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Diocese of Fall River, Mass.

F riday , February 13, 2015

Ash Wednesday: A symbol of renewal

By Becky Aubut Anchor Staff

MATTAPOISETT — Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent with Ash Wednesday, continuing an observance that began sometime around the early Middle Ages; a practice that became an official Liturgy in the 13th century that leads Christians into the 40-day season of Lent, a season of fasting, reflection and penance culminating in Easter Sunday.

According to “The History and Meaning of Ash Wednesday” by Dr. Richard P. Bucher, Ash Wednesday, originally called dies cinerum (day of ashes), is mentioned in the earliest copies of the “Gregorian Sacramentary,” and probably dates from at least the eighth century. One of the earliest descriptions of Ash Wednesday is found in the writings of

the Anglo-Saxon abbot Aelfric (955-1020). In his “Lives of the Saints,” he writes, “We read in the books both in the Old Law and in the New that the men who repented of their sins bestrewed themselves with ashes and clothed their bodies with sackcloth. Now let us do this little at the beginning of our Lent that we strew ashes upon our heads to signify that we ought to repent of our sins during the Lenten fast.” Aelfric then proceeds to tell the tale of a man who refused to go to church for the ashes and was accidentally killed several days later in a boar hunt. This quotation confirms what is known from other sources that throughout the Middle Ages ashes were sprinkled on the head, rather than anointed on the forehead as is currently done.

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Hundreds of students and faculty members from Fall River area Catholic schools braved snow-filled streets to fill St. Anne’s Church last week, where Fall River Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, S.D.V., celebrated a Mass with them. (Photo by Kenneth J. Souza)

Bishop extols game plan for success to Fall River students

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

The three Pillars of Lent

FALL RIVER — Back-toback snowstorms during Catholic Schools Week in the diocese forced the postponing of a planned Mass celebration at St. Anne’s Church with the six schools in the Fall River Deanery to a week later, on February 4.

Despite the rescheduling — and probably because they just had several unanticipated

“snow days” off — students from Bishop Connolly High School, Espirito Santo School, St. Michael School, St. Stanislaus School, Holy Trinity School and Holy Name School all turned out in full force for a Liturgy that was celebrated

by Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, S.D.V. Packing the pews of the main church, located upstairs from the venerable shrine on Middle Street, the more than

1,300 students from each school could be readily identified by their unique uniforms while similarly-colorful namesake banners that were carried in during the opening procession flanked either side of the altar.

Taking on the role of teacher, Bishop da Cunha began his homily, appropriately enough, by quizzing the students.

“I’d like to begin by asking Turn to page 14

Faithful urged to focus on ‘Jesus Light of Life’ at Lenten retreat series

By Linda Andrade Rodrigues Anchor Correspondent

ATTLEBORO — Lenten retreats offer us uninterrupted time to think seriously about Jesus and renew our faith from the inside out.

New to the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette this year is a Lenten retreat series focused on the theme: “Jesus Light of Life.”

“The coldness of the dark is driven away by the warmth of the sun, and in the darkness new light dawns,” said Sister Mary Margaret Souza, S.S.D. “Light enables us to see the way, to distinguish differences,

to enjoy beauty, to appreciate life. Jesus emphatically refers to Himself as the Light of the World. It was through His Incarnation that new life and new light burst forth into the darkness of the world.”

Retreat sessions will be held on the six Lenten Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Welcome Center. Prayer and reflective discussion will highlight each day, as well as the opportunity for Reconciliation.

All are welcome to attend one, several or all six sessions.

“This is an occasion to be exposed to the Word of God as we approach the period of

Lent, which is one of the most important Liturgically,” said Father Flavio Gillio, M.S. “It is also an opportunity to share with other people who are on a similar journey. It will be very enriching and very encouraging.”

The series will begin on February 21 with a presentation by Father Andre Patenaude, M.S., who is known worldwide for his joyful expression of his faith through music. Music ministry has been part of Father Pat’s life since his childhood in Fall River, through his first priestly assignment on Cape Cod, to his decades of providing mu-

sic for the pilgrims at the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette. As always, he will uniquely combine his music and message for Lenten visitors.

Father Gillio, who serves as assistant director of the shrine, will be retreat leader on February 28. A Scripture scholar, he taught Scripture and Judaism as a member of the Pontifical Theological Faculty of Southern Italy in Naples, as well as for eight years in Israel. A native of Italy, he has, in recent years, served in parish ministry and led missions and Scripture discussions in the United

States.

“Basically what I will do is propose a couple of Biblical texts,” said Father Gillio, who will teach the monastic practice of Lectio Divina, seeking the presence of God through reading, meditation, prayer and contemplation.

Offering the presentation on March 7 will be Sister Souza who joined the La Salette Retreat House staff this year. A Sister of St. Dorothy, she is an experienced educator, pastoral counselor and spiritual director and has served as a teacher and principal on the elementary and Turn to page 18

News From the Vatican

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February 13, 2015

Bishops’ accountability is key concern for pope’s child protection commission

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Bishops who do not comply with the child protection norms adopted by their bishops’ conferences and approved by the Vatican must face real consequences, said Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston, OFM, Cap., president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

The commission, he said, “is very, very concerned about this whole area of (bishops’) accountability” and has a working group drawing up recommendations for Pope Francis.

The proposed new norms, the cardinal told reporters at the Vatican, “would allow the Church to respond in an expeditious way when a bishop has not fulfilled his obligations.”

“We think we have come up with some very practical recommendations that would help to remedy the situation that is such a source of anxiety to everybody” on the pontifical commission, he said. The recommendations will be presented to Pope Francis.

The cardinal and members of the commission, which includes survivors of clerical sex abuse, spoke to reporters at the end of their recent meeting at the Vatican.

Peter Saunders, a survivor and commission member, said, “Bishop accountability

is most definitely something accountable only to the pope ops’ conferences have sent the that is a concern and central and there is no procedure for Vatican their child-protection to some of the work that is investigating the way a bishop norms, as requested in 2011 going to be carried out by the complies with the norms and by the Congregation for the commission.” nothing that spells out the Doctrine of the Faith.

Saunders, who is from consequences of non-compliSome of the norms are London, said he knows the ance. “weak,” he said, and the comVatican and the Church at “Until now every bishop mission will work with those large “operate in a slightly dif- has been a little pope” in his countries and countries withferent time dimension” where diocese and “can do whatever out norms to bring them to the definition of “quick” may he wants” with regard to na- full compliance. be months or years.

Father Zollner said only tional guidelines, Father Zoll“I get that,” Saunfive of the world’s 112 ders said, “but when t is not disputed that there have bishops’ conferences it comes to time, have not submitted been far too many cover-ups, there norms. All five are children only get one have been far too many clergy protected, in French-speaking stab at childhood.”

“It is not disputed moved from place to place — this has got to West Africa and are that there have been be consigned to history very quickly,” sur- facing the challenges far too many cover- vivor Peter Saunders said. of civil strife, the Ebups, there have been ola epidemic, poverty far too many clergy and a lack of people protected, moved from place ner said. “Only the pope has familiar with canon and civil to place — this has got to authority over him.” law, something necessary for be consigned to history very Saunders told reporters drawing up effective guidequickly,” he said. that if in the next year there lines.

Jesuit Father Hans Zollner, is not “firm action” on acCardinal O’Malley publicly a psychologist and member countability and the imple- thanked Pope Francis for a of the commission, said, “as mentation of child-protection letter, released February 5, infar as we know,” the num- policies around the world, he sisting that the protection of ber of bishops who have not would leave the commission. children — and not the avoidfollowed their conference’s Marie Collins, an Irish survi- ance of scandal or bad publicchild-protection norms is not vor of clerical abuse, who was ity — must be the priority for large, “but it is certainly a huge appointed to the commission the way all bishops deal with problem in terms of publicity about eight months before accusations of sex abuse by and in terms of the authentic- Saunders, told reporters she Church personnel. ity of the Church. If you have also would leave if no progress The pope’s letter also enbishops who do not comply is seen soon. couraged bishops to meet with the Church’s own norms, “We’re not here for lip ser- with and listen to survivors, we have a problem.” vice,” Saunders said, but to which is something Cardinal Currently, he said, even protect children.

O’Malley said “many bishops though bishops are part of a Cardinal O’Malley said 96 have not yet done.” bishops’ conference, they are percent of the world’s bishSaunders told reporters,

“I

“There are far too many bishops around the world who have refused to meet with survivors.”

If a victim of clerical sexual abuse feels able, he said, the first thing he or she should do is report the crime to police “because we know there is an abysmal record” of “ill-judged responses” from bishops and priests.

Cardinal O’Malley said the commission also has set up working groups to design child protection workshops for members of the Roman Curia and for the courses for newly-appointed bishops that the Vatican runs each September.

“The commission is also preparing materials for a Day of Prayer for all those who have been harmed by sexual abuse,” he said, which “underscores our responsibility to work for spiritual healing and also helps raise consciousness among the Catholic community about the scourge of child abuse.”

In addition, he said, commission members are contacting Catholic funding organizations “to ask them to include some requirements concerning child protection in their guidelines for eligibility for funding” and to consider giving poorer countries grants to establish child protection programs.

Society’s dire need for the ‘female soul’ — Pope Francis speaks to women

Vatican CitY (CNA/ EWTN News) — Pope Francis has advocated for the widespread participation of women in all levels of the Church and society, saying that their unique gifts enrich both their families — as well as the public sphere.

“A more widespread and incisive female presence in the community is desirable, so that we can see many women involved in pastoral responsibilities, in the accompaniment of persons, families and groups, as well as in theological reflection,” the pope said.

He encouraged women to make contributions in various social, cultural and economic structures, including education, pastoral activities, teaching the faith and within their own families.

Speaking to women directly, the pope said they know “how to show the ten-

der face of God, His mercy, which translates in the availability to give time more than to occupy spaces, to welcome rather than to exclude.”

“In this sense, I like to describe the feminine dimension of the Church as a welcoming womb that regenerates life.”

Pope Francis’ address was directed to participants in the Pontifical Council for Culture’s annual plenary assembly in Rome. Held February 4-7, this year’s gathering discussed the theme “Women’s Culture: Equality and Difference.”

The topic, which is “very close” to the pope’s heart, consists of finding and studying new criteria, so that women don’t feel like “guests,” but rather “full participants in the various areas of social and ecclesial life.”

This is a challenge, he said, “that can no longer be postponed.”

Alongside his endorsement for the advancement of women in society, Francis also cautioned that “we cannot forget the irreplaceable role of women in the family.”

“The qualities of gentleness, of particular sensitivity and tenderness, which is abundant in the female soul, represent not only a genuine force for the life of families, for the irradiation of a climate of peace and harmony, but also a reality without which the human vocation would be unfeasible,” he said.

Pope Francis encouraged the participation of women in the working field as well as in positions where important decisions are made, saying these roles should serve to uphold women’s special presence and attention in and for their families.

Headed by Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, the culture council organized the

plenary as a review of various analysis on current challenges women face in society and in the Church, which were prepared by a panel of female consultants.

In his speech to participants, Pope Francis said that Western societies have “left behind” the social subordination of women to men, although some negative effects still remain. Another societal model which presents men and women as absolute equals has also changed.

What has emerged instead is “a new paradigm — that of reciprocity and in equivalence and in difference.”

“The man-woman relationship, therefore, should recognize that both are necessary in that they possess, yes, an identical nature, but with their own modality. One is necessary to the other, and vice versa, so as to truly fulfill the fullness of the person.”

On the topic of the feminine body, which the plenary’s working document noted is often subject to manipulation and violence, the pope said that it is a symbol of life, and lamented the many ways it is often “disfigured, even by those who should be guardians and companions in life.”

“The many forms of slavery, of commodification, of mutilation of women’s bodies, oblige us therefore to work to defeat this form of degradation, which reduces (a woman’s body) to a mere object to sell on various markets,” he said.

Francis closed his speech by encouraging participants to work hard in carrying out the commitments they made during the plenary discussion, and entrusted their efforts the Virgin Mary, who is a “sublime and concrete example as a woman and mother.”

February 13, 2015

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The International Church

Arabs make gains in joining Israel’s high-growth, high-tech industries

NAZARETH, Israel (CNS) — After sending hundreds of resumes to Israeli high-tech companies for more than two months and getting no invites for interviews, computer science engineer Joseph Karkaby changed two things.

