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Diocese of Fall River, Mass.

F riday , December 26, 2014

Retrouvaille: ‘Rediscovering’ a bond and helping couples heal

By Becky Aubut Anchor Staff

SEEKONK — As the celebration of Christ’s birth comes to an end and the New Year beckons, many couples will be working on their New Year resolutions, which may include wondering if their next Christmas festivities may be celebrated apart from one another. Many couples experiences problems so serious in their Marriage that divorce may seem like the

inevitable conclusion to the relationship; but many couples are also finding a new way to solve their Marriage crisis through a program that helps them heal and renew their Marriage commitment.

Retrouvaille (pronounced re-tro-vie; a French word meaning “rediscovery”) is a program that offers tools to rediscover a loving relationship. Consisting of a weekend experience with a series of post-weekTurn to page seven

Screens placed at the front of St. Francis Xavier Church in Hyannis display images of the bishop during a recent Mass he celebrated there for the area Brazilian community.

(Photo by Linda Andrade Rodrigues)

Bishop da Cunha reunites with native Brazilians

By Linda Andrade Rodrigues Anchor Correspondent

Catholic Memorial Home resident Marita Harnett is interviewed by John Conforti of the Fall River Historical Society for inclusion in “Women at Work: An Oral History of Working Class Women in Fall River, 1920-1950.” (Photo by Julie Cayer)

Catholic Memorial Home residents repeating history

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

FALL RIVER — Olivia Abdow perks right up when you ask her about working in one of the many mills that once made Fall River the undisputed “textile capital of the world.”

“Fall River is a great little city,” Abdow said. “Some people don’t realize what we have here.”

So when members of the Fall River Historical Society recently approached the 78-year-old about contributing her personal recollections for a project entitled “Women at Work: An Oral History of Working Class Women in Fall River, 1920-1950,” Abdow was only too eager to participate.

“When they first asked me about the Turn to page 18

HYANNIS — During Advent we leave home and embark on a journey.

Departing from Nazareth, Joseph and the pregnant Mary made the difficult, dangerous journey of 70 miles to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born.

Two thousand years later, we follow in their footsteps, leaving home and reuniting with family and friends during this Holy Season.

Last Sunday, hundreds of folks of Brazilian heritage from the four corners of the Diocese of Fall River journeyed to St. Francis Xavier Church in Hyannis to observe the Brazilian Community’s 25th Anniversary Mass celebrated by native son Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, S.D.V. Five thousand miles from their homeland, they came together as a new commu-

nity of faith.

Karina DeOliveira emigrated from Sao Paulo nine years ago. Accompanied by her husband Wallace and daughter Raissa, she expressed her joy to be with her bishop and countryman, through an interpreter.

“Very happy today,” she said.

Helenice Souza hails from Minas Gerais.

“It is our pleasure to have Bishop da Cunha today,” she said. “It will be the first time he comes. I come to this community for 25 years.”

Likewise the new bishop was elated to worship in his native tongue.

“What a joy to be here celebrating with the Brazilian communities from Hyannis, Fall River, Taunton and Martha’s Vineyard on this special day,” he said before Mass. “Not only is this the first time, since I became the Bishop of Fall River, to celTurn to page 15

Abundant Hope leaders hope changes will save more unborn lives

By Christine M. Williams Anchor Correspondent

ATTLEBORO — As part of its mission to save babies, Abundant Hope Pregnancy Resource Center in Attleboro has relocated and launched a fund-raising campaign for an ultrasound machine. The center’s leaders will implement other big changes in 2015 and are calling for more volunteers to assist them in their life-saving work.

Abundant Hope was founded as an alternative to Four

Women Health Services, the only remaining abortion clinic in the Diocese of Fall River.

The center offers free pregnancy testing, counseling and baby supplies to abortionminded women. Since the center’s founding more than three years ago, the plan had been to offer free ultrasounds, but the machines are expensive and the center’s original location was not zoned for medical use.

More than two years ago, the center’s board began looking for a new location with the

correct zoning. They eventually found the new location and moved this past August.

The board is also working with the Knights of Columbus who have a program that pays for half of ultrasound machines for crisis pregnancy centers.

The total cost of a state-of-theart 3D ultrasound machine is $35,000, which leaves $17,500 for the center to raise.

Darlene Howard, chairman of the center’s board, hopes to complete the fund raising by Turn to page 15

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News From the Vatican

December 26, 2014

Tell all people all about God’s all-embracing love, pope tells children

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Everything is possible with God, Who has given people all of His love and wants them to share it with everyone, including parents, brothers and sisters, Pope Francis told hundreds of Italian children.

The members of Catholic Action’s children’s section, parish-based groups of young people from four to 14 years of age, have spent the past year working on projects connected with the theme: “Everything to Discover.”

“To rejoice when one discovers the plan Jesus has for each of us is a beautiful journey that requires courage and the hard work of searching,” the pope told them December 18 during his traditional pre-Christmas audience with them.

Saying he wanted to give them a few suggestions for their journey, he told them to remember: “Everything to discover, build everything together, do everything with love, everything is possible and faith is an event always to be proclaimed.”

“All these ‘everys’ are important,” he told them.

First, he said, they should never give up seeking God and His plan for their lives, and they should not be afraid because their parents, siblings, friends, catechism classmates and Catholic Action leaders are there to help them “build everything together.”

Their journey will be “all love,” he said, when they pay attention to the poor, the suffering and the lonely, “because one who has chosen to love Jesus cannot not love his or her neighbor.”

“Love the Church,” the pope told them. “Care for your priests, put yourself at the service of the community because the Church is not just priests and bishops, but the whole community is the Church, eh?”

When everyone offers their time and talents to their parish, he said, they discover that each person’s gifts “are a gift of God all to be shared.”

Pope Francis told the children to be “apostles of peace and serenity” at home and at school.

“Remind your parents, brothers and sisters and peers that it is beautiful to love one another and that misunderstandings can be overcome, because when we are united with Jesus everything is possible,” he said.

“With Jesus everything is possible,” he repeated. “This is important. This phrase isn’t an invention; Jesus said it Himself when He came down from the mountain of the Transfiguration to that dad who asked Him to heal his son. What did Jesus say?

‘Everything is possible for those who have faith.’ With faith in Jesus, everything is possible.”

Pope Francis’ final piece of advice for the young people was “talk to Jesus. That’s what prayer is, talking to Jesus. He’s your best Friend and will never abandon you.”

“Run to Him every time you make a mistake and do something bad, knowing He will forgive you,” the pope told them. “And tell everyone about Jesus, His love, His mercy and tenderness, because friendship with Jesus, Who gave His life for us, is something to be told.

A guide dog is seen as Pope Francis arrives to attend a special audience with Italian Blind Union at the Vatican recently. (CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano via Reuters)

Pope names second abuse survivor, global experts to protection panel

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis expanded his papal commission on child protection to include a second survivor of abuse and more experts from around the world.

The Commission for the Protection of Minors, which Pope Francis established one year ago, adds four more women and four men from five continents to the now-17-member body.

The Vatican announced the new members December 17.

One of the new members is Peter Saunders, the chief executive officer of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, which he founded nearly two decades ago in the United Kingdom to help other survivors find support. He was one of six abuse survivors who spoke with Pope Francis in a private meeting at the Vatican July 7.

Also joining the commission are: — Krysten Winter-Green, an expert in theology, human development, social work and pastoral psychology, who has served in a number of dioceses in the United States. Born in New Zealand, Winter-Green served as Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley’s chancellor when he was bishop of St. Thomas in the American Virgin Islands, and she also worked for him in Fall River as the director of the office of AIDS ministry, and Boston. According to biographical information provided by the Vatican, her work in the field of child abuse includes “forensics, assessment and treatment of priest and clergy offenders.”

— Bill Kilgallon, national director of the Office for Professional Standards of the Catholic Church in New Zealand, which oversees the

Church’s response to accusations of abuse against clergy or religious. Before that, Kilgallon was a member of a review team into the protection of children and vulnerable adults in the Catholic Church in England and Wales, and in 2008, he was appointed as the first chair of the National Catholic Safeguarding Commission of England and Wales, which was responsible for setting policies and procedures for the Catholic Church and monitoring compliance by dioceses and religious congregations.

— Precious Blood Sister Hermenegild Makoro, the secretary-general of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference. She has served as provincial superior of the Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood and had been associate secretary-general secretary of the Pretoria-based bishops’ conference.

— Kathleen McCormack, founder and now retired-director of CatholicCare, which works with Australia’s dioceses, provides essential social services and counseling to those in need. Starting in the 1990s, McCormack also became a vocal advocate for victims of sexual abuse. She helped report priests and perpetrators to the police and urged the Church and Catholic organizations implement child protection programs.

— Sister Kayula Lesa, a member of the Religious Sisters of Charity, works at the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection in Zambia. She has been active in the fight against human trafficking and supporting human rights. She has written on child protection and refugee rights and has served as

a member of the African Forum for Church Social Teaching.

— Gabriel Dy-Liacco is licensed counselor and an assistant professor at Regent University’s School of Psychology and Counseling in Virginia.

Born in the Philippines, DyLiacco is “an adult and adolescent psychotherapist and pastoral counselor for various mental health concerns” including victims and perpetrators of abuse, according to the Vatican.

— Father Luis Manuel Ali Herrera is the head of the department of psychology and a professor of pastoral psychology at the major seminary of the Archdiocese of Bogota, Colombia.

Pope Francis, who has called for zero tolerance and complete accountability for the “despicable” crime of abuse, has said he wants the commission to help the Church develop better policies and procedures for protecting minors. The commission is also meant to lay out a pastoral approach to helping victims and prevent future abuse as well as focus on priestly formation, accountability and reaching out to survivors.

The commission is headed

by Cardinal O’Malley; the commission secretary is Father Robert W. Oliver, a Boston priest and canon lawyer who worked on the abuse crisis in the Church there.

The new papal commission members join Marie Collins, an Irish survivor of clerical abuse, and six — mostly European — experts in mental health, civil and Church law, and moral theology.

The next plenary session of the commission will take place in the Vatican Feb. 6-8, 2015.

December 26, 2014

3

The International Church

In eastern Ukraine, Church has ‘returned to catacombs,’ spokesman says

Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino of Havana speaks during the 2011 Community of Sant’Egidio Christmas lunch in Havana. As it does around the world, the community in Havana celebrates every December 25 with those less fortunate. (CNS photo/Orlando Marquez)

In Christmas message, Jerusalem patriarch criticizes all violence

JERUSALEM (CNS) — Ending a year that saw the papal visit, a war in Gaza and a resumption of violence in Jerusalem, Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal’s Christmas message condemned all instances of violence.

The patriarch was called to Amman unexpectedly December 18, so his message was read

by Auxiliary Bishop William Shomali.

“We condemn the Gaza war and deplore its dramatic consequences, killing and destruction, but at the same time, we condemn any category of violence and retaliation against innocent people such as the killing of people praying in a synagogue and attacks against mosques,” the statement said.

“Unfortunately, our beloved holy city of Jerusalem has been flowing with blood and tears.

We do not want any religious antagonism in the holy city, whose vocation is to be the city of peace and interreligious coexistence,” it said.

Israeli and Palestinian leaders must “find and facilitate a solution,” the patriarch said in his message. The international community also must take on its responsibility to help the two parties help themselves, he added.

Reading from the prepared statement, Bishop Shomali said although the much-anticipated meeting between Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bar-

tholomew of Constantinople has not yet obtained any concrete results, “every prayer is valid, and the fruits may come much later.”

Bishop Shomali said Israel had confirmed that some 700 travel permits would be issued to Christians from the Gaza Strip to travel to the West Bank, including Jerusalem and Bethlehem, during the monthlong Christmas season, which also includes the Greek Orthodox Christmas in January.

In addition, Israel has issued some 25,000 travel permits for West Bank Palestinian Christians. He noted that many of those who come will also take the opportunity to visit family in different cities as well as do some shopping in Jerusalem.

“It is not just for religious or family purposes but also human and social purposes,” he said.

In response to a journalist’s question, the bishop said Palestinian Christians are an integral part of Palestinian society and are affected by the political situation in the same ways as Muslims, specifically in Jerusalem. He concurred with a journalist’s assessment that the problems were caused by the “Israeli occupation of Jerusalem.”

He said that although there is emigration from the Holy Land, the Church reminds Christians that they are “called to stay” there. He added that Christians are positive contrib-

utors to coexistence.

In visits to parishes in Jordan, representatives of the Latin Patriarchate have seen the tragedy suffered by refugees from Iraq and Syria, the patriarch said in his message.

“Alongside the inhuman tragedy that is covering the Middle East with blood, and tearing it apart, we are all surprised that young people from Europe embrace radical ideologies and join the fight in Syria and Iraq,” he said in the message.

Responding to a question, Bishop Shomali noted that the radical Islamic State group is not only a threat to Christians of the region but to all minorities, including other Muslims.

“It is not a religious war between East and West,” Bishop Shomali said, “but a war between terrorists and a radical ideology and people who would like to live a normal life.”

