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Diocese of Fall River, Mass.

F riday , July 5, 2013

Local Catholics pray for religious freedom

By Christine Williams Anchor Correspondent

Fortnight, held last year, was the govhe said.

The diocese invited all parishes to par- ernmental requirement that Catholic ATTLEBORO — On Jan. 1, 2014, ticipate by sending out a list of suggested institutions violate their religious beliefs.

President Barack Catholic hospitals, colleges and other activities. The dioorganizations will be required to provide cese also posted rehe said that through educa- Obama signed the their employees with contraception, ster- minders on its webtion, “ You are able to defend national healthcare law, the Affordilization and abortion-inducing drugs. site and Facebook these issues in a loving way.”

She able Care Act, into With that deadline quickly approaching, page. commended both the bishops and law in 2010. Two The nation’s bishthe nation’s bishops held the second Fortnight for Freedom from June 21 to July 4. ops designed the parish priests for bringing issues of years later, the U.S. of In the Diocese of Fall River, parishes Fortnight for Free- religious freedom to the fore, add- Department participated in a variety of ways, including dom, a two-week ing that lay people need to continue Health and Human Services issued a praying for religious freedom at Sunday campaign of prayer Masses, according to John Kearns, spokes- and action, to help their work. “I look at it as a relay. mandate calling for educate Catholics It’s picking up the baton,” she said. health care plans to man for the diocese. include coverage of “There are parishes in Fall River, Attle- on threats to reliboro and East Taunton with holy hours gious freedom and also to encourage them contraception, sterilization and abortionand Rosaries, and many bulletins refer- to use their religious freedom to build a inducing drugs.

The mandate exempted churches, but enced the bishops’ Fortnight for Freedom civilization of love.

The initial inspiration for the first included other religious organizations and and asked folks for reflection and prayer,”

S

required them to comply by Aug. 1, 2013.

On June 28, HHS officials finalized the mandate and extended the deadline to Jan. 1, 2014. The mandate includes an “accommodation” that has insurance companies pay directly for contraception. Critics say it is a shell game and that ultimately, the money comes from the employer.

In a June 28 statement, EWTN President Michael P. Warsaw called the mandate “senseless,” adding “The final rule issued today is inadequate because it appears to have changed nothing.”

EWTN, along with more than 200 religious organizations and individuals, has a pending lawsuit against the mandate, citing their conscientious objection to paying for immoral drugs and procedures. Many of the other plaintiffs are also Catholic.

Turn to page 14

Retired high school teacher lived by ‘Do as I say and as I do’

By Dave Jolivet Anchor Editor

SOMERSET — Just a few weeks ago, Carol Sypko exited the Coyle and Cassidy High School doors on Hamilton Street in Taunton for the last time after a quarter of a century as a teacher there. When she made her retreat from the Silver City to retire to her home in Somerset, she left in her wake more than 150 other retreats — events that touched the hearts and souls of hundreds of teen-age girls and boys on the

cusp of adulthood.

Sypko has been a religion teacher at Coyle since 1988, following a one-year teaching stint at Dominican Academy in Fall River. “Known for her nononsense approach to education, Carol had a commanding presence which has made an indelible mark on the lives of so many students,” said Mary D. Haynes, director of Guidance and Admissions at the Taunton school. “She held them to a higher standard and Turn to page 18

Coyle & Cassidy Senior Retreat 1989

Marian Desrosiers, director of the Pro-Life Apostolate and Project Rachel of the Fall River Diocese, brightened up the morning of those in attendance of the recent “Coffee and Conversation on Pro-Life Matters” held at St. Elizabeth Seton Parish in North Falmouth.

Offering her own thoughts and insight into the troubling climate of Pro-Life matters, Desrosiers stressed the need to look back at the beginning of the Church, to create a new solid foundation, and then move forward to spread the Church’s teachings.

Cape parish hosts ‘Coffee and conversation on Pro-Life matters’

dozen individuals who took the time to attend the mid-week gathering.

“There are many things happening,” NORTH FALMOUTH — Marian Desrosiers, director of the Pro- said Desrosiers, as she opened up her Life Apostolate and Project Rachel talk. “Sometimes in this ministry you of the Fall River Diocese, enjoyed a can find yourself getting discouraged, new format when discussing the Pro- but I have two young volunteers in my Life ministry when she was the guest office who are very faith-filled. Oftenspeaker at “Coffee and Conversation times we’ll say something, like how exon Pro-Life Matters” held at St. Eliza- hausted we are, and they’ll look at me beth Seton Parish in North Falmouth. right away and say, ‘It’s not about you.’

“This turned out to be a good idea,” That has been such a blessing to me Turn to page 14 said Desrosiers, to the more than twoBy Becky Aubut Anchor Staff

This 1989 event was only the beginning for the retreat experiences provided by Coyle and Cassidy High School religion teacher Carol Sypko, who retired this June. Through her 25 years at the Taunton school, Sypko ran 155 retreats that left an indelible mark on hundreds of students. Note a young Father John M. Murray, second row, center, who went on to the priesthood in the years after graduating from Coyle.

News From the Vatican

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July 5, 2013

Vatican to cooperate in investigation of monsignor arrested for fraud

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — An Italian monsignor, already suspended from his Vatican accounting job while under investigation for money laundering, was arrested June 28 on charges of fraud, corruption and slander in a separate case.

Msgr. Nunzio Scarano, a priest of the Archdiocese of Salerno-Campagna-Acero, was head of the analytical accounting service at the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See, the Vatican office that oversees Vatican property and investments.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said Msgr. Scarano was suspended in May, “as soon as his superiors were informed that he was under investigation.” Vatican rules call for the suspension of any employee who is the subject of a criminal investigation, he said June 28.

The spokesman also said, “The Holy See has not yet received any request on this matter from the proper Italian authorities, but confirms it is ready to collaborate fully.”

The Vatican’s Financial Intelligence Authority, which monitors the legality and transparency of Vatican financial activity and of Vatican bank accounts, “is following the problem in order to take, if necessary, appropriate measures,” Father Lombardi said; he would not say if Msgr. Scarano was already under investigation by the FIA. Along with an Italian financier and a former Italian secret service agent, Msgr.

Scarano was arrested as part of the Rome district attorney’s investigations into an alleged plot to bring 20 million euros ($26 million) from

Switzerland to Italy aboard an Italian government plane without declaring the money to Italian authorities. News reports said the monsignor claimed he was trying to help Italian friends recover money they had given the financier to invest and that he had promised to pay the secret service agent to arrange the flight.

The arrest came just a few days after news broke that Msgr. Scarano also was under investigation by the Salerno branch of the Italian finance police on suspicion of money laundering after several claims that he gave people cash in exchange for checks marked as donations.

The monsignor has said he didn’t want to deposit his own money because he didn’t want bank employees to know how much money he had.

In addition to an account at an Italian bank, Msgr.

Scarano also reportedly has an account at the Vatican bank, formally called the Institute for the Works of Religion. Father Lombardi said that as a Vatican employee, the monsignor had the right to have an account there.

The Vatican spokesman said Msgr. Scarano’s case is unlikely to be investigated by the new pontifical commission Pope Francis officially established June 24 to review the activities and mission of the Vatican bank. “The commission has a wider purpose” than problems potentially connected to an individual account, Father Lombardi said.

Suspicious account activity is investigated by the Financial Intelligence Authority, which can turn cases over to the Vatican court system for criminal investigations and potential prosecution.

OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER

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Vol. 57, No. 26

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Fernando Pugliese gestures as he stands next to his work, a figure depicting Pope Francis, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, recently. The figure, made of resin epoxy and fiberglass, weighs 134 pounds and will be placed in the Buenos Aires’ Cathedral. (CNS/Enrique Marcarian, Reuters)

Pope Francis personally initiated Vatican bank commission

Vatican City (CNA) — The appointment of a new Pontifical Commission to advise Pope Francis about the Institute for Religious Works, usually called the Vatican bank, was desired expressly by the pope local sources say.

This was “Pope Francis’ personal choice. It strays from the usual dynamic through which these decisions are taken,” a Vatican official speaking under the condition of anonymity told CNA recently.

The possibility of a reform, or even of an abolition of the Institute for Religious Works was raised during the pre-conclave meetings of cardinals in March.

Once elected pope, Francis followed some of the suggestions that emerged during the pre-conclave meetings. One example is the so-called “advisory board” of eight cardinals he will first meet with in October.

“The appointment of the commission,” explained the official, “is in order to understand if the Institute for Religious Works fulfills the mission of the Church in its current structure, or if it needs to be reformed.”

This is why the pope issued the chirograph, an official document of Medieval origins. Through it, he appointed a “board” of five members to report to him about “the legal position and the activities of the Institute” in order to “harmonize the Institute with the

universal mission of the Apostolic See.” The Institute, also known as the IOR, is a sort of central body of the Holy See whose profits are at the pope’s disposal. Its purpose is to provide for the protection and administration of moveable and immovable assets transferred or entrusted to the Institute and destined for religious works or charity.

Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office, said in a recent media briefing that “the appointment of the pontifical commission is part of the process of thinking about a more general reform of the Curia” also “in view of the meeting of the commission of eight cardinals from October 1-3.”

The five members of the new Pontifical Referring Commission to the Institute for the Works of Religion include Cardinal Jean Louis Tauran. He is the only representative already officially part of the IOR, since he is one of the members of the commission of cardinals that oversees its actions.

It is noteworthy that the chirograph issued on June 24 also foresees the eventual conclusion of the commission and its work. It is not so to be considered a permanent body of the Institute for Religious Works.

Appointing commissions seems to be “a typical way Pope Francis approaches problems,” the Vatican official told CNA. In fact, the commission will

not interfere with the activity of the Institute for Religious Works. Father Lombardi stated that “this appointment cannot be considered a sort of compulsory administration.”

Pope Francis’ chirograph clearly asserts that “the administration of the Institute will keep on working on the basis of the chirograph through which it was constituted.” That is, John Paul II’s original reformative document of 1990.

The Vatican source also explained that “the appointment of the commission does not interfere with the work of the Authority of Financial Information,” nor with “any possible reform of the Vatican financial system.”

A reform of the Vatican anti-money laundering system could be presumed on the basis of the Vatican decision to report its progress in responding to the key and core areas of recommended changes that the Council of Europe’s financial oversight committee, Moneyval, said it should make. The committee had asked only for an update on the core areas.

The recommendations were the result of a voluntary evaluation that Moneyval carried out to help the Vatican comply with international standards on preventing money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

The Holy See will present its progress report to Moneyval at the 43rd plenary meeting of the committee, scheduled for December 9-13.

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The International Church

July 5, 2013

Facing risk of death, Syrian priests remain faithful

“But now most children can’t province quite near the TurkChrist to people through music and I was very involved with it in even go to school — only a few ish border, between Aleppo and who live in calm areas, and they Latakia.

Church.”

St. Anthony of Padua Monas“But now I need to be poor go to private schools.” tery gave shelter to Father Mou“They are growing up with with the people and suffer with rad when the village was attacked, weapons and with the mentality them.” as well as to some Franciscan “Many Muslims have asked that as long as they have one in friars, four religious Sisters, and me why I do this, because they are their hand, they have power and 10 lay Christians.

When Father surprised,”the priest said.“But this can do anything.”

Maroud tried to defend the SisHe stressed that before the war interreligious dialogue between ters and othMuslims and ers from the Christians is rebels, he was now stronger.” shot.

He noted The village that about is now comeight months pletely deago, a group of serted.

Father young priests, Pierbattista jointly with Pizzabella, local Musthe Francislims, opened can custos of two schools the Holy for 425 interLand, told nally displaced Vatican RaMuslim childio that “Syrdren. ia has now “We give become a batthem food tleground not to eat every only between day, we play Syrian forces, with the chilbut also bedren and just tween Arab live alongside countries and Christians and the internaMuslims.” tional comAt least munity. And 4.25 million those paying Syrians have the price are been internally the poor, the displaced, and young and the 1.5 million Residents walk near a damaged church recently in Qusair, Syria, on their Christians.” have become way to inspect their houses and collect their belongings. Fierce fight“The interrefugees in ing in the area have left dozens of rebels, troops and Hezbollah fighters national comnearby coun- dead. (CNS photo/Rami Bleibel, Reuters) munity must tries, most of put a stop to them in Jorall this.” “we had a beautiful life” and that dan and Lebanon.

Speaking of Father Mourad’s Fighting in Aleppo, Syria’s now “we live a big evil because we murder, Cardinal Leandro Sanlargest city, began last July, and see our youth going to the army dri, prefect of the Congregation now “more than half ” of the city is and dying, and churches in danfor the Oriental Churches, apdestroyed, the priest said, “includ- ger.”

He affirmed that while the ing many 500 year-old buildings.”

The priest explained that most Assad regime “made mistakes,” factories “have been destroyed” Syrians had “a marvelous peace and that before the war, Aleppo between Muslims and Christians” was home to 40 percent of the prior to the war.

“The president made many Syrian economy because of its modern developments during the cotton and wheat production. last 10 years and we didn’t need anyone for food and water because we were self sufficient,” the priest said.

Diocese of Fall River He stressed that he does not have a vision for the future because “we are living in chaos and confusion” and does not know “how it will all finish.”

His Excellency, the Most Reverend George W. Coleman, “I am not stable, but I try to Bishop of Fall River, has announced the following appointlive my life with my family and ment: with all those whom I love and whom I believe in.”

Rev. Jeffrey Cabral, J.C.L., Judicial Vicar, with residence at Father Mourad’s death ocHoly Name Parish, Fall River curred roughly 70 miles from Aleppo, in a contested region. Jisr Effective September 18, 2013 Ash-Shughur is located in Idlib

Rome (CNA/EWTN News) — As civil war rages in Syria, priests are choosing to stay with their people and continue pastoring them, even as a monk was killed during a raid on a monastery in the north of the country on June 23.

Father Francois Mourad died at the Franciscan monastery of St. Anthony of Padua in a village near Jisr Ash-Shughur. The town had been under attack by Islamist rebels for a few weeks, and local Christians sought refuge in the monastery.

