01.20.12

Diocese of Fall River

The Anchor

F riday , January 20, 2012

Diocesan adult Confirmation classes preparing to begin

By Becky Aubut Anchor Staff

FALL RIVER — Adult Confirmation classes will begin at the end of January in the Diocese of Fall River, and Deacon Bruce Bonneau said that while the age of those seeking the Sacrament may have risen slightly over the years, the motivation of those seeking Confirmation remains the same.

“My whole sense is people are seeking God as they gain more life experience, as they work in a very complicated and chaotic world,” said Deacon Bonneau. “There’s definitely a need and a search for a spiritual life.”

Working in the Office of Faith Formation for the Diocese of Fall River as the assistant director for evangelization and spirituality, Deacon Bonneau stressed that candidates looking to be confirmed in the Catholic faith should be aware that the five-week-long session is only one component of a much larger picture.

“We’re doing the basic teach-

ing of the Catholic faith that they should know,” said Deacon Bonneau. “Their participation in the parish and prayer life is as important, perhaps more important, than the knowledge piece, which is primarily what we focus on.”

That “knowledge piece” is broken up into five, two-hour classes that are hosted at one parish within each of the five deaneries.

“The nice thing about having them at all the deaneries is, they may decide to go to a different deanery than one they actually reside in,” explained Deacon Bonneau. “If you work in Boston, you can go to Attleboro or if you work in Providence, you can come to Fall River.”

Class size varies, with New Bedford, Taunton and Fall River tending to hover around 30 participants each, while the numbers in Attleboro and Cape Cod tend to be slightly lower. When the diocese began the program about seven years ago, a curriculum was created and designed Turn to page 18

Obama administration promoting a gay and lesbian agenda in foreign policy

By Christine M. Williams Anchor Correspondent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — When President Barack Obama declared that he would no longer uphold the Defense of Marriage Act in court, he set a rare precedent for domestic policy. Last month, he vowed to export that policy to the rest of the world.

On December 6, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced to United Nations diplomats in Geneva that U.S. agencies engaged abroad have been instructed to “combat the criminalization of LGBT status or conduct.” (LGBT is an acronym for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans-gender.) President

Obama called ending discrimination against LGBT persons “central” to the U.S. commitment to promoting human rights in a memo released later the same day.

In her speech, Clinton said that all people deserve to be treated with dignity “no matter whom they love” and said that those who defend human rights are “on the right side of history.”

“Gay rights are human rights,” she said.

She also announced the formation of the $3 million Global Equality Fund that will help groups “record facts so that they can target their advocacy, learn how to use the Turn to page 14

a tear for slaughtered victims — The Father Patrick Peyton Center will be the site for a gathering of Knights of Columbus from various area councils and assemblies as well as interested supporters of Holy Cross Family Ministries to pray the Rosary for the unborn on Sunday at 2 p.m. The date recalls the infamous Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion in the United States. A tear-drop granite memorial stone funded by the Knights of Columbus of the area will be blessed by Father John Phalen, CSC, president of Holy Cross Family Ministries. The event is open to the public. Following the Rosary, there will be refreshments as well as the screening of a half-hour drama entitled, “Assumptions.” This film, which depicts a mother facing a momentous decision regarding abortion, was produced by Family Theater Productions of Hollywood, an affiliate of HCFM. The center is at 518 Washington Street in North Easton. For information: 508-238-4095 or www.FamilyRosary.org. (Photo by Dave Jolivet)

Jason Brilhante to be ordained a transitional deacon tomorrow

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

FALL RIVER — Fall River native and seminarian Jason Brilhante will take the penultimate step towards fulfilling his calling to the priesthood tomorrow when he’s ordained a transitional deacon

by Bishop George W. Coleman inside the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption at 11 a.m.

“It’s very exciting,” Brilhante told The Anchor after completing a retreat in preparation for ordination earlier this week. “It’s been surreal how quickly time has passed during my seminary formation. I’m very much looking forward to being ordained a deacon this weekend and ultimately a priest in the Diocese of Fall River, implementing the new evangelization and administering the Sacraments. It’s something I’ve been desiring since entering the seminary.”

A parishioner of St. Michael’s Parish in Fall River, Brilhante graduated from BMC Durfee High School and later attended Bristol Community College and Bryant University in Smithfield, R.I. before enrolling at St. John’s Semi-

nary in Brighton six years ago.

He attended the Institute for Priestly Formation in Omaha, Neb. during the summer of 2007 and was assigned to Our Lady of the Assumption Parish in Osterville for the summer of 2009.

He has also been assigned to Our

Jason Brilhante

Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in New Bedford both during Portuguese language studies as well as in pastoral preparation for ordination.

Brilhante earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from St.

John’s Seminary in 2008 and anticipates receiving a master’s degree in divinity in May. His ordination to the priesthood is scheduled for June 9.

“I’m very excited and looking forward to my ordination in June,” Brilhante said. “It’s a privilege to be called to be a priest. There’s still some work to be done here in the seminary, but I look forward to when my ministry as a priest in the diocese will begin.”

Brilhante’s ordination to the transitional diaconate this weekend is an important step in his ministry, which will allow him to preach at Mass and celebrate Baptisms and Weddings, according to Father Karl C. Bissinger, diocesan director of vocations and secretary to Bishop George W. Coleman.

“The transitional diaconate is the last step, if you will, before becoming a priest,” Father Bissinger said. “At that time, you make your promise of celibacy and it’s quite a significant step.

He will have the same rights and responsibilities as any permanent deacon, but the reason he is being Turn to page 18

News From the Vatican

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Eucharist gives strength to those who are weak, weary, lost, pope says VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Eucharist sustains those who are tired, worn out or lost in the world and transforms human sin and weakness into new life, Pope Benedict XVI said.

Speaking at a recent general audience, the pope focused on Jesus and the Last Supper, where He instituted the Eucharist, “the Sacrament of His Body and Blood.”

“Jesus’ gift of Himself anticipates His sacrifice on the Cross and His glorious resurrection,” the pope said.

He offers His life before it is taken from Him on the Cross and as such “transforms His violent death into a free act of giving Himself for others. Violence immediately is transformed into an active, free and redemptive sacrifice,” the pope said.

The pope said that, at the Last Supper, Jesus prayed for His disciples, especially Peter, warning him, according to the Gospel of Luke, that “Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat.” But Jesus prayed that His disciple’s faith would not fail and that Peter, who would betray Jesus, would return to strengthen the others’ faith, the pope said.

“The Eucharist is food for pilgrims, which becomes (a source of) strength also for those who are tired, worn out and lost,” he said.

Jesus’ words at the Last Supper were meant to help Peter, and others who stray, find the

strength to be able to follow Christ once again, he said.

Taking part in the Eucharist today is “indispensable for Christian life” and is still a source of strength so that “our life is not lost, despite our weakness and our infidelity, but is transformed.”

The pope asked that people join their prayers with the Lord’s and offer their lives, “transform our crosses into free and responsible sacrifice, of love for God and our brothers and sisters.”

At the end of the audience, a rare young Cuban crocodile was shown off to the pope in honor of his upcoming trip to Cuba.

The 15-inch long reptile is set to be introduced to its natural habitat in Cuba during the pope’s trip in March.

About 80 percent of the critically endangered species has been decimated and can be found only in a small area in Cuba, according to Bioparco, the Roman zoo that takes in and rehabilitates wild animals that have been illegally smuggled into Italy.

Representing the zoo was Paolo Giuntarelli, the president of the zoo’s foundation, together with two small children who gave the pope a tiny sculpture of a turtle hatching from its egg to symbolize the many successful births at the zoo. The zoo, one of the oldest in the world, was also celebrating the end of its 100th anniversary.

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

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OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER Vol. 56, No. 3

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unusual guest — A member of Rome’s Biopark zoo shows Pope Benedict XVI a rare young Cuban crocodile during the pope’s weekly audience in Paul VI hall at the Vatican recently. The crocodile is set to be introduced to its natural habitat in Cuba during the pope’s trip in March. (CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano via Reuters)

Making the old new: Vatican encourages a recovery of ‘apologetics’

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — In the Catholic Church, it’s true that everything old can be new again, and the Vatican wants one of those things to be the art of “apologetics” — dusted off and updated to respond to new challenges, including those posed by militant atheists.

The term “apologetics” literally means “to answer, account for or defend,” and through the 1950s even Catholic high school students were given specific training in responding to questions about Catholicism and challenges to Church teaching.

At least in Northern Europe and North America, the effort mainly was a response to Protestantism.

Today, while sects and fundamentalist groups challenge Catholics in many parts of the world, almost all Catholics face objections to the idea of belief in general, said Legionary of Christ Father Thomas D. Williams, a professor at Rome’s Pontifical Regina Apostolorum University.

Father Williams is author of “Greater Than You Think: A Theologian Answers the Atheists About God,” written in response to the late Christopher Hitchens’ book, “God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything,” and similar works.

Over the past 50 years, apologetics lost its general appeal because “it was considered proselytism,” an aggressive attempt to win converts that was replaced by ecumenical dialogue, he said. It didn’t help that many Catholics started seeing all religions as equally valid paths to salvation, so they thought it was best to encourage people to live their own faith as best they could without trying to encourage them to consider Christianity.

Among the Regina Apostolorum students, he said, there is a renewed interest in apologetics — usually covered today under the heading of fundamental theology.

“You can change the name, make it gentler and nicer, but you always have to give reasons for your hope and belief,” he said.

While there have been scattered attempts to train Catholics to explain their faith to others since Vatican II, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has asked for a more widespread effort to get apologetic material into the hands of Catholics.

In early January, the congregation issued a note on preparing for the Year of Faith, which will begin in October. Addressing national bishops’ conferences, the congregation said, “It would be useful to arrange for the preparation of pamphlets and leaflets of an apologetic nature” so that every Catholic could “respond better to the questions which arise in difficult contexts” from sects to moral relativism and from secularism to science and technology.

The congregation included a reference to the biblical admonition from the First Letter of Peter: “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope.”

The passage continues by saying responses should be given “with gentleness and reverence,” which Jesuit Father Felix Korner said means taking the attitude that “the person talking to me has a real question; through the question I discover the deeper grounds of my hope and joy; I try to respond by making myself and our faith understood.”

The Jesuit, a theology professor at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University and expert in ChristianMuslim relations, said, “Apologetics in the restricted, poor, primitive sense later became: ‘I learn some answers, and I respond to any question as if it were an attack by refuting the other.’”

To make apologetics part of a true Christian witness, he said,

involves “being interested in the newness of the question” posed and “challenged by its rationality, daring to explore deeper my own tradition and hope.”

Pope Benedict XVI and the Pontifical Council for Culture have chosen the path of dialogue to explore the issues and objections to faith raised by some secular humanists, atheists and agnostics.

The pope invited nonbelievers to his day of dialogue for peace in Assisi last October and the pontifical council has launched a dialogue project called “the Courtyard of the Gentiles” to explore issues raised by experts in the fields of politics, economics, law, literature and the arts.

An effort to combine dialogue and apologetics is found in Catholic Voices, an organization in the United Kingdom that compiles detailed responses to current questions and trains Catholics to present official Church teaching civilly and clearly in the media when questions are raised on controversial topics.

The need for articulate Catholics who could remain calm under fire became evident after a 2009 formal debate in England in which Hitchens and the actor Stephen Fry faced off against Nigerian Archbishop John Onaiyekan of Abuja and Ann Widdecombe, a Catholic member of Parliament. The crowd clearly was on the side of Hitchens and Fry, who argued against the motion that “the Catholic Church is a force for good.”

Jack Valero, coordinator of Catholic Voices and U.K. press spokesman for Opus Dei, said the group began by trying to respond to objections raised by groups protesting Pope Benedict’s 2010 visit to Scotland and England. The issues included homosexuality, contraception, assisted suicide, clerical sexual abuse, abortion, AIDS, same-sex marriage and women in the Church.

January 20, 2012

The International Church

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Bishop denounces government bulldozing of Pakistan church, school

symbolic gesture — Palestinian Catholics from Jerusalem, Najed Mishriki, 40, and his wife, Mary, 40, sprinkle their son, Khamis, 18 months, by the Jordan River on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord recently. Located near the West Bank town of Jericho, the site is believed to be the place where St. John baptized Jesus. (CNS photo/Debbie Hill)

Bishops see hope, fear, complexities in visit to Mideast Christians

JERUSALEM (CNS) — Almost a year after the eruption of the Arab Spring uprisings, the Middle East is a place of hope and fear for Christians, said Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson, Ariz.

Bishop Kicanas, chairman of the board of the U.S. bishops’ Catholic Relief Services, was in Baghdad late last year and visited Egypt prior to his arrival in Jerusalem January 8-12 for the annual Holy Land Coordination meeting with bishops from the United States, Canada and Europe.

“There is a fear among the Christians (in Egypt) whether they will be given human rights and whether they will be treated as equal citizens. There is a sense of wait and see,” Bishop Kicanas told Catholic News Service.

While there is hope for the creation of a new, equal society with a progressive economic situation, there are still concerns whether Egypt’s newly-elected government with its Islamist majority would put restrictions on the rights of minorities in Egypt, the bishop added.

Likewise, he said, in the Holy Land, while people continue to be hopeful for a peaceful resolution of the ongoing PalestinianIsraeli conflict, they are frustrated by the inability of their leaders to reach an accord.

“There is the tension between the needs of the people and the bickering of the politicians,” he said.

The Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land joined the bishops in their opening session January 9, and during the four days of meetings the

Coordination bishops met with Church leaders as well as with Israeli and Palestinian political leaders. The bishops also met with local Christians in parishes in the West Bank, Gaza and Israel.

In Gaza, Christians spoke of a feeling of abandonment by world Church communities, said Bishop Kicanas. He noted the “astounding inequality” that exists between the lives of people in Gaza, where some 56,000 people are unemployed, and that of people living in Israel.

He said that in Israel and the Palestinian territories, Christian organizations and religious orders play a vital role in supplying much-needed educational, medical and child care.

“Hopefully this will create a sense in (these) societies that we all have dignity and human rights,” he said.

On his first visit to the Holy Land in 18 years, Archbishop Richard Smith of Edmonton, Alberta, said the experience was one of “a lot of listening.”

“I’m finding layer and layer and layer of complexity,” said Archbishop Smith, who was participating in the coordination for the first time. “When one is an observer and (does) not understand this situation from the inside, I think we have to do a lot of listening and reflecting before being able to make some comments which can in any way be helpful.”

Reflecting on Blessed Pope John Paul II’s statement that there can be no peace without justice and no justice without peace, Archbishop Smith noted

that there seemed to be a lack of forgiveness on both sides.

“One thing essential for forgiveness is an attitude of profound humility that recognizes that, in some way or another, everyone is contributing to the problems,” he said. “It is very easy to point a finger at the other, but what we all know as Christians is, for there to be genuine conversion of heart or genuine transformation, the first thing we have to examine is our own situation. And I’m not hearing a lot of that here.”

He said it remained to be seen whether the Israelis and Palestinians are prepared to create the “stable and reconciled society” referred to by Pope Benedict XVI. “I am not hearing a lot so far about how a reconciled society would look,” he said.

Archbishop Patrick Kelly of Liverpool, England, said that in addition to the major new context within which the Arab countries are functioning, Israel was also currently undergoing tensions of its own, between ultra-Orthodox and secular Jews and their expectations of Israeli society.

“These tensions are very real, and they cannot but change the atmosphere. This new dimension can’t but raise questions for the state of Israel,” he said. “It seems strange: Among all the strength which is Israel, there is fragility.”

The lack of housing for Palestinians and the complexity surrounding building and creating new housing was also highlighted during the visit, he said.