The message urged Palestinians to remember with gratitude the solidarity of many people and institutions who are helping them, despite their difficulties.

“The celebration of the birth of Jesus promises mercy, love and peace to countless people in their suffering and tribulations; to the people who see their lives shattered and their efforts broken in the tumultuous strife and hatred of our stormy days,” the patriarch said in his message.

WARSAW, Poland (CNS) — Ukrainian Catholic leaders have warned their Church is being driven underground again, a quarter-century after it was re-legalized with the end of communist rule.

“In Crimea and eastern Ukraine, we’ve already effectively returned to the catacombs,” said Father Ihor Yatsiv, the Church’s Kiev-based spokesman.

“It’s a sad paradox that history is being repeated just as we commemorate our liberation. But after a couple of decades of freedom, we again look set to lose our freedom,” he told Catholic News Service.

The priest spoke as Ukrainian Catholic communities in Russian-occupied Crimea approached a January 1 deadline for re-registering under Russian law. He said the Byzantine Ukrainian Catholic Church had no legal status in Russia and would therefore be unable, in practice, to register.

Father Yatsiv said Russian and separatist forces had not officially refused to register Ukrainian Catholic parishes, but had ensured it was impossible because of the lack of legal provisions.

He added that there was no effective government in separatist-controlled eastern Ukraine, where rebel groups did not recognize Ukrainian Catholics and were “imposing whatever rules and regulations they choose.”

Earlier in December, Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kiev-Halych told Austria’s Kathpress news agency that Crimea’s five Ukrainian

Catholic parishes would find themselves “outside the law,” along with the territory’s Latin Catholic, Muslim and breakaway Orthodox communities.

“It’s ironic we’ve just been celebrating the 25th anniversary of our legalization in the former Soviet Union — but our right to legal activity will soon be withdrawn in various parts of our country,” Archbishop Shevchuk told Kathpress.

“There’s clearly no religious liberty already in Crimea and the occupied territories of the east, and I hope the international community will deploy its resources to restoring freedoms in the affected areas,” he said.

Ukrainian Catholics fled Crimea to escape arrests and property seizures after Russia annexed the region in March.

Most Church parishes have closed in Ukraine’s war-torn Luhansk and Donetsk regions, where separatists declared an independent “New Russia” after staging local referendums last spring.

Ukraine’s Catholic Caritas charity warned of a “humanitarian catastrophe” this winter, with 490,000 people now registered as refugees, and 545,000 displaced abroad, mostly in Russia.

The Ukrainian Catholic Church makes up around a tenth of Ukraine’s 46 million inhabitants. It was outlawed under Soviet rule from 1946 to 1989, when many clergy were imprisoned and most Church properties seized by the state or transferred to Russian Orthodox possession.

Diocese of Fall River

OFFICIAL

His Excellency, the Most Reverend Edgar M. da Cunha, S.D.V., D.D., Bishop of Fall River, has announced the following appointments: Rev. Edward E. Correia, Minister for Priests of the Diocese of Fall River, for a period of three years.

Effective January 1, 2015 Rev. Messias Albuquerque, Parochial Vicar of both Saint Joseph Parish and Saint Michael Parish in Fall River.

Effective January 12, 2015

The Church in the U.S.

4

December 26, 2014

Fair-trade commerce supports just wages, safe conditions for workers

MARYKNOLL, N.Y. (CNS) — Fair-trade chocolate tastes better than its commercially produced counterparts, “because you can’t taste the blood of the worker,” Cara Weidinger said.

She was quoting a colleague in the Students for Global Justice organization at St. John’s University in Jamaica, N.Y. Weidinger, a senior, is president of the group that encourages the campus community to recognize the humanity of small farmers and artisans by buying food and clothing produced by people who are paid a just wage for work performed under safe conditions.

The students at the Vincentian-run school are part of a growing movement in the Catholic Church to link social justice to consumer spending through so-called fair-trade initiatives.

According to Equal Exchange, fair trade is a set of business practices voluntarily adopted by producers and buyers of agricultural commodities and handmade crafts that are designed to advance many economic, social and environmental goals.

Equal Exchange is a worker cooperative based in West Bridgewater, Mass., that sells food and beverages produced by small farmer cooperatives in 20 countries. It works with Catholic Relief Services, Maryknoll and other groups to distribute the products in the United States.

Courtney Lare said CRS works with 15 partners to provide fair-trade items to sell to Catholic groups. Since 2005, such groups have purchased

more than $21 million worth of coffee, chocolate and handcrafted items from CRS. Lare is the CRS fair-trade program officer.

Adherents of fair trade commit to pay a fair wage to the producer and offer opportunities for advancement, use environmentally sustainable practices and safe working conditions, build long-term trade relationships and offer public accountability.

“The whole point of fair trade is to give people better lives,” Aurette DeCuffa told Catholic News Service. She is the manager of the Maryknoll Gift Shop at Maryknoll headquarters. “It’s consistent with our mission,” she said. The shop sells handcrafted items from countries where Maryknoll missioners serve, as well as fairtrade coffee, tea and snack bars.

Fair-trade chocolate bars, for example, cost more than commercially produced bars, but they sell well to people who understand the situation, DeCuffa said. “Some of the large producers use illegal child labor in West Africa. Workers labor in hazardous condition, they’re not fairly paid and they struggle to survive.”

Chocolate she buys from Equal Exchange is a better quality product made by people who are fairly paid, she said.

“We’re always interested in doing what’s right.”

DeCuffa, a 25-year retail veteran of Macy’s, said she engages customers in conversation about the origins of the products she sells. “People understand and they know what they’re getting,” she said.

The nominally higher price

“forced me to eat less chocolate,” she said. “When you pay more, you have to make it last!”

Weidinger said fair trade is a palpable expression of social justice principles for students.

“A lot of social justice seems so hard and the changes needed so big,” she said, but fair trade makes it accessible as an easy, local shopping choice. You don’t have to buy from a small website, pay a fortune and hassle with high shipping costs, she said. It’s available and not obscure. You look for the fairtrade certification label, she said.

At St. John’s, fair-trade coffee is sold in the student cafeteria, lounge and library, but Weidinger said her group can’t take credit for that. “A lot has to do with our Vincentian heritage. Social justice has been part of the heritage since before social justice was cool,” she said.

The Students for Global Justice buy Equal Exchange coffee, tea and chocolate through CRS, where they are members of the Fair Trade Ambassadors program. The program combines training and advocacy for recruits selected through a competitive process.

Weidinger said the students work through campus ministry to emphasize fair trade and also give products away at campus awareness events. She said passion for the cause spreads by encounter with other students.

“How many times does a person have to gnaw on a small piece of chocolate to show it’s worth it?” she asks.

“When you choose fair trade, you’re choosing the farmer, not a corporation,” Weidinger said.

John Flynn directs the fairtrade coffee ministry at Holy Name of Mary Church in Croton-on-Hudson. Since 2004, Flynn and his wife, Mary, have worked with a small group of volunteers to sell coffee, tea, chocolate, nuts and dried fruit after all the Masses one weekend each month. He said they are one of Equal Exchange’s largest parish customers.

Flynn said the parish program began as a six-month trial project and has raised almost $50,000 for Equal Exchange

partners. The products are sold without any markup and Flynn said they are competitive for quality and price. Holy Name sells a 10-ounce bag of organic Colombian coffee for $7, he said.

“Our goal has been raising the consciousness of fellow parishioners on social justice and respect life issues. Fair trade helps us look at small farmers as partners. We wouldn’t be able to share a fine cup of coffee with friends without these workers,” Flynn said.

Ivette Contreras, dressed as an angel, and Yazmin Diaz and Xavier Diaz, from St. Gall Parish in Chicago, portray Mary and Joseph during a Christmastime “posada” through the streets of Chicago December 19. Catholic advocates for immigrants held the traditional re-enactment of Mary and Joseph’s search for shelter as a time to pray for those about to be deported and to advocate for reforms in the U.S. immigration system. (CNS photo/Karen Callaway, Catholic New World)

December 26, 2014

The Church in the U.S.

5

Church leaders pleased that U.S.-Cuba will rebuild relations

WASHINGTON (CNS) — American Church officials expressed optimism about plans by the United States and Cuba to normalize diplomatic relations and work toward reshaping how the two neighboring countries interact with each other.

The chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace said he hoped the effort would “foster dialogue, reconciliation, trade, cooperation and contact between our respective nations and citizens.”

Bishop Oscar Cantu of Las Cruces, N.M., said in a recent statement that he also was overjoyed by the release of Alan Gross, an American contractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development, who has been incarcerated in Cuba for five years.

The release came hours before President Barack Obama and Cuban leader Raul Castro told their respective nations about plans to re-establish diplomatic relations and broaden banking, commerce and communications ties.

Pope Francis was involved in bringing the two countries together, personally appealing to Obama and Castro to put aside their differences and work toward the release of Gross and other prisoners.

The two nations also agreed to an exchange of prisoners.

The U.S. agreed to release three Cubans imprisoned since 2001 since being convicted on murder and espionage counts; in return Cuba

released a Cuban who had been held for nearly 20 years after being accused of providing key intelligence information to the U.S. Bishop Cantu said the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops “has long held that universal human rights will be strengthened through more engagement between the Cuban and American people.

For decades, the USCCB has called for the restoration of diplomatic relations between our nations.”

Bishop Cantu also welcomed the announcement by Obama that Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism would be reviewed by the U.S. Department of State.

“Engagement is the part to support change in Cuba and to empower the Cuban people in their quest for democracy, human rights and religious liberty,” he added.

Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami released a statement in which he described the news as a “game changer” and welcomed the work of Pope Francis in encouraging the two countries together to settle their longstanding differences.

“Pope Francis did what popes are supposed to do: build bridges and promote peace,” he said.

Archbishop Wenski also said the Catholic Church has long opposed the economic embargo the U.S. has imposed on Cuba for decades, calling it “a blunt instrument that hurt the innocent more than the

American aid worker Alan Gross, third from right, disembarks with his wife Judy, fourth from left, from a U.S. government plane as he arrives at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, outside Washington, after being released from a Cuban prison December 17. The photo was tweeted by U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz. (CNS photo/Reuters)

guilty.”

“We have consistently advocated that the U.S. should revise this policy, in the hope that engagement and dialogue would prove more helpful in improving conditions in Cuba than a policy of confrontation and isolation,” he said.

“Progress in this area is normally the result, and not the precondition, of such talks and so the prospect of such talks is a positive development. As President Obama said, to seek the collapse of Cuba is not sound policy.

Cuba needs change,” Archbishop Wenski said.

“As Cuba transitions through such changes, we all should encourage a soft landing, that is change that is peaceful and offers real hope for the Cuban people on both sides of the Florida straits,” he said.

Obama also laid out plans to lift restrictions on travel to Cuba; review Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism; allow the sale of telecommunications equipment to Cuba; lift embargoes on Cuban products in the U.S. and ease of financial restrictions between the two countries.

Archbishop Blase J. Cupich of Chicago also welcomed the announcement.

Despite support from the Church leaders, three members of Congress were critical of plans by the U.S. to pursue closer ties with Cuba.

Sen. Marco Rubio, RFlorida, a Cuban-American who has been mentioned as a possible Republican presidential contender in 2016, said in interviews with news organizations that only the Cuban government will benefit from the new U.S. stance.

He said in an interview with CNBC that Congress would not vote to approve lifting the embargo or fund an embassy in Havana.

Rubio, a Catholic, also questioned the role of the pope in the talks when he met with reporters.

“I would also ask his holiness to take up the cause of freedom and democracy, which is critical for a free people, for a people to truly be free,” he said. “I think the people of Cuba deserve the same chances to have democracy as the people of Argentina have had, where he comes from; as the people of Italy

have, where he now lives.

“Obviously the Vatican’s its own state, but very nearby. My point is I hope that people with that sort of prestige on the world stage will take up the cause of freedom and democracy. The Cuban people are the only people in this hemisphere that have not been able to elect a leader in more than 55 or 60 years.

That’s outrageous,” he said.

Sen. Robert Menendez, D-New Jersey, the second Cuban-American in the Senate and outgoing chairman of the body’s Foreign Relations Committee, also criticized the Obama plan, calling it “misguided.”

“It is a fallacy that Cuba will reform just because the American President believes that if he extends his hand in peace that the Castro brothers suddenly will unclench their fists,” he said in a statement.

“A majority of democratic activists on the island, including many that I have met with,

have been explicit that they want the U.S. to become open to Cuba only when there is reciprocal movement by the Castro government. They understand that the Castros will not accede to change in any other way.

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Florida, who comes from a family active in politics before the revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power, criticized the prisoner swap. He pegged Obama as “the appeaser in chief, who is willing to provide unprecedented concessions to a brutal dictatorship that opposes U.S. interests at every opportunity.”

In a press release, DiazBalart, said that establishing diplomatic relations and taking other steps to boost U.S.-Cuba ties would serve to “further embolden the Cuban dictatorship to continue brutalizing and oppressing its own people as well as other anti-American dictatorship and terrorist organizations.”