The 34-year-old Catholic resident of the Israeli Arab village of Shfaram fibbed and changed his place of residence to the mixed Jewish-Arab city of Haifa and deleted the fact that he spoke Arabic.

“Within three weeks I had three contracts to choose from,” said Karkaby, who now works as a software team leader at Galil Software, a joint Arab-Jewishrun company. With a name that could also be considered Jewish, the fact that Karkaby was Arab became apparent once he met the interviewers in person, but he needed the opportunity for the prospective employers to take note of his talent.

Karkaby does not lay the blame on outright racism. People simply like to work with those who are similar to them, he said.

“The main problem is people not knowing each other,” he said. “There is the natural fear of the unknown.”

Karkaby’s situation is hardly unique. Hundreds of talented young Arabs with high-tech and business degrees struggle to find work in Israel, even as the country has been branded the Startup Nation with the

high-tech industry leading the way, said Fadi Swidan, a Catholic who directs the Nazareth Business Incubator Center.

Many Arab engineering and computer graduates in Israel end up being underemployed in jobs ranging from teaching to storekeepers.

While Arab doctors, nurses and pharmacists are quite prevalent in the Israeli medical system, at the time Karkaby began his job search in 2009, there were only 350 Arab engineers holding high-tech jobs. By the end of 2014, the numbers had increased fourfold, according to Tsofen High Technology Centers in Nazareth, which works to integrate Arabs into Israel’s high-tech sector.

Although Arabs make up 30 percent of Israel’s population, they account for only one percent of those working in hightech jobs.

“Arab-owned businesses are lagging behind in two main areas: finance and high-tech,” Swidan said. “We have to change the mindset. We have to show we are qualified and as good entrepreneurs as any they face. Although we are in Nazareth we can still be part of the Startup Nation.”

Swidan identified two major hurdles facing most Arab entrepreneurs and high-tech professionals: living far from the high-tech hub in the center of the country and a lack of professional connections with

Jewish Israeli counterparts because they are not subject to military service, where they can serve with elite technical units and be in contact high-tech recruiters searching for new candidates.

The Nazareth Business Incubator Center, launched in 2014 with support from Israel’s Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor and its Authority for the Economic Development of the Arab, Druze and Circassian Sectors, assists high-tech entrepreneurs to overcome such barriers with business consulting, training, networking, launch nights and links to mentors and financing channels to which they previously not had access.

Much of the center’s work involves changing Arab perception of entrepreneurship and risk taking, Swidan explained.

Imad and Reem Younis, a Catholic husband-and-wife duo, were the first Arabs in Israel to break into the high-tech scene by starting their own company in 1993. Reem said they founded Alpha-Omega in Nazareth precisely to combat those perceptions in their community.

Today their team of 65 Jewish and Arab employees in offices in Nazareth, Germany and the United States provide neuroscience medical and research equipment to some 500 domestic and international customers.

“We wanted to return to

UNITED NATIONS (CNS) — The plight of women and girls living in conflict zones who often are targeted for violence, including rape, must be addressed without delay, said an official with the Holy See’s Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations.

Msgr. Janusz Urbanczyk, charge d’affaires at the mission, called upon the U.N. Security Council to identify programs “to eradicate this scourge,” in an intervention January 30 as the council discussed challenges to the protection of women and girls in armed conflict and postconflict settings.

Citing Catholic social teaching on human dignity, Msgr.

Urbanczyk said all violence is an affront to that dignity, but that women and girls are particularly vulnerable when violence arises.

He said sexual violence against women “tears at the very fabric of society.”

The Vatican official recalled the words of Pope Francis, who

told members of the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See in an address January 12 that humanity must not overlook the fact that wars involve the crime of rape, which the pope described as “a most grave offense against the dignity of women, who are not only violated in body but also in Spirit.”

Msgr. Urbanczyk also pointed to violence perpetrated against women and girls because of their faith.

The Vatican’s U.N. delegation “remains concerned about the continued lack of attention and priority to the protection of women and girls who are targeted and attacked purely because of the faith they profess,” he said.

“The lack of focus and priority for protecting them is troubling when Christians face extinction in some regions of the world and in other regions Christian schools for girls are targeted and attacked.

“This is a shared reality of members of all faiths and there-

fore requires the shared commitment of members of all faiths and governments to condemn and confront such violence,” Msgr.

Urbanczyk said.

The kidnapping of girls is of particular concern, he added, because they are often trafficked for sex or labor around the world.

“This is an abominable trade that must come to an end. This scourge must be eradicated since it strikes all of us, from the individual families to the entire international community,” he said.

Msgr. Urbanczyk called upon world leaders to “reject the ‘culture of enslavement,’ which is incapable of doing good or pursuing peace and accepts as inevitable the spread of war and violence.”

“We must redouble our efforts to replace this ‘culture’ with a Culture of Life and peace in which governments and the international community fulfill their fundamental responsibility to protect all people,” he said.

Vatican urges U.N. to act to protect women, girls in conflict zones

Nazareth to create a company that would employ Arabs,” said Reem Younis, explaining why the couple had left their positions in Haifa.

She said neither she nor her husband encountered discrimination or difficulties other than learning how to run their own business.

“People respect us, and we are very proud of our organization,” she said.

With their headquarters in the new Tefen Industrial Park in Nazareth, the Younises see Alpha-Omega as a magnet for other high-tech companies to open offices in Israel’s largest Arab city.

Reem Younis said she hopes their programs will serve as an incubator for young people to gain experience and branch out and perhaps open their own companies.

“I have a responsibility to create change. Yes, there are things the city can do and things the Israeli government should do, but I as a person who lives in Israel have to make a difference too,” she said.

“I think Imad and I are role models for younger people to realize that they can make a change, that they can dare go out and do things that haven’t been done before.”

Such efforts are expected to ease poverty in Israel, which stands at 51 percent in the Arab economy and 19 percent in the Jewish sector, according to Tsofen statistics. Sami Saadi, an Arab and co-founder

of Tsofen, called the limited integration of Arab employes in the high-tech sector a “major market failure.”

He said that bringing hightech opportunities into the Arab community has opened doors for Arab women, who traditionally tend to work near their homes.

Today about 30 percent of high-tech workers in Nazareth are women, he said, and 100 percent of Tsofen’s female graduates are able to get jobs near their homes.

At Galil Software, where Karkaby works, CEO Dror Gonen is one of two Jewish managers; the other seven are Arab. Gonen said enlarging the employment base in the hightech industry is a “social good,” but the company is not out to be philanthropic in its hiring because it must remain competitive to stay successful.

“We wanted to begin a business and started absorbing Arab talent. Today we service about 15 companies in Israel and employ 150 people,” Gonen said.

Several of the employees are women who began their careers as teachers because they were unable to find jobs in their field after having studied technical subjects in college.

Recruiters and headhunters are now making offers to the company’s employees, noted Karkaby, who said he also is getting other job offers when a few years ago he could not get his foot in the door anywhere.

The Church in the U.S.

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February 13, 2015

Could two new laws suffocate the Catholic Church in D.C.?

Washington D.C. (CNA/EWTN News) — The U.S. bishops and several other Catholic and Pro-Life groups are asking Congress to nullify two new Washington, D.C. laws that they say could choke their ability to operate according to their religious beliefs.

The legislation amounts to “unprecedented assaults upon our organizations,” the coalition of groups stated in a letter to all members of Congress. “Both laws violate the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of association protected by the First Amendment and other federal law.”

After a bill is signed into law by the D.C. mayor, Congress reviews the law and can choose to overturn it. The president must honor the disapproval for the bill to be nullified. If no such approval occurs, the bill officially becomes law.

The signatories asked Congress to overturn the Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Act of 2014 and the Human Rights Amendment Act of 2014.

Both unanimously passed the city council and were recently signed into law by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser.

If not nullified, the laws would affect employers including religious charitable, medical and educational institutions and ProLife groups.

The Human Rights Amendment Act overturned a decadesold exemption for religious schools and now compels them to recognize groups or persons that directly contradict their mission.

Catholic University’s general counsel Lawrence Morris explained to CNA that the bill “could force us into decisions regarding personnel or student

life that would contradict such [Catholic Church] teaching.”

For example, the university could have to officially recognize student groups that are fundamentally opposed to the teachings of the Catholic Church on matters of homosexual behavior.

The Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Act prohibits employers from hiring or firing employees based on their “reproductive health” decisions, such as abortion, sterilization, artificial contraception or in vitro fertilization.

Critics have warned that under the act, a Catholic school might have to retain a teacher who is openly opposed the Catholic mission of the school and violate Church teaching. A Pro-Life group could be forced to retain an employee who was openly proabortion and contradicted its ProLife mission.

Morris explained that the bill could prevent Catholic University “from taking action regarding employee conduct under certain circumstances.”

In addition, institutions could be required to cover contraceptives or abortions in their employee health plans. Morris said that the university could have to “provide coverage for drugs or procedures that violate our faith.”

In their letter to Congress, the coalition of concerned groups echoed the fear that the bill could be interpreted “to require our organizations to subsidize elective abortions through their employee health plans.”

Since signing the bill, Mayor Bowser has introduced legislation clarifying that it says nothing about insurance coverage.

“Defending this law would be a waste of federal and local taxpayer funds,” the groups said.

“The law plainly violates the First Amendment, the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, and possibly other federal laws and clearly contradicts the Supreme Court’s recent, unanimous ruling in HosannaTabor Evangelical Church and School v. EEOC,” they stated.

In the 2012 Hosanna-Tabor decision, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the federal government could not intervene in a religious institution’s hiring and firing decisions of ministers, even if those decisions were not made for religious reasons.

The letter’s signatories included John Garvey, president of The Catholic University of America; Cynthia DeSimone Weiler, chancellor for the Archdiocese of Washington; Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus; Dr. Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention; and Anthony R. Picarello, Jr., general counsel for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Also signing the letter were representatives of the Alliance Defending Freedom, the Archdiocese of the Military Services

USA, the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, and the National Organization for Marriage.

Speaking for Catholic University, Morris told CNA that “we do not expect to initiate a lawsuit over the new legislation, as we do not consider the laws to require us to do anything that contravenes our First Amendment freedoms.”

“But we will vigorously defend ourselves, relying both on the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, in the event that a party brings an action against us grounded on the council’s legislation,” he added.

Catholic college students urge Congress to back immigration policies

WASHINGTON (CNS) — More than two dozen undocumented students at Catholic colleges sent a letter February 5 to 79 members of Congress who graduated from Catholic colleges and universities, urging them not to cut off funding for the president’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA. “We ask you, as a fellow alumnus of a Catholic higher education institution, to refrain from taking legislative actions that fail to recognize our humanity,” the letter said.

“There is an alternative. Enable us, successful students and valued members of the United States workforce, with the opportunity to continue to serve our community, country, and the world as we have been taught to do so by our Catholic education,” it said.

The U.S. Senate is currently debating a Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill, approved by the House in mid-January, with an amendment to revoke the DACA program.

DACA, created by President Barack Obama in 2012, provides undocumented students with

relief from deportation and the authorization to work but does not confer citizenship or provide access to federal aid. In late November Obama expanded the program to parents of U.S. citizens or green-card holders who have lived in the U.S. for at least five years. It is known as DAPA, for Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents.

The students’ letter pointed out to members of Congress that they had the luxury to “go to school, and work in the country you considered home without the constant fear of deportation.”

“Each one of us is undocumented” and benefits from the DACA program, the students wrote, adding that the program has “given us hope, allowing us to study at Catholic colleges and universities, and an opportunity to contribute to the country that we call home.”

“For those of us who have graduated, we are now better prepared to actively engage in our communities and add to our country’s economy,” the students said, adding that “as adults we seek nothing but the chance to contribute to the country that we

have called home for most of our lives.”

The students represent 11 Catholic universities, including Georgetown University in Washington; Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash.; Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles; Loyola University Chicago; Marquette University in Milwaukee; St. Peter’s University in Jersey City, N.J.; Santa Clara University in California; Seattle University; University of Detroit-Mercy; University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind.; and the University of San Francisco.

The letter was organized by the Ignatian Solidarity Network in partnership with undocumented students and alumni and partners at Catholic colleges and universities.