CNA spoke with another priest, who is from Aleppo, on June 18, who said, “I try to live this war with the people, not abandon them.”

The Syrian conflict has dragged on for 27 months, since demonstrations sprang up nationwide on March 15, 2011 protesting the rule of Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s president and leader the country’s Ba’ath Party.

In April of that year, the Syrian army began to deploy to put down the uprisings, firing on protesters. Since then, the violence has morphed into a civil war which has claimed the lives of more than 93,000 people.

The priest spoke with us on condition of anonymity for safety reasons. He was in Italy briefly before preparing to return to his country, saying he would return “because it is his duty.”

He will not be able to fly into Aleppo, as its airport has been closed for several months. He expects to fly to Latakia and from there take a helicopter from the Syrian regime to Aleppo, as traveling by car is too dangerous for Christians there.

In April, two Orthodox bishops were kidnapped from their car as they returned to Aleppo from the Turkish border. The kidnappers killed their driver, Deacon Fatha’ Allah Kabboud.

The priest indicated that since the war began, he has evangelized differently. “First I tried to take

OFFICIAL

pealed that “this latest episode of unjustified violence, arouse the conscience of the leaders of the conflicting parties and the international community, so that, as repeatedly stated by the Holy Father, Pope Francis, the guns of war be silenced and a season of justice and reconciliation begun for a future of peace.”

The international community has been contributing to the violence, with Russia, Iran and Lebanon-based Hezbollah supporting the Syrian regime.

Western nations have favored the rebels, who are composed of a number of groups, including both secularists and Islamists such as al-Nusra Front.

The U.S., France, and U.K. have all been giving the rebels non-lethal support since 2012.

On June 14, President Obama said he was prepared to give direct military aid to the opposition, having determined that the regime used chemical weapons on its own people. The British prime minister has made similar statements.

As Western governments consider increasing the flow of arms into Syria, the flood of refugees fleeing the country increases daily.

At current rates, the U.N. estimates that by the end of 2013, an additional two million will have left the country.

4

July 5, 2013 The Church in the U.S. Archbishop calls immigration reform debate a ‘defining moment’ for U.S.

DENVER (CNS) — The nation’s generation,” he said. “And in this historiheated debate over immigration reform cal moment, there’s a great role for the this summer is “a defining historical mo- Church to play.”

Archbishop Gomez said that Cathoment for America” and “a moment for national renewal” Los Angeles Archbishop lics “have a moral obligation ... to conJose H. Gomez told hundreds of attend- tribute to these discussions. We need to ees at the closing keynote address of the help our neighbors see that immigration Catholic Media Conference June 21 in is about more than immigration.”

Larger questions to ask, he said, inDenver.

Archbishop Gomez was initially clude: “What is America?” “What does scheduled to talk about the Catholic it mean to be American?” “What will media and the New Evangelization and the ‘next America’ look like” and “What praised conference attendees as “absolute- should the next America look like?”

“America’s founders dreamed of a naly vital to the Church’s mission of the New Evangelization. Our world needs a vital tion where men and women from every Catholic media presence — on every plat- race, religion and national background could live in equalform from print or all its limitations, ity — as brothers to digital. You are engaged in a noble our national immi- and sisters, children of the same vocation of witness and service to gration policy has always tried God,” he continthe Church.” to keep parents and children to- ued. “America’s founders wrote But Archbishop Gomez de- gether and to reunite families this dream down cided to shift the that are separated by our bor- in the Declaration of Indepenmain thrust of his keynote address ders. But that’s not true any- dence. As a result, we’ve always been to immigration more.” a nation of immireform, which he grants. ‘E pluribus called “the most pressing issue that we face in American unum.’ One people made from peoples of many nations, races and creeds.” public life.”

Archbishop Gomez decried a culture “I’m Mexican by birth and an AmeriFollowing Mass at St. Peter Church in Chicago, Father Matthew Compton leads a Eu- can citizen by decision,” he said in an ad- of “name-calling and discrimination” charistic procession through the streets as part of a Fortnight of Freedom event June dress titled “Immigration Reform and the that clouds the debate, as well as “crimi24. The annual Fortnight campaign, initiated by the U.S. bishops in 2012, called for a two-week period of prayer, education and action on preserving religious freedom in Next America.” He noted that this issue nal profiling based on race, random ID the U.S. The observance ended July 4, Independence Day. (CNS photo/Karen Callaway, is “more than personal. For me, our na- checks, commando-style raids of worktional debate about immigration is a great places and homes, arbitrary detentions Catholic New World) struggle for the American spirit and the and deportations.”

“The fact is that most ‘illegals’ are the American soul. Immigration is a human people next door,” he continued. “They rights test of our generation.”

Among the issues being debated now go to work every day. Their kids go to in Congress are reunification of families; school with our kids. We sit next to them Boston (CNA/EWTN News) — Walter Edyvean called St. Susanna Par- border security; amnesty and its effect on at church on Sunday. Most have been livThe Archdiocese of Boston verified that ish last week to notify them that Cardi- government welfare programs; trafficking ing in our country for five years or more. an Austrian priest will not be allowed to nal O’Malley would not allow the priest of women and youth; work protection; Two-thirds have been here for at least a speak on archdiocesan property during a to speak “at any Catholic parish because and a legal path to citizenship for immi- decade. That’s what makes our response stop on his U.S. speaking tour due to his he espouses beliefs that are contrary to grants who entered the country illegally. to this ‘crime’ so cruel. dissenting views on Catholic teaching.

“For all its limitations, our national imCurrent legislation in the U.S. Senate the teachings of the Catholic Church,” “It is the policy of the Archdiocese the National Catholic Reporter wrote aims to allow an estimated 11 million un- migration policy has always tried to keep of Boston, and the generally accepted June 24. documented immigrants to apply for U.S. parents and children together and to repractice in dioceses across the country, Among the sponsoring organiza- citizenship while also adding manpower unite families that are separated by our not to permit individuals to conduct tions of the tour, “The Catholic Tipping to the U.S. border. borders. But that’s not true anymore.” speaking engagements in Catholic par- Point,” are the Women’s Ordination Citing statistics that showed more than Archbishop Gomez asked attendees ishes or at Church events when those Conference and Future Church, both to take a step back from the debate and one million people have been deported individuals promote positions that are of which promote initiatives contrary to remember “our immigrant roots.” during the past four years, Archbishop contrary to Catholic teachings,” spokes- Catholic teaching.

“Because we are an immigrant Church, Gomez added: “We’re talking about souls, man Terrance Donilon said in a stateThe priest’s July 16 to August 6 this debate over immigration is a debate not statistics. We’re talking about fathers ment provided to CNA. speaking tour includes stops in New about the future of the Church and our who, without warning, won’t be coming Father Helmut Schüller, who was set York City, Baltimore, Detroit, Denver Catholic people,” he said. “The Mexicans home for dinner tonight — and who may to speak at St. Susanna Parish in Ded- and Los Angeles. All the stops except and other Latin Americans at the center not see their families again for a decade. ham on July 17, is the founder of the for Detroit are scheduled to take place of this debate — the millions whose fate We’re talking about women suddenly left Austrian Priests’ Initiative — a group at local Protestant churches. is being decided by our politicians — are as single mothers to raise their children founded in 2006 that advocates for “opin poverty.”

As of publication time, Father Schüller mostly fellow Catholics.” tional celibacy” for priests, women’s or- is still set to speak at SS. Simon and Jude Archbishop Gomez closed with a stoArchbishop Gomez, who is chairdination, and other positions contrary to Parish in Westland, Mich. on July 26. man of the U.S. Conference of Catholic ry about Pope Francis, whose father was Catholic doctrine or practice.

Father Schüller previously served as Bishops’ Committee on Migration, said a railroad worker who came to Argentina To this end, Father Schüller has the head of Caritas Austria and as the that reaching a decision on immigration from Italy to seek a better life. raised a “Call to Disobedience” — or vicar general of the Archdiocese of Vi- reform is one of those major trials that a “The son of a humble immigrant grows the refusal to accept basic tenets of the enna until 1999 when he was dismissed nation faces in its lifetime. up to become the spiritual father of more Catholic faith — in order to “reform” by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn.

“How we respond to the challenge of than a billion Catholics in every continent the Bride of Christ.

In 2012, the Vatican revoked Father. illegal immigration will measure our na- and nation,” he said. “Doesn’t that say it all Auxiliary Bishop of Boston, Bishop Schüller’s title of “monsignor.” tional character and conscience in this about the promise of immigration?”

“F

Cardinal O’Malley bars dissident priest from speaking on archdiocesan property

5 The Church in the U.S. U.S. bishops view Supreme Court’s rulings as ‘tragic day for marriage’

July 5, 2013

WASHINGTON (CNS) — U.S. Catholic bishops said the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 26 rulings on same-sex marriage were a “tragic day for Marriage and our nation.”

The court, in separate 5-4 rulings struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act, defining Marriage as between one man and one woman and also refused to rule on the merits of a challenge to California’s Proposition 8, the voter-approved initiative barring same-sex marriage.

In the rulings, the court said DOMA was unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause and they sent back to lower courts a challenge to Prop 8, saying the individuals who defended the law in court lacked the legal standing to do so.

A statement by Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco, chair of the U.S. bishops’ Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, said the court “has dealt a profound injustice to the American people by striking down in part the federal Defense of Marriage Act.” “The court got it wrong,” they continued. “The federal government ought to respect the truth that Marriage is the union of one man and one woman, even where states fail to do so. The preservation of liberty and justice requires that all laws, federal and state, respect the truth, including the truth about Marriage.”

The bishops also said it was “unfortunate that the court did not take the opportunity to uphold California’s Proposition 8 but instead decided not to rule on the matter. The common good of all, especially our children, depends upon a society that strives to uphold the truth of Marriage. Now is the time to redouble our efforts in witness to this truth.”

They urged people to “stand steadfastly together in promoting and defending the unique meaning of Marriage: one man, one woman, for life.” They also asked for prayers “as the court’s decisions are reviewed and their implications further clarified.”

Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori said the court’s decisions were the “latest in a troubling trend of decisions by lawmakers, judges, and some voters which ignores the fundamental truth about Marriage:

It is the most valued, most important social unit in our society and as such is deserving of the protection and special recognition societies have afforded it

the opportunity to uphold the true definition of Marriage by voting for representatives and legislation that defend the true definition of Marriage.”

The bishop urged Catho-

will likely “be debated for a long time.”

“The Catholic Church has a great interest in the definition of Marriage since it is one of its seven Sacraments,” he

People demonstrate outside the Supreme Court building in Washington in this photo from late March, when the court heard oral arguments in two same-sex marriage cases. The court ruled as unconstitutional the federal Defense of Marriage Act, in a 5-4 decision issued June 26. In a separate case, the court sent back to lower courts a challenge to California’s Proposition 8, the voter-approved initiative barring same-sex marriage. (CNS photo/Nancy Phelan Wiechec)

throughout human history.”

The archbishop, who is chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, said the court’s decisions will “also undoubtedly contribute to concerted efforts not just to redefine Marriage but to dismantle it, efforts which represent a serious threat to religious liberty and conscience rights for countless people of faith.”

Archbishop Timothy M. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services said that although the Supreme Court “avoided a firm declaration about same sex-marriage, it signaled that attempts by the federal government to limit rights available under state law could be unconstitutional.”

He said the court shifted the debate to the states, which “raises questions about the scope of the federal government’s authority to administer its own programs.”

In light of the court’s decisions, the archbishop said it “seems imperative to remind the faithful of the Archdiocese for the Military Services that they must never forget that all, regardless of their sexual inclination, must be treated with the respect worthy of their human dignity.”

He said that while the court’s decision “voids federal law it opens the doors to others: It allows the citizens of each state

lics to “make their voices heard through the democratic process by upholding Marriage in their home states,” saying he remains confident that Americans will “continue to promote and defend the good and the truth of Marriage as the union of one man and one woman as husband and wife for life.”

“Marriage remains what it has always been, regardless of what any government might say,” he added.

In tweets issued soon after the court’s decision was released, Bishop Kevin J. Farrell of Dallas said: “Sexual difference matters.

It is essential for Marriage. Only through this difference can man and woman speak the language of married love.”

He also tweeted: “In the sheep’s clothing of ‘equality,’ the Sacrament of Marriage is being reduced to an ‘exalted conception’ of an institution.”

Bishop John C. Wester of Salt Lake City called the court’s DOMA decision “disappointing.”

He said the blessings of Marriage between one man and one woman “cannot be legislated, litigated, or changed by civil authorities.”

Bishop Robert N. Lynch of St. Petersburg, Fla., noted that the court’s rulings were no surprise and that they had been anticipated by the U.S. bishops.

He also said the court’s action

added. “We firmly believe that Marriage is and can only be the union of one man and one woman. I pray that no civil legislation will ever require of us or any religion the freedom to define Marriage for our own ecclesial purpose.”

President Barack Obama applauded the court’s ruling against DOMA as “a victory for couples who have long fought for equal treatment under the law,” but also stressed the importance of “maintaining our

nation’s commitment to religious freedom.”

“How religious institutions define and consecrate Marriage has always been up to those institutions. Nothing about this decision — which applies only to civil marriages — changes that,” he said in a June 26 statement.

According to a study issued May 30 by the Washingtonbased Public Religion Research Institute, 62 percent of U.S. Catholics support same-sex marriage; overall, 52 percent of Americans support such marriages and 43 percent oppose them.

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, said it was clear from the court’s rulings that “the ball has been moved down the field to a point where the pro-gay marriage side is in the red zone. Whether they can be stopped from crossing the goal line depends solely on the prospects of having a constitutional amendment affirming Marriage as a union between a man and a woman.”

Donohue said the 38 states needed to pass such an amendment is not a problem, since there are already “38 states that have their own laws restricting Marriage to a man and a woman.”

“The problem is getting twothirds of the House and twothirds of the Senate to agree” to a federal-Marriage amendment, he said.

