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Diocese of Fall River, Mass.

F riday , January 31, 2014

Catechist advises use of Church teachings to counter tough topics

By Becky Aubut Anchor Staff

DARTMOUTH — Inspired by her mother’s involvement in parish life, Jean Revil was drawn to working for a parish as she neared graduation from Stonehill College in Easton in 1979, when she received a call from Bishop Stang High School in Dartmouth.

“I came in for an interview, and then wandered around and walked into the chapel, and as

soon as I walked into the chapel, I had this overwhelming feeling that this was where I was supposed to be. The next day they offered me the job and I took it,” said Revil.

Using her degree in religious studies with a minor in sociology, Revil found herself teaching religious classes that focused on myriad of topics, including morality and Marriage; but Revil said she felt something was Turn to page five

Despite bitter cold temperatures and having to travel through a severe snowstorm, a small but dedicated group of pilgrims from the Fall River Diocese attended this year’s 41st annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. on January 22. While no official attendance count has yet been released, in the past several years more than 500,000 people have participated in the March for Life to speak out in defense of the unborn. Here Father Jay Mello gives the thumbs up. (Photo by Kenneth J. Souza)

Prayer, persistence pave way for Pro-Life pilgrimage

Fearing for safety of students, diocesan schools turn back

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

WASHINGTON, D.C. — One of the buses filled with pilgrims from the Fall River Diocese was halfway through Rhode Island, en route to the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., when the driver made the dire announcement over the loudspeaker.

A severe winter storm was already dumping inches of snow onto the nation’s capital, and the It’s been more than a year since diocesan mainstays Brothers of Christian Instruction Walter Zwierchowski (top photo), André (Roger) Millette, left, and Daniel Caron, were called to the order’s provincial house in Alfred, Maine, but their hearts are still with many friends in the Fall River Diocese. (Photos courtesy of Brother Jerome Lessard, provincial superior)

Still their Brothers’ keepers

By Dave Jolivet Anchor Editor

ALFRED, Maine — It was with mixed emotions that three Brothers of Christian Instruction, who had taught young minds at Msgr. Prevost and Bishop Connolly high schools in Fall River for decades, were called to serve at

the order’s provincial house in Alfred, Maine. Their hearts were heavy leaving jobs and friends that were near and dear to them, but also well-aware of the vow of obedience they took when they entered the order, and were excited to assist their brothers Down East.

Turn to page 15

fleet of buses hired from Tremblay’s Bus Company based in New Bedford, had been advised to turn around.

“I didn’t think I’d ever have to say this,” Richard C. Zopatti Jr., vice president and co-founder of the Cape Cod Bus for Life, informed the group as the bus sat idling near T.F. Green Airport in Warwick, R.I. “But it looks like we’re going home.”

As the bus rolled back towards Massachusetts, someone suggest-

ed they start praying the Rosary.

With blessed beads in hand, as the would-be pilgrims were barely through the third decade, something miraculous happened.

A cell phone rang.

Zopatti slumped in his seat to take the call, not wanting to disturb the prayerful moment. And then his countenance changed.

“OK, we’re heading back to D.C.,” he proudly announced.

Although the trip for that one Turn to page 11

Sacred travel is path to the Divine

By Linda Andrade Rodrigues Anchor Correspondent

ATTLEBORO — This Christmas season more than 250,000 pilgrims from all over the world made the pilgrimage to the Festival of Lights at the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette.

Traveling in unpredictable New England weather and sometimes over snow-covered roads, they waited in long lines of traffic and braved biting winds to walk this holy ground.

An annual tradition, Catholics gather in community at the December Festival, but Our Lady of

La Salette continues to summon faithful after the lights are extinguished. Year-round she urges people to embark on pilgrimage to this holy place.

“To people the world over, pilgrimage is a spiritual exercise, an act of devotion to find a source of healing, or even to perform penance,” writes Phil Cousineau in “The Art of Pilgrimage.” “Always, it is a journey of risk and renewal.

For a journey without challenge has no meaning; one without purpose has no soul.”

The Bible chronicles the earliest pilgrimage 4,000 years ago

when Abraham left Ur in search of the presence of God in the desert.

“Mass is my daily pilgrimage,” writes Liz Kelly in “50 Reasons I Love Being Catholic.” “It was not a conscious decision on my part to start attending Mass daily. I only know that I started to feel a gentle pull and a kind of sweet gnawing if I didn’t attend frequently. Some pilgrimages sneak up on us like that and become a part of our daily lives. Others call us more dramatically, and we might travel far from home and familiar things, Turn to page five

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January 31, 2014 News From the Vatican Church entering ‘new era’ under Pope Francis, top papal adviser says

OXFORD, England (CNS) — The cardinal who heads Pope Francis’ Council of Cardinals said the Catholic Church is entering a “new era” and accused critics of the pope’s statements on economic injustice of failing to “understand reality.”

“I’m firmly convinced we are at the dawn of a new era in the Church, just as when Pope John XXIII opened its windows 50 years and made it let in fresh air,” said Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa in an interview with Germany’s Cologne-based Kolner Stadt-Anzeiger published January 20.

“Francis wants to lead the Church in the same direction that he himself is moved by the Holy Spirit. This means closer to the people, not enthroned above them, but alive in them,” said the cardinal, who leads the council appointed by Pope Francis to work on reform in the Roman Curia and advise him on Church governance.

In addition, Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga said, the pope favored “above all, a simpler life and leadership” from priests and bishops in line with the “sometimes forgotten message of Je-

sus,” and believed they should go out to people, rather than “sitting in our administrative offices and waiting for people to come.”

He said most Catholics were “behind the pope” and added that he believed Cardinal-designate Gerhard L. Muller, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, could be less absolute in his defense of authority in the Church.

“I understand it. He’s German and a German professor of theology on top of it. In his mentality, there is only right or wrong, that’s it,” said Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga.

“But I say: The world, my brother, isn’t like that. You should be slightly flexible when you hear other voices, instead of just listening and saying, no, here this is the wall. I believe he’ll get there, and understand other views. But for now he’s still only at the beginning.”

The cardinal’s remarks follow recent criticisms of Cardinal-designate Muller, formerly bishop of Regensburg, Germany, for what some bishops and cardinals see as an overly rigid stance on Church teaching in some areas.

The archbishop was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to head the doctrinal congregation in July 2012 and named a cardinal by Pope Francis January 12.

Speaking recently at a Catholic university symposium in Venice, Cardinal-designate Muller said he believed Church life should not be “so much concentrated on the pope and his curia.” He said the pope’s November apostolic exhortation, “Evangelii Gaudium” (“The Joy of the Gospel”), did not, “contrary to superficial interpretations, contain any instructions for a change of direction or revolution.”

However, in the interview, Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga said the pope’s priority was that the Church should “reach the common people,” and show compassion through “a different kind of care for the world, especially the needy.”

He added that there had been “a lot of shouting” against the pope’s “critique of capitalism” in “Evangelii Gaudium,” especially in “U.S. business circles” who did not “understand reality.”

“Who says capitalism is perfect, especially since the recent financial market cri-

sis?” the cardinal said.

“This crisis didn’t hit the poor, but rich America and rich Europe, and it wasn’t the invention of liberation theology or the result of the ‘option for the poor.’

When no one criticizes capitalism, this is something false,” he said.

Asked about calls for the Church to change its attitude to divorced and remarried Catholics, Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga said the Church was “bound by God’s Commandment” that “what God has joined together, man must not divide.”

However, he explained that there were “many ways to interpret” the Commandment, and “still much room for a deeper interpretation” without reversing the teaching.

The cardinal said an October Synod of Bishops on the family would tackle new social issues such as surrogate parenthood, childless Marriages and samesex partnerships which were “not even visible on the horizon” at the last family synod in 1980.

“We have the traditional doctrine, and, of course, the traditional teaching will continue,” Cardinal Rodriquez Maradiaga said.

“But pastoral challenges require timely answers. They can’t any longer come from authoritarianism and moralism.”

He said the cardinals who elected Pope Francis in March knew that “much had to change in the Church.”

He added that changes now “high on the agenda” included plans to make the Synod of Bishops a “useful and powerful tool of collegial leadership,” rather than a body “meeting in Rome every three years,” and the creation of a new Congregation for the Laity to reflect the fact that laity “constitute the vast majority of God’s people.”

A new constitution for the curia also was planned, the cardinal said. It would replace Pope John Paul II’s 1988 apostolic constitution, “Pastor Bonus,” on the structure and responsibilities of the curia. The cardinal promised it would be “something completely new, not just a modification or adaptation.”

“There are plenty of staff in the curia who agree it cannot stay as it is and are supporting us with their own proposals. The curia is by no means a monolithic bloc,” he said.

January 31, 2014

The International Church

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Vatican observer calls for concrete steps toward peace in Syria

Syrian refugees move a tent at the Bab Al-Salam refugee camp in Azaz, near the Syrian-Turkish border recently. Syria’s nearly three-year civil war has led to what the U.N. calls the “greatest humanitarian crisis in modern history.” (CNS photo/Mahmoud Hebbo, Reuters)

Personal notes of Blessed John Paul II to be published

Krakow, Poland (CNA/ EWTN News) — The private papers of Blessed John Paul II will be released in Polish next month in a book titled “I am so much in God’s hands. Personal records 1962-2003,” from the Krakow-based publisher Znak.

The book, being published February 5, contains meditations from two of the late pope’s notebooks, dating from between July 1962, when he was auxiliary bishop of Krakow, to March 2003, two years before his death, and in the 25th year of his service as Roman Pontiff.

Znak says the book contains “the most important personal, innermost questions and moving reflections and prayers that marked (the pope’s) everyday life.” This includes “notes that show his concern for those dear to him — friends and collaborators — and for the Church that was entrusted to him.”

In his testament, Blessed John Paul II asked his personal secretary, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, to burn his personal notes.

But Cardinal Dziwisz, now the Archbishop of Krakow, said in a recent press conference he “did not have the courage” to burn all of his friend’s notes after his death.

The cardinal also maintained that in preserving some of the notes, he was motivated by the “despair of historians” when the letters of Pius XII were burned after his death in conformity with his wishes.

The book’s title, “I am so much in God’s hands” is taken from the opening statement in the diary, which is taken from two notebooks: “Agenda 1962” and “1985.”

In the first notebook, Blessed

John Paul II used his own page numbers, from one to 220.

The notes, however, are not in chronological order.

The reflections in this notebook cover the blessed’s time as auxiliary, and then Archbishop of Krakow; two conclaves; and the first six years of his time as pope. It concludes with his notes on the 1984 Lenten spiritual exercises preached to the Roman Curia by Cardinal Alexandre do Nascimento, then the Archbishop of Lubango, in Angola.

In writing of the conclave in which he was elected Bishop of Rome, Blessed John Paul II made particular note of the stroke suffered by his friend, Bishop Andrzej Deskur, then the president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. Bishop Deskur’s stroke, which occurred October 13, left him paralyzed on the left side of his body.

The two had both been priests in Krakow since Bishop Deskur’s ordination in 1950, and the late pope wrote that the following day “I visited Andrzej in the hospital, on my way to the conclave which was to choose the successor to John Paul I.” Two day’s later, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla was chosen to succeed John Paul I as Bishop of Rome.

“The sacrifice of Andrzej, my brother in the episcopate, seems to me a preparation for the fact,” he wrote. “Through his suffering, all this has been placed within the mystery of the cross and redemption carried out by Christ.”

The second notebook compiled in “I am so much in God’s

hands” covers the years 1985 through 2003, on 315 notebook pages. This notebook had originally belonged to the papal secretary, Bishop Emery Kabongo Kanundowi, as evidenced by a blurred inscription on the first page and by an embossed seal with the abbreviation “E.K.” in the center and the inscription “Library of Emery Kabongo.”

Znak said they were honored to be publishing the book, and noted that its editors, Agnieszka Rudziewicz and Anna Szulczynska, had taken great care in their work. Part of the challenge of its editing was that later entries, in particular, were written in languages other than Polish.