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December 26, 2014

Anchor Editorial

St. Stephen today

The second day of Christmas sees the celebration of St. Stephen, one of the Church’s first deacons and the first martyr. Every year on December 26 the Holy Father recites the Angelus in St. Peter’s Square and gives an address to the assembled crowd, as he does on all Sundays and Holydays outside of the Easter Season (which is when the Regina Caeli prayer replaces it. In a parallel to December 26, on Easter Monday the pope also recites the Regina Caeli and makes a speech from the window of the Apostolic Palace).

Last year Pope Francis discussed the context of the martyr’s feast during the Christmas season. “[O]n this second day of the octave, the feast of St. Stephen is inserted into the joy of Christmas. The book of the Acts of the Apostles presents him to us as ‘a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit’ (6:5). And it tells us about his martyrdom, when after a fiery dispute that aroused the anger of the members of the Sanhedrin, he was dragged outside the city walls and stoned. Stephen dies like Jesus, asking pardon for those who killed him (7:55-60). In the joyful atmosphere of Christmas, this commemoration may seem out of place. For Christmas is the celebration of life and it fills us with sentiments of serenity and peace. Why disturb the charm with the memory of such atrocious violence? In reality, from the perspective of faith, the feast of St. Stephen is in full harmony with the deeper meaning of Christmas. In martyrdom, in fact, violence is conquered by love, death by life. The Church sees in the sacrifice of the martyrs their ‘birth into Heaven.’ Therefore, today we celebrate the ‘birth’ of Stephen, which in its depths springs from the Birth of Christ. Jesus transforms the death of those who love Him into a dawn of new life!”

This year, from the slaughters of the students and staff at school in Peshawar, Pakistan to the killing of innocent policemen in this country, from the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Nigeria and too many other places, to the continuing racial strife in our own land, we need not just “a little Christmas,” but rather we need to see how Jesus is truly walking with us in all of these situations (and what He wants us fellow walkers to do).

Pope Francis was frank last year, with a message that still resonates with our present reality. “In the martyrdom of Stephen [we see] the same confrontation between good and evil, between hatred and forgiveness, between meekness and violence, which culminated in the Cross of Christ. Thus, the remembrance of the first martyr immediately dispels a false image of Christmas: the fairy tale, sugarcoated image, which is not in the Gospel! The Liturgy brings us back to the authentic meaning of the Incarnation, by linking Bethlehem to Calvary and by reminding us that the Divine Salvation involved the battle against sin, it passes through the narrow door of the cross. This is the path which Jesus clearly indicated to His disciples, as today’s Gospel attests: ‘You will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to

the end will be saved’ (Mt 10:22).”

That message is not the saccharine stuff we get in a lot of Christmas songs (which are probably hard to find on the radio at this point, now that the secular world has decided that Christmas is over, while we Catholics say that it has only just begun.

So, they have reburied Karen Carpenter and Bing Crosby, while we are called to recognize the Risen One everywhere in the midst of the celebration of His birth).

Christmas, together with Easter (without Easter, Christmas would be pointless), reminds us that God entered into a world of injustice and took that injustice upon Himself. He made Himself one with the outcasts, not with the powerful.

Last December 26, Pope Francis said, “[T]oday we pray especially for the Christians who are discriminated against on account of the witness they bear to Christ and to the Gospel. Let us remain close to these brothers and sisters who, like St. Stephen, are unjustly accused and made the objects of various kinds of violence.

Unfortunately, I am sure they are more numerous today than in the early days of the Church. There are so many! This occurs especially where religious freedom is still not guaranteed or fully realized. However, it also happens in countries and areas where on paper freedom and human rights are protected, but where in fact believers, and especially Christians, face restrictions and discrimination. I would like to ask you to take a moment in silence to pray for these brothers and sisters and let us entrust them to Our Lady. This comes as no surprise to a Christian, for Jesus foretold it as a propitious occasion to bear witness. Still, on a civil level, injustice must be denounced and eliminated.”

In his remarks, the pope was speaking against physical violence and killing of Christians and against the subtle (or not too subtle) discrimination that Christians face in the Western world, including our own country. Our goal is not oppression, but conversion (of our enemies and of ourselves). Pope Francis concluded his remarks a year ago with this challenge, “May Mary Queen of Martyrs help us to live Christmas with the ardor of faith and love which shone forth in St. Stephen and in all of the martyrs of the Church.”

St. Stephen’s prayers for his persecutors were effective. One of the people there, running a type of “cloak-check” (apparently stoning people to death builds up a sweat), was Saul. Stephen prayed for him that day and continued to pray for him in Heaven.

On the road to Damascus a short while later that prayer bore fruit and Saul began his conversion into becoming St. Paul. St. Fulgentius of Ruspe wrote about Stephen: “His love of God kept him from yielding to the ferocious mob; his love for his neighbor made him pray for those who were stoning him. Love inspired him to reprove those who erred, to make them amend; love led him to pray for those who stoned him, to save them from punishment.” May we grow in that same type of love.

Pope Francis’ Angelus message of December 21

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

Today, the fourth and last Sunday of Advent, the Liturgy wants to prepare us for Christmas, which is “already at the gates,” inviting us to meditate on the passage of the Annunciation of the angel to Mary. The Archangel Gabriel reveals to the virgin the will of God that she become the mother of His only begotten Son. “You will conceive in your womb and bear a Son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be

called Son of the Most High.”

We fix our gaze upon this simple young woman of Nazareth in the moment in which she makes herself available to the Divine message with her “yes.” We take in two essential aspects of her attitude, which is for us a model of how to prepare for Christmas.

Above all, her faith, her attitude of faith, which consists in listening to the Word of God to abandon herself to this Word with complete availability of mind and heart. Responding to the angel, OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER

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Mary said, “I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to Your Word.”

In her “here I am” full of faith, Mary does not know which paths she will have to trod, which sorrows she will have to suffer, which risks she will face. But she knows that it is the Lord Who is asking, and she trusts totally in Him and abandons herself to His love. This is Mary’s faith.

The other aspect is the capacity of the Mother of Christ to recognize the time of God. Mary is the one who has made possible the Incarnation of the Son of God, the “revelation of the mystery kept secret for long ages.”

She has made possible the Incarnation of the Word, thanks to her humble and courageous “yes.”

Mary teaches us to welcome the favorable moment in which Jesus comes into our lives and asks for a generous and prepared response.

And Jesus comes.

In fact, the mystery of the Birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, which occurred historically more than 2,000 years ago, is implemented as a Spiritual event in the “today of the Liturgy.” The Word,

Who dwelled in the virginal womb of Mary, in the celebration of Christmas, comes to call anew the heart of each Christian. He comes by and calls. Each one of us is called to respond, as Mary did, with a personal and sincere “yes,” placing ourselves fully at the disposal of God and His mercy. How many times Jesus comes in our lives and how many times He sends us an angel? And how many times we don’t realize it because we are very busy, submerged in our thoughts, in our activities, and in these days, in the preparation for Christmas, and we don’t realize the One Who is passing by and knocking at the door of our hearts asking to be welcomed, asking for a “yes” like that of Mary? A saint said, “I fear that the Lord will pass by.”

Do you know why he was afraid?

It was fear of not realizing, of allowing Him to pass by.

When we feel in our hearts, “I would like to be better. I repent of this thing I’ve done,” there is the Lord Who calls, Who makes us feel this, the desire to be better, the desire to be closer to others, to God. If you feel this, stop.

The Lord is there. Go to pray, and maybe go to Confession to clean up the dwelling a bit. This is good.

But remember well, if you feel this desire to improve, it is He Who is calling. Do not let Him pass by.

In the mystery of Christmas, beside Mary, in silence, is the presence of St. Joseph, as is represented in all the Nativity scenes, also in this one you can admire here in St. Peter’s Square.

The example of Mary and of Joseph is for all of us an invitation to welcome Jesus with an entirely open soul, Jesus Who out of love has made Himself our Brother.

He comes to bring to the world the gift of peace. “Peace to those on whom His favor rests,” as the choir of angels announced to the shepherds. The precious gift of Christmas is peace and Christ is our true peace. And Christ calls to our hearts to give us peace. Peace of the soul. Let us open the gates to Christ.

We entrust ourselves to the intercession of our Mother and of St. Joseph, to live a Christmas that is truly Christian, free of all worldliness, prepared to welcome the Savior, the God-with-us.

Anchor Columnist The renewal of women religious in the United States

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December 26, 2014

T

en days ago, the Vatican’s Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life released its report of the Apostolic Visitation of noncloistered women’s religious communities in the United States. It was written with a positive Christmas spirit, effusively praising women religious for all they’ve done for the Church’s “evangelizing mission, selflessly tending to the Spiritual, moral, educational, physical and social needs of countless individuals, especially the poor and marginalized” while diplomatically phrasing its concerns.

The religious women involved, secular and Catholic media professionals, and all other interested observers noticed an enormous change between the launching of the Visitation six years ago and its concluding report. Last month in a “60 Minutes” interview Cardinal Sean O’Malley called the way that the Visitation was announced and received a “disaster” — and that might have been stating it charitably.

There was initially no elementary communications component to the Visitation

so that women religious and incredulous that the Spiritual everyone else would see why mothers they knew could ever the Vatican was commissionbe the subject of a hostile ing it in the first place, how inquest even from the most many Sisters themselves from anti-Catholic bureaucrats, not communities that had lost to mention from the hierarchy their Catholic moorings had of the Church. requested the Vatican’s help, If they had known what how Visitations are routine in was really going in several religious life, what its scope women’s religious institutes in and tenor was envisioned to be (more a “Sister-to-Sister” dialogical self-asPutting Into sessment than an the Deep antagonistic examination), what specific

By Father behaviors the congreRoger J. Landry gation was concerned about, and how it was intended to help revitalize women’s religious life. the United States — if they Instead the Visitation was had known what the problems portrayed as a general inquisi- were that precipitated the Vistion by crepuscular, authoriitation — their reaction would tarian chauvinists in Rome surely have been different. punitively bullying Holy Catholics would find Sisters for minor concerns hard to believe that there are in order to take the focus off various Sisters who, with the of the big scandals for which support of their communities, these ignorant misogynists protest in favor of abortion; were responsible and toward who no longer regularly atwhich rather they should have tend Mass because they want been devoting their attention women priests; who openly all along. question the doctrine of the The Catholic faithful rose Holy Trinity, the Divinity of up reflexively in the defense Christ and the inspiration of of their Spiritual heroines, Sacred Scripture; who, in the

Retrouvaille: ‘Rediscovering a bond and helping couples heal continued from page one

end sessions, the main emphasis of the program is on communication in the Marriage between the husband and wife that will allow couples to work on their problems and begin the heal. Retrouvaille New England has an upcoming weekend being held in Framingham on January 9-11, and the current coordinators for RNE not only are part of the team of presenters, but former attendants of Retrouvaille itself.

“We ended up in a tough situation in 2005,” said Tim Hayden.

“We were both in favor of working on the Marriage and getting the problems resolved.”

Tim and his wife Barbara, residents of Seekonk and parishioners of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Seekonk, had been active in various parish ministries for years. After they recalled seeing the Retrouvaille program in the parish bulletin, Barbara made some inquiries online and ultimately registered the couple for the program.

“One of the things the program offers is the ability to come into a group and feel that they’re supported, regardless of where

they are,” said Barbara. As teams share during the weekend, they offer, “hope to the couples. Some of us have been in train wrecks and are working to come out the other side, or we have come out the other side. Regardless of what the couple’s circumstances are, they have the power to do that if they choose to and wish to recreate their Marriage.”

Inspired by their experience, the Haydens have part of the Retrouvaille program in several positions, including their current three-year stint as coordinators; but they feel their biggest impact on the program is their work as one of the team presenters, who along with a priest are part of the weekend and follow-up sessions.

“People initially come through the door and say they want to put their Marriage back the way it was,” said Barbara, “and over a period of time they start to realize they have a safe place to look at themselves and their Marriage, and they realize that maybe they don’t want to go back to the way it was, that maybe their best option is to recreate something that is new and vibrant.”

Though a Catholic priest is available to lead Mass, for Confessions or to speak to anyone during the weekend, the Retrouvaille program is open to open to any Christian, but they must be married: “It is only for married couples,” said Barbara. “That’s a challenge because we’ve had an increase over the years that have been in long-term relationships, but it’s a peer ministry and that’s not our peer group.”

And while the weekend is designed as a launching pad for building back a relationship that was lost, the follow-up sessions are just as crucial for continuing to form a solid foundation as a couple: “It offers continuing support.

The couples are still struggling.

The repair and rehabilitation of a Marriage is a process, it’s a journey not just a snapshot. During the weekend we have them sheltered.

We shut them out of their home as much as possible,” said Tim, adding that couples are asked to leave cell phones and other electronic devices at home or in their hotel room during the weekend so that they can concentrate solely on themselves.

words of Sister Laurie Brink, the former president of the Leadership Council of Women Religious, the largest association of women religious in the United States, who have moved “beyond the Church, even beyond Jesus.”

The positive tone of the Visitation Report shouldn’t be interpreted to indicate that the Vatican has given an overall bill of clean health to women’s religious life in the United States.

