02.20.09

The Anchor F riday , February 20, 2009

Diocese of Fall River

Economic downturn creates spike in food pantry numbers

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

FALL RIVER — As economic woes take their toll on families throughout the diocese, more and more are looking to various church-sponsored food pantries for help.

According to recently compiled pantry statistics for the final months of last year, places like the Solanus Casey Food Pantry, the Catholic Social Services-spon-

sored facility in New Bedford, experienced a dramatic increase — more than 130 percent — in the average number of households or families served at the facility.

The monthly average of households receiving food for January through September 2008 was 459, while that average jumped to 1,068 for October through December.

“I expected an increase, but Turn to page 18

REALIZING ‘CHOICE’ IS NOT A FREEDOM — Members of the Bioethics class at Coyle and Cassidy High School in Taunton recently collected signatures on a petition in opposition to the Freedom of Choice Act. The students collected signatures during a four-day span during lunch periods at the school, amassing more than 400. The Bioethics students after learning what FOCA was all about were eager to share that information with fellow students. The petition, originating with the National Right to Life Committee, will be forwarded on to U.S. legislators. The school’s Peer Ministry Program also took part.

Diocesan Pro-Life postcard effort finding strong support

B y Deacon James N. Dunbar

STRONG LINKS IN THE FOOD CHAIN — From left, brothers Joseph and Michael Genhadeiro both volunteered and donated the entire meal for a recent soup kitchen held at Sacred Heart Parish in Fall River. The parish’s weekly soup kitchen and biweekly food pantry have seen a marked increase in attendance in recent months due to the sluggish economy. (Photo by Kenneth J. Souza)

Diocese’s Catholics greet Lent with hope of renewal

By Deacon James N. Dunbar

FALL RIVER — Fasting from food and detaching oneself from material goods during Lent helps believers open their hearts to God and open their hands to the poor, Pope Benedict XVI said in his 2009 Lenten message.

As Catholics and Christians across the world come forward on February 25, Ash Wednesday, to have their foreheads marked with ashes and take up the practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving for the 40-day penitential season, they hope these will indeed “satisfy (their) deepest hunger and thirst for God,” as the pope suggests.

The Holy Father focused his message specifically on the practice of fasting, saying the freely chosen detachment from the pleasure of food and other things “helps the disciple of Christ to

control the appetites of nature, weakened by original sin.”

It prompted The Anchor to seek out opinions from clergy, religious and laity across the Fall River Diocese about what they think are the most practical regimens and devotions of Lent in today’s modern world, and how the faithful, willing to renew their spiritual lives, are taking advantage of them.

Here’s a sampling of what they said: Father Marc H. Bergeron, pastor of St. Anne’s Parish in Fall River, said the pope’s message made it clear that the practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving — charity — are designed to help Christians focus on God and prepare for the celebration of Jesus’ victory over sin and death.

“The real and major idea of Turn to page 20

NORTH DARTMOUTH — The continuing massive postcard campaign to convince Congress not to make abortion an entitlement nor reverse current Pro-Life policies already finds 69 or approximately 76 percent of parishes in the Fall River Diocese participating.

The total number of cards sent from the diocese to date is 61,195.

Launched in parishes on the weekends of January 24-25 as well as February 7-8, the national campaign spearheaded

by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops found millions of Catholics — in the pews and in various organizations — signing the cards to be sent to congressional delegates, strongly asking them to oppose any measures similar to the Freedom of Choice Act. “We’re very pleased with the numbers of parishes that have already made the effort to have the cards signed and returned to us for forwarding to Washington,” said Marian Desrosiers, director of the diocese’s Pro-Life Apostolate.

Rules for Lent

“Because the campaign is continuing we don’t yet have all the numbers tallied as of February 12,” Desrosiers told The Anchor. “We are expecting many more to come in, and exhort those who haven’t done so thus far, to do so.”

At a time when so many have doubts about this effort, “this is one of the largest and unprecedented in scope and most important campaign of its kind in the nation and in our diocese since 1993, when the National Committee for a Turn to page 15

Wednesday, February 25 is Ash Wednesday. The Church’s regulations for the Lenten season follow: — abstinence from meat on Ash Wednesday, all Fridays during Lent and Good Friday for those aged 14 and older; — Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are to be observed as days of fasting for those aged 18 to 59. Fasting is defined as eating only one full meal and two light meals during the day. Eating between meals is not permitted; liquids however, are permitted.

The Code of Canon Law very aptly summarizes the ecclesiastical discipline in Canon 1249: “All members of the Christian faithful in their own way are bound to do penance in virtue of divine law; in order that all may be joined in a common observance of penance, penitential days are prescribed in which the Christian faithful in a special way pray, exercise works of piety and charity, and deny themselves by fulfilling their responsibilities more faithfully and especially by observing fast and abstinence….”

February 20, 2009 News From the Vatican Vatican says Englaro’s death must lead to better ways to protect life

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By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

RAINBOW RECEPTION — People wave as Pope Benedict XVI leads a recent weekly general audience in the Paul VI audience hall at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Giampiero Sposito, Reuters)

Controlling passions harnesses energy for doing good, pope says

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — When people control their passions and desires, they can direct their energy toward total love of God and serving others, Pope Benedict XVI said.

“Passions are not bad in themselves” but can lead to bad behavior if they are not controlled, the pope said during his weekly general audience.

The pope’s talk focused on St. John Climacus, the sixth-century author of “Scala Paradisi” (“Ladder of Paradise”), a step-by-step explanation of how to grow and mature in the spiritual life.

The audience talk marked a return to the pope’s audience series on the great Christian writers of early Christianity. Once the year of St. Paul began last June, Pope

Benedict interrupted the series to dedicate 20 audience talks to the life and writings of the apostle.

Pope Benedict said St. John Climacus’ work divides the Christian spiritual journey into three phases: cultivating “spiritual infancy,” or the attitude of a child totally dependent on God; “spiritual combat” against human passions through the cultivation of spiritual virtues; and obtaining “Christian perfection” through faith, hope and love.

For St. John Climacus, he said, spiritual combat is not a negative exercise in the sense of ridding one’s life of desires, but rather takes the positive approach of cultivating virtues so that passion becomes a source of energy and of true longing for union with God. “According to St. John, passions are not bad in themselves.

They only become so because of

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

the negative way people with their freedom use them. If they are purified, passions set people energetically on the path toward God,” the pope said.

Pope Benedict said it was legitimate to ask, “Can the writing of a hermit and monk who lived 1,500 years ago say something to us today?”

“At first, it would seem that the answer must be ‘no, he is too far removed from us.’ But if we look more closely we see that his monastic life is simply a great sign for the baptismal life of every Christian written in capital letters while we write each day with lowercase letters,” the pope said.

The pope told the estimated 8,000 people at his audience that, in reading the work of St. John, “For me it is particularly important that the highest point of the ladder, the top rungs, are at the same time the basic, initial, most simple virtues: faith, hope and love. They aren’t virtues that are accessible only to moral heroes. They are virtues that are gifts of God and in which our life grows.”

Faith obviously comes first because it is through faith that people renounce their arrogance and selfcenteredness, recognizing that God is the creator and ruler of all, he said.

“St. John Climacus rightly says that only hope makes us able to love. Hope helps us transcend the things of daily life and not expect success from one day to the next,” he said.

With hope “we can support the delusions of each day, we can be good to others without reward,” the pope said, and with hope we take small steps forward each day “and in that way we learn love.”

Pope Benedict ended his talk by telling the crowd, “Let us climb this ladder of faith, hope and love, and in that way we will arrive at true life.”

VATICAN CITY — The February 9 death of Eluana Englaro after nutrition and hydration were withheld should lead Italian citizens and their government to find more effective ways to protect and promote human life, said the Vatican spokesman.

“In the name of Eluana we must continue to seek more effective ways to serve life,” said Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman.

Englaro, who had been in a persistent vegetative state for more than 17 years, died at a private clinic in Udine, Italy, three days after her doctors, with the support of her father, began withholding nutrition and hydration.

By February 7, doctors said she was receiving only sedatives.

News of her death interrupted an Italian parliamentary debate on an emergency measure to make it illegal to withhold nutrition and hydration from patients who are disabled or in a persistent vegetative state; the measure would have forced Englaro’s doctors to begin giving her nutrients and water again.

Vatican officials repeatedly have said that the provision of nutrition and hydration is an obligatory, basic part of caring for a person who cannot care for him or herself; it is not an extraordinary means of keeping someone alive and cannot be withdrawn.

During his February 8 Angelus address, Pope Benedict XVI did not mention Englaro by name, but he offered prayers for “all of the sick, especially those in a most serious condition who cannot provide for themselves in any way, but are totally dependent on the care of others. May each of them experience, through the care of those who are close to them, the power of the love of God and the richness of his saving grace.”

Englaro, 38, was seriously injured in a car accident in January 1992. After she had been in a persistent vegetative state for five years, her father began a legal battle to win permission to withdraw the nasogastric tube through which she was being provided nutrition and hydration.

In a commentary on Vatican Radio, Father Lombardi said, “In the face of her death, believers gather in prayer and entrust to the Lord the soul of Eluana, a person whom we love and who has become part of our lives in the last few months.

“Now that Eluana is at peace,

we hope that her situation — after so much discussion — will be a motive for calm reflection and for a responsible search for better ways to accompany the weakest people with all due respect for the rights to life, love and attentive care,” he said.

Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry, told reporters that the Christian response to Englaro’s death must be to pray that God “would open the gates of heaven to her after she suffered so much on earth.”

He also said he was praying that God would “forgive those who brought her to this point.

And I invite everyone to pray in the spirit of forgiveness.”

In November Italy’s supreme court upheld a lower court ruling that Englaro’s care could be interrupted because of the “extraordinary duration” of her condition and because she had made it clear before the accident that she would not want her life artificially prolonged.

Once the court ruled, Englaro’s father spent several months trying to find a private clinic that would accept her as a patient, but not continue giving her nutrition and hydration. She had been in a clinic run by the Misericordine Sisters, who not only refused to withhold food and water, but also made it clear they wanted to continue caring for Englaro.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi announced February 5 he was issuing a decree to stop Englaro’s doctors from withdrawing nutrition and hydration. But Italian President Giorgio Napolitano refused to sign the decree, saying it was constitutionally questionable, and encouraged parliamentary action instead.

Berlusconi’s government subsequently introduced the bill in Parliament to make it illegal to withhold nutrition and hydration in cases like Englaro’s.

When her death was announced, Berlusconi told reporters: “I feel great sadness. I am deeply disappointed that the government’s action to save a life was made impossible.

The International Church

February 20, 2009

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Archbishop Migliore says programs must help people ‘shape own lives’

DEVASTATING AFTERMATH — The remains of St. Andrew’s Church are seen after it was destroyed by fire in Kinglake, northeast of Melbourne, Australia. Weary firefighters and rescuers pulled the remains of dozens of people from charred buildings as the death toll rose to nearly 200 from wildfires in southeastern Australia’s Victoria state. (CNS photo/Rick Rycroft, Reuters)

Australian archbishop pledges Church’s support to wildfire victims

CANBERRA, Australia (CNS) — The head of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference said the Catholic Church would lend both spiritual and practical support to families victimized by a series of wildfires that left more than 180 dead in Victoria state.

“I know that Catholic parishes across Australia have been praying for the people who died in the bush fires, as well as for those experiencing the grief of losing loved ones, family homes and cherished pets and belongings,” said Archbishop Philip Wilson of Adelaide, conference president, in a February 9 statement.

“Catholic relief agencies, such as St. Vincent de Paul and Centacare, are already at work providing much-needed assistance to people on the ground in these communities. This support will continue over the coming months and years, as we walk with these families and communities in their time of need,” Archbishop Wilson said.

“My prayers and thoughts are with all who are suffering so grievously,” Archbishop Wilson said.

In a separate statement, Good

The Anchor

Samaritan Sister Clare Condon, president of Catholic Religious Australia, the nation’s organization for men and women religious, said, “With all Australians, we will work to provide the practical support and help that is needed.”

At the Vatican, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, secretary of state, sent a telegram to Quentin Bryce, governor general of Australia, assuring her of Pope Benedict XVI’s prayers for those affected by the fires as well as for those providing aid.

Denis Fitzgerald, executive director of Catholic Social Services Victoria, said in a statement that the emergency relief arm of the St. Vincent de Paul Society was “providing immediate assistance and assessing needs for recovery” on a parish-by-parish basis.

Centacare agencies in four Australian dioceses were providing assistance as well. Centacare is the national federation of Catholic social service agencies.

“Their professional expertise in counseling is very important and will become more so over the coming weeks and months, as the recovery phase takes off,” Fitzgerald said.

OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER Vol. 53, No. 7

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Archbishop Wilson urged people to give generously to emergency appeals being established to assist those affected by the fires. Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, established one appeal; the St. Vincent de Paul Society set up another.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced immediate emergency aid of $10 million (US$6.8 million), and government officials said the army would be deployed to help fight the fires and clean up the debris.

The Country Fire Authority in Victoria said some 850 square miles were burned. Some towns were fully lost to the flames. Australian authorities said they expected the death toll to top 200.

The Associated Press reported blazes had been burning for weeks across several states in southern Australia. A longrunning drought — the worst in a century — had left forests extra dry, and fire conditions in Victoria were said to be the worst ever in Australia.

Wildfires are common during the Australian summer. Government research shows about half of the roughly 60,000 fires each year are deliberately lit or suspicious. Lightning and people using machinery near dry brush are other causes.

Police were investigating whether any of the Victoria fires had suspicious origins.

Australia’s previous worst fires were in 1983, when blazes killed 75 people and razed more than 3,000 homes in the states of Victoria and South Australia during the “Ash Wednesday fires.” Seventy-one died and 650 buildings were destroyed in 1939’s “Black Friday fires.”

UNITED NATIONS (CNS) — The “ultimate purpose” of development programs must be to give people “the concrete possibility to shape their own lives” and make sure even the most vulnerable groups feel they are a part of the larger society, said the Vatican’s apostolic nuncio to the United Nations.

