01.09.09

Diocese of Fall River

The Anchor

Faithful greeted pope, turned to St. Paul in 2008

By Deacon James N. Dunbar

FALL RIVER — 2008 found the Catholic Church in New England marking its bicentennial, recalling the 1808 forming of the Diocese of Boston, the mother or grandmother of the dioceses of Fall River, Springfield and Worcester.

But even after two centuries of growth and wisdom in meeting and ministering to the diverse needs of its widespread communities, the Fall River Diocese, like its neighbors, found itself in 2008 needing to revisit and promulgate the basic truths of the faith to confront a growing and festering materialistic counterculture that ate at its very roots.

And Catholics in the Fall River Diocese reacted, as they proclaimed their mature faith commitment for all to see, often at great sacrifice.

They stood up to be counted as they joined with other Catholic parents to challenge Massachusetts public school officials whose proposed agenda would present homosexuality as normal to youngsters in kindergarten and second grade.

They attended seminars and joined with Massachusetts’ four Catholic bishops to help promote the dignity of marriage; showed their strong Pro-Life stance in the “40 Days for Life” venture at an abortion clinic; and along with the young and old, marched in respect for life walks in Boston and Washington, D.C. Their willingness to reach out to others despite a growing poor economy was seen as the 2008 Catholic Charities Appeal realized “a most successful year ever,” with a total of $4.3 million raised in 94 parish communities to meet the needs of apostolates and agencies serving thousands of needy people in the region.

And on October 13, they processed from St. Mary’s Cathedral to St. Anne’s Church in a candlelight procession to attend Mass and ask Mary, Queen of Peace, to again spread her mantle of peace over a trouble world.

They applauded their 78 colleagues from parishes across the diocese who received the annual Marian Award Medal for Turn to page 11

F riday , January 9, 2009

W

hen the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to ransom those under the law, so that we might receive adoption (Gal 4:4-5).

‘Rosary Priest’ recalled as saint on centenary of birth

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

CHURCH HISTORY — Aliyah D’Alvo Ribeiro and Keanu Seixas, preschool students at Espirito Santo School in Fall River, pose for a recent event while learning about Jesus’ birth.

NORTH EASTON — Those who had the privilege of knowing Holy Cross Father Patrick Peyton — the venerated “Rosary Priest” born 100 years ago today — claim it was obvious to them he would be a prime candidate for sainthood. While a cause for sainthood for the devoted Irish priest who single-handedly promoted family unity through the praying of the rosary was opened June 1, 2001 and is currently being pursued by the Archdiocese of Baltimore, this “Servant of God” has already been canonized in the hearts of many.

“I have very fond memories of him and to me he’s already a saint,” said Dr. Joseph L. Dorsey of Walpole, who served as an altar boy for Father Peyton at the Immaculate Conception Chapel in Scranton, Penn. in the early 1950s. “Father Peyton had a holy presence about him. His message about the family that prays together, stays together — I still carry that message with me today. Father Peyton had his impact, whether the Church recognizes him with canonization or not.”

“Many already consider Father Peyton a saint and, of course, he probably is,” said Father John Phalen, CSC, president of Holy Cross Family Ministries. “A saint is simply someone who’s in the presence of God right after death. But an officially proclaimed saint by the Catholic Church is held up as an example for everyone — how to live the Christian life — and he certainly is an example of that.”

“People who knew Father Peyton say it doesn’t matter whether he’s canonized or not, they already view him as a saint,” Turn to page 12

Christians must help each other in 2009

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — Christians should not fear what the continuing financial crisis will bring in 2009, but they should trust in God and resolve to help one another in the new year, Pope Benedict XVI said.

Leading an evening prayer service in St. Peter’s Basilica December 31 to thank God for his blessings in 2008, the pope said people must be grateful first of

all for the gift of time, which is a “precious opportunity for doing good.”

The prayer service ended with adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and the singing of “Te Deum,” a traditional hymn of praise and thanksgiving for the gift of salvation in Christ.

“In our days, marked by uncertainty and concern for the future, it is necessary to experience the living presence of Christ,” the pope said.

“This year closes with the awareness of a growing social and economic crisis, which now involves the whole world; it is a crisis that requires of everyone more moderation and solidarity, especially to help people and families in greater difficulty,” he said.

Turn to page 13

DYNAMIC DUO — Servant of God Holy Cross Father Patrick Peyton, left, meets with Pope John Paul II. Both men are in various stages of the sainthood cause.

(Photo courtesy of Holy Cross Family Ministries)

News From the Vatican

2

January 9, 2009

Catholic Church officials say Gazans urgently need humanitarian corridor

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Gazans are in need of urgent medical care and a humanitarian corridor, Catholic Church officials told Vatican Radio.

“Many have lost hands or legs and need immediate care.

Their situation is very difficult: They cannot go to Israel, to Egypt or to Jordan and they can’t even leave their homes,” Claudette Habesch, secretarygeneral of Caritas Jerusalem, told Vatican Radio December 29. Caritas Jerusalem is the local affiliate of the Catholic umbrella group of aid agencies, Caritas Internationalis.

“The situation in Gaza is dramatic. Bombs are continually falling and now more than 1,500 people have been injured and need medical care, but in Gaza there are only 1,400 hospital beds,” she said, adding that “a mosque was completely destroyed along with the house next to it and five brothers and sisters from the same family are dead.”

Israeli warplanes began pounding targets in Gaza December 27, striking ministries and facilities of Hamas, the Palestinian paramilitary or-

ganization that runs the Gaza Strip. More than 300 people have been reported dead.

Asked what the international community could do, Archbishop Antonio Franco, Vatican nuncio to Israel and the Palestinian territories, said it should act to guarantee a humanitarian corridor “to reach the victims, who are those suffering the consequences of these attacks.”

“Unfortunately we are watching as defenseless spectators with great sadness because this escalation of violence puts everything back into question after some progress had been made in the negotiations. Certainly, the question of Gaza is particular because the Palestinians are divided: one group, Hamas, is for all purposes in conflict with the rest of the Palestinians,” he told Vatican Radio.

“Here in Jerusalem as well, there is some nervousness; you sense that in the Arab population there is an emotional, psychological reaction to all this violence and to the number of deaths which is growing day after day,” he said.

Our Lady’s Monthly Message From Medjugorje December 25, 2008

Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina

“Dear children! You are running, working, gathering — but without blessing. You are not praying! Today I call you to stop in front of the manger and to meditate on Jesus, Whom I give to you today also, to bless you and to help you to comprehend that, without Him, you have no future. Therefore, little children, surrender your lives into the hands of Jesus, for Him to lead you and protect you from every evil.

“Thank you for having responded to my call.”

Spiritual Life Center of Marian Community One Marian Way Medway, MA 02053 • Tel. 508-533-5377 Paid advertisement

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JUST LIKE OLD TIMES — Children in traditional dress bring offerings to Pope Benedict XVI during a recent Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Max Rossi, Reuters)

To reach young, Church must explain core beliefs, official says

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — If “In our conversations with life, it cannot come from within the Church wants to reach young young people, we have to avoid this world. Saviors are a dime a people today, it must avoid the the temptation to fudge — to dozen when one fails to grasp temptation to “fudge” on core adapt the Catholic faith so as what’s really at stake. We need to Catholic beliefs in an effort to to make it palatable to modern be delivered not just from error, make them more agreeable to tastes and expectations,” Father or suffering, or desire, or injuscontemporary tastes, a Vatican DiNoia said. tice, or poverty,” he said. official said.

“This so-called ‘accommoda“God desires nothing less Instead, it should confront tionist’ approach generally fails, than to share his life with us,” with courage the major barri- and it fails doubly with young he said. Only Jesus Christ could ers in modern evangelization, people. There is a risk in this accomplish that, he said, and including cultural resistance to approach that the Christian mes- Christians need to affirm that in the proclamation of Christ as the sage becomes indistinguishable bringing salvation for them and unique savior, said Dominican from everything else on offer in for others, Jesus is “not just any Father Augustine DiNoia, un- the market stalls of secularized savior.” dersecretary of the Congregation religious faith,” he said.

Father DiNoia identified a secfor the Doctrine of the ond barrier to the evanFaith. n our conversations with young gelization of young “No one in his or her people, we have to avoid the people in the mistaken right mind will be inand predominant belief terested in a faith about temptation to fudge — to adapt the Cath- that being a Christian which its exponents olic faith so as to make it palatable to means giving up one’s seem too embarrassed modern tastes and expectations,” Father freedom and replacing to communicate forth- DiNoia said. it with conformity to rightly,” Father DiNoia an external set of rules. said.

It is true that Chris“We have to be conFather DiNoia examined what tian faith requires conformity to vinced that the fullness of the he said were the three biggest Christ, he said. But this is not a truth and beauty of the message obstacles to evangelizing young “slavish conformity”; it presupabout Jesus Christ is powerfully people today. The first, he said, poses the full realization of the attractive when it is communi- is “the notion that it is arrogant unique human person, not his cated without apologies or com- to claim that Jesus Christ is the suppression, he said. promise,” he said. unique mediator of salvation.”

The third major barrier, FaFather DiNoia made the reHe said that in confronting this ther DiNoia said, is the idea that marks in the Carl J. Peter lecture barrier the Church needs to first the Church’s moral teachings are delivered December 7 at Rome’s make clear that faith in Christ’s more or less arbitrary, allowing Pontifical North American Col- uniqueness does not devalue oth- or forbidding certain things relege. His speech took its theme er religions, which are worthy of gardless of their real relationship from Pope Benedict XVI’s talk respect and study as “monuments with human goodness. to U.S. bishops last April, when to the search for God.” Young people need to know the pope said they could best But what makes Christianity that the Church rejects this “culhelp people meet God by “clear- different is that it is principally ture of legalism” in theology, and ing away some of the barriers to about “God’s search for us” and that Catholic teachings are aimed such an encounter.”

God’s desire to give human be- primarily at fostering virtue, not Father DiNoia said these ings a share in divine life, he instilling obedience. Like an athbarriers are in part intellectual, said. lete’s exercise and diet regime, and can be remedied by robust “Given that salvation in the which prepares him for a good preaching and teaching that re- Christian sense of the term in- performance, the Church’s moral sponds to the younger genera- volves both reconciliation of teachings are designed to lead tion’s openness to discussion and sinners and the elevation of crea- the person to goodness and hapdebate. turely persons to a new kind of piness, he said.

“I

January 9, 2009

The International Church

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Exiled Zimbabweans send food to families left behind

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNS) — Packages of basic groceries sent from South Africa are a lifeline for many Zimbabweans, said a Catholic journalist exiled from Zimbabwe who now supports his extended family from Cape Town.

“All my free time is spent organizing packages for my elderly mother and father and other family,” said Clutton Patsika, 37, the youngest of seven, who fled to South Africa in late 2006 when he felt his life was in danger because he was a fierce critic of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.

“Buying things to send and then getting the package home costs me about 4,000 (South African) rands (about US$400) a time and I save to be able to do this every two months,” Patsika told Catholic News Service at the apartment where he lives with his wife and daughters, ages eight and three, as well as his wife’s sister and her five-year-old son.

His 82-year-old mother and 84-year-old father live in a village about 150 miles east of the Zimbabwean capital Harare.

“After Christmas I will pay someone in Cape Town to take the parcel to Harare and then someone else who will buy fuel to take the food to their village,” he said.

Patsika mostly sends canned food, matches, candles, cooking oil and peanut butter to Zimbabwe, a country with chronic food and fuel shortages and where prices double every 24 hours. Aid agencies say that more than five million Zimbabweans face starvation.

“I’m always worrying about my family back home. If I buy fried chicken as a treat for my family in Cape Town I can’t really enjoy it, thinking about my parents who may not have had a meal that day,” he said.

“What disappoints me most is that there is always something missing from the parcels by the time my family gets them,” Patsika said. “People have become dishonest but I have come to accept that this is the reality” in a country “of hungry people” with the world’s highest inflation rate, he said.

Patsika, who works as a copy editor at a Catholic newspaper and takes on part-time work on Sundays to meet his financial obligations, travels to Johannesburg frequently to organize his remittances. Johannesburg, South Africa’s economic hub, is 610 miles from Harare, which cuts the distance between Cape Town and Zimbabwe’s capital by more than half.

Patsika used to worked for the Daily News, Zimbabwe’s only independent daily newspaper, before it was closed by police in 2003 after a court ruling that it was operating illegally. He said he is on a list of people wanted by the state and cannot enter Zimbabwe.

His brother Moses, a supporter of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change who lived near Harare, died in November.

“No official explanation was given for his death but we think he was poisoned for political reasons,” Patsika said.

Human rights groups have said that, since March elections which Mugabe lost, opposition supporters have been the targets of brutal state-sponsored violence that left more than 80 dead and 200,000 displaced.

“I am now responsible for my brother’s seven children, which would not be a problem if the situation was normal and I was living in Zimbabwe,” Patsika said.

He has bought school uniforms for the children, who live with their unemployed mother, but worries that, with the political and economic crisis, the country’s schools will not open in January at the start of the school year.

His cousin, a teacher in Harare who helps him by checking the items in his packages when they arrive, has to supplement her income with cross-border trading, Patsika said.

“Lots of people do this — they buy goods in South Africa or Botswana and then sell them in Zimbabwe,” he said, noting that goods such as soap sold in U.S. dollars on the black market get up to eight times their original price.

With a collapsed economy, Zimbabwe is providing much work for people who deliver food and other basic commodities, paid for by Zimbabweans living outside the country, he said.

Those living farther away, in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia, mostly use Websites such as www.zimproducts.com to feed their families in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe, a former regional breadbasket that invested strongly in education, “has wasted that investment as everyone with skills and education has left the country,” Patsika said.

“There’s barely anyone left in the country who can think, which is exactly what the Mugabe regime wants,” he said. “People are always asking me why Zimbabweans don’t help themselves to get out of this crisis and the answer, I think, is that all of us who could make a difference have had to leave the country to survive.”

Patsika said he “will go back to Zimbabwe and get involved in building it up again as soon as there is a change of administration.”

“I do have hope for Zimbabwe,” he said. “With a change of government, we could get back on our feet. The natural resources, like fertile land, are there and the infrastructure is all in place. Without the corruption, mismanagement and neglect, the country could be working again.”

RECONCILED — A priest listens to the confession of a girl during an outdoor Mass in Madrid, Spain, recently promoting the traditional family. Thousands of Spaniards attended the Mass on the feast of the Holy Family. (CNS photo/Juan Medina, Reuters)

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The Church in the U.S.

January 9, 2009

Bishop Thomas pledges to fight ruling legalizing assisted suicide HELENA, Mont. (CNS) — Bishop George L. Thomas of Helena has pledged the Church’s help in overturning a Montana judge’s recent decision that physician-assisted suicide is legal in the state.

“Legalizing assisted suicide is a social experiment that we will work to prevent,” he said in a column for the December issue of The Montana Catholic, newspaper of the Diocese of Helena.

Montana Attorney General Mike McGrath has said the state will appeal the December 5 ruling of Judge Dorothy McCarter, who said “the Montana constitutional rights of individual privacy and human dignity” gave terminally ill patients who were mentally competent the right to “die with dignity.”

Robert Baxter, 75, of Billings and four doctors supporting assisted suicide had sued for the right to receive or prescribe medications that hasten death without fear of prosecution.

Bishop Thomas said he found McCarter’s decision “extremely disappointing” and said it “echoes disturbing actions taken in the states of Oregon and Washington, introducing this blatant disregard for human life into our own state.”

“The timing of this decision could not be more ironic,”

he said. “Recently the Montana Legislature established a suicide prevention office due to concerns (about) the high rate of suicides in Montana, which is the highest per capita in the nation.”

“We are now being told that death by suicide is ‘death with dignity,’ in seeming contradiction to the stated goal of reduction,” the bishop added. “When we cheapen life by allowing people to end it when and how they choose, we send a message to others struggling with suicidal ideations.”

Bishop Thomas also took issue with McCarter’s comments comparing physician-assisted suicide to the actions taken to “put to sleep” sick or injured pets.

“Is the judge intimating that there is no clear difference between animals and people?” he asked. “Does the court ruling not recognize the dignity and inherent worth of every person, a worth that is neither conferred nor removed by the state? If this is the court’s intended meaning, then we criticize in harshest terms attempts to degrade the God-given value of every human being.”

Bishop Thomas said the diocese would file a friend-of-thecourt brief when the Montana attorney general appealed McCarter’s decision and would work with the Legislature to keep physician-assisted suicide from becoming the law in the state.

“We will work with the religious, medical and mental health communities to provide compassionate care for the dying, and surround them with emotional and spiritual care and medical management of pain to ease their suffering,” he said. “This is, from our vantage, death with dignity.”

