, has so many wonderful stories to tell.

There are stories about people reaching out to help others. There are stories about unyielding generosity. There are stories about simple acts of kindness.

On this Sunday evening in early December, McNamee can be found at the same place you find her during regular business hours, at CSS headquarters on Bay Street. But on this evening she is away from her desk, kneedeep in donations of clothing, games and toys.

It is three weeks to Christmas, which means the annual Gift of Giving program is in full swing.

Nearly 30 diocesan churches, along with several schools, businesses, and other organizations have signed on to take part. The effort is also bolstered every year

by the generosity of individuals throughout the diocese.

The “Giving Tree” is the central symbol. Participating parishes, schools and others set up Christmas trees with simple paper tags. Each tag represents a gift for a needy child. Community members choose the tag, buy the gift and return it to the tree from which it came. Volunteers deliver those gifts to CSS, which serves as the central sorting and wrapping station.

Organizers expect to serve up to 1,500 families this year, including as many as 5,000 children.

These days, the CSS building doubles as a sort of retail warehouse. Each day volunteers drop off truck loads of donated items, and volunteers get busy organizing them. There is military-like precision to the operation.

One room is filled with clothing, wracks of winter coats, and

sometimes called, has also become a powerful symbol for the Catholic Pro-Life movement, with supporters NEW BEDFORD — As congregations throughout gathering to pray with her image outside of abortion the United States and Mexico celebrate today the feast clinics. of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Father Richard D. Wilson, “I think one of the reasons Our Lady of Guadalupe pastor of Our Lady of Guahas become a symbol of dalupe at St. James, sees the Pro-Life movement is this as an opportunity to she comes appearing pregvenerate his own parish panant,” Father Wilson said. tron as not only the Blessed “The black bow she has Mother of Our Lord, but (around her waist) would also as a unifying force for only be worn by an Aztec peace. woman who was preg“Our Lady’s appearance nant. So the Aztec looking in Mexico came at a time at (the image) would say, when they were ending hu‘Oh, that must be a pregman sacrifices,” Father Wilnant woman.’ Of course, son said. “So she brought she was pregnant with Jea higher dignity to people. sus. So you have that direct But it’s not just a matter of connection, also.” rejecting the Aztec religion According to historic … but also the negative ataccounts of the Guadalupe titudes that the Spanish had apparitions, the Blessed towards the Mexicans. So Mother appeared for four Our Lady of Guadalupe days beginning Dec. 9, helped bring unity to the 1531 to St. Juan Diego, a people of Mexico.” widower, on the hill of TeIndeed, even the iconic peyac near Mexico City. image of Our Lady of GuaShe appeared to him as dalupe, which miraculously HEAVENLY ART — The original image of Our a young girl — no more appeared on the tilma, Lady of Guadalupe is in the basilica named for than 16 — and asked that her in Mexico City. The feast of Our Lady of Guaor cloak, of Juan Diego dalupe is today. (CNS file photo) a church be built on the Cuauhtlatoatzin during the site in her honor. When final apparition of the VirJuan Diego approached gin Mary exactly 477 years ago today, depicts her as his bishop about her initial appearance, he asked for a having characteristics of both cultures. “In her appear- miraculous sign to prove she was, in fact, the Blessed ance she is referred to as mestiza, which means she’s Mother. a mixed race of the two,” Father Wilson said. “So she “December 12 commemorates the final apparition,” didn’t come looking purely Aztec or purely Spanish.”

Father Wilson said. “On that day, St. Juan Diego had In recent years the Virgin of Guadalupe, as she is Turn to page 19

Turn to page 15

’TIS THE SEASON — It was perfect weather last weekend for a surprise visit to the second-grade Religious Education students at St. Nicholas of Myra Parish in North Dighton from their patron saint.

With St. Nick and the students are second-grade teacher Elise Dubois, back left, and parish director of Faith Formation, Greg Bettencourt, back right. See Father Tim Goldrick’s column on page eight.

News From the Vatican

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December 12, 2008

New computer technologies pose dangers, pope warns B y Carol Glatz C atholic News Service VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI warned young people of some of the dangers provoked by new computer technologies.

Today’s younger generations are exposed to “a twofold risk caused primarily by the spread of new information technologies,” he told 1,300 students and professors from the University of Parma, Italy, during an audience at the Vatican.

On the one hand, users of information technology can run the risk of “a growing reduction in their ability to concentrate” and to use the new information in their own lives, he said in his speech December 1.

On the other hand, they also face the danger of “isolating themselves in an increasingly virtual reality,” he added.

While one’s social community can become “dispersed into a thousand fragments,” the individual may become more self-centered and tend “to close oneself off to constructive relations with others and those who are different from oneself,” he said.

Pope Benedict said fortu-

nately this tendency is counteracted in universities which have struck a “virtuous balance” between time spent focused on the individual and the group, between an individual’s research and reflection and the sharing and open exchange” of information with others.

The pope, a former university professor, said he has never stopped keeping up-to-date on university life and “feeling spiritually connected to it.”

He said the university must remain free to teach and conduct research without being subject to economic and political pressures.

“This does not mean isolating the university from society, or becoming selfabsorbed or pursuing private interests with public money,” he explained.

True Christian freedom is that the individual, the community and institutions “fully respond to their nature and purpose,” he said.

He said a university’s vocation is to prepare people scientifically and culturally so they can contribute to the development of society and the public good.

This Message Sponsored by the Following Business Concern in the Diocese of Fall River Gilbert C. Oliveira Insurance Agency

SUN BATHING — Solar panels cover the roof of the Vatican’s Paul VI audience hall in this photo released by the Vatican. The hall’s original concrete roof was replaced with panels of photo-electric cells, generating the city’s first solar power. (CNS photo/Vatican)

Christ’s redemptive power is stronger than evil, pope says

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — Evil and sin are not irremediable facts of human nature; they can be overcome with the redemptive power of Christ, Pope Benedict XVI said.

The evil in human hearts has developed into “a filthy river that poisons the landscape of human history,” the pope said December 3 at his weekly general audience.

But through Christ’s presence, God has given the world the power to heal because Christ’s “river of light” is stronger than this stream of evil, he said.

With an estimated 7,000 people gathered inside the Paul VI hall, Pope Benedict continued his audience talks about the life and teaching of St. Paul, focusing on the meaning of original sin and how the church explains the presence of evil in the world.

Original sin is real and felt by every human being, every day, he said.

Everyone feels an inner contradiction in which the desire to do good is accompanied by an “impulse to do the opposite: to follow the path of egoism, violence, to do only as one pleases even knowing that acting this way goes against the good, God and one’s neighbor,” he said.

He said St. Paul expressed this inner turmoil in his Letter to the Romans by writing that the will to do good “is ready at hand, but doing the good is not. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want.”

“This inner contradiction in our being is not a theory. Every one of us experiences it every day,” the pope said.

Unfortunately, the prevalence of the impulse to do evil over the desire to do good can be seen everywhere in “the injustices, vio-

lence, lies and lust we see in the daily news,” he added.

But this evil is not a normal part of human nature, he said.

He said humanity has always yearned for change, redemption and the promise of a better, more peaceful and just world.

Philosophers have often searched for the reason why evil exists in the world, he said. Early thinkers surmised that from the very beginning of time there have been two equal and opposing principles of good and evil.

This same concept exists today, he said, with the presupposition that the human being is by nature both good and bad and equally open to doing both good and evil. But this worldview is hopeless because it means “evil is invincible and only one’s own interests count in the end,” he said.

Governments and political programs have exploited this viewpoint, he said, by insisting that progress can only come about by paying a painful price. This modern-day vision of the world “only creates sadness and cynicism,” the pope said.

Christianity, on the other hand, teaches that God did not create evil; evil came out of the abuse of

The Anchor

the freedom God gave humanity, he said.

“There aren’t two principles — one good, one evil. There is only one principle: God the creator” who is thoroughly good and devoid of all evil, he said.

This means that what God has created — life and the human being in and of itself — is good.

“Living is good, it is good to be a human being, life is good,” said the pope.

Evil does not come from God, he said. “Evil comes from a freedom (that was) created, a freedom abused” by Adam, the pope said.

Because evil comes from a lesser source, the power of God is stronger and therefore evil can be overcome and humankind is “curable” or, rather, has the potential to be restored and redeemed, he said.

With Jesus, God gave humanity the possibility to be healed from original sin.

Jesus, the new Adam, was brought into the world to oppose the source of evil with his stronger and ever present “source of pure good,” he said.

As St. Paul wrote, “For just as in Adam all die, so too in Christ shall all be brought to life,” the pope said.

OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER Vol. 52, No. 47

Member: Catholic Press Association, Catholic News Service

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

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

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The International Church

December 12, 2008

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Brother who worked with sick beatified in first Cuban rites

CAMAGUEY, Cuba (CNS) — Brother Jose Olallo Valdes, a member of the Hospitaller Brothers of St. John of God who worked among Cuba’s poor and sick in the 19th century, was beatified at an outdoor Mass attended by thousands of joyous people and broadcast nationwide.

Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, former prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Saints’ Causes, beatified the Cuban brother during a three-hour Mass November 29 in the Plaza of Our Lady of Charity in Camaguey. It was the first beatification ceremony held in Cuba.

In his homily, Cardinal Saraiva Martins said the event was a milestone and told the people of the Cuban Catholic Church: “You live in a memorable time.

Confronted by a prevailing materialistic culture that is imposing and abandons the side of the weak and helpless, we learn from Blessed Olallo the virtue of knowing how to trust in God, of knowing how to love our neighbor in universal form.”

All the Cuban bishops, headed

by Havana Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino, were joined by dignitaries — including Cuban President Raul Castro — in the ceremony at an improvised altar in the plaza.

Cardinal Saraiva Martins recalled the words of Pope John Paul II in Camaguey in January 1998 when he said, “The children of the fertile soil of the Caribbean, in their jovial and enterprising spirit, always arrange to embark on grand projects.”

Pilgrims from all Cuban dioceses participated in the ceremony, which featured a release of white doves and the ringing of bells in the nearby Church of St. John of God. At the end of the beatification, a procession accompanied the reliquary with Brother Olallo’s remains to the church, where they are kept.

Brother Olallo was raised as an orphan after being abandoned by his mother a month after his birth Feb. 12, 1820, in Havana.

After joining the Hospitallers as a teen, he moved to Camaguey, where he worked as a nurse at a charity hospital. He became known locally as the “champion of Christian charity” and “father of the poor.” He also was held in high regard for his skill as a surgeon, his knowledge of homeopathic medicines and his talent for resolving disputes among townspeople.

During a period of religious repression by Spanish rulers, Brother Olallo remained among the people of Camaguey when other religious fled the country.

He died in 1889.

In March, Pope Benedict accepted a miracle attributed to the intercession of Brother Olallo and approved his beatification, a step toward sainthood.

Father Felix Lizaso Barruete, also a member of the Hospitallers of St. John of God, is postulator of Brother Olallo’s sainthood cause.

“I am very satisfied, happy, because truly an important step has been taken,” he told Catholic News Service. “Cuba now has a blessed at a time of great privilege for the Catholic Church.”

The miracle attributed to Brother Olallo was the recovery of Daniela Cabrera Ramos from DIOCESAN TRIBUNAL FALL RIVER, MASSACHUSETTS Decree of Citation Since his present domicile is unknown, in accord with the provision of Canon 1509.1, we hereby cite Paul J. Lawrencetoappearinpersonbeforethe TribunaloftheDioceseofFallRiver(887 Highland Avenue in Fall River, Bristol County,Massachusetts)onDecember29, 2008 at 2:30 PM to give his testimony regarding the question: ISTHEPACHECO-LAWRENCEMARRIAGE NULL ACCORDING TO CHURCH LAW? AnyonewhohasknowledgeofthedomicileofPaulJ.Lawrenceisherebyrequired to inform him of this citation.

Given at the offices of the Diocesan TribunalinFallRiver,BristolCounty,Massachusetts on December 8, 2008.

(Rev.)PaulF.Robinson,O.Carm.,J.C.D. Judicial Vicar (Mrs.) Denise D. Berube Ecclesiastical Notary

Diocese of Fall River

OFFICIAL

His Excellency, the Most Reverend George W. Coleman, Bishop of Fall River, has announced the following appointment: Rev. Rodney E. Thibault from Parochial Vicar, Corpus Christi Parish, East Sandwich, to Chaplain, St. Luke’s Hospital, New Bedford, with residence at Saint John Neumann Rectory, East Freetown.

Effective December 10, 2008

a form of lymphoma.

She was diagnosed at age three and was given little hope for survival due to kidney complications. Her relatives, neighbors and others in the Catholic community united in prayer to Padre Olallo, as he is known locally, for his intercession on Daniela’s behalf.

Yamila Ramos, the mother of Daniela, who now is 12, told CNS that her daughter was in renal failure for five days, but that after they prayed for intercession, an ultrasound showed no damage and no cancer.

Daniela herself is sure she was cured because of the intercession of Brother Olallo.

“I am happy and content, because Padre Olallo chose me to make a miracle, and because he is now beatified,” she told CNS. Jose Lopez Piteira was the first Cuban to be beatified, in a 2007 ceremony in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. At age 23 he was among nearly 500 martyrs killed during the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s. Lopez was an Augustinian deacon, born in Cuba to Spanish parents; he returned to Spain as a child.

ON THE ROAD TO SAINTHOOD — Clergy carry the remains of Brother Jose Olallo Valdes during a procession for his beatification in Camaguey, Cuba, November 29. Brother Olallo became the second Cuban to be beatified, a major step toward sainthood.

The 19th-century member of Hospitaller Brothers of St. John of God was known for his work with the poor and the sick. (CNS photo/Enrique De La Osa, Reuters)

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The Church in the U.S.

December 12, 2008

Please note that The Anchor will publish on Wednesday, December 24 this year instead of Friday, December 26. There will be no Anchor on Friday, January 2.

We will publish again on January 9.