He said that “social cohesion, as an expression of social justice, must be assured” to all people, and it is an “indispensable condition to meet the global crises that confront humanity today.”

The archbishop made his remarks in a recent address to a meeting of the U.N. Economic and Social Council’s Commission for Social Development.

Commission members gathered February 4-13 at the United Nations to consider how to help vulnerable groups from being excluded in society and to review the implementation of various U.N. action plans for groups such as disabled people, youths, the elderly and families.

Archbishop Migliore praised efforts already under way by the United Nations to fight poverty and to foster the “inclusion and the participation of all persons and social groups,” but he stressed that more could be done to involve those who have been excluded.

“What seems to be missing in the fight against poverty, inequality and discrimination,” he said, “are not primarily financial assistance or the economic and juridical cooperation which are equally essential, but rather people and relational networks capable of sharing life with those in situations of poverty and exclusion, individuals capable of presence and action, whose enterprise is recognized by local, national and global institutions.”

The archbishop stressed that the needs of families, women, youths, the uneducated and unemployed, the indigenous,

the elderly, migrants and other vulnerable groups must be addressed through “appropriate legal, social and institutional structures.”

On a deeper level, he said that by “living with and sharing the experiences of those who have been excluded by society, we can find means for more fully integrating them into the community, and, more importantly, affirming their dignity and worth so that they can truly become protagonists for their own development.”

Archbishop Migliore said the Vatican and various institutions of the Church were “committed to fulfilling this obligation” through their programs and agencies around the world.

“Through such common effort,” he added, “the lessons learned from those who are marginalized reinforce the truth that poverty eradication, full employment and social integration will be achieved when clarity of purpose is matched by a commitment of spirit.”

At the start of the commission’s annual meeting, Ambassador Kirsti Lintonen of Finland, chair of the Commission for Social Development, told participants that the current global financial and economic crisis has caused a “growing number of working poor, rising unemployment and growing social unrest.”

She warned that unless swift action is taken society’s most vulnerable would be pushed to the margins of society.

During the meeting commission members planned to launch an observance called World Day for Social Justice mandated by the U.N. General Assembly.

It is to be celebrated February 20 each year to further consolidate world efforts to eradicate poverty, promote full employment, advocate for gender equality and ensure “social well-being and justice for all.”

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The Church in the U.S.

February 20, 2009

Obama orders faith-based office be reworked, its scope expanded

WASHINGTON (CNS) — President Barack Obama has created by executive order a White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, which will expand upon and rework the Bush administration’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.

The office’s top priority, according to the White House release, will be “making community groups an integral part of our economic recovery and poverty a burden fewer have to bear when recovery is complete.”

It also will focus on reducing demand for abortions, encouraging fathers to stand by their families and working with the National Security Council to “foster interfaith dialogue with leaders and scholars around the world.”

In the same order, Obama created a new President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, comprised of 25 leaders of religious and community organizations, including Father Larry Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA, and Arturo Chavez, president of the Mexican American Catholic College in San Antonio, formerly known as the Mexican American Cultural Center.

The council will advise the White House and federal agencies on a range

of topics, from hiring policies for private agencies that accept federal funds to how national security issues are affected by religious beliefs.

The president also named as head of the office Joshua Dubois, who ran Obama’s religious outreach efforts during the campaign; he served on Obama’s Senate staff in a similar capacity.

Dubois, 26, is a graduate of Boston University and Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs who at 18 began serving as an associate pastor at a Pentecostal church in Cambridge, Mass.

At the National Prayer Breakfast earlier the same day, Obama said the goal of the office “will not be to favor one religious group over another — or even religious groups over secular groups. It will simply be to work on behalf of those organizations that want to work on behalf of our communities, and to do so without blurring the line that our founders wisely drew between church and state.”

The president said the advisory council would be used to help “foster a more productive and peaceful dialogue on faith. I don’t expect divisions to disappear overnight, nor do I believe that long-held views and conflicts will suddenly vanish.”

TOUGH TIMES — Craig Berry, who has been unemployed for 10 months, signs up for temporary work recently at a Manpower temporary agency in Chicago. Boosting support for the unemployed and a widening group of low-income Americans impacted by the current recession has been a primary concern for Catholic advocates, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. (CNS photo/John Gress, Reuters)

Measures promoting human dignity top concerns for Catholic advocates

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Promoting Catholic social teaching to politicians at the White House and in Congress is like riding a teeter-totter: first up and then down. The direction depends on the issue being debated and the party in power.

But no matter the direction, as John Carr, executive director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development, points out, the underlying principle guiding the Catholic legislative agenda in the 111th Congress remains unchanged: promoting human life and dignity.

“We’ve got a new administration and new Congress and the same principles,” Carr told Catholic News Service in the weeks after the inauguration of President Barack Obama.

“We have new opportunities in some areas and new challenges in others.

Advocates such as Candy Hill, senior vice president for public policy and government affairs at Catholic Charities USA, are poised to take advantage of opportunities to discuss a broader social agenda, an area that took a back seat to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and homeland security concerns under President George W. Bush.

At the same time, explained Richard M. Doerflinger, associate director of the U.S. bishops’ Office of Pro-Life Activities, ProLife advocates face more significant challenges. Despite Obama’s offer to seek common ground on abortion, these advocates realize he is not going to call for an end to abortion altogether and has already by executive order allowed U.S. tax dollars to fund overseas abortions.

The changing political landscape in Washington has forced Doerflinger to adopt a defensive posture to preserve existing laws that protect unborn children. Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, chairman of the bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, in a recent letter urged Congress to maintain all Pro-Life provisions in the appropriations bills that must be approved to keep government programs funded past March 5.

Doerflinger said the bishops also want to maintain the conscience rights of health care

workers so they are not forced to participate in or refer women for abortion. Ensuring the survival of the Hyde amendment, which has banned the use of federal funds for abortion since 1976, is vital, he added.

In a step to help reduce abortions, the U.S. bishops are continuing their support of the Pregnant Women Support Act, which has been reintroduced in both houses of Congress. The act would fund health care services for pregnant women, decreasing the likelihood that they would choose abortion.

Meanwhile, looming ahead is the Freedom of Choice Act. Although not yet introduced, the act’s sponsors are waiting for the right moment to do so, Doerflinger said. The USCCB is spearheading a nationwide postcard campaign urging parishioners to ask their legislators to block the bill.

Beyond abortion, underlying the social agenda of Catholic agencies is the belief that the country’s budget is a moral issue and serves to emphasize where society’s values and priorities rest.

Catholic advocates are still hoping the economic stimulus package will eventually address some of the Church’s concerns, especially for the poor and vulnerable and the rising tide of unemployed people trying to cope in a recessionary economy.

Obama’s recent signing of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program is seen by advocates as a positive first step on the road toward greater attention to social needs. Of particular note in the new law are provisions extending health care coverage to legal immigrant children and legal immigrant pregnant women.

Not to take a back seat, education concerns also appear on the USCCB legislative agenda. Working with the National Catholic Educational Association and the Council for American Private Education, the bishops’ Office of Catholic Education has made parental choice its guiding principle.

As for the war in Iraq, Colecchi said, the bishops stand by their 2006 statement calling for a responsible transition to a stable government in the Middle Eastern country before the full withdrawal of U.S. troops.

February 20, 2009

The Church in the U.S.

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Hospitals won’t comply with unjust laws and won’t close, Bishop Lynch says

By Catholic News Service

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Catholic Health Association’s board of trustees recently reaffirmed its opposition to any attempts by Congress or President Barack Obama to broaden abortion access and its commitment to keep Catholic hospitals open, Bishop Robert N. Lynch of St. Petersburg said in a recent blog entry.

“Idle threats about the certain closing of Catholic hospitals if certain things happen are simply that — idle,” said the bishop and CHA board member, writing about the board’s February 4-6 retreat in the St. Petersburg area.

“We are here today and will be here tomorrow to provide the healing hand of Christ to others as long as we can financially survive in a challenging situation and comply fully with our ethical and religious directives,”

he added in his blog on the diocese’s Website.

The U.S. bishops’ “Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services” guide Catholic health care facilities in addressing ethical questions such as abortion, euthanasia, care for the poor, medical research and other issues.

Although the CHA gathering “was essentially a planning retreat,” the board re-emphasized “some actions taken at previous board meetings,” Bishop Lynch said.

CHA “will join with the Church and all other Pro-Life parties to vigorously oppose any and all attempts by this Congress or administration to broaden abortion access,” he said.

“Catholic hospitals will not allow abortions to be performed in their facilities” and will not comply with any laws mandating abortion or other procedures that

violate the ethical and religious directives, “even if our actions constitute civil disobedience,” he added.

“No Catholic institution or employee of an institution can or will be made to violate the dictates of their conscience resulting from federal or state legislative action,” Bishop Lynch said.

He said Catholic hospitals “won’t comply” with laws that violate conscience “but we will not close.”

Among the reasons he cited were that: — Catholic hospitals are sometimes the sole provider of health care in a large geographical area, especially in rural areas; — the hospitals have an obligation to their physicians, nurses and other employees; to their bondholders; and “to the poor, unprotected and to our communities which benefit from our presence.”

with Jesuit parishes, schools and ministries.

In his homily to a packed St. Ignatius Church on the feast day of the Jesuit martyrs of the missions, Father Nicolas said martyrdom itself is not something to be sought, but the lives of martyrs can provide inspiration.

Martyrdom is a fact of life in today’s Church, he said, alluding to laypeople and clergy alike who have sacrificed for their Christian faith.

He said modeling one’s life and actions on the sacrifices of martyrs requires three things: vision to take a more encompassing view; commitment to pursue faith even to the end; and love of the most needy in society as well as love for the pursuit of justice.

“Christianity is not about fanaticism; it is not about being unreasonable or being masochistic

or wanting to suffer,” Father Nicolas said. “Christianity is about life and love and (giving), and only then does it make sense.”

After the Mass he joined several students for lunch at Loyola House, which is the Jesuits’ residence.

At an afternoon press conference, he addressed a number of issues, including the role of Jesuit higher education in today’s world. He sees a Jesuit university as a place where students can think, learn and grow, whether that’s in class, in a chapel or in the community at large.

“We need to give what St. Ignatius gave,” Father Nicolas said.

“Ignatius gave heart to the whole process of learning and serving.”

The Spanish-born Father Nicolas was elected superior general in January 2008.

The Jesuits’ California province serves Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada and Utah.

In 1996, the province adopted four main apostolic goals: fostering partnerships in the Jesuits’ Ignatian mission, strengthening solidarity with the poor, responding to the diversity of the province and evangelizing contemporary culture.

Italian Jesuits first came to California from Oregon during the 1849 gold rush. In 1909, the California province was separated from Italy’s Turin province.

Soon, the California province developed a distinct American identity and mission geared toward the needs of people living in the western United States.

Martyrs inspire Christians today, Jesuit superior general says

By Catholic News Service

SAN FRANCISCO — Christians could live better in the present by modeling their lives on the lives of the Church’s martyrs, the superior general of the Jesuits told a congregation in San Francisco.

At the root of martyrdom is the Christian tradition of bearing witness, said Father Adolfo Nicolas in his homily during Mass at St. Ignatius Church on the campus of the University of San Francisco.

He was at the Jesuit-run university as part of his January 30-February 7 visit to the Jesuits’ California province, which is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its founding.

During stops in 11 cities, he met many of the nearly 390 Jesuits in the province, hundreds of parishioners, students, volunteers and benefactors associated

WELCOME GUEST — University of San Francisco students Alex Edwards and Michelle Doral greet Father Adolfo Nicolas, superior general of the Jesuits, during his recent visit to the campus. (CNS photo/Michael Collopy, courtesy University of San Francisco)

PILGRIMAGE TO “PHOENIX/SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA” Spiritual Director: Fr. Joseph P. McDermott, Pastor Immaculate Conception Church 122 Canton Street, Stoughton, MA 02072

JUNE 24 - JULY 2, 2009

9 Days/8 Nights for $1,485.00** (per person - double occupancy) ** (effective until May 15, 2009)

Includes Airfare, Ground Transportation & Lodging with a FREE Continental Breakfast each morning.

Also, we are planning side trips to the GRAND CANYON, SEDONA, MONTEZUMA’S CASTLE, the PETRIFIED FOREST, the PAINTED DESERT, ST. MARIA GORETTI’S in Scottsdale, ST. TIMOTHY’S in Mesa, & in PHOENIX, we will visit CANAAN IN THE DESERT, the garden of Jesus’ Suffering & Resurrection, as well as other side trips.

For further information you may contact Margaret Oliverio @ 781-762-2029 or 781-344-2073

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The Anchor The Pandora’s Box that begat Octomom

Everyone agrees that Nadya Suleman did something wrong. Where the debate begins is over what she did wrong, why it was wrong, and what our society needs to do to prevent its recurrence.

The facts of the Suleman saga are well-known. On January 26, she gave birth to octuplets at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Bell Flower, Calif. The initial fascination over a multiple birth that could have come through the use of hyperovulatory fertility treatments turned first into incredulity and then into outrage when it was revealed that the mother of these eight babies was unmarried, unemployed, on food stamps, living with her disapproving 69-year-old mother (who last year had filed for bankruptcy) and already the mother of six, all of whom were similarly conceived with a sperm donor through in-vitro fertilization. The nation’s collective indignation only grew when it was reported that she had obtained both a publicist and an agent and was seeking a seven-figure payment to appear on television. That was enough even to make moral relativists rediscover moral absolutes.

The questions came fast and furious from all corners. The initial ones were practical and personal. How could a doctor give fertility treatments at all to a mother of six? How could he irresponsibly implant six embryos within her (two of whom ended twinning)? How could a mom with half-dozen kids including three who are developmentally challenged ask to be implanted with a half-dozen more? Why didn’t she “selectively reduce” — in other words, kill, through the relatively-common euphemistically-concealed practice of prenatal triage — some of her children to give the others a better chance at survival? Who will take care of the kids? Who will pay for the roughly $3.2 million bill just for neonatal care for the children? How much more will California taxpayers need to absorb afterward in raising the kids? Is there anything to stop others, or frankly even her, from doing this again?