“This is an issue of concern for Christians,” he said.

Lahore, Pakistan (CNA) — The Punjab provincial government’s unannounced bulldozing of a Church-owned site that destroyed a church, a school for poor girls, and homes for the poor, elderly and homeless was “a criminal act of landgrabbing,” the local Catholic bishop says.

The families living on the twoacre site in Lahore’s Garhi Shahu district were awoken at 6:30 a.m. on January 10 and told to evacuate their homes. The bulldozers destroyed at least seven houses, which still had the occupants’ belongings inside.

“How can they do such a thing, just to come in, wreck a charitable institution and ruin the lives of people living there? They do not listen to anybody,” Bishop Sebastian Shaw of Lahore told Aid to the Church in Need.

He said the Church had proof of ownership of the site dating back to 1887. The incident has caused fears of further property seizures by the province’s government, which is controlled by the Muslim League “N.” Zoniba Richard, 62, was one of those who lost their home.

Her belongings were destroyed and she was left homeless, without family to go to, she said. She slept out in the cold on the first night after the demolition.

Asked about her plans for the future, she told Aid to the Church in Need: “I don’t know.

I can only trust in God.” A number of families and people working in the school had nowhere to go and camped overnight on the demolished site. They have held protest marches against the action.

Father Emmanuel Yousaf Mani, the national director of the Catholic Church’s National Commission for Justice and Peace, said that the Catholic

Church had not received prior warning of the demolition plans.

“People are very sad. They are very angry. They are still sitting in the place that they call home,” he said.

He said a controversy over the property ownership began a few years ago when the site’s main building was used as a refuge for destitute women.

One of the women who was given refuge converted to Islam and began to harass the religious Sisters who ran the refuge. She questioned the rightful ownership of two rooms which she occupied.

State authorities were notified and subsequent discussions with the Church broke down.

Local government officials claim that the site was declared state land by the authorities in 2007. The government notified the owners of the center several times, a local newspaper said.

The Anglican Bishop of Lahore, Alexander John Malik, also condemned the demolition and called on the government to rebuild what was destroyed.

He said a blasphemy law case should be filed for the desecration of the church and its Bibles and crosses.

Bishop Malik said the destruction shows “unaccounted power” and explains grave injustice and cruelty towards nonMuslims (and) religious minorities in Pakistan.

Hostility towards minority groups in Pakistan has increased in recent years. Punjab governor Salman Taseer was assassinated on Jan. 4, 2011 for opposing the oppression of minority groups and the country’s strict antiblasphemy law. Pakistan’s minorities minister Shahbaz Bhatti, a Catholic who was the only Christian in the cabinet, was assassinated two months later.

hard work — Girls carry water in the village of Sochanoue, a community that resides on a lake outside Cotonou, Benin. Catholic Relief Services helps fight malaria in the village by providing prevention education, medication and mosquito nets for bedding.

Malaria is the leading cause of death for children under five in Benin. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

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The Church in the U.S.

January 20, 2012

Supreme Court upholds Church school’s exception to laws against firing WASHINGTON (CNS) — The Supreme Court January 11 upheld the idea that a “ministerial exception” to anti-discrimination laws means the Church can’t be sued for firing an employee who the Church classified as a minister.

For the first time, the court held that such an exception to federal employment laws exists. The unanimous opinion reversed a ruling by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts said Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC was the first Supreme Court case to raise the question of whether a ministerial exception exists and the unanimous conclusion of the court was “yes.”

“The members of a religious group put their faith in the hands of their ministers,” Roberts wrote. “Requiring a Church to accept or retain an unwanted minister, or punishing a Church for failing to do so, intrudes upon more than a mere employment decision.

Such action interferes with the internal governance of the Church, depriving the Church of control over the selection of those who will personify its beliefs.”

The court stopped short of saying whether the exception would apply to nonministerial employees and left open the possibility that the Michigan Lutheran school teacher who sued might have a case under another legal argument. The court also pointedly avoided setting boundaries for who can be considered a religious employee, concluding only that Cheryl Perich fit the definition.

The decision was quickly hailed by advocates for the Catholic Church, which had been among entities urging the court to support Hosanna-Tabor Church; the school has been closed for several years.

Bishop William E. Lori of Bridgeport, Conn., chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Ad Hoc

Committee for Religious Liberty, called it “a great day for the First Amendment.”

In a statement issued by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Bishop Lori said the ruling makes clear “the historical and constitutional importance of keeping internal Church affairs off limits to the government — because whoever chooses the minister chooses the message.”

Anthony Picarello, general counsel and an associate general secretary for the USCCB, said the decision “affirms the common-sense proposition that religious schools must be free to choose religion teachers based on religion, without interference from the state.”

Perich sued Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School in Redford, Mich., after she was fired after threatening to sue the school under the Americans with Disabilities Act when she tried to return to work following a lengthy sick leave, but was instead encouraged to resign.

Perich had been a teacher with a class load of primarily secular courses when she went on sick leave in 2004. When she tried to return to work, administrators urged her to quit, saying they already had hired a replacement for her. When she threatened to sue under the disabilities law, the school fired her, saying she had been insubordinate by threatening to go outside the Church’s ecclesiastical appeal procedures.

The school countered that because she was a “called” minister of the Church, the decision to fire her was protected by the First Amendment.

Roberts noted that the court was expressing an opinion only about Perich, as a minister, and her Church’s decision to fire her.

“We hold only that the ministerial exception bars such a suit,” he wrote. “We express no view on whether the exception bars other types of suits. There will be time enough to address the applicability of the exception to other circumstances if and when they arise.”

remembering a cardinal — Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, reads the Gospel during a Mass in memory of U.S. Cardinal John P. Foley at the Church of Santa Maria in Traspontina in Rome January 11. Cardinal Foley, head of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Social Communications for more than two decades, died Dec. 11, 2011, after a battle with leukemia. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Supreme Court ruling could impact future religious liberty cases

Washington D.C. (CNA) — The U.S. Supreme Court’s move defending religious groups’ right to determine their leaders could significantly affect future cases dealing with religious freedom, a legal expert says.

University of Notre Dame law professor Richard Garnett said that the ruling “makes it very clear that the First Amendment would not permit the government to secondguess a religious community’s decision” in appointing Church authorities.

Garnett told CNA on January 12 that the decision was important in part because it clarifies that religious freedom properly belongs to religious communities and institutions as well as individuals.

In their unanimous January 11 decision — which was hailed by many as a victory for religious liberty — the U.S. Supreme Court justices upheld the “ministerial exception” that permits religious groups to make employment decisions without government interference.

During the case, speculation had arisen that if the “ministerial exception” was not upheld, the government could force the Catholic Church to ordain women in order to avoid discrimination lawsuits.

Garnett said that although this scenario would never have happened, it was good to have the Supreme Court “explain why that could never happen.”

He also said the ruling could have a significant influence on other religious liberty cases because the justices “unanimously rejected” the Obama administration’s view of what qualifies as religion, sending a clear message that it was “inappropriately narrow.”

Cases involving religious freedom in the U.S. have abounded in recent months. A controversial

mandate issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in August of 2011 requires health insurance providers to cover contraception and has very narrow religious exemptions.

Catholic Charities in Illinois and Boston have recently been forced to discontinue their adoption services in recent years because they were not willing to place children with homosexual couples.

Last fall, the U.S. bishops’ Migration and Refugee Services was denied its application for a federal grant renewal to aid victims of human trafficking — despite excellent reviews — after it refused to offer referrals for abortions, contraception and sterilizations.

Garnett explained that although the Hosanna-Tabor ruling does not set a direct precedent for such cases, it has “thematic connections” to them that could influence future court decisions.

The case dealt with Cheryl Perich, a teacher at Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School of Redford, Mich.

Perich, who had a sleeping disorder, returned from disability leave to find that a substitute had already been hired to replace her for the year. When she threatened to sue to get her job back, she was fired.

Hosanna-Tabor argued that Perich had been fired for religious reasons because she had violated the Church’s commitment to internal conflict resolution rather than suing in court.

The decision, which was penned by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., was based largely on the courts’ determination that Perich qualified as a “minister” and that “ministerial exception” therefore applied to her.

The court noted that Perich had

been “commissioned as a minister” and was considered a “called teacher,” who had received a calling from God to fill the position.

She taught both religion and secular subjects, and she regularly led students in prayer and devotional exercises.

However, in a concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas went further, arguing that the court should not have tried to make its own determination of whether Perich was properly considered a minister.

Thomas contended that “the Religion Clauses require civil courts to apply the ministerial exception and to defer to a religious organization’s good-faith understanding of who qualifies as its minister.”

He noted that the broad span of religious structures and teachings present in the United States means that “the question whether an employee is a minister is itself religious in nature, and the answer will vary widely.”

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote a separate concurring opinion. Joined by Justice Elena Kagan, he asserted that the term “minister” is not the central factor in the case.

“What matters,” he said, is that Perich “played an important role as an instrument of her Church’s religious message and as a leader of its worship activities.”

He observed that the word “minister” is rarely used “by Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, or Buddhists.”

Rather than a debate about title or ordination, he suggested that the case was truly about the importance of safeguarding the autonomy of religious organizations to govern their internal affairs in accordance with the First Amendment.

January 20, 2012

The Church in the U.S.

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Archbishop talks about discrimination against Catholics in education costs

social concern — Samantha Bernadette Alvarez, seven, one of the youngest participants in the recent L.A. Freedom Walk, holds a sign during the anti-human trafficking event in downtown Los Angeles. U.S. President Barack Obama has declared January 2012 as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month.

(CNS photo/CNS photo/Victor Aleman, Vida Nueva)

Texas bishops applaud court decision to uphold sonogram law

AUSTIN, Texas (CNS) — Texas Catholic bishops applauded the January 11 decision of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals allowing the state to enforce a sonogram law requiring abortion providers to offer women the opportunity to view the ultrasound images of their unborn children.

“Providing mothers access to sonograms informs them about the risks and complications associated with abortion,” said Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston. “These consultations save lives by educating mothers who may not realize that the child in their womb is exactly that — a unique, irreplaceable human life.”

His remarks came in a statement released the same day in Austin by the Texas Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the state’s bishops.

The ruling by a three-judge panel of the appeals court ruling overturned a U.S. District Court judge’s temporary injunction against enforcing the measure that requires doctors who perform abortions to show sonograms to patients, and describe the images and fetal heartbeat.

With the 5th Circuit’s ruling, state officials can set a date for enforcing the law even though the case now goes back to the lower court for a final ruling.

The state’s bishops made the sonogram law a high priority during the previous legislative session because they said it would help mothers recognize the humanity of their unborn chil-

dren and choose life.

Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller of San Antonio said he was particularly impressed by Chief Judge Edith Jones’ recognition of the state’s legitimate interests in protecting life.

“The court today acted to protect the smallest voices of those whom God already knows, alive in their mothers’ wombs,” he said.

Jones disagreed with the argument that the sonogram law infringes on the free speech rights of doctors and patients. She wrote that the “required disclosures of a sonogram, the fetal heartbeat, and their medical descriptions are the epitome of truthful, non-misleading information.”

The Center for Reproductive Rights, which challenged the sonogram law, has 14 days from the decision to ask for a rehearing.

Several states require ultrasounds as part of abortion procedures, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Eleven states require verbal counseling or written materials to include information on accessing ultrasound services.

Six states (not including Texas) mandate that an abortion provider perform an ultrasound on each woman seeking an abortion, and require the provider to offer the woman the opportunity to view the image.

Texas Governor Rick Perry signed the Texas Sonogram Law last May as a stronger version of the 2003 Texas Woman’s Right to Know Act.

Philadelphia, Pa. (CNA/EWTN News) — The announcement that dozens of Philadelphia Catholic schools might close has caused “confusion, anger and grief,” Archbishop Charles J. Chaput acknowledged on January 12, as he asked people to react with Christian charity.

“It’s useful to wonder how many of our schools might have been saved if, over the last decade, Catholics had fought for vouchers as loudly and vigorously as they now grieve about school closings,” Archbishop Chaput said in his weekly online column.

Catholics are “discriminated against” because they must pay once for public schools and again for Catholic schools, he noted.

“School choice may not answer every financial challenge in Catholic education; but vouchers would make a decisive difference. They’d help our schools enormously,” he said, characterizing vouchers as “a matter of parental rights and basic justice.”

The closures affect four high schools and 44 elementary schools. They will displace almost 24,000 students, according to media estimates.

Many parents, students and employees have protested the closures.

The archbishop defended the Blue Ribbon Commission which made the recommendations. He stated that its members were “speaking truthfully” about “enroll-

ment and financial realities nobody wants to face.”

“The resource challenges we face in 2012 are much harsher than 40 or 50 years ago when many of us attended Catholic school. No family can run on nostalgia and red ink,” he said.

Archbishop Chaput praised Catholic schools’ work and stressed the need for schools that are “vigorously Catholic” and “academically excellent.”

The “hardest part” of the commission’s deliberations was considering the burdens that many families and teachers will face, the archbishop said. He made assurances that the archdiocese will try to place students and teachers in new positions and assist those who will lose their employment.

He urged Catholics to remember their duty to treat one another with “charity and civility in Jesus Christ.”

Commission members and archdiocesan staff worked “selflessly” on the report and deserve “thanks and respect,” not “the bitter — and unjust — criticism” shown by some parents and students.

Catholic schools exist to form believing Catholic Christians who are people of the Gospel and of justice, mercy and charity, the archbishop said as he brought his column to a close.

“If they produce something less, then we need to ask ourselves whether they deserve to survive.”

6

The Anchor The pro-choice genocide of baby girls

On Sunday, we mark the 39th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision that with its companion Doe v. Bolton made abortion legal in the United States for all nine months of pregnancy. These revolutionary decisions have since been celebrated by radical feminist groups as a milestone advance in the cause of women’s freedom and rights, not just in the United States but internationally.

The decisions, they argued, gave women control over their destiny by giving them control over their bodies and whatever was in their bodies. They saved women’s lives, they maintained, by preventing deaths in the ubiquitous “back alleys” by coat-hanger-wielding pseudo-doctors. The euphemisms they employed tried to claim that what was growing in them wasn’t human life: at worst, the “fetus” was akin to a parasite or a wart; at most it was merely “potential” human life. The whole moniker of “freedom of choice” always scrupulously avoided mentioning a direct object to specify and morally qualify what one was actually choosing.

Over the course of the last four decades, however, the various pro-choice mendacities, exaggerations and euphemisms have all been exposed. Dr. Bernard Nathanson, once one of the most notorious abortion doctors in the country before his conversion from the grisly practice and to Catholicism, testified how wildly the pro-choice movement inflated and outright invented claims of maternal deaths in botched back alley abortions. “Jane Roe” herself, whose real name is Norma McCorvey, testified that her whole case was based on the lie that she had been raped and couldn’t receive an abortion.

Advances in embryology and in technology have made abundantly clear that what grows within a woman is clearly a human being at the very stages of existence all adult human beings have traversed.

And as the discipline of demography has gotten more advanced and the pro-choice mentality has metastasized, the direct object of the “freedom of choice” has become increasingly apparent. Not only has it been exposed that the choice of abortion is the decision to end the life of a developing human being, but in increasing numbers across the globe, the choice has resulted in a disproportionate slaughter of baby girls.

