04.29.11

Diocese of Fall River

The Anchor

F riday , April 29, 2011

Boston billboard promotes euthanasia

By Christine M. Williams Anchor Correspondent

BOSTON — Drivers exiting the Callahan Tunnel in East Boston this month could view a billboard suggesting that in order to die with dignity one must do so on one’s own terms.

Paid for by the Final Exit Network, the black sign with white letters reads, “Irreversible Illness? Unbearable suffering? Die With Dignity.” It is part of a nationwide campaign to legalize physician-assisted suicide.

“Obviously, they are targeting Massachusetts and New England states, trying to find some low hanging fruit to get some kind of suicide bill on the agenda,” said Kristian Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute. “Hopefully the citizens of this state are wise enough to understand the horrific dangers of this.”

Mineau said that such legis-

lation would turn doctors into executioners.

The assisted suicide group’s views and those of the Church could not be more diametrically opposed. The Catholic faith affirms the inherent value and dignity of all people, including those who are suffering and dying. Also, the Church teaches that God, the author of life, chooses our time of death.

“Dying well always involves dying in the time that God appoints, rather than in the time that we establish,” Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, director of education at the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia, Pa., told The Anchor.

He said the Final Exit Network is supporting a “right to kill” rather than a “right to die.”

“All of us will ourselves invariably die, with 100 percent certainty,” he said. “Acknowledging the impending arrival of Turn to page 13

sharing our history — Bishop George W. Coleman presents Pope John Paul II a copy of Father Barry Wall’s history of the Diocese of Fall River, “Bearing Fruit By Streams of Water,” shortly after its release during the bishop’s Ad Limina visit in August of 2004.

Diocesan priests recall the thrill of a lifetime meeting Pope John Paul II

By Dave Jolivet, Editor

FALL RIVER — It’s said that John Paul II was one of the most recognized figures in history, and one of the most widely-traveled individuals, with 104 trips outside of Rome in his nearly 30 years as successor to St. Peter.

It can also be said there aren’t many, if any, people who have shaken more hands and gifted more Rosary beads than the beloved JPII. On the cusp of his beatification on Sunday, several diocesan priests shared with The Anchor warm memories of their encounters with this modern-day saint-to-be.

Bishop George W. Coleman told The Anchor, “Beginning this fall, the bishops of the United States will make their visits to Rome ad limina apostolorum — to the thresholds of the Apostles Peter and Paul.

“As I prepare for the visit I shall make to Rome this year, I recall my first ad limina visit, which took place in August 2004, and my meeting with Pope John Paul II. The meeting took place at the pope’s summer residence in Castel Gandolfo.

Because of the Holy Father’s declining health, each bishop’s

conversation with him was limited to 10 minutes. In 2004 the Diocese of Fall River marked the 100th anniversary of its founding by Pope Pius X. I presented the Holy Father with a copy of the history of our diocese entitled ‘Bearing Fruit

by Streams of Waters’ by our diocesan archivist, the Father Barry W. Wall. At the end of our conversation, I told the Holy Father that the priests and people of the Diocese of Fall River were praying for him in his ministry as pope and I asked that he bestow his blessing upon the diocese. He raised his hand, Turn to page 14

Diocese inaugurates 70th Catholic Charities Appeal

a special day — Pope John Paul II is pictured in an image released recently by the postulation of his sainthood cause. The Polish pope, who died April 2, 2005, will be beatified Sunday.

(CNS photo)

FALL RIVER — In the spring of 1942, Bishop James Cassidy launched the first Catholic Charities Appeal in the Fall River Diocese and set as its goal $100,000. By summer, with a total that reached $150,000 exceeding the goal by 50 percent, the bishop said, “How gratifying it is to know that good will and concern and charity and willingness to help the individual still lives in many hearts.”

Now, decades later, the Fall River Diocese begins its 70th annual Catholic Charities Appeal on May 1 and asks the faithful to

once again respond in a spirit of good will and charity and willingness to help.

“The current economic down-

turn has affected the lives of many in our community,” wrote Bishop George W. Coleman in his letter of invitation to sup-

port the 2011 Catholic Charities Appeal. “It has become a challenge for some people, especially the most vulnerable among us, to meet even their basic needs. At such times, those in greatest need turn to the Church for assistance.”

The Catholic Charities Appeal funds programs and services run by the Fall River Diocese to provide food, shelter, clothing, counseling, education and pastoral support.

Catholic Social Services, with its network of regional offices in the diocese is the largest agency Turn to page 18

2

News From the Vatican

April 29, 2011

Pope warns Spanish ambassador of hostility to faith, religious history

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI warned of the consequences of a climate of indifference or even hostility to faith in increasingly secularized Spain and the dangers presented by the current difficult economic climate.

Pope Benedict told the new Spanish ambassador to the Vatican that the role of the Church and the help it can offer should not be overlooked, especially in such hard times.

The pope made his remarks April 16 when Maria Figa Lopez-Palop presented her diplomatic credentials at the Vatican. She is the first female ambassador in the long diplomatic history between Spain and the Church, which were first established in the 15th century.

Pope Benedict said that the increasingly secular society in Spain “does not favor openness to transcendence” and demonstrates “sophisticated forms of hostility to the faith.”

In certain sectors, he said, “religion is considered socially insignificant, even troublesome,” with the result that faith is marginalized “through defamation, ridicule, even indifference to evident cases of profanation” of religious objects and monuments.

He said that while the economic problems of Spain, especially unemployment, are “truly worrisome,” the Church is in a unique position with its diverse institu-

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tions to help those in difficulty.

The Church, he said, watches over fundamental human rights, including “the right to human life from its beginning to its natural end.”

The Church also “watches over” the rights of the family by encouraging economic, social and legislative measures that support families so that men and women “can carry out their vocation as a sanctuary of love and life.”

The pope also said that parents should have the right to educate their children as they see fit and that religious instruction should be available at all schools.

While formal relations with the traditionally Catholic country are good, there has been tension with the current Spanish government.

Both the local Church and the Vatican strenuously opposed legislation that ended obligatory Catholic instruction in public schools and laws allowing abortion and gay marriage.

In a trip to Barcelona and the pilgrimage site of Santiago de Compostela last November, the pope warned of hostility to the Catholic religion in the country.

He will be traveling to Spain again this summer to World Youth Day in August.

Figa, the new ambassador, reminded the pope of the long-standing ties between Spain and the Vatican and said that most Spaniards still recognize the Christian roots of their personal and national identities. She pledged continuing cooperation and dialogue in Spain’s relations with the Church, especially in the areas of solidarity and social justice for those in need.

OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER Vol. 55, No. 17

Member: Catholic Press Association, Catholic News Service

Published weekly except for two weeks in the summer and the week after Christmas by the Catholic Press of the Diocese of Fall River, 887 Highland Avenue, Fall River, MA 02720, Telephone 508-675-7151 — FAX 508-675-7048, email: theanchor@anchornews.org.

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sizing things up — Colin Wen, a seminarian from the Diocese of Sacramento, Calif., measures a student’s height as part of a game during religion class at Santa Susana American Parish in Rome recently. His service to youth is one of 32 apostolates in and around Rome that are part of the formation program of the Pontifical North American College. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

At Easter, pope prays for peace, freedom in world trouble spots

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — In an Easter blessing to the world, Pope Benedict XVI prayed that Christ’s Resurrection may open paths of “freedom, justice and peace” for troubled populations of the Middle East and Africa.

The pope urged an end to violence in Libya and Ivory Coast, assistance to refugees flooding out of North Africa and consolation for the victims of the Japanese earthquake. He prayed for those persecuted for their Christian faith, and praised their courage.

He spoke from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica April 24 in his blessing “urbi et orbi” (to the city of Rome and to the world), after celebrating Mass for nearly 100,000 people in St. Peter’s Square. Broadcast to many countries and live-streamed on the Internet, it was the last major event on the 84-year-old pontiff’s heavy Holy Week schedule.

Pope Benedict said the Resurrection of Christ must not be viewed as “the fruit of speculation or mystical experience.” It happened in a precise moment and marked history forever, giving human events new strength, new hope and new meaning, he said.

“The entire cosmos is rejoicing today,” and every person open to God has reason to be glad, he said.

But the joy of Easter contrasts with “the cries and laments that arise from so many painful situations: deprivation, hunger, disease, war, violence,” the pope said.

He prayed that “the splendor of Christ reach the peoples of the Middle East, so that the light of peace and of human dignity may overcome the darkness of division, hate and violence.” In Libya, he said, diplomacy and violence need to take the place of armed fighting, and the suffering must

have access to humanitarian aid.

The pope alluded to the civil unrest that has spread throughout northern Africa and the Middle East, encouraging all citizens there, especially young people, to work for a society where poverty is defeated and where “every political choice is inspired by respect for the human person.” The refugees who have fled the conflicts deserve a generous response by other populations, he added.

The pope said the many forms of suffering in “this wounded world” make the Easter message all the more meaningful.

“In our hearts there is joy and sorrow, on our faces there are smiles and tears. Such is our earthly reality. But Christ is risen, He is alive and He walks with us,” he said. He then offered Easter greetings in 65 languages, including Chinese, Hindi and Swahili.

The pope arrived at the Easter liturgy in an open jeep, riding through a crowd that overflowed the square into adjacent streets.

Many of the pilgrims were Poles who had already arrived in Rome for the May 1 beatification of Pope John Paul II. As clouds gave way to sunshine, the pope celebrated Mass on an altar surrounded by flower gardens of yellow narcissus, creamcolored roses and blue delphiniums — all donated and shipped to Rome by Dutch florists.

After the Gospel reading, an Orthodox choir sang a hymn of psalms of the Byzantine liturgical tradition, marking the fact that the Catholic and Orthodox celebration of Easter fell on the same day this year.

In a lengthy Easter vigil Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica the night before, the pope Baptized and Confirmed six adults from Albania, China, Peru, Russia, Singapore and Switzerland. He poured holy

water from a golden shell over each catechumen’s head, and later accepted offertory gifts from the newly-baptized.

In a sermon, he analyzed why the Christian’s sense of environmental responsibility is directly connected to the core beliefs of the faith.

“We relate to God the Creator, and so we have a responsibility for creation,” he said. “Only because God created everything can He give us life and direct our lives.”

The trajectory of salvation history, which reaches a summit with Christ’s Resurrection, reaches all the way back to creation, he said.

For the Christian, he said, the account of creation is not about the scientific process involved, but something deeper: it says that the source of everything is not pure chance, but “creative reason, love and freedom.”

The pope rejected an evolutionary account that excludes a divine purpose.

“It is not the case that the expanding universe, at a late stage, in some tiny corner of the cosmos, there evolved randomly some species of living being capable of reasoning and of trying to find rationality within creation, or to bring rationality into it,” he said.

“If man were merely a random product of evolution in some place on the margins of the universe, then life would make no sense,” he said. “Reason is there at the beginning: creative, divine reason.”

The pope said Easter was a good time for Christians to remind themselves that the faith embraces everything about the human being, from his origins to his eternal destiny.

“Life in the Church’s faith involves more than a set of feelings and sentiments and perhaps moral obligations,” he said.

April 29, 2011

The International Church the project will allow the two American Catholic agencies to build a stronger partnership with Haitian doctors, nurses and health care workers in the delivery of health services.

CHA members also will share administrative expertise in areas such as management and purchasing and introduce modern practices that will encourage Haitian doctors who primarily receive their training overseas to return home to work, Sister Carol said.

“So many doctors just don’t want to practice in Haiti because they can’t practice the way they were trained,” she explained. “We have this opportunity to maximize the presence of all the Catholic health care in Haiti. And with this new equipment and new

no stopping them — Tarantulas players fight for the ball during an early morning practice on a soccer field in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, recently. The 24 amputee players have set out to prove that, despite their disabilities, they can be athletes and contribute to society. (CNS photo/Bob Roller)

Local clinics fulfill vital role in Haiti’s strained health care system

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (CNS) — Yvrose Jacques uses her one leg to roll her wheelchair out of the hospital ward and onto the veranda at the LaKu LaPe Clinic to get a little fresh air and look up at the clear blue sky.

A smile crosses her face as visitors approach. She extends a hand for a warm embrace.

Yes, she’s happy, the 63-year-old Jacques says.

She’s happy to be alive.

Never mind that her twobedroom home was destroyed in the 2010 earthquake and that she, her 27-year-old daughter and her granddaughter now live in a tent, facing the heat of day and the tropical downpours with a thin layer of canvas over their heads.

“I cannot afford to build a new house,” she says. “I’m just waiting.”

Never mind that weeks earlier, her life was in peril after she contracted cholera near the height of the epidemic that swept Haiti.

Never mind that, as the effects of the water-borne disease subsided, her right leg began to swell. Then gangrene set in. Doctors discovered the blood flow in her leg was not normal and that they would have to amputate the limb at the knee.

Jacques was recovering at the clinic, run by the Missionaries of Charity Brothers, on the edge of notorious

Cite Soleil. She cares for her granddaughter at the clinic so her daughter can go to work.

Brother Rajit Kumar Dungdung, clinic director, thought that would be better than having Jacques stay in her tattered tent with the child.

“I feel at home,” she said.

The brothers who run the facility, an oasis in a community overrun with poverty and violence, minister in the tradition of Blessed Teresa of Kolkata. The clinic is part of an informal network of privately run health centers strung across Haiti that provide much-needed services in a country where health care options are few.

Brother Dungdung, 40, who worked alongside Mother Teresa in his native India, heads a team that includes several brothers and four novices who work in a neighborhood where basic health care is limited.

In some ways, LaKu LaPe Clinic operates much like a hospital. Patients, some with serious injuries, are treated in two wards — one for men and one for women. The wards have about a dozen beds each, allowing patients to stay as long as necessary to recover.

Among patients staying recently were a man burned when the cologne he was using burst into flame from a nearby candle, a gunshot victim and a young woman with AIDS.

The brothers have received medical training. Two days a week — Wednesdays and Saturdays — they see patients with more routine health needs.

“I think they come here because they feel like it’s home,” Brother Dungdung says.