MEANT TO BE — Sculptor Roberto Perez puts the finishing touches on a statue of Christ that will grace the entrance of St. Martha Church in Miami Shores, Fla. Perez said when he saw the sevenfoot-tall piece of marble, he knew it would became an image of Christ. (CNS photo/Ana RodriguezSoto, Florida Catholic)

Man who came to U.S. as refugee sees dream to be sculptor come true

By Ana Rodriguez-Soto Catholic News Service

MIAMI SHORES, Fla. — The statue of Jesus that soon will welcome St. Martha parishioners to their church in Miami Shores is more than a work of art. For sculptor Roberto Perez, it is a tangible sign of God’s favor.

Perez, 39, left Cuba via Portugal and made his way to Miami in 2003, leaving his wife and daughter on the island. Although he had little formal training, he felt the need to sculpt.

One of his first pieces was a marble hand pierced by a nail, which he presented to Miami Archbishop John C. Favalora.

For Perez, the hand was a way of saying thanks for the help he and other refugees had received from the Catholic Church.

But the life of an artist would have to wait. He began working with his brother at a company that made granite countertops.

As soon as he could, he rented a small storage space where he could sculpt. He started searching for blocks of marble to work on.

Two years ago, he took a risk and quit his day job. At times it was extremely difficult to make a living. But “you can’t combine production with creation,” Perez said.

Little by little, he began getting commissions. Bob Brown, an architect who directs the Miami archdiocesan building department, saw Perez’s work and began recommending him. In 2007, Perez completed a baptismal font for the newly renovated interior of St. Martha.

“He read my mind,” said Father Federico Capdepon, St. Martha’s pastor. “It’s a work of art.”

A year earlier, Perez had come across a seven-foot-tall block of Carrara marble — the same stone Michelangelo used to sculpt. Perez held on to it because he knew what figure would emerge from it: a life-size image of Christ with rays of light seeming to emanate from his chest, “like the Sacred Heart.”

But it was not until January 2008 that he began working on it.

The owner of FAB Construction commissioned Perez to sculpt it for St. Martha, the church adjacent to the pastoral center, where the archdiocese’s central offices are located.

“St. Martha doesn’t have a main door so that will be the

statue that welcomes people to the church from Biscayne Boulevard,” Father Capdepon said.

He described Perez’s depiction of Christ, arms outstretched, eyes looking downward, as “virile yet tender.”

Despite the lack of formal training, the priest said, Perez’s work demonstrates “an extraordinary sensibility.”

For his part, Perez said he created a clay model just so Father Capdepon could get an idea of what the statue would look like.

He does not need a model to sculpt, preferring, like Michelangelo, to chip away at the image he feels is inside the stone.

“If I make a model, I no longer have a desire to make the piece,” said Perez, a humble man of few words.

He cannot explain why he works the way he does. “I didn’t study. I feel the need to do this,” he said.

He also cannot explain what moves him to create religious art. Growing up in a communist country, he never learned about the Catholic faith. “But I do feel it,” he said. “And when you feel overwhelmed, you seek God’s help.”

Sculpting the image he envisioned has fulfilled Perez as an artist. But the commission also helped in another way. It provided the funding he needed to bring his wife and eight-year-old daughter to Miami.

This October, just as he was putting the final touches on the statue, he got word that they had been granted permission to leave Cuba. They arrived in Miami in mid-November.

January 9, 2009

The Church in the U.S.

Conscience regulations to become law just before Obama takes office

By Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) — With their December 19 publication in the Federal Register, regulations that protect the conscience rights of health care providers are scheduled to become law two days before President-elect Barack Obama takes office.

The regulations are designed to ensure “that Department of Health and Human Services funds do not support coercive or discriminatory policies or practices in violation of federal law,” according to the title of the final rule.

Deirdre McQuade, assistant director for policy and communications in the Office of Pro-Life Activities at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, praised the regulations in a recent statement.

“Individuals and institutions committed to healing should not be required to take the very human life that they are dedicated to protecting,” she said. “The enforcement of federal laws to protect their freedom of conscience is long overdue.”

The regulations support three conscience provisions passed

by Congress as long ago as the

1970s and as recently as 2004.

They stipulate that no federal funds be given to health care institutions that require providers to participate in abortions or sterilizations or discriminate against those who decline to participate because of their religious or moral beliefs.

The final rule notes that “religious and faith-based organizations have a long tradition of providing medical care in the United States, and they continue to do so today.”

“A trend that isolates and excludes some among various religious, cultural and/or ethnic groups from participating in the delivery of health care is especially troublesome when considering current and anticipated shortages of health care professionals in many medical disciplines and regions of the country,” it added.

McQuade said that “Catholic health care providers will especially welcome this mark of respect for the excellent lifeaffirming care they provide to all in need.”

But she added that Catholics

are not the only ones who oppose “the deliberate destruction of nascent human life.”

“All health care providers should be free to serve their patients without violating their most deeply held moral and religious convictions in support of life,” McQuade said.

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America is organizing opposition to the rule, saying it threatens patients’ rights and would restrict health care access.

“We look forward to working with President-elect Obama and leaders in Congress to repeal this disastrous rule and expand patients’ access to full health care information and services — not limit it,” said Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood president, in a recent statement.

Meanwhile, in another conscience-related decision, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled December 18 that individual pharmacists and pharmacy owners have legal standing to challenge Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s 2005 emergency order requiring them to dispense the emergency contraceptive marketed as Plan

5

B or leave the profession. Two lower courts had held that they did not have standing.

Charmaine Yoest, president and CEO of Americans United for Life, called the decision “a huge victory for the freedom of conscience of

all health care providers.”

“Pharmacists now have proper recourse against a discriminatory law that would force them to check their constitutional rights at the workplace door,” she said in a statement.

Father Neuhaus, ‘First Things’ editor, hospitalized with cancer

NEW YORK (CNS) — Father Richard Neuhaus, founder and editor in chief of the journal “First Things,” has been hospitalized with “a serious cancer,” the publication announced December 31.

A message sent to email contacts and posted on the magazine’s Website said Father Neuhaus is in a New York hospital after being diagnosed with cancer in late November.

“The long-term prognosis for this particular cancer is not good, but it is not hopeless, either, and there is a possibility that it will respond to the recommended outpatient chemotherapy treatment,” said the message.

But over Christmas, Father Neuhaus became dangerously ill with a systemic infection and was hospitalized, the note added.

There had been some signs of improvement in the last few days, the message said, “and there is a reasonable expectation that he will recover from

this present illness — sufficiently, we hope, that he will be able to begin the chemotherapy for the cancer.”

The message did not name the hospital, but said Father Neuhaus was at the moment unable to receive visitors or phone calls, though he asked for prayers for his quick recovery.

Father Neuhaus, 72, a native of Ontario, was ordained a Lutheran minister, like his father. In 1990, the same year he founded “First Things,” he became a Catholic.

He was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of New York the following year.

Rev. Msgr. John J. Oliveira, V.E. 106 Illinois St., New Bedford, MA 02745 ANCH. 01/09/09

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The Anchor

The urgent need to mobilize consciences in favor of life

During Advent, as the attention of the Christian world was meditating anew on how the Word of God had taken on our nature, was conceived as an embryo in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, grew to be a zygote and fetus just as every one of us has, and then was born in Bethlehem, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published a very important document on bioethical issues at the beginning of life.

Entitled “Dignitas Personae” (The Dignity of the Person) and written not merely to Catholics but to all persons of good will, the instruction is much more than an explanation of how the principle of respect for the dignity of the human person needs to be applied to particular scientific or medical practices. It is also a prophetic summons to all people of conscience of the “urgent need to mobilize consciences in favor of life,” in “courageous” defense of those human beings who “have no voice” and whose human dignity is being trampled in various new ways.

The document begins by reiterating the Church’s great esteem for biomedical science and for the “invaluable service” it provides especially to those who are sick and suffering. It says that the Church “views scientific research with hope” and desires that “many Christians will dedicate themselves to the progress of biomedicine and will bear witness to their faith in this field.”

At the same time, the document notes how scientific knowledge and know-how have often been abused to cause harm rather than healing. “Human history shows how man has abused and can continue to abuse the power and capabilities which God has entrusted to him, giving rise to various forms of unjust discrimination and oppression of the weakest and most defenseless: the daily attacks on human life; the existence of large regions of poverty where people are dying from hunger and disease, excluded from the intellectual and practical resources available in abundance in many countries; technological and industrial development which is creating the real risk of a collapse of the ecosystem; the use of scientific research in the areas of physics, chemistry and biology for purposes of waging war; the many conflicts which still divide peoples and cultures; these sadly are only some of the most obvious signs of how man can make bad use of his abilities and become his own worst enemy by losing the awareness of his lofty and specific vocation to collaborate in the creative work of God.” This is why science must always be bound by an ethics bound to the truth to ensure that that scientific power brings good rather than evil. The foundation of that ethics is a principled respect for the inviolable dignity of every human being. “The dignity of a person must be recognized in every human being from conception to natural death. This fundamental principle expresses a great ‘yes’ to human life and must be at the center of ethical reflection on biomedical research.”

This positive affirmation of human dignity contextualizes the Church’s negative evaluation of various practices that offend that dignity. The document acknowledges that many mistakenly look to the Church’s moral teachings in general, and her bioethical teachings in particular, as a long list of prohibitions, but replies that “behind every ‘no’ in the difficult task of discerning between good and evil, there shines a great ‘yes’ to the recognition of the dignity and inalienable value of every single and unique human being called into existence.”

Over the course of human history, there has been uneven but steady progress in the recognition of human dignity and the moral consequences that flow from the recognition. At the end of 2008, the world celebrated the 60th anniversary of the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which, in particular response to Nazi atrocities against human dignity and to similar prevent recurrences, brought the world together to specify some of the rights that flow to human persons, not from state concession, but from their human dignity. The instruction applauds this positive development in human moral consciousness, stating, “Precisely in the name of promoting human dignity, therefore, practices and forms of behavior harmful to that dignity have been prohibited. Thus, for example, there are legal and political — and not just ethical — prohibitions of racism, slavery, unjust discrimination and marginalization of women, children, and ill and disabled people. Such prohibitions bear witness to the inalienable value and intrinsic dignity of every human being and are a sign of genuine progress in human history.”

The instruction then adds that the Church has been at the forefront of this ethical evolution, and needs to be again in applying the same principles of human dignity to the issues at the beginning of life. “Just as a century ago it was the working classes that were oppressed in their fundamental rights, and the Church courageously came to their defense by proclaiming the sacrosanct rights of the worker as person, so now, when another category of persons is being oppressed in the fundamental right to life, the Church feels in duty bound to speak out with the same courage on behalf of those who have no voice. Hers is always the evangelical cry in defense of the world’s poor, those who are threatened and despised and whose human rights are violated.”

The Church recognizes that to be successful in this effort, the whole mystical body of Christ needs to be working together. As we have learned with the prohibition of slavery and the gradual recognition of the rights of workers, ideas have consequences when people, acting on these ideas, make them have consequences. The same needs to happen with the offenses against human dignity in the sphere of early life issues. That is why the instruction states that it is “urgent” for the “Christian faithful” as well as “all persons of good will, in particular physicians and researchers open to dialogue and desirous of knowing what is true” to assimilate the applications of human dignity to current bioethical situations at the beginning of life and to start to increase the volume and effectiveness of the Church’s “evangelical cry.”

The first step in this process is for Catholics and others of good will to read “Dignitas Personae.” On pages 14-15, we print a synthesis of the document so that readers can get a quick sense of its contents. Those who would like to read the full document are encouraged to download it from the U.S. Bishops Conference’s Webpage, http://www.usccb.org/comm/ Dignitaspersonae/index.shtml. Next week, after readers have had a chance to read at least the synthesis, we will discuss some of the instruction’s more significant teachings.

The Church’s hope is that all Catholics — including you who are reading this right now — “will commit themselves to the energetic promotion of a new culture of life by receiving the contents of this instruction with the religious assent of their spirit, knowing that God always gives the grace necessary to observe his Commandments and that, in every human being, above all in the least among us, one meets Christ himself” (cf. Mt 25:40).

That last point is perhaps the most important. Our human dignity is grounded in our having been made in the image and likeness of the babe of Bethlehem and called to eternal communion with him. What we do to the least of our brothers and sisters, Jesus says, we do to him. With regard to each of the practices that the instruction describes, readers should remember that, just as we all were, Jesus was once an embryo, and ask whether they would be willing to tell him face-to-face that they would have approved of any of these techniques being done to him.

O

January 9, 2009

The Apostle of the Family Rosary

ne-hundred years ago today in Carra- within. Subsequent tests revealed that the effects castle in County Mayo, Patrick Joseph of the tuberculosis had reversed themselves with Peyton was born, the sixth of nine children. no scientific explanation. He vowed to spend the Like so many born in Ireland at the beginning rest of his life “paying Mary back” for the “miof the 20th century, he belonged to a materially raculous healing” he had received. “She took poor but spiritually wealthy Catholic family. me off the sickbed, and she put strength and Every night, after a long day of work, school health in me again,” he said, “and that is why or chores, the family members would help each as long as I have life, I intend to use the health other get richer, as John Peyton would lead his and strength, not in a sentimental way, but in a wife and kids in the recitation of the family ro- challenging way so that men will go down on sary. Many years later Father Patrick Peyton their knees in their homes and recite the famwould say this daily liturgy of the domestic ily rosary night after night for a lifetime.” A few Church was his “earliest memory and the most months after his priestly ordination in 1941, he abiding,” and from it, he added, he derived “the followed through on that resolution and committed himself to spending himself “until death entire pattern and purpose of my existence.”

He would end up spending 50 years of to bring the family rosary back to 10,000,000 priesthood crisscrossing the globe, speaking homes in America … not for the month of May before crowds numbering as many as two mil- or October or Lent, but for always.”

Why did he prioritize the family rosary? lion people, using radio, television, movies, billboards and every means of social communi- There were two reasons. The first was because cation available to help tens of millions of other he believed that family prayer was the only glue families learn how to stay together by praying strong enough to keep the family bonded in the together the family rosary. That “pattern and midst of the centrifugal forces of the industrial purpose of existence” was so exemplary that in economy and modern culture. Second, he be2001, nine years after he was reverently buried at lieved that the rosary in particular would be a Stonehill College in North Easton, Bishop Sean bridge that would bind the family to God. He O’Malley, in cooperation with the Vatican’s believed that Mary was the way to Christ and the rosary was Congregation the “pavement for the Causes of which enables Saints, formally you to get” to announced the Christ, through opening of his the meditation cause for canon the mysteronization. That ies. “The person cause is now onBy Father with the rosary going.

Roger J. Landry in hand,” he In preparation wrote, “has the for his centenkey to learning nial, Holy Cross Family Ministries, which continues the Servant the most important of all lessons: the love of of God’s work, called on Catholics to pray a no- God for us, the destiny he has in store for us and vena to God through Father Peyton’s interces- the way he is helping us to reach that destiny. In sion, no doubt anticipating that if God wishes other words, the rosary, by its very essence, tells to raise this humble priest to the altars, the time a person who uses it wisely and well who Christ of his centennial would be a propitious occa- is, what he has done for me, and what he has a sion for God to grant prayers for miracles. On right to expect from me.”

This summons for the family to pray the rothe feast of the Holy Family I encouraged my parishioners to join me in praying this novena sary together received explicit papal approbation for families, for peace, and for any healings from Pope John Paul II in his 2002 Apostolic needed. To augment my own prayer, I got my Letter on the Rosary. “The family that prays tohands on Father Richard Gribble’s superb 2005 gether stays together,” the pope stated, explicitly biography, “American Apostle of the Family recalling Father Peyton’s famous words before Rosary,” and joyfully spent half-a-day absorbed presenting why the rosary is especially powerful in uniting the family: “The Holy Rosary, by with it.

I found the time prior to his priestly ordina- age-old tradition, has shown itself particularly tion particularly gripping. He received a sub- effective as a prayer which brings the family standard education due to the poverty of his sur- together. Individual family members, in turning roundings. At the age of 19, he and his brother their eyes towards Jesus, also regain the ability Thomas, because job prospects were poor at to look one another in the eye, to communicate, home, said a tearful goodbye to their parents to show solidarity, to forgive one another and to and emigrated to Scranton, Penn., where two see their covenant of love renewed in the Spirit of their sisters had preceded them. Patrick first of God. “Many of the problems facing contemporary sold American flags, then worked construction, before he became sacristan of St. Peter’s Cathe- families, especially in economically developed dral. The time he spent in the presence of the societies, result from their increasing difficulty Blessed Sacrament after locking the cathedral in communicating. Families seldom manage rekindled the thoughts he had as a young boy to come together, and the rare occasions when of becoming a priest. He mentioned this to the they do are often taken up with watching telerector of the cathedral. Msgr. Kelly responded vision. To return to the recitation of the family by offering to pay for Pat and Tom to go to the rosary means filling daily life with very differlocal Catholic high school, even though they ent images, images of the mystery of salvation: would be many years older than their freshmen the image of the Redeemer, the image of his classmates. After meeting some Holy Cross most Blessed Mother. The family that recites priests who had come to Scranton to preach a the rosary together reproduces something of mission, the boys transferred to the Holy Cross the atmosphere of the household of Nazareth: high school seminary in South Bend, Indiana, its members place Jesus at the centre, they share his joys and sorrows, they place their needs and where they spent the next 12 years.

