04.08.11

Diocese of Fall River

The Anchor

F riday , April 8, 2011

Speaker encourages diocesan teen-agers to remain chaste

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

a run for their money — Security personnel flank Pope John Paul II’s motorcade during the pontiff’s visit to Boston in October 1979. (Photo courtesy of Roland Martineau)

For area man, JPII’s Boston visit was a ‘guard’ instance

This begins a series of features on encounters diocesan individuals had with Pope John Paul II who will be beatified in Rome on May 1.

By Dave Jolivet, Editor

FALL RIVER — Roland Martineau spent 23 years in active duty in the U.S. Army and several more in the U.S. Army National Guard.

Much of his time was spent in and around Berlin during the German Occupancy following its surrender in World War II. The Fall River resident and a parishioner of St. Anne’s Parish has many memories and stories of serving his country, but the one that

stands out most for him was an assignment in 1979 in his own backyard, Boston.

While serving in the 685th Military Police Battery of the Mass.

National Guard stationed in Buzzards Bay, Martineau and his good friend Brad Faxon Sr. were ordered to post guard behind the stage at the Boston Common during Pope John Paul II’s visit in October 1979.

“There were many individuals assigned to security posts during the pope’s visit,” Martineau told The Anchor. “There were the Secret Service, the Mass. State Police, the Boston Police, and the Mass.

National Guard. Brad and I were to Turn to page 19

Legislators, casino opponents call for cost-benefits analysis

By Christine M. Williams Anchor Correspondent

BOSTON — With 10 expanded gaming bills already filed this legislative session, 25 legislators have called for an independent cost-benefits analysis of the effects casinos and slots would have in Massachusetts.

SB150, a bill filed by Sen.

NEW BEDFORD — Popular chastity speaker Jason Evert hoisted the brave volunteer from the packed confines of St. Mary’s Church up onto his shoulders and dangled him precariously upside down, acting out a scenario in which the two were on a date and looking over the edge of the Grand Canyon.

The fact that Evert’s “date” was a teen-age boy donning a blonde wig added a bit of comic relief to the demonstration.

“The point of that was basically this: none of us guys would ever take a girl we like to a dangerous place and see how far we can go without killing her,” Evert said. “But in high

school we’re always wondering how far we can go — can I do this with her? Can I do that with her?”

Evert’s simple message of respect, purity and saving God’s gift of sexual intimacy for one’s future spouse resonated with the large gathering of Faith Formation students from New Bedford Deanery parishes.

“In the Bible, there’s one passage a man needs to know to love a woman,” Evert said, quoting from Ephesians 5. “St. Paul says: ‘Husbands, love your wife like Christ loved the Church. Hand yourself over to her to make her holy.’”

Evert then described how much Christ sufTurn to page 14

Stephen M. Brewer (D-Barre) on January 19, asks for a look at the positive and negative outcomes for the Commonwealth and individual communities in the short and long term. The organization hired would be a “qualified research institution” and would be asked to consider increased revenues as well as Turn to page 12

frank talk — Highly-regarded chastity speaker Jason Evert addresses a large gathering of Faith Formation students from New Bedford Deanery parishes at St. Mary’s Church in New Bedford. (Photo by Kenneth J. Souza)

More than a roof; it’s a home

By Becky Aubut Anchor Staff

NEW BEDFORD — When the former convent of St. Anne’s Parish in New Bedford fell into disrepair, the neighborhood association placed a phone call to the Community Action for Better Housing.

“It had become a magnet for drugs and other kinds of activities, so the neighborhood association came to us and asked if we could do something about it; if we could acquire the property, and we did,” said Ed Allard, project director for CABH. “That was one of the first projects that I got involved in when I came on board.”

CABH came in and converted the property into 17 single-room occupancy units with onsite management and maintenance.

“It went from being a total eyesore to being a total charmer for the neighborhood,” said Allard.

“That’s something we do, we like to look at properties in distressed neighborhoods and see it hopefully as being a catalyst for the revitalization of those neighborhoods.

A lot of what we do is motivated by that goal.”

CABH was incorporated in 1995 as an affiliate agency of Catholic Social Services, and targets abandoned or foreclosed

properties to transform them into rental units or help first-time buyers transition into homeowners.

Focused on properties in New Bedford and Fall River, the current housing market has created a glut of foreclosed properties to be considered by CABH as potential projects. As a member of the First Look Program, a Boston-based program developed by Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association that enters into a cooperative relationship with lenders, CABH takes it time weighing potential properties and the costs.

“It’s not something you do off Turn to page 18

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News From the Vatican

April 8, 2011

John Paul II being beatified for holiness, not his papacy, speakers say

ROME (CNS) — Pope John Paul II is being beatified not because of his impact on history or on the Catholic Church, but because of the way he lived the Christian virtues of faith, hope and love, said Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes.

“Clearly his cause was put on the fast track, but the process was done carefully and meticulously, following the rules Pope John Paul himself issued in 1983,” the cardinal said April 1, during a conference at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome.

The cardinal said the Church wanted to respond positively to many Catholics’ hopes to have Pope John Paul beatified quickly, but it also wanted to be certain that the pope, who died in 2005, is in heaven.

Cardinal Amato said the sainthood process is one of the areas of Church life where the consensus of Church members, technically the “sensus fidelium” (“sense of the faithful”), really counts.

“From the day of his death on April 2, 2005, the people of God began proclaiming his holiness,” and hundreds, if not thousands, visit his tomb each day, the cardinal said. A further sign is the number of biographies published about him and the number of his writings that are translated and republished.

“In the course of a beatification cause, there is the vox populi,” he said, which must be “accompanied by the vox dei (voice of

God) — the miracles — and the vox ecclesiae (voice of the Church),” which is the official judgment issued after interviewing eyewitnesses and consulting with historians, physicians, theologians and Church leaders to verify the candidate’s holiness.

Beatification and canonization are not recognitions of someone’s superior understanding of theology, nor of the great works he or she accomplished, he said. Declaring someone a saint, the Church attests to the fact that he or she lived the Christian virtues in a truly extraordinary way and is a model to be imitated by others, the cardinal said.

The candidate, he said, must be perceived “as an image of Christ.”

Cardinal Amato said, “the pressure of the public and of the media did not disturb the process, but helped it” because it was a further sign of Pope John Paul’s widespread reputation for holiness, which is something the Church requires proof of before it moves to beatify someone.

Joaquin Navarro-Valls, who served as Vatican spokesman under Pope John Paul, told the conference that the late pope’s voice, his pronunciation, his use of gestures and his presence at the altar or on a stage all contributed to his success as a communicator.

But the key to his effectiveness was that he firmly believed that each person was created in God’s image and likeness, NavarroValls said. “I think this was what attracted people even more than the way he spoke.”

incredible feet — Jessica Cox, 28, from Arizona uses her foot to give Pope Benedict XVI her Guinness World Records medal during a recent weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. Cox, who was born without arms, in 2008 set the Guinness record for being the first woman to fly an airplane with her feet. (CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano via Catholic Press photo)

Pope proposes St. Alphonsus Liguori as model for new evangelization

Vatican City (CNA/EWTN News) — The Church owes a debt of gratitude to the towering figure of St. Alphonsus Maria of Liguori, Pope Benedict XVI said at his weekly Wednesday audience, March 30.

Although his times were much different, prayer groups the saint started are “a model of missionary action which can also inspire us today for a ‘new evangelization,’ especially among the poorest, and for building a more just, fraternal and united human coexistence,” said the pope.

“The task of spiritual ministry is entrusted to priests, while well formed laity can be effective Christian leaders, genuine evangelical yeast in the bosom of society,” he added.

The final general audience of March took place outdoors for the second time this year as spring weather has begun to arrive in Rome.

Continuing his catechesis on the “doctors” of the Church, the pope considered the life and spirituality of St. Alphonsus, who founded the missionary Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, also known as the Redemptorists.

St. Alphonsus was born in Naples, Italy in 1696 into a wealthy family. He finished his studies in canon and civil law at 16 years old and built an impressive record in court over the next eight years, never losing a case.

“However, in his soul thirsting for God and desiring perfection, the Lord guided him to comprehend that it was another vocation to which he was called,” recalled the pope.

He left riches and his successful but brief career as a lawyer to become a priest.

The still young Father Liguori focused on evangelizing and preaching to the poorest of the city. He started prayer meetings with those living in the greatest misery, and people began to attend in ever larger groups. “With patience, he taught them to pray, encouraging them to improve their way of life,” said the Pope.

The prayer groups grew to include other catechists and priests and began to change neighborhoods. “They were a true and real source of moral education, social development, mutual assistance among the poor.

“Theft, duels and prostitution nearly disappeared,” the pope said.

Father Alphonsus dreamed of preaching

to pagan peoples abroad. However, he soon found that in the rural areas around Naples the people were ignorant of the Gospels and in great material and spiritual need.

He began to help them and after just six years as a priest, he founded the missionary Congregation of the Holy Redeemer with the intention of bringing Christ’s message beyond the slums of Naples to the most remote corners of Italy.

The missionary method was above all based on prayer, remembered Pope Benedict.

In fact, among the most important forms of prayer he advocated was eucharistic adoration.

Although he died in 1787, the congregation continues its founder’s work today well beyond Italy’s borders. Its 5,500 members in 77 countries carry out much of their work in schools, parishes and missions.

Alphonsus was canonized in 1839 and declared a doctor of the Church in 1871 for his “accurately expressed” teachings on moral theology, Pope Benedict said. In this same vein, Pius XII proclaimed him “patron of all confessors and moralists.”

He is a figure to which “we are all debtors, because he was a prominent moral theologian and master of the spiritual life for all, above all for the simple people.”

The pope highlighted St. Alphonsus’ great respect for the value of priests as visible signs of God’s infinite mercy in Confession where they pardon and illuminate “the minds and hearts of sinners that they might convert and change their lives.”

Today, he said, where there are signs that moral conscience and respect for Confession are being lost, this saint’s teachings remain valid.

Pope Benedict recalled St. Alphonsus’ success in winning souls to Christ through teaching the Gospel and administering the sacraments with a “gentle and mild manner.”

“We thank the Lord that, with his providence, he raises saints and doctors in different places and times, who speak the same language to invite us to grow in the faith and live our Christian being with love and joy in the simple actions of every day, to walk on the path of holiness, on the path towards God and towards true joy.”

The International Church Nuncio says priests targeted in Ivory Coast; Caritas priest missing

April 8, 2011

WARSAW, Poland (CNS) — The Vatican’s representative to the Ivory Coast has said Catholic priests have been targeted by armed groups during the current conflict, but added that he still hopes “full-scale civil war” can be avoided in the West African country.

In Rome, officials of Caritas Internationalis, the Church’s charitable aid agency, said one of the priests kidnapped was Father Richard Kissi, diocesan director of Caritas in Abidjan, who was kidnapped March 29 by an armed group.

In a telephone interview, the nuncio, Archbishop Ambrose Madtha, told CNS, “I wouldn’t call it a civil war as yet — the rebel army has been trying to attack certain cities, and this is why the violence is continuing.”

He said students at the main Catholic seminary in Abidjan, the country’s largest city, had been evacuated after its buildings were occupied by rebel soldiers. He added that a Catholic priest had been abducted DIOCESAN TRIBUNAL FALL RIVER, MASSACHUSETTS Decree of Citation Since his present domicile is unknown, in accord with the provision of Canon 1509.1, we hereby cite John F. Walsh to appear in person before the Tribunal of the Diocese of Fall River (887 Highland Avenue in Fall River, Bristol County, Massachusetts) on April 25, 2011 at 2:30 PM to give his testimony regarding the question: IS THE CARVALHO-WALSH MARRIAGE NULL ACCORDING TO CHURCH LAW? Anyone who has knowledge of the domicile of John F. Walsh is hereby required to inform him of this citation.

Given at the offices of the Diocesan Tribunal in Fall River, Bristol County, Massachusetts on April 1, 2011.

(Rev.) Paul F. Robinson, O. Carm., J.C.D. Judicial Vicar (Mrs.) Helene P. Beaudoin Ecclesiastical Notary

The Anchor www.anchornews.org

while helping supervise the evacuation, while another had been attacked while returning from a late-night radio broadcast and had been hospitalized. He would not identify the priests by name.

But in Rome March 31, Caritas said Father Kissi was kidnapped by an armed group while he was heading to Anyama, a suburb of Abidjan, to evacuate seminarians. Caritas said its officials in Ivory Coast had not heard from him, and investigations into his whereabouts had been unsuccessful.

“We do not know whether Father Kissi is well and have not received any claims from the kidnappers,” said Jean Djoman, director of human development at Caritas in Ivory Coast.

Archbishop Madtha said that, during the fighting, “both sides have generally respected Catholic churches, although soldiers have also entered at least one in search of rebels.”

“We can only hope political leaders and the people attached to them will now hear the appeals for peace and pay more attention to what they are doing,” he said.

Communal violence flared after President Laurent Gbagbo refused to recognize Alassane Ouattara’s victory in a November 28 runoff that was expected to return the Frenchspeaking country to stability following a 2002-03 civil war and subsequent economic stagnation.

More than 460 people have been killed, and at least a million forced to flee during the conflict, according to the United Nations, which has 9,000 peacekeeping troops in Ivory Coast, monitoring a 2003 cease-fire.

Fighting intensified in late March as rebel forces advanced on and entered Yamoussoukro from strongholds in the North, as well as toward the key cocoa-exporting port OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER Vol. 55, No. 14

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of San Pedro in the southwest.

Amnesty International reported March 31 that at least 10,000 people in Duekoue, Ivory Coast, went to the local Catholic mission seeking help after rebel forces loyal to Ouattara conquered Duekoue, where the mission had already received 5,000 refugees.

In his interview, Archbishop Madtha said the mission’s priest had confirmed to him that the refugees, who include West Africans working in Ivory Coast’s cocoa plantations, were unharmed despite three days of fighting in Duekoue.

“People think the churches are safe places, so they usually flock to Catholic compounds whenever there’s a problem,” said the archbishop. “At the

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beginning, no one here believed this conflict would last so long. But it’s already passed four months, and we simply don’t know where it will end.”

