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Diocese of Fall River, Mass.

F riday , July 19, 2013

In tradition of the Apostles, Attleboro faithful to be sent in pairs to evangelize

By Dave Jolivet Anchor Editor

Just some of the materials used at this year’s diocesan Christian Leadership Institute held at Cathedral Camp in East Freetown awaited delivery from director Frank Lucca’s garage shortly before the session.

CLI is celebrating its 25th anniversary in the diocese this year.

CLI marks quarter century of preparing tomorrow’s leaders

By Becky Aubut Anchor Staff

FREETOWN — Last week, 18 teen-agers wanting to make a difference in their parishes added their numbers to the more than 1,000 young people who have graduated from the Christian Leadership Institute since its inception in the Fall River Diocese 25 years ago, during their week-long stay at Cathedral Camp in Freetown.

CLI is geared towards shaping the young people into leaders, with the hope that each person will take back to his or her parish the leadership skills to continue to nurture pro-

grams and enrich the ministry within the parish.

This year’s candidates came from many parishes, including ones in Fairhaven, Wareham, Fall River, and while the number of candidates may be small, it doesn’t necessarily reflect a waning interest but was more of a reflection of when the week to host CLI fell.

“Timing is always an issue,” said Frank Lucca. “I think this year one of the major issues were the snowstorms that pushed school back, which pushed us back. Then we had Fourth of July, and that pushed Turn to page 14

ATTLEBORO — In the sixth chapter of Mark’s Gospel Jesus, with His Apostles, returns to His hometown. His reception was far from warm, and the group left with Christ amazed at their lack of faith.

Shortly after leaving Nazareth, Jesus sent His Apostles out, two-by-two to evangelize the Good News.

In a world still filled with people giving Christ a lessthan-warm reception, a group of present-day evangelists from St. Vincent De Paul Parish, aided by some of their neighbors from St. John the Evan-

gelist Parish, also in Attleboro, are taking a page from Mark’s Gospel, and will soon be sent out, also two-by-two, to make door-to-door visits to

area homes to share with their neighbors a packet of information about the Catholic Church and an invitation to come to know Christ’s love again, or for the first time. This will be the first Day of Evangelization by a parish in Fall River Diocese.

It will take place on August 24.

The idea came from a successful venture in the nearby Diocese of Providence, R.I., where faith-filled Catholic parishioners have been making home evangelization visits since 2010.

“It is great that the Holy Spirit has moved people in Rhode Island to respond to Turn to page 11

Books close on best-ever CCA campaign FALL RIVER — This is truly a diocese of cheerful givers. The books have closed on the 2013 Catholic Charities Appeal for the Diocese of Fall River, and the results were record-setting.

The theme of “God Loves a Cheerful Giver,” taken from a passage in St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians was prophetic and demonstrated continued evidence of the extraordinarily generous parishioners and friends of the needy throughout the diocese. The $4,319,468.93 total was the highest in the 72-year history of the Appeal. This to-

tal was $114,260.81 more than last year’s and surpassed the previous record set in 2007 by $13,116.19.

Although figures for the number of donors in each of the 87 parishes are not yet complete, it appears that more than 31,000 individuals and businesses were moved to support the diocese.

The focus of the Appeal proved compelling enough to inspire sacrificial giving once again. “When you consider the state of the economy nationally, and esTurn to page nine

Final 2013 figures appear in insert pages

Annual Quo Vadis Days helps youth consider vocations

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

WAREHAM — Noting that “Jesus becomes a friend to all those He calls” during a midweek Mass homily at the annual Quo Vadis Days in Wareham last week, Bishop George W. Coleman stressed how Christ calls all of us through the Sacrament of Baptism to become His friends to the 28 young men from parishes throughout the diocese who attended the fourth annual retreat.

“And what do you do with your friends?” Bishop Coleman asked. “You spend time with them, you talk about things

with them, you go places and you do things as friends.”

The bishop’s comments echoed some of the various activities planned for the five-day Quo Vadis retreat, held at the scenic Sacred Hearts Retreat Center in Wareham.

In addition to providing spiritual guidance and fraternity through peaceful prayer, celebration of the Liturgy and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, activities during the week also included hiking, swimming and sports such as flag football and ultimate Frisbee.

“That’s the way it is with Je-

sus,” Bishop Coleman said in his homily. “The relationship we need to develop between ourselves and Jesus is one of friendship. So that wherever we go, we know that the Lord Jesus is with us; and whatever we do, we know that He is there to help us and to guide us.”

Held July 8-12 this year, Quo Vadis Days were initiated by the diocesan vocations office four years ago to help young men discern their vocation in life and perhaps answer a special calling to serve God as priests.

This year’s retreat drew a reTurn to page 15

After celebrating Mass and answering questions from the group, Bishop George W. Coleman enjoyed lunch with participants during the recent Quo Vadis Days week held at the Sacred Hearts Retreat Center in Wareham. (Photo by Kenneth J. Souza)

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July 19, 2013 News From the Vatican Pope offers future priests, nuns a how-to guide to a happy vocation

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Be joyous, authentic and loving while resisting fly-by-night commitments, catty gossip and sleek cars, Pope Francis told future priests, brothers and nuns.

Vocations don’t come from catchy campaigns or pursuing personal goals; the consecrated life is the result of prayer and answering an “unsettling” yet loving invitation from God, he told some 6,000 seminarians and men and women who were considering religious life.

Men and women from 66 nations came to Rome on a four-day pilgrimage as part of the Year of Faith celebrations, which included an informal audience with Pope Francis July 6 and a papal Mass July 7.

The pope spent more than 45 minutes speaking off-the-cuff to a packed audience hall, giving young and old a thorough howto guide on the secrets of a successful vocation.

Some of the greatest dangers standing in the way of a happy religious life are materialism and a culture that believes nothing is forever, he said.

Even religious men and women have to avoid the temptation of thinking “the latest smartphone, the fastest moped and a car that turns heads” will make them happy, he said.

He said it pains him when he sees a Sister or priest driving an expensive car, and he praised the beauty of the bicycle, noting his 54-year-old personal secretary, Msgr. Alfred Xuereb, gets around on a bike.

However, with all the work to be done and distances to be covered, cars are a necessity, he said. Just “get a humbler one,” and if the flashier model still looks tempting, “think about how many children are dying of hunger,” he said.

True joy doesn’t come from things or “living on the edge,” having wild, fleeting experiences, he said.

“It springs from an encounter, a relation with others, it

comes from feeling accepted, Don’t be hypocrites, and The pope said he was guilty understood and loved, and from practice what is preached, he and ashamed of being caught up accepting, understanding and added. in gossip and complaining. He loving” others, he said.

“In this world in which said ideally he preferred speakJesus is telling people: “You wealth does harm, it’s necessary ing directly to the people he has are important to Me, I love you we priests, we nuns, all of us be a problem with or with someone and I’m counting on you,” the consistent with our poverty,” he who can resolve the issue, never pope said. said. talking behind people’s backs Opening up to this love and Midway through his talk, the “to smear them.”

Divine call is “the secret of our pope told the event’s main orHe urged everyone to be joy,” he said. “Don’t be contemplative, pray the lease, no nuns or priests with Rosary and be a misafraid of showing the joy of having answered the face of a pickled pepper,” sionary, reaching out to the Lord’s call,” he said, he insisted. “ There is no holiness in the outcast and disad“and of giving witness vantaged. to His Gospel in ser- sadness.”

The next day, Mass vice to the Church.” in St. Peter’s Basilica, Joy is contagious, he said, and ganizer, Archbishop Rino Fisi- the pope used his homily to ofattracts people to learn more chella, president of the Pontifi- fer additional encouragement about the source of that happi- cal Council for Promoting New and wisdom for a happy vocaness.

Evangelization, that he could tion.

“Please, no nuns or priests go on all night, but that some“The Paschal Mystery” of with the face of a pickled pep- one had better bring everyone death and Resurrection help per,” he insisted. “There is no “a sandwich and Coca-Cola if it shelter religious men and womholiness in sadness.” goes until tomorrow.” en “from a worldly and triumThe source of that dissatisfacThe pope then highlighted phalistic view” of their mission tion and sadness is not celibacy, the importance of living as a and “from the discouragement the pope said; it’s living a con- community and avoiding petty that can result from trials and secrated life that is sterile and gossip and rivalries. failures.” lifeless. Nuns and priests are called to be spiritual and pastoral mothers and fathers, bringing life, healing and love to all they meet.

The pope pointed to a petite, Vatican City (CNA/ Vatican legal system the provielderly nun whom he had spared EWTN News) — Pope Francis sions of numerous international from the crush of an overexutook a step forward in modern- conventions. berant crowd pressing down on The topics of those convenizing the Vatican’ s legal code by her as they sought to shake the tions include: the conduct of war explicitly listing certain acts as pope’s hand before the audience. and war crimes, the elimination of crimes — such as child abuse and The pope had told a guard to all forms of racial discrimination, genocide — and enabling the lift her from the fray and give the prohibition of torture and Holy See to prosecute any of its her a front-row seat, safe from other cruel, inhuman or degradofficials who commit crimes outthe scrum. He said in his talk ing treatment or punishment, and side its walls. that he was struck by the Sister’s the rights of children.

“In our times, the common bright eyes and smiling face, The new regulations also cover despite the difficulties of being good is increasingly threatened by the crimes of torture, genocide, transnational organized crime, the squeezed against the barricade, and apartheid, and give more improper use of the markets and and said she was a beautiful exspecificity to the description of of the economy, as well as by terample for everyone. crimes against minors. In parrorism,” Pope Francis said in the The pope also told everyone ticular, they mention “the sale of opening line of his July 11 Motu to always be clear and honest children, child prostitution, the proprio declaration. with their confessors. Jesus alrecruitment of children, sexual “It is therefore necessary for ready knows people’s sins, defects and limits, “He just wants the international community to violence and sexual acts with chilyou to tell Him what He already adopt adequate legal instruments dren, and the production and posto prevent and counter criminal session of child pornography.” knows.”

Perhaps the most interesting Truth and transparency “do activities, by promoting interfacet of the new changes is the national judicial cooperation on good because they make us pope’ s decision to expand the criminal matters,” the first Motu humble.” proprio of Francis’ pontificate says. prosecution of crimes by Vatican In addition to updating the employees or representatives beOFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE laws, the pontiff also made them yond the geographical confines DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER applicable to the Vatican City of Vatican City, thus acknowledgVol. 57, No. 28 www.anchornews.org State and the Holy See, which re- ing how globalization has made Member: Catholic Press Association, Catholic News Service spectively operate under civil law crime more mobile.

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Send address changes to P.O. Box 7, Fall River, MA, call or use email address framework of the Vatican City ployees who committed crimes PUBLISHER - Most Reverend George W. Coleman State was begun by Benedict XVI outside of Vatican City could only EXECUTIVE EDITOR Father Richard D. Wilson fatherwilson@anchornews.org in 2010 as he sought to make its be charged by the state in which EDITOR David B. Jolivet davejolivet@anchornews.org laws compatible with the chal- the offense was committed.

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Effective evangelization can’t be measured by the human notions of success and failure, but only “by becoming conformed to the logic of the cross of Jesus” of giving oneself totally and completely with love, he said.

Vocations come from prayer because it is God Who chooses His disciples, not “advertising campaigns or appeals of service and generosity.”

Prayer also gives the strength and direction needed to be a courageous, loving Apostle.

And finally, the pope said, never see one’s vocation as a job.

It’s a relationship with God that requires constant cultivation, being united with Christ, especially “amid the whirlwind of more urgent and heavy duties,” he said.

“What counts is to be permeated by the love of Christ, to let oneself be led by the Holy Spirit and to graft one’s own life onto the tree of life,” the Lord’s cross, he said.

Vatican updates laws; pope expands jurisdiction of Vatican court

with greater precision, Pope Francis also defined who is considered a “public person,” that is someone who falls under the new regulations.

The list includes “members, officials and personnel of the various organs of the Roman Curia and of the institutions connected to it,” papal diplomats and their staff, managers or directors who work for the Vatican, and “any other person holding an administrative or judicial mandate in the Holy See.” Another topic the new laws addressed — which will surely remain in the headlines in the coming months — was money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

The Vatican’s press office director, Father Federico Lombardi, told the media that “there are other laws in preparation, more specifically, a law that responds to the requests of Moneyval.”

Moneyval, the Council of Europe’s anti-money laundering committee, has been working with the Vatican since March 2011 to help it conform with international standards on money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

Professor Giuseppe Dalla Torre, who also serves as the head judge of the Vatican’s Tribunal, mentioned to the press that he expects a further reform of the Vatican’s finances in relation to the Moneyval process to take place in September.

3 The International Church Summer camp gives Palestinian children joy in a conflict-filled life July 19, 2013

TUBA, West Bank (CNS) — In this tiny South Hebron Hills encampment of tents and cave dwellings, where camels cling to the sandy hillside and hardy goats scrounge for shoots of brush and desert grasses, it is summer camp time for the children.

