06.22.12

Diocese of Fall River

The Anchor

F riday , June 22, 2012

Father Landry proud of Anchor’s accomplishments as he leaves the helm B y Kenneth J. Souza A nchor Staff

FALL RIVER — As he prepares to take over as pastor of the new St. Bernadette’s Parish in Fall River, Father Roger J. Landry will not only be leaving his parishioners at St. Anthony of Padua in New Bedford, but also the duties of The Anchor, the diocesan newspaper for which he’s served as executive editor for the past seven years.

While he has mixed emotions about leaving what has become an important tool for evangelization and a daily passion since he was appointed by Bishop George W. Coleman to succeed Msgr. John F. Moore in July 2005, Father Landry takes pride in what The Anchor has achieved.

“Of all the diocesan papers I’ve seen, I think The Anchor may do the best job of all in covering local news,” Father Landry said. “It’s truly a diocesan paper. Many of the other papers rely far too much on reprinting Catholic wire service articles. Our front page almost always featured three or four local stories.

That we cover much more local news with a much smaller staff than most other Catholic papers is a real tribute to the hard work of the Anchor team.”

In keeping with that philosophy, one of the first things he did after becoming executive editor was to increase the number of local columnists who contribute to The Anchor.

“I’m really proud of how many local columnists we have, which adds to the way this is truly a diocesan paper,” he said. “Other newspaper editors express to me how amazed they are at the participaTurn to page 18

executive decision — Father Roger J. Landry, center, is leaving his position as executive editor of The Anchor, to become pastor of the newly-formed St. Bernadette Parish in Fall River, and to devote more time to teaching and writing. With him is his Anchor staff, from left: Becky Aubut, Dave Jolivet, Wayne Powers, Father Landry, Mary Chase, and Ken Souza.

(Photo by Father Richard Wilson)

exercising a right — Father Michael Racine, pastor of St. Bernard’s Parish in Assonet, leads a group of parishioners in prayer in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament this past Flag Day, in response to the U.S. bishops’ call for American Catholics to pray for religious freedoms in this country. (Photo by Paul Levesque)

Fortnight for Freedom: Bishop Coleman urges parishes to pray, study and act

By Becky Aubut Anchor Staff

FALL RIVER — Yesterday, June 21, was the beginning of the two-week long “Fortnight for Freedom” and Bishop George W. Coleman has called on leaders in the Fall River Diocese to take up the charge by putting forth a letter urging parishes to participate fully.

“Be assured that all you do to encourage our faithful to pray for religious liberty and to deepen their knowledge of current threats to it is deeply appreciated,” wrote the bishop. “Our country has been a beacon of hope for peoples throughout the world. If our religious liberty is impeded, then we can no longer claim to be a land of the free and a beacon of hope for the world.”

At St. Bernard’s Parish in Assonet, parishioners got a jump on the Fortnight’s two-week period of June 21-

July 4 by gathering in the front of the church on Flag Day, June 14.

“I was extremely pleased with the number of people that came,” said deacon candidate Paul Levesque. “We had put the word out to the people and sometimes you just never know how they’re going to respond, but we had a great response.”

People excitedly watched as the Boy Scouts took part in a flag ceremony, and people were enthralled as the group recited the Patriotic Rosary with individuals coming forth to read each decade.

“Each Hail Mary, we pray for all the people in each of the 50 states — 50 states, 50 Hail Marys — it’s wonderful,” said Levesque. “In the other prayers, we pray for the president, for the Congress; it’s just great. Everyone was impressed and enthused.”

Turn to page 15

U.S. to stop deporting young adults under DREAM Act-like orders

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Repeating over and over that “it’s the right thing to do,” President Barack Obama announced June 15 that effective immediately, the U.S. will stop deporting certain young people who are in the country illegally because they were brought to the United States as minors.

The action — taken under existing law that allows for prosecutorial discretion — effectively creates an administrative version of the DREAM Act, legislation that enjoys popular, bipartisan support but has long languished in Congress.

“It makes no sense to expel talented young people who for all intents and purposes are American,” said Obama at a news conference from the White House Rose Garden. The

new policy will make the system “more fair, more efficient and more just,” he said.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a memo announcing the change that immigration laws “are not designed to be blindly enforced without consideration given to the individual circumstances of each case.

“Nor are they designed to remove productive young people to countries where they may not have lived or even speak the language. Indeed, many of these young people have already contributed to our country in significant ways. Prosecutorial discretion, which is used in so many other areas, is Turn to page five

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Pope explains how to let God work wonders

Vatican City (CNA/ EWTN News) — Pope Benedict XVI says that the life of St. Paul shows that God can work wonders through those who grow ever closer to Him in prayer.

“As our union with the Lord grows and our prayer becomes more intense, we too come to focus on the essential and to understand that it is not the power of our own means that creates the Kingdom of God, but God who works miracles through our very weakness,” the pope said during a recent general audience in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall.

Continuing his recent weekly exploration of the lessons taught by the prayer life of St. Paul, Pope Benedict turned to the Apostle’s experience of contemplative prayer as recorded in his Second Letter to the Corinthians.

He noted that in “defending the legitimacy of his apostolate, Paul appeals above all to his profound closeness to the Lord in prayer, marked by moments of ecstasy, visions and revelations,” and yet, at the same time, he also “willingly boasts of his weakness, in order that the power of Christ might dwell in him.”

St. Paul uses this approach because he is eager for his readers to understand how “all the difficulties we meet in following Christ,” including “suffering, difficulty and persecution,” can be overcome “by opening ourselves trustingly to the action of the Lord,” the pope said.

The example of his life and trials should remind all Christians that it is “at the moment we feel our own weakness that the power of God becomes manifest.”

Thus, “in a world in which we

News From the Vatican

risk relying only on the power of human means,” St. Paul calls us to “rediscover and bear witness to the power of prayer, through which we grow day by day as our lives are conformed to that of Christ.”

Pope Benedict recalled that the Protestant theologian and 1952 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Albert Schweitzer described St. Paul as “a mystic and nothing more than a mystic,” since the Apostle was a man so “truly enamored of Christ and so united to Him as to be able to say: Christ lives in me.”

The lesson for our own lives, suggested the pope, is to follow his example and “remain constant and faithful in our relationship with God, especially in moments of aridity, difficulty and suffering.”

Only then will we be able to face difficulties as St. Paul did, “in the conviction that we can do all things through Him who gives us strength.”

The pope added that by giving more room to prayer “we will see our lives transformed and animated by the real power of God’s love.”

He observed that this was the experience of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta who in her contemplation of Jesus “discovered the ultimate reason and incredible strength to recognize Him in the poor and abandoned, despite her fragile figure.”

This is because, contrary to the suggestion of some, contemplation of Jesus Christ in prayer “does not distance us from reality” but “makes us ever more involved in human affairs” because the Lord draws us to Himself in prayer, enabling us “to remain close to all our brothers and sisters in His love.”

Vatican says agreement will not recognize Israeli occupation

ROME (CNS) — An eventual agreement between Israel and the Vatican over property taxes and property rights in no way will imply that the Vatican recognizes Israel’s claims over East Jerusalem and the West Bank, a top Vatican official said. Vatican and Israeli representatives are continuing their long-running negotiations over the legal and financial status of Catholic Church property in Israel, but the Vatican has excluded from the discussion property located in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, said Msgr. Ettore Balestrero, the Vatican undersecretary for relations with states.

Prior to the Vatican-Israeli commission’s negotiating session June 12 at the Vatican, news reports from Israel and the Palestinian territories suggested that the Vatican would indirectly rec-

ognize Israeli control over the disputed territories by negotiating how Israel would tax Church property, including in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, which Israel annexed in 1967.

Msgr. Balestrero told Vatican Radio that while some of the Church properties facing heavy tax burdens under Israeli law are in the disputed areas, the VaticanIsraeli agreement would concern only property located in the territory internationally recognized as belonging to Israel. He said the confusion was caused by an improper use of a working document, which already had been changed.

While the Vatican-Israeli commission said that “significant progress was made toward the conclusion of an agreement,” members said they would meet again in December in Israel.

June 22, 2012

sweet lullaby — A young Mexican pilgrim rests on her sousaphone before the start of Pope Benedict XVI’s weekly general audience in Paul VI hall at the Vatican recently. (CNS photo/Max Rossi, Reuters)

Nuncio applauds bishops’ unified efforts to defend religious freedom

Atlanta, Ga. (CNA/ EWTN News) — Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the pope’s representative to the United States, urged the American bishops to view the difficulties facing the Church as an opportunity to unite in defense of the faith.

Current challenges to the faithful can be seen “providentially, as an invitation to the entire Church in the United States” to adopt “an attitude of deep communion with the local bishop, in filial obedience to the Successor of Peter,” the archbishop said at a meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

This is particularly true for the Church’s “consecrated religious” and “educational institutions,” he said.

The papal diplomat, who is officially known as the apostolic nuncio, addressed the conference on June 13, the first day of the bishops’ three-day spring general assembly in Atlanta, Ga. “It goes without saying that the Catholic Church in the United States is living in a particularly challenging period of its history,” Archbishop Viganò observed, specifically pointing to religious freedom and conscience rights issues.

These areas are “close to the heart of the American people,” and involve “the indispensable role of the Bishop as Chief Shepherd in his diocese,” he said.

All of this is taking place “in the context of an election year,” which requires “even more delicate” interventions, he added.

Religious freedom matters have become a key concern for the Catholic community in recent months. Chief among the threats to the Church is an insurance mandate issued by the Obama Administration that

will require employers to offer health insurance plans that cover contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs, even if doing so violates their consciences.

Archbishop Viganò thanked all the bishops for their unified work to stand up for religious freedom, emphasizing that “the Church must speak with one voice” in addressing modern challenges.

“We all know that the fundamental tactic of the enemy is to show a Church divided,” he said.

Bishops from every diocese in the country have spoken out against the contraception mandate, and several dioceses have filed lawsuits against it.

In addition, the bishops have called for a “Fortnight for Freedom” to be held during the two weeks leading up to Independence Day. Events will be held at a national and diocesan level, and Catholics are encouraged to engage in activities aimed at prayer, education and advocacy of public officials.

Archbishop Viganò called the Fortnight for Freedom a “praiseworthy initiative” that has his

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“full support” and assured his fellow bishops that he would “be participating in it locally in the Archdiocese of Washington.”

Looking at the practical challenges facing the American Church today, the archbishop pointed to Pope Benedict XVI’s recent ad limina addresses to various groups of bishops from the U.S. In it, the pope reflected on the problems of growing secularism, religious freedom, a pastoral response to immigration, cultural misunderstandings of marriage and sexuality, unity and faith formation.

He recalled the words of the Holy Father in one of these ad limina addresses, which described the present moment as “a summons” for the bishops “to exercise the prophetic dimension” of their episcopal ministry by speaking out in defense of truth and offering words of hope.

The pope’s words offer “clarity and wisdom” for the future, said Archbishop Viganò, and the bishops should look to them as “a road map” for promoting “the truth of the Gospel and the New Evangelization.”

OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER Vol. 56, No. 25

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.

Subscription price by mail, postpaid $20.00 per year, for U.S. addresses.

Send address changes to P.O. Box 7, Fall River, MA, call or use email address

PUBLISHER - Most Reverend George W. Coleman EXECUTIVE EDITOR Father Roger J. Landry fatherrogerlandry@anchornews.org EDITOR David B. Jolivet davejolivet@anchornews.org OFFICE MANAGER Mary Chase m arychase@anchornews.org ADVERTISING Wayne R. Powers waynepowers@anchornews.org REPORTER Kenneth J. Souza kensouza@anchornews.org REPORTER Rebecca Aubut beckyaubut@anchornews.org Send Letters to the Editor to: fatherrogerlandry@anchornews.org

PoStmaSters send address changes to The Anchor, P.O. Box 7, Fall River, MA 02722.

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The International Church

June 22, 2012

Church bombings, reprisal attacks, claim 45 lives in Nigeria

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Bishop George Dodo of Zaria, Nigeria, was in the middle of his homily June 17 “when we heard a loud explosion.” A car bomb had just exploded near the Cathedral of Christ the King, where the bishop was celebrating the second Mass of the day.

“The car bomb created a crater two feet deep; all around there was broken glass, rubble and burning cars,” the bishop told Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

Reuters, the British news agency, reported 10 people were killed at Christ the King.

Bombings also were reported at the Evangelical Church of the Good News in Zaria and at churches in Kaduna. Vatican Radio said June 18 that the total death toll from the Sunday bombings had reached 45 and some 100 people were reported injured, either by the bombings or by reprisal attacks afterward.

Bishop Dodo told Fides, “I am in contact with the governor and police authorities to see how to ensure the safety of the faithful.

The maximum security authorities arrived on the site of the attack to calm tempers,” he added.

The bombing of Christian churches is widely believed to be the work of Boko Haram, an Islamic terrorist group.

Bishop Dodo said he had not heard of any Christians in Zaria seeking revenge for the killings on their Muslim neighbors, although such attacks had been reported in

Kaduna.

“Especially when the news of the attack against the Pentecostal church spread, young people responded with violence, destroying some properties,” he said.

“In the past few weeks several Christian churches in northern Nigeria have been attacked: It is likely that the perpetrators of this violence are following a precise agenda,” the bishop said.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, also said the attacks seem to reflect “an absurd plan of hatred.”

Sister Semira Carrozzo, an Italian member of the Oblates of Nazareth who has been in Nigeria for 22 years and runs a school in Kaduna, told Vatican Radio June 18, “We are very close — less than a kilometer — from the place where an attack was yesterday.

“They attacked two churches in Kaduna and burned houses,” she said. “The Christians did not stay calm, but reacted immediately, in the worst possible way.”

She said Boko Haram, which does not like the fact that the governor of Kaduna state and the president of Nigeria are Christians, is carrying out the attacks to destroy or at least dishearten Christians and make sure only Muslims win in the next elections.

The members of Boko Haram “are extremists,” she said.

Since her school opened in 2000 there always have been Muslim children enrolled and the parents are supportive and friendly, she added.

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

Diocese of Fall River

OFFICIAL

His Excellency, the Most Reverend George W. Coleman, Bishop of Fall River, has announced the first assignment: Rev. Jason Brilhante, Parochial Vicar, St. Pius X Parish, South Yarmouth, and part-time Chaplain, Cape Cod Hospital.

Effective June 27, 2012

young irish catholics — Students from Itas Catholic grade school in Loughrea, Ireland, eat lunch in a common area during the recent 50th International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Lived faith, service, charity keys to evangelization, says synod text

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Catholics who act like their faith has nothing to do with daily life and a Church structure that is more bureaucracy than service are two impediments to the Church’s ability to proclaim faith in Jesus, said the working document for the next world Synod of Bishops.

“Every one of the Church’s actions has an essential evangelizing character and must never be separated from the duty to help others encounter Christ in faith,” said the document that will guide the work of the synod, scheduled for October 7-28 at the Vatican.

Pope Benedict XVI chose as the synod’s theme: “The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith.”

