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Diocese of Fall River, Mass.

F riday , August 9, 2013

World Youth Day 2013: Diocesan pilgrims return from Rio

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

EAST TAUNTON — In his first remarks to the throngs of people gathered for last month’s World Youth Day celebration on the Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on July 25, Pope Francis spoke of belonging to the great family of faith.

“Today you are all here — or better yet, we are all here together as one in order to share the faith and the joy of an encounter with Christ, of being His disciples,” the pope said in his introductory remarks.

The diversity represented at the event was not simply a matter of the national flags the pilgrims were carrying. Pope Francis said he knew the youths also had a variety of reasons for being part of World Youth Day and a variety of levels of

previous involvement with the Church.

This was readily apparent in the sampling of pilgrims from the Fall River Diocese who traveled to Brazil for the event.

For Allison Gingras, a Catholic author, blogger and parishioner at Holy Family Parish in East Taunton, her pilgrimage began two years ago — on Aug. 21, 2011, to be exact — as she

was sitting on her couch after watching coverage of the previous World Youth Day in Madrid.

“As I prayed, my soul was stirred with a very strong

Pope Francis drives by in his popemobile after celebrating Mass for the clergy during World Youth Day in Rio last month. (Video capture by Tiffany Silva)

thought that God was calling me to attend this gathering in 2013,” Gingras wrote on a recent blog. “Not one to travel, and feeling I was well beyond the age of participating in WYD, I flippantly asked God for a sign that it was Him putting this desire on my heart.”

Gingras said she began thumbing through a book she had been given — a biography of Father Patrick Peyton, the famed “Rosary priest” and founder of Holy Cross Family Ministries, to whom she has a great devotion.

“I reached for the book figuring I’d use it for requesting the sign, and once I was able to see I was being silly, I would go back and finish with my prayers,” Gingras wrote. “I closed my eyes, prayed for the Holy Spirit to fill my heart and Turn to page 18

Women rally in Washington to protest HHS Mandate

By Becky Aubut Anchor Staff

Sister Madeleine Tacy, OP, right, was a gift to college students for nearly four decades at the North Dartmouth campus that morphed from Southeastern Massachusetts University to UMass-Dartmouth.

Sister Madeleine retired from campus ministry there this past June.

Sister Madeleine Tacy, OP, says goodbye to UMD after 37 years

By Dave Jolivet Anchor Editor

NORTH DARTMOUTH — Sister Madeleine Tacy, OP, was there when it was known as Southeastern Massachusetts University, or SMU. In her role as a campus minister at the nowUMass Dartmouth, Sister Madeleine has seen cultural, social and technological changes since she accepted a position there in 1976.

In June, at the end of this last

semester, Sister Madeleine retired from ministry there after nearly four decades. Despite the changes she’s seen and experienced on campus, there has been one constant. “Through the years, the students who did come and join us at Mass or activities, or who came just to talk, held their faith as the most important basis for their decision-making,” Sister Madeleine told The Anchor.

“This ministry has been exTurn to page 15

EAST SANDWICH — Nearly 200 supporters of the group Women Speak for Themselves descended on Washington, D.C. last week, setting up in peaceful protest across the White House to highlight their concern over the HHS Mandate. Led

by Helen Alvaré, the participants heard from 11 members “speaking for themselves” by giving testimony during the protest; afterwards, roughly 40 women made their way to the Capitol and met with members of Congress and staff of leadership offices.

Patricia Stebbins, inspired after hearing Alvaré speak during a presentation organized by the Pro-Life Apostolate of the Fall River Diocese, was unable to attend the rally, but has been networking nonstop on Cape Cod on Alvaré’s behalf to raise awareness of Women Speak for Themselves.

“She’s a brilliant woman and has an incredible background,”

said Stebbins of Alvaré. “She’s an impressive, beautiful woman.”

Alvaré is a law professor at George Mason University in Arlington, Va., where she teaches and writes in the areas of family law, and law and religion. She is also a senior fellow at the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, N.J., and chairman of the Institute’s

Task Force on Conscience Protection, as well as a consultant to the Pontifical Council for the Laity. She coauthored and edited “Breaking Through: Catholic Women Speak for Themselves,” released in 2012. Married with three children, she is co-author of an open letter on women and religious freedom that has Turn to page 16

Last week nearly 200 supporters of the group Women Speak for Themselves gathered across from the White House to protest the HHS Mandate. Led by Helen Alvaré (far right), members from all walks of life listened to women give testimony, followed by dozens of women making their way to the Capitol to meet with members of Congress and staff leadership offices.

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News From the Vatican

August 9, 2013

Pope, with fellow Jesuits, prays for ‘grace of shame,’ humility

ROME (CNS) — Celebrating the feast of St. Ignatius with more than 200 of his Jesuit confreres, Pope Francis prayed that he and all of them would receive “the grace of shame” for their failures and the humility to recognize that whatever good they accomplish is really done by the Lord.

Jesus told His disciples never to be ashamed of following Him, but Jesuits are taught to look upon the crucifix and “feel that very human and very noble sentiment which is shame for not measuring up,” the pope said during his homily at the Mass in Rome’s Church of the Gesu, where St. Ignatius is buried.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said the Mass was “very beautiful and very familial.”

In his spirituality and spiritual tradition, he said, the pope sees himself as a “son of St. Ignatius” and feels “very close to the Society of Jesus.”

For the Jesuits, Father Lombardi said, the pope is a confrere, but “we know the pope is the pope.”

At the end of the Mass, the pope prayed at the tomb of St. Ignatius, before a relic of St. Francis Xavier and at the tomb of Father Pedro Arrupe, superior of the Jesuits from 1965 to 1983. He also visited the Chapel of Our Lady of the Way, patroness of the Jesuits and the title of a 15th-century Marian fresco that was dear to St. Ignatius and his first companions.

In his homily, Pope Francis prayed that Mary would “help us experience shame for our inadequacy before the treasure that has been entrusted to us, so that we would live with humility before God.” The pope also prayed for “our brother in Syria,” an obvious reference to Jesuit Father Paolo Dall’Oglio, who was expelled from Syria in June 2012 after intensifying his public calls for democratic change in the country. He reportedly returned to Syria occasionally.

Jesuit and other Church officials and friends of Father Dall’Oglio said they had been unable to reach him by phone, and the Reuters news agency reported that militants with links to al-Qaida kidnapped the priest July 29 while he was walking in the northern Syrian city of al-Raqqah. As of July 31, the Vatican and the Italian foreign ministry said they could

not confirm that he had been kidnapped.

The pope’s homily was filled with references to the “Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius,” meditations and instructions for a 30-day retreat that form the basis of Ignatian spirituality.

The exercises, he said, are designed to remind Jesuits that Christ and the Church must be at the center of all they do; that they must allow themselves to be conquered by Christ in order to serve; and that they must feel shame in order to be humble before God and other people.

Every Christian and every Jesuit, Pope Francis said, should ask himself regularly “‘Is Christ the center of my life?’ because there is always the temptation to place ourselves at the center.”

And, he said, one cannot serve Christ without being in harmony with and serving the Church. “There are no parallel or isolated paths.”

“To serve Christ is to love this concrete Church and to serve it with generosity and obedience,” he said.

But most of the pope’s homily focused on humility and recognizing one’s limits, so as to be mindful always of greatness of God’s mercy.

“We look at the wisdom of Christ and our ignorance, at His omnipotence and our weakness, at His justice and our inequity and at His goodness and our badness,” the pope said.

“We ask for the grace of shame, the shame that comes from a continuous conversation of mercy with Him, the shame that makes us blush before Jesus Christ,” he said.

The sense of shame leads to the virtue of humility, he said, and a recognition that each Christian “carries a great treasure in fragile, inadequate, insufficient earthen vessels.”

The 76-year-old pope said he thinks often of what the “twilight of the Jesuit” should be as he faces the end of his life.

He described as “two icons of this twilight” St. Francis Xavier, the great Jesuit missionary who died in 1552 awaiting a chance to get to mainland China, and Father Arrupe, who in 1981 suffered a massive stroke, “which began his long and exemplary twilight” that lasted almost 10 years and included seeing Pope John Paul appoint an interim superior of the Jesuits, a move seen by many as a lack of trust in the ability of the Jesuits to govern themselves.

Twelve World Youth Day pilgrims stand with Pope Francis for grace before lunch at the archbishop’s residence in Rio de Janeiro July 26. The pope showed the world on his first international trip that his forte as a communicator is the simple, seemingly artless action that resonates powerfully in context.

(CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano)

‘Who am I to judge?’ Pope’s remarks do not change Church teaching

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — When Pope Francis told reporters July 28, “Who am I to judge” a homosexual person, he was emphasizing a part of Catholic teaching often overlooked by the media and misunderstood by many people.

In the words of the “Catechism of the Catholic Church,” the church teaches that homosexual people “must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity” and that “every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.”

But the “Catechism” also describes a “homosexual inclination” as “objectively disordered” and homosexual acts as “intrinsically disordered,” because sexuality is “an integral part of the love by which a man and a woman commit themselves totally to one another until death.”

The Church teaches that any sexual activity outside the bond of Marriage between a man and a woman is sinful. Pope Francis did not change or challenge that teaching. Pope Francis made his comments about homosexuality during a news conference with reporters flying with him from Brazil to Rome.

The pope was asked about what has been described as a “gay lobby” in the Vatican, allegedly a group of priests and bishops who work at the Vatican and protect each other. Pope Francis said it was important to “distinguish between a person who is gay and someone who makes a gay lobby.”

“A gay person who is seeking God, who is of good will — well, who am I to judge him?” the pope said. “‘The Catechism of the Catholic Church’ explains this very well. It says one must not

marginalize these persons, they must be integrated into society.

The problem isn’t this (homosexual) orientation — we must be like brothers and sisters. The problem is something else, the problem is lobbying either for this orientation or a political lobby or a Masonic lobby.”

Although the question to the pope was about gay Vatican employees, the pope’s response was not specifically about priests who are homosexual, a question addressed in 2005 by the Congregation for Catholic Education, which was in charge of seminaries at the time.

The document was titled, “Instruction Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations With Regard to Persons With Homosexual Tendencies in View of Their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders.”

The Church distinguishes between homosexual acts and homosexual tendencies or orientation, it said. The Church, unlike much of the public, does not assume all those with a homosexual orientation are sexually active, just as it does not assume all heterosexuals are sexually active.

Men “who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called ‘gay culture’” are not to be admitted to Catholic seminaries or to be ordained, it said, although it did not give a detailed explanation of what exactly constitutes a “deep-seated” homosexual tendency.

While excluding their suitability for ordination, it said, “such persons must be accepted with respect and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. They are

called to fulfill God’s will in their lives and to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord’s cross the difficulties they may encounter.”

New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, speaking on “CBS This Morning” July 30, said Pope Francis’ remarks on the plane reflect “a gentle, merciful, understanding, compassionate” approach to Church teaching which emphasizes “that while certain acts may be wrong, we would always love and respect the person and treat the person with dignity.”

Pope Francis’ words “may be something people find new and refreshing,” Cardinal Dolan said, but “I for one don’t think it is and I hate to see previous popes caricatured as not having that.”

The current pope’s approach to the question of homosexuality on the flight from Brazil reminded some journalists of the approach Pope Benedict XVI took to a question about gay marriage during a July 2006 flight to Spain where he celebrated the World Meeting of Families.

“It’s true that there are problems and things that Christian life says no to,” he told reporters. “We want to make people understand that according to human nature it is a man and a woman who are made for each other and made to give humanity a future.”

However, he said, instead of focusing on condemning attempts to legally recognize homosexual unions, “let’s shine a light on the positive things, so we can make people understand why the Church cannot accept certain things, but at the same time wants to respect people and to help them.”

August 9, 2013

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The International Church Slovenia’s two archbishops resign amid financial crisis

A sign with a crucifix and Rosary are seen during a Pro-Life demonstration outside the Irish Parliament in Dublin ahead of a vote to allow limited abortion in Ireland. President Michael D. Higgins signed the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill into law July 30. (CNS photo/Cathal McNaughton, Reuters)

Ireland’s Pro-Lifers vow to repeal new abortion law

DUBLIN (CNS) — Irish Pro-Life campaigners vowed to work to repeal a new law that permits abortion in limited circumstances.

President Michael D. Higgins signed the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill July 30 after tense parliamentary debates during which several legislators resigned.

A day earlier, the president exercised his constitutional prerogative by calling a meeting of the Council of State to advise on whether he should sign the law or refer it to the country’s Supreme Court to test the constitutionality of the bill.

However, a spokesman for the president confirmed that he signed the law July 30, just a day before he was legally obliged to either sign it or send it to the Supreme Court.

The Pro-Life Campaign said the passage of the abortion bill into law “is a very sad day for our country.”

The law will permit abortions when there is a substantial risk to the life of the mother, including when a woman says the continuation of the pregnancy leads to suicidal thoughts. It would also provide for jail terms of up to 14 years for those performing abortions in circumstances other than permitted by the new law.

Caroline Simons, legal adviser to the Pro-Life Campaign, told Catholic News Service that the law “for the first time in our history makes it legal to deliberately target the life of an innocent human being.”

She dismissed claims by Prime Minister Enda Kenny that the law is about saving women’s lives.

“The new law is life-ending, not life-saving,” Simons said.

She insisted that “the govern-

ment brought forward this law in the full knowledge that abortion is not a treatment for suicidal feelings and ignored all the peer-reviewed evidence showing that abortion has adverse mental health consequences for women.”

Simons said Pro-Lifers would work for “the repeal of this unjust law. We will give very careful consideration in the coming weeks on the best way to bring this about.”

Referring to recent rallies against the legislation, Simons said: “The Pro-Life movement is mobilized and growing. We have seen the biggest ever gatherings of Pro-Life people in recent weeks.”

While the law will now be enacted, the president’s decision not to refer the proposals to the Supreme Court makes it possible for citizens to challenge the legislation before the courts. If the president had referred the law and it was found to be constitutional, no further legal challenges would have been possible.

In practice, abortion has been illegal in Ireland under legislation enacted in 1861. A 1983 constitutional amendment created an equal right to life between the mother and unborn baby.

However, a 1992 Supreme Court judgment — known as the X case — found that there is a constitutional right to abortion where there is a substantial risk to the life of the mother, including the risk of suicide, up to birth.

Successive governments have not acted on the issue. However, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2010 that Ireland must clarify when women can access abortion under the 1992 ruling.

Church leaders and Pro-Life campaigners had urged the government to hold a constitutional

referendum to overturn the 1992 Supreme Court decision. However, Kenny decided to bring forward the current law instead.