In November 2014, the U.S. Jesuit Conference released a statement showing general support for the Obama Administration’s executive action announcement that included the DAPA program, an extension of DACA. Four years ago, the Jesuit provincials of the United States issued a public letter to congressional leaders and Obama calling for passage of comprehensive immigration reform legislation that included a path to citizenship for undocumented persons in the U.S. Last year, Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine became the first U.S. university to publicly accept undocumented medical students.

During debates on the Senate floor the first week of February, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, specifically mentioned students enrolled at Loyola’s medical school, stressing the sacrifices they have made and their willingness to give back to their communities.

The Church in the U.S.

February 13, 2015

the United States. After selling their homes and exhausting their savings to come to the states, the women found themselves jobless, moneyless and with illegal status.

The U.S. bishops’ anti-trafficking program, carried out through MRS, is working with Gabriela DC to connect the women to social services and to educate and empower them.

Quiambao said the international day of prayer is “essential because it helps survivors heal, and because they are encouraged by knowing other people care — that they are not alone.”

She said it also affirms the need Life Scout Daniel Pelis receives Communion from Msgr. Robert Thelen during a recent Mass at Holy to speak out against the crime.

Cross Church in Nesconset, N.Y., marking Scout Sunday. This year Scout Sunday coincided with the 105th Along with Gabriela DC, a anniversary of the founding of the Boy Scouts of America. (CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz) number of representatives from coalitions and organizations attended the Mass, including the Mid-Atlantic Coalition Against Modern Slavery.

Composed primarily of women WASHINGTON (CNS) trafficking victims worldwide.

The bishop emphasized that religious, it focuses on advocacy Chester said that while there human trafficking involves ev- and education while providing — Highlighting the life, suffering and enduring hope of has been increased education eryone and quoted Pope Francis’ some direct service to victims.

Coalition member Sister St. Josephine Bakhita, a Suda- and awareness, human traffick- apostolic exhortation “Evannese slave, Washington Auxil- ing is increasing. gelii Gaudium” (“The Joy of the Carol Ries, of the Sisters of the In the United States, vic- Gospel”). The pope writes that Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, iary Bishop Martin D. Holley called for reflection and action tims of labor trafficking are “all many are guilty of “comfortto combat modern-day slav- around us” in poorly regulated able and silent complicity” in ery during his homily on the industries like agriculture, in- relation to the crime and have recent first International Day home domestic work, nursing “blood on their hands.” of Prayer and Awareness The pope addressed the Against Human Traffickglobal issue during a ren the United States, victims ing. cent Sunday Angelus, askof labor trafficking are “all ing government leaders to We must “do everything in our power through the around us” in poorly regulated in- act decisively “to remove corporal and Spiritual dustries like agriculture, in-home the causes of this shameworks of mercy to eradi- domestic work, nursing home work ful wound a wound that is cate human trafficking,” and the food-service industry. Sex unworthy of civil society.” the bishop told the nearly About a dozen women 1,000 people — includ- trafficked victims can be foreign na- who know such wounds ing trafficking survivors tionals, but they also are U.S. citi- firsthand were present — gathered for the noon zens, often children who are in abu- at the shrine Mass and Mass at the Basilica of sive homes or foster care situations. helped carry up the gifts the National Shrine of the during the offertory.

Immaculate Conception in The women, all highly home work and the food-serWashington. educated teachers from the Held on the feast of St. Jo- vice industry. Sex trafficked vic- Philippines, were lured to the sephine, the day was designated tims can be foreign nationals, United States by recruiters with by the Pontifical Council for but they also are U.S. citizens, promises of a better life.

Justice and Peace and the In- often children who are in abuBecause of corruption and ternational Union of Superi- sive homes or foster care situ- a poor economy in the Philipors General. Last year, the U.S. ations. pines, may people are forced “You see it all across the to migrate, according to Jo Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Migration and Refugee board,” Chester said in an in- Quiambao, secretary general Services organized a national terview with the Arlington for Gabriela DC, a grass-roots day of prayer for victims and Catholic Herald, newspaper of organization that works with survivors of human trafficking, the Diocese of Arlington, Va. Filipina human trafficking surIn his homily, Bishop Hol- vivors. and it spearheaded this year’s ley told the story of St. JoseLiturgy at the shrine.

Illegal recruiters use sophisThe day offered the fruits of phine, who was born in 1869 ticated tactics to exploit the “compounded prayer” and was and enslaved as a child. Beaten situation in the island nation, an opportunity to shed light on and whipped nearly every day, and high-level government a pervasive tragedy, said Hilary young Josephine eventually agencies are involved, often apChester, associate director of was taken to Italy and freed proving fraudulent travel docuthe U.S. bishops’ anti-traffick- with the help of the Canossian ments, said Quiambao during a ing program, in a recent inter- Daughters of Charity, an order reception after Mass. she later joined. Canonized in view.

Such was the case with According to the U.N. Inter- 2000, she has been proposed as around 300 women — 200 now national Labor Organization, the patron saint of victims and in D.C. — who were promthere are nearly 21 million human survivors of human trafficking. ised lucrative teaching jobs in

Catholics called to do everything in their power to end trafficking

I

5 said human trafficking is an issue that should be close to all Catholics’ heart. It’s a “Pro-Life issue,” she said. “It’s about respect for women and children; it’s about human rights.”

In partnership with the USCCB, Catholic Charities USA and Catholic Charities of the Washington Archdiocese, the National Catholic School of Social Service at The Catholic University of America in Washington will host a twoday conference on human trafficking this July. Will Rainford, dean of the school, said the conference will raise awareness among priests, diocesan leaders and lay staff who come into contact with victims.

Chester hopes this year’s day of prayer motivates “Catholics in the pews” to discern their own ability to fight human trafficking, whether through volunteering, material donations, awareness-raising or working to change and enforce laws. “There are a lot of opportunities,” she said, “where people can start making a difference.”

6

February 13, 2015

Anchor Editorial

Aims of the Year for Consecrated Life

We are presently in the “Year for Consecrated Life,” which began on the First Sunday of Advent (Nov. 30, 2014) and which will conclude on the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, Feb. 2, 2016. These special “years” in the Church are often longer than 12 months/365 days, because the purpose of them is not to fill up a calendar, but to reflect upon a certain aspect of the Church’s life and see how we can live it better.

Back on November 21, the feast of the Presentation of Mary in the Temple (one of the feast days which holds particular relevance to many religious), the pope wrote to all the religious Sisters, Brothers and priests and explained that he had decided to have this special year, “In response to requests from many of you and from the” Vatican department responsible for religious. It was timed to coincide with “the 50th anniversary of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, which speaks of religious in its sixth chapter, and of the Decree Perfectae Caritatis on the renewal of religious life.”

In terms of what would be the objective of this special year, Pope Francis wrote, “I have chosen as the aims of this year the same ones which St. John Paul II proposed to the whole Church at the beginning of the third millennium, reiterating, in a certain sense, what he had written, ‘You have not only a glorious history to remember and to recount, but also a great history still to be accomplished! Look to the future, where the Spirit is sending you in order to do even greater things’” (Vita Consecrata, 110).

The first aim is a historical one — Pope Francis termed it “to look to the past with gratitude.” Being a religious himself (a Jesuit), the pope wrote as one of them: “All our institutes are heir to a history rich in charisms [editor: this means gifts of the Holy Spirit]. At their origins we see the hand of God Who, in His Spirit, calls certain individuals to follow Christ more closely, to translate the Gospel into a particular way of life, to read the signs of the times with the eyes of faith and to respond creatively to the needs of the Church.”

The pope then suggested that this historical review in each order include “Recounting our history [because it is] essential for preserving our identity, for strengthening our unity as a family and our common sense of belonging in order to grasp the high ideals, and the vision and values which inspired them, beginning with the founders and foundresses and the first communities. In this way we come to see how the charism has been lived over the years, the creativity it has sparked, the difficulties it encountered and the concrete ways those difficulties were surmounted. We may also encounter cases of inconsistency, the result of human weakness and even at times a neglect of some essential aspects of the charism.”

The second aim that the pope proposed to the religious was “to live the present with passion, to implement ever more fully the essential aspects of our consecrated life. The question we have to ask ourselves during this year is if and how we, too, are open to being challenged by the Gospel; whether the Gospel is truly the ‘manual’ for our daily living and the decisions we are

Dear brothers and sisters, Today’s Gospel (cfr Mk. 1:2939) presents Jesus, Who, after having preached on the Sabbath at the synagogue, heals many sick people. Preach and heal: this is Jesus’ main activity in His public life. Through preaching He announces the Kingdom of God and through healing He shows that it is close, that the Kingdom of God is in our midst.

Pope Francis’ Angelus message of February 8 Entering the house of Simon Peter, Jesus sees that his motherin-law is in bed sick; immediately He takes her hand, heals her and makes her stand up. After the sunset, when, the Sabbath was over, when the people could leave and bring Him the sick, He heals a multitude of people afflicted by every kind of sickness: physical, mental, Spiritual. Coming to the earth to announce and fulfill the OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER

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called to make. Is Jesus really our first and only love, as we promised He would be when we professed our vows? Only if He is, will we be empowered to love, in truth and mercy, every person who crosses our path, for we will have learned from Jesus the meaning and practice of love. We will be able to love because we have His own heart.”

Moving from the Spiritual reflection of religious regarding their prayerful relationship with Christ, the pope then wanted them to assess their external works. “Are our ministries, our works and our presence consonant with what the Spirit asked of our founders and foundresses? Are they suitable for carrying out today, in society and the Church, those same ministries and works? Do we have the same passion for our people, are we close to them to the point of sharing in their joys and sorrows, thus truly understanding their needs and helping to respond to them?” Turning back inward again, this time into the internal life of the given orders, Pope Francis told them that they need to be “experts in communion. In a polarized society, where different cultures experience difficulty in living alongside one another, where the powerless encounter oppression, where inequality abounds, we are called to offer a concrete model of community which, by acknowledging the dignity of each person and sharing our respective gifts, makes it possible to live as brothers and sisters. Live the mysticism of encounter, which entails the ability to hear, to listen to other people; the ability to seek together ways and means. Live in the light of the loving relationship of the three Divine Persons (cf. 1 Jn 4:8), the model for all interpersonal relationships.”

The pope’s third aim for this year is that religious “embrace the future with hope. We all know the difficulties which the various forms of consecrated life are currently experiencing: decreasing vocations and aging members, particularly in the Western world; economic problems stemming from the global financial crisis; issues of internationalization and globalization; the threats posed by relativism and a sense of isolation and social irrelevance. But it is precisely amid these uncertainties, we are called to practice the virtue of hope. This hope is not based on statistics or accomplishments, but on the One for Whom ‘nothing is impossible’ (Lk 1:37). This is the hope which does not disappoint; it is the hope which enables consecrated life to keep writing its great history well into the future. It is to that future that we must always look. So do not yield to the temptation to see things in terms of numbers and efficiency, and even less to trust in your own strength.

I urge you not to ‘join the ranks of the prophets of doom who proclaim the end or meaninglessness of the consecrated life in the Church in our day; rather, clothe yourselves in Jesus Christ and put on the armor of light — as St. Paul urged (cf. Rom 13:11-14) — keeping awake and watchful’” (quoting Benedict XVI’s homily on Feb. 2, 2013).

While we pray for the religious amongst us to carry out these aims, it would be good for all of us to make this examination of conscience of our own relationship with God, in our prayer, in our works and in our community.

Vol. 59, No. 6

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Salvation of the whole man and all mankind, Jesus shows a particular fondness for those wounded in body and in Spirit: the poor, the sinners, the possessed, the sick, the marginalized. He thus reveals Himself as a physician of body and soul, the good Samaritan of man. He is the true Savior! Jesus saves, Jesus cares, Jesus heals!

This reality of Jesus’ healing of the sick invites us to reflect on the meaning and value of sickness. This reminds us also of the World Day of the Sick, which we celebrate on February 11, the Liturgical feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lourdes. I bless the initiatives that are being prepared for this day, in particular the vigil that will take place in Rome on the evening of February 10. And here I pause to remember the president of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Health Care Workers, Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, who is very ill in Poland. Let us say a prayer for him, for his health because it was he who prepared this World Day. And he accompanies us with his

suffering in this day. Let us pray for Archbishop Zimowski.