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The Church in the U.S. Bishop urges seminarians to exercise Christ’s authority in priesthood

PHILADELPHIA (CNS) — Seminarians must not be afraid to exercise the priestly authority of Christ upon their ordination to the priesthood, Bishop Samuel F. Aquila of Fargo, N.D., told an assembly of seminarians in Philadelphia.

“Jesus is the shepherd who teaches us, as bishops and priests and future priests, how to shepherd, how to live his own pastoral authority bestowed upon us by Him and the Holy Spirit on the day of our ordinations,” Bishop Aquila said at 10th annual Symposium on the Spirituality and Identity of the Diocesan Priest.

He urged the seminarians to understand how direct Christ was in calling people “to change their way of acting and thinking” and learn his criteria “for correcting a brother or sister,” especially those who dissent from Church teaching on abortion, contraception, samesex unions and euthanasia. He also questioned why Catholic politicians who year after year vote to keep legal abortion continue to receive Communion.

In today’s secular society, “with its rejection of God” and His authority, exercising the office of governance is the most difficult for the Church’s leaders, but they learn how to exercise that authority by turning to Christ.

The March 18 symposium was sponsored by the Institute for Priestly Formation and St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in the Philadelphia Archdiocese.

Bishop Aquila delved into the Gospels to point out several examples of how Christ exercised that authority.

Quoting from the Gospel of Matthew, he noted that Jesus called His Twelve Apostles and “gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out and to heal every disease and every infirmity.”

From Luke’s Gospel, Bishop Aquila said how Jesus shared His authority with “the 72” — the disciples He sent out — and they returned to Him from their mission rejoicing that “even the demons are subject to us in your name” — although Jesus redirected them to keeping their eyes on the Fa-

ther, “from whom all authority comes.”

Jesus told the Apostle Philip in the Gospel of John, “The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does His works.” Jesus “is at the service of the Father,” Bishop Aquila said.

Earlier in John’s Gospel, Jesus declares, “My teaching is not mine, but His who sent me; if any man’s will is to do His will, he shall know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.” Bishop Aquila added, “The teaching authority of Jesus stems from His intimate union with the Father.”

Bishop Aquila said there were four ways for seminarians to form “receptive hearts” to this authority.

One is to nourish intimacy with the Trinity through “lectio divina,” a form of prayerful meditation on the word of God. Another is to “experience the school of Nazareth,” according to Bishop Aquila, quoting Pope Paul VI’s 1964 visit to Jesus’ hometown: “Here we can observe and ponder the simple appeal of the way God’s Son came to be known, and profound and yet full of hidden meaning. And gradually we may even learn to imitate Him.” The other two ways were closely linked: “regular celebration” of the Sacrament of Reconciliation and “daily celebration” of the Eucharist.

“Every seminarian must know himself as a sinner,” Bishop Aquila said. “Conversion is constant in the life of the faithful priest,” he continued, adding that he “recovered the practice” of weekly Confession during his graduate studies in Rome more than 20 years ago.

“A deep love for the daily celebration of the Eucharist,” he said, is the “most important way for the seminarian to grow in the desires of Jesus.”

Jesus was clear and direct in calling people to “conversion” and to change “their way of acting and thinking,” the bishop said, and He provides the criteria “for correcting a brother or sister.”

“Jesus is teaching us, but do we listen and follow His example?”

Bishop Aquila asked. “If this criteria had been followed with dissenting theologians, priests, religious and faithful in 1968 with the encyclical ‘Humanae Vitae,’ would we still be dealing with the problem today of those who dissent on contraception, abortion, same-sex unions, euthanasia and so many other teachings of the Church?”

He added, “One must honestly ask, how many times and years may a Catholic politician vote for the so-called ‘right to abortion,’ ‘murder’ in the words of (Pope) John Paul II in ‘Evangelium Vitae,’ and still be able to receive Holy Communion?

“The continual reception of Holy Communion by those who so visibly contradict and promote a grave evil, even more than simply dissent, only creates grave scandal, undermines the teaching and governing authority of the Church and can be interpreted by the faithful as indifference to the teaching of Christ and the Church on the part of those who have the responsibility to govern,” he said.

Bishop Aquila outlined ways bishops and priests exercise the pastoral authority of Christ: teaching, sanctifying and governing the Church.

“We as the servants of Christ and the Church must teach boldly and without hesitancy. The ‘new evangelization’ means following the example of Jesus,” he said.

Bishop Aquila added, “We must remember to contemplate within our hearts the sanctifying authority that Jesus bestowed on His Apostles and the 72 in the Gospels, and thus upon bishops and priests, to forgive sins, to preach, to heal the sick and to cast out demons. Every priest has the sanctifying authority bestowed

by Christ to be victorious over the power of evil in the spiritual battle.”

Bishops and priests, he said, “must return to a full exercise of the governing authority of Christ witnessed in the Gospel. If we do not exercise that authority, are hesitant to exercise it, or doubt it, then it only leads to the ‘father of lies’ taking hold of the minds and hearts of the faithful.”

April 8, 2011

hoping for net results — Pontifical North American College seminarian Nick Nelson of the Diocese of Duluth, Minn., plays in his team’s season opener against the Pontifical College of Brazil recently. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Supreme Court rules in favor of Arizona tax credit program

PHOENIX (CNA) — In what’s being lauded as a major victory for parental choice in education, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Arizona residents have a right to claim tax credit for donations to non-profit groups that provide scholarships to religious schools.

“Parents should be able to choose what’s best for their own children,” attorney David Cortman of the Alliance Defense Fund said. “This ruling empowers parents to do just that.”

On April 4, the high court ruled five–four to dismiss a lawsuit backed by the American Civil Liberties Union against an Arizona program that sought to promote school choice.

The case had pitted the Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization against a group of citizens charging that a 1997 government tax credit program amounted to a state establishment of religion. The program allowed taxpayers to donate money toward a variety of private scholarship foundations, rather than paying the same amount to the government through taxes.

The Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization is one of more than 50 non-profit groups that gives donations in the form of scholarships to more than 27,000 students attending hundreds of private schools throughout the state.

The Christian legal group Alliance Defense Fund, which helped defend the tuition organization, argued that the Arizona program involves individual, private choices and funding, not government action or money.

The group also argued that the program saves the state money and relieves some of the burden on overcrowded public schools.

The Supreme Court sided with the non-profit and dismissed the suit on Monday, ruling that the American Civil Liberties Union’s clients did not have any legal standing to sue over someone else’s private donations.

The Alliance Defense Fund said that the decision creates a national precedent that will prevent similar legal action in the future.

“Parents should decide what schools their children attend and where their money goes,” said Cortman, who serves as senior counsel for the defense fund.

He said that the American Civil Liberties Union “failed in its attempt to eliminate school choice for hundreds of thousands of students nationwide and also failed to demonstrate that it had any constitutional basis for its clients to file suit in the first place.”

In a strong gesture of support for the Christian tuition organization last November, acting U.S. Solicitor General Neal Kaytal said that opponents of the tax credit had no case. “Not a cent” of taxpayers’ money was even indirectly funding religious schools, the solicitor general observed. “Not a fraction of a cent.

As you track the taxpayers’ dollars, it doesn’t actually fund any religious program.”

Thus, the Obama-appointed solicitor general said, challengers of the Arizona law could not bring a complaint as taxpayers, nor could they claim an establishment of religion.

5 The Church in the U.S. Catholic psychotherapists urged to integrate faith into their practice

April 8, 2011

DENVER (CNS) — Some 220 people from 33 states and three countries — the United States, Canada and Australia — met in Denver March 24-26 for the Catholic Psychotherapy Association’s second annual conference.

“Attendees were primarily psychotherapists, students of psychology and more than 30 percent of the participants were clergy, religious and seminarians,” said Christina Lynch, conference chair. She is the

association’s board secretary and staff psychologist for St. John Vianney Theological Seminary.

The event, which had as its theme “Implementing the Catholic Faith into Your Practice: Psychotherapy at the Service of the Church,” included talks by noted mental health experts, the participation of three Colorado bishops, Mass, a banquet, vendor exhibits and opportunities for networking.

Author-editor Paul Vitz, senior

scholar and director of a master’s program at the Institute for Psychological Sciences in Arlington, Va., gave the morning keynote presentation March 25 on “Why Now Is the Time for Integrating Psychology With the Faith.”

Vitz said a decline in secular confidence, the growth of religion around the world, the development of psychological theories compatible with Christianity and an increase in the number of Christian

Boston — The Massachusetts Catholic Conference Board of Governors, after an extensive search process, has announced the appointment of James F. Driscoll as the executive director. Driscoll succeeds Interim Executive Director Gerald D. D’Avolio who assumed the position following the death of Edward F. Saunders in August 2010. Driscoll most recently served as General Counsel in the Office of the State Auditor for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

The MCC Board of Governors includes Cardinal Seán O’Malley (Archbishop of Boston), Bishop George W. Coleman (Bishop of Fall River), Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell (Bishop of Springfield), and Bishop Robert J. McManus (Bishop of Worcester).

Since 1969, the MCC has served as the public policy arm of the four Catholic dioceses in the Commonwealth. The MCC speaks not only to specific legislative proposals and administrative procedures, but reflects also on the major human and social moral issues of the day.

The bishops said, “We are pleased to welcome Jim Driscoll as executive director. He is an experienced professional and dedicated Catholic who shares our common belief regarding the important role and mission of the Church. The Catholic Church in Massachusetts plays a pivotal role across a wide landscape that intersects secular society and the ministry of the Church.

We seek to reach common ground on many issues, while working to advance the important positions of the Church in the areas of life, human dignity and social justice.”

The bishops also thanked D’Avolio for serving as interim executive director since September 2010. “We extend our deep gratitude to Gerry D’Avolio for his steady and experienced leadership these past many months and for his commitment to MCC over many years. He has spent much of his life working on behalf of the Church and we are blessed by his dedication.”

Driscoll said, “I want to extend my sincere appreciation to Cardinal O’Malley, Bishop Coleman, Bishop McDonnell, and Bishop McManus for having the faith and confidence in my ability to represent them in such an important role.

I look forward to working with the outstanding staff at the Massachusetts Catholic Conference as it continues to advance the mission and message of the Church in the

many moral, social and economic issues facing the Commonwealth.

I also look forward to building upon the existing relationships the conference has with the legislators on Beacon Hill. As I will strive to articulate the perspective of the Catholic Church on important public policy issues of the day, my goal is to have an open line of communication with our public officials and to work with them as they consider often complex issues. In addition, I extend my sincere gratitude to Gerry D’Avolio for his gracious welcome and willingness to provide for a smooth and effective transition.”

“I want to thank the bishops for the opportunity to serve the Church these past many months,” said D’Avolio. “It has been an honor and privilege to work with the tremendous staff and to continue the good work of the Church. In Jim Driscoll the bishops have chosen a gifted public servant who is experienced and dedicated to the good works of the four dioceses. I also wish to thank Bishop Coleman and

the members of the search committee for their thorough and extensive process in selecting Jim for this position.”

Driscoll has served in the Office of General Counsel in the Office of the State Auditor as Associate General Counsel since 2007 and as General Counsel since 2009.

His previous public service was as General Counsel and Assistant Executive Director for the Massachusetts State Lottery Commission beginning there in 1984. He began his career as legal counsel in the Office of the State Treasurer in 1983.

A 1973 graduate of Xaverian Brothers High School, Westwood, and a 1977 graduate of Providence College, he earned his Juris Doctor from Suffolk University in 1981.

A resident of Scituate and father of four children, he has served as a lector at St. Mary of the Nativity since 1990. He has also served on the Scituate Knights of Columbus and as a Board Director and coach with the Scituate Youth Center.

Driscoll begins his duties on April 25.

James F. Driscoll named executive director of MCC

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psychotherapists make this an ideal time for Christian-psychology integration.

He outlined four advantages he said Catholicism has to make this work: a well-defined theology, a clear moral framework, significant philosophical support and broad cultural range (universality).

Catholics believe human beings are created in the image and likeness of God, are fallen and redeemed, Vitz said, adding that at his institute, “that basic structure is a fundamental narrative not just of history but is applicable to all our patients.”

A presentation on “Treatment of Pornography Addiction at the Service of the Church” was delivered jointly by Daniel Spadero, a licensed counselor specializing in sexual addictions and member of the Colorado Springs Diocese’s task force on pornography, and Sam Meier, of “My House — Freedom From Pornography” initiative of the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kan. Meier shared several statistics, including: — The United States produces more pornographic films than any other country, according to www. internet-filter.com.

— A 2008 survey at a Catholic high school in the Midwest revealed 48 percent of its 350 senior boys viewed pornography at least once a week and 36 percent of those boys said they had feelings of addiction to pornography.

— The same survey showed 8085 percent of those students who viewed porn accessed it through

the Internet.

— Two-thirds of the 350 lawyers attending the 2002 American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers conference said the Internet had played a significant role in divorces they had handled the previous year: from spouses meeting new love interests over the web (68 percent), to obsessive interest in pornographic sites (56 percent), to excessive time spent on the computer (47 percent) and excessive time spent in chat rooms (33 percent).

Meier said there are four “pillars” for recovery from pornography addiction: Attend a 12-step recovery group weekly; make daily phone calls to a support person; do daily recovery reading; and pray daily.

Recovery, Spader and Meier said, is a three- to five-year process.

“This is a long-term recovery,” Spader said. “It is started by stopping addictive behaviors.”

But there also is “the need to grow in deeper intimacy, not only with a spouse, family member or loved one, but also with God,” he explained.

“We are called to something as well,” he continued. “The ultimate goal for men is to fulfill their role as husbands, fathers, in the workplace.

What pornography does is it eliminates the focus; it puts the focus on a distraction. It doesn’t allow the individual to focus on their call, their vocation.”

Recovery resources Spader and Meier recommend include the websites www.LoveIsFaithful.com and Sexaholics Anonymous, www. sa.org.