In 1938, Peyton’s life took a dramatic turn their plans in his hands, they draw from him the when one morning he began to spit up blood. hope and the strength to go on.”

Holy Family Ministries chose as the theme After a few weeks of keeping his condition quiet, he began hemorrhaging blood and was for this centennial year of Father Peyton’s birth, diagnosed with advanced tuberculosis. For “Honor his memory. Continue his mission.” a year his condition progressively worsened There would be no greater way to live this year until he was presented with two last resort op- of grace — especially those of us who are fortions: highly risky surgery to collapse his lungs tunate to have the tomb of this great apostle of (thorocaplasty) or prayer. A former priest pro- the rosary within our diocese — than to respond fessor visited him and challenged him to turn anew to his ever timely appeal by continuing his to the Blessed Mother with faith, promising mission of praying the rosary at home each day him that Mary had never failed someone who with those with whom we live. That would be had persevering recourse to her. “Since you one means, God-willing, by which we will be have faith,” the priest asked, “why don’t you able to stay together with our family members into eternity. use it?”

Father Landry is pastor of St. Anthony’s Peyton prayed to his celestial mother for a cure and a few days later sensed a total healing Parish in New Bedford.

Putting Into the Deep

January 9, 2009

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Adam and Jesus, sin and grace

or as in Adam all die, First of all, it is not a symso in Christ shall all metrical relationship. The sin be made alive.” What a mystery. We have a deep and intuitive understandLiving the ing of this verse from 1 Corinthians, but the Holy Pauline Year Father wants to lead us through a careful and reasoned consideration of

By Father Andrew just what St. Paul meant Johnson, OCSO by it. What does Paul mean when he sets Adam and Christ in contrast again and and selfishness of Adam and the again? grace and love of Christ are not

“in balance.” The love of Christ far outweighs what Adam did.

“Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Rom 5:20), says St. Paul. Adam and what he did is not the center or end of the story: Jesus is.

St. Paul insists upon our fallen, conflicted human nature, of course, but far more important to him is how it is healed in Christ.

As Pope Benedict says “We must never treat the sin of Adam

From estrangement to formal schism

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e’ve had the opportunity an agreement on paper, for the of noting that differences decisions were rejected by the in language and culture, and lack vast majority of Orthodox clergy of communications led to continu- and laity. Nevertheless, friendly ing estrangement between the relations between Orthodox and patriarchates of the East, what Catholics continued in some areas is today known as the Orthoas late as the 18th century. To dox Church, and the Catholic wit, Orthodox bishops frequently Church of the West. Historians invited the Jesuits to preach, hear typically identify two flashpoints confessions, and open schools. in this gradual parting of ways.

Were we to assign a specific date First came the conflict, in 863, to the “final” breach, then probabetween Pope St. Nicholas I and bly the year should be 1724, when Patriarch Photius of Constantia schism occurred in the Church nople (known in Orthodoxy as St. of Antioch between pro-papal Photius the Great) over whether and anti-papal groups, and rival Photius legitimately occupied the patriarchs were elected. Whatever patriarchal throne. Communion doors had remained open were between the Churches of Rome now slammed shut. and Constantinople was temWe come now to the two porarily broken; and, although in his second period of office (877The Fullness 86) Photius remained in communion with Rome, of the Truth no solution was found to the underlying causes

By Father of the conflict. Then Thomas M. Kocik came a further clash in 1054, when Cardinal Humbert and two other papal legates traveled fundamental issues in the schism to Constantinople on what was between Rome and the Eastern meant to be a mission of reconcili- Church. The first has to do with ation. Things went so badly that the “procession,” or “going forth sentences of excommunication from,” of the Holy Spirit. When were leveled against the patriarch both sides speak of the Spirit’s Michael Cerularius and two other procession, they refer not to God’s persons by the papal legates, who outward action towards creation in turn were declared excommu(the sending of the Spirit to the nicate by Michael. (In 1965 Pope world) but to the relations existing Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch within the Trinity before ever the Athenagoras revoked these mutual world existed. God is triune from excommunications.) all eternity. No work of creation As significant as these events or redemption was needed for are, they’re parts of a much more the Father to beget a Son who is complex story that begins well be- his perfect image and Word, no fore the ninth century and continprophecy nor sanctification of ues long after 1054. More divisive souls was required for the mutual than anything previous was the love of Father and Son to breathe sacking of Constantinople by the forth the divine Spirit.

Fourth Crusaders in 1204, which Yet the mystery of God’s inner introduced a new spirit of hatred. life is so impenetrable that human Orthodox author Timothy Ware words can never be adequate to remarks, with stunning understate- the task. Accordingly, two ways of ment: “As the Byzantines watched speaking of the Spirit’s procession the Crusaders tear to pieces came about. The Latin tradition the altar and icon screen in the holds that the Spirit proceeds from Church of the Holy Wisdom, and the Father and the Son as from set prostitutes on the Patriarch’s a single “principle” or origin, throne, they must have felt that whereas the Greek tradition holds those who did such things were that the Spirit proceeds from not Christians in the same sense as the Father through the Son. For themselves.” centuries, this difference was not Although reunion was procontroversial, much less churchclaimed at two councils attended dividing. It first became a problem by the Orthodox, Lyons (1274) when, in the Western Church, and Florence (1438-39), in each the word filioque (“and from the case this remained no more than Son”) was added to the Nicene-

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Constantinopolitan Creed of 381.

The change originated in Spain in the fifth to seventh centuries, probably as a safeguard against Arianism (which, to recall, denied the Son’s full divinity), but was not adopted at Rome until 1014.

The Orthodox use the creed in its original form, professing that the Spirit “proceeds from the Father.”

It was writers at Charlemagne’s court who first made the filioque a matter of controversy, accusing the Greeks of heresy because they used the unaltered creed. In turn, the Greeks denounced the filioque as theologically unsound, even heretical, since it seems to compromise the Father’s role as sole fountainhead of the Trinity.

They further protested the unilateral alteration of the creed. In place of the filioque, Patriarch Photius set the formula “from the Father alone,” brushing aside the favored phrase of the Greek Fathers and rendering impossible any agreement with the Latins.

The second main point of conflict concerns papal authority. Barbarian invasions and the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West greatly contributed to the centralization of the Latin Church. By force of circumstances, the popes assumed a part which the Eastern bishops never played: they became monarchs set up over Christendom, commanding both ecclesiastical subordinates and secular rulers. Moreover, they claimed jurisdiction over all the churches, not only in the West but also in the East. The Greeks accorded the successor of St. Peter a primacy of honor, together with the right to hear appeals from all parts of the Church, but they wouldn’t acknowledge him as “universal pontiff.” Accordingly, Catholicism teaches that the pope enjoys pastoral jurisdiction over the whole Church, while Orthodoxy does not believe any bishop to be endowed with universal jurisdiction.

We’ll continue to look at these and lesser points of difference between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, considering also some possibilities for deepening their existing unity in the truth revealed

by Christ.

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

and of humanity in a way that is detached from the salvific context, namely, without understanding it on the horizon of justification in Christ.”

Then there is the vexing issue of original sin, that is, Adam’s sin. Can we moderns be asked to believe in this doctrine with all the scientific knowledge we now have, knowledge of genetics and the origin of the human race? The Holy Father says yes, of course, but to help us better understand, he asks us to distinguish two aspects in the doctrine. First, the empirical side: what we all experience ourselves. There is a contradiction in our very being. We know that we must do good and we desire to do so in a profound manner. Yet something blocks us. Call it selfishness, egoism, pride; the reality of human moral brokenness has many names. St. Paul knows this reality well, as we read in Romans: “I will to do what is right, but I cannot do it.

For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do” (7:18-19). This reality has added a negative, evil aspect to the human person and to human history, so that the very word human has a double meaning. “To be human” can and should mean to be good; it can also mean to be false. The truth of original sin, the Holy Father says, is something we all experience.

The second aspect of the question, Benedict says, is really the explanation for the empirical aspect. What does this divided nature come from? Why is human nature both good and false? Many philosophies and religions of the world say that it comes from the very essence of human nature: it is, deep down, good and evil. This is a profoundly pessimistic view of human nature, since there can be no escape from a truly inherent evil. But St. Paul, and with him all Christian thought, denies this.

Human nature is in its essence good, given us by a good God. Yet the chaos and conflict of human nature is undeniable. Why? Benedict says that our faith gives us the surprising answer: There are two

mysteries of light and one mystery of darkness, which is, however, shrouded by the mysteries of light. The first mystery of light is this: Faith tells us that there are not two principles, one good and one evil, but only one principle, the creator God, and this principle is good, without a shadow of evil.

Moreover, being is not a mixture of good and evil; being as such is good and because of this it is good to be, it is good to live. This is the happy proclamation of faith: there is only one good source, the Creator. And because of this, to live is good, it is a good thing to be a man, a woman; life is good.

Then a mystery of darkness, of night follows. Evil does not come from the source of being itself, it is not equally original. Evil comes from a created liberty, from an abused liberty.

How? We don’t know exactly how this freedom was abused. It was a moment in history, but it was, as the pope says, deeply illogical. Only symbol and sign can really express this profound tragedy. It has been presented in great images, as in chapter 3 of Genesis, with the vision of two trees, of the serpent, of sinful man and woman, of exile from the garden. The Holy Father makes a final point, about the second mystery of light: “Man is not only curable, he is in fact cured. God has introduced healing. He entered in person into history. To the permanent source of evil he has opposed a source of pure good.

Christ crucified and risen, the new Adam, opposed the river of evil with a river of light.

And this river is present in history: We see the saints, the great saints but also the humble saints, the simple faithful. We see that the river of light that comes from Christ is present and strong.” This is the reason for Paul’s hope and ours: there is a New Adam, Christ, to heal the Old Adam in each of us.

Father Johnson is diocesan director of the Pauline Year and parochial vicar at St. Francis Xavier Parish in Hyannis.

My Father’s House P.O. Box 22, 39 North Moodus Rd. Moodus, CT 06469 . 860-873-1581 Website: www.myfathershouse.com Email: sbsheldon@sbcglobal.net

*FRI. JAN. 23 8 PM till PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP with JESUS SUN. JAN 25 1:30 PM RETREATS by Fr. Bill McCarthy and team; special workshop on Healing *FRI. JAN. 30 7:30 PM till BRIDE OF CHRIST RETREAT by Fr. Martin Jones; SAT. JAN 31 1:30 PM come celebrate the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. *1ST SUNDAY Catholic 12-STEP Healing Program with FR. BILL (after the 1:30 Mass) & TEAM from My Father’s House. Each Meeting 3:00-4:30 PM will include teaching, sharing & prayers for heal- ing — open to everyone (not just AA).

WEEKLY HOLY SPIRIT BREAKFAST — Join us *EVERY THURSDAY as we give honor, and glory to the Holy Spirit, 10:00 AM followed by Holy Mass at 11:30. Come, taste & see this powerful communal celebration.

Different speakers each week. Currently offer- ing BIBLE STUDY on ST. PAUL. MONTHLY DISCIPLESHIP/PATRICIAN *1ST THURSDAY Meeting - MEN & WOMEN. Why not join us this 7:00-9:00 PM month? *EVERY 2ND ST. MONICA’S PRAYER GROUP to pray for our THURSDAY children, family, and loved ones before the 7:30-8:30 PM Blessed Sacrament. *4TH TUESDAY PRAYER CENACLE with OUR LADY, QUEEN OF 7:00 PM the HOME — using the book of Our Lady’s Message of Mercy to the World.

Check out our website at www.myfathershouse.com for upcoming Parish Missions

Call us to have your family reunion here. Lodging & meals available.

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he opening prayer for the celebration of the Eucharist on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord identifies us as the children of God. The First Letter of John tells us that one of the qualifiers of this designation is that “everyone who believes that Jesus is Christ is begotten by God” (1Jn 5:1 ). This belief allows us to be baptized, not only washing away the stain of original sin, but incorporating us into the people of God. Baptism begins a new relationship that allows us to live in joy and hope each and every day of our lives. This relationship should create such love and enthusiasm that we seek to invite others to experience it as well. The question that each of us needs to ask is, “How am I doing at inviting others?” I suspect that

January 9, 2009

The baptism of the Lord

often the answer is, we don’t burdensome”(1Jn 5:3). (“religion is a private matter”) The mistake made on these or we replace “invite” with examples is when we attempt “threaten” (“you must do this to take control of the Gospel or anger God!”). and God. The Baptist proYes, there is a certain asclaims (not just suggests, but pect of faith that is “private,” proclaims) that “one mightier our inner conversion and intimate union with the Lord. Yes, Homily of the Week there are absolute The Baptism truths and sin does exof the Lord ist in our world. Yet the heart of our evangeBy Father lization is our loving David C. Frederici relationship with the Lord. This is what fuels our efforts and allows us to persevere through than I is coming after me” struggles in that evangeliza(Mark 1:7). This may be a tion. St. John tells us that our shock, but he was not referlove of God involves keepring to you and me. He recing his Commandments, but ognizes who Jesus is, and that this flows from our relationhis role is to prepare others to ship with God, and so “... receive Jesus. his Commandments are not The opening prayer, after

identifying us as God’s children, asks the Lord to “keep us … faithful to our calling.”

That is, asking God to help us in living our true identity as His children and in fulfilling our vocation of building up the kingdom of God. The “Catechism of the Catholic Church” tells us that when we are baptized, we “share in the priesthood of Christ, in his prophetic and royal mission” (CCC No.1268). We become the instruments through which Jesus continues to proclaim his Gospel, to reach out to humanity in order to redeem the world.

To be his instruments in the world, we need to acknowledge that it is his Gospel we are serving, not our own.

As Isaiah reminds us, our

thoughts are not his thoughts, nor are our ways his ways (Is 55:8). We can only achieve this when we have an intimate union of love with God, when we allow ourselves to be transformed by his love, particularly through our reception of the Eucharist and reconciliation. That is why we need the Church. The “Catechism” will remind us that “just as baptism is the source of responsibilities and duties, the baptized person also enjoys rights within the Church: to receive the sacraments, to be nourished with the Word of God and to be sustained by the other spiritual helps of the Church” (CCC No.1269).

Father Frederici is a chaplain at Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis, and in residence at Our Lady of Victory Parish in Centerville.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat, Jan. 10, 1 Jn 5:14-21; Ps 149:1-6a,9b; Jn 3:22-30. Sun. Jan. 11, The Baptism of the Lord, Is 55:1-11; Is 12:2-3,4bcd,5-6; 1 Jn 5:1-9; Mk 1:7-11.

Mon. Jan. 12, Heb 1:1-6; Ps 97:1,2b,6,7c,9; Mk 1:14-20. Tue. Jan. 13, Heb 2:5-12; Ps 8:2a,5-9; Mk 1:21-28. Wed. Jan. 14, Heb 2:14-18; Ps 105:1-4,6-9; Mk 1:29-39. Thu. Jan. 15, Heb 3:7-14; Ps 95:6-11; Mk 1:40-45. Fri. Jan. 16, Heb 4:1-5,11; Ps 78:3,4bc,6c-8; Mk 2:1-12.

The realism of the Incarnation, and our present circumstances

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he Gospel reading for the vigil Mass of Christmas Eve is the genealogy of Jesus according to Matthew: a terror to priests and deacons with poor Hebrew pronunciation and a bore to most congregants. Once, it was a string of “begats;” now, it’s a catalogue of strange names with which most Catholics are unfamiliar. Why would the Church appoint such an odd Gospel reading on Christmas?

Matthew’s point, in his time, was to locate Jesus within one stream of the Jewish messianic expectation: the

belief that the Promised One of whom are gentiles. of God would be a descendant No, were I to have preached of David. Thus there’s all that recently on Matthew’s genealobegetting, from Abraham to gy, I’d have pointed out that its David, from David to the Exmost interesting feature is that ile, and from the Exile to St. it isn’t air-brushed. At the risk Joseph. Jesus, Matthew is tell- of blasphemy, and to take an ing his readers, is the fulfillexample from the contemporary ment of the covenant with Abraham and the promises made to David. Which point was, I suspect, clear to the Jewish communities of the first century for

By George Weigel whom Matthew wrote; it’s not, perhaps, selfevidently important to 21st-century Christians, most “art” of spin-control, this is a “narrative” that includes Bill Ayers, Tony Rezko, Jeremiah Wright, and Rod Blagojevich, rather than air-brushing them out of the picture. To be sure, Matthew’s genealogy has patriarchs, heroes, psalmists, and saintly men and women; but it also includes scoundrels, idolaters, apostates, vicious kings, inept kings, and foreigners.

