Diocese of Fall River, Mass.
F riday , March 13, 2015
HCFM president’s Lenten Mission to focus on how all families are ‘holy families’
Easton, founded by Father Peyton, will present a fourday Lenten mission at St. Ann’s Church in Raynham beginning March 16 and ending March 19. RAYNHAM — It seems that whenever The mission theme is “The Joy of the Family: Servant of God Holy Cross Father Patrick Begins in Our Homes.” Peyton is mentioned in print, his signature Each of the sessions, which includes quote, “The family that prays together stays Mass and an extended homily, begins at 7 together,” is never more than a sentence or p.m. at the church at 660 North Main Street two away. That’s because those seven words in Raynham. The mission is sponsored by created one of the most powerful and pure the diocesan Taunton Deanery. promises based on God’s love for His chilFather Raymond took over as president dren. of HCFM this summer after spending 14 It’s always been the tradition of Father years in Hollywood as director of Family Peyton’s confreres to carry on his passion and zeal for prayer, especially when it comes to keep- Theater Productions, a branch of HCFM, where he had a hand in creating faith-based family films, televiing families together or healing broken ones. In that context, Holy Cross Father Willy Raymond, sion and radio. president of Holy Cross Family Ministries in North Turn to page 15 By Dave Jolivet Anchor Editor
Crew members from the Peragallo Organ Company in Paterson, N.J. pack up the organ pipes from St. Mary’s Cathedral in Fall River to transport them back to the company’s factory. The pipes are being cleaned and fine-tuned to be used with the Hook pipe organ from the former Sacred Heart Church in Fall River that is being restored for the cathedral. (Photo by Father John Ozug)
Historic cathedral pipe organ being restored, resurrected By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff
FALL RIVER — Faithful attending Mass celebrations at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption in Fall River will soon be enjoying the rich, rumbling sounds of an authentic Hook pipe organ, thanks to the meticulous restoration efforts of the Peragallo Organ Company of Paterson, N.J. According to Father John C. Ozug, rector of the Mother Church for the Diocese of Fall River, the longawaited plan to resurrect a pipe organ for the cathedral is finally coming to fruition. With the blessing and approval of Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, S.D.V., work began in January to repurpose the pipe organ previously housed inside the former Sacred Heart Church in the city — an original 1883 model built by E. and G.G. Hook and Hastings — along with components from the former St. Louis Parish Chadwick pipe organ and the defunct Kilgen model inside the cathedral into a new instrument for St. Mary’s. “The Pipe Organ Fund begun by Father Edward Healey more than 14 years ago made good progress due Turn to page 18
The ECHO Retreat Program on Cape Cod recently celebrated its 45th anniversary in the Diocese of Fall River. Some of the members of the ECHO Youth Board 2014-2015 gathered for a picture with Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, S.D.V., at the event. From left: Derek Silliman, Beth McEntee, the bishop, Dan Burke, Mary Burke, Jon Mayer-Brant, Melissa Quigg, Nathan Ryan, Maddie Alper, Shannon Evaul, Lucy Cahill, Sarah Craig, Gianna Trajkovski, and Emily St. Onge. Story and other photos on page 17.
Local Church seeks happily married men and fathers By Linda Andrade Rodrigues Anchor Correspondent
and husband, if married; their work; and diaconate ministry. This is a call, and God is calling them to serve.” NEW BEDFORD — Is God calling you to serve His Candidates between the ages of 35 and 60 must be of Church as a deacon? sound faith and actively involved in the Church’s apostoBishop Edgar M. da Cunha, S.D.V., has authorized the late; display personal integrity, maturity and holiness; and formation of a new permanent diaconate class, which will be in a valid Catholic Marriage for at least five years or a begin in the fall. Those discerning a vocation are invited to mature celibate state of life, if single. The ministry also reattend an informational night on March 24 at 7 p.m. in St. quires a real commitment involving time, effort and hard Mary’s Parish Center in New Bedford. work. A man who believes the Lord is calling him as a deacon Some of the duties of the ministry include proclaiming serves alongside priests and bishops, while also maintain- the Gospel during Mass, delivering homilies, distributing his obligations to family and career. ing Holy Communion, celebrating Baptisms, witnessing “We look for men who will grow in Spirituality, love of Marriages, teaching Religious Education, visiting the hosthe Church and love of the diaconate,” said Msgr. John J. pitalized, imprisoned, aged and homebound, and coordiOliveira, diocesan director of the Office of the Permanent nating advocacy efforts in light of Catholic teachings. Diaconate for the past 10 years and pastor of St. Mary’s The fraternal bonds forged throughout the five-year Turn to page 18 Parish. “They will balance a three-part life: as a family man
News From the Vatican
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March 13, 2015
Ignoring, abandoning the elderly is a sin, pope says
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Seeing the elderly only as a burden “is ugly. It’s a sin,” Pope Francis said at a recent weekly general audience. “We must reawaken our collective sense of gratitude, appreciation and hospitality, helping the elderly know they are a living part of their communities” and sources of wisdom for the younger generations, the 78-year-old pope said. Continuing a series of audience talks about the family, Pope Francis said he would dedicate two talks to the elderly, looking at how they are treated in modern societies and at their vocation within the family. “An elderly person is not an alien,” he said. “The elderly person is us. Soon, or many years from now — inevitably anyway — we will be old, even if we don’t think about it.” “If we do not learn to treat the elderly well,” the pope said, “we won’t be treated well either” when the time comes. In a talk punctuated with references to his own family life, his grandmother and his experience visiting homes for the elderly in Buenos Aires, Pope Francis said even Christians are being influenced by cultures so focused on production and profit, that the Biblical exhortations to respect the aged and draw upon their wisdom are being ignored. “We elderly are all a bit fragile,” the pope said, changing his prepared text to include himself among the aged. The elderly he visited in Buenos Aires, he said, would often tell him that they had many children and that their children visited them. “And when was the last time they came?” the pope said he asked one woman. “She said, ‘Well, at Christmas.’ It was August. Eight months without a visit from her children. Eight months of being abandoned. This is called
a mortal sin. Understand?” “It is so easy to put our consciences to sleep when there is no love,” he said. “While we are young we are tempted to ignore old age as if it were an illness to hold at bay,” he said. “But when we become old, especially if we are poor, sick and alone, we experience the failures of a society programmed for efficiency, which consequently ignores the elderly.” “We want to remove our growing fear of weakness and vulnerability, but doing so we increase the anguish of the elderly,” Pope Francis said. The aged are the “reserve of the wisdom of our people,” they have experienced and survived the struggles to raise a family and provide them with a dignified life, he said. Tossing them aside means tossing aside their experience and the way that experience can contribute to making life better today. A society that cannot show gratitude and affection to the elderly “is a perverse society,” the pope said. “The Church, faithful to the Word of God, cannot tolerate such degeneration.” “Where the elderly are not honored,” he said, “there is no future for the young.” Before the audience, Pope Francis met briefly with 60 bishops from 35 countries who were participating in a conference sponsored by the Focolare movement. Addressing the bishops from “the bloodstained lands of Syria, Iraq and Ukraine,” the pope assured them he is “united with them” each day in the celebration of the Eucharist. “In the suffering you are experiencing along with your people, you experience the strength that comes from Jesus in the Eucharist, the strength to go forward united in faith and in hope.”
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Two years after he was elected pope, Pope Francis’ popularity rating among U.S. Catholics is at 90 percent, surpassing Pope Benedict XVI’s best-ever popularity, and rivaling that of St. John Paul II. Pope Francis, who is scheduled to visit Washington, New York and Philadelphia in September, garnered a “very favorable” view from 57 percent of U.S. Catholics, and “mostly favorable” from another 33 percent. By comparison, Pope Bene-
dict’s highest favorability rating was 83 percent in April 2008, when he visited the United States. St. John Paul achieved favorability scores of 93 percent in May 1990 and June 1996, and 91 percent in May 1987, four months before his second U.S. visit. All polls were conducted by the Pew Research Center, which issued its findings March 5. Pope Francis scored 84 percent favorability at his March 2013 election, dipped to 79 percent that September, then rose to 85 percent in February 2014.
After two years in office, Pope Francis has 90 percent favorable rating
An elderly woman becomes emotional as Pope Francis greets her as he arrives for a weekly audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. The most serious ailment the elderly face and the greatest injustice they suffer is abandonment, Pope Francis said. (CNS photo/Tony Gentile, Reuters)
Saints in the Little Flower family grow as parents set for canonization Vatican City (CNA/ EWTN News) — Last week it was informally announced to journalists that the parents of St. Therese of Lisieux, Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin, will be canonized this year in the same month as the synod on the family. “Thanks to God in October two spouses will be canonized: the parents of St. Therese of Lisieux,” Angelo Cardinal Amato said during a recent encounter organized by the Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Entitled “What purpose do the saints serve?” the event highlighted the importance of the holiness within the family. Cardinal Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, announced that Louis and Zelie Martin will be canonized in October of this year, the same month in which the Synod of Bishops on the family will take place in the Vatican. “The saints are not only priests and religious, but also lay persons,” the cardinal said, referring to the French spouses. The cardinal’s announcement comes a short time after Bishop Jean-Claude Boulanger, who oversees the French Diocese of Bayeuz-Lisieux, revealed his intention to open the cause of beatification for St. Therese’s older sister Leonia Martin. Referred to by Bishop Boulanger as Therese’s “difficult” sister, Leonia was the third of Louis and Zelie’s nine children, and a member of the Order of the Visitation. Louis and Zelie were beatified Oct. 19, 2008, by then-
Pope Benedict XVI and their canonization will be the first of its kind in history, where a married couple are jointly proclaimed saints together. Their path to the altar has surpassed that of married couple Blessed Luigi and Maria Beltrame Quattrocchi, who were beatified together in October 2001. Married in 1858 just three months after meeting each other, Louis and Zelie lived in celibacy for nearly a year, but eventually went on to have nine children. Four died in infancy, while the remaining five daughters entered religious life. Both had previously attempted to enter the religious life themselves — Louis as a monk and Zelie a nun with the Order of the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. Zelie was turned away due to respiratory problems and frequent headaches, while
Louis was denied entry because he couldn’t speak Latin, which at that time was a requirement for entering the seminary. Louis then became a watchmaker, and Zelie a lace maker. Known for living an exemplary life of holiness, the couple’s daily practices included Mass at 5:30 a.m., praying the Angelus and Vespers, resting on Sundays and fasting during Lent and Advent. The couple would also invite poor people to dine with them in their home, and they frequently visited the elderly, thus teaching their children to treat the disadvantaged as equals. Zelie died from cancer at the age of 46, leaving Louis to care for their five young daughters: Marie, Pauline, Leonie, Celine and Therese, who was only four at the time. Louis died in 1894 after suffering two strokes in 1889, followed by five years of serious drawn-out illness.
Blessed Louis and Marie Zelie Guerin Martin, the parents of St. Therese of Lisieux, are pictured in a combination photo created from images provided by the Sanctuary of Lisieux in France. Pope Francis is expected to canonize the couple during the world Synod of Bishops on the family in October. (CNS photo/courtesy of Sanctuary of Lisieux)
March 13, 2015
The International Church
Beuerberg Abbey choir stalls in Beuerberg, Germany as seen January 9. The 12th-century monastery will house up to 60 refugees from Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, Afghanistan and other conflict zones. (CNS photo/ Anian Christoph Wimmer)
German archdiocese plans new residents for old abbey: refugees
BEUERBERG, Germany (CNS) — Cold winter light is streaming through the ancient windows of Beuerberg Abbey. It plays on the wood of the empty choir stalls, shimmers on the bronze hand bell of the prioress. Everything is quiet and ready for the next prayer. But this bell will likely never again break the silence of these walls. The last nuns of Beuerberg have left. The monastery, founded in 1121, today stands empty in the snowy landscape of the Alpine foothills. “Oh, this is not the end! On the contrary,” said Sister Maria Lioba Zezulka, prioress of the Visitandine order, flashing a smile. “This is a new beginning on several wonderful levels! And not just for the refugees who may soon have a home within these walls.” Sister Lioba and the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising have worked a deal to house refugees in the abbey. They hope that, within a few months, families from Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, Afghanistan and other conflict zones can find a home here. “Till then, we need to get a lot of building permissions and works organized,” said Gabriele Ruttiger, head of strategy and organizational development for the archdiocese. Msgr. Peter Beer, archdiocesan vicar general, sees Beuerberg Abbey as a test case and model for the future use of the more than 100 monasteries across Upper Bavaria, a growing number of which are threatened by the drastic decline in vocations. Record numbers of migrants
and asylum-seekers are pouring into Europe, and most of them are headed to Germany. As the U.N. refugee agency reports, Germany has been — and continues to be — the recipient of the largest number of asylum applications, followed by France, Sweden, Italy and the United Kingdom. The number of asylumseekers arriving in the state of Bavaria is especially high: The railway lines from Italy and southeastern Europe, via which many refugees enter the country, end in Munich. In 2014 alone, Bavaria spent more than 234 million euro on housing and feeding the refugees. With more arriving each day, housing in the expensive region is at an absolute premium — and the idea of providing shelter in a former monastery immediately struck a chord with Church strategists, the nuns and local citizens in the village of Beuerberg. “So this is where we could house up to 60 refugees,” Ruttiger said, standing in the St. Joseph wing of Beuerberg Abbey. The deserted building has spacious rooms with high ceilings and panoramic views of the Alps. Until 2007, ethnic Germans migrating from the former Soviet Union were housed here. Working with the Knights of Malta, the archdiocese plans to provide a range of services for the new inhabitants of the abbey: psychological counseling, German-language lessons and assistance with state services. In 2013, the prioress of Beuerberg died of old age, and the remaining 13 nuns,
on average more than 80 years old, needed help. Sister Lioba, whose order is also known as the Salesian Sisters, moved in with the remaining Sisters and prepared for the transition. Sister Lioba found new homes for her aging Sisters, who, after much prayer and soul-searching, unanimously agreed to leave Beuerberg. The elderly sisters even wrote a specific prayer for the challenge. After months of contemplation, negotiations and meetings, two other orders agreed to take the remaining Sisters into their respective fold. “It was the hardest thing I’ve had to do, but also one of the most rewarding and wonderful,” she said. Sister Lioba tried to sell the abbey, and when she could not, she contacted Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising. He and Msgr. Beer immediately saw what was at stake and secured the support of the archdiocesan administration, managing to organize an offer that made “the Sisters cry with joy when they received news of this positive turn of events,” as the prioress recounted. Now the nuns are able to live out their days in a cloistered environment among Sisters, paid for by diocesan funds. At the same time, the archdiocese took over the abbey. Sister Lioba is enthusiastic about the prospect of refugees finding a home at Beuerberg Abbey. “The nuns are still praying for their abbey, you know. And for all the people who will live there in future, no matter who they are,” she said.
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The Church in the U.S.
