02.10.12

Diocese of Fall River

The Anchor

F riday , February 10, 2012

January 31, 2012 Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

defenders of life — Members of the Knights of Columbus, supporters of Holy Cross Family Ministries, Stonehill College students and members of the community recently gathered at the Father Patrick Peyton Center in Easton to dedicate a Pro-Life memorial.

Diocesan high schools stress importance of the Sacrament of Marriage

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

TAUNTON — Despite increasing pressure from secular society to uproot the long-standing understanding of marriage, students in Catholic high schools within the Fall River Diocese are being taught the value and importance of the institution and Sacrament of Marriage.

“Defending the traditional view of marriage between one man and

one woman is incredibly important but increasingly difficult in today’s society,” said Philip Martin, chairman of the theology department at Bishop Stang High School in North Dartmouth. “Many students have been influenced by the media, the law, and a widespread philosophy of moral relativism.”

Martin said that the moral truth about marriage and love can only be gleaned through Divine RevelaTurn to page 15

Misunderstanding of authentic love revealed by teen sex trends

By Christine M. Williams Anchor Correspondent

BOSTON — St. Valentine’s Day plans are made for many who get caught up in the worldly romance but miss the true love displayed by the life of the martyr.

Recent studies show that more and more teens misunderstand the nature of authentic love. These studies highlight disturbing trends in teen sexual activity — more experimentation with group sex, sex-

ting and same-sex sexual contact among teen-age females.

A study out of the Boston University School of Public Health found a link between group sex and the trend to “sexting,” sending explicit photos by cell phone texts.

The report says that one in 13 teenage girls are participating in group sex, with the average age at their first encounter being 15.6 years old. The majority reported being Turn to page 18

I write to you concerning an alarming and serious matter that negatively impacts people of faith here in the United States and that strikes at the fundamental right to religious liberty for all citizens.

On Jan. 20, 2012, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that almost all employers, including Catholic employers, will be forced to offer their employees’ health coverage that includes sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs, and contraception — all of which are in direct violation of our faith. Almost all health insurers will be forced to include those “services” in the health policies they write. And almost all individuals will be forced to buy that coverage as part of their policies. The federal government has dealt a heavy blow to the Catholic population which comprises 25 percent of the citizenry and to the millions more who are served by the Catholic faithful.

In so ruling, the administration has cast aside the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, denying to Catholics and other faith-filled people our nation’s first and most fundamental freedom, that of religious liberty. And as a result, unless the rule is overturned, we Catholics will be compelled either to violate our consciences, or to drop health coverage for our employees (and suffer the penalties for doing so). The administration’s sole concession was to give our institutions one year to comply.

We cannot — we will not — comply with this unjust law. People of faith cannot be made second class citizens. We are already joined by our brothers and sisters of all faiths and many others of goodwill in this important effort to regain our religious freedom. Our parents and grandparents did not come to these shores to help build America’s cities and towns, its infrastructure and institutions, its enterprise and culture, only to have their posterity stripped of their God-given rights. In generations past, the Church has always been able to count on the faithful to stand up and protect her sacred rights and duties. I hope and trust she can count on this generation of Catholics to do the same. Our children and grandchildren deserve nothing less.

Therefore, I would ask of you two things. First, as a community of faith we must commit ourselves to prayer and fasting that wisdom and justice may prevail, and religious liberty may be restored. Without God, we can do nothing; with God, nothing is impossible. Second, I would also recommend visiting www.usccb.org/conscience, to learn more about this severe assault on religious liberty, and how to contact Congress in support of legislation that would reverse the administration’s decision.

Devotedly yours in Christ,

Bishop of Fall River

Jesus art exhibit extended through October

By Dave Jolivet, Editor

ATTLEBORO — The reactions have been as diversified as the pieces of art themselves.

Yet, in vastly different ways, people have been moved and inspired by one common bond — the love Jesus Christ has for every man, woman and child.

The “Faces of Jesus Exhibit” that was introduced at the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette at the annual Festival of Lights last November was scheduled to close when the festival ended in early January. But the response of visitors and artists alike has been so positive and powerful, the exhibit will continue its run at the shrine until the end of this coming October.

“I am totally blown away by the response to the exhibit,” Sharon Silverman, who coordinated jesus art — Some of the more than 800 imthe event, told The Anchor. “This has become ages of Christ that will remain on display at the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette through Turn to page 11 October. (Photo by Dave Jolivet)

News From the Vatican

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True freedom, strength come when human will guided by God, pope says VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Only by fully following God’s will can humanity find true freedom and the strength to bear the fear or suffering in one’s life, Pope Benedict XVI said.

“Only by conforming one’s own will to the Divine does the human person reach his true greatness — becomes divine,” he said. Only by shedding one’s own interests and goals for God’s does humanity obtain what everyone wants: “to be completely free,” the pope said.

Speaking at his weekly general audience February 1, Pope Benedict continued his catechesis on prayer by highlighting Jesus’ intense prayer to His Father in the garden of Gethsemane.

Jesus understood the hour of betrayal and death was near, and His prayer “reveals His human fear and anguish,” the pope said.

Though he implored God to “take this cup away from Me” and spare Him, Jesus quickly showed His complete obedience to His Father’s will when He added, “not what I want, but what You want,” the pope said.

It’s not always easy to discern and comply with what God wants, he said. But it will help, he said, if people “learn to trust more in God’s providence” and pray every day for

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the strength to step out of oneself and step up to God’s plan.

When praying the “Lord’s Prayer” every day, one is asking that God’s “will be done on earth as it is in Heaven,” the pope said.

The prayer shows that not only does God have a plan for everyone, “we also recognize that it is in Heaven where God’s will is done and that the earth becomes Heaven — a place where there is love, goodness, truth, divine beauty — only if the will of God is done,” he said.

Just as Jesus used prayer to draw strength to sustain Him through times of immense suffering and anguish, so must men and women today use prayer to sustain them and “bring before God our troubles, suffering, the daily task of following (God), of being Christian and also the burden of evil that we see in us and around us.”

It’s God, he said, who brings hope and light and always stays near His children, even during their moments of great trial.

The pope asked that people grow closer to Christ day by day and follow God’s will, even if to do so entails great pain and sacrifice, so that “a little bit of God’s Heaven is brought to earth.”

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

Member: Catholic Press Association, Catholic News Service

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

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bird’s eye view — Pope Benedict XVI and two Italian schoolchildren watch after releasing a dove from the window of the pope’s apartment overlooking St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican recently.

After praying the Angelus, the pope and the children released doves as a symbol of peace. (CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano via Reuters)

Being Catholic means ‘paying a price,’ says Detroit archbishop

Vatican City (CNA/ EWTN News) — Being Catholic in 2012 involves “paying a price” for loving Jesus Christ and his Church, says Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron of Detroit.

“If we are not willing to pay a price for the grace of the revelation then it is a sign that we don’t really treasure it,” the archbishop told CNA February 3.

“And maybe that is what God is asking us to do — to reappropriate our own conviction about how precious the knowledge of Jesus is to us.”

Archbishop Vigneron was in Rome with 16 other bishops from the Provinces of Detroit and Cincinnati to update the Vatican and Pope Benedict on the health of their dioceses. As part of their “ad limina” visit, the group has also made pilgrimages to the tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul.

“When I see those tombs,” said Archbishop Vigneron, “I immediately think of Our Lord’s big recruitment speech to the Apostles when He said, ‘I am sending you out like lambs in the midst of wolves’ and I imagine them looking around at one another and saying, ‘Is He talking to us?’”

And yet, Christ’s prediction that “if they rejected Me they’ll reject you,” is present for Catholics “in every age,” even if “it differs in how it takes its shape,” he said.

He believes that one clear manifestation of this is the Obama administration’s decision to force all health insurance to cover sterilization and con-

traception services, including abortifacient drugs. The “price to be paid,” he said, could be in terms of religious freedom and also financially.

“If I think about these fines that it seems the government will impose upon us. Well, that is money I could use in my Catholics schools. It’s money I could use for feeding the hungry, providing services to people with addiction. I expect we’ll have to pay a price like that.”

The one price that Archbishop Vigneron said he will refuse to pay is any violation of Catholic moral teaching. As Cardinal-designate Timothy M. Dolan of New York recently said, “they’ve given us a year to figure out how we can violate our principles — it’s not going to happen.”

On Friday morning, Archbishop Vigneron led the bishops of the Detroit Province as they met with Pope Benedict XVI in a private audience. During the seminar-style discussion, the pope was asked about how to authentically to interpret the Church’s mind as regards the Liturgy.

“The pope’s way of talking about it was to say that the Liturgy is the experience of the Church and what should happen is that people experience at the Mass the existence of the Church as it is true through all time. I thought that was a very good way to talk about it,” said Archbishop Vigneron He added that he has “heard the pope make this point before.

The Liturgy isn’t something we

do. It’s something we inherit and enter into.”

Archbishop Vigneron said the meeting with the pope also “confirmed” the bishop’s own intuition “that we really have to focus ourselves on the new evangelization,” which involves giving “intentionally focused energy on bringing the Gospel to people who think they’ve already heard.”

That doesn’t involve “some sort of miracle program,” he contended, but does involve “helping people who are strong in their faith to share their faith.”

The archbishop said he took inspiration from the 19th-century English cleric, Cardinal John Henry Newman, who saw faith as growing “from being passed from one heart to another heart.”

In modern society, there is an immense opportunity to evangelize those “parts of our culture that look upon the Gospel and Gospel way of life as a burden which they seem to think they are fortunate to have escaped,” he noted.

“What we bring is not an onerous burden — we bring a liberation,” he said, “and people may not know that they do want this good news from Jesus, but it really is what they’re looking for.”

Archbishop Vigneron and the other bishops concluded their “ad limina” visit on February 6. He said they return home full of “new encouragement” after a week that has helped them to “take stock of our lives and to find some new breath to go back to reapply ourselves to our task.”

February 10, 2012

The International Church

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Faith cards ID English, Welsh Catholics in case of accident

the Holy city — Cardinal-designate Timothy M. Dolan of New York places a note at the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, in the Old City of Jerusalem recently. Cardinal-designate Dolan is leading 50 priests of the New York Archdiocese on what he describes as a retreat pilgrimage to the Holy Land. (CNS photo/Debbie Hill)

New York Cardinal-designate Dolan: Bethlehem U. helps build culture of peace

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (CNS) — Bethlehem University is helping create a “culture of peace and life, and a civilization of love” by bringing together students of different backgrounds, New York Cardinal-designate Timothy M. Dolan said during a visit to Bethlehem University.

“This is classical Catholic thought — that one of the greatest natural things you can do for human beings is education, and when you expose people to the truth, progress happens, justice happens, friendship happens,” he said January 31, during a Holy Land pilgrimage with a group of 50 archdiocesan priests.

“To educate for us is not only a natural endeavor, it is a supernatural endeavor because Jesus said, ‘I am the truth,’ so we bring people closer to God, we bring people closer to Jesus, we bring people closer to each other.”

While those ideals may seem “cerebral” and “lofty,” they can be seen being played out at Bethlehem University, he said.

The university “is particularly valuable ... because it is working and it is bringing people together. We saw nonCatholic Christians, Catholics, Muslims and maybe even people with no religion, and they not only are classmates, they are becoming friends. And for the rest of their lives they are going to work together, they are going to know one another’s children, and that is creating a culture of peace; that’s creating

a culture of life, that’s creating civilization of love,” he said.

The cardinal-designate spoke to Catholic News Service during Catholic Schools Week, which in the U.S. is celebrated January 29-February 5. The group arrived in the Holy Land January 26 and was scheduled to leave February 2.

While at the university, the priests met with students who told about their experiences as Palestinians.

“Opportunities for work in Palestine are very limited,” noted third-year accounting and business administration student Christina Jueejet, 20, of Beit Sahour, West Bank.

“There are a lot of educated people, but not enough jobs.

We can only look for jobs in a limited area, in the West Bank, not even in Jerusalem.”

Father Andrew Carrozza of St. Ann’s Parish in Yonkers, New York, said he was humbled listening to the students’ experiences and struggles to receive an education, including having to go through checkpoints and border crossings to get to school. It made the priests take stock of everything they had taken for granted during their own college studies, he said.

The priests were treated to a lunch served by students in Bethlehem University’s Hotel Management and Tourism Department. Also at the lunch was a delegation from England’s Anglican Church, led by Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury. He and Cardi-

nal-designate Dolan sat side by side during the meal.

Cardinal-designate Dolan joked that the only thing that concerned him about the university was that it had Brooklyn natives teaching English to the students.

“I presume you have accentreduction classes,” he joked.

As he left the meal, he noticed that Santa Abujudeh, 19, was carrying the book “Death Comes for the Archbishop” by Willa Cather. The cardinaldesignate spoke enthusiastically about the book and encouraged the student to read “Lamy of Sante Fe” by Paul Horgan.

“I’ll mail you a copy,” he said.

In the morning, the New York priests had time to reflect at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Old City of Jerusalem, and they toured the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

“I try to go with my priests once a year on a retreat pilgrimage to get closer to Jesus and to get closer to God and God of the Bible,” said Cardinal-designate Dolan. “We are just here to pray to rediscover ours roots as children of God, as Christians and as priests. It has been very successful. It gives reality to our religion.”

MANCHESTER, England (CNS) — English and Welsh bishops are producing a million “faith cards” to identify the holders as Catholics in the event of an accident.

The credit card-sized items will be distributed during February and March throughout all dioceses, including the Bishopric of the Forces and the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.

The Department for Evangelization and Catechesis of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales announced January 31 the cards should serve “as a reminder that all baptized are invited to know and share their faith.”

On one side, the card features a space for the owner to sign a clear statement that he or she is a Catholic.

The cards also feature a list of six things that Catholics are called to do: pray, share with others the joy of knowing Jesus Christ, celebrate the Sacraments regularly, “love my neighbor as well as myself,” “use the gifts that I have been given wisely,” and “forgive as I have been forgiven.”

Along the bottom of the card is a sentence that reads: “In the event of an emergency, please call a Catholic priest.”

The reverse of the card features a quote from Blessed John Henry Newman, the 19th-century English cardinal, about the individual vocation that God has given to each person.

“We all carry a variety of cards in our purses and wallets which reflect something of our identity and the things that are important to us,” said Bishop Kieran Conry of Arundel and Brighton, chairman of the bishops’ Department for Evangelization and Catechesis.

“The faith card for Catholics aims to offer a daily reminder of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ,” he said in the press statement. “We can’t summarize the whole of our faith in bullet points, but we hope that the card simply inspires people to do, read and learn more.”

He also said that carrying a faith card “takes courage; it signals to others, every time you use your wallet or purse, that you believe in God, that your life has a purpose, that you are trying to love and serve your neighbor.”

“We hope that Catholics will use it to witness to their faith,” he said. “If someone asks a question about Catholicism, a starting point could be to show the card and to take it from there.”

card-carrying member — The bishops of England and Wales are producing a million “faith cards” such as this one to identify the holders as Catholics in the event of an accident. (CNS photo)

The Church in the U.S.