The working document, released June 19, said the bishops and other synod participants will focus on: faith in Jesus as the heart of evangelization; how changes in the world impact belief and the practice of the faith; how Liturgy, catechesis and charitable activity do or should bring people to faith; and a look at particular ways Catholics evangelize and educate people in the faith.

The New Evangelization, it said, “will also involve the courage to denounce the infidelities and scandals” within the Church and “to acknowledge faults while continuing to witness to Jesus Christ.”

Looking within the Church, the document said, “many lament the excessive bureaucratic character” of Church structures, which are “perceived as being far removed from the average person and his everyday concerns.”

The synod’s working document is based on responses to a long outline and questionnaire published in March 2011. The responses came from 114 bishops’ conference, 26 Vatican offices and the international unions of superior generals of men’s and women’s religious orders, said Archbishop Nikola Eterovic, secretary-general of the

synod.

“Some responses,” the document said, “complained of the excessively formal character of liturgical celebrations, an almost routine celebration of rituals and the lack of a deep spiritual experience, which turn people away instead of attracting them.”

At a news conference June 19, Archbishop Eterovic said the synod will attempt to respond to “the need for new instruments and new expressions to make the Word of God understandable in the lives of contemporary man.”

Pope Benedict called the synod to respond to a situation where, “because of a lack of faith, various particular churches are witnessing a decline in sacramental and Christian practice among the faithful to the point that some members can even be called ‘nonbelievers,’” the document said.

During the synod, the Church also will mark the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council and the launch of the Year of Faith called by Pope Benedict to energize Catholics and Catholic communities and promote a deeper knowledge of the essential tenets of faith.

“The Year of Faith will remind us of the foundation of the New Evangelization: faith in Jesus Christ,” Archbishop Eterovic said.

In evaluating signs that call for a renewed evangelization of the baptized, the working document cited: “a weakening of faith in Christian communities, a diminished regard for the authority of the magisterium, an individualistic approach to belonging to the Church, a decline in religious practice and a disengagement in transmitting the faith to new generations.”

The document said cultural changes, especially secularization — accelerated and spread by globalization and greater global access to media — are creating a situation in which many people see faith as

unimportant, old fashioned or simply irrelevant to modern life.

At the same time, it said, more and more people show signs of despair, selfishness, loneliness and a lack of purpose in life.

Faith in Jesus Christ brings the joy, enthusiasm, hope and love people need to live better lives, it said.

When faith effectively transforms people’s lives, it said, the results are “families which are a true sign of love, sharing and a hope which is open to life; communities equipped with a true ecumenical spirit; the courage to support initiatives for social justice and solidarity; and the joy of giving one’s life to the priesthood or the consecrated life.”

The document said a major challenge to the New Evangelization is the growing idea that faith is opposed to freedom and that the Church’s claims to know what is true is suspect or even dangerous.

Many people today show “a widespread disorientation, which leads to forms of distrust of all that has been passed down about the meaning of life and to an unwillingness to adhere in a total, unconditional manner to what has been revealed as the profound truth of our being,” the document said.

While many Catholics who question the Church’s claims of truth may continue to do good works, without the strength of faith and the support of the Christian community, it said, their good works are bound to weaken over time and their activity will lose its power to bring others to Christ.

One of the most effective ways to show people how faith brings true freedom, it said, is through “the witness-value” of devoting one’s life “in love to those who are lonely, marginalized or rejected, precisely because the face of Christ is reflected in these people.”

Archbishop Eterovic told reporters, “Charity should be the language of the New Evangelization.”

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The Church in the U.S.

June 22, 2012

CHA urges expanded religious exemption, says government must pay

WASHINGTON (CNS) — The Catholic Health Association, a major supporter of President Barack Obama’s health reform law, is urging the government to expand its definition of religious employers who are exempt from the requirement to provide contraceptives and sterilization free of charge to their employees.

In comments filed June 15 with the Department of Health and Human Services, the top three CHA officials also said the Obama Administration should provide and pay for the contraceptives itself if it insists that they must be provided at no cost to women.

The five-page comments were signed by Sister Carol Keehan, a Daughter of Charity who is CHA president and CEO; Robert V. Stanek, who recently completed a term chairing the CHA board; and Joseph R. Swedish, the chairman for 2012-13.

The three said the administration’s proposed “accommodation” that would allow nonexempt religious employers to provide the contraceptives through a third party “would be unduly cumbersome and would be unlikely to meet the religious liberty concerns of all of our members and other Church ministries.”

They said the current definition of a religious employer in the HHS rules raises “serious constitutional questions.”

To be exempt from the contraceptive mandate, a religious organization “has the inculcation of religious values as its purpose; primarily employs persons who share its religious tenets; primarily serves persons who share its religious tenets; and is a nonprofit organization” under specific sections of the Internal Revenue Code.

The CHA leaders proposed instead that an organization be defined as religious if it “shares common religious bonds and convictions with a church” — a definition already applied in Section 414 of the Internal Revenue Service code.

Even if the definition is expanded to include Catholic hospitals and health care organizations, as well as

other ministries of the Church, “the government will need to develop a way to pay for and provide such services directly to those employees who desire such coverage without any direct or indirect involvement of religious employers” under the expanded definition, the CHA comments said.

CHA spokesman Fred Caesar told Catholic News Service that the comment letter is “part of our continuing efforts to work with the administration to resolve this issue appropriately.”

The CHA comments opened by saying that the national leadership organization for the Catholic health care ministry “has long insisted on and worked for the right of everyone to affordable, accessible health care” and had “welcomed the enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” and its requirement that “certain preventive services be available at no cost to the individual.”

“We remain deeply concerned, however, with the approach the administration has taken with respect to contraceptive services, especially abortifacient drugs and sterilization,” the letter said.

In a footnote, CHA said the drug known as ella “can interfere with implantation of a fertilized egg,” which the Catholic Church views as an abortion.

CHA said the administration’s proposed “accommodation” announced February 10 “seemed at the time to be a good first step,” but “our examination and study of the proposal as outlined then (and later) has not relieved our initial concerns.”

As outlined in an “advance notice of proposed rulemaking,” the “accommodation” would allow nonexempt religious employers to contract with a “third-party administrator” or “independent agency” that receive funds from other sources, such as rebates from drug makers, to provide free contraceptives to covered employees.

HHS had asked for comments during a three-month period that was to end June 19.

holy ground — Visiting New York priests and other pilgrims touch the Stone of Unction in Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulcher earlier this year. U.S. Franciscans with ties to the Holy Land predict the number of pilgrims visiting there will increase during the Year of Faith, which begins in October. (CNS photo/Bob Mullen)

Year of Faith activities aimed at bringing Catholics closer to Jesus

ATLANTA (CNS) — The Year of Faith set to begin in October will give Catholics the chance to experience a “conversion” by turning back to Jesus and entering into a deeper relationship with Him, the chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis said June 13.

Bishop David L. Ricken of Green Bay, Wis., told the spring meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that the 2012-13 observance stems from Pope Benedict XVI’s call for a New Evangelization and will incorporate television, radio, social media and numerous online resources to better connect — or reconnect — Catholics with their faith.

Special emphasis will be placed on explaining Church teaching through Liturgy and prayer, catechetical aids, parish programs, homily guides and online applications and websites. Already weekly posts on Facebook promote the lives of saints and those declared blessed and venerable, while quizzes on the “Catechism of the Catholic Church” help con-

nect online users with tenets of the faith, Bishop Ricken said.

The Year of Faith opens October 11, the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council and the 20th anniversary of the promulgation of the “Catechism.” It runs through Nov. 24, 2013, the feast of Christ the King.

Pope Benedict announced the Year of Faith in “Porta Fidei” (“The Door of Faith”), an apostolic letter released Oct. 17, 2011.

The observance envisioned by the pope under his call for a New Evangelization does not propose new teachings but is “rather a ‘re-proposing’ of the Gospel to those awaiting a first evangelization and those whose roots of Christianity are deep but have experienced a serious crisis of faith due to secularization,” Bishop Ricken said.

The bishops’ conference has worked since October to develop numerous resources including apologetic material, brochures related to New Evangelization and teaching aids for use by Catholics as well as the general public, he said.

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Many of the resources are being developed for Spanish speakers as well, he said.

Bishop Ricken said a new online version of the “Catechism of Catholic Church” is now available on the USCCB website. He also announced that an online version of the United States “Catholic Catechism for Adults” will be available soon on the site. The online versions have interactive features and are searchable by specific terms. Users also will be able to bookmark specific passages and will be able to view their selections on tablets and smartphones.

A prayer for the New Evangelization as well as intercessions for the Year of Faith also are being developed, Bishop Ricken said.

In line with an initiative of the Vatican that European cities implement a “metropolitan mission” program for Lent 2013, a similar effort is being considered for the United States during the same period.

Such missions would include catechesis by local bishops, the availability of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, devotions and popular piety, spiritual exercises and mission-style programs in local parishes, Bishop Ricken said.

Emphasis also will be placed on assisting families in observing the Year of Faith with prayer services and other catechetical resources, he added.

Bishop Ricken said annual events such as the Catholic Social Ministry Gathering in Washington in February and the observance of Respect Life Month in October 2013 also will focus on the Year of Faith.

The Church in the U.S. LCWR reform is not criticism of religious orders, archbishop says

June 22, 2012

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A Vatican-ordered reform of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious is not directed at women’s religious orders or at any individual Sisters, nor is it a statement on the general quality of religious life today, said the American archbishop overseeing the controversial measure.

“The impression is given that the Holy Father or anybody involved is saying something negative about religious women in the United States, which is not the case,” said Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle. “This particular task is not about making comments on any particular religious order or religious women in general.”

The archbishop spoke to Catholic News Service June 14 in Rome, two days after meeting with U.S. Cardinal William J. Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine for the Faith, and the

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LCWR’s top two officials, Franciscan Sister Pat Farrell, president, and St. Joseph Sister Janet Mock, executive director. None of the parties has revealed details of what they discussed.

In April, the doctrinal congregation appointed Archbishop Sartain to provide “review, guidance and approval, where necessary, of the work” of the LCWR, a Marylandbased umbrella group that claims about 1,500 leaders of U.S. women’s communities as members, representing about 80 percent of the country’s 57,000 women religious. His tenure in that role is to last “up to five years.”

The appointment came the same day the congregation released an eight-page “doctrinal assessment” of the LCWR, citing “serious doctrinal problems which affect many in consecrated life,” and announced a reform of the organization to ensure its fidelity to Catholic teaching in areas includ-

ing abortion, euthanasia, women’s ordination and homosexuality.

On June 1, the LCWR’s national board criticized the Vatican’s action as “based on unsubstantiated accusations and the result of a flawed process that lacked transparency,” saying it had “caused scandal and pain throughout the Church community and created greater polarization.” The reform has also been the target of Internet-based protests and of generally unfavorable commentary in the press.

Archbishop Sartain told CNS that he regretted “distractions from the outside that include misinterpretations,” and that he was especially “saddened” by the perception “that this particular doctrinal assessment is about American religious life in general or about particular religious orders or about particular Sisters.”

“The task that’s been given to me and my brother bishops and others who will eventually help us

is specifically about the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, that organization precisely,” he said, “because it has great importance for the relationships among the member religious communities and between those specific religious communities, the Holy See and the bishops’ conference of the United States.”

The archbishop dismissed a question as to whether the reform of the LCWR might be considered part of the larger process of clarifying the Church’s understanding of religious life in the light of modernizing reforms that followed the Second Vatican Council.

“This is specifically about the LCWR,” he said.

Archbishop Sartain defended the Vatican’s emphasis on the conference’s approach to doctrine, saying that a proper appreciation of Church teaching is vital even for communities focused on practical service.

“For the Christian life, we’re always trying to delve more deeply into the truth who is Christ, into the mystery of Christ,” he said.

“Sound doctrine ... helps us to understand that truth and then to delve into it more deeply in prayer, and to live it more fully in our life every day.”

The archbishop said that the need for sound doctrine “receives a particular focus for priests and religious,” because they have a “vocation in the Church, and so therefore their witness, their teaching and their own life of prayer, all those things should be centered in what the Church believes and then also be a reflection of what the Church believes.”

Such a focus on sound doctrine applies to all clergy and religious, he said, “whether they are directly involved in catechetical work, in preaching or teaching, or whether they’re involved in hospital work or whatever it might be.”

gration status. Such immigrants may have few, if any, ties to their homeland but also have no way of getting legal status in the U.S. without returning to countries that they don’t know and going through a years-long — or decades-long — wait to return legally.

They also are unable to work legally, to qualify for in-state college tuition or get driver’s licenses in most states, and to participate in many kinds of opportunities such as government-funded scholarships. Currently, they risk deportation if they come to the attention of immigration authorities.

While many supporters of the DREAM Act were jubilant, legal analysts were more cautious, noting that the new policy is possible because of prosecutorial discretion that has been available to immigration authorities for years.

Among those hailing the announcement was Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Migration Committee.

The young people to whom the action would apply “are bright, energetic, and eager to pursue their education and reach their full potential,” said Archbishop Gomez’s statement.

He echoed Obama’s point about needing more permanent action by Congress.

“The action by the president today is no substitute for enactment of the DREAM Act in Congress,” he said. Archbishop Gomez encouraged elected officials to make a bipartisan effort to “give these youth a path to citizenship and a chance to become Americans,” and to enact a comprehensive immigration reform law.

One law professor, Michael A. Olivas of the University of Houston, observed in an analysis that the action “shows new political will but does not change existing law or available discretion.”

Olivas noted that there’s little data about how similar discretion has been used under a review process begun last year for the entire category of undocumented immigrants who have no criminal records but are facing deportation.

That program, known as the “Morton Memo,” encourages authorities to exercise their discretion to not deport such immigrants who have been in the U.S. for many years and who have strong family ties here.

Among advocates for the DREAM Act, the announcement was lauded.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., one of the most ardent supporters of the DREAM Act in Congress, said the administration’s action “sets the ball in motion to break the gridlock and fix our laws so that people who live here can do so legally and on the books and people can come with visas instead of smugglers in the first place.”

“Today, the students are being protected,” Gutierrez said. “But we have to fix the system for their families and for the country once and for all.”

“This is huge,” said Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice Education Fund. “As a result of today’s decision, hundreds of thousands of young people who are American in all but paperwork will have the opportunity to live freely, work legally, and contribute to the country they love.” He added that “this expansion of existing policy is the only viable path to meaningful

relief for Dreamers this year.”

The change will mean eligible students can apply for a Social Security number and seek work legally, Martha Arevalo, executive director of the Central American Resource Center in Los Angeles, said in a statement released by the National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities.

“They will also be able to apply for a driver’s license and be able to drive without the fear of being stopped by the police and potentially facing deportation proceedings,” she added. “Young immigrants are fully aware this is only an initial positive step in a long struggle to be recognized as full and productive members of American society.”

Olivas also noted that potential pitfalls remain. As highlighted by Time magazine’s cover story June 25, many would-be DREAM Act applicants “have outed themselves, hoping to gain status, putting themselves and their undocumented parents and siblings at risk.” The discretionary program may do little to improve their status, he said.

And in states that bar undocumented immigrants from enrolling in public colleges, students may have little to gain from getting the discretionary legal status, he added.

