05.24.13

The Anchor Diocese of Fall River

F riday , May 24, 2013

Annual Pope St. Pius X Awards presented to 59 diocesan youth

family garden — Father James E. Fenstermaker, C.S.C., pastor of Holy Cross Parish in South Easton, blesses a statue of the Holy Family inside the church’s new “Respect Life” garden last weekend. (Photo courtesy of Father James E. Fenstermaker)

Holy Cross Parish dedicates ‘Respect Life’ garden, statue

SOUTH EASTON — The pastor and parishioners of Holy Cross Church gathered after Mass last weekend to bless and dedicate the new “Respect Life” garden and statue on the grounds of the South Easton parish.

According to pastor, Father

James E. Fenstermaker, C.S.C., the project was a collaboration between himself and the parish Respect Life Committee.

“When I first approached the committee about this project, I expressed my desire that whatTurn to page 15

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff FALL RIVER — Bishop George W. Coleman presided at the annual St. Pius X Youth Awards ceremony held at St. Mary’s Cathedral on May 21 at 7 p.m.

Fifty-nine young women and men from across the diocese were recognized for outstanding service to the local Church. A list of recipients appears on page 18 in this issue of The Anchor.

This is the 11th annual ceremony, established by thenFall River Bishop Sean P. O’Malley in 2002.

The award is named after Pope St. Pius X, founder of the Fall River Diocese in 1904, who had a great deal of devotion to the youth of the Church and all they had to offer.

The cherished award is a medal bearing an image of St. Pius X along with his motto,

“Restore all things in Christ.”

Bishop O’Malley instituted the award based loosely on the diocesan Marian Medal Award given to adults for service to the Church. The St. Pius X Youth Award similarly

recognizes the commitment and selflessness of teens towards Christ, His Church, and local parish communities.

Recipients are nominated by their pastors, must be confirmed, at least a sophomore in high school, and no older than 19 years old.

“I was elated and so honored that my pastor thought I was worthy of this award,” said Abby Koczera, this year’s St. Pius X Youth Award winner for St. Mary’s Parish in South Dartmouth. “I was not expecting it at all because even though volunteering with the Church is considered community service, I really just do it because I enjoy doing it. So it is a blessing to be recognized for it.”

Koczera was recognized for her peer ministry work with the parish’s Life Teen program and also for assisting with the Confirmation program and as a fifth grade Faith Formation teacher.

When asked what she would say to encourage more youth to become involved with their respective parishes, Koczera told them to not look at it as “a chore.”

“Look forward to it,” she Turn to page 18

Bishop Stang teacher receives award for mission work

By Becky Aubut Anchor Staff NORTH DARTMOUTH — Kathryn Crosson, teacher and science department chairman at Bishop Stang High School in North Dartmouth, was chosen by the Massachusetts National Honor Society State Committee to receive the Golden Torch Award.

The award is presented to an individual, business, industry or organization that has been a good neighbor by supporting school and other community projects.

Donna McDougal, social studies department chairman and advisor of Bishop Stang’s National Honor Society, nominated Crosson for her work as the founding member of Missions for Humanity.

Crosson grew up in Fall River, has been a member of Holy Name Parish in Fall River her whole life and has been teaching at Bishop Stang for 36 years; Crosson said she enjoys teaching at a Catholic school.

“I love teaching and I’m happy to go to work every day,” said

Crosson. “You walk into a classroom and get to teach, and you really teach. It’s such a great atmosphere and you don’t have to worry about infusing your faith; I can do a lot more than I could do in a public school.”

Crosson’s other passion is mission work, an idea that took root during a trip to Tanzania, Africa.

“I went on a tourist safari,” she said, “and while I was on the safari I saw all these people who literally had nothing, so the wheels in my head started turning.”

When she came home, the idea of traveling to do mission work continued to gnaw at her — but there were a few problems, said Crosson.

“I had never been on a mission trip. I know nothing about medical stuff. I had no connection to Africa,” said Crosson, listing off the hurdles she knew she would have to overcome to get her mission work off the ground.

The idea continued to linger for more than a year as Crosson continued to network, eventually learning that the Fall River Dio-

cese did regular mission work in Guaimaca, Honduras. After making a connection through that group, Crosson set about putting a mission group together.

“I wrote to every alum [of Bishop Stang] that was a dentist, doctor or a nurse and I basically said — and I really tried to make it sound appealing — an ‘all inclusive’ tropical vacation for 15 dollars a day, because that’s what they charge at the mission for room and board,” said Crosson.

Though it wasn’t exactly 15 dollars a day due to each volunteer having to pay his or her own expenses, including airfare, Crosson was able to muster seven individuals to travel to St. Rose of Lima Parish in Honduras in the summer of 2004. The group included two dentists and one parent of a student who was a contractor.

“During that first trip, I became a dental assistant. The two men teachers who came with us worked with the contractor because they were in the process of building a school down there.

It was amazing; we worked non-

stop,” said Crosson, who stated the days consisted of getting up, having breakfast, working straight through to lunch and then con-

tinuing on until nighttime to help people who had never been to a dentist in their life.

Turn to page 15

WOMAN ON A MISSION – Kathryn Crosson stands by to help as a “dental assistant” during a mission trip. Crosson was awarded the Golden Torch Award in recognition for her work as a founding member of the Missions for Humanity, a non-profit organization that makes annual trips to Honduras and Africa and is dedicated to providing medical, dental and humanitarian aid to those living in the world’s most neediest communities.

News From the Vatican

2

May 24, 2013

Archbishop says people returning to confession because of pope

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The head of the Vatican office promoting New Evangelization said that while he does not like the terms “Francis effect” or “Francis bump,” it is true that “Pope Francis has touched the hearts and minds of many people.”

Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization, said he does not care for the term “Francis effect,” since Pope Francis has not changed Church teaching.

But speaking to reporters recently about activities for the Year of Faith, he said that during an early May visit to southern Italy and in conversations with priests from northern Italy where he grew up, he repeatedly heard reports that “a lot of people have been going to Confession and many have said that while they hadn’t gone in a long time, they felt touched by the words of Pope Francis.”

Archbishop Fisichella noted that requests for tickets to the weekly general audiences held by the pope in St. Peter’s Square have consistently numbered between 50,000 and 70,000, which is significantly higher than in the past.

For the April 28 Mass his office organized with the pope and young people receiving confirmation, some 70,000 people signed up in advance, but more than 100,000 showed up.

The crowds were similarly large May 6 when, despite the rain, as many as 100,000 people came for the pope’s Mass with members of Catholic confraternities.

“People want to be present, listen to his voice and see him, touch him, because he makes a connection (with people) that is very moving,” the archbishop said, adding that the pope’s popularity reflects the “importance of the faith, the importance of being Christian, and the importance of the pope at this moment in the history of the Church.”

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Bishop Jose Ruiz Arenas, secretary of the New Evangelization council, said that when he met with bishops and priests from Mexico and Colombia who were at the Vatican for a canonization Mass May 12, he heard “testimony that this phenomenon” of increased Confessions is taking place everywhere.

“In Latin America, during Holy Week many people who hadn’t confessed for many years” returned to the Sacrament because of things they had heard Pope Francis say.

Officials of the New Evangelization council spoke during a press briefing about Year of Faith activities with Pope Francis May 18-19 for members of lay movements and associations.

Movements and groups including Focolare, Communion and Liberation, the charismatic renewal, the Neocatechumenal Way, Shalom and the U.S.-based Fellowship of Catholic University Students are often on the front lines of New Evangelization, Archbishop Fisichella said.

“Many young people, men and women in these Church groups have not only rediscovered the faith they lost along the way or a faith that had become sterile and indifferent, but they have undergone a real conversion of their lives,” he said.

The archbishop said the groups’ strong identity, their consistency over time and their strong missionary bent often give them an advantage over parishes where the pastor changes every eight or nine years and the parish’s pastoral outreach changes with him.

Bishop Ruiz said the key to the success of most of the movements is their focus on the Scriptures and on formation in small groups.

He said the Latin American bishops, for several decades, have been promoting the same focus on small-groups Bible study and faith sharing in all their parishes, which has promoted New Evangelization.

OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER Vol. 57, No. 19

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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FLOCKING TO FRANCIS — Pope Francis holds a dove before his weekly audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican May 15. (CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano via Reuters)

Pope says there are no part-time Christians; faith is a full-time job

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Catholics can’t put their faith on a part-time schedule or rely on it just for the moments they choose; being Christian is a full-time occupation, Pope Francis said.

If people don’t open their hearts to the Holy Spirit to let God purify and enlighten them, then “our being Christian will be superficial,” the pope said May 15 at his weekly general audience.

Knowing and doing what God wants is not possible with mere human effort -- it takes the transformative action of the Holy Spirit, he said.

Speaking to more than 80,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis also announced his September visit to Cagliari on the Italian island of Sardinia, where he plans to venerate the icon of Our Lady of “Bonaria” or “Buona Aria” (“good air” or “fair wind”), the namesake of his native city of Buenos Aires.

The pope dedicated his audience talk to the Year of Faith and, anticipating the feast of Pentecost May 19, focused on the role of the Holy Spirit in guiding the lives of the faithful and the Church to the truth.

The pope also released two doves into the square in an impromptu moment.

While he was riding in the open-air popemobile, a pilgrim handed the pope a cage with two white doves inside.

At first, aides were unsure whether the woman really wanted them set loose, but after her reassurances, they opened the cage

door and the pope reached inside to grab the first one, which he expertly tossed into the air.

The second dove proved more difficult as its wings got caught in the cage’s small opening. The dove didn’t seem to want to go as it tightly clutched the pope’s fingers with its small feet before finally taking off and circling over the crowds.

His deft handling of the birds perhaps shouldn’t come as a surprise.

According to the pope’s sister, Maria Elena Bergoglio, the future pope had a parrot when he was in the seminary.

In his audience talk, Pope Francis said the modern world is skeptical about the truth and echoed Pope Benedict XVI’s warnings about relativism, which holds that nothing is definite and that truth is based on consensus or personal whims.

But Jesus is the truth that “came among us so that we could know it,” he said.

“The truth isn’t seized like a thing, the truth is met. It’s not a possession, it’s an encounter with a person” in Christ, he said.

The Holy Spirit was the Risen Christ’s gift to humanity so that they could know and recognize that Jesus is the Word of truth, he said.

Through the Holy Spirit, God’s word and law are “inscribed in our heart and become the principle in us for evaluating our choices and guide for our daily actions, becoming a principle of life,” he said.

If people open themselves up to the Holy Spirit, He is the one who transforms that heart and makes it new, “giving us the intelligence of the things of God,” he said.

This intelligence “can’t be reached with our own efforts,” he said. “If God doesn’t enlighten us within, our being Christian will be superficial.”

The pope asked the crowd in the square whether they pray and are open to the Holy Spirit everyday so they can be “more sensitive to the things of God.” Looking for a show of hands, the pope said, “hmm ... not many, not many, but we have to do what Jesus wanted: pray every day to the Holy Spirit so that He opens our heart to Jesus.”

He asked people to take concrete steps to know Christ better, especially during the Year of Faith, by reading sacred Scripture, studying the “Catechism” and taking part in the Sacraments.

“Let’s ask ourselves what steps we are taking so that the faith guides our existence” because “there are no part-time Christians, at certain moments, in certain circumstances, in certain choices,” he said. “You can’t be a Christian that way. You are Christians at all times, completely.”

He ended his catechesis in Italian by telling the crowd to pray to the Holy Spirit everyday: “Will you do it?” he asked, as people yelled back, “Yes!” “I can’t hear you,” the pope said, smiling and patting his ear, drawing even louder shouts of affirmation from the crowd.

May 24, 2013

The International Church

3

Fighting poverty would limit trafficking, Vatican’s U.N. observer says

UNITED NATIONS (CNS) — The political commitment to combat human trafficking must be backed by concrete actions to ensure that victims gain their freedom from modern-day slavery, said the Vatican’s representative to the United Nations.

Addressing a U.N. General Assembly meeting to develop a global plan to address human trafficking May 13-14, Archbishop Francis A. Chullikatt, permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, said that unless the “dark reality of consumerism” is addressed, the exploitation of people for sex and labor will continue.

“Trafficking in person constitutes a shameful crime against human dignity and a grave violation of fundamental human rights,” Archbishop Chullikatt said. “Those who commit such crimes debase themselves and poison human solidarity.”

He reminded the meeting that “people are never to be

used or treated as instruments for unscrupulous profit-mongering” through forced slavery.

The archbishop said alongside social, political and legal steps to stop trafficking, the world must work to address societal factors that make human trafficking possible.

Severe poverty and the “commodification of human life” are the most significant factors the world must address if trafficking is to be reduced and eventually eradicated, he explained.

“Such commodification can be seen in the women and girls who are trafficked each year for the sole purpose of making money from the sale of their bodies,” he said. “There is indeed an urgent need here to challenge lifestyles and models of behavior, particularly with regard to the image of women, which have generated what has become a veritable industry of sexual exploitation.”

Extreme poverty, the arch-

bishop added, “often drives those desirous of a better future into the hands of those preying upon the vulnerability of the poor and defenseless.”

“These individuals, prompted by a genuine desire to provide for themselves and their needy families, too easily become unsuspecting victims of those who make false promises of a better future in another country or community. Our efforts to address human trafficking are inherently linked, therefore, to our determination to address poverty eradication and lack of equal economic opportunity” he said.

Archbishop Chullikatt also cited the efforts of Catholic institutions worldwide to aid trafficking victims, pledging that the Church will continue to “stand in solidarity” with victims and “we will not cease in our efforts to ensure that today’s victims of human trafficking become tomorrow’s survivors.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis called for global financial reform that respects human dignity, helps the poor, promotes the common good and allows states to regulate markets.

“Money has to serve, not to rule,” he said in his strongest remarks yet as pope concerning the world’s economic and financial crises.

A major reason behind the increase in social and economic woes worldwide “is in our relationship with money and our acceptance of its power over ourselves and our society,” he told a group of diplomats.

“We have created new idols” where the “golden calf of old has found a new and heartless image in the cult of money and the dictatorship of an economy which is faceless and lacking any truly humane goal.”

The pope made his remarks during a speech to four new ambassadors to the Vatican presenting their letters of credential.

The Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, told journalists it was the pope’s “first forceful speech on the economic and financial

crisis,” social justice, and the attention needed to the world’s poor.

The speech “is in continuity with his previous talks on these subjects” as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Argentina; “but as pope it is his first powerful and explicit speech” touching on such themes in-depth, the spokesman said.

In his 10-minute scripted speech to new ambassadors, the pope highlighted the root causes of today’s economic and social troubles, pointing to policies and actions that stem from a “gravely deficient human perspective, which reduces man to one of his needs alone, namely, consumption.”