6

The Anchor Reconstructing the Courtyard of the Gentiles

In Paris on March 24 and 25, a remarkable new Church initiative began. Born from the pastoral zeal, biblical expertise and the university experience of Pope Benedict XVI, it is an attempt to establish a dialogue with non-believers modeled on the ancient Temple of Jerusalem’s Courtyard of the Gentiles, where non-Jews would come to query the scribes about the Jewish faith, debate the meaning of existence and, if they so desired, pray, either to a God who remained mysterious to them or to the One whom they believed had revealed Himself to the Jews. Since the Second Vatican Council, the Church has worked very hard to establish an ecumenical dialogue with other Christian churches and ecclesial communities as well as an interreligious dialogue with other major religions. Curiously absent from a structure conversation and joint search for truth, however, has been a forum for discussion with nonbelievers. The Courtyard of the Gentiles is an attempt to remedy that lacuna.

The idea for a Court of the Gentiles was first mentioned by Pope Benedict in his preChristmas address to the Roman Curia in 2009. Reflecting on his pilgrimage to the Czech Republic, a country with many “seekers” — agnostics searching for the answers to the deepest human questions — Pope Benedict reflected on the words Jesus quoted from Isaiah, that the Temple “must be a house of prayer for all the nations” (Is 56:7; Mk 11:17). “Jesus,” the pope said, “was thinking of the so-called ‘Courtyard of the Gentiles’ which he cleared of extraneous affairs so that it could be a free space for the gentiles who wished to pray there to the one God, even if they could not take part in the mystery for whose service the inner part of the Temple was reserved.” Benedict said that there are many who “know God, so to speak, only from afar; who are dissatisfied with their own gods, rites and myths; who desire the Pure and the Great, even if God remains for them the ‘unknown God’” referred to by St. Paul in his speech at the Athenian Areopagus. “I think that today too the Church should open a sort of ‘Courtyard of the Gentiles,’ in which people might in some way latch on to God, without knowing Him and before gaining access to His mystery … who nevertheless do not want to be left merely Godless, but rather to draw near to Him, albeit as the Unknown.”

That desire was soon put into motion by Cardinal Giovanni Ravasi, the affable, engaging and learned president of the Pontifical Academy for Culture, who decided to launch the idea in Paris, the symbolic birthplace and home of the enlightenment. At three institutions with unimpeachable secular credentials — UNESCO, the Sorbonne and the L’Institut de France — there were discussions and presentations by believers and non-believers; the whole event culminated in the square or “courtyard” of Notre Dame Cathedral, where Pope Benedict gave a live televised address.

The next Courtyard, a dialogue on technology and science, will be held in Chicago. Others are being planned for Albania, Sweden, Quebec, and Asia.

In his address to those assembled in the Notre Dame plaza, Pope Benedict expressed his joy that the Pontifical Council for Culture had taken up his desire that a dialogue with nonbelievers be established and that so many believers and non-believers had responded. “At the heart of the ‘City of Light,’ in front of the magnificent masterwork of French religious culture which is Notre Dame, a great court has been created in order to give fresh impetus to a respectful and friendly encounter between people of differing convictions,” Pope Benedict said. “Believers and nonbelievers alike have chosen to come together, as you do in your daily lives, in order to meet one another and to discuss the great questions of human existence.” Speaking about God together, he implied, should be as natural for believers and non-believers as going to school, to the grocer, or to work together.

He began the heart of his address by turning to non-believers, praising their deepest desires and validating some of their just criticisms of believers and religious institutions.

“Nowadays,” he said, “many people acknowledge that they are not part of any religion, yet they long for a new world, a world that is freer, more just and united, more peaceful and happy. … Those of you who are nonbelievers challenge believers in a particular way to live in a way consistent with the faith they profess and by your rejection of any distortion of religion that would make it unworthy of man.” In saying this, Benedict was echoing one of the great, but hidden, insights of the Second Vatican Council, which noted that one of the principle causes for non-belief in the world is precisely the lack of integrity found in the lives of Christians. “Believers can have more than a little to do with the birth of atheism. To the extent that they neglect their own training in the faith, or teach erroneous doctrine, or are deficient in their religious, moral or social life, believers must be said to conceal rather than reveal the authentic face of God and religion” (Gaudium et Spes, 19). Pope Benedict wanted to acknowledge that reality head on, especially after the sexual abuse scandals involving Catholic clergy concealed God’s and the Church’s true face to non-believers even further.

Pope Benedict, however, also wanted to tackle directly another disfigurement. He said that in a highly secularized society that often is prejudiced and intolerant to religious belief, believers have a deep desire to tell others that faith is a “treasure” rather than a poison.

Questions about God, he stressed, ennoble rather than harm man. “The question of God is not a menace to society,” Benedict exclaimed. “It does not threaten a truly human life! The question of God must not be absent from the other great questions of our time.”

The path of dialogue, he indicated, is not just a path of mutual tolerance but rather of mutual cooperation and search for the truth. He called the participants to “build bridges between one another,” and “work to break down the barriers of fear of others … born of mutual ignorance, skepticism or indifference.” He asked them to make “a courageous decision to seek the truth,” and to help their fellow believers and nonbelievers to “rediscover the path of dialogue.” Just as non-believers have nothing to fear from God, so “religions have nothing to fear from a just secularity, one that is open and allows individuals to live in accordance with what they believe in their own consciences.” Taking up and applying the motto of the French revolutionaries, he said, “If we are to build a world of liberty, equality and fraternity, then believers and nonbelievers must feel free to be just that, equal in their right to live as individuals and in community in accord with their convictions; and fraternal in their relations with one another.” He declared that one of the reasons for the Courtyard of the Gentiles is “to encourage such feelings of fraternity, over and above our individual convictions yet not denying our differences.” He also suggested — in a point that ought to be pondered — that the bridges believers and nonbelievers build between each other might likewise prove to be bridges between both groups and God, since each person, as a creature of God, is “in some way the road that leads to God.” After the successful inauguration of the Courtyard of the Gentiles, Cardinal Ravasi noted in an interview that the Church’s hope is not for the Courtyard to remain a series of itinerant events sponsored by a Vatican Pontifical Council but rather a “fixture of the pastoral activity of every diocese.” As the numbers of non-believers in the state of Massachusetts continues to grow, as we seek to give witness to the faith in the midst of the modern areopagus of so many colleges and universities, and as the number of misconceptions about the Church has multiplied due to the scandals as well as to the way the truth about the Church has been only partially portrayed in some secular news outlets, the time is doubtless at hand for us to respond to the Holy Father’s initiative and open up a courtyard — or several courtyards — here.

H

April 8, 2011

Building the ‘Culture of Life’

was assumed, not absorbed, in Him, anging on the wall in my living has been raised in us also to a dignity room is a large framed picture beyond compare. For, by His Incarnaof Pope John Paul II standing at the tion, He, the Son of God, in a certain “gate of no return” on the island of way united Himself with each man” Gorèe in February of 1992. This image shows a very pensive pope, undoubtedly (GS 22).

The pope explained that in the Incarreflecting upon the numerous attacks against the dignity of the human person nation, God united Himself to humanity, throughout the centuries. That particular making possible what was presumed to be unthinkable — the intimate comspot, the gate through which African slaves were loaded onto ships to be sold munion between the Creator and His creature. “This union of Christ with man into slavery, represents just one of so is in itself a mystery,” the Holy Father many attacks against the dignity of the states in his first encyclical, Redemptor human person.

Hominis. “From this mystery is born This picture is one of my favorites! ‘the new man,’ called to become a parClearly seen on the face of our beloved taker of God’s life, and newly created pope is the anguish from having witin Christ for the fullness of grace and nessed and experienced so much pain, truth” (RH 18). so much injustice, so much hatred, so John Paul II described the “culture much war, and so little respect for the of death” in terms of all those things fact that each human person is created that are opposed to life itself, namely in the image and likeness of God. — murder, genocide, abortion, euthaPope John Paul II, though never nasia, slavery, prostitution, and contraawarded a Nobel Peace Price or other ception, among so many other insults recognition for his promotion of the to man’s dignity. John Paul says that dignity of the human person, was these things perhaps one “poison our of our generasociety, and tion’s greatest Putting Into do more to defenders of harm those human life the Deep who perform from concepthese acts tion until

By Father than those natural death. who suffer John Paul Jay Mello from the inunderstood jury” (Evanthat all life is gelium Vitae, 3). precious and sacred and he taught us to Confronting and defeating the culvalue it as such. ture of death can only be accomplished Now some could be cynical and by creating the “Culture of Life,” presume that he had to hold and teach the pope explained. “The Gospel of such views because of the fact that he Life is at the heart of Jesus’ message. was pope. But the dignity of the huLovingly received day after day by man person was at the forefront of his the Church, it is to be preached with mind long before he became pope, and, dauntless fidelity as “Good News” to in fact, long before he became a priest. the people of every age and culture” A witness to the horrors of Nazism (EV 1). and Communism in Poland, Pope John John Paul II reminded us that we are Paul II saw first-hand the physical and spiritual destruction wrought by the dis- each members of the human family, ordered desire to remove God and make whether we are Christian, Jewish or Muslim, and that as members of the man the center and meaning of history, same family, we cannot stand by and which in effect serves only to diminish do nothing as our brothers and sisters man’s true dignity and worth. suffer such horrendous injustice. “In our Early in his life, Karol Wojtyla service of charity, we must be inspired witnessed first hand what he called the and distinguished by a specific attitude: “culture of death.” He described this we must care for the other as a person as a destructive mentality that seeks to for whom God has made us responsible, view humanity only in terms of what the pope explained (EV 87). one can do or what one can produce, As disciples of Jesus, we are called neglecting to see the intrinsic value of the unborn child, or the person dying in to become neighbors to everyone (cf.

Lk 10:29-37), and to show special favor a nursing home, or the mentally challenged, handicapped or disabled person. to those who are poorest, most alone He explained that Jesus spoke above all and most in need. In helping the hungry, to the poor in his preaching and actions. the thirsty, the foreigner, the naked, the sick, the imprisoned, the child in The crowds of the sick and the outcast the womb, and the old person who is who follow Him and seek Him out (Mt suffering or near death, we have the 4:23-25) find in His words and actions opportunity to serve Jesus. He Himself a revelation of the great value of their lives and of how their hope of salvation said, “As you did it to one of the least of these My brothers, you did it to Me” is well-founded (EV 32).

(Mt 25:40).

This focus of the dignity of the huIn the face of evil, injustice, and man person in the writings and preachhatred that make up the culture of death, ing of the pope is a direct continuation our pope called us to stand up for those of the teaching of the Second Vatican who do not have a voice of their own or Council, which explains that Christ who are unable to defend themselves. “who is the ‘image of the invisible He called us to be true disciples of Jesus God,’ is Himself the perfect man who Christ and to build up the “Culture of has restored in the children of Adam Life.” that likeness to God which had been Father Mello is a parochial vicar at disfigured ever since the first sin. HuSt. Patrick’s Parish in Falmouth. man nature, by the very fact that it

April 8, 2011

Q: What would be the consequences of a priest who did not use the formula of absolution during a Confession — maybe no formula, much less the correct one? If this invalidates the sacrament, what should the penitent do? Would it be necessary to repeat the Confession in the case of mortal sin? What about a “devotional” confession or one where only venial sin was confessed? — B.H., Iron Mountain, Michigan A: A slight lapse or omission in reciting the formula of absolution would not affect its validity, provided that the words “I absolve you from your sins” are said.

While a priest should always recite the complete formula of absolution, in urgent cases, especially when there is imminent danger of death, the above essential words would be sufficient for validity.

Of course, here we are dealing with the Roman rite. Eastern Catholic Churches have other valid formulas, most of which do not contain the “I absolve you” expression.

It is a liturgical abuse to shorten the absolution formula because there are many penitents awaiting confession. It is legitimate in such cases, however, to encourage the

I

t seems opportune to conclude this series by reflecting, in this article and the next, on liturgical renewal from my perspective both as a parish priest and as a longtime student of the topic. Since an analysis of this kind is subject to reading “between the lines” for fundamental sympathies, it is useful to repeat what I said earlier: the post-Vatican II reform of the Roman Rite is a mixed bag; the wheat and the chaff grow together. This is to be expected, since the only perfect liturgy is the heavenly one.

The revised Mass introduced in 1969 has yielded up ancient liturgical themes in a fresh, engaging manner: the Paschal mystery of Christ crucified and risen; the Eucharist as a foretaste of the heavenly banquet; the Church as a liturgical assembly. People today hear more Scripture (whether or not they attend to it is another matter). The use of the vernacular has enabled worshipers to participate in a more direct way.

The restoration of the chalice for the people (when made use of) has highlighted again one of the central elements of the Eucharist.

The new relief given to the communal dimension of worship was greatly needed, as was the leeway for “inculturation” or ritual adaptability to varying cultures.

I would welcome the return of some of the priest’s private

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The Anchor

Missing or faulty forms of absolution

the Church’s sacraments from faithful to use one of the brief the sacred ministers, and the acts of contrition found in the ministers have a corresponding rite of penance. As the formula duty to provide that sacrament to of absolution is the form of the any member of the faithful not Sacrament of Reconciliation, impeded by law or censure. the recitation of its essential part If, unfortunately, the absolution is required for validity and its complete omission would void the sacrament.

In this case God would certainly restore a sincere penitent to the state of grace in spite of the priest’s omission. But

By Father this would not remove Edward McNamara the obligation of confessing a mortal sin again and receiving absolution. was skipped due to some personal It would not be necessary in the difficulty of the priest (such as case of venial sin. lack of faith in the sacrament) and If a penitent realizes that a he persists in his refusal after bepriest has not granted absolution or has omitted the essential words, ing remonstrated by the penitent, then the penitent should inform then the proper thing to do is to the bishop so that he may take tell the priest immediately and appropriate action in helping this request absolution before leaving minister to overcome this crisis the confessional. It is probable that such an omission is the result and return to a truer vision of his sacred mission. of a momentary distraction or If, as has sadly happened at fatigue and not some perverse least once, a priest undergoing theological or spiritual reason. In a spiritual crisis deliberately atthese cases the priest will more tempts to deceive the faithful by than likely apologize and grant reciting a blessing or some other absolution immediately. formula instead of absolution, We must remember that the then he commits the very grave faithful have a right to receive

Liturgical Q&A

crime of simulating a sacrament.