“If the DREAM Act itself were to be enacted tomorrow by Congress, states would still have to pass laws to grant tuition and financial aid to these students,” Olivas said.

U.S. to stop deporting young adults under DREAM Act-like orders continued from page one

especially justified here.”

But Congress still needs to act, Obama said, and the sooner the better, because the changes are only a temporary fix.

As Obama described the order, eligible applicants between the ages of 15 and 30, who arrived in the U.S. by the age of 16 and have been here at least five years, will be able to request “temporary relief from deportation proceedings and apply for work authorization.”

“Let’s be clear,” Obama said.

“This is not amnesty, this is not immunity, this is not a path to citizenship, this is not a permanent fix. It is a temporary stopgap measure that allows us to focus our resources.”

The new approach will apply to people who complete high school or get a GED, or serve in the military. It will require background checks, no criminal history and other criteria. Deportation will be deferred for two-year renewable periods, during which time the applicants could obtain work permits.

Implementation may take up to 60 days, Napolitano’s memo said.

Eligible immigrants who already are in deportation proceedings but do not have a final order to leave may immediately qualify for deferral of deportation, it said.

The Pew Hispanic Center estimates as many as 1.4 million people might qualify. Other sources estimated the possible pool at 800,000.

Bills known as the DREAM Act — the acronym for Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors — have been proposed regularly for years, aimed at addressing the problem of young people who were brought to the United States as children and lack legal immi-

Catholic Social Services applauds deferred action announcement

FALL RIVER — Catholic Social Services of Fall River praises last Thursday’s announcement offering deferred action to DREAM Act-eligible youth. This policy change will affect the lives of young people who have called America home for many years, and whose great promise has been limited by the fear of deportation.

Tim Warden-Hertz, CSS’ legal director, commented, “This important step will protect from deportation, and provide work authorization to promising youth who are part of our communities.” Warden-Hertz did warn that, “There is no specific policy yet for eligible youth to apply for Deferred Action and we all need to be vigilant of notaries and others unscrupulous people

offering and charging for work authorization or other benefits before the process is established within the next two months.”

CSS is offering information at their offices and other locations throughout southeastern Massachusetts. Once details on the process for obtaining work authorization are released, CSS will be hosting workshops around the region to assist eligible youth with their applications. Additionally, those who are interested in having an information session in their area, are asked to contact Warden-Hertz at CSS. Details on the policy and other information are available by calling 508- 674-4681 and asking for the immigration unit or visit the website at www.cssdioc.org. CSS can also be found on Facebook.

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The Anchor The Fortnight for Freedom

One of the lessons Blessed John Paul II brought with him from Poland to the papacy was the importance of opportunities to give the entire Church and the wider society the time to pray about, study and act together with regard to particular pressing issues. In 1966 the Polish Church marked the Millennium of Christianity in the country with a year’s worth of prayer, cultural and historical events, and public witness to remind all Poles of their dignity, rights and national and cultural history that the communist government was trying to extirpate. It was an enormous time of growth that helped set the stage for the eventual downfall of Soviet suppression. This was one of many such focused times of prayer, education and witness that the Polish Church routinely organized in order to give prayerful and peaceful resistance to oppression and to form people in the virtues to persevere in the truth. John Paul took these lessons with him to the Vatican, where he regularly inaugurated opportunities that would combine prayer, learning, and action with regard to priorities that could help and strengthen believers around the world. This is what was behind the various holy years called to focus together on the meaning of our redemption, on Mary, on women, on the family, on each of the Persons of the Trinity, on the Incarnation, the Rosary and the Eucharist — something Pope Benedict has continued with the inauguration of the Year of St. Paul, the Year for Priests and the upcoming Year of Faith.

These lessons have not been lost on the bishops of the United States and this is partially the background for the Fortnight for Freedom that the Church in our country began yesterday. In response to the multiple threats against religious freedom at home and abroad not only being allowed but waged by various agencies of state and national governments, the bishops have not just responded with a postcard campaign, but with an unprecedented, coordinated, concentrated tripartite focus on prayer, education and action. Over the course of these two weeks, the bishops are asking all Catholic institutions and individuals to give their attention to the threats to religious liberty and freedom of conscience and to respond with prayer, study and public witness.

The first part of the campaign is prayer, since prayer ought to be the first response of Catholics anywhere to anything. The bishops have asked dioceses and parishes to schedule specific times for people to come together to pray. Many dioceses have scheduled special Masses, holy hours, days of eucharistic adoration, recitations of the Rosary, days of fasting on the Fridays of the Fortnight and more. The bishops have also composed a Litany for Liberty and a special prayer in defense of religious liberty that they’re asking all Catholics to recite daily during the Fortnight. Like all good prayers, when prayed devoutly and attentively, it will form those who pray it in the knowledge and virtues needed to respond as conscientious, competent and courageous citizens.

The prayer begins by turning the first words of the Declaration of Independence into words of praise and thanksgiving, “O God our Creator, from Your provident hand we have received our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Then it describes how those rights correspond to religious duties that society must respect: “You have called us as Your people and given us the right and the duty to worship You, the only true God, and Your Son, Jesus Christ. Through the power and working of Your Holy Spirit, You call us to live out our faith in the midst of the world, bringing the light and the saving truth of the Gospel to every corner of society.” Next, it turns to prayers of petition that we might act in accordance with our God-given rights and gifts and that God will fortify us during this Fortnight to protect and promote true freedom. “We ask You to bless us in our vigilance for the gift of religious liberty. Give us the strength of mind and heart readily to defend our freedoms when they are threatened; give us courage in making our voices heard on behalf of the rights of Your Church and the freedom of conscience of all people of faith.” Then it prays for the gift of unity in the Church.

Some joke that the only time the Church stands together is at the Alleluia before the Gospel. It’s now a time in which the Church needs the gift of true communion to overcome division in order to give a united witness to liberty, and turn back the threats of liberty not merely for ourselves but for all those who will come after us. “Grant, we pray, O heavenly Father, a clear and united voice to all Your sons and daughters gathered in Your Church in this decisive hour in the history of our nation, so that, with every trial withstood and every danger overcome — for the sake of our children, our grandchildren, and all who come after us — this great land will always be ‘one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.’”

The second part of the campaign is an educational and catechetical component. The bishops’ special website, fortnight4freedom.org, has a plethora of materials from the bishops conference and from dioceses across the country. The point of the educational and catechetical campaign is to equip Catholics with a deeper awareness of the history of religious freedom in the founding and growth of our country and in the teaching of the Church, so that as Catholic citizens they can defend the right to religious freedom and freedom of conscience in society and help others to appreciate their centrality.

One document all Catholics should study during this Fortnight will be the U.S. bishops’ “Our First, Most Cherished Freedom,” which we published in our April 20 edition and which is available at fortnight4freedom.org. Another great opportunity for learning will be the town meeting that Cardinal Sean O’Malley is hosting at 8 p.m. on June 25. It can be watched live on Catholic TV (Comcast 268, Verizon 296, and CatholicTV.com, which will archive it for viewing anytime) and listened to on WQOM, 1060 AM. Various parishes throughout our diocese have scheduled important educational opportunities to bring their parishioners and others up to speed and prepare them for mission.

The third leg of the campaign is action. Ideas have consequences only if we make them have consequences by living in accordance with those ideas. The bishops are asking people to speak to their friends, family members and neighbors about the threats to religious freedom, to contact those who represent them in office, to write letters to newspapers, to give public witness as many have been doing through the Stand for Freedom rallies across the country. One act of collective witness that the bishops have requested is for all Catholic churches in the country to ring their bells at noon on the Fourth of July. Catholics are encouraged in a particular way to take time out of their Independence Day activities to pray, study and act, and opportunities around the noon “Let Freedom Ring” initiative might be a powerful way to do so.

The bishops scheduled the Fortnight for the 14 days between June 21 and July 4 because this is a time in which we mark the feast days of so many great martyrs — SS. Thomas More and John Fisher, St. John the Baptist, SS. Peter and Paul, the first martyrs of the Church of Rome, and St. Thomas the Apostle — who freely gave their lives rather than violate the truth they knew in conscience. It’s also a time, on Independence Day, that we recall that our freedom doesn’t come free and that so many national heroes — acting not only with patriotism but also disproportionately acting as a result of their Christian faith — have shed their blood to keep us free. If these soldiers who died to keep us free were alive today, they would doubtless be urging all of us to get off our sofas and be as dedicated to the protection of freedom when it’s threatened here from within as they were in sacrificing themselves to keep us and others free when freedom was being challenged from without. Such dedication, shown by martyrs and soldiers serving a cause far higher than themselves, is required during this Fortnight and beyond to ensure that America remains truly the “land of the free and the home of the brave.”

Happy Fortnight!

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June 22, 2012

Thy will be done

n this, my final article on “Not my will but Thy will be done,” vocations, I would like to reflect we are handing over to Him our plans, a bit upon the most important point of our ideas, and our goals. This can seem the entire topic of vocations, namely, frightening, but it is only in His will doing the will of God. The most perfect that we will find peace in this life and response to God’s call is the one found in the world to come. on the lips of Our Lord and Our Blessed Sometimes fear can inhibit us from Mother, “Not my will, but Thy will be saying, “Yes” to God. But we must done.” Reflection upon these words can remember that fear is not from God. certainly help each of us in our life of There are many types of fear: “I hear faith, but most especially those who are Him knocking at the door of my heart, discerning a specific call. and I’m scared to say ‘Yes’ to Him.” The Lord has created each of us Another example is when we say, “I’m in His own image and likeness. He afraid to move away from home and loves each and every one of us as my family,” or “Will I be happy as a His children. He has a plan for each priest or religious Sister?” “My friends and every one of us. He has created might think I’m crazy for thinking each of us in a totally unique way. He about it.” created us to be essential, indispensable Jesus says over and over again, “Be and important parts of His plan. The not afraid!” Blessed Pope John Paul II question is, “How do we respond to this echoed this line frequently, and Pope great reality?”

Benedict XVI has continued to do so, Jesus because each Christ, in of them knew establishing how much Putting Into His Church we needed the Deep here on earth to hear it, invites us because they to be His know we are

By Father disciples and often afraid.

Jay Mello to work with We live in Him to bring a world of about the salvation of the world. He fear. St. John tells us, “There is no alone is the Savior of the world, but He fear in love, but perfect love casts out has invited us to share in His mission of fear.” Jesus casts out fear! He can put bringing the Gospel to every corner of our fears to rest. We can do this when, the world. He is calling each of us. This together with Him, we face our fears is what we mean by vocation. We are with courage and bring them to prayer. called to be holy and faithful members Our vocation is part of the mystery of His Church. Each of us does this of love. Pope Benedict said to young according to our particular vocation. people in Cologne, Germany for the Our Lord created us with the gift 2005 World Youth Day: “Love knows of freedom. He does not force us to be no ‘why’; it is a free gift to which one His disciples. He does not force us to responds with the gift of self.” You be holy. He does not force us to accept have been given a gift of love, to which our vocation. He simply invites us to you can only respond with the totality echo the word of His most beloved of your love.

Son, “Thy will be done.” Our freedom Jesus has invited us to leave allows us to say, “Yes” to Christ, but everything in order to follow Him our freedom also allows us to say “No” more closely. One day we may hear to Christ. But the question remains: the voice of Christ in our heart telling What is the will of God for me? How us, “Follow Me and leave everything do I respond to it? for Me.” It is a call to renounce other Adam and Eve chose to put their options in life and to choose this path way before God’s way. They provide of closeness and intimacy with Him, us with a bad example. Jesus and Mary but it is not an empty renunciation. It show us the proper way to respond is a call to leave something good for to God’s invitation. Mary faithfully something great, for a life in which you responds to the announcement of the will find complete personal fulfillment, angel Gabriel, “Be it done unto me a life in which your human and spiritual according to Thy word.” Jesus, when potential will be expanded for the undergoing the agony in the garden, service of the Kingdom of God and for prayed, “Father, not My will, but Thy the good of humanity. will be done.”

Our eyes are not to be fixed on what Jesus told His Apostles and now we have left behind, but on what we He is telling us: “It was not you who have been given and on the treasure we chose Me, but I Who chose you.” His will find. St. Paul told the Philippians, choice for us is far better than any “Indeed, I count everything as loss choice we can come up with on our because of the surpassing worth of own. He knows us better than we know knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For ourselves. He wants us to be happy and His sake I have suffered the loss of all to live life to the fullest. He knows that things, and count them as nothing, in only by doing His will can we be totally order that I may gain Christ.” free, completely happy, and entirely When we hear His voice, let us always fulfilled and at peace. be prepared to say, Yes, Lord Jesus, be it To say “Yes” to God is to put our done unto me according to Thy will! lives radically at His disposal. When Father Mello is a parochial vicar at we follow Christ’s example and say, St. Patrick’s Parish in Falmouth.

June 22, 2012

U.S. Bishops’ Meeting

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Bishops discuss religious liberty, economy, 10-year review of charter

ATLANTA (CNS) — During the public sessions of their spring meeting in Atlanta, the U.S. bishops received a 10-year progress report on their abuse charter, voted to draft a message on work and the economy, and heard reports about religious liberty issues in the United States and abroad.

They also listened as an Iraqi bishop made an impassioned plea on behalf of Iraq’s dwindling Christian population and called on the U.S. prelates to press the Obama Administration to take steps to protect religious rights in the Middle Eastern country.

The meeting was June 13-15, with public sessions the first day and a half; the rest of the time was scheduled for executive session and not open to media coverage.

On the opening day, the bishops voted 171-26 to move ahead with a draft of a message on work and the economy as a way to raise the profile of growing poverty and the struggles that unemployed people are experiencing.

It is expected to be ready in time for a final vote at the bishops’ fall meeting in November.

Titled “Catholic Reflections on Work, Poverty and a Broken Economy,” the message would advance the bishops’ priority of human life and dignity to demonstrate the New Evangelization in action, explained Bishop Stephen E. Blaire of Stockton, Calif., chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development.

It would be a follow-up to a Sept. 15, 2011, letter by Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, in which he urged bishops and priests across the country to preach about “the terrible toll the current economic turmoil is taking on families and communities.”

Al J. Notzon III, chairman of the lay-led National Review Board, presented a report marking the 10th anniversary of the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.”

The charter was part of the U.S. bishops’ response to the clergy abuse scandal that was a major concern when they met in Dallas in 2002.

While the Catholic Church has taken major steps in addressing allegations of clergy sexual abuse, it must continue to be vigilant in assuring that victims and their families will receive the attention and care they deserve, Notzon told the bishops.

Meeting that transparency remains a crucial component of building and maintaining credibility among the Catholic faithful as well as the general public,

he said.

Despite the successes, Notzon said the Church’s credibility continues to suffer because many Catholics and the broader community not only believe clergy sexual abuse remains at a high level but also think that local bishops continue to cover up the problem by not reporting allegations of abuse to local authorities.

“This suggests a trust problem and must be met with scrupulous adherence to the charter,” he said.

In a presentation on religious liberty issues, Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, chairman of the bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Freedom, acknowledged the U.S. bishops’ “Fortnight for Freedom” campaign has come under heavy criticism in the secular media, in the blogosphere and by some Catholics as being a partisan political effort.