MESSAGE OF HOPE — People participate in the first Guadalupe Torch Run in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles recently. Runners carried the torch from the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City to 11 parishes of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles as the torch makes its way to New York City. This is the first time the archdiocese has been part of the annual run, which has brought a message of hope and unity to immigrants in the U.S. since 2002. (CNS photo/Victor Aleman, Vida Nueva)

Archbishop Niederauer says tolerance is a two-way street

By Dan Morris-Young Catholic News Service

tional understanding and definition of marriage” as their motivation, rather than seeking to attack SAN FRANCISCO — San “any group” or “to deprive others Francisco’s archbishop has apof their civil rights.” pealed to people on both sides Apparently responding to of the same-sex marriage issue media claims that he had called to be tolerant of each other, to on contacts within the Mormon “disagree without being dischurch from his 11 years as bishagreeable” and not presume to op of Salt Lake City for help in know “the real motives” behind the Proposition 8 campaign, the people’s viewpoint. archbishop wrote, “I did write to “We need to stop hurling them and they urged the memnames like ‘bigot’ and ‘pervert’ at bers of their church, especially each other. And we need to stop those in California, to it now,” Archbishop George H. Niederauer e said that “tolerance, respect and become involved.”

Mormon financial said December 1 in an trust are always two-way streets” backing of Proposition open letter.

Voters in the state and called on “churchgoers” to “speak 8 has been reported November 4 passed a and act out on the truth that all people at $22 million of the ballot initiative called are God’s children and are uncondition- roughly $35 million raised to promote the Proposition 8, which is constitutional amenda constitutional amend- ally loved by God.” ment. Total spending ment to define marriage for both sides of the as only “valid and rec“Whoever they are, and what- campaign surpassed $75 milognized” if between a man and a ever their circumstances, their lion; it is said to be the costliest woman.

Since Election Day there have spiritual and pastoral rights initiative campaign in U.S. hisbeen vigorous protests against should be respected, together tory.

“It is important to point out the outcome in California and with their membership in the around the country by gay rights church,” he wrote. “In that spir- here that a wide range of churches it, with God’s grace and much became active in favor of Proposupporters.

Some of the demonstrations prayer, perhaps we can all move sition 8 in addition to Catholics and LDS members,” Archbishop have targeted churches and in forward together.”

In the letter, the archbishop Niederauer said. particular Mormon temples, be“Even though we supporters cause the Church of Jesus Christ also: — stated that the Archdiocese of Proposition 8 did not intend of Latter-day Saints was a major funder of a campaign support- of San Francisco “did not do- to hurt or offend our opponents, ing the measure. The Catholic nate or transfer any archdiocesan still many of them, especially Church and other denominations funds” to support Proposition 8; in the gay community, feel hurt — strongly criticized “voices and offended,” the archbishop also supported it.

On November 19 the Cali- in the wider community” which wrote, then asked, “What is to be fornia Supreme Court agreed charged Proposition 8 backers done?”

He continued, “Tolerance, reto decide constitutional issues with “hatred, prejudice and bigspect and trust are always twostemming from voters’ approval otry”; — defended faith communi- way streets, and tolerance respect of the initiative but has denied requests to suspend enforcement of ties’ involvement in the political and trust often do not include agreement, or even approval. We the initiative until the questions arena; and — underscored Proposition need to be able to disagree withare resolved.

In his open letter, posted on 8 backers’ “defense of the tradi- out being disagreeable.

H

the Archdiocese of San Francisco’s Website, www.sfarchdiocese.org, the archbishop said people “need to stop talking as if we are experts on the real motives of people with whom we have never even spoken.”

He said that “tolerance, respect and trust are always two-way streets” and called on “churchgoers” to “speak and act out on the truth that all people are God’s children and are unconditionally loved by God.”

December 12, 2008

The Church in the U.S.

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Conference at Boston College examines forced migration

B y Neil W. Mc C abe C atholic News Service

BOSTON — Today 200 million people live in a country different from the one where they were born, and 26 to 30 million of them were forced from their homeland by adverse conditions beyond their control, a Vatican representative told a Boston conference.

“Everyone is moving from everywhere to everywhere,” said Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican representative to U.N. agencies in Geneva.

“Human mobility in all its facets is not a new phenomenon,” nor has the Church ignored it, he said at the conference on the causes of forced migration and systemic responses to it.

The archbishop said the modern history of Church teachings on refugees began with the social justice expressed in Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical, “Rerum Novarum,” with his words: “Men would cling to the country in which they were born, for no one would exchange his country for a foreign land if his own afforded him the means of living a decent and happy life.”

This teaching was expanded

by Pope Pius XII, who asserted the right to enter another country, he said. This right presents a comprehensive view of all

categories related to human mobility and legislated a systematic and specific pastoral care for uprooted people and families.

Pope John XXIII made the plight of refugees part of the global understanding of the common good, which was built upon by his successors, Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II, who both called for migration and development to be linked and recognized as the rights of individuals and nations.

Almost all nations accept the right of an individual to leave, but the Church is almost alone in asserting the individual’s right of entry, he said.

This right of entry is not an absolute, and does not trump the receiving nation’s regular concerns for security, Archbishop Tomasi said. However, to the degree they can safely do so, he said, countries have an obligation to welcome refugees.

Refugees searching for a more dignified life are not without rights and they have a just claim upon the hospitality and concern of the international community, he said.

Archbishop Tomasi’s address was one of 12 papers delivered at the recent conference at the Boston College Center for Human Rights and International Justice.

It brought together academics and practitioners in the field of refugee relief, said Jesuit Father David Hollebach, the center’s director and a professor of theology at the Jesuit university.

Co-sponsored by Catholic Relief Services and Jesuit Refugee Service, it was a followup to the November 2006 conference held in Nairobi, Kenya, Father Hollebach said.

The 2008 conference was organized to open up the discussion to more global issues, such as the 4.5 million people displaced by the American invasion and occupation of Iraq, he said. “This country has taken in only 14,000 refugees — there is something really wrong with that.”

In addition to the Iraqis and Congolese, there are millions of forced migrants all over the world, including the Sudanese and Colombians and people with no country, no state and no home, Father Hollebach said. “The question is: How do we take systemic steps to save these people?”

In another keynote, Susan Martin, a professor of international migration at Jesuitrun Georgetown University in Washington, said the current migration system is rooted in a European-centric model that flowed from reactions to the

Holocaust and the Cold War. In today’s international law, a migrant’s status is determined by what forced him to move from his country, she said. If people flee a well-founded fear of persecution and cross an international boundary, they are “refugees.”

The United Nations also may use this designation for people fleeing conflict, but it does not apply to people displaced by natural disasters, development projects such as dams, environmental degradation or climate change, she said.

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The Anchor The economic crisis: roots and remedy

There has been much written about the present economic mess of our country, but most of it has been a superficial analysis of the immediate causes rather than a penetrating examination of its deeper sources. For that reason, the various solutions being hastily implemented focus mainly on redressing symptoms of the crisis rather than the underlying issues, which leaves us all in danger that, rather than rectifying the real problems, they will compound them.

As Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, said at a U.N. sponsored meeting on development last week in Qatar, “At its root, the financial crisis is not a failure of human ingenuity, rather of moral conduct.” Recent failures are not a result of a defective system — the free, market-based economy — but of irresponsible stewardship of those who comprise that system. Those on Wall Street, Main Street and both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue all share the blame, though some more than others. Unless we address these deeper moral issues at the root of the crisis, the crisis will not be remedied. This moral scrutiny is something that the relativists who overpopulate the academy and the media, the utilitarians who dominate the higher echelons of our financial sector, and the megalomaniacs who disproportionately comprise our ruling class are personally and philosophically unlikely to do on their own.

The imprudent moral decisions of a great many people have led to our present economic situation. It’s easy to begin with the softest target, the financial sector. Many of the stewards of our financial system used their positions to make astronomical personal profits while leaving their shareholders, and society as a whole, with the bill. During the last five years, the five largest firms on Wall Street paid more than $3 billion to their top executives as a reward for supposed earnings; half a decade later, however, two of those five giants have gone out of business and the other three are no longer stand-alone investment firms. Some overleveraged themselves at ratios of 30-to-1, willingly selling securities they knew were based on failing subprime mortgages to investors eager to turn a quick profit. Such practices are not technically against the law, but they are clearly unethical. At the street level, lenders routinely sold loans to customers whom they either knew could not repay them or for whom they did not do even rudimentary checks to verify they could pay; they knew that these bad loans would soon be sold off to some other bank who would be left to suffer the consequences. The record level of defaults show how widespread this dereliction of responsibility was.

But the subprime mortgage implosion did not begin in Manhattan but in Washington.

Capitol Hill legislators, seeking the worthy goal of increased home ownership, passed legislation that made it much easier for those with little or no means to be able to afford a home to get a federally-backed mortgage. They forgot that the American dream is achieved by hard work, stable familial structures, and savings, not by foolhardy social engineering, however well-intended. Jesus once used the image of a house built on sand and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are modern illustrations of it. The government is also responsible for a ridiculously loose monetary policy as well as for generally lax enforcement of complex financial fraud, which made it possible for greedy masters of the universe to use inventive accounting mechanisms to obscure their thievery. Perhaps most injurious of all, the government has set the standard for bad stewardship, by consistently sacrificing the future for the present, recklessly amassing trillions of dollars of debt and bequeathing the bill to younger generations.

A great deal of the blame for the economic troubles also rests with consumers. Since 2005, the personal savings rate has stayed around zero, the lowest rate since 1933 — coincidently in the midst of the Great Depression. Citizens have exhausted their savings and plunged themselves into debt in the pursuit of material goods — from homes, to cars, to big screen televisions — they could not afford. Home-owners mortgaged themselves unreservedly under the foolish assumption that housing prices would continue to soar. Others just kept transferring growing credit card balances from one bank to another before seeking bankruptcy protection. Like the financial institutions and government, they, too, were constructing houses on sand.

The appropriate response to these various instances of bad stewardship must go beyond a bailout. While a bailout might have been the only way to save our financial sector, and all that depends on it, from total collapse, it is a paradigm that if widely applied will only lead to a deeper economic problem. A bailout amounts, in large part, to welfare for companies with deeply flawed business plans, to investing in houses built on sand. It’s not surprising that once the bailout precedent was set, we have seen various fiscally-irresponsible companies, industries and even state governments, rather than take responsibility and make the tough choices to save their entities, line up to beg for a piece of a $700 billion pie. To give nonessential, but politically influential entities a bailout after they’ve driven them to the point of bankruptcy, is to reward a lack of good stewardship, and would be in itself a lack of good stewardship by the federal government. Frédérick Bastiat, the 19th-century French political economist, once said that many have the false impression that they can live at everyone else’s expense, without recalling that sooner or later the pocket in front of them will be empty as well. Money does not grow on trees. It is unjust and immoral, as a matter of principle, to take money from those who have behaved responsibly and give it to those who have behaved recklessly, whether the creditor be those with savings today or those who hope to have savings in future generations.

To recover, we must make sure that our free-market economic system is built on rock.

This means, first, that it must be tied to subjective and objective responsibility. At the subjective dimension, the system requires virtuous agents who are followers of the golden rule and are thrifty, prudent, honest and temperate. Objectively, those who fail must be allowed to suffer the consequences of their failure. In the free market system, good models succeed and bad models fail. To seek to insulate those who make colossal blunders from suffering the consequences of their actions is to undermine the system as a whole. That is why a governmental takeover of the various industries under the guise of preventing their collapse is injudicious.

Such a system, which seeks to minimize risk, will also minimize gain.

The proper role of government, as sketched out in Pope John Paul II’s 1991 encyclical Centesimus Annus, is to set up a proper juridical framework for the free and responsible exercise of the market, and to hold economic entities impartially accountable to those standards.

It’s not the free market system that is the cause of our present distress, but the manipulation of it by irresponsible stewards. Therefore the proper solution is not to try to fix the system by inefficient governmental intrusion but to create the conditions to form responsible stewards and hold them accountable — which sometimes means letting bad stewards fail.

At a cultural level, we also need to address the cancer of consumerism. Consumerism is not wrong because material things are evil — they’re not; God created them good — but because it makes material things an idol to be worshipped and obtained at almost any expense. In its place, we must once again encourage and reward saving, not because we’re trying to build personal grain bins against what Jesus says in the Gospel, but because we are trying to prepare for our children and grandchildren a better and secure life than we ourselves have now.

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December 12, 2008

The martyrs of Japan

o Catholics of any country have suf- his knees, pressed an image of the Jesus’ crucifered more for their faith in Christ than fixion to his heart with one hand and prayed the the Japanese. Now, nearly 400 years after they rosary with the other, and was beheaded, fewer endured the most systematically brutal persecu- than four months after his baptism. tion in the Church’s history — worse even than Beheading, of course, was a relatively merciwhat the early Christians suffered at the hands of ful, quick and “painless” way to be executed. It the Roman empire — the amazing story of their was reserved for people who were revered, like the heroic faith is finally beginning to get the atten- samurai, but it was not extended to the members tion it deserves. of their families. When another samurai, Simon On November 24, in a Nagasaki baseball sta- Takeda, was decapitated, his wife, Agnes, picked dium, 188 Japanese martyrs from the early 17th up her beloved husband’s head and held it tencentury were beatified by Cardinal Jose Saraiva derly to her breast. Such a gesture, the chroniclers Martins, the former prefect of the Vatican’s Con- tell us, moved even the executioners to tears. But gregation for the Causes of Saints. They joined the tears did not last long. Later in the day Agnes 42 other Japanese saints and 395 beati, all of and her baby were crucified, alongside Simon’s them martyrs. All 615 represent, however, just a mother, Joan, who died on the cross preaching small fraction of the estimated 35,000 Japanese about the love of God. Christians who were killed for the Catholic faith Another mother, Tecla Hashimoto, pregnant between 1597 and 1639. with her seventh child, was crucified together with This high figure is all the more staggering when her three-year-old daughter, Luisa. A pile of wood we recall that the Catholic faith had only been at the bottom of their joint cross was set on fire brought to Japan in 1549 by St. Francis Xavier to increase their agony, as her other children were and, at its height, there were only about 300,000 suffering the same fate nearby. “Lord Jesus,” she Japanese Catholics in all. Not only, therefore, prayed aloud, “receive these children.” When her was there a stunningly rapid quantitative growth eldest daughter cried out that she could no longer in Nipponese Catholicism, but an even more im- see her on account of the flames engulfing them, pressive qualitative maturation, that so many so Tecla answered joyfully, “Don’t worry! In a little soon would freely while you will give their lives see everything for love of Christ clearly.” who had given Such achis life in love of counts of the them. martyrdom of Their story is children are the now coming to most moving of

By Father light thanks, in all. After watchRoger J. Landry large degree, to ing his father be Pope John Paul beheaded, fiveII. During his pilyear-old Peter grimage to Japan in 1981, he stopped at the shrine Hatori ran over to his father’s lifeless body, reto St. Paul Miki and his 26 companions in Naga- moved his kimono, knelt down, joined his hands saki. These 27 martyrs were canonized by Pope in prayer and presented his uncovered neck to the Pius IX in 1862. They were followed by 205 who executioners. They were so stunned by the boy’s were beatified in 1867, and another 16 declared actions that they misfired on their intended lethal blessed in 1981. When John Paul II stood before blow, instead cutting through the boy’s shoulder the hill where St. Paul Miki and others were cru- and sending him to the ground. Without comcified, he expressed a firm hope that the stories of plaining about what must have been enormous “the others who followed them” would be more pain, Peter just lifted himself up on his knees and thoroughly documented so that the Church could continued praying. He extended his neck once bring them to the attention of the whole people again and was killed, while calling on the names of God. of Jesus and Mary.