Hospitals in Haiti’s health care system are few — an estimated 30 for a population of 10 million. But plans are under way for two new facilities. One involves the Catholic Health Association of the United States teaming with Catholic Relief Services to rebuild the destroyed St. Francis de Sales Hospital in the center of Port-au-Prince.

In Mirebalais, 35 miles north of the capital, Boston-based Partners in Health is building a 320-bed teaching hospital.

The new St. Francis de Sales Hospital will be the most modern in the Haitian capital. The $9.5 million, 200-bed facility will be built on the grounds of the original hospital, which was destroyed in the 2010 earthquake. The effort is being funded by 13 Catholic hospital groups with gifts up to $1.5 million; the Diocese of St. Petersburg, Fla.; and CHA. Construction is expected to begin later this year and take up to two years to complete.

Sister Carol Keehan, a Daughter of Charity who is CHA president and CEO, said

3 facilities, the doctors will want to practice.”

Anna van Rooyen, who heads CRS’ AIDS response in Haiti, told Catholic News Service the partnership is designed to build a network that reaches across the entire Haitian health care system to provide care for all Haitians, “not just those who have the means.”

“The Church has an opportunity to really impact the health infrastructure in Haiti by working on this network and continue to work in the public health sector as well.

We need to share our lessons learned and our experiences so that we’re not only strengthening our own (Catholic hospitals), but also seeing the larger picture of Haiti,” she said.

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The Church in the U.S.

April 29, 2011

Appeals court panel throws out challenge to National Day of Prayer

WASHINGTON (CNS) — When May 5 rolls around, activities associated with the National Day of

Prayer will go on largely unfettered, thanks to an April 14 decision by a three-judge panel of the 7th U.S.

Circuit Court of Appeals.

The court ruled that the Freedom From Religion Foundation did not

have standing to challenge President Barack Obama’s right to proclaim the National Day of Prayer because its plaintiffs could not show any harm done to them.

The foundation filed suit in 2008, claiming the day violated churchstate separation. A U.S. District Court judge ruled in 2010 the day was unconstitutional. The Obama Administration appealed the ruling, arguing the day recognizes the role of religion in the United States.

The National Day of Prayer has been around since Congress passed a bill in 1952 requiring the president to select a day each year. A 1988 bill fixed the first Thursday of May as the date. Catholic participation in the day is a sidelight — the National Day of Prayer Committee is a nonprofit Christian evangelical organization — but the degree of liberty enjoyed by one religious group will affect the degree of liberty all other groups will have.

The suit — which foundation co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor said will be appealed to the full circuit court, but only on the “standing” issue, not the case’s merits — is evidence that the quest for religious liberty, while fought more publicly on the international stage, has a home front as well.

While religious liberty is not

absolute — worshippers, for example, can’t justify violating parking regulations just because those parking “spaces” are close to their church — tests continue to pop up from time to time to determine just how much religious freedom Americans have.

Two decades ago, religious liberty advocates were greatly disappointed when the Supreme Court ruled that the use of peyote by some American Indians in a religious ritual was illegal and therefore unconstitutional. Congress in 1993 responded with the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which codified those freedoms.

“Americans take religious liberty for granted. It is the first freedom,” said Doug Bandow, a senior fellow at both the Cato Institute and the Institute on Religion and Public Policy, in an April 1 essay for the American Spectator. “One’s sense of the transcendent underlies all other beliefs and behaviors.”

Bandow added, “A government which refuses to protect the most basic liberty of conscience, the right to worship God, is unlikely to respect political and civil freedoms.

Indeed, the belief that individuals are made in the image of God is the firmest foundation for any commitment to human rights.”

The Church in the U.S. Dioceses around U.S. welcome new Catholics at Easter

April 29, 2011

FORESTVILLE, Md. (CNS) — Five days before the Easter Vigil, siblings Isaac, Olivia, Rosette and Adejia Gray were a little nervous as they talked about becoming Catholic.

“There’s going to be a big crowd,” said seventh-grader Adejia. Her younger second-grade sibling Isaac nodded.

Sixth grader-Rosette said, “Everybody’s going to be staring at you.”

“I forget the position of the hands,” said third-grader Olivia, about how to receive her first Communion.

“You don’t worry about a thing. You stick with Father,” said Father Everett Pearson as he reassured them. “I have the hard part,” added the pastor of Mount Calvary Parish in the Washington suburb of Forestville.

Despite their nervousness, the four children were excited about joining the Church along with seven other people at Mount Calvary April 23.

They were among tens of thousands around the country entering the Catholic Church at Easter. Many were catechumens, or people not yet baptized, who were receiving the Sacraments of Initiation — Baptism, Confirmation and First Communion. Others were candidates, who were already baptized Christians but entering full communion with the Church by receiving Confirmation and First Communion.

In California, the Diocese of Orange, was receiving more than 800 new Catholics during the Easter Vigil celebrated by Bishop Tod D. Brown at Holy Family Cathedral. “It is inspiring as a bishop to welcome a record number of new Catholics into our Church,” he said. “This ceremony is the climax of the Liturgical year and serves as a tangible display of the growth an vibrancy of Catholicism in Orange County.”

Nearly 800 people were set to enter the Church in the Baltimore Archdiocese.

Among the new Catholics around the United States were: Jose Pujols, a young adult raised in communist Cuba and one of the 148 joining the Church in the Diocese of Paterson, N.J.; Ahdija Cheumbike Baker, who was raised as a Muslim and one of 282 catechumens and candidates in New Orleans; and 18-year-old Marine Kalene Laforest, one of more than 1,900 new Catholics in the Atlanta Archdiocese. She said she felt a strong urge to join the Church before going on assignment in June.

In the Diocese Austin, Texas, Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood director in that state who has become ProLife, was becoming a Catholic.

In the Diocese of Springfield, Mass., a trio of 11th graders at St. Mary High School in Westfield inspired a community when they were preparing to enter the Church.

Juniors in high school have a lot on their minds. They are thinking about college or work plans and what they want to be when they “grow up.” However, Ashley Phaneuf, Drew Malloy and Trevor Oski were pondering deeper questions, so they joined the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults program at St. Mary Parish.

“I have been a priest for 18 years and I’ve never seen anything like it. For me, it’s

been a really great encouragement,” said Father Brian F. McGrath, pastor. “This has been an awesome experience. They’re three great kids. They are a tremendous benefit to the school and to the parish. And to know that they’re seeking the faith has been truly a blessing to me and to everybody.”

Ashley and Drew were being baptized, confirmed and making their First Communion. Trevor, who was baptized in the Episcopal faith, was being confirmed and making his First Communion.

“I never really thought about being Catholic until I came to St. Mary’s,” said Ashley. Her father is Catholic and her mother is Protestant, “but they chose not to bring me up with anything.” However, they also chose St. Mary’s for her high school education. Since enrolling in the small, Catholic school, Ashley has become interested in the faith.

“The people are really nice and the religion itself interests me. I believe it all and I think the story about Jesus is amazing. And the people in RCIA are all welcoming,” she said.

“Theology classes for the past two years were very interesting to me and I always felt at peace going to church,” said Drew, who noted he came to St. Mary’s with no religious background. He decided to “see what the Catholic faith was about.”

Asked why he chose to become Catholic, Trevor said: “It was just every time I went into the church it just felt like that was where I was supposed to be — in the Catholic Church. It just really called to me.

I just felt pulled into it and I just love being there.”

In Green Bay, Wis., Luis Daniel Garcia said he owed his First Communion and Confirmation at Easter in part to the example of a long-lost high school sweetheart.

“I came to know God through Maria,” said Garcia, 37.

Maria Torres, 30, is now Luis’ fiance. The two were boyfriend and girlfriend for several years as teen-agers while growing up in Puerto Rico. However, they grew apart but both ended up in the United States. Thanks to the social networking website, MySpace, the two were reconnected in 2008.

Torres moved to Green Bay from Connecticut in the summer of 2008 to see if their relationship would work. It has — they are to be married May 7 at their parish church, St. Willebrord.

Torres began asking Garcia to go to church with her because she didn’t like going alone. Garcia had been baptized as an infant but his family never went to Mass.

They both found St. Willebrord to be a welcoming and warm community. “It felt like a family from the start,” Garcia said. When the couple approached Norbertine Father Ken DeGroot, pastor, about their interest in getting married, it was the priest who suggested that Garcia should be first confirmed and make his First Communion. Garcia began receiving individual instruction; his work schedule didn’t allow him to take regularly scheduled RCIA classes.

“We are looking forward to having a family and doing things right this time in the eyes of God,” he added.

5

ill winds — Catholic Charities distributes food to residents affected by a recent tornado in Raleigh, N.C.. Three days of violent storms and tornadoes in the southern United States have killed at least 43 people, downing power lines and wrecking hundreds of buildings. (CNS photo/Rich Reece, NC Catholic)

6

The Anchor

Distinguished student and teacher in the Church’s essential school

On Sunday, the Catholic world will rejoice as Pope Benedict XVI beatifies his predecessor Pope John Paul II. Six years ago, at John Paul II’s funeral Mass, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger preached that the most distinctive characteristic of the life of Karol Wojytla was that, from his earliest days, he responded to the Lord’s call to follow Him as a faithful disciple and a zealous apostle.

“Follow me,” Cardinal Ratzinger preached, was the “lapidary saying” that “can be taken as the key to understanding the message that comes to us from the life of our late beloved Pope John Paul II.” That call of the Lord, and Wojtyla’s faithful and heroic response, is what unites all the aspects of his life, from his growing up in a pious home in Wadowice, to his reaction to the early deaths of his mother, only brother and father, to his resistance to Nazist and Communist wickedness as a young man, to his entering the clandestine seminary in Krakow, to his studies, acting, poetry, teaching, and pastoral work as a priest, to his service as a bishop and important contributor to the Second Vatican Council, to his vigorous assumption of the papacy and hope-filled survival of an assassination attempt, to his beautiful valedictory entrusting himself to the mercy of the Lord in his final years of suffering. His entire life was that of a faithful disciple following the Lord Jesus up close all the way across the threshold of the Father’s House.

He once told his authoritative biographer, George Weigel, that most people erred by trying to understand him only “from the outside,” from all that he did publicly on the biggest stage — the foreign trips, his role in the downfall of communism, his meetings with and influence on world leaders and events. “But I can only be understood from inside,” he confessed. To understand him from the inside means to seek to understand his core: that all of his motivations came from his Christian faith, that whatever fruit he produced in life came from being grafted onto Christ the Vine.

That’s why Sunday’s beatification is so significant. A beatification is not a posthumous honor given to a “papacy,” however historic and inspiring. It is a recognition by the Church that one of her members lived the theological virtues of faith, hope and love to an heroic degree and that God has confirmed that ecclesial assessment, so to speak, by the granting of a miracle — which only God can do — through prayers made to Him through that person’s direct intercession. The beatification process looked at John Paul II from the inside and is now proclaiming that from the inside John Paul II was truly a Christian hero, perhaps an ever greater one than the world thinks he was on the “outside.”

Sunday’s beatification is the dramatic exclamation point on what was John Paul II’s most important papal priority, because it is the Church’s essential and most crucial task. The Church exists for one reason and one reason only, to give glory to God, and the way the Church does that is by being God’s instrument to helping men and women grow fully into the image and likeness of God Himself. “Gloria Dei vivens homo,” St. Ireneus taught at the end of the second century: “the glory of God is man fully alive.” The way human persons become fully alive is through receiving God’s gifts of salvation and sanctification offered lavishly by the Church Christ Himself founded.

Over the course of his pontificate, Pope John Paul II beatified 1,338 men and women and canonized 482, more than all his predecessors since the reform of the process of canonization combined.

He raised to the altars not merely martyrs, founders of religious orders, bishops, priests, nuns and other religious, but married couples, people from various professions and even young children.

His whole pontificate was an attempt to incarnate the fundamental teaching of the Second Vatican Council, that “all in the Church … are called to holiness.”

John Paul II wrote in his pastoral plan for the third Christian Millennium, Novo Millennio Ineunte (2001), that the Church is essentially a vocational school meant to train people to become true saints, just as the various vocational-technical high schools in our diocese train students to become carpenters, electricians, cooks and plumbers. “I have no hesitation,” he stressed, “in saying that all pastoral initiatives must be set in relation to holiness.” By this he did not mean just preaching, celebrating the Sacraments, prayer and works of mercy must be connected to the work of sanctification, but also Catholic education, health care, social justice work, Catholic Charities Appeals, RCIA ministry, rectory and chancery office activities, and the setting of budgets. Everything the Church does must be related to divinizing the human person.

He made this point because at a concrete level in many aspects of personal and ecclesial life, regardless of whether it’s theoretically acknowledged, it’s not lived out concretely. “It is necessary therefore,” he emphasized, “to rediscover the full practical significance of Chapter 5 of the ‘Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium,’ dedicated to the ‘universal call to holiness.’”

The call to become a saint must be made practical, it has to “become a task that must shape the whole of Christian life.” John Paul II sought to illustrate the practical aspects of holiness in his beatifications and canonizations of so many “who attained holiness in the most ordinary circumstances of life.” He tried to show the practical steps toward holiness in his own life of prayer and piety. But he also recognized that, just as singers, athletes, artisans, and professionals need both teaching and training, the Church as mater et magistra, mother and teacher, has to make sure that all the faithful recognize that they’re called to true spiritual greatness in their day-to-day life and to provide them an adequate training to help them achieve that holy grandeur.

He first sought to challenge those Christians who think that the Christian life is compatible with “a life of mediocrity, marked by a minimalist ethic and a shallow religiosity,” saying that Baptism is an introduction into the holiness of God and sets a Christian on a trajectory to be “perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” He also challenged those who misunderstand the ideal of Christian perfection as “some kind of extraordinary existence, possible only for a few ‘uncommon heroes’ of holiness.” We don’t need to wear a hair-shirt, fast on bread and water for years, learn ancient Hebrew, flee to a desert monastery, or spend eight hours a day or more in eucharistic adoration.