But the two-week period is meant to be free of politics and will emphasize Church teaching on religious freedom, he said.

“Already we realize that defending religious freedom is not a walk in the park,” he said.

“We’ve seen some reaction to our work that is sometimes hostile, sometimes unfair and inaccurate and sometimes derisive.”

The upcoming Fortnight, which takes place June 21-July 4, will be a period of prayer, education and action aimed at explaining how a federal health care contraceptive mandate violates religious principles. The mandate requires most religious employers to provide free health insurance coverage for contraceptives, abortion-inducing drugs and sterilizations.

At the end of the discussion on religious freedom in the United States, the bishops affirmed by a unanimous voice vote a recent statement of the USCCB Administrative Committee regarding the HHS mandate titled “United for Religious Freedom.”

In his remarks to the assembly, Chaldean Auxiliary Bishop Shlemon Warduni of Baghdad made an impassioned plea on behalf of Iraq’s dwindling Christian population, and called upon the U.S. bishops to press the Obama Administration to take steps to protect religious rights in the Middle Eastern country.

He said the country’s Christians are being targeted by Muslim extremists bent on ridding the country of all religious minorities.

He said in the session presented by the bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace that the difficulties Christians face emerged only after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

“As leaders of the Church in the United States,” he told the bishops, “you bear a special responsibility toward the people and Christians of Iraq. In 2003 your government led the war that brought some terrible consequences. The U.S. government can and must do all it can to encourage tolerance and respect in Iraq, to help Iraq strengthen the rule of law and to provide assistance that helps create jobs for Iraqis, especially those on the margins.”

In a report on the Year of Faith, set to begin in October, Bishop David L. Ricken of Green Bay, Wis., chairman of the Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis, said the 2012-13 Church-wide observance stems from Pope Benedict XVI’s call for a New Evangelization. He said it will incorporate television, radio, social media and numerous online resources to better connect — or reconnect — Catholics with their faith.

In a presentation June 14, Bishop John C. Wester of Salt Lake City, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Communications, said the New Evangelization calls for using new forms of media to reach people in their everyday lives.

From electronic books to social media to traditional forms of print and broadcast, the Church is rethinking how to carry its teachings and its stances on public policy issues to broader audiences, including Catholics, he said.

Serious questions revolve around how to effectively communicate the Church’s work while remaining true to authentic Church teaching, Bishop Wester said.

The spring assembly opened with Mass celebrated by Atlanta Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory at Sacred Heart of Jesus Basilica, who urged his fellow bishops to recall the life of St. Anthony of Padua to help them renew religious life. The saint — whose feast day was June 13 — demonstrated a deep devotion to Christ through his preaching.

“Certainly here our contemporary Church ought to seek his assistance since we seem to have lost something of our confidence and vitality in proclaiming the Gospel,” Archbishop Gregory said in a brief homily.

“Unfortunately, we may also have occasionally misplaced clerical integrity and the facility of announcing the Good News of Jesus Christ with conviction.

Religious life has suffered confusion and needs serious renewal.

That, perhaps, St. Anthony can once again help us to rediscover,” he said.

mid-year gathering — U.S. bishops gather for their annual mid-year meeting in Atlanta. Pictured from right are Bishop Peter F. Christensen of Superior, Wis.; Auxiliary Bishop Donald J. Hying of Milwaukee; and Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted of Phoenix. (CNS photo/Michael Alexander, Georgia Bulletin)

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June 22, 2012

The Anchor

The summer message of St. John the Baptist

he solemnity of the Birth of St. John the Baptist holds such prominence in the Church’s Liturgy that we celebrate it even on a Sunday. Because Sunday is June 24, this celebration actually trumps the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Just as we think of Christmas as the winter holiday and Easter as the spring holiday, so is the nativity of John the Baptist the Church’s summer holiday.

In fact, this solemnity’s date actually bears great significance. It happens six months before the Nativity of our Lord. This calculation is based on scriptural indications. In the sixth month of the pregnancy of the Baptist’s mother Elizabeth, the angel Gabriel announced Christ’s conception to Mary in Nazareth (Lk 1:26). If we suppose that John was born at nine months, then on his birthday, Mary would have been three months pregnant.

Therefore, Jesus was born six months after John. And,

June 24 falls just about six Israel. Just as the fiery and months to the day before heroic judges led the people December 25. against their enemies, called As in the case of our them to repentance, and Lord, John the Baptist’s brought them back to the parents also received word obedience of God’s law, so of his conception by the message of an angel. The annunciaHomily of the Week tion to the Baptist’s Birth of St. John father Zechariah in the Baptist the Temple (Lk 1:525) forms part of

By Father the great intercomKarl C. Bissinger munication between Heaven and earth, between angels and men, that surrounded did John arise as a popular Christ’s Incarnation. While preacher on the banks of the we consider Jesus’ birth Jordan River to proclaim a miraculous because He was Baptism of repentance to born of a virgin, John’s is his contemporaries and to miraculous because he was prepare the way of the Lord. born of a sterile woman and And, just as the prophets an old man (Lk 1:18). bore witness to God and to John the Baptist’s birth His promises, so did John fits into the Old Testament bear witness to Christ as the tradition of miraculous and Lamb of God (Jn 1:29). He announced births, especially heralded our Lord’s coming. those of Samson (Jgs 13) He recognized Him as the and Samuel (1 Sm 1). In this fulfillment of God’s promway, God indicates to us that ises and pointed to Jesus as the Baptist resembles the One of higher rank, more judges and the prophets of worthy, and mightier than he

(Jn 1:30; Mk 1:7). “I baptize with water; but, He is the One Who will baptize with the Holy Spirit” (Jn 1:26,33).

John the Baptist received his name on the eighth day after his birth when his parents circumcised him according to the Jewish tradition. John in Hebrew is Yochanan. “Yo” denotes God’s name, and “chanan” means favor, mercy, and grace. So, the Baptist’s name roughly means “God’s graciousness” or “God is gracious.” In other words, he found favor and grace with God. However, in the Bible a person’s name also reveals one’s vocation, the task that God calls one to carry out. We know that John’s name and his call come from God, not from his parents, nor from any human being. For his name was given to his father Zechariah by the angel Gabriel (Lk 1:13). So, God sent John the Baptist out into the wilderness, to the waters of

the Jordan, in order to announce a time of favor, the reality of God’s mercy, and the possibility of grace and forgiveness.

The nativity of the Baptist gives us an opportunity to listen to this message once again. In the long, bright daylight of late June and in the roasting summer heat that moves us more toward rest and relaxation than toward assiduous work, we hear John’s distant voice as one crying in the desert. We need not delay until Advent or next Lent; St. John the Baptist’s call to repentance is for you and me today. His testimony wakes us from our spiritual haze and laziness.

His is a perennial summons to examine our lives and turn back to the Lord Who loves us, invites us to renewed friendship, and longingly awaits our wholehearted response.

Father Bissinger is secretary to Bishop George W. Coleman and director of Vocations for the Diocese of Fall River.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. June 23, ­­Jer 1:4-10; Ps 71:1-4a,5-6b,15ab,17; 1 Pt 1:8-12; Lk 1:5-17. Sun. June 24, Birth of John the Baptist, Is 49:1-6; Ps 139:13,13-15; Acts 13:22-26; Lk 1:57-66,80. Mon. June 25, 2 Kgs 17:5-8,13-15a,18; Ps 60:3-5,12-13; Mt 7:1-5. Tues. June 26, 2 Kgs 19:9b-11,14-21,31-35a,36; Ps 48:2-4,10-11; Mt 7:6,12-14. Wed. June 27, 2 Kgs 22:8-13;23:1-3; Ps 119:33-37,40; Mt 7:15-20. Thurs. June 28, 2 Kgs 24:8-17; Ps 79:1b-5,8-9; Mt 7:21-29. Fri. June 29, Acts 12:1-11; Ps 34:2-9; 2 Tm 4:6-8,17-18; Mt 16:13-19.

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everal months ago, I came across a twovolume history of the Church in the United States I’d never read before: “Theodore Maynard’s The Story of American Catholicism,” first published in 1941.

Maynard was not a professional historian and his telling of the American Catholic story has a bit more of the apologetic edginess of early-20th century Catholicism than a 21st-century audience might find congenial.

Yet Maynard manifestly did his homework in the pioneering tomes of such giants of U.S. Catholic history as John Gilmary Shea and Peter Guilday; his judgments are usually judicious, even if his ecumenical sensibility is not overly developed; and every once in a while he comes up with an insight that is truly refreshing — and very neatly put.

Take, for example, the following passage — a bit baroque rhetorically, but nonetheless worth pondering: “[It] is very curious that men who admit no dogmatic bias in their own lives or their concept of the universe should

Light from the south

so often retain a sentimenslow degrees.” tal attachment to the legend As Theodore Maynard readthat, because certain dissentily admits, the legal construcing Protestant groups sought, tion of American religious among other things, their own liberty of conscience, they were the architects of American religious liberty. There is no special need to complain that, when in a

By George Weigel position to enforce their will, they refused liberty to those with whom they happened to freedom during the Founding disagree — and particularly was the work of many hands, to Catholics. Instead, it may most of which were Protestant be gratefully acknowledged and Deist hands. Yet it is also that their stern adhesion to true that, from 1634 and the their personal convictions beginning of the proprietary contributed in the end greatly colony of Maryland, Catholics to bring about an extension of were committed to a broad religious liberty to all. [Yet] notion of religious freedom: such Catholic groups as came a true “first liberty,” not just to the American colonies never “liberty for us.” That was, of thought of religious liberty course, a matter of both conas something that should be viction and pragmatic necesexclusively enjoyed by themsity, given the Catholics’ small selves. In this respect, the numbers. But the convictions Catholic settlers of Maryland should not be forgotten. Bewere Americans from the because of their own theological ginning, whereas the Puritans tradition, Maryland Catholics became Americans only by (and their brethren in Pennsyl-

The Catholic Difference

vania) could have embraced something resembling the First Amendment in the days when New England Puritans were teaching their children to sing, “Abhor that arrant whore of Rome/ and all her blasphemies/And drink not of her cursed cup/Obey not her decrees.”

As the Catholic Church in the United States begins a Fortnight for Freedom to strengthen Catholics’ resolve to defend religious freedom for all, it’s good to remember that, from the Founding, the Catholic embrace of the First Amendment’s guarantee of the “free exercise of religion” has been unhesitating — and it has been principled. Maynard again, in High Baroque form: “[The] Church has always maintained that, whatever may be the accidental inequality of gift and station between man and man, they are all essentially equal in the sight of God. It is only upon such a doctrine that democracy can repose.

It is only democratic institu-

tions that put that doctrine into visible practice. For despite the Declaration of Independence, with its’ ‘self-evident’ truth that all men are created equal, the thing is not selfevident at all. On the contrary, it seems to be at variance with self-evident facts. It is really a mystical dogma, and the one institution we can be perfectly certain will never renounce that dogma is the Catholic Church.”

But perhaps “mystic” is not-quite-right. There is a chain of ideas here, and it can be traced. From Thomas Aquinas to Robert Bellarmine to the Anglican divine Richard Hooker; then from Hooker to John Locke to Thomas Jefferson: that’s one plausible intellectual road map to the Declaration and the First Amendment. The American Thomas, Jefferson, owed the Scholastic Thomas, Aquinas, more than the Sage of Monticello likely ever knew.

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

June 22, 2012

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Memories to go

Friday 22 June 2012 — farewell to the Church on Three Mile River — Midsummer ere’s a values clarification exercise. If your house caught on fire and you were able to save just one item, what would it be? My house is not on fire, thank heavens, but in the process of moving to another parish assignment, I’ve been forced to determine what is most valuable to me. What goes with me and what does not?

On top of the list is my pet greyhound Transit. Wherever I go, he will go. We have been together through thick and thin. He was only two years old when we first met at the kennel. He was a handsome racer, white in color.

He was retiring from profesEven old greyhounds need to sional sports and needed to be run occasionally. It’s in their placed. I was asked if I could genes. find him a home. I found one That being decided, other in Rhode Island and off he things fall into place. Transit went to live with his new owner. Transit grew increasingly lonely. He was back in two years. It seems we were Reflections of a destined to be together.

Parish Priest He’s been with me now for eight years. He has

By Father Tim moved with me three Goldrick times and adjusted well to the various environments. It doesn’t take him long does not travel lightly. I must to make himself at home, as bring his food, his leashes, and long as I’m there. He’s older his winter coat; his favorite now and I worry how well he blanket, and the teddy bear will handle another move. My toy he inherited from the late animal companion definitely greyhound Gabe. comes with me. I hope there’s What else, besides Transit, a safe place for him to run. will come with me? I will

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Vatican is in line to control the new Internet address extension “.catholic” and decide who is allowed to use it.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a nonprofit corporation that coordinates the assignment of Internet domain names and addresses around the world, announced the Vatican’s formal application June 13 in London.

The corporation is overseeing a huge expansion in the number of Internet extensions beyond the standard .com, .org., .edu and .gov. The extensions formally are known as generic top-level domains.

The assignment of countrycode top-level domains, like the Vatican’s own .va, will not be affected by the change.

Msgr. Paul Tighe, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, told Catholic News Service that the Vatican’s application to control the top-level domain .catholic “is a recognition of how important the digital space is for the Church.”

Controlling the top-level domain “will be a way to authenticate the Catholic presence online,” Msgr. Tighe said. The Vatican plans to allow “institutions and communities that have canonical recognition” to use the extension, “so people online — Catholics and non-Catholics — will know a site is authentically Catholic.”

The Vatican does not plan to allow individual bloggers or private Catholics to use

“.catholic,” Msgr. Tighe said.

Use of the domain would be limited to those with a formal canonical recognition: dioceses, parishes and other territorial Church jurisdictions; religious orders and other canonically recognized communities; and Catholic institutions such as universities, schools and hospitals.

The Vatican filed four separate applications for new domain names, seeking to control “.catholic” and its equivalent in other languages using Latin letters, as well as the equivalent of the word “Catholic” in the Cyrillic, Arabic and Chinese alphabets.

The fee for each application was $185,000, which Msgr.

Tighe said “is a lot of money, but if you think of the money you have to spend to maintain a Church structure,” and then consider how important the structure of the Catholic presence on the Internet is, it was a good investment.

Controlling the domain name will promote “a more cohesive and organized presence” of the Church online, “so the recognized structure of the Church can be mirrored in the digital space.”

In addition to the fee, the Vatican and other applicants for new generic top-level domains had to fill out complicated forms and must submit to background checks to ensure they are the best representative of the name they chose and to prove they have the financial, technical and institutional stability to run the domain, are not involved

H

The Ship’s Log

Vatican set to control new ‘catholic’ Internet domain

in criminal activity and have no history of “cyber-squatting” — registering a name more properly associated with someone else and trying to sell it at an inflated price.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has set up a process for resolving conflicting claims to the same or very similar names, although an auction of some extensions is possible.

It said that of the 1,930 applications received, “there are 230 domain names for which at least two applications were submitted, involving a total of 751 applications.”

The corporation did not announce any claim to .catholic besides that of the Vatican.

