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Diocese of Fall River, Mass.

Catholic human rights defender from Guatemala comes to diocese

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

NORTH DARTMOUTH — Paraphrasing from John 18:23, Guatemalan human rights defender Makrina Gudiel said Jesus’ Words are powerful to consider, especially during this Lenten season.

“In the religious calendar, we’re right now in the days leading up to Easter,” Gudiel told a standing-room-only crowd inside UMass Dartmouth’s Blue and Gold Welcome Center on the first level of the campus center April 2.

“I’d like to start with a quote from Jesus, where He asked of the people who were persecuting Him: ‘Why do you strike Me? Have I done something to you? If I’ve done nothing to you, then why do you strike Me?’” As someone who grew up in a Catholic family, Gudiel said: “I wanted to start with this quote, because Guatemala is full of grave violations of human rights, starting with the invasion of the Spanish in 1500.”

Making the first of two Turn to page 14

Our Lenten Journey

F riday , April 11, 2014

Area Catholics prepare for Holy Week

By Linda Andrade Rodrigues Anchor Correspondent

TAUNTON — Charged with meaning, Holy Week spans the seven days before Easter from Palm Sunday morning through Holy Saturday night — taking us in triumph with our Savior through the streets of Jerusalem, then plunging us into our darkest fears at the foot of His cross.

“Jesus took upon Himself the betrayal for all ages, the pain caused by betrayal in every era, and he endured the anguish of history to the bitter end,” said Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in “Jesus of Nazareth — Holy Week: From the Entrance into

Jerusalem to the Resurrection.”

Consequently, Catholics approach Holy Week with trepidation.

“After the glory of Holy

Thursday — the Institution of the Eucharist and the promise of a new way of being human together in the washing of the feet — the mood changes on Good Friday from triumph to

horror, from security to fear,” said Sister Joan Chittister in “The Liturgical Year — The Spiraling Adventure of the Spiritual Life.” “It is the 14th day of the Jewish month of Nisan, the preparation day of the Passover, the time of the choosing of the lambs for slaughter.

Good Friday is the saddest day of the Liturgical year.”

Around the Diocese of Fall River, priests and religious are preparing us for our walk to Calvary, celebrating the Lord’s Passion on Palm Sunday, renewing their commitment to serving the Church during Chrism Mass at the Cathedral Turn to page 18

Paul Kawa set to become diocese’s first lay Finance Officer/Chancellor

To take over for Father Michael K. McManus after 28 years of service Makrina Gudiel, left, a native of Guatemala who has been fighting for social justice in her homeland for 30 years after the death of her brother and father at the hands of a corrupt government, spoke to students at UMass Dartmouth during a recent visit to the diocese.

Kathryn Johnson, assistant director of the Washington, D.C.-based Guatemala Human Rights Commission, translated for Gudiel during the presentation. (Photo by Kenneth J. Souza)

Remarriage Prep Program changes leadership

By Becky Aubut Anchor Staff

ATTLEBORO — Preparing a second trip down the aisle is never contemplated lightly, but when Mary and Ron Dupuis were looking to get married back in the early 1990s, the couple discovered that the Marriage Prep Program in the Fall River Diocese was the only resource they had to use — not that the Marriage Prep Program was a bad thing, it just wasn’t their thing.

“When we were preparing to be married, we went to meet with the priest and he said, ‘There isn’t a place for you to prepare; you won’t fit in anywhere,’” recalled Mary.

“We wanted some kind of preparation,” so Mary said she gathered what materials she could find, and she and Ron did a personal retreat at the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette in Attleboro.

After they were married, she and Ron continued to disTurn to page 15

By Dave Jolivet Anchor Editor

FALL RIVER — For 110 years, the Diocese of Fall River’s finances have been managed by a priest or monsignor. And for 28 of those years the duties have fallen on the shoulders of one man, Father Michael K. McManus, the diocese’s current Finance Officer, Chancellor and Moderator of the Curia.

Father McManus has worked with three bishops during his tenure, then-Bishop Daniel A. Cronin, then-Bishop Sean P. O’Malley, OFM, Cap., and current Bishop George W. Coleman.

In less than two months, much of that will change with the hiring of diocesan native Paul Kawa, who will become the diocese’s first lay Finance Officer and Chancellor. Kawa, currently in training with Father McManus, will officially assume the responsibilities on June 1. Father

McManus will remain Moderator until a new Fall River bishop is assigned, and he establishes his own administrators.

Kawa’s position is a five-year appointment, and he will remain

to become part of the new bishop’s personnel.

Kawa was born in Taunton and has lived in Mansfield for the past 22 years. He and his Turn to page 18

Paul Kawa, a member of St. Mary’s Parish in Mansfield, and a former member of the Diocesan Finance Council, has been named the diocese’s first lay Finance Officer and Chancellor. He will assume his duties on June 1, taking over for Father Michael K. McManus, who has served the diocese in those capacities for nearly 30 years. (Photo by Dave Jolivet)

News From the Vatican

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April 11, 2014

Pope Francis: Married couples are an icon of God’s love

Vatican City (CNA/ EWTN News) — In a recent weekly general audience Pope Francis closed his catechesis on the Sacraments by reflecting on the vocation of Marriage, noting that the marital couple is a unique example of Divine love in the world.

“Married couples carry out this vocation in a full and definitive communion of life. As ‘one flesh,’ they become living icons of God’s love in our world, building up the Church in unity and fidelity,” the pope expressed.

Speaking to the thousands gathered in St. Peter’s Square to hear the weekly discourse, the pontiff announced that the day’s reflections would close his catechesis on the Sacraments as he turns to the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony.

It is a Sacrament, he observed, “which brings us to the very heart of God’s loving plan for the human family” and “introduces us to the design of God, Who created man in His image, capable of loving.”

“The Triune God created us — men and women — in His image and calls us to mirror the mystery of His love,” the pope continued, adding that “married couples carry out this vocation in a full and definitive communion of life.”

Highlighting how the vocation builds the Church in “unity and fidelity,” the pontiff explained that “Christian Marriage also reflects the mystery of Christ’s Own faithful and sacrificial love for His Body, the Church.”

“Christian spouses thus receive a special consecration and a special mission: to manifest in simple and daily things the love of Christ for

His Church, giving themselves in fidelity and service.”

Noting that although Marriage is “a noble vocation,” Pope Francis also emphasized that it “is not an easy one,” and that “it must constantly be strengthened by a living relationship with the Lord through prayer.”

These prayers include “mornings and evenings, at meals, in the recitation of the Rosary, and above all through the Sunday Eucharist.”

Concluding his address, the Roman Pontiff asked those present to pray with him “for all families, especially those experiencing difficulties, so that by God’s mercy they can always be joyful models of faith, love and generous service in our communities.”

After finishing his discourse, the pope took a moment to acknowledge how April 2 marked the ninth anniversary of Blessed John Paul II’s death, stating that the occasion “directs our thoughts to the day of his canonization, which we will celebrate at the end of the month.”

“May the waiting of this event be for us an occasion to prepare spiritually and to revive the patrimony of the faith that he left,” he expressed.

By “imitating Christ he was for the world a tireless preacher of the Word of God, of the truth and of the good,” the pontiff observed, noting that “He did good even with his suffering.”

“This was his life’s teaching, to which the people of God responded with great love and esteem. His intercession strengthens in us faith, hope and love,” the pope reflected, adding that “during this preparation my apostolic blessing will accompany you.”

Pope Francis meets workers from aluminum company Alcoa during a recent general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. (CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano via Reuters)

Pope: Real prayer is courageous, frank dialogue with God

Vatican City (CNA/ this, believed that the Lord leave me like this!’”

“This is prayer!” he exEWTN News) — During a would destroy the people and recent daily Mass Pope Francis he searches, in his memory, for claimed, asking “But does this reflected on the prayer of Mo- how good the Lord had been prayer take a long time? Yes, it ses to God in the first reading, with His people, how He had takes time,” he noted, adding saying that true prayer should taken out them out of slavery in that the time it takes is the time be like speaking to a friend — Egypt and brought them for- we need in order to know God better and to be able to speak to with boldness and without fear. ward with a promise.”

With these arguments the Him as a friend.

“The Bible says that Moses Drawing attention to how spoke to the Lord face-to-face, prophet attempts to persuade like with a friend. This is how God “but in this process he the Scripture passage describes prayer should be: free, insistent, regains the memory of the Moses as speaking to God with debate. And also scolding people, and finds the mercy of “face-to-face, like a friend,” the pontiff observed “This is how the Lord a little,” the prayer should be: free, pope said. o, no: speak with reality,” the pope insistent, with debate, Speaking to those insisted, encouraging those pres- and should also scold present in the Vatican’s ent to say in prayer “‘But, look, Lord, I have the Lord a little: ‘But, St. Martha guesthouse, the pontiff centered his this problem, in my family, with my son, you promised me this, address on the encoun- with this or that. What can be done? But and you haven’t done it.’” ter between Moses and look, you can’t leave me like this!’”

“Open the heart to God in the day’s first this prayer,” he imreading, taken from plored of those in atExodus 32:7-14, in which Mo- God,” the pope observed. tendance, stating that after his “This Moses, that was afraid, ses intercedes for the people of encounter with God “Moses Israel, asking the Lord not to afraid that God would do this, destroy them as He threatens eventually comes down from came down from the mountain the mountain with a great invigorated: ‘I have known the for worshipping idols.

Moses’ prayer he noted, “is thing in his heart: our God is Lord more.’”

“With that strength that a real struggle with God. A merciful. He pardons. He goes gave him prayer, he resumes his struggle (on the part of ) the back on His decisions. He is a task of leading the people to the leader of a people to save his Father.”

Promised Land. Because prayer Explaining how Moses people, who are the people of renews: renews.

The Lord gives knew all of these things already, God.” The pope went on to express Pope Francis pointed out that grace to all of us, because prayer how when Moses prayed, he he only “vaguely knew it,” and is a grace.”

Concluding his reflections, did so freely, courageously and that “he rediscovers it in prayer.

Pope Francis noted how the with insistence, stating that This is what prayer does to us: it Holy Spirit “is in every prayer,” prayer ought to be a “nego- changes our heart.” and that “You cannot pray “Prayer changes our heart. tiation with God” to which we without the Holy Spirit. It is It makes us understand better bring our “arguments.”

He who prays in us, He makes Highlighting how “the Lord how our God is. But, for this it repented of the evil that He is important to speak with the us change our heart, it is He had threatened to do to His Lord, not with empty words — Who teaches us to call God ‘Father.’” people” thanks to Moses’ in- Jesus says ‘As the pagans do.’”

“Let us ask the Holy Spirit “No, no: speak with reality,” tercession, Pope Francis asked to teach us to pray, as Moses the question “But who changed the pope insisted, encouraging prayed, to negotiate with God, here? Has the Lord changed? I those present to say in prayer with freedom of spirit, with “‘But, look, Lord, I have this think not.” courage.

And may the Holy “The one who is changed, problem, in my family, with my is Moses, because Moses be- son, with this or that. What can Spirit, Who is always present in lieved that the Lord would do be done? But look, you can’t our prayer, lead us on this path.”

“N

The International Church

April 11, 2014

3

Pope Francis entrusts Rwandan reconciliation to Our Lady of Kibeho

Syrian refugees in Lebanon’s Bekaa valley stand in line to receive aid. (Photo courtesy of Melkite Greek Archeparchy of Furzol, Zahle and the Bekaa)

U.N. registers Lebanon’s millionth Syrian refugee

Beirut, Lebanon (CNA/ EWTN News) — The number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon registered with the United Nations has now passed one million, as the organization’s refugee agency stresses the urgent need to fund humanitarian aid.

“The extent of the human tragedy is not just the recitation of numbers,” United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees representative Ninette Kelley told reporters in Lebanon’s second largest city, Tripoli, recently.

“Each one of these numbers represents a human life who have lost their homes, their family members, their sense of future.”

The U.N. refugee agency officially registered an 18-yearold student from Homs as its millionth refugee in Tripoli.

One year ago, the country was host to 356,000 U.N.-registered refugees.

While the number of registered refugees in Lebanon hit one million, the refugees’ full number is much greater.

The Lebanese government estimated 800,000 refugees in early January, and by mid-February had increased its count to one million.

“Everybody knows that the real number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon is already well past the million mark,” wrote the BBC’s Jim Muir, “but the fact that that many have now been officially registered is yet another grim milestone as the conflict grinds on.”

David Kenner, Middle East editor at Foreign Policy magazine, tweeted that a graphic showing the sources of the one million U.N. refugees from within Syria was “staggering,” yet “more staggering when you

realize these are only registered ones.”

The Melkite Archeparchy of Furzol, Zahle and the Bekaa, on Lebanon’s border with Syria, runs its own refugee assistance program — many of the Christians fleeing Syria fear to register with the U.N. for fear of identification and reprisal.

Because of Syria’s civil war — now beginning its fourth year — half of the country’s population have fled their homes.

Some 6.5 million Syrians are believed to have been internally displaced by the war, and there are 2.6 million Syrian refugees living in nearby countries, most of them in Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan.

The more than one million refugees in Lebanon are straining a country whose population, when its neighbor’s war began, was slightly more than four million. Now, one in every five residents of Lebanon is a refugee from Syria.

UNHCR chief Antonio Guterres said recently that the refugees have had a “staggering” impact on Lebanon.

The Syrian civil war cost Lebanon an estimated $2.5 billion in economic activity in 2013, the World Bank estimates. The presence of refugees has driven down wages for Lebanese and has taxed critical infrastructure like sanitation, water supplies, waste management and health care facilities.

Refugees in Lebanon who cannot afford housing live in tent camps, many not far from the center of the capital, Beirut.

The camps are now building housing several stories high in cramped conditions. The sewer system is open and fresh air is scarce, contributing to the spread of disease.

Wadih Daher, an official of the Furzol archeparchy, told CNA last month that the impact on Lebanese has been “huge in all aspects,” including security issues.

The Syrian conflict began Mar. 15, 2011, when demonstrations protesting the rule of president Bashar al-Assad and his Ba’ath Party sprang up nationwide. The following month, the Syrian army began to deploy to put down the uprisings, firing on protesters.

Now an estimated 140,000 persons have died in what has become a civil war. The U.N. quit counting the bodies last July, leaving its estimates at 100,000, saying it could no longer verify its sources.

The civil war is being fought among the Syrian regime and a number of rebel groups. The rebels include moderates, such as the Free Syrian Army; Islamists such as al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant; and Kurdish separatists.

The millions of refugees created by the war have led to urgent humanitarian need.

The UNHCR has appealed for $1.89 billion to fund humanitarian aid in Lebanon in 2014, but has received only $242 million.

“The Lebanese people have shown striking generosity, but are struggling to cope,” said Guterres. “Lebanon hosts the highest concentration of refugees in recent history. We cannot let it shoulder this burden alone.”

“Support to Lebanon is not only a moral imperative, but it is also badly needed to stop the further erosion of peace and security in this fragile society, and indeed the whole region.”

Vatican City (CNA/ EWTN News) — Meeting with the Rwandan bishops for their ad limina visit recently, Pope Francis urged them to be agents of reconciliation, commending them to the Marian apparition at Kibeho, in the country’s south.

“Rwanda will in a few days commemorate the 20th anniversary of the horrible genocide which has brought such suffering and wounds, which are still far from healed,” the pope said at the Vatican.

“I join with all my heart in mourning, and I assure you of my prayers for yourselves, for your often torn communities, for all victims and their families, for all Rwandans, without distinction of religion, ethnicity, or political affiliation.”

Apr. 7, 1994 was the first of 100 days during which Hutus in Rwanda massacred their Tutsi neighbors. Up to one million Rwandans were killed, most of them Tutsi.