These newly-beatified 188, who will be reHow did such holy audacity ever become so ferred to in the Church’s liturgy as “Blessed Peter routine among even the youngest generations of Kibe and Companions,” are the first fruits of the Japanese Catholics? It was because, from the beset of detailed hagiological work that John Paul ginning, they knew the cost of discipleship and II launched. never sought to water it down. Christ called them Among them we find 183 lay people, four to love as he had loved them, and so they were priests and one religious. There were 30 converted willing to be crucified just as Christ was. They besamurai warriors as well as farmers, artisans, civil lieved in his promises, not just that if others hated servants, teachers, painters, writers, freed slaves, him they would hate them as well but also that if pregnant women and children as young as three. the lost their lives for his sake they would gain They died in 16 different groups spread through- them anew forever. out the country between 1603-1639. They were It was also because priests would explicitly executed in the most sadistic ways imaginable, in prepare parents, and parents their children, for order to try to frighten them, and other Christians, martyrdom. into apostasizing. They were crucified, decapitatThat preparation began with prayer. Kids ed, flayed alive, dismembered, stoned, poisoned learned that when they made the Sign of the Cross, with hellish toxins, impaled, forcibly drowned or they were expressing their unity with Christ on the abandoned in ocean depths, boiled in oil, burned Cross and preparing themselves to pick up their alive, tossed into an active volcano, or — what crosses and follow him first to death and then to reswas considered the most painful of all — hung urrection. They understood that the Eucharist was by the ankles in a pit with weights hanging from not just a liturgical rite, but a true participation in one’s upper jaw, so that for three days they would Christ’s passion, death and resurrection. When they be both excruciatingly distended and gradually prayed the mysteries of the rosary, they saw that beasphyxiated. fore they could share in the glorious mysteries, they The Christians were killed, fundamentally, be- first needed to enter into the sorrowful ones. cause they would not give total obedience to the The preparation extended to practical instruccivil rulers, who demanded, out of fear, that they tion as well. Mothers trained their kids how to be give up their allegiance to the Christian God. faithful at the supreme hour. They taught them how One such example involved the samurai to uncover their necks, fold their hands and look Zaisho Shichiemon, whose daimyo prohibited his to heaven, as well as what to pray when their own subjects from becoming Christian under pain of hour came. They breast-fed them the stories of the death. When Zaisho asked a priest to baptize him, heroic deaths of the Apostles, the early Christian the priest warned him of the consequences. The martyrs, and the Japanese martyrs before of them, samurai responded that he knew the risks, “but I and inspired them to strive for similar greatness. have understood that salvation lies in the teaching We live in an age rather scant on the Christian of Jesus and no one can separate me from him.” realism, courage and faith in which these JapaHe was arrested and commanded by his feudal nese Christians excelled. That is one of the realord to abjure his faith. “I would obey in any other sons why Pope John Paul II wanted more of their matter,” he replied, “but I cannot accept any order stories to be studied and propagated. It’s also one that is opposed to my eternal salvation.” He said of the reasons why we will continue with the histhat he “was ready to die rather than stop being a tory of Japanese Catholicism next week.

Christian.” When they came for him in his home, Father Landry is pastor of St. Anthony of he laid down his sword, crossed the street, fell to Padua Parish in New Bedford.

Putting Into the Deep

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Germany and Italy have done it — shouldn’t we?

early 500,000 human embryos are currently stored in liquid nitrogen tanks in fertility clinics in the United States, a number comparable to the population of a mid-sized city like Cleveland or Tucson. By contrast, only a handful of human embryos have been frozen and held in storage tanks in the entire country of Germany.

The reason for this striking difference lies in the fact that Germany enacted an Embryo

Protection Law during the 1990s which included provisions outlawing the freezing of human

Making Sense Out of Bioethics

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The Anchor

December 12, 2008

By Father Tad Pacholczyk

embryos. Italy has similar legislation in force. Both countries closely regulate in-vitro fertilization treatments, and allow

the production of no more than three embryos at a time, all of which must be implanted into their mother. Both countries forbid the production of extra embryos, experimentation on embryos, embryo cloning, and genetic testing of embryos.

The United States has largely failed to establish any reasonable legal or ethical framework to regulate its own multi-billion dollar infertility industry, and the result has been aptly described as a kind

St. Paul’s knowledge of Jesus

f you went around telling the flesh. everyone you met about a How did St. Paul know Jesus? person you admired, that person Paul’s first contact with Christ very likely would be your close seems to have been on the road relative or best friend, someone to Damascus, when he met the with whom you had spent much Risen Lord and underwent a kind time and whom you had many of conversion. At that point, Saul occasions to observe closely. That — as he was known formerly — way, you would be able to speak was then leading an initiative to about that person in an authoritapersecute Christians. We find no tive way. You would know that other mention in the Bible that person’s habits and personality, Paul ever met Jesus elsewhere. The as well as his or her preferences Apostle was never an eye witness and opinions. You would probably to our Lord’s miracles, nor did be able to describe that person’s he hear him preach. This is fairly appearance fairly well, too; for surprising, because Paul and Jesus example, whether he wore glasses were more or less contemporaries, or was bald. You could make such even though Paul may have been affirmations as “He liked to drink a can of Coke in the afternoon.” You would Living the remember how he jingled the loose change in his Pauline Year pocket when he leaned in a doorway and talked

By Father with a friend. You would Karl C. Bissinger be able to trace the general outline of his life story and repeat anecdotes he related to you. You would probably a few years younger. The Acts of also recall common experiences the Apostles mentions that Paul the two of you shared. Most likely, was in Jerusalem at the time of St. you would also start to imitate that Stephen’s martyrdom, but never person’s virtues. He or she would mentions Paul being present at to some extent shape the person the trial and execution of Christ, you turned out to be. nor having taken part in any of St. Paul distinguished himself the debates between our Lord and as the most motivated Apostle and the Pharisees, one of which Paul evangelizer of the early Church. claims to have been.

He went around the world tellIt is clear that St. Paul knew ing everyone he met about Jesus Jesus through faith and prayer.

Christ. Pope Benedict XVI instiThe Apostle’s belief that the Risen tuted this Pauline Year precisely Christ was his Lord and Savior because of the Apostle’s missiontransformed his life. It is also ary accomplishments and his great equally clear that St. Paul knew success in promoting the faith in Jesus through his experience of lands outside of Judea and Galilee. the early Church. Not only did he Because of this, we now know him learn traditions and doctrines about as the “Apostle of the Gentiles.” our Lord from the Christian comWe would, therefore, expect to munities in Damascus, Antioch, learn that St. Paul had been one of and Jerusalem, but he also became the original followers of Jesus, that convinced that when he met the from the beginning he paid attenChurch, he had met Christ himself. tion to his every word and action, What did St. Paul know about and that he could relay fascinating Jesus? Paul never wrote a Gospel details about his master, details the way Matthew, Mark, Luke, only an intimate companion would and John did. However, spread know. So, we might find it surpris- throughout his letters we find bits ing to discover that Paul was not and pieces that when put together one of the Twelve Apostles. He ap- give us an idea of the Apostle’s parently never heard Christ preach. portrait of Christ. He knew that In fact, he never even met Jesus in Jesus was fully man with a human

mother (cf. Phil 2:7, Gal 4:4); that he was a descendent of the Patriarchs (cf. Rom 9:5, Gal 3:16) and was of Davidic origin (Rom 1:3).

He wrote the earliest account of the Last Supper and the institution of the Eucharist (cf. 1Cor 11:23ff).

He also speaks much about the crucifixion and death of our Lord, his burial, and his resurrection.

St. Paul also knew that Jesus taught his disciples to call God “Father” when they pray (cf. Gal 4:6, Rom 8:15; Mk 14:36). He repeated Christ’s preaching about repentance in view of the Last Day (cf. 1Th 5:2; Mt 24:43), his teaching on the indissolubility of marriage (cf. 1Cor 7:10; Mt 5:32), the theme of love (agape) as the New Law (cf. Gal 6:2; Jn 13:34), and his summary of the entire Law of Moses in the commandment to love one’s neighbor (Gal 5:14, Rom 13:8-10; Mt 22:3940). There are other verses in the Apostle’s letters that scholars think may also constitute echoes of our Lord’s very words.

How did St. Paul teach what he knew about Jesus? First of all, the Apostle conformed his life so closely to our Lord’s that it became possible for people to know Jesus through him. He was able to say boldly, “Be imitators of me as I am of Christ” (1Cor 11:1). Furthermore, although St. Paul never witnessed any of our Lord’s miracles, he had the Spirit’s power to perform “signs and wonders” himself (cf. Rom 15:19). The Acts of the Apostles contains many miracle stories associated with him, including the raising from the dead the young man Eutychus, who fell from a window after dozing off while listening to the Apostle preach (cf.

Acts 20:7-12). Finally, St. Paul taught about Jesus in the way he even imitated Christ’s Cross and dying a death like his at the hands of the Romans. This shows that Paul taught his converts not only through his eloquent words, but also by his own life and example.

Father Bissinger is vocation director of the Diocese of Fall River and secretary to Bishop George W. Coleman.

of “Wild West of Infertility,” a lawless frontier where nearly anything goes, including the routine freezing of scores of humans who are still in their embryonic stages. Indeed, this practice remains one of the great ongoing humanitarian tragedies of our time.

Not much ethical reflection is needed to appreciate the serious injustice involved in freezing another human being. The freezing and thawing process subjects embryonic humans to significant risk, and up to 50 percent of embryos may not survive the process. In many cases, stored embryos end up being abandoned by the couples who create them, condemned to a kind of perpetual stasis, and locked in time in the harsh wasteland of their liquid-nitrogen orphanages. Countless parents then find themselves caught in agonizing dilemmas about what to do with their offspring held in suspended animation. This injustice, once it has been foisted upon human embryos, is then used by others to argue on behalf of an even more egregious offense against their dignity, namely, the destructive strip-mining of embryos to acquire their stem cells.

The argument that embryos will “just be thrown away anyway” has been very effective in convincing lawmakers and politicians to rally on behalf of scientists who desire to destroy human embryos for research. By appealing to a kind of American pragmatism that tries to “maximize return on investments,” the embryo’s subjugation has become nearly complete in our society, as he or she is reduced to a mere “thing,” an object to be manipulated — valuable primarily for how he or she can serve the interests and desires of others.

Dr. Chi Dang, a professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, building on the argument that frozen embryos will otherwise be discarded, put it this way during a recent interview: “The question is: Is it ethically more acceptable to destroy these embryos by pouring acid on

them, or do you deploy these clusters of cells to create new cell lines that could benefit us in the future?” By promoting such false dichotomies and constructing these kinds of ethical sand castles, we have begun to slip into a kind of complacency, a deadening moral slumber regarding our most basic duties towards the weakest and smallest of humans.

Writing in the New York Times, Gary Rosen once observed that even a basic course in Ethics 101 ought to be enough to let us see the problem here, namely, that we should not be treating other people as a means to our own ends, but as ends in themselves. Yet even the most basic ethics can be hard to square with the efficient, cold, clinical discussions of “harvesting embryos” and “deploying clusters of cells.” While the language of embryonic stem-cell scientists and their supporters remains thoroughly professional, it still exudes, in the words of Rosen, “an unmistakable whiff of cannibalism.”

In the United States today, we urgently need Embryo Protection Laws. The temptation to dehumanize our own human brothers and sisters is a perennial one, hearkening back to the time in our country when slaves could be considered three-fifths of a person for purposes of congressional representation.

Treating embryos as zero-fifths of a person constitutes an even more deplorable human rights violation. The smallest members of our human family deserve legal protection. Laws like those in Germany and Italy, while they would not stop every injustice done to embryos, could go a long way towards stemming the tide and assuring that further forms of laboratory barbarism and human exploitation do not become commonplace.

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

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he Advent Season is marked by a spirit of expectation, anticipation, and longing. The crescendo of Advent, as it has been described, is reflected in the liturgical readings, which, beginning with the prophecies of Isaiah and John the Baptist, find their culmination next week on the Fourth Sunday of Advent in a series of readings that focus on the Blessed Virgin and the Annunciation of Jesus’ birth.

This Third Sunday of Advent has traditionally been call “Gaudete Sunday,” from the Latin word for “rejoice.” We are to rejoice because our salvation is nearer. The time of Advent waiting is nearly over, as the celebration of the birth of Christ draws near. Thus the purple color of penance is lightened to a rose color in the vestments worn and the Advent candle of the day.