“We have begun this culture of disposal,” he said, where “human beings themselves are nowadays considered as consumer goods which can be used and thrown away.”

The wealth of a minority “is increasing exponentially,” while the income of the majority “is crumbling,” he said.

This economic inequality is caused by “ideologies which uphold the absolute autonomy of markets and financial specu-

lation, and thus deny the right of control to states, which are themselves charged with providing for the common good.”

The lack of adequate economic regulation or oversight means “a new, invisible and at times virtual, tyranny is established, one which unilaterally and irremediably imposes its own laws and rules,” he said.

Ethical principles and policies of solidarity are “often considered counterproductive, opposed to the logic of finance and economy,” he said.

“Ethics, like solidarity, is a nuisance” and so they are rejected along with God, he added.

“These financiers, economists and politicians consider God to be unmanageable, even dangerous, because He calls man to his full realization and to independence from any kind of slavery.”

Pope Francis called on the world’s political and financial leaders to consider the words of St. John Chrysostom: “Not to share one’s goods with the poor is to rob them and to deprive them of life. It is not our goods that we possess, but theirs.”

Pope calls for global, ethical finance reform, end to cult of money

SHE’s GOT GAME — Sister Maria Granados Molina created a new board game, “The Joy of the Faith,” which tests players knowledge of Catholicism. (CNA photo)

Sister’s board game becomes a hit in Spain

ROME (CNA/EWTN News) — A new faith-based board game created by a Spanish Sister has become one of the most popular First Communion gifts in Spain this year.

Sister Maria Granados Molina created the new game, “The Joy of the Faith,” which tests players’ knowledge of Catholicism. The game’s publisher said 2,000 copies have been made since the game went on sale a few months ago, and there are hopes to market it in the United States and Latin America.

Thirty-five year-old Sister Molina was born in Granada and belongs to a Carmelite order in the city of Cuenca. She works as a catechist for the Diocese of Cuenca.

In an interview with CNA, Sister Molina said she never imagined the game would become so popular. She made the first version of the game at home with her own printer and the help “of the Sisters from my congregation in Cuenca.”

“The Joy of the Faith” is intended to help players learn

about Jesus and the experience of being a Christian. Players roll dice and answer questions about the Catholic faith to move along the spaces on the board. The game incorporates drawings, gestures and prayers.

Sister Molina debuted the game in Madrid last year during a conference on catechesis.

It was picked up by a national distributor and made available later throughout the country.

“The game is the fruit of a desire, a concern and a prayer … and I think it has received a surprising reception. Nobody thought that with the way Spain is right now that a game like this would be a success,” she said.

The game is based on the children’s catechetical book “Jesus is Lord,” which was approved by the Bishops’ Conference of Spain. It is intended for children ages seven and up, and it can be played by groups of young people, families, schools and catechists.

“I wanted people to draw closer to the experience of Jesus,” Sister Molina said.

The Church in the U.S. Vermont now ‘death state’ with doctorassisted suicide law, bishop says 4

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Now that Vermont allows doctor-prescribed suicide, “the magnificent landscape of this state, which echoes life from its majestic mountains to its powerful waterways, no longer is reflected in the laws which govern the Green Mountain State,” said the head of the statewide Diocese of Burlington.

“Vermont is now identified as one of the few death states where it is legal for life to be terminated at its beginning and end stages,” said Bishop Salvatore R. Matano in a statement issued a little more than an hour after Gov. Peter Shumlin signed into law a bill legalizing physician-assisted suicide.

“It is a tragic moment in the rich history of our state that our elected officials have passed and signed into law legislation placing medical professionals in the position of legally prescribing medicines with the sole intention of terminating human life,” the bishop said.

Vermont becomes the first state to have such a law passed by the Legislature.

Under Vermont’s new physician-assisted suicide law, doctors can prescribe death-inducing drugs to terminally-ill individuals who want to commit suicide who then administer the medication themselves. The Vermont law limits the prescriptions of death-inducing medications to residents of the state.

Physician-assisted suicide also has been legalized in Oregon and Washington by a ballot initiative and in Montana by court ruling.

“This new law asks those in

the medical profession, which is a vocation dedicated to the service of life, to destroy the very lives they have pledged to save and to comfort at life’s most critical moments,” Bishop Matano said.

A standoff in the Vermont Legislature that had endured for several months ended late the night of May 13 when the House in 75-65 vote passed an amended version of the original bill introduced in February. The Senate had passed the measure May 8.

Right after final passage of the bill, a spokeswoman for Shumlin told Catholic News Service the governor would be “signing it as soon as we get it.”

From the beginning of his term in January 2011, Shumlin has made it a priority to pass physician-assisted suicide legislation.

“As governor, I will strongly champion death with dignity legislation ... I will make this a top priority and ask the Legislature to take this civil rights issue up,” he said in 2010.

Shumlin’s “leadership and unwavering commitment to this change opened the door,” Dick Walters, president of Patient Choices at End of Life, said in a May 13 statement.

Since he first ran for office in November 2010, Shumlin has “made it his flagship item to pass this so I think that’s a factor” in the bill being passed, said Anne Fox, president of Massachusetts Citizens for Life.

A spokesman for the Diocese of Burlington told CNS that passage of the law in Vermont is likely to encourage other New England states to take similar ac-

tion. He noted a recent push to legalize physician-assisted suicide in Connecticut.

Fox said she didn’t think physician-assisted suicide would pass in her state in the immediate future, but said it was likely proponents will keep pushing it in the coming years.

The bill is “dangerous and irresponsible,” attorney Margaret Dore, president of Choice is an Illusion, a national bipartisan lobbying group against physician-assisted suicide, said.

“The patient is required to have a ‘terminal condition,’ defined as having a medical prediction of less than six months to live ... doctor predictions of life expectancy can be wrong,” she said.

Medical advances have made it more difficult to accurately pinpoint life expectancy, Jon Radulovic, vice president of communications for the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, told CNS. “When Hospice is gotten in a timely fashion, issues like pain control can generally be addressed,” he said, explaining that people might desire physicianassisted suicide when they are afraid or lacking control of their end-of-life situation.

“Hospices can usually effectively make a person comfortable,” he said, noting his organization is not actively speaking out against movement at the state level to pass physician-assisted suicide. Rather, he said, it wants to reaffirm the importance of Hospice care and promote it in the public sphere.

The Vermont Medical Society believes that palliative care and training will provide a “strong alternative for patients who ask for assisted suicide,” said spokesman Justin Campfield. “VMS believes there should be no laws concerning physician-assisted suicide and the society in no way endorsees euthanasia,” he said.

“This poorly crafted bill has even fewer safeguards than the Oregon law,” said Dr. Edward Mahoney, president of Vermont Alliance for Ethical Healthcare.

During the first three years, the law requires ailing patients to make three requests for death-inducing drugs. Both the patient’s primary physician and a consulting doctor must agree the patient is suffering from a terminal illness and is capable of making an informed decision to request death-inducing drugs.

May 24, 2013

TEXAS TORNADOES — A rescue worker combs through debris May 16 after tornadoes swept through the town of Granbury, Texas, late May 15. At least six people were killed and about 100 injured as three tornadoes ripped through a stretch of Texas near the DallasFort Worth area, destroying a number of homes, authorities said.

(CNS photo/Richard Rodriguez, Reuters)

Parishioners mobilize after tornado wreaks havoc in Texas

GRANBURY, Texas (CNS) — “Overwhelmed.” That’s how relief volunteer Julie Lyssy described the families who sought shelter inside St. Frances Cabrini’s Family Life Center after a tornado ravaged their neighborhoods May 15.

The deadly funnel cloud, one of several tornadoes that ripped through parts of north Texas, killed six, injured more than 100, left seven missing and destroyed more than 50 homes and trailers in the Rancho Brazos subdivision.

Injuries and damage were also reported in the nearby Pecan Plantation community.

Many of the affected — including some of the deceased — are members of St. Frances Cabrini Parish, 35 miles southwest of Fort Worth.

“The 15 to 20 people who came here last night knew there was nothing else they could do,” said Lyssy, the church’s communications spokesperson, who coordinated emergency outreach efforts with her husband, Thomas. “As soon as they realized they were safe, everyone turned to prayer.”

Storm victims formed two circles inside the parish hall. One group recited the Rosary in English and the other in Spanish. The church’s pastor, Msgr. Juan Rivero, spent the night comforting visitors and offering a blessing when asked.

At sunrise, people left the emergency Red Cross shelter to inspect damage or look for loved ones.

The tornado that swept through Granbury with winds up to 200 MPH was part of a larger weather system generating 10 funnel clouds, thunderstorms and large hail across north Texas.

By the afternoon after the twister, the Red Cross was directing the newly homeless to Granbury’s First Christian Church, where the organization set up its primary as-

sistance center. Granbury churches have received clothing, food, and water. One moving company dropped off boxes.

“We’re overloaded, which is a good thing, but we’re running out of places to put things,” Lyssy explained. “There’s been a huge outpouring. During a community meeting, a man from the American Red Cross was duly impressed by how much had been mobilized in three hours.”

“We are saddened by these events, but also proud of how quickly our community has come together to serve those in need,” Msgr. Rivero said in a statement to the North Texas Catholic, newspaper of the Diocese of Fort Worth.

“God is providing in so many ways. We ask for prayers as we help rebuild not only the physical (needs of the community), but spiritual. We thank God for the light He will bring to this darkness.”

Although a tragedy of this magnitude hasn’t happened to Granbury in recent history, Lissy said, the city is better prepared to handle a crisis than most places. An emergency plan is always in place because of the community’s proximity to the Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant in nearby Glen Rose.

“That emergency plan was mobilized last night,” said Lyssy, describing how a torrent of hail, high winds and an oddly colored sky preceded the twister.

Moments after the tornado hit, church volunteers stepped in to help. Spanish speakers arrived to assist residents of the heavily Hispanic Rancho Brazos neighborhood leveled by the storm. Other church members set up the 72 cots, blankets and pillows stored inside the Family Life Center. The bedding is used twice a year during St. Frances’ Christ Renews His Parish retreat.

May 24, 2013

The Church in the U.S.

Pro-Life groups claim to be among IRS targets

WASHINGTON, D.C. (CNA/ EWTN News) — Along with its targeting of conservative political groups for extra scrutiny, Internal Revenue Service employees also reportedly singled out Pro-Life leaders for intimidation.

As the IRS scandal continues to grow, news surfaced that two Pro-Life groups, Coalition for Life of Iowa and Christian Voices for Life, were withheld approval of tax exempt status.

“For both of those organizations there were inquiries from the IRS, there was delay, there were questions ... which really infringed on First Amendment rights; they were asking them not to protest, not to assemble,” Sally Wagenmaker, special counsel with the Thomas More Society who assisted the groups, told CNA. Wagenmaker, who regularly works with non-profits as they seek tax exemption, affirmed that the Internal Revenue Service’s treatment of the two groups was out of the ordinary, calling it “push back.”

“There was no sense of respect or according of good faith; there was an assumption

that they weren’t probably what they said they were, and in both cases asking if they were really legitimate.”

She explained that “the gate is supposed to be somewhat wide to get tax exempt status.”

“So as long as you’re organized for a legitimate purpose, the IRS isn’t going to ask too much about that purpose or your activities, except to the extent that there could be some financial corruption, or something that is truly abusive of the tax exempt status itself; but not the message that the tax exempt organization is carrying out.”

And yet, in a June 6, 2009 call to Coalition for Life of Iowa, an Internal Revenue Service representative told them to send the agency a letter stating that “they do not picket/protest or organize groups to picket or protest outside of Planned Parenthood,” and that their application for tax exemption would be approved upon receipt of that letter.

The IRS was “picking on this group” as if it “were protecting Planned Parenthood, so that definitely struck me as

very strange,” Wagenmaker reflected.

When a group applies for tax exemption, they typically “sail through based on the application,” she said, unless “it’s a very unusual thing they’re doing, or their application is very poorly put together.”

Neither of these was the case for the Iowa group, she noted. “It was just fine, it was done by an attorney and had all kinds of information.”

“In my experience, the IRS ask things about money: are you abusing money, do you have some kind of conflict of interest, are you doing something that shows you’re not really legitimately educational, charitable, or religious.”

The questions about religious views are highly unusual, she said.

“I didn’t see a point, on its face,” Wagenmaker said, of the invasive questions from the Internal Revenue Service.

“Why would they even be asking them?”

“In both of these situations, through the additional questions being asked, it kind of insinuated or implied” that

they were unworthy of trust.

“What was disturbing most was this was content based ... getting into the religious nature,” and into the Pro-Life message of the groups.

Wagenmaker has said it shows “the IRS’s disturbing ability” to stall and oppose legitimate applications through lengthy questionnaires and incorrect citations of applicable law.

“The application itself should have been it,” she said.

On May 10, the Internal Revenue Service apologized for subjecting conservative “tea party” groups to additional scrutiny. The agency asked some groups for donor lists, violating its own policies.

The so-called “IRS-gate” is among the topics Congress questioned Attorney General Eric Holder about May 15.

Questioning also focused on the illicit seizure of phone records from the Associated Press by the Department of Justice, as well as the September 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission at Benghazi in Libya.

The same day as Holder’s questioning, Internal Revenue

Service commissioner Steve Miller submitted his resignation to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, who had requested it.

Pharmacists For Life International has also reported that at least two of its officers and board members were “subjected to ongoing harassment and intimidation attempts by the IRS through continued and costly nuisance audits and threatening letters over a period of months and years.”

The association of ProLife pharmacists said the two have “generally come away with clean audits” after “ugly threats of reprisal” from the agency.

Protestant minister Franklin Graham has said the tax office selected for auditing two non-profits he heads, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse.

Graham voiced concern that it was not a “coincidence” that the audit came after the organizations took out ads in support of the North Carolina Marriage amendment and others which advocated that voters choose candidates using “Biblical principles.”

Gay adoption bill could downsize Catholic agencies

CHICAGO (CNA) — As a new bill aims to bar federal funding of adoption services that do not place children with gay couples, an Illinois Catholic leader warned a similar law there downsized faithbased agencies.

The Every Child Deserves a Family Act was introduced May 7 in the U.S. House, with bi-partisan backers. Under the bill, adoption agencies receiving federal funding may not delay or deny foster parenthood on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status.

Nor would federally-funded agencies be able to require “different or additional screenings, processes, or procedures” for samesex couples or individuals seeking to adopt a child.

A similar measure was enacted in July 2011 in Illinois. At that time, the state children and families department ended its contracts with Illinois Catholic Charities because the agencies’ practice of placing children only with married couples discriminated against unmarried and homosexual couples.

As a result, “the nature of all the Catholic Charities agencies have changed, and obviously the biggest thing you’d notice is the smaller number of employees,” Robert Gilligan, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Illinois, told CNA May 16.