6

The Anchor Loving those who disagree with us

Last week the Supreme Court struck down key elements of the Defense of Marriage Act. On page five of this edition of The Anchor you can read the response from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to this decision, as well as to the court’s decision to not reinstate California’s Proposition 8. In the court’s decision regarding the California referendum, which was an amendment to that state’s constitution which had outlawed same-sex marriage, the justices decided that the plaintiffs (the people who brought the case to the Supreme Court) did not have “standing” (the legal right to bring the case to the court). Thus, the ruling of a lower court, which allowed California state officials to not work to defend the referendum and which had overturned the constitutional amendment, stood (and same-sex marriages began again in California). That case was not necessarily decided on the basis of what the justices felt about Marriage, but on how they interpreted the laws regarding who has “standing” to represent a state before the courts.

The DOMA decision, however, was much more an interpretation by both sides of the court as to how the United States Constitution should be followed regarding Marriage.

The Constitution itself does not mention Marriage, so both court’s majority and minority needed to make reference to various parts of the Constitution to buttress their arguments.

Justice Antonin Scalia noted, “It is enough to say that the Constitution neither requires nor forbids our society to approve of same-sex marriage, much as it neither requires nor forbids us to approve of no-fault divorce, polygamy, or the consumption of alcohol.”

Scalia, in his dissent from the majority opinion, made a similar argument to what he argued in not upholding Proposition 8 — that the Supreme Court did not really have a legal basis for its getting involved in the matter. He wrote, “This case is about power in several respects. It is about the power of our people to govern themselves, and the power of this court to pronounce the law. We have no power to decide this case. And even if we did, we have no power under the Constitution to invalidate this democratically adopted legislation. The court’s errors on both points spring forth from the same diseased root: an exalted conception of the role of this institution in America.”

In other words, Scalia was arguing that there was no real need for the court to decide this case. He pointed out that the Obama Administration had already decided to not enforce DOMA and he noted that Congress was always free to pass another law so as to strike it down. Scalia felt that the administration wanted to use the court to go much further than a simple executive order could do, which was why it worked with the other party in the case to bring it to the Supreme Court.

After a lengthy discussion on the odd legal situation of the DOMA case, in which plaintiff (a woman from New York whose same-sex partner had died and who was now attempting to avoid the higher taxes a non-married inheritor would have to pay) and defendant (the Obama Administration) were on the same side, Scalia then discussed the merits of the case, “[g]iven that the majority has volunteered its view of the merits [and] court’s conclusion that only those with hateful hearts could have voted ‘aye’ on this Act (DOMA).”

Scalia noted that when DOMA was passed by the Congress and signed by President Clinton in 1996, one of the concerns of the government at the time was how the federal government would deal with states which would experiment with same-sex marriage. He observed that the federal government at the time did not want individual states changing tax laws, for example. He then reminded readers that the Congress and president had shown themselves open to changing laws, such as the repeal of the “don’t ask/don’t tell” policy in the military. But, he complained that “The court [the majority opinion on the DOMA case] mentions none of this. Instead, it accuses the Congress that enacted this law and the president who signed it of something much worse than, for example, having acted in excess of enumerated federal powers. The majority says that the supporters of this Act acted with malice — with the ‘purpose to disparage and to injure’ same-sex couples. It says that the motivation for DOMA was to ‘demean,’ to ‘impose inequality,’ to ‘impose a stigma,’ to deny people ‘equal dignity,’ to brand gay people as ‘unworthy,’ and to ‘humiliat[e]’ their children.”

Scalia then says that the court majority has overreached in judging what was in the hearts of the members of Congress and the president back in 1996. “To defend traditional Marriage is not to condemn, demean, or humiliate those who would prefer other arrangements, any more than to defend the Constitution of the United States is to condemn, demean, or humiliate other constitutions. To hurl such accusations so casually demeans this institution. In the majority’s judgment, any resistance to its holding is beyond the pale of reasoned disagreement.”

A little later on Scalia observed, “In the majority’s telling, this story is black-andwhite: Hate your neighbor or come along with us. The truth is more complicated. It is hard to admit that one’s political opponents are not monsters, especially in a struggle like this one, and the challenge in the end proves more than today’s court can handle. Too bad.”

Although a Catholic, Justice Scalia is no more a spokesperson for the Church than any other member of the faithful. However, he reminds us of the need to not demonize our political opponents. In dealing with the matter of same-sex attractions, we need to remember with true compassion the anguish people have endured. In the past people with same-sex attractions were demonized in our country (as is still the case in some other nations and in some families). Scalia warns that now people who believe in traditional Marriage will be ostracized for their beliefs (which may be why he wore a hat modeled on St. Thomas More’s when he attended the inauguration in January — although he claimed it was just to protect himself from the sun).

In the past most societies held to traditional morality (although not always for moral reasons — one can consider the endemic sexism, racism, classism, etc. which was part and parcel of most lands), with the understanding that Marriage was the union of one man and one woman for the purpose of procreation. Throughout the 20th century sexual morality was under attack — mainly from a heterosexual approach, since the vast majority of people are attracted to the opposite sex and thus are a much greater target for the evil one to derail from the Lord’s plan of how we are to communicate love with our bodies. The derailment began a long time ago (with other Supreme Court decisions plowing down laws regarding sexual morality, first regarding married couples, then unmarried ones). The track repairman that we need is Jesus — first to repair the inner workings of our hearts, then to repair our society. We make His job more difficult when we cannot love our neighbors when they disagree with us. May we make way for Him in our hearts and in our world.

July 5, 2013

St. Joseph and the prayer of the Mass

riests in general aren’t supposed P to like Liturgical abuses, but I remember one that happened back in the

“By being constantly attentive to God, open to the signs of God’s presence and receptive to God’s plans, and not simply Great Jubilee of 2000 that I very much to his own. Joseph is a ‘protector’ because appreciated. he is able to hear God’s voice and be It took place during a huge Mass guided by His will; and for this reason with Blessed John Paul II in St. Peter’s he is all the more sensitive to the persons Square. I can’t remember whether it was entrusted to his safekeeping. He can look on March 19 during a special Mass for at things realistically, he is in touch with craftsman or May 1 during the Mass his surroundings, he can make truly wise Jubilee for workers — both feast days of decisions. In him, dear friends, we learn St. Joseph. how to respond to God’s call, readily and I had been asked to distribute Holy willingly, but we also see the core of the Communion that day and was standing Christian vocation, which is Christ! Let behind the main altar with all of the other us protect Christ in our lives, so that we priests and deacons with ciboria of hosts can protect others.” that the pope had just consecrated.

The Church needs St. Joseph’s example When it got to the first concelebrant’s of guarding God’s most precious treasures part of Eucharistic Prayer III, the Cardiand the help of his intercession. nal Secretary of State Angelo Sodano beOne of those priceless treasures is gan to pray in Latin that the Holy Spirit the presence of Jesus in the Mass. Many make of us an eternal offering to the Catholics take the Eucharist for granted, Father so that we might obtain an eternal by not coming to receive Jesus, by receivinheritance with all God’s chosen ones. ing Him unworthily, by failing to live in He then invoked “especially with the a truly Christian way with Jesus in the Blessed Virgin Eucharist as Mary,” and the source and added, “and summit of with St. Joseph their lives. St. her spouse,” a Joseph teaches phrase excised us how to from words relate to Jesus,

By Father Blessed John to welcome XXIII added Him in silence Roger J. Landry to Eucharistic and to protect Prayer I back His presence in 1962. within. He reminds us how to be attenAs soon as he had said, “cum Sancto tive and obedient to the Word of God Ioseph, eiusdem Virginis sponso,” I looked we hear and how to relate our union with up somewhat startled because the Latin Christ to the work we’re called to do. cases were totally different from what’s Another lesson he teaches us is how used in Eucharistic Prayer I. That’s when to protect others, especially the young I caught that he had added John XXIII’s and vulnerable. I believe that devotion to expression to Eucharistic Prayer III. St. Joseph helps the men of the Church After the novelty of the change wore become manly, courageous, dutiful off, my second reaction was that not only protectors rather than conflict-adverse was it beautiful that St. Joseph was inwimps incapable of being good shepvoked on his feast day but invoked in his herds who will risk and give their lives relationship to the Blessed Virgin. for others. If there had been a vibrant I remember hoping that Cardinal devotion to St. Joseph in the Church Sodano’s Liturgical “abuse” — presumably over the last 40 years, I can’t believe that with the consent of the pope who has the clergy sex abuse scandals would have control over the mutable parts of the Libecome as pervasive as they did. St. Joturgical prayers — would become a “use” seph teaches priests and everyone in the extended to the Holy Church, because I Church how to love chastely and shows thought it was great that he was invoked leaders of the Church how to protect specifically under that title of the Virgin innocent children from those seeking to Mary’s spouse. do harm.

Thirteen years later I got my wish.

For both of these reasons, it’s no surOn June 19, the Congregation for prise that Pope Francis, who was elected Divine Worship and the Discipline of to reform the Church, is in a sense enthe Sacraments made known that at the trusting the reform of the Church to St. behest of Pope Francis an explicit invoca- Joseph, ensuring that the people of God tion of St. Joseph should now be added to cannot forget him at any Mass from this Eucharistic Prayers II, III and IV, starting point forward. immediately. It has been a joy praying the That impact is of course somewhat Mass through his intercession since. dependent on Catholic priests’ and faithThe decree specifically mentioned St. ful treating this change not just as the Joseph’s having been chosen as “guardaddition of a few words, but as a sincere ian over God the Father’s most precious and meaningful prayer inserted into the treasures,” His only begotten Son and the heart of the greatest prayer of all. mother He chose to conceive, bear, love In traditional Catholic devotion, one and raise that Son. Pope Francis was enof the most common invocations with trusting to him the greatest treasure given regard to the foster father of the Lord has to the Church, that same Christ, even been “Ite ad Ioseph,” “Go to Joseph,” from more vulnerable in the Eucharist than He words originally said about the patriarch was in Mary’s womb or in the Bethlehem of the same name in the Book of Genesis manger.

(Gen 41:55).

Pope Francis revealed his devotion to Pope Francis by this change is saying St. Joseph as guardian in the homily at to the whole Church, “Go to Joseph,” his inaugural Mass. He said that just as in each Mass, so that together with the Joseph was faithful to caring for Mary Blessed Virgin his spouse, we may learn and helping Jesus, he likewise protects the how to embrace in every Liturgy the Church, which is not only exemplified by same Jesus Whom they once with love Mary but contains all of the children enheld in their arms. trusted to her by her Son upon the cross.

Father Landry is Pastor of St. Bernadette “How does Joseph respond to his call- Parish in Fall River. His email address is ing to be the protector of Mary, Jesus and fatherlandry@catholicpreaching.com. the Church?,” Pope Francis asked.

Putting Into the Deep

7

The Anchor

July 5, 2013

At pallium Mass, pope encourages archbishops to be ministers of unity Christian is giving one’s entire life to serving the Gospel.

“The Bishop of Rome himself is called to live and confirm his brothers and sisters in this love for Christ and for all others, without distinction, limits or barriers,” he said.

Pope Francis said that when he gave the archbishops their palliums as a sign of communion, it was not a request for uniformity or for ignoring the differences that made the

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Every bishop is called to be “a servant of communion,” working tirelessly to overcome divisions so that differences become a treasure and not a source of conflict, Pope Francis said.

The Christian community should be “like a great mosaic in which every small piece joins with others as part of God’s one great plan,” the pope said recently as he celebrated the feast of SS. Peter and Paul and bestowed the pallium on 34 archbishops from 19 countries.

The pallium is a woolen band that symbolizes an archbishop’s unity with the pope and his authority and responsibility to care for the flock the pope entrusted to him. Archbishops wear the pallium around their shoulders over their Liturgical vestments when celebrating the Liturgy in their regions. A pope also wears one, although his is marked with red crosses, while an archbishop’s has black crosses.

The archbishops, named in the past year, included: U.S. Archbishops Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco; Joseph W. Tobin of Indianapolis; Alexander K. Sample of Portland, Ore.; and Michael O. Jackels of Dubuque, Iowa; Canadian Archbishop Murray Chatlain of Keewatin-Le Pas, Manitoba; and U.S.-born Archbishop Gintaras Grusas of Vilnius, Lithuania.

Only seven of the 34 were named archbishops by Pope Francis, who was elected in March. The first of Pope Francis’ archbishops was his successor as head of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Archbishop Mario Poli.

Wearing red vestments to mark the feast of the martyred SS. Peter and Paul, Pope Fran-

cis said the role he and the bishops have in the Church must be founded on faith in Christ and guided by the Holy Spirit.

“Whenever we let our thoughts, our feelings or the logic of human power prevail, and we do not let ourselves be taught and guided by faith, by God, we become stumbling blocks,” he told the archbishops during the Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica. “Faith in Christ is the light of our life as Christians

and as ministers in the Church.”

St. Paul spoke about “fighting the good fight,” which “is not one of those fights fought with human weapons which sadly continue to cause bloodshed throughout the world,” the pope said. The “good fight” of a

Mass a reminder of Pentecost, when people of every language and nation heard the disciples speaking their own language.

“This should inspire us to work always to overcome every conflict which wounds the body of the Church,” the pope said

Vatican City (CNA/ EWTN News) — Pope Francis will travel to the southern Italian island of Lampedusa on July 8 to pray for immigrants who died trying to reach the destination.

A statement released July 1 by the Holy See press office said the Holy Father was “deeply touched by the recent sinking of a boat carrying migrants from Africa, the latest of a series of similar tragedies.”

“Because of the particular circumstances,” the statement explained, the pope’s visit will be “as discreet as possible, also

with regard to the presence of the bishops of the region and of the civil authorities.”

Over the last decade, the island of Lampedusa has been a main gateway for migrants — particularly from Africa — seeking to enter Europe.

The pontiff will pray for those who lost their lives at sea and visit survivors and refugees.

He will also encourage Lampedusa’s inhabitants and appeal to the responsibility of all to ensure that proper care is given to them.

The pope will celebrate Mass at the Arena Sporting Ground.