There is much that’s good and healthy, but there is also a lot that’s necrotic — and those who love women religious and who love the Church they serve must not be afraid to state and confront the obvious issues.

The report noted that 22 percent of women’s religious institutes in the United States refused to participate in the Visitation at all, a rejection of CICLSAL’s authority that its leader, Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, called a “painful disappointment.”

The report observed that the number of women religious in the United States has fallen from 181,000 in 1965

to 50,000 today and that the median age is mid-to-late 70s.

The report declared that young candidates “often desire the experience of living in formative communities and many wish to be externally recognizable as consecrated women.

This is a particular challenge in institutes whose current lifestyle does not emphasize these aspects of religious life.”

This is a tactful way of saying that many older religious don’t wear habits distinctive of their consecrated identity and don’t live in community but in apartments on their own, a worrisome trend contrary to the community life that is central to Christian, not to mention religious, life.

The report mentioned that institutes generally have “written guidelines for the reception of the Sacraments and sound Spiritual practices” but asked “each institute to evaluate its actual practice of Liturgical and common prayer.” The translation is that many communities aren’t following their own guidelines regarding prayer and providing Sisters’ access to Mass and Confession.

The report called upon “all

“When we send them home Sunday night, all of a sudden they’re without their support of the rest of the group with whom they bonded over the weekend,” continued Tim, “so by coming back together six times after the weekend, it gives them that continuing support. We give them more information and the method of communication that they need. They continue to get to work on it, and when they’re home struggling to continue that, they can call up a team or ask questions at the next session and we can help them. It’s a continuous process.”

After the follow-up sessions are done, that process also includes monthly sessions that offer an open-door policy for those looking to reconnect with Retrouvaille and its members.

“It’s about the strength and energy of being with couples dealing with trouble and struggling to work through it,” said Tim. “It doesn’t matter the situation, in fact we don’t ask them. Retrouvaille stresses anonymity and we never share any couples information. We tell them it doesn’t matter why they’re here, this community is here to support you and help you on the road and on the

journey.”

We live in a culture where other areas in a couple’s life, like the workplace, have become an acceptable area to air troubles in a Marriage, creating “a disposable mentality,” said Tim. “We throw it away rather than fix it.”

“When you do that, in some environments you’re surrounded by four heads and eight eyes,” said Barbara “and that’s the safety of Retrouvaille. It doesn’t matter what your circumstances are, your ability to come into a safe environment and get support and talk about your relationship; it’s safe and in that group, it’s commonplace.”

Every couple should know their problems are not unique, said the Haydens, and that the program is more than just a weekend, but a support system that can last a lifetime. Tim jokingly added, “If you really don’t like the process, we’ll give you your old Marriage back.”

Retrouvaille is holding three weekends in 2015. For more information on Retrouvaille, including the upcoming weekend being held in Framingham on January 9-11 (registration is due January 6), go to www.HelpOurMarriage.com or www.Retrouvaille.org.

Turn to page 18

8

O

ur former pastor and bishop, Séan Cardinal O’Malley, O.F.M. Cap., travelled to the border of Arizona and Mexico last spring to celebrate the Eucharist with people of faith on both sides of the border.

In 2003 the Catholic bishops of Mexico and the United States published the pastoral letter “Strangers No Longer,” which reflected on the pastoral reality of so many Catholics from Mexico living in the United States and the Church’s commitment to receive them in community.

Over the past decade expatriate, undocumented Catholics have come to comprise a good portion of the 12 million persons in the U.S. without federal recognition. We can see Cardinal Séan’s prayer at the border as a symbol of concern from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops that more than a dozen years’ advocacy and prayer had thus far not attained the goal of familybased immigration reform from the federal government.

December 26, 2014

A feast of unity

In constructive negotiain His humanity as He was tions and community meetborn and raised in the Holy ings with elected officials, the Family.

Church acknowledges the As Christians we believe economic, social, and politithat Christmas observes the cal conditions that result in renewal of the covenant first so many faithful and parents described in this week’s readof families making the journey here. Yet no meeting or conHomily of the Week versation takes place Third Sunday without mention of of Advent the primacy of family reunification. In our

By Father continued celebraMarc Fallon, C.S.C. tion of the Christmas season, we celebrate the joy of our God the Father gifting humanity ing from Genesis 15. In rewith His only begotten Son. sponse to the hospitality that St. Francis of Assisi had the Sarah and Abram showed to grace to realize that the Holy an unknown traveler, God Infant in the crèche of the rugifted a couple advanced in ral context of Bethlehem, acyears with the birth of their companied by impoverished son Isaac. Living with conshepherds and the angels cerns and anxieties over how representing a compassionate they would provide for one and powerful God, presents another in their senior years, a Messiah of full and lovthey learn that their Heaving access to all who share enly God had instead chosen the human condition. Today that they be remembered by we celebrate that the Son of descendants more numerGod, fully human and fully ous than the stars above.

Divine, came to be formed The Lord remembers His

covenant forever (Ps 105).

The present season of joy in our Church commemorates also the consoling revelation shared by the prophetic voices consoling Israel over generations of exile, loss, and grief.

As the Church contemplated a pastoral response to 75,000 unaccompanied minor children from Central America last summer, the professional national staff of Catholic Charities and Migration and Refugee Services discussed being overwhelmed. Respectful and trusting working relationships have developed over the years between the federal government and Church-based social service agencies, yet no one had ever imagined such numbers of refugee children. How many United States citizens chose to question the parental responsibility of Central Americans rather than asking how the insatiable lust for

narcotic drugs in the north had caused the drug cartels to run entire nations? Did any faithful of the Diocese of Fall River picket the governor’s proposal to offer the children refuge in Massachusetts? When despairing parents in Central America made arrangements with aunts and uncles here, did they recall this passage from Colossians 3, “Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another”?

As Simeon acclaimed the Newborn in terms of answering what was foretold, let us pray that the feast of the Holy Family may serve as a moment of reconciliation between poverty and economic empowerment, between alienation and community, between south and north.

Holy Cross Father Fallon serves the Hispanic community at St. Mary’s Parish in Taunton.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. Dec. 27, 1 Jn 1:1-4; Jn 20:1a,2-8. Sun. Dec. 28, Feast of the Holy Family, Sir 3:2-6,12-14; Ps 128:1-5; Col 3:12-21 or 3:12-17; Lk 2:22-40 or 2:22,39-40. Mon. Dec. 29, 1 Jn 2:3-11; Lk 2:22-35. Tues. Dec. 30, 1 Jn 2:12-17; Lk 2:36-40. Wed. Dec. 31, 1 Jn 2:18-21; Jn 1:1-18.

Thurs. Jan. 1, Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother, Nm 6:22-27; Ps 67:2-3,5,6,8; Gal 4:4-7; Lk 2:16-21. Fri. Jan. 2, 1 Jn 2:22-28; Ps 98:1-4; Jn 1:19-28. Sat. Jan. 3, 1 Jn 2:29—3:6; Ps 98:1,3cd-4,5-6; Jn 1:29-34. Sun. Jan. 4, The Epiphany of the Lord, Is 60:1-6; Ps 72:1-2,7-8,10-13; Eph 3:2-3a,5-6; Mt 2:1-12. Mon. Jan. 5, 1 Jn 3:22—4:6; Ps 2:7bc-8,10-12a; Mt 4:12-17,23-25. Tues. Jan. 6, 1 Jn 4:7-10; Ps 72:1-4,7-8; Mk 6:34-44. Wed. Jan. 7, 1 Jn 4:11-18; Ps 72:1-2,10,1213; Mk 6:45-52. Thurs. Jan. 8, 1 Jn 4:19—5:4; Ps 72:1-2,14,15bc,17; Lk 4:14-22a. Fri. Jan. 9, 1 Jn 5:5-13; Ps 147:12-15,19-20; Lk 5:12-16.

W

hen I went to elementary school nearly 50 years ago, it was a great feeling to be told by my teacher that it was time to pray. Every morning, the class went silent for several moments while we took the time to pray for ourselves, our family and our friends. I was very happy to do it. It was a very important part of our school day. The teacher endorsed it, and the class went along with it.

When we resisted the Pledge of Allegiance, we had no problem using the words, “under God.” Those words were a very special part of the pledge, and we thought nothing to the contrary.

When I lived at the Perkins School for the Blind, we ate three meals a day in a cottage. Prior to every meal, we would say grace, using the same prayer, “God is great, God is good. Let us thank Him for our food. By His hands must all be fed. Give

God in the schools

continue to have a moment of us, Lord, our daily bread. silence every day, and if those Amen.” As with silent prayer of us want to use that time to and the use of “under God” pray, we should be allowed to in the Pledge of Allegiance, these words before each meal do it despite these naysayers.

I firmly believe that with at Perkins were extremely significant, and were accepted each attempt to take God away from the classroom, by everyone.

In spite of what we did in school relating to God, and how we felt about it, society has tried very hard to take God away from the schools. As

By Robert Branco far as I’m concerned, we shouldn’t be told not to pray, and we shouldn’t be asked to the environment in school consider the elimination of the phrase, “under God” from has become more dangerous. There seems to be a lot the Pledge of Allegiance. more disrespect in school Why is it so important to today than there was prior those who are against these to the elimination of prayer. traditions? If these people I don’t have to mention all don’t want to pray, then we the school shootings. All I can’t make them pray. Yet at need to do is talk about kids the same time, their wishes who throw chairs and swear are forced upon those of us at their teachers just bewho have the desire to keep cause they are asked by their praying. Let the teachers

Guest Columnist

teachers to put their smart phones away. Last week at a local high school, a girl hit a teacher in the head for telling her off about smoking weed.

Furthermore, I keep hearing about all the rights that children have today, rights that I didn’t have until I reached the age where I was entitled to them. I didn’t complain or get upset. I was a child, and children follow rules until they reach an age where they have the freedom to do as they please. I accepted this concept gracefully.

I am not a social scientist, so I won’t pretend that I know why these terrible situations are happening in school right now. It may be lack of discipline by the parents, or it may be that parents are passing their responsibilities to the teachers, or it may be as simple as the lack of a religious pres-

ence in the classroom. Even though I don’t know the exact cause, I believe it is safe for me to think that if we brought God back into the schools where He belongs, much of what’s going on may not happen. These people who are protesting prayer and the language in the Pledge of Allegiance have no basis for their protest. It may be that they have a problem with God. This doesn’t mean that they have to take it out on the rest of society, and force us to comply with their way of thinking.

Robert Branco is a resident of New Bedford, a graduate of UMass Dartmouth, an author of several books, including his most recent, “My Home Away From Home: Life at Perkins School for the Blind,” and a columnist and media liaison for several publications for the blind.

If anyone has a comment, please email him at branco182@verizon.net.

December 26, 2014

Friday 26 December — feast of St. Stephen ou know me, dear readers, I’m a renowned aficionado of all things Christmas. This should come as no surprise. My parents, after all, named me after Tiny Tim. Not Tiny Tim the ukulele-strumming crooner. Strictly speaking, not even Tiny Tim Cratchit, the classic Dickens’ character.

No, I’m named after the main character in a cartoon strip that ran in the funny papers from 1933 to 1958.

My father (whose given name was Everett) spent most of his boyhood on crutches.

This was due to a birth defect.

His nickname was “Tiny Tim” or, eventually, just “Tim.” When his first child was born, I was not named “Everett” but rather called by the name by which everyone knew my father — “Tim.” Whenever I find myself given over to too much gravitas, I’ve simply to remember the fact that I’m named after a cartoon. Herein are the Christmas memories of Tiny Tim, otherwise known as the Reverend Timothy J. Goldrick — yours truly.

For a little child, Christmas is all about gifts. I remember

Y

T

he Church of the Immaculate Conception is breath-taking. It is the convent chapel of the Sisters of Providence located at SaintMary-of-the-Woods, Ind. November 2014, Suzie and I (candidate-associates) stood examining the stained-glass window depicting the Fifth Joyful Mystery (finding of the Child Jesus in the temple).

This picture shows Jesus in the temple turning His attention from one young scholar of the law to His mother Mary who is reaching out to Him. In Joseph’s eyes, you can see that worry has been replaced with fatherly love.

In the background are two additional scholars staring intently at Jesus. Just who is this young Man with them talking earnestly about all of the law being centered on this radical idea He calls God’s law of love?

I told Suzie that I thought that the window captured the first moment Jesus felt and understood God’s call. That wisdom prompted Him to say (to Mary), “Why were you searching for Me? Didn’t you know I had to be in My Father’s house” (Lk 2:49)? I shared with

Anchor Columnists Tiny Tim’s Christmas memories

9

My father’s job was to string the gift my Grandfather Corthe lights and place the gold reia made for me on my very foil star on top. In those days, first Christmas. It was a woodnobody used these modern tiny en rocking horse. It was one of those gifts one has to grow into. white lights. Our lights were large and multi-colored. They I remember the rocking horse not because I have a photographic memory, but rather because it’s The Ship’s Log still around someplace.