Under the law, the procedures for assessing the risk to the life of the mother differ depending on the woman’s condition. One doctor will be able to make a decision on whether to terminate a pregnancy in an emergency situation in which a mother’s life is in danger.

Where there is risk of loss of a woman’s life from physical illness, but where the situation is not an emergency and suicide intent is not a factor, two doctors will be needed to make the decision. However, in cases of suicide intent, the suicidal woman will be interviewed by a panel of three doctors, two psychiatrists and one obstetrician, who must agree unanimously.

DIOCESAN TRIBUNAL FALL RIVER, MASSACHUSETTS Decree of Citation Since his present domicile is unknown, in accord with the provision of Canon 1509.1, we hereby cite Douglas D. Gill to appear in person before the Tribunal of the Diocese of Fall River (887 Highland Avenue in Fall River, Bristol County, Massachusetts) on August 23, 2013 at 2:30 PM to give his testimony regarding the question: IS THE BAUER-GILL MARRIAGE NULL ACCORDING TO CHURCH LAW? Anyone who has knowledge of the domicile of Douglas D. Gill is hereby required to inform him of this citation.

Given at the offices of the Diocesan Tribunal in Fall River, Bristol County, Massachusetts on August 2, 2013.

(Rev.) Paul F. Robinson, O. Carm., J.C.D. Judicial Vicar (Mrs.) Denise D. Berube Ecclesiastical Notary

Rome, Italy (CNA/ EWTN News) — The only two archbishops in Slovenia have resigned at the invitation of Pope Francis, after two financial companies associated with the Archdiocese of Maribor collapsed.

“I hope and pray to God that this step I have taken will help restore credibility to the Slovenian Church, as it deserves it,” Archbishop Anton Stres of Ljubljana said in a recent statement.

Archbishop Marjan Turnšek of Maribor also resigned his office on July 31 and said at a joint press conference with Archbishop Stres that he hopes “this gesture can contribute to the renewal of the Slovenian Church and give its representatives more strength in promoting New Evangelization.”

Although he was the head of the Ljubljana archdiocese until last week, Archbishop Stres was involved in the affairs in Maribor as its coadjutor archbishop between Jan. 31, 2009 and Nov. 28, 2009. He also served as an auxiliary bishop for the archdiocese between June 2000 and April 2006.

Both prelates said that they were not the main people who made the poor financial decisions that led to the financial meltdown, but they took responsibility for their part in the matter.

“It is not the diocese which brought down Zvon I and II, but it was the two Zvons which brought down the archdiocese,” Archbishop Stres said, referring to the two companies.

The news of financial prob-

lems in the Archdiocese of Maribor was first made public by the Italian news magazine L’Espresso in January 2011, when it reported that the two financial firms, Zvon Ena Holding and Zvon Dva Holding, had racked up 800 million euros ($1 billion) in debt from bad investments.

The fallout from the disaster hit the Maribor archdiocese hard since it was a majority owner in the firms.

Soon after the investment companies declared bankruptcy, Mirko Krašovec, the chief of financial operations at the Maribor archdiocese, left his post, which was followed by Archbishop Franc Kramberger resigning as head of the Maribor archdiocese in February 2011.

According to The Slovenian Times, the cumulative debt for the two firms plus Gospodarstvo rast, the company through which the archdiocese managed the two investment funds, is 1.7 billion euros ($2.2 billion).

Besides all of the country’s banks being hit by the collapse, 65,000 small-scale investors stand to lose some of the funds, the Slovenian paper said.

Pope Francis has appointed two apostolic administrators for the vacant sees, the only two archdioceses in Slovenia, until he is able to name their new bishops.

Bishop Andrej Glavan of Novo Mesto will oversee the Ljubljana archdiocese, while Bishop Stanislav Lipovsek of Celje will serve as the apostolic administrator of the Maribor Archdiocese.

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The Church in the U.S.

August 9, 2013

Pope appoints Brooklyn auxiliary bishop to head Diocese of Bridgeport

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Pope Francis has appointed Auxiliary Bishop Frank J. Caggiano of Brooklyn, N.Y., as the fifth bishop of the Diocese of Bridgeport, Conn.

The appointment was announced July 31 in Washington

by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

Bishop Caggiano, 54, succeeds then-Bishop William Members of the Joint Conference of the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus, the National Black Sis- E. Lori of Baltimore, who was ters’ Conference and the National Black Catholic Seminarians’ Association along with the National As- named archbishop of Baltimore sociation of Black Catholic Deacons lead a recent march for nonviolence in Chicago. At the end of the in March 2012. march, Chicago Cardinal Francis E. George met participants for a prayer service and Mass. (CNS photo/ Msgr. Jerald A. Doyle has Karen Callaway, Catholic New World) been as administrator of the diocese since May 2012 and he will continue to serve in the post until Bishop Caggiano is installed.

No date has been announced Washington D.C. the acolyte, to the president of tion, she said, is “not something for the installation.

(CNA/EWTN News) — Recent Caritas, the catechist,” and advo- that he has the ability to change,” “The Diocese of Bridgeport comments by Pope Francis on the cated for “a more profound theol- stressing a “continuity” between welcomes the news of Bishop Pope Francis’s words and the Caggiano’s appointment. The role of women in the Church not ogy of women.”

The pope also spoke plainly work of previous popes. only assert that their status does Holy Father has blessed us with “I think that Pope John Paul II a priest, pastor and teacher with not depend on ordination, but on the topic of the ordination of call for a developed “theology of women, saying that “the Church laid a really great foundation,” in extensive experience at every works such as “Mulieris Dignita- level of diocesan ministries,” has spoken and said no.” women,” says a Catholic analyst.

“John Paul II, in a definitive tem,” McGuire said, in providing Msgr. Doyle said in a statement.

“He’s acknowledging that a lot has changed with the mod- formulation, said that door is steps towards the new “theology “Most importantly, he is a of women” Pope Francis men- man of deep faith, love for the ern world for women, and that closed.”

He noted that the existence tioned. “I think it’s exciting to Church and commitment to maybe the Church hasn’t spoken as much as it could to the issues of a male-only priesthood does think that Pope Francis is going the Gospel. On behalf of the that women are facing,” said Ash- not diminish the role of women, to build on that,” she added. clergy, religious and laity, we McGuire also said she appre- welcome him with open arms ley McGuire, senior fellow of The adding that the “Virgin Mary was more important than the Apos- ciated that the pope “hinted at and with our prayers that God Catholic Association.

“He put to rest,” however, “any tles and bishops and deacons and professional women,” and his “ac- will bless him as the shepherd question as to whether or not he’s priests,” and that the feminine knowledging where ‘woman’ is in of our diocese,” the priest said. going to change Church teach- Church, as the Bride of Christ “is our times.”

Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas “I’m excited to see him ad- DiMarzio said that “first and more important than the bishops ing,” she told CNA. dressing the role of women with- foremost, Bishop Caggiano is Pope Francis spoke on the role and priests.”

“This is what we should try to out it having to do with women’s an outstanding teacher, as is of women during a 20-minute interview with the Spanish news- explain better,” Pope Francis said. ordination.” evidenced by the Holy See se“I just see him acknowledg- lecting him twice to offer catMcGuire said that she was paper, El Pais, during a flight back to Europe following World Youth “glad to see him talking about and ing something that the laity has echesis to the young people at addressing the role of women” and been talking a lot about recently: World Youth Days both in MaDay in Brazil.

During the interview, the pope “appreciated what he said, because that women make a very positive drid 2011 and just recently in emphasized that the understand- it’s not sufficient just to say what contribution to the professional Rio de Janeiro.” world, to the Church, to society ing of women’s participation in women can or cannot do.”

“For 26 years, Bishop CagThe topic of women’s ordina- more broadly.” the Church cannot be limited “to giano has faithfully served the faithful of Brooklyn and Queens, and I can attest that he is an outstanding priest. He has been one of my closest collaborators,” he said.

“I can unequivocally state that he will be an outstanding pastor to the faithful of Bridgeport,” Bishop DiMarzio added.

Archbishop Lori, who headed the Bridgeport Diocese for 11 years, called Bishop Caggiano “a gifted teacher of the faith, whose evident love for the Lord Jesus Christ and His church will certainly further the work of the New Evangelization in that diocese, which remains so close to my heart.”

“I offer my full support to Bishop Caggiano, and my

Pope’s women in the Church remarks urge a deeper theology

prayers for him, just as I remember daily in my Masses and prayers the many good priests, religious and laity of the diocese I had the privilege of serving,” he added.

Ordained a priest in 1987 for the Diocese of Brooklyn, Bishop Caggiano has served in a number of pastoral and administrative positions. He has been a pastor and also responsible for the formation of men for the permanent diaconate. In 2006, Bishop Caggiano was named an auxiliary bishop for Brooklyn and since then has served as vicar general and moderator of the curia.

In his statement, Bishop DiMarzio said that during his years serving the Brooklyn Diocese, Bishop Caggiano was “at the forefront” of reorganizing Catholic schools and academies “to make them sustainable for many years into the future.”

Also, under his guidance, “all of our parishes were placed on firm financial footing to ensure their vibrancy for many years to come,” he added.

Bishop Caggiano was born in Brooklyn Mar. 29, 1959. He holds a bachelor of arts degree in philosophy from Cathedral College in Queens; a master of divinity from Immaculate Conception Seminary, Huntington, N.Y.; and a licentiate and doctorate in theology from Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University.

The Bridgeport Diocese covers a 633-square-mile area. Out of a total population of about 926,000, close to 411,000 people, or 44 percent, are Catholic.

Jesuit Father Jeffrey P. von Arx, president of Fairfield University, congratulated Bishop Caggiano on his appointment, welcoming him to the diocese.

He called it “a particularly auspicious announcement for our Jesuit university on this day — July 31st — the feast day of St. Ignatius, the founder of the Society of Jesus.”

He noted the bishop’s Jesuit education, as a graduate of Regis High School in New York and the Jesuit-founded Pontifical Gregorian University.

“He brings to our diocese a reputation for great warmth, love of the Church, strength of leadership, and pastoral compassion,” Father von Arx said.

“His experience as the auxiliary bishop in Brooklyn makes him ideally suited to lead our diverse and vibrant diocese.”

The Church in the U.S.

August 9, 2013

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Agencies address realities of human trafficking among teen-age victims

Dominican Sister Joanna Collins wipes a tear from her eye during a July 25 Mass where 12 novices from the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia made their first profession of vows at the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Nashville, Tenn. (CNS photo/Rick Musacchio, Tennessee Register)

WASHINGTON (CNS) — With an estimated 27 million people being trafficked around the world for sex and labor throughout the year, according to the State Department, it’s not easy to crack down on the lucrative trade in people.

Tens of billions of dollars are at stake and traffickers who operate modern-day slave networks are not likely to give up their lucrative ventures. Plus, the people being victimized are on the margins of the world’s cultures, largely ignored and forgotten. In the U.S. the numbers are smaller, but still overwhelming.

The State Department’s 2013 Trafficking in Persons report finds 17,500 people from other countries being trafficked into the U.S. annu-

ally. Victim advocates and law enforcement officials estimate that an additional 300,000 American teenagers are trafficked yearly, almost exclusively for sex. Girls 14 to 16 years old are most in demand, the “gold standard,” said Celia Williamson, professor of social work at the University of Toledo in Ohio, who has worked with trafficking victims for 20 years.

A 2012 survey of 33 sextrafficking survivors — all girls or young women — by anti-trafficking groups found that 55 percent of respondents were younger than 18 when they were first trafficked. Just 12 percent of respondents were older than 25. Fifteen percent of respondents said they were 10 years old or younger when they were first trafficked.

Illinois cardinal defends Marriage, decision to defund campaign

Chicago, Ill. (CNA/ Campaign for Human De- ing on the nature of marEWTN News) — Cardinal velopment, an anti-poverty riage.”

He quoted Pope Francis, Francis E. George of Chi- campaign run by the U.S. cago, Ill., is defending his bishops, cut off all funding saying that marriage should decision to cease funding of for the Immigration Coali- be “a stable union of man and woman,” and that “this union an immigration organization tion.

Cardinal George said that is born of their love, as a sign after it declared support and encouragement for same-sex he did so in order to not be- and presence of God’s own tray donors, who “give to this love.” “marriage.”

Further quoting Pope organization The board of the Illinois anti-poverty Francis, he said that this Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights esus is merciful, but He union is also born of “the “broke faith with its is not stupid. He knows acknowledgement and acceptance of the goodmember organizations the difference between right and ness of sexual differenwhen it publicly supported so called ‘same- wrong. Manipulating both immi- tiation, whereby spouses sex marriage,’” said Car- grants and the Church for politi- can become one flesh and are enabled to give dinal George in a July 29 cal advantage is wrong.” birth to a new life.” statement.

In his statement, Car“For its own political advantage, it introduced a with the understanding that dinal George criticized those matter extraneous to its own their money will be passed on who signed the open letpurpose and betrayed its own to organizations that respect ter challenging the decision members, who were not con- the teachings of the Catholic made by the bishops’ group, while at the same time profaith.” sulted.”

In an open letter published claiming their commitment In May 2013, the Immigration Coalition published in the Chicago Tribune on to the Church. “The Church a statement supporting “mar- July 29, the Campaign for is no one’s private club,” riage equality,” saying that Human Development was he said, “she is the Body of “full equality and civic par- accused of “turning her back Christ.”

Of those who signed the ticipation should extend to on the poor.”

Responding to this let- letter, he said that because recognition of all families, including those involving ter, Cardinal George stated, they are Catholic, they know “Without betraying its do- that “in a few years, like each same-sex partnerships.”

They stressed the impor- nors or the Catholic faith, of us, they will stand before tance of same-sex “marriage” the Catholic Church’s long- this same Christ to give an in their mission, saying that standing work for immigrant account of their stewardship.”

“Jesus is merciful, but He recognition of such unions groups and for immigration is not stupid;” he said, “He should be extended to “our reform remains intact.”

“It is intellectually and knows the difference between immigration laws, our fammorally dishonest to use the right and wrong. Manipulatily laws, and to other areas of law that affect our families.” witness of the Church’s con- ing both immigrants and the After publication of this cern for the poor as an excuse Church for political advanstatement, the Catholic to attack the Church’s teach- tage is wrong.”

“J

Participants at a youth conference in Atlanta helped feed the hungry of Burkina Faso, Africa, by volunteering to package more than 100,000 meals. Teenagers at the Atlanta Steubenville Youth Conference on the weekend of July 19 – 21 assembled a total of 100,386 nutritious meals to be sent to West Africa. More than 2,500 young people participated, working in 30-minute shifts and completing the project in just two hours. (CNA photo by Franciscan University)

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August 9, 2013

Anchor Editorial

A possible new saint?