Card Dziwisz authored the foreword of the book, in which he wrote, “I faithfully followed the Holy Father’s will after his death in 2005, by distributing all his possessions, particularly his personal mementos.”

“However, I did not have the courage to burn the notebooks he had left behind, because they contained important information about his life.”

The cardinal also said, “What had to be destroyed, was destroyed. And what had to be saved, for the benefit of humankind, has been saved.”

Polish news agency KAI was told by the cardinal, “I didn’t burn John Paul II’s notes, because they are the key to interpreting his spirituality, his innermost self: his relationships with God, others, and himself.”

Cardinal Dziwisz had turned them over to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and they were used in the process of his canonization.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — International leaders and representatives of various Syrian factions now engaged in peace talks must give “priority to negotiations over guns (and) to people over inordinate power,” said the Vatican’s observer at the talks.

“Dialogue is the only way forward,” said Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, Vatican representative to U.N. agencies in Geneva, in a speech to the U.N.-sponsored Geneva II peace talks January 22.

“Confronted with the indescribable suffering of the Syrian people, a sense of solidarity and common responsibility prompts us to engage in a dialogue which is based on honesty, mutual trust, and concrete steps,” he said.

The United Nations has reported that “well over 100,000 people have been killed and nearly nine million others driven from their homes” since 2011 when efforts began to oust President Bashar Assad.

Even as representatives from 40 countries, regional organizations, the Syrian government and the Syrian opposition began the peace conference in Montreux, Switzerland, a rocket hit a Catholic charities office in Aleppo, Syria.

Nobody was hurt in the attack, but the office of Caritas Aleppo was badly damaged, according to Caritas Internationalis, the Vatican-based umbrella organization for Catholic charities around the world.

Father Toni Ghazzi, a parish priest and Caritas board member, “was on his way to open the center at 4 p.m. when the attack happened. He was with some children,” a Caritas statement said. “The rocket skidded in

front of them. All were thrown to the ground. The explosive then ricocheted into the Caritas center, destroying the Office for Rent Assistance. The missile ended in the waiting room for people Caritas helps. Fortunately, it failed to explode.”

The “violence has to stop because too much suffering has been inflicted on all the people of Syria and on the entire region,” Archbishop Tomasi said at the peace talks.

“The time has come to take concrete steps to implement the good intentions expressed by all parties to the current conflict,” he said.

The archbishop made the following proposals: — “An immediate cease-fire without preconditions” and the immediate halt of arms shipments and weapons funding to all parties.

— Increased humanitarian aid, because “millions have been displaced and are in life-threatening situations.”

— An immediate start to reconstruction efforts, giving priority to creating jobs for Syrian youths.

— The promotion of dialogue and reconciliation talks by Syria’s religious communities.

— Support for dialogue from regional and international powers, so that Syria might be a “catalyst of peace in other parts of the region.”

Archbishop Tomasi also called for guarantees that all Syrian citizens be treated equally before the law and within society, and said that cultural, ethnic or religious differences should be seen as enriching Syrian society rather than causing tension or conflict.

The Church in the U.S.

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January 31, 2014

Everyone needs Jesus’ healing and caring, archbishop tells inmates

SALEM, Ore. (CNS) — Portland’s new archbishop urged 35 Catholic prison inmates to open themselves to let the Holy Spirit work in their lives.

“We all think we know what we need: To get out of here.

But what is God doing for us while we are here?” Archbishop Alexander K. Sample said to the prison congregation gathered for an early evening Mass recently inside the minimum security prison south of Salem, the state capital.

“Brothers, we need to learn the love and mercy of God,” said the rail-thin, six-foot, two-inch, 53-year-old spiritual leader of western Oregon Catholics, prison inmates especially included.

He admitted to the mostly Latino group, whose members are undergoing specialized training to prepare them to re-enter society after finishing their sentences, that he, too, has a lot of wounds and strives every day to let God enter more into his life to release him from the things that

blind and imprison him.

“That’s what Jesus wants to heal and we all need someone to help us, to care for us, to love one another and be loving brothers,” he said.

He urged the respectful and polite young men, uniformly clad in dark blue prison sweatshirts and denim pants stenciled with bright orange “INMATE, Mill Creek Correctional” or “Santiam Correctional,” to ask the Lord to touch us all more deeply.

The special Mass marked the archbishop’s first prison ministry visit since he became the new archbishop last spring.

He used to devote hours to prison visits as a young priest in Marquette, Mich., where 175 inches of snow falls every winter, on average. He was Marquette’s bishop when he was named in January 2013 to be Portland’s archbishop; he was installed in April.

The evening Liturgy was attended by the Catholic director of the state’s Department of Corrections, Colette Peters, who is credited for

sweeping reforms in the way Oregon deals with prison inmates, resulting in the state’s lowest return-again-to-prison rate in the entire country.

She began programs to foster enthusiastic community involvement with the prison population, started visits by inmates’ families and children, drug and alcohol counseling, resume preparation and high school graduation equivalency. Everything is designed to help the men be successful as they pick up their lives after prison. Some are convicted murderers, burglars or sex offenders.

The Mass got underway 40 minutes late as the congregation waited for another group of Catholic inmates to arrive in a dense fog to Santiam from nearby Mill Creek Correctional Institution.

The inmates walked into the institutional green-painted recreation room in single file and were personally greeted by the archbishop with a vigorous handshake, asking of names and an enthusiastic welcome.

“It is a joy for me to be here with you guys tonight,”

Archbishop Sample told the assembly, “and I really mean that. I am excited to be here.”

He has been archbishop for nine months and “it has been far too long before I could come here,” he told the group.

He plans to visit maximum security Oregon State Prison in early March. There he will encounter much reduced gang activity and prisoner-on-prisoner abuse because of reforms made by the corrections department leadership.

Now the Surenos, Nortenos, Piasas, Bloods and Crips, and White Supremacists are referred to as “unauthorized organizations,” in prison speak.

The Gospel reading for the night concerned the paralytic man who was lowered through the roof of a house in the fishing village at Capernaum for Jesus to heal. Instead, Jesus told the man his sins were forgiven and to get up, pick up his mat and go home.

Jesus doesn’t do what is obvious — to heal the man, the archbishop explained to the rapt group. Jesus is looking beyond the man’s obvious need; He is looking into the man’s soul.

“Jesus is more concerned with the man’s spiritual side, the paralysis caused by his sins,” the archbishop said. “Jesus wants the man to know the love and forgiveness of God. That’s how God looks at us.”

Corrections Director Peters said she has been working to invite the community to the prisons and has been reaching out to volunteers.

“People have to come to make prisons safe and the community safe.”

George Gerspacher, a member of St. Boniface Church in Sublimity, has been volunteering in prison ministry off and on for several years now, and was inspired to enter the ministry by the late Sister Betty Bender, who was a Sister of St. Mary of Oregon.

“It says in Matthew 25; ‘For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited Me in, I needed clothes and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you came to visit Me.’ I guess I just felt called to do the latter,” said Gerspacher.

U.S. celebrates 30 years of diplomacy with the Vatican

Vatican City (CNA/ EWTN News) — On the 30th anniversary of the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See’s founding, new Ambassador Ken Hackett lauded the many fruits borne from the relationship, expressing his hope to help bear more.

“The relationships that have grown between our government and the Holy See over that period have been phenomenal,” Hackett told recently CNA at a reception held in honor of the event.

“Look what happened in the collapse of the Berlin Wall, look at the collaboration on humanitarian assistance, issues like trafficking, and now under (Pope) Francis, the wider issues of peace,” the ambassador said.

“So we’re hoping that there will just be a growth, and more opportunity for collaboration and cooperation.”

Originally agreed upon by President Ronald Reagan and Blessed Pope John Paul II on Jan. 10, 1984, the first U.S. Embassy to the Holy See opened on April 9, 1984 with William A. Wilson as its first ambassador.

In his remarks for the event, Ambassador Hackett highlighted that although an em-

bassy has only existed for 30 years, the U.S.’s relationship with the Vatican has existed since the country’s beginnings when Pope Pius VII named a young Jesuit, John Carroll, as “Superior to the Mission to the Thirteen States.”

After the United States’ first President, George Washington, agreed to having the pope appoint bishops to the newborn nation, John Carroll became the first bishop ever appointed to the U.S. Pointing to a panel-exhibit at the reception of photos and commentary detailing the history of their diplomatic relations, the ambassador said that the relationship between the U.S. and the Holy See has been “strong and positive.”

“It is a story of engagement and cooperation over the last century on a wide range of important global issues.”

The importance of this relationship, he noted, “was underscored recently by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent visit to the Vatican where he met with Archbishop Parolin,” and Hackett said he expects it to be strengthened with the upcoming visit of President

Barack Obama in March.

“My ideas, my whole life resonates in so many ways with Pope Francis and what he is saying,” especially the pontiff ’s “concern for the poor and the marginalized, the excluded people,” Ambassador Hackett said — adding that these are issues which are likely to come up during the March encounter between the pope and the president.

“I think they will be,” the ambassador affirmed, “knowing the president’s concern about people who fall through the cracks.”

“Migrants, and the homeless, and what we’re discussing these days in the States, raising the minimum wage, I mean we have to do this, people are working 40, 50 hours a week and not able to feed their families,” he explained.

Although the meeting will primarily be “a relationship opportunity, where President Obama and Pope Francis really get to connect on a very personal level,” Ambassador Hackett called it “a special moment,” and that “I’m sure it will mean an awful lot to President Obama.”

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January 31, 2014

Sacred travel is path to the Divine continued from page one

across oceans and mountains and plains along uncertain paths.”

The Virgin Mary is venerated by pilgrims around the world, who flock to the many shrines and churches created in her honor.

High up in the French Alps in 1846, two children, Melanie Cabat, 14, and Maximin Giraud, 11, noticed a dazzling light and gradually saw a vision of the weeping Virgin Mary, sitting on a stone with her elbows resting on her knees, her face buried in her hands.

“Come near, my children, do not be afraid,” she said. “I am here to tell you great news.”

According to the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette, Mary’s apparition at La Salette is a modern-day reminder of an ancient truth: that Mary constantly intercedes for us before God and calls us back to the message and way of her Son, Jesus.

Consequently, the priests and Brothers at the shrine offer pilgrims a place of retreat, rest and prayer, where we can be reconciled with God and others in a healing environment of peace and tranquility.

“Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while,” Jesus tells His disciples.

Wearing my warmest clothing — sweater, slacks, boots, wool coat with hood, scarf and gloves — I take the winding country backroads of Freetown, Berkley, Dighton and Rehoboth to the Attleboro shrine.

While I drive, I think about my mission: to share the spiritual experience of a pilgrim on this cold and gray winter’s day.

Arriving at the gate, I head across the huge lot toward the Welcome Center and park alongside the Outdoor Chapel. Exiting the car, I feel the frigid air envelop me.

A statue of Jesus with arms outstretched greets me as I walk alone along the winding brick pathways.

Reaching my destination, I read the message in the Garden of the Apparition: “The Virgin Mary appeared to two children at La Salette in the French Alps on Sept. 19, 1846. This is a representation of that event. Notice the two children in the middle of the hill looking down to where they first saw Mary sitting and weeping.

She stood calling to them: ‘Come near my

children; do not be afraid,’ and advanced a few steps to where she is seen speaking to them. At the end of her discourse, she climbed the slope in the pattern you see traced out by crosses and steps. At the top of the hill, she rose off the ground, stopped and spoke her final words. ‘Make this known to all my people.’ Then she looked up and stopped crying and disappeared.”

Retracing her steps, I climb the stairs.

I imagine I am on pilgrimage, starting from the imposing mountainside basilica about 50 miles south of Grenoble, France, and following the walking trail through breathtaking Alpine scenery up to the Valley of the Apparition near the village of La Salette.

From the pinnacle I look down at the stark, snow-dusted, New England landscape; and my reverie is broken. Cold and lonely, I walk to The Chapel of Light. Sitting on a bench, I watch the flickering blue lights, each lighted candle a special petition seeking Mary’s intercession. A man is kneeling on the concrete floor, praying with arms outstretched before the statue of the Virgin.