Jesus is “located” amidst the very mixed bag that proceeds from Abraham, our father in faith. Why? Because Matthew is determined to underscore the realism of the incarnation. The coming of the Son of God is not magic. And it’s not sugarcoated. The Son, in the power of the Spirit, will fulfill the Father’s covenantal promises despite every obstacle that human weakness and wickedness

The Catholic Difference

can throw into the path of the divine fidelity. Moreover, in writing to his Jewish-Christian readers (and to potential converts to Christianity from the tribe of Abraham), Matthew takes pains to highlight Ruth, the Moabite woman whose fidelity to her Jewish mother-inlaw becomes one of the instruments by which God’s messianic promise to Israel is fulfilled. In doing so, Matthew helps prepare his Jewish-Christian readers for two revolutionary ideas: that the new covenant in Jesus is universal in character, and that the gentiles, the wild branches grated onto the tree of Israel, are full inheritors of the promises to Abraham.

Matthew’s brutal honesty about the messy history of the messianic line is more than a matter of authorial honesty; Matthew refuses to engage in spin-control to make an important theological point. That point — face the facts squarely; God is in charge, and God will ultimately prevail — speaks as much to us as it did to the first century. Which brings me back to Ayers, Blagojevich, and the rest.

In the weeks after November 4, some Catholics have taken an apocalyptic view of the period ahead, seeing in

President-elect Obama a man with whom serious Catholics can do no serious business.

Others have taken the precise opposite tack, arguing that the Church has to “stay in play,” that Catholics must “find common ground” with the new administration, that “we have to talk with these people,” even if that means muting some of the Church’s core issues and fudging its sacramental discipline. Neither of these approaches strikes me as satisfactory.

I’m all for talking with everyone. But in this instance, when certain issues at stake are of fundamental moral gravity, and the interlocutors respond primarily to power rather than reason, I believe that, after the initial amenities, the conversation has to begin by the Church and its leaders defining some nonnegotiables — and pointing out, politely but directly, the consequences that will follow if, for example, the new administration signs off on a federal override of state laws providing conscience-clause protections for Catholic health care professionals.

The realism at the root of Christian faith demands no less. St Matthew would have understood that.

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

All about grinching

Tuesday 6 January 2009 — St. Christmas this year it caught the Nicholas of Myra Church, Three attention of the media. Seems a Mile River — traditional end of band of young hooligans set out the Christmas Season here’s a new verb in the urban dictionary. “To grinch” is deReflections of a fined as actively trying to ruin someone’s Christmas Parish Priest festivities. It references

By Father Tim Dr. Seuss’s nasty charGoldrick acter, the mangy green Grinch, who for some unknown reason hates all things Christmas and determines to puncture those obsequious to ruin the Christmas celebration inflatable lawn ornaments. The of all the charming little Whos in culprits, under police interroWhoville. gation, explained that it was a The word “grinching” has slow night in Marietta, Ga., and been out there on the street the boys decided to go “grinchfor some time, but just before ing.” A newspaper picked up the

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January 9, 2009

The Ship’s Log

report and the word “grinching” entered the mainstream.

A grinch, by any other name, is still a rascal.

During World War II, when something went mysteriously haywire, “gremlins” were blamed.

I suspect grinches and gremlins are first cousins.

The granddaddy of all Christmas tricksters is the Swedish Jul Tomte.

They look like mischievous gnomes. Tomtes range from mildly annoying to just plain evil.

They hide under the floorboards, in the hayloft, or in the attic.

Tomtes are invisible to all other creatures but cats. This explains

All the time in the world?

logically figure, there is only ew things in this world one true deadline and only are as powerful as a deadline. I would even propose one lasting consequence of our faith lives. That deadline that a deadline is the most is our death, and its consepowerfully motivating conquence is either eternity in struct of Western Civilization, heaven or eternity in hell. Kind although that would probably of intense, I know. The good be taking things a little too far. news, however, is that due Truthfully, no single date is to God’s long-suffering love innately more muscular than another just by virtue of having been randomly picked to host a deadline. A single date such as April 15, however, having the same 24 hours in it as all the other 364

By Heidi Bratton days of the year, has the unique power to strike fear in our hearts, if we and graciousness he has made have not adequately prepared a way for us through Jesus’ for its coming. What is the death and resurrection to avoid secret behind such power? hell, the ultimate consequence Well, using simple logic, I of our sin. This means we get have figured out the obvious. second chances for every faithThe muscle behind a deadline based deadline, other than our is not actually the deadline death. We can get baptized, itself, but the consequences receive first Communion, be that accompany it. Deadlines confirmed as adults, or get without consequences are married in the church if we did about as powerful as flabby not comply with the ordinary triceps under a 250-pound deadlines for these sacraments. bench press. On top of this, We can repent, and our actual the most forceful deadlines are sins will be forgiven, although those for which someone else the earthly consequences will administers the consequences. likely still be felt.

Triceps under the supervision All of this negotiability can of a personal trainer are much be bad news, however, because less likely to remain flabby it diminishes the power of than those left to the whim of a deadline. Even if we have their owner and a dusty set of already decided to become free weights in a corner of the followers of Jesus, having only basement. one real deadline for our faith There are many parenting often causes us lazy human applications of the power of beings to presume on God’s a deadline, but as a Catholic goodness, to neglect actually parent, I specifically want to practicing and strengthening know how I can harness this our faith in favor of what seem remarkable power in order to to be more urgent earthly deadstrengthen my faith and that lines, like April 15th. of my family in the upcoming Now, if we were each given year. Well, the good and the the exact time of our own inbad news is that, as far as I can

Home Grown Faith

evitable expiration date, things might be different. We might be forgiven for weighing the urgency of choosing Jesus and strengthening our faith against the urgency of other earthly deadlines. Unfortunately, most of us don’t know exactly when we will die, and so without the power of a deadline, even with the best of intentions, and almost as quickly as we resolve to engage in faithstrengthening activities, we often abandon them like the set of free weights in our basements.

So what can we do? We can shock the socks off our parish priest by asking him to be our spiritual coach.

He may refer us to someone else or to some established program, and that is OK. The important thing is to get some accountability in developing personal, spiritual deadlines in order to experience the positive consequences of having a strong and vibrant faith life here on earth. Will these deadlines be random, artificially manufactured, and really hold no more value than any other day of the year? Absolutely.

But that has never stopped the IRS, so if I may, you have until the beginning of Lent, Ash Wednesday, February 25 to search out a spiritual coach and determine a plan of spiritual exercise for 2009. Just a hint — if you want to start off on the good side of your parish priest, don’t wait until 11:59 p.m. on February 24 to contact him.

Heidi is an author, photographer, and full-time mother.

She and her husband raise their six children in Falmouth. homegrownfaith@gmail.com.

why your cat will suddenly begin running crazily around the house for no apparent reason. Your cat has seen a tomte. To prevent your resident tomte from ruining the family’s Christmas festivities, according to a helpful hint from Heloise (who knows all about these things), place a bowl of rice pudding out every night, drench it with cream, and leave it as a bribe for the tomte. The pudding and cream will be gone in the morning and the tomte appeased. The trickster will leave you alone, but you will have one very fat cat.

We were infested with tomtes this Christmas. They started their Christmas shenanigans early. Last September, when the inventory was being taken in preparation for establishment of the new parish, we found a lovely white ceramic Nativity scene stashed in the rafters of the parish hall. It had been donated by Leah Dondero. After cleaning the pieces and gluing a few missing fingers, the Nativity scene was ready to be displayed in St. Nicholas Church.

There was one major problem.

The figure of the Infant Jesus had mysteriously gone missing.

Parishioners searched high and low, but it couldn’t be located.

Nobody knew where the figure went. It had vanished. Tomte.

Charlie Dillingham, the music minister, mentioned that he had happened to notice a pile of Christmas decorations in the choir loft. I climbed into the balcony, dug under the scraggly fake garland, and uncovered a small cardboard box. Inside was the missing figure. Alleluia. I found Jesus on Christmas Eve. One parish wag, Mike Cordeiro, teased that, after all these years in religion, it was high time his pastor found Jesus. At the Christmas Eve Mass, Father Furlong processed solemnly down the aisle with the Infant and placed it in the manger.

Unfortunately, I was unable to concelebrate the Mass at which

the parish crèche was blessed.

Perturbed by the fact that the missing figure had been found, the tomtes upped the ante. One hour before Mass, Jim Lopes came running up. There was a situation requiring my immediate attention. It was raining in the parish hall, he said. A pipe had burst. I spent the next two hours with Mark Donohoe, the plumber. He discovered that a coil in the heating system had failed.

A large volume of hot water (180 degrees) was entering the air filtration ducts. The hall, he said, had been turned into a huge humidifier. Thankfully, there was no permanent damage. He stemmed the leak; I turned up the thermostat to dry out the duct work. I had once again trumped the tomtes.

Having presided at the Midnight Mass, I headed for bed at 3 a.m. I was dead to the world when a crashing sound woke me.

Had Santa fallen down the chimney? More importantly, would he sue? I rushed downstairs in my jammies. The 10-foot Christmas tree in the parlor had keeled over, taking out a table lamp and a vase on the way down and smashing dozens of ornaments.

Shards of broken glass were everywhere. I could hear the tomtes, those little devils, snickering in the attic.

Well, once again, their trickery didn’t work. I slipped into snow boots to avoid stepping on glass, put on protective leather gloves, right-ended the tree and swept up the mess. I may have been a sight for sore eyes, but I had foiled the tomte.

I had a wonderful Christmas season when all was said and done. The tomte finally gave up and went away. They had learned their lesson: it’s not nice to grinch Father Christmas. Nobody but nobody grinches Father Christmas — not ever.

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

THE FINDING IN THE CHOIR LOFT — Father Tim Goldrick places the “missing” Baby Jesus in his crèche just in time for Christmas Eve services at St. Nicholas of Myra Parish in North Dighton.

(Photo by Judy Cleary)

10

The Anchor

The 2008 Boffo Awards

D

uring 2008 heaven’s gain was our loss. The late, great Pat McGowan, an Anchor mainstay for most of its existence, passed away.

We all have favorite words and I think one of Pat’s was boffo. Before I became anchored here, I had never heard the word. I quickly discovered it meant “extremely successful, sensational” — ironically aptly describing Pat. Since everyone else in the world has some sort of year end review going on, I’d like to present my first annual Boffo Awards for the best moments in 2008.

For me that will help erase some of the anti-boffo moments from last year — like Manny Ramirez quitting on the Sox midway through the season; Tom Brady’s season-ending

My View From the Stands

By Dave Jolivet

injury just eight minutes into game one; and my kidney stone attack in a Disneyworld resort.

I’ll present the top five Boffo Award winners beginning with No. Five: — the Boston Bruins. Who says you can’t teach an old bear new tricks? It seems all you have to do is resurrect the old bear’s old logo. Since they did that this year, the Bruins ended 2008 tied with the most wins in all of hockey. That’s a far cry from the team’s performance over the past several years. The growl is back in the old bear.

No. Four: — Dustin Pedroia of the Boston Red Sox. Dustin, who stands barely 5’7” tall was the American League’s Most Valuable Player this year, and a Gold Glove-winner second baseman — just one year after winning the A.L. Rookie of the Year Award. On a national TV broadcast this season the announcers told the viewing audience that Dustin was affectionately known as the pequeño potro (little pony) in the Sox clubhouse.

Funny how the Boston press was never informed of that, but it was quite amusing that one Boston sports talk radio station played the “My Little Pony” theme song in reference of Pedroia for days afterward.

Consolation Boffo to Kevin Youkilis for another tremendous season.

No. Three: — the emergence of Matt Cassell and the no-quit attitude of the New England Patriots.

When Brady went down less than 10 minutes into the season, the Foxboro faithful were ready to collectively jump off the Zakim Bridge in Boston. But Cassell blossomed into one of the best QBs in the game, leading the Pats to an 11-5 record.

Despite failing to make the playoffs, this Patriots team, decimated with injuries to key players, had one of the most impressive seasons I’ve ever seen.

No. Two: — the Boston Celtics. One year after having one of the worst records in the NBA and in Celtics history for that matter, the acquisition of Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen brought home the Green’s 17th championship after a 22-year drought. The Celts were fun to watch and the ultimate culmination was winning the title against the L.A. Lakers in the finals (during my kidney stone episode in Orlando).

Boffo No. One: — Mickey Mouse, more specifically Disney Corp. At its annual Christmas parade simulcast from Disneyworld and Disneyland, the event was not referred to as a “holiday” parade. It was a Christmas parade. Countless guests and hosts wished folks a Merry Christmas, not happy holidays. The Jonas Brothers gave a rocking rendition of “Joy to the World,” never once saying “Joy to the world some guy has come.” It was the Lord has come. Theater great Sarah Brightman sang “Silent Night,” and never once sang, “tiny infant so tender and mild,” instead of “holy infant,” and in a highlight of years past, Vanessa Williams sang “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing,” and no where in the song did she sing “a babe was born in Bethlehem,” she sang “Christ was born ....”

I’m sure there were some folks who complained about the song selections actually referencing Christian beliefs, but by the look of the crowds singing along, many knew the lyrics, and sang along robustly. Denise, Emilie and I fully approved, as did Igor, since she usually agrees with us in issues of politics and religion.

Well done Mickey Mouse, and we hope to see ya real soon.

Happy New Year friends.

May God bless you all in 2009 ... yes, I said God.

January 9, 2009

Sacred Heart’s Monday meal an opportunity to serve Christ

By Michael Pare Anchor Staff

needy and maybe he would like to help.

Well, Francoeur did want to help and he did FALL RIVER — The way Father Raymond show up that Monday. He’s been showing up Cambra sees it, a miracle happens every Mon- ever since. day afternoon in the humble basement of Sa“Everybody should give something back to cred Heart Church on Seabury Street, where he the community, no matter what it is,” he said. has served as pastor for the past eight years.

“I’m not rich, so I can’t give money. I give Monday evenings, fueled by the generosity time.” of countless individual volunteers, as well as Francoeur was a commercial painter for support from local Catholic schools and busi- many years. He always had a job. And so he nesses, Sacred Heart provides a warm meal for considers himself fortunate. Coming to help the needy. The meal has been offered for more out at the meal on Mondays has been a learnthan four years. And week after week, the spa- ing experience for him. cious church hall is filled. These days, the poor “There are always people a lot worse off economy has pushed so many people who’ve than you are,” he said. “I’m a pretty lucky guy. been living “check to I worked all my life.” check,” over the edge.

He also sees the volRecord-breaking ununteer work as a natural employment has meant extension of his faith. fewer opportunities for “I thank God I was people to put their lives born in this faith,” he back together. The said. “I believe it is the Monday meal at Sacred true faith. It was started Heart has never been

by Jesus Christ.” busier.

In Francoeur, Father Father Cambra startCambra sees a faithful ed the meal for a simple servant of God. Asked reason. to describe Francoeur, “There was a need,” the priest just smiles. he said.

You get the feeling that He smiles when he is Father Cambra sees the asked where he gets the good in people. And food, and the people to in Francoeur and the serve it. It doesn’t come countless other volunfrom the parish, he said. teers who descend upon The parish couldn’t afSacred Heart that good ford such a thing. is not hard to find.

“God provides,” “He’s a Catholic,” he said. “He really ANCHOR PERSON OF THE WEEK — Don- he said. “That’s what does. We always have ald Francoeur. (Photo by Michael Pare) a Catholic is supposed enough.” to be.”

Enough food, said On this particular Father Cambra, and plenty of people to serve Monday afternoon, it is just after 4 p.m. and it. The volunteers are young and old. Some of the Sacred Heart hall is a beehive of activthe young ones, for example, come from near- ity. In the kitchen, the stovetop is filled with

by Bishop Connolly High School. It’s part of a steaming pots as volunteers stand shoulder service project. But the funny thing is, several to shoulder. There are several volunteers asstudents come back when their required hours signed to the hot dishes, while others cut are complete. ingredients for fresh salads. Bread has been “Once they come, it’s like the adults,” said sliced. Tables have been set. An assembly line Father Cambra. “They keep coming back.” of volunteers awaits.

Other volunteers are like Donald Francoeur.