This particular case of simulation is extremely rare and so is not explicitly mentioned in canon law. However, if a priest doing so was sufficiently sane of mind to know what he was doing, then he could be punished with suspension and other just penalties.

Other readers have asked me to deal with the case where absolution is denied due to some defect or impediment on the part of the penitent.

A reader from Singapore asked what the minimal formula for absolution was. St. Thomas Aquinas and the majority of classical theology manuals held that the nucleus of the formula was the expression “I absolve you.” A few also sustained that the words “from your sins” were also necessary. All agreed that the Trinitarian invocation and the other prayers were not required for validity but were necessary for the sacrament’s licit celebration in non-emergency situations.

Something similar could be said for elderly priests who never learned the new formula of absolution. Any absolution formula

Do we need a new Liturgical Movement?

prayers that found their way into well and supported with good the Mass during the Middle Ages catechesis, has a clarity to it that but were abolished in the 1969 re- manifests the liturgical principles form. Many of these prayers were of Vatican II. For the first time, adopted not only to express the the rite for infant Baptism was celebrant’s personal devotion and rewritten in light of the fact that sense of unworthiness but also to the candidates are infants; it awaken them in the soul. While includes specific commitments to these medieval accretions do not be made by parents and godparbelong to the essential content of ents to highlight their responsithe Roman Mass, they are valuable accessories to form the priest’s attitude or to instruct the faithful who read them.

Their deletion may be regretted as a loss.

By Father By the time of Thomas M. Kocik Vatican II, the liturgical calendar badly needed pruning. The precedence given to Sundays over bilities. saints’ memorials was necessary.

The reform of the Rite of However, the provision allowing Confirmation (1971) has failed to for the transfer of some solemni- dispel confusion about what conties to Sunday undermines the firmation means, why we need it, liturgical symbolism of time, and and what age is appropriate for in the case of Ascension is bibliits reception. On the one hand, cally disastrous. The eliminathe new sacramental formula tion of the pre-Lenten season of (“Be sealed with the Gift of the Septuagesima was ill considered: Holy Spirit”), which replaces a I find great pastoral wisdom formula in stable use since the and psychological sensitivity in thirteenth century (“I sign you preparing the faithful for Lent. A with the sign of the Cross and bizarre and unprecedented feaconfirm you with the Chrism ture of the 1969 Roman Calendar of salvation”), underscores the is that All Souls is celebrated on link between Confirmation November 2 even when that date and Pentecost. In addition, the falls on a Sunday. reformed rite better expresses The Rite of Baptism for the sacrament’s connection with Children (1969), when celebrated the whole of Christian initia-

The Liturgical Movement

tion: first, it recommends that the godparent at Baptism serve as the sponsor at Confirmation (something hitherto prohibited); second, it provides for the renewal of baptismal promises when Confirmation is conferred on those who were baptized at a younger age; finally, it encourages the administration of Confirmation within Mass so that the newly confirmed may receive the Eucharist.

On the other hand, the boundaries of theological orthodoxy regarding this sacrament are today extraordinarily wide. Included are positions that come straight from the Protestant Reformation, such as that Confirmation is an adult ratification of Baptism — a view espoused, to my amusement, by many “traditional” Catholics. At the other end is the Eastern Christian view that Confirmation should only be administered immediately after Baptism. Granted, Confirmation serves some important pastoral purposes: providing a rite of passage for teen-agers, giving impetus to a period of catechesis for adolescents, and serving as a general affirmation of faith.

But these commendable goals are achieved at the expense of imposing on the sacrament a pastoral and catechetical agenda

that was once officially approved would certainly be valid. They would probably also be licit if never formally abrogated.

It is important to remember that there are times when a priest must necessarily deny absolution. This would be the case, for example, if it is clear that the penitent lacks contrition or is subject to excommunication or some similar censure. In such cases, the priest must, in conscience, inform the penitent why he is unable to grant absolution, and then tell the penitent what he or she needs to do to be absolved.

It would be a grave injustice toward God, the Church and the penitent himself to lead him to believe he has received absolution when in fact it could not be granted. If the priest also simulates the form of absolution while not actually giving it, then he commits a grave fault.

Father Edward McNamara is a Legionary of Christ and professor of Liturgy at Regina Apostolorum University in Rome. His column appears weekly at zenit.org. Send questions to liturgy@zenit.org. Put the word “Liturgy” in the subject field. Text should include initials, city and state.

that does not always fit. The sacraments are divine gifts, not merited by age or training.

The vernacularization of the Divine Office or Liturgy of the Hours (1971) was a great liberation for those not well versed in Latin.

But the Second Vatican Council’s desire that the Liturgy of the Hours become the prayer of all the faithful, not just clergy and monks, remains unmet. Ironically, more parishes offered Sunday Vespers before Vatican II than today.

The Rite of Anointing and Pastoral Care of the Sick (1972) represents a return to a more ancient tradition. No longer is the anointing reserved to the dying. When danger of death approaches “from sickness or old age,” the time for anointing has come. Once again, the sacrament for the dying — the true “last sacrament” — is the Eucharist given as Viaticum, food for the journey. Unfortunately, the prayers before, during, and after death are greatly underused, and priests often truncate them; yet these are among some of the most powerful in the Church’s liturgical repertory.

Father Kocik, parochial vicar of Santo Christo Parish in Fall River, is editor of “Antiphon: A Journal for Liturgical Renewal,” author of two liturgy-related books, and contributor to the forthcoming “T&T Clark Companion to Liturgical Studies.”

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oday by way of the Gospel we come in contact with a dead man named Lazarus. The Gospel tells us that he was the only brother of two sisters, Martha and Mary, and that he was a friend of Jesus. The two sisters send word to Jesus that Lazarus had need of a cure, of a miracle, but Jesus only makes His way to Bethany after Lazarus was dead. He is met on the road by Martha, the dead man’s sister, who rightly was upset at the fact that Jesus did not arrive sooner.

Jesus, however, comforts her by telling her that Lazarus would rise again. Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in Me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.”

Then Jesus performs the great miracle and calls Lazarus out of his tomb, and Lazarus is restored to life. What a great

April 8, 2011

The Anchor

The new life to which Lent leads

transformation! After Jesus promise of eternal life our faith raises Lazarus from the dead would be empty, reduced to the only thing we hear about ritual actions and moral codes. him is that the same people But because of Jesus’ passion, who were trying to kill Jesus death and resurrection, we were seeking to kill him, too, have come to know that there because he was literally living is indeed a heavenly kingdom and undeniable proof that Jesus was other than what those who Homily of the Week wanted to kill Him Fifth Sunday said He was. I would like to think, however, of Lent that Lazarus lived the

By Father Maurice rest of his life with a O. Gauvin whole new outlook.

Lazarus is given to us today so that we can be reminded that we are to which we are called to take called to share in the resurrecpart in as long as we remain tion of Jesus and that our faith faithful to Christ, who prombecomes the key to eternal life. ises us new and eternal life in Jesus ended his promise of the heavenly kingdom. The eternal life by asking Martha, season of Lent is meant to be “Do you believe this?” He asks for us a time of dying and risus this same question and our ing to new life. response needs to be, “Yes, There was once a boy about Lord. We do believe this!”

10 years old who liked his If we did not believe in the candy very much, especially

anything with chocolate. This boy decided on his own that for Lent he would give up all candy. During Lent he was of a strong resolve and didn’t have a bite of candy for 40 days. On Easter Sunday, after the family had eaten, it was time for the children to have their annual Easter Egg Hunt. Together with his siblings, the boy ran around the back yard collecting plastic eggs filled with coins and jelly beans. Next they were given their Easter Baskets which had in them, among other things, a large chocolate Easter bunny.

He dove into that basket, grabbed the chocolate bunny and made it disappear: first the ears — yummy! — then the head, then the body — yummy, yummy in the tummy! Boy, I really enjoyed that bunny!

Did the events of that

particular Lent help me grow in a spiritual sense? Not really, because after 40 days of fasting from candy, I just attacked chocolate rabbit like there was no tomorrow. I did learn one indelible lesson, however: too much chocolate makes you sick!

Each one of us began Lent with a resolution, maybe to give up candy or alcohol, or to pray more, or to attend daily Mass.

We each know our resolutions.

As Lent draws to a close, we look back and take account of how faithful we have been to that promise and to following the Church’s Lenten discipline.

Whether we have fallen short or kept these resolutions faithfully, there is a lesson to be learned and a growth experience for each of us. May our observance of Lent now blossom into Easter joy!

Father Gauvin is a parochial vicar at Holy Trinity Parish in West Harwich.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. Apr. 9, Jer 11:18-20; Ps 7:2-3,9b-12; Jn 7:40-53. Sun. Apr. 10, Fifth Sunday of Lent, Ez 37:12-14; Ps 130:1-8; Rom 8:8-11; Jn 11:145 or 11:3-7,17,20-27,33b-45. Mon. Apr. 11, Dn 13:1-9,15-17,19-30,33-62 or 13:41c-62; Ps 23:1-6; Jn 8:1-11. Tues. Apr. 12, Nm 21:4-9; Ps 102:2-3,16-21; Jn 8:21-30.

Wed. Apr. 13, Dn 3:14-20,91-92,95; (Ps) Dn 3:52-56; Jn 8:31-42; Jn 5:17-30. Thur. Apr. 14, Gn 17:3-9; Ps 105:4-9; Jn 8:51-59. Fri. Apr. 15, Jer 20:10-13; Ps 18:2-7; Jn 10:31-42.

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n the fall of 2007, I spent a week in Spain, giving lectures, meeting with Spanish Catholic leaders, and making a hair-raising climb up several hundred scaffolding stairs to the top of Antoni Gaudi’s Basilica of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona — preceded by Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, John Paul II’s longtime secretary, who was doing the trip in a cassock (after confessing to me, sotto voce, that he wasn’t too fond of heights).

Over the course of numerous conversations in those days, it became clear that the government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, in power since April 2004, was not simply secular in character but aggressively secularist.

Textbooks were being rewritten to enforce the government’s leftist view of modern Spanish history; students

Spanish showdown

off from “My Fair Lady”: aiming for admission to pres“The dame in Spain is mainly tigious universities would be in the name.”) required to give the “correct” In interviews with the answers about such traumas as Spanish press, I suggested the Spanish Civil War in order to pass their entrance exams. Street names were being changed to eradicate the memory of the politically disfavored from Spain’s past. Marriage had

By George Weigel been legislatively redefined so that any two people, of whatever gender, could be civilly “married.” (Shortly af- that the 20th century had a name for a political program ter I left the country, another that tried to re-manufacture law enabled a Spaniard to enhuman nature while re-writter a civil registry office and ing history: the name was “change” his or her sex simply by making a declaration to “Stalinism,” which used to be considered a hateful thing. a government bureaucrat that she was now he, or vice versa. Zapatero’s Spain was not, of Some things are so absurd that course, Stalin’s Soviet Union in the latter’s most brutal they compel ridicule, and this manifestations. Nor was the one prompted me to a knockcurrent Spanish government as crudely malevolent as the Spanish Stalinists of the late 1930s who, during the Spanish Civil War, murdered tens of thousands of priests and religious, often sadistically.

The Zapatero government, I suggested, was far more clever. It would impose a hard-left agenda on Spain through legislation, step by step, rather like the frog being

The Catholic Difference

slowly boiled in a pot of water who doesn’t realize that death is at hand until it’s too late.

Recent events in Spain have done nothing to persuade me that these judgments were excessively harsh.

Pope Benedict XVI visited Spain last November, gave two spectacular homilies at Santiago de Compostela (on the Christian roots of Europe) and at the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona (on beauty as a pathway to God). Prime Minister Zapatero did not attend either event and spent the three days after the pope’s departure denouncing Benedict XVI while campaigning in Catalonia.

In March, dozens of secularist student gangsters, armed with a megaphone and defamatory posters, crashed into the chapel of Madrid’s Complutense University while Catholic students were at prayer. The radicals shouted deprecations of the Church, Pope Benedict, and the Catholic clergy; several of their number, women, stood on the altar and undressed from the waste up; two of the striptease artists boasted of their lesbi-

anism. This obscene spectacle in the Spanish capital came shortly after several Spanish churches throughout the country had been trashed.

All of which suggests that Spain is now Ground Zero in the European contest between Catholicism and the dictatorship of relativism. And the latter is precisely what the secularist radicals of Spain are up to: imposing their concept of freedom-as-license through coercive state power and intimidation-through-violence. Bizarre legislation that rewrites history and redefines human nature is the first half of the equation; gang violence is its new and ominous complement. A different kind of war has been declared on the Church.

It hardly seems accidental that these attacks against Catholic facilities have come in the months before World Youth Day 2011, which will be held in Madrid from August 16 through August 21.

The gauntlet has been thrown down. A tremendous turnout at Madrid in five months will demonstrate that the challenge has been accepted.

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

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The Anchor

April 8, 2011

Engagement announced

Monday 4 April 2011 — on the shores of Three Mile River — National Networking Day ne recent Sunday, following morning Mass, I made a quick run to the convenience store then hurried back for Baptisms. As I drove up, I noticed the church parking lot was crowded. I love to see this kind of activity around the church. There were parents awaiting the dismissal of Religious Education classes. There were families arriving for the Baptisms. Everything looked normal. Oh, wait. What’s this? I’m seeing way too much activity.

In the driveway was a fire truck. A group of firefighters, in full gear, had gathered outside the old rectory. Smoke was pouring from the building. “This cannot be good,” I thought to myself as I said a quick prayer to St. Florian, patron of firefighters. Then

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I remembered. This was the day the Dighton Junior Firefighters was having its search and rescue practice.

Some weeks ago, when the Dighton Fire Department request-

ed the use of the building for a training exercise, permission was granted. Why not put the dilapidated building to good use, I figured, even if it’s just for a fire drill.

This was something the church could contribute to the town’s needs. And besides, I’m chaplain of the Dighton Fire Department.