“I commend you all to the maternal protection of the Virgin Mary,” Pope Francis told the nation’s bishops. “I sincerely hope that the Shrine of Kibeho might radiate even more the love of Mary for her children, especially the poorest and most injured, and be for the Church in Rwanda, and beyond, a call to turn with confidence to Our Lady of Sorrows, who accompanies each of us on our way that we might receive the gift of reconciliation and peace.”

He noted that reconciliation and healing “certainly remain the priority of the Church in Rwanda. I encourage you to persevere in this endeavor, for which you have already taken a number of initiatives.”

“Forgiveness of sins and genuine Reconciliation, which may seem impossible to human sight after such suffering, are however a gift of Christ that it is possible to receive, though a life of faith and prayer, even if the road is long and requires patience, dialogue, and mutual respect.”

Because of this, the Bishop of Rome said, the Church “has an importance place” in the rebuilding of Rwandan society, with hope “bearing witness to the

truth.”

He noted the catholicity of the Church, saying it can “overcome prejudice and ethnic divisions” when it “speaks with a sole voice.”

Pope Francis noted the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Rwanda and the Holy See, highlighting the importance of building up the common good around the values of human dignity, justice, and peace.

“Do not be afraid to highlight the irreplaceable contribution of the Church to the common good,” he told them. “I know that the work done, in particular with regards to education and health, is considerable.”

“The education of youth is the key to the future in a country where the population is renewed quickly,” Pope Francis reflected.

“It is therefore the duty of the Church to form children and young people in Gospel values, which they shall find especially in a particular familiarity with the Word of God, which will be for them like a compass indicating the route to follow.”

He added that it is thus important that Catholic schools combine their “educational mission and the explicit announcement of the Gospel,” saying “these should never be separated.”

The pope encouraged good formation for the laity, saying they play a crucial role in evangelization and reconstruction, and for families, saying children must learn there “the authentic Christian values of integrity, fidelity, honesty and self-giving, which permit one to know true happiness, after the heart of God.” He told the bishops to care particularly for their priests, and for the formation of their seminarians.

“Dear Brothers, I assure you again of my affection for you, for your diocesan communities, for all of Rwanda,” Pope Francis concluded.

Entrusting them to Mary, he reminded them that she “appeared in your country to children, reminding them of the efficacy of fasting and of prayer, in particular the recitation of the Rosary.”

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

The Church in the U.S.

4

April 11, 2014

Social service advocates seek to reframe how Americans view poverty

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Concerned with widely held negative perceptions about people who live in poverty, advocates attending the National Poverty Summit pledged to reframe how Americans see their poor neighbors and to work to build stronger relationships across economic classes.

The advocates from several national organizations said recently it was unrealistic to characterize the 46 million people living in poverty as unwilling to work while preferring to live in a cycle of dependence on government programs.

They also pledged to collaborate more closely when delivering social services and speak with a unified voice to shape public policy when it comes to state and federal support for programs that lift people out of poverty.

It’s time, said Susan Dreyfus, president and CEO of the Alliance for Children and Families, to view people in poverty as neighbors and see that in a prosperous society, poverty is unacceptable.

“We have to talk about the human capital assets of this country,” she said. “We have to talk about health and education and what America needs to be prosperous. We have to really make sure to elevate the place and presence of the very people we are talking about.”

The measure of success, she said, must be determined by whether people are able to move

out of poverty, live healthy and secure lives and move down the path to education and employment.

Dreyfus urged the 120 summit attendees to move from “program thinking to social change thinking.”

The call was welcomed by many in attendance including Father Larry Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA, which convened the summit. In recent years, Catholic Charities USA has led a nationwide effort to partner with other faithbased and secular social service agencies to reduce poverty.

Father Snyder told Catholic News Service that social change must be incorporated into the work of diocesan Catholic Charities agencies. It’s a concept that’s rooted in the Bible and Catholic social teaching, he said.

“To me it’s that issue of outputs versus outcomes. What are your real goals? Our real goal has to be change. We’re talking about changing people’s lives, changing people’s settings.

That’s where it’s not enough to measure how many shelter beds are filled. If that’s your goal, we’re not talking change, we’re not talking really getting people out of poverty,” Father Snyder said.

He acknowledged that social workers must understand that social change is necessary if anti-poverty programs are to be judged successful.

During a panel discussion

of top social service agency executives, Father Snyder stressed the importance of innovation in programming. While social service agencies can take credit for helping lift people out of poverty since President Lyndon Johnson declared a “war on poverty” in 1964, he said new ideas and concepts that involve people struggling with hunger, homelessness and unemployment every day are necessary to reduce the country’s poverty rate.

He also said that because social service agencies have spearheaded the decline in poverty over the past 50 years, they must be at the table when policymakers are determining what avenues to follow to address the country’s 15 percent poverty rate.

The day-long conference gave representatives from several organizations the opportunity to review successful programs that have helped people in poverty to explain how they have developed programs that take a personal approach with families, guiding them to stable employment, affordable housing and quality health care.

In many of the presentations, the focus was on intensive one-on-one relationships, a model that was described as accompaniment.

Charlotte Haberaecker, president and CEO of Lu-

theran Services in America, described the arrangement as walking alongside people.

“It’s not that we’re necessarily helping out others that are less fortunate than ourselves but recognizing our humanity with each other and working neighbor to neighbor,” she said.

Gregory Kepferle, CEO of Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County, Calif., later described the effort has walking with people as they crossed a bridge to stability in their lives.

“They’re lifting themselves up. We’re helping them to cross the bridge. They’re choosing to cross that bridge. We’re making sure the bridge is there. That’s our job, on the policy and the structure, we’ve got to build that bridge and make sure it’s there so they can walk across that bridge,” he said.

Efficiency and collaboration were among other topics discussed throughout the day.

David Barringer, CEO of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, particularly asked the agencies in attendance to look for ways to streamline as much as possible so that more funds can benefit the people most in need. He also called for more involvement from the business sector and people in poverty in shaping programs.

“When I talk to people in poverty they don’t say, ‘Please create a government program.’

They say, ‘Help me get a job.’

They don’t say, ‘Please fix the Social Security program.’ They say, ‘Help me feed my kids today,’” Barringer said.

For more than an hour, Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C. and Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., focused on the need for members of Congress to find common ground in order to reduce poverty. Both said they became friends as they have worked on poverty-related proposals.

Both also called upon their elected colleagues to visit social service agencies to talk with staff and people living in poverty.

However, they diverged on how to address poverty concerns, with Hudson supporting the budget introduced April 1 by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., which calls for additional cuts in spending on social services and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and McGovern saying that such cuts would decimate programs serving people in poverty.

Also in attendance was Melissa Rogers, executive director of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. She said she wanted to learn more about how the agencies were partnering and to determine which programs would receive White House support.

Head of U.S. military archdiocese offers prayers for Fort Hood victims

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Once again, the people at Fort Hood “are at the center of national attention and the focus of our prayers,” Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services said in response to the April 2 shooting at the Texas military base.

The archbishop said he had been in touch with the Catholic priests who serve at Fort Hood to “assure them of the solidarity and the prayerful support” of the archdiocese after a shootout at the base which left three people dead and wounded 16 others. The shooter, later identified as Ivan Lopez, then killed himself.

Lopez, an Iraq War veteran who was being treated for mental illness, opened fire on the same military base where 13 people were killed in a 2009 shooting.

“On behalf of my auxiliary bishops, the priests, religious and all of those who make up the archdiocesan family, I offer heartfelt condolences to the

families that mourn the loss of a loved one. As believers we also pray for the repose of the souls of the victims and the assailant,” Archbishop Broglio said in a recent statement.

“The remedy for this senseless violence can only be found in a more profound respect for human life, a deeper concern for our neighbors, a willingness to listen rather than to shout, and a reduction in the glorification of violence by our society,” he added.

The Diocese of Austin, Texas, where Fort Hood is located, posted the simple message “Pray for Fort Hood” in the center of the homepage of its diocesan website.

The Dallas Morning News said Lopez, a military truck driver, was dressed in his standard-issue green camouflage uniform at the time of the attack. He had served in Iraq for four months in 2011 and had arrived at Fort Hood in February from another base. The motive for the shooting is still unknown.

Lt. Gen. Mark A. Milley, the senior officer on the base, told reporters that “events of the past have taught us many things at Fort Hood.”

He said he knows “the community is strong and resilient,” those who have bravely served in combat are strong and “we will get through this.”

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said the scene at the military base in Killeen, Texas, is “sadly too familiar and still too fresh in our memories. No community should have to go through this horrific violence once, let alone twice.”

Army Maj. Nidal Hasan was sentenced to death last August following his conviction for murder in the 2009 massacre at Fort Hood. His sentence is still under appeal but after it was announced, Archbishop Broglio objected to capital punishment for Hasan, saying: “The Church teaches that unjustified killing is wrong in all circumstances. That includes the death penalty.”

The Church in the U.S. At border Mass, bishops call for compassion, immigration reform

April 11, 2014

NOGALES, Ariz. (CNS) — With the backdrop a few feet away of the rusted iron slats of the 30-foot wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, Boston Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, OFM, Cap., and a dozen other bishops from three countries prayed for compassion and for a return to ideals that welcome immigrants.

More than 300 people formed the outdoor congregation on the U.S. side of the border and hundreds more participated on the Mexico side, receiving Communion pressed into hands that stretched between the slats, illustrating that, as one teen-age member of the choir put it, “We are all one community — we are all bilingual and bicultural.”

Referring to a visit by Pope Francis last summer to the Italian island of Lampedusa where migrants from the Middle East and Africa try to enter Europe illegally, Cardinal O’Malley in his homily quoted the pope’s comments about the “globalization of indifference.”

“We have lost a sense of responsibility for our brothers and sisters,” Pope Francis said. “We have fallen into the hypocrisy of the priest and the Levite whom Jesus described in the parable of the good Samaritan.”

Cardinal O’Malley quoted Pope Francis further: “The culture of comfort, which makes us think only of ourselves, makes us insensitive to the cries of other people.”

The Mass at the intersection of International Street and Nelson capped a two-day experience of the border region for bishops from as far away as Atlanta and Guatemala. Beginning with a Mass the day before at San Xavier del Bac Mission outside Tucson, which dates from when the entire region was part of the Spanish Empire, the bishops then walked along rough desert paths used by migrants.

Crawling under strands of barbed wire, scrunching low to walk through a culvert beneath a road, dodging cactus and sticker bushes, the group came upon empty water bottles, backpacks and other belongings abandoned by the migrants who cross the hilly, rocky terrain as they try to get past the various security measures and agents used by the Border Patrol to try to stop illegal immigration.

Then the group met with the Border Patrol at their regional headquarters, before crossing into Mexico to serve dinner at a Church-sponsored “comedor,” or soup kitchen. The “comedor” serves people who have been deported or who are figuring out whether they want to try to sneak into the United States.

“We come to the desert today because it is the road to Jericho,” said Cardinal O’Malley in his homily. “It is traveled by many trying to reach the metropolis of Jerusalem. We come here today to be a neighbor and to find a neighbor in each of the suffering people who risk their lives and at times lose their lives in the desert.

“The hard work and sacrifices of so many immigrant peoples is the secret of the success of this country. Despite the xenophobic ranting of a segment of the population, our immigrant population contributes mightily to the economy and well-being of the United States.”

He added that the group came also to mourn the loss of “countless immigrants who risk their lives at the hands of the ‘coyotes’ (smugglers) and the forces of nature to come to the United States.”

with three fellow parishioners.

“They say we have a broken immigration system,” Goddard said. “Obviously we do. Human rights and dignity have gotten lost in the whole thing. We’ve got to do something to get attention to that.”

Many of the congregants on the Mexican side came to the Mass after having met the bishops and others in the delegation during their visit to the “comedor” the previous day.

Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson, Ariz., blesses people on the Mexican side as he distributes Communion through the border fence in Nogales, Ariz., recently. A group of U.S. bishops, led by Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, OFM, Cap., of Boston, celebrated Mass at the border calling attention to the plight of migrants and appealing for changes in U.S. immigration policy. (CNS photo/Nancy Wiechec)

The Mass, which was shown live on the Internet and remains available for viewing on YouTube, was organized by the Jesuits’ Kino Border Initiative and Migration and Refugee Services of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The Diocese of Tucson and the Archdiocese of Hermosillo, Mexico, worked closely together in arranging the details.

Tucson Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas and Hermosillo Archbishop Ulises Macias Salcedo were among the concelebrants.

A choir from Lourdes Catholic High School in Nogales and members of Knights of Columbus councils from across southern Arizona were among the many volunteers. One of the more unusual roles the volunteers filled was ensuring that nothing other than the Eucharist or hands were passed through the slats of the border fence, part of a complex negotiation with the Border Patrol to allow the Mass to take place within the agency’s jurisdiction.

Throughout the Mass a dozen or more Border Patrol agents watched the proceedings from just outside a pedestrian port of entry a block west of the altar.

Dick Goddard, a Knight from St. Pius X Parish in Tucson, was among the volunteer ushers. He said he’d only learned about the Mass a day earlier but thought it important to attend. He had made the hour-long drive to the border

Father Clete Kiley, a Chicago archdiocesan priest who works as director for immigration policy for the labor union Unite Here, said two of the young men he chatted with over dinner caught his eye, smiling broadly through the fence slats as the priests and bishops assembled at the altar on a large stage brought in for the occasion.

Cardinal O’Malley’s homily, delivered largely in Spanish, was met with applause at several points, such as when he talked about how today’s migrants, whether they come with or without government permission, hold the same kind of values that brought earlier generations of immigrants.

“Our country has been the beneficiary of so many immigrant groups that had

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the courage and the fortitude to come to America. They came fleeing horrific conditions and harboring a dream of a better life for the children,” he said.

“They were some of the most industrious, ambitious and enterprising citizens of their own countries and brought enormous energy and good will to their new homeland. Their hard work and sacrifices have made this country great,” he added.

After Communion a procession of bishops climbed the Border Patrol access road alongside the fence. Partway up the steep hill, Cardinal O’Malley placed two wreaths alongside a cross to commemorate those who have died along the border, including “ranchers, farmers, peacekeepers and travelers who seek a common ground of peace and prosperity,” as the Mass program described the memorial.

Another Mass was held simultaneously at the border between the cities of San Luis, Mexico, and San Luis, Ariz., at the southwestern tip of the state.

Cross-border religious events to bring attention to immigration-related issues have been sponsored by dioceses in the U.S. and Mexico for years. Among them are annual processions for the Way of the Cross during Lent and Las Posadas, the Christmas season re-enactment of the search for lodging by Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem, as well as occasional Masses at the border.

This Mass had perhaps the greatest number of bishops participating, as well as priests from throughout the region and across the country.

Other bishops at the Mass included: Seattle Auxiliary Bishop Eusebio L. Elizondo, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ migration committee; Salt Lake City Bishop John C. Wester; Bishop Oscar Cantu of Las Cruces, N.M.; Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas,; San Diego Bishop Cirillo B. Flores; Atlanta Auxiliary Bishop Luis R. Zarama; and retired Bishops Ricardo Ramirez of Las Cruces and Gerardo Flores of Vera Paz, Guatemala.

Bishop Flores brought a letter of greetings and support from the Guatemalan bishops’ conference, in recognition of the many Guatemalans who pass through Mexico and Arizona on their way north.

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April 11, 2014

Anchor Editorial

Accompaniment

In his apostolic exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium” (“The Joy of the Gospel”) Pope Francis wrote at No. 169, “In a culture paradoxically suffering from anonymity and at the same time obsessed with the details of other people’s lives, shamelessly given over to morbid curiosity, the Church must look more closely and sympathetically at others whenever necessary. In our world, ordained ministers and other pastoral workers can make present the fragrance of Christ’s closeness and His personal gaze. The Church will have to initiate everyone — priests, religious and laity — into this ‘art of accompaniment’ which teaches us to remove our sandals before the Sacred ground of the other (cf. Ex 3:5). The pace of this accompaniment must be steady and reassuring, reflecting our closeness and our compassionate gaze which also heals, liberates and encourages growth in the Christian life.”