Reflections of a I remember being Parish Priest allowed to help decorate the Christmas

By Father Tim tree. My first assigned Goldrick task was to hang the plastic ornaments that went on the bottom had two wires connecting them. of the tree. Of course I hung One wire was red and the other the whole lot of them on two green. They had clips on the or three branches. They were back. If one light went out, they adjusted once I left the room. all did. We even had a couple of Later I came to realize that all those fashionable new “bubble the breakable glass ornaments lights.” These were very hot were out of my reach — a indeed, I seem to remember for clever safety strategy. some reason.

My mother always hung The final task was to hang the cardboard angel from her the silver tinsel we preserved first childhood Christmas from year to year. Nobody back tree. She would also hang in the day paid any heed to the the red toy airplane from her fact that it was lead. I carebrother’s last Christmas. He fully placed tinsel on the lower died at the age of 15. And she would hang the faded red branches in great handfuls. The upper branches took no time cardboard egg, wrapped in at all. I just flung the tinsel in frazzled gold garland. What that was all about, I still have the air.

Then I sat down to admire no idea.

the finished tree in all its glory.

I would put a Bing Crosby recording on the record player. As I sat contemplating the Christmas tree, I would squint my eyes so that the bulbs appeared more numerous.

I remember my first Nativity scene. My mother walked down to Woolworth’s Five and Ten one Saturday morning and brought back a cardboard stable with glued-in-place figures. Other years, she came home with free standing figures — a herd of sheep, a shepherd or two, three kings, and a camel.

I remember a pop-up paper Nativity scene I kept in my bedroom. It was a gift from Msgr. John McKeon to all us kids in Holy Family Elementary School. I was in first grade.

I remember from my childhood the massive Nativity scene in St. Lawrence Church.

I remember just where it went and how it was arranged. Much later, as a priest, it fell to me to set up that very same parish Nativity.

I remember other Christmas gifts as well. There was the

Davy Crockett “coonskin” cap and the Roy Rogers jacket with fringed sleeves (my sister had a Dale Evans outfit). There was the “Howdy Doody” dummy with moveable jaw, just like Buffalo Bob’s. There was the multi-figured farm set and the Lincoln Logs.

One year, my Aunt Jeanne and Uncle Bob, who were living in Germany, mailed a puzzling gift to our family. What was it? How was it used? We’d received our first Advent wreath but, back then, who knew?

My father would pack us all in the old beach wagon to go see the Christmas lights around town. The best lights were on the Common in downtown New Bedford. The students at the vocational school set that up every year.

Christmas Midnight Mass was a must. As an altar boy, it was difficult to stay awake, but I did. I would hike up Tarkiln Hill with my sister Mary and “Buster,” a buddy of mine (who wasn’t Catholic.)

Take a tip from Tiny Tim, treasure your Christmas memories.

Anchor columnist Father Goldrick is pastor of St. Patrick’s Parish in Falmouth.

choose to share the gifts God Suzie how challenging it could be to get students to understand has given us? Both http://www.

God has a plan for each of them demco.com/webprd_demco/ idea_center/13105820_lesson. and also to feel the Holy Spirit pdf and http://www.ehow.com/ touching their own hearts. how_6664895_making-stainedI sighed and said, “I wish glass-colored-cellophane.html I could have a picture of me with that window.”

Suzie said that for the proper perspective, I’d have to be on the ledge. Wrestling with God Holding on for I hesitated. Visions of everything that could go His blessing wrong danced through my mind. I heard Suzie

By Dr. Helen J. Flavin quietly say, “If you wish the picture to someday provide information on using use with your students then get construction paper and celloup there and handle things responsibly.” In less than a minute phane to make a stained glass window art project. Even if we she had taken the photograph are at a point in our lives where for me. we feel someone has shattered Have you ever thought what part or all of our stained glass image an artist might create window, we can still pick up the for you to represent where you shards of glass and incorporate are in your personal journey them into the edges of our of faith? We need not limit 2015 window. After all, when ourselves to images of our past you examine any stained-glass history. As we approach the window, it is the tiny sections at New Year, it is a good time to the edges which serve to bring decide what image (story) we to life the central images. would like to live in the upElizabeth Kubler-Ross said, coming year. In what concrete “People are like stained-glass way(s) do we wish to work to windows. They sparkle and make a reality how we now

shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.” We know that light from within is God shining forth through us.

If we take the time to complete a stained-glass window for ourselves, it will serve two functions. First, the light of each sunrise will remind us daily of our personal choice of who we wish others to see in all our daily actions.

Second, looking at the image will remind us, even in times of personal distress, that we are each one part of God’s plan for the entire world. That can encourage us to keep moving forward those moments even when we feel in darkness or unsure of the way.

Jesuit priest Gregory Boyle has run a gang-intervention program (Homeboy Industries) for more than 20 years. In his book, “Tattoos on the Heart,” Father Boyle relays a poignant tale about the emergence of God’s light. One kindhearted but deeply troubled teenager had fallen into drugs and alcohol. Eventually the young

man agreed to rehab. A month later, this young man’s brother committed suicide. On the way to the funeral, the young man shared a dream with Father Boyle.

In the dream, he and Father Boyle were together in a pitch dark room. They did not speak.

The young man somehow knew he had to turn on the light.

Father Boyle took a flashlight from his pocket and shined it on the switch pad. The young man turned on the light. At this point in the story, he turned to Father Boyle and said, “And the light is better than the darkness.” The young man had the courage to choose to let God’s light shine through him. Father Boyle says, “We all are sometimes in that windowless room.

You aim the light this time and I’ll do it the next.”

I smiled as I shared with my students the photograph of Jesus in the temple. Suzie, I owe you one. I’ll keep my light ready.

Anchor columnist Helen Flavin is a Catholic scientist, educator and writer and a member of St. Bernadette’s Parish in Fall River. biochemwz@ hotmail.com.

Do you see what I see?

10

Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, S.D.V., continued his whirl-wind tour of diocesan Catholic schools by visiting the Taunton area schools at St. Mary’s Church in that city last week. Top right, shows the bishop gesturing with joy to the students who filled the church, along with staff and diocesan school superintendent, Dr. Michael S. Griffin; assistant superintendent for curriculum, Dr. Donna Boyle; and assistant superintendent for personnel, Louise B. Kane. The middle photo shows students proudly displaying their school’s banner, and the bottom photo shows a Coyle and Cassidy High School student presenting Bishop da Cunha with a gift of a cap of the Brazilian soccer team. Bishop da Cunha will complete his “tour” with a visit to students in the Fall River area on January 28 with a Mass at St. Anne’s Church in Fall River. (Photos by John E. Kearns Jr.)

December 26, 2014

December 26, 2014

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Fall River Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, S.D.V. paid a visit to the students at Bishop Feehan High School in Attleboro December 17. The newly-installed bishop of the Diocese of Fall River has been visiting students at Catholic schools in all five of the diocese’s deaneries.

At left, the Bishop Feehan choir sings at the Liturgy in the school auditorium. Below that, the bishop blesses a non-Catholic student during the distribution of Holy Communion. Below, Bishop da Cunha addresses the students and staff of Bishop Feehan during his homily.

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December 26, 2014

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

Patrick Gallagher, Robin Williams, Ben Stiller and Rami Malek star in a scene from the movie “Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb.” For a brief review of this film, see CNS Movie Capsules below. (CNS photo/Kerry Brown, courtesy Twentieth Century Fox)

CNS Movie Capsules

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on WLNE Channel 6 Sunday, December 28, 11:00 a.m.

Celebrant is Father Kevin A. Cook, pastor of Holy Family Parish in East Taunton

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on WLNE Channel 6 Sunday, January 4, 11:00 a.m.

Celebrant is Father Daniel W. Lacroix, pastor of Our Lady Queen of Martyrs in Seekonk

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

“Annie” (Columbia) Exuberant, updated adaptation of the 1977 Broadway musical (and 1982 film), based on the “Little Orphan Annie” comic strip by Harold Gray. In present-day Manhattan, a foster child (Quvenzhane Wallis) dreams of finding her real parents, while living with four other girls and a wicked, drunken mess (Cameron Diaz) of a temporary guardian. Her rescuer arrives in an unlikely form: a billionaire businessman ( Jamie Foxx) who takes her in for publicity purposes as he campaigns for mayor. The fun begins as she casts a spell on her new benefactor, and vice versa. Director and co-writer Will Gluck’s wholesome story for all ages carries positive messages about love, family, and forgiveness. A couple of crass terms, fleeting mature references. The Catholic News Service classification is A-II — adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG — parental guidance suggested.

Some material may not be suitable for children.

“The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” (Warner Bros.)

Director and co-writer Peter Jackson’s trilogy of films based on Catholic novelist J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1937 fantasy for children, set in Tolkien’s imaginary world of Middleearth, reaches a rousing finale as the forces of good and evil, both within and surrounding its characters, confront each other in a climactic struggle.

After the fearsome dragon (voice of Benedict Cumberbatch) who long ago exiled them from their ancestral bastion is slain, the brave band of Dwarves whose quest to reclaim their fabled citadel has been aided by the formerly fainthearted Hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) is finally able to recover their stronghold. But the untold wealth stored up in the mountain fortress begins to obsess their king (Richard Armitage), making him hopelessly greedy and paranoid just as a vast army of evil Orcs (led by Manu Bennett) is on the march against them. The warping effects of avarice are poised against the redeeming consequences of heroic selflessness in this combat-heavy parable, which also sees the return of Ian McKellen as the wizard who first prompted Bilbo’s transformation. The film offers valuable lessons for those viewers mature enough to endure its many armed confrontations. Pervasive, sometimes harsh battle violence with minimal gore, a couple of crass expressions. The Catholic News Service classification is A-II — adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating

is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

“Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb” (Fox) All creatures great and small, including some longdead humans, spring to life when the sun goes down in this good-natured and mostly family-friendly third film in the popular franchise. A guard (Ben Stiller) at New York’s American Museum of Natural History harnesses the power of an ancient Egyptian tablet, which makes the exhibits around him come alive at nightfall. But the talisman is decaying, and fixing it requires going to London’s British Museum. A gaggle of Gotham-based exhibits, among them President Theodore Roosevelt (Robin Williams), an Egyptian pharaoh (Rami Malek), Attila the Hun (Patrick Gallagher) and Lewis and Clark’s Native American guide Sacajawea (Mizuo Peck), accompany the watchman and his rebel teenage son (Skyler Gisondo) on their excursion overseas, where Sir Lancelot (Dan Stevens), joins the quest. Despite occasional toilet humor and outsized dinosaur behavior that might intimidate tots, overall, the film offers viewers good-natured and amiable fun. Some intense action sequences, childish scatological humor, mild innuendo. The Catholic News Service classification is A-II — adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG — parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

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December 26, 2014

Pope Francis credited for urging U.S., Cuba to normalize relations

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Pope Francis personally appealed to President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro this year to encourage both leaders to normalize diplomatic relations, a senior Obama Administration official said.

Speaking on background, the official told reporters December 17 that the pope followed up the personal appeals with letters to the U.S. and Cuban leaders, encouraging them to move forward on efforts to improve relations between the two countries.

The pope’s actions were part of a major diplomatic effort by the Vatican, which hosted direct talks between American and Cuban officials, the administration official said.

“That (letter) gave greater impetus and momentum for us to move forward,” the administration official said.

Castro and Obama acknowledged in simultaneous addresses to their respective nations the role Pope Francis played in the talks.

Pope Francis congratulated both governments for agreeing to establish diplomatic relations “with the aim of overcoming, in the interest of the citizens of both countries, the difficulties which have marked their recent history.”

In a statement released after the announcement was made simultaneously by Obama in Washington and Castro in Havana, the Vatican confirmed the pope’s role in negotiations between the two countries.

The Vatican said it had invited Obama and Castro to “resolve humanitarian questions of common interest, including the situation of certain prisoners, in order to initiate a new phase in relations between the two parties.”

“The Holy See will continue to assure its support for initiatives which both nations will undertake to strengthen their bilateral relations and

promote the wellbeing of their respective citizens,” the statement said.

The pope had appealed to both countries for the release of Alan Gross, an American contractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development, who had been held in a Cuban prison for five years.

Gross was released December 17, hours before Obama announced that change in U.S. policy toward Cuba.

The administration official also said that a U.S. “intelligence asset” was being released after being held for 20 years in Cuba in exchange for three members of the Cuban Five, or Miami Five as they are also known.

The official declined to identify the U.S. spy.

The men were members of a Cuban intelligence network in Miami known as “La Red Avispa,” or “Wasp Network,” dispatched by Cuba’s then-President Fidel Castro in the early 1990s to infiltrate militant exile groups in South Florida, according to the Associated Press.

The policy changes included the lifting of restrictions on travel to Cuba; review of Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism; allowing the sale of telecommunications equipment to Cuba; lifting of embargoes on Cuban products in the U.S.; and opening financial The administration official told reporters that with the changes, the U.S. would continue to pursue efforts to promote democracy and strengthen human rights in Cuba.

“Openness is a better policy than isolation in advancing the things we care about in Cuba,” the official said.