He will then visit the parish of

San Gerlando before returning to Rome by helicopter.

On a separate note, the Vatican also announced that Pope Francis will resume general audiences on September 4, after taking a break over the summer.

However, he will continue to lead the Angelus prayer at the Vatican during the month of August.

The pontiff will celebrate Mass in the town of Castel Gandolfo on August 15, the feast of the Assumption. Italians call the day “Ferragosto,” and it marks the start of their summer vacation.

at the Mass with a delegation from the Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople seated near the altar and the Lutheran St. Thomas Boys Choir from Leipzig, Germany, singing.

“United in our differences: there is no other Catholic path for unity,” Pope Francis said.

“This is the Catholic spirit, the Christian spirit, this is the way of Jesus.”

In the only improvised sec-

Servers carry a tray of palliums during a Mass marking the feast of SS. Peter and Paul in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican recently. Pope Francis presented woolen palliums to 34 archbishops during the Liturgy. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Pope will travel to Italian island to pray for immigrants

tion of his homily, Pope Francis returned to a theme he had spoken about several times in late June: the need to find ways to better demonstrate and make concrete the common responsibility all bishops, working with the pope, hold for the Universal Church.

The Second Vatican Council, he said, recognized that Jesus “established the Apostles as a college or permanent assem-

bly, at the head of which He placed Peter, chosen from their number.”

“The Synod of Bishops, in harmony with the primacy (of the pope) — we must go forward on this path of synodality,” the pope said. “The pallium, while being a sign of communion with the Bishop of Rome, with the Universal Church and with the Synod of Bishops, also commits each of you to being a servant of communion.”

At the end of the Mass, Pope Francis and Orthodox Metropolitan John of Pergamon, leader of the patriarchate’s delegation, descended the stairs under the main altar to pray together at the tomb of St. Peter. During his Angelus address, the pope asked pilgrims to join him in reciting a “Hail Mary” for Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.

The feast of SS. Peter and Paul, who founded the Church in Rome, is a holiday in the city and thousands of Romans joined pilgrims after Mass in St. Peter’s Square for the Angelus.

The pope told them the Church in Rome became a reference point for Christians around the world “not because of the power of the Empire, but because of the strength of the martyrdom” of the two Apostles. “It is always and only love for Christ that generates faith and moves the Church forward.”

Pope Francis welcomed all the pilgrims who had traveled with their archbishops for the Mass, but he had special words for the flock of Archbishop Dieudonne Nzapalainga of Bangui, Central African Republic, where rebels seized power in March and violence has continued.

The pope said he wanted to “encourage the Central African people, who are harshly tried, to walk with faith and hope.”

8

July 5, 2013

The Anchor

T

his past Monday we celebrated the feast day of Blessed Junipero Serra, the Apostle of California.

Beginning in 1769, he would spend the next 15 years, until the end of his life, dedicating himself to the foundation of missions to bring the faith to the natives of what was then the northwest hinterlands of the Spanish colonial empire.

Blessed Junipero’s story may seem to us a typical one for a missionary: going into unknown, even hostile, areas in order to bring the Message of Christ to those who do not yet know Him. This call to spread the Gospel has its origins in the command of our Lord to His disciples in this week’s Gospel, to proclaim the coming of the Kingdom of God. Just as Blessed Junipero went into a place filled with dangers to preach the Gospel,

Being one of the laborers

so were these disciples warned Blessed Junipero preached, the of what would await them: truth is that every Christian “I am sending you like lambs is called to be a missionary, among wolves.” Whatever each in our own way. Recent else may be said of the task of surveys have shown that, preaching the Gospel, easiness is not one of them.

Homily of the Week At the same time, Fourteenth Sunday there is an urgency in in Ordinary Time our Lord’s exhortation: “The harvest

By Father is abundant but the Riley Williams laborers are few.”

There is so much work to be done, yet so few workers to undertake it. The although New England is treasure of the Gospel, of the statistically one of the most way of the Christian life, is Catholic areas of the nation, so great, yet at the same time it is at the same time one of there are still so many who the areas in which people say do not fully comprehend how religion has the least impact important it is. on their daily lives. In other While we may think that words, we don’t have to travel those in need of hearing the far from home to preach the Gospel live only in far-off Gospel: our mission lands are lands, as were those to whom our own hometowns!

Even if our approach may be different from those early disciples of our Lord being sent out on mission, or from Blessed Junipero in the late 18th century, our motive is the same: having recognized how vital a part of our own life is our relationship with Christ, so do we have the obligation, in charity, to invite others as well to share in the life and love that Christ offers.

What does this look like in practice? First, we need to recognize our own need for continual conversion. We cannot bring Christ to others unless we ourselves constantly drink from the streams of living waters that He offers us in the Sacraments and teachings of the Church. We must recognize, in humility, that our

faith is not the result of our own works, but rather a gift of God. At the same time, we must always be prepared to show the way of life that is ours, as well as to explain it to others.

Have I taken the time to study my faith, seeking to better understand it? Am I prepared to explain my beliefs to others? Will I live out my faith in word and deed, even when this might invite the judgment or scorn of others?

Even as simple an act as offering to pray for someone in need can reveal to them the grace of God working in their lives. Like those early disciples, we cast the seed; it is the Lord Who will give the growth.

Father Williams is a parochial vicar at St. John the Evangelist and St. Vincent de Paul parishes in Attleboro.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. July 6, Gn 27:1-5,15-29; Ps 135:1-6; Mt 9:14-17. Sun. July 7, Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Is 66:10-14c; Ps 66:1-7,16,20; Gal 6:14-18; Lk 10:1-12,17-20 or 10:1-9. Mon. July 8, Gn 28:10-22a; Ps 91:1-4,14-15ab; Mt 9:18-26. Tues. July 9, Gn 32:23-33; Ps 17:1-3,67,8b,15; Mt 9:32-38. Wed. July 10, Gn 41:55-57; 42:5-7a,17-24a; Ps 33:2-3,10-11,18-19; Mt 10:1-7. Thurs. July 11, Gn 44:18-21,23b-29; 45:1-5; Ps 105:1621; Mt 10:7-15. Fri. July 12, Gn 46:1-7,28-30; Ps 37:3-4,18-19,27-28,39-40; Mt 10:16-23.

L

et me begin by paying Father Andrew Greeley, who died this past May 29, a compliment he’d never have paid me, or indeed anyone of my “location” in the Church: Catholicism was duller after Greeley was felled by an accident in 2008 and the Church feels emptier since his death.

In the first decades of his remarkably busy career, Greeley did serious academic work in sociology, taking down a number of shibboleths about Catholic culture and Catholic schools and demonstrating empirically the educational, professional and financial upward mobility of white Catholic ethnics in the United States. At the same time, Greeley ground out

Remembering Andrew Greeley

several useful books of popular sisted of complaints that no one else had bothered to thank apologetics that “translated” post-Vatican II theology into a him for grinding out so many columns over the years. Later, language accessible to nonit struck me that this was specialists. He also pioneered the “conclave book” with “The Making of the Popes 1978,” establishing a model I hope I improved in 2005 with “God’s Choice.”

For decades,

By George Weigel Greeley was the beau ideal of many in the Catholic columnizing one key to Greeley’s complex business, and when he finally personality: for all of his selfdowned tools on that front, conscious brashness, he very my own column the followmuch wanted to be accepted, ing week was a lament for a especially by bishops, a class feisty writer’s departure from he excoriated regularly). the lists (He sent a letter of We only met twice, during thanks, the bulk of which conthe 2005 papal interregnum.

I warmly welcomed him to our makeshift NBC “newsroom” when he came up to the Janiculum Hill to do the “Today Show”; we talked about my daughter Monica’s affection for Chicago, which Greeley described winsomely as “an easy city to love.” A few nights later, I found Andy and his secretary in the glory that was “Armando’s,” a trattoria near the Vatican that was the nocturnal GHQ for Father Richard John Neuhaus, Father

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

The Catholic Difference

Raymond de Souza, Raymond Arroyo and others of our gang.

Andy and I exchanged a few pleasantries about how things had changed since 1978; I’d rather hold onto that recollection of him than the memory of my surprise a year later when, in his own book on the 2005 papal transition, he went out of his way to put down my friends and me as “the Scary Guys” (i.e., supporters of John Paul II who didn’t fit the liberal stereotype of grumpy, troglodyte conservatives).

That snarkiness was of a piece with Greeley’s failure to “get” John Paul II, which I think had something to do with Andy’s consistent, indeed obsessive, deprecation of Humanae Vitae, Paul VI’s encyclical on regulating fertility. For Greeley, Humanae Vitae was the great disaster of post-conciliar Catholicism; that conviction was like a set of blinders, obscuring Andy’s view of other realities in the Church. Thus, insofar as I’m aware, Greeley never took the measure of John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, although the Polish pope’s creative wrestling with the theologi-

cal and moral meaning of our being made male and female would seem to be of a piece with Greeley’s insistence on the Sacramental goodness of sex within the bond of Marriage. But John Paul didn’t throw Humanae Vitae over the side of the Barque of Peter, so John Paul II had to be a bad guy, if of the “great missed opportunity” sort of bad guy, in the Greeley taxonomy.

Wandering through Mundelein Seminary outside Chicago one night, I came across the picture of the ordination class of 1954, and there was Andy: airbrushed, according to the photographic custom of the day, and looking for all the world like Bing Crosby in “Going My Way” and “The Bells of St. Mary’s.” Which seems about right: for Andrew Moran Greeley embodied in a singular way the last rowdy moment of urban, ethnic, Counter-Reformation Catholicism in America. He didn’t get the Evangelical Catholicism of John Paul II, but his work gave the liberal wing of CounterReformation Catholicism a boisterous ninth inning.

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

July 5, 2013

W

Come on down! Conquering the Kalaupapa Trail

e had reached the switchback number two at last. So I stepped aside and called out to my hiking companion who was trailing me with his camera, “Lead on, Sir Hillary!” Right on cue Tony moved to the front with camera in hand and shortly thereafter we arrived at the clearing overlooking Kalaupapa peninsula.

We had fulfilled Tony’s wish.

We had scaled the Kalaupapa Trail.

It had rained for most of the days leading up to this morning. So we knew that the trail could be rather hazardous. Yet on this morning, the day of his departure, Tony had said to me, “I’m going down the trail this

V

9

The Anchor

acation time is here, schools are out and life takes on a more carefree pace.

This too often also means that many of us take a break from our faith life as well. The last few weeks I have begun to notice that there is much more room in the church parking lot, as less and less people come to Mass. Why is it that for so many, summer vacation includes taking a break from weekly Mass as well?

My husband and I love to travel, and when our plans include a weekend, we find somewhere to attend Sunday Mass. Over the years I have had truly wonderful experiences doing just that. From simple services on cruise ships to elaborate celebrations in the Caribbean, and everything in between, and yes, too often the language is foreign to me, but yet there is a sense of peace knowing I have spent some time in prayer. And over the years, I have found that the time I spent at Mass did not in any way add or detract from my vacation, instead, I found myself more relaxed and in tune with my surroundings.

Yet too often someone will say to me, “I’m on vacation, God will understand.” Imagine if God decided to take a vacation, where would we be? In the film “Bruce Almighty” we were given a comical view of what could happen, and even though it may seem a little farfetched, I would hate to think of what it would be like if God did just that. In the film, God leaves an average individual in charge, and what followed was just one chaotic moment after another. There is one

morning. Will you join me?” with Buzzy’s mule team which This was Tony’s way of twistinsisted on pausing while Tony ing my arm — and by the way took pictures. it still hurts. Now, I’m not your typical coward, but I felt I had no choice. I was his host and sponsor and besides that, I did not want him

By Father to leave thinking I was a Patrick Killilea, SS.CC. sissy. So I climbed into my sneakers.

Now that we had conquered the heights ... and It was time to start back my fear of heights ... we had down the trail. Now this is time to stretch our legs on level the prospect that some of our ground, take pictures of the pilgrims face six days a week Kalaupapa settlement from as part of their pilgrimage to the lookout and reflect briefly Kalaupapa and Kalawao. When on our breathtaking ascent of I meet and greet them in St. the pali, including our meeting Francis Church after their

Moon Over Molokai

hike down the trail, they are all smiles, displaying their great satisfaction that they have made it safely down the trail and are now happily into the next phase of their pilgrimage. I assure them that the hike up will be easier and safer.

I do not know what kind of prayer these same pilgrims offer as they venture downward, but mine was one of the most sincere that I ever prayed: “O Lord, keep us safe as we journey downward. Keep us from falling down and breaking our necks ... and keep me from damaging my fragile undercarriage!”

For two hours we made our

way carefully down the trail, bordered by rocks, trees or shrubs and perfumed by those sturdy and trusted mules who bear their riders down the trail six days a week. At last we reached that section of the trail which runs along the black sand beach. We were home safely, thank God. So come all ye lads and lassies, all ye young men and maidens in your bloom. Don your hiking gear and come on down. Join us on the trail to Kalaupapa. Visit the land of St. Damien and St. Marianne.

Come on down. Aloha.

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

Roadside assistance

scene in which Bruce is being Trust me, I am by no stanbombarded by all the prayer dards the epitome of the ideal requests, which at first he Catholic, I have my own share found easy enough to manage, of faults and failings, but what but suddenly were coming in I have come to understand has rapid-fire. He decided to just been life changing. answer them with one push of Over the years I have come a button, granting them their to the awareness that when I prayer request, only to begin reading the headlines and finding out that some of the “yeses” he dished out didn’t quite end in

By Rose Mary the best of results for Saraiva the individual or those around them. Luckily for the character in the film, God stepped in and made give God a few moments of everything all right again. my time each day and spend Fortunately for us, God is on time with Him on the weekcall 24 hours a day, every day end, I have the time I need of the year. With all that He to get things done. Not only gives to us, all He asks of us is am I able to accomplish more, to spend some time with Him there is also a strong sense of each and every day in prayer, being taken care of and a deep giving Him an hour on the knowledge that I am where I weekend to visit and be with am meant to be. Even when Him. An hour to be enriched and fed, and given the tools needed to face the week ahead.

