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Diocese of Fall River, Mass.

F riday , July 12, 2013

Diocesan faithful lead Charities Appeal to new record

By Becky Aubut Anchor Staff

FALL RIVER — There is always a learning curve when it’s your first year on the job. But as the new director of Development for the Fall River Diocese, the curve that James Campbell experienced, made a permanent mark in the record books when the final tally of this year’s Catholic Charities Appeal came in.

When the books closed on June 25, Campbell and his staff, Cynthia Iacovelli, Patty Dooley and Doris Desrosiers, discovered the 72nd annual Appeal had raised a record $4,319,468.93 — an increase of more than $114,000 from last year, and surpassing the previous record set in 2007 by more than $13,000.

“It’s really hard to do an analysis that says you did ‘X’ and ‘Y’ happened; it’s a lot of different factors,” said Campbell of the success of the Appeal.

Working off of the “greatly appreciated” structure set in place by former director Michael Donly, Campbell said that his goal during his first year was to rework some of the material.

The Appeal would continue to provide a solid message that would allow the advocacy to spread throughout the diocese but Campbell broke down his threeprong approach to good fund-raising: “You have to have a compelling need and a compelling message; you have to have good information; and from those two things,

you have to develop meaningful relationships because people can give to a lot of worthy causes, but they tend to give to those they feel a connection to,” he explained.

He admits his most dramatic change was the redesign of the Catholic Charities Appeal logo. There was loyalty and equity built up in that logo, said Campbell, but after much thought, and receiving encouragement

“A

ll change is not adopted readily,” said Campbell. “The interesting thing was the reaction [to the new design]. Some people loved it but one person said to me, ‘It looks like a grumpy pretzel.’ Grumpy pretzel became my shorthand for people who were upset with all the changes.” from others, he decided it was time for a “fresh look” and contracted with a graphic designer to revitalize the logo.

“I had a great deal of respect, that this is a cultural tradition in the Diocese of Fall River, unlike any others, because for years and years in these towns you were defined by your parish, and the tradition of the Catholic Charities Appeal and the tradition of those two hearts, meant a great deal to people,” said Campbell.

And though the final design didn’t stray too far from

the well-recognized two hearts, not everyone was giving the new logo a lot of love.

“All change is not adopted readily,” said Campbell.

“The interesting thing was the reaction [to the new design]. Some people loved it but one person said to me, ‘It looks like a grumpy pretzel.’ Grumpy pretzel became my shorthand for people who were upset with all the changes.”

The motto of the Appeal also changed from “Caring. Sharing. Offering Hope” to “Whatever you can. For those who cannot” to better reflect the Appeal’s spiritual message: “It seemed to represent the volunteerism and the sense of the Christian mission,” said Campbell. “I wanted the theme of the Appeal uplifting and positive.”

To continue to promote the uplifting theme, the emotional tone of the campaign used a spiritual passage from Corinthians. “God loves a cheerful giver” became the blueprint for the campaign video; “We said, ‘Let’s illustrate the cheerful giver,’” said Campbell.

The videos, the 17-minute “complete encyclopedia” kickoff video and the six-minute version shown during Mass, were focused less on the “destitution we were trying to address and more on the people who were actually deciding to contribute and be a part of the effort,” said Campbell.

Not that the videos were ignoring the plight of Turn to page 18

Mass. Pro-Lifers hopeful court will overturn buffer zone law

By Christine Willams Anchor Correspondent

Seven new Harvard Knights and six from Boston University were welcomed into the Harvard University Knights of Columbus Council #14188 last fall. Included among the Harvard inductees was Curtis St. Pierre, eighth from left, a Fall River resident and parishioner of St. Bernadette’s Parish there.

A university Knight’s tale: Balancing studies, faith and service to the Church

By Dave Jolivet Anchor Editor

FALL RIVER — Entering freshman year at Harvard University provides a plethora of challenges and changes for any young woman or man.

Sometimes, at any university or college, activities and priorities

are shifted or even discarded.

Oftentimes, it’s the student’s faith life that can fall through the cracks.

There is, however, a group of men at and around the Cambridge institution whose mission is to not only prevent that from happening, but to

strengthen an already existent faith life. The Harvard University Pope John Paul II Council was born on All Saints Day in 2006, and since then has invited young Catholic men to join them in their journey to defend their country, families and faith, Turn to page 17

ATTLEBORO — From Attleboro’s Angel Park, a narrow strip of grass between divided Highway 118, Pro-Lifers can watch pregnant women enter the abortion clinic across the street. They pray and hope their witness will make a difference, but they rarely have the chance to offer alternatives to the women.

For more than six years, a 35foot buffer zone has surrounded Four Women Health Services, the last remaining abortion clinic in the Diocese of Fall River. Sidewalk counselors from Massachusetts have fought the law all the way to the United States Supreme Court. On June 24, the court agreed to hear the case.

Steve Guillotte, director of pastoral services at St. Francis Xavier Parish in Acushnet, said that he is hopeful the law will be overturned.

The law is unjust and a violation of the First Amendment right to free speech. Moreover,

because the law only applies to abortion clinics and not, say, pregnancy resource centers, it only targets Pro-Life speech, he said.

At least two times a year, Guillotte and other St. Francis parishioners pray outside the Attleboro clinic, participating in the 40 Days for Life campaigns. “The distance between us and the young ladies who are walking in to have an abortion is just so palpable,” he said.

He would like to be able to engage the women in an “honest, gentle discussion.” He would like to be able to inform them about Abundant Hope, the pregnancy resource center located just one mile west.

“They are getting the proabortion side. We should be able to give them the Pro-Life side,” he said.

Colorado, Montana and various municipalities have also enacted buffer zone laws.

The first Massachusetts Buffer Zone law passed in 2000. Then, it was a 25-foot fixed buffer.

Turn to page 18

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News From the Vatican

July 12, 2013

Despite setbacks, Vatican Bank undergoing important evolution

Vatican City (CNA/ EWTN News) — News that Vatican Financial Intelligence Authority has been admitted to a global network of financial oversight agencies proves that the Vatican is threading an international and multilateral path to adhere to international standards.

It “represents a recognition of the Holy See/Vatican City State’s systematic efforts in tracking and fighting money laundering and financing of terrorism,” said René Bruelhart, director of the Authority of Financial Information, in a recent statement.

The news of admission to the Egmont Group, an umbrella organization for 130 Financial Intelligence Units, became official just days after the unexpected resignations of the Vatican bank’s general director Paolo Cipriani and his deputy Massimo Tulli, who stepped down on July 1.

Cipriani and Tulli’s sudden exit came on the heels of the recent arrest of Msgr. Nunzio Scarano, an employee of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See. He allegedly used his account at the Institute for Religious Works, the socalled “Vatican bank,” for money laundering.

In a broader perspective, the recent facts signal that the reform that began under Benedict XVI and continues under Pope Francis’ watch is gaining momentum.

In December 2009, as part of a monetary agreement with the European Union, the Vatican agreed to implement an antimoney laundering law within one year.

Despite setbacks, like the September 2010 seizure of 23 million euro being transferred between Institute accounts with Italian banks, the line of reform has advanced.

Then-bank president Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, together with Cipriani, was questioned by the

public prosecutor in Rome about the suspect movements. Though their clarifications were not deemed satisfactory, the money was eventually freed when the anti-money laundering law came into effect on March 15 of the following year.

Then, on May 24, 2012, Gotti Tedeschi received a “no confidence” vote by the Governing Board of the Institute for Religious Works citing nine reasons including “failure to carry out basic duties incumbent upon the president.”

The investigation continued and led to Cipriani and Tulli’s resignations along with the arrest of Msgr. Scarano.

In the meantime, the Vatican’s anti-money laundering law has undergone a major revision.

After its November 2011 onsite visit, the committee of Council of Europe evaluators known as Moneyval criticized the Vatican law, which was tied to Italian anti-money laundering law, and asked for a revision.

The organization evaluates the adherence of member States to international anti-money laundering standards.

The revised law has since met international standards, but at the same time proved that any special relationship that may have existed between Italy and the Holy See has now come to an end.

In retrospect, the 2012 vote of “no confidence” could be considered the first in a series of actions that mark a new era for the Vatican Bank. The comprehensive reform that was first requested by Moneyval in a July 2012 report is giving it structure.

Meanwhile, inclusion in the Egmont Group will go down as another milestone in combating money laundering and terrorism financing for the Vatican. According to the July 4 press bulletin from the Holy See, it “marks a further step in its contribution to this global effort.”

Pope Francis rides through St. Peter’s Square before a Wednesday General Audience, recently. (Photo

by Stephen Driscoll/CNA)

The self-righteous ‘can cook in their own stew,’ says pope

Vatican City (CNA/ EWTN News) — In order to do the Lord’s work, Pope Francis said, we should remember our first encounter with Jesus, in which we were invited to recognize our own sinfulness and experience His loving gaze.

“Those who consider themselves righteous, they can cook in their own stew!” the pope said during a recent morning Mass. “He came for us sinners and this is beautiful.”

Pope Francis celebrated the Mass alongside the Archbishop of Caracas, Cardinal Jorge Liberato Urosa Savino, on the day of Venezuela’s national holiday.

Staff of the Vatican’s Governorate also attended the Eucharistic celebration.

Reflecting on a Bible passage in which the tax collector Matthew decides to follow Jesus, he asked those present to remember their first encounter with Christ.

“Remember always, it is like blowing on the embers of that memory, no? Blowing to keep the fire alive, always,” he said at the chapel of St. Martha.

“That memory gives Matthew strength and to all of them to forge ahead: ‘The Lord has changed my life, I met the Lord!’” he added.

Pope Francis gave his homily based on the Gospel passage in which Jesus invites Matthew, a tax collector, to follow Him. Later in the reading, Pharisees criticize Jesus for eating with tax collectors and sinners to which He replies, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick do.”

“The tax collectors were sinners twice because they were attached to money and were also traitors of the country in the sense that they collected taxes from their own people for the Romans,” said the pope.

“Matthew feels Jesus’ gaze upon him and he feels stunned,” he said. “He hears Jesus’ invitation, ‘follow Me, follow Me.’” According to the Holy Father, Matthew is then “full of joy but he’s also doubtful because he’s also very attached to money.”

“It just took a moment and we see how (the artist) Caravaggio was able to capture it, that man who was looking, but also, with his hands, was taking the money,” he stated.

He noted that there is “a moment in which Matthew says yes, leaves everything and goes with the Lord.”

“It is the moment of mercy received and accepted, ‘Yes I’m coming with You!’ and it is the first moment of the meeting, a profound spiritual experience,”

said Pope Francis.

He then reflected on the second part of the reading, during which Jesus eats with the sinners and tax collectors.

“The Lord feasts with the sinners. God’s mercy is celebrated,” he said.

He explained how the Biblical parables talk of those who refuse to take part in the Lord’s feast; that Jesus went out to find the poor and the sick and feasted with them.

“And following these two moments, the stunned encounter and the feast, comes the ‘daily work’ of announcing the Gospel,” he added.

The pope stressed that this work “must be nurtured with the memory of that first encounter, of that feast” and that this work is not just for one moment, but lasts up to the end of one’s life.

The strength to do this work, he told the Governorate, comes from the memory of “those events, of that encounter with Jesus Who has changed my life, Who had mercy!”

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July 12, 2013

3

The International Church Archbishop says pope told him Quebec must ‘rise again’

Members of the clergy hold candles during a vigil at the Balamand Monastery in Koura, Lebanon, recently, to pray for the release of bishops kidnapped in northern Syria. Orthodox Metropolitan Paul of Aleppo and Syriac Orthodox Metropolitan Gregorios Yohanna of Aleppo were kidnapped April 22 in northern Syria while on a humanitarian mission. (CNS photo/Omar Ibrahim, Reuters)

MONTREAL (CNS) — Quebec must “rise again” and recover its traditional faith, Pope Francis told Quebec Archbishop Gerald Lacroix, who recently visited Rome.

The archbishop recounted in detail his recent audience with the pope at the Vatican to Montreal’s French newspaper, La Presse.

He said when he introduced himself as the archbishop of Quebec, “The pope replied, ‘Ah, Quebec! Land of missions, a land that has known many great missionaries!’”

Archbishop Lacroix said he indicated to the pope that Quebec wants to continue in the footsteps of the great missionaries, and the pope responded,

“Quebec must rise again.”

“He would like us Quebecers to find again our faith that gave us life and that built our country,” Archbishop Lacroix said. “We have to find again our roots of faith, rise again as Christians and find once again the Gospel in our lives.”

In recent years, Quebec, formerly referred to as a “priestridden province,” has undergone in-depth legal changes to separate Church from state.

Mass attendance has gone from 90 percent before 1960 to around six percent, according to a 2008 poll, although at least three-quarters of Quebec’s population of eight million still describes itself as Catholic.

Slain Syrian priest remembered at Mass in Rome

Rome, Italy (CNA) — Father Francois Mourad, a monk killed last week in the ongoing violence in Syria, was being prayed for and remembered at a Mass in Rome recently.

The Mass, said by Bishop Matteo M. Zuppi, an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Rome, also interceded for peace in Syria. Bishop Zuppi celebrated the Mass on Thursday evening at the parish of SS. Fabian and Venancio.

Father Mourad was reportedly killed on June 23 at the Franciscan monastery of St. Anthony of Padua in Ghassenieh, a village near Jisr AshShughur in northern Syria.

Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Franciscan custodian of the Holy Land, told Vatican Radio that “Syria has now become a battleground not only between Syrian forces, but also between Arab countries and the international community. And those paying the price are the poor, the young and the Christians.”

“Let us pray so that this absurd and shameful war ends soon and that the people of Syria can go back to living a normal life,” he told Fides news agency.

Father Mourad’s death occurred roughly 70 miles from Aleppo, in a contested region.

Jisr Ash-Shughur is located in Idlib province near the Turkish border, between Aleppo and Latakia.

Father Pizzaballa said the village had been attacked by Islamist rebels and the St. Anthony of Padua Monastery gave shelter to Father Mourad and to some Franciscan friars, four religious Sisters and 10 lay Christians.

According to Vatican Radio, Father Pizzaballa explained that when Father Maroud tried to defend the Sisters and others from the rebels, he was shot and killed.

A few days later, a video was posted on YouTube, and shortly thereafter on Live Leak, showing three men being beheaded. Those posting the video claimed that one of them was Father Mourad.

The claim has since spread, having been picked up by various other media outlets later in the week.

However, a reliable Vatican source told CNA July 2 that reports of the priest being killed by beheading are “false.”