The official laid out a timeline that indicated that talks between the U.S. and Cuba took about 18 months to evolve to the point where Obama announced a change in the American position regarding its Caribbean neigh-

Marian Medal awards ceremony available on Video FALL RIVER — The November 23 Marian Medal Awards Ceremony is available on DVD from the Diocesan Office of Communications. The DVD cost is $25.

To obtain one, please forward a check in that amount payable to the Diocesan Office of Communications, Diocese of Fall River, P.O. Box 7, Fall River, Mass. 02722.

Shipping is included in the video cost.

bor. The officials said talks mostly took place in Canada with one meeting occurring at the Vatican.

Obama said in a noontime address that the U.S. and Cuba would begin talks to normalize relations and open an embassy in Havana for the first time in more than 50 years. Diplomatic relations between the two countries ended in 1961.

The Vatican’s role in the process is linked to Obama’s visit to the Vatican in March.

In a meeting with the pope, the administration official said, Cuba was “a topic of discussion that got as much attention as anything they discussed.”

“President Obama has enormous respect for Pope Francis and his personal engagement is important to us,” the official added.

Senior Vatican officials

later received U.S. and Cuban officials together in October.

The meeting gave representatives of both countries the opportunity to review details of their negotiations and formalize the exchange and transfer of the prisoners.

The administration official stressed that Gross’ release was a humanitarian gesture by the Cuban government and was not tied to the prisoner exchange.

The official said the Vatican was the only government directly involved in talks between the two countries. Canada hosted meetings between the two governments during, but Canadian officials did not participate.

The Cuban Five were arrested Sept. 12, 1998 by a heavily armed FBI SWAT team. They were convicted in 2001 in Miami on charges including conspiracy to com-

mit murder, acting as an agent of a foreign government, and other illegal activities in the United States and failure to register as foreign agents in the U.S. and other illegal activities. Each was sentenced to four life terms plus 75 years in December 2001.

They are hailed as national heroes in Cuba, according to AP. The five appealed their convictions. A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned their convictions in 2005, but the full court later reversed the ruling, ending the five men’s bid for a new trial and reinstated the original convictions. In June 2009 the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case.

Two were eventually released, one in October 2011 and the other in February of this year.

Pope Francis names Bishop Christopher J. Coyne to lead Vermont’s Catholics

BURLINGTON — Pope Francis appointed December 22, the Most Reverend Christopher James Coyne, until now auxiliary bishop of Indianapolis, as 10th Bishop of Burlington.

A Boston native, Bishop Coyne will formally be installed as pastor of Vermont’s 118,000 Catholics on January 29, with a Solemn Mass of Installation in St. Joseph Co-Cathedral. The pope’s ambassador to the United States, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, will be in attendance as the Holy Father’s personal representative.

“I am grateful to Pope Francis for his confidence in me in appointing me to Burlington. Personally, I could not be happier to be assigned here and look forward to returning to my native New England,” Bishop Coyne said.

The Catholic Church’s first blogging priest to become a bishop on his appointment by then-Pope Benedict XVI in 2011, Coyne is an internationally cited leader in the faith’s “digital revolution.” Having kept a dedicated daily presence on Facebook and Twitter to a current 10,000 followers, as well as producing a regular podcast, the bishop’s outreach has been featured on NBC’s “Today Show” and in

the nationally broadcast coverage of the Indianapolis 500, at which he delivered the pre-race Invocation for the last three years. In November 2014, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops elected Bishop Coyne as the next chairman of the national Church’s communications efforts, a three-year mandate which begins in 2015.

The middle of seven children born to a postal worker and parish secretary in Woburn, after graduating from the University of Lowell and working two years as a bartender, Bishop Coyne attended seminary for five years and was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Boston in 1986. While ministering in parishes for most of his years in Massachusetts, Bishop Chris additionally spent 12 years serving as a professor of Liturgy at St. John’s Seminary, Brighton, and a number of years as the archdiocesan director of Worship and later secretary for Communications.

From 2006 until his appointment to Indianapolis, Coyne was pastor of St. Margaret Mary Parish in Westwood. He received his doctorate in Sacred Liturgy from the Pontifical Athanaeum of Sant’ Anselmo in Rome in 1994.

Slated to preside at the installation Mass as Metropolitan Archbishop of the Province of Boston is Cardinal Seán Patrick O’Malley O.F.M. Cap. Bishop Coyne said, “While I will miss the great people of Indiana and all of my friends there, I am ready to commit myself fully to the work of the Catholic Church here in Vermont.”

Msgr. John J. McDermott, who has been serving as the apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Burlington since Jan. 3, 2014, noted, “The priests, religious and laity of the Diocese of Burlington have been praying all year for this announcement.

We are grateful to Pope Francis for sending us Bishop Coyne, a shepherd with such a wealth of experience and a commitment to proclaiming joyfully the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

The Diocese of Burlington was established on July 29, 1853. Comprising all of Vermont across its 73 parishes, the People of God in the Green Mountain State are served by 75 Diocesan priests, 40 religious order priests, 43 permanent deacons, 86 women religious (i.e.

Sisters/nuns), and 32 educational and charitable institutions.

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December 26, 2014

A new era for women’s health care? This Catholic clinic hopes so Denver (CNA/EWTN News) — While the phrase “women’s health” often conjures up images of artificial hormones, devices, and pills, one natural health care center in the Denver area is hoping to transform the way women receive care — one patient at a time.

“Women’s dignity is the forefront and center of what we do,” said nurse practitioner Abby Sinnett, co-founder of Bella Natural Women’s Care.

“A woman is beautiful and strong and can do amazing things, which is exhibited when they have a baby — it is beautiful what women can do,” she told CNA December 8, the day before Bella’s grand opening.

Bella is a new non-profit med-

ical practice located in Denver, Colo., which provides health care for all women, from adolescence through menopause and beyond.

Their hope is to create a holistic approach to caring for women in mind, body, and Spirit, dealing with a full range of issues from infertility to weight loss.

The practice will be run in full alignment with Church teaching, although Sinnett explained that they hope to attract non-Catholics as well, particularly those drawn to the truth and beauty of a natural, dignified approach to women’s health care.

“The hallmark of what we are doing here is remembering how beautifully and wonderfully we were created, and how women deserve to be cared for very well,”

Sinnett explained.

“Our hearts of seeking that.

We are seeking that in all ways, a created soul will seek its Creator. Our lost souls are seeking the reverence we were made to have,” said Bella co-founder Dede Chism.

Also a nurse practitioner, Chism is Sinnett’s mother. The two founded the health care practice together after the idea arose on a mission trip to Peru. Chism and Sinnett were struck by their freedom to treat patients in accordance with their dignity, without pressure to offer contraception or abortion as a “solution” to health problems.

Inspired to bring their mission home to Colorado, they decided to start a natural women’s health clinic that would uphold the dignity of women and give them the care they deserve, respecting life at all stages.

“This is a project which we had been discerning earlier with Archbishop (Charles) Chaput and Bishop ( James) Conley, and confirmed with Archbishop (Samuel) Aquila. When we were all very certain in a concrete way that the Holy Spirit was saying, ‘Now is the time to create a comprehensive women’s healthcare practice,’ that was about two years ago, right around this time,” Chism told CNA. After much thought and prayer, Chism and Sinnett settled on the name “Bella,” a word which means “beautiful” in Spanish and Italian, but means “war” in Latin, a reflection of their understanding of the “beautiful war” that is being waged for a natural, uplifting approach in women’s health care.

A grand opening ceremony and dedication took place December 9. At the gathering, Archbishop Aquila called Bella “a tremendous blessing to the archdiocese and the broader community.” He noted that more than 100 women have already registered as patients at Bella, saying this is a testament to the fact that

women are hungry for respectful, dignified care.

Joining Bella’s health care practice is Dr. Steve Hickner, a doctor with 23 years experience as an OB-GYN from Grand Rapids, Michigan, who felt God calling him to serve the Church on a deeper level.

“When our last kid went off to college — call it a mid-life crisis — I told my wife that I would like to do something else. I felt that God was calling me to do something more,” Hickner stated.

He and his wife moved to Lander, Wyo., founding a practice where they served for two and a half years. The practice was busy and successful, but Hickner soon felt that he was being called to Omaha, Neb., where he was invited to a fellowship at the Pope Paul VI Institute.

There, he learned medical and surgical NaProTechnology, a method of women’s healthcare that seeks to treat root problems rather than symptoms, relying upon scientific means of monitoring reproductive health.

It was during his fellowship that Chism and Sinnett called Hickner about the genesis of their natural women’s care center.

“We called Dr. Hickner and basically told him what our vision was, and he started to mentor us,” Chism recalled, saying that after about eight months, they asked Hickner and his wife to start praying about a more permanent relationship with Bella’s clinic.

“Obviously, their vision matches very closely to what I imagined God was calling me to do,” Hickner stated, saying that they all collaborated together and discussed the foundations of Bella.

“He started as our mentor and guide, which was a beautiful way to build our relationship. Then, through their prayerful discernment and our prayerful discernment, we realized that it was all part of the beautiful orchestra that the Lord had put together,”

Chism reflected.

“I am just a small, mid-western doc who tried to gain the skill set, and tried to follow Christ,” Hickner said, voicing excitement to support the vision of Bella as its medical director.

“Probably most practically, I will care for women, help them to restore their health, or help affirm their health. I will see patients — all women, of any color, race, and any financial means,” he said, adding that Bella’s door is always open.

“Dr. Hickner’s specialty is very unique, in the United States in general. There are only a handful of people who can do what he can do, and what he does is restorative,” Chism observed.

When asked about her hopes for the future of Bella, Chism stated that she wants the team to utilize every gift, talent, and skill they possess to fulfill God’s plan in every circumstance that crosses their doors.

She emphasized how humbled she was to be able to practice with people of amazing faith, who blend character with competence.

“It is very humbling to be able to walk this journey with these guys,” she reflected.

“My goal is that every woman will see Christ in us and we can see Christ in them,” stated Sinnett, voicing hope that through Bella, they will be able to build a home in their clinic for the women they care for.

Hickner reflected that his goal as medical director will be to “take something from the Rule of St. Benedict: Care must be taken of the sick like they are Christ in person. So, we must care for the women who come through the door as if they are Christ in person.”

“Therefore, we need to shout it from the Rocky Mountain tops and beyond, and so hopefully further the work of the second Vatican Council,” Hickner said, explaining that “the Church exists to spread the Gospel and that is what we are trying to do, in the care for women.”

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December 26, 2014

Abundant Hope leaders hope changes will save more lives continued from page one

Karina DeOliveira emigrated from Sao Paulo nine years ago. She attended the special Mass with her husband Wallace and daughter Raissa. (Photo by Linda Andrade Rodrigues)

Bishop da Cunha reunites with native Brazilians continued from page one

ebrate with them, but it is also the 25th anniversary of the Brazilian Community in Hyannis.

Bringing them all together here in Hyannis on this fourth Sunday of Advent, just four days before Christmas, makes it all the more special.”

All eyes were fixed on the back of the Sanctuary as the procession began at the start of Mass.

Clergy included Father Michael Fitzpatrick, parochial administrator of St. Francis Xavier Parish; Father Edivar DaSilva, who leads the Brazilian Ministry; Father Jack Oliveira, pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in New Bedford; and the bishop.

Light streamed through the stained glass windows, bearing images of each of the disciples and casting an ethereal glow on the gathering. The only trappings of Christmas were wreaths tied with red bows suspended from Roman columns.

“I’m happy to be here with every one of you on this day and celebrate together with the Brazilians of the Diocese of Fall River,” greeted the bishop.

Two large screens on either side of the altar displayed all the prayers and songs in Portuguese while English speakers listened to the simulcast translation through earphones.

The congregation sang: “Kyrie Elieson. Christe Elieson.”

Like many of the worshippers, Wallace D’Oliveira lifted his outstretched arms to Heaven, rocking back and forth in rhythm to the music.

The first reading related the promise God made to King David.

Voices rose in Portuguese: “Forever I will sing the goodness

of the Lord,” they answered in the responsorial psalm.

The words of St. Paul to the Romans in the second reading revealed that God offers Salvation to everyone who has faith in Jesus Christ.

“Alleluia, Alleluia,” the worshippers sang. “Cristo e meu Rei” (Christ is my King).

The Gospel reading brought the message of “The Annunciation,” the angel Gabriel’s visit and announcement to Mary that she would conceive the Son of God. In his homily Bishop da Cunha told the congregation that during Advent and at Christmas time, it is important to reflect upon the coming of the Lord to all of us.

“In the Gospel the angel announces the coming of the Messiah, and Jesus becomes human,” he said. “God is with us.”

The angel’s words, “Do not be afraid,” are also for us, according to the bishop.

“Even though many of us miss our families and the distance we are from our land and country, here we become a new family of faith,” he said. “Not only do we have our communities that help us and give us strength, we also have God with us. Do not be afraid of difficulties and problems we have to go through. Tomorrow will bring peace if we have faith.”

The bishop then turned his thoughts to the celebration of Christmas.

“Now brothers and sisters, we gather together here in 2014, here in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, U.S.A., North America; and we don’t know what Christmas is going to be,” he said. “We put up trees, lights, send cards, purchase gifts.”