He said, rather, that the “ways of holiness are many, according to the vocation of each individual,” when one unites his or her whole life to Christ. “The time has come,” he insisted, “to re-propose wholeheartedly to everyone this high standard of ordinary Christian living: the whole life of the Christian community and of Christian families must lead in this direction.”

After clarifying that the standard of the Christian life is not just to pass the final exam of life with a passing grade of D+, but to strive with God’s help, to get an A+ and make the eternal honor roll, John Paul said that the Church must provide a “genuine training in holiness, adapted to people’s needs.” Among the many resources in the treasure chest of spiritual help offered by the Church — Sacraments, the Word of God, retreats, approved movements, magisterial documents and so much more — he highlighted six in particular, encouraging all Catholics to open themselves to receive all they contain: grace, prayer, the Mass, the Sacrament of Reconciliation, listening to the Word of God, and proclaiming the Word of God in word and deed. These means of holiness are offered to everyone in the Church, from someone just baptized at the Easter Vigil to the pope himself. Pope John Paul II sought to take full advantage of them throughout his entire life and on Sunday we see the fruit of that receptivity and response.

The Church, while always remaining a hospital for sinners, exists to be a school of saints, meeting us wherever we are at and training us to respond all the way to Christ’s call “Follow Me!” in the day-to-day circumstances of our life. Let us ask Blessed John Paul II to intercede for us that we may make fully practical — in our own lives, in our parishes, in our diocese and in all our pastoral planning — this call to holiness he spent his pontificate echoing and enfleshing throughout the world.

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April 29, 2011

‘Jesus, I trust in You’

the most diverse needs and, especially, ope John Paul II died on Saturthe duty to defend the dignity of every day evening, April 2, 2005, at human person. Thus the message of Di9:37 p.m. Rome time. According to vine Mercy is also implicitly a message testimony from those who were with about the value of every human being. him when he passed from this life into Each person is precious in God’s eyes; eternal life, the pope’s last words were Christ gave His life for each one; to to Sister Tobiana, who had worked in everyone the Father gives His Spirit and the papal residence for many years. In a soft whisper, our beloved Holy Father offers intimacy.”

Pope John Paul II will be beatified said, “Let me go to the Father’s house!” this coming Sunday, which is most apWith that final prayer, our Holy Father propriately Divine Mercy Sunday. Even slipped into a coma for the last couple though it is not the actual anniversary of hours of his life. of his death (April 2), it is the Liturgical Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, the anniversary (which depends on what personal secretary to John Paul II since day Easter Sunday falls on the calenhe was the archbishop of Krakow (now dar). With this beatification, the pope is the cardinal archbishop of Krakow himself), reflected upon those last hours just one step away from being declared of the pope’s life. He said that he felt the a saint.

There have been numerous books imperative command to celebrate Mass, written about this extraordinary man, which being the early evening would be the Vigil Mass for the following day, including two by George Weigel, who wrote the official biography (“Witness which was Divine Mercy Sunday. to Hope”) and its sequel (“The End Having Mass celebrated for him in the final moments of his life was clearly and the Beginning”). And even with all that has been written about him, there the greatest prayer that could be said is probably for anyone, more that one but for John could write, Paul II, the Putting Into perhaps about significance of his pilgrimthis final Mass the Deep ages throughbeing celout the world, ebrated on the

By Father his extensive vigil of Divine writings, the Mercy Sunday Jay Mello lives that brings with it he touched tremendous throughout his life or a variety of other sentimental value. things.

John Paul II’s connection to Divine This article concludes my series on Mercy goes back to his early days in Pothe life and death of Pope John Paul the land, where our Lord Himself appeared to Sister Faustyna Kowalska in the town Great. There are certainly more things of Lagiewniki, just outside of Krakow in that I could reflect upon, but for the sake of not “over-doing it,” I will move on to 1931. It was to her that Christ revealed another topic next week. I do, however, the depths of His mercy that flow from want to finish with one final thought His Sacred Heart which is illustrated in that we should take into consideration the famous image of our Lord standing with red and white rays of light flowing when it comes to Pope John Paul II. It is certainly important for us to from His heart with the words, “Jesus, I reflect upon the lives of the saints and trust in You,” below it. those who have courageously lived out Our Lord asked Sister Faustyna to their Catholic faith, even when it was promote devotion to His Divine Mercy difficult for them to do so. But it should on the Sunday after Easter. On the ocnot end; it cannot end with just reading casion of her canonization on April 30, about their lives or the things that they 2000, Pope John Paul II declared that said. We would do an awful injustice to the Sunday after Easter would now be the life and memory of Pope John Paul called, “Divine Mercy Sunday.”

II if we just thought about him with Getting back to his younger days in Poland, John Paul II would often stop to fond recollection. Reminding us of Our pray at the convent where Sister Fausty- Lord’s command, John Paul II chalna had died in 1938. John Paul II would lenged us to “put out into the deep.”

The pope told us that we should have been in his early 20s and working in a nearby chemical plant at the time of not settle on mediocrity, but that we are to be the “light of the world” these visits to the chapel. It was during this time that he became aware of Sister and the “salt of the earth.” Just as Christ sent His first disciples into the Faustyna and Our Lord’s revelation to world, so too, are we being sent out her about Divine Mercy.

by Christ as disciples of the “New This was obviously a very personal Evangelization.” This is how we can devotion and connection for John Paul pay tribute and honor to the legacy of II, but one that he wanted to share with John Paul II. the whole world, which is probably I am certain that I am not alone in why Sister Faustyna was the first person saying that John Paul II was more than a he declared a saint in the new millenpope to many of us; he was also a hero. nium, and why he declared Divine In a world where we don’t have many Mercy Sunday. But it wasn’t just about people that we can look up to as authenhis devotion to this private revelation tic and true heroes, John Paul II, like of Our Lord to St. Faustyna. John Paul so many of the other saints throughout II explained at her canonization that it history, clearly reminds us that if holialso had a very important meaning for ness is possible, holiness is necessary! everyone: Blessed Pope John Paul II, pray for us!

“It is this love which must inspire Father Mello is a parochial vicar at humanity today, if it is to face the crisis of the meaning of life, the challenges of St. Patrick’s Parish in Falmouth.

April 29, 2011

Q: Would you please clarify what is “special” about Divine Mercy Sunday, and what the faithful and priests have to do in order to obtain the special grace associated with this day? According to the priests that I have spoken to, the same graces can be obtained at reception of Holy Communion on Divine Mercy Sunday as on any other day when Communion is received by a communicant in a state of grace, i.e., a plenary indulgence.

So what is different about Divine Mercy Sunday and how should the liturgy be properly celebrated so that the faithful may receive the special graces associated with it? — J.C., Ballina, Ireland A: The devotion to the Divine Mercy stems from the revelations made to the Polish nun St. Faustina Kowalska (1905-1938) over a number of years and at several convents, including the one in Krakow where she is buried.

There are several elements involved in this devotion. One is the image of the merciful Jesus based on a vision of February 1931. In it Our Lord is pictured in the act of blessing, with two rays, one red and the other pallid (representing blood and water), shining from His heart. The words “Jesus, I trust in Thee” are placed at His feet.

Other elements are the Hour of Mercy, at three in the afternoon, in which the Passion is meditated upon and certain prayers recommended by the revelations are

“I caught [the thief] with an unseen hook and an invisible line which is long enough to let him wander to the ends of the world, and still to bring him back with a twitch upon the thread.”

— G.K. Chesterton, “The Innocence of Father Brown.” onversion stories are always compelling. We usually think of St. Paul’s being knocked from his horse, much like the famous depiction in Caravaggio. Certainly these dramatic occurrences do happen. A heart of stone can, in an instant, break and become a heart of love. More often, however, what happens is not just one conversion but a series of conversions, where the heart turns ever more toward the light of God, like a plant reaching and growing toward the sun.

In this new 13-part series, we are going to talk about the conversion of G.K. Chesterton, the convert journalist, playwright, poet, novelist, artist, thinker, and amateur theologian. It would take literally years to cover all the man has written, so we’ll be focusing on the books he wrote just prior to and immediately after his conver-

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7

The Anchor

Divine Mercy Sunday

recited. As well as this, there is the gave this Sunday the name, ‘Divine Mercy Sunday.’”

Chaplet of Divine Mercy with its The second decree was pubattendant litany. It is recited using Rosary beads but substituting other lished two years later by the Apostolic Penitentiary. This Vatican prayers such as “Through your tribunal, among other tasks, oversorrowful Passion, have mercy on sees the granting of indulgences. us and on the entire world” on the This decree granted new perpetual beads of the Hail Mary.

A special request of these visions was that the first Sunday after Easter should be the feast of Divine Mercy and that on this day the Divine Mercy

By Father should be proclaimed in a Edward McNamara special way.

The spirituality of Pope John Paul II was deeply indulgences attached to devotions influenced by the devotion to the in honor of Divine Mercy. Among Divine Mercy, and he dedicated other considerations, this text states: his second encyclical, “Dives in “To ensure that the faithMisericordia,” to this theme. As ful would observe this day with archbishop of Krakow he prointense devotion, the Supreme moted the beatification of Sister Pontiff himself established that this Faustina and on the occasion of Sunday be enriched by a plenary her canonization in April 2000, indulgence, [and] motivated by an announced that henceforth the second Sunday of Easter would be ardent desire to foster in Christians this devotion to Divine Mercy as the feast of Divine Mercy. much as possible,” granted the This announcement was folfollowing Indulgences: “a plenary lowed by two juridical acts by indulgence, granted under the Vatican offices. usual conditions (sacramental ConWith the decree “Misericors fession, eucharistic Communion et Miserator” (May 5, 2000) the and prayer for the intentions of suCongregation for Divine Worship preme pontiff) to the faithful who, and the Sacraments stated: “The on the Second Sunday of Easter Supreme Pontiff, John Paul II, or Divine Mercy Sunday, in any moved by the consideration of the church or chapel, in a spirit that Father of Mercy, has willed that is completely detached from the the Second Sunday of Easter be affection for a sin, even a venial dedicated to recalling with special sin, take part in the prayers and devotion these gifts of grace and

Liturgical Q&A

devotions held in honor of Divine Mercy, or who, in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament exposed or reserved in the tabernacle, recite the Our Father and the Creed, adding a devout prayer to the merciful Lord Jesus” (e.g. Merciful Jesus, I trust in You!); “A partial indulgence, granted to the faithful who, at least with a contrite heart, pray to the merciful Lord Jesus a legitimately approved invocation.

“In addition, sailors working on the vast expanse of the sea; the countless brothers and sisters, whom the disasters of war, political events, local violence and other such causes have been driven out of their homeland; the sick and those who nurse them, and all who for a just cause cannot leave their homes or who carry out an activity for the community which cannot be postponed, may obtain a plenary indulgence on Divine Mercy Sunday, if totally detesting any sin, as has been said before, and with the intention of fulfilling as soon as possible the three usual conditions, will recite the Our Father and the Creed before a devout image of Our Merciful Lord Jesus and, in addition, pray a devout invocation to the Merciful Lord Jesus (e.g.

Merciful Jesus, I trust in You).

“Priests who exercise pastoral ministry, especially parish priests, should inform the faithful in the most suitable way of the

Chesterton’s continual conversion

sion. safer. Randomness was math and First, however, I wanted to tell seemed to have the better odds. No you a little more about my own judgment. No abandonment. If I conversion, which is, like a lot of lost the odds game and suffered, at us, really a reversion. least I wouldn’t also feel the secWhen I decided to try on ondary pain of being abandoned atheism, as a philosophy major

by God. It would be, then, just at a secular college, it may have been sleep deprived induced A Twitch lunacy. I had spent the whole night readUpon a Thread ing William Styron’s “Sophie’s Choice,”

By Jennifer PIerce after having read Elie Wiesel’s “Night” the night before that, both about WWII concentration camps. very, very bad luck. That seemed a I realized that Wiesel and Styron’s lot more acceptable to me. fictional Sophie were Jewish and Despite the realization that Christian respectively and sudbelief doesn’t save you from sufdenly became aware of a world fering, however, I gradually realfull of God’s faithful, who endure ized that atheism was intellectually the unthinkable, all the time prayand emotionally untenable. For ing for a mercy that never comes. one thing, it’s untenable logically: What does prayer mean, then, if it “I believe there is no God” is a is answered with such a monstrous creed. It is kind of like saying I silence? have no tolerance for intolerance.

If there was a God who If we reject moral anarchy, why could abandon me, and a devil did any emergent, secular moral who could so easily get hold of law seem to be uncannily based me, despite earnest prayers for on the Ten Commandments? The deliverance, non-belief seemed hound of heaven still pursued my

thoughts; nothing but God would make sense.

I am stubborn, though. I floated my way through nonexclusionary, Unitarian and New Age inspired beliefs. Eventually — I have a suspicion my mother’s prayers may have had a hand! — I became attracted to attending the Latin Mass at Yale University. I enjoyed it as an exotic form of charming human ritual with nostalgic value from my childhood — just as I also enjoyed going to synagogue and attending a pentecostal service. I saw them as all equivalent. I still felt relatively free to stitch together a patchwork quilt of belief based on what “felt right” and what seemed to be in agreement with and least offensive to most human beings.

That’s when I picked up a book called “Orthodoxy” by G.K. Chesterton. It read like it had been written as a letter to me in my restless “belief,” a belief I place in scare quotes because it had the odd character of seeming a lot like non-belief and the convenience of suiting whatever I felt like doing.

Church’s salutary provision. They should promptly and generously be willing to hear their Confessions. On Divine Mercy Sunday, after celebrating Mass or Vespers, or during devotions in honor of Divine Mercy, with the dignity that is in accord with the rite, they should lead the recitation of the prayers that have been given above. Finally, since ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy’ (Mt 5:7), when they instruct their people, priests should gently encourage the faithful to practice works of charity or mercy as often as they can.”

In conclusion, it must be mentioned that our correspondent was misinformed when she was told that Communion on this or any other Sunday granted a plenary indulgence. This is not the case.

Finally, because of the special liturgical nature of this Sunday, all devotions must be made outside of Mass and no change may be made in the liturgical texts or readings.

Mention of the theme of Divine Mercy may be made, however, during the homily, commentaries and during the general intercessions.