“We can say that the Sisters of his convent took his body, which was left inhumane so this is a delicate situation,” the source explained.

Another source, a Franciscan priest from the Holy Land who wished to remain unnamed for safety reasons, denied that the online video shows the murder of the priest.

He suggested that the confusion may be due to the fact that “the video was released around the same time as his death.”

Father Mourad was well known in the region, where he had retired several years ago to live the life of a hermit. He had finished his Franciscan novitiate for the Custody in Rome, but had left the order to live a contemplative life.

He had become a Syrian citizen, the Custody of the Holy Land reports.

The 49-year-old priest had helped start construction on a monastery dedicated to St. Simeon the Stylite in Ghassanieh. After the monastery was bombed at the start of the Syrian civil war, he moved to the Franciscan monastery for his own safety and to minister to those who remained.

Archbishop Jacques B. Hindo, of the Syrian Catholic Archeparchy of Hassake-Nisibi, told Fides News Agency that he had been in contact with the priest before he was slain.

“Lately, Father Mourad sent me some messages that clearly showed how conscious he was of living in a dangerous situation, and (he) offered his life for peace in Syria and around the world,” the archbishop said.

Since the Syrian conflict began in March 2011, at least 93,000 have died and 1.5 million have become refugees in nearby countries, most of them in Jordan and Lebanon.

An additional 4.25 million Syrian people are believed to have been internally displaced by the war.

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The Church in the U.S.

July 12, 2013

Ethicists weigh medical marijuana’s merits, burdens as laws spread

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CNS) — Catholic health care ethicists say medical marijuana has potential merits and pitfalls but political and medical considerations aren’t being consistently managed from state to state as legalization spreads.

“If we are going to look at this as a medical treatment, then you have to look at it in the same way you judge any treatment in terms of benefits and burdens: One would have to judge the use of marijuana in light of a specific person,” said Mercy Sister Patricia Talone, vice president of mission services at the St. Louisbased Catholic Health Association.

“And it would be not recommended for patients who suffer from particular illnesses such as schizophrenia, and in younger persons who may evidence early symptoms of mental illness,” she added.

Sister Talone, who spoke three years ago at a panel discussion on medical marijuana at the Institute of Catholic Bioethics at Jesuit-run St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, told Catholic News Service that medical marijuana has fewer side effects than the heavier drugs and has been used therapeutically in a positive way in some places here and abroad.

Since the medical profession commits itself to excellent care “we have an obligation to at least look at that,” Sister Talone said, adding that, by contrast, misuse of legal prescription drugs have caused enormous harm to many.

While marijuana is known to have various harmful side effects especially on young users and is prohibited by federal law, it also has been shown to be effective therapy for persons with glaucoma, certain types of cancer, AIDS, end-of-life diseases in which the person suffers lack of appetite, skin breakdowns and general weakness.

“If it is something that could increase the appetite and quality of life of someone in the Hospice program, for example, then the medical use may be acceptable,” Sister Talone said.

But people, especially youth, should know that any medication has positive and negative side effects, and that

patients need to make decisions in light of their own medical history, she added.

“Even something that we consider normal like aspirin could have negative effects and people have to judge that according to their personal and medical reality.

Innocuous things can still have harmful effects,” Sister Talone said.

Jesuit Father Peter Clark, director of the Institute of Catholic Bioethics, who has written on medical marijuana cases where the treatment was considered useful, thinks the debate is mostly a political one now.

Father Clark points to marijuana’s potential medical efficacy as recognized in 1999 by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.

“How do you regulate it, who grows it, who distributes it and all of that is a real issue, and New Jersey is trying to deal with that,” Father Clark said, in reference to past proposals by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to suggest Rutgers University serve as a controlled producer of marijuana in that state.

“My fear is that (medical patients) are going out and reselling it and that defeats the whole purpose. I hate to see it become a free for all as you see in some places,” Father Clark said.

He added: “I wonder what is coming down the road with legalization of small amounts and if we are moving in that direction and all of this (medical use conversation) becomes null and void.”

In terms of recreational use, marijuana presents significant moral issues that shouldn’t be easily dismissed, according to Sulpician Father Gerald D. Coleman, a California-based vice president for corporate ethics for the Daughters of Charity Health System.

Marijuana can create a psychological dependence that negatively affects one’s mental, physical, academic and spiritual well-being, he noted.

“Supporters of legalized marijuana argue that its use amounts to merely a benign recreational drug or a herbal medicine. This assertion has not been adequately researched and demonstrated,” he told CNS.

Jesuit Father Gregory Boyle, who founded Homeboy Industries in 1988 to provide hope for former gang members, is pictured in mid-August talking to a youth about a personal problem in Los Angeles. (CNS file photo)

Gang intervention ministry is ‘living the Gospel,’ priest says

Los Angeles, Calif.

(CNA) — Father Greg Boyle, the founder of a program that helps former gang members in Los Angeles, said his mission is a way of living the Christian message, having solidarity with those on the margins of society.

“Living the Gospel is about standing with the demonized, so that the demonizing will stop; standing with the disposables so that the day will come when we stop throwing people away,” Father Boyle, a Jesuit priest, told CNA. While pastor of Dolores Mission parish in east Los Angeles, Father Boyle began an outreach to gang members 25 years ago.

That outreach has since grown into Homeboy Industries, the largest gang intervention program in the U.S. “That’s what the hope of this place is; it helps people for sure, and it helps gang members imagine an exit ramp off this crazy, violent freeway.”

“But it stands as a symbol to the world … what if we were to invest in people rather than just incarcerate our way out of this problem.”

Father Boyle’s ministry offers hope, training and job skills to those formerly involved in gangs or in jail. In addition to helping them find employment, Homeboy Industries also provides case management, tattoo removal, mental health and legal services, and GED completion.

While the group’s website says it is “not affiliated with any particular religion,” it also notes that many of its works are “in line with the Jesuit practice of social justice,” and Father Boyle said that the organization does not seek to “downplay” its Catholic identity.

“This place is soaked with the Gospel,” he reflected, noting the importance of solidarity.

“Are you standing with the easily despised, and the read-

ily left out? Are you dismantling the barriers that exclude, are you widening the circle of compassion so that nobody’s standing outside the circle?”

Father Boyle emphasized that gang life is not the highly dramatized situation that media and popular culture often think of it as.

“I think people would be surprised at a lot of the mythic notions that are in fact untrue … it’s not as dramatic as people think,” he said, pointing to the common “misunderstanding” that “people are blood-in, blood-out, the only way out is through all this highly dramatic, crazy stuff.”

In reality, he said, about 95 percent of gang members “really want to have a life” that is better and more stable, and the remainder are “probably too damaged or mentally ill” to want one.

Father Boyle also said it is a myth that “somehow a kid is drawn, or lured, or attracted to joining a gang.”

Kids join gangs not because they seek something, such as belonging, but “always” because they are “fleeing something … with no exceptions.”

There are three general profiles of kids who join gangs, Father Boyle said: first, “there’s the kid who’s despondent and who can’t imagine tomorrow”; second, “the kid who’s traumatized, who doesn’t know how to transform his pain, so he continues to transmit it”; and finally, the mentally ill.

By identifying these causes, the roots of gang affiliation can be addressed, the priest reflected.

“We would infuse hope to the kid for whom hope is foreign; and we would heal the traumatized, damaged kids; and we would deliver mental health services in a timely fashion to the kid who’s mentally ill.”

CNA also spoke to a former gang member, Terry Davis, who

is now a filmmaker in New York City.

Davis grew up in the suburbs of Columbia, S.C., and emphasized in a May 24 interview that gang violence is not limited to inner cities.

“A lot of people from the hood used to come to the suburban community where we stayed at … and jump us, try to rob us, because they looked at us as being suburban kids, and that’s what made us band together and make our own gang, to fight back against them,” he explained.

South Carolina’s gang problem was largely class-based, he said, explaining that he was able to escape that lifestyle by attending college.

Father Boyle said Davis’ story isn’t “very typical,” but does reflect the fact that gang life is less dramatic than it is held to be in the popular imagination.

For people seeking to act in solidarity with those in cycles of gang violence, the priest advised looking to Christ’s example.

“What you want to do in living the faith, is take seriously what Jesus took seriously. And what’s the motivation behind living the Gospel, and accompanying the poor, and doing what we do here?

It’s all based in absolute love, there isn’t any fear; it’s not driven by fear.”

Father Boyle said that he is “quite heartened” by Pope Francis, whom he described as “kind of full-speed ahead.”

“There was a homily he gave the other day about making messes, and being comfortable with mess.”

“As long as you’re trying to live the Gospel, you going to make mistakes,” Father Boyle emphasized, but “the measure of our help always is how expansive, and how spacious is our response.”

“That’s a response that more greatly resembles the God we in fact have.”

July 12, 2013

The Church in the U.S.

5

With final rules from HHS, bishops need to ‘continue defending’ rights

WASHINGTON (CNS) — The final rules issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services implementing its mandate that employers provide coverage of contraceptives do not eliminate “the need to continue defending our rights in Congress and the courts,” said New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan in a recent statement.

The cardinal, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, noted that the bishops’ conference “has not completed its analysis of the final rule,” but he said “some basic elements of the final rule have already come into focus.”

He listed three concerns with the HHS final ruling issued June 28, which updates the proposed rules it issued in February and had left open for comment through April. He said his concerns were about the narrow definition of those “religious employers” exempt from contraceptive coverage requirement; the accommodation of religious ministries excluded from that definition; and the treatment of businesses run by people who seek to operate their companies according to religious principles.

The HHS contraceptive mandate, part of the Affordable Care Act, will require most employers, including religious employers, to provide coverage of contraceptives, sterilization and some abortion-inducing drugs free of charge, even if the employer is morally opposed to such services. It includes an exemption for some religious employers that fit its criteria.

In the final HHS rules, contraceptive coverage for accommodated religious organizations with health insurance plans will be provided separately through health insurance companies or third-party administrators who must ensure that payments for contraceptive services come from outside the objecting organization’s premiums. For self-insuring institutions, a third-party administrator would provide or arrange the services, paid for through reductions in federally facilitated-exchange user fees associated with their health insurance provider.

HHS, which is headed by Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, acknowledged in its final rules that it had received many comments urging the agency to extend the

exemption to include nonprofit secular employers and for-profit employers who have religious objections to providing contraceptive coverage. The mandate does not include a conscience clause for employers who object to such coverage on moral grounds.

Cardinal Dolan said the bishops are “concerned as pastors with the freedom of the Church as a whole — not just for the full range of its institutional forms, but also for the faithful in their daily lives — to carry out the mission and ministry of Jesus Christ.”

The administration’s final rules also stipulated a separate accommodation for nonprofit religious organizations — including charities, hospitals and universities — that will not have to “contract, arrange, pay, or refer for contraceptive coverage” that they object to on religious grounds.

To qualify for the accommodation, organizations must self-certify as nonprofit religious group with religious objections to contraceptive coverage. These organizations must provide their health insurance companies with proof of their self-certification

Washington D.C. (CNA) — In a letter to President Barack Obama, two leaders of the U.S. bishops voiced support for continued efforts towards nuclear disarmament, as well as peace between Israel and Palestine.

“In Berlin, you recently reiterated a vision of a world without nuclear weapons, a vision that the Catholic Church has long supported,” wrote Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York and Bishop Robert E. Pates of Des Moines in a recent letter.

Cardinal Dolan is the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, while Bishop Pates heads the conference’s

Committee on International Justice and Peace.

The two bishops recalled that Blessed Pope John XXIII pushed for an end to nuclear weapons across the globe in 1963. Twenty years later, the U.S. bishops’ conference issued a pastoral letter entitled “The Challenge of Peace,” which repeated the goal of nuclear disarmament.

“Today, we again pledge support of U.S. efforts to achieve mutual reductions in the stockpiles of nuclear weapons, to adopt the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and to strengthen nuclear non-proliferation.”

The bishops also stressed the

importance of “vigorous leadership” by the U.S. in the IsraeliPalestinian conflict.

They thanked the president for his trip to the Holy Land in March and for “charging Secretary of State John Kerry with the urgent task of bringing the parties to the negotiating table.”

Reiterating their support for a two-state solution in the region, they promised their continued prayers for peace.

“We know that many consider the conflict intractable, but we believe that peace is possible,” they said, encouraging “persistent U.S. leadership” and pledging their “untiring support.”

U.S. bishops support nuclear disarmament, Middle East peace efforts

and insurance companies in turn would notify women in the health plan that contraceptive coverage would be provided separately and at no cost to them.

Cardinal Dolan said this accommodation “appears mostly the same, except for three relatively small changes that will require more time and analysis to evaluate.”

Regarding the rules’ narrow definition of religious employers and the lack of accommodation for business owners who have a religious objection to contraception and abortifacients, the cardinal said there is little change in those areas since the proposed rules were first issued in February.

He noted that the bishops at that time expressed their concerns that the proposed rules “actually made matters more troubling by preventing dioceses and other exempt employers from extending their coverage to the employees of service ministries that are not exempt.”

He said the bishops also stressed that the proposed rules, like earlier versions, “made no provision at all for individuals and for-profit businesses.”

“Because the final rule remains the same in these areas, so do our concerns,” he said in the recent statement.

Cardinal Dolan also addressed concerns with regard to insured and self-insured health insurance plans. For insured plans, he said the proposed rules would have established separate insurance policies for coverage of sterilization, contraception, and abortifacients which the final rules do not.

“Now, there is only one policy, and it is the one sponsored by the Catholic employer. The objec-

tionable items will still be paid for by virtue of the fact that an employee belongs to the Catholic employer’s plan, but these amounts are described as ‘payments’ rather than ‘coverage.’”

He also noted that the administration’s final rules propose to segregate funds in a way that was not specified in the proposed rules, which is something, he said, that “seems intended to strengthen the claim that objectionable items will not ultimately be paid by the employer’s premium dollars.”

He pointed out that the rules do not make it clear if the source of such funding is “genuinely separate from the objecting employer, and if so, whether it is workable to draw from that separate source.”

Regarding self-insured plans, the cardinal said the final rules treat the employer’s very act of objecting to coverage of sterilization, contraception and abortifacients as the legal authorization for a third-party administrator to secure the objectionable coverage, which the bishops objected to in comments submitted to the HHS on the proposed rules.

He said the bishops will “continue to examine the extent” to which the changes will force religious ministries to “violate their own teachings within their very own institutions.”

Cardinal Dolan said the USCCB “will have more to say when this aspect of our analysis is completed.”