Outside, it is not yet 4:30 p.m. Dinner is half They are simply older folks who want to give an hour from being served. Yet, a line is slowly something back. forming. The guests are young and old. They A retired painter and Fall River native who are single. They are married. There are families is married with two children, Francoeur is ini- who come on a regular basis. tially cool to the idea of being singled out for It will be another busy Monday evening at this story. But he relents, as long as it is clear Sacred Heart. It always is. that he represents so many volunteers, many of Father Cambra is dressed in jeans and a Twhom put in more hours than he does. shirt. He can spare a minute to talk, but you “I’m a picket on a fence,” he said. “Look have to follow him around to take advantage of at Bill over there … he goes to other churches it. When you get him to pause and reflect, he too. He helps out somewhere every night. And simply shines. He looks out at his volunteers the cook here…. He gets here at noon and stays and he shines. until we’re all done cleaning up.”

And then he looks toward the door. It will All of the volunteers share something spe- open soon. And he makes sense of it all. He cial. It is not only a willingness, but a determi- makes sense of why they need to be there. nation to help others.

“Anyone who comes through that door is Francoeur is a long-time parishioner at St. Christ,” said Father Cambra. “That’s how you Joseph Parish on North Main Street. But one have to treat them. Because that’s who they Sunday, four years ago, he attended Mass at are.”

Sacred Heart and got to talking to a friend. The To nominate a Person of the Week, send an friend said Francoeur should stop by on Mon- email message to FatherRogerLandry@Anday because they had started this meal for the chorNews.org.

Faithful greeted pope, turned to St. Paul in 2008 continued from page one

outstanding service to their parishes and to the Church; applauded those celebrating married life; embraced membership in new parishes as their old beloved parishes were suppressed or merged; built new churches and schools; greeted new pastors, and said goodbye to others.

And they energetically planned to meet their Holy Father.

A few hundred parishioners and clergy from the Fall River Diocese braved a busy but exciting day among hundreds of thousands in New York April 20 when Pope Benedict XVI celebrated an afternoon Mass in Yankee Stadium during his April 15-20 papal visit to the United States.

The group applauded the pope’s call for a new Pentecost in the U.S. — a message of hope built on faith and a joint commitment to defending the dignity of the human person — and promised to keep the American Church strong.

Year of St. Paul They also greeted a special jubilee year dedicated to St. Paul, which was officially opened June 28, by Pope Benedict XVI and will continue to June 29 of this year.

The jubilee year marks the 2,000th anniversary of the Apostle’s birth, which is believed to have occurred around A.D. 8 in Tarsus. The goal of the jubilee is to inspire Catholics — and those of all faiths — to pray, read holy Scripture, and strive to imitate Paul’s great love of Christ, catapulting them to a life-changing personal encounter with Christ.

Bishop Coleman immediately designated several churches in the diocese — as well as the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette in Attleboro – as station churches, where the faithful could visit and, after meeting certain conditions including receiving the sacraments of penance and holy Communion, receive a plenary indulgence.

Father Andrew Johnson, OCSO, 56, a Trappist monk on a leave of absence from St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, and currently serving as parochial vicar at St. Francis Xavier Parish in Hyannis, was named Fall River diocesan director of the Year of St. Paul in June. He would visit parishes to talk about Paul as well as write features about the Apostle to the Gentiles in The Anchor.

Also taking up the Pauline Year message was Father Karl C. Bissinger, secretary to Bishop Coleman, who also wrote about St. Paul in stories that appeared in The Anchor; as did other diocesan priests and deacons.

Support of Marriage Concerned with what they

11

The Anchor

January 9, 2009

called “an accelerated crisis in marriage,” Bishop George W. Coleman and the other three Catholic bishops in Massachusetts early in the year launched an initiative to deepen Catholic’s understanding of the truth of marriage and to empower them to make a cause and promote the beauty of marriage to the wider community.

The enterprise of the Massachusetts Catholic Conference — the public policy arm of the four bishops — “The Future Depends on Love” continues until spring of this year.

The local action is being promoted by the Fall River Diocese’s Family Life Ministry, which hosted many workshops on marriage for couples and clergy; as well as enrichment seminars.

Pastoral Planning In this second year of a fiveyear plan to better meet the needs of its parishioners in face of fewer vocations and subsequently fewer

priests, a dwindling attendance at Masses and devotions, skyrocketing costs to maintain houses of worship — some aging and badly in need of repairs — the Pastoral Planning Office led by Doug Rodrigues made dramatic and key decisions.

And while the parish suppressions and mergers were painful and demanded great sacrifice, parishioners rose to the task.

Holy Rosary Parish off Bedford Street went out of existence June 6, after nearly 104 years ministering to a faith community with Italian ethnic ties — and became one with welcoming parishioners at the St. Mary’s Cathedral in downtown Fall River.

A transition team comprised of members of both parishes made the change smoothly.

St. Theresa Chapel in Sagamore, a mission church of Corpus Christ Parish in East Sandwich, closed permanently after the last Mass there on November 23, the

LIFE GOES ON — Clergy and lay faithful pray the rosary outside Four Women’s abortion. Pro-Life supporters signed up to pray at the site September 24 to November 2, 2008, from 6 a.m to 6 p.m., as part of the “40 Days for Life” campaign. (Anchor file photo)

Please visit us at: www.CarmelTerrace.org or 508 788 8000 933 Central St. Framingham, MA 01701 On the campus of St. Patrick's Manor

feast of Christ the King. The mission church was dedicated on June 6, 1926.

There was much bright news too.

On September 13, after diligent planning, the parishes of St. Peter’s in Dighton and St. Joseph’s in North Dighton, united and become one new vibrant parish family and community as St. Nicholas of Myra Parish.

And on October 26, the new St. Andrew the Apostle Parish in Taunton beckoned the faithful from the former communities of St. Joseph’s and St. Paul’s parishes in that city to unite as one.

In May, Holy Family Parish in Taunton, which is celebrating the centennial of its founding, marked another phase in its history when it broke ground for construction of a new $2.72 million, 13,000-square- foot parish center.

The beautiful and new St. Peter the Apostle Church in Provincetown, successor to the 130-year old structure destroyed in a Jan. 25, 2005 fire, rose like a phoenix from the ashes and greeted parishioners at its July dedication.

And in August, parishioners attended a Mass celebrating the centennial of Immaculate Conception Chapel in East Brewster, which continues to serve the community.

Bishop Coleman broke ground for the new church building for St. Mary’s Parish in Norton in September. It will replace the old church that first opened in 1925

which is unable to meet the growing parish’s needs.

St. Patrick’s Parish in Somerset celebrated its 125th anniversary on November 22, with a Mass celebrated by Bishop Coleman, the first and only priest to come from that parish.

Diocesan happenings Receiving the 2008 St. Thomas More Award from the diocese for dedicated services as members of the justice system were Judge Kevan J. Cunningham of Taunton, Attorney John F. Folan of Dartmouth, Clerk Cynthia A. Rose of New Bedford, and Attorney Richard McMahon, executive director of the New Center for Legal Advocacy.

The St. Mary’s Fund Fall Dinner, which annually raises thousands of dollars to provide scholarships to Catholic schools for needy but deserving students, was host to New England Patriots’ linebacker Mike Vrabel as keynote speaker at its October 14 fund-raiser at White’s of Westport. Vrabel talked about his education in Catholic schools and its critical import to developing wellrounded and faith-filled adults.

Following a five-day visit to the Diocesan Mission in Guaimaca, Honduras, Bishop Coleman told of being “edified and inspired” by the ongoing progress providing for the indigent people in the two churches the diocese sponsors there.

The mission in one of the poorest regions in the world has Continued on page 18

12

The Anchor

‘Rosary Priest’ remembered as a man with a mission continued from page one

added Susan Wallace, director of External Relations at Holy Cross Family Ministries. “People have told me when you were in his presence, you could feel his holiness and his devotion to the Lord and his love of Mary. I love the quote actress Loretta Young had in her biography: ‘I never knew a man who so loved a woman as much as Father Peyton loved our mother Mary.’”

Born Jan. 9, 1909 in Caracastle, County Mayo, Ireland to a family that prayed the family rosary in their home, Father Peyton immigrated to Scranton, Penn. with his brother in May 1928. He and his brother were called to the priesthood in the fall of 1929 and they entered the seminary at Notre Dame, Ind. Two years shy from ordination, Father Peyton became seriously stricken with tuberculosis and was forced to leave the seminary. Desperate, Father Peyton faithfully prayed the rosary and through Mary’s intercession was healed in time to join his brother in becoming ordained on June 15, 1941.

Forever grateful to Christ and his mother Mary for having healed him, Father Peyton began a lifelong crusade to promote family unity through the praying of the rosary. He coined the phrases “The family that prays together, stays together,” and “A world at prayer is a world at peace,” and was given the opportunity to reach an even wider audience on May 13, 1945 when his half-hour radio program made its debut on the Mutual Broadcasting System. This premiere outing featured Hollywood icon Bing Crosby discussing the importance of family prayer. Crosby was the first in a long line of celebrities to come who would assist Father Peyton in his ministry through Family Theater Productions, a mass media enterprise Father Peyton founded in Hollywood in 1947.

“The list is endless,” Wallace said.

“You name anyone back in that era in Hollywood, and I’m sure they worked with Father Peyton. James Dean got his first onscreen credit with Family Theater Productions in the film ‘Hill Number One,’ as well as George Lucas who worked as assistant cameraman in the mid-1960s on a short film titled ‘The Soldier’ starring William Shatner. Other stars that worked with Father Peyton included Raymond Burr, Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, and the late Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco, who made her last three film appearances in Family Theater programs in the early 1980s before her fatal car accident. Father Peyton’s long-running radio series ran for 22 years on the Mutual Broadcasting Network and we still rebroadcast those programs today.”

Father Peyton’s simple yet singleminded mission to promote the rosary as a tool to bring the family closer together and closer to God was readily embraced by many in the aftermath of World War II. But it’s a poignant message that also resonates today.

“It was clear he was on to something because even today, as we make our New Year’s resolutions, one of the things we struggle with is trying to make more time for our families,” Father Phalen said. “Father Peyton realized that praying together and letting everyone know one another’s

intentions would create a bond and trust between them.”

“When I think about all the families today who are facing similar struggles — with the economy in a recession and with so many other issues — there’s a lot of similarities, even though it was so long ago,” Wallace said.

“He was so single-minded about his ministry,” Father Phalen added. “He was so totally focused on Mary and the rosary and the family and that combination; Mary, in terms of thinking of her as the model Christian and the first of the disciples. Father Peyton believed in going to her so that she would pray for us. And, of course, he was very grateful to her for having been healed while a seminarian.

“I grew up thinking that the rosary was a contemplation on the life of Mary,” said Father Phalen. “Father Peyton very much understood the rosary as being Christcentered. Meditation on the mysteries of the rosary is really a meditation on the life of Christ. Although Mary is present in many of these mysteries, she is always pointing towards her son. Although people called him the ‘Rosary Priest’ and Father Peyton was very close to Mary, Mary brought him closer to Christ. He also felt the family coming together everyday and praying the rosary would strengthen the family.”

“We’ve seen over the past 10 years a real resurgence in the rosary, especially among the young, which is interesting,” said Wallace. “I think people are realizing what a powerful tool it is — the simplic-

THE ROSARY PRIEST — Servant of God, Holy Cross Father Patrick Peyton, center, drew millions of people to rosary rallies across the world. This was one in San Paolo, Brazil. (Photo courtesy of Holy Cross Family Ministries)

Father Peyton Beatification Prayer Dear Jesus, Father Peyton devoted his priestly life to strengthening the families of the world by calling them to pray together every day, especially the Rosary. His message is as important for us now as it was during his life on earth.

We beg you, therefore, to hasten the day of his beatification so that your faithful people everywhere will remember his message that the family that prays together stays together, will imitate him in his devotion to your Mother and ours, and will be inspired by his holy life to draw ever closer to you with childlike confidence and love. Amen.

He lived his entire life as a priest in gratitude of that reality — having been healed of tuberculosis.”

In those days before Vatican II, the praying of the rosary was most closely associated with devotion to the Blessed Mother and often either downplayed or misunderstood by Catholics in general, so Father Peyton’s unwavering emphasis on meditating on the mysteries of Christ’s life was a bit of a departure from the established practice of the time.

“Remember at this time the Mass was in Latin, so I think there were a lot of older women who just preferred to sit there and use their (rosary) beads instead of trying to tune into a language they didn’t understand,” said Dorsey. “The other thing about that era that’s important to recall is the theme from the altar centered around atheistic communism — that was the context into which Father Peyton moved. The bishops were just yelling and screaming about atheistic communism and here was this gentle Irish priest who preached about keeping the family together … and that’s where ‘the family that prays together, stays together’ came from.”

ity of it, the meditation — and we’re focusing on our most important role models, so to speak — Christ and his mother, Mary.”

Determined to spread his message and to lead by example, Father Peyton would often draw large crowds to his talks about praying the rosary and often recruited fellow Catholics and clerics to assist in his cause. Father Phalen recalled how that’s all he ever really talked about — Mary, the rosary and the family.

“He was a priest who was totally dedicated to those issues,” Father Phalen said.

“He asked me one time, ‘John, would you continue my ministry if the congregation asked you to do this?’ And I was thrilled and said, ‘Oh, yes, Father I would.’ Of course, no one ever said no to Father Peyton, anyway. Then I went to tell the other seminarians about it, and they said, ‘Well, don’t think you’re so hot, he asked us the same thing, too.’ They had all been asked the same question. It just so happens by the grace of God that I have been able to carry on his ministry and I’m delighted to do it.”

“In my medical world I’d refer to it as an obsession,” Dr. Dorsey said. “But

January 9, 2009 Father Peyton just mesmerized people.

He could fill either a small chapel or St. Peter’s Cathedral with a talk about the rosary.”

Even after his death on June 3, 1992, Father Peyton’s mission lives on through the Holy Cross Family Ministries, Family Theater Productions, the Father Peyton Family Institute and Family Rosary International. Interred on the campus of Stonehill College in North Easton, Father Peyton’s gravesite still draws devoted faithful from around the world, many of whom participate in an inspired rosary bead exchange program.

“People do come from around the world to visit his tombstone, but a lot of locals don’t know that he’s there,” Father Phalen said. “There’s been an exchange of rosaries at his gravesite that’s been going on ever since he died. That wasn’t ordered up by anyone, it just happened by the people going there. We used to think the rosaries were changing colors or something. But we realized people were exchanging rosaries because they wanted one that had been on Father Peyton’s tomb.”

To commemorate the centennial of Father Peyton’s birth, Holy Cross Family Ministries is sponsoring a yearlong celebration with the theme “Honor his memory. Continue his mission.” At the Center in Easton, an hour of prayer will be held in its chapel on the ninth of every month during 2009. An outdoor rosary prayer rally will be held June 6, 2009 in the Stonehill College stadium adjacent to the Center. Worldwide, Masses, holy hours, gala celebrations, a telethon, and essay, poetry and art contests are also planned and several Catholic TV outlets will be scheduling biographical programs on Father Peyton along with selected programs that the Catholic media pioneer produced.

A century after his birth, Father Peyton’s lasting legacy of family prayer continues to inspire a new generation of Catholics.

“He was a very gentle and devoted priest who at the end of Mass would have you kneel down and he would give you his blessing,” Dorsey said.

“Father Peyton’s message of family unity was so universal, he inspired even non-Catholics with his slogan of ‘The family that prays together, stays together,’” Wallace said. “It’s a message that appeals to all cultures and faiths. That’s why people could sense his holiness and knew he was genuine.”

“There’s a famous story of someone from Uganda who didn’t speak English at all and this Irish priest was up there speaking in a thick brogue,” Father Phalen said. “He obviously didn’t understand a word the man said, but he was shaking his head in agreement and nodding.

When someone asked him, ‘You don’t understand English, why are you agreeing with this man?’ he said, ‘Well, I don’t have to understand every word to know that’s a holy man and he’s close to God.’ People would immediately recognize that in Father Peyton. What impressed most people about him was his sincerity — he never said anything that he didn’t believe 100 percent, and that was rare in a public speaker. He wanted to touch the heart of every person he was speaking to.”

Birth-control pill is linked to male infertility, says Vatican paper

By C arol Glatz C atholic N ews Service

VATICAN CITY — The birth-control pill is causing “devastating” environmental damage and plays a role in rising male infertility rates, said the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano.

“We have sufficient evidence to argue that one of the considerable factors contributing to male infertility in the West — with its ever decreasing numbers of spermatozoa in men — is environmental pollution caused by the byproducts of the pill” released in human waste, the article said.

Pedro Jose Maria Simon Castellvi, president of the Vatican-based World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, wrote the article that appeared in the paper’s January 4 edition.