“They all had significant numbers of people that were being funded by state contracts to do foster care and adoption,” he explained. “In some ways, the pres-

ence of Catholic Charities is reduced, in that obviously there are fewer employees working.”

“But on the other hand...what happened now is they’re doing things they didn’t do in the past.

They’re engaged in more creative service delivery, they’re doing it with less money, and with more volunteers, and I think you could say there’s a move back towards the community and to parishes.”

Gilligan said that prior to the de-funding in Illinois, Catholic agencies were “beholden” to “the state’s way” of providing social services.

He added, however, that “ it’s a sad commentary that an organization can’t abide by what everybody knows to be true — that children are best raised in a home with a mother and a father — and get state funding to supplement those activities.”

The Every Child Deserves a Family Act is meant to “decrease the length of time that children wait” to be placed in a foster home “by preventing discrimination” of prospective parents, enlarging the pool of potential foster parents.

The bill notes that in 2007, 51,000 children were adopted, but

another 25,000 “aged out” of the foster care system, which put them at a high risk for poverty and incarceration.

It also states that “professional organizations in the fields of medicine, psychology, law, and child welfare have taken official positions in support of the ability of qualified gay, lesbian, bisexual, and unmarried couples to foster and adopt.”

In Illinois, Catholic adoption agencies either closed altogether, or became non-affiliated with the Church.

Gilligan called it unfortunate that American society is experiencing “a movement away from policies that prioritize children being at home with a mother and a father.”

He found, however, a silver lining in the de-funding of Catholic Charities in Illinois.

“The fact of the matter is there are a lot of needs in our communities, and Catholic Charities and the Catholic Church has always sought, and will continue to seek, ways to provide comfort and services to people in need. Whether it’s through the state or individuals or some other means, we’ll try to meet those needs as best we can.”

5

Since the loss of public funding in Illinois, Gilligan has noticed “a movement back towards what Dorothy Day was espousing — good works done by individuals.”

Day was a social activist, tireless advocate for the poor, and co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement. The sanctity of her life is under investigation as part of her cause for canonization.

Gilligan noted that “that’s how we experience the poor, on an individual basis.”

“Maybe sometimes when we create these bureaucracies we distance ourselves from serving the poor, and maybe this is the Holy Spirit working through the Church: we have an obligation to know the poor personally.”

“Bigger is not always better,” he reflected. “The way we serve the poor is noteworthy, and to the degree that an individual can personally experience serving the poor, I think it helps that individual truly understand what that other person is experiencing.”

“Sometimes when we create those larger bureaucracies we lose that personal appeal, and I think at least in Illinois, that is what’s going on.”

6

The Anchor Serving the common good

Pope Francis directed his Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, to send a telegram to the Archbishop of Oklahoma City on Tuesday to convey his concern for the victims of the tornado.

“The Holy Father has followed with deep concern the aftermath of the devastating tornado which has struck Oklahoma and he asks you convey to the entire community the assurance of his solidarity and closeness in prayer. Conscious of the tragic loss of life and the immensity of the work of rebuilding that lies ahead, he asks Almighty God to grant eternal rest to the departed, comfort to the afflicted, and strength and hope to the homeless and the injured. In a particular way he commends to the Father of mercies the many young children among the victims and their grieving families. Upon the local civil and religious leaders, and upon all involved in the relief efforts, His Holiness invokes the Risen Lord’s gifts of consolation, strength and perseverance in every good.”

The pope has had to respond to a lot of tragedies lately. He is always united to the victims in prayer, but he also prophetically speaks about the evil causes of some of these catastrophes which could have been avoided (if people had treated each other as the image of God that we are). He was especially exorcised about the situation of the thousands of people killed or injured in the collapsed garment factory in Bangladesh. On April 28 at the Sunday Angelus, Pope Francis said, “I express my solidarity with, and deepest sympathies to, the families who are mourning their loved ones, and I address a strong appeal from my heart that the dignity and safety of the worker always be protected.”

On May 1, the feast day of St. Joseph the Worker in the Catholic Church (instituted so as to give a Christian “spin” to the international workers holiday), the Holy Father quoted in his daily Mass homily a headline from the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano: “It is a title that struck me, the day of the tragedy in Bangladesh: ‘How to die for 38 euros a month’… Slave labor [exploits] the most beautiful gift which God gave man: the ability to create, to work, to discover our dignity. How many of our brothers and sisters in the world are in this situation at the hands of these economic, social and political attitudes!”

On page three of this edition of The Anchor we have a report about a speech the pope gave to new ambassadors to the Vatican. He forthrightly stated, “We must also acknowledge that the majority of the men and women of our time continue to live daily in situations of insecurity, with dire consequences. Certain pathologies are increasing, with their psychological consequences; fear and desperation grip the hearts of many people, even in the so-called rich countries; the joy of life is diminishing; indecency and violence are on the rise; poverty is becoming more and more evident. People have to struggle to live and, frequently, to live in an undignified way. One cause of this situation, in my opinion, is in our relationship with money, and our acceptance of its power over ourselves and our society.

Consequently the financial crisis which we are experiencing makes us forget that its ultimate origin is to be found in a profound human crisis. In the denial of the primacy of human beings! We have created new idols. The worship of the golden calf of old (cf. Ex 32:15-34) has found a new and heartless image in the cult of money and the dictatorship of an economy which is faceless and lacking any truly humane goal.”

As Father Landry points out in the article to the right of this editorial, Pope Francis is frank about stating that the devil is still on the march, still working to pull us away from God. We probably think that the Israelites who worshipped the golden calf in the Sinai desert were fools — couldn’t they remember Who really freed them from slavery in Egypt? Who opened the Red Sea for them? But as Pope Francis points out, we can be just as dumb as the Israelites were (we’re probably a lot dumber, because we have known Christ, Who they did not know, and yet forget Him so as to have more money in our wallets or more belongings in our homes).

The pope had a message for the ambassadors to give to the leaders who sent them to Rome. “There is a need for financial reform along ethical lines that would produce in its turn an economic reform to benefit everyone. This would nevertheless require a courageous change of attitude on the part of political leaders. I urge them to face this challenge with determination and farsightedness, taking account, naturally, of their particular situations. Money has to serve, not to rule! The pope loves everyone, rich and poor alike, but the pope has the duty, in Christ’s name, to remind the rich to help the poor, to respect them, to promote them. The pope appeals for disinterested solidarity and for a return to person-centered ethics in the world of finance and economics” (he was speaking a little like Bob Dole, referring to himself in the third person, but he conveyed his love through his words).

Sometimes we think of the type of things which the pope was saying as some type of “bleeding heart” liberalism (we have discussed that here in the past). As we approach the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in June, we are mindful that His heart truly bled for us, that when we fail to love (in action!) the least of our brothers and sisters, we fail to love Christ. As our hearts are broken by the news we are receiving from Oklahoma, we need to also remind ourselves of the broken bodies of our brothers and sisters in Bangladesh (and in sweatshops around the world), who are dying so that we can have cheap consumer goods. May we heed Pope Francis’ words and make our money serve the common good, instead of having ourselves serve money.

May 24, 2013

Pope Francis and the devil

ope Francis was elected in order to P bring about the reform of the Church.

As we’ve described in previous columns,

been to make us believe that he doesn’t exist.

His fruits are always destruction: division, hate and slander.” however, he is not limiting himself to fixing Pope Francis talked about that destruction what needs to be fixed in the Vatican curia, but — and what our response needs to be to it — seeking to repair the Church by addressing the in a daily Mass homily on May 4. deeper issues that have led to the problems in “The origin of hatred is this: we are saved the Vatican and elsewhere. and the prince of this world, who does not To reform means to bring back into shape. want us to be saved, hates us and gives rise to The call to reform presupposes that there has the persecution that from the earliest times of been a deformation. It begs the question of Jesus continues until today. One must react what caused the Church to get out of shape. to the devil as did Jesus, Who replied with the During his conclave-changing intervention Word of God. With the prince of this world four days before being elected, Cardinal Berone cannot dialogue; one can only respond goglio identified that the chief sickness ailing with the Word of God that defends us.” the Church is a spiritual worldliness brought The response to the devil is not merely a about by ecclesiastical egotism. verbal rejoinder quoting chapter and verse, “The evils that over the course of time hap- but living by the Word of God — all of it, pen in ecclesial institutions,” he said, “have including those parts to which we’re most their root in a self-reference and a sort of theo- vulnerable in allowing the devil to persuade logical narcissism. … When the Church is us not to follow. self-referent without realizing it, she … gives This is something that Jorge Bergoglio has way to that very great evil which is spiritual been trying to do, and help others try to do, worldliness (which … is the worst evil that throughout his priesthood. can come upon the Church).”

As a Jesuit, he has made St. Ignatius’ But how do those in the Church become spiritual exercises every year and has helped self-referential instead of pointing to God? so many others How do we bemake them. come spiritually One of the parts mundane, setof these retreat ting our hearts meditations is to and minds on ponder — one the things of day at midnight, this world rather dawn, daily than the things Mass and VesBy Father of God? pers — whether Roger J. Landry Pope Francis the retreatant has been talking is truly living about that — under Christ’s quite a bit — but most have not yet caught standard or Lucifer’s. The whole purpose of on to what he’s doing. The chief cause of the Ignatian spirituality is to help discern between corruption of the Church, the root of the defor- the Spirit of God and the spirit of the “mortal mation that has led to the need for reform, he enemy of our human nature,” so that we has been saying, is through succumbing to the might follow assuredly the Spirit of God. temptations of the devil.

Now as pope, that’s what Francis is trying Many have noted that Pope Francis speaks to help the whole Church to do. He’s seeking about the devil in almost every other homily, to help us discern what God is asking of us but most have been responding to what he’s and how the devil is tempting us. He’s striving been saying with indifference or curiosity, not to lead us to march under Christ’s banner — seriousness. We live in a world in which most through poverty of spirit, disdain for worldly regard the devil as a medieval superstition, a honor, and humility — against the seductions beast in a red leotard carrying a pitchfork, and of the devil, who wants to tempt us toward relegate him to the same existential category his standard by the lure of riches, honor and as tooth fairies and centaurs. Even within the pride, and through these, to draw us on to all Church, most bishops, pastors, theologians other vices. and catechists minimize the devil and seldom Many have succumbed, including those mention him, even though Jesus battled him, who are supposed to be carrying Christ’s flag. exorcised him, and taught us all to pray to the And just like retreat masters work to bring Father to be delivered from him. those making the spiritual exercises toward Pope Francis, however, has been menconversion, so Pope Francis, as the spiritual tioning the devil since the beginning of his director for the Church Universal, is try to pontificate because he knows he’s not a myth lead of us all on the same reform. and wants to help the rest of us recognize the Pope Francis’ waking us up to the presence presence of the serpentine saboteur. and work of the devil in the Church today is During his first homily, when he returned something each of us must ponder and act to the Sistine Chapel the day after his election upon. to celebrate the traditional Mass with his On the day of our Baptism, and in so cardinal electors, he talked with somewhat many renewals over the years, each of us has shocking forthrightness about the evil one. renounced Satan, his evil works and his empty “Anyone who doesn’t pray to the Lord promises as a precondition for living by faith prays to the devil,” he said, quoting Leon in God. But many times those Baptismal Bloy. “When we do not profess Jesus Christ, vows have just been said as a chorus of halfwe profess the worldliness of the devil, a hearted “I dos,” rather than pronounced with demonic worldliness.” the seriousness with which loving spouses say As I was translating the Holy Father’s and mean every word of their marital vows. words about the devil for the live EWTN Pope Francis wants to assist us truly to rebroadcast, I turned to my colleagues Raymond nounce Satan and all his seductions, to refuse Arroyo, Father Gerald Murray and Bob Royal to dialogue with him and accept his lies, and and raised my eyebrows. They all looked at to reject his call to live spiritually for ourselves me with the same surprise. instead of for God and others.

We either pray, live, walk, build and The devil who never sleeps — the one profess the light of Christ, Pope Francis was whom Jesus Himself battled and called a saying, or we live, pray, and proclaim the “murderer from the beginning,” a “liar and the darkness and emptiness of the spiritual world- father of lies” and “the prince of this world” liness brought about by the evil one.

— will doing all he can to get you to ignore One of the chief problems facing the what Pope Francis has been saying and disChurch today is that most Catholics ignore the miss this column, so that he can continue his devil. If the TSA were as negligent with rework of deformation. gard to terrorists as most of us are to the father But now’s the time for us to discern under of evil, we wouldn’t have any airplanes left. which standard we’ve really been living and, In the book-length dialogue “On Heaven like Pope Francis, choose Christ anew and and Earth,” published in Spanish in 2010 and completely. recently released in English, Cardinal BergoFather Landry is Pastor of St. Bernadette Parish in Fall River. His email address is glio said, “I believe that the devil exists” and fatherlandry@catholicpreaching.com. “his greatest achievement in these times has

Putting Into the Deep

May 24, 2013

Catholic professor says IRS audit deterred her criticisms of Obama

NEW YORK (CNA) — A Catholic professor says that an IRS audit that may have been politically motivated made her much less likely to criticize President Barack Obama in her writings.

“They asked who paid me — and wanted to know who they were,” Anne Hendershott, a sociology professor at King’s College in New York City, said of the Internal Revenue Service officials who oversaw her audit in 2010.

The audit affected her willingness to write on certain topics.

“Although I continued to write on Catholic issues, and continued until today to write about Pro-Life issues, I was much less likely to criticize the president,” Hendershott said.

She told CNA that she had written “highly politicized articles” in the Catholic Advocate and the Wall Street Journal when she was contacted by the Internal Revenue Service in May 2010.

She had a face-to-face meeting with IRS officials two months later.

“They only wanted to talk about who was paying me to do my writing,” she explained.

Hendershott said that the questions were not explicitly political, but she interpreted them to mean the agency was “wanting to know if there were individuals or groups who wanted me to write to advance their cause.”

She said the tax agency did not collect from her any information about the Catholic groups and organizations for which she wrote.

She and her husband had never been audited before in their 39 years of Marriage.

Though they file jointly, the IRS did not want to talk to her husband.

The professors voiced concern that she had attracted the attention of IRS officials because of her spring 2010 articles that were critical of the president’s health care legislation and “the fake Catholic groups who were supporting Obamacare.”

Hendershott said she “exposed” the George Soros funding of these groups and the individuals involved, particularly the Democratic-leaning group Catholics United. In ad-

dition, she was “very critical” of Catholic Health Association president and CEO Sister Carol Keehan, a strong supporter of the health care legislation.

Her account of an IRS audit comes amid continuing controversy over IRS officials’ admissions that the organization had targeted “tea party” groups who applied for tax-exempt status with intrusive questions and burdensome requests.

President Obama accepted the resignation of acting IRS commissioner Steven Miller last week in light of these allegations.