He also reiterated the gratitude he expressed June 28 for HHS’ five-month extension before implementation of the rules, which threatens huge fines levied by the IRS for noncompliance.

6

The Anchor Loving our neighbors as ourselves

This coming weekend includes Bastille Day, July 14, the day commemorating the storming of the Bastille prison in Paris at the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789. Although the prison had only seven prisoners at the time of its “liberation,” it was attacked as a symbol of royal tyranny.

During that revolution the slogan “Liberté, égalité, fraternité” (French for “Liberty, equality, fraternity/brotherhood”) took hold in France (it is now the country’s official slogan). Unfortunately, the French Revolution was unlike the American Revolution in various ways (the former resulted in a Reign of Terror, a fierce persecution of the Catholic Church, and invasions of many other countries, among other things).

Blessed (soon to be Saint) John XXIII in 1959 recalled the moral devastation which the French Revolution left in its wake. In an encyclical on St. John Vianney, entitled “Sacerdotii Nostri Primordia,” he wrote, “We do want to recall this one fact that this saint was in his own times a model of pastoral devotion in a tiny community that was still suffering from the loss of Christian faith and morals that occurred while the French Revolution was raging. This was the mission and command received just before taking over his pastoral office: ‘You will find love of God in that parish; stir it up yourself.’”

The people of North Africa continue to suffer from ills bequeathed to them from their former colonial rulers and from their current or former home-grown tyrants. The revolutions of the Arab Spring have not all turned out well, so people are looking for a safer and more economically stable life in Europe. One of the relatively easier route to there is by traveling by boat to the Italian island of Lampedusa.

As you can read on pages eight and 13 of this edition of The Anchor, Pope Francis was making a heartfelt response to an humanitarian emergency which show little fraternite’ between the people of the rich Western countries and the countries of the Global South. The Holy Father forcefully reminded us of the sinful attitude we have of thinking that people in poorer countries are really irrelevant to our lives. He recalled how God searched out Adam in the Garden of Eden. “‘Adam, where are you?’ This is the first question which God asks man after his sin. ‘Adam, where are you?’ Adam lost his bearings, his place in Creation, because he thought he could be powerful, able to control everything, to be God. Harmony was lost; man erred and this error occurs over and over again also in relationships with others. ‘The other’ is no longer a brother or sister to be loved, but simply someone who disturbs my life and my comfort.”

So often in debates about undocumented immigrants the question is brought up about how their incorporation into the United States or into other Western countries will affect us, with no concern about the suffering that they experience in their home countries. We speak about these people as if they were not our brothers and sisters, created by the same God and often sharing the same Catholic faith with us.

The Church has repeatedly taught that the stranger is to be welcomed, while also reminding us to work together to improve living situations in the Third World. As the popes have taught, only by doing the latter will the problem of undocumented immigration come to an end.

Pope Francis then went on to speak about Adam’s son, Cain. “God asks a second question: ‘Cain, where is your brother?’ The illusion of being powerful, of being as great as God, even of being God Himself, leads to a whole series of errors, a chain of death, even to the spilling of a brother’s blood!” The pope brought this up in the immediate context of the loss of so many immigrant lives on the way to Lampedusa or to the Italian coast, but he also knew that he was invoking God’s question to all of us — what are we doing so as to prevent the loss of human life? Since Abel’s blood cries out from the ground, according to the book of Genesis, we do need to be concerned about our lack of love for immigrants, the sick, the marginalized, the victims of war, the unborn, our enemies, etc. (although, if we repent, the Blood of Christ, according to the letter to the Hebrews, calls out for our being pardoned by God the Father).

In response to the pope’s homily, Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez de Maradiaga (the archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, well known in the Fall River Diocese since he always expressed his gratitude to us for the dozen years in which we had a mission in the town of Guaimaca in his archdiocese), as head of Caritas International, issued a statement saying, “The pope’s visit to Lampedusa reminded us of the plight of millions of refugees around the world. Religious leaders and faith-based organizations have a key role to play in making sure those refugees are treated with dignity and compassion. We must welcome all refugees as our brothers and sisters.”

Although the French Revolution did not turn out well, the revolution of love which Christ initiated always turns out well when we love God with our entire being and love our neighbors as ourselves. We ask Him to help us do that as we face the debate over immigration reform.

July 12, 2013

Living by the light of faith

riday, when another priest takes the F daily morning Mass, is the day I can ordinarily sleep later. Last Friday, however, I got

up earlier than normal at 4:45 a.m., showered, celebrated Mass in the rectory chapel and did my morning meditation. Then I returned to my study energized at 6 a.m., awoke my Mac laptop, typed www.vatican.va into my Safari browser and hoped that the Vatican was punctual in putting up as promised, at noon Rome time, Pope Francis’ first encyclical, entitled “The Light of Faith.”

I was not disappointed. As soon as I clicked on the English language tab it brought me directly to a window dedicated to the encyclical asking me whether I wanted to download it. I copied the text into a Word document, emailed it to my Kindle app on my iPad, and then downloaded it as a Kindle book so that I could read it in my favorite format. I was in my comfortable chair reading at 6:04 a.m.

I’ve been engaging in this early morning ritual since the beginning of my priesthood, when thanks to the wonders of modern technology and the generosity of the Vatican in putting texts up for free on its website, I’ve been able to read papal encyclicals and exhortations as soon as they’re released. Since I never know ahead of time how long an encyclical will be and therefore how long

By Father it will take to Roger J. Landry read, I normally try to clear the calendar of everything except morning Mass and, when one comes in, a funeral.

Some of John Paul II’s encyclicals have taken me almost a full day to peruse. I finished “The Light of Faith” by 7:30 a.m. That was the bird’s eye view, reading for the big picture of the pope’s message. Since I had anticipated I’d be reading at least through nine, I re-read the encyclical a second time focusing on the worm’s eye view, appreciating much more the individual insights and details. In the afternoon, I returned for the hat trick, this time doing a detailed outline on my Mac for use in articles, adult education sessions and upcoming retreat conferences.

I share all of these details because I think they give some evidence of the “joy of faith” that the new encyclical as well as Pope Benedict’s letter launching the Year of Faith emphasize needs to characterize Christian life.

For those who love and live the Catholic faith, the day on which a pope releases an encyclical or exhortation ought to feel a little like Christmas.

We all remember how we behaved on Christmas as youngsters. We would rise early, scamper toward the tree to discover our presents, open them up with relish and gratitude, and then proceed to spend much of the day rejoicing in our new toys and games. We ought to approach papal teaching documents with a similar childlike eagerness, faith and gratitude.

The reality is that many Catholics approach papal encyclicals, if not as coal in stockings, at least as useless and unwanted offerings. New papal documents are not even approached the way most of us receive Christmas cards, when, at least sometime during the holidays we’ll read in their entirety the notes and news our family and friends send us. The vast majority of Catholics never even open the letter sent by their Holy Father in faith.

My hope is that you will not let this happen with this encyclical. It’s truly worth the read.

It will strengthen your faith and help you to strengthen others’. It’s a Christmas gift that will keep on giving.

I don’t want to provide a summary of the encyclical and potentially rob you of the joy of reading it yourself, but I would like to share a few thoughts that I’ve been sharing in interviews and articles since the encyclical was published.

The first is about faith and Apostolic succession. In terms of promoting the encyclical’s message, it was absolutely idiotic for Pope Francis to announce the upcoming canonizations of John XXIII and John Paul II on the

Putting Into the Deep

day he published it. Everyone focused on the canonizations, almost no one on the encyclical. But at the same time, the canonizations of two of his predecessors illustrated one of the encyclical’s main points. Not only were John and John Paul real examples of the light of faith the encyclical was describing, but their canonization highlight that the living faith of the Church is passed along as a precious treasure from one pope to another.

Francis was underlining, I believe, the same truth when he dated the encyclical June 29, the feast of St. Peter, the first pope and the first to confess Jesus as Messiah and Lord. Francis also emphasized it in saying the encyclical was written by “four hands,” his own and those of Benedict XVI, who had written an almost completed draft before his resignation.

“The assurance of continuity with the origins [of faith],” the encyclical writes, “is thus given by living persons, in a way consonant with the living faith that the Church is called to transmit.”

Francis’ decision to associate five popes — Peter, John, John Paul, Benedict and himself — with the publication of this encyclical exemplifies that living transmission perhaps better than any prose ever could.

The second thing I’d like to note is how comprehensive — and positive — the encyclical is in responding to contemporary challenges and questions about faith.

The text responds to critics who think the faith is illusory and outdated; relativists who think God and truth are irrelevant; scientific rationalists who reduce truth to technological and scientific know-how; seekers who are looking for a sure compass; Deists who think God is distant; Jews and Muslims who don’t accept Jesus as the fulfillment of all God’s promises throughout the Old Covenant; Protestants who think that Catholics believe we’re saved by works not by faith or who separate personal from ecclesial faith; catechists who reduce faith to the transmission of doctrine; public figures and others who try to separate faith from life, especially the moral life; theologians who want to prescind from faith in theology and Scripture studies; cafeteria Catholics who try to deny articles of faith they find hard to embrace; and secularists who claim that faith adds nothing to the common good.

The encyclical responds to all of these categories of challenges to faith very subtly, so subtly I didn’t even catch on to what it was doing until my third reading. Most often it doesn’t even name the challenge directly, but frames a beautiful exposition of the light of faith responding to the challenge in a way that no one will feel directly confronted, but rather invited to reexamine prior positions.

The third and last thing I will note is how much labor the encyclical takes to emphasize the role of love in faith. People can often understand faith as an arid assent to a list of truths. That’s the way, frankly, many Catholics pray the Creed, as a dry recitation. It’s also one reason why many think the faith is boring.

The encyclical stresses, however, that faith is a drama of love between Someone Who enters our history and experience, speaks to us, calls us to see things in the light of what He reveals, madly loves us, dies for us, and rises to show us that He is worthy of our trust.

Faith is a response of love to love, and it’s in that relationship of mutual love that we come through faith to greater understanding of the content of the truths of faith, including suffering and death.

There’s much more in this summer Christmas gift from Pope Francis. Those who would like to ponder how the Light of Faith the encyclical describes may illumine their own journey of faith are warmly invited to the talk I’ll be giving on the encyclical Tuesday, July 23, at 7 p.m. at St. Bernadette’s in Fall River.

Father Landry is Pastor of St. Bernadette Parish in Fall River. His email address is fatherlandry@catholicpreaching.com.

July 12, 2013

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he summer “officially” began this past week with the celebration of the Fourth of July.

Although, officially commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence, it is a time for gatherings with family, fireworks and no work.

In the past, the first two weeks of July were known as vacation weeks as factories closed.

Vacation time now is varied and sporadic throughout the year.

Each company handles their vacation policy differently.

It does seem odd, but the national trend is that people do not take vacations or allowed time off. Even if people are away from the workplace, they remain connected through new technological advances. The cell phone is the prime example.

The cell phone has made us so available that it can become an intrusion on our life and on our prayer. Although we ask people in church to turn off their cell phones, so as not to disturb our time of prayer, occasionally someone gets a call. The ringing phone penetrates the prayerful silence.

Many are embarrassed to have disturbed others, while some few, as has happened, answer the phone and walk out of church speaking to the caller.

While certainly necessary, modern technological inventions

I

remember picking Emilie up at SS. Peter and Paul School in Fall River one day late in the school year. She was an eighth-grader and we were waiting to hear from Diman Regional High School as to whether she would be accepted as a freshman there in the fall.

I discovered she was “in” before I picked her up. When she got in the car, I looked at her sternly, and barked, “You know what you are?” Em looked at me in horror since I never spoke to her this way before.

Still with a stern tone, I snarled, “You’re a Bengal now!”

Realizing this meant she was going to go to Diman, she screamed in excitement ... so loudly that folks blocks away knew the good news as well.

It seems like yesterday. But while on leave for my neck surgery, I attended Emilie’s graduation from Diman. It hurt. She’s a Corsair now, heading to UMass Dartmouth in September. It’s tough on us to afford this, but she deserves it, and the sacrifices parents

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The Anchor

The rhythm of the week includes rest

in by Christ’s Resurrection. For Christians it has become the first of all days, the first of all feasts, the Lord’s Day — Sunday (2174).

Many of you will recall the built-in “vacation day” each week. Sunday was a day for church and prayer. But it also was a time to share a family meal. It was a day to visit relatives. It was a day to rest and enjoy creation and all the good things God has provided for us.

We were told to refrain from unnecessary work. Some interpretation of this Sunday requirement stated that you were not to wash clothes, wash your car, do yard work, etc. Many families only had one wage earner so that, during the week, many of the weekend chores that are now part of the family schedule did not exist.

The “Sunday blue laws” assisted to the extent that stores were not open. Of course, malls did not exist, nor mega grocery stores. You could get needed supplies, but you were not expected to spend the day shopping.

Today shopping might be considered recreation and not work. The entire concept of no work on Sunday to keep Sunday sacred has evaporated. Even one

of our Catholic high schools had bingo on a Sunday.

When we see whence we have come, we begin to realize how the Church had it all right in the first place. The rhythm of the week included not only praise of God but also rest, in imitation of the Lord.

There is a saying that comes to mind on the July Fourth holiday. It says that once July Fourth comes, Labor Day is around the corner. It is obviously a nod to the speed with which the summer months fly by. And the older you get the quicker it goes.

Although I do not do it often enough, when I walk by Pine Grove Cemetery which is close to the rectory, I often wonder if the dead could speak, what would they say.

I doubt any of them would say: “I wish I had worked more.”

There needs to be a balance in our lives and perhaps we are losing some of that balance, when work and lack of time for rest and family time, becomes a constant in our lives.

So, therefore, the challenge of July Fourth is to plan time to rest before Labor Day is here; before the routine begins again for many of you.

God bless you.

Msgr. Oliveira is pastor of St. Mary’s Parish in New Bedford and director of the diocesan Propagation of the Faith Office.

make just come naturally. her still staring at me. ply raised my free arm in the I’m as proud as I can be of I still see those eyes today. I air and whispered goal. her. She made straight A’s this Throughout the game, Emi- will always see those eyes. year at Diman, was accepted This isn’t my first rodeo lie simply stared up at daddy into UMD’s College of Visual though. I’ve gone through this with wide eyes. I nodded off and Performing Arts, and far pain with Ben and Lauren, now (Emmaus fatigue!) and about above everything else, she’s an in their 30s. I have one paran hour later I awoke to find 18-year-old young woman who ticular memory (among is bright, kind, faiththousands) from each filled, and still my baby of them as a child that I girl. will never forget.