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March 13, 2015
Notre Dame scores big on HHS mandate at Supreme Court
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a potentially groundbreaking decision, the Supreme Court nullified a federal court ruling against the University of Notre Dame on the HHS contraception mandate and sent it back for reconsideration by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. The university is “gratified” by the decision, said vice president of public affairs and communications, Paul J. Browne. They had requested the case be remanded by the Court in light of the Hobby Lobby decision last June. “Notre Dame continues to challenge the federal mandate as an infringement on our fundamental right to the free exercise of our Catholic faith,” Browne said. Notre Dame is one of more than 100 non-profit institutions to sue the federal government over a mandate requiring that employers provide health care plans covering contraception, sterilization and some drugs that can cause early abortions. After the initial mandate was announced, hundreds of organizations, churches, and business across the country voiced their religious objection. The government subsequently developed an “accommodation,” under which non-profit employers who religiously objected to offering such coverage could send a notice of objection to a third party who would then offer the coverage. Notre Dame and other plaintiffs have argued that they would still be violating their religious convictions by cooperating in such a way with the contraception coverage, which they believe to be immoral. The university’s request for an injunction offering protection from the mandate was initially denied, and the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that ruling last February. The university then appealed its case to the Supreme Court. The contraception mandate “violated our religious beliefs by requiring Notre Dame’s participation in a regulatory scheme to provide abortion-inducing products, contraceptives, and sterilization,” Browne stated. Last June, the Supreme Court issued a major ruling on the contraception mandate, saying that the federal regulation cannot be applied to “closely-held corporations” — including arts and crafts retailer Hobby Lobby — if their owners have religious objections to it. Now, the Supreme Court is instructing the appeals court to reconsider Notre
Dame’s case, taking into account the Hobby Lobby ruling in support of religious freedom. Some observers said the court’s Monday decision could foreshadow this religious freedom protection being reinforced more broadly for other religious employers as well.
The Becket Fund, which supported the university in a “friend of the court” brief, called Monday’s ruling “a major blow” to the mandate and a “strong signal” that the court will uphold the religious freedom of institutions like Notre Dame in similar cases. The ruling is all the more important
because the university was the only nonprofit organization without legal protection from the mandate, the Becket Fund added. The government was using the Seventh Circuit’s denial of an injunction to argue against other non-profit organizations who were suing, such as the Little Sisters of the Poor.
Notre Dame’s Father Hesburgh laid to rest with grand memorial
NOTRE DAME, Ind. (CNS) — Holy Cross Father Theodore M. Hesburgh frequently told friends and colleagues that his greatest ambition was to be a humble servant to God. When those same friends and colleagues joined thousands of admirers from across the U.S. at the University of Notre Dame to pay tribute to the longest-serving president of the nation’s most recognized Catholic school during two days of funeral and memorial services ending March 4, they recalled a man whose impact on the world was as great as that of a world leader. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, former Secretary of State Condolezza Rice, politicians, cardinals, bishops and clergy joined Notre Dame officials, students and faculty in campus-wide tributes, processions and Liturgical services as the worldrenowned priest was laid to rest. Before Father Ted, as he was affectionately called, died February 26 at the age of 97, he requested a simple funeral that would be characteristic for priests in his religious community, said Dennis K. Brown, spokesman for Notre Dame. The Congregation of Holy Cross kept the services in line with what is customary for other priests, but Father Hesburgh’s world stature was much larger than most clergy and interest in paying last respects has been enormous, Brown said. So, the memorial tributes arranged by Notre Dame were large in scale and fitting for the world figure that he was. “He was not only celebrated, he was beloved,” said Holy Cross Father John I. Jenkins, the current president of Notre Dame, in the homily he gave during the March 4 funeral Mass at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on the Notre Dame campus. Father Hesburgh has been credited with transforming the small Catholic college of the 1950s known for its football team into the world-class academic research institu-
Mourners surround the casket of Holy Cross Father Theodore Hesburgh during his burial service March 4 at Holy Cross Community Cemetery on the campus of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. Father Hesburgh, former president of Notre Dame, died February 26 at age 97 in the Holy Cross House adjacent to the university. (CNS photo/Matt Cashore, University of Notre Dame)
tion that it is today. He’s also recognized as a champion for world peace, immigration reform, nuclear disarmament, civil and human rights, who advised several popes and U.S. presidents on a wide array of social concerns. Father Hesburgh, who headed Notre Dame from 1952 to 1987, had the ability to help people who didn’t share viewpoints find common ground, a trait that served him well while serving on the many presidential commissions for which he was appointed, said R. Scott Appleby, dean of the Donald R. Keough School of Global Affairs at Notre Dame. “Father Hesburgh was a genius in investing in human beings,” Appleby told Catholic News Service during an interview at the university. “He invested in people who are now leaders in a variety of academic disciplines and industries that will say today that ‘he took an interest in me and he helped develop my career.’” “It was absolutely brilliant and it wouldn’t have worked if he hadn’t have been sincere, and he was deeply sincere,” Appleby said. One of the most influential marks he left on Catholic higher education happened in 1967 when he assembled several of the country’s leading university presidents at the Congregation of Holy Cross retreat center at Land O’Lakes, Wisconsin, which produced a document titled “Statement on the Nature of the Contemporary Catholic University,” better known as the Land O’Lakes statement, Appleby said. That document emphasized that Catholic universities must have autonomy and academic freedom in the face of authority of whatever kind, lay or clerical, external to the academic community itself. “That was controversial at the time,”
with critics charging that it made Catholic universities too secular in its approach, made them not sufficiently faith-filled, and created institutions that were too similar to schools like Harvard, Princeton, Yale and Stanford, Appleby said. “Some said Father Ted contributed to secularization of Catholic universities,” Father Jenkins said during his homily, “but he maintained true fidelity to the Church. However, he was always convinced that Notre Dame couldn’t fully give to the Church if it didn’t become a truly great university.” Appleby says the Land O’Lakes statement offered Catholic universities the freedom to hold academic discussions on topics that sometimes challenged Church teaching, but didn’t take away from the schools’ Catholic identities. Some critics of that document maintain that it has caused confusion on some Catholic university campuses about what the Church teaches. David J. O’Brien, writing in Boston College Magazine in 1998, noted, “The tension between autonomy and identity would create a tug of war that has continued through Ex Corde Ecclesiae, Pope John Paul II’s Apostolic Constitution on Catholic Higher Education. Ex Corde was published in 1990 after five years of consultation between the Vatican and U.S. Church and university leaders, and the debate about how it is to be implemented continues, with tension centering on its proposal that those teaching Catholic theology secure a mandate to do so from ‘competent ecclesiastical authority.’ Ever since Land O’ Lakes, university leaders have consistently rejected such interventions into their academic decision making.”
March 13, 2015
The Church in the U.S.
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A global problem: Anti-Christian harassment around the world
Washington D.C. (CNA/EWTN News) — Christian groups lead the world in a sobering statistic: they suffer harassment in more countries than any other religious group. “The world’s two largest religious groups, Christians and Muslims, continued to be harassed in the most countries, and there was a notable increase
in the number of countries in which Jews and adherents of folk religions were harassed,” the Pew Research Center said in a recent report on trends in religion-related restrictions and hostilities. Christian groups suffered social or government harassment in 102 countries in 2013, while Muslims faced similar problems in 99 countries. Jew-
ish groups faced harassment in 77 countries, a seven-year high. Pew defined harassment in various ways, encompassing physical assault; arrest and detention; desecration of holy sites; discrimination in employment, education and housing; and verbal assaults. The number of countries with a “very high” level of government restrictions now stands
at 18, down from 24, though Turkey and Singapore are new to the list. Some evangelical Protestants and Mormons say they suffer government surveillance and police interference in their activities in Turkey. Singapore continues to ban Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Unification Church, and severely restricts some religious groups including the Falun Gong movement. While religion-related social hostilities are down slightly from a 2012 peak, high social or political hostility towards religion is present in almost 40 we’re seeing now in the inner ried couples has “increased ten- percent of the world’s countries, city is catastrophic; Marriage fold since the 60s,” said Mac- Pew found. Another 17 countries show Donald. has all but disappeared.” “very high” social hostility levShe also said that males are According to the latest U.S. els, the report said. Social haCensus statistics, by the end of increasingly viewed as “basirassment is a problem for Mus2013, single-mother families cally extraneous” and many see in poverty had increased for fatherhood as optional to fam- lim groups in 84 countries, a problem for Jewish groups in the fourth straight year to 4.1 ily life. Horn agreed, saying that 72 countries, and a problem for million, or 41.5 percent. That number corresponded with “when we lose the idea of fa- Christian groups in 71 counlonger-term trends of declining therhood, then we lose fathers.” tries. Tanzania and the Central He recalled his work with Marriage and out-of-wedlock African Republic were new to births. Census figures showed the Healthy Marriage Initiative, the list of countries with very that the number of married created by Congress in 2005 “to couples with families living in help couples, who have chosen high religion-related social poverty remained unchanged at Marriage for themselves, gain hostilities. The Central African greater access to Marriage edu- Republic is suffering sectarian 2.1 million, or 8.7 percent. “Young boys are growing up cation services, on a voluntary violence between Muslim rebel with no expectation that they basis, where they can acquire groups and Christian vigilante will marry the mother of their the skills and knowledge necchildren because now single essary to form and sustain a parenting is absolutely the healthy Marriage.” The program provided prenorm,” said MacDonald. “Children in cultures where Mar- marital education and Marriage has disappeared are not riage-strengthening services to being inducted into a culture of low-income couples. “We saw lasting impacts afstability and responsibility, so you have a spiraling system of ter only a short-term intervention,” said Horn, who stressed dysfunction.” “Raising your own child is the need for providing greater the most important lesson of access to Marriage resources personal responsibility that a and conducting public educayoung male can learn; when tion campaigns on the importhat is taken off the table, you tance of Marriage. In a recent interview with have a recipe for anarchy,” she Catholic News Service for Naadded. The panel also addressed the tional Marriage Week, Robert trend of “delayed Marriage,” P. George echoed the panelists’ or getting married later in life, view that flourishing societies which MacDonald said “is now depend on the traditional institution of Marriage. a challenge for our culture.” “All other institutions of She attributed the growing trend to “the feminist move- a society — economic, civic ment and recalibrating rela- and legal — vitally depend tionships between men and on Marriage,” said George, a Catholic, who is a professor women in the wake of that.” She also described a “gap be- of jurisprudence at Princeton University. tween desire and reality.” “They rely on people being “As long as pollsters have been asking questions, young decent, law-abiding citizens people have been saying that who are willing to do their part happy Marriages and family life for the common good,” he said, are important to their future,” “so they depend on the institushe said, yet the median age of tion of Marriage because they those marrying in the United (society’s institutions) require States has increased six years in the kinds of people that they themselves are not able to genthe past four decades. The cohabitation of unmar- erate.”
Good Marriages ‘lead to a flourishing society,’ says speaker
FORT WASHINGTON, Md. (CNS) — Marriage is not only a social good, but an economic one as well, said speakers on a recent panel on “The Future of Marriage in America.” “Good Marriages truly lead to a flourishing society,” said moderator Kate Bryan, communications director for the American Principles Project. It is “statistically proven that children do best” in a traditional, two-parent household, said Wade Horn, who served as assistant secretary for children and families in the Department of Health and Human Services under President George W. Bush. “What we’re finding out now is that kids who are born and reared in two-parent households are more likely to move up on the income scale as they become adults,” he said. Social mobility is “something that researchers are paying attention to,” Horn added, “but what I’m not sure if policy groups are paying attention to is the fact that Marriage matters.” Horn and others on the panel spoke during the recent Conservative Political Action Conference, held at a convention center in a Maryland suburb of Washington. “A good Marriage culture is a concern to those who want a just society, good government and a stable economy,” said Jennifer Marshall of the Heritage Foundation. Children need their mothers and fathers and no government program can substitute for the love, guidance and sense of place in the world that parents can provide, according to Heather MacDonald, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. A changing Marriage culture in the United States is proving toxic for young men and women, she said. “What
groups, with hundreds of people dead and hundreds of thousands of people displaced. The Ivory Coast was one of 12 countries where social hostilities significantly declined. Pew cited as cause for the decline the joint statements from Christian and Muslim leaders who promoted national reconciliation and religious tolerance and interfaith events that emphasized national unity. Pew researchers drew on publicly available information sources including the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, and the Council of the European Union. The analysis focused on the year 2013 because it was the latest year information was available. North Korea was not included in the report because independent observers lack access to the country, which is considered one of the most repressive in the world. The year 2015 marks the seventh year Pew has produced a report on government restrictions and hostilities related to religion.
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March 13, 2015
Anchor Editorial
Setting something aside for Good Friday
This past Tuesday the Holy See released to the public a letter that it was sending all diocesan bishops throughout the world, encouraging them to foster donations to this year’s Good Friday collection for the Holy Land. Since this collection is taken up during the Liturgy of Good Friday, a very solemn one, it is not easy to promote the collection on that day. Thus Cardinal Leonardo Sandri and Archbishop Cyril Vasil, S.J., of the Vatican’s Congregation for Oriental Churches wrote to their fellow bishops so that they could remind people beforehand of this important collection. The two Vatican officials wrote, “The need is particularly felt in this time of crisis, through which the entire region of the Middle East is passing. The season of Lent favors a meditation full of love for the holy places which were present at the origin of our faith and in which the first Christian communities, following Christ, Salus Mundi, were gathered. Already St. Paul remembers them, when he warmly exhorts his audience to ‘to make some contribution for the poor’” (cf. Rm 15:25-26; Gal 2:10; 1 Cor 16; 2 Cor 8-9). In other words, we are reminded that even in Biblical times Christians in other lands took up collections to help their brothers and sisters in the Holy Land. The officials continued, “Like the Apostle [Paul], so also Pope Francis has particularly at heart the sufferings of so many of our brothers and sisters in this corner of the world, a place made Sacred by the Blood of the Lamb. ‘[Their suffering] aggravated in the past months because of the continuing hostilities in the region cries out to God and it calls for our commitment to prayer and concrete efforts to help in any way possible’” (Pope Francis, “Letter to the Christians in the Middle East,” Dec. 21, 2014). We have a few weeks to prepare for this collection, so that when the basket is passed in front of us during the Good Friday Liturgy, we can be united in our prayers and our almsgiving for these Christians, who in these days have a much larger share of the cross than most of us. The letter noted, “Senseless hatred seems to prevail instead [of dialogue], along with the helpless desperation of those who have lost everything and have been expulsed from the land of their ancestors. If the Christians of the Holy Land are encouraged to resist, to the degree possible, the understandable temptation to flee, the faithful throughout the world are asked to take their plight to heart. Also involved are brothers in Christ who belong to various confessions: an ecumenism of blood (emphasis in the original text)
which points toward the triumph of unity: ‘ut unum sint’ (that all might be one!)” ( Jn 17:21). The two officials were calling to mind the occasional complaint of Christians who don’t live in the Holy Land about the declining number of Christians there — the cardinal and archbishop want us to put our money where our mouths are, not just complaining about this demographic problem, but doing something, no matter how seemingly small, so as to help arrest it. They also remind us that through the split blood of Christians of various denominations, we are united together with Christ’s sufferings on the original Good Friday. The Vatican officials mention a special vocation of Holy Land believers: “The little flock of Christians, spread throughout the Middle East is called ‘to promote dialogue, to build bridges in the spirit of the Beatitudes (cf. Mt 5:3:12), and to proclaim the Gospel of peace’” (Pope Francis, “Letter to Christians in the Middle East”). They then remind us that we need to do our part for this bridge-building: “Only in the unity of the Spirit and in fraternal charity with all disciples of Christ, can the Church, His spouse, bear witness to hope before her children who daily live the same sufferings of the Lord, humiliated and abandoned. [We] trust that the Good Friday collection will be welcomed by all of the local churches, resulting in an ever greater participation in the solidarity coordinated by our Congregation in order to guarantee the Holy Land with necessary support, for the demands of ordinary ecclesial life and for particular necessities.” The Vatican website (http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/ bollettino/pubblico/2015/03/10/0175/00390.html) lists the various projects towards which the money will go, from the mundane (new parking lots on Mount Tabor) to the extremely urgent (relief work with refugees in Lebanon and Syria). Being practicing Catholics here, we know how our parishes have had to scrimp by this winter due to snow. Imagine having to deal with war and persecution (and snow — they actually had to deal with that this winter, which just made the sufferings of the refugees even worse) while trying to have a somewhat “normal” faith life. May God help us to be as generous as we can to our brothers and sisters who live where Jesus did.