That was some scare, though.

It’s tough when you get old and

start forgetting things. Memory is the first thing to go, they say. I wonder what goes second.

The Dighton Junior Firefighters is a group of young people between the ages of 13 and 18.

They volunteer many hours at our local fire station. They go out on calls. They hope one day to be full-fledged firefighters. In the meantime, they’re eager to undergo hands-on training. How terrific is that? Most (but not all) of the young people in the group are from town. Some area towns, though, do not provide this opportunity, so their youths come here to Dighton for training.

I’m proud to say that some of the Junior Firefighters are members of this parish. Whoever maintains that today’s young people aren’t community-minded doesn’t know today’s young people.

The smoke filling the old rec-

Inside loaves of stone

have some imaginative ideas for teaching our children the spiritual lessons of Lent and Easter, but they involve rocks instead of cute bunnies or painted eggs, so please put on your creativity cap before reading further.

During Lent, church sanctuaries everywhere are xeriscaped with dusty, dull-colored rocks and rocks among other dehydrated things. These are fitting reminders of the New Testament event in which we find the origins of the season of Lent: Jesus’ 40 arduous days of fasting and doing spiritual battle with Satan in the desert (Mt 4:1-11). One year, however, I really wanted my children to experience the beauty of Lent, not just the austerity of it, so I began decorating our house with rocks that were quite a bit more colorful than those used at church.

By decorating with colorful rocks, I set out to visually disprove the misnomer that Lent is all dreary and dull. Really, who could look at the deep purple crystals of an amethyst and think that all rocks are dull? The fact is that as with amethyst crystals formed inside a geode, the magnificence of Lent is usually not obvious to a casual observer.

Rightly done, however, the practices of Lent — fasting, praying, and almsgiving — do not become austere penances done for their own sakes, but tools to crack open the meaning of Lent, which is the magnificence of having a right relationship with our Heavenly Father, a relationship that should be the crowning

jewel of all our desires.

Something else to consider is that a geode begins as an empty cavity within a larger rock mass.

Over time and by remaining still, interior mineral deposition occurs in the empty cavity resulting in the growth of beautiful crystals. Similarly, Lent invites us to empty our hearts of our own wants and needs through fasting and almsgiving. It further

invites us to spend more time being quiet before God in prayer, resulting in the space, the time, and the stillness we need to grow in our hearts that crowning jewel of a right and beautiful relationship with God. Like geodes, rocks containing fossil plants and animals can also be fantastic object lessons for Lent and for Easter. Keep your creativity caps on and consider this. The reigning symbols of Easter are the Easter egg and the Easter Bunny. Both are pagan fertility symbols from antiquity co-opted by early Christians.

Lent and Easter, however, are not so much about fertility, but about death and resurrection, so both eggs and rabbits actually miss the mark.

However, what if a plant or animal that had died, been fossilized, and entombed in a rock was to come back to life? Now that would be an indisputable, spot-

on symbol of Lent and Easter!

Consider, also, that the first thing Satan tempted Jesus to do after Jesus had been fasting in the desert for 40 days was to turn stones into bread (Mt 4:3). Satan uses stones as a symbol of death and bread as a symbol of life, revealing by his very temptation that he knows that Jesus has the power to resurrect anything. Do we have as much faith in Jesus’ power as Satan has?

Could we look at a fossil in a stone and really, truly believe that Jesus has the power to bring it back to life?

The Bible is chockfull of stories telling us that God has the power to resurrect that which is dead; Lazarus, for example, Jairus’s daughter, dry bones in the desert, stones, and finally, Jesus himself. Fossil rocks can help young and old alike really see, understand, and believe this, the most important lesson of the entire Liturgical year.

I don’t think geodes or fossils will actually replace dull-colored rocks, eggs, or bunnies as Lent and Easter symbols any time soon. If we keep our creativity caps on, however, and maybe incorporate an amethyst geode into our Lenten displays (purple is the Liturgical color of Lent) or tuck amethyst jewelry or a fossil under the chocolate bunny in our Easter baskets, we can have a little fun in using both liturgical seasons to spark our children’s Christian imaginations and their appreciation for God’s boundless love, power, and creativity.

Heidi is an author, photographer, and full-time mother of six.

To contact her, email homegrownfaith@gmail.com.

ever ready — Dighton Junior Firefighters who participated in the recent training session at St. Nicholas Church in North Dighton. (Photo by Tom Medeiros)

tory had been artificially generated. The machine looked similar to those used in dance halls (so I am told), except larger. The young people rushed into the house to rescue the victim. Her name was Vickie. Everybody in the Fire Department knows Vickie. She’s always getting herself into dire straits. But what was Vickie doing in the rectory? Vickie, dear readers, is a real dummy. Vickie is fashioned from old sections of leaky fire hoses. She has makeshift arms and legs. She also has handles conveniently located in all the right places.

Part of the training exercise was tapping the walls and floors of the old building to ascertain where it was safe to go in search of the distressed victim. Where in the world was Vickie, the poor thing?

Let’s go find her, but safety first.

I returned to the rectory in which I actually live. At 3 p.m., the doorbell rang. It was a concerned parishioner. “Father, Father, come quick. The old rectory is burning down! Firefighters are everywhere. Smoke is billowing from the windows.” Oh dear.

Seems I also forgot to alert parishioners of the afternoon’s activities.

It’s tough getting old.

I think that, as a Church, we should be doing more than just treading water. We should be doing more than simply maintaining our membership. We should be doing more than just surviving the latest round of parish mergers and closings. We should be doing more than just being hospitable to newcomers who wander in. A parish needs to get out there into

the community. Emerging theory in the field of pastoral planning calls this “engagement.” Engagement will be the topic of Sunday’s national convention of pastoral planners in Chicago.

By engagement, they do not mean parishioners should set out to convince members of other churches to switch denominations.

That’s called proselytizing. It is also called “sheep stealing.” A Catholic parish should certainly reach out to those who have no church family to call their own.

That’s called evangelization.

Pastoral planning, though, needs to involve more than surveys, PowerPoint presentations, and endless meetings. The Catholic Church in the United States is now strategizing on how to engage the broader community, especially the young adults. Those young adults will, in the near future, be parents of a generation yet unborn.

The problem is not that the Catholic Church in the United States is losing members. We retain 68 percent of our membership — among the highest ratios in the country. Jehovah’s Witnesses, for example, retain only 25 percent of its members. We American Catholics also put great effort into evangelization, education, and formation. Our Achille’s heel is that most Catholic parishes fail to engage the broader community.

So, let’s get up from our comfortable pews. Let’s go out into the streets. Let’s set the world on fire — figuratively speaking, of course.

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

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By Becky Aubut Anchor Staff

April 8, 2011

Welcoming and witnessing in the Lord’s name

EAST FREETOWN — A priest may use water to bless his parishioners in the aspersion right, but for Edward Medeiros’ neighbors, the rising water from Long Pond was anything but a blessing — that is, until Medeiros stepped in and offered his home as a safe haven to them.

During last year’s historic floods, Medeiros and his wife were away in Aruba and missed the main storm. After his return, the rains continued off and on and Medeiros, oblivious to the local news stories that were running about the rising waters and the damage they were causing, decided to clean his yard.

Gathering up some leaves and debris, he trekked down to an area of his yard and that’s when he noticed something wasn’t quite right.

“I went by once, and then twice. I said something is wrong. I looked at the pond and the water was onto lawns,” said Medeiros, who realized many of the homes located directly on the pond were flooding. “You knew these houses were being flooded in the basements and also in the houses because some are very low lying down on the bottom.”

Answering the call to help isn’t anything new to Medeiros. The former New Bedford Standard-Times employee spent 25 years working in the editorial department becoming a jack-of-all trades,

working as an office assistant right up the accounting office, a few years into to becoming administrative assistant to his employment brought “a situation the editor. Still, something pulled at him that changed a lot in my life,” said Medeiros. after seeing a Both his pargroup of people ents became ill working with and Medeiros mentally chaland his wife lenged adults. took them in to “I always had live with them. this idea that “We were tryif I had time, I ing our best to would help the make them commentally chalfortable here,” lenged,” said said Medeiros, Medeiros.

“I himself an only would wonchild. “We didn’t der how people want to send could do that. them to a nursYou’d see them ing home.” and think these Medeiros had people need made the decihelp, can I prosion to quit his vide that help job to care for to them? I just his parents until didn’t know Work Inc. ofwhat I’d be able fered him a job to do.” in a residential Medeiros got his answer Anchor Person of the Week — Edward setting working the second shift, when he left The Medeiros. (Photo by Becky Aubut) allowing him Standard-Times to stay with his to work for the North Quincy based Work Inc., which parents during the day while his wife provides services for mentally-chal- was at work.

“That’s when I got into direct care,” lenged adults. Initially hired to work in said Medeiros. “It was difficult but like anything, you adapt.”

Both his parents passed away in the same month in 1992, and during the next few years Medeiros stayed in residential care until he returned to his office job, officially retiring in 2004.

Medeiros’ volunteerism has extended to St. John Neumann Parish, seeing it rise from its humble beginnings on the Cathedral campground to a well-rounded parish offering a plethora of ministries within its ranks.

“It’s been amazing. It’s a really wonderful community of people. People are willing to work there, are willing to do anything they can to help out,” said Medeiros. “I think that’s what makes it so wonderful to be there. You go to church and see all these people you know, and

when you haven’t seen a person in a while, you wonder if they’re OK.” Medeiros is a member of choir and most recently a cantor, is part of the bereavement ministry, a lector, is cosecretary with his wife for the St. John Neumann’s Couples Club, and added another layer to his duties of being an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion two years ago when the pastor said something that struck a chord with Medeiros.

“He mentioned something unique, ‘I don’t give up anything for Lent. What I want to do is to do something for Lent, help someone.’ And he went on and mentioned different things,” said Medeiros, including needing extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion at St. Luke’s Hospital in New Bedford.

“I said, I’d rather do that than give up anything,” chuckled Medeiros. “I still like my chocolate and sweets. That’s what I’ve been doing. It’s very nice but it’s very sad to see people in the condition that they’re in, but then again there are people who do recover and are happy about it.”

So as the National Guard trucks rolled down his neighborhood streets, Medeiros was galvanized into action again after hearing about a neighboring couple who, after spending the weekend in a hotel and unable to stay in another neighbor’s home for too long, needed a place to stay.

“That’s when my wife suggested that they could come over here,” said Medeiros, who gave up his furnished basement to the couple. “We told them they could have it as long as they want.”

It would be another month before the couple would get the all clear from engineers and FEMA regarding their property and their septic tank.

“Once the water receded, that’s when they could test to see if everything was OK. They were lucky in the sense they didn’t have any damage inside the house except for that little crawlspace,” said Medeiros, adding that it helped that the couple could monitor the progress from right around the corner. “If they had been with their family in Connecticut, most likely one would have been there and the other in a hotel. They were very grateful.”

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

April 8, 2011

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Legislators, casino opponents call for cost-benefits analysis continued from page one

lost business revenues and reduced Lottery sales. Increased law enforcement, physical infrastructure and social costs would be studied. The research would need to factor in the future possibilities that there may be more competing casinos on Massachusetts’ borders and federally-recognized Native American tribes may establish casinos in the Commonwealth.

“The General Court shall not enact, nor shall the governor sign, any legislation authorizing Class 3 gambling and/or licensing the use of slot machines or other instruments associated with Class 3 gambling, at casinos or other such facilities, until the comprehensive, independent cost-benefit analy-

sis described herein shall have been completed,” the bill reads.

Kathryn M. Davis, public policy coordinator for the Mass.

Catholic Conference, said that a fair, unbiased exploration of the consequences of expanded gaming is “wise.”

“There has been acknowledgement that there will be some costs, such as increased drug and alcohol abuse, increased personal bankruptcy, increased domestic violence, increased problems and hardships for families, children and individuals, but we don’t know the exact cost of that, and that’s concerning,” she told The Anchor.

Opponents of expanded gaming have long called for an independent cost-benefit analy-

sis. They say the benefits have been overstated and gambling’s costs outweigh any gain.

Last year, House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo estimated his bill would create 15,000 jobs and bring in $300 million in tax revenue each year.

Supporters base their jobs creation and revenue claims on a study by a gaming group that considered the benefits but not the costs. The study by the Spectrum Gaming Group of New Jersey predicted high profits for Massachusetts gambling. It contended that more than half of Massachusetts residents who currently gamble out of state will stay closer to home. It also assumed that outof-staters would travel here to gamble and that Massachusetts residents would spend more money — $200 million more — on gambling.

That dependence on new gamblers has family advocates worried. The website for United to Stop the Slots in Massachusetts (USS Mass) says casinos and slots prey on the addicted, gaining the highest profits from the few who visit frequently and lose the most money. Somewhere between 70-90 percent of casinos’ profits come from 10 percent of gamblers. Studies have shown that five years after a casino opens, the neighborhood sees

April 8, 2011 an increase in robberies by 136 percent, aggravated assaults by 91 percent, auto theft by 78 percent, burglary 50 percent, larceny 38 percent and rape 21 percent.

Attorney General Martha Coakley has repeatedly stated that Massachusetts would need to toughen its wiretapping laws before legalizing casinos.

On July 30 last year, the House and Senate approved a compromise bill that would have authorized three casinos and two slot machine parlors.

Gov. Deval Patrick refused to sign into law any proposal that included more than one slot machine parlor.

This year, DeLeo, Patrick and Senate President Therese Murray have said they will try to come to an agreement prior to crafting legislation.

Davis said, “When we had this debate last session, it just sucked the wind out of the State House. The leaders of our Commonwealth have so many important things that they need to address, and they’re realizing that it’s not wise to have everything focused on the expansion of gambling when we have a budget crisis going on.”

Expanded gambling supporters say casinos will address that budget crisis, but opponents at USS disagree. They say the proof is in the budget crises of other states with casinos.