In 2008, Mara Hvistendahl published “Unnatural Selection,” a monumental work that documents global sex-selection and the consequences that will likely come to the world from what she calls the international deficit of 160 million girls who have gone “missing,” because they have been preferentially chosen for death through abortion. Hvistendahl and others after her, especially Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute, have documented the disparities in the SRB (sex ratio at birth) in various countries. Naturally and historically, the SRB has shown that on average 102-106 boys are born per every 100 girls; because boys are greater risk-takers and experience higher rates of mortality, eventually the ratio of men and women level off in later years. Since the rise of legal access to abortion, however, not to mention forced abortion policies in places like China, the SRB has risen in many countries well past the natural upper limits. In China the SRB for first-born children is 120; for second children, in those places where a second child is “allowed” (because the first child was a girl), the SRB is 143; and in those rare provinces where a third child is permitted, the SRB is 156. In Beijing, the sex-ratio for third children is a stratospheric 275. Unnatural SRBs are found in 20 other countries, notably India (112), Armenia (116), Azerbaijan (116), Georgian (113) and well as in European nations of Austria, Italy, Portugal and Spain. These elevated rates are not happening by chance.

Eberstadt details three factors: a strong preference for sons; the use of prenatal sex-determination technology from ultrasounds to newly-developed blood tests; and a push for smaller families. All three lead parents to carry out sex-selective feticide of baby girls.

Hvistendahl’s book examines the history of this international femicide. She documents that it came about through western, and particularly American, population control policies effectuated in particular by the money and research of the International Planned Parenthood Federation and the US Agency for International Development. Her analysis has particular credibility because she doesn’t conceal her support for legal abortion. In the early years of the international population control mania in the 1960s, westerners recognized that their efforts to limit family size were failing because families in developing societies would continue to have children until a baby boy was born. The Population Control protagonists began to admit publicly that the only way that their efforts would succeed would be to come up with a way to ensure that first-born children were males. Sex-identification of developing children in the womb through inexpensive obstetric ultrasonography and the subsequent abortion of girls soon became the preferred method.

Sex-selection abortions are not merely occurring overseas but also here in the United States. In early December, Congressman Trent Franks of Arizona introduced a bill called the Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act (PRENDA), which would prohibit doctors from performing abortions based on the sex or race of the fetus. He chose Anthony, he said, because in the U.S., as elsewhere, when abortion happens for reasons of sex-selection, girls are disproportionately the victims; and Douglass because even though blacks account for only 13 percent of the population, they account for 35 percent of abortion body-count. PRENDA is therefore a civil rights bill on both scores. One might have anticipated that groups that claim to support the cause of women would want to stop practices in which the youngest women of all are chosen for slaughter in a genderreverse of the Holy Innocents of ancient Bethlehem. Instead, Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America called PRENDA “nothing more than a disingenuous attempt to block access to abortion.” Another coalition of 24 pro-choice women’s groups likewise opposed the bill, saying in a letter to Congress, “While this bill purports to support gender equity and civil rights, it does neither. … This bill is an attack on our right to self-determine whether and when to have children, and we refuse to allow race and gender to be wielded as a weapon to undermine abortion rights.” Access to abortion must be protected, they insist, even if abortion is used preferentially to kill those they purport to represent.

Surgical abortion is, sadly, not the only way this global war against baby girls is taking place. An increasingly popular means in the West — one that shows the perverted extent toward which the “prochoice” mentality of “reproductive freedom” extends — is through the process of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). A child is manufactured in-vitro and allowed to develop to the eight-cell stage.

Then one of the cells is tested to determine whether it’s a boy or a girl. If the child has the preferred gender — for most couples, a boy —it is implanted. If it doesn’t, the embryo is generally destroyed. Many of the couples having access to this high tech IVF-PGD process are fertile couples desirous of taking their “right to choose” to the extreme of even selecting hair color, eye color, height and other traits. Various countries have banned the use of PGD for sex-selection purposes, but not the United States, which has aptly been called the “wild west of reproductive technology.” Fertility clinics across the world send samples for PGD analysis to be done, and embryos eliminated, to bypass eugenic legislation in their home countries. Rich couples from other countries desiring boys fly here to places like the Fertility Institutes in Los Angeles, which proudly advertises itself as a “Leading World Center for 100 percent PGD Selection,” emphasizing, “If you want to be certain that your next child will be the gender you’re hoping for, be aware that no other method comes close to the reliability of PGD.” Pro-Lifers have long described the many ways the pro-choice movement hurts individual women as well as the cause of women overall. It’s now becoming clear that the pro-choice mentality is disproportionately snuffing out the future of hundreds of million of women more than the carnage of men, creating a global disparity in sex ratio that leads sober analysts to predict that the surplus of unmarried males in sexually unbalanced societies will hurt women in various other ways: through augmenting the demand for prostitution, kidnapping and female trafficking. When are those who claim to speak for the good of women going to recognize that abortion is bad for women, bad for baby girls, and bad for all of society?

I

January 20, 2012

‘Through this holy anointing’

n this week’s article we examine the a special way through their prayers and actual rite of the Anointing of the fraternal attention” (CCC 1516).

Sick, which is full of rich symbolism and During the essential part of the rite, deep theological meaning. But beyond the priest lays his hand upon the head that symbolism and meaning are the of the one receiving the Sacrament and graces and healing that are accessible to prays silently for this very healing to those who receive the Sacrament. come upon the person, not just in a phys“The grace of this Sacrament,” the ical or emotional way, but also and more “Catechism of the Catholic Church” properly in a spiritual way — giving the teaches, “is one of strengthening, peace person the courage and strength to unite and courage to overcome the difficulties his or her suffering to Jesus Christ. This that go with the condition of serious illis also meant to help the sick person to ness or the frailty of old age. This grace fight against despair in the face of death. is a gift of the Holy Spirit, who renews Though it is not part of the rite itself, trust and faith in God and strengthens after I have administered the Sacrament, against the temptations of the evil one, especially to someone who is dying, the temptation of discouragement and I like to pray the Hail Mary with the anguish in the face of death. This assisperson, because of the beautiful exprestance from the Lord by the power of His sion of faith we find in the words, said Spirit is meant to lead the sick person to to Our Lady, “Pray for us sinners, now healing of the soul, but also of the body and at the hour of our death.” The hour if such is God’s will” (CCC 1520). or moment of one’s death can be a moBefore the ment in which Sacrament is many are offered, it is frightened or Putting Into customary to anxious. Just the Deep ask the person as the Sacrawho is receivment aids us ing it if they with God’s

By Father would like to grace, so too Jay Mello go to Confesdo the prayers sion first, if of our Blessed they are physically able to do so.

Mother.

As is the case with all prayer, the SacAfter the laying on of hands, the rament begins with the Sign of the Cross priests makes the Sign of the Cross with and the typical liturgical greeting, “The the holy oil on the person’s forehead Lord be with you” (to which we respond, and on the palms of his or her hands and “And with your spirit”). This implicitly prays, “Through this holy anointing may reminds us that this is not just some the Lord in His love and mercy help you casual or ordinary prayer, but the prayer with the grace of the Holy Spirit. May of the Church. the Lord Who frees you from sin save The priest who is administering the you and raise you up.”

Sacrament then invites the person who is Later the “Our Father” is prayed receiving it and those who are gathered by all who are gathered together with there in prayer to reflect upon the words the sick person, followed by a closing from sacred Scripture that speaks of the prayer that is chosen to suit the particuorigins of the Sacrament in biblical times. lar circumstances of the person, i.e., “Lord God, You have said to us whether he or she is going in for a major through Your Apostle James: ‘Are there operation, seriously weak because of sick people among you? Let them send advanced age or very near death. The for the priests of the Church, let the priest ends by blessing the person and all priests pray over them, anointing them gathered in the name of the Father, Son with oil in the name of the Lord. The and Holy Spirit. prayer of faith will save the sick person I mentioned at the beginning of the arand the Lord will raise them up. If they ticle that the Sacrament of Reconciliation have committed any sins, their sins will is typically offered to those receiving the be forgiven them’” (Jas 5:14-15). anointing. After the anointing has been This Scripture passage reminds us that celebrated, the Eucharist is also traditionChrist Jesus established this Sacrament ally given, especially to those who are and that it has been an important part of dying. This is known as “Viaticum,” a the sacramental life of the Church since Latin expression meaning “food for the apostolic times. Bringing the healing journey,” namely, the journey from this power of Jesus Christ to those who are life into eternal life. sick or dying is essential to the ministry “The Church offers those who are of the Church still today! about to leave this life the Eucharist as The passage also reminds us of the viaticum,” the “Catechism” says. “Comrole that the priest plays in the lives munion in the Body and Blood of Christ, of his parishioners. The “Catechism” received at this moment of ‘passing over’ explains to us that “it is the duty of pasto the Father, has a particular signifitors to instruct the faithful on the benefits cance and importance. It is the seed of of this Sacrament. The faithful should eternal life and the power of resurrection, encourage the sick to call for a priest to according to the words of the Lord: ‘He receive this Sacrament. The sick should who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood prepare themselves to receive it with has eternal life, and I will raise him up at good dispositions, assisted by their pasthe last day’ (CCC 1524). tor and the whole ecclesial community, Father Mello is a parochial vicar at which is invited to surround the sick in St. Patrick’s Parish in Falmouth.

January 20, 2012

W

hen we first started to consider the parables of the Kingdom and the Sermon on the Seashore, I noted that some of those parables would be seen again in a different context. In the use of parables, Matthew’s main purpose was ecclesiastical; he wanted to give the theology of the Church through parables.

Luke uses parables, incidents and miracles to bring out another aspect of the teaching of Jesus. His method is by pairing.

Since this series of articles is about parables, I shall only reference some of the paired miracles and incidents without much description: 1. The announcement of the birth of John to Zechariah (Lk 1:5-25), the announcement of the birth of Jesus to Mary (Lk 1:26-38).

2. The Canticle of Mary (Lk 1:46-55), The Canticle of Zechariah (Lk 1:68-79).

3. Simeon and the Infant Jesus in the Temple (Lk 2:2535), Anna and the Infant Jesus in the Temple (Lk 2:36-38).

4. The cure of demoniac in Capernaum (Lk 4:31-37), The

E

very four years we go through that uniquely American process of choosing our president. Since our economy continues to limp along, this election year is shaping up to be like a court that has placed both free market capitalism and big government spending on trial.

In 2009 Pope Benedict spelled out what economics could look like if Gospel principles permeated the financial, corporate and political institutions of the world. In his encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict explains that “charity in truth requires that shape and structure be given to those types of economic initiative which, without rejecting profit, aim at a higher goal than the mere logic of the exchange of equivalents, of profit as an end in itself” (CV 38). In other words, Gospelinspired economics is based on the premise that we are all in relationship with each other. It is based on the logic of gratuitous giving, not the logic of the market in which giving requires an equal exchange of goods, or giving that is done through duty or obligation imposed by the

7

The Anchor

The paired parables

cure of Peter’s mother-in-law and a woman buried yeast in in Capernaum (Lk 4:38-39). flour (Lk 13:20-21).

5. The healing of centuThe next paired parables rion’s dying slave (Lk 7:1are the lost sheep (Lk 15:1-7) 10), the restoration of life to and the lost coin (Lk 15:8widow’s son (Lk 7:10-17).

10). The story structure is the 6. The cure of a woman same in the two parables, and on the Sabbath (Lk 13:10-17), the cure of a man on the Sabbath (Lk 14:1-6).

7. The appearance of the risen Christ to women (Lk 24:1-11),

By Father the appearance of the Martin L. Buote risen Christ to men (Lk 24:13-35).

Even with just these seven paired incidents even some sentence structure and miracles, it is easy to is identical. The difference see a pattern. It is altogether between the two parables is remarkable that in the pairing a man with sheep versus a of the two cures in Caperwoman with coins. naum, Luke mentions the call The last pair of parables we of Peter, thus violating the shall examine is more comchronology so he could pair plex in structure: the dishonthese two healings in the text. est judge and the persistent This pattern will become even widow (Lk 18:1-8), and the more manifest in Luke’s use Pharisee and the tax collector of parables.

(Lk 18:9-14).

The first of Luke’s paired The two parables have the parables are Kingdom parafollowing points in common: bles also found in Matthew 1. They are about prayer.

13. A man buried a mustard 2. The people of status seed in the land (Lk 13:18-19) (judge, Pharisee) consider

Parables of the Lord

themselves as better than the others.

3. The people without status (a widow, a tax collector) are only on the fringe of society.

4. It is the prayer of the lowly that is heard.

5. God vindicates in both instances.

In most respects, a widow had no standing in Jewish society.

She could not sue, she could not inherit.

But she could nag!

A tax collector worked for a foreign power and was classified with sinners (Lk 15:2, 19:7). Apparently he did not approach where the Jews in good standing gathered to pray, but stood off at a distance.

Both the judge and the Pharisee considered themselves of such importance that they did not have to answer to anyone.

There are also differences in the two parables. The judge is proclaimed to be dishonest. The Pharisee has many good qualities and practices.

The judge has no faith, and

We have the power

Benevolent Protective Order state. of Elks, the Elks Club did not Most business decisions abandon us. They negotiated made today do not reflect the with the National State Bank human principles of friendship, solidarity and reciprocity of N.J. and convinced them to that are the marks of Gospel economics. This was not always the case.

When I was born toward the end of the post-WWII Baby Boom, my

By Claire McManus family of eight squeezed into one of the low-income housing projects where many GI families found offer a loan to my father for a down payment on a house. an affordable place to live.

The interest rate for that loan: We left the housing project to zero percent. After 20 years of seek homes that were freemarriage my parents bought standing with back yards and their first and only home with privacy, which meant several a mortgage interest rate of years of moving from house two percent, held by the same to house seeking affordable rents or better neighborhoods. bank that evicted them from We finally landed on the good their rental property. This is an example of gratuitous givside of the railroad tracks in ing. a two-family home owned by An example of a profitthe Elks Club. In less than a driven decision made by many year, however, the Elks were corporations is the hiring of given an offer by the largtemporary workers. ESPN, a est bank in N.J. to buy that company that is part of the house so that they could tear mega-conglomerate which init down and build the first cludes Disney and ABC, hired drive-through teller in town. young college graduates to do True to their mission as the

The Great Commission

the tedious work of collecting tidbits of statistics and highlights from hundreds of games played around the globe so that they can be streamed across our television screens. These young people accepted low wages without benefits because they may get in on the ground floor of a great company and eventually make it into the sports media industry.

Unfortunately, ESPN never intended to offer permanent positions to these workers, but kept them indefinitely in temporary limbo. When Disney discovered this practice, it gave ESPN time to decide to either hire the workers full time or lay them off. ESPN fired the temporary workers; a good decision for a healthy bottom line; a devastating decision for young workers whose dreams were dashed and dignity wounded. The timing of this action also coincided with the crash of the economy in 2008, which meant that the young workers were turned out into a cold employment market where they

contempt along with that lack.

The Pharisee has faith, but it is full of pride. The widow has persistence; the tax collector has humility.

The first parable is purely secular, and the question is posed whether faith will be found when the Lord comes.

The second parable answers that even when faith is present, it may need to be purified.

In Luke, this pairing of miracles, incidents and parables addresses the equality of men and women before God as far as their personhood is concerned. The pairing does not address equality of roles in society for men and women. In each paired parable, the roles of men and women are different. The equality of societal roles is left by Luke to the evolving mores of the time and place.

Father Buote is a retired priest of the Diocese of Fall River. For more than 30 years, he has been leading Bible study groups in various parishes and has also led pilgrims to visit sites in Israel associated with the Bible.

were forced to scratch together income without any hope of benefits or upward mobility. This is what a free market looks like when decisions are made without regard for the dignity of workers.