The subsequent questions were more philosophical and probing. Should the fertility industry at last be regulated? If so, what criteria should be used to determine if a person should be able to have access to fertility treatments? If adoptive parents need to go through extensive interview processes to assess fitness before they’re allowed to adopt, what should the process be for a mother to be implanted with embryos? What rights and responsibilities does a doctor have when a person asks to be implanted with multiple embryos? Does a person have a right to a child? Does a person have a right to 14 or more children? Does a woman have a right to however many children she wants, even when for psychological, financial and marital reasons there are serious questions about her maternal aptitude? What rights, if any, do the children have? What corresponding duties does society have toward them? Is it better for them to remain frozen or to be implanted? If there’s a multiple pregnancy, should all children be allowed the chance to live or should some be sacrificed for the sake of others? If some should be killed to give others a better chance at birth and life-after-birth, what criteria should be used to determine which of the brothers and sisters should live and which should die?

There are the types of inevitable questions that arise as a result of the immoral practice of invitro fertilization, which is based on the premise that a child is a piece of property that a parent can have manufactured in a laboratory and then either implanted, frozen or discarded at will. It is a paradoxical extension of the logic that justifies abortion, which proclaims that a woman has a right to do whatever she wants with her body and any other bodies that happen to “belong” to her before birth.

Conservative columnist Jeff Jacoby picked up on this pro-choice connection in a February 11 column in the Boston Globe when he wrote, “What are we to make of all this criticism? Is it once again acceptable in politically-correct society to disparage other people’s unconventional or unwise reproductive decisions? … It was only a couple of weeks ago, after all, that the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade was being commemorated with the customary paeans to the right of American women to make their own decisions about pregnancy and parenthood. Haven’t we been told for years that society has no authority to second-guess what a woman does with her own body? Haven’t the champions of ‘choice’ and ‘reproductive freedom’ repeatedly instructed us that what happens in a woman’s womb is between her and her doctor? How is it that so many feel free to pass judgment on the choices made by Suleman and her doctors, let alone to call for new regulations banning such choices in the future? …

“In the name of autonomy, privacy, and adult self-esteem, our public policies regarding families and reproduction have grown increasingly unmoored from good sense. From the campaign for homosexual marriage to the routine insemination of single women to the legality of abortion on demand, notions that would once have been thought outlandish have steadily been normalized.

Would that further industrial-scale pregnancies like Suleman’s could be headed off with a new law or stepped-up regulation. But can law and regulation fill the void left when longstanding taboos and morals are cast aside? When society decides that families and child-rearing can be improvised at will, who gets to say what’s ‘freakish?’”

Some might classify those thoughts as merely the musings of the Globe’s sole conservative columnist, but they were in fact building on the questions raised by his liberal colleague Ellen Goodman in a Globe article five days prior. Goodman suggested that the answers to the questions raised by Suleman’s actions can only be given by revisiting some of those “longstanding taboos and morals” to which Jacoby alludes. Goodman writes: “Everything that we don’t really want to talk about in terms of pregnancy and child rearing — marital status, money, individual choice, responsibility, and technology — … converged in the shouting and blogging over Nadya Suleman’s womb mates. Does anyone have a right to tell anyone else how many kids to have? Can only people who can afford them bear children? Do you need a husband to have a baby? These are questions that make us feel queasy when we are talking about old-fashioned families. But they take on a new flavor in the unregulated wild west of fertility technology. … Fertility doctors don’t say no — nor should they — to single or gay patients or those who already have children. Doctors do not do home visits or psychological evaluations or socio-economic profiles on patients who want children. At most, doctors do what bioethicist Arthur Caplan calls ‘a wallet biopsy’ to see if they can pay the bill. We are far more rigorous about accepting people for adoption or foster care than for fertility treatments. But shouldn’t there be limits?”

Yes, there should be. The Church, in fact, teaches that there should be more than limits, since we’re dealing with an evil in kind and not just in number or degree. Once society concedes the principle that doctors have the authority to assemble children in test tubes and that those children are just pieces of property whose life and death are left totally at the discretion of their mothers, it’s only a matter of time until we have people making decisions like Nadya Sulemans and her doctor Michael Kamrava. The tearing down of the “longstanding taboos and morals,” all of which sought to affirm the right children have to be born of the loving union of a married father and mother, has just sped up the process.

Honesty demands that we should not stand in judgment of the indulgent, irresponsible, unethical, and “freakish” actions of Nadya Suleman and Michael Kamrava without at the same time criticizing and reforming the indulgence, irresponsibility, immorality and lunacy of our attitudes that enabled them.

O

February 20, 2009

The benefit of the doubt

n Sunday night, the Academy Awards later says to Sister Aloysius that her son is not will be given out. It is the most impor- like other boys, which in context implies that tant feast of the liturgical year for our culture’s he’s struggling with same-sex attractions, which may constitute the subject of private conversanew idolatry: the worship of celebrities.

It begins with a procession on the red carpet; tions with the priest.

Sister James considers Father Flynn exonerspectators compete with each other to gain the attention of the adored and the adored compete ated. Sister Aloysius deems him guilty. She lies for the adulation of the worshippers. There is an to him about having received bad reports from obsession over the vestments of the priestesses, the Sisters at the parish schools at previous aswith various experts consulted to decipher their signments, suggesting that he seek a transfer. He meaning and future influence. Once inside, there tells her to call the pastors at those previous asis music, video enactments of the past year’s signments to find out the real reasons for his relomost hallowed texts, and a collective covetous- cation, but Sister Aloysius refuses. When Father ness to take hold of the sacred statue that will Flynn does obtain a transfer, she takes it as proof constitute induction into the highest level of the that there must have in fact been problems in earthly pantheon. That apotheosis begins when previous assignments, for otherwise he wouldn’t the recipient’s name is announced, the person have left. Father Flynn says he was leaving funmounts the stairs to the sanctuary, grasps onto damentally to get away from a woman bent on the sacrosanct figurine that up until then has using any and all means to spread gossip about been held by white-gloved acolytes and finally him and assassinate his reputation.

The audience is left wondering whether Father with great emotion imparts honor and glory on those whom the recipient deems worthy and Flynn is guilty or slandered. Friends of mine who even, on occasion, proclaims a little of the wis- attended the Broadway play tell me after the perdom that brought him or her to the pinnacle for formance, the audience would be polled as to how many thought Father Flynn had done it and how which everyone else yearns.

I won’t be watching — as I’ll conveniently many thought he was innocent. They told me that be at a birthday party for my twin brother. This at the various showings they attended, the vote split almost in halves, year, however, I with the majority admit to being of women thinksomewhat intering he was guilty ested in some of and the majority the outcomes. I’ll of men considerbe rooting for a ing him innocent. film I never anThat would ignite ticipated I’d be

By Father debate as to the cheering. It’s reRoger J. Landry relative weight ceived five Oscar given to the cirnominations, one cumstantial evifor each of the four principal actors and the last for best writing dence and to Father Flynn’s explanations.

Based on the reactions I overheard and refor an adapted screenplay: “Doubt.”

It’s the film version of a Broadway play ceived after I saw the movie, people were simithat captured the 2005 Tony award. Written by larly in doubt as to the conclusion.

One man came up to me right after the movie John Patrick Shanley, it tells the 1964 story of a young Bronx priest suspected by the mother — I was dressed in my blacks and collar, which superior of the parish school of having molested on that night were like bull’s-eyes — and said, a young black altar boy. The drama focuses on “I’m sorry, Father!” When I politely asked him, the question of whether Father Flynn (Philip “Sorry for what, sir?,” he replied, “Sorry for Seymour Hoffman) is worthy of the admiration what you need to go through. Everyone treats so easily extended to him by the altar boys, the you as guilty when all you may be doing is being kids at the school, and Sister James (Amy Ad- friendly to kids.”

A woman came to me as I was putting on ams), a young teacher; or is guilty, as suspected

by Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep), of being the my coat and said, “Father, could that still hapworst type of predator, manipulating his esteem pen?” I thought she had overheard the previous to abuse a marginalized black youth looking to man’s comment and was asking if false accusations could still happen. “What do you mean, escape a violent home.

Everything hinges on the interpretation of ma’am?,” I luckily queried to be sure. “Could a circumstantial evidence: Father Flynn’s call- priest still get away with that type of behavior ing the young Donald Muller one day out of and get promoted to pastor?”

It was an opportunity to talk to both of Sister James’ class to come to the rectory; the boy’s returning to class looking upset and with them about the Dallas norms adopted in 2002 alcohol on his breath; and Father Flynn’s being by the U.S. bishops, which have resulted in seen by Sister James returning a white T-shirt far greater protection for the kids entrusted to to Donald’s open locker. Sister James takes her the Church’s care — thanks be to God! — but concerns to Sister Aloysius, who, upon hearing which have also left priests far more vulnerthem, immediately presumes that Father Flynn able to being treated, both in popular opinion is guilty. Sister Aloysius had earlier expressed as well as in canonical procedure, as basically her suspicions about Father Flynn because of a guilty before being proven innocent. “And for homily he had given on doubt, which she con- some people, you don’t even have to be accluded had to be an indication of problems in cused to be treated as guilty,” the man piped his vocation; the priest’s behavior with Donald in, probably referring to the reality that some Muller was a confirmation for her that her judg- people treat all priests as suspect because of ment was right yet again. Sister James objects the terrible sins of a few.

Before I took leave of them, they asked that Sister Aloysius just doesn’t like Father Flynn. The superior replies that she’s seen Fa- me what my thoughts were of the film. I told ther Flynn’s type before and that Sister James them that it’s impossible for me not to look at it through priestly lenses. The great virtue of the is just too naïve to see what she sees.

When they confront Father Flynn, the priest film, I thought, was that it conveys that contested first expresses his indignation at the accusation accusations against priests often hinge on the inand then gives a partial explanation. He called terpretation of circumstantial evidence, which, Donald over to speak about the young boy’s at least at a popular level, turns out to be like a having drunk some of the altar wine earlier in Rorschach test for the one interpreting the data. the sacristy. He didn’t inform the Sisters be- For those who don’t know the accuser, if they cause he knew it would result in his being ex- like the particular priest or the priesthood, they’ll pelled from the altar serving corps. He simply generally look for reasonable doubt; if they have returned the shirt that Donald had left behind in issues with the priest or suspect the Church in the sacristy in a way least embarrassing to the general, they may be quick to judge him guilty boy. He gave Donald extra attention because he as charged. This movie shows that in many cases knew he was picked on by the other boys at the it’s hard to discover the truth.

I don’t think someone could watch “Doubt,” school on account of his race. Some questions he refuses to answer. Sister Aloysius interprets I told them, and not remember its lessons the this reticence as a sign he’s hiding something, next time a priest is accused.

Father Landry is pastor of St. Anthony of but it’s possible he is protecting confidentiality or even the seal of confession. Donald’s mother Padua Parish in New Bedford.

Putting Into the Deep

“T

Teaching as he taught

he Catholic commuSecondary Schools in the Third nity is encouraged at Millennium, U.S. Conference of every level to support the work Catholic Bishops, June 13, 2005, of our Catholic elementary p.15). and secondary schools, keeping them available The Value of and accessible to as many parents as posCatholic Schools sible. Therefore, we the Catholic bishops of the

By Bishop United States strongly Salvatore R. Matano encourage our clergy and laity to market and support Catholic elementary Throughout the pages of holy and secondary schools as one of our Church’s primary missions.” Scripture the many miracles of (Renewing Our Commitment Jesus give us a glimpse of his to Catholic Elementary and tremendous love for each one

I

7

The Anchor

February 20, 2009

of us. Jesus made the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, the blind to see, those without speech to talk, and he even called the dead back to life. In addition to these physical cures, Jesus forgave sin and imparted his mercy and bestowed his compassion. But throughout all these manifestations of his divinity as the Son of God, Jesus was always and everywhere the teacher. He came to teach us about his heavenly Father, to instruct us in a new way of life built upon those two great

Almost full communion

only what the Apostles publically f the prevailing practice in Roman-rite Catholicism of admin- taught.

To be fair, the Immaculate istering the Eucharist to unconfirmed Conception was the subject of much children departs from the older, debate during the Middle Ages in the common tradition of East and West, West – Blessed John Duns Scotus so, from the Catholic viewpoint, championed it, St. Thomas Aquinas Orthodox sacramental life has its irregularities too. For instance, under opposed it – and it wasn’t finally defined by the pope until 1854. But some circumstances the Orthodox that’s because the development of Church permits divorce and remardoctrine hadn’t reached the point riage even in the case of a consumof comprehending how Mary’s mated sacramental marriage, citing as its authority Matthew 19:9, which preservation from sin could be the result entirely of a future event, it takes as an exception to Christ’s namely, Christ’s atoning sacrifice. general ruling about the indisIt should be remembered that the solubility of marriage. The Catholic feast of our Lady’s conception came Church recognizes that unconsummated sacramental marriages can be to us from the East and is observed in all the Eastern churches. The dissolved for weighty reasons, but theological and liturgical texts of it doesn’t recognize the possibility the Greeks and Russians imply the of remarriage in the case of conImmaculate Conception plainly summated sacramental marriages enough. And long after the schism as long as both spouses are living.

Despite the conflicting approaches, neither Church has ever officially accused the other of erring in its teaching on this matter. Parenthetically, both Churches agree that a

By Father Christian marriage must Thomas M. Kocik be sealed in the Church and not before a civil magistrate; but whereas of 1054, Orthodox theologians and the Orthodox Church holds that the spiritual writers were teaching the priest is minister of the sacrament, doctrine more and more plainly until the Catholic Church regards the partners as the ministers of the sacra- Protestant influence gave impetus to an opposing school. These facts ment, the priest (or deacon) being invite the suspicion that Orthodoxy the Church’s official witness. came to deny a belief primarily Eastern Orthodox theology is because Rome had formally defined intensely conservative and, when it. Reactionary motives are sugconfronted with Western theologigested also by the fact that both the cal developments, even reactionary.