Most times I love And I’ve had the being a dad. Sometimes pain of losing my I hate it. son Davey after just When Emilie was three days. Yet I have

By Dave Jolivet barely a month old, I a memory of him, I’ll was away while on team never forget. for an Emmaus weekSometimes I hate end. When I returned being a daddy. It’s home on the Sunday tough to pour out your night, things got all heart and soul as a settled, Denise headed daddy, then watch them to bed after a weekend grow up ... and out. alone with the little But, I’m still very bundle, and I nestled proud of all my kiddies. in on the couch with Ben and Lauren have Em safely cradled in grown to be responsible my arms to watch the adults and good people.

Bruins.

And I know Emilie The B’s scored a goal My two baby girls. My first, Lauren, right, and Emi- is on her way to great and instead of my usual lie at Em’s graduation from Diman Regional High things, and will leave School last month. spastic reaction, I sima positive mark on all

whom she encounters.

It’s tough to see her grow up, but I know, no matter what road she travels, she’ll always be in touch. She is so like me it’s uncanny: same sense of humor; same taste in music and movies; and ever since she was a pup, we have this weird ability to say the same things at the exact same time, no matter how bizarre it is.

You can’t work at that ... it comes naturally.

I posted a comment on Facebook to my good pal Frank Lucca (Anchor columnist) about how proud I was of Emilie graduating, and how much it hurt at the same time.

“One thing Kris and I always believed was that we raised our children to move on ... and when we do our job as you and Denise have done ... they are ready to fly high and they will succeed,” he told me. “And the coolest part of being a father is that we’re always going to be daddy.”

He’s right. But sometimes it’s tough.

have quickened the pace of life. to keep it holy. Six days you shall Stress is a very common illness labor, and do all your work; but and the use of medicine to help the seventh day is a Sabbath to people relax from the routine of the Lord your God; on it you work is on the increase. One of shall not do any work” (Ex 20: the highest prescribed medica8-10). tions is for stress.

These modern conveniences can take Living away time from family the and friends.

Faith A recent survey asked children what

By Msgr. they wanted most from John J. Oliveira their parents.

While we might have expected some material response, like a new While the Jewish religion toy or iPod, it was not the case. continues to keep holy the SabNor was it to travel to different bath (Saturday), the Catholic places for vacation. The frequent Church celebrates the day of rest answer children gave was that and worship of God on Sunday. they wanted to spend more time Sunday is the fulfillment of the with their parents.

Sabbath.

Parents, in their desire to In #2190 of the “Catechism form their children, are often of the Catholic Church” it states: carting them off to games, or “The Sabbath, which represports events, or dance rehearssented the completion of the als. It ends up that the children first creation, has been replaced have little time for themselves, to by Sunday which recalls the rest, or to be with their families. new creation inaugurated by the The concept of rest comes Resurrection of Christ.” from the Bible itself.

The “Catechism” explains it The story of Creation in the in this manner: Jesus rose from Bible reminds us that even God the dead “on the first day of the Himself, on the seventh day of week.” Because it is the “first Creation, rested. One of the Ten day,” the day of Christ’s ResurCommandments reminds us of rection recalls the first creation. the necessity of worshiping God Because it is the “eighth day” and keeping holy the Sabbath following the Sabbath, it sym— “Remember the Sabbath day, bolizes the new creation ushered

Sometimes it’s tough

My View From the Stands

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July 12, 2013

The Anchor

W

e’ve already heard the Gospel parable of the Good Samaritan repeatedly throughout our lives, but maybe we have not noticed something significant in the dialogue between Jesus and a legal scholar which frames this parable. Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan (it may very well have happened — Jesus, with His Divine knowledge, may have been aware of this entire story happening on the road between Jericho and Jerusalem) in response to a question from the scholar, “And who is my neighbor?”

Jesus, after detailing how the priest and the Levite did nothing to help the robbery victim and how the Samaritan sacrificed his own time and money to take care of him, asked the scholar, “Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?”

Responding with love

The scholar does not say, island of Lampedusa. He said “The Samaritan,” since he that he was so moved by the probably was repulsed by story of undocumented imSamaritans, since they were migrants dying trying to get negatively viewed as Israelites to the island (and thus to Italy who had mixed with pagans and thus were unclean (whatever our Homily of the Week perspective, we can all Fifteenth Sunday plug into those quotain Ordinary Time tion marks the name of individuals or groups

By Father that we don’t like). So, Richard D. Wilson the scholar answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.”

Since the scholar had already and the European Union) that recited to Jesus the two great he felt that he had to visit the Commandments (to love God immigrants there and apologize with our entire being and to to them and to God for the suflove our neighbor as ourselves), fering that was going on there he now knew that Jesus was and in the Mediterranean Sea demanding that he love Sasurrounding Lampedusa. maritans as himself. It was not The Holy Father invoked the an enviable task for him. story of the Good Samaritan This past Monday Pope and said, “Today no one in our Francis visited the small Italian world feels responsible; we have

lost a sense of responsibility for our brothers and sisters. We have fallen into the hypocrisy of the priest and the Levite whom Jesus described in the parable of the Good Samaritan: we see our brother half dead on the side of the road, and perhaps we say to ourselves: ‘poor soul!,’ and then go on our way. It’s ‘not our responsibility,’ and with that we feel reassured, assuaged.”

We have heard the story of the Good Samaritan over and over again, but does it cause us to change? Does it cause us to love our neighbor as ourselves, both the neighbor in physical, emotional or spiritual need, who cries out for our help, and the neighbor whom we find repulsive for one reason or another (often, due to a sinful inclination inside

our own hearts)? Pope Francis said on Monday that his words were “some thoughts meant to challenge people’s consciences and lead them to reflection and a concrete change of heart.” Are we willing to allow God to do this in our hearts, which will result then in concrete actions taken by us?

This Sunday’s psalm reminds us, “For the Lord hears the poor, and His own who are in bonds He spurns not.” Although sometimes it appears that God is “taking His time” in responding to the suffering of people, it is not God Who is taking His time, it is us human beings, who could be responding with love and who are instead more preoccupied with our own selfish little worlds. May God help us break out of them.

Father Wilson is pastor of St. Vincent de Paul and St. John the Evangelist parishes in Attleboro.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. July 13, Gn 49:29-32;50:15-26a; Ps 105:1-4,6-7; Mt 10:24-33. Sun. July 14, Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Dt 30:10-14; Ps 69:14,17,30-31,33-34,36-37; Col 1:15-20; Lk 10:25-37. Mon. July 15, Ex 1:8-14,22; Ps 124:1-8; Mt 10:34—11:1. Tues. July 16, Ex 2:1-15a; Ps 69:3,14,30-31,33-34; Mt 11:20-24. Wed. July 17, Ex 3:1-6,9-12; Ps 103:1-4,6-7; Mt 11:25-27. Thurs. July 18, Ex 3:13-20; Ps 105:1,5,8-9,24-27; Mt 11:28-30.

Fri. July 19, Ex 11:10—12:14; Ps 116:12-13,15-18; Mt 12:1-8.

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esponses from rightminded Marriage proponents to the Supreme Court’s June 26 decisions in two cases involving the (re)definition of marriage seemed to come in three waves.

The immediate reaction, influenced no doubt by a partisan press, was that the friends of Marriage had suffered a severe, and perhaps lethal, blow when the court first struck down the key provision of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, and then denied standing to those challenging the judicial overturn of California’s “Proposition 8,” an initiative that restored the classic meaning of Marriage to California law.

The next, more considered reaction went something like this:

Continuing to fight for Marriage Marriage rightly understood “Hold on here. The Supreme involves an irrational bias — Court did not declare a constimake it much more difficult to tutional ‘right’ to ‘gay marriage.’

This is not another Roe v. Wade, fight this battle in state legisand the Court did not ‘national- latures, because the rhetorical ize’ the marriage debate by peremptorily settling it, like it tried to do with abortion in 1973.

The fight for Marriage rightly understood, and for an understanding of what government

By George Weigel simply cannot do, will go on in the states. Experience shows that the friends of Marriage, civil society, and moral high ground has and limited government can win been ceded to the proponents of ‘gay marriage.’” Moreover, the a lot of those battles.” understanding of marriage in The third reaction tempered the DOMA decision — marthe second: “Not so fast. The riage is an expression of personal terms in which DOMA was autonomy and lifestyle choice struck down — defense of — offers ground on which successful, state-level ‘limitations’ of ‘marriage’ to heterosexual couples will be challenged at the federal level.”

Contradictory reactions? At first blush, perhaps. But upon further review, as they say in the NFL, all three reactions make sense.

The initial reaction — these decisions were bad defeats for marriage rightly understood — was correct, both in terms of the defense of marriage and a proper understanding of constitutional

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

order. The DOMA and Prop 8 decisions were bizarre in their reasoning at some points, and notable for their lack of reasoning at others. The proponents of “gay marriage” and their media echo chamber knew what they were about when they popped the corks: they had won a major victory.

But it’s also true that it was not the Roe v.

Wade-type victory they sought. The proponents of marriage and limited government rightly understood — indeed, the defenders of reality-based law and public policy — have not been denied the opportunity to continue the fight at the state level.

And yet, on the other, other hand, those of us who propose to do precisely that have been labeled bigots and enemies of civility by a majority of the United States Supreme Court. The Court has implicitly accepted the absurd and offensive mantra of President Obama’s second inaugural address — “from Seneca Falls to Selma to Stonewall” — which identified the defenders of Marriage rightly understood with those who manned the fire hoses, wielded the billy clubs, and unleashed the attack dogs against peaceful civil rights

demonstrators in the 60s. Our opponents have been given high-caliber rhetorical weapons to launch against us; we need not doubt that they will. And if some way isn’t found to counter that false analogy between racial bigotry and Marriage rightly understood, we are not going to win many of state-level battles in this period when we’re permitted to conduct them.

So now what?

In the words of the “Red Tails,” the Tuskegee Airmen of World War II, “we fight, we fight, we fight.” For we are not only fighting in defense of Marriage rightly understood; we are fighting against what Benedict XVI often called the “dictatorship of relativism,” elements of which were ominously present in Justice Kennedy’s DOMA decision. Some of those battles will be won, and those expressions of popular will may further stay any temptation by the Supremes to settle this once and for all by federal diktat.

At the same time, and as I have suggested before, the Church must think through, even reconsider, its relationship to civil marriage.

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

July 12, 2013

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his month we will reflect upon how 20thcentury women are responding to God’s call. As they share unreservedly their gifts of love, forever changing our world, we can perhaps imagine a solution needed today and find the courage to take that first step. Let us begin with Helen Steiner Rice: “All nature heeds the call of spring as God awakens everything” is a powerful image from her poem “Eternal Spring.” As Steiner Rice was my mom’s favorite poet, I heard many of her poems during my formative years. She seemed to be prepared for anything. I finally learned Steiner Rice’s secret from a biography I read recently. When she was 16, she had to present a talk at a convention and was unsure what to do. So she asked God for guidance. “I asked my Father for help — as I have learned to do every time I make a speech or write a poem.”

Immediately she became confident as she felt God’s assurance. Isn’t that an example of what Jesus promised His followers? “Do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say. For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you” (Mt 10:19-20).

It is one thing to ask God to assist you when you know that you are choosing to do

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The Anchor

Women who follow Jesus — Part II

something for Our Lord. interior products, respectively.

However, how does one get They each found a way to proto the stage where one is sure mote women earning money what job God wishes of you? while working flexible hours Examining the life and words from their own home. In this of A. Wetherell Johnson who way, women could plan their founded the Bible Study day around their family. In Fellowship provides a practiher own way, each served as a cal example of this process of witness to Christ: Ash orgadiscernment. Although Johnson wished to be Wrestling with God an overseas missionary (to pagans), some Holding on for American women His blessing asked her to meet with them and discuss

By Dr. Helen Flavin Scripture. Johnson asked God, “Am I to give more to those who already have so much?” God’s nized her company around the answer was yes and the BSF “Golden Rule”; and Crowley was born. Johnson began with urged women to “Begin with a the premise that from person- dream … imagine yourself as al study of the Bible, through a co-worker with God. Expect the power of the Holy Spirit, that great things are going you find the purpose of God to happen, and then work to for you. Part of Johnson’s bring them about.” teaching was that after readExamples of women witing Scripture one should nessing through works for answer four questions: “What social justice include Rosa does it say? What did it mean Parks, Mary McLeod Bethune to people of that day? What and Elizabeth (Betty) Greene. does it mean to me? What am An exhausted Parks said no to I going to do about it?” It is an unjust law and refused to my belief that in the process give up her bus seat in 1955. of prayerful discernment for Her conviction for violating answering that last question that law triggered the Montthat one truly finds how to gomery bus boycott which respond best to God’s call. lasted more than a year! Parks’ There are women evangewords are, “God provided me lists in every occupation. Busi- with the strength I needed at ness examples include Mary the precise time when condiKay Ash and Mary Crowley tions were ripe for change.” who began direct sales comAnother example is Bethune. panies in cosmetics and home Her parents were former

slaves. Bethune was the only one of their children who finished her education. After being rejected for overseas ministry, Bethune founded her own school which served African-American girls. The school grew each year and is now known as BethuneCookman University.

The BCU motto is “Enter to Learn, Depart to Serve.” Another businesswoman/educator was Greene. She served as a Women Air Force Service Pilot in WWII. In 1945 she founded Mission Aviation Fellowship. MAF serves to share the love of Jesus through aviation and technology (http://www.maf.org/).

A common theme in the examples above is rejection of an early idea on how to serve Our Lord. Reflecting on this rejection provided an opportunity for each woman to refine her answer to the question; “How do I best use my individual talents now as needed in the world around me?” In addition, as these women continued on in their lives, they maintained that prayerful dialog with God as they negotiated growth and changes. An example illustrating the importance of being open to hearing God’s whispers of change is Blessed Mother Teresa. She describes this experience as her “call from within a call” from God.

Diocesan Health Facilities happenings

She had been serving God as a teacher in the Loreto convent for 17 years when one day in prayer she knew God had asked her to consecrate herself to the poor by living among them. That day was the start of the work that led to the founding of the Order of the Missionaries of Charity.

As you have read these past two columns, have you found one or more ways that you enjoy evangelizing for God? Is there one you wish to devote more time to, or is there a new area you wish to explore? As encouragement for each of us as we continue with the next step on this journey, let us hear from Steiner Rice again.