The American Chesterton Society, meeting in Worcester on August 1, sent out a notice from its annual conference held in that city that the bishop of Northampton, England, the Most Rev. Peter Doyle, had given them permission to announce that he “is sympathetic to our wishes and is seeking a suitable cleric to begin an investigation into the potential for opening a cause for [G.K.] Chesterton.”

That does not mean it is likely that Chesterton will be canonized by Pope Francis any time soon (or even during his lifetime). The Northampton Diocese would first have to find a cleric to begin the investigation, the details from which would have to go to the Holy See, which would continue looking into the matter over several years.

He could be declared a “servant of God” relatively early in the process. After the Holy Father had accepted that someone had shown heroic virtue in this life, then they are declared “venerable.” As we can read on page 14 of this edition, normally miracles (performed after the person in question has died, so as to show that they truly can intercede on our behalf with God now) are required for someone to be declared “blessed” and later “saint.”

The American Chesterton Society summarized his life by saying that he “was a prolific English writer and Catholic convert. His classic works such as ‘Orthodoxy,’ ‘The Everlasting Man,’ his books on St. Francis of Assisi and St. Thomas Aquinas, as well as the Father Brown detective stories, have inspired and delighted generations of readers. But he has also been a driving force in the New Evangelization as he has proven to be a maker of converts to the Catholic faith.”

In Worcester, Dale Ahlquist, host of the EWTN series “The Apostle of Common Sense,” personally relayed the news to the conference attendees. “It was a great privilege for me to make the announcement at the conference. I’m grateful for all of the work done by Chesterton devotees around the world that has prompted the bishop to make this very important decision. One of the reasons that especially motivated him is the fact that His Holiness, Pope Francis, expressed support for Chesterton’s cause when he was the Archbishop of Buenos Aires.”

We could not find a direct quote from Pope Francis, before or after becoming pope, saying that, although a number of authors did speak about similarities between the joyful and playful ways in which Chesterton and the current Holy Father promote the Catholic faith, as well as their shared appreciation for the witness of St. Francis of Assisi.

Paolo Gulisano, author of an Italian-language biography of this English convert (“Chesterton & Belloc: Apologia e Profezia,” Edizioni Ancora), spoke to the ZE-

NIT news service in 2009 about the possibility of Chesterton being a saint. He said, “Many people feel there is clear evidence of Chesterton’s sanctity: Testimonies about him speak of a person of great goodness and humility, a man without enemies, who proposed the faith without compromises but also without confrontation, a defender of truth and charity. His greatness is also in the fact that he knew how to present Christianity to a wide public, made up of Christians and secular people.”

That description of Chesterton also brings to mind Pope Francis, “a son of the Church,” who accepts everything she has taught, as he described himself on the flight from Rio to Rome; a man who proposes those teachings as not just a list of prohibitions, but as the route to true joy (see the CNS article on page two, which noted that Pope Benedict also took that approach, but was not widely quoted when he did so).

The American Chesterton Society noted the eclectic mix of people who have been influenced by their hero in the past and now. “G.K. Chesterton’s prophetic writings are being embraced by a new generation who are drawn to his eloquent defense of the Catholic faith, of the traditional family, the sanctity of life, and economic justice. He is known for his great wit, humility, and profound Catholic joy. He was a major influence on such figures on Archbishop Fulton Sheen, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Dorothy Day, and Jorge Luis Borges.”

The Catholic Worker movement, co-founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, continues to look to Chesterton. It notes that Chesterton, Day and Maurin did not invent new truths — rather they plumbed the depths of the Catholic tradition to find what it was that God wanted them to do. Chesterton commented, “In the modern world we are primarily confronted with the extraordinary spectacle of people turning to new ideals because they have not tried the old.” He was speaking about how people turn to something radically new because of their ignorance of older ideas which have never truly been put into practice.

The Catholic Worker website has a quote from Chesterton in which he says, “It may be very difficult for modern people to imagine a world in which men are not generally admired for covetousness and crushing their neighbors; but I assure them that such strange patches of an earthly paradise do really remain on earth.”

From what we have read about Pope Francis, he is trying to make the Vatican City State one of those strange patches. Let us assist him with our prayers, maybe even through the intercession of G.K. Chesterton, that his dream may become a reality — and may we also try to lessen our grip on the things of this world, so that we can grasp what truly matters.

Pope Francis’ weekly Angelus address and prayer Dear brothers and sisters, Good day! Last Sunday found me in Rio de Janeiro. It was the Holy Mass for conclusion of World Youth Day. I think all of us together should thank the Lord for the great gift of this event, for Brazil, for Latin America, and for the whole world. It was a new stage in the pilgrimage of young people across the continents with the Cross of Christ.

We must never forget that the World Youth Days are not “fireworks,” moments of enthusiasm that end with themselves; they are stages of a long journey, begun

in 1985 through the initiative of Pope John Paul II. He entrusted the cross to young people, saying, “Go, and I will come with you.”

And so it was; and this pilgrimage of young people continued with Pope Benedict, and thanks to God I too have been able to live this wonderful stage in Brazil. Let us always remember: the youth are not following the pope, they are following Jesus Christ, bearing His Cross.

And the pope guides them and accompanies them in this journey of faith and hope. And so I thank all the young people who OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER

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have participated, even by making sacrifices. And I thank the Lord also for the other encounters I had with the pastors and the people of the great country that is Brazil, and also with the authorities and the volunteers. May the Lord reward all those who worked for this great festival of faith.

I also want to emphasize my gratitude, my deep gratitude, to the Brazilian people. A great people, the people of Brazil, a people of great heart. I won’t forget their warm welcome, their greeting, their affectionate gaze, so much joy! They are a generous people. I ask the Lord to bless them greatly.

I want to ask you to pray with me, that the young people who participated in World Youth Day will be able to translate this experience into their daily journey, in their everyday conduct; and that they will be able to translate it in the most important choices of their life, responding to the personal call of the Lord.

Today in the Liturgy the provocative words of Qoheleth resonate: “Vanity of vanities . . . all things are vanity” (Ecc. 1, 2).

Young people are particularly sensitive to the emptiness of meaning

and values that surrounds them.

And they, unfortunately, pay the consequences. On the other hand, the encounter with the living Jesus, in the great family that is the Church, fills the heart with joy, because it fills it with true life, a profound goodness that does not pass away or decay: we have seen this in the faces of the youths in Rio. But this experience must face the daily vanity, the poison of emptiness that insinuates itself into our society based on profit and having [things], that deludes young people with consumerism. The Gospel of this Sunday reminds us of the absurdity of basing their happiness on “having.’” “The rich man says to himself: ‘My soul, you have many good things stored up . . . rest, eat, drink, be merry!’

But God says to him: ‘You fool, this very night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’” (cf. Lk 12, 19-20).

Dear brothers and sisters, true wealth is the love of God, shared with the brothers. That love that comes from God and makes us share among ourselves, and makes us help one another. He who experiences this does not fear death,

and receives peace of heart. Let us entrust this intention, the intention of receiving the love of God and sharing it with our brothers, to the Virgin Mary.

The Angel of the Lord declared to Mary: And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Behold the handmaid of the Lord: Be it done unto me according to Thy Word.

Hail Mary . . .

And the Word was made Flesh: And dwelt among us.

Hail Mary . . .

Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray: Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts; that we, to whom the incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection, through the same Christ Our Lord.

Amen.

August 9, 2013

n July I was in Rome for five I days to help launch a new summer sabbatical program for women

religious from various American congregations.

It was the first time I had been to Rome since the conclave that elected Pope Francis. But while most things in the Eternal City had unsurprisingly remained the same, there was one conspicuous difference: the number and attitude of beggars on the streets.

It’s possible that the rise is just coincidental, but it seems to me more likely that Pope Francis’ obvious love for the poor, his hosting a dinner for 200 homeless people in the Vatican, and his frequent preaching on the need to care for the poor in Christ’s name, have brought not only many more truly poor to Rome but also others who are seeking an easy buck.

Like any big city, Rome has always had her beggars, generally the homeless who depend on the generosity of strangers to survive. The Church has many shelters and food pantries in Rome to care for those in need, but many there, as here, prefer the independence of the streets to the minimal rules of a shelter or pantry.

Rome also has more than her share of gypsies, including many Academy Award-winners who creatively fake all types of injuries, paralyses, and desperate situations only to be miraculously cured at the end of each day when a Mercedes arrives to pick them up — a sight that always leaves tourists incredulous.

To walk in priests’ clothes in Rome is to be a targeted man. It’s a blessing when everyone expects you to be a Good Samaritan, but it’s also a burden. I’ve always tried to have some-

W

hat is faith? What does it mean to truly believe? Questions often heard in many of the circles we travel in. People will bring it up in general conversation, or when they believe you have some insight they are missing out on.

Recently I had the honor and privilege to work with youth and adults from around our diocese who make the answers to these questions seem so easy and straight forward. Granted, it is not every day that we are in environments that are totally open to the workings of the Spirit, as was the case at Christian Leadership Institute, or any faithfilled event or retreat. But yet, there are so many people whose paths intersect ours that are the embodiment of Christ, whose very actions speak of the faith that lies within. A faith that somehow has the ability to see them through anything, regardless of how dark and frightening that experience may be.

So what is faith, what does it truly mean? The definition is quite simple really … trust; trusting in what we cannot see, or touch, or even understand, but yet knowing that we are held

Anchor Columnists True and professional beggars in Rome

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thing ready to give the ones who were on my way back to the apartment not obvious charlatans. When a priest where the Sisters were housing me.

The next day I went to a café early gives or doesn’t, it’s not just a personal to have some coffee on my way to the act, but an ecclesial one.

My preference has always been to convent and filled up with coins. I try not to give money, but to buy the would need them.

Almost immediately, I met a beggar a sandwich or piece of fruit with some water, to engage the person homeless Polish man who in broken in conversation and to ask for his or Italian begged me for some money her prayers. This is a more time con- for him to get a bite to eat. Because I suming and expensive alternative, and sometimes it’s just not possible to do when I’m in a hurry, so I always carry a pouch of euro coins to distribute when asked.

During the conclave in March, I was being apBy Father proached three-to-five times Roger J. Landry a day, about the same in past visits and my years as a student in Rome.

This visit I was being asked more was running tight for Mass with the Sisters, I put a few euros in his hand than 20 times a day.

The day of my arrival, jet-lagged and asked him to pray for me. He beand surviving on double espressos, I gan to shout with joy, “Sono ricco! Sono was asked six times alone on my ini- ricco!,” — “I’m rich!” — and then just tial 25-minute walk to the residence kept repeating, “Grazie, Padre!”

Expressions of gratitude, I hate to where I was meeting the Sisters. I probably had 10 euros worth of coins admit, were rather rare.

I met a man as I was approaching in my pouch from my last visit and it was quickly depleted. I went into a Campo dei Fiori, the morning opencafé during the afternoon and asked air fresh produce market. He asked for change. On my return visit, I was me for some money to get some bread — the standard pitch — and I stopped several times again.

When I explained to a woman told him that I would buy him somewho stopped me on the Via della Con- thing at the Campo. “I don’t have time ciliazione that I had already given what for that,” he stated, “please just give me I had to give to others before meeting some money.” “Food is all I’m offerher, she declared, “Pope Francis would ing,” I replied. He looked at me with be ashamed of you. He would give disdain and kept moving in the opme something!” Fatigued and flab- posite direction.

Later I had brought the Sisters to bergasted, I replied, “Then maybe we should both go and ask Pope Francis!” Santa Maria sopra Minerva. I met a I was approached three other times young man dressed only in a sheet. He

asked me in a thick accent for some bread money. I gave him a few euros.

Twenty minutes later, as we headed toward the Pantheon, the same guy approached with hand outstretched.

“I just gave you three euros, fratrello,” I said. His response was classic: “And I used them all. Now I’m ready for dessert!” I had obviously been played by an actor.

Another man was sitting with an open basket near one of the main bus stops.

He cried out “Padre, Padre!,” and asked if I could help him get some food. I told him to get up and I would go with him to buy some for him. He refused to budge.

“Thanks for the try, Father, but I’ll do better if I just sit here and wait for someone else to give me money.”

Another woman met me while I was standing outside the door of my apartment. After she asked me for money for food, I told her that I live inside and that I’d go to get her some bread, fruit and water from the refrigerator. “No, Padre,” she replied, “Money instead.”

I told her that I wasn’t going to give her money but I would very happily give her food. “Jesus would be very angry at you,” she declared. “He said that whatever you do for others, you do to Him.” I complimented her on her knowledge of sacred Scripture but clarified, “Jesus told us, ‘I was hungry and you gave Me food,’ not ‘I asked you for money and you gave what I wanted,’ so if you want food, I can definitely help.” She shook her head and left disappointed.

Another woman started yelling to get my attention as I was crossing a street. I waited for her and she asked for bread money. I had already given out all I had that day, but I reached into my bag to pull out for her some wrapped cheese that friends from Reggia Emilia had brought me. I had been planning to give it to the Sisters, but I figured this woman might be able to use it more. When I handed the cheese to her, she said, “I asked for money for bread, not cheese,” and gave it to me. I replied that I was a priest, not a banker, and headed off with the cheese toward the convent.

It’s always wonderful to be in Rome and I had a great time with the Sisters, but this last trip was one of the most challenging experiences of my priesthood. Every time I headed out, I was being approached several times, and each day I was distributing $50 or more in alms, but it wasn’t enough, as those who accosted me after my pouch was empty reminded me. Even though I wanted the exercise, on some occasions I opted for the bus, just to cut in half the number of requests when my resources and patience were getting low.

Next time, I’m resolved to bring a bigger money pouch and a lot of granola bars to pass out. In the meantime, however, I hope Pope Francis may be able to assist the genuine poor and convert those who are taking advantage of his emphasis on the poor to divert the limited pool of alms destined for them.

by something greater than ourwhat encourages us to keep selves. Hebrews 11:1 sums it up going when we just want to beautifully: “Now faith is being give up; it shines a light into the sure of what we hope for and darkness guiding us around the certain of what we do not see.” bend; it is so many things to so 2 Corinthians 5:7 reinforces it further by telling us, “We live by faith, not by sight.”

If we look around us, at the people we

By Rose Mary know and those we Saraiva encounter, we witness great measures of faith on a daily basis.