But he said that the popular Christmas celebration takes Christmas away from Christ.

“People don’t say ‘Merry Christmas,’ they say ‘Happy holidays,’” he explained. “Sometimes children grow up thinking the Christmas celebration is about Santa Claus, not Jesus Christ.

Christmas has to be about Jesus Christ and His coming.”

He added that this Christmas Jesus will not be born in a manger, He is being born in our hearts.

“Let’s welcome Jesus into our lives and our homes,” he said.

“Husbands and wives gather with your children and celebrate Christmas with Jesus Christ.”

A special Sacrament of Confirmation was performed by the bishop for parishioner Leonardo Burri.

Unlike in traditional parishes throughout the diocese, the parishioners left their pews during the offertory and brought their gifts, placing their envelopes in baskets on the altar.

After Communion, photographs of Bishop da Cunha appeared on the screens with words of thanks.

Representing the Brazilian community, Father DaSilva expressed their pride and thanksgiving to the new bishop, and everyone clapped. Bishop da Cunha also was presented with a gift.

“Today we are reminded of that moment when history took a turn, and the world would never be the same again,” said Bishop da Cunha. “The first Christmas took place because Jesus, Mary and Joseph said ‘yes’ to God’s plan. Now, in 2014, Christmas will become reality if we say ‘yes’ to God’s plan for us and for our world right here, right now.”

the end of next year. Raising the entire amount themselves would have taken years.

“I can’t even imagine the length of time it would take us to raise $35,000,” she said. “For us to be able to raise $17,000 is a very big undertaking because that’s $17,000 on top of our everyday expenses.”

All of the center’s expenses — salaries for two staff members, rent, utilities and supplies — are covered entirely by donations. But bringing in an ultrasound machine is essential to crisis pregnancy support because it gives women the opportunity to see their unborn child.

“Statistics prove that 80 percent of women who are abortion-minded, when they see their baby on ultrasound, will choose life, and that’s our goal,” said Howard.

Carrie Tino, the center’s new acting executive director said, “If they see that heartbeat and they see that baby, it at least causes them to pause, and that’s really important.”

Tino, who had been volunteering at the center for three years before stepping into her new role just last month, said she wants to make adjustments that will help the center serve more women. Free ultrasounds will certainly help with that and so will other changes slated for next year. The center will offer more classes on childbirth and parenting and grow its postabortive ministry. There are plans to start Bible studies and a men’s mentoring group.

The new location is allowing for expansion that will make

the center more effective. The layout is better and allows for a waiting room, a children’s room, a second counseling room, a formal conference room and more storage space. The new building has no stairs at the entrance and offers ample offstreet parking — features that are important to the center’s many clients who visit with their young children, she said.

The center is closer to the abortion clinic, which will give women visiting the clinic a short distance to travel if they want to see another option.

“Should we have a Divine intervention, someone could get right over to us immediately,” she said.

Tino would also like to expand the center’s hours, but to do that, more volunteers are needed. There will be training session on January 22 at 6:30 p.m.; anyone interested should R.S.V.P. “Our staff is really our volunteers. That’s who makes this center work,” she said. “It’s wonderful to have people who are willing to give their time.”

Together the volunteers and staff reach out and offer support to women who often feel frightened and alone, Tino said: “We are saving the unborn. We are helping moms choose to parent. We are helping those babies come into this world secure because their moms are secure.”

The new Abundant Hope address is 182 East Street, Attleboro, Mass. 02703. The phone number is 855-2994218 and the website is www. abundanthopeprc.org/.

Please note: The Anchor will not publish on January 2. The office will be closed until January 5, and the next edition will publish on January 9, 2015.

16

Youth Pages

The kindergarten students at Holy Family-Holy Name School in New Bedford celebrated the feast days of St. Nicholas and St. Lucy during their weekly Advent prayer services.

While the older kids were attending St. Anthony’s Church in New Bedford for the bishop’s Mass the little ones at St. Francis Xavier School in Acushnet were celebrating Our Lady of Guadalupe at school. The preschoolers were learning about St. Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe in class. Pictured are preschool teachers, Nancy McKenna and Michelle Cordeiro, with their students wearing the tilmas they made together in class in honor of the feast day.

Sixth-grade students from St. James-St John School in New Bedford recently prepared for Christmas with an Advent prayer service.

December 26, 2014

St. Stanislaus School students in pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade participated in the Hour of Code national computer coding project. Older students, who study Scratch and HTML coding as part of their curriculum, helped teach the basics of Scratch to the younger students at the Fall River school. Pictured are sixth-grader Jason Silva, seventh-grader Paul Saucier, and kindergarten students Abigail Bielecki and Olivia Moniz.

Fourth-grade and pre-kindgarten students from Our Lady of Lourdes School in Taunton recently got together to create gingerbread houses.

The kindergarten students at Holy Name School in Fall River recently learned about weighing and measuring pumpkins. They practiced grouping seeds by 10’s and then counting them. They made predictions on whether they floated or sank in water.

December 26, 2014

W

Youth Pages Resolution: A healthier soul this year

ith the beautiful feast of Christmas behind us, we now turn our attention to the New Year, which is quickly approaching.

At the beginning of year, many often take the time to review our lives and make resolutions to become better persons, students, sons or daughters, siblings and friends.

I read that the practice of making New Year’s resolutions goes back more than 3,000 years. This start to the New Year is a time when we feel we can put the mistakes of the past behind us and begin anew. If you review your Facebook newsfeed this week, you’ll likely find many posts listing common New Year’s resolutions such as: losing weight, eat better and healthier, spend time with family and loved ones, exercise more. It’s easy to make the resolutions. Keeping them is much more difficult.

So what should we do going forward into this New Year? How do we change ourselves to be better this coming year?

As I thought about what I might resolve to do this year to benefit my physical and mental health, I was struck by the fact that I really never gave much thought to resolutions that might benefit my Spiritual health as well. I just didn’t have a plan. Here are some ideas that I was able to pull together. Hopefully they may help you make up some your

own.

Spend time with God each day — find time to spend in conversation with the Lord each day. Bring Him your gratitude and your concerns.

Spend some time listening, too. Be more aware of His presence in your life each day.

Be there for others — Many of

By Deacon our brothers Frank Lucca and sisters are so in need of our prayers and our presence. Try to spend some time with those who are lonely or in need. Reach out each day to that fellow student or neighbor who is different or marginalized.

Continue to nurture friendships too.

Our friends need our love, time and support. Give to the needy, if your circumstances permit. If you can’t give financially, give time.

Develop your faith life — attend Mass more often — or spend some time in reading Scripture, praying a decade of the Rosary, or other forms of prayer. Commit yourself to finding a prayer method that will “stretch your soul — give it a good workout” in 15 minutes a day.

Learn more about your faith. Having a relationship with Jesus requires knowing more about Him. Spend

Be Not Afraid

The New England Association of Schools and Colleges officially accepted Bishop Feehan High School’s Five-Year Strategic Plan, as submitted for the process of accreditation, as “comprehensive and reflective” and to be congratulated as “a job well done.” In a letter to the school, the NEASC Director of the Commission, William Bennett also stated, “The outstanding implementation of the 1:1 technology initiative has created powerful momentum in the school’s learning community, especially in tapping into students’ interests and faculty’s professional development.”

“The NEASC announcement confirming the success of our five-year accreditation benchmark is a testament to our entire school community and validates the success of our professional development and self improvement initiatives,” stated Feehan president Chris Servant. “This is just one of many things that set Feehan apart as a school of excellence.”

Bishop Feehan is currently working towards the final 2010 NEASC request to “fulfill its strategic goal of improving its athletic facilities by improving its locker rooms and fitness areas.”

Administrators pose with students to celebrate Feehan’s NEASC accomplishments.

From left: senior Isabelle Hanewich, vice principal of academics Ann Perry, president Chris Servant, freshman Frankie Novio, principal Sean Kane, vice principal of student life Al Svendsen, and senior Madison Tager.

some time reading about Him and our Catholic faith. Resolve to at least take some Spiritual baby steps this year.

Go to Confession more often — The beginning of the New Year gives us an opportunity to start anew each year.

Confession permits us to do that each time we take advantage of the Sacrament. And while we’re reconciling with God, take time to reach out and forgive someone who may have hurt you.

Be active and get involved — as Catholics we are called to active ministry. Spend some time volunteering at Church or nursing home or soup kitchen. Volunteer in your parish in one of the dozens of ministries that can surely use your talent.

Start small. One thing at a time.

You’ll make a big difference and you’ll feel great, too!

Reach out to the lost — we all know many Catholics who may have fallen away from the Church and from a relationship with Jesus for

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whatever reason. Reintroduce them to Him and to the Catholic faith.

Invite them to attend Mass with you.

Encourage vocations — while I don’t believe that God would let His Church crumble due to a lack of priests, deacons and religious, we all need to do our part, too. One of my favorite sayings is, “Pray as though everything depends on God but act as though everything depends on you.” Pray for vocations but let’s get acting. Encourage those that are considering the priesthood, diaconate or religious life!

Take small steps — keep trying and don’t give up. Just remember, that if you keep God at the center of your New Year’s resolutions, you will have a much better chance of succeeding.

Wishing you and yours a most blessed and Happy New Year.

Anchor columnist Frank Lucca is a permanent deacon in the Diocese of Fall River, a youth minister at St. Dominic’s Parish in Swansea, and a campus minister at UMass Dartmouth. He is married to his wife of 36 years, Kristine, and the father of two daughters and their husbands, and a 10-month-old grandson. Email him at DeaconFrankLucca@comcast.net.

Bishop Stang High School teachers enjoyed a professional development day consisting of workshops offered by their colleagues. The day focused on technology integration, creating your own textbook, motivating students through writing, and interdisciplinary units. As a technology-integrated community, on-going relevant professional development in this area is a priority of the administration.

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

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December 26, 2014

Catholic Memorial Home residents repeating history continued from page one

history project, I thought: ‘Why not?’” she recently told The Anchor. “I’m proud of this city and I love talking about Fall River.”

Now a permanent resident at Catholic Memorial Home in her native hometown, Abdow worked for 28 years in a mill doing what was known as “piecework” — getting paid for each completed dress she cobbled together.

“My mother-in-law would take care of my son while I went to work,” Abdow recalled.

“I didn’t stay idle. My husband didn’t like the idea, but he got used to it.”

“My father kept saying: ‘You should stay home; there’s no need for you to go to work,’” Abdow added. “But I told him I wanted to work, I wanted to be independent.”

Under the guidance and direction of Joyce B. Rodrigues, former high school history teacher and Fall River Historical Society member, the “Women at Work” project aspires to tell the story of the economic impact of women in the workplace during the decades when families and the city underwent the decline of the once-great textile industry — from the early depression era of the 1920s to the Great Depression years of the 1930s.

“I’m a Depression baby and I’m proud of it,” Abdow said.

“My mother worked and my father worked. We never had a lot of money, but we lived decently.”

“The overriding theme is the story of the economic transition of Fall River from a major cotton textile industrial center to a major garment and manufacturing site in the space of a generation,” Rodrigues said. “The interviews will also focus on the secondary themes of the deindustrialization of the northeast and the rise of labor unions.”

The project was borne out of Rodrigues’ desire to document these little-known stories before the memories are forever lost.

“I came to the realization that an entire generation of women have been and are rapidly passing on and that their generation and their contributions to their families and to the history in Fall River needed to be documented,” she said. “These stories of working women are the stories of my family and are my history.”

For Rodrigues, the project is also something of a personal labor of love.

“My four aunts and later their daughters (my mother and aunt) all worked in the needle-trades and manufacturing industries in Fall River,” she said. “Their work helped to build Fall River, make its products and its profits.”

Rodrigues claimed their work also made it possible for her to be the first in the family to not only attend B.M.C. Durfee High School but also graduate from Bridgewater State College and later Boston University.

“I want to be able to recog-

Father Landry column continued from page seven

religious institutes carefully to review their Spiritual practices and ministry to assure that these are in harmony with Catholic teaching about God, Creation, the Incarnation and the Redemption” and “not to displace Christ from the center of creation and of our faith.” In other words, various communities’ practices are neither centered on Christ, nor even in alignment with Church doctrine on Christ as the Creator, Emmanuel and Savior.

These are all issues about which many Sisters in various communities had written to the Vatican, because their communities were being divided and even destroyed by them. CICLSAL responded with the Visitation, not to punish but to reform.

As the report noted, the Year for Consecrated Life just begun is an opportunity not

only for all religious women to renew their vocations according to their founding charisms and the mind and heart of the Church.

It’s also a summons for all the faithful to pray and express our appreciation and gratitude for those women who have heard God’s call — most of whom continue to give their lives heroically and faithfully in service of Him and others, and some of whom are in need of special prayers, help and guidance to realign themselves with the Church in order to experience the revitalization of their religious life that this Year for Consecrated Life and the Apostolic Visitation are intended to foster.

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

nize the contributions of their generation to the history of Fall River by directing this study for the Fall River Historical Society,” she said.