In my silent prayers, I say thank you to the Blessed Mother for favors granted.

Over the course of many years, I have lit candles here on behalf of my daughter’s best friend, Christine. She recently gave birth to a beautiful baby girl after 12 years of Marriage. I also ask Mary to intercede for Tracy, a lovely young friend who yearns for a baby of her own.

Walking to the church, I attend the 12:10 p.m. Mass. The beautiful sanctuary fills with worshippers of all ages, from babies in carriages to the elderly walking gingerly with canes. Celebrating Mass is Father John Sullivan, a native of Boston who has been a Missionary of La Salette for 50 years. He also served in Argentina for 32 years as a missionary.

After Mass, I thank Father Sullivan and head to the Gift Shop. I purchase a book in remembrance of this day’s experiences and head back out into the cold.

“We are all traveling toward something,” writes Kelly. “We go out and come back, and the journey has changed us, has opened our eyes to new interior, spiritual landscapes by taking us to new lands.”

Use Church teachings to counter tough topics continued from page one

missing; “I think there was a piece missing — the most basic piece, I think. Now what is being taught is, this is what the Church teaches, where before you kind of assumed that people knew but they didn’t know.”

When Revil became chairman of the Religious Studies Department in 1987, she took that opportunity to give a hard look at the high school’s curriculum, and noticed there seemed to be overlaps of certain topics.

“When you took a course in relationships and a course in morality, there might be some units that were repetitious for the kids,” she recalled. “It was time to look at what was really important to teach,” and Revil worked with the department to create a concrete list and a mission statement.

The “Catechism of the Catholic Church,” helped shape the department’s choices in curriculum, and Revil said she and her team used the four pillars of the “Catechism” as a foundation; “We had a course in Christology, a course in ecclesiology, a course in spiritual theology, and a course in moral theology. We went back to basics. We said we have children who don’t know the teachings of the Church; their parents don’t know the teachings of the Church, a lot of grandparents don’t know the teachings of the Church. Since Vatican II, we lost generations in there.

We wanted to go back to the basics, and

that was the best thing we could have possibly done.”

The redesign helped become a blueprint for Revil and her fellow teachers to follow as more challenging topics came to light.

“Divorce was a big one,” she said.

“Here we are talking about the sanctity of Marriage and our kids are coming from homes that had dealt with divorce.

Initially, those were the simple things.

Could you get a divorce and then remarry? What’s the difference between a divorce and an annulment? Those were big issues for our kids.”

What was perceived as difficult topics back in the ’80s may seem quaint compared to current events. While premarital sex and abortion have always been part of classroom discussions; “Now the definition of what Marriage is, is a biggie,” said Revil, who gets feedback from teachers trying to answer questions regarding gay marriage, pornography, drugs and alcohol. “Physician-assisted suicide is a biggie. Suicide in general; a lot of people think that if somebody kills themselves, they automatically are going to hell and that’s incorrect. The sex-abuse scandal is tough for some people.”

Revil retired in 2012, but has continued to guide teachers, Faith Formation directors, catechists and others on how to counter students’ questions on contemTurn to page 15

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January 31, 2014

Anchor Editorial

Christian unity

“Where’s the fence?” That Clara Peller-like (she was the woman who asked, “Where’s the beef?” in the 1980s commercials for Wendy’s, who was later quoted by Walter Mondale, criticizing Gary Hart in a 1984 presidential debate) question has been repeated on and off on talk radio for years, normally using a recording of an older woman posing it.

Below this editorial, Pope Francis has a rejoinder to that question. He said last Sunday in St. Peter’s Square, “We can be frightened and give in to the temptation of building walls around ourselves to be safer and more protected.” He was not speaking directly about the topic of immigration, but about how Christ came to bring “glad tidings [which] are not reserved for just one part of humanity; it is to be communicated to everyone.”

We know that ultimately Christ is calling us to live lives of faith, which are demonstrated by loving God and our neighbor, so that we might be able to live forever with God and many neighbors in the Heavenly Kingdom. To be able to share in that Kingdom, we need to learn how to share this world during this present life.

Conversion involves accepting correction. St. Angela Merici, whose feast day we celebrated this past Monday, wrote to her fellow Sisters, giving instructions as to how they should care for the girls in their charge. Her words are good for all of us to consider: “You also ought to exercise pleasantness toward all, taking great care especially that what you have commanded may never be done by reason of force.” In other words, the saint is telling us that we should act in such a way that people obey us not out of fear, but out of love.

St. Angela continued, “For God has given free will to everyone, and therefore He forces no one but only indicates, calls, persuades. Sometimes, however, something will have to be done with a stronger command, yet in a suitable manner and according to the state and the necessities of individuals; but then also we should be impelled only by charity and zeal for souls.”Thus, she is reminding all people in authority, be they parents, bosses, teachers, religious superiors, government leaders, that they need to exercise their power of coercion with love for the people below them. She admits that sometimes we need to be more forceful than in other situations (e.g, when a parent needs to prevent a child from harm), but that even when we have been aggrieved by someone else, our response must always be guided by love and concern for the soul of the other person. We are not to build spiritual walls against them (although for our own personal security, at times physical ones are necessary).

This past Saturday Pope Francis went outside of the walls of ancient Rome to the Basilica of St. Paul for a prayer service ending the week of prayer for Christian unity. In his homily he referred to the second reading from last weekend’s Masses and asked, with Paul, “Has Christ been divided?” (1 Cor. 1:13). He then made reference to how the Christians in Corinth identified themselves with either Paul or Apollos or Kephas (St. Peter) or Christ. “Paul could not even praise those who claimed to belong to Christ, since they were using the name of the One Savior to set themselves apart from their other brothers and sisters within the community. In other words, the particular experience of each individual, or an attachment to certain significant persons in the community, had become a yardstick for judging the faith of others.” They were building spiritual walls between them and were not acting out of charity and zeal for souls.

The Holy Father is very concerned about working for unity with Christians who belong to other churches and ecclesial communities. However, he knows that unity will not happen because of good planning by religious leaders and it definitely won’t come about by force. “The

communion for which the Apostle [Paul] pleads, however, cannot be the fruit of human strategies. Perfect union among brothers and sisters can only come from looking to the mind and heart of Christ (cf. Phil 2:5). May we realize that Christ, Who cannot be divided, wants to draw us to Himself, to the sentiments of His heart, to His complete and confident surrender into the hands of the Father, to His radical self-emptying for love of humanity. Christ alone can be the principle, the cause and the driving force behind our unity.”

The pope is laying a tall order for us — he is not saying that we can just sit back and let Jesus do the “driving.” To get to unity, we need to strive to imitate Him in His humility, in His surrendering of His own will to that of the Father, which involved His suffering. That’s not something we often like to embrace — even a minor inconvenience can become food for endless complaints (witness the recent anger over whether school systems “jumped the gun” in cancelling class the day before the snowstorm).

The pope reminded us that unity is not something “pie in the sky.” “Unity will not come about as a miracle at the very end. Rather, unity comes about in journeying; the Holy Spirit does this on the journey. If we do not walk together, if we do not pray for one another, if we do not collaborate in the many ways that we can in this world for the People of God, then unity will not come about! But it will happen on this journey, in each step we take. And it is not we who are doing this, but rather the Holy Spirit, Who sees our goodwill.”

For us to get to unity, the pope has reversed the old adage, “It is better to give than to receive.” At his audience on January 22, the Holy Father said, “Paul gives thanks to the Lord ‘because of the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in Him with all speech and all knowledge’ (1 Cor 1:4-5). These words of Paul are not a mere formality, but a sign that he sees primarily — and for this he sincerely rejoices — the gifts given by God to the community.” Even though Paul has to correct the community for its divisions, he can also recognize some openness to the Holy Spirit on the part of his readers.

Paul’s “attitude is an encouragement for us and for every Christian community to joyfully recognize God’s gifts in other communities. Let us welcome the words of St. Paul as an invitation to sincerely rejoice for the graces God has given to other Christians. We have the same Baptism, the same Holy Spirit Who gave us the grace: let us recognize it and rejoice in it.

“It is beautiful to find in other Christians something we need, something that we could receive like a gift from our brothers and our sisters. The group from Canada who prepared the texts for this Week of Prayer did not invite communities to think about what they could give to their neighbor Christians, but urged them to meet with one another in order to understand what they all can receive each from the others. This requires something more. It requires much prayer, it requires humility, it requires reflection and continual conversion. Let us go forward on this path, praying for the unity of Christians, that this scandal lessens and that it may cease among us.”

Another tall order from Pope Francis — first he asks us to follow Christ’s example of surrender, then he asks us to recognize the Holy Spirit’s workings in the lives of our fellow Christians. It’s not easy to do this, but the less “beefs” we have with them, the less walls we have between us and them, the better we will be able to see their gifts, give thanks to God for them, and see how we can share in them.

Pope Francis’ weekly Angelus address and prayer

Dear brothers and sisters, hello.

This Sunday’s Gospel recounts the beginnings of Jesus’s public life in the cities and villages of Galilee. His mission did not start from Jerusalem, that is, from the religious, social, and political center but from an area on the periphery, from an area despised by the most observant Jews because of the presence in that region of foreign groups.

This is why the prophet Isaiah refers to it as “Galilee of the

Gentiles” (Is 8:23).

It is a borderland, an area with many travelers where one meets people of different races, cultures and religions. Thus, Galilee in this way becomes the symbolic place of the Gospel’s openness to all peoples. From this point of view, Galilee resembles today’s world: the joint presence of different cultures, the necessity of confrontation and encounter.

We, too, are immersed every day in a “Galilee of the Gentiles,” and in this sort of context we OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER

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can be frightened and give in to the temptation of building walls around ourselves to be safer and more protected. But Jesus teaches us that the glad tidings that He brings are not reserved for just one part of humanity; it is to be communicated to everyone. It is a joyful proclamation to those who have been waiting for it but also perhaps to those who have given up and no longer have the strength to seek and to ask.

Starting from Galilee, Jesus teaches us that no one is excluded from God’s Salvation, that, on the contrary, God prefers starting on the periphery, from those who are last, to reach all. He teaches us a method, His method, that, however also expresses the content, namely, the Father’s mercy.

“Each Christian and every community must discern the path that the Lord points out, but all of us are asked to obey His call to go forth from our own comfort zone in order to reach all the ‘peripheries’ in need of the light of the Gospel” (“Evangelii Gaudium,” 20).

Jesus begins His mission not only from a de-centered (“decen-

trato”), but also from people that are, we could say, “low profile.” To choose His first disciples and future Apostles, He does not turn to the schools of the scribes and doctors of the law, but to humbler, simpler persons, who make an effort to prepare for the Kingdom of God. Jesus calls them where they work, on the shores of the sea, they are fishermen. He calls them and they immediately follow Him. They leave their nets and go with Him: their life will become an extraordinary and fascinating adventure.

Dear friends, the Lord calls today too! The Lord walks the roads of our daily life. Today, too, in this moment, here, the Lord passes through the piazza. He calls us to go with Him, to work with Him for the Kingdom of God, in the Galilees of our time.

Each of you should think: the Lord passes by today, the Lord looks at me, He is looking at me!

What does the Lord say to me?

And if one of you feels that the Lord says to him, “Follow Me,” be courageous, go with the Lord.

The Lord never disappoints.

Listen in your heart whether

the Lord is calling you to follow Him. Let us allow ourselves to be reached by His gaze, His voice, and let us follow Him! So “that the joy of the Gospel may reach to the ends of the earth, illuminating even the fringes of our world” (“Evangelii Gaudium,” 288).

The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary, and she conceived by work of the Holy Spirit.

Hail Mary ...

Behold the handmaid of the Lord: Be it done unto me according to Thy Word.

Hail Mary ...

And the Word was made Flesh: And dwelt among us.

Hail Mary ...

Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray: Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts; that we, to whom the Incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection, through the same Christ Our Lord.

Amen.