Catholic and Orthodox Churches A particular manifestation of this believe in Mary’s bodily assumption is the Orthodox attitude toward the into heaven and commemorate it on Catholic doctrine of the Immaculate August 15; yet after the pope defined Conception, according to which the the Assumption as a dogma in 1950, Virgin Mary, from the moment she some Orthodox began to express was conceived, was by a special doubts about the doctrine and even grace of God preserved from origiexplicitly to deny it. nal sin. While the Orthodox Church Another difference between East invokes our Lady as “all-holy,” and West is the idea of purgatory “immaculate” or “spotless,” it has (from the Latin purgare, to purify). never formally pronounced on the As a point of dispute between the doctrine. A few Orthodox accept the two Churches, this only came into Catholic definition, or something the open in the 13th century. While close to it, but most reject it as an the doctrine is most fully developed innovation, protesting that it stems in Catholic theology, many Orthofrom a false understanding of original sin; or that it places Mary outside dox theologians also affirm a version of it. The doctrine stems from the the rest of humanity; or that the belief that the souls of persons who Church may legitimately dogmatize

The Fullness of the Truth

die in a state of grace might still have vestiges of sin, which must be removed before they enter a heaven of perfect love and communion with God (see Rev. 21:27); it is rooted also in the popular conviction that prayers avail to help the dead (see 2 Mac. 12:46). Catholics have traditionally viewed purgatory as a state of temporal punishment and expiation of sins not fully repented of, whereas Orthodox view it as a process of growth and maturation towards full transformation in Christ.

Either way, the main idea is sanctification after death, and perhaps the doctrine of purgatory really asserts nothing more.

Papal primacy and infallibility, the procession of the Holy Spirit, the Eucharistic consecration, the Immaculate Conception, purgatory: our notice of these and other OrthodoxCatholic points of difference is liable to falsify our proportion. The Roman and Eastern churches profess virtually the same faith, celebrate the same sacraments (albeit according to different rites), and enjoyed visible communion with each other for a thousand years. Timothy Ware again: “Athanasius and Basil lived in the east, but they belong also to the west; and Orthodox who live in France, Britain, or Ireland can in their turn look upon the national saints of these lands – Alban and Patrick, Cuthbert and Bede, Geneviève of Paris and Augustine of Canterbury – not as strangers but as members of their own Church.”

It’s gratifying to note that, from the Catholic side at least, most of the differences between the two communions needn’t hinder their reunion.

For example, in the Catholic understanding, the “Filioque” is not a church-dividing issue, as evidenced by the fact that the Eastern-rite Catholic churches (about which, more later) omit the clause in the Creed. If, in keeping with the stated purpose of this series, we identify Catholicism as the fullness of Christian truth, it is primarily for two reasons that will be explained next time. Those who like hints are advised to read Matthew 16:17-19 and John 16:12-15.

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

commandments to love God and to love our neighbor, to unfold for us his Magna Carta, the Beatitudes: “Seeing the crowds, he went up the hill. There he sat down and was joined by his disciples. Then he began to speak. This is what he taught them” (Matthew 5: 1-2). Jesus would then teach his disciples about love for the poor, comforting those in need, seeking justice and holiness in our lives, showing mercy and becoming peacemakers, and even enduring persecution “in the cause of right” (Ibid. 3-10).

Indeed, Jesus was and is the Teacher. He taught us how to pray to “Our Father”; and to seek forgiveness from the source of all mercy. Every miracle he performed, every teaching that he proclaimed identified him as the Way, the Truth and the Life (Cf. John 14:6).

So it is, then, that teaching is a vital and integral part of the life of the Catholic Church.

In imitation of Jesus, we are to teach as he taught. This is the primary mission of our Catholic schools: to assist parents in their role as the first and best teachers of their children in the ways of the Christian life. Our Catholic schools are committed to providing a complete education for our children which unites mind, spirit, heart and soul.

In our schools, faith in Jesus provides the foundation upon which all subjects develop the human person. One has only to contemplate the great works of literature, outstanding musical settings, and the magnificent works of art, which all found their inspiration in the Christ event. In his work entitled: “The Quest for Shakespeare,” Joseph Pearce writes: “There is a long tradition of belief that Shakespeare’s plays betray an element of Catholicism” (Ignatius Press, San Francisco, © 2008, p. 19). In this same work, the author writes: “Dante towers to the heights of Christendom, the literary fruit of the philosophy and theology of his mentor, St. Thomas Aquinas” (Ibid. p. 13).

So much of our culture finds its inspiration in the message of Christianity.

Our Catholic schools are necessary institutions to fulfill the mandate of Jesus to his disciples: “Go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations; baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you” (Matthew 28: 19-20).

Building upon this theme, Pope Benedict XVI, in his address to the Community of Catholic Education at The Catholic University of America on April 17, 2008, stated: “Education is

integral to the mission of the Church to proclaim the Good News. First and foremost every Catholic institution is a place to encounter the living God who in Jesus Christ reveals his transforming love and truth.” Our Holy Father goes on to mention specifically the importance of Catholic schools in this work of evangelization: “The Catholic community here has in fact made education one of its highest priorities. This undertaking has not come without great sacrifice. Towering figures, like St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and other founders and foundresses, with great tenacity and foresight, laid the foundations of what is today a remarkable network of parochial schools contributing to the spiritual well-being of the Church and the nation.”

Noting the rich heritage of Catholic education in our country, the bishops of the United States have committed themselves to supporting and nurturing our Catholic schools for the benefit of our children now and into the future. But the bishops cannot do it alone. Catholic schools need the support of our priests, religious, laity and parishes. As a community of faith, it is our mutual responsibility to assure that future generations of young people will have the opportunity to attend a Catholic school. So many of us have had this opportunity in years past; it is an opportunity that must be shared with others. To be sure, the continuation of successful and vibrant Catholic schools will require sacrifices. The question that must be asked is : “Why the sacrifice?” The answer comes to us from the voices of children.

Our children ask us: “How are you helping us to prepare for our future lives?” “What moral and religious foundations are you providing for us in order to make the right decisions as we face the complexities of the modern age?” “What is the educational inheritance that you are passing on to us?” “How complete is the education that you are handing down to our generation?”

These are difficult questions, but questions that touch upon the future leadership of our communities, states, nation and world.

Our young people are our hope, our successors in our chosen vocations and professions, our vision into the future. A Catholic school education is intended to equip them with Catholic principles and teachings which are timeless and open their eyes to a world both human and transcendent, ordinary and extraordinary, created by God who continues to dwell among us.

Bishop Matano is Bishop of the Diocese of Burlington, Vt.

8

I

n his classic book “The Inferno,” Dante describes hell as a place that consists of “cold blue ice,” not the fiery, hot place of burning passion to which we are accustomed to thinking. It is a frozen landscape devoid of any life or growth. Satan is not the seductive and persuasive personality we often characterize him to be, but rather a pathetic figure that is always sad and weeping unceasingly. He is constricted and confined by the coldness of sin, and suffers from a paralysis of the heart.

The point of course is that paralysis is not just a physical state, but at a much deeper level, an emotional, psychological and spiritual illness as well. Jesus is well aware that this paralysis of the soul is connected to sin. And that sin is not so much about what we do, as it is more about what we are unable to do or become because of its effects.

The distorted personalities we are trapped in; the illusionary lives we live; the twisted motives

The Anchor

February 20, 2009

‘See I am doing something new’

and erratic compulsions that people who condemned Jesus, often drive our lives. In effect we it was the crowd. Freedom from can become frozen, cold, stiff, the crowd was the first step for ridged, unable to move or be healing. moved, and paralyzed in a seemLike the four men in the ingly “impossible situation” Gospel, we too must carry our with no way out and without a “paralysis” and find new and cure. creative ways to overcome the Ironically, the first obstacle to the healing of the paralytic in the GosHomily of the Week pel is the crowd who has Seventh Sunday gathered around Jesus. of Ordinary Time “They were unable to get near Jesus because of the

By Deacon crowd.” The crowd often Bruce J. Bonneau becomes the place where the destructive forces of culture remain unexamined crowd. One of the great defeats and unchallenged: materialism, we experience in our culture is racism, sexism, corporate greed, a “failure of imagination.” Literand discrimination to name but ally to “image” the world in a a few. It is what John Paul II new and different way. Spiritual referred to as institutional sin; illness is often described and aswhat sociologists might call sociated with rigidity. Imaginamass consciousness; or what tion and flexibility on the other psychologists name as “addichand is a sign of well being and tive society.” It is important to growth; a sense that reality can remember that it was not Pilate, be trusted and that things, in the Romans, or the Jewish spite of the way they may look,

will work out to the good. Jesus, in today’s Gospel would call this a trusting disposition of the soul, which of course is also what we call faith. A faith which provides us, not so much with the right way of doing things, but more importantly, with another way of doing things — the way of otherness.

For the four men and the paralytic, faith in the first instance, is not about the existence of God, it is really about whether or not God can be trusted.

Who among us would risk the wrath of the crowd, climb the roof, and be lowered to the ground and trust that we would land in a soft, safe place, let alone be healed? Faith is not about the certitude of success; it is about surrender — literally, collapsing into the loving and merciful arms of Christ.

“It was when Jesus saw their faith that he said your sins are forgiven.” There was no prerequisite for forgiveness just a

trusting presence. It is the freeing experience of forgiveness that liberates us and allows for the possibility of transformation and healing. It is the “good news” which Christ proclaims and it is all gift. Forgiveness is not based in a worthiness game or a performance principle, but in an abiding trust and faith which melts the ice, gives life in a barren and frozen wasteland, warms the heart, frees us from the crowd and allows us to imagine the world through the eyes of Christ.

That’s “the something new” that Isaiah speaks of in today’s Old Testament reading. It is why in the Gospel the people gathered are “astounded” and exclaim “we have never seen anything like this.” It was after all the cure for the paralytic and remains the cure for us as well.

Deacon Bonneau is the assistant director of Adult Formation and Spirituality, and a deacon at St. Mary’s Parish in Fairhaven.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. Feb. 21, Heb 11:1-7; Ps 145:2-5,10-11; Mk 9:2-13. Sun. Feb. 22, Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Is 43:18-19,21-22,24b-25; Ps 41:2-5,1314; 2 Cor 1:18-22; Mk 2:1-12. Mon. Feb. 23, Sir 1:1-10; Ps 93:1-2,5; Mk 9:14-29. Tues. Feb. 24, Sir 2:1-11; Ps 37:3-4,18-19,27-28,39-40; Mk 9:30-37. Wed. Feb. 25, Ash Wednesday, Jl 2:12-18; Ps 51:3-6a,12-14,17; 2 Cor 5:20-6:2; Mt 6:1-6,16-18. Thu. Feb. 26, Dt 30:15-20; Ps 1:1-4,6; Lk 9:22-25. Fri. Feb. 27, Is 58:1-9a; Ps 51:3-6a,18-19; Mt 9:14-15.

W

e talked about everything for 31 years, Richard John Neuhaus and I did: families, friends, and adversaries; hopes dashed and hopes fulfilled; popes and presidents; religious freedom and the just war; magazines, books, and movies; Churchill’s loo at Ditchley House; the relative merits of Jack Daniel’s, W.L. Weller, and Woodford’s; you name it.

Part of the reason, I suspect, that a few crabbed souls seemed to resent our collaboration (even as they imputed to it powers and influence beyond our wildest imaginings) is that we were

The differences Richard Neuhaus made

clearly having such a good time. last thing Richard Neuhaus did Happily, that’s what happens in this vale of tears was smile. when you fight the good fights Perhaps he had been given a together. glimpse of what awaited him.

Thus the gap left in my life I’ve written elsewhere

by Father Neuhaus’s death on (www.newsweek.com/ January 8 is a large one. Yet id/179243) of the enormous imif, in the providence of God, it pact Father Neuhaus’s ideas had was time for RJN to be called home, I am grateful that the divine mercy arranged things so that the last thing we did together was pray together.

And, as his former

By George Weigel student, Deacon Vince Druding, told me of the moment of his death, the on American public life. One of those ideas — RJN’s argument that the First Amendment’s “no establishment” provision serves its “free exercise” provision, which led logically to the claim that “separation of church and state” did not mean eradication of religiously-informed moral conviction from public life — reset the default positions in the American church/state debate.

Then there was RJN’s signal contribution to the Pro-Life movement, in which he was a leader for 40 years: by insisting that the Pro-Life movement was the moral heir of the classic civil rights movement (in which he had also been a leader), he inserted the story of the ProLife movement into the most compelling moral narrative of contemporary American history

The Catholic Difference

— and thereby gave it a chance to prevail.

So let me focus here on two other aspects of Father Neuhaus’s enduring legacy which have gotten relatively little attention since his death.

First, ecumenism. In the early 1990s, an evangelical intellectual worried aloud to me about the lack of serious theological encounter between the two growing ends of American Christianity, Catholicism and evangelical Protestantism. I mentioned this to Father Neuhaus, whose credentials as a former Lutheran would, I thought, give him a unique brokerage position in any such encounter. Neuhaus contacted Chuck Colson, and the result was the ongoing project, “Evangelicals and Catholics Together,” which has evolved from a forum for discussing common concerns in public life into a bold exercise in ecumenical theology. Go to www.firstthings.com, punch “Evangelicals and Catholics Together” into the search engine, and you’ll see joint statements on salvation, the Bible, and the communion of saints that most of us never expected to see in our lifetimes.

While the bilateral ecumenism of the post-Vatican II years was running into one stone wall after another, Neuhaus was

pioneering the next phase of ecumenical encounter, and in ways that could shape the future of Christian witness throughout the world.

Then there was RJN’s unique role in Christian-Jewish dialogue. Its roots lay in his friendship with the late Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, out of which Neuhaus developed the conviction that the divinely mandated entanglement of Christians and Jews of which St. Paul spoke in Romans 9-11 ought to be explored theologically — and that New York City was the divinely mandated place to do it. So while the conventional Jewish-Christian dialogue was running along its well-worn post-Vatican II grooves (and, to be sure, producing good work), Neuhaus and colleagues like Rabbi David Novak and Rabbi Leon Klenicki launched a theological encounter between serious Christians and faithful Jews. The conversation was of such depth that, one evening, one of our rabbinical partners observed, “You know, Christians and Jews haven’t been talking to each other like this for 1,900 years.”