Not much of a commitment request really from Someone Who is there for us all the time.

So why do we find it so difficult to continue to worship in the summer months, or for that matter, any given weekend when our children are not in Faith Formation or school.

Over the years I have come to learn that for so many of us it is what motivates us that moves us into action. Personally, I find that those weeks, that for whatever reason I am unable to attend Mass, somehow do not go as smoothly. It is as if something crucial is missing that throws my whole week off.

In the Palm of His Hands

my life takes a sudden sharp turn and find myself lost, His hand is there to gently guide me back onto the right path.

Or if need be, He sends His GPS (God’s Precious Spirit) to help me find my way on unfamiliar or unchartered roads.

So now I ask: “Why wouldn’t everyone want this?” Yet, we live in a world that demands so much from us, and what little time we have to spare, we find the need to fill with more “stuff.”

On a recent vacation, we took a taxi into the city to attend Mass; while on the way we had the wonderful pleasure of sight-seeing.

We were taken on roads that the average tourist would not venture onto and were given a view of what life was like for the island people. At Mass we were no longer foreigners, but part of the greater faith com-

munity — the family of God. The greatest gift for me was that I had a vacation experience like no other. For the hour or so, I was able to truly appreciate the island and its people, and gain a perspective while on vacation that I would not have had otherwise; making my vacation that more memorable.

Regardless of where life takes you, just know that God is always on call, has the best road side assistance, and His GPS system is the best in the business. You just have to remember to keep Him with you at all times. Have a safe and blessed summer season.

Rose Mary Saraiva lives in Fall River and is a parishioner of St. Michael’s Parish, and she is the Events Coordinator and Bereavement Ministry for the diocesan Office of Faith Formation. She is married with three children and two grandchildren. rmsaraiva@dfrcec.com.

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The Anchor

July 5, 2013

NFL coach teaches faith, football to Peruvian kids

Piura, Peru (CNA) — Jim Harbaugh, coach of the San Francisco 49ers, recently completed a one-week mission trip to Piura, Peru, where he taught poor children about their Catholic faith and American football.

This is the fifth consecutive year that Harbaugh — whose team made it to the 2013 Super Bowl before losing to the Baltimore Ravens, coached by Harbaugh’s older brother John — has volunteered at the Peruvian parish of Santísimo Sacramento, which means Most Blessed Holy Sacrament.

The parish’s pastor is Father Joseph William Uhen, an Oklahoma native serving in the Archdiocese of Piura.

Harbaugh has been volunteering with Father Uhen since his time coaching at Stanford University.

This year, Harbaugh lead a group of Californian missionaries who helped build houses, visit the poor, the elderly and those jailed at the Río Seco prison, and successfully teach football to kids in a country dominated overwhelmingly by soccer.

“Jim’s not a big vacation guy, but he’s never going to miss this trip to Peru,” said John Feuerborn, the coach’s brotherin-law, who accompanied him

on the recent trip. “It’s a different side of him people don’t see.”

Harbaugh has been a supporter of the Family to Family Program, created by Father Uhen to help some 1,400 Peruvian families receive monthly support from their “Padrinos,” or Sponsor Families. Each month, the Padrinos donate $25 to give their Peruvian families the food they need.

“A relationship of faith, hope, and prayer is established and occasional letters and photos are interchanged,” Father Uhen explained.

“This charity provides more than bodily nourishment, it provides hope and affirmation that they are indeed loved and worthy of being cared for,” he said.

According to Harbaugh, his trips to Piura are some of “the best experiences of my life.”

“My experience in Piura is a great spiritual time for me,” he said. “I feel God’s presence with the people of Piura … the children, the farmers, and the sick.”

“Teaching American football to the kids gave me overwhelming joy and happiness, and Father Joe’s sermons move me each and every Mass and give me inspiration to live life abundantly and that things are

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possible through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

The Archbishop of Piura, Jose Antonio Eguren, presided at a Mass on Super Bowl Sunday this year for players and

coaches of the 49ers in New Orleans.

“At the end of the very emotional Mass, just a few hours before the Super Bowl game, Jim told the players and his

assistants: ‘if you really want to have a life changing experience, go to Piura, visit the archdiocese and the parish of Santísimo Sacramento,’” Archbishop Eguren told CNA.

Jim Harbaugh (top center) and brother-in-law John Feuerborn (right) meet with children from a shanty town in Piura, Peru (CNA photo)

U.S. court rules Jesus statue can stay on mountain

MISSOULA, Mont.

(CNS) — A federal district court judge ruled recently that the statue of Jesus erected on federal land at Big Mountain in Montana can stay where it is. “Leasing public land within a private ski resort to a private organization that maintains a statue of Jesus does not violate the Establishment Clause” of the Constitution, U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen ruled.

“The statue does not convey to a reasonable informed observer that the government rather than a private party en-

dorses Christianity over any other faith or the absence of faith,” Christensen said in his 28-page decision. For the past 60 years, the Knights of Columbus has leased from the federal government national forest land above Chair 2 at Whitefish Mountain Resort at Big Mountain to put up the statue.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation sued in 2011 to block the reissuance of a permit allowing the statue to stay at the site. Christensen’s ruling granted the Knights of Columbus’ request for sum-

mary judgment to allow the Flathead National Forest to reissue the permit for the statue. “I am pleased that the court validated the reissuance of this special-use permit,” Flathead National Forest supervisor Chip Weber told the Daily Interlake, a newspaper in Kalispell. “It is my position that the statue has been a long-standing object in the community since 1955. It is important to the community for its historical heritage in association with the early development of the ski area on Big Mountain.”

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The Anchor

July 5, 2013

New Bedford born priest profiled in new book

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

NEW BEDFORD — One of the leading figures in Catholic mission work — and someone who was born and raised within the Fall River Diocese — is the subject of a fascinating new biography.

Father John J. Considine, M.M., a tireless mission promoter and Maryknoll legend, is profiled in the new book “A Worldwide Heart: The Life of Maryknoll Father John J. Considine” which was written

by Robert Hurteau and released recently by Maryknoll publisher Orbis Books.

Msgr. Barry W. Wall, diocesan archivist, served as a consultant on the book.

“In 2011 the author called me and I had several telephone conversations with him,” Msgr. Wall told The Anchor. “I sent him some of the things we had in Father Considine’s file.

He wanted to know about his background. I never met (Father Considine), but I went to school with several of his nieces and nephews.”

The brother of two siblings who served as diocesan priests — Msgr. Arthur T. Considine, the longtime pastor of St. Mary’s Parish in South Dartmouth, and Msgr. Raymond T. Considine, pastor of the former St. William’s Parish in Fall River — Father Considine was also appointed by fellow Massachusetts native President John F. Kennedy in 1961 to the national advisory council for the Peace Corps, be-

coming its sole priest member.

“I was able to give (Hurteau) a picture of Father Considine’s vocation formation … and a bit of his seminary training,” Msgr.

Wall said. “At that time I think he was just trying to flesh out the beginnings of the Considines’ vocations in those years.”

Born on Oct. 9, 1897 in New Bedford, Father Considine joined Maryknoll as a teen-ager.

Until his retirement during the 1970s, he served the mission and his Church as a researcher, promoter, organizer of Catholic missions and support institutions, as an innovator in communications, and a mission scholar.

He served the cause of mission despite never serving overseas in a long-term mission assignment.

The oldest of seven children born to John W. Considine and

Pope’s first encyclical to be published today VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis’ first encyclical, which he has said is largely the work of retired Pope Benedict XVI, will be published today.

The Vatican announced July 1 that “Lumen fidei” (The Light of Faith) will be presented at a news conference featuring Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation of Bishops, and Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization.

An encyclical on faith was long expected as the last volume in Pope Benedict’s trilogy on the three “theological virtues,” following his encyclicals “Deus Caritas Est” (2005) on charity, and “Spe Salvi” (2007) on hope.

“It’s an encyclical written with four hands, so to speak, because Pope Benedict began writing it and he gave it to me,” Pope Francis said.

“It’s a strong document. I will say in it that I received it and most of the work was done by him and I completed it.”

his wife, Alice Murphy, the future priest attended Holy Family High School in New Bedford and spent much of his free time working in one of the familyowned drug stores.

“I don’t think their father was a pharmacist — he was a businessman in a partnership with two other men and they owned drug stores in New Bedford,” Msgr. Wall said.

Early in his high school years, the young Considine was attracted to a career in journalism; but in his third year of high school, after reading The Boston Pilot and “The Field Afar,” a vocation to the missionary priesthood became more important to him.

He entered Maryknoll in 1915 and was ordained in 1923.

“Father Considine never served in the Fall River Diocese, nor was he one of our seminarians,” Msgr. Wall said. “There were several seminarians who trained for our diocese and then asked permission to go to Maryknoll. Bishop Feehan back in the 1920s was very gracious and generous about sending people to go to Maryknoll.”

Originally established in 1911 as the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America by the U.S. bishops, Maryknoll was later developed by Father James Anthony Walsh of Boston and Father Thomas Frederick Price of North Carolina. Its purpose was to recruit, send and support U.S. missioners in areas around the world.

By 1921 the fledgling community in Ossining, N.Y. consisted of 20 priests, a dozen brothers, and about 65 seminary students. The original facilities were four wooden farm buildings located on a hill named “Mary’s

Knoll” — hence the name.

“Father Considine went to Maryknoll right from high school,” Msgr. Wall said. “He and another priest from the diocese, Father William Fletcher, Turn to page 15

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July 5, 2013

The Anchor

Priest imagines St. Anthony telling God: ‘Please, help my friend here’

CHICAGO (CNS) — It’s not every day that you get to offer your hand to an 800-yearold saint.

But hundreds of Catholics in the Chicago area took the time to offer their greetings, as well as their prayers and their veneration, when two relics of St. Anthony of Padua visited the Chicago area this June.

The relics visited nine churches and shrines in the Archdiocese of Chicago and made stops in Milwaukee and Rockford. The recent tour was part of the celebration of the 750th anniversary of the discovery of St. Anthony’s relics

by St. Bonaventure.

At each stop, parishioners and pilgrims lined up to touch the reliquaries, sometimes offering a kiss or kneeling for a brief prayer.

That’s appropriate, said Franciscan Father Mario Conte, who traveled from Padua, Italy, with the relics. We venerate relics to feel a connection to those we love who are no longer with us, he said. In the case of the saints, they are people who now are with God in Heaven, and we ask them to intercede for us.

Father Conte said he imagines St. Anthony next to God, tugging at God’s sleeve, saying: “Please, help my friend here.”

“Anthony is our friend,” the priest said in his homily at a Mass at St. Stanislaus Kostka Church in Chicago. “If you are here tonight, it is because you love St. Anthony.”

Resurrectionist Father Anthony Bus, pastor of St. Stanislaus, claims St. Anthony as his patron. He said he learned about the power of intercession while making a retreat at Padua while on sabbatical in Italy.

He would go and spend hours watching the pilgrims approach the tomb of St. Anthony.

“They all had such reverence and love,” Father Bus told the Catholic New World, Chicago’s archdiocesan newspaper. “I found myself just praying for their intentions.”

Many of those who came to venerate the relics in Chicago spoke of their devotion to the saint, who is widely known as the patron of finding lost things. Some spoke of praying to him to find parking spaces or gas stations.

Helen Dimas of St. Philomena Parish said she became attached to St. Anthony when

she was the mother of young children and constantly misplaced things.

“My mother told me he’s the saint for the scatterbrained,” she said.

But friendships grow with frequent interaction, even over trivial things, and now, Dimas said, the last item on her “bucket list” is to travel to the Shrine of St. Anthony in Padua and visit his tomb and the relics that are kept there, including his tongue and lower jaw, both of which have remained uncorrupted since his death in 1231.

Since she’s not sure she’ll have the opportunity to travel to Padua, she was grateful for the opportunity to visit his relics — a small sheet of skin and a piece of petrified flesh — in Chicago.

“He’s one of the most beloved saints,” Dimas said.

She stood in line to venerate the relics with Janet Back, a parishioner at St. Vincent Ferrer in River Forest, who said the saint actually helped her make it to St. Stanislaus Kostka. First she had an appointment for that evening get canceled, then, when she found herself down in the south suburbs, in an area she didn’t know well and almost out of gas, she prayed to St. Anthony and soon found someone able to direct her to a gas station and get her on her way back to the North Side.

Father Conte said there are images of St. Anthony in nearly every Catholic church, whether they are statues or paintings or stained-glass windows. In most of them, he holds the Bible, because he was a renowned Scripture scholar and the first teacher of theology to the Franciscans, and the Infant Jesus, Whom he is said to have encountered in a vision and held in his arms before he died.

But in all of them, he looks at the people looking at him with an expression of tenderness and love, Father Conte said.

“He wanted to share this love of God with everyone,” the priest explained, adding that, as a preacher, Anthony’s gift was to make important themes understandable to the masses. The saint cared for those same uneducated people, championing what would now be called the human rights of the poor and the lowly, he said.

Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx star in a scene from the movie “White House Down.” For a brief review of this film, see CNS Movie Capsules below. (CNS photo/Columbia)

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

“The Bling Ring” (A24 Films) Disturbing fact-based account of a gang of high school students who targeted their favorite stars and burgled the celebrities’ homes, stealing clothing, jewelry, and cash to fill their own closets and pockets. Five teens (Israel Broussard, Katie Chang, Emma Watson, Taissa Farmiga and Claire Julien) crave the A-list lifestyle, and so decide to steal the expensive accoutrements that go along with it. They rely on tabloid reports to tell them who’s out of town — then descend on empty mansions like locusts. Writer-director Sofia Coppola withholds judgment on the youngsters’ actions and winds up glamorizing a rootless, immoral — not to mention criminal — lifestyle. A benign attitude toward stealing, pervasive drug use and underage drinking, occasional profane and crude language.