If we look to our family we see many people. In my life, those the miracles wrought from the faith-filled people have been faith of grandparents, parents, and continue to be my beacons aunts and uncles, etc. In our of hope, reassurance that I am Church communities we have not alone, ever. These are the all heard and seen how faith has individuals whose very actions renewed the hope of so many, are the Gospel, whose faces radiand how that very faith carried ate the love of Christ, who need someone as they struggled. Even no words to convey their faith; in our work and school environ- and when we look into their ments or social gatherings, we eyes, we recognize the eyes of have all witnessed faith. We Christ looking back at us. Right have all heard such expressions now you are probably thinking as “I have faith in you,” “Hold to yourselves — wait, I know onto your faith,” and one of my someone like that. Yes, you do! favorites, “Take faith.” Yes, take They are all around us, breathing it with you always. When every- the very air we breathe. They can thing seems to be going crazy, it be found working right beside is faith that keeps things steady. us, sitting in class with us, or Faith is what draws us in, standing in line in front of us.

Yet they look like everyone else — so how do we recognize these faith-filled people? We recognize them by their actions and their hearts speak to our hearts in a language born of faith and trust.

As I mentioned earlier, I was blessed to be with such individuals just a few weeks ago. My role was that of team leader, guiding the youth that were entrusted to us, helping them develop the skills that will take them well into their futures, built on a strong Catholic foundation.

It did not take long for me to recognize that the youth present were my guides, they were there to not only learn but to teach as well. The faith of these young people could be seen clear into the next county, it was amazing to witness. In that week that I spent with them my own faith grew in ways unimaginable, renewing my hope in their generation. The best way to describe their faith can be summed up in one word: “refreshing.” It reminded me that I was where I needed to be and that we are all given opportunities to renew and refresh our faith each and

every day if we are open to the Spirit’s workings in our lives.

The key is to be open, willing to see from different angles, allowing ourselves to recognize the faith interwoven in our lives.

So the next time you are wondering what faith is, just ask someone you know to describe what faith means to them. You may be amazed at how they perceive faith and what it means to them in their lives. Better yet, ask yourself what faith means to you, how has it been a part of your life and when has faith been your beacon, and you might just be surprised by your own answers.

And when all is said and done, and our journey is complete may the words of St. Timothy echo true for us as well: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim 4:7).

Rose Mary Saraiva lives in Fall River and is a parishioner of St. Michael’s Parish, and she is the Events Coordinator and Bereavement Ministry for the diocesan Office of Faith Formation.

She is married with three children and two grandchildren. rmsaraiva@dfrcec.com.

Putting Into the Deep

I have kept the faith

In the Palm of His Hands

Father Landry is pastor of St. Bernadette Parish in Fall River.

His email address is fatherlandry@ catholicpreaching.com.

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T

he days of presumed happiness and of security are now past. What we were able to do 12 years ago, we can’t do anymore with simple ease.

Life is getting more and more complicated. The travels we made without fear all over the world has come to an end for many who are afraid of terrorism. The evening strolls we could take without harassment in our neighborhoods aren’t taken anymore. There are dangers everywhere: international conflicts in North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Syria, national difficulties of employment, rising costs of daily used commodities, muggers around the corners of our own streets.

Almost every week, there are rumors of new wars; almost every day,

August 9, 2013

A promise is a promise

new conflicts seem to alive and make all of us break out: the Patriots’ motivated to do more and Day Boston bombing, become better as persons? strikes, abduction of young For Abraham, it was, as children. Even if we aren’t directly involved in all this, each of us is Homily of the Week indirectly affected.

We are all paying Nineteenth Sunday the price. Even in Ordinary Time the most comBy Father mon staple foods Daniel W. Lacroix are priced beyond reach of the masses, taxed as they are to pay for the protection we you heard in today’s second are told we need. Through reading. Because of such a all this, the Good News promise, Abraham left the of the Gospel remains: small town where he was “There is no need to be living. Because of such a afraid, little flock, for it has promise, he started to live pleased the Father to give as a wanderer, always on you the Kingdom.” his way, looking toward a A promise, nothing city designed and built by more, is the only thing we God. He never saw that seem to have. Is that sufficity. He never arrived at it. cient to assist us to live life His whole life was full of well and to the fullest, to obstacles, which led to good help all of us become fully reasons to doubt.

Hadn’t Abraham been promised descendants as numerous as the stars?

And yet, almost up to the moment of his death, he had no children from Sarah, and when he finally had his child, Isaac, he was asked to sacrifice him to God. He kept on his inner journey on course, because of a promise which he would not see realized in his lifetime.

Abraham is a good example of what a promise can do in the life of a human being. Aren’t we in the same situation? Have we anything that’s more than just a promise? Marriage is a promise to be faithful to each other in good times and bad, in richness and poverty, in health or sickness. Isn’t ordination a

promise to God to live one’s life as a vocation to priesthood and not see it as a job, not realizing where one is sent or what events unfold in his life. We make many direct and indirect promises throughout our lives and we accept the call each day to say yes to God and our promise of fidelity.

We are nearer to the fulfillment of the true promise than Abraham.

We have the fulfillment with us. We have it in a celebration of the Eucharist. Even when people in the congregation don’t get along and ignore one another, they receive the same Lord. There is no need to be afraid, little flock, for it has pleased the Father to give you the Kingdom.

Father Lacroix is pastor of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Hyannis.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. August 10, 2 Cor 9:6-10; Ps 112:1-2,5-9; Jn 12:24-26. Sun. August 11, Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Wis 18:6-9; Ps 33:1,12,18-22; Heb 11:1-2,8-19 or 11:1-2,8-12; Lk 12:32-48 or 12:35-40. Mon. August 12, Dt 10:12-22; Ps 147:12-15,19-20; Mt 17:22-27. Tues. August 13, Dt 31:1-8; (Ps) Dt 32:3-4,7-9,12; Mt 18:1-5,10,12-14. Wed. August 14, Dt 34:1-12; Ps 66:1-3,5,8,16-17; Mt 18:15-20. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Vigil, 1 Chr 15:3-4,15-16;16:1-2; Ps 132:6-7,9-10,13-14; 1 Cor 15:54b-57; Lk 11:27-28. Thurs. August 15, The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary , Rv 11:19a;12:1-6a,10ab; Ps 45:10bc,11-12ab,16; 1 Cor 15:20-27; Lk 1:39-56. Fri. August 16, Jos 24:1-13; Ps 136:1-3,16-18,21-22,24; Mt 19:3-12.

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hen I began columnizing, in the Paleolithic Period when a correcting IBM Selectric II typewriter seemed the ne plus ultra of technology-for-scribes, I collected quotable quotes in a plastic box, for possible insertion into columns in the manner of my friend, Dr. George F. Will. Rooting around the yellowing scraps in that box recently, I came across a gaggle of zingers that went unused, but which it seems a shame not to share with readers and posterity. So, for a little summer levity, here we go: On the perils of succumbing to political correctness: “There is no evidence that the fate of the last of the Gadarene swine was noticeably preferable to that of the first” (Charles Stuart, Christ Church don, deploring his Oxford colleagues’ argument that the college couldn’t be “left behind” in changing traditional practices).

Getting the conversation started properly: “How doth truth prosper in thy parts?” (an old Quaker greeting).

Zingers, previously unused “(Anthony) Eden is the sheep The evils of French revolustriving to look like a man, tionary weights and measures: (Harold) Macmillan the man “If God had wanted us to use affecting to look like a sheep” the metric system, He’d have given us 10 Apostles” (an angry worker, struggling with metric tools).

Rarely an argument lost: “He can persuade most people of most

By George Weigel things, and above all he can persuade himself of almost anything” (W.E. Forster (SHAEF officer explaining to on William Gladstone).

General Eisenhower’s staffers The limits of openness: “An open mind, like an open mouth, how to distinguish between two future British prime minshould close on something” isters).

(G.K. Chesterton [of course]).

Staying sharp: “The imBeyond having a career: “But portant thing is not to stop yield who will to their separaquestioning. Curiosity has its tion. My object in living is to own reason for existence. One unite. My avocation and my vocation, As my two eyes make cannot help but be in awe when one contemplates the mysterone in sight. Only where love ies of eternity, of life, of the and need are one, And work marvelous structure of reality. It is play for mortal stakes, Is is enough if one tries to comthe deed ever really done For prehend a little of this mystery Heaven and the future’s sake” (Robert Frost, “Two Tramps in each day. Never lose a holy curiosity” (Albert Einstein).

Mud Time”).

Social ineptness: “Bore. A Telling look-a-likes apart:

The Catholic Difference

person who talks when you wish him to listen” (Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”).

Good government: “When Dr. Johnson declared that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, he underestimated the potential of reform” (Roscoe Conkling, resigning from the U.S. Senate after President Garfield rejected Conkling’s machine nominee for Collector of Customs of the Port of New York).

On the right: “The function of conservatives is to extract the truth in each succeeding heresy” (Lord Hailsham).

The education of the judiciary: “What are you going to do about crime?” New York mayoral candidate Ed Koch was asked at a senior citizens’ center in the Bronx during his first campaign to run the Big Apple. “Ladies and gentlemen,” Koch responded, “did you know that a judge was mugged last week? He called a press conference and said, ‘This mugging

will in no way affect my judgment in matters of this kind.’”

At which point an elderly lady stood up in the back of the room and shouted, “Then mug him again!”

A culture without reality contact: “We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men” (George Orwell).

The earthen vessel of the Church: “No merely human institution conducted with such knavish imbecility would have lasted a fortnight” (Hillaire Belloc on Catholicism).

The right stuff: “How would you like to sit on top of five million parts, each of which was made by the lowest bidder?” ( John Young, on flying the first space shuttle).

Our task: “The Gospel must be preached by men.

The angels have other duties” (plaque found in an old church).

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

Anchor Columnists Forgetting as Christ forgets

August 9, 2013

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he visit of Pope Francis to Brazil for World Youth Day was successful.

The enthusiasm of the young people and their heroic efforts to participate in this unique spiritual adventure is noteworthy.

The effort expended for each of the events and enthusiasm of the performers and participants in WYD were exemplary. The usual excitement of viewing the Holy Father was present in many forms and crowds rushed to see him wherever he was. His youthfulness and enthusiasm provided a very busy schedule.

Each of the papal events, and the many other venues of catechesis, were filled with young people. Although it was a prayerful event, I am sure it was filled with its many challenges with so many people attending. It was not a retreat, so there was much to enjoy despite the miserable weather for most of those days.

The closing Mass was at the beach of Copacabana. It was a beautiful day and the aerial photographs of the estimated three million present for the Mass were spectacular. It was interesting to note, in spite of the bad weather days before, most of the attendees at the Mass on the

for today’s generation. He not beach were attentive. The view only suggested to the young showed very few taking advanpeople how to make Christ tage of the beach during Mass. known; but, in his address to the It was a tribute to the seriousbishops of CELAM, he noted ness of purpose that accompahow he expected them to make nied these young people and Christ known and even noted those who traveled with him.

The “star of the show” was the how he suggested to the nuncios how to look for these characpope. His own personality and enthusiasm as Bishop of Rome manifested itself in many ways.

Living Crowds surrounded the his humble car as he drove to different Faith celebrations. Security

By Msgr. details were concerned John J. Oliveira for his safety as many approached his car. He simply kept the winteristics in the men who are dow open and greeted people. nominated for the episcopate.

He said that, while it was true In his “off the cuff ” remarks a crazy person could approach to reporters on the return flight him, it would be just as crazy to seal himself off from his people. to Rome, Pope Francis gave To that extent, he always entered some examples for Christian living. While I am certain some the events in an open popemobile to allow greater access to the would not appreciate his candor and spontaneity in responding, young people present.

I think it gives an insight into One would have to read what is needed to make Christ and meditate on all the talks known and loved. I also suggest given to appreciate the depth of it is the way the pope himself Pope Francis’s message to those reflects Christ. present, and to the Church in Perhaps the most often comgeneral. It is impressive to reflect mented on was his response to on the ways he proposed Christ could be made known and loved the accusations of a clergyman’s

Going back to a summer of ‘taters’ and tears

A

players, 13 of whom who have good friend and reader, accepted culpability for taking who happens to be the banned performance-enhancing same age as me, reminded me substances. this week about how fun it was I can’t imagine what 11-yearduring the summer of 1967, the Red Sox’ Impossible Dream year.

It doesn’t take much to take me back to that magical summer/ autumn. I still have the album, cassette and CD

By Dave Jolivet version of “The Impossible Dream,” narrated by the late, great Ken old baseball fanatics think when Coleman. they see things like this.

I still have original, yellowed Back in ’67, kids like me copies of the Boston Recordwatched Boomer hit “taters,” Yaz American from during the make acrobatic catches, Tony C incredibly nerve-wracking A.L. launch rockets over the screen pennant race and the World atop the Green Monster, and Series.

And I still have my Boston Red Sox Yearbook of that heartwarming season.

My favorite players were Tony C (Conigliaro), and George “The Boomer” Scott. There was a twang of sadness when Boomer passed away last week. I still have a baseball with his autograph on it in my office (see photo).

I bring this up now, because An autograph of George “The baseball suffered another black Boomer” Scott (top) adorns eye this week with the Biogenisis the mantle in my Anchor office. fallout — the suspension of 14 (Photo by Dave Jolivet)

My View From the Stands

Gentleman Jim Lonborg baffle hitters game after game.

Our biggest worries were for Tony C’s health after the horrific bean ball that ended his season; the great Bob Gibson of the Cardinals making mince-meat of Red Sox batters (by keeping them honest with the occasional 90 m.p.h. fastball under the chin); and the beefy batting averages of Lou Brock, Julian Javier and Roger Maris during that series.

There were tears shed following Game 7, but part of that was pride — pride for a team that played its heart out during a magical summer and fall.

Thanks Bob, for bringing up that wonderful time.

It makes me sad that 11-yearolds today can’t feel what we felt in 1967.

At least I can put on the recording every now and then, close my eyes and travel back in Mr. Peabody’s “Wayback Machine,” to Red Sox Nation before it was known as Red Sox Nation, as the eloquent Mr. Coleman begins, “This is really a love story. An affair twixt a town and a team ....”

lifestyle. He responded simply that he had investigated the situation and nothing was found.

The pope went onto say: “I see that very often in the Church, there is a tendency to seek out sins committed in youth, and make them public. I am not speaking about crimes; the abuse of minors is a crime.

But if a layperson, or a priest, or a nun, has sinned, the Lord forgives and forgets.

And this is important — the Lord forgets.

We do not have the right not to forget. St. Peter committed one of the most serious sins, apostasy, and yet they made him pope. Much is written about the gay lobby, but I haven’t found gay identity cards in the Vatican, although they say they exist. I think when we encounter a gay person; we must distinguish the fact of being gay from that of forming part of a lobby, as not all lobbies are good. That is the problem. But if a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge him?”

In this response, the Holy Father said nothing new, made great news, but taught us, once again, how to love one another and not be judgmental.

In another response to a question regarding a clergyman in the Vatican Bank who was accused of a crime, the pope responded that there are many saints in the Vatican implying there are some who are not.