It is not yet 10 on a late June morning and the heat is already intense. There is no shade. Camp counselor Amjad Addarah, 24, of nearby At-Tuwani village, has the boys lined up for a traditional debka dance in one part of the encampment. In another area,

the girls, most with their hair covered, are practicing a song with counselor Intisar Addarah, 23. Later, the two groups will combine for a short performance.

Afterward, clutching blue helium-filled balloons, the children trek up a rocky, thorn-covered hill where they release them skyward.

“That balloon is going really far,” said 12-year-old Yousef, pointing to his colorful orb above the horizon.

“It is extraordinary, usually the boys need to help with shepherd-

ing the goats, and the girls help the mothers. But for two weeks they get to play,” said Matteo, a volunteer from Operation Dove, the nonviolent peace corps of the Italian-based Pope John XXIII Community.

He and the other camp volunteers asked that their real name not be used to avoid visa problems entering or leaving Israel.

After the two-week camp concludes, the children will spend time recounting the activities with their friends, said Mterah Jindieh, 50, who had five

grandchildren joining the camp.

“The children are very happy but in two weeks time, they will be back to their routine and will be bored with nothing to do,” she said.

It is the 11th year in which the South Hebron Hills Popular Resistance Committee and the Alternative Information Center, a joint Palestinian-Israeli nongovernmental organization promoting cooperation, have run a summer camp for the children of Tuba and four other villages.

The European Union funds the

program.

The camp is usually held in At-Tuwani, the largest of the South Hebron villages. It’s where the children attend classes during the school year.

To get to At-Tuwani, the children of Tuba must walk past the Israeli settlement of Ma’on and next to chicken coops the settlers have built. At times, the settlers attack and harass the children, making for a perilous journey.

During the school year, volunteers walk with the children and Turn to page 18

The Church in the U.S.

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July 19, 2013

Pope gives American Maronites youthful bishop

Vatican City (CNA/ EWTN News) — Pope Francis has appointed a new bishop for one of only two Maronite Catholic territories in the United States, while also accepting the resignation of the current shepherd.

Father Abdallah Elias Zaidan, 50, was named July 10 by the pope to replace Bishop Robert J. Shaheen as bishop of Our Lady of Lebanon Eparchy.

Bishop Shaheen turned 76 on June 3, placing him one year beyond the retirement age.

Bishop-designate Zaidan will be moving from his post as rector of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Lebanon to the eparchy’s headquarters in St. Louis, Mo. While the eparchy was originally established in Los Angeles in 1994, its seat was moved to St. Louis in 2001 with approval from the Vatican.

Bishop-designate Zaidan was born in Kosaybé, Lebanon on Mar. 10, 1963.

He is a member of the Congregation of Lebanese Maronite Missionaries, has worked in school administration, and has served as the pastor of several parishes.

In addition to English, he speaks Arabic, French, Italian, Spanish and Syriac.

The Maronite Catholic Church traces its roots to the early Christians of Antioch, the first believers to be called Christian. In fact, the Church still uses Syriac in its Liturgy, a dialect of Aramaic, the same language Jesus spoke.

The Church takes its name from the fourth century hermit St. Maron, whose way of life inspired many monks and laity to follow him, eventually resulting in the distinctive Maronite Rite.

With the influx of immigrants to the United States from Lebanon and the surrounding region in the latter part of the 19th century, the pope set up ecclesial structures to serve the Maronite faithful.

The Maronite Church in the U.S. falls under the jurisdiction of two eparchies: the Detroit-based Eparchy of St. Maron and the St. Louisbased Our Lady of Lebanon Eparchy.

As shepherd of the Our Lady of Lebanon Eparchy, Bishop-designate Zaidan will lead 24,108 Catholics, 39 priests, eight permanent deacons and 15 religious.

A cross memorial is silhouetted against a sunset at Fire Station 7 in Prescott, Ariz. (Photo by Christian Peterson, Getty Images News/Getty Images)

Arizona parish finds hope in wake of tragedies

Prescott, Ariz. (CNA/ EWTN News) — As the city of Prescott, Ariz. grieves the loss of 19 elite firefighters, Sacred Heart Catholic Parish is also coping with the “whirlwind” of the past few weeks.

“I honestly believe that when death comes, no matter how it comes, that the Resurrection is my source of hope,” Father Darrin Merlino, the new pastor of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Prescott, Ariz. told CNA recently.

Recently, his parish has endured tragedies that could tempt anyone to fall into despair.

Just as the Doce Fire consumed some 10,000 acres of land northwest of Prescott, the parish’s pastor, Father Daryl Olds suffered a severe stroke which sent him to the intensive care unit. As Father Merlino took over as pastor a day later, he learned of a parishioner’s suicide and the death of a close friend’s father.

Just as “things kind of calmed down,” around the parish, Father Merlino heard news of the Yarnell Fire burning just south of Prescott. The next day nearly an entire team of firefighters from Prescott were killed in their attempt to build a fire line around the blaze.

“It was just overwhelming,” the priest said.

For nearly a week, the parish fielded calls from friends of the deceased, but Father Merlino was surprised that none of the firefighters who were killed were registered as attending his parish.

“I mean, statistically speaking, there’s always Catholics in the fire department,” he said.

Then, after Mass one day,

a parishioner came up to him “very distraught” telling the priest that his roommate, John Percin Jr., was one of the firefighters killed in the fire.

Originally from West Linn, Oregon, Percin was new to the Granite Mountain Hotshots, but was known to be a natural athlete, “free-spirited” and generous.

Because he was so young — only 24 years-old — and fairly new the area, Percin was not a registered parishioner, but had a reputation as someone who would have “given the shirt off his back.”

The young man’s father, John J. Percin Sr., broke down to Father Merlino the day after 19 white hearses bearing the remains of the fallen firefighters made their way through Prescott.

“Everyone and their mother wants to interview him, poor guy,” the priest said.

After speaking with the young man’s father it was clear his parents “were very proud of him.”

“He was kind of one of those kids who’d made some mistakes but he accepted it, moved on,” he said.

Before he went out to work on what local station KATU reported was his first fire, Percin prayed for protection for himself and his team.

“Lord watch over us as we go into battle. Amen!” he wrote in a June 30 Facebook status.

In wake of the tragedy, Father Merlino focused his homily last Sunday on the hope of the Resurrection, reminding those in attendance that “we’ll all be reunited someday.”

“This is a fact, it’s a reality,”

he added.

Although his parish is “a little numb right now,” they have decided to put up a plaque in memory of Percin, just next to their memorial for children killed by abortion.

Another one of the young men who lost his life, Grant McKee, 21, reportedly lived with a family of parishioners for a short time and dated their daughter.

As the mother of the family spoke to Father Merlino after Mass, he said it was clear the boy was “very dear to their heart.”

“She couldn’t really talk about him at all,” he said, “she was just in tears.”

The parish has also devoted their gym to housing about 400 firefighters who needed a place to stay while paying their respects to those who lost their lives.

On June 30, the Granite Mountain Hotshots responded to a fire started by lightning the day before. It quickly spread from 200 to 2,000 acres within a matter of hours due to a shift in winds.

Cut off from their exit, 19 of the 20 firefighters sought refuge under their foil-like emergency shelters which proved to be insufficient. The lone survivor was spared because he was farther away from the fire line serving as a lookout.

Aged 21 to 43, many of the Prescott 19 leave behind wives, fiancées, and young children.

“This is our 9/11,” Father Merlino said. “God can’t be blamed for these things; God is here to help us through the tragedy.”

A Memorial Mass was held at Sacred Heart Parish on July 11 for the fallen firefighters.

The Church in the U.S. Report sees new hostility to religion in U.S. military policy

July 19, 2013

Washington D.C. (CNA/EWTN News) — The Family Research Council has said that there is a “growing hostility” to religion in the U.S. armed forces, including “concerted efforts to scrub the military of religious expression.”

“The climate of intimidation that began in the Air Force is bleeding over into every branch — leading even military chaplains to wonder about their security in referencing the Bible,” Family Research Council president Tony Perkins said recently.

The D.C.-based Christian advocacy organization’s report, “A Clear and Present Danger: The Threat to Religious Liberty in the Military,” documents what Perkins called a “wave of hostility toward religious expression in the military.”

The report said that pressures to impose “a secular, antireligious culture” on the U.S. military have “intensified tremendously” under President Barack Obama, noting numerous incidents of policy restricting Christian expression.

In January 2012, when the controversy over the HHS contraception and sterilization mandate first began, the archbishop of the Military Services archdiocese

sent a letter to Catholic chaplains, asking them to read it to parishioners to encourage opposition to the mandate. The Secretary of the Army intervened, allowing the letter to be distributed but not read publicly, and only after a sentence was omitted.

In 2011, the Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. initially barred visitors from giving or using religious items during their visits. The policy was ended after objections from Congress.

A 20-year-old ethics course for nuclear missile officers led by a chaplain at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California was pulled for review in 2011 because of its use of Christian materials. These materials included texts from the Bible and texts related to St. Augustine’s just war theory.

Christian prayers have been barred from some military funerals at the Houston National Cemetery. In July 2011, U.S. Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas) said that he witnessed some volunteer Veterans of Foreign Wars honor guards being prohibited from referring to God. A September 2011 memo from General Norton Schwartz, the Air Force chief of staff, told officers to avoid actual or apparent use of their position to promote

their own religious beliefs, including open support of chaplain-run events.

Several prominent religious leaders have been disinvited from speaking events. In February 2010, Perkins was disinvited from addressing the National Prayer Luncheon at Andrews Air Force Base after he opposed the ban on open homosexuals serving in the military. Franklin Graham, son of the prominent Protestant minister Billy Graham, was disinvited from the Pentagon’s National Day of Prayer in May 2010 after criticizing Islam.

An Army Reserve training presentation given in Pennsylvania labeled Catholicism and evangelical Christianity as examples of religious extremism, alongside terrorist groups and the Ku Klux Klan.

The Family Research Council report said that such examples have a “chilling effect” and cause fears of “punishment and potential career destruction” among service members.

The report said that current Air Force policy has been significantly influenced by Mikey Weinstein, founder of the New Mexico-based Military Religious Freedom Foundation. Weinstein has charged that there was a “lusty

News of canonizations has ‘gladdened hearts’ of faithful, cardinal says

WASHINGTON (CNS) — The two popes whose canonizations received final clearance July 5 “each had a profound impact on the Church and the world,” as New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan put it.

Pope Francis signed a decree clearing the way for Blessed John Paul II and Blessed John XXIII to be canonized, possibly later his year.

In a July 5 statement, Cardinal Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said: “I know that today’s news has gladdened the hearts of the faithful throughout the world, just as it did for me.”

Blessed John, known most widely for having convened the Second Vatican Council, will be canonized without having met the normal requirement of having a second miracle attributed to his intercession.

Cardinal Dolan said that by convening Vatican II, “Pope John XXIII helped present the timeless teaching of Jesus and His Church in the modern age. And, Pope John Paul II helped to bring that teaching to every corner of the globe, as a tireless missionary for the faith.”

Cincinnati Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr, noted that as director of the 1993 World Youth Day in Denver, he met with Pope John Paul II many times.

“When Pope John Paul II died on April 2, 2005, the cry immediately went up from the crowd in St. Peter’s Square of ‘Santo Subito’ — ‘Saint Immediately!’” Archbishop

Schnurr said in a statement.

“In addition to resolve, kindness, a sense of humor and many other fine qualities, I observed in him that sanctity which the crowd proclaimed.”

Miami Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski said the news of the canonizations while not unexpected “is nevertheless received with great joy.”

He said both popes “spoke frequently and urgently about the need for a New Evangelization directed towards those who once had received the faith but now seem to be ‘tired’ of it. They will certainly be the patron saints of the New Evangelization that we — disciples in faith and missionaries of hope — are called to announce to our contemporaries in this 21st century.”

The Knights of Columbus in a statement said the Blessed John Paul II Shrine in Washington would be offering a series of programs and events to mark Blessed John Paul’s canonization.

The shrine was established by the Knights at the former Pope John Paul II Cultural Center, which the fraternal organization purchased in August 2011.

“John Paul II was a champion of the rights and dignity of every human person, and his witness and legacy continue to speak important messages to our world today. Similarly, his life of holiness and devotion to God continue to be an example to us all,” said Patrick Kelly, the shrine’s executive director.

and thriving religious intolerance” at the Air Force Academy, including senior officials who were indifferent to what Weinstein said is “bias” in favor of evangelical Christianity.

Though the Air Force initially countered his complaints and lawsuits, by 2009 Air Force leadership had become more sympathetic to his cause. Weinstein in 2010 said he had instant access to the Air Force Academy superintendent, Mike Gould. He has continued to meet with military leadership, contending that “proselytism” is an ongoing problem and “a national security threat,” Washington Post columnist Sally Quinn reports.