We hear from the Prophet Isaiah in the first reading of this Sunday’s Mass: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me, he has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor; to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim lib-

The Anchor

December 12, 2008

Rejoice in the Lord

erty to the captives and release to rejoice in the Lord always. to the prisoners, to announce “Brothers and sisters: Rejoice a year of favor from the Lord always. Pray without ceasand a day of vindication.” This ing. In all circumstances give powerful and joyful proclamathanks, for this is the will of tion invites us to recognize that God for you in Christ Jesus ... we can put our trust in God and May the God of peace make that he will guide us through you perfectly holy and may you whatever challenges and difficulties we may face in life. Many times that Homily of the Week is easier said than done, Third Sunday though. In our modern, of Advent fast-paced world we have a tendency to put

By Father our trust in things or our own strength. As William Rodrigues we look around and see all the technological advances that we have grown entirely, spirit, soul, and body, accustomed to in our daily lives, be preserved blameless for we can be tempted to put our the coming of our Lord Jesus trust in them more so than in the Christ. As we are joyful at the Lord. Today we are reminded first coming of Christ, we must that only God can meet our most live with the expectation of his human needs and that he will return. This involves living with never fail us. It is God who heals the transforming power of God’s the inevitable brokenness of our love in our hearts. This perfect lives and makes us whole, strong love allows us to treat others as and free from fear. we would want to be treated.

The second reading from It helps us to be charitable and the first Letter of St. Paul to forgiving. It makes us see what the Thessalonians reminds us is most important in life. In

short, it allows us increasingly to see the world and one another as God does.

This Sunday, the ministry of John the Baptist urges us once more to conversion and repentance in our lives, to truly prepare for Christ to enter fully into our lives. “So they said to him, ‘Who are you, so we can give an answer to those who sent us? What do you have to say for yourself?’ He said: ‘I am the voice of one crying out in the desert, make straight the way of the Lord, as Isaiah the prophet said.’ Some Pharisees were also sent. They asked him, ‘Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ or Elijah or the Prophet?’ John answered them, ‘I baptize with water; but there is one among you whom you do not recognize, the one who is coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie.’”

As people of faith, we know that Jesus Christ is the one who came into the world and brought us salvation. We have seen his miracles in our own lives and in

the lives of others.

Each of the readings of this weekend’s Mass in its own way calls us to prepare ourselves for God’s chosen one — his own Son. He is that hope for the poor. He is the one who can truly heal the brokenhearted. He is the one who gives true liberty to the captives. Yet it does take faith to see that Jesus Christ is the One. At times we still allow ourselves to be side tracked by our wants and preoccupations or fears. This week the Word of God invites us to take some time and let the healing presence of the Lord renew us by the power of His grace. The Lord gives us true joy in this life and the reward of eternal life, as well. In the midst of personal difficulties, economic uncertainty, war and violence in our imperfect world, it is God’s grace that allows us to be hopeful and rejoice as we celebrate once again this year the miracle of Christmas.

Father Rodrigues is chaplain at Charlton Memorial Hospital and resides at St. Michael Parish in Fall River.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat, Dec. 13, Sir 48:1-4,9-11; Ps 80: 2ac, 3b,15-16,18-19; Mt 17:9a,10-13;Sun. Dec. 14, Third Sunday in Advent, Is 61:1-2a,10-11; (Ps)Lk 1:46-48, 49-50,53-54; 1Thes 5:16-24; Jn 1:6-8,19-28; Mon. Dec. 15, Nm 24:2-7,15-17a; Ps 25:4-5ab,6,7bc,8-9; Mt 21:23-27; Tue. Dec. 16, Zep 3:1-2,9-13; Ps 34:2-3,6-7,17-18,19,23;Mt 21:28-32; Wed. Dec. 17, Gn 49:2,8-10; Ps72:1-2,3-4ab,7-8,17;Mt 1:1-17; Thu. Dec. 18, Jer 23:5-8; Ps 72:1-2, 12-13, 18-19;Mt 1:18-25; Fri. Dec.19, Jgs 13:2-7,24-25a; Ps 71:3-4a, 5-6ab, 16-17; Lk 1:5-25.

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ooking for Christmas gifts to nourish the mind and soul? Here’s a potpourri of (mostly) recent books, guaranteed to do both.

“Hopkins: Theologian’s Poet,”

by Aidan Nichols, O.P. (Sapientia Press): A masterful, brief introduction to the life of Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J., followed by spiritually rich expositions of Hopkins’ major poems. I had been trying, and failing, to understand and appreciate Hopkins since high school. This summer, Father Nichols helped me, not only to under-

Books for Christmas

stand one of Anglophone Catholilong-term effects. Madden’s small, cism’s important modern literary accessible book is comprehensive, figures, but to esteem him and his judicious, and fair. It should be reliterary accomplishment.

“The New Concise History of the Crusades,”

by Thomas F. Madden (Rowman & Littlefield): In both politics and interreligious dialogue, the Crusades are regularly inBy George Weigel voked these days — more often than not, in a way that displays abysmal ignorance of their historical context, quired reading for anyone presumtheir contemporary impact, or their ing to discuss crusading, crusaders, and the Crusades; “Come Be My Light,” by SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS Mother Teresa and Brian KolDIOCESE OF WORCESTER, MA odiejchuk (Doubleday): A priestThe Diocese of Worcester seeks an energetic and inspiring friend who reads widely described Superintendent of Schools to provide vision and leadership to this record of Mother Teresa’s strugits 28 Catholic elementary and secondary schools and to achieve gles and triumph as “the best spiria new level of excellence. Candidates should have the following tual reading I’ve done in 20 years.” attributes: Many would agree. That the tiny Albanian nun with the heart as big · A fully participating and practicing Catholic, with a vision as the world had enormous physical of how to deliver effective Catholic education within stamina was already well-known, diverse communities this remarkably revealing volume · Strong organizational, managerial and interpersonal is powerful testimony to Mother’s abilities that inspire confidence among parents, teachers poignant and awe-inspiring spiritual and administrators stamina. Like John Paul the Great, · Experience in the development of curriculum, Catholic Blessed Teresa of Calcutta reminds religious education, and staff formation us that “no cross, no crown” is no · Experience with budgeting and resource development pious cliché, but the central truth of Christian life; · Excellent writing, speaking, and instructional skills “The Best Game Ever: Gi · A minimum of five years experience in a senior educational ants vs. Colts, 1958, and the leadership position and a Master’s Degree Birth of the Modern NFL,” by A complete position description and application details may Mark Bowden (Atlantic Monthly Books): Long before Terrell be found at www.worcesterdiocese.org Owens and similarly self-absorbed

The Catholic Difference

adolescents dominated the professional gridiron, there were titans abroad in the land. More than a few of them — including John Unitas, Raymond Berry, Gino Marchetti, Lenny Moore, Sam Huff, Frank Gifford, Kyle Rote, Pat Summerall, and Charlie Connerly — clashed on the frozen tundra of Yankee Stadium a half-century ago, on Dec. 28, 1958. The first and only overtime championship game in professional football history ensued; it put the NFL on the American sporting map to stay. Mark (Black Hawk Down) Bowden captures the moment, and the manliness, in the best sports book of 2008; “Imagining the Future: Science and American Democracy,” by Yuval Levin (Encounter Books); “In the Shadow of Progress: Being Human in the Age of Technology,”

by Eric Cohen (Encounter Books): I’m a suspect witness, as they’re both friends and colleagues, but I’ll risk the charge of special pleading by saying that Yuval Levin and Eric Cohen are two national treasures — finely-honed analysts of those myriad issues at the intersection of science and ethics, the resolution of which will determine whether knowledge leads to healing and flourishing or to the brave new world of manufactured and stunted humanity. These first books will be followed by many others, I’m confident;

“The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944,” by Rick Atkinson (Holt): “Nothing was right except the courage,” was one British commander’s summary of one of many botched tactical moments in an often-ignored World War II theater; the epitaph could easily serve to memorialize the entire bloody mess that was the American Army’s introduction to war against the Wehrmacht in continental Europe. This is the second volume of Atkinson’s “Liberation Trilogy,” which began with the story of the North African campaign and will conclude in due course with D-Day, Normandy, and the drive on Germany. As in his previous volume, Atkinson combines massive research with narrative drive and an eye for the telling personal detail.

Finally, a not-so-new book that still yields insight and pleasure on the 50th anniversary of its publication: “The Leopard,” by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (Pantheon).

It’s the great modern Italian novel, an elegy for the aristocratic past, and a penetrating dissection of secular modernity. Lampedusa never lived to see his masterwork in print. The Swedish Nobel Committee could begin to redeem itself from decades of folly by honoring Lampedusa posthumously with its now-tattered Literature Prize.

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

Check

Sunday 7 December 2008 — community Advent wreath. I At home on Three Mile River — intended to suspend it from the mid-Advent ceiling, following the ancient veryone is complaining practice, but time ran out. about the “Christmas rush.” I do the “Advent rush” instead. I’m Reflections of a making a list and checking it twice. There’s much Parish Priest to be done for a proper

By Father Tim celebration of Advent.

Goldrick Christmas can wait until December 24: — place a large wreath in the church in such a way that Change plan. Place a large round it is visible to the assembly but table in the sanctuary. Cover the doesn’t obscure the altar. Make table attractively. Order and set sure, for safety’s sake, that local a large wreath of fresh greens fire ordinances are followed. on the table. Place the wooden Last summer I obtained a wheel on top of the wreath. large wagon wheel to use as our Problem; the wheel is too heavy

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The Anchor

December 12, 2008

The Ship’s Log

for me to lift alone. Recruit two strong men to help. Place four candles on the wreath. Check.

I use high-end battery powered candles for safety’s sake. Problem; the fake candles keep slipping off the wreath. Solution: call the religious goods store and order four dish-shaped candleholders. Rush order. Check.

Step back to admire. It doesn’t work. It blocks access to the altar. Recall the men and move the whole thing to another location. Check.

We are now ready to bless the wreath; — double-check the prayer book. Notice there are stipula-

An autograph of holiness

young girl was now a young t was the summer that she woman. She was graduating turned 10 years old. She, from Harvard, having earned her parents and her younger a graduate degree. As she was brother and sister would be putting on her gown she was traveling to Europe to visit filled with excitement for her relatives that they had never graduation, but also very excitmet. They would visit Italy ed that she would see someone and Germany and then extend their travels into Asia, where her father would engage in business meetings in several countries.

On one particular day, she and her family were having lunch in

By Greta MacKoul a small village. From the outdoor table where they were sitting, this that she had met many years 10-year-old child noticed some before. people in the street in front of After the ceremonies, the the restaurant. Some were sityoung woman made her way ting, others were lying down, through the crowd to meet and there was one woman the guest speaker. There were standing next to them. Then many people waiting in line to the woman knelt down, began get an autographed copy of the to touch them and hold them guest speaker’s book.

Finally, close to her. the young woman made it to When her family left the the front of the line and stood restaurant, the young girl said, before the small woman in the “Just a minute Daddy, I need to blue and white sari. speak to someone.” She walked “I met you many years ago, over to the woman who was so Mother Teresa.” lovingly tending to the people “Yes.” on the street and said, “I am “I was only 10 years old. It traveling from America and I’m was before you were famous. I keeping a journal of my experiasked you to write down your ences. I wonder if you would name for me and you wrote it write down your name, so that I right here, in my journal.” can remember you, for you are “I remember, my child.” a very holy person.”

Then the young woman The woman smiled with took Mother Teresa’s hand and such loving eyes and with said softly, “It was an autothe pen, wrote her name. The graph of holiness.” young girl thanked her and as And Mother Teresa said, she walked back to join her “You have Jesus in your heart, family, opened the journal and my child.

You have Jesus in realized that the name was your heart.” completely illegible. Still, she With that, they embraced, was glad that she had met this and the young woman made woman who she perceived to her way through the crowd be very special. where her family had gathered, Fifteen years passed and the

Our Journey of Faith

having made the decision in that moment, to join Mother Teresa.

This is not a true story. Yes, it’s fictional, for who would ever ask for an autograph of holiness?

We value autographs and photographs of famous people: athletes, movie stars, and entertainers, etc. For these we will stand in line, and possibly even pay big bucks.

But an autograph of holiness? For this to be of value, we must value holiness as much as fame or fortune.

Fortunately, the Holy Spirit, the source of all holiness, is a force of great strength. For someone who is holy can write his name, his autograph, upon our hearts. That is what Jesus does.

In many ways, the season of Advent is about holiness, the holiness of the child Jesus, of Christ, a holiness we seek within ourselves. As Mother Teresa said in her real 1983 address to the students of Harvard, “Holiness is not the luxury of the few; it is a simple duty for you and for me.”

And maybe when the season of Advent is over, when we have prepared our hearts for Jesus before Christmas Day, we may write down our name on a piece of paper, before God, and he will say, “You have prepared yourself well by your good works and your kindness. You have drawn close to me in prayer. Yes, this is an autograph of holiness.”

Greta and her husband George, with their children are members of Christ the King Parish in Mashpee.

tions. The wreath is to be blessed only once, and that when the first candle is lighted. On the three subsequent weekends, light the appropriate number of candles before Mass. Problem; how to ritually recognize the wreath on the Second, Third, and Fourth Sundays of Advent?

Solution: Each week, include only one lighted candle in the entrance procession. Place it on the wreath before Mass begins.

Display only as many candles as the current week of Advent. Let the candles accrue until you have four. Check; — process down the aisle with one lighted candle. Problem; the battery-operated candles look classy from a distance, but at close range you can tell they’re fake. Solution: carry a real candle and later change it to a battery-powered one. I believe that in certain unsavory circles, this is called “the old bait and switch.” Check.

Problem; I use white candles.

The Advent Wreath custom originated in German Lutheran homes. They originally used red or white candles. Some style maven centuries ago noticed that the red candles clashed with the purple vestments and changed them to purple candles, with a rose one to match the specialized vestments of Gaudete Sunday.

Solution: Explain this to parishioners over and over again; — vest the altar in a way that reflects the season.