The theme of accompaniment is very present in the news stories and columns of this week’s Anchor — not in the way criticized by the pope, which would be the intrusive “accompaniment” of TMZ paparazzi chasing minor celebrities or of more professional journalists hovering over families grieving the death of a loved one or awaiting word on the missing passengers from the Malaysian jetliner.

We thank the Lord for the beauty of the spiritual art of “being there” for one’s neighbor, as seen in the stories of the couples who walk with other couples preparing for remarriage (pages one and 15); of the Melkite Catholics and others who are welcoming the Syrian refugees into their countries, at great sacrifice to themselves (page three); of the social service advocates who walk with the poor and help them to climb out of poverty (page four); of the bishops who literally walked the border region, learning about the tragedies which occur there (page five); of Pope Francis’ work to help divorced and remarried people not feel “alienated but accompanied” (page seven); of the great collaboration between adults and high school students in the ministry of Our Brother’s Keeper (page 13); and of the Guatemalan family who remained present to their homeland’s struggle for justice, even when that led to further loss of loved ones to violence (pages one and 14). We could go on and on — practically every story or caption in this edition shows how good Christian people try to walk with each other along the road which Christ laid out for us.

Last Sunday Holy Cross Family Ministries provided a Lenten Family Rosary Retreat afternoon for the people of our diocese. The opening talk was given by Alejandro Aguilera-Titus, assistant director for Hispanic Affairs in the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ office for Cultural Diversity in the Church. Aguilera-Titus drew a parallel between the 12-yearold Jesus’ experiences when He remained behind in Jerusalem (when Mary and Joseph thought that He was in the caravan with them, heading back to Nazareth) and the encounter which the Risen Jesus had with two disciples on the road to Emmaus on Easter afternoon and evening.

Aguilera-Titus said that in both situations Jesus displays for us a great example of accompaniment — He does not immediately start teaching the elders in the temple or the two disciples along the road. In both situations (for the earlier one, Aguilera-Titus told The Anchor after his talk that his prayer on the mystery of Jesus lost and found in the temple led him to believe that this was what the Boy Jesus was doing when Mary and Joseph could not find Him) Jesus first gets to know the people, listens to them, and once they have established some trust in Him because He has spent time with them, then He helps them to understand how the Scriptures

speak to their reality. Aguilera-Titus told the assembled retreatants that this is what we need to do when we evangelize — we need to get to know people, spending time with them so that they know that we care about them, and then we will know better how the Scriptures and the teachings of the Church speak to their realities.

Also at the retreat day, which was held at Bishop Stang High School in North Dartmouth, Jim and Terry Orcutt (who are mentioned in the article on page 13) gave a workshop about how we can share Christ’s message of love without making people feel humiliated. They shared how they learned that when distributing goods to people in need it is important that the beneficiaries not “lose face” by having everyone know that they are receiving charity. For that reason Our Brother’s Keeper does not have their trucks marked and they tell other people on the street that they are just delivery people (to the beneficiaries they say that Jesus sent them). By taking the time to accompany these folks, they learned how to truly treat them as their brothers and sisters, not as someone whom they were helping out of some attitude of noblesse oblige.

To carry out this art of accompaniment, we need to first accompany Christ in prayer, by meditating upon how He did it during His 33 years walking this earth. In “Evangelii Gaudium” 171, Pope Francis wrote, “Today more than ever we need men and women who, on the basis of their experience of accompanying others, are familiar with processes which call for prudence, understanding, patience and docility to the Spirit, so that they can protect the sheep from wolves who would scatter the flock. We need to practice the art of listening, which is more than simply hearing. Listening, in communication, is an openness of heart which makes possible that closeness without which genuine spiritual encounter cannot occur. Listening helps us to find the right gesture and word which shows that we are more than simply bystanders. Only through such respectful and compassionate listening can we enter on the paths of true growth and awaken a yearning for the Christian ideal: the desire to respond fully to God’s love and to bring to fruition what He has sown in our lives. But this always demands the patience of one who knows full well what St. Thomas Aquinas tells us: that anyone can have grace and charity, and yet falter in the exercise of the virtues because of persistent ‘contrary inclinations.’” In other words, we need to be patient with the people (friends, relatives, acquaintances, etc.) whom we are accompanying, since their bad habits from the past cannot be unlearned in a day. “Reaching a level of maturity where individuals can make truly free and responsible decisions calls for much time and patience.”

Christian accompanying will eventually demand that we offer correction. “The Gospel tells us to correct others and to help them to grow on the basis of a recognition of the objective evil of their actions (cf. Mt 18:15), but without making judgments about their responsibility and culpability (cf. Mt 7:1; Lk 6:37). Someone good at such accompaniment does not give in to frustrations or fears. He or she invites others to let themselves be healed, to take up their mat, embrace the cross, leave all behind and go forth ever anew to proclaim the Gospel. Our personal experience of being accompanied and assisted, and of openness to those who accompany us, will teach us to be patient and compassionate with others, and to find the right way to gain their trust, their openness and their readiness to grow” (“Evangelii Gaudium” 172). May God help us do this.

Pope Francis’ weekly Angelus address and prayer

Dear brothers and sisters, hello!

The Gospel of this fifth Sunday of Lent tells us of the resurrection of Lazarus. It is the culmination of the miraculous “signs” worked by Jesus: it is a gesture that is too great, too clearly Divine to be tolerated by the high priests, who, once they found out about it, decided to kill Jesus (cf.

Jn 11:53).

Lazarus was dead for three days already when Jesus arrived; and to his sisters Martha and Mary He spoke words that have forever impressed themselves on the memory of the Christian community. Jesus speaks thus: “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in Me shall never

die.” From this Word of the Lord we believe that the life of whoever believes in Jesus and follows His Commandment, after death will be transformed into a new, full and immortal life. Just as Jesus rose with His Own body but did not return to an earthly life, we too will rise with our bodies, which will be transfigured and glorious bodies. He awaits us with the Father, and the power of the Holy Spirit, which had raised Him up, will also raise those who are united with Him. Before the sealed tomb of His friend Lazarus, Jesus “cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out.’ The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with bandages, and his face wrapped with a cloth” (11:43OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER

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44). This commanding cry is addressed to every man, because we are all marked for death, all of us; it is the voice of He Who is the Lord of life and desires that all “have it in abundance” (Jn 10:10). Christ has not resigned Himself to the tombs that we have created with our choices of evil and death, with our mistakes, with our sins. He does not resign Himself to this! He invites us, He almost commands us, to come out of the tombs in which our sins have buried us. He insistently calls us out of the darkness of the prison in which we have shut ourselves, contenting ourselves with a false, egoistic and mediocre life. “Come out!” He tells us, “Come out!” It is a beautiful invitation to true freedom, to let ourselves be seized by these words of Jesus that He repeats to each one of us today. It is an invitation to remove the “burial shroud,” the burial shroud of pride.

Pride makes us slaves, slaves to ourselves, slaves of many idols, of many things. Our resurrection begins here: when we decide to obey this command of Jesus, going out into the light, into life; when the masks fall from our face — often we are masked by sin, the masks must fall!

— and we rediscover the courage of our true face, created in the image and likeness of God. Jesus’ gesture, which raises Lazarus, shows how far the power of God’s grace can go and how far our conversion can go, our change. But

listen well: there is no limit to Divine mercy offered to all! There is no limit to Divine mercy offered to all! Remember this well. And we can say it all together: “There is no limit to Divine mercy offered to all!” Let us say it together: “There is no limit to Divine mercy offered to all!” The Lord is always ready to remove the stone from the tomb of our sins, which separate us from Him, from the light of the living.

The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary, and she conceived by work of the Holy Spirit.

Hail Mary ...

Behold the handmaid of the Lord: Be it done unto me according to Thy Word.

Hail Mary ...

And the Word was made Flesh: And dwelt among us.

Hail Mary ...

Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray: Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts; that we, to whom the Incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection, through the same Christ Our Lord.

Amen.

[Following the Angelus Pope Francis continued his address.] And now I would like to do a simple thing for you. On the past Sundays I sug-

gested to all of you to get yourself a little Gospel to carry with you during the day to be able to read often. Then I thought about the ancient tradition of the Church, during Lent, of giving the Gospel to catechumens, to those who are preparing for Baptism. So, today I would like to offer to you who are in the piazza — but as a sign for everyone — a small book of the Gospels [he shows the people the book]. It will be given to you gratis. There are places in the piazza to distribute it. I see them there, there, there. Go to these posts and get the Gospel. Get it, take it with you, and read it every day: it is Jesus, in fact, Who speaks to you there! It is Jesus’ Word: this is Jesus’ Word!

And as He says: freely you have received, freely give, give the message of the Gospel! But maybe some of you think that this is not free. “But how much does it cost? How much must I pay, Father?” Let us do something: in exchange for this gift, do an act of charity, a gesture of gratuitous love, a prayer for enemies, an act of Reconciliation, something.

Today you can read the Gospel with many technological instruments too. You can carry the whole Bible in a telephone, in a tablet. The important thing is to read the Word of God, with all the means, but read the Word of God: it is Jesus Who speaks there! And welcome it with an open heart. The good seed bears fruit!

April 11, 2014

T

here’s been a great deal of confusion caused

by German Cardinal Walter Kasper’s address to his brother cardinals on February 20 about proposals to allow those who are divorced and remarried to receive the Holy Communion without a declaration of nullity or the death of their first spouse.

The very fact that Pope Francis had asked Cardinal Kasper to address the scarlet college on the subject in anticipation of this October’s Extraordinary Synod on the family was taken by a few cardinals and many in the secular media as an indication that Pope Francis himself supported Kasper’s ideas. When Pope Francis told the cardinals the following morning that he had reread Kasper’s “serene theological reflection” twice the night before and referred to it as “theology on one’s knees” it only seemed to confirm a sense of papal approbation. The subsequent release of Kasper’s text in newspaper and book form and the positive comments on it from a few cardinals present seemed to augur an imminent change in Church discipline.

In the weeks since, however, much has been clarified. Many of the other cardinals present have spoken publicly about what happened inside the February consistory. A report in the Italian daily La Stampa gave a rundown of the various cardinals who rose in opposition to Kasper’s proposal.

Italian Cardinal Camillo Ruini estimated that 85 percent of the cardinals present strongly disapproved of their German confrère’s ideas. Cardinal Sean O’Malley is one of a long list of cardinals who has spoken out to clarify that the Church won’t and can’t change Jesus’ teachings about the indissolubility of Marriage.

Pope Francis sketched out his own ideas on the subject in the lengthy interview with journalists aboard Shepherd One returning from Brazil last July. He stressed first that we’re living in a time of mercy and the Church must seek a path of mercy for all. But he also emphasized, “About the problem of Communion to those persons in a second union, that the divorced [but not remarried] might participate in Communion, there is no problem. When they are in a second union, they can’t.” The problem is not so much the

Anchor Columnist

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Communion for divorced and remarried? regard to three Sacraments: divorce, but the second MarMarriage, Communion and riage while the first spouse is Penance. still alive.

First, with regard to MarWhy did the pope, then, riage, the Church’s teaching ask Cardinal Kasper to adis based on Jesus’ clear words dress the consistory? I think that in Marriage God joins it’s because Cardinal Kasper, a very prominent theologian, has a man and a woman in one been writing for 35 years about flesh in a bond that no one can break and that when one the possibility for those who divorces and marries another are divorced-and-remarried he or she commits adultery under certain circumstances (Mk 10:7-12). If the Church to be able to be readmitted to were to seem to accept the the altar. More than anyone, he would be capable to present legitimacy of the second union, it would either suggest that the the strongest theological case for a modification in discipline, first union — and therefore to give the cardinals a starting point for their discussions. So many Putting Into cardinals spoke out the Deep in opposition to his speech, however, that

By Father when Pope Francis Roger J. Landry gave Cardinal Kasper the chance to respond to the criticism, other Marriage in general — was cardinals said he appeared not indissoluble or that Christ “piqued” and “angry,” somepermits bigamy. It would also thing that probably explains raise a slew of other issues.

Pope Francis’ fraternally encouraging words the following Would such second and subsequent unions — civil bonds morning. outside the Church that have Since the publication of always been considered invalid Cardinal Kasper’s remarks, and non-Sacramental due to a many prominent theologians lack of Catholic form — now have had a chance to read be considered valid? If such them and their reviews have civil bonds are now intrinsiprobably been more severe cally non-problematic since than the critiques of the vast they wouldn’t prevent one from majority of cardinals. They receiving Holy Communion, have pointed out that Kasper would they now be able to relied on discredited ideas convalidated in the Church? about the practice of those What about Communion for in second unions in the early those who have serially diChurch — the sources refer not to divorced-and-remarried vorced and remarried? Would but to remarried widowers and declarations of nullity now be widows — and his total failure rendered superfluous, since to tackle at all the central issue, whether the first bond were valid or not would now seem the existence of a Sacramental Marriage bond formed by God to be irrelevant? Would the that no one, not even the pope, Church now consider herself foolish to have lost much of can rend asunder. the Church in England when For me the most striking thing of all was his proposal of it refused to capitulate to Henry VIII’s demand that he be five conditions for one to be allowed to enter into a second readmitted. The first was that bond with Anne Boleyn? the person “repents of his failThere would also be the ure in the first Marriage.” Not only does that suggest that the much larger subject of the Church’s fidelity to Jesus’ clear first Marriage, rather than the words. One of the reasons why second, is the morally probBlessed John Paul II said that lematic one, but also doesn’t seem to consider that one may the divorced and remarried have been abandoned and may cannot receive Holy Communion is because of a “special bear little or no fault at all for pastoral reason: if these people the failure of the first.

The reason why the Church were admitted to the Eucharist, the faithful would be led into cannot change her discipline with regard to Communion for error and confusion regarding the Church’s teaching about the those who are divorced-andindissolubility of Marriage.” Jeremarried is because it would sus was clearly and wholeheartradically damage the Church’s edly against divorce and remardoctrine and practice with

riage — and His words about the beginning had no expiration date. Do we still believe in the truth about Marriage that He teaches and that that truth really sets us free? Can the Church today ever think she can love those in divorced-andremarried situations more than Jesus did? If we’re not faithful to what Jesus calls a state of adultery, wouldn’t we be risking the earthly and eternal happiness of those affected?

With regard to Holy Communion, allowing those who are divorced-and-remarried to receive Holy Communion would mean that those whom Jesus indicates are living in an adulterous state are worthy to receive the Eucharist. If those whom Jesus refers to objectively as adulterers are nevertheless able to receive without ending the adultery, then it’s hard to imagine anyone in any situation objectively contrary to the Gospel likewise not being admitted.

This would lead to a total confusion about what Holy Communion is. John Paul II said that the principal reason why the divorced-and-remarried are not able to receive Holy Communion is not because the Church is punishing them or making a judgment on the subjective state of their soul. It’s because “their state and condition of life objectively contradict that union of love between Christ and the Church which is signified and effected by the Eucharist.”

Receiving Holy Communion is the one-flesh consummation of the indissoluble, faithful and fruitful spousal union between Christ the Bridegroom and His Bride the Church. In order to receive Holy Communion, one must be living first and foremost in a faithful covenantal bond with Christ, just as in order for love-making to be Sacramental instead of sinful, one first must be united by God in a one-flesh covenantal bond with one’s spouse. Covenant comes before consummation. Permitting those who are divorced and remarried to receive Holy Communion would either mean that the Church no longer considers that there is an objective contradiction or that such a contradiction no longer matters.