The Salvific work of Christ does not end with His person during His earthly life; it continues through the Church, Sacrament of love and of the tenderness of God for mankind.

Sending His disciples in mission, Jesus confers upon them a dual mandate: announce the Gospel of Salvation and heal the sick (Mt 10:7-8). Faithful to this teaching, the Church has always considered the care of the sick as an integral part of its mission.

“The poor and the suffering you will always have with you,” Jesus warns (cfr Mt 26:11), and the Church continuously finds them on the street, considering the sick as a privileged path to encounter Christ, to welcome and serve Him. To care for a sick person, to welcome him and serve him is to serve Christ. The sick are the Flesh of Christ!

This also happens in our time, when, despite the many advances in science, the interior and physical suffering of people raises seri-

ous questions on the meaning of sickness, pain and on the reasons for death. These are existential questions, to which the pastoral action of the Church should respond in the light of faith, having before our eyes the cross, in which the entire Salvific mystery of God the Father appears, Who out of love for mankind did not spare His only Son (cfr Rm 8:32).

Therefore, each one of us is called to bring the light of the Gospel and the strength of grace to those who suffer and to those who assist them, family members, doctors, nurses, so that the service to the sick may be fulfilled ever more with humanity, with generous dedication, and with evangelical love, with tenderness.

The Mother Church, through our hands, caresses those sufferings, heals those wounds and does it with a mother’s tenderness.

Let us pray to Mary, health of the sick, so that every person in sickness can experience, thanks to the care of those closest to them, the power of God’s love and the comfort of His paternal tenderness.

Anchor Columnist Going daily to the Source and Summit of life

February 13, 2015

T

he plan of life we’ve been describing is the Spiritual game plan designed to help us respond in practical ways to God’s call for us to become not just “good people” but saints, those who live our faith with heroic virtue.

Sometimes we can look at the pursuit of sanctity as all the things we need to do on our end to grow in holiness.

Whenever God calls us to anything, however, He always provides the means for us to be able to achieve it. Growth in holiness is not our laboring up a 10,000-step staircase to Heaven, but, to use St. Therese of Lisieux’s famous image, it’s more like an elevator on which God comes to us and asks whether we’d like a ride to the top.

The greatest of all the graces God gives us to make us holy as He is holy is, without question, the Mass. It’s in the Mass that God seeks to unite us in Holy Communion to Himself.

How can we fail to grow in sanctity when we hunger for and actually enter into existential communion with Him who is “holy, holy, holy”?

The Second Vatican Council described the Mass as the

“A

“source and summit of the with Jesus in the Eucharist the whole Christian life,” which real fulcrum of our life or just means it’s meant to be the a holy accessory? And if we’re starting point from which living a truly Eucharistic life, everything flows and the goal with communion with Jesus toward which everything is as our root and center, can we meant to be directed. A life really go most days without that’s truly Christian finds in receiving Him? the Eucharist its font and apex.

I remember very well when A genuinely Christian life, in this question struck me with short, is a Eucharistic life.

To live a Eucharistic Putting Into life means, basically, that we cannot live the Deep without the Eucharist.

I’ve always been moved

By Father by the testimony of the Roger J. Landry 49 martyrs of Abitene (Tunisia) who in 304 were warned that if they conall its practical consequences. It vened on Sunday they would, was September of my freshunder the orders of Diocletian, man year in college. Seeing be arrested, tried and executed. other Catholic students living They still all showed up. When in ways inconsistent with the the magistrates asked why they faith, I began to ask myself risked their lives to worship, what I really wanted my priorithey famously replied, “Sine ties to be and what role God Dominico non possumus,” withwould play in my life. I knew out the Lord on Sunday they that I wanted God to be God, couldn’t make it. They connot just part of my life but fessed that they would rather Lord. die physically with the Jesus in That led to the next questhe Eucharist, than live physition. I asked, “If God is recally without Jesus. ally God in my life, and if He Can we live without Jesus in comes down each day from the Eucharist? Is communion Heaven to earth to the altar,

‘All day, all night, Marianne’

ll day, all night, Maritouched down on the airstrip anne, and we welcomed 60-plus Down by the seaside siftin’ pilgrims who had come to sand. join us in celebrating the feast Even little children love of St. Marianne for the third Marianne, consecutive year. Bishop Larry Down by the seaside siftin’ Silva celebrated our Sunday sand.

Mass at 10:30 a.m. at St. FranWhen she walks along the shore, people pause to greet, White birds fly around her; little fish come to her feet.”

By Father So go some of the Patrick Killilea, SS.CC. lines from one of my favorite popular songs from the ’50s, sung by the great Harry Belafonte cis Church and gave his usual amongst others. Now you may uplifting homily. After Mass say that this is an unusual way we gathered at McVeigh Hall to introduce the celebration for a hearty meal provided by of a saint. Yet that is precisely the Sisters of St. Francis. what I am doing as I think of Later that afternoon I Mother Marianne Cope, now went to the base of the trail St. Marianne, walking the from topside Molokai to meet beaches of Kalaupapa accomFather James Peak, an army panied by little children while chaplain from Fairbanks, white egrets fly overhead and Alaska. He had hiked all the little fish caress her feet. way from Hoolehua airport So it was that on Sunday and for a time found himself morning, January 18, some surrounded by very tall grasses of us residents of Kalaupapa after he had made a wrong waited at our little airport turn. He is lucky he was not as several nine-seater planes kidnapped by the menehune

Moon Over Molokai

(cousins of the leprechauns).

He arrived tired but in great spirits, ready to walk on the ground once walked on by St. Damien and St. Marianne.

On the following Tuesday I had the pleasure to sponsor and host two of St. Marianne’s great nieces and a friend who had come from Maine and Vermont to visit this special place where St. Marianne had cared for so many children during the last 30 years of her life.

It is a great privilege for me to be able to introduce pilgrims to this very special land of saints.

One can still walk the sandy beaches of Kalaupapa and see the little fish come to one’s feet. One can still see those beautiful white egrets on the fields of this settlement. However, one can no longer hear the laughter of little children in this settlement. Yet the memory of their voices lives on in the grassy confines of Bishop Home. Aloha.

Anchor columnist Father Killilea is pastor of St. Francis Parish in Kalaupapa, Hawaii.

how can I not make Him in the Eucharist the God of my Monday, my Tuesday, my Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday?”

I grasped that if I really believed that the Eucharist was Jesus Christ and truly loved Him, I should at least hunger with all my being to receive Him every day and make every effort to do so.

The next day I went to daily Mass. By God’s grace, in the 26 years since, I have never once missed going to daily Mass (except on Good Friday when there is no Mass, but we still have the grace to receive Jesus in Holy Communion). I don’t know where I would be without this daily Gift of Gifts.

We pray in the Our Father, “Give us this day our daily bread,” and the word for daily in Greek is “epiousios,” which means “supersubstantial,” something the early saints of the Church interpreted to refer to the Eucharist. Just like God rained down manna for the Jews in the desert, so He gives us each day the supersubstantial Bread of His Son to nourish us on our pilgrimage to the eternal promised land.

When God answers our prayers to give us His Son each day, how do we respond?

The patron saint of priests, St. John Vianney, used to do everything he could to try to “upgrade” the Eucharistic

7 practice of his parishioners from weekly communicants to daily. He sought to get them to Jesus each day so that Jesus could do His sanctifying work.

He lamented how many good parishioners remained merely good: “What a shame,” he once exclaimed during a catechesis.

“If they communicated more often, they would be saints!”

That truth obtains for most of us. If we communicated more often and with greater purity, love, and devotion, we would become holier, too.

It’s of course not always possible for everyone to go to Mass every day, because of work, school and other responsibilities and occasional difficulties in daily Mass times. But every Catholic who seeks to grow in holiness should have a hunger to receive Jesus every day.

Now anyone can watch Mass on the CatholicTV or EWTN websites or apps at any time of day and make a Spiritual communion, a Spiritual practice we’ll discuss next week. That will help us to live more intentionally a truly Eucharistic life, which is a truly Christian life.

The start of Lent next week is an opportunity for us to try to act on our faith in and love for Christ in the Eucharist and make daily Mass — preferably in person or at least virtually — the Source and Summit of our Spiritual game plan.

Anchor columnist Father Landry can be contacted at fatherlandry@ catholicpreaching.com.

8

February 13, 2015

O

ne day, on the road to Assisi, St. Francis met a man suffering from leprosy.

The man was dressed in old torn clothes; he looked hungry and destitute. St. Francis was nauseated and trembling, but he was urged on by God’s grace. He threw his arms around the leper and kissed him. When he did, a sudden peace came over him. He hugged this man and loved him; he overcame his human fears and followed his heart.

Francis saw this moment as his moment of conversion; and throughout his life, he served those suffering from leprosy so that he could continue to relive his conversion experience. In that man who had leprosy, Francis had found Jesus.

Today, our first reading and the Gospel focus on leprosy and the people afflicted with the disease. The book of Leviticus is made up of instructions for the priests of Israel and in this particular passage the instructions as to how to deal with people who had leprosy are highlighted. Although it appears very legalistic, the book of Leviticus contains a major

‘I do will it, be made clean’

theme of the call to holiness. he was immediately healed.

In Chapter 19 of the book By doing so, according to the it is written: “Be holy, for I, law as written in Leviticus, the Lord your God, am holy.”

Jesus would now be considered God’s mercy and love for His Liturgically unclean and would people was experienced as not be allowed into the temple something quite different than to worship His Father. In all the mercy and love experienced in human relationships. We can Homily of the Week see how the people of Sixth Sunday Israel came to live by in Ordinary Time the letter of the law and not the spirit of

By Deacon the law.

Paul Fournier In our Gospel today, Jesus deals with a leper. The leper approaches Jesus and says: “If of His healings, nowhere is the You wish it You can make me physical touching of someone clean.” Jesus replies, “I do will more dramatic than when it, be made clean.” Jesus then He cured people with leprosy, instructs him to go see a priest because it was so feared and and to make the appropriate avoided by others. This Gospel offering. He also tells him not is a strong representation of to tell anyone.

Jesus’ desire to battle against To understand the signifithe power of evil in all forms, cance of how Jesus dealt with including this dreaded disease. him, we need to understand the The healing of the leper is the thinking of the people of that first healing account in which time. A leper was considered the faith of the person plays a to be Liturgically unclean and role in the healing. so was anyone who touched St. Paul today tells us that them. Jesus, moved by compasour call as Christians is to do sion, touched this person and all for the glory of God just as

Jesus did all to glorify His Father. Paul made practical decisions about Christian living as he personally strived to follow Jesus. He followed the example of Jesus. Last week St. Paul said that he became all things to all people and now this week he reminds us that we must have compassion when dealing with people.

He concentrated on living out the Spirit of Jesus’ message, not on living out the letter of the law as was being done by the Jewish community.

Even the Jews who followed Jesus were torn between the spirit of the law and the letter of the law that they had followed all their lives. In this particular passage, Paul was responding to those who were concerned with those who were eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols. St. Paul is telling us that it is more important to be concerned about how we behave towards one another than what it is that we consume. He believed that everything we do should be

done for the glory of God. How does this apply to us today? We too are called to be holy and we also should do everything to glorify God. But when we do this, we should not do it at the expense of hurting someone else by our prejudices. We cannot be prejudiced toward people one minute, and the next expect to lead them to Jesus. As we deal with different cultures, we must be careful not to ignore them just because they are different.

We should not allow these differences to become a leprosy that we fear.

Our fears of dealing with people who are different can interfere with our bringing them the love of God. We are called to overcome our fears, and our prejudices. Like St. Francis, we are called to encounter our Lord Jesus through these people. Whatever our own personal leprosy is, it can be overcome with the grace of God. Jesus does will it: we can be made clean.

Deacon Fournier currently serves at St. Vincent de Paul Parish and at Sturdy Hospital, both in Attleboro.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. Feb. 14, Gn 3:9-24; Ps 90:2-4c,5-6,12-13; Mk 8:1-10. Sun. Feb. 15, Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Lv 13:1-2,44-46; Ps 32:1-2,5,11; 1 Cor 10:31-11:1; Mk 1:40-45. Mon. Feb. 16, Gn 4:1-15,25; Ps 50:1,8,16bc-17,20-21; Mk 8:11-13. Tues. Feb. 17, Gn 6:5-8, 7:1-5,10; Ps 29:1a,2,3ac-4,3b,9c-10; Mk 8:14-21. Wed. Feb. 18, Jl 2:12-18; Ps 51:3-6b,12-14,17; 2 Cor 5:20-6:2; Mt 6:1-6,16-18. Thurs. Feb. 19, Dt 30:15-20; Ps 1:14,6; Lk 9:22-25. Fri. Feb. 20, Is 58:1-9a; Ps 51:3-6b,18-19; Mt 9:14-15.