I rummage through the sacristy and find an old-fashioned linen altar cloth, tastefully embroidered with purple. It hadn’t been used in years. Send it to be washed and pressed. Place it on the altar. Check; — place the customary “Giving Tree” with tags for the needs of the local poor and needy, but make sure it doesn’t look anything like a Christmas tree. It’s Advent, not Christmas. Barbara

Danforth and Kathryn Bennett volunteer to do this. They set out a deciduous tree, with its winter branches painted white, and festoon it with small white lights and round white tags. Check; — find a way to collect the wrapped gifts without creating a trip hazard. Solution: Use the over-sized basket I’ve had in storage for years. Long ago some parishioners opened a fancy gift store and asked me to bless their establishment, which I gladly did. The shop went bankrupt and closed its doors within a few months. I must have said the wrong prayer. At any rate, they gave me the display basket when the store closed. It was much too optimistic to use as a collection basket. It’s three feet across and two feet deep. I put it away until I could find the proper use for it.

It’s perfect for the task at hand.

Check; — find a way to honor St. Nicholas of Myra on his first feast day in St. Nicholas Church.

I happen to have a costume of St. Nicholas in the closet. Patrick Tracy, a high school parishioner, happens to fit it perfectly. Patrick is in the drama club and has had experience playing the part.

Check; — Jim Lopes mentions he has restored an antique Victorian sleigh, if I could find a use for it.

It now sits at the main entrance of the parking lot, festooned with a simple wreath and bearing the nameplate “St. Nicholas.”

Check.

Last week, one of the teachers in the local public school asked the fourth-grade class to share legends of Santa Claus. In the class were several of my young parishioners. They correctly informed their teacher: “Santa Claus is St. Nicholas, and St. Nicholas is real, not legendary.” Check.

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

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The Anchor

December 12, 2008

Fourth-grader celebrates true meaning of Christmas by keeping toy drive alive

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

NEW BEDFORD — While most kids will probably be busy making out their wish lists to Santa this month, one fourth-grade student at St. James-St. John School has taken it upon herself to bring some much-needed Christmas cheer to other, less fortunate children. In doing this, Nikki Ramos has discovered the true meaning of Christmas by learning it’s far better to give than to receive.

“I think it’s better to give gifts,” Ramos said. “I think when I give someone a present, it just makes me feel happy.”

According to her principal, Cristina Raposo, Ramos first started working on the Toys for Tots drive about three years ago, after seeing an episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” with the theme of “pay it forward” which, in turn, was inspired by a popular movie of the same name.

“Nikki and her cousin Dayanna were watching the Oprah show and … the entire audience got a $1,000 debit card to go out and do something nice for someone else,” Raposo said. “When they were done watching the show, Nikki and Dayanna said they wanted to do it. Nikki’s mom wasn’t sure what they meant, but they talked a little bit about it and they came up with the idea that they each would give up one of the toys they normally would receive at Christmas, and the money spent

on that toy could be spent on because I didn’t have my cousin purchasing something for some- to help me this year,” she said. one in need.”

“Then I thought that I could ask But even this initial selfless all my friends from St. James-St. act didn’t seem to satisfy Ramos’ desire to do more. She and her cousin then put a little speech together and called up family members and friends asking them to help. These impromptu calls raised just a little over $200. Then the cousins started making little magnets that said, “I Donated to Toys for Tots” which they were allowed to sell inside the North Dartmouth Mall. That first year they managed to collect $750 for the Toys for Tots program.

“Last year they approached me because they wanted to do something a little different,” Raposo said. “They hand-painted some Christmas ornaments ANCHOR PERSON OF THE WEEK — that said ‘Toys for Tots’ Ramos (Photo by Kenneth J. Souza) on them and approached me about selling the ornaments John School to get involved.” here at school. We allowed them “She approached me about to sell them during report card/ involving the school, once conference day and at that point again, but instead of just selling in time they raised $650, which ornaments, she wanted to ask they then turned over to the Ma- the students to donate a toy,” rine Corps for their Toys for Raposo said. “I agreed and she Tots program.” sent a letter to the parents kindly This year, however, after asking if they would donate. Our Ramos’ cousin moved away to goal was to collect 300 toys, Virginia, she was faced with which we’re pretty close to right the difficult decision of how to now. We’ve had a lot of commucarry on without her. “I was sad nity support since the articles in

the newspapers and a local radio interview.”

Although based on the Toys for Tots model, Ramos felt the name didn’t really fit with what they were doing at her school. She’s since dubbed her new effort the Kids for Kids drive. “My mom came up with the name Kids for Kids,” Ramos said. “I think it’s better because my mom explained how Toys for Tots was all about grown-ups giving toys to little kids.

Kids for Kids is more about kids giving toys to other kids.”

According to Raposo, Ramos and her mom are hopeful this idea catches on nationally and gives kids something more to think about during Christmas than getting gifts.

“It’s definitely a great program and we’re in a Catholic school and that’s Nikki what we teach and preach to our students each and every day,” she said. “It’s nice to see the kids’ following through with it. The response from our families here along with the students has been overwhelming. It’s especially heartwarming this year with the way our economy has been.”

Ramos and her mom are also hoping that Oprah Winfrey learns of Ramos’ efforts, so they might be able to bring the new Kids for Kids idea to a national audience. In fact, word

of Ramos’ toy drive has already reached as far as Texas, where a person read about her drive after Ramos’ older sister posted a newspaper article on her MySpace Webpage. “They have now started doing the same sort of drive out in Texas based on what was happening here,” Raposo said.

As they quickly approached their goal of collecting 300 toys, Ramos and some of her friends from St. James-St. John School were slated to attend the Toys for Tots breakfast this past Tuesday to bring in all the donations they’ve amassed.

When asked how it feels to be a local celebrity and now be named as a “Person of the Week,” Ramos just smiles. “It makes me feel really, really, really happy,” she said. “I’m really excited. I just wanted to do this because it’s fun.”

Noting she thinks Jesus would be proud of what she’s doing — along with her grandfather, who has passed away — Ramos said she was inspired to help others not only by what she saw on Oprah, but also by something her father once told her.

“My dad once told me about the millions of kids who wake up on Christmas morning and don’t have any presents to open,” Ramos said. “I thought, ‘how sad!,’ and if I could get everyone in the school involved to bring in a toy for kids who don’t have any toys, that would be great.”

What is there to lose?

L

et’s say you’re a professional athlete, and you shoot yourself in the leg with an illegal firearm in a public establishment. You cover up the crime.

The hospital covers up the crime, but you’re arrested anyway. Your boss reprimands you — suspends you without pay — and won’t allow you to play for the rest of the season.

What do you do? It’s easy, you have an athlete’s union go to bat for you, and say the punishment is

My View From the Stands

By Dave Jolivet too harsh.

Now, you’re a pro hockey player and you maliciously hit an opponent in the head with a stick, causing major physical damage.

The police want to press assault and battery charges and the league suspends you.

What do you do? It’s easy, you have an athlete’s union go to bat for you, and say the punishment is too harsh.

Now you’re a pro baseball player and you don’t want to stay with the club that has deposited millions of dollars into your saving account. You hold your breath until you turn blue; you feign

11

The Anchor

December 12, 2008 injury; and you don’t hustle. The club suspends you.

What do you do? It’s easy, you have an athlete’s union go to bat for you, and say the punishment is too harsh.

OK, now you’re a football player again, and this time you’re actually on the playing field. You hit a defenseless opponent in the helmet with your helmet. You know the blow is coming — he doesn’t. He’s carted off the field in a meat wagon. You are fined with the possibility of a suspension.

What do you do? It’s easy, you have an athlete’s union go to bat for you, and say the punishment is too harsh.

After all isn’t this country all about being innocent until proven guilty?

Every year sports fans see this scene play out over and over. As John Mellencamp once asked, “Ain’t that America?”

It frustrates me to no end to witness the protection of athletes no matter what their behavior.

But this weekend, I had a thought. It doesn’t happen often, but it does on occasion.

Let’s get the professional athletes’ players union to defend the unborn.

It’s perfect. Instead of innocent until proven guilty, the unborn in

this county are considered nonhuman until proven human — by birth.

Say for instance a mother wants to kill her unborn child and her doctor is all for it. What do

you do? It’s easy, you have an athlete’s union go to bat for the little victim, and say the punishment for being a fetus is too harsh.

Since the people with brains and influence won’t go to bat for

the unborn, let’s call on a more powerful entity with limited conscience and scruples to defend our innocent unborn. It’s kind of like fighting fire with fire. What have we to lose?

12

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

“Four Christmases” (Warner Bros.)

Routine comedy in which an airport shutdown ruins an unmarried couple’s (Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon) usual Christmas getaway, forcing them instead to spend the holiday visiting each of their divorced parents (Robert Duvall, Mary Steenburgen, Sissy Spacek and Jon Voight). Despite the innovative casting of dramatic actors in comic roles, documentarian Seth Gordon’s first fictional offering, which takes many a crude detour on the way to its muted affirmation of emotional maturity and commitment, boasts a few clever exchanges between its leads, but little else. Brief nongraphic, nonmarital sexual activity, cohabitation, much sexual humor, some crude and crass language, and a contraception reference. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting 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.

“Frost/Nixon” (Universal) Successful expansion of Broadway and London stage hit about the genesis of talk-show host David Frost’s (Michael Sheen) historic TV talks with disgraced former U.S. President

The Anchor Richard Nixon (Frank Langella) in 1977. Director Ron Howard and writer Peter Morgan build a good deal of suspense into Frost landing the interview and then getting Nixon publicly to admit for the first time his wrongdoing in the Watergate break-in scandal, with the stars giving pitch perfect performances. Some conversational rough language, brief profanity, and crude expressions, implied nonmarital relationship, fleeting rear nudity. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III — adults, though acceptable for older teens.

Motion Picture Association of America rating, R — restricted.

Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

“Transporter 3” (Lionsgate) In the third go-round for this extremely violent, borderline nonsensical action franchise, courier-for-hire Frank Martin (Jason Statham) is forced to drive the kidnapped daughter of Ukraine’s environment minister from Marseilles, France, to Odessa, Ukraine, as part of a scheme to persuade her father to let a sinister multinational corporation dump toxic sludge inside the country.

Although the hero exhibits more evolved emotions than he did in 2002’s “Transporter” or its 2005 sequel, director Olivier Megaton sticks to the plan of seeing how frenetic and stylized the fights and chases can become before the cynical enterprise self-destructs.

Pervasive violence, frequent crude language, some profanity and rough language, an implied sexual encounter, scattered innuendo, and an instance of drug use.

The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is O — morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

‘I AM NOT A CROOK’ — Kevin Bacon and Frank Langella star in a scene from the movie “Frost/Nixon.” For a brief review of this film, see CNS Movie Capsules above. (CNS photo/Universal)

December 12, 2008

A GREAT INSPIRATION — The Bishop Stang Student Council and the National Honor Society sponsored an appearance by Immaculée Ilibagiza, author of “Left to Tell; Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust” (Hay House) at the North Dartmouth school recently. The entire Bishop Stang community read her moving book this summer. From left: Sarah Celone, Katie Quintin, Immaculée, Ellen Carroll, and Morgan Cirillo. Ilibagiza’s latest book was published November 28.

Book on Rwandan apparitions to be released on anniversary

Author has made several visits to Diocese of Fall River

By Regina Linskey Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON — Like many stories from Africa, the story of Mary’s appearing to three young girls in Rwanda “wasn’t told” beyond the continent, said best-selling author Immaculee Ilibagiza.

So Ilibagiza wrote the first English-language book about Mary’s apparitions in the 1980s at an all-girls Catholic high school in the remote Rwandan village of Kibeho, the only Vatican-recognized Marian apparitions in Africa.

“Our Lady of Kibeho” was released November 28, the anniversary of the first apparition in 1981.

Calling “Our Lady of Kibeho” “the most important book I will write,” Ilibagiza told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview that she can remember hearing about the apparitions from her father at the dinner table, a place where her close family gathered nightly to share the stories of the day and talk about religion.

“My dad said, ‘You won’t believe what happened; the Virgin Mary appeared to a girl in Kibeho,’” Ilibagiza recalled.

She said she learned the details of the Marian apparitions from family talk, village chatter and the tape recordings of the visionaries and Kibeho onlookers that the local priest recorded and played to his parish.

But Ilibagiza said she wasn’t exactly thrilled at the time that another girl saw Mary before she did. That year, Ilibagiza’s fourthgrade teacher had told her class the story of Our Lady of Fatima, and the young Ilibagiza made it her mission to become a visionary. Ilibagiza, her best friend and her best friend’s little brother pretended to be shepherds, just like the Fatima visionaries, and prayed that Mary would appear to them.

Initially, the local Kibeho

priest, villagers and even some members of the Ilibagiza family thought the first visionary, Alphonsine Mumureke, was a liar.

“In my heart as a child, I believed it 100 percent,” said Ilibagiza.

Then Mary appeared at the school to Anathalie Mukamazimpaka and another young girl known only as Marie-Clare, who had tormented Alphonsine after the first apparitions. The three visionaries were rigorously tested by medical and Church officials. In 2001, the Vatican recognized the apparitions to the three girls.

Crowds gathered to witness the mysterious rains that would fall unpredictably from clear skies and to hear Mary’s messages to the visionaries from 1981 to 1989.

The visionaries said Mary asked Rwandans to pray, fill their hearts with love, and reject sin and evil deeds. The visions were joyful until one day in 1984 when all the visionaries reported seeing violence, dismembered corpses and destruction, the book says. Mary warned that if Rwandans did not renew their hearts and dispel evil, there would be genocide, it says.

Mary also requested that a church and a basilica, which Mary named in the visions as “Seven Sorrows Church” and “Reunion of the Dispersed Basilica,” be built at Kibeho, Ilibagiza told CNS.

During 100 days in 19941995, Rwandans from the majority Hutu tribe hacked to death nearly one million minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Corpses clogged the roadways and littered the countryside. More than 5,000 refugees were shot by soldiers in Kibeho’s church in 1995.

Most of Ilibagiza’s family, including her brothers, mother and father, were murdered during the war. For 91 days, Ilibagiza hid with six other women in a threefoot-by-four-foot bathroom at a neighbor’s house. Ilibagiza’s best-selling book, “Left to Tell,” was about how she got through those horrific days with prayer.