Finally with regard to the Sacrament of Penance, noth-

ing short of total chaos would ensue. Those who are divorcedand-remarried are not able to receive the Sacrament of Penance unless, as John Paul II wrote 30 years ago, “repenting of having broken the sign of the Covenant and of fidelity to Christ, [they] are sincerely ready to undertake a way of life that is no longer in contradiction to the indissolubility of Marriage.” That means in practice that minimally they need to make the public commitment to live in “complete continence, by abstinence from the acts proper to married couples.” Jesus’ mercy, as we see in His defense of the woman caught in adultery, is tied to His loving command “Go and sin no more.” If those who are divorced-and-remarried are no longer required to eliminate what Jesus Himself calls adulterous conduct, then the constitutive requirement for a firm purpose of amendment would effectively no longer be part of the Sacrament, something that would cease to make Confession a Sacrament of conversion. If those whom Jesus says are in a state of adultery are no longer required to repent and amend, then it’s hard to see why others engaged in other behaviors contrary to His moral teaching would need to either.

It would even confuse people as to whether what Jesus calls adultery is even considered sinful any longer.

It is indeed a time for mercy and Pope Francis, all the cardinals, and so many throughout the Church are seeking avenues by which to help those in situations of divorce and remarriage not to feel alienated but accompanied, loved and supported. I anticipate that coming out of the October synod there will be a huge pastoral push for declarations of nullity coupled to various reforms in the process, duration, and grounds used by Marriage tribunals to determine whether a first Marriage is actually valid. But the mercy the Church pastorally dispenses never involves seeking unfaithfully to change Christ’s teaching to align it to human choices but to change people to learn how to align themselves faithfully to Christ’s saving Word.

Anchor columnist Father Landry is pastor of St. Bernadette’s Parish in Fall River. fatherlandry@ catholicpreaching.com.

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A

t some point during Mass this Sunday, palms are blessed and passed out to the faithful in the pews.

We hold these branches in the palms of our hands acknowledging what the Jews acknowledged when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on back of a donkey: that Jesus, the poor and humble carpenter from Nazareth, is the Davidic Messianic King! This acknowledgement comes from the actions of the people — using the palms of their hands to gather the branches and lay them at the feet of Jesus. However, in a few short days, they will use their palms for a different purpose — to assist in the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross.

How do these actions compare with our actions and intentions this weekend?

The Passion begins with the palm of Judas’ hand outstretched to receive 30 pieces of silver in order to betray Jesus.

How often in our lives does the lure of worldly goods or possessions cause us to betray Christ in order to obtain them?

Peter, James, and John are asked to accompany Jesus to

April 11, 2014

Let’s use our palms, always

Gethsemane to pray. But inwithin us? stead of palms pressed together The one person who had the in prayer, they use them to power and authority to stop make a make a comfortable the suffering and death of Jesus place to rest their heads. How refused to exercise it in fear of many times are we asked to the mob. Pilate released Barabsacrifice our time and energy bas and ceremonially washed for God only to spend it appeasing our own desires?

Homily of the Week In an attempt to Palm defend Jesus, one of the Sunday disciples takes a sword in the palm of his hand and

By Deacon severs the ear of the high Thomas McMahon priest’s servant. How often in our attempts to defend our Lord do we his palms in water, allowing the only show anger and disdain crucifixion to take place. How towards His accusers? often do we have the power to Peter is watching nearby keep Jesus from being persewhen he is accused of being a cuted by others but say and do disciple of Jesus, tightening his nothing? palms into fists and denying Then the soldiers used that he knows the Lord. How their palms to hold a nail and often do we deny our faith to a hammer. They nailed the others when admitting it may outstretched body of Jesus to make us personally uncomfortthe cross and used their palms able? to hoist it in the air for all to The crowds use their palms see. How often do we pick up to amplify their voices while hammer and nail to crucify shouting, “Let Him be cruciChrist over again with our sinfied!” How often have we made ful intentions and actions? sure our voices are heard while Fortunately, this is only one silencing the voice of Jesus side of the story. We can easily

see sinful and wrong behavior in ourselves. However, we are called to be the Body of Christ. In our lives, we seek to be Christ to the world in this story and not the others who spent their time in mockery and shame before our Lord.

We can change our actions to mimic the palms of Christ, instead of His persecutors.

In Gethsemane, Jesus held His palms together in prayer when He knew the situation required for as much Heavenly intervention that He could muster.

We, too, can use our palms for prayer, bringing Heavenly intervention for ourselves and others.

When the disciple cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant, Jesus used His palm for healing and restoration. We can use our palms for healing the sick and restoring the dignity of others through the Corporal Works of Mercy.

Jesus’ palms are useless, bound in front of Him. We may often feel as if our hands are tied and we can’t do anything to assist while being accused by others. But instead

of tugging at the ropes, we can pray for our persecutors and give strength to those around us by our words (or lack thereof ).

After reaching the top of the hill, Jesus’ palms are outstretched on the cross. A nail is placed through each palm and He is raised on the cross suspended in air between Heaven and earth. As the Body of Christ, we are called to suffering and torment as we bring Christ to the world for all to see. We walk, talk, and breathe on the earth while we hope for our Heavenly home and the Kingdom of God to come.

Instead of just collecting palms at Mass and having them dry out in our cars or behind crosses in our homes, let us remember the palms we carry with us always. Let these palms, the palms of our hands, constantly remind us that we are the Body of Christ. Let us acknowledge with our words and actions that Jesus is our King!

Deacon McMahon was ordained last October and currently ministers at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Parish in Seekonk.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. Apr. 12, Ez 37:21-28; (Ps) Jer 31:10-13; Jn 11:45-56. Sun. Apr. 13, Palm Sunday, (Procession Mt 21:1-11) Is 50:47; Ps 22:8-9,17-18,19-20,23-24; Phil 2:6-11; Mt 26:14—27:66 or 27:11-54. Mon. Apr. 14, Is 42:1-7; Ps 27:1-3,13-14; Jn 12:1-11. Tues. Apr. 15, Is 49:16; Ps 71:1-4a,5ab-6ab,15,17; Jn 13:21-33,36-38. Wed. Apr. 16, Is 50:4-9a; Ps 69:8-10,21-22,31,33-34; Mt 26:14-25. Thurs. Apr. 17, Mass of Chrism, Is 61:1-3a,6a,8b-9; Ps 89:21-22,25,27; Rv 1:5-8; Lk 4:16-21; Mass of the Lord’s Supper, Ex 12:1-8,11-14; Ps 116:12-13,15-16bc,17-18; 1 Cor 11:23-26; Jn 13:1-15. Fri. Apr. 18, Passion of the Lord (Good Friday), Is 52:13—53:12; Ps 31:2,6,12-13,15-16,17,25; Heb 4:14-16,5:7-9; Jn 18:1—19:42.

O

ne of the many reasons to follow the Lenten station church pilgrimage through Rome is that, along that unique itinerary of sanctity, one discovers otherwise-hidden jewels of Church architecture and design, created in honor of the early Roman martyrs. Perhaps the most stunning of these is St. Praxedes on the Esquiline Hill, hidden behind the vastness of St. Mary Major. As my coauthor Elizabeth Lev puts it in “Roman Pilgrimage: The Station Churches” (Basic Books), “The little Basilica of St. Praxedes is a surprising treasure chest, its dingy portal opening into an interior of dazzling mosaics.”

That dingy portal is one reason why a lot of Roman visitors, including the most assiduous tourists, miss St. Praxedes, for its exterior suggests nothing of the marvels inside. Indeed, I expect I walked right past St. Praxedes numerous times before entering it for the first time on Mar. 24, 1997, Monday of Holy Week that year and St. Praxedes’ an-

Easter glory in a Roman jewel box and her sister Pudenziana, holdnual turn in the station church ing their crowns of martyrdom, rotation.

We owe this aesthetic marvel are embraced by the Apostles to the labors of Pope St. Paschal and guided toward Christ.

“This celestial gathering is I, whose brief pontificate in the surmounted by apocalyptic imearly ninth century added immensely to the beauty of Rome, during what history is pleased to dub the “Dark Ages.” After noting that Pope Paschal rebuilt this church near a late fifth-century

By George Weigel church dedicated to St. Praxedes, Liz Lev explains the intention agery: the Lamb of God, flanked within the pope’s design: by seven candlesticks and the “Paschal’s architectural aessymbols of the four evangelists. thetic focused on light: thus the Scores of white-robed figures nave was lined with 24 clereoffer their wreaths. Their processtory windows through which sion concludes at the arch’s sumthe sun’s rays streamed before mit, where the Apostles, Mary, dancing off the small glass tiles and John the Baptist point of the ornamentation. The apse mosaic took its inspiration from toward Christ, flanked by angels.

The entire work is an invitation the Basilica of SS. Cosmas and to look through this world into Damian: against a mesmerizing the City of God.” blue sky, a golden-robed Christ In itself, that would be floats under the hand of God. Peter and Paul flank Him, wear- enough. But that’s not all.

For Pope Paschal also built ing senatorial togas; Praxedes

The Catholic Difference

here a funerary chapel for his mother, Theodora, the Chapel of St. Zeno. And while the basilica’s apse mosaic and triumphal arch are as magnificent as Liz Lev describes them, it’s the St. Zeno Chapel that marks St. Praxedes as a Christian site not-tobe-missed.

I’ve been in many spectacularly beautiful rooms over the years: the Painted Hall of Wren’s Royal Naval Hospital in Greenwich, England, the Sainte Chapelle in Paris, and the Sistine Chapel would obviously rank high on any such list. But I would happily enroll the tiny St. Zeno Chapel in St. Praxedes in any contest for Most Beautiful Room on Planet Earth. Replete with wallto-wall golden mosaics, the chapel is intended, as Liz writes, to evoke the experience of Heaven: “Precious columns line the four corners, capped with golden capitals from which angels seem to reach to the vault’s summit,

where Christ Pantocrator looks serenely down.”

And yet amidst this stunning beauty is a reminder of how and why Jesus is Lord and King. For a small, glass-enclosed reliquary to the side of the chapel houses a fragment of a stone column, long venerated as the pillar of the scourging that preceded the crucifixion.

The glory of the Risen Lord, so magnificently displayed throughout the Basilica of St. Praxedes, is Easter glory. Easter glory is not without cost, for Easter glory follows the obedient suffering of the Son on Good Friday. There, on Calvary, the Son conforms Himself to the will of the Father as He meets His messianic destiny on a cruciform throne.

Easter necessarily follows Good Friday. That lesson rings down the centuries, from Pope Paschal I to Pope Francis.

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

April 11, 2014

Thursday 10 April 2014 — Homeport: Falmouth Harbor — Joseph Pulitzer’s birth anniversary (1847). here was no news last weekend for the Catholic community in Falmouth Village.

As parishioners arrived for Mass, they reflexively reached for the latest edition of the parish bulletin. There weren’t any. The hopper was empty. Somehow or other the local printer failed to deliver.

When a routine is broken, people are thrown into a conundrum.

“What! No bulletin? Where is this week’s parish bulletin? How will we know what’s going on?”

No news is bad news.

There was nothing I could do about it at that point, but I must admit, dear readers, I secretly found the situation amusing.

For more than four decades now I have listened to parishioners chanting the old mantra that nobody, absolutely nobody, reads the parish bulletin. Really? Why, then, does all Heaven break loose when the parish bulletin doesn’t arrive? I rest my case.

I remember a casual comment made years ago by my Baptist/Methodist grandmother.

My grandmother said to me wryly, “You realize, of course, that Catholics took the idea of

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his Sunday is Palm Sunday. During Holy Week we will walk with Jesus from His triumphant entry into Jerusalem through His Passion. Easter Sunday, together as a community, we will celebrate His Resurrection. In essence, this week is a time to reflect upon where we have come with our Lord this Lenten journey and how we will rededicate ourselves to continuing our journey with Him. In “Tattoos on the Heart,” Father Gregory Boyle describes this as one discovering that Sacred space to which God has nudged us. This revelation is really twofold. Firstly, the recognition that God loves us just the way we are; secondly the finding a way to share that gift of God’s love with others. Father Boyle says, “God is compassionate, loving kindness. All we’re asked to do is to be in the world Who God is.”

Pope Francis reminds us how to recognize that Sacred space with his words, “Living Holy Week, following Jesus means learning to come out of ourselves in order to go to meet others, to go toward the outskirts of existence, to be the first to take a step toward our brothers and our sisters, especially those who are

Anchor Columnists No news is bad news

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printing a weekly parish bulletin carpeted floor. Shutting off the copier, I rushed to inform the from us Protestants.” Grandpastor, Father Bill Farland, of mother Goldrick was right. the catastrophe. He seemed to Before we “borrowed” the take it well, but, oddly, I was idea of the bulletin, Catholic transferred to another parish pastors would simply read short two weeks thereafter. I’m sure announcements at Sunday there was no connection.

Mass. I’ve found old examples In my second parish assignof these pastor’s notebooks in rectory attics throughout the diocese. They give a fascinating glimpse into The Ship’s Log parish life back in the Reflections of a day. Some pastors’ noteParish Priest books were handwritten and others were pecked

By Father Tim out on a typewriter. I Goldrick even remember typewriters. ment, I was again given the task In my first assignment as a of preparing the weekly bulletin. priest, my job was to type the One day the old copier went waxed template, make correcrogue. It sped out of control and tions with a blue liquid, attach began to shoot wet-ink bulletins the template to the drum of the all over the room. Some of the copy machine, and stand there bulletins stuck to the wallpaper. while the copier spit out bulWhen I peeled them off, I noletins. I was impressed at this ticed that the walls had been imadvanced technology. It was printed with that week’s parish much more sophisticated than bulletin, only in reverse. I rushed those old-fashioned mimeoto inform the pastor, Father Bill graph machines.

O’Rielly, of the catastrophe. He One Saturday morning, as I was happily going about my task seemed to take it well, but, oddly, I was transferred to another parprinting the bulletin, a problem ish two weeks thereafter. Wait a suddenly arose. Somehow the minute. I’m beginning to see a drum cracked. Blobs of thick black ink oozed onto the newly- pattern here.

Next week we begin a new and exciting bulletin adventure here in the parish. The text, photographs, and line drawings have been prepared on the parish computer and electronically transmitted to the printing company. The bulletins will be shipped to us in plenty of time for the weekend Masses (let’s hope).

A lot of time and energy went into designing the new and improved bulletin format. I’ve even added a motto: “St. Patrick Church — serving historic Falmouth Village since 1899.”

Although they are often maligned, bulletins remain important communication tools.

I like a simple, clean look. White space can enhance appeal. There is no need to paste cartoons in every blank area.

I also like bulletins that are fresh. Why run the same announcement for 10 weeks in a row and expect people to read it as news?

The same applies to the bulletin cover. A changing cover catches the eye. And nothing catches the eye better than full color. And why do we devote so much space on the bulletin

cover to a picture of the church building? Is the church the building or is it the worshipping community inside? Most people know what the building looks like anyway.

And what about the announcements themselves — do they present a welcoming and active faith-community that might appeal to those searching for a Church family to call their own? And do the weekly announcements indicate that the parish is supportive of other Catholic parishes in the area; of the ministerial efforts of other churches; of worthy civic efforts?

You can tell from the bulletin announcements when a particular parish is turned inward upon itself. A parish turned inward is a dying parish.

People bring me parish bulletins from churches around the country. I enjoy reading them. Sometimes I get great ideas from them. I’ve even been known to read Protestant bulletins.

Next week I turn a new page in publishing our parish bulletin.

I hope all goes well. I wouldn’t want another transfer.

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

the most distant, those who are way, this puts Artaban behind forgotten, those who are most in the other Magi as this kindness need of understanding, comfort costs him a jewel and forces him and help.” to travel alone. However, in anWho is a good example to other way, this is the beginning illustrate that whatever our past, of Artaban’s discovery of his own we can immediately choose to personal Sacred space with God. begin living in that Sacred space?