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The Family Research Council’s report pointed instead to the positive place of religion in military life.

“The soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen, and Coast Guardsmen who have been injured, wounded, and killed in defense of our country often have been very committed to their faith in God.” “Should it be surprising that those who face serious injury and death so regularly might focus more consciously on matters of eternity?” the report asked.

“It seems only natural that the gravity of military life should lead to serious consideration of spiritual matters.”

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The Anchor Unity in a divided country (and Church)

The recent acquittal of George Zimmerman in the death of Trayvon Martin and the reaction to it have brought to the fore many of the divisions which exist in American culture, as divided along racial, class and ideological lines. Some people have reacted with violence, such as in Los Angeles, but on the whole the vast majority of protesters have been peaceful. The New York Times reported that there was a “prayer rally” in Leimert Park that was organized by Project Islamic H.O.P.E., but police officials said about 150 people broke off from that peaceful gathering and began committing vandalism and assaults.” Just as the Pro-Life movement is not responsible for deranged people who kill abortionists, so people upset about the Zimmerman verdict should not be held accountable for rioters (who probably were just looking for an excuse to cause mayhem).

The Times reported that Mayor Eric Garcetti noted, “The Martin Family (parents of Trayvon) didn’t ask anybody to break car windows. They didn’t ask anybody to take little kids’ scooters. They didn’t ask anyone to attack businesses. And they certainly didn’t say to take over traffic in the streets.”

Our nation is divided on this and many other problems, just as is our Church on a great many issues. How are we ever going to overcome these ruptures in our communities?

Ultimately, it will not be until Christ returns and brings everyone into unity that we will overcome our disagreements. As Amanda Tarantelli writes in her inaugural column on page 17, since Adam and Eve we have been using our “freedom” to set ourselves in opposition to God and to our neighbors. As Claire McManus says on page seven, we often use our freedom filling ourselves up with all sorts of goods (pushing other people out of the way, literally or figuratively, so as to get them), trying to fill an emptiness which is so vast that only God can fill it.

Pope Francis reminded Sisters, Brothers and seminarians in a recent meeting (see page two) about our need to not get the latest car or gadget, but to remember our call to holiness, which is lived out in an authentic poverty, chastity and obedience. His remarks were pilloried by some on the Internet, because he is not spending more time doing things the way his critics might like (either promoting the Latin Mass [for more conservative critics] or being more progressive on women’s and Marriage issues [for more liberal critics]). Instead, he is trying to live out the Gospel, putting his prayer into action and encouraging us to do the same.

Father Matt Malone, SJ, the editor in chief of America (the official magazine of the Jesuits in the United States) recently wrote, “The prevailing notion that Catholics cannot work together, worship together or reason together, simply because we hold different worldly philosophies or vote differently or have different habits of dress or Liturgical tastes — such a notion has no place in the Body of Christ. Partisanship is the stuff of parliamentary politics, not Sacramental life.”

Although some of our disagreements are about fundamental truths which affect salvation, we need to remember that even in debating them, we need to remember other fundamental truths, such as Christ’s two great Commandments — to love God with our entire being and to love our neighbors as ourselves.

The second of those Commandments sometimes requires us to say things which people do not want to hear, but which we need to say out of love for them. Nonetheless, we need to ask the Holy Spirit to guide us in finding the most effective ways of offering these teachings (so that they might bear some fruit eventually, instead of being rejected forever).

Father Malone also wrote, “we view ideology as largely inimical to Christian discipleship. Revelation is humanity’s true story. Ideologies, which are alternative metanarratives, invariably involve an ‘other,’ a conceptual scapegoat, some oppressor who must be overthrown by the oppressed. Only the Gospel’s radical call to peace and reconciliation justifies a radical politics. Catholic social teaching is not the Republican Party plus economic justice, nor is it the Democratic Party minus abortion rights. Yet neither is it some amalgamation of the two. Catholic social teaching is far more radical than our secular politics precisely because it is inspired by the Gospel, which is itself a radical call to discipleship, one that is subversive of every creaturely notion of power. There is more to Christian political witness than the tired, quadrennial debate about which presidential candidate represents the lesser of two evils.”

Dr. Yohuru Williams at Fairfield University wrote about how Catholics can process the whole controversy about the Zimmerman verdict. “[We need to] take up the challenges of ensuring peace by fighting unequivocally for social justice in all of its forms. This goes beyond symbolic acts of protest and gestures. What we must embrace is real community engagement. We must work to undermine those forces that continue to divide us, to understand and promote human solidarity.”

Dr. Williams then wrote about Pope Paul VI’s 1972 call that we must work for justice if we want peace. This past Monday at daily Mass we heard Jesus tell us that He did not come to bring “peace but the sword.” Not that He wanted us to use the sword against each other; He was just using “truth in advertising” to let us know that His message of love will not always be met with love. He told us that we must be ready to give up everything so as to follow His way of love.

We ask God to help us be those people of love in our Church and in our world, acting not according to ideologies or class or racial differences, but according to the Good News of Jesus Christ.

July 19, 2013

Experienced coach of the Spirit

few years back, I was asked by a MidwestA ern bishop to preach the annual retreat for his priests. After accepting, I proposed a theme —

Pope Benedict XVI on Priestly Prayer — that he thought would be great for his men. He told me that his Vicar for Clergy would call me that week to work out the details.

When the vicar phoned, we discussed travel arrangements and other small stuff. After mentioning that the bishop had informed him about the retreat theme, he interjected, “I don’t care what you preach on as long as one of your conferences is on the need for priests to have spiritual direction.”

I politely replied that Pope Benedict had said only a few brief things on the spiritual direction of priests in his many talks to clergy, and that I doubted there would be enough there for a 45-60-minute conference.

“It really doesn’t matter to me whether the topic coheres at all with the rest of what you’re going to say,” he answered, “but I just want one of your talks to be on priests and spiritual direction, OK?” It was clear to me that, regardless of my previous interaction with the bishop, there wasn’t room for any negotiation, so I simply stated, “Well, I’ll do the best I can.”

I soon discovered the wisdom behind this priest’s holy intransigence.

Many of the deeper issues impacting the life of priests in his diocese flowed from so few of them having a

By Father spiritual direcRoger J. Landry tor, a priest or religious whom they could see regularly to check on the health and progress of their interior life.

Without such an experienced guide of the soul to keep them accountable to prayer and the Sacramental life, accompany them through personal and pastoral struggles, give opportune confidential counsel, and prod them toward greater love of God and neighbor, many priests were falling into bad habits that were impeding their priestly vocation and work and sometimes endangering it altogether.

Since then, whenever I preach retreats or days of recollection for priests or seminarians, I always include a conference on spiritual direction, since I’ve become convinced that the problems identified by the Vicar for Clergy are not isolated to his own diocese.

Those preparing for the priesthood always receive spiritual direction in seminary. Most newlyordained priests intend to continue receiving this spiritual personal training after seminary. Over the course of time, however, either because they’re reassigned far away, or their spiritual director is transferred or dies, or they have trouble finding someone nearby whom they deem trustworthy in the spiritual life, they find themselves going without.

They end up, to their detriment, trying to guide themselves. St. Bernard of Clairvaux comments about the wisdom of self-direction were eventually converted into a famous aphorism about serving as your own lawyer. “He who constitutes himself his own director,” the great abbot declared, “becomes the disciple of a fool.”

If priests aren’t receiving good, regular spiritual direction, it likewise becomes much harder for them to be able to give good guidance to others, whether to brother priests, deacons, religious and consecrated souls and lay people seriously seeking holiness. Receiving solid guidance is a necessary apprenticeship to help lead other souls to God. That’s why the “Vatican Congregation for Clergy’s Directory for the Life and Ministry of Priests” stresses how important spiritual direction is for the renewal not only of the clergy but of the whole Church.

“Along with the Sacrament of Reconciliation,” the document states, “the priest must also exercise the ministry of spiritual direction. The rediscovery and extension of this practice, also in moments outside of the administration of Penance, is greatly beneficial for the Church in these times.”

It goes on to say that spiritual direction is crucial for “identifying and sustaining the vocations to the priesthood and to the various forms of consecrated life” as well as to the formation of conscience and the reinvigoration of authentic spirituality among all the faithful.

Putting Into the Deep

Good spiritual directors are, in short, a real treasure. Their patient, behind-the-scenes work of spiritual accompaniment may not get a lot of notice in the Church here on earth, but I believe that they will be among the most venerated in Heaven.

On June 21, a priest whom I consider one of the great spiritual directors in the country was called home. A Boston native, Father Ron Gillis spent most of his priesthood in the Washington, D.C. area, where he died of colon cancer at 71.

Like most of the priests of Opus Dei, Father Ron specialized in spiritual direction, spending a large part of his 46 priestly years guiding people of all ages and states of life to form a plan for their spiritual life conducive to growth in holiness in the midst of their daily duties.

He was constantly preaching retreats and giving days of recollection, offering spiritual guidance to people at pivotal moments in life.

For 37 years he was the chaplain for Oakrest Academy in McLean, Va., and guided thousands of high school girls in the discernment of how God was calling them to holiness and mission.

For 32 years he was a spiritual director at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md. where, according to Rector, Msgr. Steven Rohlfs, he guided more than 600 seminarians and priest faculty members toward God. The rector noted that he used to judge all spiritual directors by how they compared to him.

Father Ron was particularly good with seminarians experiencing doubts, he said. “There are priests today,” he affirmed, “because he intervened in their lives.”

Father Ron also gave regular spiritual direction to dozens of priests and prelates in the D.C. area.

I first met Father Ron in 1990 when I was working for a Congressman in northern Virginia and was looking for someone to help me in my discernment of the priesthood. His infectious joy and enthusiasm, laughter, constant encouragement, patience, and sound advice always left me strengthened and spiritually uplifted.

When I returned to work in D.C. in 1992, he again took me on. It was from him that I first heard of Bishop Sean O’Malley’s appointment to Fall River. Having observed the Capuchin’s renowned work at El Centro Católico in D.C. in the 1970s and early 80s, Father Ron was ecstatic that the future cardinal was being sent to help the Diocese of Fall River heal after the Father Porter scandals. That impression of his reverence for Bishop O’Malley was one of the reasons why I eventually applied to become a seminarian in the Diocese of Fall River.

When I was doing my philosophy studies at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary, I was again fortunate to have Father Ron as my spiritual director, as he continued to inspire me to aspire to be not just a priest but a holy priest. And on many occasions since, when I would see him, we’d pick up right where we left off.

Since his death, many of the priests who received Father Ron’s spiritual guidance and friendship have been exchanging stories. It’s amazing how similar our experiences were. Father Ron was such a great teacher, preacher and director that so many of his pithy and deep insights have now become part of our own priestly hard-wiring.

Those of us who give direction to others all admit that we seek to pattern ourselves, to the degree possible, on how he guided us.

When I was putting together a 2007 Seminar for Priests on Spiritual Direction, I asked Father Ron to give one of the talks. Many priests came just to hear Father Ron’s synthesis of the art at which he excelled. In the days after his death, I listened to the recording of his talk several times.

With characteristic humility he began that talk, “With regard to spiritual direction, the fundamental idea to remember is that the Holy Spirit is really the Director.”

Father Ron was a good and faithful student-instrument of that Director. Now it’s time for others to step up to the plate to cooperate with that Director in guiding others to live by His holy inspirations.

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

July 19, 2013

D

uring these long summer days brought to us as the season passes through its summer solstice, we may not be thinking about the need for light. As we bask in the light of the sun for more than two-thirds of our day it is hard to imagine that six months from now we will long for this light.

Pope Francis draws upon this imagery of light to begin the first encyclical of his papacy.

The light of faith beckons, drawing each of us towards its warmth. It is a light more intense than the sun’s strongest rays. In Lumen Fide, he explains, “Yet though the sun was born anew each morning, it was clearly incapable of casting its light on all of human existence. The sun does not illumine all reality; its rays cannot penetrate to the shadow of death, the place where men’s eyes are closed to its light.” With these words Pope Francis launches us into an excursion through the history of humanity’s journey toward the light that is God’s love.

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The Anchor

Guided by the Light

Every spiritual master exlet something new and differplains the ineffable quality of ent happen. It requires trust, faith by beginning from some surrender and openness to experience of darkness. Pope guidance. God wants to dwell Francis points out that it is in our emptiness.” from this place that humanity Faith is more than fulfillsearches for something that ing an obligation to worship, is “prior to ourselves.”

This is “the beginning of salvation,” when we recognize that we have become empty.