“Nothing can ever be difficult to endure if you know Our Lady loves you,” she told CNS. In the months that followed the Rwandan holocaust, the Marian visions were forgotten, the book says. But as time went on, pilgrims gradually returned.

Ilibagiza told CNS she expects 50,000 people to visit Kibeho for the anniversary this year.

When asked if Ilibagiza knew as a young girl that she would become an author, she said such an idea was “a far-away dream.”

“People in my country didn’t write things down”; they told stories, she said. “Our Lady of Kibeho” is told as a Rwandan would share a story. It’s about her personal memories and an account of the effect the apparitions had on her and her country.

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on WLNE Channel 6 Sunday, December 14 at 11:00 a.m.

Scheduled celebrant is Father Michael Ciryak, pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Swansea

The Anchor

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The Anchor

December 12, 2008

news briefs

Austrian monks’ CD of Gregorian chant is topping pop charts worldwide NEW YORK (CNS) — They’re Austrian. They’re Catholic. They sing. That description might make readers think of “The Sound of Music” and the von Trapp family, but the singers in question are Cistercian monks of Stift Heiligenkreuz Abbey, a 12th-century monastery near Vienna. Their CD of Gregorian chants has become a phenomenal crossover hit topping pop charts around the world. The monastery was founded in 1133 and its community has continued uninterrupted since then. After the European release of “Chant: Music for the Soul” in May, it quickly became the top classical album in Great Britain before crossing over and becoming No. 7 in the British pop charts. Similarly, it’s made the top-10 charts in Austria, France, Australia and Sweden. When the CD was released July 1 in the U.S. on the Decca label, it became the most popular classical recording. The album sold 55,000 copies in its first two weeks, and sales are still going strong. In an interview with Catholic News Service while he was in New York, Father Karl Wallner, 45, the monastery’s communications director and Webmaster, spoke about the growing interest in Gregorian chants, their spiritual significance, and how he and his brother monks are handling their newfound notoriety.

First Vietnamese-American in Congress is former Jesuit seminarian WASHINGTON (CNS) — The first Vietnamese-American member of Congress is a former Jesuit seminarian who served for four years on the National Advisory Council to the U.S. bishops.

Anh “Joseph” Quang Cao, a 41-year-old Republican, defeated Democratic Rep. William J. Jefferson in a Dec. 6 runoff election to represent Louisiana’s 2nd District. Jefferson had held the seat since 1991, and no Republican has represented the congressional district that includes New Orleans since 1890. Cao, pronounced Gow, was named in January 2003 to a four-year term on the advisory council, a 63-member group of laymen and laywomen, religious men and women, diocesan priests and bishops that meets twice a year to review documentation and offer recommendations on matters before the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

A member of Mary Queen of Vietnam Parish in New Orleans, Cao told The Associated Press that his run for political office was motivated by his Catholic faith. “It was something that I was called to do, literally, in the religion sense,” he said.

Pope urges banks to help families facing financial crises VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI urged the banking industry to help families who are facing financial difficulties. He reminded banks that one of their major objectives is to support the weakest members of the community along with aiding business activity. The pope made his comments after he greeted representatives from an Italian cooperative bank during a recent weekly general audience. He said their presence gave him “the opportunity to highlight, especially now that many families are in difficulty, one of the primary objectives of the banking and credit industries.” He said a major part of their focus should be “solidarity toward the weakest sectors and the support of productive activity.”

Nicaraguan archbishop decries U.S. decision to suspend aid program MANAGUA, Nicaragua (CNS) — Archbishop Leopoldo Brenes Solorzano of Managua criticized the decision by the Millennium Challenge Corp. to suspend a U.S. aid program over concerns about the results of nationwide municipal elections. Archbishop Brenes, president of the Nicaraguan bishops’ conference, warned that suspending the poverty reduction program would affect the poorest people of the nation. “It’s pathetic (the suspension of the program), because we are a poor country, and we always need every bit of this aid,” he said after an early December Mass in Managua. John Danilovich, chief executive of the Millennium Challenge Corp., a U.S. government corporation designed to work with some of the poorest countries in the world, ordered the agency to re-evaluate its $175 million aid package to Nicaragua. “I am not satisfied that the electoral process in Nicaragua has been conducted in accordance with the principles upon which MCC awards and delivers grants to reduce poverty,” said a statement from the organization. It said projects already under contract would continue, but that any new disbursements would be suspended until further notice.

Annual appeal for religious is this weekend

NORTH DARTMOUTH — “Very aware of the financial challenges facing so many families, our senior religious are redoubling their efforts to bring these needs before God in prayer,” said Sister of the Most Precious Blood Janice Bader, director of the National Religious Retirement Office, in a communication to religious across the U.S. “As the annual appeal for the Retirement Fund for Religious approaches, these same religious accept with humble thanks the prayers, support and sacrifices of so many who share in their care.” This weekend is the annual Retirement Fund for Religious appeal taking place at all Masses across the Diocese of Fall River.

In a letter to pastors across the diocese, Sister of Mercy Catherine Donovan, diocesan representative for religious, wrote, “This fund benefits the projected $9 billion retirement liability of the nation’s religious orders. For our diocesan religious, it is always a tremendously generous tribute from parishioners and compensates the many years of unfunded healthcare of religious throughout the country.”

Sister Donovan listed some staggering statistics regarding the care for retired religious: — the annual cost of care has escalated from an average of $8,500 per person in 1985 to more than $33,000 in 2007; — the average cost of skilled care will exceed $51,000 for

2008; — of the 650 religious institutes that submitted data to the National Religious Retirement Office in 2007, 258 institutes have 40 percent or less of their projected need; — fifty-six percent of the members of institutes reporting in 2007 are between the ages of 60-69.

In the Diocese of Fall River last year at total of $146,477.72 was collected for the appeal.

“Again I ask for your kind support for the 2008 Retirement appeal,” said Sister Donovan.

“We can only beg God to bless each one with bread for the day and an abundance of hope and trust to fortify the journey,” concluded Sister Bader.

‘Life giving, life sustaining’

Supporting the work of mission parishes this Christmas

A knock on a rectory door.

The parish priest opens the door to find a young man holding a newborn baby.

The child’s mother had died, shortly after giving birth. The baby’s father, overwhelmed by grief, was unable to care for the child by himself. Very soon news of this child’s birth spread throughout this poor village in Viana, Angola. A teacher at the parish mission school came forward. Although poor and with many children of her own, she would take the child and care for him. Others in the parish pledged to help her as well.

“We felt the Lord’s presence at that very moment,” recalls Bishop Joaquim Lopes of Viana, who was that parish priest. “May God offer us always good Samaritans to reduce the sufferings of those who need a hand and seek an open heart.”

In another part of the mission world, in Pakistan, St. Mary’s parish is also trying to reduce suffering — by fighting for peace and a better way of life for its parishioners.

“We promote education among the children of sweepers, brick makers and other day-laborers,” explains Father Khalid Rashid, the pastor of St. Mary’s parish in Issanagri in the Faisalabad Diocese of Pakistan. “Education is a top priority — a path toward the full development of the person, giving each a sense of basic human rights.

“We like to say,” he continues, “blessed are those who are providing education to the poor because they will bring peace to the world.”

Father Rashid first arrived at St. Mary’s, now two decades ago, there were but a handful of

Catholics. Today he and his team of local Religious Sisters and catechists service some 5,000 Catholics scattered throughout 75 predominantly Muslim villages.

The schools in the parish now include a high school, a middle school, three elementary schools and five nursery schools. “Our schools are promoting interfaith harmony and love,” says Father Rashid. “We are building a culture of peace.”

And it’s a missionary culture as well. “Our parishioners are bringing Christ’s message to others by the very example of their lives,” this local priest explains.

“They pray together, in times of happiness and of suffering. They are eager to listen to the Gospel and receive sacraments, as a source of strength.

“Here in St. Mary’s, no mat-

ter what we face, we believe God is with us,” Father Rashid concludes.

Throughout the Missions, there are thousands of mission parishes just like these in Angola and Pakistan. In these parishes, life is nurtured and celebrated, peace is sown in hearts, suffering is met with loving care from local priests, Religious and lay people, and the poor come to know they are loved by God. Such parishes and their life-giving, life-sustaining work are supported in their efforts by gifts through the Society for the Propagation of the Faith.

To contribute to the Society for the Propagation of the Faith send donations to the Society to the attention of Msgr. John J. Oliveira, 106 Illinois Avenue, New Bedford, MA 02745.

IN NEED OF SUPPORT — Throughout the Missions, there are thousands of mission parishes just like this one in Pakistan. In these parishes, life is nurtured and celebrated, peace is sown in hearts, suffering is met with loving care from local priests, Religious and lay people, and the poor come to know they are loved by God. Such parishes and their life-giving, life-sustaining work are supported in their efforts by your gifts through the Society for the Propagation of the Faith.

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The Anchor

December 12, 2008

Point of pride: Glendon glad to have served as Vatican ambassador

By John Thavis Catholic News Service

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VATICAN CITY — When Mary Ann Glendon leaves her post as U.S. ambassador to the Vatican January 19, she’ll end a term that was the briefest on record, yet one of the most active.

Since her arrival in Rome last February, Glendon has been kept busy with a trip

by Pope Benedict XVI to the United States in April, a return visit to the Vatican by President George W. Bush in June, five major embassy-sponsored conferences and the daily rounds of diplomatic obligations at one of the world’s premier listening posts.

In early December, she was co-hosting a Rome symposium on “Philanthropy and Human Rights,” which featured nine expert speakers from around the world. Like many of the embassy’s events, its editorial line largely reflected the Bush administration views on social and economic questions.

Glendon is unabashedly proud of having served under Bush, and she believes the last eight years have seen a convergence of U.S. and Vatican positions in such areas as humanitarian assistance, the role of faithbased institutions, religious freedom and the place of religion in civil society.

“How lucky I’ve been to have served here at a time when relations between the United States and the Holy See have been so close and productive,” she said in an interview with Catholic News Service.

The pope’s U.S. trip in April, she said, was particularly interesting to her because the pontiff made a point of praising the American model of religious freedom.

Sometimes described

as “positive secularism,” it’s a model that gives religious values a significant voice in the public square, rather than excluding them on the grounds of church-state separation.

That’s a subject that’s been on Glendon’s mind for years as

FOND FAREWELL — Mary Ann Glendon, the U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, is pictured at the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See in Rome. (CNS photo/Giancarlo Giuliani, Catholic Press Photo)

an academic. She has warned that this American model is “fighting for its life” today against persistent efforts to limit religion’s influence on government.

It just happens that the American model of religious freedom is also the topic of the U.S. Embassy’s last big conference under Glendon, to take place January 13 in the presence of other diplomats accredited to the Holy See and Vatican officials.

Among the speakers is Philip Hamburger, who is widely considered the leading scholar on separation of church and state in the United States. Also present will be Joseph Weiler, an expert on religion and European society; Richard Garnett, who has written on law and religious freedom; and Cardinal JeanLouis Tauran, the Vatican’s top interreligious dialogue official.

Glendon is already excited about the lineup.

“It doesn’t get any better than that. It’s going to be the grand finale; it’s going to be fantastic. Be there or be square,” she said.

The January conference marks the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the United States and the Vatican. It is also the last in a series of embassy conferences commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Glendon said she came to the

ambassador’s position knowing it would be a short stint and decided to set an ambitious agenda based on those two anniversaries, convinced that human rights was an area where U.S. and Vatican interests coincided.

But her job hasn’t been all scholarly speeches and diplomatic formality. In recent weeks, Glendon has begun hosting movie nights at her home for friends of the embassy, serving popcorn and screening such modern classics as “O Brother, Where Art Thou.” Next up is “South Pacific.” (One of the perks of her job has been the chance to order from Netflix to a State Department address abroad.)

In November, she hosted a soprano and pianist concert featuring classical music by American composers or by Italian composers inspired by American works of art. Two more concerts are in the works.

Glendon said one of the best things about being ambassador has been the endless variety of people and events.

“You never know what the day will bring, and the job varies with what’s going on in the world,” she said.

She also enjoyed the sense of teamwork at the embassy, she said.

“Professors are generally one-person operations. You sit in an office, you prepare your classes, you interact with your students. Here, I had an opportunity to work with a very enthusiastic, intelligent and skilled team of young foreign service officers. I haven’t worked with a team like that since I practiced law,” she said.

Glendon will return to her role as law professor at Harvard University in January. She’ll be back occasionally at the Vatican, however, as a member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. She resigned her position as president of the pontifical academy when she became ambassador, and whether she would return as academy president again is “up to the Holy Father,” she said.

At Harvard, Glendon goes back to a six-month research leave that will allow her to finish writing a book that she didn’t manage to complete over the last year.

“I was halfway through writing it when I took the job of ambassador,” she said. “I must say, I expected I would have a little spare time in this job, but it didn’t work out that way.”

Tough economy only fuels spirit of giving to the poor continued from page one

shelves of pants and shirts. All of the clothing has been separated by size. Another room contains toys, which are separated for boys and girls, by age.

On Sunday nights a lot of the pick ups and sorting gets done.

Volunteers, many of whom return year after year, wrap and sort and package donations that are flowing in steadily from parishes and other organizations, as well as from individuals throughout the diocese.

McNamee is in the middle of it all. All these years, and yet she continues to be deeply moved by the kindness that people show at this time of year.

Showing a visitor the ins and outs of the operation, she stops herself several times, pauses, and remembers another story.

There are the two guys who insist on driving the CSS trucks each year. They make the rounds to all corners of the Fall River Diocese on Sundays and make sure all of the donated items are delivered to Bay Street. They enlist friends to help, and what they get out of it, McNamee figures, is that wonderful feeling of having done for someone else.

There are the retired nurses who come in every Tuesday.

They’ve been doing it for years.

They love to wrap the gifts.

“They bring their own cookies,” said McNamee. “We supply the coffee.”

There are other nurses and workers from Charlton Memorial Hospital, says McNamee, colleagues from the same floor.

It has been a tradition for them too, to volunteer their time.