Pope Francis’ Angelus message of March 8 Dear brothers and sisters, good morning! Today’s Gospel presents the episode of the expulsion of the vendors from the temple ( Jn 2: 13-25). Jesus “made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen” ( Jn 2:15), the money, everything. This gesture aroused strong reactions, in the people and in the disciples. Clearly, it appeared as a prophetic gesture
to such an extent that some of those present asked Jesus, ‘What sign can You show us for doing these things?’ Who are You to do these things? Show us that You have the authority to do them. They were looking from a sign from God that shows Jesus as being sent by God. And He answered, “Destroy this Temple, and in three days, I will raise it up” (v. 19). They answered Him, “This OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER
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temple has been under construction for 40 years, and you will raise it up in three days?” They had not realized that the Lord was referring to the Living Temple of His Body, that would be destroyed with death on the cross, but would rise again on the third day. “When He was raised from the dead,” notes the evangelist, “His disciples remembered that He had said this, and they believed the Scripture, and the Word which Jesus had said.” In fact, this gesture of Jesus and His prophetic message is fully understood in light of His Passover. We have here, according to John, the first announcement of the death and Resurrection of Christ: His Body, destroyed by the violence of sin on the cross, in the Resurrection, will become the meeting place between God and men. And the Risen Christ is really the universal meeting place for everyone! Between God and men! For this, His humanity is the true temple, where God is revealed, speaks, meets; and the true worshipers
of God are not the guardians of the material temple, the holders of power and religious knowledge, but are those who worship God “in Spirit and truth” ( Jn 4:23). In this Lenten season, we are preparing for the celebration of Easter, when we renew the promises of our Baptism. We walk into the world as Jesus did and we make our whole existence be a sign of His love for our brothers, especially the weakest and the poorest. We build a temple to God in our lives. And so, we make Him “meet-able” to the many people we find along our path. But, we ask ourselves and each of us may wonder: Does the Lord feel truly at home in my life? Do we allow Him to do a “cleansing” in our hearts and to drive out the idols, those attitudes of greed, jealousy, worldliness, envy, hatred, that habit of gossiping and tearing down others? Do we allow Him to do a cleaning of all behaviors against God, against others and against
ourselves, as we heard today in the first reading? Each one can respond to himself, in silence, in his heart: “Do I allow Jesus to make my heart a little cleaner?” Jesus does not cleanse our hearts with a whip, but cleans with tenderness, with mercy, with love. Mercy is His way of cleaning. Let each of us, let the Lord enter with His mercy. Not with the whip, no, with His mercy, to clean up in our hearts. The whip of Jesus with us is His mercy. Let us open the door that gives this little “cleaning.” Each Eucharist, we celebrate with faith. It makes us grow as a living temple of the Lord, through Communion with His Body, crucified and Risen. Jesus knows what is in each of us, and knows even our most ardent desire: that to be inhabited by Him, only by Him. Holy Mary, privileged dwelling place of the Son of God, accompany and sustain us this Lent, so that we can rediscover the beauty of the encounter with Christ, which frees us and saves us.
Anchor Columnist Frequent Confession
March 13, 2015
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nother essential aspect to a Catholic plan of life that has a particularly Lenten relevance is frequent recourse to the Sacrament of Reconciliation and Penance. The 40-day pilgrimage of Lent is a return, like the Prodigal Son, to the Father’s house. The way we participate most fully in the joy of Jesus’ Resurrection on Easter is through receiving the Father’s mercy. Jesus seemed to emphasize the connection between Reconciliation and resurrection in what He said in that parable and what He did on the evening of the day He rose from the dead. In the parable, he has the father say at the return of his son, “My son was dead and has come back to life again.” And we know that the first thing that Jesus did on Easter Sunday evening, when He came through the closed doors of the Upper Room, was to found the Sacrament of Reconciliation. He first wished the Apostles “peace,” and the peace He was extending was the definitive peace between God and us through the forgiveness of sins. Then He said, “Just as the Father sent Me, I send you,” and we know that the Father sent Jesus as the Lamb of God
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to take away the sins of the tion, the devil would do everyworld. Third, He breathed on thing he can to try to persuade them the power of the Holy people not to go to Confession. Spirit — because only God can There are some he has duped forgive sins against Him — and into thinking they’re as sinless said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. as the Blessed Virgin or just Those whose sins you forgive commit peccadilloes that really are forgiven. Those whose sins don’t need to be confessed and you retain are retained.” And, forgiven. since the Apostles didn’t receive There are others who know from Jesus the ability to read everyone’s soul and heart, the only way they Putting Into would know which sins to forgive and which the Deep not to pardon would be if people told them By Father their sins. Roger J. Landry How fitting it is that Jesus established the Sacrament of His mercy on Easter Sunday! He had come they’re sinners whom he has to save us from eternal death — seduced into thinking they can and so on the day He rose from confess their sins “directly to the dead He established the esGod,” but the God to Whom sential foundation and structure they’re confessing those sins of the Sacrament that remedies really isn’t the God Jesus Christ what causes eternal death, revealed, because that God sent namely, unrepented and unforHis Son to establish on Easter given sin. Heaven rejoices more, the Sacrament of Reconciliation! Jesus stressed, for one repentant There are others who confess sinner than for 99 who never their sins, but rarely, someneeded to repent, and the Sacra- times only once a year, so that ment of Reconciliation allows us they receive so little of what to enter into that Easter joy. God wants to give through It’s unsurprising that if the this Sacrament. Church law is, forgiveness of sins is so central indeed, that one has to confess to the mystery of our redempany serious sins at least once a
Return to youth in Kalaupapa
on two high school girls. They hey were waiting for were as tenacious and as fierce me in the clearing at as mountain lions. the foot of the Kalaupapa trail After the young people when I drove up in my Paddy and Alvarez had a chance to Wagon. It had taken these unwind a little bit, we set out young people and their adult on the 2.6-mile journey to St. adviser a casual hour-and-ahalf to hike from topside Molokai to Kalaupapa. It was obvious that this quintet of teens and their adviser, Edgar Alvarez from St. Damien By Father in Kaunakakai, were Patrick Killilea, SS.CC. excited about their visit to our unique settlement, the land Philomena, the church built of SS. Damien and Marianne. by Father Damien in KalaShortly thereafter back at wao. The young people were the parish house, I learned impressed by the church and that a couple of the girls were enjoyed visiting in this church members of the farmer’s basbuilt by St. Damien during ketball team who represented Molokai High School so hon- his last months and weeks on this earth. Then it was time for orably on the court in recent me to share some words on weeks. Now while basketball is my favorite American sport, Damien’s leadership and legacy as part of a documentary these I hesitated to share with them daughters and sons of Molokai that, while I played a lot of basketball in my younger years are making as part of a school project. I hope my hair was in (just a few years ago), the only time I got a bloody nose on the place for the video! Our next stop was at the court was when I dared to take
Moon Over Molokai
landing in Judd Park where several cameras got a thorough workout after which we ate lunch. I’m not sure which they enjoyed most as they were in high spirits. The high spirits continued or perhaps got even higher as we hiked up to the Kauhako crater on the way back to Kalaupapa town. I enjoy taking young people up to the crater (after I ask them not to horse around), but I must confess that there are times when these legs of mine are saying, “Oh no! Not today.” Someone once said, “The only way to bring back your youth is to take the car keys away from him or her.” Having turned 71 (going on 17) one week prior to the visit by these lively young people from topside Molokai, I can say that Sunday, February 15 was a day that tested my age and restored my youth — as well as my faith in youth. Aloha. Anchor columnist Father Killilea is pastor of St. Francis Parish in Kalaupapa, Hawaii.
year, but the devil has hoodwinked many to believe that the minimum ought to be their maximum, because through that infrequency, they’ll abide under the devil’s domain in their sins longer and almost certainly not confess nearly as well — because their examination will more superficial, their sorrow more shallow profound, and their resolution weaker — when they eventually go. Few would ever think that the Church’s minimal requirement that we should receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist worthily once a year should be the maximum. The Church has strongly recommended to us to receive the Sacrament of Penance frequently. “Without being strictly necessary,” the “Catechism of the Catholic Church” stresses, “Confession of everyday faults (venial sins) is nevertheless strongly recommended by the Church.” It mentions confession of venial sins because it presumes that if someone has committed a mortal sin, they would have recourse to the Sacrament without delay. But priests know that if people are not coming to the Sacrament regularly, they often wait for months to confess even mortal sins. St. John Paul emphasized that we’re deceived if we think we can become holy without it. “It would be an illusion to seek after holiness, according to the vocation one has received from God, without partaking frequently of this Sacrament of
7 conversion and reconciliation,” he said in 2004. “Those who go to Confession frequently, and do so with the desire to make progress, will notice the strides that they make in their Spiritual lives.” Pope Francis has been calling all of us to a renewed appreciation for, and reception of, the Sacrament of Penance. He has said on numerous occasions that he goes to Confession every two weeks, because “the pope, too, is a sinner.” I see my confessor every week. While the Church has never officially defined how frequent someone seeking holiness should partake of the Sacrament of Mercy, it has implied that, like Pope Francis, we should be going at least every two weeks. We glimpse this in the way it handles the conditions necessary for receiving plenary indulgences, where it teaches that to receive such an indulgence, we need to have gone to Confession within eight days prior or after. If we are going to Confession at least every other week, then we would always be open to receiving a plenary indulgence, either for ourselves or for others. The question for each of us would be: Why wouldn’t we want to be in that state of receptivity always? Next week, we’ll discuss in far greater detail the Spiritual benefits of frequent Confession within the context of a whole plan of life. Anchor columnist Father Landry can be contacted at fatherlandry@catholicpreaching. com.
Special Lenten programs on the Portuguese Channel
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March 13, 2015
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he Fourth Sunday of Lent is also known as Laetare Sunday. Laetare is a Latin word which means “rejoice” or “rejoicing.” The mood for this week’s celebration is less somber, as compared to the first three weeks of Lent. At the onset of our Lenten journey, we were asked to focus on Penance and preparation. We were asked to exercise a time of introspection, a time when we examine our faith walk. However, on the Fourth Sunday of Lent, it has been the tradition of our Church to reflect on joyfulness, to redirect our worship to the elated or jubilant expression that is associated with the great victory of our Lord. From the beginning of our Liturgical celebration for this day, in the Entrance Antiphon, we are called to be joyful, when the very first words tell us to celebrate: “Rejoice, Jerusa-
Staying focused
lem, and all who love her. In the second reading, Be joyful, all who were St. Paul is confirming for mourning.” us that it is God’s grace If we look at our readthat serves as the platform ings for this weekend, we for our Salvation. We are are quickly given reasons shown that it will never be to be joyful. Each gives examples of the direct and all Homily of the Week inclusive love of Fourth Sunday our God. In the of Lent first reading, our God intervenes By Deacon on the part of the Robert Craig Israelites who, having neglected their covenant and rejected an act of man alone that God’s love, deservedly had will merit deliverance, but been taken into captivity by God’s love for us and by the Babylonians. His provision of grace. Once the exiled Jews Again, this grace is a had properly acknowlgift given to us through edged the error of their love, a love that is demways, learning their lesson onstrated by our Lord so to speak, they are given offering His only begotthe opportunity to return ten Son, Jesus Christ, to their homeland. It is Who, by His victory on God’s love and mercy the cross has won for us that allows for this. The forgiveness of our sins. Israelites demonstrated By keeping our focus their joy by embarking on on Christ, by becoming the reconstruction of the increasingly aware of this temple. love, it will become for
all believers, the source of great joy. In our Gospel, we see a man in Nicodemus who wants to believe that Christ is the Messiah. But he is held back by the things of the world and fear that his conformity to the teachings of Jesus would jeopardize those possessions and positions that he enjoyed. Yet, Nicodemus is encouraged by Christ to be focused on the truth: To see the great example of God’s love, His true Word, His true Light. Jesus offers that if Nicodemus stays focused on Him, then he will be saved. This is true for us today. As we entered into Lent, we were told that Lent is a time of Penance and preparation. By prayer, fasting and almsgiving, we can offer true praise to our Lord. The
last three weeks have been a time to look back and see if we have attempted to know Jesus better, have we always sought to see Him in our daily life? Perhaps we have contemplated: do we readily accept Jesus’s embrace and reflect our trust in His love and benevolent plan for us? Today, let’s try changing the direction of our Lenten journey. By being less retrospective and more prospective in our meditation. Let’s attempt to focus on the demonstrations of God’s love and mercy. Let’s rejoice in Christ’s victory over death. As the Passion approaches, let us joyfully look to the cross. It is at the cross that we see the immeasurable riches of God’s grace and mercy — His gift to us, His Son, Jesus Christ. Deacon Craig serves at Holy Family Parish in East Taunton.
Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. Mar. 14, Hos 6:1-6; Ps 51:3-4,18-21b; Lk 18:9-14. Sun. Mar. 15, Fourth Sunday of Lent, 2 Chr 36:14-16,19-23; Ps 137:16; Eph 2:4-10; Jn 3:14-21. Mon. Mar. 16, Is 65:17-21; Ps 30:2,4-6,11-12a,13b; Jn 4:43-54. Tues. Mar. 17, Ez 47:1-9,12; Ps 46:2-3,5-6,8-9; Jn 5:1-16. Wed. Mar. 18, Is 49.8-15; Ps 145:8-9,13c-14,17-18; Jn 5:17-20. Thurs. Mar. 19, 2 Sm 7:4-5a,12-14a,16; Ps 89:2-5,27,29; Rom 4:13,16-18,22; Mt 1:16,18-21,24a or Lk 2:41-51a. Fri. Mar. 20,Wis 2:1a,12-22; Ps 34:17-21,23; Jn 7:1-2,10,25-30.