Spiritual maturity begins with our own recognition of beBy Claire McManus ing in darkness. God waits for us in the darkness, as though we are a new creation about but requires an emptying to be born out of the formless of ourselves to find within wasteland. Those who have a desire for God that is experienced the rock-bottom never quite satisfied. Thomas fall into the abyss understand Merton reminds us “the more this kind of darkness and perfect faith is, the darker it rebirth. For many, life is not becomes. The closer we get engulfed in darkness so much to God, the less is our faith as it is empty. Henri Noudiluted with the half-light of wen describes this feeling of created images and concepts.” emptiness as a place longing Desire is the God-given for God. He wrote, “It is very vehicle that drives us toward hard to allow emptiness to the Light. St. Ignatius taught exist in our lives. Emptiness that desires are the path requires a willingness not to to one’s soul. We are often be in control, a willingness to misled by our culture, believ-

The Great Commission

ing that by consuming more we can satisfy our desires.

These disordered desires for outward beauty, power, money, and success, lead us to be voracious consumers that never have enough. Herein lies the truth of our own emptiness; it longs to be filled, but we have filled it up with the cotton candy nutrition of mundane desires.

Authentic desires grow stronger and are more sharply defined the closer they come to the Light of God. And while this journey to the Light is never complete, we recognize its progress when the world comes into sharper focus. Rather than viewing the world through rose-colored glasses, we begin to see through the eyes of Christ.

“So it was with St. Francis of Assisi and the leper, or with Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta and her poor,” writes Pope Francis, “They understood the mystery at work in them. In drawing near to the suffering, they were certainly not able to eliminate all their pain or to explain every evil. 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.”

The paradox of our search for faith is that it begins with our strong desire for light, but once we draw near, we become the light in someone else’s darkness. This is a shift away from the consumer culture in which we are immersed. When our desire to get closer to the light becomes a desire to give light, it transforms every community in which we live, especially our Eucharistic community. Imagine a parish whose members believe that they must go out into the world to bring light into darkness. “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 towards a future of hope.” How different our Liturgies would be if we truly believed this!

We have been gifted with these long days of summer warmth that allow for long walks in the evening and early morning awakenings.

This is our time to follow our desires into the Light, allowing it to reflect off of us and onto the world so immersed in darkness.

Claire McManus is the director of the Diocesan Office of Faith Formation.

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he scene depicted in this week’s Gospel has often been interpreted by commentators as the distinction between two aspects of the spiritual life, the contemplative and the active or the life of prayer and the life of charity. It seems that Martha, concerned with many things, is busy performing acts of charity whilst Mary sits at the feet of Christ listening to the Word and contemplating it in her heart. Then Martha raises an objection, the same objection the world uses against those who are contemplative.

There is the pile of things to be done, wrongs to be addressed, the poor, the sick, the afflicted and the abandoned and Mary sits at the feet of the Word instead of putting her shoulder to the grindstone and crackingon. The world has used this argument for centuries against contemplative religious and those who spend large amounts of time in prayer. It is a false argument, because it is only prayer that opens the possibility

July 19, 2013

The Anchor

At the feet of the Lord

of a life of charity. the life of the Christian. The I am sure that Mary was not “Catechism of the Catholic an indolent person by nature Church” reminds us that: “In and I am sure that Martha the New Covenant, prayer is was not an impious woman the living relationship of the who didn’t want to spend time with the Lord, indeed she was Homily of the Week preparing the Lord’s Sixteenth Sunday meal. But the distincin Ordinary Time tion is made and Our Lord determines that

By Msgr. there is a “better part.”

Gerard P. O’Connor We could say, however, that although there is a “better part” it doesn’t mean that the other part can be children of God with their excluded. In our spiritual lives Father Who is good beyond there needs to be a strong elemeasure, with His Son Jesus ment of prayer and an element Christ and with the Holy of charitable activism. I would Spirit” (CCC 2565). go so far as to say, however, that Is it any coincidence then if the prayer “part” is not the that in the Gospel of St. Luke foundation then the activity after this episode with Marthat results from our endeavors tha and Mary, Our Lord tells can never be truly called ChrisHis disciples how to pray by tian charity, it becomes lame teaching them the prayer par altruism. excellence, the Our Father. Jesus Prayer, spending time in the wants us to pray to the Father presence of God or raising our and gives us the words so that minds to Him, is essential to even if we never reach the

heights of prayer attained by the great saints we can in simple and humble terms address ourselves to our Loving Father in the words Our Savior gave us.

Mary sits at the feet of the Master as Martha busies herself with many concerns.

Mary has put herself in the presence of God and this posture is an important one for those who love God. It wouldn’t seem that Mary is involved in any sort of prayer of petition or intercession or thanksgiving but just resting quietly and listening to the Lord. Sometimes we underestimate the powerful prayer which is just being in the presence of God. By humbly coming to the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament and resting silently at His feet so to speak we enter His presence in a very special way. Of course we can come into the presence of God throughout our daily lives in the many activities that we

complete and just by acknowledging the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within our souls.

But when we come into the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament a more deliberate and meaningful prayer is facilitated.

In every Christian soul there is an element of Mary and an element of Martha, of the contemplative and the active life.

We can never have one without the other, but Our Lord is clear that the life of prayer is necessary to have a life of Christian activity which is charity. In the words of the great spiritual director and author Dom Hubert Van Zeller: “It is not an exaggeration to say that only through the life of prayer do souls come to a true appreciation of the life of charity.”

Let us join Mary at the feet of the Lord and put ourselves in the presence of God asking through prayer for the strength and courage to a live of charity.

Msgr. O’Connor is pastor of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Acushnet.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. July 20, Ex 12:37-42; Ps 136:1,23-24,10-15; Mt 12:14-21. Sun. July 21, Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Gn 18:1-10a; Ps 15:2-5; Col 1:24-28; Lk 10:38-42. Mon. July 22, Ex 14:5-18; (Ps) Ex 15:1-6; Jn 20:1-2,11-18. Tues. July 23, Ex 14:21—15:1; (Ps) Ex 15:8-10,12,17; Mt 12:46-50. Wed. July 24, Ex 16:1-5,9-15; Ps 78:18-19,23-28; Mt 13:1-9. Thurs. July 25, 2 Cor 4:7-15; Ps 126:1-6; Mt 20:20-28. Fri. July 26, Ex 20:1-17; Ps 19:8-11; Mt 13:18-23. Sat. July 27, Ex 24:3-8; Ps 50:1-2,5-6,14-15; Mt 13:24-30. Sun. July 28, Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Gn 18:20-32; Ps 138:1-3,6-8; Col 2:12-14; Lk 11:1-13. Mon. July 29, Ex 32:15-24,30-34; Ps 106:19-23; Jn 11:19-27 or Lk 10:38-42. Tues. July 30, Ex 33:7-11;34:5b-9,28; Ps 103:6-13; Mt 13:36-43. Wed. July 31, Ex 34:29-35; Ps 99:5-7,9; Mt 13:44-46. Thurs. August 1, Ex 40:16-21,34-38; Ps 84:3-6,8-11; Mt 13:47-53. Fri. August 2, Lv 23:1,4-11,15-16,27,34b-37; Ps 81:3-6,10-11; Mt 13:54-58.

C

riticism comes with the territory when you write books, and the best for which any author can hope is intelligent criticism that engages your argument and leads to new insight all around.

Alas, that’s too often the exception, especially among the more ideologically entrenched of Catholic intellectuals and reviewers. Thus I’ve been disappointed that, from both the port and starboard sides of the Barque of Peter, several reviewers have either missed the point of, or not engaged the argument about, modern Catholic history that I offered in “Evangelical Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21st-Century Church” (Basic Books).

The book begins with an obvious fact: Benedict XVI was certain to be the last pope to have attended Vatican II. That fact led to an equally obvious conclusion: an era in Catholic history was coming to an end.

Which conclusion, in turn, led to two obvious questions: When did that era begin, and how should it be described?

A new approach to modern Catholic history was coming to an end with It seemed to me myopic Benedict XVI. to assume or argue that the And how should that era be period in question began with described?

I suggested that the Vatican II. A more sophispast century and a quarter was ticated form of this myopia opened the historical lens wider, finding in the Catholic Biblical, Liturgical, theological and social action movements of the mid-20th century the antecedents to the

By George Weigel council. But was that going far enough back to get the era into the last, extended moment of clear focus?

Counter-Reformation CaI thought not. For those tholicism: the mode of being reform movements themCatholic that came into being, selves had antecedents in the largely through the Council of pontificate of Pope Leo XIII Trent, in response to the chal(1878-1903), who abandoned lenges posed by the Protestant the defensive strategy of Reformation and the first stirGregory XVI and Pius IX in rings of modern cultural, social, the face of cultural and political modernity, and who sought economic and political life.

Now, I suggested, Counterto engage these “new things” (as Leo styled his most famous Reformation Catholicism — encyclical) in a critical, authen- the way-of-being-Church in tically Catholic way. Leo XIII, which every Catholic over 50 I proposed, was the man whose today grew up — was giving way to the Catholicism of the 25-year-long papacy marked New Evangelization, or what the beginning of the era that

The Catholic Difference

I and others call “Evangelical Catholicism.”

I thought this way of framing modern Catholic history offered a more complete account of the Catholic drama from my grandparents’ day to my grandson’s that was typically on offer.

It linked Leo XIII to Vatican II via the reformist movements Leo’s pontificate had set in motion. And it stretched Vatican II and its authentic interpretation into the pontificates of two men, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, who as young participants at the Council had helped shape its call to the Church to re-imagine itself as a communion of disciples in mission.

When I explain this out on the hustings, people seem genuinely appreciative: dots get connected, and what seems a fragmented, even indecipherable history begins to display Henry James’s “figure in the carpet”: the narrative thread that ties together a very com-

plex business — which modern Catholic history undoubtedly is. I don’t think this proposal is “idiosyncratic,” as one starboard-leaning reviewer put it; nor is it “odd,” as a brother on the portside had it. It’s not even original, as I explain in the book, for the idea emerged out of a decade of conversation with my friend, Professor Russell Hittinger, who has done important and groundbreaking work on Leo XIII. My proposal may, however, challenge the comfort zones of those still stuck in CounterReformation Catholicism. For my further suggestion is that “Evangelical Catholicism” is not some 50-yard line between Catholic left and Catholic right, but a vision of Church far beyond those polarities. If that’s “idiosyncratic” or “odd,” then so were John Paul II and Benedict XVI, and so is Francis, the evangelical pope from the far end of the earth.

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

July 19, 2013

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his month my parents are celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary.

Twenty-five years of nurturing love between themselves and nurturing that love within their family. Twentyfive years of commitment to Marriage, to the vows taken on their wedding day, and to each other. In this article I would like to not only recognize the beauty created and captured by those 25 years, but also share how Marriage is such a vocation in and of itself. In a world where the term “vocation” is so commonly associated with the word “priest” or “nun” or “religious,” we sometimes forget that our vocation in life is what we feel we are being called to do. God calls each and every one of us to something unique and special, something He feels we will succeed at and through doing that task, bring ourselves, those around us, and Him happiness. For those of us, this vocation may seem to be an earthly task that we dedicate our time and energy to.

We delight in the fulfillment

A true Marriage

of our goals and we seek companionship with those who do the same. However, what we often neglect to see is what is right in front of our eyes: Our true vocation is to love, and for many this is exemplified in their Marriage covenant. As stated in the “Catechism”: “The vocation to Marriage is written in the very nature of man and woman as they came from the hand of the Creator,” God, Who is in fact, love. It is often said that our earthly Marriages are to be mirrored after Jesus and His “marriage” to the Church and even God and His love for us. Jesus so loved His Church that He sacrificed His very life. He dedicated His life to acts of love, constantly demonstrating what it meant to give of oneself for the betterment of another. God so loves us that He brought our creation to fruition, bringing us to life out of His love so that we may love one another.

In fact, the love between man and woman should become

“an image of the absolute and unfailing love with which God loves man.” Our human love should be an example of sacrifice as Jesus’ was and of constant reciprocal demonstrations of selfless giving in

Radiate Your Faith

By Renee Bernier order to bring about the best in each other and for the betterment of each other.

Now that we’ve got this understanding of Marriage as vocation, and not just an alternative to religious life, let us really get down to the main point of it all. There is a verse in the Bible that always strikes me as sad and hopeful.

Genesis, chapter two, verse 18 reads as follows: “It is not good that the man should be alone.” What makes me at once woeful is the image of man all by himself. It seems

Books close on best-ever Catholic Charities Appeal campaign continued from page one

pecially in southeastern Massachusetts with our two largest cities of Fall River and New Bedford continuing to experience a slow recovery from the economic downturn of recent years, it is an amazing example of a Christ-centered faith for those who contribute and to their authentic witness to the good works made possible by the Appeal and the agencies it sponsors,” said James Campbell of the Catholic Charities Appeal Office.

The results of the Appeal showed some amazing accomplishments across the diocese. More than a dozen parishes throughout the region had double-digit increases over last year’s Appeal total, with one parish achieving a 56 percent gain and three more than 25 percent each. In all, 59 of the 87 parishes in the diocese, or 68 percent, exceeded their 2012 total.