The vetting process is ongoing and even entities that appear to have a right to the name and the ability to run the new domain are unlikely to have anything online before spring 2013, according to the corporation.

When the Internet corporation began accepting applications in January for new Internet extensions, there were about two dozen approved generic top-level domains, including .info, which was added in 2000, and .travel, which was added in 2004.

The current expansion of top domains will be the largest in Internet history and is likely to include the names of large companies as well as cities and popular interests: for example, .nyc, .london, and .music all were expected to be among the new domains.

take some of my art collection. Back when I was in high school, my art teacher, Ray Bisaillon, advised, “Tim, in this life, surround yourself with the best artwork you can afford. It will feed your spirit.” I took his words to heart. So, I bring with me the serigraph of a mission church in Santa Fe, a pueblo pottery vase, the Japanese print called “Adoration of the Magi,” the serigraph of a bird of paradise flower, an original icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the terra-cotta statue of Our Lady of Solitude, some vases handbuilt by a Trappist monk, and the carved cottonwood crucifix from New Mexico. These should be enough to feed my spirit.

I must also, of course, bring some books, but not too many: a Bible and some prayer books; a few reference works; a dictionary; my collection of the writings of Gladys Taber (my favorite author); some local, Church and family histories and some books on saints.

I will take with me a selection of greyhound figurines. I will bring a couple dozen nativity scenes from around the world, and my grandfather’s crèche from the Five and Ten Cent Store. I will bring the mantel clock my grandfather gave my grandmother on their first wedding anniversary and the lamp from my great grandmother’s front parlor.

I will bring some very old family photographs and the family crest Father Joe Viveiros painted for me; a tote or two of clothes and some desk supplies; a small file of personal papers; a half dozen

music CDs; and that’s about it.

These are a few of the things I would save if my house caught on fire. I suspect I would want to keep running back and forth into the burning building until the authorities restrained me.

Things are important to me not because of extrinsic value but because they carry memories of people and places.

The mission church painting reminds me of a long-ago trip to Santa Fe with Father Marc Bergeron. The old church spoke to me. I spent hours absorbing its sacred aura. Years later, I was at a fair in Denver and there was the painting — done by a Jewish woman who had also been transfixed by the place. Father Stan Kolasa did the bird of paradise picture.

The crucifix was carved by a Latino man suffering from severe epilepsy. Olga painted the Russian icon. The pottery pieces were done by someone I knew years ago, a young man by the name of Emil Weaver.

He is now a Trappist monk named Nicholas. The pueblo vase reminds me of my sister, Mary Pehan of Colorado. She was with me when I bought it. The statue of Our Lady of Solitude reminds me of Cardinal Sean O’Malley, who once asked, “Tim, who might this be?” The Japanese silkscreen was given to me after the death of my dear friend Anne Austill, who had lived many years in Japan. And on it goes.

As I move on, my memories go with me in a box. These are my treasures.

“Preserve your memories; they’re all that’s left you.”

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

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By Becky Aubut Anchor Staff

June 22, 2012

Parish’s plant lady cultivates her faith

MATTAPOISETT — Louanda Reade of St. Anthony’s Parish in Mattapoisett may be known as the “plant lady” at her parish, but her roots in the Catholic faith extend beyond the flowery decorations at her church.

Some of her earliest memories of attending Mass were of her going to church with an older woman who would take care of her, said Reade.

Though she attended public school, she took piano lessons at a local convent.

“What was interesting about that is all the girls who took piano lessons all went to parochial school. It was different for me. They were familiar with the nuns but I was from public school,” she said, laughingly adding that she would always end up in the practice room because she didn’t practice enough.

Even though she wasn’t taught in an academic setting, the Sisters were an influence because “they were women in control,” said Reade. “I can still see them in their big, black habits.”

Reade attended St. Casmir’s Parish in New Bedford until it closed, moving around a bit until she settled

in Acushnet and began attending Reade. “After I earned my masters, St. Mary’s Parish in New Bedford; there was a job available and I stayed a parish so close to home that she and taught there for 17 years in this could walk to it. orthopedic hospital.”

“Once I moved to Acushnet, it was “They were all special and certain country so I could walk; that was ones stick out in my mind more than just when people were getting cars,” others. They were all in wheelchairs she said of a childhood that saw her or had crutches,” taking public she said of the transportation children’s physito attend New cal, not menBedford High tal, disabilities.

School.

“The staff was After high interesting beschool, Reade cause they were went on to colall very involved lege at the and dedicated.”

American InterReade said national College she loved bein Springfield, ing in the classgetting a degree room and made in education. the decision She then went to never to pursue graduate school the administraat Tufts, changtive aspect of her ing the direction job; “I wanted of her life, she to be involved said. with the chil“[Tufts] was dren. I wanted affiliated with to help them and Massachusetts teach them. PeoHospital School” Anchor Person of the week ple say to me, for handicapped — Louanda Reade. (Photo by Becky ‘How could you children,” said Aubut) do that?’” said Reade, who has a ready answer. “You loved them; you were kind but firm because you were preparing them for some kind of a future. The kids were a challenge but I have just wonderful memories.”

Church continued to be the focal point in her life. When Reade and her husband settled in the area for good, her elderly mother was delighted to have her only child living so close.

“It was nice to run to Acushnet to take care of her. She stayed in her home until she was 90,” said Reade, adding her mother lived to 92, passing away eight years ago. “We had wonderful times together. I would go with her to church at St. Casimir’s, and when it closed I would take her up here in Mattapoisett. I can still picture her at St. Anthony’s; it was the last church she went to.”

Reade continued, “She was the one who really gave me my faith. She really made sure that I was faithful.”

Becoming the “plant lady at St. Anthony’s — “My husband calls me the ‘flower lady,’” said Reade — came about when the person taking care of the plants went on vacation.

“That was 10 years ago, and I’m still taking care of the flowers,” said Reade.

“Way back, probably because I was an only child, I was taught to be independent. I’m not blowing my horn,” she said humbly before listing her leadership roles in various organizations and faith groups. “It just seems I fall into these roles. I’m not

really aggressive; I don’t look for it, it just happens.”

Reade is in charge of the craft table during the annual Christmas fair for the parish. She used to belong to a Renew group that was “very organized” in its curriculum. Gathering once a week, the group would follow a Catholic-based program and discuss that week’s reading. Reade said that not only did the group grow to learn and appreciate their faith, the weekly gathering allowed the group to appreciate each other.

“The women in the group really supported one another. They were in their 60s and 70s and having health or family issues. They looked forward to coming. It really brought us together on a more personal basis,” recalled Reade. “One thing we learned in that group that it is a gift if you have faith because not everyone has it. You have to develop it, and my mother was the one that got that going for me. She was very attached to the Blessed Mother.”

The group began to peter out but it was soon replaced by a serendipitous phone call by a local school looking to integrate junior high school students with older people. It was a community-type service project that segued into a weekly meeting of knitting prayer shawls and afghans for the elderly, said Reade.

“It’s funny how things happen and snowball,” she said when the older participants realized they could continue to meet, convening at the Senior Center in Mattapoisett every Monday. “Every week we knit prayer shawls and afghans for the elderly in the hospice in Fairhaven; that’s where the [latest batch] is going right now.”

Even if someone is not up for knitting an entire afghan, they knit a square. When enough squares are gathered, Reade puts them together.

Many elderly residents of area health care facilities have been recipients of the group’s efforts, and the women often receive thank you cards for their labors of love.

As a tribute to her parents and the faith they instilled in her, Reade donated money for a stained-glass window at St. Anthony’s in their memory. She attends Mass every morning and said she has a lot to be thankful for in her life.

“I really have faith that God is there to help me. He’s not on vacation,” said Reade, adding that her faith helped get her through openheart surgery in 2009. “That was a difficult time. I wasn’t able to get to church for a couple of months.

With all I’m doing now, I feel blessed.”

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

June 22, 2012

The Anchor

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D

o you assume America is a free country? Do you assume religious freedom is guaranteed in America? Most of us learned that in school and have taken it for granted ever since. In other countries people might have to worry about whether and how they can practice their religion. Not here.

This is America, after all.

Why do we think this way? It partly has to do with our law.

Not by accident did the First Amendment begin with religious freedom, protecting it from infringement in two ways: first, by prohibiting an official, governmentally-sponsored religion (“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion”) and, second, by protecting the people in their free exercise of religion (“or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”).

What does this mean? It doesn’t mean that in this coun-

June 22, 2012

The Anchor

Religious freedom: Use it or lose it

try you have just the right to tory. believe whatever you want to The first English-speaking believe. Even in North Korea Catholics to come to these they have that right, because shores, led by Cecil Calvert, as a practical matter no one Lord Baltimore, in 1634, can force you to believe or not practiced religious toleration, believe something. The free remarkable for its day. The genexercise of religion means the ability to act on those beliefs. To practice your religion in private or in public.

To proclaim your religion to others, if you

By Dwight Duncan wish. To spend your money in furtherance of your own religion, and not in furtherance of anyone else’s. To promote eral idea then in vogue was to what you think is moral, and to create a community where evnot promote anything you think eryone was on the same page in is immoral. These are all neces- everything. Catholic countries sary consequences of the idea of were supposed to be Catholic. religious freedom.

Protestant countries (and coloBut law without practice is nies) were supposed to be Prota dead letter. Our faith in our estant. Well, Lord Baltimore American freedoms also has bucked the trend. And in 1649 something to do with our histhe Maryland General Assembly enacted an Act of Religious Toleration, which promised to every self-described Christian that he or she should not “be troubled, molested or discountenanced for or in respect of his or her religion nor in the free exercise thereof … nor any way compelled to the belief or exercise of any other religion against his or her consent.”

A hundred and twenty-five years ago, in 1887, James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, went to Rome to take possession of his titular Sunday, June 24, 11:00 a.m. church, Santa Maria in Trastevere, the oldest church in Rome dedicated to our Blessed Mother. He gave a famous sermon there celebrating the American Celebrant is Bishop Louis E. tradition of separation of church Gelineau, Retired Bishop of the and state. He said, “For myself, Diocese of Providence, R.I. as a citizen of the United States, without closing my eyes to our defects as a nation, I proclaim, with a deep sense of pride and gratitude, and in this great capitol of Christendom, that I belong to a country where the civil government holds over us The Post Office charges The Anchor 70 cents for notificathe aegis of its protection withtion of a subscriber’s change of address. Please help us out interfering in the legitimate reduce these expenses by notifying us immediately when exercise of our sublime mission you plan to move. as ministers of the Gospel of Please Print Your New Address Below Jesus Christ.”

NAME: That church in Rome where Cardinal Gibbons spoke STREET ADDRESS: contains the mortal remains of Cardinal Campeggio, a RenaisCITY, STATE, ZIP: sance prelate who had been sent to England to judge, along NEW PARISH: with Cardinal Wolsey, the annulment proceeding of Henry MOVING DATE: VIII against his wife Catherine of Aragon. This reminds us, Please attach your Anchor address label so we can update of course, of the martyrs we your record immediately. celebrate today, SS. John Fisher and Thomas More, who gave Clip and mail form to: The Anchor, their lives to protect the freeP.O. Box 7, Fall River, MA 02722

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dom of the Church when the king put himself in place of pope and bishops at the head of the Church in England, something that clearly violated the first article of the Magna Carta, “that the English Church shall be free, and shall have its rights undiminished and its liberties unimpaired.”

There are lots of moral lessons to be drawn from the story of Henry VIII. But since I’m a lawyer I want to emphasize legal technicalities, and particularly this bit about the Magna Carta. The Magna Carta guaranteed the rights of the Catholic Church in England, but the chief executive officer of the country, Henry, tossed it away because he had the will to do so. He had the power to do so largely because not enough people stood up to him. We remember our sainted martyr John Fisher. He was made a cardinal by the pope, but his “head was off before the hat was on.”

There were 13 other bishops in England at the time. Do you remember any of their names?

Probably not, because when the winds blew their house caved in. We remember Thomas More.

But there were many more lawyers and government officials at the time. They heard what the lion wanted, and they gave it to him.

This fall we will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the opening of Vatican II, pretty clearly the greatest religious event of the last century. In some ways the American contribution to the council is principally to be found in its Declaration on Religious Freedom, the handiwork of the American Jesuit Father John Courtney Murray. The declaration solemnly affirmed that “the human person has a right to religious freedom.

This freedom means that all men are to be immune from coercion on the part of individuals or of social groups and of any human power, in such wise that no one is to be forced to act in a manner contrary to his own beliefs, nor is anyone to be restrained from acting in accordance with his own beliefs, whether privately or publicly, whether alone or in association with others, within due limits.”

Now we are implicated in this battle over the HHS mandate concerning contraceptives, abortion-inducing drugs, and sterilization. It could’ve been another flashpoint. Denmark, for example, has just required churches to solemnize samesex weddings. In Ireland, the

government is seriously proposing abolishing the centuriesold priest-penitent privilege, thus enabling the government to force priests to violate the sacred seal of Confession, something that has been wellsettled in our common law since the days of Henry II and St. Thomas Becket in the 12th century. In Nigeria, in what seems like a weekly ritual, Christians are being killed for attending church.

How fortunate we are that we are not encountering any of these obstacles to living in accord with our consciences.

Still, the threat to our religious freedom is real. When our government tells us we must pay for acts we believe and know to be immoral for everybody, our situation is comparable to what’s happening in these other places, even if isn’t precisely similar.

So what are we called upon to do?

Of course, we want to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s. But we must also render to God the things that are God’s. Conscience, as the voice of God within, is distinctly a resident of our Father’s house.

When the government tries to force conscience to bow to Caesar, we have no choice but to obey God rather than man.

When the authorities in Jerusalem ordered SS. Peter and John to stop preaching about Jesus, they replied, “Whether it is right in the sight of God for us to obey you rather than God, you be the judges. It is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19-20).

Note the context and the details. Peter and John didn’t say the authorities were illegitimate.

They didn’t tell the authorities what they must believe. They even invite their listeners to judge for themselves according to their own consciences. But they stand their ground on one point: that they must do the will of God, no matter what anyone else — government included — says.

It’s a bit of a Paul Revere moment. Only this time it’s not the British that are coming. It’s Big Brother. Or, if you prefer, think of Rosa Parks. We can go along and sit quietly in the back of the bus, or we can stand up for human dignity and the rights of conscience. When it comes to our precious heritage of religious freedom, we must either use it or lose it.

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

June 22, 2012

religious revolution — Members of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property lead demonstrators up Constitution Avenue during a recent “Stand Up For Religious Freedom Rally” in Washington D.C. Rallies held across the nation took aim at the government’s HHS mandate that will require most employers to cover contraception and sterilization procedures in their health plans. The nation’s Catholic bishops have repeatedly criticized the mandate. (CNS photo/ Peter Lockley)

Catholics around the country rally for religious freedom

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Catholics in dioceses across the country made their stand for religious freedom in a series of rallies earlier this month.

Organized by the Pro-Life Action League in Chicago and Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, based in Michigan, the rallies took place on the same day in an estimated 145 cities and all together drew about 63,000 participants.