“Every casino state is now struggling with looming budget deficits and high unemployment rates. Casinos have not

managed to escape the consequences of the recession any better than the small businesses they drove away. In September alone, Mohegan Sun laid off 355 employees, while carrying a debt of more than $2 billion into 2011. There are huge FY2011 deficits in most casino states: Nevada 56.6 percent of its total budget, Illinois 36.1 percent, New Jersey 37.4 percent, Connecticut 29.2 percent, Minnesota 26.4 percent and Arizona 35.3 percent, while Massachusetts’ deficit as a percentage of total budget is just 8.5 — the fifth smallest deficit in the country. Tied for fourth smallest is Virginia, which just happens to be another no casino state,” USS said in its March newsletter.

USS added that it is a minority of legislators who “loudly and fallaciously” advocate slot machines as job creators and deficit reducers. Many others have no strong position for or against casinos.

In an email to supporters on March 24, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute Kristian Mineau encouraged members of the Commonwealth to speak with their representatives about their opposition to expanded gaming.

“As the debate and vote on expanded gambling gets closer, we will call on you to lobby your legislators directly, via phone calls, personal visits and, of course, email. As last year demonstrated, expanded predatory gambling is anything but assured,” he said.

“Caminhos de Páscoa” (“Easter Journey”) April 11 - 14 Monday to Thursday at 9:30PM

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on WLNE Channel 6 Sunday, April 10 at 11:00 a.m.

Celebrant is Father Gregory A. Mathias, pastor of St. Julie Billiart Parish in North Dartmouth

April 8, 2011

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ne of the things I enjoyed the most in my 25-and-a-half years working as Disability Services Coordinator at Framingham State University, was my off-campus work with the Archdiocese of Boston, volunteering in and with the Office for Persons with Disabilities. I joined a number of colleagues with a variety of disabilities besides my own total blindness to go around different parishes conducting disability awareness training.

In 1998, during the 20th anniversary year of the bishops’ Pastoral Statement on Persons with Disabilities, I wondered who among the communion of saints or blesseds could we look to as persons with disabilities?

I contacted the National Catholic Office for Persons with Disabilities and the then executive director, Mary Jane Owen — herself totally blind, in a wheelchair and hearing impaired — who encouraged me to get a book called “The Life of Blessed Margaret of Costello” by Father William R. Bonniwell, O.P. I got the book on audiotape and listened to it, loving it so much that I got it in Braille to keep. And I began my devotion to Blessed Margaret.

Blessed Margaret of Costello lived from 1287 through 1320 and was born into a royal family. The family was hoping to have a boy to keep political power, but the baby turned out to be a girl who was hunchback, had one leg shorter than the other, manifested other physical disabilities, and was later discovered to be totally blind.

The family prevented any of this information from becoming public and put out the word that, in fact, the child would soon die. When Margaret was six, the secret almost escaped when she ran into visitors to her family’s castle. She was told to keep away from her

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A patron for those with disabilities

parents’ living quarters and to however, reminded her of her ensure that the family’s sevow to unite her sufferings cret was maintained, she was with Jesus on the cross. “Will locked up in a cell far away you too leave me to suffer from the castle near a church. alone?” the interior voice asked There she received instruction her. in the faith and the sacraments.

With that Margaret resumed She spent 12 years locked in two different cells, but God draws good out of every evil and Margaret grew spiritually, uniting her sufferings to Jesus’ on

By Dennis Polselli the cross.

One day, her parents learned of a Franciscan friar in Costello with a reputation for her life of deep faith even working miracles. The parents though she faced ridicule from brought Margaret, then 20, to local citizens because of her him at a shrine. When she was condition. She resumed visiting not cured, her parents abanthe sick and the imprisoned doned her at the sanctuary and and attending daily Mass at the returned to their home never to Church of Charity, where she see her again. met another religious comMargaret learned how to munity called the Mantellata beg. She slept in alleys next to Sisters, who took her in. This buildings and in stables. Poor was her permanent home where families took turns taking her she ministered to the imprisin, passing her on to others oned and the sick. Miracles when their financial resources were attributed to her even ran out. One day, however, she in life. One miracle involved was accepted into a convent placing her hand on the eyes of of religious women. She was a nun who had a tumor in her excited that she would be able to grow with them spiritually, but she soon discovered that the community did not live by their rule with regard to silence and prayer, as visitors streamed in and out of the convent.

Margaret was given orders to go along with the customs of the community — because the rule, they said, was designed for different times — or be expelled. When she showed hesitation, she was expelled into the streets.

The rejection was even worse than that of her parents because Margaret thought she had found a true home that could foster her vocation to serve the Lord and others through prayer. A struggle ensued as Margaret was wondering whether God even wanted her any more. Another voice,

St. Margaret

eyes causing blindness. When Margaret touched her eyes, the tumor left and the nun’s sight was restored.

After her death on April 13, 1320, the Dominicans wanted her buried at their plot, but the residents wanted her buried in the church.

The issue was settled after a child, who was deaf, unable to speak, and suffered numerous physical disabilities was cured through her intercession in the Church. Margaret was buried in the church.

She was beatified by Pope Paul V in 1609.

I was delighted to learn that there was a person raised to the altars who gave her life to God and others without bitter-

ness, despite her disabilities, the attitudes of others to her disabilities, the rejection by her parents, the years in cells because of those disabilities.

She ministered to the poor who took care of her, as well as to the imprisoned and the sick.

She was served by them, and she served them.

For those of us with disabilities, her living of the Gospel resonates. We too, as did Margaret, long to serve, not just to be served. While I am praying hard for her canonization, I am delighted I am able to say, today, “Blessed Margaret Pray for me!” Please celebrate her feast day with me next Wednesday!

Dennis Polselli is an Anchor online reader who lives in Fall River.

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April 8, 2011

Speaker encourages diocesan teens to remain chaste continued from page one

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fered for His Church: from the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, to His torturing and scourging, to His prolonged and violent death on the Cross.

“St. Paul said if you want to get married, prepare to love your bride just like this,” Evert said. “And you guys are probably thinking: ‘Crucify myself for a woman? How am I going to do that?’ It all begins by not sacrificing women for the sake of ourselves.”

Evert went on to explain how men obsessed with and addicted to pornography are turning women into mere sex objects for their own pleasure, and thereby devaluing both his and her sexuality.

“When you’re looking at pornography, you’re not looking at a naked body, you’re looking at someone’s daughter who was probably sexually abused as a little girl,” he said.

The author of 10 books including “If You Really Loved Me,” “Pure Love” and “Theology of the Body for Teens,” Evert has been promoting chastity to teen-agers worldwide for the last 14 years. On March 28 he made earlier stops at St. Lawrence Martyr Parish in New Bedford and Bishop Stang High School in North Dartmouth, to speak to junior high school students before making an encore presentation of his “Romance Without Regret” talk at St. Mary’s Parish.

For more than a decade now Evert and his wife, Crystalina, have spoken internationally to teen-agers at Catholic, Christian and public high schools as well as colleges and universities. Evert and his wife are fulltime apologists with Catholic Answers, the nation’s largest lay-run apostolate for apologet-

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ics and evangelization.

“I do about 115 to 120 presentations a year,” Evert said after the high-energy 90-minute presentation. “Then we’ve got four other speakers who travel with our organization, www.chastity.com. My wife will join me for some of the big presentations, like World Youth Day. We’ll both be going this year to Spain. She’ll be speaking with me there. For the rest of the year, she stays home with the kids.”

Adding that’s he’s spoken to more than one million teen-agers over the years, he said he’s never encountered an unreceptive or disengaged audience.

“We’re talking about correctional facilities, gang members, prostitutes, inner-city schools,” he said. “I think teens are starving for this message because most of them don’t hear it at home, and they certainly don’t hear it in the media or in their classroom. But to have someone from the outside come in and not judge them but just call them to virtue, they go for it.”

A dynamic and energetic speaker with a rapid-fire delivery, Evert said he never had any formal training in public speaking and he relies on God to help deliver His message.

“I get my energy from daily Mass,” he said. “I feel spoiled

by God, because I know my faith can’t be that strong because he gives me so many consolations along the way. I think of the cloistered nuns who are burning up their prayers everyday for our souls. They never see the fruit of their efforts. But this is where it happens. I get all the credit — everyone claps for me. But it’s the cloistered Sisters praying for the souls and the missions that are the

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50 years ago — The Paul G. Cleary Company of New Bedford was awarded the contract from the diocese for the construction of a new church for St. Hedwig’s Parish in that city. The work would begin immediately on the church to be located on Division Street.

25 years ago — Faithful from all parts of the diocese and beyond attended a live reenactment of the Via Crucis, or Way of the Cross, on the grounds of La Salette Shrine in Attleboro. The Good Friday celebration included dramatic prayer and drew an estimated 200 members of the Spanish-speaking community from the Diocese of Fall River.

fruit of all these conversions.

I know whom to thank for the fruit of my ministry. It’s not my eloquence, it’s the prayers of many.”

When he began his ministry, Evert said he prayed for the gift of apostolic preaching so that he could touch hardened hearts and bring a message that teens need and want to hear.

“The kids are starving for this message; they don’t know it, but they are,” Evert said.

“I always say their minds are made for the truth, their hearts are made for the love, and chastity offers them both. So when they hear it, what it really is all about, they go for it. They want to be challenged; they want to be rebellious. And the only thing rebellious when everyone else is promiscuous is purity.”

In his introductory remarks, Father Roger J. Landry, pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Parish in New Bedford, said Evert’s talks to teen-agers have changed people’s lives.

“Those who were already strong in chastity became stronger,” Father Landry said.

“Those who weren’t strong in chastity received from him an opportunity to turn around and achieve an even greater beauty.”

Evert said he’s gotten a lot of positive feedback from his talks and he’s confident he’s reaching at least some of his target audience.

“In a certain sense, I’d say the good are getting better and the bad are getting worse,” he said. “There’s almost more opportunity for vice than ever before, but there’s also more opportunity for grace and virtue.”

For more information about Jason Evert, visit www.chastity.com or www. howtofindyoursoulmate.com.

Diocesan history

10 years ago — Hundreds of Catholic educators gathered at Bishop Feehan High School for a Diocesan Professional Day titled “Technology and Ministry: A Partnership,” where they learned ways of bringing lessons and learning to students via computers, the Internet and digital presentations.

One year ago — A newly-combined Catholic elementary school was announced in New Bedford, formed with the merging of St. Joseph-St. Therese and St. Mary’s schools, to be named All Saints Catholic School and housed within the former St. Mary’s School building on Illinois Street.

April 8, 2011 Good cause to defund Some facts regarding the necessity to defund Planned Parenthood of taxpayer money: Planned Parenthood is the largest provider of abortions in the nation. Clinics run by Planned Parenthood performed 324,008 abortions in 2008 and 332,278 abortions in 2009 (latest figures). Adoption referrals dropped from 2,405 in 2008 to 977 in 2009. Planned Parenthood’s 332,278 abortions represent revenues of at least $149.9 million — at least 37 percent of the $404.9 million it reported in clinic revenue for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2009.

Planned Parenthood received 657.1 million taxpayer dollars last year, 33 percent of its income.

Planned Parenthood targets minority women: 13 percent of the African-American population received 37 percent of abortions. Abortion is the leading cause of death among African-American women. Eighty percent of abortion clinics are located in poor neighborhoods.

Planned Parenthood does not do mammograms.

Planned Parenthood introduced “web cam” abortions to reach clients in their hinterlands like Iowa and Nebraska with a “delivery system” of chemical abortion pills — no doctor present — just a screen communication with an abortionist hundreds of miles away.

The bottom line is that Planned Parenthood is in the abortion business — $1 billionplus income in a recent year — $77.1 million excess revenue over expenses. They would cease to exist if they had to depend on the money generated from their other services.

Doris Toohill Client Advocate “A Woman’s Concern” Hyannis Pregnancy Resource Center Any end in sight?

Is the end in sight of the clergy sex abuse problem in the Church? I read with joy about the Catholics Come Home project in your March 11 edition, but how can we expect Catholics who have left the Church to come home if our priests are still being accused of sexual crimes like has just happened in Philadelphia. I believe it is time for our pope to call all priests to fess up and be defrocked if they are guilty for the good of the Church. I love priests who give their lives to follow God but how can we know when the mess is over? I know good priests are saddened and humiliated by the scandal and wish it

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would end. It gets tiresome for the faithful to keep hearing that we are all sinners and that everyone has weaknesses even the clergy, but how did so many get to become priests and how have so many remained priests in active duty? The problem is not only bankrupting the Church but bankrupting trust in the Church.

Al Laurino Plymouth Gratitude for website I’d like to thank you for the excellent information I’ve found on anchornews.org; it’s always a great pleasure to read your articles and I have subsequently become a loyal reader.

Betsy Coon Savannah, Ga.

Different idea of feminism I find I cannot agree with the sentiments expressed by author Erika Bachiochi in Christine Williams’ March 18 article “Catholic Church, Home of Authentic Feminism.”

Feminism is much more than just reproductive freedom and the subject of abortion. I am a woman in a non-traditional field, with 30-plus years with the same employer, who has never found the right man to marry. I live alone and depend on myself to keep a roof over my head, food on the table and a car in the driveway. Feminism means I could choose the field I wished to enter, that I will get equal pay for equal work, can have a credit card in my own name, and can enter into contracts and agreements on my own should I choose to. To limit the topic of feminism to reproduction and abortion is to limit women’s role in society.

I would also like to make comment on the idea put forth towards the end of the article by a Boston University senior that insinuates blended families are only the result of divorce.

This is not always true. What about all the young widows and

widowers as a result of the recent wars this nation has been involved in? Certainly there is no objection to their getting remarried and combining families. They need the support of a Church community as they move on to find a new life together as a blended family.

Karlen A. Wannop Teaticket Father Landry replies: Erika Bachiochi gave a speech at the Women Affirming Life breakfast, so there was a particular application — not a reduction — of the insights of authentic feminism to the issues of abortion and what promotes it, like contraception.

Bachiochi’s recent book takes note of and applauds many of the economic improvements for women described in the letter.

Coming home Each week I scan the paper at once to see if Claire McManus’s column is there. Claire’s articles are well thought out, clear, and to the point. Her column on Evangelization the week of March 18, 2011 was excellent.