He further stated, “And even if there are some who are not, they are those who make the most noise: everyone knows that one falling tree makes more noise than a growing forest.” I love that quote. It applies to so many things we read about and who gets the headlines.

Here the pope reminds us to look behind the headlines to get to know Christ. To place in perspective the falling tree and

9 the growing forest.

On a humorous note, Pope Francis was seen carrying a black bag on and off the plane as he travelled. There was much curiosity as to what was in the bag since he personally transported it. He answered the questioner: “There wasn’t the key to the atomic bomb! There is a razor, a Breviary, my diary, a book to read — I brought one on St. Theresa of Lisieux to whom I am devoted. I always take this bag when I travel. It’s normal.

We should be normal.”

I was wondering what was in the bag. I had thought it was something more important. But, again, the point he was making is we must be normal. Church leaders are not to be above or below the people they serve but are with them — normal like them.

Pope Francis said many things, but his example said more. It is left to us to respond to this grace-filled event. Will we continue to judge? Will we continue to separate the conservatives and liberals? To separate the Latin Mass lovers from those who like Mass in their own vernacular? Will we judge those who wish Communion in the hand to be superior to those who do not? Will we continue to criticize those who think it’s all about same-sex marriage and pro-choice and not consider other contemporary problems as important? Are we not all brothers and sisters trying to make Christ known and loved?

Pope Francis has told us to not concentrate on the tree falling in the forest, to not judge and to forget as Christ forgets; to be merciful. We are to remember we are all walking the same road to be with the Lord.

Let us bring others with us and together seek our loving God in each other and for eternity.

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

10

August 9, 2013

Musician convention highlights Liturgy constitution anniversary

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Most Americans will remember Nov. 22, 1963, as the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, but Liturgists will note that date also as the day the Second Vatican Council approved the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy.

The effects of the constitution, promulgated Dec. 4, 1963, still are being felt today, and its golden anniversary was being celebrated by the National As-

sociation of Pastoral Musicians during its recent convention in Washington. Keynote speaker Rita Ferrone, in her address, reminded the 2,500-plus convention attendees that the bishops at Vatican II put “full, conscious and active participation” in the liturgy “before all else.”

There is a tension to be recognized in carrying out Vatican II’s mandate, said Ferrone, an author who has exercised Liturgical ministry

at the parish and diocesan level and who now lives in New York.

That tension is between “the human and the Divine,” she noted, “being present in this world, yet not being at home in it.” Yet “the marvel of it all is that God is present in the things of the earth,” such as oil, water, bread, wine and music, Ferrone said. “Liturgy, after all, is a series of signs — and it is transformational.”

11

August 9, 2013

Retreat encourages women to trust in God

By Christine Williams Anchor Correspondent

EAST TAUNTON — When Allison Gingras and her husband felt called to adopt a threeyear-old girl from China who was deaf, “It was clear to us, this is what we were being called to do,” she said.

Gingras told The Anchor that she and her husband faced many challenges. They had financial hurdles, a significant delay in the adoption and a difficult transition after their daughter came home. Through that, they trusted in God’s plan and now have a beautiful 11-year-old daughter named Faith.

“Trust is believing, through every trial and turmoil, joy and blessing, that God loves us and is always with us,” she said.

Gingras hopes to help other women experience that same trust in the Lord by leading a retreat at Holy Family Parish Center in East Taunton on August 17. The women’s retreat titled, “Seeking the Hope of Trusting in God,” will run from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tickets are $25 and include lunch if participants preregister.

The retreat will begin with a pictorial Rosary featuring artwork and Scripture passages. There will be three talks by Gingras on trust, the Sacraments and Scripture. They will include information on the saints and personal stories. There will also be time for small group meetings, the Sacrament of Reconciliation and praise and worship music.

This is Gingras’ second year leading women’s retreats in the dioceses of Fall River, Boston and Worcester. Last August, she began a series of six retreats on the topic of forgiveness. The East Taunton retreat on August 17 is the first in a series of trust retreats. More retreats on forgiveness and trust are currently being scheduled and will be posted on Gingras’ website.

A Diocese of Fall River native and cradle Catholic, Gingras blogs at CatholicMom. com and started the ministry Reconciled to You in 2009.

She also leads Confirmation retreats, pilgrimages overseas and other events for men and women.

“I think people are hungry for more catechesis, especially adults, and there’s not really much out there,” she said, adding that she feels called in a particular way to help her sisters in Christ.

She said she relates better to “a woman’s heart.”

Patsy Gillespie, a student in the Masters of Arts in Ministry program at St. John Seminary in Brighton, has spent the last year serving as Gingras’ intern. As part of her studies, she volunteered to help Gingras at one of the forgiveness retreats last year.

Gillespie, a Massachusetts native who lives in Waltham, said that she believes wom-

en’s retreats are needed, adding that “As women, we seem to struggle with the same things.”

Gillespie said that Gingras prays frequently before each retreat and tries to serve its attendees however God leads her.

“She’s so in love with God and wants to share that with other people so they fall deeper in love,” Gillespie said of Gingras. “She’s an enthusiastic speaker with great humor.”

Gingras said that while preparing for the upcoming trust retreat, God gave her abundant opportunities to learn to trust in Him more. She

said she will draw from those experiences, especially her time at World Youth Day in Rio, for the retreat.

“The greatest thing about working for the Lord is the complete abandonment. It’s all in His hands,” she said. “Trust is about truly believing that God is in control. Everything He does, He orders for our good because He loves us.”

For more information on Gingras’ ministry or to register for the August 17 trust retreat, visit her website at http://www.reconciledtoyou.com/ events.

12

August 9, 2013

Dozens of groups seek indecency enforcement vow from FCC nominee

WASHINGTON (CNS) — In the past four years, more than one million complaints have been filed with the Federal Communications Commission about indecency on the public airwaves. Not that there were one million separate incidents of alleged indecency; there were certainly some instances were organized campaigns urged followers to complain to the FCC about content.

Even so, one million complaints are a sure sign of unease over TV content over a fouryear period of time.

However, during Julius Genachowski’s four-year tenure as FCC chairman, not one complaint was investigated.

That lack of enforcement has raised the concern of dozens of groups that President Barack Obama’s pick to head the FCC, Tom Wheeler, won’t be any different.

Under the leadership of Morality in Media, 70 groups signed a letter urging members of the Senate to block confirmation of the Wheeler nomination until he signals his intent on enforcement of federal decency laws.

This is similar to the Morality in Media campaign that landed more than 100,000 comments earlier this year when the Genachowski-led FCC issued a proposal to relax the federal indecency standard to allow for the occasional flash of nudity or outburst of profanity.

The issue then becomes one of whether anyone in the Senate will listen. The issue becomes more complicated with the midJuly tweak in Senate rules that pretty much stopped Republican filibustering of Obama’s non-judicial appointees to allow them to come up for a vote.

But Patrick Trueman, the executive director of Morality in Media, thinks he’s gained some traction with his July 9 letter to senators.

“I’ve had three staff members form three different (Senate) Democrats, from the House and Senate committee yet to vote on his confirmation, saying this is a serious issue with their boss,” Trueman said. “And of course, there are several Republicans.”

Trueman added, “The letter that we sent with (the names of ) 70 group leaders on it is making a difference. It’s causing some senators to give pause and consider whether Mr. Wheeler

should give further statements about his willingness to enforce the decency law. Of course, Mr. Wheeler could resolve this by saying that he will vigorously enforce federal decency law.”

After a nominee has a Senate committee or subcommittee hearing, senators are allowed to pose questions in writing of the nominee, asking to comment on a subject or to clarity responses given during initial testimony.

Wheeler was asked about indecency during his hearing.

“All he could muster is that he has grandchildren and he’s concerned what they have to see on TV,” Trueman said. “Basically, he punted.”

The letter said: “Mr. Wheeler can’t just say there is a problem; he needs to say how he will use his enforcement authority as FCC chairman to fix it. The American public has a right to decency at home. No network or shock jock has any right to invade that sacred space with indecent programming.”

Trueman said two Republican senators, Tim Scott of South Carolina and Matt Blunt of Missouri, have indicated they will grill Wheeler about his stand on indecency enforcement.

“Wheeler will have to clarify specifically what he intends to do about the federal decency law, so he won’t get out of the responsibility to state his position.

He must state it,” Trueman said.

The issue, as Trueman sees it, is whether the FCC will become a paper tiger of sorts if it lets indecent material litter the airwaves. Currently, no indecent material is to be broadcast between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., the hours children are most likely to be part of the viewing audience.

Still, just what constitutes indecency has been a difficult target to zero in on.

The FCC “should not be proposing more nudity and profanity on television, especially when kids are in the audience,” Trueman said “The problem is they don’t see that Federal Communication Commission acting, they’ll stop complaining about television,” he added. “The Federal Communications Commission is solely responsible for decency on television. When you have people like Genachowski saying the Federal Communications Commission’s not going to do its job, the people have no recourse.”

Smooth Smurf, voiced by Shaquille O’Neal, is seen in the animated movie “The Smurfs 2.” For a brief review of this film, see CNS Movie Capsules below. (CNS photo/Columbia)

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

“The Smurfs 2” (Columbia) Those squishy blue elves with the white caps return in this jolly 3-D sequel to the 2011 film. Drawing once more on the widely beloved comic-book characters created by Belgian cartoonist Peyo (Pierre Culliford), returning director Raja Gosnell extends their adventures with a mix of animation and live action.

Evil human wizard Gargamel (Hank Azaria) kidnaps Smurfette (voice of Katy Perry) to get her to reveal the formula for “Smurf-essence,” which promises eternal beauty and unlimited power. Papa Smurf (voiced by Jonathan Winters, in his last film role) must organize a rescue mission with the help of a few human allies (principally Neil Patrick Harris and Jayma Mays). Along the way there are positive messages about family and friendship.

Moderately intense action sequences, some slapstick violence, mild scatological humor.

The Catholic News Service classification is A-I — general patronage. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG — parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

“2Guns” (Universal) Not realizing that they

have both been sent undercover by their respective government agencies to bust the same Mexican drug lord (Edward James Olmos), a DEA operative (Denzel Washington) and a naval intelligence officer (Mark Wahlberg) mistake each other for real criminals. Viewers’ reactions to director Baltasar Kormakur’s adaptation of a series of graphic novels by Steven Grant will largely depend on their taste for the farfetched, corruption-driven complications that follow in the wake of this misunderstanding, most involving yet more federal employees (among them Paula Patton, Bill Paxton and James Marsden). Though

clever at times, Kormakur’s buddy movie — a blend of action and comedy — is also frequently coarse and occasionally brutal. So the audience for which it can be considered appropriate is small.

Much violence, some of it harsh and gory, a nonmarital bedroom scene with upper female nudity, a few uses of profanity, constant rough and crude language. The Catholic News Service classification is L — limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

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

Celebrant is Father Richard M. Roy, pastor of St. Julie Billiart Parish in North Dartmouth

13

August 9, 2013

Ken Hackett approved as America’s next Vatican ambassador

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Ken Hackett, retired president of Catholic Relief Services, received Senate confirmation August 1 as U.S. ambassador to the Vatican.

“We are overjoyed that the country will be represented by a man who through his decades of service has demonstrated his commitment to the dignity and sanctity of life and fighting global poverty,” said an August 2 statement by Hackett’s successor at CRS, Carolyn Y. Woo. “ We look forward to working with the new ambassador as he engages the Vatican and Pope Francis towards the common goal of advancing peace and justice in the world.”

President Barack Obama nominated Hackett June 14 for the position on the same day he announced nominees for ambassador posts in Brazil, Spain, Germany, Denmark and Ethiopia.

“It gives me great confidence that such dedicated and capable individuals have agreed to join this administration to serve the American people. I look forward to working with them in the months and years to come,” the president said.

Hackett retired in December 2011 after 18 years as president of CRS, the U.S. bishops’ overseas relief and development agency.

As U.S. ambassador to the

Vatican, he succeeds Miguel Diaz, who left the post in late 2012.

Diaz now is a professor of faith and culture at the University of Dayton, Ohio.

Hackett was appointed president of CRS in 1993. During his tenure, he established a division focusing on outreach to dioceses, parishes, Catholic organizations, and colleges and universities, and lay people were first appointed to the CRS board of directors.

Catholic Relief Services now operates in more than 100 countries, with a global staff of nearly 5,000.

“I had the privilege of knowing Ken Hackett for many years and working directly with him for three years at Catholic Relief Services,” said an August 5 email from another CRS executive, Joan Rosenhauer, executive vice president of U.S. operations.

“One of things I most admired about Ken was his integrity. He always sought to do the right thing, even if it wasn’t the easiest thing,” Rosenhauer said. “I’m delighted that he will now bring these qualities and his broad experience to his new role representing our country as U.S. ambassador to the Vatican.”

One of Hackett’s predecessors to his new post, L. Francis Rooney, told Catholic News Ser-

God is worthy of p submission Thank you, Father Johnson, for having the grace and courage to broach this most important issue of the reception of Holy Communion. The sense of the sacred must be brought back to protect the greatest of all treasures in the Catholic Church, the Holy Eucharist. For years now I have lamented the lack of reverence due to Our Lord truly present Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Blessed Sacrament. How many generations of children have not even been taught to genuflect before Our Lord’s presence?

Many adults don’t genuflect as well. When meeting the queen of England, women are required to curtsy and men bow at the waist.

Doesn’t Our Lord deserve much more respect? “At Jesus’ name, every knee must bend in the Heavens, on the earth, and under the earth” (Phil 2:10). If every knee must bend before the name of Jesus, how much more so before His very presence in the Holy Eucharist?

Most people today are not even aware that it is the law of the Catholic Church to receive Holy Communion on the tongue and kneeling. Receiving in the hand and standing is only

an indult (exception) to this rule.

The traditional practices were in place since antiquity to prevent abuse and to promote adoration.

Another rule pronounced by the Council of Trent states, ‘to priests alone has been given the power to consecrate and administer to the faithful, the Holy Eucharist.” To quote St. Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica, “Because out of reverence towards this Sacrament, nothing touches it, but what is consecrated, hence the corporal and the chalice are consecrated, and likewise the priest’s hands, for touching this Sacrament.”A quote from Pope St. Sixtus I (115-125), “It is prohibited for the faithful to even touch the sacred vessels, or receive in the hand.” “One receives in the mouth what one believes by faith,” Pope St. Leo the Great (440-461). It should be mentioned that the reference of St. Cyril of Jerusalem that is often quoted is suspect, because what follows it is irreverent and scholars have questioned the authenticity of the text. Even Pope John Paul II stated in 1980 in “Domincae Cenae” that “to touch the Sacred Species and to administer them with their own hand is a privilege of the ordained.”