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

There was one sentence that lives in my memory. I can see it on the page as if I’m reading it, any time I recall it: “I did try to found a heresy of my own; and when I had put the last touches to it, I discovered that it was orthodoxy.” That was it.

My twitch.

Chesterton’s path was somewhat similar: he moved from his childhood Unitarian religion, to non-belief, to Theism, to orthodox Christianity, and finally to Rome.

Unlike Saul-turned-Paul, it is difficult to find that interior moment where he went from being outside the Catholic Church to being inside it. And perhaps that is because none of us thieves is truly ever outside the Church, just partially separated. Those of us formally inside may be partially separated, too, without even knowing it. For conversions aren’t a one-time-only experience.

Conversions of heart can — should — happen every day if we let them.

Jennifer Pierce is a parishioner of Corpus Christi in East Sandwich, where she lives with her husband Jim and three children.

8 “The quality of mercy is not strained; It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven.” hus wrote Shakespeare in “The Merchant of Venice.” And for the most part, he was right. Mercy is usually gentle and kind and unstrained.

When it takes the form of forgiveness, it is profoundly loving and freeing. When it takes the form of generosity, it is abundant. But mercy also knows how to be powerful.

Mercy also knows how to break down doors. This is the mercy we see in action today, mercy mighty and victorious. It is the mercy of the Risen Christ.

The image of the Upper Room in today’s Gospel is almost comical. Perhaps in the whole New Testament there’s no image of human weakness as powerful as this one. Possibly the behavior of the disciples at Jesus’ arrest in Gethsemane is more striking, but for pure fear and weakness and cowardice, I like this one. The Apostles have heard the good news from Mary Magdalene (“I have seen the Lord’) and are on the verge of receiving the full strength and grace of the risen Christ and of His Holy Spirit, and they’re hiding “for fear of

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April 29, 2011

The Anchor

A violent mercy

the Jews” behind locked doors. but of these men’s hearts as As if the Jewish authorities or well: Jesus risen from the dead, the Roman authorities, for that triumphant in mercy. matter, could care. They had And so the dialogue begins. already got the one they wanted Jesus says, “Peace be to you!” and put Him to death on the This is the greatest gift of the cross. One more troublemaker Resurrection: peace from God. out of the way forever. Ha! It is what Divine Mercy does It’s an intriguing little scene, when it becomes operative in but it’s just the beginning of a dialogue that will change this little Homily of the Week fearful group forever Divine Mercy and bring the Church Sunday to birth. How does this dialogue go?

By Father Andrew First of all, we have Johnson, OCSO the famous locked doors. They are a symbol not just of fear, but of an absolute refusal our lives; it brings us peace. He to believe, of the will to reject says this twice to the disciples, every possibility of trust in the once from His sacred humanity reality of Jesus risen again. Call and once from His divinity, as it decisive unbelief. In this case, St. Leo the Great explains it. fear seems a safer thing than This is the real thing: true peace faith, as it may seem for us at has been made because God times. Better to huddle together and man have come together in ignorant safety than entrust in the person of Jesus, for our oneself to God. But they cannot reconciliation. To help them resist the intervention that God understand, He shows them His is about to make. Something hands and feet, which still bear happens that frees the truth in the wounds of His crucifixion, these men’s hearts and brings it the signs of His irreversible to the light, something that can victory over sin and death. This pass through the locked doors “peace” is not just a word or a not just of the Upper Room wish, but the work of the Holy

Spirit, who is given through the Lord’s appearing: “Jesus breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” This is primarily for the forgiveness of sins, theirs and ours. With peace, forgiveness is the other principal effect of this Divine Mercy. “Whose sins you shall forgive.”

Finally, we hear Thomas’s unique contribution. He is the antihero of the scene; he represents the mind set typical to the Apostles, but brought to its logical conclusion. In fact, Thomas has become doubt personified: we still say someone is a doubting Thomas. But even he receives the gift of the Holy Spirit, and cries out, “My Lord and my God!” This is the climax of the whole passage, perhaps of the whole Gospel. Jesus is called no longer “Rabbi,” but “my Lord and my God.” As Christians who follow in the footsteps of the Apostles mainly in their weakness and doubt, we also lock the doors against God. Our problem is not “fear of the Jews,” but the thousand other things already conquered by Jesus in

his rising: sadness, sickness, death, every earthly suffering. Thanks be to God, the risen Lord can get through even our locked up hearts, and He does.

When this violent mercy finally reaches us, it is transformed.

Once it has broken through the locked doors of our defenses, it becomes gentle and kind, as we would expect. It forces absolutely nothing on us, leaving our Godgiven human freedom intact. It offers us the gifts of forgiveness and peace and lets us say “yes” or “no” to them.

What we have to work on, once we have accepted those gifts, is this: passing from an intellectual assent to Christ’s Resurrection to the love and service of the risen One. We release the very power of the Resurrection in our lives when we trust in His mercy and then live it out.

We can run and we can hide, but not for long and not from God. We must let Him into our lives. This is the message of St. Faustina and of Divine Mercy Sunday: let mercy into your life!

Father Johnson is chaplain at Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. Apr. 30, Saturday in the Octave of Easter, Acts 4:13-21; Ps 118:1,14-15,16-21; Mk 16:9-15. Sun. May 1, Divine Mercy Sunday, Acts 2:42-47; Ps 118:2-4,13-15,22-24; 1 Pt 1:3-9; Jn 20:19-31. Mon. May 2, Acts 4:23-31; Ps 2:1-9; Jn 3:1-8. Tues. May 3, 1 Cor 15:1-8; Ps 19:2-5; Jn 14:6-14. Wed. May 4, Acts 5:17-26; Ps 34:2-9; Jn 3:16-21. Thur. May 5, Acts 5:27-33; Ps 34:2,9,17-20; Jn 3:31-36. Fri. May 6, Acts 5:34-42; Ps 27:1,4,13-14; Jn 6:1-15.

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trange as it may seem, I’ve been vaguely worried about the beatification on May 1 of a man with whom I was in close conversation for more than a decade and to the writing of whose biography I dedicated 15 years of my own life.

My worries don’t have to do with allegations of a “rushed” beatification process; the process has been a thorough one, and the official judgment is the same as the judgment of the people of the Church. I’m also unconcerned about the fretting of ultra-traditionalists for whom John Paul II was a failure because he didn’t restore the French monarchy, impose the Tridentine Mass on the entire Church, and issue thundering anathemas against theologians and wayward politicians. No, my worries have to do with our losing touch with the qualities of the man. When the Church puts the title “Blessed” or “Saint” on someone, the person so honored often drifts away into

Remembering Pope John Paul II

a realm of the unapproachably radical conversion to Christ.

Why is this important to good. We lose the sense that the saints are people just-like- stress? Because it’s his connection to the rest of us. There us, who, by the grace of God, are more than a billion Catholived lives of heroic virtue: a truth of the faith of which John Paul II never ceased to remind us.

So what would I have us remember and hold fast to about John Paul II?

By George Weigel First, I hope we remember that everything he did was the accomplishment of lics on this planet; very few a radically-converted Chrisof us will enjoy the range of tian disciple. His resistance intellectual, spiritual, literary, to the Nazi occupation of athletic, and linguistic gifts Poland; his abandonment of that God gave Karol Wojhis youthful plans in order to tyla. Because of our Baptism, enter an underground seminary; his dynamic ministry in though, all of us share with him the possibility of being Cracow as priest and bishop; his philosophical and literary radically-converted Christian disciples. All of us can be work; his efforts at Vatican Christ’s evangelical witnesses II; his epic pontificate and in our families, our work, our its teaching; his role in the collapse of European commu- neighborhoods. All of us can nism and in the defense of the live as though the truth John Paul II taught — that Jesus universality of human rights Christ is the answer to the — all of this flowed from his

The Catholic Difference

question that is every human life — is at the very epicenter of our own lives.

The second thing I hope the Church holds onto, as it enrolls John Paul II among the blessed, is the significance of the date of his beatification: Divine Mercy Sunday. John Paul’s fondness for the Divine Mercy devotion, and his designation of the Octave of Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday, struck some as a Polish imposition on a universal Church. Those who thought this were mistaken.

John Paul II had an acute sense of the gaping holes that had been torn in the moral and spiritual fabric of humanity by the murderous cruelties of the 20th century.

A century that began with a robust human confidence in the future had ended with a thick fog of cynicism hanging over the western world.

As he wrote in his striking

2003 apostolic letter, “The Church in Europe,” Christianity’s historic heartland (and, by extension, the entire western world) was beset by guilt over what it had done in two world wars and the Cold War, at Auschwitz and in the Gulag, through the Ukrainian hunger famine and the communist persecution of the Church. But having abandoned the God of the Bible, it had nowhere to turn to confess this guilt, seek absolution, and find forgiveness.

That, John Paul II was convinced, was why the face of the merciful Father had been turned toward the world now. The insight came from Poland; the need was universal. That was why he created “Divine Mercy Sunday.” That is why we should remember that he was beatified on that day.

Thank God for such a life in our time.

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

April 29, 2011

Funny Bunny meets Quacks the Yummy Ducky

25 April 2011 — Rte. 44, Taunton — Easter Monday want you to know, dear readers, the lengths to which I will go in researching my subject.

Since the home is the domestic Church, I intended to write on family Easter customs. I visited the Big Bang for a Buck Bargain Outlet to do my research. The store had six aisles of Easter-related merchandise.

Located next to the empty Easter baskets were bags of “grass” with which to line them. What happened to the old-fashioned green or pink cellophane “grass?” This stuff was shredded paper docu-

I

ments dyed sickly colors. In ancient times, the basket lining was sprouting wheat.

I found a shelf of marsh-

The Ship’s Log

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9

The Anchor

Reflections of a Parish Priest

By Father Tim Goldrick

mallow Peeps. Ah, the good old days of Easter past. I’ve heard of an Italian cardinal who is very fond of Peeps. He shall remain nameless. If you want to get on the good side of His Eminence, you surprise

him with a case of Peeps. I notice Peeps now come in turquoise. Stick to the yellow ones. Cardinals tend to be traditional, not trendy.

My research went downhill fast. What I first thought were giant Easter eggs proved to be made not of candy but of chalk. On Easter Sunday afternoon, are children now encouraged to go out and deface public sidewalks?

I did find the Easter candy aisle. This, it turns out, is where Funny Bunny and his friends hang out. Funny

Caring for body and soul

Thus, some gathered to pray ith each passing the Divine Mercy Chaplet for year, more attenall affected by that horrific tion is given to the feast of event, and they realized that Divine Mercy, which is the this should always be an esSunday following Easter. sential part of their work.

With the death of John Paul Doctors and other health II taking place on the eve of care professionals joined in that feast that he had done this mission, and the apostoso much to promote, onlooklate soon added educational ers were intrigued to know programs covering bioethmore. ics as well as the spiritual It was the Polish Sister Maria Faustina Kowalska to whom Our Lord appeared concerning this devotion, and like so many, she knew great suffering.

Indeed, it is through

By Genevieve Kineke such suffering that souls are tested and pious gestures are stripped of all predimension of suffering. In tence. During intense trials, this way, their dedication with faith being purified and to prayer and study allows some without faith nearing them to turn their ordinary the brink of despair, it is jobs into a ministry, bringmore important than ever to ing solace to their patients remind those who suffer that as well as medical assisabundant graces are always tance. available. All God wants Interestingly, while acfrom His cherished creatures tual studies on the effects is an assent — a nod of the of prayer for the sick show head affirming that His genmixed results, it is diffierous gift of mercy will be cult to assess the results of accepted. intercessory prayer because One group of people God’s mercy is not measured dedicated to making the in bodily healing. Death is Divine Mercy better known usually a complicated proare health care workers who cess that combines physical combine their professional ailments with a host of anxiwork with spiritual formation eties about material goods, that translates into ardent human relationships and prayers for their patients. the need to face one’s fears This began on Sept. 11, 2001, about the afterlife. While when many nurses rushed to some might merely pray for New York City to offer asphysical healing, those with sistance, but given the nature a richer faith life know that of the tragedy they found that there’s much more at stake in there were few actual survisuch situations. vors in need of medical care.

The Feminine Genius

Jesus’ often repeated message to Saint Faustina was to trust in the great mercy of God. Each illness can be daunting to those who are close to the one who suffers, but it is in this setting that a well-formed caregiver can do so much to alleviate the mental anguish.

Our Lord said, “I have opened My heart as a living fountain of mercy.

Let all souls draw life from it. Let them approach this sea of mercy with great trust. Whoever places his trust in My mercy will be filled with My divine peace at the hour of death.”

Imagine the tremendous good that could come from someone at the bedside who sees with the love of Christ, who understands the open door of grace and the abiding peace that will come if the patient can simply make an act of faith.

Truly, it’s never too late to embrace God’s mercy. This is the beauty of our faith, and this is what happens when those who care for the body know the importance of his soul.

There is more information about this great resource for healthcare workers at www.thedivinemercy.org/ healthcare. Kindly remember them and those who suffer in your prayers, always trusting in the great mercy of God. Mrs. Kineke is the author of The Authentic Catholic Woman (Servant Books) and can be found online at www. feminine-genius.com

Bunny is a small plastic rabbit attached to a clamp-hook.

Press the blue button on his belly and six silly faces spin successively across his face.

If Funny Bunny fails to capture the attention of a child, this rabbit has an ace up the sleeve. Funny Bunny is attached to a plastic tube of florescent jelly beans. To a child, the jelly beans might seem huge, but these are the tiniest jelly beans I’ve ever seen.

If not the key chain, then the candy might be enough to send a child running off to its mother shouting, “Mommy, mommy, buy this! Buy me this!” The mother will buy it just to shut the kid up and avoid public embarrassment.

I put Funny Bunny in my basket. (Not only do I do exhaustive research of primary sources, but I also spare no expense.)

Who was sitting on the shelf next to Funny Bunny?

It was none other than my old friend Rubber Ducky of childhood bath time. But why had Rubber Ducky changed his name to Quacks the Yummy Ducky? Upon closer inspection, I found that Rubber Ducky is no longer made of rubber. He is now made of sugar. Does sugar float?