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February 10, 2012

Doctors wonder how federal mandate will affect practice of medicine

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Whether they are just starting out or nearing the end of their careers, Catholics who want to practice medicine in conformity with the Church’s teachings wonder how a new federal regulation requiring health plans to cover contraceptives and sterilization free of charge will affect their work.

Although the requirement will not directly impact physicians, some said it represents a governmental intrusion into health care that could grow in the future.

Dr. Anne Nolte, a family physician with the National Gianna Center for Women’s Health and Fertility in New York, thinks the mandate represents “such a dramatic violation of such clearly defined civil rights” that it is bound to be overturned in court.

But, she said, “If Congress failed to pass an act that provides an exemption for the groups affected by this, and the courts in some incomprehensible way allow (the mandate) to stand, then Catholic health care will have to make a decision to practice civil disobedience.”

Dr. Kim Hardey, an obstetrician and gynecologist in Lafayette, La., said he hopes the decision by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Obama administration will cause Catholics and other Christians to rise up against “the liberal left” and “misguided femi-

nists” who would like to see abortion also become a required part of every medical practice.

“If we can allow the infringement of any group’s beliefs,” everyone’s beliefs are threatened, he told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview January 31.

The new contraception mandate, with a narrow exemption for religious organizations, is part of implementing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, which sets up new preventative health care coverage specifically for women at no cost.

That coverage includes services such as mammograms, prenatal care and cervical cancer screenings. But it also mandates free contraception, sterilizations and drugs (such as ella and “Plan B”) considered by the Church to be abortifacients — all of which are contrary to Catholic teaching.

On January 20, Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, announced that nonprofit groups that do not provide contraceptive coverage because of their religious beliefs will get an additional year “to adapt to this new rule.”

Sarah Smith is not a doctor yet, but she worries that the HHS mandate will further sour an atmosphere in which she already finds some challenges to her Pro-Life convictions.

“The one safe environment — Catholic hospitals — is not even going to be safe anymore” if the contraceptive mandate stands, she said in a telephone interview with CNS from Chicago, where she had just completed the last of “14 or 15” interviews for a residency position in obstetrics and gynecology.

A fourth-year medical student at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, Smith made clear on each interview that her Catholic convictions prevent her from involvement in abortion, sterilization or contraception.

She said she has found that “most doctors as individuals respect my beliefs and my conscience; they might not agree with me, but they’ll defend my right to practice medicine.”

Problems are more likely to arise at the institutional level, where medical students and residents are “culturally at the bottom of the totem pole,” Smith noted.

“Some Catholic hospitals make it much easier for medical students and residents to live out their faith,” she said. But at a secular hospital where “they are doing 400 tubal ligations a year, you might have the choice not to participate, but the work flow makes it harder,” she added.

A native of Natick, Mass., and a 2007 graduate of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, Smith said she enjoys “working with underserved populations”

but might not ever be able to work at a federally-funded community health center, since the government requires that all family planning options be offered at those centers.

“I am not at the point in my career where I have experienced” discrimination because of her Pro-Life beliefs, Smith said. “We are kind of insulated in medical school. But then you get out and you say, ‘Wow, all these policies could really affect my practice.’”

After assisting in the delivery of about 6,000 babies over the past 29 years, Hardey has the real-world experience that Smith lacks. He believes that some in Washington would like to drive OB-GYNs who won’t perform abortions out of business.

“There are not that many of us that we’d be too big to go after,” he said.

Hardey prescribed contraceptives and even thought they were beneficial for the first nine years of his medical practice. But then he began to see some of their effects — not only on his patients but on societal attitudes — and decided to conform his practice to the Church’s teachings in “Humanae Vitae.”

At age 58, he said he is thinking of leaving his work as an obstetrician, “not because of the environment the president has brought about” but because of the long hours and erratic schedule required to deliver babies.

“I love my practice,” he said.

“But to live the OB-GYN lifestyle, you have to really love it.”

Nolte, who completed her medical training in 2009, focuses her family practice on providing “authentically Catholic” health care for women, especially in the areas of gynecology, infertility treatment and natural family planning. She sees the Gianna center as “an alternative to Planned Parenthood” in Manhattan.

“We do exclusively women’s health care faithful to the” U.S. Church’s “Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services,” she said. But that doesn’t mean she serves only Catholics.

About 40 percent of her patients are Protestants or have no religious affiliation. “Women come from other states just for their annual exams, and they bring their daughters,” Nolte said. “They see that we treat patients differently.”

Like Hardey, she expressed concern that “this administration is happy to violate civil rights” on the issue of contraception and could then decide to do the same on abortion or other problematic issues. But she said nothing will ever put Catholic health care out of business, even if civil disobedience is required.

“A large number of people would not have access if we get out of health care,” she said.

“And we can’t let that happen.”

in issuing a pastoral letter on the mandate to be read from the pulpit at all Sunday Masses throughout the following weekend.

The pastoral letter argued that the mandate violated the religious freedom protected in the U.S. Constitution and called on Catholics to resist it.

However, according to the archdiocese’s statement, the Army’s Office of the Chief of Chaplains sent out an email instructing that the letter “not be read from the pulpit.”

The email said that the letter could instead be mentioned in the Mass announcements and distributed at the back of the chapel, but that it had not been coordinated with the office and should not be read during Mass.

After a discussion between Archbishop Broglio and Secretary of the Army John McHugh, “it was agreed that it was a mistake to stop the reading” of the letter.

However, the line, “We cannot — we will not — comply with this unjust law” was removed from the letter by the archbishop

at the prompting of Secretary McHugh, who believed that it “could potentially be misunderstood as a call to civil disobedience.”

According to the archdiocese, Archbishop Broglio believes the move violated both his rights and “those same rights of all military

chaplains and their congregants.”

The archdiocese did not give any indication that it intends to pursue legal action over the incident. It said that it “did not receive any objections to the reading of Archbishop Broglio’s statement from the other branches of service.”

Army silences military archbishop on contraception mandate Washington D.C., (CNA/ EWTN News) — The archbishop who oversees global Catholic military chaplains claims the U.S. Army violated his rights by stifling a pastoral letter condemning the Obama administration’s contraception mandate.

Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio stands “firm in the belief, based on legal precedent,” that the Army defied his rights to free speech and free exercise of religion, according to a February 3 statement from the military archdiocese.

U.S. Catholic military chaplains around the country were initially told to disobey their archbishop’s instruction to read a pastoral letter from the pulpit at all Sunday Masses on January 28-29.

Although an agreement was eventually reached allowing the letter to be read, a key passage urging Catholics to avoid complying with the “unjust law” was removed.

On January 20, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a new mandate

that will soon require virtually all employers to purchase health insurance coverage that includes contraception, sterilization and drugs that cause abortion.

The announcement sparked protest around the country, as Catholic leaders and religious organizations argued that they were being coerced to violate their religious beliefs.

Although a religious exemption to the mandate exists, it does not apply to organizations that are willing to serve or employ members of other faiths. As the mandate stands, most Catholic schools, hospitals and charity organizations would be excluded from the exemption.

More than 150 Catholic bishops across the country have spoken out against the directive, saying that it violates the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom. Several have called for civil disobedience in response to the new regulation.

On January 26, Archbishop Broglio joined many of his fellow bishops around the country

February 10, 2012

The Church in the U.S.

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Komen reverses decision, reinstates grants to Planned Parenthood

DALLAS (CNS) — The February 3 decision by Susan G. Komen for the Cure to reinstate grants to Planned Parenthood affiliates for breast cancer screenings was the result of a “vicious attack” on the organization, said a Pro-Life leader.

Pro-Life leaders hailed Komen’s announcement January 31 that it would no longer give grants to Planned Parenthood, but it sparked a maelstrom of negative reaction and an online petition asking the group to reverse its decision.

“I am troubled that the Komen foundation has come under such heavy fire for their recent decision to tighten and focus their funding guidelines,” said Charmaine Yoest, president and CEO of Americans United for Life.

“This week we have all been witness to highly partisan attacks from pro-abortion advocates and an ugly and disgraceful shakedown that highlights Planned Parenthood’s willingness to pursue a scorched-earth strategy to force compliance with their pro-abortion agenda,” she said in a statement.

Yoest also noted that Komen donors are “now confused about their association with the nation’s largest abortion provider.”

A statement from Komen’s founder and CEO Nancy Brinker

posted on the Dallas-based organi- Oversight and Investigations. government authorities, whether it zation’s website February 3 apoloKomen raises millions annu- is at the state, local or federal level. gized to the American public “for ally for the detection, treatment In the new statement, Brinker recent decisions that cast doubt and research of breast cancer. One said the group’s goal in the grant upon our commitment to our mis- of its signature events is the annual process “is to support women and sion of saving women’s lives.”

Race for the Cure held in commu- families in the fight against breast Brinker said the reaction to the nities around the country. Planned cancer. Amending our criteria will decision to discontinue the fund- Parenthood, which provides abor- ensure that politics has no place ing was “deeply unsettling for our tions, does not offer breast exams in our grant process. We will consupporters, partners tinue to fund existing his week we have all been wit- grants, including those of and friends and all of us at Susan G. Komen. ness to highly partisan attacks Planned Parenthood, and We have been distheir eligibility from pro-abortion advocates and an ugly preserve tressed at the presumpto apply for future grants, tion that the changes and disgraceful shakedown that highlights while maintaining the made to our funding Planned Parenthood’s willingness to pur- ability of our affiliates to criteria were done for sue a scorched-earth strategy to force com- make funding decisions political reasons or to that meet the needs of pliance with their pro-abortion agenda.” specifically penalize their communities.”

Planned Parenthood.

She also added that They were not.” the organization hopes She also noted that Komen had or mammograms, considered key everyone involved will be able “to planned to stop funding grant ap- to early detection of breast cancer, pause, slow down and reflect on plications made by organizations but refers women elsewhere. The how grants can most effectively under investigation but that it will Komen foundation over the years and directly be administered with“amend the criteria to make clear has said that it intended its contri- out controversies that hurt the cause that disqualifying investigations butions go toward these exams but of women. We urge everyone who must be criminal and conclusive in could not control how funds were has participated in this conversation nature and not political.” allocated at Planned Parenthood. across the country over the last few Planned Parenthood is currentLeslie Aun, a spokeswoman days to help us move past this issue. ly the focus of an investigation by for Komen, told The Associated We do not want our mission marred U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., to Press February 1 that the organiza- or affected by politics — anyone’s see whether the organization used tion’s decision to end its relation- politics.” federal funds to pay for abortions, ship with Planned Parenthood was In a letter to Congress last April which would be illegal. Stearns based on a new policy that says urging lawmakers to exclude from is chairman of the House Energy grants cannot be given to organiza- the federal budget any funding for and Commerce Subcommittee on tions that are being investigated by Planned Parenthood or its affiliates, Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston called the federation “by far the largest provider and promoter of abortions

Philadelphia, (CNA) — The Obama Administration has betrayed Catholics by refusing to expand the religious exemption in Health and Human Services’ contraception mandate, Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput says.

“The administration’s only concession was to give our institutions a one-year delay to comply,” he said in a February 2 letter.

“This is not merely inadequate. It is dangerous. And it betrays the good faith of many Catholics who — until now — have supported the current administration with an honest will.”

Archbishop Chaput is one of more than 140 U.S. bishops who have spoken out against the Health and Human Services rules finalized January 20, which require most new health plans to provide contraception and sterilization — including drugs that can cause an abortion — without a co-pay.

Most religious institutions will not be able to opt out, though HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius gave them an additional year to meet the requirements.

In a letter distributed to parishes to be read at February 5 Sunday Masses, Archbishop Chaput said Catholic institutions

“cannot comply with this unjust law without compromising our convictions and undermining the Catholic identity of many of our service ministries.”

“This is not just another important issue among the many we need to be concerned about,” he stated.

“This ruling is different. This ruling interferes with the basic right of Catholic citizens to organize and work for the common good as Catholics in the public square.”

On February 1, White House Domestic Policy Council Director Cecilia Muñoz issued a response to critics of the mandate.

She stressed the existence of a religious exemption, cited Guttmacher Institute statistics about contraceptive use among Catholics, and said the mandate excluded abortion-causing drugs.

The exemption, however, applies only to institutions that primarily employ and serve members of the same faith for the purpose of inculcating religious values.

Meanwhile, the emergency contraceptive “ella” — covered without a co-pay under the mandate — can prevent the survival of a living embryo, and thus

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Philadelphia Archbishop Chaput says Obama Administration sold out Catholic supporters

qualifies as an abortifacient drug according to the U.S. bishops’ Ethical and Religious directives.

In his letter, Archbishop Chaput indicated that the issue at hand had nothing to do with any particular individual’s decision to contracept, but was primarily a matter of institutions’ right to act in accordance with religious convictions.

But individuals and nonreligious institutions, he noted, would also be subject to state coercion.

“Almost all health insurers will be forced to include those ‘services’ in the health policies they write. And almost all individuals will be forced to buy that coverage as a part of their policies.”

He urged Catholics to educate themselves with the resources of the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and said they should contact their congressional representatives in the House and Senate.

“Your action on this issue matters — not just today but for many years to come; and in ways that will shape the ability of the Church to witness the Gospel publicly through her ministries well into the future.”

nationwide.”

The cardinal, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on ProLife Activities, said that Planned Parenthood also has opposed “any meaningful limits on abortion, including modest measures such as public funding bans, informed consent provisions and parental notice requirements on unemancipated minors.”

In recent years, the St. Louis Archdiocese and several other U.S. dioceses have asked Catholic groups to suspend support for Komen, citing its contributions to Planned Parenthood and the fact the foundation does not exclude the possibility of funding research that uses embryonic stem cells.

Last April, the Archdiocese of St. Louis reissued one of its previous policy statements on the Komen foundation: “Due to its policy allowing affiliates to offer financial support to abortion-providing facilities, its denial of studies showing abortion as a cause of breast cancer, and its endorsement of embryonic stem-cell research, the Respect Life Apostolate neither supports nor encourages participation in activities that benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure.”

Last July, Bishop Leonard P. Blair of Toledo, Ohio, told Catholic institutions and schools in that diocese to suspend fund raising efforts for Komen and instead direct such donations to a local group of Catholic-run cancer centers.

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The Anchor Marriage and religious freedom

In last week’s editorial on defending our religious freedom in the midst of new attacks by the Obama Administration — the focus of Bishop George Coleman’s letter to the faithful of the diocese on this week’s front page — we mentioned how, even though the administration must continue to keep up appearances of respecting religious freedom domestically because of First Amendment protections, it is under no such constitutional restrictions in foreign policy, where its real agenda seems to have appeared. As we mentioned, the Obama State Department has abandoned the defense of religious freedom abroad, reducing its international concern to protecting “freedom of worship.” This change is not one of insignificant semantics. It means that the United States will still defend the right of people to convene to pray but will no longer support the right of people to live according to that faith. In a December 2009 speech at Georgetown University, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave the rationale for the radical shift: so that the administration could advance — as a more important international human right than freedom of religion — the freedom of people “to love in the way they choose,” a euphemism that in subsequent policy directives has meant the promotion and protection of a radical gay agenda. Because almost all major organized religions that maintain their vigor oppose the gay agenda’s push to normalize same-sex relations, redefine marriage and family, and obliterate the significance of sexual differentiation, the Obama Administration recognizes that freedom of religion must be eviscerated or eliminated in order to advance this newly-invented “fundamental” right to “love in the way they choose.”