“I believe there are several factors that distinguish our Appeal in the mind of our donors.” continued Campbell. “First, there is a genuine respect for the work being done on behalf of the poor by the Diocese of Fall River in meeting the needs

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The Anchor

of those it ministers to through its various agencies and apostolates, and secondly, our efficiency, as measured by the fact that 94 cents of every dollar donated goes directly to these agencies and apostolates to address the needs of those who turn to us for assistance during their time of need. We are very proud of the sound stewardship which has always been a benchmark of the Appeal.”

Bishop Coleman, as he reflected on this wonderful result, commented, “I am so proud of our priests and the lay leaders in every parish who advocate so strenuously on behalf of the

poor. When so many of our brothers and sisters find themselves in situations of unemployment and underemployment, the response of a great number of people, parishes, and businesses in the Diocese of Fall River to our annual Appeal demonstrates an admirable degree of unselfish generosity.”

like it should be so lonely to proceed through life by oneself, and what makes me more sorrowful is the image of God’s own sadness at such a state. However, man does not stay lonely for long because our God is a proactive God, and He solves the problem of loneliness by providing a mate for man.

Suddenly, the loneliness dissipates and the vocation of the man and woman is to love, just as God exemplified by providing them one another. What’s more is that the example of Jesus and His bridegroom the Church can flood back for those who do not always see resolution to man’s loneliness in their everyday lives. Just as Jesus loved the Church, something that can sometimes be hard to fathom as more than just a sublime entity, we must remember that for those out there who have not crossed the path of the mate God intended for them, their love is not lost. Their mate is always Christ, for

with a mate or not, they have still been called to love. Is this always easy? Absolutely not.

But is Marriage with another always easy? Just because we find our counterparts, is it always easy? No. The vows we take when we wed often include the terms “for better or worse,” “for richer or poorer,” and “in sickness and in health.” Oftentimes those vows are challenged, they are tested, and with love, they are overcome and triumphed over.

With love, all things are possible. Friends in Christ, I hope you do your very best each and every day to love the one you’re with. God has special plans for each of us, and they include some very special people.

My parents are two very special people to whom I wish the happiest of anniversaries.

With the beautiful example of love they have provided, I cannot wait to watch their Marriage continue to bring about God’s love here on earth.

Renee lives in Swansea and is a graduate of Stonehill College in Easton. She is involved with youth ministry at St. Patrick’s Parish in Wareham.

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

July 19, 2013

Attleboro evangelists sent out two-by-two continued from page one

Christ’s call to evangelize and now the Spirit has helped us, Catholics from these two states, to work together to bring Christ’s love out into the streets of Attleboro,” said Father Richard D. Wilson, pastor of St. Vincent’s and St. John’s parishes.

For several months, a core group at St. Vincent’s has met with folks from the Providence Diocese who have experienced the past few Days of Evangelization in the Ocean State.

These individuals have shared their experiences with the volunteers from St. Vincent’s and St. John’s, by passing on the wisdom to the individuals who will be making the door-todoor visits.

“It all started at a parish council meeting,” said DOE committee member Kathy Harum. “At one of our meetings, before the official merger of St. Joseph’s Parish and Holy Ghost Parish, Father Richard Wilson asked us all for any thoughts or ideas we might have that might help our parishes in this transition. People spoke about how we might get everyone involved in each church’s different cultural and Liturgical traditions, including the Portuguese-, Hispanic-, French- and English-speaking communities’ many lively events and devotions. I mentioned that as an actress and theatre director I have seen how much bonding takes place when a cast comes together to create a new production. If the cast is of good will, there is always an excitement about the shared purpose of creating something new and wanting it to be beautiful! So I said that we need brand new experiences to bring us together as a family. I mentioned to the council about the door-todoor evangelization that my parents had done last year at their parish, St. Rose and St. Clement Parish, in Warwick, R.I. My parents, both in their 80s, went door to door and had a great experience! Father Wilson immediately seized on the idea and asked me to find out about it. When I called St. Rose and St. Clement parishes I was referred to Ed Gallagher.

Ed and I had several wonderful conversations over the phone.

He agreed to come and speak to the now new parish of St. Vincent de Paul. What was so amazing, is that Ed shared with me, that the Legion of Mary in R.I. had been praying for quite

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July 19, 2013

a while for a brave pastor to agree to lead a DOE in Massachusetts and they were praying through the intercession of St. Vincent de Paul!”

John Rae-Kelly, also a committee member, told The Anchor that Gallagher and Kathleen Kerin, active in the R.I. Days of Evangelization since 2011, agreed to provide training and share their experiences with the Attleboro group.

“Training is focused on the mechanics of arranging a DOE event; lessons learned from past DOEs and also, perhaps most importantly of all, the Spiritual foundation of the DOE,” said Rae-Kelly. “It has its origins in the Legion of Mary’s Home Visitation apostolate as well as the New Evangelization.

Ed and Kathy have provided monthly training sessions for volunteers since May and this will become a weekly event beginning late July.”

“Our training consists of hearing possible opening statements to be said at the door and also listening to the many witness stories from past DOEs,” added Harum, “Ed and Kathleen have experienced the pow-

To advertise in The Anchor, contact Wayne Powers at 508-675-7151 or Email waynepowers@anchornews.org

er of a Spirit-led DOE and so they are asking us to trust that we don’t have to think that we have to be perfect or think we have to be experienced or extremely knowledgeable to go door to door. Over and over

they have seen what God can achieve with trusting souls.”

The DOE volunteers will cover an area that encompasses the geographical boundaries of the parish, with the intent of Continued on page 14

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July 19, 2013

The Anchor

Priest’s new video series links evangelization with beauty Denver, Colo. (CNA) — Father Robert Barron, rector of Mundelein Seminary outside of Chicago, has produced a new video series emphasizing the primacy of beauty in drawing people to Christ.

“Let’s start with the beauty of the faith … I wanted to start with the splendor of it,” Father Barron, a priest of the Chicago archdiocese, told CNA recently.

“I don’t talk about any of the hot button issues.”

Slated for release on DVD this August, “Catholicism: The New Evangelization,” explores the Church’s mission in contemporary culture. The program follows Father Barron’s critically acclaimed, high-definition “Catholicism” series of 2011, which aired on PBS nationwide.

His approach to the New Evangelization — the late Blessed John Paul II’s term for reaching formerly Christian societies — tends to begin with “something in the culture that people are watching or paying attention to.”

The priest, who founded

W

global media group Word on Fire, said that he is able to find in these things something “that speaks to the Catholic faith, that reflects the Catholic faith.”

“So it’s more of affirmative orthodoxy; a positive approach,” he said. “And I think that intrigues people.”

The series focuses on the New Evangelization because “it’s what we need, as a Church.”

It grew out of conversations Father Barron had on trips to Australia and England, looking at what is “drawing people in these very secularized societies back to the Church.”

The election of Pope Francis has given the Church the opportunity of a new, more positive narrative in the mainstream media, and Father Barron suggested that “maybe they are captivated by Francis.”

In concert with his focus on beauty as a route for the New Evangelization, the priest said, “I want to get people off of the one-sided stress on sexual ethics.”

While acknowledging that

sexual ethics are “very important,” he said the singular emphasis on this one facet of Church teaching “distorts the message.”

“If you read the New Testament, yes there’s a sexual ethic implicit in the New Testament, but would you get the impression that’s the one thing that we’re supposed to do — we’re supposed to get people clear on their sexual lives?”

No, he answered, the primary calling of Christians is “declaring the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead, declaring the Kingdom of God breaking into history, declaring this revolution that’s wrought grace.”

“Now an implication of that is, get your sexual lives in order, towards love.”

But rather than focusing all one’s message on sexual ethics, he declared, “I’d like to widen the lens a little bit.”

CNA spoke with Father Barron at a Catholic media conference in Denver, shortly after a talk he presented, where discussed the “balloons and ban-

— that’s got me out of that duty for a while. But when the heat was on, and a cool A/C was calling, her leg seemed much better.

Hmmmm.

It doesn’t much matter what Iggy does when she thinks she’s alone, because what she does when she’s with us still amuses, even after 10 years of watching her antics.

Igor has a bark for everything.

cream for dogs. That’s a bark she’ll try to use more than once a day.

During my recovery from neck surgery, I couldn’t do much — even drive, so I was pretty much a couch potato for a couple of weeks. And that grows old very quickly. But the best part of those uneventful days was spending time with my Velcro pup.

Iggy was always by my side, and like God’s love for us, a dog’s is unconditional.

I truly believe that dogs know what’s in a person’s heart and soul. They can read moods, and they can react to emotions. It didn’t take too long after my return to the “real world” to discover that humans don’t always do the same. But I take comfort in my pooch’s knowing what’s in my heart and soul, and knowing she likes it.

I don’t much care what Igor does when we’re not around.

For all the love and laughs she provides through the years, she deserves life’s little joys.

And when I’m completely healed, and she wants a ride up the stairs even though I know she’s playing me like a fiddle — I’ll scoop her up in my arms because she knows love works both ways.

ners” era following the Second Vatican Council, when there was a “dumbing down” of catechesis in much of the Church.

Asked if he thinks that era is starting to change, he responded, “not enough.”

“I worry about that. It needs to change.” The Church needs “a couple of saints, who will really raise up armies of teachers,” Father Barron said.

The generations of Catholics formed under Benedict XVI and in John Paul II’s later years need “to go for advanced studies in philosophy and theology, so they can pass the thing on in a sophisticated way,” he reflected.

Going along with this, he said Catholics colleges must “become a breeding ground of Catholic intellectual life,” having professors, not only in philosophy and theology, but all the disciplines, “whose teaching is informed by their faith.”

Father Barron called it a

“tragedy” that so many Catholic universities have “secularized themselves … aping Princeton and Harvard.”

He promoted Vatican II’s idea that Catholic lay people are called to be “great Catholics in the world.”

Rather than privatizing their faith, Catholics — whether business leaders, politicians, or media personalities — should let that faith inform their “decisions, approach, attitude.”

This is “tricky,” he emphasized, saying that “if you’re a media person you can’t say, ‘I’m going to be announcing Jesus Christ risen from the dead as I do the evening news.’”

And yet, he calls for the “still unrealized Vatican II vision of the laity Christifying the world” by refusing to privatize their Catholic faith.

Letting faith inform one’s decisions in public: “that’s evangelization,” Father Barron said.

Every day is a dog day for Igor

hen Emilie was small she created a picture book entitled, “What Igor Does When We’re Away.” In it she made drawings (really good ones at that) of Iggy pretty much running the house: kicking back on the recliner watching TV; raiding the fridge; chewing on slippers, shoes, flip-flops, boots and other assorted footwear; going through closets, drawers, cabinets, etc.

Then when she hears our car coming up the street, and I swear she senses us from at least a mile away, she waits at the sliding door, tail wagging like a helicopter rotor-blade, and giving us her best “I’ve missed you, it’s been so lonely” look.

Without hidden cameras or Skype running all day, we really don’t know what Igor does, but I think Emilie had it nailed down pretty good all those years ago.

Just this week, during another heat wave, while Denise and I were at work, Emilie captured a picture of the pooch on my bed, smack dab in front of the A/C. And this is from a dog who had ligament damage in one of her knees, that through the years has morphed into arthritis. There have been times when she has over-exerted herself, that I would have to carry her up the stairs to bed. Thank God for back surgery

My View From the Stands

By Dave Jolivet There’s the “I want to go outside” bark; the “It’s time for supper” bark; the “It’s time for bed” bark; and especially lately, the “It’s time for ice cream” bark, at which most times she gets a HoodsieCup-sized “Frosty Paws,” — ice

Igor was no hot dog this week, as she found a home in front of the A/C during the latest heat wave. (Photo by Emilie Jolivet)

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on WLNE Channel 6 Sunday, July 21, 11:00 a.m.

Celebrant is Father Michael Racine, pastor of St. Bernard’s Parish in Assonet

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on WLNE Channel 6 Sunday, July 28, 11:00 a.m.

Celebrant is Father Kevin J. Harrington, pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in New Bedford

July 19, 2013

13

The Anchor

Please note that The Anchor will take its annual summer break next week.

We will not publish on July 26, and the office will be closed from July 20 to July 28, reopening on July 29.

The Anchor will return to your mailbox with the August 2 edition.

Our readers respond Only half the story As a Catholic born in 1957, I agree fully with Father Johnson’s summation of the Church since Vatican II. What we needed after the council was a moratorium on any changes until the documents could be fully understood but, to the detriment of our formation, that didn’t happen.

The reason Father gives for this misdirection is secularism but I think the real reason that the human aspect of the Church allowed it to go in this direction is Satan. We haven’t mentioned the devil and he’s been able to act uninhibited for all this time. I can envision him doing an “end zone dance” because of it for the past 50 years.