We can fall into the trap of blaming our economic crisis on corporations, or government, or banks, but let’s face it, they are the products of our culture, and therefore reflect our good and dark sides. We are part of a tripod of influence that includes the marketplace and the state. Charity is not an optional decision based on our political persuasion, but is the foundation of our salvation. When we demand justice and strive for the common good of all, we infuse the culture with charity.

When we hold corporations accountable for protecting the environment, and demand that our governments protect life from cradle to grave, we bring society into balance with God’s kingdom. No president or corporation can match our influence if we have the courage to wield our power.

Claire McManus is the director of the Diocesan Office of Faith Formation.

8

L

et us go back in time to Galilee about 2,000 years ago. We are Jewish and we see this person named Jesus with a group of followers. For us this is nothing new. We have seen this often. This was your very typical rabbinic group, where Jews sought out a rabbi, a teacher, and would have walked with Him studying the Torah.

When this group learned everything they could from the rabbi, they would go off on their own and become rabbis themselves.

Now let’s fast forward back to the present. After hearing the passage from Mark’s Gospel, where Jesus calls Simon, Andrew, James, and John to follow Him, we come to realize there is something different

January 20, 2012

The Anchor

Answering the call to discipleship

about this rabbi Jesus and in some secret place, but in His rabbinical group. First, the midst of a day’s work.

His disciples did not search Simon and Andrew were Him out; instead it is Jesus casting their nets; James and Who calls them. ObediJohn were in a boat mending ent to His Father’s will, Jesus comes to invite others into Homily of the Week that same intimate relationship with Third Sunday His Father. In the of Ordinary Time opening passage of

By Deacon Mark’s Gospel, we Maurice Ouellette come to understand that this intimate relationship must begin with a conversion of their nets. The work place is the heart. Jesus proclaims, where most of our lives are “The Kingdom of God is at spent, and this is where our hand. Repent, and believe in faith has to make a differthe Gospel.” ence. Making a difference There is a second aspect in our work-a-day world to Jesus’ call that is worth can only happen if we allow our consideration. When our lives to be informed and Jesus called His disciples, transformed by the Gospel it was not in a temple, not message. We realize from

the passage from the book of Jonah that the lives of the people of Nineveh would have not been changed had Jonah remained a reluctant prophet, refusing to share the Lord’s message.

Finally, recall when we were back in time in Galilee we saw the followers of different rabbis eventually leave and become rabbis themselves.

Yet this did not happen to the followers of the rabbi Jesus. The call of Jesus is absolute. He invites His disciples into a school in which the commitment is total and from which there is no graduation. Our discipleship to Jesus involves a lifetime of being educated

and grounded in our faith.

Look at what the followers of Jesus were called: they were called disciples. The word disciple means follower, learner, student. A disciple then is a learning follower of Jesus Christ.

True disciples are those who know their faith. They are thinking, learning people who learn as they follow.

Like Simon and Andrew, James and John, who left their nets and family, discipleship insists that we be willing to risk, to step out when asked, and to make everything in our lives secondary to the Gospel of Jesus.

It is not a one-time wake-up call. It involves a daily commitment and transformation.

Deacon Ouellette is assigned to St. Julie Billiart Parish in North Dartmouth.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. Jan. 21, 2 Sm 1:1-4,11-12,19,23-27; Ps 80:2-3,5-7; Mk 3:20-21. Sun. Jan. 22, Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Jon 3:1-5,10; Ps 25:4-9; 1 Cor 7:29-31; Mk 1:14-20. Mon. Jan. 23, 2 Sm 5:1-7,10; Ps 89:20-22,25-26; Mk 3:22-30. Tues. Jan. 24, 2 Sm 6:12b-15,17-19; Ps 24:7-10; Mk 3:31-35. Wed. Jan 25,Acts 22:3-16 or 9:1-22; Ps 117:1-2; Mk 16:15-18. Thurs. Jan. 26, 2 Tm 1:1-8 or Ti 1:1-5; Ps 96:1-3,7-8a,10; Mk 4:21-25. Fri. Jan. 27, 2 Sm 11:1-4a,5-10a,13-17; Ps 51:3-7,10-11; Mk 4:26-34.

V

áclav Havel, who died this past December 18, was one of the great contemporary exponents of freedom lived nobly. His moral mettle proved true in the world of ideas and the world of affairs; indeed, few men of the past half-century have moved more surely between those two worlds. In that respect, and for his personal courage, Havel reminded me of one of the American Founders — if, that is, one could imagine James Madison hanging out with Frank Zappa.

After his death, Havel’s brilliant literary deconstruction of the moral tawdriness of late bureaucratic communism, the underground essay called

Václav Havel and us

“The Power of the Powerless,” however, it is President Havel’s Jan. 1, 1990, speech was widely and appropriately that comes to mind. The “Velquoted. Another Havel esvet Revolution” that deposed say from his days in opposiCzechoslovak communism had tion also bears re-reading: “The Anatomy of a Reticence,” the Czech playwright’s 1985 critique of the willful blindness of western peace activists about the nature of Soviet

By George Weigel totalitarianism. Both Havel masterpieces continue to speak to swept Havel into Hradčany us today, about the dangers of Castle three days before. Here political conformity and the is some of what the man who dangers of political utopiahad spent much of 1989 in a nism. communist prison said to his As the United States enters countrymen in his first New a presidential election cycle Year’s Day address as their of momentous consequence, president: “My dear fellow citizens: “For 40 years you heard from my predecessors on this day different variations on the same theme: how our country was flourishing, how many million tons of steel we produced, how happy we all were, how we trusted our government, and what bright perspectives were unfolding in front of us.

“I assume you did not propose me to this office so that I, too, would lie to you.

“Our country is not flourishing. The enormous creative and spiritual potential of our

The Catholic Difference

nations is not being used sensibly. Entire branches of industry are producing goods that are of no interest to anyone, while we are lacking the things we need. A state, which calls itself a workers’ state, humiliates and exploits workers. ...

“But the economic mess is still not the main problem. The worst thing is that we live in a contaminated moral environment. We fell morally ill because we became used to saying something different from what we thought.

We learned not to believe in anything, to ignore one another, to care only about ourselves. Concepts such as love, friendship, compassion, humility, or forgiveness lost their depth and dimension, and for many of us they represented only psychological peculiarities, or they resembled goneastray feelings from ancient times, a little ridiculous in the era of computers and spaceships. …

“When I talk about the contaminated moral atmosphere … I am talking about all of us. We had all become used to the totalitarian system and accepted it as an unchangeable fact and thus helped perpetuate it. In other words, we are all —

although naturally to different extents — responsible for the operation of the totalitarian machinery. None of us is just its victim. We are all also its co-creators.

“Why do I say this? It would be very unreasonable to understand the sad legacy of the last 40 years as something alien, which some distant relative bequeathed to us. On the contrary, we have to accept this legacy as a sin we committed against ourselves. If we accept it as such, we will understand that it is up to us all, and up to us alone to do something about it. We cannot blame the previous rulers for everything, not only because it would be untrue, but also because it would blunt the duty that each of us faces today: namely, the obligation to act independently, freely, reasonably and quickly. … Freedom and democracy include participation and therefore responsibility from us all.”

The candidate who can speak with that kind of moral clarity to the American people about the decisions we face is the candidate who should take the presidential oath of office on Jan. 20, 2013.

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

January 20, 2012

Here’s the scoop

17 January 2012 — at home Month, National Pet Dental Health Month, and National on the Taunton River — On Time Management Month. If this date in 1925 President Calvin Coolidge told a gather- that’s not enough excitement ing of newspaper editors, “The chief business of the American people is business.”

Reflections of a repare yourParish Priest selves, dear readers, for all the

By Father Tim excitement coming Goldrick your way in the month of February. February is National Africanfor anyone, February is also American Month, National Catholic Press Month. The Bird-feeding Month, National Cherry Month, National topic of the Catholic press is now being addressed in diocMend a Broken Heart Month, esan publications and parish National Parent Leadership

P

9

The Anchor

The Ship’s Log

bulletins throughout the land.

In our diocese, Anchor subscriptions are due February 5.

I’ve decided to set out today to get the scoop on the Catholic press.

The Catholic print media is specifically designed to provide Catholics with an accurate account of local, national, and world events that impact their lives, but others follow the Catholic press as well. I know clergy of other denominations (and even atheists) who read The Anchor. And I’m quite sure that state and national

Engaging teen-agers in the faith — Part I

I

and therefore, the first thing f you have one of those to do with statements like, “I quirky beings in your don’t feel like going to church” house called a teen-ager, or an even more dramatic, “I chances are you’ve heard hate church,” is to not overthe complaint that he or she react. They would most likely doesn’t “feel” like going to say the same thing, “Boring!”

Mass. If you heard this sentiabout anything that might ment expressed by a muffled separated them from their pilvoice, deep from under the low and/or their peers. Knowbed covers about 10 minutes ing that church attendance isn’t before Mass is about to begin, really the problem, only one of chances are also quite good that it sounded a lot more like a challenge than a quirk!

Take heart, however, you are not alone and such a situation doesn’t mean that all is lost

By Heidi Bratton with your child and his or her faith. In the next few columns, I many possible, parent-centered will be presenting some ways ideals that children might push that parents and parishes can against on their road to indehelp teen-agers move beyond pendence, can lessen the sting a “feeling-driven” and toward and help us not jump down a “faith-driven” relationtheir throats when they make ship with God, the Mass, and hurtful comments about the Church involvement. faith we love.

In this first column I will be Next on our list of ways to addressing the importance of help our teen-agers grow in a putting our teen-ager’s feelings faith-driven relationship with in the context of the natural God is to assure them that they progression of child developare not loyal subjects of their ment and of helping our teenfickle feelings. In other words, agers put their feelings in the not “feeling” like going to proper context of their other church doesn’t have anything God-given abilities. After this to do with rightness or their I will discuss the importance ability to get out of bed and of showing our teens how to get in the pew. Feelings do prepare themselves better to not actually have the power have a more fulfilling experito “make” any of us do or not ence of the Mass, and after that do anything. I’m not saying I will be suggesting some ways to dismiss, minimize, or try that our parishes can actually to change their feelings. We become more teen-friendly. should absolutely not trivialize Throughout the teen-age their feelings. What I am sayyears it is our children’s job ing is that we can gently take to separate from us. It seems the imperial scepter away from strange, even hurtful when our teen-agers’ feelings by they seem to love their Faceputting their feelings in proper book friends or our car keys relationship to the suite of other more than us, but it is a sign of abilities God has also bestowed their emerging independence,

Homegrown Faith

on all human beings such as will power, intelligence, common sense, and so forth.

Valiant stories of knights in shining armor, self-sacrificing tales of saints and martyrs, inspiring life stories of the greatest athletes and musicians, or tales of their own immigrant grandparents will work perfectly to demonstrate the limited ability of feelings to dictate a person’s actions. Do we really think any of these universally respectable people woke up each morning feeling like another boring day of riding on horseback across treacherous mountains in heavy, hot armor? Like laboring in the mill, the mine, or the kitchen from sun-up to sundown six or seven days a week for just pennies?

But they did it anyway, because they were not unwilling subjects held captive by their emotions, but willing participants of the greater good calling their name.

So, the first two, cheery responses we can have to a muffled, “I don’t feel like going to Mass,” are to not overreact and to help our teen-agers contextualize their feelings. If there isn’t time to have a full blown, rational discussion with that muffled voice and still get to Mass on time, however, giving a teen-ager two minutes to get out from under the covers or lose Facebook privileges or the car keys for a month ought to do the trick until the discussion can be had.

Heidi is an author, photographer, and mother of six children. Her newest book, “Homegrown Faith; Nurturing Your Catholic Family,” is available from Servant Books.

politicians keep a sharp eye on what’s happening in the Catholic press. The Catholic vote is significant, after all. Nevertheless, I want to consider how the Catholic press is faring among Catholics themselves.

A scientific study of the matter was published recently by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. I find the statistics interesting.

The big trend in the newspaper business these days is that the secular press is abandoning hardcopy and publishing more and more online.

This is not the case with the Catholic press. Readership of diocesan print publications has remained unchanged in the last six years. Typically, about one in four of all adult Catholics have read a Catholic publication in the last three months.

When it comes to Catholics who regularly attend Mass, more than half read their diocesan publication weekly (some diocesan newspapers publish monthly). This gives diocesan newspapers the distinction of usually having a larger readership than secular weeklies. It seems the Catholic niche in the print media is secure.

The idea that the Internet is the wave of the future for the Catholic media, especially where young Catholics are concerned, is not supported by research. Only three percent of adult Catholics read diocesan publications online.

Younger Catholics are just as unlikely to do so. It’s not that the Catholic Church lacks an online presence. Visits to parish websites are steadily increasing. Our diocesantelevised Sunday Mass is now available anytime on the diocesan website: www. fallriverdiocese.org. Catholics are online like everyone else, of course, but they are not showing much interest in Internet searches involving matters of faith, religion, or spirituality. Even the very word “Catholic” is slipping in the search engines.

The fact is that with the demise of so many hardcopy newspapers and magazines, less and less printed material is entering the home. This makes it more likely that a copy of the diocesan newspaper in the house will be picked up and read. You’ll read a six-

month old Newsweek in your doctor’s waiting room simply because it’s the only thing in the rack.

While secular publications fiercely compete with each other online, the Catholic press has mostly chosen not to do so. We are winning the war by not even fighting a battle.

Nationally, in 70 percent of the Catholic households that do receive a diocesan publication, eight out of 10 of the readers rate it as “good” or “excellent.” Oddly, many of them (32 percent) have no idea where that diocesan newspaper came from. Only seven percent of the households pay for their own subscription.

Another 31 percent receive it free of charge from either the diocese or the parish.

How does this all work with The Anchor, the publication of the Diocese of Fall River? The subscription rate is $20 a year.

If your household is receiving The Anchor but has not subscribed, that can only mean your parish is paying for your subscription. Some parishes even provide complimentary copies of The Anchor at the church door.

Each parish is assigned by the diocesan office a quota of subscriptions based primarily on the estimated number of parish households. The parish is expected to pay for that assigned number of subscriptions, whether individual parish households do so or not. There is no such thing as either a free lunch or a free Anchor.

February is Catholic Press Month. The Anchor, our own diocesan publication, is a fine way to keep you and your family current on Catholic issues. Leave a copy on your coffee table all week and you just never know who may pick it up and learn something about the Catholic faith.

Envelopes for both new subscribers and for subscription renewals are available at your parish church. By the way, The Anchor isn’t paying me to write this. It’s my small contribution in support of the mission of the Catholic press.

Take a moment now to subscribe to The Anchor. You, too, can get the scoop.

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

Visit The Anchor online at www.anchornews.org

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The Anchor

Marian Medals video to air on local cable TV

FALL RIVER — A video of the 2011 Marian Medals Ceremony that took place on November 20 at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Fall River is airing on several cable television public access channels in the Fall River diocese.

As of press time, the schedule is as follows: — Attleboro, cable channel 15, January 23 at 8 a.m., January 26 at 2 p.m. and January 29 at 8 p.m.

— Bourne, cable channel 13, January 25 at 1 and 6 a.m., January 26 at 2 p.m. and January 28 at 9 a.m.

— Fall River, cable channel 95, Thursday, January 19 and 26 at 10:30 a.m.

— Falmouth, cable channel 13, January 22 and 29 at 6:30 a.m. and 4 p.m.

— Marion and Mattapoisett, Comcast cable channel 9 or Verizon cable channel 36, January 23 and 30 at 8 p.m. and January 26 at 4 p.m.

— Mashpee, cable chan-

nel 17, January 23, 25 and 30 at 3 p.m.

— New Bedford, cable channel 95, January 23 and 30 at 6:30 p.m.