The focus of the rallies has been the federal Health and Human Services mandate that would require the Catholic Church and other religious employers to provide free health insurance coverage for contraceptives, abortion-inducing drugs and sterilizations — services they deem immoral.

A pair of “Stand Up for Religious Freedom” rallies drew about 200 each to the federal courthouses in both Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The mandate that employers who do not meet a narrow religious exemption be required to pay for such coverage for all employees is “an unprecedented intrusion of the state” into the workings of religious institutions, said Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami at the Miami rally; he also attended the Fort Lauderdale event.

Archbishop Wenski said a trend in U.S. society today seeks to marginalize people of faith, to silence their voices in the public square.

“Religion is personal. But it should never be private. As people of faith we have a right to make our proposals,” he said, noting that the purpose of the socalled “separation of church and

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The Anchor

state” is to “protect the church from the state, not the separation of religion from society or of society from religious belief.”

A Mass at St. Mary of the Assumption Cathedral in Trenton, N.J., was the starting point for a rally outside the Statehouse. A standing-room-only crowd estimated at more than 900 packed the cathedral.

“We come to pray for an end to this unwarranted and unprecedented governmental assault on religious freedom, created by the unwarranted and unprecedented intrusion of the federal government upon our ability as a people of faith to be who we are and to believe, freely and without restriction, as God has invited us to believe, has called us to believe,” said Bishop David M. O’Connell of Trenton in his homily.

“But let’s be clear, an opponent strikes only when that opponent senses or perceives weaknesses in the one to be assaulted. An opponent triumphs only when the opponent discovers that such perceived weaknesses are real,” he said.

“I worry that we ourselves, within the Church, may have set the stage for the ‘radical secularism’ of which Pope Benedict has spoken by the way we have failed to hand on our Catholic faith, whole and entire, to this and to the next generation,” he added.

Citing statistics that, among other things, put the number of Catholics who go to weekly Mass at 25 percent and those who believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist at under 50 percent, Bishop O’Connell said that “the fault, as

Shakespeare wrote, may not be ‘in our stars, but in ourselves.’”

An estimated 1,700 turned out for an interfaith “Stand Up for Religious Freedom” rally in Santa Ana, Calif.

“This is everyone’s fight,” Rabbi Dov Fischer told the crowd.

“There is one common theme that unites us: A religion is not touchable by the government.”

“All men are created. We’re all anxious to get to the ‘equal’ part — but all men are created,” said another speaker, Greg Weiler, president of the St. Thomas More Society of Orange County.

“The bottom line is that there is a God, and I’m not Him.” Weiler added, “Where do your rights come from? Not from President Obama or even from President Reagan — but from God.” Another rally, this time outside the federal building in downtown Detroit, drew an estimated 1,000 people.

“It is no longer enough for us to just be good Catholics or good Christians; God needs saints. It is time for us to take a stand,” Auxiliary Bishop Michael J. Byrnes of Detroit told the gathering.

Felician Sister Rose Marie Kujawa, president of Madonna University in suburban Livonia, said the Felician-sponsored university is among the Churchrelated institutions that would be required to provide the objectionable coverage under the mandate.

“Our question now is: If our government can withdraw our right to religious liberty, what is the next freedom that can be suspended?” she said. Perhaps the government will also find

freedom of speech or freedom of the press inconvenient, she suggested, asking, “If one freedom can be swept under the carpet, why not others?”

In Green Bay, Wis., a large crowd filled the Brown County Court House Plaza.

“It’s time for us to stand up and stand together to call people’s attention to what’s happening in our country, which is so precious,” Bishop David L. Ricken told the crowd. “This is an act of solidarity where we are saying, ‘wake up people’ because these rights can crumble and be taken away from us very fast and almost underneath our own eyes. So we have to stand up and have people listen.”

He closed his talk by encouraging people to take part in the “Fortnight for Freedom” called for by the U.S. Catholic bishops June 21 to July 4. Events are being sponsored in all U.S. Catholic dioceses.

Another thousand people stood outside the federal building in downtown Phoenix amid sweltering temperatures for a midday rally that took aim against the HHS mandate.

“Authentic health care prevents disease, saves lives and offers medical support to all, including unborn children and their mothers,” said Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted of Phoenix.

“Authentic health care does not kill anyone. It seeks first of all to do no harm.”

Catholic obstetrician-gynecologist William Chavira told

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the crowd that life and liberty are under attack and that he objected to the government’s attempt to interfere with his rights.

“I will not stand for it ... for a government entity to impose what they define as religion or the practice of medicine on me. I will not tolerate it,” he said.

At a rally in Boston, Raymond Flynn, former mayor of Boston and a onetime U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, spoke of the HHS mandate “causing a serious rift between the Democratic Party and Catholics — and people of all faiths, for that matter.”

Still, Flynn added, “despite what you hear from the media and some politicians, this is not about access to contraception; it is about the principle of whether the federal government can force religious organizations to take actions that violate their own faith and their own conscience.”

Flynn said, “You can’t imagine how I felt when I saw my longtime friend Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York city filing a legal challenge against the Obama Administration for their discriminatory policies against religious institutions in America.

I am proud of Cardinal Dolan, but ashamed that this administration has let it come to this.

“Nobody would have thought that this could have been imaginable 25 years ago. The Catholic Church suing the White House for violations of religious liberties? Unthinkable! What happened to separation of church and state?”

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June 22, 2012

At penitential site, Cardinal Ouellet asks forgiveness for abuse

Dublin, Ireland (CNA/ EWTN News) — At the request of Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Marc Ouellet visited Ireland’s traditional penitential pilgrimage site of Lough Derg to seek God’s forgiveness for priests who sexually abused children in Ireland and everywhere in the Church.

“We have learned over the last decades how much harm and despair such abuse has caused to thousands of victims,” the cardinal said in his June 12 homily during Mass at St. Patrick’s Basilica at Lough Derg in County Donegal.

“In the name of the Church, I apologize once again to the victims, some of whom I have met here in Lough Derg,” he said. “I come here with the specific intention of seeking forgiveness, from God and from the victims, for the grave sin of sexual abuse of children by clerics.”

He said the Church “learned too late” that some of her leaders responded to the crimes of abuse in a way that was “often inadequate” in stopping the crimes.

Cardinal Ouellet is Pope Benedict’s legate to the 50th International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin, which is running from June 10-17.

Before Mass, he held a twohour meeting with survivors of institutional and clerical abuse from different parts of Ireland.

He listened to each survivor discuss his or her abuse experience and its effects on their lives.

He said he was deeply moved

by the meeting and would report on it to the pope.

“The tragedy of the sexual abuse of minors perpetrated by Christians, especially when done so by members of the clergy, is a source of great shame and enormous scandal,” the cardinal said in his homily. “It is a sin against which Jesus Himself lashed out.”

He drew on Pope Benedict’s March 2010 pastoral letter to the Catholics of Ireland, which discussed the difficulties abuse victims have in forgiving. The pope expressed the “shame and remorse” of the Church and asked victims not to lose hope.

Cardinal Ouellet reaffirmed the Catholic Church’s commitment to creating a “safe environment” for children.

He also said that “true conversion” can only happen through restoring a “deep personal relationship with Christ.”

Intercessory prayers at the June 12 Mass included prayers for abuse victims, forgiveness for physical and sexual abuse, and for the inadequate response of Church leaders.

Bishop Liam MacDaid of Clogher welcomed Cardinal Ouellet and papal nuncio Archbishop Charles Brown to Lough Derg.

Bishop MacDaid told the cardinal “we join our hearts with yours in reaching out to all victims of abuse.”

“We will cooperate with you and with His Holiness in every way we can to prevent this happening again.”

smiling Irish eyes — Aoife Delaney from Tipperary, Ireland, holds a sign during the closing Mass of the 50th International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin’s Croke Park June 17. (CNS photo/ Liam McArdle)

act of congress — Young people hold a Vatican flag during the closing Mass of the 50th International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin’s Croke Park June 17. Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops, was the main celebrant. (CNS photo/John Mc Elroy)

Archbishop: Irish Catholics’ faith must form basis of New Evangelization

DUBLIN (CNS) — Irish Catholics’ deep desire to strengthen their faith must form the basis of a radical New Evangelization, said Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin.

Addressing an estimated 80,000 pilgrims at the closing Mass of the 50th International Eucharistic Congress, Archbishop Martin said that “in these eight days the Eucharist has awakened in our hearts something which went way beyond our plans and expectations.” He said high interest in catechetical sessions “tells us just how much thirst there is in our Catholic community to deepen the understanding of our faith,” he said.

To sustained applause, Archbishop Martin said, “Tomorrow we must start our catechesis anew to prolong the fruits of this eucharistic congress through a dynamic of New Evangelization.”

Pope Benedict XVI, who addressed the event via a prerecorded video message, also paid tribute to Ireland’s long history of faith. He also announced that the next International Eucharistic Congress — in 2016 — will be held in Cebu, Philippines.

Dublin’s Croke Park — which usually plays host to traditional Irish sports like Gaelic football and hurling — was transformed into a large open-air cathedral, with pilgrims filling the stadium and pitch area for the Mass celebrated by Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the pope’s representative to the congress and the head of the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops.

From early morning the sound

of traditional and contemporary liturgical music echoed across the city as pilgrims carrying their national flags arrived on foot from their host parishes across the city.

Irish President Michael D. Higgins and Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny were among the congregation as well as Martin McGuinness, deputy first minister of Northern Ireland. Leaders of other Christian faiths also attended.

Nearly 180 pilgrims present at the Mass also had participated in the 1932 International Eucharistic Congress, the last time the event was held in Ireland. The master of ceremonies, Joe Duffy, said the veterans — including two 99-year-olds — had been offered seats on the field; however, they declined and climbed to the top of the stadium to get a better view.

In his message, Pope Benedict said that “Ireland has been shaped by the Mass at the deepest level for centuries and, by its power and grace, generations of monks, martyrs and missionaries have heroically lived the faith at home and spread the Good News of God’s love and forgiveness well beyond your shores.

“You are the heirs to a Church that has been a mighty force for good in the world, and which has given a profound and enduring love of Christ and His Blessed Mother to many, many others,” he said to cheers from the congregation.

Referring to Ireland’s clerical abuse crisis, Pope Benedict said, “Thankfulness and joy at such a great history of faith

and love have recently been shaken in an appalling way by the revelation of sins committed by priests and consecrated persons against people entrusted to their care.

“How are we to explain the fact that people who regularly received the Lord’s Body and confessed their sins in the Sacrament of Penance have offended in this way?” he asked.

“It remains a mystery. Yet evidently, their Christianity was no longer nourished by joyful encounter with Jesus Christ: It had become merely a matter of habit.”

The pope said the Second Vatican Council “was really meant to overcome this form of Christianity and to rediscover the faith as a deep personal friendship with the goodness of Jesus Christ.”

The pope said real liturgical renewal still needs work.

“In a changed world, increasingly fixated on material things, we must learn to recognize anew the mysterious presence of the risen Lord, which alone can give breadth and depth to our life,” he said.

Cardinal Ouellet told worshippers that “faith is the most precious gift we have received with Baptism.

“Let’s not keep it private and fearful,” he said. “Let it grow as a splendid tree through sharing everywhere.”

Before Mass started the pilgrims were treated to a celebration of traditional Irish music and testimony. The names of every parish in Ireland were emblazoned on ads throughout the stadium, and pilgrims waved flags and banners as the Mass got under way.

June 22, 2012

Praying for religious freedom continued from page one

The parish made a pronounced statement by having the participants meet in the front of the church and made the gathering not just a Church event but also a community event; it’s a visual that sent out the Catholic message to those who witnessed the event.

“It’s extremely important, especially with all the craziness that’s going on in the world. It was a peaceful symbol that we could give to the community; this is what we’re doing, this is what we’re all about. Our religious freedom is very, very important to us,” said Levesque.

“It was just a wonderful evening.”

Bishop Coleman has offered sample homilies during the Fortnight and has materials that include the “Prayer for Religious Freedom,” asking priests to incorporate the prayer into their Masses and to solicit parishioners to take time in reflecting upon the importance of religious liberty and to pray and act for its protection. It’s a message that Levesque hopes many priests take to heart, saying there needs to be teaching from the pulpit before Catholics can understand why religious freedom is so important.

“I think it’s something we’ve been missing. People just don’t seem to understand and you don’t get it all from CCD. We need to hear more and be very vocal about it,” said Levesque.

“There’s just so much craziness going around because as Catholics, we haven’t been together.

In my own opinion, we’ve been on the wrong side of some issues that we should not be on the wrong side of. We need to educate people and have them get politically active so that they really understand what the person who they’re voting for believes, and how that ties into our Catholic belief. It’s very important.”

Steve Guillotte, director of Pastoral Services at St. Francis Xavier Parish in Acushnet, agrees. His parish gathered this past Monday to recite the Rosary and pray for religious liberty and the protection of the Holy Mother Church, he said.

“This concept of the separation of church and state doesn’t require Catholics, as citizens, to stand on the sidelines. Our responsibilities as Catholics is to always be the conscience of the state. We don’t run the state or operate the state, but we are here to be a witness to Jesus as a conscience to the state,” said Guillotte. “At this particular time during an election year, it’s

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The Anchor

important that we pay close attention to our religious liberty and how it’s going to affect our future. As a parish, we’re proud of the bishops bringing this issue to the forefront.”

Father Marcel Bouchard pastor of St. Mary-Our Lady of the Isle Parish on Nantucket hopes that parishioners understand the distinct lines being drawn by the government and don’t get caught up in media sound bites that can muddy the waters of a person’s perception of the truth.

“We have to be very careful because the media — and even in the minds of some people — it has become a political issue; it’s viewed as Democrats versus Republicans or vice versa,” said Father Bouchard. “I think it’s going to have to be very carefully done to be presented for what it is — an issue for religious freedom. It involves what we as a Church are free to do and what not to do.”

Healthcare is a very sensitive issue but there is no gray area when it comes to making decisions as a Catholic regarding abortion and contraceptive coverage; “We find them all morally objectionable,” declared Father Bouchard.

Levesque said that if people voted by their faith instead of their political party affiliation, it would change the political landscape.

“One of the things I’ve been saying for years is, if we all voted as Catholics we wouldn’t be in the position we’re in right now,” he said. “I don’t think it’s too soon to start trying to bring Catholics together in getting the message out to the larger community. When this election comes up in November, hopefully we’ll be on the side of life.”

Coincidentally Guillotte will be in Washington D.C. this week and among those places he will visit will be the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Called “America’s Catholic Church,” Guillotte said that the symbolism of having the Basilica located in the heart of Washington D.C. seems to be lost on politicians.

“I think it’s an unfortunate thing that many Catholics turned to the White House and the lobbyists rather than to Christ Himself, Who is present right there in Washington D.C. in the Basilica,” said Guillotte. “I think if our Catholic politicians returned back to the Church and to the faith, it would be to the betterment of the entire country.”

Sisters of Mercy doctors say LCWR is injecting politics into dialogue

Alma, Mich. (CNA) — Physicians who are also Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma are criticizing the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and its defenders for using an impoverished “language of politics” instead of “the language of faith” in the dialogue with the Catholic hierarchy.