I’ve been attending Mass regularly since I was in first grade and the homilies I’ve heard my whole life concerning mercy, forgiveness, love, the Body of Christ, etc., were all the truth but only half the story. Each day we need to acknowledge the spiritual battle that we’re in with evil. It’s only then that we really see our need for God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit to be at work in us all the time. For that to happen we need to be in a

state of grace which we get from Reconciliation which then allows us to receive the Blessed Sacrament at Communion for our fortification.

As we humble ourselves before God we regain the sacred.

Mike Aiello Forestdale EXECUTIVE EDITOR RESPONDS: Thank you for your letter. You bring to mind Pope Paul VI’s June 29, 1972 homily, in which he said, “from some fissure the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God.” One can debate how much Satan has been mentioned over the last half century (one could generalize and say that the popes have spoken about him much more so than we priests have). Pope Francis has spoken repeatedly about our need to do battle with him. June 17 he spoke to a convention of the Diocese of Rome and told them, “We must tell each other the truth: the work of evangelizing, of freely carrying grace ahead, is not easy, because we are not alone with Jesus Christ; there is also an adversary, an enemy who wants to keep men and women separate from God and for this reason instills in hearts disappointment when we do not see our apostolic

commitment immediately rewarded. Every day the devil scatters in our hearts seeds of pessimism and gall, and it is discouraging, we become discouraged. ‘It’s no good! We’ve done this, that and the other and it’s no good! And look how that religion attracts people whereas we don’t! It is the devil who inspires this.

We must prepare ourselves for the spiritual combat. This is important. It is impossible to preach the Gospel without this spiritual battle, a daily battle against sadness, against bitterness, against pessimism; a daily battle!

Sowing is far from easy.

Reaping is lovely but sowing is difficult and the daily battle of Christians consists in this.”

That being said, Blessed John Paul II emphasized our turning to the Mercy of Christ — but always reminding us that we most effectively receive that mercy via the Sacrament of Penance/Reconciliation.

minds — do not need the editor to hasten to rebut Father Johnson’s opinion. The editor is free to correct errors of fact but, as for opinion, he should please resist the temptation to muscle in.

James Lengyel Teaticket

someone with many academic degrees.

Not to be forgotten Over the years, as any of the wonderful priests of the diocese retired, The Anchor would print a nice story about his ministry. This year, however, one such story is missing. I realize that it is at his request, but I cannot let the retirement of Father Ed Correia go unnoticed. I met Father Ed in his first assignment after his ordination.

To say that he was loved by the parish, the young, the elderly, and the infirm would be an understatement. I very well know he, in all his later assignments, continued in the same way. I also know he was an inspiration to many young priests.

Father Ed is a humble, holy, selfless Man of God; I am sure the many hundreds in the diocese who have benefitted from knowing him feel blessed from having him in their lives and will join with me to wish him many happy and healthy years henceforth.

Leonard F. Smith, M.D. Centerville

EXECUTIVE EDITOR RESPONDS: Thank you for your fraternal correction. I offer these responses (or rebuttals) in continuation of a practice of my predecessor. Although they are added work for me, I do them so as to both sometimes offer my own personal opinions (which I cannot do in the editorials, since they are supposed to reflect the entire newspaper) and to also add clarif ication regarding the point-of-view of the diocese on a given topic. You make reference to the readers being intelligent. I think that we can look over the entirety of human history, or even just the post-conciliar era, and Overstepping his role I believe that the execu- see that the fact that sometive editor either misun- one is well-educated does not derstands or is overextend- mean that they will grasp ing his role. When Father the truths of the faith. Often Johnson offers his opinion someone with very little or about the sacredness of the no education might be much EXECUTIVE EDITOR Liturgy, we readers — all more reverent to God (both perfectly intelligent and ca- in the Blessed Sacrament and RESPONDS: I completely pable of making up our own in his or her neighbor) than agree!

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CLI celebrates quarter century of preparing tomorrow’s leaders continued from page one

us back. Once you get into July, jobs start and young people can’t tell [their boss] that they need a week off. That’s been an issue.”

As director of CLI for more than 20 years, Lucca also parlays his experiences as youth minister at St. Dominic’s Parish in Swansea and campus minister at UMass Dartmouth into helping guide the candidates through numerous activities. This isn’t the first time the number has fallen below 20; “The last time we had a group this size,” said Lucca, “it was the best we ever had in terms of what we were able to accomplish.”

Small groups tend to bond faster, and this year was no different. The customary activities were combined for efficiency; “For the group assigned morning prayer, they were assigned morning prayer and evening prayer,” said Lucca of the modifications to the scheduled activities. “It’s a little bit more intensive to them because they have more work with the same amount of time, and with less people. I found that they always rise to the occasion; it’s amazing.”

There were some returning CLI grads giving up a week of his or her vacation to help lead and be part of the team or do workshops with the candidates.

“The graduates come back because they have this great affinity for what occurred there,” said Lucca. “They feel connected to that program. It’s not hard to get people to come back.”

CLI is not a retreat, it’s a process and that process is used to help build leadership skills.

Using team-building activities that encourage the young peo-

ple to interact, problem-solve and create communication skills will give CLI candidates the tools that can be used directly, not only at their parish, but also in his or her life; the returning graduates help highlight those achievements as they help guide those in the program.

“They see the graduates and think, ‘Hey, they went through this too,’ and it gives a different point of view. It’s not just an adult-theme; it has the youth to help make the connection for [the candidates],” said Lucca.

Every year Lucca shares the story of his eldest daughter, who is a graduate of CLI. His daughter worked for a large corporation who, upon hiring her, sent her to a one-month “boot camp” training program.

She called her dad, telling him that what she learned at CLI gave her an advantage in the program.

“I tell [the candidates] that the skills that they learn at CLI are going to carry through life,” said Lucca. “It’s not something that’s one week and you’re done, and it’s only for your parish or school. They are skills you take with you for the rest of your life.”

Some of the most moving moments experienced are when the young people plan the Liturgies.

“Not that we change the Liturgy in any way,” explained Lucca. “We add the components of the environment and bring people to prayer through the prayer of the faithful, the readings and the way the room is designed and set up — all those things are part of the process of CLI, and the end result is something that nobody will

ever forget. It’s very moving for most of the young people.

What’s more beautiful than Morning Prayer on the lake with geese flying overhead? It’s phenomenal.”

The kids have limited time to schedule certain activities, and often they scramble in the hour-and-a-half given, and about 85 percent of the time they succeed, said Lucca.

“And that’s not bad because failure is a part of life,” he said.

“If something goes wrong, we evaluate it and see what worked, what didn’t and how we can make it better. Everything we do is a process, and everything we say at CLI has a reason.”

Not everyone clicks with the CLI experience right away.

Lucca shared a few rare instances when a young person expressed a desire to go home before finishing the program.

When that happens, the team will sit down and talk to him or her, and help address the young person’s concern, as what happened to a young man last year.

“I was much concerned about where he was at in his life,” said Lucca. “We’re very careful to say that CLI is not a group counseling session; we’re not equipped to handle issues with young people.”

The young man didn’t seem to be fitting in, isolating himself from the other candidates and seemed to not want to be involved. By week’s end, Lucca said he saw the young man come around, and since then has seen the young man at every CLI gathering they’ve had.

“A lot of that has to do with the group itself,” said Lucca.

“You become friends with those people who offer support, and they help them through those situations.”

Now that another CLI week is finished, the newly-minted graduates can begin to focus on planning the Youth Convention scheduled for March 30 of next year. Even as the numbers continue to fluctuate, Lucca has high expectations for the program.

“It’s such a valuable program and I hope it continues,” he said. “It’s not only the community it builds in the diocese and not only the group of young people we send back to the parishes so that they can carry on in their parish, it helps a young person through life. We’ve had many people come back as a team member, showing it had significance in their lives.”

July 19, 2013

Attleboro evangelists sent out two-by-two continued from page 11

visiting as many homes as possible. Each DOE pair will target 40 homes to visit within the two-hour period.

“The Holy Spirit guides each step that we take,” said committee member Kathy Davis. “God loves His children with immense tenderness. He is witness to each breath we take. Many of our neighbors live in darkness and fear, unaware of God’s loving presence in their lives. It is He Who calls each of us to respond to His children. We are to be His answer to their prayers. God has already ordained the houses we are to visit. Our crucial task is to receive and discern that call and then respond generously.

It may appear that we choose the houses; we may even think we are choosing. However, it is God Who chooses, and we who, guided by the loving prayers of hundreds of people, visit our neighbors for and with Him.” Once at the door, the pair will share a greeting with those inside, introduce themselves and ask if they would like prayers for something special.

“We will let the Spirit lead us as to what will be shared,” added Harum. “We will leave a welcome package that contains items such as a current bulletin, letter from our pastor, rosary and other blessed items, prayer cards, catechetical materials, etc.”

“For me personally, I feel that what we will share is really Who we will share — the very presence of Christ,” Roberta Hebert, one of the volunteers, told The Anchor. “Christ is always an event that is happening now.”

Davis told The Anchor that they have been advised to “walk down the street as Mary, the Blessed Mother, walked down the ‘street’ years ago. As we place ourselves under the mantle of Mary, it is no longer us on that doorstep, but Him, the ‘One’ who sends us out.”

“Just ‘being there’; on the doorstep, willing to listen and help and, most importantly, pray for the folks we visit,” offered Kelly. “We hope to share the listening presence of the Lord Jesus in the midst of whatever circumstances they find themselves in.”

None of the DOE members The Anchor spoke with are worried about “negative” reactions or responses from those they will visit. Yet, they know

the possibility is there. Should someone react negatively or even rudely, the team will listen compassionately and try to understand their point of view, even inviting them to speak to their pastor Father Wilson.

“We have heard stories of situations where the person answering the door goes on a 45-minute tirade against the Catholic Church only to wind up inviting the missionaries in,” said Rae-Kelly. “Or when someone goes on and on about how God and the Church doesn’t care about them only to finally pause long enough to see two Catholic souls standing right in front of them who are a witness of God’s interest in them. All of a sudden they are open to hear.”

The response to the call for volunteers for the Day of Evangelization has been very promising. “It’s been excellent so far,” said Rae-Kelly. “It has been humbling to see so many good souls who want to serve the Lord in any way they can and share our faith.” Each week, the Day of Evangelization draws closer and the teams are becoming more prepared, but they are the foot soldiers of the event. Many more faithful from St. Vincent’s, St. John’s, and even other parishes, have offered their assistance “behind the scenes.”

Groups such as the Legion of Mary, St. Joseph’s Food Cellar, Eucharistic Adoration attendees, the parish Music Ministry, the St. Vincent de Paul Society, the Festa do Espirito Santo community, lectors and others have joined the effort.

“There are so many roles for these wonderful souls,” said Harum. “We will need dedicated people to work in the kitchen to help prepare our meals for the day. We need people to help with our musical Liturgy. We will need greeters, baby-sitters, set up people, etc. But most of all, we need prayer warriors!

Our prayer team has already begun a powerful prayer mission in advance of the day and, on the day, we will need people praying continuously for the whole two hours the D2D missionaries are sent out!”

Father Wilson also mentioned that “we do have Hispanic and Portuguese parishioners involved in the process, coming to the meetings, serving on committees, etc., and they also will go door to door.”

Continued on page 18

Father Arnold Medeiros, pastor of St. Elizabeth Seton Parish in North Falmouth, joined the 28 attendees of this year’s Quo Vadis Days retreat in Wareham for a presentation titled “Joy of the Priesthood.”

(Photo courtesy of Father Jay Mello)

Annual Quo Vadis Days helps youth consider vocations continued from page one

cord number of attendees — 28 boys, ages 14 to 18, representing 13 sending parishes from across the diocese.

“The prayers to the Lord of the harvest to send more laborers into the vineyard have certainly been answered,” said Father Jay Mello, recruiter and assistant vocations director for the diocese. “For the fourth straight year, the enrollment at Quo Vadis has gone up, with more than half of the guys this year having been present at one of the Quo Vadis retreats in the past.”

Quo Vadis Days — which takes its name from the Latin phrase meaning “Where are you going?” — was founded

by Father John Cihak of Portland, Ore. and Father William Dillard of San Diego, Calif. in the summer of 2000 and consists of a team of priests, seminarians and adult advisors who provide guidance and advice to help high school-aged young men deepen their faith and better discern what God is calling them to do.

“I would say I’m very encouraged by the number of young men coming to the Quo Vadis program every year,” Bishop Coleman told The Anchor. “I’m also encouraged that they come here and have a similar outlook on life. They come in order to be with each other, to have fun with each other — and that’s always wonderful to observe.