— Taunton, Comcast cable channel 15 or Verizon cable channel 22, January 21 at 12 noon and 9 p.m., January 22 at 12 noon, January 23 at 8:30 p.m., January 28 at 12 noon and 9 p.m., January 29 at 12 noon and January 31 at 8:30 p.m.

— Westport, cable channel 17, January 22 and 29 at 8:30 p.m., January 23 and 30 at 8:45 a.m. and January 20 and 27 at 3:30 p.m.

The 2011 Marian Medal Ceremony DVD is also available for purchase. To obtain a video, please forward a check in the amount of $24.95 payable to the Diocesan Office of Communications to Office of Communications, Diocese of Fall River, PO Box 7, Fall River, Mass. 02722.

Shipping is included in the video cost.

January 20, 2012

Boston bakery distributor practices ‘Charity in Truth’

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

NEW BEDFORD — As a Catholic, Andy LaVallee, founder and CEO of LaVallee’s Bakery Distributors in Waltham, feels charitable work is his moral responsibility.

“We run our company on two real basic values that came out of Pope Benedict’s encyclical, ‘Charity in Truth,’ and that is stewardship is a gift from God and that it’s something we’re only in possession of, so what we do with it is important,” LaVallee said. “We feel like it’s a real moral responsibility as a Catholic to do certain things for the community. So we need to take care of some of the Catholic-based food pantries and charities in the area.”

So when his prosperous bakery distribution company has a surplus 1,200 or 1,500 cases of fresh-baked bread on hand, they donate them to places like the Lazarus House or St. Francis House in Boston, or the food pantry at St. Anthony of Padua Parish in New Bedford.

“Sometimes the Greater Boston Food Bank will get the overage,” he said, “but we give it to anyone who has a combination of giving charity and faith in God.” “LaVallee’s has been very nice and generous to us, for sure,” said Paula Briden, coordinator of the food pantry at St. Anthony of Padua Parish in New Bedford. “They have a wonderful heart and they are very willing to help people.”

Briden said her parish food pantry has remained steadily busy, unfortunately, and they serve about 400 families regularly, so donations like this are most welcome.

“People were standing in the pouring rain this morning waiting to get in,” she said. “We tried to open up a half-hour early so they wouldn’t be standing in the rain. People have been very generous and we’ve received many donations, which makes a big difference.”

Having founded his business nearly 35 years ago, LaVal-

lee has always maintained that charity remains key to his success.

“It’s really not a benefit, it’s more a responsibility,” he said.

“If you understand creation in Genesis, you understand that God made us for a purpose.

What really happens is it comes down to respect and dignity for all people. And if you’re fortunate to have a business like we do, you should be giving of the things that are closest to you — that is, our resources and our products — to those who aren’t as fortunate as us.”

The notion that his company is providing bread to the needy — a food staple and symbol of Christ’s Body — isn’t lost on LaVallee, either.

“If you come into our facility, there are a couple of things you’ll notice right away in our foyer,” he said. “One is an oil portrait of Blessed Pope John Paul II, to remind us of our respect and dignity and what he’s done in the world. And then there’s also a framed image that was given to me by my employees and it’s John’s Bible verse on the ‘Bread of Life.’

We’ve had our facility blessed and I always keep in mind the correlation between our bakery business and the Eucharist.

Bread is pretty much the staple of the world and it’s thousands and thousands of years old.”

LaVallee said his company isn’t interested in getting rid of old or stale product that they probably would have otherwise thrown out, either; they provide surplus and newlymade products to local food pantries.

“We look at it this way: if the person receiving this bread were Jesus Christ Himself — which He is, because we all believe we are part of the Body of Christ — then are we giving Him the best we can give Him or just stuff that’s leftover?” he asked. “Just think about the gifts that He’s given us: our health, our purpose, our business, our family.

That’s really what the decision comes down to.”

LaVallee cited a recent ex-

ample of how his company strives to treat all people with equal respect and dignity.

“If you go to the St. Francis House in Boston, they have a very small kitchen area but they manage to feed about 1,200 people a day,” he said.

“If you walk out the back door of the kitchen, it’s adjacent to a well-known five-star hotel.

“On Thanksgiving Day if you went to this particular hotel you would have seen breads from LaVallee’s set up on all the tables from every country around the world. Just next door inside St. Francis House, the homeless were being served the same exact breads. There’s a symbol here: we could just as well give St. Francis House our stale bread, but that wouldn’t be showing respect and dignity for all people. To me, it’s important to give of the same resources and the same products.”

Having been in the bakery business “his whole life,” LaVallee said he’s been blessed that his company has seen double-digit growth over the last five or six consecutive years — even despite the economic downturn.

“We’ve succeeded ever since we embraced these two strong biblical truths: stewardship and servant leadership,” he said.

“If you’re going to continue to manage your company based on spreadsheets and not developing and helping people around you — your employees, your customers and the community — then you’re going to go through life with an accumulation of wealth, but what good is it? The real goodness is what you can do for other people because it’s more Christ-like, it’s what God did for us.”

LaVallee hopes other businesses in the area will see the benefit of making charitable efforts a priority.

“We’re trying to teach other businesses this concept, but not everyone is embracing it,” he said. “We see so much good and value in it and not just for us personally.”

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The Anchor

January 20, 2012

Metropolitan Missions to launch in 12 European cities

Vatican City (CNA/ EWTN News) — Church leaders from 12 major European dioceses who are hoping to re-evangelize their cities during Lent 2012 met this week in Rome to finalize plans for a new initiative called “Metropolitan Missions.”

“The climate of unity among the cities that share the same projects was very strong,” Auxiliary Bishop Jean Kockerols of Mechelen-Brussels, Belgium told CNA at the conclusion of the meeting.

“It was very interesting to hear from the other 11 cities who are working on the same priority,” he added.

Also represented were the Metropolitan Archdioceses of Barcelona, Budapest, Cologne, Dublin, Lisbon, Liverpool, Paris, Turin, Warsaw and Vienna. The meeting was hosted by the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization, which is headed by Archbishop Rino Fisichella.

The Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels is calling its Lenten series of events “Metropolis 2012 — Paths of Conversion.” The organizers plan for the February 22 — April 15 series to create a stir in the Belgian capital by making “everyone more aware of what it means to be Christian.”

The Cathedral Church of SS.

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Michael and Gudula will host one of the events, which will involve five afternoons of testimonies on the theme of “conversion paths.” The gatherings will feature a series of famous Belgians reading and reflecting upon passages of the “Confessions of St. Augustine.”

On Palm Sunday, 15 churches across Brussels will open their doors for anyone to visit and, over a cup of coffee, ask any questions about the Catholic faith. The Sacrament of Penance will also be available.

On Good Friday, April 6, there will be an all-day reading of the Gospel of St. Mark in the historic downtown church, Notre-Dame-du-Finistère. This will also be broadcast on large screens in the streets surrounding the church. The chapters and verses of the Gospel will

be interspersed with musical interludes played by violin and harp.

Meanwhile, both Archbishop André-Joseph Léonard and his auxiliary Bishop Jean Kockerols are planning to tour parishes to provide teachings sessions on the Catholic faith.

Many other events at the parish level are also promised.

The Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization was established in 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI. He said he wanted it to “promote a renewed evangelization” in traditionally Christian countries which are living in a “progressive secularization of society and a sort of ‘eclipse of the sense of God.’” This year’s “metropolitan missions” are the first of their kind.

If deemed successful, they

could be introduced elsewhere around the world, including

the United States, in the coming years.

window shopping — People look at displays in the window of the Gammarelli clerical tailor shop in Rome. The famous Gammarelli store is highlighting clerical wear for cardinals in advance of the February 18 consistory at which Pope Benedict XVI will create 22 new cardinals. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

SELECTION OF VENUES FOR 2012:

12

The Anchor

January 20, 2012

Number of Vatican Museums’ visitors tops five million

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — In 2011, for the first time, the number of visitors to the Vatican Museums topped five million.

Antonio Paolucci, director of the museums, said breaking the five-million threshold poses serious problems as well as challenges in the areas of access and education.

“Five million visitors means 10 million hands that touch or can touch and 10 million feet that, day after day, wear out the multicolored stone (floors) and the most famous archaeological mosaics in the world,” he said.

Writing in L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, Paolucci said the total number of visitors in 2011 was just under 5.1 million. In 2010, the museums reported having almost 4.7 million people enter its doors.

The museums expanded their opening hours in 2011 and added more of the special Friday night openings they experimented with briefly in 2009. The standard price of admission to the museums is 15 euros, or about $19.

With the growing number of

visitors, Paolucci said, security is a growing concern and not just to ensure that people keep their hands off the art. The sheer number of visitors means there will be “an unknown, but certainly significant, percentage” of people with serious problems, who could pose a danger to themselves or others.

When dealing with such a massive number of people, even the best behaved cause damage because “they bring with themselves humidity and dust” which have a negative impact on the frescoes, stucco and mosaic tiles in the floors.

Paolucci said the 2011 record moves the Vatican Museums into the category of the largest and most visited museums in the world: the Louvre in Paris, which attracts more than eight million visitors each year; the British Museum in London, which had an estimated 5.8 million visitors last year; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which reported more than 5.6 million visitors in 2011.

long and winding road — Visitors walk down the spiral staircase at the exit of the Vatican Museums. In 2011, for the first time, the number of visitors to the Vatican Museums topped five million. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

mole hunting — David Dencik and Gary Oldman star in a scene from the movie “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.” For a brief review of this film, see CNS Movie Capsules below. (CNS photo/Focus)

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

“Contraband” (Universal) Expletive-laden, dispiriting crime thriller about an ex-smuggler (Mark Wahlberg) forced to ply his illicit trade once more in order to protect his family from a drug dealer. Set in New Orleans, and in the shipping lanes between the Crescent City and Panama, this Hollywood retread of a 2008 Nordic movie immediately bogs down in vulgar language, while director Baltasar Kormakur, who starred in and produced the original, fails to provide any depth or to exploit the relatively novel crime scenario. Adding insult to injury, Aaron Guzikowski’s script shows its putative hero profiting from his escapade and thus transmits a false message about the consequences of felonious behavior and a supposed immunity from ethical corruption. Skewed values, much lethal but only moderately graphic violence, one instance of drug use, some profanity, pervasive rough, crude and crass language.

The Catholic News Service classification is O — morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

“Joyful Noise” (Warner Bros.)

Vibrant, faith-driven blend of comedy, drama and music focused on the sometimes raucous but ultimately friendly rivalry between two leading members (Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton) of a small-town Georgia church choir. As the chorus com-

petes for regional and national recognition, the free-spirited, mildly prodigal grandson (Jeremy Jordan) of Parton’s character falls for the strictly reared daughter (Keke Palmer) of Latifah’s.

Though it gives a pass to an incidental out-of-wedlock fling, and showcases some humor and vocabulary that make it unsuitable for youngsters, writer-director Todd Graff’s otherwise uplifting film emphasizes trust in God and illustrates the positive effects of compassionate and forgiving behavior. A premarital situation, occasional sexual references and jokes, about a half-dozen crude expressions, some crass language. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG13 — parents strongly cautioned.

Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

“Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” (Focus) The hunt is on for a double agent within Britain’s intelligence service in this faithful adaptation of John le Carre’s bestselling 1974 novel, set at the

height of the Cold War between East and West. A loyal lieutenant (Gary Oldman) of the agency’s chief (John Hurt) is sacked when a covert mission to find the mole goes awry. Secretly rehired and commissioned to ferret out the traitor, he identifies four principal suspects (Toby Jones, Colin Firth, Ciaran Hinds, David Dencik). Swedish director Tomas Alfredson sets a deliberately slow pace, especially for an espionage thriller. But amid all the stimulating conversations and lengthy ruminations, his film also includes elements severely circumscribing its appropriate audience. Bloody violence including gunplay and torture, a scene of nonmarital sexual activity, brief rear nudity, a homosexual reference, some profane and rough language. The Catholic News Service classification is L — limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on WLNE Channel 6 Sunday, January 22, 11:00 a.m.

Celebrant is Father Marc H. Bergeron, pastor of St. Anne’s Parish in Fall River

January 20, 2012

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The Anchor

Researcher reveals Pius XII’s ‘remarkable’ aid for Jewish refugees

Denver, Colo. (CNA/ EWTN News) — Pope Pius XII helped a group of 500 Jewish refugees escape death at the hands of the Nazis and made a touching public tribute to the Jewishness of the man seeking their deliverance, new research shows.

“This is not a liberal or conservative issue. This should be of interest to all people, anyone who wants to get a sincere, objective account of who Eugenio Pacelli, Pope Pius XII, really was,” William Doino Jr. told CNA. “I think the more and more you look into his life and character, you find these remarkable things.”

Doino, a writer for Inside the Vatican magazine, has assembled an extensive bibliography of works on the wartime pope.

His latest research brings to light new information about Howard “Heinz” Wisla’s audience with Pius XII in 1941. The Jewish man spoke to the pope on behalf of his group of 500 Jewish refugees interned by the Italian military in a camp on the island of Rhodes, where they faced starvation due to a shortage of basic necessities.

Wisla’s memoirs recounted his audience with Pius XII. “You have done well, my Jewish friend, to have come to me and told me what has happened down there in the Italian islands. I have heard about it before,” the pope said, according to Wisla.

The pontiff asked him to return with a written report and deliver it to the Vatican Secretary of State, who was dealing

with those refugees.

Not only did Pius XII promise help for refugees, he affirmed Wisla’s Jewishness in the presence of a German audience.

“But now to you, my young friend. You are Jewish. I know what that means in these times we live in. I do hope that you will always be proud to be a Jew,” the pope told Wisla.

Wisla’s account continued: “And then the pope raised his voice so that everybody in the room could hear it even more clearly: ‘My son, whether you are worthier than others, only the Lord knows, but believe me, you are at least as worthy as any other human being on our earth before the Lord. And now, my Jewish friend, go with the protection of the Lord Almighty, and never forget: Be always proud to be a Jew.’” Doino explained that Wisla’s story was important for understanding the pontiff.

“He affirms his Jewish faith,” noted Doino, who believes the account proves that Pius XII was pro-Jewish at a time when “a lot of people were insensitive or didn’t understand the close bonds between Judaism and Christianity.”

Doino said he thought it was “unfair and wrong” to say that Pius XII didn’t regard the fate of Jews as part of his circle of moral obligation.

“He loved all human beings.

Of course, he was a Catholic, and believed in the truth of the Catholic Church. But he also embraced all of humanity because he knew they were God’s children.

“I think he’s recognizing the profound bond that Jews and Catholics share. And I think that’s very, very important, because a lot of people think that only after Vatican II did we see a significant change in the papacy. I don’t think that’s true at all, I think the change began before that, and I think this is clear cut evidence of that.”

Pius XII’s comments were “all the more significant” because his audience with Wisla included German officers and took place during the Holocaust, Doino said in his new article “Pope Pius XII: Friend and Rescuer of Jews,” which was published in the January 2012 issue of Inside the Vatican magazine.

“If those Jews don’t get off of Rhodes, eventually the Germans take over and kill them,” Doino explained. They would have either starved or suffered the fate of the island’s indigenous Jewish population. The German army occupied the island in 1944 and 1,400 Jews were executed immediately.

Wisla’s “largely forgotten” memoir draws from a pseudonymous piece he authored in the Palestinian Post in 1944.

There, he expressed his gratitude to Pius XII. Doino first reported on the piece in 2006, but did not know the author’s identity at the time.

“The story intrigued me because he published it anonymously. For years, I’ve been trying to find out who he was,” Doino explained.