“It’s inexcusable and Americans are right to be angry about it and I am angry about it,” the president said. “I will not tolerate this kind of behavior in any agency, but particularly the IRS given the power that it has and the reach that it has in all of our lives.”

Miller had previously been set to leave his position in early June for reasons unrelated to the controversy, a source close to Miller told Fox News.

While much media attention has focused on audits of tea party groups, some concerns have also been raised by ProLife groups and those working to defend Marriage.

The Chicago-based Thomas More Society has said that the Texas group Christian Voices for Life received IRS letters demanding to know whether the group educates “on both sides of the issues” and whether its members try to block those attempting to enter an abortion clinic or try to talk to them.

The society’s executive director, Peter Breen, said the requests suggest the IRS could be denying or delaying the group’s tax exempt status because of its Pro-Life views.

The National Organization for Marriage has also charged that an IRS employee illegally leaked confidential donor information to its opponents.

Hendershott said she thinks the new focus on possible wrongdoing at the IRS should lessen the worries of those concerned that they might be targeted for audits for their advocacy.

“I think it is safe now,” she said. “If you asked me that last month, I would have advised them to use caution.”

7

The Anchor

Special Air Time for Diocesan Weekly TV Mass The weekly Television Mass sponsored by the Fall River Diocese on WLNE-TV, Channel 6, will be seen at a special time on Sunday, May 26, only.

The Mass will air that day at 10:30 a.m. The special time is necessitated by the station’s broadcast of the Indianapolis 500. The Television Mass will return to its regular 11 a.m. time slot on Sunday, June 2.

T

The importance of being earnest

his morning I awoke there is nothing earnest about shortly after 4 a.m.with the play. It is a satire on the the line, “the importance Victorian era, when a code of of being earnest” running behavior governed everything through my semi-consciousfrom communication to the ness. I have absolutely no manicuring of one’s toenails. idea what prompted this early My own philosophy of awakening or this line of life is to take life seriously, thought. but never to take myself too Perhaps the awakening was seriously. I take this from my caused by the aching in my left knee, a souvenir of my seminary days playing basketball and volleyball with my classmate, the great, slim and trim

By Father M.G. Perhaps it was Patrick Killilea, SS.CC. the aging crackers and cheese I had snacked on last night, or maybe the simple fact that I hit the dear parents, who now persack early, shortly after 9 p.m. form on the Heavenly stage; Someplace in the back of my dad in his rich singing my noggin, I remembered voice and my mom with her that the line was the title for comical remarks and wittisomething, perhaps a book cisms.

I had read back in secondSo this is part of me as I ary school. So after my usual enjoy each day here in Kamorning ablutions … by the laupapa on the north side of way I do not ordinarily sing our great pali (cliff). In these in the shower lest I scare mytimes when some not-so-swift self … I went quickly to my individuals … I am being ever ready Google and was charitable here … would have reminded that “The Imporus court martial some of our tance of Being Earnest” is the service men and women for title of a play by Oscar Wilde, proselytizing while forgetwhich made its stage debut in ting that these same men and London on Feb. 14, 1895. women have been recruited In an earlier play he had by a secular type of proswritten, Wilde had said, “Life elytizing, it is necessary for is too important a thing ever us ministers of the Word to to talk seriously about it.” So relate to our people, not with the importance of being earsad or somber faces but with nest is funny all the time, yet faces and attitudes that speak

Moon Over Molokai

the truth of the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Here in Kalaupapa, our church community is small but this community at large does offer daily opportunities to reach out to our residents the hand of the Lord in light, yet earnest fashion. Perhaps this takes the form of a chat with passengers at the airport, a huddle with the guys putting up scaffolding, telling our marathon girls not to train too late in the evening lest the menehune (mythical people, sometimes described as dwarfs in size, who live in the deep forests or hidden valleys of the Hawaiian Islands) come and snatch them away, or sitting in on a hula practice or volleyball game.

I have never had a major part in a play, though I’ve been part of the chorus of Gilbert and Sullivan more than once. Yet I did have fun on those occasions on stage.

Such is also importance on the stage of life and it is so here in beautiful Kalaupapa.

We try to live life in that fashion here while being aware of the importance of being earnest.

Aloha!

Father Patrick Killilea, SS.CC., is pastor of St. Francis Parish in Kalaupapa, Hawaii.

8

May 24, 2013

The Anchor

A

carpenter will tell you that in order to build a stool or a table, he needs to place equally apart three legs of equal length and thickness for the stool or table to stand erect and to hold weight. Without a minimum of three legs, the stool would be unstable and useless.

A mathematician will tell you that the simplest geometric figure is the triangle, composed of three line segments that meet at three points called vertices.

Unless these line segments meet together, there will be no geometric figure.

In a Christian Marriage, the love of the husband and wife will together conceive a child and the family will live as one.

Is it not similar with the Blessed Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit?

With our own eyes, we can see a stool, a geometric figure

Good things come in threes

and a family as a symbol of looking at the Son. “Show us unity, balance, and completethe Father,” the Apostle Philip ness, but how can we visualpleaded during the Last Supper. ize the Holy Trinity, since we And Jesus replied: “Philip, he cannot see God and yet are still who has seen Me has seen the called to believe?

The answer is quite simple: look at Christ.

Homily of the Week He is the image of the Feast of the Most invisible God. God’s Holy Trinity Sonship saves me. It is Jesus calling me

By Deacon His brother or sister, John F. Branco the child of the same father, and co-heir to the Kingdom of God. Jesus spoke about Himself as Father” (Jn 14:8-9). Christ is being like a Good Shepherd, the Father’s self-portrait.

Who teaches us, cares for us And what about the Holy and backs up His words with Spirit? The Holy Spirit is a gift mighty deeds. What a beautiful to us from the Father and the image we have of God. Son. He is the bond of love beBut what about the Fatween the Father and the Son, ther? The Fatherhood of God and between the Son and us. has produced this marvelous The Holy Spirit is the real and universe with all its wonder, personal presence of God in power, and beauty. And we can my soul and body, in my total tell what the Father is like by being. This Spirit of God is life,

light, and fire, energy, grace, and gift to me and through me to others.

Now all of this may seem complicated, but simply remember the words of St. John: “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 Jn 4:8).

Stop asking yourself whether you can believe in God. Simply ask yourself whether you have the ability to love. In today’s second reading, St. Paul tells us, “The love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us” (Rom 5:5). When we can love another person, we can truly experience God. The love we have and share with another allows us to know and experience God in a personal way and all doubt disappears like an early morning mist

vanishes with the coming of the rising sun.

The doctrine of the Holy Trinity tells me something else about God as He is “within Himself.” He is a family of Persons, similar to a family of mom, dad, and children. The Trinity lives together by love as we do and through the dynamics of love — togetherness, creativity, concern and outreach. The Blessed Trinity and we are life-giving and creative.

The Holy Spirit has given us the will and ability to do so in imitation of God. The Spirit of strength, of truth, and of love is with us, and if we allow Him into our lives we will never lack what we need to be faithful to ourselves and to God. Deacon Branco was ordained in 1993 by Bishop Sean O’Malley. He is currently assigned to Good Shepherd and Holy Trinity parishes in Fall River.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. May 25, Sir 17:1-15; Ps 103:13-18; Mk 10:13-16. Sun. May 26, The Most Holy Trinity, Prv 8:22-31; Ps 8:4-9; Rom 5:1-5; Jn 16:12-15. Mon. May 27, Sir 17:20-24; Ps 32:1-2, 5-7; Mk 10:17-27. Tues. May 28, Sir 35:1-12; Ps 50:5-8, 14, 23; Mk 10:28-31. Wed. May 29, Sir 36:1, 4-5a, 10-17; Ps 79:8-9, 11, 13; Mk 10:32-45. Thurs. May 30, Sir 42:15-25; Ps 33:2-9; Mk 10:46-52. Fri. May 31, Zep 3:15-18a or Rom 12:9-16; Ps 12:2-3, 4bcd, 5-6; Lk 1:39-56.

W

ith his new book, “American Church: The Remarkable Rise, Meteoric Fall, and Uncertain Future of Catholicism in America” (Ignatius Press), mild-mannered Russell Shaw has become the bull in the china shop of U.S. Catholic history, knocking heroes off pedestals and overturning conventional story-lines — all in aid of trying to understand why the Church in America is in precarious position today vis-à-vis the ambient public culture and the government.

Shaw’s answer: we’re in deep trouble because of a longstanding U.S. Catholic determination to be more-American-than-thou — to disprove ancient charges of Catholicism’s incompatibility with American democracy by

U.S. Catholics: overly assimilated?

assimilating so dramatically that tholicism: Deep Reform in the there’s no discernible differ21st-Century Church.” ence between Catholics (and But on a second reading of their attitudes toward public Shaw’s book, I began to wonder policy) and an increasingly whether he’s gotten the question secularized, mainstream public of the moment quite right. opinion. Shaw mounts an impressive case that Catholic Lite in these United States has indeed taken its cues from the wider culture, and as that culture has become ever

By George Weigel more individualistic and hedonistic, the historic U.S. Catholic passion for assimilation and acceptance To read the history of the has backfired. Moreover, Shaw’s Catholic Church in the United call to build a culture-reforming States as a centuries-long Catholic counterculture is not struggle for assimilation and acdissimilar to the argument I ceptance certainly sheds light on make about the Church and one dynamic in the development public life in “Evangelical Caof the Church in America. Yet too close a focus on the question, “Is it possible to be a good Catholic and a good American?” is to argue the question of Catholicism-and-America on the other guy’s turf. Once, the “other guy” challenging Catholics’ patriotic credentials was militant Protestantism; now, the other guy is militant secularism. To play on the other guy’s turf, however, is to concede at the outset that the other guy sets the terms of debate: “We (militant Protestants/ militant secularists) know what it means to be a good American; you (Catholics) have to prove

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

The Catholic Difference

yourselves to us.”

That’s not the game, however. It wasn’t really the game from 1776 through the 1960 presidential campaign — when militant Protestantism was the aggressor — and it isn’t the game today. The real game involves different, deeper questions: “Who best understands the nature of the American experiment in ordered liberty, and who can best give a persuasive defense of the first liberty, which is religious freedom?”

The 19th-century U.S. bishops and intellectuals whose enthusiasm for American democracy Russ Shaw now views skeptically (and, yes, they did go over the top on occasion) did get one crucial point right: the American Founders “built better than they knew,” i.e., the Founders designed a democratic republic for which they couldn’t provide a durable moral and philosophical defense. But the long-despised (and now despised-again) Catholics could: Catholics could (and can) give a robust, compelling account of American democracy and its commitments to ordered liberty.

Mid-20th-century Catholic scholars like historian Theodore Maynard and theologian John Courtney Murray picked up this

theme and made it central to their reading of U.S. Catholic history. Murray presciently warned that, if Catholicism didn’t fill the cultural vacuum being created by a dying mainline Protestantism, the “noble, many-storied mansion of democracy [may] be dismantled, leveled to the dimensions of a flat majoritarianism, which is no mansion but a barn, perhaps even a tool shed in which the weapons of tyranny may be forged.”

That is the argument the U.S. bishops have mounted in their challenge to the Obama Administration’s demolition of civil society through the HHS mandate on contraceptives and abortifacients: What is the nature of American democracy and the fundamental freedoms government is created to protect? Who are the true patriots: the men and women who can give an account of freedom’s moral character, an account capable of sustaining a genuine democracy against a rising dictatorship of relativism, “in which the tools of tyranny may be forged?”

The argument today isn’t about assimilation. The argument today is about who “gets” America.

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

O

n the 40th anniversary of Watergate, we once again face the prospect of billowing scandal in the executive branch, what with the I.R.S. targeting taxpayers for their political opposition to the administration, cover-ups about the Benghazi attacks, and the Justice Department fishing through journalists’ phone records to try to stop media leaks.

Whether done by Republicans or Democrats, the politicization of law and facts is a deplorable feature of modern American life. Politicians, who should be serving the common good, are all too often serving themselves. They seem more interested in advancing their careers and their perks and exempting themselves from the generally applicable rules they impose so readily on others.

Hacks are what we call them.

But in a democracy hacks need to get re-elected, and thus fool a significant number of people concerning what they are really about. And so, hacks needs flacks, which the Urban Dictionary defines as “one paid to represent the views of an individual, group, or organization.” Flacks give us “spin.”

I

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The Anchor

May 24, 2013

Hacks, flacks and ‘yoots’

The first was the funeral at St. And so, when Dr. Kermit John the Evangelist in Clinton Gosnell was rightly convicted of six-year-old Sheila Beirne of three counts of first-degree on May 14. Sheila and her murder for slitting the spinal eight-year-old brother Thomas cords of three newborn infants, had Leigh’s disease, a genetic the Planned Parenthood spin neurometabolic disorder that was that this horror was an results in early death. She argument for keeping abortion died a holy death on May 11, legal. Lest what? Lest people a week after making her First go to back-alley abortionists like Dr. Gosnell? But I thought Roe v. Wade meant an end to the back-alley abortions.

To paraphrase Stalin, three infant deaths are a tragedy, but the millions Roe gave us are a

By Dwight Duncan mere statistic.

If all we had in this country were the political and chattering classes, Holy Communion, and surrounded by her parents, Sheila full of hacks and flacks, there and Gerard, who have deep and would be grounds for a deep luminous faith, and her numerpessimism about the future. ous siblings.

But fortunately, the people are Sheila was a beautiful child, sovereign in this country, and by all accounts all sweetness politicians are supposed to be and light. Her family went to public servants, not their masLourdes in March to ask for ters. In that regard, last week a miracle cure for her and her I witnessed two events here in brother. I know because, as Massachusetts which fill me a friend of her parents, I was with hope for the future. praying for them at the time Both involve young people, and following their pilgrim“yoots,” in the memorable age on Facebook. A physical phrase of “My Cousin Vinnie.”

Judge For Yourself

healing was not to be, but I was struck at the funeral with not just the physical beauty of her large family, but their spiritual radiance in the midst of such heart-rending sorrow. Everyone there seemed blown away by the palpable reality of having a young saint in Heaven. I can imagine no greater grief for parents than losing a child. But I can also imagine no greater joy than believing their child to be in Heaven, helping the rest of the family (and, hopefully, friends of the family) on their way home, too. Let’s pray to Sheila for a miracle cure for Thomas.

Last Saturday, and obviously at a different level, I went to my first Eagle Court of Honor for Boy Scout Troop 333 at St. John Neumann’s in Freetown.

The two oldest sons of Mark and Debbie Perry, friends of mine, were becoming Eagle scouts. The amazing thing is that Daniel is 13, and Anthony is 15. I felt this had to be some kind of record for making Eagle at a young age. Both had been Boy Scouts since 2010, for

three years. I was in the Boy Scouts for three years back in the 1960s, but I never made it past tenderfoot. I was a failure at Boy Scouts, and couldn’t tell sassafras from shinola, and didn’t (don’t) like camping.