“There is no basis for authentic dialogue between these two languages. The language of faith is rooted in Jesus Christ, His life and His mission, as well as the magisterial teaching of the Church,” said the physician-Sisters’ statement, which was issued after a June 2 meeting on the contributions of religious women in the healing ministry of the Catholic Church.

“The language of politics arises from the social marketplace,” they said. “The Sisters who use political language in their responses to the magisterial Church reflect the poverty of their education and formation in the faith.”

In April 2012, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith released the results of a four-year doctrinal assessment which determined that the Leadership Conference of Women Religious exhibited a “crisis” of belief and “serious doctrinal problems.”

The audit also found that letters from conference officers suggested the presence of “corporate dissent” from Church teaching on issues like the ordination of men to the priesthood and homosexuality.

The conference is made up of leaders from 1,500 women’s religious congregations. Those Sisters represent some 57,000 American women religious.

In response, the conference’s board members charged that the

assessment was “based on unsubstantiated accusations” and used “a flawed process that lacked transparency.” They said the report “caused scandal and pain throughout the Church community, and created greater polarization.”

Critics of the Vatican assessment have found sympathy in major media outlets, some of which have depicted the action against the leadership conference as an attack on all religious Sisters and nuns.

But the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma see things differently.

Sister Jane Mary Firestone, RSM, an internist at Sacred Heart Clinic in Alma, Mich., who helped write her religious congregation’s statement, spoke about it with CNA. She said that there is no issue with people representing their perspective to the Church and stating where they see problems.

However, she said that critics of the Vatican’s assessment are taking their action into “a political arena of demonstrations” and are “garnering support in a political sense.”

“That doesn’t feel very appropriate,” Sister Firestone said June 13. In her view, the social marketplace uses “the language of majority rule” and does not necessarily have “a regard for authority.”

“They’ve taken this into the public political arena and it no longer stays in the dialogue of faith.

Representation is always possible, dialogue is always possible, but it’s with the reverence towards the hierarchical Church.”

She said that the “language of faith” expresses belief in the Church and the authority of the Church. Catholics believe that when the bishops speak, they have

“a different degree of authority” than when someone else does.

“In other words, the magisterial Church does direct for us the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives as religious women,” she said.

Sister Firestone said that while Catholics do not believe the bishops are canonized saints, they are “not just ‘a bunch of men.’”

Those who live as religious women should, “live in the dimension of faith all the time” and recognize when they fail to do so, she said.

Her comments echoed the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma’s broader statement. It said that a religious community’s charism is given to “enrich the Church” and the Catholic hierarchy must determine its authenticity. A woman religious participates in this charism and “cannot separate her work from the Church.”

The Sisters praised “the generosity and service” of the religious women who preceded them and foresaw “great hope” for the future of religious life in the Church.

They said that this hope rests in remaining within “the deposit of faith and the hierarchical structure of the Church.”

“We cannot separate ourselves from sacred tradition or claim to advance beyond the Church.”

The Sisters’ June 2 meeting also addressed statements from the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, various news agencies and other organizations. The Sisters of Mercy said these have created “confusion, polarization, and false representations about the beliefs, activities, and priorities of a significant number of women religious in the United States.”

Dublin, Ireland (CNA/ EWTN News) — At the conclusion of the 50th Eucharistic Congress in Ireland, Pope Benedict urged ongoing liturgical renewal — as outlined by the Second Vatican Council — amid current misunderstandings and abuses.

“At our distance today from the Council Fathers’ expressed desires regarding liturgical renewal, and in the light of the universal Church’s experience in the intervening period, it is clear that a great deal has been achieved; but it is equally clear that there have been many misunderstandings and irregularities,” he said in a video message to over 75,000 pilgrims in Dublin’s Croke Park Stadium on June 17.

“Not infrequently,” he added, “the revision of liturgical forms has remained at an external level, and ‘active participation’ has been confused with external activity. Hence

much still remains to be done on the path of real liturgical renewal.”

Although the Liturgy should be “celebrated with great joy and simplicity,” it should also be conducted “as worthily and reverently as possible,” he said.

Croke Park is the home of Ireland’s traditional Gaelic sports, and is also the largest stadium in the country. Gathered within it were the tens of thousands of pilgrims who had come from worldwide to pray and learn more about the Eucharist during the week-long event June 10-17.

“Ireland has been shaped by the Mass at the deepest level for centuries,” said the pope, “and by its power and grace generations of monks, martyrs and missionaries have heroically lived the faith at home and spread the Good News of God’s love and forgiveness well beyond your shores.”

The pope told the Irish people that they are “the heirs to a Church that has been a mighty force for good in the world” and which has “given a profound and enduring love of Christ and His Blessed Mother to many, many others.”

This legacy was “surely perfected and nourished” by the Mass he suggested.

Touching upon the troubled recent history of the Church in Ireland, the pope said the “mystery” as to why some clerics would abuse those in their care can perhaps be explained by the fact that “their Christianity was no longer nourished by joyful encounter with Jesus Christ: it had become merely a matter of habit.”

This was precisely the attitude, he said, that the council had wanted to overcome so as to “rediscover the faith as a deep personal friendship with the goodness of Jesus Christ.”

Pope calls for continued renewal amid liturgical abuses

Youth Pages

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in the know — Editors and writers of Bishop Feehan High School’s newspaper, The Rock Report, recently met with the staff of journalists at St. Mary’s School in Mansfield to share their knowledge of journalism and news writing. St. Mary’s received a $2,000 grant this year from the Newspaper Association of America to help improve technology to produce its student publication, St. Mary’s Mirror. From left: Karolyn Kawa, Amanda Kelly (co-editors), St. Mary’s School; Andrea Vale, Kevin McAllister and editor Olivia Hitchcock from Feehan. (Photo by Ryan Bousquet)

mystical experience — The Mystic Aquarium traveling program recently came to St. John the Evangelist School in Attleboro to give presentations to the science classes. Students had the opportunity to interact with live marine invertebrates and discover how human activity has impacted this delicate ecosystem. Pictured are sixth-graders and Ronan Devlin and Luke Sullivan analyzing water samples to determine the salinity and pH of the water.

quite the feet — Thirty-six students from St. John the Evangelist School marched in the Attleboro Memorial Day Parade.

menu for fun — As an end-of-year treat, students in grades seven and eight at St. James-St. John School in New Bedford recently went to Algarve Restaurant for an authentic Portuguese meal.

ladies’ choice — Father John A. Gomes, pastor of St. Mary’s Parish in South Dartmouth, congratulates recent high school graduates who were the winners of the Msgr.

Arthur Considine Scholarship from the parish Ladies Guild Scholarship Committee. From left: Danielle Souza who will attend Simmons College, Elizabeth Tripp who will attend UMass-Amherst, Father Gomes, Rebecca Desrosiers who will attend Fisher College, and Gina Georgadarellis who will attend UMass Amherst.

June 22, 2012

flour power — A Day for Jesus for second-graders at SS. Peter and Paul School in Fall River, and their families was held recently.

Activities during the day helped the children focus on the importance of the Sacrament of First Eucharist. Lorraine Tatzel, a parish/school volunteer, helps Michael Bernier get ready to knead bread that would be baked and shared at the family table.

out in the field — St. Mary-Sacred Heart School in North Attleboro recently celebrated its annual field day. The graduating eighth-grade students prepared a fun filled day of field events that included finding the dinosaur egg, dodge ball, pickle, capture the flag, face-painting and more. The Family Student Advisory grilled up hamburgers and hot dogs for all the students and staff.

June 22, 2012

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hat’s the key to everything.

Just love God. It’s not enough to know about God, or to question God, or even to believe in God. We have to fall in love with God! Some people think that religion is about rules and regulations that are burdensome and restricting our freedom, but that’s about as far away from the truth as you can get. Religion is our way of entering into this eternal dialogue where God asks, “Do you love Me?,” and we must respond. It’s all about love. Love does not restrict our freedom, and most people I know do not find love to be a burden! Religion provides us with the best way to express the love we have for God. It’s the best way, because it is the way God Himself has provided for us.

When God revealed the 10 Commandments, it wasn’t to confine His people; it was to help them express their love. God, Who created us, knows how we work. When we love someone, we want to show them how much we love them. No present seems to say it well enough, no card is exactly right, and we struggle

Youth Pages Love God

at every birthday and anniversary to find just the right thing. God asks His people, “Do you love Me?,” and then provides us with a way to show Him. Keep these

By Jean Revil Commandments.

When God reveals the depth of His love in sending His Son to live among us and die for us, again, He provides us with the means to continue to fall in love and express that love.

Jesus establishes His Church, and provides us with the Eucharist, the gift of Himself. Do you love Me? Do this in My memory. It’s all about the love, which is the trademark of a true Christian. John says “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn 13:35).

As I retire from teaching and write this last article for The Anchor, I have been reflecting on what gift I would wish for my students

Be Not Afraid

symbols of service — The Coyle and Cassidy High School Class of 2012 recently celebrated its final Liturgy as a class. Students from the Taunton school brought forth offertory items that symbolized the many things learned and experienced while at Coyle. Pictured is Courtney Preston, Tyler Pearson and Morgan Sullivan, offering symbols of service to the greater Taunton area through the efforts of the school-run food pantry. Gifts representing the arts, athletics and academics were also included.

senior moment — Bishop Connolly High School in Fall River recently held its 43rd commencement. From left: Peter Le, class president; Bethany Taylor, valedictorian; Robyn Perry, Tyler Pare, Devon Pacheco, Brandon Mattos and Sarah Moniz.

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and for my readers. This is it: I wish that we all fall in love with God … madly and deeply in love. The deeper in love we are, the deeper our prayer lives, the deeper our love for one another, the deeper the joy, the deeper the meaning of our lives all become. Going to Mass isn’t a duty as much as it is an encounter with

the One we love. Being faithful to the Commandments, and the teachings of Christ isn’t just about rules, it’s about that kind of fidelity that those in love should expect from one another. Spend time with God in prayer, in solitude, soul to soul, and let God love you. In time, you will come to know that it is safe to fall in love with Him. My heart echoes the wish of St. Julie Billiart: “All I ask of the good God is that you may love Him with your whole heart. You see, when we love the good God very much we do everything well, very well.”

The Anchor is always pleased to run news and photos about our diocesan youth. If schools or parish Religious Education programs, have newsworthy stories and photos they would like to share with our readers, send them to: schools@anchornews.org

hats off to them — Members of the Bishop Stang High School Class of 2012 toss their caps into the air following recent commencement exercises at the North Dartmouth School.

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The Anchor

Father Landry proud of Anchor’s accomplishments continued from page one

tion of so many in the mission of our paper, from priests and deacons writing weekly homily reflections, to the weekly, biweekly and monthly columnists, to those who do various thematic series as well as somewhat regular op-eds.”

Having taken the helm of the diocesan paper during a critical juncture — with print media beginning the transition to digital and online versions and in the aftermath of a barrage of negative Catholic articles in the secular newspapers — Father Landry said he’s pleased to have been able to guide the ship through stormy weather.

“The Anchor team … has been able to shine light on so much of the good happening throughout our diocese and to be a reliable source of the Catholic faith in an age in which so many Catholics are confused about what the Church stands for and believes,” he said. “We’ve been able to foster the talents of so many local writers and living stones, we’ve been able to take The Anchor online, we’ve made our diocesan directory one of the most attractive and useful of any diocese’s in the country, we’ve been able, I believe, in the years after the terrible scandals that have rocked the faith of so many Catholics, to be a weekly source of hope.”

Providing that positive spin — that sense of hope — to Catholics throughout the diocese is what Father Landry believes should be the central mission of The Anchor.

“My biggest goal was to have made The Anchor, to quote the letter to the Hebrews: ‘An anchor thrown into Heaven’ — something to lift people up, to give people hope,” he said. “It’s amazing the number of people who have stopped me when I’ve given talks in parishes around the diocese to just thank me for The Anchor.

They tell me that they read it from cover to cover. I’m glad that they really do depend on it, that’s what I’m most proud of.”

With many secular newspapers now struggling to maintain their print editions, Father Landry said The Anchor and most Catholic newspapers have been blessed with steady readership over the last few years.

“I think the print editions of Catholic newspapers still have a good five to 10 years in them, while the media as a whole is preparing for the transition to almost exclusively online con-

tent,” he said. “We already have a boat in the water at The Anchor, thanks be to God, that will prepare us for that new phase as we throw our anchor into this new media.”

Father Landry first learned to appreciate the value of journalism while he was a sophomore at Harvard in 1988. It was during that time that he and several friends founded a magazine called Peninsula, which focused on promoting the social teachings of the Church.

“I learned how to write about the Church’s teachings in controversial areas without ever mentioning the word ‘Catholic,’” he said. “But in order to be able to do that, you needed to be able to write and that’s when I began to take more seriously writing articles instead of writing term papers or essays. I began to recognize through my work on Peninsula how much of an impact journalism can make. I always took that with me into the priesthood … but it wasn’t until Bishop Coleman asked me to take over The Anchor that I started to see a vocational dimension to journalism.”

When he first approached Father Landry about taking over The Anchor in October 2004, Bishop Coleman stressed that he wanted it to be a real tool of adult education for the diocese.

“I always took the bishop’s desire seriously in both the ‘information’ and ‘formation’ sides of the paper, to give Catholics in our diocese materials that could help nourish their understanding of the world and of the Church from a Catholic perspective and help them apply the truths of the faith to their Christian life,” he said.

Ironically, it is Father Landry’s own never-ending passion for writing and proclaiming the Good News that led to his decision to leave The Anchor.

“Over the last two years I’ve done various workshops and retreats for priests,” he said. “At the end of almost every one, the bishops who invited me and many of the priests in attendance strongly encouraged me to get into book form what I preached to them, because they thought that not only would it help priests but also the whole Church. Having several successors of the Apostles and brother priests urging me in this way was, in a sense, an external confirmation of what I had been discerning for quite some time in

my prayer — that God seems to be asking me to dedicate more of my time to this aspect of the New Evangelization.”

To that end, Father Landry asked Bishop Coleman if it might be possible for him to be freed of some of his responsibilities for a couple of years to dedicate himself to this type of apostolate.

“He took several weeks to pray about it and told me that there was no way he could foresee with so many priest retirements that he could relieve me of my work as a pastor but if I really felt called to do this work, he would relieve me of my Anchor duties,” he said.

Father Landry accepted the bishop’s, although he says he’s sad to leave The Anchor. His sadness was somewhat alleviated when he learned that Father Richard D. Wilson would become his successor.

“I’ve known Father Wilson from before the time we were seminarians,” Father Landry said. “He was writing for the newspaper at Georgetown when I was founding Peninsula. He also worked as a reporter in Quincy, so he brings some real journalistic experience and training to the paper.

He’s also a man of deep, Catholic faith, who pays attention to current events, and so I look forward to reading his weekly editorials.

“I don’t know how he’s going to find the time to manage everything — taking over three parishes and a school in Attleboro at the same time — but he’s one of the hardest working priests in the diocese and he will somehow, with God’s help, find a way.”

As for words of advice to his successor, Father Landry simply suggested that Father Wilson look at The Anchor as “the largest pulpit he now has to preach the Gospel.”