January 31, 2014

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ne of the joys I’ve had over the past few years has been traveling to various dioceses to preach retreats and facilitate convocations for fellow priests. Such occasions expose me quite a bit to how similar things are handled from place to place. While much of what pastors do stays the same wherever they minister, one of the largest areas of disparity among dioceses concern the administrative and financial responsibilities of parishes that priests must oversee.

Many of the differences I discover leave me saying, “Thank God I’m a priest of the Diocese of Fall River!”

But in a few areas I can’t help but say to myself, “We should be doing that, too!”

One of the most conspicuous areas is with regard to Catholic education, something that’s been on my mind a lot during Catholic Schools Week.

A few years back I was in the Diocese of Wichita, which is teeming with vocations to the priesthood and religious life and features top-notch programs for high schoolers, collegians, and young adults that solicit huge and enthusiastic responses.

In talking with priests about their diocese’s remarkable vitality, they told me, “It all begins with our Catholic schools.”

Throughout the Diocese of Wichita, Catholic education is free. No Catholic youngster needs to pay a penny to attend any of the 38 schools and four Catholic high schools. It’s funded entirely by the gener-

Anchor Columnist Stewardship of Catholic schools

osity of parishioners through free, Catholic families need the Sunday offertory. Wichita, to be committed and acby the way, isn’t exactly Newtive stewards in their parish. port or Greenwich in terms of Non-Catholics who accept the per capita income. The clergy strong Catholic identity of the and faithful of Wichita, howschool are welcome to attend, ever, have made an enormous with their families’ paying a commitment to Catholic tuition that is slightly below education. per pupil costs.

All Catholics are asked It’s a model of how Cathoto tithe a percentage of their lics in a diocese prioritize income in order to make it possible for every young CathoPutting Into lic, rich or poor, to receive a Catholic the Deep education. The vast majority of Catholics

By Father make that sacrifice in Roger J. Landry order to pass on the faith to the younger generations, including to burgeoning numbers Catholic education and form of impoverished Hispanic disciples for the future. immigrants. Parishes with In various other dioceses schools often spend 80 to 90 I’ve visited, while Catholic percent of their budget to education isn’t free, every make Catholic education free, parish without a school is accessible and excellent. Parassessed a major percentage ishes without schools commit of the offertory — often 25 to paying the entire tuition of to 40 percent — to subsidize their young parishioners to at- Catholic schools elsewhere in tend nearby Catholic schools. the diocese, something that Churches in particularly poor keeps tuitions affordable, pays areas get help from a Diocesan just salaries, funds capital imSt. Katherine Drexel Fund, to provements and the building help them meet their budgets of new schools. It also means beyond what their parishioners that every parish is necessarily can sacrifice. highly invested in forming the Since all Catholics are sacnext generation of believers. rificing for Catholic schools, For that reason, the gift of a even if they no longer have Catholic education is reguany children or grandchildren larly promoted at all parishes, attending, many are willing to facilitating a culture in which volunteer in schools to save all Catholic families are urged money to use it for proto take advantage of an affordgrams, facilities and salaries. able, excellent Catholic educaThe massive investment also tion for their children. keeps Catholic identity in the In our diocese, the only parschools robust. In order to be ishes that are similarly invested able to attend the schools for in Catholic education are those

that still have parish elementary schools attached to them, which are less than a quarter of our diocese’s parishes. Regional diocesan schools run by the diocese or the five Catholic high schools receive no direct funding from parishes.

The only regular commitment those parishes without schools are required to make is to give a $300 annual subsidy to students from the parish who are attending one of the 19 Catholic elementary schools.

Several parishes do more than what is required, and some also offer financial assistance for students to attend one of five Catholic high schools, but all of this is paltry compared to what happens in those dioceses where parishes without schools give massive chunks of their offertory to support Catholic education.

The St. Mary’s Education Fund that our diocese has established is a great help to families in financial need to receive partial scholarships to attend Catholic schools — and indirectly assists schools by increasing student enrollment — but it’s nowhere near enough to remedy the fundamental economic problems facing most parochial schools.

Adopting a parish offertory model of support for Catholic schools here would likely create short-term financial distress for parishes already struggling

7 to meet budgets. But there are ways that all Catholics, including those in parishes without schools and without relatives in schools, could support Catholic schools without harming parish bottom lines.

The first would be to have a diocesan-wide second collection once or twice a year to support Catholic schools in the diocese.

A second would be to do a campaign similar to the Catholic Charities Appeal specifically to support Catholic education. Just like the CCA helps everyone grasp how much need there is for the excellent spiritual and social services that the CCA funds, so a similar campaign for Catholic education would not only provide necessary financial support for the Catholic schools, but it would also dramatically increase awareness of the indispensable importance of Catholic schools among all Catholics.

The inescapable reality is that the future of the Catholic Church in our country is highly dependent on the prevalence and quality of Catholic schools today and tomorrow. That’s why all Catholics and all Catholic parishes need to be urged to take genuine stewardship of them. As Catholic schools go, so goes the Church.

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

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his Sunday we celebrate “Candlemas.” Just as Christmas means “Christ’s Mass,” so our celebration this week is the “Candle Mass.” At some Masses, candles will be blessed, either for use at church or for people to take home. According to Wikipedia, in Poland this day is called “feast of Our Lady of Thunder,” since people use candles distributed at Mass when there is a thunderstorm (a child in my parish said that he would keep the candle for when there would be a black-out, and then pray by its light).

The reason candles are blessed on this day is because it is the day on which we commemorate the Baby Jesus being presented in the temple by Mary and Joseph.

With His presentation, the true Light of the world came into the temple. The prophet Malachi had fore-

January 31, 2014

Light in the darkness

told this: “Suddenly there or two young pigeons: the will come into the temple one for a burnt-offering, and the Lord Whom you seek” the other for a sin-offering; (3:1). Of course, the people and the priest shall make believed that the Lord God atonement for her, and she would come into the temple shall be clean” (Lev 12:8). in some grandiose manThe prophet Malachi asks ner, not in the simplicity of being carried in by a poor married couple Homily of the Week from the hinterland Presentation of Jewish Palestine. of the Lord The poverty of the Holy Family is made

By Father evident by what type Richard D. Wilson of animals the parents offered to God the Father on behalf of their Son and themselves. us, “Yes, He is coming, says The Old Testament book the Lord of Hosts. But who of Leviticus, which dewill endure the day of His creed what type of offerings coming? And who can stand should be made upon the when He appears?” (3:2). birth of a child (especially In the Gospel, Simeon upon the birth of the firstand Anna are able to stand born son), made provision when He appears, because for people who could not their hearts were full of the afford the customary lamb.

Holy Spirit. They patiently “And if her means suffice awaited their entire lives the not for a lamb, then she redemption of Israel. Theirs shall take two turtle-doves, were not easy lives — Anna

had been a widow from her early adulthood into her 80s. But they trusted in God and knew that He ultimately would provide.

We need to remember the depressing cultural situation in which Simeon and Anna lived.

Although Christmas carols have often spoken about the peace that reigned at that time, it was the Pax Romana, brought about by the force of Caesar Augustus. It was hardly a golden age for Jews, living under the bloodthirsty rule of King Herod, a Roman vassal. Into the darkness of that time period, the Light of the world comes into the temple.

There is much darkness in the world today. One need only connect to the news to hear about terrible things happening to millions of people throughout

the world. Or we can think about the personal tragedies which people around us (or ourselves) are undergoing.

It is into this darkness that the King of Glory comes.

As the old hymn says, “The nation rejoices. Open the gates before Him, lift up your voices!”

Pope Francis spoke this past Tuesday about today’s psalm (Psalm 24), upon which the aforementioned hymn is based. He called upon us to sing it with gusto, praising God as we pray it, as well as praying the Gloria and the Holy, Holy.

Simeon and Anna could rejoice in the presence of the Lord. May we rejoice that God has come to bring His light into our darkness and may we be that light for each other.

Father Wilson is pastor of St. John the Evangelist and St. Vincent de Paul parishes in Attleboro.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. Feb. 1, 2 Sm 12:1-7a,10-17; Ps 51:12-17; Mk 4:35-41. Sun. Feb. 2, Presentation of the Lord, Mal 3:1-4; Ps 24:7-10; Heb 2:14-18; Lk 2:22-40 or 2:22-32. Mon. Feb. 3, 2 Sm 15:13-14,30; 16:5-13; Ps 3:2-7; Mk 5:1-20. Tues. Feb. 4, 2 Sm 18:9-10,14b,24-25a,30—19:3; Ps 86:1-6; Mk 5:21-43. Wed. Feb. 5, 2 Sm 24:2,9-17; Ps 32:1-2,5-7; Mk 6:1-6. Thurs. Feb. 6, 1 Kgs 2:1-4,10-12; (Ps) 1 Chr 29:10-12; Mk 6:7-13. Fri. Feb. 7, Sir 47:2-11; Ps 18:31,47,50-51; Mk 6:14-29.

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wenty-five years ago, on Jan. 27, 1989, a joint statement from the communist government of Poland, the Solidarity trade union, and the Catholic Church announced a national “roundtable” to discuss the country’s future, including major structural issues of political and economic reform. The roundtable began the following month; basic agreements were reached in April; partially-free elections, swept by Solidarity candidates, were held in June; and in September, a Solidarity leader, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, became Poland’s first noncommunist prime minister since World War II. Poland was the first of the Warsaw Pact dominos to fall.

Its transition accelerated the Revolution of 1989, which was completed in late December 1989 with the swearing-in of Vaclav Havel, a political prisoner earlier in the year, as president of Czechoslovakia.

Over the past quartercentury, various theorists have tried to explain “1989,” typically focusing on the economic incapacities of communist

The John Paul II difference in 1989

by Polish dissident Adam Miregimes in the post-industrial chnik in a historical judgment age, the personality of Soviet that was also the ethical founleader Mikhail Gorbachev, or some combination of these two dation of a political program: “People who begin by storming factors. No doubt the inability Bastilles end up building their of state-centered, command economies to compete in a high-tech world had something to do with “1989”; so did the fact that Gorbachev, who came from a different generation of Soviet

By George Weigel leaders, was unwilling to roll the tanks to maintain Stalin’s exown.” The leaders of “1989,” in ternal empire. But to leave the other words, were determined analysis with economics and Gorbachev seems to ignore the that “1989” would not be a larger historical question: Why re-run of 1789. They wanted did “1989” not involve massive to build a future of freedom on a nobler foundation than the bloodshed and violence, the usual 20th-century methods of French revolutionary assertion of radical personal willfulness effecting vast social change?

— which, after the real BasLet me suggest, once more, tille had been stormed, quickly an answer. turned into radical mob-led Beginning with the 1992 bloody-mindedness. publication of “The Final And from whence did that Revolution,” I have been arguing that “1989” was, at bottom, determination-to-be-different a revolution of conscience — a come? It came from many revolution of the human spirit. sources. It came from years of serious political reflection by The essential character of that dissidents from the working moral revolution was captured

The Catholic Difference

classes and the central European intelligentsia, much of it carried out in prisons and expressed in underground classics like Michnik’s “Letter from the Gdansk Prison, 1985” and Havel’s magnificent essay, “The Power of the Powerless.” It came from the interaction of these dissidents, their organizations, and the various Helsinki Watch Groups that were established in the North Atlantic world to monitor communist regimes’ adherence to the 1976 Helsinki Accords: a cynical act of diplomatic mendacity by which the Soviet Union and its satellites committed themselves to honor basic human rights, and a folly they would come to bitterly regret. It came from an American president, Ronald Reagan, who was prepared to call political and social evil by its right name, whatever the proponents of quiet diplomacy thought.

And it came from Pope John Paul II, who will be canonized precisely three months

after the 25th anniversary of the announcement of the Polish Roundtable.

Moral revolution — a revolution of conscience — had been stirring in central and eastern Europe since 1968, when the Prague Spring was crushed by Soviet tanks. As archbishop of Kracow, the man who would become John Paul II fostered that revolution by bringing together religious and secular dissidents of moral seriousness. Then, as pope, John Paul focused that intensifying but still latent moral energy, somewhat like a laser, into a sharp, bright beam of conscience during his June 1979 pilgrimage to his native Poland, where he helped people of east central Europe rediscover their dignity.