The Catholic News Service classification is O — morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

“The Heat” (Fox) Sometimes funny, but re-

lentlessly foul-mouthed buddy comedy pairing uptight FBI agent Sandra Bullock with scruffy, rule-averse Boston police officer Melissa McCarthy. As this odd couple work to bring down a drug lord, their squabbling is predictably transformed into friendship. Director Paul Feig gains some traction from McCarthy’s wild riffs at the expense of stiff straight-man Bullock. But gears grind as gritty vocabulary works its way into virtually every sentence of dialogue. And the Beantown cop’s inability to form emotional bonds with any of the numerous men in her life, while shown to be dysfunctional, nevertheless leads to a comic (albeit indirect) treatment of casual sex. A frivolous view of promiscuity, much sexual humor, frequent instances of profanity, excessive rough and crude language.

The Catholic News Service classification is O — morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

“White House Down” (Columbia) Director Roland Emmerich, who previously laid waste to our nation’s capital in “Independence Day” and “2012” does so yet again in this fast-paced thriller about domestic terrorists who take over the executive mansion. A security officer (Channing Tatum) heads to the White House for a Secret Service job interview, bringing his politically obsessed young daughter ( Joey King) in tow.

Caught up in the attack, Dad must help the president ( Jamie Foxx) evade the bad guys and survive. Though weighty international issues are discussed along the way, they take a back seat to unabashed patriotism and the portrayal of heroic sacrifice for neighbor, family and country. Much intense but mostly bloodless violence, a fleeting sexual image, occasional crude and profane language. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned.

Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on WLNE Channel 6 Sunday, July 7, 11:00 a.m.

Celebrant is Father Richard E. Degagne, Pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish in North Easton

July 5, 2013

The Anchor

13

God acts in our lives on His timetable, not ours, pope stresses Vatican City (CNA/ EWTN News) — God’s action in our life is according to His own plan rather than ours, Pope Francis taught in a recent daily homily, and this requires patience on both His part and ours.

“The Lord takes His time.

But even He, in this relationship with us, has a lot of patience,” preached the Bishop of Rome at the chapel of the Vatican’s St. Martha House.

“Not only do we have to have patience: He has. He waits for us.”

“And He waits for us until the end of life. Think of the good thief — right at the end, at the very end, he acknowledged God.” Pope Francis gave Abraham as an example of God’s sometimes lengthy timetable: when he was 99, and his wife 90, God promised him a son.

On the other hand, God immediately acts in the life of the leper who in the day’s Gospel asked for healing.

“When the Lord intervenes, He does not always do so in the same way,” explained the Roman Pontiff.

“There is no ‘set protocol’ of action of God in our life; it does not exist.”

God acted one way with Abraham, and “in a different way” with the leper, but He always acts in our lives.

There is “always this meeting between us and the Lord,” yet He “always chooses His way to enter into our lives.”

“He always enters, He is involved with us, but He does so in His own way and when He thinks it’s best.”

We are often “in danger of losing our patience a little,” because of this, as we pray, “but Lord, when?”

On the other hand, “When we think of what the Lord has promised us, that it is such a

huge thing, we don’t believe it; we are a little skeptical” as Abraham was when promised a son by his 90-year-old wife.

“How often, when the Lord does not intervene, does not perform a miracle — does not do what we want Him to do — do we become impatient or skeptical,” Pope Francis reflected.

In the face of temptations to disbelief and impatience, we must remember that “the Lord walks with us, but often does not reveal Himself, as in the case of the disciples of Emmaus.”

“The Lord is involved in our lives … but often we do not see.

This demands our patience. But the Lord Who walks with us, He also has a lot of patience with us.”

The “mystery of God’s patience,” said the Bishop of Rome, is that “in walking, (He) walks at our pace.”

We are called to imitate His patience, because when life is at its darkest, when we “are in trouble, we want … to come down from the cross.”

“And when we come down from the cross” we always do so just five minutes before our release comes, at the very moment when our impatience is greatest.”

Christ too “heard them challenging Him” while He was on the cross to “come down,” but chose not to.

“Patience until the end,” Pope Francis urged, “because He has patience with us.”

“He tells us exactly what He told Abraham: Walk in My presence and be blameless.’”

The Roman Pontiff concluded, saying, “This is the journey with the Lord and He intervenes, but we have to wait for the moment” He chooses.

“We ask this grace from the Lord, to always walk in His presence, trying to be blameless.”

A visitor looks at cycling memorabilia inside the Notre Dame des Cyclistes (Our Lady of Cyclists) chapel near the village of Labastide-d’Armagnac in southwestern France June 27. Father Joseph Massie, a cycling enthusiast, founded the chapel in 1958. It was declared a national shrine for cycling and cyclists under the protection of Mary by Pope John XXIII. The chapel is a popular stop for pilgrims who cycle through France on their way to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. (CNS photo/Regis Duvignau, Reuters )

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The Anchor

July 5, 2013

Diocesan faithful pray for religious freedom Cape parish hosts ‘Coffee and conversation on Pro-Life matters’ continued from page one

“The Catechism of the Catholic Church” states that contraception and direct sterilization are “morally unacceptable.”

At least one bishop, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, has said that the HHS mandate will force Catholic hospitals to shutter their doors. Every bishop in the country has condemned the mandate.

People who participated in parish events in the Diocese of Fall River told The Anchor that the HHS mandate is just one of many threats to religious freedom.

Steve Guillotte, director of pastoral services at St. Francis Xavier Parish in Acushnet, said that his parish prayed for the success of the appeal to the Massachusetts Buffer Zone Law that increased the buffer zone outside abortion clinics to 35 feet in 2007.

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the appeal on June 24.

Guillotte said the parish had several religious freedom intentions during its daily Mass July 4, including issues of conscience with regard to abortion and same-sex marriage.

Other members of the faithful stressed the importance of the educational aspect of the Fort-

night Lydia Souza told The Anchor, that she learned how to better communicate about religious freedom after attending a holy hour and reflection led by Father Roger Landry, pastor of St. Bernadette Parish in Fall River and columnist for The Anchor.

She said that through education, “You are able to defend these issues in a loving way.” She commended the bishops and parish priests for bringing issues of religious freedom to the fore, adding that lay people need to continue their work. “I look at it as a relay. It’s picking up the baton,” she said.

In his reflection during the holy hour, Father Landry said that our nation’s founding fathers correctly understood that religious freedom is an inalienable right endowed by God, not the state.

“Religious liberty and freedom of conscience is not principally a privilege that the government grants us and so may take away at will, but is inherent in our very humanity, hard-wired into each and every one of us by our Creator,” he said.

For more information on the Fortnight for Freedom, visit www.Fortnight4Freedom.org.

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continued from page one

because it refocuses you and gets you right back on track.

It’s not about us; it’s God’s decision.”

Though it may be God’s decision, it’s our decision to live as true Catholics. We need to keep focus and to do that, one must understand the unfortunate truth that the foundational roots of the Catholic faith have been lost.

The teachings in the Church have always been solid, said Desrosiers, but somehow those teachings and the underlying message are not getting out.

“What is missing is a relationship of love with another human person,” said Desrosiers. “We are called to be relational with God, the Father.

We are called to be involved with God, with Jesus and with the Holy Spirit.”

Look at the Bible, reread Genesis and see how we were made in the image and likeness of God; an idea that “is missing in our culture today,” said Desrosiers, adding that when we forget that basic tenet, human dignity becomes a casualty.

As an example of human dignity, Desrosiers cited her work through prison ministry. Using patience to break through the tough exteriors of those in prison, she will get to a point when the inmate is ready to talk and then she will throw questions at that inmate: Do you know how much God loves you? That there’s nothing you can say or do that will make Him stop loving you?

We, as a people and as God’s children, have to go back to the very basics, said Desrosiers, “and restore the concept, and guarantee the understanding, that we are all created in the image and likeness of God, that we are the brothers and sisters of Christ.

We hate sin; we don’t hate sinners. We have to get back to that basic understanding and how to make it a part of our

lives.”

The basic social unit of our society is needed; we need the reestablishment of the family; Marriages are falling apart or couples are not choosing to marry at all, said Desrosiers.

Abortion goes against a woman’s nature to protect, but ask yourself, she challenged those listening, what would make her do that? Because the pregnant woman saw it growing up, answered Desrosiers, and that she feels the pregnancy “will kill her; not literally, but kill her future goals or she has young children already at home. We are going to focus on her, to help her to focus on her hopes and dreams” and make her realize the abortion should not be her first thought to “solving” the pregnancy.

“In our society, it’s all about how you feel. It doesn’t matter what the fundamental truths are anymore,” said Desrosiers.

“It’s about how you feel and what we’re seeing are the ramifications of this — we’re in a spiral down.”

Citing John Paul II writings in “Evangelium Vitae,” where the culture of death has gone into an eclipse; Desrosiers said that though it may look dark, “the truth can never be fully denied nor hidden. It doesn’t need anyone to believe it; it stays because it is truth of the Word.”

God understands that we are only human. Learn from your mistakes, ask God what He wants you to learn from this moment. Often as Catholics we simply live by our own rules; we go to church on Sunday and live as we think we should live as Catholics. That’s not good enough; “There’s a lack of consistency,” said Desrosiers, adding that everyone should read “Evangelium Vitae,” to read what the Church teaches and to stop repeating “what the media is telling you.”

A common concern raised by a gentleman in attendance was the voting power of the

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people, to stop voting in those who do not adhere to their Catholic beliefs; Desrosiers agreed, but added that it’s hard to change the mind of your own family members, forget trying to change the mind of an entire country. What we should do is keep educating people; “We need a conversion in this country,” she said, and to start by building “a Culture of Life in your parish.”

Adoption as a choice for mothers was also brought up and addressed by Desrosiers; “Some mothers would rather abort than give up their baby because they are under the impression that by doing the abortion they will heal, and it will go away. If they have a child out there, so to speak, they will always be tortured with that memory. The reality is, especially what we see with Project Rachel and its postabortion ministry, abortion causes tremendous ramifications for the woman for the rest of her life.”

There are positive signs in the diocese, with many parishes fully promoting the ProLife agenda through their own ministries. The Pro-Life Boot Camp being held at Stonehill College on July 18-21 is a great example of educating the next generation of Catholics. The camp offers young people the opportunity for daily Mass, introduction to the “Theology of the Body” and service projects. This year 90 campers, including chaperones, will be experiencing the Boot Camp.

“Being called to share in the commitment to others through prayer and service, the young people learn to become a ‘people of life’ and a ‘people for life.’ As they continue to grow in number, a new culture of life and love, build on truth, rapidly spreads,” said Desrosiers.

That’s how the conversion of the country will happen, encouraging and educating the young people to carry on the message of truth, said Desrosiers.

“I’m not OK, you’re not OK — but guess what? That’s OK,” said Desrosiers, eliciting chuckles from around the room. “We need to look at what God is telling us.”

For more information regarding this year’s Pro-Life Boot Camp, contact the Diocese of Fall River Pro-Life Office at pla@ plrachel.org or call 508-675-1311.

15

The Anchor

July 5, 2013

Religious freedom groups worried over final HHS mandate

New Bedford priest profiled in new book continued from page 11

were ordained together. I don’t Washington D.C. houses of worship, and their crippling fines if they refuse. think any of our other ordained priests went to Maryknoll, but (CNA/EWTN News) — affiliated organizations.”

“I don’t buy the governwe did have some seminarians Despite assurances from the Religious groups such as ment’s attempt to discrimiObama Administration that hospitals, schools and chari- nate between a non-profit who asked the bishop to release the finalized version of the table agencies that object to and a for-profit,” he said. them to go to Maryknoll before contraception mandate ac- the mandate but are not af- “They’re trying to turn it into ordination.”

As a missionary priest, Father counts for freedom of con- filiated with houses of wor- a status protection, rather Considine’s early desire to be a science, some religious liberty ship may not qualify for the than a protection of religious journalist remained very much advocates are still concerned. exemption. Instead, they are exercise.” a part of God’s plan for him.

“The final rule,” explained offered an “accommodation” “The easy way to resolve His whole career was filled with Eric Rassbach, deputy gen- under which their insurance this would have been to exwriting — always on the theme eral counsel for the Becket issuers will directly “provide empt sincere religious emFund for Religious Liberty, payments for contraceptive ployers completely, as the of mission and the new, creative “is not very different from services” purchased by their Constitution requires,” he ar- ways that the Church might respond to mission work. the inadequate rule that was employees. gued. “Instead this issue will “It was (Father Considine’s) proposed back in February.”

Self-insured employers have to be decided in court.” philosophy of mission to estabWhile the final rule “tin- will go through a similar proBrian Walsh, executive dilish the Church in these places,” kered with some of the rector of the American Msgr.

Wall said.

“He said it wasn’t mechanisms” regarding n obedience to our Judeo- Religious Freedom Pro- just enough to go and teach the mandate’s implegram at the Ethics and Christian heritage, we have Public Policy Center, and to feed and to clothe (the mentation, Rassbach said in a June 28 tele- consistently taught our people to live also voiced concerns over people). It was to form a brothconference, it did not their lives during the week to reflect the finalized regulation. erhood with these people — to relate to these people. That’s why address “the mandate’s the same beliefs that they proclaim “The administration so many of his trips were imporfundamental religious on the Sabbath,” he said in a Febru- continues to refuse to tant because he was gaining firstfreedom questions.” include in its mandate The Becket Fund is a ary analysis. “We cannot now aban- the sort of robust ex- hand knowledge even though he law firm specializing in don them to be forced to violate their emptions that have been never had a mission assignment. religious freedom litiga- morally well-informed consciences.” understood since the He made five major international trips — one was for 14 months tion, and is representing founding of this nation when he traveled throughout numerous plaintiffs who to be necessary to proAsia and Africa.” have filed suit against tect religious liberty,” he cess with a third party adBesides the numerous articles the contraception mandate. ministrator providing or ar- told CNA. he wrote for various publications Issued under the Afford- ranging for the payments.