“Also I wanted to find out about whether the pope was actually able to help the starving

Pope stresses spiritual guidance in discerning religious vocation

Vatican City (CNA/ EWTN News) — Pope Benedict XVI has emphasized the need for good spiritual counsel for those discerning a vocation to the priesthood or religious life.

“I would like to emphasize the critical role of spiritual guidance in the journey of faith and, in particular, in response to the vocation of special consecration for the service of God and His people,” the pope said during his January 15 Sunday Angelus address.

“God’s call to follow Jesus more closely, giving up forming their own family to dedicate themselves to the great family of the Church, is normally done through the testimony and proposal from a ‘big brother,’ usually a priest.”

Also instrumental in the process, he said, are parents “who by their genuine faith and joy-

ful married love, show children that it is beautiful and possible to build all your life on the love of God.” Pope Benedict made his remarks from the window of his apartment to several thousand pilgrims gathered below in St. Peter’s Square on a sunny winter day. He illustrated his point by making references to today’s Scripture readings at Mass.

The Gospel tells of how John the Baptist identified Jesus as “the Lamb of God” on the banks of the River Jordan.

Thus he acted in the “role of mediator,” leading two of his disciples to discern that they must follow Christ.

Similarly, in the First Reading, it is the high priest Eli who advises Samuel that it is God and not he who is calling out his name in the night. Samuel takes Eli’s advice and, when his

name is called a fourth time, he replies, “Speak Lord, for Your servant is listening.”

The pope concluded his comments by entrusting all educators, “especially priests and parents” who help young people discern their vocation in life, to the Virgin Mary.

After the Angelus, the pope noted that Sunday is the World Day of Migrants and Refugees.

He reminded pilgrims that the millions of refugees worldwide are “not numbers” but “men and women, children, young and old looking for a place to live in peace.”

He also highlighted the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity that will run January 1825. Pope Benedict invited everyone “to join spiritually and, where possible, practically, to ask God for the gift of full unity among the disciples of Christ.”

Jewish refugees.”

In his writings from the winter of 1941-1942, Wisla credited the “personal intervention” of Pope Pius XII for the arrival of a Red Cross ship which picked up the hundreds of starving Jewish refugees at the Rhodes internment camp and brought them to the Italian mainland.

Another refugee from Nazi persecution, the Czechoslovakian Herman Herskovic, was also interned on Rhodes.

In a special 1964 issue of L’Osservatore Romano, he recounted Wisla’s audience with the pope. According to Herskovic, the pontiff “listened attentively to him and promised his intervention with the Italian government.”

Herskovic also defended the pope from Rolf Hochhuth’s play “The Deputy,” which depicted a pope who was indifferent to Nazi persecution. Without Pius XII, Herskovic said, he would never have reached America, where he became a furniture dealer in Cleveland, Ohio.

Thanks to Wisla and Pope Pius XII, Herskovic and other Jewish internees were transferred to the Ferramonti di Tarsia camp in Calabria, Italy.

During the tumult of the German retreat, when Jews feared they would be massacred, the Catholic chaplain of the camp

persuaded the guards to allow them to escape.

Other Vatican documents show that the internees thanked Pope Pius XII for sending gifts of clothing and money to them.

“I don’t in any way want to ever downplay the radical evil of anti-Semitism or the sins of Christians, Doino told CNA. “By the same token, when good things happen, that should be celebrated and recognized.”

Gary Krupp, a Jewish researcher on Pius XII and World War II who lives in New York, said Doino’s new information is “just another example of how Pope Pius XII directly interceded to save Jewish lives when most of the world’s religious leaders did nothing.

“And Pius did so while being surrounded by hostile forces and mindful of the plan to invade the Vatican to kidnap him in 1943. It is time for the world to appreciate what this man did.”

Krupp, who is also founder and president of the interreligious relations-focused Pave the Way Foundation, called upon the authorities at the Holocaust memorial organization Yad Vashem to “seriously look” at the material and other evidence in order to have Pope Pius XII declared “righteous among nations.”

Revised and updated ...

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14

The Anchor

January 20, 2012

U.S. promotes gay agenda abroad continued from page one

law as a tool, manage their budgets, train their staffs and forge partnerships with women’s organizations and other human rights groups.”

Clinton focused her half-hour speech on violent abuses against homosexuals and did not elaborate on what else would be considered discrimination worthy of opposition.

Some countries have laws that make homosexual activity punishable by death, which Clinton clearly denounced, but there was no mention of laws against donating blood, laws requiring a higher age of consent for homosexual activity or laws in favor of traditional marriage.

Clinton praised South Africa, Argentina, Colombia, Mongolia and Nepal for advancing LGBT initiatives. South Africa and Argentina have legalized same-sex marriage and Colombia has legalized same-sex partnerships.

Timothy Herrmann, the UN representative for the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute in New York, told The Anchor that the resolution to support LGBT initiatives abroad represents a fundamental change in U.S. foreign policy.

He called Clinton and Obama’s efforts “clandestine” and said that focusing on gross violence against homosexuals was an attempt to “cover their tracks.”

“Their real intention is to create a set of human rights that don’t need to be created because everybody, by the nature of being a human, already has those rights. So their whole effort is really just to create a series of separate rights that give the LGBT community a separate voice and the ability to impose their agenda where they see fit,” he said. “What we are dealing with fundamentally is the imposition of a certain type of behavior on society.”

Once a set of rights have been christened “human rights,” it is very difficult to oppose them without looking like you are out to get a marginalized group, he added.

“There is an understanding

now that is really being firmly established more and more that it is better to take the international route and work within this ambiguous world of human rights and customary international law so that you drum up support for international norms and practices,” he said. “The UN is very successful in building faulty consensus that create international norms that, before you know it, have changed international opinion among very influential people who return home.”

Tina Ramirez, director of government and international relations for the Becket Fund, which seeks to protect the free expression all faiths, said that Obama’s promotion of LGBT initiatives abroad is on a collision course with religious freedom.

“This administration clearly wants to elevate certain rights over others. And unfortunately it seems that religious freedom is never prioritized in their foreign policy as it should be,” she told The Anchor.

In the United States, conflict frequently arises over conscientious objection to same-sex marriage and non-discrimination laws that specifically mention homosexuals. People are taken to court for not photographing same-sex union ceremonies or not allowing their venue to be used for such celebrations. Others have been fired or forced to quit when their job duties required them to endorse same-sex marriage.

Abroad, religious speech about homosexuality has been prosecuted as hate speech.

“It is important to make sure that pastors who have beliefs about homosexuality are able to express those in the context of their ministry,” Ramirez said.

She said of the new foreign policy, “There’s clearly an agenda, and there’s no real clarity of where the lines will be drawn to protect conscience rights. That’s the main concern. We do have a priority of protecting religious freedom.”

This week in 50 years ago — Mount St. Mary’s Academy in Fall River was buzzing when 40 special alumnae returned for a visit. They were all Sisters of Mercy, guests of honor at the 12th annual silver tea of the Mount St. Mary’s Alumnae Association. Sixty-seven Sisters of Mercy were alumnae of the school.

25 years ago — The provincial chapter of the Community of the Sacred Hearts decided to withdraw from providing pastoral care to a number of parishes in the diocese including: Our Lady of Lourdes, Wellfleet; Sacred Hearts, Fairhaven; St. Boniface, New Bedford; St. Anthony, Mattapoisett; Holy Redeemer, Chatham; and Holy Trinity, West Harwich.

the dream continues — The Wirt-Emerson Visual and Performing Arts High Ability Academy concert choir performs during the fifth annual tribute to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Cathedral of the Holy Angels in Gary, Ind., recently. (CNS photo/Michael McArdle, Northwest Indiana Catholic)

Haitian archbishop urges residents to take charge of recovery

Port au Prince (CNA/ EWTN News) — Port-au-Prince Archbishop Guire Poulard marked the second anniversary of 2010’s earthquake with a call for Haitians to build a better future for themselves and their country.

“The reconstruction will be Haitian or will not be,” the archbishop proclaimed in a message carried by the news outlet Haiti Libre.

He said Haitians “cannot accept to live only from international begging,” but must take on the task of reconstruction in the same way that national independence was achieved: “by rolling up our sleeves.”

“Put your hope in God and in yourself,” the archbishop urged, saying the “other promises do not offer any guarantees” for the future.

Archbishop Poulard was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI on Jan. 12, 2011, on the one-year anniversary of the earthquake that killed his predecessor Archbishop Joseph S. Miot along with 250,000 other residents of the island.

Diocesan history

10 years ago — Father Thomas C. Lopes was appointed director of the newly-established diocesan RENEW program, a pastoral outreach response for the 21st century that evolved from the “new evangelization” effort forwarded by Pope John Paul II. Meetings were held at five parishes — one in each deanery — to kickstart the initiative.

One year ago — After nearly a decade at the helm of Catholic schools in the Fall River Diocese, Dr. George A. Milot announced his intention to retire from his position as superintendent of schools at the end of the academic year.

Milot, 66, spent almost his entire professional career in Catholic education in the Fall River Diocese.

On the second anniversary of the earthquake, the archbishop described his appointment as a message to Haiti from Pope Benedict XVI. “He wanted to say to Haiti, battered, traversed by all kinds of misery: take courage, get up, dry your tears and put yourself to work,” Archbishop Poulard recounted.

“Thus, on this second anniversary of this tragedy,” he proclaimed, “I turn towards the refugee camps of the earthquake, towards the homeless of before and after the earthquake, to the physically and mentally handicapped, towards the victims, finally towards the people in general, to say to all: courage!”

The Port-au-Prince archbishop explained that the Haitian Church stood in solidarity with the whole country, especially in light of the “slow progress of the reconstruction.”

“Haitian people, people of my country, people of this country that I love with great passion, the Church is with you and will continue to walk with you,” he pledged.

He noted that the archdiocese has no headquarters, while many priests and religious remain homeless alongside hundreds of thousands of other Haitians.

In these conditions, he said, “we show really our solidarity with the poor” and those who lack the means to “lead a decent and dignified life.”

The pope’s representative to Haiti Archbishop Bernardito C. Auza told Fides news agency that 600,000 Haitians still live in tents two years after the earthquake, including students of Port-au-Prince’s seminary.

“The Church has dozens and dozens of reconstruction projects, but the technical preparatory stages are long and difficult,” he said.

Archbishop Auza was among the first residents to convey news of

the disaster to international media in 2010. Two years after, he sees the recovery efforts lacking direction and momentum.

“The reconstruction in Haiti was and is particularly difficult and expensive because everything is imported, even the sand,” he noted.

In a further complication, an international commission that had been helping with the rebuilding lost its mandate on October 21. Now, Archbishop Auza said, “there is no longer a structure or an institution that guides or directs the efforts.”

“Parliament has yet to address the issue, and the question is not in the legislative program. The issues of management on who manages the funds, and especially who gets the contracts, are very hot these days.”

Under these circumstances, Catholic Relief Services’ new president says communities must be empowered to deal with their own local needs.

Carolyn Woo, who became the organization’s president and CEO on January 1, recently visited Haiti together with her predecessor Ken Hackett and Catholic Relief Services board chairman Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas.

In a report on their visit, Woo and Hackett said they were “impressed with what has been accomplished” in Haiti, “and equally struck by the amount of work still to do.”

They explained that Catholic Relief Services’ strategy of local self-empowerment was necessary “to get this recovery right for Haiti,” and have “ordinary Haitians — who had lost so much — leading their own reconstruction in dignified and sustainable ways.”

Some of these ways include organizing local cleaning and building crews, making loans and grants to entrepreneurs, and providing small-scale technology that can be easily used by individuals.

January 20, 2012

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The Anchor

Calif. bishops back Pro-Life and death penalty initiatives

Sacramento, Calif.

The Parental Notification care for children, and govern(CNA) — A proposed Califor- Initiative would require a girl ment “serves best” when it nia ballot initiative to require aged 12-17 to include her par- supports families in “their irparental notification for abor- ents in a decision to obtain replaceable task of nurturing tions and another initiative to an abortion. Current law al- the next generation.” end the death penalty won the lows secrecy for “confidential The bishops also support support of the state’s Catholic medical services,” which the an initiative its sponsors call bishops, who say the propos- California bishops said could SAFE California, an antials will bring “comdeath penalty measure mon sense, compashe family has the duty to care which claims to offer sion and prudent Accountabilfor children, and government Savings, justice” to public ity and Full Enforce“serves best” when it supports fami- ment. policy.

Both initiatives lies in “their irreplaceable task of The proposal would bring into focus nurturing the next generation.” replace the death pen“important moral isalty with life imprissues” about how soonment without paciety treats “nascent role. life, family life, and even a allow a girl to have multiple “We have long held that the sinful or errant life.” abortions at state expense use of the death penalty is no Social policy should “re- without her parents’ knowl- longer necessary to protect the spect and support the role of edge. community,” the bishops said. parents” while justice should “As Catholics we hold Parents are responsible for “uphold human dignity as it their daughter’s medical and human life as sacred. In the protects the community,” the emotional needs, but present exercise of justice, this prinbishops said. policy denies them accurate ciple must prevail in the Backers of both initiatives information about her health, manner we treat one another, are trying to gather enough the bishops added. even for those who have done support to place them on the “As Catholics, we believe grave harm. Justice requires 2012 ballot. and teach that we bear the im- proportionate and effective The bishops detailed the age of God. We come to life as means in the protection of reasons for their support in the result of humanity’s col- society. As citizens, we find a statement published by the laboration in God’s creative the use of the death penalty California Catholic Confer- work,” they said. unnecessary, impractical and ence.

The family has the duty to expensive.”

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Catholic pilgrims from Miami archdiocese to join pope in Cuba

Miami, Fla. (CNA) — The Archdiocese of Miami is organizing a pilgrimage to Cuba for the visit of Pope Benedict XVI, Archbishop Thomas Wenski announced January 12.

“We travel in solidarity with the Church in Cuba — and in response to their invitation to share with them this historic event,” he said at a press conference. “The pope travels to Cuba as a pilgrim of charity. We go to Cuba in the same spirit.”

The archbishop cited the Spanish-language theme of the visit, “A Jesus por Maria, la Caridad nos une,” which means “To Jesus through Mary, love makes us one.”

Pope Benedict’s March 2628 visit comes as the Catholic Church in Cuba celebrates the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the statue of Our Lady of Charity in waters off the coast of Cuba. Pope Benedict XV declared her the patroness of Cuba in 1916.

Pilgrims from the Miami archdiocese will travel to Cuba under two possible plans. One includes stops in both Santiago and Havana,

while the other another includes a trip to Havana alone.

The archdiocese’s travel agency is awaiting final permits for the aircraft.

The travel arrangements will be handled by a travel agency authorized by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

All legal guidelines will be followed, the archbishop said.

The U.S. and Cuban governments have been at odds since the Cuban communists took power in 1959. Travel between the island country and the U.S. is heavily restricted.

“Since this travel is for religious purposes one does not need to be Cuban or CubanAmerican in order to travel to participate in the papal visit,” Archbishop Wenski explained.

The first set of Miami pilgrims plan to leave Miami for Santiago, Cuba on March 26.

The group will travel to the city’s Plaza de la Revolucion Antonio Maceo, where Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate Mass for the Feast of the Annunciation.

They will then fly to the

capital city of Havana, where they may be joined by other American pilgrims who are planning to stop only in Havana.

On March 27, Archbishop Thomas Wenski will celebrate Mass in Havana’s cathedral.

The next day the group will attend the papal Mass at the Plaza de la Revolucion Jose Marti. They will leave Havana for Miami on March 29.

The archbishop told the Miami Herald he expects several hundred pilgrims from South Florida to participate. Many Cuban expatriates, exiles and refugees have settled in the Miami area.