Before Pope Paul VI allowed Communion in the hand, he

vice August 5: “Far be it from me to offer advice to an incoming ambassador. But he is tremendously qualified to do the job, given his background with Catholic Relief Services. The Holy See needs a good person, and they’ve got one.”

Rooney, who served as ambassador from 2005-08, said regardless of lack of previous diplomatic experience, “the State Department does a very good job of preparing career and political appointees before going to their posts,” mentioning reading lists and consultations. Even so, “going to the Holy See it is overwhelmingly enjoyable to be at the home of our Catholic Church. I could never have underestimated how exciting it was to be there.”

“I think it’s a terrific appointment,” said Gerard F. Powers,” a professor of the practice of Catholic peacebuilding at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies on the campus of the University of Notre Dame. “I think he has substantial experience with Church institutions and working with government, including some important government institutions, which makes him very well positioned to do what the ambassador to the Holy See is expected to do.”

Powers told CNS, “He has this unusual understanding — a deep

understating — of the Church and a working understanding of the U.S. policy relative to the Catholic Church.”

Born in West Roxbury, Hackett joined the Peace Corps shortly after his 1968 graduation from Boston College. Assigned to a Catholic mission in rural Ghana, he worked in an agricultural cooperative and saw “the actual impact of American food aid on the health and well-being of very poor kids in a very isolated part of a West African country,” he said recently.

After completing his Peace Corps assignment, Hackett joined CRS, the U.S. Catholic relief and development agency, in 1972. He started his career in Sierra Leone, where he managed a nationwide leprosy program and a maternal and child health program.

Subsequent positions took him to various posts in Africa and Asia, as well as in CRS’ Baltimore headquarters. As regional director for Africa, he managed the agency’s response to the Ethiopian famine of 1984-85. He also supervised CRS operations in East Africa during the crisis in Somalia in the 1990s.

In February 2012, Hackett and Diaz represented the U.S. government at the consistory led by Pope Benedict XVI in St. Peter’s

Basilica at the Vatican ceremony.

Pope Benedict XVI created 22 new cardinals from 13 countries — including two from the United States and one from Canada.

In May of that year, he received the University of Notre Dame’s Laetare Medal during commencement ceremonies. The medal has been given annually since 1883 to a Catholic “whose genius has ennobled the arts and sciences, illustrated the ideals of the Church and enriched the heritage of humanity.”

In announcing that honor, Holy Cross Father John I. Jenkins, Notre Dame’s university president, said in a statement: “Ken Hackett has responded to a Gospel imperative with his entire career. His direction of the Catholic Church’s outreach to the hungry, thirsty, naked, sick and unsheltered of the world has blended administrative acumen with genuine compassion in a unique and exemplary way.”

Hackett is a former North American president of Caritas Internationalis, the confederation of humanitarian agencies of the Catholic Church and a former member of the board of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum at the Vatican. He also has been an adviser to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

It was meant to be an extraordinary event, not a daily one. Even at daily Masses with only a handful of people there is always a “Eucharistic minister.” There is no precedent for this in Catholic Church history.

What can we do to promote the respect, reverence and adoration due to Our Lord in His Eucharistic Presence? Those of us who can kneel for Holy Communion should do so. We can request the return of the altar rail (or kneeler) and humbly kneel before Our Lord and Maker. We should reverently receive Our Lord on the tongue. We should teach our children the same. “It is the sign of adoration that needs to be recovered. I think the entire Church needs to receive Communion while kneeling” (Cardinal Llovera, prefect for the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, July, 2011). Pope Emeritus Benedict initiated kneeling and receiving on the tongue at all his papal Masses to show the whole Church the proper norm for receiving Holy Communion according to Vatican Liturgist, Msgr. Guido Marini. “Kneeling in adoration before the Eucharist is the most valid remedy against the idolatries of yesterday and today”

(Pope Benedict, May 22, 2008).

“We Christians kneel before the Blessed Sacrament because, therein, we know and believe to be the presence of the One True God” (Pope Benedict, May 22, 2008). Please, let us return to the reverential practices of the past — receiving on the tongue while kneeling. Isn’t our God worthy of our submission and humility?

As someone once stated, how we worship is how we believe.

Debra Michalski Somerset

Our readers respond polled all the bishops in 1969 and asked their opinion regarding this and the majority of bishops disapproved of the practice. It should be mentioned that several bishops in Europe had begun the practice illicitly and instead of telling them to stop he nonetheless allowed it with reservation, “A change in a matter of such moment, based on a most ancient and venerable tradition, does not merely affect discipline. It carries certain dangers with it which may arise from the new manner of administering Holy Communion, the danger of a loss of reverence for the August Sacrament of the altar, of profanation, of adulterating the true doctrine” (“Memoriale Domini”). It is obvious that the pope’s concerns have come true. Many people are indifferent and no longer believe in the Real Presence.

The overuse of “Eucharistic ministers” at each and every Mass has greatly added to the confusion. Lay persons were allowed to distribute Holy Communion only under certain conditions as outlined in “Immensae Caritatis” ( Jan. 29, 1973) when there is no priest; when he is unable to due to another pastoral ministry, ill health or advanced age; when the number of communicants would unduly prolong the Mass.

EXECUTIVE EDITOR RESPONDS: I am sorry that I had forgotten to print your letter, which you sent to us months ago.

The quotes you give are accurate and I share with you the dismay about people walking by the Blessed Sacrament (whether in the Tabernacle or on the altar after the Consecration) without making a genuflection. However, the U.S. bishops have decreed, with the Holy See’s approval, that the normative way to receive Communion in this country is standing, after having made an act of reverence (a bow) to Our Lord.

The Holy See did clarify, however, that Holy Communion is not to be denied to people who wish to receive while kneeling.

14

August 9, 2013

Pope Francis thinking about declaring Pius XII a saint

Vatican City (CNA/ EWTN News) — Pope Francis is considering whether he will make Pope Pius XII a saint, in the same way that he approved the cause of John XXIII. A source who works at the Vatican’s Congregation for Causes of Saints, who asked for anonymity, recently told CNA that “just as Pope Francis moved ahead with John XXIII’s canonization, he is considering the same thing for Pius XII.” According to the normal procedures, Pius XII would be beatified once a miracle attributed to his intercession is officially certified by a team of doctors and recognized by a commission of cardinals.

But if Pope Francis decides to go ahead without a miracle, he could “even canonize him with the formula of scientia certa (certainty in knowledge), thereby jumping over the step of beatification,” the source said.

“Only the pope is able to do it, and he will, if he wants to.”

Pope Francis is very interested in Pius XII because “he considers him ‘a great,’ in the same way as John XXIII is, even if for different reasons,” the source explained.

But there is also a historical reason that Pope Francis is interested in Pius XII. When Pope Paul VI started the beatification and canonization process in 1967, nine years after Pius XII’s death, he formed a committee of historians to conduct an in-depth study of his predecessor’s life and behavior, giving particu-

lar attention to the events of World War II. The committee was made up of four Jesuits: Fathers Pierre Blet (France), Angelo Martini (Italy), Burkhart Schneider (Germany), and Robert A. Graham (United States).

Their work led to the publication of “Actes et Documents du Saint Siège relatifs à la Seconde Guerre Mondiale” (Acts and Documents of the Holy See related to the Second World War), an 11-volume collection of documents from the Vatican’s Secret Archive about Pius XII’s papacy during that tumultuous time.

Yet, the remainder of the documents from Pius XII’s papacy is not expected to be released until 2014 — the time it will take to organize the papers.

The completed catalog will include approximately 16 million documents from Pius XII’s papacy (1939-1958).

Pope Benedict XVI initially decided to postpone Pius XII’s cause for sainthood and advocated waiting until the archives would be open for researchers in 2014.

But Benedict changed his mind and declared Pius XII Venerable on Dec. 19, 2009, based on the recommendation of the committee investigating his cause.

The decision was met with criticism from some quarters, which charged that Pius XII was silent about the Holocaust and did not do enough to resist the Germans.

Despite the conclusions of the committee, the debate that followed the initial criticism

This week in

brought Pius XII’s canonization process to a halt.

According to Matteo Luigi Napolitano, a member of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Science who wrote several books about Pius XII, “for what concerns the historical judgment, the dossier on Pius XII is almost complete.”

Napolitano added in his interview with CNA, “theological judgments on Pius XII’s life and behavior” are “not competence of the historians.”

His remarks referred to what is known as a “positio,” a document that is compiled for every person being considered for canonization, after they have been declared “venerable” — the second step in the process.

The study is comprised of two parts: the first deals with the history of the person and is sketched by a commission of historians, while the second contains a “theological judgment” on the life and works of venerable, which is handed down by a theological committee.

At the moment, according to the source from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Pope Francis has said he wants Pius XII’s cause to move ahead.

Since there are several miracles attributed to Pius XII’s intercession, the source explained that Pope Francis might decide that he will sidestep the normal process and declare him a saint.

“It is not impossible that the pope would act in the way he did for the canonization of John XXIII.” When Pope Francis decided

to approve the canonization of John XXIII, he submitted his case to a vote by the members of the congregation, despite the fact that “a miracle attributed to the intercession of John XXIII was discussed,” the source said.

But “the miracle would have needed further checks,” the saints expert explained, so Pope Francis “opted to canonize him without waiting for the certification of the miracle.”

The source maintained, “this seems to be possible for what concerns Pius XII.” Napolitano acknowledged that the possibility of the pope pushing the cause forward.

There are “several (saints) causes that, for several reasons, are the object of pressures,” he remarked.

What remains to be seen is whether Pius XII being declared a saint will result in a new debate about the emerging historical record of the wartime pope or a recycling of the claims that he was “Hitler’s pope.”

Napolitano noted, “the debate about Pius XII is more

widely a debate about the Shoah, i.e. the biggest tragedy of the Second World War.” So, Napolitano said, “it is normal to investigate what the Vatican did during that period.”

This investigation involves several areas of interest: the choice of the Holy See to remain neutral, the way Christian values were lived during that period, the choices of Catholics who confronted the tactics of the Nazis, and what dioceses and clergy in countries involved in the war did.

Napolitano underlined that “the ‘positio’ on Pius XII is made up of all of these aspects, with a collection of sources that agreed the Congregation for the Causes of Saint should carry their job forward.”

For what concerns a historical judgment of Pius XII’s behavior, “interpretations can vary, but I can say that the most authoritative Jewish, Catholic and lay historians agree on one key point: Eugenio Pacelli never was, and he never could be, ‘Hitler’s pope.’”

diocesan history

50 years ago — Holy Trinity Parish in West Harwich initiated a door-to-door, person-toperson fund-raising campaign for the rebuilding of the church building destroyed by fire earlier that March. A target of $300,000 was set to rebuild the church and replace the fixtures lost in the blaze.

10 years ago — Seven teen-agers from Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Seekonk, along with their chaperones, Pam Potenza and Bill Kearny, left for a 10-day trip to the diocesan mission in Guaimaca, Honduras.

The teens assisted Sister Maria Ceballos at her health clinic, among many other duties.

25 years ago — Bishop Daniel A. Cronin welcomed friends of diocesan charities to the fifth annual Diocesan Council of Catholic Women-sponsored “Evening on the Cape” with the bishop. Guests received a Marian year souvenir explaining that Mary, under the title of Our Lady of the Assumption, is the patroness of the Fall River Diocese.

One year ago — About 50 people representing parishes from all five deaneries of the Diocese of Fall River descended on Holy Cross Parish in South Easton for a threeday presentation of Beginnings, an intensive initiative that seeks to provide participants with the vision and dynamics of the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults.

Pope Pius XII is pictured at the Vatican in a file photo dated March 15, 1949. Pope Francis is thinking about declaring Pius XII a saint. (CNS file photo)

15

August 9, 2013

Sister Madeleine Tacy, OP, says goodbye to UMD after 37 years continued from page one

tremely rewarding,” she continued. “When I first arrived in 1976, at the request of Father Perry (now retired Msgr. John J. Perry), he gave me some advice.

He told me that some students would see me as a stereotype, a religious Sister. He said I should try to create an approachable persona, allowing students to see the Church with a ‘human face.’”

Sister Madeleine has shared that “human face” of the Church with thousands of students and university staff, and nine priest chaplains over the past 37 years.

Born in Malone, N.Y. and growing up in nearby Chateaugay, Sister Madeleine entered the Dominican Sisters’ novitiate in Fall River in 1957.

Following her novitiate, she taught school in New Haven, Conn. and Acushnet, after which she spent three years at Still Point House of Prayer in Round Lake, N.Y. From there she traveled to North Dartmouth to begin her ministry at SMU. Sister Madeleine brought an impressive resume along with her to the North Dartmouth campus, including a master’s in history, in counseling, in divinity and a doctorate in ministry; a fellow in American Association of Pastoral Counselors, serving as a chairman on the Institutional Accreditation Committee; and she was a licensed mental health counselor in Massachusetts.

But what the students and staff saw most in her was a love of Christ and her passion for sharing His love and mercy.

“She has dedicated herself to the Catholic ministry at UMD for more than 35 years and will be missed,” said Father David C. Frederici, UMD chaplain. “Her calm presence was reassuring to not only students, but also faculty, staff and clergy. She saw many changes at the university and the culture during that time, but also saw things that did not change: the importance of faith and spirituality in the lives of the students as well as the hunger that is there.

The music, clothing, hair styles, etc., have changed, but the hunger for meaning has not.”

Sister Madeleine told The Anchor that the biggest change she’s seen since her arrival in 1976 was “the observance of Mass by the students.”

“There was a time when we would have 90-100 students at Sunday Mass, but that had trailed off. It’s Ash Wednesday when most of the students come now, and that’s not even a holy day.

“Many students who now consider themselves ‘Catholic’ are less aware of their Religious Education. They’re less knowledgeable. They have been taught prayers, but not to pray in a personal way.”

She senses that is partly because society has changed over the years, and the influences at home have changed. “It wasn’t perfect before, but now many students aren’t receiving the faith passed on at home,” she said.

“And there is peer pressure at school to deal with as well.”

Yet, those obstacles haven’t deterred Sister Madeleine and the clergy chaplains from being a peaceful presence on campus.

“We try to have someone in the campus ministry office all day,” she said. “One of us may be at meetings or something else, but the door was always open.”

College students face many challenges, particularly the younger, incoming freshmen.

“Students have many outside activities and demands on their time, and this is true of life in general” she added. “Life is filled with choices and usually we choose what it important to us.

There are things we have to do, but with our free time, we usually do what we want to do. And many times, the freshmen who are burdened think they’re the first ones to ever have that problem.”

She said there are always students, no matter what generation, who are burdened in one way or

another. “When a student comes to us with a heavy burden, we provide a safe place for them to talk and try to ease that burden.