Even though the same connection hasn’t been admitted publicly in terms of the administration’s domestic agenda, it’s hard not to notice that the same rationale is at play in the president’s decision to abandon his constitutional oath to defend the laws of the country by refusing to defend the Defense of Marriage Act that President Clinton signed, and in the Obama Justice Department’s recent legal briefs that posit that maintaining marriage as the union of one man and one woman is an unconstitutional and bigoted animus toward those of the same-sex. Proponents of the novel, concocted rights to redefine marriage and “love in the way they choose” grasp that their biggest obstacle is true religious freedom, which would exempt those who follow particular religious tenets from having to submit to the radical agenda.

The connection between the attempts to redefine marriage and the threat to religious freedom was described in a powerful January “Open Letter from Religious Leaders in the United States to All Americans.” Entitled “Marriage and Religious Freedom: Fundamental Goods that Stand or Fall Together,” it was signed by 39 leaders of various faith groups in America: rabbis, Evangelicals, Lutherans, Mormons, Pentecostals, Southern Baptists, Anglicans, Methodists, Wesleyans, Assemblies of God, Friends, Protestant Ministers, the Salvation Army as well as three leaders of U.S. Bishops Conference of Catholic Bishops. As we prepare this weekend to mark World Marriage Sunday, celebrated since 1981 to buttress the institution of marriage as the lifelong union of one man and one woman, it’s a fitting time for us to ponder the truths about the connection between the defense of marriage and religious freedom that these faith leaders bring to our attention: The letter begins by focusing on how marriage is a crucial part of the common good: “The promotion and protection of marriage — the union of one man and one woman as husband and wife — is a matter of the common good and serves the well-being of the couple, of children, of civil society and all people. The meaning and value of marriage precedes and transcends any particular society, government, or religious community. It is a universal good and the foundational institution of all societies.

It is bound up with the nature of the human person as male and female, and with the essential task of bearing and nurturing children.”

Because of the importance of marriage for the common good, they continue, “Its true definition must be protected for its own sake and for the good of society.” There are “grave consequences of altering this definition,” one of the most notable of which is “the interference with the religious freedom of those who continue to affirm the true definition of ‘marriage.’”

This threat to religious freedom is principally, they say, that the government would unconstitutionally try to force religious ministers to preside over such pseudo-weddings on pain of civil or criminal liability. The most urgent danger they think is “forcing or pressuring both individuals and religious organizations — throughout their operations, well beyond religious ceremonies — to treat same-sex sexual conduct as the moral equivalent of marital sexual conduct,” something that, when many religious people and groups conscientiously resist, will lead to innumerable church-state conflicts.

Very often, those pushing the redefinition of marriage ask how their being allowed to “marry” would affect every one else. The letter describes concretely how religious believers would be impacted, “because altering the civil definition of ‘marriage’ does not change one law, but hundreds, even thousands, at once. By a single stroke, every law where rights depend on marital status — such as employment discrimination, employment benefits, adoption, education, healthcare, elder care, housing, property, and taxation — will change so that same-sex sexual relationships must be treated as if they were marriage. That requirement, in turn, will apply to religious people and groups in the ordinary course of their many private or public occupations and ministries — including running schools, hospitals, nursing homes and other housing facilities, providing adoption and counseling services, and many others.”

All these conflicts are already happening in places where same-sex relationships have recently been privileged in law. “Religious adoption services that place children exclusively with married couples would be required by law to place children with persons of the same sex who are civilly ‘married.’

Religious marriage counselors would be denied their professional accreditation for refusing to provide counseling in support of same-sex ‘married’ relationships. Religious employers who provide special health benefits to married employees would be required by law to extend those benefits to same-sex ‘spouses.’ Religious employers would also face lawsuits for taking any adverse employment action — no matter how modest — against an employee for the public act of obtaining a civil ‘marriage’ with a member of the same sex. This is not idle speculation, as these sorts of situations have already come to pass.”

But that’s not the end of the discrimination believers would face. “Even where religious people and groups succeed in avoiding civil liability in cases like these, they would face other government sanctions — the targeted withdrawal of government cooperation, grants, or other benefits. For example, in New Jersey, the state cancelled the tax-exempt status of a Methodist-run boardwalk pavilion used for religious services because the religious organization would not host a same-sex ‘wedding’ there.

San Francisco dropped its $3.5 million in social service contracts with the Salvation Army because it refused to recognize same-sex ‘domestic partnerships’ in its employee benefits policies. Similarly, Portland, Maine, required Catholic Charities to extend spousal employee benefits to same-sex ‘domestic partners’ as a condition of receiving city housing and community development funds.”

The end result of religious organizations’ refusal to treat a same-sex sexual relationship as a marriage has “marked them and their members as bigots, subjecting them to the full arsenal of government punishments and pressures reserved for racists.” They predict that such punishments “will only grow more frequent and more severe if civil ‘marriage’ is redefined in additional jurisdictions” as the government begins to compel special recognition. There would be other cultural impacts on marriage, too, they say: “Because law and government not only coerce and incentivize but also teach, these sanctions would lend greater moral legitimacy to private efforts to punish those who defend marriage.”

The letter ends by calling upon all people of good will to protect marriage as the union of one man and one woman and to “consider carefully the far-reaching consequences for the religious freedom of all Americans if marriage is redefined.” Marriage and religious freedom are indeed fundamental goods that stand or fall together. As we celebrate World Marriage Sunday this weekend, it is a fitting time for us to resolve vigorously to defend both.

February 10, 2012

The Marriage vows: Free, total, faithful, fruitful

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t the end of the movie “The Prinson for the rest of your life? cess Bride,” there is a scene when The second question addressed to the the princess is being forced to marry the couple deals with fidelity in dissolubility. king. Most probably remember this scene “Will you love and honor each other as because of the funny accent of the bishop, man and wife for the rest of your lives?” his incredibly obnoxious sideburns, and We don’t need to get into how often this the comical way in which he presides over vow is broken or the many reasons why it the wedding ceremony. is broken, but it is something that couples The point I want to highlight, howplanning to get married should spend a lot ever, is the vows exchanged between the more time thinking about and working at. princess and king, or the lack thereof.

Sure fidelity isn’t easy and there are Because the princess really loves another many temptations and things in our and doesn’t want to marry the king, the culture that do not support fidelity. This ceremony is rushed so that they can be is why it is all the more important that married before her true love can arrive to couples are grounded in their faith and stop the wedding. seek the strength of God’s grace and the As they get to part in the ceremony support of family and friends to help them where the vows are exchanged, the king adhere to this promise that they make orders the bishop to skip this part and before God. just to say the words, “man and wife.”

The final question asked to a couple Obviously, the king missed that day of deals with the issue of fruitfulness and Religious Education where they explained their openness to having children. “Will the Sacrament you accept of Marriage children lovand what is ingly from Putting Into necessary for God and the Deep validity. The bring them princess would up according surely have to the law of

By Father grounds for an Christ and His Jay Mello annulment!

Church?”

There are This quesmany things that happen at a wedding, tion is two-fold. It first addresses the issue such as the bride’s being walked down the of a couple’s openness to life and their aisle by her father or the exchange of rings trust in God’s providence. The second part that I mentioned last week. There are also deals with their responsibility to raise the cultural things that are sometimes added children in the faith. Having already dealt like the lighting of the unity candle and with the issue of raising the children in the the groom’s kissing the bride, which are faith in my article on Baptism, I will deal not part of the ritual and are not necessary. here with the first part of the question.

What is necessary is the exchange of vows.

Too often we hear those preparing for In the rite of marriage, there are three marriage or newly-married couples speak promises or “intentions” that are made about how many children they would that express the free, total, faithful and like to have. Unfortunately, this attitude fruitful nature of the Sacrament. The priest contradicts their response to this third or deacon presiding over the ceremony question which basically says, “Are you begins the rite with these very profound open to having as many children as God words: blesses you with, whether that be one, “My dear friends, you have come three or 11?” together in this church so that the Lord Obviously, this issue of having chilmay seal and strengthen your love in the dren and raising a family depends upon presence of the Church’s minister and this a number of factors, but the two primary community. Christ abundantly blesses ones are the principles of generosity and this love. He has already consecrated responsibility. I will take up this issue in you in Baptism and now He enriches and next week’s column where there is more strengthens you by a special Sacrament so space to expound upon this very delicate that you may assume the duties of marand sensitive issue. riage in mutual and lasting fidelity. And After these three promises are made, so, in the presence of the Church, I ask the couple then join hands and indiyou to state your intentions.” vidually make this solemn vow to their The presider then questions the bride beloved before God: “I take you to be my and groom about their freedom of choice, husband/wife. I promise to be true to you faithfulness to each other, and the accepin good times and in bad, in sickness and tance and upbringing of children. The first in health. I will love and honor you all the question addresses the issue of this being days of my life.” a free and total decision. If a person is in These words express true love! They anyway being forced or coerced into this express a love that is more than emotional or if their freedom is in anyway comproor based on physical attraction. They mised, then the validity of the Sacrament express a love that is freely and totally is called into question. given. They express a love that pledges The bride and groom are asked, “Have lifelong fidelity. They express a love that you come here freely and without reserva- is open to life. And they express a love tion to give yourselves to each other in that mirrors the love that Christ has for marriage?” The issue of “without reserva- His bride the Church. Be sure to think and tion” is interesting because it addresses reflect upon some of these things at the the idea of totality. In other words, it asks, next wedding ceremony that you attend. are you completely sure you want to enter Father Mello is a parochial vicar at into this unbreakable union with this perSt. Patrick’s Parish in Falmouth.

February 10, 2012

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his week’s parables show Jesus and Luke at their literary best. The first gives deep insight into the heart of God the Father, while the second weaves political history with religious history and prophecy in a seamless way.

The parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin have already been considered, but it would be good to reread them to see these three parables of the lost together as a unit (Lk 15:1-32). The third parable concerns a lost son. The humanity of the story is so universal that parallels can be found in ancient Babylonian, Canaanite, Greek, and Indian literature. From Luke’s presentation, over the centuries it has found a place in countless works of music, art, philosophy, literature, drama, and dance. The parable is usually known as the Parable of the Prodigal Son. It may be more appropriately called, however, the Parable of the Father’s Love.

From the point of view of

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few years ago, I spoke with a young man preparing to get married. His aunt told him that she thought he and his fiancée were too financiallystrapped to have a child, and that it wouldn’t be fair to bring up a baby in poverty. Keenly aware of his joblessness and his minuscule bank account, he concluded she was probably right.

The young man and his fiancée were ready to tie the knot in a few months and they expected that she would be at the infertile phase of her cycle around the time of their honeymoon, so they would be able to consummate the marriage while avoiding bringing a child into the world. They agreed they would use Natural Family Planning after that to avoid a pregnancy.

A few years later when they felt financially secure, he told me, they would have their first child.

He admitted, however, that he was conflicted about whether they were really being “open to life” in their marriage if they were going into it with this kind of forethought and intention of avoiding children.

In marriage, it can certainly be challenging to harmonize spousal love with the responsible transmission of life. Janet Smith and Christopher Kaczor, in an illuminating passage from one of their recent books, acknowledge this challenge and point to the

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The Anchor

Parable of the Father’s love

literature this parable is possithe older brother know how the bly the greatest short story ever wealth was squandered? But composed. So clearly are huthis story is a parable of the man psychology and emotions father’s love, not a biography delineated that it is possible of the characters. Similarly, the for the reader to identify with Gospels are a proclamation of each of the main characters. the Good News, not a biograAgain, from the point of view of literature, we can see that only the story of the father is complete. We don’t know if the younger son persists in his

By Father rehabilitation or if the Martin L. Buote older son gets past his pique. But the father’s love needs no further development: it is complete! phy of Jesus.

There are several loose ends The parable has two parts: in the story that are deliberateVerses 11-24 deal with the ly left unanswered. To answer younger son; verses 25-32 them would add nothing but deal with the older son. Both length to the story. How did the parts conclude with the expresboy convert his share of the es- sion, “He was lost and has tate into portable wealth? How been found.” By these words did he sustain himself when we can see the connection to working as a swineherd if no the two previous parables of one gave him anything to eat? the lost. At the conclusion of How did he manage the trip the parables of the Lost Sheep back if he was starving? How and the Lost Coin, Jesus notes did the father see and recognize the heavenly joy over the him a long way off? How did repentant sinner. This present

Parables of the Lord

parable also gives warning to the Pharisees and Scribes who were censorious, resentful and suspicious of the repentant.

The main story line of the parable of the Ten Coins in Lk 19:11-27 is rather straight forward and commonplace, but it is the secondary plot through which Luke puts the secular and the spiritual before us in stark contrast. In the main story line, we see that virtue — industriousness — is rewarded.

In the secondary plot, Luke brings to mind the machinations of the Herod family something well known to the people of his time.

Herod the Great named his son Archelaus his successor, but this needed confirmation

by Caesar. Because of distrust of the Herodian family and the petition of a large delegation of Jews, Caesar only gave Archelaus the title of ethnarch, and after 10 years (4 B.C. to 6 A.D.) deposed him. Although the delegation was not slaugh-

Nickles, dimes and family size

need for a “spirit of generosity” malnourished and without warm when it comes to procreation: clothing, or would it simply “Pope John Paul II spoke mean that he or she would of ‘responsible parenthood,’ in forego some of the latest hi-tech which a couple uses practical gadgets that other children in the wisdom, prayer and a spirit of neighborhood might be enjoygenerosity in determining how ing? many children they should have.

I recall what a father of seven Some Catholics believe that the Church permits the use of NFP only for reasons that verge on the truly desperate, such as a situation where a pregnancy

By Father Tad would threaten a womPacholczyk an’s life or a family is living in dire poverty.