Haitian archbishop sees new Church projects as hopeful sign after quake
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (CNS) — The Port-auPrince Archdiocese continues to rebuild its ministries since the country’s 2010 earthquake, with dozens of programs underway and the construction of a transitional cathedral viewed as a major accomplishment. Archbishop Guire Poulard of Port-au-Prince said that while progress has been slow, it has been steady with assistance coming from Haitian Catholics, the Haitian diaspora and international partners for pastoral efforts and some reconstruction projects. “Now we have about 60 active projects,” Archbishop Poulard told Catholic News Service at the offices of the Haitian bishops’ conference near Portau-Prince. He said most of the projects are pastoral in nature, with 30 new parishes being formed and new ministries introduced with an emphasis on greater lay in-
volvement and support for religious congregations serving rural and urban communities. “Haitian Churchgoers, both in the country and the diaspora, are determined to rebuild the Church and their country. But it will go slow,” he said. Construction of a transitional cathedral adjacent to the destroyed Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption has been the most visible of the archdiocese’s undertakings. The 1,500seat transitional cathedral was dedicated in November with Church leaders from the U.S. and elsewhere attending. Archbishop Poulard, 73, acknowledged that he faced a major task when he was appointed to the Port-au-Prince Archdiocese Jan. 12, 2011, exactly one year after the earthquake. Port-au-Prince Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot was among the thousands who died in the disaster. Archbishop Poulard arrived
in the capital after serving as bishop in the Jacmel and Les Cayes dioceses for a total of 23 years and after the Haitian bishops and other partners created Partnership for the Reconstruction of the Church in Haiti, or PROCHE, to manage Churchrelated reconstruction projects in the earthquake zone. The reconstruction projects the archdiocese has overseen are in addition to those undertaken by the PROCHE, a cooperative venture involving the Haitian bishops’ conference, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Catholic Relief Services and Adveniat, the German bishops’ agency for solidarity with Latin American development agencies. Archbishop Poulard said that while he was “content” knowing PROCHE exists, he has not worked closely with the organization during his four years in Port-au-Prince other than to sign off on various projects
so planning and construction could continue. He said he has felt uncomfortable with the program because it has imposed requirements which he considers too strict and left little room for negotiation. “They have to trust us because it is a symbol of dignity for us, Haitian dignity,” he said. Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami, with long ties to Haiti and the Haitian community in South Florida, defended PROCHE’s work. He said its deliberate process and insistence that new buildings meet international standards for earthquake and hurricane resistance are justified. He described PROCHE as an entity of the Haitian bishops’ conference and said a steering committee that includes Haitian bishops and representatives of international bishops conferences funding the program work under specific guidelines developed as the organization formed
in late 2010. Archbishop Wenski represents the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on the committee. “We’re respecting donor intent by saying we’re going to fund buildings, but we’re going to fund buildings that meet certain standards,” he explained. As for the eventual reconstruction of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Assumption, Archbishop Poulard told CNS that the project is massive and that he will leave it for his successor to deal with after he retires in January 2017. He said it may be 20 years or longer before the archdiocese would be able to raise the $30 million to $40 million needed for the project. “What’s really significant for me is that the Haitian people can contribute to the erection of that new cathedral as they did for the cathedral that collapsed during the earthquake,” he said.
March 13, 2015
Friday 13 March 2015 — Homeport: Falmouth Harbor — Jerry Springer’s birthday ou know me, dear readers. I’m a great fan of obscure historical trivia. Did I mention that this winter, with all the bad weather, I came down with a severe case of cabin fever? To relieve the boredom, I spent much time diligently researching completely useless information. You never know when you’re going to need it. Let’s play “Wheel of Misfortune” and I’ll show you what I mean. The category today is “modern antipopes.” These are pretenders to the papal throne. In order to have an antipope, you must first have a valid pope. In order to have a valid pope, you need to have one properly elected by the members of the College of Cardinals. Allow me to put the whole matter into context. Pope Francis is the 266th pope, not counting 37 papal pretenders throughout the 2,000year history of the Catholic Church. The last antipope, according to the official list, was Felix V in 1449. In modern times, however, we seem to have had more people claiming to be “pope” than Planters has peanuts. Vanna, spin the wheel!
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efore one considers the point of Marriage, one must remember the point of life, which is to discover God and to serve Him. While Americans can take justifiable pride in their Declaration of Independence, which prioritizes life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, Catholics know that God is the Source of all three. Furthermore, He is the One Who, through grace, makes each of them possible in the fullest way. Here we will consider one aspect of life as it relates to Marriage. We are all subject to the effects of original sin, which not only severed our intimacy with God, but served to darken our intellect, weaken our will, and disorder our passions. Additionally, that primal sin had a particular consequence each for men and women that compromised their relationship with one another, so that the intimacy which should
Anchor Columnists Stranger than fiction María of Spain. As of this Clemente Dominguez y writing, the “pope” has yet to Gomez was born (the same make up his mind. year I was) in Seville, Spain. You have never heard of He promulgated a conspiracy theory that Pope Paul VI had any of these antipopes? Why been drugged, kidnapped, and am I not surprised? I assure imprisoned. According to him, the pope was replaced by a The Ship’s Log look-alike imposter. Reflections of a (Isn’t plastic surgery Parish Priest amazing?) Gomez founded a bogus By Father Tim religious group called Goldrick the “Order of the Holy Face.” He also claimed Marian apyou I am not making this up. paritions. My research proves it. With the death of Pope There is also a little-known Paul VI in 1978, Gomez dehistory of antipopes in North clared himself “Pope Gregory America. The United States in XVII.” While he was at it, he particular is, strange to say, a was also crowned “emperor.” producer of fake “popes.” One might as well go for the First among the modern whole enchilada, he figured. counterfeit popes is Michael His “papacy” ended with his death in 2005. His break-away Collin, a Canadian. In 1951, he declared himself “Clement Palmarian Catholic Church chose Manuel Alonso Corral XV” and set up headquarters in the village of St. Jovite, (“Pope Peter II”) as his sucQuebec (not to be confused cessor. Who replaced Gomez with Dave Jolivet, our worthy as emperor, I have no idea. editor). Among Michael’s few Manual died in 2011 and was succeeded by Gines Her- supporters were the members of a Danish U.F.O. club. Colnandez y Martinez (Sergio María, in religion) also known lin predicted the world would end on Feb. 20, 1969 then as Gregory XVIII. But now promptly retired from the it gets strange. Martinez has “papacy.” The date came and already named his own sucwent, as did Michael Collin. cessor, either Joseph Odermatt of Switzerland or Eliseo He died in 1974. Well, we all
make mistakes but some make bigger mistakes than others. Collin’s successor was a certain Gaston Tremblay (“Pope Gregory XVII”) who took office in 1968. (Gaston is, I suspect, no relation to our own Father Marc Tremblay.) When Gaston died in 2011, the office was assumed by a man named Michel Lavallée. If none of these eccentric people inspire you, there’s always “Pope Peter II” — no, not the one mentioned above but another. There are actually several pretenders by this name. I’m talking about Chester Olszewski of Pennsylvania. He declared himself “pope” in 1980. “Is the pope Catholic?” Not in this case. Chester was actually a defrocked Episcopalian. How about “Gregory XIX” also known as Reinaldo Benjamins (who maintained he was crowned “pope” by a choir of angels in 1983) or “Hadrian VII,” legally named Francis Schuckardt (who declared himself “pope” in 1983) or Earl Pulvermarcher? The latter was “elected pope” in 1989 in a Montana farmhouse by a small group of disenfranchised Catholics. To
9 announce the papal election to the world, they even released white smoke. Nobody noticed the smoke. Unfazed, “Pope Pius XIII” reigned from his church headquarters in Springdale, Wash., until his death in 2009. The most interesting modern antipope, in my opinion, is David Bawden of Kansas, who was elected “Pope Michael” in 1990 by a group of five people, including himself, his parents, and a couple of friends. The election took place in a vacant storefront. The friends soon took off and formed yet another sect. “Pope Michael” is media savvy. He uses social media. He has released a full-length documentary on himself and his loyal “seminarian.” The documentary was produced by his own film company. I felt sad when I watched the film. Religious people get themselves into such ridiculous situations. That’s it for tonight’s episode of “Wheel of Misfortune.” (I settled on the word “misfortune” because Wheel of Fortune is ©2015 Califon Productions, Inc.) Now it’s back to my esoteric research. When will this long winter ever end? Anchor columnist Father Goldrick is pastor of St. Patrick’s Parish in Falmouth.
Marriage is for life
we must look at the life of be such a delight is also a the spouses, who seek hapsource of pain. Men would piness with each other. If find work a burden, women would suffer in bringing new they are not fully alive, there life into the world, and their is already a problem in the home. And in what does rapport would be poisoned by grasping and intimidation the fullness of life consist? (cf. Gn 3:16-19). All mankind would be living in perpetual darkness and sorrow without the redemptive sacrifice offered by Christ. Thus, while sin By Genevieve Kineke compromises Marriage at its heart, the very means through Jesus, of course, “in Whom which we can reunite with we live, and move, and have God also provides the our being” (Acts 17:29). St. remedy for the residual difIrenaeus explains it this way: ficulties between men and “When Christ became Incarwomen. Sacramental Marnate and was made Man, He riage provides the graces to heal and elevate the partners recapitulated in Himself the long history of mankind and whose complementary relaprocured for us a ‘short cut’ tionship would be otherwise to Salvation, so that what we grievously difficult. had lost in Adam, that is, beWhile one of the ends of ing in the image and likeness Marriage is children, before of God, we might recover in considering that dimension
The Feminine Genius
Christ Jesus.” So being united to Christ is foundational to the life of husband and wife, who can be healed and continually restored, even as sin consistently creeps in. Each man — charged with the care of the spouse entrusted to him — can thereby find the strength to work for her good, to provide what is necessary despite the great human cost, and to find joy in tasks that would be burdensome without an understanding of the Incarnation that elevates all things. He should kneel at the foot of the cross of Christ and offer his own burden to the Father, and while there he can also look sideways to see the faithful disciple, John, who never wavered in his fidelity to the mission of the Bridegroom. Likewise, each woman — charged with fostering new
life in myriad ways — can lay her anxieties and frustrations at the foot of the cross, wherein Christ conquered fear and death once and for all. As she is doing this, she too can look sideways to see Mary, the perfect bride, who stands firmly rooted, ready to mother all — even those who have yet to know her warm embrace. The cross is at the heart of all Marriages — Sacramental or otherwise. One cannot escape it. The difference is that God makes available the graces needed to transform the suffering into joy, for only in Christ is true union possible — with one another and with the Father, the source of all life; and in this way, Marriage offers a blessed path to serving God and saving one another. Anchor columnist Mrs. Kineke is the author of “ The Authentic Catholic Woman.” She blogs at feminine-genius. typepad.com.
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March 13, 2015
Homeless Jesus. (Photo by Matt Hadro/CNA)
Would you recognize ‘Homeless Jesus’ on a park bench in D.C.?
Washington D.C., (CNA/EWTN News) — A statue of “Homeless Jesus” now sits just outside Catholic Charities in downtown Washington, D.C., with the organization’s president hoping it will spur passers-by to service. “My hope is it would just remind us all that there’s a population out there that needs our help and assistance, and that we meet Jesus in them. We meet Jesus in those in need,” said the president and CEO of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington, Msgr. John Enzler. The statue was sculpted by Canadian artist Timothy P. Schmalz. Pope Francis blessed a small model of the statue back in November 2013. “Homeless Jesus” is based on the “Judgment of the Nations” scene from Matthew 25 and signifies Christ in “the most marginalized in our society,” according to Schmalz’s website. In the Scripture passage,
the nations receive eternal Salvation or punishment based on their fulfillment of the works of mercy — feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, and welcoming the stranger. “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of Mine, you did for Me,” Jesus said. Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington offers more than 60 ministerial programs and serves around 120,000 people a year. The statue’s reception in D.C. has been overwhelmingly positive, Msgr. Enzler said, and is a monument of sorts in a city filled with monuments. “The homeless people, they love it,” he told CNA. “I think it’s becoming for some people their realization that they are recognized.” The statue is life-size, and to a pedestrian it appears as just another blanketed figure lying on a street bench. The wounds in the bare feet are the only giveaway that it is
Jesus and not an anonymous person. Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington was the indirect cause behind the statue’s placement in D.C. His spokesman called Catholic Charities and pitched the statue to them after the cardinal saw a model of it blessed by Pope Francis in Rome. Cardinal Wuerl blessed the statue on Ash Wednesday before the charity’s weekly homeless dinner, shortly after he had returned from Rome. He has attended the dinner multiple times, according to Msgr. Enzler. He “spoke about the importance of recognizing these are members of the Body of Christ in need,” Msgr. Enzler said. A significant part of the ministry of Catholic Charities, D.C. is to the city’s homeless population. Aside from ministries for mental health, addiction, food and clothing, the organization provides shelter — about 2,300 beds per night during “hypothermia season,” which is any night with temperatures predicted below 32 degrees and an emergency alert sent out by the city. The city government is actually “very good” to the homeless, but the “conditions” in D.C. shelters are “less than ideal,” Msgr. Enzler said. He hopes the statue will serve as “branding” for the service Catholic Charities provides to the homeless, “a specific reminder that we are about the homeless, the poor, the vulnerable.”