Communism would have fallen, eventually. That it fell when it did, and how it did, cannot be explained without reference to John Paul II and the revolution of conscience he came to embody.

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

January 31, 2014

Wednesday 22 January 2014 — Homeport: Falmouth Harbor — Anniversary of Roe v. Wade decision. hear people say “Come to Cape Cod, where we play golf all winter long.”

I don’t think so. It’s been snowing here on Cape Cod since yesterday. My guess is that there’s about a foot of snow on the ground at the moment, and it continues to fall. No golf for me. Anyway, I have only played golf once in my life and, although I thoroughly enjoyed myself, I don’t intend to repeat the experience. I was embarrassed, dear readers, when four elderly gentlemen, all using canes and walkers, called out to “play through” and proceeded to whizz past me.

Father Frank Wallace was up early this morning as usual, down in the kitchen making the coffee. He claims he has a top secret recipe for coffee passed on to him by Msgr. John Perry, formerly pastor here at St. Patrick Church. As I wandered into the kitchen, followed by two overexcited greyhounds, “Colonel” Wallace greeted me cheerfully, “Hear the silence, Tim? Isn’t it won-

I

“Today, as we reflect on the 41st anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, we recommit ourselves to the decision’s guiding principle: that every woman should be able to make her own choices about her body and her health [because] this is a country where everyone deserves the same freedom and opportunities to fulfill their dreams” (President Obama). nother year of “choice” has passed, and the number of victims continues to grow — victims who include the children lost through abortion, their parents, their extended families, and the entire society now bereft of their myriad talents. While the younger generation clearly predominated this year’s March for Life in Washington, D.C. — indeed, polls show that the majority of younger Americans are Pro-Life — they have yet to consider the wider implications of ignoring how we define the families into which these children will

A

Anchor Columnists Snowbound derful?” Father Wallace is hearing impaired. He often foregoes his hearing aids due to the fact that he relishes the sound of silence. Back in the day, seminarians were required to keep “Grand Silence” following communal Night Prayer. You were forbidden to speak, even to your roommates. This could be somewhat more difficult when your shared the dorm room with six other men. Nevertheless, we kept the Grand Silence. It taught us something valuable about the spiritual life. There is altogether too much noise in our modern lives. How can anyone reflect while surrounded by the never-ending din? Seminary discipline taught us to relish silence. Father Wallace knows from the wisdom of his years that silence can, in fact, be “grand.”

As the snow continues to softly fall here on Cape Cod, the silence is growing deeper.

The parish office is closed.

Nobody has rung the doorbell all day. The telephones sit mutely. I have never experienced a parish office as active as this one. Phone

calls come in all day long, one after another. People come and go in steady succession. Sometimes there are three or four parishioners waiting in queue to conduct their business. This is a good thing. It means the Church in downtown Falmouth is alive and well.

The downside is that my living quarters are located above the parish office. I live “over the store,” so to speak.

I can hear every telephone that rings and every door that opens and shuts. Perhaps I’m getting old, but I have joined Father Wallace in celebrating the silence of a snowy winter’s day.

Blizzard or not, when you are a pet owner, you have serious obligations; you must tend to your animals.

I happen to be “dog sitting” Father Peter John’s greyhound Justin as well as caring for my own dog, Transit.

Their combined weight is 160 pounds, and it is all muscle. They are, after all, retired animal athletes. I, on the other hand, have never in my life been mistaken for an athlete. Both dogs love the snow. They want to run and jump in the snowdrifts like puppies. I do not. I suppose they would make snow angels, if I permitted it.

There is a large nursing home (204 beds) next to the rectory. Many of the rooms overlook the yard where I walk the dogs. The patients in the nursing home sometimes rush to their windows to get a better view of me struggling in the snow with the dogs. Sometimes I imagine I can hear the spectators laughing. I suppose it is entertaining from a distance.

Justin the dog is always enthusiastic at the very thought of going out.

He pounces up and down overwhelmed with joy, leans on my leg to get my attention, and lets out a loud “roo.” A roo, dear readers, is a sound peculiar to greyhounds. Every kennel of greyhounds has a “roo dog.”

Some dreams are nightmares

be born.

The Pro-Life contingent finds itself sandwiched between two other key human rights struggles, and each of the three mass movements affect the others at their very core. This reminds us that truth is an integrated whole that the “father of lies” seeks to eviscerate from every angle. The three movements are the battles for civil rights, the right to life, and the defense of traditional Marriage. Each promotes the dignity of the human person and safeguards that which he needs in order to thrive.

The Civil Rights movement was necessary to conquer the lie that some persons have more value than others, because slavery in America depended on the premise that some persons were commodities and others were consumers. The Pro-Life moment picked up where the previous movement left off, because

in 1973 personhood — which had previously included everyone — was suddenly stripped from those in utero. The third contest has just begun and is contingent on the lie that the traditional family is simply a

human construct which can be reworked; this presents us with the battle that could shred what is left of the Republic.

Just as our civil rights work has borne much fruit yet stands incomplete, respect for the personhood of the unborn is growing but has yet to be translated into legal protection. While Pro-Life arguments have convinced many of our young people, the confusion on the next front has engulfed the bulk of the

population — especially the young. They have yet to connect the dots: not only do all persons share equal dignity, not only do all persons have the inherent right to life, but all persons subsequently have a right to the security of a stable family so that they can be formed by a mother and a father. That truth is founded in the same natural law that undergirds the first two, and goes handin-hand with them for the good of each person and wider society.

When President Obama speaks of a pregnant woman in isolation, he is ignoring the fact that there are two other persons involved: the child within and that child’s father.

And when he suggests that America’s “guiding principles” presume that a woman’s pregnancy will interrupt her dreams, he perpetuates the lie that one person’s aspirations are more important than another’s — meaning the very

9 Every day at precisely the same time, the designated roo dog will begin the song.

Within seconds, all the dogs in the kennel are rooing loudly. The wave of sound is enough to raise the dead.

Then, after less than a minute, all the dogs stop abruptly and go back to sleep. Why greyhounds do this, nobody really knows. It has something to do with making reassuring contact with the other dogs in the pack. In whatever kennel Justin lived during his racing years, he was surely the instigating roo dog. My dog Transit is not at all impressed. Transit is now 76 years old in human terms and not easily swayed by ridiculous rooing.

Transit prefers the grand silence.

“When life gives you lemons, make lemonade,” goes the old saying. But who wants lemonade in January? “When life brings you snowstorms, celebrate the silence.” Oh wait. It must be time to walk the dogs again.

I hear a roo.

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

He can be reached at frxmas@ aol.com.

dreams of the child she carries.

And finally, when a mother dreams that she can construct a family of her own choosing — regardless of the needs of her child — then even if she chooses life, she has robbed him of his surest means of emotional security, healthy formation, and an understanding of his place in the universe — for the domestic Church is the springboard into Divine realities. When a child knows the love of a father and a mother, he understands more readily the God Who made him and the Church that stands ready to nurture him.

All three movements are critical, and the losses on any front impact the others. It remains for us to weave the arguments for each into a sturdy and integrated whole, so that authentic respect for all persons is never short-changed.

Anchor columnist Mrs. Kineke is the author of “ The Authentic Catholic Woman.”

She blogs at feminine-genius. typepad.com.

10 Vatican City (CNA/ EWTN News) — Bishop Alvaro del Portillo, the second leader of Opus Dei, will be beatified in his birthplace of Madrid on September 27, the Vatican has announced.

The current Prelate of Opus Dei, Bishop Javier Echevarría, said the Vatican’s recent announcement of the beatification ceremony was a “moment of profound joy.”

He said Bishop del Portillo “loved and served the Church so much.”

Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, will

January 31, 2014

Opus Dei bishop’s beatification set for Madrid

preside over the beatification ceremony, which could draw thousands of faithful from around the world. Related events will also be held in Rome.

Bishop Alvaro del Portillo, known as “Don Alvaro,” was born in Madrid on March 11, 1914, the third of eight children. As a student, he was active in the St. Vincent de Paul Society. He taught catechism to children in poor neighborhoods and distributed donations and food to families in need, Opus Dei said on its website.

He studied to be an engi-

neer and received doctorates in philosophy, liberal arts and canon law.

He joined Opus Dei in 1935 and soon became a close collaborator of St. Josemaria Escriva, who founded the organization dedicated to spiritual growth and discipleship among the Catholic laity. The organization teaches its members to use their work and their ordinary activities as a way to encounter God. Bishop del Portillo was ordained to the priesthood in 1944. He helped Opus Dei expand in 20 countries, including Italy. He was an active participant at the Second Vatican Council and was a consultor at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the

Faith. He was elected to succeed St. Josemaria Escriva as the head of Opus Dei in 1975, after the founder’s death.

When Pope John Paul II made Opus Dei a personal prelature in 1982, he named Bishop del Portillo as head of the unique Church structure.

Consecrated a bishop in December 1990, the future blessed died in Rome in 1994. His remains are presently in the crypt of the Opus Dei church St. Mary of Peace in Rome. Civil authorities are considering whether to transfer his remains to Rome’s Basilica of Sant’Eugenio.

In July 2013, Pope Francis recognized a miracle attributed to the intercession

of Bishop del Portillo. It involved the August 2003 healing of a Chilean newborn boy who suffered a 30-minute period of cardiac arrest and a major hemorrhage.

Although the newborn’s medical team thought he had already died, his parents prayed for healing through the bishop’s intercession. The baby’s heart began to beat again and he went on to live a normal life.

Msgr. Flavio Capucci, the postulator in charge of Bishop del Portillo’s cause for canonization, told Opus Dei in June 2012 that he had received almost 12,000 signed reports from Catholics who believe they have received favors through the bishop’s intercession.

The recognition of a second miracle is typically necessary for a blessed to become a saint.

Beatification events will include visits to Madrid’s Almuenda Cathedral and other places related to the bishop’s life and the beginnings of Opus Dei. Opus Dei said the development charity Harambee Africa International will hold activities during the beatification in Rome and Madrid to help finance its medical and educational projects in sub-Saharan Africa. Bishop del Portillo encouraged these activities during his time as head of Opus Dei. Bishop Echevarría will celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving the day after the beatification.

11

January 31, 2014

Prayer, persistence pave way for Pro-Life pilgrimage continued from page one

bus — the so-called “Frog 91” — would ultimately take nearly 16 hours to complete, the passengers learned firsthand about the power of prayer that morning.

This year’s pilgrimage to the March for Life was a difficult one for many traveling from the diocese to D.C. — especially Marian Desrosiers, director of the ProLife Apostolate for the Fall River Diocese, who had to make the tough call to send the fleet of buses filled with students from the Catholic high schools back home when she realized they were heading directly into the path of a snowstorm that was traveling up the east coast.

Having attended the March for Life for more than 25 years, Desrosiers said she’s encountered all kinds of weather and situations during her tenure, but this year’s pilgrimage would easily “rate in my top three worst.”

Ironically, when she arrived in Washington, D.C. on the previous Monday, Desrosiers said it was 60 degrees. “I knew a D.C. storm was brewing, so I made a few phone calls and everyone agreed we would keep a close watch,” she told The Anchor.

“I stayed up throughout Monday night watching weather reports,” Desrosiers said.

“We know weather predictions can fall short or go the other way. Through the night I kept track of the storm and it began to show problems in other areas as well. I ‘woke up’ the bus company very early and they informed me no state of emergency had been declared. It wasn’t until the track predicted the storm would extend all along the Interstate 95 corridor that I became deeply troubled.

“With plunging temperatures predicted for the entire day, I made calls to see if we could secure safe departure off the highway, if needed. The hotel informed me due to the large number of rooms it would be almost impossible to say. I knew parishes could be a possibility, but I was still troubled. With the temperatures plunging, what if we got caught on the interstate for some unforeseen reason? I no longer was willing to take that chance. My first commitment was and will always be for the safety of our youth. Snow was also predicted for New England later that day. I placed a call to the bus company and asked that our buses be called back.

“I explained we had buses filled with young people. They agreed to my request.