Her words are, “Time is not measured by the years that you live, but by the deeds that you do and the joy that you give” ( “The Joy of Unselfish Giving”).

[Endnote: One great place to start should you wish to find more examples is the book by Helen Kooiman Hosier, “100 Christian Women Who Changed the 20th Century.”]

Helen Flavin is a Catholic scientist, educator and writer born and raised in Fall River, is a member of St. Bernadette’s Parish and received her Ph.D. in neurochemistry from Boston College and teaches in the Chemistry Department at Rhode Island College. She is a science instructor at Bishop Connolly High School.

She can be reached at: hflavin@bishopconnolly.com.

Catholic Memorial Home appoints new Alzheimer’s Programming and Marketing director

Fall River — Catholic Memorial Home, a skilled nursing center and member of the Diocesan Health Facilities group, and one of the few facilities in Southeastern Massachusetts with a dedicated Alzheimer’s unit, has named John D. Rogers, LSW, as its Alzheimer’s Programming and Marketing director.

“We are excited to have John join the team at Catholic Memorial Home. John will be charged with all aspects of Alzheimer’s care programming in the facility and marketing our services to the community,” said Tom Healy, administrator at Catholic Memorial Home.

“We look to give the best Alzheimer’s care in the Fall River area. John has worked with families whose loved ones have been stricken with Alzheimer’s for his entire career as a social

worker, and his experience and knowledge of Alzheimer’s fits perfectly with our mission and commitment to Alzheimer’s care.”

“I am thrilled for my new position at Catholic Memorial Home,” said Rogers. “My goal in this role is to assess residents, support families, and share knowledge and experience with the team and families.”

Rogers is a graduate of UMass Dartmouth and has been a licensed social worker for 30 years. A member of the team that opened dementia units at Catholic Memorial Home and Somerset Ridge Center, Rogers has been a dementia caregiver support group leader for more than 20 years. In his past 30 years as a social worker, he has helped hundreds of family members

cope with the devastating effects of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Rog-

John D. Rogers

ers is known as one of the most knowledgeable professionals in Southeastern Massachusetts on the topic of Al-

zheimer’s disease.

Catholic Memorial Home is located at 2446 Highland Avenue in Fall River. For more information, visit www. catholicmemorialhome.org, or call 508-679-0011.

DHF representatives receive national dementia certification Diocesan Health Facilities is pleased to announce that more than 25 representatives from all five of the skilled nursing and rehab care facilities in the system have received certification from the National Council of Certified Dementia Practitioners.

The goal of the National Council of Certified Dementia Practitioners is to develop and encourage comprehensive standards of excellence in direct-care skills, education, and sensitivity in the area of dementia care. The council was

formed to promote standards of excellence in dementia education to professionals and other caregivers who provide services to dementia clients and residents.

Employees from Catholic Memorial Home in Fall River; Madonna Manor in North Attleboro; Marian Manor in Taunton; Our Lady’s Haven in Fairhaven; and Sacred Heart Home in New Bedford have successfully completed the requirements of the National Council of Certified Dementia Practitioners and have been credentialed for two years. The council offers continuing educations resources to all those credentialed in order for them to continue to maintain the highest standards of care when caring for those affected with dementia.

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July 12, 2013

Pope clears the way for the canonizations of John XXIII and John Paul II

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis signed a decree clearing the way for the canonization of Blessed John Paul II and has decided also to ask the world’s cardinals to vote on the canonization of Blessed John XXIII, even in the absence of a miracle.

After Pope Francis met with Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes, the Vatican published a list of decrees the pope approved related to Blessed John Paul’s canonization and 11 other sainthood causes.

Publishing the decrees, the Vatican also said, “The supreme pontiff approved the favorable votes of the ordinary session of the cardinals and bishops regarding the canonization of Blessed John XXIII (Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli) and has decided to convoke a consistory that will also involve the canonization of Blessed John Paul II.” Normally, after a pope signs a decree

recognizing the miracle needed for a canonization, the pope consults with cardinals around the world and calls a consistory — a gathering attended by any cardinal who wants and is able to attend — where those present voice their support for the pope’s decision to proclaim a new saint.

A date for a canonization ceremony is announced formally only during or immediately after the consistory.

The cardinals and archbishops who are members of the saints’ congregation met at the Vatican July 2 and voted in favor of the pope recognizing as a miracle the healing of Floribeth Mora Diaz, a Costa Rican who was suffering from a brain aneurysm and recovered after prayers through the intercession of Blessed John Paul.

The congregation members, according to news reports, also looked at the cause of Blessed John and voted to ask Pope Francis to canonize him with-

Blessed John XXIII

Blessed John Paul II

out requiring a miracle. According to Church rules — established by the pope and subject to changes by him — a miracle is needed after beatification to make a candidate eligible for canonization.

Jesuit Father Paolo Molinari, the longtime head of the College of Postulators — or promoters of sainthood causes — has explained that in the sainthood process, miracles are “the confirmation by God of a judgment made by human beings” that the candidate really is in Heaven.

But, Father Molinari also has said that for decades theologians have explored the possibility that such a confirmation could come by means other than someone experiencing a physical healing. For instance, Blessed John Paul beatified Victoire Rasoamanarivo in Madagascar in 1989 after accepting as a miracle the case of a wind-swept brush fire stopping at the edge of a vil-

lage whose inhabitants invoked her intercession.

Announcing the decision about Blessed John’s cause, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said the discussions about the need for miracles and what can be defined as an acceptable miracle continue. However, he said, the movement in the late pope’s cause does not indicate a general change in Church policy.

The members of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes “have expressed their hope, and the Holy Father has accepted it,” Father Lombardi said. If Pope Francis “had any doubts, we wouldn’t be here” announcing the consistory to approve Blessed John’s canonization.

“As we all know very well, John XXIII is a person beloved in the Church. We are in the 50th anniversary year of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, which he convoked. And I think none of us has any doubts about John XXIII’s virtues,” the spokesman said. “So, the Holy Father is looking toward his canonization.”

Father Lombardi also noted that no date for a canonization ceremony was announced, but it is likely that the two popes will be canonized together, possibly “by the end of the year.”

The other decrees approved by Pope Francis July 5 recognized: — The miracle needed for beatification of Spanish Bishop Alvaro del Portillo, who in 1975 succeeded St. Jose Maria Escriva as head of Opus Dei. Bishop del Portillo died in 1994.

— The miracle needed for the beatification of Maria Josefa Alhama Valera, also known as Mother Esperanza, the Spanish founder of the Handmaids of Merciful Love and the Sons of Merciful Love. She died in Italy in 1983.

— The martyrdom of four groups of priests and nuns killed during the Spanish Civil War in 1936-1939.

— The heroic virtues of three founders of religious orders; an Italian priest; and an Italian layman.

July 12, 2013

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

“Despicable Me 2” (Universal) Sweet animated sequel in which the never very wicked and now thoroughly reformed villain of the original film (voice of Steve Carell) teams with a secret agent (voice of Kristen Wiig) to identify the perpetrator of a crime of global significance and foil his plan for world domination.

Along the way, romance blooms between the two partners, much to the satisfaction of our hero’s three adoptive daughters (voices of Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier and Elsie Fisher). Some potty humor aside, co-directors Chris Renaud and Pierre Coffin’s follow-up to their 2010 feature is a thoroughly endearing comedy that showcases the transformative power of both romantic love and family affection and provides morally suitable entertainment for all ages. Occasional, mostly mild scatological humor, a few perilous situations. The Catholic News Service classification is A-I — general patronage. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG — parental guidance suggested. Some

material may not be suitable for children.

“The Lone Ranger” (Disney) Eccentric and overlong reinterpretation of the familiar crime-fighting partnership between the titular hero (Armie Hammer) of the frontier and his faithful Native American companion, Tonto ( Johnny Depp).

Here an elderly, whimsical Tonto recounts the circumstances that initially brought them together as well as their struggle to capture a viciously depraved outlaw (William Fichtner). Set primarily amidst the race to complete the transcontinental railroad, with Tom Wilkinson playing a shady train company executive, director Gore Verbinski’s action comedy offers a warning about the corrupting influence of greed.

But one of the aspects of European culture that gets trounced is Christianity, with believers shown up as either weaklings or hypocrites. Indian spirituality and values, by contrast, are generally glorified. A negative treatment of Christian faith, considerable action violence with some gore, mature themes, including cannibalism and prostitution, a transvestite character, brief scatological imagery and humor, at least one crass term. The Catholic News Service classification is L — limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. 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 14, 11:00 a.m.

Celebrant is Father Freddie Babiczuk, pastor of St. John of God Parish in Somerset

M

July 12, 2013

Is it wrong for me now to buy health insurance?

rial cooperation — when any individuals and your assistance is essential business owners to the evil action — is never are struggling in conscience morally permissible, but meabout whether to purchase diate material cooperation — health insurance coverage, when your assistance is ineither for themselves or for cidental or remote from the their employees, on account bad activity itself — may be of the Health and Human Services Mandate. A provision allowable under temporary of PPACA (ObamaCare), the extenuating circumstances.

It could be allowable as long mandate requires “preventive as the cooperator manifests health services” to be covered resolute opposition to the by all health insurance issuers and all group health plans. evil and takes reasonable steps to limit and ultimately Those insurance plans must provide coverage (with no co- eliminate that cooperation. pay) for the full range of Food This is a key difference and Drug Administration-ap- between allowable toleration proved contraceptive methods for women.

These include not Making Sense only surgical sterilizaOut of tions, but also potential abortion-causing Bioethics agents such as Plan

By Father Tad B (the morning-after Pacholczyk pill), intrauterine devices and another form of “emergency contraception” known as “ella.” and tacit approval.

In evaluating the specifThis drug, which the FDA ics of the HHS mandate, the acknowledges may also work National Catholic Bioethagainst the life of the embryo ics Center has reached the “by preventing attachment provisional conclusion that (implantation) to the uterus,” paying premiums for a policy can be taken up to five days that also includes coverage after sex.

The chief moral concern, of for the above-mentioned procedures, devices and drugs course, is that by purchasing (while opposing the mandate) such mandated coverage, an does not appear to involve individual would be subsidizing pharmaceutical abortions, an individual in immediate material cooperation in evil, contraceptives and sterilizabecause a number of interventions for others, and business ing causes are likely to exist owners would similarly be between the paying of the subsidizing these procedures premiums by a subscriber, and for their employees through their health plans. Employers, the action of another enrollee in other words, would provide who chooses to engage in one of the immoral activities. coverage for (and thereby The key difference between potentially facilitate) variacceptable and unacceptable ous acts of vice on the part of forms of material cooperation their employees, and all who involves the “causal distance” pay for health insurance covbetween what we do by our erage would potentially fund act of cooperation, and the act and thereby support the vice of the other person using the of their neighbors. This raises abortifacient substance or the the serious moral concern of contraceptive that is covered “cooperation in evil.” by the health plan into which In general terms, any we have paid. The paying of cooperation in evil should be avoided, or at least minimized the premiums does not appear to be causally immediate to to the extent prudently posthe chosen action of direct sible. By purchasing a policy sterilization, abortion or conwith problematic inclusions, traception. one would likely cooperate To put it another way, pay“materially” in the commission of various evils by others, ment into a healthcare plan that includes coverage for imbut the debate on this matmoral procedures would only ter hinges on whether that “make possible,” but would material cooperation should not “bring about” the evil be considered “immediate” or action of the principal agent, “mediate.” Immediate mate-

and hence would represent mediate material cooperation on the part of the person paying into the plan. Such a payment could be made, albeit under protest.

Thus, the position of the NCBC is that individuals purchasing insurance under the HHS mandate could choose to do so licitly as mediate material cooperation assuming a proportionately serious reason, and a lack of suitable alternatives, and an ongoing effort to resist/oppose this unjust mandate through case-appropriate means. A proportionately serious reason is often likely to exist, because of the seriousness of our obligation to care for our health.

For business owners, meanwhile, it is a particularly difficult question, and they may find it best to discontinue providing health insurance to their employees (even though they may have to pay associated fines). The NCBC discusses this option, and some of the morally relevant factors surrounding such a decision, in its analysis available at: http:// www.ncbcenter.org/document. doc?id=450&erid=0 The HHS Mandate represents bureaucratically-coerced personal and institutional involvement in the commission of a intrinsic evils. No person should ever be coerced by the state to be directly complicit in such acts. The HHS Mandate is an affront to every American. It is immoral and offensive. If the government’s current attempt to coerce Americans into violating their most deeply held convictions doesn’t breach their religious freedom, then nothing does. No individual or institution should have to be concerned about violating their conscience when they merely seek to safeguard the well-being of themselves, their families, or their employees by purchasing health insurance.

Father Pacholczyk earned his doctorate in neuroscience from Yale and did post-doctoral work at Harvard. He is a priest of the Diocese of Fall River, and serves as the director of Education at The National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia. See www.ncbcenter.org.

July 12, 2013

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Pope calls for repentance over treatment of migrants

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Before saying a word publicly, Pope Francis made the sign of the cross and tossed a wreath of white and yellow flowers into the Mediterranean Sea in memory of the estimated 20,000 African immigrants who have died in the past 25 years trying to reach a new life in Europe.

Just a few hours before Pope Francis arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa, the Italian coast guard accompanied another boat carrying immigrants to the island’s port.

The 165 immigrants, one of whom said they were originally from Mali, had spent two days at sea making the crossing from North Africa; the immigrants were accompanied to a government reception center, a locked facility where 112 people — half under the age of 18 — already were being housed. Most will be repatriated, although a few may receive refugee status.

In his homily at an outdoor Mass, Pope Francis said he decided to visit Lampedusa, a small island with a population of 6,000 and just 70 miles from Tunisia, after seeing newspaper headlines in June describing the drowning of immigrants at sea.

“Those boats, instead of being a means of hope, were a means of death,” he said.

Wearing purple vestments, like those used during Lent, and using the prayers from

the Mass for the Forgiveness of Sins, Pope Francis said the deaths of the immigrants are “like a thorn in the heart,” which spurred him to offer public prayers for them, but also to try to awaken people’s

“Today no one feels responsible for this,” he said. “We have lost a sense of fraternal responsibility” and are acting like those in the Gospel who saw the man who had been beaten, robbed and left on the road half

sitive to the cries of others,” Pope Francis said, adding that the globalization of the world’s economy in many cases has led to “the globalization of indifference.”

Still, the pope praised the

the altar was built over a small boat; the pastoral staff the pope used was carved from wood recycled from a shipwrecked boat; the lectern was made from old wood as well and had a ship’s wheel mounted on the front; and even the chalice — although lined with silver — was carved from the wood of a wrecked boat.