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March 13, 2015
Cardinal Egan, retired archbishop of New York, dies at age 82
NEW YORK (CNS) — Cardinal Edward M. Egan, who retired as archbishop of New York in 2009, died March 5. The cause of death was cardiac arrest. He was 82. After collapsing at his residence that afternoon, he was taken to NYU Langone Medical Center, where doctors pronounced him dead at 2:20 p.m. A funeral Mass for Cardinal Egan was celebrated March 10 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York told Catholics of the archdiocese he was saddened to tell them “our beloved” Cardinal Egan “has gone home to the Lord.” “Join me, please, in thanking God for his life, especially his generous and faithful priesthood. Pray as well that the powerful mercy of Jesus, in which our cardinal had such trust, has ushered him into Heaven,” said Cardinal Dolan, who succeeded Cardinal Egan. “My sympathy to his natural family, who will grieve for their uncle, and to you, his Spiritual family here in the Archdiocese of New York,” he added. Cardinal Dolan in his statement said that Cardinal Egan “had a peaceful death, passing away right after lunch today, with the prayers and Sacraments of his loyal priest secretary, Father Douglas Crawford, in his residence at the Chapel of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.” He said the retired archbishop was rushed from the residence to the medical center, where he was pronounced dead. In a telegram to Cardinal Dolan, Pope Francis offered his heartfelt condolences. “I join you in commending the late cardinal’s noble soul to God, the Father of mercies,” the pope said, “with gratitude for his years of episcopal ministry among Christ’s flock in Bridgeport (Connecticut) and New York, his distinguished service to the Apostolic See, and his expert contribution to the revision of the Church’s law in the years following the Second Vatican Council.” A former auxiliary bishop of New York, then-Bishop Egan was named to head the Diocese of Bridgeport in 1988 and was appointed as archbishop of New York in 2000. He was named a cardinal in 2001. In retirement, Cardinal Egan assisted in the works of the New York Archdiocese. For the Vatican, he served on the Council of Cardinals for the Study of the
Organizational and Economic Problems of the Holy See for five years and participated in the 2005 conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI. With his death, the College
Cardinal Edward M. Egan, retired archbishop of New York, died at age 82 March 5 of cardiac arrest at a New York hospital. He is seen in a 2014 photo. (CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz)
of Cardinals now has 226 members, 125 of whom are under 80 and therefore eligible to vote in a conclave to elect a new pope. At the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Cardinal Egan was a current member of the Committee on Migration and a consultant to the Committee on Pro-Life Activities, as well as a member of the board of bishops for the Pontifical North American College in Rome. Edward Michael Egan, the son of Thomas J. and Genevieve
Costello Egan, was born April 2, 1932, in Oak Park, Ill. He earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from St. Mary of the Lake Seminary in Mundelein, Ill.; a licentiate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome; and a doctorate summa cum laude in canon law, also from the Gregorian. He was ordained a priest of the Chicago Archdiocese Dec. 15, 1957, at The North American College, in a ceremony that also included J. Francis Stafford, another future cardinal. After further studies in Rome, he returned to Chicago in 1958 to serve as parochial vicar of Holy Name Cathedral Parish, assistant chancellor and secretary to Cardinal Albert G. Meyer. Back in Rome for doctoral studies from 1960 to 1964, he also served as assistant vice rector of the North American College. Again in Chicago from 1965 to 1972, he was secretary to Cardinal John P. Cody, archdiocesan vice chancellor and cochancellor for ecumenism and social relations. Named an auditor of the Roman Rota, the Vatican tribunal primarily responsible for hearing requests for Marriage annulments, in November 1972, thenFather Egan also was a professor of civil and criminal procedure at the Studio Rotale and of canon law at the Gregorian; commissioner of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments; a consultor to the Vatican Congregation for
Clergy; and, in 1982, one of six canonists who reviewed the new Code of Canon Law with St. John Paul II before it was promulgated in 1983. Appointed an auxiliary bishop in New York April 1, 1985, he was transferred to Bridgeport Nov. 5, 1988, and named archbishop of New York May 11,
2000. He retired in May 2009 at age 77; canon law requires bishops to turn their resignation into the pope at age 75. Cardinal Egan was the first head of the New York Archdiocese to retire from the post. The three bishops and eight archbishops who preceded him all died in office.
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March 13, 2015
CNS Movie Capsules NEW YORK (CNS) — The following are capsule reviews of movies recently reviewed by Catholic News Service. “Focus” (Warner Bros.) Flimsy crime drama in which a small-time swindler (Margot Robbie) becomes the protege — and lover — of a more accomplished con artist (Will Smith). But romance and robbery make for a volatile mix, leading to a variety of personal and professional conflicts, one involving a sleazy car racing big shot (Rodrigo Santoro) with whom the pair become entangled. More than most heist movies, this slick little jaunt through the underworld — penned and directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa — glamorizes wrongdoing and implicitly portrays most of its protagonists’ victims as suckers who deserve what they get. Distorted values requiring mature discernment, brief scenes of semi-graphic sexual activity, adulterous situations, several uses of profanity, pervasive rough and crude language. The Catholic News Service classification is L — limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian. “The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” (Fox Searchlight) Morally mixed comedy se-
quel in which the elderly residents of an eccentric Indian hostelry confront a variety of romantic difficulties: Judi Dench and Bill Nighy are too reticent to follow through on their feelings for each other; recovering lothario Ronald Pickup is having difficulty adjusting to his newly-exclusive relationship with girlfriend Diana Hardcastle; and marriage-minded Celia Imrie can’t decide which of two ardent — and eminently eligible — suitors to accept. As for the good-hearted young man (Dev Patel) who shares the management of the place with a sharptongued former guest (Maggie Smith), his preoccupation with expanding their business interferes with the preparations for his wedding (to Tina Desai). He also impulsively decides that a self-identified novelist (Richard Gere) is really the undercover inspector a potential investor (David Strathairn) has dispatched to evaluate the lodging. A vast pool of veteran talent and the appeal of Patel’s grandiloquent patter serve as reliable resources for John Madden’s followup to his 2012 ensemble piece. But, in drawing once again on material that originated with Deborah Moggach’s 2004 novel “These Foolish Things,” Madden takes unwed liaisons and living arrangements as a given. And Ol Parker’s screenplay, though its dialogue is, for the most part, suitable for teatime, seems to stack the emotional deck against a longlived, though turbulent, Marriage. Acceptability of divorce, benignly viewed premarital situations, several sexual references, at least one use of profanity, a few crass terms. The Catholic News Service 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.
Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on WLNE Channel 6 Sunday, March 15, 11:00 a.m.
Celebrant is Father Richard M. Roy, pastor of St. Julie Billiart Parish in North Dartmouth.
Four national Catholic publications call for ending the death penalty WASHINGTON (CNS) — Four nationally circulated Catholic publications called for abolishing the death penalty in the United States in a jointly published editorial. America, National Catholic Register, National Catholic Reporter and Our Sunday Visitor urged their readers, the U.S. Catholic community and people of faith to “stand with us and say, ‘capital punishment must end,’” the editorial stated. The editorial was published online March 5 by each publication and was to appear in the printed versions of each journal in the coming weeks. Dennis Coday, editor of National Catholic Reporter, said the effort evolved after the U.S. Supreme Court agreed in January to hear arguments in an Oklahoma death penalty case. The case, Glossip v. Gross, involves the use of a lethal-injection protocol widely used across the country that resulted in three botched executions in 2014. The Supreme Court is expected to decide the constitutionality of lethal-injection executions in Oklahoma by the end of its term in June. “Our hope is that (the court) will hasten the end of the death penalty in the United States,” the editorial said. “There’s been a growing consensus among the public and especially among Catholics of the need to bring an abolition, or at least a moratorium, to the death penalty in the country,” Coday told Catholic News Service. “I think that’s perfectly clear from public opinion surveys, especially in the last year that execution after execution has failed or been botched.” Coday cited a statement from Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City after the failed execution in April of Clayton Lockett, for driving the desire among the editors to develop the joint editorial. Lockett writhed in pain for more than 40 minutes after being injected with a deadly cocktail of chemicals before dying of apparent heart failure. After the incident, Archbishop Coakley said the execution “highlights the brutality of the death penalty,” and should bring the nation to “consider whether we should adopt a moratorium on the death penalty or even abolish it altogether.” Reading the National Catholic Register’s coverage of the archbishop’s statement, Coday said
he was struck “that this is an issue that crosses the full spectrum of Catholic opinion in this country.” With the Supreme Court agreeing January 23 to hear arguments in Glossip v. Gross, the editors of the four publications agreed to tackle the death penalty in a joint editorial, Coday explained. Other editors said the cooperative effort demonstrates the unity across the Catholic Church to end capital punishment. “The unity among Catholics in defense of life can send a powerful message,” Jeanette DeMelo, editor-in-chief of National Catholic Register, told CNS. “This is an issue that we can find unity with our colleagues in the Catholic press. That’s why we chose to do this in a joint statement.” DeMelo decried the rising assault on human life through abortion, euthanasia and war in addition to capital punishment. “Even though they are of different moral weight, they all threaten human dignity and we must work to end them,” she said. Gretchen C. Crowe, editor of Our Sunday Visitor, said the four publications “wanted to make sure to have our combined voices heard.” “The death penalty is an important Pro-Life issue in this country for all Catholics,” she said. “This was a real opportunity for a show of solidarity for Our Sunday Visitor and these other national Catholic publications to stand strong and united against the death penalty.” Jesuit Father Matt Malone, editor of America, could not be reached for comment. The editorial was translated into Italian and appeared in the March 6 edition of L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper. The editorial cited St. John Paul II’s work to amend the “Cat-
echism of the Catholic Church” to effectively prohibit capital punishment and the words of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who would become Pope Benedict XVI, who wrote in 1997 that “where other means for the selfdefense of society are possible and adequate, the death penalty may be permitted to disappear.” The editorial also noted Pope Francis’ 2014 call “to fight for the abolition of the death penalty.” Comments from Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, and Cardinal Sean O’Malley, OFM Cap. of Boston, chairman of the bishops’ Pro-Life Activities Committee, welcoming the Supreme Court’s decision to hear the Oklahoma case were cited in the editorial. In addition, it quoted Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, who commended Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf for declaring a moratorium on the death penalty when he assumed office in January. “Archbishop Chaput reminds us that when considering the death penalty, we cannot forget that it is we, acting through our government, who are the moral agents in an execution. The prisoner has committed his crime and has answered for it in this life just as he shall answer for it before God. But it is the government, acting in our name, that orders and perpetrates lethal injection. It is we who add to, instead of heal, the violence,” the editorial said. “We join our bishops in hoping the court will reach the conclusion that it is time for our nation to embody its commitment to the right to life by abolishing the death penalty once and for all,” the editorial concluded.
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March 13, 2015
I
Undoing a chemical abortion
n 1978, Charles E. Rice, a former Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law School made this prediction in his book “Beyond Abortion: The Theory and Practice”: “The abortion of the future will be by pill, suppository, or some other do-it-yourself method. At that point the killing of a baby will be wholly elective and private. We have, finally, caught up with the pagan Romans who endowed the father, the pater familias, with the right to kill his child at his discretion. We give that right to the mother. But it is all the same to the victim.” His prediction was prescient, given that “chemical abortions” are now widely available in the form of the French abortion pill, RU486. The abortion pill has been available in the U.S. since 2000. By 2008, approximately 25 percent of abortions prior to nine weeks relied on RU-486, also known as mifepristone. A 2010 scientific review on RU-486 noted that chemical abortion “has been used successfully in the medical termination of pregnancy for more than 25 years, and the method is registered in 35 countries.” In recent years, there has been a small but important
embryo by essentially starvglimmer of light piercing ing her or him to death. through this dark backThe reversal technique drop of widespread RU-486 relies on using progesterutilization, namely, that it is one itself to counteract the sometimes possible to reeffects of the abortion pill. verse a chemical abortion if a woman comes to regret her In a study published in the decision soon after taking the Annals of Pharmacotherapy in December, 2012, successabortion pill. ful reversal was reported for Carrying out a chemical abortion actually requires Making Sense two different pills Out of to be taken sequentially. RU-486 is Bioethics administered prior By Father Tad to reaching the 10th Pacholczyk week of pregnancy, and about two days later, a hormone four of six women who took called misoprostol is given RU-486; these women were that causes contractions and able to carry their pregnanexpels the unborn child. Recies to term after receiving versal may be possible when an intramuscular injection the second pill has not yet of progesterone. Since 2012, been taken. dozens of other women have RU-486 itself is often successfully reversed their described as a “progesterchemical abortions. Thus far, one antagonist” or as an no side effects or complica“antiprogesterone.” These tions associated with reversal names indicate the extent of the abortion pill have been of its hostility towards the reported. vital hormone, progesterone. On the other hand, the What this means is that RU-486 blocks progesterone, abortion pill itself has notable side effects and risks associa hormone needed to build ated with its use. Common and maintain the uterine wall during pregnancy. Thus, side effects include: uterine cramps, high blood pressure, RU-486 can either prevent bleeding not related to the a developing human embryo menstrual period, overgrowth from implanting in the uterus, or it can kill an implanted of the uterine lining, stomach
cramps, dizziness, reduced blood potassium, and nausea. Some women also experience fever, chills and infection. Among the more serious possible side effects would be death of both mother and child arising from endomyometritis (infection of the uterine lining) and septic shock. A December, 2005 article in the New England Journal of Medicine indicated that women are about ten times more likely to die from RU-486 abortions than surgical abortions in early pregnancy, partly because of the risk of infection. Another complication of using RU-486 is incomplete abortion, with embryonic/ fetal parts remaining. In the first six years of RU-486 availability in Australia, for example, there were 792 reports of adverse effects, 579 of which pertained to parts of the embryo/fetus remaining, and 126 of these required follow-up surgical abortion. Time is clearly of the essence: the longer a woman waits after taking RU-486 before attempting a reversal, the lower the likelihood of success. Health care professionals should become informed about the possibility of using
ROME (CNS) — Allowing priests to celebrate Mass in the language of the local congregation rather than in Latin allowed the faithful to understand and be encouraged by the Word of God, Pope Francis said. “You cannot turn back, we have to always go forward, always forward and who goes back is making a mistake,” he told parishioners after commemorating the 50th anniversary of the first time a pope celebrated Mass in the vernacular following the Second Vatican Council. “Let us give thanks to the Lord for what He has done in His Church in these 50 years of Liturgical reform. It was really a courageous move by the Church to get closer to the people of God so that they could understand well what it does, and this is important for us: to follow Mass like this,” he said as he recently left Rome’s Church of All Saints.
On the same date in 1965, Blessed Paul VI publicly celebrated Mass in Italian for the first time in accordance with the norms established by the Second Vatican Council. In his homily at the parish, Pope Francis said people need to be able to connect the Liturgy to their own lives. “The Liturgy isn’t something odd, over there, far away” that has no bearing on one’s everyday life, he said. “The Church calls us to have and promote an authentic Liturgical life so that there can be harmony between what the Liturgy celebrates and what we live out” with the aim of expressing in life what has been received in faith. He said the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, “Sacrosanctum Concilium,” defined the Liturgy as “the primary and indispensable source from which the faithful are to derive the true Christian Spirit.”
While the Liturgy is, in part, about doctrine and ritual, its real essence is to be “a source of life and light for our journey of faith,” he said. Going to church is not just about observing one’s duty and “feeling right with a God who then must not be too ‘bothersome’” afterward in one’s daily life, he said. People go to church “to encounter the Lord and find in His grace at work in the Sacraments the strength to think and act according to the Gospel,” he said. “Therefore, we cannot fool ourselves, entering into the Lord’s house and, with prayers and devotional practices, ‘covering up’ behaviors that are contrary to the demands of justice, honesty and charity toward others,” Pope Francis said. Authentic worship and Liturgical celebrations should lead people toward “a real conversion” of heart by letting them hear “the voice of the Lord, Who guides them along the
path of rectitude and Christian perfection.” Just like Jesus sought to “cleanse” or purify the temple by driving out the moneychangers, people must continue to be committed to “the purification and inner cleansing of the Church,” the pope said, so that it be a Spiritual place and not a superficial place of worship “made of material sacrifices and
progesterone to reverse the effects of RU-486 in women who have begun the chemical abortion process and then changed their minds. The website for the Abortion Pill Reversal Program, a national effort to encourage and support abortion pill reversal, can be found at: http://abortionpillreversal. com/. As noted on the site, “The Abortion Pill Reversal Program has a network of over 200 physicians worldwide that assist the women that call our hotline. This hotline is manned 24 hours a day, seven days a week by one of our registered nurses. If you’ve taken the abortion pill, it may not be too late. Call 877-558-0333 right away.” This remarkable initiative has already saved the lives of many children, and has brought the blessing of motherhood to fruition for many women who recognized the mistake they had made in taking the abortion pill. Anchor columnist Father Pacholczyk earned his doctorate in neuroscience from Yale and did post-doctoral work at Harvard. He is a priest of the Diocese of Fall River, and serves as the director of Education at The National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia. See www.ncbcenter.org.