That was RJN. His work will go on. It’s the very least we owe him.

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

My first sports column

later served as faculty and coach Sunday 15 February 2009 — at Dartmouth High School. He Port-O-Call: Phoenix, Ariz. — was elected to the State Track 58th Annual National Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame. The high Association All-Star game school track is named in his ’ve never understood the honor. Cousin Al failed misergame of football. I can’t tell a first down from a fumble. My cousins attempted to preserve our family’s good name.

Reflections of a They dragged me to footParish Priest ball games and patiently explained what was

By Father Tim happening on the field.

Goldrick I was a clumsy middle school student and cousin ably in his attempts to teach me Al Porter was then the top high football. I was hopeless. school track star in the State of People sometimes invite me to Massachusetts. Al eventually Super Bowl parties. I’m far more won a full sports scholarship interested in the TV commercials to Notre Dame University and

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than in the game. When everyone takes a break during commercials, I abandon my station at the snack table and rush to watch the commercials.

This year my parish Youth Ministry Group hosted a Super Bowl Event. For me, so clueless about football, that was a leap of faith. We had a parish tailgate party. There was no way we were going to stand outside in this winter weather. Parishioner George Moitoza simply removed the tailgate from his truck, lugged it inside, and set it up in the nice, warm parish hall.

All the kids and their families were invited. The parish hall was

Catholic climate control

homes, a joyful climate which s February school vacamakes all the spiritual activity tion week approaches, associated with the Catholic I’ve been wondering what faith normal and desirable?” exactly it is that makes visiting a I have previously presented tropical climate during the dregs two foundational ways we can of a New England winter so delightful? Warmth would be the begin to establish this climate of deep faith in our homes: (1) by obvious answer, but I think there valuing our marriage vows, beis a little bit more to it, too. It’s cause marriage is as an illustrathe ability to play hooky from tion of God’s covenantal love for everyday life as well as those us; and (2) by substituting Chrisdregs. It’s the guilty pleasure of putting on shorts and going swimming in the ocean, all the while knowing that friends back home are scraping ice off their windshields.

By Heidi Bratton We rarely pause to consider the power climate wields over us, tian media for secular media in and yet climate is the context in our homes as much as possible, which almost all of our cultural swapping lasting spiritual truths norms either develop or disfor passing pop-culture trends. solve. Consider, as an example, Once this firm foundation for that before air conditioning, a climate of Catholic faith is in mid-afternoon siestas were place, I envision piling three commonplace among tropically more climatic pieces on top of hot, Latin American countries. this foundation in the same way Since the advent of air condione would assemble a snowman; tioning, however, many indoor one piece added to the next from businesses no longer sanction the bottom up. siestas, and so a cultural norm The bottom of the snowfaces extinction based on indoor man is put in place from birth climate control. to about age seven, when our Physical climates can be children’s spirituality is develanalogous to family climates. oped by osmosis. During this The movie, “My Big Fat Greek stage we, their parents, will Wedding,” shows palpably how embody the idea of God to families, too, can have differthem, even if imperfectly. They ent climates, and that children will learn to trust and not fear are formed differently in those God by experiencing that we different climates. The family are trustworthy. They will learn climate of the movie’s main to be generous, confident, and character is so vivacious and self-controlled because we are colorful that it almost swalthose things ourselves. In this lows her up. In stark contrast, season of spiritual development, the boyfriend’s family climate the best thing we can do for our is so languid and pale that it is children is to establish a home compared to “dry toast.” climate overflowing with love, As Catholic parents, we need trust, discipline, acceptance, and to ask, “What can we do to creforgiveness, and to shower them ate a climate of deep faith in our

Home Grown Faith

with ample time and attention.

Once our children reach the “memorize-that-dinosaur” stage, roughly between the ages of seven and 14, we know we need to add the middle of the snowman by changing the climatic setting of our homes to knowledge; massive amounts of knowledge. We flood our homes, their minds, and their imaginations with every possible bit of Christian history, Scripture memorization, and fascinating morsels of Catholic teaching that we can find. Why should facts about obscure dinosaurs get all of their intellectual attention? In this season of their spiritual development, we create a home climate of intellectual curiosity that encompasses everything about the Catholic faith; try popes, cathedral architecture, or saints, to name a few.

The snowman’s head, the final, climatic building block, is to create a home environment that challenges our children to put their hands to work through service to others and to the Church, employing the truth about Jesus they have felt in their hearts and have come to believe in their heads throughout their childhood. This spiritual season will begin around high school, and stretch somewhere into our children’s early 20s.

After this, we can only hope that we will have done our job, that our snowmen, I mean children, will have become Catholic individuals with integrity, and that we might enjoy a little parenting siesta on a mid-winter vacation to a remote tropical climate.

Heidi is an author, photographer, and full-time mother. She and her husband raise their six children in Falmouth. homegrownfaith@gmail.com.

rocking — just the way I like it.

Parish families came together to celebrate Super Bowl Sunday (not found in the liturgical calendar.) Of course, as in any family, some were not very interested in football so they chatted and giggled with their friends, played board games, or ran themselves ragged in the far end of the church hall (carefully supervised, of course.)

Food is important at a Super Bowl Event (or any event, for that matter.) Our Youth Ministry Group prepared some traditional football foods and invited parents to bring a dish for sharing. We ended up with six eight-foot tables of snacks — enough for 300 people (none of the food was wasted.) I made several covert sorties to the buffet table.

Yum. Local businesses donated gift certificates and game prizes.

The kids thanked their business patrons by posting hand-lettered signs around the room.

Maybe the New England Patriots should have been in the Super Bowl this year, but unfortunately, they weren’t. I decided to root for the underdogs, the Arizona Cardinals. This was only because the name “Cardinals” had religious connotations and “The Steelers” sounded like violators of the Seventh Commandment.

The big attraction here was our new giant screen projection TV. Various parishioners had donated all the technical components.

The “infinity speakers” are loud enough to blow the windows out, but that’s what one needs these days just to get the kids’ attention.

There was one problem.

Although we had all this donated equipment, we had no funds to hire a technician to install it. A few days before the Super Bowl, the staff was sitting in the Administration Office, fretting about what to do, when the mail arrived. In the mail was a donation sufficient to pay for the installation. Touchdown.

To prime the pump for the event, we gave a sneak preview of the spiffy new equipment to some of the Religious Education classes (snippets from an actionpacked Star Wars scene.) “Now kids, be sure to go home and tell all your friends what a cool thing you saw at St. Nicholas Church.

Remember, all are welcome here on Super Bowl Sunday. Bring your families.” The strategy worked. About a 150 people showed up, kids and parents.

The equipment is actually intended to be a state-of-the-art teaching tool for children and adults, but we’re not saying that too loudly. It’s enough to get the word out on the street that this is the best place in town to be on Super Bowl Sunday. The rest comes later.

I am now of the grandparental generation. Grandfathers can take only so much of this sort of thing.

When the opportunity arose, I quietly slipped out the backdoor (with a bowl of chili.) Back in my room, I watched the exciting fourth quarter. I don’t own a TV. I watched it as animated graphics on my computer screen.

All the plays were shown with a computer-generated football. The six-million-dollars-a-minute commercials also appeared instantly on the Internet. In the time-outs, I played the commercials. I replayed my favorites just for kicks.

My all-time favorite is still Super Bowl XVIII, 1984, Apple vs. IBM, third quarter. Apple’s allegorical commercial was not surprisingly entitled “1984.” The Macintosh personal computer was announced (but not shown.)

See, I remember obscure football statistics. Isn’t football terrific?

Now I will learn all about basketball. Watch out Dave Jolivet, Anchor sports columnist, here I come.

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

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Lost in space

see it everyday when out for a walk — old tires tossed into wooded areas; beverage bottles and cans strewn recklessly about; trash bags on the side of the road that exploded when tossed from moving vehicles.

When the wind is blowing, take a gander at how much paper waste is plastered against fences downwind.

It seems as though mankind is in a haste to make waste. But polluting the good planet Earth is not enough. Last week a U.S. satellite collided with a crippled Soviet

My View From the Stands

By Dave Jolivet satellite creating a debris field of 500-600 items.

That doesn’t sound like much in the larger scheme of things, but that’s not where this space story ends. Since mankind has been launching vehicles into the upper atmosphere beginning in the late 1950s, the Earth’s outer atmosphere is beginning to look like that fence downwind.

According to a CNN news story following last week’s outer space fender-bender, there are more than 18,000 pieces of floating space junk monitored by the U.S. Strategic Command. And those are just the pieces large enough to see from more than 500 miles away.

As the robot in “Lost in Space,” used to blurt while waving arms that looked like clothes dryer vents, “Danger, Will Robinson, danger.”

The danger doesn’t so much lie in the fact that this garbage can fall to our planet and conk us on the noggin. No, the hazard is for the traffic orbiting the earth — the Space Station, the space shuttles, other important satellites, and the Hubble Telescope.

Outer space for these contraptions is becoming like a weekday ride on the Southeast Expressway from 4-6 p.m.

One can only imagine what our planet looks like from other celestial orbs — much like Gillette Stadium immediately following a Pats game.

I’m one who does believe there are other forms of life in outer space, and I think I’m getting a grasp as to why none come for a visit. Sure there are the isolated sightings of UFOs, but it’s my theory that they quickly head back home and tell their peers, “Stay away from that place — it’s not safe to get close.

“They seem to have a very clever defense system — one more sophisticated than ours. They have protected their planet with a ring of rubbish to prevent us from approaching. Too bad, all we want to do is be friends and share resources. Oh well, there’s always Neptune.”

So the next time you’re gazing at the Milky Way on a warm summer evening and you catch a glimpse of a shooting star, don’t be fooled. It just may be a fiery ball of garbage.

But don’t tell the kids — it will spoil the romance of the mysterious heavens.

February 20, 2009

When running a busy food pantry, it is good to know ‘God provides’ B y Michael Pare A nchor Correspondent

pantry, which operates in a way, like a small business.

FALL RIVER— The way Philippe R. “It helps,” he said, of his business exGregoire sees it, by running the food pantry perience. “There is so much paperwork inat St. Anne’s Parish on Middle Street, he is volved. We are part of the Greater Boston doing the work that God intends him to be Community Food Bank and there is docudoing. mentation that has to be in place. There is The pantry is a busy operation, one for training in food care that needs to be done. which the demand has increased dramati- And in addition to gathering food, there are cally in recent years. A plummeting econ- boxes and bags to order. There is a lot of omy will do that. Like food pantries at work involved. You have to be organized.” parishes and social service agencies across Gregoire is quick to point out that he has New England, the one at St. Anne’s has a lot of helpers. In fact, St. Anne’s pastor, never been so busy.

Father Marc Bergeron, credits Gregoire Rising unemployment, coupled with the with having the ability to draw others torising cost of grocergether to work for a ies, is forcing more common goal. families than ever to “He is very comseek help from othmitted to our food ers. pantry,” said Father “A couple of years Bergeron. “And he ago we were passing has recruited a lot of out about 20 bags of other parishioners. food in a week and He’s quite a role modwe thought we were el. It’s a very beautibusy,” said Gregoire. ful witness that he “Now, we are up to gives.”

500 bags per month.

Like his work for And we’re probably the food pantry, Greadding about six to 10 goire is as committed families per week.” to the St. Anne’s St. Gregoire believes Vincent de Paul Sothat he has been ciety. As president of called to run the food the organization, it pantry. It struck him is Gregoire who gets as a simple gift to the calls from those in the Church when he need, or from somestarted volunteering one calling on their years ago. It was a behalf. way to give back and “We help people in to help those in need. ANCHOR PERSON OF THE WEEK — Philippe the area who have had But it has evolved R. Gregoire a loss,” he said. “It into something much may be a fire. When it more than that. is a pressing emergency we try as best we Now, he can’t imagine not doing it. can to help.”

Gregoire is a single father of two who While his work for the food pantry and St. attends Mass at St. Anne’s each weekend, Vincent de Paul Society occupy the bulk of the on Holy Days, and occasionally during the time Gregoire spends volunteering for St. Anne’s, week. But that devotion to Mass does not he also serves as a extraordinary minister of holy begin to reflect his determination to live his Communion, and collector during Mass. faith. For that, you must look deeper into When asked about what motivates him to his commitment to the food pantry, as well volunteer, Gregoire is humbled by the quesas to the parish’s St. Vincent de Paul Soci- tion or by the suggestion that he does a lot ety. for his parish. He doesn’t see any of this The food pantry, said Gregoire, is his work as something special, but rather, what “life’s calling.” He believes it is something he should be doing as a Catholic. he has always been meant to do, and he be“It’s more than just going to Mass,” he lieves that God is truly by his side in help- said. “People can practice their faith in difing to make it a success. He had no experi- ferent ways. I have always looked at being ence in running such an endeavor, and yet, involved in the parish as being part of a it has worked out well. There are days when family. It is all about enriching your faith.” he wonders whether they will meet the deGregoire sees the food pantry and the St. mand. And somehow, from somewhere, Vincent de Paul Society as the lifeblood of things fall into place. his parish. And most heartening, he said, “Every time that I think something isn’t is when he sees the children becoming ingoing to work out, that we aren’t going to volved as volunteers. At St. Anne’s, he said, have enough food or volunteers ... God has it is common to see the kids helping out. come through,” said Gregoire. “God wants “That’s the way that parishes are going me to continue this work. I always get the to survive,” he said. “The kids need to be support I need … spiritually and financial- taught to help the less fortunate. There isn’t ly.” enough of that in society these days.”

A senior accounting analyst at Textron in To nominate a Person of the Week, send Providence, R.I., Gregoire’s business acu- an email message to FatherRogerLandry@ men has come in handy in steering the food AnchorNews.org.

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Paul and Timothy and Titus

ith this talk, the Holy Fa- doctrines with two teachings. One consists in a call to return to a ther approaches the end spiritual reading of sacred Scripof his series on St. Paul which he ture (2 Timothy 3:14-17), that is, began last summer; only his cona reading that considers it truly as ference on the death and legacy “inspired” and coming from the of St. Paul remains. In this one, Holy Spirit. (Scripture here, of given at the general audience on course, means the Old Testament, January 28, he discusses the last since most of the New Testament writings attributed to St. Paul and had not yet been written or chosen his school, the so-called Pastoral as part of the canon.) Scripture is Epistles, to Timothy (two letters) and to Titus. Among the many purposes and goals of these compositions, Living the Pope Benedict singles out Pauline Year a few for us to consider.