It was hard because I knew how disappointed and upset the students would be,

but I would not allow anything to get in the way of my decision when all the factors at that time were taken into consideration.

I was seriously concerned for their safety.

This is only the second time we have cancelled the diocesan pilgrimage in 20 years!

I am most grateful to everyone for their help and support during this difficult time and decision.”

Although Peter Shaughnessy, president/ principal of Bishop Stang High School in North Dartmouth, noted that the 59 students and 13 chaperones from his school traveling aboard two buses shared with Pope John Paul II High School in Hyannis were certainly disappointed at not being able to attend this year’s March for Life, “there’s no question the diocese made the right call,” he said.

“It could have been a dangerous situation getting down there and I think it was absolutely the right call,” he said. “We ended up having the next day off anyway — most schools called it off on Wednesday because of the storm. It was disappointing on the one hand, but sometimes you have to sit back and say: ‘OK, everything happens for a reason. God is at work.’ You then just need to figure out what else we can do.

Is there another way to get involved in this issue? And there are many.”

One important way to support the Pro-Life effort is through prayer, and the students at Coyle and Cassidy High School in Taunton who didn’t get to be at the march this year gathered together at school when classes resumed on Thursday to do just that, according to vice principal of Academic Affairs Kathleen St. Laurent.

“It was disappointing for our students en route to the March for Life to have to turn back, however safety is always a priority,” St. Laurent said.

“We were so disappointed to miss the experience to stand up for life,” said freshman Victoria Goldrup. “However, it makes me even more excited to participate next year.”

“I’m very disappointed,” said senior Rachel Tranfaglia. “This is my fourth year going on the march. I wish I had the opportunity to go this year, but I was still there in spirit.”

“Turning around made me upset because I was looking forward to going to D.C. and marching with my friends,” added freshman Max Whiffen. “I am a risk taker, but there’s still three more years of Turn to page 20

12

January 31, 2014

13

January 31, 2014

CNS Movie Capsule NEW YORK (CNS) — The following is a capsule review of a movie recently reviewed by CNS. “Gimme Shelter” (Roadside) Vanessa Hudgens stars in this fact-based drama as a neglected teen who flees the inner-city custody of her drugaddicted, emotionally unstable mother (Rosario Dawson) and takes up residence with her estranged, wealthy father (Brendan Fraser). But the initially cold reception she receives from her ultra-respectable suburban stepmom (Stephanie Szostak) only gets chillier when it emerges that the runaway is pregnant. Though pressured to have an abortion, she insists on keeping her child, a resolution that’s reinforced when she comes under the influence of a kindly priest ( James Earl Jones) and the redoubtable founder (Ann Dowd) of a home for expectant adolescents. A strong Pro-Life message undergirds writer-director Ron Krauss’ intermittently touching film, which is further bolstered by a passionate performance from Hudgens. Yet the story unfolds at a deliberate pace that may be too leisurely for some viewers.

Possibly acceptable for older teens. Mature themes, including molestation, out-of-wedlock pregnancy and substance abuse, a scene of disturbing, though not gory, violence, at least one rough term, a handful of crass expressions. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

T

Needed: Prayers of Olympic proportion

he opening ceremonies for the 2014 Winter Olympic games are a week from today. As most folks know, the games will be held in Sochi in the Russian Federation.

I’d much rather watch the Winter Olympics than it’s summer counterpart. I’m just a cold weather guy (some would say I’m just cold).

I look forward to the games this year, but there is also a not-so-slight sense of dread about them this time around.

By Dave Jolivet As most folks also know, there have been some terrorist threats against the games, the athletes and the spectators. There are many who say, “Being afraid of terrorists and terrorism is just what they want, so don’t be afraid.”

That’s pretty easy to say when most of us are sitting in the comfy confines of our living rooms watching from half a world away. This region knows all too well what a few misguided individuals can accomplish, evidenced by the Boston Marathon Patriots’ Day bombing last April. It hit especially close to home with one of the suspected terrorists being a UMass Dartmouth student.

I admit I am a bit worried for the safety of everyone concerned in Sochi over the next few weeks.

Having watched the Olympic games on the tube since I was a pup, I can still vividly recall the tragedy of the 1972 summer games in Munich, Germany, where eight terrorists killed two athletes during an intrusion into the Olympic village, at which point they took nine hostages. After a gruesome gun battle, all the of the hostages were killed as were five of the terrorists. The haunting image of a masked gunman on one of the buildings is burned into my brain, as is the sad, emotional coverage by sports legend Jim McKay of ABC Sports who was covering the games.

There are many athletes making their way to Sochi right now.

My View From the Stands

Young people, some local, who have a bright future ahead of them, not just in the next few weeks, but in the years and decades ahead. We have some of our beloved Boston Bruins heading to the rinks of Sochi to represent their respective home countries. And sports fans and families of the athletes from across the globe are descending on a Russian village and its outskirts to cheer on the competitors.

The rest of us sports fans have a job to do as well. Let’s raise a prayer or two or three of Olympic proportions to ask for protection for everyone there. And while we’re at it, let’s pray for those who think they need to spread terror, fear and even death to achieve a goal they feel is theirs. They, more than anyone, need prayers. We see it happen all too often, almost weekly now in our own country, where a troubled individual shoots up a school, office or mall.

May the spirit of next week’s opening ceremonies, one of brotherhood and sisterhood, permeate the globe. Here’s to a glorious Sochi games, where gold, silver and bronze are not the most important prizes.

Anchor columnist Dave Jolivet can be reached at davejolivet@ anchornews.org.

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on WLNE Channel 6 Sunday, February 2, 11:00 a.m.

Celebrant is Father Riley J. Williams, parochial vicar at St. John the Evangelist and St. Vincent de Paul parishes in Attleboro.

14

January 31, 2014

College debt factors in men and women entering religious life, CARA survey finds

WASHINGTON — Debt from college loans makes some men and women postpone joining a religious community, according to a survey of men and women professing final vows in a religious order.

Ten percent of those who professed final vows in 2013 had an average amount of $31,000 in college debt and the average length of delay was two years, according to “New Sisters and Brothers Professing Perpetual Vows in Religious Life: The Profession Class of 2013.” The annual survey was conducted by the Georgetown Universitybased Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate.

“None of the Brothers reported receiving assistance in paying down their educational debt prior to entering their religious institute. Among women religious, several reported assistance from these groups in paying down their debt,” the survey reported. It noted that assistance came from family members, their religious institute, their parish, the Labouré Society, friends/co-workers, the Mater Ecclesiae Fund for Vocations, the Serra Fund for Vocations and the Knights of Columbus Fund for Vocations.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Secretariat for Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations

commissioned the survey and released the results to the public before the annual celebration of World Day for Consecrated Life. The occasion is marked in the United States Feb. 1-2, 2014. The entire survey can be found at www.usccb.org/consecratedlife.

The CARA survey polled women and men religious who professed perpetual vows in 2013 in a religious congregation, province or monastery based in the U.S. CARA received a response from 460 of 823 major superiors, for an overall response rate of 56 percent among religious institutes. In all, 71 percent of LCWR superiors, 60 percent of CMSM superiors, 47 percent of CMSWR superiors, and 28 percent of superiors of contemplative communities provided contact information for 107 members who professed perpetual vows in 2013.

Of these 107 women and men, a total of 69 Sisters and nuns and 11 Brothers responded to the survey. These Brothers may include some men who will also study for the priesthood. This represents a response rate of 75 percent of the 107 potential members of the Profession Class of 2013 that were reported to CARA by major superiors.

Among major findings: — Half of the responders are age 37 or younger. The youngest is 26; the oldest is 73.

— Almost three-fourths (74 percent) identify as white, one in seven (14 percent) identifies as Asian, and more than one in 10 (12 percent) identifies as Hispanic.

— Most (76 percent) were born in the U.S. Of those born outside the United States, the most common country of origin is Vietnam.

— Among those identifying as Hispanic/Latino two-thirds (67 percent) are U.S. born and one-third (33 percent) are foreign born. Those identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander/ Native Hawaiian (82 percent) are predominantly foreign born. Nearly all identifying as Caucasian/white (88 percent) are U.S. born.

— On average, the respondents who were born outside the United States were 22 years old when they first came to the United States and lived here for 17 years before perpetual profession.

— More than eight in 10 (82 percent) responders have been Catholic since birth. Almost eight in 10 (77 percent) come from families in which both parents are Catholic. Among the 18 percent who became Catholic later in life, the average age at which they converted was 22.

— More than eight in 10 responding religious (85 percent) have at least one sibling and the most common number of siblings is two. Almost half (47 percent) of the responders have four or more siblings.

— About four in 10 responders (43 percent) attended a Catholic elementary school, which is similar to that for all Catholic adults in the United States (42 percent). These respondents are more likely than other U.S. Catholics to have attended a Catholic high school (31 percent of respondents, compared to 22 percent of U.S. adult Catholics) and much more likely to have attended a Catholic college (30 percent of responding religious, compared to just seven percent of U.S. adult Catholics). Responding women religious are less likely than Brothers to have attended a Catholic college (26 percent for women compared to 55 percent for men).

— Respondents are highly educated.

Twenty-four percent earned a graduate degree before entering their religious institute. Two in three (65 percent) entered their religious institute with at least a bachelor’s degree or more (65 percent for women and 63 percent for men).

— Nearly all responding religious (89 percent) had work experience prior to entering their religious institute. Of those who were employed, a quarter (25 percent) worked part-time and just under two-thirds (64 percent) worked full-time before entering the institute.

Women religious are more likely than men to have been employed in education; men religious are more likely than women to have been employed in busi-

ness. Men and women are equally likely to have been employed in health care or in Church ministry.

— Many respondents were active in parish life before entering their community. Almost half (46 percent) participated in youth ministry or youth group.

A third participated in Catholic campus ministry or a Newman Center. A quarter participated in a young adult ministry or group and/or in World Youth Day. — Nine in 10 (90 percent) had ministry experience before entering their religious institute, most commonly in faith formation (54 percent). Four in 10 served in a social service ministry and one in 10 taught in a Catholic school or served in hospital or prison ministry.

— Nearly all respondents (94 percent) regularly participated in some type of private prayer activity before they entered their religious institute. Seven in 10 participated in Eucharistic Adoration or retreats before entering. More than half regularly prayed the Rosary or participated in spiritual direction before entering.

— On average, responding religious report that they were 20 years old when they first considered a vocation to religious life, but half were 17 or younger when they first did so.

— Eight in 10 respondents (81 percent) say they were encouraged to consider religious life. Just under half (46 percent) say they were encouraged by a religious. Four in 10 were encouraged by a parish priest or friend.

— Almost two-thirds (62 percent) report that they were discouraged from considering a vocation by one or more persons. Most reported that they were discouraged by a family member other than a parent (36 percent) or by friends or classmates (30 percent). Women were more likely than men to say they were discouraged by a relative other than a parent (41 percent compared to nine percent).

— On average, these religious report that they knew the members of their religious institute for four years before they entered, but half knew them for two years or less. One in four (24 percent) first became acquainted with their institute through promotional material from the institute. One in five first learned of their institute through a priest or advisor.

— Nearly all religious of the Profession Class of 2013 (91 percent) participated in some type of vocation program or experience before entering their religious institute. Most commonly, this was a vocation retreat (59 percent) or a “Come and See” experience (52 percent). Men were slightly less likely than women to have participated in a “Come and See” experience (46 percent and 58 percent, respectively) or in a vocation retreat (36 percent for men compared to 62 percent for women).

— One in 10 institutes had one perpetual profession and three percent reported two or more.

15

January 31, 2014

Still their Brothers’ keepers continued from page one

For its Consecrated Life edition, The Anchor contacted Brothers André (Roger) Millette, Daniel Caron, and Walter Zwierchowski, to catch up on how they are faring and what they are doing in Maine.

“These ‘younger’ members of our dwindling province are valuable resources for meeting our needs at the Brothers’ Alfred motherhouse,” provincial superior, Brother Jerome Lessard told The Anchor. “All three reluctantly left Bishop Connolly only because ‘holy obedience’ called them to these new ministries. Connolly’s loss is a greatly appreciated gain for our province.”