Pope: Mass in vernacular helps people understand God, live the faith
based on personal interests.” The pope said he hoped that commemorating the first papal Mass in the vernacular rather than Latin would remind people that the house of God is meant to be a source of Spiritual strength, where they can hear His Word and feel “not like foreigners but as brothers and sisters” who are united in their love for Christ.
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March 13, 2015
How art and technology are clearing up ‘miscontraceptions’ on women’s fertility
Washington D.C. (CNA) — Read the headlines of major news outlets and you might think women’s fertility is an unknowable force understandable only by “voodoo” or some other inscrutable form of divination. Women wishing to avoid pregnancy have to use pills, implants or a physical barrier to keep their fertility in check, and women facing difficulties attaining pregnancy must hand over thousands of dollars for artificial reproductive technologies, the conventional wisdom says. However, the science behind fertility awareness shows that women can know what their bodies do and make decisions based on that information — and now, a Colorado app developer and a New York City filmmaker are among those doing their best to bring this knowledge to popular attention. Dr. Victoria Jennings, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology and the director of the Institute for Reproductive Health at Georgetown University Medical Center, told CNA that there are a number of “myths and rumors” that persist about fertility awareness methods. “The reality is that natural methods or fertility-awareness based methods of family planning can be extremely effective,” she said, explaining that “there are several fertility awareness methods” with differing proto-
cols. Many of natural methods do not require a woman’s cycle to be regular in order to work, she continued, with most natural methods relying on awareness of a woman’s day-to-day fertility signs. Scientific studies, including ones published in 2007 and in 2009 have shown these methods to be highly-effective, comparable to many of the most effective means of artificial contraceptives for postponing pregnancy. These fertility awarenessbased methods, Jennings explained, are “all based on a woman’s ability to observe the changes that occur in her body over her menstrual cycle.” These changes, she elaborated, “are triggered by her hormones” and include variations in body temperature, cervical mucus and physical changes in the cervix. “The symptothermal method specifically relies on changes both in temperature and in secretions” while other methods instead track variations in secretions or temperature or hormone monitoring. The Catholic Church teaches that while spouses are called to discern whether they are called to expand their family at a given time, it is immoral to use contraceptive pills, implants, barrier methods or having incomplete intercourse. Instead, the Church teaches that couples wishing to delay pregnancy at a given time
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are called towards periodic abstinence during the wife’s fertile window. This is known as Natural Family Planning. Couples using Natural Family Planning use the woman’s observations about her fertility for health knowledge or to help make choices about family planning. To avoid pregnancy, couples practicing fertility awareness avoid intercourse on days in which the woman observes fertile symptoms. To achieve a pregnancy, they do the reverse. The idea of natural fertility monitoring is catching on in non-religious circles as well. Some non-religious proponents of these methods accept the use of barrier contraceptives — such as a condom — during a woman’s fertile window, departing from the Catholic Church’s teaching that all contraception, whether hormonal or physical, deters the sexual act as it was intended by God. Still, the basic idea of more natural forms of family planning are appealing to couples across the globe. “The primary reason that people give around the world is because it doesn’t have any side effects, it doesn’t affect my fertility or my health,” Dr. Jennings said. Others use fertility awareness-based methods because they “find it empowering” to understand their bodies, she continued. Monitoring fertility signs can help to alert women to cycle irregularities that “need to be checked out by a provider,” including those that may flag health problems or difficulty conceiving. One set of app developers from Colorado is trying to dispel the continuing misunderstandings surrounding fertility awareness-based methods and educate the public on how people’s bodies work. “One of the huge problems is that there is a lot of misinformation about FAM out there and not only that but this misinformation is coming from very prominent websites and trusted sources that people generally really trust for unbiased, accurate information,” said Lauren Risberg, Customer Support and Content Lead for Kindara, an iOS app offering charting tools and support for recording a woman’s fertility symptoms and temperature. Recently, Kindara has released a “Fertility Awareness Report Card,” grading health
websites and reproductive health educators such as Wikipedia, WebMD, Planned Parenthood and the Centers for Disease Control on the accuracy of information they provide on fertility awareness-based methods. “Over the past couple of decades, fertility awareness has been studied a lot. We know scientifically, based on evidence now, that it does work, and it works very well if you use it correctly. I feel that these websites that people trust have an obligation to look at that and update their information to reflect the most recent scientific evidence on the method,” Risberg told CNA. She explained that Kindara did not set out to “attack” these websites, but also felt there was a strong need to correct medical misinformation. “I don’t think it’s fair to the women who are using these resources for information,” she said. “These women have the right to know the truth behind all the options that are available to them.” Risberg also argued for the need to educate the public more broadly about the existence of fertility awareness, and pointed out that technology can help play a role in making these methods more accessible. “In our culture generally there’s this idea that we can’t really trust our own bodies, or that we shouldn’t, or that we need to medicate things away” and thus “a lot of women don’t really know this is an option for them,” she said. However, “you don’t need to take a pill to control your fertility,” she emphasized. “You just learn how your body works and adjust your behavior.” In addition to simply keeping track of a woman’s fertility symptoms, fertility apps can help “make fertility awareness much more accessible to people, much more convenient,” Risberg said. “Anything that starts to break down those barriers of thinking fertility awareness is a big deal or is difficult helps men and women be more open to it.” Cassondra Moriarty, a New York City filmmaker and director of the recent short film “Miscontraceptions,” told CNA that she hopes her film can help educate, empower and expose women to the existence of fertility awareness-based methods. After learning about fertility awareness three-and-a-half years ago from her now-hus-
band, Moriarty felt compelled to help educate others about these methods. In interviewing women and their knowledge of these methods, she said, one of the biggest challenges “is that you can easily get misinformation about it.” Also, she pointed out in the film, many women just don’t know fertility awareness-based options are even available. She hopes to “make more women aware of this option” by making a film for film festivals and screenings. Moriarty also hopes that her film will let women “walk away and feel empowered.” Our culture, she said, tends to be “a little scared of our bodies,” with many women feeling out of control of their own bodies, even when using artificial drugs or devices, “because the device is in control, the hormones are in control.” Instead, Moriarty said, she thinks that “no woman should ever feel dirty or confused” because of a “perfectly normal healthy functioning part of their body,” such as healthy symptom changes or temperature variations. “I want my daughters to know that cervical fluid is not only normal, but it’s 100 percent healthy.” This need for education and empowerment “has a long way to go,” even within the Catholic Church, said Moriarty, who is herself Catholic. “Even in the Church, there’s so many people who don’t know about NFP,” she said, explaining that in addition to being a morally acceptable way of spacing pregnancies, she felt that fertility awareness knowledge helps couples be “more in tune, in regards to being more open to life.” Even with these challenges of misinformation and the long journey of education ahead, Moriarty said that her experiences showing the film have left her hopeful. One experience in particular during a showing in Portland, Ore. left her thinking that this movement towards natural fertility is “up-andcoming.” After screening the film, Moriarty explained, “a girl said to me, ‘I have an IUD, I got it a couple of months ago’ and she said ‘I want this foreign object out of my body now.’” “It was so fulfilling for me because I didn’t say that, I didn’t put those words in their mouths. They realized what they were hungry for: empowerment and knowledge.”
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March 13, 2015
Bishop Stang students exemplify Catholic education continued from page one
decorated athletic career. She has been a standout player on the school’s varsity soccer and softball teams since her freshman year. She switched from basketball to winter track for her junior year, and ended up placing sixth in the state championship meet. Addison also places heavy importance on making sure she puts in time to give back to others who are less fortunate. She has far exceeded her community service requirement for the school, as a regular volunteer at My Brother’s Keeper, a Christian ministry dedicated to collecting and donating furniture to impoverished families. She has also been an annual participant in Operation Christmas Child, and helped with the Thanksgiving Food Drive. Addison is also an accomplished pianist. She volunteers her time to entertain and share her talents with the elderly at local nursing homes, who really enjoy hearing her play.” Foley added that Landry has been accepted into “several great schools” that would best fit her desire to pursue physical therapy and to ultimately earn a doctoral degree and work as a physical therapist. Her future is bright, said Foley, and “most admirably amongst the litany of honors and achievements, Addison is a genuine and humble” young lady. Senior Sarah Friedman was recently nominated to compete in the National Honor Society Scholarship program; students self-nominate by handing in a resume to the chapter advisor, who then call in those candidates to a review meeting with five members of the faculty council. Freidman was selected as the local winner and received a $150 award and an official certificate of recognition from Sister Teresa
Trayers and the NHS chapter on senior class night. “I am so proud of Sarah. I have learned quite a bit about Sarah during the two consecutive years in which she was a student in my history class, and can say with confidence she is a role model exemplifying the four pillars of the National Honor Society,” said Donna McDougal, Bishop Stang National Honor Society advisor and history teacher. “I am impressed with her commitment to her studies. She takes on a tremendous academic workload, taking several advanced placement courses, and still manages to live out the mission of Bishop Stang High School by helping others with her extensive volunteering projects.” For the past 70 years, the National Association of Secondary School Principals has placed local nominees in the running for one of 250 national scholarships of $1,000 or more, with one national winner winning $13,000. Friedman will find out in late May if she has won. Senior Andrea Desilets has been named one of the candidates for the 2015 U.S. Presidential Scholars program, a program where the candidates are selected from nearly 3.4 million graduating seniors. Based on Scholastic Aptitude Test and American College Testing scores, Desilets’ SAT scores automatically nominated her by meeting the requirement for the state of Rhode Island. The Little Compton resident is one of 3,000 candidates selected for their exceptional performance for either the SAT or ACT assessments. Based on their outstanding results, each chief state school officer was invited to nominate three males and three female students,
This week in 50 years ago — Fall River Catholics were among the 500 citizens who marched from St. Anne’s Church to the city post office in solidarity with the civil rights march in Selma, Ala. seeking voting rights for African-Americans. 25 years ago — Brother Roger Millette, FIC, who taught in Fall River for more than 30 years, was named FrancoAmerican of the Year by the FrancoAmerican Civic League of Fall River. He was honored at a banquet held at White’s of Westport.
who then submitted essays, selfassessments, descriptions of activities, school recommendations and school transcripts. One young man and one young woman will be selected from each state with 15 studentsat-large and up to 20 students from creative and performing arts. The U.S. Department of Education will announce the scholars in May. “At Stang, Andrea is a member of the National Honor Society, Pro-Life Club, and Lit Wits,” said Foley. “Music is her most important hobby outside of school. She has been playing the saxophone and piano for more than eight years. In addition to being a member of the Stang band and jazz band, she participates in many music activities outside of school including playing the piano at Mass and participating in the East Bay Summer Wind Ensemble.” She has received multiple acceptances from colleges, and the president/principal of Stang, Peter Shaughnessy, isn’t surprised: “Andrea Desilets is an excellent role model and student. She has consistently demonstrated exceptional academic performance, co-curricular involvement and character during her time at Bishop Stang, and exemplifies the very attributes of a U.S. Presidential Scholar.” Ultimately, a Catholic education should prepare students to be good stewards of God’s gifts and active people of faith who serve others, make a difference in the world, and participate in their faith and civic communities; upcoming Anchor issues will continue to highlight Catholic high schools students and their accomplishments.
Diocesan history
10 years ago — A lecture for teens about Catholic teaching on morality and sexuality was presented by the American Association of Malta from Boston and the diocesan Pro-Life Apostolate at Bishop Connolly High School in Fall River. One year ago — The first-ever Fall River Catholic Schools Fine Arts Night, which displayed art from all six Catholic schools in the city, was held at the Children’s Museum of Greater Fall River.
Taunton mission to focus on families continued from page one
Father Raymond will build on Pope Francis’ messages in the preparatory catechesis for the 2015 World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia, “Love is Our Mission: The Family Fully Alive.” “We all want our family to be strong, faith-filled, loving and joyful,” said Father Raymond. In an interview with The Anchor, Father Raymond said, “It would be wonderful to have families attend. I am focusing on the joy of the family that originates in the Family of the Holy Trinity; is modeled for us in the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph; shared with all of us in the family of the Church; is brought down to earth in our proper families and healed and refashioned in the merciful family in Reconciliation and Confession.” The Thursday session will include a communal Penance service followed by individual Confessions for all who so desire. Father Raymond said the mission will be “book-ended by the two sessions of the Synod on the Family.” The sessions will focus on: — Models for our families: The experience of the Family of the Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit and the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Does this mean anything to us today? — Our own family: Our membership in the domestic Church, called the family. How are we doing as a family? — Our Church family: Our own membership in the human family and the Family of God called the Church. How am I
related to others as a member of the Body of Christ? Any benefits for me and my family? — Merciful families: Forgiveness and reconciliation, with God, with the Church, with spouses and children and with parents. Father Raymond said that he wants folks to know that their families are indeed “holy families.” “Our hope is to walk you through what may sound complex but what is actually very simple,” he said. “Let your family overflow with joy, living and being Christ to one another.” Fellow Holy Cross Father James Fenstermaker asked Father Raymond to lead this year’s Taunton Deanery mission. “I have done a number of parish missions in the past several years but have usually had to decline them because they would have taken me away from work in Hollywood,” Father Raymond explained. “Now I am a bit freer ... for the time being.” With a priest leading the retreat being a member of the order of a man who is already a Servant of God and whose sainthood cause is well under way; and during the reign of a pope who is calling for a return to simpler ways with a focus on families, it’s perfect timing for a Lenten mission concentrating on the family. The sessions are free and open to the public. For more information on the mission contact St. Ann’s Church at 508-823-9833. For more information on Father Peyton or the Holy Cross Family Ministries family visit hcfm.org or call 508-238-4095.
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Youth Pages
March 13, 2015
Send school and Faith Formation news and photos to: schools@anchornews.org Bishop Edgar da M. Cunha, S.D.V., recently went to St. John the Evangelist School in Attleboro to wish them a happy 60th birthday. Sister Mary Jane Holden, C.P., principal, took Bishop da Cunha on a tour of the school and stopped in the gym to watch a few minutes of a St. John’s tournament basketball game. The tournament is also celebrating its 35th anniversary this year. Principal Holden said, “Any Catholic school that exists for 60 years is an accomplishment.” Bishop da Cunha was impressed with the technology and resources at the school, including the new wing that hosts a library media center and a dedicated music room. In addition, each room is equipped with an Apple TV and Smartboard along with 90 iPads to share. At right, Bishop da Cunha is seen taking a tour of the school with Principal Holden, history teacher Jay Hoyle and Father Richard Wilson, pastor. After the school tour, Bishop da Cunha celebrated Mass in the church.
Catholic elementary schools in the Fall River Diocese celebrated “National Read Across America Day,” also known as “Dr. Seuss Day,” on March 2 by paying tribute to the beloved children’s author. At left, students at St. Margaret Regional School in Buzzards Bay had a visit from the Cat in the Hat who read to them while parents and grandparents also read in their students’ classrooms. Above, kindergarten students at St. Michael’s School in Fall River wore the iconic striped hats that they made in art class with teacher Linda Borges to celebrate the occasion. Below, children at Holy Family-Holy Name School in New Bedford had a visit from the famous ‘Cat in the Hat’ and ‘Thing One’ and ‘Thing Two.’ The visitors read several Dr. Seuss books, danced with the children and took pictures with them as well. Pictured is the kindergarten class.