First, Paul reflects on his own transformation

By Father Andrew from persecutor to apostle.

Johnson, OCSO He presents himself as one who has obtained mercy precisely so that Jesus Christ read correctly by putting oneself in “might display all his patience dialogue not with the spirit of the as an example for those who time, the “Zeitgeist,” but with the would come to believe in him for everlasting life” (1 Timothy 1:16). Holy Spirit.

The other call consists in being Were we to put words into his mouth, Paul would say, “See what grounded in the good “deposit” of the faith, in the tradition of the kind of God we have. I deserved apostolic faith that is protected in condemnation for my actions the Church with the help of the in persecuting the Church and I received overwhelming love from Holy Spirit who dwells in us. This “deposit” is held to be the sum of God. Have no fear yourselves; the teaching of the apostles and come to him and find mercy!” the standard for fidelity to the We also see in these three proclamation of the Gospel. In letters the first attacks on the erroneous teachings that would later this deposit of faith, the essential truth of who we are as Christians be called Gnosticism, especially becomes clear, of who God is, the idea that physical creation and of how we should be living. and human bodiliness were not The role of the Church is essential good, but the work of a force of and comprehensive here: she is evil opposed to the things of the both the “pillar and foundation” spirit. St. Paul confronts these

(1 Timothy 3:15) of the truth, and a universal, catholic mother who wishes to embrace all humanity.

The Church “slanders no one” and “exercises all graciousness toward everyone” (Titus 3:2).

Another important aspect of these letters is their reflection on the ministerial structure of the Church. It is here we find for the first time the triple subdivision of bishops, presbyters and deacons (cf. 1 Timothy 3:1-13; 4:13; 2 Timothy 1:6; Titus 1:5-9). In the churches that sprang up among the pagans, the orders of bishop and deacon had become predominant. In the churches formed mainly of Jewish Christians, the presbyters (later, “priests”) predominated. Now, reading the pastoral epistles, we see that the two structural systems have begun to be reconciled and blended (1 Timothy).

One thing further should be noted. Timothy and Titus, who on one hand are addressed as bishops

by Paul, on the other, begin actually to stand in the place of the Apostle himself in his absence.

Benedict notes that this dynamic development will later be called “apostolic succession.”

Thus, we begin to see all the essential elements of Catholic structure; Scripture and Tradition, Scripture and proclamation, form an integrated whole. To this doctrinal structure should be added the personal structure of the bishops,

premarital relationship, a few crude words and expressions, mild innuendo, and an undue emphasis on materialism. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG — parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

“The International” (Columbia/Relativity) Intense thriller in which a dogged Interpol agent (Clive Owen) and a New York assistant district attorney (Naomi Watts) investigate the elusive leaders (Ulrich Thomsen and Armin Mueller-Stahl, among others) of a global bank implicated in arms trading and murder. Director Tom Tykwer’s sleek, skillfully crafted conspiracy yarn, which also features Brian F. O’Byrne as an assassin, veers briefly into excessive violence, but focuses most of its attention on the frustrations of operating within the law and the perils of acting outside it. Considerable moderate action violence, brief but graphic gore, vigilantism, some rough and crude language, brief sexual humor, and a couple of uses of profanity. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classifi-

cation is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

“Push” (Summit) Dreary action adventure tale about a telekinetic American (Chris Evans) living in Hong Kong who teams with his similarly paranormal ex-girlfriend (Camilla Belle) and a tough-talking psychic 13-year-old girl (Dakota Fanning) to thwart the mind-controlling agent (Djimon Hounsou) of a secret and sinister government department. Director Paul McGuigan’s wearingly overcomplicated film traces its main character’s transformation from loner to protector, but otherwise meanders from one armed confrontation to the next. Considerable action violence, implied premarital sexual activity, underage drinking, at least one use of the F-word, half a dozen crude terms and a couple of uses of profanity. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting 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.

CNS Movie Capsules NEW YORK (CNS) — The following are capsule reviews of movies recently reviewed by the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“Confessions of a Shopaholic” (Touchstone/Bruckheimer) Mostly silly romantic comedy set in New York about a ditsy compulsive shopper (Isla Fisher) who achieves improbable success writing an anonymous advice column for a financial magazine, despite being deeply in debt herself, and who falls for her good-looking boss (Hugh Dancy). Director P.J. Hogan’s glossy adaptation of Sophie Kinsella’s novels is lively and colorful, and the leads are not without charm, but the film is a paean to materialism even as it pretends to convey a contrary message, while an overabundance of slapstick greatly undermines the humor. A

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the successors of the Apostles, and then the presbyters and deacons.

These Orders have become important witnesses to the apostolic proclamation itself.

Lest this all sound too formal and stiff, the Pope Benedict finally reminds us that in these letters the Church is constantly depicted in very human terms, in the analo-

gies of home and family, most particularly in 1 Timothy. May the world ever recognize in the Church, prays the Holy Father, the true and loving members of God’s own family on earth.

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

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Verbal engineering and the swaying of public conscience

Conference did the Anglican ver the years, a number of unjust laws have come church, swayed by growing to be replaced by more just ones. societal pressure, announce that contraception would be allowed Laws overturning the practice in some circumstances. Soon afof slavery, for example, were ter, the Anglican church yielded a significant step forward in entirely, allowing contraception promoting justice and basic human rights in society. Yet in very across the board. Since then, recent times, unjust and immoral every major Protestant denomination has followed suit, even laws have, with increasing frethough their founders, including quency, come to replace sound and reasonable ones, particularly Luther, Calvin and Wesley, had all unhesitatingly condemned in the area of sexual morality, contraception, and insisted that it bioethics and the protection of human life. Whenever longstanding laws are reversed, and practices come to be sanctioned that were formerly forbidden, it behooves us to examine whether such

By Father Tad momentous legal shifts Pacholczyk are morally coherent or not.

Concerns about moral coher- violated the right order of sexuality and marriage. Today, it is ence have always influenced only the Catholic Church which the crafting of new laws, as they did in 1879 when the State teaches this traditional view.

How is it that modern times of Connecticut enacted strong have seen such a striking reversal legislation outlawing contraof this ancient view of the moral ception, specified as the use of unacceptability of contraception? “any drug, medicinal article or How is it that our age continues instrument for the purpose of to witness a seemingly endless preventing conception.” This stream of legislative activity that law, like the anti-contraception promotes contraception through laws of various other states, exorbitant government fundwas in effect for nearly 90 ing initiatives in nearly every years before it was reversed major country of the world, with in 1965. It codified the longAmerican taxpayers providing, standing dictate of the public for example, more than $260 conscience that contraception was harmful to society because million of Planned Parenthood’s total income for 2004? Can it promoted promiscuity, adultery and other evils. It relied on something almost universally decried as an evil in the past the nearly universal sensibility suddenly become a good, or is that children should be seen as a help and a blessing to society, such a legislative reversal not and that, as Joseph Sobran puts indicative of a significant misuse of law, and of a collective loss of it, “a healthy society, however conscience on an unprecedented tolerant at the margins, must scale? be based on the perception that Whenever widespread social sex is essentially procreative, engineering of this magnitude with its proper locus in a loving occurs, it is invariably preceded family.” by skillful verbal engineering.

Such a view had been remarkThe late Msgr. William Smith ably deeply ingrained in Westobserved that the argument about ern society for millennia, and contraception was basically interestingly, until as late as the over as soon as modern society 1930s, all Protestant denomiaccepted the deceptive phrase, nations agreed with Catholic teaching condemning contracep- “birth control” into its vocabution. Not until the 1930 Lambeth lary. “Imagine if we had called

Making Sense Out of Bioethics

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

Scheduled celebrant is Father Barry W. Wall, in residence at Cardinal Medeiros Residence, and chaplain of the Diocesan Legion of Mary

it, ‘life prevention,’” he once remarked. The great Gilbert Keith Chesterton put it this way: “They insist on talking about birth control when they mean less birth and no control,” and again: “Birth control is a name given to a succession of different expedients by which it is possible to filch the pleasure belonging to a natural process while violently and unnaturally thwarting the process itself.”

Fast on the heels of such seismic cultural shifts over contraception was even more radical legislation permitting abortion-ondemand. Since the early 1970s, such legislation has effectively enabled the surgical killing of one billion human beings worldwide who were living in the peaceful environment of a womb. Here too, sophisticated verbal engineering was necessary, since nobody could reasonably expect the abortion ethic to advance by saying, “Let’s kill the kids.” Many things simply cannot be achieved when it is clear to everyone what is going on; obfuscation is essential.

The growing child in the womb was thus recast as a “mass of tissue” or a “grouping of cells.” The abortion procedure itself was re-described as “removing the product of conception” or “terminating a pregnancy” or simply, “the procedure.” Those who were “pro-choice” obfuscated as to what the choice was really for. As one commentator put it, “I think a more realistic term would be ‘pro-baby killing.’”

Euphemism, of course, has a serious reason for being. It conceals the things people fear.

It is defensive in nature, offsetting the power of tabooed terms and otherwise eradicating from the language those matters that people prefer not to deal with directly. A healthy legislative process, however, will abstain from euphemism and obfuscation, zeroing in on truth and moral coherence. It will safeguard and promote an enlightened public conscience, particularly when crafting laws dealing with the most foundational human realities like sexual morality, bioethics and the protection of human life.

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

February 20, 2009

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news briefs

USCCB, CRS seek one million Catholics for global poverty initiative WASHINGTON (CNS) — Catholics across a broad spectrum of the Church are being mobilized in a renewed effort to fight global poverty. Baltimore-based Catholic Relief Services and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops are seeking one million Catholics during the next two years to join an initiative designed to show that the difficulties Americans are facing during the current financial crisis are intricately intertwined with the plight of the poor around the world. The effort, Catholics Confront Global Poverty, is tied to Pope Benedict XVI’s World Peace Day message of January 1 in which he called for humanity to work toward greater human dignity through the promotion of peace and international aid that promotes human development, said Stephen Colecchi, director of the U.S. bishop’s Office of International Justice and Peace. “Our future is linked to theirs. Our security is linked to theirs. Our prosperity is linked to theirs,” Colecchi told a nationwide webcast. Colecchi joined Bill O’Keefe, senior director in the advocacy department at CRS, in announcing the initiative, which will be launched during the annual Catholic Social Ministry Gathering in Washington February 23.

Since Sister Dorothy’s murder, some religious in Amazon get protection SAO PAULO, Brazil (CNS) — When Bishop Erwin Krautler of Xingu celebrates Mass each Sunday, he has two altar servers and two police officers at his side. His house in Brazil’s Amazon region is monitored by cameras and surrounded by an electrical wire fence, and he is no longer able to take morning walks around his neighborhood. “He is under protection 24/7,” because he has received death threats for speaking out against injustices, said an official at the Brazilian Catholic bishops’ Indigenous Missionary Council. “I feel my liberty has, in some sense, been taken away from me,” Bishop Krautler told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview. Bishop Krautler has been under police protection for the past two years, after threats against him increased. He said there are several groups unhappy with him. The bishop has spoken against the construction of a hydroelectric plant along the Xingu River in Belo Monte. He has also strongly opposed advances made by farmers and loggers in the Amazon forest and was one of the main figures trying to bring to justice those who killed Sister Dorothy Stang, a member of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, in 2005.

Church leaders urge Madagascar factions to talk after deadly violence VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Christian leaders in Madagascar have urged political factions to enter into dialogue after recent political violence, reported the Vatican’s missionary news agency. Fides reported that Catholic Archbishop Odon Razanakolona of Antananarivo, president of the Forum of Christian Churches in Madagascar, “has sharply criticized” the bloodshed in which the presidential guard opened fire on demonstrators in the capital Antananarivo February 7. The forum “has asked the two sides to enter into dialogue,” February 8, Sunday Angelus prayer, Pope Benedict XVI said the bishops of the island designated that day as a day of prayer for reconciliation and social justice. “Deeply concerned about the particularly critical moment the country is living through, I invite you to join Malagasy Catholics in entrusting to the Lord those who have died in the demonstrations and in asking him, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, for the return of harmony among people, social tranquility and civil coexistence,” he said. More than 100 have died in political unrest since January.

Boston Pilot reporter to serve in Iraq, will chronicle troops’ lives BRAINTREE (CNS) — A staff reporter with The Pilot, the newspaper of the Boston Archdiocese, will be deployed to Iraq to serve with the U.S. Army, and his mission will be to chronicle the lives and day-to-day experiences of a unit of soldiers over the next year.

Neil McCabe, who has been with the paper for the past five years, is a sergeant in the Army Reserve. He received orders to mobilize February 8 with his three-soldier unit, the 311th Military History Detachment; after three weeks of training, the unit will go to Iraq March 1. According to McCabe, his unit will be “integrated into the command staff” of the 34th Infantry Division of the Minnesota National Guard — the “Red Bulls,” as they are known — currently stationed outside Baghdad. To provide the most accurate historical documentation, McCabe and his unit will “collect as much data, oral histories, memoranda, photographs and interviews as possible” about significant events and send them to the Center for Military History in Washington. There, they will be digitally preserved to maintain an accurate historical account of the war.

February 20, 2009

Postcard effort finding strong support continued from page one

Human Life Amendment, the USCCB’s partner organization began conducting postcard campaigns equipping citizens to express their Pro-Life views,” she added.

Tens of thousands of postcards have already been distributed to Catholic schools and parishes, non-Catholic churches and civic organizations.

The majority of Catholic dioceses nationwide are participating “We have to commend the courage of those in our diocese who stepped up to make this effort,” Desrosiers asserted.

The importance of the effort is reflected by the fact that “a composite of more than 63 pro-abortion groups has submitted a 55-page blueprint of its agenda, including the FOCA to the Obama Administration,” reported Desrosiers.

“The U.S. bishops have made it very clear that many current Pro-Life laws and policies are now at risk.”