Magisterial documents, however, state that spouses may children on a tight budget once have physical, psychological, told me in a conversation: “Honeconomic or social reasons for estly, there’s always room around needing to limit family size, usthe table for one more, and with ing several different adjectives ‘hand me down’ clothing we alto describe those reasons: One ways manage. And my goodness, can have ‘just’ reasons, ‘worthy’ isn’t it a momentous thing to reasons, ‘defensible’ reasons, receive that trust of preparing an‘serious’ reasons and ‘weighty’ other soul for an eternal destiny reasons. In short, the Magistewith God?” His wife pointed out rium teaches that spouses must how the older children ended up have unselfish reasons for using helping with raising the younger NFP and limiting their family ones, lessening the burdens on size.” mom and dad, and turning it into At times, then, our justificaa “team effort.” tions for avoiding a pregnancy The ancient Christian teaching may merit further reflection on the two-fold purpose of marand scrutiny on our part. When riage, namely, the “procreation it comes to “poverty,” for and education of children,” and example, would our poverty, the “mutual help and sanctificain the true sense of the word, tion of the spouses,” accurately mean that the child would be summarizes the inner order of

Making Sense Out of Bioethics

marriage. As the future John Paul II wrote in his great 1960 book “Love and Responsibility,” radical personal openness to both of these purposes is essential to the success and meaning of any marriage. We should never enter into marriage with active opposition to the very ends for which it exists. If a couple is preparing to embark upon marriage with the immediate intention of avoiding offspring (even if they are using morally acceptable means such as NFP), they perhaps ought to consider delaying the exchange of their vows until they have resolved the various impediments, whether financial, career-related, or personal, that are leading them to be closed to the idea of having children.

I recall hearing about another family that had six children.

They didn’t have two nickels to rub together. After the father

tered by Archelaus, part of their complaint was that he had slaughtered 3,000 Jews at the Temple before going to Rome.

The parable as given by Luke resonates through the rest of chapter 19. The man of noble birth went to a distant country to be named king (Archelaus to Rome). Jesus went up to God’s Holy City Jerusalem, where the people proclaimed, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord.” (By inserting the title of king into this quotation from Psalm 118, Luke makes the connection to the parable.) The people of Judea sent a delegation to protest an unworthy king. The unworthy in the crowd protest Jesus as king. Archelaus desecrated the Temple; Jesus purified the Temple.

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

came down with mental illness, the mother had to support the family single-handedly. A clear-thinking woman with an unflinching faith, now elderly and reflecting on her past, she memorably remarked to her neighbor: “I’ve never seen the Lord send a child without also sending a lunch pail.” God, who is the very source of the immortal souls of our children, is a provident God who invites us to examine the heart of our marriages. He invites us to entrust ourselves to Him, so that we might be courageous and authentically open to the gift of life He sends us in the midst of the marital embrace.

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

HelpForVeterans.com Discounts for military personnel active and retired throughout the U.S.

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eprosy is a terrible disease. With modern medicine, however, people who have it can live fairly normal lives. This was not the case throughout most of human history. It was against the law for someone with leprosy to approach anyone who did not have the disease.

In this Sunday’s Gospel we hear a remarkable story about a man who did just that: he approached Jesus and asked to be healed.

There was no cure for leprosy. This man knew that. It is likely that he heard that Jesus had been healing people of all kinds of ailments.

With a sense of desperation and maybe a glimmer of

February 10, 2012

The Anchor

Healing that transforms

hope, he approached Jesus him and finds him wanting hoping for a miracle. and therefore unworthy of The loving compassion His compassion. There are that Jesus has for us is truly no “yes, buts.” Jesus’ love staggering. He did not see and compassion are absothe diseased brokenness of this man when He reached out Homily of the Week and touched him, but rather saw a beautiSixth Sunday ful human person in of Ordinary Time need of transformaBy Deacon tion. Jesus sees the Doug Medeiros same thing when He reaches out to each one of us.

We do not know how this lute and are given without man contracted his disease. condition.

We do not know if he conAs soon as He heals tracted it through absolutely the man, however, His no fault of his own or as a tone changes and takes on result of his choices or bea sense of sternness and havior. Jesus does not judge directness. This is where

we see that this man may have needed a little bit of a wake-up call. Jesus tells him exactly what to do and what not to do. The man does the opposite in both cases.

I am reminded of the countless times I have been healed in some way by an interaction with Jesus only to stop short of letting the healing truly transform me. I just have this habit of taking bits and pieces of my will back.

I have the honor of being part of the prison ministry at the Dartmouth House of Correction. Each week a team of volunteers goes into

the jail to sing, pray and witness with the inmates.

It is truly humbling to see the healing transformations that occur in these men and women. Granted some get out and are back in before you know it, but many get out and stay out leading transformed lives.

Let us remember, sisters and brothers, that with loving compassion Christ wants to heal us like He healed the man in the Gospel. May each of us allow that healing to take root in our lives such that we are truly transformed into the image of our Savior!

Deacon Medeiros serves at St. Joseph Parish in Fairhaven.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. Feb. 11, 1 Kgs 12:26-32;13:33-34; Ps 106:6-7,19-22; Mk 8:1-10. Sun. Feb. 12, Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Lv 13:1-2,4446; Ps 32:1-2,5,11; 1 Cor 10:31-11:1; Mk 1:40-45. Mon. Feb. 13, Jas 1:1-11; Ps 119:67-68,71-72,75-76; Mk 8:11-13. Tues. Feb. 14, Jas 1:12-18; Ps 94:12-15,1819; Mk 8:14-21. Wed. Feb. 15, Jas 1:19-27; Ps 15:2-5; Mk 8:22-26. Thurs. Feb. 16, Jas 2:1-9; Ps 34:2-7; Mk 8:27-33. Fri. Feb. 17, Jas 2:14-24,26; Ps 112:1-6; Mk 8:34-9:1.

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here are many good arguments against quickly convening a Third Vatican Council — a notion beloved of Catholics who occupy the portside cabins on the Barque of Peter.

The most obvious is that Catholicism has barely begun to digest the teaching of Vatican II on the nature of the Church, the universal call to holiness, and the reform of the episcopate, the priesthood, consecrated life, and the lay vocation in the world.

Until the dramatic change in Catholic self-understanding that Vatican II mandated is fully internalized and implemented — until the Church understands itself as a mission, not as an institution that has a mission (as one among many things it does) — there seems little sense in convening Vatican III. One might also argue that

Vatican III? Where?

can II?,” one of the reasons another ecumenical council Pope Paul VI was determined would be a distraction from to conclude Vatican II in the evangelical mission to which Vatican II called the Church, and especially the Church’s bishops. As it is, bishops spend far too much of their time in meetings.

By George Weigel Would the preaching of the Gospel, which, according to Vatican II, is the first December 1965 was that the responsibility of bishops, be Council was simply costing advanced by gathering the entire world episcopate into a too much.)

These are all good reasons global mega-meeting for three why a general council would or four months of the year, be a bad idea for the foreover a period of years? seeable future. But there’s Then there’s the question another issue here, one that of resources. Any Vatican raises an intriguing question III would cost vast sums of about any future council, no money: would such an exmatter when it’s convened: penditure be the best use of Where could Vatican III (or the Church’s resources? (As Father John O’Malley reports Lateran VI, or Trent II, or Lyons III, or whatever-thein “What Happened at Vati-

The Catholic Difference

future-council-is called) possibly be held?

Vatican I (1869-70) met in one transept of St. Peter’s because there were only 737 bishops attending.

Some 2,800 bishops participated in the four sessions of Vatican II, which met in the fall months of 1962, 1963, 1964 and 1965, although at any one session there were between 2,000 and 2,500 bishops present — and they filled the entire, vast nave of St. Peter’s, seated on bleachers built high above the basilica’s marble floor. Add the ecumenical observers, the Council periti (advisers), and other functionaries with access to the Council aula (as the reconfigured basilica was called), and St. Peter’s was packed full.

But today? At the end of 2009, the last year for which complete Church statistics are available, there were 5,065 Catholic bishops in the world.

A general or “ecumenical” council is, by definition, one in which all bishops have the right to participate (Canon 339). Where would this throng of more than 5,000 bishops, literally twice the size of the episcopate that attended the most jam-packed session of Vatican II, meet? It

certainly couldn’t meet at St. Peter’s, or at any of the other Roman basilicas. Indeed, is there a Catholic church in the world that could readily accommodate more than 5,000 bishops, their advisors, the ecumenical observers, and all the others who would rightly claim at least some place in a council hall?

One wag to whom I mentioned this conundrum spoke of a future council as “Metroplex I,” with the Council Fathers, the observers, the advisers, the translators, and all the rest of the apparatus meeting in Cowboys Stadium, graciously donated for the occasion by Jerry Jones. Bad jokes aside, however, the fact that the world episcopate has doubled in number over the past 50 years raises important questions for the future. How can this large a body function as the episcopal “college” of Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church? Is it possible to imagine a “virtual council,” or some other technological mechanism that would allow the world episcopate to meet as a whole?

There’s far more, literally, to any future council than typically meets the eye.

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

February 10, 2012

Apocalypse now (and then)

Wednesday 8 February 2012 The purpose of the apoca— at home on the Taunton River lyptic style of literature is to — Birth anniversary (1828) of give human insight into divine Jules Verne mystery. The insights offered eople are becoming by the writer are based on his obsessed with the end of the world.

For those with religious inclinations, there are Reflections of a two ways to read the Parish Priest Book of Revelation (Apocalypse). It can be

By Father Tim read as a prediction of Goldrick the future or it can be understood in its historical context. Catholics see the Bible own historical circumstances through different eyes than but sometimes have a timeless biblical futurists, from different spiritual quality applicable to understandings, with differall believers in times of perseent expectations. Catholics and cution. The mysteries involve biblical futurists, you might say, the conflict between good and are from different planets. Don’t evil in the world and the sure take that literally. and certain hope that good will

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The Ship’s Log

prevail.

Although the Jewish apocalyptic style didn’t emerge until just 500 years before Christ, the contrast between good and evil is evident as far back as such Hebrew prophets as Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. The primary task of the prophets was to call people back to right and just living in the here-and-now.

Their prophetic message had little to do with soothsaying, and everything to do with reminding people of the great hope to which God was calling them. The prophets presented a vision of what the world would be like when believers everywhere followed the will of God. In His own

The Komen firestorm

The firestorm that subseo say that the Susan G. quently erupted was illustrative Komen breast cancer of a few points. First, there is foundation had a tumultuous little gratitude in the ranks of week at the start of February abortion supporters. With nary would be an understatement. a thank you for the millions They announced that they were received already, their fury was revising their grant process, on display as they lashed out which essentially defunded unrelentingly at Komen. Terry Planned Parenthood — gratifyO’Neill of NOW declared that ing Pro-Lifers and enraging Komen was simply no longer a abortion supporters; and yet women’s health organization. later seemed to backpedal, esPlanned Parenthood president sentially bewildering everyone.

Cecile Richards said, “We These grants in the name of “breast health” comprised more than $500,000 annually, and were curious from the start, since not a single Planned Parenthood outlet offers breast screenings. Almost

By Genevieve Kineke all women who go to Planned Parenthood need one of two things: know our opponents put their an abortion (91 percent of ideology over women’s health pregnant women who enter and lives,” and said women their clinics procure abortions) are the targets of “the heartor some form of birth control. less campaigns of anti-choice Unfortunately, both have been groups.” Thus, instead of linked to breast cancer in nuresponding to the explanation, merous studies, meaning that they brazenly insisted that they the grants have been offered to have a standing right to other a group with no mammogram people’s money. machines and only questionMost absurd is the claim able services that may add to Pro-Lifers have engaged in the problem. “bullying tactics” and “politiUnfortunately, Komen cization” of the issue — when didn’t indicate that it had a the funding reversal brought principled objection to giving out the very worst in their own money to Planned Parenthood, side. Countering the encourbut rather offered a two-fold agement from Pro-Lifers explanation. They would no and a 100 percent increase in longer give funds to groups donations to Komen after the under investigation (Planned announcement, the harassment Parenthood is under scrutiny and media abuse that Komen for Medicaid fraud, performing received from incensed aborillegal abortions, and covering tion-rights activists reached a up incidents of statutory rape) frenzied pitch, demanding that and preferred to support only they be heard and funding be those groups that offer on-site restored — or else. mammograms.

The Feminine Genius

James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal likens Planned Parenthood’s campaign to “a protection racket” in which they threaten harm to Komen — and any other donors who think of pulling their funding.

“Nice charity you’ve got there.

It’d be a shame if anything happened to it.” The question is, will they be allowed to act this way — even holding our tax dollars hostage to their vitriol?

Finally, a new landscape is emerging where we find that those who claim to speak for women (Planned Parenthood, NOW, and other radical feminists) are found to be a smaller minority than previously thought. Gallup polls reveal that whereas 37 percent of women in 1996 considered themselves Pro-Life, that number had grown to 46 percent by 2010. The same span shows that women considering themselves pro-choice shrank from 56 percent to 45 percent.

No matter what either side says, it’s all political, for the polis — the public square — inevitably reflects the values of the community, and these things are worth fighting for.

I find the words of Nancy Pelosi most ironic, as she noted, “When women speak out, women win.” True, but it will depend on how many stand up to let their voices be heard, and they might end up surprising the speaker by what they say.

Mrs. Kineke is the author of “The Authentic Catholic Woman” (Servant Books) and can be found online at feminine-genius.com.

day, some considered Jesus a prophet.

Although there were various apocalypses circulating in both Old and New Testament times, only one made it into the Hebrew Scriptures and only one into the Christian Scriptures.

The apocalyptic book in the Old Testament is the Book of Daniel; the apocalyptic book in the New Testament is the Book of Revelation.

The Book of Revelation was written when imperial pagan Rome ruled the world. It was written in common Greek by a man who calls himself simply “John,” from his place of government-imposed exile on the Island of Patmos. It was addressed to seven Church communities in Roman-occupied Asia Minor (now Turkey). The Book of Revelation did not drop out of the sky.

John describes the conflict between faithful Christians and the Imperial Roman culture.

He urges believers to hang on.

He promises they will not only survive the challenges they face in their day-to-day lives but eventually dwell with the saints in God’s presence. The timeless message is: “Christians, remain faithful! All evil empires will be vanquished in the end.” It’s an encouraging message of hope.

It’s not a dire prediction of the disastrous end of the world. The world that will end is that of the evil empire. All God’s creation, on the other hand, will reach its apex when Christ triumphs and the Kingdom comes.

In the beginning of the book, the author names the seven churches and highlights some of their weaknesses in living out the faith. In the middle of the book, using vivid word pictures, John several times repeats the message of triumph of good over evil so that the reader will be sure to get it. He uses various

dramatic scenarios which make the same point. At the end of the book comes the victory celebration of the saints.

Today, if two actors appeared on stage dressed as a donkey and an elephant and began to smack each other, we would know the play was a satire about Republicans and Democrats. It would never cross our minds that this was a prediction that we were on the verge of a cataclysmic conflict between an actual donkey and a literal elephant. We know what the symbols of the donkey and the elephant mean.

John has no elephants or donkeys, but he has the Lamb, two beasts, a dragon, four horsemen, trumpeting angels, complaining saints, a harlot named “Babylon,” and a woman clothed with the sun, etc. John’s original audience knew exactly who these characters represented.

Everybody agrees that the Lamb is Jesus, but let’s look at some of the other players.

Enter the horsemen. The original readers knew that the first horseman was dressed as a barbarian warrior-king. The barbarians would eventually overrun Rome. The second horseman reiterates that those who live by the sword will die by the sword. The third horseman carries scales for measuring gold. The imperial Roman economy was not as sound as it was cracked up to be. The forth horseman is death. For all their seeming power and prosperity, not a single Roman citizen will take it with them to the grave.