Mrs. McKenna’s four-year-old preschool class at St. Francis Xavier School in Acushnet recently took part in a science experiment that made use of Mother Nature’s abundant snow supply this winter to learn about the water cycle. Students built a mini snowman in the classroom and gave their predictions as to how long it would take “Frosty” to melt. Here the proud students are pictured above with their creation.
March 13, 2015
Youth Pages
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Halfway there (Living on a prayer)
e are about halfway more prayer to our day-to-day through Lent. All I lives is an important part of could think of when I wrote Lent. We can use this prayer this is the song “Livin’ on a to help in or sacrifice. We Prayer.” Not that I think that know that Jesus went off into Bon Jovi is a great theologian the desert for 40 days to pray. or even an amazing Christian Prayer has to be essential to music artist, but nonetheless, our Lent. this song came to my head. This week at Mass at Bishop The words in the chorus are Stang High School, Deacon “Whoa, we’re halfway there, Ouellette was talking about whoa livin’ on a prayer.” We are the fact that Lent should change us. He talked about The ECHO Retreat Program on Cape Cod recently celebrated its 45th anniversary on Cape Cod at a Mass living on a prayer! I do not know about anyone how our goal should not be to and dinner at Christ the King Parish in Mashpee. Above, some of the priests and deacons who attended else, but I know for me the finish and celebrate that we the celebration were, from left: Father Chris Peschel; Father Richard Roy; Father Peter Fournier; Father Jeff Cabral; Father Tom Frechette; Deacon Pat Mahoney; Father Richard Wilson; Msgr. Dan Hoye; Bishop beginning of Lent and the end successfully stayed committed Edgar M. da Cunha, S.D.V.; Father Tim Goldrick; Deacon Greg Beckel; Father Phil Davignon; Deacon John of Lent are the easiest times of to our sacrifice. Our goal at the Foley; Father Edward Healey; Deacon Bill Hayes; Deacon John Simonis; and Msgr. Ron Tosti. Below: Rec- sacrifice for me. The beginning end of these 40 days should be tors and rectoras who have facilitated ECHO weekends over the last 45 years included, standing from is easy because, well, it’s the to be a new person. We are not left: Kathie Cannavo, Janet Guidi-Travis, Jack Driscoll, Jean Giddings, Mary Becker, Heath Eldredge, Ellen beginning. It’s a fresh sacrifice. told in Scripture that we need Driscoll, Keith Caldwell, Alex Moore, Father Tom Frechette, Maryellen Loucks, Tom McManamon, Patti It’s when our resolve is the to be a better person but rather Machado, Joe Tierney, Deanna Barrows, Steve Goveia, Susan Anderson, Sonny Barrows, Marilyn Larivstrongest. The sacrifice almost a new person. In Paul’s second iere, Ed Lariviere, Kathy Harmon, Donna McGonagle, Susie Brown, and David Ryan. Sitting from left: Ray seems easy — LeBrun, Mary Fuller, and Bobbi Paradise. almost. The end of Lent becomes easier as well because we By Amanda see the end in Tarantelli sight. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel (or in my case, I can see letter to the Corinthians, Paul the raspberry lemonade in the writes “Therefore if anyone is glass as I gave up all beverages in Christ, he is a new creature; but water). The end of Lent the old things passed away; we convince ourselves to push behold, new things have come” through because it’s only one (2 Cor 5:17). more week or a few more days. I was reading an article on The middle of Lent is where Lent and the author, Father I start to falter. It is in the Paul Jarvis wrote that we pray middle that I start to struggle more during Lent not that God finally hear us but that MASHPEE — The long- adult speaker was Joe Tierney, re-wrote words to the ABBA and really want to give up on we finally hear God. Jesus running ECHO (Encounter- a parishioner of St. Pius X hit “Dancing Queen,” describ- my sacrifice. Side note: It’s kind of like our faith journey. retreated to the desert to get ing Christ in Others) retreat Parish in Yarmouth who first ing what happens each day of In the beginning of life it is away from the noise so He program celebrated its 45th experienced ECHO as a teen- the Friday night to Sunday easy to believe in God. We are could hear His Father. We are anniversary on March 7 with ager, sponsored his future wife ECHO retreat, all focused on young, unjaded by the realcalled to do the same thing. a Mass celebration and din- on ECHO, sent all his kids on the Paschal Mystery of Jesus’ ity of the world. Towards the We are trying to listen to that ner at Christ the King Parish ECHO weekends, and is now death and Resurrection. end of our lives we believe in still, quiet voice of God so that in Mashpee. More than 200 a rector facilitating the weekEarlier in the fall, the stuGod because He becomes all He may change our hearts and people were in attendance, in- ends. dents invited the bishop to we long to see. It is the middle our minds. The current ECHO Youth come celebrate the Mass by of life that we start to waver cluding Bishop Edgar M. da This is the fundamental Cunha, S.D.V., who celebrated Board, comprised of high recording a revised version in our faith. We see death and core of the Lenten season. the Liturgy along with 12 di- school students who have pre- of the Village People song destruction and we question We become a new creation in ocesan priests and five deacons. viously experienced an ECHO “Y.M.C.A.” rewritten to spell if God is really there. We see Christ. We die to hold habits In addition, more than 30 retreat, was very involved with out E-C-H-O. brokenness and sadness and or things that take us away past rectors and rectoras who the celebration. They presented A slideshow was also shown doubt that God could really be from Christ, and we rise again have facilitated the ECHO re- Bishop da Cunha with the tra- that included images from the loving. We hear “facts” that tell in new life in Christ. We need treat weekends over the last 45 ditional ECHO gifts at Mass: past 45 years put to music and us that God does not exist and to allow these 40 days to leave us profoundly changed. As an ECHO stole, an ECHO Mary Fuller of Buzzards Bay we begin to question what we years were in attendance. have always believed. It’s the you continue on this Lenten Following Mass, a dinner banner, the Christ candle, was recognized for her tireless middle that’s the most difficult. journey, listen to the wise was held in the parish hall. a rose, a Bible, the Head of commitment to the ECHO So back to Lent. It’s about advice of Bon Jovi and live on Two witness speakers spoke Christ image by Hook, and an program for the last 45 years. this time in my Lenten journey (a) prayer! of how ECHO has impact- ECHO cross. They also served More than 12,000 people that the sacrifice becomes a Anchor columnist Amanda ed their lives and what it has the four-course meal in the and 95 priests have experistruggle. It’s this time in Lent Tarantelli has been a campus meant to them. The student parish hall. enced the ECHO retreat since that I need to be living on a minister at Bishop Stang High Finally, they performed a its inception and it is currently speaker was Lucy Cahill, a prayer (good job Bon Jovi). School in North Dartmouth since parishioner of Our Lady of musical selection for the crowd believed to be the longest runPrayer is one of the pillars of 2005. She is married, a die-hard Victory Parish in Centerville that explained to the bishop ning retreat program in the Lent. Along with sacrifice and sports fan, and resides in Cranand a junior at St. John Paul II what happens on an ECHO country. ECHO No. 300 will almsgiving, prayer is the center ston, R.I. She can be reached at High School in Hyannis. The weekend. For the song, they be held next month. of the Lenten season. Adding atarantelli@bishopstang.com.
Be Not Afraid
ECHO retreat celebrates 45 years on Cape Cod
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March 13, 2015
Historic cathedral pipe organ being restored, resurrected continued from page one
to the great generosity of many cathedral parishioners, friends, business associates and grants,” Father Ozug noted in a recent bulletin announcement. “Those funds are the foundation for undertaking this project now.” The newly-refurbished, Frankenstein-like creation will offer a “tone quality and sound that will be unparalleled,” according to John Peragallo IV, who is overseeing the design and implementation of the organ restoration project for his family’s company. “The majority of the organ will be the Sacred Heart pipe work, but there will be a number of ranks that will be used from the previous instrument that was (in the cathedral) and had been stored at the school,” Peragallo added. “We’re going to utilize the best of everything so we can have a top-notch instrument. But in all ways, it will be considered a new instrument once it’s done.” Noting that it’s a “common thing” these days to restore pipe organs from spare parts, Peragallo said it also makes sense from a parish’s stewardship perspective and it allows the Church to preserve a piece of history. “The opportunity for a church to be able to put in a pipe organ is becoming ever more rare,” he said. “That you’re able to use such an historic instrument is very unique; and from a company standpoint, we’d rather see this historic Hook organ be used and restored rather than trying to sell new pipes to the cathedral.” As someone very familiar with this particular organ — he would personally come to Sacred Heart Church once or twice a year to fine-tune the instrument and make adjustments for special celebrations — Peragallo said he’s excited to hear it within the confines of its new home. “The organ has a tone quality that is really unique and we want to utilize that tone quality as much as we can within the new acoustic (setting),” he said. But such an undertaking may be easier said than done. Crew members from the Peragallo Company began work January 20 by packing up the Hook organ at Sacred Heart Church and delivering it, piecemeal, to St. Mary’s Cathedral. Then they removed the existing pipe work from the cathedral to be transported back to the company’s factory in New Jersey. “We’re going to be revoicing the entire instrument to work
as one,” Peragallo said. “What I mean by revoicing is we’re going to spend time listening to each pipe and changing the tonal characteristics of each pipe so that they cohesively fit from rank to rank. If you were to think about a chorus — you have an alto, soprano, tenor and bass — each member of that chorus can produce 61 independent pipe sounds.” Those individual sounds — or notes — are triggered by the keyboard on the organ console. “Each keyboard has 61 keys on it, so when you pull a knob on the organ, it activates 61 independent pipes that will play on an assigned keyboard,” he said. “So in this particular organ, there’s going to be four divisions of stops in the back; and there will be four rooms that will produce pipe sounds within the church proper. So you pull on a draw knob, and 61 windblown pipes are going to be played from the left side of the keyboard all the way to the right side of the keyboard. As you go up the keyboard and the notes get higher and higher, the pipes get shorter and shorter.” The longest pipes, measuring 16 feet in length, produce the deeper bass tones that Peragallo described as “warm, wide sounds powerful enough to shake the floor.” Shorter eight-foot pipes provide the alto, or midrange, sound; while pipes that are four feet or smaller produce the “higher-pitched sounds that are brighter in texture.” “With this organ, you’re going to have a number of different unique tonal colors,” Peragallo said. “You have your typical organ sound — in this instrument there are about five or six diapasons that produce the very typical, recognizable organ sound. Those diapasons are going to be scaled and redesigned to fit properly within this acoustic. Once we finish cleaning the pipe work, we’re going to be putting them on our machine here in the factory (to tune them). We want to really make sure that once we’re done, the organ really fills the space properly.” While the majority of the pipes are made of metal — typically a tin, zinc or lead composite — Peragallo said others are made entirely of wood. It varies depending on the tone they are designed to produce. “In this particular organ, the open wood stocks are of tremendous quality,” he said. “I’m looking forward to hearing them because they are really go-
ing to rumble the building. All the reeds function much like the clarinets or saxophones in an orchestra, with actual moving reed tongues inside the pipes. All of those will be taken apart and we’ll be burnishing the reeds and reassembling them so they speak properly.” Once the painstaking process of cleaning and fine-tuning the pipes is complete, Peragallo said they will be transported back to Fall River and the delicate task of reassembling the various components will begin. These include a series of mechanical “slider windchests,” the blower and bellows that channel the air up into the pipes, and an electronic digital switching system that “allows the keyboard to talk to the mechanics underneath each of the pipes.” “We’re going to be moving back onsite to put these wind pipes back in place, along with all the mechanics behind it and all the electrical equipment as well,” he said. “The console — or key desk — of the instrument is going to be completely redesigned for this new scheme, too, so it’s not going to be as simple as just plugging in the old organ from Sacred Heart Church, or even the one currently in the cathedral. It’s going to be something completely new in terms of look and function. There are components of the (existing) console that we’re going to reuse, but it’s going to be custombuilt of red oak stain to match the cathedral finish.” “The Peragallo Company has been very helpful in proposing a specification that will allow us to get the best instrument possible for a limited budget,” Father Ozug wrote in his parish bulletin. “The Pipe Organ Funds on hand will cover just more than half the cost of the project, (so) we will soon renew fund-raising efforts trusting that the goodwill of all who appreciate the role that music plays in our parish and diocesan worship will support us with donations and pledges.” “We didn’t want to spend money on anything that wasn’t necessary, because the organ at Sacred Heart was in good shape and we didn’t see any reason not to reuse it,” Peragallo concurred. “But in most ways, it’s going to be a new (instrument).” As work proceeds on the restoration project, Peragallo said he anticipates being back onsite in Fall River just after Easter to, appropriately enough, reassemble the resurrected pipe organ
inside the cathedral. “Once the mechanics of the instrument are finished being installed, the Peragallo family will revoice each pipe in the organ over a period of a few weeks to properly fill the new acoustic of the cathedral,” he said. And Father Ozug expects to have a formal unveiling and dedication recital shortly thereafter. “All donations, large and small, will be recognized in the program booklet for the dedication recital,” Father Ozug noted.
“We look forward with great anticipation to the completion of the organ, and the public acknowledgement of gratitude to all donors who will have made our ‘pipe dream’ come true.” “The movement to incorporate a pipe organ into St. Mary’s Cathedral has been many years in the making now,” Peragallo added. “We are very proud to have been entrusted with this work and look forward to bringing the sounds of such a unique pipe organ to serve the Fall River Diocese once more.”