“Who among us has wept” for the immigrants, for the dangers they faced and for the thousands who died at sea, the pope asked. “The globalization of indifference has taken from us the ability to weep.”

“Let us ask the Lord for the grace to weep over our indifference, to weep over the cruelty in the world, in ourselves, and even in those who anonymously make socio-economic decisions that open the way to tragedies like this,” Pope Francis said.

Explaining why he chose a penitential Liturgy, the pope said, “We ask forgiveness for our indifference toward so Workers paint waves on a mural in front of the altar Lampedusa, Italy. Pope Francis celebrated Mass and many brothers and sisters” and prayed for immigrants lost at sea when he visited the island July 8. Located about 70 miles from Tunisia, for the ways in which wellthe island has been the destination for thousands of African immigrants seeking a better life in Europe. being has “anesthetized our (CNS photo/Paul Haring) hearts.”

In addition, the pope prayed consciences. for the forgiveness of “those, many Lampedusa residents, who with their decisions at the “Who is responsible for the dead, but they kept walking.

“Maybe we think, ‘Oh, poor as well as the volunteers and global level, have created situblood of these brothers and sisters of ours?” the pope asked in soul,’ but we continue on our public security officers who do ations that lead to these tragwhat they can to help the mi- edies.” his homily. “All of us respond: way,” the pope said.

“The culture of well-being, grants who reach their shores.

‘It wasn’t me. I have nothing to The United Nations has Traditionally fishers and criticized Italy for conditions do with it. It was others, cer- which leads us to think only of ourselves, makes us insen- tourism operators, the people at the Lampedusa reception tainly not me.’” of Lampedusa have spent de- center, which it says can hold cades dealing with the impact 190 people. The United NaPope consecrates Vatican City to St. Joseph, St. Michael the Archangel of immigrant arrivals and po- tions also has questioned the VATICAN CITY (CNS) The devil’s head is “crushed, Pope Francis asked the arch- litical battles over immigration quick pace of Italian processing, — With Pope Emeritus Bene- because Salvation was accom- angel to help ensure that the policies. which sees only a handful of When the seas are calm, es- immigrants being given refugee dict XVI sitting next to him, plished once for all with the Vatican be a place of fidelity to the Gospel and the “exercise of pecially when there are wars status and the rest being flown Pope Francis formally recited Blood of Christ.” and political upheaval in north- back to Libya — the usual emseparate prayers to consecrate “In consecrating Vatican heroic charity.”

He also prayed that St. Mi- ern Africa, the desperate pay barkation point — within a Vatican City to St. Joseph and City to St. Michael the Archto St. Michael the Archangel. angel, we ask him to defend us chael would intercede to help traffickers to give them a place matter of days.

The recent early morning from the evil one and cast him “make us victorious over the on a boat bound for Europe.

At the same time, other ceremony in the Vatican Gar- out,” the pope said. “We also temptations of power, riches Usually the boats are rickety European countries have comdens featured the unveiling of consecrate Vatican City to St. and sensuality” and keep Vati- and dangerously overcrowded. plained that Italy does not paAfter getting off the coast trol the European borders well a new statue of St. Michael, Joseph, the guardian of Jesus, can employees strong in “the guard boat that took him to sea, enough to keep out immigrants sculpted by Giuseppe Antonio the guardian of the Holy Fam- good fight of the faith.”

Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, Pope Francis personally greeted who do not have legal permisLomuscio. The project, along ily. May his presence make us with a fountain by Franco even stronger and more coura- retired president of the com- more than 50 immigrants. One sion to enter their countries.

Murer dedicated to St. Jo- geous in giving space to God mission overseeing Vatican of them, speaking in Arabic, Giusi Nicolini, Lampeseph, was initiated under Pope in our lives in order to always City State, told those assem- told the pope that he and his dusa’s mayor, told reporters bled for the prayers that Pope fellow travelers had dealt with he hoped Pope Francis’ visit Benedict. overcome evil with good.”

Pope Francis said the statue In his prayers for the for- Francis had decided that both several traffickers before reach- would “change history. Europe, of St. Michael with his sword mal consecrations, Pope Fran- his coat of arms and Pope ing Italy. with its migration policies, has Pope Francis told the crowd avoided the problem up until piercing the devil is “an invita- cis asked St. Joseph to “watch Benedict’s should be on the tion to reflection and prayer.” over and give peace to this land plaque marking the dedica- at Mass that the traffickers now, pretending not to see the “Michael fights to re-estab- bathed by the blood of St. Pe- tion of the statue of St. Mi- “exploit the poverty of others” immense tragedy of the voyages lish Divine justice,” he said. ter,” increase the faith of Vati- chael. It also is inscribed with and are “people for whom the of hope across the Mediterra“He defends the people of can employees and visitors and the date, including the nota- poverty of others is a source of nean.”

God from their enemies, espe- strengthen the vocations of all tion that it was made during income.”

The pope, she said, “has made The Mass was filled with the invisible visible, restoring to cially the enemy par excellence, the “bishops, priests, consecrat- the eighth year of Pope Benethe devil.” ed women and lay faithful who dict’s pontificate and the first reminders that Lampedusa is the migrants the dignity which year of the pontificate of Pope now synonymous with danger- countries always have denied The statue is a reminder that work and live in the Vatican.” ous attempts to reach Europe: them.” evil never wins, the pope said.

In the prayer to St. Michael, Francis.

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July 12, 2013

In first encyclical, pope celebrates faith as the light of human life VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis’ first encyclical, “Lumen Fidei” (“The Light of Faith”), is a celebration of Christian faith as the guiding light of a “successful and fruitful life,” inspiring social action as well as devotion to God, and illuminating “every aspect of human existence,” including philosophy and the natural sciences.

The document, released July 5, completes a papal trilogy on the three “theological virtues,” following Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclicals “Deus Caritas Est” (2005) on charity and “Spe Salvi” (2007) on hope. Publication of the encyclical was one of the most awaited events of the Year of Faith which began in October 2012.

Pope Benedict “had almost completed a first draft of an encyclical on faith” before his retirement in February 2013, Pope Francis writes, adding that “I have taken up his fine work and added a few contributions of my own.”

Commentators will likely differ in attributing specific passages, but the document clearly recalls the writings of Pope Benedict in its extensive treatment of the dialogue between faith and reason and its many citations of St. Augustine, not to mention references to Friedrich Nietzsche and Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

On other hand, warnings of the dangers of idolatry, Gnosticism and Pharisaism, a closing prayer to Mary as the “perfect icon of faith,” and an entire section on the relevance of faith to earthly justice and peace echo themes that Pope Francis has already made signatures of his young pontificate.

“Lumen Fidei” begins with a

brief survey of the Biblical his- preme manifestation of God’s Church the gift of Apostolic suctory of faith, starting with God’s love,” Pope Francis writes. “He is cession. Through this means, the call to Abraham to leave his land also the One with Whom we are continuity of the Church’s mem— “the beginning of an exodus united precisely in order to be- ory is ensured and certain access which points him to an uncertain lieve. Faith does not merely gaze can be had to the wellspring from future” — and God’s promise at Jesus, but sees things as Jesus which faith flows.”

Accordingly, members of the that Abraham will be “father of a Himself sees them, with His own great nation.” eyes: it is a participation in His hierarchy stand as the authoritative teachers of the contents of The Bible also illustrates how way of seeing.” men and women break faith with This participation means that Christian faith.

The “magisterium of the God by worshipping subpope and the bishops in stitutes for Him. communion with him,” the “Idols exist, we begin to pope writes, “ensures our see, as a pretext for setting contact with the primordiourselves at the center of al source and thus provides reality and worshipping the the certainty of attaining to work of our own hands,” the Word of Christ in all its the pope writes. “Once man integrity.” has lost the fundamental Yet faith in its fullness is orientation which unifies more than doctrine, Pope his existence, he breaks Francis writes; it is “the down into the multiplicity new light born of an enof his desires. Idolatry, then, counter with the true God, is always polytheism, an a light which touches us at aimless passing from one the core of our being and lord to another.”

Pope Francis sees an- “Faith becomes a summons to a lengthy jour- engages our minds, wills other way of turning from ney leading to worship of the Lord on Sinai and and emotions, opening us God in the Pharisees’ belief the inheritance of a promised land,” says the to relationships lived in that salvation is possible encyclical “Lumen Fidei” (“The Light of Faith”) communion.”

Thus the primary means through good works alone. from Pope Francis. Pictured is a woman praying on Mount Moses in Sinai, Egypt. (CNS file of transmitting faith is not “Those who live this photo/Goran Tomasevic, Reuters) a book or a homily, but way, who want to be the the Sacraments, especialsource of their own righteousness, find that the latter is faith inevitably makes a Christian ly Baptism and the Eucharist, soon depleted and that they are part of Christ’s mystical Body, the which “communicate an incarnate memory, linked to the times unable even to keep the law,” the Church. pope writes. “Salvation by faith “It is impossible to believe on and places of our lives, linked to means recognizing the primacy our own,” the pope writes. “By its all our senses; in them the whole of God’s gift.” very nature, faith is open to the person is engaged as a member Faith finds its fulfillment in ‘we’ of the Church; it always takes of a living subject and part of a network of communitarian relathe life, death and Resurrection place within her communion.” of Jesus Christ, the pope writes.

The Church transmits the faith tionships.”

The belief that the “Son of By virtue of His humanity, Jesus across time “through an unbrois the object of faith and the ulti- ken chain of witnesses,” allowing God took on our flesh” and “enmate model and mediator for all us to “see the Face of Jesus,” Pope tered our human history” also believers.

Francis writes. “As a service to leads Christians “to live our lives “Christ is not simply the One the unity of faith and its integral in this world with ever greater in Whom we believe, the su- transmission, the Lord gave His commitment and intensity,” the

pope writes, arguing that faith inspires the use of human reason and pursuit of the common good.

For faith, Pope Francis writes, truth is not attainable through autonomous reason alone but requires love, a “relational way of viewing the world, which then becomes a form of shared knowledge, vision through the eyes of another and a shared vision of all that exists.”

By affirming the “inherent order” and harmony of the material world, and “by stimulating wonder before the profound mystery of creation,” Christian faith encourages scientific research, while dispelling the philosophical relativism that has produced a “crisis of truth in our age.”

Faith also inspires respect for the natural environment, by allowing believers to “discern in it a grammar written by the hand of God and a dwelling place entrusted to our protection and care.”

According to Pope Francis, faith has proven itself essential to the promotion of “justice, law and peace,” by contrast with failed modern ideologies that also claimed those goals.

“Modernity sought to build a universal brotherhood based on equality,” he writes, “yet we gradually came to realize that this brotherhood, lacking a common reference to a common father as its ultimate foundation, cannot endure.

“We need to return to the true basis of brotherhood,” the pope writes. “Faith teaches us to see that every man and woman represents a blessing for me, that the light of God’s face shines on me through the faces of my brothers and sisters.”

New encyclical is a spiritual ‘light,’ says Vatican publisher Vatican City (CNA/ EWTN News) — As its title suggests, “Lumen Fidei,” — the first encyclical by Pope Francis, released July 5 — is truly a “light,” said Father Giuseppe Costa, director of the Vatican Publishing House.

In an interview with CNA, he described the new encyclical as “really beautiful and spiritually exciting.”

“It well portrays the spirit of a spiritual renewal. It really is a light.”

Father Costa observed that “Lumen Fidei,” which translates as “The Light of Faith,” contains a style that is “part Benedict’s and part Francis’, especially the introduction where Pope Francis makes the

encyclical his own.”

However, unlike other commentators, he said that he would not describe the encyclical as being “written by four hands.”

“Pope Francis presents the encyclical as his,” the priest explained. “This was a gesture of spiritual fraternity between his predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis himself. This is why I would not say that the encyclical has been written by four hands.”

In the document’s introduction, Pope Francis notes that the Benedict XVI had worked before his resignation to nearly finish a first draft of the encyclical. Pope Francis explains that “as his brother in Christ

I have taken up his fine work and added a few contributions of my own.”

During the document’s release, Archbishop Gerhard L. Mueller pointed out that the document bears only the signature of Pope Francis and not of the former pope because “the Church has just one pope.”

Discussing his work at the publishing house, Father Costa told CNA that “serving Pope Francis is no different from serving Benedict XVI. We are simply at the service of the pope.”

The only difference lies in the approach, he explained, saying that “Benedict XVI’s audience was of a high cultural level and connected with a cul-

tural stimulus that could be gained from Ratzinger’s writings.”

He said that Pope Francis also offers writings that are “full of stimuli” but described him as having “a straight-forward approach based on the observation of reality.”

Father Costa maintains that “behind Pope Francis’ simplicity there is a great understanding of the human being and a considerable ability to think critically.”

The Vatican Publishing House owns all of the pope’s copyrights since the moment of his election, and has already published several collections of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s writings and homilies,

as well as the first speeches and homilies that he delivered as pope.

Father Costa said that “books of and on Pope Francis are having an amazing reception. I can say that a message of hope is spreading.”

The Vatican Publishing House will distribute 400,000 copies of the Italian version of the encyclical. It has also authorized four Catholic publishing houses in Italy to produce a customized edition of the encyclical.

The distribution of the encyclical in foreign countries is being taken care of by nuncios and bishops’ conferences throughout the world, Father Costa said.

15

The Anchor

July 12, 2013

Excerpts from Pope Francis’ encyclical ‘Lumen Fidei’ VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Here are excerpts from Pope Francis’ first encyclical, “Lumen Fidei” (“The Light of Faith”), released July 5: Introduction: — Those who believe, see; they see with a light that illumines their entire journey, for it comes from the Risen Christ, the Morning Star which never sets.

— ... In the absence of light everything becomes confused; it is impossible to tell good from evil, or the road to our destination from other roads which take us in endless circles, going nowhere.

We Have Believed in Love — Faith, tied as it is to conversion, is the opposite of idolatry; it breaks with idols to turn to the living God in a personal encounter. Believing means entrusting oneself to a merciful love which always accepts and pardons, which sustains and directs our lives, and which shows its power by its ability to make straight the crooked lines of our history. Faith consists in the willingness to let ourselves be constantly transformed and renewed by God’s call.