“The same gift of the Holy Spirit that helps us as priests in our preaching the Word will also help us to teach the Word in season and out of season — not only on page six, but on pages one to 20,” he said.

Although he remains pleased about his work with The Anchor, there were a few things he wished he had more time to achieve during his tenure.

“One of my hopes coming in was that we could grow The Anchor’s readership,” Father Landry said. “There are many parishes in which maybe only 25 percent or so of the parishioners are reading or receiving The Anchor. I would love

June 22, 2012 to get to a stage where in our diocese every faithful Catholic hungered to be informed by what’s going on in the Catholic world and in other Catholic parishes in the diocese.”

Even though the weekly print run has remained steady over the last seven years — which, itself, is an achievement during a time when many secular newspapers are seeing a sharp decline in subscription rates — Father Landry wishes he had done more to promote The Anchor.

“I would have loved to have gotten to the point where every adult and young Catholic in the diocese would be looking forward to receiving a copy of The Anchor in their mailbox

T

on Friday,” he said.

He also regrets never finding a suitable columnist to write about issues for Catholic seniors or a Catholic medical doctor who could advise on medical issues from the perspective of the Catholic faith.

“Most of all, I would have loved to have learned the art of shortening my editorials by 300 words each week,” he said with a smile.

Although Father Landry will be officially stepping down as executive editor of The Anchor with this edition, at Father Wilson’s request he will resume writing a weekly column for the newspaper once he’s settled in at St. Bernadette’s Parish.

Been there ...

o paraphrase Thomas about the moments when the daily Paine, “These are the times sports agate page routinely showed that try a nation’s heart.” Red Sox Boston at or near the bottom of Nation to be more exact. the American League and later AL OK all Red Sox fans under the East standings — just like now. age of 20, you are now in the midst This happened for years at a time. of, again referencing Paine, “The There is one large difference Crisis.” Beginning with last seafrom this club and most of those son’s September implosion right cellar-dwellers in years past. This up to this week’s report of Boston is not a likeable bunch of Sox. players texting and calling family Generally speaking, on past Red and friends about their displeasure Sox teams, we shared our sumat being a Red Sox, you have witnessed what we “old-timers” lived with season in and season out, with

By Dave Jolivet the exception of a glory season sprinkled in every now and then to help keep mers with a group of guys who our spirits up. were nice and tried their best. UnThese are the times that will fortunately for those who wanted separate the Bosox wheat from the a championship, they just didn’t chaff. These are the times when a have what it took. choice few of you will be tempted There were the occasional to tuck (or throw) away your prima donnas and malcontents, serifed “B” cap and hop on the but not so many that the Sox were Yankees bandwagon and pick up unlikable. an NY cap. That’s a bad thing. A Today’s Red Sox don’t have very bad thing. what it takes, and too many of I’m here to help you. First of them are unlikable. But I suppose all, take a deep breath and hold it. that’s something you young bucks Not too long, although it seems are used to — we old-timers aren’t. that passing out would be easier You witness many professional than watching the Sox right now. athletes who adore the dollar and Good. After a few deep breaths not the game. And you see many you’ll feel a bit more relaxed and athletes who forget, or simply focused. refuse to admit that their talents The first thing to remember is come from Someone other than that you are not alone. A sad truth themselves. is that the cemeteries are filled with Well, no matter what, Red Red Sox fans who never had the Sox fans are all in this together. chance to see the Bosox win the It would be good to keep in mind World Series. You have seen two. that the Boston Red Sox is not Yet they still left this life as Red about the players, coaches or Sox fans. owners. It’s about the uniform, the On a more upbeat note, there ball park, the city, New England, are many of us still around who and the game of baseball. If you know your pain. We’ve been there, remember this, watching the Home done that. And I’m not talking Towne Team this season can still about the Bill Buckner and Bucky be enjoyable, and far better than Dent moments when we were resorting to wearing the dreaded so close, yet so far. I’m talking NY.

My View From the Stands

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June 22, 2012

The Anchor

Eucharistic Adoration in the Diocese

Parables show God’s transforming power, pope teaches

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

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

Brewster — Eucharistic adoration takes place in the La Salette Chapel in the lower level of Our Lady of the Cape Church, 468 Stony Brook Road, on First Fridays 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 — SS. Peter and Paul Parish will have eucharistic adoration on March 30 in the parish chapel, 240 Dover Street, from 8:30 a.m. until noon.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mass and ending with adoration at 4 p.m.

MASHPEE — Christ the King Parish, Route 151 and Job’s Fishing Road has 8:30 a.m.

Mass every First Friday with special intentions for Respect Life, followed by 24 hours of eucharistic adoration in the Chapel, concluding with Benediction Saturday morning followed immediately by an 8:30 Mass.

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

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

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 5 p.m.; and every Friday from noon to 5 p.m., with Benediction at 5 p.m.

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

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

Recitation of the Rosary for peace is prayed Monday through Saturday at 7:30 a.m. prior to the 8 a.m. Mass.

WAREHAM — 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.

Vatican City (CNA/ EWTN News) — God is the prime mover in the story of salvation, Pope Benedict XVI taught recently, as he discussed Christ’s parables about the similarity between the Kingdom of God and the growth of seeds.

“The message is clear,” the pope told pilgrims in his midday Angelus address. “The Kingdom of God, even if it requires our cooperation, is firstly a gift of the Lord, a grace that precedes man and his works.”

“Our small force, apparently impotent before the problems of the world, if placed in that of God is not afraid of obstacles, because it is certain of the victory of the Lord.”

This is “the miracle of God’s love” that should make us “optimistic, despite the difficulties, sufferings and evil that we encounter,” he said.

The pope was dwelling upon two of Christ’s parables as recounted in Sunday’s Scripture readings from the Gospel of St. Mark. In the first, a seed is sown and then grows by itself while the farmer sleeps, while in the second the tiny mustard seed grows to become “the greatest of all shrubs.”

Pilgrims gathered in a sunny St.

In Your Prayers Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks June 23 Rev. Finbarr B. McAloon, SS.CC., Retired Pastor, Holy Trinity, West Harwich, 1980 Rev. George Wichland, CSSR, St. Wenceslaus Church, Baltimore, Md., 1992

Peter’s Square heard an explanation of the first parable, as referring to “the mystery of creation and redemption, the fruitful work of God in history” that will conclude with Jesus’ assured victory at the end of time.

“Every Christian, then, knows that he must do all he can, but that the final results depend on God,” said the pope, suggesting that “this knowledge will sustain his daily labors, especially in difficult situations.”

The parable reminded Pope Benedict of the advice given by the 16th-century founder of the Society of Jesus, St. Ignatius of Loyola, who told his followers to “act as if everything depended on you, knowing well that in reality everything depends on God.”

Meanwhile, in the parable of the mustard seed, Christ speaks of a plant whose strength stems from its initial smallness.

So too with the kingdom of God, the pope said, which is a “humanly small reality, composed from those poor in heart, from those who are not confident in their own strength but in the love of God, from those not important in the eyes of the world.”

Yet it is in their lives that “the power of Christ” breaks through “and transforms what is apparently insignificant.”

The pope concluded his Angelus address by leading pilgrims in the midday Marian prayer, before addressing the crowds in various languages and, finally, imparting his apostolic blessing.

Around the Diocese 6/23

The annual Santo Christo Feast will be held tomorrow and Sunday at Santo Christo Parish, Columbia Street, in Fall River. On June 23 a solemn Mass will be celebrated by Bishop George W. Coleman at 6 p.m. followed by the “Grand Procession of Promises.” Feast activities on the parish grounds will take place from 8 to 11 p.m. On June 24 a solemn procession will begin at 4 p.m., followed by feast activities on the parish grounds from 6:30 to 10 p.m.

6/24 6/24

The annual Italian Mass will be celebrated by Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk Sunday at 2 p.m. at St. Thomas Chapel, Falmouth Heights Road in Falmouth. All are welcome to attend.

On Sunday the SouthCoast Blood Mobile will be at St. Mary’s Church, Main Street in Fairhaven, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. to receive donations of blood to replenish the parish blood bank account. Every pint donated will benefit a pint of blood needed by a member of the parish family.

6/27

The Celebrate Life Committee will host its monthly Holy Hour on June 27 following the 9 a.m. Mass at Holy Trinity Parish, West Harwich. The hour will include the Rosary with Pro-Life prayers and close with the Benediction of the most Blessed Sacrament.

6/25

June 24 Rev. Bernard F. McCahill, Pastor, SS. Peter and Paul, Fall River, 1907

Cathedral Camp in East Freetown, owned and operated by the Diocese of Fall River, is a day camp for children between the ages of four and 14. This year the camp will be offering eight one-week sessions from June 25 through August 17. For more information call 508-763-8874 or visit www.cathedralcamp.net.

June 25 Rev. Msgr. Louis A. Marchand, Retired Pastor, St. Anthony, New Bedford, 1941 Rev. Raymond J. Hamel, Chaplain, St. Joseph Orphanage, Fall River, 1960

The Summer Catholic Reflections speakers series will begin at Christ the King Parish in Mashpee with Brother Loughlan Sofield, ST, a Missionary Servant of the Most Holy Trinity, who will discuss “A Spirituality for Everyday Life — Compassion and Forgiveness” on June 26 at 7 p.m. Sponsored by St. Anthony’s Parish in East Falmouth, Our Lady of Victory Parish in Centerville, and Christ the King Parish in Mashpee, the speaker series is free and open to all. For more information visit www.christthekingparish.com.

June 26 Rev. William Moran, Former Pastor, St. Peter, Sandwich, 1891 Rev. Charles P. Gaboury, Former Pastor, Sacred Heart, New Bedford, 1931 Rev. Msgr. Albert Berube, Retired Pastor, St. Anthony, New Bedford, 1973

7/7

June 27 Rev. John Corry, Founder, St. Mary, Taunton; Founder, St. Mary, Fall River, 1863 Rev. Dario Raposo, Pastor, Our Lady of Lourdes, Taunton, 1933 Rev. Msgr. Thomas F. Walsh, Retired Pastor, St. John the Evangelist, Attleboro, 1980 Rev. Msgr. Bernard J. Fenton, USA Retired Chaplain, Retired Pastor, St. Joseph, North Dighton, 1984 June 28 Rev. Thomas C. Gunning, Assistant, St. Lawrence, New Bedford, 1947

6/26

A Day with Mary will be held July 7 at St. John the Evangelist Parish, 841 Shore Road in Pocasset. It will include a video presentation, procession and crowning of the Blessed Mother along with Mass, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and an opportunity for Reconciliation. There is a bookstore available during breaks. For more information call 508-996-8274.

7/21

The Knights of Columbus Council No. 14947 of St. Nicholas of Myra Parish in North Dighton are hosting the second annual Chili Cookoff fund-raiser on July 21. They are seeking contestants to make the event as big and diverse as possible. For more information about entering, visit www.saintnicholasofmyra.org or call 508822-1425.

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The Anchor

June 22, 2012

Cardinal Dolan contrasts true freedom, ‘culture of death’ in new eBook

New York City, N.Y. (CNA) — Society faces a choice between true human dignity, and a false concept of freedom culminating in the “culture of death,” New York’s Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan explains in his new eBook.

This inhumane culture springs from “deeply rooted social, philosophical, and ethical tendencies that, unfortunately, often find their expression in our laws and in our attitudes toward others,” the cardinal writes in “True Freedom: On Protecting Human Dignity and Religious Liberty,” released June 19.

“To this culture of death,” he writes, “the Church boldly and joyfully promotes the culture of life.”

In a work of just over 5,000 words, Cardinal Dolan develops Blessed John Paul II’s understanding of the natural law, whose God-given principles are known through reason and confirmed by faith. They are the source of the Church’s teaching on subjects such as human life and religious freedom.

Cardinal Dolan’s eBook aims to propose these principles anew,

to a culture suffering what the late pope called an “eclipse of the sense of God and of man.”

“In only the past few years,” the New York archbishop states, the U.S. has experienced “rampant disregard” for religious faith and human dignity — as shown in the approval of embryonic research, the torture of prisoners, disregard for the definition of marriage, and the federal contraception mandate.

“We can see that there is a loss here of a sense of truth and objective moral norms — rules of conduct that apply always, to everyone, everywhere,” the cardinal observes.

In place of the natural law, society has begun to substitute “pragmatism, utilitarianism, and consumerism,” all of which have no higher goal than the satisfaction of individuals’ personal preferences.

These ideologies, Cardinal Dolan explains, have tragic consequences, especially when applied to issues of human life and moral conscience.

In his own archdiocese of New York, 40 percent of all pregnan-

cies end in abortion. “And any effort to curtail this unfettered access to abortion,” the cardinal notes, “is turned back by a culture that places a greater value on ‘what I want,’ ‘when I want,’ ‘because I want,’ than it does on life itself.”

Moral conscience, meanwhile,

making a point — New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, addresses the bishops at their annual mid-year meeting in Atlanta. (CNS photo/Michael Alexander, Georgia Bulletin)

is also threatened by a governing philosophy that makes no distinction between deeply-held principles, and passing desires.

Cardinal Dolan cites Pope Benedict XVI’s famous 2005 warning against a “dictatorship of relativism … whose ultimate goal consists solely of one’s own ego and desires.” He also highlights an address delivered by the pope to German lawmakers in 2011.

In that speech, the pope spoke of a “dramatic shift” away from laws rooted in moral principles.

In their place stands a “positivist conception of nature” that treats moral beliefs as nothing more than subjective, private preferences.

Citing the pope’s words to the German parliament, the New York archbishop notes that the separation of law from morality “fails to recognize the full breadth of human nature, and in fact both ‘diminishes man’ and ‘threatens his humanity.’”

The real issue in all of these controversies, Cardinal Dolan suggests, is the competition between two visions of freedom: one rooted in human dignity and the natural law, the other arising from efforts to treat morality as subjective and religion as irrelevant.

Quoting Pope Leo XIII, the cardinal teaches that authentic freedom is “that freedom which most truly safeguards the dignity of the human person. It is stronger than any violence or injustice.

Such is the freedom which has always been desired by the Church,

and which she holds most dear.”

The “True Freedom” eBook contains a set of questions addressed to the country at large, as a cultural and political “examination of conscience” “Is genuine freedom,” Cardinal Dolan asks, “the license to do what we ought or the ability to do whatever we want? Is law tethered to objective truth, or is it ruled by a ‘dictatorship of relativism’?”

“Should laws be tailored to suit changing wants, demands, or recently discovered ‘rights’?” the cardinal asks. “Or should wants, demands, and novel rights be tempered by law to uphold the sacredness of life, the common good, and the objective moral law?”

As the country face these questions, the issue of religious liberty becomes especially urgent.

“Churches and people of faith — not exclusively Catholics and their bishops, although I would hope that we play a leading role — understand the inherent dignity of the human person and serve as a safeguard against attacks on that dignity,” the cardinal points out.

“If we allow the human person to become a thing, and a human life to become a commodity that can be valued more or less depending on circumstance, political ideology, or current whims,” he warns, “then we have embarked on a perilous path.”

Published by Random House Digital, “True Freedom” is now available for 99 cents at Amazon. com.

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