In witnessing the ceremony, and the achievements of these wonderful boys, I saw the kind of civic virtue and spirit of service that once made our country great. It seemed like everyone from the past two presidents of the United States to Cardinal Sean O’Malley and the baseball commissioner sent them well-deserved congratulations, which they took with humility and good humor. Anthony had created a beautiful Rosary Garden behind his parish church, and Daniel had mapped and re-signed the old fire and Indian trails near Great Quitticas Pond.

Their families, and the rest of us, should be proud. With young people like Sheila Beirne and Anthony and Daniel Perry, there’s great hope for a bright future, the hacks and flacks of my generation notwithstanding!

Dwight Duncan is a professor at UMass School of Law Dartmouth. He holds degrees in civil and canon law.

The still of the morning, the color of the night

must begin this entry by explaining a little bit about myself for those of you who only know me through this column. I will start by admitting that I am a self-proclaimed retreat junkie.

Ever since I began my four years at Bishop Stang High School almost eight years ago, when I was first introduced to the concept of a retreat experience via what was once known as “Freshman Lock-Up” (the freshman class retreat) and also to the credit of Frank Lucca and the YES! retreat, I’ve been hooked.

Now, I will admit, it has been far too long since I’ve last been on one. After experiencing retreats as a candidate and team member all throughout high school and college I have now reached a retreat drought.

However, I share this initial personal information with you for several reasons. The first being I was hooked because of a unique characteristic. Perhaps what drew me in on my very first retreat was something very simple, something so characteristically and stereotypically teen-aged. It was pop culture; more specifically, the music.

And no, I’m not talking Gregorian chant or an elaborate performance of a bell choir, or even hardcore Christian rock (which I love, just to make you aware). No, instead I

am speaking about a mix of secular, Top 40, pop-to-country songs selected to close each individual team member’s witness talk on the weekend of that first YES! retreat.

It was the application of something I heard day in and day out, belting along with the radio, to this faithfilled context that made me realize how Jesus is present in the context of my day, even if it means I have to seek Him out or pay closer attention. Lyrics that once seemed very straightforward, lyrics that told a clear story, were suddenly telling a different one. I’d like to share with you some of those pivotal lyrics.

Carrie Underwood, a famous country singer thanks to her success on the fourth season of American Idol and clearly Godgiven talent, sings a popular song entitled “Wasted.” Upon first hearing it, the song seems to tell the at-once sad and redeeming tale of a woman scorned by love who chooses to leave whatever situation she finds herself in, and a man who’s turned to alcohol to alleviate whatever problems seem too much of a burden to bear, yet who finally decides that now is the time to make a better choice. The most dynamic lyrics, after the man and woman have been chronicled,

are those of the chorus, which rings out: “I don’t wanna’ spend my life jaded / Waiting to wake up one day and find / That I’ve let all these years go by / Wasted. Oh

Radiate Your Faith

By Renee Bernier I don’t wanna’ keep on wishing, missing / The still of the morning, the color of the night / I ain’t spending no more time / Wasted.”

I can remember sitting there, the song transforming as it hit my ears. This was not just about a woman and man who chose a better life for themselves, about choosing to do anything but waste their time wondering about what might have been or could have been had they spent their lives differently or followed a different path.

No, suddenly I could discern the very Christian undertone that the lyrics were filled with. Seven years ago, this song took on new meaning for me, and taught me two lessons. One is directly related to the lyrics and the new

way I listened to, not just heard, the song.

I, as a Catholic woman, do not want to waste my life on insignificant matters. I do not want to waste my life by straying from the lessons I’ve been taught by my parents, the morals I have accepted, and the Model that is Jesus. I don’t want to miss Him in the still of the morning or the color of the night. I don’t want to be jaded or spend my life that way; I don’t want to wake up one day to find that I let so much time go by, wasted, because I wasn’t searching, questioning, challenging, affirming, learning, trying to understand the faith that I have embraced in my life.

The second lesson is more basic, and one that I would like to share with you all in hopes that it will change the way you listen to music and are touched by the messages within lyrics. It is as

follows: Between the lines of the songs you listen to, in the notes that are played and the words that are sung, there can be found a message of Christ. If applied to your prayer life, your faith life, the highs and lows of the journey you find yourself on, you may find exactly what you are looking for if you only listen a little more carefully and allow yourself to be present to the faith context that is waiting to be recognized.

I had not intended to write about this for this particular column. But once I started typing, it was clear that I can save whatever other message I had intended for this week, for next time. Instead, I’m calling out the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes, when we thing we’re in the most control, we seem to have the very least and when we think we know exactly what we want to say, the Holy Spirit reveals our true message for us.

Have a blessed week, and until next month, you are in my prayers!

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

10

The Anchor

Father John Denning, C.S.C., named president of Stonehill College

EASTON — Stonehill College has named Father John Denning, C.S.C., as its 10th president following a unanimous vote by its Board of Trustees on May 17. Currently the Vice President for Student Affairs at the College, Father Denning will assume the presidency on July 1, as Father Mark T. Cregan ’78, C.S.C., steps down after 13 successful years of leading the 65-year-old Catholic liberal arts college.

In accepting the appointment, Father Denning, 53, said, “I am honored and humbled at the opportunity to lead Stonehill. I believe in the wonderful story of this college.

Its mission provides each student with a learning experience that transcends the classroom for the good of the broader community and fosters a hunger to build a more just and compassionate world.”

Thomas May ’69, chairman of Stonehill’s Board of Trustees, believes Father Denning’s passion will help lead the college to continued success. “Father Denning has a deep knowledge of Stonehill. The board is impressed by his vision and his steadfast commitment to keeping the college on its upward trajectory. In addition to his commitment to the Holy Cross philosophy of educating the mind and the heart, Father Denning has already shown his leadership capacity in two key vice presidential positions at the College,” said May. “As he moves into the presidency, Father Denning brings with him a thoughtful and substantial leadership style. He is a careful listener with excellent interpersonal skills and has the ability to bring people together. The trustees are looking forward to working with him as we enter a new and exciting phase in the story of Stonehill College,” May added.

Father Thomas O’Hara, C.S.C., as the college’s first vice president Provincial Superior of the Congre- for Mission, establishing that divigation of Holy Cross, the order that sion and launching initiatives to founded Stonehill in 1948, noted enhance Catholic identity at the that, “Stonehill is an important min- college. Father Denning began his istry of Holy Cross in the United service at the college in 2000 as its States and education is at the heart director of Campus Ministry. of our mission.

Prior to With understathis arrival ed confidence, at Stonehill, Father John has Father Dendevoted his life ning served to serving Cathas campus olic education. minister at the In particular, he Catholic Cenappreciates the ter at Bridgehistory and the water State importance of University; collaboration teacher, coach, between Holy and chaplain Cross priests at Coyle and and brothers and Cassidy High our lay partners School in and the power Taunton; and of that partvocations dinership as we rector for the move forward Father John Denning, C.S.C. Congregation as a community. of Holy Cross.

We welcome He is a curFather John’s election as president rent trustee of King’s College in and have faith the Holy Spirit will Wilkes-Barre, Penn., another Concontinue to bless Father John and gregation of Holy Cross institution.

Stonehill.”

Also active in local affairs, Father Following the announcement, Denning serves on the boards of Father Denning cited his “desire My Brother’s Keeper in Easton and and passion to work on building Father Bill’s and MainSpring CoStonehill’s strengths and meeting alition for the Homeless in Brockthe challenges that confront the col- ton. lege’s community of scholarship A Rhode Island native, Father and faith. These include furthering Denning graduated from LaSalle our strong academic reputation, Academy in Providence and redeepening our commitment to di- ceived a bachelor of arts degree versity and enhancing our Catholic from Tulane University in New Orcharacter.” leans. He entered the Congregation Since 2007, Father Denning has guided Stonehill’s Student Affairs Division, collaborating with others on campus to ensure that a culture of learning permeates all areas of college life. Prior to that, he served

of Holy Cross in 1983 and received a master’s of divinity degree from the University of St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada. He is presently a doctoral candidate in higher education administration at the University of Massachusetts Boston. His dissertation research is on student social movements in the 1960s, in particular the Young Christian Students.

The inauguration of Father Denning will take place on campus later in the year and planning for that event will begin shortly.

Trustee William Devin ’60 chaired the 13-member Presidential Search Committee. Composed of trustees, faculty, students and alumni, the committee conducted an eight-month search to identify a successor to Father Cregan who announced his decision to step down in September 2012.

“For their professionalism in overseeing the search, I want to thank the members of the search committee for their diligence and for giving so generously of their time and expertise. In addition, we asked the Stonehill community to engage with us and their response was magnificent. The finalists spent two days taking questions from faculty, staff, students, alumni and trustees at public sessions. I thank everyone who attended and provided feedback for their participation.

Finally, I am deeply grateful to the Holy Cross priests who put themselves forward as candidates, especially our finalists Fathers Denning and Tyson,” Devin said.

May 24, 2013

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The Anchor

May 24, 2013

Sainthood cause of 16th-century Jesuit moves to Vatican VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Although it has taken more than 400 years, the sainthood cause of Jesuit Father Matteo Ricci, the 16th-century missionary to China, appears to be back on track.

Bishop Claudio Giuliodori, apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Macerata, Italy, where Father Ricci was born in 1552, formally closed the diocesan phase of the sainthood process May 10. The cause now moves to the Congregation for Saints’ Causes at the Vatican.

Bishop Giuliodori had met

Pope Francis, a Jesuit, at the Vatican the first week of May. He wrote in the Macerata diocesan newspaper, “I never imagined I’d be able to speak about the cause of Father Matteo Ricci with a Jesuit pope.

After the great attention given

by Benedict XVI, who never missed an occasion to encourage us to promote the cause, we now have the joy of placing it into the hands of a Jesuit.”

The bishop said when he spoke to Pope Francis about the cause, the pope highlighted Father Ricci’s “innovative method of evangelization

based on the inculturation of the faith” and the missionary’s courage and humility in learning from the Chinese.

Father Ricci died in Beijing May 11, 1610, and his death was followed by centuries of Church debate and even disputes over the extent to which a very limited number of Confucian practices — including veneration of ancestors — could be seen as a tolerable part of Chinese social and cultural tradition rather than as religious practices incompatible with Christianity.

Marking the 400th anniversary of Father Ricci’s death in 2010, Pope Emeritus Benedict said Father Ricci’s life and mission represented a “fortunate synthesis of proclaiming the Gospel and of dialogue with the culture of the people who are receiving it, an example of balance between doctrinal clarity and prudent pastoral action.”

Father Ricci is also known for having brought European scientific instruments and knowledge to China, opening up a scientific exchange between the two continents, the now-retired pope had said.

However, Father Ricci “didn’t go to China to bring science, but to bring the Gospel, to bring God,” the pope said.

The diocesan phase of Father Ricci’s sainthood cause opened in 1984, but was almost immediately closed when questions were raised about

jesuit saint — A statue of Jesuit Father Matteo Ricci stands outside the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Beijing in this 2007 file photo. The sainthood cause of the 17th-century missionary to China has moved to the Vatican after the diocesan phase of the sainthood process closed May 10. Father Ricci was born in Macerata, Italy, in 1552 and died in Beijing May 11, 1610.

(CNS photo/Nancy Wiechec)

his commitment to pure Christianity.

Opened again with Vatican approval in 2010, much of the work the past three years has involved an examination by

historians and theologians of Father Ricci’s writings and of the writings of those who worked with him, according to the Macerata diocesan website.

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12

World Premier Band to perform at summer benefit for St. Vincent’s

FALL RIVER — Thanks to the exclusive entertainment sponsorship by BayCoast Bank, St. Vincent’s is pleased to announce that the World Premier Band will perform for St. Vincent’s fifth annual Kick-Off To Summer Celebration on June 21 from 6 to 11 p.m. on the deck of the Battleship Massachusetts in Fall River.

The World Premier Band incorporates musicians on drums, bass, and keyboard playing music of the ’90s and today with classic R&B Motown, dance and World Premier Band original songs.

BayCoast Bank is the Exclusive Entertainment Sponsor for St. Vincent’s fifth annual Summer Celebration which takes place overlooking Fall River’s waterfront.

The World Premier Band are true musicians of multiple backgrounds and talent coming together to produce a wall of sound that no jam session could ever produce. They are inspired to reach beyond the dimensions of their ability to satisfy the audience with endless imagination, seeding the music of the ’90s and today with funk, dance, originals and R&B. They have entertained audiences at venues such as Las Vegas and Mohegan Sun, and have toured in Canada, Europe, Asia and Japan, but call the greater Boston area their home.

St. Vincent’s fifth annual Kick-Off To Summer Celebration, expected to draw more than 400 people, is back by popular demand thanks to title sponsor Mechanics Coopera-

tive Bank. Guests will enjoy complimentary beer and wine, a cash bar, gourmet dinner and dessert, a photo booth by B Sharp Entertainment, live music and dancing to the World Premier Band.

Funds raised from the evening celebration will benefit the youth in St. Vincent’s Life Skills Program who are transitioning to independent living and young adulthood.

The celebration marking the official start of the summer months offers complimentary beer by Quality Beverage, complimentary wine by People’s Liquor Warehouse as well as Del’s Lemonade sponsored by BMC HealthNet Plan.

Appetizers include a roasted corn and crab chowder by Ten Cousins Brick Oven with corn bread by Boston Market, meat/spinach pies and hummus by Mario’s Lebanese Syrian Bakery; BBQ, buffalo and hot wings from St. James Irish Pub; and savory cheesecakes

by Wicked Kickin’ Savory Cheesecakes.

A gourmet dinner will follow featuring food stations from Adagio Piano Lounge, Fall River Grill, Lafrance Hospitality, Ma Raffa’s, Mesa 21, Not Your Average Joe’s, Texas Roadhouse, The 99 Restaurant, Umi Japanese Steakhouse, and the Waterfront Grille in New Bedford.

Desserts will be provided

by Lindt Chocolates and New Boston Bakery.

For tickets or more information about St. Vincent’s fifth annual Kick-Off To Summer Celebration, contact Melissa Dick at 508-235-3228.

MARITIME music — The World Premier Band will perform at the fifth annual Kick-Off to Summer Celebration to Benefit St. Vincent’s Home in Fall River on June 21.

May 24, 2013

The Anchor

space odyssey — Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto star in a scene from the movie “Star Trek Into Darkness.” For a brief review of this film, see CNS Movie Capsules below. (CNS photo/Paramount)

CNS Movie Capsules NEW YORK (CNS) — The following are capsule reviews of movies recently reviewed by Catholic News Service.