After pilot’s heinous execution, Jordan’s Christians pray for religious harmony

Amman, Jordan (CNA/ EWTN News) — Christians in Jordan have responded to the Islamic State’s gruesome execution of a captured Jordanian pilot with sorrow, calling for prayer and religious and national unity.

Father Rifat Bader, general director of the Jordan-based Catholic Center for Studies and Media, said the Christian churches of Jordan conveyed their “deep sorrow and sadness” over Lieutenant Muath al-Kaseasbeh’s execution,

which Father Bader characterized as a “martyrdom” and a “heinous crime against humanity.”

He said the churches called for all their bells to be rung at noon last week, and for special Masses and prayers at 6 p.m.

“The churches will hold prayers as well ... for harmony among religions, so that religions will constitute a factor conducive for peace, harmony and unity among the people rather than a factor leading to division, killing, oppression and dispute,” the priest said in a recent statement.

Islamic State militants had captured the 26-year-old pilot in December, when his F-16 crashed in Syria during a U.S.-led air raid on Islamic State forces.

Militants released a video of his execution; he was burned alive in a cage.

While the Islamic State had appeared to be negotiating a prisoner release with the Jordanian government in the

last week, the execution of the pilot may have taken place as early as January 3.

Many leading Muslim authorities and Arab political leaders have condemned the execution.

Father Bader voiced condolences to the pilot’s family and tribe. He thanked Jordan’s security services for keeping Jordan “as strong as ever in the face of extremism, violence and isolation.” He called for national unity under Jordan’s King Abdullah II. “The churches also convey condolences to all humanity which is suffering from extremism, bigotry and terrorism.”

The Jordanian government responded to al-Kaseasbeh’s death by executing two prisoners linked to al-Qaeda: a woman who was a failed suicide bomber in an attack that killed 60 people in 2005; and a man sentenced to death in 2008 for planning terrorist attacks on Jordanians in Iraq,

the Associated Press reports.

The Catholic Center for Studies and Media commented also on Jordan’s execution of the terrorists.

Acknowledging that Catholics “don’t admit the death penalty as legal in the normal situation,” the center said the execution was not “in the same cruel way” as the Islamic State’s execution of the alKaseasbeh.

The prisoners executed by Jordan were asked about their final wishes and had their bodies placed in the hospital, the Catholic Center for Studies and Media told CNA recently. After pilot’s heinous execution, Jordan’s Christians pray for religious harmony “We hope that this bad event will encourage our Jordanian society to look forward and to plan for more national unity and collaboration for the good of all citizens in the spirit of citizenship and legal equality,” the center concluded.

February 13, 2015

Friday 13 February 2015 — Homeport: Falmouth Harbor — Good Luck/Bad Luck Day ou may be surprised to know, dear readers, that there is no seminary course teaching future priests how to deal with flakes. I mean, of course, how to keep a parish church operational and parishioners safe during major snowstorms, howling blizzards, and, for that matter, hurricanes, floods and other “acts of God’ (as the insurance people call them).

A pastor must learn from experience how to weather the storm.

As a curate, my first experience of a major snowstorm occurred while my pastor was on vacation. There was such an accumulation of snow that it caused the roof of the five-year-old parish center to fail. Water from the melting snow began flooding though the ceilings into the classrooms. Water was flowing down the walls. The electric light fixtures were dripping. (This, I speculated, could not be good.) I ran around putting barrels everywhere.

I was eventually able to get through to headquarters.

“Bishop, this is Tim. The pastor is away and the roof

Y

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merica is famous for its sense of personal freedom, which is interpreted in a strictly libertarian fashion.

From the Pilgrims who sought to worship as they sought fit, to the early settlers who left the established towns and headed west, this country has held an abiding admiration for singular souls. It’s not only the Independent Man atop Rhode Island’s State House that illustrates the point — we have long delighted in heroes and entertainers who bucked convention and did it their way.

While courage and integrity are to be admired in the right context, it may be that the rugged individualism at our core has undermined a proper understanding of the Sacrament of Marriage. Although Marriage does involve a man and a woman who vow to undertake a singular mission, there is more to it than that. In the Old Testament, we learn about covenants, and we see that when God graciously bound Himself to

Anchor Columnists How to deal with flakes

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in an office in Fall River. fell in!” I exclaimed. “Now “Big deal,” you might say, Tim,” the bishop answered, unimpressed. Well, hold on.

“Just calm down and tell me It wasn’t just any old office. exactly what’s going on.”

It was the office of the bish“The roof fell in,” I repeated. “Oh, Tim, don’t be so op. I had gone there to be overly dramatic. Get a hold of yourself.

What specifically do The Ship’s Log you mean?”

Reflections of a Again I answered Parish Priest calmly, “The roof has fallen in.” “You can’t

By Father Tim mean that literally,” Goldrick the bishop stated incredulously. “Oh, but I do,” I assured him. formally sworn in as an offiThe dean arrived for an onsite inspection. He report- cer of the Diocesan Tribunal. ed back to headquarters that The prospect of spending three days stranded in the the roof had indeed fallen bishop’s office inspired me in. Then the vicar general to throw caution to the wind arrived to assess the dean’s and take my chances on the observations. He reported back to headquarters that the highway. I got as far as New Bedford before my car gave dean was correct. The roof up the ghost. I then walked had fallen in.

10 miles through the howlThen, the bishop himself ing wind and blinding snow arrived at my door to get in order to hitch a ride back a first-hand look. “Oh no, Tim,” proclaimed the bishop, to my rectory. In hindsight, I made the right decision.

“The roof has fallen in!”

Then there was that hur“Yes. Yes it has,” I answered ricane.

My church was close with all due respect. to the water. The tides were Then there was the Blizzard of ’78. Everyone around washing across Main Street at that time has a story. Here and water was sweeping back and forth over the bridge. I is mine. The snow came magnanimously telephoned down so quickly and unexthe local fire department pectedly that I was trapped

and offered them the parish’s large hall as a place of refuge. “Thank you very much, Father,” the fireman responded politely. “But better pack a bag. You are in the flood plain. Prepare to evacuate, should it come to that.” Fortunately, it never did.

Well, it’s the thought that counts.

Then there was another hurricane.

I lived a few miles from the church. I secured myself safely in the rectory to wait out the storm. After the hurricane, I wanted to get to the church and check for possible damage. I got as far as the little bridge over the river. It was out. I backtracked through the woods and found that one rural bridge had survived. I eventually made it to the church. There was six feet of water in the basement, but otherwise the place was undamaged. Alone in the church, I thumbed through the prayer book and found special occasion Mass prayers entitled, “For an End to the Storm.” I figured better late than never.

Another time, I was a curate living in the rectory’s converted attic. It

seems bargain-priced replacement windows had been installed. The winds blew. The rains came. The windows at each end of my apartment crashed onto the floor. The hurricane rushed through my living quarters, taking with it everything that wasn’t tied down. Try as I might, I couldn’t shove those cheap windows back in place. Then I watched as the giant oak tree outside the bedroom cracked and toppled over — fortunately in the opposite direction. I went downstairs and waited out the storm in the rectory parlor.

I really don’t care if the groundhog saw his shadow or not. I don’t pay much attention to weather forecasters, especially if they are rodents. I must say though, that I do like this newfangled democratic way the television forecasters have of offering three possible scenarios. Option one: 30 inches of snow. Option two: one inch of snow. Option three: cloudy and breezy.

I just can’t figure out how to cast my vote for the storm of my choice.

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

Abraham, it was not for Abra- all who undertake it. Rather than entering into a Marham alone but for the good riage for the sake of individual of the community. When the happiness, the first step is to Chosen People were faithful remember that this Sacrament to the covenant, the comis a means of “[rendering] mumunity prospered, but when tual help and service to each infidelity or irreverence crept in, everyone suffered.

Covenants are, by their nature, communal.

This view appears to run at cross-purposes with the freedoms we imagine are for our

By Genevieve Kineke own good — especially when freedom is confused with license other” in pursuit of holiness to act in ways that run conand perfection (GS, 48). The trary to our nature. This topic next layer embraces the chilwas addressed by the Second dren, who naturally broaden Vatican Council, which sumthe intimate circle, and then marized: “The well-being of that shared mission becomes a the individual person and of both human and Christian so- wondrous source of joy — and purification. ciety is closely bound up with The next layer of the the healthy state of conjugal circle encompasses extended and family life” (Gaudium et family, neighbors, the parSpes, 47). ish and school communities, If we look at this “intimate but as the demands grow it partnership” as a layered reality, perhaps it will help in cre- is essential to remember the ating a stronger foundation for first principles: the children’s

well-being is paramount, depending on a healthy bond between the parents, and only with that stability in place can the wider community benefit. We are not just individuals but persons made for communion with others, and partners in a covenant in which God is an active participant. Surely this is not easy, as John Paul II reminded us: “Love between man and woman cannot be built without sacrifices and self-denial.”

It is common for people to dismiss previous generations who rejected divorce “for the sake of the children,” but we must look honestly at the results of such disdain. Has society benefited by our individualistic approach to “freedom?” Are we more satisfied by having pitted our happiness against the needs of the wider community? Have the children benefitted by a looser approach to marital bonds?

Fidelity to our vows is certainly a challenge, but John Paul II explained: “As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live.”

God has promised adequate graces to help us in the challenges intrinsic to Marriage, and countless spouses have benefited by them. If prayer has changed the impossible into the possible in your life, now is the time to share that hard-won wisdom with others thirsting for solid advice. If the accumulation of time and suffering have transformed your understanding of what is really important, pray about how to spread that particular insight with those who need to hear it. And if someone turns to you to share such a treasure, be sure to listen — for they know whereof they speak.

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

She blogs at feminine-genius. typepad.com.

Marriage and the wider community

The Feminine Genius

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February 13, 2015

February 13, 2015

Speaker says pope to address Congress

WASHINGTON (CNS) — House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, announced that Pope Francis will address a joint meeting of Congress September 24.

The pontiff ’s “historic visit” would make him the “first leader of the Holy See to address a joint meeting of Congress,” Boehner said in a statement, adding that he was “truly grateful that Pope Francis has accepted our invitation.”

Boehner noted that “in a time of global upheaval, the Holy Father’s message of compassion and human dignity has moved people of all faiths and backgrounds. His teachings, prayers, and very example bring us back to the blessings of simple things and our obligations to one another. We look forward to warmly welcoming Pope Francis to our Capitol and hearing his address on behalf of the American people.”

A statement from the Archdiocese of Washington called it “a great honor and tremendous joy to welcome our Holy Father, Pope Francis, to the Archdiocese of Washington during his proposed pastoral visit to the United States in September.”

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February 13, 2015

Pope gives step-by-step primer on contemplative prayer with Gospel VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Turn off the television, tune out the neighbors, and spend 10 or 15 minutes reading a Gospel passage and speaking to Jesus, Pope Francis told people at his early morning Mass.

“Today find 10 minutes — 15 at the most — and read the Gospel, imagine the scene and say something to Jesus. Nothing more. Your knowledge of Jesus will increase and your hope will grow,” the pope said recently at the Mass in the Domus Sanctae Marthae where he lives.

Pope Francis took the day’s Gospel story, Mark 5:21-43, and showed the small congregation how to read it in a contemplative way: “I see Jesus was in the midst of the crowd; there was a big crowd around Him,” the pope said, according to Vatican Radio. “Didn’t Jesus ever rest? I can think: ‘Always with a crowd.’ Most of Jesus’ life was spent on the road, with the crowd. Was there no rest? Yes, once, the Gospel says He slept in the boat, but a storm came and the disciples woke Him up.

Jesus was always with the people. And looking at Jesus that way, contemplating Jesus there, I imagine Him. And I tell Jesus whatever comes into my mind to tell Him.” In the day’s Gospel story, he

said, Jesus does not only see the crowd, “He feels the heartbeat of each person, of each one of us. He takes care of everyone always.”