The horsemen are fatal flaws in the imperial social, political, and economic system — so hang on, faithful Christians, you will win the war. Just don’t expect to see four galloping horsemen on the six o’clock evening news.

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

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The Anchor

February 10, 2012

Giving God’s gifts back to Him

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

FALL RIVER — The way Debra Polselli sees it, God has granted her certain talents and it only makes sense to use them to better serve Him better.

“I just think that everyone has a talent or gift to offer,” she said.

For nearly 40 years now, Polselli has given back by serving St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Fall River in a variety of ways. Since she joined the parish in 1974, she’s played a key role as the Faith Formation instructor who prepares students to receive the Sacrament of First Communion.

“I started teaching the First Communion classes and that’s what I’m still doing,” Polselli said. “Now I’m having children of former students in my classes. It’s a nice age level to work with.”

Having grown up in a large family with six brothers and two sisters, Polselli said her mother and father were hardworking people who recognized the value of a Catholic education.

“Neither of them completed high school, because they both had to leave to go to work,” she said. “But my mom and dad knew the value of a Catholic education. When I decided to become a teacher, I figured teaching Faith Formation classes would give me some good experience, and it did.”

Polselli attended Sacred Heart School in Fall River

from grades one through eight tor for St. Dominic’s Parish in and it was there that she first Swansea.” thought about either becoming Another person she credits a teacher or a nurse. as being a major influence on “For me, it was between her is her brother Dennis. nursing and teaching, but I re“He is blind and almost ally enjoy working with chil- went into the seminary, but he dren — especially the younger found it hard,” Polselli said. ones,” she said. “I enjoy their enthusiasm and when it comes to religion, I love how accepting they are of the faith. They are very faith-filled when they are young.”

Polselli now teaches first grade at Espirito Santo School in Fall River where she enjoys forming young minds.

“I think it’s important to provide a good foundation,” she said.

“My dad was a carpenter — he built many of our relatives’ homes — and he always said it’s much easier to start from scratch than it is to take something apart and redo it again. If we can teach them while they’re still young and build a good faith foundation, that’s delightful.”

Indeed, faith has Anchor Person of the week played an important Polselli. role in Polselli’s life.

“I have an uncle who is a priest and many of “His faith has always been my family members remain great and he’s been a great invery involved in the Church,” spiration to me. To this day, she said. “One of my sisters is he attends daily Mass. When the Faith Formation coordina- he was a child, he used to cel-

ebrate Mass all by himself in the basement of our house. It may seem like child’s play, but it wasn’t. He always took it very seriously and that was a big inspiration to me.”

Polselli has also shared her musical talents with St. Anthony of Padua Parish for the past 20 years as a member of the music ministry.

“I’ve been involved in the parish music ministry for a long time,” she said. “It’s a very small group and we do the music for the 6 p.m. Mass on Saturday. I play guitar and sing.”

“Deb has been singing at our 6 p.m.

Mass for years,” said Father Brian Albino, pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Parish.

“And she’s been an important part of our Faith Formation program. She’s a faithful person and a great parishioner.”

When she’s not busy at her parish, — Debra she also volunteers as a board member for the Catholic Social Services’ food kitchen on Bay Street.

Although she is single and has no children, Polselli has raised generations of students

in her Faith Formation classes.

“I love all my students,” she said. “When I first started teaching Faith Formation classes, I didn’t know if I would be any good at it, but it ended being a good fit for me.

Sometimes you never know until you try.”

Like so many people who contribute to parochial life, Polselli said she doesn’t do it for the recognition.

“I always think there are so many people who do so much for the Church, that’s why I feel funny when someone recognizes you,” she said. “There are so many parishioners who help out, it can be humbling. I feel there are many who contribute to our Church life.”

And though it always seems like parishes have more help than they need, Polselli strongly encouraged others to get involved.

“I’m in a Portuguese parish, so there’s always lots of suppers going on to raise money for different parish activities,” she said. “We can always use people with a talent for cooking, and we always need Faith Formation teachers, or those with a talent for music — I think everyone has something to offer. It could be as simple as helping out in the parish office or making calls for Faith Formation classes.”

To submit a Person of the Week nominee, send an email with information to fatherrogerlandry@anchornews. org.

‘Face of Jesus Exhibit’ at La Salette Shrine extended continued from page one

way bigger than I ever could have imagined. And it has nothing to do with me. God has taken this and made it a healing and inspirational event. I’m honored to be a part of it, but it’s all so humbling.”

La Salette Brother Robert Russell, shrine director, was all for the extension, which will make it available for the many

Silverman said that she made available a book for visitors to write whatever comments they wanted after viewing the exhibit. “At the beginning the comments were brief words of thanks,” she said. “That soon changed and the entries began to be written in different languages, comments I couldn’t understand, but people were

it all came together — This massive “leaf” pattern quilt, made by Grace Patterson of Providence, R.I. was recently added to the “Face of Jesus Exhibit” at La Salette Shrine in Attleboro.

The quilt was modeled after a drawing by Patterson’s sister, Fran.

(Photo courtesy of Sharon Silverman)

international retreats that take place there, as well as encompassing the entire Church year, including the upcoming Lent, Holy Week, and Easter seasons.

Since the exhibit opened in November with 800 original works of art, Silverman has been approached by many more artists wanting to become a part of it. “I’ve received many new pieces of art, in all mediums, that are now part of the show,” Silverman said. “Some of the pieces during the festival were returned to the artists who had loaned them, but I’ve easily filled in the spaces.

“There were only a few that were on loan, and the rest are pieces sent by the artists that don’t have to be returned.”

With that in mind, Silverman hopes to turn the “Faces of Jesus Exhibit” into a traveling show when it closes in October. “I hope to bring it to other cities in the U.S. and to other galleries. I’ve already been contacted by locations that are interested.”

11

The Anchor

February 10, 2012

moved to want to share their emotions in the language of their culture.

“The trend that followed completely got to me. People started to write personal prayers to God and to Jesus.

They would ask Them to help them with their life struggles: death of a loved one, divorce, sickness. The art had such an effect that people weren’t in-

hibited to write really personal prayers in such a public forum.

“To me that showed how powerful the reactions were to share things that are usually kept secret.”

The artwork, that included paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, and handmade objects made from a variety of materials, appealed to young and old. “People of all ages and cultures enjoyed it,” Silverman said. “Kids, teens and those way up in their senior years were excited by the show.

“I heard a comment from a four-year-old who said, ‘I loved the red one,’” added Silverman.

“What the red one was I don’t know, but it moved her enough to say she ‘loved it.’”

She added that she’s seen “little kids whose eyes just lit up,” adding that they can relate to the contemporary images of Jesus.

“There was a woman in her 50s who said, ‘It feels good to have a place to publicly praise and show faith in a society that tries to take Jesus and God away from us.’

“And the one that really touched me was from a 20-year-old girl who commented, ‘People my age don’t feel as connected to the Church as they want to be. We don’t fit in anywhere for that matter. What I saw here was that every culture and person was invited to be a part of Jesus. No one was left out. All around the world people know Jesus, and I felt an incredible connection with people all over the world, and with Jesus.’”

An example of the expanding effects of the exhibit was illustrated by a woman who told Silverman that after hearing about it she had to see it in person.

The woman had cancer and was so moved by what she saw, she asked a family member to take pictures. The woman then took the photos to a family member who was in a drug

rehab facility, and the images helped the person a great deal.

“In fact, the facility was so moved that it shows the photographs to other patients to help them,” she said.

Silverman said she witnessed Jesus touching the hearts of a lot of people from all cultures in different ways. “That’s what the exhibit was meant to do.

That’s why I’d like to see this become a traveling show.”

The exhibit that runs at the Shrine until the end of October does include new pieces of art that weren’t included in the Festival of Lights showing, and Silverman has extended an open invitation to all artists to send works to her.

“If people want to be included, they can send their works to me,” Silverman said. The pieces can be any size and in any medium, and will not be

returned. She does request that they be creative and contemporary and respectful. “We don’t want shock art or Jesus humor,” she added. “Nor do we want hate art that would hurt other cultures or peoples.”

The art can be sent to: Sharon Silverman, c/o Face of Jesus, P.O. Box 1212, Haverhill, Mass., 01831.

When the current show does close in October and possibly hits the road, Silverman hopes to be able to put together a “Faces of Jesus Exhibit II” for this year’s La Salette Festival of Lights with new art pieces.

Silverman will be at La Salette Shrine today and tomorrow for the Winter Festival.

“I’ll be there to listen to people and talk to them,” she said. “I love to hear what people have to say, and how the faces of Jesus touch them.”

12

The Anchor

February 10, 2012

CPA leader says Catholic press key to covering religious liberty issues

CHICAGO (CNS) — Catholic Press Month, celebrated in February, “comes at a particularly critical moment” this year, said Greg Erlandson, president of the Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada.

The nation’s Catholic bishops “have made clear their concern with recent government regulations and the threat such regulations pose to religious liberty,” said Erlandson, president and publisher of Our Sunday Visitor in Huntington, Ind. The Catholic press provides the vehicle for the bishops’ message to reach Catholics, he said in a statement released by the Chicagobased press association.

“It is during challenging times like these that we can best recognize the great blessing that is the Catholic press,” he said. “It is critical that Catholics not only have access to sound news coverage and commentary, but that they hear directly from their leaders on the issues of the day and have the resources to see their world through

the eyes of faith.

“Only the Catholic press gives Catholic leaders a voice with which to be heard by their people — unmuted, uncensored and independent of the preconceptions and prejudices of too many secular media outlets,” he added.

Erlandson said the CPA “believes strongly” that its members’ newspapers, magazines, newsletters, books and blogs are “the most effective adult education tools to reach Catholics, and that they do so more efficiently than any other communications means outside the Sunday homily.”

The CPA — which celebrated its 100th anniversary last year — includes 151 newspapers, 78 magazines, 22 newsletters and 13 foreign language publications.

“This February, we do well to mark Catholic Press Month by acknowledging with appreciation the irreplaceable value of the most dynamic Catholic press in the world — and doing our part to support it,” said Erlandson. cool friends — John Krasinski and Drew Barrymore star in a scene from the movie “Big Miracle.” For a brief review of this film, see CNS Movie Capsules below. (CNS photo/Universal)

CNS Movie Capsules

Specializing in: Brand Name/ Foreign Auto Parts 1420 Fall River Avenue (Route 6) Seekonk, MA 02771

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

“Big Miracle” (Universal) In 1988 in Barrow, Ala., a television reporter (John Krasinski) stumbles on a hole in the offshore ice and discovers a family of gray whales. Trapped five miles from open water, they’ll drown unless something is done to free them. The story of their plight is broadcast around the world, and soon a varied host of people — including a Greenpeace activist (Drew Barrymore), an oil magnate (Ted Danson), a local Inupiat boy (Ahmaogak Sweeney) and even President Reagan (Quinn Redeker) — join in offering assistance. Director Ken Kwapis’ screen adaptation of the real-life events recounted in Thomas Rose’s 1989 book “Freeing the Whales” makes an inspiring and uplifting feature suitable for all but the youngest viewers. A few mild oaths, one semi-profane expression. The Catholic News Service classification is A-II — adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG

— parental guidance suggested.

Some material may not be suitable for children.

“One for the Money” (Lionsgate) Forgettable fish-out-of-water comedy in which an unemployed New Jersey department store saleswoman (Katherine Heigl) takes a job as a bail bondsman, and an old high school boyfriend (Jason O’Mara) for whom she still carries a torch — despite his having spurned her — becomes her first target for recapture. As the two go from rivalry to cooperation in trying to solve the crime of which he’s accused, she gains the protection of a formidable colleague (Daniel Sunjata) and encounters representative denizens of the wrong side of town (most prominently John Leguizamo and Sherri Shepherd). Director Julie Anne Robinson’s slack adaptation of

the first of Janet Evanovich’s popular series of mystery novels — which also features Debbie Reynolds as the protagonist’s breezily eccentric grandmother — tries to get by on jauntiness but fails to charm. An attempt to capitalize on sexual tension, and such gags as an elderly exhibitionist that the heroine takes into custody, and a surfeit of profane dialogue are further deficits.

Some action violence, brief rear and partial nudity, an instance of blasphemy and at least 20 uses of profanity, much sexual humor, frequent crude and crass language, a couple of obscene gestures. 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.

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on WLNE Channel 6 Sunday, February 12, 11:00 a.m.

Celebrant is Father David C. Frederici, chaplain at UMass Dartmouth and Cape Cod Community College

February 10, 2012

13

The Anchor

Protestant vs. Catholic teachings about the dead

I am thy father’s spirit, Doom’d for a certain term to walk the night, And for the day confined to fast in fires, Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature Are burnt and purged away. amlet,” Shakespeare’s iconic play, is not always everyone’s favorite. T.S. Eliot thought of it as a bleak dramatic failure, and described it as a play “in excess of the facts as they appear.”

Hamlet does certainly seem overwrought and the pieces of it don’t always add up. Now that we know a little about Shakespeare’s context, maybe some opaque parts of the play will start to look a little more translucent. Maybe the facts as they appear, as Eliot has it, are a little bit more than they seem.

A ghost launches the dramatic action of the play, the ghost of Hamlet’s father. He moans (in verse, yet), about his “prison house” where his past sins are burned away. “Purgatory” isn’t

said — but where else could he death of a loved one in the way be talking about if not the place that you believe? And if you before Heaven where our past did sincerely believe it, what iniquity is burned away? It might horrors did you fear for souls in escape our notice in our conpurgatory? Shakespeare had lost temporary world, but this was a his son (named, coincidentally, deeply subversive and disturbing Hamnet) before the writing of thing for a ghost to say, at the particular moment his playwright gave him those specific words to say.

The Church of England had deemed the very idea of

By Jennifer Pierce purgatory, as well as prayers for the dead, as heretical and “unscriptural.” Thus, rather abruptly, the English rites “Hamlet” and lost his father and rituals of death were altered. very close to the time it was Imagine, for a moment, that you first performed. If he believed are unable to bury, mourn, or in purgatory, what would he feel pray for the dead in the way that that there could no longer be your family has done in the past. Masses said for them, no prayers One might personally decide for their souls, no possibility that such rituals are superfluof intercession? That the play ous, meaningless, or empty, but opens with such a phantom from imagine that you are told that England’s recent Catholic past they are and that you are actuis truly remarkable. How did it ally forbidden from greeting the even make it past the censors?

washington, d.c. — On January 31, the Catholic lay organization Catholic Advocate launched a nationwide campaign providing resources for faithful Catholics wanting to speak out against the recently-announced Department of Health and Human Services final rule affecting conscience protections in health care coverage. The ruling forces organizations providing health plans to cover contraception, abortifacients, and sterilization regardless of their religious beliefs.