When the three Brothers left their home on the grounds of the former Notre Dame Parish, now St. Bernadette’s, only Brother Roger was considered “retired.”

“Brother André, while enjoying retirement on our campus, is regularly in demand as Brother Fix-it, attending to minor repair work continually surfacing in our many buildings,” said Brother Jerome.

“I was blessed for having lived 51 years in Fall River. I started in 1945, left in 1950 then returned in 1965 as principal of Msgr. Prevost High School then joined the Jesuits at Bishop Connolly as assistant principal,” Brother Roger told The Anchor. “I have so many friends in Fall River that I would need quite a few pages to name them all.

“I am now fully retired at Notre Dame Institute here in Alfred, and beside resting, reading, praying I do all sorts of small repairs around the property. Work that I thoroughly enjoy and during the summer months mow lawns with Bill, a devoted gentleman.”

Brother Daniel was a teacher for 47 years, 34 at Prevost and Connolly, before being called to Maine. “I still miss the school and all the people, the daily interaction with the students, the school activities and the sports,” he said. “I keep up on the news through the school website, The Anchor and sometimes The Herald News.

“Brother Daniel’s talents are needed to see to the care of our retirees and elderly,” said Brother Jerome.

“Upon moving to Alfred, I was appointed local director of the community of 12 Broth-

ers,” he told The Anchor. “I also oversee the Notre Dame campus which comprises 350-plus acres of land and 16 buildings.

In addition, I am also the treasurer for the American Province of the Brothers of Christian Instruction. So, I have had a change of ministry but I am by no means retired.”

Brother Jerome said that Brother Walter “renders invaluable assistance” to the director of the Notre Dame Spirituality Center located on the Alfred grounds.

“Nearly 5,000 people participate in various retreats, classes, conferences and meetings at the center,” Brother Walter told The Anchor. He is assistant director of the center and was appointed assistant superior of the Alfred motherhouse. Brother Walter also serves on the Mennaisian Family steering committee which fosters the charism of the Christian Brothers of Instruction’s founders.

“I miss the Bishop Connolly school family very much especially the students I had in my classes and the numerous various athletics events I attended,” he added.

In separate emails to The Anchor, Brothers Roger, Dan-

Use Church teachings to counter tough topics iel and Walter, wished to extend well wishes and prayers to the many friends they made in the Fall River Diocese.

“Warm greetings to everyone,” wrote Brother Daniel.

“I hope to come down for a visit in the near future,” said Brother Walter.

“I would like to say ‘thank you’ to all my friends down there,” said Brother Roger.

“Only the good Lord knows how much I miss them all and wish them all health and happiness.”

It was a sad time for the three men in June of 2012, but they also embraced their new “callings” in Alfred, Maine.

If their hearts were broken leaving friends and warm memories behind, they certainly didn’t have much time to dwell on it. They are as busy in Down East Maine, as they were in Southeastern Massachusetts.

Brother Roger wrapped up his interview as only he can, “As Red Skelton would say ...

God Bless!”

The Brothers can be reached by email at: (Brother Roger) andre02.02723@gmail.com; (Brother Daniel) djcaron43@ yahoo.com; and (Brother Walter) walterz57@yahoo.com.

Visit The Anchor online at www.anchornews.org

continued from page five

porary topics. Catechists and teachers need to educate themselves on Church teachings, she said. The kids need to feel that a teacher knows what he or she is talking about when it comes to certain topics; “The teachings have matured on homosexuality and all of these issues. They’re right in the ‘Catechism,’” she said. “I think we listen to media’s interpretation of what the teachings of the Church are, and the media is mostly wrong. They misunderstand the teachings.”

Certain words are feeling the influence of the media sensationalizing meanings, thus swaying public opinion. “‘Reproductive health’ — you hear that term all the time,” said Revil. “Women have a right to ‘reproductive health.’ Well, their reproductive system is perfectly healthy. What society is trying to do is impair it, whether through birth control or abortion. That has nothing to do with the health of their reproductive system, but we allow society to put those terms in our head.”

Arm yourself with the proper tools, read Church teachings at www.vatican.va or on the USCCB website. Use these as resources, said Revil, adding that Church teachings are meant to guide the faithful to a deeper love. No

teaching makes sense unless one has a relationship and a profound love for God, added Revil.

For kids, the Commandments offer their first look into building a relationship with God; “God is saying, ‘If you love Me, here’s how you can show Me.’ When Jesus came along, He took that even further into a deeper love. Without love, the teachings don’t make sense,” said Revil.

As for teachers and catechists, it’s not just educating themselves about the issues but educating themselves in prayer; “Nobody ever asks about a prayer life. It’s up to you to take that up, and that has to be part of their education as well,” said Revil.

“Do I think it’s going to get worse before it gets better? No, I just think it’s going to get different,” she said. “I don’t think one age is better or worse, it’s just different. There is that battle between good and evil all around us. I think if young people are educated to see the battle, they’ll opt for the good.”

Revil welcomes the opportunity to “teach the teachers” and accepts any invitation to give an in-depth presentation highlighting ways to tackle the more difficult topics; she can be reached at jrevil@comcast.net.

16

Youth Pages

January 31, 2014

As is tradition at St. Mary-Sacred Heart School in North Attleboro, the two second-grade classes, celebrated Martin Luther King day by hosting its annual MLK tea event for parents. The two classes gave each other awards for what they thought best of one of their classmates, sang songs, and performed skits about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Here both classes display their peace awards.

The St. John the Evangelist School (Attleboro) Handchime Choir, directed by Susan Fortin, was invited to perform at the 27th Annual Celebration of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday at Attleboro City Hall. Eighth-grader Christine Schremp was selected as the middle school winner of the “Freedom Summer” Essay Contest sponsored by the MLK Committee of Greater Attleboro. She received a cash prize and will have her essay published in The Sun Chronicle.

The fifth-graders at Holy Name School in Fall River made electromagnets by using a nail, wire, and a battery to pick up paper clips.

St. Vincent’s Home welcomes new special education administrator

Students from St. Francis Xavier Preparatory School in Hyannis were recently selected to perform at state recitals. Hope O’Connor, left photo, will be singing in the 2014 Southeast District Massachusetts Music Educator’s Music Festival at Attleboro High School next month. This is the second year for O’Connor singing with junior high school students selected from schools across the district. Margaret Dickson, left, grade six, and Sophia Bailey, grade five, have been selected to sing in the state of Massachusetts first-ever Treble Chorus. They were chosen from 600 fourth-, fifth, and sixth-graders across the entire state. Their concert will be held in March at the National Association for Music Educator’s Conference at the Seaport Hotel in Boston.

FALL RIVER — St. Vincent’s Home executive director John T. Weldon recently announced that Russell Cron, M.Ed. has joined St. Vincent’s staff as special education administrator. In making the announcement, Weldon said, “We are pleased to have Mr. Cron oversee St. Vincent’s therapeutic day school and residential education program which serve students throughout the South Coast. Mr. Cron brings with him strong educational experience and expertise in special education at the high school level which will greatly benefit the students and staff of our school.”

Cron holds a masters of educational

leadership degree from Framingham State College and a masters of education degree from Fitchburg State. He is licensed in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in moderate special needs (five12), principal/assistant principal (five-eight and nine-12) and special education administrator (all levels).

Recently, he held various positions at Randolph High School, including principal, assistant principal and dean of students. Cron was previously employed with Cambridge Rindge and Latin School as an administrative intern and inclusion specialist, as well as Holliston High School as a special needs teacher.

January 31, 2014

I

am not usually a fan of watching commercials. I love having a DVR so that I do not have to watch them. I will not however, record sporting events unless it is in desperation. So when I am watching a game, I am forced to watch commercials. I could do without the ones where they show the emaciated animals and I end up in tears. Nevertheless, they are not all so bad. Some of my favorite commercials include the AT&T commercials where the man is sitting down talking to the children and they always have some cute answer to his questions.

One of the most recent of these ads, the man asks the children what is more important, to be more reliable or less reliable. The children, of course, say more and when asked why one child responds, “So you can keep your New Year’s revolutions.” This adorable play on words is actually what motivated me for 2014.

As I mentioned in a previous column, I lost my dad in October. A month earlier, we lost my husband’s uncle. On the same day that my dad passed away, we found out that our basset hound, Tebow, had cancer (he passed away on January 5). I do not list all of these things off because I want pity or because I think I have it worse off than others. I list these things to simply get my point across of my disdain for 2013 (and to later add to my revolution).

When others at midnight on New Year’s Eve toasted and said Happy New Year, I gladly said good-bye to 2013.

I’ve made New Year’s resolutions in the past. Almost always it includes losing weight, but

Youth Pages Now that’s revolting!

has branched out to include finding a boyfriend, being a better person, and spending less money. Like so many other people, by February I am ready to cancel my gym membership, enter the convent and am itching to buy a new outfit.

Also, my New Year’s Eve usually includes the phrase “next year has to be better than this one.”

As I looked back on the various new years, I find that I did little to make them better. I simply waited around for the year to get better without any help from me. My resolve got lost in the busyness of day-to-day activities.

This brings me back to the commercial. It was a cute misuse of the word resolution but it got me thinking. Every time I make those lame New Year’s resolutions I make them halfheartedly, setting myself up for failure before I even begin. This year, though, I really desperately need it to be a happy one. So after the commercial I decided to revolt!

I was looking up the definition of both those words. According to “Webster’s Dictionary” a resolution by definition is a firm determination. A revolution, on the other hand, is a sudden or momentous change in a situation. That is exactly what I needed! A New Year’s revolution is how 2014 will not only be a better year but it is going to be my year. I made the decision that there will be a momentous change in my situation.

One of the steps towards my revolution has been taking the KLOVE 30-day challenge and to listen to nothing but

The National Federation of State High School Associations recently selected the Bishop Feehan High School (Attleboro) track coach, Bob L’Homme, to receive the 2013 Northeast Sectional Coach of the Year award for the sport of Girls Cross Country. L’Homme’s team celebrated its seventh consecutive undefeated season in 2013. Feehan athletic director Paul O’Boy, right, presents L’Homme with the award.

Christian music. I heard the song “Move” by MercyMe. The chorus of the song has been my mantra for the last couple of weeks.

“When life won’t play along And right keeps going wrong And I can’t seem to find my

Be Not Afraid

By Amanda Tarantelli way I know where I am found So I won’t let it drag me down Oh, I’ll keep dancing anyway I’m gonna move (move) I’m gonna move (move) I’m gonna move (I’m gonna move)” I am not blaming my lack of motivation or resolve on some of the events of 2013. I cannot

change the things that happened to me but I did learn that I can change my attitude. Author N.T. Wright wrote, “There are many parts of the world we can’t do anything about except pray. But there is one part of the world, one part of physical reality, that we can do something about, and that is the creature each of us call ‘myself.’”

This year I plan to revolutionize myself. I do realize though that in this entire column, I have been using the words “I,” “me” and “mine” more than I should. The individual that will lead to the success of this revolution is not me. The events of 2013 will be glorified in the graces poured out in this new year. I am handing this year over to God. Every other year I hoped that I would do something great to make it a great year. The truth is the ability to have a great year

17 is a matter of letting God work through every event in my life so that when this year is done (this life I guess as well) people will see our lives and say “God is so good.”

This year I pray that people see how great our God is by how much work He has done in me. I pray that everyone each of us encounters sees how great our God is by how much work He has done in all of us.

And when this year comes to a close, I will shout out Happy New Year, while 2014 gladly says good-bye to me because I have owned it, claimed it as my own and handed it over to God for His glory to be known!

Anchor columnist Amanda Tarantelli has been a campus minister at Bishop Stang High School in North Dartmouth since 2005. She is married, a diehard sports fan, and resides in Cranston, R.I. She can be reached at atarantelli@bishopstang.com.

Five recent graduates of Bishop Connolly High School in Fall River returned to visit the school and to address the senior class about their college experiences and to give some advice and insight on what our seniors can expect during their first year of college. From left: Yaoyi Fan, attending Cooper Union; George Karam, Boston University; David Barbosa, Assumption College; Paul Frost, Endicott College; and Gina Nicoletti, Bristol Community College.