Most importantly, there is an element of faith and it is that

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July 19, 2013

faith that the priests and seminarians talk about that is so important in the lives of young people. It’s during a program like Quo Vadis where they can reflect on that faith and how that faith will be important to them — not only in the present time, but in their future lives as well.”

So it is fitting that in addition to the priests from the diocesan Vocations Office and the seminarians currently studying for the priesthood, the young men participating in the recent Quo Vadis Days experience were also joined and guided by Father Arnold Medeiros, pastor of St. Elizabeth Seton Parish in North Falmouth, and Bishop Coleman, among others, on this important journey of faith.

On the previous evening, Father Medeiros shared with the group some of his personal experiences of being a priest in a talk entitled “Joy of the Priesthood.” Many of the participants, according to Father Mello, cited his talk as one of the highlights of the week.

“We make every effort to bring in a variety of priests presenting on different topics to give the young men a well-rounded understanding of what the diocesan priesthood is and also of what it is not,” Father Mello said.

Another highlight was the midweek visit from Bishop Coleman, who celebrated Mass with the group, shared

lunch with them, and hosted a brief question-and-answer session during which he candidly spoke about his own joys of the priesthood and how he first discerned his priestly vocation.

“First of all, I’ll tell you it’s a great mystery,” Bishop Coleman said when asked about his calling. “When I was growing up, I lived in the town of Somerset and I belonged to a small parish — St. Patrick’s — and there was one pastor in the parish. I really admired the work he did … and I know my family was very close to the Church.”

Bishop Coleman said he learned early on from his own father about the importance of developing a personal relationship with Christ through prayer.

“I can remember on the first Friday of the month, my father would come home from work and … then at seven o’clock he’d go to church for a holy hour, for the Benediction and exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and the Stations of the Cross. It was devotions like that that helped me to understand more about Christ and about developing a sense of prayer in my own life. And that continues to grow to this day.”

While Bishop Coleman said he always felt he might have a vocation to the priesthood during high school, it wasn’t until his sophomore year as a student at Holy Cross College in Worcester that he knew the Lord was calling him.

After talking with his parish priest and then-Msgr. Humberto (Cardinal) Medeiros, who was the bishop’s chancellor at the time, Bishop James L. Connolly asked that he enter St. John’s Seminary in Brighton the following year.

“There’s no definite time to enter the seminary,” Bishop Coleman added. “Some may desire to enter seminary right after high school; others during college or after college; some others after graduating college and having some work experience. And then there are some who have a calling later in life. That’s more rare, but on occasion that will happen, too.

But I think most priests will tell you they know when it’s time.”

When asked what the greatest joys of his priesthood would be, Bishop Coleman cited his annual trip to participate in the March for Life in Washington, D.C. and his annual journey to visit St. Rose of Lima Parish in Guaimaca, Honduras — which until recently was a mission of the Fall River Diocese — as two examples.

“There are thousands of young people like you giving a witness to the dignity of human life in Washington, D.C. (every year),” the bishop said.

“Some of them, unfortunately not enough of them, are there to give their own personal witness to life. It’s always a great joy for me to be there to celebrate Mass with them.

“Every year I had (also) gone to Honduras to visit the parish and the priest and Sisters there.

They were doing marvelous work. Usually during that time I was joined by a youth group from the diocese or a group of students from Stonehill College. Those are just two things that were a great joy for me.”

First-time Quo Vadis attendee Andrew Demoranville of St. Patrick’s Parish in Wareham said the week-long experience was a lot of fun and he had made some new friends in addition to the one he came with.

“It’s been peaceful and it kind of opens up your mind and heart to what could be out there for your future,” he said. “It has certainly met my expectations. I’m getting a lot more out of it than I thought I would.”

Roger Hellard of St. Mary’s Parish in Mansfield, another first-time participant, said he had heard a little bit about Quo Vadis from friends, but he really wasn’t sure what to expect.

“I didn’t really have any expectations about it, but I really like it,” he said. “I feel like I’ve grown closer to God and I’ve made some new friends during the week and it’s been a great experience.”

Tyler Hammarquist of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Acushnet said he enjoyed the Quo Vadis Days retreat so much last year that he decided to give it another go this year.

“It was peaceful and I wanted to come back,” he said.

“This year they changed a lot of things, which was good. It seemed to be more organized this year — we had more set prayer time and break times and we prayed the Rosary. I like having set times for everything.”

“The young men seem to leave with a greater appreciation for their faith, an openness to God’s will in their lives, and a real zeal for living out their faith in their parishes, homes and schools,” Father Mello said. “The young men also walk away knowing that other young men, just like themselves, are also discerning whether or not Our Lord might be calling them to serve the Church as priests of Jesus Christ. Knowing that they are not alone makes discernment much easier for them. I think that great friendships, rooted in a common Catholic faith, is another one of the great fruits of the annual Quo Vadis retreat.”

In his homily Bishop Coleman also expressed great joy over the recent news that Blessed Pope John Paul II would be canonized a saint by the end of the year and took the opportunity to quote from the former Holy Father who “loved to be surrounded by young people.”

“When Pope John Paul II came to the United States in 1993 for World Youth Day in Denver, he said: ‘At this stage of history, the message of the Gospel of Life has been put into your hands. The Church needs you. It needs your energies, your enthusiasms and your ideas in order to make the Gospel of Life penetrate the fabric of society and transform people’s hearts.’”

With their faith strengthened and new friendships forged over the Quo Vadis Days experience, Father Mello noted the 28 participants of this year’s retreat would soon meet again for an end-of-summer reunion to be held at Holy Family Parish in East Taunton.

Youth Pages

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July 19, 2013

St. John the Evangelist School in Attleboro held its Honors Night at the end of the school year. One-hundred-and-eighteen students received awards. Pictured is Linda Betro handing Abigail Smith the Fourth-Grade Math Award while Ryan Sullivan awaits his awards in reading, music and computer.

Students from St. James-St. John School in New Bedford recently participated in a student against faculty basketball game.

Pre-kindergarten students celebrated their last day of school at Our Lady of Lourdes School in Taunton.

Bishop Feehan High School’s visual art class created a collection of cathedrals as part of a study on Byzantine, Romanesque, and Gothic architectural styles. Students from the Attleboro school were allowed to follow one style or combine them to create their own unique cathedral. Here, art teacher Jessica Peixoto was put to the task of grading the cathedrals.

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

Abby Hilling of New Bedford, who graduated from Bishop Stang High School in North Dartmouth last month, was selected to have her work showcased in The Marble Collection: Massachusetts High School Magazine of the Arts. The spring 2013 edition of this magazine was released in mid-May. Hilling hopes to major in English during her college career with the ultimate goal of writing and publishing a novel.

July 19, 2013

I

Youth Pages Independence Day in Eden

have a confession: I love structure. I love step-bystep instruction. It brings me peace to follow step-by-step instructions in order. There is freedom in order.

Since this is my first article for The Anchor, I should tell you that when I was informed that I could pick my own topic and that there were no step-by-step instructions, a bit of panic ensued. I have the freedom to write whatever I want? That is a lot of freedom.

See how I have used “freedom” three times already? Well I was not aware it was on my mind. It still took me another four days to realize that I kept thinking about freedom (oddly enough it was on Independence Day that I had this epiphany).

My senior year of high school seems like it was yesterday. There was so much excitement about going off to college and having the freedom to choose my own classes; to live in my own dorm room; and to make my own rules. This newfound freedom would never change me. I am responsible, hard-working, trustworthy, and oh my gosh, I can skip classes and watch

daytime soaps and no one is going to call my mom? As a straight-A student in high school, finishing my first year of college with a GPA under 3.0 was a complete shock.

I changed majors, transferred schools, moved home and refocused myself. Three years later, I graduated from college with honors. I learned more about freedom in the course of one school year than I had in my entire life.

As any good technologically-savvy individual would do, I “Internet-searched” freedom and its definition. According to Merriam-Webster.com, it is the ability to make a choice or action without any constraint.

With all due respect to MW, they are missing a huge piece of the definition.

As you are well aware, we celebrate our Independence Day here on July 4. I started to wonder about the other independence days around the world. When do we as humanity start fighting for our independence? Our independence as a country is beautiful

VATICAN CITY — Blessed John Paul II rallied young Catholics, Pope Benedict XVI instructed them and Pope Francis is preparing to send them out on mission.

When he travels to Rio de Janeiro for World Youth Day, Pope Francis — the former archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina — will be continuing a tradition begun by Blessed John Paul in Buenos Aires in 1987, gathering Catholic youths from around the world together for several intense days of faith-building and celebration.

In cities from South America to Europe, Asia to North America and back again, each World Youth Day with the pope has been different in size and in the culture the youths experienced and shared.

But the contributions of each pope — because of personality and personal emphasis — also have left striking marks on the 11 international gatherings held since 1987. With Pope Francis, that tradition of the evolving World Youth Day is bound to continue in Rio July 23-28.

World Youth Day gatherings are so much a part of Catholic life now that it is hard to imagine just how innovative Blessed

John Paul’s idea first seemed. The Polish pope invited young people to his Palm Sunday celebration at the Vatican during the 1985 U.N.-proclaimed Year of Youth and Vatican officials were shocked when some 250,000 young people showed up; they had planned for 60,000 pilgrims.

Blessed John Paul brought Catholic teens and young adults out of the parish Religious Education and youth ministry programs that parents often had to force their children to attend. For him, the youths were not just the future of the Church, but the embodiment of its energy and enthusiasm.

When convoked and affirmed, Blessed John Paul thought, young people could rejuvenate the whole Church. Their energy certainly worked on him. One of the iconic photographs from World Youth Day 1995 in Manila shows the pope twirling the cane he relied on after breaking his leg and undergoing hip replacement surgery eight months earlier.

At his last World Youth Day, the 2002 celebration in Toronto, a frail 82-year-old Pope John Paul described himself as “old,” but looked and sounded better than he had in months, demonstrating once again his special chemistry with young people. He even read

17

ful home, plenty of food, and authority over everything.

And moreover, He gives them (and us), free-will. Now, I am thinking that Adam and Eve must have read MerriamWebster.com too. Decisions without restrictions! If they cannot eat from the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, they must not be truly free.

And of course we know how that turns out; naked and ashamed.

Freedom is not some reckless abandonment into a world

of unlimited choices. God gave us our first freedom so that we could choose wisely, so that we could choose love.

Real freedom is the ability to choose love over all else; love of God, love of neighbor and love of self. It is true that freedom does not have restrictions but it does, however, have responsibility.

Christ Himself tells us what freedom is. In the Gospel of John, Christ tells us “the truth will set you free” ( Jn 8:32) and later in John, He reminds us, “I am the way, and the truth and the life” ( Jn 14:6).

Here is where the money I spent on a college logic class becomes money well spent.

If Jesus is the truth, and the truth will set me free, then Jesus must set me free! But I received freedom in the Garden, so now from what am I being set free? St. Paul tells us, “But now that you have been set free from sin” (Rom 6:22). Through Christ, we are free from our “choices without constraint.” We are given true freedom to turn away from bad choices and to choose

love, choose Christ.

So during this month of July, while we celebrate our independence as I country, I pray that we are mindful of what it means to really be free. Freedom is not being burdened down with anything. True freedom is a freedom from guilt, from shame, from hurt, from deceit, from hatred and from violence. This is the freedom that Christ is calling us to.

This is the freedom that all of our hearts long for; not the freedom that Adam and Eve chose when they chose their own selfish desires, but rather a freedom that comes from choosing God’s will. This is a freedom that goes way beyond our days in the Garden.

Happy Independence from Eden Day! Amanda Tarantelli joins The Anchor team this week and will appear in a four-week rotation with our three other youth columnists. She has been a campus minister at Bishop Stang High School in North Dartmouth since 2005. She is married, a die hard sports fan, and resides in Cranston, R.I. She can be reached at atarantelli@bishopstang.com.

his speeches in their entirety, rather than having an aide read most of the text.

The Toronto event took place less than a year after the Sept.

11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States and Pope John Paul refused to ignore it.

“Last year, we saw with dramatic clarity the tragic face of human malice. We saw what happens when hatred, sin and death take command,” the pope said.

“Too many lives begin and end without joy, without hope. That is one of the principal reasons for World Youth Day. Young people are coming together to commit themselves, in the strength of their faith in Jesus Christ, to the great cause of peace and human solidarity. The future is in your hearts and in your hands.”

The German Pope Benedict inherited from Blessed John Paul the 2005 celebration of World Youth Day in Cologne and brought to the encounters a sense of the seriousness of the Christian call. His love for the young Catholics translated into trust that they not only could understand the core teachings and traditions of the Church, but that they wanted to learn more about them.

Under Pope Benedict, the evening vigil was transformed from a

rally into a mass moment of eucharistic adoration, surprisingly silent and devout, given the fact that it involved tens of thousands of young people on their knees in the dirt on a wide open field.