“Star Trek Into Darkness” (Paramount) Snappy follow-up to director J.J. Abrams’ 2009 reboot of — and prequel to — the long-lived sci-fi franchise that stretches back to 1960s television. In this second chronicle of their early professional lives, dynamic, impetuous Capt. Kirk (Chris Pine) and his seemingly emotionless half-Vulcan, half-human first officer Spock (Zachary Quinto) lead their intrepid crew on a high-stakes, sometimes morally fraught crusade against an intergalactic terrorist (Benedict Cumberbatch). The fundamental message of Abrams’ spectacular adventure — ­ a warning against employing immoral means to overcome evil — is both scripturally resonant and timely. But the parents of teen Trekkies will need to weigh the profit of that lesson against the debit of some sensual imagery and vulgar talk. Possibly acceptable for older adolescents.

Much bloodless battling but also occasional harsh violence, some sexual content — including a trio glimpsed waking up together and scenes with skimpy costuming — a few uses of crude language, a halfdozen crass terms. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 — parents

strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

“Mud” (Lionsgate/Roadside) Character-centered drama, set in rural Arkansas, in which two teenage best friends (Tye Sheridan and Jacob Lofland) from a hardscrabble town on the banks of the Mississippi discover a fugitive (Matthew McConaughey) living on an otherwise uninhabited island in the river and agree to help him escape. As they assist the charismatic stranger in refitting a disabled boat so he can make a waterborne getaway to the Gulf of Mexico, the boys are increasingly drawn into — and endangered by — the tangled relationships in his life, especially the obsessive romance (with Reese Witherspoon) that drove him to commit a crime that now has both the police and a team of bounty hunters on his trail.

Writer-director Jeff Nichols’ leisurely coming of age story, which also features Sam Shepard as one of the runaway’s few adult allies, explores delicate moral shadings, the nature of friendship and the interplay of innocence and disillusionment in the mind of Sheridan’s character, who must also cope with his quarreling parents’ (Sarah Paulson and Ray McKinnon) impending divorce and his puppy love for a sometimes disdainful older girl (Bonnie Sturdivant). Intense but largely bloodless violence, some adolescent sex talk, including references to pornography, a couple of uses of profanity, considerable crude and crass language.

The Catholic News Service classification is A-III — adults.

The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned.

Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on WLNE Channel 6 Sunday, May 26, 10:30 a.m.

Celebrant is Father Jason Brilhante, parochial vicar at St. Pius X Parish in South Yarmouth

The Anchor

May 24, 2013

Marriage advocates plan to sue IRS over leaks

WASHINGTON, D.C. (CNA/EWTN News) — The National Organization for Marriage is filing a lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service, after its confidential tax return was leaked from the agency to the group’s chief political opposition.

“In March 2012 Human Rights Campaign posted a copy of our confidential tax return on its website ... and we know for a fact that the source for this was within the IRS,” National Organization for Marriage chairman John Eastman told CNA May 17.

The National Organization for Marriage qualifies as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization. They are obliged to make public their tax returns, “but there are parts of those tax returns that are explicitly confidential, including schedule B, our list of donors and their addresses.”

On or about Mar. 30, 2012, the Human Rights Campaign posted National Organization

of their private documents. for Marriage’s 2008 Sched- returns.

When both departments, Eastman offered the three ule B on its website as a PDF. “It had some redactions possible ways that the Hu- and the Internal Revenue on it, and our computer guys man Rights Campaign ob- Service, proved to be uncowere able to unlayer the PDF tained National Organiza- operative, the nonprofit beto get beyond the redac- tion for Marriage’s tax return gan filing requests under the Freedom of Information Act. tions and look at the original from the tax agency.

“Frankly we’ve document, which is been stonewalled ... stamped with interither someone hacked and they didn’t give nal IRS markings,” Eastman said. into the IRS computer us any of the actually relevant informaHuman Rights Campaign posted a system ... or someone fraudu- tion,” said Eastman.

Having exhausted version with retrac- lently impersonated an offitheir means of retions, showing a cer of the NOM ... or somecourse regarding white bar diagonally investigations and across the pages. one at the IRS disclosed this.” requests for inforWhen this layer is mation, the National removed, it reveals Organization for an Internal Revenue “Either someone hacked Marriage decided on May 6 Service tracking number, as well as statements at the into the IRS computer system to begin pursuing a civil suit bottom and top of each page ... or someone fraudulently against the Internal Revenue reading, “This is a copy of a impersonated an officer of Service.

“Our final round of havlive return from SMIPS. Of- the NOM ... or someone at ing to go through hurdles of the IRS disclosed this.” ficial use only.”

“Of those three, the one FOIA requests is now conSMIPS is the tax agency’s internal computer system. that’s clearly the most plau- cluded, and we’re teeing up It is a felony offense for In- sible is the latter,” Eastman that lawsuit now,” Eastman said. ternal Revenue Service offi- said.

Human Rights Campaign The tax return was quickly cials to disclose private tax republished by the Huffing- is an LGBT advocacy group ton Post and other media out- promoting same-sex marriage. The group “had been lets and blogs.

On April 11, the National trying to get our donor list Organization for Marriage for a long time, because then requested that both the Trea- they can publish it on the insury department’s inspector ternet and then people start general and the Department harassing our donors and of Justice investigate the leak boycotting their businesses.”

“E

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Eastman finds it significant that Human Rights Campaign’s president in March 2012 was Joe Solmonese, who the month before had been named a co-chair of the campaign to re-elect President Obama.

“What a coincidence,” Eastman said, that shortly after Solmonese was given a prominent position in Obama’s re-election campaign, “somebody at the IRS discloses to that very same person our confidential tax returns, and commits a felony in doing so.”

Eastman considers the idea risible that a low-level employee at the Internal Revenue Service would have taken the risk of committing such a felony without direction from a highly-placed supervisor.

“Given who was involved in this that we know, it seems pretty implausible,” Eastman stated, that there wasn’t “some involvement” from “high level political appointees at the Department of Justice or the Treasury department, as well as with the campaign folks.”

Pope prays for victims of Oklahoma tornado

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — As the death toll rose from the massive tornado that struck near Oklahoma City, Pope Francis offered a special prayer for the victims during his early morning Mass on May 21 and later offered his condolences through his Twitter account.

“Let us pray for the victims ... and the missing, especially the children, struck by the violent tornado that hit Oklahoma City yesterday. Hear us, O Lord,” the pope said during the prayers of the faithful.

The tornado touched down at about 3 p.m. May 20 in Oklahoma and reportedly stayed on the ground for more than 40 minutes, leaving a 20-mile path of death and destruction. Dozens of people were reported killed, and the death toll was expected to rise. Two elementary schools were struck by the tornado.

A few hours after the Mass, Pope Francis also used his @ Pontifex Twitter account to express his concern for the Oklahoma victims and survivors.

14 Gun article unwarranted I was dismayed to see the political article by Father Blaire in the April 26 issue concerning gun control. This does not belong in a Catholic newspaper, as it is a political/ personal issue not a theological issue. Please see the recent PEW research. I would hate to cancel my subscription through my church but will do so if you continue to publish letters from priests on non-Catholic issues.

Joseph R. Asiaf, M.D. Brockton Another point of view on Communion I am writing in response to Jean Willis’ excellent letter on the subject of the reception of the Eucharist. In the early post-Vatican II era there were many, including liturgists, who had waited for decades for an opportunity to break from what they considered to be the inflexibility of the Counter Reformation Church.

To many of these individuals and groups, no facet of the faith formed a more fruitful field than the Liturgy. They felt they were supported in this by the council’s statement that, “Even in the Liturgy, the Church has no wish to impose a rigid uniformity in matters which do not implicate the faith or the good of the whole community” (D:37, “Constitution of the Sacred Liturgy – Sacrosanctum Concilium”).

The goal here was to make changes in the Liturgy that they felt would generate an even more vigorous involvement by the congregation, more accurately reflect the laity as the “priestly people” and make the Mass more closely resemble the Last Supper. While those ends were well intended, they appear to have created some issues, particularly in regard to the reception of the Eucharist.

There are two areas that one may review in regard to this subject. The first relates to the Eucharist itself. For many of us who were born into and grew up in the preVatican II Church, it was quite astonishing to be told

The Anchor

May 24, 2013

Our readers respond

by liturgists that there should be no consecrated hosts in the sanctuary in order to more accurately emulate the Last Supper.

Using VI:95 of the “Instruction on the Liturgy” (1964) as justification, tabernacles began disappearing from church sanctuaries. The second area relates to the issue of the removal of as many medieval trappings from the Liturgy as was prudent. There was a strong movement in the Midwest to remove kneeling, a movement that has not disappeared. This did not only include kneeling for the reception of Communion, but also kneeling during the consecration. I make no claim that this is why we receive Communion standing, but it certainly played a part in its acceptance.

Finally, the reception of Communion while kneeling is inexorably tied to the altar rail. Remove the rail and the option essentially disappears (unless you’re in great physical shape). For this to be a true option, altar rails would have to be replaced. Good luck with that one! Even the bow or genuflection before reception is optional. Everything is optional but the reception of Communion in a kneeling position. This option was taken away the minute the altar rail disappeared.

I find it hard to believe that those who were empowered to make that decision were not aware of this.

In one of the letters on this subject, it was stated to the effect that Jesus wasn’t concerned about the physical positioning of the Apostles at the Last Supper. In comparing the Mass to the Last Supper, one must be careful to recognize that the Last Supper was unique.

At Mass it is emulated but not completely replicated because the Apostles received the Body and Blood, soul and divinity of our Lord prior to His Passion, death and resurrection; acts that Jesus Himself told us were required for our salvation.

The Apostles were singularly blessed because of their future role in establishing His Church. While we reenact the essence of the

Last Supper at Mass, we do so recognizing the ultimate sacrifice that Christ made for our salvation. That element is acknowledged in its title as “The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.”

We worship Christ knowing what the Apostles didn’t.

When we worship the Lord at Mass, our body as well as our mental, emotional and spiritual disposition expresses our commitment to hearing

His Word and receiving His Body and Blood. All of these not only impact us individually, but affect those around us and create an atmosphere that helps us all to recognize God’s Presence in our midst.

William H. MacLachlan West Dennis Praise and prayers We enjoy The Anchor more and more, especially the

write-up of Pope Francis. We pray daily for Pope Francis; he is touching many lives, especially the children’s lives.

Please keep praying for the healing of the people that are ill from the Boston Marathon. That was so sad. We all need to pray for all the tragedies that are happening around this world. God must be very sad.

Olive Veiga South Dartmouth

The Catholic Education Center has the following items available for anyone interested in organizing alumni from Bishop Gerrard High School or Mount St. Mary Academy, formerly located in Fall River.

• Address and follow-up information for graduates – Bishop Gerrard High School • Yearbooks – Bishop Gerrard High School • Newspaper clippings from weddings of Mount St. Mary Academy graduates If you are interested in organizing alumni events for these schools, this information may be helpful to you.

Please contact Sharon Sampson at the Catholic Education Center at 508-678-2828 for more information. The information will be purged after June 30, 2013 if there is no response.

15

The Anchor

May 24, 2013

Bishop Stang teacher receives award for mission work continued from page one

“We pulled 500 teeth in one week,” recalled Crosson.

Mass was celebrated every night alongside the people they were helping; “Everybody gave hugs and kisses, gave the sign of peace,” said Crosson. “It was very warm and welcoming on both parts. We definitely received more than we ever gave.”

The following year a mission team of 16 traveled to Guaimaca, and the next year a total of 32 volunteers consisting of two separate groups made separate trips. In 2007, one group traveled to Honduras while a second group made Crosson’s mission dream come full circle by traveling to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in Africa.

“In Africa, we pretty much work with all the outlying villages in Dar es Salaam. In the beginning some of the villages would take three hours to get to,” said Crosson. “There’s no electricity, no running water. Some of the kids have to travel two or three hours just to get to the school, and then have to travel back to go home. Some only get enough bus fare the day before, if their mom or dad sells enough tomatoes on the street to afford the bus fare. It’s a different world.”

Working with Caritas that is run through the Diocese of Dar es Salaam, the mission group is often greeted by Cardinal Polycarp Pengo or one of the archbishops.

“Caritas has done unbelievable work in these villages,” said Crosson, adding how Caritas has created the groundwork by helping fulfill guidelines in each village to have a school. “Before we were incorporated [as Missions

for Humanity], we would say Bishop Stang Mission Team because we had a lot of people from Stang in the beginning. One of the cornerstones of a school that we worked on in the very beginning has Bishop Stang on it.”

Missions for Humanity was formally incorporated in 2008 to help fund-raise for medications and supplies, though each volunteer continues to pay his or her own way. The mission statement reads that the group is a “Christian, nonprofit organization dedicated to providing medical, dental and humanitarian aid to those in the world’s neediest communities.”

Every summer two mission groups are sent out, one to Honduras and the other to Africa. Planning each mission is a year-round event, with Africa having the added element of providing education. Teachers get together to craft lesson plans while those with the medical expertise get together to order medications through Blessings International, a group that takes in donations from drug companies to be sold to mission groups at steep discounts; from lidocaine, hypertension medication, diabetes supplies, fungal creams and lots of antibiotics — Crosson estimates that the groups bring close to $100,000 worth of medications on their trips.

Because each group has to hand-carry whatever they are going to use or need, the group’s “packing parties” see members use ingenious methods to pack as much as they can into each suitcase. After realizing many of those suffering from foot ailments

would benefit from more than just fungal creams and antibiotics, numerous pairs of flip-flops are used as packing materials to help insulate medications.

And while the planning for the group’s 15th and 16th mission trips were well underway for this summer, Crosson and her team had to scramble when an airline canceled flights to Tanzania earlier this year. Tickets are purchased months in advance to get the cheapest prices, said Crosson, and not only did each team member have to pay more per ticket, each team lost the ability to bring three suitcases. Tremblay’s Bus stepped in to help bring the mission group to JFK Airport, helping to defray some of the travel costs.

“What a relief,” said Crosson of how some things worked out, though she laments the loss of being able to have three suitcases for each person; an additional cost of $140 for each third suitcase per person will be paid by those who can afford it. “It’s unfortunate we won’t be able to bring quite as many so we’ll only pack what we desperately need.”

Even with the loss of some supplies this year, the totality of people helped by Missions for Humanity is impressive. According to Crosson, since 2004 mission teams have cared for almost 18,000 people, restored and pulled more than 4,000 teeth, distributed 5,100 pairs of eyeglasses, and collected and donated more than $750,000 worth of medications and supplies.

Teams have planted trees, helped build schools and dormitories and worked on community farms. New sources of income have been provided to single mothers by teaching jewelry and pottery making skills.

Not too shabby for a woman who decided to go on a safari and came back with not just pictures of wildlife, but a picturesque idea of helping mankind. Though the group initially started with a Catholic background because of the Bishop Stang connection, it’s become interfaith, with volunteers from Hindu, Jewish and other Christian denominations taking part.