Rubber Ducky had become a “hollow milk-flavored candy duck.” The box carefully avoids the word “chocolate.”

He’s still yellow, though. By the way, he spells his name “Quax.” I put Quax in my basket, paid my $2 (plus tax), and went home to ponder the importance of Easter traditions in the home.

Traditional reminders of the seasons are important to me. I learned this in first grade, when Sister would decorate our classroom for the season. She had a mysterious walk-in closet filled with endless seasonal supplies. I was impressed. I was very impressed. To tell the truth, I paid much more attention to Sister’s seasonal

touches than I did to Sister’s teaching. Maybe that’s why I was expelled from first grade.

Although I now live in a rectory, it’s my domestic Church. The resident greyhounds don’t care what week it is, but I still crave a few reminders of the cycle of the seasons. It grounds me in the Liturgical calendar.

At Easter, eggs are paramount. This is not due to the fact that the hens are a-laying.

The egg is an ancient symbol.

It reminds Christians of new life emerging from the tomb. I like eggs (but I can’t eat many due to sky-high cholesterol).

The original Easter eggs were dyed blood-red, they say.

This was to remind us that the Resurrection followed the crucifixion. Both are part of the Paschal Mystery. Eventually, people began to decorate Easter eggs in colorful Christian symbols. King Edward I of England, in the year 1290, had 450 eggs gilded and painted as gifts to his court.

Czar Nicholas II took this to another level with bejeweled Fabergé eggs. I placed a glass bowl of pysanky, the colorful Ukrainian Easter eggs, on a table.

I also set out a Russian icon of the Resurrection. It serves as my prayer focus during Easter.

Lastly, I picked some daffodils from the yard. Flowers were the symbols of returning life to the ancient Greeks and Romans. Daffodils also reminds me I’m a cancer survivor.

I’m celebrating Easter week in traditional fashion.

My first-grade teacher would be proud. By the way, I ate “Quax” (bad cholesterol) and gave Funny Bunny to a child over the age of three (Funny Bunny has small moving parts, not to mention those tiny jelly beans).

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

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The Anchor

Have tools, will travel

April 29, 2011

thing is spoken so fast, so language was an unfortunate thing. There were wonderful people who translated. My WESTPORT — Seven years ago, only hurdle was trying to figure out Claire Sullivan sat in a pew of St. what I could contribute,” said BurkJohn the Baptist Parish in Westport holder. listening to Father Richard Donahue It didn’t take her long and the next preach about his ministry in Honduday, after attending a “joyous Mass,” ras. Inspired by what she heard, she Burkholder found herself sanding was put in touch with a group out of down bookshelves to be installed in a New Hampshire that made annual trips school. Even being back on U.S. soil to Honduras to help Father Donahue. has her mind wandering to Honduras Three trips later, Sullivan petitioned and ready to create a curriculum guide her parish council to hold an interest for all academic levels. meeting to see if parishioners from “They have a structure,” said BurkSt. John the Baptist, who have in the holder of the school system, “but they past 15 years contributed in excess of have to write their own materials.” a quarter of a million dollars to FaAs the youngest member of the ther Donahue’s ministry, would like group, 20-year-old Rachel Dufault celto form their own missionary group to ebrated her birthday on the trip, and travel to Honduras. used her nursing skills learned from “All you need to bring is the desire her studies as a nursing student at Simto do something for these people,” said mons College in Boston.

Sullivan to those who attended that in“It was definitely different. The terest meeting.

One of those who agreed to go was Anchor Persons of the Week — Father Richard Donahue (left) poses with only way to explain it is, it’s a totally different world,” said Rachel, who Richard Mancini, who admits he ar- members of St. John the Baptist Parish during a recent missionary trip. knew what to expect after hearing her rived in Honduras without knowing father talk about his past trips. Workwhere to begin. ing alongside a translator, Rachel liswe’ve done is so appreciated and the lighting, and did a lot of designing and “When we got there, we noticed a tened to children’s lungs, took blood people can benefit from a better way engineering for the people of the area. real need for construction,” said Manpressures and tested for diabetes. of life.”

Building on what they learned during cini. “When we hit the ground, we hit “Even Rachel, as a student, was Both men continue to make multiple the ground running, doing what work their first trip, the second trip down we could and accomplishing it with saw both men packing their two airline trips to Honduras outside of traveling able to provide something of value,” the money and the limited tools that maximum-allowed suitcases to the with the missionary group from St. John said Sullivan, herself a nurse.

“You realize how much people need the Baptist Parish. Working from lists that help prioritize their projects, the and whatever you can give will be apmen have installed lighting fixtures in preciated,” said Rachel.

Mancini and Dufault also felt that classrooms, repaired electrical panels, and done work on water and plumbing appreciation.

“The people are so warm. In the systems. Before each trip the men will itemize the cost of each project, from U.S., we tend to want things done for labor to a detailed inventory right down us or have the government do it for us,” said Mancini. “This is not the culto the nuts and bolts needed.

“Don and I make an excellent ture in Honduras; they help themselves team,” said Mancini. “We bounce off and each other. It’s a very friendly culture.” of one another, it’s just great.”

After working with two Honduran Their most recent trip this past November saw the men use donated funds men during their recent trip, Mancini to purchase electrical products to wire and Dufault decided to help sponsor a school that had been in use for 18 one of the men’s five-year-old daughmonths but had no electricity or run- ter’s schooling after hearing the little ning water. They also shipped almost girl profess her desire to become a 2,000 feet of pipe for electrical tubing doctor when she grew up. That makes that put in a 200-amp service, 69 light it a total of six children being sponfixtures, 133 outlets, and thousands of sored by members of the missionary feet of wire. Almost every item is pur- group.

During their next trip, Mancini and chased in the U.S. and is shipped to the Dufault hope to complete separate rest area.

“Anything of quality is very expen- rooms for the boys and girls of one of sive,” said Dufault, who did visit lo- the schools. In the meantime, the parcal vendors in Honduras when needed. ish continues to raise money while the “You have to know the right places to missionary members put their own go, sometimes in an area you will have money away to pay for next year’s trip. to go to five or six different ferretería The priorities of their list may be fluid, or hardware stores. They’re like little said Dufault, but the goals of helping mom-and-pop stores, and a lot of times those in need will stay the same.

“It’s time well spent,” said Dufault. they won’t have the right amount or For more information regarding exactly what you need.”

The men returned to Honduras this the missionary school projects being past March with the 15-member mission- done by Father Donahue, visit www.

IRISH STEP DANCERS ary group from St. John the Baptist Parish OlanchoAid.org To submit a Person of the Week that had individuals bringing their own expertise to the mission, including retired nominee, send an email with information to fatherrogerlandry@ English teacher Nancy Burkholder.

“I don’t speak Spanish and every- anchornews.org

By Becky Aubut Anchor Staff

we had.”

And a lot was accomplished: Mancini, working alongside fellow missionary Don Dufault, helped repair water towers, electrical wiring for

brim with tools while the clothes for their trip were stuffed into backpacks.

“There’s so much to do down there,” said Dufault. “It really doesn’t take much to make a big difference. What

The Anchor

April 29, 2011

To advertise in The Anchor, contact Wayne Powers at 508-675-7151 or Email waynepowers@anchornews.org Details: Jim & Nancy Colson 401-831-6016 or Beverly Crehan 401-828-4077

11

12 Weigel doesn’t go far enough George Weigel gives us an incomplete picture of the excesses of Spanish governments, both past and present, in his April 8 column “Spanish Showdown.”

Notably, he fails completely to mention the barbarian excesses of the fascist-style government that flourished under the late dictator, Francisco Franco. Franco was an admirer and political ally of both Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini and cruelly treated his own countrymen, even to the point of arranging for German Air Force bombers to practice their “skills” on Spanish cities in support of his military coup.

He used the Church in Spain for more than 50 years to help mask his dictatorial control of the country. Be it extreme left or extreme right, we get enough propaganda now. We do not need any more.

Peter Conroy Onset War to blame for Wisconsin union problems In George Weigel’s March 25 column entitled “The Church and the Unions,” he stated that the fiscal disaster was “a disaster caused in no small part by irresponsible politicians pandering to public-sector workers’ unions.” Let me quote from the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission’s website: The Commission “found widespread failures in financial regulation; dramatic breakdowns in corporate governance; excessive borrowing and risk-taking by households and Wall Street; policy makers who were ill-prepared for the crisis; and systemic breaches in accountability and ethics at all

The Anchor

April 29, 2011

Our readers respond

levels.” The least he should do is back his opinion with facts.

Where was his column criticizing the bankers for taking bonuses after running our economy into the ground? As far as leaving our children mountains of debt, where was his criticism of the waging of two wars without planning how to pay for them?

Where was his criticism of giving tax breaks to people who did not need them while still increasing the deficit? If selfishness is selfishness, it started eight years ago when we were advised by our then president to go out and shop after the terrorist attacks instead of having the entire country sacrifice for the war effort.

We should have had a tax to pay for the wars. That is when the deficit started.

Frances M. Winterson Taunton Mass. law on med schools I just read the story “Doctors and med school students spearheading new Pro-Life conversion” that appeared in the April 1 Anchor. Dr. Bruchalski and Dominique Monlezun Jr. are doing a wonderful job in witnessing the Pro-Life message to medical students. The article stated, however, that “any med student accepted to Harvard Medical School must agree to perform abortions as part of his or her training.” If this is in fact the case, it is contrary to Massachusetts law. Massachusetts General Law Chapter 112, Section 12 states: “The refusal of any person who has made application to a medical, premedical, nursing, social work, or psychology program in the Commonwealth to agree to counsel, suggest, recommend, assist, or in any way

participate in the performance of an abortion or sterilization contrary to his religious beliefs or moral convictions shall not form the basis for any discriminatory action against such person.”

Henry C. Luthin Attorney at Law Boston In support of all life In Father Tad Pacholczyk’s column, “Making Sense Out of Bioethics” on April 15, 2011, Father concentrated on abortion alone as the example of “cooperating immorally in evil” rather than addressing the whole issue of respect for life which includes the death penalty, euthanasia, and suicide. Perhaps he will address these issues at a later date.

Abortion is an important issue, but I feel the others are equally important if we as Catholics believe in the respect for all life.

Theresa Brosnan Barnstable

Father Landry replies: Father Tad spoke about abortion only as common examples to illustrate the principle of cooperation in evil. He has written several articles on euthanasia and assisted suicide that can be found on The Anchor website.

The death penalty is an issue of moral theology, not typically of bioethics, except perhaps when the discussion focuses on method.

Clean and tuned-up Your April 15 editorial on penance, love and hope was ex-

cellent. I recently heard a priest say that the most serious sin is the loss of a sense of sin. This is so true in our secular and relativistic world which says that the truth is a lie, and many lies are true. I also heard that one of Satan’s tools is that of deception.

For me, the school of sanctification the editorial described is needed to discern truth, and to follow Jesus.

I cannot stay clean on yesterday’s shower. My car will not run well if it has no tune-up. I cannot continue to strive for holiness if I neglect my spiritual tune-up through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Thank you for reminding us of this and the hope and forgiveness available to us all.

Margaret Dittami Sandwich

No concern for unborn What is the reason for President Barack Obama to continue to refuse taking out of Obama Care, defunding of Planned Parenthood facilities and to use our tax money for abortion?

Is it that he (the president) is not concerned about the millions of deaths of babies by abortion?

Is it that he is oblivious of the role that Planned Parenthood has with abortions? Does he not realize that our national debt could be reduced tremendously by taking these two items out of the budget?

Whatever the president’s reason, he is putting the economy of America in jeopardy.

President Obama sent our

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on WLNE Channel 6 Sunday, May 1, 11:00 a.m.

Celebrant is Father Jeff Cabral, a judge in the diocesan Tribunal Office

troops to Libya not long ago to save innocent lives. What about saving lives of the innocent babies, who will be American citizens of the future? Why would he not agree to compromise the above items when he would gain by it?

Let us pray for a stop to our out-of-control government spending.

Alice Beaulieu New Bedford Politicians should know the facts The letter “Good cause to defund” written by Doris Toohill in the April 8 edition of The Anchor was a shocking disclosure of our taxpayer dollars received by Planned Parenthood.

Many Democrats contend that cutting funds for Planned Parenthood would be sacrificing the health of women, depriving them from the health services they need. Planned Parenthood maintains that its focus is to provide infant and prenatal care to indigent women and children.

If this indeed is its sole function then let’s find a way to fund them for this purpose alone, for we all wish to help women get the health care they need.

We, the American taxpayers, should not fund them for their insidious practice of abortion, which is indeed its central covenant. Funds for this purpose should be obtained from the private sector. Those of us who decry this genocide of innocent lives should not be sustaining them with our tax dollars. By doing so we are sanctioning that which we staunchly denounce.

A major attempt to cut crazy spending in America would definitely be to defund Planned Parenthood of our taxpayer dollars for its senseless abortion practices.

I only hope and pray that all our politicians will become extremely aware of the facts as Doris Toohill has succinctly delineated in her letter.

Terry Herman Mashpee Letters are welcome but the editor reserves the right to condense or edit for clarity if deemed necessary. Letters should be typed, no longer than 100 words and should include name, address, and telephone number. Letters do not necessarily reflect the editorial views of The Anchor.

Letters should be sent to: The Anchor, Letters to the Editor, P.O. Box 7, Fall River, MA 02722-0007, or emailed to fatherrogerlandry@anchornews. org.

April 29, 2011

F

or the past few years, when a new class of Confirmation candidates begins its final year of preparation for the sacrament, I remind them of the four characteristics or qualities that the Acts of the Apostles (2:42) in Sunday’s reading speaks of to identify a member of the early Christian community. They are: devotion to the teaching of the Apostles; to the communal life; to the breaking of the bread; and to the prayers.

Today, we can ask ourselves, if those qualities are a part of your life and mine. Do they describe members of the Church today?