Relations between the Catholic Church and the Cuban government have improved in recent years thanks to ongoing dialogue between Raul Castro and Cardinal Jaime Ortega of Havana.

Archbishop Wenski told the Herald that he hopes the papal trip will promote “the reconciliation of people” and will “affirm the faith of the Church” and perhaps “open up Cuban society to the world.”

long-standing tradition — Children stand on a carriage with a statue of a Black Nazarene during an outdoor procession in Manila, Philippines. Tens of thousands of devotees, many of them barefoot, thronged the capital to snatch a glimpse of a centuriesold black statue of Jesus during an annual parade. The wooden Black Nazarene, carved in Mexico and brought to the Philippine capital in the 17th century, is cherished by Catholics, who believe that touching it can lead to a miracle. (CNS photo/John Javellana, Reuters )

Traditional procession in Philippines draws millions ROME (Zenit.org) — A traditional procession in the Philippines drew millions again this year, though there were alerts before the event of possible terrorist activity.

The January 9 procession of the “Black Nazarene” — an image of Christ bearing the cross that has been blackened by fire —reportedly had as many as seven million participants.

The procession is one of the most traditional manifestations of devotion in the archipelago.

The image, which depicts Christ with the Cross, is presented to the faithful in the Minor Basilica of Quiapo in Manila. The impressive popular devotion goes back 400 years when, according to tradition, on May 31, 1606, the sculpture was miraculously saved from a fire that broke out on the ship transporting it from Mexico to Manila. Blackened by the fire, hence the name “Black Nazarene,” the statue was also saved from fires that devastated the Basilica of Quiapo in 1791 and 1929, as well as from severe earthquakes in 1645 and 1863, and the bombing of Manila in 1945.

Every January 9, the image of Christ, bent under the weight of the Cross, is taken on a cart through the streets of Manila, attracting a multitude of people — many of whom walk barefoot in memory of Christ on Calvary.

Although the procession ends every year with numerous injuries and even deaths because of the vast crowds, the authorities regarded particularly serious the credible threat of an attack

this year. The president issued a warning, but the faithful were not deterred. Extra precautions were also taken, including the blocking of cell phone service in the area during the procession, to prevent the use of cell phones to detonate bombs.

The leaders of the Catholic Church in the Philippines — who do not discourage such expressions of popular devotion, though up to now they have not recognized a miracle attributed to the procession of the Black Nazarene — welcomed the peaceful outcome.

Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila thanked the president for his concern. In his homily, the archbishop prayed in particular for the victims of the typhoon that recently struck the southern Philippines. “The image of the Black Nazarene shows us how the power of God, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, can help us to overcome the difficulties of life,” he said.

The Fides news agency spoke with Auxiliary Bishop Bernardino Cortez of Manila, who said: “The terror warnings did not discourage the faithful. Indeed, many of them say that, if they died during the procession of the Nazarene, performing an act of faith, they would certainly go to Paradise. The Nazarene works miracles, a brother in suffering, a message of hope for the poor: nothing can stop the faithful. What is striking is that the Nazarene is a reference point especially for young people, many of whom are present in today’s event.”

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Youth Pages

if the shoes fit — Just before Christmas, the Spanish Honor Society of Coyle and Cassidy High School in Taunton received a special gift from Santa. Annually the society runs a service project to assist the diocesan mission in Guaimaca, Honduras.

This year the society had a tall order to fill. The Dominican Sisters of the Presentation who staff the Marie Poussepin Center for Formation needed 70 pairs of girls’ sneakers.

Through the efforts of Stephanie Abbondanza, a Coyle parent and Reebok employee, and Anthony S. Nunes, world language teacher at Coyle, Reebok donated 70 pairs of sneakers. Pamela Potenza of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Seekonk will be personally delivering the sneakers during her annual visit to the mission in mid-January.

From left: Rebecca Cantania, Kelsey Almeida, Derek De Sousa, Potenza, and Tiffany Abbondanza.

January 20, 2012

up and atom — In lab, eighth-grade students from Holy Name School in Fall River, demonstrated knowledge on how carbon atoms are configured, using tooth picks and marshmallows. Students configured diamond, graphite, and fullerene atoms.

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

kitchen aides — The Cooking Specialty Class at St. John the Evangelist School in Attleboro recently hosted guest chef, John Robertson, chef/general manager at Trinity Restaurant in Norton. The class meets weekly. Robertson guided the students in cooking a milk chocolate semi-freddo. Listening intently are Adam Garcia and Connor Quigley, while Nicholas Vitorino whips up the heavy cream.

words of peace — St. John the Evangelist School in Attleboro is proud to announce that seventh-grader Madeline Griffith recently won a local essay contest. Last fall, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Committee of Greater Attleboro sponsored an essay contest entitled "Remembering Jim Crow." Griffith wrote the winning essay for her middle school level. She will receive a $100 cash prize and her essay was published in the Attleboro Sun Chronicle. A prize was awarded during the committee's interfaith service in celebration of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Youth Pages

January 20, 2012

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here is an endless debate occurring in the Catholic Church. OK, perhaps there is more than one debate, but we will only focus on one of them. The answers to the questions of the debate, however, depend on who you ask.

Who are the young adults of our parish communities? Some would answer high school teens who have already received the Sacrament of Confirmation, others will say college students and still others will say someone in their 20s and 30s. Most of those responses are correct save for one: high school teens. My apologies to any high schooler reading this article! Although high school teens are marketed to as young adults in consumerist societies, developmentally and spiritually they are older adolescents. High school upperclassmen are the bridge between adolescence and young adulthood. So this brings us back to our original question: who are the young adults?

According to the Committee for Laity, Marriage, Family, Life, and Youth of the United States Confer-

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What about the young adults?

ence of Catholic Bishops (say a teen is confirmed in the that five times fast!), young parish to the time he or she adults make up three distinct returns either for Marriage or groups: (1) age 18-25 “who the Baptism of their children? are in college, the military, or What happens to cause the their first full-time job. They disconnect? are least likely to be present Unfortunately, there are in parish life”; (2) “those in no simple solutions to this their middle to late 20s” who are “most likely to attend programs and events and are eager to discuss faith issues with their peers”; and (3) “young adults in

By Crystal Medeiros their 30s, who are likely to be the busiest and most settled of all young adults.” These phenomenon, only suggesthree groups of young adults tions. The first is that parishes have needs that are unique to should have a place at the each, however, one thing retable for post-Confirmation mains constant: Young adults teens so that they feel at home want to be included in the life in their own parishes. Since of the every day parish. we stress to the youth that This means specific and Confirmation is not a graduapersonal invitations are critition from Faith Formation, we cal to getting young adults to must provide ministerial opbecome part of the various portunities for young people parish ministries. But ministo give of their gifts and talters and clergy must not forents. If those same teens enter get the groups’ unique needs college, then we should help and desires. If high school them connect to their colteens are indeed that bridge to lege’s campus ministry. One young adulthood, then what thing to remember is that this exactly happens from the time group of young adults will try

Be Not Afraid

to understand who they are separate and apart from their families and home parishes.

When they are back home, however, we can invite them to be part of parish Confirmation teams or to be part of a special Mass.

The second and third stages of young adults can be the most challenging because chances are greater that parishes will be in contact with young adults who have just moved to the area and thus are virtual strangers to the parish. What is crucial to these groups is hospitality.

Recently, I met with a group of young adults and asked them what was the first thing they are looking for in a parish. Their response was simply hospitality. A need to feel welcomed into the parish and a desire to feel as if they belong to the community and are not seen as an outsider.

Now, in the same group were young adults who attended the same parish they did as they were children. What was surprising is that they too were looking for hospitality and a place at the table.

Instead of being viewed as the young adults they now were, they were still seen as the children and teens they used to be.

Hospitality, welcoming and belonging are three main elements young adults are seeking, but prayer and spirituality also speak to them.

This weekend a group of 13 young adults between the ages of 19 and 35 will form community as they participate in a retreat at Sacred Hearts Retreat Center in Wareham.

Although, they will be praying and reflecting for themselves while on the weekend, please keep them and all the young adults in prayer this weekend.

Many are returning or have returned to college for their spring semester. Others may be starting new jobs. Please take a moment to think of them.

And when you see young adults in your parish this weekend, ask them how they are and how they would like to become involved in the parish.

Invite them to the table!

Crystal is assistant director for Youth & Young Adult Ministry for the diocese. She can be contacted at cmedeiros@ dfrcec.com.

Presence of Catholics online is essential, says Vatican cardinal

Rome, Italy (CNA) — Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, the president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, emphasized that the presence of Catholics on the Internet is essential.

He noted that in 2009, roughly 440 million Catholics

went online.

Archbishop Celli made his comments at Mercy University in the Swiss city of Fribourg during a meeting organized by the Bishops’ Conference of Switzerland and the Swiss Press League. The event was held in commemoration of the

40th anniversary of the pastoral instruction on social communications, “Communio et progressio.”

According to L’Osservatore Romano, Archbishop Celli said society has passed from the “era of information” to the “era of conversation,” in

Pope clarifies true nature of justice and peace

VATICAN CITY (Zenit.org) — Justice is not a mere human convention and peace is not the mere absence of war, Benedict XVI affirmed on January 13.

The pope said this when he received members of the General Inspectorate for Public Security in the Vatican in a traditional meeting that takes place every year for the exchange of New Year greetings.

“Defending public order, especially in an area so heavily frequented by tourists and pilgrims from all over the world, is no simple task,” he said, according to the Vatican Information Service. “The See of Peter is the center of Christianity, and many Catholics wish to come here at least once in their lives to pray at the tombs of the Apostles.

The presence, both of the Holy See and of such large numbers of cosmopolitan visitors who come to be at the heart of the Catholic Church, is certainly not a problem for the

city of Rome or for Italy as a whole; rather, it is a source of richness and a reason to be proud.”

The Holy Father went on to note parts of the globe where Christians do not enjoy peace, and are “paying their adherence to Christ and the Church with their lives.”

“In my message for the World Day of Peace this year, I underlined the importance of educating young people in justice and peace, two terms much used in our world, though often inappropriately,” he recalled.

“Justice,” the Holy Father explained, “is not a mere human convention. When, in the name of supposed justice, the criteria of utility, profit and material possession come to dominate, the value and dignity of human beings can be trampled underfoot. Justice is a virtue which guides the human will, prompting us to give others what is due to them by reason of their ex-

istence and their actions. Likewise, peace is not the mere absence of war, or the result of man’s actions to avoid conflict; it is, above all, a gift of God which must be implored with faith, and which has the way to its fulfillment in Jesus. True peace must be constructed day after day with compassion, solidarity, fraternity and collaboration on everyone’s part.”

“As policemen and women,” the Bishop of Rome told his audience, “always be true promoters of justice and sincere builders of peace.

Let us pray to the Mother of God, Queen of Peace, to support our intentions and activities with her maternal intercession. To her we entrust this year of 2012, that everyone may live in mutual respect and strive after the common good, in the hope that no act of violence will be committed in the name of God, supreme Guarantor of justice and peace.”

which the content is itself the object of dialogue.

Speaking about the social media, the archbishop said, “Language, understanding of communities and visibility are the great challenges facing those who want to be present in the new digital continent.”

He noted the important contributions to the world of communications made by Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI and said Catholics must meet the challenge of stepping into this “courtyard of the gentiles,” where God is unknown to many.

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The Anchor

Jason Brilhante to be ordained a transitional deacon tomorrow continued from page one

ordained a transitional deacon is because Jason won’t stay a deacon, he will be ordained a priest June 9.”

Having worked closely with Brilhante for the past six years, Father Bissinger said he’s proud of his accomplishments.

“I think in general people are excited about it, because he’s a very likeable young man and he’s been assigned to a lot of different places in the diocese — Fall River, New Bedford, Cape Cod,” Father Bissinger said. “He’s from Fall River, a native of St. Michael’s Parish, and it’s nice when guys grow up in a local parish and then become priests in the diocese.”

During tomorrow’s diaconal ordination, Brilhante will be vested by Deacon Joseph Medeiros, permanent deacon at St. Michael’s Parish in Fall River.

Brilhante will then participate in his first Mass as a deacon at his home parish on Sunday at 10 a.m., during which he will preach for the first time.

“It’s interesting that the Gospel reading is the calling of the first disciples and how fitting it is that I’ll be preaching on that for the first time as a transitional deacon,” Brilhante said. “It certainly fits in well and I think it’s a blessing and an affirmation of my vo-

cation to the priesthood.”

Immediately following the 10 a.m. Mass on Sunday, a gathering and reception will be held in the St. Michael’s parish hall.

“All the people in the parish who have known him since he was a child have always seen in him a calling that he is now following,” said Father Edward E. Correia, pastor of St. Michael’s and St. Joseph’s parishes in Fall River. “And it’s not only St. Michael’s Parish that is preparing to celebrate, but also St. Joseph’s Parish as well. The parishioners there have also been praying and supporting him, so they will be participating in the celebrations this weekend as well.”

Brilhante said he very much appreciates the example, leadership and support of Father Correia over the years, along with the support and prayers of all the parishioners at St. Michael’s and St. Joseph’s parishes.

He also credits Father Luciano Pereira, former pastor of St. Michael’s Parish, as being a key role

January 20, 2012 model for him.

“He was pastor when I first began as an altar boy,” Brilhante said. “I remember very vividly his devotion to the Holy Eucharist, which is something I carry on and treasure to this day, and also his devotion to the Blessed Mother in praying the Rosary everyday during the month of May. I certainly attribute my carrying on those devotions to his example.”

Brilhante also said Father Raul Lagoa was a big influence on him along with the many priests he served with here in the diocese on various assignments.

“They have all been great mentors, good examples and, above all, faithful friends,” he said.

Although Brilhante is expected to be the sole new priest ordained in the diocese this year, there are several others currently studying at St. John’s Seminary who will soon join him.

“We have several good men preparing to serve the diocese, so please continue to pray for them,” Brilhante said. “I’ve studied with all of them at St. John’s at some point and they are all faithful men, they love the priesthood and they

love the Diocese of Fall River.”

And for those who have yet to discern a vocation to the priesthood, Brilhante recommends talking to a priest if they sense a calling.

“Step outside your comfort zone a little bit and talk to someone you respect and admire,” Brilhante said. “Speak to them in confidence if you feel you have a calling. If this knowledge is in your heart, and this is what you’re being called to, it’s an honorable and worthy calling. There’s work that needs to be done and there are many priests willing to help you.”

With many family members and friends preparing to attend the diaconal ordination tomorrow, Brilhante said he is overjoyed and he feels blessed to have their support.

“They are very excited and honored to have a brother, cousin and nephew ordained as a transitional deacon,” he said. “It’s a great blessing for me and my family — especially my parents who are filled with joy and have supported me from day one when I told them I wanted to pursue a calling to the priesthood. They have been praying for me and supporting me all the way.”

ment. While most attendees are prospective godparents or sponsors, sometimes the motivation is to be a part of a community his or her family is already a member of, or reconnecting with childhood spiritual and religious foundations.

Then there was the young man who, while sitting through a discussion based on a teaching that had somehow morphed into a debate over morality and addictions, raised his hand and changed the entire dynamic of the class, said Deacon Bonneau.

“The topic had come up that addictions — any kind of addictions — are a moral issue and not a disease. The young man quickly raised his hand and said, ‘None of you know what you are talking about. I’m a recovering heroin addict and let me tell you what addiction is all about and how that led me here,’” recalled Deacon Bonneau. “And this was his quote, ‘When God is all you have, you learn that God is all you need.’ The whole class, for the rest of the time, spoke so freely after that; it was an amazing experience.”