Artaban arrives in Bethlehem This week Joseph of Arimathea as the Holy Family leaves for comes to mind. He had been a Egypt. Artaban walks past, but secret disciple due to his fear of the consequences of acknowledging Jesus. Yet, Wrestling with God he experienced a change of Holding on for heart and then chose to live His blessing his life accordingly. At Jesus’ death, he openly went to Pilate demanding permisBy Dr. Helen Flavin sion to bury Jesus and he laid Jesus’ body in the new tomb ( Jn 19:38-42). does not recognize the Messiah.

For those of us beginning As he continues his quest, he is in self-reflection, a great way set upon by outcasts who steal to start or even continue with his last gift for the King. Artagrowth is by applying that proban negotiates the return of his cess to a fictional character and pearl for a day of using his talhis life. Thus, let us examine the ents as a physician to help them. movie “The Fourth Wise Man.” The outcasts spare his life and If you have not seen it, there is return the pearl. Artaban stays, a Youtube version of the movie not for one day, but for 30 years! at http://www.youtube.com/ He gradually becomes a member watch?v=EWbrrtRYr3Y. of their community.

The fictional fourth wise man An incident reminds Artaban is Artaban. He wishes to acof his original quest. Artaban company the three wise men to had tried his best to save the Bethlehem. However, he stops to sight of a little boy, but failed. help a man in the desert. In one Jesus of Nazareth restored sight

to the boy. Artaban is now sure that this Jesus is the Messiah. He brings his servant Orontes with him (as his brother) to Jerusalem. They walk in Jesus’ footsteps throughout His Passion. As Jesus is carrying His cross, Artaban knows he can rescue the Messiah by bribing the Romans with his remaining gem. As he rushes to do so, a woman calls his name. She had been kidnapped from his village. He gives his last pearl to ransom her. As she is rescued, Jesus dies on the cross. Artaban hangs his head in shame. He failed to bring his gems to the King.

Artaban never saw Jesus’ human face. Yet, at the end of his life, he immediately recognizes Jesus in the person speaking with him. Something had changed within Artaban so that he could now recognize the Lord. Jesus says, “For I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, a stranger and you welcomed Me, naked and you clothed Me, ill and you cared for Me” (Mt 25:31-40).

Artaban is stunned and confused. When did he do these things for the Messiah?

Artaban’s last words are, “The King has accepted all my gifts.” Ah, the physical gems were really a distraction.

His true gift was his entire life of compassionate kindness. Although this was given directly to those in need and to his brethren in the community that the movie calls “outcasts,” Artaban finally realizes that he did share those gifts with God. Artaban found and lived the Sacred place to which God had nudged him.

As we continue our Lenten journey to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, how to apply this to our lives? Pope Francis provides an answer in his challenge to each of us to “go out with Jesus to find the lost sheep!”

We might befriend a resident in a nursing home, or mentor a child (or young professional), or perhaps commit to being closer to a friend in need. As we do this, each of us will find, and then have our own Sacred space within which to share God’s love.

Anchor columnist Helen Flavin is a Catholic scientist, educator and writer born and raised in Fall River. She can be reached at hflavin@bishopconnolly.com.

Discovery of Sacred space

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April 11, 2014

Blessed John Paul brought moral force, intellect, flair to world stage VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Blessed John Paul II, who will be canonized April 27, was one of the most forceful moral leaders of the modern age.

He brought a philosopher’s intellect, a pilgrim’s spiritual intensity and an actor’s flair for the dramatic to his role as head of the Universal Church for more than 26 years.

The Polish pope was a tireless evangelizer and forceful communicator, speaking to millions in their own languages. But toward the end of his life, his powers of speech faltered with his worsening illness, which left him often unable to even murmur a blessing.

The first non-Italian pope in 455 years, Blessed John Paul became a spiritual protagonist in two global transitions: the fall of European communism, which began in his native Poland in 1989, and the passage to the third millennium of Christianity.

As pastor of the Universal Church, he jetted around the world, taking his message to 129 countries in 104 trips outside Italy — including seven to the United States.

Within the Church, the pope was just as vigorous and no less controversial. He disciplined dissenting theologians, excommunicated self-styled “traditionalists,” and upheld often unpopular Church positions like its opposition to artificial birth control. At the same time, he pushed Catholic social teaching into relatively new areas such as bioethics, international economics, racism and ecology.

In his later years, the pope moved with difficulty, tired easily and was less expressive, all symptoms of the nervous system disorder of Parkinson’s disease. Yet he pushed himself to the limits of his physical capabilities, convinced that such suffering was itself a form of spiritual leadership.

He led the Church through a heavy program of soul-searching events during the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, fulfilling a dream of his pontificate. His long-awaited pilgrimage to the Holy Land that year took him to the roots of the faith and dramatically illustrated the Church’s improved relations with Jews. He also presided over an unprecedented public apology for the sins of Christians during darker chapters of

Church history, such as the Inquisition and the Crusades.

His social justice encyclicals, including his landmark document, the apostolic letter “Novo Millennio Ineunte” (“At the Beginning of the New Millennium”), made a huge impact, addressing the moral dimensions of human labor, the widening gap between rich and poor and the shortcomings of the freemarket system. He called for a “new sense of mission’’ to bring Gospel values into every area of social and economic life. At the pope’s request, the Vatican published an exhaustive compendium of social teachings in 2004.

As a manager, he set directions but often left policy details to top aides. His reaction to the mushrooming clerical sex abuse scandal in the United States underscored his governing style: He suffered deeply, prayed at length and made brief but forceful statements emphasizing the gravity of such sins by priests. He convened a Vatican-U.S. summit to address the problem, but let his Vatican advisers and U.S. Church leaders work out the answers. In the end, he approved changes that made it easier to laicize abusive priests.

The pope approved a universal catechism as one remedy for doctrinal ambiguity. He also pushed Church positions further into the public forum. In the 1990s he urged the world’s bishops to step up their fight against abortion and euthanasia, saying the practices amounted to a modern-day “slaughter of the innocents.” His sharpened critique of these and other “anti-family” policies helped make him Time Magazine’s choice for Man of the Year in 1994.

The pope was a cautious ecumenist, insisting that real differences between religions and churches not be covered up. Yet he made several dramatic gestures, including: launching a Catholic-Orthodox theological dialogue in 1979; visiting a Rome synagogue in 1986; hosting world religious leaders at a “prayer summit” for peace in 1986; and traveling to Damascus, Syria, in 2001, where he became the first pontiff to visit a mosque.

To his own flock, he brought continual reminders that prayer and the Sacraments were crucial to being a good Christian.

He held up Mary as a model of holiness for the whole Church, updated the Rosary with five

new “Mysteries of Light” and named more than 450 new saints — more than all his predecessors combined.

The pope lived a deep spiritual life — something that was not easily translated by the media. Yet in earlier years, this pope seemed made for modern media, and his pontificate has been captured in some lasting images, like huddling in a prison-cell conversation with his would-be assassin, Mehmet Ali Agca, who shot the pope in St. Peter’s Square May 13, 1981.

Karol Jozef Wojtyla was born May 18, 1920, in Wadowice, a small town near Krakow, in southern Poland. He lost his mother at age nine, his only brother at age 12 and his father at age 20.

An accomplished actor in Krakow’s underground theater during the war, he changed paths and joined the clandestine seminary after being turned away from a Carmelite monastery with the advice: “You are destined for greater things.”

Following theological and philosophical studies in Rome, he returned to Poland for parish work in 1948, spending weekends on camping trips with young people. When named auxiliary bishop of Krakow in 1958 he was Poland’s youngest bishop, and he became archbishop of Krakow in 1964. He also came to the attention of the Universal Church through his work on important documents of the Second Vatican Council.

Though increasingly respected in Rome, Cardinal Wojtyla was a virtual unknown when elected pope Oct. 16, 1978. In St. Peter’s Square that night, he set his papal style in a heartfelt talk — delivered in fluent Italian, interrupted by loud cheers from the crowd.

After more than 26 years as pope, Blessed John Paul died at the age of 84 at the Vatican Apr. 2, 2005, the vigil of Divine Mercy Sunday.

Divine Mercy Sunday had special significance for Blessed John Paul, who made it a Church-wide feast day to be celebrated a week after Easter. He was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI on Divine Mercy Sunday, May 1, 2011, and will be canonized by Pope Francis on the same feast day, Apr. 27, 2014, together with Blessed John XXIII, the pope Blessed John Paul beatified in 2000.

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April 11, 2014

The surprising humor of Blessed John XXIII

By Father James Martin, S.J.

or silly. But as John XXIII and so many One night, in the late 1980s, during a of the saints show us, it is an essential retreat as a first-year Jesuit novice, I was requirement for a healthy Christian life.

Some of the denigration of humor poking around the retreat house library and laughter comes from a misunderwhen I should have been praying. standing of not only the saints (many of By chance, I stumbled upon an old, whom had well developed senses of hucracked, yellowing paperback called mor, contrary to the morose portraiture “Wit and Wisdom of Good Pope John,” we see in churches) but also of Jesus. written by a man named Henri Fesquet, in 1964. Inside was a compilation There are multiple signs of Jesus’ sense of some of the wittiest stories about of humor in the New Testament — even John XXIII, who died the year before though we can overlook them. Many of the book was published (Originally the the parables, for example, are no longer book came out in French). Reading the amusing to us because we don’t live in first-century Palestine and so we fail stories made me laugh out loud.

Even at that early stage of my Jesuit to “get them.” The late New Testament scholar Daniel J. Hartraining, I had already rington, S.J., told me heard John’s most fathat the original listenmous joke. When the ers would likely have pope was innocently found some of them asked by a journalist how “hilarious.” Theologimany people worked in cally, we also need to rethe Vatican, he deadmember that Jesus was panned, “About half of fully human, and part them.” of being fully human is But my favorite story having a sense of huin Fesquet’s delightful mor. Jesus laughed. So book was of John XXIII can we. So should we! visiting a hospital in A sense of humor Rome called the Hospiabout oneself also ental of the Holy Spirit, run ables one to maintain a by a group of Catholic healthy perspective on Sisters. As Fesquet tells life. St. John XXIII was the story, “The mother superior, deeply able to take God seriously, to take the stirred by the papal visit, went up to him Church seriously, but not to take himin order to introduce herself ”: self too seriously.

Humor, therefore, is a “Most Holy Father,” she said, “I am tool for humility.

The pope often used the superior of the Holy Spirit.” to recount what he would say to himself “Well, I must say you’re very lucky,” when concerns about the Church kept replied the pope. “I’m only the Vicar of him up at night.

As Fesquet reports: Christ.”

“Pope John confessed that he had It was that somewhat frivolous stosome difficulty in falling asleep on the ry that in an instant drew me to John night of the memorable day that he anXXIII. How wonderful to keep one’s nounced the convocation of the Second sense of humor, even while holding a Vatican Council.

He said that he talked position of such authority, when one to himself in this way: could easily have become distant, cold or “Giovanni, why don’t you sleep? Is it authoritarian. How wonderful to have a the pope or the Holy Spirit that governs sense of humor at all! A requirement of the Church? It’s the Holy Spirit, no? the Christian life, I believe.

Anyway, who couldn’t love a pope Well, then, go to sleep, Giovanni!” who had a sense of humor? Who couldn’t feel affection for a man who was so comfortable about himself that he constantly made jokes about his height (which was little), his ears (which were big), and his weight (which was considerable). When he once met a little boy named Angelo, he exclaimed, “That was my name, too!” And then, conspiratorially, “But then they made me change it!”

Believe it or not, it was this book — and the revelation that a saint could have such a sense of humor — that began my devotion to this great and holy man, who is now a saint.

The need for humor in the spiritual life is often underplayed in Catholic circles. Humor is often seen as irrelevant, frivolous

Father James Martin, S.J., is a Jesuit priest, editor at large at America Magazine, and author of “Between Heaven and Mirth: Why Joy, Humor and Laughter are at the Heart of the Spiritual Life.” His new book is “Jesus: A Pilgrimage.”

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April 11, 2014

For some, it’s a way of life

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or nearly seven weeks now, the Church has been encouraging us to prepare for the joyous celebration of Easter by performing acts of charity, penance and selflessness. Lent is a time of preparation and change, change for the better.

I realize that we are all sinners and are all in need of repentance, but I have to say, in fairness to a great many of you out there, you are already living Lenten lives every day of the year.

In my position here at The Anchor I get to see and hear a great

My View From the Stands

By Dave Jolivet many stories of diocesan Catholic faithful who live the Gospel in quiet, humble fashion.

You can watch Oprah and Ellen DeGeneres on daytime TV five times a week, as they surprise people in need with great gifts of great value. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but in my own cynical way, I question inwardly how much of that is for ratings, and how much of that comes from their own pockets.

Yet there are people in our own diocese, some of them our neighbors, who perform similar great acts without fanfare and whooping studio audiences.

All across the Islands, Cape Cod and Southeastern Massachusetts (it’s nice to switch around how those three areas are referenced once in a while), kind folks are giving of their time, treasures and talents to help those in need; and the time, treasures and talents come from within,

not from a major television network. Some of their stories appear in The Anchor. Most never will.

Lately I’ve met and have been in formation with the team for this weekend’s YES! Retreat starting today at Cathedral Camp.

These fine people are prime examples of folks who are living Lent every day of their lives.

Some are “seasoned” adults, some are young adults and some are teen-agers, yet there is one common bond that holds them together — Christ.

He is the source of their joie de vivre, and it’s not enough for them to know and feel the love God has for us, but they have to share that sensation.

Most of these people I’ve never met before, and I’ve spent a great deal of time watching — just watching them in action; how they interact and how they react. I do this partly because I want to get to know them better, but also because I’m intrigued and impressed by their faith. They love life and it rubs off.

I’ve no doubt that the aura of these fine folks will rub off on some 15-20 teens this weekend, culminating on Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week and the beginning of the end of Lent.

While some in the Church will complete their Lenten duties this week, there are countless more across the Diocese of Fall River who will continue their Lenten journeys for a lifetime.

For them it’s a way of life.

Dave Jolivet can be reached at davejolivet@anchornews.org.

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on WLNE Channel 6 Sunday, April 13, 11:00 a.m.

Celebrant is Msgr. Stephen J. Avila, pastor of St. Mary’s Parish in Mansfield.

Jennifer Connelly and Russell Crowe star in a scene from the movie “Noah.” For a brief review of this film, see CNS Movie Capsules below. (CNS photo/Paramount)

Service classification is A-II — adults and adolescents. ‘ “Cesar Chavez” (Lionsgate) Understated but valuable portrait of the famed labor leader and pacifist (Michael Pena) who, together with Dolores Huerta (Rosario Dawson), founded the union that would eventually be known as the United Farm Workers of America in 1962. In diNEW YORK (CNS) — The rector Diego Luna’s leisurely following are capsule reviews paced dramatization, Chavez of movies recently reviewed by struggles against the oppressive machinations of various farm Catholic News Service. owners (most significantly John “Captain America: The Malkovich). But his singleWinter Soldier” (Disney) The big guy with the red, minded dedication to achieving white, and blue shield returns to justice through nonviolence — save the planet in this rousing which, at one point, leads him follow-up to 2011’s “Captain to undertake a prolonged, lifeAmerica: The First Avenger,” threatening fast — exacts a toll and 2012’s “The Avengers.” The on his supportive wife (Ameridirector (Samuel L. Jackson) of ca Ferrera) and alienated eldest an international crime-fighting son (Eli Vargas). Together with bureau discovers the agency has the educational significance been compromised from with- of the film as a whole, believin. He turns to Captain Amer- ers will especially appreciate ica and his sidekicks, Black the fact that Chavez’s CathoWidow (Scarlett Johansson) lic faith is always in the backand Falcon (Anthony Mackie), ground and sometimes front to unravel the conspiracy that and center as this meditative threatens world peace and free- take on his story unfolds. Posdom. But first they must defeat sibly acceptable for older teens. the baddies, led by the Winter Some violence, racial slurs, a Soldier (Sebastian Stan), whom few uses of profanity, at least Captain America seems to have one rough term, occasional met before. This 3-D popcorn crude and crass language. The movie, directed by brothers Catholic News Service classifiAnthony and Joe Russo, is sure cation is A-III — adults. to please fans of the Marvel “The Grand Budapest Hotel” (Fox Searchlight) Comics superhero with its paWriter-director Wes Andertriotic, gung-ho tone and grandiose action sequences (which son’s triumph of smug artifice may be too intense for younger over substance and storytelling viewers). Screenwriters Chris- is likely to please his fans. But topher Markus and Stephen his saga of a European conMcFeely, who penned the first cierge (Ralph Fiennes) who Captain America script, expand dreams of lost grandeur, mentheir horizons with a smart tors a lobby boy (Tony Revoland timely story touching on ori) in all the fine points of national security, government elegant catering to guests, and surveillance and the price of romances his hotel’s aging fefreedom. Intense but largely male clientele, recounted like a bloodless violence, including fable, is without a moral or even gunplay. The Catholic News a clear ending. Implied, and be-

CNS Movie Capsules

nignly treated, nonmarital and premarital sexual encounters, fleeting upper female nudity, a smattering of rough and crass language. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III — adults.