In the years immediately after the Resurrection of Jesus, the Bible, as we know it, had not yet been compiled. In order to come to know of Jesus, the early Christians gathered

To belong to Him and each other

to listen to the witness and All of us know how we have teaching of the Apostles, who been touched by other people’s were companions of Jesus; lives; how their personal witnesses to what He did and witness has been a source of said and taught, and to the inspiration to us! In communal Resurrection. They wanted to learn and know all they could about Him. You and I are so fortunate to have the writings of the Apostles and

By Father Brian disciples. May we always seek to learn J. Harrington more and more of Jesus and come to love Him. St. Jerome tells us “To know the Scriptures, life we know how important is to know the mind and heart it is to respond to the needs of of Jesus!” Am I devoted to the others. “What you did … you teaching of the Apostles? did for Me; what you failed to Am I devoted to the comdo … you failed to do for Me”! munal life of the Church?

Am I devoted to “the breakAm I there to walk with and ing of the bread?” As Catholic to support my brothers and people, it is in the Eucharist, sisters in their life of faith? “the Breaking of the Bread,”

that we become companions of Jesus (Latin: companio — literally one who breaks bread with another; Latin: com — with; panis — bread).

What an awesome line in one of the hymns we sing at Mass: “Here we become what we eat.” In the breaking of the bread, Jesus gives us the gift of Himself. What a magnificent gift! In the closing prayer of our funeral liturgy, we pray that “our loved one who shared in the Eucharist, comes to share in the Banquet of Life that Christ has prepared for us.”

Am I devoted to prayer?

Here again, St. Luke describes a characteristic of the members of the Church. Someone once wrote that “prayer is the over-

flow of one’s heart in the presence of that trusted someone.”

For Christians, that someone is the Lord. To be a person of prayer is to have a beautiful relationship with the Lord. To be in love with the Lord is to have Him as our companion, to talk to, to listen to, and to be at peace in His presence, to turn our lives over to Him. How beautifully the psalmist (46:10) speaks of the end result of prayer: “Be still and know that I am God!” May these four characteristics of the early Christian be ours today; may our faith in and love of and hope in the risen Lord grow ever deeper and stronger.

Father Harrington is the pastor at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Seekonk. He has served the Diocese of Fall River as a priest for 44 years.

the Catholic a grace-filled opportunity to offer prayer for oneself, for loved ones, and for the whole human race. Christ is with us during our illness and shares in our suffering as we share in His.” The Final Exit Network is a national, all-volunteer nonprofit. Members call doctorprescribed death “the ultimate right of the 21st century.”

They use the term “self deliverance.” Their website claims that competent adults with fatal, painful diseases should be able to end their lives when “their quality of life is personally unacceptable and the future holds only hopelessness and misery.”

The network provides information, which it calls an “exit guide,” that instructs individuals on how to end their lives. Before distributing the guide, the organization requires that individuals be cognitively functional, physically able to perform the required tasks and approved by the network’s medical director. They must also have an incurable condition, which “causes intolerable suffering.” The group attests that its organizers do not provide supplies and are not present at the individual’s time of death.

The network is the only organization in the United States that gives instructions to individuals who are not terminally ill. A patient is considered terminally ill when they have been told they have no more than six months to live.

The “right to die” movement has been successful in legalizing physician-assisted sui-

During the second stay he underwent a tracheotomy. In his final days, he suffered septic shock.

Avila called his witness “extraordinary.”

“How many people were

touched by the dignity that he expressed. That example will continue to reverberate down the ages. People will recount the story of his approach to death and dying,” he said.

Easter Reflection

Boston billboard promotes euthanasia continued from page one

death, and seeking to pass from this life at home surrounded by loved ones can be a great grace.”

Patients who are terminally ill and those who are suffering should be made as comfortable as possible. A patient may not refuse food and water as long as they provide benefit. They may need pain control and can receive “proper sacramental preparation” before their death, he said.

Father Pacholczyk made it clear that not all curative measures are necessary. In fact, sometimes they can interfere with patients accepting their imminent death.

“End-of-life planning must be patient-centered, seeking to assure that reasonable treatment options are available and utilized, while unreasonable or unduly burdensome treatment options are avoided,” he said.

“Patients should never be offered immoral choices, such as euthanasia or assisted suicide.”

The NCBC has published “A Catholic Guide to End-of-Life Decisions” that provides guidelines for making end-of-life decisions in good conscience and outlines the redemptive nature of suffering.

“The Catholic, with a deep faith in Jesus Christ, may not be able to understand his suffering, but he knows he can offer it up as a powerful prayer,” the guide says. “By virtue of our being made one with Christ in Baptism, we can join our suffering to that of Our Savior on the cross at Calvary and thereby assist in His work of salvation for the entire world. The suffering of illness and dying brings

13

The Anchor

cide in Oregon in 1994 and in Montana and Washington State last year. The effort to legalize doctor-prescribed death in Vermont has been going on for years. Newly sworn-in Gov. Peter Shumlin has vowed to be Vermont’s first governor to sign a physician-assisted suicide bill into law.

Daniel Avila, the outgoing associate director for policy and research for the Massachusetts Catholic Conference, the bishops’ public policy arm, said there has been a “tremendous amount of resistance” from Vermont citizens worried about the impact the law would have on the elderly and those with disabilities.

“The concern is that once you make a particular class of persons eligible for death that you are in fact targeting that class as worthy of dying. Their lives have less value in the eyes of the state and the law,” he told The Anchor.

Such a law tips the balance against the safety, security and autonomy of the ill and disabled. In addition, medicine is not an exact science. Doctors make mistakes, and patients can receive the wrong prognosis, he said.

Avila went on to say that patients have the right to compassionate care and treatment that “does not presume that individuals are better off dead.”

In the last years of his life, Pope John Paul II suffered from Parkinson’s disease, which caused him to shake uncontrollably. He had difficulty speaking and walking. He was hospitalized in February and March of 2005.

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The Anchor

Diocesan priests recall the thrill of meeting Pope John Paul II continued from page one

made the Sign of the Cross, and offered a blessing.

“On May 1, we will share the joy of the Church when Pope Benedict XVI declares Pope John Paul II to be among the ‘Blessed.’

Through the intercession of Blessed John Paul II, may the Lord continue to grant His blessings upon the Church and upon our local Church of Fall River.”

As General Secretary of the then National Conference of Catholic Bishops from 1983 to 1989, Msgr. Daniel F. Hoye, now pastor of Christ the King Parish in Mashpee, would meet with Pope John Paul II twice a year. “We would discuss various issues of mutual interest,” Msgr. Hoye told The Anchor. “Generally we would meet in his library. I vividly remember the first meeting in 1983. Archbishop John R. Roach was the president and he and I met with the pope. I thought to myself, ‘What am I doing here?’ I could not believe I was sitting across from the pope.”

Recalling other close encounters, Msgr. Hoye said, “On several occasions we would have a meal in the papal apartments with the pope and his two secretaries. I remember one conversation at his dining room table that involved a briefing on his upcoming trip to South Carolina. We told him this was the heart of the Bible Belt.

The pope said, ‘I know what is Bible and I know what is belt, but what is Bible Belt?’”

Msgr. Hoye accompanied the pope on that 1987 U.S. visit. “I was concelebrating the Mass in Miami when, much to his chagrin, the pope had to stop the Mass after the Liturgy of the Word because the security detail feared lightning strikes,” said the monsignor. “The pope finished the Mass in the living room of a trailer that served as his sacristy. I think that was a first!”

Msgr. Hoye added that Sunday’s beatification “is an historic event for the Church. I am sure it will be a wonderful opportunity for all of us to recall his teachings, his example, and his courage.”

Msgr. Stephen J. Avila, pastor of St. Mary’s Parish in Mansfield, was a seminarian studying in Rome in October of 1978. “Each day, after class and in the evening, my friends and I would stand with the crowd awaiting the ‘smoke signal’ which would rise from a small smokestack coming from the Sistine Chapel, announcing the results of each ballot for the papal election,” Msgr. Avila shared with The Anchor. “For several days, the billowing smoke was black, there was no decision. On the evening of October 16, I stood with some friends underneath the main balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica and witnessed the ‘white smoke’ announcing the election of a new

pontiff. We knew not to move from that spot underneath the balcony because the best was yet to come.

About an hour later, the doors of the balcony opened and the announcement was made: ‘Habemus Papam’ (‘we have a pope’). The name of the newly-elected successor of Peter was read: ‘Karol Wojtyla.’ A stunned hush came over the crowd, and then someone yelled out ‘È polacco’ ‘He’s Polish!’ It was the first non-Italian pope since 1523. The name chosen by Cardinal Wojtyla was then proclaimed: Joannes Paulus II. The crowd burst into a huge and prolonged cheer. The square filled with an overflow of people trying to get their first glimpse of the new pope. A few moments later, Pope John Paul II appeared on the balcony to give his first blessing to the city and to the world.”

Also as a seminarian, Msgr.

Avila had the privilege of providing the music at a Mass celebrated

by Pope John Paul II at the North American College in Rome, as a pianist in the contemporary music group. “Following the Mass, the Holy Father joined us for dinner,” the monsignor continued. “As student coordinator for the college, it was also a great honor to formally welcome Pope John Paul II on behalf of the seminarians.”

Msgr. Avila had several meetings with the pope, as a seminarian and as secretary to then-Bishop of Fall River Sean O’Malley. “One audience that I was scheduled to go to was on Wednesday afternoon, May 13, 1981,” Msgr. Avila said.

“I was running late for the beginning of the audience, but decided to go anyway. On the way down the Gianicolo Hill from the college heading toward St. Peter’s Square, I was met with a huge number of people running from the vicinity of St. Peter’s, very agitated and crying ‘The Pope has been shot.’

I returned to the college and followed the events on Vatican radio.

“My final personal encounter with Pope John Paul II was in 2000. I had recently been honored by the Holy Father as a papal chamberlain, or monsignor, the previous year. Once again, after the pope had celebrated Mass in his private chapel, I was brought to his private study, and along with a few other people, had the opportunity to meet briefly with the Pope John Paul II. Different from the earlier meetings when he would approach everyone waiting to meet him, because of his worsening infirmity, he sat in his chair and one by one we approached him. He was having obvious difficulty speaking, but with a surprising still strong handshake and bright eyes, greeted me and offered me his blessing.

“As I raise my chalice during Mass each day, I remember in

prayer Pope John Paul II, who first used this chalice in the celebration of Mass in his private chapel on April 9, 1981. I thank God for his example and witness which has been a source of great inspiration and spiritual reflection in my years of formation and as a young priest and is one of the great blessings of my priesthood.”

Father Jay T. Maddock, pastor of Holy Name Parish in Fall River was a priest for three years when John Paul II was elected. “I was privileged to be in St. Peter’s Square when the announcement was made that a new pope had been elected,” he said. “He was the first non-Italian pope in more than 450 years. That historic fact, together with the youth and vitality of the new pope, created a special atmosphere in the square that night.”

Through the years Father Maddock had several occasions to be in JPII’s presence, in Rome and in the U.S. at the Masses at the Los Angeles Colosseum and Dodger Stadium in 1987.

In 1988, while in Rome with Father Leonard Mullaney, Father Maddock received the phone call of a lifetime. “I received a call inviting me to concelebrate with the pope the next morning,” Father Maddock told The Anchor. “It was a day I will never forget. We met at 6 a.m. at the Basilica and were escorted by the Swiss Guard upstairs and into the private chapel. There we saw John Paul II kneeling in prayer as went to the sacristy to vest for Mass. Remembering how as a priest, I am often asked to pray for people and special intentions, I could only imagine the intensity of the prayers John Paul II must have been offering that day and every day of his papacy. After Mass, we were escorted to the next room and the Holy Father came around and spoke with each of us, giving us a beautiful set of Rosary beads.

“In June of 2000, 17 of my classmates and I were in Rome to celebrate the 25th anniversary of our ordination to the priesthood. As part of that celebration, we were able to attend Pope John Paul’s weekly audience. At the end of the audience, thanks to the kindness of Archbishop James Harvey [of Milwaukee, the Prefect of the Papal Household, and a classmate of Father Maddock], we were all able to meet individually with the pope and receive his blessing. By this time, his health was starting to fail, yet he still took the time to greet us and to pose for a ‘group photo’ with our class.”

Perhaps the priestly path of Father Jon-Paul Gallant, pastor of St. Theresa of the Child Jesus Parish in South Attleboro, runs most parallel with JPII. Father Gallant was ordained to the priesthood in 1978, a few

April 29, 2011 months before the election of Karol Wojtyla as the Catholic Church’s 265th pope.

“As John Paul II became famous, many people asked me if I had been named after him and when I replied that I thought he had been named after me, people were naturally surprised and shocked,” quipped Father Gallant. In the first three months of his priesthood, Father Gallant said “the Church had three popes, two of whom had chosen the name John Paul. Many of my priest friends joked that I must have made some impression in Rome as not one but two popes took ‘my name.’”

Father Gallant had the pleasure of concelebrating the 7 a.m. Mass in the Holy Father’s private chapel several times during his pontificate.

“The last time I spoke with the Holy Father was in 2003 when I traveled to Rome to celebrate my 25th anniversary as a priest,” recalled Father Gallant. A half-dozen of Father Gallant’s classmates and he were received in a private audience. “The years wore heavily on the Holy Father,” he added. “His hand trembled, his voice was weak, the world and the Church had changed, and not always for the better. He took a few moments to focus on this group of middle-aged American priests, and then, with those famous blue eyes, he smiled and challenged us. He reminded us that we shared his 25th anniversary as pope, but that we had many more years of service ahead. The world needs good priests, he said, ‘So you be good priests.’ He blessed us and said goodbye.”

On Sunday, Father Gallant will be giving first Communion to 35 boys and girls in his parish. “I think Blessed John Paul II would approve,” he said.

Father Richard Wilson, pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish at St. James Church in New Bedford, was an 11-year-old student in the Quincy Public School System when JPII visited Boston in 1979.

The public schools gave the children the day off for the papal visit.

“My family and I spent several hours waiting on Day Boulevard, along the beach in South Boston,” said Father Wilson. “It was very exciting when the pope drove by, standing in the sunroof of a limo. I felt as if he looked at as many people as possible right in the eye to communicate his concern for us.”