“No matter what you call your God, I really believe everybody is called to be here for the same reason, to share God’s love,” said Crosson. “On each trip you’re going to work like a dog, be dead tired, be hungry, have nights when there’s five more patients and it’s getting late but you know you’re the only group these people ever see — these are people who are called to be there.”

For more information or to see more photos, visit www.missionsforhumanity.org.

This week in 50 years ago — The fifth annual diocesan Catholic Youth Organization convention was held at the Catholic Community Center in Fall River, with Auxiliary Bishop James J. Gerrard in attendance.

25 years ago — Father Terence Keenan, pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish in Fall River, presented a papal blessing to Theresa Marcoux in acknowledgment of her efforts in founding a Living Rosary service held in parishes in the Flint area of Fall River.

Diocesan history 10 years ago — Ground-breaking ceremonies were held at the future site of St. Pius X School in South Yarmouth, which was slated to open its doors to students the next year.

One year ago — The third annual Family Rosary Retreat, sponsored

by Holy Cross Family Ministries, based in North Easton, was held at Cardinal Spellman High School, 738 Court Street, in Brockton.

Holy Cross Parish dedicates garden, statue continued from page one

ever we decide upon express the consistent ethic of life embraced by the Catholic Church, which teaches that all human life, from conception to natural death, is sacred and to be protected,” Father Fenstermaker said. “To this end, we decided upon a statue of the Holy Family, which portrays Jesus as a young boy with Mary and Joseph. We felt that a statue of the Holy Family is a powerful symbol and reminder of the sanctity and importance of the family in the life of the Church and society. It is within the family that children learn from their parents the sanctity of human life at all stages and in all conditions of human existence.”

The four-foot tall marble statue of the Holy Family is mounted on a beautiful base that includes a quote from Cardinal Joseph Bernardin that reads as follows: “When human life under any circumstance is not held as sacred in a society, all human life in that society is threatened.”

Cardinal Bernardin is credited with popularizing the concept of the consistent ethic of life, or the “seamless garment of life” as it was called by many back in the 1980s.

“I heard Cardinal Bernardin speak on this subject at the 1983 commencement exercises at the University of Notre Dame when I received my master of divinity degree, and it made a powerful impression on me that day,” Father Fenstermaker said.

“Cardinal Bernardin made it clear that not all respect life issues carry the same weight,” he added. “We all understand abortion to be, as I call it, the ‘foundational’ life issue. If we do not allow children in the womb to be born, we don’t need to worry about proper nutrition, health care, or education for them. But as Catholics who embrace the consistent ethic of life, we are

concerned about poverty and economic justice, and the effects of war on human beings both young and old. We declare our opposition to the death penalty because we hold out hope for conversion and redemption for even the most heinous of criminals.”

Sculpted by P.J., the parish plant manager, the scenic garden also boasts two marble benches where people can sit and spend time in prayer before the statue of the Holy Family.

“I can certainly see it becoming another location, like our Mary garden and statue on the north side of the church, for photos at Baptisms, First Communions, Confirmations, graduations, and weddings,” Father Fenstermaker said. “But most of all, it will become a place of prayer and meditation. I would suggest that visitors remember to place our needs and prayers under the intercession of the Holy Family and to pray for a greater respect for the dignity and sanctity of human life, from conception to natural death, in our society and world.”

Father Fenstermaker wished to thank the parish Respect Life Committee for seeing the project come to fruition and for hosting a reception on the front lawn after the blessing and dedication ceremony.

He also thanked the Easton Knights of Columbus and the many Holy Cross parishioners who made donations toward the statue and garden, and to Jack and Linda McTernan of Easton Memorials for their great assistance and generosity with the statue, base, engraving and benches.

“I pray that this garden and statue will help us as a parish community to grow ever stronger and more fervent in our commitment to protect the dignity and sanctity of all human life,” he said.

16

Youth Pages

BALLOON PAYMENT — Grace Daniels, a sixth-grade student at St. MarySacred Heart School in North Attleboro, is a finalist for her essay in the recent SRA Reading Labs Student Writing Contest. Her essay is entitled “Balloons” and is in the grade 4-6 expository category of the contest. She has a chance at winning $5,000 in her category and was chosen from more than thousands of students across the country.

May 24, 2013

FREEDOM FIGHTERS — The Knights of Columbus received a record 34 participants from Bishop Feehan High School in Attleboro this year for their essay contest on “The Importance of Religious Freedom.” The winners for the top three awards were, first place, Jessica Mahoney of Wrentham; second place, Benjamin Fisk of Seekonk; and a third place, tie: Devan Hunter of Norton and Thomas Moran of Seekonk. The winners, along with all entrants, their families and teachers, were presented their awards May 17. Pictured here, from left, Thomas Moran, Jessica Mahoney, Benjamin Fisk and Devan Hunter.

high honors — Coyle and Cassidy High School Guidance Counselor Judy D’Agostino was recently named the Catholic School Guidance Associations Counselor of the Year. She was recognized for her many years of service to the students of the diocesan high school and was presented the award at CSGA’s monthly meeting at Emmanuel College. She is pictured here with Heidi Hayes and Shawn Ahern from BC High.

PROUD POETS — Eighth grade students from St. Joseph School in Fairhaven recently participated in the annual Voices of Young Poets evening at the Rotch-Duff Jones Museum in New Bedford. Students read original poetry created during a school poetry unit. Pictured, from left, are students Ryan Busse, Caitlin McHenry, Sydney Sylvia, Hannah Nordstrom, and Owen Murray.

ROCKET MEN — Brian Hohlfeld, team leader, and Freddie Thomson, both of St. John the Evangelist School in Attleboro, recently qualified for the national competition in the Aerospace Industries Association 2013 Team American Rocketry Challenge. TARC is the world’s largest student rocket contest that aims to inspire students to pursue education and careers in science, technology, engineering and math. The team is sponsored by Wavelet Technologies, Inc., a high technology company based in Attleboro, of which Dr. Robert Hohlfeld is the adult supervisor for the team.

Youth Pages

May 24, 2013

A

fter a long and seemingly endless winter, spring has finally sprung!

The birds serve as the morning wake-up call oftentimes before the alarm clock buzzes. Days are getting longer. Homeowners are working in their yards. It is time where we can truly see and appreciate the beauty of God’s creation.

Spring also brings final exams and the end of college semesters.

High school seniors are attending proms and other pre-graduation events like senior skip days. Spring is a time for change — a time for new life.

Some say that spring came early this year for Catholics when Pope Francis set foot on the Vatican balcony. Much as our Holy Father is a breath of fresh air — or breadth of the Holy Spirit — to his flock, the change of seasons breathes new life into all of us.

Bathed in the increasing warm sunshine, we become a happier more joyful people and a more relaxed people. However, with this

17

Winds of change

change of seasons comes a natural from generation to generation. leisurely approach not only to our Earlier this week, 59 young daily lives but to our faith lives as people between the ages of 15 and well.

19 were presented with the Pope Faith Formation programs are St. Pius X youth award by Bishop coming to a close. Parish calendars Coleman. These young people are are opening fanning the up.

It winds of appears that change by everything remaining becomes a involved little less in their crowded in parishes

By Crystal Medeiros the pews at various so that the levels of beaches can assistance, become a little more crowded. leadership and ministry. The young It is unfortunate that our parish men and women embrace their life revolves around the academic faith and their parishes with zeal calendar. But that is the time frame and are not afraid or ashamed to that we are used to. For example, be a witness to their faith. Many I still refer to September through adults could learn a lot from these December as fall and January remarkable young people. Other through May as spring in relation youth could also look to them as to college semesters. It is ingrained role models of the faith. us.

Instead of taking the usual But so too should be our faith. Our summer months off from the parish, faith must be ingrained us if we are perhaps young and old can step up to to carry the torch of the Holy Spirit the plate and become more involved

Be Not Afraid

in their parish communities. If your parish has a soup kitchen or food pantry, volunteer your time. If a vacation Bible school is being offered in the parish, volunteer your time. If nothing is happening in your parish during the summer months, volunteer to make something happen!

Pope Francis has initiated the winds of change for our Church by becoming the leading example of living and preaching the Gospel.

He is showing us how to preach the Gospel message by using very few words — he is doing so through his actions.

Let the winds he has begun in Vatican City cross the Atlantic and be embraced by every member of the Church on our shores. It’s time for us to practice what we preach and be the Living Christ to others.

It’s time for us to become the winds of change.

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

‘Voice’ of Coyle-Cassidy selected to attend summer institute TAUNTON — The daily announcements at Coyle and Cassidy High School regularly resemble a high quality PSA as each day the voice of former radio and television anchor Barbara Quill fills the air. Students regularly state this is often their favorite time of day.

Clearly a well-liked English and journalism teacher at Coyle and Cassidy, Quill’s journalism passion runs deep.

Always eager to innovate and expand her knowledge base, Quill was thrilled to be selected as a 2013 ASNE Reynolds High School Journalism Institute Fellow at the University of Missouri, Columbia. She is one of 140 teachers chosen Barbara from approximately 400 teachers from across the country to take part in the program, sponsored by the American Society of News Editors and funded by the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation.

This two-week program helps teachers develop a framework that assists students with critical thinking skills, news and ethical judgments, gain stronger reporting, writing, editing, photo, web, multimedia, graphics and entrepreneurial skills needed to help students start or improve independent student media, focus on multimedia news reporting, writing and verification, and instill an appreciation for the First Amendment.

A 17-year veteran at CCHS and a resident of

Taunton, Quill implemented a journalism course more than nine years ago with the intention of sharing her journalism passion with her students.

A member of the Journalism Education Association, Quill once worked as a news anchor and reporter at various radio and television stations in Boston, Philadelphia, and Providence. In Portland, Maine, she made history as the state’s first female TV anchor at WGME-TV. During that time, she had the opportunity to travel, covering such stories as Pope John Paul II’s first visit to the United States, and the precedent-breaking trip of 11-year-old Samantha Smith to the Soviet Union in 1983.

Coyle director of literacy Quill Donna Fournier said “We are fortunate to have a former anchorwoman teaching our students the principles and practices of good journalism.”

Her father had a long, successful career in radio management and her sister Nancy works at Magic 106.7/WMJX in Boston as an on-air personality.

“Journalism is in my blood,” Quill said, adding that the medium has changed so dramatically in the past few years that she “wants to keep up.”

She went on to say the “institute will be an invaluable component in preparing my students for the ‘new journalism.’”

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18

The Anchor

St. Pius X Youth Awards presented continued from page one

said. “If you go there unwillingly, you won’t get anything out of it. I really enjoy it because I don’t look at it as something I have to do, it’s something I enjoy doing.”

“It feels amazing to be singled out of all the other people in all the parishes,” agreed Kenneth Charles Hampston, this year’s recipient from Immaculate Conception Parish in North Easton.

“I know there are lots of leaders in other churches who are just as deserving of the award.”

Hampston, 18, who has been an altar boy at his parish since third grade, also serves as an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion and has taught Faith Formation classes at Immaculate Conception.

“Being involved gets you closer to everyone else in the parish,” Hampston said.

“It’s nice to get involved in as many things as you can because then it’s not just a parish anymore, it’s more like a family.”

“I know it’s quite an honor and a big deal,” said Mary Craig upon learning she would be this year’s recipient for Holy Family Parish in East Taunton. “Everyone was really happy for me, but I just felt good that I could contribute to my Church in some way.”

Like many of her fellow recipients, Craig has been involved with her parish’s youth group and has served on the retreat team, has taught weekly Faith Formation classes, and has attended the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., adding that her parish is “a very big part of my life.”

“It’s certainly not boring,” Craig said. “It’s fun to be a part of it all. There are so many things you can do in your parish. You just have to get involved with your parish youth group. It’s been a very rewarding experience for me. I just feel closer to God knowing that I have other people my age who are also involved.”

“It really is an honor,” agreed Jacob Soares, this year’s honoree from St. John Neumann Parish in East Freetown. “It’s nice to be recognized for some of the things that I’ve done.”

From his work at the par-

ish’s annual Lakeside Festival to his involvement with the youth group to helping decorate the church for various holidays, to assisting with retreats, the 16-year-old Soares has become something of a fixture at St. John Neumann Parish.

“For me, I just feel happy helping other people,” Soares said. “Knowing that I make someone happy by helping them makes me happy in return.”

“It’s very humbling, because it’s my understanding the award is given for service and it’s really nice to be recognized for that,” said Ashley M. Laird, who received the award for her work at Christ the King Parish in Mashpee this year.

Laird was honored for her involvement with the parish youth group, as an altar server, for singing in the choir, and as an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion. She has also done volunteer work with Habitat for Humanity and the local food bank and has participated in the March for Life.

“There are so many opportunities to get involved in your parish,” Laird said. “I don’t know if I would have known about some of these service opportunities had I not been involved in the parish.”

While she expressed joy at receiving the St. Pius X Youth Award, Laird admitted her involvement in various parish activities has really been its own reward.

“They’ve all been absolutely life-changing — especially the March for Life,” she said. “To me, it’s worth doing because it’s good for you and good for everyone else and you get a lot more out of it than you put into it.”

Crystal-Lynn Medeiros, assistant director of Youth and Young Adult Ministry for the Fall River Diocese, told The Anchor: “It is imperative to acknowledge the efforts of those teens who continuously live a life of service to their parishes and communities.

“These young people are not the future of our Church, they are the here and the right now and we are blessed to have their passion and enthusiasm for the Catholic faith grace our parishes.”