“One of the options to address this attack on people of faith is to directly contact our elected officials in Congress to let them know our dissatisfaction with this decision,” said Catholic Advocate President Matt Smith. “Our goal is to have at least 100,000 faithful Catholics participate each month until Congress acts.”

On the day of the HHS announcement, Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops called the laity to this action when he said, “Let your elected leaders know that you want religious liberty and rights of conscience restored and that you want the administration’s contraceptive mandate rescinded.”

Catholic Advocate is asking for at least one leader per parish in this country to sign up at www.ProtectOurConscience. org. There they will have access to a grassroots toolbox to answer

the call to rally faithful laity to reinstate our conscience rights.

“There are 17,782 parishes in the United States,” added Smith.

“If faithful Catholics were able to average 115 letters per parish to their Representative and each Senator, Capitol Hill would receive over six million contacts on this issue. We would send a powerful message that cannot be ignored.”

A primary focus of this nationwide grassroots campaign is building additional support for H.R. 1179/S. 1467 — the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act introduced by Representative Jeff Fortenberry (Nebraska, 1st Dis-

“H

Hidden Shakespeare

National conscience protection grassroots campaign launched

trict) and Senator Roy Blunt (Missouri) respectively.

The legislation amends the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act “to permit a health plan to decline coverage of specific items and services that are contrary to the religious beliefs of the sponsor, issuer, or other entity offering the plan or the purchaser or beneficiary (in the case of individual coverage) without penalty.” It also applies similar guidance to state health insurance exchange programs and becomes retroactive to when PPACA was signed into law by President Obama.

While the similarities between the Church of England and Catholicism were stronger than other Protestant sects, nothing less than the entire sacramental structure was dismantled, reducing the Sacraments from seven to two. Read, now, what the ghost says to Hamlet a little later on: Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother’s hand Of life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatch’d: Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin, Unhousel’d, disappointed, unanel’d, No reckoning made, but sent to my account With all my imperfections on my head: O, horrible! O, horrible! most horrible!

“Unhousel’d” and “unanel’d” means without having received the Eucharist or the last rites.

Imagine yourself as a faithful Catholic in the audience, living with the grief and anxiety of having your rituals for the dead altered, wondering what the spiritual consequences of such an action might be? Imagine that you could no longer honor your dead in the way of your ancestors?

Through “Hamlet,” Shakespeare provides a test case for Protestant vs. Catholic teaching on the dead. If it sometimes seems, as Eliot noted, “in excess

February is Catholic Press Month — the perfect time to subscribe to The Anchor, or to give one as a gift!

of the facts” it is because Shakespeare was being censored; the facts had to say without saying.

Hamlet cannot be certain at first whether or not this ghost is who he says he is or if he is a demon from hell meant to lead him into first madness, then perdition.

He must discern the spirit that visits him, a practice in which St. Ignatius of Loyola instructed the Jesuits very specifically.

Protestants believed neither that the dead could intercede for the living nor that the living could intercede for the dead. According to this idea, if one sees a ghost it must be a demonic spirit. Shakespeare makes sure we cannot mistake the matter at hand; Hamlet and his best friend Horatio have just returned from Wittenberg, the very place where Luther nailed his “95 Theses” to the church door and the play is set in Denmark, an indexically Lutheran country.

As the play progresses, there can be no mistaking the truth of the ghost’s message to Hamlet; his wife had indeed been unfaithful to him with his brother, and his brother actually tries to make a confession and find absolution for fratricide.

What conclusion are we meant to draw?

Jennifer Pierce is a parishioner of Corpus Christi in East Sandwich, where she lives with her husband Jim and three children.

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14

The Anchor State drops abortion request for mentally ill Catholic woman

BOSTON — Norfolk Probate tion and “believed people were would decide against an abortion and Family Court Judge Gregory staring at her and stating that if competent.

V. Roach authorized the Massa- she killed her baby.” In court, “Needless to say, I thought chusetts Department of Mental she described herself as “very that the Appeals Court decision Health to announce the petition Catholic” and told the court she was correct,” said Dwight Dunto force a 32-year-old can, a law professor mentally ill woman to at the University of eedless to say, I thought that Massachusetts in Dartabort her child over her religious objections the Appeals Court decision mouth, when asked had been withdrawn on was correct,” said Dwight Duncan, a of Grainger’s ruling.

January 23.

“The legal test for such law professor at the University of Mas- situations in MassachuThe DMH and the woman’s parents sachusetts in Dartmouth. setts — i.e., patients had been asking the who are incompetent state to overrule their to make decisions redaughter’s expressed wishes, so “wouldn’t do that [abortion]” garding their medical treatment she could have an abortion and again.

— is substituted judgment; that resume taking her medication.

Massachusetts Appeals Court is, what the patient would choose Former Norfolk Probate Judge Associate Justice Andrew Grainger if the patient were competent.

Christina Harms had ruled on threw out the sterilization, saying Here, even if because of mental January 6 that the woman, who is that Judge Harms had pulled that illness the woman was considdescribed only as “Mary Moe,” requirement out of “thin air” and ered incompetent, it seems clear could be “coaxed, bribed or even remanded the abortion question that she didn’t want an abortion, enticed … by ruse” until she was to a lower court for an eviden- and also that she considered sedated for an abortion. Harms tiary inquiry. herself a devout Catholic who also ordered Moe sterilized.

Along with reversing the or- shares the Church’s view of the “Mary Moe” suffers from der, the court also concluded sanctity of human life.” schizophrenia and bipolar dis- that Harms improperly decided Harms retired in January. order. According to court docu- the matter of Moe’s competence Judge Roach closed the evidenments, Moe had a psychotic and noted that a court-appointed tiary hearing to the public and breakdown after a previous abor- guardian had determined Moe sealed the case file.

“N

John Paul II and the vocation of work continued from page 20

teachers, a professor or a mother or a father. It is our participation in ‘Thy kingdom come.’”

That’s the message he hopes people will pull from his recent book, “The Pope and the CEO”: that one can build on one’s talents, those gifts from God, and be an active participant in God’s plan to be a part of a culture that is built on a love so strong it overflows. Christ is a perfect example of love spilling over, said Widmer.

“Jesus ultimately gave it all back to the Father,” he said. “In the end, He gives His life over.

Once you give to the culture of

life and offer your service, God will give it back to you.”

Currently wrapping up his latest project as the co-founder of the SEVEN Fund, a philanthropic organization run by entrepreneurs who invest in original research, books, films and websites to further enterprise solutions to poverty, Widmer is now working on a new project, translating the Church’s social doctrine into modern speech.

“A lot of people are not listening to what John Paul said. A part of this is it is in a language that is difficult to understand,” said Widmer. Certain terms have

This week in 50 years ago — The Holy See named Father Joseph W. Regan, M.M., of Fairhaven to be a bishop and to become Prelate Nullius of the newly-created Prelature Nullius of Tagum in the Philippines.

This marked the second time the Holy See selected a native of the Fall River Diocese in the Maryknoll Fathers to become a bishop.

25 years ago — The Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena, whose motherhouse is in Fall River, where they operate Dominican Academy and the Dominican Creativity Center, opened a development office at St. Bernadette Convent in New Haven, Conn.

taken on a life of their own and “being used and abused, so when the Church teaches, she is actually not heard anymore.”

Widmer said when he gives his son crayons and paper, he tells him to be bold and go for it. It is just like God and the talents He gives to His people, said Widmer.

“That’s what God does with us. God gives you these crayons and wants to know what you’re going to draw,” said Widmer.

Will you decide to take up the challenge, or will “you stick the crayons in your pocket and run away?”

Diocesan history

10 years ago — Representing many religions but with a common goal to pray and work for world peace and justice, hundreds gathered in Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in New Bedford for an interfaith service. The program, hosted and led by Bishop Sean P. O’Malley, OFM Cap., followed a request of Pope John Paul II to bishops.

One year ago — St. John the Evangelist School in Attleboro held a ground-breaking ceremony for the planned construction of a new 4,600-square-foot addition to the facility located at 13 Hodges Street. Bishop George W. Coleman celebrated Mass at St. John the Evangelist Parish followed by the ground-breaking ceremony.

February 10, 2012

Some of life’s mysteries

I

t’s a colossal event that happens in very early February, and the hype increases every year.

The excitement continually builds as the big day approaches. The streets of the host city are packed with tourists days leading up to the start.

This year the crowd was massive, loud and downright giddy. One couldn’t count all the cameras and members of the press who were there ... nor the amount of dignitaries who wanted to be part of the action.

For those of us not fortunate enough to attend the event in

My View From the Stands

By Dave Jolivet person, we watched live coverage on TV. As I pour out this column I’m getting the feeling that some readers make think I’m talking about the Super Bowl. No! As a matter of fact, this is the only reference I’ll make to that Indianapolis implosion. There’s nothing further to say about that.

The epic event of which I write occurred a few days prior to that football game, in western Pennsylvania. I’m referring of course to Punxsutawney Phil and his Groundhog Day weather prediction.

If there are those who are pondering whether I’ve finally lost grip with reality, this isn’t my first column with the little rodent as the topic. Back in 2006, when Emilie was 11 years old, she asked me on February 2 if “Pawtucket Pete” had seen his shadow.

I was so enamored by her faux pas I had to write about it.

In fact I bring up that fact every Groundhog Day — something she’s not thrilled about. And when she reads this, I’ll, as Desi Arnaz used to say, “have some splainin’ to do.”

But I’m getting off track. I truly enjoy all the hype and I’m glad the little city of Punxsutawney can profit from America’s

infatuation with the inane.

The Phil phenomenon has been going on since 1887, but only in the last few decades has it become a national event.

We all know the rules. If Phil sees his early morning shadow on February 2, there will be six more weeks of winter; if not then it’s an early spring. This year’s result was six more weeks of winter.

Drat. That was almost as disappointing as that Indiana event three days later.

You can file this under the “Dave’s got way too much time on his hands” category, but I was compelled to do some research on the little critter. Why? Because I just get let it go that an oversized rat can predict the weather. It must be the analytical part of my cerebrum.

As of this year, Punxsutawney Phil has been forecasting for 115 years. Only 15 times has he forecast an early spring. That’s only 13 percent of the time. Just prior to 1990, there were nine times when there was “no record,” and also during World War II, when in 1942 “war clouds blackened out part of the clouds,” and in 1943 when Phil did not appear at all.

Question number one is how can Phil not see his shadow with all those television and camera lights? I’d bet that the space station can see the glow from Punxsutawney every February 2.

Question number two is what does the prognosticating rodent think of the guy with the top hat holding him up before the crowd? Either Phil was chilly this year, or he was not thrilled because the poor thing was shaking like a leaf.

And three, just how far does Phil’s jurisdiction travel? It can’t be nationwide. Where does it end? And does another groundhog’s expertise kick in there? And how many are there?

Maybe I should just, as Emilie tells me often, “let it go, dad.”

It’s either that, or dwell on ... never mind, I said I wouldn’t talk about it.

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

February 10, 2012

The Anchor

15

HHS mandate presents Catholic college presidents with grave choice

Merrimack, N.H. (CNA) — The HHS contraception mandate puts Catholic college and university presidents in peril because it forces them to choose between obeying the law and disowning their Catholic faith which they have sworn to uphold, Thomas More College President William Edmund Fahey said.

Fahey said in a February 2 letter to New Hampshire’s legislators in Congress

that each year he and his college’s faculty profess an oath to follow the Catholic bishops “with Christian obedience” and that the bishops are speaking with “one voice” against the mandate.

“I will stand by my oath and with my bishops. I hope that in so doing I will not be forced to stand against my own country,” he said in a February 2 letter to Senators.

Kelly Ayotte and Jeanne Shaheen and Rep-

Diocesan schools stress importance of marriage continued from page one

tion.

“Since many of our students are Christians, we look to the teachings on marriage found in Sacred Scripture,” he said. “We also discuss the social implications to accepting other definitions of marriage.”

At Coyle and Cassidy High School in Taunton, vice president of academic affairs Kathleen St. Laurent said the sanctity of marriage and its role in Church history and society is an integral part of their curriculum.

“Beginning in the freshmen year in our religion and science classes, relationships are discussed in the context of respect for self and others,” St. Laurent said. “We help students to understand that the Church teaching on marriage is not antiquated but is the foundation of family life. We openly discuss the qualities of a happy and healthy marriage and point out to students that the uniting and procreative aspects of married life can only be achieved through a relationship between a man and a woman.”

With a sharp decline in the number of couples opting to get married in recent years — choosing instead to cohabitate — it has become a challenge to get students to understand how the Sacrament of Marriage is a great source of grace.

“We try to convey to the students that success in marriage comes from viewing your spouse as a person to love and that the grace of the Sacrament helps us overcome our natural selfishness, which is detrimental to love,” Martin said. “Statistics also show that couples who choose to cohabitate prior to, or in lieu of, marriage are much more likely to separate or divorce.”

St. Laurent said students are well aware of the reasons for the increasing trend of cohabitation.

“We present statistics on the divorce rates associated with cohabitation and explore reasons why individuals chose this lifestyle,” she said. “Students are asked to think about marriage in the context of God’s plan for man and woman and it really does make sense to them, although some see it as an ‘ideal’ that may not be realistic for all. But most students do see themselves as getting married at some time in the future.”

“I do think that most students still see marriage as an important vocation,” Martin agreed. “It is actually vocations to the priesthood and religious life with which students struggle the most. We try to instill in them that all different vocations complement one another and each calls us to make a lifelong commitment of selfless love.”

One of the biggest challenges in teaching students about the sanctity of marriage is to impress upon them the importance of remaining chaste prior to receiving the Sacrament.

“The focus is not limited to sexuality but

on respect for self and others,” St. Laurent said. “The physical, emotional and social aspects of chastity are explored and the great freedom and positive outcomes of leading a chaste life are emphasized.”

Admitting that chastity is certainly a “counter-cultural” concept, St. Laurent added students and teachers discuss the worldview of sexuality along with the many negative outcomes of premarital sex, including crisis pregnancy, sexually-transmitted diseases, guilt, stress, depression and loss of reputation.

“It is difficult for teens because there is a lot of peer pressure,” she said. “They are certainly conflicted and we try to give them the knowledge, support and positive strategies to lead a chaste life.”

Martin said the goal at Bishop Stang High School is to help students realize they are all called to live the virtue of chastity — as opposed to celibacy — throughout their entire life.

“Chastity involves a fundamental ‘yes’ to God’s plan for sexuality rather than simple abstinence, which is a ‘no’ to sex,” he said.

“Therefore, chastity is lived differently depending on our state in life. When single or dating, we will be called to have pure relationships in which we refrain from sex. When married, we are still called to be chaste and to say ‘yes’ to God’s plan, which will involve monogamy, fidelity, and an openness to life.”

Martin said he hopes more young people are trying to live a chaste life today, even though they may not be sharing this fact with their peers.

“I believe that many young people view chastity as a challenge but more and more are coming to realize that the ‘sexual liberation’ that they have been exposed to is not leading to the ultimate happiness they crave,” he said.