Father Wilson was in Rome in 1993 studying at the North American College. Bishop O’Malley and his secretary Msgr. John J. Oliveira were there for an ad limina visiti.

They brought the young seminarian to visit the pope at Castel Gandolfo, where he was vacationing.

“The Holy Father offered Mass for the various entourages from New England in the courtyard of the papal palace there in that suburb of Rome. He then went from group to group to greet and take pictures

with those of us in attendance,” Father Wilson told The Anchor.

“When he came upon our small Fall River group, he greeted each one of us by hand. When I greeted him by kissing his ring, I was so amazed that I could not get any words out of my mouth. He was very kind and attentive.”

“The next time I met the Holy Father was when my class at the North American College was brought to the Vatican to greet him. I don’t remember what the occasion was, but we were told to just tell him where we were from. I told him ‘Fall River,’ and he asked me, ‘Florida?’ And I replied, ‘No, Fall River.’ And then he said, ‘Oh, near Providence.’”

When Father William Rodrigues, a parochial vicar at Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St. John the Baptist parishes in New Bedford, was in Rome studying theology, he was told,“If you ever get a chance to attend a papal audience or meet the pope, don’t ever pass it up, because we are not sure that he has much longer to live.”

Father Rodrigues did get to meet the Holy Father. “When I met Pope John Paul II personally, it was to attend his morning Mass in his private chapel. When we entered, His Holiness was kneeling in prayer.

There was an intensity about him in that moment, as I recall, with a ray of light, even, shining upon him.

In the receiving line, following the Mass, he asked me where I was from. I told him, ‘the Diocese of Fall River,’ and he said, ‘in Massachusetts.’ He handed me a Rosary.

It was a gesture that reflected his love for the Blessed Mother.”

Reflecting on what made Pope John Paul II so inspiring, Father Rodrigues said, “He demonstrated dignity and grace throughout his years-long struggle with physically deteriorating illness. He was an inspiration to all of us in our own sufferings.”

As a first-year seminarian in Rome, Father Rodney Thibault, currently the administrator at St. John Neumann Parish in East Freetown, was entertaining his mother and father in April of 1998.

“While enjoying one another’s company, the phone in my room rang,” recalled Father Thibault. “I answered and quickly discovered that the voice on the other line was speaking far too quickly for my first-year Italian. When the voice on the other line finally stopped, I asked if she could repeat but do so very slowly as my comprehension of the Italian language was still in its infancy. And so she did.

She told me that she was from the Vatican switchboard and that my parents and I were invited to attend Holy Mass the following morning in the Pope’s Chapel. I thought that I was dreaming but come to find out, I was not. Needless to say, after I made public the announceContinued on page 15

April 29, 2011 Continued from page 14

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The Anchor

ment, the room erupted and the excitement only intensified.

“The following morning, my parents and I made our way to the ‘Bronze Doors’ where we were greeted and led into a hallway right outside of the pope’s chapel. As we waited to be led into the chapel, the three of us were so excited. We

were going to be in a small chapel with His Holiness, Pope John Paul II. Msgr. Stanislaw Dziwisz who was the pope’s private secretary (now the Cardinal Archbishop of Krakow) approached me and asked if I would do the reading that morning at Mass. ‘Would I? Of course.’ As Monsignor turned to walk away, I called back and

asked in what language I would be proclaiming God’s Word that morning. ‘Polacco!’ He responded. ‘Polish!’ He then walked off with a grin on his face with my having turned ashen! When he returned with the English lectionary, my mind was put at ease!

“After Mass was done, the 25 or so attendees were lead into a

small library adjacent to the chapel when in walked His Holiness to greet us. My parents and I were placed at the end of the line and the Holy Father personally greeted us and thanked my mother for giving the Church a priest.”

Father Maddock summed up his visit and countless others saying, “I feel very blessed to have had

those special encounters with Pope John Paul II over the years. He was surely chosen by God to lead the Church for that long period of time and I can only imagine the countless numbers of people whose lives he touched during the years of his papacy and before, must be rejoicing that he is now beatified for the holiness of his life.”

Close encounters of the spiritual kind

Msgr. Daniel F. Hoye, then the General Secretary of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, meets with Pope John Paul II in 1986. With them is Bishop James Malone of Youngstown, Ohio, the then-president of the conference.

Father Jon-Paul Gallant meets with Pope John Paul II in this undated photograph. Father Gallant, who was ordained in 1978, the same year JPII became pope, was often teased by classmates about how two popes selected his name that year.

Msgr. Stephen J. Avila with his parents meet Pope John Paul II at a general audience the day before the monsignor’s ordination to deaconate on April 16, 1980.

Father William Rodrigues shares a special moment with the Holy Father in this undated photograph.

May 13, 1981 was a day no Catholic alive at the time will forget. It was the day an assassination attempt was made on Pope John Paul II in St. Peter’s square. In this photo, bought by Msgr. Stephen J. Avila shortly after, the pope is shown shaking hands and to his left (inset) is an image of the gun shortly before it was fired.

Father Rodney E. Thibault has a personal encounter with Pope John Paul II in 1998 when he was still a seminarian. Father Thibault had the privilege of giving one of the readings at a Mass celebrated by the Holy Father.

This is the ticket for admittance to the May 13, 1981 audience which Msgr. Stephen J. Avila had as he was heading to St. Peter’s Square when an assassination attempt was made on the Holy Father.

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Youth Pages

soup’s on — Father David Costa, chaplain at Bishop Feehan High School, Attleboro, recently sold soup and bread in the school cafeteria to students to raise awareness and funds for Haitian relief and Lenten sacrifice. The lunch raised more than $236. As part of their continued Lenten efforts to focus on Haitian relief, students recently raised an additional $5,100 as part of an optional “dress down” day, when students paid $5 to dress out of uniform for the day. From left, freshman Kiley O’Donnell receives a bowl of soup from Andrea Luongo, Liam Firth, and Sam Yoder. Father Costa is at right.

a good sport — The Catholic Youth Futsal League recently held its annual awards banquet at Whites of Westport. Jacob Roussel of SS. Peter and Paul School in Fall River received the “It’s Just A Game Award,” presented to a player who has demonstrated the highest standards of sportsmanship and teamwork. From left: Jacob and his mother and coach Kristen Roussel.

April 29, 2011

age-old tradition — The middle school division at St. John the Evangelist School in Attleboro partook in a Seder meal as part of the Easter Triduum. The students participated in the meal preparation and the readings to highlight the Jewish feast. Here sixth-graders Katherine Nelson and Timothy Fortin participate.

in remembrance of jesus — Students in grade four and Kindergarten at All Saints Catholic School in New Bedford followed the Stations of the Cross as part of their pre-Easter observance. Students fashioned the stations with pastels on tracings.

April 29, 2011

W

e’ve all heard it. Admit it. We have heard the clichéd phrases, “Teenagers today!” or “Teen-agers have no respect!” or (my personal favorite) “Teen-agers just don’t care!” They are clichéd phrases and stereotypical comments often made by frustrated adults who cannot or do not know how to see past the teen angst to truly appreciate their unique gifts and talents. Yes, my adult friends, they do have unique gifts and talents.

Each year, I am amazed by them.

Each year, I am awestruck by them.

Each year, I am so proud of them.

Each year, we celebrate and honor them.

As a Church, during this Easter Octave, we reflect and celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. While we ponder His Resurrection and what it meant and continues to mean for our own sal-

Youth Pages

17

Looking up to youth

vation, we are also reminded servers and assistant catethat as faithful, faith-filled chists the most common. But and Christ-centered Cathoover the years, the number lics, we are called to live and of youth involved in other spread His Good News. And ministries such as lectors, exon May 18, we will come totraordinary ministers of Holy gether as a diocese at the Ca- Communion, peer ministry thedral of St. Mary the Assumption, to honor the 58 young men and women who have committed themselves to spread the Gospel message at perhaps

By Crystal Medeiros one of the most trying and stressful times of their young lives — adolescence. leaders, and music minisTeens, from Nantucket to ters only name a few. Some Attleboro, will come together serve on their Parish Pastoral for an evening of prayer and Council where they speak will be awarded the St. Pius their minds on behalf of the X Youth Award. For the last youth voice of the parish. decade, extraordinary teens The teens of our diocese who understand their baptistruly live out St. Paul’s call mal call to follow Christ in to Timothy, “Let no one discipleship and mission have despise your youth, but set received the award. They the believers an example have committed themselves in speech and conduct, in to their parish in various life, in faith, in purity. Do areas of ministry with altar not neglect the gift that is

Be Not Afraid

a security blanket — Students from the Kids in Christ and EDGE programs at St. Julie Billiart Parish in North Dartmouth recently came together to make baby blankets to distribute to local shelters and various social services. In all, 27 students participated in the project.

in you, which was given to you through prophecy with the laying on of hands by the council of elders,” (1 Tm 4:12-14). Despite their youth, the teens of our diocese are making it known that they are current and active participants in their parishes. However, there are many youth who will not be honored among the 58 at the cathedral on May 18 and whose commitment to their own parishes should not go unnoticed. Although there is no way to honor every teen, perhaps during the month of May parishioners can take special note of in the youth who are involved and recognize and affirm them for their participation.

And if there are no youth visibly involved, take a moment or two to find out why. Perhaps there are teens who simply need a personal invitation to become a more

active member in the parish. For youth involvement in the parishes will only continue to grow so long as the adults surrounding them encourage and advocate for them to do so. Teens often just need a little push out of the comfort of their own nest to realize that they have something remarkable to contribute to the community life of the parish.

This year’s St. Pius X recipients should be looked up to as the active participants they are and admired for that. But let us also remember those who will not be recognized at the cathedral next month and recognize them in our own parishes.

Look up to them as the young leaders and disciples they are — and dare to be inspired by them!

Crystal is assistant director for Youth & Young Adult Ministry for the diocese. She can be contacted at cmedeiros@dfrcec.com.

from cover to cover — Our Lady of Lourdes School in Taunton recently sponsored a community reading hour. Mr. Buckley, a parent volunteer, read several stories to the students during the session.

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The Anchor

April 29, 2011

The Beatification of Pope John Paul II: Televised coverage As the Catholic Church celebrates the beatification of Blessed Pope John Paul II, Saturday, April 30 through Monday, May 2, the CatholicTV Network will provide coverage from Rome and the Vatican.

On Saturday, April 30 at 8 p.m., the network will air a special vigil from Circus Maximus in Rome.

Join pilgrims from around the world and see a video message from Pope Benedict XVI during this broadcast on the eve of the beatification.

On Sunday, May 1, as part of CatholicTV’s Divine Mercy Sunday broadcasts, the beatification Mass for Pope John Paul II will air at noon and 8 p.m. Pope Benedict XVI will preside at the Mass in St. Peter’s Square.

Below is the schedule for Sunday May 1, Divine Mercy Sunday (all times Eastern): Interview with Pope John Paul II’s biographer George Weigel (9 a.m.)

“The Pope in America” highlights from Pope John Paul II’s visits to the United States produced

by Kevin Nelson (11 a.m. and 6 p.m.)

“Be Not Afraid” special program on the passing of Pope John Paul II narrated by Jay Fadden with footage from Steve Sasso recorded during Sede Vacante in 2005 (11:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m.)

Beatification of Pope John Paul II (noon and 8 p.m.)

Chaplet of Divine Mercy (3 p.m. every day) “Songs about Divine Mercy” by Angelina (3:20 p.m.)

“The Message of Divine Mercy” (3:30 p.m.)

Monday, May 2: From St. Peter’s Square, Thanksgiving Mass pre-

sided over by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, secretary of state, Vatican City. (noon and 8 p.m.)

The Vigil and Masses will be available at the special “Papal Programming” page at Your Catholic Broadband Network: www.CatholicTV.com/PopeJohn-Paul-II. Enjoy original CatholicTV productions on the beloved former pope on demand.

Coverage on EWTN Sun., May 1 at 1 a.m.: “The Young John Paul II — Witness To Evil” With insights from childhood friends, historians, and biographers, this docudrama explores the young adult years of Pope John Paul II focusing on his experiences during World War II. Sun., May 1 at 2:30 a.m. (live) and 8 p.m. (replay): “Beatification of Pope John Paul II” Pope Benedict XVI presides at the Rite of Beatification for Pope John Paul II from St. Peter’s Square.

EWTN news anchor Raymond Arroyo hosts special live coverage of this historic event.

Sun., May 1 at 2 p.m.: “Pope John Paul II: In The Heart of History” John Paul II is an extraordinary man who has deeply touched the lives of many during his pontificate. The program shows us the many ways that he has spread the Gospel of Our Lord throughout the world.

Mon., May 2 at 4:30 a.m. (live) and 5:30 p.m. (replay): “Mass of Thanksgiving in Honor of the Beatification of Pope John Paul II” A Mass of Thanksgiving from St. Peter’s Square, presided by Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B.

Diocese opens 70th Catholic Charities Appeal campaign continued from page one

PROUD PAPA — Pope John Paul II blesses the crowd during Mass in Chicago’s Grant Park during his October 1979 visit to the United States. (CNS photo by Chris Sheridan)

Visit The Anchor online at http://www.anchornews.org

Our Lady’s Monthly Message From Medjugorje April 25, 2011

Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina “Dear children! As nature gives the most beautiful colors of the year, I also call you to witness with your life and to help others to draw closer to my Immaculate Heart, so that the flame of love for the Most High may sprout in their hearts. I am with you and I unceasingly pray for you that your life may be a reflection of Heaven here on earth.

“Thank you for having responded to my call.”

Spiritual Life Center of Marian Community One Marian Way Medway, MA 02053 • Tel. 508-533-5377 Paid advertisement

funded by the Appeal. Included under its umbrella of services are emergency and transitional housing facilities, housing retention, food pantry sponsorship and support, basic and emergency needs, infant foster care and adoption, parent/school crisis intervention, immigrant and refugee assistance and an Office for Persons with Disabilities.