Local Church seeks men for diaconate continued from page one
preparation period are profound. “One of the things you develop is a bond with your fellow brothers,” said Deacon Gary John, who serves at Espirito Santo Parish in Fall River. “We remain close, and it’s hard to describe, but it’s more powerful than anything I’ve ever experienced.” Originally from New York, Deacon John is married with two grown children. His job demands full-time travel, which proved a challenge fitting in the required two classes every week. “You need the desire and deep faith to commit yourself to it,” he said. Deacon John performed 18 Baptisms in the past eight months at Espirito Santo Parish. “It is a joy to share that Sacrament with them,” he said. “They are the antithesis of the inner-city parish. There are many young Portuguese families, and we are growing with them.” Deacon John also has served at his home parish of Holy Trinity in Fall River. “It has been an honor and a privilege to give back to the Lord the way He has sustained me my entire life,” he said. Deacon John admitted that if he had one regret, it is that he did not get the calling sooner. “I had a secure job, family and home, but something was missing,” he said. “After I attained the diaconate, that’s when I was fulfilled. People ask, but the Lord decides. You are called by grace. You are called by Him.” Originally from Cork City, Ireland, Deacon Brendan Brides serves at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Pocasset. “I’ve been here 30 years and have always been active in my church, Christ the King in Mashpee,” he said, adding that he received “pretty substantial encouragement” from his parish to enter the permanent diaconate. He started the process in his late 40s. Married with two adult children, his son is a recent grad-
uate of Cape Cod Community College who enlisted in the U.S. Navy, and his stepdaughter is disabled. “It’s been very positive for me, my family and my Marriage,” he said. Conversely, he advised against men with young children entering the diaconate at this time of their lives. “Not with young children,” he said. “I think it doesn’t work well to take yourself away from your family.” But for those currently discerning a vocation, he encouraged them to take it to the next level. “If God is calling them, they should inquire,” he said. A teacher at Bishop Feehan High School in Attleboro, Deacon Joseph McGinley serves at St. Ann’s Parish in Raynham. He just celebrated 36 years of married life with his wife, Sue, and they have two daughters and two grandchildren. “The diaconate is a wonderful ministry in that those deacons who are married can draw upon their experiences as a husband and, in most cases, a father, when they are ministering to the faithful,” said Deacon McGinley. “There is a commonality of experiences that the deacon can draw upon and which might serve to facilitate interaction with the laity.” Formation in the permanent diaconate requires daily prayer, Spiritual direction and training, and commitment to increase understanding of the Catholic faith and theology. “The program is a period of preparation, and we are seeking candidates who are being called by God to serve the Church in a special way,” Msgr. Oliveira said. To register for the informational night, visit the Office for the Permanent Diaconate website at www.frpermanentdiaconate. com. St. Mary’s Parish Center is located at 106 Illinois St. in New
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Eucharistic Adoration in the Diocese Acushnet — Eucharistic Adoration takes place at St. Francis Xavier Parish on Monday from 9:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.; Tuesday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.; and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Evening prayer and Benediction is held Monday through Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. ATTLEBORO — Eucharistic Adoration takes place in the Adoration Chapel at St. Vincent de Paul Parish, 71 Linden Street, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. ATTLEBORO — The National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette holds Eucharistic Adoration in the Shrine Church every Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m. through November 17. ATTLEBORO — There is a weekly Holy Hour of Eucharistic Adoration Thursdays from 5:30 to 6:30 pm at St. John the Evangelist Church on N. Main St. Brewster — Eucharistic Adoration takes place in the La Salette Chapel in the lower level of Our Lady of the Cape Church, 468 Stony Brook Road, on First Fridays beginning at noon until 7:45 a.m. First Saturday, concluding with Benediction and concluding with Mass at 8 a.m. buzzards Bay — Eucharistic Adoration takes place at St. Margaret Church, 141 Main Street, Monday through Saturday, from 6:30 to 8 a.m.; and every first Friday from noon to 8 a.m. on Saturday. East Freetown — Eucharistic Adoration takes place at St. John Neumann Church every Monday (excluding legal holidays) 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the Our Lady, Mother of All Nations Chapel. (The base of the bell tower). EAST TAUNTON — Eucharistic Adoration takes place in the chapel at Holy Family Parish Center, 438 Middleboro Avenue, Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. On First Fridays, Eucharistic Adoration takes place at Holy Family Church, 370 Middleboro Avenue, from 8:30 a.m. until 7:45 p.m. FAIRHAVEN — St. Mary’s Church, Main St., has Eucharistic Adoration every Wednesday from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in the Chapel of Reconciliation, with Benediction at 11:30 a.m. Also, there is a First Friday Mass each month at 7 p.m., followed by a Holy Hour with Eucharistic Adoration. Refreshments follow. Fall River — Espirito Santo Parish, 311 Alden Street, Fall River. Eucharistic Adoration on Mondays following the 8 a.m. Mass until Rosary and Benediction at 6:30 p.m. FALL RIVER — St. Bernadette’s Church, 529 Eastern Ave., has continuous Eucharistic Adoration from 8 a.m. on Thursday until 8 a.m. on Saturday. FALL RIVER — St. Anthony of the Desert Church, 300 North Eastern Avenue, has Eucharistic Adoration Mondays and Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. FALL RIVER — Holy Name Church, 709 Hanover Street, has Eucharistic Adoration Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the Our Lady of Grace Chapel. FALL RIVER — Good Shepherd Parish has Eucharistic Adoration every Friday following the 8 a.m. Mass and concluding with 3 p.m. Benediction in the Daily Mass Chapel. A bilingual holy hour takes place from 2 to 3 p.m. Park behind the church and enter the back door of the connector between the church and the rectory. Falmouth — St. Patrick’s Church has Eucharistic Adoration each First Friday, following the 9 a.m. Mass until Benediction at 4:30 p.m. The Rosary is recited Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. MANSFIELD — St. Mary’s Parish, 330 Pratt Street, has Eucharistic Adoration every First Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., with Benediction at 5:45 p.m. MASHPEE — Christ the King Parish, Route 151 and Job’s Fishing Road has 8:30 a.m. Mass every First Friday with special intentions for Respect Life, followed by 24 hours of Eucharistic Adoration in the Chapel, concluding with Benediction Saturday morning followed immediately by an 8:30 Mass. NEW BEDFORD — Eucharistic Adoration takes place 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesdays at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, 233 County Street, with night prayer and Benediction at 8:45 p.m., and Confessions offered during the evening. Please use the side entrance. NEW BEDFORD — There is a daily holy hour from 5:15-6:15 p.m. Monday through Thursday at St. Anthony of Padua Church, 1359 Acushnet Avenue. It includes Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, Liturgy of the Hours, recitation of the Rosary, and the opportunity for Confession. NEW BEDFORD — St. Lawrence Martyr Parish, 565 County Street, holds Eucharistic Adoration in the side chapel from 7:30-11:45 a.m. ending with a simple Benediction NORTH DARTMOUTH — Eucharistic Adoration takes place at St. Julie Billiart Church, 494 Slocum Road, every Tuesday from 7 to 8 p.m., ending with Benediction. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is available at this time. NORTH DIGHTON — Eucharistic Adoration takes place every Wednesday following 8:00 a.m. Mass and concludes with Benediction at 5 p.m. Eucharistic Adoration also takes place every First Friday at St. Nicholas of Myra Church, 499 Spring Street following the 8 a.m. Mass, ending with Benediction at 6 p.m. The Rosary is recited Monday through Friday from 7:30 to 8 a.m. NORTH EASTON — A Holy Hour for Families including Eucharistic Adoration is held every Friday from 3-4 p.m. at The Father Peyton Center, 518 Washington Street. OSTERVILLE — Eucharistic Adoration takes place at Our Lady of the Assumption Church, 76 Wianno Avenue on First Fridays from 8:30 a.m. to noon. SEEKONK — Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish has perpetual Eucharistic Adoration seven days a week, 24 hours a day in the chapel at 984 Taunton Avenue. For information call 508-336-5549. Taunton — Eucharistic Adoration takes place every Tuesday at St. Anthony Church, 126 School Street, following the 8 a.m. Mass with prayers including the Chaplet of Divine Mercy for vocations, concluding at 6 p.m. with Chaplet of St. Anthony and Benediction. Recitation of the Rosary for peace is prayed Monday through Saturday at 7:30 a.m. prior to the 8 a.m. Mass. Taunton — Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament takes place every First Friday at Annunciation of the Lord, 31 First Street. Exposition begins following the 8 a.m. Mass. The Blessed Sacrament will be exposed, and Adoration will continue throughout the day. Confessions are heard from 5:15 to 6:15 p.m. Rosary and Benediction begin at 6:30 p.m. WAREHAM — Eucharistic Adoration at St. Patrick’s Church begins each Wednesday evening at 6 p.m. and ends on Friday night at midnight. Adoration is held in our Adoration Chapel in the lower Parish Hall. ~ PERPETUAL EUCHARISTIC ADORATION ~ East Sandwich — The Corpus Christi Parish Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration Chapel is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 324 Quaker Meeting House Road, East Sandwich. Use the Chapel entrance on the side of the church. NEW BEDFORD — Our Lady’s Chapel, 600 Pleasant Street, offers Eucharistic Adoration seven days a week, 24 hours a day. For information call 508-996-8274. SEEKONK — Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish has perpetual Eucharistic Adoration seven days a week, 24 hours a day in the chapel at 984 Taunton Avenue. For information call 508-336-5549. WEST HARWICH — Our Lady of Life Perpetual Adoration Chapel at Holy Trinity Parish, 246 Main Street (Rte. 28), holds perpetual Eucharistic Adoration. We are a regional chapel serving all of the surrounding parishes. All are invited to sign up to cover open hours. For open hours, or to sign up call 508-430-4716.
Father William W. Campbell
North Falmouth — Father William W. Campbell passed away at the Marian Manor Nursing Home in Boston, February 3 at the age of 87. He was born in Salem to the late W. Warren and Louise C. (Barry) Campbell. Father Campbell grew up in Immaculate Conception Parish, Salem, went to St. Mary Boy’s High School in Lynn. He entered St. John Seminary during the war years which meant 24 months of continuous studies. Cardinal Cushing ordained Father Campbell on Jan. 10, 1952, at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. After serving at St. Patrick Parish in Cambridge for four years, Father Campbell was among 10 Boston priests who responded to that invitation and joined the military chaplaincy in 1956. As a priest in the Air Force, Father Campbell has been around the world five times and lived in 12 countries. But what he thoroughly enjoyed was talking to young people about vocations. He was especially proud of the 10 GI’s he had known who entered priesthood or religious life. In June 1987 after 31 years of service, he retired as a colonel from the Air Force. He went on to direct the Notre Dame University ROTC program as assistant to the president. Three years later he returned to Boston and accepted an appointment as pastor of St. Mary Parish in Wrentham in September 1990. He retired Sept. 30, 1994, and resided at his family home. He resided in Falmouth serv-
In Your Prayers Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks March 16 Rev. Francis J. Maloney. S.T.L., Pastor, St. Mary, North Attleboro, 1957 Rev. Thomas J. Tobin, C.S.C., 2006 March 17 Rev. Henry R. Creighton, SS.CC., 2004 Permanent Deacon Michael E. Murray, 2008 March 18 Rev. Robert D. Forand, C.P., West Hartford, Conn., 1989 Permanent Deacon Frank W. Mis, 2011 March 19 Rev. John J. McQuaide, Assistant, St. Mary, Taunton, 1905 March 20 Rev. Francis A. Mrozinski, Pastor, St. Hedwig, New Bedford, 1951
ing at St. Elizabeth Seton Parish in Falmouth and many years at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Pocasset. Father Campbell is survived by his nephew, Richard Campbell, and one great-niece and one great nephew. He was predeceased by his brother, Richard Campbell and sister, Miriam Chader. A funeral Mass was cel-
ebrated February 11 at St. John the Evangelist Parish. Burial followed at the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne. Arrangements were handled by Chapman, Cole and Gleason Funeral Homes Memorial donations may be made to: Regina Cleri Inc., 60 William Cardinal O’Connell Way, Boston, Mass. 021142709.
Around the Diocese
On March 15 at 3 p.m., Jon Wiening of Providence R.I., will play a classical guitar recital at St. Anthony of Padua Church in New Bedford. The recital is a fund-raiser for St. Anthony’s 100-year-old Casavant pipe organ as a part of the Music at St. Anthony’s concert program. No tickets are needed to attend, but a freewill offering will be collected during the concert for the organ fund. Complimentary tea and cookies will be served after the concert in the church hall. For more information, visit www.musicatsaintanthonys.org or call the rectory at 508-993-1691. A mission for the Taunton Deanery entitled “The Joy of the Family: Begins in our Homes” will be held March 16-19 at 7 p.m. each night at St. Ann’s Parish, 660 North Main Street in Raynham. Join Father Willy Raymond, C.S.C., in an examination of Pope Francis’ messages in “Love is Our Mission” to learn how your family is a holy family. He’ll discuss models for our families — our Church family, our own family, and merciful families — all in the context of this year’s Synod on the Family. Father Raymond is president of Holy Cross Family Ministries, a worldwide ministry that helps families pray and he has spent 14 years in Hollywood creating faith-based family film, television and radio programs. The event is free and open to the public. For more information call 508 -823-9833. A Healing Mass will be celebrated on March 19 at St. Anthony of Padua Church, 1359 Acushnet Avenue in New Bedford. The Mass will begin at 6:30 p.m. and includes Benediction and healing prayers. At 5:15 p.m. there will also be a holy hour including the Rosary. For more information visit www.saintanthonynewbedford.com or call 508-993-1691. Find a deeper connection with God through the music and story of internationally-celebrated singer/songwriter TAJČI during a free concert to be held March 26 at 7 p.m. at St. Jude the Apostle Parish, 249 Whittenton Street in Taunton. This transformational Lenten experience, entitled “I Thirst,” will include a freewill offering to benefit My Brother’s Keeper. For more information, call 508-824-3330. The Diocesan Council of Catholic Women will meet on March 28 at Holy Trinity Church, 951 Stafford Road in Fall River. Coffee and light refreshments will be served beginning at 8:30 a.m., with the meeting to follow at 9 a.m. At 9:30 a.m. a program will be presented featuring speaker Joan Jakuboski, RN, BSN, from EldersFirst. She will discuss geriatric care. Donations of toiletries such as body lotions, hand lotions and tissues will be greatly appreciated and may be given to Nancy Martin, chairman of the Family Concerns Committee. A Book Fair will be held on March 28 from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at Bishop Stang High School in North Dartmouth. Book donations are now being accepted at the school, with all proceeds to benefit the American Heart Association in memory of former teacher Richard Flynn and Joseph Silva. All are welcome and encouraged to buy gently used books at great prices. For more information, contact Colleen Silva at csilva@bishopstang.org.
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March 13, 2015
Stang students exemplify Catholic education By Becky Aubut Anchor Staff
Melting snow on the roof of St. Bernard’s Church in Assonet recently left the image of a cross. (Photo by Paul Levesque)
NORTH DARTMOUTH — Rooted in a Spiritual community, Bishop Stang High School is one of five Catholic high schools in the Fall River Diocese, and is dedicated to spreading the message of Jesus Christ by handing down the teachings of the Catholic Church and the charism of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur to its diverse student population by providing a disciplined and nurturing environment that encourages academic excellence with Christian values. As the school year progresses, here are but a few Bishop Stang students who have earned recognition on a local and national scale. Senior Addison Landry was named a finalist for the state of Massachusetts by the Wendy’s High School Heisman competition. The Falmouth resident was one of 10 senior women, along
with 10 senior men, selected for the state and is the first Bishop Stang student to be recognized at this level. According to its website, since 1994 the Wendy’s High School Heisman Program has honored more than 395,000 of the nation’s most esteemed high school seniors in partnership with the Heisman Memorial Trophy® Committee. The leadership award-honorees are well-rounded young men and women who excel in learning, performing, and leading in the classroom, on the field and in the community. Like the Heisman Memorial Trophy, the Wendy’s program believes in the pursuit of athletic and academic excellence with integrity. “In a very academically-gifted and talented class, Addison currently ranks in the top 15 percent,” said Janice Foley, director for advancement at the high school, “but takes as challenging of a course load as any. She is a
top athlete in the school, earning eight varsity letters to date, holds school leadership positions, and is committed to service in her community. “Addison has had an equally Turn to page 15
Andrea Desilets
Sarah Friedman
Addison Landry