Staring out her second-floor window onto Highland Avenue, it’s as if Abdow was being transported back to more than a half-century ago when she first started working in “the shop,” as she refers to the former garmentmanufacturing mill.

“I got married when I was 20, so I must have been about 21,” she said. “In the shop where I was working on the second floor, the clothing ran out for the season. So the floor lady told me she would call me back when there was more work.

“So I climbed down the stairs and I was just about to turn around the corner when somebody opened the door and asked me: ‘What’s the matter?

No work?’ I told them they were changing over to the summer stock. She asked me if I wanted a job and I said: ‘Sure.’ And I was hired right there on the spot.”

Abdow would work in that very same first-floor “shop” until her retirement almost three decades later.

“My husband finally said: ‘That’s it!’ He wanted me to stay home,” she said. “He said I had worked enough.”

Just a few doors down on the same level of Catholic Memorial Home, 93-year-old Marita Harnett reminisced about her own days working at Fall River’s S&S Manufacturing Company and the HarLee Mill.

Like Abdow, her story is another important thread that will be stitched into “Women at Work.”

“I think the rule at that time was you could go to work when you were 16, especially during summer vacations when you were out of school,” Harnett said.

“I would work with my mother side-by-side on those big power machines. We used to carry our lunch, walk to work, then walk back (home). None of us had cars in those days.”

Taking this stroll down memory lane is something that Harnett seems to relish retelling.

“I like to remember those times — I’m not mystified by it,” she told The Anchor. “I don’t know how important it is; I wasn’t the only one who worked in the mills. But I’m glad to let people know what I know.”

In later years Harnett would transition from textiles to retail — including a stint at the famed

Catholic Memorial Home resident Olivia Abdow was recently interviewed for inclusion in “Women at Work: An Oral History of Working Class Women in Fall River, 1920-1950.” (Photo by Kenneth J. Souza)

Edgar’s Department Store in downtown Fall River — and then she worked at White’s Restaurant in Westport before retiring.

“I waited on tables for weddings and testimonials,” she said.

“I met all the big shots there — you know, the Kennedys and Jackie Onassis. I put her coat on when I worked in the checkroom. Those were good years.”

But it’s the memory of working as a “side joiner” — someone who stitched together the two sides of a dress that was already joined at the shoulder — that seems to loom large for her.

“Fall River was known for ‘hills, mills and pork pies,’” Harnett said. “That’s the saying we used to hear growing up.”

In November, Harnett and Abdow were interviewed extensively at the Catholic Memorial Home by John J. Conforti, a retired BMC Durfee High School history teacher and member of the Fall River Historical Society, for “Women at Work.”

Conforti was assisted by fellow Historical Society members Ann Rockett-Sperling, also a retired school teacher, and George D. Kelly, retired history teacher and Vice Principal at BMC Durfee High School.

Hours of their recollections were recorded for posterity and will be woven into the final oral history project.

“I talked for more than an hour,” Harnett said, laughing.

“They were supposed to ask me questions, but I just kept rambling on.”

Rodrigues said a preview of “Women at Work” will debut at Bristol Community College this March as part of Women’s History Month, whose theme this year is “Weaving the Stories of Women’s Lives.”

“The theme presents the opportunity to weave women’s stories — individually and collec-

tively — into the essential fabric of our nation’s history,” she said.

“How appropriate (is that) for our stories in Fall River?”

Plans are also in the works to have a community exhibit next summer, most likely at Fall River’s Cherry and Webb Gallery, and to collect all the women’s stories into a book to be published by the Fall River Historical Society at a later date.

“Our goal is to reach students, young adults, and the general public,” Rodrigues explained.

“The interviews will be indexed, edited, and available in print and online. We will also curate the oral history collection with the assistance of the Fall River Public Library and the Special Collections department at the Carney Library (at) UMass Dartmouth.”

The Fall River Historical Society plans to share the stories and other material collected during the study through both traditional and virtual exhibits and in a publication. In addition, an archive of family papers and photographs will be established for all of the interviewees.

“As the project develops, we’ll be going to radio stations, neighborhood associations, senior centers, the Council on Aging, clubs, churches and nursing homes (like the Catholic Memorial Home) to seek out more interviewees,” Rodrigues added.

The “Women at Work” oral history project is funded, in part, by Mass Humanities, which receives support from Massachusetts Cultural Council and is an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Anyone with photographs to contribute to “Women at Work” or names of potential interviewees is encouraged to contact Michael Martins at the Fall River Historical Society, 451 Rock Street, Fall River, Mass., or by calling 508-679-1071.

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December 26, 2014

Eucharistic Adoration in the Diocese Acushnet — Eucharistic Adoration takes place at St. Francis Xavier Parish on Monday from 9:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.; Tuesday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.; and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Evening prayer and Benediction is held Monday through Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.

ATTLEBORO — Eucharistic Adoration takes place in the Adoration Chapel at St. Vincent de Paul Parish, 71 Linden Street, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.

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

ATTLEBORO — There is a weekly Holy Hour of Eucharistic Adoration Thursdays from 5:30 to 6:30 pm at St. John the Evangelist Church on N. Main St. Brewster — Eucharistic Adoration takes place in the La Salette Chapel in the lower level of Our Lady of the Cape Church, 468 Stony Brook Road, on First Fridays beginning at noon until 7:45 a.m. First Saturday, concluding with Benediction and concluding with Mass at 8 a.m. buzzards Bay — Eucharistic Adoration takes place at St. Margaret Church, 141 Main Street, Monday through Saturday, from 6:30 to 8 a.m.; and every first Friday from noon to 8 a.m. on Saturday.

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

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

FAIRHAVEN — St. Mary’s Church, Main St., has Eucharistic Adoration every Wednesday from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in the Chapel of Reconciliation, with Benediction at 11:30 a.m. Also, there is a First Friday Mass each month at 7 p.m., followed by a Holy Hour with Eucharistic Adoration. Refreshments follow.

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

FALL RIVER — St. Bernadette’s Church, 529 Eastern Ave., has continuous Eucharistic Adoration from 8 a.m. on Thursday until 8 a.m. on Saturday.

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

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

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

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

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

MASHPEE — Christ the King Parish, Route 151 and Job’s Fishing Road has 8:30 a.m. Mass every First Friday with special intentions for Respect Life, followed by 24 hours of Eucharistic Adoration in the Chapel, concluding with Benediction Saturday morning followed immediately by an 8:30 Mass.

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

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

NEW BEDFORD — St. Lawrence Martyr Parish, 565 County Street, holds Eucharistic Adoration in the side chapel from 7:30-11:45 a.m. ending with a simple Benediction NORTH DARTMOUTH — Eucharistic Adoration takes place at St. Julie Billiart Church, 494 Slocum Road, every Tuesday from 7 to 8 p.m., ending with Benediction. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is available at this time.

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

NORTH EASTON — A Holy Hour for Families including Eucharistic Adoration is held every Friday from 3-4 p.m. at The Father Peyton Center, 518 Washington Street.

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

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

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

Taunton — Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament takes place every First Friday at Annunciation of the Lord, 31 First Street. Exposition begins following the 8 a.m. Mass. The Blessed Sacrament will be exposed, and Adoration will continue throughout the day. Confessions are heard from 5:15 to 6:15 p.m. Rosary and Benediction begin at 6:30 p.m.

WAREHAM — Eucharistic Adoration at St. Patrick’s Church begins each Wednesday evening at 6 p.m. and ends on Friday night at midnight. Adoration is held in our Adoration Chapel in the lower Parish Hall. ~ PERPETUAL EUCHARISTIC ADORATION ~ East Sandwich — The Corpus Christi Parish Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration Chapel is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 324 Quaker Meeting House Road, East Sandwich. Use the Chapel entrance on the side of the church.

NEW BEDFORD — Our Lady’s Chapel, 600 Pleasant Street, offers Eucharistic Adoration seven days a week, 24 hours a day. For information call 508-996-8274.

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

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

In Your Prayers Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks Dec. 27 Rev. Thomas J. Stapleton, Pastor, Corpus Christi, East Sandwich, 1956 Rev. Msgr. Armand Levasseur, Retired Pastor, St. Anne, New Bedford, 1970 Rev. Manuel Andrade, Former Pastor, Our Lady of Health, Fall River, 1995 Dec. 28 Rev. Charles R. Smith, Pastor, Immaculate Conception, Fall River, 1955 Rev. Edward J. Sharpe, Pastor, St. Patrick, Somerset, 1987 Rev. Clement Paquet, O.P., Assistant, St. Anne, Fall River, 1987 Dec. 29, Rev. Rafeal Flammia, SS.CC., Retired Pastor, Our Lady of the Assumption, New Bedford, 1993 Dec. 30 Rev. Thomas C. Mayhew, Pastor, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Seekonk, 1991 Jan. 1 Rev. Jose Valeiro, Pastor, St. Elizabeth, Fall River, 1955 Rev. Antonio M. Fortuna, Pastor, Immaculate Conception, New Bedford, 1956 Rev. Francis R. Connerton, SS. STD., St. John’s Seminary, Plymouth, Mich., 1968 Rev. Leo T. Sullivan, Pastor, Holy Name, New Bedford, 1975 Permanent Deacon Antonio DaCruz, 2009 Jan. 4 Rev. Eugene L. Dion, Pastor, Blessed Sacrament, Fall River, 1961 Rev. Joseph L. Powers, Founder, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish, North Falmouth, 1999 Rev. Francis B. Connors, Retired Pastor, Our Lady of Victory, Centerville, 2003 Jan. 5 Rev. William McClenahan, SS.CC. Former Pastor, Holy Redeemer, Chatham, 1994 Jan. 6 Rev. James F. Roach, Founder, Immaculate Conception, Taunton, 1906 Rev. Rene G. Gauthier, Pastor, St. Jean Baptiste, Fall River, 1997 Permanent Deacon Antonio Da Cruz, 2009 Jan. 7 Rev. Alfred R. Forni, Pastor, St. Francis of Assisi, New Bedford, 1970 Rev. Gustave Gosselin, M.S., La Salette Shrine, Attleboro, 1989 Rev. Jude Morgan, SS.CC., Former Pastor, Our Lady of Lourdes, Wellfleet, 2003 Rev. Raymond A. Robida, 2003 Jan. 8 Rev. John Kelly, Founder, St. Patrick, Fall River, 1885 Rev. Alfred J. Carrier, Founder, St. Jacques, Taunton, 1940 Rev. Arthur C. Lenaghan, USA Chaplain, Killed in Action, 1944 Rev. Evaristo Tavares, Retired, Our Lady of the Angels, Fall River, 2000 Rev. Louis Joseph, U.S. Air Force, 2000 Jan. 9 Rev. William F. Morris, Pastor, Corpus Christi, East Sandwich, 1982

Around the Diocese

The 2014 Festival of Lights at La Salette Shrine, 947 Park Street in Attleboro, will be open from 5 to 9 p.m. daily through Jan. 4, 2015. Masses will be celebrated on New Year’s Eve at 4 and 5:30 p.m. and New Year’s Day at 12:10, 4 and 5:30 p.m. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is available daily at the shrine at 1 and 5:30 p.m. For more information visit www.lasalette-shrine.org.

A Day with Mary will be held January 3 at Our Lady’s Chapel, 600 Pleasant Street in New Bedford from 9 a.m. to 4:50 p.m. It will include a video presentation, procession and crowning of the Blessed Mother with Mass and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. There will be an opportunity for Reconciliation and a bookstore will also be available. Please bring a bag lunch. For more information call 508-996-8274.

The 17th annual Cathedral Christmas Carol Sing will be held January 4 at 3 p.m. at St. Mary’s Cathedral, corner of Spring and Second streets in Fall River. The performance will feature the combined choirs of St. Mary’s Cathedral Parish. Admission is free, but freewill offerings to benefit the Cathedral Pipe Organ Fund will be graciously accepted.

ECHO, a Catholic retreat program for teen-agers living on Cape Cod and the Islands, will have a retreat weekend for girls in Craigville on Jan. 16-18, 2015. For applications or more information go to www.echoofcapecod.org or visit your parish office. Deadline for applications is January 11.

The Diocesan Marriage Preparation Program is looking for married couples who would like to enrich their Marriage while helping engaged couples prepare for their lifetime together. There is also a Re-Marriage Prep Program for couples entering their second Marriages. If you are interested in sharing the joys and challenges of married life, please contact your pastor or the Diocesan Office of Faith Formation at 508-678-2828 or email cmcmanus@dfrcs. org.

Bishop Connolly High School in Fall River is searching for missing alumni as the school plans for its 50th anniversary to take place during the 2015-2016 school year. If you or someone you know is an alumnus of Bishop Connolly High School and is not receiving communications from the school, please send your contact information by email to Anthony Ciampanelli in the Alumni Office at aciampanelli@ bishopconnolly.com; via the school’s website at www. bishopconnolly.com; by phone at 508-676-1071 extension 333; or mail the school at 373 Elsbree Street, Fall River, Mass. 02720. Please provide the graduate’s name (including maiden name if appropriate), complete mailing address, telephone number, email address, and the year of graduation.

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December 26, 2014

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