She said what is of increasing concern “is that this incoming Congress is comprised of the greatest number of proabortion legislators we have seen in the past 16 years.”

Among FOCA’s propositions are the elimination of laws protecting parental involvement and conscience rights and those preventing partial-birth abortion and taxpayer funding of abortion.

Also at risk are widely supported Pro-Life measures of the long-standing Hyde Amendment — “already being chipped at piecemeal,” contends Desrosiers — which has prohibited the use of taxpayer funds for most abortions, and the Hyde/Weldon amendment preventing government discrimination against health care providers who do not perform or refer to abortions.

While FOCA has yet to come to the 111th Congress for a vote, some of FOCA’s facets have already been approved.

Obama has already ordered the funding of overseas abortions and the U.S. tax dollars to fund them.

While some Catholics opine that the postcard campaign might be coming too late, others are skeptical whether sufficient members of Congress will take note of the requests of even the majority of Americans with Pro-Life views, to block the bill.

Among those sent postcards was U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy, a Democrat from Massachusetts.

15

The Anchor In a January 30, response email to the Pro-Life Apostolate’s office in North Dartmouth, Kennedy reiterated his “adamant” support for abortion, which he said was his “considered” view. Here is what Kennedy wrote, in part: “Thank you for your recent communication on abortion.

I strongly support a woman’s right to choose and to make this deeply personal decision without government interference. All women have a constitutionally protected right to make this choice. I strongly oppose attempts by Congress to undermine it, and adamantly support legislation to protect a woman’s constitutional right to a safe and legal abortion. I know you may not agree with me on this difficult and highly personal question.

Few issues in recent years have been the subject of more debate and controversy than abortion. I have given various proposals careful study, and my position reflects my considered views.”

As reported to The Anchor on Monday, the accompanying parishes and numbers of postcards have been filed with the Pro-Life Apostolate.

PARISH:

Parish Responses to FOCA Postcard Campaign CARDS SENT

ACUSHNET: St. Francis Xavier ASSONET: St. Bernard ATTLEBORO: St. Joseph St. Stephen Holy Ghost St. Theresa of the Child Jesus St. Mark BREWSTER: Our Lady of the Cape BUZZARDS BAY: St. Margaret CHATHAM: Holy Redeemer EAST FREETOWN: St. John Neumann EAST SANDWICH: Corpus Christi EAST TAUNTON: Holy Family FAIRHAVEN: St. Joseph FALL RIVER: Espirito Santo Holy Name Holy Trinity Sacred Heart Santo Christo St. Anne St. Joseph St. Michael St. Stanislaus SS. Peter and Paul

Notre Dame de Lourdes Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception St. Mary’s Cathedral FALMOUTH: St. Patrick HYANNIS: St. Francis Xavier MANSFIELD: St. Mary MARION: St. Rita MATTAPOISETT: St. Anthony MASHPEE: Christ the King

NANTUCKET: St. Mary/Our Lady of the Isle NEW BEDFORD: St. Lawrence Martyr St. Kilian Our Lady of Fatima St. Mary St. Anthony of Padua

February is Catholic Press Month.

Treat yourself or a friend

to a wealth of

Catholic

information.

Subscribe to The Anchor One-year subscription — $14 Name: Address: City:

State:

Zip:

IF GIVEN AS A GIFT, THE CARD SHOULD READ: From: Street:

City/State:

Parish to receive credit: Enclose check or money order and mail to: The Anchor, P.O. Box 7, Fall River, MA 02722

1150 762 679 486 273 454 1125 1377 470 300 1104 1553 609 879 2136 996 709 600 2775 849 441 75 199 399 330 312 606 702 1382 2753 224 326

PARISH:

CARDS SENT

Our Lady of Perpetual Help Our Lady of Mount Carmel Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception St. Francis of Assisi NORTH DARTMOUTH: St. Julie Billiart NORTH EASTON: Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception NORTH FALMOUTH: St. Elizabeth Seton ONSET: St. Mary Star of the Sea ORLEANS: St. Joan of Arc OSTERVILLE: Our Lady of the Assumption POCASSET: St. John the Evangelist PROVINCETOWN: St. Peter the Apostle RAYNHAM: St. Ann SEEKONK: Our Lady of Mount Carmel SOMERSET: St. Thomas More St. John of God SOUTH EASTON: Holy Cross SOUTH YARMOUTH: St. Pius X SWANSEA: St. Louis de France St. Dominic TAUNTON: Annunciation of the Lord St. Anthony St. Jude the Apostle St. Mary WAREHAM: St. Patrick WELLFLEET: Our Lady of Lourdes WEST HARWICH: Holy Trinity WESTPORT: Our Lady of Grace St. John the Baptist

409 1413 1422 219 1825 431 742 132 1039 880 1098 370 1,365 1950 730 1575 593 2961 1008 1243 1194 1239 650 393 679 532 1440 736 171

As of press time, no numbers had been reported or acknowledged

1650 from the following parishes: St. John the Evangelist, Attleboro; Our Lady of Victory, Centerville; St. Anthony, E. Falmouth; St. Mary,

515 Fairhaven; St. Anthony of Padua and Good Shepherd, Fall River; 501 639 588 890 938

Good Shepherd, Martha’s Vineyard; Our Lady of the Assumption, Holy Name of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. John the Baptist, New Bedford; Sacred Heart and St. Mary, N. Attleboro; St. Nicholas of Myra, N. Dighton; St. Mary, Norton; St. Mary, Seekonk; St. Patrick, Somerset; St. Mary, S. Dartmouth; St. Francis of Assisi, Swansea; St. Andrew the Apostle and Holy Rosary, Taunton; St. George, Westport; and St. Joseph, Woods Hole.

16

Youth Pages

February 20, 2009

GOLDEN-AGERS — Students at St. John the Evangelist School in Attleboro are counting down the school days. They celebrated the 100th day of school collecting toiletries for our troops, helping the local animal shelters by collecting food, toys and blankets, and first-graders dressed as if they were 100 years old. Shown are some of the first-grade students with their teachers Karen Newman, left, and Paula Bedard. From left Shea Mulhern, Peter Le, Hailey Kropis, Sofia Troy, Meghan Doherty, Olivia Grivers, Eleni Dafulas, and Nolan Jaeger.

TIME WELL SPENT — Young people from Annunciation of the Lord Parish in Taunton attended a recent Taunton Deanery Holy Hour for Vocations, to pray for an increase in vocations.

ATTLEBORO IDOLS — Bishop Feehan High School in Attleboro recently held its second annual Feehan’s Got Talent Show. Students auditioned for a placement to perform for the student body and three faculty judges who presided during their performances. This year, seven acts were selected to perform. The winner of this years’ Judges’ Choice award was senior Bethany Conway, left, who played piano and sang Garth Brook’s “More Than a Memory.” Students who voted online after the performances chose senior vocalist Pat Vale, right, and accompanist senior Andy McCarty’s rendition of Coldplay’s “The Scientist,” as the Audience Choice winner. All contestants received gifts while winners won free tickets to the prom.

SOUPER EFFORT — For the 13th consecutive year, the confirmation class at St. Patrick’s Parish in Falmouth raised money for the hungry with a Souper Bowl for Caring day held on Super Bowl Sunday, February 1. This year the class collected its best-ever total — $1,436.50. The students collected the funds after each Mass that weekend. All of the monies raised remained in the Falmouth community; the Falmouth Service Center food pantry; Around the Table soup kitchen; and the parish St. Vincent de Paul Society. The students also collected 10 bags of canned goods.

February 20, 2009

I

Youth Pages What about our stimulus package?

t is all we have heard on it’s a real word) approach to the news for weeks…. religion where the central goal “Do we need a stimulus of life is to be happy and feel package?” “Will the stimulus good about one’s self. Most of package work?” “Who benefits us simply have to look within from the stimulus package?” the walls of our parishes to I don’t know about you, but know that this is true. Yet, all is all this talk about a stimulus not lost. package quite frankly has me exhausted.

Which is probably why I forgot about this month’s article (shhhhh don’t tell Dave Jolivet).

Then it came to me.

What would a stimulus

By Crystal Medeiros package for our Church look like?

Let’s address some of the introductory questions.

The foundations to stimulate “Does the Church need a our Church — or rather those stimulus package?” The answer who are and are not participatis an emphatic but not a hopeing in the faith are available less “YES.” to us and they are strong. Our We have heard and read the young people who are curresearch. Mass attendance is rently enrolled in faith formaon a decline. People’s faith is tion programs, our bishops, wavering. People are selecting priests, youth ministers, DREs, aspects of the faith to believe catechists, and teachers — can in. Adolescents — and probstand firm in the faith of Jesus ably some adults — of all Christ if we allow ourselves to faiths have adopted a moralistic be open to him and his mestherapeutic deism (seriously, sage. Through Jesus and his

Be Not Afraid

Gospel messages we can create a stimulus package that would evangelize countless people.

But we need to collaborate.

We need to communicate. We need to come together as one body with many parts. No matter our role — clergy or laity — in the Church, we must come together to be the leaders and disciples of the faith to which we have been baptized.

The roots are there.

It is our responsibility to water and nurture these roots. I have seen them grow with my own eyes as I look out among our young people who have voices longing to be heard. I saw it last year when we had more than 50 young people attend our annual Christian Leadership Institute or when I stood in the Cathedral as more than 40 young people were awarded with the Pope Pius X medal for their dedication and service to their parishes or as I have seem them glow when they have grown even closer to Christ

after making our annual YES! Retreat.

A stimulus package would work for our Church for our roots are strong as the seeds that were planted at our baptism.

Those roots deepen with our confirmation and our commitment to our faith and our parish.

This stimulus package would become our evangelization package. We are called to be evangelizers of our Catholic faith. We are called to evangelize to our brothers and sisters who are and are not Catholic.

Such an evangelization pack-

17 age would benefit anyone and everyone and help us to grow in our own faith. But we have to be an inviting Church, a welcoming Church, a forgiving Church and a loving Church — we must be Church to others.

And with our eyes always transfixed on Christ on the cross, how can we go wrong?

Crystal is the assistant director for Youth & Young Adult Ministry for the diocese and youth ministry coordinator for St. Lawrence Martyr Parish in New Bedford. You can contact her at cmedeiros@dfrcec.com.

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

18

The Anchor

Economic downturn creates spike in numbers at food pantries continued from page one

not of that size,” said CSS Director Arlene McNamee. “It’s never been that high in my time.”

For the year the Solanus Casey Food Pantry served 7,336 households and of that total, 3,203 or 44 percent were served in the last quarter.

McNamee is quick to add that the year’s final quarter was shorter than the previous three since the pantry didn’t open for the final two weeks in December.

Records indicate that a total of 6,212 persons (4,117 adults and 2,095 children) constituted those households receiving assistance over the three-month period.

The entire year’s tally of households served exceeds projections based on the previous year’s experience by 1,825.

“We’re feeding about 160 to 170 people every week now, which is up from about 110 a week,” said Dan Duarte, who coordinates the weekly soup kitchen held every Monday at Sacred Heart Parish in Fall River.

In addition, the parish also hosts a food pantry twice a month and has seen a similar hike in the number of families coming in re-

cently.

“We get a lot of our supplies from the Boston Food Bank, but even they have been cutting back,” Duarte said. “The need is up, but donations are down.”

The trend seems to be holding true for Damien’s Place Food Pantry in Wareham as well. Administered by the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in Fairhaven, Damien’s Pantry has reported about a 40 percent jump in families seeking assistance.

“At Christmas, we served 830 families in a month,” said Sacred Hearts Father Gabriel Healy, who oversees the pantry. “In previous years we only served about 620 or so during the same time, so it’s really gone up. And we serve families, so when I say 830, you have to multiply that by three or four people. It goes into big numbers.”

While Father Healy said demand has increased, so far they’ve managed to keep up with the additional families coming in.

“We just put in a cooler that cost a lot of money — so we can provide milk products, eggs, yo-

The Portuguese TV Mass broadcast on the Portuguese Channel February 22 at 11 a.m. will originate from St. Francis Xavier Church in Pawtucket, R.I.

gurt and keep fruits fresh,” he said.

“We can give produce because we have a place that can keep it.

We’re always buying from stores that have sales.”

“To be on the conservative side, I’d say we’re up about 30 percent,” said Jane Starinskas, president of the St. Vincent de Paul Society that runs the food pantry at St. Francis Xavier Parish in Hyannis.

“The poor box donations have been down, but we’ve been keeping up with food. We get about 80 percent of our supplies from the Boston Food Bank and we’ve increased our delivery from once to twice a month. People still drop stuff off at the church and we’ve been getting donations to keep us going.”

But it’s not just food that people are having difficulty affording. Starinskas said they just received a $10,000 grant from the United Way to help people offset the rising costs of utility bills and they will begin to dole out these funds to needy families in March.

They’ve also applied for grants through Project Bread and from the Bilezikian family, which owns and operates the popular Christmas Tree Shops throughout the area.

“We’re begging, but everyone knows there’s a tremendous need right now,” she said.

“We had to cut down — we used to let people come every Continued on page 19

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

Feb. 24 Rev. Edward F. McIsaac, Retired Chaplain, Rose Hawthorne Lathrop Home, 2002 Feb. 25 Rev. Leo J. Ferreira, V.G., Pastor, St. Mary, Brownsville, Texas, 1988 Rev. William T. Babbitt, Assistant, St. Mary, North Attleboro, 1998 Feb. 27 Rev. Philip Gillick, Founder, St. Mary, North Attleboro, 1874 Rev. Joseph N. Hamel, Founder, St. Theresa, New Bedford, 1956 Rev. John G. Carroll, Retired Pastor, St. Margaret, Buzzards Bay, 1995 Rev. Roland B. Boule, Retired Pastor, St. Anne, New Bedford, 2005 Feb. 29 Rev. Msgr. James Dolan, Retired Pastor, St. Mary, Taunton, 1980 March 1 Rev. James F. Masterson, Founder, St. Patrick, Somerset, 1906 Rev. Msgr. P. L. Damase Robert, P.R., Pastor, Notre Dame, Fall River, 1948 Rev. John McCarthy, CSC, Stonehill College, North Easton, 2003 Rev. William W. Norton, Retired Pastor, Our Lady of Lourdes Wellfleet, 2004

February 20, 2009

Around the Diocese Eucharistic Adoration: Eucharistic Adoration ACUSHNET — Eucharistic adoration takes place at St. Francis Xavier Church, 125 Main Street, Mondays from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., ending with evening prayer and Benediction.