“What I just did with this Gospel is the prayer of contemplation,” he said, which involves “taking the Gospel, reading it, imagining myself in the scene, imagining what happens and talking to Jesus about whatever is in my heart.”

The key to hope, the pope said, is to keep “one’s gaze fixed on Jesus.”

It is possible “to have optimism, to be positive” without listening to the Lord, he said, but hope is something that only “is learned by watching Jesus.”

Reciting the Rosary every day is a great practice, he said, as is calling on Mary or the saints when facing a difficulty.

But contemplation is a necessary part of Christian life and that is possible “only with the Gospel in hand.”

“In your house, for 15 minutes, take the Gospel, read a little passage, imagine what happened and talk to Jesus about it. In that way, your gaze will be fixed on Jesus and not on a television soap opera, for example. And your listening will be focused on the Words of Jesus and not so much on the gossip of your neighbors.”

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on WLNE Channel 6 Sunday, February 15, 11:00 a.m.

Celebrant is Father Michael Racine, pastor of St. Bernard’s Parish in Assonet.

Animated characters are seen from “The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water.” For a brief review of this film, see CNS Movie Capsules below. (CNS photo/Paramount)

CNS Movie Capsules NEW YORK (CNS) — The following are capsule reviews of movies recently reviewed by CNS. “Jupiter Ascending” (Fox) Heavenly bodies — human and alien — collide in spectacular fashion in this 3-D science-fiction romp through the cosmos, written and directed by Lana and Andy Wachowski. A young woman (Mila Kunis) leaves her Chicago home with a hunky alien (Channing Tatum) for a grand adventure on distant worlds. She is the unlikely heir to the entire universe, and so a pawn in a power struggle among three alien siblings (Eddie Redmayne, Tuppence Middleton and Douglas Booth), who harvest humans on Earth for an elixir offering eternal youth. Our damsel in distress strives to save her planet and return home to her family. Confusing, silly, and unintentionally hilarious, the film has strong opinions about industrial might, the abuse of power, and the plight of the individual, but these get lost in the ether. Intense but bloodless sci-fi action, partial rear nudity, some innuendo, a benign view towards egg donation, occasional crude and profane language. 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.

“The Loft” (Open Road) Despite being blessed with beautiful, accomplished wives, five men — Karl Urban, James Marsden, Wentworth Miller,

Eric Stonestreet and Matthias Schoenaerts — share a luxurious loft apartment, which they use exclusively as a venue for adultery.

When a woman (Isabel Lucas) is found mysteriously murdered there, each member of this tawdry ensemble turns on the others.

Director Erik Van Looy’s remake of his 2008 Dutch-language film “Loft” is a grotesque parody of the most fundamental aspects of human behavior populated by thoroughly unsympathetic characters who somehow manage to be even less than one-dimensional. A benign view of adultery, a couple of semi-graphic adulterous encounters, brief rear nudity, drug use, vulgar sexual banter, pervasive crude and crass language. The Catholic News Service classification is O — morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

“Seventh Son” (Universal) An accessible throwback to Saturday matinee serials and mid20th-century action-adventure films, this half-baked yet unobjectionable tale follows a knight ( Jeff Bridges) and his young apprentice (Ben Barnes) as they battle a demonic cadre of supernatural assassins led by a witch queen ( Julianne Moore). Russian director Sergei Bodrov proves adept at providing stirring 3-D visuals and orchestrating thrilling sequences in which live action and 21st-century special effects mesh in a manner that furthers the plot and showcases the natural beauty of the British Columbia scenery.

This facility does not carry over to Bodrov’s handling of his lead actor, however, since Bridges’ distractingly idiosyncratic performance makes it feel as though the Dude from “The Big Lebowski” has been teleported into this action-fantasy milieu. Frequent strong yet blood-free fantasy violence, much frightening imagery involving monsters and demonic

creatures, several uses of crass language, one instance of toilet humor. The Catholic News Service classification is A-II — adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

“The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water” (Paramount) Genial mix of animation and live action in which the creature of the title (voice of Tom Kenny), a short-order cook in the seabed city of Bikini Bottom, goes in search of the missing secret formula for the irresistible burger that not only makes his employer’s (voice of Clancy Brown) restaurant the most successful spot in town, but keeps the whole community functioning smoothly as well. With his patty-starved society falling apart around him, he joins forces with his boss’ long-standing rival (voice of Mr. Lawrence) — who may or may not have become a genuine ally — and with his two best friends, a starfish (voiced by Bill Fagerbakke) and a chipmunk (voice of Carolyn Lawrence), to retrieve the vital recipe. Among those putting obstacles in their way is a richly bearded pirate (Antonio Banderas) who also serves as the tale’s manipulative narrator.

The second film to be based on the long-running Nickelodeon TV series “SpongeBob SquarePants,” director Paul Tibbitt’s fast-paced sequel simultaneously plays with and promotes the commonplace screen message that teamwork is the key to success. Kindergartenlevel potty humor and some mildly frightening plot elements aside, this bit of self-proclaimed “nautical nonsense” is appropriate for all.

Occasional menace, a few mildly scatological jokes. The Catholic News Service classification is A-I — general patronage. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG — parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

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February 13, 2015

B

Medical assistance with the battle of the bulge

ariatric surgery, which often involves banding of the stomach, is a widely-used procedure for treating severe obesity. Another approach that relies on an implantable “stomach pacemaker” also appears poised to assist those struggling with significant weight gain.

Many people have already benefitted from these kinds of surgical interventions, enabling them to shed a great deal of weight, improve their health and get a new lease on life.

At the same time, however, it’s important for us to examine such interventions from an ethical point of view. It’s not simply a matter of weight loss, achieved by any means whatsoever, but a rational decision made after carefully weighing the risks, benefits and alternatives.

Bjorn Hofmann, a medical ethicist who writes about the ethical issues surrounding obesity-correction techniques notes, “Bariatric surgery is particularly interesting because it uses surgical methods to modify healthy organs, is not curative, but offers symptom relief for a condition that is considered to result from lack of self-control and is subject to significant prejudice.”

The healthy organ that is modified is the stomach, which may be either banded or surgically modified with staples to create a small stomach pouch. This causes food to be retained in the small pouch for a longer period of time, creating a feeling of fullness, with the effect of reducing how much a person ingests at a single meal.

Like any surgical technique, bariatric surgery has risks associated with it: Mortality from the surgery itself is less than one percent, but post-surgical leakage into the abdomen or malfunction of the outlet from the stomach pouch can require further surgeries. Nearly 20 percent of patients experience chronic gastrointestinal symptoms. Wound infections, clot formation, vitamin deficiencies, cardiorespiratory failure, and other complications like gallstones

and osteoporosis can also occasionneed to be considered with regard ally arise. to surgically-based approaches are: A new device, sometimes described Should an expensive, invasive and as a “pacemaker for the stomach,” was potentially risky surgery be routinely recently approved by regulators at used for an anomaly that might be the Food and Drug Administration. addressed by modifications in diet This rechargeable and implantable and eating habits? What criteria device blocks electrical nerve signals should be met before such surgery between the is seriously stomach and considered?

Making Sense the brain It is also and helps to of ethical imOut of diminish the portance that Bioethics feeling of physicians being hunand surgeons

By Father Tad gry. The cost not be unduly Pacholczyk for the small influenced machine, by device along with its manufacturers to utilize their various surgical implantation, is expected to stomach banding apparatuses or their run between $30,000 and $40,000, pacemaker devices. making it competitive with various In 1991, the National Institutes of forms of bariatric surgery.

Health developed a consensus stateBecause the stomach pacemaker ment on “Gastrointestinal Surgery does not modify the stomach or the for Severe Obesity” that offers guidintestines as organs, but instead reance for clinical decision making. duces appetite by blocking electrical The statement notes that, beyond signals in the abdominal vagus nerve, having a serious weight problem, some of the surgery-related complipatients seeking therapy for the first cations associated with modifying or time for their obesity should “generstapling the stomach are eliminated. ally be encouraged to try non-surgiOther surgical complications related cal treatment approaches including to the insertion of the device into dietary counseling, exercise, behavior the abdomen have sometimes been modification and support.” observed, however, as well as adverse events associated with its use, like pain, nausea and vomiting.

Bariatric surgery, it should be noted, is not universally successful in terms of the underlying goal of losing weight and some patients ultimately regain the weight they lose either through enlargement of the stomach pouch or a return to compulsive eating patterns or both.

Results have been similarly mixed for patients receiving the stomach pacemaker: some lose and keep off significant amounts of weight; others show only negligible improvements when they are unable to adhere to the needed life-long changes in eating habits.

Among the ethical questions that

Pope: Families need fathers who guide, love them through thick and thin

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Every family needs a father — a father who shares in his family’s joy and pain, hands down wisdom to his children and offers them firm guidance and love, Pope Francis said.

Being a father is not easy since it takes lots of patience and grace, he said. “But what consolation, what a reward one receives when the children honor this legacy. It is a joy that more than makes up for the hard work, that overcomes every misunderstanding and heals every wound,” the pope said at a recent general audience.

In a series of talks on the family,

the pope continued the second part of his reflection on the role of fathers.

While his last audience talk looked at the risks and problems caused by fathers who are absent or fail their family, the day’s talk focused on the importance and dignity of fatherhood.

Speaking to some 7,000 people gathered in the Paul VI audience hall, the pope spelled out the essential, but demanding, things it takes to be a good father. The most important is being present, first by being by his wife’s side “to share everything, joy and pain, hard work and hope” and by being there for his children as they grow, he said.

These broad guidelines are intended to spark discussion on the part of patients and their medical team: How much support has an individual really received prior to looking into weight reduction surgery or stomach pacemaker insertion? Some patients may have tried diligently for years to lose weight, while others may have made only cursory, poorly-supported efforts. The need for support is also likely to continue following bariatric surgery or after the implantation of a stomach pacemaker.

In sum, there are notable differences between such surgical interventions and traditional weight loss techniques involving exercise and diet. With the surgical techniques, due diligence will be required both prior to and following such interventions, particularly in light of the ongoing discussions about the costeffectiveness, safety, risks and outcomes of interventional surgery for the overweight patient.

Anchor columnist 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.

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February 13, 2015

During a Mass celebration with Catholic school students from the Fall River Deanery, Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, S.D.V., extolled the importance of discipline and drew comparisons for success to the Super Bowl-winning New England Patriots team. The Mass was held on February 4 at St. Anne’s Church in Fall River. (Photo by Kenneth J. Souza)

Bishop extols game plan for success to Fall River students continued from page one

you all a question and I hope it won’t be too difficult to answer,” the bishop said. “And the question is this: ‘How many of you here watched the Super Bowl last Sunday?’”

The question elicited smiles from the young congregation while hands immediately shot into the air.

“Now how many of you were rooting for the Patriots?” the bishop continued, knowing full well that he was speaking to a captive audience.

Again, more hands were raised.

“Probably some of you were thinking that you’d like to be in the place of those players,” Bishop da Cunha said. “You probably said to yourself: ‘One day I’d like to be there, playing for the team on the NFL, and maybe even being in the Super Bowl.’ It’s probably something deep down that we’d all like to attempt in our lifetime.

“But you need to know something — in order to get

there, those players had to go through a lot of hard work. It’s not something that just happens. In order to be in the Super Bowl and to win the Super Bowl, they had to go through a lot of training, a lot of practice, a lot of sacrifice, and a lot of discipline.”

Quoting from that day’s first reading from Chapter 12 of Hebrews, Bishop da Cunha drew an interesting parallel. “‘My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by Him; for whom the Lord loves, He also disciplines.’

“When I read those words and I thought of the players in the Super Bowl, I realized they got there because they were able to organize their life in such a way — in such a disciplined way — to prepare and get their bodies in shape for the game.”

Noting that life can sometimes be like a football game, Bishop da Cunha said, “we have to learn how to be disci-

plined, we have to learn how to make sacrifices, we have to learn to listen to our coaches — our parents, our teachers — we have to learn our lessons.”

Most important of all, in order to win and attain “the

trophy of victory” — which is eternal life in Heaven — the bishop said you have to follow “the example of the greatest Coach of all, Jesus.”