There is the woman who just stopped by unannounced, she says, and handed her $200 in gift certificates. She quietly left, perhaps feeling just a little bit warm-

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The Anchor

December 12, 2008

er on a cold night. That happens quite frequently, said McNamee.

There was the woman whom McNamee met after she realized that her children were in fact going to receive the bicycles they wanted for Christmas, because someone had donated them. She never thought such a thing possible. When she saw those bikes, she cried.

And each year, said McNamee, when the drive is nearing its end, she will get calls from a local family or a business. And they will ask her if there are any families left to help. The bigger, the better they say. And McNamee will find a family for them, because there always seems to be another. And the gifts will be bought.

There are people, she said, who don’t think twice about spending $1,000 to help a family in need.

“For many of these families and their children, we are it,” said McNamee. “There is nothing else.”

The volunteers who return every year, said McNamee are a story themselves.

They are young and old. They come from varying socio-economic backgrounds. Some, at one time in their lives, were recipients of the Giving Tree program. They feel a need to give back. Others are from well off families. There are parents, said McNamee, who send their children to help, to experience that life lesson that Christmas is more than shopping malls.

The funny thing is, after helping for a year, most of the volunteers return again and again.

“It makes us smile,” said McNamee. “It really has a life of its own.”

Ask Mary Lou Frias, a pa-

rishioner at St. John Neumann Parish in Freetown, what motivates her each year to serve as volunteer coordinator of the Gift of Giving program and she gives a simple answer.

“I don’t know how not to do it now,” she said.

Frias has been the volunteer coordinator of the effort since its inception 11 years ago. The Gift of Giving initiative has grown each year. This year, with an economy defined by doubledigit unemployment and soaring prices at the grocery store, the demand for it has never been stronger.

Frias said it has become a tradition that people looking to take part in the “Giving Tree” program start calling her around the end of October. It is, she said, as if they can’t wait to get started helping others. This year has been no exception.

“I just have to get them in the door and show them what we are doing and then you don’t have to ask again,” she said. “They just come in. In the worst of times, people step up.”

What is different this year is the fact that the holiday season coincides with an economy in a steady state of decline. Many of the forms arriving at CSS are from families that may not meet the requirements of a federal assistance program. Perhaps they have recently lost a job. Paperwork takes time. The bills are piling up. On a list of priorities, Christmas spending falls behind groceries, heat, and rent.

“In an economy like this, so many of us are a paycheck away from being poor,” said Frias.

The gifts people are seeking

are simple ones. They are necessities, mostly.

That is the other thing that has struck Frias over the years.

She sees the forms when they arrive at CSS. They tell stories too. They represent families down on their luck, looking for a simple Christmas. They ask for practical things, like a winter jacket, a pair of gloves, tennis shoes, perhaps.

Of course, it is Christmas and these are children. So McNamee and Frias and their legion of volunteers make sure that those gift packages include a little bit more than the necessities. Each package, along with basic needs, includes a toy.

Whenever possible, they meet

special requests, like a Hannah Montana doll.

Sande Amaral, a client advocate at CSS during the day, puts in countless hours helping to coordinate the Giving Tree effort. To Amaral, and so many other volunteers, it is time well spent.

“We’re helping out the children,” she said.

And so the economy that has done so much damage doesn’t seem able to dampen the spirit of the Gift of Giving program.

Maybe the Gift of Giving program is what Christmas is all about. And maybe it is about gifts, after all.

“It’s a great gift, to be the giver,” said Frias.

16

Youth Pages

GOD BLESS THE BEASTS — In honor of St. Francis the first-grade class from Holy Name School, Fall River, collected various needed items for Forever Paws. A “no kill” shelter, Forever Paws depends upon donations and the generosity of the community. Bev Andrade is pictured along with a “furry friend” and the Holy Name first-grade students.

PATIENTLY WAITING — Advent, the time of waiting and preparation for Christ’s birth, began for Christians around the world November 30. Following a time-honored Catholic tradition, St. MarySacred Heart students and their families, along with parishioners from St. Mary’s and Sacred Heart parishes, spent an afternoon making Advent wreaths for their homes. Father David Costa, director of the North Attleboro school and pastor of both parishes, explained the symbolism of the wreath. The younger children enjoyed coloring Jesse Tree ornaments. Hot chocolate was provided, and each family brought baked goods for everyone to enjoy. From left, Samantha Dubord, Italia Finucane, and Brooke Nyman pose with a completed Advent Wreath.

PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE — Bishop Feehan High School in Attleboro recently celebrated a ground-breaking formally to announce its $4.5 million capital campaign which includes the renovation of the former Sisters of Mercy convent. Fall River Superintendent of Schools George Milot (far left) and Bishop Feehan President Chris Servant (far right) pose with current Feehan students and children of faculty and staff members representing St. John’s School in Attleboro, St. Mary’s School in Mansfield and St. Mary’s-Sacred Heart School in North Attleboro.

December 12, 2008

A giving tradition at Stang

NORTH DARTMOUTH — For more than 25 years, the Bishop Stang High School Student Council has been giving back to the community by organizing a Thanksgiving Day food drive and by preparing meals for Market Ministries in New Bedford.

Through the generous efforts of Student Council President Ellen Carroll, Vice President Corinne Ainsworth, Secretary Morgan Cirillo, and Treasurer Sarah Celone, and the 26 homeroom representatives who make up the Student Council, more than 400 people were fed who otherwise would not have been able to enjoy a true Thanksgiving meal.

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving, the members of the Student Council spent the morning carving turkeys, putting together more than 200 food baskets, and peeling and cutting potatoes that

were later cooked and served at a soup kitchen run by Sister Rose Gallogly of Market Ministries.

All the food items were gathered from the faculty, staff, and students participating in homeroom collections by giving either food donations or funds for the purchase of turkeys, pies and all the fixings necessary for a Thanksgiving feast.

Lockheed Martin Sippican, Inc. donated gift certificates to Shaw’s Supermarkets to purchase the turkeys. The turkeys were taken home on Tuesday night and cooked by faculty, staff, and parents. The students began preparations at 8 a.m. on Wednesday and by 9:30 a.m. the dinners were ready for distribution. The Student Council delivered the meals to the soup kitchen in New Bedford by a bus and driver from Whaling City Transit.

PLENTY TO GO AROUND — Members of the Confirmation One Class at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Attleboro met in the Hospitality Center of the church to assist in assembling Thanksgiving Day baskets with representatives of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. With the students’ help, the Society helped more than 200 needy families in the community enjoy a Thanksgiving Day meal. Pictured are some of the students, as well as members of St. John’s Parish, with baskets they filled.

The Anchor is always pleased to run news and photos about our diocesan youth. If schools or parish Religious Education programs have newsworthy stories and photos they would like to share with our readers, send them to: schools@ anchornews.org

December 12, 2008

H

ave you ever made a decision and then wished you could take it back? We all know life is not easy with its roads filled with many twists and turns, hills and valleys, challenges and opportunities. We often struggle for direction. But through it all we are given a choice: Right turn or left turn? High road or low road?

Easy path or difficult one?

We find ourselves alone, forgotten and lost and seek guidance for the choices to be made. Fear no more. The choice is Christ and you will find him on the road less traveled.

Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road Not Taken,” has always inspired me. It reminds me that once I choose a certain road in life, there is no turning back. I cannot change the past, but I can learn from it. And I do this by changing paths later on, always remembering that my choice is a very important one. The last verse of the poem reads: I shall be telling this with a sigh

Youth Pages The road less traveled

Everybody’s doing it. You’re Somewhere ages not alone. But is it real and and ages hence: tangible? Just because evTwo roads diverged in a erybody is doing it doesn’t wood, and I — make it right, especially for I took the one you. Follow your heart, not less traveled by, just your mind. Allow Christ And that has made to be involved in your every all the difference. thought, word and action.

Read the poem in its entirety and you will realize that it places emphasis on the choice made, not the opportunities foregone. Jesus often took the road less traveled,

By Ozzie Pacheco much to the dismay of his followers, for they did not completely Learn of Christ by beginning understand. And there is the with Christ. It’s never too key to placing emphasis on late, just like in the followthe choice to be made — ing true story: understanding Christ. That Charles was greatly makes all the difference. troubled with sin — a man Our desire is to take the looking for salvation, but most comfortable path, the path of least resistance. How not knowing where to turn.

A friend would often speak often do you find yourself to him for hours about how regretting that choice? Folhe was saved through Jelowing others on the road sus Christ. Charles was not “most often traveled” appears to be the right thing to raised in a home that attended any kind of church, do. There’s less confusion.

You’re following the known. so all that was told him was

Be Not Afraid

Kids skipping Mass? Blame ignorance, not rebellion

Vatican youth director considers faith in the young

VATICAN CITY, (Zenit. org) — Young people today are not against the Church; they simply don’t know much about it, says the new director of the youth section of the Pontifical Council for the Laity.

With his new role, French Father Eric Jacquinet will be one of the key figures in the organization of the next World Youth Day in Madrid, Spain.

He spoke with L’Osservatore Romano about the causes for young people’s estrangement from the Church, principally noting “the family’s inability to transmit the faith.”

The priest, a member of the Emmanuel community, spoke about his work with estranged young people in the Archdiocese of Lyon. “In the Venissieux parish,” he said, “65 percent of young people are children of separated parents, and Christians are in a minority amid the immigrants. We had to evangelize door-todoor.”

Among today’s youth “more than a need of spirituality, there is a strong emotional desire, which generates a certain confusion with the spiritual

experience. Worse still, this is not enough to foster adult persons in the faith,” Father Jacquinet noted.

The priest spoke about his experiences at World Youth Days, which he started to follow since they began in Rome, Italy, in 1985 and in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, in 1989.

“In Santiago I was responsible for a bus with 24 French young people and as many others of ex-Czechoslovakia,” he explained. “Thus I came to know the Church in the catacombs: They had permission to travel only as tourists, and among them was a clandestine priest. Only two people in the group knew his true identity.”

Father Jacquinet participated in this year’s youth day in Sydney, to learn about the work that awaits him. He observed, “I was able to see how this intensely secularized Australian metropolis was transformed by the presence of the young people on the streets.

Local priests themselves, some of whom were very skeptical, were convinced, because the Spirit did something grandi-

ose, and Cardinal Pell met the challenge.”

Regarding the challenges that he will face in organizing the next World Youth Day, the priest mentioned two important issues. On one hand, he pointed out “the need to accompany the experience of the days with the growth of a mature faith.”

On the other hand, it is important to foster “the reception of pilgrims by the dioceses of the host country.” To this end, work has already begun with Cardinal Antonio María Rouco, archbishop of Madrid, and with other Spanish dioceses.

“I want to work with everyone, above all with the delegations of youth ministry of the five continents” Father Jacquinet affirmed.

Looking beyond the youth days, the new laity council official explained that it is necessary to promote youth ministry throughout the world. “Places of reflection are needed,” he said, “for an ever more fragile generation. The problem lies in the root, in that vacuum that young people need to fill and, [in order] to fill it, we must give concrete answers.”

a fascination. He read Scripture frequently and would often ask questions about forgiveness of sin. Then, in 1967, while training for the summer Olympic games the following year, Charles experienced the path to Christ.

He had special privileges at the University of Cincinnati pool facilities. Some time late one evening he decided to go swim and practice a few dives.

It was a clear night in October and the moon was big and bright.

The university pool was housed under a ceiling of glass panes so the moon shone bright across the top of the wall in the pool area.

Charles climbed to the highest platform to take his first dive. At that moment the Spirit of God began to convict him of his sins. All the Scripture he had read about Christ flooded his mind.

He stood on the platform backwards to make his dive, spread his arms to gather his balance, looked up to the

17 wall and saw his own shadow caused by the light of the moon. It was the shape of a cross. He could bear the burden of his sin no longer. His heart broke and he sat down on the platform and asked God to forgive him and save him. He trusted Jesus Christ more than 20 feet in the air.

Suddenly, the lights in the pool area came on. The attendant had come in to check the pool. As Charles looked down from his platform he saw an empty pool which had been drained for repairs.

He had almost plummeted to his death, but the cross had saved him … in more ways than one.

Let Christ be your light and he will guide you on the right path. For the next time you are at a crossroads in your life, your individuality and your uniqueness and your personality, which is Christ’s, will guide you and save you.

Ozzie Pacheco is Faith Formation director at Santo Christo Parish, Fall River.

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The Anchor

December 12, 2008

Head of Russian Orthodox Church dies at age 79

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI asked the world’s Catholics to join prayers with “our Orthodox brothers and sisters” for the peaceful repose of the soul of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow died December 5 at his home outside the Russian capital. He was 79.

Although the cause of his death was not immediately made public, he had suffered from a heart condition and had been ill for some time.

After praying the noonday Angelus with pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square December 7, the pope said, “We unite ourselves in prayer with our Orthodox brothers and sisters in order to commend his soul to the goodness of the Lord, so that he may welcome him into his kingdom of light and peace.”

A Vatican delegation, led by Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, attended the patriarch’s December 9 funeral in Moscow. Also named to the delegation were Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, former president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and the Vatican’s nuncio to Russia, Archbishop Antonio Mennini.

Patriarch Alexy led the world’s largest Orthodox church since 1990.

As primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, the patriarch was the spiritual leader of more than 110 million church members in Russia, the former Soviet republics and the diaspora.

He led the church through the difficult transition from the end of Soviet repression to an era of reli-

gious freedom and sought to revitalize traditional religious values in a society that was still grappling with the aftereffects of totalitarianism and the impact of newfound freedoms.

Pope Benedict praised the patriarch’s efforts “for the rebirth of the church after the severe ideological oppression which led to the mar-

Church, the pope offered his “most sincere condolences” and said he “was profoundly saddened” to receive news of the patriarch’s death.

He recalled Patriarch Alexy’s “courageous battle for the defense of human and Gospel values,” especially in Europe.

In his message, the pope said he prayed the patriarch’s hard work

been in doubt,” the cardinal said.

Cardinal Kasper said that during his many meetings with the patriarch the Orthodox leader would “always make a point of expressing his good will toward the Holy Father.”