— Our culture has lost its sense of God’s tangible presence and activity in our world. We think that God is to be found in the beyond, on another level of reality, far removed from our everyday relationships. But if this were the case, if God could not act in the world, His love would not be truly powerful, truly real, and thus not even true, a love capable of delivering the bliss that it promises. Christians, on the contrary, profess their faith in God’s tangible and powerful love, which really does act in history and determines its final destiny: a love that can be encountered, a love fully revealed in Christ’s Passion, death and Resurrection.

— Faith is necessarily ecclesial; it is professed from within the Body of

Christ as a concrete communion of believers. It is against this ecclesial backdrop that faith opens the individual Christian toward all others. Faith is not a private matter, a completely individualistic notion or a personal opinion: it comes from hearing,

people’s day-to-day lives.

The truth we seek, the truth that gives meaning to our journey through life, enlightens us whenever we are touched by love.

— This discovery of love as a source of knowledge, which is part of the primordial experience of ev-

of that love, penetrates to the core of our human experience. Each of us comes to the light because of love, and each of us is called to love in order to remain in the light.

— The light of love proper to faith can illumine the questions of

The words faith, love, light and God appear most frequently in the encyclical “Lumen Fidei” (“The Light of Faith”) by Pope Francis. The size of the words in this display are proportionate to the number of times they were used in the papal letter. The word cloud was created using Tagxedo. (CNS)

and it is meant to find expression in words and to be proclaimed.

Unless You Believe, You Will Not Understand — Faith without truth does not save, it does not provide a sure footing. It remains a beautiful story, the projection of our deep yearning for happiness, something capable of satisfying us to the extent that we are willing to deceive ourselves. Either that, or it is reduced to a lofty sentiment which brings consolation and cheer, yet remains prey to the vagaries of our spirit and the changing seasons, incapable of sustaining a steady journey through life.

— Love and truth are inseparable. Without love, truth becomes cold, impersonal and oppressive for

ery man and woman, finds authoritative expression in the Biblical understanding of faith. In savoring the love by which God chose them and made them a people, Israel came to understand the overall unity of the divine plan. Faithknowledge, because it is born of God’s covenantal love, is knowledge which lights up a path in history.

— By His taking flesh and coming among us, Jesus has touched us, and through the Sacraments He continues to touch us even today; transforming our hearts, He unceasingly enables us to acknowledge and acclaim Him as the Son of God. — Christian faith, inasmuch as it proclaims the truth of God’s total love and opens us to the power

our own time about truth.

Truth nowadays is often reduced to the subjective authenticity of the individual, valid only for the life of the individual. A common truth intimidates us, for we identify it with the intransigent demands of totalitarian systems. But if truth is a truth of love, if it is a truth disclosed in personal encounter with the other and with others, then it can be set free from its enclosure in individuals and become part of the common good.

I Delivered to You What I Also Received — Those who have opened their hearts to God’s love, heard His voice and received His light cannot keep this gift to themselves. Since faith is hearing and seeing, it is also

handed on as Word and light. Faith is passed on, we might say, by contact, from one person to another, just as one candle is lighted from another.

— Precisely because all the articles of faith are interconnected, to deny one of them, even of those that seem least important, is tantamount to distorting the whole. Each period of history can find this or that point of faith easier or harder to accept: hence the need for vigilance in ensuring that the deposit of faith is passed on in its entirety (cf. 1 Tm 6:20) and that all aspects of the profession of faith are duly emphasized.

God Prepares a City for Them — Faith is truly a good for everyone; it is a common good. Its light does not simply brighten the interior of the Church, nor does it serve solely to build an eternal city in the hereafter; it helps us build our societies in such a way that they can journey toward a future of hope.

— The first setting in which faith enlightens the human city is the family.

I think first and foremost of the stable union of man and woman in Marriage.

This union is born of their love, as a sign and presence of God’s own love, and of the acknowledgment and acceptance of the goodness of sexual differentiation, whereby spouses can become one flesh (cf. Gn 2:24) and are enabled to give birth to a new life, a manifestation of the Creator’s goodness, wisdom and loving plan.

— Faith is not a light which scatters all our darkness, but a lamp which guides our steps in the night and suffices for the journey. To those who suffer, God does not provide arguments which explain everything; rather, His response is that of an accompanying presence, a history of goodness which touches every story of suffering and opens up a ray of light.

16

Youth Pages

July 12, 2013

Coyle student selected as delegate to the Global Youth Summit

Pre-kindergarten students at Our Lady of Lourdes School in Taunton had fun on “Bubble Day.” The children made their own bubble blowers, colored bubbles and bubble art. It was a fun day to experiment with bubbles.

Waltham — Brandeis University announced the final delegation to the Global Youth Summit on the Future of Medicine and has selected Jonathan LaChance to represent Coyle and Cassidy High School in Taunton and the state of Massachusetts at the summit.

“The next generation of health care providers will practice in an environment hard to imagine just a few years ago.

Leading-edge science is rapidly changing the daily practice of health care” said Steven Goldstein, MA, MD, PhD, FAAP, chairman of the Global Youth Summit; Provost, Brandeis University; and former chairman of Pediatrics and Physician-in-Chief of The Comer Children’s Hospital at the University of Chicago. “We are in the midst of the most significant and fundamental change in health care delivery in our

lifetime and young people who start now will be the future leaders in the field of medicine.”

Aligning with the Brandeis’ elite admissions standards, only students with exceptional academic records and test scores as well as documented interest in a medical or health career were invited to apply.

Out of the hundreds of outstanding applicants, LaChance is one of only 175 delegates selected for the inaugural program. Delegates to the summit will gain unique, behindthe-scenes insight into the dynamic world of health care through experiential learning, guest lectures and networking opportunities with leaders and innovators in the global medical community in order to build upon their already significant abilities and chart their path to becoming leaders in medicine.

St.Mary-Sacred Heart School in North Attleboro recently held its annual field day at the Hockomock YMCA. The eighth-grade class planned the day with the gym teacher as their way of saying good-bye to the younger classes. They planned games like “drip drip drop,” “buffalo tag,” “capture the flag,” and more. The parent association also worked with the eighth-grade students to help monitor the kids as well as cook burgers and dogs on the grill. Here, some fourth-graders pose with Tracey MacGill.

Massachusetts State Police Officer Chris Dumont recently visited St. James-St. John School in New Bedford.

Fifth-grade students in Sister Mary Dumond’s Language Arts class at St. John the Evangelist School in Attleboro read the book “The Marble Champ.” The students had to make game-boards with a special theme. They worked in groups and/or individually. Moving from one game to another, the groups followed written directions to play the games. According to Sister Mary, “Eleven board games emerged and we enjoyed two days from possible future game-board designers!” Shown here are Paul Shannon, Olivia Grivers, Isabella Simoneau and Emily Antonik playing the game “Race to the Pope” made by Brad Kogut, Jillian Margetta, and McKenzie Killough.

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

Youth Pages A day in the life

July 12, 2013

I

’ve always thought about doing a “day in the life of Father.” Whenever I sat down to do it, I changed my mind because everything that week was a bit different than normal. The idea of making up a day didn’t sit well with me. I finally realized that I don’t think I would actually find a normal day because there really isn’t a normal day.

So, here we go, a day in the life of Father David: Monday: July 1 5 a.m.: I prefer to get up early each day. This has been a struggle the past couple of years being a chaplain at a university. Not much happens in college ministry early in the morning. Actually, when I think about it, not much happens on a college early in the morning.

My day begins with two of my favorite things: the Psalms and coffee. Each day I pray the Office of Readings and Morning Prayer from the “Liturgy of the Hours.”

Priests and religious are required to pray the “Liturgy of the Hours” each day. It helps keep us focused on Christ throughout the day and since it is a Liturgy, an official work of the Church, it keeps us connected to the

universality of the Church as it online, again for those well. The coffee part is selfwho couldn’t join us at Mass explanatory. because of work, illness or Part of this prayer time they are away. In the past I also includes a practice called was told by college students lectio. This is a practice of and those in the military that prayerfully reflecting on a they will check in to listen to Scripture passage. I use the the homilies when they are Mass readings for the day for feeling homesick. Now, more my lectio. From this prayer I come up with a brief thought which will form the basis of my homily at Mass. I then post the thought on my social media

By Father profiles as a way of David C. Frederici preaching the Word to those who may not be able to join us at Mass. coffee!

7 a.m.: To the parish office 8:30 a.m.: I need to touch and a quick look over the base with the secretary. I just schedule for the day. Today became pastor of a parish a there is a lot scheduled, but few days before. As a result, most of it is here in the office. I am still learning some the 7:30 a.m.: Mass. What processes and procedures of a great way to start the day! the community.

This is an opportunity to 9-11 a.m.: This morning gather with other members of I have some appointments the family of faith, to pray for with members of different one another, our Church, our organizations within the world. Above all, we receive parish. As with any parish, the Lord in the Eucharist. there are a lot of different I’ll need the extra strength groups that do different to have the energy to get things, but they are all through the day. attached to the one mission of 8 a.m.: I recorded the building up the Kingdom of homily at Mass, now to post God. I am learning what each

Be Not Afraid

17 group does, their strengths and the challenges they face.

11 a.m.: Have to run a few errands in town as part of the transition and move to a new town. I think in the future this time will be used to visit parishioners in the hospital.

11:45 a.m.: Midday prayer, also part of the “Liturgy of the Hours.” A nice chance to spend a few minutes to rejuvenate and remind myself why I do what I do: to serve the Lord above all else.

12:30 p.m.: Lunch with a couple of the staff.

1 p.m.: Staff meeting. This is the first meeting of the staff since I became pastor. We have some new staff members too, so it is important for us to spend some time to learn about each other and what we are doing so we can truly be a team.

2:15 a.m.: A break between meetings. I need to take look over some notes from this morning’s meetings. I have a staff meeting tomorrow with the campus ministry staff at UMass Dartmouth, so I need to look over that information.

Also, I’m not sure what I will have for time tomorrow, so I

better do some prep for my meeting Wednesday morning at Bristol Community College (working on re-starting a campus ministry program there).

3-4 p.m.: A couple more meetings on other aspects of the life of the parish.

5:15 p.m.: Heading home.

A quick change of clothes, and then evening prayer.

Soon I will be heading out to join some brother priests for dinner. I find these opportunities very special and life-giving. It is a nice form of support and I have learned a lot in my 12 years as a priest from listening to the veterans share their stories and thoughts on parish ministry.

That sums up that day.

Each day ends with some reading and of course, night prayer. Looking ahead to next week; next Monday’s schedule is very different and will go late into the night. What won’t change: time with God and a desire to do what He needs me to do.

Father Frederici is pastor of St. John the Evangelist Parish in Pocasset and diocesan director of Campus Ministry and Chaplain at UMass Dartmouth and Cape Cod Community College.

school where boys from fourth to eighth grade combine academics with learning Liturgical music in great depth,” said St. Pierre. “It’s the only one in the country.”

Despite being a secular institution, there is a strong Catholic influence on campus. “We have the Knights, the Catholic Student Association, and the Daughters of Isabella on campus,” he said. “We have a small adoration chapel at St. Paul’s rectory, Mass at St. Paul’s Parish and there is always the opportunity for Catholic fellowship. To maintain a strong faith life, you need to be selfmotivated, but the resources are out there.”

Early on in his membership, St. Pierre became a lecturer for the council, one who gives a presentation after each meeting, and he has since become the council’s Grand Knight. At 19, St. Pierre is the council’s youngest-ever Grand Knight.

The Harvard Council has roughly 140 members, that include grad students, faculty, St.

Paul’s parishioners, undergrads, and students from MIT and Tufts. “The students from Boston University are in the process of creating their own council,” St. Pierre said. “They’ve had good membership numbers.”

As Grand Knight for the upcoming year, St. Pierre’s goals are lofty, despite his tender age.

“I’d like to see our council be the Outstanding College Council,” in the country,” he said. “And to win the Star Council Award.”

It’s an award that recognizes outstanding achievement in membership, insurance and service program activities.

When St. Pierre entered Harvard University a year ago, he knew he would fit right in and embrace the Ivy League academic lifestyle. What he couldn’t see coming was embracing, with just as much gusto, the Knights of Columbus lifestyle, one that allowed him to maintain the strong faith handed to him by his dad, and build on that faith to reach out to “be Christ to others.” It’s been the best of both worlds for him.

A university Knight’s tale: Balancing studies, faith and service to the Church continued from page one

heeding the call of the Knights of Columbus founder Father Michael J. McGivney in 1882.

Fall River resident Curtis St. Pierre, a lifelong member of Immaculate Conception Parish, now St. Bernadette’s Parish, began his freshman year at Harvard last fall.

While at an orientation program prior to his initial semester, St. Pierre, already very active in parish life in his hometown, was introduced to some of the university’s Knights of Columbus through the school’s Catholic Student Association.

“On our applications, we included what our interests are,” St. Pierre told The Anchor. “Based on some of my responses, the Knights felt I may be interested in learning more about them. I met some of the members and they seemed like great guys.”

St. Pierre expressed an interest and following a Facebook message, he became a member at a first-degree ceremony in September.

“Right from the start, I felt very welcome,” he said. “I al-

ready knew some of the guys from other events and I immediately got involved. I was part of a Pro-Life and Family Committee that was very involved in preventing Question 2 (the legalization of physician-assisted suicide) from becoming law in last November’s election.”

St. Pierre also became involved in the council’s Holy Family Society, a study group that concentrates on prayer, catechesis, Faith Formation and studying the saints and Church leaders.

Despite Holy Family Society meetings once a week; council meetings every two weeks; and other faith-based activities, including a 33-day consecration to Mary, St. Pierre didn’t find it too difficult to concentrate on his studies and maintain outstanding grades. “I learned quickly to get my homework done early,” he said. “I’m not saying it wasn’t a struggle at first. There was some lost sleep.”

St. Pierre can’t imagine life at Harvard without being involved in the Knights. “I’ve been going to Mass with my dad Bill, for as long as I can re-

member. Sunday always meant church, and after I made First Communion, I became an altar server. Church was always comfortable; it felt natural.”

And it’s the Knights of Columbus who are helping St. Pierre maintain that comfort level with his faith.

Since last September, St. Pierre has become a third-degree Knight, and has embraced the organization’s mission of helping others. “There is a lot more service to be done,” St. Pierre said. “Service is being Christ to others.”

Some of that service included helping to sponsor a White Ribbon Against Pornography rally on campus. “The purpose was to show the evils and effects pornography has on relationships,” explained St. Pierre.

“We held it to try to offset the ‘Sex-Week’ seminars that were taking place on campus.”