Sometimes we’re helpful, sometimes we’re not.”

The UMD campus ministry team works closely with the campus counseling center. “Sometimes they refer students to us, and sometimes we refer students to them,” said Sister Madeleine.

It was always with the student’s best interest in mind.

The burdens and obstacles can change over the years. “Earlier in my ministry, I would see, from some ethnicities, students who would be the first generation to attend college, and the families weren’t pleased with that. The students were expected to go to work instead, and that put pressure on the students. I also experienced a woman who attended college and her husband was less than supportive, fearing she would gain an education, leave him and move on to a better life.” She added that scenarios like these don’t play out nearly as much any more.

Perhaps the largest change in ministry over the last 37 years has been technology. “When I began, there were no emails, texts, and cell phones,” Sister Madeleine said. “We had a telephone. We would exchange phone numbers with students and stay in touch that way. But we utilized whatever electronic media that became available. Today we use electronic billboards at the school, a website, blogs, and texts.”

The ministry still uses the oldfashioned newspaper as well. The UMD paper, The Torch, provides various campus offices the opportunity to share with its readers. “There’s a column called ‘Soul Sightings’ that gives the various campus ministries, not just Catholic, the chance to share with readers,” Sister Madeleine said.

“It also appears on the online version. It’s a way to share the faith, but it’s not meant to proselytize.

There are many great resources,

but people still have to look at it to get something out of it.”

Sister Madeleine told The Anchor that she will “miss the campus and the people I have worked with over the years.”

She commented on the last priest she worked with, Father Frederici, “He was priest number nine during my time at SMU and UMD. The two things that I admire about him is he always prepares his homilies and seems to have the right balance between work and caring for his own spiritual life.”

She also lauded the university administration. “There has always been a good working relationship between the UMD administration and the Religious Resource Center.”

“She worked hard as an advocate for the students as well as for the ministry itself and the fact that we have such standing at the university is a testament to her work,” added Father Frederici.

“Some of the things I’ll remember most about my ministry there were the large crowds of students and staff who attended Mass; the prayer service for AIDS Awareness Day in December; the fund-raisers to support Thanksgiving projects; and the students and staff who helped with the monthly soup kitchen,” said Sister Madeleine.

She will also remember when the tragedy of the marathon bombings in Boston hit home

at UMD, when news broke that one of the suspects was a UMD student. “The students were preparing for final exams and projects and found the press coverage intrusive,” she said. “The students wanted life to get back to normal.”

Retirement won’t mean inactivity for Sister Madeleine. “In the fall I will have some sabbatical time that will last into spring,” she said. “At present I am on the board of a Catholic school in Rhode Island, on the board of trustees for Mount St. Mary College in Newburgh, N.Y., volunteering at the public library.

Retirement is affording me the time to tackle the stack of books on my desk. Right now the book is ‘Inheriting Abraham, the Legacy of the Patriarch of Jerusalem,’

by Jon Levenson. You know the saying, ‘So many books, so little time’? It is the story of my life.”

Frank Lucca was named Sister Madeleine’s replacement. “Frank is a wonderful addition,” she said.

“He has skills to bring to the ministry that I don’t have.” When asked what advice she would offer her replacement, she said, “I told Frank everything I could think of that would be useful; programs, names of people, phone numbers, and showed him how to find his way around the buildings. I gave him the keys and reminded him to water the plants.”

With that Sister Madeleine retired from UMD, moving on to the next phase in her life.

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Youth Pages

16

August 9, 2013

Pope tells youths to play on Christ’s team, build up the Church RIO DE JANEIRO (CNS) — Pope Francis told young people God might have been trying to communicate something in forcing the World Youth Day vigil’s change of venue from a huge field to a long narrow stretch of sand and sea.

Addressing as many as three million young — and not-soyoung — people on Rio’s Copacabana Beach July 27, Pope Francis said he had prepared a reflection that would have used the original venue, a space baptized “Campus Fidei” or “Field of Faith,” as the starting point.

“Isn’t the Lord asking us to say that the real field of faith, the real Campus Fidei, isn’t a geographic place but is us?” the pope told the crowd, which had begun to gather on the beach 12 hours before Pope Francis arrived.

The beach, site of events with the pope and pilgrims the two previous evenings as well, became the site of the vigil and the next morning’s closing Mass after several days of unusually heavy rain turned the Campus Fidei into a field of mud and standing water.

Hours of music and dancing — including repeated practices of the dance steps for what organizers hoped would be the world’s biggest flash mob —

gave way in the end to a hush in the crowd and the crash of the waves during Eucharistic adoration led by Pope Francis.

Prayer and the Sacraments, he told the young people, are absolutely essential for a growth in faith.

One of the pilgrims, 19-year-old Denilson Paulo of St. Mark’s Parish in the Archdiocese of Luanda, Angola, said the vigil was “an encounter with Christ, an encounter with God” and “a time to pray to God that He may watch over the youth here, the youths of the world.”

The result, Paulo told Catholic News Service, must be that the pilgrims “take this message to those who were not able to come.”

The evening’s formal program began with short speeches from young people: a former drug user from Rio, a priest, a man in a wheelchair who had been shot in a robbery, and a female youth minister. They recounted how they came to the faith, then each added a wooden plank to a “church” that was being constructed on the stage.

Pope Francis recalled the story of St. Francis of Assisi, who heard the Lord tell him to rebuild His house.

“Slowly but surely, Francis came to realize that it was not

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a question of repairing a stone building, but about doing his part for the life of the Church,” the pope said.

Pope Francis said that for the saint, as well as for all of them, it is about “being at the service of the Church, loving her and working to make the countenance of Christ shine ever more brightly in her.”

Telling the young people that the Church needs each and every one of them to build the Church and share the Gospel with the world, the pope turned to the image of the field — a place where seeds are sown, a place where athletes train and perform, a place where buildings can be constructed.

“Please,” he told them, “let Christ and His Word enter your life, blossom and grow.”

In Jesus’ parables, the seed sown on rocky or fertile ground is the Word of God, and the soil is the human heart, he said.

“What kind of ground are we?” he asked, the kind where God’s Word just stays on the surface, or starts to grow but withers when enthusiasm dies, or “thorny ground” where “negative feelings choke the Lord’s

Word in us?”

Pope Francis told the young people he was confident they were fertile soil, “not part-time Christians, not starchy and superficial, but real.”

Turning to one of his own passions and one Brazilians are famous for, Pope Francis spoke of soccer fields, and especially the athletes who train and sweat and train some more.

Jesus, he told them, wants you “to play on His team.”

“Jesus offers us something bigger than the World Cup,” he said, referring to the soccer championship that Rio will host in 2014.

Jesus offers the possibility of a fulfilling and fruitful life on earth and eternal happiness in Heaven, he said, “but He asks us to train, to get in shape” through regular prayer, the Sacraments and loving one another.

The pope had the young people repeat with him: “Prayer, Sacraments and helping others.”

Finally, he said, when people’s hearts are prepared to accept the seed of God’s Word and people have “worked up a sweat” striving to live a Chris-

tian life, “we experience something tremendous: We are never alone, we are part of a family of brothers and sisters, all journeying on the same path: we are part of the Church.”

Pope Francis said the Church they are called to help build is not “a little chapel, which holds only a small group of persons,” but rather a “Church so large that it can hold all of humanity.”

Leidiana de Jesus, 32, of Euclides da Cunha, Brazil, said the evening left her with a challenge: “Try and walk the path with Jesus.”

Italo Chinchay Mendoza, 24, a pilgrim from St. Peter’s Parish in the Archdiocese of Lima, Peru, said one thing was clear, “The youth of the pope is the youth of the future.”

Pope Francis also used his speech at the evening vigil to make his first public comments about the demonstrations that have been taking part all across Brazil in the past month. He said it is right for young people to want to be “protagonists of change” on behalf of a more just world, but they need to “offer a Christian response” to political and social concerns.

Women rally in Washington, D.C. against HHS mandate continued from page one

thus far attracted more than 30,000 signatures on www. womenspeakforthemselves.com.

Having women of every age and demographic gathered at the recent rally to make their voices heard was “very exciting,” said Alvaré. “To see so many intelligent, motivated women coming forward to say things not often enough reported by media and other cultural outlets” was “inspiring.”

The nearly 200 supporters from 20 states consisted of students, professors, doctors, nurses, moms and grandparents; all walks of life threw their support behind the objections over the HHS Mandate and its affect on religious institutions.

Alvaré said that the inspiring words shared by presenters showed the pressures faced by doctors and nurses and other staff members of religious institutions and how the effects of those experiences are shaping each person’s idea of contraception; “It’s ridiculous spending so much effort, taxpayer dollars and time on forcing religious institutions and

people to offer a drug or device available for cheap or little money in most cases.

It’s politics, not healthcare for women, driving this,” said Alvaré.

For Stebbins, the reason for raising awareness and fighting back against the HHS Mandate is simple; “It’s against my religion,” she said. “My faith tells me that to deliberately stop fertilization is against the law of God. It’s life and the government is throwing it away. It’s wrong. My bishop’s against it; my priests are against it; and it’s wonderful to have Women Speak for Themselves.”

Stebbins has worked hard to be the conduit on the Cape for Women Speak for Themselves, developing memberships and getting the word out for those interested in receiving Alvaré’s newsletter filled with updates and other information.

“I don’t know how many people we’ve had join her from the Cape,” said Stebbins, “but people have been very interested to hear from her and respond.”

Women Speak for Themselves is careful to stress that their objections are not about making contraception illegal, according to its website. And it’s not about whether the government will continue to fund it; it’s only about whether the government can force religious institutions and individuals to provide contraception, sterilization and abortifacient drugs to employees via health insurance.

“Because this mandate is one piece of a larger government effort to contradict our entire approach to the ‘weight’ of sex, its link with new life and with stable families rearing vulnerable children — if we don’t say so now, we won’t have the luxury in the future,” said Alvaré.

The group’s website, www.

WomenSpeakForThemselves. com has additional information, including a chance to sign the open letter to the president, sign up for Alvaré’s newsletter, additional information regarding frequentlyasked questions about the mandate, and keep up-to-date on all that is happening via a blog.

August 9, 2013

T

he final words I spoke to the candidates of Christian Leadership Institute were “Now, go out and make a difference in the world.” As the director of this year’s CLI experience, I had the honor of participating in the closing ceremony for our 2013 graduates. Seated in the audience, as CLI grads conducted their own graduation ceremony, I reflected on the week that we had just spent together. On Saturday afternoon, these young people gathered as strangers, not knowing what to expect from each other or from the team. They bid farewell to their parents and began a process that would most likely foster their leadership potential and heighten their awareness of leadership and ministerial roles and responsibilities as Catholic Christian disciples.

Every CLI begins with a reading from St. Paul’s Letter to Timothy. As we know from Scripture, St. Paul went from town to town sharing the message with everyone. Before he left each town, however, he always left behind a new teacher, someone whom he had enabled as a minister, an elder who was respected as a leader in the community. But in one town, he could not find such an elder, so he called a young man named Timothy. This young Timothy became the first youth leader of the New Testament. As Paul continued his ministry in other towns, he supported Timothy through letters. Here is part of Paul’s message sent to Timothy, “Let no one look down upon you because you are young, but be an example to all in speech and behavior, in love, faithfulness and purity. Devote your attention to the public reading of the Scriptures, to teaching and to prayer. Do not neglect the spiritual gifts you possess, which were given to you through the laying on of hands by the elders as a body. Make these matters the most important things in your life, so that your progress may be seen by all. Keep strong in them, with a close watch on yourself and your teaching, for by doing so you will further your own salvation and that of the people who listen to you.” Before he left, Paul designated Timothy as leader and teacher by laying his hands on Timothy. This is a powerful message and the basis of what CLI is all about.

With the message of Timothy in mind, the elders of the CLI community, the team, worked with the candidates

Youth Pages They have gone the distance

throughout the week-long expeDuring the next eight rience. Daily sessions focused on months, the team and candithe art of leadership; communidates of CLI 2013 will continue cation skills, consensus seeking, to meet to plan the Diocesan leadership styles, group dynamYouth Convention, which will ics and planning skills. Other be held at Bishop Stang High sessions explored various aspects School on Mar. 30, 2014. The of Catholic Christian discipleskills they honed in CLI will be ship, and how that is embodied put to the test as they are chalthrough prayer and Liturgy, lenged to plan a youth convenpersonal maturity and values Sacramental living and service. CLI participants were challenged to use their skills and talents in planning sessions for specific portions of the

By Frank Lucca daily program: morning wake-up, morning and night prayer, daily Liturgy and evening socials. tion that will meet the needs of Despite this full schedule, there and be of interest to the youth of was still time for relaxation and our diocese. I am confident that recreation, which provided the this youth convention will be as opportunity to build a strong, uplifting and inspiring as those vibrant community. Candidates planned by previous CLI grads. were encouraged to reflect each Now as we return the day and to consider what the graduates of CLI 2013 to their materials presented and their parents and parishes, we thank own experiences tell them about God for the gift of these young themselves, their gifts, skills, people in our diocese. We have and their faith and community prepared and challenged them identity. to go out and make a differ-

Be Not Afraid

ence in the world. We hope and pray that their schools, churches and communities will welcome them back with open arms and will support them in their continued development as leaders. They are a treasure that has been discovered. Let not the treasure be wasted nor squandered. Let us continue to invest in this treasure. May the elders of the communities, our parents, our priests, our teachers, reach out to these and all young people — not just with lip service but with action. They can and should be lectors, extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, catechists, youth ministers, in the choir and on the parish council. They can and should be involved in every ministry of the parish — not just youth group. They should be an integral part of every parish and included in every aspect of parish life. They should be asked and consulted on all things that affect them. I have heard too often the statement, “Where are the young people? Why aren’t

17 they in church? Why do they disappear after Confirmation?”

The answer to these questions is our challenge as elders. They are the Church of today, not tomorrow. May we encourage them to develop their gifts and talents and to exercise their leadership potential now! Our world, our Church will be better for it.

To paraphrase the CLI theme song, graduates — remember “Don’t look back … stay on track … don’t accept defeat. It will be an uphill slope but don’t lose hope … till you go the distance, and your journey is complete!” Congratulations to the graduates of CLI 2013.

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

Pope cries with Brazilian child who wants to be a priest

Pope Francis embraces, cries with Nathan de Brito during WYD. (CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano)

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (CNA) — Nathan de Brito brought Pope Francis to tears during one of his motorcades through the streets of Rio de Janeiro on Friday, when he broke past barriers to deliver an important message to the pontiff.