“He left us with a strategy on how to win the game: He left us the Gospel,” Bishop da Cunha said. “He left us His teachings. But unless we follow this strategy, unless we follow His instructions, we may not win in the game of life.”

And just as Tom Brady and his teammates on the New England Patriots worked together for the Super Bowl win, the bishop said we likewise need to rely on each other.

“None of the players were sufficient by themselves — not even the quarterback,” Bishop da Cunha said. “He depends on all the other players and all the players depend on each other to win the game. Each of the players on the Patriots took credit for the victory … but none of them could take credit alone.

They won as a team, they won it together, and they collaborated with one another to win the game.”

Although God has set out the game plan for our lives and we are called to follow

the strategy and instruction of our coaches to win, Bishop da Cunha said it’s up to us to “be there at the right place, at the right time, when the ball is passed.”

“When the Lord blows the last whistle and calls our game over, can we say that we were there — at the right place, at the right time?” Bishop da Cunha said. “That we fulfilled our role?

That we listened to the coach?

That we were part of the victory?

So that when the last whistle is blown, we shall be chosen for the prize of Heaven.”

In order to succeed, the bishop urged the students to always press on, despite whatever setbacks or challenges they may face in life.

“Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose, sometimes we fall, and then we get up again,” he said. “But the game goes on; life goes on. And with Jesus as our coach, guiding us and telling us the strategy for victory, we shall be there and we shall win — not a crown of metal, but a crown of joy and happiness with God, our brothers and sisters, our family and friends, for all eternity. And that is the greatest trophy of all.”

Students from Bishop Connolly High School sing with the choir after Communion during a Mass celebration for the six Catholic diocesan schools in the Fall River Deanery at St. Anne’s Church in Fall River. The Mass was celebrated by Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, S.D.V., who can be seen listening in the background.

(Photo by Kenneth J. Souza)

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February 13, 2015

Ash Wednesday: A symbol of renewal continued from page one

Typically the ashes placed on the forehead of an individual come from the branches used in the previous year’s Palm Sunday services, which falls one week before Easter and commemorates Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. The ashes are a profound symbol for the faithful and are meant to remind people that life is short; a time for Christians to carry the cross. Ashes are a sign of physical death, and as God created Adam from the dust of the Earth, so too will faithful followers return to dust until raised up by Christ.

“When I was young, I thought of Lent as that great time of ‘giving up.’ I would always wonder what it might be that year; usually it was candy or soda,” said Father Paul Caron, pastor of St. Anthony’s Parish in Mattapoisett and St. Rita’s Parish in Marion.

“Now I realize the importance of this season,” continued Father Caron. “I came to my deepest understanding of it several years into my priesthood. I had retained the attitude that it was all about ‘sin.’

It was not until our parish got serious about Christian

Initiation [RCIA] that I began to understand what Lent was truly about. It wasn’t just about ‘sin’ but about renewal.

Just as the ‘elect’ were preparing for the Easter Sacraments during this time of ‘purification and enlightenment,’ so too was I preparing to renew my baptismal promises. In order to do that in a better way, I too had to go into the desert with the elect and candidates and live this time of purification and enlightenment. That happens through prayer, fasting and almsgiving. These are manifested in Spiritual and practical ways in the season.”

According to “The Daily Missal of the Mystical Body,” on Ash Wednesday in the early days, the pope went barefoot to St. Sabina’s in Rome “to begin with holy fasts the exercises of Christian warfare, that as we do battle with the spirits of evil, we may be protected by the help of selfdenial.”

For more than 1,200 years the faithful have approached the altar to receive the ashes on his or her forehead. Not only are these ashes made from the burnt palm fronds

that were blessed on the Palm Sunday of the previous year, the ashes have been sprinkled with Holy Water, usually fragranced with incense and blessed using four prayers that are thousands of years old.

“I suppose my preparation for Ash Wednesday is the same as my preparation for the season of Lent. I think about how I will pray, fast and give alms; how I will live that season,” said Father Gregory Mathias, VG, pastor of St. John Neumann in East Freetown.

“I think the most fundamental preparation for the faithful is to recognize the change of the season to Lent and to take steps to have a Lenten consciousness. Ash Wednesday sets the tone for this,” continued Father Mathias. “I often say that ashes are ‘less than nothing.’ If you had absolutely nothing and you received ashes, you would gain nothing; it would be a further negation. Sin separates us from our relationship with God; without God, we come to annihilation — we are less than nothing. The traditional application to the head cor-

CCHD honoree has supported living wages, job training in hot dog truck

WASHINGTON (CNS) — With a few thousand dollars spread here and there, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development of the Archdiocese of Baltimore has helped bring living wages to employees who clean sports stadiums and supported a group that helps homeless people with projects including a hot dog truck.

The Baltimore CCHD was honored recently with the Sister Margaret Cafferty Development of Peoples Award for 43 years of efforts to help the poor with community development assistance.

The award is given annually by the national office of CCHD, the U.S. bishops’ domestic antipoverty program, to honor an individual or a group that exemplifies a commitment to the development of people and the elimination of poverty.

Glyn Bailey, a committee member of the Baltimore organization for 31 years, beginning in its founding year, 1972, accepted the award. Bailey, who will turn 92 March 7, told Catholic News Service that some of the early projects Baltimore CCHD funded including helping a soup

kitchen get a truck and some tools.

Another effort brought to the attention of University of Maryland Hospital administrators was the disrespectful way homeless people would be treated when they sought medical care.

“They treated them like second-class citizens,” Bailey said.

“We helped change that.”

Bailey and his wife, Jeanne, who have co-chaired the Baltimore committee, also were on the local CCHD committee for 11 years when they lived in South Carolina before returning to Baltimore a few years ago, he explained.

More recent Maryland projects included a multiyear effort with the United Workers Association to insist that the state of Maryland honor a living wage law for employees who clean Baltimore’s sports stadiums.

The Arundel House of Hope, an interfaith housing program for the homeless, is another beneficiary of CCHD funding.

Among its recent endeavors has been the Doughy Dog, a hot dog truck that provides job training and transitional employment around a menu of hot dogs and

breakfast items.

The Baltimore CCHD has been run since its creation by Msgr. William Burke. Last year, it facilitated the award of $225,000 in national CCHD grants and gave out $15,000 from local funding sources.

The following day, participants in a plenary panel sponsored by CCHD talked about some of the shifting demographics of community organizing groups, a majority of which are connected to faith-based organizations.

In that portion of the program, Bishop Dwayne Roster of the United Church of Christ, executive director of Philadelphians Organized to Witness, Empower & Rebuild, or POWER, told of the labor-intensive effort that put a living wage bill on the local ballot and got it approved.

“We talked to 65,000 Philadelphians in our get-out-thevote drive,” he said. Congregations involved with POWER had members go door-to-door, he explained. The measure passed with support of 76 percent of voters, he said, and support was strongest in the precincts where POWER affiliates knocked on doors.

responds to the way figures in the Old Testament — like Job — indicated their repentance.”

On Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, Catholics between the ages of 18 and 59 (whose health enables them to do so) are permitted to consume only one full meal, which may be supplemented by two smaller meals. Some Catholics will go beyond those obligations and undertake a complete fast or simply partake of only bread and water.

“People should prepare for the season by meditating on how well they have lived out and lived up to their Baptism.

In Baptism, we were plunged into the death and Resurrection of Christ, and so we need to see what we need to change to be ready to renew those promises at Easter,” said Father Caron. “We come to-

gether on Ash Wednesday as a sign of our solidarity. We all admit that we are all in the same boat (c.f. Joel reading).”

Parishioners should attend Mass and receive ashes because “Ash Wednesday sets the tone for the whole season of Lent. The Liturgy prepares us to live the way of Lent,” said Father Mathias.

Being marked with ashes humbles the heart and is a reminder that life passes away on Earth: “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return” (Gen 3:19).

“Ash Wednesday gives us a chance to begin anew to be the best people that our God is calling us to be,” said Father Caron. “Truly a season of blessings!”

16

Youth Pages

February 13, 2015

St. Mary’s School in Mansfield celebrated Catholic Schools Week by giving back to the local community. The eighth-grade class led the “Make A Home” project. The students collected funds from other classes then went shopping at Target in Easton to purchase items to furnish at least one home for a family in need. Items were purchased by the students, displayed for families to see, and donated to My Brother’s Keeper in Easton. Children of all ages made financial donations and suggestions as to what every family needs. Left, the Class of 2015 poses with the items that were purchased from the fund-raising effort.

Grades three through eight at St. Francis Xavier School in Acushnet recently had an informational assembly on weather with Channel 7 meteorologist Chris Lambert.

Pictured here are Lambert, center, with the middle-school students and their math and science teacher, Mrs. Plante.

Faculty, staff and students from St. James-St. John School in New Bedford recently participated in Catholic Schools Week with a “Crazy Hair and Mismatch Day.”

Father Jay Mello, parochial administrator of St. Michael and St. Joseph parishes in Fall River, recently blessed the throats of students at St. Michael’s School to commemorate the feast of St. Blase.

In honor of Catholic Schools Week, St. John the Evangelist School in Attleboro recently hosted Jeff Kinney, author of the popular “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” books. Kinney shared his journey on how he loved comics as a kid to how Greg Heffley became the lead character in his book series. The students got to ask the writer questions and also enjoyed a slide show of Kinney’s sketches and photos.

February 13, 2015

I

love idioms. I love starting a sentence with, “You know what they say.”

I love trying to figure out where they originate from and what the true meaning behind them is. I won’t beat around the bush anymore, and just get to my topic.

So, you know how they say, “You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar”? This is something I have been figuring out lately. I went on the March for Life again this year in Washington, D.C. It is an amazing experience every year and I love that hundreds of thousands of people gather together for the same cause to witness peacefully to the dignity of life. It’s the power of prayer, the witness of love for life, which has the ability to change hearts.

I worked at a pregnancy resource center for about five years as a volunteer counselor. I met with so many women who found themselves in a scary and

unexpected situation. It wasn’t our logical conversations that made them feel like they could continue with the pregnancy, nor was it starting off the conversation with “well Scripture says.” If women did decide to continue with their pregnancy it is because we help them to understand the love of God through our compassion and gentleness. It is because they opened their hearts to the graces that God pours forth in all situations.

I learned working there the true importance of speaking the truth in love. There is a saying about teaching which states that students don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

The same goes with evangelization. People do not care if you tell them that God loves them and that He is good if you can’t show them that God loves them and

Youth Pages Catching flies that He is good. In a homily in February of last year, Pope Francis said, “If you happen to be with an atheist who tells you that he does not believe in God, you can read him the whole library, where it says that God exists, and where it is proven that

Be Not Afraid

By Amanda Tarantelli God exists, and he will not believe. [However] if in the presence of this same atheist you witness to a consistent, Christian life, something will begin to work in his heart. It will be your witness that brings him the restlessness on which the Holy Spirit works.”

Christ wants us to be passionate about Him, to share His love and compassion but

17 we have to model it. And we must model it with a spirit of joy. Speaking the truth in love does not mean belittling our beliefs to responses of “yeah I know, it stinks that the Church feels that way, but what are we going to do.”

It means we show how great it is to live a life that Christ is calling us to.

In Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis writes, “Consequently, an evangelizer must never look like someone who has just come back from a funeral!

And may the world of our time, which is searching, sometimes with anguish, sometimes with hope, be enabled to receive the Good News not from evangelizers who are dejected, discouraged, impatient or anxious, but from ministers of the Gospel whose lives glow with fervor, who have first received the joy of Christ.”

To be fishers of men, to be catchers of flies, we must be

joyful, compassionate Christians. We need to be messengers of mercy by first being people of mercy. We need to be messengers of peace by first being people of peace.

Lent is a great time to work on these virtues. We can spend the upcoming 40 days as a time to work on being the evangelizers that Christ needs us to be. As they say, actions speak louder than words.

Disclaimer: I did find out that the saying “You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar” is actually false. Flies are more attracted to vinegar because it smells like rotting fruit and so they are drawn to the smell. Fun fact!

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

Discover your treasure, share it with others, pope tells young people

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Everyone is born with a treasure chest of gifts and talents that they need to discover and share, Pope Francis told a group of young people with disabilities who explained to him how technology has brought them joy and helps them communicate.

Seven young people from six countries shared their stories with the pope and asked him questions recently during a Google Hangout, a live video conversation online.