Each class does a prayer service during each session to add a spiritual component, and Deacon Bonneau emphasizes students will understand the fullness of the teachings in class “by going to the Sunday Mass.

That’s when you’re going to learn at a deeper level to make this meaningful.”

This year there is a new element, an optional retreat day to be held at the Sacred Hearts Retreat Center in Wareham on March 17.

“The retreat experience is something we ask of our young people before they receive their Sacrament, so why wouldn’t you do that for adults?” said Deacon Bonneau. “I’m very optimistic about it and think it will be well-attended.”

All participants will come together on June 2 at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Fall River to celebrate the receiving of the Sacrament of Confirmation.

“Part of evangelization is just opening the door for people,” said Deacon Bonneau. “Regardless of the motivation, we do believe the Holy Spirit is what is prompting them, either through circumstances or their heart. This is a better way to have an understanding of what our Church is really about. As adults, we come to this whole process with a different mindset with different life experiences. It’s to everybody’s benefit, and when we remove the misperceptions about our teachings, people want to be part of it. The desire enters into it.”

There is no charge for the class; the cost of the book and materials is $25. For more information on how to enroll for the upcoming session, please talk to the pastor of your parish or call the Office of Faith Formation at 508-678-2828.

Adult Confirmation classes preparing to begin continued from page one

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for use by every class on each given week. This means each deanery sticks to the same fiveweek schedule of lessons for attendants, allowing those who may have missed a class within their deanery to make up the same class later in the week at a different deanery.

“The most important thing is that they get the basic principles,” explained Deacon Bonneau. “Like in Revelation, as Catholics the sources of Revelation are the Scriptures and tradition, [and we consider] how we interpret the Scriptures — that’s what you want them to take out of it. Are they going to be Scripture scholars at the end of this? Absolutely not; but those are the pieces that we want to emphasize with them and have a basic understanding of that.”

Questions from participants often revolve around what was thought to be the teachings of the Church, misperceptions of certain traditions or things he or she had heard from other people.

“They hear so many different things,” said Deacon Bonneau, adding that reading Scripture, and learning what is meant behind what is said, can be an eyeopening experience for some. “I think they start to read and learn Scripture in a different way.”

In-class discussions sometimes lead to revelations about the motivation behind those wanting to receive the Sacra-

January 20, 2012

Eucharistic Adoration in the Diocese

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

ATTLEBORO — The National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette holds eucharistic adoration in the Shrine Church every Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m. until January 20, 2012, and from January 7 to November 17, 2012.

ATTLEBORO — St. Joseph Church holds eucharistic adoration in the Adoration Chapel located at the (south) side entrance at 208 South Main Street, Sunday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Brewster — Eucharistic adoration takes place in the La Salette Chapel in the lower level of Our Lady of the Cape Church, 468 Stony Brook Road, on First Fridays following the 11 a.m. Mass until 7:45 a.m. on the First Saturday, concluding with Benediction and Mass. buzzards Bay — Eucharistic adoration takes place at St. Margaret Church, 141 Main Street, every first Friday after the 8 a.m. Mass and ending the following day before the 8 a.m. Mass.

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

East Sandwich — Eucharistic adoration takes place at the Corpus Christi Parish Adoration Chapel, 324 Quaker Meeting House Road, Monday through Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday, 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. Also, 24-hour eucharistic adoration takes place on the First Friday of every month.

EAST TAUNTON — Eucharistic adoration takes place in the chapel at Holy Family Parish Center, 438 Middleboro Avenue, Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. On First Fridays, eucharistic adoration takes place at Holy Family Church, 370 Middleboro Avenue, following the 8 a.m. Mass until Benediction at 8 p.m.

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

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

FALL RIVER — Notre Dame Church, 529 Eastern Ave., has eucharistic adoration on Fridays from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. in the chapel.

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

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

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

Patricia E. (Smith) Manning, sister of Msgr. John J. Smith

NEW BEDFORD — Patricia E. (Smith) Manning, 81, of New Bedford died Jan. 8, 2012 at St. Luke’s Hospital after a long illness.

She was the wife of the late Earl V. Manning and sister of Msgr. John J. Smith.

Born in New Bedford, the daughter of the late Ambrose and Nora (Sparrow) Smith, she was a communicant of St. Lawrence Parish, New Bedford.

Manning was formerly employed by Morse Twist Drill and as a cashier for Mars Bargainland and Ann and Hope. She was a graduate of Sacred Hearts Academy in Fairhaven.

Survivors include two children, Michael P. Manning and his wife Susan of Beverly Hills, Fla., and Maureen B. Manning of North Andover; a brother, Msgr.

John J. Smith of Fall River; a sister, Sister Mary Nora Smith, R.S.M of New Bedford; three grandchildren, Michael, Melissa and Megan, all of Beverly Hills, Fla.; and many nieces and nephews.

She was the sister of the late Ambrose Smith, Philip Smith, Robert Smith, Nora Feener, James Smith, Michael Smith and Julia Gamba.

In Your Prayers

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

Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks

HYANNIS — A Holy Hour with eucharistic adoration will take place each First Friday at St. Francis Xavier Church, 347 South Street, beginning immediately after the 12:10 p.m. Mass and ending with adoration at 4 p.m.

Jan. 21 Rev. Msgr. Henri A. Hamel, USAF, Retired Chaplain, Retired Pastor, St. Joseph, New Bedford, 1983

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

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

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

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.

NORTH DARTMOUTH — Eucharistic adoration takes place at St. Julie Billiart Church, 494 Slocum Road, every Tuesday from 7 to 8 p.m., ending with Benediction.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation is available at this time.

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

OSTERVILLE — Eucharistic adoration takes place at Our Lady of the Assumption Church, 76 Wianno Avenue on First Fridays from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and every Friday from noon to 5 p.m., with Benediction at 5 p.m.

SEEKONK ­— Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish has eucharistic adoration seven days a week, 24 hours a day in the chapel at 984 Taunton Avenue. For information call 508336-5549.

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

WAREHAM — Adoration with opportunities for private and formal prayer is offered on the First Friday of each month from 8:30 a.m. until 8 p.m. at St. Patrick’s Church, High Street. The Prayer Schedule is as follows: 7:30 a.m. the Rosary; 8 a.m. Mass; 8:30 a.m. exposition and Morning Prayer; 12 p.m. the Angelus; 3 p.m. Divine Mercy Chaplet; 5:30 p.m. Evening Prayer; 7 p.m. Sacrament of Confession; 8 p.m. Benediction.

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

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

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The Anchor

Jan. 24 Rev. Aaron L. Roche, O.P. Immaculate Conception Mission, North Easton, 1870 Rev. Louis A. Casgrain, Pastor, St. Mathieu, Fall River, 1920 Rev. Edward H. Finnegan, S.J., Boston College Faculty, 1951 Rev. Thomas F. McMorrow, Assistant, Our Lady of Victory, Centerville, 1977 Rev. Cornelius J. O’Neill, Retired Pastor, Sacred Heart, Taunton, 1999 Jan. 25 Rev. Jack Hickey, O.P., Dismas House, Nashville, Tenn., 1987 Jan. 27 Rev. John T. O’Grady, Assistant, Immaculate Conception, Fall River, 1919 Rev. Joseph M. Silvia, Pastor, St. Michael, Fall River, 1955 Rev. Thomas E. Lockary, C.S.C., Stonehill College, North Easton, 1988

Funeral arrangements were with the Saunders-Dwyer Home for Funerals in New Bedford and a Mass of Christian Burial

was celebrated January 11 at St. Lawrence Church with interment following in St. Mary’s Cemetery.

Around the Diocese 1/22

A Young Adult Retreat for men and women between college age and 35 year old who are married or single will be held at the Sacred Hearts Retreat Center in Wareham beginning today at 6 p.m. and will conclude with a luncheon on Sunday. This retreat will be facilitated by Deacon Bruce Bonneau, assistant director of adult evangelization and spirituality; CrystalLynn Medeiros, assistant director of youth and young adult ministry; and Father David Frederici, UMass Dartmouth chaplain. For more information or to register, visit www.fallriverfaithformation.org or call 508-678-2828.

1/22

Cape Cod Bus for Life, Inc. has room available for anyone wishing to attend the March for Life in Washington, D.C. The bus will depart on Sunday and return on January 24. Cost includes bus transportation and a two-night stay at the Washington Court Hotel. For more information call 508-291-0949.

1/22

The seventh annual Winter Brunch to benefit the St. Mary’s Education Fund will be held Sunday at the Coonamessett Inn, 311 Gifford Street in Falmouth, beginning at noon. Proceeds will provide “need-based” scholarships to children in need of financial assistance to attend one of the schools in the Diocese of Fall River. For reservations or more information call 508-759-3566.

1/22

A Pro-Life Hour of Prayer will be held Sunday at Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Church, 80 Bay Street in Taunton beginning at 2 p.m.

The holy hour will include exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, Rosary prayer, and a presentation by Gregg Bettencourt. The hour of prayer is sponsored by the Taunton Deanery Pro-Life Committee in the diocese.

1/23

The Pro-Life Committee and Women’s Guild at St. John Neumann’s Parish in East Freetown will host a day of prayer for the unborn on January 23. Mass will be celebrated at 7:30 a.m. followed by exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. Then at 9 a.m. is recitation of the Rosary and at 3 p.m. the recitation of the Divine Mercy Chaplet. The day will conclude with Benediction at 6 p.m. Come and join them for 15 minutes or an hour in front of Our Lord in reparatIon for the horrendous sin of abortion. Join their prayers with those who are marching in Washington for an end to this unjust law. For more information call 508763-2240.

1/26

The Divorced and Separated Support Group will host an open meeting where one can discuss freely personal difficulties regarding separation and divorce on January 26 beginning at 7 p.m. at St. Julie Billiart Parish, 494 Slocum Road in North Dartmouth. Refreshments will be served.

For more information call 508-678-2828, 508-993-0589 or 508-673-2997.

2/4

The Placement Exam for prospective high school and eighth-grade LEAP students of Bishop Connolly High School, 373 Elsbree Street, Fall River, will be February 4 at 8 a.m. To reserve a space or for information call Anthony Ciampanelli, director of admissions, at 508-676-1071, extension 333.

2/4

A Day With Mary will take place February 4 from 8:45 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. at Our Lady’s Chapel, 600 Pleasant Street in downtown New Bedford. It will include a video presentation, procession and crowning of the Blessed Mother along with Mass, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and an opportunity for Reconciliation. There will be a book store available during breaks. For more information call 508-996-8274.

2/9

The Divorced and Separated Support Group will continue its Divorce Care Series with a video screening of “The Road to Healing and Help” on February 9 beginning at 7 p.m. at St. Julie Billiart Parish, 494 Slocum Road in North Dartmouth. This session will help identify the losses that occur as a result of divorce and discuss ways to begin the process of healing. Discussion will follow and refreshments will be served. For more information call 508-678-2828, 508-993-0589 or 508-673-2997.

2/10

The diocesan Pro-Life Apostolate is sponsoring its annual essay contest to focus on the upcoming anniversary date of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton. The theme this year is “I can so that all might have life and have it to the full!” The deadline for submissions is February 10. For more information, contact your parish office or call 508-675-1311.

20

I

n the Jan. 15, 2010 Anchor, I had to lament in my column the beat down handed to the New England Patriots by the Baltimore Ravens in a playoff game at our beloved Gillette Stadium.

The black birds from crab town snatched our hopes and dreams of a fourth Super Bowl title in less than 10 years. Aside from the root-canal of a loss to the Giants in Super Bowl XLII, after compiling an 18-0 record up to that point, the loss to the Ravens was as scary as any Edgar Allan Poe classic.

Since the Ravens are named after Poe’s brilliant poem, “The Raven,” I borrowed Poe’s gem as a eulogy for the 2009 Patriots. My less-than-classic version read as follows: “Once upon a Sunday freezing, the New England defense was a-wheezing, Trying to halt the gallop of the backs of Baltimore.

The attempts they made were sickly, as the runners cantered quickly, ’Cross the frozen tundra once the site of New England football lore.

One play into the contest, Ray Rice began the conquest, with a journey to the end zone, 80 yards or slightly more, Before the fans had settled, the opponents showed their mettle, Quoth the Ravens, ‘Here’s a score.’

When Brady hit the gridiron, Foxboro faithful were still tryin’ to absorb what happened minutes before.

The Anchor

Can these titles bring us a title?

As Tom dropped back to pass, Terrell Suggs released the grasp, and the pigskin went a’bouncing on the floor.

Mere minutes later came a touchdown, from the team not from our town, Quoth the Ravens, ‘Here’s a score.’

The same scenes played out all day, while the Patriots slipped away, as Ray Lewis had predicted days before.

As the birds of prey kept pecking, our title dreams they were

By Dave Jolivet a’wrecking, ’til one final statement they did roar, ‘Another banner in New England?’

Quoth the Ravens, ‘Not anymore.’”

Reading this again rehashes the bitter disappointment of that loss two seasons ago.

So, rather than loosely quote Poe again this year in a post-game obit, I’d like to shake up the karma a bit and use Poe’s works to describe how I hope this weekend’s rematch will wind up.

There are several Poe classics that can describe what I hope Gillette Stadium will be for the visiting birds: “The Haunted Palace,” “The Valley of Unrest,” “A Descent Into the Maelstrom,” and

“The Pit and the Pendulum.”

For the Ravens themselves, I’ll evoke, “The Fall of the House of Usher.”

I hope individual performances include: Chad Ochocinco, “The Sleeper”; Danny Woodhead, “Hop-Frog”; “A Dream Within a Dream” for Rob Gronkowski; “Dream-Land” for BenJarvus GreenEllis; and may Wes Welker consistently find himself “Alone” in the end zone.

And of course, Tom Brady will be “The Man of the Crowd.”

Here’s also hoping the Patriots’ defense will be “The Conqueror Worm,” and the offense will be the authors of a “Mesmeric Revelation.” As a whole, may our New England Patriots be “The Spectacle.”

And coming up on the short end of the score this Sunday, “The Raven,” leading to a post-game locker room that can best be described as “Silence — A Fable.”

It’s hard to believe that there are only two more NFL weekends left (hopefully for the Patriots). But perhaps this is a good thing, because, as hard as it is for me to admit, I think I’ve overdosed on pigskins over the last month or so.

Since early September, every weekend

My View From the Stands

January 20, 2012

and a few weeknights, has offered football; either college or pro, culminating with just about a game per night during bowl season, running from early December to now.

I’m growing more and more impatient with color commentators on football broadcasts, who offer nothing to the game, but babble (see?). It seems to me that nearly every color analyst has nothing but “great” things to say about the players: “He’s the best ever,” “That’s the best play I’ve ever seen,” “He’s the best in the league at that,” and the ever popular, “What a great play.”

It seems to me, that with players making millions of dollars a year, “great plays” should be the norm. They’re not in the NFL because they’re average players.

So what’s the big deal? They’re doing what they’re supposed to.

And I’m on my last nerve when it comes to commercials during football games. How many cars can I go out and buy? We have a kickoff — time to sell a car; there’s an injury — time to sell a car; a score — time to sell a car; two-minute warning, challenge, one of 12 allotted time outs — car, car, car, car. It’s like being in the movie “Groundhog Day.” It’s time for baseball. But I can tough it out for two more games. First we have to avenge Edgar Allan Poe’s Ravens.

There’s a Giant we have to pay back in a couple of weeks, but that’s another horror story.

mountain oasis — The shrine of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre in Santiago de Cuba is seen recently. Pope Benedict XVI will pray at the shrine March 27 during his visit to Mexico and Cuba March 23-28. (CNS photo/Marc Frank, Reuters)

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