However, I think something could be added. I would call it “Part 2.”

After years of ministry in parishes and some specifically doing evangelization, I don’t believe that TV commercials will do what is needed for good evangelization to take place. A personal invitation is essential.

The invitation needs to come from people who are active members of parishes throughout the diocese: people who are willing to use every opportunity aside from the weekly Mass to meet and greet the people in their parish; not just those “fallen away,” but all parishioners.

We need people who are not afraid to ask questions of those who have left: Are they still hurting? Why did they leave?

Those who have left need to feel welcome and wanted.

Those who have stayed could be asked: What would you like to see happening in your parish?

Those who evangelize need to ask themselves the question: “What are we inviting these ‘fallen away’ Catholics back to?” If they come back to a parish and experience the “same old, same old” that they left, they will soon become disillusioned and leave again. So what do we need? We need a parish that is welcoming to whoever comes. We need friendly faces in the pews, and a strong handshake at the Sign of Peace with a smile.

Hopefully, the liturgy will be alive and parishioners are participating in the responses, singing, etc. The pastor should be asking the people in the pews to share in what is going on in the parish so that they will feel connected and want to be part of the family. Each parish has to decide the best way to present this personal invitation.

These are some ways a parish can sustain its members once they are present but the biggest challenge is the one on one invitation to “Come Home.”

Agnes M. Bonville, R.S.M. Somerset Unjustified attack on teachers’ unions The article entitled “The Church and the Unions” (March 25 edition) by George Weigel is an unjustified assault on teachers unions on the false grounds that our country’s economic woes are exacerbated by “unionized American public school teachers who make handsome salaries with generous health and pension benefits.” The time that teachers devote to their profession goes well beyond what Mr. Weigel seems to think is a cushy ninemonth job with three months off.

In claiming that teachers’ unions are “immunized against sacrifices necessary to rescue America from fiscal disaster,”

Mr. Weigel fails to mention the moral and ethical responsibilities of the wealthy, including corporate America, lobbyists, and the politicians who enable them to escape paying their fair share of taxes.

Theodore F. Lippold Berkley Unfair attack on public school teachers George Weigel’s March 25 column sets a new record for implausible generalizations.

According to the U.S. Department of Education our public school systems employed approximately 3.3 million teachers in 2010, serving 49.4 million students nationwide.

According to Mr. Weigel these teachers, many belonging to unions, “make handsome salaries with generous health and pension benefits, work for nine months of the year, and are virtually impossible to fire even if they commit felonies.”

Perhaps he had not heard of the 1,926 Providence, R.I. teachers who recently received their pink slips. None, as far as I know, is an accused felon. Many, however, are dedicated, hard-working professionals who would be surprised to learn they have been practicing cruel selfishness.

Mr. Weigel speaks of moral imperatives. We would all do well to remember that any list of moral imperatives includes the provision that we should not bear false witness.

Edward McDonagh Cumberland, R.I. Appreciation for Dolan editorial The editorial on Archbishop Dolan’s response to the sexual abuse crisis was great! It ranks right up there with our favorite editorial, the commentaries regarding the death of the late Father Robert Drinan, S.J. Stay well and keep up the great work at The Anchor.

Norb and Anne Timmins Chatham

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Youth Pages

the candy kids can — St. Mary’s of Mansfield Middle School Theater Group’s production of “Willy Wonka Jr!” takes place at the Orpheum Theatre in Foxboro this weekend. Pictured is the cast of the sweet production.

champions of breakfast — The students of Bishop Stang High School, under the direction of the National Honor Society and the Student Council, recently held a Breakfast Cereal Drive. Student Council representatives accepted donations from members of the school community over a four-day period, culminating in the collection of more than 825 boxes. “Once again, our community has come together to help those in need in our area,” said Manuel Medeiros, NHS moderator. All of the cereal will be distributed to the families of needy children via St. Anthony’s Church Food Pantry located in the north end of New Bedford.

which came first? Kindergarten students from St. James-St. John School in New Bedford are happy to report that after 21 days of waiting for baby chicks, five have hatched on March 22.

April 8, 2011

having a heart — Faculty and staff of St. James-St. John School in New Bedford recently dressed in red in the annual Go Red For Women with Heart Disease. They raised $135 for the cause.

where’s spongebob? — The Lloyd Center for Environmental Studies in Dartmouth visited the fourth and fifth grades at Holy Name School in Fall River. The students examined live creatures such as the Asian Shore crab, green and spider crabs, sea stars, and channeled whelk. They sketched each animal and recorded how they moved, got food, and defended themselves. It was an informative and fun learning experience that will culminate in a field trip to Barney’s Joy to explore the estuary, marsh, shore, and dunes.

there’s no debating success — The Bishop Connolly Debate Team capped off a successful season by winning 17 varsity awards at the Southeastern Massachusetts Debate League finals held recently at New Bedford High School. Out of a field of 30 varsity four-person teams, the Fall River school’s teams were awarded second- and third-place honors. Four two-person affirmative teams and three twoperson negative teams also received awards for finishing in the top 10. Eight Connolly debaters were recognized as top-10 individual speakers out of a field of 70 students. With 51 awards in the past five years, the Bishop Connolly debate program has established a tradition of excellence that future teams are eager to emulate.

April 8, 2011

“F

or God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life.”

Huh? Why would He do that?

I don’t know about you, but when I think about God sending Jesus to earth and all that had to happen to Him, I wonder if it wouldn’t have just been easier if God simply opened up the clouds, peered down at us in all His glory and just said something like, “Yo! All of you down there! Don’t make me come down there!” I think that would have scared the heck out of everyone and would have saved Jesus from all that He had to go through on our behalf.

Of course, I think most people would then have to believe in God wouldn’t they? What choice would they have?

But our God gave us free choice.

His just looking down and saying “here I am” would kind of make us all believe in Him (at least I think it would, but again, he was present to the Israelites and they still turned away time and time again). Of course, we know God didn’t choose to do that. He wants us to come to Him of our own free will and through faith. He sent us His prophets, His saints and even His only begotten Son to get our attention.

Youth Pages

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Getting into the ‘bucket’

That should be enough don’t you here. Can I take him home?” “No, think? But, I don’t know God; I still we aren’t going to have a wild turtle think it would have been easier to do as a pet.” “But daddy!” “Sorry, no.” it my way. Just my opinion. It would “Can you move him out of the road also have been the end of this article. so he doesn’t get run over daddy?”

Done. Neatly wrapped up.

“I guess I can do that.”

However, that’s not the way the Of course, I’m not thrilled having story played out. Then why? Why to get this slimy turtle out of the did God have to send His only Son road. I grabbed a bucket from the to us to die for us? This is not a protrunk and went over to the turtle found theological explanation, however, I hope this simple story that I told on an Echo retreat last spring may give us some thoughts to ponder that question.

“Daddy! Look out,” my daughter shouted in a

By Frank Lucca panicked voice. I slammed on the brakes not knowing what was happening. “What is it? Are you OK?” “Daddy, there and prodded it into the bucket. She in the road!” “What?” “There!” “I insisted on holding the bucket as we don’t see anything.” “The turtle!” drove off to find a safe pond area to “The turtle?” “Yes, daddy, that turtle place the turtle. As I’m driving I hear is crossing the road! You almost ran her talking to the turtle and then to over it!” “Oh, OK. Yes, I see the me. turtle.” I slowly inched forward to go “Daddy, the turtle is so frightaround the turtle. “Daddy, you can’t ened. He’s in the bucket and he leave him in the road. Someone will keeps trying to get out. He climbs run him over!” the wall and then slips. He’s scared.”

So knowing that I wouldn’t “Not to worry” I say. “He’s OK hear the end of it, I pulled over and in the bucket. He’ll settle down stopped the car. We were in a rural and we’ll get him somewhere safe area, so there wasn’t much traffic. shortly.” “But daddy he’s so scared!”

“Daddy, we can’t just leave him “He’ll be OK. Just hold onto that

Be Not Afraid

bucket and we’ll be there in no time.”

Things quieted down as she stared into the bucket. I could hear the feet/paws of the turtle scratching at the bucket and then the sound as he slid back down. All the while she was talking quietly to the turtle.

“Calm down Mr. Turtle. My daddy is going to find you a nice new place to live away from the road.” She kept saying it over and over but the turtle continued to scratch at the walls and drop back into the bucket.

After a few minutes of trying to calm the turtle, she turned to me and said, “Daddy he’s not calming down. He does not understand me!” Then she said, “I wish I were a turtle.” “Really? Why would you want to be a turtle?” “Well, if I were a turtle, I could get into the bucket with him and let him know that he is going to be OK!” Wow, profound thoughts for a little girl and perhaps a profound thought for us too. God so loved the world that He would send His only Son … to let us know that everything was going to be OK. Now, perhaps it makes more sense why God would send His Son to us?

As we approach this holy season

of love, let’s really take some time to reflect on what our God has done for us. After all, it doesn’t end with Good Friday does it? We know and believe that Christ was resurrected on Easter Sunday and He ascended into heaven. If He didn’t that would be the real end of the story. However, He did and that is a new beginning for mankind. Jesus was no longer present in His human form here on earth but he left us His Church to help guide us in our lives. We know He lives on in each and every one of us if we let Him. We can allow others to encounter Christ in us, and us to encounter Christ in others by imitating His compassion, selflessness, acceptance of others, forgiveness, faith, hope and most importantly His love.

Then, and only then, can we get into that symbolic “bucket” with those that are frightened, depressed, alone, hurting, hating or scared and simply tell them that because of Jesus and with the help of Jesus, everything is going to be OK. Frank Lucca is a youth minister at St. Dominic’s Parish in Swansea.

He is chairman and a director of the YES! Retreat and director of the Christian Leadership Institute).

He is a husband and a father of two daughters. He may be reached at stdominicyouthministry@comcast. net

budding artists — The Greater New Bedford Catholic Elementary Schools Arts Collaborative is holding its first art exhibition of New Bedford area Catholic elementary schools through April 17 at Gallery X, located at 169 William Street, New Bedford. This exhibit will take place in the Douglass Gallery in the lower level of Gallery X and will include the artwork from students in grades three through eight. There are more than 350 pieces of art on display. This is the first time that the five schools have joined together in a cooperative endeavor to share their work with the public in a formal gallery setting. This is an extraordinary opportunity for families and the community to share in the talents and creative gifts that the young people possess and express in the art that they create. The art teachers, parent volunteers and students will be hosting a reception on New Bedford’s AHA night on April 14 from 5 to 9 p.m. and the public is cordially invited to attend. The gallery hours for viewing the exhibit are Wednesday through Friday 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. The gallery is closed on Monday and Tuesday. The students from St. James-St. John School, Holy Family-Holy Name School, All Saints Catholic School in New Bedford, St. Francis Xavier School in Acushnet, and St. Joseph School in Fairhaven are participating. Pictured are samples from the exhibit, clockwise from top left: Grade five submission, Lenten project by many students, junior high submission, grade six submission, and grade eight submission. For more information contact any of the participating schools.

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Around the Diocese 4/9

The Massachusetts Citizens for Life Convention and Youth Conference is tomorrow at Boston College Law School at 8:30 a.m. National experts on conscience rights, constitutionality of Obamacare, international population, and doctor prescribed death will give presentations. Coffee, lunch, and pizza dinner for students. For information visit www.masscitizensforlife.org or call 617-242-4199.

4/10

Singer and songwriter Vince Ambrosetti will bring his Lenten mission “Awaken Our Hearts” to St. John the Evangelist Parish, North Main Street, Attleboro from April 10 through April 13 beginning at 7 p.m. each night. A Christian artist with a passionate love for God, Ambrosetti has composed more than 350 songs and recorded more than 25 CDs. He sang one of his best-loved songs, “Sanctuary,” at the funeral of Blessed Mother Teresa and performed for the Pope John Paul II at the Vatican. In 2001 Ambrosetti was named Catholic Artist of the Year. For information call 508-222-1206 or 508-226-5355.

4/11

Holy Cross Parish in South Easton and Immaculate Conception Parish in North Easton will jointly sponsor a Lenten Mission led by Dr. Ernest Collamati titled “Where Are You God?” from April 11 through April 14 beginning at 7 p.m. each night at Immaculate Conception Church, 193 Main Street, North Easton. A reception will follow the first session, while a reconciliation service with opportunity for individual confessions will be celebrated on the final evening. For more information call 508-238-2235.

4/12

The next meeting of the Cape Cod Catholic Cancer Support Group will be at Our Lady of Victory Parish in Centerville on April 12. The meeting will begin with Mass and Anointing of the Sick at 7 p.m. in the church, followed by a talk in the parish center from Brenna Quinn on “Exercise When You Are Living With Cancer.” For more information call Mary Lees at 508-7711106 or email maryplees@comcast.net.

4/14

A Theology on Tap discussion for young adults, married or single, in their 20s and 30s will be held April 14 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Ground Round Bar and Grill, 2 George Street in Pawtucket, R.I. on the topic of “Do Not Settle for Mediocrity: The Life and Message of Pope John Paul II.” All are welcome to eat, drink, socialize and enjoy the discussion.

4/14 4/18

A Healing Mass will be held at St. Anne’s Shrine, 818 Middle Street, Fall River, on April 14 beginning at 6:30 p.m. Rosary will precede the Mass at 6 p.m. and Benediction and healing prayers will follow.

A series of mini retreats during Holy Week will be held at the Father Peyton Center, 500 Washington Street, North Easton from April 18 through 20. The daily talks will begin at 11 a.m. each day followed

by Mass at noon in the St. Joseph Chapel. Topics will include “Reflection on the Eucharist” by Father David Marcham; “Reflection on the Cross” by Beth Mahoney; and “Reflection on the Exultant” by Father John Phalen, CSC. For more information call 508-238-4095.

4/19

Adoption by Choice, an adoption and pregnancy counseling program sponsored by Catholic Social Services, will hold an information session for individuals interested in domestic newborn or international adoptions April 19 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Catholic Social Services, 1600 Bay Street, Fall River. To register or for information call 508-674-4681 or visit www.cssdioc.org.