“Your Holiness, I want to be a priest of Christ, a representative of Christ,” de Brito whispered in the ear of Pope Francis July 26, after jumping hurdles and making his way to the popemobile in his Brazilian national soccer team jersey.

“I am going to pray for you, but I ask you to pray for

me,” Pope Francis responded, moved to tears and embracing him.

“As of today, your vocation is set.”

Onlookers noticed that de Brito did not want to leave the Holy Father. It was only after several attempts that the pope’s security entourage was able to take him off the popemobile.

Once on the street, Nathan walked along side the popemobile, waving to the pontiff and blowing him kisses. One of the security guards stopped to console the boy before bringing him back to his waiting family.

18

August 9, 2013

Diocesan pilgrims return from World Youth Day celebration continued from page one

speak truth to my heart — I then opened the book to a random page, opened my eyes and as they focused I realized I was looking at the words, ‘Rio de Janeiro.’”

With this bit of Divine intervention, Gingras eventually found herself traveling with members of the Boston Deaf Apostolate to Rio last month along with her 17-year-old son, Ian. “One of the reasons Ian and I went was I have an adopted daughter from China who is deaf; her name is Faith,” Gingras told The Anchor. “It took all the faith in the world I had to go all the way to China to adopt a three-and-a-half-yearold deaf child.”

This first-ever venture to World Youth Day was nothing short of amazing for the diocesan pilgrim and her son.

“It was overwhelming and very exciting,” Gingras said.

“We expected big crowds, but it was unbelievable. There were moments where we couldn’t even move — there were so many people. On the last day for the closing Mass, we literally waited four-and-a-half hours in a line … but it was worth it, because we got in and had special seating because we were traveling with the Deaf Apostolate. We were probably like a football field away from the stage.”

Gingras shared her great joy at seeing Pope Francis up close at one point.

“He drove by pretty close to us — maybe about 50 yards away,” she said. “We weren’t in the mass of people trying to reach him; we were behind them. But we could see him pretty well. Seeing him up close, he really radiates a contagious sense of joy. Without even hearing a word he has to say, you just know that our Catholic faith is a joyful thing.

That moment of just looking at his face makes you smile.”

“It was pretty cool to see the pope; he’s sort of like a Catholic celebrity,” her son, Ian, agreed.

“He’s a very happy man and that was very clear by seeing him in person.”

The road to Rio for 23-yearold Tiffany Silva, secretary of the St. Vincent de Paul Society at Immaculate Conception Parish in New Bedford, actually began last year when she attended a district meeting of the society.

“I had gone to the meeting … because the president of our

tuguese is a lot different from then turn off your cell phone — the Azorean Portuguese. But it lets other people know: ‘I’m I loved being in that atmo- Catholic and I’m going to Mass Gingras and Silva also exdistrict couldn’t make it and I sphere.” and I’m here. But I’ll see you in went with the vice president, pressed similar awe in seeing Silva and Gingras said they an hour.’ That’s a great way of who happens to be my mom,” the world-famous Christ the also enjoyed the three key ses- evangelizing.”

Silva told The Anchor. “They Redeemer statue. sions of catechesis offered durAdding that she considers Although Gingras wasn’t were talking about World ing WYD: the first from Car- herself “a social media missionYouth Day and who they want- sure she’d be able to claim she dinal Timothy Dolan of New ary,” Gingras agreed that social ed to send. The president of the had actually seen the renowned York; the second from Cardinal media tools like this are essenregion came up to me after the Rio landmark at first.

George Pell of Sydney, Austra- tial to the New Evangelization.

“As soon as we arrived, we meeting and asked if I wanted lia; and the final from Boston’s “I’ve noticed that everyone to go. I know the district presi- went to see (the statue),” she Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, — young and old alike — have dent was thinking about asking said. “But when we got to the OFM, Cap. their faces glued to these (cell if I wanted to go, too, but it just top (of the site), it was com“They all spoke very well and phones),” she said. “God said to worked out that I happened to pletely fogged in. We couldn’t added some humorous notes, meet people where they’re at, be there for that meeting and see the top of Christ, we could too,” Silva said. “The overall and that’s where they’re at.” they knew how involved I was only see His feet. So we starttheme for WYD 2013 was ‘Go With the pope’s announcewith St. Vincent de Paul and ed to pray. I asked the Blessed and make disciples of all na- ment that the next World Youth thought I might like the op- Mother if I could just see His tions,’ but each session had a Day would be held in Poland in face — it didn’t have to be comportunity.” different way of how we could 2016, Gingras said it’s unlikely An active member of the pletely clear, I just wanted to do that. she’d be attending, even though St. Vincent de Paul Society say I had come all this way and “I’m biased, but I really liked she loved her time in Rio. since she was 16, Silva said she got to see Him.” Cardinal O’Malley, because he “I don’t think I’ll be going While praying, Gingras said couldn’t “pass up a once-in-awas bishop of Fall River. When back again,” she said. “World lifetime opportunity” like this, the wind started to pick up and I was younger I used to altar- Youth Day is definitely geared even though it would be her the fog started to clear. Soon serve when he came to celebrate for young adults and teens. I first trip outside the U.S. and they could see Jesus’ face apMasses at my parish. Now, here was so grateful we didn’t have she was “a bit nervous about pear through the dissipating I am in Rio having a catechesis to sleep outside overnight — mist. leaving the country.” taught by him — it was a little I’m so beyond that.”

“Not only did we get to see Like Gingras, Silva joyfully surreal.”

But Silva said another WYD recounted her close encounter Him, but we were so far up “I was impressed by their pilgrimage might be in her fuwith Pope Francis, which she above the clouds — I think boldness and that they spoke ture. managed to capture via video it’s something like 2,300 feet the truth without sugar-coating “If I’m supposed to be there, — we could see the shadow of on her cell phone. it,” Gingras agreed. “They were then I feel I’ll have that calling “On Saturday the pope was the Christ the Redeemer statue really calling us out to be dis- and it will be presented to me, celebrating a Mass for the cler- on the clouds below. I thought ciples of Christ — to go forth but I’m not going to count my gy and we went to the street what a beautiful place … havand not just enjoy the time with chickens just yet,” she said. “I’d right next to the church and I ing it clear up after this dense, each other, but to reach out to love to go again — I had an was able to get a video of him dense fog and seeing that imothers and evangelize.” amazing time — but I’m sure driving by,” Silva said. “We age of hope.”

Gingras said she appreciated Poland will be very different. I “That was pretty amazing,” were right at the gate and I had the fact that they all stressed think I personally loved Rio a a front-row view of him as he agreed Gingras’ son, Ian. “We the importance of using social lot because I’m Portuguese and couldn’t see all of Rio because drove by.” media platforms like Facebook it was nice for me to go. But Among the many high- of the clouds, but we had a and Twitter to evangelize. if it’s meant to be, then I’ll be lights of WYD for Silva were pretty clear view of most of the “I think that’s where people there.” the day-long, six-mile pilgrim- city.” are and, especially, where kids To read more about Gingras’ Noting that this is technicalage walk; celebrating the Litare today,” she said. “Telling WYD pilgrimage, visit her blog urgy and Stations of the Cross ly Rio’s winter season, Silva said them to check in on social me- at www.reconciledtoyou.com/ with Pope Francis; and an out- it was similarly overcast and dia when you get to Mass, but wyd-blog. door adoration of the Blessed raining when she ventured to Sacrament with the pope and the Christ the Redeemer site.

“The day we went to see the more than three million youth gathered on Rio’s Copacabana statue, it was a little hazy,” she said. “But it was amazing to see Beach.

“It was a long and tiring day in person. The view you have up and there were so many people there — where you can see all on the beach,” Silva said. “But of Rio — is just awesome. And after we arrived we had adora- when we were on the Copacation with Pope Francis and it bana Beach, you could see Him. was just the highlight of the day. They have Him lit up at night.

It’s hard to describe the feeling. You look up and it is just amazThat’s the moment where you ing to see Him looking down.”

Although she doesn’t speak forget about being hungry and tired or that your feet are hurt- Portuguese fluently, Silva said ing. You let yourself go and you she did pick up some of the just feel so many different emo- language from her grandpartions. That was my favorite part ents while growing up and she was able to understand some of of that day.”

“My favorite moment was the locals in Rio. “I found it funny that once being under the stars and the moon in Rio with the pope and I got into Brazil and met some this gigantic, enormous mon- of the people there, I could strance with millions of people speak it well enough — betadoring the Lord,” Gingras ter than I thought I could,” she Allison Gingras, a Catholic author, blogger and parishioner at Holy agreed. “It was just unbeliev- said. “When I really needed Family Parish in Taunton, poses with her son, Ian, in Rio de Janeiro, able. It was off the charts for it, it came out and helped me. Brazil where they attended the 2013 World Youth Day events last Of course, the Brazilian Por- month. (Photo courtesy of Allison Gingras) me.”

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August 9, 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.

Catholic Charities Appeal

CORRECTION: Due to a formatting error, the final total for the 2013 Catholic Charities Appeal for Holy Cross Parish in South Easton was omitted from the July 19 supplement in The Anchor. Holy Cross, South Easton collected $32,746.00 for the 2013 appeal.

In addition, the following contributions were made to the 2013 Catholic Charities Appeal after the final report had gone to press: East Sandwich Corpus Christi: $150-Mrs. John Handrahan; $100-M&M Joseph Ahearn, M&M Paul Garbacik.

East Taunton Holy Family: $100-Badger Deandrade, Lorraine Kerrigan, Melissa Samartano.

Fall River Holy Trinity: $350-M&M Daniel Araujo.

North Attleboro St. Mark: $100-M&M Lawrence Dorr, M&M Edward M. Sullivan.

North Easton Immaculate Conception: $200-M&M Brian Maclaine, M&M Thomas Clarke; $100M&M Eugene Colella, Lisa Day. Raynham St. Ann: $300-Mary Bourget.

South Yarmouth St. Pius X: $500-Patricia Mullaney.

Swansea St. Francis of Assisi: $120M&M Joseph D. Salpietro; $100-M&M Scott Partridge, M&M Edward Pettine.

In Your Prayers

Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks Aug. 12 Rev. Victor O. Masse, M.S., Retired Pastor, St. Anthony, New Bedford, 1974 Aug. 13 Rev. Edward J. Sheridan, Pastor, St. Mary, Taunton, 1896 Rt. Rev. Leonard J. Daley, Pastor, St. Francis Xavier, Hyannis, 1964 Rev. Gabriel Swol, OFM Conv., Former Associate Pastor, Holy Rosary, Taunton, 1991 Aug. 14 Rev. Raphael Marciniak, OFM Conv., Pastor, Holy Cross, Fall River, 1947 Rev. Conrad Lamb, O.S.B., Missionary in Guatemala, 1969 Aug. 15 Rev. Charles W. Cullen, Founder, Holy Family, East Taunton, 1926

Around the Diocese St. Anthony’s Parish in East Falmouth (Route 28) will host a Spaghetti Supper on August 17 from 5 to 7 p.m. featuring a homemade and delicious meal with Tony’s famous sauce and Uncle Sal’s homemade meatballs, hot garlic bread, salad and ice cream treats. The event benefits the parish’s Society of St. Vincent de Paul. For tickets or more information call 508457-0085.

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.

American Heritage Troop MA3712 is having its fall information and signup sessions. American Heritage Girls is a Christian Scouting Program that builds women of integrity through service to God, family, community, and country. Girls ages five through 18 are welcome, and parent participation is encouraged. For more information visit www.ahgonline.org, or contact Troop Coordinator Liz Day at 508-336-5262. Dates are: August 18 at 11:45 a.m. in the lower church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Rt. 44, Seekonk; and September 12 at 6:30 p.m. in the Parish Center, Rt. 44, Seekonk.

The Diocesan Health Facilities’ sixth annual Golf Classic will be held on August 26 at LeBaron Hills Country Club in Lakeville. The day begins at 10:30 a.m., rain or shine, with registration and pick up of box lunches. The shotgun start is at 12 p.m. with a “Florida Style Scramble” format. There will be great raffles, terrific prizes for best drives and scores. Fee includes lunch, green fees, cart, golf gift, locker rooms, refreshments and buffet dinner. All proceeds will benefit the Diocesan Health Facilities, a non-profit skilled nursing and rehabilitative care health system serving more than 900 residents and clients in Southeastern Massachusetts. For more information or to register, call 508-679-8154 or visit www.dhfo.org.

A Day with Mary will be held on September 7 at St. Francis Xavier Parish, 125 Main Street in Acushnet, from 7:50 a.m. to 3:10 p.m. It will include a video presentation, procession and crowning of the Blessed Mother with Mass and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. There will be an opportunity for Reconciliation and a bookstore will be available. Please bring a bag lunch. For more information call 508-996-8274.

The Lazarus Ministry of Our Lady of the Cape Parish in Brewster is offering a six-week Bereavement Support Program called “Come Walk With Me” that begins September 12 and runs through October 17 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. each night. The program meets in the parish center and is designed for people who have experienced the loss of a loved one within the past year. For more information or to pre-register call 508-385-3252 or 508-394-0616.

St. Mary’s Prayer Group is hosting a Life in the Spirit Weekend on September 21 from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and on September 22 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Parish Center, 385 Central Avenue (Route 152) in Seekonk. Registration is required by September 5. A fee of $10 is requested to help cover the cost of materials and Sunday dinner. Please make checks payable to St. Mary’s Prayer Group, c/o Mrs. Rita Beaudet, 191 Greenfield Street, Seekonk, Mass. 02771. To register or for further information, call Rita (508-399-7519) or Bev (508-399-7076).

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August 9, 2013

Sacred Heart Home offers in-house clinical office suites

NEW BEDFORD — Sacred Heart Home Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitative Care of New Bedford is pleased to announce the development of in-house clinical office suites.

These exam rooms allow residents of Sacred Heart Home to be seen by a consulting physician for an inhouse office visit. This service is beneficial to the resident, as well as their families and caregivers, since they can be seen for a medical visit without the inconvenience of having to leave the comfort and security of their residence for a doctor’s office visit.

An added benefit to the families is that no transportation arrangements are needed to take the resident to and from the doctor’s office.

From the physician standpoint, it allows for multiple residents to be seen in a professional clinical setting within the skilled nursing and rehab care facility.

The concept for these exam rooms was developed by Sacred Heart Home’s medical director, Curtis J. Mello, M.D. He is board certified in pulmonology, sleep medicine and internal medicine, and is a board certified medical director.

Sacred Heart Home is one of five skilled nursing and rehabilitation care facilities in the Diocesan Health Facilities system of care, and is sponsored by the Diocese of Fall River.

For additional information, contact the admissions director at Sacred Heart Home at 508996-6751. Visit the Diocesan Health Facilities web site at www.dhfo.org and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ DiocesanHealthFacilities.