“Noah” (Paramount) What begins as a fairly straightforward recounting of the Biblical story of the flood veers off into a grim, Scripturally unfounded drama about a family dispute driven by the titular patriarch’s (Russell Crowe) misguided interpretation of God’s purposes in causing the deluge. His extreme pro-nature, anti-human reading of the situation brings him into conflict with his wife, Naameh ( Jennifer Connelly), with his two older sons, Shem (Douglas Booth) and Ham (Logan Lerman), and with his adoptive daughter — and Shem’s destined bride — Ila (Emma Watson). Director and co-writer Darren Aronofsky serves up predictably impressive special effects, and convincingly portrays the wickedness from which the Earth is to be cleansed — a range of sinful tendencies embodied in the impious self-proclaimed “King” Tubal-Cain (Ray Winstone). But his script, written with Ari Handel, departs from its inspired source material in order to turn Noah, at least temporarily, into a religious fanatic who will stop at nothing to carry out the mission entrusted to him. Though it approaches its weighty themes with due seriousness, the film requires mature discernment and a solid grounding in the relevant, sometimes mysterious passages of the Old Testament.

Much stylized violence with minimal gore, an off-screen encounter that may be premarital, distant partial nudity, some mild sensuality. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III — adults.

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April 11, 2014

My Brother’s Keeper, Bishop Stang High School recognized for volunteer efforts

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

NORTH DARTMOUTH — Last fall, as he sat comfortably in his Westport home reading a front-page article in The Anchor, Dan Boucher was suddenly moved to do something to give back for all the blessings he’s received.

After reading about the Easton-based My Brother’s Keeper ministry opening a second location in nearby Dartmouth in the Oct. 11, 2013 issue of the diocesan newspaper, the recently retired Boucher called the very next day to offer his help.

And he’s been volunteering there ever since.

“When I saw the article, I realized this place was five minutes from my house,” Boucher said.

“I knew it was perfect for me. I come here two days a week and I told my wife it’s like being in my workshop all day. This is a great way to spend my time.”

Calling himself “the resident fix-it guy” of My Brother’s Keeper, Boucher proudly points to a new end table he just fashioned from discarded bedposts.

“I repair things and sometimes attempt to make something out of spare parts,” he said. “I’m a professional amateur wood-worker — a do-it-yourself guy.”

For Erich Miller, president of the My Brother’s Keeper apostolate, Boucher is a perfect example of how God works through people.

“When you send in a press release, there’s no guarantee that you’ll ever get coverage,” Miller told The Anchor. “But this was better coverage than we could ever have hoped for and it really inspired a lot of people like Dan who makes an enormous, tangible contribution to My Brother’s Keeper.

“We think our success has happened because God has put some wonderful people in this ministry’s life. People are gifts from God.” Founded more than 25 years ago by Jim and Terry Orcutt, who modestly began the charitable work in the cellar of their Taunton home back in 1988, My Brother’s Keeper soon expanded to a facility located adjacent to Stonehill College and Holy Cross Family Ministries in Easton.

The ministry’s mission, inspired by Christ’s Words in Matthew 5:15, is simple: “To bring the love and hope of Jesus Christ to those we serve” by delivering furniture, free-of-charge, to lo-

cal families in need, regardless of religion.

“We are a Christian ministry of service and education,” Miller explained. “We’re serving families who are hurting in a really meaningful way. A secondary goal of ours is to use as many people as we can in the process — to give them an opportunity to live out their faith and live out Christ’s call to be present to our more humble brothers and sisters … and we have a strong emphasis on student volunteering.”

To that end, the unique collaboration between Bishop Stang High School and My Brother’s Keeper (that has developed since the ministry’s second facility in Dartmouth opened last fall) recently earned the school a Top 10 Service Project Award from the Massachusetts Association of Student Councils during its recent spring conference in Hyannis.

MASC commended the fact that 120 Stang students — more than 15 percent of the entire student body — have contributed in excess of 500 hours of community service at My Brother’s Keeper during the current academic year, thereby serving hundreds of area families in need.

“By and large what students are doing is going on the road, accompanying our staff to make deliveries,” Miller said. “They’re going right into the homes of the people we serve. That’s what we find is most powerful for these students: to meet the people that we serve.”

As a Christian ministry, a symbol of Christ accompanies all deliveries. With each furniture delivery My Brother’s Keeper offers a wooden crucifix with the message, “We’re just the delivery people … this is the Man Who sent you the furniture.” Families receiving help are free to accept or decline the cross and people of all faiths are eligible to receive the charity’s help.

“For us, when we deliver this crucifix at the end, that’s what transforms it from a humanitarian experience into a Sacred experience,” Miller said. “When you introduce Christ into the center of it, it’s a very powerful experience for these kids. We always invite our student volunteers to give the crucifix to the family.”

For Owen Leary, student council treasurer at Bishop Stang High School and a volunteer at My Brother’s Keeper, his first delivery was an experience he won’t soon forget.

“The first day I volunteered we went to a woman who had been

sleeping on her floor for about a month-and-a-half, which was shocking to me,” Leary said.

“At the end of the delivery, we gave her a cross and she broke down crying because she was so thankful. We all left by giving her and her kids hugs. After that I couldn’t think of anything I wanted to do more than to get other students to come have this same experience.”

Leary, a senior at Bishop Stang and native of Tiverton, R.I., now helps coordinate student volunteers by managing an internal Facebook page where his fellow students can sign up to volunteer at the Dartmouth facility.

Miller maintains that this special collaboration with Bishop Stang High School through its Faith In Action Together service program has helped My Brother’s Keeper “exceed every expectation that we’ve had” for the Dartmouth location.

“If you had told me a yearand-a-half ago that we’d be able to accomplish this in six months’ time, I would have told you that you were crazy,” he said.

“The first six months of operation have shattered our delivery forecast, in large part due to the amazing support we have received from the Bishop Stang community,” agreed Josh Smith, director of the Dartmouth facility. “More than 800 children and parents are sleeping in warm beds and eating dinner together around a kitchen table thanks to these generous, dedicated students.”

While the entire ministry surpassed a milestone 100,000th delivery mark this past Christmas, between the two facilities in Easton and Dartmouth Miller estimated that My Brother’s Keeper now averages about 8,000 deliveries a year.

“The level of need that we’ve seen in this area has been tremendous,” Miller said. “One of the deliveries we made earlier this week was to a woman — she was probably in her 50s — and she hadn’t had her own bed for 17 years. To me, that’s unfathomable that someone could go that long without such a basic, essential item of life. It’s been eyeopening, even for us.

“I don’t have hard numbers, because we don’t take income information, but I’d say the majority of the people we serve are working — some have two jobs — but they just can’t make ends meet.”

While the 25-year-old Easton location offers additional ser-

Dan Boucher, a retired handyman, volunteers a couple of days a week to repair and refurbish donated furniture items that will later be distributed to needy families through My Brother’s Keeper in Dartmouth.

Boucher read about My Brother’s Keeper in The Anchor and offered to volunteer his services the next day. (Photo by Kenneth J. Souza)

vices such as food deliveries and Christmas gifts, the Dartmouth site remains focused on providing furniture to those in need, concentrating on “all the basics someone would need to start an apartment or a home: beds, dressers, kitchen tables and chairs, living room furniture, dishes, sheets, pots and pans, all those types of things,” Miller said.

Most of the items come from residential donations, which My Brother’s Keeper will gladly pick up, as no drop-offs are allowed at either location. All donations are tax-deductible and no donated items are ever sold.

“We’re happy to come out and inspect the items and those things that we can accept and put to good use, we’re happy to take, and we politely pass on those things that we can’t put to good use,” Miller said. “It doesn’t have to be new, but ‘presentable’ is the word we like to use, understanding we’re doing more than providing physical items, we’re trying to lift people up in Christ’s name and make them feel special.”

With just three full-time staff members working at the 9,000-square-foot leased Dartmouth facility, My Brother’s Keeper relies on volunteers to make the daily furniture pickups and deliveries.

“We certainly have a good partnership with Bishop Stang High School, but we also have volunteer students from Bishop Connolly High School, UMass Dartmouth, Bridgewater State University, Portsmouth Abbey, Barrington Christian Academy,

and Providence College,” Miller said. “We have student volunteers, but we’d love to have volunteers of all ages — from 22 to 80-plus — coming in to help us out.”

Volunteer opportunities range from administrative and clerical work to sorting donations, packing household items for delivery, carpentry and repair work, to cooking meals for volunteers.

“One of the misperceptions people have is that you have to be able to lift heavy items to volunteer, but there are opportunities for everybody to serve,” Miller said.

Hanging just inside the entrance to the Dartmouth facility are two small bookshelves that serve as a reminder of the simple, humble beginnings of My Brother’s Keeper. They are two of the shelves from the Orcutt’s Taunton home from which they began collecting and distributing items more than a quartercentury ago.

“We always compare My Brother’s Keeper to the parable of the mustard seed,” Miller said, smiling. “What starts as the smallest of seeds grows into the largest of trees and gives haven to the birds of the air — we’re very similar, although we’re not giving haven to the birds of the air, rather comfort to families in need. From just two people we’ve grown into a ministry with about 3,000 volunteers a year that walk through our doors.”

To donate, volunteer or learn more about My Brother’s Keeper, visit www.MyBrothersKeeper. org or call 774-305-4577.

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April 11, 2014

Guatemalan human rights defender speaks in diocese continued from page one

stops in the Fall River Diocese on the second day of an east coast tour, Gudiel — who would later be speaking at the Centro Comunitario de Trabajadores in New Bedford — spoke in Spanish and her words were then translated into English by Kathryn Johnson, assistant director of the Guatemalan Human Rights Commission, who was traveling with her.

Gudiel’s brother, José Miguel, disappeared in 1983 at the hands of Guatemalan state forces. He appears in the infamous “Military Diary,” in which armed forces documented the capture, torture and murder of 183 people considered to be linked to anti-government activity.

Her family brought her brother’s case to the InterAmerican Commission in 2004, and just days later, her father was murdered. The government never carried out an adequate investigation into the crime, and on Feb. 5, 2014, Makrina testified before the Inter-American Court about the case.

As the daughter of a Catholic catechist and human rights defender, Gudiel said it is important to talk about her Catholic faith.

“My father was a Catholic catechist, but he also was a citizen who was concerned about what was going on in his country,” she said.

“This combination of someone who practices his faith, who brought the message of Christ, and also being a Guatemalan citizen, my father raised me to know that I had rights and obligations — and he raised me to question the reality of my country.”

That “reality,” according to Gudiel, is that in a country of some 14 million people, most live in abject poverty while a handful of rich and powerful families rule over them while denying them their basic human rights.

“Growing up and seeing my father give these talks denouncing the great violations of human rights by the government in Guatemala, at 15 years old I started to defend my own rights as a woman in a society that was very much in violation,” Gudiel said.

“Many families — farmers, peasants, workers, students, intellectuals — started to question: if we were in such a

rich country, why were there so many people around us who were poor?”

As the population began to question and challenge those in power, Gudiel said it created conflict between the government and society.

“In order to quiet the voices of hundreds of Guatemalans, they started to watch us closely and then to detain us — to forcibly intimidate us, and to torture us,” she said.

“And then if we were lucky, our bodies would appear in the streets.”

From 1980 to 1983, Gudiel said her family was relentlessly persecuted for speaking out against the Guatemalan government. There was an assassination attempt against her father, then an attempt to kidnap her brother, José Miguel, and ultimately an assassination attempt was made on her.

Fearing for their lives, her family was forced to take refuge in Mexico, while Gudiel went on to seek asylum in the United States.

“Unfortunately, my brother, José, didn’t have the same luck,” she said. “We left the country on Sept. 26, 1983.

My brother had intended to meet us at the border of Mexico. But he didn’t. We found out later that he was detained and kidnapped by the armed forces of Guatemala and he was killed on Sept. 21, 1983.”

In the early 1980s, according to Gudiel, this was par for the course in Guatemala.

More than 45,000 people were detained and an estimated 200,000 were killed, forcing more than one million Guatemalans to flee to Mexico, Canada, and the U.S. to avoid the government’s wrath.

“My family had the opportunity, with the help of a solidarity movement, to take refuge in Mexico,” she said.

“In my case, I went with the father of my child — at the time my son was five months old — through Mexico to the state of New York. And this was made possible by the solidarity movement in North America. I came to New York as a political refugee.”

Being her father’s daughter, Gudiel was not content to let the crimes against her native Guatemalans go unnoticed.

“The promise I made in

the truth of what happened and work for justice.”

Gudiel said she wanted coming to the United States to seek justice for her slain was to denounce what was brother. going on in my country and “Just like Jesus said (in the talk about the human rights Gospel), we asked, ‘Why? Did violations there,” she said. my brother commit a crime?’

“I especially wanted to de- And if he did commit a crime, nounce those policies from why wasn’t he brought before other countries, combined the courts?” she said. with the policies in GuateGuatemala did enjoy a mala, that were creating hu- brief period of peace, culmiman rights violations.” nating in the first-ever demoBetween 1987 and 1990, cratic elections held in 2003 Gudiel said there was an “in- during which “an elected ternal and external struggle” party governed” the country, in Guatemala.

Gudiel said.

“Internally, there was a civ“I came from a municipalil war going on,” she said. “It ity of about 160,000 people, was a civil war that was just and women started to have and necessary, because those power and the community civil rights that were en- started to organize,” she said. shrined in the universal dec- “Laws were passed against solaration of human rights such cial discrimination and there as the freedom of expression was a true participation on and the freedom of associa- the part of the people. We tion didn’t exist. So a large had better health care, we had part of the population — better education, and as a reworkers, peasants, intellectu- sult of all this, the traditional als — decided to take up arms powers of Guatemala were and fight against the system. upset.”

At the same time, there were But it didn’t take long for people outside the country, the old regime to rear its ugly those who were refugees, who head. were building solidarity with “We started to see a new Guatemala.” time period of threats, a new With pressure from within time period of assassinations, and without, the Guatemalan and on Dec. 20, 2004 my fagovernment was forced to be- ther was assassinated and gin what would become a 10- my family, once again, was year process of negotiations threatened and persecuted by that led to the signing of a armed men,” Gudiel said. peace accord in 1996.

Lisa Maya Knauer, asso“As Christians of con- ciate professor of sociology/ science, we decided to re- anthropology at UMass Dartturn to Guatemala one year mouth, said Gudiel’s story later,” Gudiel said. “We made “gives us another context to a promise with the state to understand our community a comply with the peace accord. little bit more.”

We knew that just the signing “Understanding what hapof the peace accords wouldn’t pens in Guatemala helps us bring true peace. We knew we to understand something would have to work to know about Guatemalans and oth-

This week in

er immigrants in the United States,” Knauer said. “Most of us have come from some place else. Many of our relatives came here under similar circumstances.”