4/22

The 35th annual Canal Walk for Haiti will take place on Good Friday, April 22 along the Cape Cod Canal service road starting at the railroad bridge in Buzzards Bay. Walkers will proceed to the Herring Run Visitors Center where rest rooms and free refreshments will be available. The total distance of the walk is 10 kilometers, or about 6.3 miles. For more information email vtortora@capecod.net or ourladyofthecape@yahoo.com.

4/28

The Lazarus Ministry of Our Lady of the Cape Parish in Brewster is offering a six-week bereavement support program, “Come Walk With Me,” on Thursdays beginning April 28 through June 2 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. in the parish center. The program is designed for people who have lost a loved one within the past year. Pre-registration is required. For information contact Happy Whitman at 508-385-3252 or Eileen Birch at 508-394-0616.

April 8, 2011

More than a roof; it’s a home continued from page one

the cuff. We have to go in and do a careful assessment because you don’t want to put yourself at risk.

We are very careful about what properties we take on,” said Allard.

After acquiring a property, it takes an average of five months to rehab a home, and Allard and his team do an extensive job examining the properties and assessing the extent of repairs to construct a quality living space for those in need.

“They walk into a beautiful home, probably something they haven’t had the opportunity to live in before and probably won’t get another opportunity going forward. We put a lot of care and attention into the rehab that we do because we have respect for others, for the community and the people that will be living there,” said Allard. “Nothing is to be gained by doing a lousy job, so we try to create a place that we would be willing to live in.”

One of those tenants appreciating CABH’s hard work is a woman named Natalie, a transplant from North Carolina escaping from a domestic violence situation with her young daughter, teen-aged sister and diabetic mother in tow.

“I was in a spot, had nowhere to go, didn’t know my way around and I was just here with my family,” said Natalie, who initially

In Your Prayers Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks April 9 Rev. Cornelius McSwiney, Retired Pastor, Immaculate Conception, Fall River, 1919 Rev. Edward F. Dowling, Pastor, Immaculate Conception, Fall River, 1965 April 10 Rev. John P. Doyle, Pastor, St. William, Fall River, 1944 April 11 Rev. John F. Downey, Pastor, Corpus Christi, Sandwich, 1914 April 12 Rev. John Tobin, Assistant, St. Patrick, Fall River, 1909 Rev. Msgr. Alfred J. Gendreau, STD, Retired Pastor, Notre Dame, Fall River, 1996 Rev. Edward P. Doyle, O.P., St. Raymond, Providence, R.I., 1997 Rev. Bertrand R. Chabot, Retired Pastor, St. Anthony of Padua, New Bedford, 2002 April 13 Deacon Joseph P. Stanley Jr., 2006 April 14 Rev. Louis N. Dequoy, Pastor, Sacred Heart, North Attleboro, 1935 Rev. Cosmas Chaloner, SS.CC., St. Francis Xavier, Acushnet, 1977 April 15 Rev. Christopher G. Hughes, D.D., Retired Rector, St. Mary’s Cathedral, Fall River, 1908

stayed in Boston.

After connecting with some people from that area’s homeless coalition, Natalie and her family were placed in a hotel for a few nights and then transferred to Fall River, which put her in direct contact with Catholic Social Services.

Meeting with a housing specialist twice a week, Natalie said CABH held a recently finished apartment in Fall River for two weeks as she gathered up enough money for a deposit and rent.

“I came to see it and I loved it,” said Natalie, who officially moved into the apartment in February of this year. “Nothing beats home, but it was exciting. It was like, maybe we’re on our way to finally trying to build something new.

The shelter was great, the people are lovely, but it’s not your own.

At least here I can say this is my own and we can put whatever we want to in. At the shelter you can’t really bring in anything. At least here, I can try to put up some pictures to make it homey and stuff like that. It’s a happy feeling and I’m proud. I really appreciate everyone helping me.”

Allard said that although the partnership between CABH and CSS is crucial, it really is CSS that is the driving force behind finding the support services unique to every tenant.

“They do an outstanding job,” said Allard. “They bring both compassion and fairness to their management style. They also incorporate into their management style the delivery of supportive services. We have found that it’s not enough to give someone an affordable and decent place to live, you also have to look at all the other issues that go on in their lives.

That’s another benefit; we’re not abandoning the community or the tenants in our properties.”

Since its inception CABH has taken on a range of projects, including developing the Donovan House, a transitional home offering 10 units for homeless women with children; the Talbot Apartments that now house 26 singleroom occupancy residences for low-income single adults; St. Dominic’s Apartments that converted St. Anne Church’s priory building into 18 affordable rental units for the elderly with supportive services; and numerous multifamily homes in New Bedford and Fall River.

“In terms of offering their expertise in technical assistance and their funds,” said Allard of both cities, “I can’t tell you how critical that has been. Most of what we’ve done, if not all, we couldn’t have done without the support of Fall River and New Bedford housing programs.”

Citizens Union Bank has also

been a key player in helping fund the rehab projects, bringing in much-needed acquisition financing that helps Allard stay ahead of speculators looking to make a quick buck.

“We’re seeing in New Bedford particularly, but also in Fall River to some extent, that a lot of these foreclosed properties are being acquired by outside interests. Potential property owners who will buy these properties, do just the minimal amount of work — if any — and then just rent them out without any good management in place. Then they wait for the market to turn and then sell; it’s a disinvestment, and we’re trying to keep pace with that,” said Allard.

Recently the city of New Bedford committed $135,000 to converting a city building into 12 affordable units, and along with having been awarded $300,000 in a Mass. historic tax credit, Allard hopes that with some additional funding the project can begin within the next year.

Allard also hopes the recent turn in the housing market will offer incentives for first-time homebuyers to reemerge.

“The need for rental housing is great,” said Allard. “The need for affordable homeownership is important too.”

There is a new weapon in his arsenal of acquiring abandoned or foreclosed homes in the form of a state receivership program. New Bedford has already used it. The city of Fall River is gearing up to apply that program to 10 properties that Allard and his team have already identified.

“It’s a very effective tool that the municipality has to try and get these landlords to be more responsive about their properties,” said Allard.

Currently statewide cuts in service programs won’t have a direct impact because he deals with development, said Allard, but if CSS receives a cut to its programs that help refer homeless families and individuals to affordable housing, then people will fall through the cracks.

“The funding sources we rely on haven’t been targeted for a cut,” said Allard. “However some of the other programs, the service side, are going to be faced with big impacts and that could have an impact on us in terms of the services we try to bring to our tenants. That’s a big concern of mine.

There will be a gap there.”

For Natalie, home is where her family has settled.

“I just wanted to go somewhere where I wouldn’t have to look over my shoulder,” she said.

“It’s not fun not being home, but everyone that I’m working with is very nice and helpful.”

April 8, 2011

Eucharistic Adoration in the Diocese Acushnet — Eucharistic adoration takes place at St. Francis Xavier Parish on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.; Fridays 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Saturdays 8 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays end with Evening Prayer and Benediction at 6:30 p.m.; Saturdays end with Benediction at 2:45 p.m.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fall River — Espirito Santo Parish, 311 Alden Street, Fall River. Eucharistic adoration on Mondays following the 8:00 a.m. Mass until Rosary and Benediction at 6:30 p.m.

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

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

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

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

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

HYANNIS — A Holy Hour with eucharistic adoration will take place each First Friday at St. Francis Xavier Church, 21 Cross Street, beginning at 4 p.m.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

WAREHAM — Adoration with opportunities for private and formal prayer is offered on the First Friday of each month from 8:30 a.m. until 8 p.m. at St. Patrick’s Church, High Street. The Prayer Schedule is as follows: 7:30 a.m. the Rosary; 8 a.m.

Mass; 8:30 a.m. exposition and Morning Prayer; 12 p.m. the Angelus; 3 p.m. Divine Mercy Chaplet; 5:30 p.m. Evening Prayer; 7 p.m. Sacrament of Confession; 8 p.m.

Benediction.

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

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

19

The Anchor

For area man, John Paul II’s Boston visit was a ‘guard’ instance continued from page one

guard the elevator area behind the stage to make sure there was no one there who shouldn’t have been.

“As Military Police we were trained to know what to look for, such as unusual or suspicious behavior or abnormal movements. In fact, we noticed an individual on a roof top in the area and we alerted the Secret Service who immediately looked into it. There was no threat, but it was a precaution that had to be taken.

“Even though there were so many people trying to touch him, I never felt he was in harm’s way.”

A life-long devoted Catholic, Martineau was thrilled to have this assignment. “Brad was Protestant, but he was in awe at what was going on around us,” recalled Martineau. “There were thousands and thousands of people around in the cold and the rain. When we saw him, we both could sense this was a holy man. Despite the huge crowds at the Boston Common, there was a tranquility in the crowd. There was no animosity because it was

the pope who was there. It was an incredible thing.”

The thrill of a lifetime happened for Martineau and Faxon when Pope John Paul II arrived backstage in the elevator. “I knew there was protocol when meeting the pope, but in the moment I couldn’t remember what to do,” said Martineau. “He approached me and I just looked into his eyes and shook his hand. I knew I should have genuflected and kissed his ring, but I was caught up in the moment. I looked at him and he seemed to be carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. Brad didn’t know any of the protocol, but he, too, was in awe.”

Martineau noticed that in order to receive Holy Communion from the pope of one year, a blue ticket was needed. “I asked if I could have a blue ticket, and was denied because I was on security duty,” said Martineau. “I did try to receive however, but security did its job and refused me. In fact Brad wanted to receive Communion from him dur-

ing the Mass, and I told him that as a non-Catholic he wasn’t able to.

But he was so moved by the whole event he wanted to be part of it.”

Martineau said that even though the visit was more than 30 years ago, he “still can’t comprehend what a great event that was. I mean, how many people get to meet the pope? I will never forget it or him, despite the fact that my new Army boots were killing me,” he chuckled.

Recalling the near assassination of Pope John Paul II in St. Peter’s Square in 1981, Martineau’s Military Police training kicked in and he questioned, “What happened to the security there when he was shot? They were supposed to be scanning the crowd.”

Martineau told The Anchor that he is elated that Pope John Paul II will be beatified on May 1. He said that not only did he get the chance to shake hands with the incredible John Paul II the Great, but someday he can say he shook hands with a saint.

20

F

or those who know me well, they are aware that we’re in my least favorite month of the year. I find that the 30 days of April absolutely crawl

The Anchor

April 8, 2011

April showers ... you can have ’em

by laden with wind, rain, cold, snow, and an occasional springlike day as a tease, only to draw us back into the wind, rain, cold, and snow.

“best pitching staff in baseball” My golf partner, Msgr. Tom having given up 11 home runs.

Harrington (whom I’m sure We’re already 2.5 games behind I won’t hit the links with in the Yankees.

April), no matter what the Tonight, the Sox head into weather is, always exclaims balmy Cleveland for a three“Enjoy today, this is the day the game set before heading to FenLord has made for us!” I repeat his refrain with gritted teeth each April.

As a matter of fact, as I pound out this column hours before press time, it’s windy, rainy, raw, and just plain nasty. Our office manager, Mary

By Dave Jolivet Chase just popped into my office muttering “You’re right. April is way. By the time you read this useless.” Coincidence? I think column (probably as it’s raining not. or snowing), the Sox can be, For me, the official start of at best, a .500 team. Ah, April. spring is May 1. April is simply Cold, wind, rain, snow, and the a March annex.

Red Sox. Makes one long for The 30 days between March January. and May are not without some But one of the few saving pleasures. The joy of the Easter graces is this weekend with The season happens in April some Masters golf tournament. years, although Easter bonRegardless of what Mother nets are usually replaced by ear Nature can throw at us, short of muffs. And there’s always the a power outage, I can sit back beginning of baseball season ... and relax as CBS zooms in on yet the Red Sox have already the blooming azaleas and plush sucked the fun out of that right of passage. As of press time, the magnolia and pine trees lining the Bermuda grass fairways of World Series favorites are winthe pristine Augusta National less in three games, with the

My View From the Stands

Golf Course in Georgia.

As April plays her wicked games outside, I can picture myself crossing the stone-structured Hogan Bridge spanning Rae’s Creek on the way to the carpetlike Bent grass 12th green.

I can feel the warm southern breeze on my face as the peaceful piano and guitar chords waft from Georgia to Southeastern Massachusetts via my TV speakers.

Maybe old Lefty Mickelson will earn his fourth green jacket this weekend, or perhaps it will be one of the up-andcoming young guns like Bubba Watson, Rickie Fowler, Jhonattan Vegas (yes, it’s spelled correctly), or my favorite, Anthony Kim. It doesn’t matter. It’s Augusta, it’s the Masters and it’s April (in Georgia).

We’ve all heard the old adage, with its comical addendum: April showers bring May flowers, and May flowers bring Pilgrims. Well, I’m willing to wager that even the Pilgrims couldn’t wait for those dreaded New England Aprils to pass.

You can have your April showers, and wind, and snow squalls.

The Holy Face of Jesus Christ, Discovery, Journey, Destination

by Gordon Deery, Holy Face Association From the HFA Mail box Dear HFA Regarding your new book, “The Holy Face of Jesus Christ,” it moved me beyond words. I am going to reread it so that I can grasp it more fully.

I will also share the book with family or friends, whoever is willing to read it.

God bless you for writing this book and starting the Holy Face Association! I am forever grateful that God led me to this website.

I attend daily Mass but still felt the need to grow closer to God. So I asked Jesus to help me increase my faith. What a miracle that God led me to the Holy Face Association! Praise be to God - Marilyn Dear HFA Thank you so much — “great evil” is permeating our (US) Republic. While I may be literally frightened to tears, I know this is the remedy this country needs. If God is for us, who can stand against us? God bless you - Angela Dear HFA I have read the book, “The Holy Face of Jesus Christ, Discovery, Journey, Destination,” and cherish the book. It brought an appreciation to the devotion! I also found an artist who painted the Face of Jesus that resembles The Shroud. I am spreading the devotion in every way possible.

The Lord brought to my heart to intercede for the conversion of Hollywood about five years ago Nancy

Order this new book today!

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