The pill has created “devastating ecological effects from tons of hormones being released into the environment for years,” the article said.

According to news reports, scientists worldwide have found sexual abnormalities in fish and other water-dwelling creatures that have been exposed to sewage contaminated with synthetic estrogens and other hormones like those used in the pill.

Some European studies have blamed increased male infertility and poor reproductive health on environmental causes, especially estrogenlike chemicals found in pesticides, plastic food containers, shampoos, cosmetics and other products.

The newspaper article said that, with such clear evidence of the adverse impact the pill’s use has on the environment, manufacturers should offer more information about the ecological effects of the use of these synthetic hormones.

The article was based on a 100-page document published by the World Fed-

eration of Catholic Medical Associations to commemorate last year’s 40th anniversary of the encyclical “Humanae Vitae” (“Of Human Life”).

Titled “Forty Years of Humanae Vitae From a Medical Perspective,” the document examines the consequences of men and women distancing themselves “from the fundamental concept of the encyclical and choosing to favor artificial contraception.”

Much of the public is unaware that the contraceptive pill also acts as an abortifacient because it affects an embryo’s ability to implant successfully, the article said.

The pill’s function is usually described as suppressing ovulation, but in many cases, it said, the synthetic hormones in the pill create conditions that impede implantation and, therefore, are “abortive since they expel the small human embryo.”

While the pill’s ability to impede implantation is well-documented in scientific studies and even noted in pharmaceutical companies’ sales literature, the article said, “Curiously, however, this information doesn’t reach the wider public.”

The article said very few people follow the Church’s teaching against artificial birth control because, “among the various reasons, too many doctors at the time did not accept” the encyclical’s teachings.

Even today, promoting acceptance of the encyclical has been “very slow” because there has been “much reticence” among couples and doctors, it said.

The author urged the Vatican to create a special commission dedicated to “Humanae Vitae” to better inform doctors about human fertility and about natural family planning because “the prestige of the physician allows him to authoritatively offer couples alternatives to contraception.”

Christians must help each other in 2009 continued from page one

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January 9, 2009

Catholic parishes, organizations and aid agencies already are preparing to help record numbers of people in the coming year, the pope said, “but the collaboration of everyone is necessary.”

“Even if on the horizon more than a few clouds are gathering over our future, we must not be afraid,” Pope Benedict said.

“Our greatest hope as believers is eternal life in the company of Christ and the entire family of God,” he said. “This great hope gives us the strength to face and overcome the difficulties of life in this world.”

Pope Benedict asked the young adults present to “respond quickly” if God calls them to Church work and to live lives that witness to the values of the Gospel.

The world needs people who are not focused only on their own needs and desires, “because, as I said on Christmas Day, if people look only to their own interests, our world will certainly fall apart,” he said.

On the eve of the feast honoring Mary, Mother of God, the pope said Catholics were placing in Mary’s hands “the expectations and hopes as well as the fears and difficulties that dwell in our hearts as we bid farewell to 2008 and prepare to welcome 2009.”

Before going to visit the Nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square, the pope told people at the prayer service that, while “we stop to contemplate the baby Jesus, our gaze cannot help but turn with recognition toward his mother, who with her ‘yes’ made the gift of redemption possible.”

Mary made it possible for the Word of God to be born on earth, to live among us and to show us that our final destiny is to be with God in heaven, the pope said.

“It is Mary, the star of hope, who leads us to him,” the pope said.

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

Scheduled celebrant is Father Karl C. Bissinger, secretary to Bishop George W. Coleman and diocesan director of the Vocation Office

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January 9, 2009

Synthesis of Bioethical Instruction ‘Dignitas Personae’

VATICAN CITY (Zenit.org) — Here is the synthesis of the instruction “Dignitas Personae” that was released today by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on certain bioethical questions. It was published in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Polish.

Regarding the Instruction Dignitas Personae Aim In recent years, biomedical research has made great strides, opening new possibilities for the treatment of disease, but also giving rise to serious questions which had not been directly treated in the Instruction Donum vitae (22 February 1987). A new Instruction, which is dated 8 September 2008, the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, seeks to provide some responses to these new bioethical questions, as these have been the focus of expectations and concerns in large sectors of society. In this way, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith seeks both to contribute “to the formation of conscience” (n. 10) and to encourage biomedical research respectful of the dignity of every human being and of procreation.

Title The Instruction opens with the words Dignitas personae — the dignity of a person, which must be recognized in every human being from conception to natural death. This fundamental principle expresses “a great ‘yes’ to human life and must be at the center of ethical reflection on biomedical research” (n. 1).

Value The document is an Instruction of a doctrinal nature, published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and expressly approved by the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI. The Instruction therefore falls within the category of documents that “participate in the ordinary Magisterium of the successor of Peter” (Instruction Donum veritatis, n.18), and is to be received by Catholics “with the religious assent of their spirit” (Dignitas personae, n. 37).

Preparation For several years, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has been studying new biomedical questions with a view to updating the Instruction Donum vitae. In undertaking the examination of such new questions, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith “has benefited from the analysis of the Pontifical Academy for Life and has consulted numerous experts with regard to the scientific aspects of these questions, in order to address them with the principles of Christian anthropology. The Encyclicals Veritatis splendor and Evangelium vitae of John Paul II, as well as other interventions of the Magisterium, offer clear indications with regard to both the method and the content of the examination of the problems under consideration” (n. 2).

Intended recipients of the document The Instruction is meant for “all who seek the truth” (n. 3). Indeed, in presenting principles and moral

evaluations regarding biomedical research on human life, the Catholic Church “draws upon the light both of reason and of faith and seeks to set forth an integral vision of man and his vocation, capable of incorporating everything that is good in human activity, as well as in various cultural and religious traditions which not infrequently demonstrate a great reverence for life” (n. 3).

Structure The Instruction has three parts: “the first recalls some anthropological, theological and ethical elements of fundamental importance; the second addresses new problems regarding procreation; the third examines new procedures involving the manipulation of embryos and the human genetic patrimony” (n. 3).

First Part: Anthropological, Theological and Ethical Aspects of Human Life and Procreation The two fundamental principles “The human being is to be respected and treated as a person from the moment of conception; and therefore from that same moment his rights as a person must be recognized, among which in the first place is the inviolable right of every innocent human being to life” (n. 4). “The origin of human life has its authentic context in marriage and in the family, where it is generated through an act which expresses the reciprocal love between a man and a woman.

Procreation which is truly responsible vis-à-vis the child to be born must be the fruit of marriage” (n.

6).

Faith and human dignity “It is the Church’s conviction that what is human is not only received and respected by faith, but is also purified, elevated and perfected” (n. 7). God has created every human being in his own image, and his Son has made it possible for us to become children of God. “By taking the interrelationship of these two dimensions, the human and the divine, as the starting point, one understands better why it is that man has unassailable value: he possesses an eternal vocation and is called to share in the trinitarian love of the living God” (n. 8.).

Faith and married life “These two dimensions of life, the natural and the supernatural, allow us to understand better the sense in which the acts that permit a new human being to come into existence, in which a man and a woman give themselves to each other, are a reflection of trinitarian love. God, who is love and life, has inscribed in man and woman the vocation to share in a special way in his mystery of personal communion and in his work as Creator and Father.... The Holy Spirit who is poured out in the sacramental celebration offers Christian couples the gift of a new communion of love that is the living and real image of that unique unity which makes of the Church the indivisible Mystical Body of the Lord Jesus” (n. 9).

The Church’s Magisterium and the legitimate autonomy of science

“The Church, by expressing an ethical judgment on some developments of recent medical research concerning man and his beginnings, does not intervene in the area proper to medical science itself, but rather calls everyone to ethical and social responsibility for their actions. She reminds them that the ethical value of biomedical science is gauged in reference to both the unconditional respect owed to every human being at every moment of his or her existence, and the defense of the specific character of the personal act which transmits life” (n. 10).

Second Part: New Problems Concerning Procreation Techniques for assisting fertility Among the procedures which respond to problems of fertility are the following: “techniques of heterologous artificial fertilization” (n. 12): that is, “techniques used to obtain a human conception artificially by the use of gametes coming from at least one donor other than the spouses who are joined in marriage” (footnote 22). “techniques of homologous artificial fertilization” (n. 12): that is, “the technique used to obtain a human conception using the gametes of the two spouses joined in marriage” (footnote 23). “techniques which act as an aid to the conjugal act and its fertility” (n.

12). “techniques aimed at removing obstacles to natural fertilization” (n. 13). “adoption” (n. 13).

Techniques are morally permissible if they respect: “the right to life and to physical integrity of every human being”, “the unity of marriage, which means reciprocal respect for the right within marriage to become a father or mother only together with the other spouse” and “the specifically human values of sexuality” (n. 12), which require that the procreation of a new human person come about as a result of the conjugal act specific to the love between a husband and wife.

Therefore, “techniques which act as an aid to the conjugal act and its fertility are permitted” (n. 12).

In such procedures, the “medical intervention respects the dignity of persons when it seeks to assist the conjugal act either in order to facilitate its performance or in order to enable it to achieve its objective once it has been normally performed” (n. 12). “Certainly, techniques aimed at removing obstacles to natural fertilization... are licit” (n. 13). “Adoption should be encouraged, promoted and facilitated so that the many children who lack parents may receive a home.... In addition, research and investment directed at the prevention of sterility deserve encouragement (n. 13).

In-vitro fertilization and the deliberate destruction of embryos The experience of recent years has shown that in all techniques of in-vitro fertilization “the number of embryos sacrificed is extremely high” (n. 14). Even in the most technically advanced centers of artificial fertilization, the number is above 80% (cf. footnote 27). “Embryos produced in-vitro which have defects are directly discarded”; a

increasing number of couples “are using artificial means of procreation in order to engage in genetic selection of their offspring”; of the embryos which are produced invitro “some are transferred into the woman’s uterus, while the others are frozen”; the technique of multiple transfer in which “the number of embryos transferred is greater than the single child desired, in the expectation that some embryos will be lost... implies a purely utilitarian treatment of embryos” (n.

15).

“The blithe acceptance of the enormous number of abortions involved in the process of in-vitro fertilization vividly illustrates how the replacement of the conjugal act by a technical procedure ... leads to a weakening of the respect owed to every human being. Recognition of such respect is, on the other hand, promoted by the intimacy of husband and wife nourished by married love.... In the face of this manipulation of the human being in his or her embryonic state, it needs to be repeated that God’s love does not differentiate between the newly conceived infant still in his or her mother’s womb and the child or young person, or the adult and the elderly person. God does not distinguish between them because he sees an impression of his own image and likeness.. Therefore, the Magisterium of the Church has constantly proclaimed the sacred and inviolable character of every human life from its conception until its natural end” (n. 16).

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) Intracytoplasmic sperm injection is a variety of in-vitro procreation in which fertilization in the test tube does not simply “take place on its own, but rather by means of the injection into the oocyte of a single sperm, selected earlier, or by the injection of immature germ cells taken from the man” (footnote 32).

This technique, which is morally illicit, causes a complete separation between procreation and the conjugal act” (n. 17). It takes place “outside the bodies of the couple through actions of third parties whose competence and technical activity determine the success of the procedure. Such fertilization entrusts the life and identity of the embryo into the power of doctors and biologists and establishes the domination of technology over the origin and destiny of the human person” (n. 17).

Freezing embryos “In order to avoid repeatedly taking oocytes from the woman’s body, the process involves a single intervention in which multiple oocytes are taken, followed by cryopreservation of a considerable number of the embryos conceived in-vitro. In this way, should the initial attempt at achieving pregnancy not succeed, the procedure can be repeated or additional pregnancies attempted at a later date” (n.

18). The freezing or cryopreservation of embryos “refers to freezing them at extremely low temperatures, allowing long term storage” (cf. footnote 35).

Continued on page 15

January 9, 2009 Continued from page 14 “Cryopreservation is incompatible with the respect owed to human embryos; it presupposes their production in-vitro; it exposes them to the serious risk of death or physical harm, since a high percentage does not survive the process of freezing and thawing; it deprives them at least temporarily of maternal reception and gestation; it places them in a situation in which they are susceptible to further offense and manipulation” (n. 18).

With regard to the large number of frozen embryos already in existence the question becomes: what to do with them? All the answers that have been proposed (use the embryos for research or for the treatment of disease; thaw them without reactivating them and use them for research, as if they were normal cadavers; put them at the disposal of infertile couples as a “treatment for infertility”; allow a form of “prenatal adoption”) present real problems of various kinds.

It needs to be recognized “that the thousands of abandoned embryos represent a situation of injustice which in fact cannot be resolved.

Therefore, John Paul II made an “appeal to the conscience of the world’s scientific authorities and in particular to doctors, that the production of human embryos be halted, taking into account that there seems to be no morally licit solution regarding the human destiny of the thousands and thousands of ‘frozen’ embryos which are and remain the subjects of essential rights and should therefore be protected by law as human persons” (n. 19).

The freezing of oocytes “In order avoid the serious ethical problems posed by the freezing of embryos, the freezing of oocytes has also been advanced in the area of techniques of in-vitro fertilization” (n. 20).

In this regard it needs to be stated that while the cryopreservation of oocytes is not in itself immoral, and is employed in other medical contexts which are not the subject of this document, when it takes place “for the purpose of being used in artificial procreation” it is “to be considered morally unacceptable” (n. 20).

The reduction of embryos “Some techniques used in artificial procreation, above all the transfer of multiple embryos into the mother’s womb, have caused a significant increase in the frequency of multiple pregnancy. This situation gives rise in turn to the practice of so-called embryo reduction, a procedure in which embryos or fetuses in the womb are directly exterminated” (n. 21).

“From the ethical point of view, embryo reduction is an intentional selective abortion. It is in fact the deliberate and direct elimination of one or more innocent human beings in the initial phase of their existence and as such it always constitutes a grave moral disorder” (n. 21).

Preimplantation diagnosis “Preimplantation diagnosis is a form of prenatal diagnosis connected with techniques of artificial fertilization in which embryos formed in-vitro undergo genetic diagnosis before being transferred into a woman’s womb. Such diagnosis is done in order to ensure that

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The Anchor only embryos free from defects or having the desired sex or other particular qualities are transferred” (n.

22).

“Unlike other forms of prenatal diagnosis ..., diagnosis before implantation is immediately followed by the elimination of an embryo suspected of having genetic or chromosomal defects, or not having the sex desired, or having other qualities that are not wanted. Preimplantation diagnosis ... is directed toward the qualitative selection and consequent destruction of embryos, which constitutes an act of abortion....

By treating the human embryo as mere ‘laboratory material’, the concept itself of human dignity is also subjected to alteration and discrimination.... Such discrimination is immoral and must therefore be considered legally unacceptable...” (n. 22).

New forms of interception and contragestation There are methods of preventing pregnancy which act after fertilization, when the embryo is already constituted.

“Such methods are interceptive if they interfere with the embryo before implantation” (n. 23); for example, the IUD (intrauterine device) and the so-called ‘morningafter pills’ (footnote 42). They are “contragestative if they cause the elimination of the embryo once implanted” (n. 23); for example, the pharmaceutical known commercially as RU-486 (footnote 43).

Even if such interceptives may not cause an abortion every time they are used, also because conception does not occur after every act of sexual intercourse, it must be noted, however, that “anyone who seeks to prevent the implantation of an embryo which may possibly have been conceived and who therefore either requests or prescribes such a pharmaceutical, generally intends abortion.” In the case of contragestatives “what takes place in reality is the abortion of an embryo which has just implanted ... the use of means of interception and contragestation fall within the sin of abortion and are gravely immoral” (n. 23).

Third Part: New Treatments which Involve the Manipulation of the Embryo or the Human Genetic Patrimony Gene therapy Gene therapy commonly refers to “techniques of genetic engineering applied to human beings for therapeutic purposes, that is to say, with the aim of curing genetically based diseases” (n. 25).

Somatic cell gene therapy “seeks to eliminate or reduce genetic defects on the level of somatic cells” (n. 25). Germ line cell therapy aims “at correcting genetic defects present in germ line cells with the purpose of transmitting the therapeutic effects to the offspring of the individual” (n. 25).

From the ethical point of view: Procedures used on somatic cells for strictly therapeutic purposes “are in principle morally licit.... Given that gene therapy can involve significant risks for the patient, the ethical principle must be observed according to which, in order to proceed to a therapeutic intervention, it is necessary to es-

tablish beforehand that the person being treated will not be exposed to risks to his health or physical integrity which are excessive or disproportionate to the gravity of the pathology for which a cure is sought. The informed consent of the patient or his legitimate representative is also required” (n. 26).