Cardinal Timothy M. — including one titled “Immiable Care Act, the mandate Insurance issuers must en- Dolan of New York, presinence of Revolution Threat to requires employers to offer sure that they are not using dent of the U.S. bishops’ health insurance plans that money paid by the employ- conference, explained in a Latin Peace” that appeared in include contraception, steril- ers to fund the contraception statement shortly after the fi- the Oct. 13, 1966 edition of The izations and some drugs that and related products. Accord- nalized mandate was released Anchor — Father Considine aucan cause early abortions. ing to the administration, the that the 110-page regulation thored 13 books, among them More than 200 plaintiffs have insurance companies can pay is “complex” and will require “Across a World,” “World Call filed lawsuits challenging for these products with no re- “careful analysis” by the bish- for Forty Thousand” and “The mandate, arguing that it vio- imbursement because fund- ops before a response can be Missionary’s Role in Socio-Economic Betterment.” lates their right to religious ing contraception is “cost- issued.

As the first director of the freedom by forcing them to neutral” for them, due to the Cardinal Dolan had previU.S. bishops’ Latin American violate their consciences. reduced pregnancy costs and ously stressed the importance bureau, Father Considine played In response to the wide- the health benefits that result of religious liberty for all a key role in promoting U.S. misspread objections, the Obama from contraceptive use. people, including owners of sion to Latin America during Administration announced Critics, however, have for-profit businesses. the 1960s. that it would modify the warned that the products will “In obedience to our JuIt was also at this time that mandate to account for the not be cost-neutral and that deo-Christian heritage, we Father Considine was asked by religious liberty of object- the insurance companies may have consistently taught our ing employers. During the end up funding them through people to live their lives dur- the Holy See to be consultant to months that followed, the ad- increased premiums charged ing the week to reflect the the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. miration took multiple steps to the objecting employers. same beliefs that they pro“His big thing in Rome was, to make changes to the manRassbach stated that the claim on the Sabbath,” he of course, the Fides news serdate, which was finalized on final rule still contains sever- said in a February analysis. vice,” Msgr. Wall said. “That got June 28. al threats to religious liberty. “We cannot now abandon him interested in evangelizing The final version of the He explained that non-profit them to be forced to violate through the press … and Fides regulation offers an exemp- organizations must still act as their morally well-informed became the official news service tion to religious employers “gatekeepers” who facilitate consciences.” of the congregation.” that fall under Internal Reve- the controversial products, Lawyers for the U.S. ConFormed on June 5, 1927, Finue Code, Section 6033(a)(3) since their insurance plans ference of Catholic Bishdes was the first missionary news (A)(i) or (iii), which “refers are necessary to trigger the ops reaffirmed this point in agency of the Catholic Church to churches, their integrated contraceptive payments from March, stating in a docuand was approved by Pope Pius auxiliaries, and conventions the insurance companies. ment that “(t)he identity of XI. or associations of churches, He added that religious the person or group having Today, Maryknoll and other as well as to the exclusively owners of for-profit busi- the religious freedom obreligious activities of any re- nesses are given no relief jection should not matter; mission organizations of the Catholic Church continue ligious order.” from the mandate at all. They what should matter instead is The administration has are required to provide the whether the person or group to serve millions of people said that this “would primar- coverage, even if they object, faces government coercion to throughout the world. Father Considine was ahead of his time ily include churches, other and could face potentially violate conscience.”

“I

in promoting a “post-colonial” view of mission work, and he was an early proponent of World Christianity, racial justice, and the brotherhood and sisterhood of all people.

In 1968 Father Considine was asked by the Maryknoll Society to join its Mission Department — a new development that gave him particular joy.

“He devoted himself to research and teaching and writing and promoting a vision of missionary activity,” Msgr. Wall said. “He was in a position to influence the entire organization of Maryknoll for more than 30 years.”

In 1976, at age 78, Father Considine asked to be relieved of his duties in the Mission Department. His last words in that short letter were: “I have loved the work.”

He lived out his retirement years at the St. Teresa’s Residence at the Maryknoll headquarters in Ossining, N.Y. until his death in 1982 at age 84.

His brothers, the two Msgr.

Considines from the diocese, concelebrated the Mass of Christian Burial at the Maryknoll Seminary Chapel.

“A Worldwide Heart” offers the first critical assessment of Father Considine’s important life and his contributions during a turbulent and dynamic period in the history of the modern Church. As written by Hurteau, a former member of the Maryknoll Society and past missioner in Peru, the book explains that the priest’s career of traveling the world allowed him to engage people in conversation and to study their life situations and their relationships to Christ and the Church.

Father Considine remained convinced, according to Hurteau, “that most of what he had learned in those conversations carried significance for any member of the Church — or even for any human being.”

“A Worldwide Heart” is more than a book about the life of Father John J. Considine, it is the story that opens a fascinating window onto the wide spectrum of the Catholic missionary movement throughout the 20th century.

“It’s an appropriate title for the book — ‘A Worldwide Heart’ — because Father Considine was certainly instrumental in putting Maryknoll on the worldwide, international stage as far as the Church was concerned,” Msgr.

Wall added.

16

Youth Pages

July 5, 2013

Chief Meteorologist Tony Petraca from WPRI-Channel 12 in Providence, R.I., rear, recently visited students at St. James-St. John School in New Bedford.

Third-grade students at Holy Name School in Fall River recently wrote and decorated cards for the victims of the Boston Marathon tragedy. The messages included well wishes, promises for prayers, and happy thoughts to cheer the injured. The cards were mailed to the hospital development office for distribution. Pictured are three of the students who asked if the class could do something for those who suffered in the tragedy.

The Bishop Feehan High School boys’ baseball program raised $1,918.02 for Children’s Hospital through a Bowling Night for a Cause at North Bowl Lanes in North Attleboro. As their designated charity this year, the seniors nominated Children’s Hospital of Boston Neurology Research Foundation for research and study efforts, along with the Children’s Fund to help support people who can’t get the proper medical attention for their young children and families. Five seniors, along with Coach Mark Cooke, presented the check to officials at the hospital. The student athletes enjoyed a tour of the hospital and learned about the ongoing research that will be helped by their donation. Here, Shamrock baseball players listen to neurologist Dr. Tobias Loddenkemper talk about the need for ongoing research for neurological disorders.

Eleanor Rockett recently donated three paintings to St. John the Evangelist School in Attleboro. These paintings were done by her late daughter, Mary Ellen, who was also an alum of St. John’s. Shown here with one of the paintings is Sister Mary Jane Holden, C.P., principal, and Rockett.

Pre-kindergarten students at Our Lady of Lourdes in Taunton gathered for a picture with Sister Mary Margretta on the Day of Fatima.

Boy Scout Troop 333, East Freetown, recently performed a solemn ceremony during a weekend campout at which more than 1,500 worn and tired American Flags were disposed of by honorable fire. The flags were collected from Lakeville, Freetown and surrounding locales over a period of several months. They included nearly 1,200 flags removed from veterans’ graves as new ones were placed for Memorial Day. The largest flag retired was a torn and tattered 30-by-50 foot American Flag from a local banner and flag business. Scout Jayme De Oliveira holds his salute while Scouts Drew Benton and Jack Dompierre wait at attention.

July 5, 2013

I

n this column I would like to address parents of our young people directly.

In my many years of working with youth and young adults in the diocese, I have met so many who are hurting and struggling with every possible issue or situation that today’s young people face.

In many cases, we lose these young people, however, some come through these turbulent years basically unscathed. There is a phrase in Pink’s new song “Just Give Me a Reason,” where she states that they “are not broken, just bent.” That is where we must meet these young people … in their “bentness” before they are broken by life.

One thing I have also noticed is that it is hard to predict which families will come through more or less intact while others break apart or fall apart as a family.

Unfortunately, even those families I know that are very much grounded in faith face some of these same difficulties.

Recently, a friend, who had not seen our girls for many years and who has faced difficult times with his children, asked me how things were going. After

Youth Pages What fills your bucket?

updating him, he remarked why it is important to have how lucky we are to have faith and family priorities such wonderful “children” well established in our lives. who are so family-oriented.

Imagine that you have a With one daughter married bucket, sand, pebbles and and the other getting marlarge rocks. I like to think ried, and both living in Connecticut, these precious moments become fewer and fewer as the years pass yet we always find ways to get together often.

By Frank Lucca He then remarked on “how was it possible to do all that we do in of the largest rock as God our Church, family, and work and the other large rocks as lives and still have time for family and friends. The sand each other and for the other and pebbles represent all of stuff that we love to do like the other stuff in our lives boating or traveling?” I’m that we need to or want to often embarrassed by such do like work or play tasks. comments as they make me The pebbles are items that feel that we are doing some- are more important to us thing extraordinary or super than the sand. The sand is human when in actuality, it all of the other stuff that we should be the ordinary way can let fill up our time like to live a life. I guess it really errands, shopping, etc. is all about priorities.

If we fill the bucket with As I reflected on the ques- the sand and pebble tasks of tions and comments that our lives, it leaves little room were posed by my friend, I for the large rocks that are so thought to best explain the important and so often get how one “can have it all” put aside — in fact if you fill with a story I once heard at a the bucket with these eleChristian Leadership Inments, you’ll have no room stitute. It is a familiar story for the large rocks. We are most often used to explain sometimes so consumed with time management, but I work (pebbles) for instance, think it can equally explain that we can’t fit other im-

Be Not Afraid

portant things in our lives.

However, for a moment, empty the bucket of the sand and pebbles and put in the big rocks first. Once the big rocks are securely placed in the bucket, now add pebbles and when all of the pebbles are in there, now add the sand. As you can see, once the important things are taken care of, you can still get the items of some importance (pebbles) in there and still have room for the even less important items of life (sand)!

The obvious point is this: if we don’t put those big rocks in first, we would never have gotten them in. If we don’t put God and family first, we just couldn’t fit them in.

In our business and personal lives, we have big rocks, pebbles and sand. The natural tendency seems to favor the latter two elements, leaving little space for the big rocks.

In an effort to respond to the urgent, the important is sometimes set aside.

What are the “big rocks” in your life? Your faith?

Spending time with your family? Your health? Make a list of your big rocks. Then make a plan to ensure that

17 your big rocks are put first.

Block out the time in your schedule for those activities.

Amazingly, the other stuff still gets done. Periodically reflect on how you’re doing.

Are you putting your big rocks first, or do pebbles and sand dominate your life? If the big rocks aren’t getting in, what will have to happen so that they do?

Our children must be some of our “large rocks” that must go in the bucket up front! When you’re planning your month, your week or your day, and even when you’re making specific decisions during the day, refer back to your list of big rocks.

Then, put those in your bucket first. Everything else will fall into place after that.

Frank Lucca is a youth minister at St. Dominic’s Parish in Swansea and a Campus Minister at UMass Dartmouth. He is chairman and a director of the YES! Retreat and the current director of the Christian Leadership Institute. He is married to his wife of 35 years, Kristine, and a father of two daughters and a sonin-law. Comments, ideas or suggestions? Please email him at StDominicYouthMinistry@ comcast.net.

Presenters discuss effective use of social media for Catholic press DENVER (CNS) — Even though it may go unnoticed at times in an organization’s social media platform, YouTube takes in more video in 60 days than the three major U.S. networks created in 60 years, according to a presentation at the Catholic Media Conference in Denver.

The June 19-21 conference opened with daylong master camps, including one titled “The Digital Church: A OneDay Guide to New Media in the New Evangelization.”

The presenters of the “OneDay Guide session” were Matt Warner and Josh Simmons, who have helped develop several upand-coming Catholic websites such as Flocknote.com, DigitalChurchConference.com and eCatholic.com.

They cited some statistics showing that just one percent of parishioners read a bulletin from weekly Mass and only 12 percent take time to consume content via Facebook. Email and text messaging produce much high response rates, 15

percent to 80 percent and 97 percent, respectively, according to Warner and Simmons.

They said the reason for that both methods are pushing out information to people, as opposed to people seeking it on their own.

The two presenters recommended Catholic media outlets build 500 “right relationships” with a community, with a chance for receivers to “opt out,” as opposed to blasting out 10,000 emails.

They also discussed how video can be used to give an audience a snippet of something they may not know much about, such as priestly ordination.

With journalism embracing a digitized world, they said it was imperative that Catholic media professionals use a social media platform effectively. Its flexibility provides an audience with something new and interesting while also maintaining consistency.

Warner and Simmons concluded that, while many still

may be skeptical of social media, its positives outweigh the negatives.

In a separate panel on carrying out the Catholic Church’s New Evangelization efforts, Msgr. Paul Tighe, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, said Catholic journalists must ask whether the Church is present in society.

He suggested Catholic media professionals themselves are in need of conversion that is lifelong. As challenging as it may be at times, journalists need to try to hear the good in what others have to say, he said, adding that being able to do so will allow us to “break down barriers and open doors.”

Sebastian Gomes, a producer at Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation, talked about the need for humility in order for evangelization to take place in the Church.

He urged his listeners to go back to the first person who started the evangelization

process: Jesus.

He also commented on the pressures of being a journalist, especially a Catholic journalist, in today’s politically-

charged times.

“Politics sucked us into a web,” Gomes said. “We should be Catholics first before being Democrat or Republican.”

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

The 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

18

The Anchor

Retreat number 155 for Carol Sypko, and her last for the students at Coyle and Cassidy High in Taunton, was this freshman retreat May 4 at Holy Rosary Parish Center in Taunton. Sypko, giving the thumbs-up on the right, retired last month after 25 years at Coyle as a religion teacher, campus minister and retreat director.

Retired high school teacher lived by ‘Do as I say and as I do’ continued from page one

inspired them each and every day to not only meet but surpass that standard.”

But teaching in the classroom wasn’t Sypko’s only forte.

Her Coyle and Cassidy legacy will include campus minister and retreat director — a position that lead her to direct an incredible 155 retreats at Coyle during her 25-year tenure.

“Carol committed her life to helping her students develop a personal relationship with Christ,” Kathleen St. Laurent, vice principal of Academic Affairs at Coyle told The Anchor.

“I attended several of Carol’s retreats over the years and I was always in awe of her energy, enthusiasm and unique way of engaging students.