He said Patriarch Alexy helped guide the Russian Orthodox Church during the post-communist transi-

PRAYERFUL REMEMBRANCE — A woman places a candle near a portrait of Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow during a public viewing in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior December 7. Pope Benedict XVI asked the world’s Catholics to join prayers with “our Orthodox brothers and sisters” for the peaceful repose of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. Patriarch Alexy died December 5 at age 79. (CNS photo/Sergey Karpukhin, Reuters)

tyrdom of so many witnesses to the Christian faith.”

In a written message sent to the synod of the Russian Orthodox

would “bear fruit in peace and genuine progress — human, social and spiritual.”

Cardinal Kasper, the Vatican’s top ecumenist, expressed his “profound sadness” at the patriarch’s death and prayed that he would “be rewarded for his long and dedicated ministry to the church he loved.”

Despite challenges and obstacles between the two churches, the patriarch held a firm desire to strengthen collaboration with the Catholic Church, Cardinal Kasper said in a statement.

“His personal commitment to improving relations with the Catholic Church, in spite of the difficulties and tensions which from time to time have emerged, has never

tion and enabled it to emerge with “renewed interior vitality.”

“He was instrumental in fostering the enormous growth of dioceses, parishes, monasteries and educational institutions, which have given new life to a church sorely tested for so long,” the cardinal said.

Despite the late Pope John Paul II’s long-expressed desire to visit Russia, the Russian Orthodox under Patriarch Alexy never invited the pope to Russia. They insisted the patriarch would not meet the pope until they were satisfied that Catholics were not proselytizing in Russia.

Though still strained, Russian Orthodox relations with the Catholic Church improved greatly under Pope Benedict. After recent meetings this year with Russian Orthodox leaders, Cardinal Kasper said historical tensions had been replaced by an eagerness to cooperate.

A meeting between Pope Benedict and Patriarch Alexy finally seemed possible, Cardinal Kasper said after a visit to Russia and the patriarch in May. Even though no concrete agenda for a visit had materialized, there were “many signs of reconciliation,” the cardinal said at the time.

Pope Benedict had praised the patriarch for his commitment to dialogue and for fostering better relations between Catholics and Orthodox.

In a letter delivered to the patriarch in May, the pope wrote, “It is with joy that I reflect on the experience of growing closeness between us, accompanied by the shared desire to promote authentic Christian values and to witness to Our Lord in ever deeper communion.”

Helping to bridge the longstanding divide between the two churches was the Orthodox church’s recent effort to seek cooperation on highlighting Christian values in an age of increasing secularism, on Europe’s common roots in Christianity, and on themes like the family, bioethics and human rights.

Born in Estonia in 1929 to a family of Russian emigrants, Patriarch Alexy was enthroned as patriarch in 1990, just a year after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He said his church had to work to help the Soviet people overcome bitterness left by years of repression.

“Too serious is the disease caused by the virus of totalitarianism, which has contaminated human souls with hatred, spite and intolerance,” the Russian Orthodox patriarch said in a talk at Georgetown University in Washington in 1991.

He said Russia would never enjoy a life of prosperity and peace if the church, “as the spiritual healer,” did not help people recover from this disease.

When the Soviet parliament granted religious freedom in the country for the first time since the Communist Party took power 70 years ago, the patriarch took a leading role in revitalizing the country’s pastoral life.

He said the church needed help so it could reopen churches and monasteries, provide religious education, offer charity and carry out many other activities.

Even though he appealed for outside aid, he accused other religious groups, including the Catholic Church, of ignoring Orthodox needs and proselytizing.

The Vatican repeatedly has said it rejects proselytism and wants to be informed of any specific instances where Catholics are trying to entice Orthodox Christians to embrace Catholicism.

Some obstacles still straining Catholic-Orthodox dialogue included a disagreement between the Russian Orthodox Church and other Orthodox churches.

The Russian Orthodox Church also has created its own subcommission to study the question of papal primacy. Cardinal Kasper expressed concern for this development in June, saying it might be at odds with the promising document on papal primacy issued by Catholic and Orthodox participants at a meeting in Ravenna, Italy, last year.

19

The Anchor

December 12, 2008

Around the Diocese Eucharistic Adoration

Eucharistic Adoration:

ACUSHNET — Eucharistic adoration takes place at St. Francis Xavier Church, 125 Main Street, Mondays from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., ending with Evening Prayer and Benediction.

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

NEW BEDFORD — Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament takes place at St. Joseph-St. Therese Church, 51 Duncan Street, Mondays following the 8:30 a.m.

Mass until 1:30 p.m. For more information call 508-995-2354.

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

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

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

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

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

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

DARTMOUTH — A communal penance service followed by the opportunity for confession will take place December 16 at 6:30 p.m. at St. Julie Billiart Church, 494 Slocum Road. Parishioners of St. Julie’s, St. Mary’s in South Dartmouth, and all visitors are welcome to prepare the way of the Lord.

FALL RIVER — A holy hour takes place at Holy Name Church, nover Street, Tuesdays at 7 p.m., It consists of the rosary, lous Medal Novena, a homily, Benediction, and the opportunity fession. The Divine Mercy Chaplet is recited Wednesdays at

709 HaMiracufor con3 p.m.

FREETOWN — The 42nd Annual Ecumenical Christmas Concert will be held Sunday at 7 p.m. at St. Bernard Church, 30 South Main Street. Snow date will be December 21. Christmas-related talent, be it solo, duet or group, is needed to perform. The more original, the better. Please contact Paul Levesque at 508-644-2046 for more information.

HYANNIS — A Woman’s Concern will sponsor an eight- to 10-week women’s Bible Study, “Forgive and Set Free,” to begin Jan. 15, 2009, time and place to be determined. The study is designed to help post abortive women receive God’s healing love. If you, or someone you know, is interested in attending, call AWC at 508-790-0584 or Martha at 617-538-8813. All calls are confidential.

MASHPEE — The children of Christ the King Parish will present a Christmas Pageant Sunday at 2 p.m. in the parish hall. For more information, call Mary Waygan at 508-477-0291. Parts are still available for any child wishing to participate.

NEW BEDFORD — The Daughters of Isabella will celebrate Christmas with a Birthday Party for Jesus December 16 at 6 p.m. at Holy Name of the Sacred Heart Church Hall, Mount Pleasant Street. A light supper will be served, followed by a business meeting. Members are reminded to bring an exchange gift for their Secret Pal. NEW BEDFORD — Our Lady of Guadalupe Feast celebration will be held at St. Kilian Church, 306 Ashley Blvd., tonight at 6 p.m. with music and a trilingual rosary followed at 7 p.m. with a bilingual Mass. Food and entertainment will be provided in the church hall after Mass. Call 508-998-8603 for more information.

NEW ENGLAND — The Portuguese TV Program “Good News For Life,” (“Boa Nova da Vida”) sponsored by the Communications Office of the Fall River Diocese, will present, “Is It Possible to Live the Peace of Christmas in Our Times?”

December 17 at 9:30 p.m.

TAUNTON — Holy Family Parish will host the Cranberry Brass Quintet at an Advent Lessons and Carols program, Sunday at 4 p.m. in the church at 370 Middleboro Avenue. Refreshments will follow in the church hall.

WAREHAM — A Christmas Open House at the Sacred Hearts Retreat Center will take place Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. at 226 Great Neck Road. Drop by for a cup of cider or hot chocolate and a delectable treat.

WESTPORT — Sung Vespers every Sunday in Advent at 4 p.m. in St. John the Baptist Church, 945 Main Road. All are welcome.

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

GODSPEED — Marian Manor and Bethany House Adult Day Health Care in Taunton recently showed their patriotic colors while helping to send off the Massachusetts National Guard Unit 772.

Residents, clients and staff members from both locations and well-wishers gathered along the route as the military police unit marched to the Taunton Green before their deployment to Iraq. Many of the well-wishers were military service veterans who saluted and applauded the soldiers. Marian Manor residents had written notes that were given to the unit prior to the parade, thanking them for their service and letting them know they would be kept in their prayers.

Celebrating the feast of the ‘Virgin of Advent’ continued from page one

been trying to avoid her because his uncle was very seriously ill and he was trying to get him a priest. He thought to himself, ‘I don’t have time to waste on the Blessed Mother, I need to get my uncle a priest.’

He tried to go a different route, but she went there instead and that’s when she said to him: ‘trust in me.’

She told him to take roses that were growing nearby to Bishop Zumarraga … and he will go along with my plan to build a church. We think of Mexico being hot all the time, and it’s not. But they normally wouldn’t have roses growing there in the winter time, either.”

So Juan Diego carefully bundled the roses inside his tilma and took them to the bishop. When he went before the bishop and opened his cloak to present him with the roses, the bishop didn’t react to the flowers as much as the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe that had miraculously appeared on the inside of his mantle.

“Juan Diego didn’t even realize it was there,” Father Wilson said. “In the meantime, the Blessed

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

Dec. 15 Rev. Mortimer Downing, Pastor, St. Francis Xavier, Hyannis, 1942 Rev. John F. O’Keefe, Assistant, St. Patrick, Fall River, 1955 Dec. 19 Permanent Deacon Eugene L. Orosz, 1988 Dec. 20 Rev. Manuel S. Travassos, Pastor, Espirito Santo, Fall River, 1953 Rev. John A. Janson, OFM, Missionary in Brazil, 1996 Dec. 21 Rev. Henri J. Charest, Pastor, St. Mathieu, Fall River, 1968 Rev. Manuel M. Resendes, Retired Pastor, Our Lady of Lourdes, Taunton, 1985 Rev. Laureano C. dos Reis, Retired Pastor, St. Anthony of Padua, Fall River, 1989

Mother went and healed Juan Diego’s uncle and the uncle talked about how it was the same woman who appeared on his tilma.”

As part of his Hispanic ministry in the diocese, Father Wilson said he encounters many “devout Catholics who have a tremendous veneration for the Blessed Mother.”

The culmination of a week-long series of devotions commemorating the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe will occur today at his parish, beginning with a service of singing to the Blessed Mother at 6 a.m., then an English Mass at 9 a.m., and a Mass in Spanish at 7 p.m.

Father Wilson added that Hispanics from his parish and the Greater New Bedford area have also found a great source of comfort in devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe, especially in the aftermath of the immigration raids that tore many families apart. “We’re working with a lot of folks who still have their court appearances before the Immigration Court up in Boston,” Father Wilson said.

“No one is still being held in de-

tention, but some people were given legal status and are working, while others are still waiting for their court date. One woman doesn’t go before the court until October 2009, so it is a long time to be in limbo.”

Father Wilson said that Our Lady’s feast day also perfectly coincides with the Advent and Christmas season — another reason to pray and honor the mother of our Savior.

“During the nine days before Christmas, there is a thing called the posada, which is the Spanish word for “inn,” where people act like Mary and Joseph and go door to door to try to find a place to stay,” he said.

“They also call Our Lady of Guadalupe, the ‘Virgin of Advent,’ because the Blessed Mother knew she was coming during Advent,” Father Wilson added. “The fact that she appears pregnant and with her whole message of welcoming Christ both in the sacrament and in other people, I’m sure it was all part of Mary’s plan and not just a coincidence that she appeared during Advent.”

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20

The Anchor

December 12, 2008

THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT DECEMBER 14, 2008

QUEEN OF THE WORLD — The Virgin of Caacupe statue is carried past thousands of Catholic pilgrims into the Caacupe cathedral at sunrise, about 30 miles east of Asuncion, Paraguay, December 8. Hundreds of thousands of Catholics from all over Paraguay and bordering countries visited the cathedral on the Marian feast of the Immaculate Conception. (CNS photo/Jorge Adorno, Reuters)

Roses and thorns: Pope Benedict lays concerns, achievements at feet of Mary

ROME (CNS) — Laying a basket of white roses at the foot of a statue of Mary, Pope Benedict XVI said Catholics can lay everything at the feet of their heavenly mother.

“Symbolically, these roses can express everything beautiful and good that we have done during the year,” the pope said during his visit to the center of Rome December 8 for the traditional ceremony alongside the statue of the Immaculate Conception near the Spanish Steps.

“But, as the saying goes, ‘Every rose has its thorn,’ and the stems of these stupendous white roses are not lacking thorns, which represent the difficulties, sufferings and ills that have marked and still mark the lives of people and of our community,” the pope said.

Under brilliantly sunny skies, bundled up against a crisp chill, thousands of Romans and tourists jammed the square around the Spanish Steps to see the pope and pray with him.

Offering the roses to Mary, the pope also entrusted to her his special prayers for children, particularly those who are sick, disadvantaged or suffering because of family problems.

He prayed for elderly people living alone, for the sick, for immigrants struggling to build a new life in a new country, for families who barely make ends meet and especially for people who recently have lost their jobs.

“Mary, teach us to be in solidarity with those who are in difficulty, to bridge the increasingly vast social disparities; help us cultivate a livelier sense of the common good,” Pope Benedict prayed.

The pope said the beauty of Mary, con-

ceived without sin, “assures us that the victory of love is possible; in fact, it is certain. It assures us that grace is stronger than sin and therefore it is possible to be redeemed from any form of slavery.”

The example of Mary’s life helps Christians believe in goodness, graciousness, service, nonviolence and the power of truth, he said.

“She encourages us to remain wakeful, not to give in to the temptation of easy escapes, but to face reality with all its problems with courage and responsibility,” Pope Benedict said.

The pope said that, looking up at Mary, Christians experience the same sensation a child has when looking up at his or her mother “and, seeing her smile, forgets every fear and pain.”

“Turning our gaze to Mary, we recognize in her the smile of God, the immaculate reflection of divine light, and we find new hope even in the midst of the problems and dramas of our world,” Pope Benedict said.

Earlier in the day, the pope recited the Angelus with visitors gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

He said the feast of the Immaculate Conception reminds Catholics of two basic Church teachings: the existence of original sin and the fact that, through Christ, God has redeemed those who believe.

The pope also noted that December 8 marked the end of the yearlong celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes, who identified herself to St. Bernadette Soubirous as “the Immaculate Conception.”