With constant outside influences such as the Internet and mass media and more direct influences like peer pressure, St. Laurent said open and frank discussions with students about premarital sex and the Church’s position on marriage are crucial.

“We do our best to create an atmosphere in which students feel comfortable raising questions and concerns,” she said. “We help students to identify alternatives to engaging in premarital sex — to engage in fun group activities, to avoid getting into a situation that may lead to premarital sex, and to explore common interests with the opposite sex. We also emphasize that although they may think that ‘everyone is doing it,’ that is not the case.”

“Temptation is always present and we hope to teach them that we all need help in overcoming it,” Martin agreed. “It is important for students to understand that it is never too late to start living a chaste life. No matter how many times we fall, God desires to forgive us and give us His mercy.”

resentative Frank C. Guinta.

“Is such a dilemma now to become the norm for men and women of conscience and religious faith within the United States of America?”

The New Hampshire Catholic college president’s letter adds to the many responses to the January 20 Department of Health and Human Services’ announcement of a final rule that mandates that employers provide “preventive care” insurance coverage for sterilization and contraception, including an early abortion-causing drug.

The mandate’s narrow religious exemption does not include most Catholic health care systems, charities and educational institutions.

Bishop Peter Libasci of Manchester, N.H. responded to the mandate in a January 26 letter saying “we cannot — we will not — comply with this unjust law.”

Fahey characterized the Obama administration’s actions as “an insult to and direct attack against long-standing practices of the Roman Catholic Church.” The mandate “calls into question the administration’s willingness or ability to work within the western tradition of constitutional and natural law principles.”

The requirement “chiefly targets Roman Catholics,” he charged. Because the mandate requires a Catholic community to violate its faith in order to provide medical benefits, it “effectively prevents the full practice of its religion.”

“No public case was ever made; no pub-

lic consensus called for this mandate. Its introduction clearly creates an undue burden without any sign of compelling interest.”

The depiction of birth control, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs as health care is also false, he stated. Human life and pregnancy are not diseases to be prevented and the “beauty and goodness of human sexuality” should not be reduced to “an individual, utilitarian and dangerous act.”

“Human life itself is now placed into a category of social burden, which the government now claims the competence and authority to control and define,” he continued. “Human life itself, by being put under the same category as heart disease, cancer, or syphilis, becomes a threat to health. By promoting this mandate, the HHS Department plays a treacherous game with language and the very meaning of health.”

Fahey urged members of Congress to eliminate the mandate.

“I hope that you will see that the mandate attempts to force self-identified and faithfully Catholic organizations to compromise central tenets of their belief or drop health care coverage for their employees,” Fahey told the legislators.

“Furthermore, I hope that you will see that the mandate undermines the Constitution, compromises the integrity of the government, and abuses the foundational principle that free associations form an essential part of the social fabric of the United States.”

16

Youth Pages

on the air — Students from Holy Name School in Fall River recently made a trip to the WSAR radio studio in Somerset for a radio interview with Alex Stylos to promote a school open house.

February 10, 2012

they, robot — Eryk White, James Thursby, Kyle Araujo from the Robotics Activity Class at St. John the Evangelist School in Attleboro recently built the school’s first robotic car using Lego WeDo, a programmable robotic teaching tool that St. John’s received through a grant from UMass Lowell.

The students will be presenting some of their creations at Botfest at UMass Lowell on March 24. Botfest is a robotics exhibition where robot enthusiasts can display their creations.

in elite company — The Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Simmons College in Boston recently announced that Bishop Feehan High School librarian Robyn York will join Beta Phi Mu, the International Honor Society for Library and Information Studies.

This honor comes on the heels of York’s completion of her master’s degree.

model students — These students from St. Margaret’s Regional School in Buzzards Bay were named as Students of the Month for Outstanding Citizenship during the month of January. Here they display their awards at a Positive Behavior Intervention School-wide Assembly.

it was to be — Coyle and Cassidy High School senior David McConnell was selected to perform in the state finals of the English Speaking Union’s Shakespeare Competition. This is his first trip to the finals after twice representing the Taunton school in the semi-finals. The competition, held at Bentley University, featured students from 25 high schools across the state. Student actors, who were all winners in their school’s competitions, performed monologues from Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets before a panel of judges. McConnell performed a monologue from “Hamlet” and sonnet 81. The winner of the state competition will earn the opportunity to compete on the national level in New York this April at Lincoln Center. The National Shakespeare Competition winner receives a summer course in the United Kingdom.

a way with words — Jennifer Thomas, Bishop Stang High School’s director of Library and Technology Integration has been selected to receive the 2012 Ellen Berne Pathfinder Award given annually by the Massachusetts School Library Association. This memorial award is given in honor of Ellen Berne, a pioneer in the field of digital school librarianship during the late 1980s and early 1990s. It recognizes “Ground-breaking developments that promote student learning and success. Thomas was chosen for her design and implementation of a course and a website entitled “Information and Digital Literacy,” taught to all freshman English students at the North Dartmouth school. From left: Kathleen Ruginis, assistant principal of Academics; Thomas; and Joanne Fortier, English Department chairman.

Youth Pages

February 10, 2012

H

17

Unfinished projects

ave you looked in the mirror lately and been amazed at the person you have become? Just a few short years ago (seems like only yesterday), you were only a child. Now you’re all grown up and, hopefully, wiser, stronger, more mature and responsible. But there’s still a long way to go, with more things to do, more places to see, people to meet and a lot more growing up still to do.

The prophet Isaiah tells us, “Yet You, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand” (Is 64:8). These words should be a constant reminder that God continues to mold us and fashion us until we become the kind of people God wants us to be.

It is true that we did not have a choice coming into this world.

We came, and we are what we are.

But this is not so in the everlasting Kingdom of God. You and I enter God’s Kingdom solely by our own choice, by our own individual decisions, in response to God’s gra-

cious invitation. If I, for example, purposes and their opposites, all do not want to be there, God is alike. As to what shall be the use not going to force me into His of each vessel of either class the Kingdom. If you do not choose worker in clay is the judge” (Wis to be molded after God’s pattern, 15:7). then you will not be there either.

I have witnessed many young This very fact brings to each of us people grow from the day they a most solemn responsibility, one were baptized to their Confirmathat cannot be shifted to someone else, one that cannot be avoided or neglected without dreadful consequences. You cannot choose for me, nor can I choose for you.

By Ozzie Pacheco It is purely a personal matter. I can influence you in my choices, and you in mine, however, and we tion and beyond. Many are on can counsel each other regarding the right track, always aware that our courses of action. We can also their lives, although seemingly each point out to one another the full, still have much more to grow, possible and probable results of learn and love. But others are still our decisions. unaware of the treasure they carry The Book of Wisdom tells in their fragile vessels of clay. us, “For the potter laboriously This treasure is the loving Jesus. working the soft earth, molds for He is the treasure that allows you, our service each single article. He and all of us, to stand up and offer fashions out of the same clay both our personal testimony to the life the vessels that serve for clean of God in us, and that is grace. If

POTOMAC, Md. (CNS) — In a football season marked by amazing fourth-quarter comebacks and four overtime victories, Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow not only connected with wide receivers racing for the end zone.

Through prayer and an act of kindness, Tebow also connected with Joey Norris, a 13-year-old eighth-grader from Our Lady of Mercy School in Potomac who is battling leukemia.

This past fall, while Joey was undergoing cancer treatment at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, his dad, Jim, asked him if he had heard about “Tebowing.” It’s the prayerful gesture made famous by Tebow, who after scoring a touchdown, kneels on one leg and bows his head in prayer, with his arm resting on his bended knee and his fist touching his forehead.

Joey, an avid football fan, had earlier drafted Tebow to be the quarterback on his fantasy football team.

After seeing photos of his favorite player praying, the youngster said, “I want to do that.” And there, in his room at Children’s Hospital, Joey knelt down near his chemo pole, and his dad took a picture of him. Later, as the two were walking to their car, wondering what to call Joey’s gesture, his dad suggested, “Tebowing while Chemoing.”

Joey immediately tweeted that photo to Tebow, explaining that “I’m Tebowing while Chemoing!”

The youth added that he was a can-

cer survivor who was trusting the quarterback with his fantasy team.

Within two hours, Tebow tweeted a response back to Joey, noting that the boy’s tweet was “my favorite one of the day,” and he told him, “Praying for you and God bless you, big man!”

Jim Norris said in an interview with the Catholic Standard, Washington archdiocesan newspaper, that Joey had been “on the fourth day of a brutal five-day chemo regimen” when Tebow tweeted him back.

“By the end of the week, it wipes you out, you don’t feel well.

He hadn’t been to school all week,” Jim Norris said. “When Tim tweeted him back, all of a sudden, his eyes lit up. He had the strength to get through that week and couldn’t wait for the weekend.”

Some weeks later, the Tim Tebow Foundation invited Joey and Jim Norris to attend the Broncos’ January 1 home game vs. the Kansas City Chiefs. Joey proudly wore his No. 15 Tim Tebow jersey, and before the game at Mile High Stadium, Tebow finished his warmup tosses and sprinted over to the sideline to meet Joey.

“He gave me a great big hug, and he gave me a game ball they were throwing around in pre-game,” Joey told the Catholic Standard. The quarterback also gave him a copy of his autobiography, “Through My Eyes,” and a student Bible.

That game, however, lacked a storybook ending, as Denver lost

Be Not Afraid

Quarterback’s ups and downs ring true for teen battling cancer

7-3, and Tebow had statistically his worst game of the season.

Joey said that after the defeat, “you could see the disappointment in his eyes,” and yet Tebow still managed to smile and offer encouragement to his two young guests, talking to them for about 15 minutes and autographing Joey’s jersey, the book and the Bible he had given him.

Win or lose, Tebow “is just the nicest person, all around,” he said.

His dad agreed, saying, “He’s the real deal. He’s a caring, loving person who just happens to play football.”

Tebow’s season had its ups and downs, with exciting touchdown passes and runs, but also throws that missed their mark; thrilling victories and disappointing losses.

Joey, who has had his own struggles and triumphs in recent years during his four-year cancer battle, can relate. “He’s such an inspiration to anybody going through anything,” he said of Tebow.

The quarterback’s struggles and end-of-game heroics offer a lesson about endurance, Joey said, adding that even when bad things happen during your day, you can turn it around by the end of the day.

As he continues his cancer treatment, that message resonates with Joey. “During those days when you think you can’t go on anymore, you might lose the battle, but in the end, you’ll win the war. That’s more important than anything. Just have faith,” he said.

you are willing to choose this life of grace, then be willing to allow change in your life and echo St. Paul’s words after his conversion, “Jesus has touched my life. By His kindness, by His encouragement and by His challenge, Jesus has made all the difference in my life. I was blind and now I see. I was lost and now I’m found.” This is the way to grow so we can become the perfect vessel for the Master’s use.

In closing, I share with you one of my favorite Scripture verses that reminds me of who I am, what my place is in life and who I should strive to become every day.

It’s from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans.

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — His good, pleasing and perfect will. For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think

having fun raising funds — The seventh Annual St. Mary’s Education Fund winter brunch event took place recently at the Coonamessett Inn of Falmouth. Nearly 300 guests attended despite the snow. The non-profit St. Mary’s Education Fund provides need-based scholarships to children in need of financial assistance to attend one of the schools of the Diocese of Fall River. Last year more than 700 scholarships were awarded. Top photo, Father Arnold Medeiros, pastor of St. Elizabeth Seton Parish in North Falmouth and St. John the Evangelist Parish in Pocasset, stands with chairman Dorothy Hiltz of Mashpee. At right, David Cody and daughter Leah at the brunch. They are parishioners at St. John the Evangelist Parish.

of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.

If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully” (Rom 12:2-8).

This is humble service in the Body of Christ.

We are truly a work in progress! Only when we are whole, perfect and holy will our project be complete and then we can receive our just reward. Be patient and let God finish His project, His earthen vessel.

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

18

The Anchor

February 10, 2012

Creating cardinals: Ceremony features something old, new, borrowed, red VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Something old, something new, something borrowed and something red will be part of the mix February 18 when Pope Benedict XVI creates 22 new cardinals.

The general format of the consistory has been maintained, but the ceremony has been modified and will include the use of prayers borrowed from ancient Roman liturgies.

And, of course, red will be the color of the day as the new cardinals are reminded that they are called to give their lives to God and the Church, even to the point of shedding their blood.

Tradition and innovation, solemnity and festivity, high honor and a call to sacrifice are key parts of the creation of new cardinals.

The hushed moment when a churchman kneels before the pope and receives his red hat as a cardinal contrasts sharply with the mood in the Apostolic Palace that same evening when the public — literally anyone who wants to come — is invited in to congratulate the new cardinals.

Pope Benedict will create the new cardinals in the morning during an “ordinary public consistory” in St. Peter’s Basilica. That same evening, the Bronze Doors will open and

the public will be allowed to swarm up the­ Scala Regia — the royal stairway — and into the Apostolic Palace to meet and greet the new cardinals.

A “consistory” is a gathering of cardinals with the pope.

According to canon law, an ordinary consistory is called for consultation or for the celebration “of especially solemn acts,” such as the creation of new cardinals or a vote approving the canonization of candidates for sainthood.

And, in fact, the consistory February 18 will include both. Immediately after the new cardinals are created, all the “princes of the Church” are scheduled to vote on several new saints, including Blessed Marianne Cope of Molokai and Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, Msgr. Guido Marini, master of papal liturgical ceremonies, told Catholic News Service February 1.

Normally, the public consistory for new saints is attended by cardinals living in Rome, but the creation of new cardinals is an opportunity for all of them to exercise their role as advisers to the pope.

This will be the fourth time Pope Benedict has created new cardinals and will bring his total to 84 cardinals, of whom 79 are still alive; 63 of his appointees in the College of Car-

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dinals will be under the age of 80 and eligible to vote in a conclave to elect a new pope.

Unlike the consistories he held in 2007 and in 2010, the February ceremony will not be preceded by a daylong meeting of the pope with the College of Cardinals and the cardinalsdesignate. The Vatican did not offer an explanation, but it coincides with a variety of efforts to lighten the pope’s schedule, especially before two days of public ceremonies.

The three-cornered, red beretta the pope will place on the new cardinals’ heads is traditional, but the ceremony for the 2012 consistory has been changed.

In early January, the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, reported, “The rite used up to now has been revised and simplified with the approval of the Holy Father,” in part to avoid any impression that becoming a cardinal is a Sacrament like ordination.

But two ordinations will precede the consistory. Three of the new cardinals named by

Pope Benedict are priests, not bishops.

Church law says new cardinals must have been ordained at least to the priesthood and should be ordained bishops before entering the College of Cardinals. However, in recent decades, many of the elderly priests named to the college as a sign of esteem and gratitude for their service to the Church have requested, and received, an exemption from episcopal ordination.