Carol shared her own personal faith story with students and helped them to come to understand that Christ is really here in the present moment and that they could count on Him.” Sypko’s road to sharing Christ’s love in a retreat environment began, oddly enough at a cash register at Fernandes Supermarket in Somerset in 1975.

“I grew up in Worcester and had a strong Catholic background,” Sypko told The Anchor. “When I went to college I drifted away from the faith. I eventually made my way back to Somerset, and while working at Fernandes, I kept hearing different people talking about a Day of Recollection they experienced at St. Patrick’s Parish there. People kept talking about it, saying what a wonderful experience it was.

I went on one there on May

25, 1975 and it was a whole calling back to God and love through various people.”

Sypko eventually became a CCD teacher at the parish and worked on retreats there, preparing her for the work that was to come at Coyle and Cassidy High School.

“When I arrived at Coyle, I was put in charge of coordinating the student retreats.

Back then there was a one three-day retreat,” said Sypko.

“That was from 1989 to 1993.

Eventually, then-headmaster Mike Donly thought it would be important to make the retreat a mandatory event for all freshman. In ’93 we ran five freshman retreats and three upperclassman retreats per year. Those were overnight sessions. Eventually the retreats became a one-day, 12hour session from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.

“Each class had a different theme. The freshmen had ‘God Made Visible’; the sophomores had ‘Self Image’; the juniors had ‘Relationships’; and the seniors, ‘Mission.’”

Sypko told The Anchor that each of the retreats had the same structure to them. “The teams for the freshman retreats would consist of myself, two other teachers, and four witness speakers who were juniors or seniors, and sophomores who were invited back as ‘helpers.’ The witness speakers keyed on their relationship with Jesus.”

Sypko said the mandatory freshman retreats usually had many students who didn’t want to be there, who went there dragging their feet. “We even included the students we

had from China,” she added.

“As the day progressed, the students meshed, and by Saturday night, we couldn’t get them to leave. It’s an absolutely wonderful experience for everyone, including the team.

“At the end of the experience, students had the option to witness on what they experienced. It was always moving.”

Because there were five freshman retreats per year, some of the students got to go before their classmates. “We always told the students to go home and tell their parents about what they experienced, but don’t tell their classmates.

They, of course, did share some things, but they were always positive and the students who hadn’t been yet, actually looked forward to going, and the ones who already attended wanted to go again. And I’ve had parents tell me that the retreat changed their son or daughter’s life. It just goes to show that God is always around you.”

“Students would often come to the retreat a bit leery of what to expect but would leave with a life-changing experience,” said St. Laurent. “I would see the students transformed throughout the retreat experience. With Carol’s encouragement, many would become student retreat leaders and witness to their classmates.

Students would frequently cite the retreat experience as one of the best experiences of their high school career.”

Sypko also said that she meets Coyle alumni who still are influenced by the retreat experience. “They still talk

July 5, 2013 about it as adults, and some of them came back to help out on other retreats.”

“Carol leads by example every day of her life,” said Haynes. “A woman of deep faith, she imparted numerous stories and life sessions to her many charges. Some have made students laugh, others cry.”

Sypko’s commitment to living the Gospel wasn’t limited to the Somerset/Taunton area. She has helped with the Haitian Health Foundation, run by Coyle grad Dr. Jeremy Lowney, by raising muchneeded funds for the many less fortunate in Haiti. “I’m proud to say that we’ve raised more than $18,000 since the devastating earthquake in 2010.”

“She so captivated her students with a program to purchase pregnant goats to help families support themselves, she was ultimately able to purchase a dozen goats ($150 per goat) as well as a clean latrine; one Haitian student’s education; and a ‘happy’ house for a Haitian family,” said Haynes.

“She encouraged students to donate what they felt they

could, many donating money from savings accounts and allowances. She also implemented some rather creative fund-raising techniques — charging the students when they forgot a pencil or were caught with gum.”

“Carol always had a favorite saying, ‘You may be the only Christ someone meets today,’” said St. Laurent. “She actually had a banner in her classroom with the saying on it. This is what she taught her students in the classroom and through her retreats. She will be missed.”

In her retirement, Sypko plans to visit her grown children in Florida, and as a devoted Mickey Mouse fan, visit Disney World; and dabble in gardening and woodworking.

“I don’t think I’ll be getting involved in any retreat work,” she said. “After 26 years of teaching, and even more in parish responsibilities, I just want to breathe.”

Based on her track record, it makes one wonder if she should stay away from lines in the supermarket where she could hear another calling from God.

Knights of Columbus announce record-breaking charitable giving

New Haven (CNA/ EWTN News) — The results of the annual charitable giving survey shows that the Knights of Columbus completed more volunteer service hours and given more in donations than ever before in the organization’s history.

“Throughout its 131 years, the Knights of Columbus has always practiced charity as its first principle,” Supreme Knight Carl Anderson said in a recent statement.

During the 2012 calendar year, Knights of Columbus donated more than $167.5 million and more than 70 million hours to charitable causes.

“With so many people enduring great hardship,” Anderson said, “the Knights of Columbus is happy to help provide solutions to real people’s problems through this great outpouring of charity by our members over the past year.”

Over the past decade, the Knights of Columbus has donated $1.475 billion to charity and given more than 673 million hours of volunteer hours to support charitable works.

In 2012, the Knights fi-

nancial contributions increased for the 13th year in a row, growing by $9.4 million to $167,549,817. Additionally, volunteer service hours grew by more than 64,000 to 70,113,207 in 2012.

Key beneficiaries included natural disaster victims, physically and intellectually disabled and economically disadvantaged persons as well as organizations such as Special Olympics and Habitat for Humanity.

The Knights also provided scholarships and educational support and helped sponsor many Church and community projects, the survey revealed.

Continuing its legacy as one of the first groups to recruit blood donors back in 1937, the survey found that the Knights helped gather over 420,000 blood donations in 2012.

Since its founding in 1882 by Father Michael J. McGivney in New Haven, Conn., the Knights of Columbus has grown into the world’s largest lay Catholic organization with more than 1.8 million members throughout the world.

July 5, 2013

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

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

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

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

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

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

Use the Chapel entrance on the side of the church.

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

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

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

FALL RIVER — St. Bernadette’s Church, 529 Eastern Ave., has Eucharistic Adoration on Fridays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the chapel.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Anchor Pro-Lifers challenging ‘buffer zone’ feel they’ll prevail

WORCESTER (CNS) — Two Worcester sidewalk counselors are among seven plaintiffs in the “buffer zone” lawsuit the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear during its next term.

The court announced June 24 that it accepted the case, which challenges lower court rulings that the Massachusetts “buffer zone” law is constitutional. That law prohibits most people, including those offering alternatives to abortion, from going closer than 35 feet to entrances, exits and driveways of abortion facilities, said Michael J. DePrimo, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys.

Zone lines encompass parts of streets and sidewalks.

The law exempts people entering the clinics, clinic agents — such as those escorting clients — as well as clinic employees, and other people such as police officers and firefighters, DePrimo said.

Others may walk through the zones if their sole purpose is to get to the other side, he said. But he said other activities, like waiting for a bus or taking news photos, are not permitted. DePrimo said he expects the court, which starts its next term in October, to hear oral arguments in the case in December or January, and rule on it next spring.

In Your Prayers Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks July 6 Rev. Edmond Francis, SS.CC., Pastor, St. Mary, Fairhaven, 1963 July 7 Rev. James E. Lynch, Founder, St. Joan of Arc, Orleans, 1965 July 8 Rev. Edward Murphy, Pastor, St. Mary, Fall River, 1887 Msgr. Patrick J. O’Neill, Retired Pastor, St. Julie Billiart, North Dartmouth, 1995 July 10 Rev. Pie Marie Berard, O.P., Dominican Priory, Fall River, 1938 Rev. Maurice E. Parent, Assistant, St. Michael, Swansea, 1972 Rev. John E. Morris, M.M., Retired Maryknoll Missioner, Former Assistant, St. Joseph, Fall River, 1987 Rev. Theodore M. Morin, M.S., La Salette Shrine, North Attleboro, 1987

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Around the Diocese The community is invited to participate in a car wash fund-raiser to benefit the Solanus Casey Food Pantry in New Bedford. The event will take place tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. outside the Rock Funeral Home, 1285 Ashley Boulevard in New Bedford. For more information call 508-995-5772.

The Holy Rosary Fraternity of Secular Franciscans will be hosting a talk at Our Lady of the Holy Rosary parish center, 80 Bay Street in Taunton on July 14 at 2:30 p.m. The talk will be given

by Sister Eleanor McNally, SUSC, on the subject of human trafficking. Light refreshments will be served after the talk and all are welcome. For more information please call Carol Spoor, OFS, at 508644-2645.

The Daughters of Isabella Hyacinth Circle will be holding its monthly meeting at St. Mary’s Church in South Dartmouth on July 16. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. and there will be light refreshments to follow immediately after. Catholic woman who seek fellowship, friendship, and enjoy being a part of community service are welcome.

The Pro-Life Apostolate of the diocese is sponsoring a Pro-Life Boot Camp for high school youth at Stonehill College in Easton on July 19-21. This is a sincere effort to impart not only the message of Christ’s Gospel, but to imbue social values and caring for the greater community among young people in order that they may go forth with the skills necessary to be outstanding citizens and Christians. If you would be able to assist in this mission by donating a case of water or Gatorade to keep participants hydrated, it would be greatly appreciated. Donations of snack food (peanutfree and wheat-free items preferred) would also be helpful. Please leave your donations at the office of St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Attleboro by July 16. The camp would also appreciate your prayer support during the weekend.

On July 23 at 7 p.m. at St. Bernadette’s Parish, 529 Eastern Avenue in Fall River, Father Roger Landry will give a presentation on Pope Francis’ first encyclical Lumen Fidei (The Light of Faith) and take questions. The presentation is free and open to all interested in learning what Pope Francis says about how to grow in faith during this Year of Faith.

Chowderfest 2013 will be held on July 26 from 5 to 7:30 p.m. at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish, 481 Quaker Road in North Falmouth offering “all you can eat” clam chowder (white or red), clam cakes, corn bread, watermelon and lemonade. The kids’ menu will include hot dog, juice, chips and dessert. The parish Men’s Club will be selling tickets after Masses each weekend to support its scholarship program and activities. Tickets may also be picked up at the rectory, Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

St. Anne’s Parish in Fall River will celebrate its patronal feast on July 26 (SS. Anne and Joachim) with High Mass beginning at 6:30 p.m. The Ordinary of the Mass will be the “Missa de Angelis” (Mass VIII). Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and veneration of the relics of St. Anne will immediately follow. All are welcome to join the people of St. Anne’s in honoring the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary and grandmother of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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T

he meaning of much of what we say can be dictated by the way we say it.

For instance, you could say to an acquaintance: “No, thanks to you we had a good time.”

Or, “No thanks to you, we had a good time.” There’s quite a difference in the meaning.

Add to that the fact that the English language is rife with words and phrases that can have two, three and even four meanings, and it’s a wonder we can understand each other at all.

I mention this because of the happenings in my home town of Fall River last week.

Most of us, sports fans or not, are aware of the murder charges levied against former New England Patriot Aaron Hernandez. While the alleged events are worlds away from our normal lives, the tragedy was brought a little closer to home when Hernandez was brought to Fall River Superior Court last week for a bail hearing.

The words “wild life” came to mind. First, learning facts about Hernandez’ past and the allegations of the present, I couldn’t help but think what a wild life he lives.

Secondly, the behavior of some Fall River residents,

July 5, 2013

The Anchor

It’s just a matter of speaking

perched on nearby branches when they cheered for Herseemingly harmonizing with nandez as he entered and exited the court elicited visions the orioles occupying another tree; and several rabbits that of “wild life.” I’d like to think this example was an expression Igor likes to chase back into the brush. of their belief in Hernandez’s innocence, but given the sad state of many Americans today who seem to idolize villains, it was a sorry representation of the city and its inhabitants (viewed,

By Dave Jolivet by the way, across the entire U.S. by various media outlets).

At night, a choir of birds This kind of wild life I can begin their concert at about live without.

But a just a few miles north 3:30 a.m. For some that may be an annoyance, but to me of the circus that was going that ranks right up there on in downtown Fall River, I with the sound of rainfall in routinely encounter a kinder, the dead of night. Even the gentler wildlife experience.

While still very much in the screeching of the blue jays is city, woods and fields comprise music to my ears.

Earlier this year, three or much of the area surrounding four huge, and I mean huge, my abode, and that alone proturkeys took off in flight, passvides a peacefulness concrete ing directly over the car Emilie and steel can’t. and I were riding in, clearWithin the last few weeks alone, I’ve met up with a young ing the roof by only a couple of feet. The birds looked like doe munching grass on the jumbo jets as we crossed paths. lawn of St. Vincent’s Home; Em and I just looked at each a big old turkey strolling other in awe at the spectacle. through a field surrounded by And a couple of years at least a dozen very young ago, we had a neighborturkeys; a humming bird hood peacock that would hovering over the planters on my deck; the glow of cardinals express its feelings loudly and

My View From the Stands

clearly whenever it chose to.

If it wanted to impress you, he would display his plume and strut. I even engaged in conversation with it once, mimicking it. Emilie did witness the back-and-forth encounter, so I can write this confident she’ll back me up if there are those who think I’m a bit loony. (Our friend disappeared a couple of years back after it’s stomping grounds were developed with several new homes.)

I know there are many out there who live in the country and experience bigger and better examples than I provided

here, but as a life-long city dweller, I truly appreciate each and every one of these wildlife encounters.

Simple things for a simple mind perhaps.

With all the craziness that goes on in the world of sports, entertainment, politics, and even religion, it’s nice to be blessed with some simple pleasures to reassure us that this world is not as it seems at times.

It would be a good thing to thank the Almighty for these simple pleasures. But just be careful how you say it: “Thank you God, I love the wildlife,” not “Thank you, God I love the wild life.”

Our neighborhood peacock was one of a plethora of wildlife creatures that have provided some of life’s simple pleasures in a world too often filled with wild life. (Photo by Dave Jolivet)

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