With regard to germ line cell therapy, “the risks connected to any genetic manipulation are considerable and as yet not fully controllable” and therefore “in the present state of research, it is not morally permissible to act in a way that may cause possible harm to the resulting progeny” (n. 26). with regard to the possibility of using techniques of genetic engineering to introduce alterations with the presumed aim of improving and strengthening the gene pool, it must be observed that such interventions would promote a “eugenic mentality” and would introduce an “indirect social stigma with regard to people who lack certain qualities, while privileging qualities that happen to be appreciated by a certain culture or society; such qualities do not constitute what is specifically human.

This would be in contrast with the fundamental truth of the equality of all human beings which is expressed in the principle of justice, the violation of which, in the long run, would harm peaceful coexistence among individuals... Finally it must also be noted that in the attempt to create a new type of human being one can recognize an ideological element in which man tries to take the place of his Creator” (n. 27).

Human cloning Human cloning refers to “the asexual or agametic reproduction of the entire human organism in order to produce one or more ‘copies’ which, from a genetic perspective, are substantially identical to the single original” (n. 28). The techniques which have been proposed for accomplishing human cloning are artificial embryo twinning, which “consists in the artificial separation of individual cells or groups of cells from the embryo in the earliest stage of development ... which are then transferred into the uterus in order to obtain identical embryos in an artificial manner” (footnote 47) and cell nuclear transfer, which “consists in introducing a nucleus taken from an embryonic or somatic cell into an denucleated oocyte. This is followed by stimulation of the oocyte so that it begins to develop as an embryo” (footnote 47). Cloning is proposed for two basic purposes: reproduction, that is, in order to obtain the birth of a baby, and medical therapy or research.

Human cloning is “intrinsically illicit in that ... it seeks to give rise to a new human being without a connection to the act of reciprocal self-giving between the spouses and, more radically, without any link to sexuality. This leads to manipulation and abuses gravely injurious to human dignity” (n. 28).

With regard to reproductive cloning, “this would impose on the resulting individual a predetermined genetic identity, subjecting him — as has been stated — to a form of biological slavery, from which it would be difficult to free himself. The fact that someone

would arrogate to himself the right to determine arbitrarily the genetic characteristics of another person represents a grave offence to the dignity of that person as well as to the fundamental equality of all people.... In the encounter with another person, we meet a human being who owes his existence and his proper characteristics to the love of God, and only the love of husband and wife constitutes a mediation of that love in conformity with the plan of the Creator and heavenly Father” (n. 29). With regard to cloning for medical therapy or research, it must be said that to “create embryos with the intention of destroying them, even with the intention of helping the sick, is completely incompatible with human dignity, because it makes the existence of a human being at the embryonic stage nothing more than a means to be used and destroyed. It is gravely immoral to sacrifice a human life for therapeutic ends” (n. 30). As an alternative to therapeutic cloning some researchers have proposed new techniques which are presented as capable of producing stem cells of an embryonic type without implying the destruction of true human embryos, for example, by altered nuclear transfer (ANT) or oocyte assisted reprogramming (OAR).

Doubts still remain, however, “regarding the ontological status of the ‘product’ obtained in this way” (n. 30).

The therapeutic use of stem cells “Stem cells are undifferentiated cells with two basic characteristics: a) the prolonged capability of multiplying themselves while maintaining the undifferentiated state; b) the capability of producing transitory progenitor cells from which fully differentiated cells descend, for example, nerve cells, muscle cells and blood cells. Once it was experimentally verified that when stem cells are transplanted into damaged tissue they tend to promote cell growth and the regeneration of the tissue, new prospects opened for regenerative medicine, which have been the subject of great interest among researchers throughout the world” (n. 31).

For the ethical evaluation, it is necessary above all to consider the methods of obtaining stem cells.

“Methods which do not cause serious harm to the subject from whom the stem cells are taken are to be considered licit. This is generally the case when tissues are taken from: a) an adult organism; b) the blood of the umbilical cord at the time of birth; c) fetuses who have died of natural causes” (n. 32). “The obtaining of stem cells from a living human embryo ... invariably causes the death of the embryo and is consequently gravely illicit... In this case, research ... is not truly at the service of humanity. In fact, this research advances through the suppression of human lives that are equal in dignity to the lives of other human individuals and to the lives of the researchers themselves” (n. 32).

“The use of embryonic stem cells or differentiated cells derived from them — even when these are provided by other researchers through the destruction of embryos or when such cells are commercially available — presents serious problems

from the standpoint of cooperation in evil and scandal” (n. 32).

Numerous studies, however, have shown that adult stem cells give more positive results than embryonic stem cells.

Attempts at hybridization “Recently animal oocytes have been used for reprogramming the nuclei of human somatic cells ... in order to extract embryonic stem cells from the resulting embryos without having to use human oocytes” (n. 33).

“From the ethical standpoint, such procedures represent an offense against the dignity of human beings on account of the admixture of human and animal genetic elements capable of disrupting the specific identity of man” (n. 33).

The use of human “biological material” of illicit origin For scientific research and for the production of vaccines or other products, cell lines are at times used which are the result of an illicit intervention against the life or physical integrity of a human being.

Experimentation on human embryos “constitutes a crime against their dignity as human beings who have a right to the same respect owed to a child once born, just as to every person. These forms of experimentation always constitute a grave moral disorder” (n. 34).

With regard to the use of “biological material” of illicit origin by researchers, which has been produced apart from their research center or which has been obtained commercially, the moral requirement “must be safeguarded that there be no complicity in deliberate abortion and that the risk of scandal be avoided. In this regard, the criterion of independence as it has been formulated by some ethics committees is not sufficient.

According to this criterion, the use of ‘biological material’ of illicit origin would be ethically permissible provided there is a clear separation between those who, on the one hand, produce, freeze and cause the death of embryos and, on the other, the researchers involved in scientific experimentation”. It needs to be remembered that the “duty to refuse to use such ‘biological material’ springs from the necessity to remove oneself, within the area of one’s own research, from a gravely unjust legal situation and to affirm with clarity the value of human life. Therefore, the above-mentioned criterion of independence is necessary, but may be ethically insufficient” (n. 35). “Of course, within this general picture there exist differing degrees of responsibility. Grave reasons may be morally proportionate to justify the use of such ‘biological material’. Thus, for example, danger to the health of children could permit parents to use a vaccine which was developed using cell lines of illicit origin, while keeping in mind that everyone has the duty to make known their disagreement and to ask that their healthcare system make other types of vaccines available. Moreover, in organizations where cell lines of illicit origin are being utilized, the responsibility of those who make the decision to use them is not the same as that of those who have no voice in such a decision” (n. 35).

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SHOP ’TIL THEY DROP — Students from St. Mary-Sacred Heart School in North Attleboro recently enjoyed Christmas shopping for their families at the school. The Christmas Shop was sponsored by the Family School Alliance and coordinated by parent volunteers. All the gifts sold in the shop were donated items, and many were hand-made. Students could find everything from Mason jars with cookie mixes to hand-made scarves, Christmas ornaments, and dog biscuits. This season more than $3,300 was raised from the event. The money will help defray the cost of hall stair repairs and tread replacements in the main part of the classroom building.

From left, third-graders Elizabeth LaBelle, Lauren Magill, Britney Bedard, Catherine Souza, and Gabrielle Landry paused as they perused the many items.

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January 9, 2009

JINGLE BELL ROCK — Students in the Bell Choir at St. John the Evangelist School in Attleboro returned to Madonna Manor recently to entertain residents there. The choir was invited back this year after their enjoyable performance last year. In addition to the beautiful music of the choir’s bells, the residents joined in Christmas carols led by the students.

CHRISTMAS EPIC — St. Mary’s School in New Bedford held a Christmas Pageant in the church which was videotaped and rebroadcast on New Bedford Cable Access Television Channel 17 several times this season. (Photo by M.K. McCormack).

DON’T FORGET TO WATER IT — Father George Bellenoit recently received a Christmas poinsettia from the students at St. Pius X School in South Yarmouth. From left: J.J. Hoben, Thomas Rezendes, John Rezendes, Father Bellenoit, Tim McCabe, and Jack Keras.

REFLECTING ON THE SEASON — The Junior Campus Ministry class at Coyle and Cassidy High School in Taunton recently conducted a Christmas Prayer Service emphasizing the importance of taking time to reflect on the true meaning of the Christmas.

CONFECTION CONVENTION — Holy Trinity School in West Harwich Pre-K students enjoyed working on their Christmas scenes. They followed directions using sugar cones, mini marshmallows, and other food items to build their projects, and decorate themselves.

January 9, 2009

T

his weekend we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord. By now the Christmas trees are gone, the decorations are down, the wrapping paper is a distant memory … but God is with us. In the cycle of the Church, Jesus is a fully grown man about to embark on his pubic ministry. First step: baptism. Why on earth would the Son of God need to be baptized? The answer is right in Matthew’s Gospel: to fulfill all righteousness. And what does that mean? To submit to God’s will.

Jesus was like us in all things but sin, but he will need to identify with sinners. He will, in fact, take on the sin of the whole world. Jesus accepting baptism by John is part of God’s plan to save his people and so both Jesus and John submit to God’s will. Don’t

Youth Pages To fulfill all righteousness

forget, John was reluctant should be “to fulfill all righto go through with this. He teousness.” God has a plan and knew that the roles should be we need to be open to that plan reversed in this situation. But and trust in that plan, even at the urging of Jesus, John when it might not make sense surrenders his own will, his to us. Baptizing Jesus probably own sense of the way things didn’t make sense to John, but should be done, and does what he trusted and submitted. We Jesus asks.

What a great example we have in this scene. So often, we have our own very strong opinions about what should be done and who should do it

By Jean Revil and how they should do it and ... the list goes on. I wonder how many of us stop to listen and hear need to do the same. what God is asking for in each Trusting in God’s plan is situation. If we did, we might a daily challenge. Our own be surprised at how narrow wills are strong, and submisour own plans are and how sion is not a quality that most different God’s will might be.

Americans see as admirable.

Like Jesus and John, our desire But if we think about this logi-

Be Not Afraid

cally, we are talking about a plan created by an omniscient, omnipotent God. We would be crazy not to trust in it. Could we honestly think our own plan would be better? And if we do trust in God’s plan, then we need to spend more of our prayer time praising and thanking God for being our God instead of telling him how to be our God. This is my plan for the coming year. I want to praise God more and direct him less. I want to trust that his plan for our salvation is perfect and listen more carefully to his directions for my small part in that plan.

For many people, when we pray our main emphasis is on our petitions to God. It is true that Jesus said, “Ask and you

17 shall receive,” but we seem to neglect our praise and adoration of God, our thanks to God for the incredible blessings of life, our prayers of contrition for not living up to our part in this relationship. I wonder what would happen if all praying people in the world decided to listen more and ask less, praise more and direct less, seek repentance for our sins instead of rationalizing our behavior. Today, let us try to fulfill all righteousness … let us try to listen and hear and submit to God’s will. One day at a time, one prayer at a time and our relationship with God could be incredibly transformed.

Jean Revil teaches theology and thanatology at Bishop Stang High School. Comments welcome at: jrevil@bishopstang.com.

‘Guitar Praise’ puts Christian twist on rock music video games

By Laurie Stevens Bertke Catholic News Service

TOLEDO, Ohio — Rock ‘n’ roll has moved out of the garage and into the living room with the emergence of popular music video games like “Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band.”

Now Digital Praise Inc., an independent developer and publisher of interactive Christian games, is introducing “Guitar Praise,” a familyfriendly alternative for Christians concerned about the song lyrics and graphics in secular guitar video games.

As avid fans of “Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band,” teenagers from a Catholic youth group in the Toledo Diocese were more than happy to try this newest addition to the genre.

Five high school students from a group that serves the east Toledo parishes of Good Shepherd, St. Thomas Aquinas, Sacred Heart and St. Stephen put “Guitar Praise” to the test during a recent meeting, taking turns rocking on the plastic guitar controller.

They needed no introduction to the premise of the game, which draws heavily from its mainstream counterparts: Players press the fret buttons and strum on a guitar controller to hit color-coded notes scrolling on-screen as they “perform” a song. Each song has four difficulty levels, and successful performances unlock new songs in the game.

They can play solo, or if they have a second guitar

they can compete for the best score or perform a song with a friend.

What sets “Guitar Praise” apart is its exclusively Christian rock set list, with 52 songs by popular artists such as Chris Tomlin, tobyMac, Thousand Foot Krutch, Skillet, Reliant K, Flyleaf and Whitecross.

After about an hour of play, the Catholic teens gave the game and its music selection high marks in an interview with the Catholic Chronicle, Toledo’s diocesan newspaper.

“I think it’s really cool. I like how they take the style of such a popular game and apply a Christian message to it,” said Stanley Shrewsberry, a junior at Toledo Early College High School, as he watched one of his friends play.

The teens said they found the inclusion of a song timer — which they did not see in other guitar games — helpful

during game play, and they also said they liked seeing the lyrics displayed on-screen.

Tom Bean, president and CEO of Digital Praise Inc., said in a news release that including the lyrics “reinforces the positive messages present in ‘Guitar Praise’s’ roster of songs, and allows everyone to take part in the game.”

One notable way “Guitar Praise” differs from the competition is that it is played on a computer instead of a video game console. While this makes it accessible to families that don’t own a video game console, it may be less appealing to people who enjoy gathering around a larger television screen with their friends to play other music games.

But there are ways to overcome the limited size of a computer screen; the group of Toledo youth group members

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

connected a laptop to a projector to play the game on a big screen.

“Guitar Praise” supports Windows and Mac personal computers, and includes one

USB-compatible guitar controller with the game software. The game is available at Christian stores, other mainstream retailers, Amazon.com or www.guitarpraise.com.

18

The Anchor

Continued from page 11 become a popular spot for pilgrims from across the Fall River Diocese — including high school and college students — who come to work the farms, build and refurbish buildings, and plan and furnish a library.

A 16-member work group from Seekonk spent time working there in November, as did a group from Attleboro in August.

Several parishes have supplied such things as stained glass windows and pews.

Pro-Life Apostolate In what was an outstanding demonstration of their Pro-Life beliefs, hundreds from across the diocese participated in the “40 Days for Life” campaign aimed at ending abortion through prayer, fasting, outreach and peaceful vigils at the Four Women Abortion Clinic at 150 Emory Street in Attleboro.

Led by Steve Marcotte, a firefighter in Attleboro, and Ron Larose, director of the Pro-Life ministry at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Seekonk where Marcotte is also a parishioner, the venture — endorsed by Bishop Coleman and the Pro-Life Apostolate — had people praying from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. for the 40 days outside the clinic.

Reportedly it is the last facility providing abortions in the dio-

cese.

In February, Dr. Rapin Osathanondh, an obstetrician-gynecologist on Cape Cod, resigned his medical license after being implicated in the September 2007 death of young women who died following an abortion. That, as well as the continuing prayer vigils conducted outside the Women’s Health Center in Hyannis, where the physician practiced, eventually prompted its closing.

Hundreds of students and adults took to heart the theme “Build Unity on the Life Principles Throughout America: No Exception! No Compromise!” at the 35th annual March for Life on January 22 in Washington D.C. Led by leaders of the Pro-Life Apostolate and Bishop George W. Coleman, the pilgrims’ prayerful hopes were that their inspirational presence would someday overturn the 1972 death knell legislation of Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in the United States.

Mary O’Dea of St. Jude the Apostle Parish in Taunton, was awarded the Pro-Life Apostolate’s John Cardinal O’Connor Annual Pro-Life Award for support of the Gospel of Life, at the annual Pro-Life Mass March 31 in St. Julie Billiart Church in North Dartmouth.

Sharing in the “youth recipients” Pro-life award were Joc-

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elyn Trindade, a senior at Bishop Stang High School in North Dartmouth and a member of St. Anthony’s Parish in New Bedford; and Lauren Murphy, a senior at Coyle-Cassidy High School in Taunton, and a member of Holy Family Parish in East Taunton.

Diocesan youth also carried their faith internationally, with several young adults joining with representatives of the Boston Archdiocese to attend World Youth Day events — including a papal Mass — in Sydney, Australia in July.

Education A week into the New Year a long-term plan to strengthen Catholic education in the city of Fall River beginning in the fall was announced by Diocesan Superintendent of Schools George A. Milot.

Facing a decline in the school age population in Fall River and a resultant decrease in enrollment in many of the city’s Catholic schools, the plan followed a comprehensive study and evaluation of the eight Catholic elementary schools in the city.

The proposal called for a consolidation of the eight schools to six, and the implementation of joint programs among the remaining ones to expand curriculum offerings and bring exciting new opportunities for students.

Closed were Notre Dame and St. Anne’s schools.

Two veteran teachers were the 2008 winners of the Diocesan Teacher of the Year Awards.