Additionally, the council is busy recruiting members for the Squires, a Knights of Columbus-affiliated group for boys 10-18 years old. “St. Paul’s has a Choir School, a four-year

18

The Anchor

Pro-Lifers hopeful for buffer ruling continued from page one

Legislators later changed the law to include an 18-foot fixed buffer with a six-foot floating zone around people entering a clinic. The law held up in court, and in 2007 Gov. Deval Patrick extended the fixed buffer to 35 feet and eliminated the floating zone. The penalty for violating the law is up to three months in jail and/or a $500 fine. With the second offense, the penalty jumps to a maximum of 2.5 years in jail and/or a fine of $5,000.

At the Massachusetts Citizens for Life Convention in Brighton on June 29, attorney Philip D. Moran outlined the legal arguments against the local buffer zone law.

In the court case — McCullen et al v. Martha Coakley, filed in January 2008 — plaintiffs argue that the areas affected by the law are quintessential public forums for expression guaranteed by the First and Fourteenth Amendments (which guarantees the right to assembly). Many of the spaces contain public sidewalks, and the law only bans a specific type of message — Pro-Life speech — and allows the free expression of clinic workers in the same public space.

“The fact that certain messages may be offensive to some of their recipients does not deprive them of Constitutional protection,” Moran said.

So far the District Court and First Circuit Court of Appeals found that the law was “content neutral,” not overbroad and leaves open adequate alternative avenues of communication. One judge suggested that sidewalk counselors could use a bullhorn to speak with women.

Moran said that many women who approach an abortion clinic are confused and frightened. The last thing they want to do is to talk with someone

yelling at them through a bullhorn. Additionally, the counselors will likely never have another opportunity to speak to the individual women again.

“Petitioners try to position themselves near clinics in an attempt to reach this unique audience, at a unique moment to offer support, information and practical assistance,” he said.

The first plaintiff listed in the case, Eleanor McCullen, told Moran that before the current buffer zone law, she reached hundreds of women and spent more than $50,000 of her own funds to help them provide for their children. Since the updated law passed in 2007, she has not reached a single woman.

After the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, the plaintiffs and defendants must file briefs. Moran said he expects the case will be argued in late November or early December, and that the judges will hand down a decision sometime next spring. He said he hopes they find the law unconstitutional.

“We are very optimistic,” he said. “The court did not take this case to affirm the lower court.”

Many Massachusetts legislators voted for the measure because they bought the proabortion argument that it promotes safety. Moran pointed out that if a woman has been brutally harassed, the offender should be arrested and convicted of the abuse.

Supporters of the law often cite a case in 1994 when John Salvi shot and killed two and wounded five others inside at two abortion clinics in Brookline.

Anne Fox, president of MCFL, said told The Anchor that a buffer zone law would not have stopped Salvi. “A yellow line is going to keep lawabiding Pro-Lifers out,” she said.

July 12, 2013

Diocesan faithful set record for giving to Catholic Charities Appeal continued from page one

those who needed the services the funds from the Catholic Charities Appeal provides, said Campbell, but the focus should also be on the positive things; “The contributions to the Catholic Charities Appeal provides,” he said, “youth formation, Faith Formation, formation of all kinds; concern for patients in hospital settings, chaplains in the health ministry.”

Under the guidance of videographer Dave Fortin, the final result was of people “truly joyful,” said Campbell. “You felt they were involved not because it was an obligation, but because it was really an uplifting part of their faith.”

On the more technical side of things, the Development Office’s database went through a thorough screening process. When Campbell arrived, there were 35,000 names on record. Wanting to get a sense of the potential of an updated list, Campbell and his staff have been methodically going through all the names, dropping the number to 28,000 after labeling some names as organizations, or losing people who have moved or passed away. That database screening process is still ongoing, said Campbell.

Stories of pastors going above and beyond the traditional scope of the Appeal also emerged.

A pastor of a parish hosted a small dinner party at a restaurant, inviting parishioners to sit down with the pastor and Campbell, and talk about the importance of donating to the Appeal and highlighting what Catholic Charities does. The group of about 20 people “had a very nice evening, a lot of laughter and good, honest sharing,” said Campbell, adding it gave people a chance to meet him for the first time.

Another pastor from an urban parish “literally wore out his shoes walking around the neighborhood” asking residents and businesses to contribute to the Appeal.

A third pastor “that really impressed me with his effort,” said Campbell, was from a parish that Campbell joined a few months ago to celebrate Mass during the summer.

Having registered back in April of this year to become a permanent member of the par-

ish, it was when the Appeal was in full swing that Campbell found in his personal email a note from the parish that provided a link to a message from the pastor of the parish, promoting the Appeal.

“I was blown away. It was

on our behalf.”

With all these efforts going on, the Appeal looked promising; that is until the numbers were checked 10 days into the Appeal. On May 10, the incoming tally showed that the Appeal was $110,000 behind from last year.

However, by June 10 the tally showed the Appeal was $12,000 ahead from last year’s pace, and when the finally tally showed the Appeal setting a new record, everyone in the Development Office could breathe a sigh of relief.

Now Campbell can turn his attenwell-written, compelling and tion to the St. Mary’s Educaauthentic,” said Campbell. tion Fund Dinner, to be held And those are the stories October 30 with guest speaker Campbell knows about, add- Jeff Kinney, author of the “Diing that he’s sure there are other ary of a Wimpy Kid” series, but pastors who worked hard on the he had some appreciative words Appeal’s behalf. Seeing firsthand to those who were part of the three very distinctive ways pas- Appeal’s success. tors reached out made Camp“The people showed thembell appreciative of the pastors’ selves to be true givers,” he said, efforts; “One was purely social, adding his message to those one is annual, and the other used contributors is one of sincere technology,” he said. “In three “gratitude. The testimony that different and unique ways they I witnessed was really genuine put extra effort in their advocacy and inspiring.”

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July 12, 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.

19

The Anchor

Chilean archbishop says pope will go to Africa, Asia next year

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Chilean Archbishop Ricardo Ezzati Andrello of Santiago told his people he hoped Pope Francis would visit Argentina on a South American tour in 2015, but he said the pope told him the 2014 trip schedule was already full.

Pope Francis will travel to meet Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, will make “another trip to Africa and another to Asia” in 2014, Archbishop Ezzati said in an interview recently published on his archdiocesan website.

The Vatican press office said it had no information to release on the pope’s 2014 schedule.

Archbishop Ezzati said he spent 45 minutes talking with Pope Francis June 28 in the Domus Sanctae Marthae, the Vatican guesthouse where the pope lives.

He said he asked the 76-yearold pope if he would visit Chile next year; there had been rumors of a papal trip to Argentina, Chile and Uruguay.

“The pope told me that this year he had no plans to visit South America, other than Brazil” for World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro July 22-29, the archbishop said.

“And next year, he already has several trips planned,” including a meeting with Patriarch Bar-

In Your Prayers

Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks July 13 Rev. Arthur P. Deneault, M.S., La Salette Father, 1979 July 14 Rev. Nicholas Fett, SS.CC., Pastor, St. Boniface, New Bedford, 1938 Rev. Edmund J. Neenan, Assistant, Sacred Heart, Oak Bluffs, 1949 Rev. Vincent F. Diaferio, Pastor, Holy Rosary, Fall River, 1998 July 16 Rev. Bernard Percot, O.P., Founder, St. Dominic, Swansea, 1937 Rev. Matthew F. Sullivan, SS.CC. Retired Chaplain, Bristol County House of Correction, Former Pastor, St. Mary, Fairhaven, 2002 July 17 Rev. William J. Smith, Pastor, St. Jacques, Taunton, 1960 Rev. Edmond Rego, Assistant, Espirito Santo, Fall River, 1981 Rev. Ernest N. Bessette, Retired Pastor, St. Joseph, Attleboro, 1997 July 18 Rev. Adalbert Szklanny, Assistant, St. Patrick, Fall River, 1968 Rev. Lionel G. Doraisi, SSS., 1984 Rev. Joseph Quinn, C.S.C., Holy Cross Residence, North Dartmouth, 2007 July 19 Most Rev. Daniel F. Feehan, D.D., Second Bishop of Fall River, 1907-34, 1934 Rev. Francis M. Coady, Pastor, SS. Peter and Paul, Fall River, 1975 Msgr. Joseph R. Pannoni, Retired Pastor, Holy Rosary, Fall River, 1992

tholomew, the archbishop said.

While at the Vatican for Pope Francis’ inauguration Mass in March, the patriarch reportedly invited Pope Francis to go with him to Jerusalem in 2014 to mark the 50th anniversary of the historic meeting there between Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras.

Archbishop Ezzati said, “He told me it would be difficult to go to Latin America in 2014, but he hoped to do so in 2015 and, if so, the trip would include Argentina, Uruguay, Chile and possibly Peru.”

The archbishop said he thanked the pope for accepting the papal office, “knowing what it can mean for a person who had other plans.”

“He told me, ‘When I saw the votes pointing toward me, I put my heart at peace. I am very happy to do what the Lord has asked me to do,’” the archbishop said. “He is a great example for all of us. Sometimes it feels like the waves are very high and we’re going to sink, but the pope calls us to trust, to enjoy the ministry of serving others and to do so with peace in our hearts.”

Around the Diocese 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.

“Our Story … Our Family: A Journey Through Church History — The First Five Hundred Years” will be presented at the St. Nicholas of Myra Parish Center in North Dighton on Wednesday evenings from 6:30 to 8 p.m., July 24-August 21. Facilitated by Bud Miller, the program aims to provide a history of the Catholic Church from Pentecost through 499 AD. For more information, visit www. saintnicholasofmyra.org.

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.

Good Shepherd Parish in Fall River will be holding its fourth annual feast on August 9-10 from 5 to 10 p.m. and on August 11 from 12:30 to 8 p.m. Live entertainment will include King’s Row, Summer School, St. Cecilia’s Band, and Brianna Grace. Food tent will be serving Portuguese, Polish and American menu items. There will be games and activities for people of all ages, a Portuguese bazaar, Chinese auction, artisans, vendors and much more. For more information call 508-678-7412 or visit www.gsfallriver.com.

Catholic author and CatholicMom.com contributor Allison Gingras will present a day retreat for women titled “Seeking the Hope of Trusting God” on August 17 from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the parish center of Holy Family Church, 438 Middleboro Avenue in East Taunton.

The day will include inspiring talks, music, box lunch, water/coffee and an opportunity for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. For more information or to register, visit: www.ReconciledToYou.com/events or call 508-243-1133.

20

July 12, 2013

The Anchor

St.Vincent’s Home holds fifth annual Summer Celebration

FALL RIVER — On the Summer Solstice, June 21, the date with the longest period of daylight, St. Vincent’s Home held its fifth Annual Kick-Off To Summer Cel-

ebration, sponsored by Mechanics Cooperative Bank, on the Battleship Massachusetts at Battleship Cove in Fall River. More than 350 guests enjoyed a gourmet dinner

Fully revised and updated ...

2013-2014 Diocese of Fall River Catholic Directory ... shipping in August!

Published by The Anchor Publishing Company P.O. Box 7, Fall River, Massachusetts 02722 Please ship _____ directories x $18 each, including shipping and handling. Total Enclosed $_____ NAME ____________________________________________ ADDRESS _________________________________________ CITY _____________________ STATE _______ ZIP _____ Please make checks payable to “Anchor Publishing” For more information, email theanchor@anchonews.org, call 508-675-7151, or order online at www.anchornews.org

prepared by Adagio Piano Lounge, Not Your Average Joe’s, Ten Cousins Brick Oven, Fall River Grill, Lafrance Hospitality, Ma Raffa’s, Mario’s Lebanese Syrian Bakery, Mesa 21, St. James Irish Pub, Umi Japanese Steakhouse, Boston Market, The 99 Restaurant, Texas Roadhouse, Wicked Kickin’ Savory Cheesecakes and the Waterfront Grille. Complimentary beer was provided by Quality Beverage, and complimentary wine was provided

by People’s Liquor Warehouse.

Desserts were provided by Lindt Chocolates and New Boston Bakery while the World Premier Band entertained guests well into the evening.

The celebration overlooking Fall River’s waterfront was presented by Title Sponsor, Mechanics Cooperative Bank. More than $77,000 was raised through sponsorships, donations and tickets sales as well as auctions and a special Fund a Need request. The proceeds from the evening directly benefit youth in St. Vincent’s Life Skills Program who are transitioning to independent living and young adulthood. St. Vincent’s youth who are aging-out of care and transitioning to independent living are provided with the skills and tools necessary to complete their education, obtain employment, and live as productive adults within society.

Melissa A. Dick, CFRE, St. Vincent’s director of Development presented awards to Joseph

St. Vincent’s Home director of Development, Melissa A. Dick, CFRE, left, presents awards to Joseph T. Baptista Jr., president and CEO of Mechanics Cooperative Bank and Deborah A. Grimes, executive vice president of Mechanics Cooperative Bank.

T. Baptista Jr., president and CEO of Mechanics Cooperative Bank; Deborah A. Grimes, executive vice president, Retail Banking & Human Resources at Mechanics Cooperative Bank and the chairman of the Summer Celebration; Edward Medeiros, CEO of East Commerce Solutions; and George Oliveira of BayCoast Bank. Dick thanked each award recipient for their dedication and commitment to the children, youth and families of the community. Exclusive silent and live auctions featured more than 85 items including Boston Red Sox tickets, New England Patriots tickets, golf packages, destination packages, jewelry, beer

and wine, as well as a Nantucket weekend for four. Guests raised an additional $7,000 through a Fund a Need request and played a game of Heads or Tails for a four-night, five-day stay on Nantucket, complete with two roundtrip tickets aboard Cape Air/Nantucket Airlines. Photo booth memories were provided courtesy of B Sharp Entertainment of Taunton.

The guest services sponsor was East Commerce Solutions, and the exclusive entertainment sponsor was BayCoast Bank. The venue sponsor was Long Built Homes, and the contributing sponsor was Albert B. Staebler. The patron sponsor was Bristol Pacific Homes.

Participating sponsors included BankFive; Bristol County Savings Bank; Diocese of Fall River; Highland Pediatrics; Karam Financial/ Tufts Healthcare; Lafrance Hospitality Company; Mr. and Mrs. Edward M. Lambert Jr., RDA Insurance; Santos & Santos, PC; Saint Anne’s Credit Union; and Webster Bank. Media sponsor was SOCO Magazine. The design sponsor was Orange Square, and the print sponsor was Professional Business Solutions. Floral centerpieces designed by the Fall River Garden Club were donated by Fall River Floral Supply and Stop & Shop Somerset.