“You help us understand that life is a beautiful treasure that has meaning only if we share,” the pope told the young people.

Alicia, a 16-year-old amateur filmmaker from Spain, asked Pope Francis if he, too, likes to take photographs and upload them to his computer.

“Do you want me to tell you the truth,” he asked the young woman with Down syndrome.

“I am a disaster with machines. I don’t know how to deal with a computer. It’s embarrassing, isn’t it?”

The videochat with the pope came at the conclusion of a gathering in the Vatican of Scholas Occurrentes, a project Pope Francis supported

as archbishop of Buenos Aires and expanded as pope.

Through schools it links students from different neighborhoods, countries, economic backgrounds and faiths to promote communication, understanding and cooperation.

Isaiah Bauer from Kearney High School in Kearney, Neb., and his schoolmate Teynor Karson also were part of the Google Hangout. Bauer told the pope he has difficulty keeping up with his studies and that his “lack of fine motor skills” slows down his writing and typing.

“What do you do when you face something difficult?”

Bauer asked the pope.

“First, I try not to get angry, stay calm. Then I try to figure out how to do it, to overcome the difficulty. If that is not possible, I try to endure it until I have the possibility of overcoming it,” he said.

“We should not be afraid of difficulty. We are capable of overcoming anything, but we need time to understand, intelligence and courage to keep moving forward.”

Manoj Kumar, a 13-yearold from India, who told the pope he is a big fan of Bruce Lee films on YouTube, asked the pope how the Scholas Occurrentes project can help

young people.

“Building bridges, communicating with each other,” the pope responded. “When you communicate with each other, giving the best of what you have inside and receiving the best from others, this is very important. When we do not communicate we are left alone with our limitations and this is bad for us.”

Pope Francis ended the conversation with the young people by telling them and the thousands of other children watching online around the world: “All of you have a chest, a box, and inside there is a treasure. Your job is to

open the chest, discover the treasure, develop it, give it to others and receive from others the treasures they offer.”

Some people discover their treasure quickly, the pope said, but sometimes “it’s like playing treasure hunt because it is not found easily. But once you find it, share it.”

“Each one of us has a treasure inside,” he said. “If we keep it there, closed up, it will stay there. If we share it with others, the treasure will multiply with the treasures that come from others. What I want to ask of you is that you do not hide the treasure that each of you has.”

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February 13, 2015

Retreat to focus on ‘Jesus Light of Life’ continued from page one

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high school levels. She holds a master’s degree in Theology and Spirituality, a master’s degree in Clinical Pastoral Counseling, a doctorate in Pastoral Counseling and a certificate in Spiritual Direction.

Deacon Greg Kandra, who serves in the Diocese of Brooklyn, N.Y., will lead the March 14 session. A veteran broadcast journalist, he worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News in New York and Washington. He has been honored with many major awards in broadcasting, including two George Foster Peabody Awards, two Emmy Awards, and four awards from the Writers Guild of America. He currently authors articles on faith and contemporary Church issues for many Catholic publications and shares his thoughts regularly on Twitter, Facebook and blogs.

Leading the March 21 session will be Sister Barbara Quinn, R.S.C.J., the associate director of Spiritual formation at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry.

A member of the Society of the Sacred Heart, she was the founding director of the Center for Christian Spirituality at the University of San Diego and also served ministerial roles as formation director, campus minister, pastoral associate and religious educator. Sister Quinn earned a master’s degree in Ministry from Weston Jesuit School of Theology and a doctorate in Ministry from the Catholic Theological Union.

Father Cyriac C. Mattathilanickal, director of the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette, will present the last retreat session in the series on March 28.

“As typical of any apparitions of Mary, the Blessed Mother always calls attention to her Son Who is the ‘Light of Life,’” said Father Mattahilanickal. “Our Lady draws our focus to Christ the true Light of the World that shines in the midst of the shadows of our life. Come discover this Jesus Who wants to accompany us in all our darkness and fear and lead us to light and life!”

To register for one or more retreat sessions or for more information, call (508) 222-8530, visit www.lasaletteretreatcenter. com or email office@ lasaletteretreatcenter.com. Each seven-hour session costs $30 and includes lunch.

Our Lady’s Haven, a 117-bed skilled nursing and rehab care facility located at 71 Center Street in Fairhaven, is pleased to announce that Father Richard Lifrak, SS.CC. has been appointed as the home’s new chaplain. The Sacred Hearts priest will offer daily Mass at Our Lady’s Haven and will provide pastoral care to the home’s residents, family members and staff.

Around the Diocese

The next 40 Days for Life Lenten campaign will begin on February 18 at Angel Park, just across from the Four Women Clinic, 150 Emory Street in Attleboro, near La Salette Shrine. The vigil will be from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. 40 Days for Life is the largest internationally coordinated Pro-Life mobilization in history, involving more than 650,000 volunteers in 559 cities across 27 countries. For more information, visit www.40daysforlife.com/attleboro or contact Ron Larose at 508-736-9813 or email 40dflattleboro@ comcast.net.

A Healing Mass will be celebrated on February 19 at St. Anthony of Padua Church located at 1359 Acushnet Avenue in New Bedford. The Mass will begin at 6:30 p.m. and will include benediction and healing prayers. At 5:15 p.m. there will be a holy hour which includes the Rosary. For directions or more information call 508-993-1691 or visit www.saintanthonynewbedford.com.

On February 20 at 7 p.m., Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Seekonk will host a musical presentation of “The Way of The Cross.”

Denise Morency-Gannon and her musically-talented family will provide this source of prayer and reflection on the passion and death of Jesus of Nazareth. The orchestra ensemble is comprised of professional musicians from philharmonic orchestras, symphonic organizations and opera companies throughout the New England area. Plan to bring your family and friends to this Lenten concert. Admission is free, but freewill offerings will be accepted. CDs of “The Way of the Cross” and other original performances will be available for purchase.

On the weekend of February 21-22, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Seekonk will be blessed to have the nationally recognized Capuchin Franciscan, Father Simeon Gallagher, who’ll preach his invitation to join together for the next few days in a wonderful parish mission.

“A Spirituality of Relationships” will continue Monday-Thursday, February 23-26, in the mornings (briefly after Mass), but more fully each evening. Please plan to join them for these inspirational experiences during their Lenten journey. For more information call 508-336-5549, extension 103.

A mission for the Taunton Deanery entitled “The Joy of the Family: Begins in our Homes” will be held March 16-19 at 7 p.m. each night at St. Ann’s Parish, 660 North Main Street in Raynham. Join Father Willy Raymond, C.S.C., in an examination of Pope Francis’ messages in “Love is Our Mission” to learn how your family is a holy family. He’ll discuss models for our families — our Church family, our own family, and merciful families — all in the context of this year’s Synod on the Family. Father Raymond is president of Holy Cross Family Ministries, a worldwide ministry that helps families pray and he has spent 14 years in Hollywood creating faith-based family film, television and radio programs. The event is free and open to the public. For more information call 508 -823-9833.

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February 13, 2015

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Father William Shovelton was longtime diocesan priest

LADY LAKE, Fla. — Father William J. Shovelton, 92, Lady Lake, Fla., passed away on January 31.

He was born June 19, 1922 in Fall River to Albert E. and Margaret (Meagher) Shovelton.

Father Shovelton attended St. Joseph’s School in Fall River and then moved on to Coyle High School in Taunton.

He pursued the ecclesiastical course at Providence College for two years before entering St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore in September of 1941. He was ordained to the priesthood on June 15, 1946 by the Bishop James E. Cassidy at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Fall River.

Following his ordination, he was assigned as parochial vicar at Our Lady of the Isle Parish, Nantucket; St. Louis, Parish,

Fall River; St. Joseph Parish, Fall River; Sacred Heart Parish, Fall River; St. Thomas More Parish,

Somerset; parochial administrator of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Seekonk, and pas-

tor of St. William’s Parish in Fall River before retiring in 1993.

Father Shovelton also served as the Fall River District director of the Catholic Guild for the Blind.

Following his retirement, he assisted his brother for several years at Holy Trinity Parish, West Harwich. Father Shovelton is survived by his brother, the Father Gerald T. Shovelton who resides in Lady Lake.

A Mass of Christian burial was celebrated on February 10, at St. Timothy Church in Lady Lake. Burial will be at a later date in Fall River.

A Mass for the repose of Father Shovelton’s soul will be celebrated at Holy Trinity Church in Fall River on February 23 at 7 p.m.

Sister Dorothy Santarpia, S.S.J.

LANCASTER — Sister Dorothy Santarpia, (Marie

In Your Prayers Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks 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 Feb. 19 Rev. Andrew J. Brady, Pastor, St. Joseph, Fall River, 1895 Rev. Leopold Jeurissen, SS.CC., Pastor, Sacred Hearts, Fairhaven, 1953 Feb. 20 Rev. James H. Fogarty, Pastor, St. Louis, Fall River, 1922 Rev. Raymond M. Giguere, O.P., Assistant, St. Anne, Fall River, 1986 Rev. Thomas E. Morrissey, Pastor, St. Jacques, Taunton, 2006

Francois), 84, beloved member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Springfield, died in River Terrace Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center, Lancaster on February 2. A native of Fall River, she was the daughter of Francisco and Maria (Brazoa) Santarpia.

Sister Dorothy entered the Sisters of St. Joseph of LePuy in Fall River from St. Elizabeth Parish, Fall River in 1945 and became a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Springfield when the congregations merged in 1974. She graduated from Novitiate High, Fall River, earned a Bachelor’s degree from Regis College, Weston and Master’s degrees from Manhattanville College, New York and State College of Arkansas.

Sister Dorothy taught

in the Diocese of Fall River at St. Matthew and St. Roch Schools, Fall River; St. Joseph and St. Therese Schools, New Bedford; and at St. Therese School, Conway, Ark. She served in the Diocese of Springfield at Cathedral High School, Springfield as guidance counselor and also at Catholic Charities as a counselor.

In addition to her Sisters in community, she is survived by her sisters, Sister Estelle Santarpia, S.S.J., of Milford; Susan Pavao of Fall River; and Louise Gragnani of Naples, Fla. as well as by several nieces and nephews.

A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated in the Mont Marie Chapel on February 6. Burial followed in Mont Marie Cemetery.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Sisters of St. Joseph, 577 Carew Street, Springfield, Mass., 01104.

Arrangements were entrusted to the Sampson Family Chapels in Springfield.

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February 13, 2015

I

Lessons from Igor

the path of everywhere I seem f Igor had her way, I’d be scratching behind her ears to be going.

It’s those moments when I and rubbing her belly 24/7. do notice that I’ve ignored her I could say that she is a very that I look into her eyes and demanding dog in that way, but that wouldn’t be any differ- there is almost a hurt countenance to her beautiful border ent than any other canine out collie/Australian cattle dog there — right dog-owners?

But the truth is I more often than not pass by my needy pooch without so much as a glance.

I think she has a strategy against my

By Dave Jolivet lack of attention — she tends to place herself in

My View From the Stands

face. The eyes never lie, and with dogs, it’s one of the ways they best communicate their emotions.

It’s also those times when I stop what I’m doing to give her a bit of loving — something she thrives on, especially from the alpha dog.

It makes me think of all the times I do that to the people around me as well.

There is no doubt my life seems busier than a Super Bowl ring-maker for the New England Patriots (I had to get that in somehow). How many times is someone looking for a minute of my time; for a smile; for a hug; for a pat on the back; or even for a simple glance?

Through the years I’ve learned that it doesn’t take much to make human beings feel wanted, needed and loved. We’re like dogs in that way. So many times in my life, someone has performed a seemingly small, random act of kindness that has changed the outlook of my day.

But after getting the “Dad, I need a little attention” look from Igor, I have a gnawing feeling that I haven’t quite dished out my share of random acts of kindness.

The difference between dogs and humans, other than the obvious, is that humans don’t always wear their hearts on their sleeves, or in their eyes.

Maybe this Lent, I can make an extra concerted effort to start passing out those acts of random kindness (or ARK as so marvelously portrayed in “Evan Almighty”) with the hopes of brightening someone else’s day.

So if you see me walk on past you, and you need a little ARK, give me the Igor look, and I’ll make things right. Just don’t expect a belly rub or a scratch behind the ears. davejolivet@anchornews.org.

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