Among other programs and offices supported by the Catholic Charities Appeal are hospital chaplaincy, campus ministry, family life programs, faith formation, youth ministry and CYO, the Television Mass, respect life endeavors and summer day camp for handicapped children.

In his message on the Appeal Bishop Coleman indicated that as the economic recession continues to linger, more and more families and individuals approach the Church for assistance.

“They look to us to provide and help maintain critical services,” said the bishop.

While understanding that sacrifice is required, Bishop Coleman also pointed out the need for charity and charitable giving.

“We all face difficult decisions about how to spend our money. Yet we know that part of living out our Christian faith includes the practice of charity and charitable giving. We know of our responsibility to show mercy

and share our blessings with the less fortunate,” he said.

Diocesan Development Director Michael Donly believes that the bruising economy of the last few years has created a new group of men, women and families in need.

“They are the ones who have been foreclosed on, have lost their jobs, and had their hours cut at work,” he explained.

“They now find themselves in situations they never dreamed could happen to them. They are in need but are often embarrassed to ask for help. It’s important for the Catholic Charities Appeal to provide resources to assist them.”

Donly underscored that the Catholic Charities Appeal is the one and only time during the year when the diocese asks for financial help to fund its charitable programs, which are open to anyone regardless of creed, race, nationality, gender, or economic status.

He also called attention to the low expense ratio of the Catholic Charities Appeal: 94 cents of every dollar contributed goes to programs and agencies and only six cents goes to administrative costs.

Last year, the Catholic Charities Appeal raised $4,299,375.14, the second highest total in its history. Echoing Bishop Cassidy

some 69 years earlier, Bishop Coleman said: “The people in the Diocese of Fall River have once again demonstrated a spirit of sacrifice and a true desire to share with their neighbors.”

The 2011 Catholic Charities Appeal will run through June 21. Additional information is available on the Catholic Charities website, www.frdioccatholiccharities.org, including a new video with testimonies from those who have been helped

by Appeal-funded services, an audio message from Bishop Coleman, a listing of services and ministries, and a statement of revenue and expenditures from the 2010 Appeal.

The latest issue of Sharing, the newsletter of the diocesan Development Office, features much of that information as well and is available at all parishes in the diocese.

Contributions to the Catholic Charities Appeal may be made either through a onetime donation or through a pledge, which can be paid over 10 months. Donations can be dropped off at any parish in the diocese, made through the Appeal website, or mailed to the Catholic Charities Appeal Office, P.O. Box 1470, Fall River, Mass., 02722. Contact that office at 508-675-1311 with any questions.

April 29, 2011

Vatican newspaper enters cyberspace Vatican City (CNA/ EWTN News) — For the first time ever the Vatican newspaper will now provide a daily news service in English.

Up until now L’Osservatore Romano has only printed a weekly English edition. Its daily edition meanwhile has always been in Italian. But now the Vatican’s semi-official paper has launched a new website aimed at providing constantly updated coverage in English and Italian.

The newspaper says it eventually wants to expand the languages available online to include German, Spanish, French, Polish and Portuguese. However, these offerings would only be updated weekly.

L’Osservatore Romano — “The Roman Observer” in English — is currently marking its 150th year of existence. It was launched in 1861 to defend the Papal States against the Italian political radical Giuseppe Garibaldi in his bid to subsume the pope’s territories into a newlyunified Italy. The paper’s ownership was independent of the Church up until 1885 when the Vatican acquired it during the reign of Pope Leo XIII. The new website is currently free but will require a subscription by the end of August. The website address is www.osservatoreromano.va

In Your Prayers Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks April 30 Rev. John A. Hurley, Pastor, St. Mary, North Attleboro, 1900 Rev. David F. Sheedy, Pastor, St. John Evangelist, Attleboro, 1930 Rev. John Moda, Pastor, St. Mary’s Ukrainian Catholic Church, Ford City, Pa., 1993 May 1 Rev. Francis J. Quinn, Founder, Immaculate Conception, North Easton; Founder, Sacred Heart, Fall River, 1882 Rev. Joseph F. D’Amico, Pastor, Sacred Heart, Oak Bluffs, 1996 Rev. Walter A. Sullivan, Pastor, St. Mary, South Dartmouth, 1997 May 2 Rt. Rev. Msgr. M.P. Leonidas Lariviere, Pastor, St. Jean Baptiste, Fall River, 1963 May 5 Rev. Leo M. Curry, Retired Pastor, St. Dominic, Swansea, 1973 Rev. Albert Rowley, SS.CC., in residence, St. Francis Xavier, Acushnet, 1985 Rev. Raymond A. Robida, Catholic Memorial Home, Fall River, 2003 May 6 Rev. Thomas P. Elliott, Founder, St. Mary, Mansfield, 1905 Rev. Asdrubal Castelo Branco, Retired Pastor, Immaculate Conception, New Bedford, 1980 Rev. Ernest E. Blais, Pastor, Notre Dame de Lourdes, Fall River, 1994

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The Anchor Eucharistic Adoration in the Diocese

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

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

Around the Diocese 4/30

“Spring into Health,” a health fair presented by the parish nursing ministries of St. Anthony Parish, East Falmouth; Our Lady of Victory Parish, Centerville; and Christ the King Parish, Mashpee will be held tomorrow from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Christ the King Parish Hall in Mashpee. The fair is open to the public and will include free screenings and presentations on hearing, blood pressure and CPR with doctors, pharmacists and nurses. For directions or more information, visit www.christthekingparishparish.com.

Brewster — Eucharistic adoration takes place in the La Salette Chapel in the lower level of Our Lady of the Cape Church, 468 Stony Brook Road, on First Fridays following the 11 a.m. Mass until 7:45 a.m. on the First Saturday, concluding with Benediction and Mass.

4/30

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.

5/1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

HYANNIS — A Holy Hour with eucharistic adoration will take place each First Friday at St. Francis Xavier Church, 347 South Street, beginning immediately after the 12:10 p.m. Mass and ending with adoration at 4 p.m.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Benediction.

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

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

The Catholic Women’s Club of Christ the King Parish, Mashpee, will host an Italian Night tomorrow in the parish hall. Cocktails will be served at 5 p.m. followed by dinner at 6 p.m. featuring Chef Roland with accordion music by Ray Caviccio. For tickets or more information call Joanna at 508-495-1233.

A celebration of the Feast of Divine Mercy will take place Sunday at Corpus Christi Parish, 324 Quaker Meeting House Road, East Sandwich, beginning at 2:40 p.m. The celebration will include songs of praise, exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, chanting the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, readings from St. Faustina’s diary, and Benediction. For more information call 508-888-0209.

5/1

St. Mary’s Parish, Fairhaven will host a Spring Buffet Breakfast Sunday. Share in the delight of a May Day buffet of plain and blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs, baked ham, sausage, homemade potatoes, fruit cup, juice and coffee while visiting with family, friends and neighbors. Tickets are available after all weekend Masses and at the rectory during business hours. For more information call 508-992-7300 or visit www.sscc.org/stmaryfhvn.

5/2

Saint Anne’s Hospital in Fall River will host the American Cancer Society’s “Look Good ... Feel Better” on May 2 from 2 to 4 p.m. “Look Good ... Feel Better” is a free program that teaches cancer patients hands-on cosmetic techniques to help them cope with appearance-related side effects from chemotherapy and/or radiation treatments. Wig care, scarf and hat use, skin and nail care will all be discussed and all participants will receive a free make-up kit. To register or for more information call 508-674-5600, extension 2515.

5/6

The Fall River area Men’s First Friday Club will meet May 6 at the Parish of the Good Shepherd, 1598 South Main Street, Fall River. Following the 6 p.m. Mass celebrated by Father Freddie Babiczuk there will be a hot meal in the church hall. The guest speaker is Robert Gagnon, a WWII prisoner of war. Any gentleman wishing to attend may do so. Call Norman Valiquette at 508672-8174 for guest seat reservations or with any questions.

5/12

The Divorced and Separated Support Group of the diocese will continue the second part of its series on “Marriage Breakdown” on May 12 beginning at 7 p.m. in the parish center of St. Julie Billiart Church, 494 Slocum Road, North Dartmouth. The evening will include a screening of the video “When Parents Break Up” to be followed by group discussion. For more information call 508-678-2828, 508-9930589 or 508-673-2997.

5/13

International singing star Tatiana Cameron Tajci (pronounced “Tai-Chi”) will perform an inspirational concert titled “I Do Believe” at Corpus Christi Parish, East Sandwich, on May 13 at 7 p.m. For tickets or more information call 508-888-2740 or visit www.idobelieve.com.

6/4

Spend the day as a family at the Family Rosary Retreat sponsored by Holy Cross Family Ministries at Boston College High School, 150 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston June 4 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The full day includes workshops for all age groups, keynote speakers, eucharistic adoration, Mission Rosary and Vigil Mass.

Families that register before Mother’s Day get a gift card to give to mom. For information or to register call 508-283-4095 or 800-299-7729 or visit www.familyrosary.org/retreat.

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he Church’s attention is obviously focused on Rome this Sunday for the beatification of the beloved Pope John Paul II. It’s a great day for all Catholics.

I consider myself very fortunate to have had Karol Wojtyla as pope for most of my adult life. In that way, I truly got the opportunity to appreciate the man, the priest, the pope.

JPII was elected pope on Oct. 16, 1978. Denise and I were married on Oct. 27, 1978 (and thanks to Bucky Dent, I didn’t have to worry about how I was going to watch the Red Sox in the World Series at our wedding reception).

In my library of books, it’s a very close call as to who occupies the most space on my shelves — Pope John Paul II or the Red Sox. My collection is very eclectic.

There’s one book on my shelves that I treasure a great deal ... even more than those on the 2004 World Series! The book is a picture book (my favorite kind — they’re best for writing book reports). It wasn’t a best-seller or on anyone’s top 10 list, but to me it holds an invaluable treasure — images of John Paul II through the years of his papacy.

The Anchor

April 29, 2011

A walk with John Paul II

Most of us remember JPII JPII waving to the throngs in St. in the final years of his life. The Peter’s Square from the balcony hunched, painful figure of a man. of St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 16, The slurred speech, the drooling, 1978, shortly after he was elected and the emotionless countenance pope at the vibrant age of 58. It on his face. There’s no question that our beloved pope gave dignity and grace to suffering and death. For that he will always be remembered. But he’s no longer that figure.

I picture him now as that

By Dave Jolivet athletic, square-jawed, grinning man who was everybody’s grandfather, father, uncle, brother, and friend. was a face that lit up the world.

It warms my heart to rememThere’s a photo of the young ber John Paul II that way. That’s pope on a boat traveling on the the image I saw for a good two Amazon River. He looks right at decades. home leaning over the railing with I took out my picture book, wind-blown hair and a broad grin.

“John Paul II — A Light For the There’s a photo of him shaking World,” published in 2003 by hands with his would-be assassin, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Mehmet Ali Agca in 1983, two Bishops. It was a wonderful walk years after Agca fired a bullet into down memory lane with one of the JPII on May 13, 1981. The pope greatest pontiffs ever. has one hand on Agca’s shoulder I’d like to share some of my fa- while the other pumps a handvorite photos here, but the problem shake. Agca looks very peaceful. is narrowing them down to fit my There are countless photos of allotted space this week. But, here JPII planting a kiss on the forehead goes, as I leaf from front to back. of a toddler, and I don’t see any of Of course I have to start with them wailing or screaming.

My View From the Stands

There’s a photo of the pope in the opening of a cave in the mountains in Spain in 1997 with a walking stick across his lap. Again, he looks right at home.

In Nairobi, Kenya in 1985, the pope is surrounded by musicians, all enthusiastically performing for the best audience ever.

Now there’s an image of JPII emerging from a teepee in Yellow Knife, Canada in 1984 after vesting for a special Mass there. He is adorned in NativeAmerican style garb. Next are several pages of smiling, happy children in the midst of a smiling, happy pope. Several photos show the pope making a special detour at various arenas and stadiums, to visit physically-challenged faithful.

With microphone in hand, JPII is now surrounded by young Japanese school children in traditional costume during a visit to Tokyo in 1981. The children are dancing as the pope sings. I’d love to have the audio on that one.

Another photo shows the pontiff in a gondola in Venice in 1985.

He’s waving to the crowds on the streets with his usual grin, obviously having a ball.

In one of my favorite John Paul II photos, the pope is holding a koala bear during a visit to Brisbane, Australia in 1986. The koala is returning the embrace, much like the children who had the privilege of feeling a JPII hug.

In 1999, during a visit to St. Louis, the pope is given a St. Louis Blues hockey jersey and a hockey stick.

Despite his already failing health, I guarantee he would have loved to hit the ice at that moment.

There’s a picture of the pope in Harcourt, Nigeria holding a young boy. Several older boys surround him looking a bit envious and in awe.

In a very touching moment, the pope is pictured embracing a young four-year-old AIDS patient during a visit to San Francisco in 1987.

The pope looks quite comical in a photo from a visit to Maseru, Lesotho in southern Africa in 1988. A grinning JPII is adorned in traditional garb, and the headgear looks very much like a small lamp shade. Priceless.

During a tour of Anchorage, Alaska in 1981 the pope is receiving a ride on a bobsled, pulled by a pack of canines as athletic as he.

In Terni, Italy, JPII greets iron workers, as he dons a hard hat.

The images go on and on, each as precious as the preceding one.

Then there are the photos with many of the secular world’s big shots, and I sense it’s more of a thrill for them. There’s Mr. and Mrs. George H.W. Bush, and Mr. and Mrs. George W. Bush; Fidel Castro; Kofi Annan; Bill Clinton; Prince Charles and Princess Diana; Mr. and Mrs. Jimmy Carter and Amy; Mikhail Gorbachev; Vincente Fox; Lech Walesa; Nelson Mandela; Yitzhak Rabin; King Abdullah; and Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Reagan.

There are millions and millions of images of Pope John Paul II out there, and they all tell a story, and the story is of faith, love, hope, and the heartfelt love for Jesus Christ.

That is the Pope John Paul II I will remember. That is the Blessed John Paul II I hope to emulate.

And that is the one day St. John Paul II I will pray to for intercession.