Bishop Stang High School in North Dartmouth recently hosted its annual College Search and Selection Process for Juniors and their parents. Playing the “College Acceptance Game” are, from left: juniors Ricky Kalisz, Mackenzie Long, and Benjamin Reis.

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January 31, 2014

If you can cheer for a sports team, you can praise God, pope says

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Prayers of praise for God aren’t just for charismatics, Pope Francis said in a recent morning homily.

“We find it easy to understand praying to ask God for something and also to thank the Lord,” he said. But prayers of praise “don’t come so spontaneously.”

According to a report on Vatican Radio, Pope Francis focused his homily on a line from the day’s first reading, which described David as “dancing before the Lord with abandon.”

Pope Francis said he could

imagine someone objecting, “but, Father, that’s for people in the Renewal in the Spirit, not for all Christians.”

“No,” he said, “prayers of praise are Christian prayer.”

In fact, the pope said, the psalms are filled with prayers of praise and that’s what the Sanctus or “Holy, Holy” and the Gloria recited at Mass are.

Returning to possible objections, he said he knows some people might think they just can’t pray that way. He said he would counter, “You’re able to shout when your team makes a goal, but you cannot sing the

Around the Diocese The placement exam for prospective students wishing to attend Bishop Connolly High School in Fall River will be held tomorrow at 8 a.m. The test fee is $20. For more information, please call Anthony Ciampanelli, director of admissions, at 508-6761071, extension 333.

The Fall River Area Men’s First Friday Club will next meet on February 7 in the Chapel of St. Mary’s Cathedral, 327 Second Street in Fall River. Following the 6 p.m. Mass celebrated by Father Karl Bissinger, a hot meal catered by White’s of Westport will be served in the school hall across the street. The guest speaker is Josh Smith, director of the Dartmouth facility of My Brother’s Keeper, an exciting new Christian ministry in the area inspired in part by St. Francis of Assisi. The Mass is open to the public. Guest men interested in joining the group for dinner should contact Norman Valiquette at 508-672-8174 with any questions.

The Knights of Columbus council at St. Nicholas of Myra Parish in North Dighton will sponsor a craft fair on February 8 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. There will be more than 40 diverse crafters on hand. The fair will feature food, raffles, bake sale, face painting and more. For more information, call 774-217-0390.

A Mass with Sacrament of the Sick will be held on World Day of the Sick: Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, on February 11. Mass begins at 12 noon with the Sacrament of the Sick for those who wish to receive. All are invited to join for this special day of prayer and remembrance for all who are sick and suffering.

It will be held at St. Joseph’s Chapel, 500 Washington Street in North Easton. For more information visit www.FamilyRosary. org/events or call Holy Cross Family Ministries at 508-239-4095.

A Day with Mary will be held on March 1 at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish, 235 North Front Street in New Bedford from 7:50 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. It will include a video presentation, procession and crowning of the Blessed Mother with Mass and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. There will be an opportunity for Reconciliation and a bookstore is available. Please bring a bag lunch. For more information call 508-998-8274.

Lord’s praises?”

Explaining more of the Biblical story from the sixth chapter of the Second Book of Samuel, Pope Francis noted how Michal, the daughter of Saul, reproached David for dancing in public and making a spectacle of himself. The chapter ends abruptly with the line, “Saul’s daughter Michal was childless to the day she died.”

“I wonder how many times we scorn in our hearts good people who praise the Lord naturally, spontaneously,” rather than formally or with great dignity, he said.

When the Bible says Michal remained childless, it is telling believers that “prayers of praises make us fruitful,” he said, while “those who close themselves up in the formality of a cold, careful prayer might end up like Michal in the sterility of her formality.”

In Your Prayers Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks Feb. 1 Rev. Msgr. Michael J. O’Reilly, Pastor, Immaculate Conception, Taunton, 1948 Rev. Msgr. Patrick H. Hurley, V.F. Pastor, St. Joseph, Taunton, 1968 Rev. Anatole F. Desmarais, Pastor, St. Jacques, Taunton, 1975 Rev. Msgr. Gerard J. Chabot, Pastor, St. Theresa of the Child Jesus, South Attleboro, 1983 Rev. William F. O’Connell, Pastor, Holy Name, New Bedford, 1995 Rev. Arthur T. DeMello, Retired Pastor, St. Elizabeth, Fall River, 2004 Feb. 2 Most Rev. William Stang, D.D., First Bishop of Fall River: 1904-07, 1907 Rev. Patrick F. McKenna, Pastor, Immaculate Conception, Taunton, 1913 Rev. John L. McNamara, Pastor, Immaculate Conception, Fall River, 1941 Rev. P. Roland Decosse, Pastor, St. Hyacinth, New Bedford, 1947 Rev. Daniel F. Moriarty, Assistant, St. Brendan, Riverside, R.I., 1991 Feb. 3 Rev. Antonio O. Ponte, Pastor, Our Lady of Angels, Fall River, 1952

Eucharistic Adoration in the Diocese Acushnet — Eucharistic Adoration takes place at St. Francis Xavier Parish on Monday and Tuesday from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.; Wednesday from 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Thursday from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 2:45 p.m.

Evening prayer and Benediction is held Monday through Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.

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

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

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

Mass.

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

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

Use the Chapel entrance on the side of the church.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NEW BEDFORD — St. Lawrence Martyr Parish, 565 County Street, holds Eucharistic Adoration in the side chapel every Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

NORTH DARTMOUTH — Eucharistic Adoration takes place at St. Julie Billiart Church, 494 Slocum Road, every Tuesday from 7 to 8 p.m., ending with Benediction. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is available at this time.

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

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

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

Feb. 4 Rev. Msgr. Hugh J. Smyth, P.R., Pastor, St. Lawrence, New Bedford. First Vicar General, Fall River, 1904-07. Administrator of Diocese, February-July 1907, 1921 Rev. Raymond Graham, SMM, 2004

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.

Feb. 6 Most Rev. Frederick A. Donaghy, M.M, Bishop of Wuchow, 1988

WAREHAM — Eucharistic Adoration at St. Patrick’s Church begins each Wednesday evening at 6 p.m. and ends on Friday night at midnight. Adoration is held in our Adoration Chapel in the lower Parish Hall.

Feb. 7 Rev. Arthur N. Robert, O.P., St. Anne Shrine, Fall River, 1991

Taunton — Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament takes place every First Friday at Annunciation of the Lord, 31 First Street. Exposition begins following the 8 a.m.

Mass. The Blessed Sacrament will be exposed, and Adoration will continue throughout the day. Confessions are heard from 5:15 to 6:15 p.m. Rosary and Benediction begin at 6:30 p.m.

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.

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January 31, 2014 Visit the Diocese of Fall River website at fallriverdiocese.org The site includes links to parishes, diocesan offices and national sites.

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January 31, 2014

Bless him — the priest

Bless the lips that kiss Your altar The hands that consecrate Your Host.

Whose prayers heal the broken-hearted Those who sacrifice most.

Bless the voice that sings Your praises With Heavenly Spirit that feeds the soul With grateful heart his love embraces The treasured Words that did unfold.

Keep him safe, oh loving Father He gave his life to be a priest Spends his day in prayerful service Giving his all to celebrate Your feast.

Hold him close — let darkness fear him Protect his holiness each day Send Your angels to surround him, Lord And guard him where hence he lay.

Please listen to my prayer To my humble plea Take care of him I beg of You You see he means so much to me.

For without the priest there are no Sacraments I can’t receive the Host There would be no forgiveness This we need most.

I thank You now before the cross As I am lovingly gazing Knowing that deep down in my heart You, Lord, are so amazing.

You await my request before I even ask Yet, ask I must do Hold him close dear Jesus I give him now to You.

By Marie Cipollini Swansea

Pro-Life pilgrims from the Diocese of Fall River gathered for a group photo following a Mass celebrated for them at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Kenneth J. Souza)

Prayer, persistence pave way for Pro-Life pilgrimage continued from page 11

high school to go.”

Father Riley Williams, parochial vicar at St. John the Evangelist and St. Vincent de Paul parishes in Attleboro, was once again traveling with the students from Bishop Feehan High School to the March for Life this year.

“No one on the bus was upset or unhappy with it — I think we all understood the difficult situation that was facing us,” Father Williams said. “While we were certainly disappointed that we couldn’t be there with all the other marchers, no one was upset about the decision to have to turn back.”

In fact, Father Williams credited the Feehan students for being so understanding of the situation and the decision to have the school buses turn around.

“They weren’t happy that they couldn’t go, but they weren’t upset that we had to turn back, either,” he added.

Father Jay Mello, parochial vicar at St. Mary’s Parish in Mansfield, was traveling on one of the two buses sponsored by the Cape Cod Bus for Life that did finally reach its destination.

“It was certainly memorable,” Father Mello said of this year’s roller-coaster pilgrimage. “There was a clear feeling of utter disappointment that overcame the bus when we announced that we might have to turn around because of the weather. That quickly turned to real excitement when we announced that we were going to push on to D.C. despite the storm, which turned out not to be that bad at all! It was certainly one of the coldest days, but the love for our Lord and the unborn kept our hearts warm! In the end, seeing the huge crowds, despite the cold and snow, renewed my convictions of the importance of our Pro-Life work.”

In his homily for a Mass he celebrated for diocesan pilgrims inside Old St. Mary’s Church adjacent to the hotel on the morning of the march, Father Mello drew an apt comparison between a reading from the first book of Samuel which recounts the battle between David and Goliath and

the obstacles that the Pro-Life movement has had to overcome.

“How many Goliaths have we faced as part of the Pro-Life movement throughout the years?”

Father Mello said. “Perhaps today’s weather can be seen as our Goliath. But in all this we see a young David who says something that is so powerful: ‘Your Majesty, do not lose courage.’ Evil prevails when good people stand by and do nothing. We come here to give glory to God but also to fight against evil.”

Noting that the March for Life has become a very youthoriented event, Peter Shaughnessy said it was inspiring for him to see the number of youths present at this year’s march despite the cold weather.

“It’s tremendous to see all these young people from around the country come together and have what is a very positive experience getting involved in our political process to try and do something about what is ultimately an injustice,” he said. “I watched the march on TV and was glad it still went on. And it seemed to get pretty good news coverage.

It’s always a very positive event for our kids, but I always say it’s also a sad event, because of what

it’s commemorating. It’s an unfortunate thing that we have to go on this trip, so hopefully one of these days we won’t have to go anymore.”

While she was disappointed that she had to make the difficult call to send the high school buses back to Massachusetts, Marian Desrosiers was thankful for the small and dedicated group of diocesan pilgrims who braved the elements and extended bus rides to be at this year’s March for Life.

“Thank you to those who were able to make it to Washington D.C. after suffering 16 hours on the bus and facing the extreme weather conditions,” she said.

“I am sure that they, along with myself, were honored and humbled to represent the Diocese of Fall River in Washington. The students and adults who faced the cancellation of the pilgrimage stayed in my heart and in my prayers during the Mass, rallies and march. I hope they understand, that while their sacrifice was great, their suffering and disappointment will bear much fruit.”

“We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose” — Rom 8:28.

The ninth annual St. Mary’s Education Fund Brunch was held on January 26 at the Coonamessett Inn in Falmouth, to benefit need-based scholarships for the students in the Diocese of Fall River. More than 290 guests attended this family-fun event. Back row, from left: Jane Robin, Cape Cod director of St. Mary’s Fund; Dawna Gauvin, event cochairman; Father Arnold Medeiros, pastor of St. Elizabeth Seton Parish and St. Joseph Chapel; and Robyn Hardy, event co-chairman. Front: students from St. Francis Xavier Preparatory School in Hyannis, Kylie Hyde, Gracie Davis; student from St. Margaret Regional School in Buzzards Bay, Victoria Burgess; and students from St. Francis Xavier Preparatory School, Leah Cody and Paul Cody. (Photo by Mariella Martin)