Recalling the controversial 2007 raid by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials on a south end manufacturing plant in New Bedford, during which more than 300 illegal immigrants were arrested, detained and, in many cases, deported from the country, Knauer said she learned that many of those people had come here as refugees from the Guatemalan civil war.

“They came from communities where the army or special forces in Guatemala during the 1980s, in particular, had come and massacred entire populations and burned villages to the ground,” she said.

Despite having lost her brother and father to the conflict, Gudiel remains committed to working for social justice in Guatemala. Like Christ, she is living out the precept of “turning the other cheek.”

“I’m here to ask all of you for your solidarity, for your help and your assistance in continuing to defend human rights in Guatemala,” Gudiel told the group. “We are on this tour trying to call attention to what’s going on and to ask for international solidarity (with Guatemala).

“I believe that there’s only one way to stop these atrocities from happening in Guatemala — we have to fight for it. And it will be less painful and less damaging if all of you stand in solidarity with us.”

Diocesan history

50 years ago — Bishop James L. Connolly ordained six La Salette missionaries to the priesthood during a Mass celebrated at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Fall River. The priests would serve as Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette for the diocese.

10 years ago — High school students from four Fall River parishes participated in the annual World Vision 30-Hour Famine. The students were from the parishes of St. Anne’s, St. Mary’s Cathedral, St. Stanislaus, and SS. Peter and Paul at Holy Cross Church.

25 years ago — The Drama Club at Coyle and Cassidy High School in Taunton presented “The Fifth Sun,” a play about assassinated El Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar A. Romero.

One year ago — During the spring 40 Days for Life, the witness of vigilers in Attleboro led to a new life being spared. A couple exiting the abortion clinic confirmed the save with those praying across the street.

15

April 11, 2014

Earlier this year and after 20 years at the helm of the Remarriage Prep Program in the Fall River Diocese, Ron and Mary Dupuis handed over the leadership role to Deacon Gary Porter and his wife Elizabeth; left to right, Ron and Mary Dupuis and Elizabeth and Deacon Gary Porter.

Remarriage Prep Program changes leadership continued from page one

cuss the need for a remarriage prep-type program in the diocese, and when they saw an announcement in their parish bulletin from the Office of Family Ministry looking for couples to be part of the Marriage Prep Program, the meeting with the program’s coordinators led to the discovery that the coordinators had been looking for a remarried couple to launch a Remarriage Prep Program in the diocese.

Officially started in 1994, Ron and Mary worked with the Office of Family Ministry on a Remarriage Prep Program that “at the time was run similarly to the Marriage Prep program,” said Mary.

The Remarriage Prep would host dozens of couples during a weekend, said Ron; “We’d give eight different talks and the subjects we were giving these people, we felt were very important for them to hear,” said Ron, and he said he could see that the couples were connecting with what they were hearing. “They knew what to do to keep everything stronger, keeping God in the center of everything. That is essential.”

By holding separate prep programs for couples being married for the first time from those who have already been married is important to holding true to the Sacrament of Marriage, said Ron. An annulment of the first Marriage is needed to have the Marriage blessed in a church, and

having first-timers see couples preparing for a second Marriage may “send the wrong message,” said Ron, “because couples may think that if their Marriage doesn’t work out, then we can get remarried in a Catholic Church.”

Everyone heads into his or her Marriage with the best of intentions, but not everything one hears about the Church’s stance on remarriage is always true, said Mary, and that’s another bonus of having a Remarriage Prep ministry; “People sometimes do have bad information about annulments, where you stand in the Church and how the Church feels about you,” she said. “We want people to know you are welcome and you’re a part of the Church; you’ve done nothing wrong.”

Ten years into their leadership roles of the Remarriage Prep Program, the couple decided to change the format; “A lot of the couples wanted to interact with us, one-on-one and there was no time for that because of time constraints,” said Ron. Now couples meet oneon-one with either Ron and Mary, or another team couple who are part of the Remarriage Prep Program, in the privacy of someone’s home.

The new format has allowed couples to be more open with their discussions, and Ron said he still gets a kick out of hearing each couple say they already know everything there

is to know about each other; ‘I always tell them, I will tell you right now, by the end of this program you will have discovered something new about each other.’”

One important tool used in the Remarriage Prep is the “Inventory,” a list of questions that show the strengths and weaknesses of the impending Marriage; “It’s a jumping off point,” said Mary, and if the discussions become too personal, “we tell them to take it home or take it to their priest.

It’s a lot of seed planting and getting it started; you just hope they’ll continue these discussions throughout the Marriage.”

Each couple is unique and brings his or her own personal history to the Marriage; often the couple is older and fully immersed in his or her career; finances could be an issue with financial obligations still needing to be met through the first Marriage, like alimony or child support; and children from the first Marriage are always an important factor.

“One thing we find, they all say we’ve talked about everything and know everything about each other; then they do the Inventory,” said Mary, and discover new things to discuss. “It just highlights that you may not be talking about everything, you may not have thought about everything. It can open up a lot of areas for discussion.”

Now 20 years after they

started, Ron and Mary are taking a step back and while they plan to stay involved as a team couple in the Remarriage Prep program, they are passing on the leadership role to Deacon Gary Porter and his wife Elizabeth, who coincidentally found themselves following the same serendipitous path that Ron and Mary followed 20 years earlier.

Looking to get more involved in Marriage Prep after their youngest son graduated from high school in 2012, the Porters answered an announcement seen in The Anchor looking for couples to be a Marriage Prep team. Upon having lunch with Claire McManus, director of the diocesan Faith Formation Office under which all Marriage Prep programs are now run, the Porters learned that Ron and Mary were interested in giving up their leadership role; “As we were talking, [Claire] realized there was a remarriage in our past,” recalled Elizabeth. “They were looking for somebody to take over and with our background, and Gary to be ordained, she thought it would be a good match.”

“We sat at the table and listened to what Claire was saying, looked at each other [and thought], that sort of fits,” recalled Gary, who was ordained a deacon last year and is assigned to St. Mary’s Parish in Mansfield.

Gary and Elizabeth can relate to what each couple is experiencing; “This isn’t a young couple right out college or high school,” said Gary. “For me, it’s a lot different because you’re going into this with completely different baggage.

A younger couple may have issues with mom or dad; the older couple brings issues from their last Marriage. We do it very differently than Marriage Prep — this is oneon-one.”

“Each couple has been so different,” Gary continued.

“The thing we try and do is get them to talk to each other.

It’s going to be their Marriage and they really need to come to a consensus. You can’t recommend a cookie-cutter [solution] for every situation. We definitely stress communication, it’s so critical.”

Wives were always invited to attend any of the classes that deacons were offered, and Elizabeth always felt drawn to the Marriage classes; “It was one of the first classes I regularly attended,” she said. “It’s something that’s always been near and dear to our hearts.

Marriage is really the cornerstone for society.”

Mary acknowledged that “no one can keep doing something for 20 years and have it be fresh,” and she said that having the Porters take over in the leadership role “may put a fresh spin on it with new materials.”

And while Ron and his wife may no longer be the leaders, just because they are assuming the role of a team couple doesn’t mean the Porters will be on their own; “We’re not going anywhere; if they need us, we’re here,” said Ron, adding the Porters have already met with couples and are actively reaching out to get more team couples involved in Remarriage Prep. “They’re going to do alright. They’re really hitting the pavement and running with it.”

16

Youth Pages

April 11, 2014

Students at St. Margaret Regional School in Buzzards Bay recently took part in a Pi Day activity. They measured circumferences and diameters of cylindrical objects and learned that circumference is about three times diameter or pi.

Faculty, staff and students at St. James-St. John School in New Bedford participated in Super Hero and Fairy Tale Day to benefit Pennies for Patients.

Recently Dennis Polselli visited the kindergarten through third-grade students at Espirito Santo School in Fall River. Polselli, who was born blind, came to take part in a question-and-answer session with the students about blindness. He came as a follow-up to a presentation by the Kids on the Block which focused on the disability of blindness.

Pre-school and kindergarten students at St. Joseph School in Fairhaven received valuable information on the importance of dental hygiene and the prevention of tooth decay as part of the Dental Awareness Program. The presentation was given by Janet Benoit, R.D.H., the Community Outreach Program Director of Dr. Fraone’s Pediatric Dentistry located in North Dartmouth.

Eighth-grade students from St. Stanislaus School in Fall River, Robert Coady, Gregory Pearson, Mary Jane Gelinas, and Talya Torres, gave a presentation to teachers at the recent Project-Based Learning Conference held at Providence College. The students spoke about a unit they had completed in which they used research, writing and public-speaking skills, culminating in a debate about the moral implications of time travel. The invitation for the students to speak at the conference was in recognition of the excellence in instruction of their English teacher, Andrea Perry.

Sixth-grade students at St. Michael School in Fall River recently created working flashlights from recycled raw materials as part of an activity from a unit on electricity.

April 11, 2014

Youth Pages Sharing our stories

A

Twenty-two ninth-grade students from the Religious Education program at Holy Trinity Parish in West Harwich attended the recent Youth Convention at Bishop Stang High School in North Dartmouth.

The event not only allowed the students to meet other students in their diocese and Catholic faith, but it was a great day of fun and learning, this year about the seven Corporal Works of Mercy and how to put as many of them into play in their own lives as possible and help others. This year the Holy Trinity Confirmation students served at breakfasts and luncheons at the church for families, brought Raggedy Ann dolls to the dementia care unit at Liberty Commons in Chatham, brought food and serenaded the residents of Pine Oaks Village in Harwich at Christmas time, and will be bringing bread on Good Friday to those who have lost a loved one this year in the parish.

Attendees of the recent Youth Convention at Bishop Stang High School in North Dartmouth take part in an activity during the busy day.

Bishop Stang High School in North Dartmouth announced it had three teams that competed and one that took fifth (out of 47 teams) in the Junior Achievement of Southern Massachusetts’ inaugural Titan Challenge. The challenge was held at UMass Dartmouth along with local business executives and partners helping to facilitate and coach each of the teams. Students came from high schools throughout Plymouth and Bristol counties for the day-long simulated business event. The three rounds of online and computer-based simulations, directed the students to develop plans for a fictional product for a fictional company. Along with Bishop Stang’s fifth place win, it also had a team place 19th and 30th. Pictured are, back row, from left: Ben Leseault, Matt Clarendon, Nick Piva, and Brett Chouinard.

Front: Savannah Ponte, Shannon Faris, Shauna Weckesser, Marc Rice, and Ben Chiron.

s some of you read this, 20 of your teen peers and seven adults are living the YES! Retreat at Cathedral Camp in East Freetown. A YES! Retreat at this time of the year is a wonderful experience as the weather is often changing enough that we get some warmer, sunnier days.

It is also Lent leading into Holy Week and that gives us all an opportunity to consider where we are in our relationship with God and with others. “Springtime” in the relationship with our God and others is what the YES! Retreat is all about.

During the three days of the retreat, members of the team share, what we call, our YES! stories. The purpose of these YES! stories is to help the teen candidates recognize that we all have highs and lows in our relationships with God and with each other, but that with the grace of God and the support of each other, we can say YES! to all that God calls us to be and do. In saying YES! we are then called to bring our God to others through our actions and our words.

As I write this article, I am in the process of reading these YES! stories that the team will share on the weekend.

These are very personal stories of life, faith, perseverance and love that will help frame the discussions on the weekend.

During the team preparation for YES! the directors assign these talks to the team. While the content of the talks is structured content, what the team members bring to the talks with their personal witness is what makes the talk the talk. I believe very strongly that the directors have very little to do with the actual choice of who gives what talk. I believe that the Holy Spirit influences the directors in a way that the right talk always seems to go to the right person. In the 29 YES! Retreats, I can’t recall a time when the person given a talk to do wasn’t the right person to give the talk.

When the talks were assigned last month, I recall watching the team as they anticipated which talk they would receive. I’ve been in

that situation many times as many of you may have. I remember sitting at many a team meeting praying that I not get a particular talk and sure as day, that’s always the talk I got. Sometimes I even tried to trick God by praying to get the talk I didn’t want — sort of a spiritual reverse

Be Not Afraid

By Deacon Frank Lucca

psychology — but that never worked either. I soon learned to just shut up and wait.

As we assigned the talks, a few of the team gave slight groans and we learned later that they had received the very talk that they didn’t want to give. What a surprise! God does have a sense of humor. It seems that when we receive a talk that we don’t want, it is and should be an opportunity for personal growth as we sometimes have to dig very deeply into ourselves to be able to share a difficult time in our lives. This can be very painful. Sometimes we would rather not confront these issues or demons in our lives and we surely don’t want to share them with 30 other people! But with prayer and support we are able to tackle this and more often than not, we are able to share that in a very powerful way with the team and candidates on the weekend.

As I read these talks I am astounded at what many of the team has been through.

My life looks like a walk in the park compared to what many of them have been through. My faith has never been tested as seriously as theirs has. I am encouraged and grateful, however, that they have been able to turn to God and to others and have been able to grow in faith and love and have survived! I am so grateful that God has been there in their lives and has helped them get through these difficult times. I am even more grateful that they are willing to share their story with the candidates! It is in that sharing many of the candi-

17

dates will be deeply touched.

Many candidates will feel that that particular talk is directed especially toward them.

In the end I believe and have experienced the fact that every word and action on a particular weekend is said or done for the benefit of someone else on the weekend. And sometimes what we say or do turns out to be for ourselves. I believe that the Holy Spirit is there on the weekend, stirring things up and settling things down.

As we complete this Lenten journey, perhaps we can take some time to look deeply into ourselves to confront those things that keep us from seeing God clearly. Perhaps we can attempt to write the YES! stories on our heart that we really don’t want to look at or tell. I encourage you to search out and turn to others in faith to get the support that we all need to get through life. You don’t need to be on a retreat to get support. Turn to your parents, teachers, youth ministers, clergy and other adults.

Realize that there is nothing that God and you together can’t get through.

I know that I will have the awesome privilege of spending three days with 30 people this weekend. I know that we will all grow in faith. I know that we will experience a little bit of Heaven where we will experience the unconditional love of our God and each other. I also know that on Monday, we will all be back in our very difficult world albeit better-equipped to make it through — thanks to the sharing of each other’s YES! stories.

Anchor columnist Frank Lucca is a permanent deacon in the Diocese of Fall River, a youth minister at St. Dominic’s Parish in Swansea, and a campus minister at UMass Dartmouth. He is married to his wife of 35 years, Kristine, and a father of two daughters and a son-in-law and a f ive week old grandson! God is so good! Comments, ideas or suggestions? Please email him at DeaconFrankLucca@ comcast.net.

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April 11, 2014

Diocese hires first lay Finance Officer/Chancellor continued from page one

wife Karen have two daughters.

Kawa attended Coyle and Cassidy High School in Taunton and graduated summa cum laude from Bryant College. A certified public accountant, he worked in a major accounting firm and was financial controller for a number of companies.

He has been on the Diocesan Financial Council for the past 13 years.

“I’m pleased that Paul is a native of the diocese and has been involved with the council for all these years,” said Father McManus. “He’s aware of the happenings in the diocese and extremely bright. He’s going to be a great asset and this is a happy development for the diocese.”

Among Kawa’s responsibilities will be overseeing all legal matters involving parishes, schools and diocesan offices; all insurance matters; monitoring the finances of the diocesan parishes; being involved with constructions and renovations; land and property sales and purchases; and overseeing the diocesan Development Office.

As Chancellor, his duty is as chief record keeper, working closely with the diocesan archives, maintaining important documents.

“Father McManus has done a remarkable job keeping things in order, and I have so much to learn from him in a short period of time,” Kawa told The Anchor.

“I think of how much of the di-

ocesan life and responsibilities flow from this office, and I see how Father McManus has excelled at it.