May 24, 2013

2013 St. Pius X Youth Award Winners Parish

City/Town

Name

Attleboro Deanery St. Mary St. John the Evangelist Sacred Heart St. Mary St. Mark St. Vincent de Paul St. Mary Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Norton Attleboro North Attleboro Mansfield Attleboro Falls Attleboro North Attleboro Seekonk

Matthew Steven Beaulieu Shannon Adele Holley Ryan Kingsley Kevin T. McAllister Kyle Andrew McGuire Addison Ruiz Lopez Kelsey A. Sullivan Benjamin Patterson

Cape Cod and the Islands Deanery Our Lady of Victory Centerville Our Lady of the Assumption Osterville St. Mary-Our Lady of the Isle Nantucket St. Patrick Falmouth Our Lady of the Cape Brewster St. John the Evangelist Pocasset St. Elizabeth Seton North Falmouth St. Pius X South Yarmouth Christ the King Mashpee Holy Redeemer Chatham Corpus Christi East Sandwich St. Joan of Arc Orleans Holy Trinity West Harwich St. Margaret Buzzards Bay St. Francis Xavier Hyannis

Samantha Anderson Colby Blaze Mary Jane Caro Nicholas P. DeMeo Dakota Dickerson Christine Duxbury Andrew Guresh Erik Lucas Journet Ashley M. Laird Michael David Mazulis Thomas Moynahan Nicole O’Leary Addie-Eileen Paige Thomas Joseph Souza Patrick Stephen Thompson

Fall River Deanery Good Shepherd St. John the Baptist St. Michael St. Anthony of Padua St. Mary’s Cathedral Sacred Heart Santo Christo SS. Peter and Paul St. Dominic St. Bernard St. Bernadette St. Patrick St. Thomas More St. Francis of Assisi Holy Name St. Stanislaus St. Anne

Fall River Westport Fall River Fall River Fall River Fall River Fall River Fall River Swansea Assonet Fall River Somerset Somerset Swansea Fall River Fall River Fall River

Brianna Carvalho Sean Croft Patrick Cunha Alexander Sardinha Costa Matthew Diniz Lindsey Ferreira Beatriz Furtado Kyle Humphreys Andrew A. Jacome Jacob Joseph Langello Corinne Laurianno Jonathan Letourneau Kayla Jane Mulready Zachary Michael Notarangelo Brian Thomas Quinn Kaitlyn Anne Szczupak Mason Thibault

New Bedford Deanery St. Mary St. Joseph St. Julie Billiart Our Lady of Perpetual Help Our Lady of the Assumption St. Anthony of Padua St. Francis Xavier St. Mary St. Patrick Our Lady of Fatima St. Lawrence Martyr St. John Neumann Our Lady of Guadalupe St. Mary

New Bedford Fairhaven North Dartmouth New Bedford New Bedford New Bedford Acushnet South Dartmouth Wareham New Bedford New Bedford East Freetown New Bedford Fairhaven

Makenzee Borges Sara daCosta Liliana Faith Daly Noah Joseph Gioiosa Stephany Gomes Melissa Goncalves Jonathan Hamel Abby Koczera Elizabeth Anne Lindquist Madison Markey Alexiss Cecilia O’Sullivan Jacob Soares Cinthia Sanchez Solorzano Laura Vieira

Taunton Deanery St. Nicholas of Myra Holy Family Immaculate Conception Holy Cross St. Ann

North Dighton East Taunton North Easton South Easton Raynham

Michael Joseph Cordeiro Mary Craig Kenneth Charles Hampston Katelyn Hurley Lindsey Thomas

May 24, 2013

Eucharistic Adoration in the Diocese

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

ATTLEBORO — Eucharistic Adoration takes place in the St. Joseph Adoration Chapel at Holy Ghost Church, 71 Linden Street, from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.

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

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

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

East Sandwich — The Corpus Christi Parish Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration Chapel is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 324 Quaker Meeting House Road, East Sandwich.

Use the Chapel entrance on the side of the church.

EAST TAUNTON — Eucharistic Adoration takes place in the chapel at Holy Family Parish Center, 438 Middleboro Avenue, Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. On First Fridays, Eucharistic Adoration takes place at Holy Family Church, 370 Middleboro Avenue, from 8:30 a.m. until 7:45 p.m.

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

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

FALL RIVER — St. Bernadette’s Church, 529 Eastern Ave., has Eucharistic Adoration on Fridays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 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 and concluding with 3 p.m. Benediction in the Daily Mass Chapel. A bilingual holy hour takes place from 2 to 3 p.m. Park behind the church and enter the back door of the connector between the church and the rectory.

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

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.

Gossip is like slapping Jesus, pope asserts

VATICAN CITY (CNA/ EWTN News) — Pope Francis spoke recently about how gossip

by Christians is a “slap” to Jesus “in the person of His children.”

“All three — disinformation, defamation and slander — are sins! This is sin! It is to slap Jesus in the person of His children, His brothers,” the pope said May 18 in the chapel of St. Martha’s House.

The topic came up in Pope Francis’ homily because of the day’s Gospel reading from John 21 in which Peter asks if John will be alive when Jesus returns to earth.

“What is it to you?” the pontiff began his homily, referring to Jesus’ response to Peter, who was being tempted “to interfere in the lives of others.”

Peter became “nosy,” Pope Francis remarked, noting that there are two ways people are tempted to get involved in others’ lives. The first is “to compare oneself with others” and the second is to gossip.

“It seems nice to chat,” he reflected, “I do not know why, but it looks nice. Like sweet of honey, right? You take one and then another, and another, and another, and in the end you have a stomach ache. And why? The chatter is like that eh? It is sweet at first and it ruins you, it ruins your soul!”

The pope then referred back to

In Your Prayers

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

Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks

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.

May 25 Rev. Michael P. Kirby, Former Assistant St. Mary, North Attleboro, 1925 Rev. James V. Mendes, Pastor, Our Lady of Angels, Fall River, 1961

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

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

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

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

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

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

Recitation of the Rosary for peace is prayed Monday through Saturday at 7:30 a.m. prior to the 8 a.m. Mass. taunton — Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament takes place every First Friday at Annunciation of the Lord, 31 First Street. Expostition begins following the 8 a.m. Mass.

The Blessed Sacrament will be exposed, and Adoration will continue throughout the day.

Confessions are heard from 5:15 to 6:15 p.m. Rosary and Benediction begin at 6:30 p.m.

WAREHAM — Every First Friday, Eucharistic Adoration takes place from 8:30 a.m. through Benediction at 5:30 p.m. Morning prayer is prayed at 9; the Angelus at noon; the Divine Mercy Chaplet at 3 p.m.; and Evening Prayer at 5 p.m.

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.

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The Anchor

May 26 Rev. Thomas F. Murray, assistant at St. Patrick’s Parish in Falmouth and St. Francis Xavier Parish in Hyannis, 2012 May 28 Rev. Lionel A. Bourque, Former Chaplain, Cardinal Cushing Hospital, Brockton, 1982 May 30 Rev. Jordan Harpin, O.P., Dominican Priory, Fall River, 1929 Rev. Edmond J. Potvin, Pastor, St. Jean Baptiste, Fall River, 1937 Rev. James M. Quinn, Pastor, St. John the Evangelist, Attleboro, 1950 Rev. Robert T. Canuel, Assistant, St. Anne, Fall River, 1993 May 31 Rev. Vincent A. Wolski, OFM Conv., Pastor, Holy Cross, Fall River, 1964

Genesis, saying that gossip is “‘a little’ like the spirit of Cain who killed his brother, his tongue; it kills his brother!” The consequence of gossiping is that “we become Christians of good manners and bad habits,” he warned, later repeating the description.

According to Pope Francis, people fail in this area in three ways: by giving “misinformation,” by making known the faults of others, and by telling lies about others.

“That is why Jesus does with us what He did with Peter when He says: ‘What is it to you? Follow Me.’ The Lord in this instance points the way,” he said.

“This kind of talk will not do

you any good,” the pope stated, “because it will just bring to the Church a spirit of destruction.

‘Follow me!’ These are the beautiful words of Jesus, it is so clear, that He has so much love for us.

As if to say: ‘Don’t have fantasies, believing that salvation is in the comparisons with others or in gossip. Salvation is to go behind me.’”

Pope Francis finished his homily by saying, “Today we ask the Lord Jesus to give us this grace not to ever get involved in the lives of others, not to become Christians of good manners and bad habits, it is to follow Jesus, to walk behind Jesus on His way. And this is enough.”

Around the Diocese 5/28

Courage, a support group for Catholics with same-sex attraction who would like to help each other live according to the Catholic Church’s teaching on chastity, will meet on May 28 at 7 p.m. at St. John the Evangelist’s Hospitality Center, 1 St. John’s Place in Attleboro.

For more information, contact Father Wilson at 508-226-1115.

6/1

Each year Holy Cross Family Ministries’ offices around the world offer an anniversary mass of thanksgiving for the life of its founder, Servant of God Father Patrick Peyton, CSC, on June 1. The Father Peyton Center, 518 Washington Street in North Easton, will begin at 2 p.m. with Rosary prayer at the gravesite of Father Peyton, at the Route 138 entrance to Stonehill College, followed at 3 p.m. with an Anniversary Mass at St. Joseph Chapel, with refreshments in the Father Peyton Center to conclude the day. All are welcome to join and pray to continue his mission to fulfill his vision: the family that prays together stays together. For more information visit www.FamilyRosary.org/Events or call 508-238-4095.

6/1

Good Shepherd Parish, 1598 South Main Street in Fall River, will be holding its annual Pot Luck Supper on June 1 at 5:30 p.m. Menu items include Portuguese, Polish and American foods. For tickets or more information call the rectory at 508-678-7412 or email gsfallriver@gmail. com.

6/2

On June 2 at the 11 a.m. Mass at St. Francis Xavier Church in Hyannis, there will be a Celebration of the 25th Ordination of Father Daniel Lacroix and the 60th Ordination of Msgr. Henry Munroe. A light brunch will follow in the St. Francis Xavier Preparatory School and all are welcome. Ont this feast of Corpus Christi, the parish will give thanks for these two priests and their lives dedicated to the Church and pray for and focus on new vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

6/2

St. Anthony of Padua Church, 1359 Acushnet Avenue in New Bedford, will host a Corpus Christi procession on June 2 beginning at 2 p.m. On this fest of the most holy Body and Blood of Christ, the procession will begin with benediction and then proceed outside with the Blessed Sacrament led by the St. Anthony Band. The procession will travel to St. Kilian’s and Immaculate Conception churches before heading back to St. Anthony’s. All are welcome to join Jesus on the streets of New Bedford. For more information visit www.saintanthonynewbedford.com.

6/7

The Feast of the Sacred Heart will be celebrated at St. Anne’s Church, Fall River, on June 7 with the following Masses: 7:15 a.m. “low” Mass in the shrine; 11:30 a.m. sung Mass in the shrine; 7 p.m.

Missa Cantata (sung Latin Mass, Extraordinary Form) in the upper church.

6/10

St. Anthony of Padua Church, 1359 Acushnet Avenue in New Bedford, will celebrate the feast of its patron, St. Anthony, with a three-day novena June 10-13 concluding with a 6:30 p.m.

Mass on June 13. The homily will be given by Father Svetozar Kralijevic, OFM, a Franciscan priest from the parish of Medugorje. There will be a blessing with a St. Anthony relic and all are welcome.

6/11

The Catholic Cancer Support Group will hold its next monthly meeting on June 11 at 6 p.m. at Our Lady of Victory Parish in Centerville. The meeting will start with a Mass and Anointing of the Sick in the church at 6 p.m., and then move over to the Parish Center for a Summer Potluck Supper. All are welcome to join for conversation, support, and sharing of information. If your last name starts with the letters A through L, please bring a main dish to share. For those with last names starting with M through Z, please bring a salad or dessert. If possible, please drop off your food before the Mass. The committee will provide all paper products and beverages.

The Catholic Cancer Support Group of Our Lady of Victory is a Malta ministry and is faith-based, but all are welcome: cancer patients, survivors, family and friends. Reservations are not needed. For more information, call 508-778-4468 or 508-775-5744.

6/13

St. Anthony’s Parish in East Falmouth will sponsor an Island Queen Evening Cruise on June 13 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Watch the sun set on Vineyard Sound, enjoy good food, entertainment, and a 50/50 raffle to benefit the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. For more information call 508-457-0085.

7/19

The Pro-Life Apostolate of the diocese is pleased to announce the third annual Pro-Life Boot Camp for young adults entering high school through senior year will be held on the campus of Stonehill College in Easton on the weekend of July 19-21. For more information and registration forms, contact the Pro-Life Apostolate, P.O. Box 2577, 450 Highland Avenue, Fall River, Mass. 02722; call 508-675-1311; or email pla@ plrachel.com.

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The Anchor

May 24, 2013

Bishop Coleman to celebrate 65th anniversary of First Friday Club

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff FALL RIVER — The Fall River area Men’s First Friday Club will be celebrating its 65th anniversary on June 7 at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Fall River.

Bishop George W. Coleman will be the principal celebrant of a 12:05 p.m. Mass and will join the club for a celebratory dinner immediately following. Bishop Coleman will be accompanied by his secretary, Father Karl Bissinger, who is currently also the chaplain for the club.

June 7 is the feast of the Sacred Heart to which the First Friday Club is devoted. The Mass is open to the public and the public is also welcome to attend the dinner with the bishop by reservation only. Members of the club and guests can make reservations by contacting Daryl Gonyon at 508-672-4822.

Former superintendent of the

DIVINE DEVOTION — The Sacred Heart of Jesus, above, is depicted in a modern painting by Stephen B. Whatley, an expressionist artist based in London. Wide devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus began after the private revelations of a French nun, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, between 1673 and 1675. A feast was extended to the whole church in 1856 and is marked the Friday following the feast of Corpus Christi, this year on June 7. (CNS photo/ Stephen B. Whatley)

Fall River Public Schools, James Gibney, will be guest speaker at the dinner, which will be catered by White’s of Westport.

For more than six decades now, the members of the Men’s First Friday Club have come together on the first Friday of the month for worship and fellowship. Believed to be the longest continuously running First Friday Club in the United States, the current group is comprised of about 40 men who have no fund-raising activities or dues.

Formed in 1947, the Men’s First Friday Club is a group of Catholic men who continue to honor the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the First Friday tradition.

During that first year, a littleknown, newly-ordained diocesan priest addressed the club speaking about Our Lady of Fatima. That priest was named Father Humberto Medeiros, later to become Cardinal

Medeiros, the brother of now-deceased lifelong club member Manuel Medeiros.

Other noteworthy guest speakers over the years have included Bishop James L. Connolly, Bishop Daniel Cronin, Bishop Sean P. O’Malley, Bishop George W. Coleman, Bristol Community College President John Sbrega, and sports figures such as Boston Red Sox players Walt Dropo, Russ Gibson, Dick Radatz and Jerry Remy.

According to former First Friday Club president and longtime member Daryl Gonyon, in the club’s early years members would first attend Mass at their own churches and then meet for dinner and social gathering at a central location. The

group’s longtime home base was Sacred Heart Parish in Fall River, and later they called Good Shepherd Parish their home for about seven years before more recently moving operations to St. Mary’s Cathedral, with lunches following in the school across the street, all catered

by White’s of Westport.

While club membership is limited to men, Gonyon said they invite women to special programs that might be of interest to them as well.

With no dues or major fund-raising activities, Gonyon noted the club sustains itself through the nominal fees charged for the monthly gatherings — most of which covers the cost of the hot meal that is served.

In an interview with The Anchor

published last year, Gonyon expressed great pride at being a member of the organization for more than 30 years and the fact that the club has survived for more than six decades.

“It’s great group of men honoring Christ in the best way they can,” he said. “We get together for good company and good friendship in a comfortable environment. For me, it’s a very special group.”

New members are always welcome, and Gonyon said the club is a unique and fruitful experience that all Catholic men should consider.

For more information about the Fall River Area Men’s First Friday Club, contact Daryl Gonyon at 508672-4822 or club president Norman Valiquette at 508-672-8174.