At World Youth Day in Sydney in 2008, Pope Benedict emphasized the importance — and real possibility — of living a holy life by following the faith taught by the Church and being open to the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

World Youth Day in Madrid in 2011 ended up being dramatic when sweltering heat gave way to a storm — complete with thunder, wind and rain — that knocked out the power at the traditional Saturday night vigil. Pope Benedict refused to leave.

“The Lord loves you and calls you His friends,” he told the young people at Mass the next morning.

Their response, he said, must be to accept that love and share it with their peers who know, deep down, that “authentic values do exist” and will lead to a life of joy.

Pope Francis inherited WYD Rio from Pope Benedict, who chose the theme: “Go and make disciples of all nations.” It’s a theme that’s right up Pope Francis’ alley.

With the young people, he’s likely to use the word he’s repeat-

ed most in his morning homilies and his meetings with Catholic groups; his Italian “Avanti!” is likely to resound in Spanish (“Adelante!”), Portuguese (“Adiante!”) and English (“Go forth!”).

For Pope Francis, going forth literally requires motion. It’s about leaving the comfort of one’s group or parish and sharing the Gospel through serving the poor and wounded and through proclaiming faith in Jesus with words, smiles and embraces.

Meeting with seminarians and novices, the pope said: “Be courageous in prayer and in going out to proclaim the Gospel. I’d like a more missionary Church, not one that seeks tranquility” above all; “a beautiful Church that goes forth.”

Even the eucharistic adoration that Pope Francis practices regularly and will share with the young people in Rio has a deep dimension of outreach.

As he said in June on the feast of the Body and Blood of the Lord, “in adoring Christ Who is really present in the Eucharist,” Catholics should ask themselves: “Do I let myself be transformed

by Him? Do I let the Lord Who gives Himself to me guide me to going out ever more from my little enclosure in order to give, to share, to love Him and others?”

but the more I thought about it, the more I came to believe that we have been fighting for our independence since creation.

I began to picture Independence Day: Garden of Eden.

God creates man and woman and gives them everything: a suitable partner, a beauti-

Be Not Afraid

By Amanda Tarantelli

Popes put personal stamp on World Youth Day celebrations

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The Anchor

Attleboro evangelists sent out two-by-two continued from page 14

“The core and heartbeat of our efforts is the DOE Prayer Team,” added Rae-Kelly. “This team has been extraordinary in their commitment to prayer and fasting for the parish DOE. They have written the parish DOE Prayer which is said at every Mass. The team has reached out to our homebound parish members and asked for their prayers for us, so they are blessing our efforts with their sacrificial offering. The DOE Prayer team also fasts every Wednesday and each team member offers the Sacrifice of the Mass, a hour of Adoration and the Rosary daily to ask the Holy Spirit to take our small offerings and use it to evangelize our community.

This group of people is actively following Pope Francis’ advice: ‘Evangelization starts on one’s knees.’”

Members of the prayer team have already felt the benefits of their efforts. “When I fast, I feel God’s holiness. I now look forward to every Wednesday”; “When I have to go out for a meal on a ‘fast’ day, I remember the ‘little way’ of St. Therese of Lisieux and I offer small actions in love, like not putting butter on the bread. It’s the love that matters, I think”; “I just offer everything to the Lord”; “I think the ‘fast’ is building a wall of steel around all who are prayed for that day”; “Our parish and the DOE will be filled with God’s power because of

this fast”; and “Well, I get to eat a piece of fruit in about 20 minutes. How good is God to help me to fast? I’ve never done this before,” are just a sampling of the reactions.

Attleboro’s Day of Evangelization logo (seen on page one) was designed by Harum.

The cross, which is central to the DOE’s efforts is the main focus with the “D2D,” similar to red and white rays emanating from St. Faustina’s Divine Mercy Image, representing the “door-to-door” mission. The blue lettering represents the Blessed Mother.

The laity have take the Day of Evangelization to heart and have been diligently preparing for this most important mission, a mission Christ requested His disciples two millennia ago, and still seeks from His followers today — to evangelize the Good News.

The success of the day is nothing that can be measured in human terms. The key is to plant the seed and allow the Holy Spirit to nurture it.

“DOE involves the apostolic work of being sent out to bring Christ to the lost or lapsed,” Anna Rae-Kelly, a member of the DOE Prayer Team, told The Anchor. “It is built on the scaffolding of deep prayer, and the fasting of the community to beseech the Holy Spirit to touch souls and win them back for God. It demands humility, obedience, courage and perse-

July 19, 2013

Summer camp gives Palestinian kids joy verance. There is nothing comfortable or vainglorious about being involved in the DOE. Prayer, fasting and humility — Christ’s personal characteristics. Where He finds them, He rushes to heal and to call souls back to Him. All of this happens through the guidance and loving care of the priest.”

St. Vincent de Paul Parish was born from the faithful of the former St. Joseph’s and Holy Ghost parishes. Instead of the “sheep scattering” at such a traumatic event, the faithful there have bonded and are reaching out to bring others into the fold.

“I would certainly encourage other parishes in the Fall River Diocese to do a DOE,” said Father Wilson. “Just as the Rhode Island parishes help each other out in doing these days and are planning to send dozens of people to help us on August 24, so they would help other parishes in our diocese and I believe that our folks from Attleboro would also be happy to assist other parishes in the Fall River Diocese.”

It’s what Christ expects from those who take His message to heart.

For information on how to register to help the DOE, visit stvincentattleboro.org, or call the parish office at 508-226-1115.

continued from page three

monitor their progress in order to dissuade attacks.

Only the children are permitted to go this way. Palestinian adults must take a longer route through the village of Yatta.

An Israeli Defense Forces escort is supposed to protect the children, but the soldiers do not always show up and seem not to take their job seriously, Matteo said.

This year, the camp met for two days in each village, giving all of the children a chance to host their friends. The camp is a special treat because of the distance between the villages and the danger in passing the Israeli settlement. Normally, there are no afterschool or summer visits with friends.

“They always have to travel very far to get to school in At-Tuwani,” said Omar Abu Jundieh, 47, a father of five. “Now all the children are playing in the village with their friends. They are so happy to have their friends coming to them.”

Three Operation Dove volunteers working in At-Tuwani have been helping with the logistics of moving the children to each village.

“In these two weeks of summer camp, our presence is more important,” volunteer Pascal said.

Creating a sense of unity among the children scattered

Fully revised and updated ...

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among the villages is important, said Hafez Huraini, leader of the South Hebron Hills Popular Resistance Committee.

So the parents in these communities allowed their children to spend the night in the other villages. The boys and girls ate separately. The boys slept outside, while the girls slept inside one of the tent homes.

They didn’t fall asleep until late at night, said Tuba resident Mariam Omara, 16, grinning shyly.

“We talked about the way to get here and they were scared coming here,” she said.

All of the villages are situated in a region designated as Area C, which remains under full Israeli military and administrative control. Israel has declared the area a firing zone and the villages face threats of evacuation and demolition. Some of the villages have been destroyed repeatedly only to be rebuilt. Residents confront violence from the surrounding Israeli settlers and are denied access to their agricultural land. They have no electricity or running water even though the neighboring Israeli settlements do.

“They are all targeted for eviction,” Huraini said. “What the army does after they confiscate the land is they build a settlement. There is settlement expansion to control the land, which the people depend on for grazing their sheep. The people here are all peasants and day after day they are losing their land. We are doing the best we can to let the children feel like children. Seeing their houses demolished is not easy.”

At noon, when the heat has become unbearable, the children from At-Tuwani, along with Operation Dove volunteers, pile into a trailer pulled by a tractor — the only vehicle the villagers have — and are driven down the valley toward the path past Ma’on. They have called the Israeli Defense Forces and expect the escort to arrive soon.

But the children are anxious to return home and decide not to wait for the soldiers. Pascal calls Matteo, who is watching from above, along with Jundieh and Huraini. They anxiously watch as the group makes its way past the chicken coops. The adult monitors lose sight of the kids for a while as they round a bend past a grove of trees. Then there is a phone call from two other volunteers in At-Tuwani. They have sighted the group. The children are safely on their way.

July 19, 2013

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

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

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

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

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

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

Use the Chapel entrance on the side of the church.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Taunton — Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament takes place every First Friday at Annunciation of the Lord, 31 First Street. Expostition begins following the 8 a.m. Mass.

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

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

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

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

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

The Anchor Society of the Sacred Heart unifies provinces in U.S., Canada

ST. LOUIS (CNS) — The Society of the Sacred Heart, an international congregation of women religious, has unified its provinces in the United States and Canada to form the Province of the United States-Canada. Its headquarters will be based in St. Louis. It became effective July 8.

After three years of evaluation and planning, members of the two provinces decided that coming together was the best decision for the future of the congregation and will allow for more efficient use of resources for the Sisters’ mission. The plan for the creation and governance of the new province was approved by the Sisters’ general council in April.

A transition period will last until 2015. There are currently 330 members — 308 in the United States and 22 in Canada — in the newly-formed province.

“A province does not ‘become’ a province only on the day it officially begins,” Sister Kathleen Conan, superior general, said in a statement. “We look forward to how we grow into that reality, live the vision, adapt it where needed and continue to let it be created by the Spirit and by the hearts and hopes of those on the journey.”

In Your Prayers

Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks July 20 Rev. Joao Medeiros, Retired Pastor, St. Elizabeth, Fall River, 1983 July 22 Rev. Francis L. Mahoney, Retired Pastor, Holy Name Fall River, 2007 July 23 Rev. Patrick F. Doyle, Founder, SS. Peter and Paul, Fall River, 1893 Rev. George B. McNamee, Founder, Holy Name, Fall River, 1938 July 25 Rev. Michael J. Cooke, Pastor, St. Patrick, Fall River, 1913 Rev. Raymond R. Mahoney, SS.CC., Former Pastor, Our Lady of Assumption, New Bedford, 1984 July 26 Rev. Msgr. Alfred J.E. Bonneau, P.R., Retired Pastor, Notre Dame de Lourdes, Fall River, 1974 July 27 Rev. Damien Veary, SS.CC., Former Pastor, St. Anthony, Mattapoisett, 1981 July 29 Rev. Mathias McCabe, Retired Pastor, Sacred Heart, Fall River, 1913 Rev. Charles P. Trainor, S.S., St. Edward Seminary, Seattle, Washington, 1947 July 30 Rev. Francis Kiernan, Pastor Sandwich, New Bedford, Wareham, 1838 July 31 Rev. Daniel Hearne, Pastor, St. Mary, Taunton, 1865 Rev. Hugh J. Munro, Chaplain, Marian Manor, Taunton, 2003

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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.

St. John Neumann Women’s Guild, 257 Middleboro Road, East Freetown, invites all to its annual “Summer Barn Sale,” held in their parish barn, on August 10 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Our One-Day Barn Sale has a large selection of items to choose from, and the prices can’t be beat! Admission is free.

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.

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July 19, 2013

The Anchor

Stand up for your faith, says student told to hide cross necklace

Santa Rosa, Calif.

(CNA/EWTN News) — A Catholic college employee who won an apology from her public university after her supervisor told her to hide her cross necklace says students should defend their right to express their religious beliefs.

“I would encourage them to stand up for their faith and their convictions,” Audrey Jarvis told CNA. “If they sense that something is not right or might even be a violation of their rights, they should definitely speak up.”

Jarvis, a 19-year-old liberal arts major at California’s Sonoma State University, was working at a June 27 student orientation fair for new freshmen as an employee of the university’s Associated Student Productions, a student programming organization.

Jarvis’ super-

visor told her to remove the cross necklace because it might offend others or make new students feel unwelcome, the religious freedom legal group The Liberty Institute reports. The supervisor told her that the university chancellor had a policy against wearing religious items.

“I was stunned and caught off guard. I did not expect this to happen to me,” Jarvis said. “I was quite upset and I left work early that day, which is out of character for me.”

She said she doesn’t know why her supervisor, a university employee, thought her necklace could be offensive.

Sonoma State University spokeswoman Susan Kashack told CNA / EWTN News that the employee was “absolutely wrong” to ask Jarvis to remove or hide her cross and did not correctly represent the university’s policy, which does not bar the display of religious items.

“The employee realized his request was inappropriate and has tried to contact her to apologize,” Kashack said July 10, adding that the university president Ruben Armiñana offered his own “heartfelt apology” to the student.

Kashack said the university’s Title IX officer is investigating the incident. She added that the university has a “strong non-discrimination policy.”

“If and when Ms. Jarvis returns to campus there will be no issues with her wearing her cross or any other type of religious or cultural items,” the spokeswoman added.

“We hope she returns to her campus as soon as possible.”

Jarvis said she appreciated the university’s response. “I think the university has been very responsive and is clearly taking this very seriously. I am happy to see that,” she said.

Mike Berry, an attorney with the Liberty Institute, said the university’s response is “an acknowledgment that students have the constitutional right to freely express their religious beliefs.”