“I’m sure I will have ideas about how things should be done, but the people in this building are a team, and I will rely heavily on their experience, knowledge and expertise. Everything I do will be a collaboration with these great people.

They have priceless institutional knowledge here.”

Father McManus told The Anchor that after nearly 30 years as Finance Officer and Chancellor, “I’m looking forward to working as a parish priest, something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.”

Bishop Cronin appointed Father McManus as Vice Chancellor to work in the Finance Office just 11 months after the young priest was ordained. “I asked Bishop Cronin not to reappoint me when the five-year period expired, but he asked me to stay on,” explained Father McManus.

Bishops O’Malley and Coleman kept Father McManus on board in their administrations, but Father McManus’ desire was still to be a parish priest. “They knew it was a sacrifice for me,” said Father McManus, “but I would accept whatever assignment they thought necessary.”

He went on to say that each of the bishops he worked with “had different gifts and talents, and all were very supportive of

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the work I did.”

Through the years Father McManus watched several diocesan offices grow in staff and responsibilities, so much so that more space was needed to house the employees, resulting in the moving of the old chancery building to a nearby location on the Highland Avenue lot and an expansion of that building. “The way the reconstruction took place, we have the availability to expand it even more should the need ever arise,” he added.

Father McManus said there were many challenges the diocese faced through the years, “but the last six years, the entire Church in the United States faced some major financial difficulties. Thankfully, the Fall River Diocese has remained strong and with Paul as a former Financial Council member, we feel confident that we are positioned to handle problems should they arise.”

When he was in seminary and first ordained, Father McManus never envisioned himself in the role he’s had for the last 28 years. “It’s been difficult not to be a parish priest,” he said. “It was not easy at times. And I felt badly that even when I was pastor at St. Ann’s in Raynham from 2000 to 2012, I couldn’t give all that I wanted to as pastor.”

Father McManus said that he does look forward to getting back to his roots; why he wanted to become a priest — to work with and minister to the area faithful. Without the responsibilities he’s had for the last 28 years, he can give it his all.

In a letter sent to all priests of the diocese informing them of the change, Bishop Coleman said of Father McManus, “During these years of service at the Chancery, I know that he would have preferred to be full-time in parish ministry and in fact made that request to me more than once; but I and my two predecessors asked that he serve the diocese as Finance Officer. I would like to express my deep appreciation to Father McManus for his dedicated work on behalf of the diocese and for the valuable assistance he has offered to me.”

Father McManus was quick to express his thanks to the people he’s worked with over the years. “I’ve been blessed to work with the people I work with here,” he added. “These are great, Church-oriented, hard-working people. The staff here is absolutely great, and I’ve been fortunate to work with them.”

Diocesan faithful prepare for Holy Week continued from page one

of St. Mary of the Assumption on Holy Tuesday, holding Tenebrae Prayer Services on Holy Wednesday, celebrating the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday, and reflecting on the Liturgy of Our Lord’s Passion on Good Friday.

Father Marc F. Fallon, CSC, serves as Catholic Social Services advocate for the local Hispanic community and is resident priest at St. Mary’s Parish in Taunton. His strongest memory of Holy Week takes him back to his first pastoral assignment where he served as deacon at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in Brooklyn, a parish with a large Hispanic population. At the time the pastor and associate pastor had been just recently assigned there.

“The Monday morning after Palm Sunday a couple of parishioners showed up and were standing next to our kitchen table,” he recalled. “They told us their tradition for Holy Week was to invite Jewish people over there for a Seder, and we told them they would have to tell us what to do.”

He remembers the very small plastic bag with matzo, bitter herbs and the piece of lamb.

“It was a new experience for us as Catholics to go back to our Jewish heritage,” he said.

Having served the Hispanic community for most of his priesthood, Father Fallon said that Latin Americans strongly identify with the crucified Christ.

“Their parents and family members lived through the civil wars, and they tell their stories,” he said. “That says a lot about their experiences and their faith. Their identification with something that happened 2,000 years ago is immediate and very close and real. They have all crossed that desert.”

Known as the Triduum, the three Sacred days of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday make up the second part of Holy Week and immediately precede Easter.

Father Kevin J. Harrington, pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in New Bedford, recalled one of his earliest recollections as a child, walking from church to church on Holy Thursday night, an experience that preordained his vocation.

“I never knew how much the Eucharist meant to people until I saw how intensely the people

were praying,” he said. “I wondered what they were thinking?

I wondered how could they be so quiet? I wondered how could they be so still? My parish was St. Lawrence and along the way was St. Francis of Assisi where I am now. It’s hard not to stop and wonder.”

Ordained five months ago, Deacon Paul Levesque was assigned by Bishop George W. Coleman to his home parish of St. Bernard’s in Assonet.

“I am serving as a deacon for the first time this Lent and the upcoming Holy Week and Easter,” he said. “We have had many opportunities this Lent for prayer, Penance and conversion, including daily Mass, adoration and the Stations of the Cross.”

He added that he looks forward to the Tenebrae Service and the summit of the Church year, the Triduum and Easter Sunday.

“Experiencing and serving at these is very exciting,” he said.

“They have allowed me to grow in my faith and to have the opportunity, along with Father Mike Racine, to serve our parishioners and prepare them, as well as ourselves, to fully enter into the Paschal Mystery.”

“Holy Week really energizes me because it’s the heart of our Christian journey of faith,” said Father Racine. “It’s weird, but in my almost 19 years of priesthood, I have celebrated the Easter Vigil more than any of the three days of the Triduum.

In my two assignments as parochial vicar at Notre Dame in Fall River and St. Mary’s in Dartmouth, both my pastors — Father Richard Beaulieu and Father Terence Keenan — always took Holy Thursday and Good Friday; and I was given the Easter Vigil. They always joked that they could sit back and let the young guy do the work, especially if the Paschal candle was a very large and heavy one.”

Father Racine added that Holy Week is also a special time for the catechumens, who will be received into the Church at the Vigil.

“We have 10 this year, and they range in age from 11 to 44,” he said. “Five will receive all three Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist; and five will be received fully into the Church through Confirmation and Eucharist.

They complete their preparation, but begin a wonderful journey of faith.”

19

April 11, 2014

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

ATTLEBORO — Eucharistic Adoration takes place in the St. Joseph Adoration Chapel at Holy Ghost Church, 71 Linden Street, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.

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

ATTLEBORO — There is a weekly Holy Hour of Eucharistic Adoration Thursdays from 5:30 to 6:30 pm at St. John the Evangelist Church on N. Main St. Brewster — Eucharistic Adoration takes place in the La Salette Chapel in the lower level of Our Lady of the Cape Church, 468 Stony Brook Road, on First Fridays beginning at noon until 7:45 a.m. First Saturday, concluding with Benediction and concluding with Mass at 8 a.m. buzzards Bay — Eucharistic Adoration takes place at St. Margaret Church, 141 Main Street, 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 TAUNTON — Eucharistic Adoration takes place in the chapel at Holy Family Parish Center, 438 Middleboro Avenue, Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

On First Fridays, Eucharistic Adoration takes place at Holy Family Church, 370 Middleboro Avenue, from 8:30 a.m. until 7:45 p.m.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NEW BEDFORD — St. Lawrence Martyr Parish, 565 County Street, holds Eucharistic Adoration in the side chapel every Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

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

The Sacrament of Reconciliation is available at this time.

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

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

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

SOUTH YARMOUTH — Eucharistic Adoration takes place at St. Pius X Parish, 5 Barbara Street, on Thursdays from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., from March 13 to April 10. The Sacrament of Reconciliation will also be offered at this time.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fall River DCCW annual convention is May 3

ASSONET — The Fall River Diocesan Council of Catholic Women will be hosting its 61st annual convention May 3 at St. Bernard’s Parish, 32 South Main Street in Assonet, home of pastor Father Michael Racine, the DCCW’s spiritual advisor.

The day will include a keynote speaker, a workshop, Mass celebrated by Bishop George W. Coleman, and a lunch.

Registration for the event is from 8:15 to 9 a.m. The convention will be called to order at 9:15 a.m.

The keynote speaker is Father Thomas Washburn, O.F.M. Father Washburn was ordained in 2000 as a priest of the Immaculate Conception Province of Franciscans. He is currently the executive secretary for the English-speaking provinces for the Franciscans.

He was pastor of St. Margaret’s Parish in Buzzards Bay for a time and is the past director of Vocations for the Immaculate Conception Province and continues to assist in this ministry.

He continues to assist at Masses at Our Lady of Victory Parish in

In Your Prayers Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks 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 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 April 16 Rev. Arthur E. Langlois, on sick leave, Denver, Colo., 1928 Rev. Norman F. Lord, C.S.Sp., Hemet, Calif., 1995 Rev. John W. Pegnam, USN, Retired Chaplain, 1996 April 18 Rev. Hugh B. Harrold, Pastor, St. Mary, Mansfield, 1935 Rt. Rev. John F. McKeon, P.R., Pastor, St. Lawrence, New Bedford, 1956 Rev. Joao Vieira Resendes, Retired Pastor, Espirito Santo, Fall River, 1984 Rev. Wilfred C. Boulanger, M.S., La Salette Shrine, Attleboro, 1985 Rev. George E. Amaral, Retired Pastor, St. Anthony, Taunton, 1992

Centerville and Our Lady of the Assumption Parish in Osterville.

Father Washburn is no stranger to leading retreats and missions in the Fall River Diocese. The theme of his presentation is “Do Whatever He Tells You.” Father Washburn is also the nephew of DCCW president Mary Mitchell.

Holy Union Sister Eleanor McNealy, a Fall River native, who has spent several years ministering in Africa, will lead a workshop on “Human Trafficking.”

Sister McNealy started gathering information about human trafficking in 2005 and received a degree in that topic from the University of Rhode Island.

All are welcome to attend. Registration for the event is $25, and forms are available from council members or by calling 508-9926680. Registration for the convention must be made by April 23. There will be no registrations at the door.

For information about the Fall River Diocesan Council of Catholic Women, call Mary Mitchell at 508-993-3742.

Around the Diocese The Catholic movement Communion and Liberation will sponsor a Way of the Cross beginning at St. Joseph-St. Therese Church, 1960 Acushnet Avenue in New Bedford, and processing through Brooklawn Park to Ashley Boulevard and Tarkiln Hill Road on Good Friday, April 18, beginning at 11 a.m. All are invited to join this procession. The Way of the Cross will include prayers, readings, and hymns, and will be accompanied by Father Karl Bissinger, who will provide brief meditations at various stops during the procession. The Way of the Cross will conclude at 1 p.m. at St. Mary’s Church on Tarkiln Hill Road. For more information, call 508-817-7268 or email clnewengland2@gmail.com.

Beginning Easter Monday, April 21, the Divine Mercy Holy Hour will be sung at 7 p.m. at Holy Trinity Church, Route 28 in West Harwich. It will continue all week, through April 26 at 7 p.m. On Divine Mercy Sunday, April 27, celebration will begin at 2:45 p.m. and the chaplet will be sung. No Confessions will be available on Divine Mercy Sunday, so all are encouraged to go to your individual parish for the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

The prayer group at St. Patrick’s Parish in Wareham is sponsoring a series of seven DVD talks, given by leaders in the Renewal and the New Evangelization, designed to introduce people to the Baptism in the Holy Spirit and to an experience of a New Pentecost. This seven-week seminar will be held on Wednesday evenings from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the parish hall, 82 High Street in Wareham, from April 23 through June 11.

A Healing Mass will be celebrated on April 24 at St. Anthony of Padua Church, 1359 Acushnet Avenue in New Bedford. The Mass will begin at 6:30 p.m. and will include benediction and healing prayers. At 5:15 p.m. there will be a holy hour including the Rosary. For more information or directions, visit www.saintanthonynewbedford. com or call 508-993-1691.

The Lazarus Ministry of Our Lady of the Cape Parish in Brewster is offering a sixweek Bereavement Support Program called “Come Walk With Me” on Thursdays beginning April 24 through May 29 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. The program meets at the parish center and is designed for people who have experienced the loss of a loved one within the past year. For more information or to pre-register, call 508-385-3252 or 508-896-8355.

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul, District of Greater Attleboro, is sponsoring its third annual family walk, “Helping Our Neighbors,” on April 26 from 9 a.m. to 12 noon at the Mass Audubon Society’s Attleboro Springs Wildlife Sanctuary next to the La Salette Shrine at 947 Park Street, Route 118, in Attleboro. This fun-filled family event will include guided nature tours, balloons, face-painting, refreshments and is pet-friendly. Proceeds from the walk will benefit those less fortunate from the towns of North Attleboro, Attleboro, Mansfield, Norton, Rehoboth and Seekonk.

For more information, or to pre-register for the walk, visit www.svdpattleboro.org, or register on-site the day of the walk.

ECHO of Cape Cod is sponsoring its third annual dinner/auction at 6 p.m. on April 26 at Christ the King Parish in Mashpee. This fund-raiser helps to support the ECHO Retreat program, now celebrating its 44th year on Cape Cod. For tickets or more information, email EchoofCapeCod@gmail.com or call 508-759-4265.

The feast of Divine Mercy will be celebrated at St. Mary’s Church, Onset Bay Lane in Onset, on April 27 at 2:30 p.m. featuring the Divine Mercy Chaplet with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and veneration of the image. Guest speaker will be Marty Rotella, a three-time Grammy Award nominee, who will also perform live at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 5 Armory Road in Buzzards Bay. For more information call 508-295-8952.

20 Vatican City (CNA/ EWTN News) — Pope Francis recently inscribed among the saints three blesseds who were from Europe but were called to

April 11, 2014

Pope Francis recognizes three new saints of the Americas

the New World by their missionary vocations.

At a recent audience with Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the

Causes of Saints, Pope Francis extended the Liturgical cult of three blesseds to the Universal Church, a process known as “equivalent canonization.”

The three are St. Francois de Laval de Montmorency, the first bishop of Quebec; St. Jose de Anchieta, “the Apostle of Brazil”; and St. Marie of the Incarnation,

founder of Quebec’s Ursuline convent.

St. Jose de Anchieta founded several Brazilian cities, including Sao Paulo. He was born in Spain’s Canary Islands in 1534 and studied at the Jesuit College at Coimbra in Portugal. He joined the Society of Jesus in 1550 and arrived in Brazil three

years later.

He built hospitals and educational institutions, with a primary focus on helping to teach and defend indigenous Brazilians, and served as the Jesuit superior in Brazil for 10 years. He died June 9, 1597.

St. Francois de Laval was born in France in 1623, and became a missionary to Canada. He was consecrated a bishop in 1658, and arrived in what was then called New France the next year, as its first bishop.

He traveled across his vast territory on foot, by snowshoe and by canoe, impressing many with his great devotion. He founded Quebec’s seminary, and spent two decades combating the liquor trade between French settlers and Native Americans.

He died in 1708 at the age of 85, and his relics are at the funeral chapel of the Basilica Cathedral of Notre Dame de Quebec.

St. Marie of the Incarnation was born in Tours in 1599. She was widowed at the age of 32 with a 13-year-old son. After her husband’s death, she became a nun. Moving to New France in 1639, she became the first Mother Superior of the Ursuline convent there. She died in Quebec in 1672.

The three new saints had been beatified by John Paul II in 1980.

At the audience, Pope Francis also recognized miracle worked through the intercession of Servant of God Giovanni Antonio Farina; Blessed Kuriacose Elias Chavara; Blessed Nicola da Longobardi; Blessed Euphrasia of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; and Servant of God Luigi della Consolata.

He recognized the heroic virtues of the following Servants of God: Francisco Simon Rodenas; Adolfo Barberis; Marie-Clement; Sebastian Elorza Arizmendi; Maria Teresa of the Eucharistic Jesus; Clara de la Concepcion; Maria Magdalena; and Luigi Rocchi.