Maltese Augustinian Father Prosper Grech, an 86-year-old biblical theologian and one of the co-founders of Rome’s Augustinian Patristical Institute, was scheduled to be ordained a bishop February 8 in Malta. Belgian Father Julien Ries, 91, an expert on the history of religions, told CNS he would be ordained a bishop February 11 in Belgium.

On the other hand, in keeping with the Jesuit promise not to strive for any dignity in the church, German Jesuit Father Karl Josef Becker, 83, a retired professor at Rome’s

Pontifical Gregorian University, said he would become a cardinal without becoming a bishop.

Another small change made to the consistory this year involves timing. The 22 prelates will receive their cardinals’ rings from Pope Benedict during the consistory, rather than at the Mass they will concelebrate with the pope February 19. And, as customary, during the consistory they also will receive their assignments of a “titular Church” in Rome, making them formally members of the Rome diocesan clergy, which is what the Church’s first cardinals were.

Once the new cardinals are created, the College of Cardinals will have a recordhigh number of members.

The total number of princes of the Church will reach 213, surpassing the total of 203 reached with the consistory in 2010. As recently as 2001, the total number of cardinals dipped to 139 just before Pope John Paul II named a record 44 cardinals at once.

Teen sex trends reveal misunderstanding of authentic love continued from page one

pressured, threatened, coerced or forced. Those who viewed pornography were five times more likely to engage in group sex.

A separate analysis of data provided in the U.S. National Survey of Family Growth found a 120 percent increase in samesex sexual contact among 17 year-old females from data collected in 2002 and data collected in 2006-2008. The same group reported a decline in the number who were heterosexually active, which went from 63 percent to 46 percent.

Kristian Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, told The Anchor, “We are very concerned about the continuing erosion of sexual standards in our culture. It’s obvious that the media, particularly what comes out of Hollywood and television productions plays a tremendous role as does the Internet, the availability of pornography and the teenage craze of sexting. It’s all led to this bizarro attitude toward sex that anything goes.”

He called the trends a “deepseated spiritual problem” that has a tremendous impact on the culture.

“We, as a culture, and even in our churches don’t have a healthy understanding of human sexuality

by God’s standards. Too often we view them as old-fashioned and irrelevant, and they’re not. We are reaping what we sowed as a cul-

ture,” he said.

Mineau added that parents need to monitor their children’s online activity. MFI hosts a free guide to Internet filters and other precautions parents can take to shield their children from inappropriate content that could be, and often is, stumbled upon by accident.

“Today, children cruising the web without a filter is like putting them out in the jungle and hoping they don’t run into any lions or pythons,” he said. “Parental involvement is more critical now than ever.

We can’t assume that our children, particularly with smartphones, are using them wisely.”

Chastity.com, the website for Catholic chastity speaker Jason Evert’s Pure Love Club, declares that parents are the primary sex educators of their children and the most powerful influence in the life of their teens.

The site provides advice for teens in how to live chastely, letting them know that this virtue leads to a healthy view of human sexuality.

It recommends that young people set firm boundaries regarding intimate behavior.

“The virtue of purity is not first a ‘no’ to illicit sex, but a ‘yes’ to authentic love. It is not a prolonged series of noes but a continual ‘yes’ to Jesus,” the site says. “Pray often for the grace to be pure and to avoid temptations.”

Father David Frederici, chap-

lain at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, said the biggest issue he hears from students on campus is the availability of pornography. Father Frederici also serves at Cape Cod Community College.

With the availability of mobile Internet, pornography is easily accessible from anywhere and although its effects are devastating, it has been normalized by the culture, he said.

For students seeking help, Father Frederici recommends speaking with a counselor and looking at the issues that triggered the addictive viewing of pornography.

Spiritually, they should seek God’s forgiveness in Confession.

He predicts that the new forms of technology will continue to be a big part of young people’s lives but said that how they handle the media seems to be improving. Students seem to better understand that online communications are public. They are setting higher privacy settings and are warned about the dangers of sexting.

“The fallacy of this is that you can do things privately online.

There is nothing that you do on a computer that is private,” he said.

“Every communication has your identity all over it. You don’t have to be in the FBI, hacking a computer with all these special codes.

It’s pretty easy for people to find that.”

February 10, 2012

Eucharistic Adoration in the Diocese

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

ATTLEBORO — The National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette holds eucharistic adoration in the Shrine Church every Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m. until February 10, 2012, and from January 7 to November 17, 2012.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Sacrament of Reconciliation is available at this time.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

19

The Anchor

Richer orders should share with poorer religious, says Vatican prefect

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Wealthier religious orders should share their resources with struggling religious communities, said the prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

Cardinal-designate Joao Braz de Aviz said that while religious men and women live a life of poverty and possess nothing, their religious “institution doesn’t always give the same witness.”

“It’s not that we are against holding assets or are saying the Church cannot have all the things it needs,” he said in an interview with the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, February 2.

He said the question is rather, why aren’t resources being shared among different religious institutes?

One example, the Brazilian prelate said, would be a religious order that has significant financial assets earmarked for caring for and supporting its members in their old age.

He asked whether this was the true aim of such funds and whether the money could be given to help another institute that was struggling or in need.

“Why don’t we know how to say, ‘We will put our assets at the disposal of many others’?” he asked.

The cardinal-designate said he thinks people do not believe enough in God’s providence —that

In Your Prayers Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks Feb. 11 Rev. John O’Connell, Founder, St. John Evangelist, Attleboro, 1910 Rev. John J. Sullivan, S.T.L., Retired Pastor, Holy Rosary, Fall River, 1961 Rev. William J. McMahon, Retired Pastor, St. Joan of Arc, Orleans, 1987 Feb. 12 Rev. Stanislaus B. Albert, SS.CC, Retired Founder, Our Lady of Assumption, New Bedford, 1961 Feb. 14 Rev. Charles E. Clerk, Pastor, St. Roch, Fall River, 1932 Rev. Msgr. Francis McKeon, Retired Pastor, Sacred Heart, Taunton, 1980 Feb. 15 Rev. Joseph G. Lavalle, Pastor, St. Mathieu, Fall River, 1910 Rev. James C. Conlon, Pastor, St. Mary, Norton, 1957 Feb. 16 Rev. Alphonse J. LaChapelle, Assistant, Holy Ghost, Attleboro, 1983 Rev. Joaquim Fernandes da Silva, CM, 2001 Feb. 17 Rev. Louis R. Boivin, Retired, Cardinal Medeiros Residence, Former Pastor, St. Theresa, Attleboro, 2010

the Lord will provide.

“We’ve taken on a consumerist point of view a bit,” he said, noting how sometimes he has had to help communities overcome divisions over the institution’s assets and how he has found attitudes that were “not correct.”

He said the Vatican congregation he heads was looking into a

phenomenon common in the United States, Canada and Australia where many religious “are organizing themselves in ‘corporations’” in order to have “more security, efficiency and cost-savings,” he said.

“We are tracking this phenomenon, but we still don’t know well how it will evolve because it is something new,” he said.

Around the Diocese 2/10

The diocesan Pro-Life Apostolate is sponsoring its annual essay contest to focus on the upcoming 40th anniversary date of Roe v.

Wade and Doe v. Bolton. The theme this year is “I came so that all might have life and have it to the full!” The deadline for submissions is today. For more information, contact your parish office or call 508-675-1311.

2/10

In honor of World Sick Day (February 11, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes) a special Healing Mass will be celebrated today at St. Jude the Apostle Church, 249 Whittenton Street in Taunton.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation will be available from 5 to 6 p.m. Rosary will begin at 5:30 p.m. with Mass starting at 6 p.m., with the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick within the Mass. For information call 508-824-3330.

2/10

The Sacred Heart Retreat/Spirituality Center and the diocesan Office of Faith Formation will be sponsoring two retreats, one for men and one for women. “Walking on Water — With Feet of Clay” will be guided by Father Stan Kolasa, SS.CC., and Deacon Bruce Bonneau at the Sacred Hearts Retreat Center in Wareham. The men’s retreat will be held on the weekend of February 10-12. The women’s retreat will be held on the weekend of February 17-19. For more information, call the retreat center at 508-295-0100 or visit www.fallriverfaithformation.org.

2/11

Courage, a welcoming support group for Catholics wounded by same-sex attraction who gather to seek God’s wisdom, mercy and love, will next meet tomorrow at 7 p.m. For location and more information, call Father Richard Wilson at 508-992-9408.

2/14

The next meeting of the Catholic Cancer Support Group will be at Our Lady of Victory Parish, Centerville, on February 14 beginning with Mass and Anointing of the Sick at 6 p.m. in the church. Following Mass the group will go to the Parish Center where the speaker will be Father Mark Hession. For more information call Mary Lees at 508-771-1106 or email maryplees@comcast.net.

2/16

Father Roger J. Landry will be speaking on “Conscience in the Public Square” at a Theology on Tap, February 16 at 7 p.m. at the Wine & Cheese Restaurant, 1861 Smith Street, North Providence, R.I. All young adults are welcome.

2/23

A Healing Mass will be celebrated at St. Anne’s Church, 818 Middle Street, Fall River on February 23. Rosary will begin at 6 p.m. with Benediction and healing prayers after Mass. For more information call 508-674-5651.

2/27

St. Louis de France Parish, 56 Buffington Street, Swansea, will host weekly Centering Prayer gatherings using the Lectio Divina format. The group will meet in the family room of the main church and gather at 6:15 p.m. every Thursday in Lent beginning February 27 through May 21 (except April 23 and 30 due to school scheduling). Prayer beings promptly at 6:30 p.m. For more information email forums4ami@gmail.com or call 508-264-5823.

2/29

A screening of the “Catholicism” series will be held weekly at the Father Peyton Center, Holy Cross Family Ministries, 518 Washington Street, North Easton, on Wednesday from February 29 through March 28 from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Each one-hour segment will be shown followed by discussion. This amazing program, which is airing on public television, illuminates what Catholics believe and why, while immersing in the art, architecture, literature, music and all the riches of the Catholic tradition. For more information about this series, visit www.catholicismseries.com. For more information about events at the Father Peyton Center, visit www.familyrosary. org/events or call 508-238-4095.

3/3

On March 3, Good Shepherd Parish in Fall River will host an International Buffet and Dance at the Liberal Club located at 20 Star Street in Fall River from 5:30 p.m. until 11 p.m. Buffet items will include American, Portuguese and Italian plus more. Music will be provided by the 5-A-Live Band and Portuguese music to be announced. Tickets can be obtained by calling the rectory at 508-678-7412 or visiting www.gsfallriver.com for more information.

3/3

A Day With Mary will take place on March 3 from 7:50 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, New Bedford. It will include a video presentation, procession and crowning of the Blessed Mother along with Mass, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and an opportunity for reconciliation. There is a bookstore available during breaks. For more information call 508-996-8274.

20

The Anchor

By Becky Aubut Anchor Staff

BOSTON — When Andreas Widmer joined the Swiss Guard in 1986, he was the youngest of six children and looking for a way to define himself outside of his siblings’ shadows. He did that and more, learning from Pope John Paul II life lessons that he recounts in his book, “The Pope and the CEO.” “I had a feeling of not knowing what life was all about.

Why am I here? What am I doing? I covered that up with a lot of physical activity and being tough, if you will,” said Widmer.

“I wasn’t really into school and things; I just had to find myself.”

His youthful exuberance led him to the Swiss Guard recruiting office because “being a bodyguard was about the coolest thing I could imagine,” said Widmer. “This fit right in with my image of being a tough guy and all, so I signed up and they took me.”

The Switzerland native went from a village of 400 people to landing on the bustling streets in the city of Rome. The Swiss Guard is run in full military

February 10, 2012

John Paul II and the vocation of work

style, right down to sleeping in barracks and early morning roll calls. Guard duties begin as protecting certain areas or acting as a sentinel; during his two years there, said Widmer, he never stopped learning.

Christmas Eve found Widmer standing in line to call home and after speaking with his father, his homesickness set in when his mother got on the phone. Overcome with emotion and not wanting to cry in front of the other guards, Widmer quickly wished his mother well and hung up.

Later that evening, Widmer was assigned to a little room locked on both sides, located right outside the pope’s apartment.

“And in there, this whole overwhelming feeling that at 20, life is beginning; it all came out,” he recalled, as the thoughts came pouring in. “I have no clue. I’m not ready for this. I find myself in this big city and I have no idea what I’m doing here. I was just totally lost.

“I was also spiritually lost.

You don’t know it at the time, but there is a feeling in you that longs for something and you try to quench it with all kinds of

things but it doesn’t quench; and of course, that is your longing for God. Young people often try to quench it with all kinds of things, but not with God.” As Widmer tried to get his emotions under control, a door opened and “this warm light floods in from the pope’s apartment and he is standing in the doorway,” recalled Widmer.

Pope John Paul II went towards Widmer, noting that the young guard was new and asked him his name. As John Paul drew closer, Widmer said the pope reached for his hand and as he did so, the pope “looked into my eyes and immediately noticed my red eyes. He didn’t ask any questions.”

Instead the pope said he recognized that this was Widmer’s first Christmas from home, which elicited a fresh onslaught of tears from Widmer; “He just pulled me close and [said], ‘Thank you for what you are doing for the Church tonight. Thank you for your sacrifice. I’m going to pray for you.’”

The pope left, leaving Widmer at his post but that momentary interaction “changed everything.

It just changed everything,” said Widmer.

As he continued to work as a Swiss Guard, Widmer began to see the pope through new eyes, “This is somebody who lives fully. He could be funny or sad or happy; he could pray and play and work hard. He was a real man and when I saw that, my reaction was, ‘Whatever that guy has, that’s what I want.’”

Widmer turned to prayer and began to nurture a more personal relationship with Christ. He thought about becoming a priest but found his calling when he met a young woman from America. He eventually moved to America, married and immersed himself in business and entrepreneurship-type ventures. For the next 10 years, Widmer said he “lived to work in the financial sense” but after experiencing many ups-and-downs, he began to try to figure out the spiritual meaning to his work.

His “wake-up call” came in the form of losing a company to an “immoral person” that made Widmer wonder if there was more to life that just a complete focus on making money. Instead

of lashing out, Widmer looked within and found peace in what he learned from his days as a Swiss Guard and his experiences with John Paul II. “When I work, I don’t just make more, I become more. I’m called to become a co-creator with God to make something out of nothing,” said Widmer.

“In marriage you can create a child out of nothing, and even the biological contributions of the parents isn’t enough to bring the ever-living soul into it. God has created it. It’s the same thing when we started a company and we create software; we create something out of nothing from our human ingenuity. It is done in a positive sense, to help God finish creation.

“God is inviting us into the creation. When you start to look at work like that, it has a different meaning and responsibility. I want to say that this is not just for engineers or chemists, for someone who invents the cure for a headache. This is true for a janitor. This is true for those who work manual tasks. This is especially true for those who are Turn to page 14

HIS HOLY TOUCH — Andreas Widmer said his time guarding the late Pope John Paul II taught him not only to embrace his Catholic faith but also to embrace life itself. (CNS file photo)