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

NEW BEDFORD — Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament takes place at St. Joseph-St. Therese Church, 51 Duncan Street, Mondays following the 8:30 a.m. Mass until 1:30 p.m.

For more information call 508-995-2354.

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

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

NEW BEDFORD — Father Martin Buote will offer a Bible Study, sponsored by St. Lawrence Martyr, Our Lady of the Assumption, St. John the Baptist, Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Our Lady of Guadalupe at St. James parishes. Classes begin March 3 at 7 p.m. in St. James’ Rectory, 233 County St., and on March 7 at 9:45 a.m. in Our Lady of Guadalupe’s Chapel at St. Anne. Please bring your own Bible.

TAUNTON — Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament takes place every First Friday at Annunciation of the Lord Church, 31 First Street, immediately following the 8 a.m. Mass and continues throughout the day. Confessions are heard from 5:15 to 6:15 p.m., concluding with recitation of the rosary and Benediction at 6:30 p.m.

TAUNTON — Eucharistic adoration takes place every Tuesday at St. Anthony Church, 126 School Street, following the 8 a.m. Mass with prayers including the Chaplet of Divine Mercy for vocations, concluding at 6 p.m. with Chaplet of St. Anthony and Benediction.

Recitation of the rosary for peace is prayed Monday through Saturday at 7:30 a.m. prior to the 8 a.m. Mass.

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

Miscellaneous Miscellaneous: ATTLEBORO — The 40 Days for Life Pro-Life campaign invites people throughout the diocese to join in 40 days of prayer and fasting for an end to abortion. A peaceful vigil will take place outside a local abortion clinic, 150 Emory Street from February 25 through April 5. Those interested in participating or for further information can contact Steve Marcotte at 508-406-1211 or visit www.40daysforlife. com/attleboro.

CENTERVILLE — Mardi Gras Comedy Night will be held at Our Lady of Victory Parish, 230 South Main St., tomorrow beginning at 6 p.m. with hors d’oeuvres. A New Orleansthemed dinner will be served at 7 p.m., followed by the comedy show at 8 p.m. For information call 508-775-5744.

DARTMOUTH — The Kids in Christ group of St. Julie Billiart Parish will go snowboarding at Nashoba Valley tomorrow. Family members are welcome to join the group leaving after the 4:30 p.m. Mass. For more information, call 508-995-9728.

FALL RIVER — The Legion of Mary of the Fall River Diocese will hold its annual Acies consecration ceremony at St. Mary’s Cathedral Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Bishop George W. Coleman will officiate with Diocesan Director Father Barry W. Wall. There will also be a television Mass tomorrow at 10 a.m. in the chapel of Bishop Stang High School with Father Wall as celebrant.

FALL RIVER — A healing Mass will be held at St. Anne’s Church, 818 Middle Street February 26 at 6:30 p.m. Rosary will be recited at 6 p.m. with Benediction and prayers after Mass.

HYANNIS — The Tridentine Mass formerly celebrated at Our Lady of Grace Chapel in Chatham is now celebrated Sundays at 1 p.m. at St. Francis Xavier Church in Hyannis.

NEW BEDFORD — The third annual Texas Hold ’Em tournament to benefit Our Lady of Purgatory Maronite Church will be held March 14 at 12 p.m. at Café Funchal, 123 Church Street. Participants must be 18 years old to play and registration is limited to first 100 players. For information call 508-996-8934.

NEW BEDFORD — Sisters of Reparation of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus M. Wendy and M. Grace will present the message of Diving Mercy as given to St. Faustina, March 1 at 3 p.m., at St. Lawrence Church, 565 County Street between North and Hillman streets, followed by veneration of a relic of St. Faustina. All are invited.

NEW BEDFORD — An indoor yard sale sponsored by the Couples’ Club at Holy Name of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish, 121 Mt. Pleasant Street, will be held tomorrow from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. For more information, call 508-992-6583.

SWANSEA — St. Louis de France Parish, 56 Buffington Street, will host weekly Centering Prayer gatherings using a Lectio Divina format. The group will meet in the Family Room of the main church at 6:15 p.m., every Wednesday in Lent, beginning March 4 through April 8. Prayer begins promptly at 6:30. For more information, contact Charles R. Demers at forums8799@mypacks.net or 508-264-5823.

WAREHAM — The Cape and Islands Prayer Group Deanery will hold a Day of Recollection March 19 at 8:45 a.m. at the Sacred Hearts Retreat Center, 226 Great Neck Road.

Father William Petrie, SS.CC., provincial of the Congregation will be the presenter. The day will conclude with exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and Mass at 3 p.m. For information call 508-759-2737.

WEST HARWICH — Holy hour will be held on February 23 at 1 p.m. at Holy Trinity Church, Route 28. The rosary is followed by Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

Support Groups FALL RIVER — The next meeting of Courage, a group for people who are experiencing same-sex attraction and would like to live in the Church’s teachings of chastity, will be held February 28 at 7 p.m. For location information call Father Richard Wilson at 508992-9408.

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

Continued from page 18

single week and now they can only come twice a month,” said Paula Briden, director of the food pantry at St. Anthony of Padua Parish in New Bedford, who noted they’ve seen a steady increase of about 20 to 30 new families a week over the past few months. “That was the only way to keep up with new families. I wish we weren’t in such a high demand.”

In addition to bagged food items, they also provide a hot meal and good used clothing to eligible families in need every Thursday.

Briden said they currently serve about 130 families each week.

Mike Hebert, director of operations at St. Joseph’s Food Cellar, which is run out of the rectory basement of St. Joseph’s Parish in Attleboro, said they’ve signed up more than 300 new families this year alone.

“We’ve got 4,400 signed up, so I’d say we’ve had at least a 30 percent increase,” Hebert said.

“We do about 100 to 120 food bags a week. I’ve been going to the food bank in Boston at least once a week. That really helps out because of the way we can buy food there … the money goes a lot further.”

For McNamee, the increasing number of persons seeking assistance from the pantry is of obvious concern.

“As the year went on we saw increases in the numbers of working-age adults including many with children coming to the pantry for help,” she said. “It’s a troubling sign of a worsening economy with layoffs and hard to find employment. If it continues to escalate, I’m worried about our food supply and our ability to continue to meet the needs.”

The pantry is a collaborative operation of Catholic Social Services and several area parishes — Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Our Lady of the Assumption, and St. John the Baptist, all of New Bedford; St. John Neumann, East Freetown; and St. Mary, South Dartmouth.

Parish volunteers organize the food items, prepare bags of food for distribution — each containing produce, cereals, and meats adequate to feed a family of three for three to five days — and assist in the distribution process.

To keep its shelves stocked, the pantry is dependent on the generosity of local churches, organizations, schools and businesses, many of which make donations of food repeatedly — some large, some small — throughout the year. In addition, the pantry is able to buy food from the Greater Boston Food Bank at a discounted, bulk rate price or to get it without cost.

“It is truly a community ef-

19

The Anchor

February 20, 2009 fort,” McNamee said. “Some of our volunteers have been working at the pantry for years and some of our food providers, like Freihofer’s Bakery of Wareham, make donations 52 weeks a year.

We are so grateful.”

“We always need more people to help,” Father Healy said. “We have only one paid person at our pantry … all the rest of us are volunteers. But some of the smaller pantries, they just can’t do it.”

“The schools have been very helpful and supportive,” Starinskas added. “We received over 300 food item donations from the Marstons Mills East Elementary School.”

The Solanus Casey Food Pantry is based at the Catholic Social Services’ New Bedford office on Bonney Street in the city’s south end and is open on Wednesday and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Those seeking assistance must meet income eligibility requirements and provide specific documentation to verify need levels. Each household/family may visit the pantry once a month, although exceptions are made for those with extenuating circumstances.

Food donations are welcomed and may be dropped off at Catholic Social Services, 238 Bonney Street, New Bedford, Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Arrangements may be made for pick up of larger quantities of food from an organization or from a food drive. For more information call Paul Thibodeau at

508-997-7337.

Damien’s Place Food Pantry is located at 3065 Cranberry Highway in East Wareham and is open Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Those wishing to volunteer or make donations should contact Father Gabriel Healy, 73 Adams Street, P.O. Box 111, Fairhaven, Mass.

02719 or call 508-993-1010, extension 326.

The food pantry at St. Francis Xavier Parish, 21 Cross Street in Hyannis, is open Tuesday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

For more information or to make a donation, please contact Jane Starinskas, c/o St. Vincent de Paul Society, 21 Cross Street, Hyannis, Mass. 02601, or call 508-7753073.

St. Joseph’s Food Cellar, 208 South Main Street in Attleboro, is open every Friday from 6 to 7 p.m. in the basement of the parish rectory. To volunteer or make a donation contact Mike Hebert at 508-226-1115.

The food pantry at St. Anthony of Padua Parish is located in the

church basement at 1359 Acushnet Avenue in New Bedford, and is open every Thursday from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. For more information contact Paula Briden at 508-994-9907.

Sacred Heart Parish, 160

Seabury Street in Fall River, hosts a food pantry every second and fourth Monday of the month from 4 to 5 p.m. and also sponsors a soup kitchen every Monday from 5 to 6 p.m. For more information call 508-673-0852.

FEEDING THE HUNGRY — At left, volunteers Maureen Guilmette, left, and Marjorie Lothrop serve salad during a recent soup kitchen held at Sacred Heart Parish in Fall River. At right, Bishop Connolly High School student Scott Cote helps load a serving cart during a recent soup kitchen at Sacred Heart Parish. The parish’s weekly soup kitchen and biweekly food pantry have seen a marked increase in attendance in recent months due to the economy. (Photos by Kenneth J. Souza)

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The Anchor

Faithful greet Lent with hope of renewal continued from page one

Lent is that it is a time for catechumens and those preparing for baptism to ready themselves for the Easter vigil and initiating sacraments; but it is for all of us too,” said Father Bergeron.

“The scriptural readings at daily Masses during Lent provide all of us with a mini course of reflections about the Easter we are heading towards, and so attending daily Mass is most important, and at the very heart of Lent,” he added.

While fasting during Lent was “very regulated” and better taught in former years, unfortunately it is not so much today, he added.

Although some people fast to cleanse their body or lose weight, Christians fast during Lent “to make a personal renewal of their lives and their faith,” Father Bergeron explained. “Fasting and dieting are two different things. Fasting — denying ourselves material food — means paying attention to those things in our lives we need to change for the better; to make a renewal, a conversion, which must be Christ-centered, because we are fed by his saving word.”

Sister Marie William Lapointe of the Dominican Sisters of the Presentation in Dighton said she generally finds people in Lent “are more serious about fasting … and not just necessarily food.

I think many people find Lent is a time to become more prayerful … perhaps not just kneeling in the pews, but forming a fuller and closer relationship with God, with Jesus, as they go about their lives.”

While a long-time and common Lenten practice is “giving up dessert,” many among the laity make “a greater effort, that one’s growth in the love of God should also be accompanied by being more charitable to one another in their daily life,” which is a facet of almsgiving, one of the basic three ingredients of Lent, Sister Lapointe noted.

While attending daily Mass continues to be one of the most practical and meaningful Lenten traditions, she said Masses “are not always as available to many as in previous years because of the fewer number of priests.”

She also sees greater numbers attending the Stations of the Cross conducted in parishes.

“I think the Stations is making a comeback. But I also think many more would come to Stations and even make them on their own, if they were taught how. It is something that should be done.”

Father Leonard Hindsley, pastor of St. John the Baptist Parish in Westport, said that the important concept of “giving things up” for Lent can also become more positive by making time to attend daily Mass and also take a new look at the word of God,

which can likewise advance one’s spirituality.

“We’ve scheduled an extra Mass on Wednesdays at 6 p.m., because we find more and more people want to go to Mass during Lent, and for many the evening Mass is better,” Father Hindsley reported. “Following Mass a group meets for a Bible study class at 7 o’clock.”

At St. Francis Xavier Parish in Acushnet, pastor Msgr. Gerard P. O’Connor says Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament “is becoming very popular as it once was in other generations, and especially among young people, which to me is very inspirational.”

Following the traditional Stations of the Cross on Friday evenings the Blessed Sacrament is exposed for adoration.

“More than 30 people attend and I think this is a great start.

The Stations are a beautiful way of prayer and meditation … especially during Lent, and have always been one of my favorites.

To follow with adoration and Benediction makes for a wonderful devotion.”

He added, “Of course attending daily Mass whether during Lent or in any season is the greatest and most fruitful of all prayer. There is no better way to start the day.”

Mary Becker, a secretary at Christ the King Parish in Mashpee and chair of the ECHO weekend program, told The Anchor, “You can see that people are just so touched by the symbolism of Ash Wednesday when they attend that service. They link with the suffering of Christ.”

She added that the youth of the parish readily take part in a special Stations of the Cross. “The

young people are not ashamed of their Catholic faith and you can see how reverently they participate. They’re well aware of the meaning and the holiness.”

Claire Amiot, a parishioner of Notre Dame in Fall River, and very involved in prison ministry said, “The people I visit in prison have already had so much taken away from them in their lives, so I share teachings about Lent with them.

“They’re made aware that they

February 20, 2009 must be available to God — find quiet time for him, which is difficult in an noisy environment like that. They should be aware God needs their attention before he can speak to them and hear what he is saying to them.”

She added that Lent can provide a special time for the inmates to “prepare a space for God.” “We stress that they have to work hard to give up their whole body and mind and make them

available to God, but it’s not a sole effort. It’s a community effort, supporting each other with the sacrifices they chose to make during the Lenten season.”

Amiot added that self discipline is lacking in many of the inmates. “They see discipline as from the outside — as ‘ugly’ authority. For many, their lives were out of control, and participating in Lenten devotions to God helps them realize that he can restore control to their lives.”