Gale Perkins, who for 25 years taught language arts and reading to eighth-grade students at Holy Name School in Fall River, and Michael Vieira, in his 13th year teaching history at Bishop Connolly High School in Fall River, received the honors at their respective schools on April 9.

Summer proved a time of preparation for five diocesan high schools as well as many elementary schools. Crews moved in to not only refurbish the infrastructures, but to take on more significant projects such as renovating athletic fields, and pave the way for more efficient use of state-ofthe art technological advances.

Extensive work was done at Bishop Connolly High School in Fall River, Coyle and Cassidy in Taunton, Bishop Stang in North Dartmouth, John Paul II School in Hyannis, and Bishop Feehan in Attleboro.

St. Mary’s School in Taunton marked its centennial with a Mass followed by a birthday party.

Personnel changes Two priests were named first time pastors by Bishop Coleman in June.

Msgr. Gerard P. O’Connor, 43, was named pastor of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Acushnet, and

January 9, 2009 Incarnate Word Father Hugo Cardenas, 38, was appointed pastor of St. Kilian’s Parish in New Bedford.

Five diocesan priests, some serving as parochial vicars, received new assignments effective June 25. They included: Father Karl C. Bissinger, from parochial vicar at St. Julie Billiart Parish in North Dartmouth, to secretary to Bishop Coleman, while remaining director of vocations and seminarians for the diocese; Father David A. Pignato, from secretary to Bishop Coleman and chaplain at Bishop Stang High School in North Dartmouth, to doctoral studies in Rome; Father Thomas E. Costa, from parochial vicar at St. Mary’s Parish in Mansfield, to parochial vicar at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Seekonk. Later he was also appointed chaplain at Bishop Feehan High School in Attleboro.

Father John P. Kelleher, OSB, from parochial vicar at St. Michael Parish in Fall River to parochial vicar at Our Lady of Victory Parish in Centerville; Father Jay Mello, from graduate studies to parochial vicar at St. Julie Billiart Parish in North Dartmouth and chaplain at Bishop Stang High School also in North Dartmouth.

In late June, Father Andrew Johnson, OCSO, was named parochial vicar at St. Francis Xavier Parish in Hyannis, while also remaining assistant chaplain at Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis.

Father Michael J. Fitzpatrick, a parochial vicar at St. Mary’s in Mansfield, was named chaplain at UMass-Dartmouth and as assistant chaplain at St. Luke’s Hospital in New Bedford, with residence at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish at St. James Church, also in New Bedford.

National elections Even as Catholics here and across the nation mulled the tenets of presidential candidates Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain, the Massachusetts Catholic Conference and Catholic Citizenship put together voter guides that explained how the candidates stood on issues such as abortion, gambling, abstinence education and the definition of marriage.

Pro-Life and pro-family groups went back to the basics: making sure churchgoers were registered to vote and advocating parishes to hold voter registration drives.

Some parishes scheduled novenas on Election Day eve urging Catholics to ask God’s help in making a decision that will actually affect not just America, but the entire world.

Vocations As part of National Vocations Week, students from the diocese’s high schools visited St. John’s Seminary in Brighton and the convent of the Daughters of

St. Paul in Jamaica Plain to offer a better understanding of the vocation to the priesthood and religious life.

Throughout the year, The Anchor published a series of vocational sketches of seminarians, priests and religious within the diocese.

The Diocesan Council of Catholic Women did their part in asking God to send more harvesters into the vineyard by holding a series of holy hours for vocations.

Anniversaries and celebrations Two new priests were ordained for the Fall River Diocese in June.

Father Ronnie P. Floyd, 26, whose family hails from St. Patrick’s Parish in Wareham, and Father William M. Sylvia, 27, who grew up in Holy Name Parish in Fall River, were ordained June 28 in St. Mary’s Cathedral in Fall River by Bishop Coleman.

Father Clement E. Dufour, 78, celebrated the 50th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood, as did Congregation of Holy Cross Father Robert J. Kruse of Easton.

Six others marked jubilees: Father Louis R. Boivin observed his 60th anniversary of ordination; Fathers Luis A. Cardoso, Henry W. Kropiwnicki and Albert J. Ryan, their 50th jubilee, and Fathers Paul A. Caron and John J. Perry their 25th.

Father Thomas Lopes, pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish in North Easton since 2000, retired June 25 after 43 years in the priesthood and headed home to his native Martha’s Vineyard.

Father Barry W. Wall, 72, pastor of Holy Rosary Parish in Fall River’s east end since 1999, retired in June, and took up residence at Cardinal Medeiros Residence in Fall River. He is still active as diocesan archivist.

Father Gerald P. Barnwell, 68, retired April 1 as pastor of St. Peter’s Parish in Dighton where he had served for six years. A native of Fall River, he was ordained a priest on Jan. 9, 1977 by Bishop Daniel A. Cronin, now the retired archbishop of Hartford, Conn.

Franciscan Father Francis de Sales Paolo, 76, pastor of St. Margaret’s Parish in Buzzards Bay, celebrated the 50th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood at a Mass June 21, followed by a buffet in St. Margaret’s Regional School.

And in early November, after a 64-year wait, the official Veteran’s Administration marker identifying the grave of a war veteran, finally rested near the headstone of World War II Army captain and chaplain, Father Arthur C. Lenaghan in St. Patrick’s Cemetery in Fall River.

Continued on page 20

January 9, 2009

Around the Diocese Eucharistic Adoration

Eucharistic Adoration:

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

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

NEW BEDFORD — Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament takes place at St. JosephSt. Therese Church, 51 Duncan Street, Mondays following the 8:30 a.m. Mass until 1:30 p.m. For more information call 508-995-2354.

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

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

TAUNTON — Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament takes place every First Friday at Annunciation of the Lord Church, 31 First Street, immediately following the 8 a.m.

Mass and continues throughout the day. Confessions are heard from 5:15 to 6:15 p.m., concluding with recitation of the rosary and Benediction at 6:30 p.m.

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

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

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

FALL RIVER — A holy hour takes place at Holy Name Church, 709 Hanover Street, Tuesdays at 7 p.m., It consists of the rosary, Miraculous Medal Novena, a homily, Benediction, and the opportunity for confession. The Divine Mercy Chaplet is recited Wednesdays at 3 p.m.

FALL RIVER — Catholic Social Services will host “Adoption by Choice,” an informational session for individuals and families interested in domestic newborn or international adoption January 25, 1:30 to 3:30 p.m., at CSS 1600 Bay Street. A snow date will be February 1. To register and for information call 508-674-4681.

FALL RIVER — A Free Throw Championship competition sponsored by the Msgr.

Jean Prevost Council No. 12380, Knights of Columbus of Notre Dame Parish, will be held January 25 at 6:30 p.m., at the CYO on Anawan Street. For more information contact Joe Pereira at 508-679-9275, MASHPEE — ECHO of Cape Cod is looking for Youth Applicants for its Spring Retreat weekends to be held at the Craigville Conference Center in Centerville. Applicants must be high school sophomores, juniors, seniors, or freshmen in college. Scheduled retreats are February 6-8 for boys; March 6-8 for girls, and April 3-5 for boys. For information visit echoofcapecod.com or call Mary Fuller at 508-759-4265.

MASHPEE — A Woman’s Concern will host an eight- to-10-week women’s Bible study “Forgiven and Set Free,” beginning January 15, at an hour and place to be announced. For more information call AWC at 508-790-0584 or Martha at 617-5388813.

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

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

Jan, 12 Rev. Thomas P. Grace, Pastor, St. Patrick, Fall River, 1918 Rev. Manuel C. Terra, Retired Pastor, St. Peter, Provincetown, 1930 Jan. 13 Rev. Emile Plante, M.S., La Salette Seminary, Attleboro, 1954 Rev. Ralph D. Tetrault, Retired Pastor, St. Patrick, Wareham, 2007 Rev. Joseph A. Richard, A.A., St. Francis Home, Worcester Jan. 14 Rev. John J. Lawler, M.M., Maryknoll Missioner, 1977

Jan. 15 Rev. Thomas F. Kennedy, Retired Pastor, St. Joseph, Woods Hole, 1948 Rev. Vincent Marchildon, O.P., Director, St. Anne Shrine, Fall River, 1972 Rev. Msgr. John E. Boyd, Retired Pastor, St. Patrick, Wareham, 1977 Rev. Harold A. Whelan, Jr., SS.CC., Ph. D., 1997

Jan. 17 Rev. John F. Laughlin, Retired Pastor, Holy Ghost, Attleboro, 1967 Rev. Daniel J. McCarthy, SS.CC., Former Provincial Superior, Retired Pastor, Holy Redeemer, Chatham, 2002

19

The Anchor

Sister Mary E. Murphy SUSC; taught in many diocesan schools

TAUNTON — Holy Union Sister Mary Elizabeth Murphy, 81, an educator for more than 50 years, teaching in many schools in the Fall River Diocese, died December 17 after a brief illness.

Born in Boston, the daughter of the late Arthur and Elizabeth (Fair) Sister Mary E. of Murphy, SUSC Murphy Taunton, she graduated from St. Mary High School in Taunton and entered the Holy Union Sisters in 1946 and pronounced her vows on Aug. 22, 1954.

She received a bachelor’s degree in Religious Education from the Catholic Teacher’s College in Providence, R.I., and did graduate studies at Providence College, Fordham University, St. Michael’s College, the Catholic University of Puerto Rico, and Bristol Community College in Fall River.

Her teaching assignments were at schools in Maryland, New Jersey and Rhode Island, and locally at Bishop Connolly High School in Fall River, and at Bishop Cassidy High School in Taunton.

Sister Murphy served as the librarian at Coyle and Cassidy High School, also in Taunton, where she was honored with its Aquinas Service Award, the Alumni Service Award, and the Lifetime Service Award.

Besides her Holy Union Sis-

2008 Marian Medal Awards presentation available on video

FALL RIVER — The 2008 Marian Medal Awards Ceremony is now available on video from the Diocesan Office of Communications. Copies may be ordered in either VHS format ($21.95) or DVD format ($23.95).

To obtain a video, please forward a check payable to the Diocesan Office of Communications, Diocese of Fall River, PO Box 7, Fall River, MA 02722. Shipping is included in the video cost.

ters she leaves two sisters, Holy Union Sister Rosemary Murphy of the Catholic Memorial Home in Fall River and Marita Murphy of East Taunton; two brothers, Thomas Murphy of Taunton and Arthur Murphy of

East Taunton; and nieces and nephews.

Her Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated in St. Mary’s Church in Taunton. Burial was in St. Francis Cemetery, also in Taunton.

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20 Continued from page 18

Father Lenaghan, a native of Fall River was the only Fall River Diocesan priest killed in World War II, when he died from war wounds in Italy on Jan. 8, 1944, just 10 days before his 36th birthday.

And as the year was ending, well-known singer and composer Missionary of La Salette Father Andre “Pat” Patenaude, introduced his newest musical recording “Tears of Love” on CD and DVD. Deaths Among those who died during 2008 were: Antone C. Fraga, 85, of Taunton, father of Father Bento R. Fraga, a retired priest of the Fall River Diocese; December 31.

Sisters of St. Joseph Sister Mathilde Bessette, 95, an educator and a native of New Bedford; December 25.

Congregation of Holy Cross Father James B. Mannis, 86, a prison and hospital chaplain; December 26,after an illness.

Congregation of Holy Cross

The Anchor Father Augustine J. Peverada, 88, a teacher, missionary and archivist; January 6.

Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary Sister Gladys Bourdeau, 99, who taught at the former Immaculate Conception School in New Bedford; November 26.

Holy Union Sister Irene Brochu, 69, on January 22 in Taunton after a long illness.

Richard L. Besse, 61, a firefighter, and husband of Gail R. Besse of Hull, a correspondent for The Anchor; January 22, after battling cancer.

Robert A. Fallon, 78, of Hampton, N.H., a corporate executive and father of Congregation of Holy Cross Father Marc Fallon of New Bedford; January 24.

James W. Maddock Jr., 57, of Clearwater, Fla., brother of Father Jay T. Maddock, pastor of Holy Family Parish in Taunton; January 16.

Rene G. Baris, 91, of Pawtucket, R.I., father of Missionaries of La Salette Father Bernard Baris, pastor of Our Lady of the Cape

Parish in Brewster; February 5.

Augustinian Father Joseph A Richard, 94, who grew up in New Bedford, and administered in the Fall River Diocese; January 13.

Mrs. Amelia M. Martin, 95, of Buzzards Bay, mother of Deacon William A. Martin, who ministers at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in North Falmouth; February 22.

Congregation of Holy Cross Father Peter M. Donoghue, 82, former dean at Stonehill College, March 22, after a long illness.

Missionaries of La Salette Brother Robert L. Nichols, 63, who ministered at the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette in Attleboro; March 1 after an illness.

Religious of Jesus and Mary Sister Julia V. Forcier, 96, who served in the Fall River Diocese; March 4, after a long illness.

Deacon Michael F. Murray, 60, of Taunton, father of Father John M. Murray, a parochial vicar at St. Pius X Parish in South Yarmouth; March 17, after a twoyear battle with cancer. Deacon Murray served at Immaculate

January 9, 2009

AT A POPE RALLY — Brittany Nyman, Corrinne O’Neal and Rachel DeNardo, members of the youth group at St. Patrick’s Parish in Wareham, expressed their feelings about Pope Benedict XVI at a rally for youth and seminarians in Yonkers on April 16, 2008.

(Photo courtesy of Paula Wilk)

Conception Parish in Taunton and at St. Mary’s Parish in Norton.

Holy Union Sister Eugenia M. Arsenault, 90, a former teacher and administrator; March 15.

Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary Father Paul Leo Deyo, 79, a native of Portsmouth, R.I., brother of Sacred Hearts Sister Shirley Deyo of Fall River; March 25 in Hollywood, Fla., after a long illness.

Mrs. Rita C. Souza, 82 of Taunton, mother of Deacon Thomas J. Souza, who serves at Espirito Santo Parish in Fall River; April 2.

Msgr. Antonino C. Tavares, 91, former pastor of Santo Christo Parish in Fall River; April 19.

Holy Union Sister Mary M. Rommal, 86, an educator in the Fall River Diocese; March 29 after a brief illness.

Sisters of Charity of Quebec Sister Lauretta Lapointe, 93, a native of New Bedford, who ministered in the Fall River Diocese; April 17 in Canada.

Holy Union Sister Rose Marie Ouellette, 95, who taught at St. Jacques School in Taunton; April 29 at Madonna Manor in North Attleboro.

Gerald F. Dugan, 79, of North Attleboro, brother of Father Jay T. Maddock, pastor of Holy Family Parish in East Taunton; May 11 at home.

Good Shepherd Sister Dorothy Moore, 86, who grew up in New Bedford, and was a teacher, musician and chaplain, died June 5, in Marlborough after a long illness.

Mrs. Patricia McGowan, a writer and editor at The Anchor for more than 41 years, June 21, in Providence, R.I., after a long illness.

Father James F. Lyons, 89, September 1, from Parkinson’s disease, at the Catholic Memorial Home after a long illness. He had retired as pastor of St. Patrick’s Parish in Wareham in 1999. At the time of his death he was the

longest-serving priest in the Fall River Diocese.

Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary Father Frederick J. Meyers, 84, a missionary and pastor; August 30 in New Bedford.

Congregation of Holy Cross Father James E. Tobin, 87, a missionary and teacher; August 27 in Indiana after a long illness.

Dominican Sister of Hope Beatrice Lapalme, 95, a native of Acushnet, and who taught in diocesan schools; September 10 in Fairhaven.

Father John C. Martins, 77, former pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Fall River; September 26 after a long illness.

Holy Union Sister Grace Martin, 75, a retired teacher in diocesan secondary schools; September 23 in the Skilled Nursing Rehabilitation Center in Swansea, after a long illness.

Antonio I. Medeiros, 84, father of Deacon Joseph P. Medeiros, who assists at St. Michael’s Parish in Fall River; December 22 after a long illness.

Brother of Christian Instruction Roland Vigeant, 84, a Fall River native and former principal of the former Msgr. Prevost High School in Fall River; September 11 in Ohio after a long illness.

Dr. Edward A. Harrington Jr., 64, of New Bedford, brother of Father Kevin J. Harrington, pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in New Bedford; October 13 at home.

Holy Union Sister Edna Maria LaRose 90, a teacher at elementary schools in North Attleboro; October 30 at the Catholic Memorial Home in Fall River after a brief illness.

Paul A. Dufour, 83, of Fall River, brother of Father Clement E. Dufour, a retired diocesan priest; December 2.

Holy Union Sister Margaret Higgins, 86, a teacher and guidance counselor, and a native of Fall River; December 3, after a brief illness.